Sean Reagan

I do not know what anything is for.

Lesson 25 of A Course in Miracles concretizes Lesson 24. It takes the abstraction of not knowing how to perceive our best interests and applies to the people, places and objects that make our lives in the world. We may know what a farm, a friend or a Flexible Flyer is but we do not know what it is for.

And, since “purpose is meaning” (W-pI.25.1:1), we remain separated from God, our joy and peace fractured and incomplete.

Yet the lesson pulls no punches in sharing what is a core concept of our healing: everything is for our healing. Everything is for our happiness.

Everything is for your best interests. That is what it is for; that is its purpose; that is what it means. It is in recognizing this that what you see is given meaning (W-pI.25.1:5-7).

In a sense, then, what we are learning is that the ego has goals and we do not share those goals. Ego’s goal is not our happiness but its survival. The two are not compatible in any way because what we are not ego (W-pI.25.2:2).

Another way of describing the goals you now perceive is to say that they are all concerned with “personal” interests. Since you have no personal interests, your goals are really concerned with nothing. In cherishing them, therefore, you have no goals at all (W-pI.25.3:1-3).

The suggestion that we have no personal interests often comes as a shock to us, because we are conditioned to take everything personally. This is true for everything from sex to A Course in Miracles to whether we like our eggs scrambled or over easy.

Awakening is impersonal; what we are in truth does not have personal interests, interests that can be opposed to anything else.

Thus we can ask: what lies beyond the range of personal experience? What am I if not . . . this person I seem so intensely to be?

Lesson 25 helps us answer that question by gently orienting us with a concrete example. We know that a telephone is designed to help us communicate with someone who is not in the room. What we don’t know is what we want to reach that someone for.

In other words, the means by which we communicate are nothing compared to the goal of our communication. The course will teach us to ask of everything that makes up the world in which we live: what is it for?

In any situation in which you are uncertain, the first thing to consider, very simply, is “What do I want to come of this? What is this for? The clarification of the goal belongs at the beginning, for it is this which will determine the outcome (T-17.VI.2:1-3).

And we will learn that everything serves either the ego’s goal of survival or our goal of happiness. And the only way we can learn this is by surrendering entirely our goals for literally everything.

Thus, lesson twenty-five – like the one preceding – continues to emphasize our humility. We don’t know what this farm is for, what this friend is for, what this flexible flyer is for.

Our goal is to undo our deeply-rooted insistence that we know the function of everything. As we become humble in this regard, we are let go of the false and chaotic meaning *we write on the world and open up to the meaning that the Holy Spirit writes there on God’s behalf.

When I do this lesson there are basically two voices in my head. The first diligently does just what the lesson asks me to do. “I do not know what this farm is for, what this friend is for, what this Flexible Flyer is for.”

The second tells the first voice it’s an idiot. It sounds a bit like this:

Voice one: I do not know what this mug is for.

Voice two: Actually you do. It’s to hold tea. See? It’s actually got tea in it right now.

Voice one: I do not know what this fish tank is for.

Voice two: Seriously? You don’t think it’s to hold fish?

Voice one: I don’t know what this shoe is for.

Voice two: Wow. Look who Jesus put in the slow class.

I’d get lost in that sterile back-and-forth there if it wasn’t for the telephone example, which neatly exemplifies the following:

Before you can make any sense out of the exercises for today, one more thought is necessary. At the most superficial levels you do recognize purpose. Yet purpose cannot be understood at those levels (W-pI.25.4:1-3).

Again, at a basic level, the telephone makes phone calls. But what we don’t understand (because we aren’t used to thinking this way) – and what really matters – is why I want to communicate.

This clarity neatly exposes the ego’s pathetic attempts to undermine us. The ego, of course, is Voice Two in our dialogue. At first glance, its digs seem reasonable, wise cracks from somebody who’s not going to get suckered by silly question. But ego – so insistent when we want to know what a thing is grows quieter when asked what it’s for.

Voice one: I don’t know what this shoe is for.

Voice two: Wow. Look who Jesus put in the slow class. How about – wild guess here – it’s to put on your foot?

Voice one: Yeah, I get that. But why put it on my foot? I think because it enables me to go out into the world – I can teach today, take my parents to lunch, go work with the horses with my daughters. And, in addition to being able to do those things safely, I’m not going to be focused on my freezing feet so I can give more attention to my students, my parents, and my kids. But why do I want to focus on my students, my parents, my daughter?

