Sean Reagan

The third review period in the ACIM workbook makes a couple of helpful observations about our practice of the lessons.

First, it emphasizes that we are not to get overly-worked up about those times when we are unable to meet a specific practice session. Rituals are not our learning goal (W-pI.rIII.2:4).

Indeed, allowing our practice to become merely mechanical is self-defeating because it denies our mind an active role in its own learning.

Just as self-defeating, however, is failing to notice when we are using adverse circumstances as an excuse for failing to practice. Too easily we can use the details of our lives to avoid responsibility for our ACIM practice. Doing so is a form of unwillingness, and the workbook urges us to be vigilant against this.

Unwillingness can be most carefully concealed behind a cloak of situations you cannot control. Learn to distinguish situations that are poorly suited to your practicing from those that you establish to uphold a camouflage for your unwillingness (W-pI.rIII.3:3-40).

And yet, even when we do utilize life situations as a means of avoiding healing, the effects are neither permanent nor catastrophic. We simply come back to the missed session and do it now that we are ready and willing (W-pI.rIII.4:1).

There are no consequences to our apparent failure, other than we linger a little longer in time than is necessary.

This all has to do with the value which we assign our practice. The value we perceive in practicing is correlated to the extent we are willing to “cooperate in practicing salvation” (W-pI.rIII.4:2). Thus, when we find ourselves finding lots of reasons to avoid A Course in Miracles, we can set aside a little time to investigate our commitment.

How badly do we want to be saved? How ready are we to let go of the world and its worries and give attention instead to the one who has established the healing plan of salvation? The Holy Spirit waits on nothing but our willingness, and this is a function of how badly we want to remember what we are in truth.

When we do this with this review sequence – when our practice is committed in a reasonable sustainble way – then we can rest in faith that the end of our practicing is nigh.

Place the ideas within your mind, and let it use them as it chooses. Give it faith that it will use them wisely, being helped in its decisions by the One Who gave the thoughts to you . . . Have faith, in these reviews, the means the Holy Spirit uses will not fail (W-pI.rIII.6:1-2, 4).

The truth is, we are looking for proof that A Course in Miracles works! We want to know that we are not wasting our time and energy. We want to know that the promises of the Atonement really are ours for the asking.

God is not disappointed in us for this, and his appointed Teacher will not disappoint in turn. The gifts of our practice are tangible and real (W-pI.rIII.9:3).

Finally, this review period emphasizes the practicality of A Course in Miracles and urges us to think of it as such. The lessons are not meant to be litanies or rituals; rather, they are tools which we can bring into all the apparent circumstances of our living. We need observe no separation between the course and our lives in the world.

Do not repeat the thought and lay it down. Its usefulness is limitless to you. And it is meant to serve you in all ways, all times and places, and whenever you need help of any kind (W-pI.rIII.10:3-5).

Thus, rather than be bored with the repetition of yet another review session, let us use it throughout our day in order that the day might be made holy, “worthy of God’s Son, acceptable to God and to your Self” (W-pI.rIII.11:6).

To give and receive are one in truth.

A Course in Miracles aims to teach its students how to see only what is the same and, critically, to see what is the same as one (W-pI.108.2:3). To see this way is a form of Vision, or knowledge, a state of mind that is so unified that “darkness cannot be perceived at all” (W-pI.108.2:2).

Here, the “light” that makes this sight possible, and the “darkness” that is undone accordingly, refer not to what the body’s eyes perceive but rather to what the mind knows. For example, the body’s eyes percieve a person weeping at a funeral but the mind knows only the cry for love that image represents. It also knows how to respond to that cry with love.

Today’s lesson asks us to apply this understanding to our experience of giving and receiving. Essentially, it will reverse the world’s understanding of these apparent actions and instead suggest that “to give is to receive” (W-pI.108.7:3).

Today we will attempt to offer peace to everyone, and see how quickly peace returns to us. Light is tranquility, and in that peace is vision given us, and we can see (W-pI.108.7:4-5).

