These Commentary Readings for ACIM daily workbook lessons, authored by Dr. Ken Wapnick and contained in multi-volume series entitled Journey Through the Workbook of a Course in Miracles are a very helpful supplemental aid in deepening ones practice and understanding of the forgiveness process and the metaphysics of non -duality on which the Course is based. Commentary reading for Lessons 361-365 These final five workbook lessons & commentaries 361-365 repeat until end of the year. Then if so guided or disposed one may or may not choose to begin workbook anew. Follow your own inner teacher / guide / still small voice. I have gone through the workbook exercises now 4-5 times in last 12 years and will most probably be led to do so again in 2015. W.ep. EPILOGUE We come to the Epilogue, the end of the workbook for students. Its major theme is similar to that of its counterpart in the clarification of terms: the completion of a journey in which an ancient door swings open wide in welcome. We again see how Jesus seems to save his most beautiful words for the conclusion of his books: text, workbook, manual, and clarification of terms. W.ep.1:1 This course is a beginning, not an end. This is everyones most un-favorite line. At the same time Jesus gives us this glorious vision of the end and assures us that the goal is certain, he also makes it quite clear that we must continue our journey with the Holy Spirit. Thus we read that the end is already here with God waiting at the door for our return, and yet we still have work to do in terms of our daily practicing. The workbook is a one-year training program to put us in the charge of the Holy Spirit--by our choice--that we may spend the rest of our lives letting Him instruct us in the proper way of perceiving the world of our special relationships. W.ep.1:2:9 Your Friend goes with you. You are not alone. No one who calls on Him can call in vain. 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. He will not withhold all answers that you need for anything that seems to trouble you. He knows the way to solve all problems, and resolve all doubts. His certainty is yours. You need but ask it of Him, and it will be given you. The way to solve problems and resolve doubts is to bring them to our Friend, in Whom they will disappear because they are but one problem: the belief we are separate from Gods Love. The solution, therefore, is learning we are no longer separate, but joined with our Source through the Holy Spirit. Our minds, projected into specific brains, will experience this help in specific ‘forms’, but we should not be deceived by this specificity. Our focus should only be on the ‘content’. Using the imagery of the song, it is not the parts we want, but the song itself, as described in this lovely and familiar opening to ‘The Song of Prayer’: Prayer is the greatest gift with which God blessed His Son at his creation. It was then what it is to become; the single voice Creator and creation share; the song the Son sings to the Father, Who returns the thanks it offers Him unto the Son. Endless the harmony, and endless, too, the joyous concord of the Love They give forever to Each Other. And in this, creation is extended. God gives thanks to His extension in His Son. His Son gives thanks for his creation, in the song of his creating in his Fathers Name.... You cannot, then, ask for the echo. It is the song that is the gift. Along with it come the overtones, the harmonics, the echoes, but these are secondary (S-1.in.1:1-6; S-1.I.3:1-3). The parts of this glorious song--our forgiven relationships--are what our Friend sings to us to guide our footsteps along the journey to the Whole--the song of Love Itself. W.ep.2:1-3 You are as certain of arriving home as is the pathway of the sun laid down before it rises, after it has set, and in the half-lit hours in between. Indeed, your pathway is more certain still. For it can not be possible to change the course of those whom God has called to Him. Even before the sun actually rises, we know it will do so. It is a certainty in our perceptual world and never subject to doubt. Jesus is telling us that our pathway home is even more certain than that. Recall Jesus loving reassurance: the outcome is as certain as God (T-4.II.5:8). It cannot be possible that we could not or will not return home--we never left. Recall one more time the end to Helen’s poem, “Song to My Self”: “I never left my Father’s house. What need Have I to journey back to Him again?” (‘The Gifts of God’, p. 38) W.ep.2:4 Therefore obey your will, and follow Him Whom you accepted as your voice, to speak of what you really want and really need. Jesus is not saying we are to obey his will, but ‘ours’. This means we recognize that our will and his are one, and in that unity we realize our will and Gods are one. Jesus is certainly not asking us to submit to his authority, nor is he trying to coerce us. He simply says: Realize I am right and you are wrong. When you finally accept this happy fact, you will also accept that your will and mine are the same, for we are part of Gods one Son, and he is part of God. W.ep.2:5-6 His is the Voice for God and also yours. And thus He speaks of freedom and of truth. Although we will eventually