Together, We Light the Way

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Lesson 26

My attack thoughts are attacking my invulnerability.
1. It is surely obvious that if you can be attacked you are not invulnerable. ²You see attack as a real threat. ³That is because you believe that you can really attack. ⁴And what would have effects through you must also have effects on you. ⁵It is this law that will ultimately save you, but you are misusing it now. ⁶You must therefore learn how it can be used for your own best interests, rather than against them.
2. Because your attack thoughts will be projected, you will fear attack. ²And if you fear attack, you must believe that you are not invulnerable. ³Attack thoughts therefore make you vulnerable in your own mind, which is where the attack thoughts are. ⁴Attack thoughts and invulnerability cannot be accepted together. ⁵They contradict each other.
3. The idea for today introduces the thought that you always attack yourself first. ²If attack thoughts must entail the belief that you are vulnerable, their effect is to weaken you in your own eyes. ³Thus they have attacked your perception of yourself. ⁴And because you believe in them, you can no longer believe in yourself. ⁵A false image of yourself has come to take the place of what you are.
4. Practice with today’s idea will help you to understand that vulnerability or invulnerability is the result of your own thoughts. ²Nothing except your thoughts can attack you. ³Nothing except your thoughts can make you think you are vulnerable. ⁴And nothing except your thoughts can prove to you this is not so.
5. Six practice periods are required in applying today’s idea. ²A 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. ³Do not reduce it further.
6. The practice period should begin with repeating the idea for today, then closing your eyes and reviewing the unresolved questions whose outcomes are causing you concern. ²The concern may take the form of depression, worry, anger, a sense of imposition, fear, foreboding or preoccupation. ³Any problem as yet unsettled that tends to recur in your thoughts during the day is a suitable subject. ⁴You will not be able to use very many for any one practice period, because a longer time than usual should be spent with each one. ⁵Today’s idea should be applied as follows:
7. First, name the situation:
²I am concerned about _________.
³Then go over every possible outcome that has occurred to you in that connection and which has caused you concern, referring to each one quite specifically, saying:
⁴I am afraid _________ will happen.
8. If you are doing the exercises properly, you should have some five or six distressing possibilities available for each situation you use, and quite possibly more. ²It is much more helpful to cover a few situations thoroughly than to touch on a larger number. ³As the list of 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. ⁴Try, however, to treat them all alike to whatever extent you can.
9. After you have named each outcome of which you are afraid, tell yourself:
²That thought is an attack upon myself.
³Conclude each practice period by repeating today’s idea to yourself once more.
(ACIM, W-26.1:1–9:3)
2025
Maybe, like me, you saw this coming. I have seen that all I see and how I see it are the effects of my thoughts. Lesson 23 told us that my escape from the world is to give up my attack thoughts. This lesson is very specific as to why this is the case. If I perceive attack anywhere, I will believe in attack and will believe it can be directed at me. That I can be attacked must mean that I am vulnerable. A Son of God cannot be vulnerable, and if I perceive myself as vulnerable, then I am denying my awareness of myself as God’s Son. Attacking anyone for anything costs me my awareness of what I am. It keeps me returning to the illusion repeatedly. This is not what I want, so I watch my mind carefully for attack thoughts.
I discover them in the careless chatter of the mind. I will suddenly pull myself back from the chatter and realize I have been attacking someone. I was having this angry conversation with someone who was not there. What did I think I was accomplishing? I don’t know, but what I do know is that the only thing I accomplished was to further convince myself that I needed to be defended because I am vulnerable. Good grief.

It’s OK, though. I was hurting myself and denying the Oneness of the Sonship, but it was a mistake, not a sin. Practicing this lesson will keep me aware of these kinds of mistakes, and I will become more adept at catching them and forgiving them. Also, I was reminded that there is nowhere in the Course that says judge not except when it comes to politicians. Okay, I get it.  Those thoughts are hurting me, too.

