Commentary on ACIM Lesson 311

© 2010 Rev. David Seacord

It matters not what you or I believe to be true.... it only matters what is actually true. And the only journey that we are really on is the one committed to discovering THAT, the actual truth, in the only place we can possibly know it, within our own being.

Can you or I know anything outside of our own being? Try to know something that you do not know within yourself. Is it not obviously impossible? Why then do we have suffering in our lives? I suggest only due to an identity confusion about who 'our own being' is.

This Course is a weaning course, full of forgiveness and grace, quite compassionate and accepting of our errors and foolishness, but always nevertheless, extricating us from level upon level of false beliefs about our existence, who we are, why we are here. We continually discover we are not our beliefs until we have 'no beliefs before God' left. By this point we have been prepared to receive direct revelation, and be used fully, for no 'I' remains to argue for it's imagined reality.

I, like you, find my weaning continues, in a perfect dance with my willingness to accept only God as my reality. If I set up other gods before the alter of my heart, my heart goes into suffering from a lack of love blood. I am glad for this, for thus I know I have chosen poorly, and that to leave suffering, I must choose again.

Therefore, I am mightily grateful for certain lines in todays lesson.... in particular, "Do not be afraid of Love".

Namaste,

David

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Lesson 311

Section 10. What is the Last Judgment?

Christ's Second Coming gives the Son of God this gift: to hear the Voice for God proclaim that what is false is false, and what is true has never changed. And this the judgment is in which perception ends. At first you see a world that has accepted this as true, projected from a now corrected mind. And with this holy sight, perception gives a silent blessing and then disappears, its goal accomplished and its mission done.

The final judgment on the world contains no condemnation. For it sees the world as totally forgiven, without sin and wholly purposeless. Without a cause, and now without a function in Christ's sight, it merely slips away to nothingness. There it was born, and there it ends as well. And all the figures in the dream in which the world began go with it. Bodies now are useless, and will therefore fade away, because the Son of God is limitless.

You who believed that God's Last Judgment would condemn the world to hell along with you, accept this holy truth: God's Judgment is the gift of the Correction He bestowed on all your errors, freeing you from them, and all effects they ever seemed to have. To fear God's saving grace is but to fear complete release from suffering, return to peace, security and happiness, and union with your own Identity.

God's Final Judgment is as merciful as every step in His appointed plan to bless His Son, and call him to return to the eternal peace He shares with him. Be not afraid of love. For it alone can heal all sorrow, wipe away all tears, and gently waken from his dream of pain the Son whom God acknowledges as His. Be not afraid of this. Salvation asks you give it welcome. And the world awaits your glad acceptance, which will set it free.

This is God's Final Judgment: "You are still My holy Son, forever innocent, forever loving and forever loved, as limitless as your Creator, and completely changeless and forever pure. Therefore awaken and return to Me. I am your Father and you are My Son."

Lesson 311

I judge all things as I would have them be.

Judgment was made to be a weapon used against the truth. It separates what it is being used against, and sets it off as if it were a thing apart. And then it makes of it what you would have it be. It judges what it cannot understand, because it cannot see totality and therefore judges falsely. Let us not use it today, but make a gift of it to Him Who has a different use for it. He will relieve us of the agony of all the judgments we have made against ourselves, and re-establish peace of mind by giving us God's Judgment of His Son.

Father, we wait with open mind today, to hear Your Judgment of the Son You love. We do not know him, and we cannot judge. And so we let Your Love decide what he whom You created as Your Son must be.

Commentary on ACIM Lesson 310

© 2010 Rev. David Seacord

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"There is no room for fear, for we have welcomed love...".

These words paraphrased from todays lesson speak strongly to my heart, offering me guidance onward ---from this moment, to thismoment. They create images of being merged with my core wholeness, held safely above the turbulent waves of the world, and being protected by grace from the dark furies of my own forgetfulness.

Such images are not just vain imaginings or delusions.... rather they are reminders from holiness--- calling my heart to strengthen its commitment to vertical, instead of horizontal, consciousness. And vertically awake I do choose to be, for that is where direct revelatory access to Love exists.

