When we ask for a new perception to come to us, this means that we are motivated and willing to let our way of seeing things go. Jesus assures us, "And love will come wherever it is asked." (W.313.1.2) When we are asking for peace or love or saying we want to know God now, there is a part of us working against our request, which means we still don't really want this. If we said it and meant it, we would experience what we are asking for. As Jesus reminds us, "To say these words is nothing. But to mean these words is everything. If you could but mean them for just an instant, there would be no further sorrow possible for you in any form; in any place or time." (W.185.1.1) Yes, we all want the peace of God, no matter what it looks like, and when we ask with deep sincerity, we are asking for everyone because there is only one Self.
   
This new or true perception is one "which beholds all things as sinless, so that fear has gone, and where it was is love invited in." (W.313.1.1) The vision is already given us. It is our gift from God and not something we need to seek for outside of ourselves. Vision reflects our innocence, love, peace, beauty and holiness held within our right minds. This is a reflection of the healing that has come about because of our willingness to bring our misperceptions to the light of truth.
 
It is clear we can't give ourselves this new perception. We just "let" it come to us. Our part is to make space for it in our minds by clearing the altar. This is what forgiveness does. We participate in it by being willing to be wrong about the way we perceive everything. It means we release our judgments to the Holy Spirit, bringing the darkness to the light so we can truly "behold each other in the sight of Christ." (W.313.2.1) We can't make this happen. It happens through us.
 
In the book, "The Eyes of an Angel", the author, Paul Elder, had a spontaneous out-of-body experience where fear arose. Then he became fascinated with this experience and wanted to replicate it, but try as he might, he could not. Later, he went to the Munroe Institute to get more help in achieving this experience again, but the more he tried the more he failed. The lesson is that we can't put the ego in charge of this process. All we can do is be as open and willing as possible and have a strong desire to know the truth. Our part is to look at our judgments, criticisms, fears, guilt, specialness, defensiveness, anger, attacks, self-concepts, roles and everything that stands in the way of true perception. It sounds like an immense undertaking, but it is not. It is only to watch our thoughts daily and stay vigilant when we are not at peace, because this means the ego is leading the way. It is to recognize we have wandered away from the love we are and have entered a fearful world. Now it is up to us to choose again in each moment. Our decision-making minds made the choice for the ego in the first place, so it is up to us to be willing to undo that decision. That is all Jesus asks of us in this Course. It is only our willingness.

The light of Christ is shining in everyone without exception. We do make exceptions. We tend to put certain people on a pedestal of specialness while others we judge as the evil doers, the predators, the takers, the victimizers. Movies can be helpful to see how we side with those we judge as good, those we see as victims and those we judge as perpetrators. As we experience our reactions, we can use these opportunities to put them on the altar where space is made for the miracle. Holding onto them means we want to be right about the way we perceive the situation.

I love the Prayer of St. Francis, which speaks about letting all of our hatred, injury, discord, doubt, despair, darkness and sorrow be replaced by a new perception. It is also about letting a new perception come to us by allowing our doubt thoughts and thoughts of despair and discord be replaced by those that bring love and peace to our awareness:

"O Lord, make me an instrument of Thy Peace!
Where there is hatred, let me sow love.
Where there is injury, pardon.
Where there is discord, harmony.
Where there is doubt, faith.
Where there is despair, hope.
Where there is darkness, light.
Where there is sorrow, joy."

This happens not by striving, but only with vigilance in watching our thoughts and being willing to give our misperceptions for correction. "And love will come wherever it is asked." (W.313.1.2) We just need to be willing to choose it, be willing to let go of our perceptions and recognize how wrong we have been about everything. Then the door is opened to the holy altar in our minds. When we see others as selfish, greedy, and self-aggrandizing, etc., we  first condemn ourselves for the same thing, and then we judge them for their "sins." We project our own self-condemnation onto them.
 
As Jesus reminded us in Lesson 311, "I judge all things as I would have them be." We first judge our own faults and shortcomings and see the world and ourselves as sinful. This perception leaves us feeling depressed. We need to be willing to step back and be the investigator of our own perceptions and reactions. I find when I investigate what is going on for me, without crucifying myself for my ego reactions, it can become quite an interesting opportunity to step back and really look at the false beliefs I hold. When we withdraw our interest in what the ego is telling us, it quickly loses steam. When we invest in those thoughts, they can become a storm in our minds. The quicker we are to notice the thoughts and release them, the less likelihood they have of raging into a full blown storm.

