Welcome to Active Meditation.
A Course in Miracles,
Lesson 21 I am determined to see things differently.
Relax the physical body.
Release all areas of identified tension.
Let it go.
Remove all expression from your face.
Relax your mind.
Put aside any worries or concerns until after this exercise.
Do this now.
This is a course in miracles.
It is a required course.
Only the time you take it is voluntary.
Free will does not mean that you can establish the curriculum.
It means only that you can elect what you want to take at a given time.
The course does not aim at teaching the meaning of love,
For that is beyond what can be taught.
It does aim,
However,
At removing the blocks to the awareness of love's presence,
Which is your natural inheritance.
The opposite of love is fear,
But what is all-encompassing can have no opposite.
This course can therefore be summed up very simply in this way.
Nothing real can be threatened.
Nothing unreal exists.
The idea for today is obviously a continuation and extension of the preceding one.
This time,
However,
Specific mind-searching periods are necessary,
In addition to applying the idea to particular situations as they may arise.
In the practice periods,
Begin by repeating the idea to yourself.
Then close your eyes and search your mind carefully for situations past,
Present,
Or anticipated that arouse anger in you.
The anger may take the form of any reaction,
Ranging from mild irritation to rage.
The degree of the emotion you experience does not matter.
You will become increasingly aware that a slight twinge of annoyance is nothing but a veil drawn over intense fury.
Let's practice.
Search your mind for all the forms in which attack thoughts present themselves.
Hold each one in mind while you tell yourself,
I am determined to see name of person differently.
I am determined to see specify the situation differently.
Do this now.
Try not to let the little thoughts of anger escape you in the practice periods.
Remember that you do not really recognize what arouses anger in you.
And nothing that you believe in this connection means anything.
You will probably be tempted to dwell more on some situations or persons than others,
On the fallacious grounds that they are more obvious.
This is not so.
It is merely an example of the belief that some forms of attack are more justified than others.
After practice session,
I am determined to see specify the situation differently.
Try to be as specific as possible.
You may,
For example,
Focus your anger on a particular attribute of a particular person,
Believing that the anger is limited to this aspect.
If your perception is suffering from this form of distortion,
Say,
I am determined to see specify the attribute in name of person differently.
Do this now.
I am determined to see things differently.
Five practice periods are urged,
Allowing a full minute for each.
I am determined to see things differently.
Remember only this.
You need not believe the ideas,
You need not accept them,
And you need not even welcome them.
Some of them you may actively resist.
None of this will matter or decrease their efficacy.
But do not allow yourself to make exceptions in applying the ideas the workbook contains.
And whatever your reactions to the ideas may be,
Use them.
Even more than that is required.
The purpose of the workbook is to train your mind in a systematic way to a different perception of everyone and everything in the world.
Let's return to our regular levels of thought and feeling.
Take a few deep breaths.
Return to the waking state,
To time and space.
I now know.
I am aware.
I am.
Nothing real can be threatened.
Nothing unreal exists.
Herein lies the peace of God.
