For morning and evening review: W-103 and W-104
1. W-103 “As God is Love, He is also happiness.”
²Let me remember that Love is happiness, and that nothing else can make me happy.
³Therefore, I choose not to be distracted by any substitute for Love.
2. W-104 “I seek only what truly belongs to me.”
²Love is my inheritance, and with it, joy.
³These are the gifts my Father has given me.
⁴I will accept all that is truly mine.
3. On the hour:
²“As God is Love, He is also happiness.”
4. On the half hour:
²“I seek only what truly belongs to me.” I
I If someone told you that the only thing you have to do in this life is to love, it would probably sound good to you, but you would not understand it or know what to do. Yet if that person then added that, moreover, you cannot do anything other than that, you would understand even less. Well then, understand that you are here precisely to understand that. When you learn it, you will have completed your function.
Open your mind today to the idea of love, and to do so begin by letting go of all your beliefs. When none remain, you will find that idea in your mind shining in all its splendor, for that is what you are.
Since God is love, He is also happiness. Therefore, when Jesus states that God’s Will for me is perfect happiness, He is using an accessible way to express a reality that goes far beyond concepts.
Because love and happiness are real ideas—that is, absolute, eternal, and irrefutable—it is not possible to elaborate much further on them from the dual mind. That is why Jesus begins to work with their opposites. Unable to say more about what love is, He begins to point out what it is not. Thus He helps us recognize that only love can make us happy, and that no substitute can offer true joy.
The teaching is clear: I choose not to be distracted by any substitute for love. And this requires remembering constantly that nothing outside of love can make us happy. In a world so confused about the source of happiness, this is vital.
If you ask people what would make them happy, most will answer: money. It is a common answer, especially from a materialistic point of view. But Jesus warns us: do not be mistaken. Nothing but love can make you happy. And that love is found in relationships—but not in the relationships themselves, rather in the love that one gives within them.
Relationships bring joy only to the extent that they are expressions of love. They are not valuable in themselves, but for what is given within them. And there a virtuous circle is created: the love you give, you receive, you return—and in that exchange you recognize what you truly are.
The love you give is the love you are. Therefore, giving love is a way of experiencing your being. And when you are in contact with your being, you come closer to true happiness, because you are recognizing and expressing your essential nature.
To be is to love, and any experience that allows you to live from that Being will be profoundly fulfilling—not only because of the act of loving itself, but because of all the light that radiates in doing so. To give light is to recognize oneself as light.
When Jesus says, “Remember that nothing else can make me happy,” He is guiding us toward this understanding: that the only real source of happiness is love, and that everything else is a failed attempt at substitution.
The following Lesson states: “I seek only what rightfully belongs to me.” In truth, this expression can be better understood as “I seek only what I truly am.” For in the language of the Course, to have and to be are the same. What belongs to me is, in reality, what I am.
Lesson 104 puts it clearly: “I seek only what I truly am. Love is my inheritance, and with it, joy. These are the gifts my Father gave to me.”
That is to say, this is what we are. These are the attributes with which we were created. Therefore, to accept what belongs to me is to accept what I am.
Jesus uses language that adapts to our egoic mind—which tends toward possessiveness—but what He points to is a deeper truth: it is not about possessing anything, but about recognizing oneself as what one truly is.