Lesson 93. Light and joy and peace abide in me.
(1) You think you are the home of evil, darkness and sin. You think if anyone
could see the truth about you he would be repelled, recoiling from you as if
from a poisonous snake. You think if what is true about you were revealed to
you, you would be struck with horror so intense that you would rush to death by
your own hand, living on after seeing this being impossible.
(2) These are beliefs so firmly fixed that it is difficult to help you see that
they are based on nothing. That you have made mistakes is obvious. That you have
sought salvation in strange ways; have been deceived, deceiving and afraid of
foolish fantasies and savage dreams; and have bowed down to idols made of
dust,--all this is true by what you now believe.
(3) Today we question this, not from the point of view of what you think, but
from a very different reference point, from which such idle thoughts are
meaningless. These thoughts are not according to God's Will. These weird beliefs
He does not share with you. This is enough to prove that they are wrong, but you
do not perceive that this is so.
(4) Why would you not be overjoyed to be assured that all the evil that you
think you did was never done, that all your sins are nothing, that you are as
pure and holy as you were created, and that light and joy and peace abide in
you? Your image of yourself cannot withstand the Will of God. You think that
this is death, but it is life. You think you are destroyed, but you are saved.
(5) The self you made is not the Son of God. Therefore, this self does not exist
at all. And anything it seems to do and think means nothing. It is neither bad
nor good. It is unreal, and nothing more than that. It does not battle with the
Son of God. It does not hurt him, nor attack his peace. It has not changed
creation, nor reduced eternal sinlessness to sin, and love to hate. What power
can this self you made possess, when it would contradict the Will of God?
(6) Your sinlessness is guaranteed by God. Over and over this must be repeated,
until it is accepted. It is true. Your sinlessness is guaranteed by God. Nothing
can touch it, or change what God created as eternal. The self you made, evil and
full of sin, is meaningless. Your sinlessness is guaranteed by God, and light
and joy and peace abide in you.
(7) Salvation requires the acceptance of but one thought;--you are as God
created you, not what you made of yourself. Whatever evil you may think you did,
you are as God created you. Whatever mistakes you made, the truth about you is
unchanged. Creation is eternal and unalterable. Your sinlessness is guaranteed
by God. You are and will forever be exactly as you were created. Light and joy
and peace abide in you because God put them there.
(8) In our longer exercise periods today, which would be most profitable if done
for the first five minutes of every waking hour, begin by stating the truth
about your creation:
Light and joy and peace abide in me.
My sinlessness is guaranteed by God.
Then put away your foolish self-images, and spend the rest of the practice
period in trying to experience what God has given you, in place of what you have
decreed for yourself.
(9) You are what God created or what you made. One Self is true; the other is
not there. Try to experience the unity of your one Self. Try to appreciate Its
Holiness and the love from which It was created. Try not to interfere with the
Self which God created as you, by hiding Its majesty behind the tiny idols of
evil and sinfulness you have made to replace It. Let It come into Its Own. Here
you are; This is You. And light and joy and peace abide in you because this is
so.
(10) You may not be willing or even able to use the first five minutes of each
hour for these exercises. Try, however, to do so when you can. At least remember
to repeat these thoughts each hour:
Light and joy and peace abide in me.
My sinlessness is guaranteed by God.
Then try to devote at least a minute or so to closing your eyes and realizing
that this is a statement of the truth about you.
(11) If a situation arises that seems to be disturbing, quickly dispel the
illusion of fear by repeating these thoughts again. Should you be tempted to
become angry with someone, tell him silently:
Light and joy and peace abide in you.
Your sinlessness is guaranteed by God.
You can do much for the world's salvation today. You can do much today to bring
you closer to the part in salvation that God has assigned to you. And you can do
much today to bring the conviction to your mind that the idea for the day is
true indeed.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The commentary on this lesson is an exerpt from Kenneth Wapnick's eight volume
series of
books, called: "Journey Through the Workbook of A Course in Miracles," which can
be purchased at the following site:??~ M. Street
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Lesson 93. "Light and joy and peace abide in me."
