Chapter 21 ~ Reason and Perception

Projection makes perception. What my mind creates is projected out onto the dream-world.  In other words, I first thought of a world separated from God, then I projected it "outward," and my body's eyes seemed to see it.  Now the world reflects back to me my own thoughts.  That is all this is.  The dream-world is a witness to my state of mind; the outside picture of an inward condition.  "As a man thinketh, so doth he perceiveth." Seek not to change the world, but choose to change my mind about the world.

Anything perceived without Vision means nothing.  Where there is no meaning, there is chaos.  My dream-world is perceived without Vision.  Damnation is the judgment placed on myself by myself.  This I project upon the world, and it is reflected back to me.  If I see the world as damned, I will see "sin." If I see disaster and catastrophe, it is because I believe I am apart from God.

Everything looked upon with Vision is healed and Holy.  If I see Holiness and Hope, I can be sure I have joined with the Will of God.

There is only this one choice:  Heaven or hell, salvation or damnation, illusion or Reality.  I see evidence of my choice in the dream-world.  Seeing the evidence will enable me to recognize which one was chosen.

The Forgotten Song.  In the dream-world the blind see only in their imagination, for what anything looks like is unknown to them.  They must judge from indirect evidence.  They adjust to their information as they stumble and fall because of things they did not recognize, or walk unharmed through open doorways that they thought were closed.  So it is with me.  I do not Truly See.  My cues for judgment are wrong, so I stumble and fall over stones I do not recognize, or fail to see that I can go through doors I thought were closed but, in fact, stand open waiting to welcome me. Judgment will always give false directions, but Vision shows me Truth.  There is no need for me to guess.  There is no need for me to learn through pain.  Gentle lessons are learned Joyously and remembered gladly.  I am not a Happy learner yet, because I am still uncertain that Vision gives me more than judgment.  I cannot have both.

The blind become accustomed to the world by their adjustments to it.  They learn, not through Joyous lessons, but through the stern necessity of limits they believed they could not overcome.  I hold the lessons of the world dear, clinging to them because I cannot See.  I do not understand that my lessons keep me blind.  Everything I learn in the dream-world is learned through pain, and everything in it serves to remind me that I am incomplete and bitterly deprived. 

I adjust to life as I think I must, afraid of losing the little I have.  So it is when I see myself as a body.  I try to reach my brother, but I fail again and again.  I adjust to loneliness, believing that only the body can give me what little I have.

Heaven calls to me constantly and I have chosen not to hear.  Perhaps I have felt a hint of an Ancient State not quite forgotten; dim, but not altogether unfamiliar, like a song whose lyrics are long forgotten and the circumstances in which I heard it completely unremembered.  A little wisp of melody has stayed with me though, not attached to a person, place or anything in particular.  But I remember, from just this little part, how lovely it was, how wonderful the setting where I heard it, and how I loved those who were there and listened with me.  Listen and see if I remember the Ancient Song I knew so long ago, and held more dear than any melody I taught myself since.

Beyond the body, beyond the sun and stars, past everything I seem to see in the dream-world there is something familiar:  an Arc of Golden Light that stretches into a Great, Shining Circle.  The Circle fills with Light before my eyes, then the edges of the Circle disappear.  What was in It is no longer contained at all.  The Light expands and covers everything, extending to Infinity, Forever Shining, with no break or limit anywhere.  Within It, Everything is joined in Perfect Continuity.  It is impossible to imagine anything "outside" of It, for there is nowhere that this Light is not:   This is the Vision of the Son of God, whom I know well.  Here is the Memory of What I Am.  Accept the Vision, not what the body's eyes show me which is nothing and shows me nothing.  I know the Ancient Song, and I know It well.  Nothing will ever be as dear to me as this Ancient Hymn.

Now the blind can See, for that same Song they sing in honor of their Creator gives praise to them as well.  The blindness that I made will not withstand the Memory of Heaven.  I will look upon the Vision of the Son of God and remember Him.  What is a miracle but this remembering?  The Light in one will Awaken the Light in all.  When I see the Light in my brother, I remember It for everyone. 

The Responsibility for Sight.  God asks very little of me.  Just a small willingness is all I need to transform all my relationships to Joy.  This little gift I offer to God in exchange for Everything; this tiny change of mind in exchange for Eternal Peace; my small willingness is all my Creator needs.

I will not deceive myself any longer that I am helpless in the face of what is "done" to me.  Acknowledge that I have been mistaken and all the effects of my mistakes will disappear.  It is impossible that the Son of God be tossed around carelessly by events "outside" him.  It is impossible that situations and events in my life are not my choice.  I have the Power to decide every situation in which I seem to find myself by chance or "accident."  Accident and chance are impossible within God's Domain.  Suffering is possible only in dreams.  Suffer, and I have decided that separation from God is my goal.  Be Happy and give the Power of decision to God.  This is the little gift I offer Him and even this, He gives back to me to give to myself. 

Withhold the gift and I keep the world as I see it now.  Give it to God and everything I see disappears.  Never was so much given for so little. Here the world I do not want is brought to the One I do.  My desire for Heaven must first be recognized. I must understand that what was strong enough to seemingly create a world, is strong enough to let it go. 

The world I "see," witnesses to my separation from God.  The dream-world is insane.  It is possible only in dreams to be separated from God.  I did this to myself.  If I judge anyone or anything outside myself, the judgment will be reflected back to me.  If I forgive what I see "outside" myself, I will have forgiveness reflected back to me.

Perhaps I do not see the need to give God my small willingness for the exchange of the idea of separation for the idea of salvation.  Ego is an idea that it is possible to be separated from God.  It is not possible to have a Will "apart from" God. My will is the Creator's Will, for we are One.

All that is asked of me is to make room for Truth.  I am not asked to do anything that lies beyond my understanding.  All I am asked to do is stop my interference and allow Truth to enter. Truth will happen on Its Own and of Itself when I Truly desire It.  I thought I gave away my Relationship with my Father. Truth allows me to recognize that It is still there.

The Holy Instant is an Experience of Heaven in "time."  Recognition of this comes of Vision and suspended judgment.  When I give my small willingness to God, He will brush aside the clouds of sin and judgment, and I will see Truth in plain Sight. The Holy Instant is given me, but It is beyond time and space. God will accomplish everything for me, but it is up to me to welcome Him.

Faith and desire go hand in hand.  I believe in what I desire.  If I want to make it to the Olympics, I will do everything in my power to make it possible. When I have faith, I adjust "reality" to fit my goal.  This is very evident even in my world of illusions.  What I desire unequivocally, I will make a reality.  I may not perceive that I want a world of illusions ~ I have hidden this from myself ~ but my world of chaos is evidence of it.   "Apart from" God, all is meaningless.  Anything of the Father is Eternally Whole, Loving and Peaceful.......anything other than This does not exist. 

I was created by a Loving Father.  The instant of release has come to me.  The effects of the world I created are gone, because I have learned that I am the source of this dream world.  My denial of it has kept me separated from my brother and from God.   I have been "separated" only in dreams.

Faith, Belief, and Vision.  Faith can move mountains.  Yet it is obvious that misdirected faith can keep the Son of God in chains.  When he is released from the chains, it is simply because he no longer puts his faith in them.  Withdraw my faith from chains and place it in God's Goal of Freedom. 

Faith, Vision and belief are meaningful in the dream-world.  In Heaven they are unknown, yet Heaven is reached through them. Through them, God leads me to a dream-world seen happy and awash in forgiveness, which is the last step before God welcomes me Home. My faith is currently wrapped up in illusions.  Yet, I can put my faith in Truth with God's Help

It is impossible that I am lacking in faith.  Faith is always present, but I choose to place it in a world of illusions. Faith given to illusions does not lack Power, it just seems to render me powerless because I choose to experience powerlessness.  This madness was my choice and by faith in it, I have reinforced it.

When the mind sets a goal, nothing else will be so cherished and protected. The mind will follows its goal, grimly or Happily, but always with faith and persistence.  The power of faith in "sin," is recognized only in dreams.  In Reality, the Power of faith is recognized only if it is placed in Love. 

God has a Holy use for everything I made, but His use leads away from illusions.  I made "perception" (my way of "seeing" in the dream-world) to reinforce the separation from God.  I seemingly choose among my brothers to continue to indulge in the separation.  One brother I will "love," another brother I will "hate;" this one is "worthy," that one is "unworthy."  God sees perception as a means to teach me to see a Happy world, where all are Blessed and forgiven.  When faith and belief become attached to Vision, the means which once served the separation, are now used for Holiness.  When I refuse to forgive a brother, I essentially condemn him ~ and myself ~  to illusions.  Holiness sets us both Free.

Those who would forgive and bless their brothers can have no fear.  When I look on my brothers in Holiness, the Power of my belief and faith support Vision.  All those who chose to look away from sin, judgment and separation are given Vision which leads to Holiness.  God will adjust time and space to accommodate my small willingness to make a better choice. 

In the dream-world, "sacrifice" seems to be required.  Sacrifice is required of one body by another body. My mind uses bodies to carry out the means for reinforcing the separation.  That is what I created bodies to do.  Yet Reality requires no sacrifice only my small willingness to choose differently.   God knows that sacrifice brings nothing.  When I forgive my brother his "sins," I place my faith in his Innocence and through Vision I see a Happy world.....a world with no spot of sin. I taught myself "separation" from God, Truth teaches me the way Home. 

In the world of illusions, I think God deprives me for "my own good."  But Good and deprivation can never coexist in Reality. I made the body to be a sacrifice to "sin;" a witness to my separation from God and My Sonship.  In darkness, this is so.  But in the Light of Vision, the body is looked on only as a means to communicate salvation.

Fear of Looking Within.  I am afraid to look within because I think I will be confronted with evil, sinful thoughts. Ego believes fear related to sin is very appropriate.  It smiles approvingly and takes satisfaction in my shame.  Ego encourages my belief in sin.  My faith that sin is real witnesses to my desire that it be so. Ego shouts loudly, constantly and frantically that if I look inward, I will find terrible sin and God will strike me dead.  I believe what it tells me, so I do not look.  But what if I did look.......and saw no sin?

God will never teach me that I am sinful, but only mistaken.  Errors He will correct, and His correction makes no one fearful.  Right now my Freedom is partial, limited and incomplete.....yet It is there, within me.  Not entirely insane anymore, I have been willing to look on much of my insanity and recognize its madness.  My faith is moving inward, past insanity on to Reason.  And what Reason would tell me, ego could not bear to hear.  God's Purpose was accepted by a part of my mind unknown to ego; the part which knows no sin.  Otherwise how could it recognize Truth?  God left a Spark of Heaven in me, and it is this Spark to which Heaven appeals.

I now realize that it was not ego who recognized God's Call, so there must be something else...........the Spark of the Son of God in me.  This Spark has seen my brother Truly and recognized him Perfectly since time began.  It has desired nothing except to Unite with him and be Free again, as It once was.  It has been waiting for the birth of my Freedom. 

