Commentary on ACIM Lesson 121

©2010 Rev. David Seacord

 

Forgiveness is the key to happiness.

 

 

Today's 'realization worth sharing' was received while in a dental chair, while 'waiting'.   Waiting is often a 'message reception time', similar to standing in line or slipping into neutral in a freeway gridlock....  maybe because there is a kind of alertness combined with 'no expectations' on a moment to moment basis.   Anyway, I was triggered by a dental brochure headline asking something like "Are you showing (the world) your real smile?" (or something like that) and the question popped my head-space over into 'What is real?'.  Of course, instantly also appeared an answer....that "None of us are actually real", that "We were are all dreaming our individual existences".   But there was more....  because I asked back something like 'Who is the dreamer that is dreaming?", and what I saw was that (I need to say this really quietly so that nobody wakes up) WHO I AM IS ACTUALLY 'an angel'.  

 

There was a bit of silence in my head as I got that.  And that everybody else was  an angel too.  It was like discovering a BIG SECRET.  Then I found myself 'feeling' like I had 'wings'.  Big wings.  Like I was a heart, with wings (with a mind attached).  With my imagination I reached out with my wings and brushed a few of the people in the office.... patients, staff, the dentist....  hmmmm.  That was easy.  To bless with a thought.... how natural....  

 

I was given a break (for lab work to get done..."come back in a couple hours"....) I tucked/folded up my wings and ran/drove around getting supplies (I was in Phoenix.... several hours driving from 'home' [Yuma] ) and the only way I could get to all the places in the time allotted was if EVERYTHING went smoothly [traffic, check out lines, etc] BUT, I knew 'I was an Angel' so I 'went for it'.  Several times I started to 'worry' that I wouldn't make it, but again, I remembered I was an angel and that meant I  could trust that it would all work out, so I relaxed and let go and got present again.  And kept moving in High Speed Slow Motion (like you see in movies)... a sort of 'compressed but stretched' time sense...  with definitive choice making (no thinking, no hesitation, no regret, no second guessing)  and (when I saw I WAS going to 'be late' [a few minutes] I reached out into the future and imagined/knew 'there would be no problem... that everything was still perfectly unfolding'.  

 

Thus, walking into the dental office with my 'across town treasure' (a frozen Durian [from Thailand]... my favorite rawfood exotic fruit, aka 'stinkfruit') to display and show everybody, I expected and found (guess what?) No Problem.  I was just (to them) 'right on time'.   (And the 'stinkfruit' did get 'some attention' too....  we all have our 'props'....  as a rawfood angel with invisible wings, I'll use a stinkfruit anyday.  :-)

 

Namaste, 

 

David

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This lesson version has been edited by 'Rev. David Seacord' to be 'in the [angelic] first person'. ;-)

 

 

Lesson 121

Forgiveness is the key to happiness.

Here in my own hand is the answer to my search for peace. Here in my own hand is the key to making meaning visible in a world that has so many times seemed to make no sense. Here in my own hand is 'the Way' to safety (in spite of  apparent dangers that appear to threaten me at every turn, and which seem to bring tremendous uncertainty to all my hopes of ever finding quietness and peace). Here, right here, are all my questions answered; and right here is the end of all uncertainty ensured (at last).

The unforgiving mind is full of fear, and offers love no room to be itself; no place where it can spread its wings in peace and soar above the turmoil of the world. The unforgiving mind is sad, without the hope of respite and release from pain. It suffers and abides in misery, peering about in darkness, seeing not, yet certain of the danger lurking there.

The unforgiving mind is torn with doubt, confused about itself and all it sees; afraid and angry, weak and blustering, afraid to go ahead, afraid to stay, afraid to waken or to go to sleep, afraid of every sound, yet more afraid of stillness; terrified of darkness, yet more terrified at the approach of light. What can the unforgiving mind perceive but its damnation? What can it behold except the proof that all its sins are real?

The unforgiving mind sees no mistakes, but only sins. It looks upon the world with sightless eyes, and shrieks as it beholds its own projections rising to attack its miserable parody of life. It wants to live, yet wishes it were dead. It wants forgiveness, yet it sees no hope. It wants escape, yet can conceive of none because it sees the sinful everywhere.

The unforgiving mind is in despair, without the prospect of a future which can offer anything but more despair. Yet it regards its judgment of the world as irreversible, and does not see it has condemned itself to this despair. It thinks it cannot change, for what it sees bears witness that its judgment is correct. It does not ask, because it thinks it knows. It does not question, certain it is right.

Forgiveness is acquired. It is not inherent in the mind, which cannot sin. As sin is an idea I taught myself, forgiveness must be learned by me as well, but from a Teacher other than myself, Who represents the other Self in me. Through Him I will learn how to forgive the self I think I made, and let it disappear. Thus will I  return my mind 'as one' (whole, holy) to Him Who is my true Self, and Who can never sin.

Each unforgiving mind presents me with an opportunity to teach my brothers how to forgive ourselves. Each separated brother awaits release from hell through me, and turns to me for access to Heaven Here and Now. They have no hope, but I am their hope. And as their hope, so do I become me own. My unforgiving mind can and shall and must learn that it is through my own forgiveness that it has been saved from hell. And as I teach salvation, I will surely learn it. Yet all my teaching and my learning will be not of me, but actually, solely of the Teacher Who was given to me to show the way to God.

Today I shall practice learning to forgive. Because I am willing, I can learn today to take into my own hands the key to happiness, and use it on my own behalf, and on behalf of my brothers. I will (with my Teacher) devote ten minutes in the morning, and at night another ten, to learning how to give forgiveness and receive forgiveness, too.

The unforgiving mind does not believe that giving and receiving are the same. Yet I will learn today that they are one through practicing forgiveness toward someone who I think of as 'an enemy', and someone else whom I consider as 'a friend'. And as I learn to see them both 'as one', I will extend this learning, this lesson to myself, and see that their (my enemy's and my friend's) 'escape' included my own.

I will begin the longer practice periods by thinking of someone I do not like, who seems to irritate me, or to cause regret in me if I should meet him; either someone I actively despise, or someone I merely 'try to overlook'. It does not matter what the form my anger takes. I have chosen him already. He will do.

Now will I close my eyes and see him in my mind, and look at him a while. I will to be open to perceiving some light in him somewhere; a little gleam which I had never noticed before. I will be open to find some little spark of brightness shining through the ugly picture that I hold of him. I will look at this picture till I see a light somewhere within it, and then I will let this light extend until it covers him, and makes the picture beautiful and good.

After looking at this changed perception for a while, I will turn my mind to the one I called 'a friend'. Then I will transfer the light I learned to see around my former "enemy" to him. I will perceive him now as more than friend to me, for in that light his holiness shows me my savior, saved and saving, healed and whole.

Then I will let him offer me the light I see in him, and let my "enemy" and friend unite in blessing me with what I gave them. Now am I one with them, and they with me. Now have I been forgiven by myself. Let me not forget, throughout the day, the role forgiveness plays in bringing happiness to every unforgiving mind, with mine among them. Every hour I will tell myself:

Forgiveness is the key to happiness. I will awaken from the 
dream that I am mortal, fallible and full of sin, and know 
I am the perfect Son of God.