Frances Shares Her Inspiration
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OrEd-T-1.1-Principles of Miracles.50-51 50. The miracle is a learning device which decreases the need for time. In the longitudinal or horizontal plane, the recognition of the true equality of all the members of the Sonship seems to require almost endless time. However, the sudden shift from horizontal to vertical perception, which is the miracle, brings an interval where both doer and receiver come much farther along in time than they could without the miracle. The foundation of the miracle is recognizing the perfect holiness and equality of doer and receiver. The miracle shortens time by making the space of time it occupies unnecessary. The time a miracle takes and the time it covers are not related. The miracle can substitute for learning that may have taken thousands of years. Outside the usual laws of time, the miracle collapses and abolishes certain intervals within the larger time sequence, literally saving time. It establishes an out-of-pattern time interval that is timeless. Similar to daylight saving time, it rearranges the distribution of light. 51. The miracle is like the body in that both are learning aids. Neither the body nor the miracle serves any purpose when the spirit's state of direct communication is reached. While man believes he is in a body, he cannot abolish his creativity. He only can choose between miraculous or loveless channels of expression. He can make an empty shell, delay, wait, paralyze himself, reduce his creativity to almost nothing, even producing a developmental arrest or regression. He can destroy his medium of communication, but he must express something. He cannot destroy his potential to create. Man was created by the will of God and his own free will. Only what man creates is his to decide. Time can waste as well as be wasted. The basic decision of the miracle-minded is to wait on time no longer than is necessary. The miracle-worker accepts the time-control factor gladly. He recognizes that every collapse of time brings all men closer to the release from time in which the Son and the Father are one. Equality does not mean sameness now. Individual contributions to the Sonship will no longer be necessary when everyone recognizes that he has everything. When the Atonement is completed, all talents will be shared by all the Sonship. All His Children have God's total love, and all His gifts are freely given to everyone alike. I cannot know the power of the Son in his true relationship with the Father, unless I fully recognize my complete dependence on God . I want peace and I can find it only by giving complete forgiveness. I never wanted peace before, so there was no point in being told how to achieve it. No learning is acquired by anyone unless he wants to learn it and believes that he needs it. The idea of lack does not exist in God's creation, but lack is the basis of all that man makes. This is the essential difference. A need means a lack by definition. It is the recognition that I would be better off in a state that is different from the state I am in now. Until the "separation" (a more accurate word than the "fall") nothing was lacking. Man had no needs at all. He deprived himself, and then experienced needs. After the separation, needs became the most powerful source of motivation for human behavior. The body is the mechanism for behavior. All behavior is motivated by needs. Behavior is not a divine attribute. The belief that he could be better off is the reason why man has this body mechanism at his disposal. Each one acts according to the particular hierarchy of needs he establishes for himself. His hierarchy depends on his perception of what he lacks. His sense of separation from God is the only lack he needs to correct. This sense of separation would never have occurred if he had not distorted his perception of truth and perceived himself as lacking. The concept of need hierarchies is because he made a fundamental error by fragmenting himself into levels with different needs. As he integrates, he becomes one, and his needs become one. Unified need produces unified action, because it is not split. The concept of a need hierarchy comes with the original error that man can be separated from God. It requires correction at its own level before the error of perceiving levels can be corrected. Man cannot behave effectively while he operates at split levels. However, while he does, correction must be from the bottom up. Man now operates in space, where concepts such as "up" and "down" are meaningful. Space is as meaningless as time. The concept is one of space-time belief. Belief in a creation produces its existence. In attitude, though not in content, man resembles his own Creator, Who has perfect faith in His creations because He created them. Man can never control the effects of fear himself because he made fear and believes in what he made. The physical world exists only because man can use it to correct his unbelief, which originally placed him in it. That is why a man can believe what no one else thinks is true. It is true for him because he made it. Every part of fear comes from upside-down perception. More truly creative men devote their efforts to correcting perceptual distortions. The neurotic ones devote their efforts to compromise. The psychotic tries to escape by 'proving' the truth of his own errors. It is most difficult to free him by ordinary means, because he is more consistent in his own denial of truth. The miracle, however, makes no such distinctions. It corrects errors because they are errors.
OrEd-T-1.1-Principles of Miracles.43-49 43. A major contribution of miracles is releasing man from his sense of isolation, deprivation, and lack. Miracles are affirmations of Sonship, which is a state of completion and abundance. Whatever is true and real is eternal and cannot change or be changed. The spirit is therefore unalterable because it is already perfect. The mind can elect the level it chooses to serve. The only limit on its choice is, it cannot serve two masters. If it chooses, the mind becomes a medium by which the spirit creates along the line of its own creation. If the mind does not freely choose to create with spirit, it keeps the creative ability that comes then under the control of tyranny instead of authority. This imprisons the mind for such are the dictates of tyrants. To change my mind means to place it in the service of true Authority. The miracle is a sign that the mind has chosen to be led by Christ in His service. The abundance of Christ is the natural result of choosing to follow Him. All shallow roots must be uprooted because they are not deep enough to sustain me. The illusion that shallow roots can be deepened and made stable, is one of the distortions that reverses the Golden Rule. As these false foundations are given up, equilibrium is temporarily experienced as unstable. However, nothing is less stable than an orientation that is upside down, including the props that try to hold it up. 44. Miracles arise from a miraculous state of mind. As one, this mind goes out to anyone, without the awareness of the miracle worker himself. The impersonal nature of miracles is because the Atonement itself is one, uniting all creations with their Creator. 45. The miracle is an expression of inner awareness of Christ, and acceptance of His Atonement. The mind is in a state of grace, and is gracious to the host within and the stranger without. The stranger becomes my brother as he is included. 46. A miracle is never lost. It touches many I do not know, and can produce changes in forces of which I am unaware. That is not my concern. The miracle will always bless me. The miracles I am not asked to perform still have their value, and they are expressions of my state of grace. The impersonal nature of miracle-mindedness ensures my grace, but only Christ knows where grace can be bestowed. The action part of the miracle should be Christ-controlled, because He is aware of the whole plan. 47. Miracle-mindedness means miracle-readiness. Readiness means that I should always be ready, willing, and able. These are the essentials for "listen, learn, and do." I must be ready to listen, willing to learn and able to do. Only the last is involuntary, because it is the application of miracles which must be Christ-controlled. The other two, which are the voluntary aspects of miracle mindedness, are up to me. 48. Revelation is an experience of unspeakable love. Awe should be reserved for revelation. Awe is not appropriate for miracles, because it is worshipful. It implies that one of a lesser order stands before a greater one. This is the case only when spirit stands before its Creator. Spirits are perfect creations and experience awe only in the Presence of the Creator of perfection. The miracle is a sign of love among equals. Awe implies inequality. Equals cannot be in awe of one another. It is therefore an inappropriate reaction to Jesus. An older brother is entitled to respect for his greater experience, and obedience for his greater wisdom. It is appropriate to love him because he is a brother, and to be devoted to him, for he is devoted. Everything Jesus has comes from God. There is nothing about Jesus that I cannot have. The difference between us now is Jesus has nothing else. This leaves him in a state of true holiness, which is a potential in me. "No man comes to the Father except by Jesus" is among the most misunderstood statements in the Bible. It does not mean that Jesus is in any way special or different from me, except in time, which does not exist. Actually, the quotation is more meaningful if it is considered on a vertical instead of a horizontal axis. Seen along the vertical, man stands below Jesus and Jesus stands below God. In the process of "rising up," Jesus is higher. This is because, without Jesus, the distance between God and man would be too great to reach. Jesus bridges the distance as an elder brother to man on the one hand, and as a Son of God on the other. Jesus' devotion to his brothers has placed him in charge of the Sonship, which will be complete only to the extent that He can share it. This may appear to contradict the statement, "Jesus and and the Father are one," (the original statement was "of one kind"), but there are parts in the statement that acknowledge the Father is greater. The Holy Spirit is the bringer of revelations. Revelations are indirectly inspired by Jesus, because He is close to the Holy Spirit, and alert to the revelation-readiness of his brothers. He can bring down to his brothers more than they can draw down to themselves. The Holy Spirit is the highest communication medium. The Holy Spirit mediates from above to below, keeping the direct channel from God to man open for revelation. When man returns to his original form of communion with God, the need for miracles is over. Miracles do not involve this type of communion, because they are temporary communication devices. The miracle is reciprocal because it involves equality. Revelation is not reciprocal. It is always from God to man.
OrEd-T-1.1-Principles of Miracles.36-42 36. Christ-controlled miracles are part of the Atonement, but Christ-guidance is personal and leads to personal salvation. The impersonal nature of miracles is an essential ingredient, because this enables Jesus to control their distribution. Christ-guidance leads to the highly personal experience of revelation. This is why it involves personal choice. A guide does not control, but he does direct, leaving the following up to me. "Lead us not into temptation" means "guide us out of our own errors." "Take up your cross and follow me" means, "Recognize my errors and chose to abandon them by following Jesus' guidance." I will remember that error cannot really threaten truth which can always stand against it. Only the error is vulnerable. I am free to establish my kingdom where I chose, but the right choice is inevitable if I remember this: The spirit is in a state of grace forever. Man's reality is only his spirit. Therefore, man is in a state of grace forever. Atonement undoes all errors and uproots the real source of fear. Whenever I am defending misplaced and misdirected loyalty, God's reassurances are experienced as threat. Projection always involves this experience. When man projects this onto others, he does imprison them, but only to the extent that he reinforces errors they have already made. Error is lack of love. This makes them vulnerable to the distortions of others since their own perception of themselves is distorted. The miracle worker can only bless and this undoes their distortions and frees them from prison. 37. Miracles are examples of right thinking. Contact with reality at all levels becomes strong and accurate, permitting correct recognition of intra- and interpersonal boundaries. As a result, the doer's perceptions are aligned with truth as God created it. 38. The miracle is a factor in correction introduced into false thinking by Jesus. It acts as a catalyst, shaking up erroneous perception and properly reorganizing it. This places man under the Atonement principle, where his perception is healed. Until this has occurred, revelation of the divine order is impossible. 39. The Holy Spirit is the mechanism of miracles. Because what He perceives is true, the Holy Spirit is the instrument for testing reality, which always involves the necessary distinction between true and false. He perceives both the creations of God and the creations of man. Among the creations of man, He can separate the true from the false by His ability to perceive totally rather than selectively. 40. The miracle dissolves error, for error is identified as unreal or false. Like the analogy--by perceiving light, darkness automatically disappears. Darkness is lack of light, and sin is lack of love. They have no special properties of their own. Only error can come from the "scarcity" principle, which is untrue. Truth is always abundant. Those who perceive and acknowledge that they have everything, have no need for any kind of driven behavior. 41. The miracle acknowledges all men as Jesus' brothers and mine. The specialness of God's Sons comes from being included, not excluded. All Jesus' brothers are special. This is a way of perceiving the universal mark of God in them. If they believe they are deprived of anything, their perception becomes distorted. When this occurs, the whole family of God, the Sonship, is impaired in its relationships. Ultimately, every member of the family of God must come home. The miracle calls him to return because it blesses and honors him. Creation is whole, and the mark of wholeness is holiness. There is assurance that "God is not mocked" on this point. God would be mocked if any of His creations lacked holiness. 42. Wholeness is the perceptual content of miracles. The miracle corrects or atones for the faulty perception of lack anywhere. Here we begin to make the fundamental distinction between miracles and projection. The stimulus must precede the response, and will also determine the kind of response. Behavior is response, so the question "response to what?" becomes crucial. Since stimuli are identified through perception, I first perceive the stimulus and then behave accordingly. It follows, then, that: As I perceive, So I shall behave. The Golden Rule asks me to behave toward others as I want them to behave toward me. This means that the perception of both must be accurate. The Golden Rule is the rule for appropriate behavior. I cannot behave appropriately unless I perceive accurately. Accurate perception for Golden Rule behavior is to look out from the perception of my own holiness, and see the holiness of others. Level confusion always results in variable reality testing, and variable appropriate behavior. Lack of level confusion fosters appropriate behavior. Since my neighbor and I are equal members of he same family, as I perceive both, so I will behave toward both. The emptiness engendered by fear can be replaced by love, because love and its absence are in the same dimension. Correction can be made only within the dimension. Otherwise, there has been a confusion of levels. Death is a human affirmation of a belief in level confusion, or "fate". That is why the Bible says, "There is no death", and why Jesus demonstrated that death does not exist. He came to fulfill the law by reinterpreting it. The law itself offers only protection to man if properly understood. My witnessing demonstrates my belief, and strengthens it. Those who witness for Jesus are expressing through their miracles that they have abandoned the belief in deprivation. They have learned that abundance belongs to them. Jesus assures me that he will witness for anyone who allows it, and to whatever extent permission is given.
