Commentary on ACIM Lesson 113

©2010 Rev. David Seacord

 

Reviewing: (95) I am one Self, united with my Creator.

(96) Salvation comes from my one Self.

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I realized I made a small 'miss' as I re-read the line in Commentary 112 this morning that goes "because it is possible to use our personal will to deepen our separation", etc.   I could have written "because it is possible to use our IMAGINED personal will to deepen our separation".......  Is the point clear?  That we/I are dream figures in a dream imagining we are real?  If this is true (and all the saints of the world declare that it is, one way or another) then obviously the question (and the quest) is ....WHO WILL WE BE WHEN WE WAKE UP?   Perhaps it will be 'the actual Dreamer', the one who is creating the entire dream.  And  beyond that even, perhaps it will be the One who is the 'space' for the Dreamer to exist within....  

 

Spirituality is a lot like chess.... how make moves ahead can you see?  Only instead of 'ahead', it's 'how many profound possibilities underlying even deeper profound possibilities can we contemplate?  And then functionally hold them in our awareness, as we live our imagined separate existences.  

 

Here is a key....  while the mind is large, the heart is larger.  It has the ability to reduce the contemplated complexity that enamors the mind to ultimate simplicity.  That simplicity is Love.  Therefore, it takes 'no mind' to 'follow the path'.  Like the nose of a bloodhound following a scent, may you and I trust 'the nose of our Love'.

 

This I teach, that I may also so learn.

 

Namaste, 

 

David

 

Commentary on ACIM Lesson 112

©2010 Rev. David Seacord

 

Reviewing lesson: (93) Light and joy and peace abide in me.

and lesson: (94) I am as God created me.

 

 

The right use of our personal will is to surrender (align) it with God's will (the will of the Good).  As the Course says, to recognize 'another's interest as equal to our own' (i.e., that there is a oneness between myself and all others) is the shift that has occurred in all teachers of God (at whatever level they operate).  

 

This shift happens 'in the dream of separation' only, for in Reality, I am and you are always 'as God created us'.  But 'in the dream', because it is possible to use our personal will to deepen our separation, the Course uses 'mind training' to habituate 'the you/I that we still think we are' to think in deeper and deeper alignment with the Godness.  This allows us to more effectively recognize 'the difference between what is true, and what is illusion'.  

 

Once we have 'taken the training' (i.e., it has been installed) what happens is we walk through life choosing moment to moment what we will value.  It quickly becomes obvious that there are many illusions we/I still value.  They tend to also be our personal 'blind-spots', and thus are the places we are the most tempted to 'make exceptions for', 'be reasonable about', all that....  Here is the real work then (at the place where the rubber meets the road) where we/I either rise up to meet 'the curriculum of life' (the non-accidental God-given curriculum of life, that is) or we 'defer the lesson' to another day.  

 

The Godness does not 'punish us' if we defer.  But we often do.  We do this by not feeling good about ourselves, and by denying our true selves in many ways.  For this is fundamentally what we do when we 'defer'.  We have just 'denied' our true nature (Love) in favor of our false nature (fear).  (In this example, fearing that by being conscious, we will lose another one of our valued illusions, WHICH IS TRUE... WE WILL.)  What we fail to recognize is that what we are also losing is the ground we would have gained and would now be standing on if we had not deferred.  In other words, what was lost was the possibility of 'being true'.  

 

The value of a few (or as many as are 'needed') failures like this is that we/I finally learn we would rather get straight and stay straight than play more spiritual games.  That is the happy day when we/I finally discover the right use of our personal will.

 

This I teach, that I may also so learn.    

 

Namaste, 

 

David

 

 

Lesson 112

For morning and evening review:

(93) Light and joy and peace abide in me.

I am the home of light and joy and peace. 
I welcome them into the home I share with God, 
because I am a part of Him.

(94) I am as God created me.

I will remain forever as I was, 
created by the Changeless like Himself. 
And I am one with Him, and He with me.

    On the hour:

 

Light and joy and peace abide in me.

On the half hour:

I am as God created me.

 

Commentary on ACIM Lesson 111

©2010 Rev. David Seacord

 

The 'principle' of hate is that I will hate that which I fear.  And, as I fear less, I will hate less.  This is the whole of it, the summation of the insight that dropped on me this morning, but there is a bit more, to add color (so to speak). 

 

The reason I will hate what I fear is that I have given away my power to it.  I actually hate myself for doing that, because it is a violation of my true nature, which is my wholeness and oneness with the Godness.  When I am willing to recognize my wholeness, I am able to see that there is nothing to fear.  And I will cease projecting any justification for fear onto any other source.  

