My experience with the ACIM Workbook Lessons

Lesson 295 – The Holy Spirit looks through me today.

Commentary (full lesson beneath commentary)

God’s forgiving Love removes my belief in illusory forms and reveals Truth.  When I allow God’s Holy Spirit (the memory of God within my mind) to shine through me, fear and darkness are washed away and I am fresh with Light, Love, Peace, Joy, Innocence.

LESSON 295

The Holy Spirit looks through me today.

Christ asks that He may use my eyes today, and thus redeem the world. He asks this gift that He may offer peace of mind to me, and take away all terror and all pain. And as they are removed from me, the dreams that seemed to settle on the world are gone. Redemption must be one. As I am saved, the world is saved with me. For all of us must be redeemed together. Fear appears in many different forms, but love is one.

My Father, Christ has asked a gift of me, and one I give that it be given me. Help me to use the eyes of Christ today, and thus allow the Holy Spirit’s Love to bless all things which I may look upon, that His forgiving Love may rest on 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. 

 

Lesson 294 – My body is a wholly neutral thing.

Commentary (full lesson beneath commentary)

My sense of my body is that it is becoming more of a “the” than a “my.”  The body seems like the threadbare heel of a favorite sock–thinning away from use.  The body, as it “thins” is permeated by inner light and is illuminated from within, while shining and radiating without.  The body, when used by the ego, seems most important.  When I choose again, and allow the Holy Spirit to be my teacher, body issues are addressed by me (I wouldn’t miss a dental appointment–maintenance is everything ;)) but there is a happy detachment from the demands of the body.  My body is a wholly neutral thing, but it can be used for awakening from the dream.

LESSON 294

My body is a wholly neutral thing.

I am a Son of God. And can I be another thing as well? Did God create the mortal and corruptible? What use has God’s beloved Son for what must die? And yet a neutral thing does not see death, for thoughts of fear are not invested there, nor is a mockery of love bestowed upon it. Its neutrality protects it while it has a use. And afterwards, without a purpose, it is laid aside. It is not sick nor old nor hurt. It is but functionless, unneeded and cast off. Let me not see it more than this today; of service for a while and fit to serve, to keep its usefulness while it can serve, and then to be replaced for greater good.

My body, Father, cannot be Your Son. And what is not created cannot be sinful nor sinless; neither good nor bad. Let me, then, use this dream to help Your plan that we awaken from all dreams we made.

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. 

 

Lesson 293 – All fear is past and only love is here.

Commentary (full lesson beneath commentary)

The mind grows still and thoughts are few as fear dissolves. The past becomes meaningless and Presence is all there is … I let the Holy Spirit see through my eyes, a hollow tube of Light within my mind is illuminated. And through this tube comes Joy, expanding through me and beyond me until there is no me … but instead the gleaming, Loving Oneness we have always been.

LESSON 293

All fear is past and only love is here.

All fear is past, because its source is gone, and all its thoughts gone with it.  Love remains the only present state, whose Source is here forever and forever.  Can the world seem bright and clear and safe and welcoming, with all my past mistakes oppressing it, and showing me distorted forms of fear?  Yet in the present love is obvious, and its effects apparent.  All the world shines in reflection of its holy light, and I perceive a world forgiven at last.

Father,  let not Your holy world escape my sight today.  Nor let my ears be deaf to all the humns of gratitude the world is singing underneath the sounds of fear.  There is a real world which the present holds safe from all past mistakes.  And I would see only this world before my eyes today.

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. 

 

Lesson 292 – A happy outcome to all things is sure.

Commentary (full lesson beneath commentary)

No exceptions, no exceptions, no exceptions 🙂  Everyone is guaranteed a happy ending to everything!  But “everything” does not refer to worldly things.  Be willing to know yourself as other than a person on a planet.  Then, rouse yourself, shift your gaze, and connect your will to His!

LESSON 292

A happy outcome to all things is sure.

God’s promises make no exceptions. And He guarantees that only joy can be the final outcome found for everything. Yet it is up to us when this is reached; how long we let an alien will appear to be opposing His. And while we think this will is real, we will not find the end He has appointed as the outcome of all problems we perceive, all trials we see, and every situation that we meet. Yet is the ending certain. For God’s Will is done in earth and Heaven. We will seek and we will find according to His Will, which guarantees that our will is done.