And to that question, Voice two is silent. The ego doesn’t know why I should love and be kind to my brothers and sisters. When the ego shuts up, I come back to the lesson and learn this simple fact: my job isn’t to figure out what’s good or bad in the world but rather to see it all as meaningless. Why? Because then I can perceive the meaning that God has written on it. That is a goal worthy of creation.

←Lesson 24
Lesson 26→

I do not perceive my own best interests.

Learning occurs when the need for learning is recognized. If we think we already know something, then we aren’t going to seek a teacher. If we’re sure that we’re doing something correctly, then we aren’t going be open to the possibility that there is another, better way.

This is the foundation of Lesson 24, which aims to restore to our minds a sense of humility. We think we know what’s in our best interest, but we do not. And because we do not, we cannot open our minds to a teacher who can teach us what is in our best interest.

Our happiness is contingent on this open-mindedness and – because we are presently alien to it – it asks of us more honest than we are accustomed to using. In this lesson we are not skimming, but going more deeply.

This prepares us for the long-term learning that is asked of us, and the commitment that will see us through to its end.

This lesson asks us to review situations which are as yet unresolved – relationships with which we are entangled, next week’s business meeting, this or that election outcome – and, with as much honestly and specificity as possible, list the goals that are part of the situation.

What do we want to happen? The course suggests that if we are honest about this then we . . .

. . . will quickly realize that you are making a large number of demands of the situation which have nothing to do with it. You will also recognize that many of your goals are contradictory, that you have no unified outcome in mind, and that you must experience disappointment in connection with some of your goals however the situation turns out (W-pI.24.6:1-2).

This is because “in no situation which arises do you realize the outcome that would make you happy” (W-pI.24.1:1).

There is no equivocation in that judgment! It does not say that we sometimes know what’s best for us or even that once in a rare while we know what’s best for us. It is unconditional: we don’t know at all. Full stop.

Thus, this lesson aims simply at restoring us to humility which is the necessary foundation for an effective learning process. It is perhaps a good example of a lesson that can be done over a period of days, given its importance in the learning process, although this is not required.

It is also helpful to remember that our personal sense of progress – especially with respect to A Course in Miracles – is rarely accurate, or even noticeable. Sometimes when we’re most “stuck,” we’re actually making progress that can stand in for centuries of learning (e.g., T-1.II.6:7, T-18.V.1:6). Thus, even if challenging lessons appear to produce no results, dramatic or otherwise, we need to refrain from judging. Our job is to show up and do the work. Healing is in better hands than ours.

Finally, note that this lesson increases the number of minutes for each practice period from one to two. While that’s not a big chunk of time per se, it does double our commitment and speaks to the gentle way in which we are being asked to intensify our ACIM practice.

←Lesson 23
Lesson 25→

I can escape from the world I see by giving up attack thoughts.

It cannot be said enough that our thoughts are causes and the world we see and perceive (which includes our body) is their effect. Repetition can breed acceptance – or at least the willingness to accept. Even after we have intellectually grasped that A Course in Miracles reverses traditional notions of cause and effect (i.e., that external influences cause internal affects), we are still likely to struggle to bring it into application. This is the real goal of the A Course in Miracles – a radical transformation of how our minds work. For most of us, this doesn’t happen because we want it to. It happens with practice. That’s what it means to bring an idea into application – to hold it in mind and work with it in the world.

In Lesson 22 we explore the vengeance inherent in what we see and we conclude that it is not the world that we want to see. Thus, the stage is set for Lesson 23 which is a deeply practical – indeed, radical to the point of appearing impossible – way of changing the world that we see. Our default state of mind obligates us to try and change the world. We are actors and the world is a stage on which we hack out the terms and conditions of our existence, desperately trying to strike some balance between the world’s cruelty and our desire for comfort and peace. It won’t work, of course, but most of us never stop trying. And really, that’s the ego’s game plan in a nutshell. As long we believe there is something that we can do, then why turn to God? Why reach out to Jesus except as a ritualistic formality?

But the truth is that the world – as vengeance, as cruelty, as injustice, as scarcity – is made by and thus is unmade by our thinking. Change the thought and you change the world. Literally. Because our thoughts “attack thoughts” – because they are the very stuff that we fear and hate – that becomes the world we perceive. Our thoughts are both why and how the world is the way it is. But if we can let these thoughts go, then the world will be naturally and instantly transformed.

Thus, to heal, our focus belongs on our thinking, not on what we perceive. It’s the thought itself – not what we think about – that counts. This ACIM rule never changes. It is the only way to peace.

