Lesson One (continued): Changing the way we look at the world

 

One has not only an ability to perceive the world but an ability to alter one's perception of it; more simply one can change things by the manner in which one looks at them.
-Tom Robbins (http://www.wiseoldsayings.com/perception-quotes/)

What kind of a world do you see when you look around you? Do you see a "good" world or a "bad" one?  Do you see a fair world or an unjust one?  Do you see a kind world or a cruel one? Do you see a beautiful world or an ugly one?

Hopefully, it is understood at this point, that the world you are viewing right now is simply a projection of what you perceive using your five senses.  Every adjective that you apply is simply your perception.  There is no such thing as a bad world or a good world.  There is no such thing as a sad world or a happy world.  The world is whatever you think it to be. Hamlet tells Rosencrantz, in Act Two; Scene Two, in reference to Denmark feeling like a prison to him, "There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so."  

You judge and measure the world around you with your body, your ego-mind and your limited sense of time and space. You determine what kind of a world it is. What you see isn't real anywhere but in your mind?

We have a choice between two worlds.  In order to see one, you must give up the other.  You can not look upon a "good" world and a "bad" world at the same time. It is either/or. We can look about us and see Heaven or we can look about us and see hell? One will free us and bring peace and joy; one will imprison us (as thoughts of Denmark did for Hamlet) bringing fear and suffering.  Where would you rather be?  If you had a choice, and you do,  what kind of world would you rather see? Most of us would say Heaven, yet too many of us are still seeing hell. Which one is real?

According to A Course the hellish world we see and perceive using our five senses is not the real one.

The real world is not like this.  It has no buildings and there are no streets where people walk alone and separate. There are no stores where people buy an endless list of things they do not need. It is not lit with artificial light, and night comes not upon it. There is no day that brightens and grows dim.  There is no loss.  Nothing is there but shines, and shines forever. ACIM:Chapter 13:VII:1:1-7, page 254

 

How do we Change the Way we see the world?

Changing the way we think is a process.  We have looked at the world in one way for so long it will require more than a new pair of glasses to see it differently. Here are some steps that you might find helpful:

1. Be willing to see it differently.  That is the first and most crucial step.  You have to want to change the way you think, to want God's version of reality over ego's.  Are you there yet?
2. Realize that ego's version of reality is an illusion and when we ascribe to it, we are delusional.  When we let go of it, we are healing.
3. Know that ego's world  offers us nothing. Everything you see, taste, touch, hear and smell as you look around you is meaningless.  Everything you think is meaningless. The real world is the inner world that can not be understood with the five sense or with thought and it   offers us everything.
4. Make a conscious choice for healing.  Choose Heaven over Hell
5. Know that every time you look at the world and feel strain, fear, unease you are slipping back into ego vision again.  At those times, call for help from above to guide you away from ego perception and into the truth.
6. Know that every time you have a loving thought, you are well on your way to freedom.  You will soon be seeing the world for what it really is.

But seek this place and you will find it, for Love is in you and will lead you there.(ACIM: chapter 13: III: 12: 10, page 245)

All is well in my world.