*This lesson is among the more important ones in the workbook, for it provides
clear descriptions of both selves. The lesson ends with "Light and joy and peace
abide in me," our true Self, but before we can reach that glorious truth, we
first have to work through the ego's opposition.*
(1:1) "You think you are the home of evil, darkness and sin."
*This is another expression of the ego's unholy trinity of sin, guilt, and fear.
Why is this my home? Because I murdered God to get here. In order for me to
exist as an individual, God had to be destroyed and the world of good, light,
and innocence along with Him.*
(1:2) "You think if anyone could see the truth about you he would be repelled,
recoiling from you as if from a poisonous snake."
*A wonderful and graphic description of guilt! Yet because I do not want to
experience my serpentine sin, I project it and see it in you instead. Now <you>
are the poisonous snake and I am "safely" off the hook.*
(1:3) "You think if what is true about you were revealed to you, you would be
struck with horror so intense that you would rush to death by your own hand,
living on after seeing this being impossible."
*In other words, if our defenses were shattered and we realized the perceived
truth about ourselves, we would "be struck with horror so intense" suicide would
be an irresistible temptation and hell the inevitable consequence. Our horror,
therefore, in looking at our sin impels us to project, making a world of
specific bodies that will be punished instead of us. The guilt over that
projection is even more enormous, because we know we attack others falsely: our
egos want God to confine others to hell so we can go to Heaven. Yet it whispers
that we are the true guilty ones, and God will pursue us beyond the grave to
everlasting hell.
This is the vicious guilt-attack cycle I discussed in the Prelude and elsewhere.
The guiltier I feel, the greater my need to project and attack others so they
would be punished instead of me. However, my guilt is reinforced by these false
accusations, and I go around and around and around the ego's circle:
guilt-attack-guilt-attack-guilt-attack.*
(2:1) "These are beliefs so firmly fixed that it is difficult to help you see
that they are based on nothing."
*This sentence is important in counteracting Course "blissninnies." Our teacher
is telling us it is difficult to help us realize that everything we believe
about ourselves is "based on nothing." Once again, this is a process, conducted
by Jesus in a gentle, patient way. Our fear -- first of confronting the ego's
truth of sin and guilt, and then the deeper fear of the real truth -- is what
makes approaching the Love of God so difficult.*
(2:2-3) "That you have made mistakes is obvious. That you have sought salvation
in strange ways; have been deceived, deceiving and afraid of foolish fantasies
and savage dreams; and have bowed down to idols made of dust, -- all this is
true by what you now believe."
*Jesus speaks to us once again about our need for honesty, and his good news:
"You no longer have to pretend that light and joy and peace abide in you. I know
that deep down you know, so you will now know that I know that you know that you
nonetheless think you are the home of evil, darkness, and sin. Let us begin with
your 'facts,' and then move beyond them to the truth." In other words, there is
no need to pretend we are not creatures of specialness, dedicated to preserving
our special selves by feeding off other special selves. Without the need to
pretend to pretend there be no guilt, for we shall have brought our specialness
to Jesus' love, thereby letting it go.
Thus he continues:*
(3:1) "Today we question this, not from the point of view of what you think, but
from a very different reference point, from which such idle thoughts are
meaningless."
*In effect, Jesus tells us: "Do not drag me down to where you are, but come to
where I am. From your reference point -- the battleground -- you will understand
nothing. In order to join me, you must have the humility that says: "Thank God I
am wrong, and with this recognition I choose you as my teacher because I know
you are wiser than I."
If we are truly honest, we will see the difficulty in saying and meaning these
words. As Jesus says later, in the context of wanting peace: "To say these words
is nothing. But to mean these words is everything" (W-pi.185.1:1-2). To be wrong
about everything means we are looking from our reference point outside our
thought system. At the end of chapter 23 in the text, Jesus call this reference
point "above the battleground," the place to which we go with him to look
differently at our special relationships, and in which we choose forgiveness
instead of attack, miracles instead of murder:
"The overlooking of the battleground is now your purpose."
