Welcome to Active Meditation,
The Course in Miracles,
Lesson 96.
Meditation comes from my oneself.
Although you are oneself,
You experience yourself as two.
As both good and evil,
Loving and hating,
Mind and body.
This sense of being split into opposites induces feelings of acute and constant conflict and leads to frantic attempts to reconcile the contradictory aspects of this self-perception.
You have sought many such solutions,
And none of them has worked.
The opposites you see in you will never be compatible,
But one exists.
The fact that truth and illusion cannot be reconciled,
No matter how you try,
What means you use and where you see the problem,
Must be accepted,
If you would be saved.
Until you have accepted this,
You will attempt an endless list of goals you cannot reach,
A senseless series of expenditures of time and effort,
Hopefulness and doubt.
Each one as futile as the one before,
And failing as the next one surely will.
Problems that have no meaning cannot be resolved within the framework they are set.
New selves and conflict could not be resolved.
Good and evil have no meeting place.
The self you made can never be your higher self,
Nor can your self be split in two,
And still be what it is and must forever be.
A mind and body cannot both exist.
Make no attempt to reconcile the two,
For one denies the other can be real.
If you are physical,
Your mind is gone from your self-concept,
For it has no place in which it could really be a part of you.
If you are spirit,
Then the body must be meaningless to your reality.
Spirit makes use of mind as means to find its self-expression.
The mind which serves the spirit is at peace and filled with joy.
The mind's power comes from spirit,
And the mind is fulfilling happily its function here.
Yet,
Mind can also see itself divorced from spirit and perceive itself within a body that confuses with itself.
Without its function,
Then,
The mind has no peace,
And happiness is alien to its thoughts.
Yet,
Mind,
Apart from spirit,
Cannot think.
The mind has denied its source of strength and sees itself as helpless,
Limited,
And weak.
Associated from its function now,
The mind thinks it is alone and separate,
Attacked by armies,
Massed against itself and hiding in the body's frail support.
Now,
Must the mind reconcile,
Unlike with like,
For this is what the mind thinks that it is for.
Waste no more time on this.
Who can resolve the senseless conflicts which a dream presents?
What could the resolution mean in truth?
What purpose could this resolution serve?
What is a resolution for?
Salvation cannot make illusions real.
Salvation cannot solve a problem that does not exist.
Perhaps you hope it can.
Yet,
Would you have the plan for the release of God's dear child?
Bring pain to God and fail to set the child free?
Your higher self retains its thoughts and they remain within your mind and in the mind of God.
The Holy Spirit holds salvation in your mind and offers your mind a way to peace.
Salvation is a thought you share with God because God's voice accepted salvation for you and answered in your name that it was done.
Thus is salvation kept among the thoughts your higher self holds dear and cherishes for you.
We will attempt today to find this spot whose presence in your mind is guaranteed by the one who speaks to you from your one self,
From your higher self.
Our hourly five-minute practicing will be a search for God within your mind.
Salvation comes from God through the one self,
Through your higher self who is the bridge between your mind and God.
Wait patiently.
Let God speak to you about your one self and what your mind can do restored.
Communing with your one self and free to serve its will.
Begin with saying this,
Salvation comes from my one self.
Its thoughts are mine to use.
Then seek its thoughts and claim them as your own.
These are your own real thoughts you have denied and let your mind go wandering in a world of dreams to find illusions in their place.
Here are your thoughts,
The only thoughts you have.
Salvation is among them.
Find it there.
Your higher self,
The one self,
Will welcome this function and give it peace,
Restored in strength.
Peace will again flow out from spirit to the spirit in all things.
Restored by the spirit as itself.
Your mind will bless all things.
Confusion done,
You are restored,
For you have found your higher self.
You have found the one self.
Let's practice.
Say,
In your mind,
Salvation comes from my one self.
Its thoughts are mine to use.
Seek the thoughts of your higher self,
Your one self,
And claim them as your own.
These are your real thoughts.
The thoughts that come to you will tell you you are saved,
And that your mind has found the function that it sought to lose.
I'll be silent.
Your higher self knows that you cannot fail today.
Perhaps your mind remains uncertain,
Yet a little while.
Be not dismayed by this,
The joy your higher self experiences,
It will save for you.
And joy will yet be yours in full awareness.
Every time you spend five minutes of the hour seeking the one who joins your mind and higher self,
You offer God another treasure to be kept for you.
Each time today you tell your frantic mind salvation comes from your one self,
Your higher self.
You lay another treasure in your growing store,
And all of it is given everyone who asks for it and will accept the gift.
Think then how much is given unto you to give this day,
That it be given you.
Now spend a few moments searching for God within your mind.
What comes from God through the one self,
Through your higher self,
Who is the bridge between your mind and God?
Commune with the one self.
Lay your mind before your higher self.
These are your arms.
Your own real thoughts.
Wait patiently.
Let God speak to you about your one self and what your mind can do restored.
Communing with your higher self and free to serve its will.
Reflect on how much is given unto you to give this day,
That it be given you.
Wow!
We are so exhausted.
Salvation comes from my one Self.
You are the Self,
The One.
You are the Self,
The One.
You are the Self,
The One.
Nothing real can be threatened.
Nothing unreal exists.
Herein lies the Peace of God.
