Thursday, July 15, 2010

Commentary on ACIM Lesson 196

©2010 Rev. David Seacord

It can be but myself I crucify.

My own experiences of 'doing the Course workbook' in the past is that I have often stopped, many times 'way before this'. Many kinds of things served as the excuse to delay or reason for interruption, but whenever I would get around to being self-honest, I would see I allowed those things to stop me because

'I' was 'not ready' to go any further at that time. For it is one thing to have ideals of love and peace, it is another to live those ideals, especially inside the context of a Course that is totally straight in its delivery.

So I would stop doing the Course, and for a while I would feel fine. Then, as time when by, life would 'life me', and without the habit of the Course in my life, I would flounder for a while, certainly learn some needed lessons from those flounderings, and eventually realize I needed to get straight with myself again. Sometimes something other than the Course would show up and I would work with whatever that was... a teacher like Gangaji, or a concentration in regaining physical health.... all these contributed too.

And, in due time, the Course would come off my bookshelf and get opened and I would read it and re-recognize its preciousness to me, and I would begin to use it, again. But with complaints...

In the past, my basic complaint about the Course Text was that it requiredserious thinking to grapple with the syntax that conveyed the exquisiteness of the teaching. Sometimes I just was not up to that. That's why I have primarily used the workbook.... to me, it is delivering in a much simpler language steps that I could chew. Especially the first 50, or the first 100.

Now, what has been happening for me personally as we have been moving through the year has been a new inner call to attempt the Text with the same kind of discipline that we have been using with the workbook. Not necessarily on as strict a timetable, but steady, and not stopping till completely gotten, none the less. In other words, to become a deeper student...

Another thing that has been happening (according to the email stats) is that the number of daily readers of this Commentary series has been steadily (albeit slowly) dropping. As this is in line with my own experience of dropping out of the Course in the past, I am not surprised. And frankly, I have been adding in the art simply as 'another reason' (like a bait) to open the lesson of the day, knowing that once opened, God would have a chance to lead us readers to 'hopefully something valuable'.

Given all of the above, I have been waiting for instructions from 'on High' as to what to do, if anything. It's ok with me to simply continue. I do get value from just doing it. I am guided, however, to say what 'is so' right now. I'm open to feedback. Actually, I invite it. Why not check in with your heart and let me know what it says....

Namaste,

David

_______________________________________

Lesson 196

It can be but myself I crucify.

When this is firmly understood and kept in full awareness, you will not attempt to harm yourself, nor make your body slave to vengeance. You will not attack yourself, and you will realize that to attack another is but to attack yourself.You will be free of the insane belief that to attack a brother saves yourself. And you will understand his safety is your own, and in his healing you are healed.

Perhaps at first you will not understand how mercy, limitless and with all things held in its sure protection, can be found in the idea we practice for today. It may, in fact, appear to be a sign that punishment can never be escaped because the ego, under what it sees as threat, is quick to cite the truth to save its lies. Yet must it fail to understand the truth it uses thus. But you can learn to see these foolish applications, and deny the meaning they appear to have.

Thus do you also teach your mind that you are not an ego. For the ways in which the ego would distort the truth will not deceive you longer. You will not believe you are a body to be crucified. And you will see within today's idea the light of resurrection, looking past all thoughts of crucifixion and of death, to thoughts of liberation and of life.

Today's idea is one step we take in leading us from bondage to the state of perfect freedom. Let us take this step today, that we may quickly go the way salvation shows us, taking every step in its appointed sequence, as the mind relinquishes its burdens one by one. It is not time we need for this. It is but willingness. For what would seem to need a thousand years can easily be done in just one instant by the grace of God.

The dreary, hopeless thought that you can make attacks on others and escape yourself has nailed you to the cross.Perhaps it seemed to be salvation. Yet it merely stood for the belief the fear of God is real. And what is that but hell? Who could believe his Father is his deadly enemy, separate from him, and waiting to destroy his life and blot him from the universe, without the fear of hell upon his heart?

Such is the form of madness you believe, if you accept the fearful thought you can attack another and be free yourself.Until this form is changed, there is no hope. Until you see that this, at least, must be entirely impossible, how could there be escape? The fear of God is real to anyone who thinks this thought is true. And he will not perceive its foolishness, or even see that it is there, so that it would be possible to question it.

To question it at all, its form must first be changed at least as much as will permit fear of retaliation to abate, and the responsibility returned to some extent to you. From there you can at least consider if you want to go along this painful path.Until this shift has been accomplished, you can not perceive that it is but your thoughts that bring you fear, and your deliverance depends on you.

