Lesson 35. My mind is part of God's. I am very holy.Today's idea does not describe the way you see yourself now. It does, however,describe what vision will show you. It is difficult for anyone who thinks he isin this world to believe this of himself. Yet the reason he thinks he is in thisworld is because he does not believe it.You will believe that you are part of where you think you are. That is becauseyou surround yourself with the environment you want. And you want it to protectthe image of yourself that you have made. The image is part of this environment.What you see while you believe you are in it is seen through the eyes of theimage. This is not vision. Images cannot see.The idea for today presents a very different view of yourself. By establishingyour Source it establishes your Identity, and it describes you as you mustreally be in truth. We will use a somewhat different kind of application fortoday's idea because the emphasis for today is on the perceiver, rather than onwhat he perceives.For each of the three five-minute practice periods today, begin by repeatingtoday's idea to yourself, and then close your eyes and search your mind for thevarious kinds of descriptive terms in which you see yourself. Include all theego-based attributes which you ascribe to yourself, positive or negative,desirable or undesirable, grandiose or debased. All of them are equally unreal,because you do not look upon yourself through the eyes of holiness.In the earlier part of the mind-searching period, you will probably emphasizewhat you consider to be the more negative aspects of your perception ofyourself. Toward the latter part of the exercise period, however, moreself-inflating descriptive terms may well cross your mind. Try to recognize thatthe direction of your fantasies about yourself does not matter. Illusions haveno direction in reality. They are merely not true.A suitable unselected list for applying the idea for today might be as follows:I see myself as imposed on. I see myself as depressed.I see myself as failing.I see myself as endangered.I see myself as helpless.I see myself as victorious.I see myself as losing out.I see myself as charitable.I see myself as virtuous.<You should not think of these terms in an abstract way. They will occur to youas various situations, personalities and events in which you figure cross yourmind. Pick up any specific situation that occurs to you, identify thedescriptive term or terms you feel are applicable to your reactions to thatsituation, and use them in applying today's idea. After you have named each one,add:But my mind is part of God's. I am very holy.< During the longer exercise periods, there will probably be intervals in whichnothing specific occurs to you. Do not strain to think up specific things tofill the interval, but merely relax and repeat today's idea slowly untilsomething occurs to you. Although nothing that does occur should be omitted fromthe exercises, nothing should be "dug out" with effort. Neither force nordiscrimination should be used.As often as possible during the day, pick up a specific attribute or attributesyou are ascribing to yourself at the time and apply the idea for today to them,adding the idea in the form stated above to each of them. If nothing particularoccurs to you, merely repeat the idea to yourself, with closed eyes.~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~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 35. "My mind is part of God's. I am very holy."*As noted at the end of the last lesson, Jesus continues his shift to aright-minded emphasis. He begins instructing us on what is found in the <other>part of our minds. Everyone should have trouble believing this, as Jesus himselfsays in the lesson. If you really knew that you were part of God, and thereforeyour mind was very holy, you would have no thoughts of separation andspecialness. In fact, you would know you were not here at all. Thus, that youare here -- or better: that you <believe> you are here -- says your mind is notpart of God's, and therefore you could not be holy.In this lesson, and increasingly so for the next fifteen, Jesus helps us realizethere is another part of us -- what is known in the early part of the text asthe <right mind.> This part, through the Holy Spirit is still connected with theholiness of God that has never changed, despite our unholy dreams of guilt andjudgment.*(1:1-3) "Today's idea does not describe the way you see yourself now. It does,however, describe what vision will show you. It is difficult for anyone whothinks he is in this world to believe this of himself."*Jesus is letting us know that he knows this is not how we see ourselves, and hedoes not expect us to believe what he says about us. His purpose is to <begin>the process of teaching us there is a true alternative in our minds. He does notwant this to be used as a mantra that we repeat over and over throughout the dayto shout down our unloving thoughts. Rather, in keeping with our training, hewants us to bring our unloving thoughts to this loving thought. These unlovingthoughts involve some expression of our belief that we are unholy or sinful.Thus would we rise to our new way of understanding, which is that there isanother way of not only <looking> at ourselves, but another way of <thinking>about ourselves. When we bring the darkness of our unholy, illusory thoughts tothe light of the holy and true thought, the light dispels the darkness.