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Good Morning!

If we are not the victim of the world I see, then what are we?  This lesson takes us one step further and says that "I have invented the world I see"  Again, the discussion of cause and effect is paramount to "getting" these lessons.  The world is an effect of you, not the cause of you.  This seems preposterous to our ego-mind, but if we are to seriously undertake these lessons, we need to keep focused and be willing to take in these teachings and see where they lead us.  Remember that in the Introduction we were told upfront that we would not believe some of these ideas, that we would actively resist them and even get angry about them, but none of that would matter or decrease their efficacy.  Actually, that section also states that all we are asked to do is "use them".  So this introduces another idea that even if we get angry or resistant to these lessons, we can use that anger or resentment to help us in some way.  It's the concept of surrender that many of us are familiar with.  We surrender to that which upsets us so that we may discover what is truly there, what is actually happening instead of what we "think" is happening.  It is a discernment process of Truth-finding.

What if you recognized this world is an hallucination? What if you really understood you made it up? (T-20.VIII.7:3-4   This is a powerful statement isn't it?  Think about this question from A Course in Miracles and share what comes out of it for you?  To me, if I really understood that I made it up, then I realize that I have the ability to undo it.  Wow.  Do I really want to undo it?  What would happen to my little self if that happened?  Would I disappear altogether?  These are lofty questions that require bravery of which I am not always capable.

Joan

Since I am not the victim of the world I see then I must be a victim of my thoughts which invented the world I see. My whole life has been created as a defense against the pain of childhood where all of my needs were not instantaneously met. Therefore, I cannot trust anyone or anything. This is the "script of victimization" that I wrote to accomplish the ego's purpose of specialness and individuality. The world the ego created is there to prove that I am right in needing defenses and so my thoughts of attack are justified.

This world of victimization is also there because I want it to be there. It keeps the "sin" of separation away from me and projected onto others.( "I didn't do this. The world did it to me.")

Paragraph 2:2-3 contains a very important passage that deals with the language of duality we sometimes struggle with when studying the Course. We are being asked to being the process of recognizing that the outer and inner worlds are the same. But sometimes terms are used that seem to refer to a world of duality. It is important to note that they are stated that way for our benefit because that is our experience. The text clearly says:

     Since you belive that you are separate, Heaven presents itself as separate, too. Not that it is in truth, but that the link that has been given you to join the truth may reach to you through what you understand.(T-25.I.5.1-2)

It dawned on me recently that thinking the world is a hallucination and that I made it up would be considered a form of psychosis by most of the world. That is bound to cause some anxiety on the level of the world because it poses the most serious of all threats to the ego. And that is it's very existence. To continue on in the face of this anxiety does require bravery and trust. All of us on this path must recognize this as Truth or we would have turned back long ago. I trust that I am right where I am suposed to be.