Today we review the following: W-21 to W-25 I
1. W-21 “I am determined to see things differently.”II
²What I now see are only signs of sickness, disaster, and death.
³This cannot be what God created for His beloved Son.III
⁴The very fact that I see such things proves that I do not understand what God is.
⁵Therefore, I do not understand what His Son is either.
⁶What I am seeing shows me that I do not know who I am.IV
⁷I am determined to see the witnesses to the truth in me, rather than those that show me an illusion of myself.
2. W-22 “What I see is a form of vengeance.”V
²The world I see is certainly not a picture of loving thoughts.
³It is an image in which everything attacks everything.VI
⁴It is anything but a reflection of the Love of God and the Love of His Son.
⁵It is my own thoughts of attack that produce this image.
⁶My loving thoughts will save me from this perception of the world and bring me the peace God intended me to have.
3. W-23 “I can escape from the world by giving up attack thoughts.”
²In this, and only this, lies my salvation.
³Without attack thoughts, I could not see a world of attack.
⁴As forgiveness allows love to return to my awareness, I will see a world of peace, safety, and joy.VII
⁵And this is what I choose to see, instead of what I look upon now.
4. W-24 “I do not perceive my own best interests.”VIII
²How can I recognize what is in my best interests when I do not know who I am?
³What I think is in my best interests would only bind me further to the world of illusions.
⁴I am willing to follow the Guide God has given me, to learn what is truly in my best interests, for I recognize that I cannot perceive it by myself.
5. W-25 “I do not know what anything is for.”
²To me, the purpose of all things is to prove that my illusions about myself are real.IX
³With this in mind, I try to use everything and everyone.
⁴I believe that this is what the world is for.
⁵And so I fail to recognize its true purpose.
⁶The purpose I have given the world has led me to see it as a fearful place.
⁷Let me open my mind to its true purpose by withdrawing the one I have given it, and thus learn the truth about the world.
I The five ideas from the reviews can be combined to build meaningful sentences, phrased as you like. For example, today you could say: “I want to see everything differently, because it is evident that what I see now is a form of vengeance, but I am sure I can escape from this wicked world I perceive simply by relinquishing my condemning judgments. It is also perfectly clear that I never perceive what is in my best interests, and this must be so because, in truth, I do not know what anything is for.”
Formulating the ideas of this Course in your own terms, as you understand them, is a very powerful learning tool; it greatly helps to make them your own and incorporate them into your thought system. This is a resource Jesus frequently proposes to us, and its effectiveness lies in the fact that, in doing so, instead of simply learning the Course, you teach it—though in this case, to yourself. Throughout the Course it is repeated that teaching and learning are the same, and that when you teach an idea, you strengthen it in your mind.
It is well to remember that your thoughts are under the Guidance of Christ, but not under His control. This means they are solely and exclusively under your own control. In fact, only you control your mind, and since learning is changing the mind, only you can change yours. If you see this clearly, only you are capable of teaching yourself. Ultimately, this Course is a compendium of proposals to change your way of thinking.
Although the third volume of this work is called the Manual for Teachers, in reality, the entirety of the Course is a true manual for teachers—for you, teacher of yourself. Therefore, every effort you make by taking the content of this Course and transforming it, by putting it in your own words for yourself, will elevate the quality of your learning and take the teaching to a new dimension.
II This is the famous phrase that Bill said to Helen which gave rise to the appearance of this Course in the world.
Jesus found in the minds of the scribes, united in a shared purpose of salvation, the ideal channel to convey His true teaching to the world.
III Matthew 3:17: “And behold, a voice from Heaven said, ‘This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.’”
IV I see what I want to see, and “to want” is to place the will in something. If that word existed in Spanish, we could say that “to want” is “to will.” And will is the function of the soul responsible for creating, that is, for extending its own existence. That is why, when we “create” in the illusion, we are projecting the idea we have about ourselves. Hence those who believe themselves innocent extend innocence, and those who feel guilty project their own guilt and see a guilty world.
