We explore Workbook Lesson 161: “Give me your blessing, holy Son of God.” from A Course In Miracles (ACIM) in this video recording of a class given for the School For A Course In Miracles (SFACIM) curriculum hosted by Lyn Corona and Tim Wise. (I highly recommend Lyn and Tim’s almost daily zoom classes!)
A helpful companion reading that complements Lesson 161 is the third “What is…” essay in part II of the Workbook: What Is the World? (ACIM, W-pII.3) which reminds us that the world – and certainly our preoccupation and identification with a specific body/personality that we appear to have isolated from everything else – is completely and intentionally misunderstood by the ego: false perception. Here’s the first paragraph of the Course’s clarification (from the perspective of our right mind) of the world:
“1. The world is false perception. ²It is born of error, and it has not left its source. ³It will remain no longer than the thought that gave it birth is cherished. ⁴When the thought of separation has been changed to one of true forgiveness, will the world be seen in quite another light; and one which leads to truth, where all the world must disappear and all its errors vanish. ⁵Now its source has gone, and its effects are gone as well.” (ACIM, W-pII.3.1:1-5)
We don’t even question this massive arcade game that we call spacetime. We don’t even begin to consider: What if this is a virtual reality game that we’ve taken seriously? We’ve gotten caught up in a game of our making. We must save the world because we’re the ones who condemned it. A couple of sci-fi/virtual reality genre movies that suggest we might need a different vision (metaphorically represented by glasses or goggles that see “behind the scenes” of our unchallenged “reality” are They Live and more recently: Free Guy. We all need Holy Spirit’s vision to see past ego’s misinterpretation of everything – the appearance of partial identities of scary (but silly) seemingly separate selves – which we can’t do on our own as egos.
Egos are not impartial by definition, since, as egos, we wanted to be apart from each other and from our Creator, and cleverly we don’t even recall making that ontological decision! Another classic metaphor of how we glorify not only our separate identities but also the misperceptions they deliver (by our request) is the blind men and the elephant; each delivering a partial account that seems correct for the individual, but because it is woefully incomplete, we’re all basically clueless on our own – when we disregard the inclusive wisdom of our Inner Kindness Teacher a.k.a. Holy Spirit; especially when we extend the elephant metaphor to encompass the entire material universe let alone our thoughts, opinions, and beliefs about it! Our partisan view of everything (not limited to merely political divisions) not only ignores the “elephant in the room” physically but also blinds us psychologically with astronomically asinine assumptions.
“Nothing so blinding as perception of form.” (ACIM, T-22.III.6:7)
It’s often helpful – since ACIM is a “not no” curriculum of denying the denial of Truth – to look at ego’s propaganda with Holy Spirit’s help to clearly see how our silly, seemingly separate self inverts, distorts, and denies any semblance of reality, which it has already pre-shredded into microscopic parodies of Life. Here are a few versions of how ego might misinterpret Lesson 161:
- “take my condemnation, wretched offspring of ego.”
- “receive my attack, sinful son of substitution.”
- “feel my curse, hideous annoyance, and irritating enemy.”
Now that we have the despicable drift of what isn’t working, has never worked, and will never work, we can turn to our Inner Kindness Teacher’s universal remedy: the true blessing of inclusion in innocence (which ACIM symbolizes with lilies in Chapter 20 and a few other places) and ultimately complete generalization.
There are 262 instances of the word “bless” and variations in ACIM. Here are some selected synonyms followed by the number of appearances in ACIM in parentheses: anoint, consecrate, thank (180), absolve (8) commend (2), confirm (3), dedicate (46), enshrine (1), exalt (10), extol, glorify (5), hallow(4), laud, magnify (4), offer (692), praise (31), (give) thanks (to) (180), (make) holy (1850)
… and selected antonyms: blame (21), castigate, censure, condemn (154), criticize (2), debase (2), denounce, renounce (15), deny (359), denial (73), desecrate (1), disrespect, humiliate (1), refuse (76), reproach (5), shame (5), take (502), curse (11), damn (17), disallow, disapprove, veto.
As usual, Ken’s profound and prolific insight in Journey Through The Workbook (JTTW) provides us with a treasury of insights. His commentary (on the 12 paragraphs in Lesson 161) in volume 5 spans a dozen pages and goes from page 81 through 93. It begins with
“This is an important lesson because of its integration of our two levels: the Course’s abstract metaphysics with specific applications to our daily lives. It is thus particularly deserving of our thoughtful attention and study.” – Ken Wapnick, JTTW, v.5, p.80
The first paragraph of Lesson 161 starts with the pragmatic value of exercising genuine forgiveness; here are the first 4 paragraphs of that lesson:
“1. Today we practice differently, and take a stand against our anger, that our fears may disappear and offer room to love. ²Here is salvation in the simple words in which we practice with today’s idea. ³Here is the answer to temptation which can never fail to welcome in the Christ where fear and anger had prevailed before. ⁴Here is Atonement made complete, the world passed safely by and Heaven now restored. ⁵Here is the answer of the Voice for God.
