Lesson 113
For morning and evening review:
(95) I am one Self, united with my Creator.
Serenity and perfect peace are mine, because I am one Self, completely whole, at one with all creation and with God.
(96) Salvation comes from my one Self.
From my one Self, Whose knowledge still remains within my mind, I see God’s perfect plan for my salvation perfectly fulfilled.
On the hour:
I am one Self, united with my Creator.
On the half hour:
Salvation comes from my one Self.
Journal
Again, this morning I sat for a while preparing my mind to know my Self. At first, I noticed how much I didn’t want to do this and knew that was because I was afraid of failure and what that would mean. I asked the Holy Spirit to remove those thoughts from my mind and He did. I settled into the process. I didn’t have as many distracting thoughts as before and when I did, I turned from them more quickly. I’m going to try again later. I know that it is normal to take time to acquire discipline of the mind.
Just reading today’s review caused a feeling of peace to flow through me. I asked the Holy Spirit to clarify these lessons for me as I began my contemplation. Serenity and perfect peace are mine right now, not when something happens or when I do something deserving or prove my worth through some great effort. I am my Self and one with God is just a fact that does not change. That it does not change is a hallmark of my Self, as only the changeless is my Self. I can trust that I am completely whole and at one with all creation and with God even when that doesn’t appear to be my experience, even if I can’t feel it.
It is this one Self, my true Self from which salvation comes because knowing this Self is my salvation. The knowledge of my one Self is in my mind. It did not disappear because I turned from it and placed my attention on the split mind. It remains with me and as me regardless of any change I imagine. My salvation was fulfilled at the instant it was needed and now I am ready to accept salvation. I want to be at Home in God as my Self and this is done. Come on, self, what are you waiting for? This is the best deal you are ever going to get, the only deal worth having. Let’s do this.
Regina’s Tips
We have to be willing to let ‘pointing’ come to us in whatever form it will as we contemplate, and then it is important to trust what comes. Usually, as we trust the first little bit that comes, more will follow.
My Thoughts
I write what comes to me after I ask for clarification. Then I read what I wrote, correcting grammar and spelling. I also read to see if it is complete. I sometimes get more as I read. I have moments when I doubt and wonder if this could be right or if it is just me writing from the thinking mind. Over the years, I have come to trust my feelings. When it feels right, I trust that it is right. If it feels wrong, I ask for more clarification.
Past Entry
It is hard for us to accept that we are one Self because we have done such a good job of making separation. We can only accept on faith that there is a way that we can be one. When I was still trying to accept this I wondered why I even considered the possibility. It was so foreign to me and no one else I knew thought this way. What I realized is that I was not learning something new. I was remembering something I have always known. This is why I accept what the thinking mind cannot understand.
This acceptance changed everything. Now that I understand that what I do to another I do to myself, I act like this is true. Even in little ways I remember that we are one and that love is universal or its not love. For instance, I no longer leave the clothes I was trying on in the dressing room for the sales clerk to clear away, and I look the cashier in the eyes and saying thank you like I mean it. I simply don’t do to another person what I would not want done to me, because that other person is me.
More than anything else I want to know that I am not guilty, because only in my guiltlessness can I accept that I am one with God. I cannot know my guiltlessness if I see my brother as guilty, because we are one. It was impossibly hard not to see guilt in my brother when I believed in guilt. I would see bad behavior and could not look past it.
As I have let go of that belief, and as I have embraced the truth that we are still as God created us, the free Sons of God and cannot be guilty, I can see innocence no matter what is being done by them or by me. This is not a lesson perfectly learned. I still fall back into the idea of guilt, but I never stay there. It simply doesn’t make sense to me anymore.
Another strange idea is that serenity, peace, love, and joy are mine and that they are in me so they can never be lost. It feels strange and hard to believe because I seem to be pulled asunder by all manner of opposite emotions. I don’t always feel happy and certainly, I don’t always feel serene.
Sometimes I feel angry or guilty or put upon, and I think that I feel these things because of actions outside my control. But then I remember the truth, that no matter how it seems, I feel what I feel because I have unquestioned beliefs. In other words, I believe my thoughts about what is happening. I but do this to myself, not just sometimes but in every case.
I can learn to see this differently, whatever it is, and A Course in Miracles gives me a variety of ways to do so. Principally among these is the the section called Rules for Decision. Using this section as a consistent practice is helping me to see differently and thus to find the joy and peace that is in my mind.
So as it happens, I am not making myself happy and serene, I am simply discovering the love, peace, and joy that is already there. This is good news because I am not left in the unfortunate position of being a victim to everyone and every thing that happens. I don’t have to change the world to become happy.
Neither do I have to discover some magic formula that will make me happy. I simply learn how it is I am choosing something else, and stop doing it. Reminding myself that joy is always available regardless of what seems to be happening helps encourage me in my mind training period.
This lesson is certainly about the metaphysical aspects that are so hard to wrap my little mind around. My mind that is so used to numbers, letters, buildings and books is hard put to “see” these ideas sometimes. When this lesson says, “From my one Self, Whose knowledge still remains within my mind” I have to take Jesus at his word. I have had some glimmerings though of, “a peace that surpasseth my understanding” once in a while. Myron, I like what you said, “Even in little ways I remember that we are one and that love is universal or its not love.” That feels more, “concrete” and doing the section called Rules for Decision gives us tools as you said. That is very helpful although I have not read it yet. I intend to look that up today. I am reading a teeny little book called The Game of Life and How To Play it, by Florence Shinn. My friend, who is not into the Course at all recommended it. It’s about how knowing there is only One Power, and listening to Jesus helps us win the game. I was amazed. This could have been written by a Course student. It was written in 1925 so no way did she know about ACIM but she knew about Jesus’ teachings as He teaches us in the Course. It’s an amazing little book and it actually cemented some of these ideas for me in the practicality of jobs, day to life, bank loans, employment, getting a promotion or a raise and generally succeeding or not due to our thoughts. I realized a lot of stuff about my thinking that I had not yet uncovered in the Course so it was very helpful to me. When Florence Shinn says over and over how there is only One Power, it ties into this lesson. I AM ONE SELF UNITED WITH MY CREATOR. She asks us to accept that power and operate from that certainty. That’s a very concrete application of these more metaphysical teachings in daily life. Thank you Holy Spirit for showing me my blocks to the awareness of Love’s Presence. Thank you Myron, your shares always help me understand the lessons better. I am grateful.