 are soaring with Jesus here as he's really cleansing our mind of judgments, cleansing our mind of attack thoughts, cleansing our mind of ego defense mechanisms, taking this back inward towards that Christ self within, the kingdom of heaven within that is never perishing. It is not going anywhere because it simply is a creation of God. And the word of God remains true now and forever. And that word of God is I am as God created me. I am a child of a loving God. I am a creation of a loving Creator and fear and sin and guilt and pain have no meaning if I remember I am as God created me. So we're here on the 22nd day of January 2024. And we're going to do a lesson today. And that lesson is lesson 22 matching the day. What I see is a form of vengeance. What I see is a form of vengeance, meaning what I perceive in this linear time-space cosmos is actually a form of vengeance. Let's explore that one. Show us Jesus. Illuminate us Holy Spirit. We pray to you. Illuminate us. Today's idea accurately describes the way anyone who holds attack thoughts 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. What 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, from one body 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. What I see is a form of vengeance. So I know in traveling around the world and talking to many sincere practitioners of the Course of Miracles, many very devoted followers of Jesus, when they first read this lesson on the surface it's like they have question marks sometimes in their mind. What I see is a form of vengeance. What is this meaning? I say, well, what you perceive is a form of vengeance. And Jesus lets us know that this is the way that anyone who holds attack thoughts in his mind must see the world. If I believe in attack, and I believe in defense, then I will perceive a world of attack and defense. And this can take many different forms. It can be in terms of war, a country invading another country, and the country that's being invaded defending itself. It can be in terms of a football game. We have one team that goes on the offensive and one is on the defensive, and then vice versa. The other team gets to be on the offensive and another team goes on the defensive. And there's some kind of crazy mechanism of keeping score. And the whole belief is the belief in competition that attack and defense, winning and losing, better and worse, gain and loss, survive and die. All the opposites of the world are a projection of attack thoughts that God did not create. God is not the creator of attack thoughts. In fact, in the Bible there's a line that says, vengeance is mine, sayeth the Lord. And basically the correct interpretation is that the Lord saying vengeance is mine. Give me that crazy thought. It doesn't belong in your holy mind, my beloved child. Vengeance is mine. Give it to me. It's seen as a forgiveness opportunity to give over vengeance to the Lord. In other words, vengeance is mine, sayeth the Lord. I'll take it. I'll shine it away because God didn't create it. So the Lord is saying, don't protect it and don't hide it and don't believe in it. Don't believe in this cycle of attack and defense. It's a vicious cycle. Basically, that's what Jesus is saying. Having projected his anger onto the world, he sees vengeance about to strike him. And his own attack is thus perceived as self-defense. Even in murder trials, one of the exceptions to being found guilty is if you defend yourself out of self-defense. But only the ego belief would come up with a make-believe body that would need defense. When Jesus was teaching, someone strikes you on the one cheek, turn the other cheek. Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth. In gentleness and kindness and love, we will know the Lord by God, that God is a God of love and a God of kindness and sweetness. In Corinthians, we have a beautiful verse on love. Love is patient. Love is kind. That kindness didn't create attack thoughts. That kindness didn't create linear time. That kindness didn't create subjects and objects and self-concepts that clash with each other and clash and unclash again. The whole world, the whole cosmos of linear time is a projection of attack thoughts. And that's what he means by what I see as a form of vengeance. Now, some people will say, well, you know, when I look at the world, there are some aspects that are beautiful. And how is that a form of vengeance? How is a tulip a form of vengeance? How is a puppy dog wagging its tail a form of vengeance? How is a bunny rabbit hopping, hopping, hopping around the grass in the sunshine? How is that actually a form of vengeance? And if you go deeper into Jesus' teachings, he's saying that nothing, no thing, no object exists in and of itself. The ego has made up a world in which there seem to be many aspects and parts and pieces in this world. And each one has a separate name. And it's set off by time and space and definition. And everything, everything, you can look around. Here's a black marker. You know, this black marker is set off in time and space from other markers from the purple marker. Almost the same, but one is a black marker. I was got a little black tip down here too. You see, anything that is perceived to have a name, I'm talking about people, objects, things, that's part of fragmented perception. That's seeing separate objects where in truth, God did not create separate objects. God doesn't know of separate objects. Unified awareness doesn't know of separate objects. You know, you can't see with Holy Spirit the unified perspective and see the fragments of separation. The Holy Spirit is holistic. The Holy Spirit is unified. The Holy Spirit is completely one in seeing past the error of separation and looking to the light of the Atonement, the blazing light of the Atonement, which is the light of God and that is the correction. So as I said recently, you're not responsible for the error. You're not responsible for the fragmented perception and proceeding all the pieces and parts as separate distinct things. You're responsible for accepting the correction for the error. Make this year different in 2024 here. Make