[acimlessons_list] Lesson 325 - November 21

[Sue Carrier Roth]

LESSON 325 * NOVEMBER 21

"All things I think I see reflect ideas."

PRACTICE INSTRUCTIONS 

See complete instructions in separate document. A short summary:

* Read the commentary paragraph slowly and personally.

* Pray the prayer, perhaps several times.

* Morning and evening: Repeat the idea and then spend time in Open Mind
Meditation.

* Hourly remembrance: Repeat the idea and then spend a quiet moment in
meditation.

* Frequent reminders: Repeat the idea often within each hour.

* Response to temptation: Repeat the idea whenever upset, to restore peace.

* Read the "What Is" section slowly and thoughtfully once during the day.

Practice suggestion: I find it helpful to make this idea more specific.
Think of a situation you are seeing that is causing you discomfort. Then
say:

	This thing I think I see reflects ideas.
	I am seeing only the projection of my judgmental thoughts.
	Father, let me see the reflection of Your Thoughts.

COMMENTARY

This lesson is probably the best single summary of the Course's theory of
perception:

	What I see reflects a process in my mind, which starts
	with my idea of what I want. From there, the mind makes
	up an image of the thing the mind desires, judges valuable,
	and therefore seeks to find. These images are then projected
	outward, looked upon, esteemed as real and guarded as one's
own.(1:1-3)

Everything I see is a projection. By this analysis of perception, we see
absolutely nothing real with our physical eyes. All of it "reflects a
process in my mind" and nothing more than that. What we see are all
projected images. As an early lesson in the Workbook says, "I have given
everything I see.all the meaning that it has for me" (W-pI.2.Heading).

As we choose what we want to see, the world arises in our sight. If we
choose judgment we see a world condemned; if we choose forgiveness we see "a
gentle world" (1:5-6). This is why the Course focuses entirely on healing
the mind and not on changing the world. To change the world is not
necessary; it will change with our thoughts. As Ken Wapnick points out,
trying to fix things in the world is like trying to fix things in a movie by
doing things to the screen. The only way you can change the movie is to
change what is in the projector (or to fix the projector). The mind is the
projector of the world.

When we accept forgiving thoughts in our minds, the world becomes "a kindly
home where [we] can rest a while before [we journey] on" (1:6). It becomes a
place where we can "help [our] brothers walk ahead with [us], and find the
way to Heaven and to God" (1:6). That is what we do in this world when we
have had our minds healed: help others do the same.

What we want is the ideas of God reflected in the world, rather than our own
ideas. Apart from God's ideas, our ideas only "make up dreams" (2:1).

Today I do not want dreams; I want reality reflected in my world. It all
starts from my idea of what I want. Therefore, Father, I ask help in wanting
only the truth, only peace, and only what is loving. I want union, not
separation. I want healing, not conflict. I want peace, not war. Help me to
recognize it whenever I think I want anything else, or anything besides the
truth; to recognize it, bring it into Your light for healing, and let it go.

WHAT IS CREATION?

Part 5: W-pII.11.3:1-2

	Creation is the opposite of all illusions,
	for creation is the truth.	(3:1)

The Course's general theory about creation holds certain facts as
fundamental: only what is created by God is real or true; all that God
creates is real, true, and eternal. Therefore, anything that is not eternal
and changeless is not real, and not true. Based on these assumptions, the
Course concludes that all things of this world-the earth itself, the entire
physical universe, and especially our bodies and our apparent "life" here on
earth, cannot be God's creations because they are not eternal and
changeless. Everything we can see with our eyes, even the seemingly ageless
stars, has an end. What ends is simply not real, in the Course's sense of
the word. All of it, every bit of it, falls into the category of
"illusions."

Furthermore, God's creation is holographic: "every part container of the
Whole" (3:2). This is a concept that defies matter-based logic. The nearest
analog I know of is the hologram. Once a holographic image has been captured
on a photographic plate, light shined on the plate will produce a
three-dimensional image of the hologram. If it is a picture of an apple, it
will be a 3-D apple, and you can view different angles of the apple by
moving the angle of light shining into the image. Now, if that holographic
plate is broken into four pieces, you do not end up with four images of
<parts> of an apple; instead, you have four <smaller> images of the entire
apple. The whole is in every part.

That is what God's creation is like. Fragment it as you will, and the Whole
of creation is still reflected in every tiny part. All of creation is in
you, and in me. The "wholly whole" creation is what the Course refers to as
"the holy Son of God" (3:2). God's Will is complete in every aspect (another
word for "part"; the Course will often use different words for "part" such
as "aspect" or "fragment," but the unspoken assumption is always that every
aspect contains the Whole. The word refers to what we think of as
"individuals" or "persons"). You are an <aspect> or <part> of the Son of
God, and yet somehow, at the same time, you are also the Whole.

One symptom of our mistaken belief in separation is that we have
over-identified with our "partness," and have lost touch with our Wholeness.
For instance, I tend to think of myself primarily as Allen Watson. You tend
to think of yourself as your individuality. In fact, our primary reality is
a shared Self, a Wholeness. Much of the learning process through which the
Course is leading us is to change that primary sense of identification from
"partness" to Wholeness. The learning environment of the holy relationship
is designed to break down our sense of isolation, or "partness," and to
strengthen our identification with the Whole by demonstrating to us that
what we think of as "the other person" in the relationship is, in fact, a
part of our shared Self. We experience the same thoughts. What affects one
affects the other. What I think affects you, and vice versa. What I give to
you is given to myself. When I forgive you, I am released. As this breakdown
of "partness" and realization of Wholeness is learned in the holy
relationship, it begins to be generalized and transferred to all the other
"aspects" of creation, all that we have thought of as "not me."