Lesson 58
W-pI.58.1. (36) My holiness envelops everything I see.
2 From my holiness does the perception of the real world come. 3 Having forgiven, I no longer see myself as guilty. 4 I can accept the innocence that is the truth about me. 5 Seen through understanding eyes, the holiness of the world is all I see, for I can picture only the thoughts I hold about myself.
How do I envelop everything I see with my holiness? First, I must forgive everything so that I can accept my innocence. I then understand that everything is holy. The reason it works this way is that everything I see is a story of me. I see only a reflection of my own thoughts about myself. When all the guilt is gone from my mind, I will see an innocent world. I know that this is true because it is almost true now. I seldom see guilt anymore and when I do, I’m not fooled by it. No matter how guilty someone looks, the idea they are guilty comes from the thoughts in my mind, the belief in guilt that is still unforgiven.
W-pI.58.2. (37) My holiness blesses the world.
2 The perception of my holiness does not bless me alone. 3 Everyone and everything I see in its light shares in the joy it brings to me. 4 There is nothing that is apart from this joy, because there is nothing that does not share my holiness. 5 As I recognize my holiness, so does the holiness of the world shine forth for everyone to see.
As I have released the belief in guilt, I have been blessed with joy and peace of mind. I share this joy and peace with everyone I see because it is not possible for me to do otherwise. I always share what I believe and when my belief is one of innocence, I bless the world with that belief. How is this reflected in the world?
When I saw the doctor who prayed for me while he examined me, I was blessed by him. I left his office feeling blessed and I just naturally shared that blessing with others in thoughts and words. Everyone seemed to share in our holiness. I was happy to see the people at the hospital when I went for my X-Ray. I looked at them with happy, non-judgmental eyes. I approached each one of them with love, appreciation, and an open mind and that is what I saw reflected back to me.
The next day I went for the MRI and it was the same experience. But then, the tech who came in to inject the contrast material was tapping my arm to get the vein to show, I guess, and I felt his skin on mine so he wasn’t wearing gloves. I remembered an experience I had with someone else who was careless in doing the same thing.
I asked him if he had cleaned his hands before he started. I felt like the happy world had darkened a bit when I did this. My feeling was that he was maybe guilty of not being careful because I had a past experience of someone not being careful. That little moment of the belief in guilt was enough to dampen my happy experience. I regretted it and then I forgave myself and the world righted itself and joy returned.
W-pI.58.3. (38) There is nothing my holiness cannot do.
2 My holiness is unlimited in its power to heal, because it is unlimited in its power to save. 3 What is there to be saved from except illusions? 4 And what are all illusions except false ideas about myself? 5 My holiness undoes them all by asserting the truth about me. 6 In the presence of my holiness, which I share with God Himself, all idols vanish.
There is nothing my holiness cannot do is a perfect prayer for healing. My holiness sees only holiness. That means my guiltless mind would see only guiltlessness, and guilt, being the cause of all the world’s ills, the ill is undone through holiness. Using the words of this lesson or similar words is the way I pray for others. To the best of my ability, I let my own mind be healed of any belief in guilt. Then I look on a guiltless person and they are healed.
I very much want to be this kind of healer and so I am motivated to remove any remaining belief in guilt from my mind. I assert the truth about myself and this automatically undoes illusions in everyone. These illusions are idols that we worship, that is, they are beliefs that we choose to keep even though they are in opposition to God. As I undo these illusions in myself, I undo them in others. I used to think I needed to see the other person guiltless, but now I understand that as I heal the belief in guilt in my own mind, I automatically see the innocence in everyone.
W-pI.58.4. (39) My holiness is my salvation.
2 Since my holiness saves me from all guilt, recognizing my holiness is recognizing my salvation. 3 It is also recognizing the salvation of the world. 4 Once I have accepted my holiness, nothing can make me afraid. 5 And because I am unafraid, everyone must share in my understanding, which is the gift of God to me and to the world.
Somehow becoming guiltless is not how I become holy. I am guiltless and therefore, I am holy. My only job is to be willing to accept this truth. The only reason I don’t always see everyone in their natural state of holiness is that I am sometimes unwilling to see myself as guiltless. My fear that I am guilty causes me to look through that guilt on others and thus my vision is obscured just as my sight would be obscured if I looked through smudged and dirty glasses. I don’t need to be saved from guilt, only be saved from my belief in guilt. We are all innocent and holy.
W-pI.58.5. (40) I am blessed as a Son of God.
2 Herein lies my claim to all good and only good. 3 I am blessed as a Son of God. 4 All good things are mine, because God intended them for me. 5 I cannot suffer any loss or deprivation or pain because of Who I am. 6 My Father supports me, protects me, and directs me in all things. 7 His care for me is infinite, and is with me forever. 8 I am eternally blessed as His Son.
Oh, my, what a beautiful paragraph this is! This will be my focus for the day, my prayer. I am willing to know the truth about myself, that I am God’s beloved Son. Nothing done in the world can affect that because everything done in the world is just another illusion, as is the world itself. I must be blessed as a Son of God because this is God’s Will.