Lesson 96 "Salvation comes from my one Self."
1. "Although you are one Self, you experience yourself as two; as both good and
evil, loving and hating, mind and body. This sense of being split into opposites
induces feelings of acute and constant conflict, and leads to frantic attempts
to reconcile the contradictory aspects of this self-perception. You have sought
many such solutions, and none of them has worked. The opposites you see in you
will never be compatible. But one exists."
2. "The fact that truth and illusion cannot be reconciled, no matter how you
try, what means you use and where you see the problem, must be accepted if you
would be saved. Until you have accepted this, you will attempt an endless list
of goals you cannot reach; a senseless series of expenditures of time and
effort, hopefulness and doubt, each one as futile as the one before, and failing
as the next one surely will."
3. "Problems that have no meaning cannot be resolved within the framework they
are set. Two selves in conflict could not be resolved, and good and evil have no
meeting place. The self you made can never be your Self, nor can your Self be
split in two, and still be what It is and must forever be. A mind and body
cannot both exist. Make no attempt to reconcile the two, for one denies the
other can be real. If you are physical, your mind is gone from your
self-concept, for it has no place in which it could be really part of you. If
you are spirit, then the body must be meaningless to your reality."
4. "Spirit makes use of mind as means to find its Self expression. And the mind
which serves the spirit is at peace and filled with joy. Its power comes from
spirit, and it is fulfilling happily its function here. Yet mind can also see
itself divorced from spirit, and perceive itself within a body it confuses with
itself. Without its function then it has no peace, and happiness is alien to its
thoughts."
5. "Yet mind apart from spirit cannot think. It has denied its Source of
strength, and sees itself as helpless, limited and weak. Dissociated from its
function now, it thinks it is alone and separate, attacked by armies massed
against itself and hiding in the body's frail support. Now must it reconcile
unlike with like, for this is what it thinks that it is for."
6. "Waste no more time on this. Who can resolve the senseless conflicts which a
dream presents? What could the resolution mean in truth? What purpose could it
serve? What is it for? Salvation cannot make illusions real, nor solve a problem
that does not exist. Perhaps you hope it can. Yet would you have God's plan for
the release of His dear Son bring pain to him, and fail to set him free?"
7. "Your Self retains Its Thoughts, and they remain within your mind and in the
Mind of God. The Holy Spirit holds salvation in your mind, and offers it the way
to peace. Salvation is a thought you share with God, because His Voice accepted
it for you and answered in your name that it was done. Thus is salvation kept
among the Thoughts your Self holds dear and cherishes for you."
8. "We will attempt today to find this thought, whose presence in your mind is
guaranteed by Him Who speaks to you from your one Self. Our hourly five-minute
practicing will be a search for Him within your mind. Salvation comes from this
one Self through Him Who is the Bridge between your mind and It. Wait patiently,
and let Him speak to you about your Self, and what your mind can do, restored to
It and free to serve Its Will."
9. "Begin with saying this:"
<"Salvation comes from my one Self. Its Thoughts are mine
to use.">
"Then seek Its Thoughts, and claim them as your own. These are your own real
thoughts you have denied, and let your mind go wandering in a world of dreams,
to find illusions in their place. Here are your thoughts, the only ones you
have. Salvation is among them; find it there."
10. "If you succeed, the thoughts that come to you will tell you you are saved,
and that your mind has found the function that it sought to lose. Your Self will
welcome it and give it peace. Restored in strength, it will again flow out from
spirit to the spirit in all things created by the Spirit as Itself. Your mind
will bless all things. Confusion done, you are restored, for you have found your
Self."
11. "Your Self knows that you cannot fail today. Perhaps your mind remains
uncertain yet a little while. Be not dismayed by this. The joy your Self
experiences It will save for you, and it will yet be yours in full awareness.
Every time you spend five minutes of the hour seeking Him Who joins your mind
and Self, you offer Him another treasure to be kept for you."
12. "Each time today you tell your frantic mind salvation comes from your one
Self, you lay another treasure in your growing store. And all of it is given
everyone who asks for it, and will accept the gift. Think, then, how much is
given unto you to give this day, that it be given you!"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The commentary on this lesson is an excerpt 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 96. Salvation comes from my one Self. Commentary by Kenneth
Wapnick.
**This is a potentially confusing lesson because of the conflicting ways
Jesus uses the term <mind>. Addressing this confusion will make going
through this lesson easier. <Mind> is used here in two ways, similar to
what is found in the section "Mind - Spirit" in the clarification of
terms. (C-1). It is equated both with spirit and the split mind. The
confusion enters because the specific referent is not always specified.
I shall clarify this as we go through the lesson.
