Lesson 110

Lesson 110

I am as God created me.

We will repeat today’s idea from time to time. For this one thought would be enough to save you and the world, if you believed that it is true. Its truth would mean that you have made no changes in yourself that have reality, nor changed the universe so that what God created was replaced by fear and evil, misery and death. If you remain as God created you fear has no meaning, evil is not real, and misery and death do not exist.

Today’s idea is therefore all you need to let complete correction heal your mind, and give you perfect vision that will heal all the mistakes that any mind has made at any time or place. It is enough to heal the past and make the future free. It is enough to let the present be accepted as it is. It is enough to let time be the means for all the world to learn escape from time, and every change that time appears to bring in passing by.

If you remain as God created you, appearances cannot replace the truth, health cannot turn to sickness, nor can death be substitute for life, or fear for love. All this has not occurred, if you remain as God created you. You need no thought but just this one, to let redemption come to light the world and free it from the past.

In this one thought is all the past undone; the present saved to quietly extend into a timeless future. If you are as God created you, then there has been no separation of your mind from His, no split between your mind and other minds, and only unity within your own.

The healing power of today’s idea is limitless. It is the birthplace of all miracles, the great restorer of the truth to the awareness of the world. Practice today’s idea with gratitude. This is the truth that comes to set you free. This is the truth that God has promised you. This is the Word in which all sorrow ends.

For your five-minute practice periods, begin with this quotation from the text:

I am as God created me. His Son can suffer nothing.
And I am His Son.

Then, with this statement firmly in your mind, try to discover in your mind the Self Who is the holy Son of God Himself.

Seek Him within you Who is Christ in you, the Son of God and brother to the world; the Savior Who has been forever saved, with power to save whoever touches Him, however lightly, asking for the Word that tells him he is brother unto Him.

You are as God created you. Today honor your Self. Let graven images you made to be the Son of God instead of what he is be worshipped not today. Deep in your mind the holy Christ in you is waiting your acknowledgment as you. And you are lost and do not know yourself while He is unacknowledged and unknown.

Seek Him today, and find Him. He will be your Savior from all idols you have made. For when you find Him, you will understand how worthless are your idols, and how false the images which you believed were you. Today we make a great advance to truth by letting idols go, and opening our hands and hearts and minds to God today.

We will remember Him throughout the day with thankful hearts and loving thoughts for all who meet with us today. For it is thus that we remember Him. And we will say, that we may be reminded of His Son, our holy Self, the Christ in each of us:

I am as God created me.

Let us declare this truth as often as we can. This is the Word of God that sets you free. This is the key that opens up the gate of Heaven, and that lets you enter in the peace of God and His eternity.

 

Journal

“The healing power of today’s idea is limitless. It is the birthplace of all miracles, the great restorer of the truth to the awareness of the world.”

 The reason this lesson is so powerful is that the world we see, the body we believe we inhabit, all the effects of separation are only in our mind. There is no world outside our mind. So, if we remember who we are, we will have no interest in thinking the world into being. Without our desire for the world it will cease to be.

From other things in the Course that we have read, it is clear that this will happen in stages, beginning with awakening to the truth and as more and more awaken, the world we made takes on a different aspect, one without guilt and fear so we have a happy dream, after which, we will return our awareness to the Mind of God.

 I focus on my part of this process because the rest is out of my hands. We are told to meditate so that we can discover in our minds, the Self Who is the holy Son of God Himself. I see my part as two-fold. I am still watching my mind for untrue thoughts and letting them be removed for me. There are not so many as before, but they still show up and there are a few that I still believe, though none that I am not willing to give up.

The second part, equally, if not more important, is the meditation and in that part I am still a baby, taking small steps. And, oh yes, there is a third essential part. “We will remember Him throughout the day with thankful hearts and loving thoughts for all who meet with us today. For it is thus that we remember Him.” I awaken through loving and honoring my brother.

Regina’s Tip

1. I recommend practicing Self-inquiry during your 5-minute meditation breaks today. You could practice with different questions during different breaks. Which questions work best for you? Feel free to use other methods of Self-inquiry that you may have heard of. For example Mooji’s question was, “Can the seer be seen?”

2.The lesson points to another type of inquiry when it says, “Let graven images you made to be the Son of God instead of what he is be worshipped not today.” This brings up the question, “What ideas of ‘me’ do I have that are not what I am?’

If you focus on Self-inquiry during meditation, you can use the rest of the day to ponder this second question. Be open to notice what you tell yourself about you. Notice what roles you are heavily identified with. What judgments do you make about who you are? Pay attention to discover who YOU TELL YOURSELF that you are. See how many of these false images you can uncover in your thoughts today. Realize these are images you make, and then remind yourself, “I am as God created me.

