Yesterday morning, while reading the day’s lesson, Lesson 329, I have already chosen what you will, I found the prayer to be particularly poetic and began wondering if this were a sonnet by Jesus, hidden in the prose, one of several I have found sprinkled throughout the Text and Workbook.
Father, I thought I wandered from Your Will, defied it, broke its laws, and interposed a second will more powerful than Yours. Yet what I am in truth is but Your Will, extended and extending. This am I, and this will never change. As You are One, so am I one with You. And this I chose in my creation, where my will became forever one with Yours. That choice was made for all eternity. It cannot change, and be in opposition to itself. Father, my will is Yours. And I am safe, untroubled and serene, in endless joy, because it is Your Will that it be so.
Curiously, I started at the beginning of the prayer, counting ten syllables, then starting a new line, Et Voila! fourteen lines emerged from the prose, a sonnet marching stately across the page in a gentle cadence.
FATH er, i THOUGHT i WAN dered FROM your WILL,
de FIED it, BROKE its LAWS, and IN ter POSED
a second will more powerful than Yours.
Yet what I am in truth is but Your Will,
extended and extending. This am I,
and this will never change. As You are One,
so am I one with You. And this I chose
in my creation, where my will became
forever one with Yours. That choice was made
for all eternity. It cannot change,
and be in opposition to itself.
Father, my will is Yours. And I am safe,
untroubled and serene, in endless joy,
because it is Your Will that it be so.
This rhythm is iambic pentameter, five sets of iambs, slack STRESS. The one exception is FATH er, which is a trochee, STRESS slack.
Trust your ear to find the stresses, five per line, and then read it slowly aloud, finding a soft, stately cadence, and soon your heartbeat, ta DUM, ta DUM, will align with Jesus’ slack STRESS, slack STRESS, and you will discover:
My heart is beating in the peace of God. (Lesson 267)
Notice how Jesus uses the convention to blend the rhythm and the sense in this sentence:
As YOU are ONE,
so AM i ONE with YOU.
In the first clause, YOU and ONE receive the stress, emphasizing Oneness, and in the second clause, ONE is stressed, but not the i. If the i were stressed, it would prevent the blending into Oneness:
so I am ONE with YOU.
This particular sonnet is divided into three parts. In part one, the separation is emphasized. In part two, the Oneness is expressed, and in part three, the consequence of Oneness is emphasized: safety, serenity, and joy.
Now, I will contrast Jesus’ sonnet with a sonnet by Shakespeare, selecting one of my favorites, Sonnet 55.
Not MAR ble, NOR the GILD ed MON u MENTS
of PRIN ces, SHALL out LIVE this POWR’ ful RHYME;
But you shall shine more bright in these contents
Than unswept stone, besmear'd with sluttish time.
When wasteful war shall statues overturn,
And broils root out the work of masonry,
Nor Mars his sword, nor war's quick fire shall burn
The living record of your memory.
'Gainst death, and all oblivious enmity
Shall you pace forth; your praise shall still find room
Even in the eyes of all posterity
That wear this world out to the ending doom.
So, till the judgment that yourself arise,
You live in this, and dwell in lovers' eyes.
The Shakespearian sonnet, and it is hard to believe that he wrote 154 of them, is divided into three 4 line stanzas, and a rhyming couplet. The rhythm is iambic pentameter.
If you have a keen eye, you may have seen the irregularity of the iambic pattern in line 11:
Even in the eyes of all posterity
It scans like this:
E ven /in the EYES /of ALL /pos TER /i TY
Sometimes, Shakespeare varies the rhythm. In this case the first foot (E ven) is a trochee, STRESS slack, like FATH er, and the second (in the EYES) is an anapest, slack slack STRESS, and the last three are iambs.
Notice that the end rhymes of each stanza follow a certain pattern: the first and third rhyme
(-ments. –tents), and second and fourth (rhyme, time).
As far as content, this sonnet is a testament to the power of the sonnet form, whether Jesus’ or Shakespeare’s. This powerful form will outlive monuments in space and time. Wars will not wipe it out. As long as there are readers, the sonnet lives, and his beloved lives as well. She attains immortality in these lines. She lives again as we read it, now.
In fact, Shakespeare uses the word “live”, or a form of it, four times:
line 2, outlive; line 8, living; line 9, oblivious; and line 14, live
In Jesus’ sonnet, the lines live in us as we read them, hearing Him speak to us from within, His voice as rhythmic as our beating heart, and we hear Him speaking not about immortality, but of resurrection. Each moment we experience Oneness, we resurrect, relinquishing the crucifixion of wandering from God’s will.
THANK you, FATH er.
Sunday, November 27, 2005
Thursday, November 17, 2005
"We have met the enemy, and they is us," Pogo.
