Lesson 328: I choose the second place to gain the first.
What seems to be the second place is first, for all things we perceive are
upside down until we listen to the Voice for God. It seems that we will gain
autonomy but by our striving to be separate, and that our independence from the
rest of God's creation is the way in which salvation is obtained. Yet all we
find is sickness, suffering and loss and death. This is not what our Father
wills for us, nor is there any second to His Will. To join with His is but to
find our own. And since our will is His, it is to Him that we must go to
recognize our will.
There is no will but Yours. And I am glad that nothing I imagine contradicts
what You would have me be. It is Your Will that I be wholly safe, eternally at
peace. And happily I share that Will which You, my Father, gave as part of me.
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This (below) is from Kenneth Wapnick's commentaries on this lesson from his book
set called: "Journey Through the Workbook of A Course in Miracles," which can be
purchased at the following site: ~ M. Street.
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Lesson 328: "I choose the second place to gain the first."
*This thought comes from the famous biblical statement that the last shall be
first and the first shall be last (Matthew 19:30;20:16a), and pertains to the
bedrock of the ego thought system: <one or the other> -- God is second because
the ego is first. This would obviously mean that God is no longer God, and so
has been destroyed. However, we can recognize our mistake and realize we are
much better off in second place. Once we accept this -- "God is the Cause and I
am the Effect" -- we are automatically in the first place, because <there is
only one place>. Thus Jesus says in the text, referring to the Trinity: God is
first, but there is no second (T-14.IV.1:7-8), because only perfect Oneness is
real. In truth, then, there is not a Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in Heaven --
only perfect Love. Moreover, the instant we choose the second place -- letting
go of the ego and choosing Jesus as our teacher -- we realize there is only the
unity of Father and Son -- no competition, no battleground, no one <and> two.
Only One.*
(1:1) "What seems to be the second place is first, for all things we perceive
are upside down until we listen to the Voice for God."
*If I say I am second, someone else must be first. For example, no sports team
wants to finish second, for that means another team won -- the upside-down
perception of the world. To the Holy Spirit, however, when you are second you
automatically become first, because, again, there is only one. Thus when you
learn that God is your Cause and not the ego, the memory of God and His Oneness
returns. *
(1:2) "It seems that we will gain autonomy but by our striving to be separate,
and that our independence from the rest of God's creation is the way in which
salvation is obtained."
*In capsule form, again, we see what we have done to God and what we believe we
have done in the world, reflecting the ego's principle of <one or the other>. By
striving to be separate we are on our own -- autonomous and free, but at a price
that God must pay with His life. Since this principle established our identity,
we carry it into our dream. Consequently, we need to be independent of everyone
else -- it is <we or they>. The ego thus cautions us to be on our guard, lest
others take back what we believe we took from them. This, then, is the essence
of the special love and hate relationships: others are perceived as having what
we lack and want, and we must get it from them, otherwise we cannot survive.*
(1:3-6) "Yet all we find is sickness, suffering and loss and death. This is not
what our Father wills for us, nor is there any second to His Will. To join with
His is but to find our own. And since our will is His, it is to Him that we must
go to recognize our will."
*Jesus wants us to recognize these are the effects of choosing to be number one,
the unhappy results of the specialness that might make us right, but never happy
(T-29.VII.1:9). When we choose to be in second place, we are in God's living
Oneness where our will is one with His. To the ego this means we are second
best, but our right minds tell us this is truth's reflection.*
(2) "There is no will but Yours. And I am glad that nothing I imagine
contradicts what You would have me be. It is Your Will that I be wholly safe,
eternally at peace. And happily I share that Will which You, my Father, gave as
part of me."
*In other words, we made up the dream of our lives, and are grateful it had no
effect on reality.*
