Lesson 94. I am as God created me.
Lesson 94. I am as God created me.
(1) Today we continue with the one idea which brings complete salvation; the one
statement which makes all forms of temptation powerless; the one thought which
renders the ego silent and entirely undone. You are as God created you. The
sounds of this world are still, the sights of this world disappear, and all the
thoughts that this world ever held are wiped away forever by this one idea. Here
is salvation accomplished. Here is sanity restored.
(2) True light is strength, and strength is sinlessness. If you remain as God
created you, you must be strong and light must be in you. He Who ensured your
sinlessness must be the guarantee of strength and light as well. You are as God
created you. Darkness cannot obscure the glory of God's Son. You stand in light,
strong in the sinlessness in which you were created, and in which you will
remain throughout eternity.
(3) Today we will again devote the first five minutes of each waking hour to the
attempt to feel the truth in you. Begin these times of searching with these
words:
I am as God created me.
I am His Son eternally.
Now try to reach the Son of God in you. This is the Self that never sinned, nor
made an image to replace reality. This is the Self that never left Its home in
God to walk the world uncertainly. This is the Self that knows no fear, nor
could conceive of loss or suffering or death.
(4) Nothing is required of you to reach this goal except to lay all idols and
self-images aside; go past the list of attributes, both good and bad, you have
ascribed to yourself; and wait in silent expectancy for the truth. God has
Himself promised that it will be revealed to all who ask for it. You are asking
now. You cannot fail because He cannot fail.
(5) If you do not meet the requirement of practicing for the first five minutes
of every hour, at least remind yourself hourly:
I am as God created me.
I am His Son eternally.
Tell yourself frequently today that you are as God created you. And be sure to
respond to anyone who seems to irritate you with these words:
You are as God created you.
You are His Son eternally.
Make every effort to do the hourly exercises today. Each one you do will be a
giant stride toward your release, and a milestone in learning the thought system
which this course sets forth.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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 94. I am as God created me.
*This is the only lesson repeated in the workbook. It appears again in Lesson
110, and still again in Lesson 162. It is also the central theme of Review VI
and an important part of the last section in the text (T-31.VIII.) This crucial
theme is the basis of the Atonement principle that corrects the ego thought
system, which says: I am <not> as God created me, but a separated mind that now
makes its home in the body.*
(2) "True light is strength, and strength is sinlessness. If you remain as God
created you, you must be strong and light must be in you. He Who ensured your
sinlessness must be the guarantee of strength and light as well. You are as God
created you. Darkness cannot obscure the glory of God's Son. You stand in light,
strong in the sinlessness in which you were created, and in which you will
remain throughout eternity."
*Jesus elaborates on the meaning of the day's idea. "I am as God created me"
means that nothing the ego's thought system of darkness ever conceived has
effected the light of Heaven. Since we, as Christ, are part of that light --
referred to in the text as the Great Rays (see, e.g., T-18.III.8:7) -- we have
been unaffected as well. Sinlessness is our strength, for it reflects the
Atonements truth: the separation from light never happened. The darkness of
guilt can cover this light in our nightmares, but in reality there remains only
light.*
(3) "Today we will again devote the first five minutes of each waking hour to
the attempt to feel the truth in you. Begin these times of searching with these
words:
I am as God created me.
I am His Son eternally.
Now try to reach the Son of God in you. This is the Self that never sinned, nor
made an image to replace reality. This is the Self that never left Its home in
God to walk the world uncertainly. This is the Self that knows no fear, nor
could conceive of loss or suffering or death."
*We are now asked to think of the day's thought every hour. We begin with a
clear statement of the truth of our Identity, a truth that invalidates the ego's
illusions of sin, and fear, alienation and suffering. that have no home in our
Self. Recall the text's reference to the first commandment:
"Thou shalt have no other gods before Him because there are none." (T.4.III.6.6)
In the next paragraph Jesus describes how we reach the true Son of God, moving
beyond our illusory self, rooted in the belief that separation is sin, to the
glorious truth of Christ:*
(4:1) "Nothing is required of you to reach this goal except to lay all idols and
self-images aside; go past the list of attributes, both good and bad, you have
ascribed to yourself; and wait in silent expectancy for the truth."
*This succinctly describes the process of forgiveness: in order to remember God
we have to let go of the ego. Our task, therefore, is not to affirm the truth we
are as God created us, but to deny the ego's denial. We have already seen this
summarizing statement:
"The task of the miracle worker thus becomes to deny the denial of truth."
(T.12.II.1.5)
In order to reach this goal of remembering our Self, we "have to lay all idols
and self images aside." The key obstacle is the belief we <are> our self image,
the core of which is our specialness. We seek to protect this image by denying
responsibility and making a world in which the sin of existence is seen in
everyone except ourselves. Thus our self-image is not only that of a special
individual, but a special, <innocent> individual. This means someone else is
guilty.
The ego's defensive system makes forgiveness virtually impossible. In order for
us to reach God and remember Who we are as Christ, we have to let go of <all>
images. As Jesus reminds us, these images include not only the bad, but the
good. We have already seen that if we talk about a positive self-image, we imply
there is negative one, too. This results in a dualistic world of opposites, a
state impossible in Heaven. In the end, therefore, we to transcend even the
wrong-mind right-mind duality. However, we first must bring our illusions of
hate to the correction of forgiveness, the darkness of separation to the light
of Atonement. Only then can we complete the journey and find our One-minded
Self.*
(5:1-4) "If you do not meet the requirement of practicing for the first five
minutes of every hour, at least remind yourself hourly:
I am as God created me.
I am His Son eternally.
Tell yourself frequently today that you are as God created you."
*The test of our resolve to remember our Self is the commitment to remembering
the day's lesson. As we shall see in Lesson 95, the true value of the workbook
lies in showing us how much we do not wish to remember the exercises, which,
again, reflects our not wishing to remember we are as God created us.*
Love and Blessings,
Lyn Johnson 719-369-1822
|
Lesson 93. Light and joy and peace abide in me.
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.*
Love and Blessings,
Lyn Johnson 719-369-1822
|
Lesson 92. Miracles are seen in light, and light and strength are one.
Lesson 92. Miracles are seen in light, and light and strength are one.
(1) The idea for today is an extension of the previous one. You do not think of
light in terms of strength, and darkness in terms of weakness. That is because
your idea of what seeing means is tied up with the body and its eyes and brain.
Thus you believe that you can change what you see by putting little bits of
glass before your eyes. This is among the many magical beliefs that come from
the conviction you are a body, and the body's eyes can see.
(2) You also believe the body's brain can think. If you but understood the
nature of thought, you could but laugh at this insane idea. It is as if you
thought you held the match that lights the sun and gives it all its warmth; or
that you held the world within your hand, securely bound until you let it go.
Yet this is no more foolish than to believe the body's eyes can see; the brain
can think.
(3) It is God's strength in you that is the light in which you see, as it is His
Mind with which you think. His strength denies your weakness. It is our weakness
that sees through the body's eyes, peering about in darkness to behold the
likeness of itself; the small, the weak, the sickly and the dying, those in
need, the helpless and afraid, the sad, the poor, the starving and the joyless.
These are seen through eyes that cannot see and cannot bless.
(4) Strength overlooks these things by seeing past appearances. It keeps its
steady gaze upon the light that lies beyond them. It unites with light, of which
it is a part. It sees itself. It brings the light in which your Self appears. In
darkness you perceive a self that is not there. Strength is the truth about you;
weakness is an idol falsely worshipped and adored that strength may be
dispelled, and darkness rule where God appointed that there should be light.
(5) Strength comes from truth, and shines with light its Source has given it;
weakness reflects the darkness of its maker. It is sick and looks on sickness,
which is like itself. Truth is a savior and can only will for happiness and
peace for everyone. It gives its strength to everyone who asks, in limitless
supply. It sees that lack in anyone would be a lack in all. And so it gives its
light that all may see and benefit as one. Its strength is shared, that it may
bring to all the miracle in which they will unite in purpose and forgiveness and
in love.
(6) Weakness, which looks in darkness, cannot see a purpose in forgiveness and
in love. It sees all others different from itself, and nothing in the world that
it would share. It judges and condemns, but does not love. In darkness it
remains to hide itself, and dreams that it is strong and conquering, a victor
over limitations that but grow in darkness to enormous size.
(7) It fears and it attacks and hates itself, and darkness covers everything it
sees, leaving its dreams as fearful as itself. No miracles are here, but only
hate. It separates itself from what it sees, while light and strength perceive
themselves as one. The light of strength is not the light you see. It does not
change and flicker and go out. It does not shift from night to day, and back to
darkness till the morning comes again.
(8) The light of strength is constant, sure as love, forever glad to give itself
away, because it cannot give but to itself. No one can ask in vain to
share its sight, and none who enters its abode can leave without a miracle
before his eyes, and strength and light abiding in his heart.
(9) The strength in you will offer you the light, and guide your seeing so you
do not dwell on idle shadows that the body's eyes provide for self-deception.
Strength and light unite in you, and where they meet, your Self stands ready to
embrace you as Its Own. Such is the meeting place we try today to find and rest
in, for the peace of God is where your Self, His Son, is waiting now to meet
Itself again, and be as One.
(10) Let us give twenty minutes twice today to join this meeting. Let yourself
be brought unto your Self. Its strength will be the light in which the gift of
sight is given you. Leave, then, the dark a little while today, and we will
practice seeing in the light, closing the body's eyes and asking truth to show
us how to find the meeting place of self and Self, where light and strength are
one.
(11) Morning and evening we will practice thus. After the morning meeting, we
will use the day in preparation for the time at night when we will meet again in
trust. Let us repeat as often as we can the idea for today, and recognize that
we are being introduced to sight, and led away from darkness to the light where
only miracles can be perceived.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The commentary on this lesson is 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 92. "Miracles are seen in light, and light and strength are one."
(1:1-2) "The idea for today is an extension of the previous one. You do not
think of light in terms of strength, and darkness in terms of weakness."
*That is because we think the darkness of our ego system is our strength. To the
extent we think of ourselves as special, our strength lies in the darkness of
separation. Indeed, our separate self is sustained by specialness, an intrinsic
part of the ego's darkened world. Thus we do not think of light as strength,
because light -- the Atonement principle -- marks the end of our separate
identity. Therefore, from our point of view as egos, light renders us weak, for
it undoes the thought system of darkness. Our confusion about what constitutes
strength and weakness is the same as the confusion between joy and pain, freedom
and imprisonment (T-7.X;T-8.II).*
(2) "You also believe the body's brain can think. If you but understood the
nature of thought, you could but laugh at this insane idea. It is as if you
thought you held the match that lights the sun and gives it all its warmth; or
that you held the world within your hand, securely bound until you let it go.
Yet this is no more foolish than to believe the body's eyes can see; the brain
can think."
*There is no way anyone who reads A Course in Miracles and is identified with
the body can have any understanding of this paragraph. Jesus is saying the body
does not think and does not see, which is another way of saying the body does
not exist. The problem is that we read this as a body: seeing what we are
reading, even though what we are reading tells us we cannot see; thinking about
what we are reading, even though what we are reading tells us we cannot think.
There is a built-in paradox here, which would terrify most students to consider,
for its impact is devastating. Your eyes and brains are negated by the very
words you are reading and thinking about. Where does that leave you. This is a
question that harks back to a question in the previous lesson: "If you are not a
body, what are you?" If it is not your brain that can think, who then is
thinking? Taking it one step further, who then is even reading this course and
doing this lesson? If you think seriously about what Jesus is saying, you must
inevitably move beyond your brain and body. That is when the anxiety begins to
rise.
It is important as you work with A Course in Miracles to pay careful attention
to its words. Jesus' purpose is to break our strong identification with the
body. Unfortunately, most people studying this course do not realize their very
study is a paradox -- or, better, an oxymoron. They study with organs that do
not see or think. Again, if you pay attention to what this is saying about you,
anxiety is inevitable. However, the purpose is not to have you walk around in a
state of perpetual tension, but with a big question mark in your mind. As Jesus
states in the text:
"To learn this course requires willingness to question every value that you
hold. Not one can be kept hidden and obscure but it will jeopardize your
learning." (T-24.in.2:1-2).
If you realize that Jesus is not asking you to give up your bodily
identification, but merely to question it, there will be no anxiety. Anxiety
arises because you believe he is taking your special relationship with your body
away from you. Yet he asks only that you look at your faith in it as a source of
pleasure and happiness. The discomfort will disappear to the extent you can go
to Jesus and say: "I understand what you are saying, and it terrifies me." Such
honesty will help alleviate the anxiety, which means that if A Course in
Miracles makes you nervous, it is because you are not really looking with Jesus.
However, if you are reading this course and have no adverse reaction, it is most
likely because you are not paying attention to what it is saying. In other
words, before you go to Jesus for help, you first have to feel uncomfortable. We
find this idea expressed at the beginning of "The Happy Learner," in lines we
have already considered:
"You who are steadfastly devoted to misery must first recognize that you are
miserable and not happy. The Holy Spirit cannot teach without this contrast, for
you believe that misery is happiness." (T-14.II.1:2-3).
We need the experience of misery and anxiety, for that is what motivates us to
go to Jesus for help. Once we do, he can teach us the contrast between the
happiness and peace he offers us, and our misery and anxiety. The anxiety will
come, I assure you, if you read this lesson carefully and think about it. Read
paragraph 2 again, and think about the <you> that you think you are who are
reading this.
The idea that we are bodies is not only insane, but arrogant. Our bodily
identification directly reflects the thought that our inherent weakness has
toppled the mighty strength of God. It is the same arrogance Jesus describes in
the text: the sunbeam thinking it is the sun, the ripple thinking it is the
ocean:
"This fragment of your mind is such a tiny part of it that, could you but
appreciate the whole, you would see instantly that it is like the smallest
sunbeam to the sun, or like the faintest ripple on the surface of the ocean. In
its amazing arrogance, this tiny sunbeam has decided it is the sun; this almost
imperceptible ripple hails itself as the ocean." (T-18.VIII.3:3-4).
To the ego, therefore, the idea that we cannot see or think is preposterous, but
to our right minds, it contains this world's only truth, and the way out of
hell.*
(3) "It is God's strength in you that is the light in which you see, as it is
His Mind with which you think. His strength denies your weakness. It is your
weakness that sees through the body's eyes, peering about in darkness to behold
the likeness of itself; the small, the weak, the sickly and the dying, those in
need, the helpless and afraid, the sad, the poor, the starving and the joyless.
These are seen through eyes that cannot see and cannot bless."
*True seeing, however, or vision, is the result of returning our "sight" to its
rightful place in the mind. By turning to the Holy Spirit for guidance, we shift
our identification from the sightless to what alone can see. The ego would have
us see through "eyes that cannot bless, " and thus we "see" the shadowy
fragments of the ego's weakness: a world in which "everyone ... wanders ...
uncertain, lonely, and in constant fear" (T-31.VIII.7:1). Yet we "see" in
darkness, for we have first looked within and seen the ego's weakness, itself
cowering in fear in the darkness of its separated mind. This is the darkness we
projected and believe we now see. However, it is the darkness of nothingness,
for the ego is nothing and makes nothing, and what we see must therefore also
must be nothing: <nothing> making <nothing>, being seen by <nothing>. Certainly
then, these eyes cannot bless, because they were made to damn. After all, the
ego came into existence by damning God, thereby killing His Son, in the
anguished words of Job's wife: "Curse God, and die" (Job 2:9).
Another theme implicit in this passage is the contrast of Christ's strength with
the ego's weakness, similar to the statement we have seen before: "You always
choose between your weakness and the strength of Christ in you."
(T.31.VIII.2.3).*
(4:1-2) "Strength overlooks these things by seeing past appearances. It keeps
its steady gaze upon the light that lies beyond them."
*Here, too, is a statement that can be very easily misunderstood. Jesus is not
saying we do not see the illusion. By <overlook> -- a word he uses frequently in
A Course in Miracles -- he does not mean we overlook the ego in the sense of not
seeing something that is present, which is the usual meaning of the word, as
when you overlook some papers you are looking for on your desk and know are
there. In A Course in Miracles, we overlook the ego by looking through it. We
first look at the appearance, which seems to be as solid as a wall of granite.
Yet its inherent emptiness cannot block our vision, as the following passage on
sin describes:
"Sin is a block, set like a heavy gate, locked and without a key, across the
road to peace. The body's eyes behold it as solid granite, so thick it would be
madness to attempt to pass it. Yet reason sees through it easily, because it is
an error. The form it takes cannot conceal its emptiness from reason's eyes."
(T.22.III.3.2-6)
With the love of Jesus beside us -- as he says in the text: "together we have
the lamp that will dispel it, [the ego's thought system] (T.11.V.1.3) -- we look
at the ego's darkness with his light, shining through what appeared as an
impenetrable wall. Now it is nothing more than a flimsy veil, powerless to
conceal the truth beyond it. When Jesus talks about looking past appearances or
overlooking the ego, he, once again, does not mean <not> to see it. He is
teaching us to look at it with him, for only then do we realize there is nothing
to see. What seemed to have been a solid wall of defense simply disappears, and
the light of truth is seen shining beyond it. To cite those important lines
again:
"No one can escape from illusions unless he looks at them, for not looking is
the way they are protected. ... we must look first at this to see beyond it,
since you have made it real. We will undo this error quietly together, and then
look beyond it to truth. ... What is healing but the removal of all that stands
in the way of knowledge? And how else can one dispel illusions except by looking
at them directly, without protecting them? ... Clarity undoes confusion by
definition, and to look upon darkness through light must dispel it."
(T.11.V.1:1,5-6; 2:1-2,9).
This point is important, because it can be tempting for students of A Course in
Miracles to think that Jesus is asking them to deny their eyes' perception. This
previously discussed statement made in the context of healing, makes clear what
he means:
"The body's eyes will continue to see differences. But the mind that has let
itself be healed will no longer acknowledge them. There will be those who seem
to be "sicker" than others, and the body's eyes will report their changed
appearances as before. But the healed mind will put them all in one category;
they are unreal." (M.8.6.1-4).
Our goal is to see through Christ's vision, which enables us to reinterpret the
perceptual world of the ego told us was true. The <form>, now seen differently,
reveals the <content> of reality's reflection that the ego tried to conceal from
our awareness. The clarity of this new perception looks beyond the seeming
differences among illusions to the one truth that categorizes them all: <they
are unreal.> *
(5:1) "Strength comes from truth, and shines with light its Source has given it;
weakness reflects the darkness of its maker."
*The maker is the ego, but it can do nothing without the decision maker's
joining with it. Therein lies the ego's "strength," built upon an illusion that
the Son of God has a real choice about his Identity. Only in the light of the
correct choice -- for the Atonement -- can the Son regain the awareness of his
true strength.*
(6:1-2) "Weakness, which looks in darkness, cannot see a purpose in forgiveness
and in love. It sees all others different from itself, and nothing in the world
that it would share."
*The theme of weakness and strength continues, in this form: The ego thought
system is kept intact by the concept of differences, wherein everyone is
perceived as different from everyone else. Ultimately, this difference is your
sin and my sinlessness, having its source in the original perception of
difference: I am the creator and God is not -- the principle of <either-or>,
<one or the other>, <kill or be killed>. We are established strong in the ego's
thought system of darkness by our weakness, born of the fragmented Sonship. This
weakness thus reflects the separation of God's Son, for we are all made
different, protected by our grievances and threatened by forgiveness.*
(7:1-3) "It fears and it attacks and hates itself, and darkness covers
everything it sees, leaving its dreams as fearful as itself. No miracles are
here, but only hate. It separates itself from what it sees, while light and
strength perceive themselves as one."
*That is why we fear the light, the strength of which comes from perfect unity,
what the ego judges as weakness. Our individuality grows weak in the presence of
thoughts of oneness, and strong in perceptions of differences . Yet we cannot
distinguish between weakness and strength. Thus we need A Course in Miracles in
general, and the workbook specifically.*
(7:4-6) "The light of strength is not the light you see. It does not change and
flicker and go out. It does not shift from night to day, and back to darkness
till the morning comes again."
*Jesus is referring to the different kinds of light in this world: artificial
light -- electricity -- and natural light -- the sun. Yet nothing here lasts,
and everything changes. The light of truth, on the other hand, is constant and
eternal, and its reflected perception of the world is always the same: it is an
illusion and is not here. Recall the first test Jesus cites as helping us to
"distinguish everything from nothing" (W-pI.133.5:4).
"First, if you choose a thing that will not last forever, what you chose is
valueless. A temporary value is without all value. Time can never take away a
value that is real. What fades and dies was never there, and makes no offering
to him who chooses it. He is deceived by nothing in a form he thinks he likes."
(W-pI.133.5:6).
Thus is our impermanent world inherently valueless.
Moreover, everyone here shares the sameness of believing in illusion. It is
helpful to observe that the word <same> does not appear in the ego's dictionary,
for it only understands the concept of difference. Analogously, the word
<different> does not appear in the Holy Spirit's dictionary, because everything
to Him is the same: We are the same, as one illusion and as one Christ.*
(8) "The light of strength is constant, sure as love, forever glad to give
itself away, because it cannot give but to itself. No one can ask in vain to
share its sight, and none who enters its abode can leave without a miracle
before his eyes, and strength and light abiding in his heart."
*This statement is true because everything is one, reflecting the important
principle we shall see later: giving and receiving are the same (e.g.,
W-pI126,158). If we are one, I cannot give to another nor receive from another,
but only to and from myself. Such insight belongs to our right-minded self that
has learned the value of sharing, not the ego's wrong-minded self that sees only
separate interests. The former leads to the strength of Christ's light; the
later to the weakness of the ego's darkness.*
(9) "The strength in you will offer you the light, and guide your seeing so you
do not dwell on idle shadows that the body's eyes provide for self-deception.
Strength and light unite in you, and where they meet, your Self stands ready to
embrace you as Its Own. Such is the meeting place we try today to find and rest
in, for the peace of God is where your Self, His Son, is waiting now to meet
Itself again, and be as One."
*As our choices become increasingly right-minded -- the strong light of
forgiveness over the weak darkness of attack; the reflection of spirit's oneness
over the body's separation -- we stand on the edge of the real world, beyond
which is the Oneness we never truly left.
As we shall now see, Jesus is up from ten to twenty minutes in the quiet periods
he asks us to give him in these exercises. As we realize the benefits to us of
these lessons, the quiet times spent with the idea for the day will become
increasingly joyful, as will be the specific opportunities for application the
day provides:*
(10:1-2) "Let us give twenty minutes twice today to join this meeting. Let
yourself be brought unto your Self."
*Who brings us to our Self? -- the decision maker, joined with Jesus. He cannot
carry us until we first jump into his arms. This is extremely important. We must
first go to him and say: "Please carry me." Jesus cannot bring us home without
our help, and, needless to say, we cannot return without him. That is why he
reminds us:*
(10:3-4) "Its strength will be the light in which the gift of sight is given
you. Leave, then, the dark a little while today ... "
*Jesus is not saying we should leave the dark permanently. It is extremely
important to understand this so we do not panic at the thought of being in the
light. He is simply asks us to practice for "a little while": "Join with me and
let me look at your silly thought with you," he says to us. We need only realize
our silliness in having placed faith in the body, not withdraw it. There are
many passages throughout A Course in Miracles that explain how the body
constantly fails us, and so deserves but a knowing smile for our seriousness in
having trusting it. One of my (and Helen's) favorites comes early in the text,
where Jesus presents an imaginary conversation between the mind's decision-maker
and the ego, it having previously followed the ego's counsel to choose the body
for its safety, only to discover that the body is hardly a safe refuge at all:
"The body is the ego's home by its own election. It is the only identification
with which the ego feels safe, ... Here is where the mind [i.e.the decision
maker] becomes actually dazed. Being told by the ego that it is really part of
the body and that the body is its protector, the mind is also told that the body
cannot protect it. Therefore, the mind asks, "Where can I go for protection?" to
which the ego replies, "Turn to me". The mind, and not without cause, reminds
the ego that it has itself insisted that it is identified with the body, so
there is no point in turning to it for protection. The ego has no real answer to
this because there is none, but it does have a typical solution. It obliterates
the question from the mind's awareness. Once out of awareness the question can
and does produce uneasiness, but it cannot be answered because it cannot be
asked." (T.4.V.4.1).
According to the ego, the body will keep us safe and secure, and so we cling to
our bodily identification because we believe it protects us. Yet as we look at
our lives and the lives of everyone else, it is all too clear that the body does
a terrible job of protection. That is why Jesus does not ask us to give up this
identity, but to step back with him "a little while" and question it. When we
look at the body from his point of view, we join his gentle laughter in response
to the silliness of our own and everyone else's life, simply because the body
does not work. Unaware of our choice to identify with the body, however, we are
condemned to a life of weakness in which we do not really see. Thus the purpose
of these lessons is to help us learn we do have a choice: light or darkness,
strength or weakness, God or the ego.*
(11) "Morning and evening we will practice thus. After the morning meeting, we
will use the day in preparation for the time at night when we will meet again in
trust. Let us repeat as often as we can the idea for today, and recognize that
we are being introduced to sight, and led away from darkness to the light where
only miracles can be perceived."
*Our two longer practice periods thus become the two ends of the day's rainbow,
under which kind and gentle arch we draw meaning from the day's events. We rest
comfortably in this meaning, as we gratefully welcome each opportunity to choose
the miracles that leads us from darkness to the light.*
Love and Blessings,
Lyn Johnson 719-369-1822
|
Lesson 91. Miracles are seen in light.
Lesson 91. Miracles are seen in light.
(1) It is important to remember that miracles and vision necessarily go
together. This needs repeating, and frequent repeating. It is a central idea in
your new thought system, and the perception that it produces. The miracle is
always there. Its presence is not caused by your vision; its absence is not the
result of your failure to see. It is only your awareness of miracles that is
affected. You will see them in the light; you will not see them in the dark.