As each [attack thought] crosses your mind say: I can escape from the world I see by giving up attack thoughts about _____. Hold each attack thought in mind as you say this, and then dismiss that thought and go on to the next (W-pI.23.6:3-5).

The hinge on which this lessons turns is in this phrase: “then dismiss the thought and go on. . . “

In other words, we are not just watching a parade of nasty thoughts and ideas. We are not indulging the ego its grim slideshow. Rather, we are very specifically looking at a thought, identifying it as an attack thought, and letting it go. Be clear about this: nothing supernatural or mystical is going on. We are doing the noticing and we are deciding whether we want to keep what causes us pain or whether we want to let it go. 

We are in charge of our thoughts. We are the world-maker.

That’s the essence of this lesson – and very much at the heart of what makes A Course in Miracles tick. It is our job to think differently – to make a conscious choice to use our creative minds differently. We can do this best by actively dismissing those thoughts that fuel a world of vengeance. This lesson will eventually become a necessary habit, a way of refusing to allow the ego any inroads into our being.

We are not victims of the world. We are creative agents of a wholly loving God who have chosen passivity, who have deceived ourselves about our true power and strength. This lesson provides a handy way of undoing that deception and taking up again our loving and creative potential.

←Lesson 22
Lesson 24→

What I see is a form of vengeance.

This lesson introduces the critical idea that what we see is a “form of vengenance.” Accepting this – which means becoming responsible for our thinking – represents a major undoing of what blocks love. We encounter this idea in numerous forms throughout the workbook and text. Here it appears to that might reaffirm our commitment to seeing differently.

Lesson 22 is a preview of a more dramatic statement that appears in part II of the workbook.

The world was made as an attack on God. It symbolizes fear. And what is fear but love’s absence? (W-pII.3.2:1-3)

That is powerful language – “an attack on God.” Most of us resist it. But it is a core concept in the reformation of our thought process that A Course in Miracles offers as healing. 

We project because we cannot bear what we see inside. We believe we are separated from God. We feel guilt at having turned from him and fear his retribution. Rather than look at that guilt and fear we either a) deny it or – when it resists denial – b) project it. The world is the projection of our guilt and fear. It is our attempt to obscure the fact of the separation. It is the feeble “making” by which we try and usurp God’s creative abilities.

The world is – finally and fully – a vicious place. It is an attack. And – as its makers who know full well its capacity for attack – we fear it and seek always to “defend” against it. This is indeed as the lesson observes a “vicious circle,” from which there is no escape.

If you project anger and hate, then you will perceive anger and hate. Projection is a form of attack that always doubles back on us. Lesson Twenty-Two describes how a typical course student experiences this bind. 

Having projected his anger onto the world, he sees vengeance about to strike at him. His own attack is thus perceived as self-defense. This becomes an increasingly vicious circle until he is willing to change how he sees (W-pI.22.1:2-4).

Peace of mind is what occurs when we stop projecting and thus stop perceiving external attacks that require defense.

How does this cycle occur in practice – in the world in which we live?

Say that you are frustrated with a political party. Its members are not motivated by the common good but by partisan ideals. They don’t want to solve problems so much as destroy their opposition. They are driven by fear, not love.

A Course in Miracles – following a psychological tradition grounded in Freud – teaches that we have projected onto this political party our habit of being partisan rather than cooperative, our inclination to destroy rather than compromise, and our willingness to be led by fear instead of love.

Having projected it onto the other, we then perceive it as an attack. They are out to get us and so we have to oppose them, resist them, defeat them once and forever.

This is the vicious cycle. We project our hate and fear and then, denying it is in fact our hate and fear, we go to war with it.

There is, suggests the course (for this is always what ACIM suggests), another way.

It is from this savage fantasy that you want to escape. Is it not joyous news to learn that it is not real? Is it not a happy discovery to find that you can escape? (W-pI.22.2:1-3).

Tara Singh would sometimes point out in his writing that when A Course in Miracles asks us a question, it is worth pausing and seriously considering it. Really go into it and find the answer.

The penultimate question posed by this lesson is whether the world you want to see – which is finite, perishable, unreal and mean – is the world you actually want to see. Are you not interested in finding a way to see it differently?

The lesson suggests the answer is obvious (W-pI.22.9:1), and it probably is, but still: it’s worth asking and actually answering. Doing so is a way of committing yourself to the practice of learning to see differently, in order to become responsible for your own mind and how it functions.

You made what you would destroy; everything that you hate and would attack and kill. All that you fear does not exist (W-pI.22.2:4-5).