So we are not talking about bringing donuts to work or hugging everyone hello or taking the dog for a longer walk. Do those things or don’t do those things! But don’t confuse them for the cause of peace.

Turn, rather, the abstract level of the mind. Take a moment or two to become quiet and still. And then – in that state of calm recollection – gently name the gifts you would offer everyone in the world (broadly defined to include whales and roses, strangers and rain clouds). In silence, name them. In stillness, given them.

What you want for the world is what you want for your very own self: peace, tranquility, happiness, rest. The name you give the feeling does not matter, nor does the form by which the feeling is brought forth. Each is merely a reflection of “the one Thought which underlies them all” (W-pI.108.6:3).

When we do this lesson sincerely, when we are truly open to receiving the gift of peace which is our inheritance in Creation, then this quiet space of offering love will bring forth in us the love we are giving. We will see clearly that in order to offer it, we must have it, and because offering does not diminish its abundance in us, then it must be a quality of our being right here and now.

Then we can truly rest in happiness and peace because we know – we are in the light of knowing – that we remain as God created us, and that everyone remains in Creation with us (e.g., W-pI.94.3:3-4). Giving and receiving themselves dissolve for there is only one mind and only one thought.

There is no cause for worry that the world of form – its many apparent minds and many apparent thoughts, almost all of them in conflict – persists. Think of this not as a failure on your part but as an opportunity to share with others the joy that is given to them but remains obscured by confusion and projection.

Our practice is not to dwell on the one who is weeping nor the one is singing but rather to give attention to the cry for love and the love that is endlessly helpfully responding. Both are in us as conditions of our creation. Today, by practicing seeing giving and receiving as one, we remind ourselves of what we are in truth, taking yet another step towards the fullness of God.

←Lesson 107
Lesson 109→

Truth will correct all errors in my mind.

Errors and illusions are synonymous in A Course in Miracles. To perceive illusions is to mistake what one perceives – to be in error with respect to what it is and what it is for. Errors and illusions happen at the level of mind; the world of form – bodies, buildings, landscapes et cetera – merely reflect the error.

Thus, errors are psychological deviations from truth; when they are brought to truth, they are ended because of what truth is. Truth is the light that shines away our confusion and aligns our mind with love.

Importantly, we do not need to seek truth. We do not need to establish truth. We merely need to consent to the conditions that allow us to see truth without hindrance. This requires a willingness to look at whatever it is that obstructs truth.

We have to be willing to look at both the content of our minds and the processes of our minds that obscure what is true, real and creative.

This willingness to look at error arises in the context of a relationship with our brothers and sisters that is guided by our shared relationship with the Holy Spirit, who is the Voice for God and thus the Voice for truth. The journey to correction, and to the peace correction entails, is not a solo venture. It is cooperative. We need each other. When we accept this need, and allow it to guide our decision-making, the relationships brought forth are holy.

Begin by asking Him Who goes with you upon this undertaking that He be in your awareness as you go with Him. You are not made of flesh and blood and bone, but were created by the selfsame Thought which gave the gift of life to Him as well. He is your Brother and so like to you your Father knows that You are both the same (W-pI.107.8:1-3).

The suggestion here is twofold: our brothers and sisters share our desire for peace and healing, and the Holy Spirit both reminds us of this fact and enables us – with our brothers and sisters – to manifest this healing in the world, in whatever form is most helpful to the world.

This is both abstract and concrete. It is abstract in the sense that we are tuning into the Holy Spirit, seeking its clear calm guidance beyond the static of ego. It is concrete in that whatever the circumstances of our living – at work, with our kids, getting an oil change, cooking dinner, checking for texts – we will be told exactly what to do and say.

Being told “exactly what to do and say” will always reflect ACIM’s general mandate that we are only here – in this body in this world – to be “truly helpful” (T-2.V.A.18:2).

