ACIM Daily Lesson 91 Miracles are seen in light.
Miracles are seen in light.
ACIM Lesson 91
Lesson 91
Miracles are seen in light.
1. It is important to remember that miracles and vision necessarily go together. ²This needs repeating, and frequent repeating. ³It is a central idea in your new thought system, and the perception that it produces. ⁴The miracle is always there. ⁵Its presence is not caused by your vision; its absence is not the result of your failure to see. ⁶It is only your awareness of miracles that is affected. ⁷You will see them in the light; you will not see them in the dark.
We are reminded again that miracles are always available to us. If we are not experiencing the miracle, it is because we are unaware that it is there. This can only be that we are looking into the darkness of ego thinking. To have the miracle we want, we must choose to look into the light. That is, we must use our holy mind rather than our ego-mind.
One time I had a grievance with someone at work. I really didn’t like her. I thought she was the cause of most of the chaos of that workplace. Pretty much everyone else agreed with me. But all this time, I was working with the Course, learning to forgive. I learned to ask the Holy Spirit to help me see this differently.
Nothing changed at first, but eventually, as I consistently forgave, I really did start to see her differently. At some point, I began to feel love for her. She didn’t change, my mind did. It was a miracle. Through forgiveness, I began to see her in the light because I learned to turn to the light in my mind. My eyes showed me the same behavior, but vision showed me the truth about her.
2. To you, then, light is crucial. ²While you remain in darkness, the miracle remains unseen. ³Thus you are convinced it is not there. ⁴This follows from the premises from which the darkness comes. ⁵Denial of light leads to failure to perceive it. ⁶Failure to perceive light is to perceive darkness. ⁷The light is useless to you then, even though it is there. ⁸You cannot use it because its presence is unknown to you. ⁹And the seeming reality of the darkness makes the idea of light meaningless.
I appreciate the light metaphor. It is easy for me to understand that I feel like I am stumbling around in the dark when I am using my ego-mind. As with the fellow employee I had trouble with, I was looking with my eyes at her behavior. This is like looking in the dark for light. Jesus tells us not to arrest our sight at the body. He means that if we only look with our eyes, we will only see an illusion. If we use vision, which has nothing to do with the eyes, we will see what is really there. We will see because we will be looking to the light instead of the darkness.
When I kept seeing proof that this woman was a troublemaker, I was in denial of the light and so the light was useless to me. I was unaware of it. When I got tired of making myself unhappy, I forgave the idea I had of her. I received the miracle of a healed mind and only then did I see her with vision. What she said or did had no effect on my vision of her. I had chosen to look past all that so that I could see her in the light.
3. To be told that what you do not see is there sounds like insanity. ²It is very difficult to become convinced that it is insanity not to see what is there, and to see what is not there instead. ³You do not doubt that the body’s eyes can see. ⁴You do not doubt the images they show you are reality. ⁵Your faith lies in the darkness, not the light. ⁶How can this be reversed? ⁷For you it is impossible, but you are not alone in this.
Everyone experiences this difficulty at first. We are so convinced that what we see with our eyes is really there. The truth, however, is that the eyes only show us an illusion. They show us what we want to see rather than what is really there. The only way to reverse this is to choose to turn from the ego as our helper. We have real help that is available to us. The Holy Spirit is in our minds so we always have access to what is truly helpful. We need only ask Him to be our Teacher and we will have His strong support.
4. Your efforts, however little they may be, have strong support. ²Did you but realize how great this strength, your doubts would vanish. ³Today we will devote ourselves to the attempt to let you feel this strength. ⁴When you have felt the strength in you, which makes all miracles within your easy reach, you will not doubt. ⁵The miracles your sense of weakness hides will leap into awareness as you feel the strength in you.
We need to form the habit of asking help of the Holy Spirit rather than the ego. All we need to get us started is a little willingness. That little willingness will be strongly supported. Once we call on the Holy Spirit, we are no longer depending on our ego mind to strengthen our resolve. We can let our doubts vanish because are now calling on great strength.
Because we have been depending on our ego selves for so long, we will have to learn to feel the strength of God in us. It may take practice to make this internal change. But once we feel the strength in us, we will become aware of the miracles. What a relief it is when we make the change in teachers from the ego to the Holy Spirit. How wonderful when that change in teachers is permanent.
5. Three times today, set aside about ten minutes for a quiet time in which you try to leave your weakness behind. ²This is accomplished very simply, as you instruct yourself that you are not a body. ³Faith goes to what you want, and you instruct your mind accordingly. ⁴Your will remains your teacher, and your will has all the strength to do what it desires. ⁵You can escape the body if you choose. ⁶You can experience the strength in you.
What Jesus is telling us in this paragraph is that we need to practice instructing the mind toward the truth. We have taught it to believe in the body as itself. Now we have to turn that around. We are not bodies and this is what we must teach the mind. Our will, which is actually the same as the will of God, can do this. He says we can escape the body but of course, we have never been in the body to begin with. What he means is that we can escape the belief in the body. That seems like a lot until we remember that we have the strength of God to call on.
