My thoughts* on ACIM Lesson 197, Caution: triggers, right off the bat.
The teachings of Jesus must come through the interpretation of another’s mind. Is it any wonder that we have been confused?
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It can be but my gratitude I earn.
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* Earn is NOT the right word. Accept would be more correct. Earning is something that Christianity brings to the table and is not appropriate if the teachings of Jesus in the Course are correct. Even gain would be incorrect because it suggests something that is beyond what is already there. And the gratitude from God and the whole Sonship is already there in the perfection of God’s Love.
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1. Here is the second step we take to free your mind from the belief in outside force pitted against your own. ²You make attempts at kindness and forgiveness. ³Yet you turn them to attack again, unless you find external gratitude and lavish thanks. ⁴Your gifts must be received with honor, lest they be withdrawn. ⁵And so you think God’s gifts are loans at best; at worst, deceptions which would cheat you of defenses, to ensure that when He strikes He will not fail to kill.
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* Note here that Jesus is saying that God exists and it is an understanding of His ways that we want to find.
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2. How easily are God and guilt confused by those who know not what their thoughts can do. ²Deny your strength, and weakness must become salvation to you. ³See yourself as bound, and bars become your home. ⁴Nor will you leave the prison house, or claim your strength, until guilt and salvation are not seen as one, and freedom and salvation are perceived as joined, with strength beside them, to be sought and claimed, and found and fully recognized.
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* It may seem odd but he is stating here that the guilt we feel comes not from God’s judgment but from our own. (And our mistakes come from believing we are separate from God which is an impossibility.)
* “³See yourself as bound, and bars become your home.” In a world where narcissism and covert manipulations that give power hunger and power addiction free reign because of our courtesies that protect the attackers and subject the receivers to feeling guilty if they even for a moment consider themselves a victim, it is easy to feel imprisoned.
* Just like when Jesus was crucified he had the victory because he knew that none of that was real and that the psyche of Christ was confused and baffled about who it actually was.
* It is not a matter of seeing the circumstances of your life be corrected. It is a matter of knowing that they are NOT real and can have no LASTING effect on you in ANY way.
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3. The world must thank you when you offer it release from your illusions. ²Yet your thanks belong to you as well, for its release can only mirror yours. ³Your gratitude is all your gifts require, that they be a lasting offering of a thankful heart, released from hell forever. ⁴Is it this you would undo by taking back your gifts, because they were not honored? ⁵It is you who honor them and give them fitting thanks, for it is you who have received the gifts.
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* Do not expect the world to pat you on the back. More likely, it will attack you out of jealousy to protect the ego-costumes they wear. “How DARE you Love ME!” Is their war cry. Yet you will be guided by the Holy Spirit so trust the signs and trust your instincts and know that you are worthy because God said so and that MAKES it SO.
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4. It does not matter if another thinks your gifts unworthy. ²In his mind there is a part that joins with yours in thanking you. ³It does not matter if your gifts seem lost and ineffectual. ⁴They are received where they are given. ⁵In your gratitude are they accepted universally, and thankfully acknowledged by the Heart of God Himself. ⁶And would you take them back, when He has gratefully accepted them?
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* So the “gift is releasing the illusion and not accepting it as a truth. And somewhere in our psyche we each know that we are connected and that there is a God who Loves us.
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5. God blesses every gift you give to Him, and every gift is given Him, because it can be given only to yourself.
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* * I DO NOT like how this is worded because it makes it sound like you are God.
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²And what belongs to God must be His Own.
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* This, also, seems to carry with it the idea that you ARE God and that is not correct. However, the next sentence is crucial and is often overlooked!
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³Yet you will never realize His gifts are sure, eternal, changeless, limitless, forever giving out, extending love and adding to your never-ending joy while you forgive but to attack again.
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* BEAR IN MIND that the way to attack IS to FEEL IT NECESSARY to FORGIVE AGAIN. Meaning that if you do not forgive the Son of God completely and without reservation you have not forgiven Him, which would INCLUDE yourself AT ALL.
*This has nothing to do with calling out an abusive or neglectful situation and everything to do with ONCE and FOR ALWAYS forgiving the Son of God.
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6. Withdraw the gifts you give, and you will think that what is given you has been withdrawn.
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* The gift is forgiveness and every time you have to “forgive” somebody for something new or a new person, politic, or part of the Sonship you tell yourself that there is NO WAY that you could be WORTHY or FORGIVEN. Forgive; once and DONE and then follow the promptings of the Holy Spirit that says you and all that is IS worthy. Judgment of no sort has to enter your mind EVER again because the Holy Spirit will guide you.
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²But learn to let forgiveness take away the sins you think you see outside yourself, and you can never think the gifts of God are lent but for a little while, before He snatches them away again in death. ³For death will have no meaning for you then.
