This course will LEAD to knowledge, but knowledge itself is still beyond the scope of our curriculum. Nor is there any need for us to try to speak of what must forever lie beyond words. We need remember only that whoever attains the real world, beyond which learning cannot go, WILL go beyond it, but in a different way. Where learning ends, there God begins, for learning ends before Him Who is complete where He begins, and where there IS no end.
It is not for us to dwell on what cannot BE attained. There is too much to learn. The readiness for knowledge still must be attained. Love is not learned. Its meaning lies in Itself. And learning ends when you have recognized all it is NOT. That is the INTERFERENCE; that is what needs to be undone. Love is not learned, because there never WAS a time in which you knew it not. Learning is useless in the Presence of your Creator, Whose ACKNOWLEDGMENT of you, AND YOURS OF HIM, so FAR transcends ALL learning, that EVERYTHING you learned is meaningless, replaced forever by the knowledge of love and its One meaning.
Your relationship has been uprooted from the world of shadows, and its unholy purpose has been safely brought through the barriers of guilt, washed with forgiveness, and set shining and firmly rooted in the world of light. From there it calls to you to follow the course it took, lifted high above the darkness, and gently placed before the gates of Heaven. The holy instant in which you were united, is but a messenger of love, sent from BEYOND forgiveness to REMIND you of all that lies beyond it. Yet it is THROUGH forgiveness that it will BE remembered.
And when the memory of God has come to you, in the holy place of forgiveness, you will remember nothing else. And memory will be as useless as learning, for your ONLY purpose will be creating. Yet this you cannot know, until every perception has been cleansed and purified, and finally removed forever. Forgiveness removes ONLY the UNtrue, lifting the shadows from the world, and carrying it, safe and sure within its gentleness, to the bright world of new and clean perception. There is YOUR purpose now. And it is there that peace awaits you.
God's Will is your salvation. Would He not have given you the means to find it? If He wills you to HAVE it, He MUST have made it possible, and very easy to obtain it.
Your brothers are everywhere. You do not have to seek far for salvation. Every minute and every second gives you a chance to save YOURSELF. Do not lose these chances, NOT because they will not return, but because delay of joy is needless. God wills you perfect happiness NOW. Is it possible that this is not also YOUR will? And is it possible that this is not ALSO the will of your brothers? Consider, then, that in this joint will, you ARE all united, and IN THIS ONLY. There WILL be disagreement on anything ELSE, but NOT in this. This, then, is where peace ABIDES. And YOU abide in peace, when you so decide.
But you cannot abide in peace unless you accept the Atonement, because the Atonement IS the way to peace. The reason is very simple, and so obvious that it is often overlooked. That is because the ego is AFRAID of the obvious, since obviousness is the essential characteristic of reality. You CANNOT overlook it, unless you are NOT LOOKING. It is PERFECTLY obvious that if the Holy Spirit looks with love on all He perceives, He looks with love on YOU. His EVALUATION of you is based on his knowledge of what you ARE, and so He evaluates you truly. And this evaluation MUST be in your mind, because HE is.
The ego is also in your mind, because you have ACCEPTED it there. ITS evaluation of you, however, is the exact opposite of the Holy Spirit's, because the ego does NOT love you. It is unaware of what you are, and wholly mistrustful of EVERYTHING it perceives, because its own perceptions are so shifting. The ego is therefore capable of suspiciousness at best, and viciousness at worst. That is its range. It cannot exceed it, because of its uncertainty. And it can never go BEYOND it, because it can never BE certain.
You, then, have two conflicting evaluations of yourself in your minds, and they CANNOT BOTH BE TRUE. You do not yet realize how COMPLETELY different these evaluations are, because you do not understand how lofty the Holy Spirit's perception of you really is. He is not deceived by ANYTHING you do, because He NEVER forgets what you are. The ego is deceived by EVERYTHING you do, even when you respond to the Holy Spirit, because at such times ITS CONFUSION INCREASES. The ego is, therefore, particularly likely to attack you when you react lovingly, because it has evaluated you AS UNLOVING, and you are going AGAINST ITS JUDGMENT.
