My experience with the ACIM Workbook Lessons Tag

“Condemn and you are made a prisoner. Forgive and you are freed. Such is the law that rules perception. It is not a law that knowledge understands, for freedom is a part of knowledge. To condemn is thus impossible in truth. What seems to be its influence and its effects have not occurred at all. Yet must we deal with them a while as if they had. Illusion makes illusion. Except one. Forgiveness is illusion that is answer to the rest.” ~from Lesson 198: Only my condemnation injures me.

What does this passage from Lesson 198 mean?

A Course in Miracles is using the word “condemn” to mean that we have chosen to believe a tiny, mad idea that we could separate from God’s Mind. God’s Mind is our Home. We were born there, and we live there right now. It is possible to daydream nightmares in Heaven, and once upon a time we had a thought that we could leave the Formless, Changeless, Perfect, Abstract Mind of God and be God ourself.* It was an idea that couldn’t be taken seriously because that would be like wishing to be human while extracting our own DNA–not gonna happen.

Anway, we went ahead and “remembered not to laugh” as the Course puts it, and believed our fantasy that we had separated from God’s Mind. In order to talk ourselves into this idea of splitting off and being an autonomous god, we had to divorce ourself from Infinity and Eternity. So we made up space and time. This was simply to put God out of our mind … or, more accurately, to become mindless about the fact that we are forever one with God’s Mind.

We tried to forget God and His quality of Unified Oneness (which the Course also calls “knowledge”). We fooled ourself into thinking there was more than one of us. Remember, this is all a game of pretend: if you see it you believe it–if you didn’t know better, an airplane in the sky would seem to be the size of an ant, but that doesn’t make it so! We pretended we were a separate thought from God and projected images out of God’s Mind that seemed real. Then we started a game of war: if I oppose you, that proves there is someone out there, which also disproves the Oneness of God. What a grand distraction!

This sense of being separate from God is called “ego.” The ego came up with the delusional idea that we could fence God’s Oneness off within individual bodies–bodies with senses with which to perceive the world. The perceptions we have seem to be facts–we believe the world happens to us. The Course teaches us we are the dreamer of this illusory dream world.

The Holy Spirit is the memory of God within our minds which we can never lose, just as a human can’t be human without DNA. This memory is restored to us through forgiveness, which the Course defines as recognizing this world, our senses, and the belief that we are separate individuals, is actually a tiny, mad idea–a game of pretend. Since we are so convinced, the Holy Spirit meets us halfway and uses our dream to help us awaken to God’s Truth. Forgiveness uses the medium of illusion to undo our belief in illusion. Forgiveness is the only illusion, within our illusion, which leads to awakening and recognizing what we already are: God’s Child, safe at Home, never alone, always at One with Each Other.

Feel free to ask questions 🙂 Email me at [email protected].

* I use “ourself” rather than “ourselves” because there is only one ego mind which seems to be split into all of our individual personal selves–but that, too, is an illusion.

The Practice Undoes Us

Posted on April 29, 2011

in Thoughts on A Course in Miracles

by Amy Torres

The Workbook promotes an experience. It is not to be just read, but practiced. The practice undoes us. It unwinds us like a ball of yarn. And at the end of the skein is nothing. No thing. No thing reveals Everything. The lesson of the day offers us specific instructions for undoing.

Eventually we are undone enough that we begin to enjoy true perception–an experience of receiving the truth of Who We Are, which induces a natural inclination (the miracle) to give love to others, which reflects back to us the love that we are, which strengthens our conviction that our true identity is God, and so on.

We are learning to recognize how the ego thinks, and not to take the ego seriously. We are encouraged to choose again–choose the right-mindedness of the Holy Spirit’s guidance. And we learn through repetition. This is the mind-training ACIM offers. It is thorough, flawless, mighty. It is loving, uncompromising, truth. It is the memory of God within your mind, calling you.

We are all God-blessed. God wants us to claim our inheritance. The Workbook instructs us on how to do so.

Review II: Introduction

Posted on March 20, 2011

in Today's ACIM Lesson

by Amy Torres

REVIEW II

Introduction

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. We will have one longer exercise period, and frequent shorter ones in which we practice each of them.

