DAILY LESSON

 

L e s s o n  15

 <AUDIO><VIDEO> 

¹It is because the thoughts you think you think appear as images that you do not recognize them as nothing. You think you think them, and so you think you see them. This is how your "seeing" was made. This is the function you have given your body's eyes. It is not seeing. It is image-making. It takes the place of seeing, replacing vision with illusions.

²This introductory idea to the process of image-making which you call seeing will not have much meaning for you. You will begin to understand it when you have seen little edges of light around the same familiar objects which you see now. That is the beginning of real vision. You can be certain that real vision will come quickly when this has occurred. 

³As we go along, you may have many "light episodes." They may take many different forms, some of them quite unexpected. Do not be afraid of them. They are signs that you are opening your eyes at last. They will not persist, because they merely symbolize true perception, and they are not related to knowledge. These exercises will not reveal knowledge to you. But they will prepare the way to it. 

⁴In practicing the idea for today, repeat it first to yourself, and then apply it to whatever you see around you, using its name and letting your eyes rest on it as you say: 

  That _____ is an image which I have made.

⁶It is not necessary to include a large number of specific subjects for the application of today's idea. It is necessary, however, to continue to look at each subject while you repeat the idea to yourself. The idea should be repeated quite slowly each time. 

⁷Although you will obviously not be able to apply the idea to very many things during the minute or so of practice that is recommended, try to make the selection as random as possible. Less than a minute will do for the practice periods, if you begin to feel uneasy. Do not have more than three application periods for today's idea unless you feel completely comfortable with it, and do not exceed four.  

ACIM Edmonton - Sarah's Reflections 

 LESSON 15       

It has been interesting to talk to those of you who are now going through the lessons for the second, third or fourth time and getting so much more out of them. These lessons are so challenging to our ego that the undoing this ego is indeed a moment by moment process but it does not matter since we are using time for its intended purpose.  

It is not helpful to set expectations of where you think you should be. Only the ego mind sets this up.  We are exactly where we need to be and the current situation and the people around us right now are those who need to be in our lives for learning purposes. How do we know that? Because they are there for now. Just do the lessons as you are able and don't worry about the impact on you, nor about whether you are doing them exactly as prescribed. Remember, strain is not helpful and neither is ritualizing this process. We still have a huge amount of resistance. Our eyes glaze over as we read this and we think we don't understand; or perhaps we argue with it; or we get very sleepy as soon as we start reading; or any number of things distract us from the practice. These are all forms of resistance but Jesus tells us not to fight ourselves. Just notice the resistance and ask for help.  

This lesson, like all of them, challenges everything that we have come to believe. In this case we are told that the images that we see with our eyes show us nothing but our own thoughts. Jesus tells us that our thoughts show up as images and because they do, it is hard to think of these images as nothing. Our eyes report back that what we are seeing as really there and true.  But they are only reflecting back to us our own thoughts and beliefs.  Our thoughts, that show up as images, really do seem like something because they seem to be objective and external to us.   The body's eyes are involved in confirming that indeed we are seeing something independent of our thoughts. But what we are told is that we are only "replacing vision with illusions". (1.7)  

We believe in the images we make. They are our judgments projected out on the world. Our eyes do not show us the truth. In the text 22.III.5, we learn more about this phenomenon. You may want to read this section. In part Jesus tells us that "The body's eyes see only form. They cannot see beyond what they were made to see. And they were made to look on error and not see past it." So real seeing has nothing to do with the eyes. All that is happening is that the ego is projecting out our thoughts and seeing them in the world rather than within.  

Real seeing is about vision. Anyone who has had an out of body experience has witnessed that the eyes do not see. When someone leaves the body and yet reports looking down on it, the eyeballs are still with the body so what is doing the looking? Obviously it is not the eyes even though thoughts are still reflected in the images that are still perceived even though there is an out-of-body experience.  