We are just learning. Learning is why we are here. If we were already good at this stuff, we wouldn’t be here. And yet, I have noticed a tendency to feel guilty when I perceive myself as not doing a lesson well. That is why I love the following passage and read it nearly every day.
1. The happy learner cannot feel guilty about learning. ²This is so essential to learning that it should never be forgotten. ³The guiltless learner learns easily because his thoughts are free. ⁴Yet this entails the recognition that guilt is interference, not salvation, and serves no useful function at all. (ACIM, T-14.III.1:1-4)

2026
I want to add something here that my friend, Johanna wrote. When I first read this, it helped me see why vulnerability feels so convincing and how identity determines perception. I’m sharing it because it clarified something this lesson is pointing to.
Johanna said: I feel responsible for my presence here and have, mistakenly, concluded that the reason for that must be that I created myself. And since I obviously did not create all that I perceive in my environment, I stand separated and alone. I find myself looking at everything, rather than with everything. And that is why I do not really know what anything is for. Let’s look at the distinction between at and with.
Me: This next paragraph describes the mental posture that comes from believing we are separate.
Johanna: My imagined separated position induces a state of mind that is constantly trying to justify itself. This state of mind looks at the outside world and assesses it in terms of how useful a given person, thing, or situation is in light of my need to justify my existence. That explains the word “at” in: … looking at everything and judging it.
Me: Now she contrasts that with the perspective that comes from remembering our Source.
Johanna: But I do not have to justify my existence at all. God created me as part of Creation. I am part of the whole. That explains the word “with” in: … looking with everything and accepting it all as Life in extension.
From the perspective of the living Whole, everything serves the purpose of Its own well-being. Since I am (part of) the living Whole and were created by it, everything serves me. That is why the lesson says, “Everything is for your own best interests.”
My sense of identity, and thus my agenda, determines whether I judge everything or accept everything.
When I first read this, I wanted to share it because it was a helpful way to see what is going on here and why we feel so vulnerable. That last sentence is the reason I want to share this now. 
The reason I feel attacked is that I do not believe in my invulnerability, which is inherent in my very identity. And of course, if I feel attacked, I will defend myself and attack in return, and so that unfortunate cycle keeps me from accepting my true identity, which is my salvation.
As a separate self, I look at the world and see it as an attack on me. Or as part of the whole, I look with the world and see it unfolding within me. As I continue to study and practice the Course, I find myself moving toward the perspective of the Self, looking with rather than at. Not there yet, but beginning to feel it, and that is an exciting change.
Video: https://youtu.be/ywfcrWshO9o

© 2026, Pathways of Light. https://dev.pathwaysoflight.org
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Posted by Rev. Myron Jones.

Lesson 25

I do not know what anything is for.
1. Purpose is meaning. ²Today’s idea explains why nothing you see means anything. ³You do not know what it is for. ⁴Therefore, it is meaningless to you. ⁵Everything is for your own best interests. ⁶That is what it is for; that is its purpose; that is what it means. ⁷It is in recognizing this that your goals become unified. ⁸It is in recognizing this that what you see is given meaning.
2. You perceive the world and everything in it as meaningful in terms of ego goals. ²These goals have nothing to do with your own best interests, because the ego is not you. ³This false identification makes you incapable of understanding what anything is for. ⁴As a result, you are bound to misuse it. ⁵When you believe this, you will try to withdraw the goals you have assigned to the world, instead of attempting to reinforce them.
3. Another way of describing the goals you now perceive is to say that they are all concerned with “personal” interests. ²Since you have no personal interests, your goals are really concerned with nothing. ³In cherishing them, therefore, you have no goals at all. ⁴And thus you do not know what anything is for.
4. Before you can make any sense out of the exercises for today, one more thought is necessary. ²At the most superficial levels, you do recognize purpose. ³Yet purpose cannot be understood at these levels. ⁴For example, you do understand that a telephone is for the purpose of talking to someone who is not physically in your immediate vicinity. ⁵What you do not understand is what you want to reach him for. ⁶And it is this that makes your contact with him meaningful or not.
5. It is crucial to your learning to be willing to give up the goals you have established for everything. ²The recognition that they are meaningless, rather than “good” or “bad,” is the only way to accomplish this. ³The idea for today is a step in this direction.
6. Six practice periods, each of two-minutes duration, are required. ²Each practice period should begin with a slow repetition of the idea for today, followed by looking about you and letting your glance rest on whatever happens to catch your eye, near or far, “important” or “unimportant,” “human” or “nonhuman.” ³With your eyes resting on each subject you so select, say, for example:
⁴I do not know what this chair is for.
⁵I do not know what this pencil is for.
⁶I do not know what this hand is for.
⁷Say this quite slowly, without shifting your eyes from the subject until you have completed the statement about it. ⁸Then move on to the next subject, and apply today’s idea as before.
(ACIM, W-25.1:1–6:8)

