Commentary on ACIM Lesson 319

© 2010 Rev. David Seacord

"....what one gains is given onto all...". The Course is full of this type of thought, and when I was being introduced to it, they were difficult to understand. I see that was because I then had no sense that I was inseparably connected to all beings. I was an I, and I was not a 'them'.

How that changed has been a multi-year winding journey of life experiences, with God as the behind-the-scenes teacher. You see, the question is: "What is fully learning something?" My answer now is: When it is so well known that it becomes impossible to be confused by any smokescreen that the world may create. To do that, I see my life has led me back again and again to the same classroom (so to speak) from a thousand different directions. This repetition serves to build a deep clarity AND a deep patience with ourselves. As Ram Dass once said: "Hey, it's you, not God, that is in a hurry to get enlightened here. And you might notice, the desire to get enlightened is still a desire.... still just another desire to give up... to be free."

As the desires of the ego are released, there is nowhere to go better than where we are, and the game of being special and separate begins to gradually end. It is in this paradigm that it becomes self-obvious how anyones growth is everyones growth. That that growth is given to all is simply seen as natural, for when there are no barriers between beings (meaning, when healthy boundaries are not 'barriers'), there is nothing to stop any growth ripple gained anywhere from extending and touching the entire universe. Including the being of God.

Which is why God blesses us with His Gratitude for our being willing to grow and awaken within Him (as if there were another place where such a miracle could happen :-).

Namaste,

David

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Lesson 319

I came for the salvation of the world.

Here is a thought from which all arrogance has been removed, and only truth remains. For arrogance opposes truth. But when there is no arrogance the truth will come immediately, and fill up the space the ego left unoccupied by lies. Only the ego can be limited, and therefore it must seek for aims which are curtailed and limiting. The ego thinks that what one gains, totality must lose. And yet it is the Will of God I learn that what one gains is given unto all.

Father, Your Will is total. And the goal which stems from it shares its totality. What aim but the salvation of the world could You have given me? And what but this could be the Will my Self has shared with You?