ARCIM

Daily Lesson 41 ~
February 10

The Divine is with me wherever I am.

Today’s idea will eventually overcome completely the sense of abandonment and loneliness that all the separated ones experience. Depression is an inevitable consequence of experiencing separation: from Love, from one’s Source, from the Divine. So are anxiety, worry, a deep sense of helplessness, misery, suffering, and intense fear of loss.

The separated ones have invented many “cures” for what they believe to be the “ills of the world.” But the one thing they do not do in response to these perceived ills is to question the reality of the problem, that is, where the problem actually is. In fact, the effects of the problem as it is looked upon cannot be cured regardless of the effort to do so because the problem itself as constructed is not real. The real problem is the experience of separation from the Creator, not the effects of this experience. The idea for today has the Power to end confusion about the problem forever. And confusion is all the problem really is, despite the serious and tragic forms it may take as the ills of the world.

Deep within you is Everything that is perfect, ready to radiate through you into the whole world. This Power will cure all sorrow and pain and fear and loss because It will heal the mind that believed these things were real, and suffered out of its allegiance to these beliefs. It will heal the mind because It will heal the real problem the mind experiences in being in this world. It will heal the belief that the Source of Everything perfect is separate from or outside of you.

In reality you always have access to your perfect holiness because its Source is with you wherever you are and therefore goes with you wherever you go. You can be free from suffering at any time because the Source of all Joy is within you. You can know that you are never alone because the Source of all Life is with you wherever you are. And peace of mind is always available to you because the Divine goes with you wherever you go, and there is nowhere you can be and nothing that can be happening that would exclude It and Its Peace from being with you.

You do not yet believe these things because their Truth, deep within you, is currently hidden under a heavy cloud of confused and meaningless thoughts, dense and obscuring, projected onto all you look upon.

Today we will make our first real attempt to get past this dark and heavy cloud, and to go through it to the Light beyond. There will be only one long practice period today. As soon as possible after you have begun your waking day, sit quietly for some three to five minutes with your eyes closed. At the beginning of the practice period, repeat today’s idea very slowly. Then make no effort to think of anything. Try, instead, to get a sense of turning inward, past all the confused, meaningless, and idle thoughts of the world projected as the world of things surrounding you. Try to enter very deeply into your own mind, your true mind, keeping it clear of any thoughts that divert your attention from being inward.

From time to time during the practice period you may repeat today’s idea if you find it helpful. But most of all try to sink down and inward, away from the world and all the foolish, nonsensical thoughts of the world. You are trying to reach past all of these superficial thoughts and the confusion they represent. You are trying to leave the projected world of appearances and approach Reality.

It is quite possible to reach the Divine. In fact it is very easy because it is the most natural thing in the world. One might even say it is the only natural thing there is in the world. Because of this reality, the Way to the Divine will surely open if you understand that It is possible. Today’s idea is a beginning toward such understanding. Practicing it will certainly start to clear the surface thoughts distracting you from your true Thoughts, and can bring very startling results and immediate success even the first time it is attempted. Sooner or later this kind of practice is always successful, therefore we will go into more detail in connection with it as we go along.

Throughout the day use today’s idea often, repeating it very slowly, preferably with eyes closed. Reflect on what you are saying, what the words actually mean. Concentrate on the Holiness that they imply about you, on the unfailing Companionship that is yours, and on the complete Protection that surrounds you.

You can indeed let go of fear thoughts, remembering with laughter that the Divine is with you wherever you are, and goes with you everywhere you go.

 

Corresponding Text Section

 

Principle of Miracles 41

Through miracles you perceive Wholeness. Miracles thus correct, or atone for, the faulty perception of scarcity and lack.

Commentary

The difference between perceiving Wholeness or lack is the fundamental distinction between miracles and mis-projection. A stimulus must precede a response or reaction, and must also influence, and may determine, the kind of response or reaction that is evoked. The relationship of stimulus and response or reaction is therefore extremely close. Because behavior is response or reaction, the question: “response or reaction to what stimuli?” becomes crucial in distinguishing between the behaviors related to miracles and those related to mis-projections.

Stimuli of all kinds are accessed and experienced, and may be identified, through perception. You perceive a stimulus and behave according to the way you have learned to respond to that stimulus. In this regard the saying, “As you sow so shall you reap,” becomes, “As you think so shall you perceive,” and then, “As you perceive so shall you behave.”

All forms of debasing yourself because of a faulty self-image you have constructed about yourself are fundamental perceptual distortions. They inevitably produce either self-contempt or mis-projection – which is always the impulse to hurl such uncomfortable feelings away from yourself – and usually both.

This leads to a further consideration of the Golden Rule, which counsels you to behave toward others as you would have others behave toward you. This means that your perception both of yourself and of others must be accurate, that is, free of distortion resulting from level confusion.

The issue of level confusion was touched on previously when it was stated that the recognition of the true sequencing of perception – of thought always preceding and then manifesting as perception – heals at all levels, because all appearance of unwellness comes from confusing the levels. Perceptual level confusion always involves perceiving with the body’s eyes, i.e., confusing the body with the mind or the mind with the body, which can also be experienced as “mind-brain confusion”—believing that the brain generates thought rather than being a receiving device for thought. Awareness level confusion involves confusing the nature of impulses being acted on in consciousness, and the level of awareness from which control and responsibility are being experienced. Dimension level confusion involves confusing the dimension of time being served and experienced, namely either the past or a future that bypasses the present and is therefore a continuation of the past, or the present now. No level confusion is possible when seeing or when directly experiencing the superconscious or Eternity, because these can’t be entered into in a state of confusion. However, level confusion can result from assigning false attributes such as fear to seeing, to the superconscious, or to Eternity, that obviously have nothing to do with these wholly beneficent states.

The presence of level confusion always results in an unreliable sense of reality because it is ultimately confusion about dreaming and awakening, and accordingly results in an unreliable sense of what appropriate behavior in accordance with the Golden Rule is in any situation.

Since you and your sisters and brothers are equal Members of the same Divine Family, as you perceive either, so will you behave toward both. Given your Equality, the only way to perceive both yourself and your sisters and brothers accurately for appropriate Golden Rule behavior is to see the holiness of others through the vision of your own holiness.

Those who fundamentally change their mind and take responsibility for the harmfulness of their own fear thoughts need not choose to die, in the sense of death seeming to choose them without their agreement. Death as the conviction that Life has an end is a human affirmation of a belief in fate (the root of “fatality”). That is why sacred scripture says, “There is no death,” and why I demonstrated that death does not exist. Remember that I came to fulfill Divine Law by reinterpreting how human beings understood It. Divine Law Itself, if properly understood, offers only Protection to the Children of the Divine. Those who have not yet fundamentally changed their minds about the harmfulness of their own fear thoughts introduce the “hellfire” concept into their understanding of Divine Law.

This Course stated before that because “nature abhors a vacuum” it does not follow that the vacuum is filled with hellfire. The emptiness engendered by fear should be replaced by Love, because Love’s Presence and the lack of awareness of Its Presence are in the same dimension of time – now – and correction can only be undertaken within a dimension. Otherwise there will be dimension level confusion.

“Those who represent me to human beings will be represented by me before the Divine” means that you represent or “witness for” the authority in whom you believe. Your witnessing demonstrates your belief, and thus strengthens it. I assure you that I will “witness for” anyone who lets me, and to whatever extent they themselves permit it. Those who represent me and thus witness for me are expressing through their miracles that they have abandoned deprivation in favor of the Abundance they have learned belongs to them.