You know, it all just comes down to a bad habit. We have the habit of looking out into the world and finding ourselves a victim of what we see, thinking that what we see out there is separate from us, and furthermore, that what we see is the cause of what we experience within. We think we are the effect of an external cause.
For example, we cross paths with a person who seems to be our enemy, and we react with anger and contempt. This is just a bad habit because it turns out that there are no enemies outside of us, except what we project from our minds. We look within, first, to see what is without, and what is without always is secondary. We are, in fact, the cause of an external effect.
This is classically expressed in Walt Kelly’s comic strip, “Pogo,” on Earth Day, 1970, when Pogo says, “We have met the enemy, and they is us.”
Since seeing the enemy out there happens so rapidly and unconsciously, we need to slow it down so that we can become aware of exactly how the projection occurs. First, we start with your mind, and in your mind are only two states, one unreal, and one real. The unreal is a state of mind of conflict, through which the ego sees. The real is the state of mind of the peace of God, through which the Christ sees. When you see an enemy out there, it is because you made a choice, automatically, rapidly, and unconsciously to project from the state of mind of conflict and see through the eyes of the ego. When the enemy is transformed before your very eyes into your brother, your neighbor, it is because you chose to ask for help to extend love and see through the eyes of Christ. Jesus says it this way in His unworldly masterpiece, A Course in Miracles.
I said before that what you project or extend is up to you, but you must do one or the other, for that is a law of mind, and you must look in before you look out. As you look in, you choose the guide for seeing. And then you look out and behold his witnesses. This is why you find what you seek. What you want in yourself you will make manifest, and you will accept it from the world because you put it there by wanting it. T-12.V11.7:1-5
In a remarkable poem, The Man He Killed, Thomas Hardy (1840-1928), gives us an example of how the narrator makes the shift from projecting the enemy to extending the Christ.
"Had he and I but met
By some old ancient inn,
We should have set us down to wet
Right many a nipperkin!
But ranged as infantry,
And staring face to face,
I shot at him as he at me,
And killed him in his place.
I shot him dead because--
Because he was my foe,
Just so: my foe of course he was;
That's clear enough; although
He thought he'd 'list, perhaps,
Off-hand like--just as I--
Was out of work--had sold his traps--
No other reason why.
Yes; quaint and curious war is!
You shoot a fellow down
You'd treat, if met where any bar is,
Or help to half a crown."
The poem begins with the narrator reflecting on the action, at some point after it occurred. I imagine the narrator to be in a bar right now, wetting many small beer glasses. In the first stanza, he is looking back and seeing through the eyes of Christ the man he killed as a brother, as a neighbor. In the second stanza, he recalls how he first saw him on the battlefield as the enemy, after all, he had been trained to kill his enemy. The remarkable thing about stanza three is that you can see the shift beginning to occur.
“I shot him dead because—
And now the ordinarily automatic, rapid thought is slowed down; he can’t find the answer, and then he does come up with it because of his conditioning.
Because he was my foe,
Just so: my foe of course he was
Look at how slow that line moves, as if he’s trying to push away cobwebs. I read it stressing each of these words and pausing after each: so:, foe, course, was.
That’s clear enough, although
But he can’t maintain the thought, the rationalization, the projection is loosening, as the although takes him to his kinship with his “enemy.”
--just as I—
In the last stanza, the projection slips, and he sees him through the eyes of Christ.
The quotation marks around the poem show that he is telling this as a story, giving away his hard-earned truth in order to keep it. You hold onto it by giving it away. You learn by teaching.
His enemy was never out there, separate from the narrator’s thoughts. When his thoughts came from conflict, he saw his enemy; when they came from love, he saw someone exactly like himself, the Christ. We are asked only to be still, to slow down our thoughts, as the narrator did, and ask for help from the Holy Spirit, the Voice for God, to make the shift to the state of mind of the peace of God. If we don’t learn to slow down, as the narrator did in stanza three, we will crucify our “enemies,” when all the time we have the power of decision to resurrect.
Now, you and I are blessed to be able to hear Jesus speak to us through His Course in Miracles, and give us precise, clear instructions on how to make this shift in our minds, knowing now that what is within only appears as without.
Select one brother, symbol of the rest,
and ask salvation of him. See him first
as clearly as you can, in that same form
to which you are accustomed. See his face,
his hands and feet, his clothing. Watch him smile,
and see familiar gestures which he makes
so frequently. Then think of this: What you
are seeing now conceals from you the sight
of one who can forgive you all your sins;
whose sacred hands can take away the nails
which pierce your own, and lift the crown of thorns
which you have placed upon your bleeding head.
Ask this of him, that he may set you free:
Give me your blessing, holy Son of God.
I would behold you with the eyes of Christ,
and see my perfect sinlessness in you.
And He will answer Whom you called upon.
