Lesson 26. My attack thoughts are attacking my invulnerability.
It is surely obvious that if you can be attacked you are not invulnerable. You
see attack as a real threat. That is because you believe that you can really
attack. And what would have effects through you must also have effects on you.
It is this law that will ultimately save you, but you are misusing it now. You
must therefore learn how it can be used for your own best interests, rather than
against them.
Because your attack thoughts will be projected, you will fear attack. And if you
fear attack, you must believe that you are not invulnerable. Attack thoughts
therefore make you vulnerable in your own mind, which is where the attack
thoughts are. Attack thoughts and invulnerability cannot be accepted together.
They contradict each other.
The idea for today introduces the thought that you always attack yourself first.
If attack thoughts must entail the belief that you are vulnerable, their effect
is to weaken you in your own eyes. Thus they have attacked your perception of
yourself. And because you believe in them, you can no longer believe in
yourself. A false image of yourself has come to take the place of what you are.
Practice with today's idea will help you to understand that vulnerability or
invulnerability is the result of your own thoughts. Nothing except your thoughts
can attack you. Nothing except your thoughts can make you think you are
vulnerable. And nothing except your thoughts can prove to you this is not so.
Six practice periods are required in applying today's idea. A full two minutes
should be attempted for each of them, although the time may be reduced to a
minute if the discomfort is too great. Do not reduce it further.
The practice period should begin with repeating the idea for today, then closing
your eyes and reviewing the unresolved questions whose outcomes are causing you
concern. The concern may take the form of depression, worry, anger, a sense of
imposition, fear, foreboding or preoccupation. Any problem as yet unsettled that
tends to recur in your thoughts during the day is a suitable subject. You will
not be able to use very many for any one practice period, because a longer time
than usual should be spent with each one. Today's idea should be applied as
follows:
First, name the situation:
I am concerned about _______.
Then go over every possible outcome that has occurred to you in that connection
and which has caused you concern, referring to each one quite specifically,
saying:
I am afraid ______ will happen.
If you are doing the exercises properly, you should have some five or six
distressing possibilities available for each situation you use, and quite
possibly more. It is much more helpful to cover a few situations thoroughly than
to touch on a larger number. As the list of anticipated outcomes for each
situation continues, you will probably find some of them, especially those that
occur to you toward the end, less acceptable to you. Try, however, to treat them
all alike to whatever extent you can.
After you have named each outcome of which you are afraid, tell yourself:
That thought is an attack upon myself.
Conclude each practice period by repeating today's idea to yourself once more.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Lesson 26. "My attack thoughts are attacking my invulnerability."
*This is another crucial lesson and, as I indicated, takes our learning (and
practice) one step further. If I have attack thoughts, I must believe I am
vulnerable. If I believe I am vulnerable, I cannot be Christ because He is
invulnerable. If, as Jesus will repeatedly remind me, "I am as God created me,"
and if my reality is spirit, I must be one with everything and everyone.
Therefore, there is literally nothing and no one "out there" who could hurt me.
However, as long as I believe I can be hurt -- whether in my own body or through
someone else's -- I am attesting to my vulnerability. Moreover, in saying I am
vulnerable I am also saying that I am right in my self-evaluation and the Holy
Spirit is wrong.*
(1:1-3) "It is surely obvious that if you can be attacked you are not
invulnerable. You see attack as a real threat. That is because you believe that
you can really attack."
*The very fact that I am here is proving to me that I can really attack, because
I could only have gotten here by attacking God first. And I "know" I have
attacked first because I perceive attack all around me. The dynamic of
projection helps me to understand how this phenomenon of attack occurs:
<projection makes perception>-- what I perceive outside is the projection of
what I have made real inside, a point we shall pick up again:*
(1:4-6) "And what would have effects through you must also have effects on you.
It is this law that will ultimately save you, but you are misusing it now. You
must therefore learn how it can be used for your own best interests, rather than
against them."
*As we have seen several times in these early lessons, the inner and the outer
are one and the same. The thought of being attacked come from the same thought
system. We project out our ego thoughts, and then believe they are going to hurt
us in return. As Jesus teaches in the text, in the context of our needing to
project ("get rid of") conflict ("what we do not want"):
"... the idea that you can get rid of something you do not want by giving
it away. Giving it is how you keep it. The belief that by seeing it outside you
have excluded it from within is a complete distortion of the power of extension.
That is why those who project are vigilant for their own safety. They are afraid
that their projections will return and hurt them. Believing they have blotted
their projections from their own minds, they also believe their projections are
trying to creep back in." (T-7.VIII.3:6-11).
It is also true, as we have seen, that the Love of God we allow to come through
us in forgiveness will come back to us as well -- it is that Love we shall
perceive all around us; either expressions of it or calls for it.
