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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 from
all conflict, because it means I cannot have conflicting goals. With one purpose
only, I am always certain what to do, what to say and what to think. All doubt
must 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 be
received as one. Fulfilling my function is my happiness because both come from
the same Source. And I must learn to recognize what makes me happy, if I would
find 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 by
this.
Nothing, including this, can justify the illusion of happiness apart from my
function.<


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

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 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 releases
me from all conflict, because it means I cannot have conflicting goals. With one
purpose only, I am always certain what to do, what to say and what to think. All
doubt must disappear as I acknowledge that my only function is the one God gave
me."

*Our function is to forgive, the only right-minded reason for being in the
world. 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 this
will remove conflict, because believing our function is external will inevitably
conflict with our internal function of realizing that nothing external is
important; 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, at
the same time yearning to be its great teacher,or, seemingly more humbly, its
devoted student, while still desiring the gifts of specialness: money, fame,
power, and love. In these cases we regard an external goal as important -- if
not more so -- than the internal one, setting up conflict that was the ego's
goal 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 the
following passage explains:

"Forget not that the healing of God's Son is all the world is for. That is
the only purpose the Holy Spirit sees in it, and thus the only one it has. Until
you 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 you
will use the world for what is not its purpose, and will not escape its laws of
violence and death." (T.24.VI.4.1-4)

Healing is thus the world's only sane purpose. Once we made it as an expression
of our hatred of God and Christ, our new Teacher shifts the purpose. The world
becomes the vehicle for showing us, first, that we have a mind, and second, the
ego decision we made within it. Now the right decision is inevitable, and we are
certain 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 my
purpose of forgiveness. Regardless of the ego reactions to a situation, my
function remains within, gently and patiently held for me by Jesus. The reader
may recall our earlier citation of this lovely passage of the text -- Jesus
echoing his gentle and patient role as our teacher -- part of which we look at
again:

"I have saved all your kindnesses and every loving thought you ever had. I
have purified them of the errors that hid their light, and kept them for you in
their own perfect radiance." (T-5.IV.8:3-4).

Despite our ego's shenanigans, we cannot lose. Our insanity has no effect on the
sanity 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 there
is some purpose in my life other than undoing the ego's thought system. The
world is only too happy to cooperate in the ego's plan -- after all, the ego
made the world to cooperate -- by providing us with one opportunity after
another to justify our judgments and grievances, our perception that we have
been unfairly treated; an unfairness that can be remedied only by our defensive
and, at times, aggressive response. However, we are twice told: Anger is never
justified (T-6.in.1:7; T-30.VI.1:1-2). Restoring the mind's peace is our only
responsibility, and recognition of this happy fact is the heart of our function
of 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: our
own or another's, or anything external. This, again, must engender conflict,
because happiness comes only when we let go of guilt, the joyous effect of
forgiveness. However, if we think there is pleasure in the world, we will
inevitably be in conflict. This certainly does not mean we should feel guilty
because we still seek bodily pleasure, but only that we should be aware of what
we are doing. This is not a course in sacrifice or giving up what we feel is
important, 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 no
sacrifice 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 we
truly give up the world:

"Give up the world! But not to sacrifice. You never wanted it. What
happiness have you sought here that did not bring you pain? What moment of
content has not been bought at fearful price in coins of suffering? Joy has no
cost. It is your sacred right, and what you pay for is not happiness. Be speeded
on 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 can
serve 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 from
the external should not make us feel guilty. It is a statement that merely helps
us realize that our entire lives are based on conflict, and from that
realization 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 must
be received as one. Fulfilling my function is my happiness because both come
from 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 -- <in
the body>. Once we understand the principle of oneness, however, everything is
clear. The contrast is striking between this principle and how we live our
lives, which are characterized by separation, differences, and discrete events:
We feel good some days and not others; good with the same people sometimes but
not other times, and on and on and on. Our experience is never unified, for
everything 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 through
reflecting Its Love, which we do by perceiving each other through the lens of
shared interests.*

(3:5) "And I must learn to recognize what makes me happy, if I would find
happiness."

*The purpose of these lessons is to teach what would make us happy. We have seen
repeatedly 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 of
upset confronts us, it has no power to change the happiness that forgiveness
brings. Happiness comes from the mind's decision, and no power in the world can
take 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 these
relatively abstract ideas and apply them in our diurnal situations. That is
mandatory if we are going to learn this course, which is not really an
intellectual 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 go
through our day as we normally would, but the moment something disturbs our
peace or makes us excited, to realize this can have no effect on our happiness
and 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 from
my function."

*When something makes you happy and gives you pleasure, realize this experience
is separate from your function of forgiveness, and so it will not last. True
happiness in this world comes from letting go of guilt, the problem that caused
us 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 recognize
that 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 to
choose peace, provides an intimation of joy and a sense of hope, which are
impossible as long as we think we need to manipulate, seduce, or change the
world. This may work some days, but never all the time. Indeed, this is the
criterion 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 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." (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

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