Daily Lesson

  

L e s s o n  9    

I see nothing as it is now.

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Hear Today's Lesson~Voice & Music by
Martin Weber-Caspers [maz] 
<GUIDANCE from ELDER BROTHER>

¹ This idea obviously follows from the two preceding ones. But while you may be able to accept it intellectually, it is unlikely that it will mean anything to you as yet. However, understanding is not necessary at this point. In fact, the recognition that you do not understand is a prerequisite for undoing your false ideas. These exercises are concerned with practice, not with understanding. You do not need to practice what you really understand. It would indeed be circular to aim at understanding and assume that you have it already.

² It is difficult for the untrained mind to believe that what seems to be pictured before it is not there. This idea can be quite disturbing and may meet with active resistance in any number of forms. Yet that does not preclude applying it. No more than that is required for these or any other exercises. Each little step will clear a little of the darkness away, and understanding will finally come to lighten every corner of the mind which has been cleared of the debris that darkens it.

³ These exercises, for which three or four practice periods are sufficient, involve looking about you and applying the idea for the day to whatever you see, remembering the need for its indiscriminate application and the essential rule of excluding nothing. For example:

⁴ I do not see this typewriter as it is now.
I do not see this key as it is now.
I do not see this telephone as it is now.

⁵ Begin with things that are nearest you, and then extend the range:

⁶ I do not see that coat rack as it is now.
I do not see that face as it is now.
I do not see that door as it is now.

⁷ It is emphasized again that while complete inclusion should not be attempted, specific exclusion must be avoided. Be sure you are honest in making this distinction. You may be tempted to obscure it.

Workbook - Part 1
 Introduction 

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Voice & Music by Martin Weber-Caspers [maz] 

¹ A theoretical foundation such as the text is necessary as a background to make these exercises meaningful. Yet it is the exercises which will make the goal possible. An untrained mind can accomplish nothing. It is the purpose of these exercises to train the mind to think along the lines which the course sets forth.

² The exercises are very simple. They do not require more than a few minutes, and it does not matter where or when you do them. They need no preparation. They are numbered, running from 1 to 365. The training period is one year. Do not undertake more than one exercise a day.

³ The purpose of these exercises is to train the mind to a different perception of everything in the world. The workbook is divided into two sections, the first dealing with the undoing of what you see now and the second with the restoration of sight. It is recommended that each exercise be repeated several times a day, preferably in a different place each time and, if possible, in every situation in which you spend any long period of time. The purpose is to train the mind to generalize the lessons, so that you will understand that each of them is as applicable to one situation as it is to another.

⁴ Unless specified to the contrary, the exercise should be practiced with the eyes open, since the aim is to learn how to see. The only rule that should be followed throughout is to practice the exercises with great specificity. Each one applies to every situation in which you find yourself and to everything you see in it. Each day's exercises are planned around one central idea, the exercises themselves consisting of applying that idea to as many specifics as possible. Be sure that you do not decide that there are some things you see to which the idea for the day is inapplicable. The aim of the exercises will always be to increase the application of the idea to everything. This will not require effort. Only be sure that you make no exceptions in applying the idea.

⁵ Some of the ideas you will find hard to believe, and others will seem quite startling. It does not matter. You are merely asked to apply them to what you see. You are not asked to judge them, nor even to believe them. You are asked only to use them. It is their use which will give them meaning to you, and show you they are true. Remember only this-you need not believe them, you need not accept them, and you need not welcome them. Some of them you may actively resist. None of this will matter nor decrease their efficacy. But allow yourself to make no exceptions in applying the ideas the exercises contain. Whatever your reactions to the ideas may be, use them. Nothing more than this is required.

ACIM Edmonton - Sarah's Reflections 

Lesson  9  
I see nothing as it is now.     

Sarah's Commentary:         

This lesson follows on what was said previously. In fact, it is a repeat, in different words, of Lesson 7 "I see only the past." Again we are being told  that we see nothing as it is now. Again we are reminded that it is not that important whether we understand what is being said here right now. In fact, the truth is that we don't, not because we don't understand the words but because we are very defended against the truth.  We will understand when we have the experience and this comes in the holy instant. And in that instant there is nothing to see. There is no body. It is a moment of glimpsing the eternal Self that we are.  So even if we do accept  this intellectually, "it is unlikely that it will mean anything to you as yet." (1.1)  He goes further to tell us that recognizing that we don't understand is good, in that it is a required part for "undoing your false ideas". Why does he say that?  Basically when we see that we don't understand we are willing to be taught. We willingly practice the lesson as prescribed, rather than trying to figure it out.   

