Chapter 31 ~ The Final Vision

The Simplicity of Salvation.  Salvation is simple.  All it says is, what was never True is not True now or ever; the impossible has not occurred and has no effects.  That is all.

I have been told exactly how to tell false from True and what to do if I become confused. Salvation teaches only the very obvious, going from one lesson to the next in easy steps, with no strain at all.  This cannot be confusing.  Yet, I am confused.

What I have taught myself in creating a world of separation is such a giant learning feat, it is incredible. But I accomplished it because I wanted to. Anyone who understands what I have learned, how carefully I have learned it, the pains I went to practice and repeat the lessons endlessly, in every form I could conceive.......could ever doubt the power of my learning skill.  There is no greater power in my world.  My world was made by my learning skills....its very existence depends on it.

The lessons I have taught myself have been so overlearned and fixed, they rise like heavy clouds to obscure what is simple and obvious.  My power to learn is strong enough to teach me that my will ~ in the world of separation ~  is not my own.  Even the thoughts I think in the dream-world are not my True Thoughts.  In addition, I have forgotten I am God's Son and decided I am someone else entirely!  Have these odd lessons been easy for me to learn?  Not at all.  But not only that, I continued taking every step, however difficult ~ without complaint! ~ until a world was built which suited my strange purpose.  Finally I choose each second of each day to maintain this world with every choice I make.

Every lesson that makes up the world arises from that first accomplishment of learning.  It was an enormity so great, a feat so difficult, that God's Voice seems small and still before its magnitude and Heaven appears as far away as ever.

The world began with one strange lesson, powerful enough to render God nearly forgotten and His Son a stranger to himself, seemingly exiled from Home.  I have taught myself that God's Son is guilty for separating himself from his Father!  And after this extensive learning, I still fear that I cannot learn the simple lessons of salvation?  Learning is an ability I made and gave myself.  It was made to create a world seemingly separated from God, and this I taught myself!

Now.....my ancient overlearning stands rigid before the Voice of Truth.  It tells me Truth's lessons are not True; they are too hard to learn; too difficult to see; too opposed to the "real truth" of the world I think I know.

Yet, I will learn the lessons of Truth.  Learning Truth is the only purpose Heaven sees for my ability to "learn."  As mighty as the power I demonstrated in apparently creating a world without God, Creator's simple lessons in forgiveness have a power Mightier than mine, because God Willed that I not forget Him.

God gave His Answer to my world of pain:  His Love for me.

Is it possible that my learning ~ strange in outcome and incredible in difficulty ~  withstand the simple lessons of Truth?

The lesson I taught myself is that God's Son is guilty of creating a world apart from God; a world of terror and despair, with no hope of lasting Happiness for it always ends in death.  There is no plan of Safety that will succeed.  There is no lasting Joy.

However intensely I may have overlearned my chosen lesson, God's Answer is Stronger still.

Truth will teach me that God's Son is Innocent.  It will show me another world....a world without fear, bright with hope and sparkling with gentle friendliness.  Everything calls to me in soft appeal to be my friend and to join with me.  Never does God's Call remain unheard, misunderstood or left unanswered.  I will realize that my world has always reflected God's Call to me, but I chose to not perceive It.  Now I see my mistake.  I was deceived by forms.  I ignored a Friend Who always wanted to be part of me.  The Soft, Eternal calling of each part of God's Creation to the Whole is heard throughout my world.  It is so Quiet and Still, that I overlooked It in favor of chaos.

The Christ in me remembers God.  The Christ in my brother remembers God.  I have not understood Who calls to me beyond each form of hate and each call to war.  Yet, I will recognize Him.  No matter the language a brother speaks, he recognizes without a doubt the Language of God.

I am deceived if I believe I want a world of chaos and pain.  Listen, rather, to the Deeper Call beyond hate and war.....the Call that appeals for Peace and Joy.  It is always been there....I have heard It.  Listen to the Call for Peace and Joy and all my world will give me Peace and Joy.  As I listen for It, It will answer me.

Be still an instant.  Forget everything I ever learned....all thoughts, all meaning, all purpose. Forget all ideas of what I thought about the world. I do not know anything.   Let every image that I ever had of anyone be loosened from my mind and swept away. Let go of judgment and all thoughts of "evil" or "good" that ever crossed my mind of anyone.  I have been deceived.  I will learn Truth, if I so choose.

Walking with Christ.  I see my Self divided into many.  In my joining with a "special" few, there appears to be the hope of satisfaction and peace.  Then there are those I seem to do battle with.  The rest are just figures in the dream who wait for me to give them a task.  Sometimes I lead, other times I follow.  I hate the one I gave the leaders's role because when he has it, I want it.  I also hate it when he does not assume the leadership role when I decide I want to follow.  This is what I made my brother for and unless he serves the function I give him, he has no usefulness to me.  Yet what of him?  What does he want of me?  What could it be, but what I want of him?

In salvation I learn that my brother offers me only this:  death or Life.  I offer the same to him.  Hear the call of death and I am separated from him.  Hear the call for Life and I Unite with him and find salvation.  The voice I hear in my brother is my own, calling to me.  What I offer a brother is offered to myself, so be mindful of what I am offering him.

My brother neither leads nor follows.  He walks beside me on the same road.  He is as near or as far as I will let him be.  If he falls back, I fall with him.  If I gain, he does too.  Do not take his hand in anger but in Love, for in his progress is my own.  I will stumble along the way unless I keep him safely by my side.

In God's Love I will be saved from all appearances, answering to the Christ Who calls to me.  Be still and listen.  Do not think thoughts of the world.  Forget the dismal lessons I learned.  Christ calls to all with equal tenderness.  He sees no leaders or followers, and He gives One Answer to them all. 

Be still an instant.  Lay aside all thoughts of whatever I learned and put aside all images.  The old will fall away before the New without my opposition, interference or plan.  There will be no attack upon the world I thought was precious and there will be no assault upon my dreams.  Nothing will hurt me in the Holy Place where God calls to me.  Come silently and learn Truth. 

Forgive my brother all appearances which are only ancient lessons I have taught myself about being separated from God.  Hear only my brother's call for mercy and release from all the fearful images he holds of himself.  He is afraid to walk with me, so he walks a little behind or a little ahead.  Decide to walk with him, so neither leads nor follows.  Salvation is the way we go together.  Together is our joint Inheritance remembered and accepted by both.  If either of us insist on leading or on following, we will walk alone.  I may stagger back and forward in the darkness for a while in my confusion and doubt, until I remember that the one next to me has the Light.  Heaven walks with me so that every step is made Certain and Sure.

The Self-Accused.  Only those who believe they are guilty will condemn others.  As I prepare to make a choice for Reality or illusion ~ a choice that will result in a different outcome for me ~ I must overlearn this one thing:  I never hate my brother for his "sins," but only for my own.  It must become habit to me and my first response to all temptation and to every situation that occurs.  Learn this and learn it well.  Whatever form his "sins" appear to take, it only hides the fact that I believe them to be my own.  If I did not believe that I deserved attack, it would never occur to me to give attack to anyone else.

"Sins" are accomplished by "bodies," and bodies I created to act out my separation-fantasy.  So when "sin" is perceived, "bodies" are punished.  The body is not seen to be a passive thing, it seems to act and do of its own accord.  Yet the body obeys only whatever the mind tells it to.  I have seemingly imprisoned the mind within a body and then commanded the body to act out all of my seeming fantasies.  Yet the thoughts I think, and the desires and wants I think I have, are only dreams. The body is prisoner of my mind, only doing what the mind tells it to.  The mind willingly imprisons itself.  The body becomes sick at the command of the mind.  It grows old and dies because the mind is sick within itself.  So the body could never change unless the mind prefers that it change to suit its purposes.

In the world of separation the body has one purpose:  to witness to the separation and provide proof of separation from God.  In separation does the mind see all that it believes would exist in a world "separated" from God:  sin, guilt, sadness, sickness, grief....and perhaps a little love, joy and happiness, but in a distorted form that never endures.  The body seems to be the source of sin and separation, but it is only a sleeping prisoner to ego's snarling dogs of hate, evil, sickness, attack, pain, age, grief and suffering.  Guilt rules the body and in guilt, thoughts of sacrifice are preserved. Ego demands the world be like itself.....a place where nothing can find mercy, nor survive the ravages of fear except in murder and death.  Those who think they are sinful bodies, must die for what they think they are. 

My ancient lessons of the world will not be overcome by opposition, penance or battle.  There is no fight, no war, no struggle between "evil" and "good."  There is nothing I must plan for.  There is an ancient battle being waged against Truth, but only in dreams. Truth does not respond.  Who could be hurt in such a war, unless he hurts himself?  When a choice for Truth is made.....everything else, except for Truth, disappears.

The world seems to give me many choices and many decisions to make.  Yet there is only one decision to make:  do I choose Truth or illusion?  And this is not really a choice at all because illusion does not exist.  But while I dream, I seem to have choices.  God never opposes His Son's wish to dream, but the Son cannot be lost forever and the Father rushes to his side when the Son chooses to return to Truth.

When I choose Truth, Truth is given me.  Every time there seems to be a choice other than Truth it is not a choice at all, but rather an exchanging of one illusion for another. Only Truth has any meaning at all.

