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Lesson 72. Holding grievances is an attack on God's plan for salvation.

 

Lesson 72. Holding grievances is an attack on God's plan for salvation.

(1) While we have recognized that the ego's plan for salvation is the opposite
of God's, we have not yet emphasized that it is an active attack on His plan,
and a deliberate attempt to destroy it. In the attack, God is assigned the
attributes which are actually associated with the ego, while the ego appears to
take on the attributes of God.

(2) The ego's fundamental wish is to replace God. In fact, the ego is the
physical embodiment of that wish. For it is that wish that seems to surround the
mind with a body, keeping it separate and alone, and unable to reach other minds
except through the body that was made to imprison it. The limit on communication
cannot be the best means to expand communication. Yet the ego would have you
believe that it is.

(3) Although the attempt to keep the limitations that a body would impose is
obvious here, it is perhaps not so apparent why holding grievances is an attack
on God's plan for salvation. But let us consider the kinds of things you are apt
to hold grievances for. Are they not always associated with something a body
does? A person says something you do not like. He does something that displeases
you. He "betrays" his hostile thoughts in his behavior.

(4) You are not dealing here with what the person is. On the contrary, you are
exclusively concerned with what he does in a body. You are doing more than
failing to help in freeing him from the body's limitations. You are actively
trying to hold him to it by confusing it with him, and judging them as one.
Herein is God attacked, for if His Son is only a body, so must He be as well. A
creator wholly unlike his creation is inconceivable.

(5) If God is a body, what must His plan for salvation be? What could it be but
death? In trying to present Himself as the Author of life and not of death, He
is a liar and a deceiver, full of false promises and offering illusions in place
of truth. The body's apparent reality makes this view of God quite convincing.
In fact, if the body were real, it would be difficult indeed to escape this
conclusion. And every grievance that you hold insists that the body is real. It
overlooks entirely what your brother is. It reinforces your belief that he is a
body, and condemns him for it. And it asserts that his salvation must be death,
projecting this attack onto God, and holding Him responsible for it.

(6) To this carefully prepared arena, where angry animals seek for prey and
mercy cannot enter, the ego comes to save you. God made you a body. Very well.
Let us accept this and be glad. As a body, do not let yourself be deprived of
what the body offers. Take the little you can get. God gave you nothing. The
body is your only savior. It is the death of God and your salvation.

(7) This is the universal belief of the world you see. Some hate the body, and
try to hurt and humiliate it. Others love the body, and try to glorify and exalt
it. But while the body stands at the center of your concept of yourself, you are
attacking God's plan for salvation, and holding your grievances against Him and
His creation, that you may not hear the Voice of truth and welcome It as Friend.
Your chosen savior takes His place instead. It is your friend; He is your enemy.

(8) We will try today to stop these senseless attacks on salvation. We will try
to welcome it instead. Your upside-down perception has been ruinous to your
peace of mind. You have seen yourself in a body and the truth outside you,
locked away from your awareness by the body's limitations. Now we are going to
try to see this differently.

(9) The light of truth is in us, where it was placed by God. It is the body that
is outside us, and is not our concern. To be without a body is to be in our
natural state. To recognize the light of truth in us is to recognize ourselves
as we are. To see our Self as separate from the body is to end the attack on
God's plan for salvation, and to accept it instead. And wherever His plan is
accepted, it is accomplished already.

(10) Our goal in the longer practice periods today is to become aware that God's
plan for salvation has already been accomplished in us. To achieve this goal, we
must replace attack with acceptance. As long as we attack it, we cannot
understand what God's plan for us is. We are therefore attacking what we do not
recognize. Now we are going to try to lay judgment aside, and ask what God's
plan for us is:

What is salvation, Father? I do not know.
Tell me, that I may understand.<

Then we will wait in quiet for His answer. We have attacked God's plan for
salvation without waiting to hear what it is. We have shouted our grievances so
loudly that we have not listened to His Voice. We have used our grievances to
close our eyes and stop our ears.

(11) Now we would see and hear and learn. "What is salvation, Father?" Ask and
you will be answered. Seek and you will find. We are no longer asking the ego
what salvation is and where to find it. We are asking it of truth. Be certain,
then, that the answer will be true because of Whom you ask.

