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LESSON 309 NOV 5 THURSDAY
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What is the Second Coming?
Daily Lesson 309
Sarah's Reflections
TEXT CH 29 IX 52-60
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Course in Miracles Society (CIMS) is an international group of Course students and teachers organized to discover, authenticate and propagate the Divine Teachings of A Course in Miracles.

 

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A COURSE IN MIRACLES

CH 29 "THE AWAKENING"
IX. "CHRIST AND ANTI-CHRIST"

55 This world of idols is a veil across the face of Christ because its purpose is to separate your brother from yourself. A dark and fearful purpose, yet a thought without the power to change one blade of grass from something living to a sign of death. Its form is nowhere, for its source abides within your mind where God abideth not. Where is this place where what is everywhere has been excluded and been kept apart? What hand could be held up to block God's way? Whose voice could make demand He enter not? The "more-than-everything" is not a thing to make you tremble and to quail in fear. Christ's enemy is nowhere. He can take no form in which he ever will be real.
WHAT IS THE SECOND COMING?    
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   Christ's Second Coming, which is sure as God,
   is merely the correction of mistakes
   and the return of sanity. It is
   a part of the condition which restores
   the never-lost, and re-establishes
   what is forever and forever true.
   It is the invitation to God's Word
   to take illusion's place; the willingness
   to let forgiveness rest upon all things
   without exceptions and without reserve.
 
   It is this all-inclusive nature of
   Christ's Second Coming that permits it to
   embrace the world, and hold you safe within
   its gentle advent, which encompasses
   all living things with you. There is no end
   to the release the Second Coming brings,
   as God's creation must be limitless.
   Forgiveness lights the Second Coming's way
   because it shines on everyone as well.
  *And thus is oneness recognized at last.
   *this line is not in Notes
  
   The Second Coming ends the lessons which
   the Holy Spirit teaches, making way
   for the Last Judgment, in which learning ends
   in one last summary which will extend
   beyond itself, and reaching up to God.
   The Second Coming is the time in which
   all minds are given to the hands of Christ,
   to be returned to Spirit in the Name
   of true creation and the Will of God.
 
   The Second Coming is the one event
   in time which time itself can not affect.
   For everyone who ever came to die,
   or yet will come or who is present now,
   is equally released from what he made.
   In this equality is Christ restored
   as one Identity, in Which all Sons
   of God acknowledge that they all are one.
   And God the Father smiles upon His Son,
   His one creation and His only joy.
 
   Pray that this Second Coming will be soon,
   but do not rest with that. It needs your eyes
   and ears and hands and feet. It needs your voice,
   and most of all it needs your willingness.
   Let us rejoice that we can do God's Will,
   and join together in Its holy light.
   Behold, the Son of God is one in us,
   and we can reach our Father's Love through him. 

            ~ Original Hand Script
 
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 L e s s o n 309
I will not fear to look within today. 
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   Within me is Eternal Innocence,
   because it is God's Will that It be there
   forever and forever. I, His Son,
   whose will is limitless as is His own,
   can will no change in this. For to deny
   my Father's Will is to deny my own.
   To look within is but to find my will
   as God created it, and as it is.
   I fear to look within because I think
   I made another will which is not true,
   and made it real. Yet it has no effects.
   Within me is the holiness of God.
   Within me is the memory of Him.
 
    The step I take today, my Father, is
    my sure release from idle dreams of sin.
    Your altar stands serene and undefiled.
    It is the holy altar to my Self,
    and there I find my true Identity.
 
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LESSON 309
I will not fear to look within today.  

Sarah's Commentary:

This Lesson says we fear to look within because we think we actually did make another will that is not true. Our fear is the will we think we made is actually real. If indeed it is real, we have actually destroyed our pristine home. The beautiful thing is none of this has happened. It is just a dream. Jesus says we are actually afraid to look within and see our will has no effects. In fact, we are more afraid to see that illusion is not true, and there is only love. Because of our fear to find this love within us, we side with fear. Jesus says, in our disordered state of mind, we are not afraid of our fear. He acknowledges we don't like our fear, but we are not seriously disturbed by our hostility or our desire to attack. Our fear keeps us safe from God's Love and that is why we hold onto it. Our real fear is of His Love, for it would end our dream of separation, and we are still attached to our dream.

