Part 1 Undoing the Way We See Things Now
Lesson 33 There is another way of looking at the world.
- Today’s idea is an attempt to recognize that you can shift your perception of the world in both its outer and inner aspects. A full five minutes should be devoted to the morning and evening applications. In these practice periods, the idea should be repeated as often as you find comfortable, though unhurried applications are essential. Alternate between surveying your outer and inner perceptions, but without an abrupt sense of shifting.
- Merely glance casually around the world you perceive as outside yourself, then close your eyes and survey your inner thoughts with equal casualness. Try to remain equally uninvolved in both, and to maintain this detachment as you repeat the idea throughout the day.
- The shorter exercise periods should be as frequent as possible. Specific applications of today’s idea should also be made immediately, when any situation arises which tempts you to become disturbed. For these applications, say: There is another way of looking at this.
- Remember to apply today’s idea the instant you are aware of distress. It may be necessary to take a minute or so to sit quietly and repeat the idea to yourself several times. Closing your eyes will probably help in this form of application.[1]
Notes and Personal Application (2019) Today was a rather busy day and I did do the five-minute exercise in the morning and then throughout the day, but I did not do the five-minute exercise period in the evening. Still I did apply the idea to many things – and I did have a wonderful day. I saw James differently, and I saw Sam’s Club differently. I saw Gander Mountain differently, money differently and spending money differently. I saw my past differently. I saw our friends Peggy and Roger differently. I saw messing up the time we were going to meet this morning differently (that was a good feeling – letting myself off the hook for thinking 9:30 instead of 9:00). I saw getting weary differently, I saw my housekeeping “lacks” differently to where there was no lack in this regard. I saw my body differently. I saw our food differently.
I ask Jesus to guide and protect me and keep me on the right path. I have followed the guidance of Jesus in studying the Course, and I trust in Jesus to protect my mind.
Notes and Personal Application (2020): This morning we had our devotional with our second cup of coffee, and as we went through the idea for today and then discussed it afterwards, I was reminded that this is a mind training curriculum. We train our mind to see things differently in order to see with the vision of Christ. As long as we are content to see things in a separated state, we are always going to see things as happening to us and around us and avoid looking at our thoughts as a cause. We will believe that the world is the cause, that other people are the cause, that situations outside of our own control are causing us pain and sorrow, joy and fulfillment.
When we begin to see things differently, when we accept our identification as the Sons of God, we realize that our minds are the cause of the world we see. When we change our minds about what we see and begin to see God in everything we immediately recognize ourselves as one with God and with one another. No longer are we victimized by the outside world; no longer do we identify with our vulnerable bodies; no longer can we be so easily manipulated by our human drives – because we see past the illusion and to the certainty of God.
During the month of January I felt as if I had fallen in a pit of lethargy – there were days in which the lessons – the second time around – were dull to me, the text tedious, the diet and exercise plan outlined to me by the Holy Spirit too restrictive. Although I fully believe in Jesus and the divinity of A Course in Miracles, I was plagued by doubts about my own ability to stick with it, to be of any real service, to be anything but the impulsive, fun-loving, changeable old gal that I have always been. There were times I thought that perhaps I was making up the whole thing. Not the curriculum of course, but the guidance of the Holy Spirit. What if I am just hearing voices in my head which I should ignore and try my best to be as normal as possible?
Seeing new followers on my blog, receiving supportive emails, study group members expressing any kind of gratitude or reliance upon my input and teaching, I was filled with panic. What if I am being misled? What if there is nothing to this? Do I really want to put myself out for others like this? What is in it for me? I could be doing a lot of other fun and interesting things… When James expressed how much he missed his lessons on the days in which I could not pull myself out of this slump, I thought well he might as well know the truth about me. I cannot share myself with others, not even him, on this deep and intimate of a level. How can I confess to others that Jesus talks to me, that the Holy Spirit guides me, that from my earliest memory, all I wanted to do was return to God? What if they think that I am bonkers? I was afraid.
Then I read about the split will and realized that the split will has been the bane of my life. Jesus says in Chapter 2 IX v. 10: “…Only your mind can produce fear. It does so whenever it is conflicted in what it wills, thus producing inevitable strain because willing and doing become discordant. This can not be corrected by better doing. But it can be corrected by higher willing[2]!” (Exclamation point is my own.)
Later on in the chapter there is a beautiful prayer[3], which Jesus instructed Helen to pray when she was facing the same dilemma in her fear of and skepticism toward her own calling. I have paraphrased this prayer and share it with you, hoping it will strengthen your devotion and heighten your God-willing!
Dear Heavenly Father:
I pray that my will be united with Yours, I want to recognize that Your perfect love will correct my imperfect love.
I pray that I will accept the Atonement with conviction, recognizing its immeasurable worth and my own divine worth when I identify with You.
I pray that my fear be replaced by an engaged sense of Your love and that Your ongoing willingness to help me overcomes my divided and inconstant will when it comes to my resistance to fulfilling what You have called me to do.
I accept the course You have chosen for me as from You; the Voice which speaks to me as the Holy Spirit, and I affirm that my will be in perfect accord with Your will in accepting and acting upon and teaching what You have called me to do. Here I am, Lord, I am Yours. In the name of Christ Jesus, I pray. Amen.
There is another way of looking at the world that infuses our lives with meaning and purpose. It delivers us from the lonely, isolation of our individual lives. We are not alone. God speaks to all of us whether we want to acknowledge it or not. God is in our minds, God is in everything we see, God is calling to all of us – let us say together, Here we are, we are Yours.
[1] A Course in Miracles. Workbook for Students, Lesson 33 There is another…Circle of Atonement, Complete and Annotated Edition (2017), p. 989.
[2] A Course in Miracles. Chapter 2, Section IX. v. 10. Circle of Atonement, Complete and Annotated Edition, (2017). pp. 89-90
[3] A Course in Miracles. Chapter 2, Section IX. v. 14. Circle of Atonement, Complete and Annotated Edition, (2017). p. 91.
the friar patch 