LESSON 178 (REVIEW V)
June 27
"God is but Love, and therefore so am I."
"Let not my mind deny the thought of God."
"I am entrusted with the gifts of God."
PRACTICE SUMMARY
REVIEW V
Purpose: To prepare for part II of the Workbook. To give more time and effort to practicing, that you may hasten your slow, wavering and uncertain footsteps, and go on with more faith, certainty and sincerity. Make this review a gift to Jesus and a time in which you share with him a new yet ancient experience.
Central Thought: "God is but Love, and therefore so am I." This thought should start and end each day, start and end each practice period, and be repeated before and after each thought to be reviewed. Each of these thoughts, in turn, should be used to support this central thought, keep it clear in mind, and make it more meaningful, personal and true.
Morning/Evening Quiet Time: 5 minutes - at least; 10 - better; 15 even better; 30 or more - best
Repeat and dwell on central thought and review thoughts.
Let go of the words, which are only aids. Try to go beyond their sound to their meaning. Wait for experience, place your faith in it, not the means to it. If your mind wanders, repeat the central thought.
ose with the central thought.
Hourly Remembrance: as the hour strikes more than 1 minute (reduce if circumstances do not permit)
(Suggestion) Repeat the central thought and the review thoughts slowly enough to see and receive their gifts. Spend a quiet moment with them.
Frequent Reminder: Take one of the review thoughts and surround it with the central thought ("God is but Love, and therefore so am I."). Use the review thoughts to keep the central thought clear in our memory throughout the day.
Response To Temptation: (Suggestion) When tempted, respond with a review thought, the central thought, or both.
COMMENTARY
Comments on Review Introduction, paragraph 10.
The practice of the Workbook is meant to induce, not just new thoughts and new permutations of thoughts, but an experience: "a new experience for you, yet one as old as time and older still" (10:1). How can an experience be older than time? How but in being part of eternity? "The holy instant reaches to eternity, and to the Mind of God" ( T-15.V.11:5). "The holy instant is a miniature of eternity" (T-17.IV.11:4). These times spent in quiet with God are occasions when we step out of time and into timelessness; what we experience here is older than time, incredibly ancient and yet immediately present, always present.
We are experiencing our Self. "Hallowed your name. Your glory undefiled forever" (10:2-3). These are words that sound to us (if our background is Christian, at any rate) as if they should be spoken of God. Yet here they are spoken of you and of me. What is it like to experience such a thing? What is it like to know yourself as One of whom these words can be spoken? I do not think words can convey it, although many have attempted to do so. What is required is an experience; then, words become unnecessary and even unwanted.
"There is a kind of experience so different from anything the ego can offer that you will never want to cover or hide it again" (T-4.III.5:1). That is what we are seeking in these quiet times. Not desperately or anxiously, not with concern or fear it will not come to us, but peacefully, quietly, trustingly. We cannot force it to happen, we can only "let" it happen. In this moment we can experience our "wholeness now complete, as God established it" (10:4). Once you have known your own wholeness, why would you ever again want to cover or hide it? Only the lie that what you are is something you do not want to know could have ever persuaded you to hide it. Outside the holy instant our Self is surrounded by a ring of fear; we shy away from approaching the Self because we have been tricked into believing that what we will find is fearful.
The time it seems to take to find the holy instant is not because it is mysterious and inaccessible; the time is only the measure of our fear of our Self. It takes this time to gently still our fears, until we are ready to find the Self that lies outside of time, older than time itself, whole and complete as God created It. This Self is the Thought of God. Our unawareness of it is only our denial of this Thought. Our experience of it is only the ending of our denial. The Self does not change, nor come and go. It IS.
In this Self we are "completing His extension in your own" (10:5). The creative extension of God is made complete as we, in turn, extend ourselves. The Love that made us flows through us to enliven others. We are practicing what we have always known; we knew it before the ancient truth seemed to disappear into illusion, and we will know it again. In the holy instant we know it now. And what we know is this: We are entrusted with the gifts of God. Our giving of them completes His giving. "We remind the world that it is free of all illusions every time we say: God is but Love, and therefore so am I" (10:7,8).
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Arizona, USA.
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