ARCIM

Daily Lesson 71 ~
March 12

Only the Divine’s Plan of Awakening will work.

You may not realize that the ego has set up a plan for “salvation” in opposition to the Divine’s Plan of Awakening. Until you fundamentally change the orientation of your mind, it is the ego’s plan in which you will believe. Since it is the opposite of the Divine’s Plan, you will also believe that to accept the Divine’s in place of the ego’s is to be condemned. This sounds preposterous, of course. Yet after we have considered just what the ego’s plan is, perhaps you will realize that, however preposterous it may be, you do believe it whenever you are not in your right mind.

The ego’s plan for “salvation” focuses on taking offense and holding resentment, grievances and grudges. It maintains that if someone else spoke or acted differently, if some external circumstance or event were changed, you would be “saved” from whatever it is you do not like. Thus the source of “salvation” is constantly perceived as outside yourself. Each grievance, grudge and feeling of being offended you hold onto, each sense of resentment you cherish, is a declaration, and an assertion in which you believe, that says, “If this were different, I would be saved.” The fundamental change of mind that is necessary for awakening is thus demanded of everyone and everything except yourself.

The role assigned to your own mind in this plan, then, is simply to determine what outside itself must change if you are to be saved. According to this insane plan, any perceived source of “salvation” is acceptable, provided that it will not work. This ensures that the fruitless search will continue, for the illusion persists that, although this hope has always failed, there are still grounds for hope in other places and in other things. Another person will yet serve better; another situation will yet offer success.

Such is the ego’s plan for your salvation. Surely you can see how it is in strict accord with the ego’s basic doctrine, “Seek but do not find.” For what could more surely guarantee that you will not find awakening than to channel all your efforts in searching for it where it is not?

The Divine’s Plan of Awakening works simply because, by following Its Direction, you seek for awakening where it is. But if you are to succeed, as the Divine promises you will, you must be willing to seek there only. Otherwise your purpose will be divided, and you will attempt to follow two plans for your release that are diametrically opposed in every way. The result of this futile attempt can only be confusion, misery, and a deep sense of failure and despair.

How can you be released from all this? Very simply. The idea for today is the answer. Only the Divine’s Plan of Awakening will work. There can be no real conflict about this, because there is no possible alternative to the Divine’s Plan that will lead to awakening. The Divine’s is the only plan that is certain in its outcome. It is the only plan that must succeed. Let us practice recognizing this Certainty today. And let us rejoice that there is an Answer to what seems to be a conflict with no resolution possible. All things are possible to the Divine. Awakening must be yours because of the Divine’s Plan, which cannot fail.

Begin the two longer practice periods for today by thinking about today’s idea, and realizing that it contains two parts, each making equal contribution to the whole: the Divine’s Plan for your awakening will work, and all other plans will fail. Do not allow yourself to become depressed or angry at the second part. It is inherent in the first. And in the first part is your full Release from all your own insane attempts and mad proposals to free yourself. They have led to frustration, despair, depression, and anger, but the Divine’s Plan will succeed. It will lead to Release and Joy.

Remembering this, let us devote the remainder of the extended practice period to asking the Divine to reveal Its Plan to us. Ask It very specifically:

“Where would You have me be?”

“What would You have me do?”

“What would You have me express, and to whom?”

Give the Divine full charge of the rest of the practice period, and let It tell you what needs to be done by you in Its Plan for your awakening. It will answer you in proportion to your willingness to hear Its Voice. Be willing to hear. The very fact that you are doing the exercises proves that you have some willingness to listen. This is enough to establish your receiving of the Divine’s Answer.

In the shorter practice periods tell yourself often that the Divine’s Plan of Awakening, and only Its, will work. Be alert to all temptation to take offense or hold resentment, grievances and grudges today, and respond to them with this form of today’s idea:

“Taking offense or holding grudges, grievances or resentment is the opposite of the Divine’s Plan of Awakening, and only Its Plan will work.”

Try to remember today’s idea some six or so times an hour. There could be no better way to spend a minute or less than to remember the Source of your awakening, and to see your awakening where it is.

