Lesson 63 • March 4

 

Read on the ACIM CE App: https://acimce.app/:W-63

Lesson 63

The light of the world brings peace to every mind through my forgiveness.

Practice Instructions

Purpose: To get in touch with your power to bring peace to everyone, to recognize the means by which you can do this, and to experience the happiness that comes from this.

Exercise: As often as you can (suggestion: every hour on the hour), for one to two minutes.

  • Tell yourself, “The light of the world brings peace to every mind through my forgiveness. I am the means God has appointed for the salvation of the world.”
  • Then do the practice that you’ve been doing recently: Think about these statements and let related thoughts come. If your mind wanders, repeat the idea.

Remarks: The remarks about closing your eyes hold for all the shorter practice periods in the Workbook (except the open-eyed ones). The principle is simple. One the one hand, you’ll benefit more if you close your eyes, because it will allow for greater focus. On the other hand, if you wait until the situation lets you close your eyes, that will hurt the frequency of your practice. So close your eyes if the situation permits; if not, go ahead and practice with eyes open.

Just like yesterday we are told to be happy to practice morning, evening, and throughout the day. That is because this practice will get us in touch with our function, and our function is the source of our happiness. As with Lesson 61, the practice periods at the beginning and end of the day can be longer if you like.

Commentary

Have you ever been the recipient of real forgiveness? There is nothing quite so liberating, nothing that eases the mind so much, as being truly forgiven. If I think I may have offended someone or injured them by what I have said or done, and they turn around and truly forgive me, letting me know that they were not hurt, that they understand me and see me in a light perhaps even better than I could see myself, it brings incredible peace to my mind. It relieves the pangs of guilt. There is a sense of love for the other person, a joy that our intimacy has not been impaired but perhaps even improved.

You and I have the power to bring that kind of peace to every mind. That is what our function is. We can allow this to be done through us (1:2). What a marvelous purpose this gives to our lives—bringing peace to every mind through our forgiveness. We can liberate everyone around us from the hell of their own guilt.

“Accept no trivial purpose or meaningless desire in its place, or you will forget your purpose and leave God’s Son in hell” (2:4). When we accept a lesser purpose, we inevitably forget the primary one. For instance, we may be trying to get someone to act in a way that pleases us—for our personal pleasure. We may have expectations about what someone should do or say. These lesser purposes can cause us to completely overlook our true function of forgiveness, and instead heap more guilt upon the person when they fail to meet our expectations.

We need to practice this idea diligently, as often as we can, to reinforce it in our minds. “I am the means God has appointed for the salvation of the world” (3:5). Forgiveness flows through me and brings peace to every mind I encounter today; let me remember to not block the flow.