LESSON 210
July 29
"I am not a body. I am free. For I am still as God created me."
"I choose the joy of God instead of pain."
"I am not a body. I am free. For I am still as God created me."
PRACTICE SUMMARY
Review VI
Purpose: To carefully review the last 20 lessons, each of which contains the whole curriculum and is therefore sufficient for salvation, if understood, practiced, accepted and applied without exception.
Morning/Evening Quiet Time: 15 minutes - at least
Repeat: "I am not a body. I am free. For I am still as God created me."
Close eyes and relinquish all that clutters the mind; forget all you thought you knew. Give the time to the Holy Spirit, your Teacher. If you notice an idle thought, immediately deny its hold, assuring your mind that you do not want it. Then let it be given up and replaced with today's idea. Say: "This thought I do not want. I choose instead (today's idea)."
Remarks: We are attempting to go beyond special forms of practice because we are attempting a quicker pace and shorter path to our goal.
Hourly Remembrance: Repeat: "I am not a body. I am free. For I am still as God created me."
Frequent Reminder: as often as possible, as often as you can. Repeat: "I am not a body. I am free. For I am still as God created me."
Response To Temptation: permit no idle thought to go unchallenged.
If you are tempted by an idle thought, immediately deny its hold, assuring your mind that you do not want it. Then let it be given up and replaced with today's idea. Say: "This thought I do not want. I choose instead (today's idea)."
COMMENTARY
If we saw, clearly, that this was our choice - JOY or PAIN - would there be any difficulty in making the choice?
Learning that this is the only choice is what takes so much time.
We are so confused about what brings us joy. We are quite convinced that our bodies can bring us joy. We are certain that a good, romantic relationship would bring us joy (Is that an oxymoron, "a good, romantic relationship"?). We are very sure that giving up certain things in this world would bring us a great deal of pain. It takes time, and sometimes the illusion of "giving up," to learn that we give up nothing. "It takes great learning both to realize and to accept the fact that the world has nothing to give" (ACIM Manual, 13.2:1).
"Pain is my own idea" (1:2). What a stunning statement! Pain is an idea I thought up independently of God. In fact, pain is thinking independently of God. Pain is trying to find happiness in this world. I have taught myself that the greatest pleasure of all is total autonomy, complete independence, absolute self-sufficiency. I have chosen this, and in doing so, invented pain. Now, I am unlearning what I taught myself. Now, I am learning to choose God's Will instead of what I made, joy instead of pain. "I am teaching you to associate misery with the ego and joy with the spirit." (T-4.VI.5:6)
Let me realize today that in saying, "I am not a body," I am choosing joy instead of pain. In continuing to affirm, "I am a body," I am choosing pain instead of joy.
Copyright © 1996, The Circle of Atonement, Sedona,
Arizona, USA.
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