Tuesday, February 24, 2015
Lesson 55: Review: “I am determined to see things differently.” “What I see is a form of vengeance.” “I can escape from this world by giving up attack thoughts.” “I do not perceive my own best interests.” “I do not know what anything is for.”
When we perpetuate our own attack thoughts this is both toward ourselves and toward others. We can sometimes tend to focus on either directing assaults toward ourselves or toward others. It’s important that we really get to know how our ego lives with and relates to attack thoughts. Sometimes they simply slip by and we don’t even get that attack is at the root of them.
When we sit alone in our resentment and maybe we don’t verbalize it, the reality is that the energy is still within us. And the energy is out into the world because we experienced it energetically. It’s ever so important to look at our inner intention. Especially if we don’t make it verbal, we can forget it is there. We can feel it but in some cases we put on a smile in the world instead of feeling it, expressing it, and undoing it in a healthy response to it. Attack thoughts are so common when we deal with other people. We are bound to get irritated at the people we regularly interact with or we can blame them for not living up to the ego’s standards.
The Course says that no disturbance of our peace goes unnoticed. We absolutely must allow the feelings to come and then give them back to God with our willingness to forgive. Our job is to simply pay attention to when attack thoughts happen and tend to them with love and kindness. Forgiving is an absolute must when we see attack thoughts. We must practice accepting them, giving them space to be heard, and choose a direct and neutral expression of the perceived upset. We give ourselves the space to heal this after we have given it some voice. Then we simply know it isn’t real and it has then no power to disturb our peace of mind.
Our own misery comes when we are not willing to have this process of resolution with our attack thoughts. Attack is anything that isn’t love. Sometimes attack thoughts just catch us by surprise. This is the reason we need to be willing to surrender our attachment to our insanity and suffering. When we realize we have no idea how to make this senseless reality into a peaceful place then we need to be willing to let God be in charge. When we know we don’t perceive our own best interests, this puts us into the energy of surrender. Then we are open to the flow of God because we invite His guidance.