I am One Self, united with my Creator.
I am One Self, united with my Creator.
Today's idea accurately describes you as God created you.
You are one within yourself and one with Him. Yours is the unity of all
creation. Your perfect unity makes change in you impossible. You do not
accept this and you fail to realize it must be so, only because you
believe that you have changed yourself already. You see yourself as a
ridiculous parody on God's creation—weak, vicious, ugly and sinful,
miserable and beset with pain.
Such is your version of yourself—a self divided into many
warring parts, separate from God, and tenuously held together by its
erratic and capricious maker, to which you pray. It does not hear your
prayers, for it is deaf. It does not see the oneness in you, for it is
blind. It does not understand you are the Son of God, for it is
senseless and understands nothing.
We will attempt today to be aware of only what can hear and
see and what makes perfect sense. We will again direct our exercises
towards reaching your One Self, which is united with its Creator. In
patience and in hope we try again today.
The use of the first five minutes of every waking hour for
practicing the idea for the day has special advantages at the stage of
learning in which you are at present. It is difficult at this point not
to allow your mind to wander if it undertakes extended attempts. You
have surely realized this by now. You have seen the extent of your lack
of mental discipline and of your need for mind training. It is necessary
that you be aware of this, for it is indeed a hindrance to your advance.
Frequent but shorter practice periods have other advantages
for you at this time. In addition to recognizing your difficulties with
sustained attention, you must also have noticed that, unless you are
reminded of your purpose frequently, you tend to forget about it for
long periods of time. You often fail to remember the short applications
of the idea for the day, and you have not yet formed the habit of using
it as an automatic response to temptation.
Structure, then, is necessary for you at this time, planned
to include frequent reminders of your goal and regular attempts to reach
it. Regularity in terms of time is not the ideal requirement for the
most beneficial form of practice in salvation. It is advantageous,
however, for those whose motivation is inconsistent and who remain
heavily defended against learning.
We will therefore keep to the five minutes an hour practice
periods for a while and urge you to omit as few as possible. Using the
first five minutes of the hour will be particularly helpful since it
imposes firmer structure. Do not, however, use your lapses from this
schedule as an excuse not to return to it again as soon as you can.
There may well be a temptation to regard the day as lost
because you have already failed to do what is required. This should,
however, merely be recognized as what it is—a refusal to let your
mistakes be corrected and an unwillingness to try again.
The Holy Spirit is not delayed in His teaching by your
mistakes. He can be held back only by your unwillingness to let them go.
Let us therefore be determined, particularly for the next week or so, to
be willing to forgive ourselves for our lapses in diligence and our
failures to follow the instructions for practicing the day's idea.
This tolerance for weakness will enable us to overlook it,
rather than give it power to delay our learning. If we give it power to
do this, we are regarding it as strength and are confusing strength with
weakness. When you fail to comply with the requirements of this course,
you have merely made a mistake. This calls for correction and for
nothing else.
To allow a mistake to continue is to make additional
mistakes based on the first and reinforcing it. It is this process that
must be laid aside, for it is but another way in which you would defend
illusions against the truth. Let all these errors go by recognizing them
for what they are. They are attempts to keep you unaware you are One
Self, united with your Creator, at one with every aspect of creation,
and limitless in power and in peace.
This is the truth, and nothing else is true. Today we will
affirm this truth again and try to reach the place in you in which there
is no doubt that only this is true. Begin the practice periods today
with this assurance, given to your mind with all the certainty that you
can give:
*I am One Self, united with my Creator,
At one with every aspect of creation,
And limitless in power and in peace.*
Then close your eyes and tell yourself again, slowly and
thoughtfully, attempting to allow the meaning of the words to sink into
your mind, replacing false ideas:
*I am One Self.*
Repeat this several times, and then attempt to feel the
meaning which the words convey. You are One Self, united and secure in
light and joy and peace. You are God's Son, One Self with one Creator
and one goal—to bring awareness of this oneness to all minds, that true
creation may extend the Allness and the Unity of God.
You are One Self, complete and healed and whole, with
power to lift the veil of darkness from the world and let the light in
you come through to teach the world the truth about itself. You are One
Self, in perfect harmony with all there is and all that there will be.
You are One Self, the holy Son of God, united with your brothers in this
Self, united with your Father in His Will.
Feel this One Self in you, and let it shine away all your
illusions and your doubts. This is your Self, the Son of God Himself,
sinless as its Creator, with His strength within you and His love
forever yours. You are One Self, and it is given you to feel this Self
within you and to cast all your illusions out of the One Mind which is
this Self, the holy truth in you.
Do not forget today. We need your help, your little part
in bringing happiness to all the world. And Heaven looks to you in
confidence that you will try today. Share, then, its surety, for it is
yours. Be vigilant. Do not forget today.
Throughout the day do not forget your goal. Repeat today's
idea as frequently as possible and understand each time you do so,
someone hears the voice of hope, the stirring of the truth within his
mind, the gentle rustling of the wings of peace. Your own acknowledgment
you are One Self, united with your Father, is a call to all the world to
be at one with you. To everyone you meet today be sure to give the
promise of today's idea and tell him this:
*You are One Self with me,
United with our Creator in this Self.
I honor you because of what I am,
And what He is, Who loves us both as one.*