Lesson 216
I am not a body. I am free.
For I am still as God created me.
1. (196) It can be but myself I crucify.
²All that I do I do unto myself. ³If I attack, I suffer. ⁴But if I forgive, salvation will be given me.
⁵I am not a body. ⁶I am free.
⁷For I am still as God created me.
Lesson 215
I am not a body. I am free.
For I am still as God created me.
1. (195) Love is the way I walk in gratitude.
²The Holy Spirit is my only Guide. ³He walks with me in love. ⁴And I give thanks to Him for showing me the way to go.
⁵I am not a body. ⁶I am free.
⁷For I am still as God created me.
Lesson 214
I am not a body. I am free.
For I am still as God created me.
1. (194) I place the future in the Hands of God.
²The past is gone; the future is not yet. ³Now am I freed from both. ⁴For what God gives can only be for good. ⁵And I accept but what He gives as what belongs to me.
⁶I am not a body. ⁷I am free.
⁸For I am still as God created me.
Lesson 213
I am not a body. I am free.
For I am still as God created me.
1. (193) All things are lessons God would have me learn.
²A lesson is a miracle which God offers to me, in place of thoughts I made that hurt me. ³What I learn of Him becomes the way I am set free. ⁴And so I choose to learn His lessons and forget my own.
⁵I am not a body. ⁶I am free.
⁷For I am still as God created me.
Lesson 212
I am not a body. I am free.
For I am still as God created me.
1. (192) I have a function God would have me fill.
²I seek the function that would set me free from all the vain illusions of the world. ³Only the function God has given me can offer freedom. ⁴Only this I seek, and only this will I accept as mine.
⁵I am not a body. ⁶I am free.
⁷For I am still as God created me.
Lesson 211
I am not a body. I am free.
For I am still as God created me.
1. (191) I am the holy Son of God Himself.
²In silence and in true humility I seek God’s glory, to behold it in the Son whom He created as my Self.
³I am not a body. ⁴I am free.
⁵For I am still as God created me.
Lesson 210
I am not a body. I am free.
For I am still as God created me.
1. (190) I choose the joy of God instead of pain.
²Pain is my own idea. ³It is not a Thought of God, but one I thought apart from Him and from His Will. ⁴His Will is joy, and only joy for His beloved Son. ⁵And that I choose, instead of what I made.
⁶I am not a body. ⁷I am free.
⁸For I am still as God created me.
Lesson 209
I am not a body. I am free.
For I am still as God created me.
1. (189) I feel the Love of God within me now.
²The Love of God is what created me. ³The Love of God is everything I am. ⁴The Love of God proclaimed me as His Son. ⁵The Love of God within me sets me free.
⁶I am not a body. ⁷I am free.
⁸For I am still as God created me.
Lesson 208
I am not a body. I am free.
For I am still as God created me.
1. (188) The peace of God is shining in me now.
²I will be still, and let the earth be still along with me. ³And in that stillness we will find the peace of God. ⁴It is within my heart, which witnesses to God Himself.
⁵I am not a body. ⁶I am free.
⁷For I am still as God created me.
Lesson 207
I am not a body. I am free.
For I am still as God created me.
1. (187) I bless the world because I bless myself.
²God’s blessing shines upon me from within my heart, where He abides. ³I need but turn to Him, and every sorrow melts away, as I accept His boundless Love for me.
⁴I am not a body. ⁵I am free.
⁶For I am still as God created me.
Lesson 206
I am not a body. I am free.
For I am still as God created me.
1. (186) Salvation of the world depends on me.
²I am entrusted with the gifts of God, because I am His Son. ³And I would give His gifts where He intended them to be.
⁴I am not a body. ⁵I am free.
⁶For I am still as God created me.
Lesson 205
I am not a body. I am free.
For I am still as God created me.
1. (185) I want the peace of God.
²The peace of God is everything I want. ³The peace of God is my one goal; the aim of all my living here, the end I seek, my purpose and my function and my life, while I abide where I am not at home.
⁴I am not a body. ⁵I am free.
⁶For I am still as God created me.
Lesson 204
I am not a body. I am free.
For I am still as God created me.
1. (184) The Name of God is my inheritance.
²God’s Name reminds me that I am His Son, not slave to time, unbound by laws which rule the world of sick illusions, free in God, forever and forever one with Him.
³I am not a body. ⁴I am free.