 

Therefore, anytime I hear a voice of fear within me, I am training myself (with this Course, among other things) to stop, look inside, and discover (un-cover) the negative self-defeating thought pattern that I am at that moment believing to be true.  This is conscious use of the mind in support of awakening.  

 

I am sure this is only a reminder to you, but no valid reason (except the ego) not to say it.  As I grow and as I discover my true being, I am increasingly grateful to the tips and hints that find their way to my attention.  It is all about accepting that  the Godness is in everything, and when we are actually choosing to awaken, of course, we will be heavily supported by 'she/him' from every direction.  It's not because we are off course that this is happening, it is the opposite.  It's because we are on course.  And the more on course we are, the more valuable to the Godness plan we are--- therefore, we get a lot of help.  

 

When we 'get big', we'll be very grateful.  

 

Namaste, 

 

David

 

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We are beginning another review.  I have not 'edited' this material, although I did underline (for emphasis) a few lines.  Practice well!  

 

Commentary on Lesson 110

©2010 Rev. David Seacord

 

I am as God created me.

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While there could be a lot to say, there is little that must be said.  Is this not often true?  Especially when the thinking is becoming telepathic?  

 

I am still resting from my labor-intense art-show adventure, and will pass on commentary creation, in a way, sort of.  Sort of because, in another way, I am recognizing that I am loosening up quite a bit in the Edited Version, and that that it is becoming more and more my commentary territory also.  It's growing quite naturally.... I am feeling good about it, and I am sensing it is another not-so-subtle morphing (happening within this writing discipline) that may well 'change my life'.  Anyway, I pray you are getting value.  I am. 

 

Namaste, 

 

David

 

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Edited from the original by Rev. David Seacord

 

Lesson 110

I am as God created me.

 

I will repeat today's idea from time to time, often and regularly. For I have come to so love it.  It is a precious thought, a valuable thought, and a true thought.  This one thought is enough to save both myself and the world, if I believe (know, profoundly recognize) that it is true. Its truth means that I have made no changes in myself that have any actual reality, nor have I changed the universe so that what God created has ever been replaced by fear and evil, misery and death. It is because I  remain as God created me that fear has no meaning, that evil is not real, and that misery and death do not exist and have no power over me. 

Today's idea (and its devoted use) is therefore all I am required to fully comprehend to let complete correction heal my mind, and give me  the perfect vision that will heal all the mistakes that my mind (or any other mind) has made at any time or place. This one idea is enough to heal the past and make the future free once more. This one idea is enough to let the present be accepted as it is. This one idea is enough to let time be the means for all the world to learn escape from time, and every change that time appears to bring in 'passing by'.

Because I remain as God created me, appearances cannot replace the truth, health cannot turn to sickness, nor can death be substitute for life, or fear for love. All this has not occurred in Reality, because I remain as God created me. I need no other thought (just this one will be enough), to let redemption come to both light the world and free it from the past.

Look! This is amazing! In this one thought is all the past undone; and, the present is saved (to quietly extend into a timeless future). Because I am as God created me, there has never been an actual separation of my mind from His, there as been no split between my mind and all other minds, and there is actually only unity within my own.

The healing power of today's idea is absolutely limitless. This thought, this Knowledge, is the birthplace of all miracles, it is the great restorer of the Truth to the awareness of the world. Therefore, let us all practice today's idea with true and humble gratitude. This Thought is the truth that has come to set you and I free. This is the truth that God has promised us. This is the Word in which all sorrow ends.

For our five-minute practice periods, let us begin with this quotation from the text:

I am as God created me. His Son can suffer nothing.
And I am His Son.

Then, with this statement firmly in our minds, let us set our intention to actually discover in our minds the One Self Who is the holy Son of God Himself.

I will find Him within me, you shall find Him within you... He Who is Christ in both me and you, both the Son of God and a 'brother to the world'; the Savior Who has been forever saved, with power to save whoever touches Him asking (however lightly) for His Word (that tells the asker that, yes,  he is also a brother unto Him).

I  am as God created me. Today I shall honor my One Self. I shall choose that all the graven images I have made to be the Son of God (instead of what he actually IS) be worshipped not today. Deep in my mind the holy Christ in me is waiting my acknowledgment that I know I am He, for He is alive in me. This acknowledgement I will give to Him today. For I am lost and do not know myself while He is unacknowledged and unknown.

I shall invite Him in today, and thus I will find Him. He will be my Savior from all idols I have made. For when I find Him, I will understand how worthless are my idols, and how false the images which I believed were God are. Today I will make a great advance to truth by letting all these idols go, and opening my hand and heart and mind to the Wholeness of God today.

