Lesson 184
The Name of God is my inheritance.
Language, like time, is a useful tool. It gives, us humans, a reference point and a common language from which to understand one another. The purpose of language was to help us and aid us in evolution. Yet if we fully rest on language, it can make us close-minded and create more darkness in an already darkened world.
There is a notion that once we name something, such as a bird, table, chair, etc., that we truly never see it again. We see what we have memorized to see. Our eyes become so accustomed to what we learned that we disregard any sense of wonderment or curiosity. We disregard any notion of change or other potentialities about items we label. This not only narrows our perceptions but lead us to believe in the distinct separation that a name can bring: me, you, his, her, chair, TV, table, etc. Thus, we not longer leave space for something to be as it is. We no longer see the God Nature in all.
“You something where nothing is, and see as well nothing where there is unity; a space between all things, between all things and you” (ACIM Lesson 184 2:2).
Our first three lessons in A Course in Miracles called us to question the names by which we call things:
Lesson 1: Nothing I see…means anything.
Lesson 2: I have given everything I see…all the meaning that it has for me.
Lesson 3: I do not understand anything I see.
Now, we are full circle to a lesson in which we are called to question our surroundings even further, to recognize that what we are and what anything else is, is beyond any name. Adyashanti refers to this as the “shadow side of language” when in his book, Falling Into Grace, he states, “When we see the world through our thoughts, we stop experiencing life as it really is and others as they really are” (p 8). In our learned language, we narrow our vision rather than see the magnitude of infinite possibilities that are around us, leading us to believe this shared language confirms our separateness and limitations. Today, we are called to return to our oneness, our shared Name. We use language as an aid for communication but we no longer identify with it, as we learn to leave room to let our Oneness emerge between the cracks of separation that we created, knowing that our Truth was never touched.
“But first you must accept the Name for all reality, and realize the many names you gave its aspects have distorted what you see, but have not interfered with truth at all. One Name we bring into our practicing. One Name we use to unify our sight” (ACIM Lesson 184 13:3-5).
In many ways, we go back to a similar practice as that in our first few lessons. We look upon a world and agree that we do not know what anything is or what it is for. We soften our eyes, and our hearts, and allow Truth to reveal Itself. We allow ourselves to see the Oneness that pervades all things.
The key for our lesson today, however, is to be able to hold both the name and nameless, to abide in this world but not of it. As we stated before, our language is useful, like time, but it is not to get caught up in. It aids in our function in the world but it serves no other purpose than that. It is something we had to learn in order to translate our Message of Love to the world.
“It would indeed be strange if you were asked to go beyond all symbols of the world, forgetting them forever; yet were asked to take a teaching function. You have need to use the symbols of the world a while. But be you not deceived by them as well. They do not stand for anything at all, and in your practicing it is this thought that will release you from them. They become but means by which you can communicate in ways the world can understand, but which you recognize is not the unity where true communication can be found” (ACIM Lesson 184 9:1-5).
Thus, our practice today is to abide in that space where we can hold both our Name and the names we have given our world. This is a holy space that we are releasing into, as we move beyond what the world has taught us to remember what we have always known. We use our learned language to show our fellow brothers and sisters that they, too, can come out of suffering and that they, too, can witness the Heaven that is laced upon this earth. You truly extend your hand from Heaven as you call out their Names. Our one inherited Name, God.
Namaste.
Resources:
Adyashanti. Falling Into Grace. Sounds True, 2013.