LESSON 72 Holding grievances is an attack on God’s plan for salvation.

1. 1While we have recognized that the ego’s plan for salvation is the opposite of God’s, we have not yet emphasized that it is an active attack on His plan, and a deliberate attempt to destroy it. 2In the attack, God is assigned the attributes which are actually associated with the ego, while the ego appears to take on the attributes of God.

2. 1The ego’s fundamental wish is to replace God. 2In fact, the ego is the physical embodiment of that wish. 3For it is that wish that seems to surround the mind with a body, keeping it separate and alone, and unable to reach other minds except through the body that was made to imprison it. 4The limit on communication cannot be the best means to expand communication. 5Yet the ego would have you believe that it is.

3. 1Although the attempt to keep the limitations that a body would impose is obvious here, it is perhaps not so apparent why holding grievances is an attack on God’s plan for salvation. 2But let us consider the kinds of things you are apt to hold grievances for. 3Are they not always associated with something a body does? 4A person says something you do not like. 5He does something that displeases you. 6He “betrays” his hostile thoughts in his behavior.

4. 1You are not dealing here with what the person is. 2On the contrary, you are exclusively concerned with what he does in a body. 3You are doing more than failing to help in freeing him from the body’s limitations. 4You are actively trying to hold him to it by confusing it with him, and judging them as one. 5Herein is God attacked, for if His Son is only a body, so must He be as well. 6A creator wholly unlike his creation is inconceivable.

5. 1If God is a body, what must His plan for salvation be? 2What could it be but death? 3In trying to present Himself as the Author of life and not of death, He is a liar and a deceiver, full of false promises and offering illusions in place of truth. 4The body’s ap­parent reality makes this view of God quite convincing. 5In fact, if the body were real, it would be difficult indeed to escape this conclusion. 6And every grievance that you hold insists that the body is real. 7It overlooks entirely what your brother is. 8It rein­forces your belief that he is a body, and condemns him for it. 9And it asserts that his salvation must be death, projecting this attack onto God, and holding Him responsible for it.

6. 1To this carefully prepared arena, where angry animals seek for prey and mercy cannot enter, the ego comes to save you. 2God made you a body. 3Very well. 4Let us accept this and be glad. 5As a body, do not let yourself be deprived of what the body offers. 6Take the little you can get. 7God gave you nothing. 8The body is your only savior. 9It is the death of God and your salvation.

7. 1This is the universal belief of the world you see. 2Some hate the body, and try to hurt and humiliate it. 3Others love the body, and try to glorify and exalt it. 4But while the body stands at the center of your concept of yourself, you are attacking God’s plan for salvation, and holding your grievances against Him and His crea­tion, that you may not hear the Voice of truth and welcome It as Friend. 5Your chosen savior takes His place instead. 6It is your friend; He is your enemy.

8. 1We will try today to stop these senseless attacks on salvation. 2We will try to welcome it instead. 3Your upside-down perception has been ruinous to your peace of mind. 4You have seen yourself in a body and the truth outside you, locked away from your awareness by the body’s limitations. 5Now we are going to try to see this differently.

9. 1The light of truth is in us, where it was placed by God. 2It is the body that is outside us, and is not our concern. 3To be without a body is to be in our natural state. 4To recognize the light of truth in us is to recognize ourselves as we are. 5To see our Self as separate from the body is to end the attack on God’s plan for salvation, and to accept it instead. 6And wherever His plan is accepted, it is accomplished already.

10. 1Our goal in the longer practice periods today is to become aware that God’s plan for salvation has already been accom­plished in us. 2To achieve this goal, we must replace attack with acceptance. 3As long as we attack it, we cannot understand what God’s plan for us is. 4We are therefore attacking what we do not recognize. 5Now we are going to try to lay judgment aside, and ask what God’s plan for us is:

6What is salvation, Father? 7I do not know. 8Tell me, that I may understand.

9Then we will wait in quiet for His answer. 10We have attacked God’s plan for salvation without waiting to hear what it is. 11We have shouted our grievances so loudly that we have not listened to His Voice. 12We have used our grievances to close our eyes and stop our ears.

11. 1Now we would see and hear and learn. 2“What is salvation, Father?” 3Ask and you will be answered. 4Seek and you will find. 5We are no longer asking the ego what salvation is and where to find it. 6We are asking it of truth. 7Be certain, then, that the answer will be true because of Whom you ask.

12. 1Whenever you feel your confidence wane and your hope of success flicker and go out, repeat your question and your request, remembering that you are asking of the infinite Creator of infin­ity, Who created you like Himself:

2What is salvation, Father? 3I do not know. 4Tell me, that I may understand.

5He will answer. 6Be determined to hear.

13. 1One or perhaps two shorter practice periods an hour will be enough for today, since they will be somewhat longer than usual. 2These exercises should begin with this:

3Holding grievances is an attack on God’s plan for salvation. 4Let me accept it instead. 5What is salvation, Father?

6Then wait a minute or so in silence, preferably with your eyes closed, and listen for His answer.