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.
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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
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(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.*