When used as the equivalent of spirit, <mind> refers to spirit's
"activating agent" (C-1,1:1) The word <spirit>, referring to our true
nature as Christ, is not capitalized in A Course in Miracles, except
when it is used, rarely, as a synonym for God or the Holy Spirit. <Mind>
is not capitalized unless it specifically refers to the Mind of God and
the Mind of Christ.
This lesson is essentially a discussion of the relationship among
spirit, mind, and body. This trinity is embraced by most new age
thinkers and many followers of alternative medicine, but the view of A
Course in Miracles is quite different, as we shall see.**
(1:1) "Although you are one Self, you experience yourself as two; as
both good and evil, loving and hating, mind and body."
**Here <mind> refers to <spirit>, parallel to the words <good> and
<loving>. We believe that we are split, and that it is possible for the
Son of God to be separated from the Mind of God and Christ. This is the
exact opposite of the Atonement principle, which teaches that the
separation did not occur: the perfect Self of Oneness can never be
separated <from>; otherwise it could not have been perfect and perfectly
one.**
(1:2-5) "This sense of being split into opposites induces feelings of
acute and constant conflict, and leads to frantic attempts to reconcile
the contradictory aspects of this self-perception. You have sought many
such solutions, and none of them has worked. The opposites you see in
you will never be compatible. But one exists."
**We have set up a war in our minds, having been convinced by the ego
that we are at war with God. The ego's understanding, of course, has
nothing to do with the true God, Who does not know about the separation
or the split mind. The ego's God most definitely does. When we pushed
away our Source, and then His memory -- the Holy Spirit -- we set up a
conflict in our minds. The ego fabricated the cause of the problem by
telling us that the Holy Spirit was going to push back, and drag us to
God Who would destroy our sin. Believing the reality of the conflict, we
split it off and projected it from our minds so that our sinful self was
perceived to be outside and at war with us. This culminates in our
experience that we are the innocent victims, and this newly made sinful
self is the victimizer.
Our special relationships -- our "frantic attempts to reconcile" --
represent the ego's plan to resolve the conflict. In the special hate
form I believe the enemy is outside, and by destroying it my innocence
will prevail. In the special love form, my inner conflict is concealed
by the love I experience when I am with this person. I do not have to
feel the pain and terror lurking in my mind, because in the presence of
this special person I feel comfortable and secure. This person's
attention, devotion and approval leave me feeling good about myself, and
I never have to look at the fact that I believed that <I> am "the home
of evil, darkness and sin." **
(3:1) "Problems that have no meaning cannot be resolved within the
framework they are set."
**All problems are experienced within the framework of the body and the
world, but they cannot be resolved here because they do not exist here.
They are within our minds, coming from the choice to believe in the ego.
This one problem is repressed because the guilt is overwhelming and,
having projected it, we now see problems all around us, but never within
us. Once the ego's strategy is accomplished, we continually seek to
solve the pseudo-problems, investing vast expenditures of time and
effort in doing so. Yet our problem solving efforts will never work
because they <can> never work. Indeed, nothing works in this world, and
thus no one is ever truly happy here. To be sure, our specialness needs
may be met at any given moment, but that moment is short-lived, for
guilt demands we never be truly happy. Thus we would never be able to
accept the happiness that specialness affords us. Our egos would
question, for example: How could someone love us, let alone stay with
us?; or; let me wait for the other shoe to drop. These doubts arise only
because of the underlying problem of guilt is never examined.
Thus forgiveness, proceeds to go the other way, reversing projection. We
are taught by our new Teacher to bring the problem to the answer, the
ego's illusion to His truth. Once the problem of guilt is brought into
its correct framework -- the mind's decision to be guilty -- it can
easily be resolved.**
(5:1)"Yet mind apart from spirit cannot think."
**This refers to the wrong mind: and, as we know, the ego cannot think.
True Thought is reflected in our right minds as the Atonement principle,
which reminds us of our Identity as a Thought of God. When we separate
from that Thought, we think we are thinking, but that is not thinking at
all, just as we do not truly see though our eyes, nor hear through our
ears.**
(6:1-2)"Waste no more time on this. Who can resolve the senseless
conflicts which a dream presents?"