*(1:4) "Yet the reason he thinks he is in this world is because he does notbelieve it."*This is the point I was just making. Because we do not believe we are part ofGod, we must believe we are in this world. Living here as a separated being --physically and psychologically -- among other separated beings is the shadow ofthe thought that says: I am on my own, separate from God. Again, the very factthat we believe we are here as bodies attests to the underlying belief that weare separated, and therefore do not believe our minds are part of God's and areholy. This lesson, then, reflects the principle of the Atonement -- the beliefthat although we <think> we have left God, in truth the separation neverhappened. Therefore, I truly am part of God, and thus very holy.*(2:1-2) "You will believe that you are part of where you think you are. That isbecause you surround yourself with the environment you want."*We believe we are in this world, and part of it as a separate body, livingamong other separate bodies. On the ontological level, as one separated Son wemade an environment that maintains separation, and then forgot we had done so,following the ego's plan for <its> salvation. As a result, we now believe theworld is real, and we are part of it. On an individual level, if, as discussedpreviously, we want to feel unfairly treated, what better way to accomplish thatthan always to be around those who treat us unfairly? Whether they do or do not,we shall perceive them that way. As Jesus reminds us in this paraphrasedstatement from the text, a wonderful line we have already quoted: If weexperience our brother as not speaking of Christ to us, it is <only> because wehave first accused ourselves of having not spoken of Christ to him(T-11.V.!8:6). We thus wind up thoroughly convinced our perceptions ofvictimization are valid.*(2:3) "And you want it [ the environment of a separated world ] to protect theimage of yourself that you have made."*Again, this is an unmistakable causal statement. We have made up a physicalworld of separation to protect the image of ourselves as separate beings. Thatis why it should be clear that Jesus is never talking about changing or savingthe world -- <there is no world>. He speaks only of saving ourselves from theself-image we made: the sinful, guilty, fragmented, image of fear we harborwithin. It is our <wish> to be separate that is the cause of the separatedworld. Therefore, it is that wish we must change if true peace is to come tous.*(2:4-7) "The image is part of this environment. What you see while you believeyou are in it is seen through the eyes of the image. This is not vision. Imagescannot see."*What is the image? I am limited, fragmented, separated, independent, andautonomous. The world's nature, and <all> that it is, is the protection of thatimage. Everyone in this world is alone, which is why specialness is such apowerful defense. One of our needs is to have people be with us so we do notexperience the pain and loneliness that inevitably comes with being part of thisworld, living in a place outside of Heaven, our true Home.This paragraph is quite significant and should be carefully studied. The thoughtsystem of A Course in Miracles -- its metaphysics, the thought system of the egoand its undoing through forgiveness -- all can be recognized in these passages.*(3:1-2) "The idea for today presents a very different view of yourself. Byestablishing your Source it establishes your Identity, and it describes you asyou must really be in truth."*In other words, I am part of God and very holy. That is why <Source> and<Identity> are capitalized: Jesus is talking about God and the Christ that isour true Self.Jesus turns now to perceiver, rather than to what he perceives. Indeed, at thispoint Jesus is not interested in what we perceive outside, but only in what we<think>: *(3:3) "We will use a somewhat different kind of application for today's ideabecause the emphasis for today is on the perceiver, rather than on what heperceives."*We can better understand the overriding emphasis in these early lessons onsearching our minds, since it is our minds -- the true <perceiver> -- that needscorrection. Thus we read:*(4) "For each of the three five-minute practice periods today, begin byrepeating today's idea to yourself, and then close your eyes and search yourmind for the various kinds of descriptive terms in which you see yourself.Include all the ego-based attributes which you ascribe to yourself, positive ornegative, desirable or undesirable, grandiose or debased. All of them areequally unreal, because you do not look upon yourself through the eyes ofholiness."*What we find within our minds are the multitudinous forms of the <one> error,the <one> illusory thought of separation. In other words, as I said earlier,once you identify with the ego's separated self, everything you think, believe,feel, perceive, and experience will be wrong. Whether it is noble, beautiful.holy, and good, or simply terrible, it will be wrong because it will have beenbased on specialness and separation.