(2) To you, then, light is crucial. While you remain in darkness, the miracle
remains unseen. Thus you are convinced it is not there. This follows from the
premises from which the darkness comes. Denial of light leads to failure to
perceive it. Failure to perceive light is to perceive darkness. The light is
useless to you then, even though it is there. You cannot use it because its
presence is unknown to you. And the seeming reality of the darkness makes the
idea of light meaningless.
(3) To be told that what you do not see is there sounds like insanity. It is
very difficult to become convinced that it is insanity not to see what is there,
and to see what is not there instead. You do not doubt that the body's eyes can
see. You do not doubt the images they show you are reality. Your faith lies in
the darkness, not the light. How can this be reversed? For you it is impossible,
but you are not alone in this.
(4) Your efforts, however little they may be, have strong support. Did you but
realize how great this strength, your doubts would vanish. Today we will devote
ourselves to the attempt to let you feel this strength. When you have felt the
strength in you, which makes all miracles within your easy reach, you will not
doubt. The miracles your sense of weakness hides will leap into awareness as you
feel the strength in you.
(5) Three times today, set aside about ten minutes for a quiet time in which you
try to leave your weakness behind. This is accomplished very simply, as you
instruct yourself that you are not a body. Faith goes to what you want, and you
instruct your mind accordingly. Your will remains your teacher, and your will
has all the strength to do what it desires. You can escape the body if you
choose. You can experience the strength in you.
(6) Begin the longer practice periods with this statement of true cause and
effect relationships:
Miracles are seen in light.
The body's eyes do not perceive the light.
But I am not a body. What am I?
The question with which this statement ends is needed for our exercises today.
What you think you are is a belief to be undone. But what you really are must be
revealed to you. The belief you are a body calls for correction, being a
mistake. The truth of what you are calls on the strength in you to bring to your
awareness what the mistake conceals.
(7) If you are not a body, what are you? You need to be aware of what the Holy
Spirit uses to replace the image of a body in your mind. You need to feel
something to put your faith in, as you lift it from the body. You need a real
experience of something else, something more solid and more sure; more worthy of
your faith, and really there.
(8) If you are not a body, what are you? Ask this in honesty, and then devote
several minutes to allowing your mistaken thoughts about your attributes to be
corrected, and their opposites to take their place. Say, for example:
I am not weak, but strong.
I am not helpless, but all powerful.
I am not limited, but unlimited.
I am not doubtful, but certain.
I am not an illusion, but a reality.
I cannot see in darkness, but in light.
(9) In the second phase of the exercise period, try to experience these truths
about yourself. Concentrate particularly on the experience of strength. Remember
that all sense of weakness is associated with the belief you are a body, a
belief that is mistaken and deserves no faith. Try to remove your faith from it,
if only for a moment. You will be accustomed to keeping faith with the more
worthy in you as we go along.
(10) Relax for the rest of the practice period, confident that your efforts,
however meager, are fully supported by the strength of God and all His Thoughts.
It is from Them that your strength will come. It is through Their strong support
that you will feel the strength in you. They are united with you in this
practice period, in which you share a purpose like Their Own. Theirs is the
light in which you will see miracles, because Their strength is yours. Their
strength becomes your eyes, that you may see.
(11) Five or six times an hour, at reasonably regular intervals, remind yourself
that miracles are seen in light. Also, be sure to meet temptation with today's
idea. This form would be helpful for this special purpose:
Miracles are seen in light. Let me not close my eyes because of this.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The commentary on this lesson is 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 91. "Miracles are seen in light."
*The twenty lessons comprising this next series share the same theme, though
expressed in different ways, reflecting the musical form of <theme and
variations>. The theme is the contrast between the ego self and true Self, and
Lesson 91 focuses on the power of our minds to choose between the ego's
interpretation of our identity -- a sinful, guilty, and fearful self -- and the
Holy Spirit's reminder of Who we are as Christ. Another aspect of this theme is
that since our ego is directly manifest in the body, we ultimately shift this
identification to the spirit that is our Self.
The title of the first lesson in this series expresses its theme of the miracle,
the choosing of which is the <cause> that leads to vision, the <effect>. We are
reminded that vision has nothing to do with the body's eyes, but with a state of
mind that is achieved by choosing Jesus as our teacher. Thus we perceive the
world through the lens of forgiveness, rather than the ego's judgment.*
(1:1) "It is important to remember that miracles and vision necessarily go
together."
*I pointed out earlier that miracle in A Course in Miracles can best be defined
as a correction of false perception, having nothing to do with anything
external. It shifts our way of seeing the world -- separation, differences,
attack, and bodies -- to Jesus' vision of the world as a classroom offering us
opportunities to learn forgiveness. Therefore, the immediate effect of choosing
the miracle is this new way of seeing -- the meaning of vision.*
(2:1) "To you, then, light is crucial."
*To repeat this important thought, light has nothing to do with the physical,
including auras or any other psychic expression. In A Course in Miracles light
is equated with the Holy Spirit's correction -- the Atonement, forgiveness, the
miracle. That is why it is so crucial to us. It is the way out of the ego's
darkened hell of guilt.*
(3:1-2) "To be told that what you do not see is there sounds like insanity. It
is very difficult to become convinced that it is insanity not to see what is
there, and to see what is not there instead."
*Over and over we see Jesus using this classic definition of psychosis. Among
the tell-tale clinical signs of mental illness are visual and auditory
hallucinations. This is yet another instance of Jesus gently telling us we are
insane. Once again we see the purposive nature of the world and body, and its
strategic importance in the ego's plan to keep us in the seeming reality of
"what is not there," while "what is there" cannot be seen. This is the meaning
of the following passage from the text:
"When you made visible what is not true, what is true became invisible to you.
Yet it cannot be invisible in itself, for the Holy Spirit sees it with perfect
clarity. It is invisible to you because you are looking at something else."
(T-12.III.3:1-3).
It is the body that enables us to look at the "something else" and believe it is
there.*
(4:1) "Your efforts, however little they may be, have strong support."
*This is an echo of the familiar theme of a <little willingness> that is so
important in the text:
"The holy instant is the result of your determination to be holy.... You prepare
your mind for it only to the extent of recognizing that you want it above all
else. It is not necessary that you do more; indeed, it is necessary that you
realize that you cannot do more. Do not attempt to give the Holy Spirit what He
does not ask, or you will add the ego to Him and confuse the two. He asks but
little. It is He Who adds the greatness and the might.... The holy instant ...
is always the result of your small willingness combined with the unlimited power
of God's Will." (T-18.IV.1:1,4-8;4:1-2).
We are not asked to do a great deal, like teach the Holy Spirit's lessons, but
only to choose Him as our Teacher as an expression of our little willingness. We
are not even asked to learn His lessons, for that will come later. Jesus asks us
but to recognize we have been wrong in our choice of teacher, and to understand
there is another One in our minds to Whom we can go.
As our fear diminishes and we choose the correct Teacher, we learn His lessons.
At first the little willingness expresses the happy thought we are wrong. We are
even more grateful there is Someone within us Who is right. This is the first
step and perhaps the most important step, because it moves us to the right
ladder. How long it takes to climb to the top is of no real concern, for what
alone is important is that Jesus helps us find our way home. Finding it, again,
means happily realizing we are wrong about where we thought it was.*
(5:1) "Three times today, set aside about ten minutes for a quiet time in which
you try to leave your weakness behind."
*As the lessons progress, we see how Jesus increases the time we spend with him
each day. At the beginning of the workbook he asked for only a couple of
minutes, if we could manage even that. Now he is up to ten minutes, three times
a day, and the time will continue to increase. *
(6:1-5) "Begin the longer practice periods with this statement of true cause and
effect relationships:
"Miracles are seen in light.
The body's eyes do not perceive the light.
But I am not a body. What am I?"
*That question is the problem. Remember, we made the world and body in the first
place -- as one collective Son -- to escape from the vengeful wrath of God told
us is the mind's reality. The ego told us our independence from God was bought
at the cost of sin. We destroyed God, and now He is going to rise up and return
the favor. That is the terror the ego placed in everyone's mind, and which drove
us out of our minds -- figuratively and literally -- making up the physical
world: the Course's version of the Big Bang.
The question Jesus raises is: If you are not a body, what are you? Reading
carefully should strike terror in your heart, because you would suddenly have to
address his question. Who are you if not your problems, list of grievances,
personality, skin color, sex, height, weight, age, nationality, etc.? We are
thus returned to the bottom line of A Course in Miracles: our ability to
understand that everything we made is false. Our goal is to say that we are glad
-- truly glad -- that we are wrong. The miracle is the means whereby we come to
recognize our mistaken choice, made not in the body but the mind, and so
corrected there.*
(6:6) "The question with which this statement ends is needed for our exercises
today."
*As we go through the workbook, we notice that the stakes are getting higher.
The previous ninety lessons have gently led us to this point. We have been
presented with several key ideas, among which are that our thoughts give meaning
to everything, they make the world, and ultimately there is no world outside us.
These ideas have been presented in such a way that most of the time we do not
seriously think about their implication: If there is no world outside our minds,
there can be no body outside our minds either. This means confronting the
question: Who am I? Jesus has taken us to the point in our training where he
asks us to do just that.*
(6:7) "What you think you are is a belief to be undone."
*We think we are bodies, underlying which is the belief we are "the home of
evil, darkness and sin" (W-pI.93.1:1). This is what needs to be undone. Note the
word <belief>. Our bodies are not facts, but beliefs. You cannot change a fact,
which of course is the point of the ego's thought system. Our separation,
embodied in our bodies, is taken as fact, part of the so-called natural order.
Its immutability seems to have a cast us permanently out of Heaven, never to
return. That is why Jesus has placed so much emphasis on our understanding the
power of thought -- in the mind, not the brain. The separation, and the body
that resulted from it, is a belief, and thus can be changed by exercising the
mind's power to choose a different thought, learning to place its faith in the
Holy Spirit's Atonement and withdrawing it from the ego's separation.*
(6:8) "But what you really are must be revealed to you."
*What we really are is one Self, revealed to us not by Jesus telling us, but by
our lifting the veil that kept the memory of this Self away. The culmination of
the ego's strategy to keep truth hidden is the body, with which we identify.
Forgiveness -- the process of withdrawing our projected guilt -- removes the
veils that had kept us unaware of love's presence (T-in.1:7): what we really
are:
(6:9-10) "The belief you are a body calls for correction, being a mistake. The
truth of what you are calls on the strength in you to bring to your awareness
what the mistake conceals."
*Here we see enunciated the mistake that conceals the truth. In this lesson
Jesus focuses on the mistake of identifying with the body. As I have said, Jesus
does not mean for us to give up the body. Rather, we are asked only to think
about its nature. This is only Lesson 91, and when we reach the end of the
workbook Jesus tells us we are only at the beginning (W-ep.1:1). Again, he is
not expecting his students to let the body go, but to step back and seriously
think about its role in the ego's thought system of specialness. Such an
exercise reflects the gentle steps that help us shift identification from the
ego's thought system of weakness to the decision-making part of our minds that
would now be free to choose the strength of Christ as is reality.*
(7:1) "If you are not a body, what are you?"
*Now comes the real terror, reflecting the thought that comes at the conclusion
of "Self-Concept Versus Self":
"There is no statement that the world is more afraid to hear than this:
I do not know the thing I am, and therefore do not know what I am doing, where I
am, or how to look upon the world or on myself." (T-31.V.17:6-7).
This is the statement the ego has sought mightily to keep us from uttering. It
marks the end of its carefully contrived thought system of concealment. Our
raising this concern to awareness allows us to look at the seeming certainty of
our identity as a guilty, bodily self, thus opening the possibility, at last, of
questioning the fundamental premise of the ego itself: the belief that the
separation from God actually occurred. Questioning that premise allows us to
question the premise that we -- physical and psychological selves -- have
actually occurred as well.*
(7:2-4) "You need to be aware of what the Holy Spirit uses to replace the image
of a body in your mind. You need to feel something to put your faith in, as you
lift it from the body. You need a real experience of something else, something
more solid and more sure; more worthy of your faith, and really there."
*This gives us an incisive glimpse into Jesus' methodology. Throughout A Course
in Miracles he presents us with both sides of the split mind. He is explicit
about the need -- if not the urgency -- that we look at the ego and understand
its thought system. At the same time he helps us realize how it attempts to
cloak the truth. While our terror is that we will give up the ego and have
nothing, we have these words and lessons to help us learn that giving up the ego
is the means of discovering the glorious truth about ourselves -- the Everything
of God.
Therefore Jesus is not just saying we are not bodies. He is also saying there is
something palpably real inside us that will take the place of our bodily
identification. That is why this is a long-term process: Part of us understands
that to begin to release our ego identity, with its specialness and judgments,
means our individuality is not far behind. That is what frightens us. Nowhere is
this strange is this strange situation -- our fear of the truth -- more directly
expressed than in "The Fear of Redemption." The following paragraph is a
representative excerpt from this important section, which describes the fear of
awakening to the truth of our Identity as children of Love:
"You have built your whole insane belief system because you think you would be
helpless in God's Presence, and you would save yourself from His Love because
you think it would crush you into nothingness. You are afraid it would sweep you
away from yourself and make you little, because you believe that magnitude lies
in defiance, and that attack is grandeur. You think you have made a world God
would destroy; and by loving Him, which you do, you would throw this world away,
which you would. Therefore, you have used the world to cover your love, and the
deeper you go into the blackness of the ego's foundation, the closer you come to
the Love that is hidden there. And it is this that frightens you.
(T-13.III.4).
(8:1-2) "If you are not a body, what are you? Ask this in honesty, and then
devote several minutes to allowing your mistaken thoughts about your attributes
to be corrected, and their opposites to take their place."
*This is an example of what we have been discussing. Jesus is letting us know
that <he> knows we are not going to let go of the body all that quickly, and
that we still have a great many mistaken thoughts. He is therefore not going to
exchange our illusions for the truth, but will exchange our hateful, malevolent
illusions for kinder, more gentle ones. That is the meaning of the following
statements. They are not to be taken as affirmations, as I have said before, but
as reminders of where Jesus is leading us. He thus has us say:*
(8:4-9) "I am not weak, but strong.
I am not helpless, but all powerful.
I am not limited, but unlimited.
I am not doubtful, but certain.
I am not an illusion, but a reality.
I cannot see in darkness, but in light."
*Jesus is telling us to bring the illusions of our mistaken thoughts to the
truth of our Identity.Thus we begin to substitute happy images of ourselves for
the unhappy ones. In the end, all images will disappear. However, he is not
asking us to have that be our experience now. His teaching is always gentle and
patient.
As we practice a lesson like this, we need to be aware of our thoughts about
ourselves, so we can learn they are mistakes. Indeed, there is a correction for
each mistaken thought in our minds, and we need to learn to bring Jesus along
with us so we can look together at these thoughts of inadequacy, failure, and
self-hatred. Such non-judgmental looking enacts the correction, enabling us to
see through the illusions to the light of the truth.*
(9:1-3) "In the second phase of the exercise period, try to experience these
truths about yourself. Concentrate particularly on the experience of strength.
Remember that all sense of weakness is associated with the belief you are a
body, a belief that is mistaken and deserves no faith."
*All experiences of weakness comes from identifying with the body. As always,
the references are not just to the physical, but to the psychological self as
well. Again, our sense of pain, suffering, and failure comes from putting faith
in our bodies. Yet the body is not the issue. As Jesus told us earlier in the
workbook, it is the embodiment of the ego's thought system (W-p1.72.2:1-3), and
so the real problem is merely our identification with the ego's use of the body.
Once more, we are not asked to deny our bodies, but simply to correct the
purpose we had given them.*
(11) "Five or six times an hour, at reasonably regular intervals, remind
yourself that miracles are seen in light. Also, be sure to meet temptation with
today's idea. This form would be helpful for this special purpose:
Miracles are seen in light. Let me not close my eyes because of this."
*In the past review, Jesus continually used the word "this," referring to
whatever tempts us throughout the day to be upset. The purpose of the workbook
is to provide us with ideas we would then apply to our everyday situations.
These ideas make no sense, however, if we simply think about them without
practicing, for we need especially to practice when we are tempted to see
ourselves as inadequate, or to project our weakness and see someone else that
way. In other words, whenever we are tempted to make judgments about ourselves
or others is when we need to think about the day's lesson. The decision to
practice is the decision to see: vision instead of judgment. As the text reminds
us:
"Vision or judgment is your choice, but never both of these." (T.20.V.4.7).*
Love and Blessings,
Lyn Johnson 719-369-1822
|
Lesson 90. For this review we will use these ideas:
Lesson 90. For this review we will use these ideas:
1.(79) Let me recognize the problem so it can be solved.
Let me realize today that the problem is always some form of grievance that I
would cherish. Let me also understand that the solution is always a miracle with
which I let the grievance be replaced. Today I would remember the simplicity of
salvation by reinforcing the lesson that there is one problem and one solution.
The problem is a grievance; the solution is a miracle. And I invite the solution
to come to me through my forgiveness of the grievance, and my welcome of the
miracle that takes its place.
Specific applications of this idea might be in these forms:
This presents a problem to me which I would have resolved.
The miracle behind this grievance will resolve it for me.
The answer to this problem is the miracle that it conceals.
3.(80) Let me recognize my problems have been solved.
I seem to have problems only because I am misusing time. I believe that the
problem comes first, and time must elapse before it can be worked out. I do not
see the problem and the answer as simultaneous in their occurrence. That is
because I do not yet realize that God has placed the answer together with the
problem, so that they cannot be separated by time. The Holy Spirit will teach me
this, if I will let Him. And I will understand it is impossible that I could
have a problem which has not been solved already.
These forms of the idea will be useful for specific applications:
I need not wait for this to be resolved.
The answer to this problem is already given me, if I will accept it.
Time cannot separate this problem from its solution.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The commentary on this lesson is 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 90. For this review we will use these ideas:
*This lesson also deals with two parallel lessons: one problem, one solution.*
(1:1) (79) "Let me recognize the problem so it can be solved."
*The problem is defined as a grievance, and the solution as the miracle that
undoes the problem. Could anything be simpler? Jesus would ask.*
(1:2-3) "Let me realize today that the problem is always some form of grievance
that I would cherish. Let me also understand that the solution is always a
miracle with which I let the grievance be replaced."
*We find reflected here the undoing of the ego's first law of chaos -- "There is
a hierarchy of illusions" (T-1.1.1:1) Despite appearances, our problems can be
traced back to a grievance, such as: "If only you had been different, I would be
happy." The solution is the miracle of forgiveness, for the problem was the
projection of guilt, which I now happily reclaim so that it can be released.*
(1:4-6) "Today I would remember the simplicity of salvation by reinforcing the
lesson that there is one problem and one solution. The problem is a grievance;
the solution is a miracle. And I invite the solution to come to me through my
forgiveness of the grievance, and my welcome of the miracle that takes its
place."
*These two lessons form the capstone of the review period, because they clearly
articulate that every problem we experience during the day is a form of attack
or grievance -- whether we are conscious of it or not -- and the only way we can
be happy and remember our function is to let the attack go. We release the
grievance by asking Jesus to help us realize we are wrong because we are
perceiving the situation wrongly. Thus, once again, borrowing the title of the
final chapter of the text, we see and accept the simplicity of salvation: one
problem one solution; one grievance, one miracle.*
(2:2) "This presents a problem to me which I would have resolved."
*The problem we perceive and the remedy we seek are equally illusory. The
"solution" may resolve its specific expression, but not the ultimate problem --
the grievance we hold against ourselves and God. If we truly want to be at
peace, therefore, we need to ask Jesus to help us perceive the situation
differently. We ask him to show us that what we are seeing in this person or
circumstance is a reflection of the mind's decision to exclude love. While the
<forms> vary in our specific applications, the <content> remains the same.
Choosing to separate from the Love of God is the problem; choosing to rejoin
what we never truly left is the solution. Thus today we choose the miracle:*
(2:3-4) "The miracle behind this grievance will resolve it for me."
"The answer to this problem is the miracle that it conceals."
*The inability to make this choice -- to look beyond the problem to the solution
-- reflects our refusal to do so, born of the resistance to "losing" the problem
and thus "losing" our identity. Only by recognizing we are clinging to an
illusion, an illusion that is the source of our unhappiness, will we be
motivated to choose the miracle.*
(3:1)(80) "Let me recognize my problems have been solved."
(3:2-3) "I seem to have problems only because I am misusing time. I believe that
the problem comes first, and time must elapse before it can be worked out."
*This is certainly true from the ego's point of view. Jesus importantly -- is
not saying we should not try to solve problems in the world. However, if the
true problem is a grievance, which hides our guilt, then the solution -- guilt's
undoing -- is instantaneous.*
"The one remaining problem that you have is that you see an interval between
the time when you forgive, and will receive the benefits of trusting in your
brother." (T.26.VIII.1.1)
Jesus is not talking about working out a worldly problem or performing a task,
which very often does take time. After all, it took Helen seven years to take
down A Course in Miracles. He is referring to the correction of the mind's
problem: forgiveness removing our guilt; miracles undoing our grievances.
Again, Jesus is not asking us to ignore the world. Rather, he teaches us that
our problem is not external, but the mind's decision to exclude him. We are
overwhelmed with guilt over this "sin" of betrayal, and that is the source of
our pain, which can be remedied in an instant. All we need do, he tells us, is:
"Bring me back, and speak honestly about what you have done. Let me tell you
that you have not committed a sin, but merely expressed your fear. Let my love
be a gentle reminder that you are better off with me alone." This, then, is the
sense in which healing is immediate, taking only an instant:
"The working out of all correction takes no time at all. Yet the acceptance
of the working out can seem to take forever." (T-26.VIII.6:1-2).
As Jesus tells us in Lesson 188, "Why wait for Heaven?" (W-pI.188.1:1).*
(3:4-5) "I do not see the problem and the answer as simultaneous in their
occurrence. That is because I do not yet realize that God has placed the answer
together with the problem, so that they cannot be separated by time."
*Recall that what we think of as time is nothing but the projection into form of
the ego's unholy trinity of sin, guilt, and fear, resulting in the perception of
linear time: past, present, and future. Both the problem of separation and the
answer of Atonement are located in the mind, beyond time and space. Thus there
is no time needed in the correction of our wrong-minded choice. Only when the
problem and answer are projected into a temporal and spatial world does it
appear that salvation takes time. Once again, we see how everything hinges upon
reversing our projections and regaining the power of our temporal minds to
choose.*
(3:6-7) "The Holy Spirit will teach me this, if I will let Him. And I will
understand it is impossible that I could have a problem which has not been
solved already."
*The problem is that <we do not want Him to teach us>, for we fear losing our
individual identity. Solving the problem of separation is suicide for the ego,
and as long as we identify with its thought system -- as we do when identifying
with our physical and psychological selves -- it becomes suicide for us as well.
Who, then, would willingly choose annihilation of one's self? That is why,
within the temporal illusion, it takes time to shift our identification from the
ego to the Holy Spirit. We begin with shifting our identity from a guilty, angry
self to a forgiving, peaceful self. From these happy dreams, born of miracles,
do we finally awaken -- gradually, gently, and patiently -- to the true Self of
God's living Oneness. Thus have we chosen at last to accept the solution to the
problem that has already been solved.
Finally, the three applications speed us along our journey:*
(4:2-4) "I need not wait for this to be resolved.
The answer to this problem is already given me, if I will accept
it.
Time cannot separate this problem from its solution."
*Perhaps it will take some time for the external problem to be resolved, but our
internal problem -- the <only> problem -- is resolved immediately, for peace
merely waits our acceptance. Salvation from all pain and suffering is in our
minds, where "God placed it." Withdrawing our attention from the world of bodies
to the locus of both the problem and its answer -- the mind -- is all Jesus
requires to teach us that the problem of guilt has already been replaced by
peace.*
Love and Blessings,
Lyn Johnson 719-369-1822
|
Lesson 89. These are our review ideas for today:
Lesson 89. These are our review ideas for today:
1. (77) I am entitled to miracles.
I am entitled to miracles because I am under no laws but God's. His laws release
me from all grievances, and replace them with miracles. And I would accept the
miracles in place of the grievances, which are but illusions that hide the
miracles beyond. Now I would accept only what the laws of God entitle me to
have, that I may use it on behalf of the function He has given me.
(2) You might use these suggestions for specific applications of this idea:
Behind this is a miracle to which I am entitled.
Let me not hold a grievance against you, [name], but
offer you the miracle that belongs to you instead.
Seen truly, this offers me a miracle.
3. (78) Let miracles replace all grievances.
By this idea do I unite my will with the Holy Spirit's, and perceive them as
one. By this idea do I accept my release from hell. By this idea do I express my
willingness to have all my illusions be replaced with truth, according to God's
plan for my salvation. I would make no exceptions and no substitutes. I want all
of Heaven and only Heaven, as God wills me to have.
(4) Useful specific forms for applying this idea would be:
I would not hold this grievance apart from my salvation.
Let our grievances be replaced by miracles, [name].
Beyond this is the miracle by which all my grievances are replaced.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The commentary on this lesson is 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 89. These are our review ideas for today:
*This review contains two lessons that deal specifically with miracles.*
1. (77) "I am entitled to miracles."
*This statement corrects the ego's assertion that we are entitled to punishment
because of our sin. Jesus teaches us we are entitled to the loving correction
the miracle bestows on our tortured and terrified minds.*
(1:2-3) "I am entitled to miracles because I am under no laws but God's. His
laws release me from all grievances, and replace them with miracles."