The ego will begin to ATTACK your motives as soon as they become clearly out of accord with its perception of you. This is when it will shift abruptly from suspiciousness to viciousness, because its uncertainty is INCREASED. But it is surely pointless to attack in return. What can this mean, except that you are AGREEING with the ego's evaluation of what you are? If you are willing to see yourself as unloving, YOU WILL NOT BE HAPPY. You are condemning yourself, and MUST therefore regard yourself as inadequate.
Would you look to the ego to help you escape from a sense of inadequacy it has PRODUCED, and must MAINTAIN for its own existence? Can you ESCAPE from its evaluation of you, by using its methods for keeping this picture INTACT? You cannot evaluate an insane belief system from WITHIN it. Its own range precludes this. You can only GO BEYOND it, and look back from a point where SANITY exists, and SEE THE CONTRAST. Only BY this contrast, can insanity be judged as insane.
With the grandeur of God in you, you have chosen to be little, and lament your littleness. Within the system which DICTATED this choice, the lament IS inevitable. Your littleness is TAKEN FOR GRANTED there, and you do NOT ask who granted it. The question is meaningless WITHIN the ego's thought-system, because it OPENS THE WHOLE THOUGHT-SYSTEM TO QUESTION. We said before that the ego does not know what a real question is. Lack of knowledge of ANY kind is ALWAYS associated with UNWILLINGNESS to know, and produces a TOTAL lack of knowledge, simply because KNOWLEDGE is total. NOT to question your littleness is, therefore, to deny ALL knowledge, and keep the ego's WHOLE thought-system intact.
You cannot retain PART of a thought-system, because it can BE questioned only at its foundation. And this MUST be questioned from beyond it, because WITHIN it, its foundation DOES stand. The Holy Spirit judges against the reality of the ego's thought-system, merely because He knows its FOUNDATION is not true. Therefore, nothing that arises from it MEANS anything. The Holy Spirit judges every belief you hold in terms of where it comes from. If it comes from God, He knows it to be true. If it does not, He knows it is meaningless.
Whenever you question your value, say, "God Himself is incomplete without me." Remember this when the ego speaks, and you will not hear it. The truth about YOU is so lofty that nothing that is unworthy of God is worthy of you. Choose, then, what you want in these terms, and accept nothing that you would not offer to God as wholly fitting for HIM, for YOU do not want anything else. Return your part of Him, and He will give you all of Himself, in exchange for your return of what belongs to Him, and renders Him complete.
Healing and Atonement are not related; they are identical. There is no order of difficulty in miracles because there are no degrees of Atonement. It is the one complete concept possible in this world, because it is the source of a wholly unified perception. Partial Atonement is a meaningless idea, just as special areas of hell in Heaven is inconceivable. Accept Atonement and you are healed. Atonement is the Word of God. Accept His Word and what remains to make sickness possible? Accept His Word and every miracle has been accomplished. To forgive is to heal. The teacher of God has taken accepting the Atonement for himself as his only function. What is there then he cannot heal? What miracle can be withheld from him?
The progress of the teacher of God may be slow or rapid, depending on whether he recognizes the Atonement's inclusiveness or for a time excludes some problem areas from it. In some cases, there is a sudden and complete awareness of the perfect applicability of the lesson of the Atonement to all situations. This, however, is comparatively rare. The teacher of God may have accepted the function God has given him long before he has learned all that his acceptance holds out to him. It is only the end that is certain. Anywhere along the way, the necessary realization of inclusiveness may reach him. If the way seems long, let him be content. He has decided on the direction he will take. What more is asked of him? And having done what was required, would God withhold the rest?
That forgiveness is healing needs to be understood, if the teacher of God is to make progress. The idea that a body can be sick is a central concept in the ego's thought system. This thought gives the body autonomy, separates it from the mind, and keeps the idea of attack inviolate. If the body could be sick Atonement would be impossible. A body that can order a mind to do as it sees fit could merely take the place of God and prove salvation is impossible. What then is left to heal? The body has become lord of the mind. How could the mind be returned to the Holy Spirit unless the body is killed? And who would want salvation at such a price?
Certainly sickness does not appear to be a decision. Nor would anyone actually believe he wants to be sick. Perhaps he can accept the idea in theory, but it is rarely if ever consistently applied to all specific forms of sickness, both in the individual's perception of himself and of all others as well. Nor is it at this level that the teacher of God calls forth the miracle of healing. He overlooks the mind and body, seeing only the Face of Christ shining in front of him, correcting all mistakes and healing all perception. Healing is the result of the recognition, by God's teacher, of Who it is that is in need of healing. This recognition has no special reference. It is true of all things that God created. In it are all illusions healed.
