IA´s Journal

[IA56]

LESSON 196

”It can be but myself I crusify.”

When this is firmly understood and kept in full awareness, you will not attempt to harm yourself, nor make your body slave to vengeance. You will not attack yourself, and you will realize that to attack another is but to attack yourself. You will be free of the insane belief that to attack a brother saves yourself. And you will understand his safety is your own, and in his healing you are healed. Perhaps a first you will not understand how mercy, limitless and with all things held in its sure protection, can be found in the idea we practice for today. It may, in fact,appear to be a sign that punishment can never be escaped because the ego, under what it sees as threat, is quick to cite the truth to save its lies. Yet must it fail foolish applications, and deny the meaning they appear to have. Thus do you also teach your mind that you are not an ego. For the ways in which the ego would distort the truth will not deceive you longer. You will not believe you are a body to be crucified. And you will see within today´s idea the light of resurrection, looking past all thoughts of crucifixion and of death, to thoughts of liberation and of life. Todays idea is one step we take in leading us from bondage to the state of perfect freedom. Let us take this step today,that we may quickly go the way salvation shows us, taking every step in its appointed sequence, as the mind relinquishes its burdens one by one. It is not time we need for this. It is but willingness. For what would seem to need a thousand years can easily be done in just one instant by the grace of God. The dreary, hopless thought that you can make attacks on others, and escape yourself has nailed you to the cross. Perhaps it seemed to be salvation. Yet it merely stood for the belief the fear of God is real. And what is that but hell?Who could believe his Father is his deadly enemy, separate from him, and waiting to destroy his life and blot him from the universe, without the fear of hell upon his heart? Such is the form of madness you believe, if you accept the fearful thought you can attack another and be free yourself. Until this form is changed, there is no hope. Until you see that this, at least, must be entirely impossible, how could there be escape? The fear of God is real to anyone who thinks this thought is true. And he will not perceive its foolishness, or even see that it is there, so that it would be possible to question it. To question it at all, its form must first be changed at least as much as will permit fear of retaltion to abate, and the responsibility returned to some extent to you.From there you can at least consider if you want to go along this painful path.Until this shift has been accomplished, you can not perceive that it is but your thoughts that bring your fear, and your deliverance depends on you. Our next steps will be easy, if you take this one today. From there we go ahead quite rapidly. For once you understand it is impossible that you be hurt except by your own thoughts, the fear of God must disappear. You cannot then believe that fear is caused without. And God, Whom you had thought to banish, can be welcomed back within the holy mind He never left. Salvation´s song can certaily be heard in the idea we practice for today. If it can but be you you crusify, you did not hurt the world, and need not fear its vengeance and pursuit. Nor need you hide in terror from the deadly fear of God projection hides behind. The thing you dread the most is your salvation. You are strong, and it is strength you want. And you are free, and glad of freedom. You have sought to be both weak and bound, because you feared your strength and freedom Yet salvation lies in them. There is an instant in which terror seems to grip you mind so wholly that escape appears quite hopeless. When you realize, once and for all, that it is you you fear, the mind perceives itself as split. And this had been concealed while you believe attack could be directed outward, and returned from outside to within. It seemed to be an enemy outside you had to fear. And thus a god outside yourself became your mortal enemy; the source of fear. Now, for an instant, is a murderer perceived within you, eager for your death, intent on plotting punishment for your until the time when it can kill at last. Yet in this instant is the time as well in which salvation comes. For fear of God has disappeared. And you can call on Him to save you from illusions by His Love,calling Him Father and yourself His Son. Pray that the instant may be soon, -today. Step back from fear, and make advance to love. There is no Thought of God that does not go with you to help you reach that instant, and to go beyond it quickly, surely and forever. When the fear of God is gone, there are no obstacles that still remain between you and the holy peace of God. How kind and merciful is the idea we practice! Give it welcome, as you should, for it is your release. It is indeed but you your mind can try to crusify. Yet your redemtion, too, will come from you.

Love

[IA56]

LESSON 197

”It can be but my gratitude I earn.”

