Lesson 52. Today's review covers these ideas:
1. I am upset because I see what is not there.
Reality is never frightening. It is impossible that it could upset me. Reality
brings only perfect peace. When I am upset, it is always because I have replaced
reality with illusions I made up. The illusions are upsetting because I have
given them reality, and thus regard reality as an illusion. Nothing in God's
creation is affected in any way by this confusion of mine. I am always upset by
nothing.
2. I see only the past.
As I look about, I condemn the world I look upon. I call this seeing. I hold the
past against everyone and everything, making them my enemies. When I have
forgiven myself and remembered Who I am, I will bless everyone and everything I
see. There will be no past, and therefore no enemies. And I will look with love
on all that I failed to see before.
3. My mind is preoccupied with past thoughts.
I see only my own thoughts, and my mind is preoccupied with the past. What,
then, can I see as it is? Let me remember that I look on the past to prevent the
present from dawning on my mind. Let me understand that I am trying to use time
against God. Let me learn to give the past away, realizing that in so doing I am
giving up nothing.
4. I see nothing as it is now.
If I see nothing as it is now, it can truly be said that I see nothing. I can
see only what is now. The choice is not whether to see the past or the present;
the choice is merely whether to see or not. What I have chosen to see has cost
me vision. Now I would choose again, that I may see.
5. My thoughts do not mean anything.
I have no private thoughts. Yet it is only private thoughts of which I am aware.
What can these thoughts mean? They do not exist, and so they mean nothing. Yet
my mind is part of creation and part of its Creator. Would I not rather join the
thinking of the universe than to obscure all that is really mine with my pitiful
and meaningless "private" thoughts?
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The commentary on this lesson (below) is from Kenneth Wapnick's eight volume
series of books, called: "Journey Through the Workbook of A Course in Miracles,"
which can be purchased at the following site:??~ M. Street
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Lesson 52. "Today's review covers these ideas:"
*As discussed above, we find here the continual weaving of themes from the early
lessons. In this set Jesus introduces forgiveness.*
(1:1)(6) "I am upset because I see what is not there."
(1:2-8) "Reality is never frightening. It is impossible that it could upset me.
Reality brings only perfect peace. When I am upset, it is always because I have
replaced reality with illusions I made up. The illusions are upsetting because I
have given them reality, and thus regard reality as an illusion. Nothing in
God's creation is affected in any way by this confusion of mine. I am always
upset by nothing."
*This is an example of why we cannot study this course, let alone practice it,
without understanding the underlying metaphysics. That is not necessarily a
requirement for those just starting out with A Course in Miracles, but as we go
along we see how its underlying metaphysics is present all the way through.
Thus, if the world out there comes from our thoughts, which do not exist, the
world must not exist either. It therefore makes no sense to be upset by it.
The truth is that we fear reality because it represents the end of our
delusional thought system of separation, which includes the insane idea we can
and do exist apart from God. It is thus our egos that fear the decision for
reality. That is why Jesus teaches in the text that we "are not really afraid of
crucifixion. [Our] real terror is of redemption" (T-13.III.1:10-11). However,
the ego teaches that reality is to be feared because of what we did to it;
namely, separated from its love, thereby destroying it. Thus we deserve to be
punished for our sin. However, the Holy Spirit's Atonement principle is that we
<never> separated from God, and therefore there is nothing to fear. Nothing
happened -- "Not one note in Heaven's song was missed" (T-26.V.5:4) -- and
without the belief in sin, there can be no fear of punishment. The ego's thought
system of sin, guilt, and fear is made up. Nothing, therefore, can only lead to
nothing, to paraphrase King Lear's outburst.*
(2:1) (7) "I see only the past."
(2:2-4) "As I look about, I condemn the world I look upon. I call this seeing. I
hold the past against everyone and everything, making them my enemies."
*Once again we see that if we understand the Course's metaphysics, we would
quickly realize why these lines are true. We began our existence as individuals
by making God our enemy, and then, as one Son, projected that thought, making up
a world of billions and billions of fragments. But the ontological thought came
with us, and exists in each individual fragment. Thus the prevalence of <one or
the other> in our thinking and our experience: If I am to exist, everyone else
must be killed. We people our world with many special love partners, however, so
that our ultimate goal is not apparent. Nevertheless we hold the past against
everyone and everything, making them our enemies. And what is the past? Sin. We
sinned in the past, projected it out, and now see it in everyone else. What we
think we see, therefore -- a world of separation and sin -- is not really there
at all, and thus is not <seeing.> Our arrogance in all this lies in that we
really believe we think, see, hear, and especially that <we> understand.*
(2:5-7) "When I have forgiven myself and remembered Who I am, I will bless
everyone and everything I see. There will be no past, and therefore no enemies.
And I will look with love on all that I failed to see before."
