ARCIM

Daily Lesson 96 ~
April 6

My awakening comes from my one Self. Its Thoughts are mine to use.

Although you are one Self, you experience yourself as two: as both good and bad, loving and hating, mind and body. This sense of being split into opposites induces feelings of acute and constant stress and 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 opposite selves you experience in yourself will never be compatible, because only one Self exists in Truth.

The fact that Truth and illusion cannot be reconciled no matter how you try, what means you use, or where you perceive the problem, must be accepted if you would be awakened. Until you have accepted this, you will 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 just as the next one surely will.

Problems that have no meaning cannot be resolved within the framework they are set. Two selves in conflict cannot be resolved, and good and evil, love and hate, have no meeting place. The self the split mind made can never be your holy Self, nor can your holy Self be split in two and still be what It is and must forever be.

A mind and body cannot both exist in Reality. Make no attempt to reconcile the two, for one denies that the other can be real. If you are physical then your true mind must be gone from your self-concept, for there is no place in which it could really be part of you. Likewise, if you are spirit, then the body must be meaningless to your reality.

Spirit makes use of mind as Means to fulfill Its Divine Purpose. And the mind that serves Spirit is at peace and filled with Joy. This mind’s Power comes from Spirit, and it is happily fulfilling its true function here.

The mind can also conceive itself removed from Spirit, and perceive itself within a body it confuses with itself. It would then be without its true function here, would have no Peace, and Happiness would be alien to its thoughts. Yet mind apart from Spirit cannot truly think. It has denied its Source of Strength, and perceives itself as helpless, limited, and weak. Dissociated from its function now, it thinks it is alone and separate, hiding in the body’s frail support while being attacked by opponents massed against itself. Now must it attempt to reconcile unlike with like, for this is what it thinks that it is for.

Waste no more time on such nonsense. Who can resolve the senseless conflicts that a dream presents? And even if this could be done, what could their resolution mean in Truth? What purpose could it serve? What would it be for? Awakening cannot make illusions real, or solve a problem that does not exist, even if some hope it can. Yet would they change this hope if they realized that its realization would have the Divine’s Plan for the Release of Its dear Children bring pain to them, and fail to set them free.

Your true Self retains Its Thoughts, and They remain within your whole mind and in the Mind of the Divine. The Holy Spirit holds awakening in your mind, and offers your mind the Way to Peace. Awakening is a Thought you share with the Divine, because Its Voice accepted It for you, and answered in your name so that it was done. Thus is awakening kept among the Thoughts your holy Self holds dear and cherishes for you.

We will attempt today to find this Thought of awakening, whose Presence in your mind is guaranteed by Spirit, Who speaks to you from your one Self. Our hourly five-minute practicing will be a search for this Thought within your mind. Awakening comes from your one Self through Spirit, Who is the Bridge between your mind and your true Self. Wait patiently, and let Spirit speak to you about your Self, and what your mind can do restored to your one Self and free to serve Its Will. Begin by saying this:

“My awakening comes from my one Self. Its Thoughts are mine to use.”

Then seek Its Thoughts and receive them as your own. These are your own real Thoughts that you denied when you 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 in Truth. Awakening is a Thought among them; find it there. If you succeed, the Thoughts that come to you will tell you that you are awakening, and that your mind is finding again the function that it sought to lose. Your holy Self will welcome your whole mind and give it Peace. Restored in Strength, it will again flow out from your spirit to the spirit in all things, created by the Divine as Itself. Your mind will bless all things. Confusion done, you are restored, for you have found your Self.

Your one Self knows that you cannot fail today. Perhaps your mind remains uncertain yet a little while. Be not dismayed by this. Your Self will save for you the Joy It experiences, and It will yet be yours in full awareness. Every time you spend five minutes of the hour seeking Spirit, Who joins your mind and holy Self, you offer your Self another Treasure to be kept for you. Each time today that you remind your anxious mind that awakening comes from your one Self, you lay another timeless Treasure in your growing Treasure House. 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!

 

Corresponding Text Section

 

Chapter 6: Spirit’s Lessons of Undoing

 

4B. To Have Peace, Teach Peace to Learn It

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

What you must learn to understand is that when you do not share a thought system, you weaken it. Those who believe in that thought system therefore perceive this as an attack on them. This is because everyone identifies themself with their thought system, and every thought system centers on what a person believes they are. If the center of the thought system is true, only Truth extends from it. But if the center of the thought system is false, only delusion proceeds from it.

