God’s Will is the only Will there is.
1. Today’s idea can be regarded as the central thought toward which all our exercises are directed.
²God’s Will is the only Will.
³When you have recognized this, you will have recognized that your will is His.
⁴The belief that conflict is possible will have disappeared.
⁵Peace will replace the strange idea that you are torn by conflicting goals. I
⁶As an expression of God’s Will, you have no goal but His. II
2. Today’s idea contains immense peace.
²And today’s exercises are directed toward finding it.
³The idea itself is wholly true.
⁴Therefore, it cannot give rise to illusions.
⁵Without illusions, conflict is impossible.
⁶Let us try today to recognize this, and so experience the peace this recognition brings.
3. Begin the longer practice periods by slowly repeating these thoughts several times, with firm determination to understand their meaning and hold them in your mind:
²God’s Will is the only Will there is.
³I cannot be in conflict.
⁴Then spend a few minutes adding some related thoughts, such as:
⁵I am at peace.
⁶Nothing can disturb me.
⁷My will is God’s Will.
⁸My will and God’s Will are one.
⁹God’s Will for His Son is peace.
¹⁰During this introductory phase, be sure to resolve any conflicting thoughts that may cross your mind. III
¹¹If any arise, say immediately:
¹²God’s Will is the only Will there is.
¹³These conflicting thoughts are meaningless.
4. If some specific conflict seems particularly difficult to resolve, bring it to mind briefly and very concretely.
²Name the people involved and the situation, and say silently to yourself:
³God’s Will is the only Will there is.
⁴And I share it with Him.
⁵My conflict about ___ cannot be real.
5. Once your mind has been cleared in this way, close your eyes and try to experience the peace your reality entitles you to. IV
²Sink into it, and feel it surrounding you.
³You may be tempted to confuse these attempts with withdrawal, but the difference is easily recognized.
⁴If you are succeeding, you will feel a deep sense of joy and heightened alertness, rather than a feeling of drowsiness and dullness. V
⁵Joy is what identifies peace.
⁶When you experience it, you will know you have found it.
6. If you find yourself slipping into withdrawal, repeat today’s idea immediately and try again.
²Do this as often as necessary.
³It is essential that you not give in to distraction, even if the peace you seek eludes you.
7. In the shorter practice periods, which you should undertake at regular and pre-determined intervals today, say to yourself:
²God’s Will is the only Will there is.
³And I seek His peace today.
⁴Then try to find the peace you are seeking.
⁵Spending one or two minutes every half hour doing this, preferably with eyes closed, will be an excellent use of time.
I The conflict here lies between the goals you believe reflect the Will of God and those you believe satisfy your own desires—the ego’s desires in you. Both wills have the same objective: salvation. The Will of God is found in your awareness of your true Self—within you. The ego, however, insists that the bearers of your salvation are a series of idols that have nothing to do with you and that are outside you.
II It is not that the Will of God is the same as yours and that you share it with Him; no, it is much more than that: you are the expression of the Will of God.
It is very likely that you will find today’s idea somewhat excessive, and certainly it is… for your ego. Remember one thing, and remember it well: everything you believe you think, you in fact think with your ego. And undoubtedly, this idea will strike you as unsettling—because it is. Why do you think, otherwise, that you had to learn in Lesson 10: “My thoughts do not mean anything”?It is also quite possible that you accepted that idea to some extent at the time and repeated it to yourself with discipline, but there is no doubt that you have not yet fully embraced it. If you had, your mind would now be perfectly receptive to today’s idea, for the mind cannot remain blank. Your mind cannot reject the ego’s thoughts as unworthy and yet be reluctant to accept in their place the Thought of God. Your mind will, unfailingly, align itself with one thought system or the other, although it is also possible that for a time you may oscillate between them—which is quite uncomfortable and most common.
