Susan Dugan and Bruce Rawles read ACIM Workbook Lesson 96, “Salvation comes from my one Self.” and reflect how to apply insights from it in this video conversation about A Course In Miracles.
In light of the ongoing global pandemic, we emphasized how the Course’s perennial wisdom – always helpful – can provide even more real, enduring comfort, strength and release (from the tyranny of uncertainty and fear) than ever before if we turn – with the help of our Inner Kindness Teacher – ego’s projected crisis into Holy Spirit’s opportunity for forgiveness, compassion, and truly shared interests. There has never been a better time to train our minds with gentle vigilance and the mature practice of listening to Spirit to minimize the viral spread of the belief in separation.
Here are the first three paragraphs, excerpted from the Lesson:
“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 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.
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.” – W-pI.96.1-3
(This video was recorded on April 8, 2020.)
If you have questions or comments about this video, prior videos in this ACIM-related video series or other Course-related topics, please email them via the ACIMblog.com contact form. Susan and Bruce will review and try to respond to questions and suggestions for future conversations. We look forward to extending the conversation with you!
Related new essay by Susan recorded on the threshold of the current pandemic: Talking with Jeff Seibert, Spring 2020
Related recommended FACIM audio by Kenneth Wapnick, Ph.D.: From Futility to Happiness: Sisyphus as Everyman.
Here are some prior ACIM-related conversations with Susan Dugan and Bruce Rawles.