In Part II of the Workbook, every 10 lessons we are given an instruction. It comes in the form of a question. There are 14 of these questions all together, and each one of them corresponds to a set of 10 lessons, and is to be read every day for the next 10 days along with our lesson for the day. “What Is the Ego?” is the twelfth instruction and goes with Lessons 331 – 340.
12. What Is the Ego?
The ego is idolatry, the sign of limited and separated self, born in a body, doomed to suffer and to end its life in death. It is the “will” that sees the Will of God as enemy, and takes a form in which it is denied. The ego is the “proof” that strength is weak and love is fearful, life is really death, and what opposes God alone is true.
The ego is insane. In fear it stands beyond the Everywhere, apart from All, in separation from the Infinite. In its insanity it thinks it has become a victor over God Himself. And in its terrible autonomy, it “sees” the Will of God has been destroyed. It dreams of punishment, and trembles at the figures in its dreams, its enemies, who seek to murder it before it can ensure its safety by attacking them.
The Son of God is egoless. What can he know of madness and the death of God, when he abides in Him? What can he know of sorrow and of suffering, when he lives in eternal joy? What can he know of fear and punishment, of sin and guilt, of hatred and attack, when all there is surrounding him is everlasting peace, forever conflict-free and undisturbed, in deepest silence and tranquility?
To know reality is not to see the ego and its thoughts, its works, its acts, its laws and its beliefs, its dreams, its hopes, its plans for its salvation, and the cost belief in it entails. In suffering, the price for faith in it is so immense that crucifixion of the Son of God is offered daily at its darkened shrine, and blood must flow before the altar where its sickly followers prepare to die.
Yet will one lily of forgiveness change the darkness into light; the altar to illusions to the shrine of Life Itself. And peace will be restored forever to the holy minds which God created as His Son, His dwelling place, His joy, His love, completely His, completely one with Him.
Remember, in Part II of the Workbook, every 10 lessons we are given an instruction. It comes in the form of a question. There are 14 of these questions all together, and each one of them corresponds to a set of 10 lessons, and is to be read every day for the next 10 days along with our lesson for the day. “What Is the Ego?” is the twelfth instruction and goes with Lessons 331 – 340.
In Part II of the Workbook, every 10 lessons we are given an instruction. It comes in the form of a question. There are 14 of these questions all together, and each one of them corresponds to a set of 10 lessons, and is to be read every day for the next 10 days along with our lesson for the day. “What Is Creation?” is the eleventh instruction and goes with Lessons 321 – 330.
11. What Is Creation?
Creation is the sum of all God’s Thoughts, in number infinite, and everywhere without all limit. Only love creates, and only like itself. There was no time when all that it created was not there. Nor will there be a time when anything that it created suffers any loss. Forever and forever are God’s Thoughts exactly as they were and as they are, unchanged through time and after time is done.
God’s Thoughts are given all the power that their own Creator has. For He would add to love by its extension. Thus His Son shares in creation, and must therefore share in power to create. What God has willed to be forever One will still be One when time is over; and will not be changed throughout the course of time, remaining as it was before the thought of time began.
Creation is the opposite of all illusions, for creation is the truth. Creation is the holy Son of God, for in creation is His Will complete in every aspect, making every part container of the whole. Its oneness is forever guaranteed inviolate; forever held within His holy Will, beyond all possibility of harm, of separation, imperfection and of any spot upon its sinlessness.
We are creation; we the Sons of God. We seem to be discrete, and unaware of our eternal unity with Him. Yet back of all our doubts, past all our fears, there still is certainty. For love remains with all its Thoughts, its sureness being theirs. God’s memory is in our holy minds, which know their oneness and their unity with their Creator. Let our function be only to let this memory return, only to let God’s Will be done on earth, only to be restored to sanity, and to be but as God created us.
Our Father calls to us. We hear His Voice, and we forgive creation in the Name of its Creator, Holiness Itself, Whose Holiness His Own creation shares; Whose Holiness is still a part of us.
Remember, in Part II of the Workbook, every 10 lessons we are given an instruction. It comes in the form of a question. There are 14 of these questions all together, and each one of them corresponds to a set of 10 lessons, and is to be read every day for the next 10 days along with our lesson for the day. “What Is Creation?” is the eleventh instruction and goes with Lessons 321 – 330.
