Today’s review covers these ideas: W-77 and W-78
1. W-77. “I am entitled to miracles.” I
2. I am entitled to miracles because I am governed only by the Laws of God.II
²His Laws release me from all grievances and replace them with miracles.
³And I want to accept miracles instead of grievances, which are nothing but illusions hiding the miracles that lie beyond them.
⁴Now I want to accept only what the Laws of God entitle me to have, so I may use it in service of the function He has given me.
3. These suggestions may be helpful for applying this idea specifically:
²Behind this is a miracle to which I am entitled.
³I will not hold any grievance against you, (name), but offer you the miracle to which you are entitled.
⁴This offers me a miracle, if I will see it rightly.
4. W-78. “Let miracles replace all grievances.”
5. With this idea I join my will with the Holy Spirit’s, and see them as one.
²With this idea I accept my release from hell.
³With this idea I express my willingness for all my illusions to be replaced by truth, according to God’s plan for my salvation. III
⁴I will make no exceptions and no substitutions.
⁵What I want is all of Heaven, and only Heaven, exactly as God wills it to be.
6. These specific forms may be useful for applying this idea:
²I do not want this grievance to keep me from my salvation.
³Let our grievances be replaced by miracles, (name).
⁴Behind this is the miracle that replaces all my grievances.
I If you do not understand the word “miracle” well, you may better grasp its synonym—another term that means the same: “solution.” A miracle is the solution to a perceptual problem based on truth. And when that truth reaches you completely, even appearances change.
For what is perceived to change through the power of your will to see the light—because now you have willed to see things differently—you must have passed through those clouds made of imaginary fears that the Course mentions; then it is that you perceive miraculously. And if your brother joins your vision, what is perceived changes for both of you.
II Miracles are not strange; they are the most natural thing there is. Just as the laws of the world lead to fear, the Laws of God lead to miracles. Both fear and miracles occur in the realm of perception. They are merely different ways of perceiving.
To perceive is to interpret—it is the language through which the “things” that the perceiver regards as separate from himself communicate. Syntax is the set of laws that organize the various elements of a language to make the message comprehensible to the receiver.
In the world there is spoken a universal language: the language of the ego. And though there are many different dialects, the syntax of all of them is essentially the same.
In Heaven no language is spoken—none is needed there, for message, content, communication, sender, and receiver are all the same—but if there were one, the syntax of that language could be called “the Laws of God.”
These laws in Heaven are utterly unnecessary, but here on earth they serve to interpret the hallucinatory experience in terms that do not clash with true celestial identity.
It is not that Heaven takes any account of the things of the world, but the Laws of God are very useful to keep human beings from getting entangled in the jargon of the ego in their interpretations.
Indeed, the first rule of this divine syntax reads: “Turn a deaf ear to any interpretation that does not come from God.”
III In reality, truth replaces nothing, substitutes for nothing, goes nowhere, and does nothing. Truth simply is—of course! There has never been anything but truth, there never will be, nor could there ever be. The mere temptation to think otherwise is a shameful absurdity and a great foolishness.
To come to think that it is possible for truth to be hidden or absent, to have degrees, or for some to possess it while others do not, requires a sick mind, a heap of lies, and a great desire to suffer.
The mind can estrange itself through illusions, tell itself terrifying stories, deceive itself, blame others, and deny its own identity—but it cannot in any way alter reality.
Indeed, it can distort truth—but only for itself.
When the mind grows weary of suffering, it need only stop granting itself illusions and collecting resentments. It needs to do nothing more. It need only cease defiling reality with sordid interpretations.
None of that has ever been true. It has not had nightmares because it accidentally fell asleep—that is impossible. The mind plunged into the dream of death by its own will, and as it did so, so too will it awaken—by its own will.
The mind must express its innermost desire unmistakably, and its will shall be fulfilled, for its will is its very reality.
There is no need to fall to your knees and cry to Heaven for salvation; a little honesty is enough.
Here, as in all the Lessons, Jesus always urges us toward the same thing: that we place our will in a specific direction—a very precise one, the same in which he places his. And thus, when our will is exactly that, our problems and resentments disappear—miraculously.
It is the will to desire what he desires, but from the very depths of our hearts—truly and sincerely. To do the Lessons and repeat their ideas routinely and mechanically is worthless. Only what is genuine counts; only your heartfelt will counts.
These practices are effective because of their quality, not their quantity. And the proof that they have been done well lies always in the present, for if the benefit is real, it can only be found in the only real aspect of time: the present.
It makes no sense to think, “I am going to do the Lessons, and after a year I will have become a better person.” It is not so. Salvation can occur only here and now. Anything else is merely buying time.
Instant salvation is a wholly legitimate aspiration, because it accords with the Laws of God.