When a teacher of God fails to heal, it is because he has forgotten Who he is. Another's sickness thus becomes his own. In allowing this to happen, he has identified with another's ego, and has thus confused him with a body. In so doing, he has refused to accept Atonement for himself, and can hardly offer it to his brother in Christ's Name. He will, in fact, be unable to recognize his brother at all, for his Father did not create bodies, and so he is seeing in a brother only the unreal. Mistakes do not correct mistakes, and distorted perception does not heal. Step back now, teacher of God. You have been wrong. Lead not the way, for you have lost it. Turn quickly to your Teacher, and let yourself be healed.
The offer of Atonement is universal. It is equally applicable to all individuals in all circumstances. And in it is the power to heal all individuals of all forms of sickness. Not to believe this is to be unfair to God, and thus unfaithful to Him. A sick person perceives himself as separate from God. Would you see him as separate from you? It is your task to heal the sense of separation that has made him sick. It is your function to recognize for him that what he believes about himself is not the truth. It is your forgiveness that must show him this. Healing is very simple. Atonement is received and offered. Having been received, it must be accepted. It is in the receiving, then, that healing lies. All else must follow from this single purpose.
Who can limit the power of God Himself? Who then can say who can be healed of what, and what must remain beyond God's power to forgive? This is insanity indeed. It is not up to God's teachers to set limits upon Him, because it is not up to them to judge His Son. And to judge His Son is to limit his Father. Both are equally meaningless. Yet this will not be understood until God's teacher recognizes that they are the same mistake. Herein does he receive Atonement, for he withdraws his judgment from the Son of God, accepting him as God created him. No longer does he stand apart from God, determining where healing should be given and where it should be withheld. Now can he say with God, "This is my beloved Son, created perfect and forever so."
The OPPOSITE of illusions is not disillusionment, but truth. Only to the ego, to which TRUTH is meaningless, do they APPEAR to be the only alternatives, and DIFFERENT from each other. In truth, they are the SAME. Both bring the same amount of misery, though each one SEEMS to be the way to lose the misery the other brings. EVERY illusion carries pain and suffering in the dark folds of the heavy garments with which it hides its nothingness. Yet, in these dark and heavy garments, are those who SEEK illusions covered, and hidden from the joy of truth. Truth is the opposite of illusions, BECAUSE it offers joy.
What else BUT joy could be the opposite of misery? To leave one kind of misery and seek another, is hardly an ESCAPE. To change ILLUSIONS is to make NO change. The search for joy IN MISERY is senseless. For how COULD joy be found in misery? All that is possible in the dark world of misery is to select some ASPECTS out of it, see them as DIFFERENT, and DEFINE the difference as joy. Yet to PERCEIVE a difference where none exists will surely fail to MAKE a difference. Illusions carry ONLY guilt and suffering, sickness and death, to their believers. The FORM in which they are accepted is irrelevant. NO form of misery, in reason's eyes, CAN be confused with joy.
Joy is eternal. You can be sure indeed that any seeming happiness which does not last is really fear. Joy does NOT turn to sorrow, for the eternal cannot change. But sorrow CAN be turned to joy, for time gives way to the eternal. Only the timeless must remain unchanged. But everything in time can CHANGE with time. Yet, if the change be real and not IMAGINED, illusions MUST give way to truth, and not to other dreams which are but equally unreal. THIS is no difference. Reason will tell you that the ONLY way to escape from misery is to RECOGNIZE it, AND GO THE OTHER WAY.
Truth is the same and misery the same, but they ARE different from each other. In EVERY way, in every INSTANCE, and WITHOUT EXCEPTION. To believe that one exception can exist, is to confuse what IS the same with what is different. ONE illusion, cherished and defended AGAINST the truth, makes ALL truth meaningless and ALL illusions real. Such is the power of belief. It CANNOT compromise. And faith in innocence IS faith in sin, if the belief excludes ONE living thing, and holds it out, APART from its forgiveness. Both reason AND the ego will tell you this. But what they MAKE of it, is NOT the same.
