A Course
In Miracles

Authorized Online Edition
Workbook For Students

 
 

LESSON 39

My holiness is my salvation.

1. 1If guilt is hell, what is its opposite? 2Like the text for which this workbook was written, the ideas used for the exercises are very simple, very clear and totally unambiguous. 3We are not con­cerned with intellectual feats nor logical toys. 4We are dealing only in the very obvious, which has been overlooked in the clouds of complexity in which you think you think.

2. 1If guilt is hell, what is its opposite? 2This is not difficult, surely. 3The hesitation you may feel in answering is not due to the ambiguity of the question. 4But do you believe that guilt is hell? 5If you did, you would see at once how direct and simple the text is, and you would not need a workbook at all. 6No one needs practice to gain what is already his.

3. 1We have already said that your holiness is the salvation of the world. 2What about your own salvation? 3You cannot give what you do not have. 4A savior must be saved. 5How else can he teach salvation? 6Today’s exercises will apply to you, recognizing that your salvation is crucial to the salvation of the world. 7As you apply the exercises to your world, the whole world stands to benefit.

4. 1Your holiness is the answer to every question that was ever asked, is being asked now, or will be asked in the future. 2Your holiness means the end of guilt, and therefore the end of hell. 3Your holiness is the salvation of the world, and your own. 4How could you to whom your holiness belongs be excluded from it? 5God does not know unholiness. 6Can it be He does not know His Son?

5. 1A full five minutes are urged for the four longer practice peri­ods for today, and longer and more frequent practice sessions are encouraged. 2If you want to exceed the minimum requirements, more rather than longer sessions are recommended, although both are suggested.

6. 1Begin the practice periods as usual, by repeating today’s idea to yourself. 2Then, with closed eyes, search out your unloving thoughts in whatever form they appear; uneasiness, depression, anger, fear, worry, attack, insecurity and so on. 3Whatever form they take, they are unloving and therefore fearful. 4And so it is from them that you need to be saved.

7. 1Specific situations, events or personalities you associate with unloving thoughts of any kind are suitable subjects for today’s exercises. 2It is imperative for your salvation that you see them differently. 3And it is your blessing on them that will save you and give you vision.

8. 1Slowly, without conscious selection and without undue em­phasis on any one in particular, search your mind for every thought that stands between you and your salvation. 2Apply the idea for today to each of them in this way:

3My unloving thoughts about _________ are keeping me in hell.
4My holiness is my salvation.

9. 1You may find these practice periods easier if you intersperse them with several short periods during which you merely repeat today’s idea to yourself slowly a few times. 2You may also find it helpful to include a few short intervals in which you just relax and do not seem to be thinking of anything. 3Sustained concentration is very difficult at first. 4It will become much easier as your mind becomes more disciplined and less distractible.

10. 1Meanwhile, you should feel free to introduce variety into the exercise periods in whatever form appeals to you. 2Do not, how­ever, change the idea itself as you vary the method of applying it. 3However you elect to use it, the idea should be stated so that its meaning is the fact that your holiness is your salvation. 4End each practice period by repeating the idea in its original form once more, and adding:

5If guilt is hell, what is its opposite?

11. 1In the shorter applications, which should be made some three or four times an hour and more if possible, you may ask yourself this question, repeat today’s idea, and preferably both. 2If temptations arise, a particularly helpful form of the idea is:

3My holiness is my salvation from this.