We thank You, Father, for Your guarantee of only happy outcomes in the end. Help us not interfere, and so delay the happy endings You have promised us for every problem that we can perceive; for every trial we think we still must meet.

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. 

 

Lesson 291 – This is a day of stillness and of peace.

Commentary (full lesson beneath commentary)

Christ’s vision looks through me today.  Instead of flesh and blood, I feel my light body, enlightened, illuminated, radiant.  Flesh and blood, muscle and bone has thinned away … and I know myself as Light … moment to moment, as I choose again, the stillness and peace of Christ’s vision lightens me … and so I choose again, again and again.  Amen.

LESSON 291

This is a day of stillness and of peace.

Christ’s vision looks through me today. His sight shows me all things forgiven and at peace, and offers this same vision to the world. And I accept this vision in its name, both for myself and for the world as well. What loveliness we look upon today! What holiness we see surrounding us! And it is given us to recognize it is a holiness in which we share; it is the Holiness of God Himself.

This day my mind is quiet, to receive the Thoughts You offer me. And I accept what comes from You, instead of from myself. I do not know the way to You. But You are wholly certain. Father, guide Your Son along the quiet path that leads to You. Let my forgiveness be complete, and let the memory of You return to 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. 

 

8. What Is the Real World?

Commentary (full lesson beneath commentary)

In Part II of the Workbook, every 10 lessons we are given an instruction.  It comes in the form of a question.  There are 14 of these questions all together, and each one of them corresponds to a set of 10 lessons, and is to be read every day for the next 10 days along with our lesson for the day.  “What Is the Real World?” is the eighth instruction and goes with Lessons 291 – 300.

8.  What Is the Real World?

The real world is a symbol, like the rest of what perception offers. Yet it stands for what is opposite to what you made. Your world is seen through eyes of fear, and brings the witnesses of terror to your mind. The real world cannot be perceived except through eyes forgiveness blesses, so they see a world where terror is impossible, and witnesses to fear can not be found.

The real world holds a counterpart for each unhappy thought reflected in your world; a sure correction for the sights of fear and sounds of battle which your world contains. The real world shows a world seen differently, through quiet eyes and with a mind at peace. Nothing but rest is there. There are no cries of pain and sorrow heard, for nothing there remains outside forgiveness. And the sights are gentle. Only happy sights and sounds can reach the mind that has forgiven itself.

What need has such a mind for thoughts of death, attack and murder? What can it perceive surrounding it but safety, love and joy? What is there it would choose to be condemned, and what is there that it would judge against? The world it sees arises from a mind at peace within itself. No danger lurks in anything it sees, for it is kind, and only kindness does it look upon.

The real world is the symbol that the dream of sin and guilt is over, and God’s Son no longer sleeps. His waking eyes perceive the sure reflection of his Father’s Love; the certain promise that he is redeemed. The real world signifies the end of time, for its perception makes time purposeless.

The Holy Spirit has no need of time when it has served His purpose. Now He waits but that one instant more for God to take His final step, and time has disappeared, taking perception with it as it goes, and leaving but the truth to be itself. That instant is our goal, for it contains the memory of God. And as we look upon a world forgiven, it is He Who calls to us and comes to take us home, reminding us of our Identity which our forgiveness has restored to us.

Remember, in Part II of the Workbook, every 10 lessons we are given an instruction.  It comes in the form of a question.  There are 14 of these questions all together, and each one of them corresponds to a set of 10 lessons, and is to be read every day for the next 10 days along with our lesson for the day.  “What Is the Real World?” is the eighth instruction and goes with Lessons 291 – 300.

To see the entire Workbook for Students, get a copy of the book, A Course in Miracles, or visit the original publisher, Foundation for Inner Peace, online at http://acim.org/Lessons/index.html. To have the lesson delivered daily to your email box for free, sign up with http://www.acimdailylesson.com/category/daily-lessons-from-a-course-in-miracles. An excellent line-by-line analysis called Journey Through the Workbook of A Course in Miracles is offered by Kenneth Wapnick through the bookstore at http://www.facim.org.

Lesson 290 – My present happiness is all I see.