Sometimes I talk about falling into a story as I did when I got upset with the plumber. Another time happened just a few days ago when I became worried about my son. What I mean when I say that I fall into the story is that I get lost in my ego thoughts and believe in the ego, the bodies, and the world. When that happens, I have to instruct my mind otherwise. I call on the strength of God in me because when I believe in the body, I naturally feel weak. I ask for help and then I make a decision for light instead of darkness, for strength instead of weakness.
6. Begin the longer practice periods with this statement of true cause and effect relationships:
²Miracles are seen in light.
³The body’s eyes do not perceive the light.
⁴But I am not a body. ⁵What am I?
⁶The question with which this statement ends is needed for our exercises today. ⁷What you think you are is a belief to be undone. ⁸But what you really are must be revealed to you. ⁹The belief you are a body calls for correction, being a mistake. ¹⁰The truth of what you are calls on the strength in you to bring to your awareness what the mistake conceals.
We students of the Course know that we are not bodies. Most of us, I am sure, have memorized this lesson. I am not a body. I am free. For I am still as God created me. (ACIM, W-201) But do we believe this? Do we even understand it? It has taken me a very long time to accept the full implication of not being a body. And then longer to accept that I am not, nor have I ever been in a body. I still regularly get pulled into the illusion of being in a body when it is in pain. Or when it needs something, I sometimes feel like I need something. My mind is open now to discover what I am. I am ready for the next step, not as a concept or a belief but an actual experience of it.
7. If you are not a body, what are you? ²You need to be aware of what the Holy Spirit uses to replace the image of a body in your mind. ³You need to feel something to put your faith in, as you lift it from the body. ⁴You need a real experience of something else, something more solid and more sure; more worthy of your faith, and really there.
8. If you are not a body, what are you? ²Ask this in honesty, and then devote several minutes to allowing your mistaken thoughts about your attributes to be corrected, and their opposites to take their place. ³Say, for example:
⁴I am not weak, but strong.
⁵I am not helpless, but all powerful.
⁶I am not limited, but unlimited.
⁷I am not doubtful, but certain.
⁸I am not an illusion, but a reality.
⁹I cannot see in darkness, but in light.
There are a lot of words for what I am. For instance, I could call it spirit, awareness, and consciousness. The feeling I got is hard to put into words. As a body, the feeling is primarily defensive. There is a sense of always protecting the body and limiting what goes in and what is allowed to touch it. It feels constrictive and closed off. Even love coming to it and leaving it is regulated. What I felt in comparison when I asked what I am is the complete opposite. It felt safe, invulnerable actually. It was wide open and completely accepting of what came and equally accepting of what left.
I was left feeling tired when I thought of the body. There are so many rules and so many expectations connected with the body. I needed to let go of the meditation after only a few minutes even though it was so restful. I need to finish this lesson so I can post it. Then I needed to prepare for my class. I felt the body calling for breakfast. I wondered if there was more coffee in my cup. Here was a thought about my son and a tingle of worry for his body caught my attention. The body is such a burden when I identify with it.
9. In the second phase of the exercise period, try to experience these truths about yourself. ²Concentrate particularly on the experience of strength. ³Remember that all sense of weakness is associated with the belief you are a body, a belief that is mistaken and deserves no faith. ⁴Try to remove your faith from it, if only for a moment. ⁵You will be accustomed to keeping faith with the more worthy in you as we go along.
Now that I have gotten in touch with how much of my life and energy is devoted to protecting the body, I see how important this lesson is. I see that I can shift my awareness from the body to what I am by just wanting to do so. That Self didn’t need anything from me. As It, I could just be and allow without concerns. What a peaceful thought! I’m going to dedicate today to spending time, even small increments of time exploring my Self. At least that is my intention and I trust that I will have some experience of it.
10. Relax for the rest of the practice period, confident that your efforts, however meager, are fully supported by the strength of God and all His Thoughts. ²It is from Them that your strength will come. ³It is through Their strong support that you will feel the strength in you. ⁴They are united with you in this practice period, in which you share a purpose like Their Own. ⁵Theirs is the light in which you will see miracles, because Their strength is yours. ⁶Their strength becomes your eyes, that you may see.
11. Five or six times an hour, at reasonably regular intervals, remind yourself that miracles are seen in light. ²Also, be sure to meet temptation with today’s idea. ³This form would be helpful for this special purpose:
⁴Miracles are seen in light. ⁵Let me not close my eyes because of this.
Ah, this is why I will experience some success even though this is a new practice for me. I am going to be fully supported by God and all His Thoughts. Their strong support will help me feel the strength in me. I trust this. I trust that I am being joined in this practice. Vision will be possible for me because I am not trying to see alone.
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