Lesson 161

Give me your blessing, holy Son of God.

Today we practice differently, and take a stand against our anger, that our fears may disappear and offer room to love. Here is salvation in the simple words in which we practice with today’s idea. Here is the answer to temptation which can never fail to welcome in the Christ where fear and anger had prevailed before. Here is Atonement made complete, the world passed safely by and Heaven now restored. Here is the answer of the Voice for God.

Complete abstraction is the natural condition of the mind. But part of it is now unnatural. It does not look on everything as one. It sees instead but fragments of the whole, for only thus could it invent the partial world you see. The purpose of all seeing is to show you what you wish to see. All hearing but brings to your mind the sounds it wants to hear.

Thus were specifics made. And now it is specifics we must use in practicing. We give them to the Holy Spirit, that He may employ them for a purpose which is different from the one we gave to them. Yet He can use but what we made, to teach us from a different point of view, so we can see a different use in everything.

One brother is all brothers. Every mind contains all minds, for every mind is one. Such is the truth. Yet do these thoughts make clear the meaning of creation? Do these words bring perfect clarity with them to you? What can they seem to be but empty sounds; pretty, perhaps, correct in sentiment, yet fundamentally not understood nor understandable. The mind that taught itself to think specifically can no longer grasp abstraction in the sense that it is all-encompassing. We need to see a little, that we learn a lot.

It seems to be the body that we feel limits our freedom, makes us suffer, and at last puts out our life. Yet bodies are but symbols for a concrete form of fear. Fear without symbols calls for no response, for symbols can stand for the meaningless. Love needs no symbols, being true. But fear attaches to specifics, being false.

Bodies attack, but minds do not. This thought is surely reminiscent of our text, where it is often emphasized. This is the reason bodies easily become fear’s symbols. You have many times been urged to look beyond the body, for its sight presents the symbol of love’s “enemy” Christ’s vision does not see. The body is the target for attack, for no one thinks he hates a mind. Yet what but mind directs the body to attack? What else could be the seat of fear except what thinks of fear?

Hate is specific. There must be a thing to be attacked. An enemy must be perceived in such a form he can be touched and seen and heard, and ultimately killed. When hatred rests upon a thing, it calls for death as surely as God’s Voice proclaims there is no death. Fear is insatiable, consuming everything its eyes behold, seeing itself in everything, compelled to turn upon itself and to destroy.

Who sees a brother as a body sees him as fear’s symbol. And he will attack, because what he beholds is his own fear external to himself, poised to attack, and howling to unite with him again. Mistake not the intensity of rage projected fear must spawn. It shrieks in wrath, and claws the air in frantic hope it can reach to its maker and devour him.

This do the body’s eyes behold in one whom Heaven cherishes, the angels love and God created perfect. This is his reality. And in Christ’s vision is his loveliness reflected in a form so holy and so beautiful that you could scarce refrain from kneeling at his feet. Yet you will take his hand instead, for you are like him in the sight that sees him thus. Attack on him is enemy to you, for you will not perceive that in his hands is your salvation. Ask him but for this, and he will give it to you. Ask him not to symbolize your fear. Would you request that love destroy itself? Or would you have it be revealed to you and set you free?

Today we practice in a form we have attempted earlier. Your readiness is closer now, and you will come today nearer Christ’s vision. If you are intent on reaching it, you will succeed today. And once you have succeeded, you will not be willing to accept the witnesses your body’s eyes call forth. What you will see will sing to you of ancient melodies you will remember. You are not forgot in Heaven. Would you not remember it?

Select one brother, symbol of the rest, and ask salvation of him. See him first as clearly as you can, in that same form to which you are accustomed. See his face, his hands and feet, his clothing. Watch him smile, and see familiar gestures which he makes so frequently. Then think of this: What you are seeing now conceals from you the sight of one who can forgive you all your sins; whose sacred hands can take away the nails which pierce your own, and lift the crown of thorns which you have placed upon your bleeding head. Ask this of him, that he may set you free:

Give me your blessing, holy Son of God. 

I would behold you with the eyes of Christ,

and see my perfect sinlessness in you.