this year different by making it all the same. Seeing the sameness, seeing that it is completely a mistake, because anything that you perceive through the ego's filter or lens of separation will be fragmented perception and the sum of the parts don't make the whole. It's actually, the whole is the whole, a whole way of seeing. A holistic way of seeing is the release in the mind and as long as the mind holds on to judgments, grievances, attack thoughts, as long as it's holding on to anything of the ego's belief system, it's going to see a fragmented world and this fragmented world fits what Jesus is talking about. What I see is a form of vengeance. So let's go into chapter 19 for some support for our idea of the day because what we're going for is healing in mind. What we're going for is deepening faith in the love of God, that the love of God is beyond comparison, beyond measure. The love of God is beyond anything of this world. You know, this world is a veil of images that was drawn over the face of Christ and was designed by the ego to block God from mind to basically say there is no God. That's what the ego is and some of you have heard the acronymism for ego edging God out. This is trying to edge God out of memory by holding on to fragmented perception and attack thoughts in the place. So to forgive, you know, the Bible said forgive 70 times 7, but to forgive is basically to release all grievances and attack thoughts and then to have the meekness, gentleness, kindness, lovingness of the Christ. And Jesus was an amazing demonstration of that eternal love of I and the Father are one, that the Christ is one in the mind of God in the spirit. So let's go to chapter 19, the attainment of peace, healing and faith, because really what we are looking at is we have a choice to make in this moment and in every moment between faith in God, faith in the word of God, I am still as God created me, or in attack thoughts, which bring attack defense cycles, which bring all kinds of conflict to the mind and no peace. So faith in God, inner peace, inner happiness, inner joy, radiating out to everyone and everything, or attack, the belief in attack, and myriad of defense mechanisms and a vicious cycle of attack and defense. We see that in the linear world it's portrayed, you know, on a daily basis throughout seeming history, but the ego is the belief in history. We said before that when a situation has been dedicated wholly to truth, peace is inevitable. Its attainment is the criterion by which the wholeness of the dedication can be safely assumed. Yet we also said that peace without faith will never be attained for what is dedicated to truth as its only goal is brought to truth by faith. This faith encompasses everyone involved for only thus the situation is perceived as meaningful and as whole and everyone must be involved in it or else your faith is limited and your dedication incomplete. Every situation properly perceived becomes an opportunity to heal the Son of God and he is healed because you offered faith to him, giving him to the Holy Spirit and releasing him from every demand your ego would make of him. Thus do you see him free and then this vision does the Holy Spirit share and since he shares it he is given and so he heals through you in this purpose of joining him in a united purpose that makes this purpose real because you make it whole and this is healing. The body is healed because you came without it and joined the mind, the divine mind in which all healing rests. The body cannot heal because it cannot make itself sick. It needs no healing. Its health or sickness depends entirely on how the mind perceives it and the purpose that the mind would use it for. It is obvious that a segment of the mind can see itself as separated from the universal purpose. When this occurs the body becomes its weapon used against this purpose to demonstrate the quote fact that separation has occurred. The body thus becomes the instrument of illusion acting accordingly, seeing what is not there, hearing what truth has never said and believing insanely, being imprisoned by insanity. So let's go back for a moment there that's so beautiful. So he's talking about the body. The body cannot heal because it cannot make itself sick. So the body to the Holy Spirit and Jesus you know is neutral and right-mindedness the body is neutral and it's really right-mindedness being aligned up with God and being in your joy and strength and happiness and love that is healing and sickness is the belief in fragmentation which is the belief in separation and here's the key line. He's talking about the body. Its health or sickness depends entirely on how the mind perceives it and the purpose that the mind would use it for. So he's again coming back to what we talked about that purpose is the only choice and the purpose that you give to the body and the rest of the world and Jesus is saying please join with the purpose of forgiveness. That's our one purpose with the Holy Spirit. That joining brings the mind into alignment and shows us a happy dream and it shows us heal perception. The body thus becomes an instrument of illusion acting accordingly, seeing what is not there, hearing what truth has never said and believing behaving insanely, being imprisoned by insanity. Do not overlook our earlier statement that faithlessness leads straight to illusions for faithlessness is the perception of a brother as a body and the body cannot be used for purposes of union. If then you see your brother as a body you have established a condition in which uniting with him becomes impossible. Your faithlessness to him has separated you from him and kept you both apart from being healed. Your faithlessness has thus opposed the Holy Spirit's purpose and brought illusions centered on the body to stand between you and the body will seem to be sick for you have made of it an enemy of healing in the opposition of truth. Okay one line and there it is he's talking about faithlessness and then in the second part of that second sentence he says the body cannot be used for purposes of union. He's teaching us again that minds are joined