A Course in Miracles Sparkle Edition
A Course in Miracles Sparkle Edition
COURSE IN
M IRACLES
A
COURSE IN
MIRACLES
TEXT
❉
WORKBOOK
❉
MANUAL
❉
PREFACE
May this be to you, as it is NOW for us, the opening of your mind
and heart to the Love of God. It is with His love and our gratitude that we
offer thanks to all who have played their part in making this edition of
A Course In Miracles available.
And now our thanks to all. May you realize the Peace of God as
eternally yours, abiding in you now, and in this realization may you
recognize the Kingdom of Heaven wherein you have always been at home.
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PREFACE
p u b l i s h e r ’s n o t e
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P R E FA C E
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Spirit is God’s one Son, or Christ. In this world, because the mind is split, the
Sons of God appear to be separate. Nor do their minds seem to be joined. In
this illusory state the concept of an “individual mind” seems to be
meaningful. It is therefore described in the course as if it has two parts; spirit
and ego. Spirit is the part that is still in contact with God through the Holy
Spirit, Who abides in this part but sees the other part as well. The term
“soul” is not used except in direct Biblical quotations because of its highly
controversial nature. It would, however, be an equivalent of “spirit,” with
the understanding that being of God it is eternal and was never born.
The other part of the mind is entirely illusory and makes only
illusions. Spirit retains the potential for creating, but its Will which is God’s,
seems to be imprisoned while the mind is not unified. Creation continues
unabated because that is the Will of God. This Will is always unified, and
therefore has no meaning in this world. It has no opposite and no degrees.
The mind can be right or wrong, depending on the voice to which it
listens.“Right-mindedness” listens to the Holy Spirit, forgives the world, and
through Christ’s vision sees the real world in its place.This is the final vision,
the last perception, the condition in which God takes the final step Himself.
Here time and illusions end together. “Wrong-mindedness” listens to the
ego and makes illusions; perceiving sin and justifying anger, and seeing
guilt, disease and death as real. Both this world and the real world are
illusions, because right-mindedness merely overlooks, or forgives what
never happened. Therefore it is not the “One-mindedness” of the Christ
Mind,Whose Will is one with God’s.
In this world the only remaining freedom is the freedom of choice;
always between two choices or two voices. Will is not involved in
perception at any level and has nothing to do with choice. Consciousness is
the receptive mechanism, receiving messages from above or below; from
the Holy Spirit or the ego. Consciousness has levels and awareness can shift
quite dramatically, but it cannot transcend the perceptual realm. At its
highest it becomes aware of the real world, and can be trained to do so
increasingly. Yet the very fact that it has levels and can be trained
demonstrates that consciousness cannot reach knowledge.
Illusions will not last. Their death is sure, and this alone is certain in
their world. It is the ego’s world because of this. What is the ego? But a
dream of what you really are. A thought you are apart from your Creator
and a wish to be what He created not. It is a thing of madness, not reality at
all.A name for namelessness is all it is.A symbol of impossibility; a choice for
options that do not exist. We call it that to help us understand that it is
nothing but an ancient thought that what is made has immortality. But what
could come of this except a dream which like all dreams could only die?
What is the ego? Nothingness, but in a form that seems like something. In
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THE USE OF TERMS
a world of form the ego cannot be denied, for it alone seems real. How
could God’s Son as He created him abide in form or in a world of form?
Who asks you to define the ego and explain how it arose can be but he
who thinks it real, and seeks by definition to ensure that its illusive nature is
concealed behind the words that seem to make it so.There is no definition
for a lie that serves to make it true. Nor can there be a truth that lies
conceal effectively.
The ego’s unreality is not denied by words nor is its meaning clear
because its nature seems to have a form.Who can define the undefinable?
And yet there is an answer even here. We cannot really make a definition
for what the ego is, but we can say what it is not. And this is shown to us
with perfect clarity. It is from this that we deduce all that the ego is. Look
at its opposite and you can see the only answer that is meaningful.
The ego’s opposite in every way, – in origin, effect and consequence –
we call a miracle.And here we find all that is not the ego in the world. Here
is the ego’s opposite and here alone we look on what the ego was. For here
we see all that it seemed to do, and cause and its effects must still be one.
Where there was darkness now we see the light.What was the ego? What
the darkness was.Where was the ego? Where the darkness was.
What is it now and where can it be found? Nothing and nowhere.
Now the light has come. Its opposite has gone without a trace.Where evil
was there now is holiness.What is the ego? What the evil was.Where is the
ego? In an evil dream that but seemed real while you were dreaming it.
Where there was crucifixion stands God’s Son.What is the ego? Who has
need to ask? Where is the ego? Who has need to seek for an illusion now
the dreams are gone?
What is a miracle? A dream as well. But look at all the aspects of this
dream, and you will never question any more. Look at the kindly world
you see stretch forth before you as you walk in gentleness. Look at the
helpers all along the way you travel, happy in the hope of Heaven and the
certainty of peace. And look an instant, too, on what you left behind at last
and finally passed by. This was the ego – all the cruel hate, the need for
vengeance and the cries of pain, the fear of dying and the urge to kill, the
brotherless illusion and the self that seemed alone in all the universe.
This terrible mistake about yourself the miracle corrects as gently as a
loving mother sings her child to rest. Is not a song like this what you would
hear? Would it not answer all you thought to ask, and even make the
question meaningless? Your questions have no answer, being made to still
God’s Voice,Which asks of everyone one question only:“Are you ready yet
to help Me save the world?” Ask this instead of what the ego is, and you
will see a sudden brightness cover up the world the ego made. No miracle
is now withheld from anyone.The world is saved from what you thought it
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was.And what it is, is wholly uncondemned and wholly pure.
The miracle forgives; the ego damns. Neither need be defined except
by this. Yet could a definition be more sure, or more in line with what
salvation asks? Problem and answer lie together here, and having met at last
the choice is clear. Who chooses hell when it is recognized? And who
would not go on a little while when it is given him to understand the way
is short and Heaven is his goal?
Forgiveness is for God and toward God but not of Him. It is
impossible to think of anything He created that could need forgiveness.
Forgiveness, then, is an illusion, but because of its purpose, which is the
Holy Spirit’s, it has one difference. Unlike all other illusions, it leads away
from error and not towards it. Forgiveness might be called a kind of happy
fiction; a way in which the unknowing can bridge the gap between their
perception and the truth. They cannot go directly from perception to
knowledge because they do not think it is their will to do so. This makes
God appear to be an enemy instead of what He really is. And it is just this
insane perception that makes them unwilling merely to rise up and to
return to Him in peace.
And so they need an illusion of Help because they are helpless; a
Thought of peace because they are in conflict. God knows what His Son
needs before he asks. He is not at all concerned with form, but having given
the content it is His Will that it be understood. And that suffices.The form
adapts itself to need; the content is unchanging, as eternal as its Creator.
The Face of Christ has to be seen before the memory of God can
return.The reason is obvious. Seeing the Face of Christ is perception. No
one can look on knowledge. But the Face of Christ is the great symbol of
forgiveness. It is salvation. It is the symbol of the real world.Whoever looks
on this no longer sees the world. He is as near to Heaven as possible outside
the gate.Yet from this gate it is no more than just a step inside. It is the final
step.And this we leave to God. It is a symbol, too, but as the symbol of His
Will alone it cannot be divided. And so the Unity that it reflects becomes
His Will. It is the only thing still in the world in part, and yet the bridge
to Heaven.
God’s Will is all there is. We can but go from nothingness to
everything; from hell to Heaven. Is this a journey? No, not in truth, for truth
goes nowhere. But illusions shift from place to place; from time to time.The
final step is also but a shift. As a perception it is partly unreal. And yet this
part will vanish.What remains is peace eternal and the Will of God.There
are no wishes now, for wishes change. Even the wished-for can become
unwelcome.That must be so, because the ego cannot be at peace. But Will is
constant, as the gift of God.And what He gives is always like Himself.
This is the purpose of the Face of Christ. It is the gift of God to save His
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THE USE OF TERMS
Son. But look on this and you have been forgiven. How lovely does the
world become in just that single instant when you see the truth about
yourself reflected there. Now you are sinless and behold your sinlessness.
Now you are holy and perceive it so. And now the mind returns to its
Creator; the joining of the Father and the Son; the Unity of unities that
stands behind all joining but still beyond them all. God is not seen but only
understood. His Son is not attacked but recognized.
The world you see is an illusion of a world. God did not create it, for
what He creates must be eternal as Himself.Yet there is nothing in the world
you see that will endure forever. Some things will last in time a little while
longer than others. But the time will come when all things visible will have
an end.The body’s eyes are therefore not the means by which the real world
can be seen, for the illusions that they look upon must lead to more illusions
(of reality).And so they do. For everything they see not only will not last but
lends itself to thoughts of sin and guilt.While everything that God created is
forever without sin and therefore is forever without guilt.
Knowledge is not the remedy for false perception since, being another
level, they can never meet.The one correction possible for false perception
must be true perception. It will not endure. But for the time it lasts, it
comes to heal. For true perception is a remedy with many names.
Forgiveness, salvation, Atonement, true perception, all are one.They are as
one beginning with the end to lead to Oneness far beyond themselves.
True perception is the means by which the world is saved from sin, for sin
does not exist.And it is this that true perception sees.
The world stands like a block before Christ’s face. But true perception
looks on it as nothing more than just a fragile veil, so easily dispelled that it
can last no longer than an instant. It is seen at last for only what it is. And
now it cannot fail to disappear, for now there is an empty place made clean
and ready.Where destruction was perceived the face of Christ appears, and
in that instant is the world forgot, with time forever ended as the world
spins into nothingness from where it came.
A world forgiven cannot last. It was the home of bodies. But forgiveness
looks past bodies.This is its holiness; this is how it heals.The world of bodies
is the world of sin, for only if there is a body is sin possible. From sin comes
guilt as surely as forgiveness takes all guilt away. And once all guilt is gone
what more remains to keep a separated world in place? For place has gone as
well along with time. Only the body makes the world seem real, for being
separate it could not remain where separation is impossible. Forgiveness
proves it is impossible because it sees it not.And what you then will overlook
will not be understandable to you, just as its opposite was once
your certainty; just as its presence once had been your certainty.
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This is the shift that true perception brings: what was projected out is
seen within and there forgiveness lets it disappear. For there the altar to the
Son is set, and there his Father is remembered. Here are all illusions brought
to truth and laid upon the altar. What is seen outside must lie beyond
forgiveness, for it seems to be forever sinful.Where is hope while sin is seen
as outside? What remedy can guilt expect? But seen within your mind, guilt
and forgiveness for an instant lie together, side by side, upon one altar.
There at last are sickness and its single remedy joined in one healing
brightness. God has come to claim His Own. Forgiveness is complete.
And now God’s knowledge, changeless, certain, pure and wholly
understandable, enters its Kingdom. Gone is perception, false and true
alike. Gone is forgiveness, for its task is done. And gone are bodies in the
blazing light upon the altar to the Son of God. God knows it is His Own as
it is his. And here They join, for here the face of Christ has shone away
time’s final instant, and now is the last perception of the world without a
purpose and without a cause. For where God’s memory has come at last
there is no journey, no belief in sin, no walls, no bodies, and the grim appeal
of guilt and death is there snuffed out forever.
O my brothers, if you only knew the peace that will envelop you and
hold you safe and pure and lovely in the Mind of God, you could but rush
to meet Him where His altar is. Hallowed your Name and His, for they are
joined here in this holy place. Here He leans down to lift you back to Him,
out of illusions into holiness; out of the world and into eternity; out of all
fear and given back to Love.
There is no need for help to enter Heaven, for you never left. But
there is need for help beyond yourself as you (are) circumscribed by false
beliefs of your Identity,Which God alone established in reality. Helpers are
given you in many forms, although upon the altar They are one. Beyond
each one, there is a Thought of God, and this will never change. But they
have names which differ for a time, for time needs symbols, being itself
unreal. Their names are legion, but we will not go beyond the names the
course itself employs. God does not help because He knows no need. But
He creates all Helpers of His Son while he believes his fantasies are true.
Thank God for them, for they will lead you home.
The Name of Jesus is the name of one who was a man, but saw the
face of Christ in all his brothers and remembered God. So he became
identified with Christ, a man no longer but at one with God.The man was
an illusion, for he seemed to be a separate being, walking by himself, within
a body that appeared to hold his self from Self, as all illusions do.Yet who can
save unless he sees illusions, and then identifies them as what they are? Jesus
remains a Savior because he saw the false without accepting it as true. And
Christ needed his form that He might appear to men and save them from
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THE USE OF TERMS
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form is not his reality Which God alone knows along with Christ, His real
Son,Who is part of Him.
The Holy Spirit is described throughout the course as giving us the
answer to the separation and bringing the plan of the Atonement to us,
establishing our particular part in it, and showing us exactly what it is. He
has established Jesus as the leader in carrying out this plan, since he was the
first to complete his own part perfectly. All power in Heaven and earth is
therefore given him, and he will share it with you when you have
completed yours. The Atonement principle was given to the Holy Spirit
long before Jesus set it in motion.
The Holy Spirit is described as the remaining communication link
between God and His separated sons. In order to fulfill this special function
the Holy Spirit has assumed a dual function; He knows because He is part of
God. He perceives because He was sent to save humanity. He is the great
correction principle; the bringer of true perception, the inherent power of
the vision of Christ. He is the light in which the forgiven world is
perceived; in which the face of Christ alone is seen. He never forgets the
Creator or His Creation. He never forgets the Son of God. He never forgets
you. And He brings the Love of your Father to you in an eternal shining
that will never be obliterated because God has put it there.
The Holy Spirit abides in the part of your mind that is part of the
Christ Mind. He represents your Self and your Creator,Who are One. He
speaks for God and also for you, being joined with both.And therefore it is
He Who proves them one. He seems to be a Voice, for in that form He
speaks God’s Word to you. He seems to be a Guide through a far country,
for you need that form of help. He seems to be whatever meets the needs
you think you have. But He is not deceived when you perceive your self
entrapped in needs you do not have. It is from these He would deliver you.
It is from these that He would make you safe.
You are His manifestation in this world.Your Brother calls to you to be
His Voice along with him.Alone he cannot be the Helper of God’s Son, for
he alone is functionless. But joined with you he is the shining savior of the
world, whose part in its redemption you have made complete. He offers
thanks to you as well as him, for you arose with him when he began to save
the world. And you will be with him when time is over, and no trace
remains of dreams of spite in which you dance to death’s thin melody. For in
its place the hymn to God is heard a little while.And then the voice is gone,
no longer to take form but to return to the eternal formlessness of God.
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A
COURSE IN
MIRACLES
TEXT
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Contents
ONE INTRODUCTION TO MIRACLES . . . . . . . . . . .1
Principles of Miracles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1
Distortions of Miracle Impulses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .18
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TEXT
xviii
CONTENTS
xix
TEXT
xx
CONTENTS
xxi
TEXT
TWENTY
THREE THE WAR AGAINST YOURSELF . . . . . . . . . . .539
The Irreconcilable Beliefs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .540
The “Laws” of Chaos . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .543
Salvation without Compromise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .549
The Fear of Life . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .551
TWENTY
FOUR SPECIALNESS AND SEPARATION . . . . . . . . .554
Specialness as a Substitute for Love . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .554
The Treachery of Specialness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .557
The Forgiveness of Specialness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .560
Specialness and Salvation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .562
The Resolution of the Dream . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .564
Salvation from Fear . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .566
The Meeting Place . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .570
TWENTY
FIVE THE REMEDY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .574
The Appointed Task . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .575
The Savior from the Dark . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .577
The Fundamental Law of Perception . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .580
The Joining of Minds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .582
The State of Sinlessness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .583
The Special Function . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .585
Commuting the Sentence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .587
The Principle of Salvation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .591
The Justice of Heaven . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .595
TWENTY
SIX THE TRANSITION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .598
The “Sacrifice” of Oneness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .598
The Forms of Error . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .600
The Borderland . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .602
Where Sin Has Left . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .604
The Little Hindrance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .606
The Appointed Friend . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .609
Review of Principles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .610
The Immediacy of Salvation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .614
For They Have Come . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .617
The Remaining Task . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .619
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CONTENTS
TWENTY
SEVEN THE BODY AND THE DREAM . . . . . . . . . . . .621
The Picture of Crucifixion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .621
The Fear of Healing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .624
The Symbol of the Impossible . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .628
The Quiet Answer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .630
The Healing Example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .632
The Purpose of Pain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .635
The Illusion of Suffering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .637
The “Hero” of the Dream . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .641
TWENTY
EIGHT THE UNDOING OF FEAR . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .645
The Present Memory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .646
Reversing Effect and Cause . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .649
The Agreement to Join . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .652
The Greater Joining . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .654
The Alternate to Dreams of Fear . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .657
The Secret Vows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .659
The Beautiful Relationship . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .660
TWENTY
NINE THE AWAKENING . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .663
The Closing of the Gap . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .664
The Coming of the Guest . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .665
God’s Witnesses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .668
Dream Roles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .669
The Changeless Dwelling-Place . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .670
Forgiveness and Peace . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .673
The Lingering Illusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .674
Christ and the Anti-Christ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .676
The Forgiving Dream . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .679
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TEXT
T H I RT Y
ONE THE SIMPLICITY OF SALVATION . . . . . . . . .702
The Illusion of an Enemy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .705
The Self-Accused . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .708
The Real Alternative . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .710
Self-Concept versus Self . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .713
Recognizing the Spirit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .718
The Savior’s Vision . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .719
Choose Once Again . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .723
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one
Introduction to Miracles
………
PRINCIPLES OF MIRACLES
1. There is no order of difficulty among miracles. One is not
“harder” or “bigger” than another. They are all the same. All
expressions of love are maximal.
2. Miracles as such do not matter. The only thing that matters is
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1 INTRODUCTION TO MIRACLES
2
PRINCIPLES OF MIRACLES
* The term “Spiritual eye” is later replaced by the Holy Spirit and the physical eye
becomes the ego.The emphasis on the two ways of seeing, however, remains throughout.
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1 INTRODUCTION TO MIRACLES
4
PRINCIPLES OF MIRACLES
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1 INTRODUCTION TO MIRACLES
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PRINCIPLES OF MIRACLES
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1 INTRODUCTION TO MIRACLES
their brothers.
The forgiven ARE the means of Atonement.Those released
by Christ must join in releasing their brothers, for this is the
Plan of the Atonement. Miracles are the way in which minds
which serve the Spirit unite with Christ for the salvation, or
release, of all God’s Creations.
35. Miracles are expressions of love, but it does NOT follow that they
will always have observable effects. I am the only one who can
perform miracles indiscriminately, because I AM the Atonement.
You have a ROLE in the Atonement, which I will dictate TO you.
Ask ME which miracles you should perform. This spares you
exhaustion, because you will act under direct communication.
36. Christ-controlled miracles are part of the Atonement, but
Christ-guidance is personal. The impersonal nature of miracles
is an essential ingredient, because this enables ME to control their
distribution. Christ-guidance leads to the highly PERSONAL
experience of Revelation. This is why it involves PERSONAL
choice. A guide does NOT control, but he DOES direct, leaving
the following up to you. “Lead us not into temptation” means
“guide us out of our own errors.”“Take up thy cross and follow
me” means “recognize your errors and choose to abandon them
by following my guidance.”
Remember that error cannot really threaten truth, which
can ALWAYS withstand it. ONLY the error is really vulnerable.
You are free to establish your kingdom where you see fit, but
the right choice is inevitable if you remember this:–
“The Soul is in a state of grace forever.
Man’s reality is ONLY his Soul.
Therefore man is in a state of grace forever.”
Atonement undoes all errors in this respect, and thus uproots
the REAL source of fear. Whenever God’s reassurances are
experienced as threat, it is ALWAYS because you are defending
misplaced and misdirected loyalty. That is what projection
always involves. Error is lack of love. When man projects this
onto others, he DOES imprison them, but only to the extent
that he reinforces errors they have ALREADY made.This makes
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PRINCIPLES OF MIRACLES
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1 INTRODUCTION TO MIRACLES
absent in spirit.
“God is not mocked” is not a warning, but a reassurance on
this point. God WOULD be mocked if any of His Creations
lacked holiness. The Creation IS whole, and the mark of
wholeness is holiness.
42. Wholeness is the perceptual content of miracles. It thus corrects,
or atones for, the faulty perception of lack anywhere.
Here we begin to make the fundamental distinction
between miracles and projection. The stimulus MUST precede
the response, and will also determine the kind of response that is
evoked. Behavior IS response, so that the question “response to
what?” becomes crucial. Since stimuli are identified through
perception, you first perceive the stimulus and then behave
accordingly. It follows, then, that:
“As ye perceive,
So shall ye behave.”
The Golden Rule asks you to behave toward others as you
would have them behave toward you. This means that the
perception of BOTH must be accurate. The Golden Rule is the
rule for appropriate behavior. You cannot behave appropriately
unless you perceive accurately, because appropriate behavior
DEPENDS on lack of level confusion. The presence of level
confusion ALWAYS results in variable reality testing, and therefore
in variability in behavioral appropriateness. Since you and your
neighbor are equal members of the same family, as you perceive
both, so you will behave toward both. The way to perceive for
Golden Rule behavior is to look out from the perception of your
OWN holiness, and perceive the holiness of others.
The emptiness engendered by fear should be replaced by
love, because love and its absence are in the same dimension, and
correction cannot be undertaken except WITHIN a dimension.
Otherwise, there has been a confusion of levels. Death is a
human affirmation of a belief in “fate,” or level confusion.That is
why the Bible says,“There IS no death,” and why I demonstrated
that death does not exist. I came to fulfill the law by
REINTERPRETING it. The law itself, if properly understood,
10
PRINCIPLES OF MIRACLES
11
1 INTRODUCTION TO MIRACLES
12
PRINCIPLES OF MIRACLES
13
1 INTRODUCTION TO MIRACLES
14
PRINCIPLES OF MIRACLES
15
1 INTRODUCTION TO MIRACLES
16
PRINCIPLES OF MIRACLES
17
1 INTRODUCTION TO MIRACLES
But
“Only perfect love REALLY exists.
If there IS fear,
It creates a state which does not exist.”
Believe this, and you WILL be free. Only God can establish this
solution and THIS faith IS His gift.
18
DISTORTIONS OF MIRACLE IMPULSES
19
two
20
THE ILLUSION OF SEPARATION
21
2 THE ILLUSION OF SEPARATION
22
THE REINTERPRETATION OF DEFENSES
23
2 THE ILLUSION OF SEPARATION
Your mind is NOT serving the Soul.This literally starves the Soul by
denying its daily bread. God offers ONLY mercy. YOUR words
should reflect only mercy because that is what you have received, and
that is what you should GIVE.
Justice is a temporary expedient, or an attempt to teach man the
meaning of mercy. Its judgemental side arises only because man is
capable of INjustice, if that is what his mind creates.You are afraid of
God’s Will because you have used your own will, which He created
in the likeness of His Own, to MISCREATE. What you do NOT
realize is that the mind can miscreate ONLY when it is NOT free.An
imprisoned mind is not free, by definition. It is possessed, or held
back, by ITSELF. Its will is therefore limited, and is not free to assert
itself. The real meaning of “are of one kind,” which was mentioned
before, is “are of one mind or will.” When the Will of the Sonship
and the Father are One, their perfect accord IS Heaven.
Denial of error is a powerful defense of truth. You will note
that we have been shifting the emphasis from the negative to the
positive use of denial.As we have already stated, denial is not a purely
negative device; it results in positive miscreation.That is the way the
mentally ill DO employ it. But remember a very early thought of
your own; – “Never underestimate the power of denial.” In the
service of the “right mind,” the denial of ERROR frees the mind and
reestablishes the freedom of the will.When the will is REALLY free,
it CANNOT miscreate because it recognizes ONLY truth.
False projection arises out of false denial, NOT out of its proper
use. My own role in the Atonement is one of TRUE projection; I can
project to YOU the affirmation of truth. If you project error to me,
or to yourself, you are interfering with the process. MY use of
projection, which can also be yours, is NOT based on faulty denial. It
DOES involve, however, the very powerful use of the denial of
errors.The miracle worker is one who accepts my kind of denial and
projection, unites his own inherent abilities to deny and project with
mine, and imposes them back on himself and others.This establishes
the total LACK of threat anywhere. Together we can then work for
the real time of peace, which is eternal.
The improper use of defenses is quite widely recognized, but
their proper use has not been sufficiently understood as yet.They can
24
THE REINTERPRETATION OF DEFENSES
25
2 THE ILLUSION OF SEPARATION
26
THE REINTERPRETATION OF DEFENSES
27
2 THE ILLUSION OF SEPARATION
28
THE REINTERPRETATION OF DEFENSES
29
2 THE ILLUSION OF SEPARATION
30
HEALING AS RELEASE FROM FEAR
can take two forms; it can be believed that the mind can miscreate IN
the body, or that the body can miscreate in the mind. If it is
understood that the mind, which is the ONLY level of creation,
cannot create beyond itself, neither type of confusion need occur.
The reason only the mind can create is more obvious than may
be immediately apparent.The Soul HAS BEEN created.The body is a
learning device for the mind. Learning devices are not lessons in
themselves. Their purpose is merely to facilitate the thinking of the
learner. The most that a faulty use of a learning device can do is to
fail to facilitate learning. It has no power in itself to introduce actual
learning errors.
The body, if properly understood, shares the invulnerability of
the Atonement to two-edged application. This is not because the
body is a miracle, but because it is not INHERENTLY open to
misinterpretation.The body is merely a fact in human experience. Its
abilities can be, and frequently are, overevaluated. However, it is
almost impossible to deny its existence. Those who do so are
engaging in a particularly unworthy form of denial. The term
“unworthy” here implies simply that it is not necessary to protect the
mind by denying the unmindful. If one denies this unfortunate
aspect of the mind’s power, one is also denying the power itself.
All material means which man accepts as remedies for bodily ills
are merely restatements of magic principles. It was the first level of the
error to believe that the body created its own illness. It is a second
misstep to attempt to heal it through non-creative agents. It does not
follow, however, that the use of these very weak corrective devices are
evil. Sometimes the illness has a sufficiently great hold over a mind to
render a person inaccessible to Atonement. In this case it may be wise
to utilize a compromise approach to mind AND body, in which
something from the OUTSIDE is temporarily given healing belief.
This is because the LAST thing that can help the non-right-
minded, or the sick, is an INCREASE in fear. They are already IN a
fear-weakened state. If they are inappropriately exposed to an
“undiluted” miracle, they may be precipitated into panic. This is
particularly likely to occur when upside-down perception has
induced the belief that miracles are frightening.
The value of the Atonement does not lie in the manner in which
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2 THE ILLUSION OF SEPARATION
32
HEALING AS RELEASE FROM FEAR
33
2 THE ILLUSION OF SEPARATION
34
FEAR AS LACK OF LOVE
35
2 THE ILLUSION OF SEPARATION
which you would do well to look at clearly. YOU believe that you are
responsible for what you DO, but NOT for what you THINK. The
truth is that you ARE responsible for what you think because it is
only at this level that you CAN exercise choice.
What you do COMES FROM what you think. You cannot
separate yourself from the truth by “giving” autonomy to behavior.
This is controlled by me automatically, as soon as you place what you
think under my guidance. Whenever you are afraid, it is a sure sign
that you have allowed your mind to miscreate, or have NOT allowed
me to guide it. It is pointless to believe that controlling the
OUTCOME of mis-thought can result in healing. When you are
fearful you have willed wrongly.This is why you feel responsible for
it. You must change your MIND, not your behavior, and this IS a
matter of will.
You do not need guidance EXCEPT at the mind level.
Correction belongs ONLY at the level where creation is possible.The
term does not mean anything at the symptom level, where it cannot
work.The correction of fear IS your responsibility.When you ask for
release from fear, you are implying that it is not. You should ask,
instead, for help in the conditions which have brought the fear
about.These conditions ALWAYS entail a separated mind willingness.
At that level, you CAN help it.You are much too tolerant of mind
wandering, thus passively condoning its miscreations. The particular
result does not matter, but the fundamental error DOES. The
correction is always the same. Before you will to do anything, ask me
if your will is in accord with mine. If you are sure that it is, there will
BE no fear.
Fear is always a sign of strain, which arises whenever the WILL
to do conflicts with WHAT you do.This situation arises in two ways;
1. You can will to do conflicting things, either simultaneously or
successively. This produces conflicted behavior, which is
intolerable to yourself because the part of the will that wants to
do something ELSE is outraged.
2. You can BEHAVE as you think you should, but without entirely
WILLING to do so. This produces consistent behavior, but
entails great strain WITHIN the self. In both cases, the will and
the behavior are out of accord, resulting in a situation in which
36
THE CORRECTION FOR LACK OF LOVE
you are doing what you do NOT will. This arouses a sense of
coercion, which usually produces rage. The rage then invades
the mind, and projection in the wrong sense is likely to follow.
Depression or anxiety is virtually certain.
Remember that whenever there is fear, it is because you have
NOT MADE UP YOUR MIND.Your will is split, and your behavior
inevitably becomes erratic. Correcting at the behavioral level can
shift the error from the first to the second type of strain described
above, but will NOT obliterate the fear. It is possible to reach a state
in which you bring your will under my guidance without much
conscious effort, but this implies habit patterns which you have not
developed dependably as yet. God cannot ask MORE than you will.
The strength to DO comes from your own undivided WILL to do.
There is NO strain in doing God’s Will as soon as you recognize that
it is also your OWN.
The lesson here is quite simple, but particularly apt to be
overlooked. I will therefore repeat it, urging you to listen. Only your
MIND can produce fear. It does so whenever it is conflicted in what
it wills, thus producing inevitable strain because willing and doing
become discordant.This cannot be corrected by better DOING, but
it CAN be corrected by higher WILLING.
37
2 THE ILLUSION OF SEPARATION
then, that when you are afraid you have placed yourself in a position
where you NEED Atonement, because you have done something
loveless, having willed without love.This is precisely the situation for
which the Atonement was offered.The need for the remedy inspired
its creation. As long as you recognize only the need for the remedy,
you will remain fearful. However, as soon as you REMEDY it, you
have also abolished the fear.This is how true healing occurs.
Everyone experiences fear, and no-one enjoys it. Yet it would
take very little right-thinking to realize why fear occurs. Very few
people appreciate the real power of the mind, and no-one remains
fully aware of it all the time. However, if anyone hopes to spare
himself from fear, there are some things he must realize, and realize
fully. The mind is a very powerful creator and it never loses its
creative force. It never sleeps. Every instant it is creating, and
ALWAYS as you will. Many of your ordinary expressions reflect this.
For example, when you say,“Don’t give it a thought,” you imply that
if you do not think about something, it will have no effect on you.
And this is true enough.
On the other hand, many other expressions clearly illustrate the
prevailing LACK of awareness of thought-power. For example, you
say, “Just an idle thought,” and mean that the thought has no effect.
You also speak of some actions as “thoughtless,” implying that if the
person had thought, he would not behave as he did.While expressions
like “think big” give some recognition to the power of thought, they
still come nowhere near the truth.You do not expect to grow when
you say it, because you do not really think that you will.
It is hard to recognize that thought and belief combine into a
power surge that can literally move mountains. It appears at first
glance that to believe such power about yourself is merely arrogant,
but that is not the real reason why you do not believe it. People
PREFER to believe that their thoughts cannot exert real control
because they are literally AFRAID of them. Many psychotherapists
attempt to help people who are afraid, say, of their death wishes by
depreciating the power of the wish. They even try to “free” the
patient by persuading him that he can think whatever he wants
without any REAL effect at all.
There is a real dilemma here which only the truly right-minded can
38
THE CORRECTION FOR LACK OF LOVE
escape. Death wishes do not kill in the physical sense, but they DO
kill spiritual awareness. ALL destructive thinking is dangerous. Given
a death wish, a man has no choice except to ACT upon the thought,
or behave CONTRARY to it. He thus chooses only between
homicide and fear. The other possibility is that he depreciates the
power of his thought. This is the usual psychoanalytic approach. It
DOES allay guilt, but at the cost of rendering thinking impotent. If
you believe that what you think is ineffectual you may cease to be
overly afraid of it, but you are hardly likely to respect it.
The world is full of examples of how man has depreciated
himself because he is afraid of his own thoughts. In some forms of
insanity thoughts are glorified, but this is only because the
underlying depreciation was too effective for tolerance.The truth is
that there ARE no “idle” thoughts. ALL thinking produces form at
some level. The reason people are afraid of ESP and so often react
against it is because they KNOW that thoughts can hurt them.Their
own thoughts have made them vulnerable.
You who constantly complain about fear still persist in creating
it. I told you before that you cannot ask ME to release you from fear
because I KNOW it does not exist, but YOU do not. If I merely
intervened between your thoughts and their results, I would be
tampering with a basic law of cause and effect, the most fundamental
law there is in this world. I would hardly help if I depreciated the
power of your own thinking.This would be in direct opposition to
the purpose of this course. It is much more helpful to remind you
that you do not guard your thoughts carefully except for a small part
of the day, and somewhat inconsistently even then.You may feel at
this point that it would take a miracle to enable you to do this, which
is perfectly true.
Men are not used to miraculous thinking, but they can be
TRAINED to think that way. All miracle workers need that kind of
training. I cannot let them leave their minds unguarded or they will
not be able to help me. Miracle working entails a full realization of
the power of thought, and real avoidance of miscreation. Otherwise a
miracle will be necessary to set the mind ITSELF straight, a circular
process which would hardly foster the time collapse for which the
miracle was intended. Nor would it induce the healthy respect for
39
2 THE ILLUSION OF SEPARATION
true cause and effect which every miracle worker must have.
Both miracles AND fear come from thoughts, and if you were
not free to choose one, you would also not be free to choose the
other. By choosing the miracle you HAVE rejected fear. You have
been afraid of God, of me, of yourselves, and of practically everyone
you know at one time or another. This is because you have
misperceived or miscreated us, and believe in what you have made.
You would never have done this if you were not afraid of your own
thoughts. The vulnerable are essentially miscreators because they
misperceive creation.
You persist in believing that, when you do not consciously
watch your mind, it is unmindful. It is time, however, to consider the
whole world of the unconscious or “unwatched” mind. This may
well frighten you because it is the SOURCE of fear.The unwatched
mind is responsible for the whole content of the unconscious which
lies ABOVE the miracle level. All psychoanalytic theorists have made
some contribution in this connection, but none of them has seen it
in its true entirety. They have all made one common error in that
they attempted to uncover unconscious CONTENT. You cannot
understand unconscious activity in these terms because “content” is
applicable ONLY to the more superficial unconscious levels, to
which the individual himself contributes. This is the level at which
he can readily introduce fear, and usually does.
When man miscreates he is in pain. The cause and effect
principle here is temporarily a real expeditor. Actually, “Cause” is a
term properly belonging to God, and “Effect,” which should also be
capitalized, is His Son. This entails a set of Cause and Effect
relationships which are totally different from those which man
introduced into his own miscreations.The fundamental opponents in
the real basic conflict are Creation and miscreation. All FEAR is
implicit in the second, just as all LOVE is inherent in the first. Because
of this difference, the basic conflict IS one between love and fear.
It has already been said that man believes he CANNOT control
fear because he himself created it. His belief in it seems to render it
out of his control by definition.Yet any attempt to resolve the basic
conflict through the concept of MASTERY of fear is meaningless. In
fact, it asserts the POWER of fear by the simple assumption that it
40
THE CORRECTION FOR LACK OF LOVE
41
2 THE ILLUSION OF SEPARATION
42
THE MEANING OF THE LAST JUDGEMENT
over a similarly long period, and perhaps an even longer one. Its
length depends, however, on the effectiveness of the present speed-up.
We have frequently noted that the miracle is a device for
shortening but not abolishing time. If a sufficient number of people
become truly miracle-minded quickly, the shortening process can be
almost immeasurable. It is essential, however, that these individuals
free themselves from fear sooner than would ordinarily be the case,
because they must emerge from the conflict if they are to bring
peace to other minds.
The Last Judgement is generally thought of as a procedure
undertaken by God. Actually it will be undertaken by man, with my
help. It is a Final Healing, rather than a meting out of punishment,
however much man may think that punishment is deserved.
Punishment is a concept in TOTAL opposition to right-mindedness.
The aim of the Last Judgement is to RESTORE right-mindedness
to man.
The Last Judgement might be called a process of right
evaluation. It simply means that finally all men will come to
understand what is worthy and what is not.After this, their ability to
choose can be directed reasonably. Until this distinction is made,
however, the vacillations between free and imprisoned will cannot
BUT continue.The first step toward freedom MUST entail a sorting
out of the false from the true.This is a process of division only in the
constructive sense, and reflects the true meaning of the Apocalypse.
Man will ultimately look upon his own creations and will to preserve
only what is good, just as God Himself looked upon what He had
created and knew that it WAS good.
At this point, the will can begin to look with love on its own
creations because of their great worthiness.The mind will inevitably
disown its miscreations which, without the mind’s belief, will no
longer exist. The term “Last Judgement” is frightening not only
because it has been falsely projected onto God, but also because of
the association of “last” with death.This is an outstanding example of
upside-down perception. Actually, if the meaning of the Last
Judgement is objectively examined, it is quite apparent that it is really
the doorway to life.
No-one who lives in fear is really alive. His own last judgement
43
2 THE ILLUSION OF SEPARATION
44
Th r e e
45
3 RETRAINING THE MIND
46
ATONEMENT WITHOUT SACRIFICE
47
3 RETRAINING THE MIND
punished because YOU were bad. The wholly benign lesson the
Atonement teaches is lost if it is tainted with this kind of distortion
in ANY form.
“Vengeance is Mine sayeth the Lord” is a strictly karmic
viewpoint. It is a real misperception of truth, by which man assigns
his own “evil” past to God. The “evil conscience” from the past has
nothing to do with God. He did not create it and He does not
maintain it. God does NOT believe in karmic retribution. His Divine
Mind does not create that way. HE does not hold the evil deeds of a
man even against himself. Is it likely, then, that He would hold against
anyone the evil that ANOTHER did?
Be very sure that you recognize how utterly impossible this
assumption really is, and how ENTIRELY it arises from
misprojection. This kind of error is responsible for a host of related
errors, including the belief that God rejected man, and forced him
out of the Garden of Eden. It is also responsible for the fact that you
may believe, from time to time, that I am misdirecting you. I have
made every effort to use words that are almost impossible to distort,
but man is very inventive when it comes to twisting symbols around.
God Himself is NOT symbolic; He is FACT. The Atonement,
too, is totally without symbolism. It is perfectly clear because it exists
in light. Only man’s attempts to shroud it in darkness have made it
inaccessible to the unwilling and ambiguous to the partly willing.
The Atonement itself radiates nothing but truth. It therefore
epitomizes harmlessness and sheds ONLY blessing. It could not do
this if it arose from anything but perfect innocence. Innocence is
wisdom because it is unaware of evil, which does not exist. It is,
however, PERFECTLY aware of EVERYTHING that is true.
The Resurrection demonstrated that NOTHING can destroy
truth. Good can withstand ANY form of evil because light abolishes
ALL forms of darkness.The Atonement is thus the perfect lesson. It is
the final demonstration that all of the other lessons which I taught
are true. Man is released from ALL errors if he believes in this. The
deductive approach to teaching accepts the generalization which is
applicable to ALL single instances, rather than building up the
generalization after analyzing numerous single instances separately. If
you can accept the ONE generalization NOW, there will be no need
48
ATONEMENT WITHOUT SACRIFICE
49
3 RETRAINING THE MIND
mind can perceive ANYTHING. A pure mind knows the truth, and
this IS its strength. It cannot attack the body because it recognizes
exactly what the body IS.This is what “a sane mind in a sane body”
really means. It does NOT confuse destruction with innocence
because it associates innocence with strength, NOT with weakness.
Innocence is INCAPABLE of sacrificing anything, because the
innocent mind HAS everything and strives only to PROTECT its
wholeness. This is why it CANNOT misproject. It can only honor
man, because honor is the natural greeting of the truly loved to
others who are like them.The lamb taketh away the sins of the world
only in the sense that the state of innocence, or grace, is one in which
the meaning of the Atonement is perfectly apparent.The innocence
of God is the true state of mind of His Son. In this state, man’s mind
DOES see God in the sense that he sees Him as He is, and realizes
that the Atonement, NOT sacrifice, is the ONLY appropriate gift to
His Own altar, where nothing except true perfection belongs. The
understanding of the innocent is TRUTH.That is why their altars are
truly radiant.
50
PERCEPTION VERSUS KNOWLEDGE
51
3 RETRAINING THE MIND
52
CONFLICT AND THE EGO
NOT for right DOING. Perception, miracles and doing are closely
related. Knowledge is the result of revelation, and induces only
thought. Perception involves the body even in its most spiritualized
form. Knowledge comes from the altar within, and is timeless because
it is certain.To perceive the truth is NOT the same as knowing it.
If you attack error in one another, you will hurt yourself. You
cannot RECOGNIZE each other when you attack.Attack is ALWAYS
made on a stranger.You are MAKING him a stranger by misperceiving
him, so that you CANNOT know him. It is BECAUSE you have made
him a stranger that you are afraid of him. PERCEIVE him correctly so
that you can KNOW him. Right perception is necessary before God
can communicate directly to His own altars, which He has established
in His Sons. There He can communicate His certainty, and HIS
knowledge will bring peace WITHOUT question.
God is not a stranger to His Sons, and His Sons are not strangers
to each other. Knowledge preceded both perception and time, and
will ultimately replace them.That is the real meaning of the Biblical
description of God as “Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the
End.” It also explains the quotation, “Before Abraham was I AM.”
Perception can and must be stabilized, but knowledge IS stable.“Fear
God and keep his commandments” should read “KNOW God and
accept His certainty.” There are no strangers in His Creation. To
create as He created, you can create only what you KNOW and
accept as yours. God knows His Children with perfect certainty. He
created them BY knowing them. He recognized them perfectly.
When they do not recognize each other, they do not recognize him.
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3 RETRAINING THE MIND
54
CONFLICT AND THE EGO
55
3 RETRAINING THE MIND
light does abolish darkness merely by establishing the fact that it is not
there.The truth will ALWAYS overcome error in this sense.This is not
an ACTIVE process of destruction at all.We have already emphasized
that knowledge does not DO ANYTHING. It can be PERCEIVED as
an attacker, but it CANNOT attack.What man perceives as its attack is
merely his own vague recognition of the fact that it can always be
REMEMBERED, never having been destroyed.
God and the Souls He created remain in surety, and therefore
KNOW that no miscreation exists.Truth cannot deal with unwilling
error, because it does not will to be blocked out. I was a man who
remembered the Soul and its knowledge, and as a man, I did not
attempt to COUNTERACT error with knowledge so much as to
CORRECT error from the bottom up. I demonstrated both the
powerlessness of the body AND the power of the mind. By uniting
my will with that of my Creator, I naturally remembered the Soul
and its own real purpose.
I cannot unite your will with God’s FOR you, but I CAN erase
all misperceptions from your mind if you will bring it under my
guidance. ONLY your misperceptions stand in your own way.
Without them your choice is certain. Sane perception INDUCES
sane choosing.The Atonement was an act based on true perception.
I cannot choose for you, but I CAN help you make your own right
choice. “Many are called but few are chosen” should read, “ALL are
called but few choose to listen. Therefore, they do not
choose RIGHT.”
The “chosen ones” are merely those who choose right
SOONER.This is the real meaning of the celestial speed-up. Strong
wills can do this NOW, and you WILL find rest for your Souls. God
knows you only in peace, and this IS your reality.
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THE LOSS OF CERTAINTY
the union of my will with the Father’s.We can now make a distinction
which will greatly facilitate clarity in our subsequent statements.
Since the separation, the words “create” and “make” have been
greatly confused. When you make something, you make it out of a
sense of lack or need. Anything that is made is made for a specific
purpose, and has no true generalizability.When you make something
to fill a perceived lack, which is obviously why you would want to
make anything, you are tacitly implying that you believe in separation.
Knowing, as we have frequently observed, does not lead to doing at all.
The confusion between your own creation and what YOU
create is so profound that it has become literally impossible for you
to know anything. Knowledge is always stable, and it is quite evident
that human beings are not. Nevertheless, they ARE perfectly stable as
God created them. In this sense, when their behavior is unstable they
are DISAGREEING with God’s Idea of the Creation. Man can do
this if he chooses, but he would hardly WANT to do it if he were in
his right mind. The problem that bothers you most is the
fundamental question which man continually asks of himself, but
which cannot properly be directed to himself at all. He keeps asking
himself what he IS. This implies that the answer is not only one
which he knows, but is also one which is up to him to supply.
Man CANNOT perceive himself correctly. He has no image.
The word “image” is always perception-related, and NOT a product
of learning. Images are symbolic, and stand for something else. The
current emphasis on “changing your image” merely recognizes the
power of perception, but it also implies that there is nothing to
KNOW. Knowing is NOT open to interpretation. It is possible to
“interpret” meaning, but this is always open to error because it refers
to the PERCEPTION of meaning. Such wholly needless
complexities are the result of man’s attempt to regard himself as both
separated and unseparated at the same time. It is impossible to
undertake a confusion as fundamental as this without engaging in
further confusion.
Methodologically man’s mind has been very creative, but, as
always occurs when method and content are separated, it has not
been utilized for anything but an attempt to escape a fundamental
and entirely inescapable impasse.This kind of thinking cannot result
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3 RETRAINING THE MIND
58
JUDGEMENT AND THE AUTHORITY PROBLEM
59
3 RETRAINING THE MIND
60
JUDGEMENT AND THE AUTHORITY PROBLEM
will also use the term with considerable fear, believing that
judgement will someday be used against YOU.To whatever extent it
IS used against you, it is due only to your belief in its efficacy as a
weapon of defense for your own authority.The issue of authority is
really a question of authorship.When an individual has an “authority
problem,” it is ALWAYS because he believes he is the author of
himself, projects his delusion onto others, and then perceives the
situation as one in which people are literally fighting him for his
authorship. This is the fundamental error of all those who believe
they have usurped the power of God.
The belief is very frightening to THEM, but hardly troubles
God. He is, however, eager to undo it, NOT to punish His children,
but ONLY because He knows that it makes them unhappy. Souls
were GIVEN their true Authorship, but men preferred to be
anonymous when they chose to separate themselves from their
Author. The word “authority” has been one of their most fearful
symbols ever since. Authority has been used for great cruelty
because, being uncertain of their true Authorship, men believe that
their creation was anonymous.This has left them in a position where
it SOUNDS meaningful to consider the possibility that they must
have created themselves.
The dispute over authorship has left such uncertainty in the
minds of men that some have even doubted whether they really exist
at all. Despite the apparent contradiction in this position, it is in one
sense more tenable than the view that they created themselves. At
least it acknowledges the fact that SOME true authorship is necessary
for existence.
Only those who give over all desire to reject can KNOW that
their own rejection is impossible.You have NOT usurped the power
of God, but you HAVE lost it. Fortunately, when you lose something,
it does not mean that the “something” has gone. It merely means that
you do not know where it is. Existence does not depend on your
ability to identify it, nor even to place it. It is perfectly possible to
look on reality without judgement, and merely KNOW that it
is there.
Peace is a natural heritage of the Soul. Everyone is free to refuse
to ACCEPT his inheritance, but he is NOT free to establish what his
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CREATING VERSUS THE SELF-IMAGE
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3 RETRAINING THE MIND
is the central foundation stone in your thought system, and all your
defenses are used to attack ideas which might bring it to light.You
still believe you are images of your own creation.Your minds are split
with your Souls on this point, and there is NO resolution while you
believe the one thing that is literally inconceivable.That is why you
CANNOT create, and are filled with fear about what you make.
The mind can make the belief in separation VERY real and
VERY fearful, and this belief is the “devil.” It is powerful, active,
destructive, and clearly in opposition to God because it literally
denies His Fatherhood. Never underestimate the power of this
denial. Look at your lives, and see what the devil has made. But
KNOW that this making will surely dissolve in the light of truth,
because its FOUNDATION is a lie.
Your creation by God is the ONLY foundation which cannot be
shaken because the light is IN it.Your starting point is truth, and you
must return to this Beginning. Much has been perceived since then,
but nothing else has happened. That is why your Souls are still in
peace, even though your minds are in conflict.You have not yet gone
back far enough, and that is why you become so fearful. As you
approach the Beginning, you feel the fear of the destruction of your
thought system upon you, as if it were the fear of death.There IS no
death, but there IS a belief in death.
The Bible says that the branch that bears no fruit will be cut off
and will wither away. Be glad! The light WILL shine from the true
Foundation of Life, and your own thought system WILL stand
corrected. It CANNOT stand otherwise.You who fear salvation are
WILLING death. Life and death, light and darkness, knowledge and
perception are irreconcilable.To believe that they can be reconciled
is to believe that God and man can NOT. Only the Oneness of
knowledge is conflictless.Your kingdom is not of this world because
it was given you from BEYOND this world. Only IN this world is the
idea of an authority problem meaningful. The world is not left by
death but by truth, and truth CAN be known by all those for whom
the Kingdom was created, and for whom it waits.
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four
The Bible says that you should go with a brother twice as far as he
asks. It certainly does not suggest that you set him back on his
journey. Devotion to a brother cannot set YOU back, either. It can
lead ONLY to mutual progress. The result of genuine devotion is
inspiration, a word which, properly understood, is the opposite of
fatigue.To be fatigued is to be DIS-spirited, but to be inspired is to be
in the spirit. To be egocentric IS to be dispirited, but to be self-
centered in the right sense is to be inspired, or in the Soul.The truly
inspired are enlightened, and cannot abide in darkness.
You can speak from the Soul or from the ego, precisely as you
choose. If you speak from the Soul, you have chosen “to be still and
know that I am God.” These words are inspired because they come
from knowledge. If you speak from the ego, you are disclaiming
knowledge instead of affirming it, and are thus dispiriting yourself.
Do not embark on foolish journeys, because they are indeed in vain.
The ego may desire them, but the Soul cannot embark on them
because it is forever unwilling to depart from its Foundation.
The journey to the cross should be the last foolish journey for
every mind. Do not dwell upon it, but dismiss it as accomplished. If
you can accept it as your OWN last foolish journey, you are also free
to join my Resurrection. Human living has indeed been needlessly
wasted in a repetition compulsion. It re-enacts the separation, the loss
of power, the foolish journey of the ego in an attempt at reparation,
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66
RIGHT TEACHING AND RIGHT LEARNING
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him.This is the one real goal of the parent, teacher and therapist.This
goal will not be achieved by those who believe that they will LOSE
their child or pupil or patient if they succeed. It is IMPOSSIBLE to
convince the ego of this because it goes against all of its own laws.
But remember that laws are set up to protect the continuity of the
system in which the law-maker BELIEVES.
It is natural enough for the ego to try to protect itself, once you
have made it, but it is NOT natural for YOU to want to obey its laws
unless YOU believe in them.The ego cannot make this choice because
of the nature of its origin. YOU can because of the nature of YOURS.
Egos can clash in any situation, but Souls cannot clash at all. If you
perceive a teacher as merely a “larger ego,” you WILL be afraid, because
to ENLARGE an ego IS to increase separation anxiety. I will teach with
you and live with you if you will think with me, but my goal will
always be to absolve you finally from the NEED for a teacher.
This is the OPPOSITE of the ego-oriented teacher’s goal. He is
concerned with the effect of HIS ego on OTHER egos, and therefore
interprets their interaction as a means of ego preservation. I would
not be able to devote myself to teaching if I believed this, and YOU
will not be a devoted teacher as long as YOU maintain it. I am
constantly being perceived as a teacher either to be exalted or
rejected, but I do not accept either perception for myself.
Your worth is NOT established by your teaching OR your
learning.Your worth was established by God. As long as you dispute
this EVERYTHING you do will be fearful, particularly any situation
which lends itself to the “superiority-inferiority” fallacy. Teachers
must be patient, and repeat their lessons until they are learned. I am
willing to do this because I have no right to set your learning limits
for you. Once again, – NOTHING you do or think or wish or make
is necessary to establish your worth. This point is not debatable
except in delusions. Your ego is NEVER at stake because God did
NOT create it. Your Soul is never at stake because He DID. ANY
confusion on this point is a delusion and no form of devotion is
possible as long as this delusion lasts.
The ego tries to exploit ALL situations into forms of praise for
itself in order to overcome its doubts. It will be doubtful forever, or
rather, as long as you believe in it.You who made it CANNOT trust it
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because you KNOW it is not real.The only SANE solution is not to try
to change reality, which is indeed a fearful attempt, but to see it as it IS.
YOU are part of reality, which stands unchanged beyond the reach of
your ego, but within easy reach of your Soul.When you are afraid, be
still and KNOW that God is real and YOU are His beloved Son in
whom He is well pleased. Do not let your ego dispute this, because the
ego cannot know what is as far beyond its reach as you are.
God is NOT the author of fear. YOU are. You have chosen,
therefore, to create unlike Him, and you have made fear for
yourselves.You are not at peace because you are not fulfilling your
function. God gave you a very lofty responsibility which you are not
meeting.You KNOW this, and you are afraid. In fact, your egos have
chosen to be afraid INSTEAD of meeting it.When you awaken, you
will not be able to understand this because it is literally incredible.
DO NOT BELIEVE THE INCREDIBLE NOW. Any attempt to
increase its believableness is merely to postpone the inevitable.
The word “inevitable” is fearful to the ego, but joyous to the
Soul. God IS inevitable, and you CANNOT avoid Him any more
than He can avoid YOU.The ego is afraid of the Soul’s joy because,
once you have experienced it, you will withdraw all protection from
the ego, and become totally without the investment in fear. Your
investment is great now because fear is a witness to the separation,
and your ego rejoices when you witness to it. Leave it behind! Do
not listen to it, and do not preserve it. Listen only to God,Who is as
incapable of deception as are the Souls He created.
Release yourselves and release others. Do not present a false and
unworthy picture of yourself to others, and do not accept such a
picture of them yourselves. The ego has built a shabby and
unsheltering home for you because it cannot build otherwise. Do
not try to make this impoverished house stand. ITS weakness is
YOUR strength. Only God could make a home that is worthy of His
creations, who have chosen to leave it empty by their own
dispossession.Yet His home will stand forever, and is ready for you
when you choose to enter it. Of this you can be wholly certain. God
is as incapable of creating the perishable as the ego is of making
the eternal.
Of your egos you can do nothing to save yourselves or others,
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but of your Souls you can do everything for the salvation of both.
Humility is a lesson for the ego, NOT for the Soul. The Soul is
beyond humility because it recognizes its radiance, and gladly sheds
its light everywhere. The meek shall inherit the earth because their
egos are humble and this gives them better perception.The Kingdom
of Heaven is the RIGHT of the Soul, whose beauty and dignity are
far beyond doubt, beyond perception, and stand forever as the mark
of the Love of God for His creations, who are wholly worthy of Him
and ONLY of Him. Nothing else is sufficiently worthy to be a gift
for a creation of God Himself.
I will substitute for your ego if you wish, but NEVER for your
Soul. A father can safely leave a child with an elder brother who has
shown himself responsible, but this involves no confusion about the
child’s origin. The brother can protect the child’s body and his ego,
which are VERY closely related, but he does not confuse HIMSELF
with the father because he does this, although the child may. I can be
entrusted with your body and your ego simply because this enables
you NOT to be concerned with them, and lets ME teach you their
unimportance. I could not understand their importance to YOU if I
had not once been tempted to believe in them myself.
Let us undertake to learn this lesson together, so we can be free
of them together. I need devoted teachers who share my aim of
healing the mind.The Soul is far beyond the need of your protection
OR mine. Remember this:
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THE EGO AND FALSE AUTONOMY
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72
THE EGO AND FALSE AUTONOMY
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one maintains that the ego existed before that point in time. The
religiously ego-oriented believe that the Soul existed before and will
continue to exist afterwards, after a temporary lapse in ego life. Some
actually believe that the Soul will be punished for this lapse, even
though in reality, it could not possibly know anything about it.
The term “salvation” does NOT apply to the Soul, which is not
in danger, and does not need to be salvaged. Salvation is nothing
more than “right-mindedness,” which is not the One-Mindedness of
the Soul, but which must be accomplished before the One-
Mindedness can be restored. Right-mindedness dictates the next step
automatically because right perception is uniformly without attack,
so that wrong-mindedness is obliterated. The ego cannot survive
without judgement, and is laid aside accordingly.The mind then has
only ONE direction in which it can move.The direction which the
mind will take is always automatic, because it cannot BUT be
dictated by the thought system to which the mind adheres.
Every thought system has internal consistency, and this provides
the basis for the continuity of behavior. However, this is a matter of
reliability, and not validity. “Reliable behavior” is a meaningful
perception, as far as ego thinking goes. However, “valid behavior” is
an expression which is inherently contradictory, because validity is an
END and behavior is a MEANS.These cannot be combined logically
because, when an end has been attained, the means for its attainment
are no longer meaningful.
A hypothesis is either false or true, to be accepted or rejected
accordingly. If it is shown to be true it becomes a fact, after which
no-one attempts to evaluate it unless its status AS fact is questioned.
EVERY idea to which the ego has accorded the status of fact is
questionable, because facts are in the realm of knowledge.
Confusing realms of discourse is a thinking error which
philosophers have recognized for centuries. Psychologists are generally
quite deficient in this respect, as are many theologians. Data from one
realm of discourse do not mean anything in another because they can
be understood only WITHIN the thought system of which they are a
part. That is why psychologists are concentrating increasingly on the
ego, in an attempt to unify their clearly unrelated data. It need hardly
be said that an attempt to relate the unrelated CANNOT succeed.
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experiences threat, and not only censors but also reinterprets the
data. However, as Freud correctly pointed out, what you have
repressed can retain a very active life BEYOND your awareness.
Repression thus operates to conceal not only the baser impulses
but also the most lofty ones from awareness because BOTH are
threatening to the ego and, being concerned primarily with its own
preservation in the face of threat, the ego perceives them AS THE
SAME. The threat-value of the lofty is actually much greater to the
ego because the pull of God Himself can hardly be equated with the
pull of human appetites. By perceiving them AS the same, the ego
attempts to save itself from being swept away, as it would surely BE in
the presence of knowledge.
The upper level of the unconscious thus contains the Call of
God as well as the call of the body. That is why the basic conflict
between love and fear is unconscious; the ego cannot tolerate either,
and represses both by resorting to inhibition. Society depends on
inhibiting the latter, but SALVATION depends on DISinhibiting the
former.The reason you need MY help is because you have repressed
your own Guide, and therefore need guidance. My role is to separate
the true from the false in your unconscious, so it can break through
the barriers the ego has set up, and shine into your minds. Against
our united strength the ego CANNOT prevail.
It should be apparent to you by now why the ego regards the
Soul as its “enemy.” The ego arose from the separation, and its
continued existence depends on YOUR continuing belief in the
separation. Having reduced the Soul impulses to the unconscious, the
ego has to offer you some sort of reward for maintaining this belief.
All it CAN offer is a sense of temporary existence, which begins with
its OWN beginning and ends with its OWN ending. It tells you this
life is YOUR existence because it IS its own. Against this sense of
temporary existence the Soul offers you the knowledge of
permanence and unshakable BEING. No-one who has experienced
the revelation of THIS can ever fully believe in the ego again. How
can its meager offering to you prevail against the glorious gift of God?
You who identify WITH your egos cannot believe that God
loves you. YOU do not love what you have made, and what you
made does not love YOU. Being made out of the denial of the
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Father, the ego has no allegiance to its own maker. You cannot
conceive of the real relationship which exists between God and His
Souls because of the hatred you have for the self YOU have made.
You project onto your OWN idea of yourself the will to separate,
which conflicts with the love you feel for what you made BECAUSE
you made it. No human love is without this ambivalence, and since
no ego has experienced love WITHOUT ambivalence, the concept is
beyond its understanding.
Love will enter immediately into ANY mind which truly wants
it, but it MUST want it truly.This means that it wants it WITHOUT
ambivalence, and this kind of wanting is wholly without the ego’s
“drive to get.” There is a kind of experience which is so different
from anything the ego can offer that you will never recover. The
word “recover” is used quite literally here, – you will never be able to
cover or hide again. It is necessary to repeat here that your belief in
darkness and in hiding IS why the Light cannot enter. The Bible
gives many references to the immeasurable gifts which are FOR you,
but for which YOU must ask.This is not a condition as the ego sets
conditions. It is the glorious condition of what you ARE.
No force except your own will is strong enough or worthy
enough to guide you. In this you are as free as God, and must remain
so forever. You can never be bound except in honor, and that is
always voluntary. Let us ask the Father in my name to keep you
mindful of His Love for you and yours for Him. He has never failed
to answer this request because it asks only for what He has already
willed.Those who call truly are ALWAYS answered.Thou shalt have
no other gods before Him because there ARE none.
It has never really entered your mind to give up every idea you
ever had that OPPOSES knowledge. You retain thousands of little
scraps of meanness which prevent the Holy One from entering.
Light cannot penetrate through the walls you make to block it, and it
is forever unwilling to destroy what you have made. No-one can see
THROUGH a wall, but I can step around it. Watch your minds for
the scraps of meanness, or you will be unable to ask me to do so. I
can help you only as our Father created us. I will love you and honor
you and maintain complete respect for what you have made, but I
will neither honor it nor love it unless it is true.
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I will never forsake you, any more than God will, but I MUST
wait as long as you choose to forsake yourself. Because I wait in love
and not in impatience you will surely ask me truly. I will come in
response to a single unequivocal call.Watch carefully and see what it
is you are really asking for. Be very honest with yourself about this,
for we must hide nothing from each other. If you will really try to do
this, you have taken the first step toward preparing your mind for the
Holy One to enter.We will prepare for this together, for once He has
come you will be ready to help me make other minds ready for Him.
How long will you deny Him His Kingdom?
In your own unconscious, deeply repressed by the ego, is the
declaration of your release. GOD HAS GIVEN YOU EVERYTHING.
This is the one fact that means the ego does not exist, and which
therefore makes it profoundly afraid. In the ego’s language,
remember, “to have” and “to be” are different, but they are identical
to the Soul. The Soul knows that you both HAVE everything and
ARE everything. Any distinction in this respect is meaningful only
when the idea of “getting,” which implies a lack, has ALREADY been
accepted. That is why we made no distinction before between
HAVING the Kingdom of God and BEING the Kingdom of God.
The calm being of God’s Kingdom, which in your sane mind is
perfectly conscious, is ruthlessly banished from the part of the mind
which the ego rules.The ego is desperate because it opposes literally
invincible odds, whether you are asleep or awake. Consider how
much vigilance you have been willing to exert to protect your ego,
and how little you have been willing to expend to protect your
higher mind.Who but the insane would undertake to believe what is
not true, and then protect this belief at the COST of truth?
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THE ESCAPE FROM FEAR
minds are filled with schemes to save the face of your egos, and you
do not seek the Face of God.The glass in which the ego seeks to see
its face is dark indeed. How can it maintain the trick of its existence
except with mirrors? But where YOU look to find yourself is up
to you.
We have said that you cannot change your mind by changing
your behavior, but we have also said, and many times before, that you
CAN change your mind. When your mood tells you that you have
chosen wrongly, and this is so whenever you are not joyous, then
KNOW this need not be. In every case you have thought wrongly
about some Soul that God created, and are perceiving images your
ego makes in a darkened glass. Think honestly what you have
thought that God would NOT have thought, and what you have
NOT thought that God would have you think. Search sincerely for
what you have done and left undone accordingly, and then change
your minds TO THINK WITH GOD’S.
This may seem hard to you, but it is much easier than trying to
think AGAINST It.Your mind IS one with God’s. Denying this and
thinking otherwise has held your ego together, but has literally split
your mind. As a loving brother, I am deeply concerned with your
mind, and urge you to follow my example as you look at yourselves
and at each other, and see in both the glorious creations of a
glorious Father.
When you are sad, KNOW THAT THIS NEED NOT BE.
Depression ALWAYS arises ultimately from a sense of being deprived
of something you want and do not have. KNOW you are deprived of
nothing except by your own decisions, and then decide otherwise.
When you are anxious, KNOW that all anxiety comes from the
capriciousness of the ego, AND NEED NOT BE. You can be as
vigilant AGAINST the ego’s dictates as FOR them.
When you feel guilty, KNOW that the ego has indeed violated
the laws of God, but YOU have not. Leave the sins of the ego to me.
That is what Atonement is for. But until you change your mind
about those your ego has hurt, the Atonement cannot release you.As
long as you feel guilty your ego is in command because only the ego
CAN experience guilt. THIS NEED NOT BE.
Watch your mind for the temptations of the ego, and do not be
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deceived by it. KNOW it offers you nothing. When you have given
up this voluntary dispiriting, you will see how your mind can focus
and rise above fatigue and heal.Yet you are not sufficiently vigilant
AGAINST the demands of the ego to disengage yourself. THIS
NEED NOT BE.
The habit of engaging WITH God and His creations is easily
made if you actively refuse to let your minds slip away.The problem is
NOT one of concentration; it is the belief that no-one, including
yourself, is WORTH consistent effort. Side with me CONSISTENTLY
against this deception, and do not permit this shabby belief to pull
you back. The disheartened are useless to themselves and to me, but
only the ego can BE disheartened. Have you REALLY considered
how many opportunities you have to gladden yourselves, and how
many of them you have refused? There is no limit to the power of a
Son of God, but he himself can limit the expression of his power as
much as he chooses.
Your mind and mine can unite in shining your ego away, and
releasing the strength of God into everything you think and will and
do. Do not settle for anything LESS than this, and refuse to accept
anything BUT this as your goal.Watch your minds carefully for ANY
beliefs that hinder its accomplishment, and step away from them. Judge
how well you have done this by your own feelings, for this is the one
RIGHT use of judgement. Judgement, like any other defense, can be
used to attack or protect, to hurt or to heal. The ego SHOULD be
brought to your judgement and found wanting there. Without your
own allegiance, protection and love, it cannot exist. Judge your ego
truly and you MUST withdraw allegiance, protection and love from it.
You are mirrors of truth in which God Himself shines in perfect
Light.To the ego’s dark glass you need but say,“I will not look there
because I KNOW these images are not true.”Then let the Holy One
shine on you in peace, knowing that this and ONLY this must be. His
Mind shone on you in your creation and brought YOUR mind into
being. His Mind still shines on you, and must shine THROUGH you.
Your ego cannot prevent HIM from shining on you, but it CAN
prevent you from letting Him shine THROUGH you.
The first coming of Christ is just another name for the creation,
for Christ is the Son of God.The SECOND coming of Christ means
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nothing more than the end of the ego’s rule over part of the minds of
men, and the healing of the mind. I was created like you in the first,
and I have called you to join with me in the second. If you will think
over your lives you will see how carefully the preparations were
made. I am in charge of the Second Coming, and my judgement,
which is used only for protection, cannot be wrong because it
NEVER attacks. YOURS is so distorted that you believe I was
mistaken in choosing you. I assure you this is a mistake of your egos.
Do NOT mistake it for humility.
Your egos are trying to convince you that THEY are real and I
am not, because if I am real, I am no more real than YOU are.That
knowledge, and I assure you that it IS knowledge, means that Christ
must come into your minds and heal them. Although I am NOT
attacking your egos, I AM working with your higher mind whether
you are asleep or awake, just as your ego does with your lower mind.
I am your vigilance in this because you are too confused to recognize
your own hope. I was NOT mistaken.Your minds WILL elect to join
with mine, and together we are invincible.
You will yet come together in my name and your sanity will be
restored. I raised the dead by KNOWING that life is an eternal
attribute of everything that the living God created. Why do you
believe it is harder for me to inspire the dispirited, or to stabilize the
unstable? I do not believe that there is an order of difficulty in
miracles; YOU do. I have called, and you will answer. I KNOW that
miracles are natural because they are expressions of love. My calling
you is as natural as your answer, and as inevitable.
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AGAINST the ego, and must be obliterated BY the ego in the interest
of its self-preservation.
A major source of the ego’s off-balanced state is its lack of
discrimination between impulses from God and from the body. Any
thought system which makes this confusion MUST be insane.Yet this
demented state is ESSENTIAL to the ego, which judges only in terms
of threat or non-threat TO ITSELF. In one sense the ego’s fear of the
idea of God is at least logical, since this idea DOES dispel the ego.
Fear of dissolution from the Higher Source, then, makes SOME sense
in ego-terms. But fear of the body, with which the ego identifies so
closely, is more blatantly senseless.
The body is the ego’s home by its own election. It is the only
identification with which the ego feels safe because the body’s
vulnerability is its own best argument that you CANNOT be of God.
This is the belief that the ego sponsors eagerly.Yet the ego hates the
body because it does not accept the idea that the body is GOOD
enough to be its home. Here is where the mind becomes actually
dazed. Being told by the ego that it is really part of the body and that
the body is its protector, the mind is also constantly informed that
the body can NOT protect it.This, of course, is not only accurate but
perfectly obvious.
Therefore the mind asks, “Where can I go for protection?” to
which the ego replies, “Turn to me.” The mind, and not without
cause, reminds the ego that it has itself insisted that it IS identified
with the body, so there is no point in turning to it for protection.The
ego has no real answer to this because there IS none, but it DOES
have a typical solution. It obliterates the QUESTION from the mind’s
awareness. Once unconscious, the question can and does produce
uneasiness, but it cannot be answered because it cannot be ASKED.
This is the question which MUST be asked: “Where am I to go for
protection?” Even the insane ask it unconsciously, but it requires real
sanity to ask it consciously.
When the Bible says,“Seek and ye shall find,” it does not mean
that you should seek blindly and desperately for something you
would not recognize. Meaningful seeking is consciously undertaken,
consciously organized, and consciously directed. The goal must be
formulated clearly AND KEPT IN MIND. As a teacher with some
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THE EGO-BODY ILLUSION
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84
THE CONSTANT STATE
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would not believe that you ARE here. In learning to escape from the
illusions you have made, your great debt to each other is something
you must never forget. It is exactly the same debt that you owe to
me. Whenever you react egotistically towards each other, you are
throwing away the graciousness of your indebtedness, and the holy
perception it would produce.
The term “holy” can be used here because, as you learn how
much you ARE indebted to the whole Sonship, which INCLUDES
me, you come as close to knowledge as perception ever can.The gap
is then so small that knowledge can easily flow across it, and obliterate
it forever.You have very little trust in me as yet, but it will increase as
you turn more and more often to me INSTEAD of your egos for
guidance.The results will convince you increasingly that your choice
in turning to me is the only sane one you can make. No-one who has
learned from experience that one choice brings peace and joy, while
another brings chaos and disaster, needs much conditioning.
The ego cannot withstand the conditioning process because the
process itself DEMONSTRATES that there is another way.
Conditioning by rewards has always been more effective than
conditioning by pain because pain is an ego-illusion, and can never
induce more than a temporary effect.The rewards of God, however,
are immediately recognized as eternal. Since this recognition is made
by you and NOT the ego, the recognition ITSELF establishes that
you and your ego CANNOT be identical.You may believe that you
have already accepted the difference, but you are by no means
convinced as yet. The very fact that you are preoccupied with the
idea of escaping FROM the ego shows this.
You CANNOT escape from the ego by humbling it or
controlling it or punishing it. Remember that the ego and the Soul
DO NOT KNOW each other. The separated mind cannot maintain
the separation EXCEPT by dissociating. Having done this, it utilizes
repression against all truly natural impulses, not because the EGO is a
separate thing, but because you want to believe that YOU are. The
ego is a device for maintaining this belief, but it is still only your
willingness to use the device that enables it to endure.
My trust in you is greater than yours in me at the moment, but it
will not always be that way.Your mission is very simple.You have been
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88
CREATION AND COMMUNICATION
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TRUE REHABILITATION
Every mind which is split needs rehabilitation. The medical
orientation to rehabilitation emphasizes the body, while the
vocational orientation stresses the ego. The “team” approach
generally leads more to confusion than to anything else because it is
too often misused as a way of exerting the ego’s domination over
other egos, rather than as a real experiment in the cooperation of
minds. Rehabilitation as a movement is an improvement over the
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TRUE REHABILITATION
overt neglect of those in need of help, but it is often little more than
a painful attempt on the part of the halt to lead the blind.
The ego is likely to fear broken bodies because it cannot
tolerate them.The ego cannot tolerate ego weakness either without
ambivalence because it is afraid of its own weakness as well as the
weakness of its chosen home. When it is threatened, the ego blocks
your natural impulse to help, placing you under the strain of divided
will. You may then be tempted to withdraw to allow your ego to
recover and to gain enough strength to be helpful again on a basis
limited enough NOT to threaten your ego, but too limited to give
YOU joy.Those with broken bodies are often looked down on by the
ego because of its belief that nothing but a perfect body is worthy as
its OWN temple.
A mind that recoils from a hurt body is in great need of
rehabilitation itself. ALL symptoms of hurt need true helpfulness, and
whenever they are met with this, the mind that so meets them heals
ITSELF. Rehabilitation is an attitude of praising God as He Himself
knows praise. He offers praise to you, and you must offer it to others.
The chief handicaps of the clinicians lie in their attitudes to those
whom their egos perceive as weakened and damaged. BY these
evaluations, they have weakened and damaged their own helpfulness,
and have thus set their own rehabilitation back. Rehabilitation is
NOT concerned either with the ego’s fight for control, or its need to
avoid and withdraw. You can do much on behalf of your own
rehabilitation AND that of others if, in a situation calling for healing,
you think of it this way:
“I am here ONLY to be truly helpful.
I am here to represent Christ,Who sent me.
I do NOT have to worry about what to say or what to do because
He Who sent me will direct me.
I am content to be wherever He wishes, knowing He goes there with me.
I will be healed as I let Him teach me to heal.”
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To heal is to make happy. I have told you before to think how many
opportunities you have to gladden yourselves, and how many you
have refused. This is exactly the same as telling you that you have
refused to heal yourselves.The light that belongs to you is the light of
joy. Radiance is not associated with sorrow. Depression is often
contagious, but although it may affect those who come in contact
with it, they do not yield to the influence whole-heartedly. But joy
calls forth an integrated willingness to share in it, and thus promotes
the mind’s natural impulse TO RESPOND AS ONE.
Those who attempt to heal without being wholly joyous
themselves call forth different kinds of responses at the same time,
and thus deprive others of the joy of responding whole-heartedly.To
be whole-hearted, you MUST be happy. If fear and love cannot
coexist, and if it is impossible to be wholly fearful and remain alive,
then the only possible whole state IS that of love. There is no
difference between love and joy. Therefore, the only possible whole
state is the wholly joyous.To heal or to make joyous is therefore the
same as to integrate and to MAKE ONE. That is why it makes no
difference to what part or by what part of the Sonship the healing is
done. EVERY part benefits, and benefits equally.
YOU are being blessed by every beneficent thought of any of
your brothers anywhere.You should want to bless them in return, out
of gratitude.You do not have to know them individually, or they you.
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HEALING AS JOINING
Healing is an act of thought by which two minds perceive their
oneness and become glad. This gladness calls to every part of the
Sonship to rejoice with them, and lets God Himself go out into them
and through them. Only the healed mind can experience revelation
with lasting effect because revelation is an experience of pure joy. If
you do not choose to be wholly joyous, your mind cannot HAVE
what it does not choose to BE. Remember that the Soul knows no
difference between “being” and “having.” The higher mind thinks
according to the laws which the Soul obeys, and therefore honors
only the laws of God.To Him, getting is meaningless and giving is all.
Having everything, the Soul HOLDS everything BY giving it, and
thus creates as the Father created.
If you think about it, you will see that, while this kind of
thinking is totally alien to having THINGS, even to the lower mind it
is quite comprehensible in connection with IDEAS. If you share a
physical possession, you DO divide its ownership. If you share an
idea, however, you do NOT lessen it. ALL of it is still yours, although
all of it has been given away. Further, if the person to whom you give
it accepts it as HIS, he reinforces it in YOUR mind, and thus
INCREASES it. If you can accept the concept that the world IS one
of ideas, the whole belief in the false association which the ego
makes between giving and LOSING is gone.
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THE MIND OF THE ATONEMENT
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THE VOICE FOR GOD
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THE GUIDE TO SALVATION
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THE GUIDE TO SALVATION
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The ego is the symbol of separation, just as the Holy Spirit is the
symbol of peace.What you perceive in others you are strengthening
in YOURSELF.You let your mind misperceive, but the Holy Spirit
lets your mind reinterpret its own misperceptions.The Holy Spirit is
the perfect teacher. He uses only what your minds ALREADY
understand to teach you that you do NOT understand it.The Holy
Spirit can deal with an unwilling learner without going counter to
his will because part of his will IS still for God. Despite the ego’s
attempts to conceal this part it is still much stronger than the ego,
even though the ego does not recognize it. The Holy Spirit
recognizes it perfectly because it is His own dwelling place, or the
place in the mind where He is at home.
YOU are at home there, too, because it is a place of peace and
peace is of God.You who are part of God are not at home EXCEPT
in His peace. If peace is eternal, you are at home only in eternity.The
ego made the world as IT perceives it, but the Holy Spirit, the
RE-INTERPRETER of what the ego made, sees it only as a teaching
device for bringing you home. The Holy Spirit must perceive time
and re-interpret it into the timeless. The mind must be led into
eternity THROUGH time because, having made time, it is capable of
perceiving its opposite.
The Holy Spirit must work through opposites because He must
work with and for a mind that IS in opposition. Correct and learn,
and be open to learning.You have NOT made truth, but truth can
still set you free. Look as the Holy Spirit looks and understand as He
understands. His understanding looks back to God in remembrance
of me. He is in Holy Communion always, and He is part of YOU. He
is your Guide to salvation because He holds the remembrance of
things past and to come. He holds this gladness gently in your minds,
asking only that you INCREASE it in His name by sharing it to
increase His joy in YOU.
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without sharing, and for asking pardon without change. The ego
NEVER calls for REAL Atonement, and cannot tolerate forgiveness,
which IS change.
Your concept of “healthy guilt feelings” has merit, but without
the concept of the Atonement it lacks the healing potential it holds.
You made the distinction in terms of feelings which led to a decision
not to REPEAT the error, which is only PART of healing. Your
concept lacked the idea of UNDOING it. What you were really
advocating, then, was adopting a policy of sharing without a real
FOUNDATION. I have come to GIVE you the foundation, so your
own thoughts can make you REALLY free. You have carried the
burden of the ideas you did not share and which were therefore too
weak to increase, but you did not recognize how to undo their
existence BECAUSE you had made them.
You CANNOT cancel out your past errors alone. They will
NOT disappear from your mind without remedy. The remedy is
NOT of your making, any more than YOU are. The Atonement
cannot be understood except as a PURE ACT OF SHARING.That is
what is meant when we said it is possible, even in this world, to listen
to ONE voice. If you are part of God and the Sonship is one, you
CANNOT be limited to the “self ” the ego sees. Every loving thought
held in ANY part of the Sonship belongs to every part. It is shared
BECAUSE it is loving. Sharing is God’s way of creating, and also
YOURS.Your ego can keep you in exile FROM the Kingdom, but in
the Kingdom itself it has no power.
You have become willing to receive my messages as I give them
without interference by the ego, so we can clarify an earlier point.
We said that you will one day teach as much as you learn, and that
will keep you in balance. The time is now because you have LET it
be now.You cannot learn EXCEPT by teaching. I heard one voice
because I had learned that learning is attained BY teaching. I
understood that I COULD NOT ATONE FOR MYSELF ALONE.
Listening to one voice means the will to SHARE the voice in order
to hear it yourself.The mind that was in me is still irresistibly drawn
to every mind created by God because God’s Wholeness IS the
wholeness of His Son.
Turning the other cheek does NOT mean that you should
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parts of your thoughts which are of Him, and which He also keeps
for YOU.And of such is the Kingdom of Heaven.All the rest remains
with you until He has re-interpreted them in the light of the
Kingdom, making them, too, worthy of being shared. When they
have been sufficiently purified He lets you give them away.The will
to share them IS their purification.
The Atonement gives you the power of a healed mind, but the
power to create is of God.Therefore, those who have been forgiven
must devote themselves first to healing because, having RECEIVED
the idea of healing, they must GIVE it to HOLD it.The full power of
creation cannot be expressed as long as ANY of God’s ideas withhold
it from the Kingdom.The joint will of ALL the Sonship is the only
creator that can create like the Father, because only the complete can
think completely, and the thinking of God lacks nothing. Everything
you think that is not through the Holy Spirit IS lacking.
How can you who are so holy suffer? All your past, except its
beauty, is gone, and nothing is left except a blessing.You can indeed
depart in peace because I have loved you as I loved myself.You go
WITH my blessing and FOR my blessing. Hold it and share it, that it
may always be ours. I place the peace of God in your heart and in
your hands, to hold and share. The heart is pure to hold it and the
hands are strong to give it.We cannot lose. My judgement is as strong
as the wisdom of God, in Whose Heart and Hands we have our
being. His quiet children are His blessed Sons.The Thoughts of God
are with you.
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TIME AND ETERNITY
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is both free and alterable. You do not belong in time. Your place is
ONLY in eternity, where God Himself placed you forever.
Guilt feelings are the PRESERVERS of time. They induce fears
of future retaliation or abandonment, and thus ensure that the future
will remain like the past.This is the ego’s continuity, and gives it a false
sense of security through the belief that you cannot escape from it.
But you can and MUST. God offers you the continuity of eternity in
exchange. When you choose to make this exchange, you will
simultaneously exchange guilt for joy, viciousness for love, and pain
for peace. My role is only to unchain your will and make it free.Your
ego cannot accept this freedom, and will oppose your free decision at
every possible moment and in every possible way. And as its maker
you recognize what it can do because you GAVE it the power to do it.
The mind does indeed know its power, because the mind does
indeed know God. Remember the Kingdom always, and remember
that you who are part of the Kingdom CANNOT be lost.The mind
that was in me IS in you, for God creates with perfect fairness. Let
the Holy Spirit remind you always of His fairness, and let me teach
you how to share it with your brothers. How else can the chance to
claim it for yourself be given you? What you do not understand is
that the two voices speak for different interpretations of the same
thing simultaneously, or almost simultaneously, for the ego always
speaks first. Alternate interpretations were unnecessary until the first
one was made, and speaking itself was unnecessary before the ego
was made.
The ego speaks in judgement and the Holy Spirit reverses its
decisions, much as the Supreme Court has the power to reverse the
lower courts’ decisions about the laws of this world. The ego’s
decisions are ALWAYS wrong because they are based on a complete
fallacy which they were made to uphold. NOTHING the ego
perceives is interpreted correctly. Not only does it cite Scripture for
its purpose but it even interprets Scripture as a witness for itself.The
Bible is a fearful thing to the ego because of its prejudiced
judgement. Perceiving it as fearful, it interprets it fearfully. Having
made YOU afraid, you do not appeal to the Higher Court because
you believe its judgement would be AGAINST you.
We need cite only a few examples to see how the ego’s
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“Do not look there.” It is still true that “where you look to find
yourself is up to you.”The Higher Court will NOT condemn you. It
will merely dismiss the case against you.There can BE no case against
a Child of God, and every witness to guilt in God’s creations is
bearing false witness to God Himself.
Appeal everything you believe gladly to God’s Own Higher
Court because it speaks for Him, and therefore speaks truly. It will
dismiss the case against you however carefully YOU have built it.The
case may be foolproof, but it is NOT God-proof.The Voice for God
will not hear it at all because He can only witness truly. His verdict
will always be “Thine is the Kingdom” because He was GIVEN you
to remind you of what you are.
Your patience with each other is your patience with yourselves.
Is not a Child of God WORTH patience? I have shown you infinite
patience because my will IS that of our Father, from Whom I learned
of infinite patience. His Voice was in me as it is in you, speaking for
patience towards the Sonship in the Name of its Creator.What you
need to learn now is that only infinite patience CAN produce
immediate effects. This is the way in which time is exchanged for
eternity. Infinite patience calls upon infinite love, and by producing
results NOW it renders time unnecessary.
To say that time is temporary is merely redundant. We have
repeatedly said that time is a learning device which will be abolished
when it is no longer useful.The Holy Spirit,Who speaks for God in
time, also knows that time is meaningless. He reminds you of this in
every passing moment of time because it is His special function to
return you to eternity, and remain to bless YOUR creations there. He
is the only blessing you can truly give because He is so truly blessed,
and because He has been given you so freely by God, you must give
Him as you received Him.
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fixed on God. It is also fixed in you. You, then, ARE fixed in the
peace of God. The concept of “Fixation” is also a very helpful one
which Freud understood perfectly. Unfortunately, he lost his
understanding because he was afraid, and, as you know all too well,
fear is incompatible with good judgement. Fear distorts thinking, and
therefore DISorders thought.
Freud’s system of thought was extremely ingenious because
Freud was extremely ingenious, and a mind MUST endow its
thoughts with its own attributes. This is its inherent strength,
although it may misuse its power. Freud lost much of the potential
value of his thought system because he did NOT include himself in
it.This is a dissociated state because the thinker cuts himself off from
his thoughts. Freud’s thought was so conflicted that he could not
have retained his sanity as HE saw it WITHOUT dissociation.That is
why the many contradictions which are quite apparent in his
thinking became increasingly less apparent to HIM. A man who
knows what fixation really means and yet does not yield to it is
terribly afraid.
Fixation is the pull of God, on Whom your mind IS fixed
because of the Holy Spirit’s irrevocable set. “Irrevocable” means
“cannot be called back or redirected.”The irrevocable nature of the
Holy Spirit’s set is the basis for His unequivocal Voice. The Holy
Spirit NEVER changes His mind. Clarity of thought CANNOT
occur under conditions of vacillation. Unless a mind is fixed in its
purpose it is NOT clear. Clarity literally means the state of light, and
enlightenment IS understanding. Enlightenment stands UNDER
perception because you have denied it as the REAL foundation of
thought.This is the basis for ALL delusional systems.
The concept of fixation, as Freud saw it, has a number of
learning advantages. First, it recognizes that man can be fixated at a
point in development which does NOT accord with a point in time.
This clearly could have been a means toward real release from the
time belief had Freud pursued it with an open mind. Freud, however,
suffered all his life from refusal to allow eternity to dawn upon his
mind and enlighten it truly.As a result, he overlooked NOW entirely,
and merely saw the continuity of past and future.
Second, although Freud misinterpreted what the Holy Spirit
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told him, or better, reminded him of, he was too honest to deny more
than was necessary to keep his fear in tolerable bounds as he perceived
the situation.Therefore, he emphasized that the point in development
at which the mind is fixated is more real to ITSELF than the external
reality with which it disagrees.This, again, could have been a powerful
RELEASE mechanism had Freud not decided to involve it in a strong
DEFENSE system because he perceived it as an attack.
Third, although Freud interpreted fixation as involving
irrevocable “danger points” to which the mind could always regress,
the concept can also be interpreted as an irrevocable call to sanity
which the mind cannot LOSE. Freud himself could not accept this
interpretation, but throughout his thought system, the “threat” of
fixation remained, and could never be eliminated by any living
human being. Essentially, this was the basis of Freud’s pessimism,
personally as well as theoretically. He tried every means his very
inventive mind could devise to set up a form of therapy which could
enable the mind to escape from fixation forever, even though he
KNEW this was impossible.
This knowledge plagued Freud’s belief in his own thought
system at every turn because he was both an honest man and a
healer. He was therefore only partially insane, and was unable to
relinquish the HOPE of release even though he could not cope with
it. The reason for this amount of detail is because YOU are in the
same position.You were eternally fixated on God in your creation,
and the pull of this fixation is so strong that you will never overcome
it.The reason is perfectly clear.The fixation is on a level so high that
it cannot BE surmounted. You are ALWAYS being pulled back to
your Creator because you BELONG to Him.
Do you REALLY believe you can make a voice that can drown
out His? Do you REALLY believe that you can devise a thought
system which can separate you from His? Do you REALLY believe
that you can plan for your safety and joy better than He can? You
need be neither careful nor careless; you need merely cast your cares
upon Him because He careth for YOU.You ARE His care because
He loves you. His Voice reminds you always that all hope is yours
BECAUSE of His care. You CANNOT choose to escape His care
because that is not His Will, but you CAN choose to accept His care
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and use the infinite power OF His care for all those He created BY it.
There have been many healers who did not heal themselves.
They have not moved mountains by their faith because their faith
was not whole. Some of them have healed the sick at times, but they
have not raised the dead. Unless the healer heals HIMSELF he does
NOT believe that there is no order of difficulty in miracles. He has
not learned that EVERY mind God created is equally worthy of
being healed BECAUSE GOD CREATED IT WHOLE. You are
merely asked to return to God the mind as HE created it. He asks
you only for what He gave, knowing that this giving will heal you.
Sanity IS wholeness, and the sanity of your brothers IS yours.
Why should you listen to the endless insane calls which you
think are made upon you when you KNOW the Voice of God
Himself is in you? God commended His Spirit to you, and asks that
you commend yours to Him. He wills to keep it in perfect peace
because you are of one mind and Spirit with Him. Excluding
yourself from the Atonement is the ego’s last-ditch defense of its
OWN existence. It reflects both the ego’s need to separate, and your
willingness to side with its separateness. This willingness means
THAT YOU DO NOT WANT TO BE HEALED.
But the time IS now.You have not been asked to work out the
plan of salvation yourselves because, as I told you before, the remedy
is NOT of your making. God Himself gave you the perfect correction
for everything you have made which is NOT in accord with His holy
Will. I have made His plan perfectly explicit to you, and have also told
you of your part in His plan, and how urgent it is that you fulfill it.
There is time for delay, but there need not be. God weeps at the
“sacrifice” of His Children who believe they are lost to Him.
I have already told you that whenever you are not wholly joyous
it is because you have reacted with a lack of love to some Soul which
God created. Perceiving this as “sin,” you become defensive because
you EXPECT ATTACK.The decision to react in this way, however, is
YOURS, and can therefore be undone. It CANNOT be undone by
repentance in the usual sense, because this implies guilt. If you allow
yourself to feel guilty you will RE-INFORCE the error rather than
allow it to be undone FOR you.
Decisions CANNOT be difficult. This is obvious if you realize
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THE MESSAGE OF THE CRUCIFIXION
little doubt that one BODY can assault another, and can even destroy
it. Yet if destruction ITSELF is impossible, then anything that is
destructible cannot be REAL. Therefore, its destruction does NOT
justify anger. To the extent to which you believe that it DOES, you
must be accepting false premises AND TEACHING THEM TO
OTHERS.The message which the crucifixion was intended to teach
was that it is not necessary to perceive ANY form of assault in
persecution because you cannot BE persecuted. If you respond with
anger you must be equating yourself with the destructible, and are
therefore regarding yourself insanely.
I have made it perfectly clear that I am like you and you are like
me, but our fundamental equality can be demonstrated only through
joint DECISION.You are free to perceive yourselves as persecuted if
you choose.You might remember, however, when you DO choose to
react that way, that I WAS persecuted as the world judges, and did
NOT share this evaluation for myself. And because I did not share it
I did not STRENGTHEN it. I therefore offered a DIFFERENT
interpretation of attack, and one which I DO want to share with you.
If you will BELIEVE it, you will help me to TEACH it.
We have said before,“As you teach so shall you learn.” If you react
as if you are persecuted, you are TEACHING persecution.This is not a
lesson which the Sons of God should WANT to teach if they are to
realize their own salvation. Rather teach your own perfect immunity,
which IS the truth in you, and KNOW that it cannot be assailed. Do
not protect it yourselves, or you have believed that it IS assailable.You
are not asked to BE crucified, which was part of my own teaching
contribution.You are merely asked to follow my example in the face of
much LESS extreme temptations to misperceive, and NOT to accept
them falsely as justifications for anger.
There can BE no justification for the unjustifiable. Do not
believe there is, and do not TEACH that there is. Remember always
that what you believe, you WILL teach. Believe with me, and we will
become equal as teachers. YOUR resurrection is your re-awakening.
I am the model for rebirth, but rebirth itself is merely the dawning
on your minds of what is already in them. God placed it there
Himself, and so it is true forever. I believed in it, and therefore made
it forever true for me. Help me to teach it to our brothers in the
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name of the Kingdom of God, but first believe that it is true for
YOU, or you will teach amiss.
My brothers slept during the so-called “agony” in the garden,
but I could not be angry with them because I had learned I could
not BE abandoned. Peter swore he would never deny me, but he did
so three times. He did offer to defend me with the sword, which I
naturally refused, not being at all in need of bodily protection. I AM
sorry when my brothers do not share my decision to hear only one
voice, because it weakens them as teachers AND as learners. Yet I
know that they cannot really betray themselves OR me, and that it is
still on them that I must build my church.
There is no choice in this because only you can BE the
foundation of God’s church. A church is where an altar is, and the
presence of the altar is what MAKES it a church. Any church which
does not inspire love has a hidden altar which is not serving the
purpose for which God intended it. I must found His church on you
because you who accept me as a model are literally my disciples.
Disciples are followers, but if the model they follow has chosen to
save them pain in all respects, they are probably unwise NOT to
follow him.
I elected, both for your sake AND mine, to demonstrate that the
most outrageous assault, as judged by the ego, did not matter. As the
world judges these things, but NOT as God KNOWS them, I was
betrayed, abandoned, beaten, torn, and finally killed. It was perfectly
clear that this was only because of the projection of others, because I
had not harmed anyone and had healed many. We are still equal as
learners, even though we need not have equal experiences.The Holy
Spirit is glad when you can learn enough from mine to be re-
awakened by them.That was their only purpose, and that is the only
way in which I can be perceived as the Way, the Truth and the Light.
When you hear only one voice you are NEVER called on to
sacrifice. On the contrary, by enabling yourselves to hear the Holy
Spirit in others, you can learn from their experiences, and gain from
them WITHOUT experiencing them yourselves.That is because the
Holy Spirit is one, and anyone who listens is inevitably led to
demonstrate His way for all.You are not persecuted, nor was I.You
are not asked to REPEAT my experiences because the Holy Spirit,
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not felt guilty they never could have quoted me as saying, “I come
not to bring peace but a sword.”This is clearly the exact opposite of
everything I taught.
Nor could they have described my reactions to Judas as they did
if they had really understood me. They would have realized I
COULD not have said,“Betrayest thou the Son of Man with a kiss?”
unless I BELIEVED in betrayal.The whole message of the crucifixion
was simply that I did NOT. The “punishment” which I am said to
have called forth upon Judas was a similar reversal. Judas was my
brother and a Son of God, as much a part of the Sonship as myself.
Was it likely that I would condemn him when I was ready to
demonstrate that condemnation is impossible?
I am very grateful to the Apostles for their teaching and fully
aware of the extent of their devotion to me. Nevertheless, as you read
their teachings, remember that I told them myself that there was much
they would understand later because they were NOT wholly ready to
follow me at the time. I emphasize this only because I do not want you
to allow ANY fear to enter into the thought system toward which I am
guiding you. I do NOT call for martyrs, but for TEACHERS. No-one
is “punished” for sins, and the Sons of God are not sinners.
ANY concept of “punishment” involves the projection of blame,
and RE-INFORCES the idea that blame is justified. The behavior
that results is a LESSON IN BLAME, just as all behavior teaches the
beliefs which motivate it. The crucifixion was a complex of
behaviors arising out of clearly opposed thought systems. As such, it
was the perfect symbol of conflict between the ego and the Son of
God. The conflict is just as real now, and its lessons, too, have equal
reality WHEN THEY ARE LEARNED. I do not need gratitude any
more than I needed protection, but YOU need to develop your
weakened ability to BE grateful, or you cannot appreciate God. HE
does not need your appreciation, but YOU do.
You cannot love what you do not appreciate, and FEAR MAKES
APPRECIATION IMPOSSIBLE. Whenever you are afraid of what
you are you do NOT appreciate it, and will therefore reject it. As a
result, you will TEACH REJECTION.The power of the Sons of God
is operating all the time because they were created as creators.Their
influence on EACH OTHER is without limit, and MUST be used for
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their joint salvation. Each one must learn to teach that all forms of
rejection are utterly meaningless. The separation IS the notion of
rejection.As long as you TEACH this, you still believe it.This is NOT
as God thinks, and you must think as He thinks if you are to know
Him again.
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the extensions of His Thought in His Mind. ALL His Thoughts are
thus perfectly united within themselves and with each other because
they were created neither partially nor in part. The Holy Spirit
enables you TO PERCEIVE THIS WHOLENESS NOW.You can no
more pray for yourselves alone than you can find joy for yourself
alone. Prayer is the re-statement of INCLUSION, directed by the
Holy Spirit under the laws of God. God created you to create.You
cannot EXTEND His Kingdom until you know of its wholeness.
Thoughts begin in the mind of the thinker, from which they
extend outward. This is as true of God’s Thinking as it is of yours.
Because your minds are split, you can also perceive as well as think.Yet
perception cannot escape from the basic laws of mind.You perceive
FROM your mind and extend your perceptions outward. Although
perception of any kind is unnecessary, YOU made it, and the Holy
Spirit can therefore use it well. He can INSPIRE perception and lead
it toward God by making it PARALLEL to God’s way of thinking, and
thus guarantee their ultimate meeting.This convergence SEEMS to be
far in the future only because your mind is not in perfect alignment
with the idea, and therefore DOES NOT WANT IT NOW.
The Holy Spirit USES time, but does NOT believe in it.
Coming from God He uses everything for good, but He does not
BELIEVE in what is not true. Since the Holy Spirit is IN your minds,
your minds must also be able to believe only what is true.The Holy
Spirit can speak only for this, because he speaks for God. He tells you
to return your whole mind to God because IT HAS NEVER LEFT
HIM. If it has never left Him you need only perceive it as it is to BE
returned. The full awareness of the Atonement, then, is the
recognition THAT THE SEPARATION NEVER OCCURRED. The
ego cannot prevail against this because it is an explicit statement that
the EGO never occurred.
The ego CAN accept the idea that return is necessary because it
can so easily make the idea seem so difficult.Yet the Holy Spirit tells
you that even return is unnecessary because what never happened
cannot involve ANY problem. It does NOT follow, however, that
YOU cannot make the idea of return necessary AND difficult. It is
surely clear, however, that the perfect NEED nothing, and CANNOT
experience perfection as a difficult accomplishment because that is
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every idea begins in the mind of the thinker and extends outward.
Therefore, what extends FROM the mind IS STILL IN IT, and from
what it extends it knows ITSELF.That is its natural talent.The word
“knows” is correct here, even though the ego does NOT know, and
is not concerned with being at all.
The Holy Spirit still holds knowledge safe through His
impartial perception. By attacking nothing, He presents no barrier at
all to the communication of God. Thus, being is never threatened.
Your Godlike mind can never BE defiled. The ego never was and
never will be part of it, but THROUGH the ego you can hear and
teach and learn WHAT IS NOT TRUE. From this, which YOU have
made, you have taught yourselves to believe that you ARE NOT
what you ARE.You CANNOT teach what you have not learned, and
what you teach you strengthen in yourselves BECAUSE you are
sharing it. Every lesson you teach, YOU are learning.
That is why you must teach only ONE lesson. If you are to be
conflict-free yourselves, you must learn ONLY from the Holy Spirit,
and teach ONLY by Him.You ARE only love, but when you denied
this you made what you ARE something you must LEARN.We said
before that the message of the crucifixion was, “Teach only love, for
that is what you ARE.” This is the ONE lesson which is perfectly
unified because it is the only lesson which IS one. Only BY teaching
it can you learn it.“As you teach so will you learn.” If that is true, and
it is true indeed, you must never forget that what you teach is
teaching YOU.What you project you BELIEVE.
The only REAL safety lies in projecting only the Holy Spirit,
because as you see His gentleness in others, your OWN mind
perceives ITSELF as totally harmless. Once it can accept this fully, it
does NOT see the need to PROTECT ITSELF. The protection of
God then dawns upon it, assuring it that it is perfectly safe forever.
The perfectly safe are wholly benign.They bless because they know
they ARE blessed. Without anxiety the mind is wholly kind, and
because it PROJECTS beneficence, it IS beneficent.
Safety is THE COMPLETE RELINQUISHMENT OF ATTACK.
No compromise is possible in this. Teach attack in ANY form, and
YOU HAVE LEARNED IT AND IT WILL HURT YOU. Yet your
learning is not immortal, and you can unlearn it by NOT
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TEACHING IT. Since you cannot NOT teach, your salvation lies in
teaching the exact OPPOSITE of everything the ego believes.This is
how YOU will learn the truth that will set you free, and keep you so
as others learn it of YOU.The only way to HAVE peace is to TEACH
peace. By learning it through projection, it becomes a part of what
you KNOW because you cannot teach what you have dissociated.
Only thus can you win back the knowledge that you threw
away.An idea which you SHARE you must HAVE. It awakens in you
through the conviction of teaching. Remember that if teaching is
being and learning is being, teaching is learning. EVERYTHING you
teach you are learning.Teach only love, and learn that love is yours,
and YOU are love.
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the ego does NOT know.The Holy Spirit does not speak first, BUT
HE ALWAYS ANSWERS. Everyone has called upon Him for help at
one time or another and in one way or another AND HAS BEEN
ANSWERED. Since the Holy Spirit answers truly, He answers FOR
ALL TIME, which means that everyone has the answer NOW.
The ego cannot hear the Holy Spirit, but it DOES believe that
part of the same mind that made it is AGAINST it. It interprets this as
a justification for ATTACKING its maker. It believes that the best
defense IS attack, and WANTS YOU TO BELIEVE IT. Unless you DO
believe it you will not side with it, and the ego feels badly in need of
allies, though NOT of brothers. Perceiving something alien to itself
in your mind, the ego turns to the body, NOT the mind, as its ally
because the body is NOT part of you.This makes the body the ego’s
friend. It is an alliance frankly based on separation. If you SIDE with
this alliance you WILL be afraid, because you are siding with an
alliance of fear.
The ego and the body conspire AGAINST your minds, and
because the ego realizes that its “enemy” CAN end them both merely
by knowing they are NOT part of him, they join in the attack
together. This is perhaps the strangest perception of all, if you
consider what it really involves.The ego, which is NOT real, attempts
to persuade the mind, which IS real, that the mind is its own learning
device, and that the learning device is more real than IT is. No-one
in his right mind could POSSIBLY believe this, and no-one in his
right mind DOES believe it.
Hear, then, the ONE answer of the Holy Spirit to ALL the
questions which the ego raises.You are a Child of God, a priceless
part of His Kingdom, which He created as part of Him. Nothing else
exists and ONLY this is real.You have chosen a sleep in which you
have had bad dreams, but the sleep is not real, and God calls you to
awake.There will be nothing left of your dream when you hear Him
because you WILL be awake.Your dreams have contained many of
the ego’s symbols, and they have confused you. Yet that was only
because you were asleep AND DID NOT KNOW.When you awake
you will see the truth around you and in you, and you will no longer
believe in dreams because they will have no reality for you.
Yet the Kingdom and all that you have created there will have
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great reality for you because they are beautiful and true. In the
Kingdom, where you are and what you are is perfectly certain.There
is no doubt there because the first question was never asked. Having
finally been wholly answered, IT HAS NEVER BEEN. Being alone
lives in the Kingdom, where everything lives in God without
question. The time that was spent on questioning in the dream has
given way to creation and to its eternity.
YOU are as certain as God because you are as true as He is, but
what was once quite certain in your minds has become only the
ABILITY for certainty. The introduction of abilities into being was
the beginning of UNcertainty because abilities are potentials, NOT
accomplishments.Your abilities are totally useless in the presence of
God’s accomplishments, and also of yours. Accomplishments are
results which HAVE BEEN achieved.When they are perfect, abilities
are meaningless. It is curious that the perfect must now be perfected.
In fact, it is impossible.You must remember, however, that when you
put yourselves in an impossible situation, you believed that the
impossible WAS possible.
Abilities must be DEVELOPED, or you cannot use them.This is
not true of anything that God created, but it is the kindest solution
possible to what YOU have made. In an impossible situation you can
develop your abilities to the point where they can GET YOU OUT
OF IT.You have a Guide to how to develop them, but you have no
COMMANDER except yourself. This leaves YOU in charge of the
Kingdom, with both a Guide to FIND it and a means to KEEP it.You
have a model to follow who will STRENGTHEN your command,
and never detract from it in any way.You therefore retain the central
place in your perceived enslavement, a fact which ITSELF
demonstrates that you are NOT enslaved.
You are in an impossible situation only because you thought it
was possible to be in one.You WOULD be in an impossible situation
if God showed you your perfection and PROVED to you that you
were wrong. This would demonstrate that the perfect were
inadequate to bring THEMSELVES to the awareness of their
perfection, and thus side with the belief that those who have
everything need help and are therefore helpless. This is the kind of
“reasoning” which the ego engages in, but God,Who KNOWS that
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His creations are perfect, does NOT insult them. This would be as
impossible as the ego’s notion that IT has insulted HIM.
That is why the Holy Spirit NEVER commands.To command is
to assume INequality, which the Holy Spirit demonstrates does not
exist. Fidelity to premises is a law of mind, and everything God
created is faithful to His laws. Fidelity to other laws is also possible,
however, not because the laws are true, but because YOU MADE
THEM. What would be gained if God proved to you that you have
thought insanely? Can God lose His own certainty? We have
frequently stated that what you teach you ARE.Would you have God
teach you that you have sinned? If He confronted the self you made
with the truth He created for you, what could you be but afraid? You
would doubt your sanity, which is the one thing in which you can
FIND the sanity He gave you.
God does not teach. To teach is to imply a lack which God
KNOWS is not there. God is not conflicted.Teaching aims at change,
but God created only the changeless.The separation was not a loss of
perfection, but a failure in communication.A harsh and strident form
of communication arose as the ego’s voice. It could not shatter the
peace of God, but it COULD shatter YOURS. God did not blot it out,
because to eradicate it would be to attack it. Being questioned, He did
not question. He merely gave the Answer. His Answer is your Teacher.
I. “To Have, Give All to All”
Like any good teacher, the Holy Spirit does know more than you do
NOW, but He teaches only to make you EQUAL with Him.This is
because you had already taught wrongly, having believed what was
not true. YOU DID NOT BELIEVE IN YOUR OWN PERFECTION.
Could God teach you that you had made a split mind, when He
knows your mind only as whole? What God DOES know is that His
communication channels are not open to Him, so that He cannot
impart His joy, and know that His Children are wholly joyous.This is
an ongoing process, not in time, but in eternity. God’s extending
outward, though not His completeness, is blocked when the Sonship
does not communicate with Him as one. So He thought, “My
Children sleep, and must be awakened.”
How can you wake children better and more kindly than by a
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gentle Voice that will not frighten them, but will merely remind them
that the night is over and the Light has come? You do not inform
them that the nightmares which frightened them so badly were not
real because children BELIEVE in magic. You merely reassure them
that they are safe NOW.Then you train them to RECOGNIZE THE
DIFFERENCE between sleeping and waking, so that they will
understand they need not be afraid of dreams.Then, when bad dreams
come, they will call on the light THEMSELVES to dispel them.
A wise teacher teaches through approach, NOT avoidance. He
does NOT emphasize what you must avoid to escape from harm so
much as what you need to learn to have joy.This is true even of the
world’s teachers. Consider the confusion a child would experience if
he were told,“Do not do THIS because it might hurt you and make
you unsafe, but if you do THAT you will escape from harm and be
safe, and then you will not be afraid.”All of this could be included in
only three words:“Do ONLY that!”This simple statement is perfectly
clear, easily understood, and very easily remembered.
The Holy Spirit NEVER itemizes errors because He does not
frighten children, and those who lack wisdom ARE children.Yet He
ALWAYS answers their call, and His dependability makes THEM
more certain. Children DO confuse fantasy and reality, and they ARE
frightened because they do not know the difference.The Holy Spirit
makes NO distinction among dreams. He merely shines them away.
His Light is ALWAYS the call to awake, whatever you have been
dreaming. Nothing lasting lies in dreams, and the Holy Spirit, shining
with the Light from God Himself, speaks only for what lasts forever.
When your body and your ego and your dreams are gone, you
will know that YOU will last forever. Many think this is
accomplished through death, but NOTHING is accomplished
through death because death IS nothing. EVERYTHING is
accomplished through life, and life is of the mind and IN the Mind.
The body neither lives nor dies because it cannot contain you who
ARE life. If we share the same mind, you can overcome death
BECAUSE I DID. Death is an attempt to resolve conflict by not
willing at all. Like any other impossible solution which the ego
attempts, IT WILL NOT WORK.
God did not make the body because it is destructible, and
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TO HAVE PEACE,TEACH PEACE TO LEARN IT
teachers realize that only fundamental change will last, but they do
not BEGIN at that level. Strengthening MOTIVATION for change is
their first and foremost goal. It is also their last and final one.
Increasing motivation for change IN THE LEARNER is all that
a teacher NEED do to guarantee change.This is because a change in
motivation IS a change of mind, and this will inevitably produce
fundamental change because the mind IS fundamental.The first step
in the reversal or undoing process, then, is the undoing of the
GETTING concept. Accordingly, the Holy Spirit’s first lesson was
“To HAVE, GIVE all TO all.” We said that this is apt to increase
conflict temporarily, and we can clarify this still further now.
At this point, the equality of “having” and “being” is not yet
perceived. Until it IS, “having” appears to be the OPPOSITE of
“being.”Therefore, the first lesson SEEMS to contain a contradiction,
since it is being learned BY A CONFLICTED MIND. This MEANS
conflicting motivation, and so the lesson CANNOT be learned
consistently as yet. Further, the mind of the learner projects its own
split, and thus does NOT perceive consistent minds in others, making
him suspicious of THEIR motivation.This is the real reason why, in
many respects, the first lesson is the hardest to learn. Still strongly
aware of the ego in himself, and responding primarily to the ego in
others, he is being taught to react to both as if what he DOES believe
is NOT true.
Upside-down as always, the ego perceives the first lesson as
insane. In fact, this is its only alternative here, since the other one,
which would be much LESS acceptable to it, would obviously be
that IT is insane. The ego’s judgement, then, is predetermined by
what it IS, though no more so than is any other product of thought.
The fundamental change will still occur with the change of mind IN
THE THINKER. Meanwhile, the increasing clarity of the Holy
Spirit’s Voice makes it impossible for the learner NOT to listen. For a
time, then, he IS receiving conflicting messages, AND ACCEPTING
BOTH.This is the classic “double bind” in communication.
The way OUT of conflict between two opposing thought
systems is clearly TO CHOOSE ONE and RELINQUISH THE
OTHER. If you IDENTIFY with your thought system, and you
cannot escape this, and if you accept two thought systems which are
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BE VIGILANT ONLY FOR GOD AND HIS KINGDOM
As you take this step and HOLD THIS DIRECTION, you will be
pushing toward the center of your thought system, where the
FUNDAMENTAL change will occur. You are only beginning this
step now, but you have started on this way by realizing that ONLY
ONE WAY IS POSSIBLE.You do not yet realize this consistently and
so your progress is intermittent, but the second step is easier than the
first because it FOLLOWS. The very fact that you have accepted
THAT is a demonstration of your growing awareness that the Holy
Spirit WILL lead you on.
III. “Be Vigilant Only for God and His Kingdom”
For your own salvation you must be critical, since your salvation IS
critical to the whole Sonship.We said before that the Holy Spirit is
evaluative, and MUST be. Yet His evaluation does not extend
BEYOND you, or you would share it. In YOUR mind, and your
mind ONLY, He sorts out the true from the false, and teaches you to
judge every thought that you allow to enter your mind in the light of
what God PUT there. Whatever is IN ACCORD with this light He
retains, to strengthen the Kingdom in YOU. What is PARTLY in
accord with truth He accepts and purifies. But what is OUT OF
ACCORD entirely He rejects by judging AGAINST.This is how He
keeps the Kingdom perfectly consistent and perfectly unified.
What you must remember, however, is that what the Holy Spirit
rejects the ego ACCEPTS. This is because they are in fundamental
disagreement about everything, being in fundamental disagreement
about WHAT YOU ARE.The ego’s beliefs on this crucial issue vary,
and that is why it promotes different moods. The Holy Spirit
NEVER varies on this point, and so the ONE mood He engenders is
joy. He PROTECTS it by rejecting everything that does NOT foster
joy, and so He alone can keep you wholly joyous.
The Holy Spirit does not teach your mind to be critical of
other minds because He does not want you to teach errors AND
LEARN THEM YOURSELVES. He would hardly be consistent if He
allowed you to STRENGTHEN what you must learn to AVOID. In
the mind of the THINKER, then, He IS judgemental, but only in
order to unify the mind so it can perceive WITHOUT judgement.
This enables the mind to TEACH WITHOUT judgement, and
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BE VIGILANT ONLY FOR GOD AND HIS KINGDOM
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140
seven
The creative power of both God and His creations is limitless, but
they are not in reciprocal relationship. You DO communicate fully
with God, as He does with you.This is an ongoing process in which
you share, and BECAUSE you share it, you are inspired to create LIKE
God.Yet in creation you are not in reciprocal relation to God, since
He created YOU, but You did NOT create Him.We have already said
that only in this respect your creative power differs from His. Even in
this world there is a parallel. Parents give birth to children, but
children do not give birth to parents.They DO, however, give birth
to THEIR children and thus give birth AS their parents do.
If you created God and He created you, the Kingdom could not
increase through its own creative thought. Creation would therefore
be limited, and you would not be co-creators with God. As God’s
creative Thought proceeds from Him to you, so must your creative
thought proceed from you to YOUR creations. Only in this way can
all creative power extend outward. God’s accomplishments are not
yours. But yours are LIKE His. HE created the Sonship, and you
INCREASE it.You have the power to ADD to the Kingdom, but not
to add to the CREATOR of the Kingdom. You claim this power
when you become vigilant only for God and His Kingdom. BY
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THE LAWS OF MIND
although this one you must know yourself, since BY it you know
what you are.This IS your being.
God does not TAKE steps because His accomplishments are not
gradual. He does not teach because His creations are changeless. He
does nothing LAST because He created FIRST and FOR ALWAYS. It
must be understood that the word “first” as applied to Him is NOT a
time concept. He is first in the sense that He is the first in the Holy
Trinity Itself. He is the Prime Creator because He created His co-
creators. BECAUSE He did, time applies neither to Him NOR to
what He created.The “last step” that God will take was therefore true
in the beginning, is true now, and will be true forever.
What is timeless is ALWAYS there because its BEING is eternally
changeless. It does not change by increase because it was forever
created TO increase. If you perceive it as NOT increasing, you do not
know what it IS.You also do not know what created it, or Who HE
is. God does not REVEAL this to you because it was never hidden.
His Light was never obscured because it is His Will to SHARE it.
How can what is fully shared be withheld, and THEN revealed?
To heal is the only kind of thinking in this world that resembles
the Thought of God, and because of the elements which they share,
can transfer TO IT. When a brother perceives himself as sick, he is
perceiving himself as NOT WHOLE, and therefore IN NEED. If you,
too, see him this way, you are seeing him as if he were absent from
the Kingdom or separated from it, thus making the Kingdom itself
obscure to BOTH of you. Sickness and separation are not of God, but
the Kingdom is. If you obscure the Kingdom, you are perceiving
what is NOT OF GOD.
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THE LAWS OF MIND
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THE UNIFIED CURRICULUM
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THE RECOGNITION OF TRUTH
idea, because ALL your conflicts come from it. It is the belief that
conflicting interests are possible, and therefore you have accepted the
impossible as TRUE. How is that different from saying that you are
perceiving YOURSELF as unreal?
To be IN the Kingdom is merely to focus your full attention
ON it. As long as you believe that you can attend to what is NOT
true, you are accepting conflict as your CHOICE. Is it REALLY a
choice? It SEEMS to be, but seeming and reality are hardly the same.
You who ARE the Kingdom are not concerned with seeming.
Reality is yours because you ARE reality. This is how having and
being are ultimately reconciled, not in the Kingdom, but IN YOUR
MINDS. The altar there is the ONLY reality. The altar is perfectly
clear in thought because it is a reflection of PERFECT Thought. It
sees only brothers because it sees ONLY in its own Light.
God has lit your minds Himself, and keeps your minds lit by His
Light because His Light is what your minds ARE.This is TOTALLY
beyond question, and when you questioned it, you WERE answered.
The answer merely UNDOES the question by establishing the fact
that to question reality is to question meaninglessly.That is why the
Holy Spirit NEVER questions. His sole function is to UNDO the
questionable, and thus lead to CERTAINTY.The certain are perfectly
calm because they are not in doubt. They do not raise questions
because nothing questionable ENTERS their minds.This holds them
in perfect serenity because this is what they share, KNOWING what
they are.
As has so often been said, healing is both an art and a science. It
is an art because it depends on inspiration in the sense that we have
already used the term. Inspiration is the opposite of dispiriting, and
therefore means to make joyous.The dispirited are depressed because
they believe that they are literally “without the Spirit,” which is an
illusion. You do not PUT the Spirit in them by inspiring them
because that would be magic, and therefore would not be real
healing. You DO, however, recognize the Spirit that is ALREADY
there, and thereby REAWAKEN it. This is why the healer is part of
the resurrection and the LIFE.The Spirit is not asleep in the minds of
the sick, but the part of the mind that can perceive it and be glad IS.
Healing is also a science because it obeys the laws of God,
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Whose laws are true. BECAUSE they are true they are perfectly
dependable, and therefore universal in application.The REAL aim of
science is neither prediction nor control, but ONLY understanding.
This is because it does NOT establish the laws it seeks; CANNOT
discover them through prediction; and has NO control over them at
all. Science is nothing more than an approach to WHAT ALREADY
IS. Like inspiration it can be misunderstood as magic, and WILL be
whenever it is undertaken as SEPARATE from what already is, and
perceived as a means for ESTABLISHING it.To believe this is possible
is to believe YOU CAN DO IT.This can only be the voice of the ego.
Truth can only be RECOGNIZED, and NEED only be
recognized. Inspiration is of the Spirit, and certainty is of God
according to His laws. Both, therefore, come from the same Source,
since inspiration comes from the Voice FOR God and certainty
comes from the laws OF God. Healing does not come DIRECTLY
from God,Who knows His creations as perfectly whole.Yet healing is
still OF God because it proceeds from His Voice and from His laws. It
is their result, in a state of mind which does NOT know Him. The
STATE is unknown to Him and therefore does not exist, but those
who sleep ARE STUPEFIED, or better, UNAWARE. BECAUSE they
are unaware, they do NOT know.
The Holy Spirit must work THROUGH you to teach you He is
IN you.This is an intermediary step toward the knowledge that you
are in God because you are part of Him. The miracles which the
Holy Spirit inspires can have no order of difficulty because every
part of creation is of ONE order.This is God’s WILL AND YOURS.
The laws of God ESTABLISH this, and the Holy Spirit reminds you
OF it. When you heal, you are REMEMBERING the laws of God
and forgetting the laws of the ego. We said before that forgetting is
merely a way of remembering BETTER. It is therefore NOT the
opposite of remembering, when it is properly perceived. Perceived
IMPROPERLY, it induces a perception of CONFLICT with
something ELSE, as all incorrect perception does. PROPERLY
perceived, it can be used as a way OUT of conflict, as all proper
perception can.
ALL abilities, then should be given over to the Holy Spirit
WHO KNOWS HOW TO USE THEM PROPERLY. He can use them
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152
HEALING AND THE CHANGELESSNESS OF MIND
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HEALING AND THE CHANGELESSNESS OF MIND
of fear, but which you will never love. The other shows you only
truth, which you will love because you will UNDERSTAND it.
Understanding is APPRECIATION, because what you understand
you can IDENTIFY with, and by making it part of YOU, you have
accepted it with love.
That is how God Himself created YOU; in understanding, in
appreciation, and in love.The ego is totally unable to understand this
because it does NOT understand what it makes; it does NOT
appreciate it, and it does NOT love it. It incorporates to TAKE
AWAY. It literally believes that every time it deprives someone of
something, IT has increased.We have spoken often of the increase of
the Kingdom by YOUR creations, which can only be created as
YOU were.The whole glory and perfect joy that IS the Kingdom lies
in you to give. Do you not WANT to give it?
You CANNOT forget the Father because I am with you, and I
cannot forget Him.To forget ME is to forget yourself and Him who
created you. Our brothers ARE forgetful.That is why they need your
remembrance of me, and Him who created me. Through this
remembrance you can change their minds about THEMSELVES, as I
can change YOURS.Your minds are so powerful a light that you can
look into theirs and enlighten them, as I can enlighten yours. I do
not want to share my BODY in communion because that is to share
nothing.Yet I do want to share my MIND with you because we ARE
of one Mind, and that MIND IS ours.
See ONLY this MIND everywhere, because only this IS
everywhere and in everything. It IS everything because it
encompasses all things within ITSELF. Blessed are you who perceive
only this, because you perceive only what is true. Come therefore
unto me, and learn of the truth in YOU. The Mind we share is shared
by all our brothers, and as we see them truly, they WILL be healed.
