Lesson 92
Miracles are seen in light, and light and strength are one.
W-pI.92.1. The idea for today is an extension of the previous one. 2 You do not think of light in terms of strength, and darkness in terms of weakness. 3 That is because your idea of what seeing means is tied up with the body and its eyes and brain. 4 Thus you believe that you can change what you see by putting little bits of glass before your eyes. 5 This is among the many magical beliefs that come from the conviction you are a body, and the body’s eyes can see.
When we use the word ‘see’ we are talking about seeing with the body’s eyes. We look out from the illusion of a body and tell ourselves that the illusion of a world must be real since we can see it. But eyes were made just for the purpose of allowing ourselves to believe in the world we made. There is no world and so the eyes are not really seeing. But we believe in the body and believe we are the body to such an extent that we blinded ourselves to reality.
W-pI.92.2. You also believe the body’s brain can think. 2 If you but understood the nature of thought, you could but laugh at this insane idea. 3 It is as if you thought you held the match that lights the sun and gives it all its warmth; or that you held the world within your hand, securely bound until you let it go. 4 Yet this is no more foolish than to believe the body’s eyes can see; the brain can think.
Sometimes, I read from the Course and I don’t understand what I am reading. I am trying to use my brain to understand and it doesn’t always help. And over the years, I have thought I understood only to discover later that I was wrong. But that does not mean that I am without recourse. When I need more clarity, I don’t try to figure it out or find someone smarter than me to question the difficult concept. Instead, I become still and I surrender to the Holy Spirit and let Him clarify the confusing passage. I simply write what comes into my mind.
I am not a body. I do not have a brain. This character and her life that I came here to observe so that I could decide what to believe based on her experience, is not me. I am the decision-maker and exist outside the body. It would be more accurate to say that the body exists in my mind, to the degree it exists at all. Knowledge has nothing to do with the body’s brain.
W-pI.92.3. It is God’s strength in you that is the light in which you see, as it is His Mind with which you think. 2 His strength denies your weakness. 3 It is your weakness that sees through the body’s eyes, peering about in darkness to behold the likeness of itself; the small, the weak, the sickly and the dying, those in need, the helpless and afraid, the sad, the poor, the starving and the joyless. 4 These are seen through eyes that can not see and cannot bless.
Jesus tells us to sink down and into our minds and to find God. God is in us or we are in Him but however we think of this relationship, we are part of God and He is part of us. There is no separation. It is God’s strength that is the light in which we see and it is His Mind with which we think. It has nothing to do with the body. If we look only with the eyes and think only with the brain, we will see only an illusion and we will know nothing.
Most of the time, I do experience myself as this body and this makes sense as I came for this purpose. But I also know that this is an experience, not reality. If I am looking with the eyes (with the ego) and see the sick and weak, seeing death and suffering, and do not look past that with vision, I cannot bless them. This is because the blessing I give others is my certainty that they are still as God created them.
W-pI.92.4. Strength overlooks these things by seeing past appearances. 2 It keeps its steady gaze upon the light that lies beyond them. 3 It unites with light, of which it is a part. 4 It sees itself. 5 It brings the light in which your Self appears. 6 In darkness you perceive a self that is not there. 7 Strength is the truth about you; weakness is an idol falsely worshipped and adored that strength may be dispelled, and darkness rule where God appointed that there should be light.
When I look at someone from this body to theirs’s, on one level I am aware of them as a separate individual who looks different than me. On another level, I am aware of them as bodiless and part of me as I am part of them. When I see them from this perspective, I don’t feel separate or different. Only if I let my sight stop at their bodies am I confused about who we are.
W-pI.92.5. Strength comes from truth, and shines with light its Source has given it; weakness reflects the darkness of its maker. 2 It is sick and looks on sickness, which is like itself. 3 Truth is a savior and can only will for happiness and peace for everyone. 4 It gives its strength to everyone who asks, in limitless supply. 5 It sees that lack in anyone would be a lack in all. 6 And so it gives its light that all may see and benefit as one. 7 Its strength is shared, that it may bring to all the miracle in which they will unite in purpose and forgiveness and in love.