"These eyes, made not to see, will never see. For the idea they represent left not its maker, and it is their maker that sees through them. What was its maker's goal but not to see? For this the body's eyes are perfect means, but not for seeing. See how the body's eyes rest on externals and cannot go beyond. Watch how they stop at nothingness, unable to go beyond the form to meaning. Nothing so blinding as perception of form. For sight of form means understanding has been obscured."(T.22.III.6.1)   

In other words our eyes were really made to keep us blind to the truth. They were made to keep us invested in the world of form. They were made to see only externals. Their maker is the "you" that made the choice for the ego and with it came the thoughts of sin, guilt and fear. This maker is the Son of God that chose the ego which was the choice for the separation from God. Now the Son separated into billions of fragments with separate thoughts projected out on the world and now we see them 'out there' as images. And now we think we see something real rather than images coming from our own thoughts. That is why our focus is always on how we can manipulate these images rather than looking within. Of course, our own body and identity is also an image in this imaginary world. Until we started this work with the Course we had little understanding that everything comes from within the mind which is the only place that a real choice can be made.  

When Jesus says "You think you think them, and so you think you see them," (1.2) he is reminding us that our thoughts are nothing at all. Our mind is actually blank. Real thoughts are behind the thoughts we think we are thinking. And this is our reality as the Christ Self that we are, the eternal being of light and love, the Son of God. Instead we have made an image of ourselves that seems to be separate and autonomous thinking that it has its own thoughts and that it is a separate self. And now we see images of others on whom we project our own thoughts of sin, guilt and fear and now see them that way so we can pretend we are the innocent ones.  

Jesus says that when he tells us that "This introductory idea to the process of image making that you call seeing will not have much meaning for you," (2.1) he understands just how deeply rooted we are in the world and how attached we are to our individual identities. In other words our image of ourselves is very important and we defend it at all costs, even to death.  

The lesson talks about vision as "light episodes". That has raised a lot of questions with course students as it is not something that most people have ever experienced. On Ken Wapnick's website I found the following explanation which may be helpful.  

"This passage has been troubling to many students. It seems to suggest that a mark of spiritual progress is seeing edges of light around objects, such as auras. If this were the literal meaning, it would go against everything else the Course teaches. Jesus, as we know, stresses that all perception is unreal. In the text he says that however holy visions may be, they do not last because they are based on perception" (T.3.III.4:6)  

So he is not talking about literally seeing edges of light but seeing with vision which is not of the eyes. It is to understand the content behind the form, which is the content of love. So there may be some experiences where there is some phenomena like this, it is always back to what is important, which is the content. So this is probably best taken as a symbol of seeing with vision that comes through forgiveness. It is thus a symbol of more light in our own minds. "They will not persist, because they merely symbolize true perception, and they are not related to knowledge.  These exercises will not reveal knowledge to you.  But they will prepare the way to it." (3.5-7)  

For the practice today we take a minute, or less if we feel uneasy with the practice, three or four times (if comfortable) repeat the idea and then look about and apply it randomly to whatever you see while saying slowly "this______________is an image that I have made" "that________is an image that I have made" Let you eyes rest on the object as you are repeating the lesson.  

 It is not necessary to include a large number of specific subjects for the application of today's idea.  It is necessary, however, to continue to look at each subject while you repeat the idea to yourself.   (4.4-5)

"Although you will obviously not be able to apply the idea to very many things during the minute or so of practice that is recommended, try to make the selection as random as possible".  (5.1) So the idea is that basically everything we look at is the same. It is not the thing we look at but the idea that it is a thought in our own mind projected out. Thus it is a concept that we learn with some things we look upon in order to eventually see that it applies to everything. 

Finally you can repeat this lesson whenever you are upset by some situation or event in your life by reminding yourself that your thoughts about the situation or event are images you are making.  

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 Two

The Illusion of Separation

II. The Reinterpretation of Defenses    

¹⁸ When you are afraid of anything, you are acknowledging its power to hurt you. Remember that where your heart is, there is your treasure also. This means that you believe in what you value. If you are afraid, you are valuing wrongly. Human understanding will inevitably value wrongly and, by endowing all human thoughts with equal power, will inevitably destroy peace. That is why the Bible speaks of "the peace of God which passeth (human) understanding." This peace is totally incapable of being shaken by human errors of any kind. It denies the ability of anything which is not of God to affect you in any way.

¹⁹ This is the proper use of denial. It is not used to hide anything but to correct error. It brings all error into the light, and since error and darkness are the same, it corrects error automatically. True denial is a powerful protective device. You can and should deny any belief that error can hurt you. This kind of denial is not a concealment device but a correction device. The "right mind" of the mentally healthy depends on it. You can do anything I ask. I have asked you to perform miracles and have made it clear that miracles are natural, corrective, healing, and universal. There is nothing good they cannot do, but they cannot be performed in the spirit of doubt.