Let YOUR mind shine with mine upon their minds, and by our
gratitude to them, make them aware of the light in THEM.
This light will shine back upon YOU and on the whole Sonship
because this is your proper gift to God. He will accept it and give it
to the Sonship because it is acceptable to Him, and therefore to His
Sons.This is the true communion of the Spirit Who sees the altar of
God in everyone, and by bringing it to YOUR appreciation, calls
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upon you to love God AND His creations. You can appreciate the
Sonship ONLY as one. This is part of the law of creation, and
therefore governs ALL thought.
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cannot be vigilant for anything BUT God and His Kingdom. The
only reason you find this difficult is because you think there IS
something else. Belief does not require vigilance UNLESS it is
conflicted. If it is, there ARE conflicting components within it which
have engendered a state of war, and vigilance therefore has become
essential.Vigilance has no place at all in peace. It is necessary against
beliefs which are NOT true, and would never have been called upon
by the Holy Spirit if you had NOT believed the untrue.You cannot
deny that when you believe something, you have MADE it true
for YOU.
When you believe what God does not KNOW, your thought
seems to CONTRADICT His, and this makes it appear AS IF you are
attacking Him. We have repeatedly emphasized that the ego DOES
believe it can attack God, and tries to persuade you that YOU have
done this. If the mind CANNOT attack, the ego proceeds perfectly
logically to the position that you cannot BE mind. By not seeing you
as you ARE, it can see ITSELF as it WANTS to be. Aware of its
weakness the ego wants your allegiance, but not as you really are.The
ego therefore wants to engage your mind in its OWN delusional
system because otherwise the light of YOUR understanding would
dispel it.
The ego wants no part of truth because the truth is that the
EGO is not true. IF truth is total the untrue CANNOT exist.
Commitment to either must be TOTAL, since they cannot co-exist
in your minds WITHOUT splitting them. If they cannot co-exist in
peace, and if you WANT peace, you must give up the idea of conflict
ENTIRELY and for ALL TIME. While you believe that two totally
contradictory thought systems SHARE truth, your need for vigilance
is apparent.Your minds ARE dividing their allegiance between two
kingdoms, and you are totally committed to neither.
Your identification with the Kingdom is totally beyond
question except by you, when you are thinking insanely. What you
are is not established by your perception, and is not influenced BY it
at all. All perceived problems in identification at any level are NOT
problems of fact. They are problems of UNDERSTANDING, since
they MEAN that you believe what you can understand IS up to you
to decide.The ego believes this totally, being FULLY committed to it.
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God’s Will, but YOURS. If your will is out of accord with God’s, you
are willing without meaning.Yet because God’s Will is unchangeable,
no REAL conflict of will is possible.This is the Holy Spirit’s perfectly
consistent teaching.
Creation, NOT separation, is your will BECAUSE it is God’s, and
nothing that opposes this means anything at all. Being a perfect
accomplishment, the Sonship can only accomplish perfectly,
extending the joy in which it was created, and identifying itself with
both its Creator and its creations, KNOWING they are One.
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perfection until you have honored all those who were created
LIKE you.
One Child of God is the ONLY teacher sufficiently worthy to
teach another. One Teacher is in all your minds, and He teaches the
same lesson to all. He always teaches you the inestimable worth of
EVERY Son of God, teaching it with infinite patience born of the
infinite Love for which he speaks. Every attack is a call for His
patience since ONLY His patience can translate attack into blessing.
Those who attack do not KNOW they are blessed. They attack
because they believe they are DEPRIVED. Give, therefore, of YOUR
abundance, and teach your brothers THEIRS. Do not share their
delusions of scarcity, or you will perceive YOURSELF as lacking.
Attack could never promote attack unless you perceived it as a
means of depriving you of something you WANT. Yet you cannot
LOSE anything unless YOU did not value it, and therefore did not
WANT it. This makes you feel DEPRIVED of it, and by projecting
your own rejection, you believe that others are taking it FROM you.
One MUST be fearful, if he believes that his brother is attacking him
to tear the Kingdom of Heaven from him.This is the ultimate basis
for ALL of the ego’s projection.
Being the part of your mind which does not believe it is
responsible for ITSELF, and being without allegiance to God, the ego
is incapable of trust. Projecting its insane belief that YOU have been
treacherous to YOUR Creator, it believes that your brothers, who are
as incapable of this as YOU are, are out to take God FROM you.
Whenever a brother attacks another, this IS what he believes.
Projection ALWAYS sees your will in others. If you will to separate
yourself from God, that IS what you will think others are doing
TO you.
You ARE the Will of God. Do not accept anything else AS your
will, or you are denying what you are. Deny this and you WILL
attack, believing you have BEEN attacked. But see the Love of God
in you, and you will see It everywhere because it IS everywhere. See
His abundance in everyone, and you will know that you are in
Him WITH them.They are part of you, as you are part of God. YOU
are as lonely without understanding this as God Himself is lonely
when His Sons do not know Him. The peace of God IS
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The ego, using its own warped version of the laws of God, utilizes
the power of the mind ONLY to defeat the mind’s real purpose. It
projects conflict FROM your mind to OTHER minds, in an attempt
to persuade you that you have gotten RID of it. This has several
fallacies which may not be so apparent.
Strictly speaking, conflict cannot BE projected precisely
BECAUSE it cannot be fully shared. Any attempt to keep PART of it
and get rid of another part does not really mean ANYTHING.
Remember that a conflicted teacher is a poor teacher AND A POOR
LEARNER. His lessons are confused, and their transfer value is
severely limited BY his confusion. A second fallacy is the idea that
you can get RID of something you do not want by giving it away.
GIVING it is how you KEEP it.The belief that by giving it OUT you
have excluded it from WITHIN is a complete distortion of the power
of extension.
That is why those who project from the ego are vigilant for
their OWN safety.They ARE afraid that their projections will return
and hurt them.They DO believe they have blotted their projections
from their OWN minds, but they also believe their projections are
trying to creep back INTO them. That is because the projections
have NOT left their minds, and this, in turn, forces them to engage in
compulsive activity in order NOT to recognize this.You CANNOT
perpetuate an illusion about another WITHOUT perpetuating it
about yourself.There is no way out of this because it is IMPOSSIBLE
to fragment the mind.
To fragment is to break into pieces, and mind CANNOT attack
or BE attacked. The belief that it CAN, a fallacy which the ego
ALWAYS makes, underlies its whole use of projection. It does not
understand what mind IS, and therefore does not understand what
YOU are.Yet its existence is dependent on your mind because the ego
IS your belief. The ego is therefore a confusion in identification
which never had a consistent model, and never developed
consistently. It is the distorted product of the misapplication of the
laws of God, by distorted minds which are misusing their own power.
DO NOT BE AFRAID OF THE EGO. It DOES depend on your
mind, and as you made it by believing in it, so you can dispel it by
withdrawing belief FROM it. DO not project the responsibility for
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part that is being sided AGAINST.To the Soul this is truth, because it
knows its fullness, and cannot conceive of any part from which it
is excluded.
The Soul KNOWS that the consciousness of all its brothers is
included in its own, as IT is included in God. The power of the
whole Sonship AND of its Creator is therefore the Soul’s own
fullness, rendering its creations equally whole and equal in
perfection. The ego cannot prevail against a totality which includes
God, and any totality MUST include God. Everything He created is
given all His power because it is part of Him and shares His Being
with Him. Creating is the opposite of loss, as blessing is the opposite
of sacrifice. Being MUST be extended. That is how it retains the
knowledge of ITSELF.
The Soul yearns to share its being as ITS Creator did. Created
BY sharing, its will is to create. It does not wish to CONTAIN God
but to EXTEND His Being. The extension of God’s Being is the
Soul’s ONLY function. Its fullness cannot be contained, any more
than can the fullness of its Creator. Fullness IS extension. The ego’s
whole thought system blocks extension, and thus blocks your only
function. It therefore blocks your joy, and that is why you perceive
yourselves as unfulfilled. Unless you create you ARE unfulfilled, but
God does not know of unfulfillment, and therefore you MUST
create. YOU may not know your own creations, but this can no more
interfere with their reality than your unawareness of your Soul can
interfere with its being.
The Kingdom is forever extending because it is in the Mind of
God.You do not KNOW your joy because you do not know your
own self-fullness. Exclude ANY part of the Kingdom from yourself,
and you are NOT whole. A split mind cannot perceive its fullness,
and needs the miracle of its wholeness to dawn upon it and heal it.
This reawakens the wholeness in it, and restores it to the Kingdom
because of its ACCEPTANCE of wholeness.The full appreciation of
its self-fullness makes selfishness impossible and extension inevitable.
That is why there is perfect peace in the Kingdom. Every Soul IS
fulfilling its function, and only complete fulfilment IS peace.
Insanity APPEARS to add to reality, but no-one would claim
that what it adds is true. Insanity is therefore the NON-extension of
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truth, which blocks joy because it blocks creation, and thus blocks
self-fulfilment. The unfulfilled MUST be depressed because their
self-fullness is unknown to them.Your creations are protected FOR
you because the Holy Spirit, Who is in your mind, knows of them
and can bring them INTO your awareness whenever you will let
Him. They are there as part of your own being because your
fulfilment INCLUDES them.The creations of every Son of God are
yours since every creation belongs to everyone, being created for the
Sonship as a whole.
You have NOT failed to add to the inheritance of the Sons of
God, and thus have not failed to secure it for yourselves. If it was the
Will of God to give it to you, He gave it forever. If it was His Will
that you have it forever, He gave you the means for keeping it, AND
YOU HAVE DONE SO. Disobeying God’s Will is meaningful only to
the insane. In truth it is impossible.Your self-fullness is as boundless as
God’s. Like His, it extends forever and in perfect peace. Its radiance is
so intense that it creates in perfect joy, and only the whole can be
born of its wholeness.
Be confident that you have never lost your identity and the
extensions which maintain it in wholeness and peace. Miracles are an
EXPRESSION of this confidence. They are reflections both of your
own proper identification with your brothers, and of your own
awareness that your identification IS maintained by extension. The
miracle is a LESSON IN TOTAL PERCEPTION. By including ANY
part of totality in the lesson, you HAVE included the whole.You have
said that, when you write of the Kingdom and your creations which
belong in it, you are describing WHAT YOU DO NOT KNOW.That
is true in a sense, but no more true than your failure to acknowledge
the whole result of the ego’s premises.The Kingdom is the result of
premises, just as this world is.
You HAVE carried the ego’s reasoning to its logical conclusion,
which is TOTAL CONFUSION ABOUT EVERYTHING.Yet you do
not really BELIEVE this, or you could not possibly maintain it. If you
really saw this result, you could not WANT it.The only reason why
you could possibly want ANY part of it is because you do NOT see
the whole of it. You are willing to look at the ego’s premises, but
NOT at their logical outcome. Is it not possible that you have done
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OPPOSITE of God’s Will can be better for you.You also believe that
it is possible to DO the opposite of God’s WILL. Therefore, you
believe that an impossible choice is open to you, and one which is
both very fearful AND very desirable.Yet God WILLS. He does NOT
wish. YOUR will is as powerful as His because it IS His. The ego’s
wishes do not mean anything, because the ego wishes for the
impossible.You can WISH for the impossible, but you can WILL only
with God.This is the ego’s weakness, and YOUR strength.
The Holy Spirit ALWAYS sides with you and with your
strength. As long as you avoid His guidance in any way, you WANT
to be weak. Yet weakness IS frightening. What else, then, can this
decision mean except that you WANT to be fearful? The Holy Spirit
NEVER asks for sacrifice, but the ego ALWAYS does.When you are
confused about this VERY clear distinction in motivation, it can
ONLY be due to projection. Projection of this kind IS a confusion in
motivation, and GIVEN this confusion, trust becomes impossible.
No-one obeys gladly a guide he does not trust, but this does not
mean that the GUIDE is untrustworthy. In this case, it ALWAYS
means that the FOLLOWER is. However, this, too, is merely a matter
of his own belief. Believing that HE can betray, he believes that
everything can betray HIM.Yet this is only because he has ELECTED
TO FOLLOW FALSE GUIDANCE. Unable to follow this guidance
WITHOUT fear, he associates fear WITH guidance, and refuses to
follow ANY guidance at all.The Holy Spirit is perfectly trustworthy,
as YOU are. God Himself trusts you, and therefore your
trustworthiness IS beyond question. It will always remain beyond
question, however much YOU may question it.
We said before that you ARE the Will of God. His Will is not an
idle wish, and your identification WITH His Will is not optional
since it IS what you are. Sharing His Will with me is not really open
to choice, though it may seem to be.The whole separation lies in this
fallacy.The only way OUT of the fallacy is to decide that you do not
have to decide ANYTHING. Everything has been given you by
God’s decision.That IS His Will, and you can NOT undo it. Even the
relinquishment of your false decision-making prerogative, which the
ego guards so jealously, is not accomplished by your wish. It was
accomplished FOR you by the Will of God, Who has not left you
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THE STATE OF GRACE
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them on the basis of loss of peace, they will be removed from your
mind FOR you. Every response to the ego is a call to war, and war
DOES deprive you of peace. Yet in this war there is no opponent.
THIS is the reinterpretation of reality which you must make to
secure peace, and the only one you need EVER make.
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ego tries to teach. It is not, then, only the direction of the curriculum
which must be unconflicted, but also the CONTENT.
The ego wants to teach you that you want to OPPOSE God’s
Will. This UNNATURAL lesson cannot BE learned, but the
ATTEMPT to learn it is a violation of your own freedom, and makes
you afraid of your will BECAUSE it is free.The Holy Spirit opposes
ANY imprisoning of the will of a Son of God, KNOWING that the
will of the Son IS the Father’s. The Holy Spirit leads you steadily
along the path of freedom, teaching you how to disregard, or look
beyond, EVERYTHING that would hold you back.
We said before that the Holy Spirit teaches you the difference
between pain and joy.That is the same as saying that He teaches you
the difference between imprisonment and freedom. YOU cannot
make this distinction WITHOUT Him. That is because you have
taught yourself that imprisonment IS freedom. Believing them to be
the same, how CAN you tell them apart? Can you ask the part of
your mind that taught you to believe they ARE the same to teach
you the DIFFERENCE between them?
The Holy Spirit’s teaching takes only ONE direction and has
only ONE goal. His direction is freedom and His goal is God.Yet he
cannot conceive of God without YOU because it is not God’s Will to
BE without you.When you have learned that your will IS God’s, you
could no more will to be without Him than He could will to be
without YOU.This IS freedom and this IS joy. Deny yourself this and
you ARE denying God His Kingdom because He created you FOR
this. When we said, “All power and glory are yours because the
Kingdom is His,” this is what we meant:
The Will of God is without limit, and all power and glory lie
within it. It is boundless in strength and in love and in peace. It has
no boundaries because Its extension is unlimited, and It encompasses
all things because It created all things. By creating all things It made
them part of Itself. YOU are the Will of God because this is how you
were created. Because your Creator creates ONLY like Himself, you
ARE like Him.You are part of Him Who IS all power and glory, and
are therefore as unlimited as He is.
To what else EXCEPT all power and glory can the Holy Spirit
appeal to restore God’s Kingdom? His appeal, then, is merely to what
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the Kingdom IS, and for its own acknowledgment of what it is.
When you acknowledge this, you bring the acknowledgment
automatically to everyone because you HAVE acknowledged
everyone. By YOUR recognition you awaken THEIRS, and through
theirs YOURS is extended.Awakening runs easily and gladly through
the Kingdom, in answer to the Call of God. This is the natural
response of every Son of God to the Voice of his Creator, because it
is the Voice for HIS creations and for HIS own extension.
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believed that, when you met someone else, you had thought that he
WAS someone else. And every holy encounter in which YOU enter
fully will teach you THIS IS NOT SO.
You can encounter ONLY part of yourself because you are part of
God,Who IS everything. His power and glory are everywhere, and you
CANNOT be excluded from them.The ego teaches that your strength
is in you ALONE.The Holy Spirit teaches that ALL strength is in God
and THEREFORE in you. God wills NO-ONE suffer. He does not
will anyone to suffer for a wrong decision, INCLUDING you.That is
why He has given you the means for UNDOING it. Through His
power and glory all your wrong decisions are undone COMPLETELY
releasing you AND your brothers from EVERY imprisoning thought
ANY part of the Sonship has accepted. Wrong decisions have no
power BECAUSE they are not true. The imprisonment which they
SEEM to produce is no more true than THEY are.
Power and glory belong to God alone. So do YOU. God gives
WHATEVER belongs to Him because He gives of Himself, and
EVERYTHING belongs to Him. Giving of YOUR self is the function
He gave you. Fulfilling it perfectly will teach you what you HAVE of
Him, and this will teach you what you ARE in Him.You CANNOT
be powerless to do this because this IS your power. Glory is God’s gift
to you because that is what HE is. See this glory everywhere to learn
what YOU are.
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of the same loneliness which IS its illusion. I have told you that I am
with you always, even to the end of the world.That is WHY I am the
light of the world. If I am with you in the loneliness of the world,
THE LONELINESS IS GONE.You CANNOT maintain the illusion
of loneliness if you are NOT alone. My purpose, then, IS to overcome
the world. I do not attack it, but my light must dispel it because of
what it IS.
Light does not attack darkness, but it DOES shine it away. If my
light goes with you everywhere, YOU shine it away WITH me.The
light becomes OURS, and you cannot abide in darkness any more
than darkness can abide wherever you go. The remembrance of me
IS the remembrance of yourself and of Him Who sent me to you.
You were in darkness until God’s Will was done completely by ANY
part of the Sonship. When this was done, it was perfectly
accomplished by ALL. How else could it BE perfectly accomplished?
My mission was simply to unite the will of the Sonship with the Will
of the Father by being aware of the Father’s Will myself. This is the
awareness I came to give you, and your problem in accepting it IS the
problem of this world. Dispelling it is salvation, and in this sense I AM
the salvation of the world.
The world must despise and reject me because the world IS the
belief that love is impossible. YOUR reactions to me are the reactions
of the world to God. If you will accept the fact that I am with you,
you are DENYING the world and ACCEPTING God. My will is His,
and YOUR will to hear me is the decision to hear His Voice and
abide in His Will. As God sent me to you, so will I send you to
others. And I will go to them WITH you, so we can teach them
peace and union.
Do you not think the world NEEDS peace as much as you do?
Do you not want to GIVE it to the world as much as you want to
RECEIVE it? For unless you do, you will NOT receive it. If you will
to have it of me, you MUST give it. Rehabilitation does not come
from anyone else.You can have guidance from without, but you must
ACCEPT it from within.The guidance must be what YOU want, or
it will be meaningless to you. That is why rehabilitation is a
collaborative venture.
I can tell you what to do, but this will not help you unless you
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THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD
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THE POWER OF JOINT DECISION
because nothing else is WORTHY of him. What God and His Sons
create IS eternal, and in this and this only is their joy.
Listen to the story of the prodigal son, and learn what God’s
treasure is and YOURS:This son of a loving father left his home and
thought he squandered everything for nothing of any value, although
he did not know its worthlessness at the time. He was ashamed to
return to his father, because he thought he had hurt him.Yet when
he came home, the father welcomed him with joy because only the
son himself WAS his father’s treasure. He WANTED nothing else.
God wants only His Son because His Son is His only treasure.
You want YOUR creations as He wants HIS.Your creations are your
gift to the Holy Trinity, created in gratitude for YOUR creation.
They do not leave you any more than you have left YOUR Creator,
but they EXTEND your creation as God extended Himself to YOU.
Can the creations of God Himself take joy in what is not real? And
what IS real except the creations of God and those which are created
like His? YOUR creations love you as your Soul loves your Father for
the gift of creation. There IS no other gift which is eternal, and
therefore there is no other gift which is TRUE.
How, then, can you ACCEPT anything else or GIVE anything
else, and expect joy in return? And what else but joy would you
WANT? You made neither yourself nor your function.You made only
the DECISION to be unworthy of both. Yet you could not make
YOURSELF unworthy, because you are the treasure of God. What
HE values IS valuable.There can BE no question of its worth because
its value lies in God’s sharing Himself with it and ESTABLISHING its
value forever.
YOUR function is to add to God’s treasure by creating YOURS.
His Will TO you is His Will FOR you. He would not withhold
creation from you because HIS joy is in it. You cannot find joy
EXCEPT as God does. HIS joy lay in creating YOU, and He extends
His Fatherhood to you so that you can extend yourself as He did.
You do not understand this because you do not understand HIM.
No-one who does not know his function can understand it, and no-
one CAN know his function unless he knows who he IS. Creation is
the Will of God. His Will created you to create. Your will was not
created separate from His, and so it wills as HE wills.
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What God has willed for you IS yours. He has given His Will to
His treasure, whose treasure It is.Your heart lies where your treasure is,
as His does.You who are beloved of God are wholly blessed. Learn this
of me, and free the holy will of all those who are as blessed as YOU are.
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sight of the Holy Spirit’s purpose, and thus to confuse the goal of
His curriculum.
There is nothing so frustrating to a learner as to be placed in a
curriculum which he cannot learn. His sense of adequacy suffers, and
he MUST become depressed. Being faced with an impossible
learning situation, regardless of why it is impossible, is the most
depressing thing in the world. In fact, it is ultimately WHY the world
is depressing. The Holy Spirit’s curriculum is NEVER depressing
because it is a curriculum of joy.Whenever the reaction to learning is
depression, it is only because the goal of the curriculum has been lost
sight of.
In the world, not even the body is perceived as whole. Its
purpose is seen as fragmented into many functions which bear little
or no relationship to each other, so that it appears to be ruled by
chaos. Guided by the ego, it IS. Guided by the Holy Spirit, it is NOT.
It becomes only a means by which the part of the mind you have
separated from your Soul can reach beyond its distortions, and
RETURN to the Soul.The ego’s temple thus becomes the temple of
the Holy Spirit, where devotion to Him replaces devotion to the
ego. In this sense the body DOES become a temple to God, because
His Voice abides in it by directing the use to which it is put.
Healing is the result of using the body SOLELY for
communication. Since this is natural, it heals by making whole,
which is ALSO natural. All mind is whole, and the belief that part of
it is physical, or NOT mind, is a fragmented (or sick) interpretation.
Mind CANNOT be made physical, but it CAN be made manifest
THROUGH the physical if it uses the body to go BEYOND itself. By
reaching OUT, the mind extends itself. It does not STOP at the body,
for if it does, it is blocked in its purpose. A mind which has been
blocked has allowed itself to be vulnerable to attack because it has
TURNED against itself.
The removal of the blocks, then, is the ONLY way to guarantee
help and healing. Help and healing are the normal expressions of a
mind which is working THROUGH the body, but not IN it. If the
mind believes the body is its GOAL, it WILL distort its perception of
the body, and by blocking its own extension beyond it, will induce
illness by fostering SEPARATION. Perceiving the body as a
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THE BODY AS MEANS OR END
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You might well ask how the voice of something which does not
exist can be so insistent. Have you seriously considered the distorting
power of something you WANT, even if it is NOT true? You have
had many instances of how what you want can distort what you see
and hear. No-one can doubt the ego’s skill in building up false cases.
Nor can anyone doubt your willingness to listen until YOU will not
to tolerate anything EXCEPT truth.When YOU lay the ego aside, it
will be gone.The Holy Spirit’s Voice is as loud as your willingness to
listen. It cannot be louder without violating your will, which the
Holy Spirit seeks to free, but NEVER to command.
The Holy Spirit teaches you to use your body ONLY to reach
your brothers, so He can teach His message THROUGH you. This
will heal them and THEREFORE heal YOU. Everything used in
accordance with its function as the Holy Spirit sees it CANNOT be
sick. Everything used otherwise IS. Do not allow the body to be a
mirror of a split mind. Do not let it be an image of your own
perception of littleness. Do not let it reflect your will to attack.
Health is the natural state of anything whose interpretation is left to
the Holy Spirit,Who perceives no attack on anything. Health is the
result of relinquishing ALL attempts to use the body lovelessly.
Health is the beginning of the proper perspective on life under the
guidance of the one Teacher Who knows what life IS, being the Voice
for Life Itself.
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THE ACCEPTANCE OF REALITY
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THE ACCEPTANCE OF REALITY
this gives you the illusion of safety. Yet you cannot be safe FROM
truth, but only IN it. Reality is the ONLY safety. Your will is your
salvation BECAUSE it is the same as God’s.The separation is nothing
more than the belief that it is DIFFERENT.
No mind can believe that its will is STRONGER than God’s. If,
then, a mind believes that ITS will is different from His, it can only
decide either that there IS no God or that GOD’S WILL IS FEARFUL.
The former accounts for the atheist and the latter for the martyr.
Martyrdom takes many forms, the category including all doctrines
which hold that God demands sacrifices of ANY kind. Either basic
type of insane decision will induce panic because the atheist believes
he is alone, and the martyr believes that God is crucifying him. Both
really fear abandonment and retaliation, but the atheist is more
reactive against abandonment, and the martyr against retaliation.
The atheist maintains that God has left him, but he does not
care. He will, however, become very fearful, and hence very angry, if
anyone suggests that God has not left him.The martyr, on the other
hand, is more aware of guilt, and believing that punishment is
inevitable, attempts to teach himself to LIKE it. The truth is, very
simply, that no-one wants EITHER abandonment OR retaliation.
Many people SEEK both, but it is still true that they do not WANT
them. Can you ask the Holy Spirit for “gifts” such as these, and
actually expect to RECEIVE them? He cannot make you want
something you do NOT want.When you ask the Universal Giver for
what you do not want, you are asking for what CANNOT be given
BECAUSE IT WAS NEVER CREATED. It was never created because
it was never your will for YOU.
Ultimately everyone must remember the Will of God, because
ultimately everyone must recognize HIMSELF. This recognition IS
the recognition that HIS WILL AND GOD’S ARE ONE. In the
presence of truth there are NO unbelievers and NO sacrifices. In the
security of reality, fear is totally meaningless. To deny what IS can
only SEEM to be fearful. Fear cannot be real without a cause, and
God is the ONLY Cause. God is Love, and you DO want Him.This
IS your will.Ask for this and you WILL be answered because you will
be asking only for what BELONGS to you.
When you ask the Holy Spirit for what would hurt you, He
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cannot answer because NOTHING can hurt you, AND SO YOU ARE
ASKING FOR NOTHING. ANY desire which stems from the ego IS
a desire for nothing, and to ask for it is NOT A REQUEST. It is
merely a denial in the FORM of a request. The Holy Spirit is not
concerned with form at all, being aware only of MEANING.The ego
cannot ask the Holy Spirit for ANYTHING because there is
COMPLETE COMMUNICATION FAILURE between them. Yet
YOU can ask for EVERYTHING of the Holy Spirit because YOUR
requests are real, being of your will.Would the Holy Spirit deny the
Will of God? And could He fail to recognize it in His Sons?
The energy which you withdraw from creation you expend on
fear. This is not because your energy is limited, but because YOU
HAVE LIMITED IT. You do not recognize the enormous waste of
energy which you expend in denying truth.What would you say of
someone who persisted in attempting the impossible, believing that
to ACHIEVE it is SUCCESS? The belief that you MUST have the
impossible in order to be happy is totally at variance with the
principle of creation. God COULD not will that happiness
DEPENDED on what you could never HAVE.
The fact that God is Love does not require belief, but it DOES
require acceptance. It is indeed possible for you to DENY facts,
although it is impossible for you to CHANGE them. If you hold your
hands over your eyes, you will NOT see because you are interfering
with the laws of seeing. If you deny love, you will NOT know it
because your cooperation is THE LAW OF ITS BEING.You cannot
change laws you did not make, and the laws of happiness were
created FOR you, not BY you.
Attempts of any kind to deny what IS are fearful, and if they are
strong, they WILL induce panic. Willing AGAINST reality, though
impossible, can be MADE into a very persistent goal EVEN THOUGH
YOU DO NOT WANT IT. But consider the result of this strange
decision.You are DEVOTING your mind to what you do not want.
How real can this DEVOTION be? If you do not want it, it was never
created. If it was never created, it is nothing. Can you REALLY devote
yourself to nothing?
God in His devotion to you created you devoted to
EVERYTHING, and GAVE you what you are devoted to. Otherwise,
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you would not have been created perfect. Reality IS everything, and
therefore you have everything BECAUSE you are real. You cannot
make the unreal because the ABSENCE of reality is fearful, and fear
cannot BE created. As long as you believe that fear is possible, YOU
WILL NOT CREATE. Opposing orders of reality MAKE REALITY
MEANINGLESS, and reality IS meaning.
Remember, then, that God’s Will is ALREADY possible, and
nothing else will EVER be. This is the simple acceptance of reality
because only this IS real.You cannot DISTORT reality and KNOW
WHAT IT IS. And if you DO distort reality, you will experience
anxiety, depression and ultimately panic because you are trying to
MAKE yourself unreal.When you feel these things, do not try to look
BEYOND yourself for truth, for truth can only be WITHIN you.
Say, therefore,
“Christ is in me and where He is God must be,
for Christ is part of Him.”
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Voice for you alone? Could you hear His answer EXCEPT as He
answers ALL of God’s Sons? Hear of your brother what you would
have me hear of you, for you would not want ME to be deceived.
I love you for the truth in you, as God does.Your deceptions may
deceive YOU, but they CANNOT deceive ME. Knowing what you
are, I CANNOT doubt you. I hear only the Holy Spirit in you,Who
speaks to me through YOU. If you would hear ME, hear my brothers
in whom God’s Voice speaks.The answer to ALL prayers lies in them.
You will be answered as you hear the answer in EVERYONE. Do not
listen to anything else or you will not hear truth.
Believe in your brothers BECAUSE I believe in you, and you will
learn that my belief in you is justified. Believe in me BY believing in
them, for the sake of what God gave them.They WILL answer you, if
you learn to ask truth of them. Do not ask for blessings without
blessing them, for only in this way can you learn how blessed YOU
are. By following this way, you ARE looking for the truth in you.This
is not going BEYOND yourself but TOWARD yourself. Hear only
God’s Answer in His Sons, and you ARE answered.
To disbelieve is to side against, or to ATTACK. To believe is to
accept, and to SIDE WITH.To believe is not to be credulous, but to
accept and APPRECIATE. What you do not believe you do not
appreciate, and you CANNOT be grateful for what you do not value.
There is a price you will pay for judgement because judgement IS
the setting of a price.And as you set it you WILL pay it.
If paying is equated with GETTING, you will set the price low
but demand a high RETURN.You will have forgotten, however, that
your return is in proportion to your judgement of worth. If paying is
associated with GIVING, it cannot BE perceived as loss, and the
RECIPROCAL relationship of giving and receiving will be
recognized. The price will then be set high because of the value of
the return.The price for GETTING is to lose sight of value, making
it inevitable that you will NOT value what you receive. Valuing it
little, you will not appreciate it and will not WANT it.
Never forget, then, that YOU have set the value on what you
receive, and have priced it by what you give. To believe that it is
possible to get much for little is to believe that you can bargain with
God. God’s laws are ALWAYS fair and perfectly consistent. BY giving
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204
nine
The alertness of the ego to the errors which other egos make is not
the kind of vigilance the Holy Spirit would have you maintain. Egos
are critical in terms of the kind of “sense” they stand for. THEY
understand this kind of sense, because it IS sensible to them. To the
Holy Spirit, it makes no sense at all. To the ego, it is kind and right
and good to point out errors and “correct” them.This makes perfect
sense to the ego, which is totally unaware of what errors ARE and
what correction IS.
Errors ARE of the ego, and correction of errors of any kind lies
solely in the RELINQUISHMENT of the ego. When you correct a
brother, you are telling him that he is wrong. He may be making no
sense at the time, and it is certain that, if he is speaking from the ego,
he WILL be making no sense. But your task is still to tell him he is
RIGHT.You do not tell him this verbally, if he is speaking foolishly,
because he needs correction at ANOTHER level, since his error IS at
another level. HE is still right, because he is a Son of God. His ego is
always wrong, no matter WHAT it says or does.
If you point out the errors of your brother’s ego, you must be
seeing through YOURS, because the Holy Spirit does not perceive
his errors. This must be true if there is no communication at all
between the ego and the Holy Spirit. The ego makes no sense, and
the Holy Spirit does not attempt to understand anything that arises
from it. Since He does not understand it, He does not JUDGE it,
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ATONEMENT AS A LESSON IN SHARING
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look on your abilities through the eyes of the ego, or you will judge
them as IT does. All their harmfulness lies in its judgement. All their
helpfulness lies in the judgement of the Holy Spirit.
The ego, too, has a plan of forgiveness because you are ASKING
for one, though not of the right teacher. The ego’s plan, of course,
MAKES NO SENSE and WILL NOT WORK. By following it you
will merely place yourself in an impossible situation, to which the
ego ALWAYS leads you.The ego’s plan is to have you see error clearly
FIRST, and THEN overlook it.Yet how can you overlook what you
have made real? By seeing it clearly you HAVE made it real and
CANNOT overlook it.
This is where the ego is forced to appeal to “mysteries,” and
begins to insist that you must accept the meaningless to save yourself.
Many have tried to do this in my name, forgetting that my words
make PERFECT sense because they come from God. They are as
sensible now as they ever were because they speak of ideas which are
eternal. Forgiveness that is learned of me does NOT use fear to
UNDO fear. Nor does it make real the unreal and then destroy it.
Forgiveness through the Holy Spirit lies simply in looking
beyond error from the beginning, and thus KEEPING it unreal for
you. Do not let any belief in its realness enter your minds AT ALL, or
you will also believe that YOU must undo what you have made in
order to be forgiven. What has no effect does not exist, and to the
Holy Spirit the effects of error are TOTALLY non-existent. By
steadily and consistently cancelling out ALL its effects,
EVERYWHERE and in ALL respects, He teaches that the ego does
not exist, and PROVES it. Follow His teaching in forgiveness, then,
because forgiveness IS His function, and He knows how to fulfill it
perfectly.That is what we meant when we once said that miracles are
natural, and when they do NOT occur something has gone wrong.
Miracles are merely the sign of your willingness to follow the
Holy Spirit’s plan of salvation, in recognition of the fact that you do
NOT know what it is. His work is NOT your function, and unless
you accept this, you cannot learn what YOUR function is. The
confusion of functions is so typical of the ego that you should be
quite familiar with it by now. The ego believes that ALL functions
belong to it, even though it has no idea what they ARE.This is more
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tales ARE true for them. Yet when reality dawns the fantasies are
gone. REALITY has not gone in the meanwhile. The Second
Coming is the AWARENESS of reality, not its RETURN. Behold, my
children, reality is here. It belongs to you and me and God, and is
perfectly satisfying to all of us. ONLY this awareness heals, because it
is the awareness of truth.
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THE UNHEALED HEALER
does not matter at all. According to the newer forms of the ego’s
plan, the therapist interprets the ego’s symbols in the nightmare, and
then uses them to prove that the NIGHTMARE is real. Having
MADE it real, he then attempts to dispel its effects by depreciating
the importance OF THE DREAMER. This WOULD be a healing
approach if the dreamer were properly identified as unreal.Yet if the
dreamer is equated with the MIND, the mind’s corrective power
through the Holy Spirit is DENIED.
It is noteworthy that this is a contradiction even in the ego’s
terms, and one which it usually DOES note, even in its confusion. If
the way to counteract fear is to REDUCE the importance of the
fearer, how can this build ego STRENGTH? These perfectly self-
evident inconsistencies account for why, except in certain stylized
verbal accounts, no-one can EXPLAIN what happens in
psychotherapy. Nothing real DOES. Nothing real has happened to
the unhealed healer, and he learns from his own teaching.
BECAUSE His ego is involved, it always attempts to gain some
support from the situation. Seeking to get something for HIMSELF
the unhealed healer does not know how to GIVE, and consequently
cannot share. He cannot correct because he is not working
CORRECTIVELY. He believes that it is up to him to teach the
patient what is REAL, but he does not know it himself.What, then,
SHOULD happen? When God said, “Let there be light” there WAS
light. Can you find light by analyzing darkness as the psychotherapist
does, or like the theologian by acknowledging darkness in yourself
and looking for a distant light to remove it while EMPHASIZING
the distance?
Healing is NOT mysterious. Nothing will occur unless you
understand it since light IS understanding. A “miserable sinner”
cannot be healed without magic, nor can an “unimportant mind”
esteem itself without magic. Both forms of the ego’s approach, then,
must arrive at an impasse, the characteristic “impossible situation” to
which the ego ALWAYS leads. It CAN be helpful to point out to a
patient where he is heading, but the point is lost unless he can
change his direction.The therapist cannot do this for him, but he also
cannot do this for HIMSELF.
The ONLY meaningful contribution the therapist can make is
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212
THE AWARENESS OF THE HOLY SPIRIT
EXCEPT by His effects? You cannot see Him with your eyes, nor
hear Him with your ears. How, then, can you perceive Him at all? If
you inspire joy, and others react to you WITH joy, even though you
are not experiencing joy yourself, there MUST be something in you
that is capable of producing it. If it IS in you and CAN produce joy,
and if you see that it DOES produce joy in others, you MUST be
dissociating it in yourself.
It seems to you that the Holy Spirit does NOT produce joy
consistently in you ONLY because you do not consistently AROUSE
joy in others. Their reactions to you ARE your evaluations of His
consistency. When you are inconsistent you will not always GIVE
RISE to joy, and so you will not always RECOGNIZE His
consistency. What you offer to your brother you offer to Him,
because He cannot go BEYOND your offering in His giving.This is
not because He limits His giving, but simply because you have
limited your RECEIVING.The will to receive is the will to accept.
If your brothers ARE part of you, will you ACCEPT them?
Only they can teach you what you are, and your learning is the result
of what you taught them.What you call upon in them you call upon
in YOURSELF. And as you call upon it in them it becomes real to
YOU. God has but one Son, knowing them all AS one. Only God
Himself is more than they, but they are not less than He is. Would
you know what this means? If what you do to my brother you do to
me, and if you do everything for yourself because we are PART of
you, everything WE do belongs to you as well. Every Soul God
created IS part of you, and shares His glory WITH you. His Glory
belongs to Him, but it is equally YOURS.You cannot, then, be LESS
glorious than He is.
God is more than you only because He CREATED you, but not
even this would He keep from you.Therefore you CAN create as He
did, and your dissociation will NOT alter this. Neither God’s Light
NOR YOURS is dimmed because you do not see. Because the
Sonship MUST create as one, you remember creation whenever you
recognize PART of creation. Each part you remember adds to YOUR
wholeness because each part IS whole. Wholeness is indivisible, but
you cannot learn of your wholeness until you see it EVERYWHERE.
You can KNOW yourself only as God knows His Son, for knowledge
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is shared WITH God.When You awake in Him you will know your
magnitude by accepting His limitlessness as YOURS, but meanwhile
you will judge it as you judge your brothers’ and will accept it as you
accept THEIRS.
You are not yet awake, but you can learn HOW to awaken.Very
simply the Holy Spirit teaches you to awaken others. As you see
them waken you will learn what waking MEANS, and because you
have willed to wake them, their gratitude and their appreciation of
what you have given them will teach YOU its value. THEY will
become the witnesses to your reality, as YOU were created witnesses
to God’s. Yet when the Sonship comes together and ACCEPTS its
oneness, it will be known by its creations, who witness to its reality as
the Son does to the Father.
Miracles have no place in eternity because they are reparative.
Yet while you still need healing, your miracles are the only witnesses
to your reality which you can RECOGNIZE.You cannot perform a
miracle for YOURSELF because miracles are a way of GIVING
acceptance AND receiving it. In time the giving comes first, though
they are simultaneous in eternity, where they cannot BE separated.
When you have learned that they ARE the same, the need for time
is over.
Eternity is ONE time, its only dimension being “always”. This
cannot mean anything to you, however, until you remember God’s
open arms and finally know His open Mind. Like Him, YOU are
“always” in His Mind and with a mind like His. In YOUR open
mind are YOUR creations, in perfect communication born of perfect
understanding. Could you but accept one of them, you would not
want ANYTHING the world has to offer. Everything else would be
totally meaningless. God’s meaning is incomplete without you, and
you are incomplete without your creations. Accept your brother in
this world and accept NOTHING ELSE, for in him you will find
your creations because he created them WITH you.You will never
know that you are co-creator with God until you learn that your
brother is a co-creator with YOU.
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to find it? If He wills you to HAVE it, He must have made it possible
and very easy to obtain it.Your brothers are everywhere.You do not
have to seek far for salvation. Every minute and every second gives
you a chance to save YOURSELF. Do not lose these chances, not
because they will not return, but because delay of joy is needless.
God wills you perfect happiness NOW. Is it possible that this is not
also YOUR will? And is it possible that this is not ALSO the will of
your brothers?
Consider, then, that in this joint will you ARE all united, and in
this ONLY. There will be disagreement on anything else, but NOT
on this.This, then, is where peace ABIDES.And YOU abide in peace
when you so decide.Yet you cannot abide in peace unless you accept
the Atonement because the Atonement IS the way to peace. The
reason is very simple, and so obvious that it is often overlooked.That
is because the ego is AFRAID of the obvious, since obviousness is the
essential characteristic of reality.Yet YOU cannot overlook it unless
you are NOT LOOKING.
It is PERFECTLY obvious that, if the Holy Spirit looks with
love on ALL He perceives, He looks with love on YOU. His
evaluation of you is based on His knowledge of what you are, and so
He evaluates you truly. And this evaluation MUST be in your mind
because He is. The ego is also in your mind because you have
ACCEPTED it there. ITS evaluation of you, however, is the exact
opposite of the Holy Spirit’s because the ego does NOT love you. It
is unaware of what you are, and wholly mistrustful of EVERYTHING
it perceives because its own perceptions are so shifting. The ego is
therefore capable of suspiciousness at best and viciousness at worst.
That is its range. It cannot exceed it because of its uncertainty.And it
can never go BEYOND it because it can never BE certain.
You, then, have two CONFLICTING evaluations of yourself in
your minds, and they CANNOT both be true.You do not yet realize
how COMPLETELY different these evaluations are because you do
not understand how lofty the Holy Spirit’s perception of you really
is. He is not deceived by anything you do because he never forgets
what you ARE. The ego is deceived by everything you do, even
when you respond to the Holy Spirit, because at such times its
confusion INCREASES. The ego is, therefore, particularly likely to
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attack you when you react lovingly because it has evaluated you as
UNLOVING, and you are going AGAINST its judgement.
The ego will begin to ATTACK your motives as soon as they
become clearly out of accord with its perception of you.This is when
it will shift abruptly from suspiciousness to viciousness, since its
uncertainty is increased.Yet it is surely pointless to attack in return.
What can this mean except that you are AGREEING with the ego’s
evaluation of what you are? If you are willing to see yourself as
unloving, you will NOT be happy.You are condemning yourself, and
MUST therefore regard yourself as inadequate. Would you look to
the ego to help you escape from a sense of inadequacy it has
PRODUCED, and must MAINTAIN for its existence? Can you
ESCAPE from its evaluation of you by using its methods for keeping
this picture INTACT?
You cannot evaluate an insane belief system from WITHIN it. Its
own range precludes this.You can only go BEYOND it, look back
from a point where SANITY exists, AND SEE THE CONTRAST.
Only BY this contrast can insanity be judged as insane. With the
grandeur of God in you, you have chosen to be little and to lament
your littleness. WITHIN the system which dictated this choice the
lament IS inevitable.Your littleness is taken for granted there, and you
do NOT ask, “Who granted it?”The question is meaningless within
the ego’s thought system because it opens the WHOLE thought
system to question.
We said before that the ego does not know what a real question
is. Lack of knowledge of any kind is always associated with
UNWILLINGNESS to know, and produces a total lack of knowledge
simply because knowledge IS total. Not to question your littleness,
therefore, is to deny ALL knowledge and keep the ego’s WHOLE
thought system intact.You cannot retain PART of a thought system
because it can be questioned ONLY at its foundation. And this must
be questioned from beyond it because WITHIN it its foundation
DOES stand. The Holy Spirit judges against the reality of the ego’s
thought system merely because He knows its FOUNDATION is not
true.Therefore, nothing that arises from it means anything.The Holy
Spirit judges every belief you hold in terms of where it comes from.
If it comes from God, He knows it to be true. If it does not, He
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218
GRANDEUR VERSUS GRANDIOSITY
will. Illusions ARE deceptions. You cannot triumph, but you ARE
exalted. And in your exalted state you seek others like you and
rejoice with them.
It is easy to distinguish grandeur from grandiosity because love
is returned, but pride is not. Pride will not produce miracles, and
therefore will deprive you of your true witnesses to your reality.
Truth is not obscure nor hidden, but its obviousness to YOU lies in
the joy you bring to its witnesses, who SHOW it to you.They attest
to your grandeur, but they cannot attest to pride because pride is not
shared. God WANTS you to behold what He created because it is
His joy.
Can your grandeur be arrogant when God Himself witnesses to
it? And what can be real that HAS no witnesses? What good can
come of it? And if no good can come of it, the Holy Spirit cannot
use it.What He cannot transform to the Will of God does not exist
at all. Grandiosity is delusional because it is used to REPLACE your
grandeur. Yet what God has created cannot BE replaced. God is
incomplete without you because His grandeur is total, and you
cannot be missing from it.
You are altogether irreplaceable in the Mind of God. No-one
else can fill your part of It, and while you leave your part of It empty,
your eternal place merely waits for your return. God, through His
Voice, reminds you of It, and God Himself keeps your extensions safe
within It.Yet you do not know them until you return to them.You
CANNOT replace the Kingdom, and you cannot replace
YOURSELF. God, Who KNOWS your value, would not have it so,
and so it is NOT so.Your value is in GOD’S Mind, and therefore not
in yours alone. To accept yourself as God created you cannot be
arrogance because it is the DENIAL of arrogance. To accept your
littleness IS arrogant because it means that you believe YOUR
evaluation of yourself is TRUER than God’s.
Yet if truth is indivisible your evaluation of yourself must BE
God’s. You did not establish your value, and it NEEDS no defense.
Nothing can attack it or prevail over it. It does not vary. It merely IS.
Ask the Holy Spirit WHAT it is and He will tell you, but do not be
afraid of His answer, for it comes from God. It IS an exalted answer
because of its Source, but the Source is true and so is Its answer.
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Listen and do not question what you hear, for God does not deceive.
He would have you replace the ego’s belief in littleness with His own
exalted answer to the question of your being, so that you can cease to
question it and KNOW it for what it IS.
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222
THE DECISION TO FORGET
truth is God, you will realize why this is ALWAYS fearful. If you
further recognize that you are PART of God, you will understand
why it is that you always attack yourself FIRST.
If you realized the complete havoc this makes of your peace of
mind, you could not make such an insane decision.You make it only
because you still believe that it can GET you something you WANT.
It follows, then, that you want something OTHER than peace of
mind, but you have not considered what it must be.Yet the logical
outcome of your decision is perfectly clear, if you will LOOK at it.
By deciding AGAINST your reality, you have made yourself vigilant
AGAINST God and His Kingdom. And it is THIS vigilance that
makes you afraid to remember Him.
You have NOT attacked God and you DO love Him. Can you
change your reality? No-one can will to destroy himself.When you
think you are attacking your self, it is a sure sign that you hate what
you THINK you are. And this, and ONLY this, can BE attacked by
you.What you THINK you are can be hateful, and what this strange
image makes you do can be very destructive.Yet the destruction is no
more real than the image, although those who make idols DO
worship them. The idols are nothing, but their worshippers are the
Sons of God in sickness.
God would have them released from their sickness and returned
to His Mind. He will not LIMIT your power to help them because
He has GIVEN it to you. Do not be afraid of it because it is your
salvation.What Comforter can there be for the sick Children of God
except His power through YOU? Remember that it does not matter
WHERE in the Sonship He is accepted. He is ALWAYS accepted for
all, and when YOUR mind receives Him the remembrance of Him
awakens throughout the Sonship. Heal your brothers simply by
accepting God FOR them.
Your minds are not separate, and God has only one channel for
healing because He has but one Son. His remaining communication
link with all His Children joins them together, and them to Him.To
be aware of this is to heal them because it is the awareness that no-
one is separate, and so no-one is sick. To believe that a Son of God
CAN be sick is to believe that part of God can suffer. Love CANNOT
suffer because it can not attack.The remembrance of love therefore
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224
THE DECISION TO FORGET
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you have been willing to give up your own perfect helpfulness and
your own perfect Help.
Only at the altar of God will you find peace. And this altar is in
you because God put it there. His Voice still calls you to return, and He
will be heard when you place no other gods before Him.You can give
up the god of sickness for your brothers; in fact, you would HAVE to
do so if you give him up for yourself. For if you see him anywhere, you
have accepted him. And if you accept him, you WILL bow down and
worship him, because he was made as God’s replacement. He is the
belief that you can CHOOSE which god is real.Although it is perfectly
clear that this has nothing to do with reality, it is equally clear that it has
EVERYTHING to do with reality as you perceive it.
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perceive other gods your mind is split, and you will not be able to
LIMIT the split because the split IS the sign that you have removed
part of your mind from God’s Will, and this means it is out of
control.To be out of control is to be out of REASON, and the mind
DOES become unreasonable without reason.This is merely a matter
of definition. By DEFINING the mind wrongly, you perceive it as
FUNCTIONING wrongly.
God’s laws will keep your minds at peace because peace is His
Will, and His laws are established to uphold it. His are the laws of
freedom, but yours are the laws of bondage. Since freedom and
bondage are irreconcilable, their laws cannot BE understood
together.The laws of God work only for your good, and there ARE
no other laws beside His. Everything else is merely lawless, and
therefore chaotic. Yet God Himself has protected everything He
created BY His laws. Therefore, everything that is not under them
does not exist. “Laws of chaos” are meaningless by definition.
Creation is perfectly lawful, and the chaotic is without meaning
because it is without GOD.You have given your peace to the gods
you made, but they are not there to take it from you, and you are not
able to give it to them.
You are NOT free to give up freedom, but only to DENY it.You
CANNOT do what God did not intend because what He did not
intend DOES NOT HAPPEN.Your gods do not BRING chaos; you
are ENDOWING them with chaos and accepting it of them. All this
has never been. Nothing but the laws of God have ever operated, and
nothing except His Will will ever be.You were created through His
laws and by His Will, and the manner of your creation established
you AS creators.What you have made is so unworthy of you that you
could hardly want it if you were willing to see it AS IT IS.You will
see nothing at all. And your vision will automatically look beyond it
to what is in you and all around you. Reality cannot break through
the obstructions you interpose, but it WILL envelop you completely
when you let them go.
When you have experienced the protection of God the making
of idols becomes inconceivable. There are no strange images in the
Mind of God, and what is not in His Mind cannot be in yours
because you are of ONE Mind, and that Mind belongs to HIM. It is
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THE DENIAL OF GOD
YOURSELF have done this to you.You will receive the message you
give because it is the message you WANT.You may believe that you
judge your brothers by the messages they give YOU, but YOU have
judged THEM by the message you give to THEM. Do not attribute
your denial of joy to them, or you cannot see the spark in them that
could bring joy to YOU. It is the DENIAL of the spark that brings
depression, and whenever you see your brothers WITHOUT it, you
ARE denying God.
Allegiance to the denial of God is the ego’s religion.The god of
sickness obviously demands the denial of health because health is in
direct opposition to its own survival. But consider what this means to
YOU. UNLESS you are sick you cannot keep the gods you made, for
only in sickness could you possibly WANT them. Blasphemy, then, is
SELF-destructive, NOT God-destructive. It means that you are
willing NOT to know yourself IN ORDER to be sick. This is the
offering which your god demands because, having made him out of
YOUR insanity, he is an insane idea. He has many forms, but
although he may seem like many different things he is but one idea;–
the denial of God.
Sickness and death entered the mind of God’s Son AGAINST
His Will.The “attack on God” made His Son think he was fatherless,
and out of his depression he made the god of depression.This was his
alternative to joy because he would not accept the fact that, although
he was a creator, he had been created.Yet the Son IS helpless without
the Father,Who alone is his Help.We said before that of yourselves
you can do nothing, but you are not OF yourselves. If you were, what
you have made would be true, and you could NEVER escape.
It is BECAUSE you did not make yourselves that you need be
troubled by nothing.Your gods are nothing because your Father did
not create them. You cannot make creators who are unlike your
Creator any more than He could have created a Son who was unlike
Him. If creation is sharing it cannot create what is unlike itself. It can
share only what it IS. Depression is isolation, and so it could not have
BEEN created.
Son of God, you have not sinned, but you HAVE been much
mistaken. Yet this can be corrected, and God will help you,
KNOWING that you could not sin against Him. You denied Him
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THE DENIAL OF GOD
free.To interfere with you would be to attack Himself, and God is not
insane. When you denied Him, YOU were insane. Would you have
Him SHARE your insanity? God will never cease to love His Son, and
His Son will never cease to love Him.That was the condition of His
Son’s creation, fixed forever in the Mind of God.To know that is sanity.
To deny it is insanity. God gave Himself to you in your creation, and
His gifts are eternal.Would you deny yourself to Him?
Out of your gifts to Him the Kingdom will be restored to His
Son. His Son removed himself FROM His gift by refusing to accept
what had been created for him, and what he himself had created in
the Name of his Father. Heaven waits for his return, for it was
created as the dwelling place of God’s Son. You are not at home
anywhere else, or in any other condition. Do not deny yourself the
joy which was created for you for the misery you have made for
yourselves. God has given you the means for undoing what you have
made. Listen, and you WILL learn what you are.
If God knows His Children as wholly sinless, it is blasphemous
to perceive them as guilty. If God knows His Children as wholly
without pain, it is blasphemous to perceive suffering anywhere. If
God knows His children to be wholly joyous, it is blasphemous to
feel depressed.All of these illusions, and the many other forms which
blasphemy may take, are REFUSALS to accept creation as it is. If God
created His Son perfect, that is how you must learn to see him to
learn of his reality.And as PART of the Sonship, that is how you must
see YOURSELF to learn of YOURS.
Do not perceive ANYTHING God did not create, or you are
denying HIM. His is the ONLY Fatherhood, and it is yours only
because HE has given it to you.Your gifts to yourself are meaningless,
but your gifts to YOUR creations are like His because they are given
in His Name.That is why your creations are as real as His.Yet the real
Fatherhood must be acknowledged if the real Son is to be known.
You believe that the sick things which you have made are your real
creations because you believe that the sick images you perceive ARE
the Sons of God.
Only if you accept the Fatherhood of God will you have
ANYTHING because His Fatherhood GAVE you everything.That is
why to deny Him IS to deny yourself.Arrogance is the denial of love
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Either God or the ego is insane. If you will examine the evidence on
both sides fairly, you will realize that this must be true. Neither God
nor the ego proposes a partial thought system. Each is internally
consistent, but they are diametrically opposed in all respects, so that
partial allegiance is impossible. Remember, too, that their results are
as different as their foundations, and their fundamentally
irreconcilable natures CANNOT be reconciled by your vacillations.
Nothing alive is fatherless, for life is creation. Therefore, your
decision is always an answer to the question, “Who is my father?”
And you will be faithful to the father you choose.
Yet what would you say to someone who really believed this
question involves conflict? If YOU made the ego, how can the ego
have made you? The authority problem remains the only source of
perceived conflict, because the ego was made out of the wish of
God’s Son to father Him. The ego, then, is nothing more than a
delusional system, in which you made your own father. Make no
mistake about this. It sounds insane when it is stated with perfect
honesty, but the ego never looks upon what it does with perfect
honesty.Yet that IS its insane premise, which is carefully hidden in the
dark cornerstone of its thought system. And either the ego, which
you made, IS your father, or its whole thought system will not stand.
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PROJECTION VERSUS EXTENSION
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the joy which is His, and which He wills to SHARE with you.Your
love is as boundless as His because it IS His.
Could any part of God be WITHOUT His Love, and could any
part of His Love be contained? God is your heritage because His one
gift is Himself. How can you give except like Him, if you would
know His gift to YOU? Give, then, without limit and without end, to
learn how much HE has given YOU.Your ability to ACCEPT Him
depends on your willingness to give as He gives.Your fatherhood and
your Father ARE One. God willed to create, and your will is His. It
follows, then, that YOU will to create, since your will follows from
His.And being an extension of His Will, yours must be the same.
Yet what you will you do not know. This is not strange when
you realize that to deny is to “NOT know.” God’s Will is that you are
His Son. By denying this you denied your OWN will, and therefore
do NOT know what it is.The reason you must ask what God’s Will is
in everything is merely because It IS yours.You do not know what it
is, but the Holy Spirit remembers it FOR you. Ask Him, therefore,
what God’s Will is for you, and He will tell you YOURS. It cannot be
too often repeated that you do NOT know it. Whenever what the
Holy Spirit tells you appears to be coercive, it is only because you do
not RECOGNIZE your own will.
The projection of the ego makes it appear as if God’s Will is
OUTSIDE yourself, and therefore NOT yours. In this interpretation,
it IS possible for God’s Will and yours to conflict. God, then, may
SEEM to demand of you what you do not want to give, and thus
deprive you of what you want.Would God,Who wants ONLY your
will, be capable of this? Your will is His Life, which He has given to
you. Even in time you cannot live apart from Him, for sleep is not
death.What He created can sleep, but it CANNOT die. Immortality
is His Will for His Son, and His Son’s will for HIMSELF. God’s Son
cannot will death for himself because His Father is Life, and His Son
is like Him. Creation is your will BECAUSE it is His.
You cannot be happy unless you do what you will truly, and you
cannot change this because it is immutable. It is immutable by God’s
Will AND YOURS, for otherwise His Will would not have been
extended.You are afraid to know God’s Will because you believe it is
NOT yours.This belief is your whole sickness and your whole fear.
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Every symptom of sickness and fear arises here because this is the
belief that makes you WANT not to know. Believing this, you hide in
darkness, denying that the Light is in you.
You are asked to trust the Holy Spirit only because He speaks
for YOU. He is the Voice for God, but never forget that God did not
will to be alone. He SHARES His Will with you; He does not thrust
It UPON you. Always remember that what He gives He holds, so
that nothing He gives can contradict Him.You who share His Life
must share it to know it, for sharing IS knowing. Blessed are you who
learn that to hear the Will of your Father is to know your OWN. For
it is YOUR will to be like Him,Whose Will it is that it be so. God’s
Will is that His Son be one, and united with Him in His Oneness.
That is why healing is the beginning of the recognition that your
will IS His.
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accept only whom YOU invite.You are free to determine who shall
be your guest, and how long he shall remain with you.Yet this is not
REAL freedom, for it still depends on how you see it. The Holy
Spirit is THERE although He cannot help you without your
invitation, and the ego is nothing whether you invite it in or not.
Real freedom depends on welcoming REALITY, and of your guests
only He is real. Know, then, Who abides with you merely by
recognizing what is there ALREADY, and do not be satisfied with
imaginary comforters, for the Comforter of God is in you.
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THE INHERITANCE OF GOD’S SON
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THE “DYNAMICS” OF THE EGO
Father. Sharing the perfect Love of the Father the Son must share
what belongs to Him, for otherwise he will not know the Father OR
the Son. Peace be unto you who rest in God and in whom the whole
Sonship rests.
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THE “DYNAMICS” OF THE EGO
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THE “DYNAMICS” OF THE EGO
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EXPERIENCE AND PERCEPTION
as true now as it will ever be, for the resurrection is the Will of God,
Which knows no time and no exceptions. But make no exceptions
yourself, or you will not perceive what has been accomplished FOR
you. For we ascend unto the Father together, as it was in the
beginning, is now, and ever shall be, for such is the nature of God’s
Son as His Father created him.
Do not underestimate the power of the devotion of God’s Son,
nor the power of the god he worships over him. For he places
HIMSELF at the altar of his god, whether it be the god he made or
the God Who created him.That is why his slavery is as complete as
his freedom, for he will obey ONLY the god he accepts.The god of
the crucifixion demands that he crucify, and his worshippers obey. In
his name they crucify THEMSELVES, believing that the power of the
Son of God is born of sacrifice and pain.The God of the resurrection
demands NOTHING, for He does not will to take away. He does not
require obedience, for obedience implies submission. He would only
have you learn your OWN will and follow it, not in the spirit of
sacrifice and submission, but in the gladness of freedom.
Resurrection must compel your allegiance gladly because it is
the symbol of joy. Its whole compelling power lies in the fact that it
represents what YOU want to be. The freedom to leave behind
everything that hurts you and humbles you and frightens you cannot
be thrust upon you, but it CAN be offered you through the grace of
God. And you can ACCEPT it by His grace, for God IS gracious to
His Son, accepting him without question as His Own.Who, then, is
YOUR own? The Father has given you all that is His, and He
Himself is yours WITH them. Guard them in their resurrection, for
otherwise you will not awake in God, safely surrounded by what is
yours forever.
You will not find peace until you have removed the nails from
the hands of God’s Son and taken the last thorn from his forehead.
The Love of God surrounds His Son whom the god of the
crucifixion condemns.Teach not that I died in vain.Teach rather that
I did NOT die by demonstrating that I live IN YOU. For the
UNDOING of the crucifixion of God’s Son is the work of the
redemption, in which everyone has a part of equal value. God does
not judge His blameless Son. Having given HIMSELF to him, how
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could it be otherwise?
You have nailed YOURSELF to a cross and placed a crown of
thorns upon your OWN head.Yet you CANNOT crucify God’s Son,
for the Will of God cannot die. His Son HAS BEEN redeemed from
his own crucifixion, and you cannot assign to death whom God has
given eternal life. The dream of crucifixion still lies heavy on your
eyes, but what you see in dreams is not reality.While you perceive the
Son of God as crucified you are asleep. And as long as you believe
that YOU can crucify him you are only having nightmares.You who
are beginning to wake are still aware of dreams and have not yet
forgotten them.The forgetting of dreams and the awareness of Christ
comes with the awakening of others to SHARE your redemption.
You will awaken to your OWN call, for the Call to awake is
WITHIN you. If I live in you, you ARE awake.Yet you must see the
works I do through you, or you will not perceive that I have done
them UNTO you. Do not set limits on what you believe I can do
through you, or you will not accept what I can do FOR you. For it is
done ALREADY, and unless you give all that you have received, you
will not know that your Redeemer liveth and that YOU have
awakened WITH Him. Redemption is recognized ONLY by
sharing it.
God’s Son IS saved. Bring only THIS awareness to the Sonship,
and you will have a part in the redemption as valuable as mine. For
your part must be LIKE mine if you learn it of me. If you believe that
YOURS is limited, YOU are limiting MINE. There is no order of
difficulty in miracles because all of God’s Sons are of equal value, and
their equality is their Oneness.The whole power of God is in every
part of Him, and nothing contradictory to His Will is either great or
small.What does not exist has NO size and NO measure.To God ALL
things are possible.And to Christ it is given to be LIKE the Father.
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BE known.The real world is all that the Holy Spirit has saved for you
out of what you have made, and to perceive only this is salvation
because it is the recognition that reality is ONLY what is true.This is
a very simple course. Perhaps you do not feel that a course which, in
the end, teaches nothing more than that only reality is true is
necessary. BUT DO YOU BELIEVE IT? When you have perceived the
real world, you will recognize that you did NOT believe it.Yet the
swiftness with which your new and ONLY real perception will be
translated into knowledge will leave you only an instant to realize
that this judgement is true.
And then everything you made will be forgotten, the good and
bad, the false and the true. For as Heaven and earth become one,
even the real world will vanish from your sight.The end of the world
is not its destruction but its TRANSLATION into Heaven. The re-
interpretation of the world is the transfer of ALL perception to
knowledge. The Bible tells you to become as little children. Little
children recognize that they do not understand what they perceive,
and so they ASK what it means. Do not make the mistake of
believing that YOU understand what you perceive, for its meaning is
lost to you.Yet the Holy Spirit has saved its meaning FOR you, and if
you will LET Him interpret it for you, He will restore what you have
thrown away. As long as you think YOU know its meaning, you will
see no need to ask it of Him.
You do not know the meaning of ANYTHING you perceive.
NOT ONE THOUGHT YOU HOLD IS WHOLLY TRUE. The
recognition of this is your firm beginning. You are not misguided;
you have accepted no guide at all. Instruction in perception is your
great need, for you understand nothing. Recognize this but do not
ACCEPT it, for understanding is your inheritance. Perceptions are
learned, and you are not without a Teacher.Yet your willingness to
learn of Him depends on your willingness to question
EVERYTHING you have learned of yourself, for you who have
learned amiss should not be your own teachers.
No-one can withhold truth except from himself.Yet God will
not refuse the answer He GAVE you.Ask, then, for what is yours but
which you did not make, and do not defend yourself AGAINST
truth. YOU made the problem which God has answered. Ask
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You have been told not to make error real, and the way to do this is
very simple. If you WANT to believe in error, you would HAVE to
make it real, because it is not true. But truth is real in its own right,
and to believe in truth, YOU DO NOT HAVE TO DO ANYTHING.
Understand that you do not respond to stimuli, but to stimuli AS
YOU INTERPRET THEM. Your interpretation thus becomes the
justification for the response. That is why analyzing the motives of
others is hazardous to YOU. If you decide that someone is really
trying to attack you or desert you or enslave you, you will respond
AS IF he had actually done so, because you have made his error
REAL to you.To interpret error is to give it power, and having done
this, you WILL overlook truth.
The analysis of ego-motivation is very complicated, very
obscuring, and NEVER without the risk of your own ego-
involvement. The whole process represents a clearcut attempt to
demonstrate your OWN ability to understand what you perceive.
This is shown by the fact that you react to your interpretations AS IF
they were correct, and control your reactions behaviorally, but not
emotionally.This is quite evidently a mental split, in which you have
attacked the integrity of your mind, and pitted one level within it
against another.
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to YOU. The Holy Spirit does not need your help in interpreting
motivation, but you DO need HIS. Only APPRECIATION is an
appropriate response to your brother. Gratitude is due him for both
his loving thoughts and his appeals for help, for both are capable of
bringing love into YOUR awareness if you perceive them truly. And
ALL your sense of strain comes from your attempts NOT to do
just this.
How simple, then, is God’s plan for salvation.There is but ONE
response to reality, for reality evokes no conflict at all. There is but
ONE Teacher of reality, Who understands what it IS. He does not
change His Mind about reality because REALITY does not change.
Although YOUR interpretations of reality are meaningless in your
divided state, His remain consistently true. He GIVES them to you
because they are FOR you. Do not attempt to “help” a brother in
YOUR way, for you cannot help yourselves. But hear his call for the
help of God, and you will recognize your OWN need for the Father.
Your interpretations of your brother’s need is your
interpretation of YOURS. By GIVING help you are ASKING for it,
and if you perceive but one need in yourself you WILL be healed.
For you will recognize God’s answer as you want it to be, and if you
want it in truth it will be truly yours. Every appeal you answer in the
Name of Christ brings the remembrance of your Father closer to
YOUR awareness. For the sake of YOUR need, then, hear every call
for help as what it is, so God can answer YOU.
By applying the Holy Spirit’s interpretation of the reactions of
others more and more consistently, you will gain an increasing
awareness that HIS criteria are equally applicable to YOU. For to
RECOGNIZE fear is not enough to escape from it, although the
recognition is necessary to demonstrate the need for escape. The
Holy Spirit must still TRANSLATE it into truth. If you were LEFT
with the fear, having recognized it, you would have taken a step
AWAY from reality, not TOWARDS it. Yet we have repeatedly
emphasized the need to recognize fear and face it WITHOUT
disguise as a crucial step in the undoing of the ego. Consider how
well the Holy Spirit’s interpretation of the motives of others will
serve you then.
Having taught you to accept only loving thoughts in others and
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to regard everything else as an appeal for help, He has taught you that
FEAR is an appeal for help.This is what recognizing it REALLY means.
If you do not PROTECT it, HE will re-interpret it.That is the ultimate
value TO YOU in learning to perceive attack as a call for love.We have
learned surely that fear and attack are inevitably associated. If ONLY
attack produces fear, and if you see attack as the call for help that it IS,
the unreality of fear MUST dawn upon you. For fear IS a call for love,
in unconscious recognition of what has been denied.
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you know it not.Yet your Redeemer liveth, and abideth in you in the
peace out of which He was created.Would you not exchange THIS
awareness for the awareness of your fear? When we have overcome
fear, not by hiding it, not by minimizing it, not by denying its full
import in any way, this IS what you will really see.You cannot lay
aside the obstacle to real vision without looking upon it, for to lay
aside means to judge AGAINST. If YOU will look the Holy Spirit
will judge, and will judge truly. He cannot shine away what YOU
keep hidden, for you have not offered it to Him, and He cannot take
it FROM you.
We are therefore embarking on an organized, well-structured
and carefully planned program aimed at learning how to offer to the
Holy Spirit everything you do NOT want. HE knows what to do
with it.You do NOT know how to use what He knows.Whatever is
revealed to Him that is not of God is gone.Yet you must reveal it to
YOURSELF in perfect willingness, for otherwise His knowledge
remains useless to you. Surely He will not fail to help you, since help
is His ONLY purpose. Do you not have greater reason for fearing the
world as YOU perceive it than for looking at the cause of fear, and
letting it go forever?
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SEEKING AND FINDING
Yet this world is ONLY in the mind of its maker, along with his
REAL salvation. Do not believe it is outside of yourself, for only by
recognizing WHERE it is will you gain control over it. For you DO
have control over your mind, since the mind is the mechanism of
decision. If you will recognize that ALL attack which you perceive is in
your own mind AND NOWHERE ELSE, you will at last have placed
its source, and where it began it must end. For in this same place also
lies salvation.The altar of God where Christ abideth is there.
You have defiled the altar but NOT the world. Yet Christ has
placed the Atonement on the altar FOR you. Bring your perceptions
of the world to this altar, for it is the altar to truth.There you will see
your vision changed, and there you will learn to see truly. From this
place, where God and His Son dwell in peace and where you are
welcome, you will look out in peace and behold the world truly.Yet
to find the place, you must relinquish your investment in the world as
YOU have projected it, allowing the Holy Spirit to project the real
world to you from the altar of God.
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inforcement. The ONLY place where you can cancel out all re-
inforcement is in YOURSELF. For YOU are always the first point of
your attack, and if THIS has never been it HAS no consequences.
The Holy Spirit’s love is your strength, for yours is divided and
therefore not real.You could not trust your own love when you have
ATTACKED it. You cannot learn of perfect love with a split mind
because a split mind has MADE itself a poor learner. You tried to
make the separation eternal because you wanted to retain the
characteristics of creation with your own CONTENT.Yet creation is
NOT of you, and poor learners need special teaching. You have
learning handicaps in a very literal sense.
There are areas in your learning skills which are so impaired that
you can progress only under constant, clear-cut direction, provided
by a Teacher Who can TRANSCEND your limited resources. He
BECOMES your Resource, because of YOURSELF you CANNOT
learn. The learning situation in which you placed yourself IS
impossible, and in this situation you clearly require a special Teacher
and a special curriculum. Poor learners are not good choices for
teachers, either for themselves or for anyone else.You would hardly
turn to THEM to establish the curriculum by which they can
ESCAPE from their limitations. If they understood what is beyond
them they would not BE handicapped.
You do not know the meaning of love, and that IS your handicap.
Do not attempt to teach yourselves what you do not understand, and
do not try to set up curriculum goals where yours have clearly failed.
YOUR learning goal has been NOT to learn, and this CANNOT lead
to successful learning.You cannot transfer what you have not learned,
and the impairment of the ability to generalize is a crucial learning
failure.Would you ask those who have FAILED to learn what learning
aids are FOR? THEY DO NOT KNOW. For if they could interpret the
aids correctly they would have learned from them.
We have said that the ego’s rule is, “Seek and do NOT find.”
Translated into curricular terms, this is the same as saying, “TRY to
learn but do NOT succeed.” The result of this curriculum goal is
obvious. Every legitimate teaching aid, every real instruction, and
every sensible guide to learning WILL BE MISINTERPRETED. For
they are all for learning facilitation, which this strange curriculum
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goal is AGAINST. If you are trying to learn how NOT to learn, and
are using the aim of teaching to DEFEAT itself, what can you expect
BUT confusion? The curriculum does not make SENSE.
This kind of “learning” has so weakened your mind that you
CANNOT love, for the curriculum you have chosen is AGAINST
love, and amounts to a course in HOW TO ATTACK YOURSELF. A
necessary minor, supplementing this major curriculum goal, is
learning how NOT to overcome the split which made this goal
believable. And you can NOT overcome it, for all YOUR learning is
on its BEHALF. Yet your will speaks against your learning as your
learning speaks against your will, and so you fight AGAINST learning
and succeed, for that IS your will. But you do not realize, even yet,
that there IS something you DO will to learn, and that you can learn
it because it IS your will to do so.
You who have tried to learn what you do NOT will should take
heart, for although the curriculum you set yourself is depressing
indeed, it is merely ridiculous, if you look at it. Is it POSSIBLE that
the way to achieve a goal is NOT to attain it? Resign NOW as your
own teachers. THIS resignation will NOT lead to depression. It is
merely the result of an honest appraisal of what you have taught
yourselves, and of the learning outcomes which have resulted. Under
the proper learning conditions, which you can neither provide nor
understand, you will become excellent learners AND teachers. But it
is not so yet, and will not BE so until the whole learning situation, as
YOU have set it up, is reversed.
Your learning POTENTIAL, properly understood, is limitless
because it will lead you to God.You can TEACH the way to Him
AND learn it, if you follow the Teacher Who knows it, and His
curriculum for learning it. The curriculum is totally unambiguous
because the goal is NOT divided, and the means and the end are in
COMPLETE accord. You need offer only UNDIVIDED
ATTENTION. Everything else will be GIVEN you. For it is YOUR
will to learn aright, and nothing can oppose the will of God’s Son.
His learning is as unlimited as HE is.
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your own Soul.The Holy Spirit teaches that you CANNOT lose your
Soul and there IS no gain in the world, for OF ITSELF it profits
nothing.To invest in something without profit is surely to impoverish
yourself, and the overhead is high. Not only is there no profit in the
investment, but the cost to YOU is enormous. For this investment
costs you the world’s reality by denying YOURS, and gives you
nothing in return.You CANNOT sell your Soul, but you CAN sell
your AWARENESS of it.You cannot perceive your Soul, but you will
not KNOW it while you perceive anything ELSE as more valuable.
The Holy Spirit is your strength because He perceives nothing
BUT your Soul as you. He is perfectly aware that you do NOT know
yourselves, and perfectly aware of how to teach you what you are.
BECAUSE He loves you, He will gladly teach you what He loves, for
He wills to share it. Remembering you always, He cannot let you
forget your worth. For the Father never ceases to remind Him of His
Son, and He never ceases to remind His Son of the Father. God is in
your memory BECAUSE of Him. You chose to forget your Father
but you did not WILL to do so, and therefore you can decide
otherwise.As it was MY decision, so is it YOURS.
You do not WANT the world. The only thing of value in it is
whatever part of it you look upon with love. This gives it the only
reality it will ever have. Its value is NOT in itself, but yours IS in you.
As self-value comes from self-EXTENSION, so does the
PERCEPTION of self-value come from the projection of loving
thoughts outward. Make the world real unto YOURSELF, for the real
world is the gift of the Holy Spirit, and so it BELONGS to you.
Correction is for all who cannot see. To open the eyes of the
blind is the Holy Spirit’s mission, for He knows that they have not
lost their vision, but merely sleep. He would awaken them from the
sleep of forgetting to the remembering of God. Christ’s eyes are
open, and He will look upon whatever you see with love if you
accept His vision as yours.
The Holy Spirit keeps the vision of Christ for every Son of God
who sleeps. In His sight the Son of God is perfect, and He longs to
share His vision with you. He will show you the real world because
God gave you Heaven. Through Him your Father calls His Son to
remember.The awakening of His Son begins with his investment in
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And you will see me as you look within, and we will look upon the
world as God created it together.Through the eyes of Christ ONLY
the real world exists and can BE seen. As you decide so will you see.
And all that you see but witnesses to your decision.
When you look within and see me, it will be because you have
decided to manifest truth.And as you manifest it you will see it both
without AND within, for you will see it without BECAUSE you saw
it first within. Everything you behold without is a judgement of
what you beheld within. If it is YOUR judgement it will be wrong,
for judgement is not your function. If it is the judgement of the Holy
Spirit it will be right, for judgement IS His function.You share His
function only by judging as HE does, reserving no judgement at all
unto yourselves. For you will judge AGAINST yourselves, but HE
will judge FOR you.
Remember, then, that whenever you look without and react
unfavorably to what you see, you have judged yourself unworthy and
have condemned yourself to death. The death penalty is the ego’s
ultimate goal, for it fully believes that you are a criminal, as deserving
of death as God knows you are deserving of life. The death penalty
never leaves the ego’s mind, for that is what it always reserves for you
in the end.Wanting to kill you as the final expression of its feeling for
you, it lets you live but to await death. It will torment you while you
live, but its hatred is not satisfied until you die. For your destruction
is the one end toward which it works, and the only end with which
it will be satisfied.
The ego is not a traitor to God to Whom treachery is
impossible, but it IS a traitor to you who believe YOU have been
treacherous to your Father.That is why the UNDOING of guilt is an
essential part of the Holy Spirit’s teaching. For as long as you feel
guilty you are listening to the voice of the ego, which tells you that
you HAVE been treacherous to God and therefore DESERVE death.
You will think that death comes from God and NOT from the ego
because, by confusing yourself WITH the ego, you believe that YOU
want death.And from what you want God does NOT save you.
When you are tempted to yield to the desire for death
REMEMBER THAT I DID NOT DIE.You will realize that this is true
when you look within and SEE me. Would I have overcome death
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for myself alone? And would eternal life have been given me of the
Father UNLESS he had also given it to you? When you learn to make
ME manifest YOU will never see death. For you will have looked
upon the deathless in YOURSELF, and you will see only the eternal
as you look out upon a world that CANNOT die.
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you have not heard is the ONLY answer. God would reunite you
with yourself, and did not abandon you in your seeming distress.You
are waiting only for Him and do not know it.Yet His memory shines
in your minds and cannot BE obliterated. It is no more past than
future, being forever always.
You have but to ask for this memory and you WILL remember.
Yet the memory of God cannot shine in a mind which has MADE it
invisible and wants to KEEP it so. For the memory of God can dawn
only in a mind that wills to remember, and that has relinquished the
insane desire to control reality. You who cannot even control
yourselves should hardly aspire to control the universe. But look
upon what you have made of it, and rejoice that it is not so. Son of
God, be not content with nothing! What is not real cannot BE seen
and HAS no value. God could not offer His Son what has no value,
nor could His Son receive it. You were redeemed the instant you
thought you had deserted Him.
Everything you made has never been, and is invisible because
the Holy Spirit does not see it.Yet what He DOES see is yours to
behold, and through His vision your perception is healed.You have
made the invisible the only truth that this world holds. Valuing
nothing, you have sought nothing and FOUND nothing. By making
nothing REAL to you, you have SEEN it. BUT IT IS NOT THERE.
And Christ is invisible to you because of what you have made visible
to YOURSELVES. Yet it does not matter how much distance you
have tried to interpose between your awareness and truth. God’s Son
CAN be seen because his vision is shared. The Holy Spirit looks
upon him, and sees nothing else in YOU.What is invisible to you is
perfect in His sight, and encompasses ALL of it. He has remembered
you because He forgot not the Father.
You looked upon the unreal and found despair.Yet by seeking
the unreal, what else COULD you find? The unreal world IS a thing
of despair, for it can never be. And you who share God’s Being with
Him could never be content without reality.What God did not give
you has no power over you, and the attraction of love for love remains
irresistible. For it is the function of love to unite all things unto itself,
and to hold all things together by extending its wholeness.
The real world was given you by God in loving exchange for
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the world YOU made and which YOU see. But take it from the hand
of Christ and look upon it. Its reality will make everything else
invisible, for beholding it is TOTAL perception. And as you look
upon it, you will remember that it was always so. Nothingness will
become invisible, for you will at last have seen truly. Redeemed
perception is easily translated into knowledge, for ONLY perception
is capable of error, and perception has never been. Being corrected it
gives place to knowledge, which is forever the ONLY reality. The
Atonement is but the way back to what was never lost.Your Father
could not cease to love His Son.
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you will walk along this carpet, believing that it leads to death. And
the journey will seem long and cruel and senseless, for so it IS.
The journey which the Son of God has set himself is foolish
indeed, but the journey on which his Father sets him is one of release
and joy. The Father is NOT cruel, and His Son CANNOT hurt
himself.The retaliation he fears and which he SEES will never touch
him, for although he believes in it the Holy Spirit KNOWS it is not
true.The Holy Spirit stands at the END of time, where YOU must be
because He is WITH you. He has ALWAYS undone everything
unworthy of the Son of God, for such was His mission, given Him
by God.And what God gives has ALWAYS been.
You will see me as you learn the Son of God is guiltless. He has
always sought his guiltlessness, and he has FOUND it. For everyone is
seeking to escape from the prison he has made, and the way to find
release is not denied him. Being IN him, he HAS found it. WHEN he
finds it is only a matter of time, and time is but an illusion. For the
Son of God is guiltless NOW, and the brightness of his purity shines
untouched forever in God’s Mind. God’s Son will ALWAYS be as he
was created. Deny YOUR world and judge him not, for his eternal
guiltlessness is in the Mind of his Father, and protects him forever.
When you have accepted the Atonement for yourselves, you
will realize that there IS no guilt in God’s Son. And ONLY as you
look upon him as guiltless can you understand his oneness. For the
idea of guilt brings a belief in condemnation of one by another,
projecting separation in place of unity. You can condemn only
YOURSELF, and by so doing you cannot know that you ARE God’s
Son.You have denied the condition of his Being, which is his perfect
blamelessness. Out of Love he was created, and in Love he abides.
Goodness and mercy have always followed him, for he has always
extended the Love of his Father.
As you perceive the holy companions who travel with you, you
will realize that there IS no journey, but only an awakening.The Son
of God, who sleepeth not, has kept faith with his Father FOR you.
There is no road to travel on, and no time to travel through. For God
waits not for His Son in time, being forever unwilling to be without
him. And so it has always been. Let the holiness of God’s Son shine
away the cloud of guilt that darkens your mind, and by accepting his
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CRUCIFIXION BY GUILT
The darkest of your hidden cornerstones holds your belief in guilt
from your awareness. For in that dark and secret place is the
realization that you have betrayed God’s Son by condemning him to
death.You do not even suspect this murderous but insane idea lies
hidden there, for the ego’s destructive urge is so intense that nothing
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short of the crucifixion of God’s Son can ultimately satisfy it. It does
not know who the Son of God is, because it is blind. Yet let it
perceive guiltlessness anywhere, and it will try to destroy it, because it
is afraid.
Much of the ego’s strange behavior is directly attributable to its
definition of guilt.To the ego, THE GUILTLESS ARE GUILTY. Those
who do not attack are its “enemies”, because, by not valuing its
interpretation of salvation, they are in an excellent position TO LET
IT GO.They have approached the darkest and deepest cornerstone in
the ego’s foundation, and while the ego can withstand your raising all
else to question, it guards this one secret with its life, for its existence
DOES depend on keeping this secret. So it is this secret that we must
look upon calmly, for the ego cannot protect you against truth, and
in ITS presence the ego is dispelled.
In the calm light of truth, let us recognize that you believe you
HAVE crucified God’s Son.You have not admitted to this “terrible”
secret because you STILL wish to crucify him if you could FIND
him.Yet the wish has hidden him from you because it is very fearful,
and you are AFRAID to find him.You have handled this wish to kill
YOURSELF by NOT KNOWING who you are, and identifying
with something ELSE. You have projected guilt blindly and
indiscriminately, but you have NOT uncovered its source. For the
ego DOES want to kill you, and if you identify WITH it you must
believe ITS goal is YOURS.
We once said that the crucifixion is the symbol of the ego.
When it was confronted with the REAL guiltlessness of God’s Son it
DID attempt to kill him, and the reason it gave was that guiltlessness
is blasphemous to God.To the ego THE EGO is god, and guiltlessness
MUST be interpreted as the final guilt which fully justifies murder.
You do not yet understand that all your fear of this course stems
ultimately from this interpretation, but if you will consider your
reactions to it, you will become increasingly convinced that this is so.
This course has explicitly stated that its goal for you is happiness
and peace.Yet you are AFRAID of it.You have been told again and
again that it will make you free, yet you react as if it is trying to
imprison you. Most of the time you dismiss it, but you do NOT
dismiss the EGO’S thought system.You have SEEN its results and you
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STILL lack faith in it.You MUST, then, believe that by NOT learning
the course you are PROTECTING yourself. And you do not realize
that it is only your guiltlessness which CAN protect you.
The Atonement has always been interpreted as the release from
guilt, and this is correct if it is understood. Yet even when I have
interpreted it FOR you you have rejected it and have NOT accepted
it for yourself. You have recognized the futility of the ego and its
offerings, but though you do not want the ego you do not look upon
the alternative with gladness. You are AFRAID of redemption, and
you believe it will kill you. Make no mistake about the depth of your
fear. For you believe that, in the presence of truth, you will turn on
yourself and destroy yourself.
Little children, this is not so.Your “guilty secret” is nothing, and if
you will but bring it to the light the Light will dispel it.And then no
dark cloud will remain between you and the remembrance of your
Father, for you will remember His guiltless Son, who did not die
because he is immortal. And you will see that you were redeemed
WITH him, and have never been separated FROM him. In this
understanding lies your remembering, for it is the recognition of love
WITHOUT fear. There will be great joy in Heaven on your home-
coming, and the joy will be YOURS. For the redeemed son of man IS
the guiltless Son of God, and to recognize him IS your redemption.
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would find within yourself something you fear even more.You are
NOT afraid of crucifixion. Your real terror is of REDEMPTION.
Under the ego’s dark foundation is the memory of God, and it is of
THIS that you are really afraid. For this memory would INSTANTLY
restore you to your proper place, and it is this place that you have
sought to LEAVE.
Your fear of attack is nothing compared to your fear of love.You
would be willing to look even upon your savage wish to kill God’s
Son if you did not believe that it SAVES you from love. For this wish
CAUSED the separation.You have protected it because you do not
WANT the separation healed, and you realize that, by REMOVING
the dark cloud that obscures it, your love for your Father would
impel you to answer his call and leap into Heaven.You believe that
attack is salvation to prevent you from THIS. For still deeper than the
ego’s foundation, and much stronger than it will ever be, is your
intense and burning love of God, and His for you.This is what you
REALLY want to hide.
In honesty, is it not harder for you to say “I love” than “I hate”?
You associate love with weakness and hatred with strength, and your
own REAL power seems to you as your real WEAKNESS. For you
could not control your joyous response to the call of love if you
heard it, and the whole world you think you control WOULD
vanish.The Holy Spirit, then, seems to be attacking your fortress, for
you would shut out God, and He does not will to BE excluded.
You have built your whole insane belief system because you
think you would be helpless in God’s Presence, and you would SAVE
yourself from His Love because you think It would crush you into
nothingness.You are afraid It would sweep you away from yourself,
and make you little. For you believe that magnitude lies in defiance,
and that attack is grandeur.You think you have made a world which
God would destroy; and by loving Him, which you DO, you would
throw this world away, which you WOULD.Therefore, you have used
the world to COVER your love, and the deeper you go into the
blackness of the ego’s foundation, the closer you come to the Love
that is hidden there. AND IT IS THIS THAT FRIGHTENS YOU.
You can accept insanity because you made it, but you cannot
accept love because you did NOT.You would rather be slaves of the
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healing power, for by not offering total love you will not be healed
completely. Healing must be as complete as fear, for love cannot
enter where there is one spot of fear to mar its welcome.
You who prefer specialness to sanity could not obtain it in your
right minds.You were at peace until you asked for special favor. And
God did not give it, for the request was alien to Him, and you could
not ask this of a Father Who truly loved His Son. Therefore you
made of Him an unloving father, demanding of Him what only such
a father could give.And the peace of God’s Son was shattered, for he
no longer understood his Father. He feared what he had made, but
still more did he fear his REAL father, having attacked his own
glorious equality with Him.
In peace he needed nothing and asked for nothing. In war he
DEMANDED everything and FOUND nothing. For how could the
gentleness of love respond to his demands EXCEPT by departing in
peace and returning to the Father? If the Son did not wish to remain
in peace, he could not remain at all. For a darkened mind cannot live
in the light, and it must seek a place of darkness where it can believe
it is where it is not. God did not allow this to happen. Yet you
DEMANDED that it happen, and therefore believed that it was so.
To “single out” is to “make alone,” and thus MAKE LONELY.
God did not do this to you. Could He set you apart, KNOWING that
your peace lies in His oneness? He denied you only your request for
pain, for suffering is not of His creation. Having GIVEN you
creation, He could not take it FROM you. He could but answer your
insane request with a sane answer which would abide with you in
your insanity. For His answer is the reference point BEYOND
illusions, from which you can look back on them and SEE them as
insane. But seek THIS place and you WILL find it, for love is in you
and will lead you there.
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Heaven. It would thus destroy you here and bury you here, leaving
you no inheritance except the dust out of which it thinks you were
made. As long as it is reasonably satisfied with you, as its reasoning
goes, it offers you oblivion.When it becomes overtly savage, it offers
you hell.
Yet neither oblivion nor hell is as unacceptable to you as
Heaven. For your definition of Heaven IS hell and oblivion, and the
real Heaven is the greatest threat you think you could experience.
For hell and oblivion are ideas which YOU made up, and you are
bent on demonstrating their reality to establish YOURS. If THEIR
reality is questioned, you believe that YOURS is. For you believe that
ATTACK is your reality, and that your destruction is the final proof
that you were RIGHT.
Under the circumstances, would it not be more DESIRABLE to
have been wrong, even apart from the fact that you WERE wrong?
While it could perhaps be argued that death suggests there WAS life,
no-one would claim that it proves there IS life. Even the past life
which death might indicate could only have been futile if it must
come to this, and NEEDS this to prove that it was. You question
Heaven, but you do not question THIS.You could heal and be healed
if you DID question it. And even though you know not Heaven,
might it not be more desirable than death? You have been as selective
in your questioning as in your perception. An open mind is more
honest than this.
The ego has a very strange notion of time, and it is with this
notion that your questioning might well begin. The ego invests
heavily in the past, and in the end believes that the past is the ONLY
aspect of time that is meaningful.You will remember that we said its
emphasis on guilt enables it to ensure its continuity by making the
future LIKE the past, and thus avoiding the present. By the notion of
PAYING for the past in the future the past becomes the
DETERMINER of the future, making them continuous WITHOUT
an intervening present. For the ego uses the present ONLY as a brief
transition to the future, in which it brings the past TO the future by
interpreting the present in PAST terms.
NOW has no meaning to the ego.The present merely reminds it
of past hurts, and it reacts to the present as if it WERE the past.The
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ego cannot tolerate RELEASE from the past, and although the past is
no more, the ego tries to preserve its image by responding AS IF it
were present.Thus it dictates reactions to those you meet now from
a PAST reference point, obscuring their present reality. In effect, if
you follow the ego’s dictates, you will react to your brothers as
though they were someone ELSE, and this will surely prevent you
from perceiving them as they ARE. And you will receive messages
from them out of your OWN past because, by making it real in the
present, you are forbidding yourself to LET IT GO. You thus deny
yourself the message of release that every brother offers you NOW.
The shadowy figures from the past are precisely what you must
ESCAPE. For they are not real, and have no hold over you unless you
bring them WITH you. They carry the spots of pain in your minds,
directing you to attack in the present in retaliation for a past that is no
more.And this decision is one of FUTURE pain. Unless you learn that
past pain is delusional, you are choosing a future of illusions and losing
the endless opportunities which you could find for release in the
present.The ego would PRESERVE your nightmares, and PREVENT
you from awakening and understanding that they ARE past.
Would you RECOGNIZE a holy encounter if you are merely
perceiving it as a meeting with your own past? For you are meeting
no-one, and the SHARING of salvation, which MAKES the encounter
holy, is excluded from your sight. The Holy Spirit teaches that you
always meet YOURSELF, and the encounter is holy because YOU are.
The ego teaches that you always encounter your past, and because
your dreams WERE not holy the future CANNOT be, and the present
is without meaning. It is evident that the Holy Spirit’s perception of
time is the exact opposite of the ego’s.The reason is equally clear, for
they perceive the goal of time as diametrically opposed.
The Holy Spirit interprets time’s purpose as rendering the need
for it unnecessary. Thus does He regard the function of time as
temporary, serving only his teaching function, which is temporary by
definition. HIS emphasis is therefore on the only aspect of time which
CAN extend to the infinite, for NOW is the closest approximation of
eternity which this world offers. It is in the REALITY of now,
without past OR future, that the beginning of the appreciation of
eternity lies. For only now is HERE, and IT presents the opportunities
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are not whole. For these figures have no witnesses, being perceived in
one separate mind only.
It is THROUGH these strange and shadowy figures that the
insane relate to their insane world. For they see ONLY those who
remind them of these images, and it is to THEM that they relate.
Thus do they communicate with those who are not there, and it is
THEY who answer them. And no-one hears their answer save him
who called upon them, and he alone believes they answered him.
Projection makes perception and you CANNOT see beyond it.Again
and again have men attacked each other because they saw in them a
shadow figure in their OWN private world. And thus it is that you
MUST attack yourself first, for what you attack is NOT in others. Its
only reality is in your OWN mind, and by attacking others you are
literally attacking what is NOT THERE.
The delusional can be very destructive, for they do not recognize
that they have condemned THEMSELVES.They do not wish to die,
yet they will not let condemnation GO. And so they separate into
their private worlds, where everything is disordered, and where what
is within appears to be without.Yet what IS within they do not see,
for the REALITY of their brothers they CANNOT see.
You have but two emotions, yet in your private world you react
to each of them as though it were the OTHER. For love cannot
abide in a world apart, where when it comes it is not recognized. If
you see your own hatred AS your brother, you are not seeing HIM.
Everyone draws nigh unto what he loves, and recoils from what he
fears.And you react with fear to love, and draw away from it.Yet fear
ATTRACTS you, and believing it IS love, you call it to yourself.Your
private world is filled with the figures of fear you have invited into it,
and all the love your brothers offer you YOU DO NOT SEE. As you
look with open eyes upon your world, it MUST occur to you that
you have withdrawn into insanity.
You see what is not there, and you hear what is soundless.Your
behavioral manifestations of emotions are the OPPOSITE of what
the emotions are. You communicate with no-one, and you are as
isolated from reality as if you were alone in all the universe. In your
madness you overlook reality COMPLETELY, and you see only your
OWN split mind everywhere you look. God calls you and you do not
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hear, for you are preoccupied with your own voice.And the vision of
Christ is not in your sight, for you look upon yourself ALONE.
Little children, would you offer THIS to your Father? For if you
offer it to yourself you ARE offering it to Him. And He will NOT
return it, for it is unworthy of you because it is unworthy of Him.Yet
He WOULD release you from it and set you free. His sane answer
tells you that what you have offered yourself is not true, but HIS
offering to you has never changed.You who know not what you do
CAN learn what insanity is, and look beyond it. It is given you to
learn how to DENY insanity, and come forth from your private
world in peace.
You will see all that you denied in your brothers BECAUSE you
denied it in yourself. For you will love them, and by drawing nigh
unto them you will draw them to yourself, perceiving them as
witnesses to your reality which you share with God. I am with
THEM as I am with YOU, and we will draw them from their private
worlds, for as we are united so would we unite with them. The
Father welcomes all of us in gladness, and gladness is what WE
should offer HIM. For every Son of God is given you to whom God
gave HIMSELF. And it is God whom you must offer them, to
recognize His gift to YOU.
Vision depends on light, and you cannot see in darkness.Yet in
the darkness, in the private world of sleep, you SEE in dreams
although your eyes are closed. And it is here that what you see you
MADE. But let the darkness go and all you made you will no longer
see, for sight of it depends upon DENYING vision.Yet from denying
vision it does not follow that you CANNOT see. But this is what
denial DOES, for by it you ACCEPT insanity, believing you can make
a private world and rule your OWN perceptions. Yet for this light
MUST be excluded. Dreams disappear when light has come and you
can SEE.
Do not seek vision through YOUR eyes, for you MADE your
way of seeing that you might see in darkness, and in this you are
deceived. BEYOND this darkness, and yet still WITHIN you, is the
vision of Christ, Who looks on all in light.Your vision comes from
fear, as His from love. And He sees FOR you as your witness to the
real world. He is the Holy Spirit’s manifestation, looking always on
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the real world, and calling forth its witnesses and drawing them unto
YOU. For He loves what He sees within you, and He would
EXTEND it. And He will not return unto the Father until He has
extended your perception even unto Him. And there perception is
no more, for He has returned you to the Father with Him.
You have but two emotions, and one you made and one was
given you. Each is a WAY OF SEEING, and different worlds arise
from their different visions. See through the vision that is given you,
for through Christ’s vision He beholds Himself.And seeing what He
is, He knows His Father. Beyond your darkest dreams He sees God’s
guiltless Son within you, shining in perfect radiance which is
undimmed by your dreams. And this YOU will see as you look with
Him, for His vision is His gift of love to you, given Him of the
Father FOR you.
The Holy Spirit is the light in which Christ stands revealed.And
all who would behold Him can see Him, for they have ASKED for
light. Nor will they see Him ALONE, for He is no more alone than
they are. Because they saw the son they have risen in Him to the
Father. And all this will they understand because they looked within
and saw beyond the darkness the Christ in them, and
RECOGNIZED Him. In the sanity of His vision they looked upon
themselves with love, seeing themselves as the Holy Spirit sees them.
And WITH this vision of the truth in them came all the beauty of
the world to shine upon them.
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looked for it where it is NOT, and therefore have not found it. Learn,
then, to seek it where it IS, and it will dawn on eyes that see.Your past
was made in anger, and if you use it to attack the present you will not
SEE the freedom that the present holds. Judgement and
condemnation are BEHIND you, and unless you bring them WITH
you, you will see that you ARE free of them.
Look lovingly upon the present, for it holds the ONLY things
that are forever true.All healing lies within it because ITS continuity
is real. It extends to all aspects of consciousness AT THE SAME TIME,
and thus enables them to reach EACH OTHER.The present is before
time was, and will be when time is no more. In it is everything that
is eternal, and they are one. Their continuity is timeless and their
communication is unbroken, for they are not separated by the past.
Only the past CAN separate, and IT is nowhere.
The present offers you your brothers in the light that would
unite you with them and free you FROM the past.Would you, then,
hold the past AGAINST them? For if you do, you are choosing to
remain in the darkness that is not there, and refusing to accept the
light that is offered you. For the light of perfect vision is freely given
as it is freely received, and can be accepted only WITHOUT LIMIT.
In this one, still dimension of time, which does not change and
where there is no sight of what you were, you look at Christ and call
His witnesses to shine on you BECAUSE YOU CALLED THEM
FORTH. And THEY will not deny the truth in you because you
looked for it in them and FOUND it there.
Now is the time of salvation, for now is the RELEASE from
time. Reach out to all your brothers, and touch them with the touch
of Christ. In timeless union with them is YOUR continuity,
unbroken because it is wholly shared. God’s guiltless Son is ONLY
light.There is no darkness in him anywhere, for he is whole. Call all
your brothers to witness to his wholeness, as I am calling you to join
with me. Every voice has a part in the song of redemption, the hymn
of gladness and thanksgiving for the light to the Creator of light.The
holy light that shines forth from God’s Son is the witness that his
light is of his Father.
Shine on your brothers in remembrance of your Creator, for
you will remember Him as you call forth the witnesses to His
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creation. Those whom you heal bear witness to YOUR healing, for
in their wholeness you will see your own. And as your hymns of
praise and gladness rise to your Creator, He will return your thanks
in His clear answer to your call. For it can never be that His Son
called upon Him and remained unanswered. His call to you is but
your call to Him.And IN Him you are answered by His peace.
Children of Light, you know not that the light is in you.Yet you
will find it through its witnesses, for having GIVEN light to them
they will RETURN it. Everyone you see in light brings YOUR light
closer to your OWN awareness. Love always leads to love. The sick,
who ask for love, are grateful for it, and in their joy they shine with
holy thanks. And this they offer you who GAVE them joy. They are
your guides to joy, for having received it of you they would keep it.
You have established them as guides to peace, for you have made it
manifest in them.And seeing it, its beauty calls YOU home.
There is a light which this world cannot give.Yet YOU can give
it, as it was given you. And as you give it, it shines forth to call you
from the world and follow it. For this light will attract you as nothing
in this world can do. And you will lay aside the world and find
another.This other world is bright with love which YOU have given
it.And here will everything remind you of your Father and his Holy
Son. Light is unlimited, and spreads across this world in quiet joy. All
those you brought with you will shine on you, and you will shine on
them in gratitude because they brought you here.Your light will join
with theirs in power so compelling that it will draw the others out of
darkness as you look on them.
Awakening unto Christ is following the laws of love of your free
will, and out of quiet recognition of the truth in them.The attraction
of light must draw you willingly, and willingness is signified by
GIVING. Those who accept love of you become your willing
witnesses to the love you gave them, and it is THEY who hold it out
to YOU. In sleep you are alone, and your awareness is narrowed to
yourself. And that is why the nightmares come. You dream of
isolation BECAUSE your eyes are closed. You do not SEE your
brothers, and in the darkness you cannot look upon the light you
gave to them.
And yet the laws of love are not suspended because you sleep.
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And you have followed them through all your nightmares, and have
been faithful in your giving, for you were NOT alone. Even in sleep
has Christ protected you, ensuring the real world for you when you
wake. In YOUR name He has given FOR you, and given YOU the
gifts He gave. God’s Son is still as loving as his Father. Continuous
WITH his Father, he has no past apart from Him. So he has never
ceased to be his Father’s witness AND HIS OWN. Although he slept,
Christ’s vision did not leave him. And so it is that he can call unto
himself the witnesses that teach him that he never slept.
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to you. Love always answers, being unable to deny a call for help, or
not to hear the cries of pain that rise to it from every part of this
strange world you made but do not want.The only effort you need
make to give this world away in glad exchange for what you did not
make is willingness to learn THE ONE YOU MADE IS FALSE.
You HAVE been wrong about the world because you have
misjudged YOURSELF. From such a twisted reference point what
COULD you see? All vision starts WITH THE PERCEIVER, who
judges what is true and what is false. And what he judges false HE
DOES NOT SEE.You who would judge reality CANNOT see it, for
whenever judgement enters reality has slipped away.The out of mind
is out of sight because what is denied is there, but is not
RECOGNIZED. Christ is still there, although you know Him not.
His Being does not depend upon your recognition. He lives within
you in the quiet present, and waits for you to leave the past behind
and enter into the world He holds out to you in love.
No-one in this distracted world but has seen some glimpses of
the other world about him.Yet while he still lays value on his own, he
will DENY the vision of the other world, maintaining that he loves
what he loves not, and following not the road that love points out.
Love leads so gladly! And as you follow Him, you will rejoice that
you have found His company, and learned of Him the joyful journey
home.You wait but for YOURSELF.To give this sad world over and
exchange your errors for the peace of God is but YOUR will. And
Christ will ALWAYS offer you the Will of God, in recognition that
you share it with Him.
It is God’s Will that nothing touch His Son except Himself, and
nothing else comes nigh unto him. He is as safe from pain as God
Himself,Who watches over him in everything.The world about him
shines with love because God placed him in Himself where pain is
not, and love surrounds him without end or flaw. Disturbance of his
peace can never be. In perfect sanity he looks on love, for it is all
about him and within him. He MUST deny the world of pain the
instant he perceives the arms of love around him.And from this point
of safety he looks quietly about him, and recognizes that the world is
one with him.
The peace of God passeth your understanding ONLY in the
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past.Yet here it IS, and you can understand it NOW. God loves His
Son forever, and His Son RETURNS his Father’s Love forever. The
real world is the way that leads you to remembrance of this one thing
that is wholly true and wholly YOURS. For all else you have lent
yourself in time, and it will fade. But this one thing is ALWAYS yours,
being the gift of God unto His Son.Your ONE reality was given you,
and by it God created you as one with Him.
You will first dream of peace, and then awaken to it.Your first
exchange of what you made for what you want is the exchange of
nightmares for the happy dreams of love. In these lie your true
perceptions, for the Holy Spirit corrects the world of dreams where
ALL perception is. Knowledge needs no correction.Yet the dreams of
love lead UNTO knowledge. In them you see nothing fearful, and
because of this they are the welcome that you OFFER knowledge.
Love waits on welcome, NOT on time, and the real world is but your
welcome of what always was. Therefore the call of joy is in it, and
your glad response is your awakening to what you have not lost.
Praise, then, the Father for the perfect sanity of His most holy Son.
Your Father knoweth that you have need of nothing. In Heaven
this is so, for what could you need in eternity? In YOUR world you
DO need things because it is a world of scarcity in which you find
yourself BECAUSE you are lacking. Yet CAN you find yourself in
such a world? Without the Holy Spirit the answer would be no.Yet
because of Him the answer is a joyous YES! As Mediator between the
two worlds, He knows what you have need of and what will not hurt
you. Ownership is a dangerous concept if it is left to you. The ego
wants to HAVE things for salvation, for possession is its law.
Possession for its OWN sake is the ego’s fundamental creed, a basic
cornerstone in the churches that it builds unto itself.And at ITS altar
it demands you lay ALL of the things it bids you get, leaving you no
joy in them.
Everything that the ego tells you that you need will hurt you.
For although the ego urges you again and again to GET, it leaves you
nothing, for what you get it will DEMAND of you. And even from
the very hands that grasped it, it will be wrenched and hurled into
the dust. For where the ego sees salvation it sees SEPARATION, and
so you lose whatever you have gotten in its name.Therefore ask not
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of yourselves what you need, for YOU DO NOT KNOW, and your
advice unto yourself WILL hurt you. For what you think you need
will merely serve to tighten up your world AGAINST the light, and
render you unwilling to question the value that this world can really
hold for you.
Only the Holy Spirit KNOWS what you need. For He will give
you all things that do not block the way to light. And what else
COULD you need? In time, He gives you all the things that you need
have, and will renew them as long as you have need of them. He will
take nothing from you as long as you have ANY need of it. And yet
He knows that everything you need is temporary, and will but last
until you step aside from ALL your needs, and learn that all of them
HAVE BEEN fulfilled.Therefore He has no investment in the things
that He supplies except to make certain that you will not use them on
behalf of lingering in time. He knows that you are not at home there,
and He wills no delay to wait upon your joyous home-coming.
Leave, then, your needs to Him. He will supply them with no
emphasis at all upon them.What comes to you of Him comes safely,
for He will ensure it never can become a dark spot, hidden in your
mind, and kept to hurt you. Under His guidance you will travel light
and journey lightly, for His sight is ever on the journey’s end, which
is His goal. God’s Son is not a traveller through OUTER worlds.
However holy his perception may become, no world outside himself
holds his inheritance. Within himself he HAS no needs, for light
needs nothing but to shine in peace, and from itself to let the rays
extend in quiet to infinity.
Whenever you are tempted to undertake a foolish journey that
would lead AWAY from light, remember what you really want, and say,
“The Holy Spirit leads me unto Christ,
and where else would I go?
What need have I but to awake in Him?”
Then follow Him in joy, with faith that He will lead you safely
through all dangers to your peace of mind that this world sets before
you. Kneel not before the altars to sacrifice, and seek not what you
will surely lose. Content yourselves with what you will as surely
KEEP, and be not restless, for you undertake a quiet journey to the
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From Perception to
Knowledge
All therapy is release from the past. That is why the Holy Spirit is
the only therapist. He teaches that the past does not exist, a fact
which belongs to the sphere of knowledge, and which therefore no-
one in the world knows. It would indeed be impossible to BE in the
world with this knowledge. For the mind that knows this
unequivocally knows also that it dwells in eternity, and utilizes no
perception at all. It therefore does not consider where it is, because
the concept “where” does not mean anything to it. It knows that it is
EVERYWHERE, just as it HAS EVERYTHING, and FOREVER.
The very real difference between perception and knowledge
becomes quite apparent if you consider this:There is nothing partial
about knowledge. Every aspect is whole, and therefore no aspect is
separate. YOU are an aspect of knowledge, being in the Mind of
God,Who KNOWS you. All knowledge must be yours, for in you IS
all knowledge. Perception, at its loftiest, is never complete. Even the
perception of the Holy Spirit, as perfect as perception can be, is
without meaning in Heaven. Perception can reach everywhere under
His guidance, for the vision of Christ beholds everything in light.Yet
no perception, however holy, will last forever.
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ever was is God’s most holy Son, created in the One Reality that is
his Father. Christ’s vision is His gift to you. His Being is His Father’s
gift to Him.
Be you content with healing, for Christ’s gift you CAN bestow,
and your Father’s gift you CANNOT lose. Offer Christ’s gift to
everyone and everywhere, for miracles, offered the Son of God
through the Holy Spirit, attune you to reality.The Holy Spirit knows
your part in the redemption, and who are seeking you and where to
find them. Knowledge is far beyond your individual concern. You
who are part of it and all of it need only realize that it is of the
Father, NOT of you.Your role in the redemption leads you to it by
re-establishing its oneness in your minds.
When you have seen your brothers as yourself you will be
RELEASED to knowledge, having learned to free yourself of Him
Who knows of freedom. Unite with me under the holy banner of
His teaching, and as we grow in strength the power of God’s Son will
move in us, and we will leave no-one untouched and no-one left
alone. And suddenly time will be over, and we will all unite in the
eternity of God the Father.The holy light you saw outside yourself,
in every miracle you offered to your brothers, will be RETURNED
to you. And KNOWING that the light is IN you, your creations will
be there with you, as you are in your Father.
As miracles in this world join you to your brothers, so do your
creations establish your fatherhood in Heaven. YOU are the
witnesses to the Fatherhood of God, and He has given you the
power to create the witnesses to your fatherhood in Heaven. The
miracle which God created is perfect, as are the miracles which YOU
created in His Name.They need no healing, nor do you, when you
know THEM.
Yet in this world your perfection is unwitnessed. God knows it
but YOU do not, and so you do not share His witness to it. Nor do
you witness unto Him, for reality is witnessed to as one. God waits
your witness to His Son and to Himself. The miracles you do on
earth are lifted up to Heaven and to Him.They witness to what you
do not know, and as they reach the gates of Heaven God will open
them. For never would He leave His own beloved Son outside them
and beyond Himself.
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and by so doing you have denied the witness unto YOURS. You
could as easily have FREED him from the past, and lifted from his
mind the cloud of guilt that binds him to it. And in HIS freedom
would have been your OWN.
Lay not his guilt upon him, for his guilt lies in his secret that he
thinks that he has done this unto YOU.Would you, then, teach him
that he is RIGHT in his delusion? The idea that the guiltless Son of
God can attack himself and MAKE himself guilty is insane. In ANY
form, in ANYONE, BELIEVE THIS NOT. For sin and condemnation
are the same, and the belief in one is faith in the other, calling for
punishment INSTEAD of love. NOTHING can justify insanity, and to
call for punishment upon yourself MUST be insane.
See no-one, then, as guilty, and you will affirm the truth of
guiltlessness unto YOURSELF. In every condemnation that you offer
the Son of God lies the conviction of your OWN guilt. If you would
have the Holy Spirit make you free of it, accept His offer of
Atonement for all your brothers. For so you learn that it is true for
YOU. Remember always that it is impossible to condemn the Son of
God IN PART.Those whom you see as guilty become the witnesses
to guilt in YOU, and you will SEE it there, for it IS there until it is
undone. Guilt is ALWAYS in your own mind, which has condemned
ITSELF. Project it not, for while you do it cannot BE undone.With
everyone whom you release from guilt great is the joy in Heaven,
where the witnesses to your fatherhood rejoice.
Guilt makes you blind, for while you see one spot of guilt
within you, you will NOT see the light. And by projecting it the
WORLD seems dark, and shrouded in your guilt.You throw a dark
veil over it, and cannot see it BECAUSE YOU CANNOT LOOK
WITHIN.You are afraid of what you would see there, but it is NOT
there. THE THING YOU FEAR IS GONE. If you would look within
you would see only the Atonement, shining in quiet and in peace
upon the altar to your Father.
Do not be afraid to look within. The ego tells you all is black
with guilt within you, and bids you NOT to look. Instead, it bids you
look upon your brothers AND SEE THE GUILT IN THEM.Yet this
you cannot do without remaining blind. For those who see their
brothers in the dark, and guilty in the dark in which they shroud
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them, are too afraid to look upon the light within.Within you is not
what YOU believe is there, and what you put your faith in.
Within you is the holy sign of perfect faith your Father has in
you. He does not value you as you do. He knows Himself, and knows
the truth in YOU. He knows THERE IS NO DIFFERENCE, for He
knows not of differences. Can YOU see guilt where God KNOWS
there is perfect innocence? You can DENY His knowledge, but you
cannot CHANGE it. Look, then, upon the light He placed within
you, and learn that what you feared was there HAS BEEN replaced
with love.
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you single out PART of the Sonship for your love, you are imposing
guilt on ALL your relationships, and making them unreal. You can
love ONLY as God loves. Seek not to love unlike Him, for there IS
no love apart from His. Until you recognize that this is true you will
have no idea what love is like. No-one who condemns a brother can
see himself as guiltless in the peace of God. If he IS guiltless and in
peace and sees it not, he IS delusional, and has not looked upon
himself.To him I say,
“Behold the Son of God and look upon his purity and
be still. In quiet look upon his holiness, and offer
thanks unto his Father that no guilt has ever touched him.”
No illusion that you have ever held against him has touched his
innocence in any way. His shining purity, wholly untouched by guilt
and wholly loving, is bright within you. Let us look upon him
together and love him. For in our love of him is your guiltlessness.
But look upon yourself, and gladness and appreciation for what you
see will banish guilt forever. I thank You, Father, for the purity of
Your most holy Son, whom You have created guiltless forever.
Like you my faith and my belief are centered on what I treasure.
The difference is that I love ONLY what God loves with me, and
because of this, I treasure you beyond the value that you set on
yourselves, even unto the worth that God has placed upon you. I love
all that He created, and all my faith and my belief I offer unto it. My
faith in you is strong as all the love I give my Father. My trust in you
is without limit, and without the fear that you will hear me not. I
thank the Father for your loveliness, and for the many gifts that you
will let me offer to the Kingdom in honor of its wholeness which is
of God.
Praise be unto you who make the Father One with His Own
Son.Alone we are all lowly, but together we shine with brightness so
intense that none of us alone can even think on it. Before the
glorious radiance of the Kingdom guilt melts away, and transformed
into kindness, will never more be what it was. Every reaction that
you experience will be so purified that it is fitting as a hymn of praise
unto your Father. See only praise of Him in what He has created, for
He will never cease His praise of YOU. United in this praise we stand
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THE GUARANTEE OF HEAVEN
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THE TESTIMONY OF MIRACLES
give and are EVERYTHING, and all this has been DENIED, your
thought system is closed off, and wholly separated from the truth.
This IS an insane world, and do not underestimate the actual extent
of its insanity. There is no area of your perception that it has not
touched, and your dream IS sacred to you. That is why God placed
the Holy Spirit IN you, where you placed the dream.
Seeing is always OUTWARD. Were your thoughts wholly of
YOU, the thought system which you made would be forever dark.
The thoughts which the mind of God’s Son projects have all the
power that he gives to them. The thoughts he shares with God are
BEYOND his belief, but those he made ARE his beliefs. And it is
THESE, and NOT the truth, that he has chosen to defend and love.
They will not be taken from him. But they can be GIVEN UP by
him, for the Source of their undoing is IN him.There is nothing IN
the world to teach him that the logic of the world is totally insane,
and leads to nothing.Yet in him who made this insane logic there is
One Who KNOWS it leads to nothing, for He knows everything.
Any direction which will lead you where the Holy Spirit leads
you not goes nowhere. Anything you deny which He knows to be
true you have denied YOURSELF, and He must therefore teach you
NOT to deny it. Undoing IS indirect, as doing is.You were created
only to CREATE, neither to see NOR do. These are but indirect
expressions of the will to live, which has been blocked by the
capricious and unholy whim of death and murder that your Father
shared not with you.You have set yourselves the task of sharing what
can not BE shared. And while you think it possible to LEARN to do
this, you will not believe all that IS possible to learn to do.
The Holy Spirit, therefore, must begin His teaching by showing
you what you can NEVER learn. His MESSAGE is not indirect, but
He must introduce the simple truth into a thought system which has
become so twisted and so complex that you cannot SEE that it means
nothing. HE merely looks at its foundation and dismisses it. But YOU
who cannot undo what you have made cannot see THROUGH it. It
deceives you because you chose to deceive yourselves. Those who
choose to BE deceived will merely attack direct approaches, which
would seem but to encroach upon deception and strike at it.
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THE HAPPY LEARNER
“The truth is true. Nothing else matters, nothing else is real, and
everything beside it is not there. Let Me make the one distinction
for you which you cannot make but need to LEARN.Your faith in
nothing IS deceiving you. Offer your faith to Me, and I will place
it gently in the holy place where it belongs.You will find NO
deception there, but only the simple truth.And you will love it
because you will UNDERSTAND it.”
Like you, the Holy Spirit did not MAKE truth. Like God, He
KNOWS it to be true. He brings the light of truth into the darkness,
and LETS it shine on you. And as it shines, your brothers see it, and
realizing that this light is not what you have made, they see in you
more than YOU see.They will be happy learners of the lesson which
this light brings to them because it teaches them RELEASE from
nothing and from all the works of nothing.The heavy chains which
seem to bind them unto despair they do not see as nothing until you
bring the light to them. And THEN they see the chains have
disappeared, and so they MUST have been nothing. And YOU will
see it with them. BECAUSE you taught them gladness and release,
they will become YOUR teachers in release and gladness.
When you teach anyone that truth is true, you learn it WITH
him. And so you learn that what seemed hardest was the easiest.
Learn to be happy learners. You will NEVER learn how to make
nothing everything. Yet see that this HAS been your goal, and
RECOGNIZE how foolish it has been. Be glad it is undone, for when
you look at it in simple honesty, it IS undone.We said before,“Be not
content with nothing,” for you HAVE believed that nothing could
content you. IT IS NOT SO.
If you would be a happy learner, you must give EVERYTHING
that you have learned over to the Holy Spirit to be UNLEARNED
for you. And then begin to learn the joyous lessons that come
quickly on the firm foundation that truth is true. For what is builded
there IS true, and BUILT on truth.The universe of learning will open
up before you in all its gracious simplicity.With truth before you, you
will not look back.
The happy learner meets the conditions of learning here, as he
also meets the conditions of knowledge in the Kingdom.All this lies
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in the Holy Spirit’s plan to free you from the past, and open up the
way to freedom for you. For truth IS true.What else could ever be, or
ever was? This simple lesson holds the key to the dark door which
you believe is locked forever.You MADE this door of nothing, and
behind it IS nothing.The key is only the light which shines away the
shapes and forms and fears of nothing. Accept this key to freedom
from the hands of Christ Who gives it to you, that you may join Him
in the holy task of bringing light to darkness. For, like your brothers,
you do not realize the light has come, and FREED you from the sleep
of darkness.
Behold your brothers in their freedom, and learn of them how
to be FREE of darkness.The light in you will waken them, and they
will not leave YOU asleep. The vision of Christ is given the very
instant that it is perceived.Where everything is clear it is all holy.The
quietness of its simplicity is so compelling that you will realize it is
IMPOSSIBLE to deny the simple truth. For there IS nothing else.
God is everywhere, and His Son is in Him with everything. Can he
sing the dirge of sorrow when THIS is true?
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THE DECISION FOR GUILTLESSNESS
believe they are guilty WILL respond to guilt, because they think it is
salvation, and will not refuse to see it and side with it. And they will
fail to understand the simple fact that what they do not want MUST
hurt them.
All this arises because they do not believe that what they want is
GOOD.Yet will was given them BECAUSE it is holy, and will bring
to them ALL that they need, coming as naturally as peace that knows
no limits. There is nothing their wills will not provide that offers
them ANYTHING of value.Yet because they do not understand their
will, the Holy Spirit quietly understands it FOR them, and GIVES
them what they will without effort, strain, or the impossible burden
of deciding what they want and need alone.
It will never happen that you will have to make decisions for
yourself. You are not bereft of help, and Help that KNOWS the
answer.Would you be content with little, which is all that you alone
can offer yourself, when He Who gives you everything will simply
OFFER it to you? He will never ask what you have done to make
you worthy of the gift of God. Ask it not therefore of yourselves.
Instead, accept His answer, for He KNOWS that you are worthy of
everything God wills for you. Do not try to escape the gift of God
which He so freely and so gladly offers you. He offers you but what
God gave Him FOR you.You need not decide whether or not you
are deserving of it. God knows you ARE.
