I am one Self, united with my Creator.
1. Today’s idea accurately describes how God created you.
²You are one within yourself, and One with Him.
³Yours is the unity of all creation.
⁴Your perfect oneness makes change in you impossible.
⁵Yet you do not accept this, and you fail to realize that it must be so.
⁶This is only because you believe you have changed yourself already.
2. You see yourself as a ridiculous parody of God’s creation: weak, vicious, ugly, and sinful, miserable and beset with pain.
²This is your version of yourself—a self divided into many warring parts, separated from God, and held together by a capricious and unstable maker, to whom you pray.
³He does not hear your prayers, for he is deaf.
⁴He does not see your oneness, for he is blind.
⁵He does not understand that you are the Son of God, for he is senseless and understands nothing. I
3. Today we will try again to be aware only of what your Self can hear and see, and what makes perfect sense. II
²Once again we direct our exercises toward reaching your one Self, united with Its Creator. III
³With patience and hope, we try again today.
4. Devoting the first five minutes of each waking hour to practice today has certain advantages at the stage of learning in which you are currently.
²It is difficult for you not to let your mind wander during a longer practice period. IV
³You must already have noticed this.
⁴You have seen how much you need discipline for your mind.
⁵It is necessary that you be aware of this, for it is a real obstacle to your progress.
5. Frequent, shorter practice periods also have distinct advantages for you at this stage.
²Besides recognizing your difficulties with sustained attention, you must also have noticed that unless you are reminded of your goal frequently, you tend to forget it for long periods.
³You often forget the brief applications of the idea for the day, and you have not yet developed the habit of using it as a constant response to temptation.
6. Therefore, now you need a carefully structured approach, including frequent reminders of your goal and regular attempts to reach it.
²A set schedule, as such, is not the ideal requirement for your training in salvation.
³It is, however, advantageous for those whose motivation is inconsistent and who still resist learning.
7. So we will continue for a while with the five-minute-an-hour practice format, urging you to omit as few as possible.
²Using the first five minutes of the hour will be especially helpful, since it imposes a more structured discipline on your mind.
³But do not use your lapses from this schedule as an excuse not to return to it as soon as you can.
8. You may be tempted to view the day as lost because you failed to do what was required.
²But this should merely be recognized as what it is: a refusal to correct your mistake and a lack of willingness to try again.
³Your errors do not delay the Holy Spirit in His teaching.
⁴Your unwillingness to let them go does.
9. Let us therefore be determined, especially for the coming week, to be willing to forgive ourselves for our lack of diligence and our failure to follow the instructions for practicing today’s idea.
²This tolerance for weakness will enable us to overlook it, rather than give it the power to delay our learning.
³If we give it that power, we will see weakness as strength, and we will be confused about what strength is.
10. When you fail to meet the requirements of this course, you are merely making a mistake.
²This calls for correction, and nothing more.
³To allow the mistake to continue is to make additional mistakes, which are based on the first and reinforce it.
⁴It is this process that must be laid aside, for it is nothing but a defense of illusion against the truth.
11. Let all these errors go by simply recognizing them as what they are.
²They are attempts to keep you unaware that you are one Self, united with your Creator, at one with every aspect of creation, and limitless in power and in peace.
³This is the truth, and nothing else is true.
⁴Today we will affirm this truth again, and try to reach the place in you where there is no doubt that only this is true.
⁵Begin today’s longer practice periods by giving your mind this assurance, with all the certainty you can give:
⁶I am one Self, united with my Creator,
At one with every aspect of creation,
And limitless in power and in peace.
12. Then close your eyes and repeat this statement slowly to yourself, letting its meaning sink into your mind and replace your false ideas:
²I am one Self.
³Repeat this several times, then try to experience the meaning that the words convey.
⁴You are one Self, united and secure in light and joy and peace.
⁵You are the Son of God, one Self with one Creator and one goal: to bring awareness of this oneness to all minds, so that true creation may extend the totality and unity of God.
13. You are one Self, complete, healed and whole, with the power to lift the veil of darkness from the world and let the light in you shine forth to teach the world the truth about itself.
²You are one Self, in perfect harmony with all there is and all that will be.
³You are one Self, the holy Son of God, united with your brothers in that Self, united with your Father in His Will.
14. Feel this one Self in you, and let It shine away all your illusions and your doubts.
²This is your Self, the Son of God Himself, sinless as His Creator, with His strength within you and His Love forever yours.
³You are one Self, and it is this Self you can feel within you and free the world from all illusions through this one Mind which is this Self—the holy truth in you.
15. Do not forget today.
²We need your help, your little part in bringing happiness to all the world.
³And Heaven looks to you in confidence that you will try today.
⁴Share its certainty, for it is yours.
⁵Be vigilant.
⁶Do not forget today.
16. Throughout the day, keep your goal in mind.
²Repeat the idea for today as often as you can, and understand that each time you do, someone hears the voice of hope, the stirring of the truth within their mind, the gentle rustling of the wings of peace.
³Your own acknowledgment you are one Self, united with your Father, is a call to all the world to be at one with you.
17. Be sure to offer the promise of today’s idea to everyone you meet, by saying silently:
²You and I are one Self, united with our Creator.
³I honor you because of what I am, and because of what He is,
Who loves us both as one.
I This is, more or less, the idea you hold of God in your innermost being. Notice that your prayers are usually filled with instructions and imperatives. In them you “inform” God of your apparent needs, assuming that He is ignorant and unaware of what is happening, and you find it entirely natural that you should be the one to tell Him what is going on. Moreover, you also assume that God is at your service and ready to carry out your commands.
You tend to conjugate the verbs in your prayers in the imperative mood: “Give, forgive, listen, heal…” Reflect on the immense insanity of your ego which, on the one hand, tells you that you are a wicked sinner—wretched, limited, powerless before the hazards of this world, and doomed to die—yet, on the other hand, urges you to address your Creator with astonishing arrogance.
II Today you are going to learn to relate to the things of the world from your Self. And that manner makes perfect sense because of what you truly are. To establish any other kind of relationship would be an imposture and a betrayal of your true identity.
Prepare yourself to know how a Being who possesses the dignity of the holy Son of God—no more and no less—relates to the world.
III You will see that throughout this Lesson great emphasis is placed on the idea that your Self is One. This idea contrasts radically with the one you now hold of yourself, for you believe you are a being scattered among many aspects, often in conflict with one another—that one part of you wants one thing and another part wants something else—and that stresses you and produces great tension.
That is nothing but a fantasy, an illusion, and the result of the attention you give to the voice of your ego. You are not like that at all. You are perfectly unified and absolutely whole, full, and complete. You have one single purpose and one single will, and that is the very Will of God.
IV Pay close attention to what is said in this paragraph and the next six. Notice how well Jesus knows you. The counsel he gives you there is crucial for your learning. Jesus warns you of the difficulties and temptations your poorly trained mind will experience. Read carefully, and heed him. Keep in mind that it matters less how precisely you follow the instructions for the day’s practice than your willingness to fulfill your function.
If your will to reach the goal is genuine but your mind is weak, do not worry; you will progress. But if your practice does not arise from a sincere and deep longing to change your mind, you will still advance, though not very far. Be honest. Search within yourself for the best in you and lay it upon the altar of your devotion. The angels of God will descend to lift you far beyond where your small strength could take you. Remember, Jesus is always by your side. Persevere with all your soul. Much is at stake.