Lesson 26: My attack thoughts are attacking my invulnerability.

Jan '24 (edited) • Feed

🧩 PROJECTION VS EXTENSION

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🌟 In the first paragraph of this Lesson, Jesus points out that if we believe ourselves to be susceptible to being attacked, it is because we believe ourselves capable of attack (against ourselves in the first place and only then against others). As we've already seen, by virtue of the projection mechanism, we can not see anything out there if we haven't conceived it within ourselves first.

🌟 Let's remember, as we saw in Lesson 16, that we have no neutral thoughts. Our thoughts are either true or false.

True thoughts bring love and peace, CREATE in their likeness by extension, and extend truth 👉 in our right mind
False thoughts bring fear and destruction, MIS-CREATE in their likeness by projection and multiply illusion 👉 in our split mind

🔎 "The laws of projection and extension operate similarly, but with different contents. That is why, early in the text, Jesus speaks of projection as the “inappropriate use of extension” (T-2.I.1:7)—it was the same law of the mind, simply “misused,” leading to miscreation instead of creation. This law will ultimately save us in another sense as well, because it reflects that everything is an illusion. What seems to be outside is an illusion because what seems to be inside—the ego thought system—is an illusion. Recognizing this is the ego’s undoing.” Excerpt from Journey through the Workbook of "A Course in Miracles", Kenneth Wapnick, Vol. 1, p 80.

🌟 And that's why Jesus ends this first paragraph by saying, about this thought mechanism, that we must learn to extend love/innocence/peace/truth consciously instead of projecting fear/guilt/attack/illusions unconsciously:

📘 "You must therefore learn how it can be used for your own best interests, rather than against them." (ACIM, W-26.1:6)

🌟 As we can't help our thoughts to produce effects to their likeness, we must become very watchful of the thoughts we entertain.

🧩 TELL ME IF YOU'RE IN FEAR AND I'LL TELL YOU WHO YOU ARE

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📘 Because your attack thoughts will be projected, you will fear attack. ²And if you fear attack, you must believe that you are not invulnerable. ³Attack thoughts therefore make you vulnerable in your own mind, which is where the attack thoughts are. ⁴Attack thoughts and invulnerability cannot be accepted together. ⁵They contradict each other. (ACIM, W-26.2:1-5)

🌟 This is one of these paragraphs where Jesus states the obvious in simple logical reasoning. If we knew ourselves to be invulnerable, we would be fearless. For most of us, it doesn't take a long self-observation to acknowledge that we are full of fears. Therefore, we must think of ourselves as vulnerable beings. What we experiment in the world always has its source in our thoughts, we have already demonstrated this in the previous lessons. What Jesus wants to stress is that either we are fearless and invulnerable or fearful and vulnerable. What we see outside of us tells us what we really think about ourselves and whose identity we have assumed: we either are the invulnerable Holy Son of God or the sinful, vulnerable, and prone to attack ego. It always begins in our mind, with who we think we are, and what thoughts we entertain about ourselves. In other words, what we feel about what we see, shows us what we think:

🧩 THE FACTS VS HOW WE INTERPRET THEM

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🌟 Practice with today’s idea will help you to understand that vulnerability or invulnerability is the result of your own thoughts. ²Nothing except your thoughts can attack you. ³Nothing except your thoughts can make you think you are vulnerable. ⁴And nothing except your thoughts can prove to you this is not so. (ACIM, W-26.4:1-4)

🌟 This is an interesting paragraph because it empowers us. The facts in themselves do not have the power to hurt us. It's only the thoughts we weave around the facts, the story we spin around them that have the power to either condemn or bless us:

🔎 “It cannot be said too often that in order to properly understand passages such as these, the student must realize that Jesus is never talking about what people are doing behaviorally, but only about our perception of what others are doing. (...) The focus of our exercises is solely on our thoughts, the source of the problem and its solution. Indeed, everything is thought, acceptance of which is the aim of the workbook’s mind training. These thoughts are not of a physical organ, the brain, but of the mind, coming from identifying either with the ego or Jesus. From these two thoughts or thought systems—guilt or innocence—arise a world and our perception of the world. If you feel yourself attacked, you have chosen the ego as your teacher and therefore believe you are vulnerable and deserve attack. This has nothing to do with behavior; it has to do only with the way you perceive the behavior. On the other hand, if we remember our invulnerability as God’s perfect creation, our perception of the world changes accordingly.” Excerpt from Journey through the Workbook of "A Course in Miracles", Kenneth Wapnick, Vol. 1, p 81-82.

🌟 The distinction is important. For example, a mother can look at her son as a good kid, if very undisciplined. And because she disapproves of his behavior in the house, she can ask him to, please, use the laundry basket. Or she can see him as an ungrateful brat who isn't worth more than his bloody father and will end up grounded if he doesn't clean up his f***ing mess. Same facts, a mother and her son, dirty clothes all around, different stories.

🌟 In this illustration, Jesus would say that this mother couldn't possibly see her son as an ungrateful brat if she didn't see herself as a variation of that. Because it's uncomfortable for her to get in touch with the ramifications of her unconscious guilt, she will see herself as a victim of the world and will defend herself by attacking.

🎯 BRINGING OUR ILLUSIONS TO THE TRUTH

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🌟 The instructions for today's exercise are a little more elaborate than what we have done so far. To properly bring our illusions to the truth, Jesus will have us consider a specific concern and go through every unwanted outcome we associate with it, to then acknowledge that this is just another attacking thought. We are freaking ourselves out, and it's all in our minds... Yep! We need to rise above the battlefield, to a higher View.

💙 Yip Yip! 💙

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* My comment on this lesson follows my studying of the in-depth comment of the same lesson by Kenneth Wapnick in his published work, Journey through the Workbook of "A Course in Miracles". While it may sometimes contain my thoughts on it, it is essentially my humble take and summary of the masterful work of Kenneth. I share them here in the hope that someone might find them helpful.

** I also share, in these ACIM posts, the wallpaper images that I use on my phone and change every day to help me commit to my lesson, in the hope that some might enjoy them as well. Here is the link to a Dropbox folder where you can download the lessons's wallpaper for mobile I have uploaded so far.

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