(Lesson 51 Kenneth Wapnick – Journey through the workbook of ACIM)
The review for today covers the following ideas:
Before beginning, let me mention something that probably has eluded almost all students of A Course in Miracles, certainly the non-obsessive ones. Helen had insisted to Jesus that each of the one-sentence introductions to the day’s review be different. And you will surely be impressed to discover how many different ways Jesus can say that “the review for today covers the following ideas.”
(1) (1) NOTHING I SEE MEANS ANYTHING.
In these early lessons Jesus emphasizes that what we see does not mean anything because what we see comes from misthoughts of judgment and attack.
(1:2-5) THE REASON THIS IS SO IS THAT I SEE NOTHING, AND NOTHING HAS NO MEANING. IT IS NECESSARY THAT I RECOGNIZE THIS, THAT I MAY LEARN TO SEE. WHAT I THINK I SEE NOW IS TAKING THE PLACE OF VISION. I MUST LET IT GO BY REALIZING IT HAS NO MEANING, SO THAT VISION MAY TAKE ITS PLACE.
While Jesus does not use the term here, he points out to us that we have a split mind. We have the capacity of seeing through the vision of the Holy Spirit, but to ensure that that does not happen we cover those loving thoughts with thoughts of attack and separation. Indeed, we cannot achieve the goal of vision if we do not first recognize and understand the inherent illusory and meaningless nature of our perceptions. It is these misperceptions that we have deliberately chosen to take the place of vision, fulfilling the ego’s purpose of protecting itself – really, our separated self protecting its separate identity that prevents us from discovering the only meaning for being in this world: forgiveness.
(2) (2) I HAVE GIVEN WHAT I SEE ALL THE MEANING IT HAS FOR ME.
(2:2-4) I HAVE JUDGED EVERYTHING I LOOK UPON, AND IT IS THIS AND ONLY THIS I SEE. THIS IS NOT VISION. IT IS MERELY AN ILLUSION OF REALITY, BECAUSE MY JUDGMENTS HAVE BEEN MADE QUITE APART FROM REALITY.
This restates the teaching that the world we see is not there simply because it comes from our judgmental thoughts, which also are not there. Remember, every thought in the ego system is a defense against the truth of the Atonement principle, which is that we never left God. Everything we perceive is a shadowy fragment of the original judgment that we separated from our Source and reality, the fundamental illusion from which all others come.
(2:5-6) I AM WILLING TO RECOGNIZE THE LACK OF VALIDITY IN MY JUDGMENTS, BECAUSE I WANT TO SEE. MY JUDGMENTS HAVE HURT ME, AND I DO NOT WANT TO SEE ACCORDING TO THEM.
Jesus is appealing to our sane, rational minds to understand that what we are doing with our thoughts, and therefore with the perceived world, hurts us: “My judgments have hurt me.” The ego has set up its defensive system as a huge gap between our attack thoughts and the pain that is their effect. This gap is represented by the world of time and space, its purpose being to enable us to feel justified in attributing our pain to “things beyond [us], forces [we] cannot control” (T-19.IV-D.7 :4). That, of course, is the wonder of projection from the ego’s point of view. We wind up feeling assured that we are not responsible for the pain that results from our choosing against God and His Love: others, our bodies, or the world are the cause of our distress – anyone or anything but ourselves.
Thus the idea of these lessons is to bring the effect to the cause, so we can realize it is our judgments alone that have hurt us. In so doing we restore to awareness the power of our minds to decide our own destiny: happiness or misery, peace or conflict.
(3) (3) I DO NOT UNDERSTAND ANYTHING I SEE.
(3:2-4) HOW COULD I UNDERSTAND WHAT I SEE WHEN I HAVE JUDGED IT AMISS? WHAT I SEE IS THE PROJECTION OF MY OWN ERRORS OF THOUGHT. I DO NOT UNDERSTAND WHAT I SEE BECAUSE IT IS NOT UNDERSTANDABLE.
This is the beginning of humility. We are always so sure we are right: what I see is what I see, what I hear is what I hear, and my understanding of a situation is what I say it is because I say it is. If we are skillful enough, we get a multitude of people to agree with us. That is not sanity, but collective insanity! In French this is known as folie a deux: a delusion shared by two people. But it could just as easily be ten, hundreds, thousands, millions, if not billions, for we all share the same insanity. We therefore cannot truly understand anything, nor go to anyone else for true understanding. If at any point we feel specialness, judgment, or separation, we should not trust anything we conclude based on those feelings; we will inevitably be wrong.
(3:5-8 ) THERE IS NO SENSE IN TRYING TO UNDERSTAND IT. BUT THERE IS EVERY REASON TO LET IT GO, AND MAKE ROOM FOR WHAT CAN BE SEEN AND UNDERSTOOD AND LOVED. I CAN EXCHANGE WHAT I SEE NOW FOR THIS MERELY BY BEING WILLING TO DO SO. IS NOT THIS A BETTER CHOICE THAN THE ONE I MADE BEFORE?