For He will hear the Voice for God in you,
and answer in your own. Behold him now,
whom you have seen as merely flesh and bone,
and recognize that Christ has come to you.
Today's idea is your safe escape
from anger and from fear. Be sure you use
it instantly, should you be tempted to
attack a brother and perceive in him
the symbol of your fear. And you will see
him suddenly transformed from enemy
to savior; from the devil into Christ.
W-p1.161.11,12
Finally, for a fuller treatment of exactly how you naturally project and how you can learn to extend, read Jesus' words in His Course in Miracles, Chapter 12, Section 7, "Looking Within."
http://acim.home.att.net/text-12-07.html
For example, we cross paths with a person who seems to be our enemy, and we react with anger and contempt. This is just a bad habit because it turns out that there are no enemies outside of us, except what we project from our minds. We look within, first, to see what is without, and what is without always is secondary. We are, in fact, the cause of an external effect.
This is classically expressed in Walt Kelly’s comic strip, “Pogo,” on Earth Day, 1970, when Pogo says, “We have met the enemy, and they is us.”
Since seeing the enemy out there happens so rapidly and unconsciously, we need to slow it down so that we can become aware of exactly how the projection occurs. First, we start with your mind, and in your mind are only two states, one unreal, and one real. The unreal is a state of mind of conflict, through which the ego sees. The real is the state of mind of the peace of God, through which the Christ sees. When you see an enemy out there, it is because you made a choice, automatically, rapidly, and unconsciously to project from the state of mind of conflict and see through the eyes of the ego. When the enemy is transformed before your very eyes into your brother, your neighbor, it is because you chose to ask for help to extend love and see through the eyes of Christ. Jesus says it this way in His unworldly masterpiece, A Course in Miracles.
I said before that what you project or extend is up to you, but you must do one or the other, for that is a law of mind, and you must look in before you look out. As you look in, you choose the guide for seeing. And then you look out and behold his witnesses. This is why you find what you seek. What you want in yourself you will make manifest, and you will accept it from the world because you put it there by wanting it. T-12.V11.7:1-5
In a remarkable poem, The Man He Killed, Thomas Hardy (1840-1928), gives us an example of how the narrator makes the shift from projecting the enemy to extending the Christ.
"Had he and I but met
By some old ancient inn,
We should have set us down to wet
Right many a nipperkin!
But ranged as infantry,
And staring face to face,
I shot at him as he at me,
And killed him in his place.
I shot him dead because--
Because he was my foe,
Just so: my foe of course he was;
That's clear enough; although
He thought he'd 'list, perhaps,
Off-hand like--just as I--
Was out of work--had sold his traps--
No other reason why.
Yes; quaint and curious war is!
You shoot a fellow down
You'd treat, if met where any bar is,
Or help to half a crown."
The poem begins with the narrator reflecting on the action, at some point after it occurred. I imagine the narrator to be in a bar right now, wetting many small beer glasses. In the first stanza, he is looking back and seeing through the eyes of Christ the man he killed as a brother, as a neighbor. In the second stanza, he recalls how he first saw him on the battlefield as the enemy, after all, he had been trained to kill his enemy. The remarkable thing about stanza three is that you can see the shift beginning to occur.
“I shot him dead because—
And now the ordinarily automatic, rapid thought is slowed down; he can’t find the answer, and then he does come up with it because of his conditioning.
Because he was my foe,
Just so: my foe of course he was
Look at how slow that line moves, as if he’s trying to push away cobwebs. I read it stressing each of these words and pausing after each: so:, foe, course, was.
That’s clear enough, although
But he can’t maintain the thought, the rationalization, the projection is loosening, as the although takes him to his kinship with his “enemy.”
--just as I—
In the last stanza, the projection slips, and he sees him through the eyes of Christ.
The quotation marks around the poem show that he is telling this as a story, giving away his hard-earned truth in order to keep it. You hold onto it by giving it away. You learn by teaching.
His enemy was never out there, separate from the narrator’s thoughts. When his thoughts came from conflict, he saw his enemy; when they came from love, he saw someone exactly like himself, the Christ. We are asked only to be still, to slow down our thoughts, as the narrator did, and ask for help from the Holy Spirit, the Voice for God, to make the shift to the state of mind of the peace of God. If we don’t learn to slow down, as the narrator did in stanza three, we will crucify our “enemies,” when all the time we have the power of decision to resurrect.
Now, you and I are blessed to be able to hear Jesus speak to us through His Course in Miracles, and give us precise, clear instructions on how to make this shift in our minds, knowing now that what is within only appears as without.