Be glad it has been given me to change what I believe.  When the mind changes, the body can only follow.  The body cannot guard my sleep nor interfere with my Waking.  Release my body from imprisonment and I will see prisoners nowhere.  The Innocent release others in gratitude for their own release.  Open my mind to change.  God asks for no sacrifice.  He only asks that I choose Love.

The Real Alternative.  I created the world to have an experience "separate from" God.  In Reality being "apart from" God is impossible, but I can imagine it is and that is what I am doing....imagining, dreaming.

A world apart from God would have characteristics unlike God and Heaven.  I might experience what I call "love," but in the dream-world it will always be ego-centered and imperfect.  Even my children exasperate me at times, intruding into my peace of mind, making me anxious and upset.  I might have what I call "joy" at times, with the birth of a new baby or a beautiful wedding.  But after the newness of a baby wears off, I find myself getting bored. And that beautiful, happy wedding....who has not thought, "will it last?"  There is not one moment of Joy, Peace or Happiness in my world that is not tainted by judgment, and judgment is attack.

Again, it is a dream world.  While I muck about in it, I think it is my reality.  But Reality has no judgment or change, and the dream-world is very much a world of judgment and change.  That is how I know I am dreaming. There is a tendency to think the world can offer consolation and escape, yet the world was made specifically to have problems with no solution and happiness that does not last.  The world can never offer consolation or escape.  The world's purpose is to keep me from escaping problems or finding lasting consolation.  My only choices in the world of dreams are between illusions.

I think within the narrow band from birth to death, a little time is given me to use for me alone.  Everyone seems to conflict with one another to some degree.  This conflict is "normal" I say.  To be in separate "bodies" is normal.  It is a world I have taught myself is my "reality."  I am so grateful it is not.

Real choice is no illusion.  I can choose which road will lead me out of conflict and away from difficulties.  My world has no Real choice to offer me.  I only have a choice between one illusion or another.  All of the world's roads lead to disappointment, nothingness and death.  Do not look for escape from problems here.  The world was made that problems would have no escape.  Do not be deceived by all the different names its roads are given.....they have only one end.....all of them will lead to death.  On some roads I travel happily for a while, but bleakness eventually enters.  On other roads, thorns are felt at once.  The choice is not what the ending will be, but when.  The ending is always death.

How can there be True choice in the world of dreams where every end is sure?  I might want to try all roads, all "possibilities," but I will eventually learn they are all the same. The roads this world offers seem to be quite large in number, but the time will come for me to begin to see they are all the same.  People have killed themselves on seeing the futility of the world.  Learning the roads lead nowhere, they lost Hope.  Yet this was the time when they could have learned their greatest lesson.  All will eventually reach this point, and all will go beyond it.

Why seek yet another road, another person, or another place when I have learned the way each lesson starts and same way each lesson ends.  Learn now, without despair, there is no Hope of answer in the world.  Do not look for Hope where there is none.  Understand that I waste time unless I go beyond what I have learned to what is yet to learn.  From this lowest point, my learning will lead to heights of Happiness in which I see Heaven Shining Clear and within my grasp.

I would never be willing to turn away from the world's roadways unless I understood their futility.  Learning that the world can offer one choice ~ no matter the millions of different forms ~ is the beginning of accepting that there is a Real alternative instead.  The search for different pathways in the world is the search for different forms of nothing and this is what keeps me from reaching Truth.

Happiness is not found by following a path that leads away from Happiness.  When I find ACIM too difficult, remember that to achieve a goal I must follow in the direction of the goal, not away from it.  I am given specific instruction to Happiness.  There is a choice that I have the Power to make, when I see Real alternatives.

ACIM attempts to teach this:  the Power of decision cannot lie in choosing different forms of the same thing.  I keep choosing illusions, making the same mistake, yet expecting different results.

I am in Heaven dreaming of exile.  No pathway in this dream-world can lead to Happiness.  Roads that lead away from what I am (Son of God), will always lead to confusion and despair.  I am One with the Father and always have been.  I can make a journey away from myself only in dreams.  How foolish and insane it is to think that I could be something I am not, or travel about in a world far away from God.

Forgive myself my madness and forget all my senseless "journeys" and all my useless "goals."  They have no meaning.  I cannot escape from what I am:  God's Son.  There is no path I can take that does not lead to God.  God is merciful.  He did not let His Son abandon Him.  Be thankful.

Self Concept versus Self.    The concept I have of myself is adjusted to the world's "reality."  In keeping with the purpose of the world (separation from God) it fits well.  It is an image that suits a world of shadows and illusions. This is its purpose. I am born into the world without a "self," and I make one as I go along.  By the time I reach "maturity," I have perfected it to meet the world on equal terms, at one with its demands.

In the dream-world, a concept of the "self" is made by me.  It bears no likeness to my Self at all.  It is an idol made to take the place of my Reality as God's Son.  The "self" the world loves serves two purposes:

1. "Innocence."  This face smiles, charms and even seems to "love."  It searches for companions.  It looks at times with pity on suffering and sometimes offers solace.  This "self" believes it is "good" within an "evil" world.  This aspect can grow angry because the world is "wicked" and unable to provide the love and shelter its "innocent" self deserves.  This self is often wet with tears at the injustice in the world to those who are generous and good.  The innocent-self never attacks, but every day there are hundreds of small assaults on its "innocence," provoking it to irritation, insult and abuse. I wear the innocent face proudly and submissively tolerate attack.
2. Victim.  This is the self that ensures my brother is condemned eternally.  The victim seems innocent enough but hides his treachery behind a slight smile of smugness.  For the victim always points an accusing finger, unwavering and deadly in its aim.  It points to me as well, but this is kept deep in the mists below the face of innocence.  In shrouded dark vaults are preserved all my brother's sins and my own.  Preserved not as "errors" which the Light would plainly show, but as "sins," forever unforgivable, condemned eternally to darkness and death.  My brother and I are each the symbol of our "sins" to each other.  I condemn my brother, silently and without ceasing, for the hated thing I believe I am.

Concepts are learned.  They are not natural.  They come from feverish imaginations of "separation" from God, hot with hatred and distortions of fear.  What is a concept but a thought to which its maker gives a meaning of his own?  Concepts make the world go 'round.  They demonstrate the "reality" of the world.  Yet, not one concept is True.

How can the world's "reality" be demonstrated by things of the world?  A concept of the self is meaningless.  All learning of the world has the single aim of teaching me that I am "separated" from God, never seeking to question or go beyond these teachings.

I must find a way to undo this concept of myself if I am ever to have any Peace of mind.  If Creator would instantaneously exchange the world's "self" for my Real Self, I would be confused and terrified.  He does not seek to throw me into a panic, so He merely asks if a little question might be raised.  A little question that may raise doubt in my mind about the "reality" of what I see in the world.

I learned how to be in the world and now the Father will use learning to teach me His Kind and Gentle lessons. His lesson plans are arranged in easy steps, though I may feel lack of ease and distress at times because this is ego's way of fighting back. God will not destroy what I have taught myself.  He will only re-translate my seeming "evidence."  The concept of "self" has always been the world's great preoccupation. Everyone believes he must find the answer to the riddle of himself.

Salvation can be seen as nothing more than escape from the world and my concept of "self."  I cannot be a symbol (the body). There is no symbol or concept that can represent the Reality of what I am.

In suffering of any kind is my own desire to maintain a world of separation and death.  I actually create many "concepts" of myself as my learning goes along.  The concept of my "self" changes in each relationship and every event or situation that happens to me.  Yet, this "change" proves that it is not Real.  My True Reality never changes. 

Allow God to help to loosen the grasp the world's learning has upon my mind.  The role of accuser will appear in many places and in many forms.  Each will seem to be accusing me, but have no fear, it will be undone. 

There will come a time when I let go of all images of the world.  I will understand that I do not know what I am.  It is to this unsealed and open mind that Truth returns.  When every concept has been raised to doubt and question, Truth is Free to enter into a mind clean and free of guilt.  In God's learning is my salvation born. 

Recognizing Spirit.  I either recognize the world I created or I recognize Truth.  There is no compromise between the two.  Only one can be Real.  If one is Real, the other is false.  If I choose Spirit, I will see the world of flesh only to offer healing and comfort.

Salvation is "undoing".  Undoing of the world of illusions and dreams.  If I choose to see the body and all its catastrophes and drama, I will see the world of separation, death, suffering and loss.  Who could have trust where so much change is seen?  Salvation is the undoing of all this.  Salvation does not demand that I behold only Spirit and disregard the body.  It merely recommends that this be my choice.  I am able to perceive the body without help, for I taught myself to.  But I do not know how to see anything apart from the body and the world.  It is my perception of dreams that salvation will undo and it will help me perceive a Reality the body's eyes could never find.  There is no need for me to be concerned about how this will happen; there is no need for me to understand Heaven's work.  Understanding is not my function here.  I do not even understand how I arrived at this point.  If I did,  my "reality" would vanish.  The veil of ignorance is drawn across the world of dreams ~ both evil and good ~ and it must be passed by so that all of it will disappear. The world of perception can have no hiding place.

How is this done?  It is not "done" at all.  All of God's Creation is Complete.  What could there be that must still be "done?"  The means are given me to see a happy "world" that will replace the one I made.  No concept of my "self" will stand against the Truth of what I am.  Undoing Truth is impossible, but undoing or changing concepts is not difficult.

What do I choose? 

