DAILY LESSON

 

L e s s o n  33

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¹Today's idea is an attempt to recognize that you can shift your perception of the world in both its outer and inner aspects. A full five minutes should be devoted to the morning and evening application. 

²In these practice periods, the idea should be repeated as often as you find profitable, though unhurried applications are essential. Alternate between surveying your outer and inner perceptions, but without an abrupt sense of shifting. Merely glance casually around the world you perceive as outside yourself, then close your eyes and survey your inner thoughts with equal casualness. Try to remain equally uninvolved in both and to maintain this detachment as you repeat the idea throughout the day. 

³The shorter exercise periods should be as frequent as possible. Specific applications of today's idea should also be made immediately when any situation arises which tempts you to become disturbed. For these applications, say: 

⁴There is another way of looking at this. 

⁵Remember to apply today's idea the instant you are aware of distress. It may be necessary to take a minute or so to sit quietly and repeat the idea to yourself several times. Closing your eyes will probably help in this form of application.   

ACIM Edmonton - Sarah's Reflections 

 LESSON 33

Do you notice how much you like your own ideas? How attached you are to them? How you think your way of thinking and seeing are the right way? I know that I often end up defending a position that I don't necessarily feel all that convinced about but as I take it up, I manage to convince myself more and more of how right I am. I also sometimes hold an opinion which I defend vigorously. In the process of forming my perspectives, I get more and more convinced of the merits of my position. 

A somewhat recent example of this was when I was at the hospital with my mother observing all of the things I judged to be wrong in that situation, and in my later discussion, I was proposing how things could be different. In response to my positions, the view that was taken by my friend was that my proposals failed to address the difficulties of making such changes. That provided just enough of a challenge for me to take up my 'cause'. Taking positions, digging in our heels, being determined that we are right about how we see things, is the purview of the ego. It is competitive; it is judgmental; it needs to be right; it thinks it knows something and it always focuses its attention on the screen (the world) and tries to manage things "out there," instead of recognizing that the only change that can be made, is to change our minds. Does that mean that we don't do anything in the world? Not at all. But it does mean that we first do our inner work and recognize that that is where the power lies to make a real difference....and that is with the Holy Spirit. That is where the miracle is.

In the psychological system known as Transactional Analysis, there is an illustration of the different games we play. One is called the game of "ain't it awful." What is involved in this game is lamenting the state of this world. No change can be made from this position, of course, because nothing is happening except in our thoughts. It is an ego bitch session of how awful the world is. And of course the ego can find lots and lots of examples from wars, family fights, hospitals that don't work, traffic, weather. etc. You get the picture. But what does this do? It keeps us from minding our own minds and taking responsibility for how we see it all. It keeps us believing that we are victimized by the world. It keeps us from taking responsibility for having set it up that way ourselves. It is our own thoughts that have invented the world we see. When we acknowledge that "there is another way of looking at the world," then our minds recognize that we have a choice. We are not stuck with our wrong-minded perceptions. The power is in our minds to change our perceptions which is how there is a change in the world we see. The change is whether we see with the ego which holds judgments or with the Holy Spirit that sees with vision, beyond the forms of this world. 

We just assume that the way we see and interpret our world is just the way it is and that we are seeing the truth. Based on a thought system that is of this world, millions and billions will probably agree with our way of seeing and thus a strong agreement forms that we are right about everything. And, of course, there is a lot of support for our ideas which further reinforces our positions. If everybody sees something a certain way, and agrees together that that is the way it is, it seems to be convincing evidence that it must be so. But in this lesson we are asked   to recognize that maybe there is another way of looking at a situation.   

 In the past, I have assumed that the way I see and experience things in the world is just the way they are. It is a perceptual rigidity that is easier for me to see in others than in myself. We like being right about our thoughts and ideas. We are invested in them. We often wonder why everyone doesn't see things the way we do. Our beliefs are quite firmly established. But these lessons are about showing us another way.  When we let go of our perceptual blinders, we open to another way of looking at the world. Remember, Jesus is not saying there is a better way of looking at the world. Instead he gently suggests another way. This invites our interest and perhaps our curiosity. It encourages us to be open to that other way.  We are simply being slowly guided to begin to realize that we have two thought systems in the mind. Our ego thought system is not the only way of looking at the world. There is another choice and if this is the case, then there is another way open to us. It is just being introduced here for us to consider.

