LESSON 96 Salvation comes from my one Self.

1. 1Although you are one Self, you experience yourself as two; as both good and evil, loving and hating, mind and body. 2This 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. 3You have sought many such solutions, and none of them has worked. 4The oppo­sites you see in you will never be compatible. 5But one exists.

2. 1The 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. 2Until you have accepted this, you will attempt an endless list 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.

3. 1Problems that have no meaning cannot be resolved within the framework they are set. 2Two selves in conflict could not be resolved, and good and evil have no meeting place. 3The 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. 4A mind and body cannot both exist. 5Make no attempt to reconcile the two, for one denies the other can be real. 6If 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. 7If you are spirit, then the body must be meaningless to your reality.

4. 1Spirit makes use of mind as means to find its Self expression. 2And the mind which serves the spirit is at peace and filled with joy. 3Its power comes from spirit, and it is fulfilling happily its function here. 4Yet mind can also see itself divorced from spirit, and perceive itself within a body it confuses with itself. 5Without its function then it has no peace, and happiness is alien to its thoughts.

5. 1Yet mind apart from spirit cannot think. 2It has denied its Source of strength, and sees itself as helpless, limited and weak. 3Dissociated 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. 4Now must it reconcile unlike with like, for this is what it thinks that it is for.

6. 1Waste no more time on this. 2Who can resolve the senseless conflicts which a dream presents? 3What could the resolution mean in truth? 4What purpose could it serve? 5What is it for? 6Salvation cannot make illusions real, nor solve a problem that does not exist. 7Perhaps you hope it can. 8Yet would you have God’s plan for the release of His dear Son bring pain to him, and fail to set him free?

7. 1Your Self retains Its Thoughts, and they remain within your mind and in the Mind of God. 2The Holy Spirit holds salvation in your mind, and offers it the way to peace. 3Salvation is a thought you share with God, because His Voice accepted it for you and answered in your name that it was done. 4Thus is salvation kept among the Thoughts your Self holds dear and cherishes for you.

8. 1We will attempt today to find this thought, whose presence in your mind is guaranteed by Him Who speaks to you from your one Self. 2Our hourly five-minute practicing will be a search for Him within your mind. 3Salvation comes from this one Self through Him Who is the Bridge between your mind and It. 4Wait 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.

9. 1Begin with saying this:

2Salvation comes from my one Self. 3Its Thoughts are mine to use.

4Then seek Its Thoughts, and claim them as your own. 5These 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. 6Here are your thoughts, the only ones you have. 7Salvation is among them; find it there.

10. 1If 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. 2Your Self will welcome it and give it peace. 3Re­stored in strength, it will again flow out from spirit to the spirit in all things created by the Spirit as Itself. 4Your mind will bless all things. 5Confusion done, you are restored, for you have found your Self.

11. 1Your Self knows that you cannot fail today. 2Perhaps your mind remains uncertain yet a little while. 3Be not dismayed by this. 4The joy your Self experiences It will save for you, and it will yet be yours in full awareness. 5Every 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.

12. 1Each time today you tell your frantic mind salvation comes from your one Self, you lay another treasure in your growing store. 2And all of it is given everyone who asks for it, and will accept the gift. 3Think, then, how much is given unto you to give this day, that it be given you!