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A COURSE IN MIRACLES
CH 18 THE DREAM AND THE REALITY
XI. THE PASSING OF THE DREAM
96 Love is not learned. Its meaning lies in itself. And learning ends when you have recognized all it is not. That is the interference; that is what needs to be undone. Love is not learned because there never was a time in which you knew it not. Learning is useless in the Presence of your Creator, Whose acknowledgment of you and yours of Him so far transcend all learning that everything you learned is meaningless, replaced forever by the knowledge of love and its one meaning.
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A COURSE IN MIRACLES
WORKBOOK Part I
REVIEW VI
Voice and Music by CIMS SonShip Radio
With this review, we take but one idea
each day, and practice it as often as
is possible. Besides the time we give
morning and evening, which should not be less
than fifteen minutes, and the hourly
remembrances we make throughout the day,
use the idea as often as you can
between them. Each of these ideas alone
would be sufficient for salvation, if
it is learned truly. Each would be enough
to give release to you and to the world
from every form of bondage, and invite
the memory of God to come again.
With this in mind, we start our practicing
in which we carefully review the thoughts
the Holy Spirit has bestowed on us
in our last twenty lessons. Each contains
the whole curriculum, if understood,
practiced, accepted and applied to all
the seeming happenings throughout the day.
One is enough. But for that one there must
be no exceptions made. And so we need
to use them all, and let them blend as one
as each contributes to the whole we learn.
These practice lessons, like our last review,
are centered round a central theme with which
we start and end each lesson. It is this:
"I am not a body. I am free.
For I am still as God created me."
The day begins and ends with this. And we
repeat it every time the hour strikes,
or we remember, in between, we have
a function that transcends the world we see.
Beyond this and a repetition of
the special thought we practice for the day,
no form of exercise is urged, except
a deep relinquishing of everything
that clutters up your mind, and makes it deaf
to reason, sanity and simple truth.
We will attempt to get beyond all words
and special forms of practicing for this
review. For we attempt this time to reach
a quickened pace along a shorter path
to the serenity and peace of God.
We merely close our eyes, and then forget
all that we thought we saw and understood.
For thus is freedom given us from all
we did not know and failed to understand.
There is but one exception to this lack
of structuring. Permit no idle thought
to go unchallenged. If you notice one,
deny its hold and hasten to assure
your mind that this is not what it would have.
Then gently let the thought which you denied
be given up in sure and quick exchange
for the idea we practice for the day.
When you are tempted, hasten to proclaim
your freedom from temptation, as you say:
"This thought I do not want. I choose instead..."
And then repeat the idea for the day,
and let it take the place of what you thought.
Beyond such special applications of
each day's idea, we will add but few
formal expressions for specific thoughts
to aid your practicing. Instead we give
these times of quiet to the Teacher Who
instructs in quiet, speaks of peace, and gives
our thoughts whatever meaning they may have.
To Him I offer this review for you.
I place you in His charge, and let Him teach
you what to do and say and think each time
you turn to Him. He will not fail to be
available to you each time you call
to Him to help you. Let us offer Him
the whole review we now begin, and let
us also not forget to Whom it has
been given, as we practice, day by day,
advancing toward the goal He set for us;
allowing Him to teach us how to go,
and trusting Him completely for the way
each practice period can best become
a loving gift of freedom to the world.
~ Original Handscript of ACIM September 1, 1970
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L e s s o n 209
Voice and Music by CIMS SonShip Radio
CD AVAILABLE at FIP
I am not a body. I am free.
For I am still as God created me.
[189] I feel the Love of God within me now.
The Love of God is what created me.
The Love of God is everything I am.
The Love of God proclaimed me as His Son.
The Love of God within me sets me free.
I am not a body. I am free.
For I am still as God created me.
~ Original Handscript of ACIM
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ACIM Edmonton - Sarah's Reflections
LESSON 209 Review VI
[189] I feel the Love of God within me now.