The ego tells us not to look within because it tells us we are the home of evil. "The ego tells you all is black with guilt within you, and bids you not to look." (T.13.IX.2)(ACIM OE T.13.III.18) Isn't that how we feel about ourselves? Don't we feel there is something deeply wrong with us? We may not know exactly what, but there is a level of anxiety that keeps us awake at night. Yet Jesus says the reason the ego tells us not to look there is that we will discover the truth about our reality, and that reality is we are only love. When we get too close to that love, the ego comes in loudly with its raucous thoughts to keep us from the peace that is dangerous to its continued relevance in our lives. If we ignore the ego, it can become vicious, attacking us with all kinds of problems or ailments.
 
Jesus assures us, "When he has looked within and seen the radiance there, he will remember how much his Father loves him." (T.13.X.8.4)(ACIM OE T.13.IV.27) This is the memory we have tried to obliterate. Why would we? Because if we really embraced the truth of who we are, our identity as a separate self would be gone. We would know our Oneness with God and that is, understandably, very threatening to the individual self we have so carefully constructed with all of our self-concepts, beliefs, values, and roles. So, in the process of undoing the anger, hatred and fear, our participation and willingness are required for us to look at our thoughts, feelings, beliefs and values so we can bring them to the truth. In order to know the Self we are who is still at one with the Father Who created us, we need to raise all of our beliefs to awareness and be willing to release every value we hold to the Holy Spirit. While we may feel threatened by loss of our individual self, we are not thrown into Heaven. It is a gentle process of undoing our fear-based thoughts and seeing a world that reflects the beauty in our minds. This is the experience of the real world where everything shines with holiness, not because the world is holy, but because our minds have come to know their own holiness and innocence. The veil has been lifted and we see the radiance our mistaken perceptions have kept hidden from us though they were there all along.
 
We often hide our true motives from ourselves and blame outside circumstances and conditions for the way we feel, but we are increasingly learning to see everyone and everything outside of ourselves as a mirror for that which is unhealed within. Until we do, we are denying our own fear, guilt and anger, and instead choosing to see it outside of ourselves. We project our own shadows that we have disowned and now see them in others and judge them there. It is such a huge temptation to see the cause of our suffering and lack of peace coming from people and events outside of ourselves instead of seeing our own mind as the cause. This allows us to proclaim we are not responsible. Yet what we see in the world is an outside picture of an inward condition. When we recognize that all we see is our own thoughts projected out onto the world we perceive, we can take responsibility for them. Taking responsibility for everything is the beginning of empowerment. It is good news because now we recognize we have the power within to choose another way of seeing. If the world was actually the cause of how we feel, we would indeed be the victims of outside circumstances. If our minds are the cause and the world is effect, we have the power to see everything in a new light.

Jesus says, "And they look out in sorrow from what is sad within, and see the sadness there." (T.20.III.4.7)(ACIM OE T.20.IV.19) Thus, when we believe in others being victims of the world and when we feel sad at what we see, it is all just a reflection of our own minds. In sympathizing with pain in someone else, we are actually joining in that pain and thus making it real. In true empathy, we are called to remember who the other is as the Christ Who can never suffer. It is apparent when we start watching our minds how quickly we judge and condemn or join in false empathy with what appears to be outside. Our senses were made by the ego precisely for this purpose. The ego is focused on its preservation and its own self-interest. It is thus important for our healing to look at our thoughts and stay vigilant in bringing them to the Holy Spirit. This is what forgiveness is. We are not forgiving what anyone has done. What we are bringing forth to be forgiven is our own misperceptions.
 
Everything and everyone who shows up in our lives provides us another opportunity to forgive. This is how we go beyond our perceived lacks and limitations in order to recognize none of them are true. "Within me is Eternal Innocence because it is God's Will that it be there forever and forever." (W.309.1.1) I have not lost it. Oh yes, I may have obscured it by my thoughts, self-concepts, needs and feelings of lack and unworthiness, but I can never truly make another self. I have no ability to defile the truth of my Eternal Innocence. We think we made another will, but this is not true. While we can look within and see the hatred and ugliness of our thoughts, this is not the truth of who we are. All we have succeeded in doing is convince ourselves this illusion is reality, but it is all just a smokescreen to cover over what is real and true about us.
 
Have you ever had the experience where you spent a great deal of your life hiding a deep, dark secret you wanted no one to know about? Then one day you took the plunge and released this secret only to find it no longer had any power over you? And in that release you felt lighter and no longer constrained and imprisoned in your shame. Once brought to light, it may even seem laughable that it felt so important to keep this secret hidden. Anything that we bring to light disappears. The power of the secret is now dissipated. It no longer holds us in its grip.