It is not unlike the section "The Rules for Decision," where we are helped to open to the possibility that the way we have set things up and the way we see things could be wrong. "This tiny opening will be enough to let you go ahead with just a few more steps you need to let yourself be helped. Now you have reached the turning point, because it has occurred to you that you will gain if what you have decided is not so. Until this point is reached you will believe your happiness depends on being right. But this much reason have you now attained; you would be better off if you were wrong."  (T.30.I.9.4-7)

What Jesus is saying is that with willingness, we can choose to shift our perception of how we see. We are actually recognizing that the Holy Spirit can work miracles when we give up our way which is always the decision to be right about the way we see things.  And as we loosen our minds to the way we have always seen things, we will experience peace. It is a choice. It comes with a realization that our frame of reference needs to be released. We have taught ourselves the upside-down perception of the world and are now into a major relearning.   "Today's idea is an attempt to recognize that you can shift your perception of the world in both its outer and inner aspects." (1.1)

In Chapter 4.IV.  "This Need Not Be," Jesus reminds us that what we are doing is fighting to keep the ego thought system. We guard it carefully. "Your mind is filled with schemes to save the face of your ego, and you do not seek the face of Christ." (T.4.IV.1.5) Now we are given another way to see. "But where you look to find yourself is up to you. I have said before that you cannot change your mind by changing your behavior, but I have said many times that you can change your mind. When your mood tells you that you have chosen wrongly, and this is so whenever you are not joyous, then know this need not be. In every case you have thought wrongly about some brother God created, and are perceiving images your ego makes in a darkened glass. Think honestly what you have thought that God would not have thought, and what you have not thought that God would have you think." (T.4.IV.1.8-12)

Jesus tells us that "it is pointless to believe that controlling the outcome of misthought can result in healing." (T.2.VI.3.1) What this means is that in this world, we think that if we behave nicely toward someone, despite how we feel, that that is enough to be helpful. Yet here we are told that what we are thinking is what needs to be addressed. It is not about behavior. Jesus tells us that thinking is everything and that  putting all of our energy into behavior is not where the answer lies. Behavior will merely follow our thoughts. The mind is very powerful. He says that when we address our thinking, our behavior will become spontaneous and effortless. This is so contrary to the world's thinking where, for example, a therapist says "don't worry about your crazy thoughts as long as you don't act on them." Yet all thought has immense power. We are always creating even when we sleep. We like to dismiss this kind of power. It scares us to think how destructive our thoughts can be. The only way out is to appreciate the power of our minds and to watch our thoughts, and by looking at them, we can ultimately the choice can be made for love instead of fear when we bring awareness to our unloving thoughts. Our part is only to bring awareness to our unloving thoughts. The rest is done by the Holy Spirit.  

We are learning to "change our mind to think with God's. This may seem hard to do, but it is much easier than trying to think against it. Your mind is one with God's. Denying this and thinking otherwise has held your ego together and has literally split your mind." (T.4.IV.2.) "The habit of engaging with God...is easily made if you actively refuse to let your mind slip away." And that is precisely why we need to be vigilant in watching our minds. "The problem is not one of concentration; it is the belief that no one, including yourself, is worth consistent effort." (T.4.IV.7.1) 

"There is another way of looking at the world."  Aren't we all worth the consistent effort these lessons ask?   The instructions Jesus gives us for practicing these lessons are important to follow for maximum benefit. When you set the intention for this teaching each morning and remind yourself of the lesson each evening taking the time recommended, the benefits are enormous to your peace of mind.

Also a reminder of the thought for the day with each upset, can really shift your perspective. This requires that we stay vigilant throughout the day and ask for help whenever we feel upset, angry, guilty, distressed etc.  This is a practice that can be challenging because the ego immediately goes into overdrive when anything goes wrong and it gets frantic, or indulges the upset. Or we start looking for allies who are sympathetic to our story. Or, alternatively, we may start to race around trying to fix things in the world allowing no time for the Holy Spirit to offer another way of seeing the event, person or situation which blocks the miracle.  So it is important to apply the idea to any distress, any upset no matter how small it seems. Remind yourself that you can look at this upset differently. Remember to go through your day and be vigilant with your upsets. Recognize that there is another teacher you can choose. Even if you don't choose the Holy Spirit in that moment, just know that this choice is always there. Any mistake can be corrected when the mind is ready. "There is another way of looking at the world."

Love and blessings, Sarah 

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Quotes in this article are from Foundation for Inner Peace edition; To locate the same quotes in the 'Original Edition', use this link:  http://www.jcim.net/acim_us/Acim.php    

A Course in Miracles   
TEXT 

Chapter Three

Retraining the Mind

VI. Conflict and the Ego  

³⁸ The abilities man now possesses are only shadows of his real strengths. All of his functions are equivocal and open to question or doubt. This is because he is not certain how he will use them. He is therefore incapable of knowledge, being uncertain. He is also incapable of knowledge because he can perceive lovelessly. He cannot create surely because his perception deceives. Perception did not exist until the separation had introduced degrees, aspects, and intervals. The Soul has no levels, and all conflict arises from the concept of levels. Only the levels of the Trinity are capable of unity. The levels which man created by the separation cannot but conflict. This is because they are essentially meaningless to each other.