Select one brother, symbol of the rest,
and ask salvation of him. See him first
as clearly as you can, in that same form
to which you are accustomed. See his face,
his hands and feet, his clothing. Watch him smile,
and see familiar gestures which he makes
so frequently. Then think of this: What you
are seeing now conceals from you the sight
of one who can forgive you all your sins;
whose sacred hands can take away the nails
which pierce your own, and lift the crown of thorns
which you have placed upon your bleeding head.
Ask this of him, that he may set you free:
Give me your blessing, holy Son of God.
I would behold you with the eyes of Christ,
and see my perfect sinlessness in you.
And He will answer Whom you called upon.
For He will hear the Voice for God in you,
and answer in your own. Behold him now,
whom you have seen as merely flesh and bone,
and recognize that Christ has come to you.
Today's idea is your safe escape
from anger and from fear. Be sure you use
it instantly, should you be tempted to
attack a brother and perceive in him
the symbol of your fear. And you will see
him suddenly transformed from enemy
to savior; from the devil into Christ.
W-p1.161.11,12
Finally, for a fuller treatment of exactly how you naturally project and how you can learn to extend, read Jesus' words in His Course in Miracles, Chapter 12, Section 7, "Looking Within."
http://acim.home.att.net/text-12-07.html
Wednesday, November 09, 2005
Informed by the formless
It is possible for me now to walk through the world knowing that I am in the world, but not of the world. This awareness can also be expressed as entering into time and space from out of time. This is experienced as being in the state of mind of the peace of God and simply observing what is unfolding before my eyes. Objects come and go, time passes, the dream figures pass by, and I walk through the emphemeral rooted in the peace of God.
It is always a matter of forgetting and remembering. When I find myself walking through the world forgetting that I have come here from out of time, I ask for help to remember that I am not from here. That moment of recognition is a miracle. It is a miracle to know the difference.
When I do find myself remembering that I am from Heaven, I say “Thank You.”
In the state of mind of remembering, I am receptive to the Voice for God, and I ask:
What would You have me do?
Where would You have me go?
What would You have me say, and to whom?
W-p1.71.9:3-5
In this manner, I walk through form informed by the formless.
And now, there is only now, the world shines brightly because it reflects the light of Heaven, the light of the formless.
Yes, Dear Reader, you can experience this for yourself.
Sit quietly and close your eyes. The light
within you is sufficient. It alone
has power to give the gift of sight to you.
Exclude the outer world, and let your thoughts
fly to the peace within. They know the way.
For honest thoughts, untainted by the dream
of worldly things outside yourself, become
the holy messengers of God Himself.
W-p1.188.6
And now enjoy in blank verse Lesson 188, The Peace of God is shining in me now.
Why wait for Heaven? Those who seek the light
are merely covering their eyes. The light
is in them now. Enlightenment is but
a recognition, not a change at all.
Light is not of the world, yet you who bear
the light in you are alien here as well.
The light came with you from your native home,
and stayed with you because it is your own.
It is the only thing you bring with you
from Him Who is your Source. It shines in you
because it lights your home, and leads you back
to where it came from and you are at home.
This light can not be lost. Why wait to find
it in the future, or believe it has
been lost already, or was never there?
It can so easily be looked upon
that arguments which prove it is not there
become ridiculous. Who can deny
the presence of what he beholds in him?
It is not difficult to look within,
for there all vision starts. There is no sight,
be it of dreams or from a truer Source,
that is not but the shadow of the seen
through inward vision. There perception starts,
and there it ends. It has no source but this.
The peace of God is shining in you now,
and from your heart extends around the world.
It pauses to caress each living thing,
and leaves a blessing with it that remains
forever and forever. What it gives
must be eternal. It removes all thoughts
of the ephemeral and valueless.
It brings renewal to all tired hearts,
and lights all vision as it passes by.
All of its gifts are given everyone,
and everyone unites in giving thanks
to you who give, and you who have received.
The shining in your mind reminds the world
of what it has forgotten, and the world
restores the memory to you as well.
From you salvation radiates with gifts
beyond all measure, given and returned.
To you, the giver of the gift, does God
Himself give thanks. And in His blessing does
the light in you shine brighter, adding to
the gifts you have to offer to the world.
The peace of God can never be contained.
Who recognizes it within himself
must give it. And the means for giving it
are in his understanding. He forgives
because he recognized the truth in him.
The peace of God is shining in you now,
and in all living things. In quietness
is it acknowledged universally.
For what your inward vision looks upon
is your perception of the universe.
Sit quietly and close your eyes. The light
within you is sufficient. It alone
has power to give the gift of sight to you.
Exclude the outer world, and let your thoughts
fly to the peace within. They know the way.
For honest thoughts, untainted by the dream
of worldly things outside yourself, become
the holy messengers of God Himself.
These thoughts you think with Him. They recognize
their home. And they point surely to their Source,
Where God the Father and the Son are One.
God's peace is shining on them, but they must
remain with you as well, for they were born
within your mind, as yours was born in God's.