In Part II of the Workbook, every 10 lessons we are given an instruction. It comes in the form of a question. There are 14 of these questions all together, and each one of them corresponds to a set of 10 lessons, and is to be read every day for the next 10 days along with our lesson for the day. “What Is Sin?” is the fourth instruction and goes with Lessons 251 – 260.
4. WHAT IS SIN?
Sin is insanity. It is the means by which the mind is driven mad, and seeks to let illusions take the place of truth. And being mad, it sees illusions where the truth should be, and where it really is. Sin gave the body eyes, for what is there the sinless would behold? What need have they of sights or sounds or touch? What would they hear or reach to grasp? What would they sense at all? To sense is not to know. And truth can be but filled with knowledge, and with nothing else.
The body is the instrument the mind made in its efforts to deceive itself. Its purpose is to strive. Yet can the goal of striving change. And now the body serves a different aim for striving. What it seeks for now is chosen by the aim the mind has taken as replacement for the goal of self-deception. Truth can be its aim as well as lies. The senses then will seek instead for witnesses to what is true.
Sin is the home of all illusions, which but stand for things imagined, issuing from thoughts that are untrue. They are the “proof” that what has no reality is real. Sin “proves” God’s Son is evil; timelessness must have an end; eternal life must die. And God Himself has lost the Son He loves, with but corruption to complete Himself, His Will forever overcome by death, love slain by hate, and peace to be no more.
A madman’s dreams are frightening, and sin appears indeed to terrify. And yet what sin perceives is but a childish game. The Son of God may play he has become a body, prey to evil and to guilt, with but a little life that ends in death. But all the while his Father shines on him, and loves him with an everlasting Love which his pretenses cannot change at all.
How long, O Son of God, will you maintain the game of sin? Shall we not put away these sharp-edged children’s toys? How soon will you be ready to come home? Perhaps today? There is no sin. Creation is unchanged. Would you still hold return to Heaven back? How long, O holy Son of God, how long?
Remember, in Part II of the Workbook, every 10 lessons we are given an instruction. It comes in the form of a question. There are 14 of these questions all together, and each one of them corresponds to a set of 10 lessons, and is to be read every day for the next 10 days along with our lesson for the day. “What Is Sin?” is the fourth instruction and goes with Lessons 251 – 260.
Let’s practice together! Watch and hear Amy reading each ACIM Lesson on Youtube. Also, check out Workin’ the Workbook, Amy’s online class which supports the ACIM Workbook practice.
In Part II of the Workbook, every 10 lessons we are given an instruction. It comes in the form of a question. There are 14 of these questions all together, and each one of them corresponds to a set of 10 lessons, and is to be read every day for the next 10 days along with our lesson for the day. “What Is the World?” is the third instruction and goes with Lessons 241 – 250.
3. WHAT IS THE WORLD?
The world is false perception. It is born of error, and it has not left its source. It will remain no longer than the thought that gave it birth is cherished. When the thought of separation has been changed to one of true forgiveness, will the world be seen in quite another light; and one which leads to truth, where all the world must disappear and all its errors vanish. Now its source has gone, and its effects are gone as well.
The world was made as an attack on God. It symbolizes fear. And what is fear except love’s absence? Thus the world was meant to be a place where God could enter not, and where His Son could be apart from Him. Here was perception born, for knowledge could not cause such insane thoughts. But eyes deceive, and ears hear falsely. Now mistakes become quite possible, for certainty has gone.
The mechanisms of illusion have been born instead. And now they go to find what has been given them to seek. Their aim is to fulfill the purpose which the world was made to witness and make real. They see in its illusions but a solid base where truth exists, upheld apart from lies. Yet everything that they report is but illusion which is kept apart from truth.
As sight was made to lead away from truth, it can be redirected. Sounds become the Call for God, and all perception can be given a new purpose by the One Whom God appointed Savior to the world. Follow His light, and see the world as He beholds it. Hear His Voice alone in all that speaks to you. And let Him give you peace and certainty, which you have thrown away, but Heaven has preserved for you in Him.
Let us not rest content until the world has joined our changed perception. Let us not be satisfied until forgiveness has been made complete. And let us not attempt to change our function. We must save the world. For we who made it must behold it through the eyes of Christ, that what was made to die can be restored to everlasting life.