There is no inconsistency in what God teaches.  This is Reasoning of the Sane.  I have now perceived ego's madness and am not afraid because I no longer choose to share in it.  At times it still deceives me.  Yet in my saner moments, its ranting does not terrify me.  I have realized that all  "gifts" ego would give me, I do not want.  A few remaining trinkets still seem to shine and catch my eye, but I will no longer "sell" Heaven to have them.  Now ego is fearful.  Ego hears terror, but the small Spark of Light in me hears the Sweetest Music.  The Spark of the Sonship in me hears the Song of Freedom, bringing the hope of Peace; it remembers Heaven and sees that Heaven has come to earth at last.

Look gently on my brother.  In him is my salvation.  Little child, Innocent of sin, follow the Way to Certainty in gladness.  This Quiet Way is open.  Follow it Happily.

Function of Reason.  Perception makes the world I see.  It literally creates as the mind directs.  Perception is a choice, not a fact.  But this choice is more significant than I realize, for the voice I choose to hear (ego or Truth) and the sights I choose to see, depend entirely on what I believe I am.  I am either an ego in a body in a world separated from God, or I am the Son of God.  What I see before me in my perception witnesses to the choice I made.  Perception is not a reality, but it can show me that an Awareness of Reality is possible.

If I listen to ego, I am sure to see myself as tiny, vulnerable and afraid.  As ego, I will experience depression, a sense of worthlessness and feelings of impermanence and unreality.  I will believe that I am helplessly floundering and tossed about by forces beyond my control.  I will think the world directs my destiny.  And my faith ~ my belief that I am separated from God ~ makes it "real" for me. 

There is another Vision and another Voice in Which my Freedom lies, just waiting for me to choose It.  As I place my belief and faith in God's Gift, I will perceive another Self in me.  To this other Self, miracles are as simple and natural as breathing is to the body.  The Still, small Voice of God is not drowned out by ego's raucous screams and senseless rantings to those who want to hear It.  Reality needs no cooperation from me to be Itself.  But my Awareness of It does require that I choose to be Aware of It.

Miracles seem unnatural to ego because it does not understand how "separate" minds can influence each other. Despite what ego tells me, minds cannot be separate.  My Self is perfectly Aware of this.  It recognizes that miracles do not affect "other" minds for there is no "other."  There is only One.

The idea of separation has interfered with Reason.  Reason is beyond ego's capabilities.  Reason lies in the other Self which I have cut off from my Awareness.  Nothing I have allowed to stay in my Awareness (illusion) is capable of Reason.  How can the part of my mind devoid of Reason (ego) understand Reason, or grasp the information that Reason would give?

God's Plan for salvation has not been established without my will and consent.  It has been accepted by the Son of God.  What God Wills for His Son, the Son receives.  The Father's Will is the Son's Will, and the Son's Will is the Father's.  The Father's Will is accomplished irrespective of time and space.  Despite the seeming creation of a world separated from God, there is a Part of Heaven remaining in me.  This is where Heaven abides Quiet and Unobstructed.  Salvation was there the instant the need for it arose.  My Reason would tell me this if I listened. 

God's Plan is simple and Certain and there is part of me which knows and shares His Will.  How can this be so, I might ask?  It would be more meaningful to ask, why am I unaware that this is so?  This must be answered for the Plan of God to be complete.  And it is Complete, for God knows no incompletion.

God is my Source, and it is impossible that I am not with Him.  Where could I be, but with my Source?  My Identity and His are together and the same.  The Witnesses to this are Clear.  Only the totally insane can disregard these Witnesses.........and I am no longer totally insane. 

Faith, perception and belief can be misdirected, serving ego as well as Truth.  But Reason has no place in madness, nor can It be adjusted to madness.  Faith and belief are just as strong in madness, and Reason cannot enter madness.  If Reason were applied to madness, illusions would disappear.  Insanity depends entirely on Reason's absence; the insane have access to Reason and only they have need of It.  Knowledge is of Heaven and Heaven needs no Reasoning.  Ego is insane and its insanity keeps Reason out.  The part of my mind where Reason lies is dedicated to the undoing of insanity.  Here is God's Purpose both accepted and accomplished at once. I do not need to attain Knowledge.  Knowledge is beyond the scope of this Course, but Reason can open Its doors.

My faith and belief have shifted, and I have asked the question that ego will never ask: why am I unaware that I am God's Son?  Does Reason now make it clear that this question came from a part of myself that is not of this world?  Faith and belief, upheld by Reason cannot fail to lead to a changed perception of all I seem to see.  In this change has room been made for Vision

Reason versus Madness.  Reason sees no "sin," only error, and It leads to their correction.  Reason will tell me that when I see "sin," I can call on God for help.  When I call for and accept help, it will be mine to give to my brother; but it must be accepted by me first.

If I believe I am an alcoholic (not the Son of God), I will be an alcoholic.  All my faith and belief will be invested in the belief of what I am.  Now this does not mean saying to myself, "ACIM tells me I am not an alcoholic, I am the Son of God, so I should be able to drink alcohol without problems."  This is foolish, for if I have to "prove" anything in the dream-world, it is obvious my belief in dreams is still strong and its power to affect me still prevails.  Do what I need to do (such as stop drinking) while I continue to exist in world of dreams.  

It is impossible to see a sinful world and believe I am Innocent.  "Sin" witnesses to the separation.  If I see sin, I will believe in the world of separation ~ me from my brother, me from God, me from everything else.

Reason tells me there is no separation; I have no "private" thoughts. That I am joined to my brother is a fact, not an interpretation.  Bodies are the home of ego and the home of madness. The body does not separate me from my brother and if I think it does, I am insane.  Madness cannot be the home of Reason.  I do not leave insanity by going somewhere else.  I leave it simply by accepting Reason in place of madness.  Madness and Reason see the same things, but they certainly look upon them differently.  Madness attacks Reason.  Reason does not attack, but only replaces madness quietly and completely.

The instant I choose to let myself be healed, is my brother's healing and salvation as well.  That my brother and I are joined is my salvation.  Reason assures me that Heaven is what I want and all I want.  I am my brother's savior and he is mine.  Reason tells me this.  The Son of God is Blessed as One.  My Father is as close to me as is my brother.  When I choose to condemn, I am condemned; when I choose to be merciful, I am Free.

The Last Unanswered Question.  All my misery comes from the strange belief that I am separated from God and powerless.  If it were possible to be separated from God, I definitely would be powerless.  When I feel powerless and helpless, I will attack.

Helplessness is the condition of sin and separation.  When I see myself as helpless and powerless, I believe I am not God's Son.  If I believe I am not God's Son, then I must believe I am his enemy.  So what can I do except envy and fear His Power, believing He can strike me dead?  So I join the army of the powerless to wage a war of vengeance, bitterness and spite.  Because I do not know I am One with God and I do not realize who I hate (myself).  The powerless are indeed a sorry army, each one as likely to attack a brother or turn upon himself.  Frantic, loud and strong the dark ones seem to be.  They know nothing about their "enemy" except that they hate him.  So in hatred they come together, though never Truly unite with each other.  For if uniting were achieved, hatred would be impossible.

Those who are Truly Strong are never treacherous, they have no need to "dream" of power and then act out their dream.  How would an army act in dreams?  Any way at all, attacking anyone with anything.  Dreams have no rhyme nor reason:  a flower turns into a poisoned spear; a child becomes a giant; a mouse roars like a lion.....and "love" just as easily turns to hate.  This is no army, but a madhouse.  What seemed to be a planned strategy is bedlam.

The army of the powerless is weak indeed.  It has no weapons, it has no enemy.  Yes, it can inhabit a "world" and seek an "enemy."  But it can never find what is not there.  Yes, it can dream it found an enemy, but being a dream, it will shift and change even as it attacks; fighting one "enemy," then running at once to find another, never resting in victory.  And as it runs, it turns against itself, thinking it caught a glimpse of the great enemy who always eludes its murderous attack by turning into something else.  A shape shifter!  How treacherous this enemy appears, who changes so often it is impossible to recognize him. 

Hate must have a target.  I will have no faith in sin without an enemy.  Could I ever admit to myself that no one made me powerless?  If I did, Reason would tell me to stop looking for an "enemy" who is not there.

Be willing to perceive a different world......a forgiven world.....a happy world.  For in order to remember my True Home, I must gently Awaken from the dream.  For instance, God will take a fearful dream and introduce the thought that it just may be a dream; He encourages me to forgive all that I think I see allowing Love and Happiness to rush in.  Once I see a forgiven and happy dream, I will be ready for God to take the final step.

Ask myself:  do I desire a world I rule, instead of one that rules me?  Do I desire a world where I am Powerful instead of helpless? Do I desire a world where sin is impossible and I have no enemies?  Do I want to see Truth?  The decision is only this:  the choice to see through the body's eyes, or True Vision with my Creator.

ACIM is a Course in cause, not effect.  I am the cause (the source) of what I seem to see.  Its effects do not exist.  Anything "created" to be separated from God, cannot possibly exist except in dreams.  The teachings of ACIM aim to change the cause (my mind), so the "effects" will follow naturally.  When I look on "sin" in any form all I need to do is simply ask myself:  Do I want this?  Is this what I want to see?

There is one decision for the many different forms of upset ("sin") I see: the decision to choose with Truth.  I make the decision and God adjusts time and space to accommodate my new choice.  Choose to see a world without an "enemy" and the means will be given me.

No one decides against his own Happiness, except if he does not know what will Truly make him Happy.  If what seems to make him Happy changes from day to day, he will not trust True Happiness when it is right in front of him. Happiness that shifts and changes with time and place is an illusion that has no meaning.  True Happiness is Constant and it is attained by giving up the dream of separation.

Desire what I want (separation or salvation) and I will look on it and think it real.  Desire comes first.  Every thought has the Power to release or imprison.  No thought can leave my mind unaffected.

The Inner Shift.  Are some thoughts dangerous?  To the body, yes!  Thoughts that seem to kill are the same thoughts that teach the thinker he can be killed.  I "die" because I taught myself that death is possible.  I seem to live in a world moving from "life" to "death;"  death ~ the final proof that the separation is "real."

Constant Joy is a condition foreign to my understanding.  True Happiness is Constant; it is as Stable and Unchanging as the Love of God for His Creation.  Happiness looks on everything and sees it is all the same; nothing has the power to change Its Constancy.  Love seeks and desires only that which is like Itself.  I am Love, but I must remember that before I will accept Its Reality.

I cannot ask for Happiness inconsistently.  ACIM tells me that what I desire I will receive.  If Happiness is a constant, then I only need to ask for It once to have It Always.  If I do not have It Always ~ being what It is ~ then I did not ask for It.  No one fails to ask for what he desires.  He may be wrong in what he asks, yet he will ask, because desire is a request and when I request something of God, He never fails to Answer.