The ego will assure you now that it is IMPOSSIBLE for you to see NO guilt in anyone. And, if THIS vision is the ONLY means by which ESCAPE from guilt can be attained, then the belief in sin must be eternal. Yet reason looks on this in another way. For reason sees the SOURCE of an idea as what will make it true or false. This MUST be so, if the idea is LIKE its source. Therefore, says reason, if escape from guilt was given to the Holy Spirit as His purpose, and by One to Whom NOTHING He wills CAN BE impossible, the means for its attainment are MORE than possible. They must be THERE, and YOU must HAVE them.
This is a crucial period in this course. For here, the separation of you and the ego MUST be made complete. For, if you HAVE the means to let the Holy Spirit's purpose be accomplished, they CAN be used. And, THROUGH their use, will you gain faith in them. Yet, to the ego, they MUST be impossible, and no-one undertakes to do what holds NO hope of EVER being done. You KNOW what your Creator wills is possible. But what you MADE believes it is not so. Now MUST you choose between yourself and this ILLUSION of yourself. NOT both, but ONE.
There is no point in trying to avoid this ONE decision. It MUST be made. Faith and belief can fall to either side, but reason tells you that misery lies ONLY on one side, and joy upon the other. FORSAKE NOT NOW EACH OTHER. For you who ARE the same will NOT decide alone. OR DIFFERENTLY. Either you give each other life or death; either you are each other's Savior or his judge, offering him sanctuary or condemnation. This course will be believed ENTIRELY, or not at all. For it is wholly true or wholly false, and CANNOT be but partially believed. And you will either ESCAPE from misery entirely, or not at all.
Reason will tell you that there IS no middle ground where you can pause uncertainly, waiting to choose between the joy of Heaven and the misery of hell. UNTIL you choose Heaven, you ARE in hell and misery. There is no PART of Heaven you can take, and weave into illusions. Nor is there ONE illusion you can enter Heaven WITH. A Savior cannot BE a judge, nor mercy condemnation. And vision CANNOT damn, but ONLY bless. Whose function is to save, WILL save. HOW He will do it IS beyond your understanding, but WHEN must be your choice. For time YOU made, and time you CAN command. You are no more a slave to time than to the world you made.
Let us look closer at the whole illusion that what you made has power to enslave its maker. This is the SAME belief that CAUSED the separation. It is the meaningless idea that thoughts can leave the thinker's mind, be DIFFERENT from it, AND IN OPPOSITION to it. If this were true, thoughts would not be the mind's extensions, but its ENEMIES. And here we see again another form of the same fundamental illusion we have seen many times before. ONLY if it were possible the Son of God could LEAVE his Father's Mind, make himself DIFFERENT, and OPPOSE His Will, would it be possible that the self he made, and all IT made, should be his master.
Behold the great projection, but look on it with the decision that it MUST BE HEALED, and NOT with fear. NOTHING you made has ANY power over you, unless you still would be APART from your Creator, and with a will OPPOSED to His. For ONLY if you would believe His Son COULD be His enemy, does it SEEM POSSIBLE that what YOU made is YOURS. YOU would condemn His joy to misery, and make HIM different. And all the misery you made has been your own. Are you not GLAD to learn it is not true? Is it not welcome news to hear NOT ONE of the illusions that you made REPLACED the truth?
Only YOUR thoughts have been impossible. Salvation CANNOT be. It IS impossible to look upon your Savior as your enemy, and RECOGNIZE him. Yet it IS possible to recognize him for what he IS, if God would have it so. What God has given to your holy relationship IS THERE. For what He gave the Holy Spirit to give to you, He GAVE. Would you not look upon the Savior Who has been given you? And would you not exchange, in gratitude and gladness, the function of an executioner YOU gave him, for the one he has in truth? Receive of him what God has given him for you, NOT what YOU tried to give.
Beyond the bodies that you interposed between you, and shining in the golden light that reaches it from the bright endless circle that extends forever, is your holy relationship, beloved of God, and holy as Himself. How still it rests, in time and yet beyond, immortal yet on earth. How great the power that lies in it. Time waits upon its will, and earth will BE as it would HAVE it be. Here is no SEPARATE will, nor the desire that ANYTHING be separate. Its will HAS no exceptions, and what it wills is true. Every illusion brought to its forgiveness is gently OVERLOOKED, and disappears. For, at its center, Christ has been reborn, to light His home with vision that overlooks the world.