Our next steps will be easy, if you take this one today. From there we go ahead quite rapidly. For once you understand it is impossible that you be hurt except by your own thoughts, the fear of God must disappear. You cannot then believe that fear is caused without. And God, Whom you had thought to banish, can be welcomed back within the holy mind He never left.

Salvation's song can certainly be heard in the idea we practice for today. If it can but be you you crucify, you did not hurt the world, and need not fear its vengeance and pursuit. Nor need you hide in terror from the deadly fear of God projection hides behind. The thing you dread the most is your salvation. You are strong, and it is strength you want. And you are free, and glad of freedom. You have sought to be both weak and bound, because you feared your strength and freedom. Yet salvation lies in them.

There is an instant in which terror seems to grip your mind so wholly that escape appears quite hopeless. When you realize, once and for all, that it is you you fear, the mind perceives itself as split. And this had been concealed while you believed attack could be directed outward, and returned from outside to within. It seemed to be an enemy outside you had to fear. And thus a god outside yourself became your mortal enemy; the source of fear.

Now, for an instant, is a murderer perceived within you, eager for your death, intent on plotting punishment for you until the time when it can kill at last. Yet in this instant is the time as well in which salvation comes. For fear of God has disappeared. And you can call on Him to save you from illusions by His Love, calling Him Father and yourself His Son. Pray that the instant may be soon,–today. Step back from fear, and make advance to love.

There is no Thought of God that does not go with you to help you reach that instant, and to go beyond it quickly, surely and forever. When the fear of God is gone, there are no obstacles that still remain between you and the holy peace of God. How kind and merciful is the idea we practice! Give it welcome, as you should, for it is your release. It is indeed but you your mind can try to crucify. Yet your redemption, too, will come from you.

***********************************

My partnership request.... Please consider yourself an important gateway this message is passing through on it's way to others. Please do 'send it on'. Thank you.

***********************************

Rev. David Seacord

Fine Art Painter / Sufi Cherag

david@davidseacord.com

www.davidseacord.com

www.davidseacord-everymansjournal.blogspot.com

www.davidseacord-acimcommentaries.blogspot.com

To subscribe, simply click on the code below to open the subscribe window.

http://davidseacord.us1.list-manage1.com/subscribe?u=306aba00e6959c604de750bcc&id=62a1ee7045

Commentary on ACIM Lesson 195

©2010 Rev. David Seacord

Love is the way I walk in gratitude.

In the context of last nights scorpion sting, I am grateful for many moments today....

I am grateful for the practicing of my 'yes'/acceptance mantra.... for having this only temporarily semi-paralyzed left leg experience, and for giving myself the space to just rest (and liquids). My sleeps have become healing sessions, and each time I awaken I gratefully registered a gradual improvement.... numbness receding inch by inch back down the leg instead of increasing, blurred vision getting sharper, the occasional twitch/spasm disappearing, body feeling stronger hour by hour. I also very much appreciated your kind thoughts sent my way.

What I am working with (on the inner) is reestablishing peace about my sense of physical safety, since I am noticing I am being suddenly 'super-wary' and a bit anxious and paranoid when I move (hobble) around. Body now fears the possibility of another sting, which it doesn't want. Ego also had a 'face to face' through this experience of bodily mortality, and found it disturbing. I am seeing I can extend this learning to deepen my compassion for myself, and for all the elderly that I am currently circulating among in the assisted living world of my parents. I am sure there will be further revelations to be gained. We shall see. As I am still feeling some weakness however,

Namaste, for today...

David

___________________________________

Lesson 195

Love is the way I walk in gratitude.

Gratitude is a lesson hard to learn for those who look upon the world amiss. The most that they can do is see themselves as better off than others. And they try to be content because another seems to suffer more than they. How pitiful and deprecating are such thoughts! For who has cause for thanks while others have less cause? And who could suffer less because he sees another suffer more? Your gratitude is due to Him alone Who made all cause of sorrow disappear throughout the world.

It is insane to offer thanks because of suffering.But it is equally insane to fail in gratitude to One Who offers you the certain means whereby all pain is healed, and suffering replaced with laughter and with happiness. Nor could the even partly sane refuse to take the steps which He directs, and follow in the way He sets before them, to escape a prison that they thought contained no door to the deliverance they now perceive.