Would you deny the truth of God’s decision, and place your
pitiful appraisal of yourself in place of His calm and unswerving value
of His Son? NOTHING can shake God’s conviction of the perfect
purity of everything that He created, for it IS wholly pure. Do not
decide against it, for being of Him it MUST be true. Peace abides in
every mind that quietly accepts the plan which God has set for his
Atonement, relinquishing his OWN.You know not of salvation, for
you do not understand it. Make no decisions about what it is or
where it lies, but ask of the Holy Spirit everything, and leave ALL
decisions to His gentle counsel.
The One Who knows the plan of God which God would have
you follow can teach you what it IS. Only HIS wisdom is capable of
guiding you to follow it. Every decision you undertake alone but
signifies that you would define what salvation IS, and what you
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been removed from the disordered mind that thought it WAS. This
state, and only this, must YOU attain with God beside you. For until
you do, you will still think that you are separate from Him.You can
feel His Presence next to you, but CANNOT know that you are one
with Him. This need not be taught. Learning applies only to the
condition in which it happens OF ITSELF.
When you have let all that obscured the truth in your most holy
mind be undone for you and stand in grace before your Father, He
will give Himself to you as He has always done. Giving Himself is all
He knows, and so it is all knowledge. For what He knows not cannot
be, and therefore cannot be given.Ask not to be forgiven, for this has
already been accomplished. Ask, rather, to learn how to FORGIVE,
and restore what always was to your unforgiving mind. Atonement
becomes real and visible to them that USE it. On earth this is your
only function, and you must learn that it is all you WANT to learn.
You WILL feel guilty till you learn this. For, in the end, whatever
form it takes, your guilt arises from your failure to fulfill your
function in God’s Mind with all of YOURS. Can you escape this
guilt by failing to fulfill your function here? You need not understand
creation to do what must be done before that knowledge would be
meaningful to you. God breaks no barriers; neither did He MAKE
them.When YOU release them they are gone. God will not fail, nor
ever has in anything.
Decide that God is right and YOU are wrong about yourself.
He created you out of Himself, but still within Him. He KNOWS
what you are. Remember that there is no second to Him. There
cannot, therefore, be anyone without His Holiness, nor anyone
unworthy of His perfect Love. Fail not in your function of loving in
a loveless place made out of darkness and deceit, for thus are darkness
and deceit undone. Fail not YOURSELF, but instead, offer to God
AND YOU His blameless Son. For this small gift of appreciation for
His Love, God will Himself exchange your gift for His.
Before you make ANY decisions for yourself, remember that
you have decided AGAINST your function in Heaven, and consider
carefully whether you WANT to make decisions here.Your function
here is only to decide AGAINST deciding what you want, in
recognition that you do not KNOW. How, then, can you decide what
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you should do? Leave all decisions to the One Who speaks for God,
and for your function as He KNOWS it. So will He teach you to
remove the awful burden you have laid upon yourself by loving not
the Son of God, and trying to teach him guilt instead of love. Give
up this frantic and insane attempt, which cheats you of the joy of
living with your God and Father, and awaking gladly to His Love and
Holiness which join together as the truth in you, making you One
with Him.
When you have learned how to decide WITH God, all decisions
become as easy and as right as breathing.There is no effort, and you
will be led as gently as if you were being carried along a quiet path
in summer. Only your own volition seems to make deciding hard.
The Holy Spirit will not delay at all in answering your EVERY
question what to do. He KNOWS. And He will TELL you and then
do it FOR you.You who are tired might consider whether this is not
more restful than sleep. For you can bring your guilt into sleeping,
but not into this.
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Unless you are guiltless you cannot know God, Whose Will is that
you know Him.Therefore, you MUST be guiltless.Yet if you do not
accept the necessary conditions for knowing Him you have denied
Him, and do not recognize Him, though He is all around you. He
cannot be known without His Son, whose guiltlessness is the
condition for knowing Him.Accepting His Son as guilty is denial of
the Father so complete that knowledge is swept away from
recognition in the very mind where God Himself has placed it. If
you would but listen, and learn how impossible this is! Do not
endow Him with attributes You understand.You made Him not and
anything you understand is not of Him.
Your task is not to make reality. It is here without your making,
but not without YOU.You who have thrown your selves away and
valued God so little, hear me speak for Him and for yourselves.You
cannot understand how much your Father loves you, for there is no
parallel in your experience of the world to help you understand it.
There is nothing on earth with which it can compare, and nothing
you have ever felt, apart from Him, that resembles it ever so faintly.
You cannot even give a blessing in perfect gentleness. Would you
know of One Who gives forever, and Who knows of nothing
EXCEPT giving?
The Children of Heaven live in the light of the blessing of their
Father, because they KNOW that they are sinless.The Atonement was
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The burden of guilt is heavy, but God would not have you bound by
it. His plan for your awaking is as perfect as yours is fallible.You know
not what you do, but He Who knows is with you. His gentleness is
yours, and all the love you share with God He holds in trust for you.
He would teach you nothing except how to be happy.
Blessed Son of a wholly blessing Father, joy was created for
YOU.Who can condemn whom God has blessed? There is nothing
in the Mind of God that does not share his shining innocence.
Creation is the natural extension of perfect purity.Your only calling
here is to devote yourself, with active willingness, to the denial of
guilt in ALL its forms. To accuse is NOT TO UNDERSTAND. The
happy learners of the Atonement become the teachers of the
innocence that is the right of all that God created. Deny them not
what is their due, for you will not withhold it from them alone.
The inheritance of the Kingdom is the right of God’s Son,
given him in his creation. Do not try to steal it from him, or you will
ASK for guilt and WILL experience it. Protect his purity from every
thought that would steal it away and keep it from his sight. Bring
innocence to light, in answer to the call of the Atonement. Never
allow purity to remain hidden, but shine away the heavy veils of guilt
within which the Son of God has hidden himself from his own sight.
We are all joined in the Atonement here, and nothing else can unite
us in this world. So will the world of separation slip away, and full
communication be restored between the Father and the Son.
The miracle acknowledges the guiltlessness which MUST have
been denied to produce NEED of healing. Do not withhold this glad
acknowledgment, for hope of happiness and release from suffering of
every kind lie in it. Who is there but wishes to be free of pain? He
may not yet have learned HOW to exchange his guilt for innocence,
nor realize that only in this exchange can freedom from pain be his.
Yet those who have failed to learn need TEACHING, NOT attack.To
attack those who have need of teaching is to fail to learn from them.
Teachers of innocence, each in his own way, have joined
together, taking their part in the unified curriculum of the
Atonement.There is no unity of learning goals apart from this.There
is no conflict in this curriculum, which has ONE aim however it is
taught. Each effort made on its behalf is offered for the single
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purpose of RELEASE from guilt, to the eternal glory of God and His
creation. And every teaching that points to this points straight to
Heaven, and to the peace of God.There is no pain, no trial, no fear
that teaching this can fail to overcome. The power of God Himself
supports this teaching, and GUARANTEES its limitless results.
Join your own efforts to the power that CANNOT fail and
MUST result in peace. No-one can be untouched by teaching such
as this. You will not see yourself beyond the power of God if you
teach only this.You will not be exempt from the effects of this most
holy lesson, which seeks but to restore what is the right of God’s
creation. From everyone whom you accord release from guilt you
will inevitably learn YOUR innocence. The circle of Atonement
HAS no end. And you will find ever-increasing confidence in your
safe inclusion in what is for all in everyone you bring within its safety
and its perfect peace.
Peace, then, be unto everyone who becomes a teacher of peace.
For peace is the acknowledgment of perfect purity from which no-
one is excluded. Within its holy circle is everyone whom God
created as His Son. Joy is its unifying attribute, with no-one left
outside to suffer guilt alone.The power of God draws everyone to its
safe embrace of love and union. Stand quietly within this circle, and
attract all tortured minds to join with you in the safety of its peace
and holiness. Abide with me within it, as teachers of Atonement,
NOT of guilt.
Blessed are you who teach with me. Our power comes not of
us, but of our Father. In guiltlessness we know Him, as He knows us
guiltless. I stand within the circle, calling you to peace.Teach peace
with me, and stand with me on holy ground. Remember for
everyone your Father’s power that He has given him. Believe not
that you cannot teach His perfect peace. Stand not outside, but join
with me within. Fail not the only purpose to which my teaching
calls you. Restore to God His Son as He created him by teaching
him his innocence.
The crucifixion has no part in the Atonement. Only the
resurrection became my part in it. That is the symbol of the release
from guilt by guiltlessness.Whom you perceive as guilty you would
crucify. Yet you RESTORE guiltlessness to whomever you see as
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OUT OF THE DARKNESS
the light of love will not dispel, unless it is concealed from love’s
beneficence.What is kept APART from love cannot share its healing
power because it has been separated off and kept in darkness. The
sentinels of darkness watch over it carefully, and you who made these
guardians of illusion out of nothing are now afraid of them.
Would you CONTINUE to give imagined power to these
strange ideas of safety? They are neither safe nor unsafe.They do not
protect; neither do they attack. They do nothing at all, BEING
nothing at all.As guardians of darkness and of ignorance, look to them
only for fear, for what they keep obscure IS fearful. But let them go,
and what was fearful will be so no longer. Without protection of
obscurity ONLY the light of love remains, for only this HAS meaning
and CAN live in light. Everything else MUST disappear.
Death yields to life simply because destruction is not TRUE.
The light of guiltlessness shines guilt away because, when they are
brought TOGETHER, the truth of one MUST make the falsity of its
opposite perfectly clear. Keep not guilt and guiltlessness apart, for
your belief that you can have them BOTH is meaningless. All you
have done by keeping them apart is lose their meaning by confusing
them with each other.And so you do not realize that only one means
anything, and the other is wholly without sense of ANY kind.
You have interpreted the separation as a means which you have
made for breaking your communication with your Father.The Holy
Spirit re-interprets it as a means of re-establishing what has not been
broken but HAS been made obscure.All things you made have use to
Him, for His most holy purpose. He KNOWS you are not separate
from God, but He perceives much in your mind that lets you THINK
you are. All this, and nothing else, would He separate from you.The
power of decision, which you made IN PLACE of the power of
creation, He would teach you how to use on your BEHALF.You who
made it to crucify yourselves must learn of Him how to apply it to
the holy cause of restoration.
You who speak in dark and devious symbols do not understand
the language you have made. It HAS no meaning, for its purpose is not
communication, but rather, the DISRUPTION of communication. If
the purpose of language IS communication, how can this tongue mean
anything? Yet even this strange and twisted effort to communicate
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PERCEPTION WITHOUT DECEIT
The search for truth is but the honest searching out of everything
that interferes with truth.Truth IS. It can be neither lost nor sought
nor found. It is there, wherever YOU are, being WITHIN you.Yet it
CAN be recognized or unrecognized, real or false to YOU. If you
hide it, it becomes unreal to you BECAUSE you hid it and
surrounded it with fear. Under each cornerstone of fear on which
you have erected your insane system of belief the truth lies hidden.
Yet you cannot know this, for by hiding truth in fear you see no
reason to believe the MORE you look at fear the LESS you see it, and
the clearer what it CONCEALS becomes.
It is not possible to convince the unknowing that they know.
From their point of view, it is not true.Yet it IS true because GOD
knows it. These are clearly opposite viewpoints of what the
“unknowing” are. To God unknowing is impossible. It is therefore
not a point of view at all, but merely a belief in something that does
not exist. It is only this belief that the unknowing have, and by it they
are wrong about themselves.They have DEFINED themselves as they
were not created.Their creation was not a point of view, but rather a
certainty. Uncertainty brought to certainty does not retain ANY
conviction of reality.
You must have noticed that the emphasis has been on bringing
what is undesirable TO the desirable; what you do NOT want to
what you DO.You will realize that salvation must come to you this
way if you consider what dissociation is. Dissociation is a distorted
process of thinking whereby two systems of belief which cannot
coexist are both MAINTAINED. It has BEEN recognized that, if they
were brought TOGETHER, their joint acceptance would become
impossible. But if one is kept in darkness from the other, their
SEPARATION seems to keep them both alive, and equal in their
reality. Their joining thus becomes the source of fear, for if they
meet, acceptance MUST be withdrawn from one of them.
You CANNOT have them both, for each denies the other.
Apart, this fact is lost from sight, for each in a SEPARATE place can
be endowed with firm belief. Bring them TOGETHER, and the fact
of their complete incompatibility is instantly apparent. One will go
BECAUSE the other is seen in the same place. Light cannot enter
darkness when a mind believes in darkness, and will not LET it go.
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Truth does not struggle against ignorance, and love does not attack
fear. What needs no protection does not defend itself. Defense is of
YOUR making. God knows it not.The Holy Spirit uses defenses on
BEHALF of truth only because you made them AGAINST it. His
perception of them, according to His purpose, merely changes them
into a call FOR what you have ATTACKED with them.
Defenses, like everything you made, must be gently turned to
your own good, translated by the Holy Spirit from means of self-
destruction to means of preservation and release. His task is mighty,
but the power of God is with Him. Therefore, to Him, it is so easy
that it was accomplished the instant it was given Him for you. Do
not delay yourselves in your return to peace by wondering how He
can fulfill what God has given Him to do. Leave that to Him Who
knows.You are not asked to do mighty tasks yourself.You are merely
asked to do the little He suggests you do, trusting Him only to the
small extent of believing that, if He asks it, you CAN do it.You will
SEE how easily all that He asks can be accomplished.
The Holy Spirit asks of you but this; bring to Him every secret
you have locked away from Him. Open every door to Him, and bid
Him enter the darkness and lighten it away. At your request He
enters gladly. He brings the light to darkness if you make the
darkness OPEN to Him. But what you hide He cannot look upon.
For He sees for YOU, and unless you look WITH Him He cannot
see. The vision of Christ is not for Him alone, but for Him with
YOU. Bring, therefore, all your dark and secret thoughts to Him, and
look upon them WITH Him. He holds the light, and you the
darkness. They CANNOT coexist when both of you together look
on them. His judgement MUST prevail, and He will GIVE it to you
as you join your perception to His. Joining with Him in seeing is the
way in which you learn to share with Him the interpretation of
perception that leads to knowledge.
You cannot see alone. Sharing perception with Him Whom
God has given you teaches you how to RECOGNIZE what you see.
It is the recognition that nothing you see means ANYTHING alone.
Seeing with Him will show you that all meaning, including YOURS,
comes not from double vision, but from the gentle fusing of
everything into ONE meaning, ONE emotion and ONE purpose.
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God has One Purpose which He shares with you.The single vision
which the Holy Spirit offers you will bring this Oneness to your
mind with clarity and brightness so intense you could not wish, for
all the world, not to accept what God would have you have. Behold
your will, accepting it as His, with all His Love as yours.All honor to
you through Him, and through Him unto God.
In the darkness you have obscured the glory God gave you, and
the power He bestowed upon His guiltless Son.All this lies hidden in
every darkened place shrouded in guilt, and in the dark denial of
innocence. Behind the dark doors which you have closed lies
nothing, because nothing CAN obscure the gift of God. It is the
closing of the doors that interferes with recognition of the power of
God that shines in you. Banish not power from your mind, but let all
that would hide your glory be brought to the judgement of the Holy
Spirit, and there undone.Whom He would save for glory IS saved for
it. He has promised the Father that through Him you would be
released from littleness to glory. To what He promised God He is
wholly faithful, for He shared with God the promise that was given
Him to share with YOU.
He shares it still, for YOU. Everything that promises otherwise,
great or small, however much or little valued, He will replace with
the ONE promise given unto Him to lay upon the altar to your
Father and His Son. No altar stands to God WITHOUT His Son.
And nothing brought there that is not equally worthy of both but
will be replaced by gifts wholly acceptable to Father AND to Son.
Can you offer guilt to God? You cannot, then, offer it to His Son. For
they are not apart, and gifts to one ARE offered to the other.
You know not God because you know not this.And yet you DO
know God and ALSO this.All this is safe within you, where the Holy
Spirit shines. He shines not in division, but in the meeting place
where God, united with His Son, speaks to His Son through Him.
Communication between what cannot be divided CANNOT cease.
The holy meeting place of the unseparated Father and His Son lies in
the Holy Spirit and in YOU. All interference in the communication
that God Himself wills with His Son is quite impossible here.
Unbroken and uninterrupted love flows constantly between the
Father and the Son, as BOTH would have it be.And so it IS.
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THE RECOGNITION OF HOLINESS
from it? The making of time to TAKE THE PLACE of timelessness lay
in the decision to be not as you were.Thus, truth was made past, and
the present was dedicated to illusion. And the past, too, was changed
and interposed between what always was and NOW.The past which
YOU remember NEVER was, and represents only the denial of what
ALWAYS was.
Bringing the ego to God is but to bring error to truth, where it
stands corrected because it is the OPPOSITE of what it meets, and is
undone because the contradiction can no longer stand. How long
can contradiction stand when its impossible nature is clearly
revealed? What disappears in light is not attacked. It merely vanishes
because it is not true. Different realities are meaningless, for reality
must be one. It CANNOT change with time or mood or chance. Its
changelessness is what MAKES it real. This cannot BE undone.
Undoing is for unreality.And this reality WILL do for you.
Merely by being what it is does truth release you from everything
that it is NOT.The Atonement is so gentle you need but whisper to it,
and all its power will rush to your assistance and support.You are not
frail with God beside you. Yet without Him you are nothing. The
Atonement offers you God.The gift which you refused is held by Him
in you. His Spirit holds it there for you. God has not left His altar,
though His worshippers placed other gods upon it.The temple still is
holy, for the Presence that dwells within it IS holiness.
In the temple holiness waits quietly for the return of them that
love it.The Presence knows they will return to purity and to grace.
The graciousness of God will take them gently in, and cover all their
sense of pain and loss with the immortal assurance of their Father’s
Love.There, fear of death will be replaced with joy of living. For God
is Life, and they ABIDE in Life. The Presence of holiness lives in
everything that lives, for holiness CREATED life, and leaves not what
It created holy as Itself.
In this world you can become a spotless mirror, in which the
holiness of your Creator shines forth from you to all around you.You
can reflect Heaven HERE.Yet no reflections of the images of other
gods must dim the mirror that would hold God’s reflection in it.
Earth can reflect Heaven or hell; God or the ego.You need but leave
the mirror clean and clear of all the images of hidden darkness you
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have drawn upon it. God will shine upon it of Himself. Only the
clear reflection of Himself can BE perceived upon it. Reflections are
seen in light. In darkness they are obscure, and their meaning seems
to lie only in shifting interpretations, rather than in themselves.
The reflection of God NEEDS no interpretation. It is CLEAR.
Clean but the mirror, and the message which shines forth from what
the mirror holds out for everyone to see no-one can FAIL to
understand. It is the message that the Holy Spirit is holding to the
mirror that is in him. He recognizes it because he has been taught his
NEED for it, but knows not where to look to find it. Let him, then,
see it in YOU and SHARE it with you.
Could you but realize, for a single instant, the power of healing
that the reflection of God, shining in you, can bring to all the world,
you could not wait to make the mirror of your mind clean to receive
the image of the holiness that heals the world.The image of holiness
which shines in your mind is not obscure, and will not change. Its
meaning to those who look upon it is not obscure, for everyone
perceives it as the SAME. All bring their different problems to its
healing light, but all their problems are met ONLY with healing there.
The response of holiness to ANY form of error is always the
same.There is no contradiction in what holiness calls forth. Its ONE
response is healing, without regard for what is brought to it. Those
who have learned to offer only healing because of the reflection of
holiness in them are ready at last for Heaven.There, holiness is not a
reflection, but rather the actual condition of what was but reflected
to them here. God is no image, and His creations, as part of Him,
hold Him in them in truth.They do not merely REFLECT truth, for
they ARE truth.
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all guilt aside. Reflect the peace of Heaven HERE, and bring this
world to Heaven. For the reflection of truth draws everyone TO
truth, and as they enter into it they leave all reflections behind.
In Heaven reality is shared, and not reflected. By sharing its
reflection here, its truth becomes the only perception the Son of
God accepts. And thus, remembrance of his Father dawns on him,
and he can no longer be satisfied with anything but his own reality.
You on earth have no conception of limitlessness, for the world you
seem to live in IS a world of limits. In this world, it is not true that
anything without order of difficulty can occur. The miracle,
therefore, has a unique function, and is motivated by a unique
Teacher, Who brings the laws of another world to this one. The
miracle is the ONE thing you can do that transcends order, being
based not on differences, but on equality.
Miracles are not in competition, and the number of them that
you can do is limitless.They can be simultaneous and legion.This is
not difficult to understand, once you conceive of them as possible at
all. What IS more difficult to grasp is the lack of order of difficulty
which stamps the miracle as something that must come from
elsewhere, not from here. From the world’s viewpoint, this is
impossible. You have experienced lack of competition among your
thoughts, which, even though they may conflict, can occur to you
together and in great numbers. You are so used to this that it can
cause you little surprise.
Yet you are also used to classifying some of your thoughts as
more important, larger or better, wiser or more productive and
valuable than others.And this is true about the thoughts which cross
the mind of those who think they live apart. For some are reflections
of Heaven, while others are motivated by the ego, which but SEEMS
to think.The result is a weaving, changing pattern which never rests,
and is never still. It shifts unceasingly across the mirror of your mind,
and the reflections of Heaven last but a moment, and grow dim as
darkness blots them out.Where there was light darkness removes it in
an instant, and alternating patterns of light and darkness sweep
constantly across your minds.
The little sanity which still remains is held together by a sense of
order which YOU establish.Yet the very fact that you can DO this
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and bring ANY order into chaos shows you that you are not an ego,
and that more than an ego MUST be in you. For the ego IS chaos,
and if it were all of you no order at all would be possible.Yet though
the order which you impose upon your minds limits the ego, it
ALSO limits YOU. To order is to judge, and to arrange BY
judgement. It will seem difficult for you to learn that you have no
basis AT ALL for ordering your thoughts.This lesson the Holy Spirit
teaches by giving you shining examples to show you that your way
of ordering is wrong, but that a better way is offered you.
The miracle offers exactly the same response to every call for
help. It does not judge the call. It merely recognizes what it IS, and
answers accordingly. It does not consider which call is louder or
greater or more important.You may wonder how you who are still
bound to judgement can be asked to do that which requires no
judgement of your own. The answer is very simple. The power of
God, and NOT of you, engenders miracles. The miracle itself is but
the witness that you have the power of God in you.That is the reason
why the miracle gives equal blessing to all who share in it, and that is
also why EVERYONE shares in it.The power of God is limitless.And
being always maximal, it offers EVERYTHING to EVERY call from
ANYONE. There IS no order of difficulty here. A call for help is
given help.
The only judgement involved at all is the Holy Spirit’s ONE
division into two categories; one of love, and the other the call for
love. YOU cannot safely make this division, for you are much too
confused either to recognize love, or to believe that everything else is
nothing but a need for love.You are too bound to form, and not to
content.What you consider content is not content at all. It is merely
form, and nothing else. For you do not respond to what a brother
REALLY offers you, but only to the particular perception of his
offering by which the ego judges it.
The ego is incapable of understanding content, and is totally
unconcerned with it.To the ego, if the form is acceptable the content
MUST be. Otherwise, it will attack the form.You who believe you
understand something of the dynamics of the mind, let me assure
you that you know nothing of it at all. For of yourselves you COULD
not know of it.The study of the ego is NOT the study of the mind.
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In fact, the ego enjoys the study of itself, and thoroughly approves the
undertakings of students who would analyze it, approving its
importance.Yet they but study form with meaningless content. For
their teacher is senseless, though careful to conceal this fact behind a
lot of words which sound impressive, but which lack any consistent
sense when they are put TOGETHER.
This is characteristic of the ego’s judgements. Separately, they
seem to hold, but put them together, and the system of thought
which arises from joining them is incoherent and utterly chaotic. For
form is not enough for meaning, and the underlying lack of content
makes a cohesive system impossible. Separation therefore remains the
ego’s chosen condition. For no-one alone can judge the ego truly.Yet
when two or more JOIN TOGETHER in searching for truth, the ego
can no longer defend its lack of content. The fact of union TELLS
them it is not true.
It is impossible to remember God in secret and alone. For
remembering Him means you are NOT alone, and willing to
remember it.Take no thought for yourself, for no thought you hold
IS for yourself. If you would remember your Father, let the Holy
Spirit order your thoughts, and give only the answer with which He
answers you. Everyone seeks for love as you do, and knows it not
unless he joins with you in seeking it. If you undertake the search
together, you bring with you a light so powerful that what you see is
GIVEN meaning. The lonely journey fails because it has excluded
what it would FIND.
As God communicates to the Holy Spirit in you, so does the
Holy Spirit translate His communications THROUGH you so YOU
can understand them. God has no secret communications, for
everything of Him is perfectly open, and freely accessible to all, being
FOR all. Nothing lives in secret, and what you would hide from the
Holy Spirit is nothing. Every interpretation YOU would lay upon a
brother is senseless. Let the Holy Spirit SHOW him to you, and teach
you both his love and need for love. Neither his mind NOR YOURS
holds more than these two orders of thought.
The miracle is the recognition that this is true. Where there is
love, your brother must give it to you because of what it IS. But
where there is NEED for love, YOU must give it because of what
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YOU are. Long ago we said this course will teach you what you are,
restoring to you your identity. We have already learned that this
identity is shared.The miracle becomes the MEANS of sharing it. By
supplying your identity wherever it is NOT recognized, YOU will
recognize it. And God Himself, Who wills to be with His Son
forever, will bless each recognition of His Son with all the love He
holds for him. Nor will the power of ALL His Love be absent from
any miracle you offer to His Son. How, then, can there be any order
of difficulty among them?
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THE TEST OF TRUTH
and recognized they never were. There are no dark lessons He has
not ALREADY lightened for you. The lessons you would teach
yourselves He has corrected already.They do not exist in His Mind at
all. For the past binds Him not, and therefore binds not you. He does
not see time as you do.And each miracle He offers you corrects your
use of time, and makes it His.
He Who has freed you from the past would teach you ARE free
of it. He would but have you accept His accomplishments as YOURS
because He did them FOR you. And because He did, they ARE
yours. He has made you free of what you made.You can deny Him,
but you CANNOT call on Him in vain. He ALWAYS gives what He
has made IN PLACE of you. He would establish His bright teaching
so firmly in your mind that no dark lessons of guilt can abide in what
He has established as holy by His Presence. Thank God that He is
there and works through you.And all His works are yours. He offers
you a miracle with every one you let Him do through you.
God’s Son will ALWAYS be indivisible. As we are held as one in
God, so do we learn as one in Him. God’s Teacher is as like to His
Creator as is His Son, and through His Teacher does God proclaim
His Oneness AND His Son’s. Listen in silence, and do not raise your
voice against Him. For He teaches the miracle of oneness, and before
His lesson division disappears. Teach like Him here, and you will
remember that you have ALWAYS created like your Father. The
miracle of creation has never ceased, having the holy stamp of
immortality upon it. This is the Will of God for all creation, and all
creation joins in willing this.
Those who remember always that they know nothing, but who
have become willing to learn EVERYTHING, will learn it. But
whenever they trust themselves, they will NOT learn. They have
destroyed their motivation for learning by thinking they ALREADY
know.Think not you understand anything until you pass the test of
perfect peace, for peace and understanding go together, and never
can be found alone. Each brings the other WITH it, for it is the law
of God they be not separate. They are cause and effect, each to the
other, so where one is absent the other CANNOT be.
Only those who see they cannot know UNLESS the effects of
understanding are with them can really learn at all. And for this, it
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must be peace they WANT, and nothing else. Whenever you think
YOU know, peace will depart from you because you have abandoned
the Teacher of Peace. Whenever you fully realize that you know
NOT peace will return, for you will have invited Him to do so by
abandoning the ego on behalf of Him. Call not upon the ego for
anything. It is only THIS that you need do.The Holy Spirit will, of
HIMSELF, fill every mind that so makes room for Him.
If you want peace you must abandon the teacher of attack.The
Teacher of peace will NEVER abandon you.You can desert Him, but
He will never reciprocate, for His faith in you IS His understanding.
It is as firm as is His faith in His Creator, and He knows that faith in
His Creator MUST encompass faith in His creation. In this
consistency lies His holiness, which He cannot abandon, for it is not
His Will to do so.With your perfection ever in His sight, He gives the
gift of peace to everyone who perceives the need for peace, and who
would have it. Make way for peace, and it will come. For
understanding is in you, and from it peace MUST come.
The power of God, from which they both arise, is yours as
surely as it is His.You think you know Him not only because, alone,
it is impossible to know Him.Yet see the mighty works that He will
do through you, and you must be convinced you did them through
Him. It is impossible to deny the Source of effects so powerful they
COULD not be of you. Leave room for Him, and you will find
yourself so filled with power that NOTHING will prevail against
your peace.And this will be the test by which you recognize that you
have understood.
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THE USES OF TIME
The only way in which the ego allows the fear of hell to be
experienced is to bring hell HERE, but always as a foretaste of the
future. For no-one who considers himself as deserving hell can
believe that punishment will end in peace.
The Holy Spirit teaches thus:There IS no hell. Hell is only what
the ego has made of the PRESENT. The belief in hell is what
prevents you from UNDERSTANDING the present, because you are
AFRAID of it.The Holy Spirit leads as steadily to Heaven as the ego
drives to hell. For the Holy Spirit, Who knows ONLY the present,
uses it to undo the fear by which the ego would make the present
useless. There is NO escape from fear in the ego’s use of time. For
time, according to its teaching, is nothing but a teaching device for
COMPOUNDING guilt until it becomes all-encompassing, and
demands vengeance forever.
The Holy Spirit would undo all of this NOW. Fear is NOT of
the present, but only of the past and future, which do not exist.There
is no fear in the present when each instant stands clear and separated
from the past, without its shadow reaching out into the future. Each
instant is a clean, untarnished birth, in which the Son of God
emerges from the past into the present. And the present extends
forever. It is so beautiful and so clean and free of guilt that nothing
but happiness is there. No darkness is remembered, and immortality
and joy are NOW.
This lesson takes NO time. For what is time without a past and
future? It HAS taken time to misguide you so completely, but it takes
no time at all to be what you ARE. Begin to practice the Holy
Spirit’s use of time as a teaching aid to happiness and peace.Take this
very instant, NOW, and think of it as ALL THERE IS of time.
Nothing can reach you here out of the past, and it is here that you
are COMPLETELY absolved, COMPLETELY free, and WHOLLY
without condemnation. From this holy instant wherein holiness was
born again you will go forth in time without fear, and with no sense
of change WITH time.
Time is inconceivable without change, yet holiness does not
change. Learn from this instant more than merely hell does not exist.
In this redeeming instant lies Heaven. And Heaven will not change,
for the birth into the holy present is SALVATION from change.
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TIME AND ETERNITY
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LITTLENESS VERSUS MAGNITUDE
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LITTLENESS VERSUS MAGNITUDE
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GIVEN you. Yet think not you can substitute your plan for His.
Rather, join with me in His, that we may release all those who would
be bound, proclaiming together that the Son of God is host to Him.
Thus will we let no-one forget what YOU would remember. And
thus will you remember it.
Call forth in everyone only the remembrance of God, and of
the Heaven that is in him. For where you would help your brother
be, there will you think YOU are. Hear not his call for hell and
littleness, but only his call for Heaven and greatness. Forget not that
his call is yours, and answer him with me. God’s power is forever on
the side of His host, for it protects only the peace in which He
dwells. Lay not littleness before His holy altar, which rises above the
stars and reaches even to Heaven because of what is given it.
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holy part in the plan that He has given to the world for its release
from littleness. God would have His host abide in perfect freedom.
Every allegiance to a plan of salvation that is apart from Him
diminishes the value of His Will for you in your own minds.And yet
it is your mind that IS the host to Him.
Would you learn how perfect and immaculate is the holy altar
on which your Father has placed Himself? This you will recognize in
the holy instant in which you willingly and gladly give over every
plan but His. For there lies peace, perfectly clear because you have
been willing to meet its conditions.You can claim the holy instant
any time and anywhere you want it. In your practice, try to give over
every plan you have accepted for finding magnitude in littleness. IT
IS NOT THERE. Use the holy instant only to recognize that you
alone CANNOT know where it is, and can only deceive yourself.
I stand within the holy instant, as clear as you would have me.
And the extent to which you learn to be willing to accept me is the
measure of the time in which the holy instant will be yours. I call to
you to make the holy instant yours at once, for the release from
littleness in the mind of the host of God depends on willingness, and
NOT on time.The reason why this course is simple is that TRUTH is
simple. Complexity is of the ego, and is nothing more than the ego’s
attempt to obscure the obvious.
You could live forever in the holy instant, BEGINNING NOW
and reaching to eternity, but for a very simple reason. Do not obscure
the simplicity of this reason, for if you do, it will be only because you
prefer not to recognize it, and not to let it go. The simple reason,
simply stated, is this:The holy instant is a time in which you receive
and GIVE perfect communication. This means, however, that it is a
time in which your mind is OPEN, both to receive and give. It is the
recognition that all minds ARE in communication. It therefore seeks
to CHANGE nothing, but merely to ACCEPT everything.
How can you do this when you would prefer to have PRIVATE
thoughts, and KEEP them? The only way you could do THAT is to
DENY the perfect communication that makes the holy instant what
it is.You believe that it is possible to harbor thoughts you would not
share, and that salvation lies in keeping your thoughts to yourself
ALONE. For in private thoughts, known only to yourself, you think
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you find a way to keep what you would HAVE alone, and share what
YOU would share.And then you wonder why it is that you are not in
full communication with those around you, and with God Who
surrounds ALL of you together.
Every thought you would keep hidden shuts communication
off because you would HAVE it so. It is impossible to recognize
perfect communication while BREAKING communication holds
value to you. Ask yourselves honestly, “Would I WANT to have
perfect communication, and am I wholly willing to let everything
that interferes with it go forever?” If the answer is no, then the Holy
Spirit’s readiness to give it to you is not enough to make it yours, for
you are not ready to SHARE it with Him.And it cannot come into a
mind that has decided to oppose it. For the holy instant is given and
received with EQUAL willingness, being the acceptance of the single
Will that governs ALL thought.
The necessary condition for the holy instant does NOT require
that you have no thoughts which are not pure. But it DOES require
that you have none that you would KEEP. Innocence is not of your
making. It is given you the instant you would HAVE it.Yet it would
not be Atonement if there were no NEED for Atonement.You will
not be able to accept perfect communication as long as you would
HIDE it from yourself. For what you would hide IS hidden from you.
In your practice, then, try only to be vigilant against deception,
and seek not to protect the thoughts you would keep unto yourself.
Let the Holy Spirit’s purity shine them away, and bring all your
awareness to the readiness for purity He offers you. Thus will He
make you ready to acknowledge that you ARE host to God, and
hostage to no-one and nothing.
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of this because you believe that, WITHOUT the ego, all would be
chaos.Yet I assure you that, without the ego, all would be LOVE.
The past is the EGO’S chief learning device, for it is in the past
that you learned to define your own needs, and acquired methods for
meeting them on your own terms.We said before that to limit love
to PART of the Sonship is to bring guilt into your relationships, and
thus make them unreal. If you seek to separate out certain aspects of
the totality, and look to them to meet your imagined needs, you are
attempting to use separation to SAVE you. How, then, could guilt
NOT enter? For separation IS the source of guilt, and to appeal to it
for salvation is to believe you are alone. To be alone IS to be guilty.
For to experience yourself as alone is to deny the Oneness of the
Father and His Son, and thus to attack reality.
You cannot love parts of reality and understand what love
means. If you would love unlike to God, Who KNOWS no special
love, how CAN you understand it? To believe that SPECIAL
relationships, with SPECIAL love, can offer you salvation is the belief
that separation IS salvation. For it is the complete EQUALITY of the
Atonement in which salvation lies. How can you decide that special
aspects of the Sonship can give you more than others? The PAST has
taught you this.Yet the holy instant teaches you it is not so.
Because of guilt, ALL special relationships have some elements
of fear in them. And this is why they shift and change so frequently.
They are not based on changeless love alone.And love, where fear has
entered, cannot be depended on because it is not perfect. In His
function as Interpreter of what you have made, the Holy Spirit USES
special relationships, which YOU have chosen to support the ego, as
a learning experience which points to truth. Under His teaching,
EVERY relationship becomes a lesson in love.
The Holy Spirit knows no-one is special.Yet He also perceives
that you have MADE special relationships, which He would purify,
and not let you destroy. However unholy the reason why you made
them may be, He can translate them into holiness by removing as
much fear as you will let Him.You can place any relationship under
His care, and be sure that it will not result in pain, if you offer Him
your willingness to have it serve no need but His. All the guilt in it
arises from YOUR use of it. All the love from His. Do not, then, be
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THE HOLY INSTANT AND SPECIAL RELATIONSHIPS
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362
THE HOLY INSTANT AND COMMUNICATION
experienced the lifting of the veil, and felt himself drawn irresistibly
into the light behind it, can have faith in love WITHOUT fear.Yet
the Holy Spirit GIVES you this faith, because He offered it to me and
I ACCEPTED it. Fear not the holy instant will be denied you, for I
denied it not. And through me the Holy Spirit gave it unto you, as
YOU will give it. Let no need that you perceive obscure your need of
this. For in the holy instant, you will recognize the only need the
aspects of the Son of God share equally, and by this recognition you
will join with me in OFFERING what is needed.
It is through US that peace will come. Join me in the IDEA of
peace, for in ideas minds CAN communicate. If you would give
YOURSELF as your Father gives His Self, you will learn to
understand Selfhood. And therein is love’s meaning understood. But
remember that understanding is of the MIND, and ONLY of the
mind. Knowledge is therefore of the mind, and its conditions are in
the mind with it. If you were not only an idea, and NOTHING ELSE,
you could not be in full communication with all that ever was.Yet as
long as you PREFER to be something else, or would attempt to be
nothing else and something else TOGETHER, the language of
communication, which you know perfectly, you will not remember.
In the holy instant God is remembered, and the language of
communication with all your brothers is remembered with Him. For
communication is remembered TOGETHER, as is truth.There is no
exclusion in the holy instant because the past is gone, and with it
goes the whole BASIS for exclusion. Without its source exclusion
vanishes. And this permits YOUR Source, and that of all your
brothers, to replace it in your awareness. God and the power of God
will take their rightful place in you, and you will experience the full
communication of ideas with ideas. Through your ability to do this
you will learn what you MUST be, for you will begin to understand
what your Creator is, and what His creation is along with Him.
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THE HOLY INSTANT AND COMMUNICATION
CANNOT make himself host to the ego. In the name of his release,
and in the Name of Him Who would release him, let us look more
closely at the relationships which the ego contrives, and let the Holy
Spirit judge them truly. For it is certain that, if you will LOOK at
them, you will offer them gladly to Him.What HE can make of them
you do not know, but you will become willing to find out, if you are
willing, first, to perceive what YOU have made of them.
In one way or another, every relationship which the ego makes
is based on the idea that by SACRIFICING itself, it becomes
BIGGER.The “sacrifice,” which it regards as purification, is actually
the root of its bitter resentment. For it would much prefer to attack
directly, and avoid delaying what it REALLY wants. Yet the ego
acknowledges “reality” as it sees it, and recognizes that no-one could
interpret DIRECT attack as love.Yet to make guilty IS direct attack,
but does not SEEM to be. For the guilty EXPECT attack, and having
ASKED for it, they are ATTRACTED to it.
In these insane relationships, the attraction of what you do not
want seems to be much stronger than the attraction of what you DO.
For each one thinks that he has sacrificed something to the other,
and HATES him for it.Yet this is what he thinks he WANTS. He is
not in love with the other at all. He merely believes he is in love with
SACRIFICE.And for this sacrifice, which he demanded of HIMSELF,
he demands the OTHER accept the guilt, and sacrifice himself as
well. Forgiveness becomes impossible, for the ego believes that to
forgive another is to LOSE him. For it is only by attack WITHOUT
forgiveness that the ego can ensure the guilt which holds all its
relationships together.
Yet they only SEEM to be together. For relationships, to the ego,
mean only that BODIES are together. It is always physical closeness
that the ego demands, and it does not object where the MIND goes
or what IT thinks, for this seems unimportant.As long as the body is
there to receive its sacrifice, it is content. To the ego, the mind is
private, and only the BODY can be shared. Ideas are basically of no
concern, except as they draw the body of another closer or farther.
And it is in these terms that it evaluates ideas as good or bad.What
makes another guilty and HOLDS him through guilt is “good.”What
RELEASES him from guilt is “bad,” because he would no longer
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THE HOLY INSTANT AND REAL RELATIONSHIPS
brother in his body, held there by guilt. And you will see SAFETY in
guilt and DANGER in communication. For the ego will ALWAYS
teach that loneliness is solved by guilt, and that communication is the
CAUSE of loneliness. And despite the evident insanity of this lesson,
you have LEARNED it.
Forgiveness lies in communication as surely as damnation lies in
guilt. It is the Holy Spirit’s teaching function to instruct those who
believe that communication is damnation that communication is
SALVATION.And He will do so, for the power of God in Him AND
you is joined in REAL relationship, so holy and so strong that it can
overcome even THIS without fear. It is through the holy instant that
what seems impossible is ACCOMPLISHED, making it evident that it
is NOT impossible. In the holy instant guilt holds NO attraction,
since communication has been restored. And guilt, whose ONLY
purpose is to disrupt communication, has no function here.
Here there is no concealment, and no private thoughts. The
willingness to communicate attracts communication TO it, and
overcomes loneliness completely.There is complete forgiveness here,
for there is no desire to exclude anyone from your completion, in
sudden recognition of the value of his part in it. In the protection of
YOUR wholeness, all are invited and made welcome. And you
understand that your completion is God’s, Whose only need is to
have YOU be complete. For your completion makes you His in your
awareness. And here it is that you experience yourself as you were
created, and as you ARE.
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370
THE TIME OF CHRIST
your sight grows weak and dim and limited, for you have attempted
to separate the Father from the Son, and limit their communication.
Seek not Atonement in FURTHER separation. And limit not your
vision of God’s Son to what INTERFERES with his release, and what
the Holy Spirit must UNDO to set him free. For his belief in limits
HAS imprisoned him.
When the body ceases to attract you, and when you place no
value on it as a means for getting ANYTHING, then there will be no
interference in communication, and your thoughts will be as free as
God’s. As you let the Holy Spirit teach you how to use the body
ONLY for purposes of communication, and renounce its use for
separation and attack which the ego sees in it, you will learn you
have no need of a body at all. In the holy instant there ARE no
bodies, and you experience only the attraction of God. Accepting it
as undivided you join Him wholly, in an instant. The reality of this
relationship becomes the only truth that you could ever WANT. All
truth IS here.
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372
THE TIME OF CHRIST
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374
THE END OF SACRIFICE
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In the holy instant the condition of love is met, for minds are
joined without the body’s interference, and where there is
communication, there is peace.The Prince of Peace was born to re-
establish the condition of love by teaching that communication
remains unbroken even if the body is destroyed, provided that you
see not the body as the NECESSARY means of communication.And
if you understand this lesson, you will realize that to sacrifice the
body is to sacrifice NOTHING, and communication, which MUST
be of the mind, cannot BE sacrificed.Where, then, IS sacrifice?
The lesson I was born to teach, and still would teach to all my
brothers, is that sacrifice is nowhere and love is everywhere. For
communication embraces EVERYTHING, and in the peace it re-
establishes love comes of itself. Let no despair darken the joy of
Christmas, for the time of Christ is meaningless apart from joy. Let us
join in celebrating peace by demanding no sacrifice of anyone, for so
will you offer me the love I offer you.What can be more joyous than
to perceive we are deprived of NOTHING? Such is the message of
the time of Christ, which I give you that YOU may give it, and
return it to the Father,Who gave it to me. For in the time of Christ
communication is restored, and He joins us in the celebration of His
Son’s creation.
God offers thanks to the holy host who would receive Him, and
let Him enter and abide where He would be. And by your welcome
does He welcome you into Himself, for what is contained in you who
welcome Him is RETURNED to Him. And we but celebrate His
Wholeness as we welcome Him into ourselves.Those who receive the
Father are One with Him, being host to Him Who created them.And
by allowing Him to enter, the remembrance of the Father enters with
Him, and with Him they remember the only relationship they ever
had, and ever WANT TO HAVE.
This is the weekend in which a new year will be born from the
time of Christ. I have perfect faith in you to do all that you would
accomplish. Nothing will be lacking, and you will make complete,
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377
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The Forgiveness
of Illusions
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TRUE EMPATHY
TRUE EMPATHY
True empathy is of Him Who knows what it IS.You will learn His
interpretation of it if you let Him use your capacity for STRENGTH,
and NOT for weakness. He will not desert you, but be sure that YOU
desert not HIM. Humility is strength in this sense only; to recognize
and accept the fact that you do NOT know is to recognize and
accept the fact that He DOES know.You are not sure that He will do
His part because you have never yet done YOURS completely.You
will not know how to respond to what you do not understand. Be
tempted not in this, and yield not to the ego’s triumphant use of
empathy for ITS glory.
The triumph of weakness is not what you would offer to a
brother. And yet you know no triumph BUT this. This is not
knowledge, and the form of empathy that would bring this about is
so distorted that it would imprison what it would release. The
unredeemed cannot redeem, yet they HAVE a Redeemer.Attempt to
teach Him not. YOU are the learner; He the Teacher. Do not confuse
your role with His, for this will never bring peace to anyone. Offer
your empathy to Him, for it is HIS perception and HIS strength that
you would share. And let Him offer you His strength and His
perception, to be shared through you.
The meaning of love is lost in any relationship which looks to
weakness, and hopes to find love there.The power of love, which IS
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its meaning, lies in the strength of God, which hovers over it and
blesses it silently by enveloping it in healing wings. LET this be, and
do not try to substitute YOUR “miracle” for this.We once said that if
a brother asks a foolish thing of you to do it. But be certain that this
does not mean to do a foolish thing that would hurt either him or
you, for what would hurt one will hurt the other. Foolish requests
are foolish for the simple reason that they conflict, because they
contain an element of specialness. Only the Holy Spirit recognizes
foolish needs as well as real ones.And He will teach you how to meet
both without losing either.
YOU will attempt to do this only in secrecy.And you will think
that, by meeting the needs of one you do not jeopardize another
because you keep them separate, and secret from each other.That is
not the way, for it leads not to light and truth. No needs will long be
left unmet if you leave them all to Him Whose FUNCTION is to
meet them. That is his function, and not yours. He will not meet
them secretly, for He would share everything you give through Him.
And that is WHY He gives it.What you give through Him is for the
whole Sonship, NOT for part of it. Leave Him His function, for He
will fulfill it if you but ask Him to enter your relationships, and bless
them FOR you.
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unreal? And are you REALLY safer in maintaining the unreality of what
has happened than you would be in joyously accepting it for what it is,
and giving thanks for it? Honor the truth that has been given you, and
be glad you do not understand it. Miracles are natural to God, and to
the One Who speaks for Him. For His task is to translate the miracle
into the knowledge which it represents, and which is lost to you. Let
His understanding of the miracle be enough for you, and do not turn
away from all the witnesses that He has given you to His reality.
No evidence will convince you of the truth of what you do not
want. Yet your relationship with Him IS real, and HAS been
demonstrated. Regard this not with fear, but with rejoicing.The One
you called upon IS with you. Bid Him welcome, and honor His
witnesses, who bring you the glad tidings He has come. It is true, just
as you fear, that to acknowledge Him IS to deny all that you think
you know. But it was NEVER true. What gain is there to you in
clinging to it, and denying the evidence for truth? For you have
come too near to truth to renounce it now, and you WILL yield to its
compelling attraction.You can delay this now but only a little while.
The host of God has called to you, and you HAVE heard. Never again
will you be wholly willing not to listen.
This is a year of joy, in which your listening will increase, and
peace will grow with its increase. The power of holiness and the
WEAKNESS of attack have BOTH been brought into awareness. And
this has been accomplished in minds firmly convinced that holiness is
weakness, and attack is power. Should not this be a sufficient miracle
to teach you that your Teacher is NOT of you? But remember also
that, whenever you have listened to His interpretation, the results have
brought you joy. Would you prefer the results of YOUR
interpretation, considering honestly what they have been? God wills
you better. Could you not look with greater charity on whom God
loves with perfect love?
Do not interpret AGAINST God’s Love, for you have many
witnesses which speak of It so clearly that only the blind and deaf
could fail to see and hear them. This year, determine not to deny
what has been given you by God, for that is the only reason He has
called to you. His Voice has spoken clearly, and yet you have so little
faith in what you heard because you have preferred to place still
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greater faith in the disaster YOU have made. Today, let us resolve
TOGETHER to accept the joyful tidings that disaster is not real, and
that reality is not disaster.
Reality is safe and sure, and wholly kind to everyone and
everything.There is no greater love than to accept this, and be glad. For
love asks only that you be HAPPY, and will give you everything that
makes for happiness.You have never given any problem to the Holy
Spirit He has not solved for you, nor will you ever do so.You have
never tried to solve anything yourself and been successful. Is it not time
you brought these facts TOGETHER, and made SENSE of them?
This is the year for the APPLICATION of the ideas which have
been given you. For the ideas are mighty forces, to be used and not
held idly by. They have already proved their power sufficiently for
you to place your faith in them, and not in their denial. This year
invest in truth, and let it work in peace. Have faith in what has faith
in YOU. Think what you have REALLY seen and heard, and
RECOGNIZE it. Can you be alone with witnesses like these?
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THE REWARD OF TEACHING
real has ever left the mind of its creator. And what is not real was
never THERE.
You are not two selves in conflict.What is beyond God? If you
who hold Him and whom He holds ARE the universe, all else must
be OUTSIDE, where NOTHING is.You have taught this, and from far
off in the universe, yet not beyond yourself, the witnesses to your
teaching have gathered to help you learn. Their gratitude has joined
with yours and God’s to strengthen your faith in what you taught. For
what you taught is true. Alone, you stand outside your teaching and
APART from it. But WITH them you must learn that you but taught
YOURSELF, and learned from the conviction you shared with them.
This year you will begin to learn, and make learning
commensurate with teaching. You have chosen this by your own
willingness to teach. Though you seemed to suffer for it, the joy of
teaching will yet be yours. For the joy of teaching is in the
LEARNER, who offers it to the teacher in gratitude, and shares it
with him.As you learn, your gratitude to your Self,Who teaches you
what He is, will grow and help you honor Him. And you will learn
His power and strength and purity, and love Him as His Father does.
His Kingdom has no limits and no end, and there is nothing in Him
that is not perfect and eternal.All this is YOU, and nothing outside of
this IS you.
To your most holy Self all praise is due for what you are, and for
what He is Who created you as you are. Sooner or later must
everyone bridge the gap which he imagines exists between his selves.
Each one builds this bridge, which carries him ACROSS the gap as
soon as he is willing to expend some little effort on behalf of bridging
it. His little efforts are powerfully supplemented by the strength of
Heaven, and by the united will of all who make Heaven what it is,
being joined within it. And so the one who would cross over is
literally transported there.
Your bridge is builded stronger than you think, and your foot is
planted firmly on it. Have no fear that the attraction of those who
stand on the other side and wait for you will not draw you safely
across. For you WILL come where you would be, and where your
Self awaits you.
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ILLUSION AND REALITY OF LOVE
certain ones as partners in any aspect of living, and use them for any
purpose which they would not share with others, are trying to LIVE
with guilt rather than DIE of it.This is the choice they see.And love,
to them, is only an escape from death. They seek it desperately, but
not in the peace in which it would gladly come quietly TO them.
And when they find the fear of death is still upon them, the love
relationship LOSES the illusion that it is what it is not. For then the
barricades against it are broken, fear rushes in and hatred triumphs.
There are no triumphs of love. Only hate is concerned with the
“triumph of love” at all.The illusion of love CAN triumph over the
illusion of hate, but always at the price of making BOTH illusions.As
long as the illusion of hatred lasts, so long will love be an illusion to
you. And then the only choice which remains possible is which
illusion you prefer.There IS no conflict in the choice between truth
and illusion. Seen in THESE terms, no one would hesitate. But
conflict enters the instant the choice seems to be one between
ILLUSIONS, for this choice does not matter.Where one choice is as
dangerous as the other, the decision MUST be one of despair.
Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find
ALL of the barriers within yourself which you have built AGAINST
it. It is not necessary to seek for what is true, but it IS necessary to
seek for what is false. Every illusion is one of fear, whatever form it
takes. And the attempt to escape from one illusion into another
MUST fail. If you seek love outside yourself, you can be certain that
you perceive hatred within and are AFRAID of it. Yet peace will
never come from the illusion of love, but ONLY from its reality.
Recognize this, for it is true, and truth MUST be recognized if it
is to be distinguished from illusion:The special love relationship is an
attempt to bring love into fear, and make it REAL in fear. In
fundamental violation of love’s condition, the special love relationship
would accomplish the impossible. How but in illusion COULD this
be done? It is essential that we look very closely at exactly what it is
you think you can do to solve the dilemma which seems very real to
you, but which does not exist.You have come very close to truth, and
only this stands between you and the bridge that leads you into it.
Heaven waits silently, and your creations are holding out their
hands to help you cross, and welcome them. For it is THEY you
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SEEK. You seek but for your own completion, and it is they who
render you complete. The special love relationship is but a shabby
substitute for what makes you whole in truth, NOT in illusion.Your
relationship with them is without guilt, and this enables you to look
on all your brothers with gratitude, because your creations were
created in union WITH them. Acceptance of your creations is the
acceptance of the oneness of creation, without which you could
never BE complete. No specialness can offer you what God has
given, and what you are joined with Him in giving.
Across the bridge is your completion, for you will be wholly in
God, willing for nothing special, but only to be wholly like unto
Him, completing Him by YOUR completion. Fear not to cross to
the abode of peace and perfect holiness. Only there is the
completion of God and of His Son established forever. Seek not for
this in the bleak world of illusion, where nothing is certain, and
where everything fails to satisfy. In the Name of God, be wholly
willing to abandon ALL illusions. In any relationship in which you
are wholly willing to accept completion, and ONLY this, there is
God completed, and His Son with Him.
The bridge that leads to union in yourself MUST lead to
knowledge, for it was built with God beside you, and will lead you
straight to Him, where your completion rests, wholly compatible
with His. Every illusion which you accept into your mind by
judging it to be attainable removes your own sense of completion,
and thus denies the Wholeness of your Father. Every fantasy, be it of
love or hate, deprives you of knowledge, for fantasies are the veil
behind which truth is hidden. To lift the veil which seems so dark
and heavy, it is only needful to value truth beyond ALL fantasy, and to
be entirely unwilling to settle for illusion IN PLACE of truth.
Would you not go THROUGH fear to love? For such the
journey seems to be. Love calls, but hate would have you stay. Hear
not the call of hate, and see no fantasies. See in the call of hate, and in
every fantasy that rises to delay you, but the call for help which rises
ceaselessly from you to your Creator. Would He not answer you
whose completion is His? He loves you, wholly without illusion, as
you must love. For love IS wholly without illusion, and therefore
wholly without fear. Whom God remembers MUST be whole. And
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God has never forgotten what makes HIM whole. In your completion
lies the memory of His Wholeness, and His gratitude to you for His
completion. In His link with you lie both His inability to forget, and
your ability to remember. In Him are joined your willingness to love,
and all the Love of God,Who forgot you not.
Your Father can no more forget the truth in you than you can
fail to remember it.The Holy Spirit is the bridge to Him, made from
your willingness to unite with Him, and created by His joy in union
with you.The journey that seemed to be endless is almost complete,
for what IS endless is very near.You have almost recognized it.Turn
with me firmly away from all illusions NOW, and let nothing stand in
the way of truth. We will take the last foolish journey AWAY from
truth together, and then together we go straight to God, in joyous
answer to His call for His completion.
If special relationships of any kind would hinder God’s
completion, CAN they have value to you? What would interfere with
God MUST interfere with you. Only in time does interference in
God’s completion seem to be possible. The bridge that He would
carry you across lifts you from time into eternity.Waken from time,
and answer fearlessly the call of Him Who gave eternity to you in
your creation. On this side of the bridge to timelessness you
understand nothing. But as you step lightly across it, upheld BY
timelessness, you are directed straight to the Heart of God. At Its
center, and ONLY there, you are safe forever, because you are
COMPLETE forever.There is no veil the Love of God in us together
cannot lift.The way to truth is open. Follow it with me.
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390
SPECIALNESS AND GUILT
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392
THE BRIDGE TO THE REAL WORLD
delights you, can bring death to the eternal. Nor can your chosen
substitute for the Wholeness of God have any influence at all upon It.
See in the special relationship nothing more than a meaningless
attempt to raise other gods before Him, and by worshipping them, to
obscure THEIR tininess and His GREATNESS. In the name of your
completion, you do not WANT this. For every idol which you raise
to place before Him stands before YOU, in place of what you ARE.
Salvation lies in the simple fact that illusions are not fearful
because they are not TRUE.They but seem to be fearful to the extent
to which you fail to recognize them for what they are, and you WILL
fail to do this to the extent to which you WANT them to be true.And
to the same extent you are DENYING truth, and so are making
yourself unable to make the simple choice between truth and illusion;
God and fantasy. Remember this, and you will have no difficulty in
perceiving the decision as just what it IS, and nothing more.
The core of the separation delusion lies simply in the FANTASY
of destruction of love’s meaning. And unless love’s meaning is
RESTORED to you, you cannot know yourself who SHARE its
meaning. Separation is only the decision NOT to know yourself. Its
whole thought system is a carefully contrived learning experience,
designed to lead AWAY from truth and into fantasy. Yet for every
learning that would hurt you, God offers you correction and
complete escape from ALL its consequences. The decision whether
or not to listen to this course and follow it is but the choice between
truth and illusion. For here is truth, SEPARATED from illusion, and
not confused with it at all.
How simple does this choice become when it is perceived as
only what it is. For ONLY fantasies made confusion in choosing
possible, and they are totally unreal.This year is thus the time to make
the easiest decision that ever confronted you, and also the ONLY
one. You will cross the bridge into reality simply because you will
recognize that God is on the other side and nothing AT ALL is here.
It is impossible NOT to make the natural decision as this is realized.
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has value ONLY to the ego. To the ego UNLESS a relationship has
special value it has NO meaning, and it perceives ALL love as special.
Yet this CANNOT be natural, for it is unlike the relationship of God
and His Son, and all relationships that are unlike this One MUST be
unnatural. For God created love as He would have it be, and gave it
as it IS. Love has no meaning except as its Creator defined it by His
Will. It is impossible to define it otherwise and UNDERSTAND it.
Love is FREEDOM. To look for it by placing yourself in
bondage is to SEPARATE yourself from it. For the love of God, no
longer seek for union in separation, nor for freedom in bondage! As
you release, so will you be released. Forget this not, or love will be
unable to find you and comfort you. There is a way in which the
Holy Spirit asks your help, if you would have His.The holy instant is
His most helpful tool in protecting you from the attraction of guilt,
the real lure in the special relationship.You do not recognize that this
IS its real appeal, for the ego has taught you that FREEDOM lies in it.
Yet the closer you look at the special relationship, the more apparent
it becomes that it MUST foster guilt and therefore MUST imprison.
The special relationship is totally without meaning without a
body. And if you value it, you must ALSO value the body. And what
you value you WILL keep. The special relationship is a device for
limiting your self to a body, and for limiting your perception of
others to THEIRS.The great rays would establish the total LACK of
value of the special relationship, if they were seen. For in seeing
them, the body would disappear because its VALUE would be lost.
And so your whole investment in seeing it would be withdrawn
from it.You see the world you VALUE.
On this side of the bridge, you see the world of separate bodies,
seeking to join each other in separate unions, and to become one by
losing.When TWO individuals seek to become one, they are trying
to DECREASE their magnitude. Each would deny his power, for the
SEPARATE union excludes the universe. Far more is left outside than
would be taken in. For God is left without, and NOTHING taken in.
If ONE such union were made in perfect faith, the universe WOULD
enter into it.Yet the special relationship which the ego seeks does not
include even one whole individual. For the ego wants but PART of
him, and sees ONLY this part and nothing else.
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THE BRIDGE TO THE REAL WORLD
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yourself, and you could not enter into a relationship where it could
not go with you, for you would not BE apart from it.
Be glad you have escaped the mockery of salvation which the
ego offered you, and look not back with longing on the travesty it
made of your relationships. Now no-one need suffer, for you have
come too far to yield to the illusion of the beauty and holiness of
guilt. Only the wholly insane could look on death and suffering,
sickness and despair, and see it thus. What guilt has wrought is ugly,
fearful and very dangerous. See no illusion of truth and beauty there.
And be you thankful that there IS a place where truth and beauty wait
for you. Go on to meet them gladly, and learn how much awaits you
for the simple willingness to give up nothing BECAUSE it is nothing.
The new perspective you will gain from crossing over will be
the understanding of where Heaven IS. From here, it seems to be
outside and across the bridge.Yet as you cross to join it, it will join
with YOU and become one with you. And you will think, in glad
astonishment, that for all this you gave up NOTHING! The joy of
Heaven, which has no limit, is increased with each light that returns
to take its rightful place within it.Wait no longer, for the love of God
and YOU. And may the holy instant speed you on the way, as it will
surely do if you but let it come to you.
The Holy Spirit asks only this little help of you.Whenever your
thoughts wander to a special relationship which still attracts you,
enter with Him into a holy instant, and there let Him release you. He
needs only your willingness to SHARE His perspective to give it to
you completely.And your willingness need not be complete because
HIS is perfect. It is His task to atone for your unwillingness by His
perfect faith, and it is His faith you share with Him there. Out of
your recognition of your unwillingness for your release, His
PERFECT willingness is given you. Call upon Him, for Heaven is at
His call.And LET Him call on Heaven FOR you.
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THE END OF ILLUSIONS
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of vengeance which you seek. And even when the hatred and the
savagery break briefly through into awareness, the illusion of love is
not profoundly shaken.Yet the one thing which the ego never allows
to reach awareness is that the special relationship is the acting out of
vengeance on YOURSELF. But what else COULD it be? In seeking
the special relationship, you look not for glory in YOURSELF.You
have denied that it is THERE, and the relationship becomes your
SUBSTITUTE for it. And vengeance becomes your substitute for
Atonement, and the ESCAPE from vengeance becomes your LOSS.
Against the ego’s insane notion of salvation the Holy Spirit
gently lays the holy instant.We said before that the Holy Spirit must
teach through comparisons, and uses opposites to point to truth.The
holy instant is the OPPOSITE of the ego’s fixed belief in salvation
through vengeance for the past. In the holy instant, it is accepted that
the past is gone, and with its passing the drive for vengeance has been
uprooted, and has disappeared. The stillness and the peace of NOW
enfolds you in perfect gentleness. Everything is gone except the truth.
For a time, you may attempt to bring illusions into the holy
instant to hinder your full awareness of the COMPLETE difference,
in all respects, between your experience of truth and illusion.Yet you
will not attempt this long. In the holy instant, the power of the Holy
Spirit will prevail because you JOINED Him.The illusions you bring
with you will weaken the experience of Him for a while, and will
prevent you from keeping the experience in your mind.Yet the holy
instant IS eternal, and your illusions of time will not prevent the
timeless from being what it is, nor you from experiencing it as it is.
What God has given you is truly given, and will be truly
RECEIVED. For God’s gifts HAVE no reality apart from your receiving
them. YOUR receiving completes His GIVING. You will receive
BECAUSE it is His Will to give. He gave the holy instant to be given
you, and it is impossible that you receive it not BECAUSE He gave it.
When He willed that His Son be free, His Son WAS free. In the holy
instant is His reminder that His Son will always be EXACTLY as he
was created. And everything the Holy Spirit teaches you is to remind
you that you HAVE received what God has given you.
There is nothing you can hold against reality. All that must be
forgiven are the illusions you have held against your brothers.Their
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THE END OF ILLUSIONS
reality HAS no past, and only illusions can BE forgiven. God holds
nothing against anyone, for He is incapable of illusions of ANY kind.
Release your brothers from the slavery of their illusions by forgiving
them for the illusions which YOU perceive in them. Thus will you
learn that YOU have been forgiven, for it is YOU who offered them
illusions. In the holy instant this is done for you IN TIME, to bring to
you the true condition of Heaven.
Remember that you always choose between truth and illusion;
between the REAL Atonement which would heal and the ego’s
“atonement” which would destroy. The power of God and all His
Love, without limit, will support you as you seek only your place in
the plan of Atonement arising from His Love. Be an ally of God and
not the ego in seeking how Atonement can come to you. His help
suffices, for His Messenger understands how to restore the Kingdom
to you, and to place ALL your investment in salvation in your
relationship with Him.
Seek and FIND His message in the holy instant, where all
illusions are forgiven. From there the miracle extends to bless
everyone and to resolve all problems, be they perceived as great or
small, possible or impossible.There is nothing that will not give place
to Him and to His majesty.To join in close relationship with Him is
to accept relationships as REAL, and through their reality to give
over all illusions for the reality of your relationship with God. Praise
be to your relationship with Him, and to no other. The truth lies
here, and nowhere else.You choose this or NOTHING.
“Forgive us our illusions, Father, and help us to accept our true
relationship with You, in which there are no illusions, and where
none can ever enter. Our holiness is Yours.What can there be in us
that NEEDS forgiveness when Yours is perfect? The sleep of
forgetfulness is only the unwillingness to remember Your forgiveness
and Your Love. Let us not wander into temptation, for the
temptation of the Son of God is not Your Will.And let us receive
only what YOU have given, and accept but this into the minds
which You created, and which You love.Amen.”
399
seventeen
The betrayal of the Son of God lies only in illusions, and all his “sins”
are but his own imagining. His reality is forever sinless. He need not
be forgiven but AWAKENED. In his dreams he HAS betrayed himself,
his brothers and his God.Yet what is done in dreams has not been
REALLY done. It is impossible to convince the dreamer that this is so,
for dreams are what they are BECAUSE of their illusion of reality.
Only in waking is the full release from them, for only then does it
become perfectly apparent that they had no effect on reality at all, and
did not change it. Fantasies CHANGE reality.That is their PURPOSE.
They cannot do so in reality, but they CAN do so in the mind that
would have reality different.
It is, then, only your wish to change reality that is fearful,
because by your wish you think you have ACCOMPLISHED what
you wish.This strange position, in a sense, acknowledges your power.
Yet by distorting it, and devoting it to “evil,” it also makes it unreal.
You cannot be faithful to two masters who ask of you conflicting
things. What you use in fantasy you DENY to truth. Yet what you
GIVE to truth to use for you is safe from fantasy.
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FANTASY AND DISTORTED PERCEPTION
only because you would KEEP them from truth. Very simply, your
lack of faith in the power that heals all pain arises from your wish to
retain some aspects of reality for fantasy. If you but realized what this
must do to your appreciation of the whole! What you reserve unto
yourself, you TAKE AWAY from Him Who would release you. Unless
you give it back, it is inevitable that your perspective on reality be
warped and uncorrected.
As long as you would have it so, so long will the illusion of order
of difficulty in miracles remain with you. For you have
ESTABLISHED this order in reality by giving some of it to one
teacher, and some to another. And so you learn to deal with part of
truth in one way, and in another way the other part. To fragment
truth is to destroy it by rendering it meaningless. Orders of reality is
a perspective without understanding, a frame of reference for reality
to which it cannot really BE compared at all.
Think you that you can bring truth to fantasy, and learn what
truth means from the perspective of illusions? Truth HAS no
meaning in illusion.The frame of reference for its meaning must be
ITSELF. When you try to bring truth to illusions, you are trying to
make illusions REAL, and keep them by JUSTIFYING your belief in
them. But to give illusions to truth is to enable truth to teach that the
ILLUSIONS are unreal, and thus enable you to escape from them.
Reserve not one idea aside from truth, or you establish orders of
reality which must imprison you.There IS no order in reality because
EVERYTHING there is true.
Be willing, then, to give all you have held outside the truth to
Him Who KNOWS the truth, and in Whom all is brought to truth.
Be not concerned with anything except your WILLINGNESS to
have this be accomplished. HE will accomplish it; NOT you. But
forget not this:When you become disturbed and lose your peace of
mind because ANOTHER is attempting to solve his problems
through fantasy, you are refusing to forgive YOURSELF for just this
same attempt. And you are holding BOTH of you away from truth
and from salvation.As you forgive him, you restore to truth what was
denied by BOTH of you. And you will see forgiveness where you
have GIVEN it.
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17 FORGIVENESS AND HEALING
402
SHADOWS OF THE PAST
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17 FORGIVENESS AND HEALING
gave in the past, and those that were given you. All the rest must be
forgotten. Forgiveness is a selective remembering, based not on
YOUR selection. For the shadow figures you would make immortal
are “enemies” of reality. Be willing to forgive the Son of God for
what he did NOT do.The shadow figures are the witnesses you bring
with you to demonstrate he did what he did NOT. Because you
brought them, you will hear them. And you who kept them by your
OWN selection do not understand how they came into your minds,
and what their purpose is.
They represent the evil that you THINK was done to you.You
bring them with you only that you may return evil for evil, hoping
that their witness will enable you to think guiltily of another and
NOT harm yourself.They speak so clearly for the separation that no-
one not obsessed with KEEPING separation could hear them. They
offer you the “reasons” why you should enter into unholy alliances
which support the ego’s goals, and make your relationships the
witness to its power. It is these shadow figures which would make
the EGO holy in your sight, and teach you what you do to keep IT
safe is really love.
The shadow figures ALWAYS speak for vengeance, and all
relationships into which they enter are totally insane. Without
exception, these relationships have, as their PURPOSE, the exclusion
of the truth about the other, and of YOURSELF.This is why you see
in BOTH what is not there, and make of both the slaves of
vengeance. And why whatever reminds you of your past grievances,
no matter how distorted the associations by which you arrive at the
remembrance may be, attracts you, and seems to you to go by the
name of love. And finally, why all such relationships become the
attempt at union through the BODY, for ONLY bodies can be seen as
means for vengeance. That bodies are central to all unholy
relationships is evident.Your OWN experience has taught you this.
But what you do not realize are ALL the reasons which go to make
the relationship unholy. For unholiness seeks to REINFORCE itself,
as holiness does, by gathering to itself what it perceives as like itself.
In the unholy relationship, it is not the body of the OTHER
with which union is attempted, but the bodies of those who are not
THERE. Even the body of the other, already a severely limited
404
SHADOWS OF THE PAST
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17 FORGIVENESS AND HEALING
406
PERCEPTION AND THE TWO WORLDS
witnesses for its reality, while what is kept but witnesses to the reality
of dreams.
It is still up to you to choose to be willing to join with truth or
illusion. But remember that to choose ONE is to let the other GO.
Which one you choose, you will endow with beauty and reality
because the choice DEPENDS on which you value more.The spark
of beauty or the veil of ugliness, the real world or the world of guilt
and fear, truth or illusion, freedom or slavery, – it is all the same. For
you can never choose EXCEPT between God and the ego.Thought
systems are but true or false, and all their attributes come simply from
what they ARE. Only the Thoughts of God are true. And all that
follows from Them comes from what They are, and is as true as is the
holy Source from which They came.
My holy brothers, I would enter into all your relationships, and
step between you and your fantasies. Let MY relationship to you be
real to you, and let me bring reality to your perception of your
brothers. They were not created to enable you to hurt yourselves
through them.They were created to CREATE with you.This is the
truth that I would interpose between you and your goal of madness.
Be not separate from me, and let not the holy purpose of Atonement
be lost to you in dreams of vengeance. Relationships in which such
dreams are cherished have EXCLUDED me. Let me enter in the
Name of God, and bring you peace that you may offer peace to me.
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them. And by that all that is meant is that He will restore to them
the function given them by God.The function you have given them
is clearly NOT to make happy. But the holy relationship shares
God’s purpose, rather than aiming to make a substitute for it. Every
special relationship which YOU have made is a substitute for God’s
Will, and glorifies yours instead of His because of the delusion that
they are DIFFERENT.
You have made very real relationships even in this world which
you do not recognize, simply because you have raised their substitutes
to such predominance that, when truth calls to you, as it does
constantly, you answer with a substitute. Every special relationship
which you have ever undertaken has, as its fundamental purpose, the
aim of occupying your minds so completely that you will not HEAR
the call of truth. In a sense, the special relationship was the ego’s
answer to the creation of the Holy Spirit,Who was God’s answer to
the separation. For although the ego did not understand what had
been created, it WAS aware of threat.
The whole defense system which the ego evolved to protect the
separation from the Holy Spirit was in response to the gift with
which God blessed it, and by His blessing enabled it to be healed.
This blessing holds, within ITSELF, the truth about everything. And
the truth is that the Holy Spirit is in close relationship with you
because, in Him, is your relationship with God restored to you.The
relationship with Him has NEVER been broken, because the Holy
Spirit has not been separate from anyone since the separation. And
through Him have all your holy relationships been carefully
preserved, to serve God’s purpose for you.
The ego is hyperalert to threat, and the part of your mind into
which the ego was accepted is very anxious to preserve its reason, as
it sees it. It does not realize that it is totally insane. And you must
realize just what this means, if YOU would be restored to sanity.The
insane protect their thought systems, but they do so INSANELY.And
ALL their defenses are as insane as what they are supposed to protect.
The separation has NOTHING in it, no part, no “reason,” and no
attribute that is NOT insane. And its “protection” is part of it, as
insane as the whole. The special relationship, which is its chief
defense, MUST therefore be insane.
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PERCEPTION AND THE TWO WORLDS
You have but little difficulty now in realizing that the thought
system which the special relationship protects is but a system of
delusions.You recognize, at least in general terms, that the ego is insane.
Yet the special relationship still seems to you somehow to be “different.”
Yet we have looked at it far closer than at many other aspects of the ego’s
thought system which you have been more willing to let go.While this
one remains, you will NOT let the others go. For this one is NOT
different. Retain this one, and you HAVE retained the whole.
It is essential to realize that all defenses DO what they would
DEFEND.The underlying basis for their effectiveness is that they OFFER
what they defend.What they defend is placed IN them for safe-keeping,
and as they operate, they BRING it to you. Every defense operates by
giving gifts, and the gift is ALWAYS a miniature of the thought system the
defense protects, set in a golden frame.The frame is very elaborate, all set
with jewels, and deeply carved and polished. Its purpose is to be of value
IN ITSELF, and to divert your attention from what it encloses. But the
frame WITHOUT the picture, you cannot have. Defenses operate to make
you think you CAN.
The special relationship has the most imposing and deceptive frame
of all the defenses the ego uses. Its thought system is offered here,
surrounded by a frame so heavy and so elaborate that the picture is
almost obliterated by its imposing structure. Into the frame are woven all
sorts of fanciful and fragmented illusions of love, set with dreams of
sacrifice and self-aggrandizement, and interlaced with gilded threads of
self-destruction.The glitter of blood shines like rubies, and the tears are
faceted like diamonds and gleam in the dim light in which the offering
is made.
Look at the PICTURE. Do not let the frame distract you.This gift
is given you for your damnation, and if you take it you will believe that
you ARE damned.You CANNOT have the frame without the picture.
What you value is the FRAME, for there you see no conflict. Yet the
frame is only the wrapping for the gift of conflict.The frame is NOT the
gift. Be not deceived by the most superficial aspects of this thought
system, for these aspects enclose the whole, complete in EVERY aspect.
Death lies in this glittering gift. Let not your gaze dwell on the hypnotic
gleaming of the frame. Look at the PICTURE, and realize that DEATH is
offered you.
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410
PERCEPTION AND THE TWO WORLDS
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17 FORGIVENESS AND HEALING
412
THE HEALED RELATIONSHIP
seen and accepted as the ONLY way out of the conflict, the
relationship seems to be severely strained.
It would not be kinder to shift the goal more slowly, for the
contrast would be obscured, and the ego given time to re-interpret
each slow step according to its liking. Only a radical shift in purpose
could induce a complete change of mind about what the whole
relationship is FOR. As this change develops and is finally
accomplished, it grows increasingly beneficent and joyous. But at the
beginning, the situation is experienced as very precarious. A
relationship, undertaken by two individuals for their unholy
purposes, suddenly has HOLINESS for its goal. As these two
contemplate their relationship from the point of view of this new
purpose, they are inevitably appalled. Their perception of the
relationship may even become quite disorganized. And yet, the
former organization of their perception no longer serves the purpose
they have agreed to meet.
This is the time for FAITH.You LET this goal be set for you.That
was an act of faith. Do not abandon faith, now that the rewards of
faith are being introduced. If you believed the Holy Spirit was there
to ACCEPT the relationship, why would you now not still believe that
He is there to purify what He has taken under His guidance? Have
faith in each other in what but SEEMS to be a trying time.The goal IS
set. And your relationship has sanity as its purpose. For now you find
yourselves in an insane relationship, RECOGNIZED as such in the
light of its goal.
Now the ego counsels thus; substitute for this ANOTHER
relationship to which your former goal was quite appropriate.You can
escape from your distress only by getting rid of each other.You need
not part entirely if you choose not to do so. But you must exclude
major areas of fantasy from each other, to save your sanity. Hear not
this now! Have faith in Him Who answered you. He heard. Has He
not been very explicit in His answer? You are not now wholly insane.
Can you DENY that He has given you a most explicit statement?
Now He asks for faith a little longer, even in bewilderment. For this
will go, and you will see the justification for your faith emerge, to
bring you shining conviction.Abandon Him not now, nor each other.
This relationship HAS BEEN reborn as holy.
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414
THE HEALED RELATIONSHIP
PRACTICAL FORGIVENESS
The practical application of the Holy Spirit’s purpose is extremely
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17 FORGIVENESS AND HEALING
416
PRACTICAL FORGIVENESS
of view.The situation now has meaning, but only because the GOAL
has made it meaningful.
The goal of truth has further practical advantages. If the
situation is used for truth and sanity, its outcome MUST be peace.
And this is quite apart from what the outcome IS. If peace is the
condition of truth and sanity, and cannot be WITHOUT them,
where peace is THEY must be. Truth comes of itself. If you
experience peace, it is because the truth has come to you, and you
will see the outcome truly, for deception cannot prevail against you.
And you will recognize the outcome BECAUSE you are at peace.
Here again, you see the opposite of the ego’s way of looking, for the
ego believes the SITUATION brings the experience. The Holy
Spirit knows that the situation is as the goal determines it, and is
experienced ACCORDING to the goal.
The goal of truth requires faith. Faith is implicit in the
acceptance of the Holy Spirit’s purpose, and this faith is all-inclusive.
Where the goal of truth is set, there faith MUST be.The Holy Spirit
sees the situation as a WHOLE. The goal establishes the fact that
everyone involved in it will play his part in its accomplishment.This
is inevitable. No-one will fail in anything.This seems to ask for faith
beyond you, and beyond what you can give.Yet this is so only from
the viewpoint of the ego, for the ego believes in “solving” conflict
through fragmentation, and does NOT perceive the situation as a
whole. Therefore, it seeks to split off segments of the situation and
deal with them SEPARATELY, for it has faith in separation, and not
in wholeness.
Confronted with any aspect of the situation which seems to be
difficult, the ego will attempt to take this aspect elsewhere, and
resolve it there. And it will seem to be successful, except that this
attempt conflicts with unity, and MUST obscure the goal of truth.
And peace will not be experienced except in fantasy. Truth has not
come, because faith has been denied, being withheld from where it
rightfully belonged. Thus do you lose the understanding of the
situation the goal of truth would bring. For fantasy solutions bring
but the illusion of experience, and the illusion of peace is not the
condition in which the truth can enter.
The substitutes for aspects of the situation are the witnesses to
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your lack of faith.They demonstrate that you did not believe that the
situation and the PROBLEM were in the same place. The problem
WAS the lack of faith, and it is this you demonstrate when you
remove it from its source and place it elsewhere. As a result, you do
not see the PROBLEM. Had you not lacked the faith it could be
solved, the problem would be gone. And the situation would have
been meaningful to you, because the interference in the way of
understanding would have been removed. To remove the problem
elsewhere is to KEEP it. For you remove yourself FROM it, and make
it unsolvable.
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THE NEED FOR FAITH
holy BECAUSE your faith in one another was so limited and little.
Your faith must grow to meet the goal that has been set. The goal’s
reality will call this forth, for you will see that peace and faith will
not come separately. What situation CAN you be in without faith,
and remain faithful to each other?
Every situation in which you find yourself is but a means to
meet the purpose set for your relationship. See it as something else,
and you ARE faithless. Use not your faithlessness. Let it enter and
look upon it calmly, but do not USE it. Faithlessness is the servant of
illusion, and wholly faithful to its master. Use it, and it will carry you
straight to illusions. Be tempted not by what it offers you. It
interferes, not with the goal, but with the value of the goal to YOU.
Accept not the illusion of peace it offers, but look upon its offering
and recognize it IS illusion.
The goal of illusion is as closely tied to faithlessness as faith to
truth. If you lack faith in anyone to fulfill, and PERFECTLY, his part
in any situation dedicated in advance to truth, YOUR dedication is
divided. And so you have been faithless to each other, and used your
faithlessness AGAINST each other. No relationship is holy unless its
holiness goes with it everywhere. As holiness and faith go hand in
hand, so must its faith go everywhere with it. The goal’s reality will
call forth and ACCOMPLISH every miracle needed for its fulfillment.
Nothing too small or too enormous, too weak or too compelling, but
will be gently turned to its use and purpose.The universe will serve it
gladly, as it serves the universe. But do not INTERFERE.
The power set in you in whom the Holy Spirit’s goal has been
established is so far beyond your little conception of the infinite that
you have no idea how great the strength that goes with you. And
you can use THIS in perfect safety. Yet for all its might, so great it
reaches past the stars and to the universe that lies beyond them, your
little faithlessness can make it useless, if you would use the
faithlessness instead.
Yet think on this, and learn the CAUSE of faithlessness: You
think you hold against the other what he has done to you. But what
you really blame him for is what YOU did to HIM. It is not HIS past
but YOURS you hold against him.And you lack faith in him because
of what YOU were.Yet you are as innocent of what you were as he is.
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THE CONDITIONS OF FORGIVENESS
This simple courtesy is all the Holy Spirit asks of you. Let truth
be what it is. Do not intrude upon it, do not attack it, do not
interrupt its coming. Let it encompass every situation, and bring you
peace. Not even faith is asked of you, for truth asks nothing. Let it
enter, and it will call forth and SECURE for you the faith you need
for peace. But rise you not against it, for against your opposition it
CANNOT come.
Would you not WANT to make a holy instant of every situation?
For such is the gift of faith, freely given wherever faithlessness is laid
aside, unused.And then the power of the Holy Spirit’s purpose is free
to use instead.This power INSTANTLY transforms all situations into
one sure and continuous means for establishing His purpose, and
demonstrating its reality. What has been demonstrated has called for
faith, and has been GIVEN it. Now it becomes a fact, from which faith
can no longer BE withheld. The strain of refusing faith to truth is
enormous, and far greater than you realize. But to answer truth with
faith entails no strain at all.
To you who have acknowledged the call of your Redeemer, the
strain of not responding to His call seems to be greater than before.
This is not so. Before, the strain was there but you attributed it to
something else, believing that the “something else” produced it. This
was NEVER true. For what the “something else” produced was sorrow
and depression, sickness and pain, darkness and dim imaginings of
terror, cold fantasies of fear and fiery dreams of hell.And it was nothing
but the intolerable strain of refusing to give faith to truth, and see its
evident reality.
Such was the crucifixion of the Son of God. His faithlessness did
this to him. Think carefully before you let yourself use faithlessness
against him. For he is risen, and you have accepted the cause of his
awakening as yours.You have assumed your part in his redemption,
and you are now fully responsible to him. Fail him not now, for it has
been given you to realize what your lack of faith in him must mean to
YOU. His salvation IS your only purpose. See only this in every
situation, and it will be a means for BRINGING only this.
When you accepted truth as the goal for your relationship, you
became givers of peace as surely as your Father gave peace to you.
For the goal of peace cannot be accepted apart from its conditions,
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and you HAD faith in it, for no-one accepts what he does not believe
is real.Your purpose has not changed, and WILL not change, for you
accepted what can NEVER change. And nothing that it needs to be
forever changeless can you now withhold from it. Your release is
certain. Give as you have received. And demonstrate that you have
risen far beyond ANY situation that could hold you back, and keep
you separate from Him Whose call you answered.
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SUBSTITUTION AS A DEFENSE
You who believe that God is fear made but one substitution. It has
taken many forms, because it was the substitution of illusion for
truth; of fragmentation for wholeness. It has become so splintered
and subdivided and divided again, over and over, that it is now almost
impossible to perceive it once was one, and still is what it was.That
one error, which brought truth to illusion, infinity to time, and life to
death, was all you ever made. Your whole world rests upon it.
Everything you see reflects it, and every special relationship which
you have ever made is part of it.
You have expressed surprise at hearing how very different is
reality from what you see.You do not realize the magnitude of that
one error. It was so vast and so completely incredible that from it a
world of total unreality HAD to emerge.What else COULD come of
it? Its fragmented aspects are fearful enough, as you begin to look at
them. But nothing you have seen begins to show you the enormity
of the original error, which seemed to cast you out of Heaven, to
shatter knowledge into meaningless bits of disunited perceptions, and
to force you to further substitutions.
That was the first projection of error outward.The world arose
to hide it, and became the screen on which it was projected and
drawn between you and the truth. For truth extends INWARD,
where the idea of loss is meaningless, and only increase is
conceivable. Do you really think it strange that a world in which
everything is backwards and upside-down arose from this? For truth
brought to THIS could only remain within in quiet, and take no part
in all the mad projection by which this world was made. Call it not
sin but madness, for such it was, and so it still remains. Invest it not
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with guilt, for guilt implies it was accomplished in reality. And above
all, be not AFRAID of it.When you seem to see some twisted form
of the original error rise to frighten you, say only, “God is not fear,
but love,” and it will disappear.
The truth will SAVE you. It has not left you, to go out into the
mad world and so depart from you. Inward is sanity; insanity is
OUTSIDE you. You but BELIEVE it is the other way; that truth is
outside, and error and guilt within.Your little, senseless substitutions,
touched with insanity and swirling lightly off on a mad course like
feathers dancing insanely in the wind, have NO substance.They fuse
and merge and separate, in shifting and totally meaningless patterns
which need not be judged at all. To judge them individually is
pointless.Their tiny differences in form are no real differences at all.
NONE of them matters. THAT they have in common, and nothing
else.Yet what else is NECESSARY to make them all the same?
Let them all go, dancing in the wind, dipping and turning till
they disappear from sight, far, far outside you. And turn you to the
stately calm within, where in holy stillness dwells the living God you
never left, and Who never left you.The Holy Spirit takes you gently
by the hand, and retraces with you your mad journey outside
yourself, leading you gently back to the truth and safety within. He
brings all your insane projections and your wild substitutions which
you have placed outside you to the truth. Thus He reverses the
course of insanity, and restores you to reason.
In your relationship, where He has taken charge of everything at
your request, He has set the course inward, to the truth you share. In
the mad world outside you, nothing can be shared but only
substituted, and sharing and substituting have nothing in common in
reality. Within yourselves you love each other with a perfect love.
Here is holy ground, in which no substitution can enter, and where
only the truth about each other can abide. Here you are joined in
God, as much together as you are with Him.The original error has
not entered here, nor ever will. Here is the radiant truth, to which
the Holy Spirit has committed your relationship. Let Him bring it
here, where YOU would have it be. Give Him but a little faith in
each other, to help him show you that no substitute you made for
Heaven can keep you from it. In you there IS no separation, and no
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substitute can keep you from each other. Your reality was God’s
creation, and HAS no substitute.
You are so firmly joined in truth that only God is there.And He
would never accept something else instead of you. He loves you
both, equally and as one. And as He loves you, so you ARE.You are
not joined together in illusions, but in the Thought so holy and so
perfect that illusions cannot remain to darken the holy place in
which you stand together. God is with you, my brothers. Let us join
in Him in peace and gratitude, and accept His gift as our most holy
and perfect reality, which we share in Him.
Heaven is restored to all the Sonship through your relationship,
for in it lies the Sonship, whole and beautiful, safe in your love.
Heaven has entered quietly, for all illusions have been gently brought
unto the truth in you, and love has shined upon you, blessing your
relationship with truth. God and His whole creation have entered it
together. How lovely and how holy is your relationship, with the
truth shining upon it! Heaven beholds it, and rejoices that you have
let it come to you. The universe within you stands with you,
together. And Heaven looks with love on what is joined in it, along
with its Creator.
Whom God has called should hear no substitutes. Their call is
but an echo of the original error which shattered Heaven.And what
became of peace in those who heard? Return with me to Heaven,
walking together out of this world and through another to the
loveliness and joy the other holds within it. Would you still further
weaken and break apart what is already broken and hopeless? Is it
here that you would look for happiness? Or would you not prefer to
heal what has been broken, and join in making whole what has been
ravaged by separation and disease?
You have been called, together, to the most holy function that
this world contains. It is the only one which has no limits, and reaches
out to every broken fragment of the Sonship with healing and uniting
comfort.This is offered YOU, in your holy relationship.Accept it here,
and you will give as you have accepted.The peace of God is given you
with the glowing purpose in which you join. The holy light that
brought you together must extend, as YOU accepted it.
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Dreams show you that you HAVE the power to make a world as
you would have it be, and that because you WANT it you SEE IT.
And while you see it, you do not doubt that it is real.Yet here is a
world, clearly within your mind, that seems to be OUTSIDE.You do
not respond to it as though you made it, nor do you realize that the
emotions which the dream produce MUST come from you. It is the
figures in the dream and what THEY do that seem to make the
dream.You do not realize that you are making them act out for YOU,
for if you did, the guilt would not be theirs, and the illusion of
satisfaction would be gone. In dreams these features are not obscure.
You seem to waken, and the dream is gone. Yet what you fail to
recognize is that what caused the dream has not gone with it.
Your wish to make another world that is not real REMAINS with
you. And what you seem to wake to is but another form of this same
world you see in dreams. All your time is spent in dreaming. Your
sleeping and your waking dreams have different forms, and that is all.
Their CONTENT is the same.They are your protest against reality, and
your fixed and insane idea that you can change it. In your waking
dreams, the special relationship is your determination to keep your
hold on unreality, and to prevent yourself from waking.And while you
see more value in sleeping than in waking, you will not let go of it.
The Holy Spirit, ever practical in His wisdom, accepts your
dreams, and uses them as means for waking. YOU would have used
them to remain asleep. We once said that the first change, before
dreams disappear, is that your dreams of fear are changed to happy
dreams.That is what the Holy Spirit does in your special relationship.
He does not destroy it, nor snatch it away from you. Your special
relationship will remain, not as a source of pain and guilt, but as a
source of joy and freedom. It will not be for you alone, for therein lay
its misery. As its unholiness kept it a thing apart, its holiness will
become an offering to everyone.
Your special relationship will be a means for undoing guilt in
everyone blessed through your holy relationship. It will be a happy
dream, and one which you will share with all who come within your
sight.Through it, the blessing which the Holy Spirit has laid upon it
will be extended. Think not that He has forgotten anyone in the
purpose He has given you. And think not that He has forgotten you
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sometimes to stark terror. But you WILL advance because your goal
IS the advance from fear to truth.You KNOW this. The goal which
you accepted IS the goal of knowledge, for which you signified your
willingness. Fear seems to live in darkness, and when you are afraid
you have stepped back. Let us then join quickly in an instant of light,
and it will be enough to remind you that your goal IS light.Truth has
rushed to meet you since you called upon it.
If you knew Who walks beside you on this way which you have
chosen, fear would be impossible. You do not know because the
journey into darkness has been long and cruel, and you have gone
deep into it.A little flicker of your eyelids, closed so long, has not yet
been sufficient to give you confidence in yourselves, so long
despised.You go toward love still hating it, and terribly afraid of its
judgement upon you. And you do not realize that you are not afraid
of love, but only of what you have made of it.You are advancing to
love’s meaning, and away from all illusions in which you have
surrounded it. When you retreat to the illusion your fear increases,
for there is little doubt that what you think it means IS fearful.Yet
what is that to us who travel surely and very swiftly AWAY from fear?
You who hold each other’s hand also hold mine, for when you
joined each other you were not alone. Do you believe that I would
leave you in the darkness you agreed to leave with ME? In your
relationship is this world’s light.And fear MUST disappear before you
now. Be tempted not to snatch away the gift of faith you offered to
each other.You will succeed only in frightening yourselves.The gift
is given forever, for God Himself received it.You CANNOT take it
back. You have accepted God. The holiness of your relationship is
established in Heaven.You do not understand what you accepted, but
remember that your understanding is not necessary. All that was
necessary was merely the WISH to understand. That wish was the
desire to be holy.The will of God is granted you. For you desire the
only thing you ever had, or ever were.
Each instant that we spend together will teach you that this goal
is possible, and will strengthen your desire to reach it. And in your
desire lies its accomplishment.Your desire is now in complete accord
with all the power of the Holy Spirit’s Will. No little, faltering footsteps
that you may take can separate your desire from His Will and from His
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strength. I hold your hand as surely as you agreed to take each other’s.
You will not separate for I stand with you, and walk with you in your
advance to truth.And where we go we carry God with us.
In your relationship, you have joined with me in bringing
Heaven to the Son of God, who hid in darkness. You have been
willing to bring the darkness to light, and this willingness has given
strength to everyone who would remain in darkness. Those who
would see WILL see. And they will join with me in carrying their
light into the darkness, when the darkness in them is offered to the
light, and is removed forever. My need for you, joined with me in the
holy light of your relationship, is YOUR need for salvation.Would I
not give you what you gave to me? For when you joined each other,
you answered me.
You who are now the bringers of salvation have the function of
bringing light to darkness.The darkness in you HAS been brought to
light. Carry it back to darkness, from the holy instant to which you
brought it.We are made whole in our desire to make whole. Let not
time worry you, for all the fear that you experience is really past.
Time has been re-adjusted to help us do, together, what your
separate pasts would hinder. You have gone past fear, for no two
minds can join in the desire for love without love’s joining THEM.
Not one light in Heaven but goes with you. Not one ray that
shines forever in the Mind of God but shines on you. Heaven is
joined with you in your advance to Heaven. When such great light
has joined with you to give the little spark of your desire the power
of God Himself, CAN you remain in darkness? You are coming home
together, after a long and meaningless journey which you undertook
apart, and which led nowhere.You have found each other, and will
light each other’s way. And from this light will the great rays extend
back into darkness and forward unto God, to shine away the past and
so make room for His eternal Presence, in Which everything is
radiant in the light.
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recognizing that you want it above all else. It is not necessary that you
do more; indeed, it is necessary that you realize that you CANNOT
do more. Do not attempt to give the Holy Spirit what He does not
ask, or you will add the ego unto Him, and confuse the two. He asks
but little. It is HE Who adds the greatness and the might. He joins
with you to make the holy instant far greater than you can
understand. It is your realization that you need do so little that
enables Him to give so much.
Trust not your good intentions.They are not enough. But trust
implicitly your willingness, whatever else may enter. Concentrate
only on this, and be not disturbed that shadows surround it. That is
why you came. If you could come without them, you would not
NEED the holy instant. Come to it not in arrogance, assuming that
you must achieve the state its coming brings with it.The miracle of
the holy instant lies in your willingness to let it be what it is. And in
your willingness for this lies also your acceptance of yourself as YOU
were meant to be.
Humility will never ask that you remain content with littleness.
But it DOES require that you be NOT content with less than
greatness which comes not of you. Your difficulty with the holy
instant arises from your fixed conviction that you are not worthy of
it.And what is this but the determination to be as you would MAKE
yourself? God did not create His dwelling-place unworthy of Him.
And if you believe He cannot enter where He wills to be, you must
be INTERFERING with His Will.You do not need the strength of
willingness to come from YOU, but only from HIS Will.
The holy instant does not come from your little willingness
alone. It is always the result of your small willingness combined with
the unlimited power of God’s Will.You have been wrong in thinking
that it is needful to PREPARE yourself for Him. It is impossible to
make arrogant preparations for holiness, and NOT believe that it is
up to you to establish the conditions for peace. GOD has established
them. They do not wait upon your willingness for what they are.
Your willingness is needed only to make it possible to TEACH you
what they are. If you maintain you are unworthy of learning this, you
are interfering with the lesson by believing that you make the
LEARNER different. You did not make the learner, nor CAN you
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make him different. Would you first make a miracle yourself, and
then expect one to be made FOR you?
YOU merely ask the question. The answer is GIVEN. Seek not
to answer it, but merely RECEIVE the answer as it is given. In
preparing for the holy instant, do not attempt to make yourself holy
to be ready to receive it.That is but to confuse your role with God’s.
Atonement cannot come to those who think that THEY must first
atone, but only to those who offer it nothing more than simple
willingness to make way for it. Purification is of God alone, and
therefore for you. Rather than seek to prepare yourself for Him, try
to think thus:
“I who am host to God AM worthy of Him.
He Who established His dwelling-place in me created it as
He would have it be.
It is not needful that I make it ready for Him,
But only that I do not interfere with His plan to restore to me my
own awareness of my readiness, which is eternal.
I need add nothing to His plan.
But to receive it, I must be willing not to substitute my own in
place of it.”
And that is all.Add more, and you will merely TAKE AWAY the
little that is asked. Remember you made guilt, and that your plan for
the escape from guilt has been to bring Atonement TO it, and make
salvation fearful. And it is only fear that you will add, if you prepare
YOURSELF for love.The preparation for the holy instant belongs to
Him Who gives it. Release yourselves to Him Whose function is
release. Do not assume His function for Him. Give Him but what He
asks, that you may learn how little is your part, and how great is His.
It is this that makes the holy instant so easy and so natural.You
make it difficult, because you insist there must be more that you need
do. And it is very hard for you to realize that it is not personally
insulting that your contribution and the Holy Spirit’s are so
extremely disproportionate. You are still convinced YOUR
understanding is a powerful contribution to the truth, and makes it
what it is. Yet we have emphasized that you need understand
nothing. Salvation is easy just BECAUSE it asks nothing that you
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THE HAPPY DREAM
change His Mind about it.The means and purpose BOTH belong to
Him.You have accepted one; the other will be provided. A purpose
such as this, without the means, is inconceivable. He will provide the
means to ANYONE who shares His purpose.
Happy dreams come true, NOT because they are dreams, but
only because they are HAPPY. And so they must be loving. Their
message is, “Thy Will be done,” and not, “I want it otherwise.” The
alignment of means and purpose is an undertaking impossible for you
to understand.You do not even realize you HAVE accepted the Holy
Spirit’s purpose as your own, and you would merely bring unholy
means to its accomplishment.The little faith it needed to change the
purpose is all that is required to receive the means and USE them.
It is no dream to love your brother as yourself. Nor is your holy
relationship a dream.All that remains of dreams within it is that it is still
a SPECIAL relationship.Yet it is very useful to the Holy Spirit, Who
HAS a special function here. It will become the happy dream through
which He can spread joy to thousands on thousands who believe that
love is fear, not happiness. Let Him fulfill the function that He gave to
your relationship by accepting it FOR you, and nothing will be
wanting that would make of it what He would have it be.
When you feel the holiness of your relationship is threatened by
anything, stop instantly and offer the Holy Spirit your willingness, IN
SPITE of fear, to let Him exchange this instant for the holy one
which you would rather have. He will never fail in this. But forget
not that your relationship is one, and so it must be that whatever
threatens the peace of one is an equal threat to the other.The power
of joining and its blessing lie in the fact that it is now impossible for
either of you to experience fear alone, or to attempt to deal with it
alone. Never believe that this is necessary, or even possible.Yet just as
this is impossible, so is it equally impossible that the holy instant
comes to either of you WITHOUT the other. And it will come to
BOTH at the request of either.
Which ever is saner at the time when the threat is perceived
should remember how deep is his indebtedness to the other, and
how much gratitude is due him, and be glad that he can pay his debt
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DREAMS AND THE BODY
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DREAMS AND THE BODY
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joined it where it is and where it led you, in answer to its gentle call
to BE at peace.
“I NEED DO NOTHING.”
You still have too much faith in the body as a source of strength.What
plans do you make that do not involve its comfort or protection or
enjoyment in some way? This makes it an end and not a means in your
interpretation, and this ALWAYS means you still find sin attractive. No-
one accepts Atonement for himself who still accepts sin as his goal.You
have thus not met your ONE responsibility. Atonement is not
welcomed by those who prefer pain and destruction.
You have made much progress and are really trying to make still
more, but there is one thing you have never done; not for one
instant have you utterly forgotten the body. It has faded at times from
your sight, but it has not yet completely disappeared. You are not
asked to let this happen for more than an instant, yet it is in this
instant that the miracle of Atonement happens. Afterwards, you will
see the body again, but never quite the same. And every instant that
you spend WITHOUT awareness of it gives you a different view of it
when you return .
At no single instant does the body exist at all. It is always
remembered or anticipated, but never experienced just NOW. Only
its past and future make it seem real.Time controls it entirely, for sin
is never present. In any single instant, the attraction of guilt would be
experienced as pain and nothing else, and would be avoided. It has
no attraction NOW. Its whole attraction is imaginary, and therefore
MUST be thought of in the past or in the future.
It is impossible to accept the holy instant without reservation
unless, just for an instant, you are willing to see NO past or future.You
cannot prepare for it WITHOUT placing it in the future. Release is
given you the instant you desire it. Many have spent a lifetime in
preparation, and have indeed achieved their instants of success. This
course does not attempt to teach more than they learned in time, but
it does aim at SAVING time.You are attempting to follow a very long
road to the goal you have accepted. It is extremely difficult to reach
Atonement by fighting against sin. Nor is a lifetime of contemplation
and long periods of meditation aimed at detachment from the body
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“I NEED DO NOTHING.”
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nothing, will remain with you, giving you rest in the midst of every
busy doing on which you are sent. For from this center will you be
directed how to use the body sinlessly. It is this center, from which
the body is absent, that will keep it so in your awareness of it.
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your little kingdom. And realize the life and joy which love
would bring to it from where it comes, and where it would return
with you.
The Thought of God surrounds your little kingdom, waiting at
the barrier you built to come inside and shine upon the barren
ground. See how life springs up everywhere! The desert becomes a
garden, green and deep and quiet, offering rest to those who lost
their way and wander in the dust. Give them a place of refuge,
prepared by love for them where once a desert was. And everyone
you welcome will bring love with him from Heaven for you. They
enter one by one into this holy place, but they will not depart as they
had come, alone. The love they brought with them will stay with
them, as it will stay with YOU. And under its beneficence, your little
garden will expand, and reach out to everyone who thirsts for living
water, but has grown too weary to go on alone.
Go out and find them, for they bring your Self with them. And
lead them gently to your quiet garden, and receive their blessing
there. So will it grow and stretch across the desert, leaving no lonely
little kingdoms locked away from love, and leaving YOU inside. And
you will recognize yourself, and see your little garden gently
transformed into the Kingdom of Heaven, with all the love of its
Creator shining upon it.The holy instant is your invitation to love, to
enter into your bleak and joyless kingdom, and to transform it into a
garden of peace and welcome.
Love’s answer is inevitable. It will come because you came
without the body, and interposed no barriers which would interfere
with its glad coming. In the holy instant, you ask of love only what it
offers everyone, neither less nor more. ASKING for everything, you
will RECEIVE it.And your shining Self will lift the tiny aspect which
you tried to hide from Heaven straight INTO Heaven. No part of
love calls on the whole in vain. No Son of God remains outside
His Fatherhood.
Be sure of this; love has entered your special relationship, and
entered fully at your weak request.You do not recognize that love has
come because you have not yet let go of all the barriers you hold
against each other. And you will not be able to give love welcome
separately.You could no more know God alone than He knows you
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THE DELUSIONAL THOUGHT SYSTEM
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446
THE PASSING OF THE DREAM
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448
nineteen
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19 BEYOND THE BODY
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HEALING AND THE MIND
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SIN VERSUS ERROR
DO, returning the glad tidings that it was done to you who stand
together before the altar from which they were sent forth.
As faithlessness will keep your little kingdoms barren and
separate, so will faith help the Holy Spirit prepare the ground for the
most holy garden which He would make of it. For faith brings peace,
and so it calls on truth to enter and make lovely what has already
been prepared for loveliness. Truth follows faith and peace,
completing the process of making lovely which they begin. For faith
is still a learning goal, no longer needed when the lesson has been
learned.Yet truth will stay forever.
Let, then, your dedication be to the eternal, and learn how NOT
to interfere with it and make it slave to time. For what you think you
do to the eternal you do to YOU.Whom God created as His Son is
slave to nothing, being lord of all along with his Creator. You can
enslave a body, but an IDEA is free, incapable of being kept in prison,
or limited in any way except by the mind that thought it. For it
remains joined to its source, which is its jailor or its liberator,
according to which it chooses as its purpose for itself.
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even turn the power of his mind against himself. But he CANNOT
sin. There is nothing he can do that would REALLY change his
reality in any way, nor make him really guilty.That is what sin would
do, for such is its purpose.Yet for all the wild insanity inherent in the
whole idea of sin, it is IMPOSSIBLE. For the wages of sin IS death,
and how can the immortal die?
A major tenet in the ego’s insane religion is that sin is not error
but TRUTH, and it is INNOCENCE that would deceive. Purity is
seen as arrogance, and the acceptance of the self as sinful is perceived
as holiness. And it is this doctrine which replaces the reality of the
Son of God as his Father created him, and willed that he be forever.
Is this humility? Or is it, rather, an attempt to wrest creation AWAY
from truth, and keep it separate?
Any attempt to re-interpret sin as error is always indefensible to
the ego. The idea of sin is wholly sacrosanct to its thought system,
and quite unapproachable except through reverence and awe. It is the
most “holy” concept in the ego’s system; lovely and powerful, wholly
true, and necessarily protected with every defense at its disposal. For
here lies its “best” defense, which all the others serve. Here is its
armor, its protection, and the fundamental purpose of the special
relationship in its interpretation.
It can indeed be said the ego made its world on sin. Only in
such a world could everything be upside-down. This is the strange
illusion which makes the clouds of guilt seem heavy and
impenetrable.The solidness this world’s foundation seems to have is
found in this. For sin has changed creation from an Idea of God to an
ideal the ego wants; a world IT rules, made up of bodies, mindless
and capable of complete corruption and decay. If this is a mistake, it
can be undone easily by truth.Any mistake can be corrected, if truth
be left to judge it. But if the mistake is given the STATUS of truth, to
what can it be brought? The “holiness” of sin is kept in place by just
this strange device. As truth it is inviolate, and everything is brought
to IT for judgement. As a mistake, IT must be brought to truth. It is
impossible to have faith in sin, for sin IS faithlessness.Yet it IS possible
to have faith that a mistake can be corrected.
There is no stone in all the ego’s embattled citadel more heavily
defended than the idea that sin is real; the natural expression of what
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THE UNREALITY OF SIN
the Son of God has made himself to be, and what he IS.To the ego,
this is NO MISTAKE. For this IS its reality; this is the “truth” from
which escape will always be impossible. This is his past, his present
and his future. For he has somehow managed to corrupt his Father,
and changed His Mind completely. Mourn, then, the death of God,
Whom sin has killed! And this would be the ego’s wish, which in its
madness it thinks it has ACCOMPLISHED.
Would you not RATHER that all this be nothing more than a
mistake, entirely correctable, and so easily escaped from that its
whole correction is like walking through a mist into the sun? For
that is all it is. Perhaps you would be tempted to agree with the ego
that it is far better to be sinful than mistaken.Yet think you carefully
before you allow yourself to make this choice. Approach it not
lightly, for it IS the choice of hell or Heaven.
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you will but change the FORM of sin, granting that it was an error,
but keeping it uncorrectable. This is not really a change in your
perception, for it is SIN that calls for punishment, not error.The Holy
Spirit CANNOT punish sin. Mistakes He recognizes, and would
correct them all as God entrusted Him to do. But sin He knows not,
nor can He recognize mistakes which cannot be corrected. For a
mistake which cannot be corrected is meaningless to Him.
Mistakes are FOR correction, and they call for nothing else.
What calls for punishment must call for nothing. Every mistake
MUST be a call for love. What, then, is sin? What could it be but a
mistake you would keep hidden; a call for help that you would keep
unheard and thus unanswered? In time, the Holy Spirit clearly sees
the Son of God can make mistakes. On this you share His vision.Yet
you do not share His recognition of the difference between time and
eternity.And when correction is completed, time IS eternity.
Time is like a downward spiral which seems to travel down from
a long, unbroken line along another plane, but which in no way breaks
the line, or interferes with its smooth continuousness.Along the spiral,
it seems as if the line must have been broken. Yet at the line, its
wholeness is apparent. Everything seen from the spiral is misperceived,
but as you approach the line, you realize that it was not affected by the
drop into another plane at all. Yet from the plane, the line seems
discontinuous. And this is but an error in perception, which can be
easily corrected in the MIND, although the body’s eyes will see no
change.The eyes see many things the mind corrects, and you respond,
not to the eyes’ illusions, but to the mind’s CORRECTIONS.
You see the line as broken, and as you shift to different aspects of
the spiral, the line looks different. Yet in your mind is One Who
knows it is unbroken, and forever changeless.This One can teach you
how to look on time differently and see BEYOND it, but not while
you believe in sin. In error, yes, for this can be corrected by the mind.
But sin is the belief that your perception is unchangeable, and
that the mind must accept as true what it is told through it. If it does
not obey, the mind is judged insane. The only power which could
change perception is thus kept impotent, held to the body by the
FEAR of changed perception which its Teacher,Who is one with it,
would bring.
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THE UNREALITY OF SIN
When you are tempted to believe that sin is real, remember this: If sin
is real, both God and you are not. If creation is extension, the Creator
must have extended Himself, and it is impossible that what is part of
Him is totally unlike the rest. If sin is real, God must be at war with
Himself. He must be split, and torn between good and evil; partly
sane and partially insane. For He must have created what wills to
destroy Him, and has the POWER to do so. Is it not easier to believe
that YOU have been mistaken than to believe in this?
While you believe that your reality or your brother’s is bounded
by a body, you will believe in sin.While you believe that bodies can
unite, you will find guilt attractive, and believe that sin is precious.
For the belief that bodies limit mind leads to a perception of the
world in which the proof of separation seems to be everywhere.And
God and His creations seem to be split apart and overthrown. For sin
would PROVE what God created holy could not prevail against it,
nor remain itself before the power of sin. Sin is perceived as
MIGHTIER than God, before which God Himself must bow, and
offer His creation to its conqueror. Is this humility or madness?
If sin were real, it would forever be beyond the hope of healing.
For there would be a power beyond God’s, capable of making
another will which could attack His Will and OVERCOME It; and
give His Son a will apart from His, and STRONGER. And each part
of God’s fragmented creation would have a different will, opposed to
His, and in eternal opposition to Him and to each other.Your holy
relationship has, as its purpose now, the goal of proving this is
impossible. Heaven has smiled upon it, and the belief in sin has been
uprooted in its smile of love.You see it still because you do not realize
that its FOUNDATION has gone. Its source has been removed, and so
it can be cherished but a little while before it vanishes. Only the
habit of LOOKING for it still remains.
And yet you look with Heaven’s smile upon your lips, and
Heaven’s blessing on your sight.You will not see it long. For in the
new perception, the mind corrects it when it seems to be seen, and it
becomes invisible. And errors are quickly recognized and quickly
given to correction, to be healed, not hidden.You will be healed of
sin and all its ravages the instant that you give it no power over each
other. And you will help each other overcome mistakes by joyously
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458
OBSTACLES TO PEACE
OBSTACLES TO PEACE
I. The Desire to Get Rid of It
The first obstacle that peace must flow across is your desire to get
RID of it. For it cannot extend unless you KEEP it.You are the center
from which it radiates outward, to call the others in. You are its
home; its tranquil dwelling-place, from which it gently reaches out,
but never leaving YOU. If you would make it homeless, how can it
abide within the Son of God? If it would spread across the whole
creation, it must begin with you, and FROM you reach to everyone
who calls, and bring him rest by joining you.
Why would you want peace homeless? What do you think that it
must dispossess, to dwell with you? What seems to be the cost you are
so unwilling to pay? The little barrier of sand still stands between you.
Would you reinforce it NOW? You are not asked to let it go for
yourselves alone. Christ asks it of you for Himself. He would bring
peace to everyone, and how can He do this EXCEPT through you?
Would you let a little bank of sand, a wall of dust, a tiny seeming
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barrier, stand between your brothers and salvation? And yet, it IS this
little remnant of attack you cherish still against each other that is the
first obstacle the peace in you encounters in its going forth.This little
wall of hatred would still oppose the Will of God, and keep It limited.
The Holy Spirit’s purpose rests in peace within you.Yet you are
still unwilling to let it join you wholly.You still oppose the Will of
God, just by a little.And that little is a limit you would place upon the
whole. God’s Will is One, not many. It has no opposition, for there is
none beside It.What you would still contain behind your little barrier
and keep separate from each other seems mightier than the universe,
for it would hold back the universe and its Creator. This little wall
would hide the purpose of Heaven, and keep it FROM Heaven.
Would you thrust salvation away from the GIVER of salvation?
For such have you become. Peace could no more depart from you
than from God. Fear not this little obstacle. It cannot contain the Will
of God. Peace WILL flow across it, and join you without hindrance.
Salvation cannot BE withheld from you. It is your PURPOSE.You
CANNOT will apart from this.You have no purpose apart from each
other, nor apart from the one you asked the Holy Spirit to share with
you. The little wall will fall away so quietly beneath the wings of
peace! For peace will send its messengers from you to all the world.
And barriers will fall away before their coming as easily as those
which you would interpose will be surmounted.
To overcome the world is no more difficult than to surmount
your little wall. For in the miracle of your relationship, without this
barrier, is EVERY miracle contained. There is no order of difficulty
in miracles, for they are all the SAME. Each is a gentle winning over
from the appeal of guilt to the appeal of love. How can this FAIL to
be accomplished, wherever it is undertaken? Guilt can raise no real
barriers against it. And all that seems to stand between you must fall
away because of the appeal you answered. For from you who
answered, He Who answered you would call. His home is in your
holy relationship. Do not attempt to stand between Him and His
holy purpose, for it is yours. But let Him quietly extend the miracle
of your relationship to everyone contained in it as it was given.
There is a hush in Heaven, a happy expectancy, a little pause of
gladness in acknowledgment of the journey’s end. For Heaven knows
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you well, as you know Heaven. No illusions stand between you now.
Look not upon the little wall of shadows.The sun has risen OVER it.
How can a shadow keep you from the sun? No more can you be
kept by shadows from the light in which illusions end. Every miracle
is but the end of an illusion. Such was the journey; such its ending.
And in the goal of truth which you accepted must ALL illusions end.
The little, insane wish to get rid of Him Who you invited in and
push Him out MUST produce conflict.As you look upon the world,
this little wish, uprooted and floating aimlessly, can land and settle
briefly upon anything, for it HAS no purpose now. Before the Holy
Spirit entered to abide with you, it seemed to have a MIGHTY
purpose; the fixed and unchangeable dedication to sin and its results.
Now it is aimless, wandering pointlessly, causing no more than tiny
interruptions in love’s appeal.
This feather of a wish, this tiny illusion, this microscopic
remnant of the belief in sin, is all that remains of what once seemed
to be the world. It is no longer an unrelenting barrier to peace. Its
pointless wandering makes its results appear to be more erratic and
unpredictable than before.Yet what COULD be more unstable than a
tightly-organized delusional system? Its seeming stability is its
pervasive WEAKNESS, which extends to everything. The variability
which the little remnant induces merely indicates its limited results.
How mighty can a little feather be before the great wings of
truth? Can it oppose an eagle’s flight, or hinder the advance of
summer? Can it interfere with the effects of summer’s sun upon a
garden covered by the snow? See but how easily this little whisp is
lifted up and carried away, never to return, and part with it in
gladness, not regret. For it is nothing in itself, and stood for nothing
when you had greater faith in its protection. Would you not rather
greet the summer sun than fix your gaze upon a disappearing
snowflake, and shiver in remembrance of the winter’s cold?
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For love contains the end of guilt, as surely as fear depends on it.
Overlooking guilt completely, it sees no fear. Being wholly without
attack, it COULD not be afraid. Fear is attracted to what love sees
not, and each believes that what the other looks upon does not exist.
Fear looks on guilt with just the same devotion that love looks on
itself. And each has messengers which they send forth, and which
return to them with messages written in the language in which their
going forth was asked.
Love’s messengers are gently sent, and return with messages of
love and gentleness. The messengers of fear are harshly ordered to
seek out guilt, and cherish every scrap of evil and of sin which they
can find, losing none of them on pain of death, and laying them
respectfully before their lord and master. Perception cannot obey two
masters, each asking for messages of different things in different
languages. What fear would feed upon, love overlooks. What fear
demands, love cannot even see.
The fierce attraction which guilt holds for fear is wholly absent
from love’s gentle perception. What love would look upon is
meaningless to fear, and quite invisible. Relationships in this world
are the result of how the world is seen. And this depends on which
emotion was called on to send its messengers to look upon it, and
return with word of what they saw. Fear’s messengers are trained
through terror, and they tremble when their master calls upon them
to serve him. For fear is merciless even to its friends. Its messengers
steal guiltily away in hungry search of guilt, for they are kept cold
and starving, and made very vicious by their master, who allows
them to feast only upon what they return to him. No little shred of
guilt escapes their hungry eyes. And in their savage search for sin,
they pounce on any living thing they see, and carry it screaming to
their master, to be devoured.
Send not these savage messengers into the world, to feast upon
it, and to prey upon reality. For they will bring you word of bones
and skin and flesh.They have been taught to seek for the corruptible,
and to return with gorges filled with things decayed and rotted. To
them such things are beautiful because they seem to allay their savage
pangs of hunger. For they are frantic with the pain of fear, and would
avert the punishment of him who sends them forth by offering him
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THE ATTRACTION OF GUILT
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anyone, and death does not atone for sin.Yet you can LIVE to show it
is not real.The body DOES appear to be the symbol of sin, while you
believe that it can get you what you want.While you believe that it
can give you pleasure, you will also believe that it can bring you pain.
To think you could be satisfied and happy with so little is to
hurt yourself, and to limit the happiness that you would have, calls
upon pain to fill your meager store and make your lives complete.
This IS completion, as the ego sees it. For guilt creeps in where
happiness has been removed, and substitutes for it. Communion is
another kind of completion, which goes beyond guilt, because it
goes beyond the body.
OBSTACLES TO PEACE
II. The Belief the Body is Valuable for What it Offers
We said that peace must first surmount the obstacle of your desire to
get rid of it. Where the attraction of guilt holds sway, peace is not
WANTED. The second obstacle that peace must flow across, and
closely related to the first, is the belief that the body is valuable for
what it offers. For here is the attraction of guilt made manifest in the
body, and SEEN in it.
This the value that you think peace would rob you of. This is
what you believe that it would dispossess, and leave you homeless.
And it is this for which you would deny a home to peace. This
“sacrifice” you feel to be too great to make, too much to ask of you.
Is it a sacrifice, or a release? What has the body really given you
that justifies your strange belief that in it lies salvation? Do you not
see that this is the belief in death? Here is the focus of the perception
of Atonement as murder. Here is the source of the idea that love is
fear. The Holy Spirit’s messengers are sent far beyond the body,
calling the mind to join in holy communion and be at peace. Such is
the message that I gave them for you.
It is only the messengers of fear that see the body, for they look
for what can suffer. Is it a sacrifice to be REMOVED from what can
suffer? The Holy Spirit does not demand you sacrifice the hope of
the body’s pleasure; it HAS no hope of pleasure. But neither can it
bring you fear of pain. Pain is the only “sacrifice” the Holy Spirit
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OBSTACLES TO PEACE
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19 BEYOND THE BODY
giving peace its home in Heaven. Send forth to all the world the
joyous message of the end of guilt, and all the world will answer.
Think of your happiness as everyone offers you witness of the end of
sin, and shows you that its power is gone forever.Where can guilt be,
when the belief in sin is gone? And where is death, when its great
advocate is heard no more?
Forgive me your illusions, and release me from punishment for
what I have not done. So will you learn the freedom that I taught by
teaching freedom to each other, and so releasing me. I am within
your holy relationship, yet you would imprison me behind the
obstacles you raise to freedom, and bar my way to you.Yet it is not
possible to keep away One Who is there already. And in Him it IS
possible that our communion, where we are joined already, will be
the focus of the new perception that will bring light to all the world,
contained in YOU.
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PLEASURE AND PAIN
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19 BEYOND THE BODY
you this with joy.The ego hides it, for it would keep you unaware of
it. Who would send messages of hatred and attack if he but
understood he sends them to HIMSELF? Who would accuse, make
guilty and condemn HIMSELF?
The ego’s messages are always sent AWAY from you, in the belief
that for your message of attack and guilt will someone other than
yourself suffer. And even if you suffer, yet someone else will suffer
more. The great deceiver recognizes that this is not so, but as the
“enemy” of peace, it urges you to send out all your messages of hate
and free YOURSELF.And to convince you this is possible, it bids the
body search for pain in attack upon another, calling it pleasure and
offering it to you as freedom FROM attack.