I am still uncertain of what I want.  Illusions sparkle and glimmer ~ maybe illusions are what I want.  They seem solid and certain.  Yet I have received illusions before and the happiness of what I receive never lasts.  I get bored after a while and need a new trinket to interest me.  This seems "normal," "that is just the way life is," no?

God has given me Everything.  Yet I have not yet accepted It.  I am God's Son, I share His Will and His Happiness.  My Will is as Powerful as His; a Power that is not lost in my illusions.  I need only recognize God's Gift to me.  The Constant Peace I could experience Forever, the Happiness that could be mine Always.....These are waiting for me to recognize Them.  There is no future or past, there is only now.  God's Gifts wait for me now.  Nothing stands between the Holy and Happy Relationship of the Son and the Father, except for my denial of It.

Chapter 20 ~ The Vision of Holiness

I will not brood on the crucifixion of God's Son.  I will happily celebrate his release. A slain Christ has no meaning, for death does not exist.  Let a risen Christ become the symbol of salvation; the sign that the Son of God has forgiven himself and that the Son of God is healed and Whole. 

In the Christian tradition, Holy week begins with palms and ends with lilies ~ the Pure and Holy sign that the Son of God is Innocent.  This week I celebrate Life, and honor the Perfect Purity (not the "sin") of the Son of God.  Holy week is the symbol of the whole journey the Son of God has undertaken; from the separation to salvation. 

I stand before my brother with thorns in one hand and lilies in the other, uncertain which to give him.  Join with Christ (the healed Sonship) and offer my brother the gift of lilies, not the crown of thorns; the Gift of Love, not the "gift" of fear. Do not let myself or my brother wander into the temptation of crucifixion (the attraction ego has for sin and death) and become delayed in the journey Home.  Go in Peace beyond the crucifixion, with the Light of Innocence lighting the way to redemption and release.

If I see glimpses of the face of Christ behind the fog which separates the dream-world from Reality, I will recognize my brother's face and my own.  My brother seemed to be an enemy; a stranger.  I forgave him as God instructed me to do and suddenly I recognize my Ancient Friend (the entire Sonship, healed and Whole).

The Gift of Lilies.  Look upon all the trinkets made for the body ~  jewelry, clothes, shoes, watches; things for the body to use ~ wallets, curling irons, calculators, sunglasses, hats.  Think about the many things made for the body's pleasure ~ bicycles, automobiles, speed boats, merry-go-rounds, swimming pools, sex toys, etc.  All these things were made to satisfy the very thing ego hates.  Ego is the part of me who seemed to have created a world separated from God.  Ego was made as a replacement for God and the body a witness to everything opposite of God.  In the world of illusions, I use this body to attract other bodies.  But what I offer these "other bodies" in a world of illusion, is only a crown of thorns; a reinforcement for the separation.  The gift I offer a brother proclaims the hatred I have for him.  It proclaims his worthlessness to me.  And when he delightfully takes the gift, he accepts and acknowledges the lack of value he places on himself.

Real Gifts cannot be made through bodies.  Bodies exist only in dreams.  A lasting Gift cannot be made of nothing.  Offer my brother a crown of thorns (judgment and fear) and I am crucified.  Offer him forgiveness and blessing, and I set myself Free. 

If I look with the body's eyes, I will see only thorns.  By evidence of my reading this, it is apparent that I have asked for another Sight.  Because I have asked for It from One Who can give, and I have already received It.  Those who accept God's Purpose as their own, share in His Vision. Peace sees no strangers; only dearly loved and loving friends.  It sees no thorns, only lilies, gleaming in the gentle glow of Peace that shines on everything It loves.

I have Vision now to look past all illusion.  It has been given me to see no thorns, no strangers and no obstacles to Peace.  Who is afraid to look upon illusions with Truth at his side?  My Home is on the other side of the veil.  I will not see It with the body's eyes, yet I have all I need to See It.  My Home has called to me since time began and I have never failed entirely to hear It.  I heard, but I did not know how or where to look.  Now I know.

I will help my brother and he will help me.  His Innocence will Light my way with the Guiding Light and Sure Protection shining from the Holy Place within him, where I laid the lilies of forgiveness.  Each time I forgive a brother of his "sin," it will free me of my own.  The Lamp is lit in both of us for one another.  By the hands that gave the Light to my brother shall both of us be led to Love.

Sin as Adjustment.  In the dream-world, an adjustment in perception is a change ~ a shift ~ a belief that was one thing before, but now different.  I have "evidence" for its prior "truth," but now I have "evidence" for a different "truth."   Knowledge requires no defense and no adjustment.  In fact, Knowledge is lost if any shift or change is undertaken, for then Knowledge is reduced at once to perception.  The world of illusion is a world of perception.  Knowledge is of God's World.

It is ego's fixed belief that all relationships depend on adjustments.  Ego is the self-appointed mediator of all relationships, making whatever adjustments it deems necessary; inserting them between those who would join to keep them separate and prevent Union.  It is this dogged interference by ego which makes it difficult to recognize a Holy Relationship.

In the world of illusion, I make the world then adjust to it.  In my perception, there is no difference between me and the world.  My body was created from earthly elements.  I am of the world, and being part of the world is who I am according to ego.  My dream-world contains murder, attack, danger, fear, and always.........death.  I thread my timid way through this world, alone and frightened, hoping that death will wait a little longer before it overtakes me.

Ask myself this simple question:  Do I like what I have made?

I MADE IT ALL UP.  It is a picture of what I think I am, of how I see myself in a world "apart from" God.  A murderer is frightened.  Those who kill fear death.  All these are fearful thoughts of one who believes he is separated from God.  I look out in sorrow from the sadness within, and project this sadness onto the world I made.

Have I never wondered what my world would look like through Happy eyes?  The world I see is only a judgment on myself.  It is not there at all.  My judgment lays a sentence on the world, making it "real" for me.  This is the world I seem to see:  a judgment on myself, made by ME.  This sickly picture of myself is carefully preserved by ego.  To this strange world I must adjust as long as I believe this picture is "outside" me and has me at its mercy.

The dream-world is merciless.  It was created to be.  If it were True, I should indeed be fearful.  Yet it was ME who made it merciless, and now mercilessness seems to look back at me.

This can be corrected.

God's Son does not need to adjust to insanity.  There is a stranger (ego) in me who wandered off carelessly.  Do not ask ego who I am and what my purpose is.  Ego was created to show me what I am NOT.  I cannot ask the insane to explain Sanity.  I ask this puff of madness for the meaning of all my relationships and then I adjust according to its insane answer.

How Happy has this made me?

The only good purpose of all my relationships in the dream-world is to recognize each as the Eternal Gift of God to me, with Holiness shining in each of us, to bless each other and Awaken to Reality.   I have seemingly divided the Sonship into "others" to show me a world "apart from" God.  He uses my own mis-creation to correct my mistake.

I am like a prisoner bound for years with heavy chains, starved and emaciated, weak and exhausted; with eyes downcast in darkness for so long, they do not remember the Light.  I do not leap up in Joy the instant I am made Free.  It takes a while for me to understand and to remember what Freedom is.  I grope feebly in the dust and find my brother's hand, not knowing whether to take hold or let go.  Love gently whispers to me to strengthen my hold and raise my eyes up to my companion, in whom my Freedom lies.  My brother seemed to be a sinner in a sinful world, yet his Holiness remained Untouched and Perfect, and when I saw his Holiness I remembered my own.  With him beside me, I will this day enter into Paradise and I will know the Peace of God. 

What is Heaven but Union ~ Direct and Perfect ~ without the veil of fear upon it?  In Heaven, All are One, looking with Perfect Gentleness upon each other and ourselves.  All thoughts of separation are impossible.  I was a prisoner in separation but am now Free in Paradise.

My gift of forgiveness to myself and my brother provides Certainty that Union will happen soon.  In my brother is the Light of God's Eternal Love.  See myself and my brother as sinless, and fear will disappear.

Entering the Ark of Peace.  My insane laws in the dream-world were made to guarantee that I would make mistakes and then accept the results of my mistakes as justice due.  What could this be except madness?

Sin does not exist and has no place in Heaven.  I seemed to separate myself from God and Eternity.  I seemingly divided my Self into many.  Yet the instant I seemed to err, God's Laws Naturally and instantly corrected it.  In my division, God placed a Spark of Unity.  In my brother was laid my salvation.  Go on a Treasure Hunt looking in my brother for my salvation.  The Spark of Light in him seems so dim and he seems to be covered in mud and dust, until I realize the dust was from my vision, and then the Light is obvious. 

Nothing can hurt me unless I give it power to do so.  I interpret "giving" as loss to me and gain to another.  But the Truth is, what I "give," is given to both myself and my brother.  If I give him judgment, fear or hatred, it will be kept tightly in my own heart as well, festering as an open, putrid wound that further pushes me into insanity.  If I offer forgiveness, forgiveness will be mine clearing  my Vision to see Truly and remember my Innocence. 

The Innocent give as they have received.  I am given salvation in these words.  If I accept it, it can only extend to all I meet.  I seem to walk this earth alone, yet a savior is right beside me in each relationship and each situation I encounter.

All sheep will return to the Shepherd in their own time.  Each one finds his savior when he is ready.  When the student is ready the teacher will appear.

Do not be concerned with anything except my own part.  I need "save" no one else.  The insane cannot teach another about Sanity.  Leave all to God.  I need do only my part.  My forgiveness of my brother serves more than me alone.  A happy new world rests in the hands of every two who enter this Holy Place of forgiveness to rest.

I may wonder how I can have Peace while I am in the world of time; there seems so much to be done.  Perhaps it even seems impossible to me.  But ask myself:  is it possible God would have a plan for salvation that does not work?  Once I accept His Plan, He will arrange everything for me.  He will go before me making straight my path, leaving no stones for me on which to trip and no obstacles to block my way.  Everything I need will be given without my effort.  Difficulties will melt away. 

Worry about nothing.  Be careless of everything, except for the small willingness I give to God.  His Guarantee is Certain.

Heralds of Eternity.  I come closest to my True Self in the dream-world when I am in a Holy Relationship; that is, a relationship of forgiveness and blessing guided by Love.  There I begin to remember Reality. There I find my function as God's Son, restoring the Father's Laws to my mind.  When one Son is healed and restored, all Sons are healed and restored because all of the "world" is in my mind.

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 brings a Mighty Greeting of Eternity.  No one who has a single, unified purpose can be afraid or alone.

Two voices raised together call to the hearts of everyone to let them beat as One.  In that single heartbeat is the Unity of Love proclaimed and welcomed.  Peace to my Holy Relationships, which hold the Power to Unify the Son of God.  My gift to one brother is a gift to all brothers, and in my gift is everyone made glad.  Do not forget Who has given me the gifts I give to others. In remembering God, I remember the Sonship.

Ego underestimates my brother's value to me.  But what this means is that ego wants to possess him for myself and in that selfish, one-sided relationship it values him much too little.  It is impossible to overestimate my brother's value, for through him is my salvation, and in me is his.

