ONECourse of MiraclesLesson 88 repeats Lessons 75 and 76.
The reality is peaceful. Lesson 75 Review
I choose to recognize the well-being around me.
Freedom from mental and emotional pain is a choice I make. This choice is to acknowledge the enduring qualities of creation and the unreal qualities of destruction.
Choosing a path of pain or violence doesn't make the pain or violence real. It only makes pain my experience. But my experience is not an accurate representation of what is really going on in this world. My experience is limited.YI can't understand this world. (Lesson 25)
The pain is not real. It hurts a lot, but it doesn't have that intensityreal. When we pay attention to the darkness, we make that state real to our experience. But we don't have the power to make the darkness real. Darkness is an absence, a nothing without real consequences.
Violence does not exist in true reality. But it can exist in our chosen experience. And violence is what we choose in this moment. To end this constant pain, we must recognize the difference between what is real and what is an illusion. Creative energy is never destructive. Eternally create for the joy of creating.
In this lesson we are invited to reflect on the belief that violence is not real. Violence hurts, but that pain is not real in relation to the eternal and timeless peace of reality. It's temporary, it lasts as long as we pay attention to it. Validating pain as real means perpetuating it and turning it into suffering. Dwelling on pain means making pain a constant experience. It is within our power to end this state of suffering by remembering that pain is an illusion contained within a much larger field.
Knowing that suffering ends is the beginning of the cessation of suffering. Don't pay attention to the pain. Address the qualities of light wherever you are. Even in the darkest dungeons there is still a kind of peace.
It is not possible to dwell in what is impermanent.The pain trigger is mlike the process of waking up from sleep. The emerging awareness of what is true cannot be stopped in the same way that the process of awakening is unstoppable. We can't sleep. Of course we're going up.alike,we cannot remain in suffering. We will emerge from this one way or another, for the light is what it is and the awakening has begun.
"This situation with this person cannot annul the peace I've achieved internally because nothing annuls the light that came to earth."
"I now choose to see in this person before me our shared interest in peace."
"I know that (name) wants peace as much as I want peace. The path you are on leads inevitably to the light, as does my path.”
“I don't understand the ways of anyone. But I can know that all roads lead to the light.
"In this situation, I will be very careful not to add descriptions that don't actually exist. I will give my full attention to what is real.”
I am ruled only by the light. Review of Lesson 76
Violence and destruction are not energy forces. They are the opposite and therefore they are nothing. The (apparent) violent event is not creative and therefore does not have a permanent and eternal character. Reality is eternal because it is creative.
A Course in Miracles challenges us to see pain and violence as unreal. It doesn't ask us to convince ourselves that something doesn't hurt when it does. He asks us to understand that the pain is not real. Violence hurts, but it doesn't go any further. It is not permanent in nature. It's not real in the same way that peace is real.
There is no external force of destruction against us. If there were, we wouldn't exist. We would already be destroyed because there would be no counteracting or overcoming of an external destructive force. Once we exist, the field in which we exist is of a quality conducive to existence. it's creative. There are no other laws than the creative conditions of life. We exist as part of eternity. It is not possible to destroy eternity. It is an unassailable strength and power. The connection with eternity within you offers unlimited ease and resources through whatever you work with in the physical world.
We are not subject to any other law greater than reality. There are no other laws and therefore the effects we may experience from temporary events of other conditions are not of a serious nature.
This can upset those who suffer a great deal and feel overwhelmed by the intensity of their pain and the realization of how unjust that pain is. But again, ACIM isn't asking us to convince ourselves that pain doesn't hurt. That's an insane request. We are asked to reflect on how serious this pain really is in relation to our true state of being.
The story of a man nailed to the cross and slowly dying is a story of outrageous violence. The purpose of the story is to show that physical pain and mental confusion are temporary. Suffering is transcended in this story to convey a message that it is possible to disempower violence as a permanent thing. As the man who survived this ordeal said in the story, "It is finished." He asked us to make this process of overcoming confusion come true in our own minds as well. What he went through and overcame is also understood as the ordeal we went through and overcame.
Because thoughts are connected, what you get is what you get in this world too. We can learn and grow through peace and joy. Indeed, peace and joy are the only way to learn, for there is nothing else to learn but this eternal prosperity. Once we learn about the true nature of reality and understand that there are no real states other than this state of grace, we discard violent experiences as learning methods.
Nothing can be learned from pain except that we don't want it. Pain and suffering are not a law of the cosmos. Light does not need darkness to exist. Light exists without opposites. But this is not a condition that we can perceive or understand in a physical body. The physical body is not an accurate source of information. The physical body is an expression of a person's state of mind. The mind is eternal, and so the mind is free to invent seeming "realities" that are neither true nor permanent. True reality allows me to choose what I believe to be true. But if I'm convinced of something, that doesn't mean that I'm right in my decision. It means I'm free to feel good while I'm wrong. I can choose to follow a more precise path of perception by first realizing that my mind has tremendous power. This power is governed by a constant welfare state.
When the pain comes today, I can expand my awareness around it and remind myself, "Even though it hurts, it's not bad compared to who I really am."
"This confusion or pain I'm feeling right now isn't real. It hurts, but I don't have to pay attention for fear."
"I can bring my attention to a more stable focus and lessen the force of the pain I'm feeling."
"I can recall a larger, more reliable state of experience beyond this transient painful event."