 Hi everyone, welcome again to ACIM Workbook Lessons Live and I'm doing these spontaneously and receiving questions for the practical application of the workbook lessons. So I got a couple of messages that came in this morning, dear friends pouring their hearts out and wanting some clarity, perhaps even some guidance with practical application and just deepening the transfer of training that we're working on with the mind training of Of Course in Miracles' workbook. So today we are on workbook lesson number 26 and it's called My Attack Thoughts Are Attacking My Invulnerability. It is surely obvious that if you can be attacked, you are not invulnerable. You see attack as real, as a real threat. That is because you believe that you can really attack and what you would have effects, what would have effects through you must also have effects on you. It is this law that will ultimately save you, but you are misusing it now. You must therefore learn how it can be used for your own best interests rather than against them. Okay, what a first paragraph. We are looking at that word invulnerable, untouchable, beyond being violated or mistreated or abused, invulnerable, completely strong and unable to be attacked. And he's saying it's surely obvious that if you can be attacked, you are not invulnerable. So again if we go through these lessons, remember that these lessons are all about mind training. Clearly it seems in this world that one body can attack another body. Jesus is saying that is not the level where the correction is and that is not the level where the solution is. And of course that is not the level where the invulnerability is either. The people are not invulnerable and we could say the body is not invulnerable. In fact, Jesus will go on to tell us that you know, he throws up a rhetorical question, are our thoughts dangerous to bodies? Yes, attack thoughts seem to be taken out or reflected in the bodies. So the whole point is to get back into the mind and release the attack thoughts. And then the point of the Course of Miracles is to come back into your divinity, back to the light in your mind, where your invulnerability is, where your strength is, and where you don't need any defenses because you are the light. And in a sense, the light is everything. So we're not talking about things as objects, but the light is spirit. And when you pray for everything, you're really praying to know yourself as spirit. Because your attack thoughts will be projected, you will fear attack. And if you fear attack, you must believe that you are not invulnerable. Attack thoughts therefore make you vulnerable in your own mind, which is where the attack thoughts are. Attack thoughts and invulnerability cannot be accepted together. They contradict each other. So there we are. We have to come back to the mind. This is a course in mind training. Sometimes people don't emphasize those two words, mind training. A couple of months ago, I was in Mexico, and I was in the halo room doing a broadcast with Francis and Lisa. And when I said the words, this is a course in mind training, all the fireworks went off. It's like Jesus was saying, oh, that's an exclamation point after that. That this is not a course in trying to change your behaviors and act nice. This is a course in purifying your heart, your motivations, your desires, purifying your prayers, and then letting everything else be changed through the prayer of the heart. For God, for peace, for joy, for love. The idea for today introduces the thought that you always attack yourself first. If attack thoughts must entail the belief that you are vulnerable. Their effect is to weaken you in your own eyes. Thus, they have attacked your perception of yourself. And because you believe in them, you can no longer believe in yourself. A false image of yourself has come to play, take the place of what you are. That's beautiful. It's just showing that even the belief in attack must originate in the mind, which is the ego. You have to believe in it before you can seem to experience a misperception of yourself. And then you have to have a corrected perception of yourself through the happy dream or the true perception, real world, the forgiven world. You have to have a true perception of yourself in terms of all the perception, the whole thing, before you can wake up from this dream of sickness, pain, suffering, and death and wake up to eternal life. So you don't go from having a misperception of yourself into remembering God and eternal life. The stepping stone is forgiveness. And sometimes I hear people say, I am not worthy. I am not worthy. But Jesus wants us to realize we are worthy of forgiveness. We are worthy of eternal life and we are worthy of taking all the steps that are given to us to remember God, to unwind our mind from the ego and wake up to our inheritance, our divine inheritance. It's being a creation of God in heaven. Practice with today's idea will help you to understand that vulnerability or invulnerability is the result of your own thoughts. Nothing except your thoughts can attack you. Nothing except your thoughts can make you think you are vulnerable. And nothing except your thoughts can prove to you this is not so. Six practice periods are required in applying today's idea. A full two minutes should be attempted for each of them, although the time may be reduced to a minute if the discomfort is too great. Do not reduce it further. The practice period should begin with repeating the idea for the for today, then closing your eyes and reviewing the unresolved questions whose outcomes are causing you concern. The concern may take the form of