Graphic by ©Deposit Photos
|
|
When we said that the ego does not know
anything, we said the one thing about the ego that
is wholly true. But there
is a corollary; if knowledge is being and the ego has no knowledge, then the ego has no
being.
|
|
Workbook for Students
Lesson 96
Salvation comes from my One Self.
|
1 Although you are One Self, you experience yourself as two—as both good and evil, loving and hating, mind and body. This sense of being split into opposites induces feelings of acute and constant conflict and leads to frantic attempts to reconcile the contradictory aspects of this self-perception. You have sought many such solutions, and none of them has worked. The opposites you see in you will never be compatible. But one exists.
2 The fact that truth and illusion cannot be reconciled, no matter how you try, what means you use, and where you see the problem, must be accepted if you would be saved. Until you have accepted this, you will attempt endless lists of goals you cannot reach; a senseless series of expenditures of time and effort, hopefulness and doubt, each one as futile as the one before and failing as the next one surely will.
3 Problems that have no meaning cannot be resolved within the framework they are set. Two selves in conflict could not be resolved, and good and evil have no meeting place. The self you made can never be your Self, nor can your Self be split in two and still be what it is and must forever be.
4 A mind and body cannot both exist. Make no attempt to reconcile the two, for one denies the other can be real. If you are physical, your mind is gone from your self-concept, for it has no place in which it could be really part of you. If you are Spirit, then the body must be meaningless to your reality.
5 Spirit makes use of mind as means to find its Self-expression. And the mind which serves the Spirit is at peace and filled with joy. Its power comes from Spirit, and it is fulfilling happily its function here. Yet mind can also see itself divorced from Spirit and perceive itself within a body it confuses with itself. Without its function then, it has no peace, and happiness is alien to its thoughts.
6 Yet mind apart from Spirit cannot think. It has denied its Source of strength and sees itself as helpless, limited, and weak. Dissociated from its function now, it thinks it is alone and separate, attacked by armies massed against itself and hiding in the body's frail support. Now must it reconcile unlike with like, for this is what it thinks that it is for.
7 Waste no more time on this. Who can resolve the senseless conflicts which a dream presents? What could the resolution mean in truth? What purpose could it serve? What is it for? Salvation cannot make illusions real and solve a problem that does not exist. Perhaps you hope it can. Yet would you have God's plan for the release of His dear Son bring pain to him and fail to set him free?
8 Your Self retains its thoughts, and they remain within your mind and in the Mind of God. The Holy Spirit holds salvation in your mind and offers it the way to peace. Salvation is a thought you share with God, because His Voice accepted it for you and answered in your name that it was done. Thus is salvation kept among the thoughts your Self holds dear and cherishes for you.
9 We will attempt today to find this thought, whose presence in your mind is guaranteed by Him Who speaks to you from your One Self. Our hourly five minute practicing will be a search for Him within your mind. Salvation comes from this One Self through Him Who is the bridge between your mind and it.
10 Wait patiently, and let Him speak to you about your Self, and what your mind can do, restored to it and free to serve its will.
11 Begin by saying this:
12
Salvation comes from my One Self. Its thoughts are mine to use.
13 Then seek its thoughts, and claim them as your own.
14 These are your own real thoughts you have denied, and let your mind go wandering in a world of dreams, to find illusions in their place. Here are your thoughts, the only ones you have. Salvation is among them; find it there.
15 If you succeed, the thoughts that come to you will tell you you are saved and that your mind has found the function that it sought to lose. Your Self will welcome it and give it peace. Restored in strength, it will again flow out from Spirit to the Spirit in all things created by the Spirit as Itself. Your mind will bless all things. Confusion done, you are restored, for you have found your Self.
16 Your Self knows that you cannot fail today. Perhaps your mind remains uncertain yet a little while. Be not dismayed by this. The joy your Self experiences It will save for you, and it will yet be yours in full awareness. Every time you spend five minutes of the hour seeking Him Who joins your mind and Self, you offer Him another treasure to be kept for you.
17 Each time today you tell your frantic mind salvation comes from your One Self, you lay another treasure in your growing store. And all of it is given everyone who asks for it and will accept the gift. Think, then, how much is given unto you to give this day, that it be given you!
Audio, Music, and Video
by CIMS SonShip Radio
Lesson ARCHIVE
|
|
Course in Miracles
Original Edition
Text
PAUSED FOR WEEKEND
Chapter 8
The Journey Back
VIII. The Body as Means or End
par 69-79
|
69 Attitudes toward the body are attitudes toward
attack. The ego's definitions of
everything are childish and always based on what it believes a thing is
for. This is because it is incapable of true generalizations and equates what it sees with the function
it ascribes to it. It does
not equate it with what it
is. To the ego, the body is to
attack with. Equating
you with the body, it teaches that
you are to attack with, because this is what it believes. The body, then, is not the source of its own health. The body's condition lies solely in your interpretation of its function.
70 The reason why definitions in terms of function are inferior is that they may well be inaccurate. Functions are part of being since they arise from it, but the relationship is not reciprocal. The whole
does define the part, but the part does
not define the whole. This is as true of knowledge as it is of perception. The reason to
know in part is to know
entirely is because of the fundamental
difference between knowledge and perception. In perception the whole is built up of parts, which
can separate and reassemble in different constellations. Knowledge never changes, so
its constellation is permanent. The only areas in which part-whole relationships have
any meaning are those in which change is possible. There
is no difference between the whole and the part where change is impossible.
71 The body exists in a world which
seems to contain two voices which are fighting for its possession. In this perceived constellation, the body is regarded as capable of shifting its control from one to the other, making the concept of both health
and sickness possible. The ego makes a fundamental confusion between means and ends, as it always does. Regarding the body as an end, the ego has no
real use for it because it is
not an end. You must have noticed an outstanding characteristic of every end that the ego has accepted as its own. When you have achieved it,
it has not satisfied you. This is why the ego is forced to shift from one end to another without ceasing, so that
you will continue to hope that it can yet offer you something.
72 It has been particularly difficult to overcome the ego's belief in the body as an end, because this is synonymous with the belief in
attack as an end. The ego has a real
investment in sickness. If you are sick, how can you
object to the ego's firm belief that you are
not invulnerable? This is a particularly appealing argument from the ego's point of view because it obscures the obvious
attack which underlies the sickness. If you accepted
this and also decided
against attack, you could not give this false witness to the ego's stand.
73 It is hard to perceive sickness
as a false witness because you do not realize that it
is entirely out of keeping with what you want. This witness, then,
appears to be innocent and trustworthy because you have not seriously cross-examined him. If you did, you would not consider sickness such a strong witness on behalf of the ego's views.
74 A more honest statement would be as follows: Those who
want the ego are predisposed to defend it. Therefore, their choice of witnesses should be suspect from the beginning. The ego does not call upon witnesses who would disagree with its case,
nor does the Holy Spirit. We have said that judgment
is the function of the Holy Spirit and one which He is perfectly equipped to fulfill. The ego as a judge gives anything
but an impartial judgment. When the ego calls on a witness, it has
already made the witness an ally.
75 It is still true that the body has no function of itself, because it is
not an end. The ego, however, establishes it
as an end because as such it will lose its
true function. This is the purpose of
everything the ego does. Its sole aim is to lose sight of the function of everything. A sick body does not make any
sense. It
could not make sense, because sickness is not what the body is
for. Sickness is meaningful only if the two basic premises on which the ego's interpretation of the body rests are true. Specifically, these are that the body is for attack and that you
are a body. Without these premises, sickness is completely inconceivable.
76 Sickness is a way of demonstrating that
you can be hurt. It is a witness to your frailty, your vulnerability, and your extreme need to depend on
external guidance. The ego uses this as its best argument for your need for
its guidance. It dictates endless prescriptions for
avoiding catastrophic outcomes. The Holy Spirit, perfectly aware of the same data, does not bother to analyze them at all. If the data are meaningless, there is no point in considering them. The function of truth is to collect data which are
true. There is no point in trying to make sense out of meaningless data.
Any way you handle them results in nothing. The more complicated the results become, the harder it may be to recognize their nothingness, but it is not necessary to examine
all possible outcomes to which premises give rise to judge them truly.
77 A learning device is
not a teacher.
It cannot tell you how
you feel.
You do not know how you feel because you have
accepted the ego's confusion, and
you think that a learning device
can tell you how you feel. Sickness is merely another example of your insistence on asking the guidance of a teacher
who does not know the answer. The ego is
incapable of knowing how you feel. When we said that the ego does not know
anything, we said the one thing about the ego that
is wholly true. But there
is a corollary; if knowledge is being and the ego has no knowledge, then the ego has no
being.
78 You might well ask how the voice of something which does not exist can be so insistent. Have you seriously considered the distorting power of something you
want, even if it is
not true? You have had many instances of how what you want can distort what you see and hear. No one can doubt the ego's skill in building up false cases. Nor can anyone doubt your willingness to listen until
you will not to tolerate anything
except truth. When
you lay the ego aside, it will be gone. The Holy Spirit's Voice is as loud as your willingness to listen. It cannot be louder without violating your will, which the Holy Spirit seeks to free but
never to command.
79 The Holy Spirit teaches you to use your body
only to reach your brothers, so He can teach His message
through you. This will heal them and
therefore heal
you. Everything used in accordance with its function as the Holy Spirit sees it
cannot be sick. Everything used otherwise
is. Do not allow the body to be a mirror of a split mind. Do not let it be an image of your own perception of littleness. Do not let it reflect your will to attack. Health is the natural state of anything whose interpretation is left to the Holy Spirit, Who perceives no attack on anything. Health is the result of relinquishing
all attempts to use the body lovelessly. Health is the beginning of the proper perspective on life under the guidance of the one Teacher Who knows what life
is, being the Voice for Life Itself.
|
Audio, Music, and Video
by CIMS SonShip Radio
ONLINE
SEARCHABLE Original Edition
Current Schedule of
|
|
ACIM Edmonton
Sarah's Reflections
Lesson 96
Salvation comes from my One Self.
|
Jesus tells us,
"As you can hear two voices, so you can see in two ways. One way shows you an image, or an idol that you may worship out of fear, but will never love. The other shows you only truth, which you will love because you will understand it. Understanding is appreciation, because what you understand you can identify with, and by making it part of you, you have accepted it with love. That is how God Himself created you; in understanding, in appreciation and in love. The ego is totally unable to understand this, because it does not understand what it makes, does not appreciate it and does not love it."
(T.7.V.9.1-6) (ACIM OE T.7.VI.50)
We have two ways of seeing any situation. One way is to see through the ego's interpretation, which is to see each brother as an image or idol from whom we try to extract love. This way of seeing will always bring the fear that we will be abandoned, betrayed, or hurt. We see through our own persona and it is an image full of fear. We try to get the persona of the other to love us and to meet our needs, but it can never happen because the persona is not real. When they won't agree to our contract or hidden agenda, we feel angry and betrayed. The other way is to see them with vision, which is to look through the perception of the Holy Spirit. When this is the case, we are able to see our brother as a reflection of the innocence in our own mind. We see the sameness we share as our One Self. We can only see in this way when the blocks to love we hold in our own mind (guilt, fear, judgments, grievances) are removed through forgiveness. This requires taking responsibility for our projections and willingly releasing them to the Holy Spirit. When we turn to the ego as our teacher, we focus on what we can get from others, but with the Holy Spirit, our desire is to give with no expectations.
Later in Chapter 7 we read,
"Your mind is dividing its allegiance between two kingdoms, and you are totally committed to neither."
(T.7.VI.9.1) (ACIM OE T.7.VII.63)
"Perceived problems in identification at any level are not problems of fact. They are problems of understanding, since their presence implies a belief that what you are is up to you to decide. The ego believes this totally, being fully committed to it. It is not true. The ego therefore is totally committed to untruth, perceiving in total contradiction to the Holy Spirit and to the knowledge of God."
(T.7.VI.9.4-8) (ACIM OE T.7.VII.64)
Here, we are reminded that we have a divided allegiance between the right mind and wrong mind. The right mind is where truth resides. This is where we connect with our eternal Being and One Self. It is the part we can't change, no matter how we feel about ourselves. In other words, we are still as God created us. The wrong mind is the kingdom ruled by the ego. It contains our self‑concepts, our values, and our beliefs. It is the false self that has no reality. It is who we think we are--the self that seems to be living in a body and in the world. With our investment in the ego, we value our individuality, uniqueness, and specialness. We believe that this is where we have control over our lives and our decisions.
We believe that we have made what we are and our lives are up to us. This belief totally obscures God and our reality. It obscures who we truly are as divine beings. Instead, we believe that what is real is the body, the world, the concepts of ourselves, and our problems. While we hold onto this reality and experience ourselves as bodies, we cannot know who we are as the Christ Self. Our wholeness and limitless power and our consistent peace and joy are still in the mind; they are just hidden from our awareness.
