ACIM Lesson 36 My holiness envelops everything I see.

Lesson 36

My holiness envelops everything I see.

1. Today’s idea extends the idea for yesterday from the perceiver to the perceived. ²You are holy because your mind is part of God’s. ³And because you are holy, your sight must be holy as well. ⁴“Sinless” means without sin. ⁵You cannot be without sin a little. ⁶You are sinless or not. ⁷If your mind is part of God’s you must be sinless, or a part of His Mind would be sinful. ⁸Your sight is related to His Holiness, not to your ego, and therefore not to your body.

How this Works

Gosh, this paragraph has a lot of information in it. First, we are reminded that we are holy because our mind is part of God’s. It still thrills me to think of this. Secondly, he tells us that because we are holy, so is our sight. What I look at is blessed by my sight. Clearly, he is not talking about my body’s eyes which don’t actually see at all as we have been told. Instead, my sight is related to my holiness and is thus related to my Christ Self. My holiness envelops everything I see because my sight is holy. My sight is holy because my mind is part of God’s and so is holy.

Do I See Sin or Holiness?

And right in the middle of all this, he throws in the idea that I cannot be without sin a little. He says that sinlessness means without sin. The implication is that I am without sin, not just without some sin, but without all sin. I was left wondering what this has to do with my holiness enveloping everything I see. What I understand is that I will always see what is in my mind projected outward. Do I see myself as holy or do I see myself as sinful?

If I accept that I was created by God then I cannot be sinful. Therefore, when I look outward, I will see innocence, either love or a call for love. If I see guilt, then I am looking with my eyes and interpreting what I see with the ego. If I notice I am doing that, I can shift my awareness. I can shift it from the ego to the truth within me. I will then be looking with Christ Vision and my holy sight will envelop what I see. My mind starting with holiness will show me holiness.

The Practice

2. Four three-to-five-minute practice periods are required for today. ²Try to distribute them fairly evenly, and make the shorter applications frequently, to protect your protection throughout the day. ³The longer practice periods should take this form:

3. First, close your eyes and repeat the idea for today several times, slowly. ²Then open your eyes and look quite slowly about you, applying the idea specifically to whatever you note in your casual survey. ³Say, for example:

⁴My holiness envelops that rug.
⁵My holiness envelops that wall.
⁶My holiness envelops these fingers.
⁷My holiness envelops that chair.
⁸My holiness envelops that body.
⁹My holiness envelops this pen.

¹⁰Several times during these practice periods, close your eyes and repeat the idea to yourself. ¹¹Then open your eyes, and continue as before.

4. For the shorter exercise periods, close your eyes and repeat the idea; look about you as you repeat it again; and conclude with one more repetition with your eyes closed. ²All applications should, of course, be made quite slowly, as effortlessly and unhurriedly as possible.

I Love this Lesson

So here is what I love about this lesson. Whether I am looking at a chair or a person sitting in the chair, it doesn’t matter. Both the chair and the occupant are images so not real. Not that this will prevent me from projecting onto either of them. If I am seeing with my holy mind, I will interpret what I see from that perspective. I will see the holiness reflected in both chair and man.

On the other hand, I might not see past what the eyes show me and I will never see past what my mind holds. Maybe the chair will appear to be guilty of ugliness. Maybe the man will appear to be guilty of sin. What I see is never about what is actually there, but always about my own mind. If I see sin, then I know I have not enveloped the man in the chair with my holiness but rather with my belief in sin. I can then ask for correction and receive the miracle and can then give the miracle. Nice!

To enjoy the Pathways of Light Insights on ACIM Lesson 36 click here.

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