depression, worry, anger, a sense of imposition, fear, foreboding, or preoccupation. Any problem as yet unsettled that tends to recur in your thoughts during the day is a suitable subject. You will not be able to use very many for anyone practice period, because a longer time than usual should be spent with each one. Today's idea should be applied as follows. First name the situation. I am concerned about. And then just name the specific situation. Then go over every possible outcome that has occurred to you in that connection, in which has caused you concern, referring to each one quite specifically saying, I am afraid. A specific outcome will happen to put the specific outcome in there as as they cross your mind. All these worrying concerning thoughts. I am afraid and then name the specific outcome will happen. If you are doing the exercises properly, you should have some five or six distressing possibilities available for each situation you choose, and quite possibly more. It is much more helpful to cover a few situations thoroughly than to touch on a larger number. If you have anticipated outcomes for each situation continues, you will probably find some of them, especially those that occur to you toward the end, less acceptable to you. Try, however, to treat them all like to whatever extent that you can. If you have named each outcome of which you are afraid, tell yourself that thought is an attack upon myself. Include each practice period by repeating today's idea to yourself once more. We are already in workbook 26 and we're really getting into the practical application of mind training. And as I've said, these workbook lessons you should, if you're a spiritual aspirant or if you're see yourself as a student of spirituality, or a teacher of spirituality. You should take these workbook lessons as instructions for mind training and they are meant to be very literal. He's asking us to literally practice the lesson of the day in a specific form with specific thoughts that arise in specific situations that we're thinking of. And he is kind of like helping us address the problems as we experience them on the front line. And then of course he's got a deeper plan a grand plan to come back deeper into the mind and be free of these attack thoughts and be free of these situations. I sometimes call it situational thinking. You know, sometimes I tell people I said imagine if the whole cosmos and the whole universe is just one thing it's just one whole, and by breaking it into parts and obsessively compulsively thinking about these parts as separate situations. That's part of the fragmented perception. It's not just to be accepted as just the way things are it's false perception that's being healed and and corrected. So, I love it when you write in questions and I'm going to address a couple questions that were written in specifically for this workbook lesson. The first question states, and this is actually pretty much in the form of applying today's lesson workbook lesson 26 to the things that are happening. And I'm going to apply it right now, because my cat is behind a door and she's not happy. I went into action there. My cat was scratching at the door here. Okay, question one. I am concerned about bed bugs. I'm afraid blank will happen. One, their nature of hiding I will never be able to get rid of them. Totally will happen. I'm afraid I will not be able to get rid of the bed bugs, and that's going to happen. I'm afraid the female will lay eggs in the closet, and books will happen. I'm afraid they have gotten immune to the exterminators methods will happen. I'm afraid they will spread to the living room into my mom's apartment will happen. I'm afraid I will make it worse longer I try to eliminate them using home remedies to kill them will happen. That thought is an attack upon myself. My attack thoughts are attacking my invulnerability. I want guidance. The bugs are perfect for mind training. And I can place faith that when the forgiveness lesson is learned, the form no longer having bugs ever again, like a not a re infestation later on can occur. I'm working where I am at. I cannot believe it yet. I see the belief. Then it will be, I will be happy. My attack thoughts are attacking my invulnerability. So great. That's our. Our first question. And, and basically, this is perfect for the practice of today's lesson because anything that seems to occur. Anything that we perceive is happening because of our thoughts are thoughts are producing the perception that we're dealing with actually producing the perception of the whole world. So in this case, it's perceived to be an infestation of bed bugs in a house in an apartment. We can see that that is the thoughts that need the release. It sounds like from what was written in that there's been many, many attempts to rid this apartment of bed bugs through exterminators and through many means, and that they the fear is that it's not working. It will just continue. And I think, in one sense, this is helpful for all of us in the sense that we start, we have to actually reach a place where we start to realize that the, the many attempts that we've made in form to resolve the conflict in the mind are not working when we are trying to resolve the form. We're dealing with effects Jesus is saying and Jesus is saying the world is a projection of thoughts. The world is a projection of ego thoughts that God didn't create this world God is spirit and God creates in spirit. I see my cat is having an interesting time here. I'm very practical to I'm going to Yes, that's it. We're live and we're very practical here. But again, what we're looking at is the world is