To gain the most from A Course in Miracles Lesson Insights, we recommend
that you read the corresponding lesson in the Workbook of the Second or
Third Edition of A Course in Miracles published by the Foundation for Inner Peace.
“My sinless brother is my guide to peace.
My sinful brother is my guide to pain.
And which I choose to see I will behold.”
This lesson is again bringing to our attention the power of decision. What we see or perceive is entirely our choice. It is not imposed upon us. As we accept this we reclaim our power to be in charge of our experience. As we reclaim that power, we are free to choose differently if what we are experiencing is not happy and peaceful.
What we experience is always the effect of our choice. Our choice is based on what we believe we are. If we believe we are the holy Son of God we will see our brothers as God’s Holy Son. If we believe we are guilty, capable of attack, weak and needing to defend, we will see the same in our brothers. What we see is always a projection from our mind that reflects what we believe we are.
The first paragraph of the “What am I?” section that goes with this series of 10 lessons I like to call the declaration of our perfection. It is telling us what the entire Course is aimed at helping us to accept. If we can accept this picture of our Self as What we are, we will see our brother sinless.
Forgiveness clears the veil away for us to see the shining radiant Christ that is the truth in all our brothers. It does not matter whether it seems we are forgiving a brother or we are forgiving ourselves. What seems to be two is really one and cannot be separated. So in some situations it may seem I may need to forgive a brother and so I need to take my thought of judgment of him to the Holy Spirit in my mind and ask the Holy Spirit to help me see him through His eyes. Perhaps I need to wait with quiet patience to receive this corrected perception. If I am willing I will receive it. Guaranteed.
As the veil of a false image fades I will recognize that what I thought was my brother was not him at all. It was only a mistaken idea, which I gratefully release. In that release I feel a weight lifted from my shoulders and find that I receive the gift of forgiveness as I give it. My heart is lightened. A smile comes upon me and I am filled with gratitude.
In another situation I may become aware that I am judging myself. Once again I bring the thought of judgment to the Holy Spirit and I ask for His vision to replace what I have been perceiving. I wait with quiet patience to receive His vision. My willingness lets it come. As the truth dawns upon my mind, I see what I judged was not me at all, but just a false idea of what I am. Recognizing it is not me, I freely lay it down. It no longer has value to me. It is not my identity.
The Holy Spirit shows me my Identity as Love, my Self, the holy Son of God. And again my heart is lightened. I smile and I am filled with gratitude again. Now I look upon a world of Light. My brother is my Friend and my Companion. And I learn that whether I forgive a brother or myself, I receive the selfsame gift, for we are one.
Thank You Father for my brother’s sinlessness and my own. Thank You for the Guide You gave me to show me this. Today I would look only on sinlessness and know my Self.
There are only two thought systems to choose between. One thought system always sees separation. The other thought system always sees oneness. The thought system that chooses separation also chooses to see guilt outside itself. This guilt is an attempt to relieve itself from the guilt it believes is its own. But seeing guilt outside itself really only intensifies its experience of pain.
This thought system is insane. It makes up images of duality where in truth there is none. It seeks to find guilt only in illusions of separation. It tries to find joy within a painful thought system. Instead of life it only makes illusions of death.
It is very important that we see the ego for what it truly is. The ego offers a great adventure of individuality. It offers specialness and uniqueness and freedom to choose on our own. It values competition and seeing differences. It values seeing a world of separate bodies where nothing is the same. It loves to compare and evaluate as to which thing is most special and grand in the moment. It loves to make up hierarchies of specialness, of lower and higher, of good and bad, within its value system. Judging on its own becomes its life vocation, how it reinforces its individuality and specialness.
This thought system does not tell us that what it truly seeks for is guilt, pain and ultimately death. It hides these values beneath a gossamer veil of specialness. It entices its followers with trophies and wealth, special beauty and having more of something than another. It does not tell us that what it offers is merely illusions of specialness, merely illusions of separation.
The only way for us to find true joy and true peace is to see this thought system for what it is and let it go. The Holy Spirit has been present the whole time while we were seeking illusions of specialness, and is here in our mind now. The Holy Spirit is still in our mind, waiting for us to choose with Him. It is only by choosing with the Holy Spirit that the pain and sorrow found within the thought system of the ego is seen for what it is and gradually released. Choosing with the Holy Spirit lifts the veil of the ego’s illusions and shows us the truth. It shows us that we never left Heaven and that we are still as God created us. The dreams of separation never happened.
Today I choose to join with Holy Spirit. As I see what Holy Spirit shows me, I am awakened to what is real. With Holy Spirit as my Guide, I now choose peace instead of pain. “And which I choose to see I will behold.”
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