LESSON 166. I am entrusted with the gifts of God.

Today’s lesson notes the “the paradox that underlies the making of the world. This world is not the Will of God, and so it is not real. Yet those who think it real must still believe there is another will, and one that leads to opposite effects from those He wills.”

We forget, in other words, that the world we witness is the insane answer to an insane curiosity, “What if nothing were as it is?”

This week’s mass shootings serve as backdrop and motivation to devote ourselves to understanding and practice. Upon witnessing such suffering, most of us wish this world were different than it appears to be. However, if the wish that things were different (or judgment) is the building block of the world, how do we be and practice this lesson, that asks that we extend the gifts given to us to those who seem to be suffering?

We have been told that the sole responsibility of the miracle worker is to accept the atonement for himself. When we are asked to accept the atonement, we are asked to see ourselves as that which we are.

We have been recognizing and embracing that which we are (true Self) through the practice of Self-inquiry, a form of devotion where we repeatedly focus on the true Self until it is our only experience. We are, indeed, coming to see that awareness-life-presence is what we are.

We have been given the gift of vision. We have been gifted with the understanding that things are not what they seem. This pivot is what our certainty inspires in others. Their certainty will inspire others still. It is through our seeing that we share that impenetrable, unassailable certainty with those who have no hope of redemption of the world. The world is, indeed, irredeemable. Those who seem to live in it are not in need of redemption, for they are not who they think they are.

We need not wish the world were different. We need merely recognize the truth. Today’s lesson speaks of our truth as a treasure “so great that everything the world contains is valueless before its magnitude.” That treasure is awareness-life-presence.

Reflect upon that for a moment. Without awareness-life-presence, nothing would be.

The sound of a bird’s song or the sound of waves rolling onto the beach, the sight of a beautiful sunset or the sight of a herd of deer moving through the pines—nothing that symbolizes the treasure of life could be without awareness-life-presence. Awareness-life-presence is the basis of everything we treasure, and therefore it is the greatest treasure of all.

Each time you notice the wish for something different in your mind today, pause. Shift your attention to awareness-life-presence, and spend a few moments appreciating it. Be as vigilant in this practice as you can be. I say this, because the wish for something different is a strong habit; it could occur many times during the day without you noticing it.

For example, the wish for something different may show up as the wish for more time to get things done, or as the wish for fewer things to do. It may show up as the wish for less traffic or a shorter line at the grocery store. It may show up as the wish that someone around you were different than he/she is. It may show up as the wish that you were different or that your body was different. It may show up as the wish that the world was different than it is.

Pay attention today for the wish for something different in whatever way it shows up in your thoughts, and then shift attention to notice the treasure. Let yourself feel appreciation for awareness-life-presence. Follow that by slowly saying to yourself, “I am entrusted with the gifts of God.”

LESSON 165. Let not my mind deny the Thought of God.

This lesson reminds us of the power of our believing attention. “What makes this world seem real except your own denial of the truth that lies beyond? … What could keep from you what you already have except your choice to see it not, denying it is there?”

As the text tells us in the section titled, The Way to Remember God, “Miracles are merely the translation of denial into truth. … The task of the miracle worker thus becomes to deny the denial of truth.” T-12.II.

Our denial of the truth (doubt) is consistent, albeit, mostly unconscious. What seems like habit is much more pernicious than it may at first appear. Denial of the truth has no effect on the truth, but as an affirmation of illusion its results are experienced as pain and suffering by you.

This is not an invitation to get down on ourselves for denying the truth. Rather, it is an invitation to notice our doubt and to turn it to hope and then certainty instead.

Let me use my recent experience as an example. Last week, I was lamenting that I just wasn’t journaling any more (and therefore had nothing to share in my Wednesday program). This past week, I have journaled on the ACIM lesson each evening in preparation of the next day’s tip. This journaling with Inner Wisdom has led to deep contemplation of the lessons and increased clarity. Let’s look at what changed.

I gave up the belief that I no longer received inspiration from Inner Wisdom when journaling (the denial of guidance). I gave up the belief that I was only journaling to get something—the next day’s tip (the denial of my true nature). I journaled at a more or less regular time, even when I didn’t want to (resistance to practice). I posted what came even though I wasn’t sure it was “good enough” (the denial of Self worth). I placed faith in what came before I knew whether it was helpful or appropriate (hope).

Today’s lesson makes clear that we need not rest on our own certainty, we need merely have faith and act consistently with that faith (hope). “Ask to receive, and it is given you. Conviction lies within it. Till you welcome it as yours, uncertainty remains. … Practice today in hope. For hope indeed is justified. Your doubts are meaningless, for God is certain.”

When we place faith and hope in ourselves and our true desire, we place it with Truth. Certainty is not required. Willingness and earnestness are required. It is hope that fuels these ingredients and builds the flame that leads our way beyond the illusions created through denial of the truth.

Today, see where you employ denial and give it up, even if you are not yet certain that your denial of doubt is true. Give it up and see what happens. Give it up and see if you don’t feel lighter, more at ease, more helpful. When you do so, hope will come to replace negativity and despair.

What if we replaced every thought of doubt with a thought of hope? For example, we could replace, “I do not want truth enough” with “I must want truth more than I think, because spirituality is an ongoing focus in my life.”

Which do you think benefits the purpose of awakening more: negative thoughts of doubt or positive thoughts of hope? Which do you think benefits the ego more?

Let’s do two things today:

1 – Pay particular attention to discover the thoughts of doubt that you listen to. Look at those thoughts with reason, meaning notice that those thoughts serve the ego and discourage spiritual aspiration. Look for reasonable thoughts of hope to replace them with, thoughts that encourage you instead of discouraging you.

