My salvation comes from me.
When A Course in Miracles talks about temptation, it generally means anything that turns our minds away from the insight that what we are in truth is responsible for – and can perfectly accomplish – the salvation of self, other and world.
In other words, temptation is always that which lures us into believing that we are bodies – subject to suffering, sacrifice and death – adrift in a world in which suffering, sacrifice and death are the law.
In a deep sense, we know this is not true because what we are cannot be apart from either its source or its reality. Yet even that consolation is twisted; it becomes a source of unexamined guilt. We think we are at war with God, or have maybe vanquished God, or have tried and failed to vanquish God and so are subject now to retaliation.
“Suffering, sacrifice and death” are logical outcomes of guilt and fear. The problem is neither the body nor the world, but the mind which is confused about what it is and where it is.
All healing is at the level of the mind.
God would not have put the remedy for the sickness where it cannot help. That is the way your mind mind has worked, but hardly His. He wants you to be healed, so He has kept the Source of healing where the need for healing lies (W-pI.70.3:2-4).
There is tremendous comfort in this insight, for it removes the stress of personal responsibility and it ensures that the outcomes is sure, even if we are not. Indeed, taking comfort in this insight can gently restore us to some measure of sanity even in the context of separation-based anxiety and depression.
God wants us to be healed, and we do not really want to be sick, because it makes us unhappy. Therefore, in accepting the idea for today, we are really in agreement with God. He does not want us to be sick. Neither do we. He wants us to be healed. So do we (W-pI.70.5:2-7).
If we look closely at the quoted material, we might notice that it implies that God’s Will and our will are not separate. We are not in conflict because we want the same thing. This is not like two parties coming to an agreement. Rather, it is like the realization that what believed it was separate and in need of dialogue and negotiation is not separate at all.
We are healed when we realize that our will and God’s will are not separate.
Ultimately, this is what Lesson 70 teaches us. Our salvation is up to us as a condition of what we are in Creation. God created us like unto like; therefore, we can only create like God. Salvation is not an accomplishment, but a joyful remembrance of what we are in truth.
This is not an intellectual endeavor any more than it is an intellectual experience. We are not reaching mental understanding, like finally realizing how to properly diagram a sentence or work through a difficult math problem.
We are actually going into the truth of what we are – and the egoic confusion obscuring it – in order to have a direct experience of God, which transcends language and personal experience. We are pushing past illusions of salvation for the truth beyond all illusions (W-pI.70.9:1-2).
Indeed, this lesson includes a promise that Jesus will personally assist us in our efforts.
If it helps you, think of me holding your hand and leading you. And I assure you this is no idle fantasy (W-pI.70.9:3-4).
The nature of the help being offered here hinges on the word “idle.” Jesus is a fantasy; Jesus remains in the world of illusion. In God, there is neither Jesus nor Sean, neither Love nor fear, neither Heaven nor hell. But in the context of fear-based separation?
There, Jesus can be a very constructive fantasy indeed.
Remember always where the focus of the lesson lies: our salvation is not found in Jesus. It’s not found in the Buddha or Tara Singh. It is found only in what we are in truth.
You are in charge of your salvation. You are in charge of the salvation of the world (W-pI.70.10:3-4).
Calmly – with humility and reverence – let us make it so.