Remember, in Part II of the Workbook, every 10 lessons we are given an instruction. It comes in the form of a question. There are 14 of these questions all together, and each one of them corresponds to a set of 10 lessons, and is to be read every day for the next 10 days along with our lesson for the day. “What Is the World?” is the third instruction and goes with Lessons 241 – 250.
Let’s practice together! Watch and hear Amy reading each ACIM Lesson on Youtube. Also, check out Workin’ the Workbook, Amy’s online class which supports the ACIM Workbook practice.
My claim to miracles is inherent in the truth of What I Am. It is God’s Strength in me that is the light in which I see, as it is His Mind with which I think … it is laughable to think I think with the brain, see with the body’s eyes. When asked if she was afraid to catch leprosy from the people she was working with in the streets of Calcutta, Mother Teresa looked into the face of the child she was holding in her arms, and said, “What lepers?” She saw with God’s eyes, she saw the face of Christ in every face. “Truth is a savior and can only will happiness and peace for everyone. It gives its strength to everyone who asks, in limitless supply.”
Sit quietly and let this Truth roll through you. There is a quickening, a tingling, an effortless expansion of breath, a great Exhale. An anticipation, a sense of promise … a widening of knowing … a thinning of personal identity … a smile on the lips … a sense of purpose with no agenda, no ambition, no goals. Yes.
LESSON 92
Miracles are seen in light, and light and strength are one.
The idea for today is an extension of the previous one. [Lesson 91: Miracles are seen in light.] You do not think of light in terms of strength, and darkness in terms of weakness. That is because your idea of what seeing means is tied up with the body and its eyes and brain. Thus you believe that you can change what you see by putting little bits of glass before your eyes. This is among the many magical beliefs that come from the conviction you are a body, and the body’s eyes can see.
You also believe the body’s brain can think. If you but understood the nature of thought, you could but laugh at this insane idea. It is as if you thought you held the match that lights the sun and gives it all its warmth; or that you held the world within your hand, securely bound until you let it go. Yet this is no more foolish than to believe the body’s eyes can see; the brain can think.
It is God’s strength in you that is the light in which you see, as it is His Mind with which you think. His strength denies your weakness. It is your weakness that sees through the body’s eyes, peering about in darkness to behold the likeness of itself; the small, the weak, the sickly and the dying, those in need, the helpless and afraid, the sad, the poor, the starving and the joyless. These are seen through eyes that cannot see and cannot bless.
Strength overlooks these things by seeing past appearances. It keeps its steady gaze upon the light that lies beyond them. It unites with light, of which it is a part. It sees itself. It brings the light in which your Self appears. In darkness you perceive a self that is not there. Strength is the truth about you; weakness is an idol falsely worshipped and adored that strength may be dispelled, and darkness rule where God appointed that there should be light.
Strength comes from truth, and shines with light its Source has given it; weakness reflects the darkness of its maker. It is sick and looks on sickness, which is like itself. Truth is a savior and can only will for happiness and peace for everyone. It gives its strength to everyone who asks, in limitless supply. It sees that lack in anyone would be a lack in all. And so it gives its light that all may see and benefit as one. Its strength is shared, that it may bring to all the miracle in which they will unite in purpose and forgiveness and in love.
Weakness, which looks in darkness, cannot see a purpose in forgiveness and in love. It sees all others different from itself, and nothing in the world that it would share. It judges and condemns, but does not love. In darkness it remains to hide itself, and dreams that it is strong and conquering, a victor over limitations that but grow in darkness to enormous size.
It fears and it attacks and hates itself, and darkness covers everything it sees, leaving its dreams as fearful as itself. No miracles are here, but only hate. It separates itself from what it sees, while light and strength perceive themselves as one. The light of strength is not the light you see. It does not change and flicker and go out. It does not shift from night to day, and back to darkness till the morning comes again.
The light of strength is constant, sure as love, forever glad to give itself away, because it cannot give but to itself. No one can ask in vain to share its sight, and none who enters its abode can leave without a miracle before his eyes, and strength and light abiding in his heart.
The strength in you will offer you the light, and guide your seeing so you do not dwell on idle shadows that the body’s eyes provide for self-deception. Strength and light unite in you, and where they meet, your Self stands ready to embrace you as Its Own. Such is the meeting place we try today to find and rest in, for the peace of God is where your Self, His Son, is waiting now to meet Itself again, and be as One.
