ACIM Workbook Daily Lesson 56, Year 2022

ACIM Daily Lesson 56 Review I

Lesson 56

Our review for today covers the following:

1. (26) My attack thoughts are attacking my invulnerability.

²How can I know who I am when I see myself as under constant attack? ³Pain, illness, loss, age and death seem to threaten me. ⁴All my hopes and wishes and plans appear to be at the mercy of a world I cannot control. ⁵Yet perfect security and complete fulfillment are my inheritance. ⁶I have tried to give my inheritance away in exchange for the world I see. ⁷But God has kept my inheritance safe for me. ⁸My own real thoughts will teach me what it is.

I was wondering about my attack thoughts. I know that I sometimes have judgmental thoughts, mostly idle thoughts of judgment. They do count though, as Jesus tells us. ¹³There are no idle thoughts. ¹⁴All thinking produces form at some level. (ACIM, T-2.VI.9:13-14) And he says this. There is no more self-contradictory concept than that of “idle thoughts.” ²What gives rise to the perception of a whole world can hardly be called idle. ³Every thought you have contributes to truth or to illusion; either it extends the truth or it multiplies illusions. (ACIM, W-16.2:1-3) So, I want to be aware of those casual judgments, recognizing they are attack thoughts, and letting them go.

Another Attack Thought

But as I talked to Jesus about my attack thoughts, he also showed me another one. I felt a surge of fear as I thought about my children. I had not realized that I was worried about them until I asked to see my attack thoughts. It was the ego-mind looking for a hook and finding it. When I worry about them, I have to make a conscious effort to pull myself back to the truth. It is an ingrained habit and combined with the emotion that is elicited, I feel myself slipping into that story.

Worrying about my children is an attack on my peace, an attack on the world, and an attack on them. Instead of holding them in the light of truth, I am imagining them in the darkness of fear. This is hardly what I want for them so I allowed gratitude for this awareness and I shifted my awareness to the truth. Sometimes this shift feels like I am extricating myself from a sticky web of false thoughts. But I do it anyway because what choice do I have? Would I stay in misery when I know that I can have happiness?

2. (27) Above all else I want to see.

²Recognizing that what I see reflects what I think I am, I realize that vision is my greatest need. ³The world I see attests to the fearful nature of the self-image I have made. ⁴If I would remember who I am, it is essential that I let this image of myself go. ⁵As it is replaced by truth, vision will surely be given me. ⁶And with this vision, I will look upon the world and on myself with charity and love.

If I see a world that seems frightening it is because I have fearful thoughts in my mind and I think I am endangered. This would be an image of myself as vulnerable and weak. To remember who I am, I would have to let go of this false image. I cannot hold opposite images in my mind and believe both. I am eternal and eternally held in the Mind of God. To know this as true, it must be the only image I believe.

3. (28) Above all else I want to see differently.

²The world I see holds my fearful self-image in place, and guarantees its continuance. ³While I see the world as I see it now, truth cannot enter my awareness. ⁴I would let the door behind this world be opened for me, that I may look past it to the world that reflects the Love of God.

The only way this door can be kept open for me is to choose the Holy Spirit as my only Guide and Advisor. If I turn to the ego for help, I will be shown the false self-image I have believed in. The ego thoughts I hold in my mind are reflected as the world I now see, and reinforcing them with belief keeps the world in place. But I will see differently as I think differently. All that is required is to place my awareness on the truth rather than the ego illusion.

I have many true thoughts in my mind now. I know that I cannot be the victim of the world I see since it is just a reflection of my own thoughts. My only need is to consistently shift my focus to true thoughts like these in order to see the real world. I know that guilt isn’t real and there is nothing to fear. I am still as God created me so that means I am still in Him. There is no world and no bodies. I have placed an ancient memory before my eyes but I am awakening from this dreamy state. Above all else, I want to see differently. Above all else!

4. (29) God is in everything I see.

²Behind every image I have made, the truth remains unchanged. ³Behind every veil I have drawn across the face of love, its light remains undimmed. ⁴Beyond all my insane wishes is my will, united with the Will of my Father. ⁵God is still everywhere and in everything forever. ⁶And we who are part of Him will yet look past all appearances, and recognize the truth beyond them all.

Everything I think I see with my eyes is really in my mind. Everything I see is an image I have made of a thought in my mind. As my mind is purified of untrue thoughts, reality is revealed. It has not been undone or changed in any way by my dreams of fear and guilt. My will is still one with the Will of God. God is still everywhere and in everything forever and I can know this again. Each time I choose to replace fear thoughts with Love, I awaken more deeply. And reality rises more clearly in my awareness. God is there waiting for me to notice.

5. (30) God is in everything I see because God is in my mind.

²In my own mind, behind all my insane thoughts of separation and attack, is the knowledge that all is one forever. ³I have not lost the knowledge of Who I am because I have forgotten it. ⁴It has been kept for me in the Mind of God, Who has not left His Thoughts. ⁵And I, who am among them, am one with them and one with Him.

God is in my mind and this is why God is in everything I see if that is how I want to see everything. I used to look at everything with suspicion if not outright hate. I didn’t trust anything or anybody because I saw them through the fear in my mind. The world has not changed but the mind I view it through has. More often than not, I think with the Holy Spirit rather than with the ego. From this perspective, I expect people to be loving and kind and mostly they are. When they are not, I see it as a call for love which I am happy to provide.

Shifting My Awareness from Darkness to Light

Sometimes I get triggered by a remaining fear thought and when that happens the world is temporarily a darker place. But I know that God is in my mind and I only need to shift my awareness to That. God has not gone anywhere and neither have I. God is in my mind and I am in His Mind. It is the same Mind and it is constant and eternal. Only my attention moves and I can change this more easily and more quickly now that I have practiced it a lot. It is actually as simple as looking at my window and seeing streaks of dirt. And then shifting my gaze so that I am seeing through the window to the blue sky and the green grass.

To enjoy the Pathways of Light Insights on ACIM Lesson 56 click here.

If you found this content helpful, please share on social media so more people can read and learn.