2. Complete abstraction is the natural condition of the mind. ²But part of it is now unnatural. ³It does not look on everything as one. ⁴It sees instead but fragments of the whole, for only thus could it invent the partial world you see. ⁵The purpose of all seeing is to show you what you wish to see. ⁶All hearing but brings to your mind the sounds it wants to hear.
3. Thus were specifics made. ²And now it is specifics we must use in practicing. ³We give them to the Holy Spirit, that He may employ them for a purpose which is different from the one we gave to them. ⁴Yet He can use but what we made, to teach us from a different point of view, so we can see a different use in everything.
4. One brother is all brothers. ²Every mind contains all minds, for every mind is one. ³Such is the truth. ⁴Yet do these thoughts make clear the meaning of creation? ⁵Do these words bring perfect clarity with them to you? ⁶What can they seem to be but empty sounds; pretty, perhaps, correct in sentiment, yet fundamentally not understood nor understandable. ⁷The mind that taught itself to think specifically can no longer grasp abstraction in the sense that it is all-encompassing. ⁸We need to see a little, that we learn a lot.”
Here is small sample of Ken’s insightful commentary on this lesson:
“Jesus begins by speaking to us on the level of our special relationships. As we know, the term itself never appears in the workbook or manual, yet whenever Jesus talks about forgiveness or anger, he refers to our specialness. The exercise in the second part of the lesson expresses the principle that the way I see you mirrors the way I see me: If I attack you, I attack myself; if I see you as a Son of God, I reflect my first having seen the Son in myself. With anger or unforgiveness out of the way, we have made room for the love that waited patiently behind the veils of specialness for our return to it.”
“I am saved from the awesome burden of my guilt as I learn to see the Christ in someone else. Over and over Jesus reminds us how very simple is his plan for salvation. Recall again these oft-quoted words:
“How simple is salvation!²All it says is what was never true is not true now, and never will be.³The impossible has not occurred, and can have no effects.⁴And that is all.” (ACIM, T-31.I.1:1-4)
What is true is forgiveness, the belief in shared interests; what is false is attack, the belief in separate interests. What could be simpler?”
“In this lesson, as always, Jesus is not suggesting we deny our physical perception of the body, but only the ego’s interpretation of it, which always entails attack: I perceive you attacking me, or as one I am justified in attacking in self-defense. Yet, seeing you blessing me because I bless myself is my response to the temptation of believing in the ego’s special purpose for all relationships. Restated, the blessing reflects our unity, because we share the need to escape from our shared ego. The ego continually tempts us to see what is not there—i.e., sin—and to not see what is truly there—the Son’s blessing on himself.”
– Ken Wapnick, JTTW, v.5, p.81
Fasten your seatbelts! The second paragraph jumps deep into the pure non-dual metaphysics of the Course; here are some more of Ken’s helpful insights:
“… the mind is naturally abstract. Part of the mind becomes concrete, however, when it splits. The concrete part believes in the ego, because the ego depends on the concrete. The ego is the part of the mind that believes your existence is defined by separation…. Creation and communication are synonymous…. communication is perfectly abstract, since its quality is universal in application. …
Existence as well as being rests on communication. Existence, however, is specific in how, what and with whom communication is judged to be worth undertaking. Being is completely without these distinctions…. Divine Abstraction takes joy in sharing. That is what creation means. “How,” “what” and “to whom” are irrelevant, because real creation gives everything, since it can create only like itself (T-4.VII.1:2-5; 3:6,9; 4:1-3; 5:4-6).The part of our minds that has identified with the ego does not see everyone or everything as one; it sees all things as part of a larger fragmentation. It cannot help this perception as it itself is a fragment. Since projection makes perception, the ego simply perceives what it is: a fragment of the whole. The following passage from the text cogently describes the substitute of specialness for love, fragmentation for wholeness:
To substitute is to accept instead…. To substitute is to choose between, renouncing one aspect of the Sonship in favor of the other. For this special purpose, one is judged more valuable and the other is replaced by him. The relationship in which the substitution occurred is thus fragmented, and its purpose split accordingly. To fragment is to exclude, and substitution is the strongest defense the ego has for separation (T-18.I.1:1,3-6).
You may recall Jesus’ pun of the word partial in Lesson 127 (3:4). He repeats it here, and will do so yet again. Partial means both that we see the world in part—in parts or fragments—and through the biased view of the ego. The ego’s purpose for the world is to establish our innocence at another’s expense. Thus its insane view of the universe is perforce a fragmenting one.We are provided with the rationale for the ego’s making the physical universe: to project the guilt in the Son’s mind over the belief he separated from God. At that pre-projection stage, guilt was abstract; not as love is, but in the sense of non-specificity—not being localized in anyone or anything—because as yet there were no bodies. However, in a world of specifics we can now freely project this unconscious guilt onto everyone and everything around us, believing that the source of our distress lies in a specific body, rather than in the mind’s decision to identify with the ego. Thus “the purpose of all seeing [and all senses]“—the purpose of the body—is to return to the mind the witnesses that prove the separation from God is a fact.”This is an important passage in an important lesson, for it illustrates what makes A Course in Miracles different from virtually all other spiritual paths. It teaches not only that the world is an illusion, but gives the specific motivation for our having made it: to see the cause of separation outside our minds. The ego’s primary motivation is to keep the separation it believes it stole from God, but not to be responsible for it; a goal effectively served by projection. Therefore, we need a specific world for there to be specific people outside me onto whom I can project responsibility for my sinfulness. Thus: I believe I am here; I believe I am separated; I believe my body is real…but I am not responsible—someone else is.
