[acimlessons_list] Lesson 66 - March 7

[Sue Carrier Roth]

Lesson 66 - March 7

"My happiness and my function are one."

PRACTICE SUMMARY:

Purpose: To accept that your happiness and your God-given function are
not only connected, but are actually the same thing, regardless of
different appearances; and to accept that they are different in every
way from all of the functions your ego has given you.

Longer: 1 time, for 10-15 minutes

*	Spend the time actively reflecting on the following logical
syllogism: "God gives me only happiness [premise 1]. He has given my
function to me [premise 2]. Therefore my function must be happiness
[conclusion]." Notice how the conclusion logically follows from the
premises, so that if the premises are right, the conclusion has to be.

*	Therefore, spend a while thinking about the first premise ("God
gives me only happiness"). Use paragraph 6 as a guide. It says that,
in the end, you must either accept the first premise or accept that
God is evil.

*	Then spend some time thinking about the second premise ("He has
given my function to me"). Use paragraphs 7 and 8 as a guide. They say
that your function must have been given by either God or the ego, but
the ego does not really give gifts. It is an illusion that offers
illusions of gifts.

*	Then spend some time thinking about how your life has reflected an
alternative syllogism, which goes something like this: "My ego has
given me many functions (think about some of those). None of them has
been happy (reflect on this). Therefore, my ego never gives me
happiness." Isn't this the only logical conclusion? Doesn't this
conclusion make you want to choose the function God has given you
instead?

*	Finally, try to pour all of this reflection into an acceptance of
the conclusion ("Therefore my function must be happiness"). Use the
reflection to bring you to a point where you really embrace the
conclusion.

Remarks: This lesson is yet another giant stride (our first was Lesson
61), but it will only be a giant step forward for you if you really
give your mind to it. So do so, for your own sake. Give the longer
practice your full concentration, and give the shorter practice your
frequency.

Frequent reminders: 2 per hour, for 1 minute or less
Say, "My happiness and my function are one, because God has given me
both." Repeating this slowly and thinking about it will make all the
difference.

COMMENTARY

I find this lesson interesting in the way it makes use of ordinary
logic, applied to extraordinary ideas. The longer practice period is
supposed to be spent in thinking about the premises in the syllogism
given in paragraph 5 (5:7, 9:1). In other words, the lesson asks us to
test out the logic of its proposal with our minds. Quite evidently the
Course sees a good deal of value in thinking and reasoning; it is not
a Course in mindlessness, as some people seem to believe. Nor is it
only a course in experience. It is solidly laced with reasoning, and
expects us to know how to use that faculty of our minds. I find that a
good aid in this kind of practice is writing down the ideas that come
to me as I do it.

The central idea today is one we've seen before: happiness and our
function are, at the core, the same thing. The two premises are fairly
simple, especially the first: God gives me only happiness. If God is a
God worthy of our allegiance, a God of love, this must be so. Why
follow a god who makes you unhappy? If God gives unhappiness, He must
be evil (6:5). And if God is evil we may as well quit now; we'll never
find happiness living in the clutches of a sadistic god, who gives his
creations unhappiness.

Second, God has given my function to me. This is a little less
obvious. "Function" could be understood as meaning "nature." In simple
terms, God created me, and in so doing, defined what I am. What I am
defines what I do. What alternative is there? If God did not define
me, what did? The only alternative is the ego (8:3). Or, we might say,
we made ourselves (which is really the same thing). But how can
anything create itself? What created its power to create? Is it really
possible that the ego made me, or I defined myself? No. Therefore this
second premise must also be true: God has given my function to me.

Now if God gives me only happiness, and God gave me my function, what
is the logical conclusion? My function must be happiness. My reason
for being is to be happy. Fulfilling my function is what brings me
happiness.

If we think about all the ways we've tried to find happiness following
our egos--as we are instructed to think, here in the lesson--we must
admit, if we are perfectly honest, that none of them have worked.

The lesson is trying to bring us to the point where we make a choice,
the choice between madness and truth, between listening to the ego or
to the Holy Spirit. It is asking us to realize that everything the ego
tells us is a lie, and that only the truth is true; only what God has
given us has reality.

This lesson is the second one called a "giant stride." The first was
Lesson 61. We'll see the term again in Lessons 94, 130, 135, and 194.
Lesson 61 told us, "I am the light of the world," which is "a
beginning step in accepting your real function on earth," "...a giant
stride toward taking your rightful place in salvation." We are
light-bearers, designed by God to beam His light to the universe; that
is our function. Accepting that is a giant step, a strong beginning.
Now, we are told, "My happiness and my function are one." Bringing
light to the world is what happiness is; being the light of the world
is fulfilling our function, and fulfilling our function is happiness.