A Course in Miracles Workbook Daily Lesson 304, Year 2022

ACIM Daily Lesson 304 Let not my world obscure the sight of Christ. 1. I can obscure my holy sight, if I intrude my world upon it.

Lesson 304

Let not my world obscure the sight of Christ.

1. I can obscure my holy sight, if I intrude my world upon it. ²Nor can I behold the holy sights Christ looks upon, unless it is His vision that I use. ³Perception is a mirror, not a fact. ⁴And what I look on is my state of mind, reflected outward. ⁵I would bless the world by looking on it through the eyes of Christ. ⁶And I will look upon the certain signs that all my sins have been forgiven me.

2. You lead me from the darkness to the light; from sin to holiness. ²Let me forgive, and thus receive salvation for the world. ³It is Your gift, my Father, given me to offer to Your holy Son, that he may find again the memory of You, and of Your Son as You created him.

Where Will I Place My Awareness

With every thought, I decide where I want to place my awareness. Will I be aware of the illusory world of time, or will I be aware of the real world? It is up to me which I choose, but I cannot be aware of both at the same time. Here is what it feels like to me. When my thoughts are focused on the truth, for instance, when I am thinking about today’s lesson, I am at peace. When discussing a course I am taking with a mind-healing partner, I am happy.

Actually, unless I am thinking about something worrisome, I am happy and peaceful. I see that it is not really what I am doing that makes the difference. Instead, it is what I am thinking. I can be washing the dishes or watching a show on TV and still be in that happy, peaceful state. On the other hand, if I fret about someone suffering, this focuses me on the world of time. In that case, I lose my peace regardless of the activity.

What I have discovered is that this shift in focus doesn’t just happen.

In order for me to go from simply being in the present moment to worrying, I must make that decision. Once I realized that this was true, I was able to train myself to notice when it was happening and to make a different decision. I was greatly helped in this change when I read Rules for Decision.

Tips From Rules for Decision

In Chapter 30, Jesus tells us this about decisions. Decisions are continuous. ²You do not always know when you are making them. ³But with a little practice with the ones you recognize, a set begins to form which sees you through the rest. (ACIM, T-30.I.1:1-3) Notice it says that decisions are continuous, not frequent, but continuous.

Another helpful pointer from this section of the Course says that we never make decisions alone. It says this: ⁷You will not make decisions by yourself whatever you decide. ⁸For they are made with idols or with God. ⁹And you ask help of anti-Christ or Christ, and which you choose will join with you and tell you what to do. (ACIM, T-30.I.14:7-9)We make our decisions with the Holy Spirit or with ego. Another way to say this is we make the decision with our right mind or our wrong mind. This is the range from which we choose.

So, what I have done is first become attentive to my feelings.

This is so that I know where I am placing my awareness. Am I happy and peaceful? Or am I experiencing some other less joyful feeling? If I am not happy, it must be that I have turned to the ego for help in deciding what I want to believe. Maybe it is that I focused my attention on a possible unpleasant future outcome. I know I didn’t make this decision in union with the Holy Spirit. Thus, I know that I must have made the decision with the ego as my guide, as it must be one or the other. Fortunately, I can easily change my mind and choose the Holy Spirit as my advisor.

With consistent practice making decisions with the Holy Spirit rather than the ego, I have achieved a new level of peace. What’s more, this peace is a far more consistent state for me now. This is how I have learned not to obscure my holy sight by letting the sight of my world intrude upon it.  And when I make that mistake, I have learned to forgive this error and to do so quickly. In this way, I allow the Holy Spirit to lead me from the darkness to the light, from sin to holiness.

Here is what the journey looks like.

When I perceive a world through the ego mind, I have made a choice to do so and have done this because I want to. I want to obscure reality. Perhaps reality is frightening because it is so unknowable from where I am now. What I have become accustomed to is not great, but at least I know what to expect, and I have systems for dealing with the unexpected or the unwanted. They don’t always work, but they give me a sense of control, even if no actual control.

I think of it like this. I’m living in a world that gets scarier by the minute, and my life has been difficult but bearable. Something comes along that suggests a completely different scenario that promises to be more than I could hope for. It’s so different, and I’m asked to take on faith that it’s going to be better. Part of me wants to get on that train, but another part feels like the person in the scary movie creeping into the dark cellar to investigate a strange sound. You know what we are all saying to her: “Don’t go! You don’t know what’s down there, and it’s never a good thing.”

Thus, the conflicted mind and the reason I waver in my decision.

But Life has been patient, allowing me to move at my own pace, dipping my toe in, so to speak, before I take the plunge. I am given a path that suits my natural inclinations and conditioning and is comforting in that the symbols are familiar and trusted. I watch as others take the same path and see that they are, indeed, happier and more peaceful and nothing bad has happened to them.

The change that they have experienced is not so far removed from my reality that it frightens me. But I do understand now why we don’t all joyously jump on the train to salvation and why I still cling to the world at the same time I move to release it, and I am more compassionate to myself and others.

But I needed to confront my fear and couldn’t do so without seeing just how frightening the prospect of an uncertain reality was. There is no other way but forward now. To try to go back to total ignorance is the way to madness. I am meant to be on the path that I walk, and it will take me to the next level as well as any other path.

It sounds like I have no say in this and no control.