Sarah's Commentary:
The introduction to this review tells us to remind ourselves hourly, "I am not a body. I am free. For I am still as God created me." A ". . . deep relinquishment" is called for ". . . of everything that clutters up the mind, and makes it deaf to reason, sanity and simple truth." (W.RVI.IN.3.8) What clutters up your mind today? What are the beliefs, worries, concerns, or distractions in the way of the love you are? These are the thoughts always present in us, blocking the love from our awareness. When this happens, we are not able to hear the guidance from the Holy Spirit. The introduction to the review proposes that when we are tempted to get into thoughts not of God, we should remember: This thought I do not want. I choose instead to remember the love of God is in me now. I am as God created me. I am love, not this ego-self I have come to believe I am. Today, I ask for the help of the Holy Spirit that I might forgive myself for using any situation, person, or thought, to keep me from knowing the love I truly am.
Today, we claim the power to create, which we can only do when we ". . . become vigilant only for God and His Kingdom." (T.7.I.2.8) (ACIM OE T.7.I.2) Jesus tells us, "To create is to love. Love extends outward simply because it cannot be contained." (T.7.I.3.3-4) (ACIM OE T.7.I.3) God's love created us because His love cannot be contained. It keeps flowing outward, and when we accept ourselves as love, we cannot help but extend love through us, because it too cannot be contained. "The ego, on the other hand, always demands reciprocal rights, because it is competitive rather than loving. It is always willing to strike a bargain, but it cannot understand that to be like another means that no bargains are possible." (T.7.I.4.1-2) (ACIM OE T.7.II.4) When we bargain, we lose sight of our reality. It is all about trying to get something we believe is lacking in ourselves, but Jesus reminds "To gain you must give, not bargain," (T.7.I.4.3) (ACIM OE T.7.II.4) because in giving, you but give to yourself.
Jesus, as our example of a healed mind, gave only love to the kingdom. He said this was because he knew his reality as God's Son. We don't believe we are only love. We believe we are love some of the time, but also bodies and personalities with variable moods. We believe we are two selves in conflict. Yet Jesus has come to remind us of who we really are in truth. He has given us a spiritual technology, through this Course, which, when applied, brings us home. We are only one Self. "What you believe you are determines your gifts." (T.7.I.5.2) (ACIM OE T.7.II.5) The ego has no gifts to give, as it is only about taking for itself, though pretending to be kind and loving. It puts on this pretense in order to get what it wants, knowing it must give something in order to get.
To undo the ego is to undo our false beliefs about ourselves. Any belief, any self-concept, any concern, or any issue we grapple with today, is what blocks our awareness of our true Self. By turning over our misguided perceptions to the Holy Spirit, the truth shines through us. Today, we are asked to remain vigilant for the kingdom by watching our thoughts. The truth is in us in the silence of our right mind. We are created by God, and as such, we have all His attributes of love. As we experience this, we extend it, and in this extension, we create in the same way God created us.
I was aware, yesterday, of how much I wanted to be "left alone." It was not a happy state, and there was no peace in it. I looked at the thoughts of wanting space from my brothers. I recognized I still valued the little gap between myself and my brother because I still see love as treacherous. Our fear of love reflects our fear of God. It is "The greatest obstacle that peace must flow across." (T.29.I.3.2) (ACIM OE T.29.I.3) It reflects our fear of God's punishment for our perceived sins. Jesus reminds us that we keep our brothers at a distance because "A cautious friendship, and limited in scope and carefully restricted in amount, became the treaty you had made with him. Thus you and your brother but shared a qualified entente, in which a clause of separation was a point you both agreed to keep intact." (T.29.I.3.8-9)(ACIM OE T.29.I.3) "It is the symbol of a promise made to meet when you prefer, and separate till you and he elect to meet again." (T.29.I.4.3) (ACIM OE T.29.II.4) The body saves us in this situation for ". . . it gets away from total sacrifice and gives to you the time in which to build again your separate self." (T. 29.1.4.7) (ACIM OE T.29.II.4) Though we made this agreement with our brother, we made a more binding agreement with our Father to return to Him.
