LESSON 39
My holiness is my salvation.
If guilt is hell, what is its opposite? Like the text for which this workbook was written, the ideas used for the exercises are very simple, very clear and totally unambiguous. We are not concerned with intellectual feats nor logical toys. We are dealing only in the very obvious, which has been overlooked in the clouds of complexity in which you think you think.
If guilt is hell, what is its opposite? This is not difficult, surely. The hesitation you may feel in answering is not due to the ambiguity of the question. But do you believe that guilt is hell? If you did, you would see at once how direct and simple the text is, and you would not need a workbook at all. No one needs practice to gain what is already his.
We have already said that your holiness is the salvation of the world. What about your own salvation? You cannot give what you do not have. A savior must be saved. How else can he teach salvation? Today's exercises will apply to you, recognizing that your salvation is crucial to the salvation of the world. As you apply the exercises to your world, the whole world stands to benefit.
Your holiness is the answer to every question that was ever asked, is being asked now, or will be asked in the future. Your holiness means the end of guilt, and therefore the end of hell. Your holiness is the salvation of the world, and your own. How could you to whom your holiness belongs be excluded from it? God does not know unholiness. Can it be He does not know His Son?
A full five minutes are urged for the four longer practice periods for today, and longer and more frequent practice sessions are encouraged. If you want to exceed the minimum requirements, more rather than longer sessions are recommended, although both are suggested.
Begin the practice periods as usual, by repeating today's idea to yourself. Then, with closed eyes, search out your unloving thoughts in whatever form they appear; uneasiness, depression, anger, fear, worry, attack, insecurity and so on. Whatever form they take, they are unloving and therefore fearful. And so it is from them that you need to be saved.
Specific situations, events or personalities you associate with unloving thoughts of any kind are suitable subjects for today's exercises. It is imperative for your salvation that you see them differently. And it is your blessing on them that will save you and give you vision.
Slowly, 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. Apply the idea for today to each of them in this way:
My unloving thoughts about ___ are keeping me in hell.
My holiness is my salvation.
You 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. You 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. Sustained concentration is very difficult at first. It will become much easier as your mind becomes more disciplined and less distractible.
Meanwhile, you should feel free to introduce variety into the exercise periods in whatever form appeals to you. Do not, however, change the idea itself as you vary the method of applying it. However you elect to use it, the idea should be stated so that its meaning is the fact that your holiness is your salvation. 4 End each practice period by repeating the idea in its original form once more, and adding:
If guilt is hell, what is its opposite?
In 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. If temptations arise, a particularly helpful form of the idea is:
My holiness is my salvation from this.
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Lesson 39
“My holiness is my salvation.”
In the Text we learn that the guilt that comes with wanting a to have a separate identity is the foundation for the projected world of separation we see. With the belief that we really did separate from our Source came guilt and fear of God’s reprisal. We tied to hide from the guilt we secretely believed was ours by projecting this guilt onto a made up world that we believed was separate from us.
We are now learning to recognize that the physical world we see is just the effect of projected guilt. The guilt now looks like it has been hurled outside of us, but the truth is it has not left the split mind that is its source. The more we try to see guilt “out there,” the more we are reinforcing it in our minds.
The truth is that this guilt that comes with our continued belief in separation is the real source of all our problems — It is the source of our belief in limitation, all our worry, stress, illness and lack of any kind. Guilt is hell. In this lesson Jesus tells us, “Your holiness means the end of guilt, and therefore the end of hell.”
As I look at the script of my life, I can see the many forms of limitation and guilt that I have believed in. I see that this ‘life’ script came from unloving thoughts. I am seeing that I need to look closely at every unloving thought: every apprehension, every form of suffering I am making real through my belief and hand it over to the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit will reverse this belief and show me that the truth of my holiness is my salvation.
This practice today helps me to heal all the false ideas that have guilt as their foundation. I am open to healing my mind today by looking at all the barriers to my holiness, all the thoughts that are unlike universal Love. Love is one. Love is universal. I let myself today be aware of the unloving thoughts that I am holding on to.
Guilt is hell. How long do I want to stay in hell? It is my choice. Today I am willing to recognize the thoughts that keep me in hell, keep me in limitation. I am ready to be brought back to wholeness, holiness. I am ready to let go of believing in separation, of believing that I am a separate person, unique and different from universal Love. I am ready to return to happiness.
My holiness is God’s holiness because He created me as an extension of Himself. If I share His holiness, I must also share His strength. So today’s idea could also be phrased, the strength of God is my salvation. With this idea, I feel great relief. Today’s lesson lists many of the kinds of unloving thoughts that we experience daily -- anger, worry, fear, etc. In looking at these, I realize that they all stem from a belief in weakness, which is another way of saying unworthiness.
When I think of myself as weak, I think of myself as unable to do what God would have me do, which in essence is saying unable to Love. If I believe I am unable to Love, guilt is inevitable. Yet the strength of God is in me, so that must be a mistaken idea. God is Love. The strength of God in me enables me to Love. It cannot be that I am unable to Love. God is only Love, so in truth I must only be Love. Thus there can be no justification for guilt. Wow! That shoots holes in every justification there seems to be for guilt. It’s over. It never was. Truly, my holiness is my salvation. Thank you God.
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