2 – Continue to notice awareness-life-presence. Throughout the day, each time you remember, take a moment to notice that you are aware and you exist. Even when you are distracted from awareness-life-presence by doubt, you are still aware and you still exist. Doubt does not change the truth; it only denies it.

LESSON 164. Now are we one with Him Who is our Source.

Today’s lesson turns our focus to our true desire. There can be no question as to what our true desire is. Indeed, the lesson tells us both the call and the answer are beyond our conscious awareness. “A melody from far beyond the world increasingly is more and more distinct; an ancient call to which [Christ] gives an ancient answer. You will recognize them both, for they are but your answer to your Father’s Call to you. Christ answers for you, echoing your Self, using your voice to give His glad consent; accepting your deliverance for you.”

What the lesson asks us to do is to bring this choice within our awareness and deliberately allow ourselves to make the choice that has been made within the depth of our being. We do this now. We do this consciously. We do this joyously.

We are all aware of our true desire. But as we seek to make ourselves “comfortable,” we are persuaded to lose focus. Your desire and mine are the same. There is only one desire in all the universe. That desire is that all things be exactly as they are.

To chase the idols of the world, no matter in what form they appear, is not sinful, is not bad. It is merely distraction. “Distraction” is not a synonym for bad, lazy or unworthy. Distraction merely is what it is.

We are not being asked to change. We are being asked to place our motivation with our desire. We are being asked to guide ourselves unto our desire and to do so consciously.

To see with the vision of Christ is to look clearly upon that which you do and be happy with the choices you make. The alternative is to pull the covers over your head and ask to sleep awhile longer. There are no wrong choices. We are asked merely to claim our power rather than pretending that we have none.

Yesterday we compared the impermanence of problems with the eternal nature of the Self. Today, we will continue to focus on the Self by letting our desires remind us to turn our attention to life-presence.

Let us practice in this way. Whenever you notice that attention has gone to a desire, whether it seems to be a small, insignificant desire or a bigger, seemingly more important one, pause, and then turn attention inward to life-presence.

Notice it. Does it have a desire now or is it simply presently being? Rest with attention on awareness-life-presence, noticing it for a few moments. In this way, we “receive but what is given us from judgment made beyond the world.”

“Open the curtain in your practicing by merely letting go all things you think you want. … Is not Christ’s vision worthy to be sought above the world’s unsatisfying goals? Let not today slip by without the gifts it holds for you …; you can exchange all suffering for joy this very day. Practice in earnest, and the gift is yours.”

LESSON 163. There is no death. The Son of God is free.

The lesson begins: “Death is a thought that takes on many forms, often unrecognized. It may appear as sadness, fear, anxiety or doubt; as anger, faithlessness and lack of trust; concern for bodies, envy, and all forms in which the wish to be as you are not may come to tempt you.”

This lesson makes clear that “death is a thought.” Thus, it is nothing more than the ultimate answer to the thought, “What if everything were different than it is?” If everything is life, wouldn’t the opposite of life be it’s (seeming) absence – or death?

Death but seems to loom over what we have created because we wished it could be so. The wish for death was not different in kind from the others, but rather the sum total of the impossibility of the dream. What is death? Death is the ultimate illusion.

We have imbued this idea with the certainty and the constancy of What Is In Truth—Life. The lesson refers to this when it states: “Here is the strength and might of God Himself perceived within an idol made of dust. Here is the opposite of God proclaimed as lord of all creation, stronger than God’s Will for life, the endlessness of love and Heaven’s perfect, changeless constancy.”

Everything that is born, dies. If something has a beginning, it will also have an end. But that which has no beginning has no end; it is eternal.

Today’s lesson encourages us to look beyond form, which is temporary, to the spirit of all living things, which is eternal. Life itself, which is God and is all things, has no beginning and no end. For life, death is impossible. You can see that if you look beyond specifics.

Eckhart Tolle says of life and death in “Stillness Speaks:”

When you walk through a forest that has not been tamed and interfered with by man, you will see not only abundant life all around you, but you will also encounter fallen trees and decaying trunks, rotting leaves and decomposing matter at every step. Wherever you look, you will find death as well as life.

Upon closer scrutiny, however, you will discover that the decomposing tree trunk and rotting leaves not only give birth to new life, but are full of life themselves. Microorganisms are at work. Molecules are rearranging themselves. So death isn’t to be found anywhere. There is only the metamorphosis of life forms. What can you learn from this?

Death is not the opposite of life. Life has no opposite. The opposite of death is birth. Life is eternal.

Temporary form comes and goes. That is the law of impermanence. But life lives. That is all it can do. That is its nature.

Awakening is the realization that you (and other living things) are not the temporary form. You are life itself.

Practice noticing life. It is the exchange of like with like. This is key! Can you share your life with all things? Oneness expands far beyond your mind’s ability to comprehend—you literally are that which you see. Nothing exists in isolation. Everything is the burgeoning sea of life. This is what you are—Life Eternal.

Today we will continue to practice Self-inquiry by looking throughout the day to notice life-presence as what we are.

Today, when your mind thinks about a problem that you are facing, try this exercise:

Look at the problem that the mind is thinking about. Ask yourself, “Has this problem always been here? Will this problem, in one way or another, have an end?” And then notice that as an example of impermanence.

Next, shift attention to your Self. Ask, “What am I? What is aware of these thoughts about a problem?” Look carefully to notice the life-presence that is aware of thought. Notice that in your experience, you, as life-presence, has always been constant. You have experienced the coming and going of many problems, but this life-presence has remained the same. Reflect for a few moments on the continuous nature of life-presence, and then say to yourself, “There is no death. The son of God is free.”

For another effective method of noticing your free Self today, instead of being identified with thoughts about temporary problems, watch this 5-minute video by Loch Kelly: