Lesson 101. God's Will for me is perfect happiness.(1) Today we will continue with the theme of happiness. This is a key idea inunderstanding what salvation means. You still believe it asks for suffering aspenance for your "sins." This is not so. Yet you must think it so while youbelieve that sin is real, and that God's Son can sin.(2) If sin is real, then punishment is just and cannot be escaped. Salvationthus cannot be purchased but through suffering. If sin is real, then happinessmust be illusion, for they cannot both be true. The sinful warrant only deathand pain, and it is this they ask for. For they know it waits for them, and itwill seek them out and find them somewhere, sometime, in some form that evensthe account they owe to God. They would escape Him in their fear. And yet Hewill pursue, and they can not escape.(3) If sin is real, salvation must be pain. Pain is the cost of sin, andsuffering can never be escaped, if sin is real. Salvation must be feared, for itwill kill, but slowly, taking everything away before it grants the welcome boonof death to victims who are little more than bones before salvation is appeased.Its wrath is boundless, merciless, but wholly just.(4) Who would seek out such savage punishment? Who would not flee salvation, andattempt in every way he can to drown the Voice which offers it to him? Why wouldhe try to listen and accept Its offering? If sin is real, its offering is death,and meted out in cruel form to match the vicious wishes in which sin is born. Ifsin is real, salvation has become your bitter enemy, the curse of God upon youwho have crucified His Son.(5) You need the practice periods today. The exercises teach sin is not real,and all that you believe must come from sin will never happen, for it has nocause. Accept Atonement with an open mind, which cherishes no lingering beliefthat you have made a devil of God's Son. There is no sin. We practice with thisthought as often as we can today, because it is the basis for today's idea.(6) God's Will for you is perfect happiness because there is no sin, andsuffering is causeless. Joy is just, and pain is but the sign you havemisunderstood yourself. Fear not the Will of God. But turn to it in confidencethat it will set you free from all the consequences sin has wrought in feverishimagination. Say:<God's Will for me is perfect happiness.There is no sin; it has no consequence.>So should you start your practice periods, and then attempt again to find thejoy these thoughts will introduce into your mind.(7) Give these five minutes gladly, to remove the heavy load you lay uponyourself with the insane belief that sin is real. Today escape from madness. Youare set on freedom's road, and now today's idea brings wings to speed you on,and hope to go still faster to the waiting goal of peace. There is no sin.Remember this today, and tell yourself as often as you can:God's Will for me is perfect happiness. This is the truth, because there is no sin.<~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~The commentary on this lesson is an excerpt from Kenneth Wapnick's eight volumeseries ofbooks, called: "Journey Through the Workbook of A Course in Miracles," which canbe purchased at the following site:??~ M. Street~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Lesson 101. "God's Will for me is perfect happiness."*As I commented before, Lesson 100 began a six-lesson series that discusses someaspect of God's Will for us, in which Jesus talks about the undoing of the ego'smistakes, <the> central theme of A Course in Miracles. The ego's undoing is theway in which we fulfill our function of forgiveness, thereby remembering Who weare. The particular aspects of the ego's thought system addressed by Jesus inthis series are sin, suffering, fear, the ego's version of giving -- i.e.,special relationships -- and the thought system of separation itself.Before we start, let me return to my earlier remarks about A Course in Miracles'use of language.This is especially important when one considers the workbook,and even more so when one thinks that studying the Course means practicing thelessons without paying much attention to the text. Jesus' use of language forthe most part has to be understood as metaphorical, especially here. We havealready noted that when he speaks of God as lonely or incomplete, he is notspeaking literally. In saying that God's Will for us is perfect happiness, Jesusspeaks the way a parent would to a child: all I want is that you be happy. Thecontext is that God is a loving Father, which corrects the ego thought that Heis punitive and wants only that we sacrifice and suffer as payment for our sins.Moreover, God does not have a plan, even though the workbook speaks a great dealof this. A loving parent, teacher, or friend has plans for us; doctors andtherapists plan for our health, while financial advisers plan for ourwealth.These are common symbols in our world, but in truth God has no plan. IfHe did, He would be recognizing a need or problem that does not exist, the exactopposite of the Atonement principle.Thus, when you read these words, keep in mind that Jesus is our older brotherspeaking to younger siblings who can understand his message of love only in thismetaphoric context: <God's plan or Will for us> therefore merely points to Hisabstract and non-specific Love.