We look outside of ourselves to be saved. We look to relationships, jobs, money, medicines, gurus, all kinds of idols for our salvation. It is all about looking outside of ourselves to some special person or some circumstance or activity to make us happy. It is all about trying to find happiness outside of our own minds, but Jesus tells us that the cause of any distress is within. It is the guilt in the mind. " 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." (W.70.1.2-4) We can point to someone else as being responsible for every problem we have. In our warped perception, our guilt is thus put on them. In the same misguided way, we look for all of our happiness in the world.
 

What is salvation? We have some interesting connotations with regard to this word. Most of them are religious connotations, meaning that we ultimately see ourselves saved from the wrath of hell or some other disastrous event or terrible punishment for our sins. However, the Course is clear that " You are not saved from anything, but you are saved for glory." (T.11.IV.1.4)(ACIM OE T.10.V.31) In this sense, our salvation is about recognizing our true inheritance and accepting healing of our minds by releasing the thoughts that impede our recognition of the glorious Self that we are.
 

The definition of salvation from the glossary of terms ( Circle of Atonement), "Salvation - Root Meaning: Being saved from the experience of separation from God, from guilt, and from all the human ills that come from separation and guilt. Comes through the Holy Spirit's healing of our minds. Our spirit was never lost and so need not be saved. Forgiveness affirms this; it makes way for salvation by recognizing that who we are was never lost and that all that impedes salvation is unreal. Salvation is thus an illusion, but one that brings the end of illusions. The ego's plan for salvation is attack, which it promises will make us safe and obtain for us idols and special relationships. Yet this really brings guilt and self-punishment. The ego ascribes this punishment to God, saying that this is how He saves and that His salvation should thus be feared. In this way the ego seeks to save itself from God."

Jesus says, " Salvation is a promise, made by God, that you would find your way to Him at last. It cannot but be kept. It guarantees that time will have an end, and all the thoughts that have been born in time will end as well. God's Word is given every mind which thinks that it has separate thoughts, and will replace these thoughts of conflict with the Thought of peace." (W.PII.Q2.1-4) Thus, salvation is a certainty because it is already given and already in our minds awaiting our acceptance.
 

 Jesus says that we are all tempted to believe that there is something 'out there' outside of our own minds that will save us. It is the same as the belief that there is something outside of us that brings guilt. Yet Jesus tells us that both guilt and salvation are only in our own minds. We are saved when we understand that this is so because we then have the power to choose. In each situation we choose to condemn and judge or to forgive. In other words, we are choosing murder or the miracle, guilt or our salvation. We are not the victims of the world we see nor are we at the mercy of the world or of anyone or anything for our salvation. It is all up to us. " You are free from all external interference. You are in charge of your salvation." (W.70.10.2-3) This is good news! It makes us totally responsible and recognizes the power that is within us.
 

Why are we afraid to hear this? Because at some deep level of the unconscious we believe that we have misused this power, when we chose to separate from our Source. And we don't want to be responsible for what we believe we have done. We project the guilt we feel onto others over the choice to separate. Now we see the world as cause and ourselves as the effect of circumstances beyond our control. We see ourselves as powerless victims of the world, but Jesus tells us, " 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." (W.70.2.3-5) What is it that Jesus wants us to see? He is asking us to take responsibility for our decisions that we can make in every instant. When we choose to judge and condemn, we are choosing separation. It is the same choice made over and over that was initially made when we seemed to separate from totality. But since we are the ones that made that choice in the first place, we can now choose to awaken from this dream. The choice was made by the decision maker in the mind that can now choose to correct the original error. And we do it day by day, in each situation, where we are tempted to believe that others are responsible for our condition. This is a total commitment to the truth, not to be partially accepted.
 

" 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." (W.70.2.1) The idea that there is no one to save us can be daunting. Yet if the power is within, then it is up to us. It does not mean we don't have help. Jesus says, " If it helps you, think of me holding your hand and leading you. And I assure you this will be no idle fantasy." (W.70.9.3-4) I love that and find great solace in this thought. I find strength in the idea that we can't do this alone, but we need to join with others including Jesus. He is just a symbol of that strength that is within us, but he can be a very helpful one to us. The important thing is not to stay in the dream " looking vainly for idols there, when you could so easily walk on into the light of real salvation." (W.70.9.1) He reminds us that we never found what we wanted in the clouds anyway, nothing that endured. " But remember also that you have never found anything in the cloud patterns you imagined that endured, or that you wanted." (W.70.8.6) It is when we come to this realization ourselves that we stop our incessant seeking for happiness where it does not exist. It can feel like major disillusionment, but we are not left in that state. It is when we give up hope that there is something in the clouds that will yet work. While we still hold out that hope, the goal of the Course will not be achieved. What is that goal? Perfect peace and a constant state of happiness and joy. This is the real world.
       

