ACIM Workbook Daily Lesson 51, Year 2022

ACIM Daily Lesson 51 Review I

Lesson 51

About 15 years ago when my son was in college, he hurt his back and it never healed. He went through many years of intense and chronic pain. At one point he had surgery which was incredibly painful. As his mother, I suffered with him, sometimes being sick with fear. I could hardly stand to see him in this kind of pain. I am going to use this situation to illustrate a way to use these lessons. I couldn’t do this at the time but consistent practice has changed the way I respond to the world.

1. (1) Nothing I see means anything.

²The reason this is so is that I see nothing, and nothing has no meaning. ³It is necessary that I recognize this, that I may learn to see. ⁴What I think I see now is taking the place of vision. ⁵I must let it go by realizing it has no meaning, so that vision may take its place.

I see my son laying in the hospital bed his face drawn and white with the pain. I would give anything to change this. I am heartsick as I watch his suffering. It all seems very real and meaningful.

A Different Way to Experience It

But I know that I am seeing what is not there. I am seeing an ancient memory, long over. I choose to use this situation to let go of the belief in pain and suffering. We are not in reality bodies in a hellish world. As vision take the place of what I saw, peace flows through me and envelopes my son.

2. (2) I have given what I see all the meaning it has for me.

²I have judged everything I look upon, and it is this and only this I see. ³This is not vision. ⁴It is merely an illusion of reality, because my judgments have been made quite apart from reality. ⁵I am willing to recognize the lack of validity in my judgments, because I want to see. ⁶My judgments have hurt me, and I do not want to see according to them.

When at first I saw his pain, I judged the situation and everyone involved. I judged the doctor for not ordering enough pain medication. I judged the nurses for not doing something about this. I judged the situation as the cause of my heartache for my son.

A Different Way to Experience It

I remember that I have given what I see all the meaning it has for me and I change my mind. We are each experiencing the script we chose and no one is at fault for this. If I feel distressed it is because of my interpretation of the situation as something that should not be happening. Nothing outside my mind is responsible for my experience or the way I choose to react to it.

3. (3) I do not understand anything I see.

²How could I understand what I see when I have judged it amiss? ³What I see is the projection of my own errors of thought. ⁴I do not understand what I see because it is not understandable. ⁵There is no sense in trying to understand it. ⁶But there is every reason to let it go, and make room for what can be seen and understood and loved. ⁷I can exchange what I see now for this merely by being willing to do so. ⁸Is not this a better choice than the one I made before?

It seems like I understand what I see in this hospital room. My son suffers and someone is to blame. What if something went wrong with the surgery? What if he never recovers and is worse off than before? Why is this happening? What can I do?

A Different Way to Experience It

I cannot make sense of the senseless. Why would I try to understand what is only an illusion, a memory of a past so ancient I cannot remember why it was chosen? What I can do is accept this as it is, embrace it and envelop everyone involved in the Love of God. I remember there is nothing to fear.

4. (4) These thoughts do not mean anything.

²The thoughts of which I am aware do not mean anything because I am trying to think without God. ³What I call “my” thoughts are not my real thoughts. ⁴My real thoughts are the thoughts I think with God. ⁵I am not aware of them because I have made my thoughts to take their place. ⁶I am willing to recognize that my thoughts do not mean anything, and to let them go. ⁷I choose to have them be replaced by what they were intended to replace. ⁸My thoughts are meaningless, but all creation lies in the thoughts I think with God.

As I watch my sweet son struggling through his physical pain, my mind is filled with thoughts. It is chaotic as many of the thoughts conflict with each other. Also, there are attack thoughts that cause me to lose my peace. I believe these thoughts and think of them as my thoughts. I think they are very important as they seem to be what will lead me to a solution. Or at least, I hope they will.

A Different Way to Experience It

These thoughts do not mean anything even though they seem to do so. There are reasons they seem meaningful to me. For one thing, they seem to interpret the world for me, but really they only justify my decisions about what to believe. In truth, they are meaningless because they are not my real thoughts. My real thoughts are the thoughts I think with God and these thoughts are peaceful and loving.

When I am in my right mind, it is easy to see that our lives are not at random and that we are always exactly where we need to be. Even when that place is not comfortable, there is purpose. Every experience can help us to awaken if that is the choice we make. We don’t need to learn our lessons through pain, but we often do. I can look past the appearance of pain to the truth and in so doing, I choose to learn in gentleness.

5. (5) I am never upset for the reason I think.

²I am never upset for the reason I think because I am constantly trying to justify my thoughts. ³I am constantly trying to make them true. ⁴I make all things my enemies, so that my anger is justified and my attacks are warranted. ⁵I have not realized how much I have misused everything I see by assigning this role to it. ⁶I have done this to defend a thought system that has hurt me, and that I no longer want. ⁷I am willing to let it go.

Sitting in the hospital with my son, I have many attack thoughts in which I am trying to find someone on whom to project guilt. It seems to be all about the pain he is suffering and the failure of anyone to fix this. I seem justified in my anger and frustration.

A Different Way to Experience It

I am not upset because of anything that is happening, but rather I am upset because of my thoughts about it. I am always trying to justify my attack thoughts and thus making everyone and everything my enemy. As I began to recognize that I was my own worst enemy, that I was doing this to myself, things got better. I stopped using people as my scapegoat and learned to release my untrue thoughts and accept the miracle in their place.

I remember why it is we made the world. We needed someplace to project the guilt and fear we experienced from rejecting and abandoning God. This is an ongoing process and here is why. We are failing in our attempt to displace the guilt. Projecting guilt doesn’t get rid of it, instead, it just reinforces the belief in guilt.

This is why it is necessary to forgive the guilt rather than to project it. In this scenario where I choose to heal my mind rather than continuing to suffer, I forgive the chaos in my mind. I forgive the desire to be angry and blaming. I forgive the idea that I know the best outcome for my son. I forgive the idea that the world is real and suffering is unavoidable.

What I am Learning from These Lessons

One thing that is very clear to me is that we cannot follow both the ego and the Holy Spirit. Their goals are completely different. The ego is always trying to keep the story going. That is why its aim is to seek and not find. It is always guiding us to find new and different ways to fix the effect and to ignore the cause. On the other hand, the Holy Spirit’s goal is peace through forgiveness. So, He is always teaching us to use the effect to show us the cause. In correcting the cause, which is always a belief, the effect naturally changes.

I have learned that it is a relief to accept that I don’t understand anything here. Actually, there is no reason for me to try because it is not understandable. I have tried to gain understanding by giving meaning to the meaningless. This has never worked and I am done with that. I have learned to relax around the upsets. I know that however they seem to be about the “outside” world, they are actually about my inner world.

I am never upset for the reason I think because I don’t even know my own thoughts. Instead, I have covered my thoughts with these senseless ideas made as a defense against God. Instead of going deeper down this rabbit hole, I have ceased my struggling. Now, I am allowing the Holy Spirit to ease me back into the Light, one forgiveness at a time.

To enjoy the Pathways of Light Insights on ACIM Lesson 51 click here.

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