ARCIM

Daily Lesson 74 ~
March 15

The Divine’s Will is the only will there is.

The idea for today can be regarded as the central Thought toward which all our exercises are directed. The Divine’s is the only will there is. When you have recognized this, you have recognized that your will must be One with the Divine’s. The belief that conflict is possible has gone. Peace has replaced the strange idea that you are torn by conflicting goals. As an Expression of the Divine’s Will, you have no goal but Its.

There is great Peace in today’s idea, and the exercises for today are directed toward finding It. The idea itself is whole and true. Therefore it cannot give rise to illusions. Without illusions conflict is impossible. Let us try to recognize this today, and experience the Peace this recognition brings.

Begin the two longer practice periods today by repeating these thoughts several times, slowly and with firm determination to understand what they mean and to hold them in mind:

“The Divine’s Will is the only will there is. I cannot be in conflict.”

Then spend a few minutes in adding some related thoughts, such as:

“I am at peace.”

“Nothing can disturb me. My will is the Divine’s.”

“My will and the Divine’s are One.”

“The Divine wills Peace for Its Children.”

During this introductory phase, be sure to quickly address any conflict thoughts that may cross your mind. Tell yourself immediately:

“The Divine’s Will is the only will there is. This conflict thought is meaningless.”

If there is one conflict area that seems particularly difficult to resolve, single it out for special consideration. Think about it briefly but very specifically, identify the particular person or persons and the situation or situations involved, and tell yourself:

“The Divine’s Will is the only will there is. I share It with the Divine. Therefore my conflict thoughts about _____ cannot be real.”

After you have cleared your mind in this way, close your eyes and try to experience the Peace to which your reality entitles you. Sink into It, and feel It closing around you. There may be some temptation to mistake these attempts to experience Peace as withdrawal from the world, but the difference is easily detected. If you are succeeding, you will feel a deep sense of Joy and an increased alertness, rather than a feeling of drowsiness and enervation. Joy flows from Peace. By this experience will you recognize that you have reached It.

If you feel yourself slipping off into withdrawal from the world, for instance through a feeling of drowsiness and enervation, quickly repeat the idea for today and try again. Do this as often as necessary. There is definite gain in refusing to allow retreat into withdrawal, even if you do not experience directly the Peace you seek.

In the shorter periods, which should be undertaken at regular and predetermined intervals today, say to yourself:

“The Divine’s Will is the only will there is. I seek Its Peace today.”

Then try to find what you are seeking. A minute or two every half hour, with eyes closed if possible, would be well spent on this today.

 

Corresponding Text Section

 

Chapter 4: Discerning the Ego’s Terrain

 

5. Disinhibiting the Call of Heaven

Many do not yet understand what the expression, “The Kingdom of Heaven is within you,” means. The reason for this is that the expression is not understandable to the ego, which interprets it as if something that is outside, namely a kingdom, is inside, which does not mean anything. In fact the word “within” in this expression is not necessary. The expression should really be, “The Realm of Heaven is you.” What other than Its Children did the Creator create, and what else but you and all Children of the Divine is the Realm of the perfect Creation, or Heaven? This is the whole Message of the Atonement, a Message that in Its Totality transcends the sum of Its parts, an idea we have touched on before.

There is a celebration at midwinter in parts of the world in honor of my birth. However, honoring the birth of Innocence is not a time, it is a state of mind. The Mind of Divine Essence wills from the spirit, not from the ego, and this Mind is yours. You, too, have a Realm that your spirit has cocreated. Your spirit has not ceased to create even though your ego has temporarily set you on the road of perception. Your spirit’s creations are no more creator-less than you are. Your ego and your spirit will never be cocreators, but your spirit and your Creator will always be. Be confident that your creations are as safe as you are.

 

The Realm of Heaven is perfectly united and perfectly secure, and the part of the split mind that has been identified as the ego cannot touch this Realm at all. Amen.

 

This Thought is presented in this form so it can be used as a kind of prayer in moments of doubt or despair. It is a declaration of independence from the tyranny of the egoic perspective in your mind, and can be very helpful if it is understood fully.

In its characteristic upside-down way, the ego frame of mind takes the miracle inspirations from the superconscious that naturally become miracle impulses in the unconscious, and perceives these as non-miraculous impulses. The ego judges and censors what it then accepts into the consciousness of the split mind that is its host, and the inspirations from the superconscious are unacceptable to it because they clearly point to the nonexistence of the ego itself. The ego therefore experiences threat, and not only censors but also reinterprets as non-miracle impulses the inspirations it perceives. However, as Freud very correctly pointed out, even what you do not perceive consciously you still have some level of awareness of, and this awareness can retain a very active life beyond your conscious awareness. Repression thus operates in the split mind not only to conceal what are judged by the ego as the baser impulses (“base” because the ego perceives that these would be socially unacceptable to express), but also to conceal from the split mind’s awareness the loftiest inspirations that are experienced as miracle impulses in the unconscious.

Thus both miracle impulses and other types of impulses in the unconscious are experienced as threats to the ego, though for very different reasons, and, being concerned primarily with its own preservation in the face of threat, it perceives them as the same. The risk of threat of the lofty inspirations from the superconscious becoming miracles impulses in the unconscious is really much greater to the ego because the exhilarating Pull of the Divine Itself can hardly be equated with the dull pull of human appetites.

