LESSON 52
Today's review covers these ideas:
1. I am upset because I see what is not there.
Reality is never frightening. It is impossible that it could upset me. Reality brings only perfect peace. When I am upset, it is always because I have replaced reality with illusions I made up. The illusions are upsetting because I have given them reality, and thus regard reality as an illusion. Nothing in God's creation is affected in any way by this confusion of mine. I am always upset by nothing.
2. I see only the past.
As I look about, I condemn the world I look upon. I call this seeing. I hold the past against everyone and everything, making them my enemies. When I have forgiven myself and remembered Who I am, I will bless everyone and everything I see. There will be no past, and therefore no enemies. And I will look with love on all that I failed to see before.
3. My mind is preoccupied with past thoughts.
I see only my own thoughts, and my mind is preoccupied with the past. What, then, can I see as it is? Let me remember that I look on the past to prevent the present from dawning on my mind. Let me understand that I am trying to use time against God. Let me learn to give the past away, realizing that in so doing I am giving up nothing.
4. I see nothing as it is now.
If I see nothing as it is now, it can truly be said that I see nothing. I can see only what is now. The choice is not whether to see the past or the present; the choice is merely whether to see or not. What I have chosen to see has cost me vision. Now I would choose again, that I may see.
5. My thoughts do not mean anything.
I have no private thoughts. Yet it is only private thoughts of which I am aware. What can these thoughts mean? They do not exist, and so they mean nothing. Yet my mind is part of creation and part of its Creator. Would I not rather join the thinking of the universe than to obscure all that is really mine with my pitiful and meaningless "private" thoughts?
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Lesson 52
Review of Lessons 6-10
This lesson review is helpful in jarring my notions about what is real. I need to recognize that the thoughts that I am thinking that make this world seem real are insane. These thoughts about a world of separate, individual forms mean nothing because they are nothing. When I try to make them something, I need to realize that this is trying to put up a barrier against God, trying to make something other than God real.
Jesus is helping me recognize these illusions, this image making for what it is. I need this reminder many times a day because I have done a good job in making these images seem very real. It is like I am in a virtural reality suit and have forgotten that it is just a fantasy story that I made up. The fantasy story is still just a fantasy. It is not real. I am not the dream I am experiencing. In Reality, the whole Sonship is still one extension of God’s eternal Love. Everyone that seems separate in the dream in truth is the same Love.Today I am willing to take time out from being involved with my fantasy dream of separation to remember that it is just a dream. Only the Love I extend means anything. This Love is eternal and changeless.
The sentence that stood out to me today that hasn’t before was that I am trying to use time against God. That doesn’t seem obvious. But realizing that I see only the past, which is unreal, means I am using the past to obscure my vision of reality, which is God. Without time there would be no past. Time is a mechanism for breaking eternity into little pieces. It makes it seem as though eternity can have a past and a future. Yet neither the past nor the future are here, so they cannot be real. Thus the idea of time is a way of keeping me unaware of the eternal present and unaware of Love, of God.
Hanging on to images from the past is what unforgiveness is. That is why I must forgive all the images from the past that I carry in my mind. It is through this forgiveness that I clear my vision so that I can see the Love that is ever present.
Forgiveness is the means to see God. Today I ask Holy Spirit to help me see all things anew without shadows from the past and with His shining Light. In this seeing I will see my brother as one with me. I will see God in my brother. In this vision I find peace, for there is no conflict in what is one with me. The barriers to Love are gone and I know the peace of God is mine.
What perfect timing for these lessons. I went to bed last night unhappy with my actions that evening. I woke up feeling burdened by the past. It took some effort, but with the help of today's lessons I was able to put aside the past and I feel as if a great weight has been lifted from me.
When I woke up I felt depressed and hopeless as I faced a long unwelcome day. Now I feel light and joyous and look forward to another opportunity to think with God. I gladly give up my private, meaningless thoughts. If I forget, then I'll just try again. I will do my best not to use time against God. If He can be patient with me, then I can be patient with myself.
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