(12) Whenever you feel your confidence wane and your hope of success flicker and
go out, repeat your question and your request, remembering that you are asking
of the infinite Creator of infinity, Who created you like Himself:

What is salvation, Father? I do not know.
Tell me, that I may understand.<

He will answer. Be determined to hear.

(13) One or perhaps two shorter practice periods an hour will be enough for
today, since they will be somewhat longer than usual. These exercises should
begin with this:

Holding grievances is an attack on God's plan for salvation.
Let me accept it instead. What is salvation, Father?<

Then wait a minute or so in silence, preferably with your eyes closed, and
listen for His answer.


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

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 72. Holding grievances is an attack on God's plan for salvation.

*Viewing the lessons as a series, different movements in a gigantic symphony, we
see how each one is part of the larger whole, the lessons building upon
themselves as the music of forgiveness evolves. In this lesson Jesus talks a
great deal about the body. Yet it is not the body that is the problem, but our
belief in it. This defends against the body's source: the guilt in our minds.*

(1:1) "While we have recognized that the ego's plan for salvation is the
opposite of God's, we have not yet emphasized that it is an active attack on His
plan, and a deliberate attempt to destroy it."

*If we really experienced this "deliberate attempt" the instant we started
making judgments and holding grievances, we would stop instantly. The ego splits
off the effect from the cause, so that we are not aware of what we are doing,
allowing us blissfully to keep on doing it. Jesus was making the same point in
the text when he discussed the viciousness of the special relationship, not only
to destroy God's "plan" of forgiveness but to destroy God Himself. We have
already discussed the paragraph's opening sentence:

"If you perceived the special relationship as a triumph over God, would you
want it? Let us not think of its fearful nature, nor of the guilt it must
entail, nor of the sadness and the loneliness. For these are only attributes of
the whole religion of separation, and of the total context in which it is
thought to occur. The central theme in its litany to sacrifice is that God must
die so you can live. And it is this theme that is acted out in the special
relationship." (T.16.V.10.1-5)

It is essential that we recognize the effects of our judgments; otherwise
choosing against them would have no meaning and, indeed, could never happen.*

(1:2) "In the attack, God is assigned the attributes which are actually
associated with the ego, while the ego appears to take on the attributes of
God."

*This is an important theme in A Course in Miracles, and helps us to understand
why the world has made such hideous images of God: destroyer, avenger, punisher,
arbiter of specialness, etc. We project our unconscious thoughts about
ourselves, and have them now be in God. We discussed this in the previous
lesson, citing the text's statement of the impossibility of <not> perceiving God
as a body once we believe we are bodies -- <projection makes perception>. It is
not only our belief in the body that we project onto God, but the underlying
thought system of sin, guilt, and fear. Given the immutable nature of this
fundamental principle of the mind -- again, <projection makes perception> -- it
cannot <not> be the case that we would project our unconscious attributes of
selfishness and hate onto our Creator; He, the great killer. In the following
images of sun and sunbeam, ocean and ripple, God is perceived by the little self
to be a monster:

"In its amazing arrogance, this tiny sunbeam has decided it is the sun; this
almost imperceptible ripple hails itself as the ocean. Think how alone and
frightened is this little thought, this infinitesimal illusion, holding itself
apart against the universe. The sun becomes the sunbeam's "enemy" that would
devour it, and the ocean terrifies the little ripple and wants to swallow it."
(T-18.VIII.3:4-6).

Moreover, it cannot <not> be the case that we would believe -- following another
ego principle of <one or the other> -- that what was once God's has become ours.
<We> -- the separated and autonomous ego self -- have become the creators. We
shall return to these fundamental ego dynamics later in the workbook.*

(2) "The ego's fundamental wish is to replace God. In fact, the ego is the
physical embodiment of that wish. For it is that wish that seems to surround the
mind with a body, keeping it separate and alone, and unable to reach other minds
except through the body that was made to imprison it. The limit on communication
cannot be the best means to expand communication. Yet the ego would have you
believe that it is."

*These are explicit statements of the ego's essence, the stark reality of its
desire to become autonomous, independent, and free, < and then believing it has
accomplished this impossibility > ! The body, then, "is the physical embodiment
of [ the ego's ] wish" to replace God and be on its own. In the text Jesus
teaches that the body is a limit on love (T-18.VIII.1:2). <Communication> in the
Course, however, is the song of unlimited love the Father and Son sing to each
other, a song of perfect oneness and unity. The body keeps that reality separate
from our awareness. "The Little Garden" also expresses the idea that the body
keeps us separated from God, as we see in this representative passage:

"God cannot come into a body, nor can you join Him there. Limits on love
will always seem to shut Him out, and keep you apart from Him. The body is a
tiny fence around a little part of a glorious and complete idea. It draws a
circle, infinitely small, around a very little segment of Heaven, splintered
from the whole, proclaiming that within it is your kingdom, where God can enter
not." (T-18.VIII.2:3-6).