2025
At first glance, this seems not to be true. As I look around the room, applying today’s lessons to various things, it certainly seems like it is obvious what these things are for. But when I take into consideration the fact that I identify with the ego, I see that I judge their purpose according to how it affects the personal self. Since the personal self is an illusion, and I am not, I see this is why I do not know what anything is for.
I had a perfect example of this as soon as I got out of bed. I went into my bathroom and turned on the light and the heater. I dislike the abrupt temperature change from the warm bed to the cold bathroom, so I appreciate this heater very much. This morning, it made an awful noise before the fan got going. I expressed my dismay forcefully. Let’s just say that I said “darn it!” Or something stronger. LOL.
I certainly felt like I knew what that heater was for. But who is it that thinks she needs a heater? It is the ego, the separate self, that is represented by a body. It is the ego, the separate self that has opinions and preferences that may be different than other body-selves.
As long as I continue to reference everything back to a separate self, I will continue to be lost in the world of thought projected outward. I don’t want that. I want to awaken from the imagined world, not reinforce it. So, I am ready for today’s simple lesson. I might have been lukewarm about doing it, but now I am actually excited about it. This lesson, practiced until it is fully accepted, is essential to awakening. That is what it is for.

2026
After reading what I wrote last year, I wasn’t sure I had anything to add. But I would add that if the bathroom heater stopped working, I would, of course, replace it. Understanding that I don’t know what something is for and so don’t know what it means doesn’t necessarily affect how I use it or if I use it. That’s not what this lesson is teaching. But noticing this misunderstanding of purpose frequently will help me shift my belief in a separate self. We all know who we are, but that knowledge is buried behind the false identity we took to have this experience. Remembering who we are and learning to identify as Self is our true purpose.
What makes this lesson uncomfortable is not that I lack information, but that I am asked to relinquish authority. I am not being invited to replace ego meanings with better ones, but to admit I have never known what anything was for. In that admission, meaning is no longer my responsibility—and that is a great relief.
Once purpose is no longer personal, the separate self has no function left to perform. And without function, it gently fades.
Video: https://youtu.be/O5aLTwpZRzM

© 2026, Pathways of Light. https://dev.pathwaysoflight.org
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Posted by Rev. Myron Jones.