They lead you back to peace, from where they came
but to remind you how you must return.
They heed your Father's Voice when you refuse
to listen. And they urge you gently to
accept His Word for what you are, instead
of fantasies and shadows. They remind
you that you are the co-creator of
all things that live. For as the peace of God
is shining in you, it must shine on them.
We practice coming nearer to the light
in us today. We take our wandering thoughts,
and gently bring them back to where they fall
in line with all the thoughts we share with God.
We will not let them stray. We let the light
within our minds direct them to come home.
We have betrayed them, ordering that they
depart from us. But now we call them back,
and wash them clean of strange desires and
disordered wishes. We restore to them
the holiness of their inheritance.
Thus are our minds restored with them, and we
acknowledge that the peace of God still shines
in us, and from us to all living things
that share our life. We will forgive them all,
absolving all the world from what we thought
it did to us. For it is we who make
the world as we would have it. Now we choose
that it be innocent, devoid of sin
and open to salvation. And we lay
our saving blessing on it, as we say:
The peace of God is shining in me now.
Let all things shine upon me in that peace,
And let me bless them with the light in me.
It is always a matter of forgetting and remembering. When I find myself walking through the world forgetting that I have come here from out of time, I ask for help to remember that I am not from here. That moment of recognition is a miracle. It is a miracle to know the difference.
When I do find myself remembering that I am from Heaven, I say “Thank You.”
In the state of mind of remembering, I am receptive to the Voice for God, and I ask:
What would You have me do?
Where would You have me go?
What would You have me say, and to whom?
W-p1.71.9:3-5
In this manner, I walk through form informed by the formless.
And now, there is only now, the world shines brightly because it reflects the light of Heaven, the light of the formless.
Yes, Dear Reader, you can experience this for yourself.
Sit quietly and close your eyes. The light
within you is sufficient. It alone
has power to give the gift of sight to you.
Exclude the outer world, and let your thoughts
fly to the peace within. They know the way.
For honest thoughts, untainted by the dream
of worldly things outside yourself, become
the holy messengers of God Himself.
W-p1.188.6
And now enjoy in blank verse Lesson 188, The Peace of God is shining in me now.
Why wait for Heaven? Those who seek the light
are merely covering their eyes. The light
is in them now. Enlightenment is but
a recognition, not a change at all.
Light is not of the world, yet you who bear
the light in you are alien here as well.
The light came with you from your native home,
and stayed with you because it is your own.
It is the only thing you bring with you
from Him Who is your Source. It shines in you
because it lights your home, and leads you back
to where it came from and you are at home.
This light can not be lost. Why wait to find
it in the future, or believe it has
been lost already, or was never there?
It can so easily be looked upon
that arguments which prove it is not there
become ridiculous. Who can deny
the presence of what he beholds in him?
It is not difficult to look within,
for there all vision starts. There is no sight,
be it of dreams or from a truer Source,
that is not but the shadow of the seen
through inward vision. There perception starts,
and there it ends. It has no source but this.
The peace of God is shining in you now,
and from your heart extends around the world.
It pauses to caress each living thing,
and leaves a blessing with it that remains
forever and forever. What it gives
must be eternal. It removes all thoughts
of the ephemeral and valueless.
It brings renewal to all tired hearts,
and lights all vision as it passes by.
All of its gifts are given everyone,
and everyone unites in giving thanks
to you who give, and you who have received.
The shining in your mind reminds the world
of what it has forgotten, and the world
restores the memory to you as well.
From you salvation radiates with gifts
beyond all measure, given and returned.
To you, the giver of the gift, does God
Himself give thanks. And in His blessing does
the light in you shine brighter, adding to
the gifts you have to offer to the world.
The peace of God can never be contained.
Who recognizes it within himself
must give it. And the means for giving it
are in his understanding. He forgives
because he recognized the truth in him.
The peace of God is shining in you now,
and in all living things. In quietness
is it acknowledged universally.
For what your inward vision looks upon
is your perception of the universe.
Sit quietly and close your eyes. The light
within you is sufficient. It alone
has power to give the gift of sight to you.
Exclude the outer world, and let your thoughts
fly to the peace within. They know the way.
For honest thoughts, untainted by the dream
of worldly things outside yourself, become
the holy messengers of God Himself.
These thoughts you think with Him. They recognize
their home. And they point surely to their Source,
Where God the Father and the Son are One.
God's peace is shining on them, but they must
remain with you as well, for they were born
within your mind, as yours was born in God's.
They lead you back to peace, from where they came
but to remind you how you must return.
They heed your Father's Voice when you refuse
to listen. And they urge you gently to
accept His Word for what you are, instead
of fantasies and shadows. They remind
you that you are the co-creator of
all things that live. For as the peace of God
is shining in you, it must shine on them.