bodies do not. He's teaching us that all attempts to join bodies is an ego attempt trying to make a haven of guilt apart from the truth of one mind one light one love one spirit you know that Jesus told us in the bible he tells us in the course you know that which is born of the flesh is flesh that which is born of the spirit is spirit spirits eternal it's one it's eternal it's everlasting it it it has no limits the body the cosmos the stars the planets the time and space that is is fragmentation and fragmentation is part of what the body is part of and and there can be no union in fragmentation he's just being very straightforward but he's saying that you need faith that's really what this chapter the attainment piece is about and and we're really coming back to to healing and faith and faith is literally joining with the holy spirit and seeing your brother your sister with charity seeing the the spirit in them seeing the christ in them you know like that beautiful song i want to look twice at you until i see the christ in you when i look with the holy spirit when i look with jesus the christ is what i behold so if we go down to and let's go to paragraph six the inevitable compromise is the belief that the body must be healed and not the mind for this divided goal has given both an equal reality which could be possible only if the mind is limited to the body and divided into little parts of seeming wholeness but without connection this will not harm the body but it will keep the delusional thought system in the mind here then is healing needed and it is here that healing is for god gave healing not apart from sickness nor established remedy where sickness cannot be they are together and when they are seen together all attempts to keep both truth and illusion in the mind where both must be are recognized as dedication to illusion and given up when brought to truth and seen as totally unrexcilable with truth in any respect or in any way so this is again saying what is the same cannot be different what is one cannot have separate parts what is the same cannot be different the images of this time space world are the same they're all illusions and what is different is the holy spirit's purpose of forgiveness and the ego's purpose of attack so the ego's purpose is the devil that sponsors attack is satan to use christian terms and the holy spirit is union wholeness completeness god god is all powerful there is no power but gods you see that that these are two different thought systems but when you bring them together you realize you're going to have to let go of the attempts to hold on to both truth and illusion because once you see that you're still trying to hold on to a split mind by still believing in the ego then you know you have to see that's a dedication to illusions a dedication to the ego you don't want that we're we're tired of being dedicated to the ego it's a it's a death wish truth and illusion have no connection this will remain forever true however much you seek to connect them but illusions are always connected as is truth each is united a complete thought system but totally disconnected to each other and to proceed this is to recognize where separation is and where it must be healed i.e the mind that's the end of war when you accept the atonement that's the end of war when you truly accept jesus fully in your heart and that means the christ presence that is the end of war division that is the end of conflict and competition the result of an idea is never separate from its source the idea of separation produced the body and remains connected to it making it sick because of the mind's identification with it you think you are protecting the body by hiding this connection for this concealment seems to keep your identification safe from the attack of truth he shows you how upside down it is we don't want to conceal the ego we want to expose it and release it paragraph eight if you but understood how much this strange concealment has hurt your mind and how confused your own identification has become because of it you do not see how great the devastation wrought by your faithlessness for faithlessness is an attack that seems to be justified by its results for by withholding faith you see what is unworthy of it and cannot look upon the barrier to what is joined with you so yeah i just showed the movie always with Richard dryfuss and holly hunter john goodman it's a steven spielberg movie and basically there's a line in and towards the very end it comes through the Richard dryfuss character basically it says the love we withhold is the only pain that we carry with us here and i remember the first time i saw the movie i was like oh my gosh what a line and jesus is saying that right here he's basically saying if you have faith in your brother you will see your brother in the love and light you will see your sister in spirit you will see that that's what god created and that's what's real and true in the body and the behaviors and and the perceptions of fragmentation are faithlessness that's what jesus is calling faithlessness but faith is faith in the love of god that the love of god is it prevails with anything and everything because it is beyond even this world and for certainly beyond the linear time and space and and even the simultaneous time appeal perception you know it will give way to to god's love because god's love is is beyond perception it it's knowledge it's what can be known it's that that definition or that that meaning of knowledge to know god to know god to remember god to have faith is to heal it is the sign that you have accepted the atonement for yourself and would therefore share it by faith you offer the gift of faith from the past which you received you do not use anything your brother has done before to condemn him now you freely choose to overlook his errors looking past all barriers between yourself and him and seeing them as one and in that one you see your faith is fully justified there is no justification for faithlessness but faith is always justified that's reminiscent of a part in the text where jesus says that forgiveness attack is