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.
✨ Inspired by the core message of the Course:
"Nothing real can be threatened. Nothing unreal exists. Herein lies the peace of God."
This lesson comes from (A Course in Miracles). Hemelbewus presents it in Afrikaans as part of a path of inner healing and forgiveness. The translation was done with great care and dedication over several years by Henri Theron, and brings the deep spiritual teachings of the Course to Afrikaans-speaking readers.
📚 Read more about the Course: www.acim.org
Lesson 26: My attack thoughts are attacking my invulnerability. (ACIM, W-26)