Hear not its madness, and believe not the impossible is true.
Forget not that the ego has dedicated the body to the goal of sin, and
places in it all its faith that this can be accomplished. Its sad disciples
chant the body’s praise continually, in solemn celebration of the ego’s
rule. Not one but must believe that yielding to the attraction of guilt
is the ESCAPE from pain. Not one but must regard the body as
himself, without which he would die, and yet within which is his
death equally inevitable.
It is not given to the ego’s disciples to realize that they have
dedicated THEMSELVES to death. Freedom is offered them, but they
have not accepted it, and what is offered must also be received, to be
truly given. For the Holy Spirit, too, is a communication medium,
receiving from the Father and offering His messages unto the Son.
Like the ego, the Holy Spirit is both the sender and the receiver. For
what is sent through Him RETURNS to Him, seeking itself along
the way, and finding what it seeks. So does the ego find the death IT
seeks, returning it to YOU.
OBSTACLES TO PEACE
III. The Attraction of Death
To you, in whose special relationship the Holy Spirit entered, it is
given to release and be released from the dedication to death. For it
was offered you, and you ACCEPTED.Yet you must learn still more
about this strange devotion, for it contains the third of the obstacles
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THE INCORRUPTIBLE BODY
which peace must flow across. No-one can die unless he chooses
death.What SEEMS to be the fear of death is really its ATTRACTION.
Guilt, too, is feared and fearful.Yet it could have no hold at all except
on those who are attracted to it and seek it out.And so it is with death.
Made by the ego, its dark shadow falls across all living things, because
the ego is the “enemy” of life.
And yet a shadow cannot kill. What is a shadow to the living?
They but walk past and it is gone. But what of those whose
dedication it is NOT to live; the black-draped “sinners,” the ego’s
mournful chorus, plodding so heavily away from life, dragging their
chains and marching in the slow procession which honors their grim
master, lord of death? Touch any one of them with the gentle hands
of forgiveness, and watch the chains fall away, along with yours. See
him throw aside the black robe he was wearing to his funeral, and
hear him laugh at death. The sentence sin would lay upon him he
can escape through your forgiveness.
This is no arrogance. It is the Will of God.What is impossible to
you who chose His Will as yours? What is death to you? YOUR
dedication is not to death, nor to its master.When you accepted the
Holy Spirit’s purpose in place of the ego’s, you renounced death,
exchanging it for life.We know that an idea leaves not its source.And
death is the result of the thought we call the ego, as surely as life is
the result of the Thought of God.
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THE INCORRUPTIBLE BODY
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19 BEYOND THE BODY
OBSTACLES TO PEACE
IV. The Fear of God
What would you see without the fear of death? What would you feel
and think if death held no attraction for you? Very simply, you would
remember your Father.The Creator of life, the Source of everything
that lives, the Father of the universe and of the universe of universes,
and of everything that lies even beyond them would you remember.
And as this memory rises in your mind, peace must still surmount a
final obstacle, after which is salvation completed, and the Son of God
entirely restored to sanity. For here your world DOES end.
The fourth obstacle to be surmounted hangs like a heavy veil
before the face of Christ.Yet as His face rises beyond it, shining with
joy because He is in His Father’s Love, peace will lightly brush the
veil aside and run to meet Him, and to join with Him at last. For this
dark veil, which seems to make the face of Christ Himself like to a
leper’s, and the bright rays of His Father’s Love which light His face
with glory appear as streams of blood, fades in the blazing light
beyond it when the fear of death is gone.
This is the darkest veil, upheld by the belief in death, and
protected by its attraction. The dedication to death and to its
sovereignty is but the solemn vow, the promise made in secret to the
ego never to lift this veil, not to approach it, nor even to suspect that
it is there.This is the secret bargain made with the ego to keep what
lies beyond the veil forever blotted out and unremembered. Here is
your promise never to allow union to call you out of separation; the
great amnesia in which the memory of God seems quite forgotten;
the cleavage of your Self from you;– THE FEAR OF GOD, the final
step in your dissociation.
See how the belief in death would seem to “save” you. For if this
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OBSTACLES TO PEACE
is gone, what can you fear but LIFE? It is the attraction of death that
makes life seem to be ugly, cruel and tyrannical. You are no more
afraid of death than of the ego.These are your chosen FRIENDS. For
in your secret alliance with them, you have agreed never to let the
fear of God be lifted, so you could look upon the face of Christ, and
join Him in His Father.
Every obstacle that peace must flow across is surmounted in just
the same way; the fear that raised it yields to the love beneath, and so
the fear is gone. And so it is with this.The desire to get rid of peace
and drive the Holy Spirit from you fades in the presence of the quiet
recognition that you love Him. The exaltation of the body is given
up in favor of the Spirit, which you love as you could NEVER love
the body. And the appeal of death is lost forever as love’s attraction
stirs and calls to you. From beyond each of the obstacles to love, Love
Itself has called, and each has been surmounted by the power of the
attraction of what lies beyond. Your WANTING fear seemed to be
holding them in place.Yet when you heard the voice of love beyond
them, you answered and they disappeared.
And now you stand in terror before what you swore never to
look upon.Your eyes look down, remembering your promise to your
“friends.” The “loveliness” of sin, the delicate appeal of guilt, the
“holy” waxen image of death, and the fear of vengeance of the ego
you swore in blood not to desert, all rise and bid you not to raise your
eyes. For you realize that if you look on this and LET the veil be lifted,
THEY will be gone forever. All of your “friends,” your “protectors”
and your “home” will vanish. Nothing that you remember now will
you remember.
It seems to you the world will utterly abandon you if you but
raise your eyes. Yet all that will occur is you will leave the world
forever. This is the re-establishment of YOUR will. Look upon it,
open-eyed, and you will nevermore believe that you are at the mercy
of things beyond you, forces you cannot control, and thoughts that
come to you against your will. It IS your will to look on this. No
mad desire, no trivial impulse to forget again, no stab of fear nor the
cold sweat of seeming death can stand against your will. For what
attracts you from beyond the veil is also deep WITHIN you,
unseparated from it and completely One.
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19 BEYOND THE BODY
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THE LIFTING OF THE VEIL
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19 BEYOND THE BODY
him. And offer thanks to God that he is holy, and has been given the
gift of holiness for YOU. Join him in gladness, and remove all trace of
guilt from his disturbed and tortured mind. Help him to lift the heavy
burden of sin you laid upon him and he accepted as his own, and toss
it lightly and with happy laughter away from him. Press it not like
thorns against his brow, nor nail him to it unredeemed and hopeless.
Give each other faith, for faith and hope and mercy are yours to
give. Into the hands that give the gift is given. Look on your brother,
and see in him the gift of God you would receive. It is almost Easter,
the time of resurrection. Let us give redemption to each other and
SHARE in it, that we may rise as one in resurrection, and not
separate in death. Behold the gift of freedom that I gave the Holy
Spirit for BOTH of you.And be you free together, as you offer to the
Holy Spirit this same gift. And giving it receive it of Him in return
for what you gave. He leadeth you and me together, that we might
meet here in this holy place, and make the same decision.
Free your brother here, as I freed you. Give him the self-same
gift, nor look upon him with condemnation of any kind. See him as
guiltless as I look on you, and overlook the sins he thinks he sees
within himself. Offer each other freedom and complete release from
sin, here in the garden of seeming agony and death. So will we
prepare together the way unto the resurrection of God’s Son, and let
him rise again to glad remembrance of his Father, Who knows no
sin, no death, but only life eternal.
Together we will disappear into the Presence beyond the veil,
not to be lost but FOUND; not to be seen but KNOWN. And
knowing, nothing in the plan God has established for salvation will
be left undone. This is the journey’s purpose, without which IS the
journey meaningless. Here is the peace of God, given to you
eternally by Him. Here is the rest and quiet that you seek, the reason
for the journey from its beginning. Heaven is the gift you owe each
other, the debt of gratitude you offer to the Son of God in thanks for
what he is, and what his Father created him to be.
Think carefully how you would look upon the giver of this gift,
for as you look on him, so will the gift itself appear to be. As he is
seen as either the giver of guilt or of salvation, so will his offering be
seen, and so received. The crucified give pain because they are in
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THE LIFTING OF THE VEIL
pain. But the redeemed give joy because they have been HEALED of
pain. Everyone gives as he receives, but he must choose what it will
BE that he receives. And he will recognize his choice by what he
gives, and what is given him. Nor is it given anything in hell or
Heaven to interfere with his decision.
You came this far because the journey WAS your choice. And
no-one undertakes to do what he believes is meaningless.What you
had faith in still is faithful, and watches over you in faith so gentle yet
so strong that it would lift you far BEYOND the veil, and place the
Son of God safely within the sure protection of his Father. Here is
the only purpose that gives this world and the long journey through
this world whatever meaning lies in them. Beyond this, they ARE
meaningless.You stand together, still without conviction they HAVE
a purpose.Yet it is given you to see this purpose in your holy Friend,
and recognize it is your own.
477
twe nty
The Promise
of the Resurrection
HOLY WEEK
This week begins with palms and ends with lilies, the white and holy
sign the Son of God is innocent. Let no dark sign of crucifixion
intervene between the journey and its purpose; between the
acceptance of the truth and its expression. This week we celebrate
life, not death. And we honor the perfect purity of the Son of God,
and not his sins. Offer each other the gift of lilies, not the crown of
thorns; the gift of love and not the “gift” of fear. You stand beside
each other, thorns in one hand and lilies in the other, uncertain
which to give. Join now with me and throw away the thorns,
offering the lilies to replace them.This Easter, I would have the gift
of your forgiveness offered by you to me, and returned by me to you.
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THORNS AND LILIES
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THORNS AND LILIES
while, and laid aside. Listen and hear this carefully, nor think it but a
dream; a careless thought to play with, or a toy you would pick up
from time to time, and then put by. For if you do, so will it be to you:
You have the vision now to look past ALL illusions. It has been
given you to see no thorns, no strangers, and no obstacles to peace.
The fear of God is nothing to you now.Who is afraid to look upon
illusions, knowing his Savior stands beside him? With him, your
vision has become the greatest power for the undoing of illusion that
God Himself could give. For what God gave the Holy Spirit, you
have received. The Son of God looks unto you for his release. For
you have asked for, and been given, the strength to look upon this
final obstacle, and see no thorns nor nails to crucify the Son of God,
and crown him king of death.Your chosen home is on the other side,
beyond the veil. It has been carefully prepared for you, and it is ready
to receive you now.You will not see it with the body’s eyes.Yet all
you need you have.
Your home has called to you since time began, nor have you
ever failed entirely to hear.You heard, but knew not HOW to look,
nor WHERE. And now you know. In you the knowledge lies, ready
to be unveiled and freed from all the terror that kept it hidden.There
IS no fear in love. The song of Easter is the glad refrain the Son of
God was NEVER crucified. Let us lift up our eyes together, not in
fear, but faith.And there WILL be no fear in us, for in our vision will
be no illusions; only a pathway to the open door of Heaven, the
home we share in quietness, and where we live in gentleness and
peace, as one together.
Would you not have your holy brother lead you there? His
innocence will light your way, offering you its guiding light and sure
protection, and shining from the holy altar within him where you
laid the lilies of forgiveness. Let him be to you the Savior from
illusions, and look on him with the new vision that looks upon the
lilies and brings YOU joy.We go beyond the veil of fear, lighting each
other’s way.The holiness that leads us is WITHIN us, as is our home.
So will we find what we were meant to find by Him Who leads us.
This is the way to Heaven and to the peace of Easter, in which
we join in glad awareness that the Son of God is risen from the past,
and has awakened to the present. Now is he free, unlimited in his
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communion with all that is within him. Now are the lilies of his
innocence untouched by guilt, and perfectly protected from the cold
chill of fear and withering blight of sin alike.Your gift has saved him
from the thorns and nails, and his strong arm is free to guide you
safely through them, and beyond.Walk with him now rejoicing, for
the Savior from illusions has come to greet you, and lead you home
with him.
Here is your Savior and your Friend, released from crucifixion
through your vision, and free to lead you now where HE would be.
He will not leave you, nor forsake the Savior from his pain. And
gladly will you walk the way of innocence together, singing as you
behold the open door of Heaven, and recognize the home that called
to you. Give joyously to one another the freedom and the strength to
lead you there. And come before each other’s holy altar where the
strength and freedom wait, to offer and receive the bright awareness
that leads you home.The lamp is lit in both of you for one another.
And by the hands that gave it to each other shall both of you be led
past fear to love.
SIN AS AN ADJUSTMENT
The belief in sin is an ADJUSTMENT. And an adjustment is a
CHANGE; a shift in perception, or a belief that what was so before has
been made different. Every adjustment is therefore a distortion, and
calls upon defenses to uphold it against reality. Knowledge requires NO
adjustment, and, in fact, is lost if any shift or change is undertaken. For
this reduces it at once to mere perception; a way of LOOKING in
which certainty is lost, and doubt has entered. To this impaired
condition ARE adjustments necessary, because they are not true.Who
need adjust to truth, which calls on only what he is, to understand?
Adjustments of any kind are of the ego. For it is the ego’s fixed
belief that all relationships DEPEND upon adjustments to make of
them what it would have them be. Direct relationships, in which
there are no interferences, are ALWAYS seen as dangerous.The ego is
the self-appointed mediator of all relationships, making whatever
adjustments it deems necessary, and interposing them between those
who would meet, to keep them separate and prevent their union. It
is this studied interference which makes it difficult for you to
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ENTERING THE ARK
long forgotten. Strengthen your hold, and raise your eyes unto your
strong companion, in whom the meaning of your freedom lies. He
seemed to be crucified beside you. And yet his holiness remained
untouched and perfect, and with him beside you, you shall this day
enter with him to Paradise, and know the peace of God.
Such is my will for both of you, and for each of you for one
another, and for himself. Here there is only holiness and joining
without limit. For what is Heaven but union, direct and perfect, and
without the veil of fear upon it? Here are we one, looking with
perfect gentleness upon each other, and on ourselves. Here all
thoughts of any separation between us becomes impossible.You who
were prisoners in separation are now made free in Paradise.And here
would I unite with you, my friends, my brothers and my Self.Your gift
unto each other has given me the certainty our union will be soon.
Share, then, this faith with me, and know that it is justified.
There is no fear in perfect love BECAUSE it knows no sin, and it
must look on others as on itself. Looking with charity within, what
can it fear WITHOUT? The innocent see safety, and the pure in heart
see God within His Son, and look unto the Son to lead them to the
Father. And where else would they go but where they will to be?
Each of you now will lead the other to the Father as surely as God
created His Son holy, and kept him so. In your brother is the light of
God’s eternal promise of your immortality. See HIM as sinless, and
there can BE no fear in you.
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ENTERING THE ARK
except the part that has been given you to learn. For He Who knows
the rest will see to it without your help. But think not that He does
not need your part to help Him with the rest. For in your part lies
ALL of it, without which is no part complete, nor is the whole
completed without your part. The ark of peace is entered two by
two, yet the beginning of another world goes with them. Each holy
relationship must enter here, to learn its special function in the Holy
Spirit’s plan, now that it shares His purpose. And as this purpose is
fulfilled, a new world rises in which sin can enter not, and where the
Son of God can enter without fear, and where he rests a while, to
forget imprisonment and to remember freedom. How can he enter,
to rest and to remember, without YOU? Except you be there, he is
not complete.And it is his completion that he remembers there.
This is the purpose given you.Think not that your forgiveness of
each other serves but you two alone. For the whole new world rests in
the hands of every two who enter here to rest.And as they rest, the face
of Christ shines on them, and they remember the laws of God,
forgetting all the rest, and yearning only to have His laws perfectly
fulfilled in them and all their brothers.Think you when this has been
achieved that you will rest WITHOUT them? You could no more leave
one of them outside than I could leave you and forget part of myself.
You may wonder how you can be at peace when, while you are
in time, there is so much that must be done before the way to peace
is open. Perhaps this seems impossible to you. But ask yourself if it is
possible that God would have a plan for your salvation that does
NOT work. Once you accept His plan as the one function that you
would fulfill, there will be nothing else the Holy Spirit will not
arrange for you WITHOUT your effort.
He will go before you making straight your path, and leaving in
your way no stones to trip on, and no obstacles to bar your way.
Nothing you need will be denied you. Not one seeming difficulty
but will melt away before you reach it. You need take thought for
nothing, careless of everything except the only purpose that you
would fulfill. As that was given you, so will its fulfillment be. God’s
guarantee will hold against all obstacles, for it rests on certainty and
not contingency. It rests on YOU. And what can be more certain
than a Son of God?
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HERALDS OF ETERNITY
In this world, God’s Son comes closest to himself in a holy relationship.
There he begins to find the certainty his Father has in him.And there
he finds his function of restoring his Father’s laws to what was held
outside them, and finding what was lost. Only in time can
ANYTHING be lost, and NEVER lost forever. So do the parts of God’s
Son gradually join in time, and with each joining is the end of time
brought nearer. Each miracle of joining is a mighty herald of eternity.
No-one who has a single purpose, unified and sure, can be afraid. No-
one who shares his purpose with him can NOT be one with him.
Each herald of eternity sings of the end of sin and fear. Each
speaks in time of what is far beyond it.Two voices raised together call
to the hearts of everyone, and let them beat as one.And in that single
heart beat is the unity of love proclaimed and given welcome. Peace
to your holy relationship, which has the power to hold the unity of
the Son of God together.You give to one another for everyone, and
in your gift is everyone made glad. Forget not Who has given you the
gifts you give, and through your not forgetting this will you
remember Who gave the gifts to Him to give to you.
It is impossible to overestimate your brother’s value. Only the
ego does this, but all IT means is that it wants the other for itself, and
therefore values him too LITTLE.What is inestimable clearly cannot
BE evaluated. Do you recognize the fear that rises from the
meaningless attempt to judge what lies so far beyond your
judgement you cannot even see it? Judge not what is invisible to you
or you will NEVER see it, but wait in patience for its coming. It will
be given you to see your brother’s worth when all you want for him
is peace.And what you want for him you will receive.
How can you estimate the worth of him who offers peace to
you? What would you WANT except his offering? His worth has been
established by his Father, and you will recognize it as you receive his
Father’s gift through him.What is in him will shine so brightly in your
grateful vision that you will merely love him, and be glad.You will not
think to judge him, for who would see the face of Christ and yet insist
that judgement still has meaning? For this insistence is of those who do
NOT see.Vision or judgement is your choice, but never both of these.
Your brother’s body is as little use to you as it is to him.When it
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is used only as the Holy Spirit teaches it HAS no function, for minds
need not the body to communicate.The sight that sees the body has
no use which serves the purpose of a holy relationship. And while
you look upon each other thus, the means and end have not been
brought in line.Why should it take so many holy instants to let this
be accomplished, when one would do? There IS but one. The little
breath of eternity that runs through time like golden light is all the
same; nothing before it, nothing afterwards.
YOU look upon each holy instant as a different point in time. IT
never changes. All that it ever held, or will ever hold, is here right
NOW. The past takes nothing from it, and the future will add no
more. Here, then, is everything. Here is the loveliness of your
relationship, with means and end in perfect harmony ALREADY.
Here is the perfect faith that you will one day offer to each other
ALREADY offered you. And here the limitless forgiveness you will
give each other ALREADY given; the face of Christ you yet will look
upon ALREADY seen.
Can you evaluate the giver of a gift like this? Would you
exchange this gift for any other? This gift returns the laws of God to
your remembrance. And merely by remembering them, the laws that
held you prisoner to pain and death MUST be forgotten. This is no
gift your brother’s body offers you.The veil that hides the gift hides
him as well. He IS the gift, and yet he knows it not. No more do you.
And yet, have faith that He Who sees the gift in both of you will offer
and receive it for you both. And through His vision will you see it,
and through His understanding recognize it and love it as your own.
Be comforted, and feel the Holy Spirit watching over you in
love and perfect confidence in what He sees. He KNOWS the Son of
God, and shares his Father’s certainty the universe rests in his gentle
hands in safety and in peace. Let us consider now what he must
learn, to share his Father’s confidence in him. What is he, that the
Creator of the universe should offer it to him, and know it rests in
safety? He looks upon himself not as his Father knows him. And yet
it is impossible the confidence of God should be misplaced.
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THE TEMPLE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT
seeks for crumbs to keep itself alive. Here it would drag its brothers,
holding them here in its idolatry. Here it is “safe,” for here love
cannot enter.The Holy Spirit does not build His temples where love
can never be. Would He Who sees the face of Christ choose as His
home the only place in all the universe where it can NOT be seen?
You CANNOT make the body the Holy Spirit’s temple, and it
will NEVER be the seat of love. It is the home of the idolater, and of
love’s condemnation. For here is love made fearful and hope
abandoned. Even the idols that are worshipped here are shrouded in
mystery, and kept apart from those who worship them. This is the
temple dedicated to no relationships and no return. Here is the
“mystery” of separation perceived in awe and held in reverence.
What God would have NOT be is here kept “safe” from Him. But
what you do not realize is what you fear within your brother, and
would not see in him, is what makes God seem fearful to you, and
kept unknown.
Idolaters will always be afraid of love, for nothing so severely
threatens them as love’s approach. Let love draw near them and
overlook the body, as it will surely do, and they retreat in fear, feeling
the seeming firm foundation of their temple begin to shake and
loosen. Brothers, you tremble with them.Yet what you fear is but the
herald of escape. This place of darkness is not your home. Your
temple is not threatened. You are idolaters no longer. The Holy
Spirit’s purpose lies safe in your relationship, and not your bodies.
You have ESCAPED the body.Where you are the body cannot enter,
for the Holy Spirit has set HIS temple there.
There is no order in relationships.They either ARE or not. An
unholy relationship is NO relationship. It is a state of isolation, which
seems to be what it is not. No more than that. The instant that the
mad idea of making your relationship with God unholy seemed to
be possible, all your relationships were made meaningless. In that
unholy instant time was born, and bodies made to house the mad
idea, and give it the illusion of reality. And so it seemed to have a
home that held together for a little while in time, and vanished. For
what could house this mad idea against reality BUT for an instant?
Idols MUST disappear, and leave no trace behind their going. The
unholy instant of their seeming power is frail as is a snowflake, but
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without its loveliness. Is this the substitute you WANT for the eternal
blessing of the holy instant and its unlimited beneficence? Is the
malevolence of the unholy relationship, so seeming powerful and so
bitterly misunderstood, and so invested in a false attraction, your
preference to the holy instant, which offers you peace and
understanding? Then lay aside the body and quietly transcend it,
rising to welcome what you REALLY want. And from His holy
temple, look you not back on what you have awakened from. For no
illusions CAN attract the minds that have transcended them, and left
them far behind.
The holy relationship reflects the true relationship the Son of
God has with his Father in reality.The Holy Spirit rests within it in
the certainty it will endure forever. Its firm foundation is eternally
upheld by truth, and love shines on it with the gentle smile and
tender blessing it offers to its own. Here the unholy instant is
exchanged in gladness for the holy one of safe return. Here is the
way to true relationships held gently open, through which you walk
together, leaving the body thankfully behind, and resting in the
Everlasting Arms. Love’s arms are open to receive you, and give you
peace forever.
The body is the ego’s idol; the belief in sin made flesh and then
projected outward. This produces what seems to be a wall of flesh
around the mind, keeping it prisoner in a tiny spot of space and time,
beholden unto death, and given but an instant in which to sigh and
grieve and die in honor of its master. And this unholy instant seems
to be life; an instant of despair, a tiny island of dry sand, bereft of
water and set uncertainly upon oblivion. Here does the Son of God
stop briefly by, to offer his devotion to death’s idols, and then pass on.
And here he is more dead than living.Yet it is also here he makes his
choice again between idolatry and love.
Here it is given him to choose to spend this instant paying
tribute to the body, or let himself be given freedom from it. Here he
can accept the holy instant, offered him to replace the unholy one he
chose before. And here can he learn relationships are his
SALVATION, and not his doom.You who are learning this may still
be fearful, but you are not immobilized.The holy instant is of greater
value now to you than its unholy seeming counterpart, and you have
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THE CONSISTENCY OF MEANS AND END
learned you really WANT but one. This is no time for sadness.
Perhaps confusion, but hardly discouragement.
You have a REAL relationship, and it HAS meaning. It is as like
your real relationship with God as equal things are like unto each
other. Idolatry is past and meaningless. Perhaps you fear each other a
little yet; perhaps a shadow of the fear of God remains with you.Yet
what is that to those who have been given one true relationship
BEYOND the body? Can they be long held back from looking on
the face of Christ? And can they long withhold the memory of their
relationship with their Father from themselves, and keep
remembrance of His Love apart from their awareness?
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difficult if they are merely GIVEN you? They guarantee the goal, and
they are perfectly in line with it. Before we look at them a little
closer, remember that if you think they are impossible, your wanting
of the PURPOSE has been shaken. For if a goal is possible to reach,
the means to do so must be possible as well.
It IS impossible to see your brother as sinless, and yet to look
upon him as a body. Is this not perfectly consistent with the goal of
holiness? For holiness is merely the result of letting the effects of sin
be lifted, so what was always true is recognized.To see a sinless BODY
is impossible, for holiness is positive, and the body is merely neutral.
It is not sinful, but neither is it sinless. As nothing, which it is, the
body cannot meaningfully be invested with attributes of Christ OR
of the ego. Either must be an error, for both would place the
attributes where they cannot be. And both must be undone for
purposes of truth.
The body IS the means by which the ego tries to make the
unholy relationship seem real. The unholy instant IS the time of
bodies. But the PURPOSE here is sin. It cannot be attained BUT in
illusion, and so the illusion of a brother as a body is quite in keeping
with the purpose of unholiness. Because of this consistency, the
means remain unquestioned while the end is cherished.Vision adapts
to wish, for sight is always secondary to desire. And if you see the
body, you have chosen judgement and not vision. For vision, like
relationships, has no order.You either SEE or not.
Who sees a brother’s body has laid a judgement on him, and sees
him not. He does not really see him as sinful; he does not see him at
all. In the darkness of sin, he is invisible. He can but be imagined in
the darkness, and it is here that the illusions you hold about him are
not held up to his reality. Here are illusions and reality kept separated.
Here are illusions never brought to truth, and always hidden from it.
And here, in darkness, is your brother’s reality imagined as a body, in
unholy relationships with other bodies, serving the cause of sin an
instant before he dies.
There is indeed a difference between this vain imagining and
vision.The difference lies not in them, but in their purpose. Both are
but means, each one appropriate to the end for which it is employed.
Neither can serve the purpose of the other, for each one is a choice
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all this to you. As it was given you, so will be its effects. And as its
holy purpose was not made by you, the means by which its happy
end is yours is also not of you. Rejoice in what is yours but for the
asking, and think not that you need make either means or end. All
this is given you who would but see your brother sinless. All this is
given, waiting on your desire but to receive it.Vision is freely given
to those who ask to see.
Your brother’s sinlessness is given you in shining light, to look
on with the Holy Spirit’s vision, and to rejoice in along with Him.
For peace will come to all who ask for it with real desire and
sincerity of purpose, shared with the Holy Spirit and at one with
Him on what salvation IS. Be willing, then, to see your brother
sinless, that Christ may rise before your vision and give you joy. And
place no value on your brother’s body, which holds him to illusions
of what he is. It is HIS desire to see his sinlessness, as it is YOURS.
And bless the Son of God in your relationship, nor see in him what
you have made of him.
The Holy Spirit guarantees that what God willed and gave you
shall be yours.This is your purpose now, and the vision that makes it
yours is ready to be given.You have the vision which enables each
one to see the body not. And as you look upon each other, you will
see an altar to your Father, holy as Heaven, glowing with radiant
purity and sparkling with the shining lilies you laid upon it.What can
you value more than this? Why do you think the body is a better
home, a safer shelter for God’s Son? Why would you rather look on
it than on the truth? How can the engine of destruction be
PREFERRED, and chosen to replace the holy home the Holy Spirit
offers, where He will dwell with you?
The body is the sign of weakness, vulnerability and loss of power.
Can such a savior HELP you? Would you turn in your distress and
need for help unto the helpless? Is the pitifully little the perfect choice
to call upon for strength? Judgement WILL seem to make your Savior
weak.Yet it is YOU who need his strength. There is no problem, no
event or situation, no perplexity that vision will not solve. All is
redeemed when looked upon with vision. For this is not YOUR
sight, and brings with it the laws beloved of Him Whose sight it IS.
Everything looked upon with vision falls gently into place,
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projection which gives the “nothing” all the meaning that it holds.
What has no meaning cannot BE perceived. And meaning
always looks within to find itself, and THEN looks out. All meaning
that you give the world outside must thus reflect the sight you saw
within; or better, if you saw at all or merely judged against.Vision is
the means by which the Holy Spirit translates your nightmares into
happy dreams; your wild hallucinations that show you all the fearful
outcomes of imagined sin, into the calm and reassuring sights with
which He would replace them. These gentle sights and sounds are
looked on happily, and heard with joy.They are His substitutes for all
the terrifying sights and screaming sounds the ego’s purpose brought
to your horrified awareness.They step away from sin, reminding you
that it is not reality which frightens you, and that the errors which
you made can be corrected.
When you have looked on what seemed terrifying, and seen it
change to sights of loveliness and peace; when you have looked on
scenes of violence and death, and watched them change to quiet views
of gardens under open skies, with clear, life-giving water running
happily beside them in dancing brooks that never waste away; who
need persuade you to accept the gift of vision? And after vision, who is
there who could refuse what MUST come after? Think but an instant
just on this; you can behold the holiness God gave His Son.And never
need you think that there is something else for you to see.
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twe nty one
Projection makes perception.The world you see is what you gave it,
nothing more than that. But though it is no more than that, it is not
less.Therefore, to you it is important. It is the witness to your state of
mind, the outside picture of an inward condition.As a man thinketh,
so does he perceive.Therefore, seek not to change the world, but will
to change your mind ABOUT the world. Perception is a RESULT,
not a cause. And that is why order of difficulty in miracles is
meaningless. Everything looked upon with vision is healed and holy.
Nothing perceived without it means anything.And where there is no
meaning, there is chaos.
Damnation is your judgement on yourself, and this you WILL
project upon the world. See it as damned, and all you see is what you
did to hurt the Son of God. If you behold disaster and catastrophe,
you tried to crucify him. If you see holiness and hope, you joined the
Will of God to set him free. There is no choice that lies between
these two decisions.And you WILL see the witness to the choice you
made, and learn from this to RECOGNIZE which one you chose.
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500
THE IMAGINED WORLD
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21 THE INNER PICTURE
502
THE RESPONSIBILITY FOR SIGHT
was your goal. Be happy, and you gave the power of decision to Him
Who must decide for God for you.This is the little gift you offer to
the Holy Spirit, and even this He gave to you to give yourself. For by
this gift is given you the power to release your Savior, that he may
give salvation unto you.
Begrudge not then this little offering.Withhold it, and you keep
the world as now you see it. Give it away, and everything you see
goes with it. Never was so much given for so little. In the holy instant
is this exchange effected and maintained. Here is the world you do
not want brought to the one you do. And here the one you do is
given you BECAUSE you want it. Yet for this, the power of your
wanting must first be recognized.You must accept its STRENGTH,
and not its weakness.You must perceive that what is strong enough
to make a world can let it go, and can accept correction if it is willing
to see that it was wrong.
The world you see is but the idle witness that you were right.This
witness is insane.You trained it in its testimony, and as it gave it back to
you, you listened and convinced yourself that what it saw was true.You
did this to YOURSELF. See only this, and you will also see how
circular the reasoning on which your “seeing” rests.This was not given
you.This was your gift to you and to your brother. Be willing, then, to
have it taken from him and be replaced with truth. And as you look
upon the change in him, it will be given you to see it in yourself.
Perhaps you do not see the need for you to give this little
offering. Look closer, then, at what it IS. And, very simply, see in it
the whole exchange of separation for salvation. All that the ego is, is
an idea that it is possible that things should happen to the Son of
God WITHOUT his will; and thus without the Will of his Creator,
Whose Will cannot BE separate from his own.
This is the Son of God’s REPLACEMENT for his will, a mad
revolt against what must forever be.This is the statement that he has
the power to make God powerless, and so to take it for himself, and
leave himself without what God has willed for him.This is the mad
idea you have enshrined upon your altars, and which you worship.
And anything which threatens this seems to attack your faith, for
here is it invested.Think not that you are faithless, for your belief and
trust in this is strong indeed.
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The Holy Spirit can give you faith in holiness and vision to see
it easily enough. But you have not left open and unoccupied the altar
where the gifts belong.Where THEY should be, you have set up your
idols to something else.This other will, which seems to tell you what
must happen, you gave reality. And what would show you otherwise
must therefore seem unreal. All that is asked of you is to make room
for truth. You are not asked to make or do what lies beyond your
understanding. All you are asked to do is LET IT IN; only to stop
your interference with what will happen of itself; simply to recognize
again the presence of what you thought you gave away.
Be willing, for an instant, to leave your altars free of what you
placed upon them, and what is really there you CANNOT fail to see.
The holy instant is not an instant of creation, but of recognition. For
recognition comes of vision and suspended judgement.Then only it
is possible to look within and see what MUST be there, plainly in
sight, and wholly independent of inference and judgement. Undoing
is not your task, but it IS up to you to welcome it or not. Faith and
desire go hand in hand, for everyone believes in what he wants.
We have already said that wishful thinking is how the ego deals
with what it wants, to make it so.There is no better demonstration of
the power of wanting, and therefore of faith, to make its goals seem
real and possible. Faith in the unreal leads to adjustments of reality to
make it fit the goal of madness. The goal of sin induces the
perception of a fearful world to justify its purpose. What you desire
you WILL see. And if its reality is false, you will uphold it by not
realizing all the adjustments you have introduced, to make it so.
When vision is denied, confusion of cause and effect becomes
inevitable. The purpose now becomes to keep obscure the cause of
the effect, and make effect appear to be a CAUSE. This seeming
independence of effect enables it to be regarded as standing by itself,
and capable of serving as a cause of the events and feelings its maker
thinks it causes. Long ago, we spoke of your desire to create your
own Creator, and be father and not son to Him. This is the same
desire.The Son is the effect, whose Cause he would deny. And so he
seems to BE the cause, producing real effects. Nothing can have
effects without a cause, and to confuse the two is merely to fail to
understand them both.
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FAITH BELIEF AND VISION
It is as needful that you recognize you made the world you see
as that you recognize that you did not create yourself. THEY ARE
THE SAME MISTAKE. Nothing created not by your Creator has any
influence over you. And if you think what you have made can tell
you what you see and feel, and place your faith in its ability to do so,
you are denying your Creator, and believing that you made yourself.
For if you think the world you made has power to make you what it
wills, you ARE confusing Son and Father; effect and Source.
The Son’s creations are like his Father’s.Yet in creating them, the
Son does not delude himself that he is independent of his Source.
His union with It is the Source of his creating. APART from this he
has no power to create, and what he makes is meaningless. It changes
nothing in creation, depends entirely upon the madness of its maker,
and cannot serve to justify the madness.Your brother thinks he made
the world with you.Thus he denies creation.With you, he thinks the
world he made made him.Thus he DENIES he made it.
Yet the truth is you were both created by a loving Father,Who
created you together and as one. See what “proves” otherwise, and
you deny your whole reality. But grant that everything which seems
to stand between you, keeping you from each other and separate
from your Father, you made in secret, and the instant of release has
come to you. All its effects are gone because its source has been
uncovered. It is its seeming independence of its source that kept you
prisoner. This is the same delusion that you are independent of the
Source by which you were created, and have never left.
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21 THE INNER PICTURE
room for truth. The SOURCE of sin is gone.You may imagine that
you still experience its effects, but it is not your purpose, and you no
longer WANT it. No-one allows a purpose to be replaced while he
desires it, for nothing is so cherished and protected as is a goal the
mind accepts. This it will follow, grimly or happily, but always with
faith and with the persistence that faith inevitably brings.The power
of faith is NEVER recognized if it is placed in sin. But it is ALWAYS
recognized if it is placed in love.
Why is it strange to you that faith can move mountains? This is
indeed a little feat for such a power. For faith can keep the Son of
God in chains as long as he believes he IS in chains. And when he is
released from them, it will be simply because he no longer believes in
them, withdrawing faith that they can hold him, and placing it in his
freedom instead. It is impossible to place equal faith in opposite
directions. What faith you give to sin you TAKE AWAY from
holiness.And what you offer holiness has been REMOVED from sin.
Faith and belief and vision are the means by which the goal of
holiness is reached. Through them the Holy Spirit leads you to the
real world, and away from all illusions where your faith was laid.This
is His direction, the only one He ever sees. And when you wander,
He reminds you there IS but one. His faith and His belief and vision
are all for you. And when you have accepted them completely
instead of yours, you will have need of them no longer. For faith and
vision and belief are meaningful only BEFORE the state of certainty
is reached. In Heaven they are unknown. Yet Heaven is reached
through them.
It is impossible that the Son of God lack faith, but he can choose
where he would have it BE. Faithlessness in not a LACK of faith, but
faith in NOTHING. Faith given to illusions does not lack power, for
by it does the Son of God believe that he is powerless. Thus is he
faithless to himself, but strong in faith in his illusions ABOUT
himself. For faith, perception and belief YOU made as means for
losing certainty and finding sin.This mad direction was your choice,
and by your faith in what you chose, you made what you desired.
The Holy Spirit has a use for all the means for sin by which you
sought to find it. But as He uses them, they lead AWAY from sin,
because His purpose lies in the opposite direction. He sees the
506
FAITH BELIEF AND VISION
MEANS you use, but not the PURPOSE for which you made them.
He would not take them from you, for He sees their value as a means
for what HE wills for you. You made perception that you might
choose among your brothers, and seek for sin with them. The Holy
Spirit sees perception as a means to teach you that the vision of a holy
relationship is all you WANT to see.Then will you give your faith to
holiness, desiring and believing in it BECAUSE of your desire.
Faith and belief become attached to vision, as all the means that
once served sin are redirected now toward holiness. For what you
think is sin is LIMITATION, and whom you try to limit to the body
you hate because you fear. In your refusal to forgive him, you would
condemn him to the body because the means for sin are dear to you.
And so the body has your faith and your belief. But holiness would
set your brother free, removing hatred by removing fear, not as a
symptom, but at its source.
Those who would free their brothers from the body can HAVE
no fear.They have renounced the means for sin by choosing to let all
limitations be removed. Desiring to look upon their brothers in
holiness, the power of belief and faith goes far beyond the body,
SUPPORTING vision, not obstructing it. But first they chose to
recognize how much their faith had limited their understanding of
the world, desiring to place its power elsewhere should another point
of view be given them.The miracles which follow this decision are
also born of faith. For all who choose to look away from sin are given
vision, and are led to holiness.
Those who believe in sin MUST think the Holy Spirit asks for
sacrifice, for this is how they think THEIR purpose is accomplished.
Brothers, the Holy Spirit knows that sacrifice brings NOTHING. He
makes no bargains. And if you seek to limit Him, you will hate Him
because you are afraid. The gift that He has given you is more than
anything that stands this side of Heaven. The instant for its
recognition is at hand. Join your awareness to what has been
ALREADY joined.The faith you give each other can accomplish this.
For He Who loves the world is seeing it for you, without one spot of
sin upon it, and in the innocence which makes the sight of it as
beautiful as Heaven.
Your faith in sacrifice has given it great power in your sight;
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21 THE INNER PICTURE
except you do not realize you cannot see BECAUSE of it. For sacrifice
must be exacted of a body, and by another body. The mind could
neither ask it nor receive it of itself.And no more could the body.The
intention is in the mind, which tries to use the body to carry out the
means for sin in which the MIND believes. Thus is the joining of
mind and body an inescapable belief of those who value sin.And so is
sacrifice invariably a means for limitation, and thus for hate.
Think you the Holy Spirit is concerned with THIS? He gives
not what it is His purpose to lead you FROM.You think He would
deprive you for your good. But “good” and “deprivation” are
opposites, and cannot meaningfully join in any way. It is like saying
that the moon and sun are one because they come with night and
day, and so they MUST be joined.Yet sight of one is but the sign the
other has disappeared from sight. Nor is it possible that what gives
light be one with what depends on darkness to be seen. Neither
demands the sacrifice of the other.Yet on the ABSENCE of the other
does each depend.
The body was made to be a sacrifice to sin, and in the darkness
so it still is seen. Yet in the light of vision it is looked upon quite
differently.You CAN have faith in it to serve the Holy Spirit’s goal,
and give it power to serve as means to help the blind to see. But in
their seeing they look PAST it, as do you.The faith and the belief you
gave it BELONGS beyond.You gave perception and belief and faith
from mind to body. Let them now be given back to what produced
them, and can use them still to save itself from what it made.
508
THE FEAR TO LOOK WITHIN
509
21 THE INNER PICTURE
times it still deceives you.Yet in your saner moments, its ranting strikes
no terror in your hearts. For you have realized that all the gifts it would
withdraw from you, in rage at your “presumptuous” wish to look
within, you do not WANT.A few remaining trinkets still seem to shine
and catch your eye.Yet you would not “sell” Heaven to have them.
And now the ego IS afraid.Yet what it hears in terror, the other
part hears as the sweetest music; the song it longed to hear since first
the ego came into your minds.The ego’s weakness is its strength.The
song of freedom, which sings the praises of another world, brings to
it hope of peace. For it REMEMBERS Heaven, and now it sees that
Heaven has come to earth at last, from which the ego’s rule has kept
it out so long. Heaven has come because it found a home in your
relationship on earth. And earth can hold no longer what has been
given Heaven as its own.
Look gently on each other, and remember the ego’s weakness is
revealed in both your sight. What it would keep apart has met and
joined, and looks upon the ego unafraid. Little children, innocent of
sin, follow in gladness the way to certainty. Be not held back by fear’s
insane insistence that sureness lies in doubt. This has no meaning.
What matters it to you how loudly it is proclaimed? The senseless is
not made meaningful by repetition and by clamor.The quiet way is
open. Follow it happily, and question not what must be so.
510
REASON AND PERCEPTION
511
21 THE INNER PICTURE
clearly not the ego’s “reasoning.” Its alien nature to the ego is proof
you will not find the answer there.Yet if it must be so, it must exist.
And if it exists for you, and has your freedom as the purpose given it,
you must be free to FIND it.
God’s plan is simple; never circular and never self-defeating. He
has no Thoughts except the self-EXTENDING, and in this your will
must be included.Thus, there must be a part of you that knows His
Will and shares It. It is not meaningful to ask if what must be is so.
But it IS meaningful to ask why you are UNAWARE of what is so, for
this must have an answer if the plan of God for your salvation is
complete.And it must BE complete because its Source knows not of
incompletion. Where would the answer be but in the Source? And
where are YOU but there, where this same answer is? Your identity, as
much a true effect of this same Source as is the answer, must
therefore be together and the same.
Oh yes, you know this, and more than this alone.Yet any part of
knowledge threatens dissociation as much as all of it. And all of it
WILL come with any part. Here is the part you can accept. What
reason points to you can see because the witnesses on its behalf are
clear. Only the totally insane can disregard them, and you have gone
past this. Reason is a means which serves the Holy Spirit’s purpose in
its own right. It is not re-interpreted and re-directed from the goal of
sin, as are the others. For reason is beyond the ego’s range of means.
Faith and perception and belief can be misplaced, and serve the
great deceiver’s needs as well as truth. But reason has no place at all in
madness, nor can it be adjusted to fit its end. Faith and belief are
strong in madness, guiding perception toward what the mind has
valued. But reason enters not at all in this. For the perception would
fall away at once, if reason were applied. There IS no reason in
insanity, for it depends entirely on reason’s absence. The ego never
uses it because it does not realize that it exists. The partially insane
have access to it, and only they have need of it. Knowledge does not
depend on it, and madness keeps it out.
The part of mind where reason lies was dedicated, by your will
in union with your Father’s, to the undoing of insanity. Here was the
Holy Spirit’s purpose accepted and accomplished, both at once.
Reason is alien to insanity, and those who use it have gained a means
512
REASON AND CORRECTION
513
21 THE INNER PICTURE
514
REASON AND CORRECTION
MUST be one with you. You ARE responsible for how he sees
himself. And reason tells you it is given you to change his whole
mind, which is one with you, in just an instant.And any instant serves
to bring complete correction of his errors, and make him whole.The
instant that you choose to let YOURSELF be healed, in that same
instant is his whole salvation seen as complete with yours. Reason is
given you to understand that this is so. For reason, kind as is the
purpose for which it is the means, leads steadily away from madness
toward the goal of truth. And here you will lay down the burden of
denying truth. THIS is the burden that is terrible, and not the truth.
That you are joined is your salvation; the gift of Heaven, not the
gift of fear. Does Heaven seem to be a burden to you? In madness,
yes. And yet what madness sees must be dispelled by reason. Reason
assures you Heaven is what you WANT, and ALL you want. Listen to
Him Who speaks with reason, and brings your reason into line with
His. Be willing to let reason be the means by which He would direct
you how to leave insanity behind. Hide not behind insanity, in order
to escape from reason.What madness would conceal, the Holy Spirit
still holds out for everyone to look upon with gladness.
You ARE your brother’s Savior. He is YOURS. Reason speaks
happily indeed of this. This gracious plan was given love by Love.
And what Love plans is like Itself in this: Being united, It would have
you learn what YOU must be. And being one with It, it must be
given you to give what It has given, and gives still. Spend but an
instant in the glad acceptance of what is given you to give your
brother, and learn with him what has been given BOTH of you. To
give is no more blessed than to receive. But neither is it less.
The Son of God is ALWAYS blessed as one.And as his gratitude
goes out to you who blessed him, reason will tell you that it cannot
be you stand apart from blessing.The gratitude he offers you reminds
you of the thanks your Father gives you for completing Him. And
here alone does reason tell you that you can understand what you
must be.Your Father is as close to you as is your brother.Yet what is
there that could be nearer you than is your Self?
The power that you have over the Son of God is not a threat to
his reality. It but ATTESTS to it.Where could his freedom lie but in
himself, if he be free already? And who could bind him but himself,
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21 THE INNER PICTURE
if he deny his freedom? God is not mocked; no more His Son can be
imprisoned save by his own desire.And it is by his own desire that he
is freed. Such is his strength, and not his weakness. He IS at his own
mercy. And where he chooses to be merciful, there is he free. But
where he chooses to condemn instead, there is he held a prisoner,
waiting in chains his pardon on himself to set him free.
516
PERCEPTION AND WISHES
517
21 THE INNER PICTURE
518
THE INNER SHIFT
519
21 THE INNER PICTURE
surely unto those who see the final question is necessary to the rest, as
peace must come to those who choose to heal and not to judge.
Reason will tell you that you CANNOT ask for happiness
inconstantly. For if what you desire you receive, and happiness is
constant, then you need ask for it but ONCE to have it ALWAYS.And
if you do not have it always, being what it is, you did not ask for it.
For no-one fails to ask for his desire of something he believes holds
out some promise of the power of giving it. He may be wrong in
what he asks, where, and of what.Yet he WILL ask because desire is a
request, an asking for, and made by one whom God Himself will
never fail to answer. God has already given him all that he REALLY
wants.Yet what he is uncertain of, God CANNOT give. For he does
not desire it while he remains uncertain, and God’s giving must be
incomplete unless it is received.
You who complete God’s Will and are His happiness, whose will
is powerful as His, a power that is not lost in your illusions, think
carefully why it should be you have not yet decided how you would
answer the final question. Your answer to the others has made it
possible to help you be but partially insane.And yet it is the final one
that really asks if you are willing to be WHOLLY sane.
What is the holy instant but God’s appeal to you to recognize
what He has given you? Here is the great appeal to reason; the
awareness of what is always there to see, the happiness that could be
always yours. Here is the constant peace you could experience
forever. Here is what denial has denied REVEALED to you. For here
the final question is ALREADY answered, and what you ask for
given. Here is the future NOW, for time is powerless because of your
desire for what will never change. For you have asked that nothing
stand between the holiness of your relationship and your
AWARENESS of its holiness.
520
twe nty two
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22 SALVATION AND THE HOLY RELATIONSHIP
522
THE MESSAGE OF THE HOLY RELATIONSHIP
the world. If this is not your vision, what can it show to you? The brain
cannot interpret what YOUR vision sees.This you would understand.
The brain interprets to the body, of which it is a part. But what it says
YOU cannot understand.Yet you have listened to it.And long and hard
you tried to understand its messages.You did not realize it is impossible
to understand what fails entirely to reach you.
You have received no messages at all you understand. For you
have listened to what can never communicate at all. Think, then,
what happened. Denying what you are, and firm in faith that you are
something else, this “something else” which you have made to be
yourself BECAME your sight. Yet it must be the “something else”
which sees, and as NOT you, EXPLAINS its sight to you. YOUR
vision would, of course, render this quite unnecessary.Yet if your eyes
are closed, and you have called upon this thing to lead you, asking it
to explain to you the world it sees, you have no reason not to listen,
nor to suspect that what it tells you is not true. Reason would tell
you it cannot be true BECAUSE you do not understand it. God has
no secrets. He does not lead you through a world of misery, waiting
to tell you, at the journey’s end, why He did this to you.
What could be secret from God’s Will? Yet you believe that
YOU have secrets. What could your secrets be except ANOTHER
will that is your own, apart from His? Reason would tell you that this
is no secret that need be hidden as a sin. But a mistake indeed! Let
not your fear of sin protect it from correction, for the attraction of
guilt is only fear. Here is the one emotion that you made, whatever it
may seem to be.This is the emotion of secrecy, of private thoughts,
and of the body. This is the one emotion that opposes love, and
always leads to sight of differences and loss of sameness. Here is the
one emotion that keeps you blind, dependent on the self you think
you made to lead you through the world it made for you.
Your sight was given you, along with everything that you can
understand. You will perceive no difficulty in understanding what
this vision tells you, for everyone sees only what he thinks he IS.And
what your sight would show you, you will understand BECAUSE it is
the truth. Only your vision can convey to you what YOU can see. It
reaches you directly, without a need to be interpreted to you.What
needs interpretation MUST be alien. Nor will it ever be made
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22 SALVATION AND THE HOLY RELATIONSHIP
524
YOUR BROTHER’S SINLESSNESS
could it be a fearful sight or sound that drew them gently into one.
Rather, in each the other saw a perfect shelter where his Self could
be reborn in safety and in peace. Such did his reason tell him; such he
believed BECAUSE it was the truth.
Here is the first direct perception that you have made.You made
it through awareness older than perception, and yet reborn in just an
instant. For what is time to what was always so? Think what that
instant brought; the recognition that the “something else” you
thought was you is an illusion.And truth came instantly to show you
where your Self must be. It is DENIAL of illusions that calls on truth,
for to deny illusions is to recognize that fear is meaningless. Into the
holy home where fear is powerless love enters thankfully, grateful
that it is one with you who joined to let it enter.
Christ comes to what is like Himself; the same, not different. For
He is always drawn unto Himself. What is as like Him as a holy
relationship? And what draws you together draws Him to you. Here
are His sweetness and His gentle innocence protected from attack.
And here can He return in confidence, for faith in one another is
always faith in Him.You are indeed correct in looking on each other
as His chosen home, for here you will with Him and with His
Father. This is your Father’s Will for you, and yours with His. And
who is drawn to Christ is drawn to God as surely as both are drawn
to every holy relationship, the home prepared for them as earth is
turned to Heaven.
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22 SALVATION AND THE HOLY RELATIONSHIP
no change. The search for joy in misery is senseless, for how could
joy be found in misery? All that is possible in the dark world of
misery is to select some aspects out of it, see them as different, and
define the difference as joy.Yet to perceive a difference where none
exists will surely fail to MAKE a difference.
Illusions carry only guilt and suffering, sickness and death, to
their believers.The form in which they are accepted is irrelevant. No
form of misery, in reason’s eyes, can be confused with joy. Joy is
eternal.You can be sure indeed that any seeming happiness that does
not last is really fear. Joy does not turn to sorrow, for the eternal
cannot change. But sorrow CAN be turned to joy, for time gives way
to the eternal. Only the timeless must remain unchanged, but
everything in time can change with time.Yet if the change be real
and not imagined, illusions must give way to truth, and not to other
dreams that are but equally unreal.This is no difference.
Reason will tell you that the only way to escape from misery is
to recognize it, AND GO THE OTHER WAY.Truth is the same and
misery the same, but they ARE different from each other in every
way, in every instance, and without exception. To believe that one
exception can exist is to confuse what is the same with what is
different. ONE illusion cherished and defended against the truth
makes ALL truth meaningless, and ALL illusions real. Such is the
power of belief. It cannot compromise. And faith in innocence is
faith in sin if the belief excludes one living thing, and holds it out,
apart from its forgiveness.
Both reason and the ego will tell you this, but what they MAKE
of it is not the same.The ego will assure you now that it is impossible
for you to see no guilt in anyone. And if this vision is the ONLY
means by which escape from guilt can be attained, then the belief in
sin must be eternal.Yet reason looks on this another way, for reason
sees the SOURCE of an idea as what will make it true or false.This
must be so, if the idea is LIKE its source. Therefore, says reason, if
escape from guilt was given to the Holy Spirit as His purpose, and by
One to Whom nothing He wills CAN be impossible, the means for
its attainment are MORE than possible. They MUST be there, and
you must HAVE them.
This is a crucial period in this course, for here the separation of
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YOUR BROTHER’S SINLESSNESS
you and the ego must be made complete. For if you HAVE the means
to let the Holy Spirit’s purpose be accomplished, they can be USED.
And THROUGH their use will you gain faith in them.Yet to the ego
this must be impossible, and no-one undertakes to do what holds no
hope of ever being done. YOU know what your Creator wills is
possible, but what you made believes it is not so. Now must you
choose between yourself and an ILLUSION of yourself. NOT both,
but ONE. There is no point in trying to avoid this one decision. It
MUST be made. Faith and belief can fall to either side, but reason
tells you that misery lies only on one side, and joy upon the other.
Forsake not now each other. For you who are the same will not
decide alone nor differently. Either you give each other life or death;
either you are each other’s Savior or his judge, offering him sanctuary
or condemnation.This course will be believed entirely or not at all.
For it is wholly true or wholly false, and cannot be but partially
believed. And you will either escape from misery entirely or not at
all. Reason will tell you that there is no middle ground where you
can pause uncertainly, waiting to choose between the joy of Heaven
and the misery of hell. Until you choose Heaven, you ARE in hell
and misery.
There is no part of Heaven you can take and weave into
illusions. Nor is there one illusion you can enter Heaven with. A
Savior cannot be a judge, nor mercy condemnation. And vision
cannot damn, but only bless. Whose function is to save, will save.
HOW He will do it is beyond your understanding, but WHEN must
be your choice. For time you made, and time you CAN command.
You are no more a slave to time than to the world you made.
Let us look closer at the whole illusion that what you made has
power to enslave its maker. This is the same belief that caused the
separation. It is the meaningless idea that thoughts can leave the
thinker’s mind, be different from it, and IN OPPOSITION to it. If this
were true, thoughts would not be the mind’s extensions, but its
enemies. And here we see again another form of the same
fundamental illusion we have seen many times before. Only if it were
possible the Son of God could leave his Father’s Mind, make himself
different, and oppose His Will, would it be possible that the self he
made, and all it made, should be his master.
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22 SALVATION AND THE HOLY RELATIONSHIP
528
REASON AND THE HOLY RELATIONSHIP
your holy brother, sinless as yourself, and let him lead you there.
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22 SALVATION AND THE HOLY RELATIONSHIP
anchor in the shifting world it made; the rock on which its church is
built, and where its worshippers are bound to bodies, and believe the
body’s freedom is their own.
Reason will tell you that the form of error is not what makes it
a mistake. If what the form CONCEALS is a mistake, the form
cannot prevent correction. The body’s eyes see ONLY form. They
cannot see beyond what they were MADE to see. And they were
made to look on error, and not see past it.Theirs is indeed a strange
perception, for they can see only illusions, unable to look beyond the
granite block of sin, and stopping at the outside form of nothing.To
this distorted form of vision, the outside of everything, the wall that
stands between you and the truth, is wholly true.Yet how can sight
which stops at nothingness, as if it were a solid wall, see truly? It is
held back by form, having been made to guarantee that nothing else
but form will be perceived.
These eyes, made NOT to see, will NEVER see. For the idea
they represent left not its maker, and it is their maker that sees
through them. What was its maker’s GOAL but not to see? For this
the body’s eyes are perfect means, but not for SEEING. See how the
body’s eyes rest on externals, and cannot go beyond.Watch how they
stop at nothingness, unable to go beyond the form to meaning.
Nothing so blinding as perception of form. For sight of form means
understanding has been obscured.
Only MISTAKES have different forms, and so they can deceive.
You can change form BECAUSE it is not true. It could not be reality
BECAUSE it can be changed. Reason will tell you that if form is not
reality, it must be an illusion, and is not THERE to see.And if you see
it you must be mistaken, for you are seeing what can NOT be real as
if it WERE. What cannot see beyond what is not there MUST be
distorted perception, and must perceive illusions as the truth. Could
it, then, RECOGNIZE the truth?
Let not the FORM of his mistakes keep you from him whose
holiness is yours. Let not the vision of his holiness, the sight of which
would show you your forgiveness, be kept from you by what the
body’s eyes can see. Let your awareness of your brother not be
blocked by your perception of his sins, and of his body.What is there
in him that you would attack except what you associate with his
530
THE BRANCHING OF THE ROAD
body, which YOU believe can sin? Beyond his errors is HIS holiness
and YOUR salvation.You gave him not his holiness, but tried to see
your sins in him to save yourself. And yet, his holiness IS your
forgiveness. Can YOU be saved by making sinful the one whose
holiness is your salvation?
A holy relationship, however newly born, must value holiness
above all else. Unholy values will produce confusion, and in
AWARENESS. In an unholy relationship, each one is valued because
he seems to justify the other’s sin. He sees within the other what
impels him to sin against his will. And thus he lays his sins upon the
other, and is attracted to him to PERPETUATE his sins. And so it
must become impossible for each to see himself as CAUSING sin by
his desire to have sin real.Yet reason sees a holy relationship as what
it is; a common state of mind, where both give errors gladly to
correction that both may happily be healed as one.
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22 SALVATION AND THE HOLY RELATIONSHIP
532
WEAKNESS AND DEFENSIVENESS
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22 SALVATION AND THE HOLY RELATIONSHIP
534
FREEDOM AND THE HOLY SPIRIT
he will seek for it where he believes it is, and can be found. He will
believe it possible of mind or body, and he will make the other serve
his choice as means to find it.
Where freedom of the body has been chosen, the mind is used
as means whose value lies in its ability to contrive ways to achieve
the body’s freedom.Yet freedom of the body has no meaning, and so
the mind is dedicated to serve illusions. This is a situation so
contradictory and so impossible that anyone who chooses this has no
idea of what IS valuable.Yet even in this confusion, so profound it
cannot be described, the Holy Spirit waits in gentle patience, as
certain of the outcome as He is sure of His Creator’s Love. He knows
this mad decision was made by one as dear to His Creator as love is
to itself.
Be not disturbed at all to think how He can change the role of
means and end so easily in what God loves, and would have free
forever. But be you rather grateful that YOU can be the means to
serve His end. This is the only service which leads to freedom. To
serve this end, the body must be perceived as sinless, because the
GOAL is sinlessness. The lack of contradiction makes the soft
transition from means to end as easy as is the shift from hate to
gratitude before forgiving eyes. You WILL be sanctified by one
another, using your bodies only to serve the sinless. And it WILL be
impossible for you to hate what serves what you would heal.
This holy relationship, lovely in its innocence, mighty in
strength, and blazing with a light far brighter than the sun which
lights the sky you see, is chosen of your Father as a means for His
Own plan. Be thankful that it serves yours not at all. Nothing
entrusted to it can be misused, and nothing given it but will be used.
This holy relationship has the power to heal all pain, regardless of its
form. Neither of you alone can serve at all. Only in your joint will
does healing lie. For here YOUR healing is, and here will you accept
Atonement. And in your healing is the Sonship healed BECAUSE
your wills are joined.
Before a holy relationship there is no sin. The form of error is
no longer seen, and reason, joined with love, looks quietly on all
confusion, observing merely,“This was a mistake.”And then the same
Atonement you accepted in your relationship corrects the error, and
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lays a part of Heaven in its place. How blessed are you who let this
gift be given! Each part of Heaven that you bring is given YOU.And
every empty place in Heaven that you fill again with the Eternal
Light you bring shines now on YOU. The means of sinlessness can
know no fear because they carry only love with them.
Children of peace, the light HAS come to you. The light you
bring you do not recognize, and yet you will remember. Who can
deny himself the vision that he brings to others? And who would fail
to recognize a gift he let be laid in Heaven through himself? The
gentle service that you give the Holy Spirit is service to yourself.You
who are now His means must love all that He loves. And what you
bring is your remembrance of everything that is eternal. No trace of
anything in time can long remain in minds that serve the timeless.
And no illusion can disturb the peace of a relationship which has
become the means of peace.
When you have looked upon each other with complete
forgiveness, from which no error is excluded and nothing kept
hidden, what mistake can there be anywhere you cannot overlook?
What form of suffering could block your sight, preventing you from
seeing past it? And what illusion could there be you will not
recognize as a mistake; a shadow through which you walk completely
undismayed? God would let nothing interfere with those whose wills
are His, and serve it willingly. And COULD remembrance of what
they are be long delayed?
You will see your value through each other’s eyes, and each one
is released as he beholds his Savior in place of the attacker who he
thought was there.Through this releasing is the world released.This
is your part in bringing peace. For you have asked what is your
function here, and have been answered. Seek not to change it, nor to
substitute another goal. Accept this one and serve it willingly, for
what the Holy Spirit does with the gifts you give each other, to
whom He offers them, and where and when, is up to Him. He will
bestow them where they are received and welcomed. He will use
every one of them for peace. Nor will one little smile or willingness
to overlook the tiniest mistake be lost to anyone.
What can it be but universal blessing to look on what your
Father loves with charity? Extension of forgiveness is the Holy Spirit’s
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FREEDOM AND THE HOLY SPIRIT
function. Leave this to Him. Let your concern be only that you give
to Him that which can BE extended. Save no dark secrets that He
cannot use, but offer Him the tiny gifts He can extend forever. He
will take each one and make of it a potent force for peace. He will
withhold no blessing from it, or limit it in any way. He will join to it
all the power that God has given Him, to make each little gift of love
a source of healing for everyone. Each little gift you offer to the other
lights up the world. Be not concerned with darkness; look away from
it, and toward each other. And let the darkness be dispelled by Him
Who knows the light, and lays it gently in each quiet smile of faith
and confidence with which you bless each other.
On your learning depends the welfare of the world. And it is
only arrogance that would deny the power of your will. Think you
the Will of God is powerless? Is this humility? You do not see what
this belief has done. You see yourself as vulnerable, frail and easily
destroyed, and at the mercy of countless attackers more powerful
than you. Let us look straight at how this error came about, for here
lies buried the heavy anchor that seems to keep the fear of God in
place, unmovable and solid as a rock. While this remains, so will it
seem to be.
Who can attack the Son of God and NOT attack his Father?
How can God’s Son be weak and frail and easily destroyed UNLESS
his Father is? You do not see that every sin and every condemnation
which you perceive and justify IS an attack upon your Father. And
that is why it has not happened, nor COULD be real.You do not see
that this is your attempt because you think the Father and the Son
are separate. And you MUST think that they are separate, because of
fear. For it seems safer to attack another or yourself than to attack the
great Creator of the universe,Whose power you KNOW.
If you were one with God and RECOGNIZED this oneness, you
would know His power is YOURS. But you will not remember this
while you believe attack of any kind means anything. It is unjustified
in any form BECAUSE it has no meaning.The only way it could be
justified is if each one of you were separate from the other, and all
were separate from your Creator. For only then would it be possible
to attack a part of the creation without the whole, the Son without
the Father; and to attack another without yourself, or hurt yourself
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22 SALVATION AND THE HOLY RELATIONSHIP
without the other feeling pain. And this belief you WANT. Yet
wherein lies its value except in the desire to attack in safety? Attack is
neither safe nor dangerous. It is IMPOSSIBLE. And this is so
BECAUSE the universe is one. You would not choose attack on its
reality if it were not essential to attack to see it separated from its
maker.And thus it seems as if love could attack, and become fearful.
Only the DIFFERENT can attack. So you conclude BECAUSE
you can attack you MUST be different. Yet does the Holy Spirit
explain this differently. BECAUSE you are not different, you CANNOT
attack. Either position is a logical conclusion, if only the different can
attack. Either could be maintained, but never both.The only question
to be answered to decide which must be true is whether you ARE
different. From the position of what you understand, you seem to be,
and therefore can attack. Of the alternatives, this seems more natural
and more in line with your experience. And therefore it is necessary
that you have other experiences, more in line with truth, to teach you
what IS natural and true.
This is the function of your holy relationship. For what one
thinks the other will experience with him. What can this mean
EXCEPT your minds are one? Look not with fear upon this happy
fact, and think not that it lays a heavy burden on you. For when you
have accepted it with gladness, you will realize that your relationship
is a reflection of the union of the Creator and His Son. From loving
minds there IS no separation. And every thought in one brings
gladness to the other BECAUSE they are the same. Joy is unlimited
because each shining thought of love extends its being, and creates
more of itself. There is no difference anywhere in it, for every
thought is like itself.
The light that joins you shines throughout the universe, and
because it joins you, so it makes you one with your Creator. And in
Him is all creation joined. Would you regret you cannot fear alone,
when your relationship can also teach the power of love is there,
which makes all fear impossible? Do not attempt to keep a little of the
ego with this gift. For it was given you to be USED, and not obscured.
What teaches you you cannot separate DENIES the ego. Let truth
decide if you be different or the same, and teach you which IS true.
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23 THE WAR AGAINST YOURSELF
540
THE IRRECONCILABLE BELIEFS
would you identify with it? Surely you realize the ego is at war with
God. Certain it is it has no enemy.Yet just as certain is its fixed belief
it HAS an enemy that it must overcome and WILL succeed.
Do you not realize a war against yourself would BE a war on
God? Is victory conceivable? And if it were, is this a victory that you
would WANT? The death of God, if it were possible, would be
YOUR death. Is this a VICTORY? The ego ALWAYS marches to
defeat, because it thinks that triumph over you is possible. And God
thinks otherwise.This is no war; only the mad belief the Will of God
can be attacked and overthrown. You may IDENTIFY with this
belief, but never will it be more than madness. And fear will reign in
madness, and will seem to have replaced love there. This is the
conflict’s PURPOSE. And to those who think that it is possible, the
means seem real.
Be certain that it is impossible God and the ego, or yourself and
it, will EVER meet. You SEEM to meet, and make your strange
alliances on grounds that have no meaning. For your beliefs converge
upon the body, the ego’s chosen home, which you believe is
YOURS.You meet at a mistake; an error in your self-appraisal. The
ego joins with an illusion of yourself you SHARE with it. And yet
illusions cannot join.They are the same, and they are nothing.Their
joining lies in nothingness; two are as meaningless as one, or as a
thousand.The ego joins with nothing, BEING nothing.The victory
it seeks is meaningless as is itself.
Brothers, the war against yourself is almost over. The journey’s
end is at the place of peace. Would you not now accept the peace
offered you here? This “enemy” you fought as an intruder on your
peace is here transformed, before your sight, into the giver of your
peace. Your “enemy” was God Himself, to Whom all conflict,
triumph and attack of any kind are all unknown. He loves you
perfectly, completely and eternally. The Son of God at war with his
Creator is a condition as ridiculous as nature roaring at the wind in
anger, and proclaiming that it is part of itself no more.
Could nature possibly establish this, and make it true? Nor IS it
up to you to say what shall be part of you, and what is kept apart.The
war against yourself was undertaken to teach the Son of God that he
is not himself, and not his Father’s Son. For this, the memory of his
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542
THE LAWS OF CHAOS
and vanquisher of the illusion that was less real, made an illusion by
defeat. Thus, conflict is the choice BETWEEN illusions, one to be
crowned as real, the other vanquished and despised. Here will the
Father NEVER be remembered.Yet no illusion can invade His home,
and drive Him out of what He loves forever. And what He loves
must be forever quiet and at peace BECAUSE it is His home. And
you who are beloved of Him are no illusions, being as true and holy
as Himself.
The stillness of your certainty of Him and of yourself is home to
both of you, who dwell as one and not apart. Open the door of His
most holy home, and let forgiveness sweep away all trace of the belief
in sin that keeps God homeless and His Son with Him.You are not
strangers in the house of God. Welcome your brother to the home
where God has set him in serenity and peace, and dwells with him.
Illusions have no place where love abides, protecting you from
everything that is not true. You dwell in peace as limitless as its
Creator, and everything is given those who would remember Him.
Over His home the Holy Spirit watches, sure that its peace can never
be disturbed.
How can the resting-place of God turn on itself, and seek to
overcome the One Who dwells there? And think what happens
when the house of God perceives itself divided.The altar disappears,
the light grows dim, the temple of the Holy One becomes a house of
sin. And nothing is remembered except illusions. Illusions can
conflict because their forms are different. And they do battle only to
establish which form is true.
Illusion meets illusion; truth, itself.The meeting of illusions leads
to war. Peace, looking on itself, extends itself.War is the condition in
which fear is born, and grows, and seeks to dominate. Peace is the state
where love abides, and seeks to share itself. Conflict and peace are
opposites. Where one abides the other cannot be; where either goes
the other disappears. So is the memory of God obscured in minds that
have become illusions’s battleground.Yet far beyond this senseless war
it shines, ready to be remembered when you side with peace.
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544
THE LAWS OF CHAOS
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23 THE WAR AGAINST YOURSELF
nor would they seek to share the things they value. And what your
enemies would keep from you must be worth having, just because
they keep it hidden from your sight.
All of the mechanisms of madness are seen emerging here:The
“enemy,” made strong by keeping hidden the valuable inheritance
which should be yours; your justified position, and attack for what
has been withheld; and the inevitable loss the enemy must suffer, to
save yourself.Thus do the guilty ones protest their “innocence.”Were
they not forced into this foul attack by the unscrupulous behaviour
of the enemy, they would respond with only kindness. But in a
savage world the kind cannot survive, so they must take or else be
taken from.
And now there is a vague unanswered question, not yet
“explained.” What is this precious thing, this priceless pearl, this
hidden secret treasure, to be wrested in righteous wrath from this
most treacherous and cunning enemy? It must be what you want but
never found. And now you “understand” the reason why you found
it not. For it was taken from you by this enemy, and hidden where
you would not think to look. He hid it in his body, making it the
cover for his guilt, the hiding place for what belongs to you. Now
must his body be destroyed and sacrificed, that you may HAVE that
which belongs to you. His treachery demands his death, that YOU
may live.And you attack only in self defense.
But what is it you want that NEEDS his death? Can you be sure
your murderous attack is justified unless you know what it is FOR?
And here a final principle of chaos comes to the rescue. It holds there
is a SUBSTITUTE for love. This is the “magic” that will cure all of
your pain; the missing factor in your madness that makes it “sane.”
This is the reason why you must attack. Here is what makes your
vengeance justified. Behold, unveiled, the ego’s secret gift, torn from
your brother’s body, hidden there in malice and in hatred for the one
to whom the gift belongs. He would deprive you of the secret
ingredient which would give meaning to your life.The substitute for
love, born of your enmity to one another, must be salvation. It has no
substitute, and there is only one. And all your relationships have but
the purpose of seizing it, and making it your own.
Never is your possession made complete. And never will your
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THE LAWS OF CHAOS
brother cease his attack on you for what you stole. Nor will God end
His vengeance upon both, for in His madness He must have this
substitute for love, and kill you both.You who believe you walk in
sanity, with feet on solid ground, and through a world where
meaning can be found, consider this: These ARE the principles
which make the ground beneath your feet seem solid.And it IS here
you look for meaning. These are the laws you made for your
salvation. They hold in place the substitute for Heaven which you
prefer. This is their purpose; they were made for this. There is no
point in asking what they mean. That is apparent. The means of
madness must be insane.Are you as certain that you realize the GOAL
is madness?
No-one WANTS madness, nor does anyone cling to his madness
if he sees that this is what it IS. What protects madness is the belief
that it is TRUE. It is the function of insanity to take the PLACE of
truth. It must be seen as truth to be believed. And if it is the truth,
then must its opposite, which was the truth before, be madness now.
Such a reversal, completely turned around, with madness sanity,
illusions true, attack a kindness, hatred love and murder benediction,
is the goal the laws of chaos serve.These are the means by which the
laws of God appear to be reversed. Here do the laws of sin appear to
hold love captive, and let sin go free.
These do not SEEM to be the goals of chaos, for by the great
reversal, they appear to be the laws of ORDER. How could it not be
so? Chaos is lawlessness, and HAS no laws.To be believed, its seeming
laws must be perceived as real.Their goal of madness must be seen as
sanity.And fear, with ashen lips and sightless eyes, blinded and terrible
to look upon, is lifted to the throne of love, its dying conqueror, its
substitute, the savior from salvation. How lovely do the laws of fear
make death appear! Give thanks unto the hero on love’s throne, who
saved the Son of God for fear and death!
And yet, how can it be that laws like these can be believed?
There is a strange device that makes it possible. Nor is it unfamiliar;
we have seen how it appears to function many times before. In truth
it does NOT function, yet in dreams, where only shadows play the
major roles, it seems most powerful. No law of chaos could compel
belief but for the emphasis on FORM and disregard of CONTENT.
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23 THE WAR AGAINST YOURSELF
No-one who thinks that one of them is true SEES what it says. Some
forms it takes seem to have meaning, and that is all.
How can some forms of murder NOT mean death? Can an
attack in ANY form be love? What FORM of condemnation is a
blessing? Who makes his Savior powerless and FINDS salvation? Let
not the form of the attack on him deceive you.You CANNOT seek
to harm him and be saved. Who can find safety from attack by
turning on himself? How can it matter WHAT the form this madness
takes? It is a judgement that defeats itself, condemning what it says it
wants to save. Be not deceived when madness takes a form you think
is lovely.What is intent on your destruction is NOT your friend.
You would maintain, and think it true, that you do not believe
these senseless laws, nor act upon them. And when you look at what
they SAY, they cannot BE believed. Brothers, you DO believe them.
For how else could you perceive the form they take, with content
such as this? Can ANY form of this be tenable? Yet you believe them
FOR the form they take, and do not RECOGNIZE the content. It
never changes. Can you paint rosy lips upon a skeleton, dress it in
loveliness, pet it and pamper it, and make it LIVE? And can you be
content with an ILLUSION that you are living?
There IS not life outside of Heaven. Where God created life,
there life must be. In any state apart from Heaven, life is illusion. At
best, it seems like life; at worst, like death.Yet both are judgements on
what is not life, equal in their inaccuracy and lack of meaning. Life
not in Heaven is impossible, and what is not in Heaven is not
anywhere. Outside of Heaven, only the conflict of illusions stands;
senseless, impossible and beyond all reason, and yet perceived as an
eternal barrier to Heaven. Illusions ARE but forms.Their content is
NEVER true.
The laws of chaos govern all illusions. Their forms conflict,
making it seem quite possible to value some above the others. Yet
each one rests as surely on the belief the laws of chaos are the laws of
order as do the others. Each one upholds these laws completely,
offering a certain witness that these laws are true. The seeming
gentler forms of the attack are no less certain in their witnessing, or
their results. Certain it is illusions will bring fear because of the
beliefs that they imply, not for their form.And lack of faith in love, in
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SALVATION WITHOUT COMPROMISE
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23 THE WAR AGAINST YOURSELF
550
THE FEAR OF LIFE
551
23 THE WAR AGAINST YOURSELF
extended to all creation. Each form of murder and attack that still
attracts you, and that you do not recognize for what it is, limits the
healing and the miracles you have the power to extend to all.Yet does
the Holy Spirit understand how to increase your little gifts, and make
them mighty. Also He understands how your relationship is raised
above the battleground, in it no more.This is your part; to realize that
murder in ANY form is not your will.The OVERLOOKING of the
battleground is now your purpose.
Be lifted up, and from a higher place look down upon it. From
there will your perspective be quite different. Here in the midst of it,
it DOES seem real. Here you have CHOSEN to be part of it. Here
murder IS your choice.Yet from above, the choice is miracles instead
of murder. And the perspective coming from this choice shows you
the battle is not real, and easily escaped. Bodies may battle, but the
clash of forms is meaningless. And it is over when you realize that it
never was begun. How can a battle be perceived as nothingness
when you engage in it? How can the truth of miracles be recognized
if murder is your choice?
When the temptation to attack rises to make your mind
darkened and murderous, remember you CAN see the battle from
above. Even in forms you do not recognize, the signs you know.
There is a stab of pain, a twinge of guilt, and above all, a loss of peace.
This you know well. When it occurs, leave not your place on high,
but quickly choose a miracle INSTEAD of murder.And God Himself
and all the lights of Heaven will gently lean to you, and hold you up.
For you have chosen to remain where He would have you, and NO
illusion can attack the peace of God together with His Son.
See no-one from the battleground, for there you look on him
from nowhere. You have no reference-point from where to look,
where meaning can be given what you see. For only bodies could
attack and murder, and if this is your purpose, then you must be one
with them. Only a purpose unifies, and those who share a purpose
have a mind as one.The body HAS no purpose, and must be solitary.
From below, it cannot be surmounted. From above, the limits it
exerts on those in battle still are gone, and not perceived.The body
stands between the Father and the Heaven He created for His Son
BECAUSE it has no purpose.
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THE FEAR OF LIFE
Think what is given those who share their Father’s purpose, and
who know that it is theirs! They want for nothing. Sorrow of any
kind is inconceivable. Only the light they love is in awareness, and
only love shines upon them forever. It is their past, their present and
their future; always the same, eternally complete and wholly shared.
They know it is impossible their happiness could ever suffer change
of any kind. Perhaps you think the battleground can offer something
that you can win. Can it be any thing that offers you a perfect
calmness, and a sense of love so deep and quiet that no touch of
doubt can ever mar your certainty? And that will last forever?
Those with the strength of God in their awareness could never
think of battle. What could they gain but LOSS of their perfection?
For everything fought for on the battleground is of the body;
something it seems to offer or to own. No-one who knows that he
has everything could seek for limitation, nor could he value the
body’s offerings.The senselessness of conquest is quite apparent from
the quiet sphere above the battleground. What can conflict with
everything? And what is there that offers less yet could be wanted
more? Who with the Love of God upholding him could find the
choice of miracles or murder hard to make?
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Forget not that the motivation for this course is the attainment and
the keeping of the state of peace. Given this state the mind is quiet,
and the condition in which God is remembered is attained. It is not
necessary to tell Him what to do. He will not fail. Where He can
enter, there He is already. And can it be He cannot enter where He
wills to be? Peace will be yours BECAUSE it is His Will. Can you
believe a shadow can hold back the Will that holds the universe
secure? God does not wait upon illusions to let Him be Himself. No
more His Son.They ARE. And what illusion that idly seems to drift
between them has the power to defeat what is Their Will?
To learn this course requires willingness to question every value
that you hold. Not one can be kept hidden and obscure but it will
jeopardize your learning. No belief is neutral. Every one has the
power to dictate each decision you make. For a decision is a
conclusion based on everything that you believe. It is the
OUTCOME of belief, and follows it as surely as does suffering follow
guilt and freedom sinlessness.There IS no substitute for peace.What
God creates HAS no alternative. The truth arises from what He
KNOWS. And your decisions come from your beliefs as certainly as
all creation rose in His Mind BECAUSE of what He knows.
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SPECIALNESS AS A SUBSTITUTE FOR LOVE
purpose. Love offers everything forever. Hold back but one belief,
one offering, and love is gone, because you asked a substitute to take
its place. And now must war, the substitute for peace, come with the
one alternative that you can choose for love. Your choosing it has
given it all the reality it seems to have.
Beliefs will never openly attack each other, because conflicting
outcomes are impossible. But an unrecognized belief is a decision to
war in secret, where the results of conflict are kept unknown and
never brought to reason, to be considered sensible or not. And many
senseless outcomes have been reached, and meaningless decisions have
been made and kept hidden, to become beliefs now given power to
direct all subsequent decisions. Mistake you not the power of these
hidden warriors to disrupt your peace. For it IS at their mercy while
you decide to leave it there. The secret enemies of peace, your least
decision to choose attack instead of love, unrecognized and swift to
challenge you to combat and to violence far more inclusive than you
think, are there by your election. Do not deny their presence nor their
terrible results. All that can be denied is their REALITY, but not
their outcome.
All that is ever cherished as a hidden belief, to be defended
though unrecognized, is faith in specialness. This takes many forms,
but always clashes with the reality of God’s creation, and with the
grandeur which He gave His Son.What else could justify attack? For
who could hate someone whose Self is his, and whom He knows?
Only the special could have enemies, for they are different and not
the same. And difference of any kind imposes orders of reality, and a
need to judge that cannot be escaped.
What God created cannot be attacked, for there is nothing in
the universe unlike itself. But what is different CALLS for judgement,
and this must come from someone “better,” someone incapable of
being like what he condemns,“above” it, sinless by comparison with
it. And thus does specialness become a means and end at once. For
specialness not only sets apart, but serves as grounds from which
attack on those who seem “beneath” the special one is “natural” and
“just.”The special ones feel weak and frail BECAUSE of differences,
for what would make them special IS their enemy.Yet they protect its
enmity, and call it “friend.” On its behalf they fight against the
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24 SPECIALNESS AND SEPARATION
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THE TREACHERY OF SPECIALNESS
and none your Father does not share with you. For your relationship
has been made clean of special goals. And would you now DEFEAT
the goal of holiness that Heaven gave it? What perspective can the
special have that does not change with every seeming blow, each
slight, or fancied judgement on itself?
Those who are special MUST defend illusions against the truth.
For what is specialness but an attack upon the Will of God? You love
your brother not while it is this you would defend against him.This
is what HE attacks, and YOU protect. Here is the ground of battle
which you wage against him. Here must he be your enemy, and not
your friend. Never can there be peace among the different. He is
your friend BECAUSE you are the same.
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24 SPECIALNESS AND SEPARATION
one, each one in exile from himself, and Him of Whom they are a
part. Nor do they love the Oneness Which created them as one with
Him. They chose their specialness instead of Heaven and instead of
peace, and wrapped it carefully in sin, to keep it “safe” from truth.
You are NOT special. If you think you are, and would defend
your specialness against the truth of what you REALLY are, how can
you know the truth? What answer that the Holy Spirit gives can
reach you, when it is your specialness to which you listen, and which
asks and answers? Its tiny answer, soundless in the melody which
pours from God to you eternally in loving praise of what you are, is
all you listen to.And that vast song of honor and of love for what you
are seems silent and unheard before its “mightiness.”You strain your
ears to hear its soundless voice, and yet the Call of God Himself is
soundless to you.
You can defend your specialness, but never will you hear the
Voice for God beside it.They speak a different language and they fall
on different ears. To every special one a different message, and one
with different meaning, is the truth.Yet how can truth be different to
each one? The special messages the special hear convince them they
are different and apart; each in his special sins and “safe” from love,
which does not see his specialness at all. Christ’s vision is their
“enemy,” for it sees not what they would look upon, and it would
show them that the specialness they think they see IS an illusion.
What would they see instead?
The shining radiance of the Son of God, so like his Father that
the memory of Him springs instantly to mind. And with this
memory, the Son remembers his own creations, as like to him as he is
to his Father. And all the world he made, and all his specialness, and
all the sins he held in its defense against himself, will vanish as his
mind accepts the truth about himself, as it returns to take their place.
This is the only “cost” of truth:You will no longer see what never
was, nor hear what makes no sound. Is it a sacrifice to give up
nothing, and to receive the Love of God forever?
You who have chained your Savior to your specialness, and
given it his place, remember this: He has not lost the power to
forgive you all the sins you think you placed between him and the
function of salvation given him for you. Nor will you change his
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THE TREACHERY OF SPECIALNESS
function, any more than you can change the truth in him and in
yourself. But be you certain that the truth is just the same in both. It
gives no different messages, and has ONE meaning.And it is one you
BOTH can understand, and one which brings release to BOTH of
you. Here stands your brother, with the key to Heaven in his hand,
held out to you. Let not the dream of specialness remain between
you.What is one is joined in truth.
Think of the loveliness that you will see within yourself, when
you have looked on him as on a friend. He IS the enemy of
specialness, but only friend to what is real in you. Not one attack you
thought you made on him has taken from him the gift that God
would have him give to you. His need to give it is as great as yours to
have it. Let him forgive you all your specialness, and make you whole
in mind and one with him. He waits for your forgiveness only that
he may return it unto you. It is not God Who has condemned His
Son. But only you, to save his specialness and kill his Self.
You have come far along the way of truth; too far to falter now.
Just one step more, and every vestige of the fear of God will melt
away in love.Your brother’s specialness and yours ARE enemies, and
bound in hate to kill each other and deny they are the same.Yet it is
not illusions which have reached this final obstacle that seems to
make God and His Heaven so remote that they cannot be reached.
Here in this holy place does truth stand waiting to receive you both
in silent blessing, and in peace so real and so encompassing that
nothing stands outside. Leave all illusions of yourself outside this
place, to which you come in hope and honesty.
Here is your Savior FROM your specialness. He is in need of
your acceptance of himself as part of you, as you for his.You are alike
to God as God is to Himself. He is not special, for He would not
keep one part of what He is unto Himself, not given to His Son but
kept for Him alone. And it is this you fear, for if He is not special,
then He willed His Son be like Him, and your brother IS like you.
Not special, but possessed of everything INCLUDING you.
Give him but what he has, remembering God gave Himself to
both of you in equal love, that both might share the universe with
Him Who chose that love could never be divided, and kept separate
from what it is and must forever be.You ARE your brother’s; part of
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24 SPECIALNESS AND SEPARATION
love was not denied to him. But can it be that YOU have lost because
HE is complete? What has been given him makes YOU complete, as
it does him. God’s Love gave you to him and him to you because He
gave Himself. What is the same as God is one with Him. And only
specialness could make the truth of God and you AS one seem
anything but Heaven, and the hope of peace at last in sight.
Specialness is the seal of treachery upon the gift of love.
Whatever serves its purpose must be given to kill. No gift that bears
its seal but offers treachery to giver AND receiver. Not one glance
from eyes it veils but looks on sight of death. Not one believer in its
potency but seeks for bargains and for compromise that would
establish sin love’s substitute, and serve it faithfully.And no relationship
that holds its purpose dear but clings to murder as safety’s weapon,
and the great defender of all illusions from the “threat” of love.
The hope of specialness makes it seem possible God made the
body as the prison-house which keeps His Son from Him. For it
demands a special place God cannot enter, and a hiding-place where
none is welcome but your tiny self. Nothing is sacred here but unto
you, and you alone, apart and separate from all your brothers; safe
from all intrusions of sanity upon illusions; safe from God, and safe
for conflict everlasting. Here are the gates of hell you closed upon
yourself, to rule in madness and in loneliness your special kingdom,
apart from God, away from truth and from salvation.
The key you threw away God gave your brother, whose holy
hands would offer it to you when you were ready to accept His plan
for your salvation in place of yours. How could this readiness be
reached save through the sight of all your misery, and the awareness
that your plan has failed, and will forever fail to bring you peace and
joy of any kind? Through this despair you travel now, yet it is but
ILLUSION of despair. The death of specialness is not YOUR death,
but your awaking into life eternal.You but emerge from an illusion of
what you are to the acceptance of yourself as God created you.
560
THE FORGIVENESS OF SPECIALNESS
to one illusion can see himself as sinless, for he holds one error to
himself as lovely still. And so he calls it “unforgiveable,” and makes it
sin. How can he then GIVE his forgiveness wholly, when he would
not receive it for himself? For it is sure he would receive it wholly
the instant that he gave it so. And thus his secret guilt would
disappear, forgiven by himself.
Whatever form of specialness you cherish, you have made sin.
Inviolate it stands, strongly defended with all your puny might
against the Will of God. And thus it stands against yourself; YOUR
enemy, not God’s. So does it seem to split you off from God, and
make you separate from Him as its defender.You would protect what
God created not.And yet, this idol that seems to GIVE you power has
taken it away. For you have given your brother’s birthright to it,
leaving him alone and unforgiven, and yourself in sin beside him,
both in misery, before the idol that can save you not.
It is not YOU that is so vulnerable and open to attack that just a
word, a little whisper that you do not like, a circumstance that suits
you not, or an event that you did not anticipate upsets your world,
and hurls it into chaos. Truth is not frail. Illusions leave it perfectly
unmoved. But specialness is NOT the truth in you. IT can be thrown
off balance by anything.What rests on nothing NEVER can be stable.
However large and overblown it seems to be, it still must rock and
turn and whirl about with every breeze.
Without foundation nothing is secure.Would God have left His
Son in such a state, where safety has no meaning? No, His Son is safe,
resting on Him. It is your specialness that is attacked by everything
that walks and breathes, or creeps or crawls, or even lives at all.
Nothing is safe from its attack, and it is safe from nothing. It will
forever more be unforgiving, for that is what it IS; a secret vow that
what God wants for you will never be, and that you will oppose His
Will forever. Nor is it possible the two can ever be the same while
specialness stands like a flaming sword of death between them, and
makes them “enemies.”
God asks for your forgiveness. He would have no separation, like
an alien will, rise between what He wills for you and what you will.
They ARE the same, for neither one wills specialness. How could
they will the death of love itself? Yet they are powerless to make attack
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24 SPECIALNESS AND SEPARATION
upon illusions. They are not bodies; as one Mind they wait for all
illusions to be brought to them, and left behind. Salvation challenges
not even death.And God Himself,Who knows that death is not your
will, must say,“Thy will be done” because YOU think it IS.
Forgive the great Creator of the universe, the Source of life, of
love and holiness, the perfect Father of a perfect Son, for your
illusions of your specialness. Here is the hell you chose to be your
home. He chose not this for you. Ask not He enter this.The way is
barred to love and to salvation.Yet if you would release your brother
from the depths of hell, you have forgiven Him Whose Will it is you
rest forever in the arms of peace, in perfect safety, and without the
heat and malice of one thought of specialness to mar your rest.
Forgive the Holy One the specialness He could not give, and which
you made instead.
The special ones are all asleep, surrounded by a world of loveliness
they do not see. Freedom and peace and joy stand there, beside the bier
on which they sleep, and call them to come forth and waken from
their dream of death.Yet they hear nothing.They are lost in dreams of
specialness.They hate the call that would awaken them, and they curse
God because He did not make their dream reality. Curse God and die,
but not by Him Who made not death; but only in the dream. Open
your eyes a little; see the Savior God gave to you that you might look
on him, and give him back his birthright. It is YOURS.
The slaves of specialness will yet be free. Such is the Will of
God, and of His Son.Would God condemn HIMSELF to hell and to
damnation? And do YOU will that this be done unto your Savior?
God calls to you from him to join His Will to save you BOTH from
hell. Look on the print of nails upon his hands that he holds out for
your forgiveness. God asks your mercy on His Son and on Himself.
Deny them not. They ask of you but that your will be done. They
seek your love that you may love yourself. Love not your specialness
instead of them.The print of nails are on your hands as well. Forgive
your Father it was not His Will that you be crucified.
562
SPECIALNESS AND SALVATION
feared and attacked, deadly and dangerous, hated and worthy only of
destruction. Whatever gentleness it offers is but deception, but its
hate is real. In danger of destruction it must kill, and you are drawn
to it to kill it first. And such is guilt’s attraction. Here is death
enthroned as savior; crucifixion is now redemption, and salvation can
only mean destruction of the world, except yourself.
What could the purpose of the body BE but specialness? And it
is this that makes it frail and helpless in its own defense. It was
conceived to make YOU frail and helpless.The goal of separation is
its curse. Yet bodies HAVE no goal. Purpose is of the MIND. And
minds can change as they desire. What they are, and all their
attributes, they CANNOT change. But what they hold as purpose
CAN be changed, and body states must shift accordingly. Of itself the
body can do nothing. See it as means to hurt, and it is hurt. See it as
means to heal, and it is healed.
You can but hurt YOURSELF.This has been oft repeated, but is
difficult to grasp as yet. To minds intent on specialness it is
impossible.Yet to those who wish to heal and not attack it is quite
obvious.The purpose of attack is in the MIND, and its effects are felt
but where it IS. Nor is mind limited; so must it be that harmful
purpose hurts the mind as one. Nothing could make LESS sense to
specialness. Nothing could make MORE sense to miracles. For
miracles are merely change of purpose from hurt to healing.
This shift in purpose DOES “endanger” specialness, but only in
the sense that all illusions are “threatened” by the truth. They will
NOT stand before it.Yet what comfort has ever been in them, that
you would keep the gift your Father asks from Him, and give it there
instead? Given to HIM, the universe is yours. Offered to THEM, no
gifts can be returned. What you have given specialness has left you
bankrupt, and your treasure house barren and empty, with an open
door inviting everything that would disturb your peace to enter
and destroy.
Long ago we said consider not the means by which salvation is
attained, nor how to reach it. But DO consider, and consider well,
whether it is your wish that you might see your brother sinless. To
specialness the answer must be “no.” A sinless brother IS its enemy,
while sin, if it were possible, would be its friend.Your brother’s sins
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24 SPECIALNESS AND SEPARATION
would justify itself, and give it meaning that the truth denies.All that
is real proclaims his sinlessness. All that is false proclaims his sins as
real. If HE is sinful, then is YOUR reality not real, but just a dream of
specialness which lasts an instant, crumbling into dust.
Do not defend this senseless dream, in which God is bereft of
what He loves, and you remain beyond salvation. Only this is certain
in this shifting world which has no meaning in reality:When peace is
not with you entirely, and when you suffer pain of any kind, you
have beheld some sin within your brother, and have REJOICED at
what you thought was there.Your specialness seemed safe because of
it. And thus you saved what YOU appointed to be your savior, and
crucified the one whom God has given you instead. So are you
bound with him, for you ARE one.And so is specialness his “enemy,”
and YOURS as well.
564
THE RESOLUTION OF THE DREAM
sin. Identify with Him, and what has He that you have not? He is
your eyes, your ears, your hands, your feet. How gentle are the sights
He sees, the sounds He hears. How beautiful His hand that holds His
brother’s, and how lovingly He walks beside him, showing him what
can be seen and heard, and where he will see nothing, and there is no
sound to hear.
Yet let your specialness direct his way, and YOU will follow.And
BOTH will walk in danger, each intent, in the dark forest of the
sightless, unlit but by the shifting tiny gleams that spark an instant
from the fireflies of sin and then go out, to lead the other to a
nameless precipice, and hurl him over it. For what can specialness
delight in but to kill? What does it seek for but the sight of death?
Where does it lead but to destruction? Yet think not that it looked
upon your brother first, nor hated him before it hated you.The sin its
eyes behold in him and love to look upon it saw in YOU, and looks
on still with joy.Yet IS it joy to look upon decay and madness, and
believe this crumbling thing, with flesh already loosened from the
bone and sightless holes for eyes, is like yourself?
Rejoice you HAVE no eyes with which to see; no ears to listen,
and no hands to hold nor feet to guide. Be glad that only Christ can
lend you His, while you have need of them.They are illusions, too, as
much as yours. And yet because they serve a different purpose, the
strength their purpose holds is given them.And what they see and hear
and hold and lead is given light, that you may lead as you were led.
The Christ in you is very still. He knows where you are going,
and He leads you there in gentleness and blessing all the way. His love
for God replaces all the fear you thought you saw within yourself.
His holiness shows you Himself in him whose hand you hold, and
whom you lead to Him. And what you see is like yourself. For what
but Christ is there to see and hear and love and follow home? He
looked upon you first, but recognized that you were not complete.
And so He sought for your completion in each living thing that He
beholds and loves. And seeks it still, that each might offer you the
Love of God.
Yet is He quiet, for He knows that love is in you now, and safely
held in you by that same hand that holds your brother’s in your own.
Christ’s hand holds all His brothers in Himself. He gives them vision
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24 SPECIALNESS AND SEPARATION
for their sightless eyes, and sings to them of Heaven, that their ears
may hear no more the sound of battle and of death. He reaches
through them, holding out His hand, that everyone may bless all
living things, and see their holiness.And He rejoices that these sights
are yours, to look upon with Him and share His joy. His perfect lack
of specialness He offers you, that you may save all living things from
death, receiving from each one the gift of life that your forgiveness
offers to your Self.The sight of Christ is all there is to see.The song
of Christ is all there is to hear. The hand of Christ is all there is to
hold.There IS no journey but to walk with Him.
You who would be content with specialness, and seek salvation in
a war with love, consider this:The holy Lord of Heaven has Himself
come down to you, to offer you your own completion.What is His is
yours because in your completion is His Own. He Who willed not to
be without His Son could never will that you be brotherless. And
would He give a brother unto you except he be as perfect as yourself,
and just as like to Him in holiness as YOU must be?
There must be doubt before there can be conflict. And every
doubt must be about yourself. Christ has no doubt, and from His
certainty His quiet comes. He will exchange His certainty for all your
doubts, if you agree that He is one with you, and that this Oneness is
endless, timeless, and within your grasp BECAUSE your hands are HIS.
He is within you, yet He walks beside you and before, leading the way
that He must go to find Himself complete. His quietness becomes
your certainty.And where is doubt when certainty has come?
566
SALVATION FROM FEAR
See in him God’s creation. For in him, his Father waits for your
acknowledgment that He created you as part of Him.
Without you there would be a lack in God, a Heaven
incomplete, a Son without a Father.There could be no universe and
no reality. For what God wills is whole, and part of Him because His
Will is One. Nothing alive that is not part of Him, and nothing IS
but is alive in Him. Your brother’s holiness shows you that God is
One with him and you; that what he has is yours BECAUSE you are
not separate from him nor from his Father.
Nothing is lost to you in all the universe. Nothing that God
created has He failed to lay before you lovingly, as yours forever.And
no thought within His Mind is absent from your own. It is His Will
you share His Love for you, and look upon yourself as lovingly as He
conceived of you before the world began, and as He knows you still.
God changes not His Mind about His Son with passing circumstance
which has no meaning in eternity where He abides, and you with
Him.Your brother IS as He created him. And it is this that saves you
from a world that He created not.
Forget not that the healing of God’s Son is all the world is FOR.
That is the only purpose the Holy Spirit sees in it, and thus the only
one it has. Until you see the healing of the Son as all you wish to be
accomplished by the world, by time and all appearances, you will not
know the Father nor yourself. For you will use the world for what is
not its purpose, and will not escape its laws of violence and death.Yet
it is given you to be beyond its laws in ALL respects, in EVERY way
and EVERY circumstance; in ALL temptation to perceive what is not
there, and ALL belief God’s Son can suffer pain because he sees
himself as he is not.
Look on your brother, and behold in him the whole reversal of
the laws that seem to rule this world. See in his freedom YOURS, for
such it is. Let not his specialness obscure the truth in him, for not one
law of death you bind him to will YOU escape.And not one sin you
see in him but keeps you BOTH in hell.Yet will his perfect sinlessness
RELEASE you both, for holiness is quite impartial, with one
judgement made for all it looks upon.And that is made, not of itself,
but through the Voice that speaks for God in everything that lives
and shares His Being.
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24 SPECIALNESS AND SEPARATION
It is HIS sinlessness that eyes which see can look upon. It is HIS
loveliness they see in everything. And it is HE they look for
everywhere, and find no sight nor place nor time where He is not.
Within your brother’s holiness, the perfect frame for your salvation
and the world’s, is set the shining memory of Him in Whom your
brother lives, and you along with him. Let not your eyes be blinded
by the veil of specialness that hides the face of Christ from him, and
you as well. And let the fear of God no longer hold the vision you
were meant to see from you.Your brother’s body shows not Christ to
you. He IS set forth within his holiness.
Choose, then, his body or his holiness as what you WANT to
see, and which you choose is yours to look upon.Yet will you choose
in countless situations, and through time which seems to have no
end, until the truth be your decision. For eternity is not regained by
still one more denial of Christ in him.And where is your salvation, if
he is but a body? Where is your peace but in his holiness? And where
is God Himself but in that part of Him He set forever in your
brother’s holiness, that you might see the truth about yourself, set
forth at last in terms you recognized and understood?
Your brother’s holiness is sacrament and benediction unto you.
His errors cannot withhold God’s blessing from himself, nor you
who see him truly. His mistakes can cause delay, which it is given you
to take from him, that both may end a journey that has never been
begun, and needs no end.What never was is not a part of you.Yet you
will THINK it is until you realize that it is not a part of him who
stands beside you. He is the mirror of yourself, wherein you see the
judgement you have laid on both of you.The Christ in you beholds
his holiness.Your specialness looks on his body, and beholds him not.
See him as what he IS, that your deliverance may not be long.A
senseless wandering, without a purpose and without accomplishment
of any kind, is all the other choice can offer you. Futility of function
not fulfilled will haunt you while your brother lies asleep, till what has
been assigned to you is done, and he is risen from the past. He who
condemned himself, and you as well, is given you to save from
condemnation, along with you. And BOTH shall see God’s glory in
His Son, whom you mistook as flesh, and bound to laws that have no
power over him at all.
568
SALVATION FROM FEAR
Would you not gladly realize these laws are not for you? Then
see him not as prisoner to them. It cannot be what governs part of
God holds not for all the rest.You place yourself under the laws you
see as ruling him. Think, then, how great the Love of God for you
must be, that He has given you a part of Him to save from pain and
give you happiness. And never doubt but that your specialness will
disappear before the Will of God,Who loves each part of Him with
equal love. The Christ in you CAN see your brother truly. Would
YOU decide against the holiness He sees?
Specialness is the function which you gave yourself. It stands for
you alone, as self-created, self-maintained, in need of nothing, and
unjoined with anything beyond the body. In its eyes, you are a
separate universe, with all the power to hold itself complete within
itself, with every entry shut against intrusion, and every window
barred against the light. Always attacked and always furious, with
anger always fully justified, you have pursued this goal with vigilance
you never thought to yield, and effort that you never thought to
cease. And all this grim determination was for this; you wanted
specialness to be the TRUTH.
Now you are merely asked that you pursue another goal with
far less vigilance; with little effort and with little time, and with the
power of God maintaining it, and promising success.Yet of the two, it
is THIS one you find more difficult. The “sacrifice” of self you
understand, nor do you deem this cost too heavy. But a tiny
willingness, a nod to God, a greeting to the Christ in you, you find a
burden wearisome and tedious, too heavy to be borne. Yet to the
dedication to the truth as God established it no sacrifice is asked, no
strain called forth, and all the power of Heaven and the might of
truth itself is given to provide the means, and GUARANTEE the
goal’s accomplishment.
You who believe it easier to see your brother’s body than his
holiness, be sure you understand what made this judgement. Here is
the voice of specialness heard clearly, judging against the Christ, and
setting forth for you the purpose that you can attain, and what you
cannot do. Forget not that this judgement must apply to what you do
with IT as your ally. For what you do through Christ it does not
know. To Him this judgement makes no sense at all, for only what
569
24 SPECIALNESS AND SEPARATION
His Father wills is possible, and there is no alternative for Him to see.
Out of His lack of conflict comes your peace.And from His purpose
comes the means for effortless accomplishment and rest.
570
THE MEETING-PLACE
you hurt.What would you save it FOR? For in that choice lie both
its health and harm. Save it for show, as bait to catch another fish, to
house your specialness in better style, or weave a frame of loveliness
around your hate, and you condemn it to decay and death. And if
you see this purpose in your brother’s, such is your condemnation of
your own. Weave, rather, then, a frame of holiness around him, that
the truth may shine on him, and give you safety from decay.
The Father keeps what He created safe. You cannot touch it
with the false ideas you made, because it was created not by you. Let
not your foolish fancies frighten you. What is immortal cannot BE
attacked; what is but temporal HAS no effect. Only the purpose that
you see in it has meaning, and if that is true, its safety rests secure. If
not, it has no purpose, and is means for nothing. Whatever is
perceived as means for truth shares in its holiness, and rests in light as
safely as itself. Nor will that light go out when it is gone. Its holy
purpose gave it immortality, setting another light in Heaven, where
your creations recognize a gift from you, a sign that you have not
forgotten them.
The test of everything on earth is simply this;“What is it FOR?”
The answer makes it what it is for you. It has no meaning of itself, yet
you can give reality to it, according to the purpose which you serve.
Here you are but means, along with it. God is a Means as well as End.
In Heaven, means and end are one, and one with him. This is the
state of true creation, found not within time, but in eternity.To no-
one here is this describable. Nor is there any way to learn what this
condition means. Not till you go past learning to the Given; not till
you make again a holy home for your creations is it understood.
A co-creator with the Father must have a Son.Yet must this Son
have been created like Himself. A perfect being, all-encompassing
and all-encompassed, nothing to add and nothing taken from; not
born of size nor weight nor time, nor held to limits or uncertainties
of any kind. Here do the means and end unite as one, nor does this
one have any end at all. All this is true, and yet it has no meaning to
anyone who still retains one unlearned lesson in his memory, one
thought with purpose still uncertain, or one wish with a divided aim.
This course makes no attempt to teach what cannot easily be
learned. Its scope does not exceed your own, except to say that what
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24 SPECIALNESS AND SEPARATION
is yours will come to you when you are ready. Here are the means
and purpose separate because they were so made and so perceived.
And therefore do we deal with them as if they were. It is essential it
be kept in mind that all perception still is upside down until its
purpose has been understood. Perception does not SEEM to be a
means. And it is this that makes it hard to grasp the whole extent to
which it must depend on what you see it FOR. Perception seems to
TEACH you what you see.Yet it but witnesses to what YOU taught.
It is the outward picture of a wish; an image that you WANTED to
be true.
Look at yourself, and you will see a body. Look at this body in a
different light and it looks different.And without a light it seems that
it is gone.Yet you are reassured that it is there because you still can
feel it with your hands, and hear it move. Here is an image that you
want to be yourself. It is the means to make your wish come true. It
gives the eyes with which you look on it, the hands that feel it, and
the ears with which you listen to the sounds it makes. It PROVES its
own reality to you.
Thus is the body made a theory of yourself, with no provisions
made for evidence beyond itself, and no escape within its sight. Its
course is sure, when seen through its own eyes. It grows and withers,
flourishes and dies. And you cannot conceive of you apart from it.
You brand it sinful, and you hate its acts, judging it evil. Yet your
specialness whispers, “Here is my own beloved son, in whom I am
well pleased.” Thus does the “son” become the means to serve his
“father’s” purpose. Not identical, not even like, but still a means to
offer to the “father” what he WANTS. Such is the travesty on God’s
creation. For as His Son’s creation gave HIM joy and witness to His
Love and shared His purpose, so does the body testify to the idea that
made it, and speak for its reality and truth.
And thus are two sons made, and both appear to walk this earth
without a meeting-place and no encounter. One do you see outside
yourself, your own beloved son.The other rests within, His Father’s
Son, within your brother as he is in you.Their difference does not lie
in how they look, nor where they go, nor even what they do.They
have a different PURPOSE. It is this that joins them to their like, and
separates each from all aspects with a different purpose. The Son of
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THE MEETING-PLACE
God retains His Father’s Will.The son of man perceives an alien will,
and wishes it were so.And thus does his perception serve his wish by
giving it appearances of truth.Yet can perception serve another goal.
It is not bound to specialness but by your choice.And it IS given you
to make a different choice, and use perception for a different
purpose. And what you see will serve that purpose well, and PROVE
its own reality to you.
573
twe nty five
The Remedy
574
THE APPOINTED TASK
brother has for you.And such it must be that your mission is for him.
575
25 THE REMEDY
the light. The veil is lifted through its gentleness, and nothing hides
the face of Christ from its beholders. And both of you stand there,
before Him now, to let Him draw aside the veil that seems to keep
you separate and apart.
Since you BELIEVE that you are separate, Heaven presents itself
to you as separate, too. Not that it is in truth, but that the link that has
been given you to join the truth may reach to you through what you
understand. Father and Son and Holy Spirit are as One, as all your
brothers join as one in truth. Christ and His Father never have been
separate, and Christ abides within your understanding, in the part of
you that shares His Father’s Will.The Holy Spirit links the other part,
the tiny mad desire to be separate, different and special, to the Christ,
to make the oneness clear to what is REALLY one. In this world, this
is not understood, but CAN be taught.
The Holy Spirit serves Christ’s purpose in your mind, so that
the aim of specialness can be corrected where the error lies. Because
His purpose still is one with both the Father and the Son, He knows
the Will of God and what YOU really will. But this is understood by
mind perceived as one, aware that it is one, and so EXPERIENCED.
It is the Holy Spirit’s function to teach you HOW this oneness is
experienced, WHAT you must do that it can be experienced, and
WHERE you should go to do it.
All this takes note of time and place as if they were discrete, for
while you think that part of you is separate, the concept of a oneness
joined as one is meaningless. It is apparent that a mind so split could
never be the teacher of a Oneness Which unites all things within
Itself. And so What IS within this mind, and DOES unite all things
together, must be its Teacher.Yet must It use the language which this
mind can understand in the condition in which it thinks it is.And It
must use all learning to transfer illusions to the truth, taking all false
ideas of what you are, and leading you beyond them to the truth that
IS beyond them.All this can very simply be reduced to this:
576
THE SAVIOR FROM THE DARK
577
25 THE REMEDY
your brother as a body, it IS but this you do.The masterpiece that God
has set within this frame is all there is to see.The body holds it for a
while, without obscuring it in any way. Yet what God has created
needs no frame, for what He has created He supports, and frames
within Himself. His masterpiece He offers you to see.And would you
rather see the frame INSTEAD of this? And see the picture not at all?
The Holy Spirit is the frame God set around the part of Him
that you would see as separate.Yet its frame is joined to its Creator,
one with Him and with His masterpiece.This is its purpose, and you
do not make the frame into the picture when you choose to see it in
its place.The frame that God has given it but serves His purpose, not
yours apart from His. It is your SEPARATE purpose that obscures the
picture, and cherishes the frame instead of it. Yet God has set His
masterpiece within a frame that will endure forever, when yours has
crumbled into dust. But think you not the picture is destroyed in any
way. What God creates is safe from all corruption, unchanged and
perfect in eternity.
Accept God’s frame instead of yours, and you will see the
masterpiece. Look at its loveliness, and understand the Mind that
thought it, not in flesh and bones, but in a frame as lovely as Itself. Its
holiness lights up the sinlessness the frame of darkness hides, and casts
a veil of light across the picture’s face, which but reflects the light that
shines from it to its Creator. Think not this face was ever darkened
because you saw it in a frame of death. God kept it safe that you
might look on it, and see the holiness that He has given it.
Within the darkness see the Savior FROM the dark, and
understand your brother as his Father’s Mind shows him to you. He
will step forth from darkness as you look on him, and you will see
the dark no more. The darkness touched him not, nor you who
brought him forth for you to look upon. His sinlessness but pictures
yours. His gentleness becomes your strength, and both will gladly
look within, and see the holiness that must be there BECAUSE of
what you looked upon in him. He is the frame in which your
holiness is set, and what God gave him must be given you. However
much he overlooks the masterpiece in him, and sees only a frame of
darkness, it is still your only function to behold in him what he sees
not. And in this seeing is the vision shared that looks on Christ
578
THE FUNDAMENTAL LAW OF PERCEPTION
579
25 THE REMEDY
580
THE FUNDAMENTAL LAW OF PERCEPTION
out of mind, where it must be, and light the body up INSTEAD of it.
The lamps of Heaven are not for it to choose to see them where it
will. If it elects to see them elsewhere from their home, as if they lit a
place where they could never be, and YOU agree, then must the
Maker of the world correct your error, lest you remain in darkness,
where the lamps are not. Everyone here has entered darkness, yet no-
one has entered it alone. For he has come with Heaven’s Help within
him, ready to lead him OUT of darkness into light at any time.
The time he chooses CAN be any time, for help is there,
awaiting but his choice. And when he chooses to avail himself of
what is given him, then will he see each situation that he thought
before was means to justify his anger turned to an event which
justifies his love. He will hear plainly that the calls to war he heard
before are really calls to peace. He will perceive that where he gave
attack is but another altar where he can, with equal ease and far more
happiness, bestow forgiveness. And he will reinterpret all temptation
as just another chance to bring him joy. How can a misperception be
a sin? Let all your brother’s errors be to you nothing except a chance
for you to see the workings of the Helper given you to see the world
He made, instead of yours.
What, then, IS justified? What do you WANT? For these two
questions are the same. And when you see them AS the same, your
choice is made. For it is seeing them as one that brings release from
the belief there ARE two ways to see.This world has much to offer
to your peace, and many chances to extend your own forgiveness.
Such its purpose is, to those who WANT to see peace and forgiveness
descend on them, and offer them the light.
The Maker of the world of gentleness has perfect power to
offset the world of violence and hate that seems to stand between
you and His gentleness. It is not there in His forgiving eyes. And
therefore it need not be there in yours. Sin is the fixed belief
perception CANNOT change.What has been damned is damned and
damned forever, being forever unforgivable. If, then, it IS forgiven,
sin’s perception must have been wrong. And thus is change made
possible. The Holy Spirit, too, sees what He sees as far beyond the
chance of change. But on His vision sin cannot encroach, for sin has
been CORRECTED by His sight. And thus it must have been an
581
25 THE REMEDY
error, not a sin. For what it claimed could never be, has been. Sin is
attacked by punishment, and so preserved. But to forgive it is to
change its state from error into truth.
The Son of God could never sin, but he CAN wish for what
would hurt him. And he HAS the power to think he can be hurt.
What could this be except a misperception of himself? Is this a sin or
a mistake, forgivable or not? Does he need help or condemnation? Is
it your purpose that he be saved or damned? Forgetting not that
what he is to you will make this choice YOUR future? For you make
it NOW, the instant when all time becomes a means to reach a goal.
Make, then, your choice. But recognize that IN this choice the
purpose of the world you see is chosen, and WILL be justified.
582
THE STATE OF SINLESSNESS
refrain. From you can come their rest. From you can rise a world
they will rejoice to look upon, and where their hearts are glad. In
you there is a vision which extends to all of them, and covers them in
gentleness and light.And in this widening world of light the darkness
that they thought was there is pushed away, until it is but distant
shadows, far away, not long to be remembered as the sun shines them
to nothingness.And all their “evil” thoughts and “sinful” hopes, their
dreams of guilt and merciless revenge, and every wish to hurt and kill
and die, will disappear before the sun you bring.
Would you not do this for the love of God? And for
YOURSELF? For think what it would do for you. Your “evil”
thoughts that haunt you now will seem increasingly remote and far
away from you. And they go farther and farther off, because the sun
in you has risen that they may be pushed away before the light.They
linger for a while, a LITTLE while, in twisted forms too far away for
recognition, and are gone forever. And in the sunlight you will stand
in quiet, in innocence, and wholly unafraid. And from you will the
rest you found extend, so that your peace can never fall away and
leave you homeless.Those who offer peace to everyone have found a
home in Heaven the world cannot destroy. For it is large enough to
hold the world within its peace.
In you is all of Heaven. Every leaf that falls is given life in you.
Each bird that ever sang will sing again in you. And every flower that
ever bloomed has saved its perfume and its loveliness for you.What aim
can supersede the Will of God and of His Son, that Heaven be restored
to him for whom it was created as his only home? Nothing before and
nothing after it. No other place, no other state nor time. Nothing
beyond nor nearer. Nothing else. In any form.This can you bring to all
the world, and all the thoughts that entered it and were mistaken for a
little while. How better could your own mistakes be brought to truth
than by your willingness to bring the light of Heaven with you, as you
walk beyond the world of darkness into light?
583
25 THE REMEDY
is meaningless without the goal of sin. Attack and sin are bound as
one illusion, each the cause and aim and justifier of the other. Each is
meaningless alone, but seems to draw a meaning from the other.
Each depends upon the other for whatever sense it seems to have.
And no-one could believe in one unless the other were the truth, for
each attests the other MUST be true.
Attack makes Christ your enemy, and God along with Him.
Must you not be afraid, with “enemies” like these? And must you not
be fearful of YOURSELF? For you have hurt yourself, and made your
Self your “enemy.” And now you must believe you are not you, but
something alien to yourself and “something else,” a “something” to
be feared instead of loved.Who would attack whatever he perceives
as wholly innocent? And who, BECAUSE he wishes to attack, can fail
to think it must be guilty to deserve the wish and leave him
innocent? And who would see the Son of God as innocent, and wish
him dead? Christ stands before you both, each time you look on one
another. He has not gone because your eyes are closed. But what is
there to see by searching for your Savior, seeing Him through
sightless eyes?
It is not Christ you see by looking thus. It is the “enemy,”
confused with Christ, you look upon. And hate because there is no
sin in him for you to see. Nor do you hear his plaintive call,
unchanged in content in whatever form the call is made, that you
unite with him, and join with him in innocence and peace. And yet,
beneath the ego’s senseless shrieks, such IS the call that God has given
him, that you might hear in him His Call to you, and answer by
returning unto God what is His Own.
The Son of God asks only this of you; that you return to him
what is his due, that you may SHARE in it with him. Alone does
neither have it. So must it remain useless to both. Together, it will
give to each an equal strength to save the other, and save himself
along with him. Forgiven by you, your Savior offers you salvation.
Condemned by you, he offers death to you. In everyone you see but
the reflection of what you chose to have him be to you. If you decide
against his proper function, the only one he has in truth, you are
depriving him of all the joy he would have found, if he fulfilled the
role God gave to him. But think not Heaven is lost to him alone. Nor
584
THE SPECIAL FUNCTION
can it be regained unless the way is shown to him through you, that
you may find it, walking by his side.
It is no sacrifice that he be saved, for by his freedom will you
gain your own.To let his function be fulfilled is but the means to let
yours be. And so you walk toward Heaven or toward hell, but not
alone. How beautiful his sinlessness will be when you perceive it!
And how great will be your joy, when he is free to offer you the gift
of sight God gave to him for you! He has no need but this; that you
allow him freedom to complete the task God gave to him.
Remembering but this; that what he does you do, along with him.
And as you see him, so do you define the function he will have for
you, until you see him differently and LET him be what God
appointed that he be to you.
Against the hatred that the Son of God may cherish toward
himself is God believed to be without the power to save what He
created from the pain of hell. But in the love he shows himself is God
made free to LET His Will be done. In each of you, you see the
picture of your own belief in what the Will of God must be for you.
In your forgiveness will you understand His Love for you; through
your attack believe He hates you, thinking Heaven must be hell. Look
once again upon your brother, not without the understanding that he
is the way to Heaven or to hell, as you perceive him. But forget not
this; the role you give to him is given YOU, and you WILL walk the
way you pointed out to him because it is your judgement on yourself.
585
25 THE REMEDY
seems painful to the eyes grown long accustomed to the dim effects
perceived at twilight. And they turn away from sunlight, and the
clarity it brings to what they look upon. Dimness seems better; easier
to see, and better recognized. Somehow, the vague and more obscure
seems easier to look upon; less painful to the eyes than what is
wholly clear and unambiguous. Yet this is not what eyes are FOR.
And who can say that he prefers the darkness, and maintain he
WANTS to see? The WISH to see calls down the grace of God upon
your eyes, and brings the gift of light that makes sight possible.
Will you behold your brother? God is glad to have you look on
him. He does not will your Savior be unrecognized by you. Nor does
He will that he remain without the function that He gave to him.
Let him no more be lonely, for the lonely ones are those who see no
function in the world for them to fill; no place where they are
needed, and no aim which only they can perfectly fulfill.
Such is the Holy Spirit’s kind perception of specialness; His use
of what you made, to heal instead of harm.To each He gives a special
function in salvation he alone can fill; a part for only him. Nor is the
plan complete until he finds his special function, and fulfills the part
assigned to him, to make himself complete within a world where
incompletion rules.
Here, where the laws of God do not prevail in perfect form, can
he yet do ONE perfect thing, and make ONE perfect choice.And by
this act of special faithfulness to one perceived as other than himself,
he learns the gift was given to himself, and so they MUST be one.
Forgiveness is the only function meaningful in time. It is the means
the Holy Spirit uses to translate specialness from sin into salvation.
Forgiveness is for all. But when it rests on all it is complete, and every
function of this world completed with it.Then is time no more.
Yet while in time, there is still much to do. And each must do
what is allotted him, for on his part does ALL the plan depend. He
HAS a special part in time, for so he chose, and choosing it, he made
it for himself. His wish was not denied, but changed in form, to let it
serve his brother AND himself, and thus become a means to save
instead of lose. Salvation is no more than a reminder this world is not
your home; its laws are not imposed on you, its values are not yours.
And this is seen and understood as each one takes his part in its
586
COMMUTING THE SENTENCE
587
25 THE REMEDY
Will of God, this course would not be difficult for you. For it is this
that you do not believe. Yet there is nothing else you COULD
believe, if you but looked at what it really is.
