LESSON 212
July 31
"I am not a body. I am free. For I am still as God created me."
"I have a function God would have me fill."
"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
What is the function God has for me? Lesson 192, which this lesson reviews, told me that, "Forgiveness represents your function here." I need to be reminded of that. My function is not some particular career or occupation. The content is what matters; the form will shape itself to that content, based on the circumstances of my life. Forgiveness is the content. If I am asking myself what my occupation should be, or what direction my life should take, let me ask myself this question: How does forgiveness best take form in my life right now? Or better yet, let me ask the Holy Spirit that question.
An "occupation" is what occupies most of my life. How, in form, can I occupy most of my life with forgiveness? How can I best serve to look upon illusions and see them disappear? How can I best serve to assist myself, and others, to let go of all guilt? How can I best reflect love in this world?
I work as a writer (you may do something quite different - fill in as you please). But that occupation is not my function; it is only one means of expressing my function, which is forgiveness - the same function God has given to all of us. The form may change or disappear; my function remains unchanged. A few years ago I was working as a computer consultant because, at that time, I felt that was the best means I had of fulfilling my function. Then, the form changed. But not the content.
Let me not seek any function in terms of form. Let me always seek the content. It is the content of forgiveness, of reflecting love in this world and releasing from guilt, that will set me free from illusions. No form can do that, since every form is itself part of the illusion. So all that I seek, and all that I lay claim to as mine, is the function God gave me (the content) and not any occupation, or job, or situation.
I am not a body (a form). I am free. I am formless, and I am therefore not tied to form of any kind.
Copyright © 1996, The Circle of Atonement, Sedona,
Arizona, USA.
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