PART I
LESSON 57.
Today let us review these ideas:
W-57.1. (31) I am not the victim of the world I see.
2 How can I be the victim of a world that can be completely undone if I so choose? 3 My chains are loosened. 4 I can drop them off merely by desiring to do so. 5 The prison door is open. 6 I can leave simply by walking out. 7 Nothing holds me in this world. 8 Only my wish to stay keeps me a prisoner. 9 I would give up my insane wishes and walk into the sunlight at last.
W-57.2. (32) I have invented the world I see.
2 I made up the prison in which I see myself. 3 All I need do is recognize this and I am free. 4 I have deluded myself into believing it is possible to imprison the Son of God. 5 I was bitterly mistaken in this belief, which I no longer want. 6 The Son of God must be forever free. 7 He is as God created him, and not what I would make of him. 8 He is where God would have him be, and not where I thought to hold him prisoner.
W-57.3. (33) There is another way of looking at the world.
2 Since the purpose of the world is not the one I ascribed to it, there must be another way of looking at it. 3 I see everything upside down, and my thoughts are the opposite of truth. 4 I see the world as a prison for God's Son. 5 It must be, then, that the world is really a place where he can be set free. 6 I would look upon the world as it is, and see it as a place where the Son of God finds his freedom.
W-57.4. (34) I could see peace instead of this.
2 When I see the world as a place of freedom, I realize that it reflects the laws of God instead of the rules I made up for it to obey. 3 I will understand that peace, not war, abides in it. 4 And I will perceive that peace also abides in the hearts of all who share this place with me.
W-57.5. (35) My mind is part of God's. 2 I am very holy.
3 As I share the peace of the world with my brothers, I begin to understand that this peace comes from deep within myself. 4 The world I look upon has taken on the light of my forgiveness, and shines forgiveness back at me. 5 In this light I begin to see what my illusions about myself kept hidden. 6 I begin to understand the holiness of all living things, including myself, and their oneness with me.