Chapter 26 ~ The Transition

The "Sacrifice" of Oneness.  Sacrifice is a key idea in the world of separation.  Somebody must lose.  In the dream-world the focus is on the body, which is itself a sacrifice because it imposes a seeming limitation on the Son of God.  To see a brother as a body is a wish to see only a little false part of him, sacrificing the rest.  Truly look at the dream-world and I will see nothing attached to anything.  All seeming entities can come a little nearer or go off a little farther....but can never join.

The dream-world is the "sacrifice" of Oneness; a picture of complete disunity and total lack of joining.  Around each entity is built a wall (the body) so seemingly solid that it appears as if what is inside could never reach outside.  Each body sacrifices part of itself to another to keep itself complete.  If bodies Truly joined, each one would lose its own identity.  By their separation, are their "selves" maintained.

The small part a body fences off becomes the "self." The body seems to be of utmost importance, so to lose the body would indeed be a great sacrifice.  What kind of witness to the Wholeness of God's Son is seen within a world of separate bodies?  God's Son is invisible in such a world. His song of Union and Love cannot be heard.  Yet, God gives me the means to make the dream-world recede and Vision replace the body's eyes.

With God, the dream-world will become a treasure house as rich and limitless as Heaven Itself.  There will be no instant in which my brother's Holiness cannot be seen.  Vision can add a Limitless supply to every meager scrap and tiny crumb of Happiness that I allow myself.  I can lose sight of Oneness, but I cannot sacrifice Its Reality.  Hear the song of salvation that my brother sings to me and let the world of separation recede.

Each time I judge a brother, each time I see "sin," I sacrifice my Innocence and Happiness along with his.  Yet every instant I can be reborn and be given Life.  God's Son is not imprisoned in a body, nor is he sacrificed to "sin."  As the Son of God is in Heaven so must he be Eternally, born again each instant, untouched by "time," far beyond any idea of sacrifice.

God's Justice rests in Gentleness upon His Son and keeps him Safe from all injustice the dream-world would lay on him.  Do not condemn him by seeing him within the rotting prison of a body.  It is my special function (forgiveness) to ensure the door to salvation be opened to him.  Love's special function is to release the Son of God from his dream of imprisonment. 

Many Forms, One Correction.   God offers me release from every problem I think I have.  Problems can and do appear in many forms. Every "specific" problem is the same to God.  Problems in any form have one correction.  Forms do not matter. Problems will recur again and again, until they have been answered for all time.  I have no problems, I only think I have.  Yet I could not think so if I saw them simply vanish one by one.  The limits I have imposed on myself cannot limit God in any way.

There is only one problem:  my apparent separation from God.

The idea that loss is possible and this loss could result in gain for anyone would mean God is unfair, "sin" would be possible, attack justified, and vengeance reasonable.  But there is no loss.  Because I think I have think I have problems, God starts there.

God does not evaluate "sin" as great or small, more or less.  Sin has no properties to Him.  They are just mistakes, ones in which the Son of God suffers needlessly.  So God takes the thorns from my head and the nails from my hands and feet. He does not pause to judge whether the injury is large or small. He makes one judgment:  It is impossible to hurt God's Son and therefore, it is not so.  If God is Just, there can be no problems that Justice cannot solve. 

I believe some injustices are fair, good and necessary.  There are those brothers I want to suffer loss and there is no one I wish to be preserved from sacrifice entirely.

Consider my function once again:  forgiveness.  I am asked to see my brother in Perfect Sinlessness.  I can ask no sacrifice of him because in forgiveness, I could not wish him to suffer any loss.  What I call forth for my brother, will rest as surely on me.  How great is my release when I am willing to receive correction for all my problems.  I do not want pain in any form, so keep no problems to myself.  Each time I keep a problem to myself, try to solve it on my own or determine that it has no resolution, I have made it important (in my mind) and past the hope of healing (only in dreams).  Yet, give all problems to God and I can watch as each little hurt is resolved before His Gentle Sight.  For all problems are little in His Sight.  What seems to be a "special" problem, an error without remedy or an affliction without a cure, are all transformed into a Universal Blessing.

God cannot be unjust to anyone or anything because He knows that Everything belongs to Him and what belongs to Him, He Loves.

My function of forgiveness opens the door to the Memory of God's Love...kept Perfectly Intact and Undefiled.  All I need do is desire Heaven instead of hell, then every bolt and barrier that seems to hold the door barred shut and locked will merely fall away and disappear.