The laws of projection and extension operate similarly, but with different
contents. That is why, early in the text, Jesus speaks of <projection>as the
"inappropriate use of extension" (T-2.I.1:7) -- it was the same law of the mind,
simply "misused," leading to miscreation instead of creation. This law will
ultimately save us in another sense as well, because it reflects that everything
is an illusion. What seems to be outside is an illusion because what seems to be
inside -- the ego thought system -- is an illusion. Recognizing this is the
ego's undoing.*
(2:1-2) "Because your attack thoughts will be projected, you will fear attack.
And if you fear attack, you must believe that you are not invulnerable."
*This is what proves that you are right and Jesus is wrong. Jesus asks: "Why are
you so upset? All of this is a dream? And we say to him: "What do you mean this
is all a dream? Look at how I have been attacked! Look at how I suffer and all
the pain I am feeling! Look at what other people are feeling -- <we are all
vulnerable!> Please do not tell me this is a dream." This is how we prove our
perceptions are correct. Our pain -- whether in others or in ourselves -- is
final proof that God is dead and we exist in His stead.*
(2:3-5) "Attack thoughts therefore make you vulnerable in your own mind, which
is where the attack thoughts are. Attack thoughts and invulnerability cannot be
accepted together. They contradict each other."
*If I perceive attack thoughts in you, it is only because I have first made them
real for myself, which I have done out of the wish to make my separation from
God -- the original attack -- real as well. It is only <after> that decision to
establish attack as real that my ego's plan calls for me to project them out,
thereby rendering me vulnerable to my perceived attack from others. It is clear
that these attack thoughts -- again, reflective of the separation from God and
hence from everyone else -- "cannot be accepted together" with our
invulnerability as God created us. This is yet another way of saying that God
and the ego are mutually exclusive. The dynamic of <dissociation> is what
enables us to maintain these contradictory beliefs in our minds, as the text
explains in these passages:
"The ego and the spirit do not know each other. The separated mind cannot
maintain the separation except by dissociating." (T-4.VI.4:1-2)
"Dissociation is a distorted process of thinking whereby two systems of
belief which cannot coexist are both maintained. If they are brought together,
their joint acceptance becomes impossible. But if one is kept in darkness from
the other, their separation seems to keep them both alive and equal in their
reality. Their joining thus becomes the source of fear, for if they meet,
acceptance must be withdrawn from one of them. You cannot have them both, for
each denies the other. Apart, this fact is lost from sight, for each in a
separate place can be endowed with firm belief." (T-14.VII.4:3-8) *
(3:1) "The idea for today introduces the thought that you always attack yourself
first."
*To repeat, if I perceive you attacking me and then react as if that were true,
it is only because I attacked first. This has nothing to do with behavior, for
the attack exists only in the mind. Today's idea is reflected well in an
incisive passage in the text: "If he speaks not of Christ to you, you spoke not
of Christ to him" (T-11.V.18:6). Projection is the ruling principle governing
how <we perceive> the world around us. Remember, perception is <interpretation>:
<how> we see, not <what> we see.
It cannot be said too often that in order to properly understand passages such
as these, the student must realize that Jesus is never talking about what people
are doing behaviorally, but only about our <perception> of what others are
doing. When you feel you have been attacked by another, you have <interpreted>
their behavior. This does not mean you do not see attack thoughts in other
people -- Jesus sees attack thoughts in all his students. It is in our judgments
that the attack thoughts are made real. Thus we read in the manual for teachers:
"Perhaps it will be helpful to remember that no one can be angry at a fact. It
is always an interpretation that gives rise to negative emotions, regardless of
their seeming justification by what appears as facts." (M.17.4:1-2)*
(3:2-5) "If attack thoughts must entail the belief that you are vulnerable,
their effect is to weaken you in your own eyes. Thus they have attacked your
perception of yourself. And because you believe in them, you can no longer
believe in yourself. A false image of yourself has come to take the place of
what you are."
*Having weakened ourselves in our own eyes (our vulnerability), we have once
again proven we are right and the Holy Spirit is wrong: we are the sons of the
ego instead of the Sons of God. We no longer believe we are the Christ, of which
the Holy Spirit is the reminder. We have replaced the truth of who we are with a
false image -- a special, unique, and individualized self. Again, it is our use
of <dissociation> that allows us to maintain two contradictory images of
ourselves: the truth of knowledge we have chosen to forget, and the illusion of
attack we choose to remember. These passages cogently describe this dynamic and
its undoing through the Holy Spirit:
"Unless you first know something you cannot dissociate it. Knowledge must
precede dissociation, so that dissociation is nothing more than a decision to
forget. ... Offer the Holy Spirit only your willingness to remember, for He
retains the knowledge of God and of yourself for you, waiting for your
acceptance. ... His Voice will tell you that you are part of Him when you are
willing to remember Him and know your own reality again. ... To remember is
merely to restore to your mind what is already there. You do not make what you
remember; you merely accept again what is already there, but was rejected."
