In Jesus’ day, people thought ‘salvation’ was being freed from Roman occupancy and returning the government to a righteous Jewish king (messiah) that would be selected by God. This religious governmental structure was called “the kingdom of God.”

“Now when [Jesus] was asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, He answered them and said, “The kingdom of God does not come with observation; nor will they say, ‘See here!’ or ‘See there!’ For indeed, the kingdom of God is within you.”
~ Luke 17:20, 21

When today’s lesson says, “My salvation comes from me,” it means the same thing that Jesus meant when he said, “the kingdom of God is within you.” However, there is a lot more within you than the little self. “My salvation comes from me” does not mean that the little self saves itself. It cannot. Nor does it mean that absolutely nothing is required of the little self.

It may be helpful to look at it this way: There is no clear dividing line between the little self and truth. The little self’s mental chatter is like the foam on a wave. The personal sense of self is like a wave. Internal wisdom is like the part of the ocean that can be reached by the light of the sun. The source is like the depth of the ocean that is beyond the sun’s reach. Although on the one hand there are degrees of difference between these aspects of the ocean, they are all ocean.

In this figurative example, you are the ocean. If you are the ocean, then you are the mental chatter, the individual sense of self, internal wisdom and the source. So when we say that your salvation comes from you, all these parts of you can participate in your salvation.

• The part of the mind that engages in mental chatter can contemplate the workbook lesson or practice inquiry instead of chattering meaninglessly

• The sense of self can rest in awareness instead of resting in mental chatter

• Inner wisdom can provide guidance

• The source can awaken us entirely

As you see, “my salvation comes from me,” but it doesn’t come from one part of me in a vacuum. All parts of me cooperate in salvation. From the perspective of the little self, I have a part in my awakening and God (grace, the universe) has a part in my awakening too. So as yesterday’s lesson emphasized, I do my part and trust that God (the deeper parts of the ocean) will do its part.

Awakening is a focus for the whole of me, or all of me, as one joined will.

Many people undertake spiritual practice with this personal point-of-view in tact:

I am not worthy of God/awakening. I have to struggle against God/reality to try to awaken. (Of course, in the end it is never going to happen anyway, because I am not worthy of it.)

It’s important to notice that Lesson 69 says the opposite:

“Your little effort and small determination call on the power of the universe to help you, and God Himself (reality itself) will raise you from darkness into light. You are in accord with His (its) Will. … Have confidence in your Father (source) today.”

We can lack the desire and intention for awakening, which is to be “too loose.” When we are too loose we do not call on God (the universe) to help us awaken.

We can also have the hidden attitude stated above where we feel we have to struggle with all of our might for something we will never quite be able to reach, which is to be “too tight.” This reinforces the ego’s belief system.

I am a fan of “the middle way.” The middle way is between too loose and too tight.

The middle way attitude recognizes that the goal of Self-realization is “dearer to us than all else.” It softly and lovingly holds this acknowledgement in the heart.

The middle way attitude gives willing attention to spiritual practice because the goal of awakening is “dearer to us than all else.” It continues in the direction of awakening, even amongst other things that are happening in life, with an underlying confidence that:

~ Awakening is possible for me

~ Awakening is God’s (the universe’s) will for all of us

~ If I simply put one foot in front of the other consistently and do not forget my purpose, God (the universe) will recognize my readiness and naturally respond by doing its part

When we walk the middle way, we remember to practice and we practice willingly, but we also have confidence in something beyond the little self to assist in bringing us to truth. We don’t have lack of interest and we aren’t struggling like we have to bend the universe against its will. We have confidence that we are working in cooperation with God (the universe) in a joined will, one we are becoming fully ready for now. … God (the universe) was already ready.

“Your little effort and small determination call on the power of the universe to help you, and God Himself (reality itself) will raise you from darkness into light. You are in accord with His (its) Will. … Have confidence in your Father (source) today.”

1 – Our brain processes over 4 billion bits of data per second, but we only aware of about 2000 bits of data per second. We select the data that is most related to our individual body, and pay attention only to that.

2 – At the quantum level, one thing can appear in many places simultaneously.

This tip is for those who are new to meditation.