*God's laws are an expression in our dream of the Atonement principle. His law
in Heaven is the Oneness of His Love. As reflected here, it is the thought that
says the separation never happened, expressed in the recognition that the
grievances we hold against others -- our sins of which we accuse everyone else
-- have not happened either. Thus our brother's "sins" have had no effect on us.
Choosing Jesus as our teacher and the miracle as the correction helps us realize
that everything held against others is secretly held against ourselves. Yet this
has not changed our reality.*
(1:4-5) "And I would accept the miracles in place of the grievances, which are
but illusions that hide the miracles beyond. Now I would accept only what the
laws of God entitle me to have, that I may use it on behalf of the function He
has given me."
*The important point, emphasized again and again, is that we choose to hold
grievances because we are afraid of the love in our minds, because in its
presence our special existence is gone. Thus are our grievances purposive, and
until we change our purpose -- from remaining asleep to awakening -- the
grievances will persist, if not consciously, then remaining fiercely active in
the vaults of guilt well beyond our awareness. Our function of forgiveness
likewise will remain hidden from us as we continue to obey the ego's laws of
guilt and projection instead of God's law, reflected in the Holy Spirit's
miracle.*
(2:2-4) "Behind this is a miracle to which I am entitled.
Let me not hold a grievance against you, [name],
but offer you the miracle that belongs to you instead.
Seen truly, this offers me a miracle."
*Once again we observe the simplicity of Jesus' message: no complicated formulas
or exercises; no intricate metaphysics or theology. All we need do is observe,
with his gentle love gently beside us, how our judgments keep us from the peace
we so fervently desire. Each circumstance throughout the day offers us the
opportunity to forgive ourselves by choosing the miracle instead of a grievance.
Jesus' true perception -- the vision of Christ -- is now ours for the asking and
accepting. Perhaps today.*
(3:2-4) (78) "Let miracles replace all grievances."
"By this idea do I unite my will with the Holy Spirit's, and perceive them as
one."
*Remember, the separation began with the thought that our understanding of the
tiny, mad idea differed from the Holy Spirit's. In that instant we not only said
our will was separate from God's, but separate from the Holy Spirit's as well --
we know better than He. After all, our very existence is proof we pulled off the
impossible, and so He is wrong and we are right. Needless to say, we carried
this arrogant stance of "rightness" into the specific events of our specific
lives. At some time, however, we realize there must be another way, and that
being right has not brought us happiness. We realize we are happy because we are
wrong, as we return to the choice point in our minds and ask the Holy Spirit to
help us look at the situation differently: His way instead of ours. We come to
recognize that perceiving separate interests is the source of our pain, while
accepting the shared interests of God's Sons is how we find happiness and peace,
even midst a world of misery and death.*
(4:2-4) "I would not hold this grievance apart from my salvation.
Let our grievances be replaced by miracles, [name].
Beyond this is the miracle by which all my grievances are replaced."
*As we are tempted to be upset by something in this world -- which reflects a
grievance -- we are asked to understand that this does not make us happy. Thus
we choose the miracle of correction instead, to ensure that our tears of misery
will be replaced by tears of gratitude and hope. By letting miracles replace all
grievances, we let these tears of joy wash all suffering and pain. Who could
ever wish for anything else?*
Love and Blessings,
Lyn Johnson 719-369-1822
|
Lesson 88. Today we will review these ideas:
Lesson 88. Today we will review these ideas:
1.(75) The light has come.
In choosing salvation rather than attack, I merely choose to recognize what is
already there. Salvation is a decision made already. Attack and grievances are
not there to choose. That is why I always choose between truth and illusion;
between what is there and what is not. The light has come. I can but choose the
light, for it has no alternative. It has replaced the darkness, and the darkness
has gone.
These would prove useful forms for specific applications of this idea:
This cannot show me darkness, for the light has come.
The light in you is all that I would see, [name].
I would see in this only what is there.
3.(76) I am under no laws but God's.
Here is the perfect statement of my freedom. I am under no laws but God's. I am
constantly tempted to make up other laws and give them power over me. I suffer
only because of my belief in them. They have no real effect on me at all. I am
perfectly free of the effects of all laws save God's. And His are the laws of
freedom.
For specific forms in applying this idea, these would be useful:
My perception of this shows me I believe in laws that do not exist.
I see only the laws of God at work in this.
Let me allow God's laws to work in this, and not my own.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The commentary on this lesson is 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 88. Today we will review these ideas:
(1:1)(75) "The light has come."
*The light has come because the light has always been in our minds. This is
reflected in the first sentence.*
(1:2) "In choosing salvation rather than attack, I merely choose to recognize
what is already there."
*That is why "the light has come." The light of the Atonement is in our minds,
but when we choose it we experience it as coming to us. In truth, however, we
have come to it. We left the light when we chose the ego's darkness, and now we
have returned. Coming to the light is salvation, just as leaving it constituted
the first attack, mirrored in the specific attacks within our lives that are
merely the shadowy fragments of the original thought.*
(2:2-4) "This cannot show me darkness, for the light has come."
"The light in you is all that I would see, [name]."
"I would see in this only what is there."
*Confronted by the ego's perceptions of specialness -- the darkened world of
guilt, judgment, hate, punishment, and fear -- we go quickly to Jesus that we
may see the situation differently. His vision -- <all> people calling for love
or expressing it; <all> people sharing in the ego's insanity of hate and the
Holy Spirit's sanity of forgiveness -- reflects Heaven's light. This light, born
of our inherent sameness as God's Son, we now wish to see in others, for it is
what we wish to see in ourselves.*
(4:2-4) "My perception of this shows me I believe in laws that do not exist."
"I see only the laws of God at work in this."
"Let me allow God's laws to work in this, and not my own."
*Whatever we perceive outside shows us that we believe in the ego's "laws that
do not exist." Our daily practice, therefore, consists of first looking at the
world through the ego's eyes of special and separate interests, the reflection
of its fundamental law of separation. Recognizing this false perception allows
me, next, to ask my new Teacher to teach me its correction. And so the Holy
Spirit gently instructs me in the practicing of forgiveness, the reflection on
earth of God's law of love. Regardless of the situation I am in, regardless of
the pain (or pleasure) afforded me in a relationship, I can see God's laws
reflected by seeing the opportunity to learn how separate interests lead to
hell, while shared purpose leads to the Heaven I never truly left -- the Home of
God's laws of love and life.*
Love and Blessings,
Lyn Johnson 719-369-1822
|
Lesson 87. Our review today will cover these ideas:
Lesson 87. Our review today will cover these ideas:
1.(73) I will there be light.
I will use the power of my will today. It is not my will to grope about in
darkness, fearful of shadows and afraid of things unseen and unreal. Light shall
be my guide today. I will follow it where it leads me, and I will look only on
what it shows me. This day I will experience the peace of true perception.
These forms of this idea would be helpful for specific applications:
This cannot hide the light I will to see.
You stand with me in light, [name].
In the light this will look different.
3.(74) There is no will but God's.
I am safe today because there is no will but God's. I can become afraid only
when I believe there is another will. I try to attack only when I am afraid, and
only when I try to attack can I believe that my eternal safety is threatened.
Today I will recognize that all this has not occurred. I am safe because there
is no will but God's.
These are some useful forms of this idea for specific applications:
Let me perceive this in accordance with the Will of God.
It is God's Will you are His Son, [name], and mine as well.
This is part of God's Will for me, however I may see it.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The commentary on this lesson is 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 87. Our review today will cover these ideas:
(1:1) (73) "I will there be light."
*This is a direct appeal to the power of our minds to make another choice: the
light of forgiveness instead of the darkness of attack.*
(1:2-3) "I will use the power of my will today. It is not my will to grope about
in darkness, fearful of shadows and afraid of things unseen and unreal."
*This was my ego's wish in contrast to the Holy Spirit's Will, which I now
reflect in the right-minded use of my decision-making ability. Despite my wish
for shadows, my will remains one with God's, held in safekeeping by the Holy
Spirit. I had substituted what the ego would say is my will -- really the ego's
wishes -- to be an individual, a decision which inevitably led to the ego's
darkened thought system of separation and fear, culminating in the shadowy
physical world of separation and fear. This lesson, then, is a direct appeal to
look at things differently, to exercise the power of my mind ("the power of my
will") to make another choice.*
(1:4-6) "Light shall be my guide today. I will follow it where it leads me, and
I will look only on what it shows me. This day I will experience the peace of
true perception."
*Learning our lessons, we happily choose to let the light of Jesus' wisdom guide
us each day. We look on the world through his non-judgmental eyes of forgiveness
and peace. Our eyes "see" what they have always seen, but now we see
differently: calls for love or expressions of it, as opposed to the ego's "eyes"
that see only sin, guilt, and the need for punishment.*
(2:2) "This cannot hide the light I will to see."
*Looking at situations that heretofore had reflected the ego's darkened world of
guilt and judgment, I recognize they had no power to hide the light of
forgiveness from me. It was my mind that had the power, by choosing not to see
the light that was always there. In other words, nothing here has the power of
that light. But within the delusional dreams of shadows and death, we can choose
not to recognize it, even though it shines so brightly within, and its
reflections all around us. We choose now to recognize these witnesses to the
light and see them as our own. Thus we say to each special love and hate
partner.*
(2:3) "You stand with me in light, [name]."
*Those we had condemned to hell join as one Son, along with us, together
awakening from the dream of death. All that is necessary for this happy
recognition to occur is the willingness to look at the ego's lies for what they
are, choosing instead to believe the truth Jesus has always held out for us,
patiently our acceptance.*
(2:4) "In the light this will look different."
*In Lesson 193, Jesus says, "Forgive, and you [I] will see this differently"
(W-pI.193.3:7). When I let him be my eyes, the external situation does not
change, but the way I perceive it does. Rather than seeing the situation as a
way of proving I am right and Jesus is wrong, that differences are real and sin
rests in you and not in me, I realize that together we share the purpose of
awakening from the dream. Again, this shift has nothing to do with what is
external, but only with what is in our minds.*
(3:5-6) "Today I will recognize that all this has not occurred. I am safe
because there is no will but God's."
*Even though Jesus does not expect us to accept this totally, we can begin the
process of understand that there is a part of our minds that knows that none of
this occurred. We are fearful of that part because I signifies the end of our
special self.
On the practical level this means that what has not occurred is that you hurt
me, for the truth is <I> have hurt me. In the perceptual world, you may indeed
have said or done something unkind, but I am upset because I want you to hurt
me, accusing you of sin instead of me. In that sense, I forgive you for what you
have <not> done. Only as I progress up the ladder do I realize this is a dream
that is not actually occurring at all.
The three specific applications all reflect the Oneness of God.*
(4:2-4) "Let me perceive this in accordance with the Will of God."
"It is God's Will you are His Son, [name], and mine as well."
"This is part of God's Will for me, however I may see it."
*Everything in our personal world and collective worlds is a reflection of God's
Will -- forgiveness -- if we choose to see it through Jesus' eyes, the vision of
Christ that unifies perception. The <everything> includes the totality of the
Sonship, regardless of how the ego perceives a situation. Since there is no
hierarchy of illusions, all situations are the same, for they share the
wrong-minded purpose of separation as well as the right-minded one of
forgiveness. This unanimity of purpose unites us all: unseparated and undivided
-- one in illusion and one in truth.*
Love and Blessings,
Lyn Johnson 719-369-1822
|
Lesson 86. These ideas are for review today.
Lesson 86. These ideas are for review today.1.(71) Only God's plan for salvation will work.It is senseless for me to search wildly about for salvation. I have seen it inmany people and in many things, but when I reached for it, it was not there. Iwas mistaken about where it is. I was mistaken about what it is. I willundertake no more idle seeking. Only God's plan for salvation will work. And Iwill rejoice because His plan can never fail.These are some suggested forms for applying this idea specifically:God's plan for salvation will save me from my perception of this.This is no exception in God's plan for my salvation.Let me perceive this only in the light of God's plan for salvation.~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~3.(72) Holding grievances is an attack on God's plan for salvation.Holding grievances is an attempt to prove that God's plan for salvation will notwork. Yet only His plan will work. By holding grievances, I amtherefore excluding my only hope of salvation from my awareness. I would nolonger defeat my own best interests in this insane way. I would accept God'splan for salvation, and be happy.Specific applications for this idea might be in these forms:I am choosing between misperception and salvation as I look on this.If I see grounds for grievances in this, I will not see the grounds for mysalvation.This calls for salvation, not attack.~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~The commentary on this lesson is from Kenneth Wapnick's eight volume series ofbooks, called: "Journey Through the Workbook of A Course in Miracles," which canbe purchased at the following site:??~ M. Street~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Lesson 86. These ideas are for review today.1.(71) "Only God's plan for salvation will work."*It can only be God's plan for salvation that will work, because no other plancan save us. All others are external and designed to fail, since each woulddistract attention from our minds -- the source of our problem and the Source ofour salvation.*(1:2-3) "It is senseless for me to search wildly about for salvation. I haveseen it in many people and in many things, but when I reached for it, it was notthere."*We senselessly followed the ego's plan of <seek but do not find,> and whereverwe sought for salvation -- our special relationships -- will always fail, sincethey were made for that purpose, being the substitutes for What alone can saveus. Even more to the point, idols were made to keep us in perpetual state ofmindlessness, ensuring we would never exercise the mind's power to choose --salvation instead of slavation.*(1:4-5) "I was mistaken about where it is. I was mistaken about what it is."*The reference is to special relationships, and Jesus' purpose for us is toforgive our special indulgences, to look with him and realize our insanity inwildly looking around for things to make us happy. Thus would we recognize thefutility of specialness as a way of life: <It does not work>. Peace and lovewill never come when we seek for them outside ourselves. Note this summarizingstatement from "Seek Not Outside Yourself" on the hopelessness of pursuing idolsof specialness, and the hope in seeking only God:"An idol cannot take the place of God. Let Him remind you of His Love foryou, and do not seek to drown His Voice in chants of deep despair to idols ofyourself. Seek not outside your Father for your hope. For hope of happiness isnot despair." (T.29.VII.10.4-7).Whenever we look without judgment at our mistaken search for idols, we are freeto make another choice -- salvation in place of specialness.*(1:6-8) "I will undertake no more idle seeking. Only God's plan for salvationwill work. And I will rejoice because His plan can never fail."*Coming to our sanity at last, we pledge no longer to waste time seeking forwhat can never be found, choosing only to follow the path of forgiveness, whichalone will bring us home. In that choice is found our salvation; in that choiceis found our joy.We look now at the first specific application:*(2:2) "God's plan for salvation will save me from my perception of this."*Notice that we are not going to be saved from "this," whatever the "this" is.We do no have to be saved from a situation, but from our perception of it. Thelanguage is quite specific and intentional: "God's plan for salvation will saveme from my perception of the this." When tempted to be upset by something, weneed only realize this is our perception of the problem. It is not what weperceive to be the problem -- something outside; it is the way we see it, whichmeans the teacher with whom we are seeing: Jesus or the ego. If we are upset, weknow we have chosen the ego. God's plan for salvation calls for us to change ourminds, or more to the point, to change our teacher. Again, if we are not happywith how something is going, we need simply realize it is because we chose thewrong voice and its interpretation of the situation.To restate this point: God's plan to save us is to have us choose a new teacher.Looking at the situation through His eyes, we realize this is an opportunity tolook at what is going on within our minds. If we were not upset by what seems tobe external, would have no opportunity to bring it inside and realize it was aprojection. That is why our special relationships are our saviors. They offer usthe chance to reconsider our faulty perceptions. Once we realize the problem iswithin, we are free to make another choice.*(2:3) "This is no exception in God's plan for my salvation."*The principle of forgiveness always works: "There is no order of difficulty inmiracles." There is no perception of difficulty, pain, or discomfort that willnot change when we choose to set aside our grievances and guilt, and accept theAtonement for ourselves. God's plan for salvation is simple. That is why italways works.*3.(72) "Holding grievances is an attack on God's plan for salvation."*Jesus takes us a step further, by introducing the purposive element of anger:it directly attacks the plan of the Atonement, which redirects our focus inward,where the ego's thought system of guilt and attack is undone.*(3:2-4) "Holding grievances is an attempt to prove that God's plan for salvationwill not work. Yet only His plan will work. By holding grievances, I amtherefore excluding my only hope of salvation from my awareness."*The only hope of salvation, again, lies in my accepting full responsibility forthe misery I experience, which reflects my original choice to be a sinful andguilty individual deserving of misery and punishment. Therefore, in an insaneattempt to be free of pain, I choose to project the guilt and attack you for it.I can thus be saved only by returning to the decision-making part of the mindand correcting this mistaken choice. By being angry, however, and justifying myjudgments, I assert the reality of the body and sin --- yours and mine.Moreover, I consciously believe the sin is not in me and that there is no mind-- everything happens only in a world of bodies where grievances are real andnot my responsibility.By saying to Jesus there is something wrong because I am not at peace, I allowhim to teach me that what I am upset about in you is a split-off part of what Iam upset about in me: my guilt for separating from the Love of God. Jesus helpsme realize I am choosing between misperception and salvation as I look on this.I come to understand that my perception is the effect of my choice: the ego'sgrievances or the Holy Spirit's miracle. The former roots me still further inthe world of guilt and attack, while the latter leads me to my mind, the home ofsalvation.*(4:2-4) "I am choosing between misperception and salvation as I look on this.""If I see grounds for grievances in this, I will not see thegrounds for my salvation.""This calls for salvation, not attack."*I am learning that all circumstances in my life -- past, present, oranticipated -- offer me the opportunity of choosing to see differently. Myproblems are <perceptual>, my perceptions come from <thinking>, and my thinkingoriginates in the mind's <decision> for the ego of the Holy Spirit. Theright-minded choice for forgiveness corrects the ego's thinking, which led to mywrong-minded perceptions of grievances and attack. Because I now choose to behappy, I see grounds for forgiveness and salvation in everything. Only bywishing to remain in the pain of my guilt would I choose to see grounds forgrievances. Yet, as Jesus fortunately reminds us (e.g., T-16.VI.8.8), I am nolonger wholly insane and so I call for salvation and not attack.One final point -- salvation does not mean I save you, the situation, or evenmyself. I save the situation in my mind, by <changing my mind.> All situationscall for this inner shift. Remember , "Seek not to change the world, but chooseto change your mind about the world" (T-21.in.1:7).*
Love and Blessings,
Lyn Johnson 719-369-1822
|
Lesson 85. Today's review will cover these ideas:
Lesson 85. Today's review will cover these ideas:
1.(69) My grievances hide the light of the world in me.
My grievances show me what is not there, and hide from me what I would see.
Recognizing this, what do I want my grievances for? They keep me in darkness and
hide the light. Grievances and light cannot go together, but light and vision
must be joined for me to see. To see, I must lay grievances aside. I want to
see, and this will be the means by which I will succeed.
Specific applications for this idea might be made in these forms:
Let me not use this as a block to sight.
The light of the world will shine all this away.
I have no need for this. I want to see.
3.(70) My salvation comes from me.
Today I will recognize where my salvation is. It is in me because its Source is
there. It has not left its Source, and so it cannot have left my mind. I will
not look for it outside myself. It is not found outside and then brought in. But
from within me it will reach beyond, and everything I see will but reflect the
light that shines in me and in itself.
These forms of the idea are suitable for more specific applications:
Let this not tempt me to look away from me for my salvation.
I will not let this interfere with my awareness of the Source of my salvation.
This has no power to remove salvation from me.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The commentary on this lesson is 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
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
(1:5-6) "Grievances and light cannot go together, but light and vision must be
joined for me to see. To see, I must lay grievances aside."
*This is the bottom line: Do I want to see or not? If I do, Jesus must be my
eyes, which means I cannot judge. I will know which choice I made by its
outcome. Finding myself angry, depressed, guilty, fearful, or anxious is what
tells me I do not want to see. With the ego, my individuality and separation are
all I know and my self is safe, though miserable.*
(1:7) "I want to see, and this will be the means by which I will succeed."
*We are no longer willing to be safe <and> miserable. We want the vision that
embraces all Sons as the same, the precursor to remembering our Oneness as
Christ. In this vision -- born of letting go of grievances -- we find our true
happiness.*
(2:2-5) "Let me not use this as a block to sight."
"The light of the world will shine all this away."
" I have no need for this. I want to see."
*Diligently practicing these lessons helps us realize we have a split mind. The
part that does not want to return home is responsible for our being in the
world. The other part is a student of A Course in Miracles. We must be aware of
both so we can make a meaningful choice between them. We need to understand that
the ego's grievances hold the light of peace and joy from ourselves, leaving us
in the darkness of misery and pain. Only by realizing the connection between our
decision to attack and our suffering will we be motivated to say and mean: "I
have not need for this." In that recognition we shall see, and in that vision
all pain is shined away in the light of forgiveness.*
3.(70) "My salvation comes from me."
*Jesus and the Holy Spirit are not outside me, nor is salvation. Indeed, I am
not outside of me!*
(3:2-6) "Today I will recognize where my salvation is. It is in me because its
Source is there. It has not left its Source, and so it cannot have left my mind.
I will not look for it outside myself. It is not found outside and then brought
in."
*That is what people want to do with God, Jesus, and A Course in Miracles: see
them outside themselves. We must realize that salvation rests only within, in
the power of the mind to choose Jesus as our teacher and not the ego. It is not
found <in> Jesus, but in our mind's capacity to choose him. As we discussed
earlier, Jesus has always asked us to come to him <outside the dream>. Yet we
have continually striven to bring him <into the dream>, so that our ego identity
will remain secure and intact. We need to take Jesus' hand and walk through the
dream, that we may walk with him out of it.
The ego, on the other hand, attempts to keep the dream alive and well, and that
is Jesus' caution here. The memory of God is in our minds, where the dream has
its beginning and ending. Its undoing constitutes salvation, which rests in
choosing to remember our Source -- <in our minds.> As an idea in the Mind of God
we have never left Him, and He has never left us: <ideas leave not their
Source>. That is why we must seek salvation in our right minds, the home of
Jesus, where the memory of God awaits our acceptance as we awaken at last from
the dream of separation and death.*
(3:7) "But from within me it will reach beyond, and everything I see will but
reflect the light that shines in me and in itself."
* "Everything I see," as we now realize, does not refer to physical sight; we do
not really see physical light in people, nor light in objects. Since the light
is a right-minded thought, it is this light of forgiveness that is reflected in
what our eyes "see." Moreover, from the light's extension in the mind the Son is
healed, since the mind of God's Son is one.
Jesus makes his ongoing appeal to apply this idea throughout the day.*
(4:2-4) "Let this not tempt me to look away from me for my salvation."
"I will not let this interfere with my awareness of the Source of my salvation."
"This has no power to remove salvation from me."
*In other words, it is <our> choice whether the world will take our peace from
us, for in and of itself, being an illusion, it can do nothing. We alone have
power, which we then project onto the world. It is the mind that chooses against
Jesus' peace, and he asks us not to give in to this temptation because it will
not make us happy. He directs our sight inward and away from the world; the
shift in purpose -- from guilt to salvation -- reflects our decision to remember
our Source and our Self.*
Love and Blessings,
Lyn Johnson 719-369-1822
|
Lesson 84. These are the ideas for today's review:
Lesson 84. These are the ideas for today's review:
1.(67) Love created me like itself.
I am in the likeness of my Creator. I cannot suffer, I cannot experience loss
and I cannot die. I am not a body. I would recognize my reality today. I will
worship no idols, nor raise my own self-concept to replace my Self. I am in the
likeness of my Creator. Love created me like itself.
You might find these specific forms helpful in applying the idea:
Let me not see an illusion of myself in this.
As I look on this, let me remember my Creator.
My Creator did not create this as I see it.
3. (68). Love holds no grievances.
Grievances are completely alien to love. Grievances attack love and keep its
light obscure. If I hold grievances I am attacking love, and therefore attacking
my Self. My Self thus becomes alien to me. I am determined not to attack my Self
today, so that I can remember Who I am.
These specific forms for applying this idea would be helpful:
This is no justification for denying my Self.
I will not use this to attack love.
Let this not tempt me to attack myself.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The commentary on this lesson is 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
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
(1:7-8) "I am in the likeness of my Creator. Love created me like itself."
*Jesus returns to the lesson's theme, and asks us to return as well. We are
speeded along our journey by our willingness to set aside the ego's shabby
substitutes and accept the truth about ourselves. We are created in the image
and likeness of our Creator and Source -- Love Itself.
This is reiterated in the specific applications:*
(2:2-4) "Let me not see an illusion of myself in this."
"As I look on this, let me remember my Creator."
"My Creator did not create this as I see it."
*The "this" is any situation that causes us to believe we are vulnerable bodies,
reinforcing the belief we are not glorious Self of spirit that God created.
Jesus' point is that if we see ourselves as hurt or exhilarated by anything, it
is because we have chosen to see it that way. Nothing has the power to make us
feel good or bad but the mind's choice for the ego, made because we value it
over the non-dualistic Self created by God. Jesus asks us to want to choose
differently; to see each event of our day as an opportunity to remember our
Creator. This choice is reflected by our recognition that Perfect Love could not
have created the situation we experience, and so it cannot be real. And what is
not real can have no power over us.*
(3:1) (68). "Love holds no grievances."
*Jesus returns to the important theme of grievances and attack thoughts. Implied
here is that our grievances do not just come; we <actively choose them> because
we want to hold another responsible for the misery we feel from having separated
from love. Rather than accept responsibility for our "sin" and admit the fear
that caused us to separate, we deny the sin, split it off from the self and,
through projection, hold grievances against someone else -- <anyone> else --
accusing that person of what we secretly believe we have done. All this is
brought about to fulfill the ego's purpose of protecting its existence through
denying the mind and making us mindless, leaving us "at the mercy of things
beyond [us], forces [we] cannot control" (T-19.IV-D.7:4)*
(4:2-4) "These specific forms for applying this idea would be helpful:
"This is no justification for denying my Self."