Am I a body?  If I am a body then the world will be perceived as treacherous and murderous.  There will always be something or someone waiting to devour "life" ~ meteors from out of the sky, volcanic eruptions, tsunamis, serial killers, adulterers, etc.

Am I Spirit?  If so, I am invulnerable and the world of dreams is harmless in my sight.   I forgive and the world in return is forgiving.  I am deathless and without corruption or sin. Even the world of dreams is a happy place, stable and worthy of my trust; a gentle place to rest for a while, where nothing is feared, only Loved.  Who is unwelcome to the Wholly Kind?  What could hurt the Innocent?

The Will of God is done.  The Father and Son are One.  The Son's will is the same as the Father's.  The Son's will is done.  My will is done.  Thy will be done, Holy Child of God.  It does not matter if I think I am in Heaven or on earth.  What my Father wills, Is So. The Truth in me remains as Radiant as a star, as Pure as Light, as Innocent as Love Itself.

My will be done!

The Savior's Vision.  Learning is change.  Learning is only needed in a world of dreams.  Reality does not change, but salvation does not seek to use anything too alien to my thinking, nor make the kinds of change I would not be able to recognize. Concepts are needed while perception lasts and changing concepts is salvation's task. Truth has no opposite and does not change, but salvation must deal in contrasts. In the world of dreams, the "guilty" are "bad" and the "good" are "innocent." My brother and I have the capacity for both "good" and "evil," so trust is impossible.  I cannot even trust myself while I perceive there is "bad" in me.

As long as I see value of any sort in judgment and attack, I will not recognize my own "evil/bad/negative" thoughts.  I perceive them sometimes and they have great significance for me.  They come in a fearful form ~ content still hidden ~ and shake my sorry concept of myself and blacken it with yet another "crime."  Heaven must tell me of my Innocence, because I am too confused about myself.  Should it dawn on me that even one brother is wholly worthy of forgiveness, my concept of myself is wholly changed.  As I give my trust to what is good in him, I give it to what is good in me.

The actions of the body are perceived as coming from the inferior part of my brother and I.  But, by focusing on the Good in him, the body grows decreasingly persistent in my sight, and with continued practice will be seen as little more than just a shadow.  This will also be my own self-concept when I have reached the Real World (the world forgiven and blessed; the state of the world before the Father takes the last step in bringing me Home).

Have faith in the brother who walks with me, so that my own fearful self-concept may change.  As I look upon the Good in my brother, I will not be frightened by my own "evil/bad/negative" thoughts because they do not cloud my view of him.  All this shift requires is that I be willing that this Happy change occur.  When I look upon my brother, I see the mirror of myself in him.  In this single vision will I see the face of Christ.

What is temptation except the wish to stay in hell and misery?  What could this give rise to but an image of myself that is miserable and tormented?  Everyone I meet or look upon are Holy ones in whom God placed my salvation. I may not know them; some I saw an instant then forgot; some I have known a long time; others I have yet to meet.  God placed my salvation in everyone and everything.

Whatever form temptation seems to take, it always reflects a desire to be other than God's Son.  From that desire a concept rises teaching me that I am the thing I desire to be. It will remain my self-concept until I desire a change. Be vigilant against temptation, think instead upon the thing that I want to be: Innocent and forgiving. In this world I choose illusion or more illusion.  Do not be deceived by what appears to be many choices. The only choice is Heaven or hell. 

The world is dark indeed and it needs Light. Let Heaven give me Its Vision. Some despair because they have hidden the Light from themselves and all they perceive is death.

Choose Once Again.  In all its forms, wherever it occurs, temptation has just one goal:  to persuade God's Son that he is in a world separated from God.

Trials are lessons I failed to learn presented once again.  Where I made a faulty choice before, I can now make a better one and escape pain.  In every difficulty, all distress, all perplexity, Christ calls to me and gently says, "Brother, choose again."  Do not be fearful of temptation, but only see it as a chance to chose again.

I am as God created me ~ His Holy Son ~ and so is every "other being" I look upon, regardless of the images I seem to see.  What I perceive as sickness, pain, weakness, suffering and loss is only the temptation to continue to perceive myself in a world "apart from" God.  Do not yield to it, and pain in every form will disappear.

A miracle has come to heal God's Son and close the door on his dreams of separation, opening the way to salvation and release.  Choose once again.  Every choice I make establishes my identity as the God's Son or an ego/body.  Whichever I choose, I will experience it and believe it is so.

Heaven brings a Vision of a different world to my tired eyes.  A world so new, clean, and fresh that I will forget the pain and sorrow that I saw before.  Be glad that in every situation, in every person in the world of dreams I have a chance to see differently.  The end of hell is near.

Is it possible to fail in what is God's Will?

Amen.

Chapter 30 ~ The New Beginning

It is time to focus on a new beginning.  The goal (salvation) is clear, but now I need specific instructions for attaining it.  It seems like it will take so much time and effort, but the only effort needed is my small willingness.  Creator then adjusts time and space to accomplish His goals.  Be willing to practice every step.  Each one will help a little every time.  Together these steps will lead me from dreams of judgment to dreams of forgiveness, and out of pain and fear.  These steps are not new to me, but in the past they have only been ideas or theories.  Now I need to practice until they are rules to live by......or habits......good habits!.......so I am prepared when the need arises.

Rules for Decision.  I do not always know when I am making a decision, but decisions are continuous.  With a little practice on the ones I recognize,  a group begins to form which carries me through the rest.  Do not let myself become preoccupied with every step I take.  If I find resistance strong and dedication weak, I am not ready.  Do not fight myself.

• Make no decisions by myself.   Do not judge situations where I will be called upon to respond.  If I judge, I set the rules for how to react and the result will be confusion, uncertainty and fear.  My major problem is that I make my decision, then I ask Heaven for help.  Ask first thing each morning that Heaven guide me through the day.  It needs only my willingness, and I indicate my willingness by asking for help.  Plus, it is a good habit to get into; it reminds me that I do not know anything....I thought the world was Real, did I not?  My day is not at random.  It has been set by my choice for illusion or Reality.  Ask Heaven FIRST, then go about my day.
• The day I want, will be given me.  If I make no decisions by myself this day will be given me.  Heaven can direct me without the interference of my fear.  Nothing can be done without some form of union, be it a dream of illusions or the Voice for God.  Unite with Heaven. Let the answers be given to me.  The kind of day I want, is what I offer the world.
• Ask again.  At times I will have already judged and decided for myself.  I will know this because I will feel unsettled or angry, smug or self-satisfied.  Just remember once again the day I want and recognize that something has occurred that is not part of it.  Again, give all decisions over to Heaven.
• I can decide that I do not like how I feel.  If I recognize that I feel unsettled or angry, I can choose again.  At least I recognize this....which paves the way for the next easy step...
• What Heaven gives, I want and need.  If I feel uncomfortable, remind myself of this:  Heaven is not forcing me against my will.  What Heaven gives I want and am asking for.
• Ask to see this another way.  I have recognized that I do not like the way I feel.  Now I can change my mind about the day and remember what I really want. 
• Acknowledge my willingness to be helped.  Recognize that I am willing to be shown.  It is easier to have a happy day if I prevent unhappiness from entering at all.  This takes practice. 

Freedom of Will.  To oppose Heaven is to fight my Self.  Heaven speaks for me and tells me of my will.  In God's Divinity is my own.  He saves my Knowledge for me.  Heaven Itself represents my will, where Everything Created is for me.  Every Thought God has ever had has waited for my blessing to be born.  Every Spark of Life was created with my glad consent.

Knowing who I am ~ Son of God ~ and recognizing that God's Will is my will is my Freedom.  Unless I fulfill my function as God's Son and do my will, I will not be content.  To oppose God is to make a choice against my Self, for God and His Son are One.

It is not my will to hate, judge or attack.  This makes me a prisoner to fear, a slave to death and a little creature with a little life.  The Son of God knows only His Father's Love.  This I will remember when I brush the dark clouds from my eyes.

God made me Co-Creator along with Him.  My forgiveness of the world of illusion and the brothers who seem to be apart from me, is my Holy function in the dream.  Look upon my brother as a friend.  In him is my salvation and in me is his.

Beyond All Idols.  Idols are limits, but my will is All-encompassing and Limitless.  My will has no form and is not content to be expressed in form.  No form will ever bring me Happiness.  By choosing illusions in whatever form, it is as if I am saying, "I have no need of Everything.....I only want this little thing and I will make it everything to me."  Idols/illusions will never satisfy me.  If I choose idols, I ask for loss.  God gives me Everything.  Choose Truth and Everything is mine.

What form can substitute for the Love of the Father and the Son?  It is not form I want. My will cannot be reduced to form.  God's Creation can never be content with small ideas and little things.

Behind the search for every idol lies the yearning for Completion.  Wholeness has no form.  To seek a special person or thing to "complete" me, only indicates I feel lack.  If I feel lack, my mind is sick because the Son of God can suffer no lack. Yet I am dreaming and I believe I am incomplete, for that is what a world of illusions was made to show me.  It was made to separate me from my Wholeness.  No matter what form I desire, form will never complete me.

It is never the form I want.  I want what I think it offers me ~ Completion.  I could never be satisfied with empty forms.  What I will search for and never find in a world of dreams, is my Completion.  I am Whole and Complete only in God.

I do not need to seek for Completion, Completion is what I am.  The thoughts I think are in my mind and I am in the Mind Which thought of me.  There are no separate parts in God's Mind.  It is forever One, Eternally United and at Peace.  I am in Heaven dreaming of exile.

