Lesson 198: “Only my condemnation injures me.”

This lesson says, “Only my own forgiveness sets me free.”  

This is such a great practice we learn in the Course to forgive.

It is the only thing we need to do in the human condition to heal our lives of whatever drama we may experience. 

Forgiveness is totally easy to find; we just need to look within ourselves.

The Course says forgiveness is still an illusion, but it is the only useful illusion, because it doesn’t perpetuate the illusory world.

Forgiveness heals our minds of whatever attack energy we may feel within us or around us and brings us back to a place of being an open channel to feel and absorb God’s Love. 

The Course says that we want to remember that illusions are just the ego’s fodder.

Our illusions are where we suffer because we think something went wrong. 

But they are just part of the journey we live now while we are in human form.  We can forgive the illusion, and this will set us free, so that we don’t get so attached to what is happening there.

The Course gives us clear instruction that we are meant to look at our own inner attack energy in the form of condemnation. 

It is always occurring and escalating as we do our worldly lives, because the ego loves this and attaches onto it. 

We have the choice about what to allow in our minds.  The Course reminds us that our thinking is what matters; it makes the quality of our lives.

Therefore, it is worthwhile to take the initiative to assert our willingness to release this old attack energy that causes us true grief.

The Course reminds us that we are totally responsible for making our lives as they are, because how we think then becomes form, and we interact with it eventually.

We just need to be a willing participant in making our lives happy and light through giving our condemning thoughts a vacation from the foundation of our thinking.  

God gave us forgiveness and we are asked to use it with no reservation. 

We are asked to remember that our own work on ourselves is what truly liberates our minds. 

That willingness to offer our own forgiveness in every situation to heal it for us is the only way to peace and joy.  

We must be open to making clear that we are willing to use our own forgiveness first and foremost. 

When we forgive the situation, this sets us free because we are no longer bound by the ego’s attack energy that may be left over from our interactions.

Our investigation into our own thinking is the most important part of engaging in each situation.

That inner work on ourselves to get to know ourselves more deeply, and be willing to engage in forgiveness for all allows us to truly change the picture for ourselves.

Then, suddenly, our suffering ends because we have done work on ourselves, and used forgiveness as much as possible in the scenario.