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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 is
really solved already you will still have the problem, because you will not
recognize that it has been solved. This is the situation of the world. The
problem of separation, which is really the only problem, has already been
solved. Yet the solution is not recognized because the problem is not
recognized.

(2) Everyone in this world seems to have his own special problems. Yet they are
all the same, and must be recognized as one if the one solution that solves them
all is to be accepted. Who can see that a problem has been solved if he thinks
the problem is something else? Even if he is given the answer, he cannot see its
relevance.

(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 of
different problems seems to confront you, and as one is 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.

(4) The temptation to regard problems as many is the temptation to keep the
problem of separation unsolved. The world seems to present you with a vast
number of problems, each requiring a different answer. This perception places
you in a position in which your problem solving must be inadequate, and failure
is inevitable.

(5) No one could solve all the problems the world appears to hold. They seem to
be on so many levels, in such varying forms and with such varied content, that
they confront you with an impossible situation. Dismay and depression are
inevitable as you regard them. Some spring up unexpectedly, just as you think
you have resolved the previous ones. Others remain unsolved under a cloud of
denial, and rise to haunt you from time to time, only to be hidden again but
still 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 that
your only problem is separation, no matter what form it takes, you could accept
the answer because you would see its relevance. Perceiving the underlying
constancy in all the problems that seem to confront you, you would understand
that you have the means to solve them all. And you would use the means, because
you recognize the problem.

(7) 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 will try
to 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 to
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.

(8) The exercises for today will be successful to the extent to which you do not
insist on defining the problem. Perhaps you will not succeed in letting all your
preconceived notions go, but that is not necessary. All that is necessary is to
entertain some doubt about the reality of your version of what your problems
are. You are trying to recognize that you have been given the answer by
recognizing the problem, so that the problem and the answer can be brought
together 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 efforts
will be directed toward recognizing that there is only one problem and one
answer. In this recognition are all problems resolved. In this recognition there
is peace.

(10) Be not deceived by the form of problems today. Whenever any difficulty
seems 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, close
your eyes for a moment and ask what it is. You will be heard and you will be
answered.



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

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 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 one
problem, although the world tells us there are many. This problem is the mind's
belief 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 our
minds but in the world, fragmenting the thought into billions of different
expressions of the one problem, each calling for a particular answer. Each
problem thus commands attention, demanding to be solved in its own way. As we
shall see below, this is an extremely frustrating situation because the true
problem remains hidden in our minds, buried beneath the almost infinite number
of 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 now
read:*

(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 our
decision to be separate. Remember, the whole point of the ego -- indeed, the
whole point of its thought system of separation -- is to see that we never
realize <where> and <what> the problem is. It cannot be overemphasized that
purpose is everything, and the only way to undo the ego is to change the purpose
it gave the world -- to conceal the problem -- to the Holy Spirit's purpose of
revealing the problem so it can be undone: " Let me recognize the problem so it
can 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 of
the world. The problem of separation, which is really the only problem, has
already 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 not
recognized."

*Again, when we misunderstand A Course in Miracles' meaning of the miracle, we
are seeing to it that the problem of separation will never be recognized and
therefore never solved. If we think a miracle addresses something external, we
are 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, but
the 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 they
are all the same, and must be recognized as one if the one solution that solves
them all is to be accepted."

*Lessons 79 and 80 are unmistakably clear in statement and meaning. Their
language is simple, yet the entire curriculum is contained in them, being
essentially a variation on the principle theme of the Course: <There is no order
of difficulty in miracles.> (T.1.I.1.1) That is how the text begins, as you all
know. What you may not know is that the actual dictation to Helen did not begin
with the current Introduction, but with the statement that the first thing to
remember 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 sense
everything that followed -- and these lessons in particular -- is a commentary
on that theme. There is no order of difficulty in miracles because there is but
one problem. Bill Thetford used to say that the first principle could be
restated as: <There is no order of difficulty in problem solving,> because the
miracle is a way of solving problems. <But not external problems>. The miracle
solves problems by bringing them to the mind, wherein is found the <one> problem
and its <one> solution.*