In God is my Reality kept Safe.  I rest in Certainty and Perfect Peace.  I have never left the Mind of my Creator.  There is no Reality outside of God or outside of me.   My One Reality is with my Father.

Truth Behind Illusions.  Nothing will satisfy me in a world of illusions and I will attack what does not satisfy.  I always fight illusions because I do not see that I made them up.  The Truth beyond illusions is so Lovely and so Quiet in Loving Gentleness, if I were Aware of It I would lay down my defenses and rush to Its Embrace.  Truth never attacks nor forces Itself on me.  I have made idols in place of Truth.  I attack only false ideas, never Truthful ones.  All idols are false and I attack them for what they represent (separation).  I created separation and now I attack it.  This sounds insane, but a world apart from God would be insane if it were possible.

The wearying, dissatisfying gods I made are children's toys.  A child is frightened when a figure springs up from a closed box.....or when a soft, silent stuffed bear begins to squeak as the child takes hold of it.  Boxes and bears are not suppose to be scary; the rules have failed and broken the child's control of what surrounds him.  Yet, it is not the boxes and bears that deceived him; they broke no rules nor make his world unsafe and chaotic.

The gap I believe exists between my brother and I, myself and the world, and me and everything around me is filled with toys in countless forms.  Each one seems to break the rules I set for it.  Each form was not the desirous thing I thought it was.  But I am not endangered.  I can laugh at popping heads and squeaking toys, just as the child who learns they are no threat.  Yet while I choose to play with them, I will perceive that they obey certain rules and when they seem to break these rules and frighten me, they represent a threat.

Reality observes the Laws of God, not the rules I set.  It is God's Laws that guarantee my Safety.  Illusions obey no laws.  They seem to dance a little while, according to the rules I set for them, but they eventually always fail.  Idols are only toys, so I will not grieve for them.  Their dancing never brought me Joy, but neither should they frighten me or make me sad.  Neither cherish nor attack them, but merely look at them as children's toys without a single meaning of their own.  See one and I have seen them all.  See nothing in them for they cannot harm me.

Appearances deceive because they are appearances, not Reality.  Do not dwell on them in any form for they only obscure Reality and bring fear because they hide Truth.  Do not attack what it is I made to deceive me.  Attack has the power to make illusions "real" for me.  Yet their "reality" is nothing.  Who could be fearful of nothing?

Look calmly at my toys.  Understand they are only idols which dance to empty desires.  Do not give them another thought, for they are nothing.

Appearances deceive only the mind that wants to be deceived.  I can make a simple choice not to desire whatever I think an idol will give me.  When I declare my freedom from idols, I am Free.  Do not concern myself with how this will happen, because I cannot understand.  Mighty changes can be brought about quickly when I give my small willingness to God

Salvation is a paradox.  Salvation is still within the world of dreams, but it is a happy dream.  It asks that I forgive what no one ever did.  It asks me to overlook what is not there.  I am asking only for God's Will and the will of His Son, which is my own.  I am asked to let myself be Free and look no longer for the things I do not want.  Do not substitute illusions for God's Will.  Illusions will never bring me Happiness.

Substitute forgiveness for fear or any form of fear (hate, greed, sadness, grief, etc).  This is the rule for a Happy dream.

Salvation asks that I sacrifice nothing and only receive Everything. 

The Only Purpose.   The only good purpose for the world of illusions is FORGIVENESS.  The "Real World" is a state of mind with the single purpose of forgiveness.  The value of forgiveness is perceived taking the place of idols.  No demands are made of anyone or anything, only a wish to understand all things as they really are. The world then becomes a place of Hope. No one stands outside this Hope. The world has been united in belief that its purpose is one which all must share for Hope to be more than just a dream.  Forgiveness is not needed in Heaven.  I will remain in dreams until forgiveness is made perfect in me.   Yet I can be certain I will go beyond forgiveness
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There is Hope of Happiness so Sure and Constant I can barely stay and wait a little longer with my feet still touching earth.  Yet I am glad to wait until every hand is joined with mine and every heart made ready.  For in this, am I made ready for the step in which all forgiveness is left behind.  The final step is God's.

There is no need for me to understand anything, for Understanding is Heaven Itself.  The Real World has a purpose still beneath Eternity, but fear is gone because my purpose is forgiveness not idol worship.  In forgiveness is Heaven's Son prepared to be himself and to remember that the Son of God knows everything his Father Knows and understands it Perfectly with Him.

The Real World is a state in which the mind has learned how easily idols disappear when they are still perceived but not desired.  How willingly the mind can let them go when it has understood that idols are nothing, nowhere and purposeless.

Forgiveness is the Real World's purpose.  It replaces my former goal of sin and guilt.  All that stood between my image of myself and the Son of God which I am, is brushed away by forgiveness.  The gap between my brother and I was never there.  What the Son of God knew in Heaven, he knows again.

Perhaps I still look back and see an illusion I desire.  Yet my path has been set away from idols toward Reality.  When I join my brother's hand in forgiveness, I take the hand of Christ.  The face of Christ (my brothers and I forgiven, healed and Whole) must be look upon before the Father is remembered.  The Father is unremembered until His Son has reached beyond forgiveness.

How easy and light is my path when I recognize Whose hand I hold!  I have everything I need to walk with Perfect Confidence away from fear and illusions forever to the Gate of Heaven Itself.  With Heaven I cannot fail.

An ancient hate is passing from the world and with it goes all hatred and fear.  Do not look back, for what lies ahead is all I have ever wanted.  To give up the world is not a sacrifice.  I never wanted it!  All "happiness" brought some kind of pain.  Everything in the world has been bought at the cost of suffering.  Joy has no price, It is my Sacred Right. 

Be merciful to my brother.  In him is my salvation and in me is his.  My forgiveness is what makes that clear to me.

The Justification for Forgiveness.  Anger is never justified.  Attack has no foundation.  Illusions are not Real, so what is there to attack?  Nothing.  It is here that escape from my world of illusions and all its fear begins....and will be made Complete.

I am not asked to forgive anything Real and True.  If illusions and sin were Real then attack would be justified.  But because they are not Real and do not exist, my attack does nothing except confuse me and reinforce the "reality" of illusions.

All attack is a call for Love.  Murder if it were true, would be unpardonable.  If it were possible to end Life, it would be possible to oppose and usurp God.  Life has no end and it is impossible to destroy what God Created.

Forgiveness is the only sane response to something I think is Real but does not actually exist.  Attack is never justified because attack is an unreal response to something or someone that does not exist.

The Real World is achieved when I perceive that the foundation of forgiveness is quite Real and fully justified.  Forgiveness recognized as deserving (and all forgiveness IS) will heal.  I must forgive God's Son entirely.  Look on my brother with the willingness to see him as he is (the Son of God).  Despite what he may "say" or "do," the Son of God in him will recognize the Son of God in me.  God's Son is Perfect.  If I see anything less than Perfection in my brother, I will see the same lack in myself.

I could not make an error that could ever change Truth.  The world of separation and illusions does not exist.  To know this, I am asked to forgive all that I see.

The New Interpretation.  Everything in the world means something different to each brother.  There is no Light here in which things can be clearly seen and understood.  No one agrees on what anything means.  It is part of a distorted script that has no meaning and is forever unintelligible.  This is not communication.  My dark dreams are only the senseless, isolated scripts that I write in my sleep.  Do not look to a world of confusion for meaning. 

Without God nothing has meaning.  And meaning cannot be True if it changes constantly.  Heaven has one purpose for the world of separation, FORGIVENESS.  It is a Holy purpose if undertaken with Heaven as my Guide.  Only this constant purpose can offer stability.  A common purpose is the only means whereby perception can be stabilized.  There is one interpretation of the world and all events here:  to experience a world without God.  No matter what the illusion, what the event or situation, no matter what symbol is before me, communication with Reality can only be established when there is one interpretation of all that I see.  Only then can I communicate with my brother and Heaven and they with me, in symbols all can understand. 

There is One Interpreter ~  Heaven  ~ and through Heaven's use of symbols all are joined.  A common language lets us speak to all our brothers and to understand with them that forgiveness has been given to all of us.  Thus we can communicate again. 

Changeless Reality.  Appearances deceive, shift and change.  Everything in my world will change, yet I still think it Real, hence my "reality" is reduced to form and capable of change. If I fail to see beyond appearances, I am deceived.  Heaven's Reality is Changeless and deceives no one, and its Changelessness is what makes it Real.  Reality must transcend all form to be Itself.  Reality cannot change.

My brother has a Changelessness in him beyond his appearance.  It is obscured by my changing views of him which I perceive as his "reality."  Happy dreams still rely on form, but I am getting closer to the end of time. The Happy dream I have of my brother takes the form of his Perfect health, his Perfect Freedom from all forms of lack, his Perfect Safety from disasters of all kinds.  He is not bound by loss or suffering in any form because form can so easily be changed.  The miracle demonstrates that form was never Real.

Appearances are unreal because they change.  Heaven is Changeless.

What is temptation but a desire to make illusions Real?  Some forms of illusions have a powerful appeal that makes them harder to resist than others.  When I am tempted, I deny Reality and become the willing slave of what I chose in place of Reality.  I would like to accept salvation as long as certain illusions can come with me.  But remember, no matter how enticing the illusion, behind the appearance of form is always death.