The gap we value between ourselves and our brothers is the same gap we want to maintain with God. While I can profess I am not a body and I feel the love within me now, I need to do the work of releasing the fears that maintain these gaps. This is where vigilance in watching our thoughts becomes so important. When we state, "I want my space," or "I need to establish boundaries," we are really affirming separateness. Too much closeness can start to feel threatening, demanding, invasive, and smothering. We value our independence. For me, it has been a lifelong process of establishing my independence and my fear of being controlled. Being controlled felt dangerous and made me feel vulnerable. Getting in touch with these fears is what watching our thoughts is about.
When we look at our darkness, with the light of Jesus beside us, these fears lose their power. Thus, the ego program can be exposed. The ego is nothing but our thoughts we hold as true. The ego is nothing, and it is nowhere. However, when we identify with our thoughts, we become what we are thinking. If I hold beliefs that I am stupid, unworthy, or bad, these beliefs become my identity, but they do not constitute the truth of what I am. Therefore, we can safely look at these beliefs as they do not define us. Who is it that does the looking anyway? The mind that is the observer of our thoughts is where sanity resides. Yes, it takes courage, honesty, and vigilance, because our vulnerability is exposed, but the result is greater freedom and lightness. We experience more joy and peace until the final doubt-thought can be released and only awareness shines forth. The love we are, which illuminates our minds and brings freedom, no longer has to be defended or demanded. It simply is.
Today, use the Lesson to remind yourself of the truth, and try to remember to use it in any situation where you feel tempted to judge or attack. The truth is that we are not different. We are both set free when one of us remembers there is only God's love and nothing else is true about anyone. "The love of God is what created me. The Love of God is everything I am. The Love of God proclaimed me as His Son. The Love of God within me sets me free." (W.209.1.2-5)
We continue to do our daily practice with morning and evening meditation of fifteen minutes, repeating the Lesson and then spending time in silence, being attentive to guidance from the Holy Spirit throughout the day. We continue our hourly practice of reminding ourselves of the thought for the day and expressing gratitude to the Holy Spirit for His presence in our minds. We continue to bring awareness to the thoughts that block the truth about ourselves. We listen for guidance and bring the Lesson to our minds as often as possible throughout the day. If anything tempts you to lose your peace throughout the day, use it as another opportunity to apply the Lesson in a form that addresses the issue. As an example, you might choose to say, "The Love of God within me sets me free from this difficult situation I seem to be facing."Love and Blessings, Sarah
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XI. The Passing of the Dream
95 This course will lead to knowledge, but knowledge itself is still beyond the scope of our curriculum. Nor is there any need for us to try to speak of what must forever lie beyond words. We need remember only that whoever attains the real world, beyond which learning cannot go, will go beyond it but in a different way. Where learning ends there God begins, for learning ends before Him Who is complete where He begins and where there is no end. It is not for us to dwell on what cannot be attained. There is too much to learn. The readiness for knowledge still must be attained.
96 Love is not learned. Its meaning lies in itself. And learning ends when you have recognized all it is not. That is the interference; that is what needs to be undone. Love is not learned because there never was a time in which you knew it not. Learning is useless in the Presence of your Creator, Whose acknowledgment of you and yours of Him so far transcend all learning that everything you learned is meaningless, replaced forever by the knowledge of love and its one meaning.
97 Your relationship has been uprooted from the world of shadows, and its unholy purpose has been safely brought through the barriers of guilt, washed with forgiveness, and set shining and firmly rooted in the world of light. From there, it calls to you to follow the course it took, lifted high above the darkness and gently placed before the gates of Heaven. The holy instant in which you were united is but the messenger of love, sent from beyond forgiveness to remind you of all that lies beyond it. Yet it is through forgiveness that it will be remembered.
98 And when the memory of God has come to you in the holy place of forgiveness, you will remember nothing else, and memory will be as useless as learning, for your only purpose will be creating. Yet this you cannot know until every perception has been cleansed and purified and finally removed forever. Forgiveness removes only the untrue, lifting the shadows from the world and carrying it safe and sure within its gentleness to the bright world of new and clean perception. There is your purpose now. And it is there that peace awaits you.
ON LINE SEARCHABLE Original Edition
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