Library of Christ Mind Teachings
ACIM Original Edition
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1 It is surely obvious that if you can be attacked, you are not
invulnerable. You see attack as a real threat. That is because you
believe that you can really attack. And what would have effects through
you must also have effects on you. It is this law that will ultimately
save you. But you are misusing it now. You 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.
And if you fear attack, you must believe that you are not invulnerable.
Attack thoughts therefore make you vulnerable in your own mind, which is
where the attack thoughts are. Attack thoughts and invulnerability
cannot be accepted together. They contradict each other.
3 The idea for today introduces the thought that you always attack
yourself. If attack thoughts must entail the belief that you are
vulnerable, their effect is to weaken you in your own eyes. Thus they
have attacked your perception of yourself. And because you believe in
them, you can no longer believe in yourself. A 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.
Nothing except your thoughts can attack you. Nothing except your
thoughts can make you think you are vulnerable. And nothing except your
thoughts can prove to you this is not so.
5 Six practice periods are required in applying today’s idea. A 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. Do not reduce it
further.
6 The practice period should begin with repeating the idea for today,
then closing your eyes and reviewing the unresolved situations whose
outcomes are causing you concern. The concern may take the form of
depression, worry, anger, a sense of imposition, fear, foreboding, or
preoccupation. Any problem as yet unsettled which tends to recur in your
thoughts during the day is a suitable subject. You 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. Today’s idea should be applied as
follows:
7 First, name the situation:
8 I am concerned about ______.
9 Then go over every possible outcome which has occurred to you in that
connection and which has caused you concern, referring to each one quite
specifically, saying:
10 I am afraid ______ will happen.
11 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. It is much more helpful to cover a few situations
thoroughly than to touch on a larger number.
12 As the list of anticipated outcomes for each situation continues, you
will probably find some of them, especially those which occur to you
toward the end, less acceptable to you. Try, however, to treat them all
alike to whatever extent you can.
13 After you have named each outcome of which you are afraid, tell
yourself:
14 That thought is an attack upon myself.
15 Conclude each practice period by repeating today’s idea once more.