It is important to remember that miracles and vision necessarily go together.
This needs repeating and frequent repeating. It is a central idea in your new
thought system and the perception which it produces. The miracle is always
there. Its presence is not caused by your vision; its absence is not the result
of your failure to see. It is only your awareness of miracles that is affected. You will see it in the light;
you will not see it in the dark.
To you, then, light is crucial. While you remain in darkness, the miracle
remains unseen. Thus you are convinced it is not there. This follows from the
premises from which the darkness comes. Denial of light leads to failure to
perceive it. Failure to perceive light is to perceive darkness. The light is
useless to you then, even though it is there. You cannot use it because its presence is unknown to you. And the seeming
reality of the darkness makes the idea of light meaningless.
To be told that what you do not see is there sounds like insanity. It is very
difficult to become convinced that it is insanity not to see what is there, and
to see what is not there instead. You do not doubt that the body's eyes can
see. You do not doubt the images they show you are reality. Your faith lies in
the darkness, not the light.
How can this be reversed? For you it is impossible, but you are not alone in
this. Your efforts, however little they may be, have strong support. Did you but
realize how great this strength, your doubts would vanish. Today we will devote
ourselves to the attempt to let you feel this strength. When you have felt the
strength in you, which makes all miracles within your easy reach, you will not doubt. The miracles your sense of weakness hides will leap into awareness as you feel this strength.
Three times today, set aside about ten minutes for a quiet time in which you try
to leave your weakness behind. This is accomplished very simply, as you instruct
yourself that you are not a body. Faith goes with what you want, and you instruct
your mind accordingly. Your will remains your teacher, and your will has all the strength
to do what it desires. You can escape the body if you choose.
You can experience the strength in you. Begin the longer practice periods with
this statement of true cause and effect relationships:
"Miracles are seen in light.
The body's eyes do not perceive the light.
But I am not a body. What am I?"
The question with which this statement ends
is needed for our exercises today. What you think you are is a belief to be
undone. But what you really are must be revealed to you. The belief you are a
body calls for correction, being a mistake. The truth of what you are calls on
the strength in you to bring to your awareness what the mistake concealed.
If you are not a body, what are you? You need to be aware of what the Holy
Spirit uses to replace the image of a body in your mind. You need to feel
something to put your faith in, as you lift it from the body. You need a real
experience of something else, something more solid and more sure; more worthy of your faith, and really there.
If you are not a body, what are you? Ask this in honesty, and then devote
several minutes to allowing your mistaken thoughts about your attributes to be
corrected, and their opposites to take their place. Say, for example:
"I am not weak, but strong."
"I am not helpless, but all powerful."
"I am not limited, but unlimited."
"I am not doubtful, but certain."
"I am not an illusion, but a reality."
"I cannot see in darkness, but in light."
In the second phase of the exercise period,
try to experience these truths about yourself. Concentrate particularly on the
experience of strength. Remember that all sense of weakness is associated with
the belief that you are a body, a belief that is mistaken and deserves no faith. Try
to remove your faith from it, if only for a moment. You will be accustomed to
keeping faith with the more worthy in you as we go along.
Relax for the rest of the practice period, confident that your efforts, however
meager, are fully supported by the strength of God and all His Thoughts. It is
from Them your strength will come. It is through Their strong support that you
will feel the strength in you. They are united with you in this practice period,
in which you share a purpose like Their own. Theirs is the light in which you
will see miracles, because Their strength is yours. Their strength becomes your
eyes, that you may see.
Five or six times an hour, at reasonably regular intervals, remind yourself that
miracles are seen in light. Also, be sure to meet temptation with today's
idea. This form would be helpful for this special purpose:
"Miracles are seen in light. Let me not
close my eyes because of this."
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