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* In connection with what the rest of the Course teaches this is misleading and shines the light on a truth that is IRRELEVANT in this circumstance. “learn to let forgiveness take away the sins you think you see outside yourself” It makes it sound as if you are the sole manifester of all that is, and that is not so. There are MANY in the Sonship. And while our thoughts can have a role in how we perceive there are other “mind-parts” of the Sonship that do not understand the error in the belief of separation as yet.
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7. And with the end of this belief is fear forever over.
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* Fear of vengeance from God or self but not from the ego mind while we get to live in the belief of suffering and death.
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²Thank your Self for this, for He is grateful only unto God, and He gives thanks for you unto Himself.
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* This is a convoluted statement that could easily be misconstrued to say that you are God. Somehow it seems to be suggesting to give thanks to Christ but here again, this is what I understand to be the teachings of Christianity and not of Jesus.
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³To everyone who lives will Christ yet come, for everyone must live and move in Him.
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* Here is that “Christian” idea when in fact Jesus taught that we are all the Christ along with all of creation. Yes, we live and move in Christ because we ARE Christ.
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⁴His Being in His Father is secure, because Their Will is One.
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* Their Will is One and it is our will with Heavenly Father’s where we are ALL secure because all error was just a mistake in the belief that the Son could be separate from the Father.
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⁵Their gratitude to all They have created has no end, for gratitude remains a part of love.
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* Absolutely correct but be careful NOT to read it as if they are separate from you in any way and note that gratitude as well as Love comes FIRST from God who is worthy of worship by His Son which is shown by gratitude.
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8. Thanks be to you, the holy Son of God. ²For as you were created, you contain all things within your Self. ³And you are still as God created you. ⁴Nor can you dim the light of your perfection.
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* True. As long as you recognize this includes all of creation.
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⁵In your heart the Heart of God is laid.
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* NOT IN ITS ENTIRETY because the HEART OF GOD encompasses all of creation beyond our imagination.
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⁶He holds you dear, because you are Himself.
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* NO! He holds you dear, because you are OF Himself. There is a BIG DIFFERENCE.
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⁷All gratitude belongs to you, because of what you are.
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* NO WAY! All gratitude belongs to God because of who He is as our FATHER! To one another as a part of ourself but gratitude belongs to God foremost and first. We show that gratitude to God by our kindness to others, the planet, and our own minds and thoughts.
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9. Give thanks as you receive it.
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* Yes, we receive thanks from God because He Loves us and created us.
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²Be you free of all ingratitude to anyone who makes your Self complete.
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* All of creation deserves our gratitude because it is all a part of THE SONSHIP of CHRIST.
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³And from this Self is no one left outside.
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* Self means CHRIST, the Sonship.
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⁴Give thanks for all the countless channels which extend this Self.
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* Amen.
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⁵All that you do is given unto Him.
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* Do NOT think of Christ as an entity OTHER than yourself. This is what brings about the idea of worshipping Christ which is not correct, we are to worship only God, the Father.
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⁶All that you think can only be His Thoughts, sharing with Him the holy Thoughts of God.
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* Yes, your thoughts are the thoughts of Christ as you are a part of the Sonship, and the Sonship ~as a whole and individually~ shares the Holy Thoughts of God. This gets a bit muddled because Thoughts are us as Souls which are the embodiment of Christ. I understand it as thoughts in general and accept the understanding that my thoughts are the thoughts of God; those things that create ideas without the thought of lack or comparison.
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⁷Earn now the gratitude you have denied yourself when you forgot the function God has given you.
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* EARN would be an inappropriate term here and would have only been permitted by Helen if she was confused and gaslit, maybe tired(?) because she knows there is no way the Son of God has to do anything to be whole in the Father. Embrace now or ACCEPT would have been more appropriate.
* So “we embrace and accept the gratitude that we denied ourselves” WHEN WE BELIEVED IN SEPARATION unless the “function” is creation and not forgiveness. It well could be creation which is the function God gave His Son at the beginning and which the Son turned away from by believing in separation. (In which case, it would be CORRECT as stated.)
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⁸But never think that He has ever ceased to offer thanks to you.
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* Should be to His Son or to you as His Son.
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* These lessons did not need to be so difficult to understand. But Jesus had told Helen that they were rushing forward because the dark (or confusing) energies of the world were speeding up. So we can know that much good came through this work, even if there was error to be found in it. That is important to understand about the flexibility that we need to have when considering our experiences, especially historically. Something was being taught for the good of Christ Consciousness.
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* This is my witness and understanding of this lesson today.
* I have no judgment on what was done or by whom I only wish to report how Jesus would have taught because my life depends on what is the truth as does yours and all the rest of creation.
* Till next time, God bless, debi.