Do not judge God's Plan for me.  I do not understand It and do not yet value It.  Wait in patience for Its coming.  I will see my brother's value, when all I want for him is Peace. What I want for him, is what I myself will receive.  My brother's worth has been established by the Father, Who placed him in my care.  I will recognize his value to me when I forgive him, want only Peace for him, and accept what these Holy Thoughts bring to me.

The Holiness in a brother will shine so Brightly in my grateful Vision that I will only Love him and be glad.  I will not even consider judging him, for who could see the face of Christ (the Sonship healed and Whole) and still insist that judgment has any meaning?  I can choose Vision or judgment.  The decision is mine.  I can never have both concurrently.  God asks that I accept Him as my Guide.

My brother's body is as little use to me as it is to him. When used only as Truth teaches, it has no use, for minds do not need the body to Communicate.  The body's eyes have no use in the Holy Relationship, and while I look on a brother through the body's eyes I will not see him.  The Holy Instant is the little breath of Eternity that runs through "time" like a Golden Light.  In the Holy Instant ~ that glimpse of Eternity ~ True Vision is accomplished.  Why should it take multiple Holy Instants, when only one would do?  There is only One.

I look on "each" Holy Instant as a different point in time, yet They all the same.  All that It ever contained or ever will contain is here right now.  The past takes nothing from It, the future will add no more. In one Holy Instant are all Holy Instants, and the Holy Instant is experienced in the present.  This Gift, which I can experience in "time," returns the Laws of God to my remembrance.  The world is forgotten merely by remembering God's Laws.  My brother's body cannot give me a Gift like this, yet in my brother is the Gift, though neither of us may recognize It.   Have faith in God Who Knows It for both of us.  Through His Vision and Understanding will I recognize and Love It as my own. 

Be comforted and feel all of Heaven watching over me in Love and Perfect Confidence in what It sees.  It knows the Son of God and shares the Father's Certainty that salvation rests in his Gentle Hands in Safety and Peace.

God's Temple.  I have invented a world of illusion.  It is self-centered, broken into fragments, and full of fear.  It is self-destructive and limits who I am.  I invented a body to keep one part of my Self separated from "others."  Each "body," therefore, seems to be a universe unto itself with its own secret thoughts, wishes, and desires.  The body is ego's chosen weapon for seeking power through relationships.  It wants relationships solely for what it can get from them.  For instance, ego may value youth and beauty and disregard anything else.  Ego always throws something away.  Ego seeks as many bodies as it can collect and establishes them as temples to itself.  Here is the idea of separation perceived in awe and held in reverence.  The laws of my dream-world establish that everything of value is "outside" myself.  I make "gods" of
all I desire. 

Each "joining" with another in the world of illusion is but a state of isolation, where what seems to be, is not.  Bodies were made to house the mad idea of separation and offer the illusion of Reality.  The body is ego's god.  The belief in sin made flesh.  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 to death, given only an instant in which to "live," then sigh, grieve and die, all in honor of its ego-master.  This unholy instant only seems to be "life:"  an instant of despair, a tiny island of dry sand, bereft of water and set uncertainly upon oblivion.  Here I am more dead than living.  I fear "others," for it seems they can judge and injure me in some way.  True Relationship is impossible because of this fear and because of the apparent separation of me from "everyone else," including my Creator.  I can love my gods, but they will never love me back.

Mine is a world of opposites, distinctions, and choices.  Yet God uses "choice" to make me aware of another "option."  While I am choosing the present to pay tribute to the body, I can choose Freedom from the body.  I can choose illusion or Reality.  Love or fear.  Forgiveness or Judgment.  Joy or sadness.  It is all really the same decision, and only one is Real.  But until my doubt is gone, I will seem to have many distinct situations and choices.

My meaning as God's Son lies solely in my Relationship with my Father, which is Loving and Eternal.   There is only Everything and nothing else.  It is a Relationship of Perfect Union and Unbroken Continuity, It encompasses All There Is and extends All There Is.  It is based on Love.  It rests on Love, Serene and Undisturbed.   Love wishes to be Known, Completely Understood and Shared.  Love has no secrets or anything It would hide.  Love walks in Sunlight; Open-eyed, Calm, Smiling and Sincere.  Love has no darkened temples where mysteries are kept hidden.  It does not seek for power, but for Truth. 

God's Temple is not a body, but a Relationship.  Its Purpose lies Safe in my Relationship, not my body.  Lay aside and quietly transcend the body.  The Holy Relationship in the dream-world reflects the Relationship of Son and Father.

Perhaps I fear my brother a little yet; perhaps the fear of God remains with me.  Yet what is that to me who have learned of another way?  Can I be held back long from seeing the face of Christ?  Can it be much longer before I remember my Father?

I may still be fearful, but I am not helpless.  This is no time for sadness.  Perhaps confusion, but hardly discouragement.  I have a Real Relationship and It has meaning. And I have a choice.

Consistency of the Means and End.    The goal is salvation and the means is Vision acquired through forgiveness.  A Course in Miracles provides a self-study, time-saving method.  ACIM is simple, direct and consistent.  Of course there may be parts of it I find more difficult than others, but this discomfort is not necessary.  The Course requires almost nothing from me.  It offers so much and asks so little.

A period of discomfort may follow the sudden change in relationships from their goal of separation, to their new goal of Holiness.  I will only experience discontent to the extent that I refuse to leave the process to God.  I now recognize that I want salvation. Am I sincere in my desire when I say, "I want this above all else?"

God asks so little of me.  The process may seem so difficult, but how difficult can it be if it is merely given me?  If a goal is possible to reach, then the process is possible as well.

If I look on my brother as a body, it will be impossible to see him as sinless.  Holiness is merely the result of letting the "effects" of "sin" be eliminated, so that what was Always True is recognized.  To see a "sinless body" is impossible.  The body was seemingly made to represent "sinfulness."  Yet the body does not exist. As nothing, the body cannot meaningfully be invested with the characteristics of Reality.

My purpose for the dream-world is to see all things which God is not.  Sin is a big part of the dream-world, yet "sin" can only exist in dreams.  The illusion of a brother as a body then, is quite consistent in keeping with the purpose of the world of illusions, because a body is limited and subject to decay.

My earthly vision adapts to what I desire.  Everything I see is the result of what I wish to see.  If I see the body, I have chosen separation and judgment, not Vision.  Who sees a brother's body has laid a judgment on him and does not see him Truly.

In the darkness of a separated world, my brother is invisible.  I can imagine who he is, but I made him to be feared.  In this world, illusions and Reality are quite separate. In "darkness" I imagine my brother to be a body.  And he serves the purpose I want him to serve, which of course, shows me a world separated from God.  But God put my salvation in my brother and He helps me find it.  Instead of seeing my brother as "sinful" or "other," He teaches me to see him as the forgiven Son of God.

The body is onlyseen through judgment, and to see a body is the sign that I lack Vision.  My question should not be, "how do I see my brother without a body?", but "how do I see his Innocence?"  No one who Loves can judge, and whatever I see with Love and forgiveness contains no condemnation.

Vision will come to me at first in glimpses.  Truth is restored to me through my desire for It.  It was lost to me through my desire for something else.  Allow What Was Never Lost, to be restored to me.  Desire this world's whole undoing and it is done.

Be willing to see my brother as Innocent, that Christ be seen in my Vision and give me Joy.  Place no value on my brother's body, which holds him to illusions. 

God guarantees that what He Willed and gave me, is mine.  I have the Vision that enables me to overlook the body.  As I look on my brother with Love, I will see an Altar to my Father, glowing with Radiant Purity, sparkling with shining lilies of forgiveness. What can I value more than this?  Do I still think the body is a better, safer shelter for the Son of God?  Would I rather look on the body than on Truth?  The body is the sign of separation:  weak, vulnerable, limited.  Can such a "savior" help me?

The body's eyes adjust to sin, unable to overlook it in any form, seeing it everywhere, in everything.  Look through the body's eyes and everything will stand condemned before me.  All that could save me, I will not see.  My Holy Relationship with my brother is deprived of meaning, and Its most Holy Purpose deprived of the means for Its accomplishment. 

There is no problem, no event, no situation, nor perplexity that Vision will not solve.  All is redeemed when looked upon with Vision.  Everything looked upon with Vision falls gently into place.  Destructiveness becomes benign and sin is turned into Blessing under the Creator's Gentle Gaze.

Judgment is only a toy, a whim, the senseless means to play the idle game of death in my imagination.  But Vision sets all things Right, bringing them gently within the kindly sway of Heaven's Laws.

What if I recognized that this world in an hallucination?  What if I really understood that I made it up?  What if I realized that those who seem to walk around in it ~ to sin and die, attack, murder and destroy themselves ~ are wholly unreal?  Could I accept this?

Hallucinations disappear when they are recognized for what they are. Do not believe in them and they will disappear.  All I need to do is recognize that I did this to myself.  Once I accept this simple fact and take back my Power as God's Son, I am released.

One thing is sure:  hallucinations serve a purpose and when that purpose is no longer cherished, they disappear.  Hallucinations serve to meet the goal of madness.  The "outside world" projected from within witnesses to the seeming separation.  Yet there is NOTHING outside me.  This world seems to hold out many purposes, each different with different values.  Yet they are all THE SAME.

No matter how many different choices I seem to have, only two are possible:  one is sin, the other salvation.  There is nothing else.  Which I choose determines what I see.  My choice determines the outcome.

Vision is the means by which God translates my nightmares into happy dreams; my wild hallucinations into calm, reassuring sights and sounds, looked on happily and heard with Joy.  These are God's substitutes for all the terrifying sights and screaming sounds ego brought to my horrified Awareness..  He will show me that I have not sinned but have only been mistaken, and these mistakes can be corrected.

When I look on what seemed terrifying, and watch it change to Loveliness and Peace; when I look on scenes of violence and death changing to beautiful gardens under an open sky with clear, life-giving water in dancing brooks, who would ever need to persuade me to accept the Gift of Vision?  And after Vision, who would refuse what must come after?

Just think an instant on this:  I can see the Holiness God gave His Son because there is nothing else for me to see. 

Chapter 19 ~ Peace

Healing and Faith.  When a situation has been dedicated wholly to Truth, Peace is inevitable. Every situation properly perceived becomes an opportunity for healing. The body cannot heal, nor can it make itself sick; the body does nothing.  Its health or sickness depends entirely on the mind.  The body is only an instrument of illusion, acting out what the mind tells it to.  It sees what is not there, hears what has never been said and behaves insanely because it is imprisoned by an insane thought:  separation from Heaven.

In my dreams I perceive my brothers as bodies, therefore no True Union is possible, for only minds can Unite.  Heaven has no need for healing, because Heaven is Perfect and Whole, with all "brothers" united as One with God. But I imagine a world opposite of Heaven, so the body will seem to be sick.  I made the body (as everything in the dream-world) to be an "enemy" of Heaven, so it plays out its role in the dream.

