LESSON FORTY-TWO

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.

God is my strength. Vision is His gift.

I don’t have to do this by Myself!  That would indeed be counter-productive, for “by Myself” is but more separation!  I have no “strength” or “Vision” on My so-called ‘own’, for We do not exist discretely.

¹ The idea for today combines two very powerful thoughts, both of major importance. It also sets forth a cause and effect relationship which explains why you cannot fail in your efforts to achieve the goal of the course. You will see because it is the Will of God.  You will see because You will to see.  And You will to see because it is the Will of God that You see.  It is His strength, not your own, that gives you power.  Yet You are One for God is Be-ing You, now and forever. Separation is nothing but a dream, and God still Loves You! And it is His gift to you, rather than your own, which offers vision to you.  And what is God’s Vision but Reality for You to see.  For when You look with dreaming eyes, You do not really see Reality.  Your so-called vision is but misperception.  That is what it means to have “eyes, but do not see.”

² God is indeed your strength. And what He gives is truly given. This means that you can receive it any time and anywhere, wherever you are and in whatever circumstances you find yourself. Your passage through time and space is not random. What do I mean by this but that every moment and each location holds the potential for Awakening.. All instants hold the potential for Holiness, as well as for healing. You cannot but be in the right place at the right time. Such is the strength of God. Such are His gifts.  Where You are, God is; now and forever.

³ We will have two three- to five-minute longer exercise periods today, one as soon as possible after you wake and another as close as possible to the time you go to sleep. It is better, however, to wait until you can sit quietly by yourself at a time when you feel ready than it is to be concerned with the time as such.

⁴ Begin the practice period by repeating the idea for today slowly with eyes open, looking about you. Then close your eyes and repeat the idea again, quite slowly. After this, try to think of nothing except thoughts which occur to you in relation to today’s idea. You might think, for example:

⁵ Vision must be possible. God gives truly; or,
God’s gifts to me must be mine because He gave them to me.

⁶ Whatever thought that is clearly related to the idea itself is suitable. You may, in fact, be astonished at the amount of course-related understanding some of your own thoughts contain. Let them come without censoring unless you realize your mind is merely wandering and you have let obviously irrelevant thoughts intrude. You may also reach a point where no thoughts at all seem to come to mind. If such interferences occur, open your eyes and repeat the thought once more while looking slowly about; close your eyes, repeat the idea once more, and then continue to look for related thoughts in your mind.

⁷ Remember, though, that active searching is not appropriate for today’s exercises. Try merely to step back and let the thoughts come. If you find this difficult, it is better to spend the practice period alternating between slow repetitions of the idea with eyes open, then closed, then open, and so on, than it is to strain in order to find suitable thoughts.

⁸ There is no limit on the number of short practice periods which would be most beneficial. The idea for the day is a beginning step in bringing thoughts together and teaching you that what you are studying is a unified thought system in which nothing is lacking that is needed, and nothing is included that is contradictory or irrelevant.

⁹ The more often you repeat the idea during the day, the more often you will be reminding yourself that the goal of the course is important to you, and that you have not forgotten it.  The more frequently You do it, will God be brought consciously into Your day, perhaps even welcomed.

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[Thank you Dear Brother]