OrEd-T-1.1-Principles of Miracles.28-35 28. Miracles are a means of organizing the different levels of consciousness. Miracles come from the subconscious level below, and revelations come from the superconscious level above. The conscious level is in between, and responds to either the sub- or super-conscious impulses. Consciousness is the level that works in the world, and is able to respond to both above and below. Consciousness has no impulses of itself, but is only the tool for making a response. It can be very wrong. Revelation unites spirit directly with God. Revelation causes complete but temporary removal of doubt and fear. It is like the original form of communication between God and His Creation. It involves a very personal sense of closeness to creation. Man tries, but cannot find this closeness in physical relationships. However, miracles unite minds directly with each other. The deeper subconscious impulses inspire miracles, and result in real closeness to others. However, a personally willful consciousness can misunderstand these impulses, and misinterpret them as calls for physical satisfaction. The deeper levels of the subconscious always inspire miracles. Both miracles and revelation are experienced in consciousness, but do not begin there. Consciousness does not inspire action, but performs the action. Man is free to fill the superficial levels of the sub-conscious (which are closer to the conscious) with the thoughts and beliefs of this world, and to identify with them. He is free to believe what he chooses, and his actions witness to what he believes. This blocks access to the miracle level underneath. In his actions his relationships become superficial as well, and miracle-inspired relating becomes impossible 29. Miracles are a way of earning release from fear. Revelation is a state where fear has been abolished. Miracles are a means, and revelation is the end. They work together. Miracles prepare for revelation, they do not depend on it. Revelation is intensely personal and cannot be translated into conscious content. That is why attempts to describe it in words is not possible. Revelation brings only experience. Miracles, on the other hand, bring interpersonal action. Miracles are more useful now because of their impersonal nature. In this phase of learning, working miracles is more important, because freedom from fear cannot be thrust on me. 30. Miracles praise God through men. They praise God by honoring His creations, recognizing their perfection. They heal because they deny body-identification and recognize spirit-identification. By seeing the spirit, they adjust the levels, and see the levels in proper alignment. This puts spirit in the center, where spirits communicate directly. 31. Miracles should inspire gratitude, not awe. Man should thank God for what he really is. The Children of God are very holy, and the miracle honors their holiness. Although it can be hidden, God's creations never lose their holiness. The miracle uncovers it and brings it to the light where it belongs. Holiness can never be hidden in darkness, but man can deceive himself that it can. This illusion makes him fearful, because he knows in his heart it is an illusion. He makes great effort to prove the illusion is real. But the miracle sets reality where it belongs. Eternal reality belongs only to the spirit, and the miracle acknowledges only this truth. The miracle dispels man's illusions about himself, and puts him in communion with God and himself. 32. The miracle joins in the Atonement of Christ by putting the mind in the service of the spirit. The spirit never loses its communion with God, so only the mind needs Atonement. This establishes the proper function of the mind and corrects its errors. All miracles are intercessions inspired by Christ. They intercede for man's holiness, and make his perceptions holy. They raise him into the sphere of celestial order by placing him beyond the physical laws. In this order, man is perfect. 33. Miracles honor man because he is lovable. They dispel illusions and perceive the light in him. Miracles atone for his errors by freeing him from his own nightmares. They release him from a prison that he made for himself. Man's mind can be possessed by illusions, but his spirit is eternally free. By freeing his mind from illusions, miracles restore man to sanity. If a mind perceives without love, it is unaware of the spirit within. But the Atonement restores spirit to its proper place. The mind that serves spirit is never in danger. 34. Miracles restore the mind to its fullness. They establish perfect protection by atoning for lack. The strength of the spirit leaves no room for intrusions. The forgiven are filled with the spirit, and they forgive in return. It is the duty of the released to release their brothers. The forgiven are the means of Atonement. Those released by Christ must join in releasing their brothers, for this is the plan of the Atonement. Miracles are the way in which minds which serve the spirit unite with Christ for the salvation (or release) of all God's creations. 35. Miracles are expressions of love, but it does not follow that miracles will always have observable effects. Jesus is the only one who can perform miracles without discrimination, because he is the Atonement. I have a role in the Atonement, which Jesus will dictate to me. I will ask Jesus which miracles I should perform. This spares me exhaustion, because I will act under direct communication.
OrEd-T-1.1-Principles of Miracles.21-27 21. Miracles are natural expressions of total forgiveness. Through miracles, man accepts God's forgiveness by extending it to others. 22. Miracles are associated with fear only because of the wrong belief that darkness can hide. Man believes that what he cannot see does not exist, and his physical eyes can't see in the dark. This is a solution that has led to the denial of the Holy Spirit. The escape from darkness involves two stages: A.The recognition that darkness cannot hide. This step usually brings fear. B.The recognition that there is nothing I want to hide, even if I could. This step brings escape from fear. 23. Miracles rearrange perception, and place the levels of perception in true perspective. This heals at all levels, because sickness comes from confusing the levels. When I become willing to hide nothing, then I am willing to enter into communion, and will also understand peace and joy. My commitment is not total yet, and that is why I still have more to learn than to teach. When my equilibrium stabilizes, I will be able to teach as much as I learn, which will give me proper balance. Until then, I remember that no effort is wasted. Unless I remember this, I cannot make use of the efforts of Jesus, which are limitless. Only eternity is real, but I can use the illusion of time in a constructive way. 24. Miracles enable man to heal the sick and raise the dead, because man made sickness and death himself and can abolish both. I am a miracle, capable of creating in the likeness of my Creator. Everything else is only a nightmare, and does not exist. Only the creations of light are real. 25. Miracles are part of an interlocking chain of forgiveness which, when complete, is the Atonement. This process works all the time and in all the dimensions of time. Jesus is in charge of the process of Atonement, which he began. When I offer a miracle to any of his brothers, I do it for myself and Jesus. The reason I come first is, Jesus does not need miracles for his own Atonement, but he stands at the end in case I temporarily fail. The purpose of Jesus' part in the Atonement is the canceling of all lacks of love which men could not otherwise correct. The word "sin" should be changed to "lack of love," because "sin" is a man-made word with threatening meanings which he made up himself. No real threat is involved anywhere. Making myself afraid gains me nothing, and is very destructive. 26. Miracles represent freedom from fear. "Atoning" means "undoing." The undoing of fear is a necessary part of the Atonement value of miracles. I was given everything when I was created, just as everyone was. The purpose of the Atonement is to restore everything to my awareness. When I have been restored to the recognition of my original state, I naturally become part of the Atonement myself. As I share Jesus' inability to tolerate lack of love in myself and others, I must join the Great Crusade to correct it. The slogan for the Crusade is "Listen, learn and do": Listen to Jesus' voice, learn to undo error and do something to correct it. The power to work miracles belongs to me. Jesus will provide the opportunities to do them. I am already able, but I must be ready and willing. Conviction comes through accomplishment. Doing miracles will bring conviction in the ability. The ability is the potential, the Atonement is the purpose, the achievement is the expression. 27. A miracle is a universal blessing from God through Jesus to all his brothers. It is the privilege of the forgiven to forgive. The disciples were specifically told to be physicians of the Lord and to heal others. They were also told to heal themselves, and were promised that Jesus would never leave them or forsake them. Atonement is the natural profession of the Children of God, because they have professed Jesus. "Heaven and earth shall pass away" simply means that they will not continue to exist as separate states. Jesus' word, which is the resurrection and the light, shall not pass away, because light is eternal. I am the work of God, and His work is wholly loving and wholly lovable. This is how a man must think of himself in his heart, because this is what he is.
OrEd-T-1.1-Principles of Miracles.1-20 1. There is no difference in difficulty in miracles. One is not "bigger" nor "harder" than another. All expressions of love are total. They are all the same. 2. Miracles of themselves do not matter. Their Source is all that matters, and It is far beyond human evaluation. 3. Miracles happen naturally as expressions of love. The miracle is the love that inspires them. Everything that comes from love is a miracle. 4. God is the Giver of life. All miracles support life. His Voice will specifically direct me. I will be told all I need to know. 5. Miracles are habits and should be involuntary. They should not be under conscious control. Consciously selected miracles can be misguided. 6. Miracles are natural. When they do not happen something has gone wrong. 7. Miracles are everyone's right, but it is necessary to first purify the mind. 8. Miracles are a form of healing. They are performed by those who temporarily have more for those who temporarily have less, and supply what is lacking. 9. Miracles are an exchange which reverses the physical laws. They bring more love miraculously to both giver and receiver, as do all loving expressions. 10. The use of miracles as spectacles to induce belief is wrong, and is a misunderstanding of their purpose. They are to be used for and by believers. 11. Prayer is the medium of miracles. Prayer is the natural communication of the created with the Creator. Through prayer, love is received, and through miracles, love is expressed. 12. Miracles are thoughts. Thoughts can be about lower or higher reality. This is the main difference between intellectualizing and thinking. The intellect makes the physical, and thinking creates the spiritual. Then, we believe in what we make or create. 13. Miracles are both beginnings and endings, supporting rebirth, which seems to go back, but really goes forward, changing time. In the present, miracles undo the past, and release the future. 14. Miracles show us the truth. They are believable because they come from belief. Without belief they become magic, which is mindless and harmful, and the uncreative use of mind. 15. Every day can be devoted to miracles. Time can be used to help man learn to use time wisely. Time is a teaching tool, and a means to a goal. Time will be finished when it no longer helps learning. 16. Miracles are teaching tools to show that giving is more blessed than receiving. They give strength to the giver and the receiver alike. 17. Miracles go beyond the body. They are shifts into Spirit, away from lower-order reality. That is how they heal. 18. A miracle is a service. It is the greatest service one individual can do for another. It is a way of loving my neighbor as myself. The doer sees his own worth, and his neighbor's worth, at the same time. 19. Miracles depend on co-operation. Miracles make minds one in God. The Sonship is the total of all God's creation. Miracles do not rest on the laws of time, but on the laws of eternity. 20. Spirit is the altar of truth, not the body. Miracles awaken the awareness of this truth, and lead to the healing power of the miracle.