It is like being 'in a spotlight' that is shining upon us from directly above. Wherever we go during the day, we can feel it stay directly above us, pouring upon us all manner of needed gifts from God--- which it then becomes our privilege to share, exactly and specifically 'as needed', with 'others' that have now become ourselves. This is my experience of 'being of service'.

Today, let us continue to so serve. There is nothing more useful to the world than forgetting ourselves through sharing God's Love.

Namaste,

David

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Lesson 310

In fearlessness and love I spend today.

This day, my Father, would I spend with You, as You have chosen all my days should be. And what I will experience is not of time at all. The joy that comes to me is not of days nor hours, for it comes from Heaven to Your Son. This day will be Your sweet reminder to remember You, Your gracious calling to Your holy Son, the sign Your grace has come to me, and that it is Your Will I be set free today.

We spend this day together, you and I. And all the world joins with us in our song of thankfulness and joy to Him Who gave salvation to us, and Who set us free. We are restored to peace and holiness. There is no room in us for fear today, for we have welcomed love into our hearts.

Commentary on ACIM Lesson 309

© 2010 Rev. David Seacord

Illusions are simply beliefs that are not true. Until fully liberated, we all have them, particularly about ourselves. One of the greatest powers of truth is to be a mirror into which we can look, to find mirrored back a new knowledge of our own being. Our willingness to look is our best friend in this, our fear to do the same our most challenging obstacle.

As todays lesson points out, this fear is really a nothingness, akin to being afraid of our own shadow. It is the fear of fear. And it is all an egoic smokescreen to keep us from discovering our true nature, our innocence, our holiness, our limitlessness.

Freedom from this kind of fear cannot be forced upon anyone who still desires to hide somewhere in the realms of personal identifications. But it is naturally discovered when a transmission of divine love quickens the desire to be spiritually free.

What this Course has always been about is each of us becoming such a transmission. Once held as only possible for adepts living renunciative lives, we are here now to complete all remaining fear barriers by discovering and accepting the validity of our true wholeness... by seeing ourselves through the eyes of our Eternal Beloved.

That discovery is based upon one fundamental realization that ends the temptation to continue harboring illusions. The realization? Only this (as the Course said it): that the truth is actually true.

Namaste,

David

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Lesson 309

I will not fear to look within today.

Within me is eternal innocence, because it is God's Will that it be there forever and forever. I, His Son, whose will is limitless as is His Own, can will no change in this. For to deny my Father's Will is to deny my own. To look within is but to find my will as God created it, and as it is. I fear to look within because I think I made another will that is not true, and made it real. Yet it has no effects. Within me is the Holiness of God. Within me is the memory of Him.

The step I take today, my Father, is my sure release from idle dreams of sin. Your altar stands serene and undefiled. It is the holy altar to my Self, and there I find my true Identity.

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.

Commentary on ACIM Lesson 307

©2010 Rev. David Seacord

"To set up what you like against what you dislike is the disease of the mind." This Zen teaching from the 3rd Zen Ancestor gives its contemplator access to an amazing wisdom that the world never seems to understand, even though it is obvious that to be conflicted about something is not a state of peace.

As the teachings of the egoic world are by design meant to continue conflict, this should not be surprising to any sincere spiritual practitioner... therefore... as we continue to open to this moment endlessly, we learn from our experience that the accuracy of our guidance and intuition are derived from our willingness to receive it, even if our personal points of view differ from it. We simply learn we do not yet know everything, but that God does.

It is, after all, one of the core definitions of God: Being....All-Knowing, Omniscient, All-Powerful, Infinite. And on this journey we are all partaking of (called existence), we have the promise that our Source/God Knows us, and would have us Know Him/Her/It. That means the only thing for us to get to move forward on the journey is that we don't have to struggle to be what we already are.

Whenever I get that (again, or again, or again)... each time I remember that, it is so much easier to allow everything to just be that way that it is....which is 'under the complete control of 'God', never random or accidental. And of course, that allows for a renewed flow of love in my heart and my life.

