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| "Montana Trees" photo by Aaron Springston |
A Course in Miracles Lesson #217 (review)
Central Theme:
“I am not a body. I am free.
For I am still as God created me.”
Specific review: (#197) “It can be but my gratitude I earn.
The last few days' reviews have brought us to many thresholds of release. We have released the past, the future, the present. Often I'm asked how this is to be done. How do we let go of a memory of an event which haunts us? How do we forgive an incident which seems unforgivable? The ultimate understanding is that it never happened; that it's an illusion, a projection of thought from our mortal mind, and nothing more. But, I am asked, how do you see that reality when the seeming-reality keeps coming back, causing you to relive the painful memory of whatever it is? When my mind wants to replay a circumstance in all its glorified pathos, I recognize that I have a choice. I can choose again and not see that person, that event, in a way which causes me to feel yet more pain, anger, sorrow. I can think instead of the goodness, kindness, and love inherent in everyone, and allow its reality to form an image in my thought. I can play lots of games with myself in this way, and perhaps cajole myself out of thinking badly or sadly. But to get to the root of this circular dream, the answer may lie in the ideas we're studying today. "It can be but my gratitude I earn". I take this to mean, in part, that I needn't worry about what anyone else thinks about me. If I am being true to myself, to God, that is enough. There are instances from my past which I used to relish telling other people, replaying them in my mind at the slightest provocation. The realization that everyone is doing the best that they can, whether I want to think this is good enough or not, is all it took to relieve the burden I had placed on myself in regard to the attacks I insisted on sending out to others and myself. Gratitude is usually thought of as an outward action to be given, not received. But we have learned that what we give IS what we receive, and this is so with gratitude, also. Salvation often implies a thing to be sought after and earned through attrition of some sort. The salvation we speak of today is a realization that we are Love (God), that the thanks we give is a perpetual realization of this Being that we are, and by this knowing we live in Love and unending gratitude of All that Is. This understanding brings us to the Truth of Being. This understanding of Truth is salvation, for which I am very grateful.
Mary Baker Eddy quote:
“In Hebrew, Greek, Latin, and English, faith and the words corresponding thereto have these two definitions, trustfulness and trustworthiness. One kind of faith trusts one's welfare to others. Another kind of faith understands divine Love and how to work out one's ‘own salvation, with fear and trembling.’ ‘Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief!’ expresses the helplessness of a blind faith; whereas the injunction, ‘Believe . . . and thou shalt be saved!’ demands self-reliant trustworthiness, which includes spiritual understanding and confides all to God.”
Science & Health Page 23:21-31
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