The way in which we attain vision is by the simple willingness to do so. Over and over we see Jesus appealing to the power of our minds to choose: vision or judgment, happiness or misery, peace or pain. What makes it possible for us to choose differently is becoming aware that we do indeed have the power to make this choice, and this power resides in our minds, not in the world or body.
(4) (4) THESE THOUGHTS DO NOT MEAN ANYTHING.
(4:2) THE THOUGHTS OF WHICH I AM AWARE DO NOT MEAN ANYTHING BECAUSE I AM TRYING TO THINK WITHOUT GOD.
This is the bottom line. Representing God is the Holy Spirit, Jesus, or the thoughts of these lessons. If we are not thinking in harmony with these thoughts – i.e., if we are holding on to grievances, attack thoughts, or specialness needs in any way, shape, or form – we are not thinking, and anything that results from not thinking must also be nonexistent. Remember, cause and effect are never separate. Illusions can merely breed further illusions.
(4:3) WHAT I CALL “MY” THOUGHTS ARE NOT MY REAL THOUGHTS.
The reason is that they are “my” thoughts. Jesus wants us to learn that whenever we say “this is mine” or “this is me,” and whenever we speak of “my” thoughts, perceptions, or body, everything that follows will be wrong because it would be based upon separation and specialness. At the ontological beginning, the ego said to God: “This is mine. This is my self, not yours. I am no longer part of you and I am right!” This attitude is always wrong because the Sonship of God is one, and there can be no true distinction among the seemingly different Sons. The belief in personal possession or special identity is the cover for the impersonal and non-special Self that we share with all, as All.
(4:4-5) MY REAL THOUGHTS ARE THE THOUGHTS I THINK WITH GOD. I AM NOT AWARE OF THEM BECAUSE I HAVE MADE MY THOUGHTS TO TAKE THEIR PLACE.
Jesus repeatedly tells us we have made our own thoughts to replace the thoughts we think with God, and we have done so because we want to be an “I.” We cherish the first person singular and the first person possessive singular. It is not “our,” the ego tells us, but “mine.”
(4:6-8 ) I AM WILLING TO RECOGNIZE THAT MY THOUGHTS DO NOT MEAN ANYTHING, AND TO LET THEM GO. I CHOOSE TO HAVE THEM BE REPLACED BY WHAT THEY WERE INTENDED TO REPLACE. MY THOUGHTS ARE MEANINGLESS, BUT ALL CREATION LIES IN THE THOUGHTS I THINK WITH GOD.
Again, Jesus is reminding us that we have a choice, and he encourages us to make that choice to have our thoughts be replaced by God’s thoughts – His Son as He created Him.
(5) (5) I AM NEVER UPSET FOR THE REASON I THINK.
(5:2) I AM NEVER UPSET FOR THE REASON I THINK BECAUSE I AM CONSTANTLY TRYING TO JUSTIFY MY THOUGHTS.
Once we make the decision to be an individual and a first person possessive singular, we constantly try to justify that existence. This is the role of the face of innocence: It is not my fault, and I gather together as many people as possible to justify the perception of myself as a victim. This is never difficult to do, by the way, because the vastness of the world supplies an almost endless number of potential objects for our projections. Moreover, what makes it interesting is that we all seek to justify our face of innocence, thereby ensuring that we continue to exist as separated individuals but that others will be responsible for the sin. Therefore, it is they who will be punished for the sin that is no longer found in us.
(5:3-7) I AM CONSTANTLY TRYING TO MAKE THEM TRUE. I MAKE ALL THINGS MY ENEMIES, SO THAT MY ANGER IS JUSTIFIED AND MY ATTACKS ARE WARRANTED. I HAVE NOT REALIZED HOW MUCH I HAVE MISUSED EVERYTHING I SEE BY ASSIGNING THIS ROLE TO IT. I HAVE DONE THIS TO DEFEND A
THOUGHT SYSTEM THAT HAS HURT ME, AND THAT I NO LONGER WANT. I AM WILLING TO LET IT GO.
Students doing the workbook for the first time usually do not pay careful attention to what they are reading. However, if they continue studying A Course in Miracles over many years and read the workbook much more carefully, which I strongly recommend, they will be astounded at what Jesus is actually saying; statements such as we have just read being prime examples.
Jesus here is putting words in our mouths, hoping we shall keep them there: We are now deciding we are glad we were wrong, and even happier to realize there is someone else within us who is right. This involves letting go of our anger, judgments, and arrogance; our devotion to specialness; and ultimately our individuality. We need to withdraw our investment in using others as reinforcement for our defense of projection, putting them either in the category of special love or special hate – objects with whom we seem to join, or from whom we seem to separate. Either way, our ego’s need to demonstrate its innocence is fulfilled through attack and judgment, making others guilty of the sins we have projected onto them, magically hoping we can escape punishment through this insane and magical dynamic. Now we can happily say we choose otherwise.
(Note: This is the second of two posts for Lesson 51.)