*(5) "In the earlier part of the mind-searching period, you will probablyemphasize what you consider to be the more negative aspects of your perceptionof yourself. Toward the latter part of the exercise period, however, moreself-inflating descriptive terms may well cross your mind. Try to recognize thatthe direction of your fantasies about yourself does not matter. Illusions haveno direction in reality. They are merely not true."*Jesus is cautioning us not to take too seriously the fact that we shall mostlikely only be recognizing the negative thoughts within, even though <both>positive and negative thoughts are illusory. He obviously cannot emphasizeenough that it does not matter whether these thoughts are one or the other. Aslong as you believe you have a self that is positive or negative, that canrelate positively or negatively to other people, you will be wrong aboutyourself and whatever you think is going on. Separate selves are not holy. Theone Self united with God <is> holy, and beyond all concepts (T-31.V). Insubsequent lessons Jesus talks more and more about our true Self. Rememberagain, we cannot get to the true Self without first looking at the false one.That is why the early workbook lessons focused on our <misthoughts> and<misperceptions>. The correction for these mistakes is realizing there isanother way of looking at the world; another way of looking at ourselves.The next paragraph provides a suggested list for us to follow. Of the ninetraits listed, three are positive -- <victorious, charitable>, and <virtuous> --while six are negative -- <imposed on, depressed, failing, endangered,helpless>, and <losing out>. Again, for purposes of this exercise the categorymakes no difference.Paragraph 7 urges us to be <specific> as the steppingstone to achieving the mindstate of the <non-specific> -- <the> trait of our real Self.*(7) "You should not think of these terms in an abstract way. They will occur toyou as various situations, personalities and events in which you figure crossyour mind. Pick up any specific situation that occurs to you, identify thedescriptive term or terms you feel are applicable to your reactions to thatsituation, and use them in applying today's idea. After you have named each one,add:But my mind is part of God's. I am very holy."*Focusing on the specific, once again, is the prerequisite for achieving thenon-specific. It is also an essential part of our training in not denying ourthoughts, feelings, and perceptions. The darkness of guilt cannot be brought tolight and undone unless we first look at its specific manifestations, thedoor-way through which we return to our thoughts.The next paragraph sees Jesus returning to his gentle urgings that we be gentlewith ourselves in these exercises. It is a useful guideline to remember thatwhenever we experience a sense of urgency or intimation of force coming from"the other side," we should recognize immediately that this the ego guiding us.Jesus and the Holy Spirit are <only> gentle and patient, knowing that time isillusory. Only an impatient ego, uncertain of the outcome, would apply pressure.We experience Jesus' gentle teaching about gentleness in this passage from thetext:"The Voice of the Holy Spirit does not command, because it is incapable ofarrogance. It does not demand, because It does not seek control. It does notovercome, because It does not attack. It merely reminds. It is compelling onlybecause of what it reminds you of. It brings to your mind the other way,remaining quiet even in the midst of the turmoil you may make. The Voice for Godis always quiet, because It speaks of peace. Peace is stronger than war becauseit heals." (T-5.II.7:1-8).Here, then is the gentle eighth paragraph:*(8) "During the longer exercise periods, there will probably be intervals inwhich nothing specific occurs to you. Do not strain to think up specific thingsto fill the interval, but merely relax and repeat today's idea slowly untilsomething occurs to you. Although nothing that does occur should be omitted fromthe exercises, nothing should be "dug out" with effort. Neither force nordiscrimination should be used."*Gentleness always wins against force, since it reflects the inner strength ofChrist. Force, on the other hand, is the shadowy expression of the ego'sinherent weakness. Thus we read about this fourth characteristic of God'sadvanced teachers:"....God's teachers are wholly gentle. They need the strength of gentleness,for it is in this that the function of salvation becomes easy. ... Who wouldchoose the weakness that must come from harm in place of the unfailing,all-encompassing and limitless strength of gentleness? The might of God'steachers lies in their gentleness." (M-4.IV.2:1-2,7-8).*(9) "As often as possible during the day, pick up a specific attribute orattributes you are ascribing to yourself at the time and apply the idea fortoday to them, adding the idea in the form stated above to each of them. Ifnothing particular occurs to you, merely repeat the idea to yourself, withclosed eyes."*To repeat an earlier point, make every effort to be vigilant throughout the dayfor ego thoughts, but also mindful of the need to forgive yourself when youremember you have forgotten.*
Love and Blessings,
Lyn Johnson 719-369-1822
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