This is what we need to do with everything we keep in the dark secret places of our mind, but we need to go further. We need to look at our specialness as well, including everything we hold as valuable. Only our own thoughts keep us chained to this world of illusion. They have no power once they are turned over to the Holy Spirit. Jesus asks us, "Would you remain within your tiny kingdom, a sorry king, a bitter ruler of all that he surveys, who looks on nothing yet who would still die to defend it?" (T. 18.VIII.7.5)(ACIM OE T.18.IX.77) Why would we want to defend and protect our tiny kingdom when we can open the doors to it and invite His healing light to shine away all we have kept hidden from ourselves? We have not lost our innocence. We just have kept it buried under layers of guilt, shame and specialness.
 
We have many defenses we hold up that keep us from being honest with ourselves. We claim we would never attack if we had not been provoked. We make excuses for our behavior pretending we meant well. We do everything we can to try to look innocent, but the ego is anything but benign, even when we are pretending to be in service, we are looking after our own selfish needs. This is quite clearly explained by Jesus when looking at the special relationship, where each one of us is only interested in looking after our own needs. Our needs always take precedence, and even when we put the other's needs ahead of our own, it is only to create indebtedness. It is all about the bargain. If the bargain is kept, the relationship is seen to be good, but if our needs, as we perceive them, are not adequately met, we want out.

Our social constraints and sanctions, as well as rules of polite behavior, are what keep the ego under control. Without these constraints, and without consequences of any kind, the ego would certainly run rampant. This was apparent in a movie that I watched recently called "Seeking a Friend for the End of the World." Some people riot in the streets. There are looters, taking stuff they will never use. There are orgies with drugs and alcohol. There are verbal and physical attacks and no constraints of any kind on behavior. Fear is expressed in conversions and baptisms as well as accumulation of survival gear.

In the end, our fear of looking within is our fear of ourselves. We think these self-serving activities reflect our real intentions underneath our conditioned, 'nice' ego. What we need to do is look at our intentions in an honest way, recognizing there is nothing inherently nice about the ego. The ego cares only about itself, but we are not the ego. Yet we are scared to look honestly at our unadorned ego-self and see its malice and its hatred. And so we get in touch with what we can, going as far as our defenses will allow, when we look beneath the masks we wear. We have to remember Jesus will go with us and will help us shine the light onto these dark caverns of our minds. He will show us their unreality and we can laugh with him at the unreality of our sin. He reminds us our real will is One with God, and there is nothing else. Anything else we look at is just a figure in the dream. We have taken on the characteristics of how we have come to define ourselves, but this is not who we are. It is an image and is not real. "Within me is eternal innocence, because it is God's Will that it be there forever and forever. I, His Son, whose will is limitless as is His Own, can will no change in this." (W.309.1.1-2)
 
Let's not fear our thoughts or continue to defend against the truth. This defense is actually our fear of a vengeful God. We fear His punishment for what the ego has led us to believe we have done. It has convinced us we have stolen our separate self at God's expense. Now we no longer experience the Oneness of Heaven but we experience the duality of this world instead. We are now being called to go past our defenses so we can be shown the unreality of what we perceive. It does take courage and it does take willingness.  "The step I take today, my Father, is my sure release from idle dreams of sin." (W.309.2.1) We simply cannot and have not defiled our perfection! God can only create as He is Himself and we are His absolutely perfect creation.
 
We may wonder if this requires us to go digging for all of the unconscious stuff hidden from our awareness? How do we ever get to the bottom of it all? In the Aquarian Gospel, it is said it is a gift not to have the burden of memories of our struggles of thousands of years of earthly embodiment. How weary we would become if we were to remember all of the past deeds of many lifetimes and the guilt of it all, but this is totally unnecessary and not at all helpful. Our current lives offer us all the opportunities we need, in amounts we can handle for our healing. We may feel what we are dealing with in this lifetime is a heavy burden of the past, but what is offered is just another opportunity to release it as it comes up in our awareness, and thus we will remember who we truly are. The world offers us a mirror, through the events, people and circumstances in our lives, to see what is unhealed in our own minds. Thus, it is a perfect classroom for awakening to who we really are.