The world forgiven.  Complexity is not of God.  How could it be when all He knows is Oneness:  One Creation, One Reality, One Truth, One Son.  Where is the complexity?  What is there to decide?  It is only conflict that makes choice possible.  The Truth, however, is Simple.  Truth is One, without an opposite.  Truth makes no decisions, for there is nothing to decide between.  What is Everything, leaves room for nothing else.

There is a borderline of thought apart from time, that stands between the world of separation and Heaven.  It is a place of thought where conflicting values meet and all illusion is laid down beside Truth where it is judged to be untrue.  This borderland is not Heaven, yet every thought here is made Pure and Simple.  Sin is denied and Everything That Is, received instead.  This is the journey's end.  In the forgiven-world, Knowledge and perception are brought together and only Knowledge continues past the gate where Oneness abides.  Salvation is a borderland where place, time and choice still have meaning.  Yet it will be apparent that they are temporary, out of place, and every choice possible has already been made.

Nothing the Son of God believes can be destroyed, not even his world of illusion.  But illusion must be brought to the last comparison the Son of God will ever make; the last evaluation possible and the final judgment on his world.

It is the judgment of Truth on illusion, of Knowledge on perception, and the judgment is this:  illusion has no meaning, and does not exist.  It is a simple statement of a simple fact.  Salvation stops just short of Heaven, for only a world of perception and illusion needs salvation. In the forgiven world choosing is simplified.  The Atonement's only purpose is to teach what is Real and what is illusion, and in the world forgiven and healed I make the only choice that can be made.  In this one choice, is choice itself no longer possible.

There is no foundation for choice in the dream-world.  For no one understands what is Real and what is illusion.  One seems to choose where there is no real choice.  In the world forgiven there is no alternative for choice.  Choice is an illusion.  Yet with this last illusion, is the undoing of every illusion.

No sacrifice is possible in giving up illusion.  Can it be hard to give up what was never true and choose only what is True?

 Heaven was never lost to me.

Where Sin Has Left.  In the world of separation, forgiveness is the equivalent of Heaven's Justice.  It translates the world of "sin" into a simple world, where Justice can be reflected.

I have no need to forgive unless I believe in "sin" and believe I am a "sinner."  Forgiveness becomes the means by which I learn I have done nothing that requires forgiveness.  Forgiveness always graces the one who offers it.  Forgiveness turns the world of sin into a world of Glory, wonderful to see.  Each flower shines in Light and every bird sings the Joy of Heaven.  There is no sorrow or loss.  Nothing stands between my brother and I;  nothing stands between the Son and His Father.  No Soul is lost and no Son cherished more than any other.

What is Heaven but a Song of Gratitude, Love and Praise by Everything Created to the Creator? 

What but a miracle can teach me that What I feared, I Love most?

The Little Hindrance.  Heaven has no need of learning, but the world of separation was learned, and I continue to teach it to myself every moment until I begin to learn with Love and Truth.  All learning is a help or hindrance to salvation.  There are two teachers (ego or God) who point in different ways.  I will follow the teacher I choose.  While time remains and choice is still meaningful, there are only two directions I can take.   I choose to go toward Heaven or I choose a road to nowhere.  There is nothing else to choose.

Nothing is ever lost except for time, which in the end is meaningless.  Yet since I believe in time, why should I waste it going nowhere?  Time can be used to reach the highest goal possible in learning.  The way to Heaven is Simple.  Nothing I undertake with Certain purpose, Happy confidence and holding my brother's hand is difficult to do.  But it is hard indeed to wander off alone and miserable down a road that leads to nothing and has no purpose.

Time has no effect on Eternity.  In fact, time is over.  The tiny instant of time, in which the first mistake was made (and all of those that followed), also held the Correction.  What God gave Answer to is Answered....and gone.  But because I believe in time and do not know that it is over, Truth still guides me through the small, senseless maze I perceive of time, though it is long since gone.  I live in but a long-gone past.  Each thing I look upon I saw only for an instant, long ago, before its unreality gave way to Truth.  Not one illusion remains uncorrected in my mind.  Uncertainty was brought to Certainty so long ago that it is hard indeed to maintain my world of separation as if it were still before my eyes.

The tiny instant I would keep and make eternal, passed away long ago in Heaven, too soon for anything to notice it had occurred. Only in the "past," an ancient past, did the world of separation appear to be my reality, so very long ago in a tiny interval of "time" that not one note in Heaven's Song was missed.