God needs my small willingness and faith in Him, that my "return" to Him will be accomplished.  Illusion is the absence of Truth.  My faith in God will remove all obstacles to Truth.  

It is not the body which needs healing, but only the mind, for the body does not exist.  To have faith is to heal, and healing is the sign that I have accepted God's plan of forgiveness (Atonement). 

Do not use anything a "brother" has done to condemn him. Under God's Guidance I choose to overlook his "errors," looking past all barriers between myself and him, seeing only Oneness.  My faith is the gracious acknowledgment of all "brothers" as Sons of the most Loving Father. In order to change my thinking about the world of dreams, God will help me forgive what I seem to "see" so that I can remember my Reality.  My salvation is in forgiving everyone and everything "outside" me.

Faith brings Peace.  Faith is a learning goal no longer needed when the lesson has been learned.  But Truth remains Forever. When I give my small willingness to God, I join in Truth.  When I allow myself to embrace the world of illusion, I give my power to ego, which imprisons me.

I can enslave a body, but an idea is Free. I am an Idea of God.  He created me Free, Unlimited, Innocent and Whole. 

Sin versus Error.  Do not confuse error with "sin."  Error can be corrected, but "sin" ~ if it were possible ~ would be irreversible.  Sin calls for punishment.  Error calls for correction.  The belief that punishment is correction is clearly insane.  

Sin contains an arrogance which error lacks.  To sin would be to violate Reality.  To sin would be to change what God has Created.  Sin is the grand illusion underlying all ego's grandiosity.  For by sin, God Himself is rendered helpless. 

To ego, accepting myself as "sinful" is perceived as "holy and humble."  Sin is seen as "truth" in the world of illusions.  Any attempt to reinterpret sin as error is indefensible to ego.  Sin is seen as committed by bodies who are capable of complete corruption and decay.  Ego will always show me what I created it to show me:  a world "apart from" God.   There is no stone in all ego's embattled citadel more heavily defended that the idea of sin.  Ego wishes me to mourn the death of God, Whom sin has killed.  Within its madness, ego believes it has been accomplished.

Perhaps I would be tempted to agree with ego, that it is far better to be sinful than mistaken?  But realize that the guide I choose (ego or Truth), is the choice between Heaven or hell.  Would I not prefer that all this be nothing more than a mistake, entirely correctable and easily escapable so that the whole correction of it is like walking through a mist into the sun?  That is all it is.

The Son of God can be mistaken in his thoughts;  he can deceive himself; he can turn the Power of his mind against himself.  But he cannot sin. There is nothing I can do that would change my Reality in any way.  For all its wild insanity.......sin is impossible.  The wage of "sin" is death...but how can the Immortal die?

The Unreality of Sin.  Sin is compelling to ego and is repeated over and over because of this attraction.  Sin is the idea of an evil that has no correction, yet will be forever desirable.  I have created ego as my god of separation and it will always show me the opposite of Heaven.  I am lost in an illusion of my own making, but God would never let His Son be lost forever.  The Laws of God corrected my mistake the instant it was made, but I do not see the correction because I choose for illusions to blind me.  

Of myself, I can do nothing, but God will do everything for me when I give Him my faith and my small willingness.  I still have the Power to choose, and Truth reminds me of the Power to choose Heaven.  

Punishment is the great preserver of sin, treating it with respect and honoring its enormity.  Sin can be repeated over and over with the same obvious distressing results, but without the loss of its appeal. But change its status from a "sin" to a mistake, now I want only correction.  An "error" is not appealing; it does not hold the guilty appeal of "sin."  But what I see clearly as a mistake, I want corrected.  

God does not know sin, but mistakes He recognizes and corrects. Love knows all mistakes can be corrected.  Every mistake is a call for Love.  "Sin" is only a mistake that ego would keep hidden; a call for help that ego would keep unheard and unanswered.

It is apparent the Son of God can make mistakes in the world of time, but if sin is Real, then God and I are not.  Creation is extension and the Creator has extended Himself; so it is quite impossible that what is a part of Him is not exactly like Him.  If sin is Real, then God is at war with Himself; split and torn between good and evil; a god partly sane and partly insane; He seems to have created the very thing that has the power to destroy Him.  Is it not more rational to believe that I have been mistaken?

While I believe I am imprisoned in a world without God, I will believe in sin.  While I believe in everything I see in a world without God, I will find sin and guilt attractive.  Proof of my apparent separation from God seems to be everywhere, for part of me dreamed that it was so and that part of me must provide proof.  God and His Creation seem to be split apart.  Sin is perceived as mightier than God, for God Himself must bow before it and offer up His own Creation (me, again!) to its conqueror.  Is this humility or madness?  If sin is Real, then it is forever beyond the hope of healing.  

Could there ever be a power greater than God's, capable of making a will different from His, attacking and overpowering Him?  Could there ever be a power that could give God's Son a will stronger than God's Own?  That each part of God's fragmented creation would have a different will in eternal opposition to Him and to each other?

With Love's Guidance, I will not see sin for much longer.  I see it now, because I do not yet realize that its foundation is gone; its source has been removed.  So I think about it a little while longer.  Only my habit of looking for it still remains.  In my changed perception, errors are quickly recognized and given to correction to be healed, not hidden.  I will be healed of sin and all its ravages the instant I give it no power. When my brother errs, do not become impatient and judgmental.  Use the opportunity to forgive and realize that he does nothing to me.  The Son of God cannot be injured in any way.  Every situation, every encounter with a brother, becomes an opportunity for forgiveness.....an opportunity for salvation.

The idea of "sin" will not prevail against a Holy relationship which Heaven has blessed.  The barriers to Heaven will disappear, for I, who was sightless, have been given Vision...now I can See.  

Look at what Love would show me in my brother and do not let his "sin" blind my Vision.  Sin keeps us separate, but Truth Unites.  My relationship with my brother is now a temple of healing, a place where the weary can come to rest.  Here is the Rest that waits for all after the journey.  

The Obstacles to Peace.  As the Peace inside me extends to all the Sonship, it will encounter many obstacles.  Some of them I will try to impose, others will seem to come from my brother or the world "outside."  Yet Peace will gently cover them.  The extension of God's Purpose, from my relationship with Him to "others," will quietly extend to every aspect of my life, surrounding all with the glowing Happiness and Calm Awareness of Complete Protection.  I will carry this message of Love, Safety and Freedom to all.  I will call to my brother and he will answer me, recognizing in my call, the Call for God.  I will draw him in and give him rest, as it was given to me.  All this I will do.

The Peace that already lies deeply within, must first expand and flow across the obstacles I placed in Its way.  This will be accomplished. For nothing I do with Heaven can remain unfinished.  Nothing outside me exists, but I am not certain of this yet.  Of this I can be sure: at my invitation, God has come to me and offered me the Gift of Holiness.

I owe gratitude to my Creator, though He asks only that I receive it for Him. When I look with gentle graciousness on my brother, I behold my Creator and my Self.  The Light in my brother will show me all I need to see.  When the Peace in me has been extended to encompass everyone, the Holy Function will be complete.  

When God has taken the last step Himself, He will gather all my thanks and gratitude and lay them gently on Heaven's Altar, in the name of His most Holy Son.  And the Father will accept the gift and return it to His Beloved Son.  

1) The First Obstacle to Peace:  

A) The Desire to Get Rid of It.   The Peace God gives me cannot extend to others unless I first accept it for myself. God wishes to bring Peace to everyone; how can He do this except through me?  If I cherish any small remnant of judgment and attack against a part of myself who is also my brother, this will reinforce a wall of hatred to oppose the Will of God.  God's Will is One, not many.  It has no opposition ~ only in my chaotic world of dreams.  But God offers me an Awakening.  I must first must give Him my small willingness, so that He may help me lay aside dreams.  My brother and I share the same function of being God's Son.  The little wall that seems to come between us will fall away quietly beneath the wings of Peace.  Peace will send its messengers from me to all the world, the "world" being only a thought in my mind.

To overcome the world is no more difficult than to surmount a little wall.  How can a shadow keep me from the sun?   Every miracle is the end of an illusion.  Heaven knows me well, as I know Heaven. 

The little insane wish on the part of ego to get rid of and push out Him Whom I invited in, will produce conflict.  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."  What could be more unstable than a tightly organized delusional system?  How mighty can a little feather be before the great wings of Truth? Can it hinder the advance of summer?  Can it interfere with the effects of the sun upon a garden covered by snow?  Would I not rather greet the summer sun than fix my gaze upon a disappearing snowflake, shivering in remembrance of winter's cold?

B) The Attraction of Guilt.  Guilt produced by the apparent separation has created the fear of Love.  Fear's messengers are trained through terror; they steal away hungrily in search of more guilt and more evidence of sin; kept cold, starving and made very vicious.  Guilt feeds on guilt, for it needs to show ego evidence of a world without God.  In Heaven, all are Innocent.  In a world without God, all are guilty.  Fear is merciless even to its "friends."  The body appears to be the symbol of sin.  I believe that it can give me pleasure, but I also believe that it can bring pain.  Do I think I could ever be satisfied with so little?   The messengers of fear are harshly ordered to seek out guilt and cherish every scrap of evil and sin that they can find, laying this putrid bouquet respectfully before their lord and master, ego.  They bring bones, skin, and flesh, for they have been taught to seek for the corruptible and to return with gorges filled with things decaying and rotted.  Fear looks on guilt with just the same devotion that Love looks on Itself.  Love and fear both have messengers which they send forth and which return to them with messages written in their own language......yet only one is True. My relationships in this world are the result of seeing the world with ego as my guide. I can choose another guide.   

God has given me Love's messengers.  If I send them forth, they will see only the Blameless, Beautiful, Gentle and Kind.  They will be careful to let no little act of charity, no tiny expression of forgiveness, no breath of Love escape their notice.  They will return will all the happy things they find, to share them Lovingly with me.  God has give me His Messengers to send to my brother, in place of the hungry dogs of fear that I sent before.  

Love sets a feast before me on a table covered with a spotless cloth, set in a quiet garden where no sound but a soft singing and Joyous whispering is ever heard.  This is a feast that honors my Holy Relationship, where all are welcome as honored guests. 

Jesus Christ became the symbol of sin for ego.  To ego, sin means death, so "atonement" for sin is achieve through murder.  Ego sees "salvation" as a way by which the "son of God" was killed instead of me.  Yet no one can die for anyone else, and death does not atone for sin.  Death is a fantasy.  Life is the only Reality.

2) The Second Obstacle to Peace: 

A) The Value of the Body.  The body is valued for what it seems to offer, and here is the attraction of guilt made manifest in the body.  Ego tells me that Peace would leave me homeless without a body, because if I am in Heaven as Spirit, where is my "wonderful" body?  This "sacrifice" I believe, is too great to make and too much to ask.

What has the body really given me that justifies my belief that it holds salvation?  God does not demand that I sacrifice the body's pleasures. The body has no hope of pleasure, but neither can it bring me pain.  Pain is the only "sacrifice" God asks to remove from me.  Is it a sacrifice to be removed from what can suffer?