Thus, what we learn when we live this way, is that it is our own self we are inviting to go with us and the invitation is the realization we cannot be apart from our own self (W-pI.107.8:4).

Truth will correct all errors in your mind which tell you you could be apart from Him. You speak to Him today, and make your pledge to let His function be fulfilled through you (W-pI.107.9:1-2).

Thus, in our practice of this lesson, we can glimpse – and perhaps begin to experience in a felt way – our oneness with each other, through the gentle sharing of the Holy Spirit in our mind. It is this relationship, at once both intimate and public, in which we open in ways which allow God to take “the last step” (e.g., T-7.I.7:8).

Today, let us be as happy as God intends, which intention is made clear in our mind, and which we share with all the world.

←Lesson 106
Lesson 108→

I am spirit (Lesson 97)
I will accept my part in God’s plan for salvation (Lesson 98)

In many ways, A Course in Miracles is a correction to a fundamental spiritual identity crisis. We have forgotten what we are, and therefore have forgotten our function, and therefore have become deeply confused about reality.

A Course in Miracles offers clear – sometimes so painfully clear we resist seeing them – answers to those questions.

We have forgotten what we are. We think we are bodies, and are thus limited to the body’s vulnerabilities. We are subject to time – are ravaged by it until we die, and in its interims suffer all kinds of sicknesses and injuries, both physical and psychological.

So we become scared and defensive. We plot and plan, always trying to make better a dream which shifts and changes on its surface but never surrenders its commitment to death.

But we are not bodies! We are spirit, Thoughts in the Mind of God, forever extending in and through creation as creation.

And when we see this clearly – when we begin to accept it as our reality, no matter how persistent the dream of bodies appears – then we also remember our function. We are here to accept God’s plan for salvation.

People say: but I don’t know what the plan is. That’s okay! The plan is not ours, because our planning is always tainted with ego’s agenda for its own welfare, which always involves getting rather giving, and forcing others to suffer. Ego cannot touch God’s plan; only spirit can align itself with what is salvational.

All we have to do in order to accept God’s plan, is to be as helpful as possible. Cooperate with others rather than compete with them. Don’t hurt people. If you do hurt them, apologize and resolve to do better.

In very ordinary ways, be the kindest and gentlest person you can be. Simply give attention to this – make this the essence of your behavioral practice, the way that you live in a body in the world – and let the rest of it all settle in whatever way it chooses.

In this way, our misunderstanding of reality is gently and speedily corrected. It is not a thing we do, but rather a thing which is done through us. We are more like witnesses to healing, like minds observing their own cloudiness slowly dissolving into a radiant light.

We don’t have to hustle for this grace. We don’t have to do anything other than be willing to get out of our own way, which we accomplish by making ourselves of service to our brothers and sisters (who includes dogs, horses, lobsters and birch trees).

In our practice today – in the attention we give these ideas – let us be willing to see the world healed, not as a personal accomplishment of our own, but rather as a grace-filled surrender to Love. In truth, there is nothing else we want.

←Lesson 113
Lesson 115→

Let me be still and listen to the truth.

Lesson 106 holds a dual message: it teaches us how to hear truth, and it reminds us what that truth is. If you study the lesson carefully, it is urging you not only to listen but teaching you what to listen for.

The “how” part is relatively straightforward. We create a space in our living in which we can become still. A space where we can sit or kneel or lie in silence, hang a do not disturb sign, and give attention only for the Voice of the Holy Spirit.

In order to listen for the Holy Spirit, we have to avoid listening to ego, whose fractious voice speaks only for the concerns of the world and body. People have to be nicer to me! I have to be more beautiful! I like chocolate better than prayer. And so on.

So each time those thoughts arise we let them pass, giving attention instead to the silence of the heart, where mind’s mental acrobatics are useless.

That’s a highly poetic way of saying “notice how awareness is not verbal or even formal.”

This is a form of contemplative prayer as Thomas Merton envisioned it – “a ‘return to the heart,’ finding one’s deepest center, awakening the profound depths of our being in the presence of God.”