"The step I take today, my Father, is my sure release from idle dreams of sin. Your altar stands serene and undefiled. It is the holy altar to my Self, and there I find my true Identity." (W.309.2.1-3)

Love and blessings, Sarah
  
 
Chapter Twenty-Nine

IX. Christ and Anti-Christ 

52 What is an idol? Do you think you know? For idols are unrecognized as such and never seen for what they really are. That is the only power which they have. Their purpose is obscure, and they are feared and worshipped both because you do not know what they are for and why they have been made. An idol is an image of your brother which you would value more than what he is. Idols are made that he may be replaced, no matter what their form. And it is this which never is perceived and recognized. Be it a body or a thing, a place, a situation or a circumstance, an object owned or wanted, or a right demanded or achieved, it is the same.
 
53 Let not their form deceive you. Idols are but substitutes for your reality. In some way, you believe they will complete your little self for safety in a world perceived as dangerous, with forces massed against your confidence and peace of mind. They have the power to supply your lacks and add the value which you do not have. No one believes in idols who has not enslaved himself to littleness and loss. And thus must seek beyond his little self for strength to raise his head and stand apart from all the misery the world reflects. This is the penalty for looking not within for certainty and quiet calm which liberates you from the world and lets you stand apart in quiet and in peace.
 
54 An idol is a false impression or a false belief---some form of anti-Christ which constitutes a gap between the Christ and what you see. An idol is a wish made tangible and given form and thus perceived as real and seen outside the mind. Yet it is still a thought and cannot leave the mind that is its source. Nor is its form apart from the idea it represents. All forms of anti-Christ oppose the Christ. And fall before His face like a dark veil which seems to shut you off from Him, alone in darkness. Yet the light is there. A cloud does not put out the sun. No more a veil can banish what it seems to separate nor darken by one whit the light itself.
 
55 This world of idols is a veil across the face of Christ because its purpose is to separate your brother from yourself. A dark and fearful purpose, yet a thought without the power to change one blade of grass from something living to a sign of death. Its form is nowhere, for its source abides within your mind where God abideth not. Where is this place where what is everywhere has been excluded and been kept apart? What hand could be held up to block God's way? Whose voice could make demand He enter not? The "more-than-everything" is not a thing to make you tremble and to quail in fear. Christ's enemy is nowhere. He can take no form in which he ever will be real.
 
56 What is an idol? Nothing! It must be believed before it seems to come to life and given power that it may be feared. Its life and power are its believer's gift, and this is what the miracle restores to what has life and power worthy of the gift of Heaven and eternal peace. The miracle does not restore the truth, the light the veil between has not put out. It merely lifts the veil and lets the truth shine unencumbered, being what it is. It does not need belief to be itself, for it has been created, so it is. An idol is established by belief, and when it is withdrawn, the idol "dies."
 
57 This is the anti-Christ---the strange idea there is a power past omnipotence, a place beyond the infinite, a time transcending the eternal. Here the world of idols has been set by the idea this power and place and time are given form and shape the world where the impossible has happened. Here the deathless come to die, the all-encompassing to suffer loss, the timeless to be made the slaves of time. Here does the changeless change; the peace of God, forever given to all living things, gives way to chaos. And the Son of God, as perfect, sinless and as loving as his Father, come to hate a little while; to suffer pain, and finally to die.
 
58 Where is an idol? Nowhere! Can there be a gap in what is infinite, a place where time can interrupt eternity? A place of darkness set where all is light, a dismal alcove separated off from what is endless, has no place to be. An idol is beyond where God has set all things forever and has left no room for anything to be except His Will. Nothing and nowhere must an idol be while God is everything and everywhere.
 
59 What purpose has an idol, then? What is it for? This is the only question which has many answers, each depending on the one of whom the question has been asked. The world believes in idols. No one comes unless he worshipped them and still attempts to seek for one that yet might offer him a gift reality does not contain. Each worshipper of idols harbors hope his special deities will give him more than other men possess. It must be more. It does not really matter more of what-more beauty, more intelligence, more wealth, or even more affliction and more pain. But more of something is an idol for. And when one fails, another takes its place with hope of finding more of something else. Be not deceived by forms the "something" takes. An idol is a means for getting more. And it is this that is against God's Will.
 
60 God has not many sons, but only One. Who can have more, and who be given less? In Heaven would the Son of God but laugh if idols could intrude upon his peace. It is for him the Holy Spirit speaks and tells you idols have no purpose here. For more than Heaven can you never have. If Heaven is within, why would you seek for idols which would make of Heaven less, to give you more than God bestowed upon your brother and on you as one with Him? God gave you all there is. And to be sure you could not lose it, did He also give the same to every living thing as well. And thus is every living thing a part of you, as of Himself. No idol can establish you as more than God. But you will never be content with being less.

   

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