Would you not have this holy home be yours as well? No misery is here but ONLY joy. All you need do to dwell in quiet here with Christ is SHARE His vision. Quickly and gladly is His vision given to anyone who is but WILLING to see his brother sinless. And no-one CAN remain beyond this willingness, if YOU would be released entirely from ALL effects of sin. Would you have PARTIAL forgiveness for yourself? Can YOU reach Heaven while a single sin still tempts you to remain in misery? Heaven is the home of perfect purity. And God created it for YOU. Look at your holy brother, sinless as yourself, and let him LEAD you there.
Indeed, yes! No-one can escape God's final judgment. Who could flee forever from the truth? But the final judgment will not come until it is no longer associated with fear. One day each one will welcome it, and on that very day it will be given him. He will hear his sinlessness proclaimed around and around the world, setting it free as God's final judgment on him is received. This is the judgment in which salvation lies. This is the judgment that will set him free. This is the judgment in which all things are freed with him. Time pauses as eternity comes near, and silence lies across the world that everyone may hear this judgment of the Son of God:
"Holy are you, eternal, free and whole,
At peace forever in the Heart of God.
Where is the world, and where is sorrow now?"
Is this your judgment on yourself, teacher of God? Do you believe that this is wholly true? No, not yet, not yet. But this is still your goal; why you are here. It is your function to prepare yourself to hear this judgment and to recognize that it is true. One instant of complete belief in this, and you will go beyond belief to Certainty. One instant out of time can bring time's end. Judge not, for you but judge yourself and thus delay this final judgment. What is your judgment on the world, teacher of God? Have you yet learned to stand aside and hear the Voice of Judgment in yourself? Or do you still attempt to take His role from Him? Learn to be quiet, for His Voice is heard in stillness. And His Judgment comes to all who stand aside in quiet listening, and wait for Him.
You who are sometimes sad and sometimes angry; who sometimes feel your just due is not given you, and your best efforts meet with lack of appreciation and even with contempt; give up these foolish thoughts. They are too small and meaningless to occupy your holy minds an instant longer. God's Judgment waits for you to set you free. What can the world hold out to you, regardless of your judgments on its gifts, that you would rather have? You will be judged, and judged in fairness and in honesty. There is no deceit in God. His promises are sure. Only remember that. His promises have guaranteed His judgment, and His alone, will be accepted in the end. It is your function to make that end be soon. It is your function to hold it in your heart, and offer it to all the world to keep it safe.
Today's idea continues with the thought that joy and peace are not but idle dreams. They are your right, because of what you are. They come to you from God, Who cannot fail to give you what He wills. Yet must there be a place made ready to receive His gifts. They are not welcomed gladly by a mind which has instead received the gifts it made where His belong, as substitutes for them.
Today we would remove all meaningless and self-made gifts which we have placed upon the holy altar where God's gifts belong. These are the gifts which are our own in truth. These are the gifts which we inherited before time was, and which will still be ours when time has passed into eternity. These are the gifts which are within us now, for they are timeless. And we need not wait to have them. They belong to us today. Therefore we will to have them now, and know in choosing them in place of what we made, we but unite our will with what God wills, and recognize the same as being One.
Our longer practice periods today, the hourly five minutes given to the truth for your salvation, should begin with this:
"I seek but what belongs to me in truth."
And joy and peace are my inheritance."
Then lay aside the conflicts of the world which offer other gifts and other goals made of illusions, witnessed to by them, and sought for only in a world of dreams.
All this we lay aside, and seek instead that which is truly ours, as we ask to recognize what God has given us. We clear a holy place within our minds before His altar, where His gifts of peace and joy are welcome, and to which we come to find what has been given us by Him. We come in confidence today, aware that what belongs to us in truth is what He gives. And we would wish for nothing else, for nothing else belongs to us in truth.
So do we clear the way for Him today by simply recognizing that His Will is done already, and that joy and peace belong to us as His eternal gifts. We will not let ourselves lose sight of them between the times we come to seek for them where He has laid them. This reminder will we bring to mind as often as we can:
"I seek but what belongs to me in truth.
God's gifts of joy and peace are all I want."
