In the section "What is Salvation?" we are told that "salvation is a promise made by God, that you would find your way to Him at last." (W.PII.Q2.1.1) Jesus goes on to say that the promise must be kept guaranteeing us an end to time and the end to all of our ego thoughts of sin, guilt and despair.  In this lesson Jesus says "you are healed and you can heal;" and  "you are saved and you can save;" and  "you are at peace and you bring peace with you wherever you go." (1.2.4.5)  But that is not our daily experience, the reason being that we are listening to another voice...the voice of the ego.

But peace is in our minds. "The Thought of peace was given to God's Son the instant that his mind had thought of war." (What is Salvation?)  How can we be sure of this? Because over and over we are told that we have the same Will as God, and since we are an idea in the mind of God and ideas leave not their Source, then we must be like Him. The truth is that  there is a part of the mind that is at peace right this moment and nothing can disturb that peace because God Wills it. The peace that we are is beyond the complexity of the ego identity with all of it anxieties, issues, problems, concepts and specialness.

Our reality is a fact. It is the truth about who we are as God's Son. All it takes is our recognition of this truth, which the ego mind resists because it is a threat to our existence as a separate, autonomous self. The ego wants to keep us from ever knowing our true reality because when we do, we will choose against the ego and that will be its end. The recognition of our true reality will dawn on our minds when we release all of the concepts, beliefs and thoughts in our wrong minds that we have come to identify with. What is required is that we let go of grievances, expectations, worries, demands, anger, frustrations, and our self concepts, our beliefs, our opinions and self image. In other words, we give up what we think we know. We give up needing to be right about who we think we are and what we think we know. This frightens us because it is disorienting. All of our perceptions are turned upside down. To admit that "I do not know the thing I am, and therefore do not know what I am doing, where I am, or how to look upon the world or on myself," (T.31.V.17.7) is very threatening to us. "Jesus says that "there is no statement that the world is more afraid to hear than this." (T.31.V.17.6)  Questioning our thoughts is the beginning of undoing our false self. Beyond  the complexity of our identity with its suffering, grievances and judgments, there is the light of the magnificent being that we are.

I like the way that Anita Moorjani discovered this when she writes of her near death experience. She says "if we only knew how perfect and magnificent we are. It feels as if imperfection is the creation of the mind. Judgment too. EVERYTHING. As physical human beings, we need to process information through our minds. And all we perceive is separation because that is how our minds process information. But beyond the mind we are one; we are totally interconnected." That is just a glimpse of her extensive writing as a result of this experience.

Every lesson that we take in, and practice daily, is for the one purpose of becoming aware of the ego. Every lesson we have learned in the worldly realm has been part of the conditioning of our minds for the purpose of keeping us in this dream. In other words, we have all adjusted to the false self and to the illusion of this world. Every day with each lesson that we apply to our lives, we lessen the impact of these conditioned ego beliefs. There is nothing in this course that is irrelevant. Every step in our reading and practice guarantees our awakening...our salvation. Nothing is missing. There is nothing else that we need. Pursuing other paths can be another way to delay. It is an ego ploy to keep seeking but to never find.

Every day we get seemingly sucked into the ego illusion although it is all by our own decision. On this path, we may feel very much out of step with the rest of the world, and we are. When everyone believes something, even though it is not the truth, then it is difficult to step away from what is commonly held by billions of people in consciousness in this world. But because billions hold a belief system,  it does not make it true. As Jesus says, "all are called but few choose to listen." (T.3.IV.7.12)

It only takes an instant to change our minds. We simply need the desire and willingness to release what is false and choose the truth. The ego wants to keep us focused on our problems that continually distract us and keep us invested in the illusion. It is how we separate cause from effect believing that the cause of our problems is in the world rather than in our own minds. Guilt demands punishment, which is delivered through perceived problems in the world. It does not mean that all seeming problems disappear when the guilt is healed but we will no longer see events that happen as problems and we will not longer blame others for our experience.