Lesson 24 2026

I do not perceive my own best interests.
1. In no situation that arises do you realize the outcome that would make you happy. ²Therefore, you have no guide to appropriate action, and no way of judging the result. ³What you do is determined by your perception of the situation, and that perception is wrong. ⁴It is inevitable, then, that you will not serve your own best interests. ⁵Yet they are your only goal in any situation which is correctly perceived. ⁶Otherwise, you will not recognize what they are.
2. If you realized that you do not perceive your own best interests, you could be taught what they are. ²But in the presence of your conviction that you do know what they are, you cannot learn. ³The idea for today is a step toward opening your mind so that learning can begin.
3. The exercises for today require much more honesty than you are accustomed to using. ²A few subjects, honestly and carefully considered in each of the five practice periods which should be undertaken today, will be more helpful than a more cursory examination of a large number. ³Two minutes are suggested for each of the mind-searching periods which the exercises involve.
4. The practice periods should begin with repeating today’s idea, followed by searching the mind, with closed eyes, for unresolved situations about which you are currently concerned. ²The emphasis should be on uncovering the outcome you want. ³You will quickly realize that you have a number of goals in mind as part of the desired outcome, and also that these goals are on different levels and often conflict.
5. In applying the idea for today, name each situation that occurs to you, and then enumerate carefully as many goals as possible that you would like to be met in its resolution. ²The form of each application should be roughly as follows:
³In the situation involving _________, I would like _________ to happen, and _________ to happen,
and so on. ⁴Try to cover as many different kinds of outcomes as may honestly occur to you, even if some of them do not appear to be directly related to the situation, or even to be inherent in it at all.
6. If these exercises are done properly, you will quickly recognize that you are making a large number of demands of the situation which have nothing to do with it. ²You will also recognize that many of your goals are contradictory, that you have no unified outcome in mind, and that you must experience disappointment in connection with some of your goals, however the situation turns out.
7. After covering the list of as many hoped-for goals as possible, for each unresolved situation that crosses your mind say to yourself:
²I do not perceive my own best interests in this situation,
and go on to the next one. (ACIM, W-24.1:1–7:2)
2025
I absolutely believe this lesson. Sometimes, I will have a wish for something pass through my mind, and I let it. That is, I let it pass right on through without my attention. That was not always true, of course. I learned that I had no idea what was in my best interests. I might never have seen that this was true if Jesus had not pointed it out and guided me to recognize it in myself.
I used to fantasize about what I would do if I won the lottery. At first, it was a fun and interesting fantasy. But if I stayed with it very long at all, the fantasy would move into the problems associated with winning. That alone should have shown me that I don’t know my own best interests. I’m glad I didn’t win all that money because, in not having enough, I discovered something more valuable than having more. As it turns out a wonderful outcome that I had not fantasized about occurred for me. I came to understand that abundance isn’t having millions of dollars. It is knowing that what you need will always be provided when you need it. I know this is true because it is how I live now.
Here is another one. When I was working, I very much wanted to retire and do my ministry full-time. I could not imagine how that would not be in my best interest. What I discovered is that the extra years I worked were the most productive. They provided me with so many forgiveness opportunities I would never have had if I had retired early. Those opportunities are what led to the healing of my mind and made me a better teacher of God. After all, you cannot share with others what you don’t have. I am truly happy that I always left that decision up to the Holy Spirit Who knew what was actually needed.