 

Corresponding Text Section

 

Chapter 4: Discerning the Ego’s Terrain

 

2. Ego-Free and Fear-Free Teaching and Learning

At the current level of human experience there is almost endless variation in the different kinds of human symptoms, both physical and mental, that are indicators of illness. But there is only one cause for all of them. The authority problem is “the root of all evil.” Money is only one of many reflections of this problem, and is a reasonable representative of the kind of thinking that stems from it. The idea of buying and selling implies precisely the kind of exchange that the spirit cannot understand at all because its own supply is always abundant and all of its needs are fully met.

Every symptom that the ego has made involves a contradiction in terms. This is because the mind is currently split between the ego – the victim belief or aspect of the split mind – and the spirit, and whatever the ego makes is incomplete and contradictory. Consider, for example, what a professor with a fear of public speaking would mean as a concept. It would literally mean a “non-professing professor,” or a “nonspeaking speaker.” Phobias of countless types arise from the mind’s split simply because the mind finds it terrifying that it can be split. Untenable situations arising from phobias interfering with life functions (the services human beings offer the world) are the result of the authority problem, which, because the mind has accepted the one inconceivable thought as its premise – that it can create itself, i.e., can split itself and be its own “author” – can only produce ideas that are inconceivable.

There are those who might claim in defense of their inner conflicts that their functions in life – the services they offer the world – were thrust upon them. This is not true. Sometimes a life function such as teaching opens easily for a person and they simply say yes to it. Sometimes a person wants a function in life very much and they work hard to be able to perform it, but then they forget this when phobias cause challenging situations to arise in connection with their chosen function. They will not have to work hard to overcome such challenges and realize and fulfill their life’s functions if they understand how these are developed in the configuration of all those assigned together in life’s journey.

We have discussed teaching but not yet its specialized form in so-called higher education, that is, the formal education of adults. To profess is to identify with an idea and offer the idea to others to use as they will, especially in systems of complex information that are the focus of much of higher education. Ideas shared do not become decreased through giving them away, they become stronger. All effective teachers of any stage of life clarify their own understanding and ideas and strengthen them by teaching them. As has been described, teacher and pupil, therapist and patient, are all alike in the learning process. They are in the same order of learning because the content they are focusing on is shared, and unless they all share in the lessons being learned, the participants will lack conviction in the learning process. Just as a salesperson to be convincing must believe in the product they sell, how much more must a teacher believe in the ideas that they teach, a professor in what they profess, and a therapist in the healing modalities they offer. But something additional is needed: they must also believe in the students and patients with whom they are sharing the learning and healing processes.

Phobias around teaching, such as a fear of public speaking, could not arise unless a teacher or professor still believed that interaction meant threat of loss – loss of control, loss of a cherished perspective if challenged by other perspectives, loss of self – and that learning meant separation between those with understanding and those without. Such phobias would result from a person standing guard over their own ideas because they want to protect their thought system as it is, while also understanding that learning means change. Change is always fearful to the separated because they cannot conceive of it as a change toward healing the separation. The separated ones tend to interpret learning as a change toward further separation, because separation was their first experience of change. All phobias are nothing but examples of a person’s own intense separation trauma and anxiety which in the past they have handled with the usual pattern of attack on Truth and defense of error that characterizes all ego thinking.

Separated ones tend to insist that if they allow no change to enter into their egos, their spirits will find peace. This profound confusion is possible only if one maintains that the same thought system can stand on two foundations. In reality, nothing can reach the spirit from the ego, and nothing from the spirit can strengthen the ego or reduce the conflict within it. The ego is a contradiction—an idea of victimhood coming from a cocreator of the universe. As a result of accepting the idea of the ego or pseudo-self into the mind, the human self has placed itself in opposition to the Divine Self. The pseudo-self is in opposition to the holy Self in origin, in will, and in outcome. The self that has resulted from the ego’s occupation of the mind is fundamentally irreconcilable with the true Self because the Divine Mind cannot perceive and the ego cannot know. They are therefore not and can never be in communication. Only the Holy Spirit can resolve this irresolvable dilemma that the mind has become entangled in.

