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.
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