Library of Christ Mind Teachings
ACIM Original Edition
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1 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.
2 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.
3 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.
4 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?
5 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.
6 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.
7 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.
8 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:
9 My unloving thoughts about _____ are keeping me in hell.
My holiness is my salvation.
10 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.
11 Meanwhile, you should feel free to introduce variety into your
practice 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.
12 End each practice period by repeating the idea in its original form
once more, and adding:
13 If guilt is hell, what is its opposite?
14 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:
15 My holiness is my salvation from this.