OrEd-T-1.0-Forward and Introduction Forward: This course is a beginning, not an end. My Friend goes with me. I am not alone. No one who calls on Him can call in vain. Whatever troubles me, I am certain that He has the answer, and will gladly give it to me, if I turn to Him and ask. He will give all answers that I need for anything that seems to trouble me. He knows the way to solve all problems and resolve all doubts. His certainty is for me, and will be given to me. I only need to ask. I am as certain of arriving home as is the path of the sun. My pathway is even more certain, for it is not possible to change the course of those that Gad has called to Him. So, I obey my will, and follow Him. I accept His Voice that speaks of what I really want and really need. His is the Voice for God, and also for me. He speaks of truth and of freedom. (Workbook Epilogue: 1-2) Introduction: This is a course in miracles, and it is a required course. I cannot decide what the lessons will be, but I can decide when I want to take them. As my inheritance from God, love's meaning and presence cannot be learned. However, there are blocks of fear that hide love's presence from my awareness. The goal of this course is to learn to remove these blocks of fear. Fear seems to be the opposite of love, but love is All, and has no opposite. A summary of this course can be this: Love is never in danger, and only love exists. This is the peace of God.
OrEd-T-25.5-The Joining of Minds.mp3 32. Minds that are joined and recognize they are can feel no guilt. For they cannot attack, and seeing their safety in this happy fact, they rejoice that this is so. They seek for joy because it is their purpose to behold it and rejoice. Their joy is in the innocence they see. Everyone seeks for what brings him joy as he defines it. Yet, the way the aim is seen makes the choice of means inevitable. The choice of means is beyond hope of change, unless the aim is changed. Then the means are chosen once again. And what will bring rejoicing is defined another way and sought for differently. 33. Perception's basic law could be said, "I rejoice at what I see because I see it to rejoice." And while I think that suffering and sin will bring me joy, so long will they be there for me to see. Nothing is harmful or beneficent apart from what I wish. It is my wish that makes it what it is, in its effects on me. My choice is a means to gain these same effects, believing the effects to be the bringers of rejoicing and joy. Even in Heaven this law is true. Sharing his Father's purpose, the Son of God creates to bring joy, that his joy might be increased and God's along with his. 34. We makers of a world that is not so, will take rest and comfort in another world where peace abides. We bring this world with us for all the weary hearts that see and hear sin beat its sad refrain. Their rest can come from us. A world can rise from us they will rejoice to see and where their hearts are glad. There is a vision in us which extends to all of them and covers them in gentleness and light. And in the widening world of light, the darkness they thought was there is pushed away until it is only distant shadows, far away, not long to be remembered as the sun shines them to nothingness. And all their "evil" thoughts and "sinful" hopes, their dreams of guilt and merciless revenge, and every wish to hurt and kill and die will disappear before the sun we bring. 35. Would we not do this for the love of God? And for ourselves? We think what it would do for us. Our "evil" thoughts that haunt us now will seem increasingly remote and far away from us. And they become more distant, because the sun in us has pushed away these thoughts before its light. They linger a while in twisted forms, then are gone forever. We stand in quiet innocence, in the sunlight, unafraid. And quiet peace extends from us, so our peace can never fall and leave us homeless. Those who offer peace to everyone have a home in Heaven that the world cannot destroy. For within its peace, the home is large enough to hold the world. 36. In us is all of Heaven. Every leaf that falls is given life in us. Each bird that ever sang will sing again in us. And every flower that ever bloomed has saved its perfume and its loveliness for us. No aim can supersede the Will of God and of His Son. Heaven was created as his only home, and is restored to him. Nothing before and nothing after it. No other place, no other state nor time. Nothing beyond nor nearer. Nothing else. In any form. We can bring this to all the thoughts that entered the world, and were mistaken for a while. Our own mistakes are brought to truth by our willingness to bring the light of Heaven with us, as we walk beyond the world of darkness into light.
OrEd-T-25.4-Fundamental Law-Perception 23. The extent to which I value guilt, to that extent I will perceive a world in which attack is justified. The extent to which I recognize that guilt is meaningless, to that extent I will perceive attack cannot be justified. This is in strict accord with vision's fundamental law: I see what I believe is there, and I believe it is there because I want it there. Perception has no other law than this. The rest stems from this, to hold it up and offer it support. Adapted to this world, this is perception's form of God's more basic law, that love creates itself and nothing but itself. 24. This world could not have been created by the Mind for which perception has no meaning. Therefore, God's laws do not pertain directly to this world ruled by perception. Yet His laws are reflected everywhere here, though the world is not real at all. God could not separate Himself entirely from His son's belief, because His Son believes the world is real. God can not enter His Son's insanity with him, but He could be sure sanity went there with him, so the Son would not be lost forever in the madness of his wish. 25. Knowledge does not rest on choosing. Knowledge has only one Creator, and only one law. However, this world was made by two, and these two see things differently. To each, perception has a different purpose and serves a different goal. Perception is determined by the purpose and the goal I choose. Perception is the perfect frame to set off specialness--the battleground to wage its wars, the shelter for the illusions it would make real. Every illusion is upheld and justified in its perception. 26. There is another Maker of the world. It is the link to the laws of God, adapted to the needs the Son of God believes he has in form. He corrects the false belief that a world can be made without a link to keep it within the laws of God. Corrected error is the end of error. Thus God has protected His Son, even in error. In the world made by error, this other Maker has another purpose, that can reconcile perception's goal with His Creator's purpose. He perceives only perfect sinlessness, giving instant and complete forgiveness to all. 27. Nothing remains even an instant, to obscure the sinlessness that shines unchanged. Specialness attempts to put sinlessness out of mind, and light up the body instead. But the lamps of Heaven are not for specialness to see them where it will. If specialness chooses to see them where they could never be, and I agree, then the Maker of the world must correct my error, lest I remain in darkness. Everyone here has entered darkness, but not alone. For he has come with Heaven's Help within him, ready to lead him out of darkness into light at any instant. 28. The instant he chooses can be any instant, for help is there, awaiting only his choice. And when he chooses to avail himself of what is given him, he will see each situation that he thought justified anger before, turned into an event which justifies love. He will hear plainly that the calls to war he heard before are really calls to peace. He will perceive that where he attacked there is another altar where he can equally and happily bestow forgiveness. And he will reinterpret all temptation as just another chance to bring him joy. How can a misperception be a sin? I let all my brother's errors be a chance for me to see the workings of the Helper, helping me see the world He made, instead of mine. 29. What is justified? What do I want? These two questions are the same. And when I see them as the same, my choice is made. For it is seeing them as one that brings release from the belief that there are two ways to see. This world has much to offer to my peace, and many chances to extend my own forgiveness. Such is its purpose for those who want to see peace and forgiveness come to them, and offer them the light. 30. The Maker of the world of gentleness has perfect power to offset the world of violence and hate that seems to stand between me and His gentleness. There is no hate in His forgiving eyes. And it need not be in mine. Sin is the fixed belief perception cannot change. What has been damned is damned and damned forever, being forever unforgivable. If then it is forgiven, the perception of sin must have been a mistake. And thus change is made possible. The Holy Spirit knows that what He sees is far beyond the chance of change. Sin cannot encroach on His vision, for sin has been corrected by His sight. And thus it must have been an error, not a sin. What specialness claimed could never be, is done. Sin is always preserved when attacked by punishment. But to forgive is to change it from error into truth. 31. The Son of God could never sin, but he can wish for what would hurt him. And he is able to think that he can be hurt. But this could only be a misperception of himself. Is this a damning sin or a forgivable mistake? Does he need condemnation or help? Is it my purpose that he be damned or saved? I will remember that what my brother is to me, is my choice for my future. For I make this choice now, the instant when all time becomes a means to reach a goal. I will recognize that in this choice the purpose of the world I see is chosen and will be justified. Then I will make my choice.
OrEd-T-25.3-Savior From the Dark.2 17. The Holy Spirit is the frame God set around the part of Him that I would see as separate. Yet the frame is joined to its Creator, one with Him, and with His masterpiece. This is the frame's purpose, and I do not make the frame into the picture when I choose to see the Holy Spirit in place of the picture. The frame that God has given serves His purpose, and not my purpose which is apart from His. It is my separate purpose that obscures the picture, and cherishes the frame instead of the picture. God has set His masterpiece within a frame that will endure forever, when mine has crumbled into dust. Yet I will not think that the picture is in any way harmed. What God creates is safe from all corruption, unchanged and perfect in eternity. 18. As I accept the Holy Spirit as my brother's frame, instead of the body, I will see God's masterpiece. Seeing its loveliness, I understand the Mind that thought it, not in flesh and bones, but in a frame as lovely as Itself. The Holy Spirit's holiness lights up the sinlessness the frame of darkness hides, and casts a veil of light across the picture's face, and reflects the light that shines from the picture to its Creator. This face was never darkened because I saw it in a frame of death. God kept it safe, so I might look on it and see the holiness that He gave it. 19. Within the darkness, I see the savior from the dark, and understand my brother as our Father's Mind shows him to me. He will step out of the darkness as I look on him, and I will see the dark no more. The darkness did not touch him, nor me who brought him forth to see. Our sinlessness is one. His gentleness becomes my strength, and we gladly look within and see the holiness that is there, because of what I saw in my brother. He is the frame in which my holiness is set, and what God gave is given both of us. If my brother does not see the masterpiece in himself, and only sees a frame of darkness, it is my holy function to see in him what he does not see. This is the shared vision that looks on Christ, instead of seeing death. 20. How could the Lord of Heaven not be glad if I appreciate His masterpiece? He could only offer thanks to me who love His Son as he does. He would make known to me His love if I share His praise of what He loves. God cherishes creation as the perfect Father that He is. And His joy is made complete when any part of Him joins in His praise, and shares His joy. This brother is His perfect gift to me. And He is glad and thankful when I thank His Son for being what he is. And all His thanks and gladness shine on me who would complete His joy. And thus is my joy completed. No ray of darkness can be seen by those who make their Father's happiness complete and theirs with His. The gratitude of God Himself is freely offered to everyone who shares His purpose. It is not His Will, nor mine, to be alone. 21. By forgiving my brother, I cannot separate myself from him nor his Father. I need no forgiveness, for the wholly pure have never sinned. I give then, what He has given me, so I may see God's Son as one, thanking the Father as He thanks me. All God's praise is given me, for what I give is His, and giving it, I learn to understand His gift to me. And I give to the Holy Spirit what He offers to the Father and the Son alike. Nothing has power over me except His Will and mine, who only extend His Will. It was for this I was created and my brother with me, and at one with me. 22. We are the same, as God Himself is one, and not divided in His Will. And we must have one purpose, since God gave the same to both of us. His Will is brought together as we join in will, that we be made complete, by offering completion to our brother. I will not see in him the sinfulness he sees, but give him honor that I may esteem myself and him. To each of us is given the power of salvation, that escape from darkness into light is ours to share. May we see as one, what has never been separate, nor apart from all God's equally given love.