Today we are asked to apply the idea to whatever we see.(3.1) So, for three or four times during the day we apply this idea to whatever we see, being indiscriminate in the application and excluding nothing, beginning with the things nearby and extending the range outward. "It is emphasized again that while complete inclusion should not be attempted, specific exclusion should be avoided. Be sure you are honest with yourself in making this distinction. You may be tempted to obscure it." (5.1-3)  

Why is Jesus telling us this? Because we may think, for example, that we do so see this telephone as it is now. We do think that we know and understand what we are seeing. In other words we simply resist the idea that we don't see anything as it is now. In fact the picture we are seeing of anything is not even there. It is all a projection. Paragraph 2 says that it is difficult for the untrained mind to believe that what it seems to picture is not there. This idea can be quite disturbing and may meet with active resistance in any number of forms. Yet that does not preclude applying it. No more than that is required for these or any other exercises. "Each small step will clear a little of the darkness away, and understanding will come to lighten every corner of the mind that has been cleared of the debris that darkens it." (2.5) So it is all about clearing away that which interferes with vision. It is the basis for forgiveness because we will begin to see that what we are forgiving never even happened. It was all just part of this illusion that we are projecting.  

These lessons are thus all about undoing the way we currently see things. It is about opening our minds to the possibility that what we see in the world is just a reflection of what is in our minds. The movie of our lives is already over. We are just reacting to events that have already happened. We are experiencing them as if they are happening now. This turns everything upside down from what we think is true.  Why would we put effort into learning something that we already know? This is new learning. It fits with the previous lessons which tell us that our minds are actually blank because they are totally preoccupied with past thoughts. And past thoughts, also include our future plans because they too are already over since time is already over, something that we don't get at this moment either. And we don't want to get it because if time is already over then we are not here either. And when we take that thought in it is quite terrifying.

If you find yourself arguing with this lesson or any other lesson, just be aware of how much resistance there is to these ideas. Jesus knows we have this resistance because the ego is a defense against these thoughts.  All we need to do is be willing to do the practice and if we are not willing, we can ask for help with willingness. The important thing is not to strain and not to fight yourself.   

We have convinced ourselves of the truth of what we see and we believe that "seeing is believing". We think that if we see something it is real. Jesus is raising this "reality" to question. Is it possible that what we are seeing is not real at all but just a projection?... in fact just a hallucinating mind!!? Is it possible that we really can't trust our eyes? Is it possible that our whole world is made up of these kinds of false concepts? And yes, such a thought will initially be very unsettling. But that is the whole idea! Everything we think we know is being put to question.

It is not a big leap to recognize that we all see the same thing differently. In fact recently the Supreme Court ruled that lower courts are not to rely on eye witnesses to the extent that they have because of  faulty perceptions. Perception will invariably be untrustworthy when we realize that we are all just projecting the content of our past thoughts and past associations. We watched the movie "Warrior" recently, and the perceptions around it, like with anything, were very different. Clearly we were all experiencing the events on the screen from our own past associations. Thus nothing can be said to be true, if everyone has their own truth about what they are seeing and believing.  

Time is given to us to awaken to the truth of who we are as eternal beings.   Chapter 15.I, "The Two Uses of Time" talks of how we can waste time by using it for ego purposes or we can use time for awakening to who we truly are. Wasting time is tragic. Time, when used for its intended purpose, awakens us to our glorious reality. These exercises are all given us for that purpose.  "This lesson takes no time. For what is time without a past and a future? It has taken time to misguide you so completely, but it takes no time at all to be what you are. Begin to practice the Holy Spirit's use of time as a teaching aid to happiness and peace." (T.15.I.9.1-4)

It is really reassuring to know that in undoing what we have taught ourselves, that the Holy Spirit will substitute our self-taught concepts with ones that can bring us happiness and peace. Only our willingness to do this practice is needed. We continue to ask the Holy Spirit to reinterpret what we see so we can be freed from our perceptions of how we think things are. When we turn our perceptions over to Him to reinterpret them for us, we allow the mind to be released from its imprisoned state of stale thoughts. Each moment of willingness to do this work brings more healing to the mind until we reach the gate of Heaven.