Your brother is your "enemy" because you see in him the rival for your peace; a plunderer who takes his joy from you, and leaves you nothing but a black despair so bitter and relentless that there is no hope remaining. Now is vengeance all there is to wish for. Now can you but try to bring him down to lie in death with you, as useless as yourself; as little left within his grasping fingers as in yours.

You do not offer God your gratitude because your brother is more slave than you, nor could you sanely be enraged if he seems freer. Love makes no comparisons. And gratitude can only be sincere if it be joined to love. We offer thanks to God our Father that in us all things will find their freedom. It will never be that some are loosed while others still are bound. For who can bargain in the name of love?

Therefore give thanks, but in sincerity. And let your gratitude make room for all who will escape with you; the sick, the weak, the needy and afraid, and those who mourn a seeming loss or feel apparent pain, who suffer cold or hunger, or who walk the way of hatred and the path of death. All these go with you. Let us not compare ourselves with them, for thus we split them off from our awareness of the unity we share with them, as they must share with us.

We thank our Father for one thing alone; that we are separate from no living thing, and therefore one with Him. And we rejoice that no exceptions ever can be made which would reduce our wholeness, nor impair or change our function to complete the One Who is Himself completion. We give thanks for every living thing, for otherwise we offer thanks for nothing, and we fail to recognize the gifts of God to us.

Then let our brothers lean their tired heads against our shoulders as they rest a while. We offer thanks for them. For if we can direct them to the peace that we would find, the way is opening at last to us. An ancient door is swinging free again; a long forgotten Word re-echoes in our memory, and gathers clarity as we are willing once again to hear.

Walk, then, in gratitude the way of love. For hatred is forgotten when we lay comparisons aside. What more remains as obstacles to peace? The fear of God is now undone at last, and we forgive without comparing. Thus we cannot choose to overlook some things, and yet retain some other things still locked away as "sins." When your forgiveness is complete you will have total gratitude, for you will see that everything has earned the right to love by being loving, even as your Self.

Today we learn to think of gratitude in place of anger, malice and revenge. We have been given everything. If we refuse to recognize it, we are not entitled therefore to our bitterness, and to a self-perception which regards us in a place of merciless pursuit, where we are badgered ceaselessly, and pushed about without a thought or care for us or for our future. Gratitude becomes the single thought we substitute for these insane perceptions. God has cared for us, and calls us Son. Can there be more than this?

Our gratitude will pave the way to Him, and shorten our learning time by more than you could ever dream of.Gratitude goes hand in hand with love, and where one is the other must be found. For gratitude is but an aspect of the Love which is the Source of all creation. God gives thanks to you, His Son, for being what you are; His Own completion and the Source of love, along with Him. Your gratitude to Him is one with His to you. For love can walk no road except the way of gratitude, and thus we go who walk the way to God.

***********************************

My partnership request.... Please consider yourself an important gateway this message is passing through on it's way to others. Please do 'send it on'. Thank you.

***********************************

Rev. David Seacord

Fine Art Painter / Sufi Cherag

david@davidseacord.com

www.davidseacord.com

www.davidseacord-everymansjournal.blogspot.com

www.davidseacord-acimcommentaries.blogspot.com

To subscribe, simply click on the code below to open the subscribe window.

http://davidseacord.us1.list-manage1.com/subscribe?u=306aba00e6959c604de750bcc&id=62a1ee7045

Commentary on ACIM Lesson 194

© 2010 Rev. David Seacord

I place the future in the hands of God.

I am going to be super brief. A couple hours of pain ago I was stung by scorpion on my foot. I'm at the home of my friend and herbalist Lara, and so am not alone. It's very painful and my foot is numb and my leg has soreness running up the veins. And so I get to practice 'I am not my body' at a new level. There is no expectation of a serious threat to life, but it has happened before from this most venomous kind: the Arizona Bark scorpion, a little yellow fellow.

By the way, he got away.... but I took it out on a relative a few minutes later. I'll have to look at that later. Your healing thoughts would be appreciated. From what I have learned about this experience in the last couple of hours, it can take a few days to recover...

Namaste, for today,

David

ps. I had started working on the lesson below, emphasizing points. But I didn't get it finished. Haven't gotten a lot of things done this life that I would like to have.... Hope you like todays painting.... it came through this morning.... different, but I like it a lot.

_________________________________________________

Lesson 194

I place the future in the Hands of God.

Today's idea takes another step toward quick salvation, and agiant

stride it is indeed! So great the distance is that it encompasses, it sets you down just short of Heaven, with the goal in sight and obstacles behind. Your foot has reached the lawns that welcome you to Heaven's gate; the quiet place of peace, where you await with certainty the final step of God. How far are we progressing now from earth! How close are we approaching to our goal! How short the journey still to be pursued!