I shall and will remember Him who IS GOD throughout the day with a thankful heart (and share loving thoughts with all who meet with us today also). For it is thus that we remember Him. And we will say, that we may be reminded of His Son, our holy Self, the Christ in each of us:

I am as God created me.

Let us declare this truth as often as we can remember to do so. For this is the Word of God that sets you and I each free. This is the key that opens up to us the gate of Heaven, and that lets us enter into the peace of God and His eternity.

Amen.  And so it is.  

 

Commentary on ACIM Lesson 109

©2010 Rev. David Seacord

 

 

I rest in God.

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I plan to write, as this is a beautiful lesson.  But just in case I don't (because of the art show I'm doing etc), here is the lesson. 
 

(Update:  this version of this Commentary is being brought to you courtesy of California Highway Patrol wake up service.   Driving home from a most beautiful and appreciated show with less to show financially (at least right now) than I went with, I became so exhausted that I had to simply pull off the freeway onto an offramp and fall asleep in my car.  Earlier, I had been able to edit the lesson to first person, but for some reason my internet access aircard was not working, so that was not yet uploaded (as it is now).  Before falling asleep, I tried one more time, still no connection, so I finally accepted I would just have to accept that.  Fell asleep, and some time later, was awoken by the sounds of police radio calling in my license plate, and a flashlite shining in my face and around the car.  Two cops talking to each other.  I played dead for some reason.  "See any weapons" one said to the other, as they looked at the remains of the buckwheat sprout tray on top of my ice cooler....  "No, but look at his hand..." the other said.  I realized my hands position up near my chin was not completely visible.  Finally 'Knock.  Knock knock.  I continued to play dead.  Knock knock knock knock, knock knock knock.  Getter louder.  If I don't answer soon they will think I am dead.  I move a tiny bit.  Then I mumble "You can go away now'.  "What was that?" one asks again.  Louder, I say "You can go away now".   They laugh.  Then they announce themselves "CHP, just checking on your safety".  "Well, I'm NOT driving, so I am OK.  I was just tired".  They laugh again.  Then they (of all things) leave.  I look at my watch.  Oh, ten minutes before the auto send.  Maybe time to get online and pause it and insert the First person edited version....  Guess what, aircard connected.  Here we are again.  And now you know without a doubt God wanted you to have this First Person version, right.  Enough to hire the CHP to wake me up 'just in time'.   That is how it works very often you know....  Just in time.  Max's out the 'have faith' potential of a situation.....  even when you just give up.  

Namaste, 

David

 

Lesson 109

I rest in God

I ask for rest today, and quietness unshaken by the world's appearances. I ask for peace and stillness, in the midst of all the turmoil born of clashing dreams. I ask for safety and for happiness, although I seem to look on danger and on sorrow. And I have the thought that will answer my asking with what I request.

That thought is: "I rest in God." This thought will bring to me the rest and quiet, peace and stillness, and the safety and the happiness I choose to finally know. "I rest in God." This thought has power to wake the sleeping truth in me (to true vision, which sees beyond appearances to that same truth in everyone and everything there is). Here, in this thought, is the end of suffering for all the world, and everyone who ever came and yet will come to linger for a while. Here is the thought in which the Son of God is born again, to recognize himself.

"I rest in God." Completely undismayed, this thought carries me through storms and strife, past misery and pain, past loss and death, and onward to the certainty of God. There is no suffering in me it cannot heal. There is no problem in me that it cannot solve. And no appearance but will turn to truth before my eyes, when I rest in God.

This is my day of peace. I rest in God, and while the world is torn by winds of hate my rest remains complete and undisturbed. This is 'the rest of truth'. Appearances can no longer intrude upon me.  As I call to all to join me in this rest, and they will hear and come to me because I  rest in God. They will not hear another voice than mine because I gave my voice to God, and now I rest in Him and let Him speak through me.

In Him I have no cares and no concerns, no burdens, no anxiety, no pain, no fear of future and no past regrets. In timelessness I rest, while time goes by without its touch upon me, for my rest can never change in any way at all. I shall rest today. And as I close my eyes, I shall sink into stillness. I shall let these periods of rest and respite reassure my mind that all its frantic fantasies were but  dreams of  a fever that has passed away. Let me be still and thankfully, and  accept its healing. No more fearful dreams will come, now that I rest in God. I shall take time today to slip away from dreams, and into peace.