We can thus understand why the ego made our sensory organs: to prove there is a world outside us that is responsible, not only for our physical existence but for the suffering we undergo. Once the world was made, we nonetheless had to deal with our specific experiences here.”– Ken Wapnick, JTTW, v.5, p.82
Now Ken explains why forgiveness is specific, but only because we need to undo the specific grievances we wrote into our scripts:
“Jesus is therefore not asking us to indulge in abstract metaphysical speculation as we live our daily lives in a body. Since we believe we are here, Jesus treats us as if we are here. That is why the language of A Course in Miracles takes the form it does, as we have observed many times before. He asks us to apply the metaphysics to the very specific circumstances in which we find ourselves, however illusory they may be; to have our relationships be made holy by the Holy Spirit, which then reflects the Oneness of Heaven. In the following, Jesus gently reminds us that substitution has no effect on reality, and fragmentation cannot change the unity that God created: ”
“Where the ego perceives one person as a replacement for another, the Holy Spirit sees them joined and indivisible. He does not judge between them, knowing they are one. Being united, they are one because they are the same. Substitution is clearly a process in which they are perceived as different. One would unite; the other separate. Nothing can come between what God has joined and what the Holy Spirit sees as one (T-18.I.2:2-7). Fragments, existing only within a nightmare of duality and incompletion can only condemn, curse, attack, destroy and murder.
Wholeness being without opposition and completely free from fear of attack can only bless with gratitude, exalting Truth beyond comparison.
In paragraph 4, we’ve soared back into the stratosphere of ACIM’s pure non-dual metaphysics and reviewed the importance of learning to generalize, allowing Holy Spirit’s vision to bless us as we bless what has never left our Mind and never been fragmented, despite our vivid dreams to the contrary. Gary Renard’s “Fearless Love” exercise of seeing ALL of SPIRIT in each seeming part applies here; we are all clueless as to what this really means, but we can allow the inspiration behind the words to draw us up above ego’s battleground and find peaceful respite:
“4 One brother is all brothers. ²Every mind contains all minds, for every mind is one. ³Such is the truth. ⁴Yet do these thoughts make clear the meaning of creation? ⁵Do these words bring perfect clarity with them to you? ⁶What can they seem to be but empty sounds; pretty, perhaps, correct in sentiment, yet fundamentally not understood nor understandable. ⁷The mind that taught itself to think specifically can no longer grasp abstraction in the sense that it is all-encompassing. ⁸We need to see a little, that we learn a lot.” (ACIM, W-161.4:1-8)“Jesus returns to the metaphysical principle of his course: the oneness of the Sonship. This truth is reflected in our recognition that the separated aspects of God’s one Son share a common mind, as we read in this passage about learning from the Holy Spirit:
… And it is thus the power of your learning will be proved to you by all the many different witnesses it finds. Your brother first among them will be seen, but thousands stand behind him, and beyond each one of them there are a thousand more. Each one may seem to have a problem that is different from the rest. Yet they are solved together. And their common answer shows the questions could not have been separate (T-27.V.10:3-7).
To forgive one person is to forgive all: the one is found in the many, and the many is the one.” – Ken Wapnick, JTTW, v.5, p.83
Here is a favorite quote from chapter 5 that conveys the boundless quality of lovingkindness that Holy Spirit longs to share with all – a frequent closing meditation selection:
“8. How can you who are so holy suffer? ²All your past except its beauty is gone, and nothing is left but a blessing. ³I have saved all your kindnesses and every loving thought you ever had. ⁴I have purified them of the errors that hid their light, and kept them for you in their own perfect radiance. ⁵They are beyond destruction and beyond guilt. ⁶They came from the Holy Spirit within you, and we know what God creates is eternal. ⁷You can indeed depart in peace because I have loved you as I loved myself. ⁸You go with my blessing and for my blessing. ⁹Hold it and share it, that it may always be ours. ¹⁰I place the peace of God in your heart and in your hands, to hold and share. ¹¹The heart is pure to hold it, and the hands are strong to give it. ¹²We cannot lose. ¹³My judgment is as strong as the wisdom of God, in Whose Heart and Hands we have our being. ¹⁴His quiet children are His blessed Sons. ¹⁵The Thoughts of God are with you” (ACIM, T-5.IV.8:1-15)
This video was recorded on August 29, 2021.