My mind holds only what I think with God.
I will accept Atonement for myself (Lesson 139).
Only salvation can be said to cure (Lesson 140).
In a sense, we cannot accept Atonement for anyone but our own self. Yet in another sense, when we accept it for ourselves, we accept it for everyone. We are healed collectively, not individually. We “dwell in the Mind of God with our brother, for God Himself does not will to be alone” (T-11.I.1:6).
In truth, Lesson 139 is a gentle reminder of the need to be responsible for our own minds, and the effects of the thoughts we choose to think. To be responsible means to take others into consideration – to be aware of them, to hold them as equals, and to care about what happens to them. Mind is shared, not separate. Of course we ought to be responsible.
We are not saved alone, and yet the decision to be healed begins in our mind, with our unwillingness to continue suffering the ego’s self-perpetuating nightmare of separation. This is less about making a choice, then it is about accepting the simple truth of what we are. It is an acceptance of God’s Will rather than our own.
Only acceptance can be asked of you, for what you are is certain. It is set forever in the holy Mind of God, and in your own (W-pI.139.8:1-2).
When we remember who we are, we are blessed with happy dreams, which precede – which hasten and facilitate – our return to God.
The happy dreams the Holy Spirit brings are different from the dreaming of the world, where one can merely dream he is awake. The dreams forgiveness lets the mind perceive do not induce another form of sleep . . . (W-pI.140.3:1-2).
The emphasis here is on what our lives begin to look like as we accept the Holy Spirit’s guidance, and make our living more and more about our shared interest with our brothers and sisters. True joy arises in helping others, and in joining them in our journey away from fear and towards love. It becomes our journey, rather than my journey or your journey.
In a sense, healing is the happy dream that salvation is – a way of living out in the world the understanding that we are not bodies and there is no world. Salvation is the clear and quiet confidence that God’s Will is sufficient, and that our own will can be gently set aside.
Salvation heals the split mind that believes it is separate, and as its effects are undone, we wear the body and the world lighter and lighter. There is nothing to do, for it is all being done, perfectly. We accept this, and lean into the grace that acceptance establishes.
The only problem we have is the belief that we are separate from creation and from our creator. This is the root cause of all our seeming problems and all our apparent illnesses. Therefore, curing it is the solution to all problems and illnesses, ours and the world’s alike.
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