When you maintain that there MUST be order of difficulty in miracles, all you mean is that there are some things you would WITHHOLD from truth. You believe that truth cannot deal with them, ONLY because YOU would keep them FROM truth. Very simply, your lack of faith in the Power that heals ALL pain, arises from YOUR wish to retain some ASPECTS of reality FOR FANTASY. If you but realized what this MUST do to your appreciation of the whole! What you RESERVE UNTO YOURSELF, you TAKE AWAY from Him Who would release you. Unless you GIVE IT BACK, it is inevitable that YOUR perspective on reality be warped and uncorrected.
As long as you would have this be, so long will the ILLUSION of order of difficulty in miracles REMAIN with you. For YOU have established this order in REALITY, by giving some of it to one teacher, and some to another. And so you learn to deal with PART of truth in one way, and in ANOTHER way the OTHER part. To FRAGMENT truth is to DESTROY it by rendering it meaningless. ORDERS of reality is a perspective without understanding, a frame of reference FOR reality to which it cannot REALLY be compared at all. Think you that you can bring truth to fantasy, and learn what truth MEANS from the perspective of illusions?
Truth HAS no meaning in illusion. The frame of reference FOR its meaning MUST BE ITSELF. When you try to bring TRUTH to illusions, you are trying to MAKE THEM REAL, and KEEP them by JUSTIFYING your belief in them. But to give illusions to Truth is to enable truth to teach that the ILLUSIONS are unreal, and thus enable you to ESCAPE from them. Reserve not one idea aside from truth, or you ESTABLISH orders of reality which MUST imprison you. There IS no order in reality because EVERYTHING there is true.
Be willing, then, to give ALL you have held OUTSIDE the truth to Him Who KNOWS the truth, and in Whom all is brought to truth. Salvation from separation will be COMPLETE, or will not be at all. Be not concerned with anything except YOUR WILLINGNESS TO HAVE THIS BE ACCOMPLISHED. HE will accomplish it; not you. But forget not this; when you become disturbed and lose YOUR peace of mind because ANOTHER is attempting to solve his problems through fantasy, you are refusing to FORGIVE YOURSELF for just this same attempt. And you are holding BOTH of you AWAY from truth, and from salvation. As you FORGIVE him, you RESTORE to truth what was denied by BOTH OF YOU. And you WILL see forgiveness where YOU have given it.
The idea for today can be regarded as the central thought toward which all our exercises are directed. God's is the only will. When you have recognized this, you have recognized that your will is His. The belief that conflict is possible has gone. Peace has replaced the strange idea that you are torn by conflicting goals. As an expression of the Will of God, you have no goal but His.
There is great peace in today's idea. And the exercises for today are directed toward finding it. The idea itself is wholly true. Therefore it cannot give rise to illusions. Without illusions conflict is impossible. Let us try to recognize this today, and experience the peace this recognition brings.
Begin the longer practice periods by repeating these thoughts several times, slowly and with firm determination to understand what they mean and to hold them in mind:
"There is no will but God's.
I cannot be in conflict."
Then spend several minutes in adding some related thoughts, such as:
"I am at peace."
"Nothing can disturb me. My will is God's."
"My will and God's are one."
"God wills peace for His Son."
During this introductory phase, be sure to deal quickly with any conflict thoughts that may cross your mind. Tell yourself immediately:
"There is no will but God's
These conflict thoughts are meaningless."
If there is one conflict area which seems particularly difficult to resolve, single it out for special consideration. Think about it briefly but very specifically, identify the particular person or persons and the situation or situations involved, and tell yourself:
"There is no will but God's.
I share it with Him.
My conflicts about ____ cannot be real."
After you have cleared your mind in this way, close your eyes and try to experience the peace to which your reality entitles you. Sink into it, and feel it closing around you. There may be some temptation to mistake these attempts for withdrawal, but the difference is easily detected. If you are succeeding, you will feel a deep sense of joy and an increased alertness, rather than a feeling of drowsiness and enervation. Joy characterizes peace. By this experience will you recognize that you have reached it.
If you feel yourself slipping off into withdrawal, quickly repeat the idea for today and try again. Do this as often as necessary. There is definite gain in refusing to allow retreat into withdrawal, even if you do not experience the peace you seek.
In the shorter periods, which should be undertaken at regular and predetermined intervals today, say to yourself:
"There is no will but God's.
