Ask: How can I be more diligent with the lessons?


Every year I go gung ho and start off doing a lesson each day using index cards to write the day's lesson down and in a couple of months I falter and stop completely. Why is that?  How can I make myself more diligent so that I do at least one lesson per day? – DH

            If you have been unable to complete the lessons in the Workbook then you need to ask yourself what form of resistance is coming up around the time that you falter and stop. Some students think that they have to do the lessons perfectly each day and when they don’t they give up, feeling like a failure. Others bump into ideas that they find hard to accept and give up. When you find yourself resistant go back and read the introduction to the Workbook. It gives you instructions for doing the lessons and it makes it quite clear that you do not have to accept the ideas in them. Simply do not actively resist them. Each day just do the best that you can with that day’s lesson, then move on to the next lesson the next day. Only do one lesson per day.
            You can find the lessons on cards at www.acim.org so that you do not have to write them down to carry with you each day.
            If you have completed the lessons once then you do not have to do them again. As it says in the introduction to the Workbook, the mind training period the lessons cover is one year. After that you may want to read and study the Workbook as you would the Text and the Manual for Teachers, but you do not need to put the lessons into practice again. In fact, doing so will hold you back. At the end of the Workbook you are left with the Holy Spirit, Who guides your mind training from then on.

>>>>>
Learn about the books The ACIM Mentor Articles, The Plain Language A Course in Miracles, and 4 Habits for Inner Peace at www.acimmentor.com.

If you have a question that you want answered in the ACIM Mentor Newsletter/Blog email it to Liz@acimmentor.com and indicate that you want it answered here.

Comments

jacomina said…
I did the daily lessons so quickly and with very little attention and yet it took almost three years to get it all done. Now I am in the first 10 days of redoing it and it seems I must've skipped so much. Now I'm enjoying it whereas before I thought I had to get to the end to "get it". So you think best I do not redo the lessons even though I did them so poorly? Just read the workbook instead? I wish I had slowed down and focused more.
9:50 AM
ACIM Mentor said…
I have yet to come across a student who feels they did the lessons well. And yet when I ask them to look back they always say they changed a great deal in that year. So something sinks in. It's the ego that thinks you have to do them perfectly. The year of "mind training" is one year. But you can revisit the ideas by reading the Workbook as you would the Text. They do not have to be practiced to sink in. They only have to be accepted.
12:18 PM
jacomina said…
got it. And boy, are they sinking in. THank you
10:26 AM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Ask: What is meant by "extend Love"?

I wonder exactly what is meant by "extend love" or how one extends love. Is it a loving intention toward the person, or a wish for them, or what? Can you give an example? – JO “Extending love” means replacing unloving thoughts in your mind with the awareness of Love in your mind. For example, your peace of mind is disturbed while watching something on television. Your peace is gone because you believe that what you see is reality. You extend Love in this situation by turning inward to Truth (God), feeling Love’s Presence within you, and remembering that It, not the images appearing, is What is Real. It may take you a while to accept that only your own thoughts cause you pain. So at first you may feel that you need to extend Love “out there” to the images that seem to be causing you pain. Or you may extend Love to another who is sharing their painful story with you. You can do this by imagining the situation or the person in a Loving Light. Or you may use some other image to
Read more

If the World Isn't Real, Why Ask For Guidance?

Every now and then a student asks me why they should follow the Holy Spirit’s guidance if the world isn’t real and if it has nothing to do with God. What difference does it make how you live in the world, then? All that you made can serve salvation easily and well. The Son of God can make no choice the Holy Spirit cannot employ on his behalf, and not against himself. (T-25.VI.7) The world is your perception that you are separate from God. Calling on the Holy Spirit to guide you in it corrects this misperception. You are no longer separate from God when you are following the Holy Spirit. What you ask the Holy Spirit and what the Holy Sprit answers is not important. What is important is that you asked and that you accepted an answer . When you follow the Holy Spirit the purpose of every circumstance becomes a means to be with the Holy Spirit. The world that was made to make separation from God real to you becomes a means of remembering you are One with God. It doesn’t matter to God ho
Read more

More on Emotional Satisfaction or Freedom

Last week’s article ( http://acimmentor.blogspot.com/2017/02/emotional-satisfaction-or-freedom.html ) about the two possible approaches to spirituality and how one way to characterize them is the pursuit of emotional satisfaction for the self or transcending the self led to a lot of comments and questions that I will try to clear up here. (The article was a follow-up to two other articles I had written on the same topic. Some of the questions readers had could be answered in those earlier articles and links were provided in last week’s article. If you still have questions I suggest reading those as well as last week’s article for a fuller look at the topic). The emotional satisfaction I wrote about in the last article was not referring to what one seeks in relation to others. It was referring to the desire for an emotional connection with Truth (God) that one would characterize as “warm”. I was highlighting how which goal we pursue in spirituality can often be revealed by the
Read more