God is in everything I see.
When people seek to criticize A Course in Miracles on grounds of pantheism – a major heresy for Catholics that teaches that God is literally found in the materiality that is His manifestation – this lesson in particular, as well as the one following, are selected as prime examples. Many years ago I was speaking to a Jesuit priest, who was reminiscent of an old-time heresy hunter. A very conservative Catholic, his major function in life seemed to be to find every heretical teaching in contemporary Christianity. After he heard about me and A Course in Miracles, he took it upon himself to save the nuns and priests with whom I had been working from falling into the depths of perdition with this course. I spent an hour with him one evening, during which time he proceeded to enumerate the Course’s heresies. He actually had examined only the workbook, and had spent considerable time on this particular lesson as proof of A Course in Miracles’ pantheism. It is true, in fact, when this initial statement, “God is in everything I see,” is taken at face value, it does seem to be pantheistic: God is in the table, God is in the chair, God is in the body, God is in the plants, etc. It becomes clear as you study this lesson carefully, however, that that is precisely not what Jesus is talking about. The theme of these two lessons – Lessons 29 and 30 – is that the purpose of God – i.e., the purpose of forgiveness – is in everything I see. This is so because purpose is in the mind, which will be explained as we proceed.
The reader may recall my discussion in this book’s Preface of how the language in the workbook, not to mention in A Course in Miracles itself, can be misleading. For example, as I mentioned before, in the workbook especially, Jesus will say God when, technically speaking, he is referring to the Holy Spirit. An explicit example, to cite it again, is found in Lesson 193, “All things are lessons God would have me learn,” where in the lesson itself Jesus clearly states that God does not teach, for that is the Holy Spirit’s role. In this lesson, too, in saying the purpose of God is in everything I see, Jesus is really speaking of the Holy Spirit’s teaching purpose.
(1) The idea for today explains why you can see all purpose in everything. It explains why nothing is separate, by itself or in itself. And it explains why nothing you see means anything. In fact, it explains every idea we have used thus far, and all subsequent ones as well. Today’s idea is the whole basis for vision.
As we shall see in the next lesson as well, vision has absolutely nothing to do with the body’s eyes, but with a state of mind or attitude. More specifically, vision refers to our having chosen Jesus as our teacher so his are now the “eyes” through which we see. We are taught that the inner and outer are the same. Therefore what we perceive outside is nothing more than a shadow of what we have first perceived within. When Jesus says “God is in everything I see,” he means that God is in everything I think, because seeing and thinking are the same: perception comes from thoughts, and remains one with them. The basis for vision then is seeing the purpose of God. I see forgiveness in everything I see because I have fired the ego as my teacher, and hired Jesus. To again cite these two statements, taken together: “Resign now as your own teacher… for you were badly taught” (T-12.V.8:3; T-28.I.7:1). At that point, everything I perceive, think, and feel is the opposite of what it had been prior to taking Jesus as my new teacher.
(2:1-3) You will probably find this idea very difficult to grasp at this point. You may find it silly, irreverent, senseless, funny and even objectionable. Certainly God is not in a table, for example, as you see it.
We find it difficult because we think there actually is a table that is separate from our bodies, and that our eyes actually perceive it – the world’s illusory version of seeing. In that sense God cannot be in the table because there is no table. Again, the point to notice is that Jesus is shifting the emphasis from what we perceive outside to what we see inside. It is the way in which we see that is the focus of his teaching – our thoughts – which have to do only with the purpose or teacher we are choosing.
Incidentally, if it has not already occurred to a student doing these lessons for the first time how radically different Jesus’ teaching is here, these two lessons should make that abundantly clear. A Course in Miracles is nothing like what is usually taught in other spiritual disciplines. This radicalness is based on the underlying metaphysics that teaches that the phenomenal world is an illusion. Therefore, what we perceive and think here is not real at all. It must be, then, that the true activity is not what happens in our bodies or the world, but in our minds. This is more clearly enunciated in these lessons than heretofore.
(2:4) Yet we emphasized yesterday that a table shares the purpose of the universe.
That purpose, to repeat, is to be an object that appears to be outside us, onto which we project our minds’ ego thoughts. With Jesus as our teacher, we now look at what we perceived and see it differently. Forgiveness entails realizing that what we perceive outside mirrors what we have first made real inside. That is why – to state the Course’s unique definition – we forgive our brothers for what they did not do; they have not done anything in the sense of having the power to take away our peace. What needs to be forgiven, therefore, are our thoughts of guilt, born of the belief that we have separated from peace; it is this guilt we have projected onto others.