Accept today's idea, and you have passed all anxiety, all pits of hell, all blackness of depression, thoughts of sin, and devastation brought about by guilt. Accept today's idea, and you have released the world from all imprisonment by loosening the heavy chains that locked the door to freedom on it. You are saved, and your salvation thus becomes the gift you give the world, because you have received.

In no one instant is depression felt, or pain experienced or loss perceived. In no one instant sorrow can be set upon a throne, and worshipped faithfully. In no one instant can one even die. And so each instant given unto God in passing, with the next one given Him already, is a time of your release from sadness, pain and even death itself.

God holds your future as He holds your past and present. They are one to Him, and so they should be one to you. Yet in this world, the temporal progression still seems real. And so you are not asked to understand the lack of sequence really found in time. You are but asked to let the future go, and place it in God's Hands. And you will see by your experience that you have laid the past and present in His Hands as well, because the past will punish you no more, and future dread will now be meaningless.

Release the future. For the past is gone, and what is present, freed from its bequest of grief and misery, of pain and loss, becomes the instant in which time escapes the bondage of illusions where it runs its pitiless, inevitable course. Then is each instant which was slave to time transformed into a holy instant, when the light that was kept hidden in God's Son is freed to bless the world. Now is he free, and all his glory shines upon a world made free with him, to share his holiness.

If you can see the lesson for today as the deliverance it really is, you will not hesitate to give as much consistent effort as you can, to make it be a part of you. As it becomes a thought that rules your mind, a habit in your problem-solving repertoire, a way of quick reaction to temptation, you extend your learning to the world. And as you learn to see salvation in all things, so will the world perceive that it is saved.

What worry can beset the one who gives his future to the loving Hands of God? What can he suffer? What can cause him pain, or bring experience of loss to him? What can he fear?And what can he regard except with love?

For he who has escaped all fear of future pain has found his way to present peace, and certainty of care the world can never threaten.

He is sure that his perception may be faulty, but will never lack correction. He is free to choose again when he has been deceived; to change his mind when he has made mistakes.

Place, then, your future in the Hands of God. For thus you call the memory of Him to come again, replacing all your thoughts of sin and evil with the truth of love. Think you the world could fail to gain thereby, and every living creature not respond with healed perception? Who entrusts himself to God has also placed the world within the Hands to which he has himself appealed for comfort and security. He lays aside the sick illusions of the world along with his, and offers peace to both.

Now are we saved indeed. For in God's Hands we rest untroubled, sure that only good can come to us. If we forget, we will be gently reassured. If we accept an unforgiving thought, it will be soon replaced by love's reflection. And if we are tempted to attack, we will appeal to Him Who guards our rest to make the choice for us that leaves temptation far behind. No longer is the world our enemy, for we have chosen that we be its friend.

***********************************

My partnership request.... Please consider yourself an important gateway this message is passing through on it's way to others. Please do 'send it on'. Thank you.

***********************************

Rev. David Seacord

Fine Art Painter / Sufi Cherag

david@davidseacord.com

www.davidseacord.com

www.davidseacord-everymansjournal.blogspot.com

www.davidseacord-acimcommentaries.blogspot.com

To subscribe, simply click on the code below to open the subscribe window.

http://davidseacord.us1.list-manage1.com/subscribe?u=306aba00e6959c604de750bcc&id=62a1ee7045

Commentary on ACIM Lesson 193

©2010 Rev. David Seacord

All things are lessons God would have me learn.

Today I have for you an update to my thinking of yesterday... which I see now was 'incomplete'.

There is one fundamental desire that keeps tripping me up, which I have just been led to see today, by grace, via a comment that the local minister made in her prayer at church today. I don't remember the comment. I just heard it, it connected to my knowing of truth, and I went directly into my own internal realizations...

Want to know what I saw? The one fundamental desire that keeps tripping me up time and again is the desire 'to make exceptions'. As the Course says, there are none. The price I pay for this desire is to forget who I am.

There is a line in the 3rd Zen Ancestor writings that was instrumental in my 'getting' this. (And, as an aside, this is why I love studying all kinds of scriptures, because many times the gems of wisdom from one religion shed light on the dilemmas of another. Kind of like 'proofing' something....). Anyway, the quote is: The Great Way is not difficult for he who has no preferences. Make the smallest distinction however, and Heaven and Earth are set infinitely apart....

