How I see myself is how I see my brother. How I see myself is how I see life. As my belief in the body lessens and my faith in God increases, I am able to “see” the essence of myself and everyone around me, symbolized by Light. In this classroom, with the Holy Spirit as my teacher, more and more my experience is enlightened and my mood is light-hearted. Crucified or resurrected? Crucified or ascended? Crucified or Holy Blended? I choose God’s Teacher, the memory of my Self, the Unity of Innocent Eternal Love.
LESSON 216
I am not a body. I am free. For I am still as God created me.
(196) It can be but myself I crucify.
All that I do I do unto myself. If I attack, I suffer. But if I forgive, salvation will be given me.
I am not a body. I am free. For I am still as God created me.
Let’s practice together! Watch and hear Amy reading each ACIM Lesson on Youtube. Also, check out Workin’ the Workbook, Amy’s online class which supports the ACIM Workbook practice.
God is closer to me than my very breath. Jesus is walking by my side. The Holy Spirit is a palpable love filling me with greatitude and beatitude as I take every breath and every step in the Name of God, which is my Own. Breathing, walking, being Love. Breathing, walking, being Love. Breathing, walking, being Love … <3
LESSON 215
I am not a body. I am free. For I am still as God created me.
(195) Love is the way I walk in gratitude.
The Holy Spirit is my only guide. He walks with me in love. And I give thanks to Him for showing me the way to go.
I am not a body. I am free. For I am still as God created me.
Let’s practice together! Watch and hear Amy reading each ACIM Lesson on Youtube. Also, check out Workin’ the Workbook, Amy’s online class which supports the ACIM Workbook practice.
What a relief not to be responsible for the future. One of my favorite lessons. I place the future in Hands of God. My only concern is the Eternal Present. The Present keeps me Safe and Free. Here. Now. Here. Now.
LESSON 214
I am not a body. I am free. For I am still as God created me.
(194) I place the future in the Hands of God.
The past is gone; the future is not yet. Now am I freed from both. For what God gives can only be for good. And I accept but what He gives as what belongs to me.
I am not a body. I am free. For I am still as God created me.
Let’s practice together! Watch and hear Amy reading each ACIM Lesson on Youtube. Also, check out Workin’ the Workbook, Amy’s online class which supports the ACIM Workbook practice.
God’s lessons are always and only Love. He does not place us in painful situations or deprived circumstances. We do that. But He always offers Love, Peace and Joy in Answer to any thoughts, interpretations and judgments we place on things. This becomes easier as we remember all form is a costume draped over the Formlessness of God. All guilt is a cloak of darkness thrown over Innocence. All fear is a make-believe void of emptiness where there is only Fullness. We can dream, but we cannot change Changeless Reality. We are not bodies. We are free. For we are still as God created us. And we can choose to use the dream for the Holy Spirit’s lessons of Love.
LESSON 213
I am not a body. I am free. For I am still as God created me.
(193) All things are lessons God would have me learn.
A lesson is a miracle which God offers to me, in place of thoughts I made that hurt me. What I learn of Him becomes the way I am set free. And so I choose to learn His lessons and forget my own.
I am not a body. I am free. For I am still as God created me.
Let’s practice together! Watch and hear Amy reading each ACIM Lesson on Youtube. Also, check out Workin’ the Workbook, Amy’s online class which supports the ACIM Workbook practice.
Forgiveness releases us from illusions. The willingness to accept God’s function for us leads to a shift in perception of everything we think we see–this is the miracle. This happens in a split second–a holy instant. And it will happen over and over again for a while, until the release process (forgiveness lessons) is complete.
Conviction in God’s Truth and Love strengthens as we practice, and devotion to separate identity from ego teachings of guilt, scarcity, fear, lack, sin, judgment, punishment, superiority, revenge, shame, humiliation, grief, loss, loneliness, etc., weakens and fades away. Our choice: Holy Spirit as Teacher, or ego as teacher.
LESSON 212
I am not a body. I am free. For I am still as God created me.
(192) I have a function God would have me fill.
I seek the function that would set me free from all the vain illusions of the world. Only the function God has given me can offer freedom. Only this I seek, and only this will I accept as mine.
I am not a body. I am free. For I am still as God created me.
Let’s practice together! Watch and hear Amy reading each ACIM Lesson on Youtube. Also, check out Workin’ the Workbook, Amy’s online class which supports the ACIM Workbook practice.
One of my favorite quotes from the Course is, “Today we will not shrink from our assignment on the specious grounds that modesty is outraged. It is pride that would deny the Call for God Himself.” * Our assignment? “The miracle joins in the Atonement by placing the mind in the service of the Holy Spirit. This establishes the proper function of the mind and corrects its errors, which are merely lacks of love.” ** In silence and in true humility I seek God’s glory, to behold it in my brothers who are Me-Self. God takes it from there, and ushers me in The Door.
LESSON 211
I am not a body. I am free. For I am still as God created me.
(191) I am the holy Son of God Himself.
In silence and in true humility I seek God’s glory, to behold it in the Son whom He created as my Self.