Each hour that I take my rest today, another tired mind is suddenly made glad, another bird with broken wings begins to sing, another stream long dry begins to flow again. The world is born again each time I rest, and hourly I shall remember that I came to bring the peace of God into the world, that it might take its rest, along with me.

With each five minutes that I rest today, the world is nearer to awakening. And the time when rest will be the only thing there is comes closer to all worn and tired minds, too weary now to go their way alone. And they, hearing the birds begin to sing, and seeing the streams begin to flow again, with hope reborn and energy restored will walk with lightened steps along a road that suddenly seems easy as they go.

I shall rest within the peace of God today, and call upon my brothers from my rest to draw them to their rest, along with me. I will be faithful to my trust today, forgetting no one, bringing everyone into the boundless circle of my peace, the holy sanctuary where I rest. I shall open the temple doors and let them come from far across the world, and near as well; my distant brothers and my closest friends; I bid them all enter here and rest with me.

I shall rest within the peace of God today, quiet and unafraid. Each brother comes to take his rest, and offer it to me. I shall rest together Here with him, for thus our rest is made complete, and what we give each other today we have both received already. Time is not the guardian of what I give today. I give to those unborn and those passed by, to every Thought of God, and to the Mind in which these Thoughts were born and where they rest. And I shall  remind them of their resting place each time I tell myself, "I rest in God."

 

 

Commentary on ACIM Lesson 108

©2010 Rev. David Seacord

 

To give and receive are one in truth.

 

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I awaken this Saturday morning into the realization that everything in this world is 'projected'.  I have been dealing with projections that 'attract',  but the converse (the unattractive), that is a projection too.  Both are simply not seeing.   This is why the Zen wisdom teaches 'To set up what you like against what you dislike is the disease of the mind'.  

 

For most people, this is a life-long disease, an addiction to an illusion so deep that it is incomprehensible to even question it.  Yet the numbers of 'questioners' is steadily increasing, and many are walking in truth now deeply enough to be 'finders' on a daily basis.  

 

Several of my health teachers have believed that until the body is rebuilt with more than 50% unaddictive healthy nutrition, that the body will crave what it is currently made of (meaning mostly addictive junk food).  I mention that not as a point of view about physical health, but because the concept is useful spiritually too.  I am understanding that it is the often incremental daily ingestion of a spiritual 'menu' over the course of our lives that builds our spiritual awareness and gives us the opportunities to master (often by failing to master again and again) the PRACTICE of being present egolessly.  This daily practice is our work.  For me, I am completely normal in that I have been (in the past) a bit lazy when it comes to the actual disciplines.  I have found it much easier to do when in groups, or on retreats, than to maintain impeccable discipline by myself and on my own.  In a very real way, the discipline of writing these Commentaries is being given me as a gift of your readership.  If you were not reading, I would stop writing (perhaps)(probably not, but certainly not every day).  So you are my 'group', even though it's in cyberspace.  In any case, the point is that we all start out seeing how little we can give for how much we can get, and I suspect we all discover at some point that it is going to take everything we have.  And it is then that we really begin to grow, if we accept that and begin giving everything (or at least, more) to it.  

 

It does get easier.  I just noticed I have a pattern of 'falling in love' in the spring.  I was comparing how it went (to fail in that fantasy) this year than last.  I gave myself better marks by far this year.  Last year I'd chosen such a perfect idealization (that I was totally incompatible with, by the way) that it had to be ripped out of me by daily painful doses for several weeks.  This time I crashed in a couple of days (and chose a much more compatible person that I continue to be friends with), when through a couple more days of integrating the lesson, and now feel freed up to live more 'fantasy free'.... as long as I remember 'not to touch', that is.  So that is my discipline... to not touch the world (and I am getting that means "just watch it pass by without attachment").  In particular, the world that I have addictive responses to.  When I 'turn and walk away' from a strong temptation, I discover I have the power to be free and be loving at the same time.   Once the big temptations are mastered, then comes the smaller ones.  Smile.  Just being candid. 

 

If the picture I paint seems hard, well, it is and it isn't, at the same time.  It is for any ego (which wants everything it wants) but it is not for the Self (which has no wants).  So really, all spiritual practice comes down to this moment, choosing who I am (who you are).  Until enough experience of God's Truth being always present now is gained to end doubt, there will be vacillations.  Eventually, that will end, I am told, and so I tell you.  And in yesterdays lesson 106 was a wonderful thought:  "He comes with miracles a thousand times as happy and as wonderful as those I ever dreamed or wished for in my dreams". That is the answer to why do this.  Because no matter how much I win in the world, it never has made me truly happy.  But receiving the gifts of God does.  Go figure that one out.  :-)

 

Namaste, 

 

David