Let us go back to what we said before, and think of it more
carefully. It must be so that either God is mad, or is this world a place
of madness. Not one Thought of His makes any sense at all within
this world. And nothing that the world believes as true has any
meaning in His Mind at all. What makes no sense and has no
meaning IS insanity. And what is madness CANNOT be the truth. If
one belief so deeply valued here were true, then every Thought God
ever had is an illusion.And if but one Thought of His is true, then all
beliefs the world gives any meaning to are false, and make no sense at
all.This IS the choice you make. Do not attempt to see it differently,
nor twist it into something it is not. For only this decision CAN you
make.The rest is up to God, and not to you.
To justify one value that the world upholds is to deny your
Father’s sanity and YOURS. For God and His beloved Son do not
think differently.And it is the agreement of their thought that makes
the Son a co-creator with the Mind Whose Thought created him.
And if he chooses to believe one thought opposed to truth, he has
decided he is not his Father’s Son because the Son is mad, and sanity
must lie apart from both the Father AND the Son. This you
BELIEVE.Think not that this belief depends upon the form it takes.
Who thinks the world is sane in ANY way, is justified in
ANYTHING it thinks, or is maintained by ANY form of reason,
believes this to be true. Sin is not real BECAUSE the Father and the
Son are not insane. This world is meaningless BECAUSE it rests on
sin.Who could create the changeless, if it does not rest on truth?
The Holy Spirit has the power to change the whole foundation
of the world you see to something else; a basis not insane, on which
a sane perception can be based, another world perceived.And one in
which nothing is contradicted that would lead the Son of God to
sanity and joy. Nothing attests to death and cruelty, to separation and
to differences. For here is everything perceived as one, and no-one
loses that each one may gain.
Test everything that you believe against this ONE requirement.
And understand that everything that meets this one demand is
588
COMMUTING THE SENTENCE
worthy of your faith. But nothing else. What is not love is sin, and
either one perceives the other as insane and meaningless. Love is the
basis for a world perceived as wholly mad to sinners, who believe
theirs is the way to sanity. But sin is equally insane within the sight of
love, whose gentle eyes would look beyond the madness, and rest
peacefully on truth. Each sees a world immutable, as each defines the
changeless and eternal truth of what you are.And each reflects a view
of what the Father and the Son must be, to make that viewpoint
meaningful and sane.
Your special function is the special form in which the fact that
God is not insane appears most sensible and meaningful to you.The
content is the same.The form is suited to your special needs, and to
the special time and place in which you think you find yourself, and
where you can be free of place and time, and all that you believe
must limit you.The Son of God cannot be bound by time nor place,
nor anything God did not will.Yet if His Will is seen as madness, then
the form of sanity which makes it most acceptable to those who are
insane requires special choice. Nor can this choice be made BY the
insane, whose problem is their choices are not free, and made with
reason in the light of sense.
It WOULD be madness to entrust salvation to the insane.
Because He is NOT mad has God appointed One as sane as He to
raise a saner world to meet the sight of everyone who chose insanity
as his salvation.To this One is given the choice of form most suitable
to him; one which will not attack the world he sees, but enter into it
in quietness, and SHOW him he is mad. This One but points to an
alternative, ANOTHER way of looking at what he has seen before,
and recognizes as the world in which he lives, and thought he
understood before.
Now MUST he question this, because the form of the
alternative is one which he cannot deny, nor overlook, nor fail
completely to perceive at all.To each his special function is designed
to be perceived as possible, and more and more desired, as it PROVES
to him that it is an alternative he really WANTS. From this position
does his sinfulness, and all the sin he sees within the world, offer him
less and less. Until he comes to understand it COST him his sanity,
and stands between him and whatever hope he has of BEING sane.
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25 THE REMEDY
Nor is he left without escape from madness, for he has a special part
in everyone’s escape. He can no more be left outside, without a
special function in the hope of peace, than could the Father overlook
His Son, and pass him by in careless thoughtlessness.
What is dependable EXCEPT God’s Love? And where does
sanity abide EXCEPT in Him? The One Who speaks for Him can
show you this, in the alternative He chose especially for you. It is
God’s Will that you remember this, and so emerge from deepest
mourning into perfect joy. Accept the function that has been
assigned to you in God’s Own plan to show His Sons that hell and
Heaven are different, NOT the same. And that in Heaven THEY are
all the same, without the differences which would have made a hell
of Heaven and a heaven of hell, had such insanity been possible.
The whole belief that someone loses but reflects the underlying
tenet God must be insane. For in this world it seems that one must
gain BECAUSE another lost. If THIS were true, then God is mad
indeed! But what is this belief except a form of the more basic tenet,
“Sin is real, and rules the world”? For every little gain must someone
lose, and pay exact amount in blood and suffering. For otherwise
would evil triumph, and destruction be the total cost of any gain at
all. You who believe that God is mad, look carefully at this, and
understand that it must be that either God or THIS must be insane,
but hardly both.
Salvation is rebirth of the idea no-one CAN lose for anyone to
gain.And everyone MUST gain, if anyone would be a gainer. Here is
sanity restored. And on this single rock of truth can faith in God’s
eternal saneness rest in perfect confidence and perfect peace. Reason
is satisfied, for all insane beliefs can be corrected here.And sin MUST
be impossible, if THIS is true. This is the rock on which salvation
rests, the vantage point from which the Holy Spirit gives meaning
and direction to the plan in which your special function has a part.
For here your special function is made whole because it shares the
FUNCTION of the whole.
Remember all temptation is but this; a mad belief that God’s
insanity would make you sane, and give you what you want. That
either God or you must lose to madness because your aims can NOT
be reconciled. Death demands life, but life is not maintained at any
590
THE PRINCIPLE OF SALVATION
cost. No-one can suffer for the Will of God to be fulfilled. Salvation
is His Will BECAUSE you share it. Not for you alone, but for the Self
which is the Son of God. He CANNOT lose, for if he could, the loss
would be his Father’s, and in Him no loss is possible.And this is sane
BECAUSE it is the truth.
591
25 THE REMEDY
Justice demands NO sacrifice, for any sacrifice is made that sin may
be preserved and kept. It is a payment offered for the cost of sin, but
not the total cost. The rest is taken from another, to be laid beside
your little payment, to “atone” for all that you would keep, and not
give up. So is the victim seen as partly you, with someone else by far
the greater part.And in the total cost, the greater his the less is yours.
And justice, being blind, is satisfied by being paid, it matters not by
whom. Can this BE justice? God knows not of this. But justice DOES
He know, and knows it well. For He is wholly fair to everyone.
Vengeance is alien to God’s Mind BECAUSE He knows of
justice. To be just is to be fair, and NOT be vengeful. Fairness and
vengeance are impossible, for each one contradicts the other and
denies that it is real. It is impossible for you to share the Holy Spirit’s
justice with a mind that can conceive of specialness at all.Yet how
could He be just if He condemns a sinner for the crimes he did not
do, but THINKS he did? And where would justice be if He
demanded of the ones obsessed with the idea of punishment that
they lay it aside, unaided, and perceive it is not true? It is extremely
hard for those who still believe sin meaningful to understand the
Holy Spirit’s justice.
They MUST believe He shares their own confusion, and cannot
avoid the vengeance that their own belief in justice must entail. And
so they fear the Holy Spirit, and perceive the “wrath” of God in
Him. Nor can they trust Him not to strike them dead with
lightening bolts torn from the “fires” of Heaven by God’s Own
angry hand.They DO believe that Heaven is hell and ARE afraid of
love.And deep suspicion and the chill of fear comes over them when
they are told that they have never sinned. Their world depends on
sin’s stability. And they perceive the “threat” of what God knows as
justice to be more destructive to themselves and to their world than
vengeance, which they understand and love.
So do they think the loss of sin a curse.And flee the Holy Spirit
as if He were a messenger from hell, sent from above, in treachery
and guile, to work God’s vengeance on them in the guise of a
deliverer and friend. What could He be to them except a devil
dressed to deceive, within an angel’s cloak. And what escape has He
for them except a door to hell that seems to look like Heaven’s gate?
592
THE PRINCIPLE OF SALVATION
Yet justice cannot punish those who ask for punishment, but have a
Judge Who knows that they are wholly innocent in truth. In justice,
He is bound to set them free, and give them all the honor they
deserve, and have denied themselves because they are not fair, and
cannot understand that they are innocent. Love is not understandable
to sinners because they think that justice is split off from love, and
stands for something else.
And thus is love perceived as weak, and vengeance strong. For
love has LOST when judgement left its side, and is too weak to save
from punishment. But vengeance without love has GAINED in
strength by being separate and apart from love. And what but
vengeance now can help and save, while love stands feebly by, with
helpless hands, bereft of justice and vitality, and powerless to save?
What can Love ask of you who think that all of this is true? Could
He, in justice and in love believe, in your confusion, you have much to
give? You are not asked to trust Him far. No further than what you see
He offers you, and what you recognize you could not give yourself.
In God’s Own justice does He recognize all you deserve, but
understands as well that you cannot accept it for yourself. It is His
special function to hold out to you the gifts the innocent DESERVE.
And every one that you accept brings joy to Him as well as you. He
knows that Heaven is richer made by each one you accept.And God
rejoices as His Son receives what loving justice knows to be his due.
For love and justice are NOT different. BECAUSE they are the same
does mercy stand at God’s right Hand, and gives the Son of God the
power to forgive HIMSELF of sin.
To him who merits everything, how can it be that anything be
kept from him? For that would be injustice, and unfair indeed to all
the holiness that is in him, however much he recognize it not. God
knows of no injustice. He would not allow His Son be judged by
those who seek his death, and could not see his worth at all. What
honest witnesses could they call forth, to speak on his behalf? And
who would come to plead for him, and not against his life? No justice
would be given him by you.Yet God ensured that justice WOULD be
done unto the Son He loves, and would protect from all unfairness
you might seek to offer, believing vengeance IS his proper due.
As specialness cares not who pays the cost of sin, so it be paid,
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25 THE REMEDY
the Holy Spirit heeds not who looks on innocence at last, provided
it is seen and recognized. For just ONE witness is enough, if he sees
truly. Simple justice asks no more. Of each one does the Holy Spirit
ask if he will be that one, so justice may return to love, and there be
satisfied. Each special function He allots is but for this; that each one
learn that love and justice are not separate.And both are strengthened
by their union with each other. Without love is justice prejudiced
and weak.And love without justice is impossible. For love is fair, and
cannot chasten without cause. What cause can BE to warrant an
attack upon the innocent? In justice, then, does love correct mistakes,
but not in vengeance. For that would be unjust to innocence.
You can be perfect witness to the power of love AND justice, if
you understand it is impossible the Son of God could merit
vengeance.You need not perceive, in every circumstance, that this is
true. Nor need you look to your experience within the world, which
is but shadows of all that is REALLY happening within yourself.The
understanding which you need comes not of you, but from a larger
Self, so great and holy that He could not doubt His innocence.Your
special function is a call to Him, that He may smile on you whose
sinlessness He shares. HIS understanding will be YOURS.And so the
Holy Spirit’s special function has been fulfilled. God’s Son has found
a witness unto his sinlessness, and not his sin. How little need you
give the Holy Spirit, that simple justice may be given you!
Without impartiality there is no justice. How can specialness be
just? Judge not because you cannot, not because you are a miserable
sinner, too. How can the special REALLY understand that justice is
the same for everyone? To take from one to give another must be an
injustice to them both, since they are equal in the Holy Spirit’s sight.
Their Father gave the same inheritance to both. Who would have
more or less is not aware that he has everything. He is no judge of
what must be another’s due, because he thinks HE is deprived.And so
must he be envious, and try to take away from whom he judges. He
is not impartial, and cannot fairly see another’s rights because his
own have been obscured to him.
You have the RIGHT to all the universe; to perfect peace,
complete deliverance from all effects of sin, and to the life eternal,
joyous and complete in every way, as God appointed for His holy
594
THE JUSTICE OF HEAVEN
Son. This is the only justice Heaven knows, and all the Holy Spirit
brings to earth. Your special function shows you nothing else but
perfect justice CAN prevail for you.And you are safe from vengeance
in all forms. The world deceives, but it cannot replace God’s justice
with a version of its own. For only love IS just, and CAN perceive
what justice must accord the Son of God. Let love decide, and never
fear that you, in your unfairness, will deprive yourself of what God’s
justice has allotted you.
595
25 THE REMEDY
596
THE JUSTICE OF HEAVEN
specially to an elect and special group, and kept apart from others as
less deserving, then is He ALLY to specialness. What He cannot
perceive He bears no witness to. And everyone is equally entitled to
His gift of healing and deliverance and peace. To give a problem to
the Holy Spirit to solve for you means that you WANT it solved.To
keep it for yourself to solve without His help is to decide it should
remain unsettled, unresolved, and lasting in its power of injustice and
attack. No-one CAN be unjust to you, unless you have decided first
to BE unjust. And then must problems rise to block your way, and
peace be scattered by the winds of hate.
Unless you think that all your brothers have an equal right to
miracles with you, you will not claim your right to them because you
were unjust to one with equal rights. Seek to deny, and you WILL feel
denied. Seek to deprive, and you HAVE been deprived.A miracle can
NEVER be received because another could receive it NOT. Only
forgiveness offers miracles.And pardon must be just to everyone.
The little problems that you keep and hide become your secret
sins, because you did not choose to let them be removed for you.And
so they gather dust and grow, until they cover everything that you
perceive, and leave you fair to no-one. Not one right do you believe
you have. And bitterness, with vengeance justified and mercy lost,
condemns you as unworthy of forgiveness.The unforgiven HAVE no
mercy to bestow upon another. That is why your sole responsibility
must be to take forgiveness for yourself.The miracle that you receive,
you GIVE. Each one becomes an illustration of the law on which
salvation rests; that justice must be done to all, if anyone is to be
healed. No-one can lose, and everyone MUST benefit.
Each miracle is an example of what justice can accomplish
when it is offered to everyone alike. It is received and given equally.
It is awareness that giving and receiving are the same. Because it does
not make the same unlike, it sees no differences where none exist.
And thus it is the same for everyone, because it sees no differences in
THEM. Its offering is universal, and it teaches but one message:
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twe nty six
The Transition
598
THE “SACRIFICE” OF ONENESS
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26 THE TRANSITION
Yet every instant can you be reborn, and given life again. His holiness
gives life to you, who cannot die because his sinlessness is known to
God, and can no more be sacrificed by you than can the light in you
be blotted out because he sees it not. You who would make a
sacrifice of life, and make your eyes and ears bear witness to the death
of God and of His holy Son, think not that you have power to make
of them what God willed not they be. In Heaven, God’s Son is not
imprisoned in a body, nor is sacrificed in solitude to sin.
And as he is in Heaven, so must he be eternally and everywhere.
He is the same forever. Born again each instant, untouched by time,
and far beyond the reach of any sacrifice of life or death. For neither
did he make, and only one was given him, by One Who knows His
gifts can never suffer sacrifice and loss. God’s justice rests in
gentleness upon His Son, and keeps him safe from all injustice the
world would lay upon him. Could it be that YOU could make his
sins reality, and sacrifice his Father’s Will for him?
Condemn him not by seeing him within the rotting prison
where he sees himself. It is your special function to ensure the door
be opened, that he may come forth to shine on you, and give you
back the gift of freedom by receiving it of you. What is the Holy
Spirit’s special function but to release the holy Son of God from the
imprisonment he made to KEEP himself from justice? Could your
function be a task apart and separate from His Own?
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THE FORMS OF ERROR
you think you have. They are the same to Him because each one,
regardless of the form it seems to take, is a demand that someone
suffer loss, and make a sacrifice that you might gain. And when the
situation is worked out so no-one loses, is the problem gone, because
it was an error in perception which now has been corrected. One
mistake is not more difficult for Him to bring to truth than is
another. For there IS but one mistake; the whole idea that loss is
possible, and could result in gain for anyone. If this were true, then
God would be unfair; sin would be possible, attack be justified, and
vengeance fair.
This one mistake, in any form, has ONE correction.There IS no
loss; to think there is, is a mistake.You HAVE no problems, though
you think you have.And yet you could not think so, if you saw them
vanish one by one, without regard to size, complexity, or place and
time, or any attribute which you perceive that makes each one seem
different from the rest.Think not the limits you impose on what you
see can limit God in any way.
The miracle of justice can correct ALL errors. Every problem IS
an error. It does injustice to the Son of God, and therefore is not
true.The Holy Spirit does not evaluate injustices as great or small, or
more or less. They have no properties to Him. They are mistakes
from which the Son of God is suffering, but needlessly. And so He
takes the thorns and nails away. He does not pause to judge whether
the hurt be large or little. He makes but one judgement; that to hurt
God’s Son MUST be unfair, and therefore is not so.
You who believe it safe to give but some mistakes to be
corrected while you keep the others to yourself, remember this:
Justice is total.There is no such thing as partial justice. If the Son of
God is guilty then is he condemned, and he deserves no mercy from
the God of justice. But ask not God to punish him because YOU find
him guilty, and would have him die. God offers you the means to see
his innocence. Would it be fair to punish him because you will not
look at what is there to see? Each time you keep a problem for
yourself to solve, or judge that it is one which has no resolution, you
have made it great, and past the hope of healing. You deny the
miracle of justice CAN be fair.
If God is just, then can there be no problems that justice cannot
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26 THE TRANSITION
solve. But you believe that some injustices are fair and good, and
necessary to preserve yourself. It is these problems that you think are
great, and cannot be resolved. For there are those you WANT to
suffer loss, and no-one whom you wish to be preserved from
sacrifice entirely. Consider once again your special function. ONE is
given you to see in him his perfect sinlessness. And you will ask no
sacrifice of him, because you could not will he suffer loss. The
miracle of justice you call forth will rest on you as surely as on him.
Nor will the Holy Spirit be content until it is received by everyone.
For what you give to Him IS everyone’s, and by your giving it can
He ensure that everyone receives it equally.
Think, then, how great your own release will be, when you are
willing to receive correction for all your problems.You will not keep
one, for pain in any form you will not want. And you will see each
little hurt resolved before the Holy Spirit’s gentle sight. For all of
them ARE little in His sight, and worth no more than just a tiny sigh
before they disappear, to be forever undone and unremembered.What
seemed once to be a special problem, a mistake without a remedy, or
an affliction without a cure, has been transformed into a universal
blessing. Sacrifice is gone. And in its place the Love of God can be
remembered, and will shine away all memory of sacrifice and loss.
God cannot be remembered until justice is loved instead of
feared. He cannot be unjust to anyone or anything, because He
knows that everything that is belongs to Him, and will forever be as
He created it. Nothing He loves but must be sinless and beyond
attack.Your special function opens wide the door beyond which is
the memory of His Love kept perfectly intact and undefiled. And all
you need to do is but to wish that Heaven be given you instead of
hell, and every bolt and barrier that seems to hold the door securely
barred and locked will merely fall away, and disappear. For it is not
your Father’s Will that you should offer or receive less than He gave,
when He created you in perfect love.
THE BORDERLAND
Complexity is not of God. How could it be, when all He knows is
one? He knows of ONE creation, ONE reality, ONE truth, and but
ONE Son. Nothing conflicts with oneness. How, then, could there be
602
THE BORDERLAND
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26 THE TRANSITION
salvation. Heaven was never lost, and so cannot be saved.Yet who can
make a choice between the wish for Heaven and the wish for hell
unless he recognizes they are NOT the same? This difference is the
learning goal this course has set. It will not go beyond this aim. Its
only purpose is to teach what is the same and what is different,
leaving room to make the only choice which CAN be made.
There is no basis for choice in this complex and over complicated
world. For no-one understands what is the same, and seems to choose
where no choice really is. The real world is the area of choice made
real, not in the outcome, but in the perception of ALTERNATIVES for
choice.That there IS choice is an illusion.Yet within this one lies the
undoing of EVERY illusion, not excepting this.
Is not this like your special function, where the separation is
undone by change of purpose in what once was specialness, and now
is union? ALL illusions are but one. And in the recognition this is so,
lies the ability to give up all attempts to choose between them, and to
MAKE them different. There IS no conflict here. No sacrifice is
possible in the relinquishment of an illusion RECOGNIZED as such.
Where all reality has been withdrawn from what was never true, can
it be hard to give it up, and choose what MUST be true?
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WHERE SIN HAS LEFT
join, for nothing stands between, to keep them separate and apart.
The sinless must perceive that they are one, for nothing stands
between to push the other off.And in the space which sin left vacant
do they join as one, in gladness recognizing what is part of them has
not been kept apart and separate.
The holy place on which you stand is but the space that sin has
left. And here you see the face of Christ, arising in its place. Who
could behold the face of Christ, and not recall His Father as He really
is? Who could fear love, and stand upon the ground where sin has left
a place for Heaven’s altar to rise and tower far above the world, and
reach beyond the universe to touch the heart of all creation? What is
Heaven but a song of gratitude and love and praise, by everything
created to the Source of its creation? The holiest of altars is set where
once sin was believed to be. And here does every light of heaven
come, to be rekindled and increased in joy. For here is what was lost
restored to them, and all their radiance made whole again.
Forgiveness brings no little miracles to lay before the gate of
Heaven. Here the Son of God Himself comes to receive each gift
that brings him nearer to his home. Not one is lost, and none is
cherished more than any other. Each reminds him of His Father’s
Love as surely as the rest. And each one teaches him that what he
feared he loves the most. What BUT a miracle could change his
mind, so that he understands that love cannot BE feared? What other
miracle is there but this? And what else NEED there be to make the
space between you disappear?
Where sin once was perceived will rise a world which will
become an altar to the truth, and YOU will join the lights of Heaven
there, and sing their song of gratitude and praise. And as they come
to you to be complete, so will you go with them. For no-one hears
the song of Heaven and remains without a voice that adds its power
to the song, and makes it sweeter still. And each one joins the
singing at the altar which was raised within the tiny spot that sin
proclaimed to be its own. And what was tiny then has soared into a
magnitude of song in which the universe has joined with but a
single voice. This tiny spot of sin that stands between you still is
holding back the happy opening of Heaven’s gate. How little is the
hindrance which withholds the wealth of Heaven from you! And
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26 THE TRANSITION
how great will be the joy in Heaven when you join the mighty
chorus to the Love of God!
606
THE LITTLE HINDRANCE
gone.You think you live in what is past. Each thing you look upon
you saw but for an instant, long ago, before its unreality gave way to
truth. Not one illusion still remains unanswered in your mind.
Uncertainty was brought to certainty so long ago that it is hard
indeed to hold it to your heart, as if it were before you still.
The tiny instant you would keep and make eternal, passed away in
Heaven too soon for anything to notice it had come.What disappeared
too quickly to affect the simple knowledge of the Son of God can
hardly still be there, for you to choose to be your teacher. Only in the
past, – an ancient past, too short to make a world in answer to creation,
– did this world appear to rise. So very long ago, for such a tiny interval
of time, that not one note in Heaven’s song was missed.
Yet in each unforgiving act or thought, in every judgement, and
in all belief in sin, is that one instant still called back, as if it could be
made again in time.You keep an ancient memory before your eyes.
And he who lives in memories alone is unaware of where he is. Is
this a HINDRANCE to the place whereon he stands? Is any echo
from the past that he may hear a fact in what is there to hear where
he is now? And how much can his own delusions about time and
place affect a change in where he really is?
The unforgiven is a voice that calls from out a past forever more
gone by. And everything which points to it as real is but a wish that
what is gone could be made real again, and seen as here and now, in
place of what is REALLY now and here. Is this a hindrance to the
truth the past is gone, and cannot be returned to you? And do you
WANT that fearful instant kept, when Heaven seemed to disappear,
and God was feared and made a symbol of your hate?
Forget the time of terror that has been so long ago corrected
and undone. Can sin withstand the Will of God? Can it be up to you
to see the past, and put it in the present? You can NOT go back.And
everything that points the way in the direction of the past but sets
you on a mission whose accomplishment can only be unreal. Such is
the justice your Ever-Loving Father has ensured must come to you.
And from your own unfairness to yourself has He protected you.You
CANNOT lose your way because there is no way but His, and
nowhere can you go except to Him.
Would God allow His Son to lose his way along a road long
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26 THE TRANSITION
608
THE APPOINTED FRIEND
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26 THE TRANSITION
REVIEW OF PRINCIPLES
This is a course in miracles.And as such, the laws of healing must be
understood before the purpose of the course can be accomplished.
Let us review the principles that we have covered, and arrange them
in a way that summarizes all that must occur for healing to be
possible. For when it once is possible it MUST occur. All sickness
comes from separation.When the separation is denied, it goes. For it
IS gone as soon as the idea which brought it has been healed, and
been replaced by sanity. Sickness and sin are seen as consequence and
cause, in a relationship kept hidden from awareness that it may be
carefully preserved from reason’s light.
Guilt ASKS for punishment, and its request is granted. Not in
truth, but in the world of shadows and illusions built on sin.The Son
of God perceives what he would see because perception IS a wish
fulfilled. Perception changes, made to take the place of changeless
knowledge.Yet is truth unchanged. It cannot be perceived, but only
known.What is perceived takes many forms, but none has meaning.
Brought to truth, its senselessness is quite apparent. Kept apart from
truth, it seems to have a meaning and be real.
Perception’s laws are opposite to truth, and what is true of
knowledge is not true of anything that is apart from it.Yet has God
given answer to the world of sickness, which applies to ALL its forms.
God’s answer is eternal, though it operates in time, where it is
needed.Yet because it IS of God, the laws of time do not affect its
workings. It is in this world, but not a part of it. For it is real, and
dwells where all reality must be. Ideas leave not their source, and their
effects but seem to be apart from them. Ideas are of the mind.What
is projected out, and seems to be external to the mind, is not outside
at all, but an effect of what is in, and has not left its source.
God’s answer lies where the belief in sin must be, for only there
can its effects be utterly undone, and without cause. Perception’s laws
must be reversed because they ARE reversals of the laws of truth.The
laws of truth forever will be true, and cannot BE reversed; yet can be
SEEN as upside-down.And this must be corrected where the illusion
of reversal lies.
It is impossible that one illusion be less amenable to truth than
are the rest. But it IS possible that some are given greater value, and
610
REVIEW OF PRINCIPLES
less willingly offered to truth for healing and for help. No illusion has
any truth in it. Yet it appears some are more true than others,
although this clearly makes no sense at all. All that a hierarchy of
illusions can show is preference, not reality. What relevance has
preference to the truth? Illusions are illusions, and are false. Your
preference gives them no reality. Not one is true in any way, and all
must yield with equal ease to what God gave as answer to them all.
God’s Will is One.And any wish that seems to go against His Will has
NO foundation in the truth.
Sin is not error, for it goes beyond correction to impossibility.
Yet the belief that it is real has made some errors seem forever past
the hope of healing, and the lasting grounds for hell. If this were so,
would Heaven be opposed by its own opposite, as real as it. Then
would God’s Will be split in two, and all creation be subjected to the
laws of two opposing powers, until God becomes impatient, splits the
world apart, and relegates attack unto Himself.Thus has He lost His
Mind, proclaiming sin has taken His reality from Him, and brought
His Love at last to vengeance’ heels. For such an insane picture, an
insane defense can be expected, but can NOT establish that the
picture must be true.
Nothing gives meaning where no meaning is.And truth NEEDS
no defense to make it true. Illusions have no witnesses, and no
effects. Who looks on them is but deceived. Forgiveness is the only
function here, and serves to bring the joy this world denies to every
aspect of God’s Son where sin was thought to rule. Perhaps you do
not see the role forgiveness plays in ending death, and all beliefs that
rise from mists of guilt.
Sins are beliefs which you impose between your brother and
yourself.They limit you to time and place, and give a little space to
you, another little space to him.This separating off is symbolized, in
your perception, by a body which is clearly separate and a thing
apart.Yet what this symbol represents is but your wish to BE apart
and separate. Forgiveness takes AWAY what stands between your
brother and yourself. It is the wish that you be joined with him, and
NOT apart. We call it “wish” because it still conceives of other
choices, and has not yet reached beyond the world of choice entirely.
Yet is this wish in line with Heaven’s state, and not in opposition
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26 THE TRANSITION
to God’s Will. Although it falls far short of giving you your full
inheritance, it DOES remove the obstacles which you have placed
between the Heaven where you are, and recognition of where and
what you are. Facts are unchanged.Yet facts can be denied and thus
unknown, though they were known BEFORE they were denied.
Salvation, perfect and complete, asks but a little wish that what is
true be true; a little willingness to overlook what is not there; a little
sigh that speaks for Heaven as a preference to this world which death
and desolation seem to rule. In joyous answer will creation rise
within you, to replace the world you see with Heaven, wholly
perfect and complete.What is forgiveness but a willingness that truth
be true? What can remain unhealed and broken from a Unity Which
holds all things within Itself? There IS no sin. And every miracle is
possible the instant that the Son of God perceives his wishes and the
Will of God are One.
What is the Will of God? He wills His Son have everything.And
this He guaranteed when He created him AS everything. It is
impossible that anything be lost, if what you HAVE is what you ARE.
This is the miracle by which creation became your function, sharing
it with God. It is not understood apart from Him, and therefore has
no meaning in this world.
Here does the Son of God ask not too much, but far too little.
He would sacrifice his own identity with everything, to find a little
treasure of his own. And this he cannot do without a sense of
isolation, loss and loneliness. This is the treasure he has sought to
find. And he could only be afraid of it. Is fear a treasure? Can
uncertainty be what you WANT? Or is it a mistake about your will,
and what you REALLY are? Let us consider what the error is, so it
can be corrected, not protected.
Sin is belief attack can be projected outside the mind where the
belief arose. Here is the firm conviction that ideas CAN leave their
source made real and meaningful.And from this error does the world
of sin and sacrifice arise. This world is an attempt to prove your
innocence, while cherishing attack. Its failure lies in that you STILL
feel guilty, though without understanding WHY. Effects are seen as
separate from their source, and seem to be beyond you to control or
to prevent.What is thus KEPT apart can never join.
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REVIEW OF PRINCIPLES
Cause and effect are one, not separate. God wills you learn what
always has been true; that He created you as part of Him, and this
must still be true BECAUSE ideas leave not their source. Such is
creation’s law; that each idea the mind conceives but ADDS to its
abundance, NEVER takes away.This is as true of what is idly wished
as what is truly willed, because the mind can wish to be deceived, but
cannot make it be what it is not. And to believe ideas can leave their
source is to invite illusions to be true, WITHOUT SUCCESS. For
never will success be possible in trying to deceive the Son of God.
The miracle is possible when cause and consequence are
brought together, not kept separate.The healing of effect without the
cause can merely shift effects to other forms.And this is NOT release.
God’s Son could never be content with less than full salvation, and
escape from guilt. For otherwise he still demands that he must make
some sacrifice, and thus denies that everything is his, unlimited by
loss of any kind. A tiny sacrifice is just the same in its effects as is the
whole idea of sacrifice. If loss in any form is possible, then is God’s
Son made incomplete and not himself. He has foresworn his Father
AND himself, and made them both his enemies in hate.
Illusions serve the purpose they were made to serve. And from
their purpose, they derive whatever meaning that they seem to have.
God gave to all illusions that were made ANOTHER purpose that
would justify a miracle whatever form they took. In every miracle all
healing lies, for God gave answer to them all as one.And what is one
to Him must be the same. If you believe what is the same is different
you but deceive yourself.What God calls one will be forever one, not
separate. His Kingdom IS united; thus it was created, and thus will it
ever be.
The miracle but calls your ancient name, which you will
recognize because the truth is in your memory. And to this name
your brother calls for his release and yours. Heaven is shining on the
Son of God. Deny him not, that you may be released. Each instant is
the Son of God reborn, until he chooses not to die again. In every
wish to hurt he chooses death, instead of what his Father wills for
him.Yet every instant offers life to him, because his Father wills that
he should live.
In crucifixion is redemption laid, for healing is not needed
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26 THE TRANSITION
614
THE IMMEDIACY OF SALVATION
615
26 THE TRANSITION
what is here and now.Yet only here and now its cause must be, if its
effects already have been judged as fearful. And in overlooking this, is
it protected and kept separate from healing. For a miracle is NOW. It
stands already here, in present grace, within the only interval of time
which sin and fear have overlooked, but which is all there IS to time.
The working out of all correction takes no time at all.
Yet the ACCEPTANCE of the working out can seem to take
forever. The change of purpose the Holy Spirit brought to your
relationship has in it all effects that you will see.They can be looked
at NOW. Why wait till they unfold in time, and fear they may not
come, although already there? You have been told that everything
brings good that comes from God.And yet it seems as if this is not so.
Good in disaster’s form is difficult to credit in advance. Nor is there
really sense in this idea.
Why should the good appear in evil’s form? And is it not
deception if it does? Its cause is here, if it appears at all.Why are not
its effects apparent, then? Why in the future? And you seek to be
content with sighing, and with “reasoning” you do not understand it
now, but will some day.And then its meaning will be clear.This is not
reason, for it is unjust, and clearly hints at punishment until the time
of liberation is at hand. Given a change of purpose for the good,
there is no reason for an interval in which disaster strikes, to be
perceived as “good” some day, but now in form of pain. This is a
sacrifice of NOW, which could not be the cost the Holy Spirit asks
for what he gave without a cost at all.
Yet this illusion has a cause which, though untrue, must be
already in your mind. And this illusion is but one effect which it
engenders, and one form in which its outcome is perceived. This
interval in time, when retribution is perceived to be the form in
which the “good” appears is but one aspect of the little space that lies
between you, unforgiven still.
Be not content with future happiness. It has no meaning, and is
NOT your just reward. For you have cause for freedom NOW.What
profits freedom in a prisoner’s form? Why should deliverance be
disguised as death? Delay is senseless, and the “reasoning” which
would maintain effects of present cause must be delayed until a
future time is merely a denial of the fact that consequence and cause
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FOR THEY HAVE COME
must come as one. Look not to time, but to the little space between
you still, to be delivered from. And do not let it be disguised as time,
and so preserved because its form is changed, and what it IS cannot
be recognized.The Holy Spirit’s purpose NOW is yours. Should not
His happiness be yours as well?
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26 THE TRANSITION
618
THE REMAINING TASK
619
26 THE TRANSITION
620
twe nty seve n
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27 THE BODY AND THE DREAM
622
THE PICTURE OF THE CRUCIFIXION
laid upon his heart was ever justified, and no attack can ever touch
him with the poisoned and relentless sting of fear. Attest his
innocence and NOT his guilt. YOUR healing is his comfort and his
health because it PROVES illusions are not true.
It is not will for life, but wish for death, that is the motivation
for this world. Its only purpose is to prove guilt real. No worldly
thought or act or feeling has a motivation other than this one.These
are the witnesses that are called forth to be believed, and lend
conviction to the system they speak for and represent. And each has
many voices, speaking to your brother and yourself in different
tongues. And yet to both the message is the same. Adornment of the
body seeks to show how lovely are the witnesses for guilt. Concerns
about the body demonstrate how frail and vulnerable is your life;
how easily destroyed is what you love. Depression speaks of death
and vanity of real concern with anything at all.The strongest witness
to futility, which bolsters all the rest and helps them paint the picture
in which sin is justified, is sickness in whatever form it takes.
The sick have reason for each one of their unnatural desires and
strange needs. For who could live a life so soon cut short, and not
esteem the worth of passing joys? What pleasures could there be that
will endure? Are not the frail entitled to believe that every stolen
scrap of pleasure is their righteous payment for their little lives? Their
death will pay the price for all of them, if they enjoy their benefits or
not.The end of life must come, whatever way that life be spent. And
so take pleasure in the quickly passing and ephemeral.
These are not sins, but witnesses unto the strange belief that sin
and death are real, and innocence and sin will end alike within the
termination of the grave. If this were true, there WOULD be reason
to remain content to seek for passing joys, and cherish little pleasures
where you can.Yet in this picture is the body not perceived as neutral
and without a goal inherent in itself. For it becomes the symbol of
reproach, the sign of guilt whose consequences still are there to see,
so that the cause can never be denied.
Your function is to show your brother sin can HAVE no cause.
How futile must it be to see yourself a picture of the proof that what
your function is can never be! The Holy Spirit’s picture changes not
the body into something it is not. It only takes away from it all signs
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27 THE BODY AND THE DREAM
624
THE FEAR OF HEALING
but not his due. He may be pitied for his guilt, but not exonerated.
And if you forgive him his transgressions, you but add to all the guilt
that he has really earned.
The unhealed CANNOT pardon. For they are the witnesses that
pardon is unfair. They would retain the consequences of the guilt
they overlook.Yet no-one can forgive a sin which he believes is real.
And what has consequences MUST be real because what it has done
is there to see. Forgiveness is not pity, which but seeks to pardon
what it knows to be the truth. Good cannot BE returned for evil, for
forgiveness does not first establish sin and THEN forgive it.Who can
say and mean, “My brother, you have injured me, and yet, because I
am the better of the two, I pardon you my hurt.” His pardon and
your hurt cannot exist together. One denies the other, and MUST
make it false.
To witness sin and yet forgive it is a paradox which reason
cannot see. For it maintains what has been done to you deserves no
pardon. And by giving it, you grant your brother mercy, but retain
the proof he is not really innocent. The sick remain accusers. They
cannot forgive their brothers and themselves as well. For no-one in
whom true forgiveness reigns can suffer. He holds not the proof of
sin before his brother’s eyes. And thus he must have overlooked it,
and removed it from his own. Forgiveness cannot be for one and not
the other. Who forgives IS healed. And in his healing lies the proof
that he has truly pardoned, and retains no trace of condemnation that
he still would hold against himself or any living thing.
Forgiveness is not real UNLESS it brings a healing to your
brother AND yourself.You must attest his sins had no effect on you,
to demonstrate they were not real. How else could he be guiltless?
And how could his innocence be justified unless his sins have no
effect to warrant guilt? Sins are beyond forgiveness just because they
would entail effects which cannot be undone and overlooked
entirely. In their undoing lies the proof that they were merely errors.
LET yourself be healed, that you may be forgiving, offering salvation
to your brother and yourself.A broken body shows the mind has not
been healed. A miracle of healing proves that separation is without
effect.What you would prove to him you will believe.The power of
witness COMES from your belief. And everything you say or do or
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27 THE BODY AND THE DREAM
626
THE FEAR OF HEALING
627
27 THE BODY AND THE DREAM
628
THE SYMBOL OF THE IMPOSSIBLE
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27 THE BODY AND THE DREAM
to take the final step Himself.And what will ultimately take the place
of every learning aid will merely BE. Forgiveness vanishes and
symbols fade, and nothing which the eyes have ever seen, or ears have
heard, remains to be perceived.
A Power wholly limitless has come, not to destroy, but to receive
Its Own. There is no choice of function anywhere. The choice you
fear to lose you never had. Yet only this appears to interfere with
power unlimited and single thoughts, complete and happy, without
opposite. You do not know the peace of power which opposes
nothing.Yet no other kind can be at all. Give welcome to the Power
beyond forgiveness, and beyond the world of symbols and of
limitations. He would merely BE, and so He merely IS.
630
THE QUIET ANSWER
It does not ask a question to be answered, but only to restate its point
of view. All questions asked within this world are but a way of
LOOKING, not a question asked. A question asked in hate cannot be
answered, because it is an answer in itself. A double question asks and
answers, both attesting the same thing in different form.
The world asks but ONE question. It is this:“Of these illusions,
which of them are true? Which ones establish peace and offer joy?
And which can bring escape from all the pain of which this world is
made?”Whatever form the question takes, its purpose is the same. It
asks but to establish sin is real, and answers in the form of preference.
“Which sin do you prefer? That is the one which you should choose.
The others are not true.What can the body get that you would want
the most of all? It is your servant and your friend. But tell it what you
want, and it will serve you lovingly and well.” And this is not a
question, for it tells you what you want, and where to go for it. It
leaves no room to question its beliefs, except that what it states takes
question’s FORM.
A pseudo-question has no answer. It DICTATES the answer
even as it asks. Thus is all questioning within the world a form of
propaganda for itself. Just as the body’s witnesses are but the senses
from within itself, so are the answers to the questions of the world
contained within the questions. Where answers represent the
questions they add nothing new, and nothing has been learned.
An honest question is a learning tool which asks for something
that you do NOT know. It does not set conditions for response, but
merely asks what the response should be. But no-one in a conflict
state is free to ask this question, for he does not want an honest
answer, where the conflict ends. Only within the holy instant can an
honest question honestly be asked. And from the meaning of the
question does the meaningfulness of the answer come. Here is it
possible to separate your wishes from the answer, so it can be given
you, and also be RECEIVED.The answer is provided everywhere.Yet
it is only here it can be HEARD.
An honest answer asks no sacrifice because it answers questions
truly asked.The questions of the world but ask of whom is sacrifice
demanded, asking not if sacrifice is meaningful at all.And so UNLESS
the answer tells “of whom” it will remain unrecognized, unheard,
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27 THE BODY AND THE DREAM
and thus the question is preserved intact because it gave the answer
to itself. The holy instant is the interval in which the mind is still
enough to hear an answer which is not entailed within the question
asked. It offers something new and different from the question. How
could it be answered if it but repeats itself?
Therefore, attempt to solve no problems in a world from which
the answer has been barred. But bring the problem to the only place
which holds the answer lovingly for you. Here are the answers which
will solve your problems because they stand apart from them, and see
what CAN be answered; what the question IS.Within the world the
answers merely raise another question, though they leave the first
unanswered. In the holy instant, you can bring the question to the
answer, and receive the answer that was made FOR you.
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THE HEALING EXAMPLE
one is born into this world as witness to a state of mind which has
transcended conflict, and has reached to peace. It carries comfort
from the place of peace into the battle-ground, and demonstrates
that war has no effects. For all the hurt that war has sought to bring,
the broken bodies and the shattered limbs, the screaming dying and
the silent dead, are gently lifted up and comforted. There IS no
sadness where a miracle has come to heal. And nothing more than
just ONE instant of your love without attack is necessary, that all this
occur. In that one instant are you healed, and in that single instant is
all healing done.
What stands apart from you, when you accept the blessing that
the holy instant brings? Be not afraid of blessing, for the One Who
blesses you loves all the world, and leaves nothing within the world
that could be feared. But if you shrink from blessing, will the world
indeed seem fearful, for you have withheld its peace and comfort,
leaving it to die.Would not a world so bitterly bereft be looked on as
a condemnation by the one who could have saved it, but stepped
back because he was afraid of being healed? The eyes of all the dying
bring reproach, and suffering whispers, “What is there to fear?”
Consider well its question. It is asked of you on your behalf.A dying
world asks only that you rest an instant from attack upon yourself,
that it be healed.
Come to the holy instant and be healed, for nothing that is
there received is left behind, on your returning to the world. And
being blessed, you will bring blessing. Life is given you to give the
dying world. And suffering eyes no longer will accuse, but shine in
thanks to you who blessing gave.The holy instant’s radiance will light
your eyes, and give them sight to see beyond all suffering, and see
Christ’s face instead. Healing REPLACES suffering. Who looks on
one cannot perceive the other, for they cannot both be there. And
what you see the world will witness, and will witness TO.
Thus is your healing everything the world requires, that it may
be healed. It needs ONE lesson which has perfectly been learned.
And then, when you forget it, will the world remind you gently of
what you have taught. No reinforcement will its thanks withhold
from you who let yourself be healed that it might live. It will call
forth its witnesses to show the face of Christ to you who brought the
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27 THE BODY AND THE DREAM
634
THE PURPOSE OF PAIN
that peace is given you when you accept the healing for yourself. Its
total value need not be appraised by you to let you understand that
you have benefited from it.What occurred within the instant which
love entered in without attack will stay with you forever. Your
healing will be one of its effects, as will your brother’s. Everywhere
you go will you behold its multiplied effects.Yet all the witnesses that
you behold will be far less than all there really are. Infinity cannot be
understood by merely counting up its separate parts. God thanks you
for your healing, for He knows it is a gift of love unto His Son, and
therefore is it given unto Him.
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27 THE BODY AND THE DREAM
reality.You cannot choose among them which are real, for any one
you choose is like the rest.This name or that, but nothing more, you
choose.You do not make a witness true because you called him by
truth’s name. The truth is found in him if it is truth he
REPRESENTS. And otherwise he lies, if you should call him by the
holy Name of God Himself.
God’s Witness sees no witnesses AGAINST the body. Neither
does He harken to the witnesses by other names which speak in other
ways for its reality. He KNOWS it is not real. For nothing could
contain what you believe it holds within. Nor could it tell a part of
God Himself what it should feel, and what its function is.Yet must He
love whatever you hold dear.And for each witness to the body’s death
He sends a witness to your life in Him Who knows no death. Each
miracle He brings is witness that the body is not real. Its pains and
pleasures does He heal alike, for ALL sin’s witnesses do His replace.
The miracle makes no distinctions in the names by which sin’s
witnesses are called. It merely proves that what they represent has no
effects. And this it proves because its own effects have come to take
their place. It matters not the name by which you called your
suffering. It is no longer there. The One Who brings the miracle
perceived them all as one, and called by name of fear. As fear is
witness unto death, so is the miracle the witness unto life. It is a
witness no-one can deny, for it is the EFFECTS of life it brings.The
dying live, the dead arise, and pain has vanished.Yet a miracle speaks
not but for itself, but what it represents.
Love, too, has symbols in a world of sin. The miracle forgives
because it stands for what is past forgiveness, and is true. How foolish
and insane it is to think a miracle is bound by laws which it came
solely to undo! The laws of sin have different witnesses, with different
strengths. And they attest to different sufferings.Yet to the One Who
sends forth miracles to bless the world, a tiny stab of pain, a little
worldly pleasure, and the throes of death itself, are but a single sound;
a call for healing, and a plaintive cry for help within a world of
misery. It is their SAMENESS that the miracle attests. It is their
sameness that it PROVES.
The laws which call them different are dissolved, and SHOWN
as powerless.The purpose of a miracle is to accomplish this.And God
636
THE ILLUSION OF SUFFERING
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27 THE BODY AND THE DREAM
638
THE ILLUSION OF SUFFERING
perceived as bringing pain and suffering to you, your guilt was not
among them. Nor did you, in any way, request them for yourself.This
is how ALL illusions come about.The one who makes them does not
see himself as making them, and their reality does not depend on
him. Whatever cause they have is something quite apart from him,
and what he sees is SEPARATE from his mind. He cannot doubt his
dreams’ reality because he does not see the part he plays in making
them, and making them seem real.
No-one can waken from a dream the world is dreaming FOR
him. He becomes a part of someone else’s dream. He cannot choose to
waken from a dream he did not make. Helpless he stands, a victim to a
dream conceived and cherished by a separate mind. Careless indeed of
him this mind must be, as thoughtless of his peace and happiness as is
the weather, or the time of day. It loves him not, but casts him as it will,
in any role that satisfies its dream. So little is his worth that he is but a
dancing shadow, leaping up and down according to a senseless plot
conceived within the idle dreaming of the world.
This is the only picture you can see, the one alternative that you
can choose, the other possibility of cause, if you be NOT the dreamer
of your dreams.And this is what you choose, if you deny the cause of
suffering is in YOUR mind. Be glad indeed it is, for thus are you the
ONE decider of your destiny in time. The choice is yours to make
between a sleeping death and dreams of evil or a happy wakening
and joy of life. What could you choose between BUT life or death,
waking or sleeping, peace or war, your dreams or your reality? Yet if
the choice is really given you, then you must see the causes of the
things you choose between exactly AS they are and WHERE they
are.What choices can be made between two states, but one of which
is clearly recognized? Who could be free to choose between effects,
when only one is seen as up to him?
An honest choice could never be perceived as one in which the
choice is split between a tiny you and an enormous world, with
different dreams about the truth in you.The gap between reality and
dreams lies not between the dreaming of the world and what you
dream in secret. THEY are one. The dreaming of the world is but a
part of your own dream you gave away, and saw as if it were its start
and ending, both.Yet was it started by YOUR secret dream, which
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27 THE BODY AND THE DREAM
you do not perceive, although it caused the part you see and do not
doubt is real. How could you doubt it while you lie asleep, and
dream in secret that its cause is real?
A brother separated from yourself, an ancient enemy, a murderer
who stalks you in the night and plots your death, yet plans that it be
lingering and slow; of this you dream.Yet underneath this dream is
yet another, in which you become the murderer, the secret enemy,
the scavenger and the destroyer of your brother and the world alike.
Here is the CAUSE of suffering, the space between your dreams and
your reality. The little gap you do not even see, the birthplace of
illusions and of fear, the time of terror and of ancient hate, the instant
of disaster, all are here. Here is the CAUSE of unreality.And it is here
that it will be undone.
YOU are the dreamer of the world of dreams. No other cause it
has, nor ever will. Nothing more fearful than an idle dream has
terrified God’s Son, and made him think that he has lost his
innocence, denied his Father, and made war upon himself. So fearful
is the dream, so seeming real, he could not waken to reality without
the sweat of terror and a scream of mortal fear, unless a gentler dream
preceded his awaking, and allowed his calmer mind to welcome, not
to fear, the Voice that calls with love to waken him. God willed he
waken gently, and with joy. And gave him means to waken without
fear. Accept the dream He gave instead of yours. It is not difficult to
change a dream when once the dreamer has been recognized.
Rest in the Holy Spirit, and allow His gentle dreams to take the
place of those you dreamed in terror, and in fear of death. He brings
forgiving dreams, in which the choice is not who is the murderer and
who shall be the victim. In the dreams He brings, there IS no murder
and there IS no death. The dream of guilt is fading from your sight,
although your eyes are closed. A smile has come to lighten up your
sleeping face.The sleep is peaceful now, for these are happy dreams.
Dream softly of your sinless brother, who unites with you in
holy innocence. And from this dream, the Lord of Heaven will
Himself awaken His beloved Son. Dream of your brother’s
kindnesses instead of dwelling in your dreams on his mistakes. Select
his thoughtfulness to dream about instead of counting up the hurts
he gave. Forgive him his illusions, and give thanks to him for all the
640
THE “HERO” OF THE DREAM
641
27 THE BODY AND THE DREAM
642
THE “HERO” OF THE DREAM
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27 THE BODY AND THE DREAM
644
twe nty eight
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28 THE UNDOING OF FEAR
employ for healing have been given Him, without the content and
the purposes for which they have been made. They are but skills
without an application. They AWAIT their use. They have no
dedication and no aim.
646
THE PRESENT MEMORY
badly taught. And who would keep a senseless lesson in his mind,
when he can learn and can preserve a better one? When ancient
memories of hate appear, remember that their cause is gone. And so
you cannot understand what they are for. Let not the cause that you
would give them now be what it was which made them what they
were, or seemed to be. Be glad that it is gone, for this is what you
would be pardoned from. And see, instead, the new effects of cause
accepted NOW, with consequences HERE. They will surprise you
with their loveliness. The ancient new ideas they bring will be the
happy consequences of a cause so ancient that it far exceeds the span
of memory which your perception sees.
This is the Cause the Holy Spirit has remembered for you,
when you would forget. It is not past because He let It not be
unremembered. It has never changed because there never was a time
in which He did not keep It safely in your mind. Its consequences
will indeed seem new, because you thought that you remembered
not their Cause.Yet was It never absent from your mind, for it was
not your Father’s Will that He be unremembered by His Son.
What YOU remember never was. It came from causelessness
which you confused with cause. It can deserve but laughter, when you
learn you have remembered consequences which were causeless, and
could NEVER be effects.The miracle reminds you of a Cause forever
present, perfectly untouched by time and interference. Never changed
from what It IS. And YOU are its effects, as changeless and as perfect as
Itself. Its memory does not lie in the past, nor waits the future. It is not
revealed in miracles.They but remind you that It has not gone.When
you forgive It for your sins, It will no longer be denied.
You who have sought to lay a judgement of your own Creator
cannot understand it is not He Who laid a judgement on His Son.
You would deny Him His effects, yet have they never been denied.
There was no time in which His Son could be condemned for what
was causeless, and against His Will. What your remembering would
witness to is but the fear of God. He has not done the thing you fear.
No more have you. And so your innocence has not been lost.You
need no healing to be healed. In quietness, see in the miracle a lesson
in allowing Cause to have Its OWN effects, and doing nothing that
would interfere.
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28 THE UNDOING OF FEAR
The miracle comes quietly into the mind that stops an instant,
and is still. It reaches gently from that quiet time, and from the mind
it healed in quiet then, to other minds to share its quietness.And they
will join in doing nothing to prevent its radiant extension back into
the Mind Which caused all minds to be. Born out of sharing, there
can be no pause in time to cause the miracle delay in hastening to all
unquiet minds, and bringing them an instant’s stillness, when the
memory of God returns to them. Their own remembering is quiet
now, and what has come to take its place will not be wholly
unremembered afterwards.
He to Whom time is given offers thanks for every quiet instant
given Him. For in that instant is His memory allowed to offer all its
treasures to the Son of God, for whom they have been kept. How
gladly does He offer them unto the one for whom He has been
given them! And His Creator shares His thanks, because He would
not be deprived of His effects. The instant’s silence that His Son
accepts gives welcome to eternity and Him, and lets Them enter
where They would abide. For in that instant does the Son of God do
nothing that would make himself afraid.
How instantly the memory of God arises in the mind that has no
fear to keep the memory away. Its own remembering has gone.There
is no past to keep its fearful image in the way of glad awakening to
present peace. The trumpets of eternity resound throughout the
stillness, yet disturb it not. And what is now remembered is not fear,
but, rather, is the cause that fear was made to render unremembered
and undone. The stillness speaks in gentle sounds of love the Son of
God remembers from before his own remembering came in between
the present and the past, to shut them out.
Now is the Son of God at last aware of present Cause and Its
benign effects. Now does he understand what he has made is
causeless, making no effects at all. He has done nothing. And in
seeing this, he understands he never had a need for doing anything,
and never did. His Cause IS Its effects.There never was a cause beside
It that could generate a different past or future. Its effects are
changelessly eternal, beyond fear, and past the world of sin entirely.
What has been lost, to see the causeless not? And where is
sacrifice, when memory of God has come to take the place of loss?
648
REVERSING EFFECT AND CAUSE
What better way to close the little gap between illusions and reality
than to allow the memory of God to flow across it, making it a
bridge an instant will suffice to reach beyond? For God has closed it
with Himself. His memory has not gone by, and left a stranded Son
forever on a shore where he can glimpse another shore which he can
never reach. His Father wills that he be lifted up, and gently carried
over. HE has built the bridge, and it is He Who will transport His Son
across it. Have no fear that He will fail in what He wills. Nor that
you be excluded from the Will that is for you.
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28 THE UNDOING OF FEAR
650
REVERSING EFFECT AND CAUSE
wishes have been done.Thus does he fear his OWN attack, but sees it
at another’s hands. As victim, he is suffering from its effects, but not
their cause. He authored not his own attack, and he is innocent of
what he caused.The miracle does nothing but to show him that he
has done nothing. What he fears is cause without the consequences
which would MAKE it cause.And so it never was.
The separation started with the dream the Father was deprived
of His effects, and powerless to keep them, since He was no longer
their Creator. In the dream, the dreamer made himself, but what he
made has turned against him, taking on the role of its creator, as the
dreamer had.And as he hated his Creator, so the figures in the dream
have hated him. His body is their slave, which they abuse because the
motives he has given it have they adopted as their own. And hate it
for the vengeance it would offer them. It is their vengeance on the
body which appears to prove the dreamer could not be the maker of
the dream. Effect and cause are first split off, and then reversed, so
that effect becomes a cause; the cause, effect.
This is the separation’s final step, with which salvation, which
proceeds to go the OTHER way, begins.This final step is an effect of
what has gone before, appearing as a cause. The miracle is the first
step in giving back to cause the function of causation, not effect. For
this confusion has produced the dream, and while it lasts, will
wakening be feared. Nor will the call to wakening be heard, because
it seems to be the call to fear.
Like every lesson which the Holy Spirit requests you learn, the
miracle is clear. It demonstrates what He would have you learn, and
shows you its effects are what you WANT. In His forgiving dreams
are the effects of yours undone, and hated enemies perceived as
friends, with merciful intent. Their enmity is seen as causeless now,
because they did not make it. And you can accept the role of maker
of their hate because you SEE that it has no effects. Now are you
freed from this much of the dream; the world is neutral, and the
bodies which still seem to move about as separate things need not be
feared.And so they are not sick.
The miracle returns the cause of fear to you who made it. But it
also shows that, having no effects it is not cause, because the function
of causation is to have effects.And where effects are gone, there IS no
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28 THE UNDOING OF FEAR
cause. Thus is the body healed by miracles because they show the
mind MADE sickness, and employed the body to be victim, or effect,
of what it made. Yet half the lesson will not teach the whole. The
miracle is useless if you learn but that the body can be healed, for this
is not the lesson it was sent to teach.The lesson is the MIND was sick
that thought the body could be sick; projecting out its guilt caused
nothing, and had no effects.
This world is full of miracles.They stand in shining silence next
to every dream of pain and suffering, of sin and guilt. They are the
dream’s alternative, the choice to be the dreamer, rather than deny
the active role in making up the dream.They are the glad effects of
taking back the consequence of sickness to its cause. The body is
released because the mind acknowledges “this is not done to me, but
I am doing this.” And thus the mind is free to make another choice
instead. Beginning here, salvation will proceed to change the course
of every step in the descent to separation, until all the steps have been
retraced, the ladder gone, and all the dreaming of the world undone.
652
THE AGREEMENT TO JOIN
The miracle does nothing just BECAUSE the minds are joined,
and cannot separate.Yet in the dreaming has this been reversed, and
separate minds are seen as bodies, which are separated and which
cannot join. Do not allow your brother to be sick, for if he is, have
you abandoned him to his own dream by sharing it with him. He has
not seen the cause of sickness where it is, and you have overlooked
the gap between you, where the sickness has been bred.Thus are you
JOINED in sickness, to preserve the little gap unhealed, where
sickness is kept carefully protected, cherished, and upheld by firm
belief, lest God should come to bridge the little gap that leads to
Him. Fight not His coming with illusions, for it is His coming that
you want above all things that seem to glisten in the dream.
The end of dreaming is the end of fear, and love was never in
the world of dreams. The gap IS little. Yet it holds the seeds of
pestilence and every form of ill, because it is a wish to keep apart, and
not to join. And thus it seems to give a cause to sickness which is
NOT its cause.The PURPOSE of the gap is all the cause that sickness
has. For it was made to keep you separated, in a body which you see
as if IT were the cause of pain.
The cause of pain is separation, not the body, which is only its
effect. Yet separation is but empty space, enclosing nothing, doing
nothing, and as unsubstantial as the empty place between the ripples
that a ship has made in passing by. And covered just as fast, as water
rushes in to close the gap, and as the waves, in joining, cover it.Where
is the gap between the waves when they have joined, and covered up
the space which seemed to keep them separate for a little while?
Where are the grounds for sickness when the minds have joined to
close the little gap between them, where the seeds of sickness seemed
to grow?
God builds the bridge, but only in the space left clean and
vacant by the miracle. The seeds of sickness and the shame of guilt
He cannot bridge, for He cannot destroy the alien will that He
created not. Let its effects be gone, and clutch them not with eager
hands, to keep them for yourself. The miracle will brush them all
aside, and thus make room for Him Who wills to come, and bridge
His Son’s returning to Himself.
Count, then, the silver miracles and golden dreams of happiness
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as all the treasures you would keep within the storehouse of the
world.The door is open, not to thieves, but to your starving brothers,
who mistook for gold the shining of a pebble, and who stored a heap
of snow that shone like silver. They have nothing left behind the
open door. What is the world except a little gap perceived to tear
eternity apart, and break it into days and months and years? And
what are you who live within the world except a picture of the Son
of God in broken pieces, each concealed within a separate and
uncertain bit of clay?
Be not afraid, but let your world be lit by miracles. And where
the gap was seen to stand between you, join your brother there. And
sickness will be seen WITHOUT a cause. The dream of healing in
forgiveness lies, and gently shows you that you never sinned. The
miracle would leave no proof of guilt to bring you witness to what
never was. And in your storehouse it will make a place of welcome
for your Father and your Self. The door is open, that all those may
come who would no longer starve, and would enjoy the feast of
plenty set before them there. And they will meet with your invited
Guests the miracle has asked to come to you.
This is a feast unlike indeed to those the dreaming of the world
has shown. For here, the more that anyone receives, the more is left
for all the rest to share. The Guests have brought unlimited supply
with Them. And no-one is deprived or can deprive. Here is a feast
the Father lays before His Son, and shares it equally with him.And in
Their sharing there can BE no gap in which abundance falters and
grows thin. Here can the lean years enter not, for time waits not
upon this feast, which has no end. For Love has set Its table in the
space that seemed to keep your Guests apart from you.
654
THE GREATER JOINING
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28 THE UNDOING OF FEAR
in dreams is meaningless because the dreamer and the dream are one.
Who SHARES a dream must BE the dream he shares, because by
sharing is a cause produced.
You share confusion, and you ARE confused, for in the gap no
stable self exists.What is the same seems different, because what is the
same appears to be unlike. His dreams are yours because you LET
them be. But if you took your own away would he be free of them,
and of his own as well.Your dreams are witnesses to his, and his attest
the truth of yours.Yet if you see there IS no truth in yours, his dreams
will go, and he will understand what MADE the dream.
The Holy Spirit is in BOTH your minds, and He is One because
there is no gap that separates His Oneness from Itself.The gap between
your bodies matters not, for what is joined in Him is ALWAYS one.
No-one is sick if someone else accepts his union with him. His desire
to be a sick and separated mind can not remain without a witness or a
cause.And BOTH are gone if someone wills to be united with him. He
has dreams that he was separated from his brother who, by sharing not
his dream, has left the space between them vacant. And the Father
comes to join His Son the Holy Spirit joined.
The Holy Spirit’s function is to take the broken picture of the
Son of God, and put the pieces into place again. This holy picture,
healed entirely, does He hold out to every separate piece that thinks
it is a picture in itself.To each he offers his identity, which the whole
picture represents, instead of just a little, broken bit which he insisted
was himself. And when he sees THIS picture, he will recognize
himself. If you share not your brother’s evil dream, this IS the picture
that the miracle will place within the little gap, left clean of all the
seeds of sickness and of sin.And here the Father will receive His Son,
because His Son was gracious to himself.
I thank you, Father, knowing you will come to close each little
gap that lies between the broken pieces of Your holy Son. Your
holiness, complete and perfect, lies in every one of them. And they
ARE joined, because what is in one is in them all. How holy is the
smallest grain of sand, when it is recognized as being part of the
completed picture of God’s Son! The forms the broken pieces seem
to take mean nothing. For the whole is in each one.And every aspect
of the Son of God is just the same as every other part.
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THE ALTERNATE TO DREAMS OF FEAR
Join not your brother’s dreams, but join with HIM, and where
you join His Son, the Father is. Who seeks for substitutes when he
perceives he has lost nothing? Who would WANT to have the
“benefits” of sickness when he has received the simple happiness of
health? What God has given cannot BE a loss, and what is not of Him
has no effects. What, then, would you perceive within the gap? The
seeds of sickness come from the belief that there is JOY in separation,
and its giving up would be a SACRIFICE. But miracles are the result,
when you do not insist on seeing in the gap what is not there.Your
willingness to LET illusions go is all the Healer of God’s Son
requires. He will place the miracle of healing where the seeds of
sickness were.And there will be NO loss, but ONLY gain.
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28 THE UNDOING OF FEAR
your own identity, because you think that IT is fearful.And you WILL
deny your Self, and walk upon an alien ground which your Creator
did not make, and where you seem to be a something you are not.You
WILL make war upon your Self, which seems to be your enemy; and
WILL attack your brother, as a part of what you hate. There IS no
compromise.You are your Self or an illusion. What can be between
illusion and the truth? A middle ground, where you can be a thing
that is not you, must be a dream and cannot be the truth.
You have conceived a little gap between illusions and the truth
to be the place where all your safety lies, and where your Self is safely
hidden by what you have made. Here is a world established that is
sick, and this the world the body’s eyes perceive. Here are the sounds
it hears; the voices which its ears were made to hear.Yet sights and
sounds the body can perceive are meaningless. It cannot see nor hear.
It does not know what seeing IS; what listening is FOR. It is as little
able to perceive as it can judge or understand or know. Its eyes are
blind; its ears are deaf. It cannot think, and so it cannot have effects.
What is there God created to be sick? And what that He created
not can be? Let not your eyes behold a dream; your ears bear witness
to illusion.They were made to look upon a world that is not there; to
hear the voices that can make no sound.Yet are there other sounds
and other sights which CAN be seen and heard and understood. For
eyes and ears are senses without sense, and what they see and hear
they but report. It is not they that hear and see, but YOU, who put
together every jagged piece, each senseless scrap and shred of
evidence, and make a witness to the world you want. Let not the
body’s ears and eyes perceive these countless fragments seen within
the gap which you imagined, and let them not persuade their maker
his imaginings are real.
Creation proves reality because it shares the function all creation
shares. It is not made of little bits of glass, a piece of wood, a thread or
two perhaps, all put together to attest its truth. Reality does not
depend on this. There IS no gap which separates the truth from
dreams and from illusions. Truth has left no room for them in any
place or time. For it fills every place and every time, and makes them
wholly indivisible.
You who believe there IS a little gap between you, do not
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THE SECRET VOWS
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28 THE UNDOING OF FEAR
deserve your hatred for the limitations which it brings to you. Yet
you have made of it a symbol for the limitations which you want
your MIND to have and see and KEEP.
The body REPRESENTS the gap between the little bit of mind
you call your own, and all the rest of what is REALLY yours.You hate
it, yet you think it IS your self, and that, without it, would your self
be lost. This is the secret vow which you have made with every
brother who would walk apart.This is the secret oath you take again,
whenever you perceive yourself attacked. No-one can suffer if he
does not see himself attacked, and LOSING by attack. Unstated and
unheard in consciousness is every pledge to sickness. Yet it is a
promise to another to be hurt by him, and to attack him in return.
Sickness is anger taken out upon the body, so that IT will suffer
pain. It is the obvious effect of what was made in secret, in agreement
with another’s secret wish to be apart from you, as you would be
apart from him. Unless you BOTH agree that is your wish, it can
have no effects. Whoever says, “There IS no gap between my mind
and yours” has kept God’s promise, not his tiny oath to be forever
faithful unto death.And by his healing is his brother healed.
Let this be your agreement with each one; that you be one with
him, and not apart.And he will keep the promise that you make with
him, because it is the one which he has made to God, as God has
made to him. God keeps His promises; His Son keeps his. In his
creation did his Father say, “You are beloved of Me and I of you
forever. Be you perfect as Myself, for you can never be apart from
Me.” His Son remembers not that he replied “I will,” though in that
promise he was born.Yet God reminds him of it every time he does
not share a promise to be sick, but lets his mind be healed and
unified. His secret vows are powerless before the Will of God,Whose
promises he shares. And what he substitutes is not his will, who has
made promise of himself to God.
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THE BEAUTIFUL RELATIONSHIP
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28 THE UNDOING OF FEAR
sick. This seems to prove that you must be apart.Yet all it means is
that you tried to keep a promise to be true to faithlessness. Yet
faithlessness IS sickness. It is like the house set upon straw. It seems to
be quite solid and substantial in itself. Yet its stability cannot be
judged apart from its foundation. If it rests on straw, there is no need
to bar the door and lock the windows, and make fast the bolts.The
wind WILL topple it, and rain WILL come and carry it into oblivion.
What is the sense in seeking to be safe in what was MADE for
danger and for fear? Why burden it with further locks and chains and
heavy anchors, when its weakness lies, not in itself, but in the frailty
of the little gap of nothingness whereon it stands? What CAN be safe
which rests upon a shadow? Would you build your home upon what
will collapse beneath a feather’s weight?
Your home is built upon your brother’s health, upon his
happiness, his sinlessness, and everything his Father promised him.
No secret promise you have made instead has shaken the Foundation
of his home. The winds will blow upon it, and the rain will beat
against it, but with no effect.The world will wash away, and yet this
house will stand forever, for its strength lies not within itself alone. It
is an ark of safety, resting on God’s promise that His Son is safe
forever in Himself.What gap can interpose itself between the safety
of this shelter and its Source? From here the body can be seen as
what it is, and neither less nor more in worth than the extent to
which it can be used to liberate God’s Son unto his home.And with
this holy purpose, is it made a home of holiness a little while, because
it shares your Father’s Will with YOU.
662
twe nty nine
The Awakening
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29 THE AWAKENING
made your friendship possible a little while. But not without a gap
between you, lest he turn again into an enemy.A cautious friendship,
limited in scope and carefully restricted in amount, became the treaty
you had made with him.You shared a qualified entente, in which a
clause of separation was a point on which you both agreed to keep
intact. And violating this was thought to be a breach of treaty not to
be allowed.
664
THE COMING OF THE GUEST
It is not love that asks a sacrifice. But fear DEMANDS the sacrifice
of love, for in love’s presence fear cannot abide. For hate to be
maintained love MUST be feared, and only sometimes present;
sometimes gone.Thus is love seen as treacherous, because it seems to
come and go uncertainly, and offer no stability to you.You do not see
how limited and weak is your allegiance, and how frequently you have
demanded that love go away, and leave you quietly alone, in “peace.”
The body, innocent of any goal, is your excuse for variable goals
YOU hold, and force the body to maintain. You do not fear its
weakness, but its lack of strength OR weakness.Would you recognize
that nothing stands between you? Would you know there IS no gap
behind which you can hide? There is a shock that comes to those
who learn their Savior is their enemy no more. There is a wariness
that is aroused by learning that the body is not real. And there are
overtones of seeming fear around the happy message “God is love.”
Yet all that happens when the gap is gone is peace eternal.
Nothing more than that, and nothing less.Without the fear of God,
what could induce you to abandon Him? What toys or trinkets in
the gap could serve to hold you back an instant from His love?
Would you allow the body to say “no” to Heaven’s calling, were you
not afraid to find a loss of self in finding God? Yet CAN your Self be
lost by being found?
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29 THE AWAKENING
healed.And being healed, the power to heal must also now be yours.
The miracle is not a separate thing which happens suddenly, as an
effect without a cause. Nor is it, in itself, a cause. But where its cause
is must it be. Now is it caused, though not as yet perceived. And its
effects are there, though not yet seen. Look inward now, and you will
not behold a reason for regret, but cause indeed for glad rejoicing
and for hope of peace.
It HAS been hopeless to attempt to find the hope of peace upon
a battleground. It HAS been futile to demand escape from sin and
pain of what was made to serve the function of RETAINING sin and
pain. For pain and sin are one illusion, as are hate and fear, attack and
guilt but one.Where they are causeless their effects are gone, and love
must come wherever they are not. Why are you not rejoicing? You
are free of pain and sickness, misery and loss, and all effects of hatred
and attack. No more is pain your friend and guilt your god, and you
should welcome the effects of love.
Your Guest HAS come.You asked Him, and He came.You did
not hear Him enter, for you did not wholly welcome Him. And yet
His gifts came with Him. He has laid them at your feet, and asks you
now that you will look on them, and take them for your own. He
NEEDS your help in giving them to all who walk apart, believing
they are separate and alone. They will be healed when you accept
your gifts, because your Guest will welcome everyone whose feet
have touched the holy ground whereon you stand, and where His
gifts for them are laid.
You do not see how much you now can give, because of
everything you have received.Yet He Who entered in but waits for
YOU to come where you invited Him to be.There is no other place
where He can find His host, nor where His host can meet with Him.
And nowhere else His gifts of peace and joy, and all the happiness His
Presence brings, can be obtained. For they are where He is Who
brought them with Him, that they might be yours.You cannot see
your Guest, but you CAN see the gifts He brought. And when you
look on them, you will believe His Presence must be there. For what
you now can do could not be done without the love and grace His
Presence holds.
Such is the promise of the loving God; His Son have life and
666
THE COMING OF THE GUEST
every living thing be part of him, and nothing else have life. What
YOU have given “life” is not alive, and symbolizes but your wish to
be alive apart from life, alive in death, with death perceived as life, and
living, death. Confusion follows on confusion here, for on confusion
has this world been based, and there is nothing else it rests upon. Its
basis does not change, although it seems to be in constant change.Yet
what is that except the state confusion really means? Stability to
those who are confused is meaningless, and shift and change become
the law on which they predicate their lives.
The body does not change. It represents the larger dream that
change is possible. To change is to attain a state unlike the one in
which you found yourself before.There IS no change in immortality,
and Heaven knows it not.Yet here on earth it has a double purpose,
for it can be made to teach opposing things. And they reflect the
teacher who is teaching them. The body can APPEAR to change
with time, with sickness or with health, and with events that seem to
alter it.Yet this but means the mind remains unchanged in its belief
of what the purpose of the body is.
Sickness is a demand the body be a thing that it is not. Its
nothingness is guarantee that it can NOT be sick. In your demand
that it be more than this lies the idea of sickness. For it asks that God
be less than all He really is.What, then, becomes of you, for it IS you
of whom the sacrifice is asked? For He is told that part of Him
belongs to Him no longer. He must sacrifice your self, and in His
sacrifice are you made more, and He is lessened by the loss of you.
And what is gone from Him becomes your god, protecting you from
being part of Him.
The body that is asked to be a god will be attacked, because its
nothingness has not been recognized. And so it seems to be a thing
with power in itself.As something, it can be perceived and thought to
feel and act, and hold you in its grasp as prisoner to itself.And it can fail
to be what you demanded that it be. And you will hate it for its
littleness, unmindful that the failure does not lie in that it is not more
than it should be, but only in your failure to perceive that it is nothing.
Yet its nothingness is your salvation, from which you would flee.
As “something” is the body asked to be God’s enemy, replacing
what He is with littleness and limit and despair. It is His loss you
667
29 THE AWAKENING
celebrate when you behold the body as a thing you love, or look
upon it as a thing you hate. For if He be the sum of everything, then
what is not in Him does not exist, and His completion IS its
nothingness.Your Savior is not dead, nor does he dwell in what was
built as temple unto death. He lives in God, and it is this that makes
him Savior unto you, and ONLY this. His body’s nothingness releases
yours from sickness and from death. For what is yours cannot be
more nor less than what is his.
GOD’S WITNESSES
Condemn your Savior not because he thinks he is a body. For
beyond his dreams is his reality. But he must learn he is a Savior first,
before he can remember what he is.And he must save who would be
saved. On saving you depends his happiness. For who is Savior but
the one who GIVES salvation? Thus he learns it must be his to give.
Unless he gives, he will not know he has, for giving is the PROOF of
having. Only those who think that God is lessened by their strength
could fail to understand this must be so. For who COULD give
unless he has, and who could lose by giving what must be
INCREASED thereby?
Think you the Father lost Himself when He created you? Was
He made weak because He shared His love? Was He made
incomplete by your perfection? Or are you the PROOF that He is
perfect and complete? Deny Him not His witness in the dream His
Son prefers to his reality. He must be Savior FROM the dream he
made, that he be free of it. He must see someone else as NOT a body,
one with him without the wall the world has built to keep apart all
living things who know not that they live.Within the dream of bodies
and of death is yet one theme of truth; no more, perhaps, than just a
tiny spark, a space of light created in the dark, where God still shines.
You cannot wake yourself. Yet you can LET yourself be
wakened.You can overlook your brother’s dreams. So perfectly can
you forgive him his illusions, he becomes your Savior from your
dreams. And as you see him shining in the space of light where God
abides within the darkness, you will see that God Himself is where
his body is. Before this light the body disappears, as heavy shadows
must give way to light. The darkness cannot choose that it remain.
668
DREAM ROLES
The coming of the light MEANS it is gone. In glory will you see
your brother then, and understand what REALLY fills the gap so
long perceived as keeping you apart.
There, in its place, God’s Witness has set forth the gentle way of
kindness to God’s Son.Whom you forgive is given power to forgive
you your illusions. By your gift of freedom is it given unto you. Make
way for love, which you did not create, but which you CAN extend.
On earth this means forgive your brother, that the darkness may be
lifted from your mind. When light has come to him through your
forgiveness, he will not forget his Savior, leaving him unsaved. For it
was in YOUR face he saw the light that he would keep beside him,
as he walks through darkness to the everlasting light.
How holy are you, that the Son of God can be your Savior in
the midst of dreams of desolation and disaster. See how eagerly he
comes, and steps aside from heavy shadows that have hidden him,
and shines on you in gratitude and love. He is himself, but not
himself alone. And as his Father lost not part of Him in your
creation, so the light in him is brighter still because you gave your
light to him, to save him from the dark. And now the light in you
must be as bright as shines in him.This is the spark that shines within
the dream; that you can help him waken, and be sure his waking eyes
will rest on you.And in his glad salvation YOU are saved.
DREAM ROLES
Do you believe that truth can be but SOME illusions? They are
dreams BECAUSE they are not true. Their equal lack of truth
becomes the basis for the miracle, which means that you have
understood that dreams are dreams; and that escape depends, not on
the dream, but only on awaking. Could it be some dreams are kept,
and others wakened from? The choice is not between which dreams
to keep, but only if you want to live in dreams or to awaken from
them. Thus it is the miracle does not select some dreams to leave
untouched by its beneficence.You cannot dream some dreams and
wake from some, for you are either sleeping or awake.And dreaming
goes with only one of these.
The dreams you think you like would hold you back as much as
those in which the fear is seen. For EVERY dream is but a dream of
669
29 THE AWAKENING
fear, no matter what the form it seems to take. The fear is seen
within, without, or both. Or it can be disguised in pleasant form. But
never is it absent from the dream, for fear is the material of dreams
from which they all are made. Their form can change, but they
cannot be made of something else. The miracle were treacherous
indeed if it allowed you still to be afraid because you did not
RECOGNIZE the fear.You would not then be willing to awake, for
which the miracle prepares the way.
In simplest form, it can be said attack is a response to function
unfulfilled as YOU perceive the function. It can be in you or
someone else, but where it is perceived it will be there it is attacked.
Depression or assault must be the theme of every dream, for they are
made of fear.The thin disguise of pleasure and of joy in which they
may be wrapped but slightly veils the heavy lump of fear which is
their core. And it is THIS the miracle perceives, and not the
wrappings in which it is bound.
When you are angry, is it not because someone has failed to fill
the function YOU allotted him? And does not this become the
“reason” your attack is justified? The dreams you think you like are
those in which the functions you have given have been filled; the
needs which you ascribe to you are met. It does not matter if they be
fulfilled, or merely wanted. It is the idea that they EXIST from which
the fears arise. Dreams are not wanted more or less.They are desired
or not. And each one represents some function which you have
assigned; some goal which an event, or body, or a thing SHOULD
represent, and SHOULD achieve for you. If it succeeds, you think you
like the dream. If it should fail, you think the dream is sad. But
whether it succeeds or fails is not its core, but just the flimsy covering.
How happy would your dreams become if you were NOT the
one who gave the “proper” role to every figure which the dream
contains. No-one can fail but your IDEA of him, and there is no
betrayal BUT of this. The core of dreams the Holy Spirit gives is
NEVER one of fear. The coverings may not appear to change, but
what they mean HAS changed, because they cover something else.
Perceptions are determined by their purpose, in that they seem to BE
what they are FOR.A shadow figure who attacks becomes a brother
giving you a chance to help, if this becomes the function of the
670
THE CHANGELESS DWELLING -PLACE
671
29 THE AWAKENING
and hear God’s Voice in him, and let It tell you what his function is.
He was created that you might be whole, for only the complete can
be a part of God’s completion,Which created you.
There is no gift the Father asks of you but that you see in all
creation but the shining glory of His gift to you. Behold His Son, His
perfect gift, in whom his Father shines forever, and to whom is all
creation given as his own. Because he has it is it given you, and where
it lies in him behold your peace.The quiet that surrounds you dwells
in him, and from this quiet come the happy dreams in which your
hands are joined in innocence. These are not hands that grasp in
dreams of pain.They hold no sword, for they have left their hold on
every vain illusion of the world. And being empty, they received,
instead, a brother’s hand in which completion lay.
If you but knew the glorious goal that lies beyond forgiveness,
you would not keep hold on any thought, however light the touch of
evil on it may appear to be. For you would understand how great the
cost of holding anything God did not give in minds that can direct
the hand to bless, and lead God’s Son unto his Father’s house.Would
you not WANT to be a friend to him, created by his Father as His
home? If God esteems him worthy of Himself, would YOU attack
him with the hands of hate? Who would lay bloody hands on
Heaven itself, and hope to find its peace? Your brother thinks he
holds the hand of death. Believe him not. But learn, instead, how
blessed are you who can release him, just by offering him yours.
A dream is given you in which he is your Savior, not your
enemy in hate.A dream is given you in which you have forgiven him
for all his dreams of death; a dream of hope you share with him,
instead of dreaming evil separate dreams of hate.Why does it seem so
hard to share this dream? Because unless the Holy Spirit gives the
dream its function, it was made for hate, and will continue in death’s
services. Each form it takes in some way calls for death. And those
who serve the lord of death have come to worship in a separated
world, each with his tiny spear and rusted sword, to keep his ancient
promises to die.
Such is the core of fear in every dream that has been kept apart
from use by Him Who sees a different function for a dream. When
dreams are shared, they lose the function of attack and separation,
672
FORGIVENESS AND PEACE
even though it was for this that every dream was made.Yet nothing in
the world of dreams remains without the hope of change and
betterment, for here is not where changelessness is found. Let us be
glad indeed that this is so, and seek not the eternal in this world.
Forgiving dreams are means to step aside from dreaming of a world
outside yourself. And leading finally beyond all dreams, unto the
peace of everlasting life.
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29 THE AWAKENING
would make eternal, to ensure that only Heaven would not pass away.
You were not born to die. You cannot change, because your
function has been fixed by God. All other goals are set in time and
change that time might be preserved, excepting ONE. Forgiveness
does not aim at keeping time, but at its ending, when it has no use. Its
purpose ended, it is gone. And where it once held seeming sway is
now restored the function God established for His Son in full
awareness. Time can set no end to its fulfillment, nor its
changelessness.There is no death because the living share the function
their Creator gave to them. Life’s function cannot be to die. It must be
life’s extension, that it be as one forever and forever, without end.
This world will bind your feet and tie your hands and kill your
body only if you think that it was made to crucify God’s Son. For
even though it was a dream of death, you need not let it stand for this
to you. Let THIS be changed, and nothing in the world but must be
changed as well. For nothing here but is defined as what you see it
for. How lovely is the world whose purpose is forgiveness of God’s
Son! How free from fear, how filled with blessing and with
happiness! And what a joyous thing it is to dwell a little while in such
a happy place! Nor can it be forgot, in such a world, it IS a little while
till timelessness comes quietly to take the place of time.
674
THE LINGERING ILLUSION
him, this cannot be so. And therefore, by his coming, he denies the
truth about himself, and seeks for something MORE than
everything, as if a part of it were separated off, and found where all
the rest of it is not. This is the purpose he bestows upon the body;
that it seek for what he lacks, and give him what would make himself
complete. And thus he wanders aimlessly about, in search of
something that he cannot find, believing that he is what he is not.
The lingering illusion will impel him to seek out a thousand
idols, and to seek beyond them for a thousand more. And each will
fail him, all excepting one; for he will die, and does not understand
the idol that he seeks IS but his death. Its form appears to be outside
himself.Yet does he seek to kill God’s Son within, and prove that he
is victor over him.This is the purpose every idol has, for this the role
that is assigned to it, and this the role that cannot BE fulfilled.
Whenever you attempt to reach a goal in which the body’s
betterment is cast as major beneficiary, you try to bring about your
death. For you believe that you can suffer lack, and lack IS death. To
sacrifice is to give up, and thus to be without, and to have suffered loss.
And by this giving up is life renounced. Seek not outside yourself.The
search implies you are not whole within, and fear to look upon your
devastation, and prefer to seek outside yourself for what you are.
Idols must fall BECAUSE they have no life, and what is lifeless IS
a sign of death.You came to die, and what would you expect but to
PERCEIVE the signs of death you seek? No sadness and no suffering
proclaims a message other than an idol found that represents a parody
of life which, in its lifelessness, is really death, conceived as real and
given living form.Yet each must fail and crumble and decay, because a
form of death cannot be life, and what is sacrificed cannot be whole.
All idols of this world were made to keep the truth within from
being known to you; and to maintain allegiance to the dream that
you must find what is outside yourself to be complete and happy. It is
vain to worship idols in the hope of peace. God dwells within, and
your completion lies in Him. No idol takes His place. Look not to
idols. Do not seek outside yourself. Let us forget the purpose of the
world the past has given it. For otherwise, the future WILL be like the
past, and but a series of depressing dreams, in which all idols fail you,
one by one, and you see death and disappointment everywhere.
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29 THE AWAKENING
676
CHRIST AND ANTI-CHRIST
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29 THE AWAKENING
between has not put out. It merely lifts the veil, and LETS the truth
shine unencumbered, being what it is. It does not need belief to be
itself, for it HAS BEEN created, so it IS. An idol is ESTABLISHED by
belief, and when it is withdrawn, the idol “dies.”
This is the anti-Christ; the strange idea there is a power past
omnipotence, a place beyond the infinite, a time transcending the
eternal. Here the world of idols has been set by the idea this power
and place and time are given form, and shape the world where the
impossible has happened. Here the deathless come to die, the all-
encompassing to suffer loss, the timeless to be made the slaves of
time. Here does the changeless change; the peace of God, forever
given to all living things, give way to chaos. And the Son of God, as
perfect, sinless and as loving as his Father, come to hate a little while;
to suffer pain, and finally to die.
Where is an idol? Nowhere! Can there be a gap in what is
infinite, a place where time can interrupt eternity? A place of
darkness set where all is light, a dismal alcove separated off from what
is endless, HAS no place to be. An idol is beyond where God has set
all things forever, and has left no room for anything to be EXCEPT
His Will. Nothing and nowhere must an idol be, while God is
everything and everywhere.
What purpose has an idol, then? What is it FOR? This is the
only question which has many answers, each depending on the one
of whom the question has been asked.The world BELIEVES in idols.
No-one comes unless he worshipped them, and still attempts to seek
for one that yet might offer him a gift reality does not contain. Each
worshipper of idols harbors hope his special deities will give him
more than other men possess. It MUST be more. It does not really
matter more of what; more beauty, more intelligence, more wealth,
or even more affliction and more pain. But MORE of something is
an idol FOR. And when one fails another takes its place, with hope
of finding more of something else. Be not deceived by forms the
“something” takes. An idol is a means for getting MORE. And it is
THIS that is against God’s Will.
God has not many sons, but only One.Who can have more, and
who be given less? In Heaven would the Son of God but laugh, if
idols could intrude upon his peace. It is for him the Holy Spirit
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THE FORGIVING DREAM
speaks, and tells you idols HAVE no purpose here. For more than
Heaven can you never have. If Heaven is within, why would you seek
for idols which would make of Heaven less, to give you more than
God bestowed upon your brother and on you, as one with Him? God
GAVE you all there is. And to be sure you could not lose it, did He
also give the same to every living thing as well. And thus IS every
living thing a part of you, as of Himself. No idol can establish you as
MORE than God. But you will never be content with being LESS.
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29 THE AWAKENING
680
THE FORGIVING DREAM
between the thoughts the mind conceives and what it sees. No-one
is used for something he is not, for childish things have all been put
away. And what was once a dream of judgement now has changed
into a dream where all is joy, because that is the PURPOSE which it
has. Only forgiving dreams can enter here, for time is almost over.
And the forms which enter in the dream are now perceived as
brothers, not in judgement, but in love.
Forgiving dreams have little need to last.They are not made to
separate the mind from what it thinks.They do not seek to prove the
dream is being dreamed by someone else. And in these dreams a
melody is heard which everyone remembers, though he has not
heard it since before all time began. Forgiveness, once complete,
brings timelessness so close the song of Heaven can be heard, not
with the ears, but with the holiness which never left the altar which
abides forever deep within the Son of God. And when he hears this
song again, he knows he never heard it not.And where is time, when
dreams of judgement have been put away?
Whenever you feel fear in any form, – and you ARE fearful if
you do not feel a deep content, a certainty of help, a calm assurance
Heaven goes with you, – be sure you made an idol, and believe it will
betray you. For beneath your hope that it will save you, lie the guilt
and pain of self-betrayal and uncertainty, so deep and bitter that the
dream cannot conceal completely all your sense of doom.Your self-
betrayal MUST result in fear, for fear IS judgement, leading surely to
the frantic search for idols and for death.
Forgiving dreams remind you that you live in safety, and have
not attacked yourself. So do your childish terrors melt away, and
dreams become a sign that you have made a new beginning, not
another try to worship idols, and to KEEP attack. Forgiving dreams
are kind to everyone who figures in the dream.And so they bring the
dreamer full release from dreams of fear. He does not fear his
judgement, for he has judged no-one, nor has sought to be released
through judgement from what judgement must impose. And all the
while he is remembering what he forgot when judgement seemed to
be the way to SAVE him from its penalty.
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thirty
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RULES FOR DECISION
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RULES FOR DECISION
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30 THE NEW BEGINNING
your happiness. You always ask advice before you can decide on
anything. Let THIS be understood, and you can see there cannot be
coercion here, nor grounds for opposition that you may be free.
There IS no freedom from what must occur. And if you think there
is, you must be wrong.
The second rule as well is but a fact. For you and your advisor
must agree on what you want before it can occur. It is but this
AGREEMENT which permits all things to happen. Nothing can be
caused without some form of union, be it with a dream of
judgement or the Voice for God. Decisions cause results BECAUSE
they are not made in isolation. They are made by you and your
advisor, for yourself, and for the world as well.The day you want you
offer to the world, for it will be what you have asked for, and will
reinforce the rules of your advisor in the world. Whose kingdom is
the world for you today? What kind of day will you decide to have?
It needs but two who would have happiness this day to promise
it to all the world. It needs but two to understand that they cannot
decide alone, to guarantee the joy they asked for will be wholly
shared. For they have understood the basic law that makes decision
powerful, and gives it all effects that it will ever have. It needs but
two.These two are joined before there CAN be a decision. Let this be
the one reminder that you keep in mind, and you will have the day
you want, and give it to the world by having it yourself. Your
judgement has been lifted from the world by your decision for a
happy day.And as you have received, so must you give.
FREEDOM OF WILL
Do you not understand that to oppose the Holy Spirit is to fight
YOURSELF? He tells you but YOUR will; He speaks for YOU. In His
Divinity is but your own. And all He knows is but your knowledge,
saved for you that you may do your will through Him. God ASKS you
do your will. He joins with YOU. He did not set His kingdom up
alone. And Heaven itself but represents your will, where everything
created is for you. No spark of life but was created with your glad
consent, as you would have it be.And not one Thought that God has
ever had but waited for your blessing to be born. God is no enemy to
you. He asks no more than that He hear you call Him “Friend.”
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FREEDOM OF WILL
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BEYOND ALL IDOLS
can be called upon to give the Son of God what he already has?
Completion is the FUNCTION of God’s Son. He has no need
to seek for it at all. Beyond all idols stands his holy will to be but
what he is. For more than whole is meaningless. If there were change
in him, if he could be reduced to any form and limited to what is not
in him, he would not be as God created him.What idol can he need
to be himself? For can he give a part of him away? What is not whole
cannot make whole. But what is really asked for cannot BE denied.
Your will IS granted. Not in any form that would content you not,
but in the whole completely lovely Thought God holds of you.
Nothing that God knows not exists. And what He knows exists
forever, changelessly. For thoughts endure as long as does the mind
that thought of them.And in the Mind of God there is no ending, nor
a time in which His Thoughts were absent, or could suffer change.
Thoughts are not born and cannot die. They share the attributes of
their creator, nor have they a separate life apart from his.The thoughts
you think are in your mind, as you are in the Mind Which thought of
you. And so there are no separate parts in what exists within God’s
Mind. It is forever one, eternally united and at peace.
Thoughts seem to come and go.Yet all this means is that you are
sometimes aware of them, and sometimes not. An unremembered
thought is born again to you when it returns to your awareness.Yet it
did not die when you forgot it. It was always there, but you were
unaware of it.The Thought God holds of you is perfectly unchanged
by your forgetting. It will always be exactly as it was before the time
when you forgot, and will be just the same when you remember.
And it is the same within the interval when you forgot.
The Thoughts of God are far beyond all change, and shine
forever. They await not birth. They wait for welcome and
remembering. The Thought God holds of you is like a star,
unchangeable in an eternal sky. So high in Heaven is it set that those
outside of Heaven know not it is there.Yet still and white and lovely
will it shine through all eternity.There was no time it was not there;
no instant when its light grew dimmer or less perfect ever was.
Who knows the Father knows this light, for He is the eternal
sky which holds it safe, forever lifted up and anchored sure. Its perfect
purity does not depend on whether it is seen on earth or not. The
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sky embraces it, and softly holds it in its perfect place, which is as far
from earth as earth from Heaven. It is not the distance nor the time
which keeps this star invisible to earth. But those who seek for idols
cannot know this star is there.
Beyond all idols is the Thought God holds of you. Completely
unaffected by the turmoil and the terror of the world; the dreams of
birth and death that here are dreamed; the myriad of forms that fear
can take; quite undisturbed, the Thought God holds of you remains
exactly as it always was. Surrounded by a stillness so complete no
sound of battle comes remotely near, it rests in certainty and perfect
peace. Here is your one reality kept safe, completely unaware of all
the world that worships idols, and that knows not God. In perfect
sureness of its changelessness, and of its rest in its eternal home, the
Thought God holds of you has never left the Mind of its Creator,
Whom it knows as its Creator knows that it is there.
Where could the Thought God holds of you exist but where
YOU are? Is your reality a thing apart from you, and in a world
which your reality knows nothing of? Outside you, there is no
eternal sky, no changeless star, and no reality.The Mind of Heaven’s
Son in Heaven is, for there the Mind of Father and of Son joined in
creation which can have no end.You have not two realities, but one.
Nor can you be AWARE of more than one.An idol OR the Thought
God holds of you is your reality. Forget not, then, that idols must
keep hidden what you are, not from the Mind of God, but from your
own. The star shines still; the sky has never changed. But you, the
holy Son of God Himself, are unaware of your reality.
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THE ONLY PURPOSE
world is seen to be forgiveness. Fear is not its goal, and the ESCAPE
from guilt becomes its aim. The value of forgiveness is perceived,
and takes the place of idols, which are sought no longer, for their
“gifts” are not held dear. No rules are idly set, and no demands are
made of anyone or anything to twist and fit into the dream of fear.
Instead, there is a wish to understand all things created as they really
are. And it is recognized that all things must be first forgiven, and
THEN understood.
Here, it is thought that understanding is ACQUIRED by attack.
There, it is clear that by attack is understanding LOST. The folly of
pursuing guilt as goal is fully recognized. And idols are not wanted
there, for guilt is understood as the sole cause of pain in any form. No-
one is tempted by its vain appeal, for suffering and death have been
perceived as things not wanted, and not striven for.The possibility of
freedom has been grasped and welcomed, and the means by which it
can be gained can now be understood.The world becomes a place of
hope, because its only purpose is to be a place where hope of
happiness can be fulfilled. And no-one stands outside this hope,
because the world has been united in belief the purpose of the world
is one which all must share, if hope be more than just a dream.
Not yet is Heaven quite remembered, for the purpose of
forgiveness still remains. Yet everyone is certain he will go beyond
forgiveness, and he but remains until it is made perfect in himself. He
has no wish for anything but this. And fear has dropped away, because
he is united in his purpose with himself.There is a hope of happiness
in him so sure and constant he can barely stay, and wait a little longer
with his feet still touching earth.Yet is he glad to wait till every hand is
joined, and every heart made ready to arise and go with him. For thus
is He made ready for the step in which is all forgiveness left behind.
The final step is God’s, because it is but God Who could create
a perfect Son, and share His Fatherhood with him. No-one outside
of Heaven knows how this can be, for understanding this is Heaven
itself. Even the real world has a purpose still beneath creation and
eternity. But fear is gone, because its purpose is forgiveness, not
idolatry. And so is Heaven’s Son prepared to be Himself, and to
remember that the Son of God knows everything his Father
understands, and understands it perfectly with Him.
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The real world still falls short of this, for this is God’s Own
purpose; only His, and yet completely shared and perfectly fulfilled.
The real world is a state in which the mind has learned how easily do
idols go when they are still perceived, but wanted not. How willingly
the mind can let them go when it has understood that idols are
nothing and nowhere, and are purposeless. For only then can guilt
and sin be seen without a purpose, and as meaningless.
Thus is the real world’s purpose gently brought into awareness, to
replace the goal of sin and guilt.And all that stood between your image
of yourself and what you are, forgiveness washes joyfully away.Yet God
need not create His Son again, that what is his be given back to him.
The gap between your brother and yourself was never THERE. And
what the Son of God knew in creation he must know again.
When brothers join in purpose in the world of fear, they stand
already at the edge of the real world. Perhaps they still look back, and
think they see an idol that they want.Yet has their path been surely set
away from idols toward reality. For when they joined their hands, it
was Christ’s hand they took, and they will look on Him Whose hand
they hold. The face of Christ is looked upon before the Father is
remembered. For He must be unremembered till His Son has reached
beyond forgiveness, to the love of God. Yet is the love of Christ
accepted first.And then will come the knowledge They are One.
How light and easy is the step across the narrow boundaries of
the world of fear, when you have recognized Whose hand you hold!
Within your hand is everything you need to walk with perfect
confidence away from fear forever, and to go straight on, and quickly
reach the gate of Heaven itself. For He Whose hand you hold was
waiting but for you to join Him. Now that you have come, would HE
delay in showing you the way that He must walk with you? His
blessing lies on you as surely as His Father’s love rests upon Him. His
gratitude to you is past your understanding, for you have enabled Him
to rise from chains, and go with you, together, to His Father’s house.
An ancient hate is passing from the world. And with it goes all
hatred and all fear. Look back no longer, for what lies ahead is all you
ever wanted in your hearts. Give up the world! But not to sacrifice.You
never WANTED it.What happiness have you sought here that did not
bring you pain? What moment of content has not been bought at
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THE JUSTIFICATION FOR FORGIVENESS
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THE JUSTIFICATION FOR FORGIVENESS
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THE NEW INTERPRETATION
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30 THE NEW BEGINNING
CHANGELESS REALITY
Appearances deceive, but can be changed. Reality is changeless. It
does not deceive at all, and if you fail to see beyond appearances you
ARE deceived. For everything you see will change, and yet you
thought it real before, and now you think it real again. Reality is thus
reduced to form, and capable of change. Reality is changeless. It is
this that makes it real, and keeps it separate from ALL appearances. It
must transcend all form to be itself. It CANNOT change.
The miracle is means to demonstrate that all appearances can
change because they ARE appearances, and cannot have the
changelessness reality entails. The miracle attests salvation from
appearances by SHOWING they can change. Your brother has a
changelessness in him beyond appearance and deception, both. It is
obscured by changing views of him which you PERCEIVE as his
reality.The happy dream about him takes the form of the appearance
of his perfect health, his perfect freedom from all forms of lack, and
safety from disaster of all kinds.The miracle is proof he is not bound
by loss or suffering in any form, because it can so easily be
CHANGED. This demonstrates that it was NEVER real, and could
not stem from his reality. For that is changeless, and has no effects
which anything in Heaven or on earth could ever alter. But
appearances are shown to be unreal BECAUSE they change.
What is temptation but a wish to make illusions real? It does not
seem to be the wish that no reality be so.Yet it is an assertion that
some forms of idols have a powerful appeal which makes them
harder to resist than those you would not WANT to have reality.
Temptation, then, is nothing more than this; a prayer the miracle
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CHANGELESS REALITY
touch not some dreams, but keep their unreality obscure, and give to
them reality instead. And Heaven gives no answer to the prayer, nor
can a miracle be given you to heal appearances you do not like.You
have established LIMITS. What you ask IS given you, but not of God
Who knows no limits.You have limited YOURSELF.
Reality is changeless. Miracles but show what you have
interposed between reality and your awareness is unreal, and does not
interfere at all.The cost of the belief there must be some appearances
beyond the hope of change is that the miracle cannot come forth
from you consistently. For you have ASKED it be withheld from
power to heal all dreams.There is no miracle you cannot have when
you DESIRE healing. But there is no miracle that can be given you
UNLESS you want it. Choose what you would heal, and He Who
gives all miracles has not been given freedom to bestow His gifts
upon God’s Son. When he is tempted, he denies reality. And he
becomes the willing slave of what he chose instead.
BECAUSE reality is changeless is a miracle already there to heal
all things that change, and offer them to you to see in happy form,
devoid of fear. It will be given you to look upon your brother thus.
But not while you would have it otherwise in some respects. For this
but means you would not have him healed and whole.The Christ in
him is perfect. Is it this that you would look upon? Then let there be
no dreams about him which you would prefer to seeing this. And
you will see the Christ in him because you LET Him come to you.
And when He has appeared to you, you will be certain you are like
Him, for He is the changeless in your brother AND in you.
This will you look upon when you decide there is not one
appearance you would hold in place of what your brother really is.
Let no temptation to prefer a dream allow uncertainty to enter here.
Be not made guilty and afraid when you are tempted by a dream of
what he is. But do not give it power to replace the changeless in him
in your sight of him.There is no false appearance but will fade, if you
request a miracle instead.There is no pain from which he is not free,
if you would have him be but what he is.Why should you fear to see
the Christ in him? You but behold YOURSELF in what you see. As
he is healed are you made free of guilt, for his appearance IS your
own to you.
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thirty one
The Simplicity
of Salvation
How simple is salvation! All it says is what was never true is not true
now, and never will be. The impossible has not occurred, and can
have no effects. And that is all. Can this be hard to learn by anyone
who WANTS it to be true? Only unwillingness to learn it could
make such an easy lesson difficult. How hard is it to see that what is
false can not be true, and what is true can not be false? You can no
longer say that you perceive no differences in false and true.You have
been told exactly how to tell one from the other, and just what to do
if you become confused. Why, then, do you persist in learning not
such simple things?
There IS a reason. But confuse it not with difficulty in the
simple things salvation asks you learn. It teaches but the very
obvious. It merely goes from one apparent lesson to the next, in easy
steps which lead you gently from one to another, with no strain at
all. This cannot be confusing, yet you ARE confused. For somehow
you believe that what is totally confused is easier to learn and
understand.What you have taught yourselves is such a giant learning
feat it is indeed incredible. But you accomplished it because you
wanted to, and did not pause in diligence to judge it hard to learn, or
too complex to grasp.
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THE SIMPLICITY OF SALVATION
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31 THE SIMPLICITY OF SALVATION
inevitable, sure as God, and far beyond all doubt and question? Can it
be your little learning, strange in outcome, and incredible in difficulty
will withstand the simple lessons being taught to you in every
moment of each day, since time began and learning had been made?
The lessons to be learned are only two. Each has its outcome in
a different world. And each world follows surely from its source.The
certain outcome of the lesson that God’s Son is guilty is the world
you see. It IS a world of terror and despair. Nor is there hope of
happiness in it.There is no plan for safety you can make that ever will
succeed.There is no joy that you can seek for here, and hope to find.
Yet this is not the only outcome which your learning can produce.
However much you may have overlearned your chosen task, the
lesson which reflects the love of God is stronger still. And you WILL
learn God’s Son is innocent, and see another world.
The outcome of the lesson that God’s Son is guiltless is a world
in which there is no fear, and everything is lit with hope, and sparkles
with a gentle friendliness. Nothing but calls to you in soft appeal to
be your friend, and let it join with you.And never does a call remain
unheard, misunderstood, nor left unanswered in the selfsame tongue
in which the call was made. And you will understand it was this call
that everyone and everything within the world has ALWAYS made,
but you had not perceived it as it was. And now you see you were
mistaken. You had been deceived by forms the call was hidden in.
And so you did not hear it, and had lost a friend who always wanted
to be part of you. The soft, eternal calling of each part of God’s
creation to the whole is heard throughout the world this second
lesson brings.
There is no living thing which does not share the universal will
that it be whole, and that you do not leave its call unheard.Without
your answer is it left to die, as it is saved from death when you have
heard its calling as the ancient call to life, and understood that it is but
your own. The Christ in you remembers God with all the certainty
with which He knows His love. But only if His Son is innocent can
He be Love. For God were fear indeed if he whom He created
innocent could be a slave to guilt. God’s perfect Son remembers his
creation. But in guilt he has forgotten what he really is.
The fear of God results as surely from the lesson that His Son is
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THE ILLUSION OF AN ENEMY
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31 THE SIMPLICITY OF SALVATION
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THE ILLUSION OF AN ENEMY
and are lost. But hear the other, and you join with him, and in your
answer is salvation found. The voice you hear in him is but your
own. What does he ask you for? And listen well! For he is asking
what will come to you because you see an image of YOURSELF, and
hear YOUR voice requesting what you WANT.
Before you answer, pause to think of this:
“The answer that I give my brother is
What I am asking for.And what I learn
Of him is what I learn about myself.”
Then let us wait an instant and be still, forgetting everything we
thought we heard; remembering how much we do not know. This
brother neither leads nor follows us, but walks beside us on the
selfsame road. He is like us, as near or far away from what we want as
we will let him be.We make no gains he does not make with us, and
we fall back if he does not advance.Take not his hand in anger but in
love, for in his progress do you count your own. And we go
separately along the way unless you keep him safely by your side.
Because he is your equal in God’s love, you will be saved from
all appearances, and answer to the Christ Who calls to you. Be still
and listen.Think not ancient thoughts. Forget the dismal lessons that
you learned about this Son of God who calls to you. Christ calls to
all with equal tenderness, seeing no leaders and no followers, and
hearing but one answer to them all. Because He hears one Voice, he
cannot hear a different answer from the one He gave when God
appointed Him His only Son.
Be very still an instant. Come without all thought of what you
ever learned before, and put aside all images you made.The old will
fall away before the new without your opposition or intent. There
will be no attack upon the things you thought were precious, and in
need of care.There will be no assault upon your wish to hear a call
that never has been made. Nothing will hurt you in this holy place,
to which you come to listen silently, and learn the truth of what you
really want. No more than this will you be asked to learn. But as you
hear it, you will understand you need but come away without the
thoughts you did not want, and that were never true.
Forgive your brother all appearances, which are but ancient
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31 THE SIMPLICITY OF SALVATION
lessons that you taught yourself about the sinfulness in YOU. Hear but
his call for mercy and release from all the fearful images he holds of
what he is, and of what you must be. He is afraid to walk with you,
and thinks perhaps a bit behind, a bit ahead, would be a safer place for
him to be. Can YOU make progress if you think the same, advancing
only when he would step back, and falling back when he would go
ahead? For so do you forget the journey’s goal, which is but to decide
to walk WITH him, so neither leads nor follows.Thus it is a way you
go TOGETHER, not alone. And in this choice is learning’s outcome
changed, for Christ has been reborn to both of you.
An instant spent without your old ideas of who your great
Companion is and what he SHOULD be asking for, will be enough
to let this happen. And you will perceive his purpose is the same as
yours. He asks for what YOU want, and needs the same as YOU. It
takes, perhaps, a different form in him, but it is not the form you
answer to. He asks and you receive, for you have come with but one
purpose; that you both may learn you love each other with a
brother’s love.And as a brother, must his Father be the same as yours,
as he is like yourself.
Together is your joint inheritance remembered and accepted by
you both. Alone it is denied to both of you. Is it not clear that while
you still insist on leading or on following, you think you walk alone,
with no-one by your side? This is the road to nowhere, for the light
cannot be given while you walk alone, and so you cannot see which
way you go. And thus there is confusion, and a sense of endless
doubting, as you stagger back and forward in the darkness and alone.
Yet these are but appearances of what the journey is, and how it must
be made. For next to you is One Who holds the light before you, so
that every step is made in certainty and sureness of the road. A
blindfold can indeed obscure your sight, but cannot make the way
itself grow dark.And He Who travels with you HAS the light.
THE SELF-ACCUSED
Only the self-accused condemn. As you prepare to make a choice
that will result in different outcomes, there is first one thing that
must be overlearned. It must become a habit of response so typical of
everything you do that it becomes your first response to all
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THE SELF-ACCUSED
temptation, and to every situation that occurs. Learn this, and learn it
well, for it is here delay of happiness is shortened by a span of time
you cannot realize. You never hate your brother for his sins, but
ONLY for your own. Whatever form his sins appear to take it but
obscures the fact that you believe it to be yours, and therefore
meriting a “just” attack.
Why should his sins BE sins, if you did not believe they could
not be forgiven in you? Why are they real in him, if you did not
believe that they are your reality? And why do you attack them
everywhere except you hate yourself? Are YOU a sin? You answer
“yes” whenever you attack, for by attack do you assert that you are
guilty, and must give as you deserve. And what can you deserve but
what you ARE? If you did not believe that you deserved attack, it
never would occur to you to GIVE attack to anyone at all. Why
should you? What would be the gain to you? What could the
outcome be that you would WANT? And how COULD murder
bring you benefit?
Sins are in bodies.They are not perceived in minds.They are not
seen as purposes, but actions. Bodies act, and minds do not. And
therefore must the body be at fault for what it does. It is not seen to be
a passive thing, obeying your commands, and doing nothing of itself at
all. If you are sin you ARE a body, for the mind acts not.And purpose
must be in the body, not the mind.The body must act on its own, and
motivate itself. If you are sin, you lock the mind within the body, and
you give its purpose to its prison-house, which acts instead of it. A
jailer does not follow orders, but ENFORCES orders on the prisoner.
Yet is the BODY prisoner, and NOT the mind.The body thinks
no thoughts. It has no power to learn, to pardon, nor enslave. It gives
no orders that the mind need serve, nor sets conditions that it must
obey. It holds in prison but the willing mind that would abide in it.
It sickens at the bidding of the mind that would become its prisoner.
And it grows old and dies, because that mind is sick within itself.
Learning is all that causes change. And so the body, where no
learning can occur, could never change unless the mind preferred the
body change in its appearances, to suit the purpose given by the
mind. For it CAN learn, and THERE is all change made.
The mind that thinks it is a sin has but one purpose; that the
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31 THE SIMPLICITY OF SALVATION
710
THE REAL ALTERNATIVE
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31 THE SIMPLICITY OF SALVATION
that he should begin with this, to seek another way instead? For
while he sees a choice where there is none, what power of decision
can he use? The great release of power must begin with learning
where it really has a USE. And what decision has power if it be
applied in situations without choice?
The learning that the world can offer but one choice, no matter
what its form may be, is the beginning of acceptance that there is a
REAL alternative instead. To fight against this step is to defeat your
purpose here. You did not come to learn to find a road the world
does not contain. The search for different pathways in the world is
but the search for different forms of truth. And this would KEEP the
truth from being reached.
Think not that happiness is ever found by following a road
AWAY from it. This makes no sense, and CANNOT be the way. To
you who seem to find this course to be too difficult to learn, let me
repeat that, to achieve a goal, you must proceed in its direction, NOT
away from it. And every road that leads the other way will not
advance the purpose to be found. If THIS be difficult to understand,
then IS this course impossible to learn. But only then. For otherwise,
it is a simple teaching in the obvious.
There IS a choice which you have power to make when you
have seen the real alternatives. Until that point is reached you HAVE
no choice, and you can but decide how you would choose the better
to deceive yourself again.This course attempts to teach no more than
that the power of decision cannot lie in choosing different forms of
what is still the SAME illusion and the SAME mistake. All choices in
the world depend on this; you choose between your brother and
yourself, and you will gain as much as he will lose, and what you lose
is what is given him. How utterly opposed to truth is this, when
what the lesson’s purpose is to teach that what your brother loses
YOU have lost, and what he gains is what is given YOU.
He has not left His Thoughts! But you forgot His Presence, and
remembered not His love. No pathway in the world can lead to
Him, nor any worldly goal is one with His. What road in all the
world will lead within, when every road was made to separate the
journey from the purpose it MUST have unless it be but futile
wandering? All roads that lead away from what you are will lead you
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31 THE SIMPLICITY OF SALVATION
would be generous and good. This aspect never makes the first
attack. But every day a hundred little things make small assaults upon
its innocence, provoking it to irritation, and at last to open insult
and abuse.
The face of innocence the concept of the self so proudly wears
can tolerate attack in self-defense, for is it not a well-known fact the
world deals harshly with defenseless innocence? No-one who makes
a picture of himself omits this face, for he has need of it. The other
side, he does not WANT to see.Yet it is here the learning of the world
has set its sights, for it is here the world’s “reality” is set, to see to it the
idol lasts.
Beneath the face of innocence there is a lesson that the concept
of the self was made to teach. It is a lesson in a terrible displacement,
and a fear so devastating that the face which smiles above it must
forever look away, lest it perceive the treachery it hides. The lesson
teaches this;“I am the thing you made of me, and as you look on me
you stand condemned, because of what I am.” On this conception of
the self the world smiles with approval, for it guarantees the pathways
of the world are safely kept, and those who walk on them will
not escape.
Here is the central lesson that ensures your brother is
condemned eternally. For what you are has now become HIS sin. For
this is no forgiveness possible. No longer does it matter what he
does, for your accusing finger points to him, unwavering and deadly
in its aim. It points to you as well, but this is kept still deeper in the
mists below the face of innocence. And in these shrouded vaults are
all his sins and yours preserved, and kept in darkness, where they
cannot be perceived as errors, which the light would surely show.You
can be neither blamed for what you are, nor can you change the
things it makes you do. And you are each the symbol of your sins to
one another, silently, and yet with ceaseless urgency, condemning still
your brother for the hated thing you are.
Concepts are learned.They are not natural. Apart from learning
they do not exist. They are not given, and they must be made. Not
one of them is true, and many come from feverish imaginations, hot
with hatred and distortions born of fear. What is a concept but a
thought to which its maker gives a meaning of his own? Concepts
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SELF CONCEPT VERSUS SELF
maintain the world. But they can not be used to demonstrate the
world is real. For all of them are made within the world, born in its
shadow, growing in its ways, and finally “maturing” in its thought.
They are ideas of idols, painted with the brushes of the world, which
cannot make a single picture representing truth.
A concept of the self is meaningless, for no-one here can see
what it is FOR, and therefore cannot picture what it IS. Yet is all
learning which the world directs begun and ended with the single
aim of teaching you this concept of yourself, that you will choose to
follow this world’s laws, and never seek to go beyond its roads, nor
realize the way you see yourself. Now must the Holy Spirit find a
way to help you see this concept of the self must be undone, if any
peace of mind is to be given you. Nor can it be unlearned except by
lessons aimed to teach that you are something ELSE. For otherwise,
you would be asked to make exchange of what you now believe for
total loss of self, and greater terror would arise in you.
Thus are the Holy Spirit’s lesson plans arranged in easy steps,
that though there be some lack of ease at times and some distress,
there is no shattering of what was learned, but just a re-translation of
what seems to be the evidence on its behalf. Let us consider, then,
what proof there is that you are what your brother made of you. For
even though you do not yet perceive that this is what you think, you
surely learned by now that you BEHAVE as if it were. Does HE react
for YOU? And did he know exactly what would happen? Could he
see your future and ordain, before it came, what you should do in
every circumstance? He must have made the world as well as you, to
have such prescience in the things to come.
That you are what your brother made of you seems most
unlikely. Even if he did, who gave the face of innocence to you? Is
this YOUR contribution? Who is, then, the “you” who made it? And
who is deceived by all your goodness, and attacks it so? Let us forget
the concept’s foolishness, and merely think of this; there are two parts
to what you think yourself to be. If one was generated by your
brother, who was there to make the other? And from whom must
something be kept hidden? If the world be evil, there is still no need
to hide what YOU are made of.Who is there to see? And what but is
attacked could NEED defense?
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31 THE SIMPLICITY OF SALVATION
Perhaps the reason why this concept must be kept in darkness is that,
in the light, the one who would not think it true is YOU. And what
would happen to the world you know, if all its underpinnings were
removed? Your concept of the world DEPENDS upon this concept of
the self. And both would go, if either one were ever raised to doubt.
The Holy Spirit does not seek to throw you into panic. So He
merely asks if just a LITTLE question might be raised.
There are alternatives about the thing that you must be. You
might, for instance, be the thing you chose to have your BROTHER
be.This shifts the concept of the self from what is wholly passive, and
at least makes way for active choice, and some acknowledgment that
interaction must have entered in. There is some understanding that
you chose for both of you, and what he represents has meaning that
was given it by you. It also shows some glimmering of sight into
perception’s law that what you see reflects the state of the
PERCEIVER’S mind.Yet who was it that did the choosing first? If
you are what you chose your brother be, alternatives were there to
choose among, and someone must have first decided on the one to
choose, and let the others go.
Although this step has gains, it does not yet approach a basic
question. Something must have gone BEFORE these concepts of the
self. And something must have done the learning which gave rise to
them. Nor can this be explained by either view.The main advantage
of the shifting to the second from the first is that YOU somehow
entered in the choice by your decision. But this gain is paid in almost
equal loss, for now YOU stand accused of guilt for what your brother
is. And you must share his guilt, because you chose it for him in the
image of your own.While only he was treacherous before, now must
you be condemned along with him.
The concept of the self has always been the great preoccupation
of the world. And everyone believes that he must find the answer to
the riddle of himself. Salvation can be seen as nothing more than the
ESCAPE from concepts. It does not concern itself with content of
the mind, but with the simple statement that it THINKS. And what
can think has choice, and CAN be shown that different thoughts
have different consequence. So it can learn that everything it thinks
reflects the deep confusion that it feels about how it was made, and
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SELF CONCEPT VERSUS SELF
what it is.And vaguely does the concept of the self appear to answer
what it does not know.
Seek not your Self in symbols.There can BE no concept that can
stand for what you are. What matters it which concept you accept
while you perceive a self which interacts with evil, and reacts to
wicked things? Your concept of yourself will still remain quite
meaningless.And you will not perceive that you can interact but with
yourself.To see a guilty world is but the sign your learning has been
guided by the world, and you behold it as you see yourself. The
concept of the self embraces all you look upon, and nothing is outside
of this perception. If you can be hurt by anything, you see a picture of
your secret wishes. Nothing more than this. And in your suffering of
any kind, you see your own concealed desire to kill.
You will make many concepts of the self as learning goes along.
Each one will show the changes in your own relationships, as your
perception of yourself is changed. There will be some confusion
every time there is a shift, but be you thankful that the learning of
the world is loosening its grasp upon your mind. And be sure and
happy in the confidence that it will go at last, and leave your mind at
peace. The role of the accuser will appear in many places and in
many forms. And each will seem to be accusing YOU.Yet have no
fear it will not be undone.
The world can teach no images of you unless you WANT to learn
them. There will come a time when images have all gone by, and
you will see you know not what you are. It is to this unsealed and open
mind that truth returns, unhindered and unbound.Where concepts of
the self have been laid by is truth revealed exactly as it IS. When
every concept has been raised to doubt and question, and been
recognized as made on no assumptions which would stand the light,
then is the truth left free to enter in its sanctuary, clean and free of
guilt. There is no statement that the world is more afraid to hear
than this:
“I do not know the thing I am, and therefore do not know what I am
doing, where I am, or how to look upon the world or on myself.”
Yet in this learning is salvation born. And what you are will
TELL you of Itself.
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31 THE SIMPLICITY OF SALVATION
718
THE SAVIOR’S VISION
believe you are, nor what you think the truth about yourself must
really be. It makes no difference what you look upon, nor what you
choose to feel or think or wish. For God Himself has said,“Your will
be done.”And it IS done to you accordingly.
You who believe that you can choose to see the Son of God as
you would have him be, forget not that no concept of yourself will
stand against the truth of what you are. Undoing truth would be
impossible. But concepts are not difficult to change. ONE vision,
clearly seen, that does not fit the picture as it was perceived before
will change the world for eyes that learn to see, because the concept
of the SELF has changed. Are YOU invulnerable? Then the world is
harmless in your sight. Do YOU forgive? Then is the world
forgiving, for you have forgiven it its trespasses, and so it looks on
you with eyes that see as yours. Are YOU a body? So is all the world
perceived as treacherous, and out to kill.
Are you a Spirit, deathless, and without the promise of
corruption and the stain of sin upon you? So the world is seen as
stable, fully worthy of your trust; a happy place to rest in for a while,
where nothing need be feared, but only loved.Who is unwelcome to
the kind in heart? And what could hurt the truly innocent? Your will
be done, you holy Child of God. It does not matter if you think you
are in earth or Heaven. What your Father wills for you can never
change.The truth in you remains as radiant as a star, as pure as light, as
innocent as Love Itself.And you ARE worthy that your Will be done!
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31 THE SIMPLICITY OF SALVATION
720
THE SAVIOR’S VISION
of kind forgiveness which you offer one whose need for it is just the
same as yours. And let the cruel concept of yourself be changed to
one which brings the peace of God.
The concept of yourself which now you hold would guarantee
your function here remain forever unaccomplished and undone. And
thus it dooms you to a bitter sense of deep depression and futility.Yet it
need not be fixed unless you choose to hold it past the hope of change,
and keep it static and concealed within your mind. Give it instead to
Him Who understands the changes that it needs to let it serve the
function given you to bring you peace, that you may offer peace to
have it yours. Alternatives are in your mind to use, and you CAN see
yourself another way. Would you not rather look upon yourself as
NEEDED for salvation of the world, instead of as salvation’s enemy?
