[acimlessons_list] Lesson 66 - March 7

[Sue 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.