Lesson 36. My holiness envelops everything I see.Today's idea extends the idea for yesterday from the perceiver to the perceived.You are holy because your mind is part of God's. And because you are holy, yoursight must be holy as well. "Sinless" means without sin. You cannot be withoutsin a little. You are sinless or not. If your mind is part of God's you must besinless, or a part of His Mind would be sinful. Your sight is related to HisHoliness, not to your ego, and therefore not to your body.Four three-to-five-minute practice periods are required for today. Try todistribute them fairly evenly, and make the shorter applications frequently, toprotect your protection throughout the day. The longer practice periods shouldtake this form:First, close your eyes and repeat the idea for today several times, slowly. Thenopen your eyes and look quite slowly about you, applying the idea specificallyto whatever you note in your casual survey. Say, for example:My holiness envelops that rug. My holiness envelops that wall.My holiness envelops these fingers.My holiness envelops that chair.My holiness envelops that body.My holiness envelops this pen.<Several times during these practice periods, close your eyes and repeat the ideato yourself. Then open your eyes, and continue as before.For the shorter exercise periods, close your eyes and repeat the idea; lookabout you as you repeat it again; and conclude with one more repetition withyour eyes closed. All applications should, of course, be made quite slowly, aseffortlessly and unhurriedly as possible.~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~The commentary on this lesson (below) is from Kenneth Wapnick's eight volumeseries of books, called: "Journey Through the Workbook of A Course in Miracles,"which can be purchased at the following site:??~ M. Street~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Lesson 36. "My holiness envelops everything I see."*This lesson along with the next few are extremely important, as they explorethe theme of our holiness. In so doing, they provide the obvious correction ofthe ego's wrong-minded thinking, which we have been discussing a great deal.They also clarify what Jesus means and does not mean by <holiness>. Anothersignificant but unfortunate aspect of these lessons is that many students of ACourse in Miracles have taken their inspiring message and run the wrong way withthem, totally misunderstanding Jesus' teaching. I shall therefore explore thatidea, among other important themes as we go along.*(1:1) "Today's idea extends the idea for yesterday from the perceiver to theperceived."*In the preceding lesson -- "My mind is part of God's. I am very holy" -- we haddiscussed the relationship between our inner world and what we perceive to beoutside. The lesson now shifts the focus from the perceiver, namely ourthoughts, to what we perceive outside. This is not really a shift, because theinner and outer are one and the same. What we see within, which really meanswhat we <think> about ourselves, is exactly what we believe we see outside. Aswe discussed already, our <perception> does not mean simply <what> we see (orhear, etc.), but our <interpretation> of what we perceive. As always, the focusis on the <content> -- what is in the mind -- and never the <form> -- part ofphysical world.*(1:2-3) "You are holy because your mind is part of God's. And because you areholy, your sight must be holy as well."*The implication of this statement is that if we are holy within, what weperceive must be holy as well. If what we perceive is not holy -- i.e., if weperceive anything other than an expression of love or a call for love -- we didnot first perceive ourselves as holy. We can thus tell whether we have chosen toidentify with the ego or the Holy Spirit by paying attention to our perceptions;what we perceive will always be a direct mirror of what we have made real insideourselves. An important passage in the text explains this:"Damnation is your judgment on yourself, and this you will project upon theworld. See it as damned, and all you see is what you did to hurt the Son of God.If you behold disaster and catastrophe, you tried to crucify him. If you seeholiness and hope, you joined the Will of God to set him free. There is nochoice that lies between these two decisions. And you will see the witness tothe choice you made, and learn from this to recognize which one you chose."(T.21.In.2.1-6)That is why it is so important we be vigilant about our thoughts. If we areaware of our thoughts about people <outside> us, they will reveal to us thethoughts with which we have identified <within>; our special relationships arethus at the core of healing our minds through forgiveness. If you want to knowwhat is in the camera after you have used it, develop the film and look at thephotos. That will tell whether or not you took a good picture. The purpose of ACourse in Miracles can therefore be seen, in this context, as having usrecognize that our perceptions directly mirror what we have chosen within. Onlythen, can we choose again.*(1:4-6) "Sinless" means without sin. You cannot be without sin a little. You aresinless or not."