OrEd-T-25.3-Savior From the Dark.1 12. What the body's eyes perceive does fill me with fear. Perhaps I fancy to attain some peace and satisfaction in the world as I perceive it. Yet, it is evident the outcome does not change. Despair is always the result, despite my hopes and wishes. There is no exception, and never will be. The past gave me no rewards that I wish to keep. My learning this is the only value the past can have. This makes me willing to relinquish it and have it gone forever. 13. It is strange that I would cherish hope of satisfaction from the world I see. Fear and guilt has always been my reward. How long is needed for me to realize the chance of change in this respect is not worth delaying the change that might result in a better outcome? The way I see now gives no support to future hope and success. This makes me hopeless. Yet this is my choice, while I seek for hope where none is ever found. 14. But it is also true that I have found some hope apart from this--some glimmering, wavering, yet dimly seen, that hope is warranted on grounds that are not in this world. But, I still hope that rewards may still be here, preventing me from giving up the hopeless, unrewarding task I set for myself. It does not make sense to keep doing what has never succeeded, believing that this time it will be different. 15. The past has failed. I am glad that it is gone from my mind. Because form is only a means for content, now I must not confuse form and content. The frame is only a means to hold up a picture so it can be seen. There is no purpose to a frame that hides the picture. If the frame is all I see, it cannot be a frame. A frame without a picture has no meaning. The purpose of a frame is to show the picture. 16. Who hangs an empty frame, and stands gazing as if seeing a masterpiece? Yet, if I see my brother as a body, this is what I do. The masterpiece that God set within the frame (his body), is all there is to see. The body holds it for a while without obscuring it in any way. Yet, what God created needs no frame, for He supports and frames within Himself what He created. He offers His masterpiece for me to see. I would rather see God's masterpiece than the frame.
OrEd-T-25.2-The Appointed Task 4. The task that Christ appointed to me is not hard to do, for He is the one Who does it. And in doing it I will learn the body only seems to be the means to do it. For the Mind is Christ's, and mine, as His holiness directs the body through the mind at one with Him. And I am manifest to my holy brother, as he is to me. This is the meeting of the holy Christ with Himself. No differences are perceived to stand between the aspects of His holiness, which meet and join, and raise Him to His Father, whole and pure and worthy of His everlasting Love. 5. The way I can manifest the Christ in myself is to look on holiness and see Christ there. Perception tells me that I am manifest in what I see--look on the body, and I will believe that I am there. And every body that I look on reminds me of myself--my sinfulness, my evil, and above all, my death. And I would despise the one who tells me this and seek his death instead. The message and the messenger are one. And framed in his body, I must see my brother as myself, sinful and condemned. Yet in my brother's holiness, the Christ proclaims himself as myself. 6. Perception is the choice of what I want to be, the world I will live in, and the mental condition that will make me content and satisfied. At my decision, perception chooses where I think my safety lies. It shows myself to me as I want to be. It is always faithful to my purpose. Perception never gives the slightest witness to anything that does not follow the purpose in my mind. Perceiving perception itself is part of my purpose, for means and end are not separate. This is how I learn that what seems to have a separate life, has no life. 7. I am the means for God--not separate, nor with a life apart from His. His Life is manifest in myself who is His Son. Each aspect of Himself is framed in holiness and perfect purity, in love celestial and so complete it wishes only that it may release all that it looks upon unto itself. Its radiance shines through each body that it looks upon and brushes all darkness into light merely by looking past it to the light. The veil is lifted through its gentleness, and nothing hides the face of Christ from those who see. My brother and I stand there before Him now, to let Him draw aside the veil that seems to keep us separate and apart. 8. Since we believe that we are separate, Heaven seems separate too. Not that it is in truth, but so the link that is given to join the truth may reach us through what we already understand. Father, Son, Holy Spirit are as One, as all our brothers join as one in truth. Christ and His Father never have been separate, and Christ abides within our understanding in the part of us that shares the Father's Will. The Holy Spirit links the other part, the tiny mad desire to be separate, different, and special, to the Christ, to make the oneness clear to what is really one. In this world, this is not understood but can be taught. 9. The Holy Spirit serves Christ's purpose in my mind, so that the aim of specialness can be corrected where the error is. The Holy Spirit knows the Will of God, and what I really will, because His purpose is one with both the Father and the Son. However, this is understood only by mind perceived and experienced as one. It is the Holy Spirit's function to teach me what I must do, and where I should go to do it, so this oneness is experienced. 10. All this speaks of time and place as if they were separate. For while I think a part of myself is separate, the concept of a oneness joined as one is meaningless. It is apparent that a mind so split could never be the teacher of Oneness which unites all things within itself. So That which is within the mind, and does unite all things together, must be its Teacher. And, this Teacher must use language which the mind, in the condition it thinks it is in, can understand. 11. What is the same cannot be different, And what is one cannot have separate parts.
OrEd-T-25.1-Introduction, The Remedy 1. The Christ in me does not inhabit a body. He is in me, so it must be that I am not within a body. What is within cannot be without. And it is certain that I cannot be apart from what is at the very center of my life. What gives me life cannot be housed in death. No more can I be housed in death. Christ is within a frame of holiness. It's only purpose is so He may be made manifest to those who do not know Him. That He may call to them to come to Him, and see Him where they thought their bodies were. Then will their bodies melt away, that they may frame His holiness within themselves. 2. Everyone who carries Christ within him recognizes Him everywhere--except in bodies. As long as we believe we are in bodies, we carry him unknowingly, and do not make Him manifest. And we do not recognize Him where He is. Yet the Son of God walks with us, plain to see within our holiness, as specialness is seen within the body. 3. The body needs no healing. The mind that thinks it is a body is sick and in need of healing. Christ gives the remedy in the mind. His purpose of peace folds the body in His light, filling it with holiness that shines from Him. Then everything that the body says or does makes Him manifest. To those who do not know Him, the light carries Him in gentleness and love to heal their minds. This is the mission my brother has for me. And it is the mission I have for him.
OrEd-T-24.8-The Meeting Place.2 68. A co-creator must have a Son. This Son must have been created like it's father, a perfect being, all-encompassing and all-encompassed, nothing to add and nothing taken away. It is not born of size nor weight nor time nor held to limits or uncertainties of any kind. Here the means and end unite as one. This one has no end. All this is true, but has no meaning to one with uncertain purpose, divided aim, and/or an unlearned lesson in his memory. 69. This course only attempts to teach what can be learned easily. Its scope does not exceed mine. What is mine will come to me when I am ready. Here, the means and the purpose are separated. They were made so, are so perceived, and we deal with them as if they are separate. Perception does not seem to be a means. But it witnesses to what I taught, and seems to show me what I 'see'. All perception is upside down until its purpose has been understood. My perception depends on the purpose I see for it. Perception is the outward picture of a wish--an image that I want to be true. 70. I look at myself, and I see a body. I look at this body in different lights and it looks different. And without a light, it seems to be gone. I am reassured that it is there, because I can feel it with my hands and feel it move. The body gives me the eyes to look on it, the hands to feel it, the ears to hear the sounds it makes. It self-proves its reality to me. This is the image that I want to be myself. The body is the means to make my wish come true. 71. Thus the body is made a theory of myself, with no evidence beyond itself, and no escape within its sight. The body's course is sure when seen through its own eyes. It grows and withers, flourishes and dies. The body is branded sinful. Its acts are hated and judged as evil. And I cannot conceive of myself apart from it. Yet specialness whispers, 'Here is my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased.' Thus the 'son' becomes the means to serve his 'father's' purpose. Not identical, not even like, but still a means to offer to the 'father' what he wants. So the body testifies to the 'reality and truth' of the idea that made it. Such is the travesty on God's creation. Gods Son's creation gave Him joy, witnessed to His love, and shared His purpose. 72. Thus two sons are made. Each seems to walk this earth with no encounter with the other, and no meeting-place. One, I see outside myself, my own beloved son (body/world). The other is resting within, His Father's Son, within my brother as in me. Their difference does not lie in how they look, where they go, or even what they do. Their difference lies in purpose. The Son of God keeps His Father's Will and purpose. It is this that joins them to ones like themselves, and separates them from everything with a different purpose. But, the son of man wants an alien will, and perceives it to be true. Perception serves his special wish by giving it the appearance of truth. But specialness does not bind perception. By my choice, perception can serve another goal, and a different purpose. And I will perceive that which will prove its own reality and truth to me.
OrEd-T-24.8-The Meeting Place.1 62. Everyone tied to this world defends the specialness he wants to be the truth! Its wish is law to him, and he obeys. He provides everything his specialness demands. He loves it, and denies nothing it needs. While it calls to him, he hears no other Voice. And he protects it from attack with every resource available. This is my son, beloved of me as I am to my Father. However, it has taken the place of my creations, who are son to me, that I might share the Fatherhood of God, not take it from Him. What is this son that I have made to be my strength? What is this child of earth I love so much? What is this parody of God's creation that takes the place of my creations? And where are my creations, now that the host of God has found another son which he prefers to them? 63. The memory of God does not shine alone. All of creation is contained within my brother, everything created and creating, born and unborn, still in the future, or apparently gone by. What is in my brother is changeless, and my changelessness is recognized by acknowledging his. The holiness in me belongs to him. And it returns to me by my seeing it in him. All of the tribute I have given specialness belongs to my brother, and thus it returns to me. All of the love, care, strong protection, concern, thoughtfulness, and the conviction specialness is myself, belongs to my brother. Everything I gave to specialness belongs to my brother, and to me. 64. I cannot know my worth while specialness claims me instead. My worth is in my brother's holiness. I will not seek to make my specialness the truth, for it it were, I would surely be lost. I am thankful, rather, it is given me to see my brother's holiness because it is the truth. And what is true in him must be as true in me. 65. Can I protect the mind? The body, yes, a little--not from time, but temporarily. And much that I think I save, I hurt instead. What would I save it for? For in that choice lie both the body's health and harm. If I save it for show, as bait to catch another fish, to house my specialness in better style, or weave a frame of loveliness around my hate, I condemn the body to decay and death. And if I see this purpose in my brother's body, I condemn mine as well. Instead, I will weave a frame of holiness around him, that truth may shine on him and give us both safety from decay. 66. The Father keeps what He created safe. I cannot touch God's creation with the false ideas I made, because it was not created by me. I will not let my foolish fancies frighten me. What is immortal cannot be attacked, and what is temporal has no effect. Only the purpose of anything I see has meaning, and if the purpose is true, its safety rests secure. If not, it has no purpose and is means for nothing. Whatever is perceived as means for truth shares in its holiness and rests in light as safely as truth itself. Nor will that light go out when it is gone. Its holy purpose gave it immortality, setting another light in Heaven, where my creations recognize a gift from me, a sign that I have not forgotten them. 67. The test of everything on earth is simply this: "What is it for?" This answer makes it what it is for me. It has no meaning of itself, yet I can give it reality according to the purpose which I serve. Here I am only means, along with it. God is a Means as well as End. In Heaven, means and end are one, and one with Him. This is the state of true creation, not found within time, only in eternity. No one here can understand this, nor is there any way to learn what this condition means. Not till I go past learning to the Given, not till I make again a holy home for my creations is it understood.
