A Course In Miracles Lesson 92

We have learned in previous lessons that you have a light in your mind. (See Lesson 33 and 35)  When you choose to let the light in your mind guide your thoughts, words, and actions you become strong in a lasting way.  Letting light in is how you find strength because light is the only source of strength.

What we think of as strength is only a temporary domination.  Violence, by its own definition, destroys, leaving all involved weak.  Strength does not pursue violence, vengeance, or a need to dominate.  Why would it?  Is it not already strong?  Strength is a state of peace and joy.

The struggle we think of as strength is actually a profoundly weak position.  Impulses to dominate are misguided attempts to attain power, which is to say, to attain peace.  Learning where real power comes from is part of today’s lesson.  Vying for positioning over others will always ultimately lead to exhaustion.  Fighting does not bring peace.  Peace brings peace.  Calm, curious, and unafraid are the qualities of the light in your mind.  What would light have to be afraid of?  It is clarity Itself.  Locating that light equals locating strength.

We become strong when we learn how to see the way true reality sees this world.  Understanding what light really is is so important that A Course In Miracles spends two full days on the topic.  We can not receive or experience a miraculous change in our lives if we stay focused on the logic of pain.  Pain logic aims to weaken and ultimately destroy.  But whatever falls away was never real to begin with and not actually needed.  What is needed is provided.  It can not be otherwise.

Strength is not physical power.  Strength is an enduring adaptability that comes from developing a way of thinking that does not let you down.  That way of thinking is what this course is teaching.  To learn the logic of ACIM we must first lay a foundation of new primary concepts.

The qualities of light are what strength and power are.  Violence holds no power.  Light is not the stuff that comes out of lamps.  Light is a knowing in the mind, not a physical sensation we experience with our physical eyes.  Whenever you want to improve the contents of your thoughts remember, you have a light in your mind and it is through that light you will be able to recognize a miracle and step into real power.  You can assign an image to this concept and bring it to mind whenever you feel overpowered.  The image could be a candle, a diamond, an animal… whatever evokes the remembrance of the eternal part of you.  Call it to mind and let yourself be influenced by its qualities.  Those qualities will be soft-spoken, and gentle as a sunrise.  

What you see in this world is not determined by the objects in front of you.  Pivoting our attention away from the pain we see and towards an inner conviction for peace is the way to peace and strength.  We can not wait for peace to arise.  It is something we must find the conviction to pursue.  This means we have to look past what is in front of us and toward a belief in an eternal state of well-being.  Changing the “reality” before us can not occur if we keep focusing on the problem of that reality.  Pivot your attention to a concept that feels better to let better in.  

We choose where we place our attention.  We only ever have two options to choose from.  The correct path or the mistaken one.  The correct path guides us towards seeing the physical world as not real and the energy world as true and real.  The energy world is the world of our thoughts.  Thoughts are more real than the physical body.  Our physical body is a dream we have convinced ourselves is (or should be) a lasting and real thing.  But the body is temporary.  All physical objects are temporary.  Recognize what is real when interacting with objects and you will not be surprised when that object changes.  You will still be connected to its realness even as it seems to shift.

When we attach to the physical world as real, we are confronted with a constant crisis of being let down.  This constant injury leads to confusion and despair.  Turning attention to values and conduct enables us to navigate any physical condition.  Our values and conduct are all we will ever have, forever.  We decide how we will conduct ourselves.  We decide to align with peace or with violence. To see clearly, we need to invite a non-physical logic into our current thought system.  

As you look around this world and see sickness, violence, and death, it sounds insane to be told to look past what your eyes see and to reach for a vision that seems theoretical.  But changing what is physically before you can only come through envisioning improvement and believing it is possible.  A Course In Miracles Lesson 92 asks us to not be afraid of what is.  Look towards what you would have be so.  It is only by looking for that you will ever be able to find it.  Because only light can reveal what light is and finding the ability to decide and turn toward that light is your true strength.  Your decisions are where strength is found.