For even the ego aspect of the mind can learn, if only indirectly, because though the mind that makes it can be misguided, it cannot make itself totally lifeless, being eternally created as one of the Life-Given. The spirit has no need for learning, but the ego, that is, the split mind that results in the ego, must be taught truly. The ultimate reason why learning or teaching is perceived as frightening, when it is, is because true learning does lead to the relinquishment of the ego to the Light of the spirit, though not to the ego’s destruction, as it constantly fears. This relinquishment is the change the ego must fear, because it does not share my charity that willingly embraced relinquishment of what wasn’t like the Divine. My lesson was like yours, and because I learned it I can teach it. I never attack the ego (in spite of the ego’s belief to the contrary), but I do teach the split mind how the ego’s thought system has arisen. When I remind you of your true creation by the Creator, your ego can only react with fear. Do not fear this reaction.

Teaching and learning are your greatest strengths now because you must fundamentally change or transform your mind and help others transform theirs. It is pointless to refuse to tolerate change because you believe by doing so that you can demonstrate that the separation never occurred. The dreamer who doubts the reality of their dream while they are still dreaming is not really healing the level-split between awakening and dreaming. You have dreamed of a separated self, and you have believed in a world that rests upon it. This is very real to you. You cannot undo this by doing nothing and not changing.

If you are willing to renounce the role of guardian of your thought system and open it to me (as to Spirit), I will correct it very gently and lead you home. Every effective teacher hopes to give their students so much of their own understanding that their students will one day no longer need their teacher. In fact, this is the one real goal of the effective teacher, therapist, and parent. This goal will not be achieved by those who believe that they will lose their student or patient or child if they succeed. It is impossible to convince the ego of this because this idea goes against all of the ego’s own laws. But remember that laws are set up to protect the continuity of the system in which the lawmakers believe. It was natural enough for the ego aspect of your mind to try to protect itself, once you made it through splitting your mind. But it is not natural for you to want to obey its laws unless you believe in them. The ego cannot make this choice because of the nature of its origin. But you can because of the nature of yours.

Egos can clash in any situation but spirits can never clash. If you perceive a brother or sister as merely a “larger ego” you will be afraid, because to enlarge an ego is to increase the anxiety that resulted from the separation. This would be an especially tragic mis-projection with regard to me. I will always be with you, and teach with you if you will think with me. But my goal will always be to liberate you finally from the need for a teacher. This is the opposite of the goal of an ego-oriented teacher, whose wish is to keep their students because this preserves their ego. They are concerned with the effect of their ego on other egos, and they therefore interpret their interactions with their students as a means of ego preservation. This is no less true if they are afraid to teach than if they are frankly out to dominate through teaching. The form of the symptom is only a reflection of their particular way of handling their own separation anxiety.

All separation anxiety is a symptom of a continuing desire to remain separated because of the fear of being united.

This cannot be repeated too often until it is truly learned.

Given the importance of teaching and learning in the Plan of Awakening, those who are afraid to teach, that is, to share with their sisters and brothers the awakening lessons they are learning, may experience anxiety because they are afraid of the impression that their image of themselves will make on the self-images of others. They may believe that the approval of their image by their students – those engaged with them in the learning process, regardless of their stage of life or the formal or informal learning setting – will exalt their ego, and that through this their separation anxiety will be increased, or decreased. They may also believe that their students’ disapproval of their ego will lessen or strengthen their separation anxiety. In all such cases, the apparent lessening of separation anxiety through ego images would come at the cost of depression.

I would not be able to devote myself to teaching if I believed the idea that approval or disapproval by egos had any meaning, and you will not be a devoted teacher yourself if you believe it. I am constantly being misperceived as a teacher either to be exalted or rejected, but I do not accept either misperception for myself. Your own Worth is not established by your teaching or your learning, or any other factor. Your perfect Worth was established by the Divine forever in your creation. As long as you dispute this, everything you do will be fearful, and particularly any situation that lends itself easily to the superior-inferior fallacy. Teachers must be patient, and repeat their lessons with goodwill until they are truly learned. I am willing to do so with you because I have no right to set your learning parameters for you.

To repeat this simple but crucial lesson: nothing you think or do is necessary to establish your worth. This point is not debatable except in delusions. Your ego is never at stake because the Divine did not create it. Your spirit is never at stake because It did. Any confusion on this point is a delusion, and no form of true devotion is possible as long as this delusion lasts. In light of this, if you will to be a devoted teacher rather than an egocentric one you will have no need to be afraid. The teaching situation is fearful only if it is misused as an ego involvement. If you become afraid, it is because you are using it this way. But devoted teachers perceive the learning situation as it is and not as they wish or fear it. They do not perceive an opportunity to learn as dangerous, because they are not exploiting it. Understood truly, each teaching-learning situation is simply a miracle opportunity, nothing more or less.