. . . the true contemplative is not the one who prepares his mind for a particular message that he wants or expects to hear, but who remains empty because he knows that he can never expect or anticipate the word that will transform his darkness into light. He does not even anticipate a special kind of transformation. He does not demand light instead of darkness. He waits on the Word of God in silence, and when he is “answered,” it is not so much by a word that bursts into his silence. It is by his silence suddenly, inexplicably revealing itself to him as a word of great power, full of the voice of God (Contemplative Prayer).

So we do nothing; hold nothing; privilege nothing. We simply rest in the deepest, most sustainable silence with which we can make contact and trust it is sufficient.

Our trust makes the silence sufficient. And so the silence becomes the Word given by the Voice for which we wait.

Thus, the second part of Lesson 106 tells us what we are listening for: “hear your Father speak to you through his appointed Voice, which silences the thunder of the meaningless, and shows the way to peace to those who cannot see (W-pI.106.2:1).

That voice has one message: you are entitled to miracles (W-pI.106.4:8) and “the holy Word of God is kept through you receiving it to give away, so you can teach the world what giving means by listening and learning it of Him” (W-pI.106.10:1).

Thus does salvation start and thus it ends; when everything is yours and everything is given away, it will remain with you forever. And the lesson has been learned (W-pI.106:7:1-2).

The giving contemplated by this lesson is not the giving the world recognizes. It is not the slice of pie you give to your brother. It is not even noticing that your sister is hungry and would benefit from a piece of your pie.

Rather, it is the recognition that your brothers and sisters are guiltless – perfect creations of God – each a light shining in the darkness of confusion and fear. They are the brave and devoted responders to our call for love.

When we see someone in this way – as the bringer of salvation – it means that we are no longer projecting fear and hate onto them. That is the gift we give to them, and that is the gift they give us.

Lesson 106 calls us to become nonviolent activists for a Love which does not recognize differences. All we have to do is give ourselves wholly to the lesson. When we sit in silence, no matter how hard we wrestle with ego, a thousand other minds awaken, each joining their little light to our own (W-pI.106.9:2).

These brothers and sisters are us, a unity we become ready to learn when we no longer equate giving with losing. We only have one brother; we only have one sister. Lesson 106 invites us to remember this, and in remembering it, remember that it symbolizes that God’s Creation is One.

←Lesson 105
Lesson 107→

God’s peace and joy are mine.

Fundamental to the thought system A Course in Miracles teaches is the idea that by giving we gain. As the world sees it, to give is to lose while the receiver gains. A Course in Miracles insists that everyone gains.

If we buy into the world’s understanding of gifts, then we will think that God’s peace and joy are commodities that we can own and that while we own them, others can’t. We might share them; we might lend them out. But they do belong to us.

By asking us to focus on this aspect of gift-giving, the course gently invites us to realize again that we are not bodies, and that our identity is yoked to the extension of love in communion with all. It is only when we accept this love that we know what we are in truth; it is only when we accept this love that we have anything meaningful to share.

Today’s accept God’s peace and joy as yours. Let Him complete Himself as He defines completion . . . He cannot give through loss. No more can you (W-pI.105.5:1-2, 4-5).

In other words, that which completes God – which makes God, God – is also that which complete’s God’s Creation (W-pI.105.5:3). It is only as we remember that we are not apart from God, that God is made whole and radiates love, joy and peace for all life.

Thus, we do not have enemies. We cannot have them. To hold a brother or sister apart from salvation is to deny salvation’s existence, because salvation is accepting our brother and sister as our very own self.

God’s Will for us is joy and peace. When we accept that God is made whole by our acceptance, and that those gifts can only be extended as a condition of what God is, then we will remember our own holiness, our own truth.

When we give to our brothers and sisters, we are given in return a blessing, and we are gifted by our brothers and sisters, then we give them a blessing. This is the way of love; this is the way we remember our Self.

←Lesson 104
Lesson 106→