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.
No comments:
Post a Comment