As you know, we are now practicing awareness-watching-awareness for at least 10-15 minutes per day. Today’s workbook lesson gives good instructions for moving into the awareness-watching-awareness practice. It says:

Commentary on Happiness:

Happiness is our natural state, quite literally. This is difficult for many people to believe since the ego is constantly chattering that we need one thing or another in order to be happy. However, the only thing that blocks our natural state is belief in the ego’s ideas. Therefore forgiveness, which is removing attention from ego, is the means of realizing happiness.

We are going to spend two days with lesson 65, because lesson 65 represents two important objectives:

1 – Realizing total commitment to awakening by realizing truth is the only thing we really want.

2 – Seeing that mind’s thinking is filled with other goals & desires, which distract from our commitment to awakening.

As we’ve learned from both NTI Ephesians and The Code, the thoughts that show up in our mind and seem like our personal thoughts are not really ours. They are part of the code. They are made up by totality’s deluded fascination with the dream. As totality involves itself with dream-thoughts, more dream-thoughts become manifest. We experience those manufactured thoughts as ‘my thoughts’, but they aren’t what they appear to be. That means the goals imbedded in those thoughts are not ours either.

Ultimately, it also means that we are not the character/person those thoughts tell us we are. The entire thought-driven identification is a hoax.

The word “salvation” as it is presented in A Course in Miracles means awakening from this hoax, from this deluded fascination with the dream, and awakening to our truth. It is called “salvation” because all suffering…ours, the suffering of others and the suffering of the planet…comes from the dream and is activated by attention on the dream.

Remember, the real is the father of the unreal. The unreal gets its apparent reality from our attention. The unreal seems real, because the one engrossed by it is real. It seems real because we are looking at it through our attention, which is real.

What are we? It’s time that we turn our attention from this temporal illusion to discover what we, the watcher, is.

“My only function is the one God gave me.” That function is determining the difference between what is unreal and what I am, removing attention from what is unreal and abiding as myself. Ultimately, abiding as myself—being who I am—is my function.

As you look at thoughts today and tomorrow, try to see beyond the story being presented to the content of the thought. The content is the energy that the thought represents. Is it fear? Worry? Guilt? Unworthiness? Attack? Defense? Jealousy? Control? etc.

After you notice the content, ask yourself, “Is [content] what I want?” It will be easy to see it isn’t. Then you can genuinely go on to say, “This thought reflects a goal that is preventing me from accepting my function.”

It may be helpful to pick a few lines from today’s lesson that really jumps out at you, and write a few related thoughts about each of those sentences. I did that this morning after practicing the longer morning meditation. Here is my journaling:

“The purpose of the world you see is to obscure your function of forgiveness, and provide you with a justification for forgetting it.” The world presents many things to think about. I can see that the world is nothing but endless stimuli for thought. However, my purpose now is to ‘forget everything. Become the spontaneous moment and nothing else.’ I am heart-committed to my purpose. Therefore, I will recognize the world’s stimuli as temptation, and I will remember my purpose. I will do this, because I want to. I am ready to let go of endless attention on mind.

The purpose of today’s workbook lesson is to motivate us to practice forgiveness. When you allow related thoughts to come to you today, allow the thoughts that motivate you. Maybe your motivation is a little different than ‘salvation of the world.’ That’s ok. Whatever it is, let it come.

For my morning contemplation, I put pen to paper and just let the thoughts come as they did. I wrote that I want what I have always wanted:

What is forgiveness? It is letting go of the untrue and placing attention with the true instead.

When you read A Course in Miracles, it is helpful to know that the thoughts its scribe suffered from were attack thoughts. Her mind fiercely attacked nearly every person she ever met. There were a few people who sparked compassion in her, but the majority of her experience was one of attack. Since this was her primary experience, the Course focuses on attack. After all, she was writing this Course for herself.

Here are some things to contemplate as you contemplate today’s workbook lesson:

In our reading from ‘I Am That’ at the last Gentle Healing Group, Nisargadatta pointed to your reality as that which “imparts reality to all it touches.” I said that your reality, awareness/attention, is the light of the world, and I asked you to be aware of that as you contemplate today’s lesson.