Lesson 69 

My grievances hide the light of the world in me. 

W-pI.69.1. No one can look upon what your grievances conceal. 2 Because your grievances are hiding the light of the world in you, everyone stands in darkness, and you beside him. 3 But as the veil of your grievances is lifted, you are released with him. 4 Share your salvation now with him who stood beside you when you were in hell. 5 He is your brother in the light of the world that saves you both. 

It is imperative that we understand what happens when we hold grievances. Grievances keep the illusion in place and keep us in hell, not just the one holding the grievance, but all of the Sonship. When one of us is in hell, we all are. Feeling separate from God is hell; even in the best of times, it is hell compared to knowing the Self and God. The one we think is our enemy is our brother and our forgiveness saves us both. Remembering the goal, awakening to our Self, what grievance could we value over that? 

W-pI.69.2. Today let us make another real attempt to reach the light in you. 2 Before we undertake this in our more extended practice period, let us devote several minutes to thinking about what we are trying to do. 3 We are literally attempting to get in touch with the salvation of the world. 4 We are trying to see past the veil of darkness that keeps it concealed. 5 We are trying to let the veil be lifted, and to see the tears of God’s Son disappear in the sunlight. 

Oh, my gosh, can you feel that? Can you imagine? The light is in us and we can reach it, even in our darkened state. We are literally attempting to get in touch with the salvation of the world. We are in charge of liberating the Sonship. Our function of accepting the Atonement for our untrue thoughts is essential to the salvation of the world because the Sonship is not complete without us. And, our acceptance of Atonement ripples through the Sonship and helps others to awaken as well. 

W-pI.69.3. Let us begin our longer practice period today with the full realization that this is so, and with real determination to reach what is dearer to us than all else. 2 Salvation is our only need. 3 There is no other purpose here, and no other function to fulfill. 4 Learning salvation is our only goal. 5 Let us end the ancient search today by finding the light in us, and holding it up for everyone who searches with us to look upon and rejoice. 

Again, Jesus is encouraging us to take this very seriously. He knows that it is hard for us to believe that we have such an important role to play and hard for us to understand how some small grievance could literally keep the Son of God in hell. He is not using hyperbolae to convince us. God’s creation is One and must remain One to be what He created. It cannot change or shift in any way and judgment, anger, fear, or guilt are not part of it. That is what hides the truth from us, and so must be undone.  

Remember, our awakened Self is what we are and has not gone anywhere, or been changed by our dream of separation. We are both awake and asleep and we only need to release the thoughts of sleep in order to experience ourselves awake. It is not hard and it is not something out of our reach. In fact, it is inevitable because it is God’s Will, and what God Wills is accomplished. Our intransigence is the cause of all suffering and we can end suffering as we release our grievances. What else could we do with our time that is as important as this? 

W-pI.69.4. Very quietly now, with your eyes closed, try to let go of all the content that generally occupies your consciousness. 2 Think of your mind as a vast circle, surrounded by a layer of heavy, dark clouds. 3 You can see only the clouds because you seem to be standing outside the circle and quite apart from it. 

W-pI.69.5. From where you stand, you can see no reason to believe there is a brilliant light hidden by the clouds. 2 The clouds seem to be the only reality. 3 They seem to be all there is to see. 4 Therefore, you do not attempt to go through them and past them, which is the only way in which you would be really convinced of their lack of substance. 5 We will make this attempt today. 

Now Jesus is giving us a meditation to help us achieve salvation. Our world as we see it is like the clouds that stand before us in the meditation. It seems so real and so solid, and yet, it is nothing. It is an illusion, as insubstantial as the clouds we are imagining. It is the manifestation of the grievances in our mind. We had never considered that we could see something besides this world we made, that there was something else to be seen. At best, we thought that we would see something better after we died, but nothing is accomplished through death. It is here in the idea of the world we made that it is undone as we give up our grievances. 

W-pI.69.6. After you have thought about the importance of what you are trying to do for yourself and the world, try to settle down in perfect stillness, remembering only how much you want to reach the light in you today,—now! 2 Determine to go past the clouds. 3 Reach out and touch them in your mind. 4 Brush them aside with your hand; feel them resting on your cheeks and forehead and eyelids as you go through them. 5 Go on; clouds cannot stop you. 

Jesus wants us to approach this meditation with intent and conviction. He wants us to remember how important this is. He also wants us to remember that we can succeed. We are, after all, part of the Family of God, and what we want is ours. We have convinced ourselves otherwise but we are wrong.  

W-pI.69.7. If you are doing the exercises properly, you will begin to feel a sense of being lifted up and carried ahead. 2 Your little effort and small determination call on the power of the universe to help you, and God Himself will raise you from darkness into light. 3 You are in accord with His Will. 4 You cannot fail because your will is His. 

Remember our previous lesson: God is my strength. Vision is His gift. We are not alone in this. The power of the universe and God Himself will raise us up. This is the Will of God and also our Will. How could we fail? 

W-pI.69.8. Have confidence in your Father today, and be certain that He has heard you and answered you. 2 You may not recognize His answer yet, but you can indeed be sure that it is given you and you will yet receive it. 3 Try, as you attempt to go through the clouds to the light, to hold this confidence in your mind. 4 Try to remember that you are at last joining your will to God’s. 5 Try to keep the thought clearly in mind that what you undertake with God must succeed. 6 Then let the power of God work in you and through you, that His Will and yours be done. 

Our part is very simple. We must desire to awaken, to save the world. We must desire to succeed and do the simple exercise that will establish our success. We may not accept our gift today, but it has been given and we will receive it. What a promise this is! I suggest that you not think about what this will feel like, just wait to be shown. And don’t judge what has been accomplished by what you feel. Accept the promise Jesus has given us that if we do as asked, we will be answered whether we are presently aware of the answer now or not. Just let the power of God work in and through you. 

W-pI.69.9. In the shorter practice periods, which you will want to do as often as possible in view of the importance of today’s idea to you and your happiness, remind yourself that your grievances are hiding the light of the world from your awareness. 2 Remind yourself also that you are not searching for it alone, and that you do know where to look for it. 3 Say, then: 

4 My grievances hide the light of the world in me. 5 I cannot see what I have hidden. 6 Yet I want to let it be revealed to me, for my salvation and the salvation of the world. 

7 Also, be sure to tell yourself: 

8 If I hold this grievance the light of the world will be hidden from me, 

if you are tempted to hold anything against anyone today. 

Include yourself in this. If the ego tempts you to guilt, forgive yourself. You are innocent.