The longer practice periods will follow this general form: Take about fifteen minutes for each of them, and begin by thinking about the ideas for the day, and the comments that are included in the assignments. Devote some three or four minutes to reading them over slowly, several times if you wish, and then close your eyes and listen.

Repeat the first phase of the exercise period 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.

Reaffirm your determination in the shorter practice periods as well, using the original form of the idea for general applications, and more specific forms when needed. Some specific forms are included in the comments which follow the statement of the idea. These, however, are merely suggestions. It is not the particular words you use that matter.

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.

Review I: Introduction

Posted on February 19, 2011

in Today's ACIM Lesson

by Amy Torres

Commentary (full lesson beneath commentary)

This is our first review. It weaves together the first fifty lessons, reinforcing them in my mind. I am learning to bring the principles into any situation, especially if I am upset, to live from the Calm and Quiet of my Eternal Truth. Opportunities present themselves all day long 🙂

These first fifty concepts are reviewed in slightly different language enabling us to sponge in the ideas themselves rather than ritualizing or memorizing, which serves no purpose. Saturation in God’s Mind is the healing which leads me Home. Happy sigh.

REVIEW I

Introduction

Beginning with today we will have a series of review periods. Each of them will cover five of the ideas already presented, starting with the first and ending with the fiftieth. There will be a few short comments after each of the ideas, which you should consider in your review. In the practice periods, the exercises should be done as follows:

Begin the day by reading the five ideas, with the comments included. Thereafter, it is not necessary to follow any particular order. In considering them, though each one should be practiced at least once. Devote two minutes or more to each practice period, thinking about the idea and the related comments after reading them over. Do this as often as possible during the day. If any of the five ideas appeals to you more than the others, concentrate on that one. At the end of the day, however, be sure to review all of them once more.

It is not necessary to cover the comments that follow each idea either literally or thoroughly in the practice periods. Try, rather, to emphasis the central point and think about it as part of your review of the idea to which it relates. After you have read the idea and the related comments, the exercises should be done with your eyes closed and when you are alone and in a quiet place, if possible.

This is emphasized for practice periods at your stage of learning. It will be necessary, however, that you learn to require no special settings in which to apply what you have learned. You will need your learning most in the situations that appear to be upsetting, rather than in those that already seem to be calm and quiet. The purpose of your learning is to enable you to bring the quiet with you, and to heal distress and turmoil. This is not done by avoiding them and seeking a haven of isolation for yourself. You will yet learn that peace is part of you, and requires only that you be there to embrace any situation in which you are. And finally you will learn that there is no limit to where you are, so that your peace is everywhere, as you are.

You will note that, for review purposes, some of the ideas are not given in quite their original form. Use them as they are given here. It is not necessary to return to the original statements, nor to apply the ideas as was suggested then. We are now emphasizing the relationships among the first fifty of the ideas we have covered, and the cohesiveness of the thought system to which they are leading you.

What I Realize as I Blog the ACIM Workbook

Posted on February 11, 2011

in Today's ACIM Lesson

by Amy Torres

I started off blogging the Workbook this year without really knowing what would happen. Initially a tagline popped out of me effortlessly, “My experience with the ACIM Workbook” and that is what I wrote about. My habit is to do the morning lesson, then go straight to my computer, letting the feeling of my experience of the exercise or meditation flow through my words.

Now I notice that sometimes I’m explaining the lesson, or even trying to explain or translate what Jesus says into my own words so that I understand, clarify and reinforce the teachings for myself. Maybe this is overkill. Maybe I should stick with my pure experience … It’s occurring to me that this year the blog is meant to be my experience without explanation–let the lessons speak for themselves.

And NEXT YEAR I’m going to translate the lessons ! I wonder if that will actually happen. What’s funnier is that according to ACIM metaphysics everything has already happened … I wonder if I’m having a memory of what has already happened: first I reported my experience and communicated the experience Itself as best I could. Then I translated … it’s like the Harville Hendrix Imago work: repeat back what was said and understand more fully as you do.

My concern is that a pure report of my experience may be confusing to my readers. That’s funny. Who are my readers? I am you, you are me … anyway, if you do need clarification, please feel free to shoot me a question or comment and I will be happy to respond.