"Be lifted up, and from a higher place look down upon it. From there will your
perspective be quite different. ...Here murder is your choice. Yet from above,
the choice is miracles instead of murder. And the perspective coming from this
choice shows you the battle is not real, and easily escaped. ... When the
temptation to attack rises to make your mind darkened and murderous, remember
you can see the battle from above. ... See no one from the battleground, for
there you look on him from nowhere. You have no reference point from where to
look, where meaning can be given what you see."
(T-23.IV.4:7-5:2,5-7;6:1;7:1-2).*
(3:2-4) "These thoughts are not according to God's Will. These weird beliefs He
does not share with you. This is enough to prove that they are wrong, but you do
not perceive that this is so."
*Jesus is letting you know, again, that he knows you still think you are right
and he is wrong. This is an extraordinarily important idea, because studying,
learning, and practicing A Course in Miracles -- not to mention living it --
rest on the assumption you have accepted that you understand nothing, beginning
with the words of this course. Remember, you think you understand because your
brain interprets its words for you, based on your past experience and learning.
Yet if your brain does not think, everything you think A Course in Miracles says
must be wrong. The words do not mean what you think they mean, because their
meaning comes your interpretation. You understand them through the filtering
lens of duality, not through the unclouded lens of non-dualistic truth. Thus you
will misinterpret everything you read here. As Jesus succinctly states regarding
the ego's perennial calls to war, a sentence we have quoted often before; "And
God thinks otherwise." (T-23.1.2:7).*
(4:1) "Why would you not be overjoyed to be assured that all the evil that you
think you did was never done, that all your sins are nothing, that you are as
pure and holy as you were created, and that light and joy and peace abide in
you?"
*The answer is obvious, because to accept this means we are not who we think we
are, and thus our specialness would be gone. The truth is that we should be
overjoyed to know our evil, darkness, and sin are not true. Yet this would mean
the ego self preceding these beliefs is not true either. We must see our ego's
fear of A Course in Miracles and its teachings, for only then can we move beyond
this resistance to learning and accepting its happy truths.*
(4:2-4) "Your image of yourself cannot withstand the Will of God. You think that
this is death, but it is life. You think you are destroyed, but you are saved."
*The <you> that thinks it is destroyed is the decision maker that has identified
with the ego. The <you> that thinks that truth, the Will of God, and this course
are death, is the <you> that has identified with its special existence. Jesus is
saying that, yes, your individuality will ultimately disappear into its
nothingness; but the glorious truth about you will be returned to your
awareness. We are thus saved from the terrible image we made of ourselves. As we
have repeatedly seen, the process of salvation is just that: <a process>. Once
again:
"Fear not that you will be abruptly lifted up and hurled into reality."
(T-16.VI.8:1).*
(5:1) "The self you made is not the Son of God."
*As you read these lines, think about what you think you are, using whatever
words or concepts come to you. Then realize that none of them is the Son of God,
for they define the son of the ego. As Jesus observes in the text:
"The son of man [ the ego ] is not the risen Christ." (T.25.IN.2.6).*
(5:2) "Therefore, this self does not exist at all."
*Many have gone through the workbook and most likely read these lines very
quickly, paying no attention. If they had, they probably would have closed the
book, seeing it was not what they thought it was and certainly not what they
wanted. "The self you made is not the Son of God"! When they look in the mirror,
whom do they see but the self they made? Not only is that not the Son of God;
that self does not exist. What self-respecting ego would not be afraid? Once
again, that is why to study A Course in Miracles you need to be serious and
committed. This does not mean you commit to letting go of your ego, but simply
to look at what the ego is. Jesus only asks that you look. Do not seek to
change, correct, or let it go. Just look, a process that will gradually end your
ego identification, for the self that looks is not the self that is looked at.
Thus is your identity returned to the decision-making part of your mind and away
from the ego.*
(5:3) "And anything it seems to do and think means nothing."
*This statement merely invalidates our lives, let alone the civilization of
which we think we are the glorious product.*
(5:4) "It is neither bad nor good."