**In other words, Jesus is telling us to stop wasting our time trying to
solve problems in the world. This is the meaning of "I Need Do Nothing"
(T-19.VII). We think we need do something, because there is a perceived
problem that demands our attention and action. Yet we need do nothing
because what we think to be the problem -- something external to our
minds -- is not the problem at all. However, this does not mean that on
the level of the dream we should not resolve problems here or take care
of our own or other people's bodies. Jesus means not to proceed on your
own. We need to realize, he tells us, that the real problem of our
discontent or disease is our separation from him. By not separating from
him and his love by asking him to help us, the real problem of
separation from love will be undone. This had led to our anxiety, fear,
depression, and a sense of failure. Once those thoughts are out of the
way and Jesus' love has become reality, together, joined in that love,
we can address what needs to be addressed, and there will be no tension,
anxiety, or fatigue. The problem will be resolved smoothly, for we shall
have been freed from the inner conflict that would have impeded the
effective solution of any perceived problem in the world.
To repeat this crucial thought: Jesus is not saying to ignore problems
here. He is instructing us to address our concerns with him by our side,
that his vision becomes our own, and we may grow to understand the true
nature of the problem and its solution.**
(6:3-5) "What could the resolution mean in truth? What purpose could it
serve? What is it for?"
**We have seen this idea -- purpose is everything -- many times before.
The purpose of the world's problems is to root us in the dream and keep
our ego identity sacrosanct. The decision maker, the dreamer of the
dream, makes up smoke screens to distract and upset <us here> (in the
body), so that nothing will change <there> (in the mind). Once again,
the nature of the real problem is that we pushed Jesus away. If we
invite him back and join him in our minds, the problem of separation is
undone. Our concerns with external problems are thus alleviated,
allowing us to devote unconflicted attention to them and to their
resolution.**
(7:1)"Your Self retains Its Thoughts, and they remain within your mind
and in the Mind of God."
**This is the right mind again, and its thoughts are expressions of the
Atonement principle, such as forgiveness or healing. These reflect the
unified Thoughts of Love, which is in the Mind of God and has never
lefts its Source.**
(7:2) "The Holy Spirit holds salvation in your mind, and offers it the
way to peace."
**The way to peace is to turn from the ego to the Holy Spirit, the
thought of Atonement that saves us from our belief in the reality of the
separation.**
(8:1-2)"We will attempt today to find this thought, whose presence in
your mind is guaranteed by Him Who speaks to you from your one Self. Our
hourly five-minute practicing will be a search for Him within your
mind."
**As we have already seen, the way we search for the Holy Spirit within
our right minds, which is the meaning of <mind> here, is to turn away
from our wrong minds. This means turning from our investment in being
right about our autonomous individuality. Our recognition that such
self-reliance has not brought us the happiness and peace we sought is
what will motivate us to remember each hourly practice. It is our fear
of such recognition that causes us to forget.**
(8:3--9:3) "Salvation comes from this one Self through Him Who is the
Bridge between your mind and It. Wait patiently, and let Him speak to
you about your Self, and what your mind can do, restored to It and free
to serve Its Will.
Begin with saying this:
Salvation comes from my one Self. Its Thoughts are mine to use."
**Remembering that we can only find happiness through changing teachers,
we devote our day to re-enforcing what we wish to learn. Thus we turn
from the false self of specialness by choosing the thoughts that reflect
the Thought of Who we truly are, as we listen to the Voice reminding us
of our Self; thus we turn to the Holy Spirit, the Voice that bridges the
gap between illusion and truth, and gently teaches us to forgive what
never happened.**
(12:1-2) "Each time today you tell your frantic mind salvation comes
from your one Self, you lay another treasure in your growing store. And
all of it is given everyone who asks for it, and will accept the gift."
**Our celestial "pep talk" continues. Jesus wants us to have faith in
our practicing and not to lose heart when we forget a time period, or
are tempted to believe what we are doing has no effect. Needless to say,
the <you> mentioned here is the decision maker, which tells the frantic
wrong mind it was mistaken in its original choice. It is our self
telling our self that our identity as a wrong minded individual is
untrue. Thus we come to understand we chose that identity because we
were afraid of the glorious truth of our one Self, a mistake we can now
forgive as we joyfully accept the Holy Spirit's gift of salvation.
Moreover, the gift is given everyone because minds are joined, even
though each separated Son must accept it for himself. That is the key.
Sometimes people wonder why they are here if Jesus has already accepted
the Atonement. From his point of view, of course, we are not here. The
problem is that we have refused to accept his Atonement and love, and
therefore remain asleep in our world of dreams, still dreaming. Again,
our gift of remembering is given everyone, but we must want it for
ourselves." **
(12:3) "Think, then, how much is given unto you to give this day, that
it be given you!"
**What is given us to give is the memory of Who we are as God's one Son,
the Christ that God created one with Him. Once we choose that for
ourselves, we know God has only one Son, our Self. We then become the
symbol of salvation for the world. This acceptance of or true Identity
-- the acceptance of the Atonement for ourselves -- becomes an important
theme in the lessons that follow.**