Perhaps it will in yours also. :-)

Namaste,

David

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Lesson 307

Conflicting wishes cannot be my will.

Father, Your Will is mine, and only that. There is no other will for me to have. Let me not try to make another will, for it is senseless and will cause me pain. Your Will alone can bring me happiness, and only Yours exists. If I would have what only You can give, I must accept Your Will for me, and enter into peace where conflict is impossible, Your Son is one with You in being and in will, and nothing contradicts the holy truth that I remain as You created me.

And with this prayer we enter silently into a state where conflict cannot come, because we join our holy will with God's, in recognition that they are the same.

Commentary on ACIM Lesson 306

© 2010 Rev. David Seacord

"...asking but what You give....". These beautiful words demonstrate a mind completely at peace and living in total trust. They actually ask for nothing.... only that the blessings always being poured upon us continue, in certainly that they will, and that they will meet all our needs.

Is that not already your true experience, especially anytime you drop below the surface froth and currents of phenomenal life? Do you not, as you become mentally and emotionally quieter, naturally and automatically re-adjust the us-them/right-wrong tussling of the world---- refocusing on the absolute perfection of everything that is occurring--- no matter how broad you expand your awareness--- is this not where the true peace is found?

Here then is the challenge to our lives.... if we are able to access this peace by dropping under the fray of the mind, where is the barrier to being in the same connection to the Divine while fully in the world? My Sufi teacher Pir Vilayat Khan called this 'Samadhi with Open Eyes'....

It is gained, as the Course teaches, by training the mind. Not with shackles or restrictions, which our ego's will rebel against and resist just like we did in our 'terrible two's'.... but with the crystal clarity of true love. For only such love is irresistible, and carries no two-edged sword.

This is all any of us really desires.... to be fully seen by an absolute love. It is easily possible to see who knows they have been. They simply trust God to guide their lives.

Namaste,

David

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Lesson 306

The gift of Christ is all I seek today.

What but Christ's vision would I use today, when it can offer me a day in which I see a world so like to Heaven that an ancient memory returns to me? Today I can forget the world I made. Today I can go past all fear, and be restored to love and holiness and peace. Today I am redeemed, and born anew into a world of mercy and of care; of loving kindness and the peace of God.

And so, our Father, we return to You, remembering we never went away; remembering Your holy gifts to us. In gratitude and thankfulness we come, with empty hands and open hearts and minds, asking but what You give. We cannot make an offering sufficient for Your Son. But in Your Love the gift of Christ is his.

Commentary on ACIM 305

© 2010 Rev. David Seacord

Reading the words of the lesson, I connected two things newly.

1. That to see the world with Christ's vision IS the exact same thing as the Biblical reference to "the peace that passeth understanding". And this vision is identical to the Zen teaching of "make the smallest distinction however, and Heaven and Earth are set Infinitely apart". In other words, to use the mind to judge the world instantly creates a loss of Godly vision, for that vision is only possible when we 'become as little children", and innocent of the ability to see anyone as 'not ourself'.

2. That fear is not 'a something'.... it is the absence of something. It is the absence of the Peace of God. (Which we created by choosing to see, but without Vision.)

Somewhere near the end of the Course Text is a dialogue about 'choosing again'. That this is all life is.... just endless opportunities to choose God.

I am sure it will continue until all the places I am blind have returned to the healing of love, and regain Vision. I pray this for me. I pray this for you. I pray this for the world.

Namaste,

David

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Lesson 305

There is a peace that Christ bestows on us.

Who uses but Christ's vision finds a peace so deep and quiet, undisturbable and wholly changeless, that the world contains no counterpart. Comparisons are still before this peace. And all the world departs in silence as this peace envelops it, and gently carries it to truth, no more to be the home of fear. For love has come, and healed the world by giving it Christ's peace.

Father, the peace of Christ is given us, because it is Your Will that we be saved. Help us today but to accept Your gift, and judge it not.

Commentary on ACIM Lesson 304

© 2010 Rev. David Seacord

What is the most seductive illusion of the ego? In my experience, it is 'personal significance'. Need I say more?

