It is not difficult to get this concept that if we attack we suffer, but it is much more difficult to really live it every day, especially when we experience any kind of perceived attack and feel justified in retaliating. Or notice how easy it is to see flaws and what seem to be idiosyncrasies and inconsistencies in others and to use these to judge and criticize. Yet it is precisely what we don't like in ourselves that we condemn in others. The solution, of course is "If I forgive, salvation will be given me." (W.216.2.4)  Forgiveness, in the Course, is always about remembering that the lesson is always our own. Everything comes from our own minds. We are the dreamers of our own dream. We are judging something in our brother that we have not forgiven in ourselves. Our brother can truly be an effective mirror for our own mind, if we are willing to take responsibility for what we see in him, as a projection of our own perceived deficiencies and self-attacks.
 
Now if you look closely at the wording of this Lesson, you will see it speaks entirely about what we do to others. When I get upset with someone, I find it helpful to see there is no 'other'. What I am seeing in anyone is entirely about my own mind. I can only be affected by the situations and behaviors of others attacking me if I give them the power to hurt me. Seeing ourselves as victimized by others is the way the ego set it all up so we can justify our own attacks and deem ourselves innocent in the face of attack. When we forgive by seeing we are responsible for our own pain, we see in truth they have done nothing. They are just playing out the script we have put on them. It is as if they are reading their lines from a teleprompter and these lines are determined by us. This feels like a stretch, but it is very helpful in remembering that their response to us, which may look like attack, is actually just a call for love.  The value to us is that they have simply revealed the pain we already hold in our minds. This pain must be brought forth for healing. Because they have revealed it for us, they are actually our saviors. If we forgive, salvation will be given us, and what is salvation but to know our own innocence, joy and happiness. We cannot know this when we attack.

This is a law that works one hundred percent of the time. There are no exceptions to it. I can think I am hurting you and keeping my innocence, but that is the lie of the ego, which tells us we can get rid of our guilt by projecting it onto others. Anytime we hurt anyone or try to gain at our brothers expense, we will suffer. We can't escape the truth that what we do to others we are actually doing to ourselves. The ego tells us to project guilt to be rid of it. What it does not tell us is that that is precisely the way to keep it.

The golden rule says "do unto others as you would have them do unto you." Now it seems like there is a choice. The choice is to offer love to our brothers or to withhold it from them. However, there is no wiggle room with this law that what I give I receive. It is immutable. When I cause pain, I will feel pain in return. How does it show up? It will show up in the form of guilt.  I will suffer guilt and believe I deserve punishment, thus draw it into my life. The difficult events of our lives are brought to bear on us based on our belief that we have them coming because of our attacks on others, and all attack is meant to hurt. We say we did not mean it, but we are just lying to ourselves. That is why watching our minds takes extreme vigilance and courage to be very honest with ourselves. It requires we look openly at our intentions and see where we try to get from others, using them for our personal gain. What we are doing in these situations is always hurting ourselves while serving our specialness. I can't think of anything that undoes the ego more readily than to really take this law very seriously and use every opportunity to bring healing to the mind. When we are not being kind, forgiveness is called for as soon as we see we have tried to gain at our brother's expense.

Any negative thought we have about anyone can immediately be dispelled by diligently applying the Lesson. Application of the Lesson must become a habit we over-learn as it is not generally our immediate reaction to a difficult situation. "The ego always speaks first" (T.5.VI.3.5)(ACIM OE T.5.VIII.73) means the ego will be the first to give us its interpretation of any situation. And thus our response today is, "This thought I do not want. I choose instead____, (W.RVI.IN.6.2-3) 'If I forgive, salvation will be given me.'" (W.216.1.4) Or, "This thought I do not want. I choose instead___, (W.RVI.IN.6.2-3) 'It can be but myself I crucify.'" (W.216.1.1) Or use a version that works for you so it will be meaningful to you. We are not asked simply to repeat words here. Words are powerful, but only when we connect with them deeply and with sincerity and conviction.
 
If what I am doing in the world of illusion brings me suffering, I have another opportunity today to recognize I can experience peace instead of this. Would you not be highly motivated to change your thoughts and behaviors if you truly believed in this law? We would do this out of our own self-interest. If I was to shoot an arrow at you that landed in my own heart, it would be highly motivating not to make that attack on you. Thus, the Lesson affirms this is exactly what happens, except the forms may change in which our attack comes back at us. If I yell at you, my car breaking down may be my form of self-punishment or I may lose my job or get sick. All these experiences we draw to ourselves for a purpose. They are all there to remind us that if we forgive, we will see a benign world regardless of what problems seem to be there. We will  see beyond the forms and not bring suffering into our experience.

There are many ways we attack our brothers. We may even find ourselves using the metaphysics of the Course to make the other person wrong. When we step aside and place the Holy Spirit in charge, only then is peace possible. But we need to be gentle with ourselves in this work. We have believed, for a very long time, that the cause of our distress is outside of our own minds. Changing our minds about that requires a lot of vigilance and discipline. Jesus is helping us to realize everything is coming from our minds, not from hostile elements in the world or the body, which are all part of the ego's strategy to keep us mindless.

When we discover the murderer is within, it can induce a lot of guilt, and when we feel guilty, we find ways to punish ourselves. "For the ego does want to kill you, and if you identify with it you must believe its goal is yours." (T.13.II.5.6)(ACIM OE T.12.II.5) In Lesson 196, "It can be but myself I crucify," Jesus says that our attacks on others in the name of self-defense lead to our fear of crucifixion at the hands of God and the world. Or, as Lesson 198 reminds us, "Only my condemnation injures me. Only my own forgiveness sets me free." (W.198.9.3-4)
 
It is helpful to remember in this regard, "Everyone makes an ego or a self for himself, which is subject to enormous variation because of its instability. He also makes an ego for everyone else he perceives, which is equally variable. Their interaction is a process that alters both, because they were not made by or with the Unalterable [God] . It is important to realize that this alteration can and does occur as readily when the interaction takes place in the mind as when it involves physical proximity. Thinking about another ego is as effective in changing relative perception as is physical interaction. There could be no better example that the ego is only an idea and not a fact." (T.4.II.2.1-6)(ACIM OE T.4.III.25)
 
How does this relate to today's Lesson? Well, we all play the game of separation and the game of hurt. We have called into our experience all the characters that show up in our play as well as those who play the roles of our friends and enemies. We are like children playing this game, but forget we can stand back and laugh at it all. It is that silly. Yet our thoughts about it, when we take it all seriously, do hurt us. And we can heal this hurt by healing our thoughts, even if we don't do it in a tangible way or in proximity to those who have seemingly hurt us. We can do it just in our own thoughts alone, and we can do it by forgoing our desire to crucify our brothers or to try to get for ourselves at their expense. When we forgive, we see we are all the same. We share the same ego, albeit with different life circumstances, and we share the One Self as we were created by God.