Commentary (full lesson beneath commentary)

God’s Own Correction heals my mind.  God’s Own Correction is the memory of God within my mind.  God’s Own Correction undoes my double vision–eyesight splits but Vision unifies.  God’s Own Correction is God’s Holy Spirit and as I turn to Him and trust, my present happiness is all I see.

LESSON 290

My present happiness is all I see.

 Unless I look upon what is not there, my present happiness is all I see.  Eyes that begin to open see at last.  And I would have Christ’s vision come to me this very day.  What I perceive without God’s Own Correction for the sight I made is frightening and painful to behold.  Yet I would not allow my mind to be deceived by the belief the dream I made is real an instant longer.  This the day I seek my present happiness, and look on nothing else except the thing I seek.

With this resolve I come to You, and ask Your strength to hold me up today, while I but seek to do Your Will.  You cannot fail to hear me, Father.  What I ask have You already given me.  And I am sure that I will see my happiness today.

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. 

 

Lesson 289 – The past is over. It can touch me not.

Commentary (full lesson beneath commentary)

The tape is looping through the reel, over and over again, finished.  No more rewinding.  No more poring over movies that ended long ago.  The past, which never happened, is over!  When guilt is unwound, Innocence remains: Pure, Untouched, because formlessness has no tactile experience.  Duality is unspliced.  The two eyes return to One.  Sight becomes Vision.  The dream was a delusion …

LESSON 289

The past is over.  It can touch me not.

Unless the past is over in my mind, the real world must escape my sight.  For I am really looking nowhere; seeing but what is not there.  How can I then perceive the world forgiveness offers?  This the past was made to  hide, for this the world that can be looked on only now.  It has no past.  For what can be forgiven but the past, and if it is forgiven it is gone.

Father, let me not look upon a past that is not there.  For You have offered me Your Own replacement, in a present world the past has left untouched and free of sin.  Here is the end of guilt.  And here am I made ready for Your final step.  Shall I demand that You wait longer for Your Son to find the loveliness You planned to be the end of all his dreams and all his pain?

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. 

 

Lesson 288 – Let me forget my brother’s past today.

Commentary (full lesson beneath commentary)

Jesus asks us to forgive him in this lesson.  He means, admit that you have projected your guilt onto me even as you claim to love me.  He means, see me as I am, not as the bible has depicted me.  He means, know me as the Light, not as the man.  He means, see every person in your life as Living Loving Light, as the spiritual essence they really are, as God’s Sun … and you will see yourself as Living Loving Light, as Spirit, as God’s Sun.  Forget the past and fully arrive in the present the holy instant offers.  Know thyself, know thy brother, know thy Self.

LESSON 288

Let me forget my brother’s past today.

This is the thought that leads the way to You, and brings me to my goal.  I cannot come to You without my brother.  And to know my  Source, I first must recognize what You created one with me.  My brother’s is the hand that leads me on the way to You.  His sins are in the past along with mine, and I am saved because the past is gone.  Let me not cherish it within my heart, or I will lose the way to walk to You.  My brother is my savior.  Let me not attack the savior You have given me.  But let me honor him who bears Your Name, and so remember that It is my own.

Forgive me, then, today.  And you will know you have forgiven me if you behold your brother in the light of holiness.  He cannot be less holy than can I, and you can not be holier than he.

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. 

 

Lesson 287 – You are my goal, my Father. Only You.

Commentary (full lesson beneath commentary)

As a romantic, I enjoy the permission to love one and only one, exclusively, continuously, madly in love with this One!  And I enjoy the paradox that my exclusivity is Inclusive, and my lover is my Father.  How deliciously outside the law and Perfectly Mysterious is my only Goal.

LESSON 287

You are my goal, my Father.  Only You.

Where would I go but Heaven?  What could be a substitute for happiness?  What gift could I prefer before the peace of God?  What treasure would I seek and find and keep that can compare with my Identity?  And would I rather live with fear than love?

You are my goal, my Father.  What but You could I desire to have?  What way but that which leads to You could I desire to walk?  And what except the memory of You could signify to me the end of dreams and futile substitutions for the truth?  You are my only goal.  Your Son would be as You created him.  What way but this could I expect to recognize my Self, and be at one with my Identity?

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.