Lesson 34: I could see peace instead of this.

Feb 3 in Feed

🧩 Peace of Mind is an Internal Matter

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📘 "The idea for today begins to describe the conditions that prevail in the other way of seeing. ²Peace of mind is clearly an internal matter. ³It must begin with your own thoughts, and then extend outward." (ACIM, W-34.1:1-3)

🌟 This initial statement is never a welcomed one for our ego, as it logically prompts us to relinquish any expectations we might have regarding the world, the beings present in our lives, the ones we hope to meet, or the experiences we hope to have. It also means that none of the things, past or present, we currently identify as the source of our problems are responsible for our state of unhappiness, whether it ranges from mild discomfort to utter rage or desperation.

🔎 “Peace of mind is an “internal matter.” The problem is that most of the time we think it results from the outer world meeting our needs. However, Jesus teaches that peace has nothing to do with the external. The implications of this fact, once again, must evoke anxiety, because he is informing us that nothing outside can either hurt us or give us peace—the outer world does not threaten, victimize, or please us—there is nothing outside us! The challenge lies in allowing ourselves to become increasingly aware of this without lapsing into denial.” Excerpt from Journey through the Workbook of "A Course in Miracles", Kenneth Wapnick, Vol. 1, p. 104.

🧩 Stepping Above the Battlefield

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📘 "It is from your peace of mind that a peaceful perception of the world arises." (ACIM, W-34.1:4)

🌟 Acknowledging that peace of mind is an “internal matter” leaves our ego without any material to feed its constant projections of guilt, attack, defense, and victimization. In this lesson, Jesus calls for the 'decision maker' in our mind to see that when there is no battle to fight, what we surrender to is not defeat—because the fight was never real—but to peace.

🔎 “Jesus is not pleading for peace in the world, because there is no objective world outside our minds. To ask for external peace is to have first made conflict real—out there. Again, there is no world apart from the way we perceive it. What matters to me as a student of this course is correcting how I perceive, which I do by correcting how I think. This is accomplished by correcting my mistaken choice of teachers—always the bottom line.” Excerpt from Journey through the Workbook of "A Course in Miracles", Kenneth Wapnick, Vol. 1, p. 104.

🌟 As Kenneth makes it clear, once again, The Course is a non-dualistic teaching and one of its prime objectives is to free us from the illusion and impossible task of making this world a better place by acting from the outside. Peace is reachable in any unfavorable circumstances we meet if we see them with Jesus's eyes or ask him to help us see things differently when it's challenging—when we get caught up in the illusions and take things seriously. When we see the world or our brothers with Jesus instead of the ego, neither the world nor anyone we see can hold any power over us because we know that our power lies within us.

🌟 If from this place of inner peace, we choose to 'act' on love and extend it, we are bound to make this world a better 'dream' to walk in. But it is important to understand that when this happens, it is always a consequence of our choice of thoughts and teacher, not a consequence of the seemingly 'outside' world. There is no 'outside' world, there is a dream being dreamt, either by an unconscious dreamer, or a lucid one.

🧩 Finding the Obstacle to Love

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🌟 In the second paragraph, Jesus emphasizes the importance of our lesson by calling for an extension of time commitment. He introduces a third 'longer' practice period, supplementing the morning and evening sessions recommended in the previous three lessons. He then asks us to close our eyes to the outer world to focus on our thoughts where the conditions of our peace of mind lay.

🎯 Our New Mind Searching Super Power:

📘 "Some five minutes of mind searching are required for each of the longer practice periods. ²Search your mind for fear thoughts, anxiety-provoking situations, “offending” personalities or events, or anything else about which you are harboring unloving thoughts. ³Note them all casually, repeating the idea for today slowly as you watch them arise in your mind, and let each one go, to be replaced by the next." (ACIM, W-34.3:1-3)

🌟 So, after instructing us to close our eyes to the outer world, Jesus is describing the mind-searching process we are to conduct to track down any unloving thoughts we might have, whether they concern 'offending' people in our lives, situations, or events. In other terms, we search our minds for any obstacles to our peace of mind. This is an important theme in ACIM as this famous textbook passage indicates:

📘 "Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all of the barriers within yourself that you have built against it. ²It is not necessary to seek for what is true, but it is necessary to seek for what is false." (ACIM, T-16.IV.6:1-2)

🌟 We have to pay close attention to our thoughts and search them, both with honesty and the willingness to embrace and own whatever unloving ones we might find because what we are not aware of, we can't let go of.

🎯 Let's not make the error real:

🌟 Jesus, however, doesn't want us to take our erroneous thoughts too seriously, he merely wants us to acknowledge that we've made them so that we can undo them:

🔎 “To “note them all casually” means not to make a big deal about them, which is the meaning of looking at your ego with Jesus. Not looking reflects already having made them into a big deal, since if we had not taken them so seriously we would not have invested these thoughts with the guilt that prevents us from looking.” Excerpt from Journey through the Workbook of "A Course in Miracles", Kenneth Wapnick, Vol. 1, p. 105.

🌟 Taking our errors too seriously leads to anxiety because we feel guilty, anticipate retribution, or resist the undoing of our representation of the world, ourselves, and others. Jesus is aware of our potential difficulty and guides us in the 4th paragraph to answer this fear by repeating today's idea to ourselves "in an unhurried manner" to ease us back to peace instead of panic.

🌟 In other words, we are invited to become mindful and vigilant observers, not frantic forbidding hunters. A level of dispassionate detachment is encouraged as we cultivate our mind-searching skills.

🧩 Answering to the "Temptations" with Peace

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🌟 In the 5th and 6th paragraphs, Jesus asks us once more to be specific in the shorter application during the day.

📘 "The shorter applications are to be frequent, and made whenever you feel your peace of mind is threatened in any way. ²The purpose is to protect yourself from temptation throughout the day. ³If a specific form of temptation arises in your awareness, the exercise should take this form:

⁴I could see peace in this situation instead of what I now see in it.

(...)

⁴I can replace my feelings of depression, anxiety or worry [or my thoughts about this situation, personality or event] with peace." (ACIM, W-34.5:1–6:4)

🌟 We are building up a 'muscle' of sort design to:

🎯 First, notice when we lose our peace of mind, which is our natural state
🎯 Then identify the upsetting thoughts or feelings of fear, depression, anxiety, worry, anger, sadness, and whatnot that are causing our naturally peaceful state of mind to waver
🎯 And last, nullify these feelings by applying the idea that not only there is another way but that we could see peace instead of this

🙏💙🪄 Peace. Peace. Peace. 🪄💙🙏

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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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