All good teachers realize that only fundamental change, or transformation, will last. But they do not begin teaching at that level. Strengthening motivation for transformation is their first and foremost goal. It is also their last and final one. Increasing motivation for transformation in the learner is all that a teacher need do to guarantee transformation. This is because a transformation in motivation is a transformation of mind, and this will inevitably produce transformation or fundamental change on all levels that can 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 is: “To have, give all to all.” It was stated that this step is apt to increase conflict temporarily, and we can clarify this still further now. At this point in the undoing process, the oneness of having and being is not yet perceived. Until it is, having still appears to be the opposite of being. Therefore, the first lesson seems to contain a contradiction, but only because it is being learned by a split and therefore conflicted mind. This means conflicting motivation, and so the lesson cannot be learned consistently as yet.

Further, the split mind of the learner mis-projects its own split, and therefore does not perceive whole and consistent minds in others, making it suspicious of their motivations. This is the real reason why in many respects the first lesson is the hardest to learn. Still strongly under the influence of the ego in itself, and therefore responding primarily to the ego in others, the split mind is being taught to react to both as if what it believes is not true. Upside-down as always, the ego perceives the first lesson as insane. In fact, this is the ego’s only alternative here, because the other one, which would be much less acceptable to it, would obviously be that the ego, i.e., the perspective that it represents, is insane.

The ego’s perspective, then, is predetermined by what it is, though not more so than is any other product of thought. The fundamental change in life will still occur with the fundamental change of mind in the thinker.

Meanwhile, the increasing Clarity of the Holy Spirit’s Voice makes it impossible for the learner at this stage not to listen. For a time, then, the learner is receiving conflicting messages from two voices it considers authorities, the ego and the Holy Spirit, and accepting both. This is a classic “double bind” in communication. 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, which you do because you cannot escape this, and if you accept two thought systems that are in complete disagreement, then peace of mind becomes impossible. In addition, if you teach both, which you will surely do as long as you accept both, then you are teaching and learning conflict.

But you do want Peace or you would not have called upon the Voice for Peace to help you fundamentally change your life. Its Lessons of undoing and atoning are not senseless or insane, but the conflict in your mind is, which the Holy Spirit’s first Lesson has brought into awareness. However, there can be no true conflict between Sanity and insanity, because 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 perspective and voice is true. But the Holy Spirit teaches you that Truth was created by the Divine, and that your decision cannot change It. As has been stated several times in this Course, upon this fact does the whole of awakening rest.

As you begin to experience and realize the quiet Power of Spirit’s Voice and Its perfect Consistency, it must dawn on your mind that the ego’s attempts to persuade you that Truth is for you to decide is an attempt to undo a Divine Decision that was made irrevocably for you. That is why it was suggested previously (in discussing the returning point that is the true Set or Fixation Point) that there is Help in reminding yourself to allow the Holy Spirit to decide for the Divine for you.

You are not asked to make senseless or insane decisions, although you are free to think that you are. But it must be insane to believe that it is up to you to decide what the Divine’s Creations are. The Holy Spirit perceives the conflict exactly as it is. Therefore, Its second Lesson is:

To have Peace, teach Peace to learn It.

This is still a preliminary step because having and being are still not conceived as being one, but it is more advanced than the first step, which is really only a thought reversal. This second step is a positive affirmation of what you want. This, then, is a step in the direction out of conflict, because it means that alternatives have been considered, and one has been understood and chosen as more desirable. However, the evaluation “more desirable” still implies that the desirable has degrees. Therefore, although this step is essential for the ultimate decision of undoing and awakening, it is clearly not the final one.

It should be clear that at this second stage the recognition of the lack of levels and orders of magnitude of difficulty in miracles has not yet been fully accepted, because nothing is difficult that is wholly desired or willed. To desire wholly is to create, and creating cannot be difficult if the Divine Itself created you as a creator. The second step, then, is still perceptual but It is nevertheless a giant step toward the unified perception that parallels the Divine’s Knowledge.

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. While you may only be beginning this second step now, you have started on this way by realizing that ultimately only one Way, that of Truth as the Divine created It, is possible. You may not yet realize this consistently, making progress intermittent, but the second step is easier than the first, because it follows the first, the most difficult step. The very fact that you have accepted that a reversal in your thought system is needed is a demonstration of your growing awareness that the Holy Spirit will lead you forward to awakening.