*It would be great if the self <were> good and bad. Religions, for one, always
tell us that. The problem is that the self is nothing, to which the "good" and
"bad" have no meaning.*
(5:5-9) "It is unreal, and nothing more than that. It does not battle with the
Son of God. It does not hurt him, nor attack his peace. It has not changed
creation, nor reduced eternal sinlessness to sin, and love to hate. What power
can this self you made possess, when it would contradict the Will of God?"
*This is a lovely statement of the Atonement principle. The separation never
happened and thus had no effect. Thus we see the ego's purpose lurking behind
our individual and collective lives, which fulfill the ego's goal of proving it
exists and God does not. Our only hope is to raise ourselves above the
battleground and shift our reference point, that we finally see beyond the ego
to the Holy Spirit's teaching purpose for the world: our learning to forgive.*
(6:1-2) "Your sinlessness is guaranteed by God. Over and over this must be
repeated, until it is accepted."
*Once again Jesus tells us we are not going to accept this truth. However, he
does not mean we should repeat this phrase as an affirmation to shout down the
ego's thought system. We are simply asked to bring our illusory thought system
to the truth, <and> look at it.*
(6:3-5) "It is true. Your sinlessness is guaranteed by God. Nothing can touch
it, or change what God created as eternal."
*Jesus knows his audience, and so he needs to assure us: "It is true." We are
indeed sinless, the separation never happened and the Holy Spirit has spoken the
truth from the beginning. We merely made a mistake, which is now corrected.*
(6:6-7) "The self you made, evil and full of sin, is meaningless. Your
sinlessness is guaranteed by God, and light and joy and peace abide in you."
*The way that we reach the light is through looking at the self we made, which
we believe is the home of evil, darkness, and sin. Our deeply rooted belief in
this self prevents the experience of our sinless. To make this essential point
once again, the ego self will not just disappear by our repeating lovely
phrases. Its undoing requires hard work and commitment, for the resistance to
looking at this evil self is enormous. That is why Jesus makes important
statements like the following, as we have already seen:
"You may wonder why it is so crucial that you look upon your hatred and realize
its full extent. You may also think that it would be easy enough for the Holy
Spirit to show it to you, and to dispel it without the need for you to raise it
to awareness yourself." (T-13.III.1:1-2).*
(7) "Salvation requires the acceptance of but one thought;--you are as God
created you, not what you made of yourself. Whatever evil you may think you did,
you are as God created you. Whatever mistakes you made, the truth about you is
unchanged. Creation is eternal and unalterable. Your sinlessness is guaranteed
by God. You are and will forever be exactly as you were created. Light and joy
and peace abide in you because God put them there."
*This anticipates the next lesson, and along with its variants, is the most
widely quoted statement in the workbook> "You are as God created you." Remember,
the Atonement principle always hold. No matter what we think we did, the
separation had no effect: God's creation is unaffected by our mad and feverish
dreams, evil has no power over Good, and we remain as God created us -- the home
of light and joy and peace.*
(8:1-3) "In our longer exercise periods today, which would be most profitable if
done for the first five minutes of every waking hour, begin by stating the truth
about your creation:
Light and joy and peace abide in me.
My sinlessness is guaranteed by God."
*The hard work begins, Jesus asks us to remember the lesson every hour for five
minutes, and to do the following:*
(8:4) "Then put away your foolish self-images, and spend the rest of the
practice period in trying to experience what God has given you, in place of what
you have decreed for yourself."
*How can you "put away your foolish self-images" if you do not know you have
them? It is to make you aware of your ego that Jesus teaches as he does. If you
are to move beyond these images -- the home of evil, darkness, and sin -- you
must recognize they come from your belief, otherwise there would be no
motivation to set them aside in order to know that light and joy and peace abide
in you. The way to know the truth about yourself is to be honest about the
illusions of self in which in which you first believed. At that point you can
bring their darkness to the light of truth, of which this lesson so happily
reminds you.*
(9:1-2) "You are what God created or what you made. One Self is true; the other
is not there."
