Today’s idea is merely another way of saying, “Let me not wander into
temptation.” The purpose of the world you see is to obscure your
function of forgiveness, and provide you with a justification for
forgetting it. It is the temptation to abandon God and His Son, taking
on a physical appearance. It is this which the body’s eyes look upon.
Nothing the body’s eyes seem to see can be anything but a form of
temptation, since this was the purpose of the body itself. Yet we have
learned that the Holy Spirit has another use for all the illusions you
have made, and therefore He sees another purpose in them. To the Holy
Spirit, the world is a place where you learn to forgive yourself what
you think of as your sins. In this perception, the physical appearance
of temptation becomes the spiritual recognition of salvation.
To review our last few lessons, your function here is to be the light of
the world, a function given you by God. It is only the arrogance of the
ego that leads you to question this, and only the fear of the ego that
induces you to regard yourself as unworthy of the task assigned to you
by God Himself.
The world’s salvation awaits your forgiveness, because through it does
the Son of God escape from all illusions and thus from all temptation.
The Son of God is you. Only by fulfilling the function given you by God
will you be happy. That is because your function is to be happy by using
the means by which happiness becomes inevitable.
There is no other way. Therefore every time you choose whether or not to
fulfill your function, you are really choosing whether to be happy or
not. Let us remember this today. Let us remind ourselves of it in the
morning and again at night, and all through the day as well.
Prepare yourself in advance for all the decisions you will make today by
remembering that they are all really very simple. Each one will lead to
happiness or unhappiness. Can such a simple decision
really be difficult to make? Let not the form of the decision deceive
you. Complexity of form does not imply complexity of content. It is
impossible that any decision on earth can have a content different from
just this one simple choice. That is the only choice the Holy Spirit
sees. Therefore it is the only choice there is.
Today, then, let us practice with these thoughts:
“Let me not forget my function.”
“Let me not try to substitute mine for God’s.”
“Let me forgive and be happy.”
At least once devote ten or fifteen minutes to reflecting on this with
closed eyes. Related thoughts will come to help you, if you remember the
crucial importance of your function to you and to the world.
In the frequent applications of today’s idea to be made throughout the
day, devote several minutes to reviewing the thoughts, and then to
thinking about them and about nothing else. This will be difficult at
first particularly, since you are not proficient in the mind discipline
which it requires. You may need to repeat “Let me not forget my function”
quite often, to help you concentrate.
Two forms of shorter practice periods are required. At times, do the
exercises with your eyes closed, trying to concentrate on the thoughts
you are applying. At other times keep your eyes open after reviewing the
thoughts and look slowly and unselectively about you, telling yourself:
“This is the world it is my function to save.”