For is it not the thought of our specialness that drives us in this world? Is it not true that if we stand so placed, we blind ourself to our unity with all life, and instantly forget everyone else is God's Son too? Personal significance is a trap... a quicksand to the spiritually minded who walk, as we do often still, hearing two voices. There are two conditions in which we can be while walking the 'world of the two voices'. One is as a Knower, existing here in service to all other beings. The other is as all other beings exist in the world of duality, where, to quote The Grateful Dead, "sometimes the light's all shining on me.... other times I can barely see."

The purpose of this course has always been to help us see the Choice for Truth for what it really is. Once that has happened, denial of Unity disappears as an option, although we still sometimes error temporarily. But God's Voice never leaves us, and knowing that Voice, we return to the being found.

Today then is a beautiful day to continue our practice.

Namaste,

David

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Lesson 304

Let not my world obscure the sight of Christ.

I can obscure my holy sight, if I intrude my world upon it. Nor can I behold the holy sights Christ looks upon, unless it is His vision that I use. Perception is a mirror, not a fact. And what I look on is my state of mind, reflected outward. I would bless the world by looking on it through the eyes of Christ. And I will look upon the certain signs that all my sins have been forgiven me.

You lead me from the darkness to the light; from sin to holiness. Let me forgive, and thus receive salvation for the world. It is Your gift, my Father, given me to offer to Your holy Son, that he may find again the memory of You, and of Your Son as You created him.

Commentary on ACIM Lesson 303

© 2010 Rev. David Seacord

What allows the holy Christ to be born in us? Only our sincere invitation. What stops our willingness to make this invitation?

It is perhaps better to not answer that, but rather to keep the question close, and ask it often, for a question's purpose is to guide a quest. The specific answers will certainly change with the situation, but if allowed to teach us, they will help us see who we are not.

Namaste,

David

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Lesson 303

The holy Christ is born in me today.

Watch with me, angels, watch with me today. Let all God's holy Thoughts surround me, and be still with me while Heaven's Son is born. Let earthly sounds be quiet, and the sights to which I am accustomed disappear. Let Christ be welcomed where He is at home. And let Him hear the sounds He understands, and see but sights that show His Father's Love. Let Him no longer be a stranger here, for He is born again in me today.

Your Son is welcome, Father. He has come to save me from the evil self I made. He is the Self that You have given me. He is but what I really am in truth. He is the Son You love above all things. He is my Self as You created me. It is not Christ that can be crucified. Safe in Your Arms let me receive Your Son.

Thank you all for you supportive thoughts. Seven days of water fasting now complete, with wonderful results. I will begin eating this morning, and expect to be back to full strength in a few days. (Plus a couple of months to put weight back on :-)....

Namaste,

David

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Lesson 302

Where darkness was I look upon the light.

Father, our eyes are opening at last. Your holy world awaits us, as our sight is finally restored and we can see. We thought we suffered. But we had forgot the Son whom You created. Now we see that darkness is our own imagining, and light is there for us to look upon. Christ's vision changes darkness into light, for fear must disappear when love has come. Let me forgive Your holy world today, that I may look upon its holiness and understand it but reflects my own.

Our Love awaits us as we go to Him, and walks beside us showing us the way. He fails in nothing. He the End we seek, and He the Means by which we go to Him.

Day 6 complete. In a way, the best day yet, full of deep rest. That's the norm with water fasting.... the second week (if you go that far) produces twice the health benefits as the first, and the third twice as much as the second. But it is important never to go longer than about a week alone. That why when I fasted 16 days a few years ago, I did it a fasting clinic called Tanglewood Wellness Center (then in Maryland, now in Panama).

Anyway, tomorrow will be my last fasting day... I start re-feeding Friday (re-feeding is the most important part of fasting to know how to do correctly) with a few ounces of fruit every couple hours, eating them very slowly and chewing them very very well, then gradually increasing the amounts after the body has switched back over to my stomach intake for its blood brain sugar instead of using 1 to 2 pounds of my fat tissue per day to do that. After two or three days of re-feeding, then I switch back to my regular diet.