a world of unreal effects that was made by the ego, which is an unreal cause, because the ego is the belief that there is no God the ego is the belief in separation from God. And just will say the belief in separation is the core of what the ego is so it's an unreal cause, but it's in the mind and the world that is perceived as the unreal effect. So the effects of separation all these fragmented objects images people places things dimensions of time wall of cause the cosmos of time and space is a projection, unreal effects from an unreal cause. So, in terms of this particular example that was written in. The first thing we have to accept is to really practice the lessons with the thoughts because the only way that we can escape from the world that we see as we learned in lesson 23 is by giving up attack thoughts. There will never be a solution in getting the right form. And we've used our experiences in this world as as the belief that we're human is the belief that we can make the right moves, make the right changes, make the right adjustments in form, and have a happy life, or even have a decent life. You know, it doesn't matter as long as we believe we can change the form and that that form change will bring about peace and love and harmony and joy. We're we're just attempting a solution that actually is impossible. When these situations come up like with the bed bugs in the apartment. This really, you might say calls you drives you into mind training because at some point, you start to realize it's just absolutely frustrating. It feels absolutely chaotic to try and try and try again to bring about a resolution in the form. And when the problem seems to persist, it must mean that the problem solving approach is what needs to be questioned. Looking for love in all the wrong places looking for love in too many faces. Yeah, this world was made to cover over our light, our divine love or connection with God with our creator. The ego made this world as a as a trap. In Star Trek terms, the world is a cloaking device for the ego for this false perception for this false belief in separation the world is just a cloaking device. So it does bring you to a point where you start to say I, I want to pray I want to go inside and I want to use what's available to me what's given to me to resolve the issue for once and for all. And Jesus is assuring us that if you're lined up with God, there is no problem. If you're lined up with the Holy Spirit, there's no problem if you're lined up with Jesus there's no problem. You know, even when your cat is is jumping into your course of miracles live workbook broadcast. It's not really a problem. It's only the thoughts that that something has gone wrong or that something in form needs to change that brings about a sense of pressure a sense of stress, a sense of discomfort if you believe the form has to change. And when you just relax and you line up with the spirit then it's your behavior becomes involuntary. What you do comes from what you think if you think with God which is being lined with the Holy Spirit and Jesus, everything flows. And if you try to think with the ego which is what Jesus calls wrong mindedness then of course there seems to be a lot of conflict and struggle because you, you can't be in your wrong mind and your right mind simultaneously it's in this moment is one or the other you're choosing to align with God or to try to align against God. And that's the range is set. There's no other alternatives. You can't, you know, you can't try to be play in between you can't try to squeeze into the the gray area there is no gray area. In one sense with thinking it's all or nothing. You're either in the allness of thinking with God and with the Holy Spirit and Jesus or you're in the nothingness of trying to think against God by thinking with the ego. So, thank you for sharing all that and and I think the most important thing that we all can take away from that is now the need for mind training is very apparent. And once you see the need for it then the priority for it comes and and then at the end you were asking if there's any guidance well the guidance is what we're doing here on these lives we're we're taking the instructions and the workbook glasses that Jesus has given us. And then we're applying them as Jesus instructs us to apply them to everything and everyone that crosses our mind. And it sounds like from what you've been dealing with as you wrote in this question that that basically it's it's bringing it closer and closer inward to a point of release. Because if you start to see the only solution is to let go of the thinking. And these attack thoughts you will just begin to notice that that there are aspects of the self concept or the image of being a person in a world of fragmentation. There are lots of aspects to that but actually it's not so complex as it might seem because there's just one belief that's underneath all of the complexity and all of the distractions and all of the false concepts and images of this world and that that one thing is the ego and that ego to believe that it is a decision, and you can choose to believe in it and then you get into its false analysis and false fix it mode, or you can accept the correction, which is the miracle. Moment by moment we can, we can accept the correction you might say the right mind is just a choice to be in the miracle. And you start to realize that there's a even a greater correction that is an all time correction, it's called the atonement. It's the first miracle and the last miracle and all the miracles in between. It's total escape from the past and an absolute total release