know that ours and the Holy Spirits Voice are the same, while we still make our way we learn that the Holy Spirit speaks ‘for’ us and not ‘against’ us--He is not our enemy, nor does He want us to sacrifice or give up what we want. We thus learn that the Voice for God speaks for what is really in our hearts: the fervent desire to return home that is spoken of in the text as your intense and burning love of God, and His for you (T-13.III.2:8). Again, at the very end of the journey, we understand it is not only that the Holy Spirit speaks for us, He is us, as we are Him. There is but one Voice, just as there is but one God. In that oneness, all differentiated forms disappear: The Holy Spirit, being a creation of the one Creator, creating with Him and in His likeness or spirit, is eternal and has never changed. He was called down upon the earth [a reference to Acts 1:8] in the sense that it was now possible to accept Him and to hear His Voice. His is the Voice for God, and has therefore taken form. This form is not His reality, which God alone knows along with Christ, His real Son, Who is part of Him (C-6.1:2-5). Thus, though not real in the absolute sense, the Holy Spirit nonetheless reflects the reality of Gods Love in the dream, a reflection that gently corrects our illusions with its truth. W.ep.3:1 No more specific lessons are assigned, for there is no more need of them. There is no further need for lessons, because the last lesson--the culmination of the workbook--is that we ask the Holy Spirit to be in charge. As long as we accept His guidance, we spend the rest of our days specifically asking for help when we are tempted to exclude Him and have the ego be our guide. Therefore, we no longer need words or lessons because we have learned we are wrong and the Holy Spirit is right, and we continually seek to reinforce that awareness. By choosing the Voice beyond words, which yet seems to speak in words, we let ourselves be directed as we practice our daily lessons of forgiveness. Nothing further is needed than this gentle guidance--always lovely to read--that teaches the sinlessness of Gods Son. “Yet there will always be this place of rest to which you can return. And you will be more aware of this quiet center of the storm than all its raging activity. This quiet center, in which you do nothing, will remain with you, giving you rest in the midst of every busy doing on which you are sent. For from this center will you be directed how to use the body sinlessly” (T-18.VII.8:1-4). W.ep.3:2 Henceforth, hear but the Voice for God and for your Self when you retire from the world, to seek reality instead. In other words, Jesus asks us to go to the holy instant, the place of truth and peace in our minds. There we hear and integrate the truth, thus to return our attention to the world, but differently, as he now tells us: W.ep.3:3 He will direct your efforts, telling you exactly what to do, how to direct your mind, and when to come to Him in silence, asking for His sure direction and His certain Word. You will come to the Holy Spirit in silence when you realize you have no more specific needs. At the journeys beginning you need Him to tell you exactly what to do and say, where, and to whom. You ask the questions, and He seems to give the answer. Yet at some point it will dawn on you that this specificity is getting you nowhere. It will reinforce your being with the right Teacher, but will not bring you home. That is why you need to learn to come in silence, which means to realize that all problems are the same--aspects of the egos raucous shrieking. You do not need help with a specific problem, but with undoing the source of the problem--your decision to hear the egos chatter. It does not matter what the ego is saying; the problem is that you think you are hearing it. You need but say one word to the Holy Spirit: Help! This means: I forgot You, and now want Your loving guidance back. Forgiveness--the letting go of judgment--is the means He uses to undo the blocks to our following His guidance and hearing His certain Word. Thus did Jesus specifically instruct Helen: “Remember you need nothing, but you have an endless store of loving gifts to give. But teach this lesson only to yourself. Your brother will not learn it from your words or from the judgment you have laid on him. You need not even speak a word to him. You cannot ask, “What shall I say to him?” and hear God’s answer. Rather ask instead, “Help me to see this brother through the eyes of truth and not of Judgment,” and the help of God and all his angels will respond.... by your your side is One Who knows the way. Step back for Him and let Him lead you to the rest and silence of the Word of God” (‘Absence from Felicity’, pp. 381) W.ep.3:4-5 His is the Word that God has given you. His is the Word you chose to be your own. The egos word of separation always attacks; Gods Word of Atonement ends attack through forgiveness. Thus we choose the Word that will bring us the peace we want above all else. W.ep.4:1 And now I place you in His hands, to be His faithful follower, with Him as Guide through every difficulty and all pain that you may think is real. Jesus is not encouraging us to deny our experiences, but to choose