(2:5) And what shares the purpose of the universe shares the purpose of its Creator.
Here Jesus uses the words universe and Creator loosely – another example of the “looseness” of the Course’s language – because clearly he is talking about the physical universe. But God cannot be the creator of the physical, as is unmistakably clear throughout A Course in Miracles. If you take these lines literally, you will end up pulling your hair out because they will seem to say the exact opposite of what Jesus is teaching elsewhere. You want to grasp the content of what he is teaching, rather than analyzing it to death and arguing with the form. I shall return frequently to this important point.
(3:1) Try then, today, to begin to learn how to look on all things with love, appreciation and open-mindedness.
If you choose Jesus as your teacher you will identify with his love. Thus what you see outside will be an expression of love or the call for it. You will look with appreciation on the world, especially your special relationships, because these will have become the opportunities to learn you are forgiven and your ego can be undone. “Open-mindedness” means your mind is no longer closed to the truth of the Holy Spirit. When we choose the ego as our teacher and dismiss the Holy Spirit, our minds become closed to His truth. “Open-mindedness” here, as in the tenth characteristic of the teacher of God discussed in the manual for students (M-4.X), means our minds are open to the love of Jesus. There is then no distortion in our thinking, which in turn means there is no distortion in our perception. What we hear and see will come from love, rather than from our having superimposed ego thoughts on these objects of our perception.
(3:2-4) You do not see them now [i.e., you do not see things as they really are]. Would you know what is in them? Nothing is as it appears to you.
This is another of those sentences which, if you stopped and meditated on it, should make you extremely anxious. If you see nothing as it is – “nothing is as it appears to you” – and everything you perceive is wrong, then the way you perceive yourself must be wrong as well. All your thoughts about everything are wrong.
(3:5-6) Its holy purpose stands beyond your little range. When vision has shown you the holiness that lights up the world, you will understand today’s idea perfectly.
This is a reference back to Lesson 15, the idea of seeing edges of light around objects. Jesus makes it very clear here, as well as in the lessons we have already studied, that he is not talking about auras or any form of external light. He is referring to a different way of seeing; a vision based on the light of truth, the new understanding that comes when we choose him instead of the ego’s narrow band of distortion (“your little range”).
(3:7) And you will not understand how you could ever have found it difficult.
Everyone has had this experience at one time or another: When even for an instant our minds are clear – when guilt and judgmental thoughts are gone and we feel Jesus’ love within us – everything in A Course in Miracles becomes crystal clear. When the fear arises from our having realized the implications of what it means to be wrong and have Jesus be right, our minds close again and vision and perception become distorted.
The last two paragraphs repeat the usual instructions:
(4) Our six two-minute practice periods for today should follow a now familiar pattern: Begin with repeating the idea to yourself, and then apply it to randomly chosen subjects about you, naming each one specifically. Try to avoid the tendency toward self-directed selection, which may be particularly tempting in connection with today’s idea because of its wholly alien nature. Remember that any order you impose is equally alien to reality.
This simple directive reflects a much deeper point. Our fear of leaving the ego’s dream of illusion for the truth is so great that we are all sorely tempted to bring the truth to the illusion. One form of this temptation is thinking we understand what we are being taught, and why these exercises take the form they do. Thus, we seek to impose our own familiar thought system on the “wholly alien nature” of Jesus’, thereby unconsciously, but with great ingenuity, negating the teachings and goal of A Course in Miracles. The last paragraph provides examples of our freedom from “self-directed selection”:
(5:1) Your list of subjects should therefore be as free of self-selection as possible.
Suggested subjects include the “important” and “unimportant”: finger, body, coat hanger, magazine, lamp, door, and waste basket (5:3-9). Jesus next gives us a hint of the wondrous effects of our learning, the peace that lies beyond our own fear:
(5:10-11) In addition to the assigned practice periods, repeat the idea for today at least once an hour, looking slowly about you as you say the words unhurriedly to yourself. At least once or twice, you should experience a sense of restfulness as you do this.
It is the desire for this “sense of restfulness” what in the text Jesus refers to as finding the “quiet center” within our minds (T-1 8.VII.8 ) – that supplies our motivation for practicing these exercises and learning A Course in Miracles’ message.