The only temptation to decide for myself that has occurred was the recent election. I thought I knew who should be elected. But even as I thought about it, I realized that I don’t really know what is in my best interests. The outcomes I was looking for were varied and ultimately ridiculous.
Nothing in the world is going to save me. I must do that myself, and I must do it by changing my mind, not by electing a savior. I am so grateful to Jesus for his instructions and grateful to myself for practicing the lessons he gives me. If I had not had and used the Course, my life would be very different now, and not in a good way.
2026
This lesson has opened my mind to be taught what it is that I really want. At some point, I realized that the peace of God was my only goal. It had occurred to me that everything I wanted was an effort to find peace. I thought I needed more money, but getting more money satisfied me only briefly. Then another problem would pop up. Sometimes I thought I would be happy if I only had a different relationship, and for a little while, I thought I had finally discovered the answer. Then that would sour, and I would be right back looking out there for the answer. It seemed that my life was an endless quest for the elusive solution to happiness.
When one day I had the thought that I was really looking for peace, a real change began to happen. It simplified all problems since the solution to all of them would lead me to the peace of God. When I had a problem of any kind, I would consider a possible solution and ask myself if it would bring me the peace of God. If not, I would dismiss it as irrelevant since it would not satisfy my only goal.
That one decision opened my mind to a new way of being that I recognized only in retrospect. It led me to recognize that full surrender to the Holy Spirit was the way to happiness. This is because when I would ask that question, will this bring me the peace of God, the ego had no answer for that. The answer would come from the Holy Spirit. Slowly, turning to the Holy Spirit for answers became habitual.
This morning when I woke up, I was out of sorts. Maybe that has happened to you, too. Just a little grumpy for no reason that I could pinpoint. My cat was trying to get my attention while I was making coffee and wondering what was wrong with me. I demanded to know what she wanted now, feeling like she was the neediest cat in the world. That feeling caught my attention and highlighted the need to reorient myself.
I called on the Holy Spirit to decide for me. That’s shorthand for I surrender to Your guidance in all things, Holy Spirit. You decide what I think, what I believe, say, and do. Where do you want me now? This is the ultimate answer to my desire for the peace of God. Here is the paragraph that convinced me of the logic of letting the Holy Spirit decide all things for me.
Say to the Holy Spirit only, “Decide for me,” and it is done. ²For His decisions are reflections of what God knows about you, and in this light, error of any kind becomes impossible. ³Why would you struggle so frantically to anticipate all you cannot know, when all knowledge lies behind every decision the Holy Spirit makes for you? ⁴Learn of His wisdom and His Love, and teach His answer to everyone who struggles in the dark. ⁵For you decide for them and for yourself. (ACIM, T-14.III.16:1-5)
As soon as I made my request, the grumpy mood dissipated, and the whole thing seemed funny to me. I am not perfectly consistent in this yet, but each time I make that decision, the results reinforce my practice. One day, I will probably notice how easy and peaceful life seems these days and will realize that allowing the Holy Spirit to decide for me has become as natural as breathing.
Have I gotten off topic here? I don’t think so. I came to realize that I don’t know my best interests. Accepting that this is true led me step by step to rely on One who does know. Perhaps this is what Jesus was pointing me to when I encountered this lesson in the first place. It just took me a while to get there.
Video: https://youtu.be/vTMf-LMaP58