I am not a body. I am free. For I am still as God created me.
* Lesson 186
** Chapter 2, IV. The Escape from Darkness
Let’s practice together! Watch and hear Amy reading each ACIM Lesson on Youtube. Also, check out Workin’ the Workbook, Amy’s online class which supports the ACIM Workbook practice.
Oh, the joy of surrender! Dropping my pain, my sense of personal responsibility, my groping to do the right thing, to get everything done! Aaah, releasing every struggle, every burden, every fear. Releasing every belief I’ve every held, all attachment to a separate self, a small identity, a weary grinding on and on of “what I’m supposed to do.” Big spontaneous smile! Spreading waves of happiness through heart! Lean on God, hold Jesus’ hand, feel the Holy Spirit beneath my sails–that’s what happens when I choose the joy of God instead of my own idea of pain. That really was a mistake, lol. Good thing Correction is available non-stop, 24/7.
LESSON 210
I am not a body. I am free. For I am still as God created me.
(190) I choose the joy of God instead of pain.
Pain is my own idea. It is not a Thought of God, but one I thought apart from Him and from His Will. His Will is joy, and only joy for His beloved Son. And that I choose, instead of what I made.
I am not a body. I am free. For I am still as God created me.
Let’s practice together! Watch and hear Amy reading each ACIM Lesson on Youtube. Also, check out Workin’ the Workbook, Amy’s online class which supports the ACIM Workbook practice.
For this review, Jesus recommends a morning practice of no less than 15 minutes, an evening practice of no less than 15 minutes, an hourly remembrance throughout the day, as well as using the idea as often as we can in between, plus whenever we are tempted by negative idle thoughts … no pressure 😉
Review VI
Introduction
For this review we take but one idea each day, and practice it as often as is possible. Besides the time you give morning and evening, which should not be less than fifteen minutes, and the hourly remembrances you make throughout the day, use the idea as often as you can between them. Each of these ideas alone would be sufficient for salvation, if it were learned truly. Each would be enough to give release to you and to the world from every form of bondage, and invite the memory of God to come again.
With this in mind we start our practicing, in which we carefully review the thoughts the Holy Spirit has bestowed on us in our last twenty lessons. Each contains the whole curriculum if understood, practiced, accepted, and applied to all the seeming happenings throughout the day. One is enough. But from that one, there must be no exceptions made. And so we need to use them all and let them blend as one, as each contributes to the whole we learn.
These practice sessions, like our last review, are centered round a central theme with which we start and end each lesson. It is this:
I am not a body. I am free. For I am still as God created me.
The day begins and ends with this. And we repeat it every time the hour strikes, or we remember, in between, we have a function that transcends the world we see. Beyond this, and a repetition of the special thought we practice for the day, no form of exercise is urged, except a deep relinquishment of everything that clutters up the mind, and makes it deaf to reason, sanity and simple truth.
We will attempt to get beyond all words and special forms of practicing for this review. For we attempt, this time, to reach a quickened pace along a shorter path to the serenity and peace of God. We merely close our eyes, and then forget all that we thought we knew and understood. For thus is freedom given us from all we did not know and failed to understand.
There is but one exception to this lack of structuring. Permit no idle thought to go unchallenged. If you notice one, deny its hold and hasten to assure your mind that this is not what it would have. Then gently let the thought which you denied be given up, in sure and quick exchange for the idea we practice for the day.
When you are tempted, hasten to proclaim your freedom from temptation, as you say:
This thought I do not want. I choose instead ____________ .
And then repeat the idea for the day, and let it take the place of what you thought. Beyond such special applications of each day’s idea, we will add but a few formal expressions or specific thoughts to aid in practicing. Instead, we give these times of quiet to the Teacher Who instructs in quiet, speaks of peace, and gives our thoughts whatever meaning they may have.
To Him I offer this review for you. I place you in His charge, and let Him teach you what to do and say and think, each time you turn to Him. He will not fail to be available to you, each time you call to Him to help you. Let us offer Him the whole review we now begin, and let us also not forget to Whom it has been given, as we practice day by day, advancing toward the goal He set for us; allowing Him to teach us how to go, and trusting Him completely for the way each practice period can best become a loving gift of freedom to the world.
Let’s practice together! Watch and hear Amy reading each ACIM Lesson on Youtube. Also, check out Workin’ the Workbook, Amy’s online class which supports the ACIM Workbook practice.
Our next few lessons make a special point of firming up your willingness to make your weak commitment strong; your scattered goals blend into one intent. You are not asked for total dedication all the time as yet. But you are asked to practice now in order to attain the sense of peace such unified commitment will bestow, if only intermittently. It is experiencing this that makes it sure that you will give your total willingness to following the way the course sets forth.
Our lessons now are geared specifically to widening horizons, and direct approaches to the special blocks that keep your vision narrow, and too limited to let you see the value of our goal. We are attempting now to lift these blocks, however briefly. Words alone can not convey the sense of liberation which their lifting brings. But the experience of freedom and of peace that comes as you give up your tight control of what you see speaks for itself. Your motivation will be so intensified that words become of little consequence. You will be sure of what you want, and what is valueless.
