CIM Lessons 264-270 and Miracles Principle #39

Miracles Principle # 39: “The miracle dissolves error because the Holy Spirit identifies error as false or unreal. This is the same as saying that by perceiving light, darkness automatically disappears.” The Holy Spirit realizes that all errors are false or unreal. There are no gradations in errors. One times zero is the same as a thousand times zero. Once I recognize the truth of who I am, the errors of the ego will disappear because all that holds them in place are my thoughts about them. There’s nothing out there that’s real. It’s only my thoughts that make the things of the world seem real in my mind. I can’t forgive a “sin” once I’ve made it real. I can’t say the world is an illusory “classroom” as long as I believe the darkness is real. As we’ve said earlier in class, if I look outside myself and see error, sin, lack, or illness, all that I am doing is projecting my own fears onto the “screen” of life. If I correct my error thinking about myself, if I accept the truth of my Oneness with All That Is, what I “see” outside myself will change. This is quite literal!

This past week, we talked a little about manifesting things—as per The Secret. When I concern myself with manifesting things, I’m merely choosing to play with the illusion. It’s an okay place to start, in that manifesting through the will of the mind can demonstrate the reality of the power of thought. Plus, it’s easier to focus on what’s really important when our bellies aren’t growling with hunger. But if I really want to manifest the ongoing Happy Dream, what is necessary is to know my Oneness with my Creator. So a good place to start, as Jesus says in CIM, is to tell myself a thousand times a day—until it “takes root” so to speak—that I am One with my Creator. All that God is I am. I am God’s beloved. Repeat these phrases, or similar ones that have meaning for you, until their truth takes root. When that happens, your vibration automatically increases, and it is that increased vibration that draws to you your good. In God’s Reality like attracts like. My state of happiness attracts MORE happiness.

Lesson 264—“I am surrounded by the love of God.” The purpose of this lesson is to focus my attention on love, which is “invisible,” rather than on the body and all that is visible. There’s a passage in the Text that says: When you made visible what is not true, what IS true became invisible to you. . . It is invisible to you because you are looking at something else. (T-12.VIII.3:1,3) What is not seen is not “gone.” Love is still in everything, all around me, and I will see it if I will but stop looking at something else. Jesus says if we look at love enough, what is not there will become invisible to us. As we learn to stop wanting to see something other than love, we will stop seeing anything but love. That outcome is inevitable because love is all there is. We want to see separation, we want to see bodies, because we believe it preserves our individuality and because we think it keeps us safe from “facing the music” with God for “sins” which never occurred. The way to experience love is to give love. As I open to let love out, love will flood in. It always flows both ways. And what I’m loving is myself, not a separate thing or things. I am not a separate unit; I only exist in relationship to the Oneness.

Lesson 265—“Creation’s gentleness is all I see.” This lesson clearly states how the world comes to be, apparently, attacking us. “I laid my sins on it and saw them looking back at me.” Though it seems I’m working to forgive others, I’m always working to forgive myself. I feel guilt over some aspect of myself. I project that guilt outward. Projection makes perception. When I feel guilty, I disown a part of my own mind. There’s some part of me that feels a need to overeat, or to be angry at my mother, or to sabotage my career. I do these things because I think I deserve punishment. The original guilt comes not from any of these things, but from my deep belief that I have succeeded at making myself something other than what God created me to be. I believe I am my own creator. And since God is good, I must be evil. I can’t stand that idea and so I push away some part of my mind and lay the guilt at someone else’s feet. I need to look at what I’m afraid of until I realize that all of it is in my own mind. When at last I recognize the truth of that, I’ll be in a place where I can do something about it. If I lift the blot of my own guilt off the world, I will see its “celestial gentleness.”

Lesson 266—“My holy Self abides in you, God’s Son.” These are words I speak to my family, my friends, my boss: In you my holy Self abides. Everyone is my “savior.” Everyone points the way to God. If we’re honest, most of us will admit that we perceive our brothers as the stumbling blocks and barriers on the way to God. Let us then consider the possibility that the reason we see them that way has nothing to do with them, or with the truth. Let us consider that perhaps we’ve laid our “sins” on them and see them looking back at us. Let’s be willing to be willing to consider the possibility that our perception is truly upside down and needs to be turned right side up. Let us bring those perceptions to the Holy Spirit for healing.