Please note it doesn't say 'make a distinction bigger than X and you're in trouble'.... it says 'Make the smallest distinction'.... What I get is that means ANY distinction.

So what is a 'distinction', as it is used here? I'd say, exactly what the Course means when it says (in the early lessons.... which is humbling because the whole purpose of the Course is to train the (my) mind with a 'discipline of recognition' between what is real and what is unreal...) whatever you do, apply the lesson idea equally to everythingand/or be alert that you do not specifically EXCLUDE anything. So 'no distinctions' means make nothing better or worse, less or more.... see everything equally. Like God does.

The shift of reality that the Course aims at is absolutely total. We don't 'survive' it. Because only what God created is Real. He's the only thing that is really happening. And in the world, everything that is happening is also happening as part of our 'awakening curriculum'. If the Gulf disaster is seen some way 'other than as God sees it', if the economy is seen some way 'other than as God sees it', if a relationship drama enters the mind as 'something other than God at work with a gift for us',..... any of that or anything like that.... then GOD DISAPPEARS AS A 'LIVED WITHIN REALITY' AND BECOMES 'SOMETHING TO BELIEVE IN' ONLY. That 'belief' can't carry much weigh in the kind of world that surrounds us today, and sooner or later, like a trap door that just got sprung, you or me or us or we, we all get dumped into the soup, screaming in pain (of one kind or another).

So there is an 'ONLY WAY' that works. That Way is that there is nothing Real (ever, ever, ever) but God. No Exceptions. Not even one. Especially, do not believe the primary illusion... that I am this body. Make one illusion of this world 'real' and the whole world is likewise. There is no way to 'resolving' the insanity of the world..... except to realize it is not real. It is simply more phenomena. Transitory, illusionary, unreal temporary phenomena. Every time I have been in states of enlightenment, it was this that I have realized.

That I have been dumped into the soup more than a few times during this go-round of the Course simply means I have forgotten who I am, and have been sloppy about doing the Course (again).

God knows I don't really desire 'more suffering', but ego/I just doesn't want to let go of believing I am the cool-groovy ego/me that took several decades of 'healing and therapy' to put together. But yep, it's gotta go.... if'n I'm gonna hitch up the wagons and get with the 'Son of God' party as a Reality.... definitely, more than a little more has got to go... And some of you might do me the favor of reminding me of this down the road if/when I might could use some reminding, OK? Then, I would know to call you 'my friend', for reminding a brother who he is IS friendship. Anyway, that's my take on it all.

Namaste, for today,

David

______________________

Lesson 193

All things are lessons God would have me learn.

God does not know of learning. Yet His Will extends to what He does not understand, in that He wills the happiness His Son inherited of Him be undisturbed; eternal and forever gaining scope, eternally expanding in the joy of full creation, and eternally open and wholly limitless in Him. That is His Will. And thus His Will provides the means to guarantee that it is done.

God sees no contradictions. Yet His Son believes he sees them. Thus he has a need for One Who can correct his erring sight, and give him vision that will lead him back to where perception ceases. God does not perceive at all. Yet it is He Who gives the means by which perception is made true and beautiful enough to let the light of Heaven shine upon it. It is He Who answers what His Son would contradict, and keeps his sinlessness forever safe.

These are the lessons God would have you learn. His Will reflects them all, and they reflect His loving kindness to the Son He loves. Each lesson has a central thought, the same in all of them. The form alone is changed, with different circumstances and events; with different characters and different themes, apparent but not real. They are the same in fundamental content. It is this:

Forgive, and you will see this differently.

Certain it is that all distress does not appear to be but unforgiveness. Yet that is the content underneath the form. It is this sameness which makes learning sure, because the lesson is so simple that it cannot be rejected in the end. No one can hide forever from a truth so very obvious that it appears in countless forms, and yet is recognized as easily in all of them, if one but wants to see the simple lesson there.

Forgive, and you will see this differently.

These are the words the Holy Spirit speaks in all your tribulations, all your pain, all suffering regardless of its form. These are the words with which temptation ends, and guilt, abandoned, is revered no more. These are the words which end the dream of sin, and rid the mind of fear. These are the words by which salvation comes to all the world.

Shall we not learn to say these words when we are tempted to believe that pain is real, and death becomes our choice instead of life? Shall we not learn to say these words when we have understood their power to release all minds from bondage? These are words which give you power over all events that seem to have been given power over you. You see them rightly when you hold these words in full awareness, and do not forget these words apply to everything you see or any brother looks upon amiss.