I seek His peace today."
Then try to find what you are seeking. A minute or two every half hour, with eyes closed if possible, would be well spent on this today.
1) "Nothing I see means anything."
The reason this is so is that I see nothing, and nothing has no meaning. It is necessary that I recognize this that I may learn to see. What I think I see now is taking the place of vision. I must let it go by realizing that it has no meaning, so that vision may take its place.
2) "I have given what I see all the meaning it has for me."
I have judged everything I look upon. And it is this and only this that I see. This is not vision. It is merely an illusion of reality, because my judgments have been made quite apart from reality. I am willing to recognize the lack of validity in my judgments because I want to see. My judgments have hurt me, and I do not want to see according to them.
3) "I do not understand anything I see."
How could I understand what I see when I have judged it amiss? What I see is the projection of my own errors of thought. I do not understand what I see because it is not understandable. There is no sense in trying to understand it. But there is every reason to let it go, to make room for what can be seen and understood and loved. I can exchange what I see now for this merely by being willing to do so. Is not this a better choice than the one I made before?
4) "These thoughts do not mean anything."
The thoughts of which I am aware do not mean anything because I am trying to think without God. What I call "my" thoughts are not my real thoughts. My real thoughts are the thoughts I think with God. I am not aware of them because I have made "my" thoughts to take their place. I am willing to recognize that "my" thoughts do not mean anything, and to let them go. I choose to have them replaced by what they were intended to replace. "My" thoughts are meaningless, but all creation lies in the Thoughts I think with God.
5) "I am never upset for the reason I think."
I am never upset for the reason I think because I am constantly trying to justify "my" thoughts. I am constantly trying to make them true. I make all things my "enemies," so that my anger is justified, and my attacks are warranted. I have not realized how much I have misused everything I see by assigning this role to it. I have done this to defend a thought system which has hurt me, and which I no longer want. I am willing to let it go.
What makes this world seem real except your own denial of the truth which lies beyond? What but your thoughts of misery and death obscure the perfect happiness and the Eternal Life your Father wills for you? And what could hide what cannot be concealed except illusion? What could keep from you what you already have, except your choice to see it not, denying it is there?
The Thought of God created you. It left you not, nor have you ever been apart from It an instant. It belongs to you. By It you live. It is your Source of life, holding you one with It, and everything is one with you because It left you not. The Thought of God protects you, cares for you, makes soft your resting place and smooth your way, lighting your mind with happiness and love. Eternity and Everlasting Life shine in your mind because the Thought of God has left you not, and still abides with you.
Who would deny his safety and his peace, his joy, his healing and his peace of mind, his quiet rest, his calm awakening, if he but recognized where they abide? Would he not instantly prepare to go where they are found, abandoning all else as worthless in comparison with them? And having found them, would he not make sure they stay with him and he remains with them?
Deny not Heaven. It is yours today but for the asking. Nor need you perceive how great the gift, how changed your mind will be, before it comes to you. Ask to receive and it is given you. Conviction lies within it. 'Til you welcome it as yours uncertainty remains. Yet God is fair. Sureness is not required to receive what only your acceptance can bestow.
Ask with desire. You need not be sure that you request the only thing you want. But when you have received, you will be sure you have the treasure you have always sought. What would you then exchange it for? What would induce you now to let it fade away from your ecstatic vision? For this sight proves that you have exchanged your blindness for the seeing eyes of Christ; your mind has come to lay aside denial and accept the Thought of God as its inheritance.
Now is all doubting past, the journey's end made certain and salvation given you. Now is Christ's power in your mind to heal as you were healed. For now you are among the Saviors of the world. Your destiny lies there and nowhere else. Would God consent to let His Son remain forever starved by his denial of the nourishment he needs to live? Abundance dwells in him, and deprivation cannot cut him off from God's sustaining Love and from his home.
Practice today in hope. For hope indeed is justified. Your doubts are meaningless, for God is certain. And the Thought of Him is never absent. Sureness must abide within you who are host to Him. This course removes all doubts which you have interposed between Him and your certainty of Him. We count on Him and not upon ourselves to give us certainty. And in His Name we practice as His Word directs we do. His sureness lies beyond our every doubt. His Love remains beyond our every fear. The Thought of Him is still beyond all dreams, and in our minds according to His Will.