Salvation comes from my One Self.
Salvation comes from my One Self.
Although you are One Self, you experience yourself as
two—as both good and evil, loving and hating, mind and body. This sense
of being split into opposites induces feelings of acute and constant
conflict and leads to frantic attempts to reconcile the contradictory
aspects of this self-perception. You have sought many such solutions,
and none of them has worked. The opposites you see in you will never be
compatible. But one exists.
The fact that truth and illusion cannot be reconciled, no
matter how you try, what means you use, and where you see the problem,
must be accepted if you would be saved. Until you have accepted this,
you will attempt endless lists of goals you cannot reach; a senseless
series of expenditures of time and effort, hopefulness and doubt, each
one as futile as the one before and failing as the next one surely will.
Problems that have no meaning cannot be resolved within the
framework they are set. Two selves in conflict could not be resolved,
and good and evil have no meeting place. The self you made can never be
your Self, nor can your Self be split in two and still be what it is and
must forever be.
A mind and body cannot both exist. Make no attempt to
reconcile the two, for one denies the other can be real. If you are
physical, your mind is gone from your self-concept, for it has no place
in which it could be really part of you. If you are Spirit, then the
body must be meaningless to your reality.
Spirit makes use of mind as means to find its
Self-expression. And the mind which serves the Spirit is at peace and
filled with joy. Its power comes from Spirit, and it is fulfilling
happily its function here. Yet mind can also see itself divorced from
Spirit and perceive itself within a body it confuses with itself.
Without its function then, it has no peace, and happiness is alien to
its thoughts.
Yet mind apart from Spirit cannot think. It has denied its
Source of strength and sees itself as helpless, limited, and weak.
Dissociated from its function now, it thinks it is alone and separate,
attacked by armies massed against itself and hiding in the body's frail
support. Now must it reconcile unlike with like, for this is what it
thinks that it is for.
Waste no more time on this. Who can resolve the senseless
conflicts which a dream presents? What could the resolution mean in
truth? What purpose could it serve? What is it for? Salvation cannot
make illusions real and solve a problem that does not exist. Perhaps you
hope it can. Yet would you have God's plan for the release of His dear
Son bring pain to him and fail to set him free?
Your Self retains its thoughts, and they remain within your
mind and in the Mind of God. The Holy Spirit holds salvation in your
mind and offers it the way to peace. Salvation is a thought you share
with God, because His Voice accepted it for you and answered in your
name that it was done. Thus is salvation kept among the thoughts your
Self holds dear and cherishes for you.
We will attempt today to find this thought, whose presence
in your mind is guaranteed by Him Who speaks to you from your One Self.
Our hourly five minute practicing will be a search for Him within your
mind. Salvation comes from this One Self through Him Who is the bridge
between your mind and it.
Wait patiently, and let Him speak to you about your Self,
and what your mind can do, restored to it and free to serve its will.
Begin by saying this:
*Salvation comes from my One Self. Its thoughts are mine
to use.*
Then seek its thoughts, and claim them as your own.
These are your own real thoughts you have denied, and let
your mind go wandering in a world of dreams, to find illusions in their
place. Here are your thoughts, the only ones you have. Salvation is
among them; find it there.
If you succeed, the thoughts that come to you will tell
you you are saved and that your mind has found the function that it
sought to lose. Your Self will welcome it and give it peace. Restored in
strength, it will again flow out from Spirit to the Spirit in all things
created by the Spirit as Itself. Your mind will bless all things.
Confusion done, you are restored, for you have found your Self.
Your Self knows that you cannot fail today. Perhaps your
mind remains uncertain yet a little while. Be not dismayed by this. The
joy your Self experiences it will save for you, and it will yet be yours
in full awareness. Every time you spend five minutes of the hour seeking
Him Who joins your mind and Self, you offer Him another treasure to be
kept for you.
Each time today you tell your frantic mind salvation comes
from your One Self, you lay another treasure in your growing store. And
all of it is given everyone who asks for it and will accept the gift.
Think, then, how much is given unto you to give this day, that it be
given you!