We practice coming nearer to the light
in us today. We take our wandering thoughts,
and gently bring them back to where they fall
in line with all the thoughts we share with God.
We will not let them stray. We let the light
within our minds direct them to come home.
We have betrayed them, ordering that they
depart from us. But now we call them back,
and wash them clean of strange desires and
disordered wishes. We restore to them
the holiness of their inheritance.
Thus are our minds restored with them, and we
acknowledge that the peace of God still shines
in us, and from us to all living things
that share our life. We will forgive them all,
absolving all the world from what we thought
it did to us. For it is we who make
the world as we would have it. Now we choose
that it be innocent, devoid of sin
and open to salvation. And we lay
our saving blessing on it, as we say:
The peace of God is shining in me now.
Let all things shine upon me in that peace,
And let me bless them with the light in me.
Saturday, November 05, 2005
Lesson 308, This instant is the only time there is.
You may find yourself increasingly dissatisfied with you life, and while looking for satisfaction, you may find comfort in the idea that you are on a journey, and in time you will find what you’re looking for.
What you have forgotten is that there is only now. Whoops! That now moment is gone, and there’s only now. Right now is this interval from what appears to be past to what appears to be the future. Now is a shift in your mind from the state of conflict to the state of the peace of God. In this state of mind you look through the eyes of Christ and experience only the reflection of the peace of God, now. The now is experienced as the absence of a chattering voice narrating you life of conflict. There is only the stillness of now.
These thoughts were inspired by today’s lesson.
http://acim.home.att.net/workbook308.html
“Conceive” comes from the Latin, concipere, meaning “to take in.” Through the eyes of the ego, we assume that what is outside is real, and we “take it in” and give it meaning. That is our conception of time. We look at the hands moving on a clock and make it real, while all the time this defeats our aim of experiencing the Christ being born in us, an expression for experiencing peace through the eyes of Christ, requiring simply a shift of mind from conflict to peace.
The purpose of the illusion of time is to use it to spring into Heaven. You can choose, you can elect now, to see through the eyes of the ego, or the eyes of Christ and experience now. This action of the mind is called forgiveness. Since there are only two emotions, love and fear, you can forgive fear and experience only love; fear is no more real than time. There is no world other than how I conceive it. When I forgive my conceptions, I experience salvation.
Here is Lesson 308 in blank verse. Hidden in the prose version of this lesson is a special gift from Jesus, the lesson in the sheer poetry of blank verse, meaning ten syllables per line in a particular pattern called iambic, slack STRESS. (For a fuller explanation of blank verse, please see the preceding blog on Lesson 304)
Enjoy.
Lesson 308
This instant is the only time there is.
I have conceived of time in such a way
that I defeat my aim. If I elect
to reach past time to timelessness, I must
change my perception of what time is for.
Time's purpose cannot be to keep the past
and future one. The only interval
in which I can be saved from time is now.
For in this instant has forgiveness come
to set me free. The birth of Christ is now,
without a past or future. He has come
to give His present blessing to the world,
restoring it to timelessness and love.
And love is ever-present, here and now.
Thanks for this instant, Father. It is now
I am redeemed. This instant is the time
You have appointed for Your Son's release,
and for salvation of the world in him.
What you have forgotten is that there is only now. Whoops! That now moment is gone, and there’s only now. Right now is this interval from what appears to be past to what appears to be the future. Now is a shift in your mind from the state of conflict to the state of the peace of God. In this state of mind you look through the eyes of Christ and experience only the reflection of the peace of God, now. The now is experienced as the absence of a chattering voice narrating you life of conflict. There is only the stillness of now.
These thoughts were inspired by today’s lesson.
http://acim.home.att.net/workbook308.html
“Conceive” comes from the Latin, concipere, meaning “to take in.” Through the eyes of the ego, we assume that what is outside is real, and we “take it in” and give it meaning. That is our conception of time. We look at the hands moving on a clock and make it real, while all the time this defeats our aim of experiencing the Christ being born in us, an expression for experiencing peace through the eyes of Christ, requiring simply a shift of mind from conflict to peace.
The purpose of the illusion of time is to use it to spring into Heaven. You can choose, you can elect now, to see through the eyes of the ego, or the eyes of Christ and experience now. This action of the mind is called forgiveness. Since there are only two emotions, love and fear, you can forgive fear and experience only love; fear is no more real than time. There is no world other than how I conceive it. When I forgive my conceptions, I experience salvation.
Here is Lesson 308 in blank verse. Hidden in the prose version of this lesson is a special gift from Jesus, the lesson in the sheer poetry of blank verse, meaning ten syllables per line in a particular pattern called iambic, slack STRESS. (For a fuller explanation of blank verse, please see the preceding blog on Lesson 304)
Enjoy.
