Workbook · Part I · Review
Lesson 217
I am not a body. I am free. For I am still as God created me. (Lesson 197)
What this lesson is saying
Today is a review, not a new idea. The workbook asks you to take earlier lessons — 197 (“It can be but my gratitude I earn.”) — and use them on one real irritation. Reciting titles is not the review.
Pick one person, one thought about yourself, or one situation that is actually bothering you. Run each reviewed idea on that same thing. Notice which one you want to skip. That one is the work.
You still need not believe any of it. Use it. Then live the hour — work, home, the next encounter — from the one you actually used.
This is not saying
This is not a lighter day and not a reading assignment. A review that never touches a real face is how the ego keeps the year as a book report.
Why this can change a day
The early ideas only become yours when they meet a life. Review is the test: which sentence did you actually use on a judgment, an attack thought, a belief about yourself, or a relationship? That is the curriculum.
In your day
Same idea, three ordinary places — a relationship or encounter, the case against yourself, and a situation at work or at home. You do not need a special mood.
With someone
A thought says you are failing, behind, not enough — and it feels like a report from God.
What to do
Say the words as written: “I am not a body. I am free. For I am still as God created me. (Lesson 197).” Let it be a thought. Do not build a self from it. Watch it pass. Then the next decent hour.
Toward yourself
A bill, a number, a job title — money treated as what you are worth.
What to do
Say the words as written: “I am not a body. I am free. For I am still as God created me. (Lesson 197).” Pay the bill. Eat. Rest. Then remember which law gets to tell you what you are. Care for the form. Do not worship it as identity.
At work, at home, or in a situation
Fear of sitting still. Church and clinic both said listening inward is madness, or special.
What to do
Say the words as written: “I am not a body. I am free. For I am still as God created me. (Lesson 197).” Note the fear. It is cultural. Sit anyway. Do not manufacture a voice. Kindness after you stand is a good test.
Two voices in the same mind
Hear which one is running. Then today’s idea, on a real person — or on you.
Unloving thought
This thought is me. I have to follow it into a remark or a self. A thought is a verdict. Reciting the titles is enough. This situation can wait.
Jesus’s way
“I am not a body. I am free. For I am still as God created me. (Lesson 197).” Review is whether you used the ideas on a real person — this situation, not a new philosophy. The ones you only admired are the curriculum.
Spalding · 2019 · episode #424a
Jesus’s commentary for Lesson 217
Tina reads the official workbook lesson first. Then she channels. The video is the source. The notes below are study notes of that sitting — not a transcript, and not A Year of Forgiveness.
After the reading
In the video · Jesus speaking
This is the channeled portion — after Tina has read the lesson. Study notes of that sitting. Not a transcript.
- After the reading, this sitting is a review. He checks whether you used the ideas on an irritation — not whether you can recite “I am not a body. I am free. For I am still as God created me. (Lesson 197).”
- The ideas under today: 197. Which did you actually use on a person? The ones you only admired are the curriculum.
- The body stays as a communication device. Care for it. Do not worship it and do not punish it as a spiritual proof.
How to sit today
Review VI · Lessons 181–200
The idea is above. This is the one sitting this number asks — how often, how long, and the words. Not a second lesson.
“I am not a body. I am free. For I am still as God created me.”
- How often
- Morning and evening, plus hourly remembrance, plus as often as you can between the hours
- How long
- Morning and evening should not be less than 15 minutes each
- Through the day
- Every time the hour strikes, and whenever you remember in between.
- When shaken
- Permit no idle thought to go unchallenged. If you notice one: “This thought I do not want. I choose instead…” and then today’s idea.
How
- The day begins and ends with the refrain. Then a repetition of Lesson 197’s idea. Then a deep relinquishment of everything that clutters the mind.
- Close your eyes and forget what you thought you knew. Beyond the refrain and the day’s idea, no extra form is urged — except the challenge to idle thoughts.
- Give the quiet to the Teacher Who instructs in quiet. Trust Him for how each sitting can become a gift of freedom to the world.
Longer sitting
Morning and evening — not less than 15 minutes each
- The day begins and ends with the refrain.
- Say, slowly: “I am not a body. I am free. For I am still as God created me.”
- Then a repetition of Lesson 197’s idea: “It can be but my gratitude I earn.”.
- Then a deep relinquishment of everything that clutters the mind. Close your eyes and forget what you thought you knew.
- Give the quiet to the Teacher Who instructs in quiet.
Short / hourly
Every time the hour strikes, and whenever you remember in between
- Say, slowly: “I am not a body. I am free. For I am still as God created me.”
- Say, slowly: “It can be but my gratitude I earn.”
When shaken
Permit no idle thought to go unchallenged
- Say, slowly: “This thought I do not want. I choose instead…”
- Then today’s idea: “It can be but my gratitude I earn.”, held in the refrain.
Ideas in this review
These scripts follow the workbook’s own method for this number — duration, frequency, and the sentences it asks you to use. They are a study paraphrase, not a replacement. Read the official lesson at acim.org and follow any wording it gives that is more specific than this card.
Words you may not know
Full glossaryCourse words do not mean what church, psychology, or ordinary English usually mean. These notes are for this lesson — tap a word.
Other voices — Tina, Ra, Carla
Short notes from the four streams. The teaching above is the lesson. These are doors if you want them.
Spalding
Review is not a lighter day. In the 2019 commentary he treats “I am not a body. I am free. For I am still as God created me. (Lesson 197)” as a check: which of these ideas did you use in a real situation, and which did you only admire? Skimped ideas are the curriculum. Do the review as the workbook asks, then let him speak to the ones you still argue with.
Watch this lesson’s commentaryRa
This lesson is practice in polarizing with the person in front of you. Service to others is not a slogan. It is whether you treat them as the same being you are.
Open streamRueckert
Q'uo's usual counsel fits: tune, then serve the one in front of you. The Confederation does not need you to become impressive. It needs you to become kind without performance.
Open stream