Lesson 57. Today let us review these ideas:
1. I am not the victim of the world I see.
How can I be the victim of a world that can be completely undone if I so choose?
My chains are loosened. I can drop them off merely by desiring to do so. The
prison door is open. I can leave simply by walking out. Nothing holds me in this
world. Only my wish to stay keeps me a prisoner. I would give up my insane
wishes and walk into the sunlight at last.
2. I have invented the world I see.
I made up the prison in which I see myself. All I need do is recognize this and
I am free. I have deluded myself into believing it is possible to imprison the
Son of God. I was bitterly mistaken in this belief, which I no longer want. The
Son of God must be forever free. He is as God created him, and not what I would
make of him. He is where God would have him be, and not where I thought to hold
him prisoner.
3. There is another way of looking at the world.
Since the purpose of the world is not the one I ascribed to it, there must be
another way of looking at it. I see everything upside down, and my thoughts are
the opposite of truth. I see the world as a prison for God's Son. It must be,
then, that the world is really a place where he can be set free. I would look
upon the world as it is, and see it as a place where the Son of God finds his
freedom.
4. I could see peace instead of this.
When I see the world as a place of freedom, I realize that it reflects the laws
of God instead of the rules I made up for it to obey. I will understand that
peace, not war, abides in it. And I will perceive that peace also abides in the
hearts of all who share this place with me.
5. My mind is part of God's.
I am very holy. As I share the peace of the world with my brothers, I begin to
understand that this peace comes from deep within myself. The world I look upon
has taken on the light of my forgiveness, and shines forgiveness back at me. In
this light I begin to see what my illusions about myself kept hidden. I begin to
understand the holiness of all living things, including myself, and their
oneness with me.
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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
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1. (31) "I am not the victim of the world I see."
(1:2-9) "How can I be the victim of a world that can be completely undone if I
so choose? My chains are loosened. I can drop them off merely by desiring to do
so. The prison door is open. I can leave simply by walking out. Nothing holds me
in this world. Only my wish to stay keeps me a prisoner. I would give up my
insane wishes and walk into the sunlight at last."
*We find this compelling because we feel we are victims. If this is a world we
made, which is what Jesus has been teaching us from the beginning, the world is
not the problem. <The fact that we made it is the problem> -- "How can [we] be
the victim of a world that can be completely undone if [we] so choose?"
We have to be willing to admit we have been wrong about everything. What makes
us believe we are right is our experience of being victimized by everything
else. Remember, the "everything else" is not only others' bodies, but our own as
well. The body is exclusively outside the mind, the source of our true identity.
The analogy to a prisoner walking into the sunlight refers to Plato's famous
Allegory of the Cave in <The Republic>. It is worth summarizing -- albeit
briefly -- as Jesus makes more specific references to it in the text. The
allegory is set in a cave, where prisoners are chained in such a fashion that
they can see only the interior wall of the cave, unknowing of the opening behind
them, through which streams the sun's rays, casting shadows onto the wall, of
the passers-by along the road that runs past the mouth of the cave. Thus the
prisoners believe that the shadows are the reality, since they know of nothing
else. One of the prisoners (representing Plato's esteemed teacher Socrates) is
freed and, turning around and making his way to the light, begins to understand
the difference between appearance and reality. Returning to teach his companions
the truth, he frees them, only to meet with murder at the hands of those still
fearful of truth's light. Here, then, are the two specific references in the
text:
"Prisoners bound with heavy chains for years, starved and emaciated, weak
and exhausted, and with eyes so long cast down in darkness they remember not the
light, do not leap up in joy the instant they are made free. It takes a while
for them to understand what freedom is."
(T-20.III.9:1-2).
"Eyes become used to darkness, and the light of brilliant day seems painful
to the eyes grown long accustomed to the dim effects perceived at twilight. And
they turn away from sunlight and the clarity it brings to what they look upon.
Dimness seems better; easier to see, and better recognized. Somehow the vague
and more obscure seems easier to look upon; less painful to the eyes than what
is wholly clear and unambiguous. Yet this is not what eyes are for, and who can
say that he prefers the darkness and maintain he wants to see?" (T-25.VI.2)
Thus we recognize we have been our own jailors, and now can make the only
sensible decision available to us: leave the darkness for the light. Our chains
of guilt and attack were simply the unwillingness to open our eyes and <see>,
and now we choose vision. The next paragraph repeats the lesson:*
(2:1) (32) "I have invented the world I see."