Here we realize that there is a better way, and that discovering it and partaking of its joy and peace, obligate us to become responsible for our practice. Let this be the lesson in which you pledge to take seriously your healing, and to bring to it the full force of your desire for love and peace.

One last thought. I still remember the first time I did this lesson. I was into it; it was flowing. I looked over the snow, the barns, the manure pile, the bare trees. Yeah, that’s perishable, that’s not real, that’s vengeance. Then, suddenly, a blue jay settled right before me on a fence post and it was so clear and bright and beautiful that the lesson just sailed right out of my mind. And when it came back – oh right, I’m supposed to be practicing A Course in Miracles – I didn’t want to include the blue jay. How can such beauty be vengeful?

The answer is that the scraps of beauty the world allows are just bread crumbs dropped by the ego in an effort to buy our allegiance a little while longer. If I buy into the lovely winter scene, then the separation is real because the world is real. So I can’t make exceptions.

Exclude nothing that your eyes fall upon, no matter how beautiful or alluring. Let nothing distract you from learning that the world is not real. 

I note this to show that perfection is not part of the process. There are always going to be blue jays or best friends or chocolate cakes that draw our attention. We can’t let these symbols of love – for they are that – stand in our way. See them, take note of them – forgive them – and continue on your way.

←Lesson 21
Lesson 23→

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I am determined to see things differently.

Lesson 21 of A Course in Miracles extends the previous lesson in two particular ways. First, it focuses on anger. Second, it emphasizes specificity.

Somewhat less obviously, it reinforces the underlying concept enshrined in the first miracle principle: miracles do not acknowledge and are not subject to orders of difficulty.

Anger is a defense mechanism deployed by the separated self. Under the guise of protection, it actually is a form of attack on our brothers and sisters and our self.

It is an attack on our self because it depends for its existence on the illusion that a separate self exists and can actually be attacked.

And it is an attack on our brothers and sisters because it projects responsibility for attack onto them, thus reinforcing their separate existence. Projection extends separation.

Thus, anger is one of the primary ways in which separation is sustained. Its undoing is a primary focus of atonement.

Lesson Twenty-One does not explain anger. Nor does it go into detail about how anger is undone. It simply asks us to take very specific notice of it – to place it in the context of our lives in the world – and then declare that we are determined to hold a different view of it.

This matters! The course is emphasizing here the power of our will. Without explicitly saying so, it is suggesting that when our will aligns with Love – which does not recognize differences but rather sees all things as the same – healing is the inevitable result. We don’t have to understand anything. Remember that “nothing that you believe in this connection means anything” (W-pI.21.3:2).

In a critical sense, all our “problems” arise from the singular confusion that we are something we are not. One problem means one solution. But it takes time for us to see this clearly, and in the interim, engaging with the specific forms that problem takes is how we learn that there is only one error that needs to be corrected.

We are called to give attention to our lives, and not to ignore them or minimize them because they are illusory. Healing occurs where the problem appears to be.

Finally, this lesson reminds us that there is no order of difficulty in miracles. A “little” anger is no different than a fire hose of rage. Thus, our application of this lesson need not depend on finding the hottest rage or the relationship in which anger appears most consistently.

We are not called to judge the examples we use; only to be as specific as possible with respect to them. The degree of healing we attain is unrelated to the degree of the so-called symptom of anger because *it’s all the same problem.

Sometimes the abstraction inherent in A Course in Miracles can be too much. What are we supposed to, you now, do? If Lesson 20 is the essence – we are determined to see – this lesson provides the specificity that undoes abstraction. It does not take a spiritual genius to see that we can also vow to see differently situations that make us sad. Or fearful. Or guilty. Or lonely. Or happy. Whatever our struggles are in these bodies in this world, we can see past them – past the form in which they appear – the underlying problem of separation that they are made to sustain.

Lesson 21 is another way of insisting on waking up, on bringing Jesus into our lives every minute of the day until we fully and utterly recall our identity in, with and of God and there is no longer any need for either teachers or lessons or bodies or worlds at all.

Healing begins where we are. It begins at the bottom and works its way up. We give attention to the messiness and complexity of our living and resolve not to change the forms this messiness and complexity but rather to change our minds about it. We want to see it differently; it doesn’t actually matter what “it” is or what “it” looks like. To be healed is to see differently. And this “seeing differently” begins with our intention – however feebly set, however inconsistently maintained – to see differently now.

←Lesson 20
Lesson 22→