When Anger Is Gone = Fear Gone = Love Here

ACIM Workbook Lesson 161 – for Friday, June 10, 2011

Affirmation:  “Give me your blessing, holy Son of God.”

“Today we practice differently and take a stand against our anger, that our fears may disappear and offer room to love.  Here is salvation in the simple words in which we practice with today’s idea.  Here is the answer to temptation which can never fail to welcome in the Christ where fear and anger had prevailed before.  Here is Atonement made complete, the world passed safely by and Heaven now restored.  Here is the answer of the Voice for God.  (WB304)”

Reflections:

The Text says that there is never any excuse for anger nor attack.  All anger and attacks are calls for help on the part of our brothers and sisters, and we need to rush to their side with reassurances.  We will not actually make the physical effort if they are unreceptive, but we will stay calm and peaceful, and we will recognize the insanity of it all.

When our brothers and sisters will welcome our response, we are to give it.  We will let them know that we love them and that we do not hold the anger and attack against them.

Anger and attack on our part has the same solution.  We must realize that we are calling for help, and that we need only turn to God for our answers.  All things, ACIM suggests are expressions of love (or help) or calls for love (or help).  When we realize this, and when we know that our real Self has not been hurt, we will forgive.  This does not mean that we will stay in an abusive relationship.  ACIM does not ask this.  But it does mean that, from a distance, we will be able to forgive.  Sometimes we have to remove ourselves from the situation for self-protection.

Prayer:

Dear Father/Mother,

May nothing today tempt me to respond in anger to any perceived attack, whether that attack originates from within or from without.  My brothers and sisters are asking for help when they attack; it is basically a call for love.  Help me to respond with the best gift that they are ready to accept.  I do not want to force my beliefs on them, but everyone will, sooner or later, respond to love demonstrated.

I wish to leave anger and attack behind.  There is not just anger.  Anger is a human quality, but it is an attribute of the ego, which still rules me more than I would wish to acknowledge.  Help me to allow the ego in me to dissolve in the light of Your compassion and love.

Amen.

Home = Safety, Peace, Salvation, Rest

ACIM Workbook Lesson 102 – for Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Affirmation:  “I share God’s Will for happiness for me.”

Selected Passage:

“Here is your home, and here your safety is.  Here is your peace, and here there is no fear.  Here is salvation.  Here is rest at last.  (WB184)”

Reflections:

Two words in the selected passage (above), “safety” and “rest,” seem especially inviting to us.  We are safe, though bad things may still happen.  Our real Self has not and never will be, touched by pain of any kind.  The real Self has not been hurt, ever.  So we have no real reason for fear.

We are safe, once we have let illusions go, let the dictates of the ego hold no sway over us any longer.

And we are at rest when we have realized all that the selected passage holds out for us.  When we share God’s Will for happiness, we are well on our way Home.

Today’s lesson builds on the one from yesterday.  We know that God’s Will for us is perfect happiness, but we must share that Will for the happiness to come.  If we turn aside, seeking the “benefits” of egoistic thinking (benefits that are non-existent), then we will not know the happiness that God promises.

Prayer:

Dear Father/Mother,

May I know perfect peace today.  When I am peaceful, I am kinder to my brothers and sisters, and the wish to attack never arises.  All is well.  May all be well today.

Safety is important to us, and when we let grievances go, we will know that we are perfectly safe.  May we let grievances go today.

Amen.

Let Grievances Wither Away

ACIM Workbook Lesson 78 – for Saturday, March 19, 2011

Affirmation:  “Let miracles replace all grievances.”

Selected Passage:

“We will remember this throughout the day, and take the role assigned to us as part of God’s salvation plan, and not our own.  Temptation falls away when we allow each one we meet to save us, and refuse to hide his light behind our grievances.  (WB140)”

Reflections:

Today’s lesson builds upon the one from yesterday.  If we do not allow temptation to change, negatively, our attitude toward our brothers and sisters, we will know the light, we will know miracles.  Temptation is simply the desire to replace what we recognize to be God’s will with another will, a will of the ego.  And we know that doing this simply brings our downfall in daily life.

Miracles are our birthright.  It is a Text tenet that something has gone wrong when miracles do not appear.  We can speculate that this means that miracles will appear more frequently than infrequently (an interpretation, not stated in ACIM).  We do not often recognize miracles as “shifts in perception,” but this is the definition given them by Kenneth Wapnick, scholar and writer for A Course in Miracles.  We are still in the perceptual mode, and therefore miracles do not last.  Revelation is of God, of the “knowing,” and is extremely personal to the receiver.  Nobody else can truly interpret for you when revelation has happened.  In the Text, a distinct difference is seen between miracles (perceptual) and revelation (from God to us, never the reverse).

Revelation will occasionally reveal the end to us, we are told in the Text.  But to get there, to Awakening, the means are needed.  And Jesus carefully explains the means to us in ACIM.  (These are all paraphrases from the Text.)

Prayer:

Dear Father/Mother,

May my grievances disappear in the light of the miracles that You will bring to me today.  May I express my gratitude for Your miracles.  May I never take You for granted, even though Your love is steadfast even when mine is not.

Help me to accept the joy that miracles bring.  And, if it is according to Your plan, may revelation today show up in my world.  Only revelation can reveal the end to me, and I am eager to see what You have in store for me.

Amen.

End the Attack on God’s Plan for Salvation

ACIM Workbook Lesson 72 – for Sunday, March 13, 2011

Affirmation:  “Holding grievances is an attack on God’s plan for salvation.”