In the next two paragraphs Jesus explains that when we hold grievances they are
always against a body. This relates to the idea in Lesson 161, which I mentioned
earlier, that hate is specific. If I am going to hate, there must be a body out
there to be hated. Jesus is helping us realize that our grievances always deal
with bodies, the antithesis of our, and our brother's identity as spirit:*

(3) "Although the attempt to keep the limitations that a body would impose is
obvious here, it is perhaps not so apparent why holding grievances is an attack
on God's plan for salvation. But let us consider the kinds of things you are apt
to hold grievances for. Are they not always associated with something a body
does? A person says something you do not like. He does something that displeases
you. He "betrays" his hostile thoughts in his behavior."

*Recall the essential role of the body in its plan to keep the Son of God
mindless. It not only solidifies the ego's claim that the separation actually
occurred, but the magical hope as well that someone else's body will be the
secure repository of our guilt. Thus do our bodies' eyes roam viciously around
their world, ready to pounce on any proof that our brother is the sinner,
leaving us innocent and free of any threat of punishment. Our brother "says
something [ we] do not like" because we want him to say something we do not
like. This does not mean we are responsible for what is said, but we are most
definitely responsible for our interpretation of what he said. In other words,
we <want> the hostility to be in another, directed at ourselves, and so we see
it there, as this graphic passage about the ego's "hungry dogs of fear"
(T-19.IV-A.15:6) depicts:

"The messengers of fear are harshly ordered to seek out guilt, and cherish
every scrap of evil and of sin that they can find, losing none of them on pain
of death, and laying them respectfully before their lord and master. ... Fear's
messengers are trained through terror, and ... Its messengers steal guiltily
away in hungry search of guilt, for they are kept cold and starving and made
very vicious by their master, who allows them to feast only upon what they
return to him. No little shred of guilt escapes their hungry eyes. And in their
savage search for sin they pounce on any living thing they see, and carry it
screaming to their master, to be devoured ... they will bring you word of bones
and skin and flesh. They have been taught to seek for the corruptible, and to
return with gorges filled with things decayed and rotted. To them such things
are beautiful, because they seem to allay their savage pangs of hunger."
(T-19.IV.A.11:2;12;3,5-7;13:2-4).

Without the body, these fear-laden dogs would have nothing to feast on, and
their guilt would devour them as punishment for their sin.*

(4:1-4) "You are not dealing here with what the person is. On the contrary, you
are exclusively concerned with what he does in a body. You are doing more than
failing to help in freeing him from the body's limitations. You are actively
trying to hold him to it by confusing it with him, and judging them as one."

* "Shadows of the Past" also tells us we do not see people for the Christ they
are, but as shadowy bodies based on the projection of guilt: or perceived evil
seen in them. The following passage describes the ego's unholy use of the body
-- "as means for vengeance":

"The shadow figures are the witnesses you bring with you to demonstrate he
did what he did not.... They represent the evil that you think was done to you.
You bring them with you only that you may return evil for evil, hoping that
their witness will enable you to think guiltily of another and not harm
yourself. ... They offer you the "reasons" why you should enter into unholy
alliances to support the ego's goals, and make your relationships the witness to
its power.... Without exception, these relationships have as their purpose the
exclusion of the truth about the other, and of yourself. This is why you see in
both what is not there ...And why whatever reminds you of your past grievances
attracts you, and seems to go by the name of love ... And finally, why all such
relationships become attempts at union through the body, for only bodies can be
seen as means for vengeance. That bodies are central to all unholy relationships
is evident." (T-17.III.1:6,9-10,12;2:3-7).