(2:2-3)"I made up the prison in which I see myself. All I need do is recognize
this and I am free."
*That is why Jesus keeps saying this is a simple course. All we need do is
realize we made this up; that the world is an hallucination (T-20.VIII.7) --
everything we think is hurting us is not true. The key to unlocking this
illusory prison of darkness has always been in our minds. Now at last we have
teacher and path that help us realize this joyous fact is indeed so.*
(2:4-8) "I have deluded myself into believing it is possible to imprison the Son
of God. I was bitterly mistaken in this belief, which I no longer want. The Son
of God must be forever free. He is as God created him, and not what I would make
of him. He is where God would have him be, and not where I thought to hold him
prisoner."
*This is a theme that becomes prominent later in the workbook: Lessons
94,110,162, and Review VI. If we are as God created us, everything the ego and
its world have taught us is false. Their "light" deceived us, and once we
recognize it was <self>-deceiving we can do something about it by choosing
differently, leaving the world of darkness forever and returning the world of
light -- "where God would have us be" -- to our awareness.*
(3:1) (33) "There is another way of looking at the world."
(3:2-3) "Since the purpose of the world is not the one I ascribed to it, there
must be another way of looking at it. I see everything upside down, and my
thoughts are the opposite of truth."
*In order to be able to look at the world "another way: a key statement in A
Course in Miracles, we need the humility to admit we are wrong. It is always
helpful to be vigilant, to realize how stubbornly we insist we are right, not
only in the blatant ways of believing the separation is real, but in the subtle
and everyday ways of being so certain our perceptions of others are correct.*
(3:4-6)"I see the world as a prison for God's Son. It must be, then, that the
world is really a place where he can be set free. I would look upon the world as
it is, and see it as a place where the Son of God finds his freedom."
*Clearly the reference here is not to the world itself, but to our <perceptions>
of the world; and even more to the point, the <purpose> we have
given it. If we have given the world the purpose of imprisoning us, it will do
so. If, on the other hand, we have given it the purpose of forgiveness and
release; we are free. We shall return to this important theme presently. For now
we can remember that the shift in purpose entails a shift in teachers, therein
shifting our perception of the world from a prison of guilt to a classroom of
forgiveness.*
(4:1) (34) "I could see peace instead of this."
(4:2-4) "When I see the world as a place of freedom, I realize that it reflects
the laws of God instead of the rules I made up for it to obey. I will understand
that peace, not war, abides in it. And I will perceive that peace also abides in
the hearts of all who share this place with me."
*This refers to the real world, which we shall discuss in much greater depth
later. Suffice it to say for now that it reflects the oneness of reality by
enabling us to see all members of the Sonship -- <without exception> -- as
sharing the common goal of leaving the prison house of war for the place of
peace that abides in <all> people. Thus we shift our purpose from guilt to
peace, imprisonment to freedom.*
(5:1-2) (35) "My mind is part of God's. I am very holy."
(5:3-5) "As I share the peace of the world with my brothers, I begin to
understand that this peace comes from deep within myself. The world I look upon
has taken on the light of my forgiveness, and shines forgiveness back at me. In
this light I begin to see what my illusions about myself kept hidden."
*This is also another important theme, especially in the manual (e.g.,
M.-in.1-3). Teaching others is how we learn. The more I let go of my grievances
against you, teaching there is another way of thinking, the more I reinforce
that idea in myself. In this light of forgiveness I see what my illusions kept
hidden. As we have seen, forgiveness consists of joining with Jesus, our
together holding the lamp that shines in the darkness of our minds, exposing the
ego's illusions to the light of truth (T-11.V.1). Forgiveness lifts the veils of
the ego's defensive system, allowing us to see the love that is really there. By
withdrawing the projections of guilt's darkness from you, I reflect the
willingness to withdraw my investment in the darkness in me. Thus do illusions
give way to the light of truth, and peace dawns upon a mind that had heretofore
believed in conflict.*
(5:6) "I begin to understand the holiness of all living things, including
myself, and their oneness with me."
*This is what lies underneath the ego's belief we are children of separation,
specialness, guilt, and fear. It is this constellation of unholiness as children
of love; a holiness shared by <all> "living things," including ourselves. We can
therefore equate unholiness with separation, and holiness with oneness.*
