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Lesson 70. My salvation comes from me.

 

Lesson 70. My salvation comes from me.

(1) All temptation is nothing more than some form of the basic temptation not to
believe the idea for today. Salvation seems to come from anywhere except from
you. So, too, does the source of guilt. You see neither guilt nor salvation as
in your own mind and nowhere else. When you realize that all guilt is solely an
invention of your mind, you also realize that guilt and salvation must be in the
same place. In understanding this you are saved.

(2) The seeming cost of accepting today's idea is this: It means that nothing
outside yourself can save you; nothing outside yourself can give you peace. But
it also means that nothing outside yourself can hurt you, or disturb your peace
or upset you in any way. Today's idea places you in charge of the universe,
where you belong because of what you are. This is not a role that can be
partially accepted. And you must surely begin to see that accepting it is
salvation.

(3) It may not, however, be clear to you why the recognition that guilt is in
your own mind entails the realization that salvation is there as well. God would
not have put the remedy for the sickness where it cannot help. That is the way
your mind has worked, but hardly His. He wants you to be healed, so He has kept
the Source of healing where the need for healing lies.

(4) You have tried to do just the opposite, making every attempt, however
distorted and fantastic it might be, to separate healing from the sickness for
which it was intended, and thus keep the sickness. Your purpose was to ensure
that healing did not occur. God's purpose was to ensure that it did.

(5) Today we practice realizing that God's Will and ours are really the same in
this. God wants us to be healed, and we do not really want to be sick, because
it makes us unhappy. Therefore, in accepting the idea for today, we are really
in agreement with God. He does not want us to be sick. Neither do we. He wants
us to be healed. So do we.

(6) We are ready for two longer practice periods today, each of which should
last some ten to fifteen minutes. We will, however, still let you decide when to
undertake them. We will follow this practice for a number of lessons, and it
would again be well to decide in advance when would be a good time to lay aside
for each of them, and then adhering to your own decisions as closely as
possible.

(7) Begin these practice periods by repeating the idea for today, adding a
statement signifying your recognition that salvation comes from nothing outside
of you. You might put it this way:

My salvation comes from me.
It cannot come from anywhere else.<

Then devote a few minutes, with your eyes closed, to reviewing some of the
external places where you have looked for salvation in the past;--in other
people, in possessions, in various situations and events, and in self-concepts
that you sought to make real. Recognize that it is not there, and tell yourself:

My salvation cannot come from any of these things.
My salvation comes from me and only from me.<

(8) Now we will try again to reach the light in you, which is where your
salvation is. You cannot find it in the clouds that surround the light, and it
is in them you have been looking for it. It is not there. It is past the clouds
and in the light beyond. Remember that you will have to go through the clouds
before you can reach the light. But remember also that you have never found
anything in the cloud patterns you imagined that endured, or that you wanted.

(9) Since all illusions of salvation have failed you, surely you do not want to
remain in the clouds, looking vainly for idols there, when you could so easily
walk on into the light of real salvation. Try to pass the clouds by whatever
means appeals to you. If it helps you, think of me holding your hand and leading
you. And I assure you this will be no idle fantasy.

(10) For the short and frequent practice periods today, remind yourself that
your salvation comes from you, and nothing but your own thoughts can hamper your
progress. You are free from all external interference. You are in charge of your
salvation. You are in charge of the salvation of the world. Say, then:

My salvation comes from me.
Nothing outside of me can hold me back.
Within me is the world's salvation and my own.<





~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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 70. My salvation comes from me.

*This is an important lesson, from which we quote a great deal. The reason for
its importance lies in its explicit statement that the problem of guilt is in
our minds. In other words, the cause of our distress is within, as is its
undoing. They are not, and <cannot> be found in anything external.*

(1:1)"All temptation is nothing more than some form of the basic temptation not
to believe the idea for today."

*This is the purpose of all special relationships which proclaim: My salvation
comes from you -- whoever or whatever that special person, substance, or
activity appears to be. What makes me happy comes not from my mind's choice, but
from what is external to it. The truth, of course, is that <salvation> can come
only from the mind, since <slavation> (to indulge some word play) comes only
from the mind.*

(1:2-3) "Salvation seems to come from anywhere except from you. So, too, does
the source of guilt."

