Today’s review covers these ideas: W-73 and W-74
1. W-73. “I will that there be light.”
2. Today I will use the power of my will. I
²It is not my will to grope about in darkness, fearful of shadows and frightened by unreal and unseen things.
³Today my guide will be the light.
⁴I will follow it wherever it leads, and I will look only upon what it shows me.
⁵Today I will experience the peace of true perception.
3. These expressions of the idea will be helpful for specific applications:
²This cannot hide the light I will to see.
³You are with me in the light, (name).
⁴In the light, I will see this differently.
4. W-74. “There is no will but God’s.” II
5. Today I am safe because there is no will but God’s.
²I can only be afraid when I believe there is another will.
³I attempt to attack only when I am afraid.
⁴And only when I attempt to attack can I believe that my eternal safety is threatened.
⁵Today I will recognize that none of this has happened.
⁶I am safe because there is no will but God’s.
6. These are some useful ways to apply this idea specifically:
²I want to see this in accordance with the Will of God.
³The Will of God is that you, (name), are His Son, and that is also my will.
⁴This is part of God’s Will for me, no matter how I may see it.
I Will is one of the three aspects of Being we learned about in theText (T-3.IX.1:2): “The true functions of the Soul are knowing, loving, and creating.” Will is the aspect through which Being creates. Creation is the function of will. In these Lessons, the three aspects are mentioned in relation to one another, for they are consubstantial with Being. The light referred to here is the symbol of knowledge.
When the human being integrates the mind, he uses his functions harmoniously within the perceptual realm and directs his will to see the love that light reveals to him. It is essential to highlight the crucial role of will in this process, for we will perceive that which it is our will to perceive.
It is also important to understand that what we are going to see is not something we must decide ourselves. Our function is to place our will on there being light—on nothing else. However, our first impulse will be to direct the will toward achieving our expectations, which is nothing but the voice of the ego manifesting once again.
Remember that you do not know what is in your best interest. Ask only for light; ask only for understanding.
Now reflect: who is it that is here asking for light? Obviously, the one who does not have it. This Lesson is not about light itself but about will. It is a Lesson for training the will—the most basic aspect of Being. First comes the will to Be, which extends Itself in Its loving and fulfills Itself in the knowledge of Its own creation.
In the esoteric and spiritual tradition of Hinduism and yoga, will is represented by the Manipura chakra, located at the solar plexus, above the navel and just below the diaphragm, marking the boundary with the higher chakras. Above it lies Anahata, which symbolizes love, and higher still, Ajna, which represents the light of knowledge. This arrangement suggests a natural progression: from will, which is the foundation, through love, to the light of knowledge.
This fundamental character of will is the reason why this Course insists so much upon it as an essential aspect of Being. From will, the following aspects manifest in an ascending progression. For this reason, it is imperative to rescue will from the clutches of the ego, for it is presently confused, hijacked, and lost in paths that lead nowhere.
II This is not a commandment nor an order, but the affirmation of a fact: the Will of God is the aspect of Being that creates reality. And Reality is that which is—that which exists. Its essential quality is immutability. To be and to be immutable are, ultimately, synonymous. Change implies ceasing to be something in order to become something else. Therefore, what changes is that which simultaneously is and is not—an ontological impossibility, an absurdity.
In this world—the realm of the illusory—being is confused with seemingto be. Everything that merely seems to exist is called being, though in reality it is not, because when you look closely, it has already transformed into something else. Illusions are so named precisely because they are illusions of being: they appear to exist, but they are nothing, unreal, and therefore do not exist, though they may seem to.
Time belongs to the domain of illusion, for it is the awareness of change—the perception that the impossible, the becoming of the immutable, appears possible. The human mind, operating within time, thus projects illusory conceptions, and all its cause-and-effect relationships are likewise illusory.
The awareness of change generates a deep fear in the human mind, for it introduces the idea of loss of being—the notion of death. But that is impossible, because what truly exists cannot cease to exist. The Will of God creates only what is real: what does not change, what is, what remains.
When the human mind aligns with the Will of God, fear disappears. But for that to happen, it must overcome its authorship problem: the belief that it created itself, that it is separate from God, and that it acts autonomously. That idea is the root of fear, for it gives rise to the feeling of being alone, separate, and devoid of Love.
Ultimately, it is a false conception of freedom: the belief that the human will can “create” the imperfect, the limited, or the lacking—that is, something intrinsically different from its Author, the Self, the only thing that truly exists.
The human mind cannot conceive what is real in the strict sense, because it is itself a demented illusion. Yet it can align with Reality and come to perceive accurately. Neither can it heal itself, for by nature it is an existential contradiction. Its redemption consists in awakening to the awareness of its true identity—but even that transcends the notion of awareness, for it occurs when the direct knowledge of being is reached.
Human beings are not saved from anything, for illusions cannot be saved. The illusion of being human simply dissolves. That, which terrifies the ego, is at the same time the source of immense joy for you.