LESSON 85  MARCH 26
(69) "My grievances hide the light of the world in me."
(70) "My salvation comes from me."
Practice instructions
Longer: Two times (once for each of the ideas), for about fifteen minutes.
 For three or four minutes, slowly read over the idea and comments (repeatedly if you wish) and think about them.
 Close your eyes and spend the remainder of the practice period listening for the message the Holy Spirit has for you. We can see this time of listening as having the following components:
1. Listen "quietly but attentively" (3:1)-listen in stillness and with all your attention.
2. Hold an attitude of confidence ("this message belongs to me"), desire ("I want this message"), and determination ("I'm determined to succeed").
3. Listening for ten minutes can easily be one big invitation to mind wandering, and so the majority of instruction for this exercise deals with this issue. For out-of-control mind wandering, go back and repeat the first phase. For more minor wandering, realize the distracting thoughts have no power and that your will has all the power, and then replace the thoughts with your will to succeed. Do so with firmness. "Do not allow your intent to waver" (4:1). "Refuse to be sidetracked" (5:2).
This is not mentioned in the instructions, but you may find it helpful to actually ask for the message, at the beginning and then periodically throughout. You may say, for instance, "What is Your message for me today?" You may even want to use this request as the specific vehicle for dispelling wandering thoughts.
Frequent reminders: Frequent.
Repeat the idea as a way of reaffirming your determination to succeed.
 First half of day: first lesson
 Second half of day: second lesson
Response to temptation: Whenever you are tempted to be upset.
Repeat some variation on the idea, modified to apply to this particular upset. 
 You may use one of the three "specific forms" (W-pI.rII.In.6:1) suggested after each lesson. Notice how they are directed at a specific upset. Virtually every one is aimed at an upsetting "this" or an upsetting "name."
 Or you may generate one of your own specific forms, by using a variation on the practice of letting related thoughts come. Simply lean back and let your mind come up with a sentence that applies the essence of the idea to your current upset. For examples, see the specific forms suggested after each lesson.
Commentary
What is the "this" referred to in the six specific applications in this lesson? What is it that might block my sight, that the light will shine away? What is it that I have no need for, and which tempts me to look away from me for my salvation? What is "this" that could interfere with my awareness of the Source of salvation, and which seems to have power to remove salvation from me?
"This" is grievances: anything I react to with less than the perfect love which is my reality. Anything I do not like, or push away from me, or blame for my problems, or look upon as less than God's creation. Anything within myself I hold with something other than compassion and forgiveness. "My grievances show me what is not there" (1:2). They cause me to see something that is not real, and I react with fear or hatred or anger. My reactions are as inappropriate as a child's fear of a curtain flapping in the dark. I am seeing something that isn't there, because only what God created is real. I am jumping at shadows when the reality is sheer beauty. The grievances not only show me things that aren't real, they hide what I really want.
If this is what my grievances really do, why would I want them? I do not really want them; I have used them in a mistaken attempt to protect myself, but I can recognize now that I no longer want them or need them. I do not blame myself for having chosen them in the past but I do not need to continue to choose them now. I want to see, and so I lay them aside joyfully, without guilt, without regret.
What I am looking for is in my Self (3:3). I won't look outside of myself today. "It is not found outside and then brought in. But from within me it will reach beyond, and everything I see will but reflect the light that shines in me and in itself" (3:6-7). My grievances tempt me to look outside for salvation, thinking I know what must change out there to bring me peace, feeling anger or sorrow or betrayal as I look on the things I blame for my loss of peace. But I recognize today that the answer is in my Self. Rather than seeking for the light, I will be the light today, and lighten my whole world.