Lesson 263

My holy vision sees all things as pure.

 

This lesson is about seeing everyone through the eyes of innocence and holy vision, instead of looking for guilt, faults, warts and differences. We do see differences in bodies, personalities and what bodies do. The lesson is not about denying the differences that we see, but not using them to judge others. We are called to "look on all we see through holy vision with the eyes of Christ." (W.263.2.1) Whatever we look upon and however things appear to the body's eyes, let us pray "that we may pass them by in innocence, and walk together to our Father's house as brothers and the holy Son's of God." (W.263.2.1)

To see with vision is to recognize that we are all the same beyond what the body's eyes show us. With the 'evidence' brought to us by our body's eyes, at our request, we see people as sinful, evil, unkind, demanding, and guilty, and we judge them as different than ourselves. We do so because we want to see guilt in them rather than in ourselves. This maintains the separation and makes others responsible for it! It is how we have chosen to maintain our innocence at their expense. And yet, if we see with vision, which is to see beyond appearances, we will see that no matter what the perceived differences are, we are all purely divine, perfect, and holy. In other words, we are One Self. We share the same attributes of God given us in our creation. When we see anyone less than that, it provides us with another opportunity for healing. We do that when we are willing to look within at our own guilt that we are projecting onto 'others.' Thus they become a mirror of the unhealed guilt within our own minds. We can't heal ourselves, but when we are willing to take responsibility for our projections and truly and sincerely surrender them to the Holy Spirit, He will do the rest.

I have always had difficulty with people who whine and complain about life. I have always valued a "can do" attitude. I started out years ago as a social worker. In retrospect, I have been able to recognize my need to rescue as unhealthy. When I started with the Course, I saw how my time as a social worker was so much about not wanting to experience my own vulnerability and thus seeking to rescue others instead. I was trying to keep my own sense of weakness and unworthiness out of my awareness. I did this by compensating for it with a show of strength and competency by saving 'others'. While I was seemingly helping others, I either identified with their pain or alternatively judged their inadequacies. Healing came when I looked at these aspects of myself.

We can only heal what we acknowledge. Until we take responsibility for what we are projecting onto others, we will keep our own guilt hidden from ourselves. And by withdrawing this projection, we can turn anything we see "out there" and reclaim it as something we need to look at within. Does that mean that everything that we see in others is an unhealed place in ourselves? Yes, if we are judging, criticizing and condemning what we see in them.

On the other hand, it is not a projection of our guilt if we are simply observing behavior without judgment. Nevertheless if we are comparing ourselves as better than anyone, holding a superior, or even inferior position to them, then we are assuming differences. Jesus is calling us to recognize that we share the same need and the same purpose as our brother. It is to know our oneness by first recognizing our sameness. When we see others as guilty, we are saying that Jesus is wrong about who they are as pure and holy and what we are seeing is right. We justify our anger and attack when we use what our senses show us as evidence of the sinful state of others. Our part is to take our judgments back to our own minds. This is the only place that true change can happen. When we are trying to change our brothers, it is just another form of attack.

When we are judging the behavior of others, then it is always about something that we are rejecting about ourselves. We can't heal anything about ourselves that we deny in ourselves. "The search for truth is but the honest searching out of everything that interferes with truth." (T.14.VII.2.1)(ACIM OE T.14.IV.25) The truth is already in us. There is nowhere we have to go to find it. All we need do is bring everything that interferes with it to the Holy Spirit. Bringing these issues into awareness is what Jesus is asking us to do. He is not asking on his behalf but on behalf of our own happiness. It is the only way out of the suffering of our lives. The trick is not to judge or crucify ourselves when we see our judgments. All we need to do is acknowledge them. Looking at our mistaken perceptions, without judgment, is to look at them from outside of the dream with the "eyes" of love. It means that we look from a place of awareness, which is outside of this dream. From that vantage point there is nothing we will take seriously about what we do or what anyone else does. It is actually all quite a silly dream.
 
Everything about this course is for application in our own lives. We can talk about the ideas in the Course for hours, but how will that help us transform our lives? The important thing is to recognize that if I am feeling anything but the peace of God, then I am experiencing my ego. If I make anything important other than the peace of God, it will hurt me. "Anything in this world that you believe is good and valuable and worth striving for can hurt you, and will do so." (T.26.VI.1.1)(ACIM OE T.26.VII.44)
 
It is so interesting for me to see what shows up in my experience because it has become more and more apparent to me that what I hold in my mind appears as a reflection in the world. It is always an outside picture of my inward condition. Everything truly is a projection of our minds. We are not victims of the world. We actually draw the experiences to us that help us to look at the unhealed places in our minds. If we are experiencing issues of unworthiness, deceit or dysfunction, we will draw witnesses to that. If we have issues about hanging onto money, issues of greed, then that too will show up in our experience. There are no accidents. Yes, we can get very angry about the apparent injustices of what seems to be happening to us, but it is all about our own projections coming from within the mind. This is a powerful thought if we are willing to accept it as truth.