I heard an interview on the radio last night, which really touched me. A man I will call Jack called in to talk about the murder of his father. His father was stabbed many times by someone who broke into his house and stole $60.00. This thief and murderer was never convicted because the family interfered with the evidence in the home. This created a great amount of anger among family members, with the exception of Jack. Jack's attention was focused on caring for his father, who was injured but did not die of his wounds for ninety days. Jack distanced himself from the family members who continued in their rage about what had happened.

One day Jack was in a grocery line in the store and felt a presence behind him. When he turned around, there was his father's attacker, standing right behind him. They recognized each other and fear showed up in the attacker's face, but then a miraculous thing happened. According to Jack, he saw the man as totally transparent. Then he heard a Voice tell him he was looking at the Christ, created pure and holy and forgiveness was the only response to be made. In that moment, Jack understood there really was no murderer and that nothing had happened that was real or true. He saw that everyone played their role in the dream as agreed. Jack then reported that thirty days after this encounter, the seeming 'murderer' suddenly died. Clearly Jack's mind was open to this new perception of the murderer and thus was given an opportunity to see who he really was as the Christ. We can't make it come, but we can let it come. It is all about readiness. Jack had been in loving service to his father rather than engaging in the grievances and anger the other family members were experiencing.

The idea that everyone plays their roles in our lives as agreed is interesting to think about. If they agreed to play a difficult, and even seemingly punishing part in our script, perhaps they are actually paying off karma by offering us an opportunity to learn a lesson we have agreed to learn. They are just playing their part and as such, perhaps achieving positive karma for themselves. Remember, karma is simply a cause and effect phenomena and not something brought to us by God, but by our own beliefs.

Now Jesus urges us, "Brother, come and join with me today. We save the world when we have joined. For in our vision it becomes as holy as the light in us." (W.313.2.4-5) Today let no belief in smallness, unworthiness, or any kind of judgment occupy your holy mind. Today I would see only the beneficent, the innocent and the loving, for that is the only thing real and true, but I can't do it unless I am willing to release the judgments I make. This means I must watch my mind and not get attached to my thoughts. It is about having only one goal, which is to return my mind to truth.
 
When I experience attack of any kind and feel unfairly judged, I find it particularly challenging to open to a loving perception. That is when we most need to ask for help. Whenever we attack in return, we are trying to achieve our innocence while seeing our brother guilty. Seeking our innocence in this way is the ego's answer for our anger. It tells us we are justified in defending ourselves against seemingly unfair attacks on us, but this is not the kind of innocence that mirror's God's innocence. He knows we are innocent and we can only know it when we release our attack thoughts, even in the face of having been "unfairly" criticized or "unfairly" treated.

God has kept our innocence "completely undefiled" no matter what seems to be going on in the dream. In other words, nothing and no one has the power to change the truth about who we are, and when we know this about ourselves, nothing can have any impact on us. From outside of this dream, we are all just characters in the play of this illusory world. Jesus demonstrated this when he was crucified and did not see himself attacked because he already knew there was no attack; he was not a body and he was invulnerable to being hurt. He demonstrated this in his resurrection. He said this was an extreme example. Can we not choose to see the examples of attacks in our lives in a similar way, especially when they don't even come close to his example? "If you respond with anger [to any assault], you must be equating yourself with the destructible, and are therefore regarding yourself insanely." (T.6.I.4.7)(ACIM OE T.6.II.7)

In Chapter 6, "The Message of the Crucifixion," he says, "I elected, for your sake and mine, to demonstrate that the most outrageous assault, as judged by the ego, does not matter. As the world judges these things, but not as God knows them, I was betrayed, abandoned, beaten, torn, and finally killed. It was clear that this was only because of the projection of others onto me, since I had not harmed anyone and had healed many." (T.6.I.9.1-3)(ACIM OE T.6.II.13)   Later in this section he says, "You are not asked to repeat my experiences because the Holy Spirit, Whom we share, makes this unnecessary. To use my experiences constructively, however, you must still follow my example in how to perceive them." (T.6.I.11.2-3)(ACIM OE.T.6.II.14) The message of the crucifixion was "Teach only love, for that is what you are." (T.6.I.13.2) (ACIM OE.T.6.II.18) We can only know that is what we are when we extend forgiveness and receive our brother's gratitude, which then teaches us we are indeed the beloved. With each event of this nature, a new perception can come to us until we truly know the unchanging and unchangeable truth about ourselves.