The fact is that we are only One Self, but our experience is of two selves in conflict. We say we want peace, joy, and happiness, yet there seems to be this part of us that resists or actively sabotages what we say we want. We say we want peace, we want joy, we want love, we want truth, and we want God, but we also want the things of this world. We try to spiritualize the illusion by trying to bring truth to the illusion and trying to have a better dream here. We try to make ourselves spiritual, but it will not work. We say we want light, yet we hold onto the darkness. We say we want peace, yet we do everything to be rid of it. Jesus asks us,
"Would you let a little bank of sand, a wall of dust, a tiny seeming barrier stand between your brothers and salvation."
(T.19.IV.A.2.9) (ACIM OE T.19.V.a.41) Unfortunately, so often we do cherish this
"little remnant of attack,"
(T.19.IV.A.2.10) (ACIM OE T.19.V.a.41) but when we do, we set up a barrier between ourselves and our brothers.
We hold onto our way of seeing things, our grievances, judgments, and specialness. Only by releasing the dark thoughts, the self-concepts, the grievances, and the belief that things of this world (idols) can ever satisfy us, can we open to the truth of who we really are. The idols are things, circumstances, situations, special relationships, and objects we deem important and use to try to complete ourselves. We follow the ego's mantra to keep seeking for our happiness outside of ourselves, but happiness and peace will always elude us. We will never find what we are seeking for in the world. The only completion is to know who we are as the Christ Self. Everything else leaves us always feeling limited and lacking. In other words, no matter what we seek for in this world, we will never be satisfied.
Our typical response to this inner conflict is to try to reconcile what we see as the different parts of ourselves, but this will never work.
"You have sought many such solutions, and none of them has worked. The opposites you see in you will never be compatible. But one exists."
(W.96.1.3-5) We will continue to experience the conflict until we are ready to release the false identity we have accepted as our reality.
We have become so preoccupied with the body that we have lost sight of spirit. We will never find any safety, comfort, happiness, or wholeness in guilt and fear, yet that is what we try to do. We try to carve out some sense of safety and security in the world of form, whether it is in our special relationships, money, status, material goods, job, or any number of things. In our lives, we
"attempt an endless list of goals you cannot reach; a senseless series of expenditures of time and effort, hopefulness and doubt, each one as futile as the one before, and failing as the next one surely will."
(W.96.2.2) We are constantly trying to solve the problem of the anxiety and emptiness we feel, but we can never solve it in our own way. The problem is not in the body or in the world but in our decision for separation, and only there lies the solution.
There simply is no happiness possible in this state of insanity. We have put our energy toward serving the body's seeming existence instead of investing it in waking up to the truth of our reality. We work very hard to try to make our experience here as good, comfortable, pleasurable, safe from harm, beautiful and indestructible as we can. Thus, the mind is focused on what can never serve our own best interests.
"Yet mind can also see itself divorced from spirit, and perceive itself within a body it confuses with itself."
(W.96.4.4) It [the mind] has lost sight of spirit, for its true function is to serve spirit, and only when we put our mind to this function will we be happy and know peace. Our wrong-minded thought system of sin, guilt, and fear holds others responsible for our lack of fulfillment. Even if we seem to hold ourselves responsible by blaming ourselves for our inadequacies, we still hold someone else responsible for those inadequacies. Blaming ourselves or others is still the same thing.
When we identify ourselves with the body and personality, the mind is completely in the service of this existence. We see ourselves as "
helpless, limited and weak.
" (W.96.5.2) We feel alone, separated, and a victim of the world. The body becomes a
"frail support"
(W.96.5.3) where we try to hide. So much of our attention in this world goes into the care and maintenance of these bodies, and we live in fear of anything untoward happening to them. They are indeed very frail and they continually deteriorate. This is because he tells us that mind apart from spirit has
"denied its
Source of strength."
(W.96.5.2) Only by undertaking our function of forgiveness where we no longer hold others responsible for our condition can we reclaim the power in us.
"If you are physical, your mind is
gone from your self-concept, for it has no place in which it could be really part of you."
(W.96.3.6) In other words, if we truly are bodies, then the spirit cannot be part of us. When we join with spirit, we can't be a body.
"If you are spirit then the body must be meaningless to your reality."
(W.96.3.7) When we recognize ourselves as One Self, united with our Creator, the body is not our reality. We simply are not these frail beings at the mercy of a cruel world. When we identify ourselves as bodies, we have actually left the mind, which is where truth resides. The Holy Spirit calls us to return to the truth of who we really are. The Holy Spirit resides in our right minds.
