Course Note #124: Is Attack Possible?

In this post I share from 2 messages on attack.  Part two (see below), is very helpful as it reveals how to truly see the world differently. 


Hi,
Recently, while reading posts on the internet, I perceived that someone else consistently feels attacked, and thus attacks others with that misperception.   The next day, with those thoughts in mind, I was prompted to read a message called, “Is attack possible?”*

            Question: Is attack possible?

          Answer: “No, attack is not possible, because all thought is shared. Each one receives as he has asked to receive through his thought. Therefore, no one is ever attacked, and only his request is answered.

“I ask you to let go of attack thoughts, not because they are attack, but because they block true perception from your sight. As you believe in attack, you cannot see love, because you believe love is attack.

“Love cannot stop, but love can be misperceived if you believe in attack. In order to see love’s reflection through true perception, you must be willing to let go of all perception of attack. Remember this:

“When you believe you are attacking or have attacked, you are completely wrong. Give this misperception to Me, that you may see differently.

“When you believe you are attacked, you are one hundred percent wrong. Give this misperception to Me, that you may see differently.

“When you believe you see one attacking another, you are believing in attack yourself. Give this misperception to Me, that you may see differently.”

I don’t have to wonder why my Inner Teacher led me to this message on that particular day.  Simply to remind me that if I see one attacking another, I still believe in attack, but this perception can be changed.  It was one of those, “Oh my God, It’s me!” moments.  So often we don’t want to acknowledge that what we see comes from our perception because it’s painful to the ego.

The inner teacher does not have a spiritual ego and so, I never feel that this presence is admonishing me to be any other way than I am.  Holy Spirit comes into my perception to lead me out of my misperceptions of myself.

HS: “I teach that you have a choice about what you will do and how you will feel.  This is true because you get to request through Spirit the experiences that shall be given you.  You make this request through choosing which thoughts to believe or accept.

“If you accept that you are attacking, being attacked or seeing attack, you will have the experience of attack, because you have requested it through your perception.  What you ask for is given you, always.”

Wow!  When we truly begin to accept that we have requested certain experiences, and that what we ask for is always given, then we can move into living in appreciation and celebration for this classroom that allows us to see what we have requested to see. 

HS: “If you see the temptation or the opportunity to perceive attack, but you choose to let that opportunity pass you by by refusing to accept the perception, you request the miracle.  The miracle is a truer way of perceiving, which is seeing that there is not attack, because there is only love.”

In the Course we are taught that everything is love or a call for love.  When we perceive attack, with ego in charge, we tend to attack or defend in turn. With enlightened vision, we see the call for love, our call for love, and thus we respond with love instead of attack.  And yet, we can also embrace that we see attack because this can serve as a reminder that there is another way to see. 

HS:  “Watch your mind for your perceptions.  Ask yourself, ‘What do I truly want to experience right now?’  As you answer this question, you make a conscious decision about how to see.

~Thank You~

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Part two: Questions about: Is attack possible?

            In lieu of the previous message on attack, someone wrote to Regina asking questions about the idea.  Some of the questions are shared here:  

                       

                        * I find this difficult to comprehend when I see extreme expressions of attack in the world.

                        *  There were brutal and incomprehensible acts against people in Iraq, which is now in civil war… Regardless, there is no way that the way in which those people were killed could ever be “right.”

                        *  This is only a sub-set of atrocities that are happening…  The people that suffered and suffer from these heinous acts experienced and experience them as real, as do most of us.  What is an “illusion?”

                        *  How can we ask if attack is possible?  It’s happening right before our very eyes.  I can’t look away and tell myself that it’s an illusion when people are inflicting pain on others, and others are experiencing it as real.

                        *  How can I look at these atrocities with love and acceptance and with “non-judgment”?  How can it be anything but wrong?  Even if I can at least count to 100 long enough to know that I am judging, or try to forgive them because ‘they know not what they do’…they still did it and are still doing it.  There is “no judgment”, that’s what happened and is still happening. 

*  So I need to ask you: Does the world look that much different when we are awake, or do we just not see these things anymore?

           

              HS answers:  The world is a brutal, vicious place as you experience it. I don’t ask you to deny that. I ask you to look at the world’s viciousness and then ask yourself, “Does this make me happy?”  If it does not, and if you are willing to see differently, I can lead you to another way of seeing, because there is another way of seeing everything that you see now.