OrEd-T-24.7-Salvation From Fear.2 55. Eternity is regained by recognizing the Christ in my brother. I must choose between his body or his holiness, as what I will see. My salvation and peace are only in his holiness, not in a body. God set Himself forever in my brother's holiness, that I mighty see the truth about myself in terms I recognize and understand. I will choose in countless situations, throughout seemingly endless time, until the truth is my decision. 56. Specialness looks on my brother's body and does not see him. The Christ in me beholds my brother's holiness as sacrament and benediction to me, but my brother's mistakes can cause delay. They are for me to take from him, so we both may end a journey that never began, and needs no end. His errors do not withhold God's blessing from him, nor from me who see him truly. Until I realize that the body is not a part of him who stands beside me, I will think the body is a part of me. My brother is the mirror of myself, where I see the judgment I have laid on both of us. 57. Futility of function not fulfilled will haunt me, till what has been assigned to me is done, and my brother, who lies asleep, is risen from the past. The other choice offers me a senseless wandering, without a purpose and without accomplishment of any kind. I mistook a body to be my brother, bound to laws that have no power over him at all. He, who condemned himself, and me as well, is given to me to save from condemnation along with me. I will see my brother as what he is, so my deliverance may be soon. And we both shall see God's glory in His Son! 58. I will never doubt that my specialness will disappear before the Will of God, Who loves each part of Himself with equal love and care. It cannot be that what governs part of God does not apply to all the rest. However, I place myself under the same laws I see as ruling my brother. Gladly I would realize these laws are not for me, then I will not see my brother as prisoner to them. I will think how great God's love for me must be, that He has given me a part of Himself to save from pain, and give me happiness. I would decide for the holiness He sees. The Christ in me can see my brother truly. 59. Specialness is the function I gave myself, self-created and maintained, and joined with nothing beyond the body. In its eyes, I am a separate universe, complete within itself, with no opening to the light. I have pursued this goal with ceaseless effort and attachment, unyielding vigilance, and with anger always fully justified. And all this grim determination was for this--I wanted specialness to be the truth. 60. Now, I am asked to choose another goal. This pursuit requires little effort, far less time and vigilance, and it has the power of God maintaining it and promising success. Yet, the second goal is the one I resist, and find more difficult. I find acknowledging God, and greeting the Christ in me, a wearisome burden, too tedious and heavy to be borne. The 'sacrifice' of self I understand, nor do I deem this cost too heavy. Yet, no sacrifice or strain is required for dedication to the truth as God established it. All the power of Heaven and the might of truth is given to provide the means, and guarantee the goal's accomplishment. 61. Specialness judges that it is easier to see my brother's body than it is to see his holiness. The voice of specialness is heard clearly, judging against the Christ. It sets my purpose for me, what I can attain, and what I cannot do. I must remember that this judgment applies to all I do with specialness as my ally. Yet, specialness does not know what Christ does through me. To Christ, this judgment makes no sense at all, for only what His Father wills is possible. There is no alternative for Him to see. His lack of conflict becomes my peace. And His purpose brings the means for effortless accomplishment and rest.
OrEd-T-24.7-Salvation from Fear.1 49. The world is still before my brother's holiness. Peace and blessings descend gently on the world, so complete not one trace of conflict remains to haunt me in the night. My brother is my savior from the dreams of fear. He heals my sense of sacrifice and fear, that what I have will disappear. In him is my assurance God is here, and with me now. While my brother is what he is, I can be sure that God is knowable and will be known to me. For God could never leave His own creation. And the sign that this is so lies in my brother, offered to me that all my doubts about myself may disappear before his holiness. I see God's creation in him. For in my brother, his Father waits for my acknowledgment, that He created me as part of Him. 50. Without me there would be a lack in God, a Heaven incomplete, a Son without a Father. There could be no universe and no reality. For what God wills is whole and part of Him, because His Will is One. Everything alive is part of Him, and everything that is, is alive in Him. My brother's holiness shows me that God is one with him and me--that what he has is mine. I am not separate from him nor from his Father. 51. Everything is given to me in all the universe. Everything that God created, He has laid before me lovingly as mine forever. And every thought within His Mind is present in my own mind. It is His Will that I share His love for me, and look upon myself as lovingly as He conceived of me before the world began, and as He knows me still. God does not change His mind about His Son with passing circumstances. They have no meaning in eternity where He abides and I with Him. My brother is as God created him, and this saves me from a world that God did not create. 52. If I use the world for what is not its purpose, I will not escape its laws of violence and death. Yet, it is given me to be beyond the world's laws in all respects, in every way, and every circumstance--in all temptation to perceive what is not there, and all belief that God's Son can suffer, because he does not see himself as he is. I will remember that the healing of God's Son is all the world is for. That is the only purpose the Holy Spirit sees in it, and truly the only one it has. I will know the Father, and myself, when all I wish to be accomplished by the world, by time, and all appearances, is the healing of the Son. 53. I will not let my brother's specialness obscure the truth in him. I will not escape one law of death I bind to him, and every sin I see in him keeps us both in hell. I will look on my brother, and behold in him the whole reversal of the laws that seem to rule this world. I will see my freedom in his freedom, for such it is. My brother's perfect sinlessness will release us both, for holiness is quite impartial. One judgment is made for everything that lives and shares His Being, and this judgment is made by the Voice that speaks for God. 54. It is God's sinlessness that seeing eyes can see. It is God's loveliness that they see in everything. And it is He they look for everywhere, and they find no place, nor time where He is not. My brother's holiness is the perfect frame for my salvation and the world's. In it is set the shining memory of Him in Whom my brother lives, and I along with him. I will not let my eyes be blinded by the veil of specialness that hides the face of Christ from me and my brother. And I will not let the fear of God block the vision I was meant to see. My brother's body does not reveal the Christ to me, for Christ is seen within his holiness.
OrEd-T-24.6-Resolution of the Dream.mp3 40. The Christ in me is very still. He looks on what He loves and knows it as Himself. And He rejoices at what He sees, because He knows that it is one with Him and with His Father. Specialness, too, takes joy in what it sees, although it is not true. Yet, what it seeks is a source of joy as I conceive joy. What I wish is true for me. It is not possible that I can wish for something, and lack faith that it is so. Wishing makes real, as surely as willing creates. The power of a wish upholds illusions, just as much as love extends itself, except that one deludes, and the other heals. 41. However lovely the dream may seem to be, however much it offers hope of peace, escape from pain, freedom from self condemnation, however hidden or disguised the form--there is no dream of specialness. In dreams, effect and cause are interchanged, for the maker of the dream believes that what he made is happening to him. He does not realize he picked a thread from here, a scrap from there, and wove a picture out of nothing. For the parts do not belong together, and the whole contributes nothing to the parts to give them meaning. 42. Where could my peace arise except in forgiveness? The Christ in me looks only on the truth and sees no condemnation that could need forgiveness. He is at peace, because He sees no sin. If I identify with Him, I have everything that He has. He is my eyes, my ears, my hands, my feet. How gentle are the sights He sees, the sounds He hears. How beautiful His hand that holds His brother's hand, and how lovingly Christ walks beside him, showing him what can be seen and heard, and where he will see nothing, and hear no sound. 43. Yet, if I let my specialness direct his way, I will follow. And we both will walk in danger, each intent to lead the other to a nameless precipice and hurl him over it, in the dark forest of the sightless, unlit except by tiny gleams from fireflies of sin that spark an instant and then go out. For specialness leads only to destruction, delights to kill and seeks the sight of death. However, specialness did not look on my brother first, hating him before it hated me. The sin its eyes beheld in him, it saw in me, and still looks on with joy. Yet, it is not joyful to look on decay and madness, and believe this crumbling thing is like myself, with flesh already loosened from the bone and sightless holes for eyes. 44. I rejoice that I have no eyes with which to see, no ears to listen, and no hands to hold nor feet to guide. I am glad that Christ can lend me His, while I have need of them. His are illusions, too, as well as mine. And yet they serve a very different purpose, and the strength of that purpose is given to them. And the perceptions Christ lends to me see, hear, hold, lead, and are given light, that I may lead as I was led. 45. The Christ in me is very still. He knows where I am going, and He leads me all the way in gentleness and blessing. His love for God replaces the fear I thought I saw in myself. Christ's holiness shows me Himself in my brother, whose hand I hold and lead to Christ. And what I see is like myself. For there is only Christ to see and hear, to love and follow home. He looked upon me first, and recognized that I was not complete. And so He sought for my completion in each living thing that He beholds and loves. And He seeks it still, that each might offer me the love of God. *46. Christ is quiet, for He knows that love is in me now, safely held in me by the same hand that is holding my brother's hand. Christ's hand holds all His brothers in Himself. He gives them vision for their sightless eyes, and sings to them of Heaven, that their ears may hear no more the sounds of battle and of death. He reaches through them, holding out His hand that everyone may bless all living things and see their holiness. Christ offers me His perfect lack of specialness, and my forgiveness offers it to my Self, so I may save all living things from death, receiving from each one the gift of life. And He rejoices that these sights are mine to look upon with Him and share His joy. The sight of Christ is all there is to see. The song of Christ is all there is to hear. The hand of Christ is all there is to hold. The only journey is to walk with Him. 47. I, who would be content with specialness, and seek salvation in a war with love, must consider this: The holy Lord of Heaven Himself has come to offer to me my own completion. What is His is mine, because my completion is His Completion. God did not will to be without His Son, and He could never will that I be brotherless. And so, He gave to me a brother as perfect as myself, and just the same as Christ in holiness. 48. Before there can be conflict there must be doubt, and every doubt must be about myself. Christ has no doubt, and His quiet comes from His certainty. If I agree that our Oneness is within my grasp, timeless, endless, He will exchange His certainty for all my doubts. He walks before and beside me, leading the way that He must go to find Himself complete. He is within me. His quietness becomes my certainty, ending all doubt.
OrEd-T-24.5-Specialness and Salvation 34. Specialness is a lack of trust in anyone except myself, for faith is invested in myself. Everything else becomes my enemy, feared, dangerous, hated and worthy of destruction. Whatever gentleness it offers is only a deception, but its hate is real. In danger of destruction, it must kill, and I am drawn to it to kill it first. And such is guilt's attraction. Here, death is enthroned as savior, crucifixion is redemption now, and salvation is destruction of the world, except myself. 35. Specialness is the purpose of the body. And it is this that makes it frail and helpless in its own defense. It was conceived to make me frail and helpless. The goal of separation is the body's curse. Yet, bodies have no goal. Purpose is of the mind. Minds cannot change their attributes and what they are, but what they hold as purpose can be changed as they desire, and the body's states must shift accordingly. Of itself the body can do nothing. If I see it as means to hurt, the body is hurt. If I see it as means to heal, the body is healed. 36. I can only hurt myself. This has been said before, but it is still difficult to grasp. To minds intent on specialness, it is meaningless and impossible. Yet to those minds wishing to heal and not attack, it is true and obvious. The purpose of attack, or healing, is in the mind, and the effects are felt in the mind. The mind is not limited, so harmful purpose hurts the mind as one. This makes no sense at all to specialness. But it makes perfect sense to miracles. For miracles are merely the change of purpose from hurt to healing. 37. The faith that I have given to specialness has left me bankrupt, and my treasure house empty, with an open door inviting everything that would disturb my peace to enter and destroy. Yet, no comfort has ever been in illusions. Would I keep from my Father the gift He asks of me, and give it to specialness instead? Given to Him, the universe is mine. Offered to illusions, no gifts can be returned. This shift in purpose does "endanger" specialness, but only in the sense that all illusions are "threatened" by the truth. Illusions cannot stand before the truth. 38. I will not consider how to reach the attainment of salvation. But, I will consider, and consider well, whether it is my wish that I see my brother sinless. To specialness the answer must be "no, never." Sin, if it were possible, would be its friend, and a sinless brother is its enemy. My brother's sins justify my specialness, and give it the meaning that truth denies. However, if he is sinful, then my reality is only a dream of specialness, which lasts an instant and crumbles into dust. All that is false proclaims his sins are real. All that is real proclaims he is sinless. 39. In this shifting world which has no real meaning, only this is certain: When I suffer pain of any kind, and/or when peace is not with me entirely, I will have seen some sin within my brother. Because of his sin, my specialness seems safe and I rejoice. And thus, I crucify the one God has given me, and save what I appointed to be my savior instead. And specialness is his 'enemy' as well as mine. So I am bound with him, for we are one. I do not wish to defend this senseless dream in which I remain beyond salvation, and God is bereft of what He loves.
