Lesson 263 • September 20

 

Read on the ACIM CE App: https://acimce.app/:W-263

Lesson 263

My holy vision sees all things as pure.

Practice Instructions

See complete instructions in a separate document. A short summary:

  • Read the commentary paragraph slowly and personally.
  • Pray the prayer, perhaps several times.
  • Morning and evening: Repeat the idea and then spend time in Open Mind Meditation.
  • Hourly remembrance: Repeat the idea and then spend time in Open Mind Meditation.
  • Frequent reminders: Repeat the idea and then spend a quiet moment in meditation.
  • Response to temptation: Repeat the idea whenever upset, to restore peace.
  • Read the “What Is” section slowly and thoughtfully once during the day.

Practice suggestion: Look randomly about you for a minute or two. In relation to whatever your eyes alight on, say, “My holy vision sees this _________ as pure, that I may pass it by in innocence.”

Then close your eyes and think of various people you know. In relation to each one, say, “My holy vision sees [name] as pure, that we may walk together to our Father’s house.”

Commentary

This lesson is about seeing all things as God created them: without sin, innocent, and pure. His Mind created all that is, His Spirit entered into it, and His Love gave life to it (1:1). To see things in this way, at first, has to be a conscious choice, because we have trained our minds to see otherwise. We have learned to judge. We will categorize, evaluate on a scale of one to ten, and attempt to determine whether this is something or someone we want to draw closer to us or to push away. We’ve trained our minds to do so since birth, and probably in many previous lifetimes. Thus, there has to be a conscious choice to say, “No. I choose to see this as pure.” We downgrade our reflexive evaluations and choose instead to accept the Holy Spirit’s judgment.

Eventually—a long eventually—our minds will become retrained. The choice to see purity will become more and more automatic. The judgmental thoughts will probably always be there, slowly receding into the background, until we leave this world completely, but the choice to see purity will become less and less a conscious choice, and more and more a habit of thought. Frequent and persistent repetition will speed the process.