IA´s Journal

[IA56]

LESSON 46

”God is the Love in which I forgive.”

God does not forgive because He has never condemned. And there must be condemnation before forgiveness is necessary. Forgiveness is the great need of this world, but that is because it is a world of illusions. Those who forgive are thus releasing themselves from illusions, while those who withhold forgiveness are binding themselves to them.As you condemn only yourself, so do you forgive only yourself. Yet although God does not forgive, His Love is nevetheless the basis of forgiveness. Fear condemn and love forgives. Forgiveness thus undoes what fear has produced,returning the mind to the awareness of God. For this reason, forgiveness can truly be called salvation. It is the means by which illusions disappear.Today´s exercises require at least three full five-minute practice periods, and as many shorter ones as possible. Begin the longer practice periods by repeating today´s idea to yourself, as usual. Close your eyes as you do so, and spend a minute or two in searching your mind for those whom you have not forgiven. It does not matter ”how much” you have not forgiven them. You have forgiven them entirely or not at all. If you are doing the exercises well you should have no difficulty in finding a number of people you have not forgiven.It is a safe rule that anyone you do not like is a suitable subject. Mention each one by name, and say:

”God is the Love in which I forgive you, (name).”

The purpose of the first phase of today´s practice periods is to put you in a position to forgive yourself.After you have applied the idea to all those who have come to mind, tell yourself:

”God is the Love in which I forgive myself.”

Then devote the remainder of the practice period to adding related ideas such as:

”God is the Love with which I love myself.”
”God is the Love in which I am blessed.”

The form of the application may vary considerably, but the central idea should not be lost sight of. You might say, for example:

”I cannot be guilty because I am a Son of God.”
”I have already been forgiven.”
”No fear is possible in a mind be loved of God.”
”There is no need to attack because love has forgiven me.”

The practice period should end,however, with a repetition of today´s idea as originally started. The shorter practice periods may consist either of a repetition of the idea for today in the original or in a related form, as you prefer. Be sure, however, to make more specific applications if they are needed. They will be needed at any time during the day when you become aware of any kind of negative reaction to anyone, present or not. In that event, tell him silently:

”God is the Love in which I forgive you.”

Love

[IA56]

LESSON 47

”God is the Strength in which I trust.”

If you are trusting in your own strength, you have every reason to be apprehensive, anxious and fearful. What can you predict or control? What is there in you that can be counted on? What would give you the ability to be aware of all the facets of any problem, and to resolve them in such a way that only good can come of it? What is there in you that gives you the recognition of the right solution, and the gurantee that it will be accomplished? Of yourself yolu can do none of these things. To believe that you can is to put your trust where trust is unwarrented, and to justify fear, anxiety, depression, anger and sorrow. Who can put his faith in weakness and feel safe? Yet who can put his faith in strength and feel weak? God is your safety in every circujmstance. His Voice speaks for Him in all situations and in every aspect of all situations, telling you exactly what to do to call upon His strength and His proctection. There are no exceptions because God has no execptions. And the Voice Which speaks for Him thinks as He does. Today we will try to reach past your own weakness to the Source of real strength. Four five-minute practice periods are necessary today, and longer and more frequent ones are urged. Close your eyes and begin, as usual, by repeating the idea for the day. Then spend a minute or two in searching for situations in your life which you have invested with fear, dismissing each one by telling yourself:

”God is the Strength in which I trust.”

Now try to slip past all concerns related to your own sense of inadequancy. It is obvious that any situation that causes you concern is associated with feelings of inadequancy, for otherwise you would believe that you could deal with the situation successfully. It is not by trusting yourself that you will gain confidence. But the strength of God in you is successful in all things. The recognition of your own frailty is a necessary step in the correction of your errors, but it is hardly a sufficient one in giving you the confidence which you need, and to which you are entiteled. You must also gain an awareness that confidence in your real strength is fully justified in every respect and in all circumstances. In the latter phase of the practice period, try to reach down into your mind to a place of real safety. You will recognize that you have reached it if you feel a sense of deep peace, however briefly. Let go all the trivial things that churn and bubble on the surface of your mind, and reach down and below them to the Kingdom of Heaven. There is a place in you where there is perfect peace. There is a place in you where nothing is impossible. There is a place in you where the strength of God abides. During the day, repeat the idea often. Use it as your answer to andu disturbance. Remember that peace is your right, because you are giving your trust to the strength of God.