Strictly speaking, I cannot hold you in the ego's hell; but I can certainly
reinforce your choice to be there by equating you with the body, the purpose of
the special relationship. Thus every special relationship -- unfortunately that
means almost all our relationships -- is based upon an illusion. It begins with
the illusion we hold about ourselves -- "the home of evil, darkness, and sin"
(W-pI.93.1.1) -- which we then seek to dispose of through projecting it onto
others. Our belief that we are separated, now projected onto another, leads to
that projected thought given form <and made real>. Thus our brother <is> a body,
and if we are too, it is not our fault. The sinful and guilty shadows of our
past's mistaken decision have become reality to us, and our reality as spirit
has become the illusion.*

(4:5-6) "Herein is God attacked, for if His Son is only a body, so must He be as
well. A creator wholly unlike his creation is inconceivable."

*In Lesson 68 I referred to the concept of God being whatever we conceive His
Son to be. Thus, again, if we see ourselves and others as bodies, it is
impossible that we not see God as one, too. This is because every belief we have
about another comes directly from our belief about ourselves: <projection makes
perception>. That is why, to repeat this important point, Jesus speaks about God
as if he were a body. He calls him "Father," asks us to have a conversation with
Him, and ask Him questions. However, this is not because God knows about the
illusion, as the continuation of the passage of the sun and ocean -- metaphors
for God -- makes clear:

"Yet neither sun nor ocean is even aware of all this strange and
meaningless activity. They merely continue, unaware that they are feared and
hated by a tiny segment of themselves." (T-18.VIII.4:1-2).

Once more, Jesus talks to us <as if> God knows about us, because this is how we
experience God: like perceives like, bodies perceive bodies, illusions perceive
illusions.*

(5:1-5) "If God is a body, what must His plan for salvation be? What could it be
but death? In trying to present Himself as the Author of life and not of death,
He is a liar and a deceiver, full of false promises and offering illusions in
place of truth. The body's apparent reality makes this view of God quite
convincing. In fact, if the body were real, it would be difficult indeed to
escape this conclusion."

*This passage depicts the biblical God -- in spades! When we make our thought
system of individuality real, we make the body real. This means we believe we
have destroyed the true God, replacing Him with a deity literally made up in our
own image, and a lying and deceiving one at that. If the body is real, which we
certainly believe, this image of God <must> be real as well. The ego thought
system, you may recall, is a totally coherent, internally consistent one. Thus,
if the body were real, the thought system that made it and still informs it is
real as well. And God, the projection of our guilt, must be an ego, too. This
same argument begins in Chapter 13 in the text, the context being the world of
bodies, made by "those made mad by guilt":

"The acceptance of guilt into the mind of God's Son was the beginning of
the separation, as the acceptance of the Atonement is its end. The world you see
is the delusional system of those made mad by guilt. Look carefully at this
world, and you will realize that this is so. For this world is the symbol of
punishment, and all the laws that seem to govern it are the laws of death.
Children are born into it through pain and in pain. Their growth is attended by
suffering, and they learn of sorrow and separation and death. Their minds seem
to be trapped in their brain, and its powers to decline if their bodies are
hurt. They seem to love, yet they desert and are deserted. They appear to lose
what they love, perhaps the most insane belief of all. And their bodies wither
and gasp and are laid in the ground, and are no more. Not one of them but has
thought that God is cruel.

If this were the real world, God would be cruel. For no Father could
subject His children to this as the price of salvation and be loving."
(T-13.in.2:1--3:2).

No wonder the biblical God is such a despicable creature. He is <us>! *

(5:6-9) "And every grievance that you hold insists that the body is real. It
overlooks entirely what your brother is. It reinforces your belief that he is a
body, and condemns him for it. And it asserts that his salvation must be death,
projecting this attack onto God, and holding Him responsible for it."

*Projection comes to the ego's rescue, once again! What better way to keep our
true Identity hidden than to see only the mindless body as real. What better way
to keep the body real than to continually see it as the object and perpetrator
of attack. How better to keep the belief in attack real than by punishing it
through the "natural" law of death. Finally, how fiendishly clever on the ego's
part to keep this law immutable by attributing it to Almighty God Himself, as
the Bible so blatantly asserts. One can only admire the ego's ingenuity, even as
we suffer under its guilt-ridden yoke.*

(6) "To this carefully prepared arena, where angry animals seek for prey and
mercy cannot enter, the ego comes to save you. God made you a body. Very well.
Let us accept this and be glad. As a body, do not let yourself be deprived of
what the body offers. Take the little you can get. God gave you nothing. The
body is your only savior. It is the death of God and your salvation."

