Let me behold the Son of God today, and witness to his glory. Let me not try to obscure the holy light in him, and see his strength diminished and reduced to frailty; nor perceive the lacks in him with which I would attack his sovereignty.
"He is Your Son, my Father. And today I would behold his gentleness instead of my illusions. He is what I am, and as I see him so I see myself. Today I would see truly, that this day I may at last identify with him."
The world you see has nothing that you need to offer you; nothing that you can use in any way, nor anything at all that serves to give you joy. Believe this thought, and you are saved from years of misery, from countless disappointments, and from hopes that turn to bitter ashes of despair. No one but must accept this thought as true, if he would leave this world behind and soar beyond its petty scope and little ways.
Each thing you value here is but a chain that binds you to the world, and it will serve no other end but this. For everything must serve the purpose you have given it until you see a different purpose there. The only purpose worthy of your mind this world contains is that you pass it by, without delaying to perceive some hope where there is none. Be you deceived no more. The world you see has nothing that you want.
Escape today the chains you place upon your mind when you perceive salvation here. For what you value you make part of you, as you perceive yourself. All things you seek to make your value greater in your sight limit you further, hide your worth from you, and add another bar across the door that leads to true awareness of your Self.
Let nothing which relates to body thoughts delay your progress to salvation, nor permit temptation to believe the world has anything you want to hold you back. Nothing is here to cherish. Nothing here is worth one instant of delay and pain; one moment of uncertainty and doubt. The worthless offers nothing. Certainty of worth cannot be found in worthlessness.
Today we practice letting go all thought of values we have given to the world. We leave it free of purposes we gave its aspects and its phases and its dreams. We hold it purposeless within our minds, and loosen it from all we wish it were. Thus do we lift the chains which bar the door to freedom from the world, and go beyond all little values and diminished goals.
Peace and be still a little while, and see how far you rise above the world when you release your mind from chains, and let it seek the level where it finds itself at home. It will be grateful to be free a while. It knows where it belongs. But free its wings, and it will fly in sureness and in joy to join its holy purpose. Let it rest in its Creator, there to be restored to sanity, to freedom and to love.
Give it ten minutes rest three times today. And when your eyes are opened afterwards, you will not value anything you see as much as when you looked at it before. Your whole perspective on the world will shift by just a little every time you let your mind escape its chains. The world is not where it belongs. And you belong where it would be, and where it goes to rest when you release it from the world. Your Guide is sure. Open your mind to Him. Be still and rest.
Protect your mind throughout the day as well. And when you think you see some value in an aspect or an image of the world, refuse to lay this chain upon your mind, and tell yourself with quiet certainty:
"This will not tempt me to delay myself.
The world I see has nothing that I want."
All separation vanishes, as holiness is shared. For holiness is power, and by SHARING it, it GAINS in strength. If you seek for satisfaction in gratifying your needs as YOU perceive them, you MUST believe that strength comes from ANOTHER, and that WHAT YOU GAIN HE LOSES. Someone must ALWAYS lose, if you perceive yourself as weak. Yet there is another interpretation of relationships, that TRANSCENDS the concept of the LOSS of power completely.
You do NOT find it difficult to believe that, when ANOTHER calls on God for love, YOUR call remains as strong. Nor do you think that, by God's answer to HIM, YOUR hope of answer is diminished. On the contrary, you are far more inclined to regard HIS success, as witness to the possibility of YOURS. That is because you recognize, however dimly, that God is an IDEA, and so YOUR faith in Him is STRENGTHENED by sharing. What you find it difficult to accept is the fact that, LIKE your Father, YOU are an idea. And like Him, YOU can give yourself COMPLETELY, wholly without loss, and ONLY WITH GAIN.
Herein lies peace, for here there IS no conflict. In the world of scarcity, love HAS no meaning, and peace is impossible. For gain and loss are BOTH accepted, and so no-one is aware that perfect Love is IN him. In the holy instant, you recognize the IDEA of love in you, and UNITE this idea with the Mind that thought It, AND COULD NOT RELINQUISH IT. By HOLDING it within Itself, THERE WAS no loss. The holy instant thus becomes a lesson in how to hold ALL of your brothers in YOUR mind, experiencing not loss, but COMPLETION.
