ACIM Lesson 95

1. Today’s idea accurately describes you as God created you. ²You are one within yourself, and one with Him. ³Yours is the unity of all creation. ⁴Your perfect unity makes change in you impossible. ⁵You do not accept this, and you fail to realize it must be so, only because you believe that you have changed yourself already.

Simpler:

You are whole and can’t be anything else. It only seems otherwise because you think you’ve already made yourself different.

This “Simpler” version is an experiment, it might fail!

2. You see yourself as a ridiculous parody on God’s creation; weak, vicious, ugly and sinful, miserable and beset with pain. ²Such is your version of yourself; a self divided into many warring parts, separate from God, and tenuously held together by its erratic and capricious maker, to which you pray. ³It does not hear your prayers, for it is deaf. ⁴It does not see the oneness in you, for it is blind. ⁵It does not understand you are the Son of God, for it is senseless and understands nothing.

Simpler:

You picture yourself as a broken, miserable thing, and you look for help from the very thing that invented that picture. It can’t help, because it can’t hear, see, or understand anything.

3. We will attempt today to be aware only of what can hear and see, and what makes perfect sense. ²We will again direct our exercises towards reaching your one Self, which is united with Its Creator. ³In patience and in hope we try again today.

Simpler:

Today we turn toward the part of you that does see and understand, your one Self joined with God, and we try again patiently.

4. The use of the first five minutes of every waking hour for practicing the idea for the day has special advantages at the stage of learning in which you are at present. ²It is difficult at this point not to allow your mind to wander, if it undertakes extended practice. ³You have surely realized this by now. ⁴You have seen the extent of your lack of mental discipline, and of your need for mind training. ⁵It is necessary that you be aware of this, for it is indeed a hindrance to your advance.

Simpler:

Practice for the first five minutes of each waking hour. Short sessions suit you right now, because your mind still wanders in longer ones, and it helps to be honest about that.

5. Frequent but shorter practice periods have other advantages for you at this time. ²In addition to recognizing your difficulties with sustained attention, you must also have noticed that, unless you are reminded of your purpose frequently, you tend to forget about it for long periods of time. ³You often fail to remember the short applications of the idea for the day, and you have not yet formed the habit of using the idea as an automatic response to temptation.

Simpler:

Short, frequent sessions also keep you from forgetting. Without regular reminders you lose track of the practice for hours, and using the idea when tempted isn’t a habit yet.

6. Structure, then, is necessary for you at this time, planned to include frequent reminders of your goal and regular attempts to reach it. ²Regularity in terms of time is not the ideal requirement for the most beneficial form of practice in salvation. ³It is advantageous, however, for those whose motivation is inconsistent, and who remain heavily defended against learning.

Simpler:

You need a schedule for now. It isn’t the ideal way to practice, but it helps while your motivation is uneven and you still resist learning.

7. We will, therefore, keep to the five-minutes-an-hour practice periods for a while, and urge you to omit as few as possible. ²Using the first five minutes of the hour will be particularly helpful, since it imposes firmer structure. ³Do not, however, use your lapses from this schedule as an excuse not to return to it again as soon as you can. ⁴There may well be a temptation to regard the day as lost because you have already failed to do what is required. ⁵This should, however, merely be recognized as what it is; a refusal to let your mistake be corrected, and an unwillingness to try again.

Simpler:

Keep to five minutes at the top of each hour and skip as few as you can. If you miss one, just come back to it. Writing off the day is only a way of refusing to try again.

8. The Holy Spirit is not delayed in His teaching by your mistakes. ²He can be held back only by your unwillingness to let them go. ³Let us therefore be determined, particularly for the next week or so, to be willing to forgive ourselves for our lapses in diligence, and our failures to follow the instructions for practicing the day’s idea. ⁴This tolerance for weakness will enable us to overlook it, rather than give it power to delay our learning. ⁵If we give it power to do this, we are regarding it as strength, and are confusing strength with weakness.