" I will not use this to attack love."
"Let this not tempt me to attack myself."
*Jesus, as always, appeals to the power of our minds to make another choice. His
appeal takes the power of recognizing there is no justification for attack
thoughts of any kind. Recalling the shift in purpose, of which the Holy Spirit
is the reminder, allows us to release our grievances. Thus does the love
underneath ascend in our awareness and bring us peace, the steppingstone to
remembering the Self we had denied.*
Love and Blessings,
Lyn Johnson 719-369-1822
|
Lesson 83. Today let us review these ideas:
Lesson 83. Today let us review these ideas:1. (65) My only function is the one God gave me.I have no function but the one God gave me. This recognition releases me fromall conflict, because it means I cannot have conflicting goals. With one purposeonly, I am always certain what to do, what to say and what to think. All doubtmust disappear as I acknowledge that my only function is the one God gave me.(2). More specific applications of this idea might take these forms:My perception of this does not change my function. This does not give me a function other than the one God gave me.Let me not use this to justify a function God did not give me.<3. (66) My happiness and my function are one.All things that come from God are one. They come from Oneness, and must bereceived as one. Fulfilling my function is my happiness because both come fromthe same Source. And I must learn to recognize what makes me happy, if I wouldfind happiness.(4). Some useful forms for specific applications of this idea are:This cannot separate my happiness from my function. The oneness of my happiness and my function remains wholly unaffected bythis.Nothing, including this, can justify the illusion of happiness apart from myfunction.<~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~The commentary on this lesson (below) is from Kenneth Wapnick's eight volumeseries of books, called: "Journey Through the Workbook of A Course in Miracles,"which can be purchased at the following site:??~ M. Street~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Lesson 83. Today let us review these ideas:1.(65) "My only function is the one God gave me."*There <is> nothing else.*(1:2-5) "I have no function but the one God gave me. This recognition releasesme from all conflict, because it means I cannot have conflicting goals. With onepurpose only, I am always certain what to do, what to say and what to think. Alldoubt must disappear as I acknowledge that my only function is the one God gaveme."*Our function is to forgive, the only right-minded reason for being in theworld. We are not here to save it, make a lot of money, raise a happy family,have a healthy body, or live to be a hundred and fifty years. Remembering thiswill remove conflict, because believing our function is external will inevitablyconflict with our internal function of realizing that nothing external isimportant; only the change of thinking brought about by the change of teachers.Conflict results as well from wanting to study this course and return home, atthe same time yearning to be its great teacher,or, seemingly more humbly, itsdevoted student, while still desiring the gifts of specialness: money, fame,power, and love. In these cases we regard an external goal as important -- ifnot more so -- than the internal one, setting up conflict that was the ego'sgoal from the beginning. Yet this course will end conflict, not exacerbate it,and the only right-minded purpose of the external world, once we have made it,is for it to be the mirror that shows us the choice we have made internally.Only then can our minds -- the true source of conflict -- be healed, as thefollowing passage explains:"Forget not that the healing of God's Son is all the world is for. That isthe only purpose the Holy Spirit sees in it, and thus the only one it has. Untilyou see the healing of the Son as all you wish to be accomplished by the world,by time and all appearances, you will not know the Father nor yourself. For youwill use the world for what is not its purpose, and will not escape its laws ofviolence and death." (T.24.VI.4.1-4)Healing is thus the world's only sane purpose. Once we made it as an expressionof our hatred of God and Christ, our new Teacher shifts the purpose. The worldbecomes the vehicle for showing us, first, that we have a mind, and second, theego decision we made within it. Now the right decision is inevitable, and we arecertain of the purpose of forgiveness as doubt disappears.We now seek to apply what we are learning:*(2:2-3) "My perception of this does not change my function.""This does not give me a function other than the one God gave me."*Whatever situation I believe is disrupting my peace has no effect on my mind.Stated another way, nothing I perceive as external has the power to change mypurpose of forgiveness. Regardless of the ego reactions to a situation, myfunction remains within, gently and patiently held for me by Jesus. The readermay recall our earlier citation of this lovely passage of the text -- Jesusechoing his gentle and patient role as our teacher -- part of which we look atagain:"I have saved all your kindnesses and every loving thought you ever had. Ihave purified them of the errors that hid their light, and kept them for you intheir own perfect radiance." (T-5.IV.8:3-4).Despite our ego's shenanigans, we cannot lose. Our insanity has no effect on thesanity within, nor on our sane function of forgiveness.*(2:4) "Let me not use this to justify a function God did not give me."*Let me not use an external situation as a means of justifying the belief thereis some purpose in my life other than undoing the ego's thought system. Theworld is only too happy to cooperate in the ego's plan -- after all, the egomade the world to cooperate -- by providing us with one opportunity afteranother to justify our judgments and grievances, our perception that we havebeen unfairly treated; an unfairness that can be remedied only by our defensiveand, at times, aggressive response. However, we are twice told: Anger is neverjustified (T-6.in.1:7; T-30.VI.1:1-2). Restoring the mind's peace is our onlyresponsibility, and recognition of this happy fact is the heart of our functionof forgiveness.*(3:1)(66) "My happiness and my function are one."*This is because our happiness does not result from anything in the world.Remember the laws of specialness tell us our happiness comes from the body: ourown or another's, or anything external. This, again, must engender conflict,because happiness comes only when we let go of guilt, the joyous effect offorgiveness. However, if we think there is pleasure in the world, we willinevitably be in conflict. This certainly does not mean we should feel guiltybecause we still seek bodily pleasure, but only that we should be aware of whatwe are doing. This is not a course in sacrifice or giving up what we feel isimportant, but in our learning, as Jesus instructs us near the end of the text,that giving up the world is giving up nothing, and therefore there is nosacrifice involved. Thus at the same time he is asking us to give up nothing,Jesus is helping us recognize that everything here is nothing. Only then can wetruly give up the world:"Give up the world! But not to sacrifice. You never wanted it. Whathappiness have you sought here that did not bring you pain? What moment ofcontent has not been bought at fearful price in coins of suffering? Joy has nocost. It is your sacred right, and what you pay for is not happiness. Be speededon your way by honesty, and let not your experiences here deceive in retrospect.They were not free from bitter cost and joyless consequence." (T.30.V.9.4-12)This is a course in opening our eyes so that we understand how what we think,feel, and do fits into God's plan of Atonement. Everything we desire outside canserve a holy purpose, if we let the Holy Spirit teach us its true meaning. Thus,to repeat this important point, realizing that our happiness does not come fromthe external should not make us feel guilty. It is a statement that merely helpsus realize that our entire lives are based on conflict, and from thatrealization comes the end of conflict and the dawning of true happiness.*(3:2-4) "All things that come from God are one. They come from Oneness, and mustbe received as one. Fulfilling my function is my happiness because both comefrom the same Source."*The ego tries to split us off from God and from our self -- <in the mind> --and then have us believe that our happiness and function rest outside us -- <inthe body>. Once we understand the principle of oneness, however, everything isclear. The contrast is striking between this principle and how we live ourlives, which are characterized by separation, differences, and discrete events:We feel good some days and not others; good with the same people sometimes butnot other times, and on and on and on. Our experience is never unified, foreverything is governed by adherence to the ego's principle of <one or the other>: My interests and yours are separate -- if I win you lose, if I lose you win.Jesus helps us realize that the way back to God's living Oneness is throughreflecting Its Love, which we do by perceiving each other through the lens ofshared interests.*(3:5) "And I must learn to recognize what makes me happy, if I would findhappiness."*The purpose of these lessons is to teach what would make us happy. We have seenrepeatedly that happiness does not lie in the fulfillment of something external,for that is merely transitory.Jesus asks us to apply the idea of the lesson as follows:*(4:2-3) "This cannot separate my happiness from my function.""The oneness of my happiness and my function remains wholly unaffected by this."*As in the previous lesson, we are asked to recognize that whatever form ofupset confronts us, it has no power to change the happiness that forgivenessbrings. Happiness comes from the mind's decision, and no power in the world cantake that from us. Only our decision can, and unfortunately has done so.We can see again and again in these applications how Jesus asks us to take theserelatively abstract ideas and apply them in our diurnal situations. That ismandatory if we are going to learn this course, which is not really anintellectual process. While intellectually learning its message is important --that is the purpose of the text, after all -- if we do not apply the teachings,they mean nothing. Therefore, the emphasis of these lessons is to have us gothrough our day as we normally would, but the moment something disturbs ourpeace or makes us excited, to realize this can have no effect on our happinessand function, which are within. We have merely covered them with illusions,which have no effect on the truth.The last statement repeats this thought:*(4:4) "Nothing, including this, can justify the illusion of happiness apart frommy function."*When something makes you happy and gives you pleasure, realize this experienceis separate from your function of forgiveness, and so it will not last. Truehappiness in this world comes from letting go of guilt, the problem that causedus to flee our minds, as we believed we fled from Heaven. Guilt's undoing, then,is the source of pain, and returns us to the home we never left.Our happiness during the day is equated with forgiveness, wherein we recognizethat nothing and no one has the power to take away the peace of God. It is ours,awaiting our acceptance. Awareness of this fact, even if we are not yet ready tochoose peace, provides an intimation of joy and a sense of hope, which areimpossible as long as we think we need to manipulate, seduce, or change theworld. This may work some days, but never all the time. Indeed, this is thecriterion Jesus asks us to use in evaluating the worth of anything in the world,as he says in Lesson 133. Previewing this incisive passage, we read:"If you choose a thing that will not last forever, what you chose isvalueless. A temporary value is without all value. Time can never take away avalue that is real. What fades and dies was never there, and makes no offeringto him who chooses it." (W-pI.133.6:1-4).Simply realizing that we no longer have to "value what is valueless" (W-pI.133,title), even if we are not yet ready to let it go, is a source of hope.*
Love and Blessings,
Lyn Johnson 719-369-1822
|
Lesson 82. We will review these ideas today:
Lesson 82. We will review these ideas today:
1.(63) The light of the world brings peace to every mind through my forgiveness.
My forgiveness is the means by which the light of the world finds expression
through me. My forgiveness is the means by which I become aware of the light of
the world in me. My forgiveness is the means by which the world is healed,
together with myself. Let me, then, forgive the world, that it may be healed
along with me.
2.Suggestions for specific forms for applying this idea are:
Let peace extend from my mind to yours, [name].
I share the light of the world with you, [name].
Through my forgiveness I can see this as it is.
3.(64) Let me not forget my function.
I would not forget my function, because I would remember my Self. I cannot
fulfill my function if I forget it. And unless I fulfill my function, I will not
experience the joy that God intends for me.
4. Suitable specific forms of this idea include:
Let me not use this to hide my function from me.
I would use this as an opportunity to fulfill my function.
This may threaten my ego, but cannot change my function in any way.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The commentary on this lesson (below) is 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 82. We will review these ideas today:
1.(63) "The light of the world brings peace to every mind through my
forgiveness."
*This lesson extends the previous one.*
(1:2-5) "My forgiveness is the means by which the light of the world finds
expression through me. My forgiveness is the means by which I become aware of
the light of the world in me. My forgiveness is the means by which the world is
healed, together with myself. Let me, then, forgive the world, that it may be
healed along with me."
*We see the by-now familiar theme that the mind of God's Son is one, the basis
for the world's healing. If I forgive you, I must be forgiving me because we
come from the same self. When I accept Jesus' love as my identity instead of the
ego's special love, I realize there is no separation in the Sonship without
forgiving all of it. This is an essential part of Course's message. To say it
again, Jesus is not talking about healing an external world. <There is no
external world!> That is why he says in the text, "seek not to change the world,
but choose to change your mind about the world." (T-21.in.1.7) The world, being
an idea, has never left its source in the mind; therefore it still exists there.
Thus, when my mind is healed of thoughts of separation -- sin, guilt, and attack
-- the world must be healed accordingly.
Next we see these three statements, to be applied in our daily practicing: *
(2:2-4) "Let peace extend from my mind to yours, [name].
I share the light of the world with you, [name].
Through my forgiveness I can see this as it is."
*If there is peace in your mind, it must extend to everyone. One clear way of
discerning whether you have chosen God's peace or the ego's hatred is to pay
attention to your perceptions. If you perceive anything in the world disturbing
you, peace cannot be in your mind. This reflects the early lessons that taught
that everything we perceive outside comes from our thoughts. We will thus
realize that if we are not peaceful outside, our minds cannot be peaceful. This
helps us understand the ego choice we have made, which we can correct and undo.
While at this point in our practice of A Course in Miracles we are not directly
in touch with our minds, we can recognize them by understanding that what
perceive outside directly reflects what we have made real inside. To say it
again, if we want to know whether we have chosen Jesus or the ego as our
teacher, we need but pay attention to our reactions in the world. We need to
remember that whenever we find ourselves making judgments or getting upset, this
is a red flag that says: "I have chosen my ego again. Rather than assume
responsibility for this decision, I choose to project it, seeing it in everyone
else, but not in me." This insane thinking is easily undone through
forgiveness.*
(3:1)(64) "Let me not forget my function."
*We return to the theme of our real Self.*
(3:2) "I would not forget my function, because I would remember my Self."
*If I truly want to remember Who I am and return home, I must forgive. My
function of forgiveness, then, is the means whereby I achieve the end of
remembering my Identity.
If you find yourself making judgments -- special hate or special love -- that is
a sure sign you have chosen not to awaken from the dream and remember your Self.
You have chosen instead to remain a prisoner, yet blaming others for your
condition. When you discover what you have done, you should not judge yourself
nor feel guilty. You simply ask Jesus for help to remember you are not happy
here, and that no judgment you have made, or specialness you have sought, has
brought you anything but the illusion of happiness and peace. Ask Jesus to help
you look without judging yourself, which also means looking at others without
judgment.
To repeat, if you want to know what is going on in your mind, pay attention to
what you are thinking, perceiving, and feeling. If there is peace and a spirit
of joining with others in a common goal, you know you have chosen the Holy
Spirit as your Teacher. On the other hand, if you are feeling disquieted, that
it is the certain sign you have chosen the ego.*
(3:3) "I cannot fulfill my function if I forget it."
*Thus we need a Teacher Who reminds us of our function of forgiveness, which can
be defined as letting go of judgment. Therefore, if you find yourself judging,
you are choosing -- it does not happen automatically -- to forget your function
because you do not want to return home. Forgetting is purposive.*
(3:4) "And unless I fulfill my function, I will not experience the joy that God
intends for me."
*Whenever we feel special, make judgments, or are engaged in anything of the ego
thought system, we are saying we do not want the joy that God intends for us,
accepting the ego's substitute instead. In our guilt over pushing the joy of God
away, we project it out and find fault with everyone else. The idea, once again,
is not to judge ourselves for projecting, but to be aware that this is what we
have done, and the tremendous cost to us of having done so.
We are then asked to practice applying this idea, saying:*
(4:2) "Let me not use this to hide my function from me."
* "This" is anything we are experiencing during the day; e.g., being unhappy
with the change of weather or with what someone did or did not do. We should
then say: "I am choosing the situation as excuse to hide my function from me,
which I want to do to keep the joy of God away." *
(4:3) "I would use this as an opportunity to fulfill my function."
*Rather than use a situation as an opportunity to deny our function, we can let
Jesus redefine it as an opportunity to forgive. In other words, we could look at
everything as a classroom the Holy Spirit can use to teach us that our happiness
does not lie in anything external, nor in being a separated self, but in
choosing Jesus as the teacher who leads us beyond our specialness and takes us
home. This, again, applies to anything that happens during the day. *
(4:4) "This may threaten my ego, but cannot change my function in any way."
* In other words, if I perceive what someone says or does as threatening, this
does not mean my function is gone. It means only that I have chosen to be upset
because I want to obscure it. Yet it rests safely within me because its Teacher
does. Therefore, nothing has the power to remove the function of forgiveness
from me, <except my own decision>. *
Love and Blessings,
Lyn Johnson 719-369-1822
|
Lesson 81. Our ideas for review today are.
Lesson 81. Our ideas for review today are.
(1) (61) I am the light of the world.
How holy am I, who have been given the function of lighting up the world! Let me
be still before my holiness. In its calm light let all my conflicts disappear.
In its peace let me remember Who I am.
(2) Some specific forms for applying this idea when special difficulties seem to
arise might be:
Let me not obscure the light of the world in me.
Let the light of the world shine through this appearance.
This shadow will vanish before the light.
(3:1) (62) Forgiveness is my function as the light of the world.
It is through accepting my function that I will see the light in me. And in this
light will my function stand clear and perfectly unambiguous before my sight. My
acceptance does not depend on my recognizing what my function is, for I do not
yet understand forgiveness. Yet I will trust that, in the light, I will see it
as it is.
(4) Specific forms for using this idea might include:
Let this help me learn what forgiveness means.
Let me not separate my function from my will.
I will not use this for an alien purpose.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The commentary on this lesson (below) is 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 81. "Our ideas for review today are."
*As I mentioned when discussing the first review, Helen had informed Jesus she
did not want the same mundane introductory statement repeated throughout. One of
her criteria for judging whether Jesus really was who he claimed to be, was to
see if he would dictate different words for the opening of each lesson (e.g.,
"Our ideas for review today are"; "We will review these ideas today"; Today let
us review these ideas"; etc.). Having now seen another example of how these
lessons share the same content, but different form, we can proceed from the
ridiculous to the sublime.*
1(61) "I am the light of the world."
"How holy am I, who have been given the function of lighting up the world! Let
me be still before my holiness. In its calm light let all my conflicts
disappear. In its peace let me remember Who I am."
*In this first lesson we find a clear statement of our real Self, reflected in
what the Holy Spirit's Voice reminds us of: our function of lighting up the
world. As we had seen when we discussed this lesson earlier, we do not
illuminate an external world, as would a lamp casting its glow. The world exists
only in the mind of God's Son, and is darkened because we have chosen to listen
to the ego. By thus choosing the Holy Spirit, we become His light of truth.
Since God's Son is one, and the world is in the Son's mind, we become the
world's light as well. In this light conflict cannot be, for it exists only in
the darkness of the ego's thought system of opposition.*
(2) "Some specific forms for applying this idea when special difficulties seem
to arise might be:
Let me not obscure the light of the world in me.
Let the light of the world shine through this appearance.
This shadow will vanish before the light."
*When we choose Jesus, the world's shadow -- the projection of our guilt -- must
disappear. They have no power before the light as long as we choose the light,
regardless of the shadow's form. An illusion is an illusion is an illusion, and
has no power before the truth. Our daily function is thus to bring our
perceptions of darkness to the light of Jesus' truth.
The next lesson deals with forgiveness, the major theme of A Course in
Miracles.*
(3:1) (62) "Forgiveness is my function as the light of the world."
*Our function in Heaven is to create, with which no one here is in touch, for it
has no worldly reference. On the other hand, forgiveness does have meaning for
us. Previewing Lesson 192, we are reminded:
"It is your Father's holy Will that you complete Himself ... extending love,
creating in its Name, forever one with God and with your Self. Yet what can such
a function mean within a world of envy, hatred and attack?"
"Therefore, you have a function in the world in its own terms. For who can
understand a language far beyond his simple grasp? Forgiveness represents your
function here." (W-pI.192.1:1-2:3).
Elsewhere in the text, as you may recall, Jesus says our function is to heal:
"As your function in Heaven is creation, so your function on earth is
healing. God shares His function with you in Heaven, and the Holy Spirit shares
His with you on earth." (T-12.VII.4:7-8).
It is our function of forgiveness (or healing) that enables us to release the
ego's thought system, first by not seeing it in another, and then realizing it
is not truly present in our minds either. This undoing of guilt removes the
barriers that kept our true function of creation hidden, as it kept hidden or
Identity as Christ.*
(3:2-3) "It is through accepting my function that I will see the light in me.
And in this light will my function stand clear and perfectly unambiguous before
my sight."
*Again and again we see the focus on removing the blocks -- the meaning of
forgiveness -- that keep the light of Christ's Love from us. It is always
helpful to recall the beginning of the text:
"The course does not aim at teaching the meaning of love, for that is beyond
what can be taught. It does aim, however at removing the blocks to the awareness
of love's presence, which is your natural inheritance." (T. Intro.6-8).*
(3:4-5) "My acceptance does not depend on my recognizing what my function is,
for I do not yet understand forgiveness. Yet I will trust that, in the light, I
will see it as it is."
*This is important. When we begin our work with A Course in Miracles, we think
forgiveness is something we do with someone else. Even more to the point, we
think forgiveness involves overlooking some terrible thing others have done, and
saying we forgive them. A step above that is realizing: "No, I am the sinner
instead of you." This leads us to understand that forgiveness has nothing to do
with anyone else, but only with ourselves, for there is no world apart from our
minds.
Jesus is thus saying we can begin this process without understanding what it
entails; making our ascent up the ladder with no awareness of its top rungs, let
alone of the God Who is beyond the ladder entirely. It is enough to know we have
been wrong about everything we have thought, felt, and perceived. We can do very
well now without understanding the answer to the problem of the ego.
Indeed:
"You are still convinced that your understanding is a powerful contribution
to the truth, and makes it what it is. Yet we have emphasized that you need
understand nothing. Salvation is easy just because it asks nothing you cannot
give right now." (T.18.IV.7.5-7)
Yet we can at least understand that we do not know. That is the first step. The
next ones easily follow as we practice, as in these three specific
applications:*
(4:2-4) "Let this help me learn what forgiveness means.
Let me not separate my function from my will.
I will not use this for an alien purpose."
*As always, Jesus asks us to see our daily experiences as opportunities for
learning how to forgive. Again, we anticipate the later wonderful Lesson. "All
things are lessons God would have me learn." (W-pI.193) We learn the proper use
of our mind's power, shifting from the ego's alien purpose of attack to the Holy
Spirit's right-minded purpose of healing. Thus we return our will to the Will
that God created.*
Love and Blessings,
Lyn Johnson 719-369-1822
|
Review IIIntroduction1.?We are now ready for another review.??We will begin where our last review left off, and cover two ideas each day.??The earlier part of each day will be devoted to one of these ideas, and the latter part of the day to the other.??We will have one longer exercise period, and frequent shorter ones in which we practice each of them. 2.?The longer practice periods will follow this general form: Take about fifteen minutes for each of them, and begin by thinking about the ideas for the day, and the comments that are included in the assignments.??Devote some three or four minutes to reading them over slowly, several times if you wish, and then close your eyes and listen. 3.?Repeat the first phase of the exercise period if you find your mind wandering, but try to spend the major part of the time listening quietly but attentively.??There is a message waiting for you.??Be confident that you will receive it.??Remember that it belongs to you, and that you want it. 4.?Do not allow your intent to waver in the face of distracting thoughts.??Realize that, whatever form such thoughts may take, they have no meaning and no power.??Replace them with your determination to succeed.??Do not forget that your will has power over all fantasies and dreams.??Trust it to see you through, and carry you beyond them all. 5.?Regard these practice periods as dedications to the way, the truth and the life.??Refuse to be sidetracked into detours, illusions and thoughts of death.??You are dedicated to salvation.??Be determined each day not to leave your function unfulfilled. 6.?Reaffirm your determination in the shorter practice periods as well, using the original form of the idea for general applications, and more specific forms when needed.??Some specific forms are included in the comments which follow the statement of the ideas.??These, however, are merely suggestions.??It is not the particular words you use that matter.
Love and Blessings,
Lyn Johnson 719-369-1822
|
Lesson 80. Let me recognize my problems have been solved.
Lesson 80. Let me recognize my problems have been solved.