OrEd-T-24.4-Forgiveness of Specialness. 26. Forgiveness is the end of specialness. Forgiveness is release from all illusions, and that is why it is impossible to forgive partly. Whoever clings to illusions, keeping just one error for himself as still lovely, cannot see himself as sinless. He makes the error a sin, and calls it "unforgivable". He cannot wholly forgive, because he would not receive forgiveness for himself. For he would surely receive complete forgiveness the moment he gave it. His secret guilt would disappear, forgiven by himself. Illusions disappear when they are forgiven. 27. My cherished form of specialness, I have made a sin. Inviolate it stands, strongly defended with all my puny might against the Will of God. And so it stands against myself, my enemy, not God's. It seems to split me off from God, making me separate from Him, as its defender. I would protect what God did not create. And yet this idol that seems to give me power, has taken my power away. For I have given my brother's birthright to this idol, leaving him alone and unforgiven, and myself in sin beside him, both of us in misery before the idol that cannot save us. 28. Just a word, a little whisper that I don't like, a circumstance that doesn't suit me, or an event that I did not anticipate, upsets my world and hurls it into chaos. My world can be thrown off balance by anything. However, truth is not vulnerable, frail, open to attack, and that is the truth in me. Truth is perfectly unmoved and undisturbed by illusions. Specialness rests on nothing and can never be stable. It must tip and turn and whirl about with every breeze, no matter how big it seems to be. 29. Without foundation nothing is secure. Would God have left His Son in such a state, where safety has no meaning? No, His Son is safe, resting in Him. It is only my specialness that is attacked, by everything that walks, breathes, creeps or crawls, or even lives at all. Nothing is safe from its attack, and it is safe from nothing. It will forever more be unforgiving, for that is what it is--a secret vow that what God wants for me will never be and that I will oppose His Will forever. Nor is it possible that God and His Son can ever be the same if specialness stands between them, making them "enemies." 30. God asks for my forgiveness. He would have no alien will of separation rise between what He wills for me and what I will. Our wills are the same, for neither one wills specialness. They could not will the death of love itself. Yet, they are powerless to make attack upon illusions. They are not bodies. As One Mind they wait for all illusions to be brought to them and left behind. Salvation does not even challenge death. And God, Who knows that death is not really my will, must say, "Thy will be done," because I think it is my will. 31. I forgive the great Creator of the universe, the Source of life, of love and holiness, the perfect Father of a perfect Son. I forgive Him for my illusions of my specialness. Here is the hell I chose to be my home, for He didn't choose this for me, and I do not ask that He enter here. The way is barred to love and to salvation. Yet, if I will release my brother from the depths of hell, I have forgiven God, Whose Will it is I rest forever in the arms of peace, in perfect safety, and with not one thought of specialness, hate or malice, to mar my rest. I forgive the Holy One the specialness He could not give, and which I made instead. 32. The special ones are all asleep, surrounded by a world of loveliness they do not see. Freedom, peace and joy stand beside the place where they sleep, calling them to come forth and waken from their dream of death. Yet they hear nothing. They are lost in dreams of specialness. They hate the call that would awaken them, and they curse God because He did not make their dream reality. Curse God and die, but only in the dream, for God did not make death. I will open my eyes a little and see the savior God gave to me, that I might look on him and give him back his birthright. It is mine. 33. The slaves of specialness will be free. Such is the Will of God and of His Son. God would not condemn Himself to hell and to damnation. And I do not will that this be done to my savior. God calls to me from my brother, to join His Will, and save us both from hell. He ask of me only that my will be done. I see the print of nails upon his hands that he holds out for my forgiveness. God asks my mercy on His Son and on Himself. The print of nails are on my hands as well. They ask for my love that I may love myself. I will not deny them. I will not love my specialness instead of them. I forgive my Father, for it was not His will that I be crucified.
OrEd-T-24.3-Treachery of Specialness.2 19. I will think of the loveliness that I will see in myself, when I have looked on my brother as a friend. He is the enemy of my specialness, but only a friend to what is real in me. The attack I thought I made on him did not take away the gift that God would have him give to me. His need to give it is as great as mine to have it. I let him forgive me all my specialness, making me whole, one in mind with him. He waits for my forgiveness so he can return it back to me. It is not God, but only me, who has condemned God's Son, in order to save the Son's specialness and kill his divine Self. 20. I have come too far along the way of truth to falter now. Just one more step and every remnant of the fear of God will melt away in love. Mine and my brother's specialness are enemies, denying they are the same, and bound to kill each other in hate. God and His Heaven seem remote and unreachable to the illusions of ourselves that have reached this final obstacle. However, here in this holy place, truth stands waiting to receive us both with silent blessing. I leave all illusions of myself outside this place, and come in honesty and hope. Outside this real and all encompassing peace, there is nothing. 21. The savior from my specialness is here. He needs my acceptance of him as part of myself, and I need the same acceptance from him. We are like to God as God is like to Himself. God is not special, for He would not keep any part of what He is for Himself alone, but gives all He is to His Son. He willed His Son be like Him. So, my brother is not special, like myself, and possesses everything, including myself. And it is this I fear. 22. Let me remember that God gave Himself to both of us in equal love, that we might share the universe with Him. God chose that love could never be divided and kept separate from what it is and will be forever. I will give to my brother only what he has. I am my brother's, for a part of love was not denied to him. I have no loss because he is complete. What has been given him makes me complete, as it does him. God's love gave me to my brother, and him to me, because God gave Himself to us. What is the same as God is one with Him, with the hope of peace in sight at last. Only specialness could make the truth that God and we are one, seem anything but Heaven. 23. Any gift of love that has the seal of specialness on it offers only treachery to the giver and the receiver. Any relationship that holds dear the purpose of specialness clings to murder as safety's weapon. Each believer in its power serves it faithfully, seeking for bargains and for compromise that would establish sin as the substitute for love. It is the great defender of all illusions from the "threat" of love. Specialness is the seal of treachery upon the gift of love, where veiled eyes look upon sights of death. 24. The hope of specialness makes it seem possible that God made the body as the prison-house which keeps His Son from Him. For specialness demands a special place where God cannot enter, and a hiding-place where none is welcome but my tiny self. Everything here is sacred only unto me and me alone, apart and separate from all my brothers, safe from all intrusions of sanity upon illusions, safe from God, and safe for everlasting conflict. Here, I closed the gates of hell upon myself, to rule my special kingdom in madness and in loneliness, apart from God, away from truth, and away from my salvation. 25. The key I threw away God gave to my brother, whose holy hands would offer it to me when I am ready to accept God's plan for my salvation, instead of mine. This readiness could only be reached through the experience of all my misery, and the awareness that my plan has failed to bring me peace and joy of any kind, and will fail forever. I travel through this despair now, yet it is only an illusion of despair. The death of specialness is not my death, but my awakening into life eternal. I emerge from an illusion of what I am, to the acceptance of myself as God created me.
OrEd-T-24.3-Treachery of Specialness.1 12. Specialness always makes comparisons. It is established by a lack seen in another, and maintained by searching for and keeping in clear sight all lacks it can perceive. Specialness seeks and looks on this. Comparison is an ego device, for love makes no comparisons. And always, the one it diminishes would be my savior, if I had not chosen to make him a tiny measure of my specialness instead. Against the littleness I see in him, I stand tall and stately, clean and honest, pure and unsullied by comparison with what I see in him. I do not understand that it is myself I diminish. 13. I cannot attack my savior, and recognize his strong support. I cannot detract from his omnipotence and still share his power. And I cannot use him as the measure of littleness, and be released from limits myself. The pursuit of specialness must bring me pain. Here is a goal that runs counter to the Will of God and wills to defeat salvation. To value specialness is to follow this alien will, where illusions of myself are loved more than the truth. The loss of peace is the cost of pursuing specialness. But, pursuit of my function in salvation will bring me joy. 14. Specialness is the idea of sin made real. Sin is impossible even to imagine without this base. For sin arose from specialness out of nothingness, an evil flower with no roots at all. Here is the self-made "savior," the "creator" who creates unlike the Father, and which made God's Son like itself, and not like the Father. His "special" sons are many, never one, each in exile from Him of Whom they are a part, and from themselves. They do not love the Oneness Which created them as one with Him. They chose their specialness instead of Heaven, and instead of peace, and wrapped it carefully in sin to keep it "safe" from truth. 15. I am not special. If I think I am special, and defend my specialness against the truth of what I am, then I cannot know the truth. Nothing that the Holy Spirit gives can reach me, for I listen to my specialness, which asks and answers its own questions. Its tiny answer is all I hear. Yet, there is a melody that pours from God to me eternally, a vast song of honor and loving praise for what I am, which makes the voice of specialness soundless. I strain my ears to hear the voice of specialness, and yet the Call of God Himself is soundless to me. 16. The two voices speak different languages, and they are heard by different ears. To each special one a different message with a different meaning, is given as the truth. Yet, how can truth be different for each one? The special messages that the special hear convince them they are different and apart--each in his special sins, "safe" from love. But love does not see specialness at all. Christ's vision is their "enemy," for it does not see what they would see. It would show them that the specialness they think they see is an illusion. They can defend their specialness, but they will never hear the Voice for God beside it. What could they see instead of specialness? 17. They could see the shining radiance of the Son of God, so like his Father that the memory of the Father springs instantly to mind. And with this memory, the Son remembers his own creations, as like to him as he is to his Father. And all the world he made, and all his specialness, and all the sins he held in defense against himself, will vanish as his mind accepts the truth about himself as truth returns. This is the only cost of truth: I will no longer see what never was, nor hear what makes no sound. It is no sacrifice to give up nothing and to receive the love of God forever. 18. I who have chained my savior to my specialness, and given his place to it, must remember this: He has not lost the power to forgive me all the sins I think I placed between him and the function of salvation given him for me. Nor will I change his function, any more than I can change the truth in him and in myself. But I am certain that the truth is just the same in both. Truth does not give different messages and has only one meaning. And it is a meaning we both can understand, and which brings release to both of us. Here stands my brother with the key to Heaven in his hand held out to me. I will not let the dream of specialness remain between us. What is one is joined in truth.
