Workbook · Part I · Review
Lesson 86
Review of lessons 71–72
What this lesson is saying
Today is a review, not a new idea. The workbook asks you to take earlier lessons — 71 (“Only God's plan for salvation will work.”); 72 (“Holding grievances is an attack on God's plan for salvation.”) — and use them on one real irritation. Reciting titles is not the review.
Pick one person, one thought about yourself, or one situation that is actually bothering you. Run each reviewed idea on that same thing. Notice which one you want to skip. That one is the work.
You still need not believe any of it. Use it. Then live the hour — work, home, the next encounter — from the one you actually used.
This is not saying
This is not a lighter day and not a reading assignment. A review that never touches a real face is how the ego keeps the year as a book report.
Why this can change a day
The early ideas only become yours when they meet a life. Review is the test: which sentence did you actually use on a judgment, an attack thought, a belief about yourself, or a relationship? That is the curriculum.
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 kind in the room and cruel in the mind — a smile, and a case running underneath.
What to do
Say the words as written: “Review of lessons 71–72.” You are not alone in the effects of your thoughts. Catch the case. Choose a different one. Then the smile can be true.
Toward yourself
A thought seems small, idle, harmless — commentary while you wait.
What to do
Say the words as written: “Review of lessons 71–72.” No thought is idle. It leans toward love or toward attack. Before you speak, or before you tell the lunch story: which way is this leaning? If it needs someone to lose, drop it.
At work, at home, or in a situation
A bill, a number, a job title — money treated as what you are worth.
What to do
Say the words as written: “Review of lessons 71–72.” Pay the bill. Eat. Rest. Then remember which law gets to tell you what you are. Care for the form. Do not worship it as identity.
Two voices in the same mind
Hear which one is running. Then today’s idea, on a real person — or on you.
Unloving thought
Manners are enough. The thought is private. It doesn’t count if I don’t say it. Reciting the titles is enough. This situation can wait.
Jesus’s way
“Review of lessons 71–72.” Review is whether you used the ideas on a real person — this situation, not a new philosophy. The ones you only admired are the curriculum.
Spalding · 2019 · episode #284
Jesus’s commentary for Lesson 86
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.
- After the reading, this sitting is a review. He checks whether you used the ideas on an irritation — not whether you can recite “Review of lessons 71–72.”
- The ideas under today: 71, 72. Which did you actually use on a person? The ones you only admired are the curriculum.
How to sit today
Review II · Lessons 61–80
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
- Two ideas today — Lesson 71 in the earlier part of the day, Lesson 72 in the latter part. One longer sitting for each, plus frequent shorter ones
- How long
- About 15 minutes for each longer sitting
- Through the day
- Shorter applications: use the original form of the idea generally, and a more specific form when needed. Suggested specifics are in the comments; the particular words do not matter.
- Eyes
- Open for the reading, closed for the listening
- If you forget
- Do not let distracting thoughts convince you the sitting failed. They have no meaning and no power. Replace them with determination to succeed.
How
- Longer sitting: take about 15 minutes. Spend three or four minutes reading the idea and comments slowly, several times if you wish. Then close your eyes and listen.
- If the mind wanders, repeat the reading phase. Spend the major part of the sitting listening quietly but attentively. There is a message waiting, and it belongs to you.
- Treat the sitting as a dedication. Do not leave your function unfulfilled today.
Longer sitting
Two longer sittings — about 15 minutes each. Lesson 71 in the earlier part of the day, Lesson 72 in the latter part
- First sitting: Lesson 71 — “Only God's plan for salvation will work.”.
- Spend three or four minutes reading the idea and comments slowly, several times if you wish. Then close your eyes and listen.
- If the mind wanders, repeat the reading phase. Spend the major part of the sitting listening quietly but attentively. There is a message waiting, and it belongs to you.
- Second sitting, later: the same form with Lesson 72 — “Holding grievances is an attack on God's plan for salvation.”.
- Treat each sitting as a dedication. Do not leave your function unfulfilled today.
Short / hourly
Frequent shorter applications of each idea
- Earlier part of the day: “Only God's plan for salvation will work.” — generally, and a more specific form when needed.
- Latter part of the day: “Holding grievances is an attack on God's plan for salvation.” — generally, and a more specific form when needed.
- The particular extra words do not matter. The idea does.
Ideas in this review
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
Review is not a lighter day. In the 2019 commentary he treats “Review of lessons 71–72” as a check: which of these ideas did you use in a real situation, and which did you only admire? Skimped ideas are the curriculum. Do the review as the workbook asks, then let him speak to the ones you still argue with.
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