The Christ in my brother is Perfect.  Look upon This when I perceive my brother. Let there be no dreams about him that I would prefer to see. Yet do not be guilty and afraid when I am tempted by a dream of what he is. Just do not give it the power to replace the Christ in him. All false appearances will fade when I look only for the Christ in him.  And when I see the Christ in him, I will see myself.

I forgive my brother because he did not hurt me and he could never hurt me; he did nothing to me.  He did nothing that could cause me pain or diminish me in any way.

Chapter 29 ~ Awakening

Closing the Gap.  There is no time, no place, no state of being where God is absent.  I have nothing to fear.  My brother is not my enemy.  There is no way that "separation" is possible in the Wholeness that is God.  The smallest gap would represent a compromise in His Eternal Love.  This is quite impossible.  Could His Love contain a hint of hate? His Gentleness turn into attack? His Eternal Patience fail?  Who could ever trust a god who is unstable and unfair? It is this unstable and unfair god I believe in when I perceive a gap between my brother and myself or a separation between God and myself. 

The fear of God is plainly seen in the apparent separation.  To those who fear, Love is treacherous.  Those who hate are afraid of Love and therefore must be afraid of God; I fear to Love and love to hate and so I think Love is fearful and hate is Love. This is the consequence of the separation.  This is the result of the belief in a little gap between brothers.

The fear of God is the greatest obstacle Peace must flow across.  This one fear remains to block my path and make the way to Light seem dark, fearful, perilous and bleak.  I have decided that my brother is my enemy.  Sometimes he is a friend perhaps, provided that our separate interests make our friendship possible.  But always with a gap between us in case he turns again into an enemy.  A cautious friendship, limited in scope and carefully restricted in amount.  This is the arrangement I made with my brother, in which a plan of "separation" was a point on which we both agreed and violating this was not allowed. 

The gap between us is not one of space between two bodies.  It is only the seeming separation of our minds.  The symbol of a promise to join together when we prefer, and separate until we both decide to meet again.  But it is always possible to go our separate ways on the condition that we can meet from time to time, yet remain apart by intervals of "space" protecting us from the "sacrifice" of Love.  We are given "time" in which to maintain our separate selves which we believe diminish every time we meet.

It is impossible that a "body" separates our minds unless I choose/want/desire it.  My mind gives my body a power that, in and of itself, does not have.  It seems the body determines when we meet and limits my ability to communicate with other minds.  I think it tells me where to go and how to get there; what is reasonable to do and not do.  It seems the body dictates what it can tolerate and what will make it tired or sick.

The body will only do whatever the mind tells it to.  It will allow limited indulgences in "love," with intervals of hatred in between. It will be sick, because in a world of separation I do not know what Wholeness means.  I misuse each circumstance and everyone I meet and see in them only a purpose for further separation.

Love never asks for sacrifice.  Fear asks for sacrifice.  Fear demands the sacrifice of Love, for in Love's Presence, fear and separation do not exist.  For hatred and separation to be maintained, Love must be feared.  Therefore, Love is seen as treacherous and it seems to come and go uncertainly, offering no stability.  I am unable to see how limited and weak is my loyalty to Love and how frequently I have demanded that It go away and leave me quietly alone in "peace."

The body in and of itself is nothing.  It only does what the mind tells it to.  Would I recognize that "nothing" stands between my brother and I?  Will I accept that there is no gap in which I can hide?

There is a wariness in learning that the body is not Real.  There are overtones of fear around the happy message, "God is Love."  There is a shock that comes to those who learn that their enemy-brother is really their savior.

Without the fear of God, what could persuade me to abandon Him?  What toys or trinkets in the world of illusion could hold me back an instant from His Love?  Can I fear losing my "self" in finding God?  Can my "self" really be lost by being found?  What happens when the gap is gone, is Peace Eternal.  Nothing more, nothing less.

The Coming of the Guest.  Why does an easy path, so clearly marked that it is impossible to lose my way, seem thorny, rough and far too difficult for me to follow? The path to God requires no sacrifice and no loss. Until I realize that I give up nothing and understand there is no loss, I will have some doubts about the path to Heaven. I do not see the many gains my choice has given me, yet they are there. I have accepted healing, so it must be that I am healed.  Being healed, the Power to heal must also now be mine.

It is hopeless to find the hope of Peace on a battleground.  It is futile to demand escape from sin and pain of what was made to serve the function of holding onto sin and pain.  Pain, sin, hate, fear, attack, guilt are but one illusion.  When their cause (desire for separation) is gone their effects are gone and Love rushes in to fill the empty space.

Why are am I not rejoicing?  I am are Free of pain, sickness, misery, loss, hatred and attack.  Welcome the effects of Love!

My Guest has come!  I invited Him and He came.  I did not hear Him enter because I only half-heartedly welcomed Him.  Yet He brought Gifts and laid them at my feet.  He asks that I look on His Gifts and take them for my own.  He needs my help in giving them to all who believe they are separate and alone.  All will be healed when I accept the Gifts for myself.

Because of everything I have received, I have much to give.  I cannot see my Guest, but I can perceive the Gifts He brought.  And in seeing the Gifts, I will know His Presence.  For what I can do now, could not be done without the Love and Grace His Presence holds.

The body and the world I have seemingly given "life" are not alive.  They only symbolize my desire to be separate, or "alive" in death.  Confusion follows confusion, for on confusion has the dream-world been founded.  There is no other foundation it rests on.  It does not change, though it seems to be in constant change.  Stability to those who are confused is meaningless.  Shift and change are what make up my "life." The body and the world represent the state of separation, with its apparent shifting and changing.  To "change" is to attain a state unlike the one in which I found myself before.  The body can appear to change with time, sickness, health, and other events that seem to alter it.  Yet this only indicates that the mind remains unchanged in its belief of what the body is for:  a witness to the separation from God. There is no change in Immortality.

Sickness demands that the body be something it is not.  The body does not exist; it is nothing.  Its nothingness guarantees that it cannot be sick.  I demand that the body witness to the separation, yet I make my demands of dust.  It is the mind that is sick.  The mind asks that the Son be limited and weak; that God be less than all He Really Is.  Only in dreams of separation and sickness can the Son and the Father be limited and weak.

I am only dreaming.

God's Witnesses.  The instant I desired to experience separation from my Father and my Self as Son, and divided my Self into many "brother's," God Lovingly gave remedy to my madness.  He placed my salvation in my brother and my brother's salvation in me.  Every brother I encounter offers me opportunity for salvation.  Do not condemn any brother because he thinks he is a body.  The Son of God in him holds my salvation, no matter what he seems to do to the contrary.  Look beyond my brother's dream to his Reality.  His Happiness depends on saving me.  Through me does he remember he is a savior and through him do I remember that I am.  I accept salvation from God, but I must give it to Truly know it is mine. If I had a billion dollars and I kept it under my mattress would I feel like a billionaire? No. I have to go out and spend it and purchase beautiful and desired things, give to charity, help out my relatives and then I realize that yes, I have a lot of money.  Even in this world I can understand this.  First I accept the gift, then I must give to understand that I have it.

Within the dream of bodies and death, is a Spark of Truth where God still Shines.  I cannot Wake myself, but I can let myself be Awakened.  I begin by overlooking my brother's dreams.  So Perfectly can I forgive him his illusions that he becomes my savior from my dreams.  I will see that where stood a brother's body, is God Himself.  Before God's Light, does his body disappear.  Heavy shadows must give way to Light.  Whom I forgive is given Power to forgive me. My gifts given to "others" are given back to me.  In Eternity, giving and receiving are a continuum.

Make way for Love, which I did not create but which I can give.  On earth this means forgive my brother that darkness may be lifted from my mind.  How Holy am I, that God's Son (the part of my brother and I healed and Whole) is my savior in the midst of the dreams of desolation and disaster.  The Light in me is as Bright as the Light in my brother.  This is the Spark of Heaven that still Shines within the dream.  This is the part of me that can help my brother Awaken and allows his Waking eyes to rest on me.  In his glad salvation, I myself am saved!

Dream Roles.  Truth cannot exist in a world of dreams.  Illusions are dreams because they are not true.  My understanding that dreams are dreams, becomes the basis for the miracle.  I cannot keep some dreams and Awaken from others.  The choice is not between which dreams to keep and which to Awaken from.  I am either sleeping or Awake.

I think there are dreams I would like to keep and that some are more compelling than others.  Some seem to be happy dreams, but happiness in dreams is only temporary.  All dreams in the world of separation end in misery or death.  There are no happy endings in the world of illusion.  The dreams I think I would like to keep hold me back as much as those which are fearful.  Every dream is a dream of fear, no matter what form it seems to take.  It can be disguised in a pleasant form, but never is fear absent from the dream.

Depression or assault must be the theme of every dream, for all dreams are fearful.  A thin disguise of pleasure and joy are wrapped only slightly, hiding the heavy lump of fear that is their core.

When I am angry, is it not because someone has failed to the fill the function I gave them?  Does this not become the reason my attack (mental or physical) is justified?  The dreams I think I like are those in which the functions I have given have been filled and my needs seem to be met.

Dreams are not wanted more or less.  They are wholly desired or not at all.  Each dream represents some function that I have assigned; some goal which an event, body, or thing should represent and achieve for me.  If it succeeds, I think I like the dream.  If it fails, I think the dream is sad.  Whether it "succeeds" or "fails" is not its core, but only the flimsy covering. 