Selected Passage:

“To see our Self as separate from the body is to end the attack on God’s plan for salvation, and to accept it instead.  And wherever His plan is accepted, it is accomplished.  (WB125)”

Reflections:

This passage points out that the Self, our real Self, is separate from the body.  Our little self, though, is very much of the body and in this world (an interpretation, not stated in ACIM).  We would identify with our Self if we would find out way Home.  Let us do so today.

The affirmation is a serious warning:  “Holding grievances is an attack on God’s plan for salvation.”  We may think that holding grievances is something that we really can’t get over, that seems to be out of our control–even as we lose our temper at times in a loud outburst that seems somehow outside ourselves.  But we are attacking God’s plan, and, we might conjecture, God Himself when we do hold grievances.  This will never do.  We must commune with God (ACIM‘s usual word for “prayer,” especially in the list of miracles at the beginning of the Text), and we must ask for forgiveness for our own inadequacies.  God made us (not we ourselves), and He knows our limitations.  We are not without limitations in this world (an ACIM tenet).  But it behooves us to try to rise above the limitations, with God’s help.  He will help.  We can be assured of this.

There is a time collapse implied in the passage for today.  Elsewhere ACIM notes that time can be saved, sometimes a thousand years or more, by individuals such as ourselves.  Miracles foster this time collapse, and miracles should be placed under the direction of Jesus (an ACIM tenet).  Personally selected “miracles” are not warranted.  But, as this passage says, when God’s plan is accepted, it is accomplished.  This implies immediate accomplishment–a wonderful promise in itself.

Prayer:

Dear Father/Mother,

Help me to give up any and all grievances that I hold publicly or privately.  Then I will know that I am perfectly safe.  And I will have ended my personal attack on God’s plan for salvation.

Be with me today as I try to commune frequently with You.  Be with me as I pardon any wrongs that I think, in illusion, have been done to me.  May my day go well.  You would have it so.

Amen.

I Am Perfectly Safe

ACIM Workbook Lesson 68 – for Wednesday, March 9, 2011

Affirmation:  “Love holds no grievances.”

Selected Passage:

“Spend the remainder of the practice period trying to think of yourself as completely at peace with everyone and everything, safe in a world that protects you and loves you, and that you love in return.  Try to feel safety surrounding you, hovering over you and holding you up.  Try to believe, however briefly, that nothing can harm you in any way.  At the end of the practice period tell yourself:

Love holds no grievances.  When I let all my grievances
go I will know I am perfectly safe. (WB116)”

Reflections:

The final two sentences of the passage for today is a favorite of ACIM students/teachers.  And it is ever so true.  “When I let all my grievances go I will know I am perfectly safe.”

It is our attack thoughts that come about through holding grievances.  And it is our attack thoughts that make us feel unsafe.  We know that there is a sword over our heads that will fall or be averted (if we drop the anger and attack).  (This is a Text tenet.)

If we can imagine ourselves as perfectly at peace, we will go a long way toward avoiding the pain that we erroneously think we feel from giving up attack thoughts.  We think that we have to protect ourselves from future hurt by holding on to the memories of wrongs done us.  But we do not!  This is not the way of protection.  We do not have to be defensive at all (a Text tenet).  In fact, defensiveness is recommended to be dropped from our repertoire of emotions.

May we find the peace today that we seek.  May we leave grievances behind, and walk into an awareness of perfect safety.

Prayer:

Dear Father/Mother,

I know that it is true that I will realize that I am perfectly safe in this world when I have given up all grievances.  I realize that “bad” things could still happen, but they will not touch me in my heart, because in my heart I am safe, and in my heart I know that all that transpires that is not Love is illusion.

May I relinquish all attack thoughts.  And when I pray to you for Your help in a given situation, may I remember to thank You afterwards, once things have turned out well.  And I know that my day will go well, because You are there for me.

Amen.

Magic III

“All through his training, every day and every hour, and even every minute and second, must God’s teachers learn to recognize the forms of magic and perceive their meaninglessness.  Fear is withdrawn from them, and so they go.  And thus the gate of Heaven is reopened, and its light can shine again on an untroubled mind.  (M43)”

Affirmation:  “Let Heaven’s light shine again on an untroubled mind.”

Reflections:

What a blessing is an untroubled mind!  And to have this boon, we have only to learn how to recognize the various forms of magic, and learn to avoid them in all their manifestations.  We need not fear magic, because ultimately it is meaningless.  But magic can cause great havoc in our lives in the meantime, until we have recognized its meaninglessness.

There is an indication in this passage that we must be vigilant against magic (“every day and every hour, and even every minute and second”).  Surely, we tell ourselves, we will fail.  And we will.  But as we practice, the failure rate goes down, surely and steadily.  This assurance is motivation to practice well.

If the gate of Heaven is reopened, we are indeed Home.  And Home can be while still on earth.  There is even a well-known passage in the New Testament in which Jesus asserts this while he is in fellowship with his disciples.  Surely it is no different for us now.  Recognizing this is a blessing that will quiet our days and give us hope.

Prayer:

Dear Father/Mother,

Magic is usually some form of attack or anger, or grievance, or even superstition.  It is some form of fear, not love.   May I recognize magic when I see it today.  May You be with me to turn aside from engaging in such fruitlessness.

Thank you for assisting me always.  I know that You are there.  I can often feel Your presence, and I invite this feeling of Your presence today in all my goings about.

Amen.