Workbook · Part I
Lesson 170
There is no cruelty in God and none in me.
What this lesson is saying
Today’s idea is: “There is no cruelty in God and none in me.” In ordinary English: There is no cruelty in God, and none in you as God created you. The cruel thought is a pose.
Attack thoughts feel like protection: if I strike first, in the mind or in a remark, I will be safe. This lesson says those thoughts do not protect you. They teach you that you can be hurt, and they paint the other person as an enemy so the war looks necessary. Dropping the attack thought is the way out of a hostile day — not winning the fight.
You do not have to believe it first. You use the words on one real judgment — of someone, of yourself, of a situation — and then you take the next ordinary step.
This is not saying
This is not asking you to be a doormat. You may leave. You may state a fact. You may lock a door. You do not have to hate them, or rehearse the hit, to be safe.
Why this can change a day
Most of what we call “the world is against me” is an attack thought looking for a target — a coworker, a stranger, a public face, ourselves. If the thought is the war, then putting it down is not weakness. It is how the room changes.
In your day
Same idea, three ordinary places — a relationship or encounter, the case against yourself, and a situation at work or at home. You do not need a special mood.
With someone
You are about to tell someone who will agree — lunch, a text, a ‘can you believe’.
What to do
Say the words as written: “There is no cruelty in God and none in me.” Leave their name out of it. The sitting is in the mind, not in the audience. Keep any boundary that is actually love.
Toward yourself
A meeting where you must get the story out first — armor, proving you cannot be hurt.
What to do
Say the words as written: “There is no cruelty in God and none in me.” Notice the armor. You may still leave. You may still say no. You do not have to prosecute them to go.
At work, at home, or in a situation
You use someone as if their job were to complete you, agree with you, or stay out of your way.
What to do
Say the words as written: “There is no cruelty in God and none in me.” Let them be for God, then treat them decently. You do not have to hang out. You do have to stop using them.
Two voices in the same mind
Hear which one is running. Then today’s idea, on a real person — or on you.
Unloving thought
Gossip is how we stay close. I’ll explain this so it is fair. Being right is the wage.
Jesus’s way
“There is no cruelty in God and none in me.” Give up the wish to hurt. Attack and the fear of being attacked are the same thought. A fact can still be said. A door can still close. The wish is the wound.
Spalding · 2019 · episode #374
Jesus’s commentary for Lesson 170
Tina reads the official workbook lesson first. Then she channels. The video is the source. The notes below are study notes of that sitting — not a transcript, and not A Year of Forgiveness.
After the reading
In the video · Jesus speaking
This is the channeled portion — after Tina has read the lesson. Study notes of that sitting. Not a transcript.
- On “There is no cruelty in God and none in me” Jesus through Tina (2019) takes the workbook at its word and applies it to the programmed mind — culture, church, screens — not to a monastery.
- Then let the commentary speak to the resistance that comes up.
- After Tina reads Lesson 170, the channeling is living “There is no cruelty in God and none in me.” He will not let it stay a slogan. Use these words. Do not swap them for a thought you like better.
How to sit today
Part I · Grace
The idea is above. This is the one sitting this number asks — how often, how long, and the words. Not a second lesson.
- How often
- Morning sitting as Lesson 153 began it, plus hourly remembrance, plus when you are tempted to forget
- How long
- Five minutes is the least you give the morning sitting. Ten is better; fifteen better still. The evening pair matches. Hourly: even a minute if that is all you can offer
- Through the day
- When the hour strikes, remember. When you can, give more than a minute.
- When shaken
- When the day’s idea is the medicine, use it on the actual situation, not later in a chair.
- If you forget
- A lapse is not a failure story. Resume. Guilt about missing is another idle thought.
How
- Lesson 170 keeps the form begun in Lesson 153. Sit without armor. Read the idea (and the prayer if the lesson gives one). Then wait. Defenselessness is the method, not a mood.
- Do not throw the day away because an hour was forgotten. Return at the next hour.
Longer sitting
Two extended sittings — fifteen minutes twice is the standard for this stretch
- Today’s idea is: “There is no cruelty in God and none in me.”
- Read the idea (and the prayer or specific form the official lesson gives). Spend the sitting in that idea.
- Say, slowly: “There is no cruelty in God and none in me.”
- Let related thoughts come. Return to the idea when the mind wanders. Give the rest of the day to remembering it.
Short / hourly
A reminder on the hour — even a minute if that is all you have
- Say, slowly: “There is no cruelty in God and none in me.”
When shaken
When the day’s idea is the medicine, use it on the actual situation, not later in a chair
- Say, slowly: “There is no cruelty in God and none in me.”
These scripts follow the workbook’s own method for this number — duration, frequency, and the sentences it asks you to use. They are a study paraphrase, not a replacement. Read the official lesson at acim.org and follow any wording it gives that is more specific than this card.
Words you may not know
Full glossaryCourse words do not mean what church, psychology, or ordinary English usually mean. These notes are for this lesson — tap a word.
Other voices — Tina, Ra, Carla
Short notes from the four streams. The teaching above is the lesson. These are doors if you want them.
Spalding
On “There is no cruelty in God and none in me” Jesus through Tina (2019) takes the workbook at its word and applies it to the programmed mind — culture, church, screens — not to a monastery. Do the exercise as written. Then let the commentary speak to the resistance that comes up. The resistance is the lesson.
Watch this lesson’s commentaryRa
This lesson is practice in polarizing with the person in front of you. Service to others is not a slogan. It is whether you treat them as the same being you are.
Open streamRueckert
A wanderer on Earth does not need a different lesson. She needs this one, done with her hands. Carla's whole archive is the proof: contact follows a life, it does not replace it.
Open stream