Sarah's Home Page

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A Course in Miracles   
TEXT  

Chapter One 

Introduction to Miracles

I. Principles of Miracles

40. ⁵⁷ The miracle dissolves error because the Spiritual eye identifies error as false or unreal. This is the same as saying that by perceiving light, darkness automatically disappears.

⁵⁸ Darkness is lack of light, as sin is lack of love. It has no unique properties of its own. It is an example of the "scarcity" fallacy, from which only error can proceed. Truth is always abundant. Those who perceive and acknowledge that they have everything have no need for driven behavior of any kind.

41. ⁵⁹ The miracle acknowledges all men as your brothers and mine. It is a way of perceiving the universal mark of God in them. The specialness of God's Sons does not stem from exclusion but from inclusion. All my brothers are special. If they believe they are deprived of anything, their perception becomes distorted. When this occurs, the whole family of God, or the Sonship, is impaired in its relationships. Ultimately, every member of the family of God must return. The miracle calls him to return because it blesses and honors him even though he may be absent in spirit.

⁶⁰ "God is not mocked" is not a warning but a reassurance on this point. God would be mocked if any of His creations lacked holiness. The creation is whole, and the mark of wholeness is holiness.

42. ⁶¹ Wholeness is the perceptual content of miracles. It thus corrects or atones for the faulty perception of lack anywhere.

⁶² Here we begin to make the fundamental distinction between miracles and projection. The stimulus must precede the response and will also determine the kind of response that is evoked. Behavior is response, so that the question "response to what?" becomes crucial. Since stimuli are identified through perception, you first perceive the stimulus and then behave accordingly. It follows, then, that:

⁶³ As ye perceive,
So shall ye behave.

⁶⁴ The Golden Rule asks you to behave toward others as you would have them behave toward you. This means that the perception of both must be accurate. The Golden Rule is the rule for appropriate behavior. You cannot behave appropriately unless you perceive accurately, because appropriate behavior depends on lack of level confusion. The presence of level confusion always results in variable reality testing and therefore in variability in behavioral appropriateness. Since you and your neighbor are equal members of the same family, as you perceive both, so you will behave toward both. The way to perceive for Golden Rule behavior is to look out from the perception of your own holiness and perceive the holiness of others.

⁶⁵ The emptiness engendered by fear should be replaced by love because love and its absence are in the same dimension, and correction cannot be undertaken except within a dimension. Otherwise, there has been a confusion of levels. Death is a human affirmation of a belief in fate, or level confusion. That is why the Bible says, "There is no death" and why I demonstrated that death does not exist. I came to fulfill the law by reinterpreting it. The law itself, if properly understood, offers only protection to man. It is those who have not yet "changed their minds" who entered the "hellfire" concept into it.

⁶⁶ I assure you that I will witness for anyone who lets me and to whatever extent he permits it. Your witnessing demonstrates your belief and thus strengthens it. Those who witness for me are expressing through their miracles that they have abandoned the belief in deprivation in favor of the abundance they have learned belongs to them.

43. ⁶⁷ A major contribution of miracles is their strength in releasing man from his misplaced sense of isolation, deprivation, and lack.

⁶⁸ Miracles are affirmations of Sonship, which is a state of completion and abundance. Whatever is true and real is eternal and cannot change or be changed. The Soul is therefore unalterable because it is already perfect, but the mind can elect the level it chooses to serve. The only limit which is put on its choice is that it cannot serve two masters.

⁶⁹ The mind, if it elects to do so, becomes a medium by which the Soul creates along the line of its own creation. If it does not freely elect to do so, it retains its creative potential but places itself under tyrannous rather than genuinely authoritative control. As a result it imprisons, because such are the dictates of tyrants. To change your mind means to place it at the disposal of true Authority.

⁷⁰ The miracle is thus a sign that the mind has chosen to be led by Christ in His service. The abundance of Christ is the natural result of choosing to follow Him. All shallow roots must be uprooted because they are not deep enough to sustain you. The illusion that shallow roots can be deepened and thus made to hold is one of the distortions on which the reversal of the Golden Rule rests. As these false underpinnings are given up, the equilibrium is temporarily experienced as unstable. However, the fact is that nothing is less stable than an orientation that is upside down. Nor can anything which holds it that way be really conducive to greater stability.