ACIM Lesson 325 All things I think I see reflect ideas.
This is salvation’s keynote: What I see reflects a process in my mind, which starts with my idea of what I want.
Salvations Keynote
ACIM Lesson 325
All things I think I see reflect ideas.
1. This is salvation’s keynote: What I see reflects a process in my mind, which starts with my idea of what I want. ²From there, the mind makes up an image of the thing the mind desires, judges valuable, and therefore seeks to find. ³These images are then projected outward, looked upon, esteemed as real and guarded as one’s own. ⁴From insane wishes comes an insane world. ⁵From judgment comes a world condemned. ⁶And from forgiving thoughts a gentle world comes forth, with mercy for the holy Son of God, to offer him a kindly home where he can rest a while before he journeys on, and help his brothers walk ahead with him, and find the way to Heaven and to God.
2. Our Father, Your ideas reflect the truth, and mine apart from Yours but make up dreams. ²Let me behold what only Yours reflect, for Yours and Yours alone establish truth.
The Process
This is one of my favorite lessons because it describes the process used to both make the world we see and to interpret it. It also reminds us that we can use this process to make a world that reflects creation. We do this as we choose God’s ideas rather than our own to dream upon. Every sentence in this lesson tells me something that I need to know so that I can dream a dream so close to reality that it brings me to the gates of Heaven.
The title says “all things I think I see” and right away we are reminded that our eyes don’t really see at all. Remember Lesson 15 which explains this point.
It is because the thoughts you think you think appear as images that you do not recognize them as nothing. ²You think you think them, and so you think you see them. ³This is how your “seeing” was made. ⁴This is the function you have given your body’s eyes. ⁵It is not seeing. ⁶It is image making. ⁷It takes the place of seeing, replacing vision with illusions.
This is salvation’s keynote
So what Jesus is going to tell us here is how we make the images the eyes show us. It is not creation but it is our experience right now and so it is important that we understand it. In fact, he calls this lesson salvation’s keynote. I wanted to fully understand this statement so I looked up keynote. A keynote in public speaking is a talk that establishes a main underlying theme. Another definition is the fundamental or central fact, idea. So clearly, we need to pay attention to this lesson.
What I see reflects a process in my mind
So how do we make these images we see? Well, it’s a process and it starts with an idea of what I want to experience. I’ve noticed that over the course of the last 72 years, there were recurring themes that I wanted to experience. I wasn’t aware of them for many years. And even when I became aware, I didn’t fully understand that I was choosing these experiences. In retrospect, though, it is very clear that I wanted to experience and learn from the idea of victimhood. Another recurring theme that is related to victimhood is the desire to feel unfairly treated. Both of these themes could be seen as falling under the umbrella of guilt.
At first, I explored them as a victim and my life was filled with guilt stories. I seemed to be victimized all through my life. I also was fully convinced that it was all being done to me and so it wasn’t fair. Even when I saw circumstances as the result of poor choices, I believed that others were responsible for this as well. It was the way I was raised, the things people caused me to think of myself, and other such nonsense. Eventually, through the work I have done as instructed in A Course in Miracles, I began to see the error in my thinking. I started using these experiences to undo these beliefs.
²From there, the mind makes up an image of the thing the mind desires
Once I have an idea of what I want, I think of an image that would represent that desire. If I want to explore the idea of victimhood, I would need an image to help me do that. Maybe I will be the victim of an unscrupulous contractor and he will cheat me out of my money. Or maybe I will be a liar and fail to live up to my obligations and thus be the victimizer. Maybe I will be the one who helps others recover from victimization. Perhaps I will be the one who teaches that it is not possible to be a victim. There are many ways in which we can look at the idea of victimhood.
Judges valuable, and therefore seeks to find.
It is interesting to me now to see so very clearly how we judge everything according to what it is we want to believe. I used to be so sure that I was a victim and I had all the proof. Now, I look on those incidents and see them as the classroom they were and I am grateful for time in them. I learned something important from each one.
Inevitably, my lessons led me to the place I am now where I cannot believe in victimhood at all under any circumstances. This is such a different way to think but it is a way that leads me to the peace of God. It leads me out of the world and into Heaven. The world continues with its stories, some of which seem pretty awful, but how I see those stories is different because my beliefs are now different. I don’t seek for awful; I seek for love and thus I find love. We will always find what we seek. Only achieving a degree of healing allowed me to understand this and to finally know it is true.
Esteemed as real and guarded as one’s own.
Once we have decided what we want to experience, and have chosen the image that would represent that choice, we project it outward. Now we can pretend we don’t know where it came from, believing only that we are victim to it. But even at this point, we have a choice. We can choose to reinforce the idea of being a victim, or we can choose to see it differently and accept responsibility for our perception.
If this is our choice, we can ask the Holy Spirit to interpret for us. He will show us how to see it as the opportunity it is and we grow from our experience. Or we can ask the ego what it means and then believe in victimization. We will then guard that belief refusing to see it otherwise, in which case nothing changes. We just keep going down the path of pain and suffering until we can’t take anymore. Eventually, we will all make the better choice but when we do is up to us.
⁶And from forgiving thoughts a gentle world comes forth
As the mind clears, ego thinking falls away and what is left are forgiving thoughts. I don’t have to undo so many judgments anymore. Love is what I feel for the most part. I don’t feel the need to defend myself, I’m not attached to my beliefs. There is so much freedom in that. I am free to just love instead. I know my goal and I just keep moving toward it. The world hasn’t changed, but I have and because I have changed, my experience of the world has changed. Did I say that I love this lesson? I really do.
To enjoy the Pathways of Light Insights on ACIM Lesson 325 click here.
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