Let us give twenty minutes twice today to join this meeting. Let yourself be brought unto your Self. Its strength will be the light in which the gift of sight is given you. Leave, then, the dark a little while today, and we will practice seeing in the light, closing the body’s eyes and asking truth to show us how to find the meeting place of self and Self, where light and strength are one.
Morning and evening we will practice thus. After the morning meeting, we will use the day in preparation for the time at night when we will meet again in trust. Let us repeat as often as we can the idea for today, and recognize that we are being introduced to sight, and led away from darkness to the light where only miracles can be perceived.
Let’s practice together! Listen to God Goes With You. Watch and hear Amy reading each ACIM Lesson on Youtube. Also, check out Workin’ the Workbook, Amy’s online class which supports the ACIM Workbook practice.
This is the first review in the A Course in Miracles Workbook. It covers the first 50 lessons in sets of five. Jesus tells us this is designed to emphasize the relationships among the first 50 ideas in the lessons in order to appreciate the cohesiveness of the God’s thought system which is where they are leading us.
If any of the five ideas in any given review lesson appeal more than the others, make that the focus of your day.
“The purpose of your learning is to enable you to bring the quiet with you, and to heal distress and turmoil.” At first, we learn in solitude, but the purpose of this practice is to build up an ability to stay with Peace no matter what circumstances we find ourselves in. As we dis-identify as a person-body, this becomes easier and easier because we are discovering we are Peace.
Jesus puts it this way, “You will yet learn that peace is part of you, and requires only that you be there to embrace any situation in which you are. And finally you will learn that there is no limit to where you are, so that your peace is everywhere, as you are.”
Let’s practice together! Watch and listen to Amy reading each ACIM Lesson on Youtube. Also, check out Workin’ the Workbook, Amy’s online class which supports the ACIM Workbook practice.
I only see the past. My mind is preoccupied with past thoughts. These previous lessons lead to this one: “I see nothing as it is now.” What I seem to see is not really here.
All Jesus asks is that we apply the idea by doing the exercises. We don’t understand, that much is obvious. And if we did understand we wouldn’t need this workbook. Jesus says, “Each small step will clear a little of the darkness away, and understanding will finally come to lighten every corner of the mind that has been cleared of the debris that darkens it.” Practicing is as wonderfully, comfortingly mundane as cleaning out our closets. As I practice, clutter is removed, space is opened, and light dawns.
As usual, we are told that when doing the exercise, “remember the need for its indiscriminate application, and the essential rule of excluding nothing.”
Here goes:
I do not see this _____________ as it is now.
I do not see this blog as it is now.I do not see these fingers as they are now. I do not see this book as it is now. I do not see these crystal pyramids as they are now. I do not see this whirling dervish statuette as it is now. I do not see this glass of water as it is now. I do not see these reading glasses as they are now. I do not see this waste basket as it is now.
Cleaning out closets, uncluttering my mind. Little by little. My heart feel light and care-free.
LESSON 9
I see nothing as it is now.
This idea obviously follows from the two preceding ones. But while you may be able to accept it intellectually, it is unlikely that it will mean anything to you as yet. However, understanding is not necessary at this point. In fact, the recognition that you do not understand is a prerequisite for undoing your false ideas. These exercises are concerned with practice, not with understanding. You do not need to practice what you already understand. It would indeed be circular to aim at understanding, and assume that you have it already.
It is difficult for the untrained mind to believe that what it seems to picture is not there. This idea can be quite disturbing, and may meet with active resistance in any number of forms. Yet that does not preclude applying it. No more than that is required for these or any other exercises. Each small step will clear a little of the darkness away, and understanding will finally come to lighten every corner of the mind that has been cleared of the debris that darkens it.
These exercises, for which three or four practice periods are sufficient, involve looking about you and applying the idea for the day to whatever you see, remembering the need for its indiscriminate application, and the essential rule of excluding nothing. For example:
I do not see this typewriter as it is now.
I do not see this telephone as it is now.
I do not see this arm as it is now.
Begin with things that are nearest you, and then extend the range outward:
I do not see that coat rack as it is now.
I do not see that door as it is now.
I do not see that face as it is now.
