Lesson 69

My grievances hide the light of the world in me.

Practice Instructions

Purpose: To lift the veil of grievances that has hidden the light of the world in you, so that you can experience that light and let it shine salvation onto the world. This is yet another attempt to experience the light in you (see W-41.4:3 and W-44.3:1).

Longer: One time, for ten to fifteen minutes.

Spend several minutes cultivating the heightened attitude that is so crucial to Course-based meditation. Think about what you are about to attempt, about its importance to you and to the world. You are trying to lift the veil and get in touch with the light of the world, so you can hold it up for all to see and be blessed by. You are trying to reach your only need, your only function, goal, and purpose. Be determined to reach it.
Then, with eyes closed, let go of all your thoughts. Picture your true mind as a vast sphere of radiant light, totally engulfed by a layer of dark clouds (your grievances). From your vantage point outside the sphere, all you can see are clouds.
Now begin the meditation. As before, you can see it as having three aspects:
1. The basic motion is one of traveling through the clouds and into the light. “Reach out and touch them in your mind. Brush them aside with your hand. Feel them resting on your cheeks and forehead and eyelids as you go through them” (6:3-5).
2. If your mind wanders, repeat the idea and then continue your journey through the clouds.
3. Most of all, hold that heightened attitude you cultivated in the first phase, an attitude of desire (remember how much you want to reach the light), determination (be determined to get there), and confidence (realize you cannot fail, because this is in accord with God’s Will).
If you do your part properly, the power of God will do the rest. You will feel His power lifting you up and carrying you into the light.

Frequent reminders: As often as possible (suggestion: several times an hour).

Say, “My grievances hide the light of the world in me. I cannot see what I have hidden. Yet I want to let it be revealed to me [by God], for my salvation and the salvation of the world.”

Response to temptation: Whenever you are tempted to hold a grievance.

Say, “If I hold this grievance, the light of the world will be hidden from me.”

Commentary

I am the light of the world, but the light cannot shine out because my grievances hide it. When I let my grievances go, the light is released, and releases my brother and myself. My job with everyone I meet is to share my salvation with him.

Today’s practice is another time of attempting to “reach the light in you” (2:1), or in other words, to become aware of my Self as God created It, wholly loving and wholly lovable. Notice how the form of this practice is similar to what we’ve seen before; it is a pattern that is repeated often in the Workbook in different forms. In general, the pattern is one of attempting to move past, or move through, or let go of the thoughts that normally occupy my mind, settling down in deep stillness, and reaching beyond my surface thoughts to something deep within myself, a Self I am not normally aware of. This is a Course method of meditation. It is one of the tools given to us by the Workbook, and should be learned and used even after Workbook practice per se has ended.

What we are trying to reach is “dearer to us than all else” (3:1). Reaching it, finding it, and releasing it to the world is our only purpose and only function on earth. “Learning salvation is our only goal” (3:4). I love the poignant imagery of this sentence: “We are trying to let the veil be lifted, and see the tears of God’s Son disappear in the sunlight” (2:5). Can you feel that tug with me, that longing to release the light of the world that is in you?

There is a light which this world cannot give. Yet you can give it, as it was given you. And as you give it, it shines forth to call you from the world to follow it, for this light will attract you as nothing in the world can do. (T-13.VI.11:1-3)