This lesson is about seeing everyone through the eyes of innocence, through holy vision, instead of looking for guilt, faults, warts and differences. We do see differences in bodies, personalities and at what  bodies do. And we can't deny those differences. But with vision we can recognize that we are all the same beyond what the body's eyes show us.  With the 'evidence' of our body's eyes we see people as sinful, evil, wicked, unkind, demanding, and we judge them as different than ourselves, and choosing to see  guilt in them rather than in ourselves.  And yet if we see with vision which is to see beyond the body, we will see that no matter what the differences are, we are all pure, divine, perfect, and holy. When we see anyone less than that, it provides us with an opportunity to look within at our own guilt that we are projecting onto 'others'. Thus they become a mirror of our guilt.  

I have always had difficulty with people who whine and complain about life. I have always valued a "can do" attitude. I started out years ago as a social worker until I began to recognize my need to rescue as unhealthy. When I started with the course I saw how it was all about my own vulnerability, my own weakness that I was trying to keep out of my awareness by compensating for it with a show of strength. I hated what I perceived as weakness inside, so was critical of it in others. By withdrawing the projection, we can turn anything we see "out there" and reclaim it as something we need to look at within. Does that mean that everything that we see in others is an unhealed place in ourselves? Yes, if we are judging and condemning in which case there is some form of that in us.  

On the other hand, if we are simply observing behavior without judgment then that would not be a projection of our own guilt. But we are still called to see our brothers beyond their bodies and what they are doing. When we see others as guilty we are saying that Jesus is wrong about who they are as pure and holy and what we are seeing is right. And we justify our anger and attack as we use the evidence of the sinful behavior of others.     

When we are judging the behavior of others, or interpreting them  negatively, then it is always about something that we are rejecting about ourselves. We can't heal anything about ourselves which we deny in ourselves. "The search for truth is but the honest searching out of everything that interferes with truth". The truth is already  in us. There is nowhere we have to go to find it. All we need do is bring everything that interferes with it to the Holy Spirit.  Bringing these issues into awareness is what the course asks us to do. However it is equally important that we don't get into guilt about our judgments, or crucify ourselves, only to acknowledge and release them. Looking at our mistaken perceptions without judgment is to look at them from outside of the dream with the "eyes" of love.  

It is so interesting for me to see what shows up in my experience because it has become more and more apparent to me that what I hold in my mind does appears in a reflection outside. Everything truly is a projection of our minds. We are not victims of the world. We actually draw the experiences to us that help us to look at the unhealed places in our minds. If we are experiencing issues of unworthiness, deceit or dysfunction we will draw witnesses to that. If we have issues about hanging onto money, issues of greed, then that too will show up in our experience. There are no accidents. Yes, we can get very angry about the seeming injustices of what we experience that seems to be happening to us, but it is all about our own projections coming from our minds. This is a powerful thought if we are willing to accept it as truth.  

The ego mind rejects this responsibility and prefers to be the victim of the world and insists on the reality of these experiences as being outside of our own minds. This just keeps the pain going. This only keeps the unhealed perspectives hidden from our awareness. The only way out is to apply this teaching so that the undoing of our false self concepts can make space for the miracle.   How this happens is not up to us. We are only called to look openly at the hidden places in the mind and bring them to the light with courage and honesty. The truth of who we are lies behind these self concepts and false beliefs. This truth is our inheritance and waits on our readiness to shine forth with glorious radiance. 

 The lesson asks us how we could possibly look on anything that God created as if it could be made sinful. (1.2) Only in this dream that is being dreamed by a madman can anything that God created pure, be seen as sinful. Remember in section 4, What is Sin?,  Jesus spoke of the madman's dreams as being frightening and terrifying. That is our experience. How can what is joyful, and eternal, which is the truth of our creation, be turned to "dark and fearful images." But that is what we have done when we chose the ego as our 'friend.'  So now we are asked not to buy into the behaviors of  bodies but rather to see beyond them to the truth. It does not mean we don't see the behavior, only that we know it is not the truth but simply a call for love and understanding. Yes it takes effort and it takes practice and we can't do it without the help of the Holy Spirit but we have to do our part by doing our practice and being vigilant and willing  until the Holy Spirit brings us to the experience beyond words and concepts. That is what we are going for. 

So we are asked today not only to see with Christ's vision but pass by all appearances in innocence. (2.2) What does this mean? Apparently in the Gospel of Thomas which is discussed in Gary Renard's book   "Disappearance of the Universe", there is a reference to becoming passersby which apparently has the same meaning. What is that meaning? It is basically not to get hooked in. That can be an interesting challenge. When we come across these dark and fearful images, which are forms that we give meaning to, the idea is to withdraw that meaning and the judgments that go with it and pass on by. I think it ties into the question of what is it for? Because if we get drawn into the distractions of the world we are not passing them by. At the same time we are not asked to pass by our brother but to continue to walk with them to our Father's house.  I find myself sometimes getting into arguments where I take the bait instead of remaining in a state of peace. It is actually a decision to throw away my peace and to blame someone else for having taken it. But we have given our power to a situation that instead we could choose to pass by. 

We are not passersby when our ego guilt detector goes to work and starts chewing on what someone is doing. We were at an event recently at the ballpark in the lounge where a buffet was available if you wanted to pay for it in which case you received an arm band to signify that you had bought a ticket. I saw one group where one person had the arm band signifying that they had paid for the buffet but were feeding five friends who had not paid. I found it interesting how my condemning mind was so willing to be disturbed by this event and watching what they were doing wrong.  I was having trouble just passing it buy. I had all kinds of judgments. The mind was being pulled like a magnet to a crash scene taking it all in. Actually it made me laugh when I reflected on it afterwards.  

So today, we need to commit to 1) seeing the inherent purity in someone and 2) pass by the forms of the world rather than get hooked by them,  become attached or chew on our condemning thoughts. We can do that if we ultimately realize that our true identity is not a body, but that we are created in the image of God. The lesson asks how we could possibly look on what God created as sinful. And if we perceive anything as dark and fearful, it can be only because we are projecting our own image on it in this dream because God created all that is and nothing that isn't love, is of Him. Thus it can only come from a madman's dream. Healing that dream allows us to see with holy vision."Could you but realize for a single instant the power of healing that the reflection of God shining in you can bring to all the world, you could not wait to make the mirror of your mind clean to receive the image of the holiness that heals the world." (14.IX.7.1) 

Love and blessings, Sarah

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