 We're here on the 20th day of January in the year 2024 and we're diving into the practical application of the lessons of A Course in Miracles, the workbook lessons. And it's so freeing because when you really look at it, it's going to be the practical application in the transfer of training of the ideas to everyone and everything in every situation that actually brings in the joy. The more you transfer the ideas means the more you are unwilling to make exceptions to the ideas. You are actually opening your mind and opening your heart to the direct experience that the lessons point to. And that is an experience of love and peace and joy, serenity, tranquility. That is the peace of God. It's no small thing. And we're opening to, yeah, the purity of heart that Jesus talked about, blessed are the pure of heart for they shall see God. That's it. That's what we're into. So today we're going to look at lesson 28. Above all else, I want to see things differently. Today we are really giving specific application to the idea for yesterday. In these practice periods, you will be making a series of definite commitments. The question of whether you will keep them in the future is not our concern here. If you're willing, at least to make them now, you have started on the way to keeping them and we are still at the beginning. You may wonder why it is important to say, for example, above all else, I want to see this table differently. In itself, it is not important at all. Yet what is by itself and what does in itself mean? You see a lot of separate things about you, which really means you are not seeing it all. You either see or not, and you have seen one thing differently. You will see all things differently. The light you will see in any one of them is the same light you will see in them all. When you say above all else, I want to see this table differently, you're making a commitment to withdraw your preconceived ideas about the table and open your mind to what it is and what it is for. You are not defining it in past terms. You are asking what it is rather than telling it what it is. You are not binding its meaning to your tiny experience of tables, nor are you limiting its purpose to your little personal thoughts. You will not question what you have already defined, and the purpose of these exercises is to ask questions and receive the answers. In saying above all else, I want to see this table differently, you are committing yourself to seeing. It is not an exclusive commitment. It is a commitment that applies to the table just as much to anything else, neither more nor less. You could in fact gain vision from just that table if you would withdraw all your own ideas from it and look upon it with a complete open mind. It has something to show you, something beautiful and clean and of infinite value full of happiness and hope, hidden under all your ideas about its real purpose, the purpose it shares with all the universe is there. In using the table as a subject for applying the idea for today, you are therefore really asking to see the purpose of the universe. You will be making the same request of each subject that you use in the practice periods, and you are making a commitment to each of them to let its purpose be revealed to you, instead of placing your own judgment upon it. We will have six two-minute practice periods today in which the idea for today is stated first and then applied to whatever you see about you. Not only should the subjects be chosen randomly, but each one should be accorded equal sincerely, as today's idea is applied to it, in an attempt to acknowledge the equal value of them all in their contribution to your seeing. As usual, the applications should include the name of the subject your eyes happen to light on, and you should rest your eyes on it while saying, above all else I want to see this differently. Each application should be made quite slowly and as thoughtfully as possible. There is no hurry. So today Jesus tells us we will be making a series of definite commitments and that word he repeats in the lesson. It's going to take a commitment to see this world differently. It's going to take a commitment to train the mind. It will take a commitment to see with the vision of Christ. The commitment is in our mind and it's to wake up and to remember God, to know the creator. And we're applying this commitment now into shifting our perception to line up with the Holy Spirit and line up with Jesus. Jesus and the Holy Spirit see the world in a very holistic way, not in a fragmented way which has many parts and pieces. It's the perception that has been the problem, not the things that seem to be inside of the perception. For example, it's not really all the problems that are defined by the ego that are the problem. It's the ego itself and it's distorted perceptual world that is the problem. The belief in separation from God is the problem and the atonement is the solution. So today we're putting vision and seeing above everything else. That's why we're saying above all else I want to see things differently. And so our focus is the shift of perception away from the fragmented way that we have been accustomed to, perceiving linear time and subjects and objects and everything holding a space by itself and Jesus is reminding us in this lesson that nothing exists in and of itself. It's part of a tapestry, every image that is perceived as part of a tapestry and the lesson is saying we first must come to see the whole tapestry before we see the light that comes shining through the tapestry. So our goal is to see the whole tapestry. So in talking about commitment, I thought I would use some of the text from the course and let's go to chapter three, the innocent perception and jump down to section two, miracles as true perception. I have stated that the basic concepts referred to in this course are not matters of degree. Fundamental concepts cannot be understood in terms of opposites. It is impossible to conceive of light and darkness or anything and nothing as joint possibilities. They are all true or false. Either all true or they're all false. It is essential that you realize your thinking will be erratic until a firm commitment to one or the other is made. A firm commitment to darkness or nothingness, however, is impossible. No one has ever lived who has not experienced some light and some thing. No one therefore is able to deny truth totally, even if he thinks he can. Innocence is not a partial attribute. It is not real until it is total. The partly innocent are apt to be quite foolish at times. It is not until their innocence becomes a viewpoint with universal application that it becomes wisdom. Innocent or true perception means that you never misperceive and always see truly. Or simply, it means that you never see what does not exist and always see what does exist. How beautiful. Let's continue talking about the commitment that is required for this seeing, this vision of Christ. Let's go to chapter 7 and drop down to the section 6 and we're in the eighth paragraph here starting with the seventh sentence. If truth is total, the untrue cannot exist. Commitment to either must be total. They cannot coexist in your mind without splitting it. If they cannot coexist in peace, and if you want peace, you must give up the idea of conflict entirely and for all time. This requires vigilance, only as long as you do not recognize what is true. How you believe that two totally contradictory thought systems share truth. Your need for vigilance is apparent. That's very