© 2026, Pathways of Light. https://dev.pathwaysoflight.org
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Posted by Rev. Myron Jones.

Lesson 23

I can escape from the world I see by giving up attack thoughts.
1. The idea for today contains the only way out of fear that will ever succeed. ²Nothing else will work; everything else is meaningless. ³But this way cannot fail. ⁴Every thought you have makes up some segment of the world you see. ⁵It is with your thoughts, then, that we must work, if your perception of the world is to be changed.
2. If the cause of the world you see is attack thoughts, you must learn that it is these thoughts which you do not want. ²There is no point in lamenting the world. ³There is no point in trying to change the world. ⁴It is incapable of change because it is merely an effect. ⁵But there is indeed a point in changing your thoughts about the world. ⁶Here you are changing the cause. ⁷The effect will change automatically.
3. The world you see is a vengeful world, and everything in it is a symbol of vengeance. ²Each of your perceptions of “external reality” is a pictorial representation of your own attack thoughts. ³One can well ask if this can be called seeing. ⁴Is not fantasy a better word for such a process, and hallucination a more appropriate term for the result?
4. You see the world that you have made, but you do not see yourself as the image maker. ²You cannot be saved from the world, but you can escape from its cause. ³This is what salvation means, for where is the world you see when its cause is gone? ⁴Vision already holds a replacement for everything you think you see now. ⁵Loveliness can light your images, and so transform them that you will love them, even though they were made of hate. ⁶For you will not be making them alone.
5. The idea for today introduces the thought that you are not trapped in the world you see, because its cause can be changed. ²This change requires, first, that the cause be identified and then let go, so that it can be replaced. ³The first two steps in this process require your cooperation. ⁴The final one does not. ⁵Your images have already been replaced. ⁶By taking the first two steps, you will see that this is so.
6. Besides using it throughout the day as the need arises, five practice periods are required in applying today’s idea. ²As you look about you, repeat the idea slowly to yourself first, and then close your eyes and devote about a minute to searching your mind for as many attack thoughts as occur to you. ³As each one crosses your mind say:
⁴I can escape from the world I see by giving up attack thoughts about _________.
⁵Hold each attack thought in mind as you say this, and then dismiss that thought and go on to the next.
7. In the practice periods, be sure to include both your thoughts of attacking and of being attacked. ²Their effects are exactly the same because they are exactly the same. ³You do not recognize this as yet, and you are asked at this time only to treat them as the same in today’s practice periods. ⁴We are still at the stage of identifying the cause of the world you see. ⁵When you finally learn that thoughts of attack and of being attacked are not different, you will be ready to let the cause go. (ACIM, W-23.1:1–7:5)
2025
I include last year’s reflections in these lessons because they show how the lessons first met me, and how they have since deepened.
Jesus is perfectly clear as he reminds us that we make the world we see with our thoughts, and it is a vengeful world because our thoughts are of attacking and being attacked. He tells us that it will do no good to try to change the world. Our thoughts are the cause, and the world is its effect.
You cannot fix something by starting with the effect.
I was thinking about this, and I remember one time I made a cake from scratch. Yeah, I don’t know why I did this either, when you can buy perfectly good cake mixes at any grocery store. When the cake came out of the oven, it looked great. But when I tasted it, I realized I had dipped from the salt canister rather than the sugar canister. It was inedible. But it was so lovely, and I had worked so hard at it. Still, the cooking error was the cause, and the cake was the effect. Trying to fix the effect of the error would be a waste of time and energy.
Trying to fix the world, which is an effect of our thoughts, is the same error. It is a waste of time and energy and causes more suffering in the attempt. Just as I had to bite the bullet and toss the cake, it is time to do the same with the world we made of our attack thoughts. But unlike my cake, which would have to be cooked by me again to correct the problems with the world, I only need to identify the cause and then let it go. Vision will show us the real world that exists right now, unseen by us who are fixated on the world of our vengeance.
Looking at my attack thoughts this morning, I see that I did not agree with a decision of President Trump’s yesterday. I felt anger, contempt for the choice he made, and frustration that I could do nothing about it. All of those are attack thoughts. I won’t write him a letter about it or even talk about it with others, except as an example of this lesson. That would have been trying to change the effect without changing its cause.