Lesson 308
This instant is the only time there is.
I have conceived of time in such a way
that I defeat my aim. If I elect
to reach past time to timelessness, I must
change my perception of what time is for.
Time's purpose cannot be to keep the past
and future one. The only interval
in which I can be saved from time is now.
For in this instant has forgiveness come
to set me free. The birth of Christ is now,
without a past or future. He has come
to give His present blessing to the world,
restoring it to timelessness and love.
And love is ever-present, here and now.
Thanks for this instant, Father. It is now
I am redeemed. This instant is the time
You have appointed for Your Son's release,
and for salvation of the world in him.
Tuesday, November 01, 2005
Lesson 304: Let not my world obscure the sight of Christ.
For the past several weeks, I keep coming back to this five-step formulation of the utter simplicity of salvation. I often sit back and run these steps through my mind, rehearsing them, and then when the drama begins, when the director says “Action,” I am ready.
1. When I find myself experiencing fear and pain, I say to myself, “This certainly seems fearful, but it is not so. In my mind there are only two states, one is the state of mind of the peace of God, and this state is the only one real; the other state is one of ear and conflict, and it has no source in reality.”
2. Further, I make it very concrete by using the metaphor of seeing: When I look out at the world, what I see mirrors, either the state of mind of fear, or the state of mind of peace. What I see, then, is seen through, either the eyes of the ego, or the eyes of Christ.
3. Since this is all going on only in my mind, I have the power, I have the responsibility, to choose the eyes through which I see. I remind myself that what I am seeing through the eyes of the ego is not real, and in fact, no longer exists. What I see through the eyes of Christ is real and loving and eternal.
4. Now, it is just a matter of asking for help to let go of, relinquish, forgive that which is not real, so that I can shift from the false state of mind to the true. It is simply an action of the mind.
5. Finally, if I do not immediately experience forgiveness in the next moment, and sometimes I do with a warm wave of gratitude, then I trust that I am God’s beloved Son, and the lag time will soon pass, and I will soon see again with the eyes of Christ, mirroring the peace of God.
Remembering these lines in my daily drama, I was astonished and grateful to read Jesus’ words today in Lesson 304, Let not my world obscure the sight of Christ.
I can obscure my holy sight, if I intrude my world upon it. Nor can I behold the holy sights Christ looks upon, unless it is His vision that I use. Perception is a mirror, not a fact. And what I look on is my state of mind, reflected outward. I would bless the world by looking on it through the eyes of Christ. And I will look upon the certain signs that all my sins have been forgiven me.
You lead me from the darkness to the light; from sin to holiness. Let me forgive, and thus receive salvation for the world. It is Your gift, my Father, given me to offer to Your holy Son, that he may find again the memory of You, and of Your Son as You created him.
To obscuremeans to hide, or veil meaning. Seeing through the eyes of the ego presents a world that veils the truth of what I am, what we are, and when one of us sees truly, it is a gift to all our brothers.
Hidden in the prose version of this lesson is a special gift from Jesus, the lesson in the sheer poetry of blank verse, meaning ten syllables per line in a particular pattern called iambs, slack STRESS. Try scanning the lines to find the rhythm, for example: chris TINE.
Let not my world obscure the sight of Christ
I can obscure my holy sight, if I
intrude my world upon it. Nor can I
behold the holy sights Christ looks upon,
unless it is His vision that I use.
Perception is a mirror, not a fact.
And what I look on is my state of mind,
reflected outward. I would bless the world
by looking on it through the eyes of Christ.
And I will look upon the certain signs
that all my sins have been forgiven me.
You lead me from the darkness to the light;
from sin to holiness. Let me forgive,
and thus receive salvation for the world.
It is Your gift, my Father, given me
to offer to Your holy Son, that he
may find again the memory of You,
and of Your Son as You created him.
Here you go:
let NOT my WORLD ob SCURE the SIGHT of CHRIST
i CAN ob SCURE my HO ly SIGHT, if I
You can practice scanning the rest of the lines.
in trude my world up on it. Nor can I
4. be hold the ho ly sights CHRIST LOOKS up on,
un less it is His vis ion that I use.
Per cep tion is a mir ror, not a fact.
And what I look on is my state of mind,
re flect ed out ward. I would bless the world
by look ing on it through the eyes of Christ.
And I will look upon the cer tain signs
that all my sins have been for giv en me.
12. YOU LEAD me from the dark ness to the light;
from sin to hol i ness. Let me for give,
and thus re ceive sal va tion for the world.
It is Your gift, my Fath er, giv en me
to of fer to Your ho ly Son, that he
may find a gain the mem or y of You,
and of Your Son as You cre at ed him.
In lines 4 and 12, Jesus breaks the pattern to emphasize His meaning by using a particular pattern called spondees, STRESS STRESS.