Do not worry about that, nor despair. Jesus knows very well the difficulty His proposal entails, as well as your reluctance to accept it. Why do you think He so often uses expressions such as “try…,” “seek…,” “endeavor…?” Because He knows that you have a very well-trained mind—in the ego’s thought system—and that changing it is no small task. The key to bringing about that change is to want it with all your heart.
But why would you want, with all your heart, to adopt a new way of thinking? That will occur only under two circumstances. The first—and most favorable—is that you see with absolute clarity that everything Jesus tells you is true, and that this stirs in your heart a great enthusiasm to embrace His teachings. This is the path of discernment, the easiest and fastest way, but it is a path that requires great lucidity and deep humility.
The other option is that you find yourself utterly desperate and profoundly disillusioned with the world’s promises. Your suffering will lead you to embrace, with the hope of the desperate, any alternative to the pain of the past—in which you are an expert—and this Course will find in you a good student, and you too will advance quickly.
The situation, however, becomes somewhat more complex when you do not find yourself clearly in either of those two conditions. This is because you lack the “helps” of either the call of certainty or the aversion to pain. You are a more or less “normal” person, with a more or less “normal” life, but with a certain inclination toward spiritual matters. In that case, prepare yourself to take certain measures in order to practice this Course effectively.
First of all, and before anything else, you will have to be very honest with yourself and decide whether or not you are willing to undertake the titanic task of changing your thought system, for you can be certain that what you are undertaking is a true feat.
If, despite that, you decide to go forward, you must focus your entire will on this purpose and, with firm determination, impose upon yourself a strict discipline that you will have to maintain for quite some time. One of the key aspects of this new discipline is to keep your eyes always wide open to see what is happening in your mind and how it relates to the world you perceive. Do not find this strange, for we are on a path that leads us to awakening, and awakened people have their eyes open, do they not?
It is also extraordinarily important that you open your eyes not only to watch your mind but also to observe the effects that the practice you are engaged in has upon your life. This is crucial, because, lacking the “helps” already mentioned, you must provide your own. These helps, which will prove precious to you, are your achievements. Your achievements will bring you certainty, strengthen your confidence, and quickly make your efforts cease to feel like effort, for is it an effort to do what brings you joy?
As time goes on, the path becomes easier. Your new way of interpreting reality becomes a habit and arises automatically in your mind. The temptation to follow your old guide grows weaker, for you have become more sensitive and intolerant to suffering. You do not want it for yourself or for anyone, and what now feels uncomfortable are your old habits of judgment.
You have tasted the sweetness of walking safely through an uncertain world, hand in hand with a powerful guide who resolves all conflicts for you; you need only place your trust—everything else follows naturally. And although life still gives you the occasional slap—there are so many lessons to learn!—you generally walk with a smile on your face.
Now no one needs to convince you that there is no will but God’s Will; now you know it.
III Conflicted thinking appears when what you perceive contradicts your own expectations. The conflict arises when you interpret a situation or another person’s behavior as adverse. This disturbs you because it contradicts your interpretation of reality.
IV Realize that your small egoic mind knows only how to manage beliefs. Your decision to want to be separate from God in order to “live” your own “life” has caused you to forget your true function: to create. Therefore, as long as you continue to embody that false identity, your only option is to believe.
Understand that your beliefs are not neutral. Although none of them are the absolute truth, some are aligned with the essence of your Being, for they reflect the Love, the Truth, and the Power from which you were created; others, on the contrary, reflect the opposite and induce in you fear, confusion, and weakness. Thus, as long as you believe yourself to be human, your only alternative is to choose between these two groups of apparent truths.
It is not a complicated choice. You need only be attentive to how they make you feel, for you will find with absolute certainty that they generate in you opposing emotional states, which will help you discern what is best for you.
V Jesus warns you not to fall into a drowsy, lethargic, and enervated “peace.” This would turn meditation into “self-absorption,” a withdrawal from the conflicts of life into a sleepy false peace.
In contrast, the peace we seek—the peace characteristic of fruitful meditation—is distinguished by “deep joy and heightened alertness.”