By perceiving these two kinds of impulses as the same, the ego attempts to save itself from being swept away, as it would surely be in the Presence of Knowledge. The upper sublevel of the unconscious thus contains the Call of the Divine as well as the call of the body. That is why the basic conflict between fear and Love is unconscious. The ego cannot tolerate either call, perceiving both as threats to its existence, and represses both by resorting to inhibition. Society depends on inhibiting the “base” impulses, but awakening depends on disinhibiting the spirit’s inspirations, which come through the Call of the Divine.

The reason you need my help in disinhibiting your lofty inspirations and miracle impulses is because you have repressed your own Guide, and therefore need guidance. My role is to separate the true from the false in your own unconscious so that the true – i.e., miracle impulses – can truly reside in the deepest sublevel of the unconscious, miracle-mindedness, and from there break through the barriers the ego has set up in the superficial levels of the unconscious, and shine into your mind. Against our united strength the ego is simply unable to prevail.

It should be quite apparent to you by now why the ego regards the spirit as its “enemy.” The ego frame of mind and thought system arose from the separation, and their continued existence depends on your continuing belief in the separation. Having reduced the spirit’s inspirations to the same level as unconscious body impulses, the ego has to offer you some sort of reward for maintaining your belief in the separation. All it can offer is a sense of temporary existence, which begins with its own beginning at physical birth and ends with its own ending at physical death. It tells you that this span is your existence because it is its own.

Against this sense of temporary existence, Spirit offers the knowing of true Permanence and unshakeable Being. No one who has experienced the revelation of this can ever fully believe in the ego again. How can its meager offering to you prevail against the glorious Gift of the Divine? Those who identify with their egos cannot allow themselves to uninhibitedly believe that the Divine loves them, because they do not uninhibitedly love what they have made, and what they have made does not love them at all, not being made from love. Having arisen out of the denial of the Creator, the ego has no allegiance to its own maker—the mind that chose to split in the separation. You cannot conceive of the real Relationship that exists between the Divine and Its Children because of the contempt you feel in connection with the petty self you made. You project onto your own idea of yourself the “will” (wish) to separate, which conflicts with the ambiguous love you also feel for what you made (the ego) because you made it. No human love is without this ambivalence, and since no ego has experienced love without ambivalence, the concept is beyond its understanding.

Divine Love will enter immediately into any mind that truly wants It, but it must want It truly. This means that it wants It without ambivalence, uninhibitedly, and this kind of wanting is wholly without the ego’s “drive to get.”

There is a kind of experience you can have that is so different from anything the ego can offer that you will never “recover” from it. The words are used quite literally here: you will never be able to cover or hide from Truth again. It is necessary to repeat that your beliefs in darkness and in hiding in this darkness is why the Light is not able to enter your mind, as long as you maintain these beliefs.

Sacred texts contain many references to the immeasurable Gifts of Spirit that await human beings, but for which they must ask. This is not a condition as the ego sets conditions. It is the glorious Condition of what you are. No force except your own true will is strong enough or worthy enough to guide you. In this you are as free as the Divine, and must remain so forever.

You can never truly be bound but you can believe yourself to be “honor bound,” and that is always voluntary, and can be based on misunderstanding. Let us ask our Creator together to keep you mindful of Its Love for you and yours for It. The Creator always answers this request, because the request asks only for what It has already willed. Those who call truly are always answered.

The split mind has never seriously considered giving up every idea it has ever had that opposes Knowledge. It retains countless scraps of meanness in the unconscious that prevent the Holy One from entering into consciousness. The Light cannot penetrate through the walls a Child of the Divine makes to block It, because they were made by a Child of the Divine, and the Divine is forever unwilling to destroy what you have made. No one can look through a wall, but I can step around all walls.

Watch your mind for its scraps of meanness, or you will be unable to ask me to help you. I can help you only as our Creator created us. I will always love and honor you and maintain complete respect for what you have made. But unless what your creative activity, or will, brings forth is true, I would not be true either to love or honor it, and will not do so. I will never forsake you, any more than the Divine will. But I must wait as long as you will to forsake yourself. Because I wait in Love and not in impatience, it is inevitable that each will eventually surely ask me truly. I will come gladly in response to a single unequivocal call.

Watch carefully, and become clear what it is you are truly asking for. Be very honest with yourself about this, for we must hide nothing from each other if we are to dispel your beliefs in darkness and hiding. If you will really try to do this, then you will have taken the first step toward preparing your mind for the Holy One to enter. We will prepare for this together, and once Spirit has found Its Home in you, you will be ready to help me help other minds to be ready for the Divine. Let us wait no longer to grant the Divine Its Realm through your Return.

In your own unconscious, deeply repressed by the ego, is the declaration of your Release:

The Divine has given me Everything.

This one fact means that the ego, based as it is entirely on the idea of lack, does not exist in Reality, and this of course makes the ego profoundly afraid. In the ego’s language, to have and to be are different, but to the spirit they are identical. It knows that you both have Everything and are Everything. Any distinction in this respect has meaning to a mind only when the idea of getting, which implies a lack, has already been accepted. That is why no distinction was made earlier between having the Realm of Heaven and being the Realm of Heaven.

The calm Being of the Divine’s Realm, which in a person’s right or sane mind is perfectly conscious, is ruthlessly banished from the part of the mind that the ego has been given control over by this part of the mind. The ego is desperate because it opposes literally invincible odds, whether someone is awake or asleep. Consider how much vigilance is exerted to protect the ego, and how little is exerted to protect one’s true, whole mind. Only someone not in their right mind would undertake to believe what is not true, and then protect this belief at all costs, including at the cost of Truth. Let us let such insanity go, and wait no longer for the return to your right mind.