It is my will that there be light.I
1. Today we will look at the Will you share with God.
²This Will is not the same as the idle wishes of the ego, from which darkness and nothingness arise.
³The Will you share with God holds all the power of Creation.
⁴The idle wishes of the ego cannot be shared; therefore, they hold no power.
⁵They are not without effect, in the sense that they can produce a world of illusions in which you may believe blindly.
⁶But they are utterly useless to Creation,
⁷For they create nothing real.
2. Idle wishes and grievances work together to form the world you see. II
²The ego’s desires gave rise to it.
³And the ego’s need for grievances—essential to sustain it—fills this world with figures who seem to attack you, thus “justifying” your judgments.
⁴These figures become the “middlemen” the ego uses to traffic in grievances, which stand between your awareness and the reality of your brother. III
⁵In seeing them this way, you do not know your brothers, nor your Self.
3. In this strange bargain, you lose awareness of your Will, for guilt is traded back and forth, and grievances grow with every exchange. IV
²Could such a world have been created by the Will the Son of God shares with his Father?
³Could God have created disaster for His Son?
⁴Their Will together is Creation.
⁵Would God have created a world that seeks to destroy Himself?
4. Today we will once again attempt to reach the world that aligns with your true Will.
²In that world there is light, for it does not oppose the Will of God.
³It is not Heaven, but the light of Heaven shines upon it.
⁴It is a world where darkness has been dispelled and the ego’s idle wishes have withdrawn.
⁵And the light that shines there reflects your Will.
⁶That is why we must look for it in you.
5. The image you hold of the world can only reflect what is within you.
²The source of light or darkness is not outside you.
³Your grievances cloud your mind, and so you see a world of shadows.
⁴Forgiveness, however, clears the darkness, affirms your Will, and lets you see a world of light.
⁵We have said many times that it is easy to move past the barrier of grievances, for it cannot truly stand between you and your salvation. V
⁶The reason is very simple.
⁷Do you really want to be in hell?
⁸Do you really want to weep, to suffer, and to die?
6. Forget the ego’s arguments that try to convince you this is really Heaven.
²You know perfectly well it is not.
³You cannot want this for yourself.
⁴There is a point beyond which illusions cannot go.
⁵Suffering is not happiness, and what you really want is joy.
⁶That is truly your Will.
⁷And your Will is also salvation.
⁸You want to succeed in what we undertake today.
⁹So we begin with your blessing and your joyful agreement.
7. Today we will surely succeed if you remember that what you truly want is salvation.
²You will align your Will with God’s plan, for it is your own.
³There is nothing in your Will that truly opposes His, nor do you want there to be.
⁴Salvation is for you.
⁵Above all else, you want the freedom to remember who you really are.
⁶Today it is the ego that stands helpless before your Will.
⁷Your Will is free, and nothing can prevail against it. VI
8. Therefore, we undertake today’s exercises with gladness and confidence, certain that we will find what it is your Will to find, and remember what it is your Will to remember.
²No idle wish can stop us or mislead us with the illusion of its strength.
³Let your Will be done today. VII
⁴And bring to an end the foolish belief that you would choose hell over Heaven.
9. We begin the longer practice periods by recognizing that God’s plan for salvation, and His alone, is wholly in agreement with your Will.
²It is not the purpose of a foreign power forced upon you against your Will.
³You and your Father are in perfect accord in this goal.
⁴You will succeed today.
⁵Today is the appointed time for the liberation of the Son of God from hell and from all idle wishes.
⁶His Will has returned to his awareness.
⁷Today he is ready to behold the light in him and be saved. VIII
10. Once you have reminded yourself of this, and have resolved to keep your Will clearly in mind, say to yourself with gentle firmness and quiet certainty:
²It is my will that there be light.
³I want to behold the light that reflects God’s Will and mine.
⁴Then let your Will be reaffirmed, united with the Power of God and your Self.
⁵Let the rest of the practice be guided by Them, and join with Them who lead the way.
11. In the shorter practice periods, declare again what it is you truly want by saying: IX
²It is my will that there be light.
³Darkness is not my will.
⁴Repeat this several times each hour.
⁵But most importantly, apply today’s idea the moment you are tempted to hold any kind of grievance.
⁶This will help you let go of all grievances, instead of clinging to them and hiding them in the dark.
I Genesis 1:3 “Then God said, ‘Let there be light’; and there was light.”
II This is similar to Freud’s observation in his celebrated work The Interpretation of Dreams, when he correctly identified fears and desires as the generators of the symbols we contemplate in our nightly dreams. Here, Jesus tells us the same thing, except that He applies it to the perception of the waking world. When we believe we awaken in the morning, we are in fact still dreaming, and the elements of the world we see with the body’s eyes are likewise symbols of our desires and resentments.
