LESSON TWENTY-THREE

TRANSCRIBER’S NOTE: The Course text is in bold face. The Guidance is in normal type In His Guidance, He has asked Me to capitalize the pronouns You and We as an acknowledgement of the Divinity of All of Us, an acknowledgement of Equality, an expression of His Love and respect for You. When You see the word ‘YOU’ capitalized in the Guidance, know that He is not just speaking to YOU, He is honoring YOU.

I can escape from the world I see by giving up attack thoughts.

What are attack thoughts, but those You have unjoined with God, Me or the Holy Spirit.  The thoughts You have on Your own, coming from separated sense We’ve called the ego.

Yet, how does One give up an addiction, gained over a thousand lifetimes ago, then a thousand more?  The same way that One is healed of drinking and drug addiction: by reaching out to a Higher Power.  You may call It different names, yet it is always for a Love You know must exist. And, indeed, It does.

This is why this Course was given to Two Who knew not how to heal their needs, just that healing was needed.  And their neediness encompasses all Dreamers. Those who realize it find this Course in Miracles, are drawn to it like a Mariner, finding Himself lost at sea, looking up higher, searches the heavens to get His bearings.  His despair does then turn to joy when He finds His Polaris.  The North Star returns to Him His bearings.  His fear healed through knowledge and gratitude.

Just so, the Knowing on which this Course is based – and Your gratitude for it – turn Your fears to Joy as well.

¹ The idea for today contains the only way out of fear that will ever succeed. Nothing else will work; everything else is meaningless. But this way cannot fail. Every thought you have makes up some segment of the world you see. It is with your thoughts, then, that we must work if your perception of the world is to be changed.

Attack thoughts do arise from fear, and fear from thoughts of attack.  These intruders flooded consciousness as You abandoned God when You made that choice for separation.

Now have I come to You with this Course and My ongoing counsel to choose again, this time choosing Christ.  Christ is the You that God has kept safe as the Holy Spirit.  These Lessons do lead You to re-Union.

² If the cause of the world you see is attack thoughts, you must learn that it is these thoughts which you do not want. There is no point in lamenting the world. There is no point in trying to change the world. It is incapable of change because it is merely an effect. But there is indeed a point in changing your thoughts about the world. Here you are changing the cause. The effects will change automatically.

Do You see the beauty of the logic?  When You do change Your mind about the world You see, the world will change accordingly.  Why is this?  Because You have made up the world with Your thinking.  Now can You see it clearly if You will to: change Your thinking and You change the world.  For it does not exist ‘out there’ but within Your consciousness.

Anyone can change their mind with a little humility to acknowledge having been mistaken.  No big deal; mistakes can be corrected.

Seven billion Dreamers do not indicate Reality by their quantity, just the length and depth of the dreaming.  Just change Yourself – Your own point of view – sit back, and see what happens.

³ The world you see is a vengeful world, and everything in it is a symbol of vengeance.

– Attack is always based in vengeance.  How dare They do that to Me!  Off with their heads! –

Each of your perceptions of “external reality” is a pictorial representation of your own attack thoughts. One can well ask if this can be called seeing. Is not fantasy a better word for such a process and hallucination a more appropriate term for the result?

How much longer do You wish to deal in active, and such unpleasant fantasy?  Why not exchange it for Reality, or at least a better dream for starters?

⁴ You see the world which you have made, but you do not see yourself as the image-maker. You cannot be saved from the world, but you can escape from its cause. This is what salvation means, for where is the world you see when its cause is gone?

– Your change of mind has but disappeared it. –

Vision already holds a replacement for everything you think you see now. Loveliness can light your images and so transform them that you will love them even though they were made of hate. For you will not be making them alone.

“I will never leave You nor forsake You.’  Resting as God’s promise, I said two thousand years ago: “I (did) pray the Father, and He (gave) you another Comforter, … He (does) abide with you forever;”₁ …, “But the Comforter, which is the Holy (Spirit), whom the Father … send(s) in my name, He … teach(es) you all things, and bring(s) all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.”₂

²⁸ “… I give unto (You) eternal life; and (You) shall never perish; neither shall any man pluck (You) out of my hand. ²⁹My Father, which gave (You) Me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck (You) out of my Father’s hand.”₃

I have kept My promise to You All and do continue to keep it until Every One Awakens, and then forever.

⁵ The idea for today introduces the thought that you are not trapped in the world you see, because its cause can be changed. This change requires, first, that the cause be identified and then let go, so that it can be replaced. The first two steps in this process require your cooperation. The final one does not. Your images have already been replaced. By taking the first two steps, you will see that this is so.

You are simply asked to change Your thinking.

⁶ Besides using it throughout the day as the need arises, five practice periods are required in applying today’s idea. As you look about you, repeat the idea slowly to yourself and then close your eyes and devote about a minute to searching your mind for as many attack thoughts as occur to you. As each one crosses your mind say:

⁷ I can escape from the world by giving up
attack thoughts about _____.

⁸ Hold each attack thought in mind as you say this, and then dismiss that thought and go on to the next.

⁹ In the practice periods, be sure to include both your thoughts of attacking and of being attacked. Their effects are exactly the same because they are exactly the same. You do not yet recognize this, and you are asked at this time only to treat them as the same in today’s practice periods. We are still at the stage of identifying the cause of the world you see. When you finally realize that thoughts of attack and of being attacked are not different, you will be ready to let the cause go.

I stay right by You.  You can feel My Love cherishing and embracing You right now.

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₁ John 14:16 KJV

² John 14:26 KJV

₃ John 10:28, 29