[acimlessons_list] Lesson 43 - February 12

[Sue Carrier Roth]

Lesson 43 - February 12


"God is my Source. I cannot see apart from Him."

Practice Summary:

Purpose: to remember your function.
	
Longer: 3 times, for 5 minutes each; morning (early as possible), evening
(late as possible), and in between (when readiness and circumstances
permit), 
*	First phase: Repeat the idea, then glance around you, applying it
specifically and indiscriminately to whatever you see. 4–5 subjects will be
enough.
*	Second phase: Close your eyes, repeat the idea, and let related
thoughts come to you. Their purpose is to enrich the idea "in your own
personal way" (5:2). They don't need to be restatements of it, or even
obviously related to it, but they can't contradict it. If your mind is
wandering or you begin to draw a blank, repeat the first phase of the
exercise and then attempt the second phase again. Don't let the practice
period become a mind wandering session, so be determined do this as many
times as you need to.

Frequent reminders: 
You have a choice of three forms:
1.	When you are with someone, whether friend or "stranger," tell him
silently: "God is my Source. I cannot see you apart from Him." 
2.	Apply the idea to a situation or event, saying: "God is my Source. I
cannot see this apart from Him."
3.	If no subjects present themselves, merely repeat the idea.

Remarks: Try to allow no long gaps in remembering the idea. This is an
important training goal for the Workbook. The same thing was urged in Lesson
36 (2:2). 
Also, do your best to remember to apply the idea to people you encounter. It
takes real presence of mind to do this, but it can be done, and it will
change the quality of the encounter.

Response to temptation: whenever you get distressed about an event or
situation
Apply the idea specifically: "God is my Source. I cannot see this apart from
Him."
COMMENTARY

All of what we call "seeing" is perception; it is not knowledge. Perception
does not show us the truth; at best it shows us a clear symbol of truth.
"Knowledge" in the Course is something that belongs to the realm of
perfection, of Heaven; it is not possible to have knowledge and to be in
this world (T-13.VIII.1), because this world is not true. The entire aim of
the Course is to move us from false perception to true perception; when our
perception has been cleaned up, we will be ready for the transfer to
knowledge.

Without the Holy Spirit, perception would have remained false. But because
God has placed this link with Himself in all of our minds, perception can be
purified so that it will lead us to knowledge.

In what Ken Wapnick calls "Level 1," in God, there is no such thing as
perception, only knowledge. Perception requires two, a perceiver and the
perceived; that is duality and does not exist in truth. Yet "in salvation,"
or what Ken calls "Level 2," our experience in this world, "perception has a
mighty purpose" (2:2Ð3). Although we made the world for "an unholy purpose"
(2:4), to make illusions that we think are real, the Holy Spirit can use it
to restore our holiness to our awareness.

Remember Lesson 1? "Nothing I see means anything." That is because
"Perception has no meaning" (2:5). All of perception is essentially
meaningless, "Yet does the Holy Spirit give it a meaning very close to
God's" (2:6). Rather than trying to understand what we see, we need to step
back and let the Holy Spirit write His meaning on it all. Seen with Him,
everything reveals God to us.

Without God, we think we see, but we really see nothing. We see nothing that
looks like something and we attach our meanings to it all, meanings which
deceive us. "I cannot see apart from Him" (Lesson title). I may think I see,
but what I seem to see is not seeing; it is hallucinating. With God, I can
see truly. With God, I can perceive a clear reflection of truth in
everything I look upon. It is that perception of truth that is the means by
which I can forgive my brother. If I ask, I will see it.

So I cannot see apart from God. But that's a no-brainer, because I cannot
<be> apart from God, so the truth is I can't do anything apart from Him.
It's like saying, "My hand can't do anything without my body." Of course
not; my hand is not separate from my body. "Whatever you do you do in Him"
(3:2).

To achieve true vision I do not need to <become> part of God or to join with
Him, as if I were making a transition of some kind from a separated
condition to a unified condition. No, all I really do is to acknowledge, to
recognize, that I am already one with Him. As I accept that reality about
myself, vision is already mine. It is inherent in my natural condition.

What I see when I think I am apart from God must not be sight, because being
apart from God is illusion, so the "sight" must also be illusion. "I cannot
see this desk apart from Him" (4:8).

Once again we are led into a period in which we let relevant related
thoughts arise in our minds. The Course is clearly encouraging us to put its
ideas into our own words, and to extend them and embellish them for our own
personal use. Sometimes, the "altered" form of the lesson will prove more
effective for your practice than the original version. We should feel free
to do this kind of personalizing in all of the Workbook lessons. It is a
tool we are meant to use to make the lessons more personally meaningful.