A Course
In Miracles

Authorized Online Edition
Workbook For Students

 
 

LESSON 128

The world I see holds nothing that I want.

1. 1The world you see holds nothing that you need to offer you; nothing that you can use in any way, nor anything at all that serves to give you joy. 2Believe this thought, and you are saved from years of misery, from countless disappointments, and from hopes that turn to bitter ashes of despair. 3No one but must accept this thought as true, if he would leave the world behind and soar beyond its petty scope and little ways.

2. 1Each thing you value here is but a chain that binds you to the world, and it will serve no other end but this. 2For everything must serve the purpose you have given it, until you see a differ­ent purpose there. 3The only purpose worthy of your mind this world contains is that you pass it by, without delaying to perceive some hope where there is none. 4Be you deceived no more. 5The world you see holds nothing that you want.

3. 1Escape today the chains you place upon your mind when you perceive salvation here. 2For what you value you make part of you as you perceive yourself. 3All things you seek to make your value greater in your sight limit you further, hide your worth from you, and add another bar across the door that leads to true awareness of your Self.

4. 1Let nothing that relates to body thoughts delay your progress to salvation, nor permit temptation to believe the world holds anything you want to hold you back. 2Nothing is here to cherish. 3Nothing here is worth one instant of delay and pain; one mo­ment of uncertainty and doubt. 4The worthless offer nothing. 5Certainty of worth can not be found in worthlessness.

5. 1Today we practice letting go all thought of values we have given to the world. 2We leave it free of purposes we gave its as­pects and its phases and its dreams. 3We hold it purposeless within our minds, and loosen it from all we wish it were. 4Thus do we lift the chains that bar the door to freedom from the world, and go beyond all little values and diminished goals.

6. 1Pause and be still a little while, and see how far you rise above the world, when you release your mind from chains and let it seek the level where it finds itself at home. 2It will be grateful to be free a while. 3It knows where it belongs. 4But free its wings, and it will fly in sureness and in joy to join its holy purpose. 5Let it rest in its Creator, there to be restored to sanity, to freedom and to love.

7. 1Give it ten minutes rest three times today. 2And when your eyes are opened afterwards, you will not value anything you see as much as when you looked at it before. 3Your whole perspec­tive on the world will shift by just a little, every time you let your mind escape its chains. 4The world is not where it belongs. 5And you belong where it would be, and where it goes to rest when you release it from the world. 6Your Guide is sure. 7Open your mind to Him. 8Be still and rest.

8. 1Protect your mind throughout the day as well. 2And when you think you see some value in an aspect or an image of the world, refuse to lay this chain upon your mind, but tell yourself with quiet certainty:

3This will not tempt me to delay myself.
4The world I see holds nothing that I want.