It is emphasized again that while complete inclusion should not be attempted, specific exclusion must be avoided. Be sure you are honest with yourself in making this distinction. You may be tempted to obscure it.
Let’s practice together! Watch and listen to me reading each ACIM Lesson on Youtube. Also, check out Workin’ the Workbook, my online class which supports the ACIM Workbook practice.
This is getting funny now. The lesson says no one really sees anything, we’re just “seeing” our thoughts projected outward. I comprehend this through a swooping suction-y feeling, as if the content of my mind is being sucked through my forehead and vortexed forward and out. There it goes, what I believe, outpictured and accepted as reality. Yikes.
The lesson goes on to say that the only true thought about the past is that is doesn’t exist, therefore what we call thinking is actually in a state of blankness. Today’s exercise begins to train the mind to recognize when it is not thinking at all. That might make meditating easier. I could close my eyes and think about how all those passing thoughts are the past and my mind is actually blank. The thoughtless ideas I call thinking actually block the Truth. The Truth is there, but preoccupation with the past (Jesus is kind here — “obsession” is often more accurate) blocks the Truth.
This is important: Jesus says, “The purpose of the exercises for today is to begin to train your mind to recognize when it is not really thinking at all.” Stop. Let’s take that in.
The practice is: “I seem to be thinking about _________.” Fill in the blank and conclude with “But my mind is preoccupied with past thoughts.”
The purpose is to train my mind to recognize when it is not really thinking at all. The practice is to examine my thoughts. Purpose. Practice. Purpose. Practice.
Here goes: I seem to be thinking about having a snack and worrying that, at this rate, I’ll just get fatter and fatter. I seem to be thinking about my taxes and, oddly, feeling a sense of pleasure at being able to afford them. I seem to be thinking about that background noise: is the cat throwing up? I seem to be feeling irritated, but the exercise said that’s okay as long as I note my feeling. And anyway, all that’s actually happening is that my mind is preoccupied with past thoughts.
I am more the breath than I am the body. If I undo the body, I get back to the breath. The breath is invisible … except when it mists in cold temperatures. The breath is the bridge to Formlessness.
If God’s name is the sound of the breath, as I’ve learned more than once from various spiritual teachings, identifying with the breath takes me closer to God … I’ve also heard it said that when God exhales we inhale, and when God inhales we exhale. I’ve been invited to let God breath me. To put an end to my effortful breathing, my tense, constricted breathing, my shallow, inadequate inhales and overly depleting exhales and to just let myself fall into God’s flow, God’s rhythm, God’s breath of Life.
There’s been too much striving and trying for me. Even worse than perfectionism, all that trying. My mind is preoccupied with past thoughts, but something is budding, Something is making Itself felt. In spite of myself, thank God, the Truth shines on and Its Gleam within me glows softly, dimly, increasingly.
The lesson directs the practice for today, “I seem to be thinking about ______________.”
I seem to be thinking about my vision–there seems to be no comfortable distance from which I can read clearly. With contacts or without contacts, with reading glasses or without reading glasses, everything is mostly blurry and I feel sad about that. Many times I feel irritable, the texture-y anger and helpless that I call frustration. Right now I feel sad because I’m so engrossed in reading and writing these days and would like to enjoy reading and writing smoothly and effortlessly. But what’s really going on is that my mind is preoccupied with past thoughts. Right now
I seem to be thinking about …
But my mind is preoccupied with past thoughts.
Four to five times of practice is suggested for today … unless the lesson is irritating me, lol.
LESSON 8
My mind is preoccupied with past thoughts.
This idea is, of course, the reason why you only see the past. No one really sees anything. His sees only his thoughts projected outward. The mind’s preoccupation with the past is the cause of the misconception about time from which your seeing suffers. Your mind cannot grasp the present, which is the only time there is. It therefore cannot understand time, and cannot, in fact, understand anything.
The one wholly true thought one can hold about the past is that it is not here. To think about it at all is therefore to think about illusions. Very few have realized what is actually entailed in picturing the past or in anticipating the future. The mind is actually blank when it does this, because it is not really thinking about anything.
The purpose of the exercises for today is to begin to train your mind to recognize when it is not really thinking at all. While thoughtless ideas preoccupy your mind, the truth is blocked. Recognizing that your mind has been merely blank, rather than believing that it is filled with real ideas, is the first step to opening the way to vision.
