LESSON 36
February 5

"My holiness envelops everything I see."

PRACTICE SUMMARY

Longer: 4 times, evenly distributed, for 3-5 minutes each.

Close eyes and repeat idea several times.
Open eyes and casually look around, specifically applying idea to whatever you note. Say, "My holiness envelops [this rug, that wall, that chair, etc.]." Several times during practice period close eyes and repeat idea. Then open eyes and continue as before.

Shorter: Frequent.

Close eyes and repeat idea. Look around and repeat again. Close eyes and repeat once more.

COMMENTARY

I've always had a fondness for this lesson, because the first time I did it I had a very real sense of how holiness was emanating from me and surrounding everything, first in my room, then my town, then the world, and finally the universe. For a very brief moment I felt like a Buddha, sitting and blessing the entire world (that's tomorrow's lesson, by the way). The result was so effective for me that often, when I am simply sitting in meditation and not practicing any particular lesson, I think of this one and allow that sense to steal over me again.

Not everyone responds to every lesson, but everyone responds to some of the lessons. Notice the ones that seem particularly effective for you, and remember them. Lesson 194 in the Workbook speaks of building a "problem-solving repertoire" of things that we find helpful:

If you can see the lesson for today as the deliverance it really is, you will not hesitate to give as much consistent effort as you can, to make it be a part of you. As it becomes a thought that rules your mind, a habit in your problem-solving repertoire, a way of quick reaction to temptation, you extend your learning to the world (W-194.6).

In yesterday's lesson the focus was on the perceiver: "I am very holy." Today the holiness extends to what is perceived. Because I am holy, my perception must also be holy. And I am perfectly holy because God created me that way. Holy means "sinless," and you cannot be partly sinless any more than a woman can be "a little" pregnant. The logic here is quite simple and plain: If I am part of God I must be sinless, or part of God would be sinful. If I am without sin I must have holy perception as well.

How I see myself affects how I see the world. My holiness envelops the world if I see myself as holy. My awfulness envelops the world if I see myself as awful. If I am willing to see the world enveloped in holiness, I can learn to see myself that way.

I know, that sounds like I have it backwards; the order "should be" that I see myself holy first, and then the world. The thing of it is, what keeps me from seeing myself as holy is my unwillingness to see the world that way. From within the ego mind-set, it seems as if seeing the world as holy will make me unholy by comparison. The ego always thinks in terms of comparison. The fact is that as I see the world, so I see myself, and as I see myself, so I see the world.

The ego mind will insist it must be one way or the other because it operates on a presumption of separateness. The Holy Spirit presents it both ways at once because He operates on the presumption of unity. There is no separation between myself and what I see; there is only the one.