²⁰ God and the Souls He created are completely dependent on each other. The creation of the Soul has already been perfectly accomplished, but the creation by Souls has not. God created Souls so He could depend on them because He created them perfectly. He gave them His peace so they could not be shaken and would be unable to be deceived. Whenever you are afraid, you are deceived. Your mind is not serving the Soul. This literally starves the Soul by denying its daily bread. God offers only mercy. Your words should reflect only mercy because that is what you have received, and that is what you should give.

²¹ Justice is a temporary expedient or an attempt to teach man the meaning of mercy. Its judgmental side arises only because man is capable of injustice if that is what his mind creates. You are afraid of God's Will because you have used your own will, which He created in the likeness of His own, to miscreate. What you do not realize is that the mind can miscreate only when it is not free. An imprisoned mind is not free by definition. It is possessed or held back by itself. Its will is therefore limited and is not free to assert itself. The real meaning of "are of one kind," which was mentioned before, is "are of one mind or will." When the will of the Sonship and the Father are one, their perfect accord is Heaven.

²² Denial of error is a powerful defense of truth. You will note that we have been shifting the emphasis from the negative to the positive use of denial. As we have already stated, denial is not a purely negative device; it results in positive miscreation. That is the way the mentally ill do employ it. But remember a very early thought of your own-"Never underestimate the power of denial." In the service of the "right mind," the denial of error frees the mind and reestablishes the freedom of the will. When the will is really free, it cannot miscreate because it recognizes only truth.

²³ False projection arises out of false denial, not out of its proper use. My own role in the Atonement is one of true projection; I can project to you the affirmation of truth. If you project error to me or to yourself, you are interfering with the process. My use of projection, which can also be yours, is not based on faulty denial. It does involve, however, the very powerful use of the denial of errors. The miracle worker is one who accepts my kind of denial and projection, unites his own inherent abilities to deny and project with mine, and imposes them back on himself and others. This establishes the total lack of threat anywhere. Together we can then work for the real time of peace, which is eternal.

²⁴ The improper use of defenses is quite widely recognized, but their proper use had not been sufficiently understood as yet. They can indeed create man's perception both of himself and of the world. They can distort or correct depending on what you use them for.

²⁵ Denial should be directed only to error, and projection should be reserved only for truth. You should truly give as you have truly received. The Golden Rule can work effectively only on this basis.

²⁶ Intellectualization is a term which stems from the mind-brain confusion. "Right-mindedness" is the device which defends the right mind and gives it control over the body. "Intellectualization" implies a split, while "right-mindedness" involves healing.

²⁷ Withdrawal is properly employed in the service of withdrawing from the meaningless. It is not a device for escape, but for consolidation. There is only One Mind.

²⁸ Dissociation is quite similar. You should split off or dissociate yourself from error but only in defense of integration.

²⁹ Detachment is essentially a weaker form of dissociation.

³⁰ Flight can be undertaken in whatever direction you choose, but note that the concept itself implies flight from something. Flight from error is perfectly appropriate.

³¹ Distantiation can be properly used as a way of putting distance between yourself and what you should fly from.

³² Regression is an effort to return to your own original state. It can thus be utilized to restore, rather than to go back to the less mature.

³³ Sublimation should be a redirection of effort to the sublime.

³⁴ There are many other so-called "dynamic" concepts which are profound errors due essentially to the misuse of defenses. Among them is the concept of different levels of aspiration, which actually result from level confusion. However, the main point to be understood from this section is that you can defend truth as well as error and, in fact, much better.

³⁵ The means are easier to clarify after the value of the goal itself is firmly established. Everyone defends his own treasure. You do not have to tell him to do so because he will do it automatically. The real questions still remain. What do you treasure, and how much do you treasure it? Once you have learned to consider these two questions and to bring them into all your actions as the true criteria for behavior, I will have little difficulty in clarifying the means. You have not learned to be consistent about this as yet. I have therefore concentrated on showing you that the means are available whenever you ask. You can, however, save a lot of time if you do not extend this step unduly. The correct focus will shorten it immeasurably.

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