ACIM Daily Lesson 278 If I am bound, my Father is not free. 1. If I accept that I am prisoner within a body, in a world in which all things that seem to live appear to die, then is my Father prisoner with me.
If I am bound, my Father is not free.
Lesson 278
If I am bound, my Father is not free.
1. If I accept that I am prisoner within a body, in a world in which all things that seem to live appear to die, then is my Father prisoner with me. ²And this do I believe, when I maintain the laws the world obeys must I obey; the frailties and the sins which I perceive are real, and cannot be escaped. ³If I am bound in any way, I do not know my Father nor my Self. ⁴And I am lost to all reality. ⁵For truth is free, and what is bound is not a part of truth.
2. Father, I ask for nothing but the truth. ²I have had many foolish thoughts about myself and my creation, and have brought a dream of fear into my mind. ³Today, I would not dream. ⁴I choose the way to You instead of madness and instead of fear. ⁵For truth is safe, and only love is sure.
Forgiveness just makes sense.
If I am bound, then so is my Father because we are one. If I am bound, so is everyone else because we are one. It is the same turned around; if my brother is bound, so am I. This is the reason I have no desire for anyone to be guilty. If they are bound to their guilt, I am bound to mine. I sincerely desire for everyone to be free of the world and the laws of the world. Understanding this, it is easy to forgive, and there is no temptation to keep someone guilty.
The story of the body is purposeful.
The world’s rules must be obeyed by the bodies within the world. But we are above this battleground if we accept our Self as who we are. Within the world, it seems that I do what is necessary to maintain the body, but I know that this is not real. Knowing this is being in the world but not of it. If I have to take this body to the doctor, I do so in gratitude for my brother’s help. At the same time, I forgive the idea that I am bound in any way to this body.
I am also grateful for all the experiences of the body story because everything I experience here helps me see what needs forgiveness. This kind of detachment from the story helps me remember what it is for. It is not perfect detachment yet, but it is enough to take me to the next rung of the ladder. I ask for the truth, and I do my part by making room for it as I forgive all thoughts that don’t lead to truth. I ask to awaken from the dream, and I do my part as I use the dream for that purpose.
Serving God’s Plan of Awakening
I am joining with others in a Pathways of Light course, and in it we are directed to this quote from the Course.
2. The world you see must be denied, for sight of it is costing you a different kind of vision. ²_You cannot see both worlds,_ for each of them involves a different kind of seeing, and depends on what you cherish. ³The sight of one is possible because you have denied the other. ⁴Both are not true, yet either one will seem as real to you as the amount to which you hold it dear. (https://acim.org/acim/en/s/171#2:1-4 | T-13.VII.2:1-4)
Course 919: Serving God’s Plan of Awakening also reminds us that we awaken to the truth as we build the habit of asking ourselves the following questions.
Right now, which plan am I serving?
Which thought system am I reinforcing right now?
Am I serving God’s plan for awakening or the ego’s illusions?
Asking ourselves what plan we are serving can jar us loose from the temptation to make this world of separate bodies real.
To help with this practice, I watched my mind for the answer to these questions and then shared the answer with those taking the course with me. Here is one way I choose God’s Plan over the ego thought system. Making choices like this is how I escape the prison of my beliefs.
Monitoring Body Thoughts
I monitor my thoughts about my body because it is easy to think that the body is subject to the laws of the world. If I am worried about how I look or if I am worried about a physical problem, I change my mind. Instead, I choose thoughts that support God’s plan of awakening. I remind myself that I am under no laws but God’s. I remind myself there is but one power, the power of God. Sickness has no power, and the body has no power. It is only my beliefs that govern the world. I can govern it with true beliefs as easily as the ego’s false beliefs.
Since this life I seem to live is not true, I can stop dreaming it. I can make a different choice and live a happy dream until I am completely done and then be free of it. I move closer to this goal each time I forgive a grievance, each time I remember to choose the truth over the ego, each time I choose love over fear. Or simply choose love until I never choose anything else. Something shifted for me today. I am not alone. I feel a loving presence within me, and when I acknowledge this presence, it brings tears of gratitude to my eyes.
Regina’s Tips on What Is the Christ?
Our first special theme was, “What is forgiveness?” We saw that forgiveness is recognizing yourself as the unaffected Self. Therefore, “what you thought your brother did to you has not occurred.” Forgiveness “looks, and waits, and judges not.”
In other words, forgiveness is abiding in the qualities of Christ-consciousness—acceptance of what is, openness, non-attachment, and unconditional trust. This is often called equanimity.
When we abide in equanimity, we allow spiritual intuition to be our consistent guide. That is forgiveness.
My Thoughts
Becoming more identified with the Self changes everything. From that perspective, forgiveness feels like love, as does unconditional trust. Allowing spiritual intuition (the Holy Spirit) to be our consistent guide feels natural. Gratitude simply is, all the time. When I am in this place, I want to grab hold of it and never let it go, but grabbing is not how one stays here. Surrender, trust, allowance, these seem to be the way it is done. The ego continues to offer all the usual distractions and fears. Maybe it will dry up from neglect if I don’t give it my attention.
Regina’s Tips on the lesson
The truth is, we are unaffected by the world. We are the unaffected Self.
If we believe the mind’s chatter—the mind’s definition of “I”—and if we project our attention into the body as if the body is “me,” we do not know our Self. We do not recognize our nature. And if we do not recognize our nature, we do not recognize the nature of our source.