The exercises for today should be done with eyes closed. This is because you can actually not see anything, and it is easier to recognize that no matter how vividly you may picture a thought, you are not seeing anything. With as little investment as possible, search your mind for the usual minute or so, merely noting the thoughts you find there. Name each one by the central figure or theme it contains, and pass on to the next. Introduce the practice period by saying:
I seem to be thinking about __________.
Then name each of your thoughts specifically, for example:
I seem to be thinking about [name of a person], about [name of an object], about [name of an emotion],
and so on, concluding at the end of the mind-searching period with:
But my mind is preoccupied with past thoughts.
This can be done four or five times during the day, unless you find it irritates you. If you find it trying, three or four times is sufficient. You might find it helpful, however, to include your irritation, or any emotion that the idea for today may induce, in the mind searching itself.
Let’s practice together! Watch and listen to me reading each ACIM Lesson on Youtube. Also, check out Workin’ the Workbook, my online class which supports the ACIM Workbook practice.
I see only the past and that is why everything makes no sense and I can’t understand it. Not to mention I’m not really seeing anything. And as I look around and apply the idea, very specifically and yet not excluding anything, I begin to lose the ability to remember the names of objects. “I see only the past in that mouse pad. I see only the past in that TV. I see only the past in the wire thing. I see only the past in that … thing. I see only the past in … that. I see only the past … ” Not sure if this is me really getting into the spirit of the exercise (or the Spirit of the exercise in me ) or whether the ego is throwing in some interference. Either way it’s nice to know that what never happened is over.
Okay, here I go again:
I see only the past.
I see only the past in my precious book Unified.
I see only the past in the tree outside my window.
I see only the past in this glass of water.
I see only the past in the veins on my hands.
I see only the past in my highlighter pen.
Then Lesson 7 reviews how the statement “I see only the past” is the rationale for all six preceding lessons:
I see only the past is the reason why nothing I see means anything.
Because I’m filtering everything I see through the lens of the past.
Because in seeing the past I don’t see the present. Because ego-seeing is an outpicturing of a false thought.
I see only the past is the reason why I have given everything I see all the meaning it has for me. I’m the one assigning meaning to the past. I’m the one assigning meaning to what I “see” which is not actually seeing at all. I’m the one hurling a thought out of my Mind and calling that “seeing.” I like what Raj/Jesus (http://www.nwffacim.org/) pointed out about the sentence in the Course which says,”Fear not that you will be abruptly lifted up and hurled into reality.” T-16.VI. Raj says we could interpret this to mean that we do not have to fear being hurled into reality because reality is gooooood. Come to think of it, if we originally hurled a thought of our Mind, then, technically, we would be unhurling
I see only the past is the reason my thoughts do not mean anything.
My thoughts are always out of date. Like spoilt milk–not fit for consumption. False thought can imagine a past, but True Thought simply extends from the Father through His Son–us.
I see only the past is the reason why I am never upset for the reason I think. If I’m always immersed in the past, I don’t know what is actually upsetting me in the present. Nothing would be upsetting me in the present. The present is Beingness Itself.
I keep myself hypnotized by seeing only the past. In that way I keep from my awareness what is actually upsetting me … which is that I’m believing I’ve managed to separate from God and can never get back to Heaven and I’m expecting to be punished by God as well. Seeing the past is a delusion in itself. The ego makes up the past by saying something has happened which has not.
The ego says we have separated from God’s Mind, even though we have not. The ego psyches itself out by telling itself its pretend game has become real. It takes the idea that the pretend game has become real seriously and that is the beginning of beliefs, of its fearful belief system. “Fearful” because it is full of fear, similar to the fullness of God’s Mind, but opposite in the feeling of fear rather than Love. The ego mimics God’s Mind but in a distorted manner–it has double “vision”/seeing, and makes duality out of non-duality/Absoluteness.
If the ego did not psych itself out, and did not take itself seriously, we could still play the “pretend-we-are-separate-from-God-game” and enjoy it. We could dress up in God’s robes, and play with the power of His mind, and enjoy the puzzle pieces we threw onto the floor until we solve the puzzle, or until we grow tired of the puzzle, and then, in a blink, release the fantasy, open our Spiritual Eye, and return to the Reality from which we Come.
