Lesson 29: God is in everything I see.

Jan 29 (edited) in Feed

🧩 LET'S NOT BE CONFUSED ABOUT THE LANGUAGE

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🌟 Kenneth Wapnick makes a very important note about the potentially misleading language used in this lesson. The first example concerns the usage of the term God:

🔎 “In this lesson, too, in saying the purpose of God is in everything I see, Jesus is really speaking of the Holy Spirit’s teaching purpose.” Excerpt from Journey through the Workbook of "A Course in Miracles", Kenneth Wapnick, Vol. 1, p 89.

🌟 This is important because God has nothing to do with our dualistic world. We set ourselves apart from him by making up this illusionary game of distorted shadows. The Holy Spirit must be understood as this intermediary reminding us of our un-severable connection to God, from whom we can never really be apart. The Holy Spirit is our Spirit in its un-split state. As in Sane Spirit VS insane spirit. And another example is given later when Jesus refers to the universe and its Creator:

📘 “Here Jesus uses the words universe and Creator loosely—another example of the “looseness” of the Course’s language—because clearly he is talking about the physical universe. But God cannot be the creator of the physical, as is unmistakably clear throughout A Course in Miracles. If you take these lines literally, you will end up pulling your hair out because they will seem to say the exact opposite of what Jesus is teaching elsewhere. You want to grasp the content of what he is teaching, rather than analyzing it to death and arguing with the form.” Excerpt from Journey through the Workbook of "A Course in Miracles", Kenneth Wapnick, Vol. 1, p 90.

🧩 SEEING AND THINKING ARE THE SAME

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🌟 When we say, "God is in everything I see", it should be clearly understood that it is only true if we share Jesus's vision, and therefore, "God is in everything I see" is merely an alternative way of saying "God is in everything I think". As Kenneth points out, this has nothing to do with our body's yees and everything to do with our interpretation of what we perceive; and consequently, the purpose we assign to it:

🔎 “As we shall see in the next lesson as well, vision has absolutely nothing to do with the body’s eyes, but with a state of mind or attitude. More specifically, vision refers to our having chosen Jesus as our teacher so his are now the “eyes” through which we see. We are taught that the inner and outer are the same. Therefore what we perceive outside is nothing more than a shadow of what we have first perceived within. When Jesus says “God is in everything I see,” he means that God is in everything I think, because seeing and thinking are the same: perception comes from thoughts, and remains one with them. The basis for vision then is seeing the purpose of God. I see forgiveness in everything I see because I have fired the ego as my teacher, and hired Jesus.” Excerpt from Journey through the Workbook of "A Course in Miracles", Kenneth Wapnick, Vol. 1, p 89.

🌟 When we don't share Christ's vision, and only see with the body-bound ego's eyes "Guilt is in everything I see", because "Guilt is in everything I think". Jesus is training us to move out of this miserable thought system by affirming the contrary, by claiming what is our potential and resurrection right. This lesson's idea and title is the first of a series of beautiful and inspiring ideas — such as "My holiness blesses the world", "I am the light of the world", etc... — that will likely not ring true immediately but Jesus is asking us to indulge him and... "fake it till we make it":

📘 "You will probably find this idea very difficult to grasp at this point. ²You may find it silly, irreverent, senseless, funny and even objectionable. ³Certainly God is not in a table, for example, as you see it. ⁴Yet we emphasized yesterday that a table shares the purpose of the universe. ⁵And what shares the purpose of the universe shares the purpose of its Creator." (ACIM, W-29.2:1-5)

🌟 Once again, as he did in yesterday's lesson, Jesus emphasizes that it's not really about the table in itself, because the table is nothing in itself; it is about the meaning and purpose we assign it. To the great displeasure of his detractors and the misguidedness of some of its students, the Course's metaphysic isn't a pantheist one but a non-dualistic through and through.

🧩 LOVE AND LIGHT WILL TRANSFORM US

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🌟 This is when this lesson gets very sweet... Try on some love, indeed... This is the first time in these lessons that Jesus directly urges us to look at the world with love. It took him almost a month... He probably didn't want to scare us, LOL! 🙈😆

📘 "Try then, today, to begin to learn how to look on all things with love, appreciation and open-mindedness. ²You do not see them now. ³Would you know what is in them? ⁴Nothing is as it appears to you. ⁵Its holy purpose stands beyond your little range. ⁶When vision has shown you the holiness that lights up the world, you will understand today’s idea perfectly. ⁷And you will not understand how you could ever have found it difficult." (ACIM, W-29.3:1-7)

🌟 So, this paragraph encourages us to practice looking at everything with love, appreciation, and an open mind. For most of us, our current perceptions are limited and do not reveal the true essence of things. Nothing is as it appears, and their "holy purpose" transcends our narrow understanding.

🌟 In his commentary, Kenneth notes the reference to Lesson 15 about seeing edges of light around objects and clarifies that Jesus isn't talking about external auras but a different way of seeing, a vision based on the light of truth and a shift from the ego's limited perspective. The ultimate understanding comes when one chooses the broader and enlightened perspective of the Holy Spirit (our sane spirit). Here, Jesus implies that there is no coming back from this experience of vision.

🌟 This idea of the transformative power of vision reminded me of Plato's Allegory of the Cave. In Plato's allegory, the man who has ascended from the cave into the light of the sun cannot return to the darkness without profound inner conflict. The light of truth has illuminated his perception, the truth he witnessed forever altered his understanding and the shadows of the cave hold no allure, and he could never willingly return to them except to urge the other beings left in the cave, still ignorant of the truth, to follow him into the light.

🌟 Likewise, in the context of The Course, once we have truly seen the holiness that lights up the world through the lens of love, appreciation, and open-mindedness, once we have accepted the holy purpose beyond our current perceptions, it becomes a paradigm shift. This new vision, rooted in truth, dispels the illusions created by the ego's narrow perspective. In both narratives, the idea is that once exposed to a higher truth, the old, limited way of seeing loses its appeal, and the individual is forever changed by the light of a more profound understanding.

💙🪄 Love and Light 🪄💙

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* My comment on this lesson follows my studying of the in-depth comment of the same lesson by Kenneth Wapnick in his published work, Journey through the Workbook of "A Course in Miracles". While it may sometimes contain my thoughts on it, it is essentially my humble take and summary of the masterful work of Kenneth. I share them here in the hope that someone might find them helpful.

** I also share, in these ACIM posts, the wallpaper images that I use on my phone and change every day to help me commit to my lesson, in the hope that some might enjoy them as well. Here is the link to a Dropbox folder where you can download the lessons's wallpaper for mobile I have uploaded so far.

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