In this video recording of a class given as part of the School For A Course In Miracles (SFACIM) curriculum led by Lyn Corona and Tim Wise, Bruce Rawles reads and discusses A Course In Miracles Workbook Lesson 135: “If I defend myself I am attacked.” – W-pI.135.
Here are the first three paragraphs from this powerfully practical lesson:
“Who would defend himself unless he thought he were attacked, that the attack were real, and that his own defense could save himself? And herein lies the folly of defense; it gives illusions full reality, and then attempts to handle them as real. It adds illusions to illusions, thus making correction doubly difficult. And it is this you do when you attempt to plan the future, activate the past, or organize the present as you wish.
You operate from the belief you must protect yourself from what is happening because it must contain what threatens you. A sense of threat is an acknowledgment of an inherent weakness; a belief that there is danger which has power to call on you to make appropriate defense. The world is based on this insane belief. And all its structures, all its thoughts and doubts, its penalties and heavy armaments, its legal definitions and its codes, its ethics and its leaders and its gods, all serve but to preserve its sense of threat. For no one walks the world in armature but must have terror striking at his heart.
Defense is frightening. It stems from fear, increasing fear as each defense is made. You think it offers safety. Yet it speaks of fear made real and terror justified. Is it not strange you do not pause to ask, as you elaborate your plans and make your armor thicker and your locks more tight, what you defend, and how, and against what?” – W-pI.135.1:3
… and a very comforting, perennial favorite quote among Course students (including Bruce) from further on in that lesson – the 18th paragraph:
“What could you not accept, if you but knew that everything that happens, all events, past, present and to come, are gently planned by One Whose only purpose is your good? Perhaps you have misunderstood His plan, for He would never offer pain to you. But your defenses did not let you see His loving blessing shine in every step you ever took. While you made plans for death, He led you gently to eternal life.” – W-pI.135.18
(This recording was made May 15, 2020.)
Thanks to Dave Van Dyke for suggesting this helpful related reminder to “drop the shields” in our mind to Truth:
As always, it’s vitally important to remember that ACIM’s pure non-dual metaphysics is always and only about the mind, and never about behavior or form at all. It’s message is intended solely for the decision-maker in our mind that always makes but one choice – for the insanity of fear, which seems to need ceaseless defense, or for the sanity of forgiveness, which recognizes our real, eternal Spiritual Identity which can never be threatened. Any other use of this curriculum is what the Course refers to as level confusion, ego’s strategy of keeping us mindlessly preoccupied with bolstering our dream of spacetime adventures by attacking and defending against having the real cause exposed – unconscious, unfounded guilt.
What this means on an every-day level is that it’s fine to use any “magic” – on the level of form – that we believe will minimize fear such as insurance policies, health regimens, exercise, locking doors, vitamins, etc. but not confusing these practices with the intended practice of watching our ego thoughts without condemnation, and by forgiving ourselves for these fantasies, we return more quickly to the peace alluded to in the 18th paragraph of Workbook Lesson 135.