May 6
"All
that I give is given to myself."
PRACTICE
SUMMARY
Longer: 2 times for15 minutesClose eyes and seek the quiet sanctuary within where thoughts are healed. Repeat idea and ask the Holy Spirit to help you understand what it means. Be glad to let Him teach you. Give Him your faith, ask Him to practice with you.
Remarks: You will understand His words and recognize them as your own. If you get a tiny glimpse of the meaning of idea, it is a glorious day for the world. For this idea gives forgiveness is proper place, its meaning and its value.
Shorter: as often as you can--do not forget for long; a moment
* Say: "All that I give is given to myself. The Help I need to learn that this is true is with me now. And I will trust in Him."
* Then in quiet, open your mind to His loving correction.
COMMENTARY
This is a lesson that clearly aims at thought reversal (1:1). It begins with the presumption that we have false ideas about forgiveness: "You do not understand forgiveness" (6:1). In the sixth paragraph it explains that our false understanding of forgiveness is the reason we cannot understand how forgiveness brings us peace, how it is a means for our release, nor how forgiveness can restore our awareness of unity with our brothers. Our misunderstanding of forgiveness is the reason that we may have had trouble really entering in to Lessons 121 and 122, which told us that forgiveness is the key to happiness and offers us everything we want.The idea that "All that I give is given to myself" is crucial to reversing our thought; understanding it would make forgiveness effortless. Paragraph 2 goes through a list of "what you do believe, in place of this idea." Let's practice some thought reversal, and reverse the meaning of this paragraph to see what is implied by this key idea for the day.
If we understood that everything we give is given to ourselves, we would realize that other people are not apart from us. Their behavior does have bearing on our thoughts, and our behavior has bearing on their thoughts. Our attitudes affect other people. Their appeals for help are intimately related to our own. They cannot be seen as "sinners" without affecting our perception of ourselves. We cannot condemn their sin without condeming ourselves and losing our peace of mind.
If we understood all this and believed it, forgiveness would happen naturally. We would realize that judging someone as sinful causes our own guilt and loss of peace, and we would not choose to do it. We would realize that how we see the other person is how we see ourselves, and we would not want to see ourselves that way. We would learn very quickly to perceive that their ego actions are not sins but calls for help, closely tied to our own calls for help, and we would respond accordingly. We would know that our judgmental attitude has an adverse effect on the behavior of others, and would choose to change our attitude. We would adjust our thoughts so as to have a beneficial effect on their behavior instead of a detrimental effect. We would recognize that we are not separate and apart, but share in the same struggle with fears and doubts, as well as sharing in the release from those things.
Given all this we could understand how forgiveness is the key to happiness. We would see that if judging causes loss of peace, that forgiveness could bring us to peace again. We would understand how forgiveness restores our awareness of unity with one another. We could see how forgiveness can release us from what seems to be a problem with someone else.
The practice today is really a kind of thinking meditation. We are asked to come to the Holy Spirit with today's idea, "All that I give is given to myself," and to open ourselves to His Help in learning that it is true, "opening your mind to His correction and His love" (11:6). We are asking for help in understanding what today's idea means (10:2), and what forgiveness really means. We are reflecting on the ideas with His assistance, asking for new insights, new understandings.
Our behavior, our attitudes, and our painful experiences in this world are all evidence that we do need to have our thoughts corrected. If we truly believed what today's idea says, we would not be having these painful experiences. We must have false ideas still lodged in our minds, and we need to be healed. Perhaps we think we understand what is being said, and no doubt there is a part of us that resonates with them or we would not be studying these lessons. It is the other part we are concerned about, the hidden warriors, the contrary beliefs we have dissociated and even hidden from conscious awareness.
If we ask for help sincerely, help will be given (8:3). Today will bring new understanding. Perhaps it will come in the form of new insights as we meditate. Perhaps it will come in the labortory of life, as circumstances shock us into awareness of how we still believe one or another of the ideas this lessons mentions in describing what we do believe in place of today's idea. But it will come.
"The help I need to learn that this is true is with me now. And I will trust in Him" (11:4-5).
Copyright © 1996, The Circle of Atonement, Sedona,
Arizona, USA.
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