A Course in Miracles Lesson Insights

To gain the most from A Course in Miracles Lesson Insights, we recommend that you
read the corresponding lesson in the Workbook of the Second or
Third Edition of A Course in Miracles published by the Foundation for Inner Peace.
Click here to read or listen to this ACIM Workbook Lesson online.

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Listen to Lesson 352 Insights

ACIM Workbook Lesson 352 Insights

“Judgment and love are opposites. From one
Come all the sorrows of the world. But from
The other comes the peace of God Himself.”

If I am not feeling peaceful, it is important for me to remember that I have made a judgment on my own. If I am not peaceful, I have not listened to the Holy Spirit. The way I return to peace is to once again open my mind to the healing perceptions of my inner Comforter, the One Who straightens my mind. My one vocation now becomes that of stepping back and following the lead of my inner Teacher, the One Who can return me to my true Identity.

I can tell right away when I have stepped away from the Holy Spirit’s guidance. And the barometer that tells me this is my level of peace. Paying attention to my level of peace helps me recognize the signal that it is time to again step back and open my mind for a mental adjustment. I have forgotten once again that I need to allow the Holy Spirit to return my mind to peace. Judgment brings sorrow. Forgiveness brings peace.

Today it is my practice once again to pay attention to my level of peace. Today it is my practice to step back and let myself be guided by the Holy Spirit. Today is a day of mind healing.

Judgment is not my job. I have taught myself that judgment is an essential tool for survival. I need it to protect myself from the evils of the world, from other people’s attacks, from the dangers of the environment, even from those who I believe love me. Judgment is the primary tool of the ego to hold separation in place in my mind. It is judgment that reinforces that I am different from everything and everyone else.

The ego does not want us to recognize the pain that judgment brings. In fact it tries to convince us that judgment is the way we protect ourselves from pain. It does not tell us that the “life” that judgment protects is not life at all, but really death. Judgment “protects” us from the Love of God, which the ego fears.

Here again we see the insanity of the ego. It seeks endlessly for Love, but fears It, and therefore does not really want It. No one finds what they do not want. And so the ego’s mode of operation of seek and do not find is held in place.

Yet beneath that ego fear, the Love that we are calls to us. We feel Its attraction and we yearn to remember It. It is there to be found. We need only follow the Guide Who knows the way to It. The ego does not know the way, because it does not know what Love is, being itself the rejection of Love. But the Holy Spirit knows the way, being the messenger of Love in our minds.

All I need to do is practice listening for the Holy Spirit’s guidance in my mind. He will judge all things for me on my behalf if I will let Him. Because His judgment is very simple, it sees only what is real and rejects the unreal. His judgment leads me out of the pain of the judgment I have tried to do on my own. The Holy Spirit knows how to judge truly. Thus listening to His Voice is the means by which I am freed from all sorrow and my mind is opened to the peace of God.

Today I will practice stepping back and following. I would not lead. I would follow in His footsteps as He leads me back to the memory of my Father, to the Self that God created to be Love and nothing else. Thus will I receive God’s peace and share it with all my brothers.

I am having an issue with my supervisor right now and I sense that she’s being distant and somewhat cold with me. I believe that part of that perception comes from my own paranoia, my own insecurities when I forget who I am. But most of it is from that judgment you speak of, that tool that I think I need to protect me from the evils of the world.

So then what happens is that I put on those gloves of defense and prepare to protect myself in case my supervisor says or does something that I perceive as hurtful. And if she senses that I’m wearing defense gloves, naturally, she’s going to put gloves on to protect HERSELF, and the ego is standing back enjoying the victory.

The Course asks me to think of my brother as a mind in which illusions still persist. These lessons help me to remember, not only who I am, but also who my supervisor is. My supervisor’s peace and mine are One. I now choose to step back, make no judgment on myself or my supervisor. I ask Holy Spirit to help me see this situation as He would have me see it, and I know, without a doubt, that by the end of my work day, I will have peace. Thank you, Holy Spirit.

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