How can you tell when you are seeing wrong, or someone else is failing to perceive the lesson he should learn? Does pain seem real in the perception? If it does, be sure the lesson is not learned. And there remains an unforgiveness hiding in the mind that sees the pain through eyes the mind directs.

God would not have you suffer thus. He would help you forgive yourself. His Son does not remember who he is. And God would have him not forget His Love, and all the gifts His Love brings with it. Would you now renounce your own salvation? Would you fail to learn the simple lessons Heaven's Teacher sets before you, that all pain may disappear and God may be remembered by His Son?

All things are lessons God would have you learn. He would not leave an unforgiving thought without correction, nor one thorn or nail to hurt His holy Son in any way. He would ensure his holy rest remain untroubled and serene, without a care, in an eternal home which cares for him. And He would have all tears be wiped away, with none remaining yet unshed, and none but waiting their appointed time to fall. For God has willed that laughter should replace each one, and that His Son be free again.

We will attempt today to overcome a thousand seeming obstacles to peace in just one day. Let mercy come to you more quickly. Do not try to hold it off another day, another minute or another instant. Time was made for this. Use it today for what its purpose is. Morning and night, devote what time you can to serve its proper aim, and do not let the time be less than meets your deepest need.

Give all you can, and give a little more. For now we would arise in haste and go unto our Father's house. We have been gone too long, and we would linger here no more. And as we practice, let us think about all things we saved to settle by ourselves, and kept apart from healing. Let us give them all to Him Who knows the way to look upon them so that they will disappear. Truth is His message; truth His teaching is. His are the lessons God would have us learn.

Each hour, spend a little time today, and in the days to come, in practicing the lesson in forgiveness in the form established for the day. And try to give it application to the happenings the hour brought, so that the next one is free of the one before. The chains of time are easily unloosened in this way. Let no one hour cast its shadow on the one that follows, and when that one goes, let everything that happened in its course go with it. Thus will you remain unbound, in peace eternal in the world of time.

This is the lesson God would have you learn: There is a way to look on everything that lets it be to you another step to Him, and to salvation of the world. To all that speaks of terror, answer thus:

I will forgive, and this will disappear.

To every apprehension, every care and every form of suffering, repeat these selfsame words. And then you hold the key that opens Heaven's gate, and brings the Love of God the Father down to earth at last, to raise it up to Heaven. God will take this final step Himself. Do not deny the little steps He asks you take to Him.

***********************************

My partnership request.... Please consider yourself an important gateway this message is passing through on it's way to others. Please do 'send it on'. Thank you.

***********************************

Rev. David Seacord

Fine Art Painter / Sufi Cherag

david@davidseacord.com

www.davidseacord.com

www.davidseacord-everymansjournal.blogspot.com

www.davidseacord-acimcommentaries.blogspot.com

To subscribe, simply click on the code below to open the subscribe window.

http://davidseacord.us1.list-manage1.com/subscribe?u=306aba00e6959c604de750bcc&id=62a1ee7045


Sunday, July 11, 2010

Commentary on ACIM Lesson 192

© 2010 Rev. David Seacord

I have a function God would have me fill.

To fulfill my function of forgiveness, my first priority is to live in peace with all beings, including myself. This means I must chose to be responsible for whatever arises within me or without me that impacts my peace. I cannot blame any other being as being responsible for my peace or lack of it. It is my responsibility. To be a Son of God is to be self-sufficient in peace.

When I look closely at what challenges my peace, I can usually see it is based on a lack of self-honesty. Another way to say that is I deny what I know, in deference to a desire. I really get aligned with the Buddha here... seeing that desire is the source of all suffering, and desirelessness the way out. Some people (like me too) get confused at times about having goals and commitments, in the context of desirelessness. Like, why do anything? Well, try to NOT do anything.... (the only way is to be dead). So what I see we are left with is HOW CONSCIOUS can we act in the world.... perhaps letting desire as a blindly driving passion go, but still following, like an expert native tracker, the scent of God's calling as to how to act within this world. The Course says the fundamental requirement of a teacher of God is to recognize another's interest as our own... I get that to mean that I serve God by serving others, especially when they are also serving others.

I think it all comes down to how much or how little 'karma' is being created. In other words, are we digging ourselves into the hole, or out of it? To walk lightly on the earth as a blessing to all others is not only a wonderful ideal, it is also a great practice. For even when you/I fail, you/I win, simply because of what we were up to attempting. Remember, it's not how many times we stumble, it's how many times we pick ourselves back up that actually matters. And as the Course says, that is what time is for.

