February 16th 2014 Lesson 334
Part II Introduction
We will continue spending time with God each morning and night and at each waking hour, using all future lessons as introductions to the times in which we leave the world of pain, and go to enter peace, calling to God when we have need of Him as we are tempted to forget our goal. During these holy times, we will say some simple words of welcome, and expect our Father to reveal Himself to us, as He has promised that He would when we invited Him.
This is how our times with Him will now be spent: we say the words of invitation that His Voice suggests, and then we wait for Him to come to us. Sit silently and wait upon your Father. He has willed to come to you when you have recognized it is your will He do so. We need only call to God, and all temptations disappear. Instead of words, we need but feel His Love. Instead of prayers, we need but call His Name. Instead of judging, we need but be still and let all things be healed.
Our lessons will now be preceded by a theme of special relevance that we should review before each lesson until another is given us. They should be slowly read and thought about a little while, preceding one of the holy times we sit in silence and wait for God to reveal Himself to us. The next of these special thoughts follow and are relevant to lessons 331 - 340:12. What Is the Ego?
The ego is idolatry; the sign of a limited and separated self, born in a body, doomed to suffer and to end its life in death. It is the "will" that sees the Will of God as enemy, and takes a form in which it is denied. The ego is the "proof" that strength is weak and love is fearful, life is really death, and what opposes God alone is true.
The ego is insane. In fear it stands beyond the Everywhere, apart from All, in separation from the Infinite. In its insanity it thinks it has become a victor over God Himself. And in its terrible autonomy it "sees" the Will of God has been destroyed. It dreams of punishment, and trembles at the figures in its dreams; its enemies, who seek to murder it before it can ensure its safety by attacking them.
The Son of God is egoless. What can he know of madness and the death of God, when he abides in Him? What can he know of sorrow and of suffering, when he lives in eternal joy? What can he know of fear and punishment, of sin and guilt, of hatred and attack, when all there is surrounding him is everlasting peace, forever conflict-free and undisturbed, in deepest silence and tranquility?
To know reality is not to see the ego and its thoughts, its works, its acts, its laws and its beliefs, its dreams, its hopes, its plans for its salvation, and the cost belief in it entails. In suffering, the price for faith in it is so immense that crucifixion of the Son of God is offered daily at its darkened shrine, and blood must flow before the altar where its sickly followers prepare to die.
Yet will one lily of forgiveness change the darkness into light; the altar to illusions to the shrine of Life Itself. And peace will be restored forever to the holy minds which God created as His Son, His dwelling place, His joy, His love, completely His, completely one with Him.
Lesson 334
Today I claim the gifts forgiveness gives.
- I will not wait another day to find the treasures that my father offers me. Illusions are all vain, and dreams are gone even while they are woven out of thoughts that rest on false perceptions. Let me not accept such meager gifts again today. God's Voice is offering the peace of God to all who hear and choose to follow Him. This is my choice today. And so I go to find the treasures God has given me.
- Invitation Prayer: I seek but the eternal. For Your Son can be content with nothing less than this. What, then, can be his solace but what You are offering to his bewildered mind and frightened heart, to give him certainty and bring him peace? Today I would behold my brother sinless. This Your Will for me, for so will I behold my sinlessness.
Insights/comments:
- Day after day we have unwittingly chosen the things of the world as replacements for the gifts that God has given us. We choose dreams instead of reality, time instead of eternity, conflict instead of peace, and anger instead of forgiveness. Why? Because we learned this from the teachings of our traditions and elders, but mainly because we did not learn to really acknowledge and experience our identity with God who is All that exists. This identity is our true reality, and it alone unifies us with our brothers and all that exists, for through unity we recognize all forms as fluctuations of the one eternal Source that is God. Thus do we claim not only brotherhood with all that exists, but complete unity, which validates the golden rule of relationships—that what is good for me is good for all others, and what is not good for me is likewise not good for all others. This insight focuses all our activity on appreciating the good in all things, and overlooking all that seems to be not good as mere misperceptions. And since all goodness comes from God, our focus on the good, becomes our focus on God, thereby acknowledging and appreciating His gifts for ourselves and for the world.
I and my Creator are One. 
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