[acimlessons_list] Lesson 36 - February 5

[Sue Roth]

Lesson 36 - February 5

"My holiness envelops everything I see."

PRACTICE SUMMARY

Purpose: to realize that the holiness of your mind must lead to holy sight.

Longer: 4 times (evenly spaced out), for 3-5 minutes
	*	Close your eyes and repeat the idea several times.
	*	Open your eyes and look slowly and casually around,
specifically applying idea to whatever your glance falls upon. Say, "My
holiness envelops [this rug, that wall, that chair, etc.]." Several times
during the practice period briefly close your eyes and repeat the idea. Then
return to open-eyed practice.

Frequent reminders: frequency is important today
Repeat the idea with eyes closed, then with eyes open (looking around), then
with eyes closed again.

Remarks: Note that you are supposed to evenly space out the longer practice
periods and do frequent shorter ones in between. The point is obviously to
not leave any long gaps in which you are not practicing, so that your mind
is protected all day long. Enclosing your day in this finely woven net, that
has no big holes, is a major goal of the Workbook.
Also, as always, repeat the idea very slowly, casually, and without strain.
Doing it this way makes all the difference.


COMMENTARY

I've always had a fondness for this lesson, because the first time I did it
I had a very real sense of how holiness was emanating from me and
surrounding everything, first in my room, then my town, then the world, and
finally the universe. For a very brief moment I felt like a buddha, sitting
and blessing the entire world (that's tomorrow's lesson, by the way). The
result was so effective for me that often, when I am simply sitting in
meditation and not practicing any particular lesson, I think of this one and
allow that sense to steal over me again.

Not everyone responds to every lesson, but everyone responds to some of the
lessons. Notice the ones that seem particularly effective for you, and
remember them. Lesson 194 in the Workbook speaks of building a
"problem-solving repertoire" of things that we find helpful:

"If you can see the lesson for today as the deliverance it really is, you
will not hesitate to give as much consistent effort as you can, to make it
be a part of you. As it becomes a thought that rules your mind, a habit in
your problem-solving repertoire, a way of quick reaction to temptation, you
extend your learning to the world" (W-194.6).

In yesterday's lesson the focus was on the perceiver: "I am very holy."
Today the holiness extends to what is perceived. Because I am holy, my
perception must also be holy. And I am perfectly holy because God created me
that way. Holy means "sinless," and you cannot be partly sinless any more
than a woman can be "a little" pregnant. The logic here is quite simple and
plain: If I am part of God I must be sinless, or part of God would be
sinful. If I am without sin I must have holy perception as well.

How I see myself affects how I see the world. My holiness envelops the world
if I see myself as holy. My awfulness envelops the world if I see myself as
awful. If I am willing to see the world enveloped in holiness, I can learn
to see myself that way.

I know, that sounds like I have it backwards; the order "should be" that I
see myself holy first, and then the world. The thing of it is, what keeps me
from seeing myself as holy is my unwillingness to see the world that way.

>From within the ego mind-set, it seems as if seeing the world as holy will

make me unholy by comparison. The ego always thinks in terms of comparison.
The fact is that as I see the world, so I see myself, and as I see myself,
so I see the world.

The ego mind will insist it must be one way or the other because it operates
on a presumption of separateness. The Holy Spirit presents it both ways at
once because He operates on the presumption of unity. There is no separation
between myself and what I see; there is only the one.