I have paid dearly for illusions and nothing I have paid for has brought me Peace. Yet the end of guilt and "sin" is in my hands to give.  Where can guilt be, when the belief in sin is gone? Where is death, when its greatest witness and defender is gone?  Forgive all "sin" I thought my brother committed and see no sin anywhere.

B)  The Attraction of Pain.  It is impossible to seek for pleasure through the body and not find pain.  This must be understood.  To liken myself to a body is an invitation to pain, for the body was created to show me a world separated from God.  That is its purpose and that is what I will see.  Ego whispers to me that the body's pleasure is my happiness, yet to itself it whispers, "it is death."

Why should the body be anything to me?  What it is made of is not precious.  It feels, sees and hears nothing.  It only transmits to me the feelings my mind tells it to.  Would I send messages of hatred and attack if I understood that I send them only to myself?  Ego's messages are always sent "away from" me in the belief that a message of attack and guilt will be suffered by someone "other" than me, and even if I suffer, someone "else" will suffer more.  Ego urges me to send out all my messages of hate in order to "free" myself of them.  Ego has dedicated the body to the goal of sin, and death is always the result.  The body brings me neither Peace nor turmoil, Joy nor pain; it has no purpose other than what is given it by my mind. 

Put my faith in the Eternal which is Forever Kind, Infinite in Patience and Wholly Loving.  The Eternal will accept me Wholly and give me Peace.  My part is to give my small willingness to God and to accept the Peace He gives, instead of the depression and disillusionment on which ego thrives.  Invest no further in my hope of finding peace and happiness in a world that was created to do just the opposite; I will wander forever in search of what I will never find. 

I have not sinned, I have been mistaken.  The correction of my mistake by God will give me reason for faith. 

3) The Third Obstacle to Peace:

A) The Attraction of Death.  Death is salvation in the ego-thought system.  No one can die unless he chooses death.  What seems to be the fear of death, is really its attraction. Yet death could have no hold at all, except on those who are attracted to it and seek it out.  Made by ego, its dark shadow falls across all "living" things, because ego was created to be the enemy of Life.  

Yet, a shadow cannot kill.  What is a shadow to the Living?  They walk past and it is gone.  But what of those whose dedication is not to Live ~ the black-draped "sinners" plodding heavily away from Life, dragging their chains, marching in the slow procession that 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 my own.  The sentence I lay upon myself or a brother can be escaped through forgiveness.  This is not arrogance ~ It is the Will of God.  

When I accept the God's purpose in place of ego's, I exchange death for Life.

B) The Incorruptible Body.  In opposition to Life and Innocence ~ to the Will of God Himself ~ I seemed to create a world separated from God.  And from this part of me ~ ego ~ came "sin," "guilt" and "death."  Yet the Will of God is opposed only in the dreams of a sick mind.  

The shrouded figures in the funeral procession do not march in honor of the Creator whose Will it is they Live.  What is the black-draped body they would bury?  A body which they dedicated to death; a symbol of corruption; a sacrifice to sin, offered to sin to feed upon and keep itself alive; a thing condemned, damned by its maker (ego) and lamented by every mourner who looks upon it as himself.  In arrogance I believe I have condemned the Son of God to this fate.  The arrogance of "sin," the pride of "guilt," the tomb of "separation" ~ are all part of my unrecognized dedication to death.  The glitter of guilt I laid upon the body would kill it.  What ego "loves" it kills, to "reward" obedience; but what does not obey it, it cannot kill. 

The body no more dies than it can feel.  It does nothing.  Of itself it is neither corruptible nor incorruptible.  It is nothing.  It is the result of a tiny, mad idea of separation and this can be corrected.  For God has answered this insane idea with an idea of His Own.  The idea of forgiveness.  I forgive myself, my thoughts, my "brother," all seeming sin and whatever seems to be "outside" me.

When I dedicate myself to the Incorruptible, I have the Power to release my mind from corruption.  What better way to learn the first and fundamental principle in A Course in Miracles than by learning that the most difficult lesson can be accomplished first?  The body serves only the purpose my mind gives it.  Separation is the purpose ego gives it.  Communication is the purpose God gives the body. Those

who fear death, do not see how often and loudly they call to it and request that it "save" them.  Death is seen as safety; sin is the great dark savior from the Light of Truth; the answer to the Answer, the silencer of God Voice.  The idea of death reinforces and gives evidence to the separation.  But death is only a dream.  

Death seems to kill God's Son.  In its distorted world, ego lays the Son of God at its feet ~ slain by its orders, proof in his decay ~ proof that God Himself is powerless.  What could this be but insanity?

When anything seems to be a source of fear, when any situation strikes me with terror and makes my body tremble with the cold sweat of fear, remember it is always for one reason only:  ego has perceived the body as a sign of the separation, the symbol of fear, and a sign of sin and death.  The body is nothing.  It represents only an idea of separation created by the mind.  

With God, the fear of death will leave me as its attraction is replaced by the Real attraction of Love.  The end of sin is tucked away quietly in the safety of my Holy Relationships with my brother, and these Holy Relationships are ready to grow into a mighty force for God.  My newborn purpose is nursed by angels and protected by God Himself.  Within it lies the end of separation, hence the end of death.  

What danger can hurt the Wholly Innocent?  What can attack the Guiltless?  Atonement, even in its infancy, is in full Communication with God and my Self.  Its tiny hands hold miracles.  Behold this infant, to whom I have offered a resting place by my forgiveness of my brother.  See in It the Will of God.  Here is the babe of Bethlehem reborn!  Everyone who gives Christ (the healed Sonship) shelter will follow him, not to the cross, but to the resurrection and Life.  

4)  The Fourth Obstacle to Peace:  

A)  The Fear of God.  If I were free of the fear of death and if death held no attraction for me, what would I experience?  Very simply, I would remember my Reality.

The fear of God hangs like a heavy veil before the Son.  This veil covers the Son's face, and the Bright Rays of the Father's Love appear to the Son as streams of blood.  This is the darkest veil, upheld by the belief in separation.  I made a secret promise to ego never to approach the veil nor even suspect it is there, so as to keep What Lies Beyond it hidden.  This is the great amnesia, in which the Memory of God seems quite forgotten, replaced by the fear of God ~ the final step in my dissociation from Heaven.  

The belief in death seems to save me in my world separated from God.  For if there were no death, what would I have to fear but Life?  It is the attraction of death that makes Life seem to be ugly, cruel and tyrannical.  Ego and death are my chosen friends.  In my secret alliance with them, I agreed never to let the fear of God be lifted, for then I would no longer see the separation.  

Look upon what Love shows me and I will never again believe that I am at the mercy of things beyond me, forces I cannot control, or thoughts that come against my will.  What attracts me Beyond the veil, is also deep within me in a Holy, Quiet Place.  

B) Lifting the Veil.  My brother and I have come this far together, and it was not ego that brought us here.  The Guide Who brought us here remains with us. 

Accept the Atonement and learn that illusions are not Real.  I could not have come this far without my brother. MlIn complete forgiveness of his "sins," lift up my eyes and look on him in Innocence.  This is the place to which everyone must come when he is ready, and once I have found my brother, I am ready.  

Here with the journey's end before me, I see its purpose.  And it is here I choose whether to look upon it or wander on, only to return and make the choice again.  To look upon the fear of God does need some preparation.  Only the Sane can look on stark insanity and raving madness with pity and compassion, not fear.  Only if I share in the idea of insanity does it seem fearful, and I do share in it until I look upon my brother with forgiveness.  No one reaches Love with fear beside him.  

Does the brother who stands beside me still seem to be a fearful stranger?  If so, I will continue to attack him to keep my "self" safe.  I see his madness which I hate because I share it.  All the pity and forgiveness that would heal, gives way to fear.  Yet in his hands is my salvation.  We need forgiveness of each other for together we share in madness or we share in Heaven.  Beside each of us is one who offers salvation, for God is in both of us.  Would I hold his "sins" against him or accept his gift of salvation?  Is this giver of salvation my friend or my enemy?  I choose.  Remember he will give me his gift according to my choice.  

The crucified give pain because they are in pain.  But the redeemed give Joy because they have been healed of pain.  Everyone gives as he receives, but he chooses what it will be that he receives, and he will recognize his choice by what he gives.

My brother, crucified by sin is waiting for me to release him from pain.  Offer him forgiveness, so that he may offer it to me.  His redemption will give me mine.  Remember who my brother is and I will not condemn him.  Join him in gladness and remove all trace of guilt from his disturbed and tortured mind.  Help him lift the heavy burden of sin I laid upon him ~ which he accepted as his own.  Do not press it like thorns against his brow, nor nail him to it, unredeemed and hopeless.  Toss it happily away from him.  Give faith to one another; for faith, hope and mercy are mine to give.  Into the very hands that give, the gift is given.  Look on my brother and see in him the Gift of God I myself would receive. 

Together we disappear into the Presence beyond the veil to be Found and Known.  Here is the Rest and Quiet that I seek.  Here is the Peace of God.

Lesson 265 ~ Creation's Gentleness is All I See

I laid my sins on the world and saw them looking back at me. How fierce they seemed.  I thought what I feared was in the world, but I have learned that what I fear is only a fantasy in my mind.  This is what I failed to understand before. 

Today I see the world in Celestial Gentleness.  There is no fear.  No appearance of "sin" obscures the Light of Heaven shining on the world.  The images I choose to see, with Heaven as my Guide, reflect Thoughts of God, knowing my mind is One with His.

Chapter 18 ~ The Passing of the Dream

The Substitute for Reality.  To substitute is to choose between.  When I substitute the "reality" of the dream-world for the Reality of God, I chose illusions in favor of Heaven, and the One Relationship is fragmented into many. 

Ego perceives one person as replacement for another.  God sees only One, Joined and Indivisible.  He does not judge between them, knowing they are One.  God's Thought System Unites, ego's separates.  

Nothing can come between what God has joined.  In my dreams, everything seems to come between my fragmented relationships.  The purpose of the world of illusion is to experience separation from God and All That Is One.  The goal, then, of everything in the dream-world is to seemingly divide and further separate me from God.  This is what I created it to do.  

God is Love and there is no substitute for Love.  In the world of illusion, I seemed to create the opposite of Love, which is fear.  Fear seems to take many forms (hate, sadness, loneliness, boredom, etc.,) and each seems to require a different appearance or form for playing its part. The body is emphasized, with special emphasis on certain parts.  