"When you attack, you are denying yourself. ... Your denial of reality
precludes the acceptance of God's gift, because you have accepted something else
in its place.... this is always an attack on truth, and truth is God ... All
attack is Self attack. ... [and] is thus the way in which your identification is
lost, because when you attack, you must have forgotten what you are. And if your
reality is God's, when you attack you are not remembering Him. This is not
because He is gone, but because you are actively choosing not to remember Him."
(T-10.II.1.1-2;2;3,5;3:1-2;4:1,3-4;5:1,4-5).*
(4) "Practice with today's idea will help you to understand that vulnerability
or invulnerability is the result of your own thoughts. Nothing except your
thoughts can attack you. Nothing except your thoughts can make you think you are
vulnerable. And nothing except your thoughts can prove to you this is not so."
*The focus of our exercises is solely on our thoughts, the source of the problem
and its solution. Indeed, everything is thought, acceptance of which is the aim
of the workbook's mind training. These thoughts are not of a physical organ, the
brain, but of the mind, coming from identifying either with the ego or Jesus.
From these two thoughts or thought systems -- guilt or innocence -- arise a
world and our perception of the world. If you feel yourself attacked, you have
chosen the ego as your teacher and therefore believe you are vulnerable and
deserve attack. This has nothing to do with behavior; it has to do only with the
way you perceive the behavior. On the other hand, if we remember our
invulnerability as God's perfect creation, our perception of the world changes
accordingly. A passage near the end of the text succinctly expresses the
principle that <projection makes perception> (T-31.I.7-8).
"The lessons to be learned are only two. Each has its outcome in a different
world. And each world follows surely from its source. The certain outcome of the
lesson that God's Son is guilty is the world you see. It is a world of terror
and despair. Nor is there hope of happiness in it. ... Yet this is not the only
outcome which your learning can produce. ... The outcome of the lesson that
God's Son is guiltless is a world in which there is no fear, and everything is
lit with hope and sparkles with a gentle friendliness. Nothing but calls to you
in soft appeal to be your friend, and let it join with you."
(T-31.1.7:1-6,9;8:1-2).
The rest of the lesson presents an exercise and instructions with which we are
quite familiar by now. The focus, as always, is on our thoughts and feelings
that seem to upset us, looking at them as dispassionately as possible, and with
more than cursory attention. It is this thoughtful non-evaluation that allows us
to understand that these upsets <all> share the same underlying purpose of
keeping us from the Thought of Love, which our thoughts attempt to conceal. In
other words, all forms of upset reflect the hidden <content> of attacking
ourselves by denying Who we are as God's one Son.*
(5-7) "Six practice periods are required in applying today's idea. A full two
minutes should be attempted for each of them, although the time may be reduced
to a minute if the discomfort is too great. Do not reduce it further.
"The practice period should begin with repeating the idea for today, then
closing your eyes and reviewing the unresolved questions whose outcomes are
causing you concern. The concern may take the form of depression, worry, anger,
a sense of imposition, fear, foreboding or preoccupation. Any problem as yet
unsettled that tends to recur in your thoughts during the day is a suitable
subject. You will not be able to use very many for any one practice period,
because a longer time than usual should be spent with each one. Today's idea
should be applied as follows:
First, name the situation:
I am concerned about _______.
Then go over every possible outcome that has occurred to you in that connection
and which has caused you concern, referring to each one quite specifically,
saying:
I am afraid ______ will happen.
*This exercise reflects the ego's axiomatic principle: guilt demands punishment,
an outcome we justifiably fear. Our concerns of what will happen -- "the
unresolved questions whose outcome are causing you concern" -- inevitable lead
to fear of what will happen. We thus have no choice but to erect defenses
against these objects of our fear, predicated by our guilt. We shall return
later on to this important theme of defense.*
(8-9) "If you are doing the exercises properly, you should have some five or six
distressing possibilities available for each situation you use, and quite
possibly more. It is much more helpful to cover a few situations thoroughly than
to touch on a larger number. As the list of anticipated outcomes for each
situation continues, you will probably find some of them, especially those that
occur to you toward the end, less acceptable to you. Try, however, to treat them
all alike to whatever extent you can."
After you have named each outcome of which you are afraid, tell yourself:
That thought is an attack upon myself.
Conclude each practice period by repeating today's idea to yourself once more."
*This, of course, is the point. We bring the darkness of our illusions to the
light of Jesus' truth. The problem is <not> with the outcome we expect, but with
the underlying decision to attack ourselves by denying God. After these first
twenty-five lessons, you can see how -- step by step, lesson by lesson -- Jesus
is slowly and gently guiding us to the <specific> experience of the more
<abstract> teachings in the text.*