*What is appealing about the workbook is that most of the time you do not have
the complicated discussions found in the text. The statements are so clear it
will astound you how your eyes pass right over them. If you have done the
workbook in the past and are reading it again, you will be surprised at how much
you did not remember or even notice the first time around. The above is an
example of such simplicity.*

(1:4-6) "You see neither guilt nor salvation as in your own mind and nowhere
else. When you realize that all guilt is solely an invention of your mind, you
also realize that guilt and salvation must be in the same place. In
understanding this you are saved."

*The purpose of the ego's thought system is to keep the problem away from the
answer. The ego makes guilt up as the defense against salvation -- the
acceptance of the Atonement that is in our right minds. It tells us to take the
problem of guilt and project it onto someone else. Our problem now has become
someone else's guilt, not our own. Thus we spend the rest of our lives -- as
individuals and as a society -- trying to solve the mind's problem of guilt that
is perceived to be outside us. We attempt to alleviate pain by external
behavior, yet all the time the real problem -- our choice to be a special and
guilty individual -- is safely buried by the ego's defensive strategy. This is
the <double shield of oblivion> --guilt and body -- we have already discussed.*

(2:1) "The seeming cost of accepting today's idea is this: It means that nothing
outside yourself can save you; nothing outside yourself can give you peace."

*This includes A Course in Miracles, its author, and God. There is no one and
nothing outside that can save us. From the perspective of the Course, this means
the end of gurus, in the popularized expression of this Eastern practice. Only
our mind's power to choose -- and this cannot be said often enough -- can bring
us salvation and peace.*

(2:2) "But it also means that nothing outside yourself can hurt you, or disturb
your peace or upset you in any way."

*If one is true the other must be true, too, because <there is nothing outside
our minds.> No one outside can help us because there is nothing outside. This is
another way of understanding "the simplicity of salvation" (T-31.1).*

(2:3-5) "Today's idea places you in charge of the universe, where you belong
because of what you are. This is not a role that can be partially accepted. And
you must surely begin to see that accepting it is salvation."

*This is not referring to the universe of Heaven, but to the universe of our
minds and the world. We are in charge because we are the ones who chose it. The
<you> in charge of this universe, again, is the <decision maker>. It has chosen
to be in the dream, but can just as easily choose to be outside it.

To say that this role cannot be partially accepted means that we cannot
legitimately claim: "Yes, I can help myself here, but someone else has to help
me there"; or "I can ask for help with this particular problem, but not for
others." Forgiveness works all the time, or else it does not work at all.
Remember that this is an <all> or <nothing> course.*

(3:1-2) "It may not, however, be clear to you why the recognition that guilt is
in your own mind entails the realization that salvation is there as well.
God would not have put the remedy for the sickness where it cannot help."

*As a brief summary of what was discussed in my Preface to these volumes, let me
return to the theme of the language of A Course in Miracles. If taken literally,
3:2 would mean that God does things. Obviously making it real, He has seen the
error of sin and sickness, and gives us the answer. Jesus' words do say this, as
they sometimes do in the text as well. To repeat a most important point,
however, these are the words of metaphor. God does not have a plan in response
to the separation, nor does He create the Holy Spirit and place Him in our
minds. Moreover, our Creator does not set up an elaborate plan of the Atonement
whereby his Sons will awaken from the dream. Jesus just finished telling us
there is nothing outside that can save us! If so, He must be a dualistic Being
Who is external to the one He is saving.

Jesus uses this dualistic language of A Course in Miracles because it is one
with which we can identify; a comforting way of speaking since it is familiar to
us. Recall the passage we discussed before from "The Link to Truth"
(T-25.1.5-7): Being thoroughly identified with a separated (i.e., dualistic)
self, the state of perfect Oneness is unknown to us and so would the "language"
that spoke of it. Thus Jesus utilizes the "ego framework" (C-in.3:1) in which to
express his teachings -- the <reflection> of non-duality is what ultimately will
lead us to non-duality.

We return now to the sentence I just read, and continue.*

(3:2-3) "God would not have put the remedy for the sickness where it cannot
help. That is the way your mind has worked, but hardly His."