*This is another example of what we have referred to as a Level One statement,meaning that something either is wholly true or wholly false; there isabsolutely no compromise between non-duality and duality. Statements such asthese form the bedrock for the thought system of A Course in Miracles: itsuncompromising metaphysics. We either sinned against God by separating from Him;or we did not, thus remaining as God created us -- at one with Him Who is ourSource.*(1:7) "If your mind is part of God's you must be sinless, or a part of His Mindwould be sinful."*The logic here is compelling, and if you accept the basic premise that God isperfect holiness, and anything that comes from Him -- i.e., is a part of Him --must share in that holiness, it must follow that anything appearing to be sinfulor unholy cannot be part of God, and therefore cannot exist. That is why, fromthe point of view of A Course in Miracles, there can be no evil. If there were,it would mean a part of God must be evil as well. This is another example of theCourse's radical metaphysical stance.*(1:8) "Your sight is related to His Holiness, not to your ego, and therefore notto your body."*We have briefly explored this theme of our having a split mind, and it willcome up again and again. There is the ego part of our minds, but there is theother part that is holy. The implication to be drawn comes from the last part ofthe statement is that our body comes from the wrong mind, not the right mind. Ihave often said that no one in his or her right mind would be born into thisworld. It is only someone from the wrong mind, fleeing from the perceived wrathof God, who would come here. This does not mean the body cannot be used to servea different purpose, as we have already seen and shall discuss again; butontologically, the body is an expression of separation, sin, and attack. Itspurpose of protecting the separation defines it. Likewise, the dynamic of<protection> can serve a different purpose, as we see in the next paragraphwhere the phrase "protect your protection" is noteworthy.*(2:1-2) "Four three-to-five-minute practice periods are required for today. Tryto distribute them fairly evenly, and make the shorter applications frequently,to protect your protection throughout the day."*The "protection" is the thought for the day: "My holiness envelopes everythingI see." In a larger sense, of course, our protection is the Presence of the HolySpirit or Jesus. We have seen the parallel between this and what Jesus refers toin the text as the third lesson of the Holy Spirit: "<Be vigilant only for Godand His Kingdom.>" (T-6.V-C). This means to be vigilant <against> our decisionto choose the ego thought system. To "protect the protection" requires that webe vigilant to what we are thinking, which we do by being vigilant to what weare perceiving. If I want to know what I think about myself and God, all I needto do is devote one moment to what I think about <you>. That is because mythoughts about you -- whoever the object of my specialness is at any givenmoment -- will directly reflect how I think about God and myself. This is themeaning of "protecting the protection" carried out under the guidance of theHoly Spirit.The last two paragraphs deal with specific instructions for the practiceperiods, and emphasize the sequence of first going within -- < closing one'seye's > -- and then looking <quite slowly, as effortlessly and unhurriedly aspossible > -- at the specifics in the world around us. The idea, of course, isto have us first identify the holiness within -- the Holy Spirit's Presence inour right minds -- and then have it extend through us to embrace our perceptionsof what appear to be external to us. The full metaphysical implications of thislesson are perhaps still far from our experience, but these early exercises arethe steppingstones -- the aforementioned "little willingness" described inLesson 193 (13:7) -- that will bring us there. The instructions begin with thelast sentence of the second paragraph:*(2:3-3:2) "The longer practice periods should take this form:First, close your eyes and repeat the idea for today several times, slowly. Thenopen your eyes and look quite slowly about you, applying the idea specificallyto whatever you note in your casual survey."*Suggestions for objects we envelop in our holiness include, once again, theimportant and unimportant; to wit: <fingers, body, rug, wall, chair, and pen>.*(3:10-4:2) "Several times during these practice periods, close your eyes andrepeat the idea to yourself. Then open your eyes, and continue as before.For the shorter exercise periods, close your eyes and repeat the idea; lookabout you as you repeat it again; and conclude with one more repetition withyour eyes closed. All applications should, of course, be made quite slowly, aseffortlessly and unhurriedly as possible."*Slowly and gently -- "effortlessly and unhurriedly" -- we are being led alongsalvation's path that takes us from the world without to the world within, there
Love and Blessings,
Lyn Johnson 719-369-1822
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