a Teacher Who will help us realize that we are never upset for the reason we think. The source of our pain is not external, for pain comes only from the minds choosing the wrong teacher. W.ep.4:2 Nor will He give you pleasures that will pass away, for He gives only the eternal and the good. Our egos want the Holy Spirit to make us feel good ‘here’; to solve our problems ‘here’; to bring an end to pain ‘here’; to give us things we want ‘here’. These are what we believe will give us pleasure and peace--e.g., a relationship that will not be abusive, a bank account that does not dwindle to nothing, a body that does not suffer pain. Jesus, however, is telling us that the Holy Spirit would not give us these things because they will not last: indeed, nothing of the body will. What He does give is the eternal Love of God. It is important, therefore, that we shift our figure/ground perception so that our specialness needs recede into the background and become the framework in which we learn forgiveness, now placed in the foreground. We then observe how quickly the ego jumps in and tries to shift our attention, pushing Jesus and our minds--the source of the dream--into the background, and the dream and its figures to the foreground once again. W.ep.4:3-4 Let Him prepare you further. He has earned your trust by speaking daily to you of your Father and your brother and your Self. It is interesting to note that Jesus here equates himself with the Holy Spirit. We usually think of Jesus as the I--the one who speaks to us through ‘A Course in Miracles’. Yet here he says that these are the Holy Spirits words to us, which means his function is the same as the Holy Spirits, as are Their Voices. This is not meant to be a topic of theological controversy. There can only be ‘one’ Voice, as there is only ‘one’ inner Teacher. To say that Jesus is the source of ‘A Course in Miracles’ is to say the Holy Spirit is, too. The ‘forms’ make no difference, since the ‘content’ of truth remains the same. What is important is realizing that these words do not come from us as egos, but from a love and truth that are beyond the world. W.ep.4:5 He will continue. Because you have finished the workbook does not mean the Holy Spirit will cease speaking to you. He will always be an inner Presence of Love, the memory that reminds you that all this is a dream. W.ep.4:6 Now you walk with Him, as certain as is He of where you go; as sure as He of how you should proceed; as confident as He is of the goal, and of your safe arrival in the end. We will increasingly share His certainty as we learn to let the world and everything in it recede into the background, and allow the goal--the ‘end’-- and His Love--the ‘means’--come to the foreground. W.ep.5:1-4 The end is certain, and the means as well. To this we say Amen. You will be told exactly what God wills for you each time there is a choice to make. And He will speak for God and for your Self, thus making sure that hell will claim you not, and that each choice you make brings Heaven nearer to your reach. When Helen was taking down the text, she would occasionally think--and hope--that it was coming to an end. Yet Jesus continued. At one point she asked: How will I know this is ending? and he replied: When you hear the word, ‘Amen’. Recall the opening of texts final paragraph: And now we say Amen. This passage, therefore, alerts us to the conclusion of the workbook. Incidentally, Jesus does the very same thing in the manual for teachers, which concludes with the word ‘Amen’. At the beginning of our journey--remember that the workbook is usually used, and basically meant to be used at the beginning of a students work with the Course--we believe there are choices in the world that have to be made, and we are not yet aware that there is only one true choice: the Holy Spirit or the ego. What bring us to that awareness is asking the Holy Spirit’s help for the specific choices we think we have, reflected in the above words. As we advance on the journey--which means we experience less guilt and have less attraction to specialness--we realize that each time there is a problem it is because we chose the wrong teacher. Period. Such a simple error requires a simple correction--forgiveness instead of attack, the Holy Spirit instead of the ego, Heaven instead of hell--and its success is certain, for both means and end are the Love of God. W.ep.5:5-6 And so we walk with Him from this time on, and turn to Him for guidance and for peace and sure direction. Joy attends our way. The real and only joy in this world is returning home, and we cannot return unless we undo the ego. Thus many students in their work with ‘A Course in Miracles’ go through periods when things seem to get worse, where there is no joy, and all they know is the darkness of guilt. Yet that is a big step forward because they now recognize the minds darkness. Before, they thought everything was wonderful, or that the darkness was in everyone else except themselves. However, pain erupts when they suddenly realize: “‘I’ am the devil, and evil is not outside me. Since I now see the problem is my guilt, I am the one who has to change, not anyone else. Yet joy eventually comes as they realize there is a way of looking