Over the next 10 days, I will share something in each tip about our new special theme, and then I will share about the lesson for the day. I will end each tip with a recommended meditation.

What is the World?

Our special theme begins, “The world is a false perception. It is born of error, and it has not left its source.” Its source is error. In this case, it is an error about what we are. The Course calls it “the thought of separation.” The thought of separation, the ego and the I-thought are synonymous.

As Michael Langford writes, the ego “has created all the wars, diseases, death, suffering and evil that every human has ever experienced.”

It might be helpful to look at the suffering the thought of separation creates. In Chapter 5 of The Most Direct Means to Eternal Bliss, Michael Langford speaks of the “thousands of wars; thousands of diseases; thousands of forms of violence; all of the ways humans deceive, hurt, and cheat each other; and every other form of human suffering that you can think of.” I find it helpful to look at specific examples of suffering, so let me share two news stories that came to my attention today:

• Police in Kentucky say a 5-year-old boy watched helplessly as his mother was beaten, bound and thrown off a cliff over the weekend. Two hikers discovered the boy’s mother Saturday morning at the bottom of an 80-foot embankment. She survived the fall and is recovering in the hospital. Her discovery set off a search for her son. More than 200 people searched for the boy on Saturday and Sunday. Authorities found the boy’s body near where his mother was left for dead.
• Members of an indigenous tribe in Brazil’s Amazon Basin were allegedly killed by illegal gold miners, according to Survival International. The organization, which advocates for indigenous rights, said the massacre included women and children and may have wiped out one-fifth of the tribe. Members of the tribe were gathering eggs along a river in the Javari Valley, in the country’s remote west, when they came across the illegal miners. The miners later boasted about the slaughter at a bar in the nearest town, and even showed off a hand-carved paddle they claimed to have stolen as a trophy. They bragged about cutting up the bodies and throwing them in the river.

Sadly, there are many, many more stories like these that are not in the news. These stories are only a tiny sample of the suffering caused by the thought of separation everyday.

It would be helpful to read Chapter 5 from The Most Direct Means to Eternal Bliss again. Please read it at a time of your convenience today.

This holy instant is salvation come.

Our last special theme said that salvation “is a promise, made by God, that you would find your way to Him at last. It cannot but be kept. It guarantees that time will have an end, and all the thoughts that have been born in time will end as well.”

Today we celebrate this promise. We also realize that we are not passive receivers of the promise. We have a role to play. Our role is forgiveness. Forgiveness is remaining focused on our unaffected Self while failing to support the ego—choosing not to uphold it with our attention and action.

Since we are not supporting the ego, we need another way to live in the world. That way is surrender, seeking guidance from spiritual intuition by asking, “What am I to do now?” and letting it lead us in everything we think, say and do.

How glad we are to celebrate the promise of salvation today! We celebrate by joyously doing our part. We are eager to play our role in salvation. (With a heart full of joy, we make Choice A.)

If you have 45 minutes for meditation today, I recommend this meditation:

Existence-Consciousness-Bliss

If you don’t have that much time, consider this 25-minute meditation:

Miracles Meditation

If there is time in your day today, consider doing both meditations, possibly one in the morning and one before bed.

Today is our last day with our current special theme, so please take time this morning to read, “What is Salvation,” one more time. Also, contemplate Lesson 240 and spend some time in meditation. If you have 30-minutes for meditation and would like a gentle audio to guide you, I recommend this meditation:

Self Inquiry Meditation

Fear is not justified in any form.

Two days ago we noticed that our decisions are based on who we think we are. Fear is a decision. Whenever we are afraid, it is because we have decided to believe fearful thoughts in the mind. We have decided those thoughts are true, and this decision is based on who we think we are.

Look at some fearful situations. You may look at current fears or fearful situations that you remember. What is the identification that is the basis of the fear?

For example:

1. I am afraid that I will die. My identification is with the body.
2. I am afraid that I will run out of money. My identification is ‘powerless’.
3. I remember a fear of facing someone. My identification was ‘guilty’.
4. I remember a fear of inviting someone to spend time with me. My identification was ‘rejectable’.
5. Etcetera.