OrEd-T-24.2-Specialness, a Sub. for Love 3. Love is extension. To give the smallest gift is to know love's purpose. Love offers everything forever. Hold back only one belief, one offering, and love is gone, because I asked a substitute to take its place. The substitute for peace is war. War comes with the alternative that I choose for love. And choosing the alternative gives it all the reality it seems to have. 4. Conflicting outcomes are impossible, so beliefs will never openly attack each other. But an unrecognized belief is a decision to war in secret, where the results of conflict are kept hidden, never brought to reason to be considered sensible or not. And many senseless outcomes have been reached, and meaningless decisions have been made and kept hidden to become beliefs, now given power to influence all subsequent decisions. These hidden warriors have the power to disrupt my peace. While I decide to keep the belief, my peace is at their mercy. My smallest decision to choose attack instead of love calls forth these secret enemies. They are swift to challenge me to combat and to violence far more inclusive than I realize. I must not deny their presence nor their terrible results. All that can be denied is their reality. 5. The special are different from their brothers, so only they could have enemies. Their differences make orders of reality, and also the need to judge. Specialness is cherished as a hidden belief, unrecognized yet defended. This takes many forms, but it always clashes with the reality of God's creation, and with the grandeur He gave His Son. 6. Differences call for judgment from "above"--someone "better," different from what he judges, and sinless by comparison. Specialness becomes a means and an end at the same time. For it separates, and is grounds for attack as "natural" and "just", on those who seem beneath the special one. The special ones feel weak because of differences, for what would make them special is their enemy. Yet they protect and call it "friend", and nothing in the world they value more. Yet, what God created cannot be attacked, for everything in the universe is alike. Who could hate someone whose Self is his, and who knows God? 7. Specialness is the great dictator of wrong decisions. This is the grand illusion of what I am and what my brother is, and it makes the body dear and worth preserving. So the body must be defended, for illusions can, and do attack specialness and the body. For me to keep my specialness, my brother must become "worse" than me, and be attacked so my specialness can live on his defeat. My brother cannot live with all my sins upon him, and I am his conquerer. My specialness is triumphant. 8. Specialness can never share, for it depends on goals that only I can reach. And my brother must never reach them, or my goal is jeopardized. If I were like him, it would not be possible for me to hate my brother. I could not attack him if I realized we journey together to the same goal. I would help him to reach it in every way I could, for his attainment of the goal is perceived as mine. I am his friend in a shared purpose. But I am his enemy in specialness. Love can have no meaning where the goal is triumph. Any decision made for triumph will hurt me. My brother is my friend because his Father created him like me. There is no difference. We have been given to each other that love might be extended, and not cut off from one another. God gave Himself to both of us. Remembering this now is the only purpose that we share, and the only purpose we have. 9. I will consider what makes me give only partial welcome to my brother, or lets me think we are better off apart. We couldn't attack each other if we chose not to see any kind of specialness between us. We always believe that our specialness is limited by our relationship. And this is the "enemy" that makes us both illusions to each other. 10. Every seeming insult, judgement, or slight, changes the perspective of the special. The fear of God and of each other comes from all unrecognized beliefs in specialness. For we demand that each other bow to our specialness against his will. Every twinge of malice, stab of hate, or wish to separate arises here. Here our shared purpose becomes obscured. We would oppose this course because it teaches us we are alike. Yet, we have no purpose that is not the same, and that our Father shares with us. For our relationship has been made clean of special goals, and we would not defeat the goal of holiness that Heaven gave it. 11. There can never be peace among the different. Those who are special must defend their illusions against the truth, for specialness is an attack upon the Will of God. While I defend against him, I do not love my brother. My specialness is what he attacks and I protect. This is the battle we are in against each other. Here my brother is my enemy, not my friend. Yet, he is my friend, because in truth we are the same.
OrEd-T-24.1-Intro-Specialness/Separation 1. I will not forget that the motivation for this course is the attainment and the keeping of the state of peace. Given this state, the mind is quiet, and the condition in which God is remembered is attained. It is not necessary to tell Him what to do. He will not fail. Where He can enter, He is there already. And can it be He cannot enter where He wills to be? Peace will be mine because it is His Will. Can you believe a shadow can hold back the Will that holds the universe secure? God does not wait upon illusions to let Him be Himself. No more His Son. They are. And no illusion that idly seems to drift between them has the power to defeat what is Their Will. 2. To learn this course requires willingness to question every value that I hold. Only one value kept hidden and obscure will jeopardize my learning. No belief is neutral. Every belief has the power to dictate each decision I make. For a decision is a conclusion based on everything that I believe. A decision is the outcome of belief, and follows belief as surely as suffering follows guilt and freedom follows sinlessness. There is no substitute for peace. What God creates has no alternative. The truth arises from what He knows. And my decisions come from my beliefs, as certainly as all creation rose in His mind because of what He knows.
OrEd-T-23.5-The Fear of Life 47. What is not loving must be attack. What is not love is murder. Every illusion is an assault on the truth, and every illusion does violence to the idea of love, for the illusion seems to be equal to the truth. God remains the only place of safety, for there is no attack in Him. And no form of illusion stalks Heaven, for Heaven is wholly true. No differences enter there, and what is all the same cannot conflict. I am not asked to fight against my wish to murder. But I am asked to realize, that concealed in the form my wish takes, is the same intent. And it is this intent I fear, and not the form. The fear of God is not the fear of death, but the fear of life. 48. Murder and love are incompatible. Yet if both are true, then they must be the same as one another. To those who see God's Son as a body, love and murder will both seem to be true. However, nothing can be different, yet equal to the truth. It is not the body that is the Son's Creator. A body cannot be extended to hold the universe. A body cannot also be what it creates. And a body cannot offer to its creations all that it is, without suffering loss. And what is lifeless cannot be the Son of Life. 49. Creation is the means for God's extension, and Gods creation must be the Son's creation as well. What is the same has the same function. To create is God's function, and God gave the function to create to His Son, not to a body. Either the Father and the Son are murderers or neither is. Life, creating like itself, does not make death. It is not sinful to believe the Son's function is murder, but it is insanity. 50. The light of our relationship is like the love of God. Yet, our relationship cannot carry out the holy function that God gave to His Son. Our forgiveness of one another is not complete, and so the healing miracles cannot be extended to all creation. Each form of attack / murder that still attracts us, and we do not recognize it for what it is, limits our power to extend love to all. Yet, the Holy Spirit can increase our little gifts, making them mighty. Now, our purpose is to overlook the battleground, to realize that murder in any form is not our will. The Holy Spirit knows how our relationship can be raised above the battleground, in it no more. 51. We will be lifted up, and from a higher place look down on the battleground. From there our perspective will be quite different. Here in the midst of battle, it does seem very real. Here we have chosen to be part of the battle, and murder is our choice. Yet, from above, the choice is miracles. And the perspective coming from this choice shows us the battle is not real and easily escaped. Bodies may battle, but the clash of forms is meaningless. We cannot engage in a battle when we perceive it as nothing. And the battle is over when we realize it never began. If murder is not our choice, the truth of miracles must be recognized. 52. I know the signs that come with the temptation to attack, making my mind dark and murderous, even in forms I do not recognize. There is a stab of pain, a twinge of guilt, and above all, the loss of peace. I know these signs. When they occur, I must not leave my place on high, but quickly choose a miracle. God Himself and all the lights of Heaven will gently lean to me and hold me up. For I have chosen to remain with Him, and no illusion can attack the peace of God and His Son together. 53. Only a purpose unifies, and those who share a purpose are of one mind. The body has no purpose and is solitary. Only bodies can attack and murder, and if this is my purpose, then I must be one with bodies. The body stands between God's Son and Heaven, but it has no purpose. I must not see anyone from the battleground. I would be looking on him from nowhere. For there is no reference point where meaning can be given to what I see. This cannot be overcome from within the battle. Only from above, the limits on those in battle are not perceived. The limits are gone. 54. I think of what is given to those who share their Father's purpose, and know it's their purpose! They want for nothing. Sorrow of any kind is inconceivable. Only the light of love is in their awareness, and only love shines on them forever. Love is their past, their present, and their future, always the same, eternally complete, and wholly shared. They know it is impossible that their happiness could change to suffering of any kind. Perhaps, I think I can win something on the battleground. However, it could never offer me the deep quiet love, with perfect, eternal calmness and certainty, that is Heaven. 55. Those with the strength of God in their awareness could never think of battle. They would only lose their perfection. For everything fought for on the battleground is of the body, something the body seems to offer or to own. From the quiet sphere above the battleground the senselessness of conquest is quite apparent. The body is wanted more but offers less. One who knows that he has everything could not value the body's offerings or want the limitation. With the love of God upholding him, each one could find the choice of miracles easy to make.
OrEd-T-23.4-Salvation Without Compromise 41. I do not recognize some of the forms attack can take. I do not recognize the source of my pain. Attack in any form will hurt me as much as in a form I recognize. Attack in any form is equally destructive, and its purpose does not change. If the intent is death, it does not matter what form it takes. The only intent of attack is murder. Attack serves to cover the massive guilt, and frantic fear of punishment the murderer feels. If the intent is death, it does not matter what form attack takes. He may deny he is a murderer, justifying his savagery with smiles as he attacks. Yet, he will see his intent in nightmares, where the smiles are gone, and to his horrified awareness his purpose rises to pursue him. For the the thought of murder entails guilt that no one escapes. 42. Is death in any form, however lovely and charitable it may seem to be, a blessing and a sign the Voice for God speaks through me to my brother? The wrapping does not make the gift I give. An empty box, however beautiful and gently given, still contains nothing. And neither the receiver nor the giver is long deceived. Withhold forgiveness from my brother, and I attack him. I give him nothing and receive of him only what I gave. 43. Salvation is no compromise of any kind. To compromise is to accept only part of what I want, taking a little and giving up the rest. Salvation gives up nothing. It is complete for everyone. The awareness of salvation's purpose is lost because it is not recognized, if the idea of compromise enters. Salvation is denied where compromise has been accepted, for compromise is the belief salvation is impossible. Compromise would maintain I can attack a little, love a little, and know the difference. Thus compromise would teach that a little of the same can be different, and yet the same remain whole as one. This doesn't make sense, and cannot be understood. 44. This course is easy just because it makes no compromises. Forgiveness cannot be withheld a little. Nor is it possible to attack one, and love another, and understand forgiveness. It seems difficult to those who still believe that compromise is possible. They do not see that, if compromise is possible, salvation is attack. It is certain the belief that salvation is impossible cannot uphold a quiet, calm assurance it has come. I want to recognize any form of assault on my peace. This is the only way it becomes possible that I keep sight of it. If I do not defend it, peace can be kept shining before my vision, forever clear and never out of sight. 45. Those who believe that peace can be defended, and that attack is justified on the behalf of peace, cannot perceive the peace that lies within them. How could they know? They accept forgiveness side by side with the belief that murder takes some forms by which their peace is saved. They are unwilling to accept the fact that their savage purpose is directed against themselves. No one unites with enemies nor is at one with them in purpose. And no one compromises with an enemy without hating him for what the enemy kept from him. 46. I will not mistake truce for peace, nor compromise for the escape from conflict. To be released from conflict means that it is over. There is no safety in a battleground. I have not lingered there just because the guns are silent for an instant. I can look down on it in safety from above and not be touched. But from within it, I can find no safety. No form that murder takes can offer safety. Not one illusion of protection stands against the faith in murder. Guilt cannot be absent from the battlefield. The body stands here, torn between the natural desire to communicate, and the unnatural intent to murder and to die. There is no war without attack. Not one tree left standing will shelter me. The door is open, I have left the battleground. I will not remain in conflict.
