ACIM Workbook Lesson 167 – for Thursday, June 16, 2011
Affirmation: “There is one life, and that I share with God.”
“In this world, there appears to be a state that is life’s opposite. You call it death. Yet we have learned that the idea of death takes many forms. It is the one idea which underlies all feelings that are not supremely happy. It is the alarm to which you give response of any kind that is not perfect joy. All sorrow, loss, anxiety and suffering and pain, even a little sign of weariness, a slight discomfort or the merest frown, acknowledge death. And thus deny you live. (WB318)”
Reflections:
This passage is quite metaphorical, but yet we can see its practical applications. A Course in Miracles is always practical (a tenet). If we view our little pains as “little deaths,” then we can see the wisdom in these words. Anytime that we acknowledge suffering, rather than try to overlook it, we are exacerbating the suffering. In practical terms, overlooking suffering can be hard to do. But distraction has been found to lessen the perception of pain; therefore, the suffering is less.
We can even acknowledge pain without having it turn into suffering. Echhart Tolle makes this point in A New Earth. We could sometimes do ourselves no greater value than to fail to turn pain into suffering. When we dwell on pain, it grows. Overlooking, much as we overlook our brothers’ and sisters’ attacks upon us, does much to have us live in a joyous world.
Let us turn aside from death in all its forms today. There are no “little deaths,” in an interpretation based on ACIM principles. It is all or nothing. Let our little deaths be nothing today.
Prayer:
Dear Father/Mother,
I appreciate that in my lifetime You have shown me enough that I no longer fear death. I do not fear the end of my life, but I am not yet consistent in living each day to the fullest and avoiding the “little deaths” of joylessness. Help me to live a joyous day today. Help me to forget “death” in any form.
Be with me today, and most of all, help me to feel Your presence. I thank You for the comfort that You have brought to me when I feel You especially keenly. I would invite that feeling by consistently communing with You throughout the day. Help me to do this.
Amen.