But in my mind, I attacked and felt attacked. My angry thoughts were the cause of the world I was seeing. This is not, of course, the first time I have attacked someone, but this time, I recognized the error and happily let it go so that I could go back to seeing what stands in the place of our thought errors. As it happens, it is love and peace of mind. I will not spend my time here defending what I think should happen. I came for greater things. I came to heal the mind so that we can have an experience of a healed world rather than a world built on vengeance.
2026
There is so much in this lesson that has had a profound effect on me. From the first word, Jesus impresses on us the importance of what he is saying.
• the only way out of fear that will ever succeed.
• ²Nothing else will work;
• everything else is meaningless.
• ³But this way cannot fail.
I feel my body relax and my mind slip gently into peace as I take this in. In all of my life I had wondered why life didn’t come with an instruction book. It all seemed so random and uncontrollable with no way forward that offered certainty. Now, here is the promise that this lesson is the instruction manual I was longing to find.
It was with anticipation that I first read the next two sentences in which he described the cause and the needed correction.
⁴Every thought you have makes up some segment of the world you see. ⁵It is with your thoughts, then, that we must work, if your perception of the world is to be changed.
I’m not going to say that it was at that moment I knew what to do, and the rest is history. But it was then I knew I would find my way Home and I would not stop until I did.
As Jesus goes on to explain that it is not the world I must change to achieve peace, but the attack thoughts in my mind that must be relinquished. After all, the world is just the effect of those thoughts. It doesn’t matter if I attack or if I feel attacked, attack itself will shatter my peace. As often happens, I read a comment by someone that was so hate-filled that it hurt my heart. I felt uneasy afterward, but I went on with what I was doing. But it was like having a splinter in your finger, and each time it was touched, it hurt. So I stopped and talked to Jesus about it.
I wondered why this was so upsetting. It is not the first time I have heard this hateful rhetoric. Why did I need to look at this now? At first I thought I needed to forgive her or forgive the belief that something outside myself could hurt me. But that didn’t change the uneasiness. So, I asked the Holy Spirit to decide for me, since clearly I had no idea what to think that would give me peace. And then I waited, not doing anything, just allowing the feelings to run through me along with any thoughts I had.
Then I saw the problem. I felt attacked by her words. I could not imagine living in the world of her dreams, and yet she was trying to convince me that this was what was going to happen, and I should love it as much as she did. I felt endangered, and I wanted to defend myself from her vision of heaven. I am certain that my vision of how we should live with each other was just as upsetting to her as her’s was to me. I bet that’s why she had to express herself so forcefully. She was defending herself against me.
Once I understood the dynamics, I was able to let go of my defenses, and my mind was at peace. I had to laugh when I looked at today’s lesson. I appreciated the opportunity to get this clear example in my own mind before I even read the lesson. Trying to change the world is not ever going to work. I can’t go around Facebook trying to stop people from attacking me. When someone’s mind is fixed on an idea, and they don’t want to give it up, I can’t do anything about that. But I can change my mind, and that is where my power lies.
This morning, I practiced this lesson, letting the Holy Spirit decide for me, and went from distress to peace. I very much want to do this from now on because I am convinced this is the way out of the world we made. I bring this sister of mine to mind, and I feel nothing but love. I don’t agree with her, and I don’t have to. This isn’t about that. What I know about her is that she is on her path to God just as I am. She and I are part of the Sonship. I cannot hate her without hating myself. That’s all I need to know about this relationship.
My fear had been that if she got her way, I would be trapped in her world. But I discovered that I cannot be trapped in a world unless I choose attack as a means of salvation. Today I proved that to myself when I changed my mind. This is the paragraph that is my instruction manual for a peaceful life, and how wonderful it is that my part is so simple and that the outcome has already in place waiting for my acceptance.
²This change requires, first, that the cause be identified and then let go, so that it can be replaced. ³The first two steps in this process require your cooperation. ⁴The final one does not. ⁵Your images have already been replaced. ⁶By taking the first two steps, you will see that this is so.
I still feel the ego trying to grab my attention with fear thoughts about the world, but I am not interested now that I have seen the outcome it has for me. I place my faith in God and in my brother, Jesus, who practices infinite patience with me as I learn to change my mind.
Video: https://youtu.be/vpXpr4V5H5g

