Morning!
“Light shall be my guide today. I will follow it where it leads me, and I will look only on what it shows me. This day I will experience the peace of true perception.”
This feels like a prayer to me, it’s just lovely. Also, I love one of the three suggested practices of Lesson 73’s review which is “You stand with me in light, (name).”
Ken writes on this practice:
“Those we had condemned to hell join as one Son, along with us, together awakening from the dream of death. All this is necessary for this happy recognition to occur is the willingness to look at the ego’s lies for what they are, choosing instead to believe the truth Jesus has always held out for us, patiently waiting our acceptance.”
Gosh, I am compelled to share his thoughts on the third suggested practice for this lesson’s review which is “In the light this will look different.”
He writes:
“In Lesson 193, Jesus says, “Forgive, and you (I) will see this differently: (W-pI.193.3:7). When I let him be my eyes, the external situation does not change, but the way I perceive it does. Rather than seeing the situation as a way of proving I am right and Jesus is wrong, that differences are real and sin rests in you and not in me, I realize that together we share the purpose of awakening from the dream. Again this shift has nothing to do with what is external, but only with what is in our minds.”
I will not robotically practice “You stand with me in light, (name)”. I will simply observe where my mind goes into attack mode, stop, maybe take a few deep breaths and decide I want the light more than the darkness and then, yes, I acknowledge that whomever I have targeted to attack, I can choose to see him/her or even me in light! Often it is myself I would love to choose, more often, to see differently, to see through the eyes of Jesus.
I just have to share what Ken writes in response to the second lesson’s review, Lesson 74, (3:5-6):
“On the practical level this means that what has not occurred is that you hurt me, for the truth is I have hurt me. In the perceptual world, you may indeed have said or done something unkind but I am upset because I want you to hurt me, accusing you of sin instead of me. In that sense, I forgive you for what you have not done. Only as I progress up the ladder do I realize this is a dream that is not actually occurring at all.”
In response to the three suggested practices, Ken writes:
“Since there is no hierarchy of illusions, all situations are the same, for they share the wrong-minded purpose of separation as well as the right-minded one of forgiveness. This unanimity of purpose unites us all: unseparated and undivided – one in illusion and one in truth.”
As I typed, “but I am upset because I want you to hurt me,” I did say to myself, “OUCH, OUCH, OUCH!”, however having studied ACIM for a while, I know that is true. When I have chosen to see B., husband, as my nemesis, of course I have wanted to perceive myself being hurt so I can project onto him my own sense of sinfulness. This way I have chosen martyrdom, self-sacrifice and misery so I can continue aligning with the ego thought system…and DON’T EVEN REALIZE IT!
Ah, but I no longer have to be victimized by my OWN thoughts, my OWN way of perceiving, my OWN manner of interpretation, do I?
I can choose differently in every moment.
The review of today’s lessons are excellent material for practicing seeing with the Vision of Christ.
Love to all,
Gayle
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