>>Yes - the body and world were made to be distractions from the true source....that also ties in with the idea that there are no victims.? I'm in a major struggle right now with this, specifically in thinking that something in?my?childhood hurt me....I am so sick of it!?? The ego really loves to be unhappy!? Talk about confusing joy & pain...<<

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That is why I like forums like this (not that this is needed, but it sometimes helps) but forums like this, where we can bring up, and look at,? what our ego's would never want us to see. Sometimes just writing down what is constantly buzzing around in my mind, then makes me stop a moment and begin to question its validity. And then ask Jesus or the Holy Spirit to help me look at this, from Their perspective.

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Right now, I am listening to Ken Wapnick talk about where he got the idea of the three steps of forgiveness in lesson 23. The title of the lesson is, "I can escape from the world I see by giving up attack thoughts."

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(W-23.5.)

"The idea for today introduces the thought that you are not trapped in the world you see, because its cause can be changed. This change requires, first, that the cause be identified"

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And then - there is the second step ..."Let go."

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What letting go means, I now ask Jesus or the Holy Spirit for help - that I look at my guilt differently. The cause of the world and my attack thoughts (another way to say my guilt) and I realize that just as my attack on you, was a projection (it was made up) so was my attack on myself made up too. That I remain as God created me.

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Nothing has changed who I am. So - letting go, means I let go of the guilt and my attack thoughts, with the love of Jesus next to me. And the third step:

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"and then let go, so that it can be replaced."

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Ken: At the moment that I ask Jesus for help and I look at my guilt and my attack thoughts with his love next to me, then in that instant he shines on the guilt, and it is gone. My job is to bring the guilt to him. First the guilt I have projected on to you. I bring that inside in my mind, and then the guilt that is in my mind,? I bring to him. Which is - what looking means -and the moment I do that, it is gone. Because I have accepted the love and light that was always present..

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"The first two steps in this process require your cooperation. The final one does not."

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"Your images have already been replaced."

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"By taking the first two steps, you will see that this is so."

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Ken: So what enables us to realize that the Principle of the Atonement is true, and nothing else is, what enables us to do that - is to change our mind, at what we were so sure that we were right about. That there is world out there that hurts me. Victimizes me. And that is a defense against an inner world, which is even more painful. I was wrong about the world outside, and I am wrong about the world inside.

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Love, Martha :-)

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