(1) If you are willing to recognize your problems, you will recognize that youhave no problems. Your one central problem has been answered, and you have noother. Therefore, you must be at peace. Salvation thus depends on recognizingthis one problem, and understanding that it has been solved. One problem, onesolution. Salvation is accomplished. Freedom from conflict has been given you.Accept that fact, and you are ready to take your rightful place in God's planfor salvation.(2) Your only problem has been solved! Repeat this over and over to yourselftoday, with gratitude and conviction. You have recognized your only problem,opening the way for the Holy Spirit to give you God's answer. You have laiddeception aside, and seen the light of truth. You have accepted salvation foryourself by bringing the problem to the answer. And you can recognize theanswer, because the problem has been identified.(3) You are entitled to peace today. A problem that has been resolved cannottrouble you. Only be certain you do not forget that all problems are the same.Their many forms will not deceive you while you remember this. One problem, onesolution. Accept the peace this simple statement brings.(4) In our longer practice periods today, we will claim the peace that must beours when the problem and the answer have been brought together. The problemmust be gone, because God's answer cannot fail. Having recognized one, you haverecognized the other. The solution is inherent in the problem. You are answered,and have accepted the answer. You are saved.(5) Now let the peace that your acceptance brings be given you. Close your eyes,and receive your reward. Recognize that your problems have been solved.Recognize that you are out of conflict; free and at peace. Above all, rememberthat you have one problem, and that the problem has one solution. It is in thisthat the simplicity of salvation lies. It is because of this that it isguaranteed to work.(6) Assure yourself often today that your problems have been solved. Repeat theidea with deep conviction, as frequently as possible. And be particularly sureto apply the idea for today to any specific problem that may arise. Say quickly:Let me recognize this problem has been solved.< (7) Let us be determined not to collect grievances today. Let us be determinedto be free of problems that do not exist. The means is simple honesty. Do notdeceive yourself about what the problem is, and you must recognize it has beensolved.~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~The commentary on this lesson (below) is from Kenneth Wapnick's eight volumeseries of books, called: "Journey Through the Workbook of A Course in Miracles,"which can be purchased at the following site:??~ M. Street~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Lesson 80. "Let me recognize my problems have been solved."*This lesson expresses even more specifically the message of Lesson 79.*(1:1) "If you are willing to recognize your problems, you will recognize thatyou have no problems."*Recognizing that "my problems have been solved" can be understood as thepresence of the Holy Spirit in my mind holding the solution to every problem Ihave, regardless of its form or complexity. Since He is already in my mind asthe answer, this means my problems are gone. Recall this previously quotedpassage about the role of the miracle in showing us that we have no problems:"The miracle does nothing. All it does is to undo. And thus it cancels outthe interference to what has been done. It does not add, but merely takes away.And what it takes away is long since gone, but being kept in memory appears tohave immediate effects. This world was over long ago. The thoughts that made itare no longer in the mind that thought of them and loved them for a littlewhile. The miracle but shows the past is gone, and what has truly gone has noeffects. Remembering a cause can but produce illusions of its presence, noteffects." (T.28.I.1.1)Thus our problems were also over long ago. Choosing the Holy Spirit's miracleinstead of the ego's grievance restores that simple truth to awareness.*(1:2-7) "Your one central problem has been answered, and you have no other.Therefore, you must be at peace. Salvation thus depends on recognizing this oneproblem, and understanding that it has been solved. One problem, one solution.Salvation is accomplished. Freedom from conflict has been given you."*The ego's answer to the Holy Spirit is conflict. I sinned against God, God willsin against me, and thus are we in perpetual war with each other. We projectthat battleground -- <kill or be killed> -- and now experience conflict witheveryone else in the world. Being freed from such distress does not come throughopposing or overthrowing the other party in the spirit of <one or the other>.Freedom comes in realizing that the Atonement answer of love is already withinus. This means there is no separation, sin, or conflict. The Atonement is theonly answer that will work, for it truly saves us from our misperceptions ofseparation and hate.*(1:8) "Accept that fact, and you are ready to take your rightful place in God'splan for salvation."*The rightful place is the acceptance of our function to forgive, which hasnothing to do with the external. In other words, our rightful place is the sameas everyone else's: forgiveness. Our collective function is thus to recognizethere is only one problem -- the belief in separation and separate interests,and only one solution -- the acceptance of the Atonement, reflected in ourrecognition that only shared interests exist in the dream.*(2:1-2) "Your only problem has been solved! Repeat this over and over toyourself today, with gratitude and conviction."*Once again Jesus does not intend this as an affirmation or mantra that yousimply say by rote, over and over again. Whenever you are tempted to be upsetand your peace disturbed, think of this statement and realize that if yourproblem has been solved, why are you upset? Begin to understand the motivationfor your disturbance. I want to keep the answer away because in it myspecialness disappears. Thus I want to be upset, because that proves I am rightand Jesus is wrong. It proves I do not have a mind because it is my body that isabused and unfairly treated. To this new understanding of the nature of yourproblem and its underlying purpose, bring your perceived problems, and watchthem fade away, back into the nothingness from which they came (M-13.1:2).*(2:3-5) "You have recognized your only problem, opening the way for the HolySpirit to give you God's answer. You have laid deception aside, and seen thelight of truth. You have accepted salvation for yourself by bringing the problemto the answer."*That is what opens the way for the Holy Spirit to give us God's answer, meaningI am wrong about my perceptions. Perhaps what my eyes see is true within theillusion, but my ego's reaction is far from true. Since all that is important isthe way I react, does it make it any real difference whether my perception isaccurate or not? What does matter is whether I let Jesus or the ego interpretthis for me. Choosing the ego <is> the problem. By thus realizing I am wrong, Iam saying the problem is not outside me but within, which means I am nowbringing it to the answer; the ego's deception to the Holy Spirit's truth.*(2:6) "And you can recognize the answer, because the problem has beenidentified."*The crucial aspect in this process is not the answer as such, but identifying<where> and <what> the problem is. Again, simply stated, the problem is mydecision to push away God's Love so I can continue to be right, to be a specialindividual. That is the problem. Once I recognize it and can look withoutjudging myself, I have availed myself of the answer. The process of healing doesnot lie in affirming the Holy Spirit's answer, but in <recognizing the problem>.It is the undoing of the ego by looking without guilt or fear that allows theAtonement's answer to rise in our awareness. Remember that our task is not tochoose the truth, but to choose to "<deny the denial of truth>" (T-12.II.1:5).Jesus makes the same salient point in the following passage from the text, whichin one summary sweep undoes our pain and suffering:"Now you are being shown you can escape. All that is needed is you lookupon the problem as it is, and not the way that you have set it up. How couldthere be another way to solve a problem that is very simple, but has beenobscured by heavy clouds of complication, which were made to keep the problemunresolved? Without the clouds the problem will emerge in all its primitivesimplicity. The choice will not be difficult, because the problem is absurd whenclearly seen. No one has difficulty making up his mind to let a simple problembe resolved if it is seen as hurting him, and also very easily removed."(T-27.VII.2).Looking at the problem "as it is" means looking within at our faulty decisionmaking, so it can be corrected. In that simple choice is the ego's defensiveshield of the thought and world of guilt removed.*(3:1-2) "You are entitled to peace today. A problem that has been resolvedcannot trouble you."*Therefore, if you are troubled by something you must be making it up, becausethe answer is already within you. How can you be troubled by something that doesnot exist and a problem that is no longer there? That question takes the windout of your ego's sails. When you begin to build a case against yourself orsomeone else, remember this is a non-existent problem -- you are literally angryover nothing -- which makes it difficult to justify your reactions.*(3:3-6) "Only be certain you do not forget that all problems are the same. Theirmany forms will not deceive you while you remember this. One problem, onesolution. Accept the peace this simple statement brings."*We see how often Jesus repeats this theme. He would like us to repeat it asoften, each and every time we are tempted to forget its simple truth of <oneproblem, one solution>, choosing instead to be blinded by our perceptions ofform.*(4:1-2) "In our longer practice periods today, we will claim the peace that mustbe ours when the problem and the answer have been brought together. The problemmust be gone, because God's answer cannot fail."*If something is bothering me, I am in effect telling Jesus he is wrong, becausehe is telling us here there is no problem, for God's answer has never failed us.However, we counter: "Wait just a minute and I will show you how you failed me.Look at what is going on! Look how upset or sick I am! Look at my realproblems!" Thus we keep the problem from the answer and retain our misery andpain; a price we gladly (and insanely) pay in order to maintain our "rightness"and Jesus' "wrongness." *(4:3-6) "Having recognized one, you have recognized the other. The solution isinherent in the problem. You are answered, and have accepted the answer. You aresaved."*The problem and solution are in one place. The solution is inherent in theproblem because the problem never happened. That is the solution! Remember, theAtonement principle is that the separation was a non-event. Moreover, since thebelief in separation and its correction are in the mind -- because there is onlythe mind -- the ego's strategy of mindlessness is answered and undone.*(5) "Now let the peace that your acceptance brings be given you. Close youreyes, and receive your reward. Recognize that your problems have been solved.Recognize that you are out of conflict; free and at peace. Above all, rememberthat you have one problem, and that the problem has one solution. It is in thisthat the simplicity of salvation lies. It is because of this that it isguaranteed to work."*The "reward" of peace is the ultimate motivator for choosing the answer overthe problem. We recognize at last that the former alone brings us peace. Simple!That is how we know it is the truth, for truth is simple.*(6:1-3) "Assure yourself often today that your problems have been solved. Repeatthe idea with deep conviction, as frequently as possible. And be particularlysure to apply the idea for today to any specific problem that may arise."*Once again Jesus is urging you to use the idea for the day very specificallywhen you are upset. Realize how quickly you forget what he has taught you, andthen forgive yourself for having forgotten, for having let the ego's engine ofhate and judgment rev up again. When you find yourself becoming upset, as soonas you can, stop and say: "But the problem has already been solved. Stubbornlyinsisting I am justifiably upset and right in my perceptions tells Jesus he iswrong again. My upset proves it. At that point you should say quickly:*(6:5) "Say quickly: "Let me recognize this problem has been solved."*And then peace will happily return.*(7) "Let us be determined not to collect grievances today. Let us be determinedto be free of problems that do not exist. The means is simple honesty. Do notdeceive yourself about what the problem is, and you must recognize it has beensolved."*To make this point again, grievances are a way of saying I am right and Jesusis wrong: the problem is outside -- just look at what these terrible people aredoing to me! Honesty is thus vitally important in this and all the exercises;the honesty of looking within and understanding you made it all up. What willaid you in this process is understanding the motivation for the problem:preserving your separated self. That recognition is the simple honesty to whichJesus refers. Anything outside you that bothers or upsets you is there becauseyou put it there to hide the answer, in the presence of which your separate andspecial identity would gently fade away. Therefore, to preserve yourself youensured your were right by seeing external problems, and blaming everyone elsefor your miserable situation. As King Lear observed: "That way madness lies(III,iv,21). We come to learn through these lessons that sanity is our only realchoice, for only from that sane decision comes the peace and joy that is ourjust reward. It is that -- <and only that> -- we choose today in simplehonesty.*
Love and Blessings,
Lyn Johnson 719-369-1822
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Lesson 79. Let me recognize the problem so it can be solved.
Lesson 79. Let me recognize the problem so it can be solved.(1) A problem cannot be solved if you do not know what it is. Even if it isreally solved already you will still have the problem, because you will notrecognize that it has been solved. This is the situation of the world. Theproblem of separation, which is really the only problem, has already beensolved. Yet the solution is not recognized because the problem is notrecognized.(2) Everyone in this world seems to have his own special problems. Yet they areall the same, and must be recognized as one if the one solution that solves themall is to be accepted. Who can see that a problem has been solved if he thinksthe problem is something else? Even if he is given the answer, he cannot see itsrelevance.(3) That is the position in which you find yourself now. You have the answer,but you are still uncertain about what the problem is. A long series ofdifferent problems seems to confront you, and as one is settled the next one andthe next arise. There seems to be no end to them. There is no time in which youfeel completely free of problems and at peace.(4) The temptation to regard problems as many is the temptation to keep theproblem of separation unsolved. The world seems to present you with a vastnumber of problems, each requiring a different answer. This perception placesyou in a position in which your problem solving must be inadequate, and failureis inevitable.(5) No one could solve all the problems the world appears to hold. They seem tobe on so many levels, in such varying forms and with such varied content, thatthey confront you with an impossible situation. Dismay and depression areinevitable as you regard them. Some spring up unexpectedly, just as you thinkyou have resolved the previous ones. Others remain unsolved under a cloud ofdenial, and rise to haunt you from time to time, only to be hidden again butstill unsolved.(6) All this complexity is but a desperate attempt not to recognize the problem,and therefore not to let it be resolved. If you could recognize thatyour only problem is separation, no matter what form it takes, you could acceptthe answer because you would see its relevance. Perceiving the underlyingconstancy in all the problems that seem to confront you, you would understandthat you have the means to solve them all. And you would use the means, becauseyou recognize the problem.(7) In our longer practice periods today we will ask what the problem is, andwhat is the answer to it. We will not assume that we already know. We will tryto free our minds of all the many different kinds of problems we think we have.We will try to realize that we have only one problem, which we have failed torecognize. We will ask what it is, and wait for the answer. We will be told.Then we will ask for the solution to it. And we will be told.(8) The exercises for today will be successful to the extent to which you do notinsist on defining the problem. Perhaps you will not succeed in letting all yourpreconceived notions go, but that is not necessary. All that is necessary is toentertain some doubt about the reality of your version of what your problemsare. You are trying to recognize that you have been given the answer byrecognizing the problem, so that the problem and the answer can be broughttogether and you can be at peace.(9) The shorter practice periods for today will not be set by time, but by need.You will see many problems today, each one calling for an answer. Our effortswill be directed toward recognizing that there is only one problem and oneanswer. In this recognition are all problems resolved. In this recognition thereis peace.(10) Be not deceived by the form of problems today. Whenever any difficultyseems to rise, tell yourself quickly:Let me recognize this problem so it can be solved.< Then try to suspend all judgment about what the problem is. If possible, closeyour eyes for a moment and ask what it is. You will be heard and you will beanswered.~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~The commentary on this lesson (below) is from Kenneth Wapnick's eight volumeseries of books, called: "Journey Through the Workbook of A Course in Miracles,"which can be purchased at the following site:??~ M. Street~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Lesson 79. "Let me recognize the problem so it can be solved."*What is stated in this and the following lesson is that there is only oneproblem, although the world tells us there are many. This problem is the mind'sbelief we are separated from God and on our own. To repeat earlier discussions:the ego takes the single thought of separation, teaches us it is not in ourminds but in the world, fragmenting the thought into billions of differentexpressions of the one problem, each calling for a particular answer. Eachproblem thus commands attention, demanding to be solved in its own way. As weshall see below, this is an extremely frustrating situation because the trueproblem remains hidden in our minds, buried beneath the almost infinite numberof external concerns that present themselves to us over and over and over again.This ensures that the external problem can never really be solved, as we nowread:*(1:1) "A problem cannot be solved if you do not know what it is."*We could also say that a problem cannot be solved if we do know where it is,which is virtually the same thing. The <where> is the mind, and, <what> is ourdecision to be separate. Remember, the whole point of the ego -- indeed, thewhole point of its thought system of separation -- is to see that we neverrealize <where> and <what> the problem is. It cannot be overemphasized thatpurpose is everything, and the only way to undo the ego is to change the purposeit gave the world -- to conceal the problem -- to the Holy Spirit's purpose ofrevealing the problem so it can be undone: " Let me recognize the problem so itcan be solved." *(1:2-4) "Even if it is really solved already you will still have the problem,because you will not recognize that it has been solved. This is the situation ofthe world. The problem of separation, which is really the only problem, hasalready been solved."*If the Holy Spirit is the memory of God we took with us when we fell asleep,and that memory is the link between our dream state and the truth of God's Love,we are not separate.*(1:5) "Yet the solution is not recognized because the problem is notrecognized."*Again, when we misunderstand A Course in Miracles' meaning of the miracle, weare seeing to it that the problem of separation will never be recognized andtherefore never solved. If we think a miracle addresses something external, weare saying the problem itself is external, as must be the solution given by God.At this point we can no longer be referring to the God of perfect Oneness, butthe ego's projection. Thus the real problem -- our minds' mistaken decision --can never be looked at and therefore its solution never recognized.*(2:1-2) "Everyone in this world seems to have his own special problems. Yet theyare all the same, and must be recognized as one if the one solution that solvesthem all is to be accepted."*Lessons 79 and 80 are unmistakably clear in statement and meaning. Theirlanguage is simple, yet the entire curriculum is contained in them, beingessentially a variation on the principle theme of the Course: <There is no orderof difficulty in miracles.> (T.1.I.1.1) That is how the text begins, as you allknow. What you may not know is that the actual dictation to Helen did not beginwith the current Introduction, but with the statement that the first thing toremember about miracles is that there is no order of difficulty among them.Jesus thus stated the theme of his course right at the beginning, and in a senseeverything that followed -- and these lessons in particular -- is a commentaryon that theme. There is no order of difficulty in miracles because there is butone problem. Bill Thetford used to say that the first principle could berestated as: <There is no order of difficulty in problem solving,> because themiracle is a way of solving problems. <But not external problems>. The miraclesolves problems by bringing them to the mind, wherein is found the <one> problemand its <one> solution.*(2:3-4) "Who can see that a problem has been solved if he thinks the problem issomething else? Even if he is given the answer, he cannot see its relevance."*We all would agree we have been given the answer -- the Holy Spirit, Jesus, orA Course in Miracles. But we do not see the answer's relevance because we thinkit involves the body -- making our dream better by helping us become happier,healthier and wealthier through forgiving other people. Therefore we do notrealize the Course's direct relevance to our problems. In addition, we still donot accept fully that we have a mind -- indeed, we have <only> a mind -- and thebody is simply a projection, and therefore can never be the problem.The reason A Course in Miracles often seems not to work is that its studentsmake it irrelevant. They do not use it for the purpose for which Jesus gave it,which is to return the problem to the mind, helping us to understand why we sostubbornly insist on not accepting the answer that is already present in us.Recall these lines, in which Jesus exhorts Helen to remember that the purpose ofthe course he was dictating to her was to restore to her awareness the power ofher mind to choose the ego, so that she may now choose the Holy Spirit:"If I intervened between your thoughts and their results, I would betampering with a basic law of cause and effect; the most fundamental law thereis. I would hardly help you if I depreciated the power of your own thinking.This would be in direct opposition to the purpose of this course. It is muchmore helpful to remind you that you do not guard your thoughts carefullyenough." (T.2.VII.1.4-7)The reason, again, that we seek to depreciate the power of our thinking is thatwe do not want to give up our individuality or specialness. Perhaps we couldaccept that we are not bodies, but we do not want to give up the fact that wehave a special personality. Thus, for example, we might think it fine if we diebecause there is a personality that survives. We do not give up our specialness,for it validates us as individuals. The birthplace and home of this self is inthe mind, access to which is now forbidden by the cruel dictates of the ego'sstrategy of mindlessness.In summary, as long as we listen to the ego, A Course in Miracles will neverwork because we will never see its relevance. We will think its purpose is tosolve a problem outside our minds. Yet all we do is attempt to solve anon-existent problem, taking the answer of forgiveness but applying it to thewrong problem. The answer remains in our minds, and so Jesus and his course helpus return to that place of correction: the right-minded home of the HolySpirit.*(3:1-2) "That is the position in which you find yourself now. You have theanswer, but you are still uncertain about what the problem is."*All students of A Course in Miracles, if they were truly honest, would realizethere is a part of them that does not fully believe what Jesus teaches us here.Our resistance is another way of expressing our belief that our problems aresomething other than the mind's decision to be an individual, and so we cannotsee the relevance of the answer that has been given us.*(3:3-5) "A long series of different problems seems to confront you, and as oneis settled the next one and the next arise. There seems to be no end to them.There is no time in which you feel completely free of problems and at peace."*There is probably not a person in this world who cannot identify with thesestatements. We all have problems. On the physical level, for example, we arehungry and we eat, which does not mean we are not going to get hungry again afew hours from now. We take a breath, but a few seconds later another one isneeded. We may be sick and then cured, but we know at some point we will becomeill again and eventually die. And on and on it goes.We have psychological problems, too: You love me today, but will you love metomorrow? I was given an A on my exam, but will I do so next time? I received apromotion and a raise, but how do I know my job is really secure? Thus,everything may have worked out fine for now, but who is to say that it will bethat way in the future?Rising above the ego's battleground and surveying its purpose for the body andthe world, we understand that the ego made the body to present us with anendless number of problems -- physical and psychological -- each of whichdemands solutions. What a massive and successful distraction from the mind --the source of <the> problem and <the> solution of peace!*(4:1) "The temptation to regard problems as many is the temptation to keep theproblem of separation unsolved."*This is another critically important line. We keep "the problem of separationunsolved " because that keeps our separate self intact, fulfilling the ego'spurpose of maintaining our individuality and specialness. Since there is but oneproblem -- the belief we are separate -- we defend against its solution bymaking up a multitudinous number of problems. As the previous lesson told us,all problems express a basic grievance, being some form of the statement we sawin Lesson 71: "If this were different, I would be saved." *(4:2-3) "The world seems to present you with a vast number of problems, eachrequiring a different answer. This perception places you in a position in whichyour problem solving must be inadequate, and failure is inevitable."*We all can identify with this sense of inevitable failure. The world was set upso that we would fail, seeking the cause of failure outside our minds. Tocontinually attempt to solve problems that are destined to remain insoluble isextremely frustrating, which prompted this passage on the ego's tactic of <seekand do not find>:"The search the ego undertakes is therefore bound to be defeated. And sinceit also teaches that it is your identification, its guidance leads you to ajourney which must end in perceived self-defeat.... You do not know the meaningof love, and that is your handicap. Do not attempt to teach yourself what you donot understand, and do not try to set up curriculum goals where yours haveclearly failed. Your learning goal has been not to learn, and this cannot leadto successful learning. You cannot transfer what you have not learned, and theimpairment of the ability to generalize is a crucial learning failure.... I havesaid that the ego's rule is, "Seek and do not find". Translated into curricularterms this means, "Try to learn but do not succeed". The result of thiscurriculum goal is obvious.... If you are trying to learn how not to learn, andthe aim of your teaching is to defeat itself, what can you expect butconfusion?" (T-12.IV.2.2:1-2;T-12.V.6:2-4;7:1-3,5).*(5) "No one could solve all the problems the world appears to hold. They seem tobe on so many levels, in such varying forms and with such varied content, thatthey confront you with an impossible situation. Dismay and depression areinevitable as you regard them. Some spring up unexpectedly, just as you thinkyou have resolved the previous ones. Others remain unsolved under a cloud ofdenial, and rise to haunt you from time to time, only to be hidden again butstill unsolved."*This describes the state of the world. It should impress us as students of ACourse in Miracles that we read lines like this and know they are true, yet theypersist in holding onto the idea we are right. It cannot be this simple, weclaim. If we are upset, it is definitely not because we chose our individualityover God, nor that we pushed Jesus away. Our upset is due to what someone elsesaid, what just happened, our poor upbringing, our faulty bodies, etc., etc.,etc. It is helpful to observe how quickly we fall prey to the ego's temptation.However, if we can retreat, to make this point again, and objectively look atthe nature of the world and body, it would be patently obvious that depressionis the only response that makes sense. Even if our lives seem to work for us, inthe end we all die. Thus, a lifetime spent in problem solving, strugglingagainst the inevitable odds the ego has stacked against us, is in the end allworth nothing. What could be more depressing!*(6) "All this complexity is but a desperate attempt not to recognize theproblem, and therefore not to let it be resolved. If you could recognize thatyour only problem is separation, no matter what form it takes, you could acceptthe answer because you would see its relevance. Perceiving the underlyingconstancy in all the problems that seem to confront you, you would understandthat you have the means to solve them all. And you would use the means, becauseyou recognize the problem."*These thoughts should be incorporated into your daily activities asspecifically as possible. The problem is not the separation in some abstractsense; it is here right now in your desire to see yourself separated from theHoly Spirit. Make your practice as personal as you can in applying the principlethat separation is the problem. If you awaken in the morning and are not feelingwell, it is because you have pushed love away -- <that is the separation>. Youcan be clear about your responsibility and still not blame yourself. Thisnon-judgmental stance allows you to receive the answer and understand thesignificance of the first principle of miracles: <there is no order ofdifficulty among them> (T-1.1.1:1). Since every problem is the same --separation -- every solution is the same -- Atonement. One problem, onesolution.However, you cannot receive the answer if you are filled with guilt, judgment,and blame. You accept the answer only when you acknowledge personally that <you>have pushed love away again; not because you are sinful, but because you areafraid. By choosing Jesus' forgiveness, you let his love gently wash over you,assuring you that you have done nothing wrong, except bring pain upon yourself.Once again, as you read this lesson and do its exercise, make your practice asspecific as you can. This will help you see that everything in your daily lifeis directly relevant to your salvation and peace. Thus will you find yourselfincreasingly motivated to practice and learn.*(7-8:1) "In our longer practice periods today we will ask what the problem is,and what is the answer to it. We will not assume that we already know. We willtry to free our minds of all the many different kinds of problems we think wehave. We will try to realize that we have only one problem, which we have failedto recognize. We will ask what it is, and wait for the answer. We will be told.Then we will ask for the solution to it. And we will be told.""The exercises for today will be successful to the extent to which you do notinsist on defining the problem."*You cannot ask for the solution if you think you know <what> and <where> theproblem is. This arrogance forestalls your progress with this course. It isnecessary to return to the choice point in your mind in which you re-enact overand over again the separation from God. Whether you speak of God, Jesus, theHoly Spirit, or any other name, you have pushed away the loving experience ofoneness because you are threatened by the loss of your special self, which youare convinced will happen if you join with love. That is the problem. Thinkingyou know the problem ensures you will never learn the answer. As the earlyworkbook lesson said:"You will not question what you have already defined. And the purpose of theseexercises is to ask questions and receive the answers." (W-pI.28.4:1-2).This point about developing the humility that undoes the ego's arrogance, soessential to our learning, is repeated throughout these lessons, and we shallsee how often Jesus returns to it.To reinforce the point I have been making, even though you may read, understand,and believe these lines, watch how quickly you stray from that belief and try tomake the problem be something else. Remember that your existence as a physical,psychological being is based on the thought that your not responsible; that theproblem is not in your mind but in the body. Watch how quickly you are temptedto fall back into the ego's trap of mindlessness!*(8:2-3) "Perhaps you will not succeed in letting all your preconceived notionsgo, but that is not necessary. All that is necessary is to entertain some doubtabout the reality of your version of what your problems are."*These lines reflect the theme, already familiar to us, of "a littlewillingness" (T-18.IV). We are asked simply to begin the process of questioningthe validity of our judgments and absolute certainty that we know the nature ofthe problem -- in ourselves and everyone else. More than that is not required.Indeed, as we have already seen, <more> would be counter-productive and merelyreinforce the guilt over usurping a role that is not our own.*(8:4) "You are trying to recognize that you have been given the answer byrecognizing the problem, so that the problem and the answer can be broughttogether and you can be at peace."*The problem is in our minds; the solution is there as well. The ego, of course,took the problem from the solution in the mind, projected it out, and made aworld so that we could declare that the problem is all around us, <outside ourminds>. The miracle, therefore, brings the problem back to the answer. This isanalogous to the process of forgiveness: bringing the darkness of our illusionsto the light of truth. This wondrous passage from the clarification of termsbeautifully summarizes this process of forgiveness:"This is the shift that true perception brings: What was projected out isseen within, and there forgiveness lets it disappear. For there the altar to theSon is set, and there his Father is remembered. Here are all illusions broughtto truth and laid upon the altar. What is seen outside must lie beyondforgiveness, for it seems to be forever sinful. Where is hope while sin is seenas outside? What remedy can guilt expect? But seen within your mind, guilt andforgiveness for an instant lie together, side by side, upon one altar. There atlast are sickness and its single remedy joined in one healing brightness. Godhas come to claim His Own. Forgiveness is complete." (C-4.6).*(9) "The shorter practice periods for today will not be set by time, but byneed. You will see many problems today, each one calling for an answer. Ourefforts will be directed toward recognizing that there is only one problem andone answer. In this recognition are all problems resolved. In this recognitionthere is peace."*Note the change in instructions. Jesus is asking us today to set our ownschedule, based upon the need that <we> recognize. He assumes we are beginningto recognize what is in our best interests. After over two months of exercises,we are beginning to understand what <no order of difficulty in miracles> means:since all <forms> of problems express the same <content>, there can truly beonly one problem and one answer. Therefore, as soon as any discomfort reachesour awareness, we now have the means at hand to remedy it: the miracle.Regardless of the form of the upset, we understand that the answer lies inchoosing the right teacher to resolve it. The problem is our having chosen theego and its separation; the solution is choosing the Holy Spirit and HisAtonement.*(10) "Be not deceived by the form of problems today. Whenever any difficultyseems to rise, tell yourself quickly:"Let me recognize this problem so it can be solved."Then try to suspend all judgment about what the problem is. If possible, closeyour eyes for a moment and ask what it is. You will be heard and you will beanswered."*This final paragraph underscores the need to move beyond the form of theproblem, recognizing that all problems are the same. It is this simplicity thatcharacterizes A Course in Miracles and Jesus' teaching. Despite the apparentmultitudinous number of problems that confront us, there remains only one: thebelief we are right and Jesus is wrong. Our judgments were based on illusions,and so we defer at last to his true judgment. Only this shift will bring uspeace. Lesson 80 continues the theme of one problem, one solution.*
Love and Blessings,
Lyn Johnson 719-369-1822
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Lesson 78. Let miracles replace all grievances.
