ARCIM

Daily Lesson 79 ~
March 20

Let me recognize the problem so it can be solved.

A problem cannot be solved if you do not know what it is. Even if it is really solved already, you will still have the problem because you will not recognize that it has been solved. This is the situation of the world. The problem of separation, which is really the only problem, has already been solved. Yet the solution is not recognized because the problem is not recognized.

Everyone in this world seems to have their own special problems. Yet these are all the same, and must be recognized as the same if the one Solution that solves them all is to be accepted. Who can recognize that a problem has been solved if they think the problem is something else? Even if they are given the answer, they won’t be able to understand its relevance.

That is the position in which you find yourself now. You have the Answer, but you are still uncertain about what the problem is. A long series of different problems seems to confront you, and as one is settled the next one and the next arise. There seems to be no end to them. There is no time in which you feel completely free of problems, and at peace. But you will find this time – the Holy Instant – in which no apparent problems can ever encroach.

The temptation to regard problems as many and separate is the temptation to keep the problem of separation unsolved. The world seems to present you with a vast number of problems, each requiring a different answer. This perception places you in a position in which your problem-solving must be inadequate, and failure must be inevitable.

No one could solve all the separate unique problems the world appears to hold. They seem to be on so many levels, in such varying forms and with such varied content, that they confront the mind with an impossible situation. Dismay and depression are inevitable as problems are regarded this way. Some spring up unexpectedly, just as you think you have resolved the previous ones. Others remain unsolved under a cloud of denial, and rise to haunt you from time to time, only to be hidden again but still unsolved. All this complexity is merely a desperate attempt by the ego not to recognize the problem, and therefore not to let it be resolved.

If you could recognize that your only problem is separation, no matter what form it takes, you could accept the Answer because you would grasp Its Relevance. Perceiving the underlying constancy in all the problems that confront you, you would understand that you have the Means to solve them all. And you would use the Means because you recognize the problem.

In our two longer practice periods today we will ask what the problem is, and what the answer to it is. We will not assume that we already know. We will try to free our minds of all the many different kinds of problems that we think we have. We will try to realize that we have only one problem, which we have failed to recognize. We will ask what this problem is, and wait to hear what it is. We will be told. Then we will ask for the solution to it. And we will be told.

Today’s exercises will be successful to the extent to which you do not insist on defining the problem. Perhaps you will not succeed in letting all your preconceived notions go, but that is not necessary. All that is necessary is to entertain some doubt about the reality of your version of what the problem is. You are trying to recognize that you have been given the Answer by recognizing the problem, so that the problem and the Answer can be brought together, and you can be at peace.

The shorter practice periods for today will not be set by time, but by need. You will see many problems today, each one calling for an answer. Our efforts will be directed toward recognizing that there is only one problem and only one Answer. In this Recognition are all problems resolved. In this Recognition there is Peace.

Be not deceived by the form of problems today. Whenever any difficulty seems to rise, tell yourself quickly:

“Let me recognize this problem so it can be solved.”

Then try to suspend all judgment about what the problem is. If possible, close your eyes for a moment, and ask what it is. Your question will be heard and will be answered.

 

Corresponding Text Section

 

Chapter 4: Discerning the Ego’s Terrain

 

10. Rehabilitation as Being Only Truly Helpful

Properly speaking, every split mind needs “rehabilitation.” The medical orientation of this process emphasizes the return of physical functionality to bodies, and the vocational orientation stresses the return to job functionality. Teams of rehabilitation specialists can lead more to confusion than clarity, because they can be misused as an expedient for sharing the ego’s dominion with other egos rather than as a real experiment in cooperation of minds. When true cooperation is present, including with the patient, the conditions exist for the miracle not only to touch the situation at hand with real rehabilitation, but also all minds involved.

Those who do have rehabilitation skills to offer others may be able through this perspective to recognize their own need for rehabilitation. When you ask me to help you, my response is likely to be for you to help your brother or sister. They, too, have asked for help, and they have been able to be helped whenever they were truly helpful to another. They have also experienced more abundance from the exchange to whatever extent they could give of abundance. You will be able to help each other more truly if you recall that your only reason for being in any situation calling for help is to remember who you are. Knowing Spirit’s and my presence with you can help you remember yourself and to help others.

Rehabilitation as a movement has been an improvement over the outright neglect of those needing it, but it is often little more than a painful attempt on the part of those needing rehabilitation themselves on the level of the split mind, but not recognizing this, to lead others who need it on a level that all participants recognize. This blind spot regarding their own need for split-mind rehabilitation can be experienced at professional development conferences of rehabilitation specialists, and is common across broad ranges of professionals whose vocation is to help heal others. But this is not a concern of yours unless you are called on professionally to help heal others, in which case your recognition of your own need for rehabilitation can only enhance your ability to help those you serve.

A hindrance in rehabilitation service would be to have a fear of broken bodies because one’s ego cannot tolerate them. Egos find it difficult when their chosen host becomes broken, and they cannot tolerate ego-weakness, either, without ambivalence, because egos are afraid of their own weakness and the weakness of their chosen home. That is really why anyone recoils from the demands of the dependent, or from the sight of a broken body. The ego feels threatened and blocks the person’s natural impulse to help, placing them under the strain of divided will. They may withdraw to allow their ego to recover, and to regain enough strength to be helpful again on a basis limited enough not to threaten their ego, but too limited to give them joy in their service.

Those with broken bodies are often looked upon contemptuously or with some other form of repulsion by the ego because of its belief that nothing but a perfect body is worthy as its own temple. A mind that recoils from a hurt body is in great need of rehabilitation itself from such fear. A damaged brain resulting in mental illness in a brother or sister is also hardly a real danger. All symptoms of hurt need true helpfulness, and whenever they are met with this, the mind that so meets them is healing itself.

True rehabilitation is an attitude of praising the Creator as It knows Praise to truly be. The Creator offers Praise to you because you are Its Child, and you must offer It to others to receive It yourself from your Source.

The real limitations on clinical psychology as it is currently practiced by its practitioners are not reflected by the attitudes of psychiatrists, medical boards, or hospital administrators, even though most of them need mental rehabilitation themselves. The real handicaps of the clinicians lie in their attitudes toward those whom their egos perceive as weakened and damaged. As a result of these judgments, they have weakened and damaged their own helpfulness, and have thus set their own rehabilitation back. Real rehabilitation is not concerned with the ego’s fight for control, or the ego’s need to avoid and withdraw, which are both completely predictable and avoidable.

You can do much on behalf of your own rehabilitation and of those you serve, and much more universally as well, if you think of rehabilitation in this way, wherever you find yourself:

 

I am here only to be truly helpful.

I am here to represent Divine Essence, Who places me where I am.

I am at peace about what to say and what to do, because the One Who places me guides me.

I am content to be wherever I am, knowing Divine Essence is here with me.

I will be healed as I let Divine Essence teach me to heal.