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.