Here is the second step we take too free your mind from the belief in outside force pitted against your own.You make attempts at kindness and forgiveness. Yet you turn them to attack again, unless you find external gratitude and lavish thanks. Your gifts must be received with honor, lest they be with drawn. And 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. How easily are God and guilt confused by those who know not what their thoughts can do. Deny your strength, and weakness must become salvation to you. See yourself as bound, and bars become your home. Nor 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. The world must thank you when you offer it release from your illusions. Yet your thanks belong to you as well,for its release can only mirror yours. Your gratitude is all your gifts require, that they be a lasting offering of a thankful heart, released from hell forever. It is this you would undo by taking back your gifts, because they were not honored? It is you who honor and give them fitting thanks, for it is you who have received the gifts. It does not matter if another thinks your gifts unworthy. In his mind there is a part that joins with yours in thanking you. It does not matter if your gifts seem lost and in effectual. They are received where they are given. In your gratitude are they accepted universally, and thankfully acknowledged by the Heart of God Himself. And would you take them back, when He was gratefully accepted them? God blesses every gift you give to Him, and every gift is given Him, because it can be given only to yourself. And what belongs to God must be His Own. Yet 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. Withdraw the gifts you give, and you will think that what is given you has been withdrawn. But learn to let forgiveness take away this 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. For death will have no meaning for you then. And with the end of this belief is fear forever over. Thank your Self for this, for He is grateful only unto God,and He gives thanks for you unto Himself. To everyone who lives will Christ yet come, for everyone must live and move in Him. His Being in His Father is secure, because Their Will is one. Their gratitude to all They have created has no end, for gratitude remains a part of love. Thanks be to you, the holy Son of God. For as you were created, you contain all things within your Self. And you are still as God created you. Nor can you dim the light of your perfection. In your heart the Heart of God is laid. He holds you dear, because you are Himself. All gratitude belongs to you, because of what you are. Give thanks as you recieive it. Be you free of all ingratitude to anyone who makes your Self complete. And from this Self is no one left outside. Give thanks for all the countless channels which extend this Self. All that you do is given unto Him.All that you think can only be His Thoughts, sharing with Him the holy Thoughts of God. Earn now the gratitude you have denied yourself when you forgot the function God has given you. But never think that He has ever ceased to offer thanks to you.

Love

[IA56]

LESSON 198

”Only my condemnation injures me.”

Injury is impossible. And yet illusion makes illusion. If you can condemn, you can be injured. For you have believed that you can injure, and the right you have established for yourself can be now used against you, till you lay it down as valueless, unwanted and unreal. Then does illusion cease to have effects, and those it seemed to have will be undone. Then are you free, for freedom is your gift, and you can now receive the gift you gave. Condemn and you are made a prisoner. Forgive and you are freed. Such is the law that rules perception. It is not a law that knowledge understands, for freedom is a part of knowledge. To condemn is thus impossible in truth. What seems to be its influence and its effects have not occured at all. Yet must we deal with them a while as if they had. Illusion makes illusion. Except one. Forgiveness is illusion that is answer to the rest.Forgiveness sweeps all other dreams away, and though it is itself a dream, it breeds no others. All illusions save this one must multiply a thousand fold.But this is where illusions end. Forgiveness is the end of dreams, because it is a dream of waking. It is not itself the truth. Yet does it point to where the truth must be, and gives direction with the certainty of God Himself. It is a dream in which the Son of God awakens to his Self and to his Father, knowing They are one. Forgiveness is the only road that leads out of disaster, past all suffering, and finally away from death. How could there be another way, when this one is the plan of God Himself? And why would you oppose it, quarrel with it, seek to find a thousand ways in which it must be wrong; a thousand other possibilities? It is not wiser to be glad you hold the answer to your problems in your hand? It is not more intelligent to thank the One Who gives salvation,and accept His gift with gratitude? And is it not a kindness to yourself to hear His Voice and learn the simple lessons He would teach, instead of trying to dismiss His words, and substitute you own in place of His? His words will work. His words will save. His words contain all hope, all blessing and all joy that ever can be found upon this earth. His words are born in God, and come to you with Heaven´s love upon them. Those who hear His words have heard the song of Heaven. For these are the words in which all merge as one at last. And as this one will fade away, the Word of God will come to take its place, for it will be remembered than and loved. This world had many seeming separate haunts where mercy has no meaning, and attack appears as justified. Yet all are one; a Place where death is offered to God´s Son and to his Father. You may think They have accepted. But if you will look again upon the place where you beheld Their blood, you will perceive a miracle instead. How foolish to believe that They could die! How foolish to believe you can attack! How mad to think that you could be condemned, and that the holy Son of God can die! The stillness of your Self remains unmoved, untouched by thoughts like these, and unaware of any condemnation which could need forgiveness. Dreams of any kind are strange and alien to the truth. And what but truth could have a Thought which builds a bridge to it that brings illusions to the other side? Today we practice letting freedom come to make its home with you. The truth bestows these words upon your mind, that you may find the key to light and let the darkness end:

”Only my condemnation injures me.
Only my own forgiveness sets me free.”

Do not forget today that there can be no form of suffering that fails to hide an unforgiving thought. Nor can there be a form of pain forgiveness cannot heal. Accept the one illusion which proclaims there is no condemnation in God´s Son, and Heaven is remembered instantly; the world forgotten, all its weird beliefs forgotten with it, as the face of Christ appears unveiled at last in this one dream. This is the gift the Holy Spirit holds for you from God you Father. Let today be celebrated both on earth and in your holy home as well. Be kind to both, as you forgive the trespasses you thought them guilty of, and see your innocence shining upon you from the face of Christ. Now is there silence all around the world. Now is there stillness where before there was a frantic rush of thoughts that made no sense. Now is there tranquil light across the face of death, made quiet in a dreamless sleep. And now the Word of God alone remains upon it. Only that can be perceived an instant longer. Then are symbols done, and everything you ever thought you made completely vanished from the mind that God forever knows to be His only Son. There is no condemnation in him. He is perfect in his holiness. He needs no thoughts of mercy. Who could give him gifts when everything is his? And who would dream of offering forgiveness to the Son of Sinlessness Itself, so like to Him Whose Son he is, that to behold the Son is to perceive no more, and only know the Father? In this vision of the Son, so brief that not aninstant stands between this single sight and timelessness itself, you see thevision of yourself, and then you disappear forever into God. Today we come still nearer to the end of everything that yet would stand between this vision and our sight. And we are glad that we have come this far, and recognize that He Who brought us here will not forsake us now. For He would give to us the gift that God has given us through Him today. Now is the time for your deliverance.The time has come. The time has come today.

Love

[IA56]

LESSON 199

”I am not a body. I am free.”

Freedom must be impossible as long as you perceive a body as yourself. The body is a limit. Who would seek for freedom in a body looks for it where it can not be found. The mind can be made free when it no longer sees itself as in a body, frimly tied to it and sheltered by its precence. If this were the truth, the mind were vulnerable indeed! The mind that serves the Holy Spirit is unlimited forever, in all ways, beyond the laws of time and space, unbound by any preconceptions, and with strength and power to do whatever it is asked. Attack thoughts cannot enter such a mind, because it has been given to the Source of love, and fear can never enter in a mind that has attached itself to love. It rests in God. And who can be afraid who lives in Innocence, and only loves? It is essential for your progress in this course that you accept today´s idea, and hold it very dear. Be no concerned that to the ego is it quite insane. The ego holds the body dear because it dwells in it, and lives united with the home that it has made. It is part of the illusion that has sheltered it from being found illusory itself.Here does it hide, and here it can be seen as what it is. Declare your innocence and you are free. The body disappears, because you have no need of it except the need the Holy Spirit sees. For this, the body will appear as useful form for what the mind must do. It thus becomes a vehicle which helps forgiveness be extended to the all- inclusieve goal that it must reach, according to God´s plan. Cherish today´s idea, and practice it today and everyday. Make it a part of every practice period you take. There is no thought that will not gain thereby in power to help the world, and none which will not gain in added gifts to you as well. We sound the call of freedom round the world with this idea. And would you be exempt from the acceptance of the gifts you give?The Holy Spirit is the home of minds that seek for freedom. In Him they have found what they have sought. The body´s purpose now is unambiguous. And it becomes perfect in the ability to serve an undivided goal. In conflict-free and unquivocal response to mind with but the thought of freedom as its goal, the body serves, and serves its prupose well. Without the power to enslave, it is a wrothy servant of the freedom which the mind within the Holy Sprit seeks. Be free today. And carry freedom as your gift to those who still believe they are enslaved within a body. Be you free, so that the Holy Spirit can make use of your escape from bondage, to set free the many who perceive them selves as bound and helpless and afraid. Let love replace their fears through you. Accept salvation now, and give your mind to Him Who calls to you to make this gift to Him. For He would give you perfect freedom, perfect joy, and hope that finds its full accomplishment in God. You are God´s Son. In immortality you you live forever. Would you not return your mind to this? Then practice well the thought the Holy Spirit gives you to today. Your brothers stand released with you in it; the world is blessed along with you, God´s Son wil weep no more, and Heaven offers thanks for the increase of joy your practice brings even to it. And God Himself extends His Love and happiness each time you say:

”I am not a body, I am free.
I hear the Voice That God has given me.
And it is only This my mind obeys.”

Love

[IA56]

LESSON 200

”There is no peace exept the peace of God.”

Seek you no further. You will not find peace except the peace of God. Accept this fact, and save yourself the agony of yet more bitter disappointments, bleak despair, and sense of icy holessness and doubt. Seek you no further. There is nothing else for you to find except the peace of God, unless you seek for misery and pain. This is the final point to which each one must come at last, to lay aside all hope offinding happiness where there is none; of being saved by what can only hurt; of making peace of chaos, joy of pain, and Heaven out of hell. Attempt no more to win through losing, nor to die to live. You cannot but be asking for defeat.Yet you can ask as easily for love, for happiness, and for eternal life in peace that has no ending. Ask for this, and you can only win. To ask for what you have already must succeed. To ask that what is false be true can only fail.Forgive yourself for vain imaginings, and seek no longer what you cannot find.For what could be more foolish than to seek and seek and seek again for hell,when you have but to look with open eyes to find that Heaven lies before you,through a door that opens easily to welcome you? Come home. You have not found your happiness in foreign places and in alien forms that have no meaning to you, through you sought to make them meaningful. This world is not where you belong. You are a stranger here. But it is given you to find the means whereby the world no longer seems to be a prison house or jail for anyone. Freedom is given you where you beheld but chains and iron doors. But you must change your mind about the purpose of the world, if you would find escape. You will be bound till all the world is seen by you as blessed, and everyone made free of your mistakes and honored as he is. You made him not; no more yourself. And as you free the one, the other is accepted as he is. What does forgiveness do? In truth it has no function, and does nothing. For it is unknown in Heaven. It is only hell where it is needed, and where it must serve a mighty function. Is not the escape of God´s beloved. Son from evil dreams that he imagines, yet believes are true, a worthy purpose? Who could hope for more, while the reappears to be a choice to make between success and failure; love and fear?There is no peace except the peace of God, because He has one Son who cannot make a world in opposition to God´s Will and to his own, which it the same as His. What could he hope to find in such a world? It cannot have reality,because it never was created. Is it here that he would seek for peace? Or must he see that, as he looks on it, the world can but deceive? Yet can he learn to look on it another way, and find the peace of God. Peace is the bridge that everyone will cross, to leave this world behind. But peace begins within the world perceived as different, and leading from this fresh perception to the gate of Heaven and the way beyond. Peace is the answer to conflicting goals, to senseless journeys, frantic, vain pursuits, and meaningless endeavors. Now the way is easy, sloping gently towards the bridge where freedom lies within the peace of God. Let us not lose our way again today. We go to Heaven, and the path is straight. Only if we attempt to wander can there be dealy, and needless wasting time on thorny by ways. God alone is sure, and He will guide our footsteps. He will not desert His Son in need, nor let him stray forever from his home. The Father calls; the Son will hear. And that is all there is to what appears to be a world apart from God, where bodies have reality. Now is there silence. Seek no further. You have come to where the road is carpeted with leaves of false desires, fallen from the trees of hoplessness you sought before. Now are they underfoot. And you look up and on toward Heaven, with the body´s eyes but serving for an instant longer now. Peace is already recognized at last, and you can feel its soft embrace surround your heart and mind with comfort and with love. Today we seek no idols. Peace can not be found in them.The peace of God is ours, and only this will we accept and want. Peace be to us today. For we have found a simple, happy way to leave the world of ambiguity,and to replace our shifting goals and solitary dreams with single purpose and companionship. For peace is union, if it be of God. We seek no further. We are close to home, and draw still nearer every time we say:

”There is no peace except the peace of God,
And I am glad and thankful it is so.”