never justified and forgiveness is always justified anger is never justified but but forgiveness is always justified because basically you're joining with the the will of god the eternal love that is the spirit and and in that that's the i am presence that's prior to linear time as jesus taught us before abraham was i am that is that is god's love in the beginning and eternally and forever more is god's love and nothing can stand apart from it all illusions must cave must give way give way to truth to love to light to god to christ let's jump down to paragraph 11 faith is the gift of god through him whom god has given you faithlessness looks upon the son of god and judges him unworthy of forgiveness but through the eyes of faith the son of god is seen already forgiven free of all guilt he laid upon himself faith teaches him only now because it looks not to the past to judge him but would see him only what it would see in you it sees not through the body's eyes nor looks to bodies for his justification it is the messenger of the new perception sent forth together witnesses unto its coming and to return their messages to you so we can jump down there's so many beautiful paragraphs in area number 13 grace is not given to a body but to a mind and the mind that receives it looks instantly beyond the body and sees the holy place where it was healed there is the altar where the grace was given in which it stands do you then offer grace and blessing to your brother for you stand at the same altar where grace was laid for both of you and be you healed by grace together that you may heal through faith in the holy instant you and your brothers stand before the altar god has raised unto himself and both of you lay faithlessness aside and come to it together there will you see the miracle of your relationship as it was made again through faith and there it is that you will realize that there is nothing faith cannot forgive no error interferes with its calm sight which brings the miracle of healing with equal ease to all of them for what the messengers of love are said to do they do returning the glad tidings that it was done to you and your brother who stand together before the altar from which they were sent forth and we'll jump down to the last paragraph in the section let then your dedication be to the eternal and learn how not to interfere with it and make it a slave to time for what you think you do to the eternal you do to you whom god created as his son is slave to nothing being the lord of all along with his creator you can enslave a body but an idea is free incapable of being kept in prison or limited in any way except by the mind that thought it for it remains joined to its source with which is its jailer or its liberator according to which it chooses as its purpose for itself its jailer is the ego wrong minded perception its liberator is the holy spirit jesus's right minded perception and these two purposes that's why uh i cannot see two worlds that's why i cannot think and feel apart from god because there's a choice that i can make in my mind for atonement or correction for the miracle the atonement is just the first miracle the last miracle and all the miracles in between is just an irreversible acceptance of correction of the love of god and that's our purpose that's why we are doing the workbook lessons so when you come back to the lesson of the day lesson number 22 what i see is a form of vengeance just let the holy spirit and jesus use this lesson today whenever you're tempted to believe you see something of the world that you want just be reminded what i see is a form of vengeance whenever you have a specific goal for yourself or for anybody else in time and space don't look to idle images hold no graven images before the lord and i god don't give in to the belief in separation and if you start to say have a doubt like what i see is a form of vengeance if you start to doubt the lesson today just know that the ego is trying to build a comfort zone of images called a self-concent built it's a preference package it's uh it's denying that there's no order of difficulty in miracles it's denying uh that that there is no hierarchy of illusions it's trying to with the preference package it's trying to make a comfort zone an ego comfort zone false identity which is just an attempt to use the world of images to reinforce the belief in the mind that i can make myself i can't make myself i'm a creation of an eternal god i was created as an eternal being the christ i can't make myself different from that but if i believe if i still hold on to the tiniest beliefs that i can make myself and have an authority problem forgetting that god is the author of reality and god authors and spirit but if i'm going to hold on to belief in the flesh or the world of images i have to first start to see that this little comfort zone of a substitute for love a body of personality and its world of fragmented perception it is a form of vengeance you know i have to start to see that my ego comfort zone is a form of vengeance because it's trying to deny that i am a creation of a loving god so this is a deep deep dive today and uh i'm so grateful that you're with me uh i think we'll see if i get the nudge tomorrow to to roll in another one because you know these these lessons are are actually if you really want it it's like the song if you want it here it is come and get it you know jesus is saying if you want it here it is just accept it and eternal love it's always here you know it's this is it this is it like the kenny loggin song this is it make no mistake where you are this is it you know we're we're going for it every day with the lessons and uh what a ride you know just just give in to the love of god like give in to eternal happiness and joy give in to truth oneness that's that's our that's our call of our heart that's our prayer our prayer so join me in that today let's uh i get it all over for for god's love so thank you thank you everyone for joining with me i see we've got a a nice group here online and we're all in in one mind in one accord soaring in the love of god god bless you