In the dream-world God is feared because dreams substitute for Him.  They substitute fragmentation for Wholeness and illusion for Truth.  It has become so splintered and subdivided, and divided again, over and over, that it is almost impossible to perceive Heaven.  That one error ~ which created illusion in place of Truth, "time" in place of Infinity, and death in place of Life ~ was all I ever made.  The whole world rests on it, everything I see reflects it and every "special" relationship I have ever made is part of it.  At this point, God's Reality would be a great shock, indeed.  I do not realize the magnitude of that one error.  It was so vast and so completely absurd that from it, a world of total unreality had to emerge.  Its fragmented aspects are fearful enough, but nothing I have seen even begins to show me the enormity of my original error which seemed to cast me out of Heaven.  Knowledge seemed to be shattered into meaningless bits of severed perception.  And the world of dreams arose to "hide" my one error.  

Truth extends inward with only Increase possible and the idea of loss meaningless.  Is it so strange to imagine such a strange world as mine could arise from projecting this one error ~ a world of illusion where everything is backward and upside down?  Truth, brought to the dream-world, could only remain quiet and take no part in my insane projections.  This cannot be "sin," but only madness.  Do not invest in this world with guilt, for guilt implies what I did was truly accomplished in Reality.  This is impossible!

When I seem to see some twisted form of this original error rising to frighten me, just remember ~ God is Love, not fear ~ and it will disappear.  Truth will save me.  Truth never left me when I turned to the mad world.  Inward is my Sanity, the insanity is seemingly outside of me. Yet, in dreams, I believe it is the other way around ~ that Truth is outside of me and error/sin/guilt inside.  

My little, senseless substitutions for Reality ~ touched with insanity and swirling lightly on a mad journey, like feathers dancing insanely in the wind ~ have no substance.  They fuse and merge and separate; in shifting, meaningless patterns that have no basis in Reality.  To judge them would be pointless.  None of it matters.  

Let them go, dancing in the wind, dipping and turning until they disappear from sight...far, far away from me.  Then turn to the Stately Calm within, where in Holy Stillness dwells the Loving God I never left, Who never left me.  

God takes me Gently by the hand, retracing my mad journey "outside" myself, leading me Tenderly back to the Truth and Safety within.  He reverses the course of insanity and restores me to reason.  

In the mad world outside me, nothing can be shared or joined in Unity.  The world of illusion has nothing in common with Reality.  Within myself is Perfect Love and a Holy Place which no illusion can enter.  

Heaven is restored through the Holy relationship, for in it lies the Sonship ~ Whole and Beautiful ~ Safe in Love.  Heaven waits there Quietly.

God calls me together with my "brother" to a most Holy function as His Son.  He reaches out to every broken fragment of the Sonship with Healing and Comfort.  

The Basis of the Dream.  When I sleep, I dream and these dreams seem quite real.  Is it not possible that I could be dreaming when I am seemingly "awake"?  It is more than possible, it is CERTAIN.  Mine is a distortion-world planned entirely around apparent separation from God.  There is no other purpose for the world I created.  Because I am God's Son, I have done a fantastic job.  Yet because I am God's Son, it is impossible that I be "apart from" Him.  In fact, there would be no way out of madness, except that God would never allow me to remain in darkness.  In fact as soon as I imagined it, He gave correction.  I am living in a figment of "time," though Safe in Timelessness.  

My sleeping dreams are nonsensical and chaotic, but while I dream, I do not question the experience.  It all makes sense until I wake up.  I do not take my dreams seriously because when I wake up, I realize "reality" was so outrageously violated.  I do not find the differences between what I see in "sleep" and what I see upon "waking," at all disturbing.  I recognize that my dreams disappear the moment I wake up.  

My waking-dream is much the same.  I have arranged everything, just as my mind arranges everything in a sleeping dream.  People become what I want them to be and they do what I order. My dreams are perceptual temper tantrums, in which I scream, "I want to see a world without God!" and so it seems to be.  The dream never escapes its origin (my mind).  Anger and fear saturate it and often, I find an illusion of satisfaction invaded by an illusion of terror.  The dream of my ability to "control" reality by substituting a world that I prefer is terrifying.  I do not prefer to see a world without God?  Then what am I doing here?

I blot out Reality with the dream-world.  I am riddled with anxiety, uncertainty and fear, but in my insanity I am not willing to accept why.  

My sleeping dreams show me that my mind has the power to make images and situations seem Real even while I sleep.  While I see them, I do not doubt they are real.  Yet here is a world, clearly within my mind, which seems to be "outside."  I do not respond to it as though I made it, nor do I realize that the emotions the dream produce come from me.  It is the figures in the dream and what they do that seem to make the dream.  I do not realize that I am making it all up.  

What I seem to waken to every morning, is but another form of this same dream.  My sleeping and my waking dreams have different forms, that is all.  

In my waking dreams, the "special" relationship (love or hate) is my way of holding onto unreality to prevent myself from Awakening. While I see more value in sleeping than Awakening, I will not let go of the dream.  I have used my dreams to remain asleep.

Nevertheless, ever practical in His wisdom, God uses the dream figures and situations as a means for Waking me.   He does not destroy my dream or wrestle it away from me.  He first works to change my dream to a happy one.  He uses special love and special hate relationships, not as a source of pain and guilt, but as a source of Joy and Freedom.  Their unholiness kept them a thing "apart;" their Holiness will become salvation for all.  My "special" relationships will be made Holy relationships and a means for undoing guilt. Through them, God's blessing extends to all. 

It is not strange to me that my sleeping-dreams can make an unreal world.  It is my decision that is incredible.  In every minute, every interaction and every situation, I am making the choice of illusion over Truth.  With God, I choose Truth.  

Heaven is Sure.  These words of hope are no dream.  Heaven's coming means that I have chosen Truth and offered my small willingness to God.  The world of happy dreams is my world of illusions forgiven. But even this is not Heaven, though it is the last step before the Father Himself welcomes me Home.  The dream of Awakening is easily transferred to the Reality of Awakening.  

Light in the Dream.  I have spent my life choosing illusion and fantasy over Truth and Reality.  I have gone from being fully Awake in Heaven, to sleeping and on and on to deeper sleep.  Each dream has led to other dreams and every fantasy that seemed to bring light into this darkness, only made the darkness deeper.  I chose to perceive separation from God with the goal of darkness, in which no Ray of Light could enter.  I created a blackness so complete that it seemed I could hide from Truth forever, lost in insanity.  

What I forgot, simply.....was that God cannot destroy Himself.  Where does God begin and myself end?  God is in me and I am in Him.  Darkness may seem to cover this Reality, but It cannot be extinguished.  Whenever I am afraid or seem to have lost my way, call on God and join Him in an instant of Light....It will be enough to remind me that my goal is Light.  

Truth has rushed to meet me since I called on It.  If I knew Who walked beside me on the new path I have chosen, fear would be impossible.  But I do not know because the journey into darkness has been long and cruel, and I have made this abyss my home.  

I do not understand God's mission, but remember......my understanding is not necessary.  All that is necessary is my willingness to let Him be my Guide.  In my willingness lies its accomplishment.  I am made Whole in my willingness to be Whole.  Time has been adjusted to help me.  Heaven is joined with me in my journey Home.  I am returning Home, after a long and meaningless journey that lead nowhere.  With God I recognize that my brother and I Light the way for both of us.  

The Little Willingness.   Desire and willingness are all that are asked of me. God will do the rest.  It is not necessary for me to do more; in fact, it is necessary that I realize I cannot do more.  Do not add ego to God's plan or I will be confused.  It is God who adds the Greatness and Might.  It is my realization that I need do very little that enables Him to do so much.

Do not trust myself and my good intentions.  They are not enough.  It was my decision to make Heaven into hell and Truth into illusions.  Trust implicitly only my willingness. The miracle lies in my willingness. In my willingness lies also my acceptance of myself as I was meant to be.....the Son of God.  

Humility does not mean being content with littleness.  I must be content with nothing less than the Greatness of God.  Do not say I am unworthy of God and His Greatness.  This is false humility.  God Himself made me Great. To believe otherwise is arrogance of ego.  

The Experience of Heaven in the Holy Instant comes from my small willingness combined with the Unlimited Power of God's Will.  I do not need to prepare myself for God; it is impossible to make arrogant preparations for Holiness. God established my Holiness as His Son, and That is all I need.

I am still convinced that my understanding is a powerful contribution to Truth.  Yet I need understand nothing.  Salvation is easy because it is of God.  Everything God Wills is not only possible, but has already happened.

The Happy Dream.  Prepare for the undoing of what never was. The Holy Instant, the Holy relationship, and God's teaching are all part of the plan to change my dreams of fear to happy dreams.  Once the dream is happy, I will Awaken easily to Heaven.

Do not trust myself or put myself in charge of my own salvation, for I cannot even tell the difference between "advance" and "retreat."  Some of my greatest advances I have judged as failures; some of my deepest retreats I have thought as success. Would I ask the insane to teach themselves sanity?  My only part is to offer God a little willingness and He will do the rest for me.  With my small willingness joined with God's understanding, He will build my part in the Atonement and make sure I fulfill it easily.  With Him, I will build a ladder planted in the solid rock of Faith, rising to Heaven.  I will not go alone; thousands will rise to Heaven with me.  All the seeming parts of myself that I divided from the One and labeled "others," will join with me.  It is no dream to love my brother as myself, for we are One.  

Happy dreams come true only because they are happy.  Their message is, "Thy Will be done," and not, "I want it otherwise!"   

When I feel the Holiness of a relationship threatened by anything, stop instantly and give my concerns to God.  Let Him exchange this instant for the Holy Instant I would rather have.  He will never fail. 

Beyond the Body.  There is nothing outside me.  This what I must ultimately learn.  The Kingdom of Heaven is my Home, I never left.  Heaven is not a place or condition, it is merely an Awareness of Perfect Oneness and the Knowledge that there is nothing else.

Minds are joined, bodies are not.  It is the mind that seems to be fragmented, private and alone.  The mind's guilt is projected onto the body.  Bodies appear to suffer and die.  This all keeps the mind preoccupied with everything except the original error of the apparent separation from God.  The mind cannot attack, but it can make fantasies which direct the body to seemingly do so.  Yet whatever the body does never seems to satisfy.  The mind is clearly delusional.  It can seem to project its guilt outward to its body or other bodies, but guilt over the separation never leaves its source (the mind).  

The body was made by delusion, not Love.  Yet Love does not condemn the body. God can use it Lovingly, respecting what His Son has made, but using it to save the Son from illusions. 

Would I not rather have what I made reinterpreted as a means for my salvation?  My will has never conflicted with God's Will, I have only created fantasies that it does, but that is all they are:  fantasies.

I made the "body" to reinforce the separation.  I see myself locked in a separate body-prison from my brother.  Minds are Joined, but I only identify with separated minds at this point.  

The body I created to house my hate and fear is not a prison but an illusion.  The "body" is a limit imposed on Communication.  Within itself, the Mind has no limits and there is nothing outside of it.  The Mind encompasses me entirely ~ me within It and It within me.  There is nothing else.  Bodies seems to be outside me, surrounding me and shutting me off from others ~ keeping "me" apart from "them".......but the body does not exist.  I can only be separated in illusions.  The dream-world is not my Reality, but I believe it is.  