Love

[IA56]

REVIEW VI

For this review we take but one idea each day, and practice it as often as is possible. Besides the time you give morning and evening, which should not be less than fifteen minutes, andthe hourly remembrances you make throughout the day, use the idea as often as you can between them. Each of these ideas alone would be sufficient for salvation, if it were learned truly. Each would be enough to give release to you and to the world from every form of bondage, and invite the memory of God to come again. With this in mind we we start our practicing, in which we carefully review the thoughts the Holy Sprit has bestowed on us in our last twenty lessons. Each contains the whole curriculum if understood, practicied, accepted, and applied to all the seeming happenings throughout the day. One is enough. But from the one, there must be no exeptions made. And so we need to use them all and let them blend as one, as each contributes to the whole we learn. These practice sessions, like our last review, are centrered round a central theme with which we start and end each lesson. It is this:

”I am not a body. I am free.
For I am still as God created me.”

The day begins and ends with this. And we repeat it every time the hour strikes, or we remember, in between,we have a function that transcends the world we see. Beyond this, and a repetiotion of the special thought we practice for the day, no form of exercise is urged, except a deep relinquishment of everything that clutters up the mind,and makes it deaf to reason, sanity and simple truth. We will attempt to get beyond all words and special forms of practicing for this review. For we attempt, this time, to reach a quickened pace along a shorter path to the serenity and peace of God. We merely close our eyes, and then forget all that we thought we knew and understood. For thus is freedom given us from all we did not know and failed to understand. There is but one exception to this lack structuring. Permit no idle thought to go unchallenged. If you notice one, deny its hold and hasten to assure your mind that this is not what it would have.Then gently let the thought which you denied be given up, in sure and Quick exchange for the idea we practice for the day. When you are tempted, hasten to proclaim your freedom from temptation, as you say:

”This thought I do not want, I choose instead __________.”

And then repeat the idea for the day, and let it take the place of what you thought. Beyond such special applications of each day´s idea, we will add but a few formal expressions or specific thoughts to aid in practicing. Instead, we give these times of quiet to the Teacher Who instructs in quiet, speaks of peace, and gives our thoughts whatever meaning they may have. To Him I offer this review for you. I place you in His charge, and let Him teach you what to do and say and think, each time you turn to Him. He will not fail to be available to you, each time you call to Him to help you. Let us offer Him the whole review we now begin, and let us also not forget to Whom it has been given, as we practice day by day, advancing toward the goal He set for us; allowing Him to teach us how to go, and trustingHim completely for the way each practice period can best become a loving gift of freedom to the world.

Love

[susan]

IA56,
Thank you so much for posting this this morning. It is very meaningful for me and has encouraged me to believe in a couple of things I experienced but decided not to record.
Will do .

[IA56]

Hi Dearest Susan,

I am so happy and in tears here, yesterday I wanted to encourage you but did not dare to do so, I was not sure you had understand me in right way.
Here you see how afraid we are to say as we feel, we fear to not be understood in right way, I Think we should stop thinking so much and just do as we feel, because we are guided in every step of our Life, but we stand and block Life so to speak...We have to step out of our way in Life
So be curaugous and write more, I really do appreachiate all in you, you wonderful perfect being, pure love.

Love
ia

IA56,
Thank you so much for posting this this morning. It is very meaningful for me and has encouraged me to believe in a couple of things I experienced but decided not to record.
Will do .

[IA56]

LESSON 201

”I am not a body. I am free.
For I am still as God created me.”

181) ”I trust my brothers, who are one with me.”

”No one but is my brother. I am blessed.
With oneness with the universe and God,
My Father, one Creator of the whole
That is my Self, forever one with me.”

”I am not my body. I am free.
For I am still as God created me.”

Love

[IA56]

LESSON 202

”I am not a body. I am free.
For I am still as God created me.”

182) ”I will be still an instant and go home.”

”Why would I choose to stay an instant more
Where I do not belong, when God Himself
Has given me His Voice to call me home?”

”I am not my body. I am free.
For I am still as God created me.”

Love