Yet, in each unforgiving act or thought, in every judgment, in all belief in sin....is that one instant still called back, as if it could be made again in time. It is just an ancient memory I keep before my eyes.  When I live in memories I am unaware of where I am.  The unforgiven is a voice that calls from a past long gone by.  Everything that points to it as "real," is only a wish that what is gone could be made real again and seen as "here and now" in place of what is truly Now and Here (Heaven).  Do I want that fearful instant kept when Heaven seemed to disappear, and God was feared and made a symbol of my hate?

Forget this time of terror that has so long ago been corrected and undone.  Everything pointing the way to the "past" sets me on an impossible mission.  God has protected me from my own unfairness to myself.  I cannot lose my way because there is no way other than His.  There is nowhere to go except to God.

That dreadful instant is in a distant past, now Perfectly corrected.  Let the dead be Peacefully forgotten.  Resurrection has come to take death's place.  I am part of Resurrection, not death.

I am shifting back and forth between the past and the present.  Voices from the past are heard, then doubted.  I am like one who hallucinates, yet lacks conviction is what he perceives.  This is the borderland between the worlds, the bridge between the past and present.  Here a shadow of the past remains, but a Present Light is dimly recognized and once It is seen, It can never be forgotten.

Without God's Guidance, I relive the single instant when the time of terror took the place of Love.  Every such moment is like is the reenactment of death. Such is "life," in the dream-world.  A seeming interval from birth to death and onto "life" again; a repetition of an instant long gone.  All of "time" is the mad belief that what is over and done, is still here and now.

Forgive the past and let it go, for it is gone.  I have reached the place that lies at Heaven's Gate.  Look gently on my brother and behold the world of separation and hate transformed into a world of Love.

The Appointed Friend.  Anything in the dream-world that I believe is good, valuable and worthwhile, can and will hurt me.  Not because it has the Power to hurt me, but because I believe it has the power to hurt me.  I believe illusions are Real, therefore they are "real" to me.

I cannot make even one illusion real, yet escape all the rest.  Even the one illusion I desire hides God's Grace and Majesty from me, and without God I am friendless and alone.  Do not seek anything to take His Place.  There is nothing else.  There is no substitute for God or Heaven.

Loneliness is not the Will of God.  Let Him lead me Home.

The Laws of Healing.  This is a Course in miracles.  Here is all that must occur for healing to be possible.....and once healing is possible, it must occur:

1. Separation must be denied.  When separation is denied, it goes.  Insanity must be replaced by Sanity.
2. Perception must be brought to Truth.  Guilt asks for punishment and its request is granted.  Perception in the world of separation was made to replace Knowledge which is of God's World.  Perception changes.  Knowledge is Changeless.   Perception takes many forms, but none has meaning, and brought to Truth its senselessness is quite apparent. 
3. It is not the "world" which needs healing, it is my mind.  Realize that ideas do not leave their source.  I am God's Idea and I am still with Him.  The world is my idea so it is in my mind, there is no world "out there." 
4. Perception's laws must be reversed because they are reversals of the Laws of Truth.  The Laws of Truth will Forever be True and cannot be reversed, yet they can be seen in distortion.  This must be corrected in my mind.
5. Overlook what is not there.  No illusion has one bit of Truth. Perceive that illusions are completely false.  Some illusions are given greater value, but all this indicates is preference not Reality. 
6. Understand that sin is impossible. It seems that some sin is forever past the hope of healing and is lasting grounds for hell.  I impose "sin" between my brother and I.  It limits me to time and place, giving a little space to me, another little space to my brother.  The body is a symbol of sin.  Yet this symbol is only my wish/desire/dream to experience being apart and separate.  There is no sin. There is no separation. 
7. Comprehend that Truth needs no defense to make it True.  Illusions need defenses because they are not Real, anyone who looks on illusions and believes them to be True is deceived.  
8. Remember forgiveness is my only function.  Forgiveness is the answer to attack of any kind. With forgiveness, attack is deprived of its effects and hate is answered with Love.  In my hands does all salvation lie, to be both offered and received as one.  Forgiveness takes away what stands between my brother and I.  Forgiveness is the wish/desire/dream to be joined with my brother not separated from him.  It is called a "wish/desire/dream" because I still believe I have choices and have not reached beyond the world of separation and choice entirely.  Yet this wish for joining is not opposed to God's Will and is Perfectly in line with Heaven's State.  Forgiveness removes the obstacles to Heaven and prepares me to receive my Full Inheritance as Son of God.
9. Be aware that God Wills that I have Everything.  I ask far too little for myself.  I sacrifice my identity as God's Son to find a meager treasure of my own; yet this comes with a sense of isolation, loss and loneliness.  If this is how I feel, could it be a treasure?  Does the Son of God deserve loneliness and uncertainty?
10. Know that cause and effect are one.  The miracle is possible when cause and effect are seen as one. God is the Cause, I am His Effect.  My insane mind is the cause, the world of separation is the effect. The mind can wish to be deceived, but it cannot make itself be what it is not.  To believe there is a world outside of me, is to believe illusions are True. 
11. Understand that illusions serve the purpose they were made to serve.  Illusions were made to serve the purpose of separation.  There is one problem: I believe I am separated from God.  There is one answer:  I am One with God.  God's Kingdom is United Eternally.
12. Remember that Truth is in my memory.  The miracle calls me by my Ancient Name which I will recognize.  Each instant I am reborn until I choose not to die again.  In every wish for anything but Love, I choose separation and death.  Yet every instant offers me Life, because every instant I can make a different choice.
13. God's Gift to me is Limitless and Never-Ending.  There is no problem He cannot solve, no circumstance He cannot answer to.
14. Abide in Peace where God would have me be.  Everything God gives, belongs to Everyone.  To bless one brother, gives blessing to them all.  
15. My Ancient Name belongs to Everyone.  Call on my brother's name and God will Answer.  He Answers all who call on Him.  
16. Miracles do not change anything, all they do is allow Truth to be recognized.  

