Lesson 218
August 6
"I am not a body. I am free. For I am still as God created me."
"Only my condemnation injures me."
"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
Condemnation does not injure the body. It reminds me of the old childhood chant, "Sticks and stones may break my bones, but names can never hurt me." I am not a body; what I am cannot be hurt by "sticks and stones." Only my own condemnation, my acceptance of those "names," can hurt me.
Haven't you called yourself names? I know I have. "You idiot!" "You are so stupid, Watson!" These self-mocking name-callings still, after all these years, pop into my head and out of my own mouth. They are only surface symptoms of a much deeper self-condemnation and mistrust of myself that is at the root of all my problems. Marianne Williamson hits near the bullseye when she says, "The ego is my self-loathing."
And when I realize that every other form of outward-directed condemnation--anger, prejudice, hatred, resentment, common dislike, even feelings of uncomfortableness around someone--are all, every one, projections of my own self-attack, then I begin to realize just how deep and how far-reaching this self-condemnation really is. This condemnation injures me. I hurl my spears of attack out at the world, and every one returns to stab me in the back. "It can be but myself I crucify" (Lesson 216).
As long as I keep this war against myself going, my eyes are sightless to see my own glory. I cannot see the Christ in myself because of the dust storm of self-condemnation, whether it is directed inward or projected outward on illusions of myself I think are outside of me. It is the constant stream of judgment that blinds me.
Today, if I only choose to do so, I can see my own glory. All that I need to do is to accept Atonement for myself. Tune out the Judgment Channel. Tune in the Forgiveness Channel. Let me be quiet now, for as long as I can, and sense the Love within: the love of God for me, His child; my love for Him; my Self's own love for me, and mine for my Self. And often, today, let me stop and remind myself that the only thing that can injure me is my own condemnation. And it is entirely within my power to choose to let that go, assisted by the Holy Spirit, my inner Self, and all the angels of Heaven.
Whenever I feel a rush of judgment within, wherever it is directed, let me bring my case to Heaven's Higher Court, and hear the Holy Spirit dismiss the case against me (T-5.VI, paragraphs 4 and 10).
Copyright © 1996, The Circle of Atonement, Sedona,
Arizona, USA.
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