ARCIM

Daily Lesson 29 ~
January 29

The Divine is in everything I see.

The idea for today explains why you can experience all Meaning and Purpose – the Meaning and Purpose of the Universe – in any single thing you see. It explains why nothing is separate, by itself or in itself. And it explains why nothing you look upon means anything in Reality. In fact, it explains every idea we have practiced thus far, and all subsequent ones as well. Today’s idea is the whole basis for vision, or true perception.

You will probably find this idea very difficult to grasp at this point. You may find it silly, senseless, hilarious, irreverent, or even objectionable. Certainly the Divine is not in a table, for example, as it may be currently perceived. Yet we emphasized in the previous lesson that a table shares the Meaning and Purpose of the Universe. And what shares the Meaning and Purpose of the Universe shares the Meaning and Purpose of the Creator of the Universe.

We continue then, today, learning how to conceive and perceive all things with open-mindedness, appreciation, and Love, so that we may learn to see the Divine in each thing, which is seeing. You will know when you are seeing. It will be different than anything your perceiving has ever shown you, and no words will be able to describe it. Our question today is: do you want to know the Essence of each thing you perceive? Nothing is as it appears to eyes that look. Each thing’s holy Meaning and Purpose are beyond the body’s eyes’ little range of perception. When vision has shown you the Holiness that lights up the world, you will understand today’s idea perfectly. And it will be incomprehensible how you could ever have found it senseless or difficult.

Our six two-minute practice periods for today should follow a now familiar pattern. Begin with repeating the idea to yourself, and then apply it to randomly chosen subjects around you, naming each one specifically. Try to avoid the tendency toward self-directed selection, which may be particularly tempting in connection with today’s idea because of its entirely alien nature. Remember that any order you impose is equally alien to Reality.

Your list of subjects should therefore be as free of self-selection as possible. For example, a suitable list might include:

“The Divine is in this coat hanger.”

“The Divine is in this magazine.”

“The Divine is in this ring.”

“The Divine is in that cloud.”

“The Divine is in that pickup truck.”

“The Divine is in that tree.”

In addition to the assigned practice periods, repeat the idea for today at least once an hour, looking slowly about you as you say the words unhurriedly to yourself. At least once or twice you should experience a sense of restfulness as you do this.

 

Corresponding Text Section

 

Principle of Miracles 29

By allowing miracles to be performed through you, the levels of your awareness: the conscious, subconscious, and superconscious, and the sublevels of your subconscious, are placed in their right relationship to each other.

Commentary

When miracles become natural reflexes or responses to every situation, they come from the involuntary level of awareness underlying normal awareness, i.e., the subconscious. (Pioneering psychologist Sigmund Freud was right about the classification of three main levels of consciousness, but only partially correct about their names and functions. He was also right that the content of everyday consciousness or awareness is fleeting.) Miracles transform the subconscious level of awareness from one of unconsciousness to one of responsiveness.

Revelations come from the level of awareness transcending normal awareness, the superconscious level.

The conscious level of awareness is in between the unconscious (or subconscious) and superconscious levels and reacts in varying ratios to either unconscious / subconscious impulses or superconscious inspirations. The conscious level is that level that engages in the world and is capable of responding to both external and internal impulses. Having no impulses from itself and being primarily a mechanism for generating responses to impulses, it can choose wisely or shortsightedly in what it identifies with.

For example, if consciousness identifies with the body and its compulsions and repulsions, it may distort superconscious inspirations by denying their Source, yet seeking their impact in the transcendent experience of orgasm. This is the result of mistakenly identifying one type of transcendence with another. Just as the extremely personal sense of closeness to Creation involved in revelation may be sought in sexual relationships, there are some similarities in the experiential results of revelation and orgasm, but hardly in the content.

Sex is far too often associated with lack of Love, but revelation is always purely a Love experience. Physical closeness cannot achieve this. Subconscious impulses properly responded to prompt miracles, which are genuinely interpersonal, and result in true closeness to others. Subconscious impulses can be misunderstood by a personally-willful consciousness as impulses toward sexual gratification, i.e., as sexual impulses. Avoiding this misunderstanding is why subconscious impulses should be under superconscious control.

Revelation unites minds directly with the Divine. Miracles unite minds directly with each other. Neither originates from the conscious level, but both are experienced there. This is essential to remember, because the conscious level is the state that produces action in response, in various ratios, to the subconscious and superconscious levels, though it does not inspire these actions. You are free to believe what you choose to believe, to respond to the inspirations and impulses you choose to respond to, and what you do – the way you choose to respond – attests to what you believe.

The deepest sublevel of the subconscious always contains miracle impulses, but everyone has the choice to fill the more superficial sublevels of the subconscious, that is, those closer to consciousness, with the impulses of this world, and to identify with them. This results in denying oneself access to the miracle sublevel in the deepest part of the subconscious. If this is chosen, then in conscious actions one’s interpersonal relationships also become more superficial, and miracle-inspired relating is experienced as becoming less possible.

Revelation is intensely personal, and is actually not translatable into generalized conscious content at all. Revelations therefore generate only experience—the experience of the revelation as it is being received. Because of this, attempts to describe revelations in words are usually incomprehensible even to the person describing the revelations and revisiting their words at another time. (Note, however, that the Divine’s scribes have a particular role in the Plan of Atonement because they have the ability to experience revelations and to put into words enough of the experience to serve as a basis for miracles.) This is why the biblical “Book of Revelation” is essentially incomprehensible, even if it was prophecy when received.

Because of their impersonal nature, miracles, on the other hand, inspire interpersonal action, which is more useful at this time in the Process of Atonement. In this phase of learning toward awakening, miracles are more valuable than revelation because the freedom from fear experienced in revelation is temporary, and cannot be thrust upon you. Achieving that freedom has to be learned. Through miracles you learn how to bring about release from fear and enter revelation readiness.