Yesterday we contemplated what we wanted to be identified with. If Christ-consciousness was your decision, then be doubly committed to spiritual intuition and the Loving All Method today.
My Thoughts
It seems funny to me now that when I first read about the idea of loving everything, it seemed crazy. I didn’t see how I could do that or why I would. But now, I can’t see any reason why I would not love everything. Doesn’t Jesus tell us that everything is in our best interests? And that if we knew Who walks beside us on the way that we have chosen, fear would be impossible. Doesn’t he remind us that our day is not random and that he is with us every step?
The illusion of the body is a persistent form of madness.
It must be released if we want to awaken from the dream of separation and return our minds to sanity. I have been practicing seeing myself as apart from the body in meditation. I withdraw my attention from the chair in which I sit, then slowly, I move my awareness from the body a bit at a time until I no longer have any focus on it. This is going to take a lot of practice because I am unable to hold that focus very long. The mind wants to return its attention to the body.
Here is another way I do this practice. I will notice some small discomfort in the body, and I will remember that the body has discomfort, but I am not the body. Or I gain some weight and the ego wants to think about that, and I remember that the body gained weight. I did not. While I was picking the last of my okra, as sometimes happens, I noticed itching where the okra touched skin.
I remembered that the hand itches; I do not. What I am cannot feel pain or itching. It does not feel discomfort. What I am does not weigh anything at all. If I continue to believe I am a body, I will continue to suffer when the body suffers. These practices are gently loosening my belief that I am a body and allowing an experience (however brief) of what I am in reality.
For a few moments, I will be very clear about this.
Then, without conscious thought, I will notice I have returned to believing I am the body. To return my mind to see this as my experience and not who I am, I seem to need to back out of it slowly, a step at a time, and for now, it seems necessary for me to remind myself frequently of the truth.
I remind myself that I am having an experience of being in a body. I remind myself that there are different levels of my experience. And, I remind myself that I cannot possibly be this body because it is small, vulnerable, and weak. I must be as God created me, and God created me like Himself, so this cannot be me.
As I slow my thoughts down, I can hear the thoughts of the Holy Spirit, and for a while, I know I am not the body. I think that as I do this more and more often, I will be able to stay at that higher level more consistently. It is at this level I can understand that the laws of the world do not bind me.
In 2011 I received help with this from the Holy Spirit.
Lately, I have felt closer to the truth that I am not what I appear to be and am more willing and able to look past the appearance of what I am. But this is not absolutely clear. It’s like looking through clouded glass. I see, but not clearly. And only at times do I begin to feel it. Holy Spirit, I want to see clearly. I want to feel and know who I am. And I want to hold that memory and not forget what I know.
As I was writing this and expressing the desire of my Heart, I was thinking of Holy Spirit, wanting Him to tell me something that would help. The thought came to me that I should pick up the Holy Spirit’s Interpretation of the New Testament and read from I Corinthians 14. In 14, the Holy Spirit is using a mask metaphor and talks about becoming the empty shell.
He talks about the roles we play as wearing a mask but reminds us that we are not the mask, and no matter how much we believe in it, it will never be real. He asks that we put down the mask and become an empty shell. As He says, “Release all of it, that I may fill you with the memory of who you are.” I got chills when I read it. He took me to the perfect place.
In I Corinthians, He reminds me: “It is your brothers who are you in truth.
Look beyond their illusion, and you look beyond your own. Forgive them their mask, and you forgive your own. Accept them as innocent and as Love, and you accept your Self.” I still felt a need for more, and when I became quiet, the Holy Spirit sent me to I Corinthians 12, in which I read this: “Watch your mind for its wishes, for each wish signals a judgment, and wherever there has been a judgment, there is a wish.”
Holy Spirit, this is very helpful.
Could you talk to me about my sense of failure and my frustration at not reaching my goal?
Holy Spirit: Dear One, please do not judge yourself. It is judgment that you wish to release from the shell. You are looking at the experience of seeming to fall short and believing the experience is you. This is not true. You are not the experience of Myron at all. Myron is the mask.
Do not look at her seeming success and failures and think, “I did this.” Look at her life and realize it perfectly mirrors the thoughts held in the mind. Then forgive those thoughts by giving them to me for purification. I will heal the mind as it is your desire. Look with joy and gratitude at what you see. It is in seeing the effects of the beliefs held in the mind that you can give your willingness to have them corrected.
If you think that you are failing or guilty because you notice the mistaken thoughts and their effects, you will resist finding them, then you will push them down where you can’t see them. Can you see that this would not be helpful? Instead, be grateful for your willingness to see and grateful for your willingness to forgive. Instead of being discouraged, be glad each time you notice an effect of wrong-minded thinking. This is your purpose, and you are accomplishing your purpose. Thank you.
Me: Holy Spirit, I understand and appreciate what You are telling me.
You want me to continue to notice my thoughts and to ask for correction.
You want me to remember that it is through my forgiveness of my brothers that I find my own healing.
It is important that I remember I am not the mask but the wearer of it and that I am to remove it. I am to surrender everything and become an empty shell so that You can fill me.
I see that I am to watch my mind for wishes and judgments (and that they are the same thing), and I see that I am not to judge anything, including my progress.
Also, I see that you are telling me that I am not the story or any character in the story. I tend to forget that. And I see that you want me to be grateful that I notice what needs correction rather than feeling guilty for it. Thank you.
Contemplation 2025
To enjoy the Pathways of Light Insights on ACIM Lesson 278 click here.
If you found this content helpful, please share on social media so more people can read and learn.