Today’s review covers these ideas: W-69 and W-70

1. W-69. “My grievances hide the light of the world in me”.^I

2. My grievances show me something that is not there and hide from me what I want to see.

²If I recognize this, why would I want my grievances?

³My grievances keep me in darkness and hide the light.

⁴Grievances and light cannot coexist, but light and vision must be joined for me to see.

⁵In order to see, I must let go of all grievances.

⁶I want to see, and this is how I will succeed. ^II

3. Specific applications of this idea might be:

²Let me not allow this to keep me from seeing.

³The light of the world will shine away all this.

⁴I have no need for this; what I want is to see.

4. W-70. “My salvation comes from me.”

5. Today I will recognize where my salvation is.

²It is in me, because its Source is there.

³My salvation has not left its Source, and so it cannot have left my mind.

⁴I will no longer seek it outside myself.

⁵It is not something outside that I must bring within.

⁶Instead, it will extend from within me to everything I see, and all I look upon will reflect the light that shines in me and in what I behold. ^III

6. These expressions of the idea are suitable for more specific applications:

²Let me not be tempted to seek my salvation outside myself.

³I will not let this interfere with my awareness that I am the Source of my salvation.

⁴This has no power to take salvation away from me.

^I Today you will not concern yourself with whether your resentments are justified or not, because if you do, the voice of the ego within you will provide an endless array of false arguments to justify them, which will overwhelm you. Be wise and humble. Simplify. Focus on the effects those resentments are having on you, and become aware that they harm you, hurt you, and make you ill.

Never argue with your ego, for you are bound to lose. The ego is clever and devious; you are innocent, and your natural realm is not cleverness but truth. So do not listen to it—look with childlike honesty within yourself, consult your heart, and you will have no doubt about what you must do with your resentments.

This is a path of choices that must be made. To some you must say yes, to others no, and the contrast between them is so great that the choice cannot be difficult unless you allow the ego to ensnare you with its cunning tricks.

^II I am absolutely certain that I want to see a radiant world that floods my heart with joy and my mind with peace, yet that is not what I see. I now behold something else. I see a sad, dark, loveless, and dangerous world.

But am I really seeing? Could it be that I am not seeing what is truly there? What, then, am I seeing?

What does it mean to harbor resentments? What happens in my mind when I am resentful? When and why does that occur?

To harbor resentments, it is essential that I have condemned something or someone. It is essential that I have declared something to be wrong. It is also essential that I firmly believe my evaluation of that thing to be absolutely true and appropriate. To harbor resentments, I must have absolute faith in my own judgments.

If I have absolute faith in my judgments, it is evident that I am absolutely insane. Moreover, mine is no ordinary insanity—it is the deranged state of a furious madman attacking himself, for he tells himself only stories that make him suffer.

When I look at the world, all I see are my resentments. Yet in reality, I am seeing nothing at all; I am merely listening to the opinions of my ego—indeed, the opinions of a madman. It is no wonder I do not see a radiant world out there.

For that terrible condition of my hallucinating mind to change, it is unquestionable that I must stop paying attention to terrifying stories about the world, about people, and about myself.

I simply have to stop believing that any nonsense that comes to my mind is true. I must open my mind to the possibility that the judgments I hear about everything I behold are mistaken—that in truth, I know nothing about anything.

I must quiet my mind and ask that I be granted a better way of seeing. The one I am using now is doing me terrible harm, and for that reason, it would be better to have none at all. I will remain still and see what happens.

^III The truth is that I am not completely convinced that my salvation lies within me. If I were, I would already have gone within, accepted that I am saved, and would not be doing this Course.

What I am absolutely certain of is that my salvation is not outside me, for I have been searching for it out there for a very long time and have not found the slightest trace of anything that could be called true salvation. Moreover, this is not something that happens only to me; I do not know anyone at all who has found it outside themselves.

However, I have read some quite reliable testimonies from people who claim to have found it, and they all agree on the same thing: they found immense joy by going within, and there they experienced something they could not put into words—something more real than anything they had ever known.

On the other hand—and thinking about it more carefully—to some extent it has also happened to me. There have been times when, without knowing how or why, I have felt very happy. I did nothing to make it happen; it simply occurred. I believe this is something everyone, to some degree, has also experienced.

Moreover, it is quite logical that salvation should be found within, because, evidently, it is there that its fruits are experienced. What is truly surprising is that, after such a simple reasoning—accessible to anyone—people still insist on seeking joy and peace outside themselves. It is indeed striking.

I think it is worthwhile, at least for a while, to reverse the direction of my efforts. From now on, I will pay little attention and give little importance to what happens outside me—only what is strictly necessary—and I will travel quietly and silently within myself, with a still mind, wide-open eyes, and without expectation.