We see differences by seeing others as separate from us. We see them as guilty, which gives us the false impression that we can maintain innocence at the expense of those that we judge. But it is just a way that the ego has fooled us into keeping ourselves guilty by giving us senses for the express purpose of focusing our attention on the world of form.  But now we can choose, whether we give power to the ego (because it has no power when we withdraw belief from it), or choose forgiveness. As has been said many times, what we see outside of ourselves is just a projection of our inner state. We have been asleep for a very long time. It has been a dark dream of turmoil and conflict.

We identify with what we think will make us safe. If we think we are a body that protects us we will identify with it and use it for our purposes as we define them. We will pursue what we think will make us happy. We can spend a lifetime in such pursuit even though Jesus tells us, again and again, that the ego sends us on missions to find happiness where it can't be found.  We have no idea of true happiness beyond meeting our needs as we define them.  Jesus reminds us that we don't even know our own best interests so if this is the case, we can't possibly know how to find peace and happiness.  

When we identify with the body and personality, we are in a constant state of deprivation, lack and need. There can never be safety for us in this "rotting prison." (T.26.I.8.3) Jesus describes us as being like a child throwing temper tantrums and demanding that its needs be met. (T. 29.IX.6.4) He says that, just like children, who do not understand the language of adults, we insist that what we see and feel is reality. Just as children do, we think that our 'toys' mean something. But to us the things of this world do not feel like toys. All the circumstances of our lives feel very real and not at all like meaningless children's toys. We take it all very seriously. It all seems very real and very important. Indeed the world of the ego is a battlefield where we compete with everyone to have our needs met. It is all about trying to gain at someone's expense. When we identify with the ego, our focus is a self-centered life of me, myself, and I. And above all else, we see ourselves as victims of this world.

We are doing this work with the course in order to release this attachment to our childhood toys and no longer wanting to identify with this separate identity as the whole truth of our being. Our willingness to accept responsibility for the power of our own minds is increased as we do the forgiveness work, recognizing that we have the capacity to choose against the ego until we can attain the real world. And it is in that instant of release of the ego thought system, that "the light has come." This is the experience of the real world.

What is the real world? "The real world still is but a dream. Except the figures have been changed. They are not seen as idols which betray. It is a dream in which no one is used to substitute for something else nor interposed between the thoughts the mind conceives and what it sees." (T. 29.IX.7.1) So while the real world is still an illusion, as it is not Heaven, it is not part of the dream of the ego. Now only Heaven is reflected and nothing interferes with our recognition of the truth of who we are. We still see the disasters in the world yet we give whatever we see no power to disrupt our peace. We now clearly see that the expressions of anger and hate in the world around us mask the love that is there and we respond to everything with love. Truly the light has come! And it has come because it is a reflection of the light that is now in the mind, no longer blocked by dark thoughts.

The Holy Spirit has heard our call. "Love always answers, being unable to deny a call for help, or not to hear the cries of pain that rise to it from every part of this strange world you made but do not want. All that you need to give this world away in glad exchange for what you did not make is willingness to learn the one you made is false."  (T. 13.VII.4.3) When our perception is wholly changed and we experience healing, it will be a new world. It is the same as awakening from a nighttime dream where the dream is given no reality at all and "has left no trace"(2.6)

The way that we awaken is always through forgiveness. Forgiveness is about releasing all of the thoughts and beliefs that are not true, so that we can experience the truth about ourselves. Love has responded. We have heard the notes of the 'forgotten song' calling us home. When we experience even some fragments of the song, we want nothing else. We now recognize the sameness of everyone. We are all the Christ. We now understand that holding onto grievances, concerns, issues, concepts, sickness, grief, only creates a defense against the truth of who we are. As we understand this, we can increasingly lay our concerns aside. And as we do, we realize the peace that there is in unity. We don't have to pretend that we still don't want the toys of this world, but as we feel the safety of the arms of Love sustaining us, we can increasingly allow the love and strength in us to grow. And thus the light has come in every moment that we choose it.