The concept of the self stands like a shield, a silent barricade
before the truth, and hides it from your sight. All things you see are
images, because you look on them as through a barrier which dims
your sight and warps your vision, so that you behold nothing with
clarity. The light is kept from everything you see. At most, you
glimpse a shadow of what lies beyond. At least, you merely look on
darkness, and perceive the terrified imaginings that come from guilty
thoughts and concepts born of fear.And what you see is hell, for fear
IS hell.All that is given you is for release; the sight, the vision and the
inner Guide all lead you out of hell with those you love beside you,
and the universe with them.
Behold your role within the universe! To every part of true
creation has the Lord of Love and Life entrusted ALL salvation from
the misery of hell.And to each one has He allowed the grace to be a
Savior to the holy ones especially entrusted to his care. And this he
learns when first he looks upon ONE brother as he looks upon
himself, and sees the mirror of himself in him.Thus is the concept of
himself laid by, for nothing stands between his sight and what he
looks upon, to judge what he beholds. And in this single vision does
he see the face of Christ, and understands he looks on everyone as he
beholds this One. For there is light where darkness was before, and
now the veil is lifted from his sight.
The veil across the face of Christ, the fear of God and of
salvation, and the love of guilt and death, they all are different names
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31 THE SIMPLICITY OF SALVATION
for just one error; that there is a space between you and your brother,
kept apart by an illusion of yourself which holds him off from you,
and you away from him. The sword of judgement is the weapon
which you give to the illusion of yourself, that it may fight to keep
the space that holds your brother off unoccupied by love.Yet while
you hold this sword, you must perceive the body as yourself, for you
are bound to separation from the sight of him who holds the mirror
to another view of what he is, and thus what YOU must be.
What is temptation but the WISH to stay in hell and misery?
And what could this give rise to but an image of yourself that CAN
be miserable, and remain in hell and torment? Who has learned to
see his brother NOT as this has saved himself, and thus is he a Savior
to the rest.To everyone has God entrusted all, because a partial savior
would be one who is but partly saved.The holy ones whom God has
given each of you to save are everyone you meet or look upon, not
knowing who they are; all those you saw an instant and forgot, and
those you knew a long while since, and those you will yet meet, the
unremembered and the not yet born. For God has given you His Son
to save from every concept that he ever held.
Yet while you wish to stay in hell, how could you be the Savior
of the Son of God? How would you know his holiness while you see
him apart from yours? For holiness is seen through holy eyes that
look upon the innocence within, and thus expect to see it
everywhere. And so they call it forth in everyone they look upon,
that he may be what they expect of him.This is the Savior’s vision;
that he see his innocence in all he looks upon, and sees his own
salvation everywhere. He holds no concept of himself between his
calm and open eyes and what he sees. He BRINGS the light to what
he looks upon, that he may see it as it really is.
Whatever form temptation seems to take, it always but reflects a
wish to be a self which you are not. And from that wish a concept
rises, teaching that you ARE the thing you wish to be. It will remain
your concept of yourself until the wish that fathered it no longer is
held dear. But while you cherish it, you will behold your brother in
the likeness of the self whose image has the wish begot of YOU. For
vision CAN but represent a wish, because it has no power to create.
Yet it can look with love or look with hate, depending only on the
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CHOOSE ONCE AGAIN
simple choice of whether you would join with what you see, or keep
yourself apart and separate.
The Savior’s vision is as innocent of what your brother is as it is
free of any judgement made upon yourself. It sees no past in anyone
at all. And thus it serves a wholly open mind, unclouded by old
concepts, and prepared to look on only what the present holds. It
cannot judge because it does not know.And RECOGNIZING this, it
merely asks, “What is the meaning of what I behold?” Then is the
answer given.And the door held open for the face of Christ to shine
upon the one who asks, in innocence, to see beyond the veil of old
ideas and ancient concepts held so long and dear AGAINST the
vision of the Christ in you.
Be vigilant against temptation, then, remembering that it is but
a wish, insane and meaningless, to make yourself a thing which you
are not.And think as well upon the thing that you would be instead.
It is a thing of madness, pain and death; a thing of treachery and black
despair, of failing dreams and no remaining hope except to die, and
end the dream of fear. THIS is temptation; nothing more than this.
Can THIS be difficult to choose AGAINST? Consider what
temptation IS, and see the real alternatives you choose between.
There ARE but two. Be not deceived by what appears as many
choices.There is hell or Heaven, and of these you choose but ONE.
Let not the world’s light, given unto you, be hidden from the
world. It NEEDS the light, for it is dark indeed, and men despair
because the Savior’s vision is withheld, and what they see is death.
Their Savior stands, unknowing and unknown, beholding them with
eyes unopened. And they cannot see until he looks on them with
seeing eyes, and offers them forgiveness with his own. Can you to
whom God says,“Release My Son!” be tempted not to listen, when
you learn that it is YOU for whom He asks release? And what but
this is what this course would teach? And what but this is there for
you to learn?
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31 THE SIMPLICITY OF SALVATION
orders him to feel. It sets the limits on what he can do; its power is
the only strength he has; his grasp cannot exceed its tiny reach.
Would you BE this, if Christ appeared to you in all His glory, asking
you but this,
“Choose once again if you would take your place
among the Saviors of the world, or would
remain in hell, and hold your brothers there.”
For He HAS come, and He IS asking this.
How do you make the choice? How easily is this explained! You
always choose between your weakness and the strength of Christ in
you.And what you choose is what you think is real. Simply by never
using weakness to direct your actions, you have given it no power.
And the light of Christ in you is given charge of everything you do.
For you have brought your weakness unto Him, and He has given
you His strength instead.
Trials are but lessons which you failed to learn presented once
again, so where you made a faulty choice before you now can make
a better one, and thus escape all pain which what you chose before
has brought to you. In every difficulty, all distress, and each perplexity
Christ calls to you and gently says, “My brother, choose again.” He
would not leave one source of pain unhealed, nor any image left to
veil the truth. He would not leave you comfortless, alone in dreams
of hell, but would release your minds from everything that hides His
face from you. His holiness is yours because He is the ONLY power
that is real in you. His strength is yours because He is the Self that
God created as His ONLY Son.
The images you make can NOT prevail against what God
Himself would have you be. Be never fearful of temptation, then, but
see it as it is; another chance to choose again, and let Christ’s strength
prevail in every circumstance and every place you raised an image of
yourself before. For what appears to hide the face of Christ is
powerless before His majesty, and disappears before His holy sight.
The Saviors of the world, who see like Him, are merely those who
chose His strength instead of their own weakness, seen apart from
Him.They will redeem the world, for they are joined in all the power
of the Will of God.And what they will is ONLY what He wills.
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CHOOSE ONCE AGAIN
725
31 THE SIMPLICITY OF SALVATION
again be recognized as ours! And thus will all the vestiges of hell, the
secret “sins” and hidden hates be gone. And all the loveliness which
they concealed appear like lawns of Heaven to our sight, to lift us
high above the thorny roads we travelled on before the Christ
appeared. Hear me, my brothers, hear and join with me. God has
ordained I cannot call in vain, and in His certainty I rest content. For
you WILL hear, and you WILL choose again. And in this choice is
everyone made free.
I thank You, Father, for these holy ones who are my brothers as
they are Your Sons. My faith in them is Yours. I am as sure that they
will come to me as You are sure of what they are, and will forever be.
They will accept the gift I offer them, because You gave it me on
their behalf. And as I would but do Your holy Will, so will they
choose. And I give thanks for them. Salvation’s song will echo
through the world with every choice they make. For we are one in
purpose, and the end of hell is near.
In joyous welcome is my hand outstretched to every brother
who would join with me in reaching past temptation, and who looks
with fixed determination toward the light that shines beyond in
perfect constancy. Give me my own, for they belong to You.And can
You fail in what is but Your Will? I give You thanks for what my
brothers are. And as each one elects to join with me, the song of
thanks from earth to Heaven grows from tiny scattered threads of
melody to one inclusive chorus from a world redeemed from hell,
and giving thanks to You.
And now we say “Amen.” For Christ has come to dwell in the
abode You set for Him before time was, in calm eternity.The journey
closes, ending at the place where it began. No trace of it remains.
Not one illusion is accorded faith, and not one spot of darkness still
remains to hide the face of Christ from anyone. Thy Will is done,
complete and perfectly, and all creation recognizes You, and knows
You as the only Source it has. Clear in Your Likeness does the Light
shine forth from everything that lives and moves in You. For we have
reached where all of us are One, and we are home, where You would
have us be.
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A
COURSE IN
MIRACLES
WORKBOOK
❉
Contents
PART 1
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1
i
WORKBOOK
ii
CONTENTS
Review II . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .140
81 61 and 62 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .141
82 63 and 64 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .142
83 65 and 66 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .143
84 67 and 68 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .144
85 69 and 70 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .145
86 71 and 72 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .146
87 73 and 74 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .147
88 75 and 76 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .148
89 77 and 78 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .149
90 79 and 80 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .150
iii
WORKBOOK
iv
CONTENTS
167 “There is one life, and that I share with God.” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .315
168 “Your grace is given me. I claim it now.” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .318
169 “By grace I live. By grace I am released.” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .320
170 “There is no cruelty in God and none in me.” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .323
Review V . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .326
171 151 and 152 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .329
172 153 and 154 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .329
173 155 and 156 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .329
174 157 and 158 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .330
175 159 and 160 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .330
176 161 and 162 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .330
177 163 and 164 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .331
178 165 and 166 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .331
179 167 and 168 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .331
180 169 and 170 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .332
Our next few lessons… . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .333
181 “I trust my brothers, who are one with me.” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .334
182 “I will be still a moment and go home.” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .336
183 “I call upon God’s Name and on my own.” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .339
184 “The Name of God is my inheritance.” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .342
185 “I want the peace of God.” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .345
186 “Salvation of the world depends on me.” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .348
187 “I bless the world because I bless myself.” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .351
188 “The peace of God is shining in me now.” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .354
189 “I feel the love of God within me now.” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .356
190 “I choose the joy of God instead of pain.” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .358
191 “I am the holy Son of God Himself.” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .360
192 “I have a function God would have me fill.” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .362
193 “All things are lesson’s God would have me learn.” . . . . . . . . . . . .364
194 “I place the future in the hands of God.” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .367
195 “Love is the way I walk in gratitude.” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .369
196 “It can be but myself I crucify.” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .371
197 “It can be but my gratitude I earn.” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .374
198 “Only my condemnation injures me.” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .376
199 “I am not a body. I am free.” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .379
200 “There is no peace except the peace of God.” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .381
Review VI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .383
201 181 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .385
202 182 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .385
203 183 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .386
204 184 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .386
205 185 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .387
206 186 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .387
207 187 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .388
208 188 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .388
v
WORKBOOK
PART II
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .395
What is Forgiveness? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .398
221 “Peace to my mind. Let all my thoughts be still.” . . . . . . . . . . . . . .399
222 “God is with me. I live and breathe in Him.” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .399
223 “God is my life. I have no life but His.” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .400
224 “God is my Father, and He loves His Son.” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .400
225 “God is my Father, and His Son loves Him.” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .401
226 “My home awaits me. I will hasten there.” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .401
227 “This is my holy instant of release.” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .402
228 “God has condemned me not. No more do I.” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .402
229 “Love,Which created me, is what I am.” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .403
230 “Now will I seek and find the peace of God.” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .403
What is Salvation? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .404
231 “Father, I will but to remember You.” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .405
232 “Be in my mind, my Father, through the day,” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .405
233 “I give my life to God to run today.” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .406
234 “Father, today I am Your Son again.” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .406
235 “God in His mercy wills that I be saved.” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .407
236 “I rule my mind, which I alone must rule.” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .407
237 “Now would I be as God created me.” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .408
238 “On my decision all salvation rests.” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .408
239 “The glory of my Father is my own.” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .409
240 “Fear is not justified in any form.” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .409
What is the World? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .410
241 “This holy instant is salvation come.” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .411
242 “This day is God’s. It is my gift to Him.” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .411
243 “Today I will judge nothing.” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .412
244 “I am in danger nowhere in the world.” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .412
245 “Your peace is with me, Father. I am safe.” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .413
246 “To love my Father is to love His Son.” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .413
vi
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viii
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ix
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x
PART 1
INTRODUCTION
1
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2
PART I
lesson 1
3
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lesson 2
“I have given everything I see in this room [on this street, from this
window, in this place] all the meaning that it has for me.”
The exercises with this idea are the same as those for the first one.
Begin with the things that are near you, and apply the idea to
whatever your glance rests on.Then increase the range outward.Turn
your head so that you include whatever is to either side. If possible,
turn around and apply the idea to what was behind you. Remain as
indiscriminate as possible in selecting subjects for its application, do
not concentrate on anything in particular, and do not attempt to
include everything in an area or you will introduce strain. Merely
glance easily and fairly quickly around you, trying to avoid selection
by size, brightness, color, material, or relative importance to you.
Take the subjects simply as you see them. Try to apply the
exercise with equal ease to a body or a button, a fly or a floor, an arm
or an apple. The sole criterion for applying the idea to anything is
merely that your eyes have lighted on it. Make no attempt to include
anything particular, but be sure that nothing is specifically excluded.
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PART I
lesson 3
5
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lesson 4
6
PART I
however, examine your mind for more than a minute or so.You are
too inexperienced as yet to avoid a tendency to become pointlessly
preoccupied. Further, since these exercises are the first of their kind,
you may find the suspension of judgement in connection with
thoughts particularly difficult. Do not repeat these exercises more
than three or four times during the day.We will return to them later.
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lesson 5
8
PART I
first of this:
“I cannot keep this form of upset and let
the others go. For the purposes of these
exercises, then, I will regard them all as the same.”
Then search your mind for no more than a minute or so, and try to
identify a number of different forms of upset that are disturbing you,
regardless of the relative importance you may give them. Apply the
idea for today to each of them, using the name of both the source of
the upset as you perceive it, and of the feelings as you experience it.
Further examples are:
“I am not worried about ____ for the reason I think.”
“I am not depressed about ____ for the reason I think.”
Three or four times during the day is enough.
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lesson 6
10
PART I
lesson 7
11
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12
PART I
lesson 8
This can be done four or five times during the day, unless you find it
irritates you. If you find it trying, three or four times is sufficient.You
might find it helpful, however, to include your irritation, or any
emotion which the idea may induce, in the mind searching itself.
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PART I
lesson 9
15
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le sson 10
16
PART I
17
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l e s s o n 11
18
PART I
le sson 12
19
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20
PART I
le s s on 13
21
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may take, remind yourself that you are really afraid of such a thought
because of the “vengeance” of the “enemy.”You are not expected to
believe the statement at this point, and will probably try to dismiss it
as preposterous. Note carefully, however, any signs of overt or covert
fear which it may arouse.This is our first attempt at stating an explicit
cause and effect relationship of a kind which you are very
inexperienced in recognizing. Do not dwell on the concluding
statement, and try not even to think of it except during the exercise
periods.That will suffice at present.
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PART I
le sson 14
The idea for today is, of course, the reason why a meaningless world
is impossible. What God did not create does not exist. And
everything that does exist exists as He created it.The world you see
has nothing to do with reality. It is of your own making, and it does
not exist.
The exercises for today are to be practiced with eyes closed
throughout.The mind searching period should be short, a minute at
most. Do not have more than three practice periods with today’s idea
unless you find them comfortable. If you do, it will be because you
really understand what they are for.
The idea for today is another step in learning to let go the
thoughts which you have written on the world, and see the Word of
God in their place.The early steps in this exchange, which can truly
be called salvation, can be quite difficult and even quite painful.
Some of them will lead you directly into fear.You will not be left
there.You will go far beyond it. Our direction is toward perfect safety
and perfect peace.
With eyes closed, think of all the horrors in the world that cross
your mind. Name each one as it occurs to you, and then deny its
reality. God did not create it, and so it is not real. Say, for example:
“God did not create that war, and so it is not real.”
“God did not create that airplane crash, and so it is not real.”
“God did not create that disaster [specify], and so it is not real.”
Suitable subjects for the application of today’s idea also include
anything you are afraid might happen to you, or to anyone about
whom you are concerned. In each case, name the “disaster” quite
specifically. Do not use general terms. For example, do not say,“God
did not create illness,” but, “God did not create cancer,” or heart
attacks, or whatever may arouse fear in you.
This is your personal repertory of horrors at which you are
looking.These things are part of the world you see. Some of them are
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shared illusions, and others are part of your personal hell. It does not
matter.What God did not create can only be in your own mind apart
from His. Therefore, it has no meaning. In recognition of this fact,
conclude the practice periods by repeating today’s idea:
“God did not create a meaningless world.”
The idea for today can, of course, be applied to anything that
disturbs you during the day, aside from the practice periods. Be very
specific in applying it. Say:
“God did not create a meaningless world.
He did not create [specify the situation
which is disturbing you], and so it is not real.”
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l e s s o n 15
le sson 16
26
PART I
27
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le sson 17
28
PART I
le sson 18
29
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le sson 19
30
PART I
lesson 20
“I am determined to see.”
We have been quite casual about our practice periods thus far.There
has been virtually no attempt to direct the time for undertaking
them, minimal effort has been required, and not even active
cooperation and interest have been asked. This casual approach has
been intentional, and very carefully planned.We have not lost sight of
the crucial importance of the reversal of your thinking.The salvation
of the world depends on it.Yet you will not see if you regard yourself
as being coerced, and if you give in to resentment and opposition.
This is our first attempt to introduce structure. Do not
misconstrue it as an effort to exert force or pressure. You want
salvation. You want to be happy. You want peace. You do not have
them now because your minds are totally undisciplined, and you
cannot distinguish between joy and sorrow, pleasure and pain, love
and fear. You are now learning how to tell them apart. And great
indeed will be your reward.
Your decision to see is all that vision requires.What you want is
yours. Do not mistake the little effort that is asked of you for a sign
that our goal is of little worth. Can the salvation of the world be a
trivial purpose? And can the world be saved if you are not? God has
one Son, and he is the resurrection and the life. His will is done
because all power is given him in Heaven and on earth. In your
determination to see is vision given you.
The exercises for today consist in reminding yourselves
throughout the day that you want to see. Today’s idea also tacitly
implies the recognition that you do not see now. Therefore, as you
repeat the idea, you are stating that you are determined to change
your present state for a better one, and one you really want.
Repeat today’s idea slowly and positively at least twice an hour
today, attempting to do so every half hour. Do not be distressed if
you forget to do so, but make a real effort to remember. The extra
repetitions should be applied to any situation, person or event which
upsets you. You can see them differently, and you will. What you
desire you will see. Such is the real law of cause and effect as it
operates in the world.
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lesson 21
32
PART I
lesson 22
33
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lesson 23
34
PART I
about you, repeat the idea slowly to yourself and then close your eyes
and devote about a minute to searching your mind for as many attack
thoughts as occur to you.As each one crosses your mind say:
“I can escape from the world by giving
up attack thoughts about _____.”
Hold each attack thought in mind as you say this, and then dismiss
that thought and go on to the next.
In the practice periods, be sure to include both your thoughts of
attacking and of being attacked. Their effects are exactly the same
because they are exactly the same.You do not yet recognize this and
you are asked at this time only to treat them as the same in today’s
practice periods. We are still at the stage of identifying the cause of
the world you see. When you finally realize that thoughts of attack
and of being attacked are not different, you will be ready to let the
cause go.
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lesson 24
36
PART I
If these exercises are done properly, you will quickly recognize that
you are making a large number of demands of the situation which
have nothing to do with it.You will also recognize that many of your
goals are contradictory, that you have no unified outcome in mind,
and that you must experience disappointment in connection with
some of your goals however the situation turns out.
After covering the list of as many hoped-for goals as possible for
each unresolved situation that crosses your mind, say to yourself:
“I do not perceive my own best interests in this situation,”
and go on to the next.
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le sson 25
38
PART I
39
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lesson 26
40
PART I
41
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lesson 27
42
PART I
lesson 28
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are therefore really asking to see the purpose of the universe.You will
be making this same request of each subject which you use in the
practice periods.And you are making a commitment to each of them
to let their purpose be revealed to you, instead of placing your own
judgement upon them.
We will have six two minute practice periods today, in which
the idea for the day is stated first, and then applied to whatever you
see in looking about you. Not only should the subjects be chosen
randomly, but each one should be accorded equal sincerity as today’s
idea is applied to it, in an attempt to acknowledge the equal value of
them all in their contribution to your seeing.
As usual, the applications should include the name of the subject
which your eyes happen to light on, and you should rest your eyes on
it while saying:
“Above all else I want to see this ______.”
Each application should be made quite slowly and as thoughtfully as
possible.There is no hurry.
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PART I
lesson 29
46
PART I
lesson 30
47
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l e s s o n 31
48
PART I
lesson 32
49
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le sson 33
50
PART I
lesson 34
51
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repeating the idea until you feel some sense of relief. It will help you
if you tell yourself specifically:
“I can replace my feelings of depression, anxiety or worry [or my
thoughts about this situation, personality or event] with peace.”
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PART I
le s s on 35
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PART I
le sson 36
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le sson 37
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PART I
to what you see around you and to those who are in your thoughts;
or you may use any combination of these two phases of application
which you prefer. The practice period should conclude with a
repetition of the idea made with your eyes closed, and another
following immediately, with your eyes open.
The shorter exercises consist of repeating the idea as often as
you can. It is particularly helpful to apply it silently to anyone you
meet, using his name as you do so. It is essential to use the idea if
anyone seems to cause an adverse reaction in you. Offer him the
blessing of your holiness immediately, that you may learn to keep it
in your own awareness.
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le sson 38
58
PART I
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lesson 39
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PART I
to be saved.
Specific situations, events or personalities you associate with
unloving thoughts of any kind are suitable subjects for today’s
exercises. It is imperative for your own salvation that you see them
differently.And it is your blessing on them that will save you and give
you vision.
Slowly, without conscious selection and without undue
emphasis on any one in particular, search your mind for every
thought that stands between you and your salvation. Apply the idea
for today to each one of them in this way:
“My unloving thoughts about _____ are keeping me in hell.
My holiness is my salvation.”
You may find these sessions easier if you intersperse the
applications with several short periods during which you merely
repeat today’s idea to yourself slowly a few times.You may also find it
helpful to include a few short intervals in which you just relax and
do not seem to be thinking of anything. Sustained concentration is
very difficult at first. It will become much easier as your mind
becomes more disciplined and less distractible.
Meanwhile, you should feel free to introduce variety into your
application periods, in whatever form appeals to you. Do not,
however, change the idea itself in varying the method of applying it.
However you elect to use it, the idea should be stated so that its
meaning remains that your holiness is your salvation.
End each practice period by repeating the idea in its original
form once more, and adding:
“If guilt is hell, what is its opposite?”
In the shorter applications, which should be made some three
or four times an hour and more if possible, you may ask yourself this
question, repeat today’s idea, or preferably both. If temptations arise,
a particularly helpful form of the idea is:
“My holiness is my salvation from this.”
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lesson 40
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PART I
le sson 41
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From time to time, you may repeat today’s idea, if you find it helpful.
But most of all, try to sink down and inward, away from the world and
all the foolish thoughts of the world.You are trying to reach past all
these things.You are trying to leave appearances and approach reality.
It is quite possible to reach God. In fact it is very easy, because it
is the most natural thing in the world.You might even say it is the
only natural thing in the world.The way will open if you believe that
it is possible.This exercise can bring very startling results even the first
time it is attempted.And sooner or later it is always successful.We will
go into more detail in connection with this kind of practice as we go
along. But it will never fail completely, and instant success is possible.
Throughout the day use today’s idea often, repeating it very
slowly, and preferably with eyes closed.Think of what you are saying;
what the words mean. Concentrate on the holiness which they
imply about you; on the unfailing companionship which is yours; on
the complete protection that surrounds you.
You can indeed afford to laugh at fear thoughts, remembering
that God goes with you wherever you go.
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mind. If such interferences occur, open your eyes and repeat the
thought once more while looking slowly about; close your eyes,
repeat the idea once more, and then continue to look for related
thoughts in your mind.
Remember, though that active searching is not appropriate for
today’s exercises.Try merely to step back and let the thoughts come.
If you find this difficult, it is better to spend the practice period
alternating between slow repetitions of the idea with eyes open, then
closed, then open, and so on, than it is to strain in order to find
suitable thoughts.
There is no limit on the number of short practice periods which
would be most beneficial.The idea for the day is a beginning step in
bringing thoughts together and teaching you that what you are
studying is a unified thought system in which nothing is lacking that
is needed, and nothing is included that is contradictory or irrelevant.
The more often you repeat the idea during the day, the more
often you will be reminding yourself that the goal of the course is
important to you, and that you have not forgotten it.
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lesson 43
For the second and longer phase of the exercise period, close your
eyes, repeat today’s idea again, and then let whatever relevant
thoughts occur to you add to the idea in your own personal way.
Thoughts such as:
“I see through the eyes of forgiveness,”
“I see the world as blessed,”
“The world can show me myself,”
“I see my own thoughts, which are like God’s,”
or any thought related more or less directly to today’s idea is suitable.
The thoughts need not bear an obvious relationship to the idea, but
they should not be in opposition to it.
If you should find your mind wandering; if you begin to be
aware of thoughts which are clearly out of accord with today’s idea,
or if you seem to be unable to think of anything, open your eyes,
repeat the first phase, and then try the second phase again. Do not
allow any protracted period to occur in which you become
preoccupied with irrelevant thoughts. Return to the first phase of
the exercises as often as necessary to prevent this.
In applying today’s idea in the shorter practice periods, the form
may vary according to the circumstances and situations in which you
find yourself during the day. When you are with someone else, for
example, try to remember to tell him silently,
“God is my Source. I cannot see you apart from Him.”
This form is equally applicable to strangers and to those you know
well.Try, in fact, not to make distinctions of this kind at all.
The idea should also be applied throughout the day to various
situations and events which may occur, particularly to those which
distress you in any way. For this kind of application use this form:
“God is my Source. I cannot see this apart from Him.”
If no particular subject presents itself to your awareness merely repeat
the idea in its original form.
Try today not to allow long periods of time to slip by without
remembering today’s idea, and thus remembering your function.
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lesson 45
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closing your eyes as you do so. Spend a fairly short period in thinking
a few relevant thoughts of your own, keeping the idea in mind as you
do so. After you have added some four or five thoughts of your own
repeat the idea again, and tell yourself gently:
“My real thoughts are in my mind. I would like to find them.”
Then try to go past all the unreal thoughts that cover the truth in
your mind, and reach to the eternal.
Under all the senseless thoughts and mad ideas with which you
have cluttered up your mind are the thoughts which you thought
with God in the beginning. They are there in your mind now,
completely unchanged.They will always be in your mind, exactly as
they always were.
Everything that you have thought since then will change, but
the foundation on which they rest is wholly changeless. It is this
foundation toward which the exercises for today are directed. Here is
your mind joined with the Mind of God. Here are your thoughts
one with His.
For this kind of practice only one thing is necessary; approach it
as you would an altar dedicated in Heaven itself to God the Father
and God the Son. For such is the place you are trying to reach.You
will probably be unable as yet to realize how high you are trying to
go.Yet even with the little understanding you have already gained, you
should be able to remind yourself that this is no idle game, but an
exercise in holiness and an attempt to reach the Kingdom of Heaven.
In using the shorter form for applying today’s idea, try to
remember how important it is to you to understand the holiness of
the mind that thinks with God.Take a minute or two, as you repeat
the idea throughout the day, to appreciate your mind’s holiness. Stand
aside, however briefly, from all thoughts that are unworthy of Him
Whose host you are.And thank Him for the thoughts He is thinking
with you.
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lesson 46
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PART I
lesson 47
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you the confidence which you need and to which you are entitled.
You must also gain an awareness that your confidence in your real
strength is fully justified in every respect and in all circumstances.
In the latter phase of the practice period, try to reach down into
your mind to a place of real safety.You will recognize that you have
reached it if you feel a deep peace, however briefly. Let go all the
trivial things that churn and bubble on the surface of your mind, and
reach down and below them to the Kingdom of Heaven.There is a
place in you where there is perfect peace. There is a place in you
where nothing is impossible. There is a place in you where the
strength of God abides.
Repeat the idea for today often. Use it as your answer to any
disturbance. Remember that peace is your right because you are
giving your trust to the strength of God.
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lesson 49
78
PART I
lesson 50
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review i
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PART I
to apply the ideas as was suggested then.We are now emphasizing the
relationships among the first fifty of the ideas we have covered, and
the cohesiveness of the thought system to which they are leading you.
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le s s on 51
The review for today covers the following ideas:
[1] “Nothing I see means anything.”
The reason this is so is that I see nothing, and nothing has no
meaning. It is necessary that I recognize this, that I may learn to see.
What I think I see now is taking the place of vision. I must let it go
by realizing that it has no meaning so that vision may take its place.
[2] “Ihave given what I see all the meaning it has for me.”
I have judged everything I look upon.And it is this and only this that
I see.This is not vision. It is merely an illusion of reality, because my
judgements have been made quite apart from reality. I am willing to
recognize the lack of validity in my judgements, because I want to
see. My judgements have hurt me, and I do not want to see
according to them.
[3] “Ido not understand anything I see.”
How could I understand what I see when I have judged it amiss?
What I see is the projection of my own errors of thought. I do not
understand what I see because it is not understandable. There is no
sense in trying to understand it. But there is every reason to let it go,
to make room for what can be seen and understood and loved. I can
exchange what I see now for this merely by being willing to do so. Is
not this a better choice than the one I made before?
[4] “These thoughts do not mean anything.”
The thoughts of which I am aware do not mean anything because I
am trying to think without God.What I call “my” thoughts are not
my real thoughts. My real thoughts are the thoughts I think with
God. I am not aware of them because I have made “my” thoughts to
take their place. I am willing to recognize that “my” thoughts do not
mean anything, and to let them go. I choose to have them be
replaced by what they were intended to replace. “My” thoughts are
meaningless, but all creation lies in the Thoughts I think with God.
[5] “I
am never upset for the reason I think.”
I am never upset for the reason I think because I am constantly
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lesson 52
Today’s review covers these ideas:
[6] “I am upset because I see what is not there.”
Reality is never frightening. It is impossible that it could upset me.
Reality brings only perfect peace. When I am upset, it is always
because I have replaced reality with illusions which I made up. The
illusions are upsetting because I have given them reality, and thus
regard reality as an illusion. Nothing in God’s creation is affected in
any way by this confusion of mine. I am always upset by nothing.
[7] “I see only the past.”
As I look about, I condemn the world I look upon. I call this seeing.
I hold the past against everyone and everything, making them my
“enemies.”When I have forgiven myself and remembered who I am,
I will bless everyone and everything I see.There will be no past, and
therefore no “enemies.”And I will look with God on all that I failed
to see before.
[8] “My mind is preoccupied with past thoughts.”
I see only my own thoughts, and my mind is preoccupied with the
past.What, then, can I see as it is? Let me remember that I look on
the past to prevent the present from dawning on my mind. Let me
understand that I am trying to use time against God. Let me learn to
give the past away, realizing that in so doing I am giving up nothing.
[9] “I see nothing as it is now.”
If I see nothing as it is now, it can truly be said that I see nothing. I
can see only what is now.The choice is not whether to see the past
or the present: it is merely whether to see or not.What I have chosen
to see has cost me vision. Now I would choose again, that I may see.
[10] “My thoughts do not mean anything.”
I have no private thoughts.Yet it is only private thoughts of which I
am aware.What can these thoughts mean? They do not exist, and so
they mean nothing.Yet my mind is part of creation and part of its
Creator.Would I not rather join the thinking of the universe than to
obscure all that is really mine with my pitiful and meaningless
“private” thoughts?
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Today we will review the following:
[11] “My meaningless thoughts are showing me a meaningless world.”
Since the thoughts of which I am aware do not mean anything, the
world which pictures them can have no meaning.What is producing
this world is insane, and so is what it produces. Reality is not insane,
and I have real thoughts as well as insane ones. I can therefore see a
real world, if I look to my real thoughts as my guide for seeing.
[12] “Iam upset because I see a meaningless world.”
Insane thoughts are upsetting, they produce a world in which there is
no order anywhere. Only chaos rules a world which represents
chaotic thinking, and chaos has no laws. I cannot live in peace in
such a world. I am grateful that this world is not real, and that I need
not see it at all unless I choose to value it. And I do not choose to
value what is totally insane and has no meaning.
[13] “A meaningless world engenders fear.”
The totally insane engenders fear because it is completely
undependable, and offers no grounds for trust. Nothing in madness is
dependable. It holds out no safety and no hope. But such a world is
not real. I have given it the illusion of reality, and have suffered from
my belief in it. Now I choose to withdraw this belief, and place my
trust in reality. In choosing this, I will escape all the effects of the
world of fear because I am acknowledging that it does not exist.
[14] “God did not create a meaningless world.”
How can a meaningless world exist if God did not create it? He is
the Source of all meaning, and everything that is real is in His Mind.
It is in my mind too, because He created it with me. Why should I
continue to suffer from the effects of my own insane thoughts, when
the perfection of creation is my home? Let me remember the power
of my decision, and recognize where I really abide.
[15] “My thoughts are images which I have made.”
Whatever I see reflects my thoughts. It is my thoughts which tell me
where I am and what I am.The fact that I see a world in which there
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is suffering and loss and death shows me that I am seeing only the
representation of my insane thoughts, and am not allowing my real
thoughts to cast their beneficent light on what I see.Yet God’s way is
sure.The images I have made cannot prevail against Him because it is
not my will that they do so. My will is His, and I will place no other
gods before Him.
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These are the review ideas for today:
[16] “Ihave no neutral thoughts.”
Neutral thoughts are impossible because all thoughts have power.
They will either make a false world or lead me to the real one. But
thoughts cannot be without effects.As the world I see arises from my
thinking errors, so will the real world rise before my eyes as I let my
errors be corrected. My thoughts cannot be neither true nor false.
They must be one or the other.What I see shows me which they are.
[17] “I see no neutral things.”
What I see witnesses to what I think. If I did not think I would not
exist, because life is thought. Let me look on the world as the
representation of my own state of mind. I know that my state of mind
can change.And so I also know the world I see can change as well.
[18] “I am not alone in experiencing the effects of my seeing.”
If I have no private thoughts, I cannot see a private world. Even the
mad idea of separation had to be shared before it could form the basis
of the world I see.Yet that sharing was a sharing of nothing. I can also
call upon my real thoughts, which share everything with everybody.
As my thoughts of separation call to the separation thoughts of others,
so my real thoughts awaken the real thoughts in them.And the world
my real thoughts show me will dawn on their sight as well as mine.
[19] “Iam not alone in experiencing the effects of my thoughts.”
I am alone in nothing. Everything I think or say or do touches all the
universe. A Son of God cannot think or speak or act in vain. He
cannot be alone in anything. It is therefore in my power to change
every mind along with mine, for mine is the power of God.
[20] “I am determined to see.”
Recognizing the shared nature of my thoughts, I am determined to
see. I would look upon the witnesses that show me the thinking of the
world has been changed. I would behold the proof that what has been
done through me has enabled love to replace fear, laughter to replace
weeping, and abundance to replace loss. I would look upon the real
world, and let it teach me that my will and the Will of God are One.
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Today’s review includes the following:
[21] “I am determined to see things differently.”
What I see now are but signs of disease, disaster and death. This
cannot be what God created for His beloved Son.The very fact that
I see such things is proof that I do not understand God.Therefore I
also do not understand His Son. What I see tells me that I do not
know who I am. I am determined to see the witnesses to the truth in
me, rather than those which show me an illusion of myself.
[22] “What I see is a form of vengeance.”
The world I see is hardly the representation of loving thoughts. It is a
picture of attack on everything and by everything. It is anything but
a reflection of the Love of God and the love of His Son. It is my own
attack thoughts which give rise to this picture. My loving thoughts
will save me from this perception of the world, and give me the
peace God intended me to have.
[23] “I can escape from the world by giving up attack thoughts.”
Herein lies my salvation, and nowhere else.Without attack thoughts
I could not see a world of attack.As forgiveness allows love to return
to my awareness, I will see a world of peace and safety and joy.And it
is this that I choose to see, in place of what I look on now.
[24] “I do not perceive my own best interests.”
How could I recognize my own best interests when I do not know
who I am? What I think are my best interests would merely bind me
closer to the world of illusions. I am willing to follow the Guide God
has given me to find out what my own best interests are, recognizing
that I cannot perceive them by myself.
[25] “I do not know what anything is for.”
To me, the purpose of everything is to prove that my illusions about
myself are real. It is for that purpose that I attempt to use everyone and
everything. It is this that I believe the world is for.Therefore I do not
recognize its real purpose.The purpose I have given the world has led
to a frightening picture of it. Let me open my mind to its real purpose
by withdrawing the one I have given it, and learning the truth about it.
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Our review for today covers the following:
[26] “My attack thoughts are attacking my invulnerability.”
How can I know who I am when I see myself as under constant
attack? Pain, illness, loss, age and death seem to threaten me. All my
hopes and wishes and plans appear to be at the mercy of a world I
cannot control.Yet perfect security and complete fulfillment are my
inheritance. I have tried to give my inheritance away in exchange for
the world I see. But God has kept my inheritance safe for me. My
own real thoughts will teach me what it is.
[27] “Above all else I want to see.”
Recognizing that what I see reflects what I think I am, I realize that
vision is my greatest need.The world I see attests to the fearful nature
of the self-image I have made. If I would remember who I am, it is
essential that I let this image of myself go. As it is replaced by truth,
vision will surely be given me.And with this vision I will look upon
the world and upon myself with charity and love.
[28] “Above all else I want to see differently.”
The world I see holds my fearful self-image in place, and guarantees
its continuance. While I see the world as I see it now, truth cannot
enter my awareness. I would let the door behind this world be opened
for me, that I may look past it to the world that reflects the Love
of God.
[29] “God is in everything I see.”
Behind every image I have made, the truth remains unchanged.
Behind every veil I have drawn across the face of love, its light
remains undimmed. Beyond all my insane wishes is my will united
with the Will of my Father. God is still everywhere and in everything
forever. And we who are part of Him will yet look past all
appearances, and recognize the truth beyond them all.
[30] “God is in everything I see because God is in my mind.”
In my own mind, behind all my insane thoughts of separation and
attack, is the knowledge that all is one forever. I have not lost the
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Today let us review these ideas:
[31] “I am not the victim of the world I see.”
How can I be the victim of a world that can be completely undone
if I so choose? My chains are loosened. I can drop them off merely by
desiring to do so. The prison door is open. I can leave it simply by
walking out. Nothing holds me in this world. Only my wish to stay
keeps me a prisoner. I would give up insane wishes, and walk into
the sunlight at last.
[32] “I have invented the world I see.”
I made up the prison in which I see myself.All I need do is recognize
this, and I am free. I have deluded myself into believing it is possible to
imprison the Son of God. I was bitterly mistaken in this belief, which
I no longer want.The Son of God must be forever free. He is as God
created him, and not what I would make of him. He is where God
would have him be, and not where I thought to hold him prisoner.
[33] “Thereis another way of looking at the world.”
Since the purpose of the world is not the one I ascribed to it, there
must be another way of looking at it. I see everything upside down,
and my thoughts are the opposite of truth. I see the world as a prison
for God’s Son. It must be, then, that the world is really a place where
he can be set free. I would look upon the world as it is, and see it as
a place where the Son of God finds his freedom.
[34] “I could see peace instead of this.”
When I see the world as a place of freedom, I will realize that it
reflects the laws of God instead of the rules which I made up for it to
obey. I will understand that peace, not war, abides in it. And I will
perceive that peace also abides in the hearts of all who share this
place with me.
[35] “My mind is part of God’s. I am very holy.”
As I share the peace of the world with my brothers, I begin to
understand that this peace comes from deep within myself.The world
I look upon has taken on the light of my forgiveness, and shines
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These ideas are for review today:
[36] “My holiness envelops everything I see.”
From my holiness does the perception of the real world come.
Having forgiven, I no longer see myself as guilty. I can accept the
innocence that is the truth about me. Seen through understanding
eyes the holiness of the world is all I see, for I can picture only the
thoughts I hold about myself.
[37] “My holiness blesses the world.”
The perception of my holiness does not bless me alone. Everyone
and everything I see in its light shares in the joy it brings to me.
There is nothing that is apart from this joy, because there is nothing
that does not share my holiness. As I recognize my holiness, so does
the holiness of the world shine forth for everyone to see.
[38] “There is nothing my holiness cannot do.”
My holiness is unlimited in its power to heal, because it is unlimited
in its power to save.What is there to be saved from except illusions?
And what are all illusions except false ideas about myself? My holiness
undoes them all by asserting the truth about me. In the presence of
my holiness, which I share with God Himself, all idols vanish.
[39] “My holiness is my salvation.”
Since my holiness saves me from all guilt, recognizing my holiness is
recognizing my salvation. It is also recognizing the salvation of the
world. Once I have accepted my holiness, nothing can make me
afraid. And because I am unafraid, everyone must share in my
understanding, which is the gift of God to me and to the world.
[40] “Iam blessed as a Son of God.”
Herein lies my claim to all good and only good. I am blessed as a Son
of God. All good things are mine because God intended them for
me. I cannot suffer any loss or deprivation or pain because of who I
am. My Father supports me, protects me, and directs me in all things.
His care for me is infinite, and is with me forever. I am eternally
blessed as His Son.
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lesson 59
The following ideas are for review today:
[41] “God goes with me wherever I go.”
How can I be alone when God always goes with me? How can I be
doubtful and unsure of myself when perfect certainty abides in Him?
How can I be disturbed by anything when He rests in me in absolute
peace? How can I suffer when love and joy surround me through
Him? Let me not cherish illusions about myself. I am perfect because
God goes with me wherever I go.
[42] “Godis my strength.Vision is His gift.”
Let me not look to my own eyes to see today. Let me be willing
to exchange my pitiful illusion of seeing for the vision that is
given by God. Christ’s vision is His gift, and He has given it to me.
Let me call upon this gift today, so that this day may help me to
understand eternity.
[43] “God is my Source. I cannot see apart from Him.”
I can see what God wants me to see. I cannot see anything else.
Beyond His Will lie only illusions. It is these I choose when I think I
can see apart from Him. It is these I choose when I try to see
through the body’s eyes.Yet the vision of Christ has been given me
to replace them. It is through this vision that I choose to see.
[44] “God is the light in which I see.”
I cannot see in darkness. God is the only Light.Therefore if I am to
see, it must be through Him. I have tried to define what seeing is, and
I have been wrong. Now it is given me to understand that God is the
Light in which I see. Let me welcome vision and the happy world it
will show me.
[45] “God is the Mind with which I think.”
I have no thoughts I do not share with God. I have no thoughts apart
from Him because I have no mind apart from His. As part of His
Mind, my thoughts are His and His Thoughts are mine.
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These ideas are for today’s review:
[46] “God is the Love in which I forgive.”
God does not forgive because He has never condemned. The
blameless cannot blame, and those who have accepted their
innocence see nothing to forgive. Yet forgiveness is the means by
which I will recognize my innocence. It is the reflection of God’s
Love on earth. It will bring me near enough to Heaven that the Love
of God can reach down to me and raise me to my home.
[47] “God is the Strength in which I trust.”
It is not my own strength through which I forgive. It is through the
strength of God in me, which I am remembering as I forgive. As I
begin to see, I recognize His reflection on earth. I forgive all things
because I feel the stirring of His strength in me. And I begin to
remember the Love I chose to forget, but Which has not forgotten me.
[48] “Thereis nothing to fear.”
How safe the world will look to me when I can see it! It will not
look anything like what I imagine I see now. Everyone and
everything I see will lean toward me to bless me. I will recognize in
everyone my dearest Friend.What could there be to fear in a world
which I have forgiven, and which has forgiven me?
[49] “God’s Voice speaks to me all through the day.”
There is not a moment in which God’s Voice ceases to call on my
forgiveness to save me. There is not a moment in which His Voice
fails to direct my thoughts, guide my actions, and lead my feet. I am
walking steadily on toward truth. There is nowhere else I can go,
because God’s Voice is the only voice and the only guide that has
been given to His Son.
[50] “I am sustained by the Love of God.”
As I listen to God’s Voice, I am sustained by His Love. As I open my
eyes, His Love lights up the world for me to see.As I forgive, His Love
reminds me that His Son is sinless.And as I look upon the world with
the vision He has given me, I remember that I am His Son.
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really be difficult to make? Let not the form of the decision deceive
you. Complexity of form does not imply complexity of content. It is
impossible that any decision on earth can have a content different
from just this one simple choice. That is the only choice the Holy
Spirit sees.Therefore it is the only choice there is.
Today, then, let us practice with these thoughts:
“Let me not forget my function.”
“Let me not try to substitute mine for God’s.”
“Let me forgive and be happy.”
At least once devote ten or fifteen minutes to reflecting on this with
closed eyes. Related thoughts will come to help you, if you remember
the crucial importance of your function to you and to the world.
In the frequent applications of today’s idea to be made
throughout the day, devote several minutes to reviewing the
thoughts, and then to thinking about them and about nothing else.
This will be difficult at first particularly, since you are not proficient
in the mind discipline which it requires.You may need to repeat “Let
me not forget my function” quite often, to help you concentrate.
Two forms of shorter practice periods are required.At times, do
the exercises with your eyes closed, trying to concentrate on the
thoughts you are applying. At other times keep your eyes open after
reviewing the thoughts and look slowly and unselectively about you,
telling yourself:
“This is the world it is my function to save.”
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telling yourself:
“This thought reflects a goal that is preventing me from accepting my
only function.”
After a while, interfering thoughts will become harder to find.
Try, however, to continue a minute or so longer, attempting to catch
a few of the idle thoughts which escaped your attention before, but
do not strain or make undue effort in doing this.Then tell yourself:
“On this clean slate, let my true function be written for me.”
You need not use these exact words, but try to get a sense of being
willing to have your illusions of purpose be replaced by truth.
Finally, repeat the idea for today once more and devote the rest
of the practice period to trying to focus on its importance to you, the
relief its acceptance will bring you by resolving your conflicts once
and for all, and the extent to which you really want salvation in spite
of your own foolish ideas to the contrary.
In the shorter practice periods, which should be undertaken at
least once an hour, use this form in applying today’s idea:
“My only function is the one God gave me.
I want no other and I have no other.”
Sometimes close your eyes as you practice, and sometimes keep them
open and look about you. It is what you see now that will be totally
changed when you accept today’s idea completely.
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as often as you can. You need to hear the truth about yourself as
frequently as possible, because your mind is so preoccupied with false
self-images. Four or five times an hour, and perhaps even more, it
would be most beneficial to remind yourself that Love created you
like Itself. Hear the truth about yourself in this.
Try to realize in the shorter practice periods, that this is not
your tiny solitary voice that tells you this.This is the Voice for God,
reminding you of your Father and of your Self. This is the Voice of
truth, replacing everything that the ego tells you about yourself with
the simple truth about the Son of God.You were created by Love
like Itself.
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stillness, remembering only how much you want to reach the light in
you today, - now. Determine to go past the clouds. Reach out and
touch them in your mind; brush them aside with your hand; feel
them resting on your cheeks and forehead and eyelids as you go
through them. Go on; clouds cannot stop you.
If you are doing the exercises properly, you will begin to feel a
sense of being lifted up and carried ahead.Your little effort and small
determination call on the power of the universe to help you, and
God Himself will raise you from darkness into light. You are in
accord with His Will.You cannot fail because your will is His.
Have confidence in your Father today. And be certain that He
has heard you and has answered you. You may not recognize His
answer yet, but you can indeed be sure that it is given you, and you
will yet receive it.Try, as you attempt to go through the clouds to the
light, to hold this confidence in your mind.Try to remember that you
are at last joining your will to God’s.Try to keep the thought clearly
in mind that what you undertake with God must succeed. Then let
the power of God work in you and through you, that His Will and
yours may be done.
In the shorter practice periods, which you will want to do as
often as possible in view of the importance of today’s idea to you and
your happiness, remind yourself that your grievances are hiding the
light of the world from your awareness. Remind yourself also that
you are not searching for it alone, and that you do know where to
look for it. Say, then:
“My grievances hide the light of the world in me.
I cannot see what I have hidden.
Yet I want to let it be revealed to me,
for my salvation and the salvation of the world.”
Also, be sure to tell yourself:
“If I hold this grievance, the light of the world will be hidden from me.”
if you are tempted to hold anything against anyone today.
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let you decide when to undertake them.We will follow this practice
for a number of lessons, and it would again be well to decide in
advance when would be a good time to lay aside for each of them,
and adhere to your own decision as closely as possible.
Begin these practice periods by repeating the idea for today,
adding a statement signifying your recognition that salvation comes
from nothing outside of you.You might put it this way:
“My salvation comes from me.
It cannot come from anywhere else.”
Then devote a few minutes with your eyes closed, to reviewing some
of the external places where you have looked for salvation in the
past, – in other people, in possessions, in various situations and
events, and in self-concepts which you sought to make real.
Recognize that it was not there.Tell yourself:
“My salvation cannot come from any of these things.
My salvation comes from me, and only from me.”
Now we will try again to reach the light in you, which is where
your salvation is.You cannot find it in the clouds that surround the
light, and it is in them you have been looking for it. It is not there. It
is past the clouds, and in the light beyond. Remember that you will
have to go through the clouds before you can reach the light. But
remember also that you have never found anything in the cloud
patterns you imagined that endured, or that you wanted.
Since all illusions of salvation have failed you, surely you do not
want to remain in the clouds looking vainly for idols there, when
you could so easily walk on into the light of real salvation.Try to pass
the clouds by whatever means appeals to you. If it helps you, think of
me holding your hand and leading you.And I assure you this will be
no idle fantasy.
For the short and frequent practice periods today, remind
yourself that your salvation comes from you, and nothing but your
own thoughts can hamper your progress. You are free from all
external interference.You are in charge of your salvation.You are in
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The result can only bring confusion, misery and a deep sense of
failure and despair.
How can you escape all this? Very simply. The idea for today is
the answer. Only God’s plan for salvation will work.There can be no
real conflict about this, because there is no possible alternative to
God’s plan that will save you. His is the only plan that is certain in its
outcome. His is the only plan that must succeed.
Let us practice recognizing this certainty today. And let us
rejoice that there is an answer to what seems to be a conflict with no
resolution possible. All things are possible to God. Salvation must be
yours because of His plan, which cannot fail.
Begin the two longer practice periods for today by thinking
about today’s idea, and realizing that it contains two parts, each
making equal contribution to the whole. God’s plan for your salvation
will work, and other plans will not. Do not allow yourself to become
depressed or angry at the second part; it is inherent in the first.And in
the first is your full release from all your own insane attempts and mad
proposals to free yourself.They have led to depression and anger. But
God’s plan will succeed. It will lead to release and joy.
Remembering this, let us devote the remainder of the extended
practice periods to asking God to reveal His plan to us. Ask Him
very specifically:
“What would You have me do?”
“Where would You have me go?”
“What would You have me say, and to whom?”
Give Him full charge of the rest of the practice period, and let Him
tell you what needs to be done by you in His plan for your salvation.
He will answer in proportion to your willingness to hear His Voice.
Refuse not to hear. The very fact that you are doing the exercises
proves that you have some willingness to listen. This is enough to
establish your claim to God’s answer.
In the shorter practice periods tell yourself often that God’s plan
for salvation, and only His, will work. Be alert to all temptation to hold
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grievances today, and respond to them with this form of today’s idea:
“Holding grievances is the opposite of God’s plan for salvation.
And only His plan will work.”
Try to remember the idea for today some six or seven times an hour.
There could be no better way to spend a half-minute or less than to
remember the Source of your salvation, and to see it where it is.
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reinforces your belief that he is a body, and condemns him for it.And
it asserts that his salvation must be death, projecting this attack onto
God, and holding Him responsible for it.
To this carefully prepared arena, where angry animals seek for
prey and mercy cannot enter, the ego comes to save you. God made
you a body.Very well. Let us accept this and be glad.As a body, do not
let yourself be deprived of what the body offers. Take the little you
can get. God gave you nothing.The body is your only savior. It is the
death of God and your salvation.
This is the universal belief of the world you see. Some hate the
body, and try to hurt and humiliate it. Others love the body, and try
to glorify and exalt it. But while it stands at the center of your
concept of yourself, you are attacking God’s plan for salvation, and
holding your grievances against Him and His creation, that you may
not hear the Voice of truth and welcome it as Friend.Your chosen
savior takes His place instead. It is your friend; He is your enemy.
We will try today to stop these senseless attacks on salvation.We
will try to welcome it instead. Our upside-down perception has been
ruinous to our peace of mind.We have seen ourselves in a body and
the truth outside us, locked away from your awareness by the body’s
limitations. Now we are going to try to see this differently.
The light of truth is in us, where it was placed by God. It is the
body that is outside us, and is not our concern.To be without a body
is to be in our natural state.To recognize the light of truth in us is to
recognize ourselves as we are. To see our Self as separate from the
body is to end the attack on God’s plan for salvation, and to accept it
instead.And wherever it is accepted, it is accomplished already.
Our goal in the longer practice periods today is to become
aware that God’s plan for salvation has already been accomplished in
us. To achieve this goal, we must replace attack with acceptance. As
long as we attack it, we cannot understand what God’s plan for us is.
We are therefore attacking what we do not recognize. Now we are
going to try to lay judgement aside, and ask what God’s plan for us is:
“What is salvation, Father?
I do not know.
Tell me, that I may understand.”
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seek to prove all this is really Heaven. You know it is not so. You
cannot want this for yourself.There is a point beyond which illusions
cannot go.
Suffering is not happiness, and it is happiness you really want.
Such is your will in truth. And so salvation is your will as well.You
want to succeed in what we are trying to do today.We undertake it
with your blessing and your glad accord.
We will succeed today if you remember that you will salvation
for yourself.You will to accept God’s plan because you share in it.You
have no will that can really oppose it, and you do not want to do so.
Salvation is for you.Above all else you want the freedom to remember
who you really are.
Today it is the ego which stands powerless before your will.Your
will is free, and nothing can prevail against it.Therefore we undertake
the exercises for today in happy confidence, certain that we will find
what it is your will to find, and remember what it is your will to
remember. No idle wishes can detain us, nor deceive us with an
illusion of strength.Today let your will be done.And end forever the
insane belief that it is hell in place of Heaven that you choose.
We will begin our longer practice periods with the recognition
that God’s plan for salvation, and only His, is wholly in accord with
your will. It is not the purpose of an alien power, thrust upon you
unwillingly. It is the one purpose here on which you and your Father
are in perfect accord.
You will succeed today, the time appointed for the release of the
Son of God from hell and from all idle wishes. His will is now
restored to his awareness. He is willing this very day to look upon the
light in him and be saved.
After reminding yourself of this and determining to keep
your will clearly in mind, tell yourself with gentle firmness and
quiet certainty:
“I will there be light. Let me behold the light that reflects
God’s Will and mine.”
Then let your will assert itself, joined with the power of God and
united with your Self. Put the rest of the practice period under Their
guidance. Join with Them as They lead the way.
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“I am entitled to miracles.”
You are entitled to miracles because of what you are.You will receive
miracles because of what God is.And you will offer miracles because
you are one with God. Again, how simple is salvation! It is merely a
statement of your true identity. It is this that we will celebrate today.
Your claim to miracles does not lie in your illusions about
yourself. It does not depend on any magical powers you have
ascribed to yourself, nor on any of the rituals you have devised. It is
inherent in the truth of what you are. It is implicit in what God your
Father is. It was ensured in your creation, and guaranteed by the laws
of God.
Today we will claim the miracles which are your right, since
they belong to you. You have been promised full release from the
world you made.You have been assured that the Kingdom of God is
within you, and can never be lost.We ask no more than what belongs
to us in truth.Today, however, we will also make sure that we will not
content ourselves with less.
Begin the longer practice period by telling yourself quite
confidently that you are entitled to miracles. Closing your eyes,
remind yourself that you are asking only for what is rightfully yours.
Remind yourself also that miracles are never taken from one and
given to another, and that in asking for your rights you are upholding
the rights of everyone. Miracles do not obey the laws of this world.
They merely follow from the laws of God.
After this brief introductory phase, wait quietly for the assurance
that your request is granted.You have asked for the salvation of the
world and for your own. You have requested that you be given the
means by which this is accomplished.You cannot fail to be assured in
this.You are but asking that the Will of God be done. In doing this, you
do not really ask for anything.You state a fact that cannot be denied.
The Holy Spirit cannot but assure you that your request is
granted.The fact that you accepted must be so.There is no room for
doubt and uncertainty today.We are asking a real question at last.The
answer is a simple statement of a simple fact. You will receive the
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We will review his faults, the difficulties you have had with him, the
pain he caused you, his neglect, and all the little and the larger hurts
he gave. We will regard his body with its flaws and better points as
well, and we will think of his mistakes and even of his “sins.”
Then let us ask of Him Who knows this Son of God in his reality
and truth, that we may look on him a different way, and see our Savior
shining in the light of true forgiveness, given unto us.We ask Him in
the Holy Name of God and of His Son, as holy as Himself:
“Let me behold my Savior in this one
You have appointed as the One for me
To ask to lead me to the holy light
In which he stands, that I may join with him.”
The body’s eyes are closed, and as you think of him who grieved
you, let your mind be shown the light in him beyond your grievances.
What you have asked for cannot be denied. Your Savior has been
waiting long for this. He would be free, and make his freedom yours.
The Holy Spirit leans from him to you, seeing no separation in God’s
Son.And what you see through Him will free you both.
Be very quiet now, and look upon your shining Savior. No dark
grievances obscure the sight of him. You have allowed the Holy
Spirit to express through him the role God gave Him, that you might
be saved. God thanks you for these quiet times today, in which you
laid your images aside, and looked upon the miracle of love the Holy
Spirit showed you in their place. The world and Heaven join in
thanking you, for not one Thought of God but must rejoice as you
are saved, and all the world with you.
We will remember this throughout the day, and take the role
assigned to us as part of God’s salvation plan, and not our own.
Temptation falls away when we allow each one we meet to save us,
and refuse to hide his light behind our grievances.To everyone you
meet, and to the ones you think of, or remember from the past, allow
the role of Savior to be given, that you may share it with them. For
you both, and all the sightless ones as well, we pray:
“Let miracles replace all grievances.”
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lesson 79
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it takes, you could accept the answer because you would see its
relevance. Perceiving the underlying constancy in all the problems
which confront you, you would understand that you have the means
to solve them all. And you would use the means because you
recognize the problem.
In our longer practice periods, we will ask what the problem is,
and what is the answer to it. We will not assume that we already
know.We will try to free our minds of all the many different kinds of
problems that we think we have.We will try to realize that we have
only one problem, which we have failed to recognize. We will ask
what it is, and wait for the answer.We will be told.Then we will ask
for the solution to it.And we will be told.
Our exercises for today will be successful to the extent to which
we do not insist on defining the problem. Perhaps we will not
succeed in letting all our preconceived notions go, but that is not
necessary. All that is necessary is to entertain some doubt about the
reality of our version of what our problems are. We are trying to
recognize that we have been given the answer by recognizing the
problem, so that the problem and the answer can be brought
together, and we can be at peace.
The shorter practice periods for today will not be set by time,
but by need.You will see many problems today, each one calling for
an answer. Our efforts will be directed toward recognizing that there
is only one problem and one answer. In this recognition are all
problems resolved. In this recognition there is peace.
Be not deceived by the form of problems today.Whenever any
difficulty seems to rise, tell yourself quickly:
“Let me recognize this problem so it can be solved.”
Then try to suspend all judgement about what the problem is. If
possible, close your eyes for a moment, and ask what it is.You will be
heard and you will be answered.
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lesson 80
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review ii
We are now ready for another review.We will begin where our last
review left off, and cover two ideas each day.The earlier part of each
day will be devoted to one of these ideas, and the latter part of the
day to the other. We will have one longer exercise period and
frequent shorter ones in which we practice each of them.
The longer practice periods will follow this general form:Take
about fifteen minutes for each of them, and begin by thinking about
the idea and the comments which are included in the assignments.
Devote about three or four minutes to reading them over slowly,
several times if you wish, and then close your eyes and listen. Repeat
the first phase if you find your mind wandering, but try to spend the
major part of the practice period listening quietly but attentively.
There is a message waiting for you. Be confident that you will
receive it. Remember that it belongs to you, and that you want it.
Do not allow your intent to waver in the face of distracting thoughts.
Realize that, whatever form they take, they have no meaning and no
power. Replace them with your determination to succeed. Do not
forget that your will has power over all fantasies and dreams.Trust it
to see you through, and carry you beyond them all.
Regard these practice periods as dedications to the way, the
truth and the life. Refuse to be side-tracked into detours, illusions
and thoughts of death.You are dedicated to salvation. Be determined
each day not to leave your function unfulfilled.
Reaffirm your determination in the shorter practice periods as
well, using the original form of the idea for general application, and
a more specific form when needed. Some specific forms will be
included in the comments.These, however, are merely suggestions. It
is not the particular words you use that matter.
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Our ideas for review today are:
[61] “I am the light of the world.”
How holy am I, who have been given the function of lighting up the
world! Let me be still before my holiness. In its calm light let all my
conflicts disappear. In its peace let me remember who I am.
Some specific forms for applying the idea when specific
difficulties seem to arise might be:
“Let me not obscure the light of the world in me.”
“Let the light of the world shine through this appearance.”
“This shadow will vanish before the light.”
[62] “Forgiveness is my function as the light of the world.”
It is through accepting my function that I will see the light in me.
And in this light will my function stand clear and perfectly
unambiguous before my sight. My acceptance does not depend on
my recognizing what my function is, for I do not yet understand
forgiveness.Yet I will trust that in the light I will see it as it is.
Specific forms for using the idea might include:
“Let this help me learn what forgiveness means.”
“Let me not separate my function from my will.”
“I would not use this for an alien purpose.”
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lesson 82
We will review these ideas today:
[63] “The light of the world brings peace to every mind through my
forgiveness.”
My forgiveness is the means by which the light of the world finds
expression through me. My forgiveness is the means by which I
become aware of the light of the world in me. My forgiveness is the
means by which the world is healed, together with myself. Let me,
then, forgive the world, that it may be healed along with me.
Suggestions for specific forms for applying this idea are:
“Let peace extend from my mind to yours, [name].”
“I share the light of the world with you, [name].”
“Through my forgiveness I can see this as it is.”
[64] “Letme not forget my function.”
I would not forget my function, because I would remember my Self.
I cannot fulfill my function by forgetting. And unless I fulfill my
function, I will not experience the joy that God intends for me.
Suitable specific forms of this idea include:
“Let me not use this to hide my function from me.”
“I would use this as an opportunity to fulfill my function.”
“This may threaten my ego, but cannot change my function in any way.”
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Today let us review these ideas:
[65] “My only function is the one God gave me.”
I have no function but the one God gave me. This recognition
releases me from all conflict, because it means I cannot have
conflicting goals.With one purpose only, I am always certain what to
do, what to say, and what to think. All doubt must disappear and I
acknowledge that my only function is the one God gave me.
More specific applications of this idea might take these forms:
“My perception of this does not change my function.”
“This does not give me a function other than the one God gave me.”
“Let me not use this to justify a function God did not give to me.”
[66] “My happiness and my function are one.”
All things that come from God are one. They come from Oneness,
and must be received as one. Fulfilling my function is my happiness
because both come from the same Source. And I must learn to
recognize what makes me happy if I would find happiness.
Some useful forms for specific applications of this idea are:
“This cannot separate my happiness from my function.”
“The oneness of my happiness and my function
remain wholly unaffected by this.”
“Nothing, including this, can justify the illusion of happiness
apart from my function.”
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lesson 84
These are the ideas for today’s review:
[67] “Love created me like Itself.”
Grievances are completely alien to love. Grievances attack love, and keep
its light obscure. If I hold grievances I am attacking love, and therefore
attacking my Self. My Self thus becomes alien to me. I am determined
not to attack my Self today, so that I can remember who I am.
These specific forms for applying this idea would be helpful:
“This is no justification for denying my Self.”
“I will not use this to attack love.”
“Let this not tempt me to attack myself.”
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l e s s o n 85
Today’s review will cover these ideas:
[69] “My grievances hide the light of the world in me.”
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lesson 86
These ideas are for review today:
[71] “Only God’s plan for salvation will work.”
It is senseless for me to search wildly about for salvation. I have seen it
in many people and in many things, but when I reached for it, it was
not there. I was mistaken about where it is. I was mistaken about what
it is. I will undertake no more idle seeking. Only God’s plan for
salvation will work.And I will rejoice because His plan can never fail.
These are some suggested forms for applying this idea
specifically:
“God’s plan for salvation will save me from my perception of this.”
“This is no exception in God’s plan for my salvation.”
“Let me perceive this only in the light of God’s plan for salvation.”
[72] “Holding grievances is an attack on God’s plan for salvation.”
Holding grievances is an attempt to prove that God’s plan for
salvation will not work. Yet only His plan will work. By holding
grievances, I am therefore excluding my only hope of salvation from
my awareness. I would no longer defeat my own best interests in this
insane way. I would accept God’s plan for salvation, and be happy.
Specific applications for this idea might be in these forms:
“I am choosing between misperception and salvation as I look on this.”
“If I see grounds for grievances in this, I will not see the grounds for
my salvation.”
“This calls for salvation, not attack.”
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lesson 87
Our review today will cover these ideas:
[73] “I will there be light.”
I will use the power of my will today. It is not my will to grope about
in darkness, fearful of shadows and afraid of things unseen and unreal.
Light shall be my guide today. I will follow it where it leads me, and
I will look only on what it shows me.This day I will experience the
peace of true perception.
These forms of this idea would be helpful for specific
application:
“This cannot hide the light I will to see.”
“You stand with me in light, [name].”
“In the light this will look different.”
[74] “There is no will but God’s.”
I am safe today because there is no will but God’s. I can become
afraid only when I believe that there is another will. I try to attack
only when I am afraid, and only when I try to attack can I believe
that my eternal safety is threatened.Today I will recognize that all this
has not occurred. I am safe because there is no will but God’s.
These are some useful forms of this idea for specific
applications:
“Let me perceive this in accordance with the Will of God.”
“It is God’s Will you are His Son, [name], and mine as well.”
“This is part of God’s Will for me, however I may see it.”
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le sson 88
Today we will review these ideas:
[75] “The light has come.”
In choosing salvation rather than attack, I merely choose to
recognize what is already here. Salvation is a decision made already.
Attack and grievances are not there to choose.That is why I always
choose between truth and illusion; between what is there and what is
not. The light has come. I can but choose the light, for it has no
alternative. It has replaced the darkness, and the dark has gone.
These would prove useful forms for specific applications of
this idea:
“This cannot show me darkness, for the light has come.”
“The light in you is all that I would see, [name].”
“I would see in this only what is there.”
[76] “Iam under no laws but God’s.”
Here is the perfect statement of my freedom. I am under no laws but
God’s. I am constantly tempted to make up other laws and give them
power over me. I suffer only because of my belief in them.They have
no real effect on me at all. I am perfectly free of the effects of all laws
save God’s.And His are the laws of freedom.
For specific forms in applying this idea, these would be useful:
“My perception of this shows me I believe in laws which do not exist.”
“I see only the laws of God at work in this.”
“Let me allow God’s laws to work in this, and not my own.”
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lesson 89
These are our review ideas for today:
[77] “I am entitled to miracles.”
I am entitled to miracles because I am under no laws but God’s. His
laws release me from all grievances, and replace them with miracles.
And I would accept the miracles in place of the grievances, which
are but illusions that hide the miracles beyond. Now I would accept
only what the laws of God entitle me to have, that I may use it on
behalf of the function He has given me.
You might use these suggestions for specific applications of
this idea:
“Behind this is a miracle to which I am entitled.”
“Let me not hold a grievance against you [name],
but offer you the miracle that belongs to you instead.”
“Seen truly, this offers me a miracle.”
[78] “Letmiracles replace all grievances.”
By this idea do I unite my will with the Holy Spirit’s, and perceive
them as one. By this idea do I accept my release from hell. By this
idea do I express my willingness to have all my illusions be replaced
with truth, according to God’s plan for my salvation. I would make
no exceptions and no substitutes. I want all of Heaven and only
Heaven, as God wills me to have.
Useful specific forms for applying this idea would be:
“I would not hold this grievance apart from my salvation.”
“Let our grievances be replaced by miracles, [name].”
“Beyond this is the miracle by which all my grievances are replaced.”
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lesson 90
For this review we will use these ideas:
[79] “Let me recognize the problem so it can be solved.”
Let me realize today that the problem is always some form of
grievance which I would cherish. Let me also understand that the
solution is always a miracle with which I let the grievance be
replaced. Today I would remember the simplicity of salvation by
reinforcing the lesson that there is one problem and one solution.
The problem is a grievance; the solution is a miracle.And I invite the
solution to come to me through my forgiveness of the grievance, and
my welcome of the miracle which takes its place.
Specific applications of this idea might be in these forms:
“This presents a problem to me which I would have resolved.”
“The miracle behind this grievance will resolve it for me.”
“The answer to this problem is the miracle which it conceals.”
[80] “Let me recognize my problems have been solved.”
I seem to have problems only because I am misusing time. I believe
that the problem comes first, and time must elapse before it can be
worked out. I do not see the problem and the answer as simultaneous
in their occurrence.That is because I do not yet realize that God has
placed the answer together with the problem, so that they cannot be
separated by time. The Holy Spirit will teach me this, if I will let
Him. And I will understand it is impossible that I could have a
problem which has not been solved already.
These forms of the idea will be useful for specific applications:
“I need not wait for this to be resolved.”
“The answer to this problem is already given me, if I will accept it.”
“Time cannot separate this problem from its solution.”
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Relax for the rest of the practice period, confident that your efforts,
however meager, are fully supported by the strength of God and all
His Thoughts. It is from Them your strength will come. It is through
Their strong support that you will feel the strength in you.They are
united with you in this practice period, in which you share a purpose
like Their own. Theirs is the light in which you will see miracles,
because Their strength is yours. Their strength becomes your eyes,
that you may see.
Five or six times an hour, at reasonably regular intervals, remind
yourself that miracles are seen in light. Also, be sure to meet
temptation with today’s idea. This form would be helpful for this
special purpose:
“Miracles are seen in light. Let me not close my eyes because of this.”
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lesson 92
“Miracles are seen in light, and light and strength are one.”
The idea for today is an extension of the previous one.You do not
think of light in terms of strength and darkness in terms of weakness.
That is because your idea of what seeing means is tied up with the
body, and its eyes and brain. This is why you believe that you can
change what you see by keeping little bits of glass or other clear
material before your eyes held in a frame or placed against the eye.
These are among the many magical beliefs that come from the
conviction you are a body, and the body’s eyes can see. You also
believe the body’s brain can think. If you but understood the nature
of thought, you could but laugh at this insane idea. It is as if you
thought you held the match that lights the sun and gives it all its
warmth; or that you had the universe imprisoned in your hand,
securely bound until you let it go.Yet this is no more foolish than to
believe the body’s eyes can see; the brain can think.
It is God’s strength in you that is the light in which you see, as it
is His Mind with which you think. His strength denies your
weakness. It is your weakness that sees through the body’s eyes,
peering about in darkness to behold the likeness of itself; the small,
the weak, the sickly and the dying, those in need, the helpless and
afraid, the sad, the poor, the starving and the joyless. These are seen
through eyes which cannot see and cannot bless.
Strength overlooks these things by seeing past appearances. It
keeps its steady gaze upon the light that lies beyond them. It unites
with light, of which it is a part. It sees itself. It brings the light in which
your Self appears. In darkness you perceive a self that is not there.
Strength is the truth about you; weakness is an idol falsely
worshipped, and adored that strength may be dispelled, and darkness
rule where God appointed that there should be light. Strength comes
from truth, and shines with light its Source has given it; weakness
reflects the darkness of its maker. It is sick and looks on sickness,
which is like itself.
Truth is a savior and can only will for happiness and peace for
everyone. It gives its strength to everyone who asks, in limitless
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lesson 93
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created as eternal. The self you made, evil and full of sin, is
meaningless.Your sinlessness is guaranteed by God, and light and joy
and peace abide in you.
Salvation requires the acceptance of but one thought; you are as
God created you, not what you made of yourself.Whatever evil you
may think you did, you are as God created you. Whatever mistakes
you made, the truth about you is unchanged. Creation is eternal and
unalterable.Your sinlessness is guaranteed by God.You are and will
forever be exactly as you were created. Light and joy and peace abide
in you because God put them there.
In our longer exercise periods today, which would be most
profitable if done for the first five minutes of every waking hour, we
will begin by stating the truth about our creation:
“Light and joy and peace abide in me.
My sinlessness is guaranteed by God.”
Then put away your foolish self-images, and spend the rest of the
practice period in trying to experience what God has given you, in
place of what you have decreed for yourself.
You are what God created, or what you made. One Self is true;
the other is not there.Try to experience the unity of your One Self.
Try to appreciate Its holiness and the love from which It was created.
Try not to interfere with the Self Which God created as you by
hiding Its majesty behind the tiny idols of evil and sinfulness you
have made to replace It. Let It come into Its own. Here you are;This
is you.And light and joy and peace abide in you because this is so.
You may not be willing or even able to use the first five minutes
of each hour for these exercises.Try, however, to do so when you can.
At least remember to repeat these thoughts each hour:
“Light and joy and peace abide in me.
My sinlessness is guaranteed by God.”
Then try to devote at least a minute or so to closing your eyes and
realizing that this is a statement of the truth about you.
If a situation arises that seems to be disturbing, quickly dispel
the illusion of fear by repeating these thoughts again. Should you be
tempted to become angry with someone, tell him silently:
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reach it. Regularity in terms of time is not the ideal requirement for
the most beneficial form of practice in salvation. It is advantageous,
however, for those whose motivation is inconsistent, and who remain
heavily defended against learning.
We will therefore keep to the five minutes an hour practice
periods for a while, and urge you to omit as few as possible. Using
the first five minutes of the hour will be particularly helpful, since it
imposes firmer structure. Do not, however, use your lapses from this
schedule as an excuse not to return to it again as soon as you can.
There may well be a temptation to regard the day as lost because
you have already failed to do what is required.This should, however,
merely be recognized as what it is; a refusal to let your mistakes be
corrected, and an unwillingness to try again.
The Holy Spirit is not delayed in His teaching by your mistakes.
He can be held back only by your unwillingness to let them go. Let
us therefore be determined, particularly for the next week or so, to be
willing to forgive ourselves for our lapses in diligence, and our failures
to follow the instructions for practicing the day’s idea.
This tolerance for weakness will enable us to overlook it, rather
than give it power to delay our learning. If we give it power to do
this, we are regarding it as strength, and are confusing strength with
weakness. When you fail to comply with the requirements of this
course, you have merely made a mistake.This calls for correction, and
for nothing else.
To allow a mistake to continue is to make additional mistakes
based on the first, and reinforcing it. It is this process that must be laid
aside, for it is but another way in which you would defend illusions
against the truth. Let all these errors go by recognizing them for
what they are.They are attempts to keep you unaware you are One
Self, united with your Creator, at one with every aspect of creation,
and limitless in power and in peace.
This is the truth, and nothing else is true. Today we will affirm
this truth again, and try to reach the place in you in which there is no
doubt that only this is true. Begin the practice periods today with this
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assurance, given to your mind with all the certainty that you can give:
“I am One Self, united with my Creator,
At one with every aspect of creation,
And limitless in power and in peace.”
Then close your eyes and tell yourself again, slowly and
thoughtfully, attempting to allow the meaning of the words to sink
into your mind, replacing false ideas:
“I am One Self.”
Repeat this several times, and then attempt to feel the meaning
which the words convey.You are One Self, united and secure in light
and joy and peace.You are God’s Son, One Self with One Creator
and one goal; to bring awareness of this Oneness to all minds, that
true creation may extend the Allness and the Unity of God.
You are One Self, complete and healed and whole, with power
to lift the veil of darkness from the world, and let the light in you
come through to teach the world the truth about itself.You are One
Self, in perfect harmony with all there is and all that there will be.
You are One Self, the holy Son of God, united with your brothers in
this Self; united with your Father in His Will.
Feel this One Self in you, and let It shine away all your illusions
and your doubts.This is your Self, the Son of God Himself, sinless as
Its Creator, with His strength within you and His Love forever yours.
You are One Self, and it is given you to feel this Self within you, and
to cast all your illusions out of the One Mind Which is this Self, the
holy truth in you.
Do not forget today. We need your help, your little part in
bringing happiness to all the world. And Heaven looks to you in
confidence that you will try today. Share, then, its surety, for it is
yours. Be vigilant. Do not forget today.
Throughout the day do not forget your goal. Repeat today’s
idea as frequently as possible, and understand each time you do so,
someone hears the voice of hope, the stirring of the truth within his
mind, the gentle rustling of the winds of peace. Your own
acknowledgment you are One Self, united with your Father, is a call
to all the world, to be at one with you.To everyone you meet today
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be sure to give the promise of today’s idea and tell him this:
“You are One Self with me,
united with our Creator in this Self.
I honor you because of what I am,
And what He is,Who loves us both as one.”
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armies massed against itself and hiding in the body’s frail support. Now
must it reconcile unlike with like, for this is what it thinks that it is for.
Waste no more time on this. Who can resolve the senseless
conflicts which a dream presents? What could the resolution mean in
truth? What purpose could it serve? What is it for? Salvation cannot
make illusions real, and solve a problem that does not exist. Perhaps
you hope it can.Yet would you have God’s plan for the release of His
dear Son bring pain to him, and fail to set him free?
Your Self retains Its thoughts, and they remain within your
mind and in the Mind of God. The Holy Spirit holds salvation in
your mind, and offers it the way to peace. Salvation is a thought you
share with God, because His Voice accepted it for you and answered
in your name that it was done. Thus is salvation kept among the
Thoughts your Self holds dear and cherishes for you.
We will attempt today to find this Thought,Whose presence in
your mind is guaranteed by Him Who speaks to you from your One
Self. Our hourly five minute practicing will be a search for Him
within your mind. Salvation comes from this One Self through Him
Who is the bridge between your mind and It.
Wait patiently, and let Him speak to you about your Self, and
what your mind can do, restored to It and free to serve Its Will.
Begin by saying this:
“Salvation comes from my one Self. Its thoughts are mine to use.”
Then seek Its thoughts, and claim them as your own.
These are your own real thoughts you have denied, and let your
mind go wandering in a world of dreams, to find illusions in their
place. Here are your Thoughts, the only ones you have. Salvation is
among Them; find it there.
If you succeed, the Thoughts that come to you will tell you you
are saved, and that your mind has found the function that it sought to
lose. Your Self will welcome it, and give it peace. Restored in
strength, it will again flow out from Spirit to the Spirit in all things
created by the Spirit as Itself. Your mind will bless all things.
Confusion done, you are restored, for you have found your Self.
Your Self knows that you cannot fail today. Perhaps your mind
remains uncertain yet a little while. Be not dismayed by this.The joy
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your Self experiences It will save for you, and it will yet be yours in
full awareness. Every time you spend five minutes of the hour
seeking Him Who joins your mind and Self, you offer Him another
treasure to be kept for you.
Each time today you tell your frantic mind salvation comes from
your One Self, you lay another treasure in your growing store. And
all of it is given everyone who asks for it, and will accept the gift.
Think, then, how much is given unto you to give this day, that it be
given you!
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lesson 97
“I am Spirit.”
Today’s idea identifies you with your One Self. It accepts no split
identity, nor tries to weave opposing factors into unity. It simply
states the truth. Practice this truth today as often as you can, for it
will bring your mind from conflict to the quiet fields of peace. No
chill of fear can enter, for your mind has been absolved from
madness, letting go illusions of a split identity.
We state again the truth about your Self, the holy Son of God
Who rests in you whose mind has been restored to sanity.You are the
Spirit lovingly endowed with all your Father’s love and peace and
joy. You are the Spirit Which completes Himself, and shares His
Function as Creator. He is with you always, as you are with Him.
Today we try to bring reality still closer to your mind. Each time
you practice, awareness is brought a little nearer at least; sometimes a
thousand years or more are saved. The minutes which you give are
multiplied over and over, for the miracle makes use of time but is not
ruled by it. Salvation is a miracle, the first and last; the first that is the
last, for it is one.
You are the Spirit in Whose Mind abides the miracle in which
all time stands still; the miracle in which a minute spent in using
these ideas becomes a time which has no length and which has no
end. Give, then, these minutes willingly, and count on Him Who
promised to lay timelessness beside them. He will offer all His
strength to every little effort which you make.
Give Him the minutes which He needs today to help you
understand with Him you are the Spirit that abides in Him, and
Which calls through His Voice to every living thing; offers His sight
to everyone who asks; replaces error with the simple truth.
The Holy Spirit will be glad to take five minutes of each hour
from your hands, and carry them around this aching world where
pain and misery appear to rule. He will not overlook one open mind
that will accept the healing gift they bring, and He will lay them
everywhere He knows they will be welcome. And they will increase
in healing power each time someone accepts them as his thoughts,
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at the least.
Here is an offer guaranteeing you your full release from pain of
every kind, and joy the world does not contain.You can exchange a
little of your time for peace of mind and certainty of purpose, with
the promise of complete success.And since time has no meaning, you
are being asked for nothing in return for everything. Here is a
bargain that you cannot lose.And what you gain is limitless indeed!
Each hour today give Him your tiny gift of but five minutes. He
will give the words you use in practicing today’s idea the deep
conviction and the certainty you lack. His words will join with
yours, and make each repetition of today’s idea a total dedication,
made in faith as perfect and as sure as His in you.
His confidence in you will bring the light to all the words you
say, and you will go beyond their sound to what they really mean.
Today you practice with Him, as you say:
“I will accept my part in God’s plan for salvation.”
In each five minutes that you spend with Him, He will accept your
words and give them back to you all bright with faith and
confidence so strong and steady they will light the world with hope
and gladness. Do not lose one chance to be the glad receiver of His
gifts, that you may give them to the world today.
Give Him the words, and He will do the rest. He will enable
you to understand your special function. He will open up the way to
happiness, and peace and trust will be His gifts, His answer to your
words. He will respond with all His faith and joy and certainty that
what you say is true.And you will have conviction then of Him Who
knows the function that you have on earth as well as Heaven. He will
be with you each practice period you share with Him, exchanging
every instant of the time you offer Him for timelessness and peace.
Throughout the hour, let your time be spent in happy
preparation for the next five minutes you will spend again with Him.
Repeat today’s idea while you wait for the glad time to come to you
again. Repeat it often, and do not forget each time you do so, you
have let your mind be readied for the happy time to come.
And when the hour is gone, and He is there once more to spend
a little time with you be thankful, and lay down all earthly tasks, all
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little thoughts and limited ideas, and spend a happy time again with
Him.Tell Him once more that you accept the part which He would
have you take, and help you fill, and He will make you sure you want
this choice, which He has made with you and you with Him.
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Joy is just, and pain is but the sign you have misunderstood yourself.
Fear not the Will of God. But turn to It in confidence that It
will set you free from all the consequences sin has wrought in
feverish imagination. Say:
“God’s Will for me is perfect happiness.
There is no sin; it has no consequence.”
So should you start your practice periods, and then attempt again to
find the joy these thoughts will introduce into your mind. Give these
five minutes gladly, to remove the heavy load you laid upon yourself
with the insane belief that sin is real.
Today escape from madness.You are set on freedom’s road, and
now today’s idea brings wings to speed you on, and hope to go still
faster to the waiting goal of peace. There is no sin. Remember this
today, and tell yourself as often as you can:
“God’s Will for me is perfect happiness.
This is the truth because there is no sin.”
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the times we come to seek for them where He has laid them. This
reminder will we bring to mind as often as we can:
“I seek but what belongs to me in truth.
God’s gifts of joy and peace are all I want.”
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you will learn your function from the One Who chose it in your
Father’s Name for you.
Listen today and you will hear a Voice Which will resound
throughout the world through you. The Bringer of all miracles has
need that you receive them first, and thus become the joyous giver of
what you received. Thus does salvation start and thus it ends; when
everything is yours, and everything is given away, it will remain with
you forever.And the lesson has been learned.
Today we practice giving, not the way you understand it now,
but as it is. The longer exercises should begin with this request for
your enlightenment:
“I will be still and listen to the truth.
What does it mean to give and to receive?”
Ask and expect an answer.Your request is one whose answer has been
waiting long to be received by you. It will begin the ministry for
which you came, and which will free the world from thinking giving
is a way to lose. And so the world becomes ready to understand and
to receive.
Be still and listen to the truth today. For each five minutes spent
in listening a thousand minds are opened to the truth. And they will
hear the holy Word you hear. And when the hour is past, you will
again release a thousand more who pause to ask that truth be given
them along with you.
Today the holy Word of God is kept through your receiving it to
give away, so you can teach the world what giving means by listening
and learning it of Him. Do not forget today to reinforce your choice
to hear and to receive the Word by your reminder, given to yourself
as often as is possible today:
“Let me be still and listen to the truth.
I am the messenger of God today,
My voice is His, to give what I receive.”
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beyond it, steadily and sure. Here is the gift of healing, for the truth
needs no defense, and therefore no attack is possible. Illusions can be
brought to truth to be corrected. But the truth stands far beyond
illusions, and can not be brought to them to turn them into truth.
Truth does not come and go nor shift nor change, in this
appearance now and then in that, evading capture and escaping grasp.
It does not hide. It stands in open light, in obvious accessibility. It is
impossible that anyone could seek it truly and would not succeed.
Today belongs to truth. Give truth its due, and it will give you
yours. You were not meant to suffer and to die. Your Father wills
these dreams be gone. Let truth correct them all.We do not ask for
what we do not have.We merely ask for what belongs to us, that we
recognize it as our own.
Today we practice on the happy note of certainty that has been
born of truth.The shaky and unsteady footsteps of illusion is not our
approach today.We are as certain of success as we are sure we live and
hope and breathe and think. We do not doubt we walk with truth
today, and count on it to enter into all the exercises that we do this day.
Begin by asking Him Who goes with you upon this
undertaking that He be in your awareness as you go with Him.You
are not made of flesh and blood and bone, but were created by the
self-same Thought which gave the gift of light to Him as well. He is
your Brother, and so like to you your Father knows that you are both
the same. It is your Self you ask to go with you, and how could He
be absent where you are?
Truth will correct all errors in your mind which tell you you
could be apart from Him.You speak to Him today, and make your
pledge to let His function be fulfilled through you. To share His
function is to share His joy. His confidence is with you, as you say:
“Truth will correct all errors in my mind,
And I will rest in Him Who is my Self.”
Then let Him lead you gently to the truth which will envelop you
and give you peace so deep and tranquil that you will return to the
familiar world reluctantly.
And yet you will be glad to look again upon this world. For you
will bring with you the promise of the changes which the truth that
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goes with you will carry to the world.They will increase with every
gift you give of five small minutes, and the errors that surround the
world will be corrected as you let them be corrected in your mind.
Do not forget your function for today. Each time you tell
yourself with confidence,“Truth will correct all errors in my mind,”
you speak for all the world, and Him Who would release the world as
He would set you free.
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“I rest in God.”
We ask for rest today, and quietness unshaken by the world’s
appearances. We ask for peace and stillness in the midst of all the
turmoil born of clashing dreams.We ask for safety and for happiness,
although we seem to look on danger and on sorrow. And we have
the thought that will answer our asking with what we request.
“I rest in God.” This thought will bring to you the rest and
quiet, peace and stillness, and the safety and the happiness you seek.
“I rest in God.”This thought has power to wake the sleeping truth in
you, whose vision sees beyond appearances to that same truth in
everyone and everything there is. Here is the end of suffering for all
the world, and everyone who ever came and yet will come to linger
for a while. Here is the thought in which the Son of God is born
again, to recognize himself.
“I rest in God.” Completely undismayed this thought will carry
you through storms and strife, past misery and pain, past loss and death,
and onward to the certainty of God. There is no suffering it cannot
heal. There is no problem which it cannot solve. And no appearance
but will turn to truth before the eyes of you who rest in God.
This is the day of peace.You rest in God, and while the world is
torn by winds of hate, your rest remains completely undisturbed.
Yours is the rest of truth. Appearances cannot intrude on you.You
call to all to join you in your rest, and they will hear and come to you
because you rest in God.They will not hear another voice but yours,
because you gave your voice to God and now you rest in Him, and
let Him speak through you.
In Him you have no cares and no concerns, no burdens, no
anxiety, no pain, no fear of future and no past regrets. In timelessness
you rest, while time goes by without its touch upon you, for your
rest can never change in any way at all.
You rest today.And as you close your eyes, sink into stillness. Let
these periods of rest and respite reassure your mind that all its frantic
fantasies were but the dreams of fever that has passed away. Let it be
still and thankfully accept its healing. No more fearful dreams will
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come now that you rest in God. Take time today to slip away from
dreams and into peace.
Each hour that you take your rest today a tired mind is suddenly
made glad, a bird with broken wings begins to sing, a stream long dry
begins to flow again.The world is born again each time you rest, and
hourly remember that you came to bring the peace of God into the
world, that it might take its rest along with you.
With each five minutes that you rest today the world is nearer
waking. And the time when rest will be the only thing there is
comes closer to all worn and tired minds, too weary now to go their
way alone. And they will hear the bird begin to sing, and see the
stream begin to flow again, with hope reborn and energy restored to
walk with lightened steps along the road that suddenly seems easy as
they go.
You rest within the peace of God today, and call upon your
brothers from your rest, to draw them to their rest along with you.
You will be faithful to your trust today, forgetting no-one, bringing
everyone into the boundless circle of your peace, the holy sanctuary
where you rest.
Open the temple doors and let them come from far across the
world, and near as well; your distant brothers and your closest friends;
bid them all enter here and rest with you.You rest within the peace
of God today, quiet and unafraid. Each brother comes to take his rest,
and offer it to you.
We rest together here, for thus our rest is made complete, and
what we give today we have received already. Time is not the
guardian of what we give today.We give to those unborn and those
passed by, to every Thought of God, and to the Mind in Which these
Thoughts were born and where they rest. And we remind them of
their resting place each time we tell ourselves;
“I rest in God.”
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your mind this Self Who is the holy Son of God Himself. Seek Him
within you Who is Christ in you, the Son of God and Brother to the
world; the Savior Who has been forever saved, with power to save
whoever touches Him however lightly, asking for the Word that tells
him he is brother unto Him.
You are as God created you.Today honor your Self. Let graven
images you made to be the Son of God instead of what he is be
worshipped not today. Deep in your mind the holy Christ in you is
waiting your acknowledgment as you. And you are lost and do not
know yourself while He is unacknowledged and unknown.
Seek Him today, and find Him. He will be your Savior from all
idols you have made. For when you find Him you will understand
how worthless are your idols, and how false the images which you
believed were you.Today we make a great advance to truth by letting
idols go, and opening our hands and hearts and minds to God today.
We will remember Him throughout the day with thankful
hearts, and loving thoughts for all who meet with us today, for it is
thus that we remember Him. And we will say, that we may be
reminded of His Son, our holy Self, the Christ in each of us:
“I am as God created me.”
Let us declare this truth as often as we can.
This is the Word of God that sets you free. This is the key that
opens up the gate of Heaven, and which lets you enter in the peace
of God and His eternity.
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review iii
Our third review begins today.We will review two of the last twenty
ideas each day until we have reviewed them all.We will observe the
special format for these practice periods, which you are urged to
follow as closely as you can.We understand, of course, that it may be
impossible for you to undertake what is suggested here as optimal
each day and every hour of the day.
Learning will not be hampered when you miss a practice period
because it is impossible at the appointed time. Nor is it necessary that
you make excessive efforts to be sure that you catch up in terms of
numbers. Rituals are not our aim, and would defeat our learning goal.
But learning will be hampered when you skip a practice period
because you are unwilling to devote the time to it which you are
asked to give. Do not deceive yourself in this. Unwillingness can be
most carefully concealed behind a cloak of situations you can not
control. Learn to distinguish situations which are poorly suited to
your practicing from those which you establish to uphold a
camouflage for your unwillingness.
Those practice periods which you have lost because you did not
want to do them for whatever reason should be done as soon as you
have changed your mind about your goal. You are unwilling to
cooperate in practicing salvation only if it interferes with goals you
hold more dear. When you withdraw the value given them, allow
your practice periods to be replacements for your litanies to them.
They gave you nothing. But your practice periods offer you
everything.Accept their offering and be at peace.
The format you should use for these reviews is this: Devote five
minutes twice a day, or longer if you would prefer, to contemplating
the ideas assigned. Read over the ideas and comments which are
written first in each day’s exercises.Then begin to think about them
quietly, letting your mind relate them to your needs, your seeming
problems and all your concerns.
Place the ideas within your mind, and let it use them as it
chooses. Give it faith that it will use them wisely, being helped in its
decisions by the One Who gave the thoughts to you.What can you
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trust but what is in your mind? Have faith, in these reviews, the
means the Holy Spirit uses will not fail. The wisdom of your mind
will come to your assistance. Give it direction at the start, then lean
back in quiet faith, and let it use the ideas you have given it as they
were given you.
You have been given them in perfect trust; in perfect confidence
that you would use them well; in perfect faith that you would
understand their messages, and use them for yourself. Offer them to
your mind in that same trust and confidence and faith. It will not fail.
It is the Holy Spirit’s chosen means for your salvation. And with His
trust merits yours as well.
We emphasize the benefits to you if you devote the first five
minutes of the day to your review and also give the last five minutes
of your waking day to it. If this cannot be done, at least try to divide
them so you undertake one in the morning, and the other in the
hour just before you go to sleep.
The exercises to be done throughout the day are equally
important, and perhaps of even greater value.You have been inclined
to do the exercises and then go on to other things, without applying
what you learned to them. As a result, your learning has had little
reinforcement, and you have not given it the opportunity to prove its
worth to you.
Here is another chance to use it well. In these reviews we stress
the need to let your learning not lie idly by between your longer
practice periods. Attempt to give your daily two ideas a brief but
serious review each hour. Use one on the hour, and the other one a
half an hour later. You need not give more than just a moment to
each one.
Repeat it, and allow your mind to rest a little time in silence and
in peace.Then turn to other things, but try to keep the thought with
you, and let it serve to help you keep your peace throughout the day.
If you are shaken, think of it again.These practice periods are planned
to help you form the habit of applying what you learn each day to
everything you do.
Do not repeat it and then lay it down. Its usefulness is limitless to
you.And it is meant to serve you in all ways, all times and places, and
whenever you need help of any kind.Try, then, to take it with you in
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the business of the day, and make it holy, worthy of God’s Son,
acceptable to God and to your Self.
Each day’s review assignment will conclude with a restatement
of the thought to use each hour, and the one to be applied on each
half hour as well. Forget them not.This second chance with each of
these ideas will bring such large advances that we come from these
reviews with learning gains so great that we begin again on solid
ground.
Do not forget how little you have learned. Do not forget how
much you can learn now. Do not forget your Father’s need of you, as
you review these thoughts He gave to you.
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who represents the other Self in you.Through Him you learn how to
forgive the self you think you made, and let it disappear. Thus you
return your mind as one to Him who is your Self, and who can
never sin.
Each unforgiving mind presents you with an opportunity to
teach your own how to forgive itself. Each one awaits release from
hell through you, and turns to you imploringly for Heaven here and
now. It has no hope, but you become its hope. And as its hope, do
you become your own. The unforgiving mind must learn through
your forgiveness that it has been saved from hell. And as you teach
salvation, you will learn.
Yet all your teaching and your learning will be not of you, but
of the Teacher Who was given you to show the way to you.Today we
practice learning to forgive. If you are willing, you can learn today to
take the key to happiness, and use it on your own behalf. We will
devote ten minutes in the morning, and at night another ten, to
learning how to give forgiveness and receive forgiveness too.
The unforgiving mind does not believe that giving and
receiving are the same.Yet we will try to learn today that they are
one through practicing forgiving toward one whom you think of as
an enemy and one whom you consider as a friend. And as you learn
to see them both as one, we will extend the lesson to ourselves, and
see that their escape included ours.
Begin the longer practice periods by thinking of someone you
do not like, who seems to irritate you, or to cause regret in you if you
should meet him; one you actively despise, or merely try to overlook.
It does not matter what the form your anger takes.You probably have
chosen him already. He will do.
Now close your eyes and see him in your mind, and look at him
a while.Try to perceive some light in him somewhere; a little gleam
which you had never noticed. Try to find some little spark of
brightness shining through the ugly picture which you hold of him.
Look at this picture until you see a light somewhere within it, and
then try to let this light extend until it covers him, and makes the
picture beautiful and good.
Look at this changed perception for a while, and turn your
mind to one you call a friend.Try to transfer the light you learned to
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see around your former “enemy” to him. Perceive him now as more
than friend to you, for in that light his holiness shows you your
savior, saved and saving, healed and whole.Then let him offer you the
light you see in him, and let your “enemy” and Friend unite in
blessing you with what you gave. Now are you one with them, and
they with you. Now have you been forgiven by yourself.
Do not forget, throughout the day, the role forgiveness plays in
bringing happiness to every unforgiving mind, with yours among
them. Every hour tell yourself:
“Forgiveness is the key to happiness.
I will awaken from the dream that I
Am mortal, fallible, and full of sin,
And know I am the perfect Son of God.”
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receive.There is no plan but this for the salvation of the Son of God.
Let us today rejoice that this is so, for here we have an answer, clear
and plain, beyond deceit in its simplicity. All the complexities the
world has spun of fragile cobwebs disappear before the power and
the majesty of this extremely simple statement of the truth.
Here is the answer! Do not turn away in aimless wandering
again. Accept salvation now. It is the gift of God and not the world.
The world can give no gifts of any value to a mind which has
received what God has given as its own. God wills salvation be
received today, and that the intricacies of your dreams no longer hide
their nothingness from you.
Open your eyes today, and look upon a happy world of safety
and of peace. Forgiveness is the means by which it comes to take the
place of hell. In quietness it rises up to greet your open eyes, and fill
your heart with deep tranquility as ancient truths, forever newly
born, arise in your awareness. What you will remember then can
never be described.Yet your forgiveness offers it to you.
Remembering the gifts forgiveness gives, we undertake our
practicing today with hope and faith that this will be the day
salvation will be ours. Earnestly and gladly will we seek for it today,
aware we hold the key within our hands, accepting Heaven’s answer
to the hell we made, but where we would remain no more.
Morning and evening do we gladly give a quarter of an hour to
the search in which the end of hell is guaranteed. Begin in
hopefulness, for we have reached the turning point at which the road
becomes far easier. And now the way is short that yet we travel. We
are close indeed to the appointed ending of the dream.
Sink into happiness as you begin these practice periods, for they
hold out the sure rewards of questions answered, and what your
acceptance of the answer brings.Today it will be given you to feel the
peace forgiveness offers, and the joy the lifting of the veil holds out
to you.
Before the light you will receive today the world will fade until it
disappears, and you will see another world arise you have no words to
picture. Now we walk directly into light, and we receive the gifts
which have been held in store for us since time began, kept waiting for
today. Forgiveness offers everything you want. Today all things you
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For He would offer you the thanks you give, since He receives your
gifts in loving gratitude, and gives them back a thousand and a
hundred thousand more than they were given. He will bless your
gifts by sharing them with you, and so they grow in power and in
strength, until they fill the world with gladness and with gratitude.
Receive His thanks and offer yours to Him for fifteen minutes
twice today. And you will realize to Whom you offer thanks, and
Whom He thanks as you are thanking Him. This holy half an hour
given Him will be returned to you in terms of years for every
second; power to save the world eons more quickly for your thanks
to Him.
Receive His thanks, and you will understand how lovingly He
holds you in His Mind, how deep and limitless His care for you, how
perfect is His gratitude to you. Remember hourly to think of Him,
and give Him thanks for everything you gave His Son, that he might
rise above the world remembering his Father and his Self.
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thoughts are timeless, and apart from distance as apart from time.
We join in this awareness as we say that we are one with God.
For in these words we say as well that we are saved and healed; that we
can save and heal accordingly.We have accepted and we now would
give, for we would keep the gifts our Father gave. Today we would
experience ourselves at one with Him, so that the world may share
our recognition of reality. In our experience the world is freed; as we
deny our separation from our Father, it is healed along with us.
Peace be to you today. Secure your peace by practicing
awareness you are one with your Creator, as He is with you.
Sometime today, whenever it seems best, devote a half an hour to the
thought that you are one with God. This is our first attempt at an
extended period for which we give no rules nor special words to
guide your meditations.We will trust God’s Voice to speak as He sees
fit today, certain He will not fail. Abide with Him this half an hour.
He will do the rest.
Your benefit will not be less if you believe that nothing
happens. You may not be ready to accept the gain today. Yet
sometime, somewhere, it will come to you, nor will you fail to
recognize it when it dawns with certainty upon your mind.This half
an hour will be framed in gold, with every minute like a diamond set
around the mirror that this exercise will offer you. And you will see
Christ’s Face upon it, in reflection of your own.
Perhaps today, perhaps tomorrow, you will see your own
transfiguration in the glass this holy half an hour will hold out to
you, to look upon yourself. When you are ready you will find it
there, within your mind and waiting to be found.You will remember
then the thought to which you gave this half an hour, thankfully
aware no time was ever better spent.
Perhaps today, perhaps tomorrow, you will look into this glass, and
understand the sinless light you see belongs to you; the loveliness you
look on is your own. Count this half hour as your gift to God, in
certainty that His return will be a sense of love you cannot understand,
a joy too deep for you to comprehend, a sight too holy for the body’s
eyes to see and yet you can be sure someday, perhaps today, perhaps
tomorrow, you will understand and comprehend and see.
Add further jewels to the golden frame that holds the mirror
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is peace within you to be called upon today to help make ready your
most holy mind to hear the Voice of its Creator speak.
Three times today, at times most suitable for silence, give ten
minutes set apart from listening to the world, and choose instead a
gentle listening to the Word of God. He speaks from nearer than your
heart to you. His Voice is closer than your hand. His Love is everything
you are and that He is; the same as you, and you the same as He.
It is your voice to which you listen as He speaks to you. It is
your Word He speaks. It is the Word of freedom and of peace, of
unity of will and purpose, with no separation nor division in the
single Mind of Father and of Son. In quiet listen to your Self today,
and let Him tell you God has never left His Son, and you have never
left your Self.
Only be quiet. You will need no rule but this to let your
practicing today lift you above the thinking of the world, and free
your vision from the body’s eyes. Only be still and listen. You will
hear the Word in which the Will of God the Son joins in His Father’s
Will, at one with It, with no illusions interposed between the wholly
indivisible and true.
As every hour passes by today be still a moment, and remind
yourself you have a special purpose for this day; – in quiet to receive
the Word of God.
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to depend on this? Would not His care for you be small indeed if
your salvation rested on a whim?
You do not understand forgiveness. As you see it, it is but a
check upon overt attack, without requiring correction in your mind.
It cannot give you peace as you perceive it. It is not a means for your
release from what you see in someone other than yourself. It has no
power to restore your unity with him to your awareness. It is not
what God intended it to be for you.
Not having given Him the gift He asks of you, you cannot
recognize His gifts, and think He has not given them to you. Yet
would He ask you for a gift unless it was for you? Could He be
satisfied with empty gestures, and evaluate such petty gifts as worthy
of His Son? Salvation is a better gift than this, and true forgiveness, as
the means by which it is attained, must heal the mind that gives, for
giving is receiving.What remains as unreceived has not been given,
but what has been given must have been received.
Today we try to understand the truth that giver and receiver are
the same.You will need help to make this meaningful because it is so
alien to the thoughts to which you are accustomed. But the Help
you need is there. Give Him your faith today and ask Him that He
share your practicing in truth today. And if you only catch a tiny
glimpse of the release which lies in the idea we practice for today, this
is a day of glory for the world.
Give fifteen minutes twice today to the attempt to understand
today’s idea. It is the thought by which forgiveness takes its proper
place in your priorities. It is the thought that will release your mind
from every bar to what forgiveness means, and let you realize its
worth to you.
In silence close your eyes upon the world which does not
understand forgiveness, and seek sanctuary in the quiet place where
thoughts are changed and false beliefs laid by. Repeat today’s idea,
and ask for help in understanding what it really means. Be willing to
be taught. Be glad to hear the Voice of truth and healing speak to
you, and you will understand the words He speaks, and recognize He
speaks your words to you.
As often as you can, remind yourself you have a goal today; an aim
which makes this day of special value to yourself and all your brothers.
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Do not let your mind forget this goal for long, but tell yourself:
“All that I give is given to myself.
The Help I need to learn that this is true
Is with me now.And I will trust in Him.”
Then spend a quiet moment, opening your mind to His correction
and His Love. And what you hear of Him you will believe, for what
He gives will be received by you.
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and in death.Yet it is perfectly apparent to the eyes that see and ears
that hear its Voice.
Today we practice making free our mind of all the laws you
think you must obey; of all the limits under which you live, and all
the changes which you think are part of human destiny. Today we
take the largest single step this course requests in your advance
toward its established goal. If you achieve the faintest glimmering of
what love means today, you have advanced in distance without
measure and in time beyond the count of years to your release.
Let us together, then, be glad to give some time to God today,
and understand there is no better use for time than this. For fifteen
minutes twice today escape from every law in which you now
believe. Open your mind and rest.The world that seems to hold you
prisoner can be escaped by anyone who does not hold it dear.
Withdraw all value you have placed upon its meager offerings and
senseless gifts, and let the Gift of God replace them all.
Call to your Father, certain that His Voice will answer. He
Himself has promised this.And He Himself will place a spark of truth
within your mind wherever you give up a false belief, a dark illusion
of your own reality and what love means. He will shine through your
idle thoughts today, and help you understand the truth of love. In
loving gentleness He will abide with you as you allow His Voice to
teach love’s meaning to your clean and open mind.And He will bless
the lesson with His Love.
Today the legion of the future years of waiting for salvation
disappears before the timelessness of what you learn. Let us give
thanks today that we are spared a future like the past.Today we leave
the past behind us, never more to be remembered. And we raise our
eyes upon a different present, where a future shines unlike the past in
every attribute.
The world in infancy is newly born.And we will watch it grow
in strength and health to shed its blessing upon all who come to
learn to cast aside the world they thought was made in hate to be
love’s enemy. Now are they all made free along with us. Now are
they all our brothers in God’s Love.
We will remember them throughout the day because we cannot
leave a part of us outside our love if we would know our Self.At least
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three times an hour think of one who makes the journey with you,
and who came to learn what you must learn. And as he comes to
mind, give him this message from your Self:
“I bless you, brother, with the Love of God
Which I would share with you. For I would learn
The joyous lesson that there is no love
But God’s and yours and mine and everyone’s.”
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while. It knows where it belongs. But free its wings, and it will fly in
sureness and in joy to join its holy purpose. Let it rest in its Creator,
there to be restored to sanity, to freedom and to love.
Give it ten minutes rest three times today. And when your eyes
are opened afterwards, you will not value anything you see as much
as when you looked at it before.Your whole perspective on the world
will shift by just a little every time you let your mind escape its
chains.The world is not where it belongs. And you belong where it
would be, and where it goes to rest when you release it from the
world.Your Guide is sure. Open your mind to Him. Be still and rest.
Protect your mind throughout the day as well. And when you
think you see some value in an aspect or an image of the world, refuse
to lay this chain upon your mind, and tell yourself with quiet certainty:
“This will not tempt me to delay myself.
The world I see has nothing that I want.”
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you see it. It is all a piece because it stems from one emotion, and
reflects its source in everything you see.
Six times today, in thanks and gratitude, we gladly give five
minutes to the thought which ends all compromise and doubt, and
go beyond them all as one.We will not make a thousand meaningless
distinctions, nor attempt to bring with us a little part of unreality as
we devote our minds to finding only what is real.
Begin your searching for the other world by asking for a strength
beyond your own, and recognize what it is you seek.You do not want
illusions.And you come to these five minutes emptying your hands of all
the petty treasures of this world.You wait for God to help you,as you say:
“It is impossible to see two worlds.
Let me accept the strength God offers me
And see no value in this world, that I
May find my freedom and deliverance.”
God will be there. For you have called upon the great unfailing
Power Who will take this giant step with you in gratitude. Nor will
you fail to see His thanks expressed in tangible perception and in truth.
You will not doubt what you will look upon.For though it is perception,
it is not the kind of seeing that your eyes alone have ever seen before.
And you will know God’s strength upheld as you made this choice.
Dismiss temptation easily today whenever it arises, merely by
remembering the limits on your choice. The unreal or the real, the
false or true is what you see, and only what you see. Perception is
consistent with your choice, and hell or Heaven come to you as one.
Accept a little part of hell as real, and you have damned your
eyes and cursed your sight, and what you will behold is hell indeed.
Yet the release of Heaven still remains within your range of choice,
to take the place of everything that hell would show to you. All you
need say to any part of hell, whatever form it takes, is simply this:
“It is impossible to see two worlds.
I seek my freedom and deliverance,
And this is not a part of what I want.”
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For several minutes watch your mind and see, although your eyes are
closed, the senseless world you think is real. Review the thoughts as
well which are compatible with such a world, and which you think
are true. Then let them go, and sink below them to the holy place
where they can enter not.There is a door beneath them in your mind
which you could not completely lock to hide what lies beyond.
Seek for that door and find it. But before you try to open it,
remind yourself no-one can fail who asks to reach the truth, and it is
this request you make today. Nothing but this has any meaning now;
no other goal is valued now nor sought; nothing before this door you
really want, and only what lies past it do you seek.
Put out your hand and see how easily the door swings open
with your one intent to go beyond it.Angels light the way, so that all
darkness vanishes and you are standing in a light so bright and clear
that you can understand all things you see. A tiny moment of
surprise, perhaps, will make you pause before you realize the world
you see before you in the light reflects the truth you knew, and did
not quite forget in wandering away in dreams.
You cannot fail today. There walks with you the Spirit Heaven
sent you that you might approach this door some day, and through
His aid slip effortlessly past it to the light.Today that day has come.
Today God keeps His ancient promise to His holy Son, as does His
Son remember his to Him.This is a day of gladness, for we come to
the appointed time and place where you will find the goal of all your
searching here and all the seeking of the world, which ends together
as you pass beyond the door.
Remember often that today should be a time of special
gladness, and refrain from dismal thoughts and meaningless laments.
Salvation’s time has come.Today is set by Heaven Itself to be a time
of grace for you and for the world. If you forget this happy fact,
remind yourself with this:
“Today I seek and find all that I want.
My single purpose offers it to me.
No-one can fail who asks to reach the truth.”
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that argues you have come into a world quite separate from yourself,
impervious to what you think, and quite apart from what you chance
to think it is.
There is no world! This is the central thought the course attempts
to teach. Not everyone is ready to accept it, and each one must go as
far as he can let himself be led along the road to truth. He will return
and go still farther, or perhaps step back a while and then return again.
But healing is the gift of those who are prepared to learn there is
no world, and can accept the lesson now.Their readiness will bring the
lesson to them in some form which they can understand and recognize.
Some see it suddenly on point of death, and rise to teach it. Others find
it in experience that is not of this world, which shows them that the
world does not exist because what they behold must be the truth, and
yet it clearly contradicts the world.And some will find it in this course,
and in the exercises that we do today.Today’s idea is true because the
world does not exist.And if it is indeed your own imagining, then you
can loose it from all things you ever thought it was by merely changing
all the thoughts that gave it these appearances. The sick are healed as
you let go all thoughts of sickness, and the dead arise when you let
thoughts of life replace all thoughts you ever held of death.
A lesson earlier repeated once must now be stressed again, for it
contains the firm foundation for today’s idea.You are as God created
you.There is no place where you can suffer, and no time that can bring
change to your eternal state. How can a world of time and place exist
if you remain as God created you?
What is the lesson for today except another way of saying that to
know your Self is the salvation of the world? To free the world from
every kind of pain is but to change your mind about yourself.There is
no world apart from your ideas because ideas leave not their source,
and you maintain the world within your mind in thought.
Yet if you are as God created you, you cannot think apart from
Him, nor make what does not share His timelessness and love. Are
these inherent in the world you see? Does it create like Him? Unless
it does, it is not real and cannot be at all. If you are real the world you
see is false, for God’s creation is unlike the world in every way.And as
it was His Thought by which you were created, so it is your thoughts
which made it and must set it free, that you may know the Thoughts
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never take away a value that is real. What fades and dies was never
there, and makes no offering to him who chooses it. He is deceived
by nothing in a form he thinks he likes.
Next, if you choose to take a thing away from someone else, you
will have nothing left. This is because when you deny his right to
everything, you have denied your own. You therefore will not
recognize the things you really have, denying they are there. Who
seeks to take away has been deceived by the illusion loss can offer
gain.Yet loss must offer loss and nothing more.
Your next consideration is the one on which the others rest.
Why is the choice you make of value to you? What attracts your
mind to it? What purpose does it serve? Here it is easiest of all to be
deceived, for what the ego wants it fails to recognize. It does not even
tell the truth as it perceives it, for it needs to keep the halo which it
uses to protect its goals from tarnish and from rust, that you may see
how innocent it is.
Yet is its camouflage a thin veneer which could deceive but
those who are content to be deceived. Its goals are obvious to anyone
who cares to look for them. Here is deception doubled, for the one
who is deceived will not perceive that he has merely failed to gain.
He will believe that he has served the ego’s hidden goals.And though
he tries to keep its halo clear within his vision, yet must he perceive
its tarnished edges and its rusted core.
His ineffectual mistakes appear as sins to him because he looks
upon the tarnished as his own; the rust a sign of deep unworthiness
within himself. He who would still preserve the ego’s goals and serve
them as his own makes no mistakes according to the dictates of his
guide. This guidance teaches it is error to believe that sins are but
mistakes, for who would suffer for his sins if this were so?
And so we come to the criterion for choice which is the hardest
to believe, because its obviousness is overlaid with many levels of
obscurity. If you feel any guilt about your choice, you have allowed
the ego’s goals to come between the real alternatives, and thus you do
not realize there are but two.And the alternative you think you chose
seems fearful and too dangerous to be the nothingness it actually is.
All things are valuable or valueless, worthy or not of being sought
at all, entirely desirable or not worth the slightest effort to obtain.
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kill the dragons which he thought pursued him. Nor need he erect
the heavy walls of stone and iron doors he thought would make him
safe. He can remove the ponderous and useless armor made to chain
his mind to fear and misery. His step is light, and as he lifts his foot to
stride ahead, a star is left behind to point the way to those who
follow him.
Forgiveness must be practiced for the world cannot perceive its
meaning, nor provide a guide to teach you its beneficence. There is
no thought in all the world which leads to any understanding of the
laws it follows, nor the Thought which it reflects. It is as alien to the
world as is your own reality. And yet it joins your mind with the
reality in you.
Today we practice true forgiveness that the time of joining be no
more delayed. For we would meet with our Reality in freedom and in
peace. Our practicing becomes the footsteps lightening up the way for
all our brothers, who will follow us to the Reality we share with them.
That this may be accomplished, let us give a quarter of an hour
twice today, and spend it with the Guide Who understands the meaning
of forgiveness, and was sent to us to teach it. Let us ask of Him:
“Let me perceive forgiveness as it is.”
Then choose one brother as He will direct, and catalogue his
“sins,” as one by one they cross your mind. Be certain not to dwell
on any one of them, but realize that you are using his “offenses” but
to save the world from all ideas of sin. Briefly consider all the evil
things you thought of him, and each time ask yourself “Would I
condemn myself for doing this?”
Let him be freed from all the thoughts you had of sin in him.
And now you are prepared for freedom. If you have been practicing
thus far in willingness and honesty, you will begin to sense a lifting
up, a lightening of weight across your chest, a deep and certain
feeling of relief.The time remaining should be given to experiencing
the escape from all the heavy chains you sought to lay upon your
brother, which were laid upon yourself.
Forgiveness should be practiced through the day, for there will
be so many times when you forget its meaning, and attack yourself.
When this occurs, allow your mind to see through this illusion as you
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tell yourself:
“Let me perceive forgiveness as it is.
Should I accuse myself of doing this?
I will not lay this chain upon myself.”
In everything you do remember this:
“No-one is crucified alone, and yet
No-one can enter Heaven by himself.”
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your defenses would attack, obscure, and take apart and crucify.
What could you not accept, if you but knew that everything
which happens, all events, past, present and to come, are gently
planned by One Whose only purpose is your good? Perhaps you
have misunderstood His plan, for He would never offer pain to you.
But your defenses did not let you see His loving blessing shine in
every step you ever took. While you made plans for death, He led
you gently to Eternal life.
Your present trust in Him is the defense which promises a
future undisturbed, without a trace of sorrow, and with joy which
constantly increases as this life becomes a holy instant, set in time, but
heeding only immortality. Let no defenses but your present trust
direct the future, and this life becomes a meaningful encounter with
the truth that only your defenses would conceal.
Without defenses, you become a light which Heaven gratefully
acknowledges to be its own. And it will lead you on in ways
appointed for your happiness according to the ancient plan, begun
when time was born.Your followers will join their light with yours,
and it will be increased until the world is lighted up with joy. And
gladly will our brothers lay aside their cumbersome defenses which
availed them nothing, and could only terrify.
We will anticipate that time today with present confidence, for
this is part of what was planned for us. We will be sure that
everything we need is given us for our accomplishment of this today.
We make no plans for how it will be done, but realize that our
defenselessness is all that is required for the truth to dawn upon our
minds with certainty.
For fifteen minutes twice today we rest from senseless planning,
and from every thought which blocks the truth from entering our
minds.Today we will receive instead of plan, that we may give instead
of organize.And we are given truly, as we say:
“If I defend myself I am attacked.
But in defenselessness I will be strong,
And I will learn what my defenses hide.”
Nothing but that. If there are plans to make, you will be told of
them. They may not be the plans you thought were needed, nor
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They aim at doing this, and this they seem to do. Every defense takes
fragments of the whole, assembles them without regard to all their
true relationships, and thus constructs illusions of a whole which is
not there. It is this process which imposes threat, and not whatever
outcome may result.
When parts are wrested from the whole and seen as separate and
wholes within themselves, they become symbols standing for attack
upon the whole, successful in effect, and never to be seen as whole
again. And yet you have forgotten that they stand but for your own
decision of what should be real, to take the place of what is real.
Sickness is a decision. It is not a thing that happens to you quite
unsought, which makes you weak and brings you suffering. It is a
choice you make, a plan you lay when for an instant truth arises in
your own deluded mind, and all your world appears to totter and
prepare to fall. Now are you sick that truth may go away, and
threaten your establishments no more.
How do you think that sickness can succeed in shielding you
from truth? Because it proves the body is not separate from you, and
so you must be separate from the truth.You suffer pain because the
body does, and in this pain are you made one with it. Thus is your
“true” identity preserved, and the strange, haunting thought that you
might be something beyond this little pile of dust silenced and stilled.
For see, this dust can make you suffer, twist your limbs and stop your
heart, commanding you to die and cease to be.
Thus is the body stronger than the truth, which asks you live
but cannot overcome your choice to die. And so the body is more
powerful than Everlasting Life, Heaven more frail than hell, and
God’s design for the salvation of His Son opposed by a decision
stronger than His Will. His Son is dust, the Father incomplete, and
chaos sits in triumph on His throne.
Such is your planning for your own defense. And you believe
that Heaven quails before such mad attacks as these, with God made
blind by your illusions, truth turned into lies, and all the universe
made slave to laws which your defenses would impose on it.Yet who
believes illusions but the one who made them up? Who else can see
them and react to them as if they were the truth?
God knows not of your plans to change His Will.The universe
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the world is real. The body seems to be more solid and more stable
than the mind. And love becomes a dream, while fear remains the
one reality that can be seen and justified and fully understood.
Just as forgiveness shines away all sin, and the real world will
occupy the place of what you made, so healing must replace the
fantasies of sickness which you hold before the simple truth. When
sickness has been seen to disappear inspite of all the laws that hold it
cannot but be real, then questions have been answered. And the laws
can be no longer cherished nor obeyed.
Healing is freedom. For it demonstrates that dreams will not
prevail against the truth. Healing is shared. And by this attribute it
proves that laws unlike the ones which hold that sickness is inevitable
are more potent than their sickly opposites. Healing is strength. For by
its gentle hand is weakness overcome. And minds which were walled
off within a body free to join with other minds, to be forever strong.
Healing, forgiveness, and the glad exchange of all the world of
sorrow for a world where sadness cannot enter, are the means by
which the Holy Spirit urges you to follow Him. His gentle lessons
teach how easily salvation can be yours; how little practice you need
undertake to let His laws replace the ones you made to hold yourself
a prisoner to death.
