Course XXI - Teaching 5: Affective Meditation on the “Two Ways” and the “Standard”

The “TWO WAYS”. This exercise, like all exercises in this series, is very clear and simple; its value rests on these qualities. It permits not only the realization of a perfect exercise, but also simplifies the soul processes.
In this example you discover, since the beginning, that there is only one way, and not two ways. Practically, during this exercise, there is just the affirmation of one way and the non-existence of any duality. Influenced by the title about the “Two Ways”, some people got used to extend the subject on the antagonism of the pair of opposites, and created a kind of fight between true and false; but if one introduces duality this way, we will never get a solution, and the conflict will tirelessly recur. On the other hand, if from the beginning one only emphasizes one way and leaves aside any possible duality, we achieve a meditation based on the voluntary insistence on this only way. There is only one way, and not two ways. A paraphrase for the two ways can be titled as “my way”. This could clearly direct the exercise.
The “STANDARD”. This standard is a continuation of the precedent exercise –its second part– and a kind of objectified discovery of the inner way. This standard peculiarly links the inner way with all possibilities in life. It is a projection of the inner way toward the future; this standard is linked with action by bringing into practice the determination of the two ways.
This standard is an inner ideal placed outside the soul, beyond the state in which the soul is; so, being in love with the standard, this soul moves and works for being near the standard. This standard is nothing fixed and permanent residing at such and such distance of the soul; this standard moves always gradually ahead of the soul; when you feel to have reached it, this standard is useless in your hands, and now, ahead, on the new horizon, you see another standard like this that you hold in your hands –but it is new. This standard is the eternal unrest of the soul.