*Again, we are not asked to trade the little self we made for the glorious Self
that God created. This would be too threatening. We are simply asked to
understand that in the light of our Self's truth, the self we made makes no
sense. Jesus wants us to begin the process of questioning the validity of
everything we believe we are. Thus, the kindly reflection of the <one or the
other> principle -- God or the ego -- is the choice between separating attacks
of the ego and the healing forgiveness of the Holy Spirit. With either choice
our self remains; until the end, when even the right-minded self gently
disappears into the Heart of God. That is the culmination of the process. We are
asked only to begin it.*
(9:3-8) "Try to experience the unity of your one Self. Try to appreciate Its
Holiness and the love from which It was created. Try not to interfere with the
Self which God created as you, by hiding Its majesty behind the tiny idols of
evil and sinfulness you have made to replace It. Let It come into Its Own. Here
you are; This is You. And light and joy and peace abide in you because this is
so."
*Jesus is pointing out our concealment, and asks us to look at how we have used
the ego and its false images to hide the truth. The "tiny idols of evil and
sinfulness" symbolize our self-concepts and the special images we made of our
relationships. We give them up to the extent we recognize we no longer wish the
purpose of guilt that they served. Forgiveness alone will bring us the happiness
we seek and open the gates to Heaven, which allows the memory of our Self to
return to our awareness. With the obstacles of the ego's tiny idols gone, the
Love of Christ flows unhindered and unabated through our minds, and we are
home.*
(10:1-2) "You may not be willing or even able to use the first five minutes of
each hour for these exercises. Try, however, to do so when you can."
*Jesus tells us: "I know you are not going to do this, for it is difficult. But
make the attempt." As we shall see presently, Jesus helps us understand that his
purpose for these exercises is not so much that we do them, but that we forgive
ourselves when we do not. He expects us to be frightened and forget. Yet he also
expects us to learn honesty, and see how resistant we are to understanding his
teachings.*
(10:3-6) "At least remember to repeat these thoughts each hour:
Light and joy and peace abide in me.
My sinlessness is guaranteed by God.
Then try to devote at least a minute or so to closing your eyes and realizing
that this is a statement of the truth about you."
*Jesus' instructions are always gentle. If we cannot manage five minutes an
hour, we should try at least to remember the ideas for the day. Even this small
effort will help break our identification with the ego's thought system of evil,
darkness, and sin.*
(11:1) "If a situation arises that seems to be disturbing, quickly dispel the
illusion of fear by repeating these thoughts again."
*It is important to note that the purpose of these exercises is to apply the
ideas every time we are upset. Honesty here means realizing we are upset almost
all of the time, whether it involves something we deem major or judge is
trivial. Early in the workbook Jesus explained that even "a slight twinge of
annoyance" is the same as "intense fury" (W-pI.21.2:5) He asks us to monitor our
minds so that we find ourselves disturbed, we can say: "This comes from an image
of myself, which I have used to protect my separate existence. Yet this has not
made me happy, and so I no longer want it." *
(11:2-4) "Should you be tempted to become angry with someone, tell him silently:
Light and joy and peace abide in you.
Your sinlessness is guaranteed by God.
*Similarly and more specifically, when we find ourselves ready to attack,
criticize, or find fault, we should try as best we can to remember that such
thoughts hide the light and joy and peace from us. Since we and our brothers are
the same, our accusations come back to hurt us. However, by giving others the
message of light, we remind ourselves that the same light is in us, too. Thus do
we all return home together.*
(11:5-7) "You can do much for the world's salvation today. You can do much today
to bring you closer to the part in salvation that God has assigned to you. And
you can do much today to bring the conviction to your mind that the idea for the
day is true indeed."
*The reason we can do much for the salvation of the world is that God's Son is
one. This theme will return shortly. If my Self is one, an indivisible part of
perfect Oneness, the whole Sonship is contained in me. Yet this is not the <me>
that is the home of evil, darkness, and sin. Therefore, what enables me to save
the world is to save my mind, accomplished by the diligent practice of the
lesson for the day. I accept that what Jesus teaches is true indeed, as I accept
my resistance to this truth. In that honesty my resistance will gently dissolve,
leaving only the light and joy and peace that abides in me, God's Son.*