And He will answer Whom you called upon. For He will hear the Voice for God in you, and answer in your own. Behold him now, whom you have seen as merely flesh and bone, and recognize that Christ has come to you. Today’s idea is your safe escape from anger and from fear. Be sure you use it instantly, should you be tempted to attack a brother and perceive in him the symbol of your fear. And you will see him suddenly transformed from enemy to savior; from the devil into Christ.

INITIAL INSIGHT: “Complete abstraction is the natural condition of the mind. But part of it is now unnatural. It does not look on everything as one.”

Do you ever wonder what you would perceive if your mind was closer to its natural state? Well, here it is. You would see that everything is one, you would see that everything is made of the same thing and you would have to wish for the everything to take a specific form if you wanted the everything to represent a thought in your mind.

But wait, that is exactly what we are doing now. We just decided to take it seriously and to forget we did it. I don’t see the reality of all things yet, but as my mind has healed, I am closer to seeing this way. I feel the oneness far more than I used to. I am aware of a sense of separation, but then I feel a shift. I feel love and then a realization that this one is not separate from me. It wavers and it can be affected by my ego thoughts, but once realized, it can never be entirely lost.

“The purpose of all seeing is to show you what you wish to see. All hearing but brings to your mind the sounds it wants to hear.”

This sentence is key to understanding and to changing my mind. (Whatever I see, however I see it, it is showing me what I want. From there, I can decide if my desire fulfilled is bringing me peace and happiness. If not, then I can make a different choice.

If I have trouble letting go of the belief that is being manifest as this experience, I can ask for another way of seeing and my Inner Guide will help. To see differently, I must desire a different interpretation, be willing to be wrong about the present interpretation, be open and receptive to something I do not currently believe. Doing this frequently has taught me to trust a guide not of my little self which has led me astray too often.)

Reality is whole but in order to have this experience we made specifics and so that is what we must use in our practicing. This is why it is important to start with the situation, the person, the thought when we ask for a different way to see. What happens is that we learn something often enough and the mind begins to grasp that this learning applies to everything.

My experience was that I forgave (undid) many thoughts and then I saw that those thoughts came from a limited number of beliefs, so I began to forgive the beliefs. Now, something else is happening. I am beginning to accept that all those beliefs are the same belief, the belief that I am not my Self, and so this is what I am forgiving. I am not my beliefs; I am the Self that I was created.

“One brother is all brothers. Every mind contains all minds, for every mind is one. Such is the truth.”

I find it helpful to think of the Sonship as holographic, which is just a way to visualize what Jesus tells us in this sentence. It’s funny to me now that for years I have read this expressed in many ways all through the Course and really didn’t get the full implications. As Jesus says, “not understood nor understandable.” It’s funny to me now because once the idea is grasped, it seems so clear. How could I have been confused before? I didn’t get smarter, my IQ higher, I simply became willing to know this. I don’t think that I understand it as it is in Reality, but I grasp the idea now so that it is as close to understanding as this concrete mind can do so.

This sense of separation is most apparent when we get caught in a story of victimhood and feeling unfairly treated. Seeing separation is the only way to support these feelings. I love that this almost never happens for me anymore, and that I if it should, I can snap out of it now. I am delighted that it is easy to do so, and that while it used to be hard to turn from these thoughts, now I cannot imagine believing them. This is what practice of the Course accomplishes. Eventually, as all false ideas are seen as what they are, this practice will lead me Home.

“It seems to be the body that we feel limits our freedom, makes us suffer, and at last puts out our life. Yet bodies are but symbols for a concrete form of fear.”

Oh, yes! I went through a protracted period of projecting my guilt onto the body. The body was my symbol of all that was wrong. This led to feeling guilty for having chosen to experience the body as myself. After a while, I realized what I was doing. The body is a neutral event. It is an idea given form; the effect of a decision. It is not anything of itself so how could simply experiencing a body be the cause of anything. Now, I no longer feel guilty about having a body, but I still project guilt onto the body in a variety of ways. Now that I understand what I am doing, I can stop.

Jesus tells us that if we think we are the body we will experience everything the body does. So if I identify with the body as myself, when the body experiences pain so will I. When the body attacks or is attacked, if I identify myself as the body, I will feel that attack as personal and will suffer the effects of believing I am a victim or a victimizer. Because the body is a separation device, if I believe I am the body, then I will believe that I am separate. Bodies die and so if I am a body, I will believe that I die.