Love

[IA56]

LESSON 48

”There is nothing to fear.”

The idea for today simply states a fact. It is not a fact to those who believe in illusions, but illusions are not facts. In truth there is nothing to fear. It is very easy to recognize this. But it is very difficult to recognize it for those who want illusions to be true. Today´s practice periods will be very short, very simple and very frequent. Merely repeat the idea as often as possible. You can use it with your eyes open at any time and in any situation. It is strongly recommended, however, that you take a minute or so whenever possible to close your eyes and repeat the idea slowly to yourself several times. It is particularly important that you use the idea immediately, should anything disturb your peace of mind. The presence of fear is a sure sign that you are trusting in your own strength. The awareness that there is nothing to fear shows that somewhere in your mind, though not necessarily in a place you recognize as yet, you have remembered God, and let His strength take the place of your weakness. The instant you are willing to do this there is indeed nothing to fear.

Love

[IA56]

LESSON 49

”Gods Voice speaks to me all through the day.”

It is quite possible to listen to God´s Voice all through the day without interrupting your regular activities in any way. The part of your mind in which truth abides is in constant communication with God, whether you are aware of it or not. It is the other part of your mind that functions in the world and obeys the world´s laws. It is this part that is constantly distracted, disorganized and highly uncertain. The part that is listening to the Voice for God is calm, always at rest and wholly certain. It is really the only part there is. The other part is a wild illusion, frantic and distraught, but without reality of any kind. Try today not to listen to it. Try to identify with the part of your mind where stillness and peace reign forever. Try to hear God´s Voice call to you lovingly,reminding you that your Creator has not forgotten His Son. We will need at least four five-minute practice periods today, and more if possible. We wil ltry actually to hear God´s Voice reminding you of Him and of your Self. We will approach this happiest and holiest off thoughts with confidence, knowing that in doing so we are joining our will with the Will of God. He wants you to hear His Voice. He gave It to you to be heard. Listen in deep silence. Be vary and open your mind. Go past all the raucous shrieks and sick imaginings that cover your real thoughts and obscure your eternal link with God. Sink deep into the peace that waits for you beyond the frantic, riotous thoughts and sights and sounds of this insane world. You do not live here. We are trying to reach your real home. We are trying to reach the place where you are truly welcome. We are trying to reach God. Do not forget to repeat the idea for today whenever you can, closing your eyes on the world, and realizing that you are inviting God´s Voice to speak to you.

Love

[IA56]

LESSON 50

”I am sustained by the Love of God.”

Here is the answer to every problem that will comfort you, today and tomorrow and throughout time. In this world, you believe you are sustained by everything but God. Your faith is placed in the most trivial and insane symbols; pills, money, ”protective”clothing, influence, prestige, being liked, knowing the ”right” people, and an endless list of forms of nothingness that you endow with magical powers. All these things are your replacement for the Love of God. All these things are cherished to ensure a body identification. They are songs of praise to the ego.Do not put you faith in the worthless. It will not sustain you. Only the Love of God will protect you in all circumstances. It will lift you out of every trial, and raise you high above all the perceived danger of this world into a climat of perfect peace and safety. It will transport you into a state of mind that nothing can threaten, nothing can disturb, and where nothing can intrude upon the eternal calm of the Son of God. Put not your faith in illusions. They will fail you. Put all your faith in the Love of God within you; eternal,changeless and forever unfailing. This is the answer to whatever confronts you today. Through the Love of God within you, you can resolve all seeming difficulties without effort and in sure confidence. Tell yourself this often today. It is a declaration of release from the belief in idols. It is your acknowledgment of the truth about yourself. For ten minutes, twice today,morning and evening, let the idea for today sink deep into your consiousness.Repeat it, think about it, let related thoughts come to help you recognize its truth, and allow peace to flow over you like a blanket of protection and surety. Let no idle and foolish thoughts enter to disturb the holy mind of the Son of God. Such is the Kingdom of Heaven. Such is the resting place where your Father has placed you forever.