In each moment and in each decision that we make, we choose: a grievance or a miracle, the separation or our reality. It depends on which teacher we turn to---the ego or the Holy Spirit. This is a question of whether we choose to defend our specialness and individuality, or we choose forgiveness and thus the truth. In each decision we make, we choose: Heaven or hell, truth or illusion, body or spirit.
For healing to occur, we must bring all our worries, depression, feelings of victimhood, attack thoughts, expectations of outcomes, fantasies, and wishes, to the light. Then we must be willing to let them go. To waste our time listening to the ego and going where it takes us, leads us nowhere. It is like trying to resolve things in our nighttime dreams. What is the point? I spent the whole night in my dream last night packing to go on a journey and being concerned about taking everything I needed. However, in spite of my dedication and commitment to this task, it was to no avail, which only became apparent to me when I woke up.
Fortunately for us, the Holy Spirit has been placed in our right minds as a bridge to help us with this awakening. He entered our minds the instant the decision for the wrong mind (separation) was made. He calls us constantly to give up our futile attempts at finding happiness in the physical world and urges us to open our minds to the truth. This is the Divine Help that brings our minds back to our true function to serve the spirit, connect with the love we are, and bring this reflection to the world as an extension of God's Being.
"Your mind will bless all things."
(W.96.10.4) That is the case when we reclaim the truth of who we are through our function of forgiveness. This is how we rejoin with the Source of our strength.
Our self-deceptions can’t change the truth about us, no matter how lost we are in this dream. We remain as God created us and can never be separated from our Creator. While we have deceived ourselves about who we are and have believed in the reality of the body, the truth of our reality as the Christ Self has never changed. Isn't that a reassuring thought? Nothing we have done has changed our reality. Nothing we have believed about ourselves is true. Through forgiveness, we release the untrue and reconnect to spirit, leaving aside all the distractions of the world as we enter into His Presence. We are reminded,
"The ego's whole thought system blocks extension, and thus blocks your only function. It therefore blocks your joy, so that you perceive yourself as unfulfilled."
(T.7.IX 3.4-5) (ACIM OE T.7.X.93)
The Self we seek is not something outside of us, but it is what we are.
"Perhaps your mind remains uncertain yet a little while. Be not dismayed by this."
(W.96.11.2-3) We may not be ready yet for the experience of awakening, but we should not feel discouraged because of this lack of readiness. It will be ours when we are ready. Every time you do the practice, you
"offer Him another treasure to be kept for you."
(W.96.11.5) Therefore, nothing is ever lost. As we do this practice, we just keep filling our storehouse with treasures. From this storehouse, we draw these treasures, which are then extended as blessings and miracles. We need to be patient with ourselves in this process. We can relax, knowing that time is being used for its intended purpose. We do the work by applying these Lessons to our daily lives. As we do this, the Self rejoices, even if the joy has not yet penetrated the conscious mind.
I share these thoughts with you, knowing I am talking to myself, reminding myself of the truth as I write. I join with you in gratitude and willingness to heal my mind so I can remember who I am as spirit. Salvation comes from my One Self, which I share with you. Through that One Self, we bring salvation to the world. As we receive, we give.
"Think, then, how much is given unto you to give this day, that it be given you!"
(W.96.12.3)
Love and blessings, Sarah
|
|
Join ACIM Students
on Free Conference Calls
|
|
Commentary from Jesus
Through
Tina Louise Spalding
|
|
LISTEN every day to Guidance on the ACIM Lessons from Jesus.
|
|
Course in Miracles Society (@ACIM_Original) | Twitter
Follow us on TWITTER and join the ACIM community. Just use the hashtag #ACIM when you post! Students share Inspirational Quotes, Events, Personal Insights, ACIM News, and more.
Read more
twitter.com
|
|
|
|
|
|
COURSE IN MIRACLES SOCIETY
(non-profit)
Tax-Deductible Donation
|
Presently all CIMS projects are supported by free will gifts of time, talent, and money. If you would like to support any of the activities of the Society in any way, please do not hesitate to get in touch.
Because of the international character of CIMS, the internet is our primary means of communicating and collaborating.
To make a Tax-Deductible Donation in support of the Daily Lessons just click
Here.
Also, by means of your will or other estate plan, you can name "
Course in Miracles Society" as the beneficiary of a portion of your estate, or of particular assets in your estate. In this way, you are honoring your loved ones while also providing critical support to the extension of LOVE.
|
|
SHARE THE BLESSING of ACIM!
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
