1. You have surely noticed an emphasis throughout our recent lessons on the connection between fulfilling your function and achieving happiness. \u00b2This is because you do not really see the connection. \u00b3Yet there is more than just a connection between them; they are the same. \u2074Their forms are different, but their content is completely one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
2. The ego does constant battle with the Holy Spirit on the fundamental question of what your function is. \u00b2So does it do constant battle with the Holy Spirit about what your happiness is. \u00b3It is not a two-way battle. \u2074The ego attacks and the Holy Spirit does not respond. \u2075He knows what your function is. \u2076He knows that it is your happiness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
3. Today we will try to go past this wholly meaningless battle and arrive at the truth about your function. \u00b2We will not engage in senseless arguments about what it is. \u00b3We will not become hopelessly involved in defining happiness and determining the means for achieving it. \u2074We will not indulge the ego by listening to its attacks on truth. \u2075We will merely be glad that we can find out what truth is.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
4. Our longer practice period today has as its purpose your acceptance of the fact that not only is there a very real connection between the function God gave you and your happiness, but that they are actually identical. \u00b2God gives you only happiness. \u00b3Therefore, the function He gave you must be happiness, even if it appears to be different. \u2074Today\u2019s exercises are an attempt to go beyond these differences in appearance, and recognize a common content where it exists in truth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
5. Begin the ten-to-fifteen-minute practice period by reviewing these thoughts:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
2<\/sup>God gives me only happiness.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n 3<\/sup>He has given my function to me.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n 4<\/sup>Therefore my function must be happiness.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n 5<\/sup>Try to see the logic in this sequence, even if you do not yet accept the conclusion. 6<\/sup>It is only if the first two thoughts are wrong that the conclusion could be false. 7<\/sup>Let us, then, think about the premises for a while, as we are practicing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 6. The first premise is that God gives you only happiness. \u00b2This could be false, of course, but in order to be false it is necessary to define God as something He is not. \u00b3Love cannot give evil, and what is not happiness is evil. \u2074God cannot give what He does not have, and He cannot have what He is not. \u2075Unless God gives you only happiness, He must be evil. \u2076And it is this definition of Him you are believing if you do not accept the first premise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 7. The second premise is that God has given you your function. \u00b2We have seen that there are only two parts of your mind. \u00b3One is ruled by the ego, and is made up of illusions. \u2074The other is the home of the Holy Spirit, where truth abides. \u2075There are no other guides but these to choose between, and no other outcomes possible as a result of your choice but the fear that the ego always engenders, and the love that the Holy Spirit always offers to replace it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 8. Thus, it must be that your function is established by God through His Voice, or is made by the ego which you have made to replace Him. \u00b2Which is true? \u00b3Unless God gave your function to you, it must be the gift of the ego. \u2074Does the ego really have gifts to give, being itself an illusion and offering only the illusion of gifts?<\/p>\n\n\n\n 9. Think about this during the longer practice period today. \u00b2Think also about the many forms the illusion of your function has taken in your mind, and the many ways in which you tried to find salvation under the ego\u2019s guidance. \u00b3Did you find it? \u2074Were you happy? \u2075Did they bring you peace? \u2076We need great honesty today. \u2077Remember the outcomes fairly, and consider also whether it was ever reasonable to expect happiness from anything the ego ever proposed. \u2078Yet the ego is the only alternative to the Holy Spirit\u2019s Voice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 10. You will listen to madness or hear the truth. \u00b2Try to make this choice as you think about the premises on which our conclusion rests. \u00b3We can share in this conclusion, but in no other. \u2074For God Himself shares it with us. \u2075Today\u2019s idea is another giant stride in the perception of the same as the same, and the different as different. \u2076On one side stand all illusions. \u2077All truth stands on the other. \u2078Let us try today to realize that only the truth is true.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 11. In the shorter practice periods, which would be most helpful today if undertaken twice an hour, this form of the application is suggested:<\/p>\n\n\n\n 2<\/sup>My happiness and function are one, because God has given me both.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n 3<\/sup>It will not take more than a minute, and probably less, to repeat these words slowly and think about them a little while as you say them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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