Love

[IA56]

REVIEW 1

Beginning with today we will have a serie of rewiew periods. Each of them will cover live of the ideaal ready presented, starting with the first and ending with the fiftieth. There will be a few short comments after each of the ideas, which you should conside rin your rewiew. In the practice periods, the exercises should be done as follows: Begin the day by reading the five ideas, with the comments included.Thereafter, it is not necessary to follow any particular order in considering them, though each one should be practiced at least once. Devolte two minutes or more to each pracitce period, thinking about the idea and the related comment safter reading them over. Do this as often as possible during the day. If anyone of the five ideas appeals to you more than the others, concentrate on that one. At the end of the day, however, be sure to review all of them once more.It is not necessary to cover the comments that follow each idea either literally or thoroughly in the practice periods. Try, rather, to emhasize the central point, and think about it as part of your review of the idea to which it relates. After you have read the idea and the related comments, the exercises should be done with your eyes closed and when you are alone in aquiet place, if possible. This is emphasized for practice periods at your stage of learning. It will be necessary, however, that you learn to require no special settings in which to apply what you have learned. You will need your learning most in situations that appear to be upsetting, rather than in those that already seem to be calm and quiet. The purpose of your learning is to enable you to bring the quiet. The purpose of your learning is to enable you to bring the quiet with you, and to heal distress and turmoil. This is not done by avoiding them and seeking a haven of isolation for yourself. You will yet learn that peace is part of you, and requires only that you be there to embrace any situation in which you are. And finallly you will learn that there is no limit to where you are, so that your peace is everywhere, as you are. You will note that, for review puropose, some of the ideas are not given in quite their original form. Use them as they are given here. It is not necessary to return to the original statements, nor to apply the ideas as was suggested then. We are now, emhasizing the relationships among the first fifty of the ideas we have covered, and the cohesiveness of the thought system to which they are leading you.

Love

[IA56]

LESSON 51

The review for today covers the following ideas:


1 ”Nothing I see means anything.”

The reason this is so is that I see nothing, and nothing has no meaning. It is necessary that I recognize this,that I may learn to see. What I think I see now is taking the place of vision.I must let it go by realizing it has no meaning, so that vision may take its place.

2”I have given what I see all the meaning it has for me.”
I have judged everything I lookupon, and it is this and only this I see. This is not vision. It is merely anillusion of reality, because my judgments have been made quite apart fromreality. I am willing to recognize the lack of validity in my judgments,because I want to see. My judgments have hurt me, and I do not want to seeaccording to them.

3”I do not understand anything Isee.”

How could I understand what Isee when I have judged it amiss? What I see is the projection of my own errorsof thought. I do not understand what I see because it is not understandable.There is no sense in trying to understand it. But there is every reason to letit go, and make room for what can be seen and understood and loved. I canexchange what I see now for this merely by being willing to do so. Is not this abetter choice than the one I made before?

4 ”These thoughts do not meananything.”

The thoughts fo which I am awaredo not mean anything because I am trying to think without God. What I call ”my”thoughts are not my real thoughts. My real thoughts are the thoughts I thinkwith God. I am not of aware of them because I have made my thoughts to taketheir place. I am willing to recognize that my thoughts do not mean anything,and to lett hem go. I choose to havet hem be replaced by what they wereintended to replace. My thoughts are meaningless, but all creation lies in thethoughs I think with God.

5 ”I am never upset fot thereason I think.”

I am never upset for the reasonI think because I am constantly trying to justify my thoughts. I am constantlytrying to make them true. I make all things my enemies, so that my anger isjustified and my attacks are warranted. I have not realized how much I havemisued everything I see by assigning this role to it. I have done this todefend a thought system that has hurt me, and that I no longer want. I amwilling to let it go.

Love

[IA56]

LESSON 52

Today´s review covers theseideas:

6 ”I am upset because I see whatis not there.”

Reality is never frightening. Itis impossible that it could upset me. Reality brings only perfect peace. When Iam upset, it is always because I have replaced reality with illusions I madeup. The illusions are upsetting because I have given them reality, and thusregard reality as an illusion. Nothing in God´s creation is affected in any wayby this confusion of mine. I am always upset by nothing.

7 ”I see only the past.”

As I look about, I condemn theworld I look upon. I call this seeing. I hold the past against everyone andeverything, making them my enemies. When I have forgiven myself and rememberedwho I am. I will bless everyone and everything I see. There will be no past,and therefore no enemies. And I will look with love on all that I failed to seebefore.

8 ”My mind is preoccupied withpast thoughts.”

I see only my own thoughts , andmy mind is preoccupied with the past. What, then, can I see as it is? Let meremeber that I look on the past to prevent from dawning on my mind. Let meunderstand that I am trying to use time against God. Let me learn to give thepast away, realizing that in so doing I am giving up nothing.