In the Workbook from Lesson 98 to 365, Jesus’ lessons are all in blank verse, and in the Text, from Chapter 26 to 31 His chapters are in blank verse, the rhythm of the universe.
I express my gratitude for Jesus’ Course in Miracles in this poem of blank verse.
Jesus speaks and Helen scribes, precisely,
so that not one syllable goes astray,
marching stately across the pages in
blank verse, the rhythm of the universe.
1. When I find myself experiencing fear and pain, I say to myself, “This certainly seems fearful, but it is not so. In my mind there are only two states, one is the state of mind of the peace of God, and this state is the only one real; the other state is one of ear and conflict, and it has no source in reality.”
2. Further, I make it very concrete by using the metaphor of seeing: When I look out at the world, what I see mirrors, either the state of mind of fear, or the state of mind of peace. What I see, then, is seen through, either the eyes of the ego, or the eyes of Christ.
3. Since this is all going on only in my mind, I have the power, I have the responsibility, to choose the eyes through which I see. I remind myself that what I am seeing through the eyes of the ego is not real, and in fact, no longer exists. What I see through the eyes of Christ is real and loving and eternal.
4. Now, it is just a matter of asking for help to let go of, relinquish, forgive that which is not real, so that I can shift from the false state of mind to the true. It is simply an action of the mind.
5. Finally, if I do not immediately experience forgiveness in the next moment, and sometimes I do with a warm wave of gratitude, then I trust that I am God’s beloved Son, and the lag time will soon pass, and I will soon see again with the eyes of Christ, mirroring the peace of God.
Remembering these lines in my daily drama, I was astonished and grateful to read Jesus’ words today in Lesson 304, Let not my world obscure the sight of Christ.
I can obscure my holy sight, if I intrude my world upon it. Nor can I behold the holy sights Christ looks upon, unless it is His vision that I use. Perception is a mirror, not a fact. And what I look on is my state of mind, reflected outward. I would bless the world by looking on it through the eyes of Christ. And I will look upon the certain signs that all my sins have been forgiven me.
You lead me from the darkness to the light; from sin to holiness. Let me forgive, and thus receive salvation for the world. It is Your gift, my Father, given me to offer to Your holy Son, that he may find again the memory of You, and of Your Son as You created him.
To obscuremeans to hide, or veil meaning. Seeing through the eyes of the ego presents a world that veils the truth of what I am, what we are, and when one of us sees truly, it is a gift to all our brothers.
Hidden in the prose version of this lesson is a special gift from Jesus, the lesson in the sheer poetry of blank verse, meaning ten syllables per line in a particular pattern called iambs, slack STRESS. Try scanning the lines to find the rhythm, for example: chris TINE.
Let not my world obscure the sight of Christ
I can obscure my holy sight, if I
intrude my world upon it. Nor can I
behold the holy sights Christ looks upon,
unless it is His vision that I use.
Perception is a mirror, not a fact.
And what I look on is my state of mind,
reflected outward. I would bless the world
by looking on it through the eyes of Christ.
And I will look upon the certain signs
that all my sins have been forgiven me.
You lead me from the darkness to the light;
from sin to holiness. Let me forgive,
and thus receive salvation for the world.
It is Your gift, my Father, given me
to offer to Your holy Son, that he
may find again the memory of You,
and of Your Son as You created him.
Here you go:
let NOT my WORLD ob SCURE the SIGHT of CHRIST
i CAN ob SCURE my HO ly SIGHT, if I
You can practice scanning the rest of the lines.
in trude my world up on it. Nor can I
4. be hold the ho ly sights CHRIST LOOKS up on,
un less it is His vis ion that I use.
Per cep tion is a mir ror, not a fact.
And what I look on is my state of mind,
re flect ed out ward. I would bless the world
by look ing on it through the eyes of Christ.
And I will look upon the cer tain signs
that all my sins have been for giv en me.
12. YOU LEAD me from the dark ness to the light;
from sin to hol i ness. Let me for give,
and thus re ceive sal va tion for the world.
It is Your gift, my Fath er, giv en me
to of fer to Your ho ly Son, that he
may find a gain the mem or y of You,
and of Your Son as You cre at ed him.
In lines 4 and 12, Jesus breaks the pattern to emphasize His meaning by using a particular pattern called spondees, STRESS STRESS.
In the Workbook from Lesson 98 to 365, Jesus’ lessons are all in blank verse, and in the Text, from Chapter 26 to 31 His chapters are in blank verse, the rhythm of the universe.
I express my gratitude for Jesus’ Course in Miracles in this poem of blank verse.
Jesus speaks and Helen scribes, precisely,
so that not one syllable goes astray,
marching stately across the pages in
blank verse, the rhythm of the universe.
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