Commentary on ACIM Lesson 158

©2010 Rev. David Seacord

 

Today I learn to give as I receive.

 

Today a 'new' experience was given me.   At a huge (100+ people) rawfood potluck being held outdoors in Phoenix despite the 110 degree afternoon temperatures (thankfully there was shade and it was windy) a small bee crawled up my leg under my shorts, got agitated at my sudden frantic attempts to rid myself of it, and stung me on my privates.

 

Why mention it?  Because it was also a test of remembering (while in the illusion of suffering) what is real.  I was in the middle of a highly social moment and suddenly I needed to figure out how to be socially appropriate AND do a visual inspection of normal taboo (covered) anatomy.  There really wasn't time to explain what was happening....  sticking my hand in my pants had just gotten me stung, and I needed to find and deal with whatever was doing it, and quickly.  So I simply turned in the direction of the fewest people, unzipped, visually found and removed the dying bee,  kept my mouth clenched to not be hollering, and zipped back up.   

 

It hurt intensely for a minute as I scrambled to find the ice (that someone who realized what was happening suggested), and then my high bodily level of antioxidants began neutralizing the toxin, and the pain rapidly disappeared.  It was one of those moments I was grateful for being a rawfooder, and that it was not 'worse'. 

 

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As I had arrived early I was able to create my personal 'first person' lesson version before the crowd gathered, and was therefore aware that my job was to see the Christ in everyone who was there, and to have no judgements whatsoever about  them, and only see their light.  

 

What I experienced was that (for the majority of the time) it was pretty easy.  I contrast that with what it might have been like before doing 157 lessons of the Course, and I can see it was only 'easy' because of the continual practice we have all been a part of.  

 

This is the benefit of immersion in a spiritual practice.  It builds muscle worth having, spiritually. 

 

Right now I am at a rest area midway in the 200 mile drive back home, and the power of my practice of creating these Commentaries has me adjusting and being flexible about how to complete todays, given I was recognizing I would be pretty tired if I waited until I arrived home to 'boot up' this computer.  

 

This is life.  It constantly adjusts to circumstances to make possible whatever we are actually committed to.  Not what we say we are committed to, but what we actually ARE committed to.  

 

I write this Commentaries to keep the context of my spirituality alive.  I drive hundreds of miles across the desert to be with other rawfooders to keep the physical health conversation called 'the rawfood lifestyle' alive also. And like Nitari of the Knobi (Avatar) I give thanks to the bee that give it's life to teach me to learn to share this world with others as brothers (in pain or not in pain).  

 

Namaste, 

 

David

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My personal version, in first person.

 

Lesson 158

Today I learn to give as I receive.

What has been given me? (Actually, what has not?) The knowledge that I am a mind, I exist in Mind and am purely mind, sinless forever, wholly unafraid, because I was created out of Love. Nor have I left my Source, remaining as I was created. This was given me as Knowledge which I cannot lose. It was given as well to every living thing, for by that knowledge only does anything live.

I have received all this. Everyone who walks the world has received it. It is not this knowledge which I 'give', for that is what creation gave. All this cannot be learned. What, then, am I to learn to give today? My lesson yesterday evoked a theme found early in the text. Experience cannot be shared directly, in the way that vision can. The revelation that the Father and the Son are one will come in time to every mind. Yet that time is  determined by the mind itself, it is not taught.

That time is actually set already. It appears to be quite arbitrary. Yet there is no step along the road that I or anyone ever takes solely 'by chance'. It has already been taken by us, although it seems we have not yet embarked on it. For time only seems to go in one direction. We but undertake a journey that is already over. Yet it 'seems' to have a future that is still unknown to us.

Time is a trick, a sleight of hand, a vast illusion in which figures come and go as if by magic. Yet there is a plan behind appearances that does not change. The script is written. When experience will come to end my doubting has been set. For I only see the journey from the point at which it ended, looking back on it, imagining I am making it once again; reviewing mentally what has (in reality) gone by.

A teacher does not give experience, because he did not learn it. It revealed itself to him at its appointed time. But vision is a teachers gift. This he can give directly, for Christ's knowledge is not lost, and because He has a vision He can give to anyone who asks. The Father's Will and His are joined in knowledge. Yet there is a vision which the Holy Spirit sees because the Mind of Christ beholds it too.

It is Here that the joining of the world of doubt and shadows is made with the intangible. Here is a quiet place within the world made holy by forgiveness and by love. Here are all contradictions reconciled, for here the journey finally ends. Experience–unlearned, untaught, unseen–is merely there. This is beyond our goal, for it transcends what needs to be accomplished. Our concern is with Christ's vision. This we can attain.

Christ's vision has one law. It does not look upon a body, and mistake it for the Son whom God created. It beholds a light beyond the body; an idea beyond what can be touched, a purity undimmed by errors, pitiful mistakes, and fearful thoughts of guilt from dreams of sin. It sees no separation. And it looks on everyone, on every circumstance, all happenings and all events, without the slightest fading of the light it sees.

This can be taught; and in fact must be taught by all who would achieve it. It requires only the recognition that the world can not give anything that faintly can compare with this in value; nor can the world set up a goal that does not merely disappear when this has been perceived. And this I can give today: I can see no one as a body. I can greet him as the Son of God he is, acknowledging that he is one with me in holiness.

Thus are all his sins forgiven him, for Christ has vision that has power to overlook them all. In His forgiveness are they gone. Unseen by One in Wholeness they merely disappear, because a vision of the holiness that lies beyond them comes to take their place. It matters not what form they took, nor how enormous they appeared to be, nor who seemed to be hurt by them. They are no more. And all effects they seemed to have are gone with them, undone and never to be done.

Thus do I learn to give as I receive. And thus Christ's vision looks on me as well. This lesson is not difficult to learn, if I remember than in my brother I but see myself. If he be lost in sin, so must I be; if I see light in him, my sins have been forgiven by myself. Each brother whom you meet today provides another chance to let Christ's vision shine on me, and offer me the peace of God.

It matters not when revelation comes, for that is not of time. Yet time has still one gift to give, in which true knowledge is reflected in a way so accurate its image shares its unseen holiness; its likeness shines with its immortal love. I practice seeing with the eyes of Christ today. And by the holy gifts I give, Christ's vision looks upon all 'my-selves' as well.