The ego mind rejects this responsibility, because we actually prefer to be the innocent victims of the seeming injustices of what others have done to us. Or we might identify with the victims in Syria, whom we bemoan. But this just keeps the pain of guilt, that we hold in the mind, unavailable for healing. When our unhealed perspectives are kept hidden from our awareness, no healing is possible. The only way out is to stay vigilant with what is going on around us, how we are perceiving these situations and events, and being willing to bring our false self-concepts to the Holy Spirit so that space can be opened up for the miracle to arise. How this happens is not up to us. We are only called to look openly at the hidden places in the mind with courage and honesty and bring them to the light. The truth of who we are lies behind these self-concepts and false beliefs. Holiness is our inheritance and waits on our readiness to shine forth with glorious radiance.

Jesus asks us how we could possibly look on anything that God created as if it could be made sinful. (1.2) Only in this dream, that is being dreamed by a madman, can anyone that God created pure be seen as sinful. Remember in our reading of "What is Sin?" Jesus spoke of the madman's dreams as being frightening and terrifying. That is our experience. How can what is joyful, and eternal, which is the truth of our creation, be turned to "dark and fearful images?" (W.263.1.3) That is what we have done in our choice for the ego as our 'friend',  and we continue to make this choice every time we judge a brother as guilty and unworthy of our love.
 
Last night Don purchased a toilet for our basement that I felt was much too expensive. I proposed that he use it for our upstairs bathroom, where the toilet also needs replacing, and buy something cheaper for the basement. He refused to discuss this option and refused to consider my suggestions. It became a battle of wills with both of us digging into our perspectives. I asked for help to address my anger and judgment about feeling discounted. I went to the computer to listen to some teaching and heard a woman speak about this kind of situation, explaining that whenever she and her husband saw things differently, they sat down together, held hands and indicated a willingness to let their ideas go about any situation that they encountered and simply sit quietly and listen to what Spirit had to say about what to do. I am really committing to focusing more on asking in everything rather than using my own limited perspectives to make decisions. If we feel that we need to decide something, it always means that we are not clear in what to do. When we are clear, there is no need for a decision. It becomes simply obvious. And this can only be the case with the Holy Spirit, Who takes us beyond our own reasoning mind.

We are being asked today, not only to see with Christ's vision, but pass by all appearances in innocence. (2.2) What does this mean? Apparently in the Gospel of Thomas, which is discussed in Gary Renard's book "Disappearance of the Universe," there is a reference to becoming passersby, which apparently has the same meaning. It is basically not to get hooked in. That can be an interesting challenge. When we come across these dark and fearful images, which are things in this world that we give meaning to, the idea is to withdraw that meaning and the judgments that go with it and pass them by. I think it ties into the question of purpose because if we get drawn into the distractions of the world, we are not passing them by. I find myself sometimes getting into arguments where I take the bait instead of remaining in a state of peace. Or I offer opinions where it would be more beneficial to my peace of mind simply to be still. In these instances, I am actually choosing to throw away my peace and then to blame someone else for having taken it. This is how we give our power to a situation when instead we could choose to pass it by. There is only one reason to engage in such debates, which is to keep the separation going.

We are not passersby when our ego guilt detector goes to work and starts chewing on what someone is doing. We were at an event recently at the ballpark. In the lounge, a buffet was available. Whoever chose to pay for it received an arm band to signify that they had bought a ticket. I noticed a group at the adjoining table, where one person had the arm band signifying that they had paid for the buffet, but were feeding five friends who had not paid. I found it interesting how my condemning mind was so willing to be disturbed by this event. I was having trouble just passing it by. I had all kinds of judgments about the morality of this situation. The mind was being pulled like a magnet to a crash scene, taking it all in. On reflection afterwards, I noticed how much my mind wanted to make them wrong and to see their guilt. Clearly, by the rules of this world, they were acting badly. But for me, it was actually my attraction to the guilt that was interesting for me to see. It is not unlike whom we see as the good guys and the bad guys in the world. It is all about our willingness to find wrongdoing and throw away our peace.

So today, we need to commit to 1) seeing the inherent purity in all of our brothers and 2) pass by the forms of the world rather than get hooked by our condemning thoughts. Our true identity is not these bodies. We are created in the image of God. The lesson asks us to consider deeply how we could possibly look on what God created as sinful. If we perceive anything as sinful, dark and fearful, it can only be because we are projecting our own guilt. God created all that is and if it is not of love, then it is not of Him. Thus it can only come from a madman's dream and we are that madman. Healing that dream allows us to see with holy vision. "Could you but realize for a single instant the power of healing that the reflection of God, shining in you, can bring to all the world, you could not wait to make the mirror of your mind clean to receive the image of the holiness that heals the world." (T.14.IX.7.1)(ACIM OE T.14. V.44) It is in these instants that we experience our holiness. For the rest of the time, we keep using whatever shows up in our day for only one purpose, which is to heal our minds of our false perceptions of ourselves and everyone else.