Regina’s Tip for Lesson 12
Today’s workbook lesson begins by saying:
“The importance of this idea lies in the fact that it contains a correction for a major perceptual distortion.”
The major perceptual distortion is the idea that you are the person you think you are.
Today’s lesson asks you to look about yourself and say, “I see a ___________ world,” and fill in the blank with whatever descriptive terms happen to occur to you, regardless of whether the terms are positive or negative.
Have you ever considered what causes you to see something as positive or negative?
Self-referencing is what leads you to see something as positive or negative. For example, if you are a city dweller who works in an office all week and looks forward to Saturday in the park, you may see rain on Saturday as disappointing or depressing. If you are a farmer who raises vegetables in the dry climate of eastern Colorado, you are probably happy to see rain whenever it occurs.
Rain is just rain. It isn’t positive or negative. However, rain is perceived as positive or negative by self-referencing thoughts.
Today’s lesson says, “I am upset because I see a meaningless world.”
We could also say, “I am upset because I reference the world to a self, thinking I am that self, when I am not.”
Homework for this week
- Homework Assignment A: ACIM Workbook Lessons 8-14
- Homework Assignment B: Read NTI Romans Chapters 1-7 (p261-270.)
- Do not read all at once. Read a little each day contemplatively. No need to read the Bible.
- Explore the reading through journaling. Journal clarity, questions, confusion, resistance, willingness, etc.