It's been a wonderful experience, one I wish everyone to consider for themselves sometime. As I have said, I deeply believe it to be the most powerful self-healing tool available to us, and it is exactly what every injured animal knows instinctively to do.... lie down, don't move, rest until the injury heals.

Peace to you all,

David

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Lesson 301

Section 9. What is the Second Coming?

Christ's Second Coming, which is sure as God, is merely the correction of mistakes, and the return of sanity. It is a part of the condition that restores the never lost, and re-establishes what is forever and forever true. It is the invitation to God's Word to take illusion's place; the willingness to let forgiveness rest upon all things without exception and without reserve.

It is the all-inclusive nature of Christ's Second Coming that permits it to embrace the world and hold you safe within its gentle advent, which encompasses all living things with you. There is no end to the release the Second Coming brings, as God's creation must be limitless. Forgiveness lights the Second Coming's way, because it shines on everything as one. And thus is oneness recognized at last.

The Second Coming ends the lessons that the Holy Spirit teaches, making way for the Last Judgment, in which learning ends in one last summary that will extend beyond itself, and reaches up to God. The Second Coming is the time in which all minds are given to the hands of Christ, to be returned to spirit in the name of true creation and the Will of God.

The Second Coming is the one event in time which time itself can not affect. For every one who ever came to die, or yet will come or who is present now, is equally released from what he made. In this equality is Christ restored as one Identity, in which the Sons of God acknowledge that they all are one. And God the Father smiles upon His Son, His one creation and His only joy.

Pray that the Second Coming will be soon, but do not rest with that. It needs your eyes and ears and hands and feet. It needs your voice. And most of all it needs your willingness. Let us rejoice that we can do God's Will, and join together in its holy light. Behold, the Son of God is one in us, and we can reach our Father's Love through Him.

Lesson 301

And God Himself shall wipe away all tears.

Father, unless I judge I cannot weep. Nor can I suffer pain, or feel I am abandoned or unneeded in the world. This is my home because I judge it not, and therefore is it only what You will. Let me today behold it uncondemned, through happy eyes forgiveness has released from all distortion. Let me see Your world instead of mine. And all the tears I shed will be forgotten, for their source is gone. Father, I will not judge Your world today.

God's world is happy. Those who look on it can only add their joy to it, and bless it as a cause of further joy in them. We wept because we did not understand. But we have learned the world we saw was false, and we will look upon God's world today.

A little report on this day 300 of this year.... Fasting day 5 complete. Big improvement in my arm.... bursitis symptoms nearly gone, with a lot more flexion (so I can now brush my teeth, shave, and comb my hair right handed). Other aches and pains appearing and disappearing according to Herings Law of Cure (Top down, from inside to outside, in reverse order of the conditions appearance). So glad to be fasting, except for the boredom, and the 'bedsoreness'. Have decided I will stop when my weight loss brings me to 115 pounds.... maybe two or three more days.... All is well. Peace, David

Dear Commentary Reader:

I have realized my best choice to heal my body of the inflamed bursitis condition in my right arm is to resort to my deep belief in the power of water fasting, which means complete rest of my entire body and immobilization of my arm (including even typing at a computer) or the next 5 to 7 days. I'm going to bed, to get the deep rest my body needs to heal itself.

Therefore, I am letting you know that I will not be writing any more Commentaries until I end this fast, probably toward the end of next week. Just so nobody worries, I'm doing this 'under supervision'....

In the meantime, I am setting up Mailchimp to automatically send you the lesson of the day each day.

Namaste,

David

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Lesson 300

Only an instant does this world endure.

This is a thought which can be used to say that death and sorrow are the certain lot of all who come here, for their joys are gone before they are possessed, or even grasped. Yet this is also the idea that lets no false perception keep us in its hold, nor represent more than a passing cloud upon a sky eternally serene. And it is this serenity we seek, unclouded, obvious and sure, today.

We seek Your holy world today. For we, Your loving Sons, have lost our way a while. But we have listened to Your Voice, and learned exactly what to do to be restored to Heaven and our true Identity. And we give thanks today the world endures but for an instant. We would go beyond that tiny instant to eternity.