If guilt is hell, what is its opposite? Like the text for which this
workbook was written, the ideas which are used for the exercises are
very simple, very clear and totally unambiguous. We are not concerned
with intellectual feats nor logical toys. We are dealing only in the very
obvious, which has been overlooked in the clouds of complexity in which
you think you think.
If guilt is hell, what is its opposite? This is not difficult,
surely. The hesitation you may feel in answering is not due to the
ambiguity of the question. But do you believe that guilt is hell? If you
did, you would see at once how direct and simple the text is, and you
would not need a workbook at all. No-one needs practice to gain what is
already his.
We have already said that your holiness is the salvation of the
world. What about your own salvation? You cannot give what you do not
have. A savior must be saved. How else can he teach salvation? Today’s
exercises will apply to you alone, recognizing that your salvation is
crucial to the salvation of the world. As you apply the exercises to
your own world, the whole world stands to benefit.
Your holiness is the answer to every question that was ever asked, is
being asked now, or will be asked in the future. Your holiness means the
end of guilt, and therefore the end of hell. Your holiness is the
salvation of the world, and your own. How could you to whom your
holiness belongs be excluded from it? God does not know unholiness. Can
it be He does not know His Son?
A full five minutes are urged for the four longer practice periods for
today. Longer and more frequent practice sessions are encouraged. If you
want to exceed the minimum requirements, more rather than longer
sessions are recommended, although both are encouraged.
Begin the practice periods as usual, by repeating today’s idea to
yourself. Then, with closed eyes, search out your unloving thoughts in
whatever form they appear; uneasiness, depression, anger, fear, worry,
attack, insecurity and so on. Whatever form they take, they are unloving
and therefore fearful. And so it is from them that you need
to be saved.
Specific situations, events or personalities you associate with unloving
thoughts of any kind are suitable subjects for today’s exercises. It is
imperative for your own salvation that you see them differently. And it
is your blessing on them that will save you and give you vision.
Slowly, without conscious selection and without undue emphasis on any
one in particular, search your mind for every thought that stands
between you and your salvation. Apply the idea for today to each one of
them in this way:
“My unloving thoughts about _____ are keeping me in hell.
My holiness is my salvation.”
You may find these sessions easier if you intersperse the applications
with several short periods during which you merely repeat today’s idea
to yourself slowly a few times. You may also find it helpful to include a
few short intervals in which you just relax and do not seem to be
thinking of anything. Sustained concentration is very difficult at
first. It will become much easier as your mind becomes more disciplined
and less distractible.
Meanwhile, you should feel free to introduce variety into your
application periods, in whatever form appeals to you. Do not, however,
change the idea itself in varying the method of applying it. However you
elect to use it, the idea should be stated so that its meaning remains
that your holiness is your salvation.
End each practice period by repeating the idea in its original form once
more, and adding:
“If guilt is hell, what is its opposite?”
In the shorter applications, which should be made some three or four
times an hour and more if possible, you may ask yourself this question,
repeat today’s idea, or preferably both. If temptations arise, a
particularly helpful form of the idea is:
“My holiness is my salvation from this.”