Lesson 78. Let miracles replace all grievances.(1) Perhaps it is not yet quite clear to you that each decision that you make isone between a grievance and a miracle. Each grievance stands like a dark shieldof hate before the miracle it would conceal. And as you raise it up before youreyes, you will not see the miracle beyond. Yet all the while it waits for you inlight, but you behold your grievances instead.(2) Today we go beyond the grievances, to look upon the miracle instead. We willreverse the way you see by not allowing sight to stop before it sees. We willnot wait before the shield of hate, but lay it down and gently lift our eyes insilence to behold the Son of God.(3) He waits for you behind your grievances, and as you lay them down he willappear in shining light where each one stood before. For every grievance is ablock to sight, and as it lifts you see the Son of God where he has always been.He stands in light, but you were in the dark. Each grievance made the darknessdeeper, and you could not see.(4) Today we will attempt to see God's Son. We will not let ourselves be blindto him; we will not look upon our grievances. So is the seeing of the worldreversed, as we look out toward truth, away from fear. We will select one personyou have used as target for your grievances, and lay the grievances aside andlook at him. Someone, perhaps, you fear and even hate; someone you think youlove who angered you; someone you call a friend, but whom you see as difficultat times or hard to please, demanding, irritating or untrue to the ideal heshould accept as his, according to the role you set for him.(5) You know the one to choose; his name has crossed your mind already. He willbe the one of whom we ask God's Son be shown to you. Through seeing him behindthe grievances that you have held against him, you will learn that what layhidden while you saw him not is there in everyone, and can be seen. He who wasenemy is more than friend when he is freed to take the holy role the Holy Spirithas assigned to him. Let him be savior unto you today. Such is his role in Godyour Father's plan.(6) Our longer practice periods today will see him in this role. You willattempt to hold him in your mind, first as you now consider him. You will reviewhis faults, the difficulties you have had with him, the pain he caused you, hisneglect, and all the little and the larger hurts he gave. You will regard hisbody with its flaws and better points as well, and you will think of hismistakes and even of his "sins."(7) Then let us ask of Him Who knows this Son of God in his reality and truth,that we may look on him a different way, and see our savior shining in the lightof true forgiveness, given unto us. We ask Him in the holy Name of God and ofHis Son, as holy as Himself:Let me behold my savior in this one You have appointed as the one for me to ask to lead me to the holy light in which he stands, that I may join with him.<The body's eyes are closed, and as you think of him who grieved you, let yourmind be shown the light in him beyond your grievances.(8) What you have asked for cannot be denied. Your savior has been waiting longfor this. He would be free, and make his freedom yours. The Holy Spirit leansfrom him to you, seeing no separation in God's Son. And what you see through Himwill free you both. Be very quiet now, and look upon your shining savior. Nodark grievances obscure the sight of him. You have allowed the Holy Spirit toexpress through him the role God gave Him that you might be saved.(9) God thanks you for these quiet times today in which you laid your imagesaside, and looked upon the miracle of love the Holy Spirit showed you in theirplace. The world and Heaven join in thanking you, for not one Thought of God butmust rejoice as you are saved, and all the world with you.(10) We will remember this throughout the day, and take the role assigned to usas part of God's salvation plan, and not our own. Temptation falls away when weallow each one we meet to save us, and refuse to hide his light behind ourgrievances. To everyone you meet, and to the ones you think of or remember fromthe past, allow the role of savior to be given, that you may share it with him.For you both, and all the sightless ones as well, we pray:Let miracles replace all grievances.< ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~The commentary on this lesson (below) is from Kenneth Wapnick's eight volumeseries of books, called: "Journey Through the Workbook of A Course in Miracles,"which can be purchased at the following site:??~ M. Street~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Lesson 78. Let miracles replace all grievances.*In this lesson we can see much more specifically that grievances are theproblem and miracles the solution. I might mention that this is the first lessonthat is in blank verse. This has no bearing on the meaning of the lesson ofcourse, but for those who appreciate Shakespeare, whose primary verse was iambicpentameter, this is a bonus. Prior to this lesson there were occasional passagesthat slipped in and out of blank verse, but this is the first time a lesson iswritten entirely in meter. Jesus then shifts back to prose until later. If asyou go through this lesson you find yourself reading in rhythmic cadences, yourare responding to the iambic pentameter, even without being aware of it.*(1:1) "Perhaps it is not yet quite clear to you that each decision that you makeis one between a grievance and a miracle."*We think the decisions we make are between A and B, choices that are alwaysseen as external. Do I see this person or that one? Do I eat this food orsomething else? Do I go here or there? Jesus is telling us these choices are butforms that conceal the underlying and only choice: Do I choose the ego or theHoly Spirit, attack of forgiveness, grievances or miracles?*(1:2) "Each grievance stands like a dark shield of hate before the miracle itwould conceal."*Note the purposive nature of grievances. We have seen that purpose iseverything in A Course in Miracles, and Jesus states that the only question weshould ask of anything is: "What is it for?" (T.17.VI.2.2) The purpose we giveto a circumstance is all the meaning it has. Directly implied here is that thegrievance is a defense, "a dark shield of hate" that prevents us from choosingthe miracle "it would conceal." We are therefore never angry or judgmental forthe reasons we think. We believe our anger is caused by something outside us:what someone does or says, or a situation we do like. However, this statementlets us know that the real purpose -- the attack thought's underlying content --is our desire to hide the miracle from our vision.*(1:3) "And as you raise it up before your eyes, you will not see the miraclebeyond."*Why do we not want to see the miracle? If we did, we would be seeing within ourminds, realizing the reason we are upset is that we made the wrong choice. Inother words, we are the dreamers of our dreams, and therefore the only ones whohave the power to change them -- the last thing in the world the ego wants us todiscover. What preserves the belief in the reality of the ego is the fact thatwe do not remember we made it up. The ego has no existence in itself, whichmeans the world that arose from it has no existence either. Their seemingreality rests in the power of the Son's mind to believe in it.The ego's problem, to recap our earlier discussions, is not the Love of God, ofwhich it knows nothing. Its problem is the decision maker, the power of theSon's mind to choose the ego. This means that at any given moment -- the holyinstant -- the Son can withdraw that power and choose the Holy Spirit's miracleinstead. The ego would then disappear, as would our individual existence. That,then, is the ego's fear: redemption, not crucifixion (T-13.III.1:10-11). Toensure this does not happen, the ego makes up an elaborate thought system ofsin, guilt, and fear, and projects this into a specific world in which we canjustifiably hold grievances. These defend against the minds guilt, which in turndefends against the love in our minds. Thus the ego's "shield of hate" preventsus from seeing the miracle, thereby preventing our ever choosing it.*(1:4) "Yet all the while it waits for you in light, but you behold yourgrievances instead."*The miracle of correction waits, which ultimately means the One Who <is> thecorrection. Consequently, if you want to keep the Holy Spirit's Love away fromyou, you need only pick a fight with someone. Jesus says the same thing in themanual in the context of the peace of God:"God's peace can never come where anger is, for anger must deny that peaceexists. Who sees anger as justified in any way or any circumstance proclaimsthat peace is meaningless, and must believe that it cannot exist." (M-20.3:3-4).Anger is like a solid shield or wall, behind which is the Love of God. If youfear this Love, knowing that in its presence your specialness disappears, youkeep it by fighting with someone -- physically, verbally, or in your thoughts.The form anger takes does not matter, since the dynamic is the same: thedarkness of our grievances conceals the miracle's light.*(2:1-2) "Today we go beyond the grievances, to look upon the miracle instead. Wewill reverse the way you see by not allowing sight to stop before it sees."*Implied here is that our eyes are not the instruments of seeing. True seeing,or vision, occurs in our minds, as we have seen many times already. It occursonly when we choose Jesus as the source of our vision. When we exclude him webecome blind. We "see" separation and sin within; and therefore we think we seea separated and sinful world without. But none of this is seeing. Recall ourearlier quoted line -- "Nothing so blinding as perception of form" -- now seenin its fuller context:"Everything the body's eyes can see is a mistake, an error in perception, adistorted fragment of the whole without the meaning that the whole wouldgive.... The body's eyes see only form. They cannot see beyond what they weremade to see. And they were made to look on error and not see past it. Theirs isindeed a strange perception, for they can see only illusions, unable to lookbeyond the granite block of sin, and stopping at the outside form of nothing. Tothis distorted form of vision the outside of everything, the wall that standsbetween you and the truth, is wholly true. Yet how can sight that stops atnothingness, as if it were a solid wall, see truly? It is held back by form,having been made to guarantee that nothing else but form will be perceived.""These eyes, made not to see, will never see. For the idea they representleft not its maker, and it is their maker that sees through them. What was itsmaker's goal but not to see? For this the body's eyes are perfect means, but notfor seeing. See how the body's eyes rest on externals and cannot go beyond.Watch how they stop at nothingness, unable to go beyond the form to meaning.Nothing so blinding as perception of form. For sight of form means understandinghas been obscured." (T-22.III.4:3;5:3-6:8).That is why Jesus teaches us never to trust our perceptions. They are based onform, the shadowy fragment of the ego's thought system of separation and guilt.*(2:3) "We will not wait before the shield of hate, but lay it down and gentlylift our eyes in silence to behold the Son of God."*In the early years of studying A Course in Miracles, we inevitably think theSon of God we behold is someone external to us. It is only later, as we workwith the Course over a period of time, that we come to realize that the Son ofGod has nothing to do with what our physical eyes see, for we experience him inthe mind, the image of which we project onto others. The Son we have made realwithin is thus what we perceive outside: <projection makes perception>. To besure, the context of these lessons is the shift in our perception of our speciallove or hate partners. In truth, however, we are only changing our minds aboutthe Son of God <in our minds>. Before we can shift the inner perception of theSon from guilty to sinless, we need first recognize that the Son is ourselvesand not another. Only then do we happily lay down our shield of hate.*(3:1-2) "He waits for you behind your grievances, and as you lay them down hewill appear in shining light where each one stood before. For every grievance isa block to sight, and as it lifts you see the Son of God where he has alwaysbeen."*The Son has always been within his Father, Whom he never left. Therefore he hasalways been within the mind, which contains the memory of his Source. Theprinciple of the Atonement reminds us that the darkness of our hate has no powerover the light; the ego's grievances cannot withstand the face of Christ shiningin forgiveness beyond the block to sight.*(3:3) "He stands in light, but you were in the dark."*The Son of God is the Christ Who remains in our right minds through the HolySpirit, even though we shrouded him in veils of separation, guilt, and hate.These are veils that we, in our deluded minds, had chosen to replace the lightin our awareness.*(3:4--4:1) "Each grievance made the darkness deeper, and you could not see.""Today we will attempt to see God's Son.*We come now to another exercise in forgiveness, which helps us see the lightthat is just beyond the ego's darkness of hate and judgment. Keep in mind,again, that the context is seeing God's Son in our brother, against whom webelieve we hold grievances. However, since what we perceive outside mirrors whatwe perceive inside, the light of Christ I see in you is nothing more or lessthan the Son of God I have made real in my mind. My learning to see God's Son inyou, my brother in specialness, reflects my seeing the same Son in me.*(4:2-5) "We will not let ourselves be blind to him; we will not look upon ourgrievances. So is the seeing of the world reversed, as we look out toward truth,away from fear. We will select one person you have used as target for yourgrievances, and lay the grievances aside and look at him. Someone, perhaps, youfear and even hate; someone you think you love who angered you; someone you calla friend, but whom you see as difficult at times or hard to please, demanding,irritating or untrue to the ideal he should accept as his, according to the roleyou set for him."*In "Dream Roles" near the end of the text, Jesus explains that we get angry atothers because they do not fulfill the role we have given them in our dream(T-29.IV.4:1). This kind of exercise, repeated in different ways throughout theworkbook is something we should practice all the time, not just when we areworking with a particular lesson. It should be applied whenever we are temptedto get upset with anyone. Sometimes it is the same person, -- we all have ourfavorite targets -- but it could be someone, as Jesus describes here, whom wethink of as a friend or loved one. When people behave in a way that pushes ourbuttons, we can see this as an opportunity to realize that the relationship isonly a screen onto which we projected our guilt over having pushed the love ofJesus away. If we allowed ourselves to experience his love, we could never beangry or upset with anyone. It would be impossible because of the mind'sprinciple of <one or the other>: hate of forgiveness; fear or love.When we find ourselves upset, it is always because: 1) we decided Jesus' lovewas too threatening to our specialness, and separated from it; 2) we nextrepress the guilt over this perceived sin, committed still again; and 3) soughtand found others onto whom we could project our guilt, magically believing wehad become free of it. We then forget this three-step process, aware only of itsend product -- hurt, anger, and disappointment. At this point we should remindourselves of the exercise, returning to our minds to ask Jesus for help, saying,as a variation of T-5,VII.6:7: "I must be looking at these people wrongly,because I am blaming my loss of peace on them." We thus use the circumstance asan opportunity to realize that what we are perceiving outside directly reflectsthe sin and guilt we first perceived inside. Instead of seeing it in ourselvesand accepting it there, we had chosen to see it in other people.It is only in asking Jesus for help -- i.e., joining with him -- that we undothe cause of our upset, which lies in our guilt over pushing him away. That iswhy going to him or the Holy Spirit is a major theme of A Course in Miracles.Asking Their help is precisely what undoes the root cause of our distress,regardless of its form. In an important passage at the end of the manual forteachers, Jesus tells us that asking the Holy Spirit for guidance is the way outof guilt:"There is another advantage, -and a very important one,- in referringdecisions to the Holy Spirit with increasing frequency. Perhaps you have notthought of this aspect, but its centrality is obvious. To follow the HolySpirit's guidance is to let yourself be absolved of guilt. It is the essence ofthe Atonement. It is the core of the curriculum. The imagined usurping offunctions not your own is the basis of fear. The whole world you see reflectsthe illusion that you have done so, making fear inevitable. To return thefunction to the One to Whom it belongs is thus the escape from fear. And it isthis that lets the memory of love return to you. Do not, then, think thatfollowing the Holy Spirit's guidance is necessary merely because of your owninadequacies. It is the way out of hell for you." (T-29.3).This view of seeking the Holy Spirit's help shifts the focus from the <form> ofwhat we think we are asking for to the <content> of undoing the ego's arrogancein thinking it is better off on its own.The process of healing thus begins with the experience of anger ordisappointment with another, our having repressed the mind's decisions for sin,guilt, and projection. Our commitment to learning and practicing this course canbe seen in how quickly we are able to ask the Holy Spirit's help to shift how wesee someone outside, as a way of reflecting the shift in how we wish to seeourselves.*(5:1-3) "You know the one to choose; his name has crossed your mind already. Hewill be the one of whom we ask God's Son be shown to you. Through seeing himbehind the grievances that you have held against him, you will learn that whatlay hidden while you saw him not is there in everyone, and can be seen."*We find here an intimation of the theme of generalization, which is central tothe next two lesson. If I could accept that I made up my grievances against you-- and no one has trouble finding someone to use for the exercise -- I will atsome point generalize the lesson and realize I have made up my grievancesagainst everyone. The darkness I saw in you I saw in all people, because it isin me. However, the light I now see in you is also in all people, because that,too, is in me. We have practiced with specifics but only so we can learn togeneralize and recognize there is only one problem and one solution. As Jesussays later in the workbook:"The mind that taught itself to think specifically can no longer graspabstraction in the sense that it is all-encompassing. We need to see a little,that we learn a lot." (W.PI.161.4.7).*(5:4-6) "He who was enemy is more than friend when he is freed to take the holyrole the Holy Spirit has assigned to him. Let him be savior unto you today.Such is his role in God your Father's plan."*Our brother is our savior -- "more than friend" -- not because he possessesmagical attributes, but because we realize that what we are seeing in him is aprojection of what is in our ourselves. This enables us to be saved from ourguilt and the disastrous effects of our wrong choices. Had it not been for thisspecial relationship, we would have had no opportunity for salvation. This,then, is the essence of "God's" plan of Atonement: The world, which was made asan attack on God and substitute for His Love, becomes a classroom in which welearn to remember Him. There is nothing redeeming in the world itself, but ourredemption comes from giving it a different purpose.*(6) "Our longer practice periods today will see him in this role. You willattempt to hold him in your mind, first as you now consider him. You will reviewhis faults, the difficulties you have had with him, the pain he caused you, hisneglect, and all the little and the larger hurts he gave. You will regard hisbody with its flaws and better points as well, and you will think of hismistakes and even of his "sins."*Jesus is asking us to be honest with ourselves (and with him) about ourgrievances: to hold no perception back from awareness. If we do, we are choosingto retain some "spots of darkness" (T-31.VIII.12.5) in ourselves that we neverwish to relinquish to the healing light of forgiveness. It is these "spots" wehave projected onto another -- our savior -- that become the means of healingourselves.*(7:1) "Then let us ask of Him Who knows this Son of God in his reality andtruth, that we may look on him a different way, and see our savior shining inthe light of true forgiveness, given unto us."*Again, we need ask for help to change the wrong choice in our minds, not theexternal situation; we change our minds, not someone else. As Jesus says in aparallel passage from the text:"Dream softly of your sinless brother, who unites with you in holyinnocence. And from this dream the Lord of Heaven will Himself awaken Hisbeloved Son. Dream of your brother's kindnesses instead of dwelling in yourdreams on his mistakes. Select his thoughtfulness to dream about instead ofcounting up the hurts he gave. Forgive him his illusions, and give thanks to himfor all the helpfulness he gave. And do not brush aside his many gifts becausehe is not perfect in your dreams." (T.27.VII.15.1-6).*(7:2-3) "We ask Him in the holy Name of God and of His Son, as holy as Himself:"Let me behold my savior in this one You have appointed as the one for me to askto lead me to the holy light in which he stands, that I may join with him."*We ask for help "that I may join with him." Strictly speaking, of course, we donot join with someone else, because we are already joined. However, theexperience of joining with someone undoes the attack thought that kept usseparated. It is really a prayer to ourselves -- the decision-making part of ourminds -- that we begin the process of recognizing that God's Son is one. If Iattack you, my special love or hate partner, I am saying the Son is separated,split in two: <me> and <you>, and the rest of Sonship contained in you. Theabove prayer for the experience of oneness is thus the correction for suchinsane thinking.*(7:4) "The body's eyes are closed, and as you think of him who grieved you, letyour mind be shown the light in him beyond your grievances."*Jesus is certainly not talking about an external perceptual shift, but amiraculous shift in the Course's sense of that term: the mind's shift fromgrievances to miracles.*(8:1-3) "What you have asked for cannot be denied. Your savior has been waitinglong for this. He would be free, and make his freedom yours."*This can be understood on two levels. We each need each other's forgivenessbecause we can help each other understand we made the wrong choice and now canmake the correct one. When you identify with your guilt and I attack you, Ireinforce it by saying, in effect, your decision for the ego was right. However,when I am in my right mind and do not attack, regardless of how you may perceiveme, I send a different message, communicating to you that same choice I made youcan make:"Your mind contains two alternatives. The one you have chosen -- theone I have chosen as well -- was a mistake. As I have corrected my mind Irepresent for you the same choice." Recall the passage from the manual forteachers we have seen before, in which we say to each other:"Behold, you Son of God, what life can offer you. Would you choose sickness[or guilt] in place of this?" (M-5.III.2:11-12).Ultimately, of course, the savior who "has been waiting long for this" isourselves. We understand metaphysically that there is no one out there, and sothe person we perceive is a split-off part of ourselves -- the guilty self thatneeds forgiveness. Our misperception of this person thus becomes the meanswhereby we correct the original misperception of ourselves.*(8:3-5) "He would be free, and make his freedom yours. The Holy Spirit leansfrom him to you, seeing no separation in God's Son. And what you see through Himwill free you both."*At this stage of one's work with A Course in Miracles, one would most likelynot be aware that these lines are meant literally. It is not the Holy Spiritsees me and you as separate, both beloved Sons of God. He does not see us asseparate at all, because we are not. As our experience of the Course deepensover time, our understanding of lines like these will deepen, too. We will cometo realize that this literally means we are not separate selves, but split-offparts of a larger self that is one, as our true Self is One.*(8:6-8) "Be very quiet now, and look upon your shining savior. No darkgrievances obscure the sight of him. You have allowed the Holy Spirit to expressthrough him the role God gave Him that you might be saved."*Our quietness is the result of having silenced the ego's shrieking voice ofspecialness, allowing us to hear the gentle sound of the Holy Spirit'sAtonement. His vision of the inherent sinlessness of God's Son is allowed toreplace the darkened sight of grievances and hate. This vision embraces theSonship as one -- my brother and myself -- as I come to recognize my savior inthe very person I had chosen to exclude from love: the savior who is my self.*(9) "God thanks you for these quiet times today in which you laid your imagesaside, and looked upon the miracle of love the Holy Spirit showed you in theirplace. The world and Heaven join in thanking you, for not one Thought of God butmust rejoice as you are saved, and all the world with you."*The gratitude is our own, for finally having made the right choice: onenessinstead of separation; miracles instead of grievances; God instead of the ego.In that choice is all the Sonship healed as it remembers the unity it had neverdestroyed, its voice joined at last with the song of gratitude -- the prayer oflove -- Jesus describes in the beautiful opening to The Song of Prayer:"Prayer is the greatest gift with which God blessed His Son at his creation.It was then what it is to become; the single voice Creator and creation share;the song the Son sings to the Father, Who returns the thanks it offers Him untothe Son. Endless the harmony, and endless, too, the joyous concord of the LoveThey give forever to Each Other. And in this, creation is extended. God givesthanks to His extension in His Son. His Son gives thanks for his creation, inthe song of his creating in his Father's Name. The Love They share is what allprayer will be throughout eternity, when time is done. For such it was beforetime seemed to be." (S-1.in.1.)*(10) "We will remember this throughout the day, and take the role assigned to usas part of God's salvation plan, and not our own. Temptation falls away when weallow each one we meet to save us, and refuse to hide his light behind ourgrievances. To everyone you meet, and to the ones you think of or remember fromthe past, allow the role of savior to be given, that you may share it with him.For you both, and all the sightless ones as well, we pray:"Let miracles replace all grievances."*This, again, is an expression of the oneness of God's Son. As long as webelieve he is many -- separate bodies involved with other bodies -- we need topractice with each one, applying "God's salvation plan": the forgiveness of ourspecial relationships. Each person then becomes our individual savior, for eachoffers the opportunity of being saved from the mistaken choice of making theseparation real. At some point we realize that each person is every person, and,finally, that <there is no person out there at all> -- only the one Son of Godcontained in our minds. Since minds are joined, God's Son is in all people aswell. This vision of the light of miracles replacing the darkened veil ofgrievances is given lovely expression in "The Savior's Vision":"Behold your role within the universe! To every part of true creation hasthe Lord of Love and Life entrusted all salvation from the misery of hell. Andto each one has He allowed the grace to be a savior to the holy ones especiallyentrusted to his care. And this he learns when first he looks upon one brotheras he looks upon himself, and sees the mirror of himself in him. Thus is theconcept of himself laid by, for nothing stands between his sight and what helooks upon, to judge what he beholds. And in this single vision does he see theface of Christ, and understands he looks on everyone as he beholds this one. Forthere is light where darkness was before, and now the veil is lifted from hissight." (T-31.VII.8).We move now to Lessons 79 and 80, which present the familiar theme of salvation,but expressed differently. Our symphony based on the theme of forgiveness thuscontinue, with its almost endless series of variations.*
Love and Blessings,
Lyn Johnson 719-369-1822
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Lesson 77. I am entitled to miracles.
