ACIM Daily Lesson 129 Beyond this world there is a world I want.
Beyond this world there is a world I want.
ACIM Lesson 129
Lesson 129
Beyond this world there is a world I want.
1. This is the thought that follows from the one we practiced yesterday. ²You cannot stop with the idea the world is worthless, for unless you see that there is something else to hope for, you will only be depressed. ³Our emphasis is not on giving up the world, but on exchanging it for what is far more satisfying, filled with joy, and capable of offering you peace. ⁴Think you this world can offer that to you?
2. It might be worth a little time to think once more about the value of this world. ²Perhaps you will concede there is no loss in letting go all thought of value here. ³The world you see is merciless indeed, unstable, cruel, unconcerned with you, quick to avenge and pitiless with hate. ⁴It gives but to rescind, and takes away all things that you have cherished for a while. ⁵No lasting love is found, for none is here. ⁶This is the world of time, where all things end.
Good News
If you are not certain yet that the world holds nothing you want, this lesson must be a relief. OK, there is a world that I do want. I am not asked to sacrifice but instead, I am asked to release what stands in the way of my happiness. To understand this fully, it helps to remember what the world we see is to us. It was made to be the place we project our fear and guilt.
And we certainly use it for that purpose. There is not a moment here that is free of fear and guilt. Even when everything is going my way and I am having a good time, there is that inevitable if unacknowledged feeling of waiting for the other shoe to drop. Nothing here is stable and nothing here lasts.
The good news is that all of this happening in the mind only. My guilt thoughts have been projected outward so that it seems the guilt now exists outside my mind. But ideas do not leave their source. Since I am the master of the mind, I can change my experience of the world by changing my mind.
We Have Much to Look Forward To
3. Is it a loss to find a world instead where losing is impossible; where love endures forever, hate cannot exist and vengeance has no meaning? ²Is it loss to find all things you really want, and know they have no ending and they will remain exactly as you want them throughout time? ³Yet even they will be exchanged at last for what we cannot speak of, for you go from there to where words fail entirely, into a silence where the language is unspoken and yet surely understood.
Thoughts from the Holy Spirit are thoughts that reflect the love that we are and only that. My experience thus far is that it is possible for me to see the world differently and thus be at peace even in the midst of chaos. And when I do fall into the chaos, I can much more easily turn away from it as I look to Jesus instead of the ego. The more I do this, the more peaceful and happier I am as my life begins to reflect the real world Jesus describes here. But even that happy experience is not all there is to look forward to. In the end, we join with God.
Our Way Out
4. Communication, unambiguous and plain as day, remains unlimited for all eternity. ²And God Himself speaks to His Son, as His Son speaks to Him. ³Their language has no words, for what They say cannot be symbolized. ⁴Their knowledge is direct and wholly shared and wholly one. ⁵How far away from this are you who stay bound to this world. ⁶And yet how near are you, when you exchange it for the world you want.
5. Now is the last step certain; now you stand an instant’s space away from timelessness. ²Here can you but look forward, never back to see again the world you do not want. ³Here is the world that comes to take its place, as you unbind your mind from little things the world sets forth to keep you prisoner. ⁴Value them not, and they will disappear. ⁵Esteem them, and they will seem real to you.
Communication
Jesus is sharing with us that there are two steps out of the world we see. The first step returns us to a state of paradise in which we experience the world without fear and guilt. The last step takes us into God in which time and all things of time disappear. Our part is to stop wanting the world we made. It is that simple. Jesus also talks about communication.
Have you ever had a talk with someone only to discover they didn’t understand what you were saying? Or to later discover you were misquoted? This is because we are dreaming of a world in which we can be separate from each other. We dream of having separate minds and so we do not really communicate fully. We have to use words that are inadequate to express what is in our hearts. This failure to communicate causes a lot of the chaos in our lives and leaves us feeling unheard and alone.
Failure to Communicate
I was talking to my daughter yesterday and later to my son. I love them both dearly and enjoy being with them regardless of what is said. But there is not the intimacy the heart desires because they cannot understand my experience and I cannot understand theirs. Words are inadequate to bridge this gap. I have a good friend who is experiencing something right now. I can tell, not because she was able to share but because I could feel the distress radiating from her.
There is someone else I know that wants to share fully but words just don’t do it. Sometimes, it is like we all speak a different language. It is similar enough that we can get by but not the same so that we are left with partial understanding. A sense of not being heard, of a divide that cannot be bridged. It is a lonely existence at best.
Secrets Within My Own Mind
There is not even full communication within my own mind. I have discovered secrets that I have kept from myself and I know that I am not the only one. For instance, I thought that I had let go of any desire to see myself as a victim. And yet, I did exactly this the other day. So clearly, I was hiding that desire from myself. Since our thoughts are projected outward as the life we seem to live, I saw the thought first as a situation in my life that seemed to prove victimhood.
The Last Step
Fortunately, I have learned how to use this life as a way to awaken rather than as a way to cope. I looked at this idea of victimhood with the Holy Spirit rather than the ego and let it go to Him. I do this until the belief is fully released. What I am learning is to live from the right mind only, with no reference to an ego thought system. Eventually, this will be done and I will return to paradise, to the real world where I made will be reinterpreted. But that is not all there is.
After we have all enjoyed this state for a little while, God takes the last step. He takes us out of time and into Him. We will be able to speak to Him and He to us, and the communication will be clearly understood. No awkward language will stand in the way because we won’t need it. Knowledge will be direct and wholly shared and wholly one. In this complete sharing, we will never again experience a sense of aloneness.
Our Practice
6. Such is the choice. ²What loss can be for you in choosing not to value nothingness? ³This world holds nothing that you really want, but what you choose instead you want indeed! ⁴Let it be given you today. ⁵It waits but for your choosing it, to take the place of all the things you seek but do not want.
7. Practice your willingness to make this change ten minutes in the morning and at night, and once more in between. ²Begin with this:
³Beyond this world there is a world I want. ⁴I choose to see that world instead of this, for here is nothing that I really want.
⁵Then close your eyes upon the world you see, and in the silent darkness watch the lights that are not of this world light one by one, until where one begins another ends loses all meaning as they blend in one.
The Lights of Heaven
8. Today the lights of Heaven bend to you, to shine upon your eyelids as you rest beyond the world of darkness. ²Here is light your eyes can not behold. ³And yet your mind can see it plainly, and can understand. ⁴A day of grace is given you today, and we give thanks. ⁵This day we realize that what you feared to lose was only loss.
9. Now do we understand there is no loss. ²For we have seen its opposite at last, and we are grateful that the choice is made. ³Remember your decision hourly, and take a moment to confirm your choice by laying by whatever thoughts you have, and dwelling briefly only upon this:
⁴The world I see holds nothing that I want.
⁵Beyond this world there is a world I want.
As before, Jesus is giving us a practice that is two-fold. We are asked to go into the silence and allow an experience that brings healing to our mind. And then he also asks us to practice hourly to confirm our choice. He wants us to take a moment to lay aside our thoughts and to remember what we really want.
By now I have come to accept certain things. I accept that I am eternal which means I will never die. I also know that I don’t want to live like this for eternity. These little things Jesus asks me to do along with the clarity they bring provide all I need in order to awaken. I am grateful to my brother, Jesus, for his help.
To enjoy the Pathways of Light Insights on ACIM Lesson 129 click here.
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