ACIM Workbook Lesson 17 – for Monday, January 17, 2011
Affirmation: “I see no neutral things.”
Selected Passage:
“Regardless of what you may believe, you do not see anything that is really alive or really joyous. That is because you are unaware as yet of any thought that is really true, and therefore really happy. (WB28)”
Reflections:
Keep in mind that we are just beginning the Workbook, and so the selected passage (above) is meaningful to us. Our thoughts come before our emotions about those thoughts, though we often do not recognize this. We seem to be overcome with a feeling or an emotion, and we then start to stress about that emotion. However quickly the feeling follows thought, it is true (a tenet of ACIM in this lesson) that the thought comes first. Elsewhere Jesus says that we do not watch our thoughts carefully enough; we are much too prone to mind wandering. And mind wandering can easily take us into fear as an emotion drawn from the errant thoughts.
This is one reason that the affirmations in the Workbook are so helpful to us. And the injunction to study and call to mind the affirmations (and similar thoughts) throughout the day. We are in a Course of mind training. Nothing is more important to our peace of mind but that we train our minds to think peacefully. We need guidance in this, and here we have Jesus’s words, and inwardly we have the Universal Inspiration, or the Holy Spirit. Jesus bids us to follow the guidance of the Holy Spirit at all times, though he does say that to become preoccupied with each step of the way would not be good. The right attitude, adopted upon awakening in the morning, will put us well ahead. And, though time is lost, we can always, metaphorically, begin the day again.
We want to have happy, joyous thoughts. And the means are being spelling out to us through the mind training that a consistent study of the Workbook will bring to us. The Text and the Manual likewise have their place, and various students will derive more benefit from various parts of the written words of A Course in Miracles.
Prayer:
Dear Father/Mother,
When my thoughts are unhappy, help me to realize that fear has intruded, the ego is having a field day, and I need to change those thoughts. You will guide me to change any thought that seems to hurt. May today’s thoughts be joyous and peaceful. May I recognize that anything else is seeing amiss.
Please help me to leave aside the ego today. May I walk into the sunlight with only thoughts that are good, pure, and true.
Amen.
