Commentary on ACIM Lesson 308

© 2010 Rev. David Seacord

To be 'saved' at all always means to be saved from ourself. Or rather, our not-self. It is the simplest thing to do for an innocent child, but in an adult, it takes allowing that childlike innocence to be rediscovered. For innocence is being, without being a separate somebody. All the practice we do is really about becoming nobody. Said another way: self-less. Our great aid in this is the grace of the holy (whole) instant.

What is this holy instant? It is the thunderclap of this momentstopping the linear tick-tocking of the observing mind, so that observer merges with our true being in a nowness that is without a past history or a pre-aimed-at future. It is the miracle of pure presence, and it contains and makes available authentic Love, with absolutely no personal agenda. These words by now I assume describe a state you know well, or are coming to know. Why else would you be a reader?

In any event, as our lesson for today points out, we defeat our aim until we understand that this 'Holy Instant' state is the aim. Once we get that, a lot becomes much easier. To me, it is like the breakthrough I had many decades ago when I was learning to be a piano tuner. Until I reached a certain breakthrough, I could not see the whole picture, so I did as instructed and practiced 'the parts, or aspects' that made up the whole, like, for instance, tuning unisons, thirds, fifths, tenths, etc. But gradually, all those practices extended, until I was tuning the whole piano (poorly, at first, of course). And as I practiced that, the clarity of the why and what I was doing kept increasing, until one day, I hit the Zone, and then I understood what all the practice was for. It was to enter the Zone, unerringly, upon demand, whenever the request was made for me to 'tune' a piano.

Now, as mastery in anything is in principle applicable to everything, I am clear that what all spiritual practice is about is living in the present nowness fearlessly, without a past being carried or a future enslaving. It is a zone of authentic freedom to simply accept all that is also in the present without resistance. It is, as today's lesson makes clear, a state of timelessness.

And because it is the Will of our Godness/Source, it is also within this timelessness that we cannot but discover the Reality of our Oneness.

Namaste,

David

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Lesson 308

This instant is the only time there is.

I have conceived of time in such a way that I defeat my aim. If I elect to reach past time to timelessness, I must change my perception of what time is for. Time's purpose cannot be to keep the past and future one. The only interval in which I can be saved from time is now. For in this instant has forgiveness come to set me free. The birth of Christ is now, without a past or future. He has come to give His present blessing to the world, restoring it to timelessness and love. And love is ever-present, here and now.

Thanks for this instant, Father. It is now I am redeemed. This instant is the time You have appointed for Your Son's release, and for salvation of the world in him.