*This is a rather strong passage, but if we are honest with ourselves we will
realize this is not only what religions have believed, but what we believe, too.
Indeed, religions teach this because they were made by the ego.

The reference here is to the little scraps of specialness we are so desperate to
get, for which we so pitifully settle. This is why Jesus says in the text that
the problem is not that we ask for too much, but for far too little
(T-26.VII.11:7); and why he asks us to consider our use of the body:

"To think you could be satisfied and happy with so little is to hurt
yourself ... " (T-19.IV-A.17:12).

In The Song of Prayer he urges us not to settle for the parts of the song, but
to seek instead the experience of the song itself. In other words, we should not
accept the ego's shabby and specific substitutes of specialness when Jesus is
offering us the totality of God's Love:

"You cannot, then, ask for the echo. It is the song that is the gift. Along
with 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 have
sought first the Kingdom of Heaven, and all else has indeed been given
you."(S-1.I.3.).

The ego has told us that God has given us nothing, for He gave us the body and
left us here, and there is nothing we can do about it. Moreover, He is going to
kill us. Therefore, the ego continues, as long as we are here let us make the
best of it, and get whatever bodily crumbs of pleasure we can! In the
pessimistic words of Isaiah, worthy of the author of the Book of Ecclesiastes:
"Let us eat and drink [ and be merry , adds Ecclesiastes 8:15]; for tomorrow we
shall die" (Isaiah 22:13). The ego then believes it has had the last laugh,
because the very fact there is a body that can live <and> die, means that Gods
and Christ's reality as eternal spirit must be illusory. Thus are we saved
<from> God's Love, and for the ego's specialness.*

(7) "This is the universal belief of the world you see. Some hate the body, and
try to hurt and humiliate it. Others love the body, and try to glorify and exalt
it. But while the body stands at the center of your concept of yourself, you are
attacking God's plan for salvation, and holding your grievances against Him and
His creation, that you may not hear the Voice of truth and welcome It as Friend.
Your chosen savior takes His place instead. It is your friend; He is your
enemy."

*There is no one in this world who does not believe the body saves us from God,
for each of us has chosen to come into this world as a body. And who but the
insane would choose to come to hell rather than remain in Heaven? We all have
chuckled over the Cheshire Cat's response to poor Alice, perhaps without
recognizing Lewis Carroll's wisdom:

"In that direction." the Cat said, waving its right paw, "lives a Hatter: and in
that direction," waving another paw, "lives a March Hare. Visit either you like:
they're both mad."

"But I don't want to go among mad people," Alice remarked.

"Oh, you can't help that," said the Cat: "We're all mad here. I'm mad. You're
mad."

"How do you know I'm mad?" said Alice.

"You must be," said the Cat, "or you wouldn't have come here."

It makes no difference to the insane ego whether we embrace the body or are
repulsed by it. Either way we have made it real. That is why Jesus tells us
(twice!) in the sections on the obstacles to peace that whether the body is
perceived as pleasurable or painful is irrelevant, as long as believe it has
that capacity (T-19.IV-A.17:10-11;T-19.IV-B.12). Thus have we made it real in
our perception, and turned spirit into illusions. These opposite sides -
pleasure and pain -- of the same bodily coin are discussed again in Lesson 155.

The devotion to the body goes right to the heart of our motivation. We do not
want to hear the Voice of truth, which signals the end of the ego self.
Therefore we first silence the Holy Spirit by our guilt, and by glorifying the
body as our friend and savior.*

(8) "We will try today to stop these senseless attacks on salvation. We will try
to welcome it instead. Your upside-down perception has been ruinous to your
peace of mind. You have seen yourself in a body and the truth outside you,
locked away from your awareness by the body's limitations. Now we are going to
try to see this differently."

*Again, after making his case, Jesus appeals to us to listen, and therefore
choose again. At the end of the text Jesus makes this same appeal, even more
emphatically:

"Temptation has one lesson it would teach, in all its forms, wherever it
occurs. It would persuade the holy Son of God he is a body, born in what must
die, unable to escape its frailty, and bound by what it orders him to feel. It
sets the limits on what he can do; its power is the only strength he has; his
grasp cannot exceed its tiny reach. Would you be this, if Christ appeared to you
in all His glory, asking you but this: Choose once again if you would take your
place among the saviors of the world, or would remain in hell, and hold your
brothers there. For He has come, and He is asking this:

"Choose once again if you would take your place among the saviors of the
world, or would remain in hell, and hold your brothers there. For He <has> come,
and He <is> asking this." (T-31.VIII.1).