My dreams would be happy if I were not the one who gave the "proper" role to every figure in the dream.  My mind is sick and the function I assign to all the figures has been only to witness to the separation.  What is my brother for?  I do not truly know because I believe that I myself am something I am not.  I assign roles to others based on what I imagine would bring me happiness.  I attack (mentally or physically) my brother when he fails to play his part.

Only with Heaven can a "shadow" figure who attacks become a brother giving me a chance to help.  Only with Heaven are dreams of sadness turned to Joy.  My brother asks for help in every encounter and I have help to give him if I walk with Heaven, Which can use all dreams for salvation.  Because God Loves the dreamer ~ not the dream ~ each dream becomes an offering of Love; for  now at its core is God's Love for me, which Lights whatever form It takes.

The Changeless Dwelling Place.  There is a Place within me where the world of separation has been forgotten.  Where no memory of sin or illusion lingers.  There is a Place within me, apart from time, where Echoes of Eternity are heard.  There is a Resting Place where Father and Son are remembered.  The Changelessness of Heaven is in me.  The Quiet Infinity of Endless Peace surrounds me Gently in its Soft Embrace.....so Strong and Tranquil in the Might of Its Creator, nothing can intrude upon the Sacred Son of God within.

I am my Father's Son.  Nothing is asked of me but to accept my Holy function. God placed my salvation in my brother and his in me.  Every thought of Love I offer a brother brings me nearer my Awakening to Eternal Peace and Endless Joy.

The Sacred Son of God in me is a mirror of my Father's Love for me.  The Son of God in me is also in my brother, perceived only through forgiveness.  In my brother does my own Completion lie.

The Father asks that I see in all Creation only the Shining Glory of His Gift to me.  I am His Son in whom the Father shines Forever and to whom is Everything given.

If I only knew the Glory that lies beyond forgiveness, I would not hold any thought of evil/hatred/judgment/envy/pity/sadness.  If God holds my brother worthy, why would I attack him?  Who would lay a bloody hand on Heaven Itself and hope to find Its Peace?  My brother thinks he holds the hand of death.  Do not believe him.  Learn instead how blessed I am who can release him, just by offering my own release.

God gives me a new dream in which my brother is not my enemy but my savior.  A dream is given me in which I have forgiven my brother for all his dreams of death.  I share a new dream of Hope, instead of dreaming separate dreams of hate.

Unless God gives the dream its function, it will only be a dream of hate and will continue in death's services.  Each form the dream takes in some way, always calls for death.  Those who serve death worship in a separated world, each with his tiny spear and rusted sword, vowing to keep his ancient promise to die.  This is the cost of fear in every dream used to witness to the separation. Yet nothing in the world of dreams remains without the hope of change and betterment. Be glad this is so. Do not look for the Eternal in the world of separation.  God gives me forgiving dreams as the means to step aside from dreaming of a world outside myself, leading beyond all dreams unto the Peace of Everlasting Life.

Forgiveness and the End of Time.  How willing am I to forgive my brother?  How much do I want Peace instead of endless strife, misery and pain?  These questions are the same, but in different forms.  I will find lasting Peace only in the forgiveness of my brother.  In forgiveness lies the end of separation, of danger and destruction, of sin and death, of madness and murder, of grief and loss. This is the "sacrifice" salvation asks, yet it is no sacrifice at all to let go of dreams.

What seems Eternal will have an end ~ the stars will disappear; night and day will be no more; the tides, the seasons, the lives of men; all things that change with time, that bloom and fade will not return.  The Eternal knows nothing of time.  Yet for now, time waits upon forgiveness so that the things of time may disappear.  Forgiveness does not change me, it only allows me to brush away the dust and see mine and my brother's Reality.

Nothing in the dream-world survives its purpose.  If its purpose is to die, then it will die, unless it does not take this purpose as its own.  Change in the world of illusion can be a blessing when accomplished with my Creator because it allows me to change my purpose.  In Reality I am in Heaven with my Father and I can do nothing opposed to God's purpose for me.  In dreams I can give myself a purpose that I do not have, but I cannot remove the Power to change my mind and see another purpose.  I was not born to die.  The Son of God cannot change because his function was fixed by God. There is no death. Life's function cannot be to die. Life's function is Extension, that it be as One Forever and Ever, Without End. 

Forgiveness is not aimed at keeping time, but ending time.  With time's purpose (to show me a world separated from God) ended, time is ended.  As God's Holy Son, I cannot die.  Choosing death, I make a bargain that I cannot keep.  The Son of Life cannot be killed. He is as Immortal as his Father. What the Son is, cannot be changed.

The world of illusions will bind my feet and tie my hands and kill my body......only if I allow it to have that purpose.  I do not need to accept this purpose.  I can change my mind about the world's purpose.  How lovely is a world whose purpose is forgiveness! How filled with Blessing and Happiness!  What a Joyous thing it is to dwell a little while in such a Happy place.  It is only a little while now until Timelessness comes Quietly to take the place of time.

Seek Not Outside Myself.  Do not look outside myself for Joy and Happiness.  It will fail.  Heaven cannot be found where It does not exist, and there can be no Peace except in Heaven.  Each illusion I worship in a world of dreams can never give me what only God can give.

All pain comes from a futile search for Heaven insisting that it can be found in a world of dreams.  It is not there.  I insist that Happiness be found among the baubles and glitter of the world.  Do I prefer that I am right, or do I prefer to be Happy?  Be Joyful that I have been told where to find Happiness.  Seek nowhere else for it will fail.  The Truth has been handed to me on a silver platter.  The only thing asked of me is a small willingness.  Everything else is done for me.

All asleep in the world of dreams still have hope, a lingering illusion, or some desire that there is the possibility that the world could still bring Happiness and Peace.  Yet I have been told that Everything is in me and that I am One with Happiness.  If this is so, then Happiness could not be outside me.  Therefore by choosing a world of illusion, I am denying the Truth about myself.  What could I possibly want that could give me more than Everything?  I wander aimlessly among illusions and in separate bodies, searching for something I will never find in the world of dreams.

Any lingering desire for illusion will compel me to seek out a thousand idols, and to seek beyond them for a thousand more.  All will fail me.  Whenever I attempt to reach a goal in which the body's comfort is cast as priority, I am asking for death.  For by seeking, I indicate that I lack, and "lack" is death. Do not look outside myself. The very search implies I am not Whole within.

Idols must always fail because they have no Life.  What is Lifeless is a sign of death.  I choose the dream-world to be alone and separate from God and from my Self.  I came to die, so what would I expect to see except the death I look for?

The purpose I gave the world of illusion was separation and death.  That was the past. Forget this purpose, otherwise the future will be like the past ~ a series of depressing dreams with death and disappointment everywhere.  To change all this, let Heaven give the world a new purpose for me.  Let It give "time" and the "body" a new purpose.

Salvation seeks to prove that there is no death and only Life exists.  Do not drown out God's Voice in moans of deep despair to idols of death.

My Holy mind is an Altar to God.  God dwells within me.  My completion lies in Him.  Do not seek outside myself.

The Anti-Christ.   Idols are never seen for what they really are.  Their purpose is obscure be it a body, a thing, a place, a situation or circumstance, an object owned or desired, a right demanded or achieved.  Do not let form deceive me.  Idols are only substitutes for my Reality with God. In the world of separation, I believe they will complete my little self; I believe they will give me safety in a world perceived as dangerous.  Idols seem to have the power to supply my lack and add a value that I think I do not have.  Enslaving myself to littleness and loss, I therefore seek beyond my little self for strength to withstand all the misery.

Idols are the anti-Christ.  My brothers and I healed and Unified are the Christ.  So a world of "form" made to separate myself from God and my Self, is the anti-Christ. An idol is a desire, made tangible and given form, then perceived as real and seen "outside" the mind.  Yet it is still a thought and thoughts never leave their source. 

All forms of anti-Christ oppose the Christ (the healing and Union of the Son).  All forms of anti-Christ create a dark veil that seem to keep me alone and in darkness.  Yet the Light is in me.  A cloud does not extinguish the sun.  Nor can a veil hide the Son from himself.

The world of idols is a veil across the face of Christ because its purpose is to separate my brother from myself.  But what is an idol?  Nothing!  Where is an idol?  Nowhere!  Christ's enemy is nowhere and can take no form in which it will ever be Real.

The miracle does not restore Truth, it merely lifts the veil and lets Truth shine unencumbered. 

An idol of any kind is the anti-Christ ~ the strange idea that there is a power stronger than Omnipotence, a place beyond Infinity, or a time transcending Eternal.  Here the world of idols is set by the idea that this power, place, and time are given form and the impossible has happened.  Here the Deathless come to die, the Whole to suffer loss, and the Timeless made slaves to time.  Here does the Changeless change, the Peace of God give way to chaos, and the Son of God ~ Perfect, Innocent and as Loving as his Father ~ comes a little while to hate, suffer pain and finally die.

I can never have more than Everything and God gives me Everything.  God has One Son, not many.  Every Living thing is a part of me as It is a part of God. I am the Son of God. I will never be content with anything less. Do not wander the world in discontent. Give Heaven my small willingness.

