[acimlessons_list] Lesson 79 - March 20

[Sue Roth]

Lesson 79 - March 20

"Let me recognize the problem so it can be solved."

PRACTICE SUMMARY

Longer: 2 times, for 10-15 minutes

* Try to free your mind of your perception of your problems. Do your best to
"entertain some doubt about the reality of your version of what your
problems are" (8:3). Try to realize that the many-ness of your problems is a
smokescreen, hiding the fact that you have only one problem. Do not,
however, define what this one problem is.

* Then ask what your one problem is and wait for the answer. Even though the
lesson has said your problem is separation, set that aside and listen for an
answer that genuinely comes from within you. 

* Then ask what is the answer to the one problem. In asking about the
problem and the answer, apply your training in how to listen to the Holy
Spirit: wait in mental silence; wait in confidence ("we will be told"-7:6);
and periodically repeat your request while you wait.

Response to temptation: whenever you see a problem

* Recognize that this is simply the one problem showing up in disguise. Say
immediately: "Let me recognize this problem so it can be solved." 

* Then try to lay aside what you think the problem is. If you can, close
eyes and ask what it is. You will be told.

COMMENTARY

This lesson, with the next, presents one of the clearest statements of an
important Course principle: "One problem, one solution," as it is stated in
Lesson 80 (1:5). They merit repeated re-reading until the concept they teach
become imbedded in our thought processes.

I seem to be faced with a multitude of problems, overwhelming in number and
complexity, ranging from tiny to titanic, constantly shifting, changing,
appearing and disappearing in the moments of my life. If I pause to consider
things objectively from this viewpoint the only possible response is blind
panic. Attention paid to one problem obliterates dozens of others, equally
deserving of my attention, from conscious consideration. Like Lucy and Ethel
on the pie conveyor, as things speed up I can only start stuffing some of
the "pastries" down my shirt, trying to hide them before my failure to
handle them becomes evident.

Seen from the perspective of specialness, our problems doom me to failure
after failure, with every moment increasing my overwhelming sense of
inadequacy.

What if all of these problems were really just one? What if I already had
the solution to that one problem? I can scarcely imagine the universal sense
of relief that would run through my being if I could grasp that this were
true: All of my problems are one, and that one has already been solved.

Could this be? Yes. If I think my problems are many and separate, if I have
failed to recognize the one problem in them all, I could already have the
answer and not know it. I could even be aware of the answer without
realizing its application to what seem to me to be very different problems.
"This is the situation of the world. The problem of separation, which is
really the only problem, has already been solved. Yet the solution is not
recognized because the problem is not recognized" (1:3-5).

To break free of this illusory imprisonment, then, my first step must be to
recognize THE problem in every problem. I have to become aware of what the
problem is before I can realize that I already hold the solution to it. As
long as I think the problem is something other than my separateness from God
(which has already been so completely resolved that it has become a
non-issue), I will continue to think I have problems and lack the solution.
I will look for "salvation" from my problems everywhere but where the answer
is because I have already discounted the answer as irrelevant to the problem
at hand. "Who can see that a problem has been solved if he thinks the
problem is something else?" (2:3)

The seeming complexity of the world is nothing more than my mind's attempt
to <not> recognize the single problem, thus preventing its resolution (6:1).
My greatest initial need, therefore, is to perceive "the underlying
constancy in all the problems" (6:3). If I can see the separation at the
root of every problem I would realize that I already have the answer, and I
would <use> the answer. I would be free.

Again, this lesson is so wonderfully forgiving. Even the idea of seeing
<all> my problems as variations on the theme of separation may seem an
impossibly daunting task. So the lesson tells me, "that is not necessary.
All that is necessary is to entertain some doubt about the reality of your
version of what your problems are" (8:2, 3). The only thing I have to do is
to doubt? Hey, I can handle that; I'm pretty good at doubting.

All I am being asked to do is to "suspend all judgment about what the
problem is" (10:4). "Suspend" means to temporarily abate; the lesson does
not even ask me to lay aside my judgments forever. Just for an instant. Just
allow myself to doubt my personal perspective on things and consider that
there might be another way of looking at it.

So today I am called to doubt. To doubt my version of what my problems are.
To think to myself, "I'm probably not seeing this with complete clarity. I'm
probably muddling the issues here somewhere." And then to ask, "What <is>
the real problem here?" That kind of practice <even I> can handle. Thank
You, God, for such a simple Course!