Feb 23rd 2016 Review II
Lesson 88
Review of Lessons 75 - 76
- Intention: We are now ready for another review. We will begin where our last review left off, and cover two ideas each day. The earlier part of each day will be devoted to one of these ideas, and the latter part of the day to the other. For each idea, we will have one longer exercise period, and frequent shorter ones in which we practice each of them.
- Long Practice: Spend a total of about fifteen minutes thinking about each each idea and its associated comments. Devote
some three or four minutes to reading them over slowly, several times
if you wish, then close your eyes and spend the rest of the time
listening attentively.
Repeat the first phase of the exercise (reading slowly) if you find your mind wandering, but try to spend the major part of the time listening quietly but attentively. There is a message waiting for you. Be confident that you will receive it. Remember that it belongs to you, and that you want it.
Do not allow your intent to waver in the face of distracting thoughts. Realize that, whatever form such thoughts may take, they have no meaning and no power. Replace them with your determination to succeed. Do not forget that your will has power over all fantasies and dreams. Trust it to see you through, and carry you beyond them all.
Regard these practice periods as dedications to the way, the truth and the life. Refuse to be sidetracked into detours, illusions and thoughts of death. You are dedicated to salvation. Be determined each day not to leave your function unfulfilled.
- Short Practice: Repeat
the original form of the idea often, and apply it for general
situations. When appropriate, use the specific forms included in the
comments which follow the statements of the ideas. These, however, are
merely suggestions. It is not the particular words you use that matter.
(75) The light has come.
In choosing salvation rather than attack, I merely choose to recognize what is already there. salvation is a decision made already. Attack and grievances are not there to choose. That is why I always choose between truth and illusion; between what is there and what is not. The light has come. I can but choose the light, for it has no alternative. It has replaced the darkness, and the darkness has gone.
These would prove useful forms for specific applications of this idea:
This cannot show me darkness, for the light has come.
The light in you is all that I would see, [name].
I would see in this only what is there.
(76) I am under no laws but God's.
Here is the perfect statement of my freedom. I am under no laws but God's. I am constantly tempted to make up other laws and give them power over me. I suffer only because of my belief in them. They have no real effect on me at all. I am perfectly free of the effects of all laws save God's. And His are the laws of freedom.
For specific forms in applying this idea these would be useful:
My perception of this shows me I believe in laws that do not exist.
I see only the laws of God at work in this.
I see only the laws of God at work in this.
Let me allow God's laws to work in this, and not my own.
Insights/Comments:
- God is our source and the sustenance on Whom we rely for everything. It is in God that we find our strength and it only seems lost to us when we look instead to the world for support and sustenance. We exist in God, and fortunately, cannot exist apart from the One Who is All-That-Is. Yet while we exist in God we are free to imagine, and in that imagination we can make-believe (make ourselves believe) that we are supported by a world apart from God. This is not inherently problematic, and in fact it can be a source of great joy, as when we experience a movie, knowing that it is only a movie. What is problematic is our forgetting that it is a movie and becoming so caught up or attached to the experience that we confuse what is real and what is illusion. In the light we can perceive clearly that a rope is a rope. It is only in dimness or darkness that we mistake the rope to be a snake and so become afraid. Our fear seems real, but its cause is an illusion, but that illusion vanishes immediately in the light. The light of truth, then is our salvation for it alone removes the darkness of ignorance, i.e., all our imagined fears, worries, or concerns about anyone or anything by reminding us of who we really are as the holy children of God and the light of the world, subject only to the laws of God, which are wholly benevolent.
In the light of truth, which is the knowledge that we are the holy children of God, the illusions of ignorance cannot arise, so there is no need to defend against that which cannot be. In the darkness of ignorance, however, where we depend on perception, as a substitute for knowing and believe that we are subject to the laws of the world, we can only choose among various illusions. Only when we realize that we no longer want illusions will we seek the path that leads to the light of truth.
We come to the light of truth by stepping away from ALL illusions; by withdrawing our belief in our perceptions; by allowing them to be as they are, but remembering that they hide a deeper truth, which we are now willing to open our awareness to. When we step aside from all illusions, what revels itself to our awareness is the one eternal silent source from which everything comes. Here we find the only real alternative to illusions. In this light of truth illusions vanish, freedom reigns, and the memory of our divine identity returns. Our challenge now is only to become so familiar with this light of truth that we always remember it. We are subject to no laws but God's, even in the dark mists of illusions, as stated in Palms 23:4:
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for Thou art with me; Thy rod and Thy staff they comfort me.
No comments:
Post a Comment