© 2026, Pathways of Light. https://dev.pathwaysoflight.org
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Posted by Rev. Myron Jones.

Lesson 22 2026

What I see is a form of vengeance.
1. Today’s idea accurately describes the way anyone who holds attack thoughts in his mind must see the world. ²Having projected his anger onto the world, he sees vengeance about to strike at him. ³His own attack is thus perceived as self defense. ⁴This becomes an increasingly vicious circle until he is willing to change how he sees. ⁵Otherwise, thoughts of attack and counter-attack will preoccupy him and people his entire world. ⁶What peace of mind is possible to him then?
2. It is from this savage fantasy that you want to escape. ²Is it not joyous news to hear that it is not real? ³Is it not a happy discovery to find that you can escape? ⁴You made what you would destroy; everything that you hate and would attack and kill. ⁵All that you fear does not exist.
3. Look at the world about you at least five times today, for at least a minute each time. ²As your eyes move slowly from one object to another, from one body to another, say to yourself:
³I see only the perishable.
⁴I see nothing that will last.
⁵What I see is not real.
⁶What I see is a form of vengeance.
⁷At the end of each practice period, ask yourself:
⁸Is this the world I really want to see?
⁹The answer is surely obvious.
(ACIM, W-22.1:1–3:9)
2025
In this lesson, Jesus is introducing us to the fact that the world we see does not actually exist. It is fiction written by us and maintained by belief. Our stories make us feel like victims and so we defend ourselves. Defense felt necessary because I believed perception itself could protect or punish me. In our fear, we attack others. These ‘others’ are not really separate from us, so in attacking them, we are attacking ourselves. It seems like we are trapped in our own web of self-deceit. But we are not.
As we read these lessons and study the Text, we discover our way out. We have a choice now. Of course, we cannot gain our freedom from reading, no matter how elevated the material. We must practice what we read until it is what we believe and so experience. Our experience of freedom awakens us to reality.
When I first started these lessons, I did as Jesus asked. I looked at everything around me and admitted that it was a lie. More than that, it was a form of vengeance. It didn’t make me feel any better. ~smile~ But, eventually, the truth that none of it is real and that I am responsible for its being in my awareness sank in. Not responsible in a guilty way, but responsible in the simple sense that it came from my own thinking. If I made it, I can choose to release it. I can choose to accept that it doesn’t actually exist.
Freedom from pain, suffering, and death is available to me, and all I have to do is suspend my ego judgment long enough for the Holy Spirit to heal my mind. I didn’t even have to fully accept any of this. I just had to trust my Brother’s words enough to do the little asked of me. Eventually, I accepted His help, and everything changed. I can still get briefly pulled into a story, and I am still aware of the ego’s thoughts, but I don’t believe them, and that is absolutely a miracle.
2026
Wow! How succinctly and clearly Jesus explains to us the world we seem to be in and how we turn it into a form of vengeance. For much of my life, I thought of myself as a victim and unfairly treated. Because this was what I believed, I saw proof of it even where there was none. And I unknowingly interpreted experience through that belief. My belief in victimhood convinced me that I was always being attacked. Some of it I can see so very clearly now that I am on the outside of that cycle of thinking. There were times I thought I was being mistreated, but in retrospect, I see it was just my screwed-up interpretation of what was happening.
Because I was always expecting to be attacked, I became very defensive, and this defensiveness was felt by others as an attack, and so the cycle just kept repeating. Defense and attack were not moral failures; they were simply the mechanics of a mistaken belief. Since I had no idea what I was doing to myself, it just continued to play out in this way. That is, until I found A Course in Miracles and slowly everything began to shift.
I cannot tell you what a surprise it was to discover that I was actually loved, appreciated, and even admired by others. I had no idea. When it first became clear, I cried. I couldn’t understand what was happening to me. I’ve adjusted to a new reality, but the old thinking sometimes still arises, and I am surprised all over again that it is all a ridiculous cycle of wrong-minded thinking.
I’m not saying that everybody loves and appreciates me, and I don’t feel special when they do. But I am seeing it all differently now that I am not turning everything into a form of vengeance. So that when someone disapproves of me, I understand. It isn’t about me. We all see what we expect to see, even if there is not a glimmer of truth in it, because the mind looks for itself. I understand because that used to be me.
These days, when I feel attacked, I ask the Holy Spirit to correct my thinking. When I attack someone else, I ask the Holy Spirit for correction. Everything I see and experience is a reflection of my own beliefs. The world and everything I believe about it is a story my mind tells me. I know that a healed mind sees only love, no matter what is apparently happening. Not because behavior always looks loving, but because love is no longer interpreted as attack. My mind isn’t healed to that degree, but I get glimpses of it, and so I believe what I haven’t yet fully experienced. Those glimpses are the motivation that keeps me willingly on the healing path. Little by little, I am learning that perception does not need to be corrected—only relinquished.
Video: https://youtu.be/C8bKjsdoCQg

© 2026, Pathways of Light. https://dev.pathwaysoflight.org
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