Lesson 122
Forgiveness offers everything I want.
11 Sink into happiness as you begin these practice periods, for they hold out the sure rewards of questions answered and what your acceptance of the answer brings.
12 Before the light you will receive today the world will fade until it disappears, and you will see another world arise you have no words to picture. Now we walk directly into light, and we receive the gifts that have been held in store for us since time began, kept waiting for today.
13 Forgiveness offers everything you want.
14 Be tempted not to let your gifts slip by and drift into forgetfulness, but hold them firmly in your mind by your attempts to think of them at least a minute as each quarter of an hour passes by.
Forgiveness offers everything I want.
Today I have accepted this as true.
Today I have received the gifts of God.
These are the ideas that I am focused on. I fully understand the importance of forgiveness. I don’t need to be convinced that forgiveness offers me everything I want. I know what forgiveness is. It is the realization that I and I alone are responsible for my script so there is no one or nothing to forgive. I forgive what has not been done to me. Forgiveness is the realization that these images that represent separation, the world of time and space, the many bodies, are not real, but are illusions. I forgive the world for what I thought it was.
Now I am mastering my decision to forgive the world. Little things come up showing me what yet needs to be healed. I release them to the Holy Spirit and He heals me. Sometimes it takes but a second or two and sometimes an hour or two, but never do I ever believe it is something I want to keep. I know beyond a doubt that when a grievance enters my mind, I will not keep it. So, today I choose to remember my purpose and to stay in awareness of forgiveness and the effect of forgiveness. If I should drift into forgetfulness, I will stop long enough to restore my mind to this holy place.
Here is an example of how this works for me. I had the thought this morning that I haven’t actually spoken to my son in a few days and he is not participating in our group texts right now. This was followed by fear that he is not OK. So, I went into stillness and I looked at this with the Holy Spirit.
I received the knowing that this thought was tethering me to the world, so I released it to the Holy Spirit so that He could heal my mind and restore it to peace. I don’t want that thought back. It may show up again, but by forgiving it, I no longer need to cast my attention on it and follow it to fear and suffering. This is how I use forgiveness to lift the veil.
Afterward, I noticed that I still have a lump in my throat. That represents a part of the thought I did not give to the Holy Spirit. I looked again with Him and He showed me that there is still a belief in my mind that suffering with my son is how I love him. Of course, that is an old thought, a crazy thought, and so I gave that to Him as well and now I feel the lump dissolving.
Regina’s Tips
Are we ready to let go of trying to get what we want? Are we ready to let the universe bring what it will? Are we ready to embrace anything and everything that comes while letting go of all dissenting chatter that arises in our minds?
Are we ready?
My thoughts
For a while now, I have been questioning my wants. As soon as I think I want something, I look at it with the Holy Spirit and then I let it go to Him. I have been wrong so many times when I thought I knew what I wanted that I have given up on making those decisions on my own. From Attainment of the Real World:
12 Only the Holy Spirit knows what you need. For He will give you all things that do not block the way to light. And what else could you need? In time, He gives you all the things that you need have, and will renew them as long as you have need of them. He will take nothing from you as long as you have any need of it. And yet He knows that everything you need is temporary, and will but last until you step aside from all your needs and realize that all of them have been fulfilled. Therefore He has no investment in the things that He supplies, except to make certain that you will not use them on behalf of lingering in time. He knows that you are not at home there, and He wills no delay to wait upon your joyous homecoming.
13 Leave, then, your needs to Him. He will supply them with no emphasis at all upon them. What comes to you of Him comes safely, for He will ensure it never can become a dark spot, hidden in your mind and kept to hurt you. Under His guidance you will travel light and journey lightly, for His sight is ever on the journey’s end, which is His goal. God’s Son is not a traveler through outer worlds. However holy his perception may become, no world outside himself holds his inheritance. Within himself he has no needs, for light needs nothing but to shine in peace, and from itself to let the rays extend in quiet to infinity.
Manual for Teachers
“Changes are required in the minds of God’s teachers. This may or may not involve changes in the external situation”
I am very settled where I am and I wouldn’t want to leave my family. But, if I felt strong guidance to do so, then I would. Most of the time this doesn’t happen. Regina was guided to move. Robert and Mary were guided to move several times. But for most of us, right where we are with the challenges facing us is exactly where we need to be. There is, after all, no need to travel anywhere to find God because He is already in us and we are in Him.
What has been necessary is that I follow the training program given me for the purpose of healing my mind. I am completely dedicated to that. I want to correct as many mistakes as I can. I welcome the situations that trigger my thinking errors because it is now that I undo what was done in the past. These situations arise in my mind for that purpose alone.
There is no room in my mind for grievances or attack thoughts or judgments. When I see evidence of defensiveness on my part, I immediately sit with the Holy Spirit until I feel that I have left it with Him. I do my best to heal all relationships and it is a joy to do this. Sometimes I think it would take a miracle to heal a relationship and that is very exciting because through the Love that is God within me, I have access to just such a miracle.
Text
“You have learning handicaps in a very literal sense. There are areas in your learning skills that are so impaired that you can progress only under constant, clear-cut direction, provided by a Teacher Who can transcend your limited resources.” T12.V
A Course in Miracles has provided me with a special curriculum, and the Holy Spirit is my Teacher. It is here that I am learning about love. Mostly, I am learning what is not love.
Here are a couple things that I have learned that help me recognize what love is not. Here are some examples of the ego’s idea of love. It is not love when I yearn to be with someone because I feel empty. That is using the person, not loving them. It is not love when I think that I am incomplete, that is neediness and it too leads to using. It is not love when I comfort someone who is grieving because that person’s grief makes me uncomfortable.
Here is something else I have learned about love through my Teacher. Love isn’t something I find in someone else, and it is not something I can lose. I have learned that Love is what I am and so I don’t need someone else to provide it, nor can I lose it. And something else I learned is that in order to know the love that I am, I must share it. It is not something I get, but it is something I give, and it is something I recognize in the giving.
ACIM is a good curriculum, and the Holy Spirit is a good and faithful Teacher. I understand that I can progress only under constant, clear-cut direction, and I get this direction from Him. I choose to follow His Guidance and not turn to the ego mind that knows nothing about love.
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