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This idea has been coming up for me recently quite a lot…. in my readings, in my prayer and mediation times and as I walk the world, challenged (solely) by my own thinking, which is still in many and significant ways, dysfunctional and in need of deep healing.
The phrase itself (as I know it) comes from A Course in Miracles. It appears both in the Preface and in the Text on page 445, where it says:
Projection makes perception. The world you see is what you gave it, nothing more than that. But though it is no more than that, it is not less. Therefore, to you it is important. It is the witness to our state of mind, the outside picture of an inward condition. As a man thinketh, so does he perceive. Therefore seek not to change the world, but choose to change your mind about the world. Perception is a result and not a cause.
— ACIM, T.21.Introduction.1-8
The Course quote echos Proverbs 23:7 “As a man thinketh in his heart, so he is.” It also is the title of a seminal self-help book by James Allen, a book my mother gave me at my confirmation.
Allen describes his book, published in 1903 as:
... [dealing] with the power of thought, and particularly with the use and application of thought to happy and beautiful issues. I have tried to make the book simple, so that all can easily grasp and follow its teaching, and put into practice the methods which it advises. It shows how, in his own thought-world, each man holds the key to every condition, good or bad, that enters into his life, and that, by working patiently and intelligently upon his thoughts, he may remake his life, and transform his circumstances.
In a nutshell, all this talk about changing my mind, changing my thoughts means that I am responsible.
For everything I see and everything I experience.
The commonly accepted “wisdom” is that the world is “out there.” Events appear suddenly — unannounced, uninvited and unexpected — and we are the world’s victims.
In this schema, we are (of course) helpless. The world’s randomness and insanity give us little choice. All we can do is react after the fact. We aren’t responsible.
“You can’t change the world,” my mother used to say.
In a way, she was right.
But, according to the Course in Miracles, you can change your world….
By changing your mind!
It’s an easy trap to get overly theoretical or theological about it, so instead I need to look at the functional within the spiritual. In other words, how does this work in my life? What does this mean, practically?
Practically it means that we have the power to change our minds, and by doing so, change our lives. By shifting our perspective, the world we see shift in response.
I remember a time which I describe in my book, “Prosperity Now! A 12-Week Journey to the Life of Your Dreams.”
I had been recently diagnosed with HIV and was very afraid: of dying, of suffering from a deadly disease, and most immediately from the horror stories I had heard about the side effects from the medications I would soon have to begin taking.
You can read the rest of the story in my book, but I will tell you that once my mind shifted to acceptance and faith, I literally lost all fear and was filled with a knowing that I would be alright. I knew that the medications would work, “perfectly, with no side effects whatsoever.”
I changed my mind and immediately, the world shifted to accommodate my new thinking. My new belief system created a new world!
I also tell a short story about my dogs and how people see them. The dogs are not anything. You say they are cute, or scary, lovable or loathsome. The evidence of this is quite clear when you meet someone who cringes or reacts in fear to a 7 pound Yorkie.
Alcoholics Anonymous and other 12-Step programs are considered by most of their members to be, not esoteric exercises in navel gazing contemplation, but as “practical programs.” The AA Big Book says, “The spiritual life is not a theory. We have to live it.” (p. 83)
Unity Worldwide Ministries describes its approach to spiritual understanding and development as, “practical Christianity.”
To sum up, we project our thoughts, feelings, beliefs, ideas, stories, etc. out onto the world and the world rushes back at us to confirm these things that we hold in our mind.
The dogs are neither adorable nor disgusting. The medications are neither benign nor toxic. They are what you say they are!
This is how we project our minds out onto the world and how we perceive the world, based on our projection.
Projection makes perception! Change your mind, change your life! Watch the world shift “miraculously” to meet your new, positive, healthy, functional way of seeing — everything!
Bonne dimanche (Good Sunday)
John
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