Workbook · Part I
Lesson 23
I can escape from the world I see by giving up attack thoughts.
What this lesson is saying
“I can escape from the world I see by giving up attack thoughts.” You do not get out of a hostile world by winning it, moving, dying, or becoming more spiritual. You get out by dropping the attack thought you are chewing.
Thoughts of attacking and of being attacked are the same thought. Notice your taste for violent entertainment, for gossip, for the takedown, without self-loathing. That noticing is already forgiveness. The outer war is a projection of an inner one.
This is not saying
This is not asking you to stay in a dangerous room. Leave if you should leave. Giving up attack thoughts is not the same as having no boundaries.
Why this can change a day
This is the first practical way out. If the war is in the thought, then putting the thought down is more revolutionary than any victory in the story.
In your day
Same idea, three ordinary places — a relationship or encounter, the case against yourself, and a situation at work or at home. You do not need a special mood.
With someone
You are about to punish with silence, a look, a remark — they started it.
What to do
Wait. Drop the wish to hurt. If a fact is needed, say only the fact. You do not have to stay in the room.
In a situation
A murder show, a feed, a takedown that tastes like winning.
What to do
Notice the taste. Thoughts of attacking and of being attacked are the same thought. Look away. Then the next decent hour.
Toward yourself
You are attacking you — the inner takedown.
What to do
Same lesson. Give up that attack thought too. Then one kind step toward the next person, including you.
Two voices in the same mind
Hear which one is running. Then today’s idea, on a real person — or on you.
Unloving thought
I can get out of this by winning, cutting them off, or being right. A murder show doesn’t count — I’m not really attacking.
Jesus’s way
You do not escape the world by dying, moving, or becoming more spiritual. You escape by dropping the attack thought you are chewing. Thoughts of attacking and of being attacked are the same thought.
Spalding · 2019 · episode #219
Jesus’s commentary for Lesson 23
Tina reads the official workbook lesson first. Then she channels. The video is the source. The notes below are study notes of that sitting — not a transcript, and not A Year of Forgiveness.
After the reading
In the video · Jesus speaking
This is the channeled portion — after Tina has read the lesson. Study notes of that sitting. Not a transcript.
- You do not escape the world by dying, moving, or becoming more spiritual.
- You escape by dropping the attack thought you are chewing.
- Notice your taste for violent entertainment without self-loathing; that noticing is already forgiveness.
- Thoughts of attacking and being attacked are the same thought.
How to sit today
Part I · Undoing
The idea is above. This is the one sitting this number asks — how often, how long, and the words. Not a second lesson.
- How often
- Five required practice periods, plus throughout the day as the need arises
- How long
- About a minute of mind searching each
- When shaken
- Whenever attack thoughts show up — yours or the ones you think are aimed at you.
- Eyes
- Open to begin, then closed
How
- Look about you, repeat the idea slowly, then close your eyes and search for as many attack thoughts as occur to you.
- Include both thoughts of attacking and of being attacked. Treat them as the same.
Longer sitting
Five required sittings — about a minute of searching each
- Today’s idea is: “I can escape from the world I see by giving up attack thoughts.”
- Look about you. Repeat the idea slowly.
- Say, slowly: “I can escape from the world I see by giving up attack thoughts.”
- Close your eyes. Search for as many attack thoughts as occur. Include thoughts of attacking and of being attacked. Treat them as the same.
- Say, slowly: “I can escape from the world I see by giving up attack thoughts about [name it].”
When shaken
Whenever attack thoughts show up
- Say, slowly: “I can escape from the world I see by giving up attack thoughts about [this].”
These scripts follow the workbook’s own method for this number — duration, frequency, and the sentences it asks you to use. They are a study paraphrase, not a replacement. Read the official lesson at acim.org and follow any wording it gives that is more specific than this card.
Words you may not know
Full glossaryCourse words do not mean what church, psychology, or ordinary English usually mean. These notes are for this lesson — tap a word.
Other voices — Tina, Ra, Carla
Short notes from the four streams. The teaching above is the lesson. These are doors if you want them.
Spalding
You do not escape the world by dying, moving, or becoming more spiritual. You escape by dropping the attack thought you are chewing. Notice your taste for violent entertainment — sports takedowns, murder shows — without self-loathing; that noticing is already forgiveness. Thoughts of attacking and being attacked are the same thought. Call on him before sleep.
Watch this lesson’s commentaryRa
Love/light is the stuff of the octave. Seeing with God is not metaphor — it is a shift toward that spectrum. Meditation (session 10) is the daily tool.
Open streamRueckert
A wanderer on Earth does not need a different lesson. She needs this one, done with her hands. Carla's whole archive is the proof: contact follows a life, it does not replace it.
Open stream