Commentary on ACIM Lesson 123

©2010 Rev. David Seacord

 

 

One of God's gifts that I am particularly thankful for is a heart that can feel.  There have been times in the past that to emotionally survive [that's 'my story'] I 'went numb', so I have that history as a background to tell the difference.  The real question is whether or not the feeling is the truth.  Conditionally, often it is not.  Ultimately, it always is not. That doesn't mean don't feel it.  It just means I don't suggest always believing what you/l feel any more than I suggest that you/I should believe that you/I  think. 

 

Like physicality, both thoughts and feeling are transitory.  Therefore 'illusionary'.  And where does EVERYTHING transitory and illusional come from?  As a student of the Course, the 'of course' answer is 'from the ego'.  

 

What do I mean when I say don't NOT feel the feelings?  I mean that as we become our God-self we do not block or resist the ego (specifically, my ego, your ego, our egos).  Jesus taught this by saying 'resist not evil'.  That means not suppressing whatever arises.  Instead, the practice is to meet it, contain it as phenomena, eventually be master of it, AND YET,  at the same time, to not become hooked or attached to whatever is arising AS REAL.  

 

Very recently another's compassionate heartful 'listening' gifted me with the space to feel deeply some very old feelings of emotional loss, and I found myself weeping (grieving [and thereby completing] a now-lost dream).  It felt wonderful to just let that river of tears run, let that energy move, instead of having it be stuck and held inside me.  This is what healing is----the re-alignment of energy toward trueness, toward nowness, hereness.  In this case, it was 'my' healing, BUT-- it took 'another'--- someone willing to be conscious even as I was being 'at the effect' of  an untrue past-based projected emotive reality--- to trigger the healing.  That is what spiritual friendship does.... it heals by holding conscious space for 'truth to come and set us free'.  That is what we all have (potentially) for each other.  That is why we come together, whether it is to be a couple, a group, a community, a nation, or a planet.  

 

Tonight here in Yuma our local Course group (which I now facilitate) met.  Maybe because of my own healing, when two in the group shared their need for healing also, the group morphed very easily into an 'energy healing circle', with the receiver in the center, and the group toning and channeling (what I am thinking of as) 'angelic healing chi' to them.  You 'should have seen us'. Right hand sending chi, left hand raised above our heads receiving, invisible angel wings all raised up and forming an etheric cocoon, and of course, beautiful sounds toning on and on.  I didn't ask what was 'received'.  For me, the gift was in the joined group intent to give, to serve.  And my experience was we all as a group became a bit more authentic, more whole, and more real to each other.  Each time we meet the love grows.  This is a good that needs no thought to be known.

 

In brief summation, my sense is that when I feel more peace when I am feeling or thinking whatever it is (at the moment), I am on track toward my greater good.  If I feel or think less peaceful (even if I am getting egoic satisfaction from the thought or feeling....like expressing anger or being right etc.) then I recognize (hopefully) that I am NOT on track.  As mistake calls only for correction, there is nothing to do but accept my own forgiveness....  the forgiveness that God has already given me to extend to myself, and to all my brothers.  

 

This I teach today, that I may also so learn....  

 

Namaste,

 

David

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Edited to first person version

 

Lesson 123

I thank my Father for His gifts to me.

Today I shall be thankful. This I choose, for I see I have come to gentler pathways and to smoother roads. There is no thought of turning back in me, and no implacable resistance in me to God or truth. A bit of wavering remains, some small objections and a little hesitance, but I am grateful for my gains, (which, my inner Teacher tells me) are far greater than I can now realize.

Today being a day devoted to gratitude will add the benefit of some real insight into the full extent of all the gains which I have made; the gifts I have received. I shall be glad today that, in loving thankfulness, my Father has not left me to myself, nor let me wander in the dark alone. I am grateful He has saved me from the self I thought I made (to take the place of Him and His creation). I give Him my heartfelt thanks today.

I give thanks that He has not abandoned me, and that His Love forever will remain shining upon me forever, and forever without change. I give thanks as well that I am also changeless, for I am His Son, and the Son He loves is as changeless as Himself. I am grateful I am saved. I am glad I have a function in salvation to fulfill. I am thankful that my value far transcends my meager gifts and petty judgments of my true Self, the holy one within me who is me whom God has established as His Son.

Today in gratitude let us lift our hearts above despair, and raise our thankful eyes, no longer looking downward to the dust. Let us sing the song of thankfulness today, in honor of the Self that God has willed to be our true Identity in Him. Today let us smile on everyone we see, and walk with lightened footsteps as we go to do what is appointed us to do.

We certainly do not go alone. And let us give thanks that even in our sometimes-imagined solitude a Holy Friend has come to speak the saving Word of God onto us. And thanks be to us all for listening to Him. His Word is soundless if it be not heard. In thanking Him His  thanks are ours as well. For an unheard message will not save the world, however mighty be the Voice that speaks, however loving may the message be.

Thanks be given to you and I who hear our God's Voice, for we become the messenger who brings His Voice with us, and let It echo round and round the world. Let us receive these thanks of God today, as we give our thanks to Him. For He would offer us the thanks we give, since He receives our gifts in loving gratitude, and gives them back to us a thousand and a hundred thousand more than they were given. He will bless our gifts by sharing them back with each of us. And so do our gifts to God grow in power and in strength, until in time they shall fill the world with gladness and with gratitude.

Let us receive His thanks and offer ours to Him for fifteen minutes twice today. And we shall realize to Whom we offer thanks, and Whom He thanks as we are thanking Him. This holy half an hour given Him will be returned to us in terms of years for every second; and has the power to save the world eons more quickly. Let us give our thanks to God.

And as we receive His thanks, we shall understand how lovingly He holds us in His Mind, how deep and limitless His care for each of us is, and how perfect is His gratitude to you and to me. I shall today choose to hourly remember to think of Him, and give Him thanks for everything He is now giving me, this one who is His Son, that I might rise above the world, remembering my Father and my true Self.