The Forgiving Dream.  A dream of judgment came into the mind that God Created Perfect just like Himself.  In that dream was Heaven changed to hell and God made an enemy to His Son.  How can I Awaken from such a dream?  It is a dream of judgment, so to Awaken I must not judge.  In judgment I make myself a part of evil dreams where idols become my identity and comfort: the comfortless comforters.

All figures in the dream are idols made to keep the dream alive and terrible. He who judges will not escape the penalty he laid on another. In the dream of judgment, I am attacked and condemned. There can be no salvation in dreams as I am dreaming them.  But the Light is there.  Be Joyful I am only dreaming.  Idols are the toys I play with. Who has need of toys except children?  In their games they pretend to rule the world; they give their toys the power to move about, to talk, think and feel.  Yet everything their toys appear to do is in the mind of those who play with them.  They are willing to forget that they made up the dream in order to play.

Nightmares are childish dreams.  In nightmares, the toys have turned against the child, but can a dream attack? Can a toy grow large, dangerous, fierce and wild?  The child believes it can.  He fears his own thoughts and gives them to the toys instead, and their reality becomes his own because they seem to save him from his thoughts.  Yet they only keep his thoughts alive but seemingly outside himself, where they can turn against him.  He thinks he needs his toys to escape his thoughts, because he thinks the thoughts are real.

It is time for childhood to be over.  Do not keep the toys of childhood.  Put them away, I no longer need them.  The dream of judgment is a child's game, in which the child plays the all-powerful creator only with the wisdom of a little child.  If something hurts him, he desires its destruction.  If something helps him, it is blessed.  Yet does a child know the difference between what will hurt him and what is good for him?

The Real World (the world of illusion forgiven; the last step before God takes the final step) is still a dream.  Even forgiving dreams have little need to last, yet in forgiving dreams a Melody is heard that I remember, though I have not heard it since before time began.  Forgiveness, once complete, brings Timelessness so close, the Song of Heaven can be heard ~ not with the ears (which hear nothing) but with the Holiness that abides forever deep within God's Son.  When I hear this Song again, I will know that there was never a time when I was unable to hear It.  Where is time when dreams of judgment have been put away?

Unless I feel Deep Contentment, it is fear that I feel and I can be sure I am investing in idols.  Forgiving dreams remind me that I live in Safety.  Let my childish errors melt away, and let my dreams become a sign that I have made a new beginning.  Forgiving dreams are kind to everyone who figures in the dream, and they bring the dreamer full release from dreams of fear. 

Chapter 28 ~ Undoing Fear

The Present Memory.  The miracle adds nothing, it merely takes away, and what it takes away is long since gone. This world was over long ago. The thoughts that made it are no longer in the mind that thought of them and desired them for awhile. The miracle shows that the past is gone, and what has Truly gone has no effects.

Why would I cling to a memory if I did not desire its effects?  A memory is a perception of the past as if it were occurring now.  Memory, like perception, is a skill made up by me to take the place of Heaven.  Like all things I made, it can be used to serve another purpose.  It can be used to heal and not to hurt.  With Heaven it is my desire....my wish....my choice....to make it so.

Heaven can make use of memory for God Himself is there. I am accustomed to believing that memory holds only the past, so it is hard for me to realize it is a skill that can remember now ~ the things of Heaven I have hidden from my Awareness. God's use of memory is quite apart from time.  He does not use it to retain the past, but as a way to let the past go.  Like the body, memory has no purpose in and of itself. If it seems to treasure ancient hate and give pictures of saved injustice and hurts, this is what I asked its message be....and so it is.  Committed to its vaults, the history of all the body's past is hidden in my memory.  All of the strange associations made to keep the past alive (and the present dead) are stored in it, waiting my command that they be  brought to me and lived over again.  Their effects appear to increase with time. Yet "time" is another phase of what does nothing in and of itself. Time works hand in hand with all the other attributes I choose, to hide the Truth about myself, reinforcing my seeming separation from God.  I make strange use of time in which the past seems to cause the present.

Remember nothing I have taught myself; I was badly taught.  Do not keep a senseless lesson in my mind when I can learn a better one.  When ancient memories of hate/fear/sadness/despair appear, remember that their cause (my sick mind) is gone, so I can no longer understand them.  Be glad the past is gone.  See instead, the new effects of a cause (a healed mind).  It will surprise me with its Loveliness. The ancient new ideas it brings will be the happy consequence of a Cause so Ancient that it exceeds the span of my memory.

Truth has remembered the Ultimate Cause (God) for me.  The miracle reminds me of a Cause Forever Present, Changeless and Perfect.  I am Its effect, as Changeless and Perfect as Itself.

There was no time in which God's Son could be condemned.  My Innocence has not been lost.  I need no healing to be healed.  Allow Cause (God) to have Its Own effects (me/His Son) and do nothing that would interfere.

The miracle comes quietly into the mind that stops an instant and is still.  It reaches gently from the mind it healed, in quiet then, to other minds to share its quietness.  All will join in doing nothing to prevent its Radiant extension back into the Mind Which Caused all minds to be.

In the Quiet, Holy Instant my Memory of God is allowed to offer all its Treasures to His Son.  How instantly the Memory of God arises in the mind that has no fear/hate/sadness/impatience/grief/misery (everything not Love is fear!) to keep His Memory away!  The Trumpets of Eternity resound throughout the Stillness without disturbing It.  The Cause of All That Is, is remembered.

The world of illusion does not exist.  Everything done in the world of illusion was not done at all!  It has no cause (because God did not Create it), therefore has no effects.  The Son has done nothing which could ever upset the Father.

What better way to close the little gap between illusion and Reality, than to allow the Memory of God to flow gently across it, bridging the gap for an instant, while the Father carries His Son Home.  The Father never abandoned His Son.  He created a bridge the instant the Son seemed to sail to another shore.

Reversing Effect and Cause.  Without cause there are no effects, without effects, there is no cause.  The cause is made by its effects.  The Father is a Father by His Son.  Effects do not create their cause, but they establish its causation.  The Son gives Fatherhood to his Creator.  Because I am God's Son, I must also be a father, who creates as God created me.  The Circle of Creation has no end.  In Itself It holds the Universe of All Creation without beginning and without end.

Fatherhood is Creation.  Love must be extended.  My healing will come about when my mind recognizes that it is not contained within a body because there is no body.  In the world of separation has the Son attempted to make himself his own cause (I have seemingly created a world apart from God).  A mind within a body within a world of other bodies, each with separate minds.....these are my mis-creations and as their "father" I must be like them.  In other words, I have created a world seemingly separated from God having attributes unlike God, therefore "I" would be unlike myself as His Son ("ego").

Nothing at all has really happened.  Only that I have put myself to sleep.  I dreamed a dream in which I was something other than the Son of God.  The miracle does not Awaken me, it only reminds me that I am the dreamer.   It teaches me that while I sleep I can dream a different dream ~ a happy dream ~ a dream of healing....not sickness and death.  A dream is like a memory in that it shows me pictures of what I want to see (a world without God).

I have caused the dream.  I can accept a different dream as well, but I must realize that I am the dreamer.  In dreams of murder and attack, I am the victim in a dying body; but I am also the attacker.  If I choose a forgiving dream, no one has to be victim and no one has to be attacker.  These are the happy dreams the miracle exchanges for my fearful dreams.

Why must I dream a happy dream, instead of just waking to Heaven?  I have taught myself to be in a world without God and being His Son, I have all the Power of God.  Having all the Power of God in my miscreation, yet being a dream or fantasy, I blind myself to my Sonship.  Like a good father, God would never shake me suddenly from a nightmare "wake up! wake up!".  He would know I am dreaming and would not frighten me.  He would not oppose the dream (being my free will), yet neither would He abandon me to fear and misery.  I can be miserable if I want to, yet He makes me Aware that I have options. 

I caused the dream but it can never give me Real effects because it is unlike Heaven and "apart from" the Father. Only Heaven/Peace/Joy/Happiness/Wholenss can be Real.  The dreamer of the dream is not Awake, yet I do not know that I sleep.  I see illusions of myself as sick or well, depressed or Happy, but without a stable cause or guaranteed effects.

I am not afraid of illusions when I perceive I made them up.  I am the author of the dream, not a figure in the dream.  I give myself the consequences I dreamed I gave my brother.  I fear attack, but I see it done by another.  I am both victim and victimizer.  I am both actor and director.  I am the set-builder and the set.  I am the scenery and all the actors in the play.

I thought I hated my Creator and that the figures in the dream have hated and plotted against me.  Effect and Cause have first been split off, then reversed, so effects (the happenings in the world) seemed to become cause (they happen to me), and cause (I who seemed to create a world without God) becomes the effect (I seem to be at the mercy of the world and its events).  This is the separation's final step.  Therefore my salvation starts here, but it goes in the opposite direction.

In forgiving dreams the effects of my world are undone and hated enemies are perceived as friends with merciful intent.  I accept the role as maker of their hate and I see that the hate has no effects and has not harmed me in any way.  Free myself from being a victim of the world to being the dreamer of the world, and the world becomes a neutral place.  The bodies that still seem to move about as separate beings do not need to be feared, they are my brothers .