His life becomes your own as you extend the little help He asks
in freeing you from everything that ever caused you pain.And as you
let yourself be healed, you see all those around you or who cross your
mind or whom you touch, or those who seem to have no contact
with you, healed along with you. Perhaps you will not recognize
them all, nor realize how great your offering to all the world when
you let healing come to you. But you are never healed alone. And
legions upon legions will receive the gift which you receive when
you are healed.
Those who are healed become the instruments of healing. Nor
does time elapse between the instant they are healed and all the grace
of healing it is given them to give.What is opposed to God does not
exist. And who accepts it not within his mind becomes a haven
where the weary can remain to rest. For here is truth bestowed, and
here are all illusions brought to truth.
Would you not offer shelter to God’s Will? You but invite your
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minutes making sure that we have made the one decision that is sane.
We recognize we make a conscious choice between what has
existence and what has nothing but an appearance of the truth. Its
pseudo-being brought to what is real, is flimsy and transparent in the
light. It holds no terror now, for what was made enormous, vengeful,
pitiless with hate, demands obscurity for fear to be invested there.
Now it is recognized as but a foolish, trivial mistake.
Before we close our eyes in sleep tonight we reaffirm the choice
that we have made each hour inbetween. And now we give the last
five minutes of our waking day to the decision with which we
awoke. As every hour passed, we have declared our choice again in a
brief quiet time devoted to maintaining sanity. And finally we close
the day with this, acknowledging we chose but what we want:
“Heaven is the decision I must make.
I make it now and will not change my mind,
Because it is the only thing I want.”
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faithful they have really been to us, and how our Father’s Love
contains them all.
In thanks for all creation, in the Name of its Creator and His
Oneness with all aspects of creation, we repeat our dedication to our
cause today each hour, as we lay aside all thoughts that would distract
us from our holy aim. For several minutes let your mind be cleared of
all the foolish cobwebs which the world would weave around the holy
Son of God. And learn the fragile nature of the chains that seem to
keep the knowledge of yourself apart from your awareness, as you say:
“I will accept Atonement for myself,
For I remain as God created me.”
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review iv
Now a review again, this time aware we are preparing for the second
part of learning how the truth can be applied.Today we will begin to
concentrate on readiness for what will follow next. Such is our aim
for this review and for the lessons following. Thus we review the
recent lessons and their central thoughts in such a way as will
facilitate the readiness which we would now achieve.
There is a central theme that unifies each step in the review we
undertake, which can be simply stated in these words:
“My mind holds only what I think with God.”
This is a fact, and represents the truth of What you are and What your
Father is. It is this Thought by which the Father gave creation to the
Son, establishing the Son as co-creator with Himself. It is this
Thought which fully guarantees salvation to the Son. For in his mind
no thoughts can dwell but those his Father shares. Lack of forgiveness
blocks this Thought from his awareness.Yet It is forever true.
Let us begin our preparation with some understanding of the
many forms in which the lack of true forgiveness may be carefully
concealed. Because they are illusions, they are not perceived to be
but what they are; defenses which protect your unforgiving thoughts
from being seen and recognized. Their purpose is to show you
something else, and hold correction off through self-deceptions
made to take its place.
And yet your mind holds only what you think with God.Your
self-deceptions cannot take the place of truth. No more than can a
child who throws a stick into the ocean change the coming and the
going of the tides, the warming of the water by the sun, the silver of
the moon on it by night. So do we start each practice period in this
review with readying our minds to understand the lessons that we
read, and see the meaning which they offer us.
Begin each day with time devoted to the preparation of your
mind to learn what each idea you will review that day can offer you
in freedom and in peace. Open your mind and clear it of all thoughts
that would deceive, and let this Thought alone engage it fully and
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“My mind holds only what I think with God.”
[121] “Forgiveness is the key to happiness.”
[122] “Forgiveness offers everything I want.”
le sson 142
“My mind holds only what I think with God.”
[123] “I thank my Father for His gifts to me.”
[124] “Let me remember I am one with God.”
le sson 143
“My mind holds only what I think with God.”
[125] “In quiet I receive God’s Word today.”
[126] “All that I give is given to myself.”
le sson 144
“My mind holds only what I think with God.”
[127] “There is no love but God’s.”
[128] “The world I see has nothing that I want.”
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“My mind holds only what I think with God.”
[129] “Beyond this world there is a world I want.”
[130] “It is impossible to see two worlds.”
le sson 146
“My mind holds only what I think with God.”
[131] “No-one can fail who asks to reach the truth.”
[132] “I loose the world from all I thought it was.”
le sson 147
“My mind holds only what I think with God.”
[133] “Iwill not value what is valueless.”
[134] “Let me perceive forgiveness as it is.”
le sson 148
“My mind holds only what I think with God.”
[135] “If I defend myself I am attacked.”
[136] “Sickness is a defense against the truth.”
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“My mind holds only what I think with God.”
[137] “When I am healed I am not healed alone.”
[138] “Heaven is the decision I must make.”
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“My mind holds only what I think with God.”
[139] “I will accept Atonement for myself.”
[140] “Only salvation can be said to cure.”
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is your own are false, and speak with certainty of what they do not
know.Your faith in them is blind because you would not share the
doubts their lord can not completely vanquish.You believe to doubt
his vassals is to doubt yourself. Yet you must learn to doubt their
evidence will clear the way to recognize yourself, and let the Voice of
God alone be Judge of what is worthy of your own belief.
He will not tell you that your brother should be judged by what
your eyes behold in him, nor what his body’s mouth says to your
ears, nor what your fingers’ touch reports of him. He passes by such
idle witnesses, which merely bear false witness to God’s Son. He
recognizes only what God loves, and in the holy light of what He
sees do all the ego’s dreams of what you are vanish before the
splendor He beholds.
Let Him be Judge of what you are, for He has certainty in
which there is no doubt, because it rests on Certainty so great that
doubt is meaningless before Its face. Christ cannot doubt Himself.
The Voice of God can only honor Him, rejoicing in His perfect,
everlasting sinlessness.Whom He has judged can only laugh at guilt,
unwilling now to play with toys of sin; unheeding of the body’s
witnesses before the rapture of His holy face.
And thus He judges you. Accept His word of what you are, for
He bears witness to your beautiful creation, and the Mind Whose
Thought created your reality.What can the body mean to Him Who
knows the glory of the Father and the Son? What whispers of the
ego can He hear? What could convince Him that your sins are real?
Let Him be Judge as well of everything that seems to happen to
you in this world. His lessons will enable you to bridge the gap
between illusions and the truth. He will remove all faith that you have
placed in pain, disaster, suffering and loss. He gives you vision which
can look beyond these grim appearances, and can behold the gentle
Face of Christ in all of them.You will no longer doubt that only good
can come to you who are beloved of God, for He will judge all
happenings and teach the single lesson which they all contain.
He will select the elements in them which represent the truth,
and disregard those aspects which reflect but idle dreams. And He
will reinterpret all you see, and all occurrences, each circumstance,
and every happening which seems to touch on you in any way from
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His one frame of reference, wholly unified and sure.And you will see
the love beyond the hate, the constancy in change, the pure in sin,
and only Heaven’s blessing on the world.
Such is your resurrection, for your life is not a part of anything
you see. It stands beyond the body and the world, past every witness
for unholiness, within the Holy, holy as Itself. In everyone and
everything His Voice would speak to you of nothing but your Self
and your Creator, Who is One with Him. So will you see the holy
Face of Christ in everything, and hear in everything no sound except
the echo of God’s Voice.
We practice wordlessly today except at the beginning of the
time you spend with God. We introduce these times with but a
single, slow repeating of the thought with which the day begins.And
then we watch our thoughts, appealing silently to Him Who sees the
elements of truth in them. Let Him evaluate each thought that
comes to mind, remove the elements of dreams, and give them back
to you as clean ideas that do not contradict the Will of God.
Give Him your thoughts, and He will give them back as
miracles which joyously proclaim the wholeness and the happiness
God wills His Son as proof of His eternal Love.And as each thought
is thus transformed, it takes on healing power from the Mind Which
saw the truth in it, and failed to be deceived by what was falsely
added.All the threads of fantasy are gone, and what remains is unified
into a perfect Thought that offers Its perfection everywhere.
Spend fifteen minutes thus when you awake, and gladly give
another fifteen more before you go to sleep.Your ministry begins as all
your thoughts are purified. So are you taught to teach the Son of God
the holy lesson of his sanctity. No-one can fail to listen, when you hear
the Voice of God give honor to God’s Son.And everyone will share the
thoughts with you which He has retranslated in your mind.
Such is your Eastertide. And so you lay the gift of snow-white
lilies on the world, replacing witnesses to sin and death. Through
your transfiguration is the world redeemed and joyfully released from
guilt. Now do we lift our resurrected minds in gladness and in
gratitude to Him Who has restored our sanity to us.
And we will hourly remember Him Who is salvation and
deliverance. As we give thanks the world unites with us and happily
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accepts our holy thoughts which Heaven has corrected and made
pure. Now has our ministry begun at last, to carry round the world
the joyous news that truth has no illusions, and the peace of God,
through us, belongs to everyone.
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you see is arrogance? God made it not. Of this you can be sure.What
can He know of the ephemeral, the sinful and the guilty, the afraid,
the suffering and lonely, and the mind that lives within a body that
must die? You but accuse Him of insanity, to think He made a world
where such things seem to have reality. He is not mad. Yet only
madness makes a world like this.
To think that God made chaos, contradicts His Will, invented
opposites to truth, and suffers death to triumph over life, all this is
arrogance. Humility would see at once these things are not of Him.
And can you see what God created not? To think you can is merely
to believe you can perceive what God willed not to be. And what
could be more arrogant than this?
Let us today be truly humble, and accept what we have made as
what it is. The power of decision is our own. Decide but to accept
your rightful place as co-creator of the universe, and all you think
you made will disappear.What rises to awareness then will be all that
there ever was, eternally as it is now.And it will take the place of self-
deceptions made but to usurp the altar to the Father and the Son.
Today we practice true humility, abandoning the false pretense
by which the ego seeks to prove it arrogant. Only the ego can be
arrogant. But truth is humble in acknowledging its mightiness, its
changelessness and its eternal wholeness, all-encompassing, God’s
perfect gift to His beloved Son.
We lay aside the arrogance which says that we are sinners, guilty
and afraid, ashamed of what we are.And lift our hearts in true humility
instead to Him Who has created us immaculate, like to Himself in
power and in love.The power of decision is our own. And we accept
of Him that which we are, and humbly recognize the Son of God.
To recognize God’s Son implies as well that all self-concepts
have been laid aside and recognized as false.Their arrogance has been
perceived.And in humility the radiance of God’s Son, his gentleness,
his perfect sinlessness, his Father’s Love, his right to Heaven and
release from hell are joyously accepted as our own. Now do we join
in glad acknowledgment that lies are false and only truth is true.
We think of truth alone as we arise, and spend five minutes
practicing its ways, encouraging our frightened minds with this:
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grim imprisonment. Nor will you learn that light has come to you,
and your escape has been accomplished. For you will not see the
light until you offer it to all your brothers. As they take it from your
hands, so will you recognize it as your own.
Salvation can be thought of as a game that happy children play.
It was designed by One Who loves His children, and Who would
replace their fearful toys with joyous games which teach them that
the game of fear is gone. His game instructs in happiness because
there is no loser. Everyone who plays must win, and in his winning is
the gain to everyone ensured. The game of fear is gladly laid aside
when children come to see the benefits salvation brings.
You who have played that you are lost to hope, abandoned by
your Father, left alone in terror in a fearful world made mad by sin
and guilt, be happy now. That game is over. Now a quiet time has
come in which we put away the toys of guilt, and lock our quaint
and childish thoughts of sin forever from the pure and holy minds of
Heaven’s children and the Son of God.We pause but for a moment
more, to play our final happy game upon this earth. And then we go
to take our rightful place where truth abides and games are
meaningless.
So is the story ended. Let this day bring the last chapter closer to
the world, that everyone may learn the tales he reads of terrifying
destiny, defeat of all his hopes, his pitiful defense against a vengeance
he can not escape, was but his own deluded fantasy. God’s ministers
have come to waken him from the dark dreams this story has evoked
in his confused, bewildered memory of this distorted tale. God’s Son
can smile at last, on learning that it is not true.
Today we practice in a form we will maintain for quite a while.
We will begin each day by giving our attention to the daily thought
as long as possible. Five minutes now becomes the least we give to
preparation for a day in which salvation is the only goal we have.Ten
would be better; fifteen better still. And as distraction ceases to arise
to turn us from our purpose, we will find that half an hour is too
short a time to spend with God. Nor will we willingly give less at
night in gratitude and joy.
Each hour adds to our increasing peace, as we remember to be
faithful to the Will we share with God. At times, perhaps, a minute,
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even less, will be the most that we can offer as the hour strikes.
Sometimes we will forget. At other times the business of the world
will close on us, and we will be unable to withdraw a little while and
turn our thoughts to God.
Yet when we can, we will observe our trust as ministers of God
in hourly remembrance of our mission and His Love. And we will
quietly sit by and wait on Him and listen to His Voice, and learn what
He would have us do the hour that is yet to come; while thanking
Him for all the gifts He gave us in the one gone by.
In time, with practice, you will never cease to think of Him, and
hear His loving Voice guiding your footsteps into quiet ways where
you will walk in true defenselessness. For you will know that Heaven
goes with you. Nor would you keep your mind away from Him a
moment, even though your time is spent in offering salvation to the
world.Think you He will not make this possible for you who chose
to carry out His plan for the salvation of the world and yours?
Today our theme is our defenselessness.We clothe ourselves in it
as we prepare to meet the day.We rise up strong in Christ, and let our
weakness disappear as we remember that His strength abides in us.
We will remind ourselves that He remains beside us through the day,
and never leaves our weakness unsupported by His strength.
We call upon His strength each time we feel the threat of our
defenses undermine our certainty of purpose. We will pause a
moment, as He tells us, “I am here.”Your practicing will now begin
to take the earnestness of love to help you keep your mind from
wandering from its intent.
Be not afraid or timid. There can be no doubt that you will
reach your final goal.The ministers of God can never fail, because the
love and strength and peace that shine from them to all their brothers
come from Him.These are His gifts to you. Defenselessness is all you
need to give Him in return.You lay aside but what was never real, to
look on Christ and see His sinlessness.
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what the messages should be, or what their purpose is, or where they
should be carried, he is failing to perform his proper part as bringer
of the Word.
There is one major difference in the role of Heaven’s
messengers which sets them off from those the world appoints.The
messages which they deliver are intended first for them. And it is
only as they can accept them for themselves that they become able to
bring them further, and to give them everywhere that they were
meant to be. Like earthly messengers, they did not write the
messages they bear, but they become their first receivers in the truest
sense, receiving to prepare themselves to give.
An earthly messenger fulfills his role by giving all the messages
away.The messengers of God perform their part by their acceptance
of His messages as for themselves, and show they understand the
messages by giving them away. They choose no roles that are not
given them by His authority. And so they gain by every message
which they give away.
Would you receive the messages of God? For thus do you
become His messengers.You are appointed now.And yet you wait to
give the messages you have received, and so you do not know that
they are yours, and do not recognize them. No-one can receive and
understand he has received until he gives. For in the giving is his
own acceptance of what he received.
You who are now the messengers of God receive His messages,
for that is part of your appointed role. He has not failed to offer what
you need, nor has it been left unaccepted.Yet another part of your
appointed task is yet to be accomplished. He Who has received for
you the messages of God would have them received by you as well.
For thus do you identify with Him and claim your own.
It is this joining that we undertake to recognize today. But we
will not seek to keep our minds apart from Him Who speaks for us,
for it is but our voice we hear as we attend Him. He alone can speak
to us and for us, joining in One Voice the getting and the giving of
God’s Word; the giving and receiving of His Will.
We practice giving Him what He would have that we may
recognize His gifts to us. He needs our voice that He may speak
through us. He needs our hands to hold His messages, and carry
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Illusion still appears to cling to you that you may reach them.Yet it
has stepped back, and it is not illusion that they hear you speak of,
nor illusion which you bring their eyes to look on and their minds to
grasp. Now can the truth, which walks ahead of you, speak to them
through illusion, for the road leads past illusion now, while on the
way you call to them, that they may follow you.
All roads will lead to this one in the end. For sacrifice and
deprivation are paths which lead nowhere, choices for defeat, and aims
which will remain impossible. All this steps back as truth comes forth
in you to lead your brothers from the ways of death, and set them on
the way to happiness. Their suffering is but illusion.Yet they need a
guide to lead them out of it, for they mistake illusion for the truth.
Such is salvation’s call, and nothing more. It asks that you accept
the truth, and let It go before you, lighting up the path of ransom
from illusion. It is not a ransom with a price. There is no cost, but
only gain. Illusion can but seem to hold in chains the holy Son of
God. It is but from illusions he is saved. As they step back he finds
himself again.
Walk safely now yet carefully, because this path is new to you.And
you may find that you are tempted still to walk ahead of truth, and let
illusions be your guide. Your holy brothers have been given you to
follow in your footsteps as you walk with certainty of purpose to the
truth. It goes before you now, that they may see something with which
they can identify; something they understand to lead the way.
Yet at the journey’s ending there will be no gap, no distance
between truth and you. And all illusions walking in the way you
travelled will be gone from you as well, with nothing left to keep the
truth apart from God’s completion, holy as Himself. Step back in
faith, and let truth lead the way. You know not where you go, but
One Who knows goes with you. Let Him lead you with the rest.
When dreams are over, time has closed the door on all the
things that pass and miracles are purposeless, the holy Son of God
will make no journeys. There will be no wish to be illusion rather
than the truth. And we step forth toward this, as we progress along
the way that truth points out to us. This is our final journey, which
we make for everyone.We must not lose our way. For as truth goes
before us so it goes before our brothers, who will follow us.
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We walk to God. Pause and reflect on this. Could any way be holier,
or more deserving of your effort, of your love, and of your full
intent? What way could give you more than everything, or offer less
and still content the holy Son of God? We walk to God. The truth
that walks before us now is One with Him, and leads us to where He
has always been.What way but this could be a path that you would
choose instead?
Your feet are safely set upon the road which leads the world to
God. Look not to ways that seem to lead you elsewhere. Dreams are
not a worthy guide for you who are God’s Son. Forget not He has
placed His Hand in yours, and given you your brothers in His Trust
that you are worthy of His Trust in you. He cannot be deceived. His
Trust has made your pathway certain and your goal secure.You will
not fail your brothers nor your Self.
And now He asks but that you think of Him a while each day,
that He may speak to you and tell you of His Love, reminding you
how great His Trust; how limitless His Love. In your name and His
own, which are the same, we practice gladly with this thought today:
“I will step back and let Him lead the way,
For I would walk along the road to Him.”
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you steps forward and encompasses the world. It heralds not the end
of sin in punishment and death. In lightness and in laughter is it
gone, because its quaint absurdity is seen. It is a foolish thought, a silly
dream, not frightening, ridiculous perhaps, but who would waste an
instant in approach to God Himself for such a senseless whim?
Yet you have wasted many, many years on just this foolish
thought.The past is gone with all its fantasies.They keep you bound
no longer.The approach to God is near. And in the little interval of
doubt which still remains, you may perhaps lose sight of your
Companion, and mistake Him for the senseless, ancient dream that
now is past.
“Who walks with me?” This question should be asked a
thousand times a day, till certainty has ended doubting and
established peace. Today let doubting cease. God speaks for you in
answering your question with these words:
“I walk with God in perfect holiness.
I light the world, I light my mind and all
The minds which God created one with me.”
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vision in our eyes which we can offer everyone, that he may come
the sooner to the same experience in which the world is quietly
forgot, and Heaven is remembered for a while.
As this experience increases and all goals but this become of
little worth, the world to which you will return becomes a little
closer to the end of time; a little more like Heaven in its ways; a little
nearer its deliverance. And you who bring it light will come to see
the light more sure; the vision more distinct.
The time will come when you will not return in the same form
in which you now appear, for you will have no need of it.Yet now it
has a purpose, and will serve it well. Today we will embark upon a
course you have not dreamed of. But the Holy One, the Giver of the
happy dreams of life, Translator of perception into truth, the holy
Guide to Heaven given you, has dreamed for you this journey which
you make and start today, with the experience this day holds out to
you to be your own.
Into Christ’s Presence will we enter now serenely unaware of
everything except His shining face and perfect Love. The vision of
His Face will stay with you, but there will be an instant which
transcends all vision, even this, the holiest.This you will never teach,
for you attained it not through learning.Yet the vision speaks of your
remembrance of what you knew that instant, and will surely
know again.
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contribute to your happiness. All are laid here already. All can be
received but for the asking. Here the door is never locked, and no-one
is denied his least request or his most urgent need. There is no
sickness not already healed. No lack unsatisfied, no need unmet,
within this golden treasury of Christ.
Here does the world remember what was lost when it was
made. For here it is repaired, made new again but in a different light.
What was to be the home of sin becomes the center of redemption
and the hearth of mercy, where the suffering are healed and
welcome. No-one will be turned away from this new home where
his salvation waits. No-one is stranger to him. No-one asks for
anything of him except the gift of his acceptance of his welcoming.
Christ’s vision is the holy ground in which the lilies of
forgiveness set their roots. This is their home. They can be brought
from here back to the world, but they can never grow in its
unnourishing and shallow soil.They need the light and warmth and
kindly care Christ’s charity provides.They need the love with which
He looks on them. And they become His messengers who give as
they received.
Take from His storehouse that its treasures may increase. His
lilies do not leave their home when they are carried back into the
world.Their roots remain.They do not leave their source, but carry
its beneficence with them, and turn the world into a garden like the
one they came from and to which they go again with added
fragrance. Now are they twice blessed. The messages they brought
from Christ have been delivered and returned to them. And they
return them gladly unto Him.
Behold the store of miracles set out for you to give.Are you not
worth the gift when God appointed it be given you? Judge not God’s
Son, but follow in the way He has established. Christ has dreamed
the dream of a forgiven world. It is His gift whereby a sweet
transition can be made from death to life; from hopelessness to hope.
Let us an instant dream with Him. His dream awakens us to truth.
His vision gives the means for a return to our unlost and everlasting
sanctity in God.
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out, and show him that he is no stranger now.The miracle will come.
For in his home his Self remains. It asked no stranger in, and took no
alien thought to be Itself. And It will call Its Own unto Itself, in
recognition of what is Its Own.
Who is the stranger? Is he not the one your Self calls not? You
are unable now to recognize this stranger in your midst, for you have
given him your rightful place.Yet is your Self as certain of Its Own as
God is of His Son. He cannot be confused about creation. He is sure
of what belongs to Him. No stranger can be interposed between His
knowledge and His Son’s reality. He does not know of strangers. He
is certain of His Son.
His certainty suffices. Who he knows to be His Son belongs
where He has set His Son forever. He has answered you who ask,
“Who is the stranger?” Hear His Voice assure you, quietly and sure,
that you are not a stranger to your Father, nor is your Creator
stranger made to you.Whom God has joined remains forever one, at
home in Him, no stranger to Himself.
Today we offer thanks that Christ has come to search the world
for what belongs to Him. His vision sees no strangers, but beholds His
Own, and joyously unites with them.They see Him as a stranger, for
they do not recognize themselves.Yet as they give Him welcome they
remember.And He leads them gently home again where they belong.
Not one does He forget. Not one He fails to give you to
remember, that your home may be complete and perfect as it was
established. He has not forgotten you. But you will not remember
Him until you look on all as He does. Who denies his brother is
denying Him, and thus refusing to accept the gift of sight by which his
Self is clearly recognized, his home remembered, and salvation come.
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reason bodies easily become fear’s symbols. You have many times
been urged to look beyond the body, for its sight presents the symbol
of love’s “enemy” Christ’s vision does not see.The body is the target
for attack, for no-one thinks he hates a mind. Yet what but mind
directs the body to attack? What else could be the seat of fear except
what thinks of fear?
Hate is specific.There must be a thing to be attacked.An enemy
must be perceived in such a form he can be touched and seen and
heard, and ultimately killed. When hatred rests upon a thing, it calls
for death as surely as God’s Voice proclaims there is no death. Fear is
insatiable, consuming everything its eyes behold; seeing itself in
everything; compelled to turn upon itself and to destroy.
Who sees a brother as a body sees him as fear’s symbol. And he
will attack because what he beholds is his own fear external to
himself, poised to attack, and howling to unite with him again.
Mistake not the intensity of rage projected fear must spawn. It
shrieks in wrath, and claws the air in frantic hope it can reach to its
maker and devour him.
This do the body’s eyes behold in one whom Heaven cherishes,
the angels love and God created perfect. This is his reality. And in
Christ’s vision is his loveliness reflected in a form so holy and so
beautiful that you could scarce refrain from kneeling at his feet.Yet
you will take his hand instead, for you are like him in the sight that
sees him thus.
Attack on him is enemy to you, for you will not perceive that in
his hands is your salvation.Ask him but for this, and he will give it to
you.Ask him not to symbolize your fear.Would you request that love
destroy itself? Or would you have it be revealed to you and set
you free?
Today we practice in a form we have attempted earlier. Your
readiness is closer now, and you will come today nearer Christ’s
vision. If you are intent on reaching it, you will succeed today. And
once you have succeeded, you will not be willing to accept the
witnesses your body’s eyes call forth. What you will see will sing to
you of ancient melodies you will remember.You are not forgot in
Heaven.Would you not remember it?
Select one brother, symbol of the rest, and ask salvation of him.
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See him first as clearly as you can in that same form to which you are
accustomed. See his face, his hands and feet, his clothing.Watch him
smile, and see familiar gestures which he makes so frequently. Then
think of this; what you are seeing now conceals from you the sight of
one who can forgive you all your sins; whose sacred hands can take
the nails which pierce your own away, and lift the crown of thorns
which you have placed upon your bleeding head.
Ask this of him that he may set you free:
“Give me your blessing, holy Son of God.
I would behold you with the eyes of Christ,
And see my perfect sinlessness in you.”
And He will answer Whom you called upon, for He will hear the
Voice of God in you, and answer in your own. Behold him now
whom you had seen as merely flesh and bone, and recognize that
Christ has come to you.
Today’s idea is your safe escape from anger and from fear. Be
sure you use it instantly, should you be tempted to attack a brother
and perceive in him the symbol of your fear. And you will see him
suddenly transformed from enemy to Savior; from the devil
into Christ.
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as remedy for grief and misery, all sense of loss, and for complete
escape from sin and guilt?
And who would not be brother to you now; you, his redeemer
and his Savior. Who could fail to welcome you into his heart with
loving invitation, eager to unite with one like him in holiness? You
are as God created you.These words dispel the night, and darkness is
no more. The light is come today to bless the world, for you have
recognized the Son of God, and in that recognition is the world’s.
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few you would not cherish, and would yet avoid while still believing
in the rest. For death is total. Either all things die, or else they live and
cannot die. No compromise is possible. For here again we see an
obvious position which we must accept if we be sane; what
contradicts one thought entirely can not be true unless its opposite is
proven false.
The idea of the death of God is so preposterous that even the
insane have difficulty in believing it. For it implies that God was once
alive and somehow perished, killed, apparently, by those who did not
want him to survive.Their stronger will could triumph over His, and
so eternal life gave way to death. And with the Father died the Son
as well.
Death’s worshippers may be afraid. And yet can thoughts like
these be fearful? If they saw that it is only this which they believed,
they would be instantly released.And you will show them this today.
There is no death, and we renounce it now in every form, for their
salvation and our own as well. God made not death.Whatever form
it takes must therefore be illusion.This the stand we take today. And
it is given us to look past death and see the light beyond.
Our Father, bless our eyes today.We are Your messengers,
and we would look upon the glorious reflection of Your Love
Which shines in everything.We live and breathe in You alone.We
are not separate from Your eternal life.There is no death, for death
is not Your Will.And we abide where You have placed us, in the
Life we share with You and with all living things, to be like You
and part of You forever.We accept Your Thoughts as ours, and our
will is One with Yours eternally.Amen.
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Now is all doubting past, the journey’s end made certain and
salvation given you. Now is Christ’s power in your mind to heal as
you were healed. For now you are among the Saviors of the world.
Your destiny lies there and nowhere else.Would God consent to let
His Son remain forever starved by his denial of the nourishment he
needs to live? Abundance dwells in him, and deprivation cannot cut
him off from God’s sustained Love and from his home.
Practice today in hope. For hope indeed is justified.Your doubts
are meaningless, for God is certain.And the Thought of Him is never
absent. Sureness must abide within you who are host to Him. This
course removes all doubts which you have interposed between Him
and your certainty of Him. We count on God, and not upon
ourselves, to give us certainty. And in His Name we practice as His
Word directs we do. His sureness lies beyond our every doubt. His
Love remains beyond our every fear. The Thought of Him is still
beyond all dreams, and in our minds according to His Will.
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one but has identified with him, for everyone who comes here has
pursued the path he follows, and has felt defeat and hopelessness as
he is feeling them. Yet is he really tragic when you see that he is
following the way he chose, and need but realize Who walks with
him and open up his treasures to be free?
This is your chosen self, the one you made as a replacement for
reality. This is the self you savagely defend against all reason, every
evidence, and all the witnesses with proof to show this is not you.You
heed them not.You go on your appointed way, with eyes cast down
lest you might catch a glimpse of truth, and be released from self-
deception and set free.
You cower fearfully lest you should feel Christ’s touch upon
your shoulder, and perceive His gentle hand directing you to look
upon your gifts. How could you then proclaim your poverty in
exile? He would make you laugh at this perception of yourself.
Where is self-pity then? And what becomes of all the tragedy you
sought to make for him whom God intended only joy?
Your ancient fear has come upon you now, and justice has
caught up with you at last. Christ’s hand has touched your shoulder,
and you feel that you are not alone.You even think the miserable self
you thought was you may not be your identity. Perhaps God’s Word
is truer than your own. Perhaps His gifts to you are real. Perhaps He
has not wholly been outwitted by your plan to keep His Son in deep
oblivion, and go the way you chose without your Self.
God’s Will does not oppose. It merely is. It is not God you have
imprisoned in your plan to lose your Self. He does not know about a
plan so alien to His Will.There was a need He did not understand, to
which He gave an Answer.That is all.And you who have this Answer
given you have need no more of anything but this.
Now do we live, for now we cannot die.The wish for death is
answered, and the sight that looked upon it now has been replaced
by vision which perceives that you are not what you pretend to be.
One walks with you Who gently answers all your fears with this one
merciful reply, “It is not so.” He points to all the gifts you have each
time the thought of poverty oppresses you, and speaks of His
Companionship when you perceive yourself as lonely and afraid.
Yet He reminds you still of one thing more you had forgotten.
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For His touch on you has made you like Himself.The gifts you have
are not for you alone.What He has come to offer you, you now must
learn to give.This is the lesson that His giving holds, for He has saved
you from the solitude you sought to make, in which to hide from
God. He has reminded you of all the gifts that God has given you.
He speaks as well of what becomes your will when you accept these
gifts, and recognize they are your own.
The gifts are yours, entrusted to your care, to give to all who
chose the lonely road you have escaped. They do not understand
they but pursue their wishes. It is you who teach them now. For you
have learned of Christ there is another way for them to walk.Teach
them by showing them the happiness that comes to those who feel
the touch of Christ and recognize God’s gifts. Let sorrow not tempt
you to be unfaithful to your trust.
Your sighs will now betray the hopes of those who look to you
for their release.Your tears are theirs. If you are sick you but withhold
their healing.What you fear but teaches them their fears are justified.
Your hand becomes the giver of Christ’s touch; your change of mind
becomes the proof that who accepts God’s gifts can never suffer
anything.You are entrusted with the world’s release from pain.
Betray it not. Become the living proof of what Christ’s touch
can offer everyone. God has entrusted all His gifts to you. Be witness
in your happiness to how transformed the mind becomes which
chooses to accept His gifts and feel the touch of Christ. Such is your
mission now. For God entrusts the giving of His gifts to all who have
received them. He has shared His joy with you. And now you go to
share it with the world.
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The mind can think it sleeps, but that is all. It cannot change what is
its waking state. It cannot make a body, nor abide within a body.
What is alien to the mind does not exist because it has no source. For
mind creates all things that are, and cannot give them attributes it
lacks, nor change its own eternal, mindful state. It cannot make the
physical.What seems to die is but the sign of mind asleep.
The opposite of life can only be another form of life.As such, it
can be reconciled with what created it, because it is not opposite in
truth. Its form may change; it may appear to be what it is not.Yet
mind is mind awake or sleeping. It is not its opposite in anything
created, nor in what it seems to make when it believes it sleeps.
God creates only mind awake. He does not sleep, and His
creations cannot share what He gives not, nor make conditions
which He does not share with them.The thought of death is not the
opposite to thoughts of life. Forever unopposed by opposites of any
kind, the Thoughts of God remain forever changeless, with the
power to extend forever changelessly but yet within Themselves, for
They are everywhere.
What seems to be the opposite of life is merely sleeping.When
the mind elects to be what it is not, and to assume an alien power
which it does not have, a foreign state it cannot enter, or a false
condition not within its Source, it merely seems to go to sleep a
while. It dreams of time; an interval in which what seems to happen
never has occurred, the changes wrought are substanceless, and all
events are nowhere. When the mind awakes, it but continues as it
always was.
Let us today be children of the truth, and not deny our holy
heritage. Our life is not as we imagine it.Who changes life because
he shuts his eyes, or makes himself what he is not because he sleeps
and sees in dreams an opposite to what he is? We will not ask for
death in any form today. Nor will we let imagined opposites to life
abide even an instant where the Thought of Life Eternal has been set
by God Himself.
His holy home we strive to keep today as He established it, and
wills it be forever and forever. He is Lord of what we think today.
And in His Thoughts,Which have no opposite, we understand there
is one life, and that we share with Him, with all creation, with their
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the endless present, where the past and future cannot be conceived. It
lies beyond salvation; past all thought of time, forgiveness, and the
holy face of Christ.The Son of God has merely disappeared into His
Father, as his Father has in him. The world has never been at all.
Eternity remains a constant state.
This is beyond experience we try to hasten. Yet forgiveness,
taught and learned, brings with it the experiences which bear
witness that the time the mind itself determined to abandon all but
this is now at hand. We do not hasten it in that what you will offer
was concealed from Him Who teaches what forgiveness means. All
learning was already in His Mind, accomplished and complete. He
recognized all that time holds and gave it to all minds that each one
might determine, from a point where time has ended, when it is
released to revelation and eternity.
We have repeated several times before that you but make a
journey that is done. For oneness must be here. Whatever time the
mind has set for revelation is entirely irrelevant to what must be a
constant state, forever as it always was; forever to remain as it is now.
We merely take the part assigned long since, and fully recognize as
perfectly fulfilled by Him Who wrote salvation’s script in His
Creator’s Name, and in the Name of His Creator’s Son.
There is no need to further clarify what no-one in the world
can understand. When revelation of your Oneness comes, it will be
known and fully understood. Now we have work to do, for those in
time can speak of things beyond, and listen to words which explain
what is to come is past already. Yet what meaning can the words
convey to those who count the hours still, and rise and work and go
to sleep by them?
Suffice it, then, that you have work to do to play your part.The
ending must remain obscure to you until your part is done. It does
not matter. For your part is still what all the rest depends on. As you
take the role assigned to you, salvation comes a little nearer each
uncertain heart that does not beat as yet in tune with God.
Forgiveness is the central theme which runs throughout salvation,
holding all its parts in meaningful relationships, the course it runs
directed, and its outcome sure.
And now we ask for grace, the final gift salvation can bestow.
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ask you lay down all defense as merely foolish.And your arms indeed
would crumble into dust. For such they are.
With love as enemy must cruelty become a god, and gods
demand that those who worship them obey their dictates, and refuse
to question them. Harsh punishment is meted out relentlessly to
those who ask if the demands are sensible or even sane. It is their
enemies who are unreasonable and insane, while they are always
merciful and just.
Today we look upon this cruel god dispassionately.And we note
that though his lips are smeared with blood and fire seems to flame
from him, he is but made of stone. He can do nothing.We need not
defy his power. He has none. And those who see in him their safety
have no guardian, no strength to call upon in danger, and no mighty
warrior to fight for them.
This moment can be terrible. But it can also be the time of your
release from abject slavery. You make a choice, standing before this
idol, seeing him exactly as he is. Will you restore to love what you
have sought to wrest from it, and lay before this mindless piece of
stone? Or will you make another idol to replace it? For the god of
cruelty takes many forms.Another can be found.
Yet do not think that fear is the escape from fear. Let us
remember what the course has stressed about the obstacles to peace.
The final one, the hardest to believe is nothing, and a seeming
obstacle with the appearance of a solid block, impenetrable, fearful
and beyond surmounting, is the fear of God Himself. Here is the
basic premise which enthrones the thought of fear as god. For fear is
loved by those who worship it, and love appears to be invested now
with cruelty.
Where does the totally insane belief in gods of vengeance come
from? Love has not confused its attributes with those of fear.Yet must
the worshippers of fear perceive their own confusion in fear’s enemy;
its cruelty as now a part of love.And what becomes more fearful than
the heart of Love Itself? The blood appears to be upon His Lips; the
fire comes from Him. And He is terrible above all else, cruel beyond
conception, striking down all who acknowledge Him to be their God.
The choice you make today is certain. For you look for the last
time upon this bit of carven stone you made, and call it god no
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longer.You have reached this place before, but you have chosen that
this cruel god remain with you in still another form. And so the fear
of God returned with you. This time you leave it here. And you
return to a new world unburdened by its weight; beheld not in its
sightless eyes, but in the vision that your choice restored to you.
Now do your eyes belong to Christ, and He looks through
them. Now your voice belongs to God, and echoes His. And now
your heart remains at peace forever.You have chosen Him in place of
idols, and your attributes, given by your Creator, are restored to you
at last. The Call of God is heard and answered. Now has fear made
way for love, as God Himself replaces cruelty.
Father, we are like You. No cruelty abides in us for there is none
in You.Your peace is ours.And we bless the world with what we have
received from You alone. We choose again and make our choice for
all our brothers, knowing they are one with us.We bring them Your
salvation as we have received it now. And we give thanks for them
who render us complete. In them we see Your glory, and in them we
find our peace. Holy are we because Your holiness has set us free.And
we give thanks.Amen.
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review v
We now review again.This time we are ready to give more effort and
more time to what we undertake.We recognize we are preparing for
another phase of understanding.We would take this step completely,
that we may go on again more certain, more sincere, with faith
upheld more surely. Our footsteps have not been unwavering, and
doubts have made us walk uncertainly and slowly on the road this
course sets forth. But now we hasten on, for we approach a greater
certainty, a firmer purpose and a surer goal.
Steady our feet, our Father; let our doubts be quiet and our holy
minds be still, and speak to us.We have no words to give to You.We
would but listen to Your Word and make it ours. Lead our practicing
as does a father lead a little child along a way he does not understand.
Yet does he follow, sure that he is safe because his father leads the way
for him.
So do we bring our practicing to You. And if we stumble,You
will raise us up. If we forget the way, we count upon Your sure
remembering.We wander off, but You will not forget to call us back.
Quicken our footsteps now, that we may walk more certainly and
quickly unto You. And we accept the Word You offer us to unify our
practicing, as we review the thoughts that You have given us.
This is the thought which should precede the thoughts that we
review. Each one but clarifies some aspect of this thought, or helps it
be more meaningful, more personal and true, and more descriptive of
the holy Self we share and now prepare to know again:
“God is but Love, and therefore so am I.”
This Self alone knows love.This Self alone is perfectly consistent in
Its thoughts; knows Its Creator, understands Itself, is perfect in Its
knowledge and Its love, and never changes from Its constant state of
union with Its Father and Itself.
And it is This that waits to meet us at the journey’s ending.
Every step we take brings us a little nearer.This review will shorten
time immeasurably if we keep in mind that This remains our goal,
and as we practice it is This to which we are approaching. Let us raise
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our hearts from dust to life as we remember This is promised us, and
that this course was sent to open up the path of light to us, and teach
us, step by step, how to return to the Eternal Self we thought we lost.
I take the journey with you. For I share your doubts and fears a
little while, that you may come to me who recognize the road by
which all fears and doubts are overcome. We walk together. I must
understand uncertainty and pain, although I know they have no
meaning.Yet a Savior must remain with those he teaches, seeing what
they see, but still retaining in his mind the way that led him out, and
now will lead you out with him. God’s Son is crucified until you
walk along the road with me.
My resurrection comes again each time I lead a brother safely to
the place at which the journey ends and is forgot. I am renewed each
time a brother learns there is a way from misery and pain. I am
reborn each time a brother’s mind turns to the light in him and looks
for me. I have forgotten no-one. Help me now to lead you back to
where the journey was begun, to make another choice with me.
Release me as you practice once again the thoughts I brought to
you from Him Who sees your bitter need, and knows the answer
God has given Him.Together we review these thoughts.Together we
devote our time and effort to them.And together we will teach them
to our brothers. God would not have Heaven incomplete. It waits for
you as I do. I am incomplete without your part in me. And as I am
made whole, we go together to our ancient home, prepared for us
before time was and kept unchanged by time, immaculate and safe, as
it will be at last, when time is done.
Let this review be then your gift to me. For this alone I need; that
you will hear the words I speak and give them to the world.You are
my voice, my eyes, my feet, my hands, through which I save the world.
The Self from Which I call to you is but your Own.To Him we go
together.Take your brother’s hand, for this is not a way we walk alone.
In him I walk with you and you with me. Our Father wills His Son
be One with Him.What lives but must not then be one with you?
Let this review become a time in which we share a new
experience for you, yet one as old as time, and older still. Hallowed
your name.Your glory undefiled forever. And your wholeness now
complete, as God established it. You are His Son, completing His
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“God is but Love, and therefore so am I.”
[151] “All things are echoes of the Voice of God.”
“God is but Love, and therefore so am I.”
[152] “The power of decision is my own.”
“God is but Love, and therefore so am I.”
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“God is but Love, and therefore so am I.”
[153] “In my defenselessness my safety lies.”
“God is but Love, and therefore so am I.”
[154] “I am among the ministers of God.”
“God is but Love, and therefore so am I.”
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“God is but Love, and therefore so am I.”
[155] “I will step back and let Him lead the way.”
“God is but Love, and therefore so am I.”
[156] “I walk with God in perfect holiness.”
“God is but Love, and therefore so am I.”
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“God is but Love, and therefore so am I.”
[157] “Into His Presence would I enter now.”
“God is but Love, and therefore so am I.”
[158] “Today I learn to give as I receive.”
“God is but Love, and therefore so am I.”
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“God is but Love, and therefore so am I.”
[159] “I give the miracles I have received.”
“God is but Love, and therefore so am I.”
[160] “I am at home. Fear is the stranger here.”
“God is but Love, and therefore so am I.”
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“God is but Love, and therefore so am I.”
[161] “Give me your blessing, holy Son of God.”
“God is but Love, and therefore so am I.”
[162] “I am as God created me.”
“God is but Love, and therefore so am I.”
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“God is but Love, and therefore so am I.”
[163] “There is no death.The Son of God is free.”
“God is but Love, and therefore so am I.”
[164] “Now are we One with Him Who is our Source.”
“God is but Love, and therefore so am I.”
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“God is but Love, and therefore so am I.”
[165] “Let not my mind deny the Thought of God.”
“God is but Love, and therefore so am I.”
[166] “I am entrusted with the gifts of God.”
“God is but Love, and therefore so am I.”
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“God is but Love, and therefore so am I.”
[167] “There is one life, and that I share with God.”
“God is but Love, and therefore so am I.”
[168] “Your grace is given me. I claim it now.”
“God is but Love, and therefore so am I.”
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“God is but Love, and therefore so am I.”
[169] “By grace I live. By grace I am released.”
“God is but Love, and therefore so am I.”
[170] “There is no cruelty in God and none in me.”
“God is but Love, and therefore so am I.”
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❉
Our next few lessons make a special point of firming up your
willingness to make your weak commitment strong; your scattered
goals blend into one intent.You are not asked for total dedication all
the time, as yet. But you are asked to practice now in order to attain
the sense of peace such unified commitment will bestow, if only
intermittently. It is experiencing this which makes it sure that you will
give your total willingness to following the way the course sets forth.
Our lessons now are geared specifically to widening horizons,
and direct approaches to the special blocks which keep your vision
narrow, and too limited to let you see the value of our goal.We are
attempting now to lift these blocks, however briefly.Words alone can
not convey the sense of liberation which their lifting brings. But the
experience of freedom and of peace that comes as you give up your
tight control of what you see speaks for itself.Your motivation will be
so intensified that words become of little consequence.You will be
sure of what you want and what is valueless.
And so we start our journey beyond words by concentrating
first on what impedes our progress still. Experience of what exists
beyond defensiveness remains beyond achievement while it is
denied. It may be there, but you cannot accept its presence. So we
now attempt to go past all defenses for a little while each day. No
more than this is asked because no more than this is needed. It will
be enough to guarantee the rest will come.
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His Son. Practice but this today; repeat God’s Name slowly again and
still again. Become oblivious to every name but His.
Hear nothing else. Let all your thoughts become anchored on
This. No other words we use except at the beginning, when we say
today’s idea but once. And then God’s Name becomes our only
thought, our only word, the only thing that occupies our minds, the
only wish we have, the only sound with any meaning, and the only
name of everything that we desire to see; of everything that we would
call our own.
Thus do we give an invitation which can never be refused. And
God will come and answer it Himself.Think not He hears the little
prayers of those who call on Him with names of idols cherished by
the world.They cannot reach Him thus. He cannot hear requests that
He be not Himself, or that His Son receive another name than His.
Repeat His Name and you acknowledge Him as sole Creator of
Reality. And you acknowledge also that His Son is part of Him,
creating in His Name. Sit silently and let His Name become the all-
encompassing idea which holds your mind completely. Let all
thoughts be still except this One. And to all other thoughts respond
with This, and see God’s Name replace the thousand little names you
gave your thoughts, not realizing that there is One Name for all there
is, and all that there will be.
Today you can achieve a state in which you will experience the
gifts of grace.You can escape all bondage of the world, and give the
world the same release you found.You can remember what the world
forgot, and offer it your own remembering.You can accept today the
part you play in its salvation and your own as well, and both can be
accomplished perfectly.
Turn to the Name of God for your release, and it is given you.
No prayer but this is necessary, for it holds them all within it.Words
are insignificant and all requests unneeded when God’s Son calls on
his Father’s Name. His Father’s Thoughts become his own. He makes
his claim to all his Father gave, is giving still, and will forever give. He
calls on Him to let all things he thought he made be nameless now,
and in their place the holy Name of God becomes his judgement of
their worthlessness.
All little things are silent. Little sounds are soundless now. The
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symbols which assert the world is real. It is for this they stand. They
leave no doubt that what is named is there. It can be seen, as is
anticipated. What denies that it is false is but illusion, for it is the
ultimate reality.To question it is madness; to accept its presence is the
proof of sanity.
Such is the teaching of the world. It is a phase of learning everyone
who comes must go through. But the sooner he perceives on what it
rests, how questionable are its premises, how doubtful its results, the
sooner does he question its effects. Learning which stops with what
the world would teach stops short of meaning. In its proper place, it
serves but as a starting point from which another kind of learning can
begin, a new perception can be gained, and all the arbitrary names the
world bestows can be withdrawn as they are raised to doubt.
Think not you made the world. Illusions, yes! But what is true
in earth and Heaven is beyond your naming.When you call upon a
brother, it is to his body that you make appeal. His true identity is
hidden from you by what you believe he really is. His body makes
response to what you call him, for his mind consents to take the
name you give him as his own.And thus his unity is twice denied, for
you perceive him separate from you, and he accepts this separate
name as his.
It would indeed be strange if you were asked to go beyond all
symbols of the world, forgetting them forever; yet were asked to take
a teaching function.You have need to use the symbols of the world a
while. But be you not deceived by them as well.They do not stand
for anything at all, and in your practicing it is this thought that will
release you from them. They become but means by which you can
communicate in ways the world can understand, but which you
recognize is not the unity where true communication can be found.
Thus what you need are intervals each day in which the
learning of the world becomes a transitory phase; a prison house
from which you go into the sunlight and forget the darkness. Here
you understand the Word, the Name Which God has given you; the
One Identity Which all things share; the one acknowledgment of
what is true.And then step back to darkness, not because you think it
real, but only to proclaim its unreality in terms which still have
meaning in the world which darkness rules.
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Use all the little names and symbols which delineate the world of
darkness.Yet accept them not as your reality.The Holy Spirit uses all
of them, but He does not forget creation has One Name, One
Meaning, and a single Source Which unifies all things within Itself.
Use all the names the world bestows on them but for convenience,
yet do not forget they share the Name of God along with you.
God has no name. And yet His Name becomes the final lesson
that all things are one, and at this lesson does all learning end. All
names are unified; all space is filled with truth’s reflection. Every gap
is closed, and separation healed.The Name of God is the inheritance
He gave to those who chose the teaching of the world to take the
place of Heaven. In our practicing, our purpose is to let our minds
accept what He has given as the answer to the pitiful inheritance you
made as fitting tribute to the Son He loves.
No-one can fail who seeks the meaning of the Name of God.
Experience must come to supplement the Word. But first you must
accept One Name for all reality, and realize the many names you
gave its aspects have distorted what you see but have not interfered
with truth at all. One Name we bring into our practicing. One
Name we use to unify our sight.
And though we use a different name for each awareness of an
aspect of God’s Son, we understand that they have but One Name,
Which He has given them. It is this Name we use in practicing.And
through Its use, all foolish separations disappear which kept us blind.
And we are given strength to see beyond them. Now our sight is
blessed with blessings we can give as we receive.
Father, our Name is Yours. In It we are united with all living things
and You Who are their One Creator. What we made and call by
many different names is but a shadow we have tried to cast across
Your Own Reality.And we are glad and thankful we were wrong.All
our mistakes we give to You, that we may be absolved of all effects our
errors seemed to have. And we accept the truth You give in place of
every one of them.Your Name is our salvation and escape from what
we made. Your Name unites us in the Oneness which is our
inheritance and peace.Amen.
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affront their stance.Yet are the humble free to hear the Voice Which
tells them what they are and what to do.
Arrogance makes an image of yourself that is not real. It is this
image which quails and retreats in terror as the Voice for God assures
you that you have the strength, the wisdom and the holiness to go
beyond all images.You are not weak, as is the image of yourself.You
are not ignorant and helpless. Sin can not tarnish the truth in you,
and misery can come not near the holy home of God.
All this the Voice for God relates to you. And as He speaks, the
image trembles and seeks to attack the threat it does not know;
sensing its basis crumble. Let it go. Salvation of the world depends on
you, and not upon this little pile of dust.What can it tell the holy Son
of God? Why need he be concerned with it at all?
And so we find our peace.We will accept the function God has
given us, for all illusions rest upon the weird belief that we can make
another for ourselves. Our self-made roles are shifting, and they seem
to change from mourner to ecstatic bliss of loved and loving.We can
laugh or weep, and greet the day with welcome or with tears. Our
very being seems to change as we experience a thousand shifts in
mood, and our emotions raise us high indeed or dash us to the
ground in hopelessness.
Is this the Son of God? Could He create such instability and call
it Son? He Who is changeless shares His attributes with His creation.
All the images His Son appears to make have no effect on what he is.
They blow across his mind like wind swept leaves that form a
patterning an instant, break apart to group again, and scamper off. Or
like mirages seen above a desert, rising from the dust.
These unsubstantial images will go, and leave your mind
unclouded and serene when you accept the function given you.The
images you make give rise to but conflicting goals, impermanent and
vague, uncertain and ambiguous. Who could be constant in his
efforts, or direct his energies and concentrated drive toward goals like
these? The functions which the world esteems are so uncertain that
they change ten times an hour at their most secure. What hope of
gain can rest on goals like this?
In lovely contrast, certain as the sun’s return each morning to
dispel the night, your truly given function stands out clear and
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“I am the holy Son of God Himself.”
Here is your declaration of release from bondage of the world. And
here as well is all the world released.You do not see what you have
done by giving to the world the role of jailer to the Son of God.
What could it be but vicious and afraid, fearful of shadows, punitive
and wild, lacking all reason, blind, insane and sad?
What have you done that this should be your world? What have
you done that this is what you see? Deny your own identity and this
is what remains.You look on chaos and proclaim it as yourself.There
is no sight that fails to witness this to you. There is no sound that
does not speak of frailty within you and without; no breath you draw
that does not seem to bring you nearer death; no hope you hold but
will dissolve in tears.
Deny your own identity and you will not escape the madness
which induced this weird, unnatural and ghostly thought which
mocks creation and which laughs at God. Deny your own identity
and you assail the universe alone, without a friend, a tiny particle of
dust against the legions of your enemies. Deny your own identity
and look on evil, sin and death. And watch despair snatch from your
fingers every scrap of hope, leaving you nothing but the wish to die.
Yet what is it except a game you play in which identity can be
denied? You are as God created you.All else but this one thing is folly
to believe. In this one thought is everything set free. In this one truth
are all illusions gone. In this one fact is sinlessness proclaimed to be
forever part of everything; the central core of its existence and its
guarantee of immortality.
But let today’s idea find a place among your thoughts, and you
have risen far above the world and all the worldly thoughts that hold
it prisoner. And from this place of safety and escape you will return
and set it free. For he who can accept his true identity is truly saved.
And his salvation is the gift he gives to everyone in gratitude to Him
Who pointed out the way to happiness that changed his whole
perception of the world.
One holy thought like this and you are free; you are the holy
Son of God Himself. And with this holy thought you learn as well
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that you have freed the world.You have no need to use it cruelly and
then perceive this savage need in it. You set it free of your
imprisonment. You will not see a devastating image of yourself
walking the world in terror, with the world twisting in agony
because your fears have laid the mark of death upon its heart.
Be glad today how very easily is hell undone.You need but tell
yourself:
“I am the holy Son of God Himself.
I cannot suffer; cannot be in pain;
I cannot lose, nor can I fail to do
All that salvation asks.”
And in that thought is everything you look on wholly changed.
A miracle has lighted up all dark and ancient caverns where the
rites of death echoed since time began. For time has lost its hold
upon the world. The Son of God has come in glory to redeem the
lost, to save the helpless and to give the world the gift of his
forgiveness.Who could see the world as dark and sinful when God’s
Son has come again at last to set it free?
You who perceive yourself as weak and frail, with futile hopes
and devastated dreams, born but to die, to weep and suffer pain, hear
this:All power is given you in earth and Heaven.There is nothing that
you cannot do.You play the game of death, of being helpless, pitifully
tied to dissolution in a world which shows no mercy to you.Yet when
you accord it mercy will its mercy shine on you.
Then let the Son of God awaken from his sleep, and opening his
holy eyes return again to bless the world he made. In error it began.
But it will end in the reflection of his holiness. And he will sleep no
more and dream of death.Then join with me today.Your glory is the
light that saves the world. Do not withhold salvation longer. Look
about the world and see the suffering there. Is not your heart willing
to bring your weary brothers rest?
They must await your own release. They stay in chains till you
are free.They cannot see the mercy of the world until you find it for
yourself.They suffer pain until you have denied its hold on you.They
die till you accept your own Eternal Life.You are the holy Son of
God Himself. Remember this and all the world is free. Remember
this and earth and Heaven are one.
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its home. Only forgiveness can restore the peace that God intended for
His holy Son. Only forgiveness can persuade the Son to look again
upon his holiness.With anger gone, you will indeed perceive that for
Christ’s vision and the gift of sight no sacrifice was asked, and only
pain was lifted from a sick and tortured mind.
Is this unwelcome? Is it to be feared? Or is it to be hoped for,
met with thanks and joyously accepted? We are one, and therefore
give up nothing. But we have indeed been given everything by God.
Yet do we need forgiveness to perceive that this is so. Without its
kindly light we grope in darkness, using reason but to justify our rage
and our attack. Our understanding is so limited that what we think
we understand is but confusion born of error.We are lost in mists of
shifting dreams and fearful thoughts, our eyes shut tight against the
light; our minds engaged in worshipping what is not there.
Who can be born again in Christ but him who has forgiven
everyone he sees or thinks of or imagines? Who could be set free while
he imprisons anyone? A jailer is not free, for he is bound together with
his prisoner. He must be sure that he does not escape, and so he spends
his time in keeping watch on him.The bars which limit him become
the world in which the jailer lives, along with him. And it is on his
freedom that the way to liberty depends for both of them.
Therefore hold no-one prisoner. Release instead of bind, for thus
are you made free. The way is simple. Every time you feel a stab of
anger, realize you hold a sword above your head. And it will fall or be
averted as you choose to be condemned or free.Thus does each one
who seems to tempt you to be angry represent your Savior from the
prison-house of death.And so you owe him thanks instead of pain.
Be merciful today.The Son of God deserves your mercy. It is he
who asks that you accept the way to freedom now. Deny him not.
His Father’s Love for him belongs to you. Your function here on
earth is only to forgive him, that you may accept him back as your
identity. He is as God created him. And you are what he is. Forgive
him now his sins, and you will see that you are one with him.
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These are the words which end the dream of sin, and rid the mind of
fear.These are the words by which salvation comes to all the world.
Shall we not learn to say these words when we are tempted to
believe that pain is real, and death becomes our choice instead of life?
Shall we not learn to say these words when we have understood their
power to release all minds from bondage? These are words which
give you power over all events which seem to have been given power
over you.You see them rightly when you hold these words in full
awareness, and do not forget these words apply to everything you see
or any brother looks upon amiss.
How can you tell when you are seeing wrong, or someone else
is failing to perceive the lesson he should learn? Does pain seem real
in the perception? If it does, be sure the lesson is not learned. And
there remains an unforgiveness hiding in the mind which sees the
pain through eyes the mind directs.
God would not have you suffer thus. He would help you forgive
yourself. His Son does not remember who he is. And God would
have him not forget His Love, and all the gifts His Love brings with
It.Would you now renounce your own salvation? Would you fail to
learn the simple lessons Heaven’s Teacher sets before you that all pain
may disappear, and God may be remembered by His Son?
All things are lessons God would have you learn. He would not
leave an unforgiving thought without correction, nor one thorn or
nail to hurt His sacred Son in any way. He would ensure his holy rest
remain untroubled and serene, without a care in an eternal home
which cares for him. And He would have all tears be wiped away,
with none remaining yet unshed, and none but waiting their
appointed time to fall. For God has willed that laughter should
replace each one, and that His Son be free again.
We will attempt today to overcome a thousand seeming obstacles
to peace in just one day. Let mercy come to you more quickly. Do not
try to hold it off another day, another minute or another instant.Time
was made for this. Use it today for what its purpose is. Morning and
night devote what time you can to serve its proper aim, and do not let
the time be less than meets your deepest need.
Give all you can and give a little more, for now we would arise
in haste and go unto our Father’s house. We have been gone too
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God’s Son is freed to bless the world. Now is he free, and all his glory
shines upon a world made free with him, to share his holiness.
If you can see the lesson for today as the deliverance it really is,
you will not hesitate to give as much consistent effort as you can to
make it be a part of you. As it becomes a thought which rules your
mind, a habit in your problem-solving repertoire, a way of quick
reaction to temptation, you extend your learning to the world. And
as you learn to see salvation in all things, so will the world perceive
that it is saved.
What worry can beset the one who gives his future to the loving
hands of God? What can he suffer? What can cause him pain, or bring
experience of loss to him? What can he fear? And what can he regard
except with love? For he who has escaped all fear of future pain has
found his way to present peace, and certainty of care the world can
never threaten. He is sure that his perception may be faulty, but will
never lack correction. He is free to choose again when he has been
deceived; to change his mind when he has made mistakes.
Place, then, your future in the hands of God. For thus you call
the memory of Him to come again, replacing all your thoughts of sin
and evil with the truth of love.Think you the world could fail to gain
thereby, and every living creature not respond with healed
perception? Who entrusts himself to God has also placed the world
within the hands to which he has himself appealed for comfort and
security. He lays aside the sick illusions of the world along with his,
and offers peace to both.
Now are we saved indeed. For in God’s hands we rest
untroubled, sure that only good can come to us. If we forget, we will
be gently reassured. If we accept an unforgiving thought, it will be
soon replaced by love’s reflection. And if we are tempted to attack,
we will appeal to Him Who guards our rest to make the choice for us
that leaves temptation far behind. No longer is the world our enemy,
for we have chosen that we be its friends.
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We thank our Father for one thing alone; that we are separate from no
living thing, and therefore one with Him. And we rejoice that no
exceptions ever can be made which would reduce our wholeness, nor
impair or change our function to complete the One Who is Himself
completion. We give thanks for every living thing, for otherwise we
offer thanks for nothing, and we fail to recognize the gifts of God to us.
Then let our brothers lean their tired heads against our shoulders
as they rest a while.We offer thanks for them. For if we can direct them
to the peace that we would find, the way is opening at last to us. An
ancient door is swinging free again; a long forgotten Word re-echoes in
our memory, and gathers clarity as we are willing once again to hear.
Walk then in gratitude the way of love. For hatred is forgotten
when we lay comparisons aside. What more remains as obstacles to
peace? The fear of God is now undone at last, and we forgive
without comparing. Thus we cannot choose to overlook some
things, and yet retain some other things still locked away as sins.
When your forgiveness is complete you will have total gratitude, for
you will see that everything has earned the right to love by being
loving, even as your Self.
Today we learn to think of gratitude in place of anger, malice
and revenge. We have been given everything. If we refuse to
recognize it, we are not entitled therefore to our bitterness, and to a
self-perception which regards us in a place of merciless pursuit,
where we are badgered ceaselessly and pushed about without a
thought or care for us or for our future. Gratitude becomes the single
thought we substitute for these insane perceptions. God has cared for
us, and calls us Son. Can there be more than this?
Our gratitude will pave the way to Him, and shorten our learning
time by more than you could ever dream of. Gratitude goes hand in
hand with love, and where one is the other must be found. For
gratitude is but an aspect of the love which is the Source of all
creation. God gives thanks to you, His Son, for being what you are; His
Own completion and the Source of love, along with Him. Your
gratitude to Him is one with His to you. For love can walk no road
except the way of gratitude, and thus we go who walk the way to God.
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fearful thought you can attack another and be free yourself. Until this
form is changed, there is no hope. Until you see that this, at least,
must be entirely impossible, how could there be escape? The fear of
God is real to anyone who thinks this thought is true. And he will
not perceive its foolishness, or even see that it is there so that it would
be possible to question it.
To question it at all, its form must first be changed at least as
much as will permit fear of retaliation to abate, and the responsibility
returned to some extent to you. From there you can at least consider
if you want to go along this painful path. Until this shift has been
accomplished, you can not perceive that it is but your thoughts that
bring you fear, and your deliverance depends on you.
Our next steps will be easy, if you take this one today. From
there we go ahead quite rapidly. For once you understand it is
impossible that you be hurt except by your own thoughts, the fear of
God must disappear. You do not now believe that fear is caused
without. And God, Whom you had thought to banish, can be
welcomed back within the holy mind He never left.
Salvation’s song can certainly be heard in the idea we practice
for today. If it can but be you you crucify, you did not hurt the world
and need not fear its vengeance and pursuit. Nor need you hide in
terror from the deadly fear of God projection hides behind. The
thing you dread the most is your salvation.You are strong and it is
strength you want. And you are free, and glad of freedom.You have
sought to be both weak and bound, because you feared your strength
and freedom.Yet salvation lies in them.
There is an instant in which terror seems to grip your mind so
wholly that escape appears quite hopeless. When you realize, once
and for all, that it is you you fear, the mind perceives itself as split.
And this had been concealed while you believed attack could be
directed outward, and returned from outside to within. It seemed to
be an enemy outside you had to fear.And thus a god outside yourself
became your mortal enemy; the source of fear.
Now, for an instant, is a murderer perceived within you, eager
for your death, intent on plotting punishment for you until the time
when it can kill at last.Yet in this instant is the time as well in which
salvation comes. For fear of God has disappeared.And you can call on
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Him to save you from illusions in His Love, calling Him Father and
yourself His Son. Pray that the instant may be soon, - today. Step
back from fear and make advance to love.
There is no Thought of God that does not go with you to help
you reach that instant, and to go beyond it quickly, surely and forever.
When the fear of God is gone, there are no obstacles that still remain
between you and the holy peace of God. How kind and merciful is
the idea we practice! Give it welcome, as you should, for it is your
release. It is indeed but you your mind can try to crucify.Yet your
redemption, too, will come from you.
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given you has been withdrawn. But learn to let forgiveness take away
the sins you think you see outside yourself, and you can never think
the gifts of God are lent but for a little while, before He snatches them
away again in death. For death will have no meaning for you then.
And with the end of this belief is fear forever over.Thank your
Self for this, for He is grateful only unto God, and He gives thanks
for you unto Himself. To everyone who lives will Christ yet come,
for everyone must live and breathe in Him. His Being in His Father
is secure because Their Will is one. Their gratitude to all They have
created has no end, for gratitude remains a part of love.
Thanks be to you, the holy Son of God, for as you were created
you contain all things within your Self. And you are still as God
created you. Nor can you dim the light of your perfection. In your
heart the Heart of God is laid. He holds you dear because you are
Himself.All gratitude belongs to you because of what you are.
Give thanks as you receive it. Be you free of all ingratitude to
anyone who makes your Self complete. And from this Self is no-one
left outside. Give thanks for all the countless channels which extend
this Self. All that you do is given unto Him. All that you think can
only be His Thoughts, sharing with Him the holy Thoughts of God.
Earn now the gratitude you have denied yourself when you forgot
the function God has given you. But never think that He has ever
ceased to offer thanks to you.
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His Words will work. His Words will save. His Words contain all hope,
all blessing and all joy that ever can be found upon this earth. His
Words are born in God, and come to you with Heaven’s love upon
them.Those who hear His Words have heard the song of Heaven, for
these are the words which all merge as one at last. And as this one
will fade away, the Word of God will come to take its place, for It will
be remembered then and loved.
This world has many seeming separate haunts where mercy has
no meaning, and attack appears as justified. Yet all are one; a place
where death is offered to God’s Son and to his Father.You may think
They have accepted, but if you will look again upon the place where
you beheld Their blood, you will perceive a miracle instead.
How foolish to believe that They could die! How foolish to
believe you can attack! How mad to think that you could be
condemned, and that the holy Son of God can die! The stillness of
your Self remains unmoved, untouched by thoughts like these, and
unaware of any condemnation which could need forgiveness.
Dreams of any kind are strange and alien to the truth.Yet what but
Truth could have a Thought Which builds a bridge to truth which
brings illusions to the other side?
Today we practice letting freedom come to make its home with
you. The truth bestows these words upon your mind, that you may
find the key to light and let the darkness end:
“Only my condemnation injures me.
Only my own forgiveness sets me free.”
Do not forget today that there can be no form of suffering that
fails to hide an unforgiving thought. Nor can there be a form of pain
forgiveness cannot heal.
Accept the one illusion which proclaims there is no
condemnation in God’s Son, and Heaven is remembered instantly;
the world forgotten, all its weird beliefs forgotten with it, as the Face
of Christ appears unveiled at last in this one dream. This is the gift
the Holy Spirit holds for you from God your Father. Let today be
celebrated both on earth and in your holy home as well. Be kind to
both, as you forgive the trespasses you thought them guilty of, and
see your innocence shining upon you from the Face of Christ.
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Now is there silence all around the world. Now is there stillness
where before there was a frantic rush of thoughts that made no sense.
Now is there tranquil light across the face of earth, made quiet in a
dreamless sleep. And now the Word of God alone remains upon it.
Only That can be perceived an instant longer.Then are symbols done,
and everything you ever thought you made completely vanished from
the mind which God forever knows to be His only Son.
There is no condemnation in him. He is perfect in his holiness.
He needs no thoughts of mercy. Who could give him gifts when
everything is his? And who could dream of offering forgiveness to
the Son of Sinlessness Itself, so like to Him Whose Son he is, that to
behold the Son is to perceive no more, and only know the Father? In
this vision of the Son, so brief that not an instant stands between this
single sight and timelessness itself, you see the vision of yourself and
then you disappear forever into God.
Today we come still nearer to the end of everything that yet
would stand between this vision and our sight. And we are glad that
we have come this far, and recognize that He Who brought us here
will not forsake us now. For He would give to us the gift that God has
given us through Him today. Now is it time for your deliverance.The
time has come.The time has come today.
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lesson 200
review vi
For this review, we take but one idea each day, and practice it as often
as is possible. Besides the time you give morning and evening,
which should not be less than fifteen minutes, and the hourly
remembrances you make throughout the day, use the idea as often as
you can between them. Each of these ideas alone would be sufficient
for salvation, if it were learned truly. Each would be enough to give
release to you and to the world from every form of bondage, and
invite the memory of God to come again.
With this in mind, we start our practicing in which we carefully
review the thoughts the Holy Spirit has bestowed on us in our last
twenty lessons. Each contains the whole curriculum if understood,
practiced, accepted, and applied to all the seeming happenings
throughout the day. One is enough. But for that one, there must be
no exceptions made. And so we need to use them all, and let them
blend as one as each contributes to the whole we learn.
These practice sessions, like our last review, are centered round a
central theme with which we start and end each lesson. It is this:
“I am not a body. I am free.
For I am still as God created me.”
The day begins and ends with this. And we repeat it every time the
hour strikes, or we remember, inbetween, we have a function that
transcends the world we see. Beyond this, and a repetition of the
special thought we practice for the day, no form of exercise is urged,
except a deep relinquishment of everything that clutters up the
mind, and makes it deaf to reason, sanity and simple truth.
We will attempt to get beyond all words and special forms of
practicing for this review. For we attempt this time to reach a
quickened pace along a shorter path to the serenity and peace of
God. We merely close our eyes, and then forget all that we thought
we knew and understood. For thus is freedom given us from all we
did not know and failed to understand.
There is but one exception to this lack of structuring. Permit no
idle thought to go unchallenged. If you notice it, deny its hold and
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hasten to assure your mind that this is not what it would have.Then
gently let the thought which you denied be given up in sure and
quick exchange for the idea you practice for the day.
When you are tempted, hasten to proclaim your freedom from
temptation, as you say:
“This thought I do not want. I choose instead…”
And then repeat the idea for the day, and let it take the place of what
you thought. Beyond such special applications of each day’s idea, we
will add but a few formal expressions or specific thoughts to aid your
practicing. Instead we give these times of quiet to the Teacher Who
instructs in quiet, speaks of peace, and gives our thoughts whatever
meaning they may have.
To Him I offer this review for you. I place you in His charge, and
let Him teach you what to do and say and think each time you turn to
Him. He will not fail to be available to you each time you call to Him
to help you. Let us offer Him the whole review we now begin, and let
us also not forget to Whom it has been given, as we practice day by
day, advancing toward the goal He set for us; allowing Him to teach us
how to go, and trusting Him completely for the way each practice
period can best become a loving gift of freedom to the world.
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“I am not a body. I am free.
For I am still as God created me.”
[181] “I trust my brothers, who are one with me.”
No-one but is my brother. I am blessed
with oneness with the universe and God,
my Father, One Creator of the whole
that is my Self, forever One with me.
lesson 202
“I am not a body. I am free.
For I am still as God created me.”
[182] “I will be still a moment and go home.”
Why would I choose to stay an instant more
where I do not belong, when God Himself
has given me His Voice to call me home?
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lesson 203
“I am not a body. I am free.
For I am still as God created me.”
[183] “I call upon God’s Name and on my own.”
The Name of God is my deliverance
from every thought of evil and of sin,
because it is my own as well as His.
lesson 204
“I am not a body. I am free.
For I am still as God created me.”
[184] “The Name of God is my inheritance.”
God’s Name reminds me that I am His Son,
not slave to time, unbound by laws which rule
the world of sick illusions, free in God,
forever and forever one with Him.
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le sson 205
“I am not a body. I am free.
For I am still as God created me.”
[185] “I want the peace of God.”
The peace of God is everything I want.
The peace of God is my one goal; the aim
of all my living here, the end I seek,
my purpose and my function and my life
while I abide where I am not at home.
lesson 206
“I am not a body. I am free.
For I am still as God created me.”
[186] “Salvation of the world depends on me.”
I am entrusted with the gifts of God,
because I am His Son.And I would give
His gifts where He intended them to be.
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lesson 207
“I am not a body. I am free.
For I am still as God created me.”
[187] “I bless the world because I bless myself.”
God’s blessing shines upon me from within
my heart, where He abides. I need but turn
to Him, and every sorrow melts away
as I accept His boundless Love for me.
lesson 208
“I am not a body. I am free.
For I am still as God created me.”
[188] “The peace of God is shining in me now.”
I will be still, and let the earth be still
along with me.And in that stillness, we
will find the peace of God. It is within
my heart, which witnesses to God Himself.
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lesson 209
“I am not a body. I am free.
For I am still as God created me.”
[189] “I feel the Love of God within me now.”
The Love of God is what created me.
The Love of God is everything I am.
The Love of God proclaimed me as His Son.
The Love of God within me sets me free.
le sson 210
“I am not a body. I am free.
For I am still as God created me.”
[190] “I choose the joy of God instead of pain.”
Pain is my own idea. It is not
a thought of God, but one I thought apart
from Him and from His Will. His Will is joy
and only joy for His beloved Son.
And that I choose instead of what I made.
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l e s s o n 2 11
“I am not a body. I am free.
For I am still as God created me.”
[191] “I am the holy Son of God Himself.”
In silence and in true humility
I seek God’s glory, to behold it in
the Son whom He created as my Self.
le sson 212
“I am not a body. I am free.
For I am still as God created me.”
[192] “I have a function God would have me fill.”
I seek the function that would set me free
from all the vain illusions of the world.
Only the function God has given me
can offer freedom. Only this I seek,
and only this will I accept as mine.
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“I am not a body. I am free.
For I am still as God created me.”
[193] “All things are lessons God would have me learn.”
A lesson is a miracle which God
offers to me, in place of thoughts I made
that hurt me.What I learn of Him becomes
the way I am set free.And so I choose
to learn His lessons, and forget my own.
le sson 214
“I am not a body. I am free.
For I am still as God created me.”
[194] “I place the future in the hands of God.”
The past is gone; the future is not yet.
Now am I freed from both. For what God gives
can only be for good.And I accept
but what He gives as what belongs to me.
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“I am not a body. I am free.
For I am still as God created me.”
[195] “Love is the way I walk in gratitude.”
The Holy Spirit is my only Guide.
He walks with me in love.And I give thanks
to Him for showing me the way to go.
le sson 216
“I am not a body. I am free.
For I am still as God created me.”
[196] “It can be but myself I crucify.”
All that I do I do unto myself.
If I attack, I suffer. But if I
forgive, salvation will be given me.
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le sson 217
“I am not a body. I am free.
For I am still as God created me.”
[197] “It can be but my gratitude I earn.”
Who should give thanks for my salvation but
myself? And how but through salvation can
I find the Self to Whom my thanks are due?
le sson 218
“I am not a body. I am free.
For I am still as God created me.”
[198] “Only my condemnation injures me.”
My condemnation keeps my vision dark,
and through my sightless eyes I cannot see
the vision of my glory.Yet today
I can behold this glory, and be glad.
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le sson 219
“I am not a body. I am free.
For I am still as God created me.”
[199] “I am not a body. I am free.”
I am God’s Son. Be still, my mind, and think
a moment upon this.And then return
to earth without confusion as to what
my Father loves forever as His Son.
lesson 220
“I am not a body. I am free.
For I am still as God created me.”
[200] “There is no peace except the peace of God.”
Let me not wander from the way of peace,
for I am lost on other roads than this.
But let me follow Him Who leads me home,
and peace is certain as the Love of God.
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PART 2
INTRODUCTION
Words will mean little now. We use them but as guides on which
we do not now depend. For now we seek direct experience of truth
alone. The lessons which remain are merely introductions to the
times in which we leave the world of pain, and go to enter peace.
Now we begin to reach the goal this course has set, and find the end
toward which our practicing was geared.
Now we attempt to let the exercise be merely a beginning. For
we wait in quiet expectation for our God and Father. He has
promised He will take the final step Himself. And we are sure His
promises are kept.We have come far along the road, and now we wait
for Him. We will continue spending time with Him each morning
and at night, as long as makes us happy.We will not consider time a
matter of duration now.We use as much as we will need for the result
that we desire. Nor will we forget our hourly remembrance, in
between calling to God when we have need of Him as we are
tempted to forget our goal.
We will continue with a central thought for all the days to
come. And we will use that thought to introduce our times of rest,
and calm our minds at need.Yet we will not content ourselves with
simple practicing in the remaining holy instants which conclude the
year that we have given God.We say some simple words of welcome,
and expect our Father to reveal Himself as He has promised.We have
called on Him, and He has promised that His Son will not remain
unanswered when he calls His Name.
Now do we come to Him with but His Word upon our minds
and hearts. And wait for Him to take the step to us that He has told
us, through His Voice, He would not fail to take when we invited
him. He has not left His Son in all his madness, nor betrayed His trust
in him. Has not His faithfulness earned Him the invitation that He
seeks to make us happy? We will offer it, and it will be accepted. So
our times with Him will now be spent.We say the words of invitation
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that His Voice suggests, then we wait for Him to come to us.
Now is the time of prophecy fulfilled. Now are all ancient
promises upheld and fully kept. No step remains for time to separate
from its accomplishment. For now we cannot fail. Sit silently and
wait upon your Father. He has willed to come to you when you have
recognized it is your will He do so. And you could have never come
this far unless you saw, however dimly, that it is your will.
I am so close to you we cannot fail. Father, we give these holy
times to You in gratitude to Him Who taught us how to leave the
world of sorrow, in exchange for its replacement given us by You.We
look not backward now. We look ahead, and fix our eyes upon the
journey’s end. Accept these little gifts of thanks from us, as through
Christ’s vision we behold a world beyond the one we made, and take
that world to be the full replacement of our own.
And now we wait in silence, unafraid, and certain of Your
coming.We have sought to find our way by following the Guide You
sent to us.We did not know the way, but You did not forget us. And
we know that You will not forget us now. We ask but that Your
ancient promises be kept which are Your Will to keep.We will with
You in asking this.The Father and the Son,Whose holy Will created
all that is, can fail in nothing. In this certainty, we undertake these last
few steps to You, and rest in confidence upon Your Love,Which will
not fail the Son who calls to You.
And so we start upon the final part of this one holy year, which
we have spent together in the search for truth and God, Who is its
one Creator.We have found the way He chose for us, and made the
choice to follow it as He would have us go. His Hand has held us up.
His thoughts have lit the darkness of our minds. His Love has called
to us unceasingly since time began.
We had a wish that God would fail to have the Son whom He
created for Himself.We wanted God to change Himself, and be what
we would make of Him. And we believed that our insane desires
were the truth. Now we are glad that this is all undone, and we no
longer think illusions true.The memory of God is shimmering across
the wide horizons of our minds. A moment more, and It will rise
again.A moment more, and we who are God’s Sons are safely home,
where He would have us be.
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Now is the need for practice almost done. For in this final section we
will come to understand that we need only call to God, and all
temptations disappear. Instead of words, we need but feel His Love.
Instead of prayer, we need but call His Name. Instead of judging, we
need but be still and let all things be healed.We will accept the way
God’s plan will end, as we received the way it started. Now it is
complete.This year has brought us to eternity.
One further use for words we still retain. From time to time,
instructions on a theme of special relevance will intersperse our daily
lessons and the periods of wordless, deep experience which should
come afterwards. These special thoughts should be reviewed each
day, each one of them to be continued till the next is given you.They
should be slowly read and thought about a little while, preceding one
of the holy and blessed instants in the day.We give the first of these
instructions now.
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w hat i s f o r g i v e n e s s ?
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lesson 221
“Peace to my mind. Let all my thoughts be still.”
“Father, I come to You today to seek the peace that You alone can give. I come
in silence. In the quiet of my heart, the deep recesses of my mind, I wait and
listen for Your Voice. My Father, speak to me today. I come to hear Your Voice in
silence and in certainty and love, sure You will hear my call and answer me.”
Now do we wait in quiet. God is here because we wait together.
I am sure that He will speak to you, and you will hear. Accept my
confidence, for it is yours. Our minds are joined. We wait with one
intent; to hear our Father’s answer to our call, to let our thoughts be
still and find His peace, to hear Him speak to us of what we are, and
to reveal Himself unto His Son.
lesson 222
“God is with me. I live and breathe in Him.”
God is with me. He is my Source of life, the life within, the air I
breathe, the food by which I am sustained, the water which renews
and cleanses me. He is my home, wherein I live and move; the Spirit
Which directs my actions, offers me Its Thoughts, and guarantees my
safety from all pain. He covers me with kindness and with care, and
holds in love the Son He shines upon, who also shines on Him. How
still is he who knows the truth of what He speaks today!
“Father, we have no words except Your Name upon our lips and in our
minds, as we come quietly into Your Presence now, and ask to rest with You in
peace a while.”
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lesson 223
“God is my life. I have no life but His.”
I was mistaken when I thought I lived apart from God, a separate
entity which moved in isolation, unattached, and housed within a
body. Now I know my life is God’s, I have no other home, and I do
not exist apart from Him. He has no Thoughts that are not part of
me, and I have none but Those which are of Him.
“Our Father, let us see the face of Christ instead of our mistakes. For we
who are Your holy Son are sinless.We would look upon our sinlessness, for guilt
proclaims that we are not Your Son. And we would not forget You longer.We
are lonely here, and long for Heaven, where we are at home.Today we would
return. Our Name is Yours, and we acknowledge that we are Your Son.”
lesson 224
“God is my Father, and He loves His Son.”
My true Identity is so secure, so lofty, sinless, glorious and great,
wholly beneficent and free from guilt, that Heaven looks to It to give
it light. It lights the world as well. It is the gift my Father gave me, the
one as well I give the world. There is no gift but This that can be
either given or received.This is reality, and only This.This is illusion’s
end. It is the Truth.
“My Name, oh Father, still is known to You. I have forgotten it, and
do not know where I am going, who I am, or what it is I do. Remind me,
Father, now, for I am weary of the world I see. Reveal what You would have
me see instead.”
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le sson 225
“God is my Father, and His Son loves Him.”
“Father, I must return Your Love for me. For giving and receiving are the
same, and You have given all Your Love to me. I must return It, for I want It
mine in full awareness, blazing in my mind, and keeping it within Its kindly
light, inviolate, beloved, with fear behind and only peace ahead. How still the
way Your loving Son is led along to You!”
Brother, we find that stillness now. The way is open. Now we
follow it in peace together.You have reached your hand to me, and I
will never leave you. We are one, and it is but this oneness that we
seek as we accomplish these few final steps which end a journey that
was not begun.
lesson 226
“My home awaits me. I will hasten there.”
If I so choose, I can depart this world entirely. It is not death which
makes this possible, but it is change of mind about the purpose of the
world. If I believe it has a value as I see it now, so will it still remain
for me. But if I see no value in the world as I behold it, nothing that
I want to keep as mine or search for as a goal, it will depart from me.
For I have not sought for illusions to replace the truth.
“Father, my home awaits my glad return.Your arms are open, and I
hear Your Voice.What need have I to linger in a place of vain desires and of
broken dreams when Heaven can so easily be mine?”
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lesson 227
“This is my holy instant of release.”
“Father, it is today that I am free, because my will is Yours. I thought to make
another will.Yet nothing that I thought apart from You exists. And I am free
because I was mistaken, and did not affect my own reality at all by my
illusions. Now I give them up, and lay them down before the feet of truth, to
be removed forever from my mind.This is my holy instant of release. Father, I
know my will is one with Yours.”
And so today we find our glad return to Heaven, which we
never really left.The Son of God this day lays down his dreams.The
Son of God this day comes home again, released from sin and clad in
holiness, with his right mind restored to him at last.
lesson 228
“God has condemned me not. No more do I.”
My Father knows my holiness. Shall I deny His knowledge, and
believe in what His knowledge makes impossible? Shall I accept as
true what He proclaims as false? Or shall I take His Word for what I
am since He is my Creator, and the One Who knows the true
condition of His Son?
“Father, I was mistaken in myself, because I failed to realize the Source
from Which I came. I have not left that Source to enter in a body and to die.
My holiness remains a part of me, as I am part of You. And my mistakes
about myself are dreams. I let them go today.And I stand ready to receive Your
Word alone for what I really am.”
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lesson 229
“ Love,Which created me, is what I am.”
I seek my own identity, and find It in these words: “Love, Which
created me, is what I am.” Now need I seek no more. Love has
prevailed. So still it waited for my coming home, that I will turn away
no longer from the holy face of Christ.And what I look upon attests
the truth of the identity I sought to lose, but which my Father has
kept safe for me.
“Father, my thanks to You for what I am; for keeping my identity
untouched and sinless in the midst of all the thoughts of sin my foolish mind
made up.And thanks to You for saving me from them.Amen.”
lesson 230
“Now will I seek and find the peace of God.”
In peace I was created. And in peace do I remain. It is not given me
to change my Self. How merciful is God my Father, that when He
created me He gave me peace forever. Now I ask but to be what I
am.And can this be denied me, when it is forever so?
“Father, I seek the peace You gave as mine in my creation.What was
given then must be here now, for my creation was apart from time, and still
remains beyond all change.The peace in which Your Son was born into Your
Mind is shining there unchanged. I am as You created me. I need but call on
You to find the peace You gave. It is Your Will that gave it to Your Son.”
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w h at i s s a lvat i o n ?
Salvation is a promise, made by God, that you would find your way
to Him at last. It cannot not be kept. It guarantees that time will have
an end, and all the thoughts that have been born in time will end as
well. God’s Word is given every mind which thinks that it has
separate thoughts, and will replace these thoughts of conflict with
the Thought of peace.
The Thought of peace was given to God’s Son the instant that
his mind had thought of war.There was no need for such a Thought
before, for peace was given without opposite, and merely was. But
when the mind is split there is a need of healing. So the Thought
Which has the power to heal the split became a part of every
fragment of the mind that still was one, but failed to recognize its
oneness. Now it did not know itself, and thought its own identity
was lost.
Salvation is undoing in the sense that it does nothing, failing to
support the world of dreams and malice.Thus it lets illusions go. By
not supporting them, it merely lets them quietly go down to dust.
And what they hid is now revealed; an altar to the holy Name of
God whereon His Word is written, with the gifts of your forgiveness
laid before It, and the memory of God not far behind.
Let us come daily to this holy place, and spend a while together.
Here we share our final dream. It is a dream in which there is no
sorrow, for it holds a hint of all the glory given us by God.The grass
is pushing through the soil, the trees are budding now, and birds have
come to live within their branches. Earth is being born again in new
perception. Night has gone, and we have come together in the light.
From here we give salvation to the world, for it is here salvation
was received.The song of our rejoicing is the call to all the world that
freedom is returned, that time is almost over, and God’s Son has but
an instant more to wait until his Father is remembered, dreams are
done, eternity has shined away the world, and only Heaven now
exists at all.
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l e s s o n 2 31
“Father, I will but to remember You.”
“What can I seek for, Father, but Your Love? Perhaps I think I seek for
something else; a something I have called by many names.Yet is Your Love the
only thing I seek, or ever sought. For there is nothing else that I could ever
really want to find. Let me remember You.What else could I desire but the
truth about myself?”
This is your will, my brother. And you share this will with me,
and with the One as well Who is our Father. To remember Him is
Heaven.This we seek.And only this is what it will be given us to find.
lesson 232
“Be in my mind, my Father, through the day.”
“Be in my mind, my Father, when I wake, and shine on me throughout the
day today. Let every minute be a time in which I dwell with You.And let me
not forget my hourly thanksgiving that You have remained with me, and
always will be there to hear my call to You and answer me.As evening comes,
let all my thoughts be still of You and of Your Love, and let me sleep sure of
my safety, certain of Your care, and happily aware I am Your Son.”
This is as every day should be. Today practice the end of fear.
Have faith in Him Who is your Father. Trust all things to Him. Let
Him reveal all things to you, and be you undismayed because you are
His Son.
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le sson 233
“I give my life to God to run today.”
“Father, I give You all my thoughts today. I would have none of mine. In place
of them give me Your Own. I give You all my acts as well, that I may do Your
Will instead of seeking goals which cannot be obtained, and wasting time in
vain imaginings.Today I come to You. I will step back and merely follow You.
Be You the Guide, and I the follower who questions not the wisdom of the
Infinite, nor Love Whose tenderness I cannot comprehend, but which is yet
Your perfect gift to me.”
Today we have one Guide to lead us on. And as we walk
together, we will give this day to Him with no reserve at all.This is
His day.And so it is a day of countless gifts and mercies unto us.
lesson 234
“Father, today I am Your Son again.”
Today we will anticipate the time when dreams of sin and guilt are
gone, and we have reached the holy peace we never left. Merely a
tiny instant has elapsed between eternity and timelessness. So brief
the interval there was no lapse in continuity, nor break in thoughts
which are forever unified as one. Nothing has ever happened to
disturb the peace of God the Father and the Son.This we accept as
wholly true today.
“We thank You, Father, that we cannot lose the memory of You and of
Your Love.We recognize our safety, and give thanks for all the gifts You have
bestowed on us, for all the loving help we have received, for Your eternal
patience, and the Word which You have given us that we are saved.”
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le s s on 235
“God in His mercy wills that I be saved.”
I need but look upon all things that seem to hurt me, and with
perfect certainty assure myself,“God wills that I be saved from this,”
and merely watch them disappear. I need but keep in mind my
Father’s Will for me is only happiness, to find that only happiness has
come to me. And I need but remember that His Love surrounds His
Son and keeps his sinlessness forever perfect, to be sure that I am
saved and safe forever in His arms. I am the Son He loves. And I am
saved because God in His mercy wills it so.
“Father, Your holiness is mine. Your Love created me, and made my
sinlessness forever part of You. I have no guilt or sin in me, for there is none
inYou.”
le sson 236
“I rule my mind, which I alone must rule.”
I have a kingdom I must rule.At times, it does not seem I am its king
at all. It seems to triumph over me, and tell me what to think, and what
to do and feel.And yet it has been given me to serve whatever purpose
I perceive in it. My mind can only serve.Today I give its service to the
Holy Spirit, to employ as He sees fit. I thus direct my mind, which I
alone can rule.And thus I set it free, to do the Will of God.
“Father, my mind is open to Your Thoughts, and closed today to every
thought but Yours. I rule my mind, and offer it to You.Accept my gift, for it is
Yours to me.”
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le sson 237
“Now would I be as God created me.”
Today I will accept the truth about myself. I will arise in glory, and
allow the light in me to shine upon the world throughout the day. I
bring the world the tidings of salvation that I hear as God my Father
speaks to me.And I behold the world that Christ would have me see,
aware it ends the bitter dream of death; aware it is my Father’s call
to me.
“Christ is my eyes today, and His the ears which listen to the Voice of
God today. Father, I come to You through Him Who is Your Son and my true
Self as well.Amen.”
le sson 238
“On my decision all salvation rests.”
“Father,Your trust in me has been so great I must be worthy.You created me,
and know me as I am. And yet You placed Your Son’s salvation in my hands,
and let it rest on my decision. I must be beloved of You indeed.And I must be
steadfast in holiness as well, that You would give Your Son to me in certainty
that He is safe Who still is part of You, and yet is mine because He is my Self.”
And so again today we pause to think how much our Father
loves us.And how dear His Son, created by His Love, remains to Him
Whose Love is made complete in him.
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lesson 239
“The glory of my Father is my own.”
Let not the truth about ourselves today be hidden by a false humility.
Let us instead be thankful for the gifts our Father gave us. Can we see
in those with whom He shares His glory any trace of sin and guilt?
And can it be that we are not among them, when He loves His Son
forever and with perfect constancy, knowing he is as He created him?
“We thank You, Father, for the light that shines forever in us. And we
honor it, because You share it with us.We are one, united in this light and one
with You, at peace with all creation and ourselves.”
lesson 240
“Fear is not justified in any form.”
Fear is deception. It attests that you have seen yourself as you could
never be, and therefore look upon a world which is impossible. Not
one thing in this world is true. It does not matter what the form in
which it may appear. It witnesses but to your own illusions of
yourself. Let us not be deceived today.We are the Son of God.There
is no fear in us, for we are each a part of Love Itself.
“How foolish are our fears! Would You allow Your Son to suffer? Give
us faith today to recognize Your Son and set him free. Let us forgive him in
Your Name, that we may understand his holiness, and feel the love for him
that is Your Own as well.”
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w hat i s t h e wo r l d ?
The world is false perception. It is born of error, and it has not left its
source. It will remain no longer than the thought which gave it birth is
cherished.When the thought of separation has been changed to one of
true forgiveness, will the world be seen in quite another light; and one
which leads to truth, where all the world must disappear and all its
errors vanish. Now its source has gone, and its effects are gone as well.
The world was made as an attack on God. It symbolizes fear.
And what is fear except love’s absence? Thus the world was meant to
be a place where God could enter not, and where His Son could be
apart from Him. Here was perception born, for knowledge could not
cause such insane thoughts. But eyes deceive, and ears hear falsely.
Now mistakes become quite possible, for certainty has gone.
The mechanisms of illusion have been born instead. And now
they go to find what has been given them to seek. Their aim is to
fulfill the purpose which the world was made to witness and make
real. They see in its illusions but a solid base where truth exists,
upheld apart from lies.Yet everything that they report is but illusion
which is kept apart from truth.
As sight was made to lead away from truth, it can be redirected.
Sounds become the call of God. And all perception can be given a
new purpose by the One Whom God appointed Savior to the world.
Follow His light and see the world as He beholds it. Hear His Voice
alone in all that speaks to you. And let Him give you peace and
certainty, which you have thrown away, but Heaven has preserved for
you in Him.
Let us not rest content until the world has joined our changed
perception. Let us not be satisfied until forgiveness has been made
complete.And let us not attempt to change our function.We must save
the world. For we who made it must behold it through the eyes of
Christ, that what was made to die can be restored to Everlasting Life.
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le sson 241
“This holy instant is salvation come.”
What joy there is today! It is a time of special celebration. For today
holds out the instant to the darkened world where its release is set.
The day has come when sorrows pass away, and pain is gone. The
glory of salvation dawns today upon a world set free.This is the time
of hope for countless millions. They will be united now, as you
forgive them all. For I will be forgiven by you today.
“We have forgiven one another now, and so we come at last to You
again. Father,Your Son, who never left, returns to Heaven and his home.
How glad are we to have our sanity restored to us, and to remember that we
all are one.”
lesson 242
“This day is God’s. It is my gift to Him.”
I will not lead my life alone today. I do not understand the world.
And so to try to lead my life alone must be but foolishness. For there
is One Who knows all that is best for me.And He is glad to make no
choices for me but the ones that lead to God.This day I give to Him,
for I would not delay my coming home, and it is He Who knows the
way to Him.
“And so we give today to You.We come with wholly open minds.We do
not ask for anything that we may think we want. Give us what You would
have received by us.You know all our desires and our needs.And You will give
us everything we want and that will help us find the way to You.”
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lesson 243
“Today I will judge nothing that occurs.”
I will be honest with myself today. I will not think that I already
know what must remain beyond my present grasp. I will not think I
understand the whole from bits of my perception, which are all that
I can see. Today I recognize that this is so. And so I am relieved of
judgement which I cannot make. Thus do I free myself and what I
look upon, to be in peace as God created us.
“Father, today I leave creation free to be itself. I honor all the parts, in
which I am included.We are one because each part contains Your memory, and
truth must shine in all of us as one.”
lesson 244
“I am in danger nowhere in the world.”
“Your Son is safe wherever he may be, for You are there with him. He need
but call upon Your Name, and he will recollect his safety and Your Love, for
they are one. How can he fear or doubt or fail to know he cannot suffer, be
endangered, or experience unhappiness, when he belongs to You, beloved and
loving, in the safety of Your Fatherly embrace?”
And there we are in truth. No storms can come into the
hallowed haven of our home. In God we are secure. For what can
come to threaten God Himself, or make afraid what will forever be a
part of Him?
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lesson 245
“Your peace is with me, Father. I am safe.”
“Your peace surrounds me, Father.Where I go,Your peace goes there with me.
It sheds its light on everyone I meet. I bring it to the desolate and lonely and
afraid. I give Your peace to those who suffer pain, or grieve for loss, or think
they are bereft of hope and happiness. Send them to me, my Father. Let me
bring Your peace with me. For I would save Your Son, as is Your Will, that I
may come to recognize my Self.”
And so we go in peace. To all the world we give the message
that we have received. And thus we come to hear the Voice of God,
Who speaks to us as we relate His Word;Whose Love we recognize
because we share the Word that He has given unto us.
lesson 246
“To love my Father is to love His Son.”
Let me not think that I can find the way to God if I have hatred in
my heart. Let me not try to hurt God’s Son, and think that I can
know his Father or my Self. Let me not fail to recognize myself, and
still believe that my awareness can contain my Father; or my mind
conceive of all the love my Father has for me, and all the love which
I return to Him.
“I will accept the way You choose for me to come to You, my Father. For
in that will I succeed, because it is Your Will. And I would recognize that
what You will is what I will as well, and only that. And so I choose to love
Your Son.Amen.”
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lesson 247
“Without forgiveness I will still be blind.”
Sin is the symbol of attack. Behold it anywhere, and I will suffer. For
forgiveness is the only means whereby Christ’s vision comes to me.
Let me accept what His sight shows me as the simple truth, and I am
healed completely. Brother, come and let me look on you. Your
loveliness reflects my own. Your sinlessness is mine. You stand
forgiven, and I stand with you.
“So would I look on everyone today. My brothers are Your Sons.Your
Fatherhood created them, and gave them all to me as part of You and my own
Self as well.Today I honor You through them, and thus I hope this day to
recognize my Self.”
lesson 248
“Whatever suffers is not part of me.”
I have disowned the truth. Now let me be as faithful in disowning
falsity.Whatever suffers is not part of me.What grieves is not myself.
What is in pain is but illusion in my mind.What dies was never living
in reality, and did but mock the truth about myself. Now I disown
self-concepts and deceits and lies about the holy Son of God. Now
am I ready to accept him back as God created him, and as he is.
“Father, my ancient love for You returns, and lets me love Your Son
again as well. Father, I am as You created me. Now is Your Love remembered,
and my own. Now do I understand that they are one.”
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PART 2
lesson 249
“Forgiveness ends all suffering and loss.”
Forgiveness paints a picture of a world where suffering is over, loss
becomes impossible and anger makes no sense. Attack is gone, and
madness has an end.What suffering is now conceivable? What loss can
be sustained? The world becomes a place of joy, abundance, charity
and endless giving. It is now so like to Heaven that it quickly is
transformed into the Light that it reflects. And so the journey which
the Son of God began has ended in the Light from Which he came.
“Father, we would return our minds to You. We have betrayed them;
held them in a vise of bitterness, and frightened them with thoughts of
violence and death. Now would we rest again in You, as You created us.”
le sson 250
“Let me not see myself as limited.”
Let me behold the Son of God today, and witness to his glory. Let me
not try to obscure the holy light in him, and see his strength
diminished and reduced to frailty; nor perceive the lacks in him with
which I would attack his sovereignty.
“He is Your Son, my Father. And today I would behold his gentleness
instead of my illusions. He is what I am, and as I see him so I see myself.
Today I would see truly, that this day I may at last identify with him.”
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Sin is insanity. It is the means by which the mind is driven mad, and
seeks to let illusions take the place of truth. And being mad, it sees
illusions where truth should be, and where it really is. Sin gave the
body eyes, for what is there the sinless would behold? What need
have they of sights or sounds or touch? What would they hear or
reach to grasp? What would they sense at all? To sense is not to know.
And truth can be but filled with knowledge, and with nothing else.
The body is the instrument the mind made in its striving to
deceive itself. Its purpose is to strive. Yet can the goal of striving
change.And now the body serves a different aim for striving.What it
seeks for now is chosen by the aim the mind has taken as replacement
for the goal of self-deception.Truth can be its aim as well as lies.The
senses then will seek instead for witnesses to what is true.
Sin is the home of all illusions, which but stand for things
imagined, issuing from thoughts which are untrue. They are the
“proof ” that what has no reality is real. Sin “proves” God’s Son is evil;
timelessness must have an end; Eternal life must die. And God
Himself has lost the Son He loves, with but corruption to complete
Himself, His Will forever overcome by death, love slain by hate, and
peace to be no more.
A madman’s dreams are frightening, and sin appears indeed to
terrify. And yet what sin perceives is but a childish game.The Son of
God may play he has become a body, prey to evil and to guilt, with
but a little life that ends in death. But all the while his Father shines
on him, and loves him with an everlasting Love which his pretenses
cannot change at all.
How long, oh Son of God, will you maintain the game of sin?
Shall we not put away these sharp-edged children’s toys? How soon
will you be ready to come home? Perhaps today? There is no sin.
Creation is unchanged.Would you still hold return to Heaven back?
How long, oh holy Son of God, how long?
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le s s on 251
“I am in need of nothing but the truth.”
I sought for many things, and found despair. Now do I seek but one,
for in that one is all I need, and only what I need. All that I sought
before I needed not, and did not even want. My only need I did not
recognize. But now I see that I need only truth. In that, all needs are
satisfied, all cravings end, all hopes are finally fulfilled and dreams are
gone. Now have I everything that I could need. Now have I
everything that I could want.And now at last I find myself at peace.
“And for that peace, our Father, we give thanks. What we denied
ourselves You have restored, and only that is what we really want.”
le sson 252
“The Son of God is my identity.”
My Self is holy beyond all the thoughts of holiness of which I now
conceive. Its shimmering and perfect purity is far more brilliant than
is any light that I have ever looked upon. Its love is limitless, with an
intensity that holds all things within it in the calm of quiet certainty.
Its strength comes not from burning impulses which move the
world, but from the boundless Love of God Himself. How far
beyond this world my Self must be, and yet how near to me and close
to God!
“Father,You know my true identity. Reveal it now to me who am Your
Son, that I may waken to the truth in You, and know that Heaven is restored
to me.”
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le sson 253
“My Self is ruler of the universe.”
It is impossible that anything should come to me unbidden by
myself. Even in this world, it is I who rule my destiny.What happens
is what I desire. What does not occur is what I do not want to
happen.This must I accept. For thus am I led past this world to my
creations, children of my Will, in Heaven where my holy Self abides
with them, and Him Who has created me.
“You are the Self Whom You created Son, creating like Yourself and one
with You. My Self,Which rules the universe, is but Your Will in perfect union
with my own, Which can but offer glad assent to Yours, that It may be
extended to Itself.”
le sson 254
“Let every voice but God’s be still in me.”
“Father, today I would but hearYour Voice. In deepest silence I would come to
You, to hear Your Voice and to receive Your Word. I have no prayer but this: I
come to You to ask You for the truth. And truth is but Your Will, which I
would share with You today.”
Today we let no evil thoughts direct our words or actions.When
such thoughts occur, we quietly step back and look at them, and then
we let them go.We do not want what they would bring with them.
And so we do not choose to keep them.They are silent now. And in
the stillness, hallowed by His Love, God speaks to us and tells us of
our Will, as we have chosen to remember Him.
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le sson 255
“This day I choose to spend in perfect peace.”
It does not seem to me that I can choose to have but peace today.
And yet, my God assures me that His Son is like Himself. Let me this
day have faith in Him Who says I am God’s Son. And let the peace I
choose be mine today bear witness to the truth of what He says.
God’s Son can have no cares, and must remain forever in the peace of
Heaven. In his name I give today to finding what my Father wills for
me, accepting it as mine, and giving it to all my Father’s Sons, along
with me.
“And so, my Father, would I pass this day with You.Your Son has not
forgotten You.The peace You gave him still is in his mind, and it is there I
choose to spend today.”
le sson 256
“God is the only goal I have today.”
The way to God is through forgiveness here.There is no other way.
If sin had not been cherished by the mind, what need would there
have been to find a way to where you are? Who would still be
uncertain? Who could be unsure of who he is? And who would yet
remain asleep in heavy clouds of doubt about the holiness of him
who God created sinless? Here we can but dream. But we can dream
we have forgiven him in whom all sin remains impossible, and it is
this we choose to dream today. God is our goal; forgiveness is the
means by which our minds return to Him at last.
“And so, our Father, would we come to You in Your appointed way.We
have no goal except to hear Your Voice, and find the way Your sacred Word has
pointed out to us.”
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le sson 257
“Let me remember what my purpose is.”
If I forget my goal, I can be but confused, unsure of what I am, and
thus conflicted in my actions. No-one can serve contradicting goals
and serve them well. Nor can he function without deep distress and
great depression. Let us therefore be determined to remember what
we want today, that we may unify our thoughts and actions
meaningfully, and achieve only what God would have us do today.
“Father, forgiveness is Your chosen means for our salvation. Let us not
forget that we can have no will but Yours today.And thus our purpose must be
Yours as well, if we would reach the peace You will for us.”
le sson 258
“Let me remember that my goal is God.”
All that is needful is to train our minds to overlook all little, senseless
aims, and to remember that our goal is God. His memory is hidden
in our minds, obscured but by our pointless little goals which offer
nothing and do not exist. Shall we continue to allow God’s grace to
shine in unawareness, while the toys and trinkets of the world are
sought instead? God is our only goal, our only Love.We have no aim
but to remember Him.
“Our goal is but to follow in the way that leads to You.We have no goal
but this.What could we want but to remember You? What could we seek but
our identity?”
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le sson 259
“Let me remember that there is no sin.”
Sin is the only thought that makes the goal of God seem
unobtainable.What else could blind us to the obvious, and make the
strange and the distorted seem more clear? What else but sin
engenders our attacks? What else but sin could be the source of guilt,
demanding punishment and suffering? And what but this could be
the source of fear, obscuring God’s creation; giving love the attributes
of fear and of attack?
“Father, I would not be insane today. I would not be afraid of love, nor
seek for refuge in its opposite. For love can have no opposite. You are the
Source of everything that is.And everything that is remains with You and You
with it.”
lesson 260
“Let me remember God created me.”
“Father, I did not make myself, although in my insanity I thought I did.Yet as
Your Thought I have not left my Source, remaining part of What created me.
Your Son, my Father, calls on You today. Let me remember You created me. Let
me remember my identity. And let my sinlessness arise again before Christ’s
vision, through which I would look upon my brothers and myself today.”
Now is our Source remembered, and Therein we find our true
Identity at last. Holy indeed are we, because our Source can know no
sin.And we who are His Sons are like each other, and alike to Him.
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w hat i s t h e b o dy ?
The body is a fence the Son of God imagines he has built to separate
parts of his Self from other parts. It is within this fence he thinks he
lives, to die as it decays and crumbles. For within this fence he thinks
that he is safe from love. Identifying with his safety, he regards himself
as what his safety is. How else could he be certain he remains within
the body, keeping love outside?
The body will not stay.Yet this he sees as double safety. For the
Son of God’s impermanence is “proof ” his fences work, and do the
task his mind assigns to them. For if his oneness still remained
untouched, who could attack and who could be attacked? Who
could be victor? Who could be his prey? Who could be victim? Who
the murderer? And if he did not die, what “proof ” is there that God’s
eternal Son has been destroyed?
The body is a dream. Like other dreams, it sometimes seems to
picture happiness, but can quite suddenly revert to fear, where every
dream is born. For only love creates in truth, and truth can never
fear. Made to be fearful, must the body serve the purpose given it.
But we can change the purpose which the body will obey by
changing what we think that it is for.
The body is the means by which God’s Son returns to sanity.
Though it was made to fence him into hell without escape, yet has
the goal of Heaven been exchanged for the pursuit of hell.The Son
of God extends his hand to reach his brother, and to help him walk
along the road with him. Now is the body holy. Now it serves to heal
the mind that it was made to kill.
You will identify with what you think will make you safe.
Whatever it may be, you will believe that it is one with you. Your
safety lies in truth and not in lies. Love is your safety. Fear does not
exist. Identify with love, and you are safe. Identify with love, and you
are home. Identify with love, and find your Self.
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le sson 2 61
“God is my refuge and security.”
I will identify with what I think is refuge and security. I will behold
myself where I perceive my strength, and think I live within the
citadel where I am safe, and cannot be attacked. Let me today seek
not security in danger, nor attempt to find my peace in murderous
attack. I live in God. In Him I find my refuge and my strength. In
Him is my Identity. In Him is everlasting peace. And only there will
I remember Who I really am.
“Let me not seek for idols. I would come, my Father, home to You today. I
choose to be as You created me, and find the Son whomYou created as my Self.”
lesson 262
“Let me perceive no differences today.”
“Father,You have one Son.And it is he that I would look upon today. He is
Your one creation.Why should I perceive a thousand forms in what remains
as one? Why should I give this one a thousand names, when only one
suffices? For Your Son must bear Your Name, for You created him. Let me not
see him as a stranger to his Father, nor as stranger to myself. For he is part of
me and I of him, and we are part of You Who are our Source, eternally united
in Your Love; eternally the holy Son of God.”
We who are one would recognize this day the truth about
ourselves.We would come home, and rest in unity. For there is peace,
and nowhere else can peace be sought and found.
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lesson 263
“My holy vision sees all things as pure.”
“Father,Your Mind created all that is,Your Spirit entered into it;Your Love
gave life to it.And would I look upon what You created as if it could be made
sinful? I would not perceive such dark and fearful images.A madman’s dream
is hardly fit to be my choice, instead of all the loveliness with which You
blessed creation; all its purity, its joy, and its eternal, quiet home in You.”
And while we still remain outside the gate of Heaven, let us
look on all we see through holy vision and the eyes of Christ. Let all
appearances seem pure to us, that we may pass them by in innocence,
and walk together to our Father’s house as brothers and the holy
Sons of God.
lesson 264
“I am surrounded by the Love of God.”
“Father,You stand before me and behind, beside me, in the place I see myself,
and everywhere I go.You are in all the things I look upon, the sounds I hear, and
every hand that reaches for my own. In You time disappears, and place becomes
a meaningless belief. For what surrounds Your Son and keeps him safe is Love
Itself. There is no Source but This, and nothing is that does not share Its
holiness; that stands beyond Your one creation, or without the Love Which holds
all things within Itself. Father,Your Son is like Yourself.We come to You in Your
own Name today, to be at peace within Your everlasting Love.”
My brothers, join with me in this today.This is salvation’s prayer.
Must we not join in what will save the world, along with us?
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lesson 265
“Creation’s gentleness is all I see.”
I have indeed misunderstood the world, because I laid my “sins” on
it, and saw them looking back at me. How fierce they seemed! And
how deceived was I to think that what I feared was in the world,
instead of in my mind alone. Today I see the world in the celestial
gentleness with which creation shines.There is no fear in it. Let no
appearance of my “sins” obscure the light of Heaven, shining on the
world. What is reflected here is in God’s Mind. The images I see
reflect my thoughts.Yet is my mind at one with God’s. And so I can
perceive creation’s gentleness.
“In quiet would I look upon the world, which but reflects Your Thoughts
and mine as well. Let me remember that they are the same, and I will see
creation’s gentleness.”
lesson 266
“My holy Self abides in you, God’s Son.”
“Father,You gave me all Your Sons, to be my Saviors and my Counselors in
sight; the Bearers of Your holy Voice to me. In them are You reflected, and in
them does Christ look back upon me from my Self. Let not Your Son forget
Your holy Name. Let not Your Son forget his holy Source. Let not Your Son
forget his name is Yours.”
This day we enter into paradise, calling upon God’s Name and
on our own, acknowledging our Self in each of us, united in the holy
Love of God. How many saviors God has given us! How can we lose
the way to Him, when He has filled the world with those who point
to Him, and given us the sight to look on them?
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lesson 267
“ My heart is beating in the peace of God.”
Surrounding me is all the life that God created in His Love. It calls to
me in every heartbeat and in every breath; in every action and in
every thought. Peace fills my heart, and floods my body with the
purpose of forgiveness. Now my mind is healed, and all I need to save
the world is given me. Each heartbeat brings me peace; each breath
infuses me with strength. I am a messenger of God, directed by His
Voice, sustained by Him in love, and held forever quiet and at peace
within His loving arms. Each heartbeat calls His Name, and everyone
is answered by His Voice, assuring me I am at home in Him.
“Let me attend Your Answer, not my own. Father, my heart is beating in
the peace the Heart of Love created. It is there and only there that I can be
at home.”
lesson 268
“Let all things be exactly as they are.”
“Let me not be Your critic, Lord, today, and judge against You. Let me not
attempt to interfere with Your creation, and distort it into sickly forms. Let me
be willing to withdraw my wishes from its unity, and thus to let it be as You
created it. For thus will I be able, too, to recognize my Self as You created me.
In Love was I created, and in Love will I remain forever.What can frighten
me when I let all things be exactly as they are?”
Let not our sight be blasphemous today, nor let our ears attend
to lying tongues. Only reality is free of pain. Only reality is free of
loss. Only reality is wholly safe.And it is only this we seek today.
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lesson 269
“My sight goes forth to look upon Christ’s face.”
“I ask Your blessing on my sight today. It is the means which You have chosen
to become the way to show me my mistakes, and look beyond them. It is given
me to find a new perception through the Guide You gave to me.And through
His lessons to surpass perception and return to truth. I ask for the illusion
which transcends all those I made.Today I choose to see a world forgiven, in
which everyone shows me the face of Christ, and teaches me that what I look
upon belongs to me; that nothing is except Your holy Son.”
Today our sight is blessed indeed. We share one vision, as we
look upon the face of Him Whose Self is ours.We are one because of
Him Who is the Son of God; of Him Who is our own Identity.
lesson 270
“I will not use the body’s eyes today.”
“Father, Christ’s vision is Your gift to me, and it has power to translate all
that the body’s eyes behold into the sight of a forgiven world. How glorious
and gracious is this world! Yet how much more will I perceive in it than sight
can give.The world forgiven signifies Your Son acknowledges his Father, lets
his dreams be brought to truth, and waits expectantly the one remaining
instant more of time, which ends forever as Your memory returns to him.And
now his will is one with Yours. His function now is but Your Own, and every
thought except Your own is gone.”
The quiet of today will bless our hearts, and through them
peace will come to everyone. Christ is our eyes today. And through
His sight we offer healing to the world through Him, the holy Son
whom God created whole; the holy Son whom God created one.
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le sson 271
“Christ’s is the vision I will use today.”
Each day, each hour, every instant, I am choosing what I want to look
upon, the sounds I want to hear, the witnesses to what I want to be
the truth for me. Today I choose to look upon what Christ would
have me see, to listen to God’s Voice, and seek the witnesses to what
is true in God’s creation. In Christ’s sight, the world and God’s
creation meet, and as they come together all perception disappears.
His kindly sight redeems the world from death. For nothing that He
looks on but must live, remembering the Father and the Son; Creator
and Creation unified.
“Father, Christ’s vision is the way to You.What He beholds invites Your
memory to be restored to me. And this I choose to be what I would look
upon today.”
lesson 272
“How can illusions satisfy God’s Son?”
“Father, the truth belongs to me. My home is set in Heaven by Your Will and
mine. Can dreams content me? Can illusions bring me happiness? What but
Your memory can satisfy Your Son? I will accept no less than You have given
me. I am surrounded by Your Love, forever still, forever gentle and forever safe.
God’s Son must be as You created him.”
Today we pass illusions by. And if we hear temptation call to us
to stay and linger in a dream, we turn aside and ask ourselves if we,
the Sons of God, could be content with dreams, when Heaven can
be chosen just as easily as hell, and love will happily replace all fear.
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lesson 273
“The stillness of the peace of God is mine.”
Perhaps we are now ready for a day of undisturbed tranquility. If this
is not yet feasible, we are content and even more than satisfied to
learn how such a day can be achieved. If we give way to a
disturbance, let us learn how to dismiss it and return to peace. We
need but tell our minds, with certainty,“The stillness of the peace of
God is mine,” and nothing can intrude upon the peace that God
Himself has given to His Son.
“Father,Your peace is mine.What need have I to fear that anything can
rob me of what You would have me keep? I cannot lose Your gifts to me.And
so the peace You gave Your Son is with me still, in quietness and in my own
eternal love for You.”
le sson 274
“Today belongs to Love. Let me not fear.”
“Father, today I would let all things be as You created them, and give Your
Sons the honor due their sinlessness; the love of brother to his brother and his
friend.Through this I am redeemed.Through this as well the truth will enter
where illusions were, light will replace all darkness, and Your Son will know
he is as You created him.”
A special blessing comes to us today from Him Who is our
Father. Give this day to Him and there will be no fear today, because
the day is given unto Love.
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le sson 275
“God’s healing Voice protects all things today.”
Let us today attend the Voice of God,Which speaks an ancient lesson,
no more true today than any other day.Yet has this day been chosen
as the time when we will seek and hear and learn and understand.
Join me in hearing. For the Voice of God tells us of things we cannot
understand alone, nor learn apart. It is in this that all things are
protected.And in this the healing of the Voice of God is found.
“Your healing Voice protects all things today, and so I leave all things to
You. I need be anxious over nothing. For Your Voice will tell me what to do,
and where to go; to whom to speak, and what to say to him; what thoughts to
think; what words to give the world. The safety that I bring is given me.
Father,Your Voice protects all things through me.”
lesson 276
“The Word of God is given me to speak.”
What is the Word of God? “My Son is pure, and holy as Myself.”And
thus did God become the Father of the Son He loves, for thus was he
created.This the Word His Son did not create with Him, because in
this His Son was born. Let us accept His Fatherhood, and all is given
us. Deny we were created in His Love and we deny our Self, to be
unsure of who we are, of who our Father is, and for what purpose we
have come.And yet, we need but to acknowledge Him Who gave His
Word to us in our creation, to remember Him and so recall our Self.
“Father,Your Word is mine.And it is this that I would speak to all my
brothers, who are given me to cherish as my own, as I am loved and blessed
and saved by You.”
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lesson 277
“Let me not bind Your Son with laws I made.”
“Your Son is free, my Father. Let me not imagine I have bound him with the
laws I made to rule the body. He is not subject to any laws I made by which
I try to make the body more secure. He is not changed by what is changeable.
He is not slave to any laws of time. He is as You created him, because he
knows no laws except the Law of Love.”
Let us not worship idols, nor believe in any laws idolatry would
make to hide the freedom of the Son of God. He is not bound
except by his beliefs.Yet what he is is far beyond his faith in slavery
or freedom. He is free because he is his Father’s Son.And he can not
be bound unless God’s Truth can lie, and God can will that He
deceive Himself.
lesson 278
“If I am bound, my Father is not free.”
If I accept that I am prisoner within a body, in a world in which all
things that seem to live appear to die, then is my Father prisoner with
me. And this do I believe, when I maintain the laws the world obeys
must I obey; the frailties and the sins which I perceive are real, and
cannot be escaped. If I am bound in any way, I do not know my
Father or my Self. And I am lost to all reality. For truth is free, and
what is bound is not a part of truth.
“Father, I ask for nothing but the truth. I have had many foolish
thoughts about myself and my creation, and have brought a dream of fear into
my mind. Today I would not dream. I choose the way to You instead of
madness and instead of fear. For truth is safe and only love is sure.”
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lesson 279
“Creation’s freedom promises my own.”
The end of dreams is promised me, because God’s Son is not
abandoned by His Love. Only in dreams is there a time when he
appears to be in prison, and awaits a future freedom if it be at all.Yet
in reality his dreams are gone, with truth established in their place.
And now is freedom his already. Should I wait in chains which have
been severed for release, when God is offering me freedom now?
“I will accept Your promises today, and give my faith to them. My
Father loves the Son Whom He created as His Own.Would You withhold the
gifts You gave to me?”
lesson 280
“What limits can I lay upon God’s Son?”
Whom God created limitless is free. I can invent imprisonment for
him, but only in illusions, not in truth. No Thought of God has left
Its Father’s Mind. No Thought of God is limited at all. No Thought
of God but is forever pure. Can I lay limits on the Son of God, whose
Father willed that he be limitless, and like Himself in freedom and
in love?
“Today let me give honor to Your Son, for thus alone I find the way to
You. Father, I lay no limits on the Son You love, and You created limitless.The
honor that I give to him is Yours, and what is Yours belongs to me as well.”
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le sson 281
“I can be hurt by nothing but my thoughts.”
“Father,Your Son is perfect.When he thinks that he is hurt in any way, it is
because he has forgotten who he is. And that he is as You created him.Your
Thoughts can only bring me happiness. If ever I am sad or hurt or ill, I have
forgotten what You think, and put my little, meaningless ideas in place of
where Your Thoughts belong, and where They are. I can be hurt by nothing
but my thoughts.The Thoughts I think with You can only bless.The Thoughts
I think with You alone are true.”
I will not hurt myself today. For I am far beyond all pain. My
Father placed me safe in Heaven, watching over me.And I would not
attack the Son He loves, for what He loves is mine to love as well.
lesson 282
“I will not be afraid of love today.”