strong. So yeah, if truth is total, the untrue cannot exist. So commitment to either must be total and he's just calling us to make our commitment to the truth. He will later tell us the truth is true and only the truth is true. So he's really focusing on opening to what is real and what is true. Her grip nine, your mind is dividing its allegiance between two kingdoms and you are totally committed to neither. Your identification with the kingdom is totally beyond question except by you when you are thinking insanely. What you are is not established by your perception and is not influenced by it at all. Perceived problems and identification at any level are not problems of fact. They're problems of understanding since their presence implies a belief that what you are is up to you to decide. The ego believes this totally being fully committed to it. It is not true. The ego therefore is totally committed to untruth, proceeding in total contradiction to the Holy Spirit and to the knowledge of God. And then we turn ourselves to the total commitment that every commitment that we make in terms of our spiritual awakening. You might say your commitment to a course in miracles as a path or your commitment to doing the workbook or your commitment to practice the lessons throughout the day or any other commitment in terms of relationship commitments, job commitments, different family commitments in terms of responsibility and so on and so forth. These are all temporary commitments by definition and they just give us a sense of confidence and trust and expanding faith as we move deeper and deeper inward toward the light. But the temporary commitments will fade away and give way to the total commitment and that is basically what our lesson is today. You know, again, we're saying that I am determined above all else I want to see things differently and that commitment to that seeing is the commitment to accept the Atonement. So, let's go to chapter 2 and to section 2, the Atonement as Defense. Jesus says, you can do anything I ask. I have asked you to perform miracles and it made clear that miracles are natural, corrective, healing and universal. There is nothing they cannot do but they cannot be performed in the spirit of doubt or fear. When you are afraid of anything, you are acknowledging its power to hurt you. Remember that where your heart is, there is your treasure also. You believe in what you value. If you are afraid, you are valuing wrongly. Your understanding will then inevitably value wrongly and by endowing all thoughts with equal power will inevitably destroy peace. That is why the Bible speaks of the peace that patheth the understanding, the peace of God which patheth understanding. This peace is totally incapable of being shaken by errors of any kind. It denies the ability of anything not of God to affect you. This is the proper use of denial. It is not used to hide anything but to correct error. It brings all error into the light and since error and darkness are the same it corrects error automatically. True denial is a powerful protective device. You can and should deny any belief that error can hurt you. This kind of denial is not a concealment but a correction. Your right mind depends on it. Denial of error is a strong defense of truth but denial of truth results in miscreation, the projections of the ego. In the service of the right mind, the denial of error frees the mind and reestablishes the freedom of the will. And the will is really free. It cannot miscreate because it recognizes only truth. And then we jump down to paragraph four in this section two. The atonement is the only defense that cannot be used destructively because it is not a device you made. The atonement principle was in effect long before the atonement began. The principle was love and the atonement was an act of love. Acts were not necessary before the separation because belief in space and time did not exist. It was only after the separation that the atonement and the conditions necessary for its fulfillment were planned. Then a defense so splendid was needed that it could not be misused, although it could be refused. The atonement could not, however, turn it into a weapon of attack, which is the inherent characteristic of other defenses. The atonement thus becomes the only defense that is not a two-edged sword. It can only heal. The atonement was built into the time space believed to set a limit on the need for the belief itself and ultimately to make learning complete. The atonement is the final lesson. Learning itself, like the classrooms in which it occurs, is temporary. The ability to learn has no value when change is no longer necessary. The eternally created have nothing to learn. You can learn to improve your perceptions and can become a better and better learner. This will bring you closer and closer to chord with the sonship. As the sonship itself is perfect creation and perfection is not a matter of degree. Only while there is the belief in differences is learning meaningful. Evolution is a process in which you seem to proceed from one degree to the next. You correct your previous missteps by stepping forward. This process is actually incomprehensible in temporal terms because you return as you go forward. The atonement is the device by which you can free yourself from the past as you go ahead. It undoes your past errors, thus making it unnecessary for you to keep retracing your steps without advancing to your return. In this sense, the atonement saves time, but like the miracle it serves does not abolish it. As long as there is need for atonement, there is need for time. But the atonement as a completed plan has a unique relationship to time. Until the atonement is complete in its various phases, it will proceed in time. But the whole atonement stands at time's end. At that point, the bridge of return has been built. And here's the important part. The atonement is a total commitment. You may still think this is associated with loss, a mistake all the separated sons of God make in one way or another. It is hard to believe a defense that cannot attack is the best defense. This is what is meant by the meek shall inherit the earth. They will literally take it over because of their strength. A two-way defense is inherently weak precisely because it has two edges and can be turned against you very unexpectedly. This possibility cannot be controlled except by miracles. The miracle turns the defense of atonement to your real protection. And as you become more and more secure, you assume your natural talent of protecting others, knowing yourself as both a brother and a son. So that is a call to deep, deep commitment, deep devotion. And what a life, what a life is experienced when you have devotion. A devoted life is a life that is dedicated to one purpose. And today we're practicing that purpose is the lesson above all else. I want to see things differently. And this is the devotion, the dedication to be lighthearted, to be happy, to be kind, to be gentle, to let the spirit flow through you to you and be perceived in everything as a softness. It's like a soft joining in which you don't separate out, you don't focus on differences. You focus on the sameness. You focus that we are the same mind, we are the same one, we are the same Christ. And the Christ is very, very loving and very, very loving. So thank you so much for joining me today. We are floating in grace today as we are really wanting to see things differently. Above all else, I want to see things differently. Amen. Blessings.