*(1:1-2) "Today we will continue with the theme of happiness. This is a key ideain understanding what salvation means."*We shall see presently how Jesus elaborates on his teaching that salvationmeans happiness, telling us about the ego's version of salvation -- sufferingand sacrifice. Again, it is the undoing of the ego's thought system that allowsus to accept the truth of the Atonement that is already present in our minds,though covered by these ego thoughts.*(2:1-2) "If sin is real, then punishment is just and cannot be escaped.Salvation thus cannot be purchased but through suffering."*The phrase, "If sin is real," is a recurring motif throughout this lesson, andyou will notice that this passage reflects the ego's second and third laws ofchaos (T-23.II.4-8). Atonement now comes through satisfying the vengeance ofGod, which, needless to say, is the ego's projection. Wherever there exists asituation where one wins and another loses, you know the ego's hand is in it,expressing its thought system of pain, suffering, and loss.*(3:1) "If sin is real, salvation must be pain."*This is the essence of the third law of chaos:"There can be no release and no escape. Atonement thus becomes a myth, andvengeance, not forgiveness, is the Will of God." (T-23.II.8:1-2).In the ego's insanity, God's Will is that we suffer pain, satisfying the demandof His vengeful wrath. When this insatiable need for punishment has beenappeased, pain becomes, in His "mercy," the means of our salvation. The nextlines continue this theme:*(4:1-2) "Who would seek out such savage punishment? Who would not fleesalvation, and attempt in every way he can to drown the Voice which offers it tohim?"*Once we believe salvation is death, why would we not want to run away from Godand Jesus? That is why, if we logically extend these words, no Christian couldever truly love its savior, because he demands suffering and sacrifice, judgmentand punishment. In fact, Jesus was the ultimate suffering and sacrificialvictim, in fulfillment of God's punitive notion of justice. Who could lovesomeone who, representing God, wills our death? Moreover, this death, if it istruly redemptive, must be painful. Yet the situation gets worse: As we cannottolerate the guilt over our sin of not loving Jesus, we repress it, inevitablyleading to its projection. Thus is guilt the name of the ego's game. Theguiltier we feel, the more secretive we are, and the greater our need to denyour sin and blame others, up to and including God and Jesus. These insanedynamics become the means to drown God's Voice. No wonder, then, there is nohope in this world.*(5:1-2) "You need the practice periods today. The exercises teach sin is notreal, and all that you believe must come from sin will never happen, for it hasno cause."*We see another articulation of the principle of <cause and effect>. Thephysical world, with its pains and suffering, joys and happiness, is the productof sin. If we learn sin is not real -- because we never separated from the Loveof God -- we shall have undone the cause; and without a cause there can be noeffect. Yet if we cherish the effects (guilt, fear, and pain), we affirm thecause (sin), which we want because it guarantees our existence.*(6:1) "God's Will for you is perfect happiness because there is no sin, andsuffering is causeless."*Again, if we are in pain, it is because we want its cause. We do not care aboutthe suffering as such, but the purpose it serves. The source of pain has nothingto do with the causes we identify, but with the belief in our existence, definedby the ego as sin. Reinforcing this belief is the ego's purpose, for this deniesGod's Will for us is perfect happiness.*(7) "Give these five minutes gladly, to remove the heavy load you lay uponyourself with the insane belief that sin is real. Today escape from madness. Youare set on freedom's road, and now today's idea brings wings to speed you on,and hope to go still faster to the waiting goal of peace. There is no sin.Remember this today, and tell yourself as often as you can:<God's Will for me is perfect happiness.This is the truth, because there is no sin.>"*If there is no sin, no one is guilty and everyone is mistaken. Remember thatwhat is true for one must be true for all. This is Jesus' lesson: God's Son isone, and differences do not exist except in the insane mind that needs to havesomeone win and another lose. If "God's Will for me is perfect happiness," itmust be so for everyone. This alone is the truth, and this alone is the pathwaythat leads from imprisonment to freedom, conflict to peace, hate to love. Thuswe happily learn that God's Will is our own as well.*
Love and Blessings,
Lyn Johnson 719-369-1822
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