From this, it follows you can ONLY give. And this IS love, for this alone is natural, under the laws of God. In the holy instant, the laws of God prevail, and only THEY have meaning. The laws of this world cease to hold any meaning at all. When the Son of God ACCEPTS the laws of God as what he gladly wills, it is impossible that he be bound, or limited in ANY way. In this instant, he IS as free as God would have him be. For, the instant that he refuses to BE bound, he is NOT bound.
In the holy instant, nothing happens that has not always been. Only the veil, that has been drawn ACROSS reality, is lifted. Nothing has changed. But the AWARENESS of changelessness comes swiftly, as the veil of time is pushed aside. No-one who has not yet experienced the lifting of the veil, and felt himself drawn irresistibly into the Light behind it, can have faith in love WITHOUT fear. Yet the Holy Spirit GIVES you this faith, because He offered it to me and I ACCEPTED it.
Fear not the holy instant will be denied you, for I denied IT not. And, through me, the Holy Spirit GAVE it unto you, as YOU will give it. Let no need that YOU perceive, obscure your need of THIS. For, in the holy instant, you will recognize the ONLY need the aspects of the Son of God share equally, and, BY this recognition, you will join with me in OFFERING what is needed. It is through US that peace will come. Join me in the IDEA of peace, for, in ideas, minds CAN communicate.
If you would GIVE YOURSELF as your Father gives His Self, you will learn to understand Selfhood. And therein is love's meaning understood. But remember that understanding is OF THE MIND, and, ONLY of the mind. KNOWLEDGE is therefore of the mind, and its CONDITIONS are in the mind, WITH it. If you were not ONLY an idea, and NOTHING ELSE, you could not be in full communication with all that ever was. But, as long as you prefer to be something else, or would attempt to be NOTHING ELSE and SOMETHING ELSE together, the language of communication, WHICH YOU KNOW PERFECTLY, you will not remember.
In the holy instant, God is remembered, and the language of communication with ALL your brothers, is remembered WITH Him. For communication is remembered TOGETHER, as is truth. There is NO exclusion in the holy instant, because the past is gone, and, with it, goes the whole basis FOR exclusion. Without ITS source, exclusion vanishes. And this permits YOUR Source, and that of all your brothers, to REPLACE it in your awareness. God, and the power of God, will take their rightful place in you, and you will experience the full communication of ideas with ideas. Through your ability to do this, you will learn what you MUST be, because you will begin to understand what your Creator is, and what His creation is, along WITH Him.
The search for the special relationship is the sign that you equate your self with the ego, and NOT with God. For the special relationship has value ONLY to the ego. To IT, UNLESS a relationship HAS special value, IT HAS NO MEANING. And it perceives ALL love as special. Yet, this CANNOT be natural, for it is UNlike the relationship of God and His Son, and ALL relationships that are unlike this One, MUST be unnatural. For God created love as He would have it be, and GAVE it as it IS. Love HAS no meaning except as its Creator defined it, by His Will. It is impossible to define it otherwise, and UNDERSTAND it.
LOVE IS FREEDOM. To look for it by placing yourself in BONDAGE, is to SEPARATE yourself from it. For the love of God, no longer seek for union in separation, nor for freedom in bondage! As you release, so will you BE released. FORGET THIS NOT, or love will be unable to find you, and comfort you. There is a way in which the Holy Spirit asks YOUR help, if you would have His. The holy instant is His most helpful tool in protecting you from the attraction of guilt, the REAL lure in the special relationship. You do NOT recognize that this IS its REAL appeal, for the ego has taught you that FREEDOM lies in it.
Yet, the closer you look at the special relationship, the more apparent it becomes that it MUST foster guilt, and therefore must IMPRISON. The special relationship is totally without meaning WITHOUT A BODY. And, if you VALUE it, you must also VALUE THE BODY. And what you value, you WILL keep. The special relationship is a device for limiting YOUR self to a body, and for limiting your perception of others to THEIRS. The Great Rays would establish the total LACK of value of the special relationship, IF THEY WERE SEEN. For, in seeing THEM, the body WOULD disappear, BECAUSE ITS VALUE WOULD BE LOST. And so your whole INVESTMENT in seeing it would be WITHDRAWN from it.