*It is not only that I <will> bless everyone, I <must> bless everyone, because
there is only God's blessing within my mind, that is all I can ever see. Again,
if I realize I am a child of God, I am not separate from Him. Thus, there is no
sin, and without sin there is no past. Obviously, then, there is nothing to
project. What remains is the blessing of love on all things, for we have blessed
ourselves with the thought of forgiveness.*
(3:1) (8) "My mind is preoccupied with past thoughts."
(3:2-3) "I see only my own thoughts, and my mind is preoccupied with the past.
What, then, can I see as it is?"
*Vision is impossible as long as I believe I am separated and special, as long
as I think that I count, am important, am wonderful, and on and on and on -- the
<me, myself and I> syndrome. These are but ways of asserting that I exist and,
moreover, that I demand to be treated with the dignity I deserve. Needless to
say, hidden in back of this is that I want you <not> to treat me this way,
because then my ego is home free. I have become the eternal victim, and you the
eternal victimizer. I get to keep my ego's cake of separation, eat, and enjoy
every guilty morsel, too.*
(3:4) "Let me remember that I look on the past to prevent the present from
dawning on my mind."
*If we read this carefully we can recognize a clear statement of purpose: "Let
me remember that I look on the past <to> prevent the present from dawning on my
mind." There is a purpose for our holding on to the past and our attack
thoughts. That is what keeps the present, the holy instant, and Jesus' love from
"dawning on my mind." In the presence of his love we can no longer exist as
special and hate-filled individuals. That is the fear: losing our special
identity.*
(3:5-6) "Let me understand that I am trying to use time against God. Let me
learn to give the past away, realizing that in so doing I am giving up nothing."
*Again, we see the purpose behind our world of time and space. The ego uses its
linear time -- <past, present, and future> -- as the way of reinforcing its
underlying thought system of <sin, guilt, and fear>. In this way, the Everything
of God is prevented by the nothingness of the ego from being remembered.*
(4:1) (9) "I see nothing as it is now."
(4:2-4) "If I see nothing as it is now, it can truly be said that I see nothing.
I can see only what is now. The choice is not whether to see the past or the
present; the choice is merely whether to see or not."
*We cannot see the past, because there is no past, no sin, no separation. Thus
what we think we see -- which includes what I remember happening in the past and
whatever I am seeing now -- is a projection of our sinful past on to the others.
Consequently, what we are seeing is not there at all, and that characterizes our
insanity.*
(4:5) "What I have chosen to see has cost me vision."
*That is precisely why I have chosen to see it! The vision of Christ sees the
Sonship as one, in which there are not special, important people. We are all the
same. This <sameness> of purpose reflects the <Sameness> of God's Son.
Perception originated in the need to defend against knowledge, which is
remembered through Christ's vision.*
(4:6) "Now I would choose again, that I may see."
*Note the recurring emphasis on the power of our minds to choose. Even if we are
not yet ready to make this choice -- vision still being too frightening -- we
can at least recognize the possibility of choice, and forgive ourselves for not
yet being able to make it.*
(5:1) (10) "My thoughts do not mean anything."
(5:2-5) "I have no private thoughts. Yet it is only private thoughts of which I
am aware. What can these thoughts mean? They do not exist, and so they mean
nothing."
*My thoughts mean nothing because they are "my" thoughts. They are based on
separation and exclusivity, and so are based on the exact opposite of Heaven's
Oneness, our <non-specific>, and thus <non-private> reality.*
(5:6-7) "Yet my mind is part of creation and part of its Creator. Would I not
rather join the thinking of the universe than to obscure all that is really mine
with my pitiful and meaningless "private" thoughts?"
*Importantly, Jesus says "all that is really mine," not what I <think> is mine,
which are but a few gifts scraps of specialness. What is <really> mine are the
gifts of Heaven: love, eternal life, real freedom, and perfect oneness.
Obviously Jesus does not think very much of our individuality, and he implores
us not to think very much of it, either. The problem is that we value it much
more than we ever thought we did. As we work seriously with A Course in
Miracles, it becomes clearer and clearer how much we do value our individuality,
how much we do have serious authority problems, and how we do not want anyone to
tell us anything other than what we believe is true. We need to be aware of this
arrogance without judging ourselves; to realize that, yes, this is where my
thoughts are coming from, and they are just a silly mistake.
It is apparent as one reads through A Course in Miracles, not just these
lessons, that Jesus is persistently consistent in presenting the truth to us,
and does not judge us for our illusions. He makes fun of us occasionally, but
his attitude is certainly not punitive. He simply says: "Will you please
recognize that you are wrong and I am right. As long as you continue to think
otherwise, you will not be happy. I am not the one who will punish you; <you>
will punish you. I wait patiently for you, but why delay your happiness?" As he
asks us twice later in the workbook: "Why wait for Heaven?"
(W-pI.131.6:1;W-pI.188.1:1)*
