Commentary on ACIM Lesson 165

©2010 Rev. David Seacord

Let not my mind deny the Thought of God.

Arising rested (this is a reference to the fact that I did not write a commentary yesterday :-) before dawn, I had arranged with a friend to take advantage of a brief 'below seasonal cool spell', and get out for an early morning desert hike, my first since before my month in New Mexico.

I started walking to our meet-up at the trail head, expecting to see no desert blooms, as the season was past. And I didn't. But I was thrilled by the surprise I did find. Desert fruit. Everywhere, and in all kinds of forms.

These were not cherries or plums, to be sure. Instead, they were mostly pea-like pods of different sizes and shapes hanging prolifically from many different varieties of desert trees and bushes. I stopped to investigate, opening some palo verde tree pods and examining the still-soft greenish beans inside. They smelled like fresh lima beans, so, yep, into my mouth one went. No bitter taste... but just to be sure, I did spit it out, knowing that after I googled for information, I could get more.

Then an understanding arrived: In every life-form which flowers, there is fruit that follows. There is no vacuum in this principle, for God's blessings confirming it exists everywhere.... desert, ocean, peak, valley, prairie, forest, lake.... and in all climates, from arctic to tropical.

As I contemplated this, I thought about my species. I saw that consistent with this principle, when in youth, we are in flower, and sure enough, most of our females procreate and give 'fruit' to the world. As is right, for 'there is a season to everything under heaven'.

In our separated-from-God egoic consciousnesses we often miss the mark about when 'the season' is finished, and as a result, a lot of the pains in our lives ensue. I have always admired the Hindu householder precepts as a path to mitigate this. They divide the human lifespan into 3 main journeys: adolescence, householder, and senior maturity (or 'renunciate'). In the first, you are a child and a student; in the second, you marry and raise a family and make a living; in the third, you let go of the world and all its possessions and devote yourself to spiritual sadhana, and preparing your consciousness to depart the body. This basic pattern is also seen in many indigenous cultures.

Western addictions to elongating the season of 'bodily pleasures' interrupt this pattern, and 'we/I' suffer as a result. Culturally we do not understand we are not these bodies, and as we struggle to maintain our beauty, virility, and youth against the entropy of time, our minds loses its natural peace.

A Course in Miracles is a simple reminder to all this that it is unreal in its entirely.... that it is all 'phenomena' and none of it is truly the 'us' that God created. What did He create? He created the Love that we are. This we can use or misuse, for as extensions of God we have the gift of free will. I think surrender to 'this Love that we are' is what allows us to accept ourselves without self-judgement. Then, when we are young we are young, self-accepting, and we happy, and when we are old (in the body) we are old, self-accepting, and still happy. For when so surrendered, there is no such thing as a day without God's grace, as grace also does not live in a vacuum either, and finds its expression most easily among 'the surrendered ones'. Drinking the water of grace every day, trusting in the active presence of God to guide our lives, that will produce of us a 'fruit' that God will recognize, and know it is 'of Him'.

In this (as Gangaji has often said) is 'a life well-lived', and also, fully healed.

Namaste,

David

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My personal version in first person.

Lesson 165

Let not my mind deny the Thought of God.

What makes this world seem real except my own denial of the truth that lies beyond? What but my thoughts of misery and death obscure the perfect happiness and the eternal life my Father wills for me? And what could hide from me what cannot be concealed except illusion? What could keep from me what I already have except my choice to see it not, denying it is there?

The Thought of God created me. It has left me not, nor have I ever been apart from it an instant. It belongs to me. By it I live. It is my Source of life, holding me one with it, and everything is one with me also because it left me not. The Thought of God protects me, cares for me, makes soft my resting place and smooth my way, lighting my mind with happiness and love. Eternity and everlasting life shine in my mind, because the Thought of God has left me not, and still abides with me.

Would I deny his safety and his peace, his joy, his healing and his peace of mind, his quiet rest, his calm awakening, if I only recognized where they actually did abide? Would I not instantly prepare to go where they are findable, abandoning all else as worthless in comparison with them? And having found them, would I not make sure I stay with Him, and He that remain with me?

I will deny not Heaven. It is mine today, but for the asking. Nor need I perceive how great the gift, how changed my mind will be before it comes to me. I ask to receive, and it is given me. Conviction lies within it. Till I welcome it as mine, uncertainty remains. Yet God is fair. Sureness is not required to receive what only my acceptance can bestow.

I ask with desire. I need not be sure that I request the only thing I want. But when I have received, I will be sure I have the treasure I have always sought. What would I then exchange for it? What would induce me now to let it fade away from my ecstatic vision? For this sight proves that I have exchanged my blindness for the seeing eyes of Christ; my mind has come to lay aside denial, and accept the Thought of God as my inheritance.

Now is all doubting past, the journey's end made certain, and salvation given me. Now is Christ's power in my mind, to heal as I was healed. For now I am among the saviors of the world. My destiny lies there and nowhere else. Would God consent to let His Son remain forever starved by my denial of the nourishment I need to live? Abundance dwells in me, and deprivation cannot cut me off from God's sustaining Love and from my home.

I practice today in hope. For hope indeed is justified. My doubts are meaningless, for God is certain. And the Thought of Him is never absent me. Sureness must abide within me I who am host to Him. This course removes all doubts which I have interposed between Him and my certainty of Him.

I count on God, and not upon myself, to give me certainty. And in His Name I practice as His Word directs me to do. His sureness lies beyond my every doubt. His Love remains beyond my every fear. The Thought of Him is still beyond all dreams and in my mind, according to His Will.