And from the perspective of the character experiencing this incarnation, that is somewhat true. But I am not that character, I am the unaffected Self, and I am in complete control. When I become entangled in the story, I feel helpless again, but I never stay there anymore, and when I come back to relative sanity, I know everything is as it needs to be, and I am safe.

Right now, I know my purpose in this incarnation. It is not to figure out what reality is. It is simply to forgive the crazy thoughts in my mind and accept Christ’s vision instead, thus seeing a world healed and sharing that vision with others. What I see may not be reality, but it is closer than the alternative and will bring me a step closer to what is real. When I get to that next step, I will confront an uncertain future again but perhaps more with anticipation than fear.

Jesus reminds me that what I perceive is not fact.

Rather, it is but a reflection of what I believe. How does this work in my life? Several years ago, I got a chance to look at my fear of heights. While visiting Regina Dawn Akers, we took a trip up a mountain. Here is what I saw. We drove up a twisty narrow dirt road. There were only a few inches between me and a very long drop. If someone came toward us from the other direction, there would be no place to go but backward, a thought that absolutely paralyzed me with fear. We would come upon a patch of snow, and I would envision us sliding over the side or, even worse, being unable to continue because the snow made the road impassable. In my mind, I was having a near-death experience just being on this road.

The only part of my experience I could call fact, and the only part we all shared, was that we were driving up the mountain on a narrow dirt road. All of the rest was perception. All the other people in the vehicle were having their own experience that was different from mine because it was based on their own perceptions. I know they were enjoying the drive because I heard them exclaiming over the beauty of it.

There were only two times in that long drive that I felt safe.

Twice we went through a stone tunnel created by a natural formation of rock. Interestingly enough, Jasmine hated this part of it. She found the darkness created by the tunnel to be frightening. This was the only part of the two-hour drive that felt safe because I was surrounded by sturdy rock and couldn’t fall off the mountain. I perceived the rock as safety, and she perceived it as a danger.

Jesus goes on to tell us the reason we perceive as we do.

“And what I look on is my state of mind, reflected outward.”

I am told that the ride up the mountain was beautiful, with many spectacular views. But I saw only danger because that was my state of mind. I was dwelling in fear, so what I saw was fearful. I was involved in a perfectly neutral event and gave it the meaning of being terrifying, while someone else gave it the meaning of being an exciting adventure in a beautiful place. The meaning we each gave it came from our state of mind. Our experience thus was a mirror of what we were thinking.

What do I believe? Well, what do I see?

What I see will always be a reliable reflection of my thoughts and beliefs. My experience of this ride helped me to be aware of my fear thoughts. I thought I had made great progress in letting go of my lifelong fear of heights, but I had not done so. I got to see that I still believe my body is a precious thing and that I still strongly identify it as myself and thus must protect it. It was a surprise that was true anymore, but when I looked at the mirror of my world, I saw that it was.

Jesus says: “I would bless the world by looking on it through the eyes of Christ.”

As frightening as the trip was, I am grateful to have made it. I see the value in knowing what I truly believe as opposed to saying what I think I should believe. I cannot experience healing from what I think is already healed or from what I am unaware of. The entire time we were driving up the mountain, I was using the sane part of my mind to work with the Holy Spirit. I asked Him to help me see this differently.

I knew there was another way to experience this event.

And I knew that I could look at it through the eyes of Christ if I could bring myself to let go of the fear. But I could also hear the voice of fear telling me that I was insane to look away from it. Fear said that I needed to give all my attention to it. I was given a brief insight into how the fear was claiming to protect me.

I thought for a moment of giving up the fear and that I could then drive up the mountain again and enjoy it. Fear thoughts of doing this again overwhelmed me, and I realized this was fear’s argument against seeing this differently. If I were to give up the fear I would put myself in danger again. It is crazy circular reasoning but typical ego thinking.

I was happy that I was able to remember my purpose as I made that trip up the mountain, but I was also disappointed that I was unable to let go of the fear and see through the eyes of Christ. In typical ego fashion, the voice said to hold onto your fear; it is all that protects you. Then it said, you could not let your fear go, you sinner. So I felt guilty as well as disappointed. But in this lesson, Jesus assures us that we are forgiven.

“And I will look upon the certain signs that all my sins have been forgiven me.”

I felt guilty for my seeming failure, but I also realized almost immediately that this was just more fear talk. It was not the truth. It seems I am still afraid of heights, but I also see the certain sign that this is not a sin. I see that throughout the entire experience, I remembered to ask for vision. Throughout the whole experience, I knew that what I saw was not the truth, even though I was reacting as if it were.

My “sin” was my error in thinking that made the fearful world of my experience. At one time, I would have accepted my fear as based on truth and inevitable. There would have been no recourse and no way out. But as I listened to the Voice for God, I was able to remember that correction was possible even if I did not fully accept correction at that time.

My decision to experience my fear with the Holy Spirit was a certain sign that I was forgiven; that is, my error was undone, and the correction waits for my acceptance. Every thought of discouragement is met with a certainty that all I need to do is continue as I have been, being willing to see clearly even when I am confused. And as I continue this work, I will see more and more certain signs that my sins are forgiven or, put another way, that my mistaken thoughts are undone.

Contemplation 2025

To enjoy the Pathways of Light Insights on ACIM Lesson 304 click here.

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