YOU SEE THE WORLD YOU VALUE. On this side of the bridge, you see the world of separate bodies, seeking to join each other in SEPARATE UNIONS, and to become one BY LOSING. When two INDIVIDUALS seek to become ONE, they are trying to DECREASE their magnitude. Each would DENY his power, for the SEPARATE union EXCLUDES THE UNIVERSE. Far more is LEFT OUTSIDE than would be taken in. For God is left WITHOUT, and NOTHING taken in. If one such union were made IN PERFECT FAITH, the universe WOULD enter into it. Yet the special relationship which the EGO seeks, does NOT include even ONE whole individual. For the ego WANTS but part of him, and sees ONLY this part, and nothing else.
Across the bridge, it is so different! For a time the body is still seen, but NOT exclusively, as it is seen here. For the little spark that holds the Great Rays within it, is ALSO visible, and this spark cannot be limited long to littleness. Once you have crossed the bridge, the VALUE of the body is so diminished in YOUR sight, that you will see no need at all to MAGNIFY it. For you will realize that the ONLY value that the body has, is to enable you to bring your brothers TO the bridge WITH you. And to be RELEASED TOGETHER there.
The bridge itself is nothing more than a transition in your PERSPECTIVE of reality. On this side, everything you see is grossly distorted, and COMPLETELY out of perspective. What IS little and insignificant is magnified, and what is strong and powerful, cut down to littleness. In the transition, there is a period of confusion, in which a sense of actual disorientation seems to occur. But fear it not, for it means nothing more than that you have been willing to LET GO your hold on the distorted frame of reference, that SEEMED to hold your world together. This frame of reference is BUILT around the special relationship. Without THIS illusion, there can BE no meaning you would still seek here.
Fear not that you will be abruptly lifted up, and hurled into reality. Time is kind, and, if you use it FOR reality, it will keep gentle pace with you, in your transition. The urgency is only in dislodging your minds from their FIXED POSITION here. This will not leave you homeless, and WITHOUT a frame of reference. The period of disorientation, which precedes the actual transition, is far shorter than the time it took to fix your minds so firmly on illusions. Delay will hurt you now MORE THAN BEFORE, ONLY because you realize it IS delay, and that escape from pain IS REALLY POSSIBLE. Find hope and comfort, rather than despair, in this therefore.
You could no longer find even the ILLUSION of love in ANY special relationship here. For you are no longer WHOLLY insane, and you WOULD recognize the guilt of SELF-betrayal FOR WHAT IT IS. Nothing you seek to strengthen, in the special relationship, is REALLY part of you. And you cannot keep PART of the thought-system that taught you it WAS real, and understand the Thought that REALLY knows what you are. You HAVE allowed the Thought of your reality to enter your minds, and, because YOU invited it, it WILL abide with you. Your love for it will not allow you to betray yourself, and you COULD not enter into a relationship WHERE IT COULD NOT GO WITH YOU, for you would NOT be APART from it.
Be glad you have escaped the mockery of salvation that the ego offered you, and look not back with longing on the travesty it made of your relationships. Now, no-one need suffer, for you have come too far to yield to the illusion of the beauty and holiness of guilt. Only the wholly insane could look on death and suffering, sickness and despair, and see it thus. What guilt has wrought is ugly, fearful, and very dangerous. See no illusion of truth and beauty there. And be you thankful that there IS a place where truth and beauty wait for you.
Go on to meet them gladly, and learn how much awaits you, for the simple willingness to give up nothing, BECAUSE it is nothing. The new perspective you will gain, from crossing over, will be the understanding of WHERE HEAVEN IS. From HERE, it seems to be outside, and ACROSS the bridge. But, as you cross to JOIN it, IT will JOIN WITH YOU, and BECOME ONE with you. And you will think, in glad astonishment, that for all this, YOU GAVE UP NOTHING! The joy of Heaven, which HAS no limit, is INCREASED with each light that returns, to take its rightful place within it. Wait no longer, for the Love of God and YOU. And may the holy instant speed you on the way, as it will surely do, if you but LET it come to you.
The Holy Spirit asks only this little help of you. Whenever your thoughts wander to a special relationship which still ATTRACTS you, enter with Him into a holy instant, and there, LET HIM RELEASE YOU. He needs only your willingness to SHARE His perspective, to give it to you completely. And your willingness need not be complete, BECAUSE HIS IS PERFECT. It is His task to atone for your UNwillingness by His perfect faith. And it is HIS faith you share with Him there. Out of YOUR recognition of your UNwillingness for your release, His PERFECT willingness is GIVEN you. Call upon Him, for Heaven is at His call. And LET Him call on Heaven FOR you.