The question is clear, the problem even clearer. The answer merely awaits our
inevitable decision.*

(9) "The light of truth is in us, where it was placed by God. It is the body
that is outside us, and is not our concern. To be without a body is to be in our
natural state. To recognize the light of truth in us is to recognize ourselves
as we are. To see our Self as separate from the body is to end the attack on
God's plan for salvation, and to accept it instead. And wherever His plan is
accepted, it is accomplished already."

*Referring to our chart, the light of truth is in our minds -- the inner circle
-- and the body is in the clouds -- the outer circle. Once again, the decision
is ours. It is helpful to return to the workbooks basic purpose: training us to
return to our minds, within which we have a choice between the unnatural thought
system of the body -- reflecting the unnatural thought of the ego -- and the
natural state of our Self as spirit. The decision is made possible by
recognizing the painful futility of holding onto our grievances, when we could
have the peace of God instead.*

(10) "Our goal in the longer practice periods today is to become aware that
God's plan for salvation has already been accomplished in us. To achieve this
goal, we must replace attack with acceptance. As long as we attack it, we cannot
understand what God's plan for us is. We are therefore attacking what we do not
recognize. Now we are going to try to lay judgment aside, and ask what God's
plan for us is:

What is salvation, Father? I do not know.
Tell me, that I may understand.<

Then we will wait in quiet for His answer. We have attacked God's plan for
salvation without waiting to hear what it is. We have shouted our grievances so
loudly that we have not listened to His Voice. We have used our grievances to
close our eyes and stop our ears."

*We have already discussed at length the use of dualistic language in A Course
in Miracles, which is seen again here and requires no further commentary.

Jesus is asking us to set aside our judgments and grievances, for these are the
ego's "raucous shrieks" that prevent us from hearing the gentle Voice of the
Atonement. To quote again from that important passage on specialness:

"What answer that the Holy Spirit gives can reach you, when it is your
specialness to which you listen, and which asks and answers? Its tiny answer,
soundless in the melody that pours from God to you eternally in loving praise of
what you are, is all you listen to. And that vast song of honor and of love for
what you are seems silent and unheard before its "mightiness". You strain your
ears to hear its soundless voice, and yet the Call of God Himself is soundless
to you." (T-24.II.4:3-6).

Our judgments are thus calculated by the unconscious ego to deflect our
attention from the guilt in our minds, focusing it on the body -- our sinful
brother's!*

(11) "Now we would see and hear and learn. "What is salvation, Father?" Ask and
you will be answered. Seek and you will find. We are no longer asking the ego
what salvation is and where to find it. We are asking it of truth. Be certain,
then, that the answer will be true because of Whom you ask."

*Jesus is assuming we have made our choice, released our grievances, and are
free to hear the truth. We have <sought> for the answer where it can be <found>,
where it has awaited our return. Salvation is really not an answer but a
decision, and one which we now happily make.*

(12) "Whenever you feel your confidence wane and your hope of success flicker
and go out, repeat your question and your request, remembering that you are
asking of the infinite Creator of infinity, Who created you like Himself:

What is salvation, Father? I do not know.
Tell me, that I may understand.<

He will answer. Be determined to hear."

*As he almost always does at the end of a lesson, Jesus urges us to remember his
truth when we are tempted to forget our function and embrace the illusion of
attack and judgment. Recall again that judgment is motivated by decision <not>
to hear the Voice that speaks for the Atonement -- the salvation from
separation and pain. Such recollection brings to mind our purpose of remembering
the Love that is the Answer to all problems and concerns. *

(13) "One or perhaps two shorter practice periods an hour will be enough for
today, since they will be somewhat longer than usual. These exercises should
begin with this:

Holding grievances is an attack on God's plan for salvation.
Let me accept it instead. What is salvation, Father?<

Then wait a minute or so in silence, preferably with your eyes closed, and
listen for His answer."

*Today's instructions call for fewer practice periods than before, and we can
see how Jesus does not want us to be bound by rigid structure. His goal is for
us to be dependent on the <content> of his message not the <form> in which it
comes and with which we practice. Thus he varies the <form> of the daily
exercises, though hardly their <content>.*


Love and Blessings,

Lyn Johnson
719-369-1822

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