ACIM Workbook Lesson 250 – for Wednesday, September 7, 2011
Affirmation: “Let me not see myself as limited.”
“He is Your Son, my Father. And today I would behold his gentleness instead of my illusions. He is what I am, and as I see him so I see myself. Today I would see truly, that this day I may at last identify with him. (WB418)”
Reflections:
This prayer is another example of the idea that we are all One, including being One with God. Perhaps we are forgiving of another to the extent that we identify with him or her (not stated explicitly in ACIM). Certainly identifying with another is a sure way to invite intimacy, a term used often by Mari Perron, who scribed A Course of Love and authored The Given Self. We need the intimacy that Mari extols, because otherwise our sense of separation from each other in this world, and perhaps our perceived separation from God only is accentuated. As we have noted previously, we have not separated from God; we have simply made illusions and lived in an illusory world. We would return home to the real world as soon as our learning can take us there. (And A Course in Miracles is very helpful to returning us to the real world.)
The real world is not defined precisely in ACIM. We are told that our stay in that “place” will be of short duration, that shortly after we perceive the real world, God will act to awaken us. We will then not be identified with God (unless we are not drawn to stay on earth any longer), but we will recognize ourselves as His Sons and Daughters. We will embody the Self that we have been meant to be all along, before a “tiny, mad idea” came along about which we “failed to laugh” (the quotations are from ACIM). When the tiny, mad idea came along, we thought that we wanted to have a will different from God’s, and, while we could not actually separate from Him, we could imagine that we had. That was the beginning of our insanity. ACIM does not state precisely when in our history this occurred, but does used the symbolic Adam to illustrate. This first man fell into a deep sleep, and ACIM notes that nowhere in the Old Testament (or Hebrew Bible) is it said that he awoke. There has been no comprehensive Awakening in all the eons since, but we may be on the brink of a breakthrough.
Eckhart Tolle, an enlightened teacher (The Power of Now and A New Earth), sees himself as at the epicenter of a new Awakening. Those who sense that enlightenment (another term for Awakening) is upon them frequently contact Eckhart for counsel. He is arguably the most visible example of an Awakened individual in our midst, at least in that he talks openly and writes often about how we too might have what he has. He quotes from A Course in Miracles, but his pathway to Awakening was one of pain rather learning through rewards (as ACIM counsels). Jesus tells us in ACIM that pain can bring only a temporary effect, and that the lasting comes through rewards. But Jesus also recognizes that pain is part of the human condition, as he says that the threshold for pain may be high, but that sooner or later all will recognize that there is a better way. (These are paraphrases from the Text.)
One of the inheritances of the Son or Daughter of God is trust. It is the one trait on which all the rest are built (an idea from the Manual). We need to trust our God to join us a we seek to leave illusions behind and to experience the real world, with Awakening promised soon to follow.
Prayer:
Dear Father/Mother,
I would notice only the gentleness that is in the Self that my brother has, the inner Self that is as You created him. And I would see this gentleness in the real world, which I hope that he and I will share sooner rather than later. Help us to be good to each other in our holy relationship. May my most significant other love me as I love him. May we be there for each other, both under Your loving gaze at all times.
I would find You inwardly. Please help me to understand this fully, and to project the best of You that I can reach within. When I project the best, my perception is cleansed, and then my brother and I walk into the sunlight always. Thank You for the many blessings that are ours today.
Amen.
MIRACLES EACH DAY 