⁵For I am still as God created me.
Lesson 203
I am not a body. I am free.
For I am still as God created me.
1. (183) I call upon God’s Name and on my own.
²The Name of God is my deliverance from every thought of evil and of sin, because it is my own as well as His.
³I am not a body. ⁴I am free.
⁵For I am still as God created me.
Lesson 202
I am not a body. I am free.
For I am still as God created me.
1. (182) I will be still an instant and go home.
²Why 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?
³I am not a body. ⁴I am free.
⁵For I am still as God created me.
Lesson 201
I am not a body. I am free.
For I am still as God created me.
1. (181) I trust my brothers, who are one with me.
²No one but is my brother. ³I am blessed with oneness with the universe and God, my Father, one Creator of the whole that is my Self, forever One with me.
⁴I am not a body. ⁵I am free.
⁶For I am still as God created me.
Lesson 200
There is no peace except the peace of God.
1. Seek you no further. ²You will not find peace except the peace of God. ³Accept this fact, and save yourself the agony of yet more bitter disappointments, bleak despair, and sense of icy hopelessness and doubt. ⁴Seek you no further. ⁵There is nothing else for you to find except the peace of God, unless you seek for misery and pain.
2. This is the final point to which each one must come at last, to lay aside all hope of finding 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. ²Attempt no more to win through losing, nor to die to live. ³You cannot but be asking for defeat.
3. Yet you can ask as easily for love, for happiness, and for eternal life in peace that has no ending. ²Ask for this, and you can only win. ³To ask for what you have already must succeed. ⁴To ask that what is false be true can only fail. ⁵Forgive yourself for vain imaginings, and seek no longer what you cannot find. ⁶For 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?
4. Come home. ²You have not found your happiness in foreign places and in alien forms that have no meaning to you, though you sought to make them meaningful. ³This world is not where you belong. ⁴You are a stranger here. ⁵But it is given you to find the means whereby the world no longer seems to be a prison house or jail for anyone.
5. Freedom is given you where you beheld but chains and iron doors. ²But you must change your mind about the purpose of the world, if you would find escape. ³You 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. ⁴You made him not; no more yourself. ⁵And as you free the one, the other is accepted as he is.
6. What does forgiveness do? ²In truth it has no function, and does nothing. ³For it is unknown in Heaven. ⁴It is only hell where it is needed, and where it must serve a mighty function. ⁵Is not the escape of God’s beloved Son from evil dreams that he imagines, yet believes are true, a worthy purpose? ⁶Who could hope for more, while there appears to be a choice to make between success and failure; love and fear?
7. 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 is the same as His. ²What could he hope to find in such a world? ³It cannot have reality, because it never was created. ⁴Is it here that he would seek for peace? ⁵Or must he see that, as he looks on it, the world can but deceive? ⁶Yet can he learn to look on it another way, and find the peace of God.
8. Peace is the bridge that everyone will cross, to leave this world behind. ²But peace begins within the world perceived as different, and leading from this fresh perception to the gate of Heaven and the way beyond. ³Peace is the answer to conflicting goals, to senseless journeys, frantic, vain pursuits, and meaningless endeavors. ⁴Now the way is easy, sloping gently toward the bridge where freedom lies within the peace of God.
9. Let us not lose our way again today. ²We go to Heaven, and the path is straight. ³Only if we attempt to wander can there be delay, and needless wasted time on thorny byways. ⁴God alone is sure, and He will guide our footsteps. ⁵He will not desert His Son in need, nor let him stray forever from his home. ⁶The Father calls; the Son will hear. ⁷And that is all there is to what appears to be a world apart from God, where bodies have reality.
10. Now is there silence. ²Seek no further. ³You have come to where the road is carpeted with leaves of false desires, fallen from the trees of hopelessness you sought before. ⁴Now are they underfoot. ⁵And you look up and on toward Heaven, with the body’s eyes but serving for an instant longer now. ⁶Peace is already recognized at last, and you can feel its soft embrace surround your heart and mind with comfort and with love.
11. Today we seek no idols. ²Peace can not be found in them. ³The peace of God is ours, and only this will we accept and want. ⁴Peace be to us today. ⁵For 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. ⁶For peace is union, if it be of God. ⁷We seek no further. ⁸We are close to home, and draw still nearer every time we say:
⁹There is no peace except the peace of God, and I am glad and thankful it is so.
https://acim.org/acim/lesson-200/there-is-no-peace-except-the-peace-of-god/en/s/608
Lesson 199
I am not a body. I am free.