Everyone has experienced what he would call a sense of being transported beyond himself.  This feeling of Freedom surpasses any idea of freedom I might have in my dreams.  It is a sense of Actual escape from limitations; a sudden unawareness of the body.  What really happens here is that I experience the illusion of limitation and lose my fear of Union.  This can occur regardless of the physical distance that seems to be between me and what I join with.  Time is irrelevant and this experience can occur with something past, present or anticipated.  The "something" can be anything, anywhere ~ a sound, sight, thought, memory, even a general idea.  In every case I join with it without reservation, letting my limits melt away, suspending all the "laws" my body usually obeys, gently setting them aside. There is no violence or trauma in this escape.  The body has simply been properly perceived.  The body does not limit me.  I am not really "lifted out" of the body because it cannot contain me.  I can go wherever, gaining a sense of Self.  

In these instants of release from physical restrictions, I experience much of what happens in the Holy Instant; barriers of time and space are lifted, I experience Peace and Joy and above all an lack an awareness of the body.  The Holy Instant calls me to be myself within its Safe Embrace.  The laws of limit are lifted for me to welcome my Mind to Freedom. 

Come to this Place of refuge, where I can be myself in Peace ~ not through struggle or destruction of the body ~ but merely by a quiet melting in of my mind with All There Is. 

I Need Do Nothing.  I make many plans that involve the comfort, protection, or enjoyment of my body.  I still have too much faith in the body as my source of strength and happiness.  This makes the satisfied body an end in itself; meaning I still find "sin" and "separation" attractive.  I will never accept Atonement while I prefer pain and destruction.  

There is one thing I have never done:  utterly forget the body.  The awareness of it has faded at times, but it has not yet completely disappeared.  I am not asked to let this happen for more than an instant, yet it is in this instant that miracles happen.  Afterwards, I will see the body again, but never quite the same.  Every instant I spend without awareness of the body, gives me a different view of it when I return.  

At no single instant does the body exist at all.  It is always remembered or anticipated. Only its past and future make it seem Real. Its whole attraction is imaginary and therefore has to be thought of in the past or in the future.  

To accept the Holy Instant without reservation I must, for just an instant, be willing to see no past or future.   If I prepare for It, I place It in the future.  Many have spent a lifetime in preparation and have indeed achieve their "Instants," but there is no need to prepare.  This course teaches no more than what I have already learned in time, but it aims at saving time.  

I may think I follow a very long road to my goal.  It is extremely difficult to reach Atonement by "fighting against sin."  It is not necessary to devote a lifetime to contemplation and meditation, or to learn detachment from the body.  Eventually all such attempts will succeed, yet the means are tedious and time consuming and they all look to the "future" for release from a state of "present" unworthiness and inadequacy.  

With ACIM my way will be different, not in the goal, but in the means to accomplish it. Just remember:  I need do nothing.  It would help if I merely concentrate on this, rather than consider what I should do.  I need do nothing. Here is the ultimate release.  I am not making use of this Course if I insist on using means which have served "others" well, neglecting what was made for me.  I need do nothing.  Believe it for just one instant and I will accomplish more than what a century of contemplation or a long struggle against temptation can achieve.  

To "do" anything involves the body.  If I recognize I need do nothing, I have withdrawn the body's value from my mind.  Here before me is the quick and open door through which I slip past centuries of effort, escaping from time.  Past and future are gone.  During the Now, "time" is denied.  Those who need do nothing have no need for time. To do nothing is to rest and make a place within me where the activity of the body ceases to demand attention.  In this place, God comes and abides.  He will remain there even when I forget.  He will remain even when the body's activities return to occupy my conscious mind.  

I can return to this place of rest.  This place will be the quiet eye of the storm, where the raging activity of the world is forgotten.  This quiet center, in which I do nothing will remain with me and give me rest .  From this center will I be directed how to use the body for my salvation.  

The Little Garden.  The body is a limit on Love.  Anything created to reinforce the separation is a limit on Love.  The body was made to limit the Unlimited.  I cannot even imagine God without a body or some form. 

While I limit my Awareness to the body's tiny senses, I will not see the Grandeur that surrounds me.  Limits on Love will always seem to shut God out and keep me apart from Him.  

The body is like a tiny fence around a little part of a Glorious and Complete Idea.  It draws a circle ~ infinitely small ~ around a very little segment of Heaven, proclaiming it my kingdom, where no one else can enter, not even God.  Within this little kingdom, ego rules cruelly.  To defend this little speck of dust, ego advises that I must fight against the universe.  

In its amazing arrogance, this tiny sunbeam has decided that it is the Sun; this tiny ripple imagines itself the Ocean.  Think how alone and frightened is this little thought, this tiny illusion, setting itself against the Universe.  The Sun becomes the sunbeam's "enemy" that would devour it; the Ocean terrifies the little ripple and wants to swallow it.  

Yet neither the Sun nor the Ocean are remotely aware of all this strange, meaningless activity; They merely continue, unaware that They are feared and hated by a tiny segment of Themselves.  That little segment is not lost to Them, for it could not survive without Them.  No matter what the tiny segment thinks, in no way changes its total dependence on Them for its being.  Its whole existence remains in Them.  Without the Sun, the sunbeam would not exist; without the Ocean, the ripple never was.  

Each body seems to house a separate mind, living alone and in no way joined to the Source Who Created it.  Each tiny fragment seems to be self-contained, needing others for certain things, but by no means dependent on a Creator.  Such is the strange idea of the world of "bodies."  Yet by itself, the body means nothing.  It has no Life apart from its Source. 

My Self continues in the Sun and the Ocean, unmindful that a tiny part thinks it is "me."  My Self could not exist if it were separate from the Whole.  It is not a separate kingdom, nor does a fence surround it.  This little self is Continuous and at One with the Whole.....all the while imaging itself a different thing altogether.  

Do not accept this little, separate aspect as my "self."  The sunbeam sparkles only in the Sunlight.  The ripple dances as it rests upon the Ocean.  Will I remain within my tiny kingdom, a sorry king? A bitter ruler?  One who looks on nothing, yet would die to defend it?  This little self is not my kingdom.  

In my tiny kingdom I have so very little.  My little kingdom is like the desert ~ dry, unproductive, scorched, and joyless.  Will I not call on Love to enter? 

The Thought of God surrounds my little kingdom, waiting for my invitation to come inside and Shine upon the barren landscape.  Watch how Life will spring up everywhere!  The desert will become a Beautiful Garden ~ Green, Deep, Quiet ~ offering Rest (at last!) to me who lost my way.  Every brother I welcome, will bring more Love with him.....from Heaven.......for me!  Welcome all who thirst for Living Water but have grown too weary to go on alone. Offer forgiveness and Love, and they will introduce me to my Self.  

In the Holy Instant, Love enters my bleak and joyless kingdom, transforming it into a Garden of Peace and Welcome.  In the Holy Instant, I ask of Love only what It offers everyone, neither more nor less.  When I ask for Everything, I will receive It.  My shining Self will lift the tiny aspect straight to 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 my special relationships; the ones with myself, with others, the special love relationships and the special hate relationships.  Love has enter fully at my weak request.  I do not recognize that Love has come because I have not yet let go of all the "sins" I hold against my brother, and all the "specialness" contained in myself.  I could no more know God alone, by myself, than He could know me without my brother.  Together we are Aware of His Love. 

I have reached the end of an ancient journey........not realizing that it is already over.  I am worn and tired. The desert's dust still seems to cloud my eyes, keeping me sightless.  Yet He, Whom I welcomed with my small willingness, has come to me. Only a little wall of dust still stands between Him and I.  Blow on it lightly and with happy laughter it will fall away. Walk into the Garden Love has prepared for my brother and I.

Two Worlds.  I have been told to bring my darkness to Light and my guilt to Holiness.  I have been told that error must be corrected at its source (the mind).  God needs only the tiny part of myself ~ the little thought that seems separate and split off:  EGO.  The rest is Safe in God's keeping.  This wild, delusional thought (ego) needs help because in its delusions, it thinks it is almighty, powerful, and godlike; sole ruler of the "kingdom" it set apart to project its illusions of madness; tyrannizing itself into obedience and slavery; this little part I think I stole from Heaven. 

Heaven has not lost a part of Itself, but I have lost sight of Heaven. I seem to have placed myself into a withered kingdom, surrounded by darkness, guarded by attack and reinforced by hate. Within its barricades is still a tiny segment of the Son of God ~ Complete, Holy, Serene.

What is the little kingdom I seemed to have created, with its barren sands, darkness and lifelessness; its bleak sight distorted?  The messages it sends are distorted, fragmented and meaningless, and made only to limit my Awareness.  From the world of bodies made by insanity, insane messages are returned to the mind that made it.  These messages give witness to this world of madness, reinforcing my belief in it, as I pronounce it "true."  I send messengers and tell them what messages to bring back to me and the messages seem to come from "outside" me.

Follow God for He will never forsake me.  The dream-world is based on fear, where all illusions, twisted thoughts, insane attacks, fury, vengeance and betrayal are specifically there to show me a world separated from God.  Guilt is the foundation for ego's thought system.  Yet it is a foundation so transparent that I do not notice until I see the Light beyond it. Its impenetrable appearance is wholly an illusion.  It is not strong enough to stop a button's fall nor hold a feather.  Yet I see a solid mountain range, a lake, a city, an entire "world."  The demented messengers of my perception return to me, assuring me that it is there.  Figures stand out and move around, actions seem real, forms appear and shift from loveliness to the grotesque.  Back and forth they go as I play the game of children's make-believe. However long I play, regardless of how much imagination I bring to it, it is only illusion.  

God will never frighten me.  I am severely tempted to abandon Him at the first sign of discomfort, but let Him lead me Safely and far beyond my world of terror. 

Yet, even the dream-world can be a happy place of Light, when sin and guilt meet with forgiveness.  Then I will see my world anew, with a new perception where everything is Bright and Shining with Innocence, washed in the waters of forgiveness and cleansed of every evil thought I laid upon it.  Yet, even forgiveness is not the end.  Forgiveness makes my world a lovely and healing place, but forgiveness is only the messenger of Love, not the Source.  I am lead to this forgiven and happy world ~ the forgiven world ~ where God Himself can take the final step unhindered.  

ACIM will lead to Knowledge, but Knowledge and Heaven Itself, is beyond the scope of this Course.  Where learning ends, God begins. 

Love is not learned because there was never a time in which I did not know It.  Learning is useless in the Presence of God, and will be replaced forever by the Knowledge of Love.  

My relationship with my brother has been uprooted from the world of shadows; its unholy purpose Safely brought though the barriers of guilt, washed with forgiveness and set Shining ~ firmly rooted ~ in Light.  

When the Memory of God has come to me, in the Holy Place of forgiveness, I will remember nothing else.  In God, my only purpose is being His Son.  Yet this I cannot know until every perception has been cleansed and purified, and finally removed Forever.  Forgiveness removes only what is not True.

Great Peace and Joy await me.