My Thoughts

Regina suggests two practices, self-inquiry and noticing the roles we assign ourselves and what we believe about ourselves. I admit that I don’t relate to the self-inquiry practice, but I will do it anyway. I think I could use this one. “~ Listen to a sound in your environment & then ask, “Who hears this?” Turn attention to become aware of you, the awareness that hears.” That one is easier for me to accept and make sense of.

Thinking about my ideas of myself, the roles I play that are important to me are parent (somewhat) and grandmother. Grandmother is a delight but while I play that role and the role of mother, I am not attached to them. I don’t define myself through them. The role that I do think of as me is a teacher of God. I think it gives me purpose and is important. If I think I have failed in this role, I am upset. If something happened where I could not actively participate in this role, I would not cease to be so I am not confused about that. I am glad that this has not happened, and I am learning to love my mistakes and to be happy in those situations that feel challenging so there is less distress when I mess up.

Past Entries

Original Sin

This is from an earlier posting.

Here is something I noticed yesterday as I peeked ahead and read this Lesson. I read this: “If you remain as God created you, appearances cannot replace the truth, health cannot turn to sickness…” and this: “I am as God created me. His Son can suffer nothing. And I am His Son.” And instead of feeling relief, I felt guilty. I didn’t feel healthy and I did feel like I was suffering, and for a moment I felt like I had failed and this must mean I am not as God created me.

It is the original fear, the source of all guilt, this belief that my actions and circumstances have meaning, that idle wishes can actually undo what God has done. If this were so, I would actually be guilty and there would be no hope for me. This is the foundation of the ego’s logic and it does not miss a chance to reinforce that belief.

I continued to feel bad yesterday and to feel worse as the day went on. Then last night I came to my senses. I remembered that I am as God created me. The ego kept pointing at the body’s pain and its fever, but I chose to disregard appearances. I went to bed with pain, but not suffering. Today, I deny the lie that I can be something God did not create. I am still as God created me regardless of appearances. Nothing in this story of pain and suffering can change that. A dream cannot change the truth. I am innocent.

I am leaning heavily toward the truth.

I posted this from last year because there is still that belief in my mind that my beliefs can change what I am. It is not a strong as it once was, but it is still there. I am at the hotel in New York City. The conference is over and I will be flying out soon. It’s quiet now and I am reflecting on my experience. There were many wonderful moments and I enjoy that part of the reflection. I also think about how tired I became and the pain in my lower back has returned.

I am tired. That is just a fact. I have an experience of pain. That is just a fact. Maybe – no, certainly – one day that will not be part of my experience, but right now it is. No problem. But then I start feeling guilty that I am not the Course student I want to be. I feel bad that I still get tired and have pain. I feel disappointed in myself. I feel like I am not as God created me.

Doing this lesson reminds me that these thoughts and these beliefs are not reality. They do not change what God created unchangeable. These thoughts are just a reflection of a false belief I hold in my mind. These thoughts are meaningless unless I choose to accept them and react to them. Believing that I have altered the unalterable through my beliefs is what causes all the suffering associated with this experience.

Jesus reminds me that the tiredness and the pain are just an image I made and reflected outward because I want this punishing experience. I want to remain a body in this story and remembering what I am will totally screw that up. So from my desire to remain a body, I make an image that proves I am a body and not spirit. Then I defend that image by making up justifications for the exhaustion and pain. I use fear and guilt to bolster the whole thing.

But I also want to wake up. I know that I am as God created me even as I deny it. Yes, I am still conflicted, but I am leaning heavily toward the truth. I want to awaken more than I want to continue the story. So I do my work with this situation. I remind myself of the truth. I remind myself that I am not alone in this undoing business. The Holy Spirit will do all the heavy lifting. I just give Him my willingness, my desire to return to my Father. He takes care of the rest.

I am tired, but I am happy.

I am not entirely free of ego and sometimes feel very much entangled in ego thinking, but I don’t have the thoughts I have had in the past. I have let go of so much separation thinking, and I can actually imagine freedom. There is so much less guilt, and so much less desire for the story. It is manifested in less pain and exhaustion, less sickness, and less unhappiness. I didn’t get to the hotel until 10:30 tonight. I drove through storms to get here and in the dark which is a problem because my night vision is not so good. I am tired but I am happy. I noticed a couple of thoughts about my room not being what I expected and I pegged those as attack thoughts and let them go. The silent prayer in my mind was that I didn’t want darkness in my holy mind and so asked that it be removed. Living like this is not complete freedom but it feels so much better than before and I know that as I let go of grievances I am brought closer to the real world, the world without ego.

I love this awakening business!

I notice ego thoughts in my mind but I hardly ever believe them. I don’t feel like my true self, but I also know that I am not the body or this separated self. I sometimes get caught up in my story for a little while, but mostly, I know that none of this is happening. It is just an ancient memory, kept in my mind by the petty grievances and careless attack thoughts I still value. And every day, I release them as I notice them. I almost believe that I am as God created me. How can I not be. Isn’t it God’s Will that I be what He created? I can undo what I have made, but I cannot undo what God has made.