Many people have completed the Workbook multiple times without achieving true perception. Gentle Healing provides a new way to go through the Workbook. This new way of going through the Workbook has been successful before, and it can be successful again.
What’s different with Gentle Healing?
The Introduction to the Workbook says, “A theoretical foundation such as the text provides is necessary as a framework to make the exercises in this workbook meaningful.” (Italics are mine.)
Gentle Healing uses some sections from the ACIM text to provide a “theoretical foundation” for the Workbook exercises, but Gentle Healing also uses other texts and other teachings as part of the “theoretical foundation.” These spiritual resources are often easier to understand than ACIM, so the theory is more easily applied while practicing the lessons. My tips are a very important part of the Gentle Healing “theoretical foundation.”
What is true perception?
First, let me briefly explain what mistaken perception is. Mistaken perception is perceiving and interpreting the world through a self-centered mental filter, known as the ego. The ego is basically a mental program that has been built throughout your lifetime. It tells you who you are, what everything you experience is, and it gives self-referencing meaning to everything you perceive. Meaning that is created through self-referencing is mistaken perception, because it defines what you see and experience in terms of ‘you’ and what ‘that’ has to do with ‘you.’
Every person on earth has an individual ego. No two egoic filters are the same. Therefore, when any person perceives the world through the eogic filter, that person sees a world that is completely unique. Other people see the world differently, as it relates to them.
True perception is seeing the world clearly, without the egoic filter. Prejudice, bias, separatist judgment and individual self-referencing are removed from the way you see when you see with true perception.
True perception is a freer way of seeing. When you see with mistaken perception, you experience a lot of conflict and upset based on the individual interpretation of what you see. When you see with true perception, individual interpretation is removed, so you feel happy, at ease and in acceptance of what you see. You are no longer tied to the world in a reactionary way. You are free to be you, and what you perceive is free to be what it is. The world does not have an effect on you without egoic self-referencing.
Regina’s Tip for Lesson 2
Theory supports spiritual practice. Theory alone is not enough to undo the ego filter that has built up in your subconscious mind over this lifetime. To undo the ego and realize true perception, you must engage in properly structured spiritual practice. Reading Gentle Healing is not enough. It’s important that you practice the daily Workbook exercises in the way the Workbook asks you to practice them.
The mind has the ability to repeat the Workbook exercises without paying attention to the exercises. You can do the exercises while simultaneously being distracted from them. For example, you can say, “I have given that TV all the meaning it has for me,” while thinking about an email you need to write later in the day.
Distracted practice is an ego preservation technique. The ego will not be undone through distracted practice. Be sure to bring awareness to the practice by giving it your full attention. You don’t have to understand how the practice works. Mental understanding is completely unnecessary. You simply need to do the practice willingly while giving it undistracted, unhurried attention.
Regina’s Tip for Lesson 3
As you do today’s Workbook exercise, you might notice the meaning you have given to some things. You might think, for example, “I do understand that photograph on the table. That is my family on vacation last year.”
When you think you understand what you see, simply notice that you think you understand, and then continue with the exercise by being as indiscriminate as possible.
What you witness when you think you understand is your egoic filter. That is your individual way of seeing through the self-referencing program.
For example, if you say, “That is a photograph of my family on our vacation last year,” you think you know who you are, what belongs to you, what a vacation is, what the opposite of a vacation is and what time (“last year”) is. All of those ideas are merely concepts; they are not ultimate truths. Some of the ideas may be useful, but they are not genuinely true, and they can cause trouble.
The Introduction to the Workbook said, “The purpose of the workbook is to train your mind in a systematic way to a different perception of everyone and everything in the world.”
The “different perception” the Introduction refers to is true perception.
Today’s Workbook lessons says, “The point of the exercise is to help you clear your mind of all past associations, …”
Without past associations that were built through self-referencing, can you say:
- That is a photograph?
- of my family?
- on our vacation?
- last year?
Can you say any of those things without past associations?
The Workbook lesson says, “The point of the exercises is to help you clear your mind of all past associations, to see things exactly as they appear to you now…”
If you had no past associations, would you even know “That is a photograph…?” What if you saw that object right now, for the very first time, without any past associations of any kind? Could you describe it at all?
The Workbook lesson says, “The point of the exercises is to help you clear your mind of all past associations, to see things exactly as they appear to you now, and to realize how little you really understand about them.”
Is it possible that the understanding you think you have is covering up the reality of what you see? Is it possible there is something here that is incredibly amazing, and you do not see it, because you are looking through a mental filter that thinks it understands everything it sees?
Regina’s Tip for Lesson 4
As mentioned in the tip for lesson 2, theory alone is not enough to undo the ego filter that colors the way you see the world. To undo the ego and realize true perception, you must engage in properly structured spiritual practice. It’s important that you practice the daily Workbook exercises in the way the Workbook asks you to practice them.
