Commentary on ACIM Lesson 93
©2010 Rev. David Seacord
Light and joy and peace abide in me.
According to this Course, the lesson statement for today is true. And this is what we are here to learn. Learning something very simple can sometimes be very difficult, yes? At other times, it can be easy. What do you think creates this difference?
I will offer my take, which is today based upon experience (ie, another teaching delivered by my son....).
In brief, we needed to return to the dentist we have been seeing during his visit to get his bite adjusted. Today he was two days 'fresh off of' several major dental procedures, one of which had been briefly very painful due to not being numb enough (which of course, was corrected). As we talked about getting his bite adjusted, he was adamant he was going to be numbed again, and he became angry at me for repeating my suggestion that that would not be necessary.
I 'asked for help', and the help I got was to remember a piece of a Landmark conversation about individual realities. I realized my son was 'in a different reality'. So I asked him 'what was so' for him about what 'getting a bite adjustment was'. It turned out he believed that without being numbed, it would be as painful as the pain he had felt a couple of days ago during surgery. And he was absolutely unwilling to have that experience again. I told him I understood what he was saying, and then gave him a piece of information that altered the situation. I explained that the surgery pain had been felt because the drill was in a nerve sensitive part of the tooth. But, bite adjustment was done on the surface, which contained no nerves. Therefore, while he would feel a sensation, it would be more like having his teeth cleaned. I invited him to confirm all this with the dentist. (He did, and had the bite adjusted without being numbed.)
The point of sharing this is that learning something is effected by our reality about that something. Our reality about something is made up of our projections, beliefs, fears, concerns, hopes, and dreams (and more). This is particularly true about our reality about ourselves, which we have been absorbing from our experience of life and our environment for the entirety of our life. This means we have a deep-seated investment in the way we view ourselves.
It is this investment that the Course is asking us to revisit, and consider the possibility that it is of no value. For most people, this is often not an easy thing to do. Values are at our identity core. But it is possible IF we can see we have been operating with false information or assumptions. That is what made a difference today with my son. In my life it has been the same many times.
Spiritually, this is fundamental also. The reality we are generally raised in teaches us to live as if we created ourselves. We didn't. That makes a huge difference. I invite you to consider just how huge. (And I've highlighted a few lines in the lesson for particular focus also.)
Namaste,
David
©2010 Rev. David Seacord
Light and joy and peace abide in me.
According to this Course, the lesson statement for today is true. And this is what we are here to learn. Learning something very simple can sometimes be very difficult, yes? At other times, it can be easy. What do you think creates this difference?
I will offer my take, which is today based upon experience (ie, another teaching delivered by my son....).
In brief, we needed to return to the dentist we have been seeing during his visit to get his bite adjusted. Today he was two days 'fresh off of' several major dental procedures, one of which had been briefly very painful due to not being numb enough (which of course, was corrected). As we talked about getting his bite adjusted, he was adamant he was going to be numbed again, and he became angry at me for repeating my suggestion that that would not be necessary.
I 'asked for help', and the help I got was to remember a piece of a Landmark conversation about individual realities. I realized my son was 'in a different reality'. So I asked him 'what was so' for him about what 'getting a bite adjustment was'. It turned out he believed that without being numbed, it would be as painful as the pain he had felt a couple of days ago during surgery. And he was absolutely unwilling to have that experience again. I told him I understood what he was saying, and then gave him a piece of information that altered the situation. I explained that the surgery pain had been felt because the drill was in a nerve sensitive part of the tooth. But, bite adjustment was done on the surface, which contained no nerves. Therefore, while he would feel a sensation, it would be more like having his teeth cleaned. I invited him to confirm all this with the dentist. (He did, and had the bite adjusted without being numbed.)
The point of sharing this is that learning something is effected by our reality about that something. Our reality about something is made up of our projections, beliefs, fears, concerns, hopes, and dreams (and more). This is particularly true about our reality about ourselves, which we have been absorbing from our experience of life and our environment for the entirety of our life. This means we have a deep-seated investment in the way we view ourselves.
It is this investment that the Course is asking us to revisit, and consider the possibility that it is of no value. For most people, this is often not an easy thing to do. Values are at our identity core. But it is possible IF we can see we have been operating with false information or assumptions. That is what made a difference today with my son. In my life it has been the same many times.
Spiritually, this is fundamental also. The reality we are generally raised in teaches us to live as if we created ourselves. We didn't. That makes a huge difference. I invite you to consider just how huge. (And I've highlighted a few lines in the lesson for particular focus also.)
Namaste,
David
posted by Rev. David Seacord at
11:48 AM
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