Lesson 267—“My heart is beating in the peace of God.” What CIM says about us often doesn’t fit the picture of ourselves we have in our mind. The low opinion of ourselves that we constantly maintain is one of our major problems. When we do a Workbook lesson, we need to practice letting go of that poor self-image for a while. CIM constantly tells us that we actively block from our awareness the truth of what we are. We constantly underestimate and undervalue ourselves. As you read these lessons, attempt not to edit them in your mind. Just let them be true for you—at least in the moment. Agree with the way God views you, and say in response, “Yes, my mind is healed.” Read slowly. Give yourself time to absorb each phrase. Recognize your negative responses. Don’t fight or argue with them. Just decide, for these few moments, to listen to the Voice for God instead.

Lesson 268—“Let all things be exactly as they are.” This lesson has been often misconstrued. Many think it’s saying to accept “what is” means to accept what our human perceptions tell us is true. I do not accept illness or lack and limitation because God did not create illness and lack and limitation and, therefore, they are not real. I do not struggle against such illusions because that is counterproductive. I realize instead that what I’m seeing or experiencing is a product of my fear, projected out, not a creation of God. That fear is what I seek to heal.

To let things be exactly as they are means to accept that God made only perfection. If I don’t see that perfection, I need to ask Spirit to heal my thoughts about what I “see.” To say, “Let all things be exactly as they are” is an affirmation of faith that what appears to be pain and suffering is not really there. It’s a response to God’s call, drawing us up out of the world of conditions and into unconditional truth. It’s a phrase that applies not to the world we see with physical eyes, but to the world we can see only with the eyes of Christ. It doesn’t mean that we turn our eyes on a brother in suffering and callously say, “Let that be exactly what it is. There’s a lesson in there somewhere he needs to learn.” That’s equivalent to the old traditional Christian mistake of saying such things are God’s will. To think this way is to make the error real then blame it on God.

As we’ve discussed in class, however, if I’m diagnosed with cancer, I will get treatment. Why? Because as long as I walk this earth, chances are my belief in my mis-creations is so strong that to completely defy them will generate a counterproductive fear. So while I accept the “magic” of modern medicine, at the same time, I consciously recognize that I’m using a crutch only until I am confident I no longer need it.

Lesson 269—“My sight goes forth to look upon Christ’s face.” Today’s lesson is about choosing in advance to see innocence in others. When I encounter judgment in my mind, I need do nothing but recognize that it is there and believe that there’s another way to perceive it. I affirm I am willing to see it differently. I ask for help in understanding forgiveness through this experience. And I wait. I allow myself to look at the anger, the fear, the resentment I am feeling. I don’t try to “stuff” or hide it. That just perpetuates the wrong-mindedness. I recognize that I’m judging myself for feeling these things. So, as I did with the external judgment, I do with the internal: I affirm that I’m willing to see it differently and ask Spirit for help. And I wait. What happens then is of God. A shift occurs in my mind. The shift may seemingly appear in regard to the other, or in regard to myself. It doesn’t matter since the other and myself are the same. When I decide that what I want to see is only innocence, I will see only innocence.

Lesson 270—“I will not use the body’s eyes today.” Obviously this doesn’t mean I’ll walk around with a blindfold on today. Notice the word “translate” in this lesson: “Christ’s vision . . . has the power to translate all that the body’s eyes behold into the sight of a forgiven world.” We are here to heal the world by seeing it differently, and thus we also heal ourselves. The chief component of that different vision is lack of judgment. Making no demand for outward changes. Seeing that everyone and everything is worthy of love, exactly as they are. We are told to overlook error. Then we are told we don’t know how to do it. Instead, we are to turn to the Holy Spirit. Understanding the how of Atonement is not my job, not my function, but His.

Assignment: Miracles Principle #40. Lessons 271-277. Read as Spirit directs you.

Practical Application: Get out of your self this week. Look for ways to give love. CIM says the way to experience love is to give love.