9 ”I see nothing as it is now.”

If I see nothing as it is now,it can truly be said that I see nothing. I can see only what isnow. The choiceis not whether to see the past or the present; the choice is merely whather tosee or not. What I have chosen to see has cost me vision. Now I would chooseagain, that I may see.

10 ”My thoughts do not meananything.”

I have no private thoughts. Yetit is only private thoughts of which I am aware. What can these thoughts mean?They do not exist, and so they mean nothing. Yet my mind is part of creationand part of its Creator. Would I not rather join the thinking of the universethan to obscure all that is really mine with my pitiful and meangliess ”private”thoughts?

Love

[IA56]

LESSON 53

Today we will review the following:

11 ”My meaningless thoughts are showing me a meaningless world.”

Since the thoughts of which I am aware do not mean anything, the world that pictures them can have no meaning.What is producing this world is insane, and so is what it produces. Reality is not insane, and I have real thoughts as well as insane ones. I can therefore see a real world, if I look to my real thoughs as my guide for seeing.

12 ”I am upset because I see a meaningless world.”

Insane thoughts are upsetting.They produce a world in which there is no order anywhere. Only chaos rules aworld that represents chatoic thinking, and chaos has no laws. I cannot live inpeace in such a world. I am greatful that this world is not real, and that Ineed not see it at all unless I choose to value it. And I do not choose tovalue what is totally insane and has no meaning.

13 ”A meaningless worldengenders fear.”

The totally insane engendersfear because it is completely undependable, and offers no grounds for trust.Nothing in madness is dependable. It holds out no safety and no hope. But sucha world is not real. I have given it the illusion of reality, and have sufferedfrom my belief in it. Now I choose to withdraw this belief, and place my trustin reality. In choosing this, I will escape all the effects of the world offear, because I am acknowledging that it does not exist.

14 ”God did not create ameaningless world.”

How can a meaningless worldexist if God did not create it? He is the Source of all meaning, and everythingthat is real is in His Mind. It is in my mind too, because He created it withme. Why should I continue to suffer from the effects of my own insane thoughts,when the perfection of creation is my home? Let me remember the power of mydecision, and recognize where I really abide.

15 ”My thoughts are images thatI have made.”

Whatever I see reflects mythoughts. It is my thoughts that tell me where I am and what I am. The factthat I see a world in which there is suffering and loss and death shows me thatI am seeing only the representation of my insane thoughts, and am not allowingmy real thoughts to cast their beneficent light on what I see. Yet God´s way issure. The images I have made cannot prevail against Him because it is not mywill that they do so. My will is His, and I will place no other gods beforeHim.

Love

[IA56]

LESSON 54

These are the review idea for today:

16 ”I have no neutral thoughts.”

Neutral thoughts are impossible because all thoughts have power. They will either make a false world or lead me to real one. But thoughts cannot be without effects. As the world I see arises from my thinking errors, so will the real world rise before my eyes as I let my errors be corrected. My thoughts cannot be neither true nor false. They must beone or the other. What I see shows me which they are.

17 ”I see no neutral things.”

What I see witnesses to what Ithink. If i did not think I would not exist, because life is thought. Let me look on the world I see as the representation of my own state of mine. I know that my state of mind can change. And so I also know the world I see can changeas well.

18 ”I am not alone in experiencing the effects of my seeing.”

If I have no privat thoughts, I cannot see privat world. Even the mad idea of separation had to be share dbefore it could form the basis of the world I see. Yet that sharing was a sharing of nothing. I can also call upon my real thoughts, which share everything with everyone. As my thoughts of separation call to the separation thoughts of others, so my real thoughts awaken the real thoughts in them. And the world my real thoughts show me will dawn on their sight as well as mine.

19 ”I am not alone in experiencing the effects of my thoughts.”

I am alone in nothing.Everything I think or say or do teaches all the universe. A Son of God cannot think or speak or act in vain. He cannot be alone in anything. It is therefore in my power to change every mind along with mine, for mine is the power of God.

20 ”I an determined to see.”

Recognizing the shared nature of my thoughts, I am determined to see. I would look upon the withnesses that show me the thinking of the world has been changed. I would behold the proof that what has been done though me has enabled love to replace fear, laughter to replace tears, and abudance to replace loss. I would look upon the real world,and let it teach me that my will and the Will of God are one.

Love