Lesson 325. All things I think I see reflect ideas.
This is salvation's keynote: What I see reflects a process in my mind, which
starts with my idea of what I want. From there, the mind makes up an image of
the thing the mind desires, judges valuable, and therefore seeks to find. These
images are then projected outward, looked upon, esteemed as real and guarded as
one's own. From insane wishes comes an insane world. From judgment comes a world
condemned. And from forgiving thoughts a gentle world comes forth, with mercy
for the holy Son of God, to offer him a kindly home where he can rest a while
before he journeys on, and help his brothers walk ahead with him, and find the
way to Heaven and to God.
Our Father, Your ideas reflect the truth, and mine apart from Yours but make up
dreams. Let me behold what only Yours reflect, for Yours and Yours alone
establish truth.
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Below, is from Kenneth Wapnick's commentaries on this lesson, from "Journey
Through the Workbook of A Course in Miracles," which can be purchased at the
following site: ~ M. Street.
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Lesson 325. "All things I think I see reflect ideas."
*Its strong theoretical basis makes this lesson unique to Part II. It recalls
the early lessons, where Jesus teaches that everything comes from thought: "All
things I think I see reflects ideas." What we perceive outside comes from a
thought within. If we perceive anger, loss, or sin, we but see a shadow of the
separation thought we made real in our minds. Similarly, if we perceive only
love or calls for love, we see a reflection of the Atonement we chose for our
truth within the dream.*
(1:1-2) "This is salvation's keynote: What I see reflects a process in my mind,
which starts with my idea of what I want. From there, the mind makes up an image
of the thing the mind desires, judges valuable, and therefore seeks to find."
*Do we want the ego's individuality or the Holy Spirit's Atonement? Do we want
to remain in our dream of specialness or to awaken and return home? Our wrong
mind seeks and finds sin, because this proves the ego's separate existence is
real.*
(1:3-5) "These images are then projected outward, looked upon, esteemed as real
and guarded as one's own. From insane wishes comes an insane world. From
judgment comes a world condemned."
*Listening to the ego, we look around and see sin throughout the world, but not
in ourselves. Even if we were able to see sin within, we would be quick to
attribute it to someone else's sin, beginning with our parents. We seek to find
sin because, again, it means our separation from God is real, and thus are our
individual identities real as well. Seeing sin in everyone else allows us to
escape responsibility for it. On the other hand, when we realize we made a
mistake and there must be another way, we choose the Holy Spirit's forgiveness
and perceive a totally different world, as we now read:*
(1:6) "And from forgiving thoughts a gentle world comes forth, with mercy for
the holy Son of God, to offer him a kindly home where he can rest a while before
he journeys on, and help his brothers walk ahead with him, and find the way to
Heaven and to God."
*When we have forgiven totally, the "gentle world" turns into the real world.
All we need do to recognize which choice we made is pay attention to our
thoughts about others. The world's value is that it reflects our choices back to
us. We initially chose wrongly, but once recognized, we can ask our Teacher to
reinterpret our perceptions, helping us to choose again. Thus we need to be
especially vigilant of what we are seeing in others and ourselves. Another's
body is no more real than our own, and therefore what we project onto another's
is what we project onto ours. Again, becoming aware of our judgments and attack
thoughts helps us realize our mistake, so we can return to its choice in the
mind and correct it.*
(2) "Our Father, Your ideas reflect the truth, and mine apart from Yours but
make up dreams. Let me behold what only Yours reflect, for Yours and Yours alone
establish truth."
*The reflection of God's ideas is the real world. We need to recognize our
investment in our individual self will not make us happy, for it is but an empty
dream. Such realization allows the happy dream to replace the unhappy one,
ushering in the real world of truth's reflection.*