The Immediacy of Salvation.   Time and space which take many different forms are but one illusion.  If a thing has been projected beyond my mind, I think of it as time.  The nearer it is, the more I think of it in terms of space.

I see an interval between the time when I forgive and the time I receive the benefits of forgiveness.  There is no interval.  It happens immediately, though my Awareness of it may lag behind.

I see myself as external to my brother.  There seems to be a distance between us that I interpret as "space."  I believe we have separate interests and must be careful not to intrude on each other.  I see only eventual salvation, not immediate results.   Forgiveness offers its benefits now.  Salvation is immediate.

Belief in sin arouses fear and like its cause (my mind), it looks to the future or to the past, but overlooks the present.  The miracle is always within the only interval of time that sin and fear have overlooked: the Holy Present, which is All There Is.

Correction of error takes no time at all, yet my acceptance of it can seem to take forever.  What God gives, is given now (and Eternally) and can be seen now.  I may believe that "someday" I will understand His Ways, yet I am given Everything now. 

Do not be content with "future" happiness.  It has no meaning.  I have reason for Happiness and Freedom now.  Delay is senseless.

They Have Come. God's Own Voice calls out from me to my brother and Awakens the same Voice in him.  How Holy we each must be that God entrusted salvation in each of us for the other.  Regard each other gently, for while I attack, judge, fear or hate, I will not know God.  Let the blood of hatred fade so the grass can grow green again.  Let the bloody earth be cleansed so the insane may shed their garments of insanity.

The Holiest of all the spots on earth is where an ancient hatred has become a Present Love.  This is God's Temple; a Holy Altar to Peace.  My footprints lighten the world, for where I walk forgiveness gladly goes with me.  Where stood a cross now stands the risen Christ, and ancient scars are healed within His Sight.

The End of Injustice.  In the dream-world, I believe some forms of attack and defense are fair and others unfair, and some forms are meaningful, some are senseless.  Yet attack in any form is unfair, senseless, unjust and meaningless.  What limits God's Son in any way cannot be Heaven.

Unfairness and attack are one mistake, so firmly joined that when one is perceived the other must be as well.  I cannot be unfairly treated.  The belief that I am, is just another form of the idea that I am deprived.  Sacrifice is at the root of everything perceived to be unfair.  Yet it is me who ask this of myself.  I have no enemy except myself.  I am enemy to the Son of God because I do not know Him as myself.  What could be more unjust than to deprive myself of what I am and to tell myself I am unworthy of my Father's Love?

Beware of the temptation to perceive myself as unfairly treated, to be a "victim" of someone else.  In doing so I see my own "innocence" at the cost of my brother's.  Whatever way the game of guilt is played, someone loses.  In God's World everyone gains and no one loses.

I cannot calculate what believing in injustice does to me.  The world grows dim and threatening, without the Happy Sparkle that salvation brings to Light my way.  I see myself deprived of Light, abandoned to the dark, unfairly left without a purpose in a futile world.

The world IS fair because Truth has brought injustice to the Light within me.  Within me has all unfairness been resolved and replaced with Justice and Love.