Workbook · Part II · What Is the Christ?
Lesson 278
If I am bound, I am not yet at one.
What this lesson is saying
Today’s idea is: “If I am bound, I am not yet at one.” If you feel bound, you are not yet seeing the other as one with you. Join, and the rope loosens.
Part II is shorter on the page and longer in the sitting. The argument is over. You say the idea, you wait, then you meet whoever is in front of you. Keep the essay “What Is the Christ?” beside you until the next one is given. It is a sentence about you, not a new theory.
You do not have to feel it. Fear of sitting still, or of hearing a Voice, is often cultural. Note it. Listen anyway. Then the next person — or the next thought about yourself — is the application.
This is not saying
This is not a diploma and not a trance. Stay in your life. Eat. Rest. Help. The sitting is how you walk into the same work, home, and relationships with a mind that is not at war.
Why this can change a day
If you are a private, failing self, then of course you must defend, compare, and prosecute. If you are as God created you, so is the one who irritated you, and the war has nothing left to stand on.
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 child, a dog, a home — something you love, and the tug when the lesson touches it.
What to do
Say the words as written: “If I am bound, I am not yet at one.” The tug is the teaching — an argumentative position in the mind, not a failure. They are unchanged. The glue was yours.
Toward yourself
You received a kindness and want to store it as specialness, or you are counting what they owe.
What to do
Say the words as written: “If I am bound, I am not yet at one.” Give the thing you want: patience, a clean word, attention. Let it pass through. What you hoard, you lose sight of.
At work, at home, or in a situation
You notice you do not actually want to see — you want to be right. The day already feels decided.
What to do
Say the words as written: “If I am bound, I am not yet at one.” Determination is a decision, not a mood. Make it. Badly is allowed. Then look at one actual face or one actual thing.
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 meaning is sacred. Taking it off is cruelty. The tug proves the lesson is wrong.
Jesus’s way
“If I am bound, I am not yet at one.” Identity, not a mood. The same sentence is true of them. That is not a self-esteem project. You are not more powerful than God, so you can rest.
Spalding · 2019 · episode #488
Jesus’s commentary for Lesson 278
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.
- Part II: after Tina reads, he asks you to sit with “If I am bound, I am not yet at one,” then wait. Fear of hearing a Voice is named and not obeyed.
- Keep “What Is the Christ?” as a sentence about you, not as a new theory. Sit. Then whoever you meet is the application.
- Identity, not a self-esteem project. You are not more powerful than God, so you can rest — and so can the one who irritated you.
How to sit today
Part II · Restoration of sight
The idea is above. This is the one sitting this number asks — how often, how long, and the words. Not a second lesson.
- How often
- Morning and night with God; hourly remembrance; whenever you are tempted to forget the goal
- How long
- Part II does not consider time a matter of duration. Use as much as you need for the result you desire. Continue as long as makes you happy
- Through the day
- Hourly remembrance between the longer times. Call to God when you have need of Him.
- When shaken
- Instead of fighting temptation, call. Instead of judging, be still and let all things be healed.
How
- Say the day’s simple words of welcome — the idea and the prayer in the official lesson. Then wait for Him to take the step to you that He promised.
- Words mean little now. They are guides you do not depend on. Seek direct experience. Sit silently and wait upon your Father.
- Slowly read “What Is the Christ?” and think about it a little while, preceding one of today’s holy instants. Continue that essay each day until the next one is given.
Longer sitting
Morning and night with God. No clock is set. Use as much time as you need for the result you want. Continue as long as makes you happy
- Today’s idea is: “If I am bound, I am not yet at one.”
- Say the day’s simple words of welcome — the idea, then the short prayer printed in the official lesson.
- Then wait. Words mean little now. They are guides you do not depend on. Sit silently and wait upon your Father.
- Do not turn the waiting into another technique for getting answers.
- Slowly read “What Is the Christ?” and think about it a little while, preceding one of today’s holy instants. Keep that essay until the next one is given.
Short / hourly
Hourly remembrance between the longer times
- A short return to today’s idea: “If I am bound, I am not yet at one.”. Then a still moment.
When shaken
Whenever you are tempted to forget the goal
- Instead of fighting temptation, call. Instead of judging, be still and let all things be healed.
- Say, slowly: “If I am bound, I am not yet at one.”
Do not turn the waiting into another technique for getting answers. The answers you already are can be noticed when the argument stops.
Keep the essay What Is the Christ? beside you until the next “What Is” is given.
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
Part II pairs a short idea with a What Is essay. Today’s essay is What Is the Christ?. Jesus through Tina uses “If I am bound, I am not yet at one” as a sitting, not a speech: wait after the words. Fear of the inner Voice is cultural. Note the fear, then listen anyway.
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
A wanderer on Earth does not need a different lesson. She needs this one, done with her hands. Carla's whole archive is the proof: contact follows a life, it does not replace it.
Open stream