“Holding grievances is an attack on God’s plan for salvation.”
While we have recognized that the ego’s plan for salvation is the
opposite of God’s, we have not yet emphasized that it is an active
attack on His plan, and a deliberate attempt to destroy it. In the
attack, God is assigned the attributes which are actually associated
with the ego, while the ego appears to take on the attributes of God.
The ego’s fundamental wish is to replace God. In fact, the ego is the
physical embodiment of this wish. For it is this wish which seems to
surround the mind with a body, keeping it separate and alone; and
unable to reach other minds except through the body which was made
to imprison it.The limit on communication cannot be the best means to
expand communication.Yet the ego would have you believe that it is.
Although the attempt to keep the limitations which a body
would impose is obvious here, it is perhaps not so apparent why
holding grievances is an attack on God’s plan for salvation. But let us
consider the kinds of things which you are apt to hold grievances for.
Are they not always associated with something a body does? A
person says something we do not like; he does something that
displeases us, he “betrays” his hostile thoughts in his behavior.
We are not dealing here with what the person is. On the
contrary, we are exclusively concerned with what he does in a body.
We are doing more than failing to help in freeing him from it’s
limitations. We are actively trying to hold him to it by confusing it
with him, and judging them as one. Herein is God attacked, for if His
Son is only a body, so must He be as well.A creator wholly unlike his
creation is inconceivable.
If God is a body, what must His plan for salvation be? What
could it be but death? In trying to present Himself as the Author of
life and not of death, He is a liar and a deceiver, full of false promises
and offering illusions in place of truth.
The body’s apparent reality makes this view of God quite
convincing. In fact, if the body were real, it would be difficult indeed
to escape this conclusion. And every grievance that you hold insists
that the body is real. It overlooks entirely what your brother is. It
reinforces your belief that he is a body, and condemns him for it.And
it asserts that his salvation must be death, projecting this attack onto
God, and holding Him responsible for it.
To this carefully prepared arena, where angry animals seek for
prey and mercy cannot enter, the ego comes to save you. God made
you a body.Very well. Let us accept this and be glad.As a body, do not
let yourself be deprived of what the body offers. Take the little you
can get. God gave you nothing.The body is your only savior. It is the
death of God and your salvation.
This is the universal belief of the world you see. Some hate the
body, and try to hurt and humiliate it. Others love the body, and try
to glorify and exalt it. But while it stands at the center of your
concept of yourself, you are attacking God’s plan for salvation, and
holding your grievances against Him and His creation, that you may
not hear the Voice of truth and welcome it as Friend.Your chosen
savior takes His place instead. It is your friend; He is your enemy.
We will try today to stop these senseless attacks on salvation.We
will try to welcome it instead. Our upside-down perception has been
ruinous to our peace of mind.We have seen ourselves in a body and
the truth outside us, locked
away from your awareness by the body’s
limitations. Now we are going to try to see this differently.
The light of truth is in us, where it was placed by God. It is the
body that is outside us, and is not our concern.To be without a body
is to be in our natural state.To recognize the light of truth in us is to
recognize ourselves as we are. To see our Self as separate from the
body is to end the attack on God’s plan for salvation, and to accept it
instead. And wherever it is accepted, it is accomplished already.
Our goal in the longer practice periods today is to become
aware
that God’s plan for salvation has already been accomplished in
us. To achieve this goal, we must replace attack with acceptance. As
long as we attack it, we cannot understand what God’s plan for us is.
We are therefore attacking what we do not recognize. Now we are
going to try to lay judgement aside, and ask what God’s plan for us is:
“What is salvation, Father?
I do not know.
Tell me, that I may understand.”
Then we will wait in quiet for His answer.
We have attacked God’s plan for salvation without waiting to
hear what it is. We have shouted our grievances so loudly that we
have not listened to His Voice.We have used our grievances to close
our eyes and stop our ears. Now we would see and hear and learn.
“What is salvation, Father?” Ask and you will be answered. Seek and
you will find. We are no longer asking the ego what salvation is and where to
find it.We are asking it of truth. Be certain, then, that the answer will
be true because of Whom you ask. Whenever you feel your
confidence wane and your hope of success flicker and go out, repeat
your question and your request, remembering that you are asking
them of the infinite Creator of infinity,Who created you like Himself:
“What is salvation, Father?
I do not know. Tell me, that I may understand.”
He will answer. Be determined to hear.
One or perhaps two shorter practice periods an hour will be
enough for today, since they will be somewhat longer than usual.
These exercises are as follows:
“Holding grievances is an attack on God’s plan for salvation.
Let me accept it instead.
What is salvation, Father?”
Then wait a minute or so in silence, preferably with your eyes closed,
and listen for His answer.
