CIM Lessons 348-354

Lesson 348—“I have no cause for anger or for fear, for You surround me. And in every need that I perceive, Your grace suffices me.” Close your eyes and be quiet, and think of the Presence of God as a golden light. Imagine that light shining on the front of you. Feel its warmth, its golden glow, like the radiance of the sun on a bright summer day. Now, become aware of that same light behind you and on the left and right of you, above and below you. You are immersed in this golden light. You are surrounded by perfect safety (1:5), perfect benevolence. Allow yourself to feel what that is like. In this Love there is no cause for anger or for fear. There is no cause for anything except the perfect peace and joy you share with God.

Lesson 349—“Today I let Christ’s vision look upon all things for me and judge them not, but give each one a miracle of love instead.” “The law of love,” mentioned in the second sentence, has been referred to in Lessons 344, 345 and 346. Lesson 344 defines it: “what I give to my brother is my gift to me.” The law of love is that giving and receiving are the same. Do I want others to refrain from judging me, forgive my mistakes, and offer me love? Then let me give what I want to receive today. Each time I give the miracle of love to another, I have solidified my learning that the miracle belongs to me. (1:6) And thus I remember God.

Lesson 350—“Miracles mirror God’s eternal Love. To offer them is to remember Him, and through His memory to save the world.” To offer a miracle, which is to offer love/forgiveness, is the way to remember God and to literally save the world.  Offering love reminds “the mind that what it sees is false.” To offer love is to look beyond the illusions and to see the truth. It is a refusal to share the littleness in which others see themselves. I want the memory of God to return to my mind, and “only my forgiveness teaches me to let God’s memory return to me, and give it to the world in thankfulness.” (1:8) As I remember God through my forgiveness, “His Son will be restored to us in the reality of Love.” (2:2) Forgiveness “restores” the Son by rejoining the seemingly separated fragments through love and unity.

Lesson 351—“My sinless brother is my guide to peace. My sinful brother is my guide to pain. And which I choose to see I will behold.” The perception of my brother as sinful is a choice I’m making. Choosing to see my brother as sinful will always lead to pain. The question is: Am I willing to see my brother as sinless? When I am, I will experience the peace of God and all I am created to be.

What Am I? This section is a powerful statement of the Course’s vision of my true nature. In the first sentence, I read, “I am  . . . complete and healed and whole.” Immediately and loudly, my ego jumps in to disagree: “You’re a total wreck is what you are! A loser that can’t finish anything she starts.” I can recognize these thoughts are blocking me from my acceptance of the Course’s message, and I can choose against them. For example, I might say, “I feel incomplete, but in reality I’m already complete. I want to know my wholeness.” We are all that our elder brother Jesus is and that is what he’s telling us in this Course. Creation is “sanctified” (made whole, holy) in me. What I am, my very being, is what makes creation holy. I do not need to be made whole or become whole, but only to recognize that is my natural state. I don’t experience myself that way yet, but I am moving in that direction. I can remind myself that though I think I’m feeling fear, fear in me is impossible. I can try to realize that what I think I’m feeling is not in me, but a delusional concept I have mistaken for myself.

Lesson 352—“Judgment and love are opposites. From one comes all the sorrows of the world. But from the other comes the peace of God Himself.” In the intro to the Text, Jesus says, “The opposite of love is fear, but what is all-encompassing can have no opposite.” (T-In.1:8) Therefore, fear is but illusion. Here, Jesus says love’s opposite is judgment. If I judge something as “bad,” I will fear it. If I fear something, I will judge it as bad. In “The Two Emotions” (T-13.V) it is clear that both love and fear are “a way of seeing,” and that “different worlds arise from their different sights.” The same thought is expressed here about judgment and love. CIM says all the sorrows of the world come from judgment. No wonder we are asked to give it up. Course makes a point that pure love, love without ambivalence, is impossible in this world. (T-4.III.4:6) The closest refection of love in this world is forgiveness. By choosing to forgive rather than to judge, I find my own peace again, the peace of God.

I was lost, “sold” into slavery by my own hand. God did not abandon me. God gave me two things: 1) the memory of God in my mind; and 2) the Holy Spirit, Who leads me to discover that memory. It is up to me whether I will continue to listen to the voice of the ego or to the Voice for God. I have very powerful help. And where that help leads me is to the point of knowing my own Identity. I cannot love what I am unless I love everyone else. That is so because what I am is identical to what everyone else is; we are all the Son of God, the Christ. When we talk about loving someone else “from another room,” let us remember that may be an okay starting point, but there are no other rooms in Oneness.

Lesson 353—“My eyes, my tongue, my hands, my feet today have but one purpose; to be given Christ to use to bless the world with miracles.” These last ten lessons represent the state of mind to which CIM seeks to bring us. In this lesson we see the final outworking of the Course’s thoughts about the body. Not that the body is to be ignored or despised, but rather that it is to be used to bless the world with miracles. The body is not attacked or belittled; rather it is given a new purpose. Our function in Heaven is creation. Our function here is the reflection of creation—the giving of miracles, the extension of forgiveness. Let us then, with all the determination we can muster, this day join with Christ’s purpose. Do not despair if this seems far beyond you now. It’s much nearer than you can imagine. You are much more than you think you are. Simply move, as best you can, in this direction and do not judge how near or far you think you are, how easy or how difficult you think the way. Only be willing to be willing. Don’t be anxious or restless. Anxiety is merely a delaying tactic. Rest. Trust. Let Spirit do the driving.

Lesson 354—“We stand together, Christ and I, in peace and certainty of purpose. And in Him is His Creator, as He is in me.” This lesson expresses the awareness of my identity with Christ. The Creator is in Christ and also in me; God is in me as he is in Christ. Identical.

As we arrive at these last lessons, we may feel as though, somewhere along the line, the Course has evaded us. Somewhere we missed the boat, or more likely, got off the boat and stayed behind.  A part of our minds does not yet believe the words we read. My experience has not yet caught up to my understanding. I still cannot believe I’m identical to the Christ, and so my experience follows my belief, and I experience something other than my perfection.

Does this mean the Course has failed, or that I have failed the Course. Absolutely not! In the epilog, which follows the last lesson, Jesus speaks of how the Holy Spirit will “be our Guide through every difficulty and all pain that you may thing is real.” So he obviously expects that those who have completed the Workbook will still experience difficulties and pain and will still sometimes mistakenly believe the pain is real. He says of this, “Whatever troubles you, be certain that He has the answer, and will gladly give it to you, if you simply turn to Him and ask it of Him.” (W-Ep.1:5) Further, Jesus says, “This Workbook is a beginning, not an end.” The Text and Workbook are meant not to bring us to the end of our journey but rather to train us in the proper way to travel, to develop proper habits of spiritual practice. We are one with God, just as Jesus is, and all our learning is designed to help us unlearn everything that tells us anything different.

Assignment: Lessons 355-361. Read Text Chapter 13, Section V: The Two Emotions.

Practical Application: Before you rise each morning and before you go to sleep each night, envision yourself surrounded and suffused with the Light of God—in a protective golden bubble of divine protection. Then imagine that all the seeming parts and pieces, all the seemingly separate beings of the universe are one living organism. Just as your physical body is a universe unto itself, with the interworking of all its systems, your eternal “body” is one cooperative unit. Begin to envis