Often, people do not practice the Workbook the way it asks them to practice, because as they get involved in their day, they forget about the Workbook practice. Forgetfulness is an ego preservation strategy. If you’d like to experience true perception in this lifetime, you need to overcome the ego’s forgetfulness.
Here’s a tip that will help you overcome forgetfulness:
When you finish the practice in the morning, make a decision about when you will do the practice next. If you want to, you can set an alarm for the next practice session. Each time you finish the practice during the day, make a decision about when you will do the practice next. If you make a conscious decision about when you will do the next practice session, you are less likely to forget to do it.
Continue to follow this tip about overcoming forgetfulness whenever it applies to any Workbook lesson.
Regina’s Tip for Lesson 5
Today’s Workbook lesson asks us to apply the exercise to all upsets indiscriminately. As you do today’s exercise, you may notice a temptation to select certain upsets as worthy of this exercise, while quickly deciding other upsets are too small or unimportant to mention during the exercise. For example, you may decide to practice with the argument you had with a family member while deciding to overlook the minor annoyance you feel about the noise outside your window as you do the exercise.
Deciding some upsets are worthy of the exercise while others are too small or unimportant to mention is an ego preservation strategy. That’s why today’s lesson asks you to say to yourself, “There are no small upsets. They are all equally disturbing to my peace of mind.”
The perfect peace of true perception has no upsets in it. Some people will argue this point, but that is only because they have not yet fully undone the ego filter.
You need not settle for less than perfect happiness, because perfect happiness is your right. Perfect happiness is your natural state, which you will experience when the self-referencing habit is undone.
If you learn not to self-reference during conversations with family members, and as a result, you no longer argue with family members, that’s great! However, if you still self-reference regarding noises in the environment, traffic patterns, smells and weather, you will still experience discontent and possibly outright rage. In order to experience “the peace of God, which passeth all understanding,” self-referencing must end completely. (Ref: Philippians 4:7 in the Bible.)
This is what the Introduction to the Workbook meant by “transfer of training.” Transfer of training is learning something, and then applying what you learn in all circumstances, instead of just some circumstances.
As a reminder, the Introduction said:
“The exercises are planned to help you generalize the lessons, so that you will understand that each of them is equally applicable to everyone and everything you see.
“Transfer of training in true perception does not proceed as does transfer of the training of the world. If true perception has been achieved in connection with any person, situation or event, total transfer to everyone and everything is certain. On the other hand, one exception held apart from true perception makes its accomplishments anywhere impossible. …
“… be sure that you do not decide for yourself that there are some people, situations or things to which the [exercises] are inapplicable. This will interfere with transfer of training. The very nature of true perception is that it has no limits. It is the opposite of the way you see now.”
Regina’s Tip for Lesson 6
Chapter 4 of A Course in Miracles says:
“The truth is true. Nothing else matters, nothing else is real, and everything beside it is not there.”
That statement from the text is highly related to today’s workbook lesson:
“I am upset because I see something that is not there.”
Looking at these two statements together can help us see just how severely perception is distorted through egoic self-referencing. Egoic self-referencing leads us to see “something that is not there,” and then it leads us to get upset about it. We literally throw away our peace because of something that does not exist.
This may be hard for you to believe. That is to be expected. The Introduction to the Workbook said:
“Some of the ideas the workbook presents you will find hard to believe, and others may seem to be quite startling. This does not matter. You are merely asked to apply the ideas as you are directed to do. You are not asked to judge them at all. You are asked only to use them. It is their use that will give them meaning to you, and will show you that they are true.
“Remember only this; you need not believe the ideas, you need not accept them, and you need not even welcome them. Some of them you may actively resist. None of this will matter, or decrease their efficacy. But do not allow yourself to make exceptions in applying the ideas the workbook contains, and whatever your reactions to the ideas may be, use them. Nothing more than that is required.”
Regina’s Tip for Lesson 7
Today’s lesson begins by saying, “This idea is particularly difficult to believe at first.”
In yesterday’s tip, we reviewed the instructions from the Introduction, which reminded us that we do not need to believe the Workbook lessons; we merely need to apply them.
Whenever we come across a Workbook lesson that feels particularly difficult for us to accept, it might be helpful to review this paragraph from The Happy Learner section of A Course in Miracles:
“The truth is true. Nothing else matters, nothing else is real, and everything beside it is not there. Let Me make the one distinction for you that you cannot make, but need to learn. Your faith in nothing is deceiving you. Offer your faith to Me, and I will place it gently in the holy place where it belongs. You will find no deception there, but only the simple truth. And you will love it because you will understand it.
