” ‘I am responsible for what I see. I choose the feelings I experience. I decide upon the goals I would achieve AND everything that seems to happen to me I ask for and I receive as I have asked.’ T-21.I.2:1-3 (A Course In Miracles)
The above quote from the Course is one of the most often referenced passages in the Course; and the last line, in particular, is one of the most difficult to accept when it comes to applying the principles of the Course.
But let’s take one step at a time. I am responsible for what I see. Step into a room full of people. Look around, and you will make a number of evaluations about what you see. All living creatures inevitably check out their environment. Curiosity is natural to consciousness. We are inquisitive; and we are all appraisers, assessing, and inspecting the world.
To say I am responsible for what I see does not mean I am somehow constructing the events in front of me. You are not creating the person that you are talking to. You are not a magician.
As my friend and physicist, Dr. Mark Greenfield, says, ‘It is not the what of what we see, but the way in which it is seen, and the how as in how we might take it.’
We know what we like and what we don’t like. Things are pretty or ugly, pleasant or unpleasant, and attractive or unattractive. Such evaluations are inevitable and automatic, and we all do it. Simple discernment is necessary. When it comes to dealing with other people in our world, both those in our immediate environment and the newsmakers, two passages from the Course are important.
‘Let him be what he is and seek not to make of love an enemy.’ T-19.IV.D.12:8
And Lesson 268: ‘Let all things be exactly as they are.’
When asked if I can share one simple principle of the Course, perhaps at the end of a talk, I will often simply say,
‘Just remember, Do not attack. It is always, always the wrong decision.
Anger is never justified. Attack has no foundation.’ T-30.V.1:1-2 ”
https://www.miraclesmagazine.org/, The Responsible Responses by Jon Mundy, Ph.D.