The ego tries to exploit all situations into forms of praise for itself in order to overcome its doubts. Yet it will be doubtful as long as it exists, which will be as long as you believe in it. You who made the ego know you cannot trust it, because you know that it is not real. The only sane solution is not to try to change Reality, which is indeed a fearful idea, but to see Reality. You are Part of Reality, which stands unchanged beyond the reach of your ego, but within easy reach of your spirit, because your spirit never left Reality.

When you are afraid, be still and know that the Divine is real and that you are Its beloved Child in whom It is well pleased. Disregard your ego’s attempts to dispute this, because the ego cannot understand what is as far beyond its reach as you are. The Divine cannot be the author of fear. You can, and you do whenever you use your creative abilities unlike your Creator, and make fear for yourself.

You will only be at peace when you are fulfilling your true Functions in Heaven and the function the Divine gives you here. The Divine gave you a very lofty Responsibility which it is time to meet. You know this, and you will be afraid only if your ego has chosen to be afraid instead of you choosing to meet this Responsibility. When you awaken you will not be able to understand fear, because it is literally not credible. Do not believe the un-credible now. Any attempt to increase its believability is merely to postpone the inevitable.

The word “inevitable” is fearful to the ego but joyous to the spirit. The Divine is Inevitable and you cannot avoid It any more than It can avoid you. The ego is afraid of the spirit’s Joy, because once you have fully experienced this you will withdraw all protection from your ego and become totally without investment in fear. Your investment in fear and in the ego may be great now because fear is a witness to the separation, and your ego is glad when you witness to it. Let it go and leave it behind. Do not listen to it, and do not preserve it. Listen only to the Divine through Its Voice, Who is as incapable of deception as are the spirits It created.

As teacher, therapist and miracle worker, release yourself and release others. Do not present a false and unworthy picture of yourself to others, or accept such a picture of yourself from them, or of them yourself. The ego has built a shabby and unsheltering home for you, because it cannot build otherwise. Do not try to make this impoverished house stand. Its weakness is your strength. Only the Divine can make a Home that is worthy of Its Children. You who have chosen to leave this Home empty by your own dispossession be glad that only the Home created by the Divine is worthy of you. Its Home will stand forever, and is ready for you when you choose to reenter It. Of this you can be wholly certain: the Divine is as incapable of creating the perishable as the ego is of making the Eternal.

Of your ego you can do nothing to awaken yourself or others. But of your spirit you can do everything for the awakening of both. Humility, the stem of humiliation, is a lesson for the ego, not for the spirit. Spirit resides in a Realm where humility’s lesson is meaningless because the spirit recognizes its Radiance and gladly radiates its Light everywhere. The modest shall inherit the Earth because their minds are humble, and this gives them clearer perception. The Realm of Heaven is the Inheritance of the spirit, whose Beauty and Dignity are beyond doubt, beyond perception, and stand forever as the Sign of the Love of the Divine for Its Children, who are wholly worthy of It, and only of It. Nothing else is sufficiently worthy to be a gift for a Child of the Divine Itself.

I will substitute for your ego whenever you ask, but never for your spirit. Parents can safely leave a child with an elder brother or sister who have shown themselves responsible, but this involves no confusion about the child’s origin. The sibling can protect the child’s body and their ego, which are very closely associated, but they do not confuse themself with the parents through helping in this way, although the child may while it still lacks understanding. The reason I can be entrusted to protect your body and ego is simply because this enables you not to be concerned with them, and me to teach you their unimportance in the context of Reality and Eternity. I could not understand their importance to you if I had not once experienced this myself. Let us undertake to learn this lesson together, so we can also be free of them together.

I need devoted teachers and therapists as much as I need devoted miracle workers of every kind. They both heal the mind, and that is always my own aim. The spirit is far beyond the need of your protection or mine. What I once said is best understood as, “In this world you need not have trouble, but should be of good cheer, because the world has been overcome.”