of the interest in the future. Wow, that's a good one. And you start to see this the same total escape from the past and total release from from the future are is actually going to release the core of all the attack thoughts which is linear time. God didn't create linear time. God is eternal, and God creates the eternal. And the ego is time bound because the ego invented linear time it invented this crazy past present future construct that is not real. And, and when we try to make it real we suffer. We have conflict. Okay, let's move on to the second question that was written in. And this question starts off with David. Yesterday was a bit unusual. Still playing the role of sales representative at Nordstrom in California. We had six different occurrences of shoplifters in the men's clothing department. As people come into the store and typically behave in a manner that is different from a customer that is there to actually make a purchase. They seem to be bold, as they gather up a bunch of clothing, and at a time when they think they can, they dash for the exit with as much clothing as they think is possible. So, in the interest of healing I want to do my best to practically apply today's lesson. Lesson 26 my attack thoughts are attacking my invulnerability. Yes, there were attack thoughts that came up as I witnessed such behavior. The first from policy is that we do nothing to stop shoplifters other than to let them notice that we are there to help them make a purchase, which seems in line with in my defenselessness, my safety lies. Yet, I would be lying if I said that I am not triggered by witnessing these people as they shoplift. So here goes the lesson. I'm concerned about the shoplifters boldly stealing merchandise when it happens right in front of me. I am afraid that this issue seems to be getting worse. I'm afraid because I feel the urge to stop them and I could be harmed or I could harm another physically. I am afraid because the whole situation feels dangerous. My thoughts are an attack upon myself. I'm grateful that this situation came at what feels like the best time to practice the lesson for today. Yay, and a heart. So, yeah, thank you rich. Thank you for writing that in. I think, when we, when we look at this workbook lesson today. That is really clearly stating my attack thoughts are attacking my invulnerability. We start to feel like our invulnerability has to be related to our spiritual reality, because if you look at this world and you look at all the the images and the persons and even the houses and the cities and the countries and the governments. None of that has really shown us a state of constancy or a state of continuity and purpose. Basically, that all has been a reflection of instability and insecurity and conflict. And so it must be that our invulnerability is our connection to God, and our connection to being spirit being as God created us in our pristine nature. The I am presence that Jesus talked about before Abraham was I am before the persona of Jesus was before the persona of Abraham, I am the I am spirit. I am the before time and space I am before separation I am before conflict. And that's a big leap, seemingly to go from being human and feeling quite vulnerable in what seems to be a hostile environment to accepting my invulnerability my strength in Christ. And accepting that in Christ, everything is is made right, because God created Christ. So it must be that I can let go of anything else that I've tried to add on to the Christ identity and come back as all the mystics and saints have talked about emptying the mind of everything we think we think and think we know. So you can start to see that it's, it is tied into the role as you said the role of sales sales representative at Nordstrom. And that's part of the defensiveness that can arise when when we see something, and we think, hmm, this could impact on who I am in terms of the role. You know, it's, I would say most clothing stores clothing stores and department stores, you know, obviously the point is to have a business make money and make a profit on the sale of a product in this case close. And so this practice of mind training is taking us deep inside to start to realize, wow, it's just the thoughts that I hold about myself and my identity in this world are what is attacking my invulnerability. Because if I'm spirit, then it wouldn't matter what seems to happen what seems to occur. And Jesus is taking us in through the mind training to really take us to a point of seeing that that the world is just dreams and wish fulfillment and fantasies. Hallucination, you know, it's not reality it wasn't created by God it won't last forever, but to the extent we identify with the roles and the body and the things of this world that we associate as the body, needing houses and cars and food and on and on everything is part of a projection of images that the ego made up to keep us thinking that we're we're tiny creatures when in fact we're vast in spirit as a creation of God. What a great lesson to practice and I love how orchestrated the lessons are with our experiences in time and space and and anyone who does the lessons with just sincerity. Quickly notices how it seems like the day unfolds just for us to practice the lesson, just for us to experience the lesson the whole day is designed just for us to come back to our right mind to choose the miracle, consistently choose the miracle. In fact, you know, that's our stepping stone Jesus is saying I want you I want you to make the miracle, a habit of choice. I want you to be habitually miracle minded I want you to be consistently miracle minded so that