Lesson 77. I am entitled to miracles.(1) You are entitled to miracles because of what you are. You will receivemiracles because of what God is. And you will offer miracles because you are onewith God. Again, how simple is salvation! It is merely a statement of your trueIdentity. It is this that we will celebrate today.(2) Your claim to miracles does not lie in your illusions about yourself. Itdoes not depend on any magical powers you have ascribed to yourself, nor on anyof the rituals you have devised. It is inherent in the truth of what you are. Itis implicit in what God your Father is. It was ensured in your creation, andguaranteed by the laws of God.(3) Today we will claim the miracles which are your right, since they belong toyou. You have been promised full release from the world you made. You have beenassured that the Kingdom of God is within you, and can never be lost. We ask nomore than what belongs to us in truth. Today, however, we will also make surethat we will not content ourselves with less.(4) Begin the longer practice periods by telling yourself quite confidently thatyou are entitled to miracles. Closing your eyes, remind yourself that you areasking only for what is rightfully yours. Remind yourself also that miracles arenever taken from one and given to another, and that in asking for your rights,you are upholding the rights of everyone. Miracles do not obey the laws of thisworld. They merely follow from the laws of God.(5) After this brief introductory phase, wait quietly for the assurance thatyour request is granted. You have asked for the salvation of the world, and foryour own. You have requested that you be given the means by which this isaccomplished. You cannot fail to be assured in this. You are but asking that theWill of God be done.(6) In doing this, you do not really ask for anything. You state a fact thatcannot be denied. The Holy Spirit cannot but assure you that your request isgranted. The fact that you accepted must be so. There is no room for doubt anduncertainty today. We are asking a real question at last. The answer is a simplestatement of a simple fact. You will receive the assurance that you seek.(7) Our shorter practice periods will be frequent, and will also be devoted to areminder of a simple fact. Tell yourself often today:I am entitled to miracles.< Ask for them whenever a situation arises in which they are called for. You willrecognize these situations. And since you are not relying on yourself to findthe miracle, you are fully entitled to receive it whenever you ask.(8) Remember, too, not to be satisfied with less than the perfect answer. Bequick to tell yourself, should you be tempted:I will not trade miracles for grievances. I want only what belongs to me.God has established miracles as my right.<~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~The commentary on this lesson (below) is from Kenneth Wapnick's eight volumeseries of books, called: "Journey Through the Workbook of A Course in Miracles,"which can be purchased at the following site:??~ M. Street~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Lesson 77. "I am entitled to miracles."*This is the first mention of miracles in the workbook. There is an indirectreference earlier in the lessons, but discussion of this central theme occurshere for the first time. Since it is so easily misunderstood, I shall talkbriefly about the miracle before moving into the lesson itself.In A Course in Miracles, Jesus is fond of using terms that seem to suggest onething, and providing them with an entirely different meaning. The term<miracles>, which gives its name to the Course, is a prime example. Almosteveryone associates the word with something external. Whether or not onebelieves in the Bible, everyone in our Western world has been influenced by theaccounts of various miracles described in the Old and the New Testaments. Anexamination shows that they involve some change in the body or the world,whether it is the parting of the Red Sea, healing of illness, or raising thedead. In the Course, miracles are understood differently, having nothing to dowith the external, but only with a change of mind. Lessons 77 and 78 indicatethat the best way of thinking about a miracle is as a correction for our faultyperceptions and, above all, as the means for undoing our distress and pain. InLesson 193 Jesus explains that all distress comes from a lack of forgiveness:"Certain it is that all distress does not appear to be but unforgiveness"(W.PI.193.4.1); and in our next lesson he discusses miracles as the answer toour grievances.As we go through these lessons, therefore, think of the miracle as a change ofmind or, even more specifically, a change of teachers: from the ego to the HolySpirit. That change corrects all misperceptions and misthoughts, the source ofour suffering. Therefore, when Jesus says at the beginning of this lesson "I amentitled to miracles," he, again, is not referring to something external, norGod's grace descending upon us from on high, blessing us, our families, oranyone else. We are entitled to the end of our pain simply because we are God'sSon, who cannot be in pain. He may dream he suffers, dream he separated from Godbut the truth is that he remains as God created him. The miracle is Jesus namefor the dynamic that allows us to understand that everything we have made -- ourpersonal and collective worlds -- is a dream. We are the dreamers of this dream,and therefore we are the ones who can change our minds about it, as we see inthis passage from the text:"Nothing at all has happened but that you have put yourself to sleep, anddreamed a dream in which you were an alien to yourself, and but a part ofsomeone else's dream. ... The miracle does not awaken you, but merely shows youwho the dreamer is. It teaches you there is a choice of dreams while you arestill asleep, depending on the purpose of your dreaming. Do you wish for dreamsof healing, or for dreams of death?" (T.28.II.4.1-4).We turn now to the lesson, which takes us another step towards accepting thedreams of healing, the precursor to our awakening from the sleep of separation:*(1:1-2) "You are entitled to miracles because of what you are. You will receivemiracles because of what God is."*The source of the miracle is the presence of Jesus or the Holy Spirit in ourminds. This presence reminds us of who we are as God's one Son. In "Principlesof Miracles," Jesus explains that their Source is beyond our evaluation(T-1.1.2:2), meaning God is beyond understanding. Jesus or the Holy Spiritreflect God's truth -- the Atonement principle -- which is that the separationfrom God never happened. Thus, we will receive miracles because we have<already> received them. The correction is fully present in our minds, awaitingour acceptance.*(1:3) "And you will offer miracles because you are one with God."*When we choose the miracle -- the choice to return to our minds and change thedecision from the ego to the Holy Spirit -- we have undone the belief inseparation. In that holy instant there is no separation. In that holy instantthere is no separated Son of God, only the <one> Son. Thus does the miracle wehave accepted naturally extend through us to the whole Sonship, because ourhealed mind <is> the whole Sonship. In the instant we have chosen Jesus -- thegreat symbol of the one Son -- as our teacher and identified with his love, webecome like him. Helen's "A Jesus Prayer," expresses the fervent wish that thisbe so, in our first of several references to this inspired and inspiring poem:A perfect picture of what I can beYou show to me, that I might help renewYour brothers' failing sight. As they look upLet them not look on me, but only on You." (The Gifts of God, p.83.)Moreover, Jesus tells us in the text that when we take his hand we reach beyondthe ego because he is beyond the ego:"I go before you because I am beyond the ego. Reach, therefore, for my handbecause you want to transcend the ego." (T.8.V.6.7-8)In the holy instant we have transcended thoughts of separation, and offermiracles in the sense that we are one with God when we have chosen His Teacher.As one with our Creator, we must then be one with His creation; a unity thatembraces its seemingly separated fragments.The words of the lesson seems to suggest that a miracle is something we do. Infact, many statements early in the text seem to suggest that as well. As we havediscussed previously, however, the language of A Course in Miracles allows Jesusto speak to us on a level that we can understand, which involves experiencingourselves and others as bodies. Although the language in many places suggeststhat miracles involve behavior, in truth they are but correction thoughts wechoose and therefore accept. Again, once accepted, the miracle naturally extendsthrough our joined minds. We, as separated individuals -- body and ego -- do notdo anything. We do not offer miracles on a bodily level, nor do we receive themthere. The miracle is simply a process of decision in our minds that allowsextension to occur.*(1:4) "Again, how simple is salvation!"*This is a recurring theme throughout A Course in Miracles. Salvation is simplebecause it says, for example: "what is false is false, and what is true hasnever changed." (W.PII.Q10.1.1) What is false is the ego system, regardless ofthe many forms in which it comes; and what has never changed is the truth ofGod. As Jesus repeatedly reminds us: What could be more simple? *(1:5-6) "It is merely a statement of your true Identity. It is this that we willcelebrate today."*Choosing the miracle corrects the misperceptions we are an ego, we have a splitmind, and we are not as God created us. When we realize what we are <not>, thememory of who we are -- Christ, the Identity of God's Son -- will dawn on ourminds.*(2:1) "Your claim to miracles does not lie in your illusions about yourself."*The primary illusion about ourselves is that we are bodies. We are thereforenot entitled to miracles on the bodily level to better our dream or those of ourloved ones. Our true claim is to a change in mind or, again more and more to thepoint, a change in teachers. Thus we are taught by our new teacher that we arenot travesties of our Self: bodies instead of spirit. Recall Jesus' statement toHelen in "The Gifts of God": "For I am not a dream that comes in mockery" (TheGifts of God, p.121). In other words, Jesus is not a body, the hero of the dreamthat would mock our creation as spirit. Likewise, neither are we. Thus we claimthe miracle of correction that reminds us of the truth about ourselves.*(2:2) "It does not depend on any magical powers you have ascribed to yourself,nor on any of the rituals you have devised."*From the perspective of A Course in Miracles, the miracles that are describedin the Bible are forms of magic. They are what one miraculous body does onbehalf of other bodies. The Biblical God, too, is very much involved in thephysical world, and He is portrayed as the source of the miracles, often workingthrough His chosen agents -- the prophets or Jesus himself. All these are formsof magic because they have nothing to do with a change of mind. The problemrequiring the miracle's intervention is external to the mind. In fact, there isnothing in the Bible about a mind -- even though the word is used occasionally-- in the sense in which it is defined in the Course. The problem is thusperceived to be external, and the miracle correspondingly acts to remedy theproblem.In A Course in Miracles this is all different. The source of the problem isshifted from the body to the mind that conceived of the problem. This isultimately some aspect of guilt, which can be solved only by the miracle.*(2:3-5) "It is inherent in the truth of what you are. It is implicit in what Godyour Father is. It was ensured in your creation, and guaranteed by the laws ofGod."*The truth of what we are is Christ, and His memory is in our right mindsthrough the presence of the Holy Spirit. That is where the miracle is foundwaiting to be chosen. The "It" throughout this paragraph refers to our claim tomiracles. We are entitled to them because of who we are as God's Son, whichmeans we are entitled to the correction already present in us.*(3) "Today we will claim the miracles which are your right, since they belong toyou. You have been promised full release from the world you made. You have beenassured that the Kingdom of God is within you, and can never be lost. We ask nomore than what belongs to us in truth. Today, however, we will also make surethat we will not content ourselves with less."*Again, miracles belong to us because they are within our minds, and cannot befound in anything outside them. The promise of the "full release from the worldthat you made," and the assurance "that the Kingdom of God is within you, andcan never be lost," is the purpose of the Atonement principle -- the separationfrom God never happened. It is the truth of the Holy Spirit that releases usfrom the world, because the world came from the belief that we did in factseparate, a belief that initiated the development of the thought system ofindividuality -- sin, guilt, and fear -- culminating in the projection that madethe world. Therefore, if there is no individuality, because the separation fromGod never happened, we are automatically released from the world. This is thetruth to which we are entitled because we <are> the truth: an extension of God'sloving Will.We see here a recurring theme in A Course in Miracles: By choosing the egoinstead of the Holy Spirit, littleness instead of magnitude (T-15.III), wesettle for a parody of our creation instead of the glorious truth of who we are.In other words, we settle for the crumbs instead of the banquet, the parts ofthe song itself. Thus we are told in the opening pages of The Song of Prayer:"The real sound is always a song of thanksgiving and of Love.""You cannot, then, ask for the echo. It is the song that is the gift. Alongwith it come the overtones, the harmonics, the echoes, but these are secondary.In true prayer you hear only the song. All the rest is merely added. You havesought first the Kingdom of Heaven, and all else has indeed been given you."(S-1.1.2.9-3:5).Or, as Jesus says of "the forgotten song": "The notes are nothing" (T-21,1.7:1).Our preferring life in the body to life as spirit is the height, not only ofinsanity, but of self-depreciation. Jesus says further in the text:"Be not content with littleness. But be sure you understand what littlenessis, and why you could never be content with it. Littleness is the offering yougive yourself. You offer this in place of magnitude, and you accept it.Everything in this world is little because it is a world made out of littleness,in the strange belief that littleness can content you. When you strive foranything in this world in the belief that it will bring you peace, you arebelittling yourself and blinding yourself to glory. Littleness and glory are thechoices open to your striving and your vigilance. You will always choose one atthe expense of the other." (T-15.III.1).In summary, we are told that our problem is that we ask for far too little, andnot for too much (T-26.VII.II:7). We are indeed entitled to everything.*(4:1-2) "Begin the longer practice periods by telling yourself quite confidentlythat you are entitled to miracles. Closing your eyes, remind yourself that youare asking only for what is rightfully yours."*We have repeatedly seen the importance of using these ideas whenever we aretempted to believe we are separated: feeling special, angry, guilty, anxious, ordepressed. Having thus made real some aspect of the ego thought system, we needto realize as soon as possible that we have made the wrong choice of the wrongteacher. At this point we ask for help to see that the problem we areexperiencing is one we made up because we needed it to preserve our individualidentity. This self is in the mind, chosen by the decision maker, and as long aswe see the problem in the world or body, we affirm our mindlessness. Thus thereis no way we can change our minds, a state that is the ego's salvation, and withwhich we have all so strongly identified. That is why exercises such as theseare so vital for our unlearning.*(4:3-5) "Remind yourself also that miracles are never taken from one and givento another, and that in asking for your rights, you are upholding the rights ofeveryone. Miracles do not obey the laws of this world. They merely follow fromthe laws of God."*The five laws of chaos discussed in Chapter 23 of the text, are the most cogentdescriptions in A Course in Miracles of these "laws of the world." The fourthlaw of chaos says that "You have what you have taken" (T-23.II.9:3), which restson the now-familiar teaching of the ego: <one or the other> -- if you have it, Ido not; if I have it, you do not. Thus, if you have the innocence and I want it,I must take it from you. This establishes you as sinful -- being withoutinnocence -- leaving me as sinless, for I have taken your innocent state andmade it my own.The law of God is that we are one. What is therefore true for you must be truefor me. The laws of the ego -- the laws of chaos -- rest on the belief indifferences are real (T-23.II.2;1-3). A Course in Miracles teaches instead thatthere is only one law in Heaven -- perfect Oneness and Love. Miracles are thuspresent in everyone. There are no exceptions because there can be no exceptionsin Heaven's truth or its reflections on earth.*(5) "After this brief introductory phase, wait quietly for the assurance thatyour request is granted. You have asked for the salvation of the world, and foryour own. You have requested that you be given the means by which this isaccomplished. You cannot fail to be assured in this. You are but asking that theWill of God be done."*As the text reminds us -- <twice> : "The outcome is as certain as God"(T-2.III.3:10; T-4.II.5.8). We cannot fail. However, we believe we can, if we donot avail ourselves of the means -- the miracle or forgiveness -- that isprovided by the Holy Spirit to help us remember the Will that God has for us, toremember that we <are> His Will. In that remembrance, brought about by themiracle, is salvation come.*(6) "In doing this, you do not really ask for anything. You state a fact thatcannot be denied. The Holy Spirit cannot but assure you that your request isgranted. The fact that you accepted must be so. There is no room for doubt anduncertainty today. We are asking a real question at last. The answer is a simplestatement of a simple fact. You will receive the assurance that you seek."*The problem, as we have seen many times, is our arrogance in thinking we knowthe problem and therefore know which question to ask, always some version of:How do I behave? What should I say? What is the answer to my problem? Whereshould I move? What job should I take? What relationship should I be involvedwith? All these are but pseudo-questions, designed to distract us from realizingthe true problem of separation, the focus of Lessons 79 and 80.In truth we are not asking <for> anything. We ask the Holy Spirit to help usrealize we made a mistake, and can now make the correct choice. That is themeaning of Jesus saying early in the text that "the only meaningful prayer isfor forgiveness, because those who have been forgiven have everything"(T-3.V.6:3). Our true prayer is that we accept the miracle or correction that isalready present within us. This means we have to take our eyes off thedistractions -- perceived problems, either in my body or another's -- bringingthem to our minds so we can understand the problem is not something outside, buta mistaken choice within. Again, this correction is the essence of the miracle,and asking for it is the only real request we can make, the answer to which isfound in the holy instant, as the following passage explains:"Therefore, attempt to solve no problems in a world from which the answerhas been barred. But bring the problem to the only place that holds the answerlovingly for you. Here are the answers that will solve your problems becausethey stand apart from them, and see what can be answered; what the question is.Within the world the answers merely raise another question, though they leavethe first unanswered. In the holy instant, you can bring the question to theanswer, and receive the answer that was made for you." (T-27.IV.7).*(7:1-4) "Our shorter practice periods will be frequent, and will also be devotedto a reminder of a simple fact. Tell yourself often today:I am entitled to miracles.< Ask for them whenever a situation arises in which they are called for."*Jesus is again telling us that these lessons -- and therefore his course --have no meaning if we do not use them to help undo our pain and distress. Heasks us to think very specifically of the idea for today, and go to it for helpwhen we are upset and tempted to blame someone or something else for ourdiscomfort.*(7:5-6) "You will recognize these situations. And since you are not relying onyourself to find the miracle, you are fully entitled to receive it whenever youask."*This is an extremely important point -- the big shift. Heretofore we haverelied on ourselves, or a projected image of ourselves we call Jesus, the HolySpirit, or God -- some magical savior figures who will undo our pain anddistress without <our> having to change our minds. The plea to these magicalsavior figures was really a prayer for magic, not true healing. Jesus is nowassuming we are no longer telling ourselves what the problem is, and thereforenot asking the image we made of him to solve the problem for us. Instead, we goto the source of the problem, the mind's decision to be on its own and be right,rather than happy. Truly asking Jesus or the Holy Spirit for help says we do nowant to be on our own anymore, ensuring that the miracle will once again beours. A special message to Helen addressed this very issue, Jesus cautioning hisscribe against trying to define the problem that needed answering:"Any specific question involves a large number of assumptions whichinevitably limit the answer. A specific question is actually a decision aboutthe kind of answer that is acceptable. The purpose of words is to limit, and bylimiting, to make more manageable. But that means manageable by you." (Absencefrom Felicity: The Story of Helen Schucman and Her Scribing of A Course inMiracles. p.445).The point lies in our recognizing that all problems are the same, and thereforeasking for the miracle -- asking ourselves to choose it -- is the onlymeaningful thing to do. Only the miracle allows true and unlimited correction ofthe separation to occur.*(8) "Remember, too, not to be satisfied with less than the perfect answer. Bequick to tell yourself, should you be tempted:I will not trade miracles for grievances. I want only what belongs to me.God has established miracles as my right.<"*This paragraph leads into the next lesson's theme: miracles and grievances aremutually exclusive states. The former reside in our right minds, when we choosethe Holy Spirit as our Teacher; the latter in our wrong minds, when we projectresponsibility for our attack onto others, even God Himself.*
Love and Blessings,
Lyn Johnson 719-369-1822
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Lesson 76. I am under no laws but God's.
Lesson 76. I am under no laws but God's.
(1) We have observed before how many senseless things have seemed to you to be
salvation. Each has imprisoned you with laws as senseless as itself. You are not
bound by them. Yet to understand that this is so, you must first realize
salvation lies not there. While you would seek for it in things that have no
meaning, you bind yourself to laws that make no sense. Thus do you seek to prove
salvation is where it is not.
(2) Today we will be glad you cannot prove it. For if you could, you would
forever seek salvation where it is not, and never find it. The idea for today
tells you once again how simple is salvation. Look for it where it waits for
you, and there it will be found. Look nowhere else, for it is nowhere else.
(3) Think of the freedom in the recognition that you are not bound by all the
strange and twisted laws you have set up to save you. You really think that you
would starve unless you have stacks of green paper strips and piles of metal
discs. You really think a small round pellet or some fluid pushed into your
veins through a sharpened needle will ward off disease and death. You really
think you are alone unless another body is with you.
(4) It is insanity that thinks these things. You call them laws, and put them
under different names in a long catalogue of rituals that have no use and serve
no purpose. You think you must obey the "laws" of medicine, of economics and of
health. Protect the body, and you will be saved.
(5) These are not laws, but madness. The body is endangered by the mind that
hurts itself. The body suffers just in order that the mind will fail to see it
is the victim of itself. The body's suffering is a mask the mind holds up to
hide what really suffers. It would not understand it is its own enemy; that it
attacks itself and wants to die. It is from this your "laws" would save the
body. It is for this you think you are a body.
(6) There are no laws except the laws of God. This needs repeating, over and
over, until you realize it applies to everything that you have made in
opposition to God's Will. Your magic has no meaning. What it is meant to save
does not exist. Only what it is meant to hide will save you.
(7) The laws of God can never be replaced. We will devote today to rejoicing
that this is so. It is no longer a truth that we would hide. We realize instead
it is a truth that keeps us free forever. Magic imprisons, but the laws of God
make free. The light has come because there are no laws but His.
(8) We will begin the longer practice periods today with a short review of the
different kinds of "laws" we have believed we must obey. These would include,
for example, the "laws" of nutrition, of immunization, of medication, and of the
body's protection in innumerable ways. Think further; you believe in the "laws"
of friendship, of "good" relationships and reciprocity. Perhaps you even think
that there are laws which set forth what is God's and what is yours. Many
"religions" have been based on this. They would not save but damn in Heaven's
name. Yet they are no more strange than other "laws" you hold must be obeyed to
make you safe.
(9) There are no laws but God's. Dismiss all foolish magical beliefs today, and
hold your mind in silent readiness to hear the Voice that speaks the truth to
you. You will be listening to One Who says there is no loss under the laws of
God. Payment is neither given nor received. Exchange cannot be made; there are
no substitutes; and nothing is replaced by something else. God's laws forever
give and never take.
(10) Hear Him Who tells you this, and realize how foolish are the "laws" you
thought upheld the world you thought you saw. Then listen further. He will tell
you more. About the Love your Father has for you. About the endless joy He
offers you. About His yearning for His only Son, created as His channel for
creation; denied to Him by his belief in hell.
(11) Let us today open God's channels to Him, and let His Will extend through us
to Him. Thus is creation endlessly increased. His Voice will speak of this to
us, as well as of the joys of Heaven which His laws keep limitless forever. We
will repeat today's idea until we have listened and understood there are no laws
but God's. Then we will tell ourselves, as a dedication with which the practice
period concludes:
I am under no laws but God's.
(12) We will repeat this dedication as often as possible today; at least four or
five times an hour, as well as in response to any temptation to experience
ourselves as subject to other laws throughout the day. It is our statement of
freedom from all danger and all tyranny. It is our acknowledgment that God is
our Father, and that His Son is saved.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The commentary on this lesson (below) is 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 76. I am under no laws but God's.
*If memory serves me correctly, it was well over twenty years ago that questions
asked about the two levels on which A Course in Miracles was written. As I
discussed in the Prelude, Level One is the Course's metaphysics foundation,
which contrasts the reality of God and Heaven with the illusion of the ego's
thought system and the world that arose from it. On this level there is no
compromise between truth and illusion. Level Two treats <only> the illusory
realm, contrasting the ego's wrong-minded thought system of separation with the
Holy Spirit's thought system of Atonement.
The reason students find this lesson so difficult, not to mention infuriating,
is their confusion of these levels, not understanding that the purpose of Level
Two discourse is to meet us in the illusionary state we believe we are in, and
not to make statements of absolute truth. Thus, even though the body is
inherently illusory, we are not asked to dismiss it. Quite the contrary. We are
asked to pay careful attention to it and its place in our special relationship,
for these become the classrooms in which we learn the Holy Spirit's lessons in
forgiveness.
From this perspective we can see how Jesus pokes fun at the body; more
importantly, at our use of it. You may recall Jesus' statement that it is
practically impossible to deny our physical experience in this world
(T-2.IV.3:10). Therefore he is not asking us in this lesson to deny our bodies
by not taking medicine, let alone not eating, breathing, spending money, etc.
Rather, Jesus presents a vision of what it is like to be in the real world,
without the belief in bodies. A passage in "The Attainment of the Real World"
highlights the complete absence of separation that characterizes this advanced
state of mind:
"The real world ... has no buildings and there are no streets where people
walk alone and separate. There are no stores where people buy an endless list of
things they do not need. It is not lit with artificial light, and night comes
not upon it. There is no day that brightens and grows dim. There is no loss.
Nothing is there but shines, and shines forever".(T.13.VII.1.)
This is not describing a physical place, but the healed mind in which the
thought of separation has been undone. In that state, the holy instant wherein
we have accepted the Atonement for ourselves, there is no longer a body "At no
single instant does the body exist at ll." [T.18.VII.3.1] ) Therefore if there
is no body, there can be no laws to govern it. That is the point here. Jesus is
not making fun of us, nor, again, challenging us to give up our beliefs in the
necessity for medicine, food, or relationships. He simply reminds us that we
believe in is not really there. The new understanding enables us not longer to
take our physical and psychological experiences in the world as seriously as we
once did, reflecting our having learned not to take the tiny, mad idea of
separation seriously either ( T-27.VIII.6.2-5)
Once again, this is not meant to be a statement in which Jesus is pressuring us
to give up our belief in the body. In fact, he says in the text:
"Your question should not be, "How can I see my brother without the body?" Ask
only, "Do I really wish to see him sinless?" (T.20.VII.9.1-2).
Rather than having us deny our experience that bodies exist external to us,
Jesus stresses that his goal for us is to change our <minds> about the body,
i.e., its purpose. He urges us no longer to project our perceived sin onto
others, thereby attacking them and reinforcing the belief in separate interests.
Forgiveness -- <the> message of A Course in Miracles -- rests on the simple
premise that our interests are one. *
(1:1) "We have observed before how many senseless things have seemed to you to
be salvation."
*The reference of course is to our special love objects, the idols we made to
show God we did not need His Love. Special hate objects function that way as
well, insofar as we feel salvation comes when we can truly hate another or
suffer pain. By blaming someone (or something) other than our selves for our
misery, we establish our innocence. Salvation, then, takes either form, and the
ego does not care whether it is special love or hate, as long as salvation is
seen to be external to our minds.*
(1:2-4) "Each has imprisoned you with laws as senseless as itself. You are not
bound by them. Yet to understand that this is so, you must first realize
salvation lies not there."