Today’s lesson says, “Not one thing in this world is true.” Contemplate that statement as you look at your list of fears and the identifications that caused them. Practice this type of inquiry with each one:

1. If nothing in this world is true, is this body what I am? What am I? (Pause and look at awareness.) Is awareness what I am? Is the body what I am? Which is more intimately what I am and which is more at a distance? Is awareness vulnerable like the body is vulnerable? Is it possible the body could die, and I would continue to live? Have I experienced death directly or is life all I know? Do I know that death is real or is death something that the mind imagines? (Look and see if death is something you know, like you know life, or is death only in the mind?) Does awareness have a concept of death? What am I? (Be still, and continue to notice awareness.)
2. If nothing in this world is true, is ‘powerless’ what I am? What am I? (Pause and look at awareness.) Is awareness what I am? Is powerless what I am? Which is consistently me, and which is a passing idea or feeling? Is awareness powerless? Is it vulnerable? Or is awareness present and unaffected? What am I? (Be still, and continue to notice awareness.)
3. If nothing in this world is true, is ‘guilty’ what I am? What am I? (Pause and look at awareness.) Is awareness what I am? Is guilty what I am? There may be the feeling of guilt, but what sees this feeling? What looks at it? Am I the feeling of guilt or am I that which is looking at it? Which one is more intimately me? Is awareness guilty or is it simply present, purely itself? (Be still, and continue to notice awareness.)
4. If nothing in this world is true, is ‘rejectable’ what I am? What am I? (Pause and look at awareness.) Is awareness what I am? Is rejectable what I am? Which is consistently me, and which is a passing idea or feeling? Is awareness rejectable? Can I reject awareness? (Look and see if it is possible to reject awareness.) Can awareness see itself as rejected? (Look and see if awareness believes the concept of rejection.) Does awareness reject anything? (Look and see if awareness rejects or if it is perfectly open and allowing of everything.) What am I? (Be still, and continue to notice awareness.)
5. Etcetera.

Notice that the questions changed slightly as I looked at each concept of identification. Let intuition guide your inquiry and your looking. We cannot let go of fear when we are identified with a vulnerable concept. However, as we realize the truth of what we are, which is eternally invulnerable, fear becomes meaningless.

Please take time this morning to read, “What is Salvation,” to contemplate Lesson 239, and to spend time in meditation. If you have 30-minutes for meditation and would like a gentle audio to guide you, I recommend this meditation:

Appreciating Life

The glory of my Father is my own.

I found an interesting chart on a Christian website called The Sword of Spirit. This chart shows the difference between false humility, true humility and pride. Today’s lesson begins by saying, “Let not the truth about ourselves today be hidden by false humility.” Look at the first column in the following True Humility Chart. Do you find ways that you hide the truth about yourself with false humility?

True Humility Chart

Today, whenever you notice your thoughts slipping into false humility, be instead “thankful for the gifts our Father gave us.” Practice right-gratitude, which is gratitude for awareness-life-presence as it is. Be grateful for awareness-life-presence in one’s self, in others and in nature. Let today be a day of focusing on truth with a grateful heart.

If you would like, you can review my tip from Workbook Lesson 195, Love is the way I walk in gratitude.

Please take time this morning to read, “What is Salvation,” to contemplate Lesson 238, and to spend time in meditation. If you have 30-minutes for meditation and would like a gentle audio to guide you, I recommend this meditation:

Being in Love

On my decision all salvation rests.

Our decisions are made based on who we think we are. Every decision is based on the current moment’s identity. For example, if I think someone is taking advantage of me, I will react from that identified perception.

Please contemplate the sentences above, and notice this is true for you. It might help to remember two or three recent decisions or recent reactions, which are simply fast decisions. Look to see what idea you were identified with at the moment, and notice your decision came from that identification. (For example, I recently snapped at my partner. In that moment I was identified with, “I am being pulled in too many directions at once. “)

Because our decisions are based on who we think we are, it is important to realize who we are. When we know ourselves as awareness-life-presence, we naturally make decisions that are based on love. Our decisions are based on love, because awareness-life-presence is love.

Today we contemplate the love that we are. Today’s recommended meditation will help with this contemplation. The more we contemplate the love that we are, the more we realize ourselves as love. As we see love as our Self, our decisions spring forth from that instead of from misidentification. In this way, we are effortlessly “steadfast in holiness” and a natural savior in the world.

p.s., Notice that I am not asking you to try to be love. You will always make decisions based on what you think you are, so I am asking you to notice, again and again, the truth of what you are until you naturally identify with that.