1. Freedom must be impossible as long as you perceive a body as yourself. ²The body is a limit. ³Who would seek for freedom in a body looks for it where it can not be found. ⁴The mind can be made free when it no longer sees itself as in a body, firmly tied to it and sheltered by its presence. ⁵If this were the truth, the mind were vulnerable indeed!
2. 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. ²Attack 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. ³It rests in God. ⁴And who can be afraid who lives in Innocence, and only loves?
3. It is essential for your progress in this course that you accept today’s idea, and hold it very dear. ²Be not concerned that to the ego it is quite insane. ³The ego holds the body dear because it dwells in it, and lives united with the home that it has made. ⁴It is a part of the illusion that has sheltered it from being found illusory itself.
4. Here does it hide, and here it can be seen as what it is. ²Declare your innocence and you are free. ³The body disappears, because you have no need of it except the need the Holy Spirit sees. ⁴For this, the body will appear as useful form for what the mind must do. ⁵It thus becomes a vehicle which helps forgiveness be extended to the all-inclusive goal that it must reach, according to God’s plan.
5. Cherish today’s idea, and practice it today and every day. ²Make it a part of every practice period you take. ³There 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. ⁴We sound the call of freedom round the world with this idea. ⁵And would you be exempt from the acceptance of the gifts you give?
6. The Holy Spirit is the home of minds that seek for freedom. ²In Him they have found what they have sought. ³The body’s purpose now is unambiguous. ⁴And it becomes perfect in the ability to serve an undivided goal. ⁵In conflict-free and unequivocal response to mind with but the thought of freedom as its goal, the body serves, and serves its purpose well. ⁶Without the power to enslave, it is a worthy servant of the freedom which the mind within the Holy Spirit seeks.
7. Be free today. ²And carry freedom as your gift to those who still believe they are enslaved within a body. ³Be you free, so that the Holy Spirit can make use of your escape from bondage, to set free the many who perceive themselves as bound and helpless and afraid. ⁴Let love replace their fears through you. ⁵Accept salvation now, and give your mind to Him Who calls to you to make this gift to Him. ⁶For He would give you perfect freedom, perfect joy, and hope that finds its full accomplishment in God.
8. You are God’s Son. ²In immortality you live forever. ³Would you not return your mind to this? ⁴Then practice well the thought the Holy Spirit gives you for today. ⁵Your brothers stand released with you in it; the world is blessed along with you, God’s Son will weep no more, and Heaven offers thanks for the increase of joy your practice brings even to it. ⁶And God Himself extends His Love and happiness each time you say:
⁷I am not a body. ⁸I am free. ⁹I hear the Voice that God has given me, and it is only this my mind obeys.
https://acim.org/acim/lesson-199/i-am-not-a-body-i-am-free/en/s/607
Lesson 198
Only my condemnation injures me.
1. Injury is impossible. ²And yet illusion makes illusion. ³If you can condemn, you can be injured. ⁴For 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. ⁵Then does illusion cease to have effects, and those it seemed to have will be undone. ⁶Then are you free, for freedom is your gift, and you can now receive the gift you gave.
2. Condemn and you are made a prisoner. ²Forgive and you are freed. ³Such is the law that rules perception. ⁴It is not a law that knowledge understands, for freedom is a part of knowledge. ⁵To condemn is thus impossible in truth. ⁶What seems to be its influence and its effects have not occurred at all. ⁷Yet must we deal with them a while as if they had. ⁸Illusion makes illusion. ⁹Except one. ¹⁰Forgiveness is illusion that is answer to the rest.
3. Forgiveness sweeps all other dreams away, and though it is itself a dream, it breeds no others. ²All illusions save this one must multiply a thousandfold. ³But this is where illusions end. ⁴Forgiveness is the end of dreams, because it is a dream of waking. ⁵It is not itself the truth. ⁶Yet does it point to where the truth must be, and gives direction with the certainty of God Himself. ⁷It is a dream in which the Son of God awakens to his Self and to his Father, knowing They are one.
4. Forgiveness is the only road that leads out of disaster, past all suffering, and finally away from death. ²How could there be another way, when this one is the plan of God Himself? ³And why would you oppose it, quarrel with it, seek to find a thousand ways in which it must be wrong; a thousand other possibilities?
