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
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Sarah's Commentary: There are three related lessons here, starting with the one today and continuing with the next two. The lesson tomorrow reads that "
Beyond this world there is a world I want." Lesson 130 says "
It is impossible to see two worlds," meaning we are making a choice in each moment and with each decision we make as to which world we value, the world of the ego or the world of the Holy Spirit.
It is important in this lesson today that we not mistake its message by thinking that Jesus is saying that the things of this world are wrong, bad or even forbidden. That would be a mistake because it would suggest that the Course is asking that we sacrifice what we still give value to. It does not intend for us to live as an ascetic by giving up things in form while still holding attachment to them. To do so is to confuse form and content. When we surrender to God, our fear is that we will be left with very little and will have to be happy and content with our lives in spite of our experience of loss of our creature comforts and the people and places that we still want in our lives. The ego warns us that we will have to live with deprivation and scarcity if we surrender to the love that we are. Yet, Jesus assures us continually that there is nothing to give up except our fear and our guilt, and in its place we are given abundant and limitless love.
All that is being asked of us is to look at the guilt that we are currently drawn to when we look to things of this world to relieve our pain and suffering. Jesus is asking us to see how we believe that there are special people, material things, and substances that we turn to, to fill what we believe is lacking in us. He is not saying that we are prohibited by going after these things in the name of being spiritual, but he is making it very clear that what we think the world has to offer us will only bring us more guilt and pain, and does not compare to the gifts offered through the choice for spirit. Our toys and treasures are not being taken away from us. He is only asking us to question why we would want to continue to seek for happiness where it does not exist. That is the question we need to put to our own minds. With everything we do, we can ask one simple question. "Will what I am pursuing bring me closer to my goal of awakening?"
When we read that "
The world I see holds nothing that I want", it is not entirely the truth for most of us on this path. It is important to remember that the focus of this lesson is about the purpose we give to the things of the world, not the things themselves. He tells us that each thing we value binds us to the world. While we continue to believe that the things of this world will bring happiness we will pursue them until we recognize that they only bring more guilt. The only purpose that the world has is to help us learn that there is nothing here of intrinsic value for us, yet everything can be used by the Holy Spirit to help us learn the lessons of forgiveness.
We are learning to undo our investment in our bodily identity. Even if we think of ourselves as very spiritually advanced because we have been with the Course for a long time or because we think we get it, we need to look with honesty at the "body thoughts" that still tempt us. What are these? Well they relate to our mistaken notion of our reality as a body and thus our focus on pursuing pleasure, safety, protection, longevity, beauty, comfort, food, sex, sleep, power, material things, substances etc. It is our belief that there are things, substances and people in the world that are the source of our pleasure and make us feel good about ourselves. It is a belief that we are lacking and must fill our lacks with these special relationships. When we really get that none of the things of this world are the source of happiness, our attachments to them are diminished.
We have blocked from our awareness the Christ Self that we are and thus we experience pain believing that we have turned ourselves into these needy, lacking beings who now need to fill up the emptiness with specialness. We think we are a body and that the body rules us with all of its needs and wants. This journey is about releasing our minds from the demands we have placed on them. That is the purpose for everything in this world and nothing else. So it is not about letting the world go, but using the world as a classroom for letting the guilt that is in our minds be released.
He makes it clear that if we get this we will save ourselves "
years of misery from countless disappointment and from hopes that turn to bitter ashes of despair." (1.2) We need to really look at our investments, the places we have determined our happiness can be found. If we really look at them, we can see that the promise that they held for our happiness fell far short of our beliefs that that was where it was to be found. We do invest in that which is meaningless in the long run. I was thinking about this when I went out today to find another birdhouse. Is this where my happiness is? To have another birdhouse? Is it wrong to buy birdhouses? Of course not! As the lesson says, we need to disconnect our belief in happiness being found in our worldly collections, whatever they may be. It is just a false promise that can't deliver. More than that, he says that when we perceive our happiness there, it just puts another chain across our minds and hides our true awareness of our divine Self. (2.1) So again, Jesus is not asking us to sacrifice anything that we still want, or to feel guilty that we are pursuing something that has no value. He is only asking us to look at the guilt in the mind that has made this world of form. He is asking us to see that the "
only purpose worthy of your mind this world contains is that you pass it by." (2.3) Ultimately we are being shown that there is no world. It has no reality and so we learn that the only thing that is real is God's Love and nothing that the world has to offer. In the meantime, everything in the world is being used by the Holy Spirit for our awakening when we choose to use it in this way.