Namaste for today,

David

Lesson 192

I have a function God would have me fill.

It is your Father's holy Will that you complete Himself, and that your Self shall be His sacred Son, forever pure as He, of love created and in love preserved, extending love, creating in its name, forever one with God and with your Self. Yet what can such a function mean within a world of envy, hatred and attack?

Therefore, you have a function in the world in its own terms. For who can understand a language far beyond his simple grasp?Forgiveness represents your function here. It is not God's creation, for it is the means by which untruth can be undone. And who would pardon Heaven? Yet on earth, you need the means to let illusions go. Creation merely waits for your return to be acknowledged, not to be complete.

Creation cannot even be conceived of in the world. It has no meaning here. Forgiveness is the closest it can come to earth. For being Heaven-born, it has no form at all. Yet God created One Who has the power to translate in form the wholly formless. What He makes are dreams, but of a kind so close to waking that the light of day already shines in them, and eyes already opening behold the joyful sights their offerings contain.

Forgiveness gently looks upon all things unknown in Heaven, sees them disappear, and leaves the world a clean and unmarked slate on which the Word of God can now replace the senseless symbols written there before. Forgiveness is the means by which the fear of death is overcome, because it holds no fierce attraction now and guilt is gone. Forgiveness lets the body be perceived as what it is;a simple teaching aid, to be laid by when learning is complete, but hardly changing him who learns at all.

The mind without the body cannot make mistakes. It cannot think that it will die, nor be the prey of merciless attack. Anger becomes impossible, and where is terror then? What fears could still assail those who have lost the source of all attack, the core of anguish and the seat of fear? Only forgiveness can relieve the mind of thinking that the body is its home. Only forgiveness can restore the peace that God intended for His holy Son. Only forgiveness can persuade the Son to look again upon his holiness.

With anger gone, you will indeed perceive that, for Christ's vision and the gift of sight, no sacrifice was asked, and only pain was lifted from a sick and tortured mind. Is this unwelcome? Is it to be feared? Or is it to be hoped for, met with thanks and joyously accepted? We are one, and therefore give up nothing. But we have indeed been given everything by God.

Yet do we need forgiveness to perceive that this is so. Without its kindly light we grope in darkness, using reason but to justify our rage and our attack. Our understanding is so limited that what we think we understand is but confusion born of error. We are lost in mists of shifting dreams and fearful thoughts, our eyes shut tightagainst the light; our minds engaged in worshipping what is not there.

Who can be born again in Christ but him who has forgiven everyone he sees or thinks of or imagines? Who could be set free while he imprisons anyone? A jailer is not free, for he is bound together with his prisoner. He must be sure that he does not escape, and so he spends his time in keeping watch on him. The bars that limit him become the world in which his jailer lives, along with him. And it is on his freedom that the way to liberty depends for both of them.

Therefore, hold no one prisoner. Release instead of bind, for thus are you made free. The way is simple. Every time you feel a stab of anger, realize you hold a sword above your head. And it will fall or be averted as you choose to be condemned or free. Thus does each one who seems to tempt you to be angry represent your savior from the prison house of death. And so you owe him thanks instead of pain.

Be merciful today. The Son of God deserves your mercy. It is he who asks that you accept the way to freedom now. Deny him not. His Father's Love for him belongs to you. Your function here on earth is only to forgive him, that you may accept him back as your Identity. He is as God created him. And you are what he is. Forgive him now his sins, and you will see that you are one with him.

***********************************

My partnership request.... Please consider yourself an important gateway this message is passing through on it's way to others. Please do 'send it on'. Thank you.

***********************************

Rev. David Seacord

Fine Art Painter / Sufi Cherag

david@davidseacord.com

www.davidseacord.com

www.davidseacord-everymansjournal.blogspot.com

www.davidseacord-acimcommentaries.blogspot.com

To subscribe, simply click on the code below to open the subscribe window.

http://davidseacord.us1.list-manage1.com/subscribe?u=306aba00e6959c604de750bcc&id=62a1ee7045


Commentary on ACIM Lesson 191

©2010 Rev. David Seacord

I am the holy Son of God Himself.

This morning I witnessed a 'goodbye ritual' going on across my street. The lady who had been visiting was taking pictures of the family before she left. What I heard her say was: Either smile or say 'yes'....