*This is a reference to the laws of specialness, which center on the rock on
which the ego's salvation rests: <one or the other> -- someone must lose so that
another can win. Every law of the ego -- in the mind as in the world -- reflects
this basic principle. One finds them as well in the ego's five laws of chaos
(T-23.II), the virtual grandfather of all laws. The key point is that these laws
not only emanate from the mind, but they remain there as well, following the
fundamental principle <ideas leave not their source.> Yet they do appear to be
external, and our lives are governed by them. The truth, however, is that we are
bound only by our mind's decision, and this is truly good news. We have very
little -- if any -- control over the body's laws, and this would seem to condemn
us to a life of hopeless victimization, the helplessness felt by almost all
people. But only <we> -- the decision-making part of our minds -- can control
the fact that we have chosen to identify with these laws. Therein lies our true
help.
This is an extremely important concept to grasp, for it would keep you honest as
you work through this lesson. In order to understand why you are under no laws
but God's, and why you are not bound by any of the body's laws, you must first
realize that you have a mind, because that is where salvation lies. The problem
is that we do not believe we do. No matter how many times Jesus tells us this in
A Course in Miracles, no matter how many times we read the same lines, there
remains a part of us that does not believe it, because we still believe he is
teaching us <as a body>. He repeatedly teaches how we are not really here, and
so the body does not do anything: it is not born, nor does it live or die; it
does not suffer pain or feel pleasure. In other words, everything occurs in the
mind. Yet this means absolutely nothing to us, because, again, we still think
Jesus is talking to us as a person, living in a body. We refuse to go to the
source of this self -- the mind -- that is not in the body at all, and find the
real problem. Were we to find this in our minds -- the guilt over the separation
-- we would see the answer of the Atonement.
This lesson, then, is a plea to all of us to pay careful attention and think
about what Jesus is teaching us in A Course in Miracles. When he has us say over
and over again -- as he does later in the sixth review -- "I am not a body. I am
free. For I am still as God created me," he means that very literally as well.
We must be really clear that we do <not> believe it, because we still think that
Jesus, a separated person, is talking to <us>, as separated persons, and
teaching <us> very nice things. However, we do not yet realize he is not
teaching us as a body. What we think of as our bodily self but reflects a
thought in the mind. This is such an important lesson because it points out so
clearly the illusory nature of the body. Just as clear, if we study it
carefully, is the reason we have so much trouble with it: <We do not want to
believe it!> The basis of our difficulty is the refusal to accept that salvation
does not lie outside us, but rather within our minds, the locus of both the
problem and answer.*
(1:5-6) "While you would seek for it in things that have no meaning, you bind
yourself to laws that make no sense. Thus do you seek to prove salvation is
where it is not."
*That, again, is the problem: We do not want to know we have a mind, for if we
do, we will at some point choose against the ego, and our individuality will
disappear. The ego tells us the problem is sin and guilt, found either in our
body or someone else's. Since that is where the problem is, salvation is found
there as well. If I believe sin is in my body, I believe in suffering and
sacrifice; if I believe it is in yours, I believe in judgment and attack. The
ego's plan for salvation therefore consists of punishing the body -- mine or
yours.
Evading the truth that we have a mind can take another form. For example, A
Course in Miracles says that I am under no laws but God's and that I am not a
body. Therefore since my body is an illusion, I do not have to see doctors; nor
need I lock my car or apartment; I do not have to care for my body and so it
does not matter what I eat or what I do. These are a few examples of what I
refer to as "blissninnyhood": the simplistic and naive denial of the body and
its problems. Rather than accepting the fundamental unreality of the body as a
shadow of guilt, "blissninnies" simply deny they have a body, which renders the
source of the shadow -- our mind's guilt -- even more inaccessible. Thus does
the answer of the Atonement remain buried still further beneath the ego's
arsenal of defenses.
This lesson is certainly <not> intended to discourage Course in Miracle students
from seeking medical attention, or to decline inoculation if they plan to travel
abroad, for example. It is not meant to discourage students from eating foods
that are good for them, or doing whatever it is that they believe is healthy. We
all have some notion of what is good in this regard -- and whatever you believe
in is what you should do. Moreover, Jesus is not saying you should give up
friendship or anything that reflects the laws of the world. He is simply saying
it would be of value to realize the source of these laws, and to understand
their place in the ego's thought system. Only then may you choose to shift their
purpose so that they fill their more proper place in the Holy Spirit's thought
system of correction.
Implicit in all of this, to make the important point again, is the necessity of
realizing the tremendous resistance we have to accepting the fact we are not
bodies. This is an important theme in the text, and is one of the centerpieces
of the workbook. Again, Jesus uses these statements to poke gentle fun at us, as
he does in these passages from the text that highlight the futility of trying to
protect the body and make it real and attractive:
"Can you paint rosy lips upon a skeleton, dress it in loveliness, pet it and
pamper it, and make it live?" (T.23.II.18.8)
"What would you save it [the body] for? For in that choice lie both its
health and harm. Save it for show, as bait to catch another fish, to house your
specialness in better style, or weave a frame of loveliness around your hate,
and you condemn it to decay and death." (T.24.VII.4.4-6)
"It [the body] puts things on itself that it has bought with little metal
discs or paper strips the world proclaims as valuable and real. It works to get
them, doing senseless things, and tosses them away for senseless things it does
not need and does not even want. (T.27.VIII.2.2-3)
Thus we are encouraged to ask Jesus for help learning not to take our bodily
identification so seriously. But -- one more time -- he is not asking us to
<deny> our bodies in the process.
We would know we have fallen into the trap of seriousness when we find ourselves
becoming impatient with those who do not deny their body or accusing others of
not doing A Course in Miracles right, seeing that they have physical or
psychological concerns. Those judgments should be a red flag, indicating we are
accusing others of what we secretly accuse ourselves. Remember, we want the
complete patience the previous lesson spoke about, and we cannot have it without
being completely gentle. Patience and gentleness go hand in hand -- that is why
they are among the ten characteristics of God's teachers. (M-4.IV,VIII). *
(2:1) "Today we will be glad you cannot prove it."
*The part of us that clings to our individual and special self is <not> glad! We
need to be aware of our resistance to being truly glad that salvation is not
outside of us but within. That awareness will eventually make it possible for
true gladness to come.*
(2:2-4) "For if you could, you would forever seek salvation where it is not, and
never find it. The idea for today tells you once again how simple is salvation.
Look for it where it waits for you, and there it will be found."
*Salvation waits for us, and so the one we have to be patient with is ourselves
-- to choose the salvation that awaits us in our minds. We must be willing to
<seek> salvation where we can <find> it. To achieve that goal Jesus instructs us
in seeing the body as the effect of the mind, which is the cause: the <cause>
that is the problem; the <cause> that is the solution. What could be simpler?*
(3) "Think of the freedom in the recognition that you are not bound by all the
strange and twisted laws you have set up to save you. You really think that you
would starve unless you have stacks of green paper strips and piles of metal
discs. You really think a small round pellet or some fluid pushed into your
veins through a sharpened needle will ward off disease and death. You really
think you are alone unless another body is with you."
*Jesus is taking three of the most important aspects of our existence here:
dependence on <money>, fear of <sickness> and need to go to doctors for help,
and the <special relationship that says if I do not have another person with me,
I will be alone in my misery. However, Jesus is not telling us to give these
things up; merely to look at our investment in them.
Near the end of the Psychotherapy pamphlet, in a section called "The Question
Payment" (P-3.III), Jesus discusses money, but does not say therapists should
not charge their patients. He says that "even an advanced therapist has some
earthly needs while he is here" (P-3.III.1:3), and will thus require payment. It
is evident, however, that Jesus is not talking about money <per se>, but rather
the therapist's attitude that would lead to gouging patients, for example, or
that would insist that they pay even if they lacked funds. Again, as long as we
are here we are going to have needs, which means money is a necessity.
Therefore, Jesus is not against our making money, just as he is not against our
taking care of he body. He is helping us shift our emphasis from the body to the
mind, which the understanding of purpose allows us to do.
At the end of the journey, in the real world, there will be no emphasis at all
on the body, because we shall have realized there is none. At the point,
recognizing the illusory nature of the body is not denial, nor is it the basis
of affirmations to repress an experience with which we do not want to deal. We
have become aware of what Jesus refers to in the text as "a simple statement of
a simple fact" (T-26.III.4:5). What enables us to reach this simple fact of the
real world, in which there is no separation and no body, is gently looking at
our investment in denying both the guilt and Atonement that are in our minds. We
learn we are gentle with ourselves by the degree to which we are gentle with
others. When we <un>gently judge them, it is only because we have attacked
ourselves for pushing Jesus away once again. Further, since he is within, we
have pushed the mind away as well, which roots our attention to the body, the
ego's principal form of protection and the consummation of its plan for
salvation.*
(4) "It is insanity that thinks these things. You call them laws, and put them
under different names in a long catalogue of rituals that have no use and serve
no purpose. You think you must obey the "laws" of medicine, of economics and of
health. Protect the body, and you will be saved."
*It is essential that you take care of your body <as long as you think you are
one.> Not doing so as long as you identify with it is only an expression of
self-hatred and self-punishment, not to mention silliness. <Taking care of your
body can therefore be a gentle and kind way of forgiving yourself.> Remember, no
one who reads A Course in Miracles fully believes in what Jesus says, because if
he or she did they would not need it. We very much believe we are bodies. In
fact, these lessons are geared specifically to those who believe in them. As
bodies we live in time, and it is obvious these lessons are geared toward
time-bound people. Almost every lesson mentions some aspect of our temporal
existence -- minutes, hours, days, weeks, years -- because Jesus' students
believe they are bodies existing in time and space, and he does not ask us to
deny them. Once again, he but asks that we be gentle and kind towards our and
other people's bodies, reflecting the desire to forgive ourselves for our misuse
of them, the shadow of our misuse of the mind.
Nonetheless, it is also important for us to recognize that these "laws" hold
<only> because we have given them power to do so. We are not bound to the body's
laws, but rather to our mind's decision to be a body, which as been specifically
designed to be under the laws that appear to bind us. Thus it is that we seek
"protect the body ... [to] be saved," while our true protection -- the Atonement
-- is kept buried beneath the ego's laws of guilt and specialness.*
(5:1) "These are not laws, but madness."
*They are madness because in reality there are only God's laws: the laws of
love, oneness, and eternal life. All other "laws" are outside the Mind of God,
and therefore dwell in the ego's mind of madness. ... The next paragraph
explicitly states the causal relationship between the mind and body, which
relationship is, in a sense, the very heart of the lesson.*
(5:2-3) "The body is endangered by the mind that hurts itself. The body suffers
just in order that the mind will fail to see it is the victim of itself."
*How does the mind hurt itself? Guilt. The original "injury" to my mind was the
belief I separated from God, for in that decision I denied my true reality. From
that moment on I continually punished myself through guilt. My ego does not want
me to realize it is my mind that is victimizing me, and that I -- the decision
maker cloaked by the ego's thought system -- am the one who is suffering.
Therefore, my decision maker, now identified with the ego, projects the guilt
onto the body, which thus becomes guilt's shadow. It now appears that the body
suffers -- the smoke screen that keeps my mind out of awareness. In the
following passage Jesus explains the insanity of seeing the body as the problem,
when all along it is the clever ego mind calling the shots from behind its veil
of secrecy:
"Who punishes the body is insane. ... It is indeed a senseless point of view
to hold responsible for sight a thing that cannot see, and blame it for the
sounds you do not like, although it cannot hear. It suffers not the punishment
you give because it has no feeling. It behaves in ways you want, but never makes
the choice." (T.28.VI.1.1;2:1-3)
Our mind is indeed the source of the problem, but even there its guilt does not
deserve punishment, as the ego would have us think, but simply correction.*
(5:4) "The body's suffering is a mask the mind holds up to hide what really
suffers."
*What Jesus means by "mind," of course, is the decision maker, which chooses to
make guilt real, and then chooses to project it onto the body. It is thus the
decision maker that uses the body to hide the real cause of the suffering: its
decision for separation and guilt. The cleverness of the ego's strategy is
described in more detail below, part of the section from which we have just
quoted. Here we see the <you>-- our decision maker -- hides behind the body so
that no one is ever the wiser about what is really going on: the mind's decision
to be separate and guilty:
"The thing you hate and fear and loathe and want [ the ego's guilt, ] the
body does not know. You [ the decision making part of our minds] send it forth
to seek for separation and be separate. And then you hate it, not for what it
is, but for the uses you have made of it. You shrink from what it sees and what
it hears, and hate its frailty and littleness. And you despise its acts, but not
your own. It sees and acts for you. It hears your voice. And it is frail and
little by your wish. It seems to punish you, and thus deserve your hatred for
the limitations that it brings to you. Yet you have made of it a symbol for the
limitations that you want your mind to have and see and keep." (T-28.VI.3).*
(5:5) 'It [ the mind's decision maker] would not understand it is its own enemy;
that it attacks itself and wants to die."
*If we knew this, of course, we would change our minds in an instant. If we knew
that <we> were the problem -- we would not hesitate to choose the Holy Spirit,
marking the end of the ego. Once again, to ensure that this catastrophe never
occurs, the ego -- the part of our minds that embraces separation -- devises its
strategy of mindlessness, which has the Son identify with the body -- other's
and our own -- are the enemies, while the true "enemy" -- our decision maker's
wrong-minded choice -- remains safely hidden out of awareness, concealed by
guilt and fear.*
(5:6-7) "It is from this your "laws" would save the body. It is for this you
think you are a body."
*Jesus helps us to understand the motivation or purpose for having a body; to
have a place in which to hide the mind's guilt. Thus the ego tells us we do
indeed have a real problem -- in our bodies -- but fortunately there are laws
that will take care of it, The problem, the ego convinces us, is not our inner
emptiness because we left God, but, for example, the emptiness in our stomachs.
Therefore, we fill them with food and we feel fine. The "law" states: if you are
hungry, you eat. Furthermore, if you want to stay healthy by your eating, you
must eat specific foods -- whatever it is you believe in, for the food itself
does not matter.
The ego has thus taken the problem of lack -- the absence of Christ because I
believe I crucified Him -- splits it off and projects it, so now there is a lack
perceived in my body. The ego's "laws" then come to save it, and solve the
problem of maintaining our physical and psychological existence as creatures of
the world. Thus it becomes, in addition to the problem of food:
1) The problem is that I am alone in the universe, since I destroyed God. Yes,
the ego agrees, there is a problem of loneliness, but it is in the body.
Therefore, I will invent special relationships, and teach you the laws of
manipulation and seduction, which will enable you to keep other bodies close to
you. Thus the problem of your loneliness is solved.
2) The problem is that I am impoverished because I threw away the treasure of
God. I have nothing. Yes, the ego agrees, there is a problem of impoverishment
but it is in the body. Therefore I will invent money and teach you the laws of
earning it. Thus is the problem of your impoverishment solved.
3) The problem is that I am sick at heart because I betrayed God. Yes, the ego
agrees, there is a problem of sickness, but it is in the body. Therefore, I will
invent medicine and teach you the laws of acquiring and using it. Thus is the
problem of your sickness solved. ... And on and on it goes.
This lesson helps us understand that the laws the ego tells us will save the
body only uphold the separation and guilt that is in our minds. Jesus' purpose,
once again, is not to make us feel guilty or like failures, but simply to help
us realize where the problem is so it can be <truly> solved.*
(6:1-2) "There are no laws except the laws of God. This needs repeating, over
and over, until you realize it applies to everything that you have made in
opposition to God's Will."
*By "repeating, over and over," Jesus does not mean, once again, that we use the
words as a mantra of affirmation. Rather, they are a statement of truth to which
we bring the ego's laws of illusion. The body is nothing but the end product of
a long series of thoughts that were made in opposition to God's Will:
separation, specialness, sin, guilt, fear, and death. Thus we need to pay
careful attention to our experiences of victimization at the hands of laws over
which we have no control, and on which we believe the fate of our peace rests.
It is this misplacement we bring to the truth, recognizing how we have used the
body's laws as a cloak to conceal our guilt over believing we had, in fact,
chosen against the laws of God.*
(6:3) "Your magic has no meaning."
*The laws of the world have to do with magic because they are external. The
miracle -- magic's counterpart -- is internal. Magic helps us change our
bodies, the miracle helps us change our minds. Magic is the ego's solving a
problem where it cannot be solved -- in the body. The miracle is the Holy
Spirit's solving a problem where it can be solved -- in the mind.*
(6:4-5) "What it is meant to save does not exist. Only what it is meant to hide
will save you."
*This a nice Level One statement: the body does not exist. Moreover, the body
and its laws were made to hide guilt in our minds. Yet they do not only hold the
guilt but its undoing, brought about through the acceptance of the Atonement,
which alone can save us.*
(7) "The laws of God can never be replaced. We will devote today to rejoicing
that this is so. It is no longer a truth that we would hide. We realize instead
it is a truth that keeps us free forever. Magic imprisons, but the laws of God
make free. The light has come because there are no laws but His."
*We need to pay careful attention to the ego's laws we obey in order to trace
them back to what they represent in our minds, as I just did above. Thus: money
undoes our experience of spiritual <impoverishment>, putting food in our stomach
and oxygen in our lungs supplies the <lack> in our split minds; and specialness
undoes the <loneliness> that is the "natural" state of a separated mind. We can
therefore use the ego's laws to reflect back to us what they were meant to hide:
the belief that the laws of God can be replaced. Indeed, they have been replaced
-- by me; at least by the wrong-minded, deluded me that thinks it is a separated
self. However, we are now ready to learn that this delusion occurred only in our
dreams. Our real Self but awaits the opening or our eyes. ... Jesus now pokes
further fun at us:*
(8:1-5) "We will begin the longer practice periods today with a short review of
the different kinds of "laws" we have believed we must obey. These would
include, for example, the "laws" of nutrition, of immunization, of medication,
and of the body's protection in innumerable ways. Think further; you believe in
the "laws" of friendship, of "good" relationships and reciprocity."
*It should be quite obvious by now that Jesus is not asking us to give up our
belief in these laws, which are the very bedrock of our existence in the world.
But we are asked to step back with him -- to go <above the battleground>
(T-23.IV) -- and look through his eyes at the place these laws hold in our ego's
defensive system and strategy of mindlessness. Thus we learn not to take them or
our lives as seriously as before. This point, like so many others, cannot be
stated too often. Our resistance to looking at the ego without judgment is
enormous, and needs the gentle persuasion of gentle repetition to be effectively
diminished.*
(8:5-6) "Perhaps you even think that there are laws which set forth what is
God's and what is yours. Many "religions" have been based on this. "
*Jesus puts "religion" in quotes because he is telling us that these -- the
formal religions of the world -- are not <true> religions. The etymological
meaning of <religion> is "to bind together again," by realizing God's Son is one
-- we are one with each other and one with God. The "religions" of the world
separate, their adherents judging everyone who does not agree with them,
unconsciously believing they themselves are separate from God. Thus Jesus states
the following in the pamphlet of Pyschotherapy, addressing the issue of
religion's place in the practice of pyschotherapy:
"Formal religion has no place in psychotherapy, but it also has no real
place in religion." (P-2.II.2.1)
Once religion, regardless of its inspirational origin, becomes formalized, it
becomes separatist. It invetibly then becomes subsumed under the laws of <homo
sapiens>, which not only demarcate the respective and hierarchical places of
different members of the species, but also respective and hierarchal places of
God and us. Separation becomes Heaven's law, while the true law of unity and
oneness disappears into the reality that has been hidden by the externalization
of God's Love, the only law.*
(8:6-7) "They would not save but damn in Heaven's name. Yet they are no more
strange than other "laws" you hold must be obeyed to make you safe."
*These "laws" of formal religions are indeed strange, for they make the Love of
God conditional, accessible through the body. On the other hand, the
universality of love makes it totally accessible, and easily remembered when the
world is seen as a classroom in which we learn of forgiveness that enables us to
<transcend> the world and body entirely. *
(9:1-2) "There are no laws but God's. Dismiss all foolish magical beliefs today,
and hold your mind in silent readiness to hear the Voice that speaks the truth
to you."
*How do you become silently ready? You quiet the ego's raucous shrieks and
stubborn insistence that you are right and God is wrong. And then wait in
patience for yourself to move beyond the resistance born of fear to the truth
born of love.*
(9:3) "You will be listening to One Who says there is no loss under the laws of
God."
*In all the ego's laws -- whether religious or not -- there is loss. If I am to
eat, an animal or vegetable must lose its "life"; if I am to have my specialness
needs met, another must sacrifice. It must be so, for the rock on which the
ego's <slavation> rests is that one must lose so that another can win.
Statements like the above gently correct that illusion.*
(9:4-6) "Payment is neither given nor received. Exchange cannot be made; there
are no substitutes; and nothing is replaced by something else. God's laws
forever give and never take."
*The ego is born of the original thought I am a substitute for God or Christ,
and everything else logically from that ontological premise. In other words,
from the sin of substitution I experience guilt, which then demands I be
punished. In order to assuage the vindictive wrath of the sinned-against deity,
I concoct a theory of salvation in which it appears as if He demands my payment
for what I stole, a payment that drips with the blood of my suffering and
sacrifice: the ego's meaning of atonement. From this insane thought arises a
world in which we believe that we can achieve happiness or salvation only
through payment of some kind. Thus we find the following statements in
Psychotherapy regarding the question of payment. Unlike the world's view, in
which patients pay therapists for their expertise, a <quid pro quo>, Jesus
advocates the more Marxist view: <From each according to his ability. To each
according to his need.> This utopian vision has, unfortunately, never been
tried, yet Jesus makes it the basis for his view on <payment>, distinguishing it
from <cost>:
"Only an unhealed healer would try to heal for money, and he will not
succeed to the extent to which he values it. Nor will he find his healing in the
process. There will be those of whom the Holy Spirit asks some payment for His
purpose. There will be those from whom He does not ask. ... There is a
difference between payment and cost. ... Patients can pay only for the exchange
of illusions. This, indeed, must demand payment, and the cost is great. ... If
their relationship is to be holy, whatever one needs is given by the other;
whatever one lacks the other supplies. ... The therapist repays the patient in
gratitude, as does the patient repay him. There is no cost to either. ... This
... [reflects] the law of God, and not of the world."
Anticipating the inevitable complaint, Jesus states:
"This view of payment may well seem impractical, and in the eyes of the
world it would be so. Yet not one worldly thought is really practical. How much
is gained by striving for illusions? How much is lost by throwing God away? And
is it possible to do so?" (P-3.III.2:1-4, 6-8;3:3-4;4:4,6-7;5:4;7:1-5).
The law we are asked to reflect in our relationships is the law of perfect
Oneness, in which there can be no cost or loss. Its loving expression within the
world of illusion is the rock on which salvation rests: "And everyone <must>
gain, if anyone would be a gainer" (T-25.VII.12:2).
The next paragraph asks us to listen to the Holy Spirit tell us, again, how
foolish indeed are the "laws" we have striven to follow:*
(10) "Hear Him Who tells you this, and realize how foolish are the "laws" you
thought upheld the world you thought you saw. Then listen further. He will tell
you more. About the Love your Father has for you. About the endless joy He
offers you. About His yearning for His only Son, created as His channel for
creation; denied to Him by his belief in hell."
*The Holy Spirit does not take our laws away from us, but shows us their
foolishness in that they reflect a thought system that is foolish. Remember how
miracles do not make the correct choice. They simply show us how incorrect we
have been in our prior choices:
"The miracle establishes you dream a dream, and that its content is not true
... The miracle does nothing but to show him that he has done nothing."
(T-28.II.7:1,10).
Once He has our attention, the Holy Spirit "speaks" to us of he heavenly Love we
chose to forget, when we chose to remember the hell of he ego's special love.*
(11:1) "Let us today open God's channels to Him, and let His Will extend through
us to Him."
*The way we open God's channels -- our minds -- is to forgive ourselves for
having chosen the ego as substitute for the Love of God. Forgiveness is the key
that opens the right-minded home of the Holy Spirit, which we had sealed with
locks of guilt and specialness.*
(11:2-6) "Thus is creation endlessly increased. His Voice will speak of this to
us, as well as of the joys of Heaven which His laws keep limitless forever. We
will repeat today's idea until we have listened and understood there are no laws
but God's. Then we will tell ourselves, as a dedication with which the practice
period concludes:
I am under no laws but God's."
*Once we choose to accept the Atonement and remember our Identity as Christ, we
identify with our true function of creation: the endless increase of God's Love
<through> us and <as> us. This "us" is God's one Son, the Christ He created as
one with Him; the Self that is no longer <under> the laws of God -- It <is> the
law of God.*
(12) "We will repeat this dedication as often as possible today; at least four
or five times an hour, as well as in response to any temptation to experience
ourselves as subject to other laws throughout the day. It is our statement of
freedom from all danger and all tyranny. It is our acknowledgment that God is
our Father, and that His Son is saved."
*We are back where we began -- the acceptance of the Atonement. Jesus is asking
us to strengthen our resolve to accept this acceptance throughout the day -- <at
least> every twelve-to-fifteen minutes. Thus we seek to remember -- as often as
we can and especially when tempted to believe in the ego's laws of scarcity and
deprivation, of specialness and loss -- that "there is no will but God's; no
laws but His." We then gladly acknowledge: "Yes, I made these laws and still
believe in them. But I am now willing to admit I was wrong. The truth is that
God is my Father and not the ego, and therefore I am saved from my thoughts of
sin and guilt, for they have disappeared into His Love." The only remaining
question for ourselves is why would we not remember this happy fact throughout
the day.*
Love and Blessings,
Lyn Johnson 719-369-1822
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