When we value something it becomes part of our identity, which is what he means when he says "
what you value you make part of you as you perceive yourself." (3.2) Clearly we value our bodily identity and thus believe that it is our reality. We surround it with what we value. I make my home a reflection of me and believe that it defines me and makes me valuable for what I have. Yet, the exact opposite occurs because he says that this actually "
hides your worth from you" (3.3) and adds "
another bar across the door that leads to true awareness of your Self." (3.3) When I give value to the body and its pleasures, then I am seeing my reality as a body, rather than seeing the Christ Self as who I really am.
I had an interesting experience with this last night. I had the most severe case of food poisoning I have ever known. When the body is in such a state of discomfort, it does feel like it is our whole identity, and is the focus of all of our attention. As I was lying in bed, I asked for the Holy Spirit to help me to see that this experience of the body was not my reality. My reality is my Christ Self. I committed myself that I would not use the body's sickness to keep me from that love. I saw myself witnessing this bodily experience and saw that it was an experience of the character in the dream and not of the Self that I am. I felt this with deep conviction and knew that all was well regardless of the state of the body. The body is not who I am and with that thought came the realization that all was well.
We fall in love with a special person and think that we are at the heights of happiness, only to be at the depths of despair when things don't go as we had hoped. Anything that we value binds us to the world because that is the purpose we have given it. Why would we give the world the purpose of keeping us bound and chained to it? Why would we want it to be the screen behind which we hide the truth about ourselves? Why would we continue to look for our happiness where it does not exist? We continue to see value outside of ourselves. We continue to look for fulfillment where it does not exist. It is not about asking for help to give up our attachments to the things of this world, but only asking for help in understanding the purpose that our attachments serve. They serve the ego's purpose as a defense against the truth of who we are. They affirm our reality as bodies, separate from others, and living in the world.
Last night someone posed the question of what is our biggest and best dream and to see ourselves achieving it. My mind struggled with the question because I was reminded of this lesson. What dream in this world could I want? There is nothing wrong with dreams. There is nothing wrong with our worldly achievements. There is nothing wrong with wanting them. Ultimately, we will want to come to the place in our minds where we recognize that staying bound to the world will never bring us the joy, love, and peace, which is our inheritance because of the truth of who we are. When we value the things of this world that we think will make us happy, it keeps us from looking for happiness where it truly can be found. "
All things you seek to make your value greater in your sight limit you further, hide your worth from you, and add an0ther bar across the door that leads to true awareness of your Self." (3.3)
So today, let us examine the beliefs and values that we hold that keep us in chains. We can release the thoughts that bind us to the suffering that is inherent in attachment to this world. The body thoughts that we hold will be there as long as we identify with the body and we all do. We are not asked to deny this identification with the body, only to ask for help to look at anything we want, value or experience around the body so we can see it differently. As long as we are here we will experience what we came to experience as a body. Now we have help to recognize how we can use our experience to awaken from this dream. Thus we "
loosen it (the world)
from all we wish it were." (5.3) Life without expectations of how things should be becomes a life where the way is shown to us and nothing is lacking. There is nothing to want when we have Everything. We cannot get upset when we choose not to set up things for our perceived enjoyment. We cannot get disappointed when we don't appoint how we believe things should be.