V I project outward my own guilt and resentments. The mind, being unable to tolerate the weight of its own guilt, throws it outward, constructing a world in which that guilt seems to pursue me. This is what the Course calls the “world’s vengeance”: the projection of my own wickedness upon everything around me, which then seems to attack me. It is a closed cycle: I project my guilt and, seeing it reflected in the world, I perceive it as an external threat. Thus I justify my fear and my defense, reinforcing the belief in a hostile and dangerous world. The world I see is, therefore, nothing but a mirror of my own attack thoughts. That is why, as I perceive it, it is “an image in which everything is attacked by everything.”
This projection mechanism is the same as what happens in night dreams. When dreaming, I visualize my fears and resentments, believing they threaten me from outside, when in fact they are creations of my own mind. The difference is that, upon waking, I recognize that they were not real, but mere projections of my sleeping mind.
In the same way, by practicing this Lesson, I begin to awaken from the world’s dream. I start to realize that the perception of attack and vengeance does not come from the world itself, but from my attack thoughts projected outward. Then I understand that the problem is not in the world, but in my mind.
The solution, therefore, does not consist in trying to change the world or defend myself from its apparent attacks, but in changing my thoughts. “My loving thoughts will save me from this perception of the world,” because by choosing loving thoughts instead of attack thoughts, I project love instead of guilt. This is what allows me to experience the peace that God intended me to have. By changing my perception, the world I see ceases to be a threat and becomes a reflection of my own love. Thus “what I see” ceases to be “a form of vengeance” and becomes a mirror of God’s Love and the Love of His Son.
VI Because I have first attacked myself by defining myself as guilty.
VII My forgiveness will let me see a forgiven world: the real world, an illusion that reflects the Love of God to the eyes of a mind still fragmented.
VIII What is in my best interests is what I deserve. The problem here is that God and I have different ideas about that.
IX “I do not know what anything is for.” This statement reveals the root of my ignorance: I have assigned meaning and purpose to everything I see in order to uphold my separate and false identity. I have done so without questioning it, believing that the world is here to confirm my illusions about myself. My unconscious purpose is to use everything and everyone to prove that my identity as a separate “self” is real. Thus I justify my personal existence, reinforcing my beliefs about what I am and how the world should be to maintain that sense of identity. Everything and everyone becomes a means to an end: to confirm that my view of myself and of the world is correct.
This egocentric use of everything I see leads me to perceive the world as a constant threat. Why? Because, by projecting my guilt and fear, I see a world that seems to conspire against me, that seems to attack me and challenge my identity constantly. In this way I build a terrifying image of the world, full of competition, conflict, loss, and death.
The purpose I have given the world is, therefore, to maintain my sense of separation. I have unconsciously decided that the world is here to prove to me that I am alone, vulnerable, and in need of defense. This forces me to live in a constant state of alert, seeing threats everywhere.
However, the world has no inherent purpose; every purpose I attribute to it comes from my mind. This is one of the most liberating teachings of A Course in Miracles: purpose is not in things, but in the mind that perceives them. Realizing this, I can choose to set aside the purpose I have projected onto the world.
“Let me open my mind to its true purpose by withdrawing the one I have given it.” This line reveals the path to freedom. Only when I stop projecting my own purposes onto the world can I learn the truth about it. Only then can I allow the Holy Spirit to show me the true purpose of all things: to reflect the Love of God.
The function of the world, according to A Course in Miracles, is to be a classroom. It is not here to confirm my illusions or to attack my identity. It is here so that I may learn to see differently, to learn to forgive, to learn to love. By withdrawing the purpose I have given it, I allow its true purpose to be shown to me, and in doing so, I transform my perception from fear to love.
This change of purpose is the miracle that the Course offers. By ceasing to use the world to confirm my separate identity and allowing it to become a classroom of forgiveness and love, I begin to remember who I truly am. Then the world ceases to be a prison and becomes a bridge to the peace of God.