While Jesus is there to help us, it is we, ourselves, that have to make the choice. He makes this very clear when he says " You may still complain about fear, but you nevertheless persist in making yourself fearful." (T.2.VII.1.1)(ACIM OE T.2.V.93) He says that we can't ask him to release us from our fear because we are the ones that made it. While he says that he is there to help us, it is up to us to identify our fearful thoughts and bring them to the truth. He goes on to say, " I know it [fear] does not exist, but you do not. 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." (T.2.VII.1.3-6)(ACIM OE T.2.V.93) Wow! That should get our attention. We now see how fundamental this law of cause and effect is and why it comes so early in our reading of the text!
 

In other words, what Jesus is saying is that our minds are as powerful as his. He is saying that it is in our power to save ourselves. As the Lesson goes on to say, " Today's idea places you in charge of the universe, where you belong because of what you are," (W.70.2.3) but it is a role we must accept wholly. Indeed, it is a demanding role. As the final Lesson of the Holy Spirit tells us " be vigilant only for God and the Kingdom." (T.6.V.C)(ACIM OE T.6.V.c.85) Until we are, our minds will be in conflict with part of the mind looking for salvation in the world and projecting our guilt onto the world while still professing a desire for peace.

Salvation is the process of translating the nightmare of this world into the happy dream as we release our thoughts of distress, and allow the Holy Spirit to undo the guilt in our minds. The world is our classroom for this. Every morning we ready our minds for this purpose so we can use every circumstance as an opportunity to take responsibility for the way we interpret every situation. We will have all kinds of opportunities to watch our thoughts and release our judgments. Be content with this learning. There is no need for impatience and self-flagellation. It is all a perfect karmic learning environment. We are going at the pace that our fear will allow in the undoing of our misperceptions about everything. It is a process where we are shifting responsibility for how we feel from outside circumstances and seeing them in our own minds.

In Chapter 16, we are reminded that we will not be " abruptly lifted and hurled into reality" (T.16.VI.8.1)(ACIM OE T.16.VII.65)  because that would be terrifying to us. We are exactly in the right place and the right situation for our learning. It is all perfectly designed by our own minds from outside of this dream for what we need for our awakening (salvation). We may tell ourselves that we should be further along in our spiritual journey after many years of study. We get impatient with ourselves. We blame others or our circumstances for where we see ourselves. We think that if things were different, if we had a different partner, a better group, a spiritual center, a retreat to go to, a better guru/teacher, more time, less work, fewer responsibilities we would have more peace. Again, it just affirms what this Lesson says. We think that if things were different, we would be at peace. Remind yourself, when you are tempted to think this way, that " My salvation cannot come from any of these things. My salvation comes from me and only from me." (W.70.7.7-8)

The ego tells us to look for our salvation where it can't be found and we have paid attention and tried to find our happiness " ---in other people, in possessions, in various situations and events, and in self-concepts that we sought to make real." (W.70.7.5) Isn't that what our lives have been about? Our sources for salvation have been about seeking relationships, status, money, safety, material thing, all because we thought that if we could just rearrange all of the externals (clouds) exactly right, we would be happy, but it has never worked. Has it? Oh yes, there have been some temporary pleasures, and even some periods of happiness, but they are not lasting and come with their share of pain and fear that they would not last. Now Jesus is telling us that all of this external seeking for happiness has been designed by the ego to keep our sickness intact. It is all about the ego story of seeking, but never finding. When we realize this, it loses some of its appeal. It has all been about " 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." (W.70.4.1) External seeking can never answer the problem. We will continue to seek and yet continue to suffer, which is the purpose of the ego, to keep us distracted for the answer by looking for it in the world, where it is not.

Jesus assures us that God's will and ours are the same. He wants our healing and we don't want to be sick. We want the same thing. He is trying to overturn our bias, which is that God is not part of our happiness and that we will have to sacrifice our 'pleasures' if we choose salvation. His plan seems to be a threat to our happiness because we believe it involves sacrifice. As long as we believe that we can be helped and made happy by something other than God, we won't be convinced that we share God's Will. When we get that nothing outside of our own minds can bring us happiness, our motivation to end the misery and pain by committing to the study and practice of this Course will be enhanced.