“Hate is specific. There must be a thing to be attacked.” 

The body is that specific thing that can be hated and feared and attacked in defense of another body. When I see my brother as a body, I see him as fear’s symbol. This sets up the awful cycle of guilt/fear/attack/defend. And around and around it goes. The way out is to realize the body is as meaningless as any of our thoughts. We give it all the meaning it has for us. We could stop using it as a symbol of fear and as proof of guilt. We could give it to the Holy Spirit for His use instead.

“This do the body’s eyes behold in one whom Heaven cherishes, the angels love and God created perfect. This is his reality. And in Christ’s vision is his loveliness reflected in a form so holy and so beautiful that you could scarce refrain from kneeling at his feet. Yet you will take his hand instead, for you are like him in the sight that sees him thus. Attack on him is enemy to you, for you will not perceive that in his hands is your salvation. Ask him but for this, and he will give it to you. Ask him not to symbolize your fear. Would you request that love destroy itself? Or would you have it revealed to you and set you free?”

How do I do this? How do I see past my brother’s body? The most certain and permanent solution is to remember my Self as who I am and then I will remember who my brother is. Jesus admonishes us to not let our sight be arrested at the body. In other words, don’t look at his body, his personality, his behavior and think that is who he is. That is just a mask, a separation experience, and has nothing to do with his reality. Insist on knowing this one as the Holy Spirit knows him. This is what today’s practice involves. It gives us a very specific way to practice this.

DAILY APPLICATION: Here is the metaphor that first helped me to grasp the idea of oneness.

I was reading a Brian Weiss book and he was describing us in this way. He said to imagine us as ice cubes bobbing along in a sea of water. As it warms up we melt into the water. As ice cubes, we seemed different than the water, but of course, we were not. So I imagine we are all cubes of love existing in a sea of love. We bob along bumping into each other, thinking we are separate and different from the cube next to us.

Maybe I will feel infringed upon when you bump into me and will want you to get into your own space and out of mine. This is what happened in the past and still does sometimes, when my daughter uses my stuff and doesn’t put it back, or when a driver pulls out in front of me and then slows down. Maybe I feel attacked when the cube next to me snubs me or abandoned when a cube I have become accustomed to floating next to moves on.

All of these reactions are predicated on each cube being its own separate self and different from me, and yet, all are simply cubes of love, love that takes on an appearance of something separate but could never be anything but love. When the conditions are right, the cubes all melt into the sea of love and where are the differences then? Who is there to attack or be attacked by? How could I be abandoned? By who and where would this seeming someone go? There is nothing but love. Each seeming separate self, each animal, the sky, the trees, the mountains, the universe itself, all just love existing in love.

The mind that wondered what separation would look like used its power of creation to make it appear as if one were many, and forgot how to get out of the dream. Now we are each of us choosing to remember. We became afraid to let go of our temporary state and afraid that our play was being judged just as we had judged, and continue to judge. But through our daily practice, we are waking up to the truth of Love’s unchanging nature and are learning to forgive ourselves through learning to forgive each other. Our practice is the catalyst that is melting the illusion and returning us to our natural state of oneness. 

This idea gave my mind something to use as I first tried to see my brother as one with me and this made it easier for me to look past his body and behavior to know the holiness of his true Self. I then was able to do the practice given us here more effectively. I’m not angry at anyone right now but I also recognize that as soon as I stop thinking of us as one, the possibility of anger arises. Sometimes it is possible to hide this anger from myself by calling it something else but honesty compels me to see it for what it is. I used my son this morning because his past behavior has affected me and I want to be sure that there is no anger, resentment or any form of fear toward him in my mind. Regina offers a terrific way to go a little deeper and get the most out of this lesson.

INSIGHTS FROM HOLY SPIRIT:

GRATITUDE:

REGINA’S TIPS

In yesterday’s tip, I said that anger is one form of fear. Today’s workbook lesson begins by saying, “Today we practice differently, and take a stand against our anger, that our fears may disappear and offer room to love.”

What does the Course lesson mean when it says, “Today we practice differently?”