*In other words, our minds have separated the problem from the solution.
Fortunately, "God thinks otherwise" (T-23.1.2:7). The memory of His Love enables
us to bring the problem (projected from the mind) back to the solution (in the
mind).*

(3:4) "He wants you to be healed, so He has kept the Source of healing where the
need for healing lies."

*To repeat, God does not want you to be healed. If He did, He would recognize
that you are sick. If so, He would be making the error real. To state it again,
this is comforting set of symbols that we all find reassuring. It is important
to understand this is why A Course in Miracles is written dualistically. The
non-dualistic truth is that God, by virtue of His very nature, is the
ever-present Source of healing: His memory in our separated -- and thus sick --
minds.*

(4:1) "You have tried to do just the opposite, making every attempt, however
distorted and fantastic it might be, to separate healing from the sickness for
which it was intended, and thus keep the sickness."

*We have already discussed that the ego's real fear is not of the Love of God,
about which it knows nothing, but of the mind's power to make the right choice
-- the decision maker's ability to say: "I chose the ego falsely, but there is a
principle of truth in my mind still available for me to choose." That ability to
correct the mistaken decision is the ego's fear, which supplies the motivation
to carry out its strategy of making the Son of God mindless, thereby protecting
itself against the "attack" of the Son's power to change his mind.

The solution, therefore, is in our minds, because that is the source of the
problem, which does not lie in the ego thought system itself, but in our
decision to identify with it. Consequently, the solution does not rest in
changing the ego thought system (the first shield of oblivion). The solution
lies in changing our minds about the ego thought system. To cite again the
wonderful line:

"Therefore, seek not to change the world, but choose to change your mind
about the world." (T-21.In.1:7)

Changing our minds is therefore what A Course in Miracles is about, as we see
over and over again in these lessons. This goal should be quite evident by now,
as should the place of the workbook in its curriculum.

Let me re-read the first sentence of the paragraph: "You have tried to do just
the opposite, making every attempt, however distorted and fantastic it might be,
to separate healing from the sickness for which it was intended, and thus keep
the sickness." That is what we want: to keep the sickness of specialness. The
intricate thought system of the ego and the complex world which arose from it
have one purpose only: to keep the sickness of believing we are special,
autonomous, and separate from God.*

(4:2-3) "Your purpose was to ensure that healing did not occur. God's purpose
was to ensure that it did."

*Remember, the <you> whose purpose Jesus is talking about is the decision maker
that likes the idea of being on its own. This puts the Son in direct opposition
to God, Whose Will is that He and His Son are one and never separate, as the
next paragraph reflects:*

(5) "Today we practice realizing that God's Will and ours are really the same in
this. God wants us to be healed, and we do not really want to be sick, because
it makes us unhappy. Therefore, in accepting the idea for today, we are really
in agreement with God. He does not want us to be sick. Neither do we. He wants
us to be healed. So do we."

*Jesus has to convince us that holding onto grievances makes us unhappy. It may
make everyone else unhappy, too. However, the only motivation that will work is
ending our misery and pain. We are not going to study and practice A Course in
Miracles because Jesus says we should, but because we finally recognized that
everything we tried on our own has failed. We accept at last that only joining
with Jesus will make us happy. Our decision to be with him thus reflects the
union of our will with God's, reflecting the decision to heal the separation.*

(6) "We are ready for two longer practice periods today, each of which should
last some ten to fifteen minutes. We will, however, still let you decide when to
undertake them. We will follow this practice for a number of lessons, and it
would again be well to decide in advance when would be a good time to lay aside
for each of them, and then adhering to your own decisions as closely as
possible."