OrEd-T-23.3-The Laws of Chaos.3 33. These do not seem to be the goals of chaos, for by that great reversal, they appear to be the laws of order. But chaos is lawlessness, and has no laws. Its seeming laws must be perceived as true to be believed. The goal of madness must be seen as sanity, as fear is lifted to the throne of love. Now, fear is the substitute for love, and the savior from salvation. The laws of fear make death appear lovely, and we give thanks to the hero on love's throne, who saved the Son of God for fear and death! 34. How can laws like these can be believed? There is a strange, yet simple device that compels belief in these laws. The function of this device is to emphasize form and disregard content. In dreams this function appears to have powerful effects where shadows play the major roles. Some forms seem to have a familiar meaning, but that is all. He who thinks that any one of the laws of chaos is true, cannot see what it says. This simple, strange device does not function at all in truth. 35. No attack, in any form, can be love. It doesn't matter what form it takes. No form of condemnation can be a blessing. I cannot find salvation by making my savior powerless. I cannot seek to harm and be saved. All forms of murder must mean death. The form of the attack on my brother will not deceive me. And no one finds safety by turning on himself. Anything that is intent on my destruction is not my friend. Condemning what it says it wants to save, judgment defeats itself. When madness takes a form I think is lovely, I will not be deceived. 36. I would maintain that I do not believe these senseless laws, and do not act upon them. They can't be believed when I look at what they say. Yet, I do believe them. For if I perceive the form, the content is there. This is not tenable. I believe the laws for the forms they take, not recognizing the content. The content never changes. I paint rosy lips on a skeleton, dress it in loveliness, pet and pamper it, making it live in my illusion. *37. There is no life outside of Heaven. Where God created life, there it must be. In any state apart from Heaven, life is illusion. At best, it seems like life, at worst like death. Yet both judgments are inaccurate and have no meaning. Life is not possible outside of Heaven, and what is not in Heaven is not anywhere. Outside of Heaven is only the conflict of illusions, senseless, impossible, and beyond all reason. However, illusions are only forms, and their content is never true. Yet, this is perceived as an eternal barrier to Heaven. 38. The laws of chaos govern all illusions. Their forms must conflict, making it seem quite possible to value some above the others. Yet each and every form rests on the belief that the laws of chaos are true. The seeming gentler forms of attack are as sure in their witness and results as other forms of attack. It is sure that illusions bring fear, because they imply belief in illusions. And any form of faithlessness to love is a witness to the reality of chaos. I cannot be content with the illusory life that I am living. *39. Faith in chaos must follow from the belief in sin. Because it follows, faith in chaos seems to be a logical conclusion, a valid step in ordered thought. The steps to chaos do follow neatly from their starting point, with each step being a different form in the progression of truth's reversal. Each step leads deeper into terror and away from truth. One step is not smaller than another, and return is not easier from one than from another. The whole descent from Heaven lies in each one. And where my thinking starts, there the descent must end. 40. I would not take one step into the descent to hell. For having taken one, the next will follow, and I will not recognize the rest for what they are. Attack in any form will place my foot upon the twisted stairway that leads from Heaven. Yet, at any instant it is possible for this to be undone. I can know quite easily whether I chose the stairs to Heaven or the way to hell by how I feel. If I am certain which way I go, am sure the goal of Heaven can be reached, and peace is in my awareness, I walk with the Holy Spirit. If not, I walk alone. I will ask my Friend to join with me, giving me the certainty of where I go.
OrEd-T-23.3-The Laws of Chaos.2 26. There can be no release and no escape. Atonement becomes a myth, and vengeance, not forgiveness, is the Will of God. From where all this begins, there is no sight of help that can succeed. Only destruction can be the outcome. And God Himself seems to be siding with it to overcome His Son. The ego will not enable me to find escape from what it wants. That is the function of this course, which does not value what the ego cherishes. 27. The ego values only what it takes. (4) This leads to the fourth law of chaos, which, if the others are accepted, must be true. This seeming law is the belief I have what I have taken. By this, another's loss becomes my gain, and thus it fails to recognize that I can never take away save from myself. Yet all the other laws must lead to this. For enemies do not willingly give to one another, nor would they seek to share the things they value. And what my enemies would keep from me must be worth having, just because they keep it hidden from my sight. 28. All of the mechanisms of madness are seen emerging here: the "enemy", made strong by keeping hidden the valuable inheritance which should be mine; my justified position and attack for what has been withheld; and the inevitable loss the enemy must suffer to save myself. Thus do the guilty ones protest their "innocence". Were they not forced into this foul attack by the unscrupulous behavior of the enemy, they would respond only with kindness. But in a savage world, the kind cannot survive, so they must take or else be taken from. 29. And now there is a vague unanswered question, not yet "explained". What is this precious thing, this priceless pearl, this hidden secret treasure, to be wrested in righteous wrath from this most treacherous and cunning enemy? It must be what I want but never found. And now I "understand" the reason why I did not find it. For it was taken from me by this enemy and hidden where I would not think to look. He hid it in his body, making the body the cover for his guilt, the hiding place for what belongs to me. Now his body must be destroyed and sacrificed that I may have that which belongs to me. His treachery demands his death that I may live. And I attack only in defense. 30. But what is it I want that needs his death? Unless I know what it is for, can I be sure my murderous attack is justified? (5) And here a final principle of chaos comes to the rescue. It holds there is a substitute for love. This is the "magic" that will cure all of my pain, the missing factor in my madness that makes it "sane". This is the reason why I must attack. Here is what makes my vengeance justified. Behold, unveiled, the ego's secret gift, torn from my brother's body, hidden there in malice and in hatred for the one to whom the gift belongs. He would deprive me of the secret ingredient which would give meaning to my life. The substitute for love, born of our enmity to one another, must be salvation. It has no substitute, and there is only one. And the purpose of all my relationships is to grab this gift and make it my own. 31. But my possession is never complete. My brother will never stop attacking me for what I stole. And God in His madness must have this substitute for love and kill us both. I, who believe I walk in sanity, with feet on solid ground, and through a world where meaning can be found, must consider this: These are the laws on which my "sanity" appears to rest. These are the principles which make the ground beneath my feet seem solid. And it is here I look for meaning. These are the laws I made for my salvation. They hold in place the substitute for Heaven, which I prefer. They were made for this. This is their purpose. There is no point in asking what they mean, for it is apparent that the means of madness must be insane. However, I may not realize that the goal is madness. 32. No one wants madness, and no one clings to his madness if he sees what it is. The function of insanity is to take the place of truth. The belief that madness is true is what protects it. To be believed, madness must be seen as truth. And if madness is the truth, then truth must be madness now. This reversal serves the goal of the laws of chaos. Meanings are completely turned around. Madness is seen as sanity, illusions become true, attack is a kindness, with a benediction of hatred and murder. These are the means by which the laws of God appear to be reversed. Here the laws of sin appear to hold love captive, and let sin go freely.
OrEd-T-23.3-The Laws of Chaos.1 19. The "laws" of chaos can be brought to light, but not understood. Chaotic laws are hardly meaningful and therefore out of reason's sphere. Yet, they appear to constitute an obstacle to reason and to truth. We will look beyond them calmly, understanding what they are, and not believing what they say is true. It is important to understand what they are, because their purpose is to attack the truth and make it meaningless. These are the laws that rule the world we made. Yet, they govern nothing, and need not be broken, only observed, and gone beyond. 20. (1) The first chaotic law is that the truth is different for everyone. Like all these principles, this law maintains that each one is separate, and has a different set of thoughts which sets him apart from others. Those who hold different values seem to be unlike, and therefore enemies. This principle evolves from the belief that there is a hierarchy of illusions. Some illusions are more valuable, and are therefore truer. Each one establishes this hierarchy for himself, and feels justified in attacking what another values, to make his own values seem truer. 21. This law seems to interfere with the first principle of miracles, as it establishes degrees of truth among illusions. It appears as if some illusions are harder to overcome than others. It would be easy to understand that miracles apply to all of them, if we realized that they are all the same, being equally untrue. Errors of any kind can be corrected because they are untrue. No part of nothing can be more resistant to the truth than can another part. When brought to the truth, instead of to each other, errors disappear. 22. (2) The second law of chaos is that each one must sin, and deserves attack and death. This principle, closely related to the first, is the demand that errors call for punishment and not correction. The belief is that the Son of God can make mistakes that determine his inevitable destruction. The destruction of the one who makes the error places him beyond forgiveness and correction. What he has done is interpreted as an irrevocable sentence upon him, which even God Himself is powerless to overcome. Sin cannot be remitted. This law is dear indeed to every worshiper of sin. 23. We consider what this seems to do to the relationship between the Father and the Son. Now it appears that they can never again be one. Now they are different, and enemies. Now they must always be condemned, each by the other. And their relationship is one of opposition, just as the separate aspects of the Son meet only to conflict, and not to join. One becomes weak and defeated. And by his defeat, the other becomes strong. And the fear of God, and of each other now appears sensible, the fear made real by what the Son of God has done to himself, and his Creator. Here, the arrogance on which the laws of chaos stand, is clearly apparent. 24. Here is a principle which would define what the Creator of reality must be, what He must think, what He must believe, and believing it, how He must respond. It is not even seen as necessary that He be asked about the truth of what has been established for His belief. His Son tells Him this, and He only has the choice whether to take the Son's word for it or be mistaken. This leads directly to (3) the third preposterous belief that seems to make chaos eternal. For if God cannot be mistaken, then God must accept the Son's belief and hate him for it. 25. I see how the fear of God is reinforced by this third principle. Now it is impossible to turn to God for help in misery. God has became the "enemy " Who caused the misery, and to Whom appeal is useless. Nor can salvation lie within the Son, whose every aspect seems to be at war with the Son and justified in its attack. Now conflict is inevitable and beyond the help of God. Salvation must remain impossible, because the savior has become the enemy.
OrEd-T-23.2-The Irreconcilable Beliefs.2 13. Truth does not fight against illusions, nor do illusions fight against the truth. Illusions battle only with themselves. Being fragmented, they fragment. One illusion about myself can battle with another, yet the war of two illusions is a state where nothing happens. There is no victor, and no victory. I will remember what I know, when I learn I cannot be in conflict. I will remember I am as God created me. Truth is indivisible, and far beyond the little reach of illusions. Truth stands radiant and quiet in the peace of God, untouched by conflict. 14. Conflict must be between two forces. It cannot exist between one power and nothing. I attack what is already part of me. And by attacking it, I make two illusions of myself in conflict with each other. This happens when I do not look with love on anything that God created. Conflict is the birth of fear, and it is fearful. I would not fill my world with conflicted illusions of myself. What is born of nothing cannot win reality through battle. I will let all this madness be undone for me, and turn, in the peace still shining in my quiet mind, to the remembrance of God. 15. I see how conflicting illusions disappear when brought to the truth! For illusion seems real only when it is seen as war between conflicting "truths". Thus conflict is the choice between illusions, the victor being crowned as more real and true. The loser is vanquished, despised as less real, and made an illusion by defeat. The Father will never be remembered here. Yet no illusion can invade His home and drive Him out of what He loves forever. And what He loves must be forever quiet and at peace, because it is His home. And we are no illusions who are beloved of Him, being as true and holy as Himself. 16. I open the door of His most holy home, and let forgiveness sweep away all traces of the belief in sin that keeps God, and His Son homeless. We are not strangers in the house of God. I welcome my brother to the home where God dwells with him in serenity and peace. We dwell in peace as limitless as its Creator, and everything is given those who would remember Him. Love abides here, protecting us from everything that is not true. The Holy Spirit watches over God's home, sure that its peace can never be disturbed, for Illusions have no place here. The stillness of our certainty of Him, and of ourselves, is home to both of us, who dwell as one and not apart. 17. How can the resting-place of God turn on itself and seek to overcome the One Who dwells there? I will think what happens when the house of God perceives itself divided. The altar disappears, the light grows dim, the temple of the Holy One becomes a house of sin. And nothing is remembered except illusions. Illusions can conflict because their forms are different. And they do battle only to establish which form is true. 18. The memory of God is obscured in minds that have become illusion's battleground. Illusion meets illusion. The meeting of illusions leads to war. War is the condition in which fear is born and grows and seeks to dominate. Yet, truth meets itself. Peace, looking on itself, extends itself. Peace is the state where love abides and seeks to share itself. Peace and conflict are opposites. Where one abides the other cannot be; where either goes the other disappears. Yet, when I side with peace, far beyond this senseless war, peace shines, ready to be remembered.