(2:3-4) "Who can see that a problem has been solved if he thinks the problem is
something 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, or
A Course in Miracles. But we do not see the answer's relevance because we think
it involves the body -- making our dream better by helping us become happier,
healthier and wealthier through forgiving other people. Therefore we do not
realize the Course's direct relevance to our problems. In addition, we still do
not accept fully that we have a mind -- indeed, we have <only> a mind -- and the
body 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 students
make 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 so
stubbornly 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 of
the course he was dictating to her was to restore to her awareness the power of
her 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 be
tampering with a basic law of cause and effect; the most fundamental law there
is. 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 much
more helpful to remind you that you do not guard your thoughts carefully
enough." (T.2.VII.1.4-7)

The reason, again, that we seek to depreciate the power of our thinking is that
we do not want to give up our individuality or specialness. Perhaps we could
accept that we are not bodies, but we do not want to give up the fact that we
have a special personality. Thus, for example, we might think it fine if we die
because 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 in
the mind, access to which is now forbidden by the cruel dictates of the ego's
strategy of mindlessness.

In summary, as long as we listen to the ego, A Course in Miracles will never
work because we will never see its relevance. We will think its purpose is to
solve a problem outside our minds. Yet all we do is attempt to solve a
non-existent problem, taking the answer of forgiveness but applying it to the
wrong problem. The answer remains in our minds, and so Jesus and his course help
us return to that place of correction: the right-minded home of the Holy
Spirit.*

(3:1-2) "That is the position in which you find yourself now. You have the
answer, but you are still uncertain about what the problem is."

*All students of A Course in Miracles, if they were truly honest, would realize
there 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 are
something other than the mind's decision to be an individual, and so we cannot
see 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 one
is 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 these
statements. We all have problems. On the physical level, for example, we are
hungry and we eat, which does not mean we are not going to get hungry again a
few hours from now. We take a breath, but a few seconds later another one is
needed. We may be sick and then cured, but we know at some point we will become
ill again and eventually die. And on and on it goes.

We have psychological problems, too: You love me today, but will you love me
tomorrow? I was given an A on my exam, but will I do so next time? I received a
promotion 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 be
that way in the future?

Rising above the ego's battleground and surveying its purpose for the body and
the world, we understand that the ego made the body to present us with an
endless number of problems -- physical and psychological -- each of which
demands 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 the
problem of separation unsolved."

*This is another critically important line. We keep "the problem of separation
unsolved " because that keeps our separate self intact, fulfilling the ego's
purpose of maintaining our individuality and specialness. Since there is but one
problem -- the belief we are separate -- we defend against its solution by
making 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 saw
in 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, each
requiring a different answer. This perception places you in a position in which
your problem solving must be inadequate, and failure is inevitable."

*We all can identify with this sense of inevitable failure. The world was set up
so that we would fail, seeking the cause of failure outside our minds. To
continually attempt to solve problems that are destined to remain insoluble is
extremely frustrating, which prompted this passage on the ego's tactic of <seek
and do not find>:

"The search the ego undertakes is therefore bound to be defeated. And since
it also teaches that it is your identification, its guidance leads you to a
journey which must end in perceived self-defeat.... You do not know the meaning
of love, and that is your handicap. Do not attempt to teach yourself what you do
not understand, and do not try to set up curriculum goals where yours have
clearly failed. Your learning goal has been not to learn, and this cannot lead
to successful learning. You cannot transfer what you have not learned, and the
impairment of the ability to generalize is a crucial learning failure.... I have
said that the ego's rule is, "Seek and do not find". Translated into curricular
terms this means, "Try to learn but do not succeed". The result of this
curriculum goal is obvious.... If you are trying to learn how not to learn, and
the aim of your teaching is to defeat itself, what can you expect but
confusion?" (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 to
be on so many levels, in such varying forms and with such varied content, that
they confront you with an impossible situation. Dismay and depression are
inevitable as you regard them. Some spring up unexpectedly, just as you think
you have resolved the previous ones. Others remain unsolved under a cloud of
denial, and rise to haunt you from time to time, only to be hidden again but
still unsolved."

*This describes the state of the world. It should impress us as students of A
Course in Miracles that we read lines like this and know they are true, yet they
persist in holding onto the idea we are right. It cannot be this simple, we
claim. If we are upset, it is definitely not because we chose our individuality
over God, nor that we pushed Jesus away. Our upset is due to what someone else
said, 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 at
the nature of the world and body, it would be patently obvious that depression
is the only response that makes sense. Even if our lives seem to work for us, in
the end we all die. Thus, a lifetime spent in problem solving, struggling
against the inevitable odds the ego has stacked against us, is in the end all
worth nothing. What could be more depressing!*

(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 that
your only problem is separation, no matter what form it takes, you could accept
the answer because you would see its relevance. Perceiving the underlying
constancy in all the problems that seem to confront you, you would understand
that you have the means to solve them all. And you would use the means, because
you recognize the problem."

