Today’s review covers these ideas: W-71 and W-72
1. W-71. “Only God’s plan for salvation will work.”
2. It makes no sense for me to keep searching desperately for salvation everywhere. I
²I have looked for it in many people and things, but when I tried to grasp it, it was not there.
³I was mistaken about where it is.
⁴I was mistaken about what it is.
⁵I will undertake no more useless journeys.
⁶Only God’s plan for salvation will work.
⁷And I will rejoice that His plan can never fail.
3. These are some suggestions for specific applications of this idea:
²God’s plan for salvation will save me from the way I see this.
³This is no exception in God’s plan for my salvation.II
⁴I want to see this only in the light of God’s plan for salvation.
4. W-72. “Holding grievances is an attack on God’s plan for salvation.”
5. Holding grievances is an attempt to prove that God’s plan for salvation will not work.
²Yet only His plan will succeed.
³Therefore, by holding grievances, I exclude from my awareness my one and only hope of salvation.
⁴I do not want to continue attacking my own best interests in such a senseless way. III
⁵I want to accept God’s plan for salvation and be happy.
6. Specific applications of this idea might be:
²As I look upon this, I am choosing between misperception and salvation.
³If I see grounds for grievances in this, I will not see the grounds for my salvation.⁴This is a call for salvation, not for attack.
I In this Course, the term “salvation” is aptly used to denote that which completely fulfills all your longings, perfectly answers all your doubts, and, as a result, floods your heart with joy and sets your mind in peace forever; that is, it restores your mind to the original state in which God created it.
To be saved is to remember who you are.
Does what God created perfect need to be restored, healed, or saved in any way? Obviously not. That is impossible.
Does the mind of God’s Son need to be saved from the impossible—from what never occurred? Of course not! That cannot be, and if it cannot be, it never has been.
That is why this Course begins by saying: “Nothing real can be threatened. Nothing unreal exists. Herein lies the peace of God.”
The very idea of salvation is an incomprehensible concept, because it is the answer to an impossible idea: the idea of separation. An unreal concept can only be corrected by another operating at the same level—also unreal.
This Course operates in a realm as unreal as the idea that conceived it. And its strategy—the plan of God for salvation—is as incomprehensible as the idea of separation it seeks to heal; hence its proposal is purely negative: forgiveness, that is, the mind’s refusal to heed the unreal and its dismissal of illusion.
Yet, as this Course also warns, no teaching can be purely negative; it must point toward some positive content—hence the notion of levels: one unreal and nonexistent, within which it operates, and another real, absolutely full and positive—the idea of Being.
To confuse and intermingle the two levels is the basic error of the mind absorbed in the first; that is the sole temptation—that is the wrong-mindedness.
What you seek—recovering your true identity by ceasing to believe in the impossible—is not found in the perceptual realm, which arose precisely to support that perverse idea of being separate.
God’s plan for salvation works for the simple reason that it denies error. Nothing more is required.
II Everything I perceive is a projection of the fragmented mind meant to support the mistaken idea it has of itself. Nothing you perceive is real. What is real cannot be perceived; it can only be known—and since knowing is the same as being, knowledge cannot occur within a false identity.
You never know from your human perspective; only Being knows—and that Being is what you truly are. But do not be deceived into believing that, as a person, you can know; at the personal level you can only hold beliefs.
What you now behold as a human you cannot know, but you can dismiss it as a means to salvation, which will be the first idea to arise in your mind when you perceive it. Dismiss it, for the voice that seeks to convince you that your salvation lies there is the ego’s.
Look carefully, ask for a different interpretation, quiet your mind, and listen. You will receive a better proposal, and you will recognize it because it is peaceful, benevolent, and beneficial.
What you will hear is not the truth in the strict sense either, but it is the best you can access within the realm of perception, and the Course calls this “true perception.”
If to be saved is to remember who you are, then God’s plan for salvation consists in using all the things life sets before you to foster that remembrance—and this occurs when you behold them with true perception.
In God’s plan for salvation, everything that happens to you is interpreted positively, because everything can be seen as serving that plan. Thus, when events accord with your longings and expectations, they are cause for celebration; and when they contradict them—the difficulties of life—they become opportunities to learn and to change.
Life is the perfect school, and everything that occurs is for your good. When something disturbs you, do not say: “Life is wrong; I have to change it.” Say rather: “Life is right; I have to change the way I see it.” This does not mean you should refrain from doing what is appropriate, but do not attempt to do so before you have changed your interpretation and regained peace.
Remember that the world you believe you perceive is an illusion and means nothing in itself; thus it is irrelevant. But your peace is indeed meaningful and necessary. You have come here precisely for that.
III Harboring resentments is simply arrogance. It occurs when you ascribe to yourself abilities you do not have. In this case, you believe you are qualified to judge what is before you and condemn it. It is not so, but you believe it.
Since you do not like what you see, according to your own reasoning—the ego’s—you condemn it and attack it.
First, consider that what is before you is not real; and then consider that the way you are regarding it is unhelpful—as your heart makes known to you—and that is why you feel bad.
Moreover, harboring resentments is a negative emotional state—an attack against yourself—that will not help you at all to attain what you truly want: peace of mind. Remember this fundamental ontological principle: means cannot contradict ends. If you want peace, do not prepare for war.
You are probably convinced that the only way to attain that peace is to achieve certain goals that lie outside you. Do not deceive yourself. You will not find peace in anything external; peace is a real idea and is found in your mind, which is also real. In fact, peace is your mind’s natural condition when it is not deceived by the false promises of external idols.
Do not persist in that path; correct it. Quiet your mind and pray. Ask for help.