If I could realize but this today, salvation would be reached for all the
world. This the decision not to be insane, and to accept myself as
God Himself, my Father and my Source, created me. This the
determination not to be asleep in dreams of death, while truth
remains forever living in the joy of life. And this the choice to
recognize the Self Whom God created as the Son He loves, and
Who remains my one Reality.
“Father,Your Name is Love, and so is mine. Such is the truth.And can
the truth be changed by merely giving it another name? The name of fear is
simply a mistake. Let me not be afraid of truth today.”
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le sson 283
“My true Identity abides in You.”
“Father, I made an image of myself, and it is this I call the Son of God.Yet is
creation as it always was, for Your creation is unchangeable. Let me not
worship idols. I am he my Father loves. His holiness remains the light of
Heaven and the Love of God. Is not what is beloved of You secure? Is not the
light of Heaven infinite? Is not Your Son my true Identity, when You created
everything that is?”
Now are we one in shared Identity, with God our Father as our
only Source, and everything created part of us. And so we offer
blessing to all things, uniting lovingly with all the world, which our
forgiveness has made one with us.
lesson 284
“I can elect to change all thoughts that hurt.”
Loss is not loss when properly perceived. Pain is impossible.There is
no grief with any cause at all. And suffering of any kind is nothing
but a dream. Such is the truth; at first to be but said, and then
repeated many times; and next, to be accepted as but partly true, with
many reservations.Then to be considered seriously more and more,
and finally accepted as the truth. I can elect to change all thoughts
that hurt. And I would go beyond the words today, go past all
reservations, and arrive at full acceptance of the truth in them.
“Father, what You have given cannot hurt, and grief and pain must be
impossible. Let me not fail to trust in You today, accepting but the joyous as
Your gifts; accepting but the joyous as the truth.”
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l e s s o n 2 85
“My holiness shines bright and clear today.”
Today I wake with joy, expecting but the happy things of God to
come to me. I ask but them to come and realize my invitations will
be answered by the thoughts to which they have been sent by me.
And I will ask for only joyous things, the instant I accept my holiness.
For what would be the use of pain to me; what purpose would my
suffering fulfill; and how would grief and loss avail me, if insanity
departs from me today, and I accept my holiness instead?
“Father, my holiness is Yours. Let me rejoice in it, and through forgiveness
be restored to sanity.Your Son is still as You created him. My holiness is part of
me and also part of You.And what can alter Holiness Itself?”
lesson 286
“The hush of Heaven holds my heart today.”
“Father, how still today! How quietly do all things fall in place! This is the
day that has been chosen as the time in which I come to understand the lesson
that there is no need that I do anything. In You is every choice already made.
In You has every conflict been resolved. In You is everything I hope to find
already given me.Your peace is mine. My heart is quiet, and my mind at rest.
Your Love is Heaven, and Your Love is mine.”
The stillness of today will give us hope that we have found the
way, and travelled far along it, to a wholly certain goal.Today we will
not doubt the end which God Himself has promised us.We trust in
Him, and in our Self,Who still is one with Him.
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lesson 287
“You are my goal, my Father. Only You.”
Where would I go but Heaven? What could be a substitute for
happiness? What gift could I prefer before the peace of God? What
treasure would I seek and find and keep that can compare with my
Identity? And would I rather live with fear than love?
“You are my goal, my Father. What but You could I desire to have?
What way but that which leads to You could I desire to walk? And what
except the memory of You could signify to me the end of dreams and futile
substitutions for the truth? You are my only goal.Your Son would be as You
created him.What way but this could I expect to recognize my Self, and be at
one with my Identity?”
le sson 288
“Let me forget my brother’s past today.”
“This is the thought that leads the way to You, and brings me to my goal. I
cannot come to You without my brother.And to know my Source, I first must
recognize what You created one with me. My brother’s is the hand that leads
me on the way to You. His sins are in the past along with mine. And I am
saved because the past is gone. Let me not cherish it within my heart, or I will
lose the way to walk to You. My brother is my Savior. Let me not attack the
Savior You have given me. But let me honor him who bears Your Name, and
so remember that It is my own.”
Forgive me, then, today. And you will know you have forgiven
me if you behold your brother in the light of holiness. He cannot be
less holy than can I, and you can not be holier than he.
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lesson 289
“The past is over. It can touch me not.”
Unless the past is over in my mind, the real world must escape my
sight. For I am really looking nowhere; seeing but what is not there.
How can I then perceive the world forgiveness offers? This the past
was made to hide, for this the world that can be looked on only now.
It has no past. For what can be forgiven but the past, and if it is
forgiven it is gone.
“Father, let me not look upon a past that is not there. For You have
offered me Your own replacement, in a present world the past has left
untouched and free of sin. Here is the end of guilt.And here am I made ready
for Your final step. Shall I demand that You wait longer for Your Son to find
the loveliness You planned to be the end of all his dreams and all his pain?”
lesson 290
“My present happiness is all I see.”
Unless I look upon what is not there, my present happiness is all I
see. Eyes that begin to open see at last. And I would have Christ’s
vision come to me this very day.What I perceive without God’s own
correction for the sight I made is frightening and painful to behold.
Yet I would not allow my mind to be deceived by the belief the
dream I made is real an instant longer.This the day I seek my present
happiness, and look on nothing else except the thing I seek.
“With this resolve I come to You, and ask Your strength to hold me up
today, while I but do Your Will.You cannot fail to hear me, Father.What I ask
have You already given me, and I am sure that I will see my happiness today.”
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The real world is a symbol, like the rest of what perception offers.Yet
it stands for what is opposite to what you made.Your world is seen
through eyes of fear, and brings the witnesses of terror to your mind.
The real world cannot be perceived except through eyes forgiveness
blesses, so they see a world where terror is impossible, and witnesses
to fear can not be found.
The real world holds a counterpart for each unhappy thought
reflected in your world; a sure correction for the sights of fear and
sounds of battle which your world contains.The real world shows a
world seen differently, through quiet eyes and with a mind at peace.
Nothing but rest is there. There are no cries of pain and sorrow
heard, for nothing here remains outside forgiveness. And the sights
are gentle. Only happy sights and sounds can reach the mind that has
forgiven itself.
What need has such a mind for thoughts of death, attack and
murder? What can it perceive surrounding it but safety, love and joy?
What is there it would choose to be condemned, and what is there
that it would judge against? The world it sees arises from a mind at
peace within itself. No danger lurks in anything it sees, for it is kind
and only kindness does it look upon.
The real world is the symbol that the dream of sin and guilt is
over, and God’s Son no longer sleeps. His waking eyes perceive the
sure reflection of his Father’s Love; the certain promise that he is
redeemed.The real world signifies the end of time, for its perception
makes time purposeless.
The Holy Spirit has no need of time when it has served His
purpose. Now He waits but that one instant more for God to take His
final step, and time has disappeared, taking perception with it as it goes,
and leaving but the Truth to be Itself. That instant is our goal, for it
contains the memory of God.And as we look upon a world forgiven,
it is He Who calls to us and comes to take us home, reminding us of
our Identity Which our forgiveness has restored to us.
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le sson 291
“This is a day of stillness and of peace.”
Christ’s vision looks through me today. His sight shows me all things
forgiven and at peace, and offers this same vision to the world.And I
accept this vision in its name, both for myself and for the world as
well. What loveliness we look upon today! What holiness we see
surrounding us! And it is given us to recognize it is a holiness in
which we share; it is the Holiness of God Himself.
“This day my mind is quiet, to receive the Thoughts You offer me.And
I accept what comes from You instead of from myself. I do not know the way
to You. But You are wholly certain. Father, lead Your Son along the quiet path
that ends in You. Let my forgiveness be complete, and let the memory of You
return to me.”
lesson 292
“A happy outcome to all things is sure.”
God’s promises make no exceptions.And He guarantees that only joy
can be the final outcome found for everything. Yet it is up to us
when this is reached; how long we let an alien will appear to be
opposing His. And while we think this will is real, we will not find
the end He has appointed as the outcome of all problems we
perceive, all trials we see, and every situation that we meet.Yet is the
ending certain. For God’s Will is done in earth and Heaven.We will
seek and we will find according to His Will, Which guarantees that
our will is done.
“We thank You, Father, for Your guarantee of only happy outcomes in
the end. Help us not interfere, and so delay the happy endings You have
promised us for every problem that we can perceive; for every trial we think we
still must meet.”
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lesson 293
“All fear is past, and only love is here.”
All fear is past because its source is gone, and all its thoughts gone
with it. Love remains the only present state, whose Source is here
forever and forever. Can the world seem bright and clear and safe and
welcoming, with all my past mistakes oppressing it, and showing me
distorted forms of pain? Yet in the present love is obvious, and its
effects apparent. All the world shines in reflection of its holy light,
and I perceive a world forgiven at last.
“Father, let not Your holy world escape my sight today. Nor let my ears
be deaf to all the hymns of gratitude the world is singing underneath the
sounds of fear.There is a real world which the present holds safe from all past
mistakes.And I would see only this world before my eyes today.”
lesson 294
“My body is a wholly neutral thing.”
I am a Son of God. And can I be another thing as well? Did God
create the mortal and corruptible? What use has God’s beloved Son
for what must die? And yet a neutral thing does not see death, for
thoughts of fear are not invested there, nor is a mockery of love
bestowed upon it. Its neutrality protects it while it has a use. And
afterwards, without a purpose, it is laid aside. It is not sick or old or
hurt. It is but functionless, unneeded and cast off. Let me not see it
more than this today; of service for a while and fit to serve, to keep its
usefulness while it can serve, and then to be replaced for greater good.
“My body, Father, cannot be Your Son. And what is not created cannot
be sinful or sinless; neither good nor bad. Let me, then, use this dream to help
Your plan that we awaken from all dreams we made.”
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lesson 295
“The Holy Spirit looks through me today.”
Christ asks that He may use my eyes today, and thus redeem the
world. He asks this gift that He may offer peace of mind to me, and
take away all terror and all pain. And as they are removed from me,
the dreams that seemed to settle on the world are gone. Redemption
must be one. As I am saved, the world is saved with me. For all of us
must be redeemed together. Fear appears in many different forms,
but love is one.
“My Father, Christ has asked a gift of me, and one I give that it be
given me. Help me to use the eyes of Christ today, and thus allow the Holy
Spirit’s Love to bless all things that I may look upon, that His forgiving Love
may rest on me.”
lesson 296
“The Holy Spirit speaks through me today.”
“The Holy Spirit needs my voice today, that all the world may listen to Your
Voice, and hear Your Word through me. I am resolved to let You speak through
me, for I would use no words but Yours, and have no thoughts which are apart
from Yours, for only Yours are true. I would be Savior to the world I made. For
having damned it, I would set it free that I may find escape, and hear the
Word Your holy Voice will speak to me today.”
We teach today what we would learn, and that alone.And so our
learning goal becomes an unconflicted one, and possible of easy reach
and quick accomplishment. How gladly does the Holy Spirit come to
rescue us from hell, when we allow His Teaching to persuade the
world, through us, to seek and find the easy path to God!
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lesson 297
“Forgiveness is the only gift I give.”
Forgiveness is the only gift I give because it is the only gift I want,
and everything I give I give myself.This is salvation’s simple formula.
And I, who would be saved, would make it mine, to be the way I live
within a world that needs salvation, and that will be saved as I accept
Atonement for myself.
“Father, how certain are Your ways; how sure their outcome, and how
truly faithful is every step in my salvation set already, and accomplished by
Your grace. Thanks be to You for Your eternal gifts, and thanks to You for
my Identity.”
lesson 298
“I love You, Father, and I love Your Son.”
My gratitude permits my love to be accepted without fear. And thus
am I restored to my Reality at last.All that intruded on my holy sight
forgiveness takes away.And I draw near the end of senseless journeys,
mad careers, and artificial values. I accept instead what God
establishes as mine, sure that in that alone I will be saved; sure that I
go through fear to meet my Love.
“Father, I come to You today, because I would not follow any way but
Yours.You are beside me. Certain is Your way.And I am grateful for Your holy
gifts of certain sanctuary, and escape from everything that would obscure my
love for God my Father and His holy Son.”
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lesson 299
“Eternal holiness abides in me.”
My holiness is far beyond my own ability to understand or know.Yet
God my Father, Who created it, acknowledges my holiness as His.
Our Will, together, understands it.And our Will, together, knows that
it is so.
“Father, my holiness is not of me. It is not mine to be destroyed by sin.
It is not mine to suffer from attack. Illusions can obscure it, but can not put
out its radiance nor dim its light. It stands forever perfect and untouched. In it
are all things healed, for they remain as You created them.And I can know my
holiness. For Holiness Itself created me and I can know my Source because it
is Your Will that You be known.”
lesson 300
“Only an instant does this world endure.”
This is the thought that can be used to say that death and sorrow are
the certain lot of all who come here. For their joys are gone before
they are possessed, or even grasped.Yet this is also the idea that lets no
false perception keep us in its hold, nor represent more than a passing
cloud upon a sky eternally serene. And it is this serenity we seek,
unclouded, obvious and sure, today.
“We seek Your holy world today. For we,Your loving Sons, have lost our
way a while. But we have listened to Your Voice, and learned exactly what to
do to be restored to Heaven and our true Identity.And we give thanks today
the world endures but for an instant.We would go beyond that tiny instant
to eternity.”
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le sson 301
“And God Himself shall wipe away all tears.”
“Father, unless I judge I cannot weep. Nor can I suffer pain, or feel I am
abandoned and unneeded in the world.This is my home, because I judge it
not. And therefore is it only what You will. Let me today behold it
uncondemned, through happy eyes forgiveness has released from all distortion.
Let me see Your world instead of mine. And all the tears I shed will be
forgotten, for their source is gone. Father, I will not judge Your world today.”
God’s world is happy.Those who look on it can only add their
joy to it, and bless it as a cause of further joy in them. We wept
because we did not understand. But we have learned the world we
saw was false, and we will look upon God’s world today.
lesson 302
“Where darkness was I look upon the light.”
“Father, our eyes are opening at last.Your holy world awaits us, as our sight
is finally restored and we can see.We thought we suffered. But we had forgot
the Son whom You created. Now we see that darkness is our own imagining,
and light is there for us to look upon. Christ’s vision changes darkness into
light, for fear must disappear when love has come. Let me forgive Your holy
world today that I may look upon its holiness, and understand it but reflects
my own.”
Our Love awaits us as we go to Him, and walks beside us,
showing us the way. He fails in nothing. He the end we seek, and He
the means by which we come to Him.
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lesson 303
“The holy Christ is born in me today.”
Watch with me, angels, watch with me today. Let all God’s holy
Thoughts surround me, and be still with me while Heaven’s Son is
born. Let earthly sounds be quiet, and the sights to which I am
accustomed disappear. Let Christ be welcomed where He is at home,
and let Him hear the sounds He understands, and see but sights
which show His Father’s Love. Let Him no longer be a stranger here,
for He is born again in me today.
“Your Son is welcome, Father. He has come to save me from the evil self
I made. He is the Self that You have given me. He is but what I really am in
truth. He is the Son You love above all things. He is my Self as You created
me. It is not Christ that can be crucified. Safe in Your arms let me receive
Your Son.”
lesson 304
“Let not my world obscure the sight of Christ.”
I can obscure my holy sight, if I intrude my world upon it. Nor can
I behold the holy sights Christ looks upon unless it is His vision that
I use. Perception is a mirror, not a fact.And what I look on is my state
of mind reflected outward. I would bless the world by looking on it
through the eyes of Christ. And I will look upon the certain signs
that all my sins have been forgiven me.
“You lead me from the darkness to the light; from sin to holiness. Let me
forgive, and thus receive salvation for the world. It is Your gift, my Father,
given me to offer to Your holy Son, that he may find again the memory of You,
and of Your Son as You created him.”
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le sson 305
“There is a peace that Christ bestows on us.”
Who uses but Christ’s vision finds a peace so deep and quiet,
undisturbable and wholly changeless, that the world contains no
counterpart. Comparisons are still before this peace. And all the
world departs in silence, as this peace envelops it, and gently carries it
to truth, no more to be the home of fear. For Love has come, and
healed the world by giving it Christ’s peace.
“Father, the peace of Christ is given us, because it is Your Will that we
be saved. Help us today but to accept Your gift, and judge it not. For it has
come to us to save us from our judgement on ourselves.”
lesson 306
“The gift of Christ is all I seek today.”
What but Christ’s vision would I use today, when it can offer me a
day in which I see a world so like to Heaven that an ancient memory
returns to me? Today I can forget the world I made.Today I can go
past all fear, and be restored to love and holiness and peace. Today I
am redeemed, and born anew into a world of mercy and of care; of
loving kindness and the peace of God.
“And so, our Father, we return to You, remembering we never went
away; remembering Your holy gifts to us. In gratitude and thankfulness we
come, with empty hands and open hearts and minds, asking but what You
give.We cannot make an offering sufficient for Your Son. But in Your Love the
gift of Christ is his.”
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lesson 307
“Conflicting wishes cannot be my will.”
“Father,Your Will is mine, and only That. There is no other will for me to
have. Let me not try to make another will, for it is senseless and will cause me
pain.Your Will alone can bring me happiness, and only Yours exists. If I would
have what only You can give, I must accept Your Will for me, and enter into
peace where conflict is impossible,Your Son is one with You in being and in
will, and nothing contradicts the holy truth that I remain as You created me.”
And with this prayer, we enter silently into a state where
conflict cannot come, because we join our holy will with God’s in
recognition that they are but one.
lesson 308
“This instant is the only time there is.”
I have conceived of time in such a way that I defeat my aim. If I elect
to reach past time to timelessness, I must change my perception of
what time is for. Time’s purpose cannot be to keep the past and
future one. The only interval in which I can be saved from time is
now. For in this instant has forgiveness come to set me free.The birth
of Christ is now, without a past or future. He has come to give His
present blessing to the world, restoring it to timelessness and love.
And love is ever-present, here and now.
“Thanks for this instant, Father. It is now I am redeemed.This instant
is the time You have appointed for Your Son’s release, and for salvation of the
world in him.”
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lesson 309
“I will not fear to look within today.”
Within me is Eternal Innocence, because it is God’s Will that It be
there forever and forever. I, His Son, whose will is limitless as is His
own, can will no change in this. For to deny my Father’s Will is to
deny my own.To look within is but to find my will as God created
it, and as it is. I fear to look within because I think I made another
will which is not true, and made it real.Yet it has no effects.Within
me is the holiness of God.Within me is the memory of Him.
“The step I take today, my Father, is my sure release from idle dreams
of sin.Your altar stands serene and undefiled. It is the holy altar to my Self,
and there I find my true Identity.”
l e s s o n 310
“In fearlessness and love I spend today.”
“This day, my Father, would I spend with You, as You have chosen all my
days should be.And what I will experience is not of time at all.The joy that
comes to me is not of days nor hours, for it comes from Heaven to Your Son.
This day will be Your sweet reminder to remember You,Your gracious calling to
Your holy Son, the sign Your grace has come to me, and that it is Your Will
that I be free today.”
We spend this day together, you and I. And all the world joins
with us in our song of thankfulness and joy to Him Who gave
salvation to us, and Who set us free. We are restored to peace and
holiness.There is no room in us for fear today, for we have welcomed
love into our hearts.
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w hat i s t h e la s t j u d g e m e n t ?
Christ’s Second Coming gives the Son of God the gift to hear the
Voice for God proclaim that what is false is false, and what is true has
never changed. And this the judgement is in which perception ends.
At first you see a world which has accepted this as true, projected
from a now corrected mind. And with this holy sight, perception
gives a silent blessing and then disappears, its goal accomplished and
its mission done.
The final judgement on the world contains no condemnation.
For it sees the world as totally forgiven, without sin and wholly
purposeless.Without a cause, and now without a function in Christ’s
sight, it merely slips away to nothingness. There it was born, and
there it ends as well. And all the figures in the dream in which the
world began go with it. Bodies now are useless, and will therefore
fade away, because the Son of God is limitless.
You who believed that God’s Last Judgement would condemn
the world to hell along with you, accept this holy truth: God’s
Judgement is the gift of the Correction He bestowed on all your
errors, freeing you from them, and all effects they ever seemed to
have.To fear God’s saving grace is but to fear complete release from
suffering, return to peace, security and happiness, and union with
your own Identity.
God’s Final Judgement is as merciful as every step in His
appointed plan to bless His Son, and call him to return to the eternal
peace He shares with him. Be not afraid of Love. For It alone can
heal all sorrow, wipe away all tears, and gently waken from his dream
of pain the Son whom God acknowledges as His. Be not afraid of
this. Salvation asks you give it welcome. And the world awaits your
glad acceptance, which will set it free.
This is God’s Final Judgement: “You are still My holy Son,
forever innocent, forever loving and forever loved, as limitless as your
Creator, and completely changeless and forever pure. Therefore
awaken and return to Me. I am your Father and you are My Son.”
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l e s s o n 311
“I judge all things as I would have them be.”
Judgement was made to be a weapon used against the truth. It
separates what it is being used against, and sets it off as if it were a
thing apart. And then it makes of it what you would have it be. It
judges what it cannot understand, because it cannot see totality and
therefore judges falsely. Let us not use it today, but make a gift of it to
Him Who has a different use for it. He will relieve you of the agony
of all the judgements you have made against yourself, and re-establish
peace of mind by giving you God’s Judgement of His Son.
“Father, we wait with open mind today, to hear Your Judgement of the
Son You love.We do not know him, and we cannot judge.And so we let Your
Love decide what he whom You created as Your Son must be.”
l e s s o n 312
“I see all things as I would have them be.”
Perception follows judgement. Having judged, you therefore see
what you would look upon. For sight can merely serve to offer you
what you would have. It is impossible to overlook what you would
see, and fail to see what you have chosen to behold. How surely,
therefore, must the real world come to greet the holy sight of anyone
who takes the Holy Spirit’s purpose as his goal for seeing. And he
cannot fail to look upon what Christ would have him see, and share
Christ’s love for what he looks upon.
“I have no purpose for today except to look upon a liberated world, set
free from all the judgements I have made. Father, this is Your Will for me
today, and therefore it must be my goal as well.”
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l e s s o n 313
“Now let a new perception come to me.”
“Father, there is a vision which beholds all things as sinless, so that fear has
gone, and where it was is Love invited in.And Love will come wherever it is
asked.This vision is Your gift.The eyes of Christ look on a world forgiven. In
His sight are all its sins forgiven, for He sees no sin in anything He looks
upon. Now let His true perception come to me, that I may waken from the
dream of guilt and look within upon my sinlessness, which You have kept
completely undefiled upon the altar to Your holy Son, the Self with Which I
would identify.”
Let us today behold each other in the sight of Christ. How
beautiful we are! How holy and how loving! Brother, come and join
with me today. We save the world when we are joined. For in our
vision it becomes as holy as the Light in us.
l e s s o n 314
“I seek a future different from the past.”
From new perception of the world there comes a future very
different from the past.The future now is recognized as but extension
of the present. Past mistakes can cast no shadows on it, so that fear has
lost its idols and its images, and being formless, it has no effects.
Death will not claim the future now, for life is now its goal, and all
the needed means are happily provided. Who can grieve or suffer,
when the present has been freed, extending its security and peace
into a quiet future filled with hope?
“Father, we were mistaken in the past, and choose to use the present to
be free. Now do we leave the future in Your Hands, leaving behind our past
mistakes, and sure that You will keep Your present promises and guide the
future in their holy light.”
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l e s s o n 315
“All gifts my brothers give belong to me.”
Each day a thousand treasures come to me with every passing
moment. I am blessed with gifts throughout the day, in value far
beyond all things of which I can conceive. A brother smiles upon
another, and my heart is gladdened. Someone speaks a word of
gratitude or mercy, and my mind perceives this gift and takes it as its
own. And everyone who finds the way to God becomes my Savior,
pointing out the way to me, and giving me his certainty that what he
learned is surely mine as well.
“I thank You, Father, for the many gifts that come to me today and
every day from every Son of God. My brothers are unlimited in all their gifts
to me. Now may I offer them my thankfulness, that gratitude to them may
lead me on to my Creator and His memory.”
l e s s o n 316
“All gifts I give my brothers are my own.”
As every gift my brothers give is mine, so every gift I give belongs to
me. Each one allows a past mistake to go, and leave no shadow on the
holy mind my Father loves. His grace is given me in every gift a
brother has received throughout all time, and past all time as well. My
treasure-house is full, and angels watch its open doors, that not one
gift is lost and only more are added. Let me come to where my
treasures are, and enter in where I am truly welcome and at home
among the gifts that God has given me.
“Father, I would accept Your gifts today. I do not recognize them.Yet I
trust that You Who gave them will provide the means by which I can behold
them, see their worth, and cherish only them as what I want.”
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l e s s o n 317
“I follow in the way appointed me.”
I have a special place to fill; a role for me alone. Salvation waits until
I take this part as what I choose to do. Until I make this choice, I am
the slave of time and human destiny. But when I willingly and gladly
go the way my Father’s plan appointed me to go, then will I
recognize salvation is already here, already given all my brothers and
already mine as well.
“Father,Your way is what I choose today.Where it would lead me do I
choose to go; what it would have me do I choose to do.Your way is certain, and
the end secure.The memory of You awaits me there, and all my sorrows end in
Your embrace, which You have promised to Your Son, who thought mistakenly
that he had wandered from the sure protection of Your loving arms.”
l e s s o n 318
“In me salvation’s means and end are one.”
In me, God’s holy Son, are reconciled all parts of Heaven’s plan to
save the world.What could conflict, when all the parts have but one
purpose and one aim? How could there be a single part that stands
aside, or one of more or less importance than the rest? I am the
means by which God’s Son is saved, because salvation’s purpose is to
find the sinlessness which God has placed in me. I was created as the
thing I seek. I am the goal the world is searching for. I am God’s Son,
His one Eternal Love. I am salvation’s means and end as well.
“Let me today, my Father, take the role You offer me in Your request that
I accept Atonement for myself. For thus does what is thereby reconciled in me
become as surely reconciled to You.”
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l e s s o n 319
“I came for the salvation of the world.”
Here is a thought from which all arrogance has been removed, and
only truth is left. For arrogance opposes truth. But where there is no
arrogance, the truth will come immediately, and fill up the space the
ego left unoccupied by lies. Only the ego can be limited, and
therefore it must seek for aims which are curtailed and limiting.The
ego thinks that what one gains totality must lose. And yet it is the
Will of God I learn that what one gains is given unto all.
“Father,Your Will is total. And the goal that stems from It shares Its
totality.What aim but the salvation of the world could You have given me?
And what but this could be the Will my Self has shared with You?”
lesson 320
“My Father gives all power unto me.”
The Son of God is limitless. There are no limits on his strength, his
peace, his joy, or any attributes his Father gave in his creation.What
he wills with his Creator and Redeemer must be done. His holy will
can never be denied, because his Father shines upon his mind, and
lays before it all the strength and love in earth and Heaven. I am he
to whom all this is given. I am he in whom the power of my Father’s
Will abides.
“Your Will can do all things in me, and then extend to all the world as
well through me.There is no limit on Your Will. And so all power has been
given to Your Son.”
457
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w hat i s c r eat i o n ?
458
PART 2
lesson 321
“Father, my freedom is in You alone.”
“I did not understand what made me free, nor what my freedom is, nor where
to look to find it. Father, I have searched in vain until I heard Your Voice
directing me. Now I would guide myself no more. For I have neither made nor
understood the way to find my freedom. But I trust in You.You Who endowed
me with my freedom as Your holy Son will not be lost to me.Your Voice directs
me.And the way to You is opening and clear to me at last. Father, my freedom
is in You alone. Father, it is my will that I return.”
Today we answer for the world, which will be freed along with
us. How glad are we to find our freedom through the certain way
our Father has established. And how sure is all the world’s salvation,
when we learn our freedom can be found in God alone.
lesson 322
“I can give up but what was never real.”
I sacrifice illusions; nothing more. And as illusions go I find the gifts
illusions tried to hide, awaiting me in shining welcome, and in
readiness to give God’s ancient messages to me. His memory abides
in every gift that I receive of Him. And every dream serves only to
conceal the Self Which is God’s only Son, the likeness of Himself, the
Holy One Who still abides in Him forever, as He still abides in me.
“Father, to You all sacrifice remains forever inconceivable. And so I
cannot sacrifice except in dreams.As You created me, I can give up nothing You
gave me. What You did not give has no reality. What loss can I anticipate
except the loss of fear, and the return of Love into my mind?”
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lesson 323
“I gladly make the ‘sacrifice’ of fear.”
“Here is the only ‘sacrifice’You ask of Your beloved Son;You ask him to give
up all suffering, all sense of loss and sadness, all anxiety and doubt, and freely
let Your Love come streaming in to his awareness, healing him of pain, and
giving him Your own eternal joy. Such is the ‘sacrifice’You ask of me, and one
I gladly make; the only ‘cost’ of restoration of Your memory to me, for the
salvation of the world.”
And as we pay the debt we owe to truth – a debt which merely
is the letting-go of self-deceptions and of images we worshipped
falsely – truth returns to us in wholeness and in joy.We are deceived
no longer. Love has now returned to our awareness. And we are at
peace again, for fear has gone and only Love remains.
lesson 324
“I merely follow, for I would not lead.”
“Father,You are the One Who gave the plan for my salvation to me.You
have set the way I am to go, the role to take, and every step in my appointed
path. I cannot lose the way. I can but choose to wander off a while, and then
return.Your loving Voice will always call me back, and guide my feet aright.
My brothers all can follow in the way I lead them.Yet I merely follow in the
way to You, as You direct me and would have me go.”
So let us follow One Who knows the way. We need not tarry,
and we cannot stray except an instant from His loving hand.We walk
together, for we follow Him. And it is He Who makes the ending
sure, and guarantees a safe returning home.
460
PART 2
le sson 325
“All things I think I see reflect ideas.”
This is salvation’s keynote: What I see reflects a process in my mind,
which starts with my idea of what I want. From there, the mind makes
up an image of the thing the mind desires, judges valuable, and
therefore seeks to find. These images are then projected outward,
looked upon, esteemed as real and guarded as one’s own. From insane
wishes comes an insane world. From judgement comes a world
condemned.And from forgiving thoughts a gentle world comes forth,
with mercy for the holy Son of God, to offer him a kindly home
where he can rest a while before he journeys on, and help his brothers
walk ahead with him and find the way to Heaven and to God.
“Our Father,Your Ideas reflect the truth, and mine apart from Yours but
make up dreams. Let me behold what only Yours reflect, for Yours and Yours
alone establish truth.”
lesson 326
“I am forever an Effect of God.”
“Father, I was created in Your Mind, a holy Thought that never left its home.
I am forever Your Effect, and You forever and forever are my Cause. As You
created me I have remained. Where You established me I still abide, and all
Your attributes abide in me, because it is Your Will to have a Son so like his
Cause that Cause and Its Effect are indistinguishable. Let me know that I am
an Effect of God, and so I have the power to create like You. And as it is in
Heaven, so on earth.Your plan I follow here, and at the end I know that You
will gather Your Effects into the tranquil Heaven of Your Love, where earth
will disappear, and separate thoughts unite in glory as the Son of God.”
Let us today behold earth disappear, at first transformed, and
then, forgiven, fade entirely into God’s holy Will.
461
WORKBOOK
lesson 327
“I need but call andYou will answer me.”
I am not asked to take salvation on the basis of an unsupported faith.
For God has promised He will hear my call, and answer me Himself.
Let me but learn from my experience that this is true, and faith in
Him must surely come to me.This is the faith that will endure, and
take me farther and still farther on the road that leads to Him. For
thus I will be sure that He has not abandoned me, and loves me still,
awaiting but my call to give me all the help I need to come to Him.
“Father, I thank You that Your promises will never fail in my experience,
if I but test them out. Let me attempt therefore to try them, and to judge them
not.Your Word is one with You.You give the means whereby conviction comes,
and surety of Your abiding Love is gained at last.”
lesson 328
“I choose the second place to gain the first.”
What seems to be the second place is first, for all things we perceive
are upside down until we listen to the Voice of God. It seems that we
will gain autonomy but by our striving to be separate, and that our
independence from the rest of God’s creation is the way in which
salvation is obtained.Yet all we find is sickness, suffering and loss and
death.This is not what our Father wills for us, nor is there any second
to His Will. To join with His is but to find our own. And since our
will is His, it is to Him that we must go to recognize our will.
“There is no will but Yours. And I am glad that nothing I imagine
contradicts what You would have me do. It is Your Will that I be wholly safe,
eternally at peace. And happily I share that Will which You, my Father, gave
as part of me.”
462
PART 2
lesson 329
“I have already chosen what You will.”
“Father, I wandered from Your Will, defied It, broke Its laws, and interposed a
second will more powerful than Yours.Yet what I am in truth is but Your Will,
extended and extending. This am I. And this will never change. As You are
One, so am I one with You. And This I chose in my creation, where my will
became forever one with Yours.That choice was made for all eternity. It cannot
change, and be in opposition to Itself. Father, my will is Yours.And I am safe,
untroubled and serene, in endless joy, because it is Your Will that it be so.”
Today we will accept our union with each other and our
Source.We have no will apart from His, and all of us are one because
His Will is shared by all of us. Through It we recognize that we are
one.Through It we find our way at last to God.
le sson 330
“I will not hurt myself again today.”
Let us this day accept forgiveness as our only function. Why should
we attack our minds, and give them images of pain? Why should we
teach them they are powerless, when God holds out His power and
His Love, and bids them take what is already theirs? The mind that is
made willing to accept God’s gifts has been restored to Spirit, and
extends its freedom and its joy, as is the Will of God united with its
own. The Self Which God created cannot sin, and therefore cannot
suffer. Let us choose today that He be our Identity, and thus escape
forever from all things the dream of fear appears to offer us.
“Father,Your Son can not be hurt.And if we think we suffer, we but fail
to know our one Identity we share with You.We would return to It today, to
be made free forever from all our mistakes, and to be saved from what we
thought we were.”
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w hat i s t h e e g o ?
The ego is idolatry; the sign of limited and separated self, born in a
body, doomed to suffer and to end its life in death. It is the will that
sees the Will of God as enemy, and takes a form in which It is denied.
The ego is the “proof ” that strength is weak and love is fearful, life is
really death, and what opposes God alone is true.
The ego is insane. In fear it stands beyond the Everywhere, apart
from All, in separation from the Infinite. In its insanity it thinks it has
become a victor over God Himself, and in its terrible autonomy it
“sees” the Will of God has been destroyed. It dreams of punishment,
and trembles at the figures in its dreams, its enemies who seek to
murder it before it can ensure its safety by attacking them.
The Son of God is egoless.What can he know of madness and
the death of God, when he abides in Him? What can he know of
sorrow and of suffering, when he lives in eternal joy? What can he
know of fear and punishment, of sin and guilt, of hatred and attack,
when all there is surrounding him is everlasting peace, forever
conflict-free and undisturbed, in deepest silence and tranquility?
To know Reality is not to see the ego and its thoughts, its
works, its acts, its laws and its beliefs, its dreams, its hopes, its plans for
its salvation, and the cost belief in it entails. In suffering, the price for
faith in it is so immense that crucifixion of the Son of God is offered
daily at its darkened shrine, and blood must flow before the altar
where its sickly followers prepare for death.
Yet will one lily of forgiveness change the darkness into light;
the altar to illusions to the shrine of Life Itself. And peace will be
restored forever to the holy minds which God created as His Son,
His dwelling-place, His joy, His love, completely His, completely one
with Him.
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PART 2
l e s s o n 331
“There is no conflict, for my will is Yours.”
“How foolish, Father, to believe Your Son could cause himself to suffer! Could
he make a plan for his damnation, and be left without a certain way to his
release? You love me, Father.You could never leave me desolate, to die within
a world of pain and cruelty. How could I think that Love has left Itself? There
is no will except the Will of Love. Fear is a dream, and has no will that can
conflict with Yours. Conflict is sleep, and peace awakening. Death is illusion;
life, Eternal Truth.There is no opposition to Your Will.There is no conflict, for
my will is Yours.”
Forgiveness shows us that God’s Will is one, and that we share It.
Let us look upon the holy sights forgiveness shows today, that we
may find the peace of God.Amen.
le sson 332
“Fear binds the world. Forgiveness sets it free.”
The ego makes illusions. Truth undoes its evil dreams by shining
them away.Truth never makes attack. It merely is.And by its Presence
is the mind recalled from fantasies, awaking to the Real. Forgiveness
bids this Presence enter in, and take its rightful place within the
mind.Without forgiveness is the mind in chains, believing in its own
futility.Yet with forgiveness does the light shine through the dream of
darkness, offering it hope, and giving it the means to realize the
freedom that is its inheritance.
“We would not bind the world again today. Fear holds it prisoner.And
yet Your Love has given us the means to set it free. Father, we would release it
now. For as we offer freedom, it is given us. And we would not remain as
prisoners, while You hold out our freedom unto us.”
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le sson 333
“Forgiveness ends the dream of conflict here.”
Conflict must be resolved. It cannot be evaded, set aside, denied,
disguised, seen somewhere else, called by another name, nor hidden
by deceit of any kind, if it would be escaped. It must be seen exactly
as it is, where it is thought to be, in the reality which has been given
it, and with the purpose that the mind accorded it. For only then are
its defenses lifted, and the truth can shine upon it as it disappears.
“Father, forgiveness is the light You chose to shine away all conflict and
all doubt, and light the way for our return to You. No light but this can end
our evil dreams. No light but this can save the world. For this alone will never
fail in anything, being Your gift to Your beloved Son.”
le sson 334
“Today I claim the gifts forgiveness gives.”
I will not wait another day to find the treasures which my Father
offers me. Illusions must be vain, and dreams are gone even while
they are woven out of thoughts that rest on false perception. Let me
not accept such meager gifts again today. God’s Voice is offering the
peace of God to all who hear and choose to follow Him.This is my
choice today.And so I go to find the treasures God has given me.
“I seek but the eternal. For Your Son can be content with nothing less
than this. What, then, can be his solace but what You are offering to his
bewildered mind and frightened heart, to give him certainty and bring him
peace? Today I would behold my brother sinless. This Your Will for me, for
thus will I behold my sinlessness.”
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PART 2
le s s on 335
“I choose to see my brother’s sinlessness.”
Forgiveness is a choice. I never see my brother as he is, for that is far
beyond perception.What I see in him is merely what I wish to see,
because it stands for what I want to be the truth. It is to this alone
that I respond, however much I seem to be impelled by outside
happenings. I choose to see what I would look upon, and this I see,
and only this. My brother’s sinlessness shows me that I would look
upon my own.And I will see it, having chosen to behold my brother
in its holy light.
“What could restore Your memory to me except to see my brother’s
sinlessness? His holiness reminds me that he was created one with me and
like myself. In him I find my Self, and in Your Son I find the memory of You
as well.”
le sson 336
“Forgiveness lets me know that minds are joined.”
Forgiveness is the means appointed for perception’s ending.
Knowledge is restored after perception first is changed, and then
gives way entirely to what remains forever past its highest reach. For
sights and sounds, at best, can serve but to recall the memory that lies
beyond them all. Forgiveness sweeps away distortions, and opens the
hidden altar to the truth. Its lilies shine into the mind, and call it to
return and look within, to find what it has vainly sought without.
For here, and only here, is peace of mind restored, for this the
dwelling-place of God Himself.
“In quiet may forgiveness wipe away my dreams of separation and of
sin.Then let me, Father, look within and find Your promise of my sinlessness
is kept;Your Word remains unchanged within my mind,Your Love is still
abiding in my heart.”
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le sson 337
“My sinlessness protects me from all harm.”
My sinlessness ensures me perfect peace, eternal safety, everlasting
love, freedom forever from all thought of loss; complete deliverance
from suffering. And only happiness can be my state, for only
happiness is given me. What must I do to know all this is mine? I
must accept Atonement for myself, and nothing more. God has
already done all things that need be done.And I must learn I need do
nothing of myself, for I need but accept my Self, my sinlessness,
created for me, now already mine, to feel God’s Love protecting me
from harm, to understand my Father loves His Son; to know I am the
Son my Father loves.
“You who created me in sinlessness are not mistaken about what I am.
I was mistaken when I thought I sinned, but I accept Atonement for myself.
Father, my dream is ended now.Amen.”
le sson 338
“I am affected only by my thoughts.”
It needs but this to let salvation come to all the world. For in this
single thought is everyone released at last from fear. Now he has
learned that no-one frightens him, and nothing can endanger him.
He has no enemies, and he is safe from all external things. His
thoughts can frighten him, but since these thoughts belong to him
alone, he has the power to change them, and exchange each fear
thought for a happy thought of love. He crucified himself.Yet God
has planned that His beloved Son will be redeemed.
“Your plan is sure, my Father, - only Yours.All other plans will fail.And
I will have thoughts that will frighten me until I learn that You have given me
the only Thought Which leads me to salvation. Mine alone will fail and lead
me nowhere. But the Thought You gave me promises to lead me home, because
it holds Your promise to Your Son.”
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PART 2
le sson 339
“I will receive whatever I request.”
No-one desires pain. But he can think that pain is pleasure. No-one
would avoid his happiness. But he can think that joy is painful,
threatening and dangerous. Everyone will receive what he requests.
But he can be confused indeed about the things he wants; the state
he would attain.What can he then request that he would want when
he receives it? He has asked for what will frighten him, and bring
him suffering. Let us resolve today to ask for what we really want,
and only this, that we may spend this day in fearlessness, without
confusing pain with joy, or fear with love.
“Father, this is Your day. It is a day in which I would do nothing by
myself, but hear Your Voice in everything I do; requesting only what You offer
me, accepting only Thoughts You share with me.”
lesson 340
“I can be free of suffering today.”
“Father, I thank You for today, and for the freedom I am certain it will bring.
This day is holy, for today Your Son will be redeemed. His suffering is done.
For he will hear Your Voice directing him to find Christ’s vision through
forgiveness, and be free forever from all suffering.Thanks for today, my Father.
I was born into this world but to achieve this day, and what it holds in joy
and freedom for Your holy Son, and for the world he made, which is released
along with him today.”
Be glad today! Be glad! There is no room for anything but joy
and thanks today. Our Father has redeemed His Son this day! Not
one of us but will be saved today. Not one who will remain in fear,
and none the Father will not gather to Himself, awake in Heaven in
the Heart of Love.
469
WORKBOOK
w hat i s a m i rac l e ?
470
PART 2
le sson 341
“I can attack but my own sinlessness,
And it is only that which keeps me safe.”
“Father,Your Son is holy. I am he on whom You smile in love and tenderness
so deep and dear and still the universe smiles back on You, and shares Your
holiness. How pure, how safe, how sacred, then, are we, abiding in Your Smile,
with all Your love bestowed upon us, living one with You, in brotherhood and
Fatherhood complete; in sinlessness so perfect that the Lord of Sinlessness
conceives us as His Son, a universe of Thought completing Him.”
Let us not, then, attack our sinlessness. For it contains the Word
of God to us, and in its kind reflection we are saved.
lesson 342
“I let forgiveness rest upon all things,
For thus forgiveness will be given me.”
“I thank You, Father, for Your plan to save me from the hell I made. It is not
real.And You have given me the means to prove its unreality to me.The key
is in my hand, and I have reached the door beyond which lies the end of
dreams. I stand before the gate of Heaven, wondering if I should enter in and
be at home. Let me not wait again today. Let me forgive all things, and let
creation be as You would have it be, and as it is. Let me remember that I am
Your Son, and opening the door at last, forget illusions in the blazing light of
truth, as memory of You returns to me.”
Brother, forgive me now. I come to you to take you home with
me.And as we go the world goes with us on the way to God.
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lesson 343
“I am not asked to make a sacrifice
To find the mercy and the peace of God.”
“The end of suffering can not be loss.The gift of everything can but be gain.
You only give.You never take away. And You created me to be like You, so
sacrifice becomes impossible for me as well as You. I, too, must give, and so all
things are given unto me forever and forever.As I was created, I remain.Your
Son can make no sacrifice, for he must be complete, having the function of
completing You. I am complete because I am Your Son. I cannot lose, for I can
only give.And everything is mine eternally.”
The mercy and the peace of God are free. Salvation has no cost.
It is a gift that must be freely given and received, and it is this that we
would learn today.
lesson 344
“Today I learn the law of love; that what
I give my brother is my gift to me.”
“This is Your law, my Father, not my own. I did not understand what giving
means, and thought to save what I desired for myself alone. And as I looked
upon the treasure that I thought I had, I found an empty place where nothing
ever was, or is or will be.Who can share a dream? And what can an illusion
offer me? Yet he whom I forgive will give me gifts beyond the worth of
anything on earth. Let my forgiven brothers fill my store with Heaven’s
treasures, which alone are real.Thus is the law of love fulfilled.And thus Your
Son arises and returns to You.”
How near we are to one another, as we go to God. How near is
He to us. How close the ending of the dream of sin, and the
redemption of the Son of God.
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PART 2
lesson 345
“I offer only miracles today,
For I would have them be returned to me.”
“Father, a miracle reflects Your gifts to me,Your Son. And every one I give
returns to me, reminding me the law of love is universal. Even here it takes a
form which can be recognized, and seen to work.The miracles I give are given
back in just the form I need to help me with the problems I perceive. Father,
in Heaven it is different, for there, there are no needs. But here on earth the
miracle is closer to Your gifts than any other gift which I can give.Then let me
give this gift alone today, which, born of true forgiveness, lights the way that I
must travel to remember You.”
Peace to all seeking hearts today. The light has come, to offer
miracles to bless the tired world. It will find rest today, for we will
offer what we have received.
lesson 346
“Today the peace of God envelops me,
And I forget all things except His Love.”
“Father, I wake today with miracles correcting my perception of all things.
And so begins the day I share with You as I will share eternity, for time has
stepped aside today. I do not seek the things of time, and so I will not look
upon them. What I seek today transcends all laws of time and things
perceived in time. I would forget all things except Your Love. I would abide in
You, and know no laws except Your law of Love.And I would find the peace
which You created for Your Son, forgetting all the foolish toys I made as I
behold Your glory and my own.”
And when the evening comes today, we will remember nothing
but the peace of God. For we will learn today what peace is ours
when we forget all things except God’s Love.
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lesson 347
“Anger must come from judgement. Judgement is
The weapon I would use against myself
To keep all miracles away from me.”
“Father, I want what goes against my will, and do not want what is my will
to have. Straighten my mind, my Father. It is sick. But You have offered
freedom, and I choose to claim Your gift today.And so I give all judgement to
the One You gave to me to judge for me. He sees what I behold, and yet He
knows the truth. He looks on pain, and yet He understands it is not real, and
in His understanding it is healed. He gives the miracles my dreams would
hide from my awareness. Let Him judge today. I do not know my will, but
He is sure it is Your Own.And He will speak for me, and call Your miracle to
come to me.”
Listen today. Be very still, and hear the gentle Voice for God
assuring you that He has judged you as the Son He loves.
lesson 348
“I have no cause for anger or for fear,
For You surround me. And in every need
That I perceive Your grace suffices me.”
“Father, let me remember You are here, and I am not alone. Surrounding me
is everlasting Love. I have no cause for anything except the perfect peace and
joy I share with You.What need have I for anger or for fear? Surrounding me
is perfect safety. Can I be afraid, when Your Eternal promise goes with me?
Surrounding me is perfect sinlessness.What can I fear, when You created me in
holiness as perfect as Your own?”
God’s grace suffices us in everything that He would have us do.
And only that we choose to be our will as well as His.
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PART 2
lesson 349
“Today I let Christ’s vision look upon
All things for me and judge them not, but give
Each one a miracle of love instead.”
“So would I liberate all things I see, and give to them the freedom that I seek.
For thus do I obey the law of love, and give what I would find and make my
own. It will be given me because I have chosen it as the gift I want to give.
Father,Your gifts are mine. Each one that I accept gives me a miracle to give.
And giving as I would receive, I learn Your healing miracles belong to me.”
Our Father knows our needs. He gives us grace to meet them
all.And so we trust in Him to send us miracles to bless the world and
heal our minds as we return to Him.
le s s on 35 0
“Miracles mirror God’s eternal Love.
To offer them is to remember Him,
And through His memory to save the world.”
“What we forgive becomes a part of us, as we perceive ourselves.The Son of
God incorporates all things within himself as You created him.Your memory
depends on his forgiveness.What he is, is unaffected by his thoughts. But what
he looks upon is their direct result.Therefore, my Father, I would turn to You.
Only Your memory will set me free.And only my forgiveness teaches me to let
Your memory return to me, and give it to the world in thankfulness.”
And as we gather miracles from Him, we will indeed be
grateful. For as we remember Him, His Son will be restored to us in
the Reality of Love.
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w hat am i ?
I am God’s Son, complete and healed and whole, shining in the reflection of
His Love. In me is His creation sanctified and guaranteed eternal life. In me
is love perfected, fear impossible, and joy established without opposite. I am
the holy home of God Himself. I am the Heaven where His Love resides. I
am His holy Sinlessness Itself, for in my purity abides His own.
Our use for words is almost over now.Yet in the final days of
this one year we gave to God together, you and I, we found a single
purpose that we shared. And thus you joined with me. So what I am
are you as well.The truth of what we are is not for words to speak of
or describe.Yet we can realize our function here, and words can speak
of this and teach it, too, if we exemplify the words in us.
We are the bringers of salvation.We accept our part as Saviors of
the world, which through our joint forgiveness is redeemed. And
this, our gift, is therefore given us.We look on everyone as brothers,
and perceive all things as kindly and as good. We do not seek a
function that is past the gates of Heaven. Knowledge will return
when we have done our part. We are concerned only with giving
welcome to the truth.
Ours are the eyes through which Christ’s vision sees a world
redeemed from every thought of sin. Ours are the ears that hear the
Voice of God proclaim the world as sinless. Ours the minds which
join together as we bless the world. And from the oneness that we
have attained we call to all our brothers, asking them to share our
peace and consummate our joy.
We are the holy messengers of God who speak for Him, and
carrying His Word to everyone whom He has sent to us, we learn
that It is written on our hearts. And thus our minds are changed
about the aim for which we came and which we seek to serve. We
bring glad tidings to the Son of God, who thought he suffered. Now
is he redeemed.And as he sees the gate of Heaven stand open before
him, he will enter in and disappear into the Heart of God.
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le s s on 351
“My sinless brother is my guide to peace.
My sinful brother is my guide to pain.
And which I choose to see I will behold.”
“Who is my brother but Your holy Son? And if I see him sinful, I
proclaim myself a sinner; not a Son of God; alone and friendless in a fearful
world.Yet this perception is a choice I make, and can relinquish. I can also see
my brother sinless, as Your holy Son.And with this choice I see my sinlessness,
my everlasting Comforter and Friend beside me, and my way secure and clear.
Choose, then, for me, my Father, through Your Voice. For He alone gives
judgement in Your Name.”
le s s on 35 2
“Judgement and love are opposites. From one
Come all the sorrows of the world. But from
The Other comes the peace of God Himself.”
“Forgiveness looks on sinlessness alone, and judges not.Through this I
come to You. Judgement will bind my eyes and make me blind. Yet love,
reflected in forgiveness here, reminds me You have given me a way to find Your
peace again. I am redeemed when I elect to follow in this way.You have not
left me comfortless. I have within me both the memory of You, and One Who
leads me to it. Father, I would hear Your Voice, and find Your peace today. For
I would love my own Identity, and find in Him the memory of You.”
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le s s on 353
“My eyes, my tongue, my hands, my feet today
Have but one purpose; to be given Christ
To use to bless the world with miracles.”
“Father, I give all that is mine today to Christ, to use in any way that
best will serve the purpose that I share with Him. Nothing is mine alone, for
He and I have joined in purpose. Thus has learning come almost to its
appointed end. A while I work with Him to serve His purpose.Then I lose
myself in my Identity, and recognize that Christ is but my Self.”
le s s on 35 4
“We stand together, Christ and I, in peace
And certainty of purpose. And in Him
Is His Creator, as He is in me.”
“My oneness with the Christ establishes me as Your Son, beyond the
reach of time, and wholly free of every law but Yours. I have no self except the
Christ in me. I have no purpose but His own. And He is like His Father.
Thus must I be one with You as well as Him. For who is Christ except Your
Son as You created Him? And what am I except the Christ in me?”
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le s s on 355
“There is no end to all the peace and joy
And all the miracles that I will give
When I accept God’s Word.Why not today?”
“Why should I wait, my Father, for the joy You promised me? For You
will keep Your Word You gave Your Son in exile. I am sure my treasure waits
for me, and I need but reach out my hand to find it. Even now my fingers
touch it. It is very close. I need not wait an instant more, to be at peace forever.
It is You I choose, and my Identity along with You. Your Son would be
Himself, and know You as his Father and Creator and his Love.”
le s s on 356
“Sickness is but another name for sin.
Healing is but another Name for God.
The miracle is thus a call to Him.”
“Father,You promised You would never fail to answer any call Your Son
might make to You. It does not matter where he is, what seems to be his
problem, nor what he believes he has become. He is Your Son, and You will
answer him. The miracle reflects Your Love, and thus it answers him.Your
Name replaces every thought of sin, and who is sinless cannot suffer pain.
Your Name gives answer to Your Son, because to call Your Name is but to call
his own.”
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le s s on 357
“Truth answers every call we make to God,
Responding first with miracles, and then
Returning unto us to be Itself.”
“Forgiveness, truth’s reflection, tells me how to offer miracles and thus
escape the prison house in which I think I live.Your holy Son is pointed out
to me, first in my brother; then in me.Your Voice instructs me patiently to hear
Your Word and give as I receive. And as I look upon Your Son today, I hear
Your Voice instructing me to find the way to You as You appointed that the
way shall be:‘Behold his sinlessness and be you healed. Look on the Christ
in him, and he is healed’.”
le s s on 358
“No call to God can be unheard nor left
Unanswered. And of this I can be sure;
His answer is the one I really want.”
“You Who remember what I really am alone remembers what I really
want.You speak for God, and so You speak for me. And what You give me
comes from God Himself. Your Voice, my Father, then is mine as well, and all
I want is what You offer me, in just the form You chose that it be mine. Let me
remember all I do not know, and let my voice be still, remembering. But let me
not forget Your Love and care, keeping Your promise to Your Son in my
awareness always. Let me not forget myself is nothing, but my Self is all.”
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le s s on 35 9
“God’s answer is some form of peace. All pain
Is healed; all misery replaced with joy.
All prison doors are opened. And all sin
Is understood as merely a mistake.”
“Father, today we will forgive Your world, and let creation be Your own.
We have misunderstood all things. But we have not made sinners of the holy
Sons of God.What You created sinless so abides forever and forever. Such are
we. And we rejoice to learn that we have made mistakes which have no real
effects on us. Sin is impossible, and on this fact forgiveness rests upon a certain
base more solid than the shadow world we see. Help us forgive, for we would
be redeemed. Help us forgive, for we would be at peace.”
le sson 36 0
“Peace be to me, the holy Son of God.
Peace to my brother, who is one with me.
Let all the world be blessed with peace through us.”
“Father, it is Your peace that I would give, receiving it of You. I am Your
Son, forever just as You created me, for the Great Rays remain forever still and
undisturbed within me. I would reach to them in silence and in certainty, for
nowhere else can certainty be found. Peace be to me, and peace to all the
world. In holiness were we created, and in holiness do we remain.Your Son is
like to You in perfect sinlessness, and with this thought we gladly say
‘Amen’.”
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Our final lessons will be left as free of words as possible.We use them
but at the beginning of our practicing, and only to remind us that we
seek to go beyond them. Let us turn to Him Who leads the way and
makes our footsteps sure. To Him we leave these lessons, as to Him
we give our lives henceforth. For we would not return again to the
belief in sin, which made the world seem ugly and unsafe, attacking
and destroying, dangerous in all its ways and treacherous beyond the
hope of trust and the escape from pain.
His is the only way to find the peace that God has given us. It is
His way that everyone must travel in the end, because it is this ending
God Himself appointed. In the dream of time it seems to be far off.
And yet, in truth, it is already here; already serving us as gracious
guidance in the way to go. Let us together follow in this way that
truth points out to us.And let us be the leaders of our many brothers,
who are seeking for the way but find it not.
And to this purpose let us dedicate our minds, directing all our
thoughts to serve the function of salvation. Unto us the aim is given
to forgive the world. It is the goal that God has given us. It is His
ending to the dream we seek, and not our own. For all that we
forgive we will not fail to recognize as part of God Himself.And thus
His memory is given back completely and complete.
It is our function to remember Him on earth, as it is given us to
be His own completion in reality. So let us not forget our goal is
shared. For it is that remembrance which contains the memory of
God, and points the way to Him and to the Heaven of His peace.
And shall we not forgive our brother, who can offer this to us? He is
the way, the truth and life that show the way to us. In him resides
salvation, offered us through our forgiveness given unto him.
We will not end this year without the gift our Father promised
to His holy Son. We are forgiven now. And we are saved from all
the wrath we thought belonged to God, and found it was a dream.
We are restored to sanity, in which we understand that anger is
insane, attack is mad, and vengeance merely foolish fantasy.We have
been saved from wrath because we learned we were mistaken.
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❉
This course is a beginning, not an end.Your Friend goes with you.
You are not alone. No-one who calls on Him can call in vain.
Whatever troubles you, be certain that He has the answer, and will
gladly give it to you if you simply turn to Him and ask it of Him. He
will not withhold all answers that you need for anything that seems
to trouble you. He knows the way to solve all problems and resolve
all doubts. His certainty is yours.You need but ask it of Him, and it
will be given you.
You are as certain of arriving home as is the pathway of the sun
laid down before it rises, after it has set, and in the half-lit hours in
between. Indeed, your pathway is more certain still, for it can not be
possible to change the course of those whom God has called to Him.
Therefore obey your will, and follow Him Whom you accepted as
your voice, to speak of what you really want and really need. His is
the Voice for God, and also yours. And thus He speaks of freedom
and of truth.
No more specific lessons are assigned, for there is no more need
of them. Henceforth, hear but the Voice for God and for your Self
when you retire from the world, to seek reality instead. He will direct
your efforts, telling you exactly what to do, how to direct your mind,
and when to come to Him in silence, asking for His sure direction
and His certain Word. His is the Word that God has given you. His is
the Word you chose to be your own.
And now I place you in His hands, to be His faithful followers,
with Him as Guide through every difficulty and all pain that you
may think is real. Nor will He give you pleasures that will pass away,
for He gives only the eternal and the good. Let Him prepare you
further. He has earned your trust by speaking daily to you of your
Father and your brother and your Self. He will continue; now you
walk with Him as certain as is He of where you go; as sure as He of
how you should proceed, as confident as He is of the goal, and of
your safe arrival in the end.
The end is certain, and the means as well. To this we say
“Amen.” We will be told exactly what God wills for us each time
there is a choice to make. And He will speak for God and for your
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Self, thus making sure that hell will claim you not, and that each
choice you make brings Heaven nearer to your reach. And so we
walk with Him from this time on, and turn to Him for guidance and
for peace and right direction. Joy attends our way. For we go
homeward to an open door which God has held unclosed to
welcome us.
We trust our ways to Him and say “Amen.” In peace we will
continue in His way, and trust all things to Him. In confidence we
wait His answers, as we ask His will in everything we do. He loves
God’s Son as we would love him, and He teaches us how to behold
him through His eyes, and love him as He does. You do not walk
alone. God’s angels hover close, and all about. His Love surrounds
you, and of this be sure: that I will never leave you comfortless.
485
A
COURSE IN
MIRACLES
MANUAL
❉
Contents
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1
Who Are God’s Teachers? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3
Who Are Their Pupils? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5
What Are the Levels of Teaching? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .7
What Are the Characteristics of God’s Teachers? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .9
1 Trust . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .9
2 Honesty . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .11
3 Tolerance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .12
4 Gentleness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .12
5 Joy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .13
6 Defenselessness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .13
7 Generosity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .14
8 Patience . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .15
9 Faithfulness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .15
10 Openmindedness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .16
How Is Healing Accomplished? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .17
1 The Perceived Purpose of Sickness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .17
2 The Shift in Perception . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .17
3 The Function of the Teacher of God . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .19
Is Healing Certain? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .21
Should Healing Be Repeated? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .23
How Can the Perception of Order of Difficulties Be Avoided? . . . . . . . . . .25
Are Changes Required in the Life Situation of God’s Teachers? . . . . . . . . . .27
How Is Judgement Relinquished? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .28
How Is Peace Possible in This World? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .30
How Many Teachers of God Are Needed to Save the World? . . . . . . . . . . .32
What Is the Real Meaning of Sacrifice? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .34
How Will the World End? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .37
Is Each One to Be Judged in the End? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .39
How Should the Teacher of God Spend His Day? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .41
How Do God’s Teachers Deal with Their Pupils’Thoughts of Magic? . . . . .45
How Is Correction Made? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .48
What Is Justice? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .50
What Is the Peace of God? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .52
What Is the Role of Words in Healing? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .54
How Are Healing and Atonement Related? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .56
Does Jesus Have a Special Place in Healing? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .59
Is Reincarnation True? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .61
Are “Psychic” Powers Desirable? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .63
Can God Be Reached Directly? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .65
What Is Death? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .67
What Is the Resurrection? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .69
As for the Rest… . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .71
Forget not… . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .75
Introduction
1
MANUAL
2
w h o a r e g o d ’s t e ac h e r s ?
3
MANUAL
question of outcome, for what can change the Will of God? But
time, with its illusions of change and death, wears out the world and
all things in it.Yet time has an ending, and it is this that the teachers
of God are appointed to bring about. For time is in their hands. Such
was their choice, and it is given them.
4
who are their pupils?
Certain pupils have been assigned to each of God’s teachers, and they
will begin to look for him as soon as he has answered the Call.They
were chosen for him because the form of the universal curriculum
that he will teach is best for them in view of their level of
understanding. His pupils have been waiting for him, for his coming
is certain. Again, it is only a matter of time. Once he has chosen to
fulfill his role, they are ready to fulfill theirs. Time waits on his
choice, but not whom he will serve. When he is ready to learn, the
opportunities to teach will be provided for him.
In order to understand the teaching-learning plan of salvation, it
is necessary to grasp the concept of time which the course sets forth.
Atonement corrects illusions, not the truth. Therefore it corrects
what never was. Further, the plan for this correction was established
and completed simultaneously, for the Will of God is entirely apart
from time. So is all reality, being of Him. The instant the idea of
separation entered the mind of God’s Son, in that same instant was
God’s Answer given. In time this happened very long ago. In reality it
never happened at all.
The world of time is the world of illusion.What happened long
ago seems to be happening now. Choices made long since appear to
be open; yet to be made.What has been learned and understood and
long ago passed by is looked upon as a new thought, a fresh idea, a
different approach. Because your will is free you can accept what has
already happened at any time you choose, and only then will you
realize that it was always there.As the course emphasizes, you are not
free to choose the curriculum, or even the form in which you will
learn it.You are free, however, to decide when you want to learn it.
And as you accept it, it is already learned.
Time really, then, goes backward to an instant so ancient that it is
beyond all memory, and past even the possibility of remembering.Yet
because it is an instant that is relived again and again and still again, it
seems to be now. And thus it is that pupil and teacher seem to come
together in the present, finding each other as if they had not met
before. The pupil comes at the right time to the right place. This is
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MANUAL
6
w hat ar e t h e l e v e l s o f t eac h i n g ?
7
MANUAL
teachers work at different levels, but the result is always the same.
Each teaching-learning situation is maximal in the sense that
each person involved will learn the most that he can from the other
person at that time. In this sense, and in this sense only, we can speak
of levels of teaching. Using the term in this way, the second level of
teaching is a more sustained relationship, in which for a time two
people enter into a fairly intense teaching-learning situation and
then appear to separate.As with the first level, these meetings are not
accidental nor is what appears to be the end of the relationship a real
end. Again, each has learned the most he can at the time.Yet all who
meet will someday meet again, for it is the destiny of all relationships
to become holy. God is not mistaken in His Son.
The third level of teaching occurs in relationships which, once
they are formed, are lifelong. These are teaching-learning situations
in which each person is given a chosen learning partner who
presents him with unlimited opportunities for learning. These
relationships are generally few because their existence implies that
those involved have reached a stage simultaneously in which the
teaching-learning balance is actually perfect.This does not mean that
they necessarily recognize this; in fact, they generally do not. They
may even be quite hostile to each other for some time, and perhaps
for life.Yet should they decide to learn it, the perfect lesson is before
them and can be learned.And if they decide to learn that lesson, they
become the Saviors of the teachers who falter and may even seem to
fail. No teacher of God can fail to find the Help he needs.
8
w hat ar e t h e c harac t e r i s t i c s o f
g o d ’s t e ac h e r s ?
The surface traits of God’s teachers are not at all alike. They do not
look alike to the body’s eyes, they come from vastly different
backgrounds, their experiences of the world vary greatly, and their
superficial “personalities” are quite distinct. Nor at the beginning stages
of their functioning as teachers of God have they as yet acquired the
deeper characteristics that will establish them as what they are. God
gives special gifts to His teachers because they have a special role in His
plan for Atonement.Their specialness is, of course, only temporary; set
in time as a means of leading out of time.These special gifts, born in
the holy relationship toward which the teaching-learning situation is
geared, become characteristic of all teachers of God who have
advanced in their own learning. In this respect they are all alike.
All differences among the Sons of God are temporary.
Nevertheless, in time it can be said that the advanced teachers of
God have the following characteristics:
1. TRUST
This is the foundation on which their ability to fulfill their function
rests. Perception is a result of learning. In fact, perception is learning,
because cause and effect are never separated.The teachers of God have
trust in the world because they have learned it is not governed by the
laws the world made up. It is governed by a Power Which is in them
but not of them. It is this Power that keeps all things safe. It is through
this Power that the teachers of God look on a forgiven world.
When this Power has once been experienced, it is impossible to
trust one’s own petty strength again.Who would attempt to fly with
the tiny wings of a sparrow when the mighty power of an eagle has
been given him? And who would place his faith in the shabby
offerings of the ego when the gifts of God are laid before him? What
is it that induces them to make the shift?
First, they must go through what might be called “a period of
undoing.”This need not be painful, but it usually is so experienced.
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MANUAL
10
teacher of God is now at the point in his progress at which he sees in
it his whole way out.“Give up what you do not want and keep what
you do.” How simple is the obvious! And how easy to do! The
teacher of God needs this period of respite. He has not yet come as
far as he thinks.Yet when he is ready to go on, he goes with mighty
companions beside him. Now he rests a while, and gathers them
before going on. He will not go on from here alone.
The next stage is indeed a “period of unsettling.” Now must the
teacher of God understand that he did not really know what was
valuable and what was valueless. All that he really learned so far was
that he did not want the valueless and that he did want the valuable.Yet
his own sorting-out was meaningless in teaching him the difference.
The idea of sacrifice, so central to his thought system, had made it
impossible for him to judge. He thought he had learned willingness,
but now he sees that he does not know what the willingness is for.And
now he must attain a state that may remain impossible for a long long
time. He must learn to lay all judgement aside and ask only what he
really wants in every circumstance.Were not each step in this direction
so heavily reinforced, it would be hard indeed!
And finally, there is a “period of achievement.” It is here that
learning is consolidated. Now what was seen as merely shadows
before becomes solid gains, to be counted on in all “emergencies” as
well as tranquil times. Indeed, the tranquillity is their result; the
outcome of honest learning, consistency of thought and full transfer.
This is the stage of real peace, for here is Heaven’s state fully
reflected. From here the way to Heaven is open and easy. In fact, it is
here. Who would “go” anywhere, if peace of mind is already
complete? And who would seek to change tranquillity for something
more desirable? What could be more desirable than this?
2. HONESTY
All other traits of God’s teachers rest on trust. Once that has been
achieved the others cannot fail to follow. Only the trusting can afford
honesty, for only they can see its value. Honesty does not apply to
only what you say. The term actually means consistency. There is
nothing you say that contradicts what you think or do; no thought
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MANUAL
opposes any other thought; no act belies your word; and no word
lacks agreement with another. Such are the truly honest. At no level
are they in conflict with themselves. Therefore it is impossible for
them to be in conflict with anyone or anything.
The peace of mind which the advanced teachers of God
experience is largely due to their perfect honesty. It is only the wish
to deceive that makes for war. No-one at one with himself can even
conceive of conflict. Conflict is the inevitable result of self-
deception, and self-deception is dishonesty.There is no challenge to
a teacher of God. Challenge implies doubt, and the trust on which
God’s teachers rest secure makes doubt impossible. Therefore they
can only succeed. In this as in all things they are honest. They can
only succeed because they never do their will alone.They choose for
all mankind; for all the world and all things in it; for the unchanging
and unchangeable beyond appearances; and for the Son of God and
his Creator. How could they not succeed? They choose in perfect
honesty, sure of their choice themselves.
3. TOLERANCE
God’s teachers do not judge.To judge is to be dishonest, for to judge
is to assume a position you do not have. Judgement without self-
deception is impossible. Judgement implies that you have been
deceived in your brothers. How then could you not have been
deceived in yourself? Judgement implies a lack of trust, and trust
remains the bed-rock of the teacher of God’s whole thought system.
Let this be lost and all his learning goes. Without judgement are all
things equally acceptable, for who could judge otherwise? Without
judgement are all men brothers, for who is there who stands apart?
Judgement destroys honesty and shatters trust. No teacher of God
can judge and hope to learn.
4. GENTLENESS
Harm is impossible for God’s teachers.They can neither harm nor be
harmed. Harm is the outcome of judgement. It is the dishonest act
that follows the dishonest thought. It is a verdict of guilt upon a
brother and therefore on one’s self. It is the end of peace and the
12
denial of learning. It demonstrates the absence of God’s curriculum
and its replacement by insanity. No teacher of God but must learn, –
and fairly early in his training, – that harmfulness completely
obliterates his function from his awareness. It will make him
confused, fearful, angry and suspicious. It will make the Holy Spirit’s
lessons impossible to learn. Nor can God’s Teacher be heard at all
except by those who realize that harm can actually achieve nothing.
No gain can come of it.
Therefore God’s teachers are wholly gentle. They need the
strength of gentleness, for it is in this that the function of salvation
becomes easy.To those who would do harm it is impossible.To those
to whom harm has no meaning it is merely natural.What choice but
this has meaning to the sane? Who chooses hell when he perceives a
way to Heaven? And who would choose the weakness that must
come from harm in place of the unfailing, all-encompassing and
limitless strength of gentleness? The might of God’s teachers lies in
their gentleness, for they have understood their evil thoughts came
neither from God’s Son nor his Creator. Thus did they join their
thoughts with Him Who is their Source. And so their will, which
always was His Own, is free to be Itself.
5. JOY
Joy is the inevitable result of gentleness. Gentleness means that fear is
now impossible, and what could come to interfere with joy? The
open hands of gentleness are always filled. The gentle have no pain.
They cannot suffer. Why would they not be joyous? They are sure
they are beloved and must be safe. Joy goes with gentleness as surely as
grief attends attack. God’s teachers trust in Him.And they are sure His
Teacher goes before them, making sure no harm can come to them.
They hold His gifts and follow in His way, because God’s Voice directs
them in all things. Joy is their song of thanks.And Christ looks down
on them in thanks as well. His need of them is just as great as theirs of
Him. How joyous it is to share the purpose of salvation!
6. DEFENSELESSNESS
God’s teachers have learned how to be simple. They have no dreams
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that need defense against the truth. They do not try to make
themselves. Their joy comes from their understanding Who created
them.And does what God created need defense? No-one can become
an advanced teacher of God until he fully understands that defenses are
but the foolish guardians of mad illusions. The more grotesque the
dream, the fiercer and more powerful its defenses seem to be.Yet when
the teacher of God finally agrees to look past them, he finds nothing
was there. Slowly at first he lets himself be undeceived. But he learns
faster as his trust increases. It is not danger that comes when defenses
are laid down. It is safety. It is peace. It is joy.And it is God.
7. GENEROSITY
The term generosity has special meaning to the teacher of God. It is
not the usual meaning of the word; in fact, it is a meaning that must
be learned and learned very carefully. Like all the other attributes of
God’s teachers, this one rests ultimately on trust, for without trust
no-one can be generous in the true sense. To the world, generosity
means “giving away” in the sense of “giving up.” To the teachers of
God, it means “giving away” in order to keep. This has been
emphasized throughout the text and the workbook, but it is perhaps
more alien to the thinking of the world than many other ideas in our
curriculum. Its greater strangeness lies merely in the obviousness of
its reversal of the world’s thinking. In the clearest way possible and at
the simplest of levels, the word means the exact opposite to the
teachers of God and to the world.
The teacher of God is generous out of self-interest.This does not
refer, however, to the self the world speaks of.The teacher of God does
not want anything he cannot give away, because he realizes it would be
valueless to him by definition.What would he want it for? He could
only lose because of it. He could not gain.Therefore he does not seek
what only he could keep, because that is a guarantee of loss. He does
not want to suffer. Why should he ensure himself pain? But he does
want to keep for himself all things that are of God and therefore for
His Son. These are the things that belong to him. These he can give
away in true generosity, protecting them forever for himself.
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8. PATIENCE
Those who are certain of the outcome can afford to wait, and wait
without anxiety. Patience is natural to the teacher of God.All he sees
is certain outcome, at a time perhaps unknown as yet but not in
doubt.The time will be as right as is the answer. And this is true for
everything that happens now or in the future. The past as well held
no mistakes; nothing that did not serve to benefit the world as well as
him to whom it seemed to happen. Perhaps it was not understood at
the time. Even so, the teacher of God is willing to reconsider all his
past decisions if they are causing pain to anyone. Patience is natural
to those who trust. Sure of the ultimate interpretation of all things in
time, no outcome already seen or yet to come can cause them fear.
9. FAITHFULNESS
The extent of the teacher of God’s faithfulness is the measure of his
advancement in the curriculum. Does he still select some aspects of
his life to bring to his learning, while keeping others apart? If so, his
advancement is limited and his trust not yet firmly established.
Faithfulness is the teacher of God’s trust in the Word of God to set all
things right; not some but all. Generally his faithfulness begins by
resting on just some problems, remaining carefully limited for a time.
To give up all problems to one Answer is to reverse the thinking of
the world entirely. And that alone is faithfulness. Nothing but that
really deserves the name. Yet each degree, however small, is worth
achieving. Readiness, as the text notes, is not mastery.
True faithfulness, however, does not deviate. Being consistent it is
wholly honest. Being unswerving it is full of trust. Being based on
fearlessness it is gentle. Being certain it is joyous, and being confident it
is tolerant. Defenselessness attends it naturally, and joy is its condition.
Faithfulness, then, combines in itself the other attributes of God’s
teachers. It implies acceptance of the Word of God and His definition
of His Son. It is to Them that faithfulness in the true sense is always
directed. Toward Them it looks, seeking until it finds. And having
found, it rests in quiet certainty on That alone to which all faithfulness
is due.
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10. OPENMINDEDNESS
The centrality of openmindedness, perhaps the last of the attributes
the teacher of God acquires, is easily understood when its relation to
forgiveness is recognized. Openmindedness comes with lack of
judgement. As judgement shuts the mind against God’s Teacher, so
openmindedness invites Him to come in. As condemnation judges
the Son of God as evil, so openmindedness permits him to be judged
by the Voice for God on His behalf. As the projection of guilt upon
him would send him to hell, so openmindedness lets Christ’s image
be projected on him. Only the openminded can be at peace, for they
alone see reason for it.
How do the openminded forgive? They have let go all things
that would prevent forgiveness. They have in truth abandoned the
world, and let it be restored to them in newness and in joy so
glorious they could never have conceived of such a change. Nothing
is now as it was formerly. Nothing but sparkles now which seemed
so dull and lifeless before.And above all are all things welcoming, for
threat is gone. No clouds remain to hide the Face of Christ. Now is
the goal achieved. Forgiveness is the final goal of the curriculum. It
paves the way for what goes far beyond all learning.The curriculum
makes no effort to exceed its legitimate goal. Forgiveness is its single
aim, at which all learning ultimately converges. It is indeed enough.
………
You may have noticed that the list of attributes of God’s teachers
does not include those things which are the Son of God’s
inheritance. Terms like love, sinlessness, perfection, knowledge and
eternal truth do not appear in this context. They would be most
inappropriate here. What God has given is so far beyond our
curriculum that learning but disappears in its presence.Yet while its
presence is obscured, the focus properly belongs on the curriculum.
It is the function of God’s teachers to bring true learning to the
world. Properly speaking it is unlearning that they bring, for that is
“true learning” in the world. It is given to the teachers of God to
bring the glad tidings of complete forgiveness to the world. Blessed
indeed are they, for they are the Bringers of salvation.
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h ow i s h eal i ng accom p l i sh e d ?
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18
perspective, without distortion and without fear, they re-establish
Heaven.
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illusions are not reinforced.They are thus brought to truth, and truth
is not brought to them. So are they dispelled, not by the will of
another, but by the union of the One Will with Itself.And this is the
function of God’s teachers; to see no will as separate from their own,
nor theirs as separate from God’s.
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i s h ea l i n g c e rta i n ?
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MANUAL
Who gives the gift to Him. How can it be lost ? How can it be
ineffectual? How can it be wasted? God’s treasure house can never be
empty. And if one gift were missing it would not be full. Yet is its
fullness guaranteed by God. What concern, then, can a teacher of
God have about what becomes of his gifts? Given by God to God,
who in this holy exchange can receive less than everything?
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s h o u l d h ea l i n g b e r e p eat e d ?
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MANUAL
24
h ow can th e pe rc e p t i on of
o r d e r o f d i f f i c u l t i e s b e av o i d e d ?
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MANUAL
26
are change s require d in the
l i f e s i t uat i o n o f g o d ’s t e ac h e r s ?
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28
except in grandiose fantasies would claim this for himself?
Remember how many times you thought you knew all the
“facts” you needed for judgement, and how wrong you were! Is
there anyone who has not had this experience? Would you know
how many times you merely thought you were right, without ever
realizing you were wrong? Why would you choose such an arbitrary
basis for decision-making? Wisdom is not judgement; it is the
relinquishment of judgement. Make then but one more judgement.
It is this; there is Someone with you Whose judgement is perfect. He
does know all the facts, past, present, and to come. He does know all
the effects of His judgement on everyone and everything involved in
any way.And He is wholly fair to everyone, for there is no distortion
in His perception.
Therefore lay judgement down, not with regret but with a sigh
of gratitude. Now are you free of a burden so great that you could
merely stagger and fall down beneath it. And it was all illusion.
Nothing more. Now can the teacher of God rise up unburdened and
walk lightly on.Yet it is not only this that is his benefit. His sense of
care is gone, for he has none. He has given it away, along with
judgement. He gave himself to Him Whose judgement he has
chosen now to trust instead of his own. Now he makes no mistakes.
His Guide is sure. And where he came to judge he comes to bless.
Where now he laughs he used to come to weep.
It is not difficult to relinquish judgement. But it is difficult
indeed to try to keep it.The teacher of God lays it down happily the
instant he recognizes its cost. All of the ugliness he sees about him is
its outcome. All of the pain he looks upon is its result. All of the
loneliness and sense of loss; of passing time and growing
hopelessness; of sickening despair and fear of death; all these have
come of it. And now he knows that these things need not be. Not
one is true. For he has given up their cause, and they, which never
were but the effects of his mistaken choice, have fallen from him.
Teacher of God, this step will bring you peace. Can it be difficult to
want but this?
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h ow i s peac e p o s s i ble
in this world?
30
seem impossible. It is the world you see that is impossible. Yet has
God’s Judgement on this distorted world redeemed it, and made it fit
to welcome peace. And peace descends on it in joyous answer. Peace
now belongs here because a Thought of God has entered.What else
but a Thought of God turns hell to Heaven merely by being what It
is? The earth bows down before Its gracious Presence, and It leans
down in answer to raise it up again. Now is the question different. It
is no longer,“Can peace be possible in this world?” But instead,“Is it
not impossible that peace be absent here?”
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h ow many teac h e r s of g od
a r e n e e d e d t o s av e t h e w o r l d ?
32
to the mind of the hearer messages which are not of this world, and
the mind will understand because of their Source. From this
understanding will come the recognition, in this new teacher of
God, of what the body’s purpose really is; the only use there really is
for it.This lesson is enough to let the Thought of Unity come in, and
what is One is recognized as One. The teachers of God appear to
share the illusion of separation, but because of what they use the
body for, they do not believe in the illusion despite appearances.
The central lesson is always this; that what you use the body for,
it will become to you. Use it for sin or for attack, which is the same
as sin, and you will see it as sinful. Because it is sinful it is weak, and
being weak it suffers and it dies. Use it to bring the Word of God to
those who have It not, and the body becomes holy. Because it is holy
it cannot be sick, nor can it die.When its usefulness is done, it is laid
by, and that is all. The mind makes this decision, as it makes all
decisions which are responsible for the body’s condition. Yet the
teacher of God does not make this decision alone.To do that would
be to give the body another purpose from the one that keeps it holy.
God’s Voice will tell him when he has fulfilled his role, just as It tells
him what his function is. He does not suffer either in going or
remaining. Sickness is now impossible to him.
Oneness and sickness cannot co-exist. God’s teachers choose to
look on dreams a while. It is a conscious choice. For they have
learned that all choices are made consciously, with full awareness of
their consequences. The dream says otherwise, but who would put
his faith in dreams, once they are recognized for what they are?
Awareness of dreaming is the real function of God’s teachers. They
watch the dream figures come and go, shift and change, suffer and
die.Yet they are not deceived by what they see.They recognize that
to behold a dream figure as sick and separate is no more real than to
regard it as healthy and beautiful. Unity alone is not a thing of
dreams. And it is this God’s teachers acknowledge as behind the
dream, beyond all seeing and yet surely theirs.
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w hat i s t h e r ea l m ean i n g
of sac ri f i c e ?
34
house? No-one who has escaped the world and all its ills looks back
on it with condemnation.Yet he must rejoice that he is free of all the
sacrifice which its value would demand of him.To them he sacrifices
all his freedom. To them he sacrifices all his peace. And to possess
them must he sacrifice his hope of Heaven and remembrance of his
Father’s Love.Who in his sane mind chooses nothing as a substitute
for everything?
What is the real meaning of sacrifice? It is the cost of believing
in illusions. It is the price that must be paid for the denial of truth.
There is no pleasure of the world that does not demand this, for
otherwise the pleasure would be seen as pain. And no one asks for
pain if he recognizes it. It is the idea of sacrifice that makes him
blind. He does not see what he is asking for. And so he seeks it in a
thousand ways and in a thousand places, each time believing it is
there and each time disappointed in the end.“Seek but do not find,”
remains this world’s stern decree, and no-one who pursues the
world’s goals can do otherwise.
You may believe this course requires sacrifice of all you really
hold dear. In one sense that is true, for you hold dear the things that
crucify God’s Son. And it is the course’s aim to set him free. But do
not be mistaken about what sacrifice means. It always means the
giving up of what you want. And what, oh teacher of God, is it that
you want? You have been called by God, and you have answered.
Would you now sacrifice that Call? Few have heard it as yet, and they
can but turn to you.There is no other hope in all the world that they
can trust.There is no other voice in all the world that echoes God’s.
If you would sacrifice the truth, they stay in hell.And if they stay, you
will remain with them.
Do not forget that sacrifice is total.There are no “half sacrifices.”
You cannot give up Heaven partially.You cannot be a little bit in hell.
The Word of God has no exceptions. It is this that makes It holy and
beyond the world. It is Its holiness that points to God. It is Its
holiness that makes you safe. It is denied if you attack any brother for
anything. For it is here the split with God occurs. A split that is
impossible.A split that cannot happen.Yet a split in which you surely
will believe, because you have set up a situation that is impossible.
And in this situation the impossible can seem to happen. It seems to
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36
how will the world e nd?
Can what has no beginning really end? The world will end in an
illusion, as it began.Yet will its ending be an illusion of mercy. The
illusion of forgiveness, complete, excluding no-one, limitless in
gentleness, will cover it, hiding all evil, concealing all sin, and ending
guilt forever. So ends the world that guilt had made, for now it has no
purpose and is gone. The father of illusions is the belief that they
have a purpose; that they serve a need or gratify a want. Perceived as
purposeless, they are no longer seen. Their uselessness is recognized
and they are gone. How but in this way are all illusions ended? They
have been brought to truth, and truth saw them not. It merely
overlooked the meaningless.
Until forgiveness is complete, the world does have a purpose. It
becomes the home in which forgiveness is born, and where it grows
and becomes stronger and more all embracing. Here is it nourished,
for here it is needed. A gentle Savior, born where sin was made and
guilt seemed real. Here is His home, for here there is need of Him
indeed. He brings the ending of the world with Him. It is His Call
God’s teachers answer, turning to Him in silence to receive His
Word. The world will end when all things in it have been rightly
judged by His judgement.The world will end with the benediction
of holiness upon it.When not one thought of sin remains, the world
is over. It will not be destroyed nor attacked nor even touched. It will
merely cease to seem to be.
Certainly this seems to be a long, long while away. “When not
one thought of sin remains” appears to be a long-range goal indeed.
But time stands still and waits on the goals of God’s teachers. Not
one thought of sin will remain the instant any one of them accepts
the Atonement for himself. It is not easier to forgive one sin than to
forgive all of them.The illusion of orders of difficulty is an obstacle
the teacher of God must learn to pass by and leave behind. One sin
perfectly forgiven by one teacher of God can make salvation
complete. Can you understand this? No; it is meaningless to anyone
here. Yet it is the final lesson in which Unity is restored. It goes
against all the thinking of the world, so does Heaven.
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The world will end when its thought system has been completely
reversed. Until then, bits and pieces of its thinking will still seem
sensible. The final lesson which brings the ending of the world
cannot be grasped by those not yet prepared to leave the world and
go beyond its tiny reach.What, then, is the function of the teacher of
God in this concluding lesson? He need merely learn how to
approach it; to be willing to go in its direction. He need merely trust
that, if God’s Voice tells him it is a lesson he can learn, he can learn it.
He does not judge it either as hard or easy. His Teacher points to it,
and he trusts that He will show him how to learn it.
The world will end in joy because it is a place of sorrow.When
joy has come the purpose of the world has gone.The world will end
in peace because it is a place of war. When peace has come what is
the purpose of the world? The world will end in laughter because it
is a place of tears.Where there is laughter who can longer weep? And
only complete forgiveness brings all this to bless the world. In
blessing it departs, for it will not end as it began. To turn hell into
Heaven is the function of God’s teachers, for what they teach are
lessons in which Heaven is reflected. And now sit down in true
humility, and realize that all God would have you do you can do. Do
not be arrogant and say you cannot learn His Own curriculum. His
Word says otherwise. His Will be done. It cannot be otherwise. And
be you thankful it is so.
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i s eac h one to b e j udg e d
in the end?
Indeed yes! No-one can escape God’s final judgement. Who could
flee forever from the truth? But the final judgement will not come
until it is no longer associated with fear. One day each one will
welcome it, and on that very day it will be given him. He will hear
his sinlessness proclaimed around and around the world, setting it
free as God’s final judgement on him is received. This is the
judgement in which salvation lies.This is the judgement that will set
him free. This is the judgement in which all things are freed with
him. Time pauses as eternity comes near, and silence lies across the
world, that everyone may hear this judgement of the Son of God;
“Holy are you, eternal, free and whole,
At peace forever in the Heart of God.
Where is the world and where is sorrow now?”
Is this your judgement on yourself, teacher of God? Do you
believe that this is wholly true? No, not yet, not yet. But this is still
your goal; why you are here. It is your function to prepare yourself to
hear this judgement, and to recognize that it is true. One instant of
complete belief in this, and you will go beyond belief to Certainty.
One instant out of time can bring time’s end. Judge not, for you but
judge yourself and thus delay this final judgement. What is your
judgement on the world, teacher of God? Have you yet learned to
stand aside and hear the Voice of Judgement in yourself? Or do you
still attempt to take His role from Him? Learn to be quiet, for His
Voice is heard in stillness.And His Judgement comes to all who stand
aside in quiet listening, and wait for Him.
You who are sometimes sad and sometimes angry; who
sometimes feel your just due is not given you and your best efforts
meet with lack of appreciation and even contempt; give up these
foolish thoughts.They are too small and meaningless to occupy your
holy minds an instant longer. God’s judgement waits for you to set
you free. What can the world hold out to you, regardless of your
judgements on its gifts, that you would rather have? You will be
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40
h ow sh oul d th e teac h e r of g od
s p e n d h i s d ay ?
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42
turns with all of them recognizes no order of difficulty in resolving
them. He is as safe in the present as he was before illusions were
accepted into his mind, and as he will be when he has let them go.
There is no difference in his state at different times and different
places, because they are all one to God.This is his safety. And he has
no need for more than this.
Yet there will be temptations along the way the teacher of God
has yet to travel, and he has need of reminding himself throughout the
day of his protection. How can he do this, particularly during the time
when his mind is occupied with external things? He can but try, and
his success depends on his conviction that he will succeed. He must
be sure success is not of him, but will be given him at any time, in any
place and circumstance he calls for it.There are times his certainty will
waver, and the instant this occurs he will return to earlier attempts to
place reliance on himself alone. Forget not this is magic, and that
magic is a sorry substitute for true assistance. It is not good enough
for God’s teacher because it is not enough for God’s Son.
The avoidance of magic is the avoidance of temptation. For all
temptation is nothing more than the attempt to substitute another
will for God’s.These attempts may indeed seem frightening, yet they
are merely pathetic.They can have no effects; neither good nor bad,
neither rewarding nor demanding sacrifice, healing nor destructive,
quieting nor fearful.When all magic is recognized as merely nothing,
the teacher of God has reached the most advanced state. All
intermediate lessons will but lead to this, and bring this goal nearer
to recognition. For magic of any kind, in all its forms, simply does
nothing. Its powerlessness is the reason it can be so easily escaped.
What has no effects can hardly terrify.
There is no substitute for the Will of God. In simple statement, it
is to this simple fact that the teacher of God devotes his day. Each
substitute he may accept as real can but deceive him. But he is safe
from all deception if he so decides. Perhaps he needs to remember
“God is with me. I cannot be deceived.” Perhaps he prefers other
words, or only one or none at all.Yet each temptation to accept magic
as true must be abandoned through his recognition not that it is
fearful, not that it is sinful, not that it is dangerous, but merely that it is
meaningless. Rooted in sacrifice and separation, two aspects of one
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error and no more, he merely chooses to give up all that he never had.
And for this “sacrifice” is Heaven restored to his awareness.
Is not this an exchange that you would want? The world would
gladly make it, if it knew it could be made. It is God’s teachers who
must teach it that it can.And so it is their function to make sure that
they have learned it. No risk is possible throughout the day except to
put your trust in magic, for it is only this that leads to pain.“There is
no will but God’s.” His teachers know that this is so, and have learned
that everything but this is magic.All belief in magic is maintained by
just one simple-minded illusion; – that it works. All through his
training, every day and hour, and even every minute and second,
must God’s teachers learn to recognize the forms of magic and
perceive their meaninglessness. Fear is withdrawn from them and so
they go. And thus the Gate of Heaven is reopened, and its light can
shine again on an untroubled mind.
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h o w d o g o d ’s t e ac h e r s d e a l w i t h
th e i r p up i l s ’ th ou g h t s of mag i c ?
This is a crucial question both for teacher and student. If this issue is
mishandled, the teacher has hurt himself, and has also attacked his
pupil. This strengthens fear and makes the magic seem quite real to
both of them. How to deal with magic thus becomes a major lesson
for the teacher of God to master. His first responsibility in this is not
to attack it. If a magic thought arouses anger in any form, God’s
teacher can be sure that he is strengthening his own belief in sin and
has condemned himself. He can be sure as well that he has asked for
depression, pain, fear and disaster to come to him. Let him
remember, then, it is not this that he would teach because it is not
this that he would learn.
There is, however, a temptation to respond to magic in a way
that reinforces it. Nor is this always obvious. It can, in fact, be easily
concealed beneath a wish to help. It is this double wish that makes
the help of little value, and must lead to undesired outcomes. Nor
should it be forgotten that the outcome that results will always come
to teacher and to pupil. How many times has it been emphasized that
you give but to yourself? And where could this be better shown than
in the kinds of help the teacher gives to those who need his aid?
Here is his gift most clearly given him. For he will give only what he
has chosen for himself. And in this gift is his judgement upon the
holy Son of God.
It is easiest to let error be corrected where it is most apparent,
and errors can be recognized by their results. A lesson truly taught
can lead to nothing but release for teacher and pupil who have
shared in one intent. Attack can enter only if perception of separate
goals has entered. And this must indeed have been the case if the
result is anything but joy. The single aim of the teacher turns the
divided goal of the pupil into one direction, with the call for help
becoming his one appeal. This then is easily responded to with just
one answer, and this answer will enter the teacher’s mind unfailingly.
From there it shines into his pupil’s mind, making it one with his.
Perhaps it will be helpful to remember that no-one can be
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46
has guilt already raised madness to the throne of God Himself. And
now there is no hope. Except to kill. Here is salvation now.An angry
Father pursues His guilty Son. Kill or be killed, for here alone is
choice. Beyond this there is none, for what was done cannot be done
without.The stain of blood can never be removed, and anyone who
bears this stain on him must meet with death.
Into this hopeless situation God sends His teachers.They bring
the light of hope from God Himself.There is a Way in which escape
is possible. It can be learned and taught, but it requires patience and
abundant willingness. Given that, the lesson’s manifest simplicity
stands out like an intense white light against a black horizon, for such
it is. If anger comes from an interpretation and not a fact, it is never
justified. Once this is even dimly grasped, the Way is open. Now it is
possible to take the next step. The interpretation can be changed at
last. Magic thoughts need not lead to condemnation, for they do not
really have the power to give rise to guilt. And so they can be
overlooked, and thus forgotten in the truest sense.
Madness but seems terrible. In truth it has no power to make
anything. Like the magic which becomes its servant, it neither attacks
nor protects.To see it and to recognize its thought system is to look
on nothing. Can nothing give rise to anger? Hardly so. Remember
then, teacher of God, that anger recognizes a reality that is not there,
yet is the anger certain witness that you do believe in it as fact. Now
is escape impossible until you see you have responded to your own
interpretation, which you have projected on an outside world. Let this
grim sword be taken from you now. There is no death. This sword
does not exist.The fear of God is causeless. But His Love is Cause of
everything beyond all fear, and thus forever real and always true.
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48
to let all his own mistakes be corrected. If he senses even the faintest
hint of irritation in himself as he responds to anyone, let him instantly
realize that he has made an interpretation that is not true.Then let him
turn within to his Eternal Guide, and let Him judge what the response
should be. So is he healed, and in his healing is his pupil healed with
him. The sole responsibility of God’s teacher is to accept the
Atonement for himself. Atonement means correction, or the undoing
of errors. When this has been accomplished, the teacher of God
becomes a miracle worker by definition. His sins have been forgiven
him, and he no longer condemns himself. How can he then condemn
anyone? And who is there whom his forgiveness can fail to heal?
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w hat i s j u s t i c e ?
Justice is the divine correction for injustice. Injustice is the basis for
all the judgements of the world. Justice corrects the interpretations to
which injustice gives rise, and cancels them out. Neither justice nor
injustice exists in Heaven, for error is impossible and correction
meaningless. In this world, however, forgiveness depends on justice,
since all attack can only be unjust. Justice is the Holy Spirit’s verdict
upon the world. Except in His judgement, justice is impossible. For
no-one in the world is capable of making only just interpretations
and laying all injustices aside. If God’s Son were fairly judged, there
would be no need for salvation. The thought of separation would
have been forever inconceivable.
Justice, like its opposite, is an interpretation. It is, however, the
one interpretation that leads to truth.This becomes possible because,
while it is not true in itself, justice includes nothing that opposes
truth.There is no inherent conflict between justice and truth; one is
but the first small step in the direction of the other. The path
becomes quite different as one goes along. Nor could all the
magnificence, the grandeur of the scene and the enormous opening
vistas that rise to meet one as he travels on, be foretold from the
outset.Yet even these, whose splendor reaches indescribable heights
as one proceeds, falls short indeed of all that waits when the pathway
ceases and time ends with it. But somewhere one must start. Justice is
the beginning.
All concepts of your brothers and yourself; all fears of future
states and all concern about the past stem from injustice. Here is the
lens which, held before the body’s eyes distorts perception and brings
witness of the distorted world back to the mind that made the lens
and holds it very dear. Selectively and arbitrarily is every concept of
the world built up just this way.“Sins” are perceived and justified by
this careful selectivity, in which all thought of wholeness must be
lost. Forgiveness has no place in such a scheme, for not one “sin” but
seems forever true.
Salvation is God’s justice. It restores to your awareness the
wholeness of the fragments you perceived as broken off and separate.
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And it is this that overcomes the fear of death. For separate fragments
must decay and die, but wholeness is immortal. It remains forever and
forever like its Creator, being one with Him. God’s Judgement is His
justice. Onto this, – a judgement wholly lacking in condemnation; an
evaluation based entirely on love, – you have projected your
injustice, attributing to God the lens of warped perception through
which you look. Now it belongs to Him and not to you. You are
afraid of Him, and do not see you hate and fear your Self as enemy.
Pray for God’s justice, and do not confuse His mercy with your
own insanity. Perception can make whatever picture the mind desires
to see. Remember this. In this lies either Heaven or hell, as you elect.
God’s justice points to Heaven just because it is entirely impartial. It
accepts all evidence that is brought before it, omitting nothing and
assessing nothing as separate and apart from all the rest. From this one
standpoint does it judge, and this alone. Here all attack and
condemnation becomes meaningless and indefensible. Perception
rests, the mind is still, and light returns again.Vision is now restored.
What had been lost has now been found.The peace of God descends
on all the world and we can see.And we can see!
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w hat i s t h e p eac e o f g o d ?
It has been said that there is a kind of peace that is not of this world.
How is it recognized? How is it found? And being found, how can it
be retained? Let us consider each of these questions separately, for
each reflects a different step along the way.
First, how can the peace of God be recognized? God’s peace is
recognized at first by just one thing; in every way it is totally unlike
all previous experiences. It calls to mind nothing that went before. It
brings with it no past associations. It is a new thing entirely.There is
a contrast, yes, between this thing and all the past. But strangely, it is
not a contrast of true differences. The past just slips away, and in its
place is everlasting quiet. Only that. The contrast first perceived is
merely gone. Quiet has reached to cover everything.
How is this quiet found? No-one can fail to find it who but
seeks out its conditions. God’s peace can never come where anger is,
for anger must deny that peace exists.Who sees anger as justified in
any way or any circumstance proclaims that peace is meaningless, and
must believe that it cannot exist. In this condition peace cannot be
found. Therefore forgiveness is the necessary condition for finding
the peace of God. More than this, given forgiveness there must be
peace. For what except attack will lead to war? And what but peace
is opposite to war? Here the initial contrast stands out clear and
apparent.Yet when peace is found the war is meaningless. And it is
conflict now that is perceived as non-existent and unreal.
How is the peace of God retained, once it is found? Returning
anger, in whatever form, will drop the heavy curtain once again, and
the belief that peace cannot exist will certainly return. War is again
accepted as the one reality. Now must you once again lay down your
sword, although you will not recognize that you have picked it up
again. But you will learn, as you remember, even faintly now, what
happiness was yours without it, that you must have taken it again as
your defence. Stop for a moment now, and think of this: Is conflict
what you want, or is God’s peace the better choice? Which gives you
more? A tranquil mind is not a little gift. Would you not rather live
than choose to die?
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Living is joy, but death can only weep.You see in death escape from
what you made. But this you do not see; that you made death, and it is
but illusion of an end. Death cannot be escape, because it is not life in
which the problem lies. Life has no opposite, for it is God. Life and
death seem to be opposites because you have decided death ends life.
Forgive the world, and you will understand that everything which
God created cannot have an end, and nothing He did not create is real.
In this one sentence is our course explained. In this one sentence is our
practicing given its one direction. And in this the Holy Spirit’s whole
curriculum is specified exactly as it is.
What is the peace of God? No more than this; the simple
understanding that His Will is wholly without opposite.There is no
thought that contradicts His Will yet can be true. The contrast
between His Will and yours but seemed to be reality. In truth there is
no conflict, because His Will is yours. Now is the mighty Will of God
Himself His gift to you. He does not seek to keep it for Himself.
Why would you seek to keep your tiny, frail imaginings apart from
Him? The Will of God is one and all there is. This is your heritage.
The universe beyond the sun and stars, and all the thoughts of which
you can conceive, belong to you. God’s peace is the condition for His
Will.Attain His peace, and you remember Him.
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MANUAL
w hat i s t h e r o l e o f wo r d s
in healing?
54
teaching? No, indeed.There are many who must be reached through
words, being as yet unable to hear in silence. The teacher of God
must, however, learn to use words in a new way. Gradually, he learns
how to let his words be chosen for him by ceasing to decide for
himself what he will say. This process is merely a special case of the
Workbook lesson “I will step back and let Him lead the way.” The
teacher of God accepts the words which are offered him and gives as
he receives. He does not control the direction of his speaking. He
listens and hears and speaks.
A major hindrance in this aspect of his learning is the teacher of
God’s fear about the validity of what he hears. And what he hears
may indeed be quite startling. It may also seem to be quite irrelevant
to the presented problem as he perceives it, and may, in fact, confront
him with a situation that appears to be very embarrassing. All these
are judgements which have no value.They are his own, coming from
a shabby self-perception that he would leave behind. Judge not the
words that come to you, but offer them in confidence. They are far
wiser than your own. God’s teachers have God’s Word behind their
symbols. And He Himself gives to the words they use the power of
His Spirit, raising them from meaningless symbols to the call of
Heaven itself.
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h ow ar e h ea l i n g an d ato n e m e n t
r e lat e d ?
Healing and Atonement are not related; they are identical. There is
no order of difficulty in miracles because there are no degrees of
Atonement. It is the one complete concept possible in this world,
because it is the source of a wholly unified perception. Partial
Atonement is a meaningless idea, just as special areas of hell in
Heaven is inconceivable. Accept Atonement and you are healed.
Atonement is the Word of God. Accept His Word and what remains
to make sickness possible? Accept His Word and every miracle has
been accomplished. To forgive is to heal. The teacher of God has
taken accepting the Atonement for himself as his only function.What
is there, then, he cannot heal? What miracle can be withheld
from him?
The progress of the teacher of God may be slow or rapid,
depending on whether he recognizes the Atonement’s inclusiveness or
for a time excludes some problem areas from it. In some cases, there is
a sudden and complete awareness of the perfect applicability of the
lesson of the Atonement to all situations. This, however, is
comparatively rare. The teacher of God may have accepted the
function God has given him long before he has learned all that his
acceptance holds out to him. It is only the end that is certain.
Anywhere along the way the necessary realization of inclusiveness may
reach him. If the way seems long, let him be content. He has decided
on the direction he will take. What more was asked of him? And
having done what was required, would God withhold the rest?
That forgiveness is healing needs to be understood, if the
teacher of God is to make progress.The idea that a body can be sick
is a central concept in the ego’s thought system. This thought gives
the body autonomy, separates it from the mind, and keeps the idea of
attack inviolate. If the body could be sick, Atonement would be
impossible. A body that can order a mind to do as it sees fit would
merely take the place of God and prove salvation is impossible.What
then is left to heal? The body has become lord of the mind. How
could the mind be returned to the Holy Spirit unless the body is
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killed? And who would want salvation at such a price?
Certainly sickness does not appear to be a decision. Nor would
anyone actually believe he wants to be sick. Perhaps he can accept
the idea in theory, but it is rarely if ever consistently applied to all
specific forms of sickness both in the individual’s perception of
himself and of all others as well. Nor is it at this level that the teacher
of God calls forth the miracle of healing. He overlooks the mind and
body, seeing only the Face of Christ shining in front of him,
correcting all mistakes and healing all perception. Healing is the
result of the recognition by God’s teacher of Who it is that is in need
of healing. This recognition has no special reference. It is true of all
things that God created. In it are all illusions healed.
When a teacher of God fails to heal, it is because he has
forgotten Who he is. Another’s sickness thus becomes his own. In
allowing this to happen, he has identified with another’s ego and has
thus confused him with a body. In so doing, he has refused to accept
the Atonement for himself, and can hardly offer it to his brother in
Christ’s Name. He will, in fact, be unable to recognize his brother at
all, for his Father did not create bodies, and so he is seeing in his
brother only the unreal. Mistakes do not correct mistakes, and
distorted perception does not heal. Step back now, teacher of God.
You have been wrong. Lead not the way, for you have lost it. Turn
quickly to your Teacher, and let yourself be healed.
The offer of Atonement is universal. It is equally applicable to all
individuals in all circumstances. And in it is the power to heal all
individuals of all forms of sickness. Not to believe this is to be unfair
to God, and thus unfaithful to Him. A sick person perceives himself
as separate from God.Would you see him as separate from you? It is
your task to heal the sense of separation that has made him sick. It is
your function to recognize for him that what he believes about
himself is not the truth. It is your forgiveness that must show him
this. Healing is very simple. Atonement is received and offered.
Having been received, it must be accepted. It is in the receiving,
then, that healing lies.All else must follow from this single purpose.
Who can limit the power of God Himself? Who then can say
who can be healed of what, and what must remain beyond God’s
power to forgive? This is insanity indeed. It is not up to God’s
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58
d o e s j e s u s h av e a s p e c i a l p l ac e
in healing?
God’s gifts can rarely be received directly. Even the most advanced of
God’s teachers will give way to temptation in this world.Would it be
fair if their pupils were denied healing because of this? The Bible says
“Ask in the Name of Jesus Christ.” Is this merely an appeal to magic?
A name does not heal, nor does an invocation call forth any special
power.What does it mean to call on Jesus Christ? What does calling
on his Name confer? Why is the appeal to him part of healing?
We have repeatedly stated that one who has perfectly accepted
the Atonement for himself can heal the world. Indeed, he has already
done so.Temptation may recur to others, but never to this One. He
has become the risen Son of God. He has overcome death because
he has accepted Life. He has recognized himself as God created him,
and in so doing he has recognized all living things as part of him.
There is now no limit on his power, because it is the Power of God.
So has his name become the Name of God, for he no longer sees
himself as separate from Him.
What does this mean to you? It means that in remembering
Jesus you are remembering God.The whole relationship of the Son
to the Father lies in him. His part in the Sonship is also yours, and his
completed learning guarantees your own success. Is he still available
for help? What did he say about this? Remember his promises, and
ask yourself honestly whether it is likely he will fail to keep them.
Can God fail His Son? And can one who is one with God be unlike
Him? Who transcends the body has transcended limitation. Would
the greatest teacher be unavailable to those who follow him?
The Name of Jesus Christ as such is but a symbol. But it stands
for love that is not of this world. It is a symbol that can safely be used
as a replacement for the many names of all the gods you pray to. It
becomes the shining symbol for the Word of God, so close to What it
stands for that the little space between the two is lost the moment
that the Name is called to mind. Remembering His Name is to give
thanks for all the gifts that God has given you.And gratitude to God
becomes the way in which He is remembered, for love cannot be far
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MANUAL
behind a grateful heart and thankful mind. God enters easily, for
these are the true conditions for your coming home.
Jesus has led the way. Why would you not be grateful to him?
He has asked for love, but only that he might give it to you.You do
not love yourself. But in his eyes your loveliness is so complete and
flawless that he sees in it an image of his Father. You become the
symbol of his Father here on earth.To you he looks for hope, because
in you he sees no limit and no stain to mar your beautiful perfection.
In his eyes Christ’s vision shines in perfect constancy. He has
remained with you. Would you not learn the lesson of salvation
through his learning? Why would you choose to start again, when he
has made the journey for you?
No-one on earth can grasp what Heaven is, or what its One
Creator really means. Yet we have witnesses. It is to them that
wisdom would appeal. There have been those whose learning far
exceeds what you can learn. Nor would we teach the limitations we
have laid on us. No-one who has become a true and dedicated
teacher of God forgets his brothers. Yet what he can offer them is
limited by what he learns himself. Then turn to one who laid all
limits by, and went beyond the farthest reach of learning. He will
take you with him, for he did not go alone. And you were with him
then, as you are now.
This course has come from him because his words have reached
you in a language you can love and understand. Are other teachers
possible, to lead the way to those who speak in different tongues and
appeal to different symbols? Certainly there are. Would God leave
anyone without a very present help in time of trouble? A Savior who
can symbolize Himself? Yet do we need a many-faceted curriculum,
not because of content differences but because symbols must shift
and change to suit the need. Jesus has come to answer yours. In him
you find God’s Answer. Do you then teach with him, for he is with
you; he is always here.
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i s r e i n car nat i o n t ru e ?
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62
are “ p syc h i c ” p owe r s de s i rable ?
The answer to this question is much like the preceding one. There
are, of course, no “unnatural” powers, and it is obviously merely an
appeal to magic to make up a power that does not exist. It is equally
obvious, however, that each individual has many abilities of which he
is unaware. As his awareness increases, he may well develop abilities
that seem quite startling to him.Yet nothing he can do can compare
even in the slightest with the glorious surprise of remembering Who
he is. Let all his learning and all his efforts be directed toward this one
great final surprise, and he will not be content to be delayed by the
little ones that may come to him on the way.
Certainly there are many “psychic” powers that are clearly in
line with this course. Communication is not limited to the small
range of channels the world recognizes. If it were, there would be
little point in trying to teach salvation. It would be impossible to do
so.The limits the world places on communication is the chief barrier
to direct experience of the Holy Spirit, Whose Presence is always
there and Whose Voice is available but for the hearing. These limits
are placed out of fear, for without them the walls that surround all
the separate places of the world would fall at the holy sound of His
Voice. Who transcends these limits in any way is merely becoming
more natural. He is doing nothing special, and there is no magic in
his accomplishments.
The seemingly new abilities that may be gathered on the way
can be very helpful. Given to the Holy Spirit, and used under His
direction, they are valuable teaching aids.To this, the question of how
they arise is irrelevant.The only important consideration is how they
are used. Taking them as ends in themselves, no matter how this is
done, will delay progress. Nor does their value lie in proving
anything; achievements from the past, unusual attunement with the
“unseen,” or special favors from God. God gives no special favors,
and no-one has any powers that are not available to everyone. Only
by tricks of magic are special powers “demonstrated.”
Nothing that is genuine is used to deceive. The Holy Spirit is
incapable of deception, and He can use only genuine abilities.What
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MANUAL
is used for magic is useless to Him, but what He uses cannot be used
for magic. There is, however, a particular appeal in unusual abilities
which can be curiously tempting. Here are strengths which the Holy
Spirit wants and needs.Yet the ego sees in these same strengths an
opportunity to glorify itself. Strengths turned to weakness are
tragedy indeed. Yet what is not given to the Holy Spirit must be
given to weakness, for what is withheld from love is given to fear and
will be fearful in consequence.
Even those who no longer value the material things of the
world may still be deceived by “psychic” powers. As investment has
been withdrawn from the world’s material gifts the ego has been
seriously threatened. It may still be strong enough to rally under this
new temptation to win back strength by guile. Many have not seen
through the ego’s defences here, although they are not particularly
subtle.Yet, given a remaining wish to be deceived, deception is made
easy. Now the “power” is no longer a genuine ability, and cannot be
used dependably. It is almost inevitable that, unless the individual
changes his mind about its purpose, he will bolster its uncertainties
with increasing deception.
Any ability that anyone develops has the potentiality for good.
To this there is no exception.And the more unusual and unexpected
the power, the greater its potential usefulness. Salvation has need of
all abilities, for what the world would destroy the Holy Spirit would
restore. “Psychic” abilities have been used to call upon the devil,
which merely means to strengthen the ego.Yet here is also a great
channel of hope and healing in the Holy Spirit’s service.Those who
have developed “psychic” powers have simply let some of the
limitations they laid upon their minds be lifted. It can be but greater
limitations they lay upon themselves if they utilize their increased
freedom for greater imprisonment.The Holy Spirit needs these gifts,
and those who offer them to Him and Him alone go with Christ’s
gratitude upon their hearts, and His holy sight not far behind.
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can g o d b e r eac h e d d i r e c t ly ?
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MANUAL
escape from them, but not to be without them. If you would be heard
by those who suffer, you must speak their language. If you would be
Saviors, you must understand what needs to be escaped. Salvation is
not theoretical. Behold the problem, ask for the answer, and then
accept it when it comes. Nor will its coming be long delayed.All the
help you can accept will be provided, and not one need you have will
not be met. Let us not, then, be too concerned with goals for which
you are not ready. God takes you where you are and welcomes you.
What more could you desire, when this is all you need?
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w hat i s d eat h ?
Death is the central dream from which all illusions stem. Is it not
madness to think of life as being born, aging, losing vitality, and
dying in the end? We have asked this question before but now we
need to consider it still more carefully. It is the one fixed,
unchangeable belief of the world that all things in it are born only to
die. This is regarded as “the way of nature,” not to be raised to
question, but to be accepted as the “natural” law of life.The cyclical,
the changing and unsure; the undependable and the unsteady, waxing
and waning in a certain way upon a certain path, – all this is taken as
the Will of God.And no one asks if a benign Creator could will this.
In this perception of the universe as God created it, it would not
be possible to think of Him as loving. For who has decreed that all
things pass away, ending in dust and disappointment and despair, can
but be feared. He holds your little life in His hand but by a thread,
ready to break it off without regret or care, perhaps today. Or if He
waits, yet is the ending certain.Who loves such a god knows not of
love, because he has denied that life is real. Death has become life’s
symbol. His world is now a battleground, where contradiction reigns,
and opposites make endless war. Where there is death is peace
impossible.
Death is the symbol of the fear of God. His Love is blotted out
in the idea, which holds It from awareness like a shield held to
obscure the sun. The grimness of the symbol is enough to show it
cannot co-exist with God. It holds an image of the Son of God in
which he is “laid to rest” in devastation’s arms, where worms wait to
greet him and to last a little while by his destruction.Yet the worms
as well are doomed to be destroyed as certainly. And so do all things
live because of death. Devouring is nature’s “law of life.” God is
insane, and fear alone is real.
The curious belief that there is part of dying things that may go
on apart from what will die does not proclaim a loving God, nor re-
establish any grounds for trust. If death is real for anything, there is no
life. Death denies life, but if there is reality in life, death is denied. No
compromise in this is possible.There is either a god of fear or One of
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68
w hat i s t h e r e su r r e c t i o n ?
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MANUAL
70
as for the rest…
This manual is not intended to answer all questions that both teacher
and pupil may raise. In fact, it covers only a few of the more obvious
ones, in terms of a brief summary of some of the major concepts in
the text and workbook. It is not a substitute for either, but merely a
supplement. While it is called a manual for teachers, it must be
remembered that only time divides teacher and pupil, so that the
difference is temporary by definition. In some cases, it may be helpful
for the pupil to read the manual first. Others might do better to
begin with the workbook. Still others may need to start at the more
abstract levels of the text.
Which is for whom? Who would profit more from prayers
alone? Who needs but a smile, being as yet unready for more? No-one
should attempt to answer these questions alone. Surely no teacher of
God has come this far without realizing that. The curriculum is
highly individualized. And all aspects are under the Holy Spirit’s
particular care and guidance. Ask and He will answer. The
responsibility is His, and He alone is fit to assume it.To do so is His
function.To refer the questions to Him is yours.Would you want to
be responsible for decisions about which you understand so little? Be
glad you have a Teacher Who cannot make a mistake. His answers are
always right.Would you say that of yours?
There is another advantage, – and a very important one, – in
referring decisions to the Holy Spirit with increasing frequency.
Perhaps you have not thought of this aspect, but its centrality is
obvious. To follow the Holy Spirit’s guidance is to let yourself be
absolved of guilt. It is the essence of the Atonement. It is the core of
the curriculum.The imagined usurping of functions not your own is
the basis of fear. The whole world you see reflects the illusion you
have done so, making fear inevitable. To return the function to the
One to Whom it belongs is thus the escape from fear. And it is this
that lets the memory of love return to you. Do not, then, think that
following the Holy Spirit’s guidance is necessary merely because of
your own inadequacies. It is the way out of hell for you.
Here again is the paradox often referred to in the course.To say,
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“Of myself I can do nothing” is to gain all power. And yet it is but a
seeming paradox.As God created you, you have all power.The image
you made of yourself has none. The Holy Spirit knows the truth
about you.The image you made does not.Yet despite its obvious and
complete ignorance, this image assumes it knows all things because
you have given that belief to it. Such is your teaching and the
teaching of the world which was made to uphold it. But the Teacher
Who knows the truth has not forgotten it. His decisions bring
benefit to all, being wholly devoid of attack.And therefore incapable
of arousing guilt.
Who assumes a power that he does not have is deceiving
himself. Yet to accept the power given him by God is but to
acknowledge his Creator and accept His gifts. And His gifts have no
limit. To ask the Holy Spirit to decide for you is simply to accept
your true inheritance. Does this mean that you cannot say anything
without consulting Him? No indeed! That would hardly be
practical, and it is the practical with which this course is most
concerned. If you have made it a habit to ask for help when and
where you can, you can be confident that wisdom will be given you
when you need it. Prepare for this each morning, remember God
when you can throughout the day, ask the Holy Spirit’s help when it
is feasible to do so, and thank Him for His guidance at night. And
your confidence will be well founded indeed.
Never forget that the Holy Spirit does not depend on your
words. He understands the requests of your heart and answers them.
Does this mean that, while attack remains attractive to you He will
respond with evil? Hardly! For God has given Him the power to
translate your prayers of the heart into His language. He understands
that an attack is a call for help.And He responds with help accordingly.
God would be cruel if He let your words replace His Own. A loving
father does not let his child harm himself or choose his own
destruction. He may ask for injury, but his father will protect him still.
And how much more than this does your Father love His Son?
Remember you are His completion and His Love. Remember
your weakness is His strength. But do not read this hastily or
wrongly. If His strength is in you, what you perceive as your
weakness is but illusion.And He has given you the means to prove it
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so. Ask all things of His Teacher, and all things are given you. Not in
the future but immediately; now. God does not wait, for waiting
implies time and He is timeless. Forget your foolish images, your
sense of frailty and your fear of harm, your dreams of danger and
selected “wrongs.” God knows but His Son, and as he was created so
he is. In confidence I place you in His hands, and I give thanks for
you that this is so.
And now in all your doings be you blessed.
God turns to you for help to save the world.
Teacher of God, His thanks He offers you,
And all the world stands silent in the grace
You bring from Him.You are the Son He loves,
And it is given you to be the means
Through which His Voice is heard around the world
To close all things of time, to end the sight
Of all things visible, and to undo
All things that change.Through you is ushered in
A world unseen, unheard, yet truly there.
Holy are you, and in your light the world
Reflects your holiness, for you are not
Alone and friendless. I give thanks for you,
And join your efforts on behalf of God,
Knowing they are on my behalf as well
And for all those who walk to God with me.
FINIS
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❉
Forget not once this journey is begun the end is certain. Doubt along the
way will come and go and go to come again.Yet is the ending sure. No one
can fail to do what God appointed him to do.When you forget, remember
that you walk with Him and with His Word upon your heart.Who could
despair when Hope like this is his? Illusions of despair may seem to come,
but learn how not to be deceived by them. Behind each one there is reality
and there is God. Why would you wait for this, and trade it for illusions
when His Love is but an instant farther on the road where all illusions end?
The end is sure, and guaranteed by God.Who stands before a lifeless image
when a step away the Holy of the Holies opens up an ancient door that
leads beyond the world? You are a stranger here. But you belong to Him
Who loves you as He loves Himself.Ask but my help to roll the stone away
and it is done according to His Will.
We have begun the journey. Long ago the end was written in the
stars, and set into the Heavens with a shining ray that held it safe within
eternity and through all time as well. And holds it still; unchanged,
unchanging and unchangeable. Be not afraid.We only start again an ancient
journey long ago begun that but seems new.We have begun again upon a
road we travelled on before and lost our way a little while.And now we try
again. Our new beginning has the certainty the journey lacked till now.
Look up and see His Word among the stars where He has set your name
along with His. Look up and find your certain destiny the world would
hide but God would have you see.
Let us wait here in silence, and kneel down an instant in our gratitude
to Him Who called to us and helped us hear His Call.And then let us arise
and go in faith along the way to Him. Now we are sure we do not walk
alone. For God is here, and with Him all our brothers. Now we know that
we will never lose the way again. The song begins again which had been
stopped (stilled) only an instant, though it seemed to be unsung forever.
What is here begun will grow in life and strength and hope, until the world
is still an instant, and forgets all that the dream of sin had made of it.
Let us go out to meet the newborn world, knowing that Christ has
been reborn in it and that the holiness of this rebirth will last forever.We had
lost our way, but He has found it for us. Let us come and bid Him welcome
Who returns to us to celebrate salvation and the end of all we thought we
made.The morning (rising) star of this new day looks on a different world
where God is welcomed and His Son with Him. We who complete Him
offer thanks to Him, as He gives thanks to us. The Son is still, and in the
quiet God has given him enters his home and is at peace at last.
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