So we spend the day in gratitude that this is so. "We offer thanks for the passing of the old and the beginning of the new." (3.1) In the practice periods we are asked to "look at the world that our forgiveness shows us." (4.1) What do we see? We see innocence in everyone. Every situation, no matter what it is, provides an opportunity to see past it and only see peace. We are peace and bring that peace to everyone we meet,. There is no fear, there is no conflict. We experience such joy. We see the beauty in everyone we encounter. We see "Heaven's reflection" everywhere. (5.1), We experience our release (5.3). There is no past. (It is like the movie "50 Dates" where, due to loss of memory, every day is a new day!)

It is a state where we have given up all self concepts,(6.1) all beliefs. We look on the world with fresh perspective as if we have never seen any of it before. We are like a new-born infant on the first moments of life! We look through the "eyes" of the Holy Spirit who will show us "what true vision sees." We "wait patiently for Him." We need have no anxiety, only absolute confidence that all the promises in the course are kept. We simply affirm that today. We can't fail "because we trust in Him." (8.1) "We wait in certainty." (8.2) Why? Because He keeps His promises.  "And you will see the world that has been promised you since time began, and in which is the end of time ensured." (W.PI.75.8.5) So today we are asked to simply acknowledge all of this. Today is a day of prayer where our song of prayer is a song of thanks. It is a day of gratitude. It is a new beginning. (9.3) We are encouraged, here, to "extend today forever."  (9.7)

Whatever our experience may be today, and it may indeed seem difficult,  this is still the truth about us. We can't be anything but what we were created to be. This is the will we share with God. The Course is not about changing our lives, only our minds, although clearly as our minds are healed, our lives will change. Jesus tells us that this is a simple course. "This course offers a very direct and a very simple learning situation, and provides the Guide Who tells you what to do." (T.9.V.9.1) But it does not seem that way to our complex minds.   To the ego all of this has to take a very long time. I mean we tell ourselves how really messed up we are and it is no easy matter to heal. And when we believe this voice of the ego, we can get very discouraged. We fixate on changing our jobs, mates, diets, habits, anything that we can do in form, yet all we need to do is change our minds by looking at our thought system, rather than at our own or others' behavior.

The light has come. It has never left us. Light abolishes darkness, love cancels fear, and truth undoes illusion. So what is being shown to us is how wonderful we will feel when we let go of our judgments and attack thoughts which we can't do alone. The ego will never undo itself. We do need the Holy Spirit. Our part is the willingness to surrender our way of seeing the situation. The shadows of our past hide this world that forgiveness offers. And we hold onto our thoughts of attack precisely as a defense against this light. We fear the light because it will undo the ego and we still want to hold onto what we have made.

So forgiveness is the basis for opening up to the light.  "Understand that the Holy Spirit never fails to give the gift of sight to the forgiving. Believe He will not fail you now" (7.2-3) "Dedicate this day to the serenity in which God would have you be." (11.1)

We are asked today to "keep a completely open mind washed of all past ideas and clean of every concept you have made." (6.2)  To withdraw the meanings we have given the world is to forgive it. This opens us to vision. (7.1)We wait in patience and confidence, repeating several times "The light has come. I have forgiven the world." (6.8-9)

We must be patient and gentle with ourselves and others, as Jesus is with us, in the process of letting go of our fear of the light.   Whenever you are tempted today to be upset with someone say: "The light has come. I have forgiven you." (10.5-6) This upset might be a thought about some person, event or circumstance from the past or someone who is presently on your path who upsets you. It is a day of practicing vigilance in releasing grievances against any brother recognizing that it is only our grievances that bring misery into our lives. If we really believed this we would truly want to let our judgments of others go and let the light shine away the darkness of the guilt in our minds so that the peace and the light can shine through us.

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