Welcome to Active Meditation.
Course in Miracles Lesson 22 What I See is a Form of Vengeance.
As we prepare for this exercise,
We place our body in a comfortable position and close our eyes.
We will be opening up our eyes again for this exercise.
We relax by noting where the tension is in our body,
And to increase the relaxation,
We remove all expression from our face.
Do all this now.
I will wait.
This is a Course in Miracles.
It is a required course.
Only the time you take it is voluntary.
Some of the ideas the exercises present,
You will find hard to believe,
And others may seem to be quite startling.
This does not matter.
You are merely asked to apply the ideas as you are directed to do.
You are not asked to judge them at all.
You are asked only to use them.
It is their use that will give them meaning to you,
And will show you that they are true.
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.
This course can therefore be summed up very simply in this way.
Nothing real can be threatened.
Nothing unreal exists.
Today's idea accurately describes the way anyone who holds an attack thought in his mind must see the world.
Having projected his anger onto the world,
He sees vengeance about to strike at him.
His own attack is thus perceived as self-defense.
This becomes an increasingly vicious circle until he is willing to change how he sees.
Otherwise thoughts of attack and counter-attack will preoccupy him and people his entire world.
That peace of mind is possible to him then.
It is from this savage fantasy that you want to escape.
Is it not joyous news to hear that it is not real?
Is it not a happy discovery to find that you can escape?
You made what you would destroy,
Everything that you hate and would attack and kill.
All that you fear does not exist.
Look at the world about you at least five times today for at least a minute each time.
As your eyes move slowly from one object to another say to yourself,
I see only the perishable.
I see nothing that will last.
What I see is not real.
What I see is a form of vengeance.
At the end of each practice period ask yourself,
Is this the world I really want to see?
The answer is surely obvious.
Let's practice.
Open your eyes.
Look around.
Now say to yourself,
I see only the perishable.
Now say in your mind,
I see nothing that will last.
Now remind yourself,
What I see is not real.
Now repeat in your mind,
What I see is a form of vengeance.
Close your eyes.
Now ask yourself,
Is this the world I really want to see?
The answer is surely obvious.
You made what you would destroy.
You made everything that you hate and would attack and kill.
All that you fear does not exist.
Let's practice again.
Open your eyes.
Now say to yourself,
I see only the perishable.
Now say in your mind,
I see nothing that will last.
Remind yourself,
What I see is not real.
What I see is a form of vengeance.
Close your eyes.
Ask yourself,
Is this the world I really want to see?
The answer is surely obvious.
What I see is a form of vengeance.
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.
Nothing 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.