*These thoughts should be incorporated into your daily activities as
specifically as possible. The problem is not the separation in some abstract
sense; it is here right now in your desire to see yourself separated from the
Holy Spirit. Make your practice as personal as you can in applying the principle
that separation is the problem. If you awaken in the morning and are not feeling
well, it is because you have pushed love away -- <that is the separation>. You
can be clear about your responsibility and still not blame yourself. This
non-judgmental stance allows you to receive the answer and understand the
significance of the first principle of miracles: <there is no order of
difficulty among them> (T-1.1.1:1). Since every problem is the same --
separation -- every solution is the same -- Atonement. One problem, one
solution.

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 are
afraid. 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 as
specific as you can. This will help you see that everything in your daily life
is directly relevant to your salvation and peace. Thus will you find yourself
increasingly 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 will
try to 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
to 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 not
insist on defining the problem."

*You cannot ask for the solution if you think you know <what> and <where> the
problem is. This arrogance forestalls your progress with this course. It is
necessary to return to the choice point in your mind in which you re-enact over
and over again the separation from God. Whether you speak of God, Jesus, the
Holy Spirit, or any other name, you have pushed away the loving experience of
oneness because you are threatened by the loss of your special self, which you
are convinced will happen if you join with love. That is the problem. Thinking
you know the problem ensures you will never learn the answer. As the early
workbook lesson said:

"You will not question what you have already defined. And the purpose of these
exercises 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, so
essential to our learning, is repeated throughout these lessons, and we shall
see 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 to
make the problem be something else. Remember that your existence as a physical,
psychological being is based on the thought that your not responsible; that the
problem is not in your mind but in the body. Watch how quickly you are tempted
to fall back into the ego's trap of mindlessness!*

(8:2-3) "Perhaps you will not succeed in letting all your preconceived notions
go, but that is not necessary. All that is necessary is to entertain some doubt
about the reality of your version of what your problems are."

*These lines reflect the theme, already familiar to us, of "a little
willingness" (T-18.IV). We are asked simply to begin the process of questioning
the validity of our judgments and absolute certainty that we know the nature of
the problem -- in ourselves and everyone else. More than that is not required.
Indeed, as we have already seen, <more> would be counter-productive and merely
reinforce 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 by
recognizing the problem, so that the problem and the answer can be brought
together 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 a
world so that we could declare that the problem is all around us, <outside our
minds>. The miracle, therefore, brings the problem back to the answer. This is
analogous to the process of forgiveness: bringing the darkness of our illusions
to the light of truth. This wondrous passage from the clarification of terms
beautifully summarizes this process of forgiveness:

"This is the shift that true perception brings: What was projected out is
seen within, and there forgiveness lets it disappear. For there the altar to the
Son is set, and there his Father is remembered. Here are all illusions brought
to truth and laid upon the altar. What is seen outside must lie beyond
forgiveness, for it seems to be forever sinful. Where is hope while sin is seen
as outside? What remedy can guilt expect? But seen within your mind, guilt and
forgiveness for an instant lie together, side by side, upon one altar. There at
last are sickness and its single remedy joined in one healing brightness. God
has 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 by
need. You will see many problems today, each one calling for an answer. Our
efforts will be directed toward recognizing that there is only one problem and
one answer. In this recognition are all problems resolved. In this recognition
there is peace."

*Note the change in instructions. Jesus is asking us today to set our own
schedule, based upon the need that <we> recognize. He assumes we are beginning
to 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 be
only one problem and one answer. Therefore, as soon as any discomfort reaches
our 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 in
choosing the right teacher to resolve it. The problem is our having chosen the
ego and its separation; the solution is choosing the Holy Spirit and His
Atonement.*

(10) "Be not deceived by the form of problems today. Whenever any difficulty
seems 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, close
your eyes for a moment and ask what it is. You will be heard and you will be
answered."

*This final paragraph underscores the need to move beyond the form of the
problem, recognizing that all problems are the same. It is this simplicity that
characterizes A Course in Miracles and Jesus' teaching. Despite the apparent
multitudinous number of problems that confront us, there remains only one: the
belief 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 us
peace. Lesson 80 continues the theme of one problem, one solution.*


Love and Blessings,

Lyn Johnson
719-369-1822

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