The miracle returns the cause of fear to I who made it.  The mind made sickness and used the body to be victim.  Yet I have learned only half the lesson here and render the miracle useless if I value only physical healing.  For this is not the lesson it was sent to teach.  The lesson is:  the mind is sick. The mind seemingly created a world outside itself, causing the mind to feel guilty...."boy I will really be in trouble when God finds out I created a world without Him"......and this guilt was projected outward, making different scenarios ~ sickness, death, mayhem, explosions, tsunamis, adultery, murder, deformities....all things that could be possible in a world without God.  The things going on in my mind are just that:  in my mind.  Nothing is happening to anyone.  There are no effects, no consequences.  This is God's Gentle way of Waking me ~ offering words of comfort and asking me to accept Happiness instead.

This world is full of miracles.  Miracles are not needed in Heaven, but sorely needed for a sick mind in a sick world.  They stand in shining silence next to every dream of pain, suffering, sin and guilt.  Miracles are the alternative to dreams of fear.  They are the glad effects of my Awareness as the dreamer.  The body is released because the mind acknowledges, "I am doing this to myself." 

The mind is now Free to make another choice instead.  Beginning here, salvation will proceed to change the course of every step I made in the descent to separation, until all steps have been retraced, the ladder gone and all the dreaming of the world undone.

The Agreement to Join.  What waits in Perfect Certainty beyond salvation (Heaven) is not my concern. I have barely started my first uncertain steps up the ladder.  Forgiveness alone is my concern at present.  Here is where I must begin.  Having started, the way will be made Serene and Simple.  When I accept a miracle, the dream of fear fades away without any other help from me, only my acceptance.  Healing is the effect of minds that join the Oneness.  Sickness comes from minds that separate.  The end of dreaming is the end of fear.  Love was never present in the world of dreams and the body was never the source of pain.  The source of all pain, is the seeming separation from my Father.

God builds a bridge in the space left vacant by the miracle.  Give up thoughts of sickness, shame, guilt, hatred, sadness, grief and loneliness.  God will never oppose or destroy the thoughts I have created.  He waits for me to lay my dreams aside.  Leave an empty space in my mind.....and God will fill it. 

What is the dream-world except an attempt to tear Eternity apart breaking it into days, months and years?  What am I who live within the world except a picture of God's Son in broken pieces?

Let my world be illuminated by miracles.  Forgiveness lies within the dream of healing and gently shows me that I never sinned. The door to the feast is open.  This is a feast unlike anything the dreaming world has shown.  For here, the more anyone receives, the more is left for all the rest to share.  No one is deprive or can deprive.  Here is a feast the Father lays before His Son and shares it equally with him.  Love has set Its table in the clear, open space forgiveness has left in my mind.

The Greater Joining.  Accepting the Atonement (the undoing of the separation through forgiveness) withdraws support for the dream of sickness and death.  There is a way of finding Certainty right here and now:  refuse to be a part of fearful dreams whatever form they take.  I am the dreamer of the dream; the dream being only an illusion in my mind.  I am not yet wholly Sane and cannot tell the difference between what is Real and what is illusion.  Like me, my brother thinks he is in the world.  Do not share his illusion of himself.  My identity depends on his Reality. Think of him only as a mind which is One with me, yet one in which illusions still persist.  Between our minds there is no gap.  Do not join in his illusions or I will accept them for myself.  Be certain if I do my part, he will do his.  I need convince my brother of nothing.  I need not evangelize or point to his errors.  I will just do my part. The Son in him will recognize the Son in me.

Identity in dreams is meaningless because the dream and the dreamer are one.  I share this confusion with my brother.  No stable self exists in the world of separation. My brother's dreams are mine.  My dreams witness a world of separation to him and his dreams witness the same to me.  Yet if I see there is no Truth in mine, his dreams will go away.  The Son of God in both of us will recognize himself.  The apparent gap between our bodies is meaningless, for what is joined in the Father is One.

Heaven's function is to take the broken picture of God's Son and put the pieces back in place.  It holds out this Holy and healed picture to every separate piece that thinks it is a picture within itself. To each, Heaven offers this Identity.  When a brother sees this picture, he will recognize himself.  The forms (bodies) the broken pieces seem to take mean nothing.  The Whole is in each seemingly separated piece.  Every aspect of God's Son is just the same as every other part.

Do not join my brother's dreams, but join in Sonship with him.  The seeds of sickness come from the belief that there is Joy in separation. I may feel that giving up the world of separation would be a "sacrifice."  How wrong I am.  Will I seek for a substitute of Heaven, when I realize Heaven is all around me?  What God has given can never be lost.  What is not of God has no effects.

Miracles are the result of perceiving no separation.  My willingness to let illusions go is all Heaven requires.  It will place the seeds of healing in place of the seeds of sickness;  "....when it is sown, it grows up, and becomes greater than all the herbs, and puts out great branches, so that the birds of the sky can lodge under its shadow.....Mark 4:32."

There will be no loss, but only gain.

The Alternative to the Dreams of Fear.  What is sickness except a limitation?  Sickness is literally splitting off and separation from, if only in dreams.  In sharing with my brother my dreams of fear ~ hate, malice, bitterness, death, sin, suffering, pain and loss ~ it makes dreams "real" for me.  Unshared, dreams are perceived as meaningless.  The fear is gone because I did not lend them support.  And where fear has gone there Love must come. Where one appears, the other disappears.
I share no evil dreams if I forgive the dreamer (myself) and perceive that he is not the dream he made.  Forgiveness makes fearful dreams disappears, releasing my brother and I.  Whatever I think I might be doing in the world, I am only attacking myself.  My brother seems to be my enemy and I will attack him because there is no Love in the world of illusion.  I am either my Self or I am an illusion; there is no middle ground.  The dream-world cannot be Truth.

The world was established for me to be "separate from" God, so it is a world that is not Real and not possible; it is a world that is sick and insane. The body's eyes seem to perceive this world, but if bodies are not real, then the sights and sounds a body perceives are meaningless.  The body cannot see or hear. Its eyes are blind and its ears are deaf; it cannot think and it has no effects.

My "eyes" look on a dream; my ears hear only illusion.  My eyes and ears were made to look on a world that is not there; to hear voices that can make no sound.  Eyes and ears are senses with no sense.  It is not they that hear and see, but I who put together the script and make the world witness to what I want.

Yet there are other sounds and other sights that can be seen, heard and understood.  Just as in moments of meditation, where I teach myself to empty my mind and quiet the chatter of the world, Heaven asks me to empty my mind of illusion to make a space for Love.  Not just 10 or 15 minutes of meditation but a life lived in a meditative state so that the Memory of Heaven can enter.

There are no fearful mysteries, no awesome secrets, no darkened tombs where terror rises from the bones of death.  The world I see does not exist. There are not many bodies, but One Son.

The Secret Vows.  Whoever punishes the body is insane.  The body is nothing and does not exist.  The body neither sees, nor hears; it does not feel pain.  It has no feeling.  It is not born and does not die.  It behaves only as the mind directs it to. It can only follow aimlessly on the path which the mind set for it.  If that path is changed, it walks just as easily another way.  In a world of illusion I send the mind forth to seek for signs of separation from God, then I hate it for showing me what I asked.  I hate its frailty and littleness.  It sees and acts out all of my fantasies of separation, directed only by my mind.

The body represents the gap between the little bit that is "me" and all the rest of my Self.  I hate it, yet in my dreams I think it is myself and that without it I would be lost.

This is the secret vow that I have made with every brother who walks apart from me.  It is the secret oath that I take again and again, each second, minute, hour and day that I choose illusion over Reality.  Choosing illusion is a choice to continue in the world of separation and sickness.  It is a promise to my brother that I will attack and hurt him, and he will attack and hurt me.

Sickness is anger taken out on the body, so that the body will suffer pain.  It is the effect of the choice made on behalf of the separation.  Do not share this promise to be sick.  Let my mind be healed and Unified.  Illusions are powerless.  Only what God Wills is Real.

The Ark of Safety.  God asks for nothing.  As His Son I need ask for nothing, for God gives me Everything.  Only in dreams could I want for anything.  If I deny myself the Wholeness of God's Kingdom, I am sick.  There is no middle ground in any aspect of salvation.  I accept it entirely or not at all.  Either there is a gap between my brother and I, or we are One.  There is no "in between." Healing is Complete or not at all.

I have built my home on a foundation of sand and count on it to keep me safe from the tides.  The body is a home like this because it lacks foundation in Truth.  Do not think of a body as my home, but merely an aid to help my sick mind reach my True Home.  With this as its purpose, the body is healed.  Do not use the body to witness to the dream of separation and disease. Let it serve to help heal God's Son, for this purpose it cannot be sick.  All miracles are based on the choice for healing and they are given me the instant the choice is made.  No forms of sickness are immune from this healing, because form does not matter.  I am either sick or I am well.

The world is the dream that I can be alone and have private thoughts that affect no one but myself.  If I perceive that I am alone, it means I am keeping the promise to be faithful to the separation.  This is essentially faithlessness in God and Heaven. God is Wholeness and Health.  If I am apart from God, I am sick.  The foundation of my faith in the separation is like the house built on sand.  If this is what I want to put my faith in, there is no need to secure the door and windows.  When the rain comes it will carry my house into oblivion.  What is the sense in looking to be safe in what was made for danger and fear?  Would I build my house on what will collapse beneath a feather's weight?

My home must be built on my brother's health and well-being.  God placed my salvation in my brother and his in me.  The winds will blow and the rain will fall with no effect.  The dream-world will wash away, yet God's House will stand forever.  It is an Ark of Safety resting on God's Promise that His Son is Safe in Him Forever.