at the darkness and realizing the light shines beyond it. That is real joy and happiness, which do not come from the pleasure of indulging ones specialness needs, but through realizing there is genuine hope: Yes, I have an ego, but I also know it is a defense against a loving reality that is also in my mind. Only in the Holy Spirits salvation, therefore, is there hope of true joy, which arises in gently undoing the egos thought system of attack and pain, as we read in the fifth characteristic of the teacher of God, describing the joy of following the direction of his Teacher: Joy is the inevitable result of gentleness. Gentleness means that fear is now impossible, and what could come to interfere with joy? The open hands of gentleness are always filled. The gentle have no pain. They cannot suffer. Why would they not be joyous? They are sure they are beloved and must be safe. Joy goes with gentleness as surely as grief attends attack. Gods teachers trust in Him. And they are sure His Teacher goes before them, making sure no harm can come to them. They hold His gifts and follow in His way, because Gods Voice directs them in all things. Joy is their song of thanks.... How joyous it is to share the purpose of salvation! (M-4.V.1:1-12,15) W.ep.5:7 For we go homeward to an open door which God has held unclosed to welcome us. I observed at the beginning of the Epilogue that we find this same lovely thought in the conclusion to the clarification of terms. There the open door is the ancient one we believed was forever closed when the mind chose against the Holy Spirit. Now that we return with Him and are at the end of the journey, we realize the door had not closed at all. This, by the way, is the same door Jesus holds open for us, as we have seen in the following passage from the text that emphasizes the need to leave all judgment behind, for otherwise we shall never know that the pathway home has remained open to us throughout eternity: Christ is at Gods altar, waiting to welcome His Son. But come wholly without condemnation, for otherwise you will believe that the door is barred and you cannot enter. The door is not barred, and it is impossible that you cannot enter the place where God would have you be. But love yourself with the Love of Christ, for so does your Father love you. You can refuse to enter, but you cannot bar the door that Christ holds open. Come unto me who holds it open for you, for while I live it cannot be shut, and I live forever. God is my life and yours, and nothing is denied by God to His Son (T-11.IV.6). The word ‘Amen’ appears a second time: W.ep.6:1-2 We trust our ways to Him and say Amen. In peace we will continue in His way, and trust all things to Him. This way of the miracle means the egos undoing. We no longer make the journey through the world with a false guide, but with the Holy Spirit, Whom we have learned to trust more than our self. Our lives here now shine with the gentle glow of forgiveness, and all is made safe as we journey home in peace with the power of love by our side: The teachers of God have trust in the world, because they have learned it is not governed by the laws the world made up. It is governed by a power that is ‘in’ them but not ‘of’ them. It is this power that keeps all things safe. It is through this power that the teachers of God look on a forgiven world (M-4.I.1:4-7). W.ep.6:3-5 In confidence we wait His answers, as we ask His Will in everything we do. He loves Gods Son as we would love him. And He teaches us how to behold him through His eyes, and love him as He does. If we need specific answers we will experience His love as a specific answer; but we will realize in time that His Love is the only answer, and has no specific form. It is this answer that informs our daily classrooms, as our Teacher instructs us in forgiveness whereby we learn to love Gods Son as He does, that the light of Christ may shine equally on us all, without exceptions: Make way for love, which you did not create, but which you can extend. On earth this means forgive your brother, that the darkness may be lifted from your mind. When light has come to him through your forgiveness, he will not forget his savior, leaving him unsaved. For it was in your face he saw the light that he would keep beside him, as he walks through darkness to the everlasting Light (T-29.III.4). The closing lines of the workbook are beautiful and deeply moving, and I shall present them without comment. They end with the wonderful phrase from the last discourses in John’s gospel, where Jesus tells his disciples: “I will never leave you comfortless”(John 14:18). As his final word here, Jesus reminds us that the Holy Spirit’s Love has a specific form in us within the dream, and ‘he’ is that form. While in his mind the journey is already over, Jesus does not demand our acceptance. As long we cling to our individual self we must journey on, yet it is not a journey we make alone, nor without the gentle comfort of God to guide us: W.ep.6:6-8 You do not walk alone. Gods angels hover near and all about. His Love surrounds you, and of this be sure; that I will never leave you comfortless. To this we softly and gratefully say: Amen.
Posted on: Tue, 30 Dec 2014 13:53:45 +0000