Together, We Light the Way

Lesson 26

My attack thoughts are attacking my invulnerability.
1. It is surely obvious that if you can be attacked you are not invulnerable. ²You see attack as a real threat. ³That is because you believe that you can really attack. ⁴And what would have effects through you must also have effects on you. ⁵It is this law that will ultimately save you, but you are misusing it now. ⁶You must therefore learn how it can be used for your own best interests, rather than against them.
2. Because your attack thoughts will be projected, you will fear attack. ²And if you fear attack, you must believe that you are not invulnerable. ³Attack thoughts therefore make you vulnerable in your own mind, which is where the attack thoughts are. ⁴Attack thoughts and invulnerability cannot be accepted together. ⁵They contradict each other.
3. The idea for today introduces the thought that you always attack yourself first. ²If attack thoughts must entail the belief that you are vulnerable, their effect is to weaken you in your own eyes. ³Thus they have attacked your perception of yourself. ⁴And because you believe in them, you can no longer believe in yourself. ⁵A false image of yourself has come to take the place of what you are.
4. Practice with today’s idea will help you to understand that vulnerability or invulnerability is the result of your own thoughts. ²Nothing except your thoughts can attack you. ³Nothing except your thoughts can make you think you are vulnerable. ⁴And nothing except your thoughts can prove to you this is not so.
5. Six practice periods are required in applying today’s idea. ²A full two minutes should be attempted for each of them, although the time may be reduced to a minute if the discomfort is too great. ³Do not reduce it further.
6. The practice period should begin with repeating the idea for today, then closing your eyes and reviewing the unresolved questions whose outcomes are causing you concern. ²The concern may take the form of depression, worry, anger, a sense of imposition, fear, foreboding or preoccupation. ³Any problem as yet unsettled that tends to recur in your thoughts during the day is a suitable subject. ⁴You will not be able to use very many for any one practice period, because a longer time than usual should be spent with each one. ⁵Today’s idea should be applied as follows:
7. First, name the situation:
²I am concerned about _________.
³Then go over every possible outcome that has occurred to you in that connection and which has caused you concern, referring to each one quite specifically, saying:
⁴I am afraid _________ will happen.
8. If you are doing the exercises properly, you should have some five or six distressing possibilities available for each situation you use, and quite possibly more. ²It is much more helpful to cover a few situations thoroughly than to touch on a larger number. ³As the list of anticipated outcomes for each situation continues, you will probably find some of them, especially those that occur to you toward the end, less acceptable to you. ⁴Try, however, to treat them all alike to whatever extent you can.
9. After you have named each outcome of which you are afraid, tell yourself:
²That thought is an attack upon myself.
³Conclude each practice period by repeating today’s idea to yourself once more.
(ACIM, W-26.1:1–9:3)
2025
Maybe, like me, you saw this coming. I have seen that all I see and how I see it are the effects of my thoughts. Lesson 23 told us that my escape from the world is to give up my attack thoughts. This lesson is very specific as to why this is the case. If I perceive attack anywhere, I will believe in attack and will believe it can be directed at me. That I can be attacked must mean that I am vulnerable. A Son of God cannot be vulnerable, and if I perceive myself as vulnerable, then I am denying my awareness of myself as God’s Son. Attacking anyone for anything costs me my awareness of what I am. It keeps me returning to the illusion repeatedly. This is not what I want, so I watch my mind carefully for attack thoughts.
I discover them in the careless chatter of the mind. I will suddenly pull myself back from the chatter and realize I have been attacking someone. I was having this angry conversation with someone who was not there. What did I think I was accomplishing? I don’t know, but what I do know is that the only thing I accomplished was to further convince myself that I needed to be defended because I am vulnerable. Good grief.

It’s OK, though. I was hurting myself and denying the Oneness of the Sonship, but it was a mistake, not a sin. Practicing this lesson will keep me aware of these kinds of mistakes, and I will become more adept at catching them and forgiving them. Also, I was reminded that there is nowhere in the Course that says judge not except when it comes to politicians. Okay, I get it. Those thoughts are hurting me, too.

We are just learning. Learning is why we are here. If we were already good at this stuff, we wouldn’t be here. And yet, I have noticed a tendency to feel guilty when I perceive myself as not doing a lesson well. That is why I love the following passage and read it nearly every day.
1. The happy learner cannot feel guilty about learning. ²This is so essential to learning that it should never be forgotten. ³The guiltless learner learns easily because his thoughts are free. ⁴Yet this entails the recognition that guilt is interference, not salvation, and serves no useful function at all. (ACIM, T-14.III.1:1-4)

2026
I want to add something here that my friend, Johanna wrote. When I first read this, it helped me see why vulnerability feels so convincing and how identity determines perception. I’m sharing it because it clarified something this lesson is pointing to.
Johanna said: I feel responsible for my presence here and have, mistakenly, concluded that the reason for that must be that I created myself. And since I obviously did not create all that I perceive in my environment, I stand separated and alone. I find myself looking at everything, rather than with everything. And that is why I do not really know what anything is for. Let’s look at the distinction between at and with.
Me: This next paragraph describes the mental posture that comes from believing we are separate.
Johanna: My imagined separated position induces a state of mind that is constantly trying to justify itself. This state of mind looks at the outside world and assesses it in terms of how useful a given person, thing, or situation is in light of my need to justify my existence. That explains the word “at” in: … looking at everything and judging it.
Me: Now she contrasts that with the perspective that comes from remembering our Source.
Johanna: But I do not have to justify my existence at all. God created me as part of Creation. I am part of the whole. That explains the word “with” in: … looking with everything and accepting it all as Life in extension.
From the perspective of the living Whole, everything serves the purpose of Its own well-being. Since I am (part of) the living Whole and were created by it, everything serves me. That is why the lesson says, “Everything is for your own best interests.”
My sense of identity, and thus my agenda, determines whether I judge everything or accept everything.
When I first read this, I wanted to share it because it was a helpful way to see what is going on here and why we feel so vulnerable. That last sentence is the reason I want to share this now.
The reason I feel attacked is that I do not believe in my invulnerability, which is inherent in my very identity. And of course, if I feel attacked, I will defend myself and attack in return, and so that unfortunate cycle keeps me from accepting my true identity, which is my salvation.
As a separate self, I look at the world and see it as an attack on me. Or as part of the whole, I look with the world and see it unfolding within me. As I continue to study and practice the Course, I find myself moving toward the perspective of the Self, looking with rather than at. Not there yet, but beginning to feel it, and that is an exciting change.
Video: https://youtu.be/ywfcrWshO9o

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