 

TEXT

⁷⁰ All the separated ones have a basic fear of retaliation and abandonment. This is because they believe in attack and rejection, so this is what they perceive and teach and learn. These insane concepts are clearly the result of their own dissociation and projection. What you teach you are, but it is quite apparent that you can teach wrongly and therefore teach yourselves wrong. Many thought that I was attacking them, even though it was quite apparent that I was not. An insane learner learns strange lessons.

 

⁷¹ What you must understand is that when you do not share a thought system, you are weakening it. Those who believe in it therefore perceive this as an attack on them. This is because everyone identifies himself with his thought system, and every thought system centers on what you believe you are. If the center of the thought system is true, only truth extends from it. But if a lie is at its center, only deception proceeds from it. All good teachers realize that only fundamental change will last, but they do not begin at that level. Strengthening motivation for change is their first and foremost goal. It is also their last and final one.

 

⁷² Increasing motivation for change in the learner is all that a teacher need do to guarantee change. This is because a change in motivation is a change of mind, and this will inevitably produce fundamental change because the mind is fundamental. The first step in the reversal or undoing process, then, is the undoing of the getting concept. Accordingly, the Holy Spirit's first lesson was "to have, give all to all." We said that this is apt to increase conflict temporarily, and we can clarify this still further now.

 

⁷³ At this point, the equality of "having" and "being" is not yet perceived. Until it is, "having" appears to be the opposite of "being." Therefore, the first lesson seems to contain a contradiction since it is being learned by a conflicted mind. This means conflicting motivation, and so the lesson cannot be learned consistently as yet. Further, the mind of the learner projects its own split, and thus does not perceive consistent minds in others, making him suspicious of their motivation. This is the real reason why in many respects the first lesson is the hardest to learn. Still strongly aware of the ego in himself and responding primarily to the ego in others, he is being taught to react to both as if what he does believe is not true.

 

⁷⁴ Upside-down as always, the ego perceives the first lesson as insane. In fact this is its only alternative here since the other one, which would be much less acceptable to it, would obviously be that it is insane. The ego's judgment, then, is predetermined by what it is, though no more so than is any other product of thought. The fundamental change will still occur with the change of mind in the thinker. Meanwhile, the increasing clarity of the Holy Spirit's Voice makes it impossible for the learner not to listen. For a time, then, he is receiving conflicting messages and accepting both. This is the classic "double bind" in communication.

 

⁷⁵ The way out of conflict between two opposing thought systems is clearly to choose one and relinquish the other. If you identify with your thought system, and you cannot escape this, and if you accept two thought systems which are in complete disagreement, peace of mind is impossible. If you teach both, which you will surely do as long as you accept both, you are teaching conflict and learning it. Yet you do want peace, or you would not have called upon the Voice for Peace to help you. His lesson is not insane; the conflict is.

 

⁷⁶ There can be no conflict between sanity and insanity. Only one is true, and therefore only one is real. The ego tries to persuade you that it is up to you to decide which voice is true, but the Holy Spirit teaches you that truth was created by God, and your decision cannot change it. As you begin to realize the quiet power of the Holy Spirit's Voice and its perfect consistency, it must dawn on your minds that you are trying to undo a decision which was made irrevocably for you. That is why we suggested before that there was help in reminding yourselves to allow the Holy Spirit to decide for God for you.

 

⁷⁷ You are not asked to make insane decisions, although you are free to think you are. It must, however, be insane to believe that it is up to you to decide what God's creations are. The Holy Spirit perceives the conflict exactly as it is. Therefore, His second lesson is:

 

⁷⁸ To have peace, teach peace to learn it.

 

⁷⁹ This is still a preliminary step since having and being are still not equated. It is, however, more advanced than the first step, which is really only a thought reversal. The second step is a positive affirmation of what you want. This, then, is a step in the direction out of conflict since it means that alternatives have been considered and one has been chosen as more desirable.

 

⁸⁰ Nevertheless, the evaluation "more desirable" still implies that the desirable has degrees. Therefore, although this step is essential for the ultimate decision, it is clearly not the final one. It is clear at this point that the lack of order of difficulty in miracles has not yet been accepted because nothing is difficult that is wholly desired. To desire wholly is to create, and creating cannot be difficult if God Himself created you as a creator. The second step, then, is still perceptual, although it is a giant step toward the unified perception which parallels God's knowing.

 

⁸¹ As you take this step and hold this direction, you will be pushing toward the center of your thought system where the fundamental change will occur. You are only beginning this step now, but you have started on this way by realizing that only one way is possible. You do not yet realize this consistently, and so your progress is intermittent, but the second step is easier than the first because it follows. The very fact that you have accepted that is a demonstration of your growing awareness that the Holy Spirit will lead you on.

 

 

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