Day 181

Introduction to Lessons 181-200

Our next few lessons make a special point of firming up our willingness to make our weak commitment strong; our scattered goals blend into one intent. We are not asked for total dedication all the time as yet. But we are asked to practice now in order to attain the sens of peace such unified commitment will bestow, if only intermittently. It is experiencing this that makes it sure that we will give our total willingness to following the way the course sets forth.

Our lessons now are geared specifically to widening horizons, and direct approaches to the special blocks that keep our vision narrow, and too limited to let us see the value of our goal. We are attempting now to lift these blocks, however, briefly. Words alone can not convey the sense of liberation which their lifting brings. But the experience of freedom and of peace that comes as we give up our tight control of what we see speaks for itself. Our motivation will be so intensified that words become of little consequence. We will be sure of what we want, and what is valueless.

And so we start our journey beyond words by concentrating first on what impedes our progress still. Experience of what exists beyond defensiveness remains beyond achievement while it is denied. It may be there, but we cannot accept its presence. So we now attempt to go past all defenses for a little while each day. No more than this is asked, because no more than this is needed. It will be enough to guarantee the rest will come.

Today's Lesson:

I trust my brothers, who are one with me.

Trusting our brothers is essential to establishing and holding up our faith in our ability to transcend doubt and lack of sure conviction in ourselves. When we attack a brother, we proclaim that he is limited by what we have perceived in him. We do not look beyond his errors. Rather, they are magnified, becoming blocks to our awareness of the Self that lies beyond our own mistakes, and past his seeming sins as well as ours.

Perception has a focus. It is this that gives consistency to what we see. Change but this focus, and what we behold will change accordingly. Our vision now will shift, to give support to the intent which has replaced the one we held before. Remove our focus on our brother's sins, and we experience the peace that comes from faith in sinlessness. This faith receives its only sure support from what we see in others past their sins. For their mistakes, if focused on, are witnesses to sins in us. And we will not transcend their sight and see the sinlessness that lies beyond.

Therefore, in practicing today, we first let all such little focuses give way to our great need to let our sinlessness become apparent. We instruct our minds that it is this we seek, and only this, for just a little while. We do not care about our future goals. And what we saw an instant previous has no concern for us within this interval of time wherein we practice changing our intent. We seek for innocence and nothing else. We seek for it with no concern but now.

A major hazard to success has been involvement with our past and future goals. We have been quite preoccupied with how extremely different the goals this course is advocating are from those we held before. Ad we have also been dismayed by the depressing and restricting thought that, even if we should succeed, we will inevitably lose our way again.

How could this matter? For the past is gone; the future but imagined. These concerns are but defenses against present change of focus in perception. Nothing more. We lay these pointless limitations by a little while. We do not look to past beliefs, and what we will believe will not intrude upon us now. We enter in the time of practicing with one intent; to look upon the sinlessness within.

We recognize that we have lost this goal if anger blocks our way in any form. And if a brother's sins occur to us, our narrowed focus will restrict our sight, and turn our eyes upon our own mistakes, which we will magnify and call our "sins." So, for a little while, without regard to past or future, should such blocks arise we will transcend them with instructions to our minds to change their focus, as we say:

It is not this that I would look upon.
I trust my brothers, who are one with me.

And we will also use this thought to keep us safe throughout the day. We do not seek for long-range goals. As each obstruction seems to block the vision of our sinlessness, we seek but for surcease an instant from the misery the focus upon sin will bring, and uncorrected will remain.

Nor do we ask for fantasies. For what we seek to look upon is really there. And as our focus goes beyond mistakes, we will behold a wholly sinless world. When seeing this is all we want to see, when this is all we seek for in the name of true perception, are the eyes of Christ inevitably ours. And the Love He feels for us becomes our own as well. This will become the only thing we see reflected in the world and in ourselves.

The world which once proclaimed our sins becomes the proof that we are sinless. And our love for everyone we look upon attests to our remembrance of the holy Self which knows no sin, and never could conceive of anything without Its sinlessness. We seek for this remembrance as we turn our minds to practicing today. We look neither ahead nor backwards. We look straight into the present. And we give our trust to the experience we ask for now. Our sinlessness is but the Will of God. This instant is our willing one with His.

Miracles I'm noticing:

Today's lesson really reminds us that the Present is a GIFT! As we focus our perception on the present, we can have a much better view of the gifts that are all around us.

I reflect on this past week - and really this past month - and see that even in the midst of what see like dips or down times, there are gifts. Whenever - and I mean every single time - I hit a low - I'm worried about something or discouraged by something or less than totally fired up - there is a light at the end of the tunnel. I've gotten to the point where I actually welcome some of the downs because it means the ups are on the way. I just need to be more observant to notice what I notice.

The song that has come up more than once for me on XM radio (when I tune away from Oprah and Friends) is Diana Ross' "Do You Know Where You're Going To." For me that means I want to be more focused on setting my goals, while giving up attachment to the outcome.

That's my focus for next week. But until then - I'm in celebration mode! The Summit was a success and I met new friends. I'm truly blessed and duly grateful!!!