“You may ask, “How can I see brutal killing as anything other than cruel?” The answer is that you must be willing to see that you are wrong about what you think you look upon. You are completely and one hundred percent wrong about what you see. If you can give Me even a hair of willingness to see that this is true, I can lead you so that you will see it. But, I cannot lead you without your willingness. If you insist that the way you see is the only way to see, I cannot provide the miracle of showing you that you are wrong.”

          

                In the face of another’s crisis or despair, we are not being asked to tell them that it is not real and that attack is impossible.  Remember, we are always asked to accept the correction, the healing, for ourselves.  I have not mastered this as I do still see attack in the world.  I do still see that some news stories affect me more than other news stories.  Yet, I have also experienced that in my willingness to see differently in certain situations, I do see differently.

          
               Over the years, people have told me that they don’t believe in God because of certain atrocities that go on or have gone on in the world.  Recently, while having such a discussion with a friend, I told her that I don’t totally understand the nature of this world we live in, or why certain things happen or have happened, but what I do know is that there is way more going on in this universe than I realize.

            This is what Holy Spirit is asking us to see here, in essence saying: You don’t know the whole story.  You don’t see the big picture.  You must be willing to acknowledge that you don’t know, and then you can be guided see truly.

            HS:  “Within your experience, My leading you to see differently may seem to take time.  How much time is up to you.  The more willingness you give to see that you are wrong, the faster you will begin to see.

            “I must tell you that there is nothing wrong with how you see now.  You need to know this, because the feeling of guilt leads you to cling to how you see.  You are perfectly innocent in this moment.  I ask you to trust Me on this fact.”

            Spiritual ego has probably already told you about now that you are a bad student because of the way you see.  I love how Holy Spirit is so consistent in these messages, in NTI, in ACIM… telling us that we are not bad or guilty.  When we hold onto the idea that we are, we are united with ego, the false self.

I must tell you that there is nothing wrong with how you see now. 

You need to know this.

            HS:  “You ask if the world looks different when you are awake or if the awakened one simply doesn’t see atrocities any more. As long as you walk in the world, the body’s eyes will show you what the body’s eyes see, but you will have a completely different understanding about what you see. This will enable you to be most helpful, because you will not be confused, and you will know what to do in any given situation.”

            When we are willing to walk in the world asking Holy Spirit to reinterpret our perceptions, then we do become more helpful to one another because we are led by truth instead of by the stories in our mind.

            HS:  “For now, I ask you to continue to take the little steps you are taking now, for these little steps are much, much bigger than your realize. Continue to notice that you are judging and be completely willing to see that you are wrong. Follow your inner intuition on the path of spiritual seeking. I will lead you on the path that is best for you. Give Me your trust and your patience, and give trust and patience to yourself and your world. In this way, you will be led to discover the answers that you seek, and your gratitude will be unending.”

            As students of these teachings, we must cease expecting other people to tell us how to see, or to prove to us that these teachings “work”.  We must become increasingly willing to go within and ask how to see differently; and how to see through the remembrance of our innocence.  

            All too often, we look at the world through the eyes of fear.  Fear tells us that we are unlovable and bad, and through this lens we see a world of attack and defense.  Let us be willing to notice how we argue for our limitations, and how we argue for the false to be true.  Let us notice how we let the world tell us how to think, and how to be and how to feel.  Let us be willing to let Spirit Within show us that there is truly another way, a better way, to see.

            It is so liberating to finally embrace these ideas, because through seeing what we are truly doing to ourselves, we have a choice to keep doing it, or to stop.  I am becoming increasingly willing to stop.  Care to join me?

I can escape from the world I see by giving up attack thoughts.

Herein lies my salvation, and nowhere else.

Without attack thoughts I could not see a world of attack.

As forgiveness allows love to return to my awareness,

I will see a world of peace and safety and joy.

And it is this that I choose to see,

in place of what I look on now.

                                                       (ACIM, WBL 55)

The audio was recorded on 10/16/11 and contains

much more than what I’ve been able to share here.

 
 


 
   
 

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* These messages on: “Is attack possible” can be found in their entirety at: http://www.reginadawnakers.com   in the monthly archives dated, November 24 & 25, 2006