III A middleman is someone who buys goods from a producer and sells them to consumers. In this case, the ego (the producer) makes use of attacking bodies (the intermediaries)—whose behavior demands a “just” judgment—to deliver to you (the consumer) resentments (the merchandise).
In other words, those who attack you are the means the ego employs to get you to acquire what it sells: the suffering and pain of your resentments.
IV You blame them, and they blame you, in a process that increases the resentments between you.
V W-pI.69.5:2–5 “Resolve to go past these clouds. Reach out and touch them in your mind. Brush them aside with your hand, and as you pass through, feel them touching your cheeks, your forehead, and your eyelids. Go on; the clouds cannot stop you.”
W-pI.70.8:1–2 “Since all illusions of salvation have failed you, surely you do not want to remain in vain pursuit of idols in the clouds, when you could so easily reach the light of true salvation. Try to go past the clouds in whatever way appeals to you.”
VI Matthew 16:18 “And I also say to you that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.”
VII Matthew 6:10 “Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” In this case, instead of asking God that His Will be done, Jesus asks that ours be done: the Will to save ourselves.
VIII Notice carefully here that the one who is saved is not the “you” you believe yourself to be, the one to whom you give a name and surname; it is the Son of God who is saved—that is, your true Self.
You do today’s Lesson, and the one who is saved is the Son of God in you. Do not be mistaken about that.
IX Although throughout today’s Lesson there is much talk of light and also of resentments, the true protagonist of today’s practice is the will. The entire Lesson is designed first to make you aware of what it is you truly want, and then to have you place your will in achieving it. First you gain clarity, and then you go for it.
Jesus begins by showing you how miserably you waste your time embittering your life with absurd resentments toward brothers who, though they are Children of the same Father and seek in this life exactly what you do—to be happy—you have turned into your enemies, thereby thwarting every expectation of attaining the happiness you long for. For this reason, and above all, it is essential that you renounce your resentments so as to cease sabotaging your legitimate goal of reaching happiness.
It is very important that you realize that if you reproach your brothers for anything, it is because you have a poor opinion of yourself. You think they can effectively harm you because you see yourself as fragile and vulnerable, and you believe you can lose something from the only and paltry inheritance you recognize as yours: your body.
It is obvious that your body can suffer and be diminished, and it is also true that your opinions and values can be outraged; but has that ever truly had anything to do with what you really are? Has that ever affected you in any way? Throughout your personal life, your body, your ideas, and all external circumstances have constantly changed, and if that is indeed so, you can conclude that none of that can be related to your true identity.
However, there is something that has never changed one bit throughout all that time, for it has always remained exactly the same: your awareness of being yourself. That awareness of being, of existing, has remained forever unaltered, and it is the fine thread that unites your personal mind with your immortal soul. That consciousness of pure being, which is the source of all love and happiness, is invulnerable and eternal; it is the only vestige of reality in your egoic mind, the seat of your will and the dwelling place of the light. That is what is real. How could you harbor resentments if the only attacks you can suffer can affect only illusions?
Remember: “Nothing real can be threatened. Nothing unreal exists…”
The second part of today’s Lesson is the most important, for it is a true declaration of intent and the reaffirmation of your real will, which you have identified in the first part. Now you repeat to yourself constantly throughout the day what it is you truly want. This is a long process whose purpose is to crystallize your mind in a single direction in order to establish a new habit.
If your mind were virgin, that process would be quite simple and brief, but it is not. Your mind is conditioned by an insidious automatic mechanism: the world’s thought system that has governed your mind until now. If you become aware of how much time and effort you have devoted to “educating” yourself and imposing upon yourself that painful way of thinking, you will understand the difficulties you will encounter in changing it.
But that is not all. You must also become aware of something that makes the situation even more complicated: you gratify your anger and resentments with pleasure. The ego is a mental illness that perverts the mind, and one of its most perfidious devices is the inversion of your cognitive system to interpret your feelings and sensations. Thus, what harms you, you interpret as pleasurable, and feeling bad attracts you. Realize that you will have to resist that temptation.
You become angry, blame, and attack because you are drawn to it. Each time you do so, the ego gives you its poisonous reward. This may shock you, but it requires little honesty to acknowledge that it is so. Why else would you do it? But do not worry: “You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” Well then, now you know the truth.
Be realistic. Become aware and accept that you stand at the beginning of a long process of undoing old patterns. This is a prerequisite for establishing within your mind the new thought system that will make you happy. Be patient and persevere. If you follow the path with faith, always walking in the same direction, the result is certain. Do not be discouraged. You will find many rewards along the way, and increasingly you will be accompanied first by confidence and then by the certainty that your life now has a true purpose and that you are finally fulfilling your function. Rejoice. In truth, all is good news. That, precisely, is the gospel.