³⁹ Freud realized this perfectly and that is why he conceived the different levels in his view of the psyche as forever irreconcilable. They were conflict-prone by definition because they wanted different things and obeyed different principles. In our picture of the psyche, there is an unconscious level which properly consists only of the miracle ability and which should be under my direction. There is also a conscious level, which perceives or is aware of impulses from both the unconscious and the superconscious. Consciousness is thus the level of perception but not of knowledge. Again, to perceive is not to know.

⁴⁰ Consciousness was the first split that man introduced into himself. He became a perceiver rather than a creator in the true sense. Consciousness is correctly identified as the domain of the ego. The ego is a man-made attempt to perceive himself as he wished to be rather than as he is. This is an example of the created-creator confusion we have spoken of before. Yet man can only know himself as he is because that is all he can be sure of. Everything else is open to question.

⁴¹ The ego is the questioning compartment in the post-separation psyche which man created for himself. It is capable of asking valid questions but not of perceiving valid answers because these are cognitive and cannot be perceived. The endless speculation about the meaning of mind has led to considerable confusion because the mind is confused. Only One-Mindedness is without confusion. A separated or divided mind must be confused; it is uncertain by definition. It has to be in conflict because it is out of accord with itself.

⁴² Intrapersonal conflict arises from the same basis as interpersonal conflict. One part of the psyche perceives another part as on a different level and does not understand it. This makes the parts strangers to each other, without recognition. This is the essence of the fear-prone condition in which attack is always possible. Man has every reason to feel afraid as he perceives himself. This is why he cannot escape from fear until he knows that he did not and could not create himself. He can never make his misperceptions valid. His creation is beyond his own error, and that is why he must eventually choose to heal the separation.

⁴³ Right-mindedness is not to be confused with the knowing mind because it is applicable only to right perception. You can be right-minded or wrong-minded, and even this is subject to degrees, a fact which clearly demonstrates a lack of association with knowledge. The term "right-mindedness" is properly used as the correction for "wrong-mindedness," and applies to the state of mind which induces accurate perception. It is miraculous because it heals misperception, and this is indeed a miracle in view of how man perceives himself.

⁴⁴ Perception always involves some misuse of will because it involves the mind in areas of uncertainty. The mind is very active because it has will-power. When it willed the separation, it willed to perceive. Until then, it willed only to know. Afterwards it willed ambiguously, and the only way out of ambiguity is clear perception. The mind returns to its proper function only when it wills to know. This places it in the Soul's service, where perception is meaningless. The superconscious is the level of the mind which wills this.

⁴⁵ The mind chose to divide itself when it willed to create both its own levels and the ability to perceive, but it could not entirely separate itself from the Soul because it is from the Soul that it derives its whole power to create. Even in miscreation will is affirming its Source or it would merely cease to be. This is impossible because it is part of the Soul which God created and which is therefore eternal.

⁴⁶ The ability to perceive made the body possible because you must perceive something and with something. This is why perception involves an exchange or translation, which knowledge does not need. The interpretive function of perception, actually a distorted form of creation, then permitted man to interpret the body as himself, which, though depressing, was an attempt to escape from the conflict he had induced. The superconscious, which knows, could not be reconciled with this loss of power because it is incapable of darkness. This is why it became almost inaccessible to the mind and entirely inaccessible to the body.

⁴⁷ Thereafter, the superconscious was perceived as a threat because light does abolish darkness merely by establishing the fact that it is not there. The truth will always overcome error in this sense. This is not an active process of destruction at all. We have already emphasized that knowledge does not do anything. It can be perceived as an attacker, but it cannot attack. What man perceives as its attack is merely his own vague recognition of the fact that it can always be remembered, never having been destroyed.

⁴⁸ God and the Souls He created remain in surety, and therefore know that no miscreation exists. Truth cannot deal with unwilling error because it does not will to be blocked out. I was a man who remembered the Soul and its knowledge, and as a man I did not attempt to counteract error with knowledge so much as to correct error from the bottom up. I demonstrated both the powerlessness of the body and the power of the mind. By uniting my will with that of my Creator, I naturally remembered the Soul and its own real purpose.

⁴⁹ I cannot unite your will with God's for you, but I can erase all misperceptions from your mind if you will bring it under my guidance. Only your misperceptions stand in your own way. Without them your choice is certain. Sane perception induces sane choosing. The Atonement was an act based on true perception. I cannot choose for you, but I can help you make your own right choice. "Many are called, but few are chosen" should read, "All are called, but few choose to listen. Therefore, they do not choose right."

⁵⁰ The "chosen ones" are merely those who choose right sooner. This is the real meaning of the celestial speed-up. Strong wills can do this now, and you will find rest for your Souls. God knows you only in peace, and this is your reality.

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