Over the last several lessons, we have been generalizing. For example, we spent a few days focusing on life-presence in everything that we saw. Yesterday we inquired into fear regardless of the form it took. But today we will practice differently by being specific. Today we will look specifically at anger.

Why is this helpful?

The mind thinks in specifics. If you look at the room you are sitting in right now, awareness can immediately be aware of everything the eyes see, but the mind looks specifically. It may think, for example, “I see a chair, a wall hanging, my shoes that I didn’t put away last night, a carpet that needs to be replaced, a wall, a heater vent, …”

As mentioned when we started Gentle Healing, a part of what we are doing is reprogramming the brain. In order to do that, we need to get down to the brain’s level. That is, we need to work in specifics.

So today we will focus on anger.

Depending on your personality, you may experience anger in one way or another. Some people allow themselves to experience outright fury and hatred. Others repress that, so that anger might be experienced as mere annoyance. The first practice of the day will help you tune into your anger, regardless of how you experience it. You are asked to “Select one brother.” Let that one be one that you feel some grievance with, and this will give you a chance to look at your anger.

The lesson asks you to “See his face, his hands and feet, his clothing.” Etcetera. I ask you to go a little further. Look at what angers you about him/her. Let your mind temporarily dwell on those characteristics, but as you do, keep one eye turned inward so that it is looking at your thoughts and noticing they are your thoughts. Let me demonstrate:

I am thinking of Cassie. She is big in size. Tall and over-weight. She smiles all of the time, like she’s happy to be better than everyone else, happy to know more than others know. She talks all of the time as if she’s right about everything. She never listens. Whenever I try to speak, she cuts me off after half a sentence. She thinks she knows what I was going to say, and then she goes on to tell me how I’m wrong. She doesn’t ever listen to me. She’s wrong about everything because she never listens to anyone else. She only knows her point of view, which is extremely narrow-minded. I really don’t like being around her at all.

Okay, now looking back at what I wrote: I see that I focused on her as a body, “tall and over-weight.” From there, I went directly into her smile, and I interpreted its meaning. I decided she smiles because she thinks she is better than everyone else. I see that I believe this. I see that I think I know what she is thinking. I see that I believe I am right. I see that when I look at her in this way, I think I am better than her. I notice that I feel annoyed by how much she talks. That is my anger. I’m also angry that she never listens to me. I must be afraid of something there. What am I afraid of?

Why am I angry at Cassie? Because she talks all of the time as if she is right about everything, and she never listens to me even when I know more than she does.

Why does that bother me? Because I think she should listen to me.

Why does it anger me (scare me) that she doesn’t listen to me? I’m afraid that I am not as valuable or as important as I would like to appear. Maybe I am meaningless, not needed.

Through the process of looking at anger with one person, we can uncover fear thinking that we are identified with. For example, “I’m afraid that I am not as valuable or as important as I would like to appear. Maybe I am meaningless, not needed.”

The lesson asks us to say to this one, “Give me your blessing, holy Son of God. I would behold you with the eyes of Christ, and see my perfect sinlessness in you.”

I ask you to go a little further. Ask yourself, “What is really upsetting me? Is it him/her or is it the thinking that I have just uncovered in my own mind?”

I recommend journaling to look at your thoughts in the way I just demonstrated. I think it is easier to see thoughts clearly when they are written down.

It’s also possible that it will be helpful to journal twice today. Journal once in the morning using the person that came to mind when the lesson said, “Select one brother, …” And then, throughout the day be alert to when you get angry. When it’s convenient, possibly at the end of the day, journal about the times that you were angry throughout the day.

This type of looking is very important to the process of purification. The process of purification is the same as the process of reprogramming the brain. The thoughts you find when you inquire into anger are thoughts that have been believed over and over again. They are well defined in the brain and run automatically whenever an outer situation triggers that line of thinking.

Through careful looking, like I just demonstrated, we uncover background-thinking processes. Through seeing those thoughts and choosing not to believe them again, the brain is reprogrammed. It is brought back to a state that does not include mistaken programming.

This corrected state enables us to perceive with clarity instead of misperceiving through false ideas that are programmed into the brain. That takes us back to how today’s Course lesson began:

“Today we practice differently, and take a stand against our anger, that our fears may disappear (correction of mistaken programming) and offer room to love.”