"
Forget not that healing of God's Son is all the world is for. That is the only purpose the Holy Spirit sees in it, and thus the only one it has. Until you see the healing of the Son as all you wish to be accomplished by the world, by time and all appearances, you will not know the Father nor yourself. For you will use the world for what is not its purpose, and will not escape its laws of violence and death. Yet, it is given you to be beyond its laws in all respects, in every way and every circumstance, in all temptation to perceive what is not there, and all belief God's Son can suffer pain because he sees himself as he is not." (T. 24.VI)
So, everyone and every circumstance that we encounter in this world is to be used for our healing. Each one is an opportunity to look at how we are keeping ourselves in chains or how we are using each circumstance for healing and release. There is nothing that we are experiencing in this moment that does not invite us to this healing. Everything is exactly perfect for this purpose no matter what judgment of good or bad we might put on it. When the lesson says that "
we leave it (the world) free of purposes we gave its aspects and its phases and its dreams," (5.2) Jesus is telling us that the ultimate problem is the value that we have bestowed on the world. It is the value that we have placed on the many things that we think that the world offers us. Again, it is not about letting go of the things of this world, but only recognizing the purpose that they serve.
Leaving everything in the world free of our own purpose is to accept what is. Only our resistance to what is creates suffering in our minds. When we "
hold the world purposeless within our minds and loosen it from all we wish it were," (5.3) we are freed from this world. "
Pause and be still a little while, and see how far you rise above the world, when you release your mind from chains and let it seek the level where it finds itself at home." (6.1) Jesus tells us that our minds will be grateful when we do this.
Imagine the freedom of allowing your mind to soar. This reminds me of the book "
Jonathan Livingston Seagull" where Jonathan Livingston, the seagull, refused to be invested in what was readily available in the garbage dump, where all his buddies sought for treasures, and instead was like the mind that "
knows where it belongs" (with God in Heaven) (6.3) and simply wants to fly free. Then one day Jonathon, standing on the shore, closing his eyes, concentrating, all in a flash knew what Chaing had been telling him. "Why, that's true! I "am" a perfect unlimited gull!" He felt a great shock of joy.
"
Your mind cannot be stopped in this unless you choose to stop it." (W.44.7.3) So we are the ones that have chained it and now it is up to us to "
free its wings" (6.3) so it can "
fly in sureness and in joy to join its holy purpose." (6.4) It is the 'you' that is the decision-making mind that can make this choice and give it over to the Holy Spirit for the miracle. The ego will never choose for this freedom. It is what keeps us chained. We have it in us to make this choice to soar and "
fly in sureness and in joy to join its holy purpose." (6.4)
With this practice Jesus assures us that "
when your eyes are opened afterwards, you will not value anything you see as much as when you looked at it before." (7.2) Each time we free our mind and let it soar, our perspective will shift, meaning that the value we put on the world will change. So rather than giving up anything in the world, we just shift our perspective in how we see it.
Protect your mind throughout the day as well. When you think you see some value in an aspect or an image of the world, refuse to lay this chain upon your mind, but tell yourself with quiet certainty: "
This will not tempt me to delay myself. The world I see holds nothing that I want." (8.3-4) Our investment in the world is our investment in guilt. Ask for help today to look at the world differently. By doing so, our perspective will change just a little each time we bring awareness to our worldly temptations. Be willing to stop and step back and look with the Holy Spirit. He will take your interpretations and give you a new way to see everything. Every time you are upset by anything in your day, ask for help to see it differently.
Ken Wapnick, a magnificent teacher of this Course, says that there is one simple question that we can ask that consolidates all of the teachings and will help us unify our learning. It illustrates for us what Jesus calls the simplicity of salvation. Ken says that anytime that we are confronted with a situation, an event, a relationship or a bodily condition where we feel anguish, guilt, fear, pain or judgment, we can ask ourselves "is what I am doing, feeling, thinking, or saying helping in my awakening from this dream or impeding my path and solidifying my ego?" Ask this question of yourself regarding everything in your day consistently.