And so we start our journey beyond words by concentrating first on what impedes your progress still. Experience of what exists beyond defensiveness remains beyond achievement while it is denied. It may be there, but you cannot accept its presence. So we now attempt to go past all defenses for a little while each day. No more than this is asked, because no more than this is needed. It will be enough to guarantee the rest will come.
Let’s practice together! Watch and hear Amy reading each ACIM Lesson on Youtube. Also, check out Workin’ the Workbook, Amy’s online class which supports the ACIM Workbook practice.
We now review again. This time we are ready to give more effort and more time to what we undertake. We recognize we are preparing for another phase of understanding. We would take this step completely, that we may go on again more certain, more sincere, with faith upheld more surely. Our footsteps have not been unwavering, and doubts have made us walk uncertainly and slowly on the road this course sets forth. But now we hasten on, for we approach a greater certainty, a firmer purpose and a surer goal.
Steady our feet, our Father. Let our doubts be quiet and our holy minds be still, and speak to us. We have no words to give to You. We would but listen to Your Word, and make it ours. Lead our practicing as does a father lead a little child along a way he does not understand. Yet does he follow, sure that he is safe because his father leads the way for him.
So do we bring our practicing to You. And if we stumble, You will raise us up. If we forget the way, we count upon Your sure remembering. We wander off, but You will not forget to call us back. Quicken our footsteps now, that we may walk more certainly and quickly unto You. And we accept the Word You offer us to unify our practicing, as we review the thoughts that You have given us.
This is the thought which should precede the thoughts that we review. Each one but clarifies some aspect of this thought, or helps it be more meaningful, more personal and true, and more descriptive of the holy Self we share and now prepare to know again:
God is but Love, and therefore so am I.
This Self alone knows Love. This Self alone is perfectly consistent in Its Thoughts; knows Its Creator, understands Itself, is perfect in Its knowledge and Its Love, and never changes from Its constant state of union with Its Father and Itself.
And it is this that waits to meet us at the journey’s ending. Every step we take brings us a little nearer. This review will shorten time immeasurably, if we keep in mind that this remains our goal, and as we practice it is this to which we are approaching. Let us raise our hearts from dust to life, as we remember this is promised us, and that this course was sent to open up the path of light to us, and teach us, step by step, how to return to the eternal Self we thought we lost.
I take the journey with you. For I share your doubts and fears a little while, that you may come to me who recognize the road by which all fears and doubts are overcome. We walk together. I must understand uncertainty and pain, although I know they have no meaning. Yet a savior must remain with those he teaches, seeing what they see, but still retaining in his mind the way that led him out, and now will lead you out with him. God’s Son is crucified until you walk along the road with me.
My resurrection comes again each time I lead a brother safely to the place at which the journey ends and is forgot. I am renewed each time a brother learns there is a way from misery and pain. I am reborn each time a brother’s mind turns to the light in him and looks for me. I have forgotten no one. Help me now to lead you back to where the journey was begun, to make another choice with me.
Release me as you practice once again the thoughts I brought to you from Him Who sees your bitter need, and knows the answer God has given Him. Together we review these thoughts. Together we devote our time and effort to them. And together we will teach them to our brothers. God would not have Heaven incomplete. It waits for you, as I do. I am incomplete without your part in me. And as I am made whole we go together to our ancient home, prepared for us before time was and kept unchanged by time, immaculate and safe, as it will be at last when time is done.
Let this review be then your gift to me. For this alone I need; that you will hear the words I speak, and give them to the world. You are my voice, my eyes, my feet, my hands through which I save the world. The Self from which I call to you is but your own. To Him we go together. Take your brother’s hand, for this is not a way we walk alone. In him I walk with you, and you with me. Our Father wills His Son be one with Him. What lives but must not then be one with you?
Let this review become a time in which we share a new experience for you, yet one as old as time and older still. Hallowed your Name. Your glory undefiled forever. And your wholeness now complete, as God established it. You are His Son, completing His extension in your own. We practice but an ancient truth we knew before illusion seemed to claim the world. And we remind the world that it is free of all illusions every time we say:
God is but Love, and therefore so am I.
With this we start each day of our review. With this we start and end each period of practice time. And with this thought we sleep, to waken once again with these same words upon our lips, to greet another day. No thought that we review but we surround with it, and use the thoughts to hold it up before our minds, and keep it clear in our remembrance throughout the day. And thus, when we have finished this review, we will have recognized the words we speak are true.
Yet are the words but aids, and to be used, except at the beginning and the end of practice periods, but to recall the mind, as needed, to its purpose. We place faith in the experience that comes from practice, not the means we use. We wait for the experience, and recognize that it is only here conviction lies. We use the words, and try and try again to go beyond them to their meaning, which is far beyond their sound. The sound grows dim and disappears, as we approach the Source of meaning. It is Here that we find rest.
Let’s practice together! Watch and hear Amy reading each ACIM Lesson on Youtube. Also, check out Workin’ the Workbook, Amy’s online class which supports the ACIM Workbook practice.