I see only the past is the reason why I am upset because I see something that is not there. I feel the undoing process … I feel the mind quiet. Jesus’ insistent logic is loosening the ego hold … my thoughts slow, I feel peaceful. I do not understand anything at this point. This does not feel like ego sleepiness. Here is the peace of God.
LESSON 7
I see only the past.
This idea is particularly difficult to believe at first. Yet it is the rationale for all of the preceding ones.
It is the reason why nothing that you see means anything.
It is the reason why you have given everything you see all the meaning that it has for you.
It is the reason why you do not understand anything you see.
It is the reason why your thoughts do not mean anything, and why they are like the things you see.
It is the reason why you are never upset for the reason you think.
It is the reason why you are upset because you see something that is not there.
Old ideas about time are very difficult to change, because everything you believe is rooted in time, and depends on your not learning these new ideas about time. This first time idea is not really so strange as it may sound at first.
Look at a cup, for example. Do you see a cup, or are you merely reviewing your past experience of picking up a cup, being thirsty, drinking from a cup, feeling the rim of a cup against your lips, having breakfast and so on? Are not your aesthestic reactions to the cup, too, based on past experiences? How else would you know whether or not this kind of cup will break if you drop it? What do you know about this cup except what you learned in the past? You would have no idea what this cup is, except for your past learning. Do you, then, really see it?
Look about you. This is equally true of whatever you look at. Acknowledge this by applying the idea for today indiscriminately to whatever catches your eye. For example:
I see only the past in this pencil.
I see only the past in this shoe.
I see only the past in this hand.
I see only the past in that body.
I see only the past in that face.
Do not linger over any one thing in particular, but remember to omit nothing specifically. Glance briefly at each subject, and then move on to the next. Three or four practice periods, each to last a minute or so, will be enough.
Let’s practice together! Watch and listen to me reading each ACIM Lesson on Youtube. Also, check out Workin’ the Workbook, my online class which supports the ACIM Workbook practice.
This year, as most of you know, I built a program called Workin’ the Workbook to support people in truly experiencing the Course in Miracles Workbook for Students. It wasn’t my decision–it happened through me. The Holy Spirit guided me to share my experience in order to encourage folks to face their fears with open minds and the guidance of the Holy Spirit within them. If I could do it, so can you! And as you heal, so do I. After all, miracles are here to heal just one mind–ours.
In the ACIM Manual for Teachers, it says, “The teacher of God accepts the words which are offered him, and give as he receives. He does not control the direction of his speaking. He listens and hears and speaks. A major hindrance in this aspect of his learning is the teacher of God’s fear about the validity of what he hears. And what he hears may be quite startling. It may also seems to be quiet irrelevant to the presented problem as he perceives it, and may, in fact, confront the teacher with a situation that appears to be very embarrassing to him.” (21. What Is the Role of Words in Healing?) This does not just apply to words, but to actions as well.
At about lesson 220, which concludes the undoing process of Part I of the Workbook, I knew I was to “undo” my hair. But what did that have to do with teaching the Workbook? Wouldn’t it confuse people? I recognized the ego’s voice in those doubting questions. Being a Course student, I’ve learned to disregard that voice, and take leaps of faith instead.
So, one day it was long and brunette. The next it was a boyish buzz cut. Then I stopped using hair color, and little by little the silver-gray underneath emerged. It was a good metaphor for the inner changes the ACIM Workbook practice produces. I could have experienced it as an “ugly duckling” process, but people kept complimenting me on the unique look of my hair! Eventually, my hair evolved from pepper to salt’n’pepper to salt.
Part II of the ACIM Workbook is the acceptance of true perception. My silvery hair created a shine around my head, a halo effect. I’ve become used to receiving spontaneous gifts of illumination, so I wasn’t surprised that what seemed like a potential loss of some kind turned out to be a gain.
As India Arie sings, “I am not my hair.” As ACIM sings, “I am not a body. I am free. For I am still as God created me.” My new shining angel hair is simply the form one miracle in my life took this year. The real miracle was being willing to receive God’s Message. It is the same for all of us. Trust your Inner Voice and “Be not afraid to circumvent the voices of the world. Walk lightly past their meaningless persuasion. Hear them not. Be still today and listen to the truth.” (Lesson 106)