5. Is it not wiser to be glad you hold the answer to your problems in your hand? ²Is it not more intelligent to thank the One Who gives salvation, and accept His gift with gratitude? ³And 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 your own in place of His?
6. His words will work. ²His words will save. ³His words contain all hope, all blessing and all joy that ever can be found upon this earth. ⁴His words are born in God, and come to you with Heaven’s love upon them. ⁵Those who hear His words have heard the song of Heaven. ⁶For these are the words in which all merge as one at last. ⁷And as this one will fade away, the Word of God will come to take its place, for it will be remembered then and loved.
7. This world has many seeming separate haunts where mercy has no meaning, and attack appears as justified. ²Yet all are one; a place where death is offered to God’s Son and to his Father. ³You may think They have accepted. ⁴But if you will look again upon the place where you beheld Their blood, you will perceive a miracle instead. ⁵How foolish to believe that They could die! ⁶How foolish to believe you can attack! ⁷How mad to think that you could be condemned, and that the holy Son of God can die!
8. The stillness of your Self remains unmoved, untouched by thoughts like these, and unaware of any condemnation which could need forgiveness. ²Dreams of any kind are strange and alien to the truth. ³And what but truth could have a Thought which builds a bridge to it that brings illusions to the other side?
9. Today we practice letting freedom come to make its home with you. ²The truth bestows these words upon your mind, that you may find the key to light and let the darkness end:
³Only my condemnation injures me.
⁴Only my own forgiveness sets me free.
⁵Do not forget today that there can be no form of suffering that fails to hide an unforgiving thought. ⁶Nor can there be a form of pain forgiveness cannot heal.
10. 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. ²This is the gift the Holy Spirit holds for you from God your Father. ³Let today be celebrated both on earth and in your holy home as well. ⁴Be 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.
11. Now is there silence all around the world. ²Now is there stillness where before there was a frantic rush of thoughts that made no sense. ³Now is there tranquil light across the face of earth, made quiet in a dreamless sleep. ⁴And now the Word of God alone remains upon it. ⁵Only that can be perceived an instant longer. ⁶Then are symbols done, and everything you ever thought you made completely vanished from the mind that God forever knows to be His only Son.
12. There is no condemnation in him. ²He is perfect in his holiness. ³He needs no thoughts of mercy. ⁴Who could give him gifts when everything is his? ⁵And who could 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? ⁶In this vision of the Son, so brief that not an instant stands between this single sight and timelessness itself, you see the vision of yourself, and then you disappear forever into God.
13. Today we come still nearer to the end of everything that yet would stand between this vision and our sight. ²And we are glad that we have come this far, and recognize that He Who brought us here will not forsake us now. ³For He would give to us the gift that God has given us through Him today. ⁴Now is the time for your deliverance. ⁵The time has come. ⁶The time has come today.
https://acim.org/acim/lesson-198/only-my-condemnation-injures-me/en/s/606
Lesson 197
It can be but my gratitude I earn.
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.
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.
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.
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?
5. God blesses every gift you give to Him, and every gift is given Him, because it can be given only to yourself. ²And what belongs to God must be His Own. 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.
6. Withdraw the gifts you give, and you will think that what is given you has been withdrawn. 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.
7. And with the end of this belief is fear forever over. ²Thank your Self for this, for He is grateful only unto God, and He gives thanks for you unto Himself. ³To everyone who lives will Christ yet come, for everyone must live and move in Him. ⁴His Being in His Father is secure, because Their Will is One. ⁵Their gratitude to all They have created has no end, for gratitude remains a part of love.
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. ⁵In your heart the Heart of God is laid. ⁶He holds you dear, because you are Himself. ⁷All gratitude belongs to you, because of what you are.
9. Give thanks as you receive it. ²Be you free of all ingratitude to anyone who makes your Self complete. ³And from this Self is no one left outside. ⁴Give thanks for all the countless channels which extend this Self. ⁵All that you do is given unto Him. ⁶All that you think can only be His Thoughts, sharing with Him the holy Thoughts of God. ⁷Earn now the gratitude you have denied yourself when you forgot the function God has given you. ⁸But never think that He has ever ceased to offer thanks to you.
https://acim.org/acim/lesson-197/it-can-be-but-my-gratitude-i-earn/en/s/605