you can consistently see the world in a different way that we have as a human being to see the world with the Holy Spirit to perceive the world with Jesus is very different than the personal perspective. And we just went over that I think it was in yesterday's lesson that all of our, maybe even one before that all of our interest that we have in the outcomes of the world are all personal interest. And the problem is wrong minded perception is taking everything personally, it's even taking the stars in the sky personally, it's taking the trees and the leaves personally is taking the oceans and the animals personally. Whenever we take a stand on an issue of the world whether it's an environmental issue or an ecological issue, or a political issue, or an interpersonal issue, or a community issue, whatever it is it doesn't matter what level it's on. And once we take issue with something as if it's outside of us and it needs to change for us to be happy, then we have forgotten that we have a perceptual problem and we need to change our thinking, and the way we look upon the world. And this is what Jesus meant 2000 years ago when he was saying you know before you get the spec out of your brother's eye, remove the law or the beam out of your own eye he was teaching. You need to correct your perception 2000 years ago before there was a word for perception, but there really was a word he was saying your eye. You need to go from your, your human egoic eyes or perception of the world to to the spiritual lie to the Holy Spirit's perspective on the world to Jesus's perspective on the world. So, yeah, it's good that that you were triggered by what you were perceiving because now you see, oh my gosh I wasn't really triggered by these people taking bunches of closes and running for the exit. I was triggered by my interpretation of these people running towards the the exit with a bunch of clothes that they didn't pay for. I was triggered by that. And even the Nordstrom policy was trying to draw you back to the correction. It's all for love, and it's an opportunity to say. How can I be of assistance in you making a purchase, which in terms of the role that you seem to have as a sales representative that that is, you might say in line with the Holy Spirit's use of the role. Holy encounters, you're there to bring a blessing. You're there to as the security guards have have the people with all the clothes and they bring them back then you're still in the attitude of how can I be of service, how can I be helpful. Maybe it's just listening to somebody who's having a rough day or, or going through extreme perception of lack and scarcity and believing that they need to steal some clothes, you know, to regain a sense of self, because everyone who does anything in this way to try to puff up themselves or overcome a lack through a change in external external circumstances is just forgotten where their value is, you know, and Jesus says, as he said in the Bible where your treasure is there will you, you find your true value you will try, you will find what what is really important. If you put your belief in the treasures of this world, then you, you're, you are going to reinforce unworthiness because your treasures are spiritual and nature, because God is spiritual and God created you as a spiritual being as the Christ. And if you try to get into a false identity then of course it, it doesn't ever go well when we try to go against God's will for us in perfect happiness, which is in heaven. A lot of times people try to say, well, it was God's will that this country invaded another country or it was God's will that my local football team or my local baseball team won the championship. No, God's will is, is for perfect happiness and there in case anyone has a notice, there really is no perfect happiness in the perception of this world. However, we can forgive the world and get a really good reflection of happiness from heaven through the Holy Spirit and Jesus, you know, there are, there are bridge. Jesus is like our elder brother saying, come on, like he is in the painting behind me. Come on, I'm waiting, I'm waiting for you. Come and join me. And the Holy Spirit is saying, yeah, come and look at the world like I see the world and then you'll, you'll find a beautiful reflection of happiness. And then when you wake up from the dream of the world and time and space and you are back with full remembrance of God's love full remembrance of the light, then, you know, there's no need for perception at that point. There's no need for forgiveness because all is one, all is love, all is eternal life. So thank you, thank you for writing in your questions. Thank you for your willingness to practice these lessons. And Jesus is telling us, you know, you are guaranteed peace you are guaranteed joy and love, you are guaranteed peace in an inner state of tranquility and invulnerability. If you identify with your creator and in this world that means identify with with the Christ in this moment identify with the Holy Spirit. There's two where Jesus says make your invulnerability manifest, meaning if you're lined up with spirit, there's nothing of the world that can be against you, because of the alignment with spirit. If God is with us who can be against us. If God is for us, which the Holy Spirit and Jesus are for us, that's a fact. Then nothing, no thing of the world, no image of the world can be against us because we simply withdraw our faith and belief in the images, and we go back inward to the alignment with God's love. Thank you. Thank you for joining. God bless you. Have a beautiful day of practicing your mind training.