Simpler:

Mistakes don’t slow your learning; holding on to them does. So forgive yourself when you slip. Treating a lapse as a big deal gives a weakness power it doesn’t have.

9. When you fail to comply with the requirements of this course, you have merely made a mistake. ²This calls for correction, and for nothing else. ³To allow a mistake to continue is to make additional mistakes, based on the first and reinforcing it. ⁴It is this process that must be laid aside, for it is but another way in which you would defend illusions against the truth.

Simpler:

Missing a practice is only a mistake, and a mistake just needs correcting. Letting it run on piles more mistakes on top of it, which is one more way of defending illusions against the truth.

10. Let all these errors go by recognizing them for what they are. ²They are attempts to keep you unaware you are one Self, united with your Creator, at one with every aspect of creation, and limitless in power and in peace. ³This is the truth, and nothing else is true. ⁴Today we will affirm this truth again, and try to reach the place in you in which there is no doubt that only this is true.

Simpler:

Drop these errors by seeing what they’re for: keeping you from knowing you are one Self, joined with God and everything else. That alone is true, and today we try to reach the place in you that knows it.

11. Begin the practice periods today with this assurance, offered to your mind with all the certainty that you can give:²I am one Self, united with my Creator, at one with every aspect of creation, and limitless in power and in peace.³Then close your eyes and tell yourself again, slowly and thoughtfully, attempting to allow the meaning of the words to sink into your mind, replacing false ideas:⁴I am one Self.⁵Repeat this several times, and then attempt to feel the meaning that the words convey.

Begin each session by affirming, as surely as you can, that you are one Self, joined with God and all creation. Then close your eyes, repeat “I am one Self” slowly a few times, and try to feel its meaning.

12. You are one Self, united and secure in light and joy and peace. ²You are God’s Son, one Self, with one Creator and one goal; to bring awareness of this oneness to all minds, that true creation may extend the allness and the unity of God. ³You are one Self, complete and healed and whole, with power to lift the veil of darkness from the world, and let the light in you come through to teach the world the truth about yourself.

Simpler:

You are one Self, whole and safe, with one Creator and one purpose: to help every mind know this oneness. The light in you can lift the world’s darkness and show it what you really are.

13. You are one Self, in perfect harmony with all there is, and all that there will be. ²You are one Self, the holy Son of God, united with your brothers in that Self; united with your Father in His Will. ³Feel this one Self in you, and let It shine away all your illusions and your doubts. ⁴This is your Self, the Son of God Himself, sinless as Its Creator, with His strength within you and His Love forever yours. ⁵You are one Self, and it is given you to feel this Self within you, and to cast all your illusions out of the one Mind that is this Self, the holy truth in you.

Simpler:

You are one Self, in harmony with everything, joined with your brothers and with God. Feel that Self in you and let it clear away your illusions and doubts. It is as sinless as its Creator, and His strength and Love are yours.

14. Do not forget today. ²We need your help; your little part in bringing happiness to all the world. ³And Heaven looks to you in confidence that you will try today. ⁴Share, then, it’s surety, for it is yours. ⁵Be vigilant. ⁶Do not forget today.⁷Throughout the day do not forget your goal. ⁸Repeat today’s idea as frequently as possible, and understand each time you do so, someone hears the voice of hope, the stirring of the truth within his mind, the gentle rustling of the wings of peace.

Simpler:

Don’t forget today. Your small part helps bring happiness to the world, and Heaven trusts you to try. Repeat the idea as often as you can; each time, someone somewhere feels hope, truth, and peace begin to stir.

15. Your own acknowledgment you are one Self, united with your Father, is a call to all the world to be at one with you.²To everyone you meet today, be sure to give the promise of today’s idea and tell him this:³You are one Self with me, united with our Creator in this Self. ⁴I honor you because of What I am, and What He is, Who loves us both as One.

Knowing you are one Self invites the whole world into that oneness. So offer it to everyone you meet today: “You are one Self with me, joined with our Creator. I honor you because of what we both are, and because He loves us as one.”