When we look from the perspective of our true selves, we know everyone as part of ourselves. This is seeing with the light of God within us. When we look from the perspective of the body, we cannot see what is right before us. Our mind is darkened by ego thinking and being in the dark, and choosing to stay in this darkened state, we do not look toward the light. The light is in us all along, but we must choose to become aware of it.
W-pI.92.6. Weakness, which looks in darkness, can not see a purpose in forgiveness and in love. 2 It sees all others different from itself, and nothing in the world that it would share. 3 It judges and condemns, but does not love. 4 In darkness it remains to hide itself, and dreams that it is strong and conquering, a victor over limitations that but grow in darkness to enormous size.
The ego thinks it is strong in its separation and it defends separation thinking that joining will make it weak. From this perspective, we attack and defend, believing that we are protecting our strength. This is why we are afraid of giving up the limiting body. We think it has some value. From our darkened mind, forgiveness does not make sense, and love is, at best, misunderstood.
W-pI.92.7. It fears and it attacks and hates itself, and darkness covers everything it sees, leaving its dreams as fearful as itself. 2 No miracles are here, but only hate. 3 It separates itself from what it sees, while light and strength perceive themselves as one. 4 The light of strength is not the light you see. 5 It does not change and flicker and go out. 6 It does not shift from night to day, and back to darkness till the morning comes again.
In God and thus in us, there is light and strength for they are one and they are creation and cannot change or fade or be extinguished. Instead of accepting this as our very Self, we fight each other, hate each other, and exist in darkness so deep we cannot find a flicker of light to lead the way. This is why we have A Course in Miracles. Jesus knows that we are lost in our ego thinking and that we need a guide to bring us Home.
W-pI.92.8. The light of strength is constant, sure as love, forever glad to give itself away, because it can not give but to itself. 2 No one can ask in vain to share its sight, and none who enters its abode can leave without a miracle before his eyes, and strength and light abiding in his heart.
The light that is in our mind waiting for us to turn to it is constant and sure. It wants to be shared because it knows all as part of itself. Giving cannot be a loss when you give to another aspect of your very self. We give our love, our hope, our kindness, our strength, and surety. We do this with words, actions, and thoughts. We give peace simply by being the peace we are. As the mind heals, our life becomes the light that others seek.
W-pI.92.9. The strength in you will offer you the light, and guide your seeing so you do not dwell on idle shadows that the body’s eyes provide for self-deception. 2 Strength and light unite in you, and where they meet, your Self stands ready to embrace you as Its Own. 3 Such is the meeting place we try today to find and rest in, for the peace of God is where your Self, His Son, is waiting now to meet Itself again, and be as One.
We are being invited to rest in God and allow the darkness of ego thoughts to be replaced with the light of right-minded thinking. We are being invited to be still and to spend time with our Self and remember who we are. We can then take this certainty back with us into the world as we continue to feel like the personal self a while longer, but no longer fooled into thinking that is what we are. Each time we do this, reality is stronger in our mind and we are happier and more peaceful.
W-pI.92.10. Let us give twenty minutes twice today to join this meeting. 2 Let yourself be brought unto your Self. 3 Its strength will be the light in which the gift of sight is given you. 4 Leave, then, the dark a little while today, and we will practice seeing in the light, closing the body’s eyes and asking truth to show us how to find the meeting place of self and Self, where light and strength are one.
W-pI.92.11. Morning and evening we will practice thus. 2 After the morning meeting, we will use the day in preparation for the time at night when we will meet again in trust. 3 Let us repeat as often as we can the idea for today, and recognize that we are being introduced to sight, and led away from darkness to the light where only miracles can be perceived.
What could we do with our time that could possibly be more valuable than the time we spend with our Self and with God? Nothing we do here is going to bring us such joy and undisturbed peace.