I continued with my affairs, but then stopped in front of a mirror. I smiled. Then I said 'Yes'. I saw that saying 'yes' requires the face to smile beautifully. After a moments thinking, I THOUGHT 'yes'. My face 'smiled', eyes bright, lips expressing happiness. Then I thought 'no'. My face lost it's smile, eyes were not bright, lips did not express happiness. Then I TRIED to force myself to smile/be bright while thinking 'no'. I could not do it. I looked like I was going to explode or something. You try it. If you discover what I did, you're welcome to join me.

My new happiness mantra is 'yes'. Just think it a thousand times a day..... especially anytime you'd like to be happy...

Namaste,

David

___________________________

Lesson 191

I am the holy Son of God Himself.

Here is your declaration of release from bondage of the world. And here as well is all the world released. You do not see what you have done by giving to the world the role of jailer to the Son of God. What could it be but vicious and afraid, fearful of shadows, punitive and wild, lacking all reason, blind, insane with hate?

What have you done that this should be your world? What have you done that this is what you see? Deny your own Identity, and this is what remains. You look on chaos and proclaim it is yourself. There is no sight that fails to witness this to you. There is no sound that does not speak of frailty within you and without; no breath you draw that does not seem to bring you nearer death; no hope you hold but will dissolve in tears.

Deny your own Identity, and you will not escape the madness which induced this weird, unnatural and ghostly thought that mocks creation and that laughs at God. Deny your own Identity, and you assail the universe alone, without a friend, a tiny particle of dust against the legions of your enemies. Deny your own Identity, and look on evil, sin and death, and watch despair snatch from your fingers every scrap of hope, leaving you nothing but the wish to die.

Yet what is it except a game you play in which Identity can be denied? You are as God created you. All else but this one thing is folly to believe. In this one thought is everyone set free. In this one truth are all illusions gone. In this one fact is sinlessness proclaimed to be forever part of everything, the central core of its existence and its guarantee of immortality.

But let today's idea find a place among your thoughts and you have risen far above the world, and all the worldly thoughts that hold it prisoner. And from this place of safety and escape you will return and set it free. For he who can accept his true Identity is truly saved. And his salvation is the gift he gives to everyone, in gratitude to Him Who pointed out the way to happiness that changed his whole perspective of the world.

One holy thought like this and you are free: You are the holy Son of God Himself. And with this holy thought you learn as well that you have freed the world. You have no need to use it cruelly, and then perceive this savage need in it. You set it free of your imprisonment. You will not see a devastating image of yourself walking the world in terror, with the world twisting in agony because your fears have laid the mark of death upon its heart.

Be glad today how very easily is hell undone. You need but tell yourself:

I am the holy Son of God Himself. I cannot suffer, cannot be in pain; I cannot suffer loss, nor fail to do all that salvation asks.

And in that thought is everything you look on wholly changed.

A miracle has lighted up all dark and ancient caverns, where the rites of death echoed since time began. For time has lost its hold upon the world. The Son of God has come in glory to redeem the lost, to save the helpless, and to give the world the gift of his forgiveness. Who could see the world as dark and sinful, when God's Son has come again at last to set it free?

You who perceive yourself as weak and frail, with futile hopes and devastated dreams, born but to die, to weep and suffer pain, hear this: All power is given unto you in earth and Heaven. There is nothing that you cannot do. You play the game of death, of being helpless, pitifully tied to dissolution in a world which shows no mercy to you. Yet when you accord it mercy, will its mercy shine on you.

Then let the Son of God awaken from his sleep, and opening his holy eyes, return again to bless the world he made. In error it began, but it will end in the reflection of his holiness. And he will sleep no more and dream of death. Then join with me today. Your glory is the light that saves the world. Do not withhold salvation longer. Look about the world, and see the suffering there. Is not your heart willing to bring your weary brothers rest?

They must await your own release. They stay in chains till you are free. They cannot see the mercy of the world until you find it in yourself. They suffer pain until you have denied its hold on you. They die till you accept your own eternal life. You are the holy Son of God Himself. Remember this, and all the world is free. Remember this, and earth and Heaven are one.

***********************************

My partnership request.... Please consider yourself an important gateway this message is passing through on it's way to others. Please do 'send it on'. Thank you.

***********************************

Rev. David Seacord

Fine Art Painter / Sufi Cherag

david@davidseacord.com

www.davidseacord.com

www.davidseacord-everymansjournal.blogspot.com

www.davidseacord-acimcommentaries.blogspot.com

To subscribe, simply click on the code below to open the subscribe window.

http://davidseacord.us1.list-manage1.com/subscribe?u=306aba00e6959c604de750bcc&id=62a1ee7045