LESSON THIRTY-NINE

TRANSCRIBER’S NOTE: The Course text is in bold face. The Guidance is in normal type In His Guidance, He has asked Me to capitalize the pronouns You and We as an acknowledgement of the Divinity of All of Us, an acknowledgement of Equality, an expression of His Love and respect for You. When You see the word ‘YOU’ capitalized in the Guidance, know that He is not just speaking to YOU, He is honoring YOU.

My holiness is my salvation.  Salvation from what?  Current parlance would say hell, and that is truth.  Yet just what is hell?  A fiery place somewhere underground?  Or is it life lived seemingly apart from God, apart from the Holy Spirit?

And who does make the choice to step apart from God in His own mind, and then remain there, in His own mind.  You are correct. Each Individual.  For God would have His Son’s mind be healed of willfulness, and be renewed, His memory of Home restored, His rightful place in Heaven be regained.

¹ If guilt is hell, what is its opposite?  Obviously innocence must be Heaven! Oh, that seems easier to answer than to be fulfilled!  So says the ego! (Not the Son of God, which You know You are!)

Truth is that living Good is natural to the Son of God and quite rewarding.

Selfishness – looking out for ‘number one’ – is not so good as it’s cracked up to be.  If the Truth were told, it’s not good at all!

Like the text for which this workbook was written, the ideas which are used for the exercises are very simple, very clear, and totally unambiguous. We are not concerned with intellectual feats nor logical toys. We are dealing only in the very obvious, which has been overlooked in the clouds of complexity in which you think you think. Yet Your thinking feeds You not at all with the bread of Heaven.  Thus, tell Me please, what use is it to You?  It just gets in the way and blocks the Voice of the Holy Spirit, leaving a clear field for the ego.

² If guilt is hell, what is its opposite? This is not difficult, surely. The hesitation you may feel in answering is not due to the ambiguity of the question. But do you believe that guilt is hell? Perhaps You think it’s useful, showing that You must be sorry. Yet You’re not quite repentant, but You surely will be, so You shouldn’t be condemned. No, so You don’t think that guilt is hell, but that it is, rather, protection from it. If you did (see its hellish nature), you would see at once how direct and simple the text is, and you would not need a workbook at all. No one needs practice to gain what is already his.

³ We have already said that your holiness is the salvation of the world. What about your own salvation? You cannot give what you do not have. A savior must be saved. How else can he teach salvation? Today’s exercises will apply to you alone, recognizing that your salvation is crucial to the salvation of the world. As you apply the exercises to your own world, the whole world stands to benefit.  What is the world but an altered state of consciousness of Heaven. This realization is why the journey Home has no distance.

⁴ Your holiness is the answer to every question that was ever asked, is being asked now, or will be asked in the future. Your holiness means the end of guilt and therefore the end of hell. Holiness knows naught of hell and needs not any guilt with which to protect itself.  Your holiness is the salvation of the world and your own. How could you to whom your holiness belongs be excluded from it? God does not know unholiness. Can it be He does not know His Son?  Guilt’s attraction is, again, that it seems to somehow absolve the ‘Sinner’.  Or, better yet, when projected onto a Brother, perhaps absolve You. Either way, guilt seems a winner for the sinner, as it hides the Son of God and blocks Awakening.

On the other hand a “desire for Holiness is a prerequisite for It.”₁

⁵ A full five minutes are urged for the four longer practice periods for today. Longer and more frequent practice sessions are encouraged. If you want to exceed the minimum requirements, more rather than longer sessions are recommended, although both are encouraged.

⁶ Begin the practice periods as usual by repeating today’s idea to yourself. Then with closed eyes search out your unloving thoughts in whatever form they appear: uneasiness, depression, anger, fear, worry, attack, insecurity, and so on. Whatever form they take, they are unloving and therefore fearful. And so it is from them that you need to be saved.

⁷ Specific situations, events, or personalities you associate with unloving thoughts of any kind are suitable subjects for today’s exercises. It is imperative for your own salvation that you see them differently. And it is your blessing on them that will save you and give you vision.

⁸ Slowly, without conscious selection and without undue emphasis on any one in particular, search your mind for every thought that stands between you and your salvation. Apply the idea for today to each one of them in this way:

⁹ My unloving thoughts about ___ are keeping me in hell. My holiness is my salvation.

¹⁰ You may find these sessions easier if you intersperse the applications with several short periods during which you merely repeat today’s idea to yourself slowly a few times. You may also find it helpful to include a few short intervals in which you just relax and do not seem to be thinking of anything. Sustained concentration is very difficult at first. It will become much easier as your mind becomes more disciplined and less distractible.

¹¹ Meanwhile, you should feel free to introduce variety into your practice periods in whatever form appeals to you. Do not, however, change the idea itself in varying the method of applying it. However you elect to use it, the idea should be stated so that its meaning remains that your holiness is your salvation.

¹² End each practice period by repeating the idea in its original form once more, and adding:

¹³ If guilt is hell, what is its opposite?

¹⁴ In the shorter applications, which should be made some three or four times an hour and more if possible, you may ask yourself this question, repeat today’s idea, or preferably both. If temptations arise, a particularly helpful form of the idea is:

¹⁵ My holiness is my salvation from this.

Innocence is Heaven!  What a Holy Gift to give to Yourself and Your Brother!

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[Thank you Dear Brother]