*Once again we see Jesus asking <us> to impose some structure on our practicing.
It is not much, to be sure, but it is a beginning. His purpose here, as always,
is to encourage us to pursue our training of wanting to think along with him, so
that we can forget our egos and remember God.*

(7) "Begin these practice periods by repeating the idea for today, adding a
statement signifying your recognition that salvation comes from nothing outside
of you. You might put it this way:

My salvation comes from me.
It cannot come from anywhere else.<

Then devote a few minutes, with your eyes closed, to reviewing some of the
external places where you have looked for salvation in the past;--in other
people, in possessions, in various situations and events, and in self-concepts
that you sought to make real. Recognize that it is not there, and tell yourself:

My salvation cannot come from any of these things.
My salvation comes from me and only from me.<"

*This is the purpose of our special relationships: the belief we can be helped
and made happy by something other than God. The purpose of this exercise is to
review how important this concept has been in our lives, and how painful. This
is what will impel us, finally, to make the choice that will bring us true help
and happiness.*

(8:1-5) "Now we will try again to reach the light in you, which is where your
salvation is. You cannot find it in the clouds that surround the light, and it
is in them you have been looking for it. It is not there. It is past the clouds
and in the light beyond. Remember that you will have to go through the clouds
before you can reach the light."

*The aforementioned chart will serve us here as well, illustrating the process
of moving beyond the clouds to the light; beyond the illusions of our special
relationships to the truth of forgiveness. These lines make a very important
statement: We cannot go from where we think we are directly to Heaven; we must
first go through the clouds of illusions. That is why Jesus teaches that freedom
lies in looking at the special hate relationship (T-16.IV.1:1). We must look at
our disturbed, sick, insane, and hateful thoughts before we can move past them
to the love that is underneath. Salvation cannot be found in the clouds of the
world, but only in the light of the Atonement the ego has kept hidden, but which
has never ceased to shine in our minds.*

(8:6) "But remember also that you have never found anything in the cloud
patterns you imagined that endured, or that you wanted."

*We do not really believe this; there is a part of us that still believes there
is hope for something here. We believe our specialness will yet work; we just
have to do it better. This kind of thinking is why we feel A Course in Miracles
does not help us. And so we have to be reminded -- continually reminded -- how
nothing in the world has ever, or will ever, satisfy our longing for love and
peace.*


(9) "Since all illusions of salvation have failed you, surely you do not want to
remain in the clouds, looking vainly for idols there, when you could so easily
walk on into the light of real salvation. Try to pass the clouds by whatever
means appeals to you. If it helps you, think of me holding your hand and leading
you. And I assure you this will be no idle fantasy."

*This is one of the very few places in the workbook where Jesus speaks of
himself. Needless to say, it is a powerful statement. He is saying: "You would
do much better going through the clouds with me." In fact, as Jesus makes it
clear in other places: "You <cannot> go through the clouds without me." That is
why, for example, he says that he needs you as much as you need him
(T-8.V.6:10), a reference we have already seen. As long as you believe you are
an individual body, you need another individual body to help you; a hand to hold
as guide through the morass of specialness. When you attempt to go through the
ego's clouds of guilt by yourself you are doomed to failure, for such attempt is
a shadowy fragment of the original error of trying to exist and create by
ourselves -- <without God>.

In the end there is no you, no Jesus. no clouds -- only God. But that is at the
end. As long as you identify yourself as a student of the Course, Jesus' help is
extraordinarily meaningful. This is echoed in the plea to us in the
clarification of terms, which states that although it is Jesus' message that is
ultimately important, he can still be of help to us:

"Jesus is for you the bearer of Christ's single message of the Love of God.
You need no other. It is possible to read his words and benefit from them
without accepting him into your life. Yet he would help you yet a little more if
you will share your pains and joys with him, and leave them both to find the
peace of God." (C-5.6:4-7).

Thus Jesus says: "Do not make this journey without me.*

(10) "For the short and frequent practice periods today, remind yourself that
your salvation comes from you, and nothing but your own thoughts can hamper your
progress. You are free from all external interference. You are in charge of your
salvation. You are in charge of the salvation of the world. Say, then:

My salvation comes from me.
Nothing outside of me can hold me back.
Within me is the world's salvation and my own.<"

*The lesson closes with the important reminder that we are no longer justified
in shifting responsibility for our spiritual impediments from our selves to
external influences. Jesus wants us to remember as often as possible throughout
the day that salvation comes only from us. This is the bad news to our egos, but
the best news for the part of our minds that wants to return home. Nothing in
the world can prevent this return, and since this is what we truly want, we
cannot help but succeed.*


Love and Blessings,

Lyn Johnson
719-369-1822

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