in full awareness, you will not attempt
to harm yourself, nor make your body slave
to vengeance. You will not attack yourself,
and you will realize that to attack
another is but to attack yourself.
You will be free of the insane belief
that to attack a brother saves yourself.
And you will understand his safety is
your own, and in his healing you are healed.
Perhaps at first you will not understand
how mercy, limitless and with all things
held in its sure protection, can be found
in the idea we practice for today.
It may, in fact, appear to be a sign
that punishment can never be escaped,
because the ego, under what it sees
as threat, is quick to cite the truth to save
its lies. Yet must it fail to understand
the truth it uses thus. But you can learn
to see these foolish applications, and
deny the meaning they appear to have.
Thus do you also teach your mind that you
are not an ego. For the ways in which
the ego would distort the truth will not
deceive you longer. You will not believe
you are a body to be crucified.
And you will see within today's idea
the light of resurrection, looking past
all thoughts of crucifixion and of death
to thoughts of liberation and of life.
Today's idea is one step we take
in leading us from bondage to the state
of perfect freedom. Let us take this step
today, that we may quickly go the way
salvation shows us, taking every step
in its appointed sequence, as the mind
relinquishes its burdens one by one.
It is not time we need for this. It is
but willingness. And what would seem to need
a thousand years can easily be done
in just one instant by the grace of God.
The dreary, hopeless thought that you can make
attacks on others and escape yourself
has nailed you to the cross. Perhaps it seemed
to be salvation. Yet it merely stood
for the belief the fear of God is real.
And what is that but hell? Who could believe
his Father is his deadly enemy,
separate from him, and waiting to destroy
his life and blot him from the universe,
without the fear of hell upon his heart?
Such is the form of madness you believe,
if you accept the fearful thought you can
attack another and be free yourself.
Until this form is changed, there is no hope.
Until you see that this, at least, must be
entirely impossible, how could
there be escape? The fear of God is real
to anyone who thinks this thought is true.
And he will not perceive its foolishness,
or even see that it is there, so that
it would be possible to question it.
To question it at all, its form must first
be changed at least as much as will permit
fear of retaliation to abate,
and the responsibility returned
to some extent to you. From there you can
at least consider if you want to go
along this painful path. Until this shift
has been accomplished, you cannot perceive
that it is but your thoughts which bring you fear,
and your deliverance depends on you.
Our next steps will be easy, if you take
this one today. From there we go ahead
quite rapidly. For once you understand
it is impossible that you be hurt
except by your own thoughts, the fear of God
must disappear. You do not now believe
that fear is caused without. And God, Whom you
had thought to banish, can be welcomed back
within the holy mind He never left.
Salvation's song can certainly be heard
in the idea we practice for today.
If it can be but you you crucify,
you did not hurt the world, and need not fear
its vengeance and pursuit. Nor need you hide
in terror from the deadly fear of God
projection hides behind. The thing you dread
the most is your salvation. You are strong,
and it is strength you want. And you are free,
and glad of freedom. You have sought to be
both weak and bound, because you feared your strength
and freedom. Yet salvation lies in them.
There is an instant in which terror seems
to grip your mind so wholly that escape
appears quite hopeless. When you realize,
once and for all that it is you you fear,
the mind perceives itself as split. And this
has been concealed while you believe attack
could be directed outward, and returned
from outside to within. It seemed to be
an enemy outside you had to fear.
And thus a god outside yourself became
your mortal enemy; the source of fear.
Now, for an instant, is a murderer
perceived within you, eager for your death,
intent on plotting punishment for you
until that time when it can kill at last.
Yet in this instant is the time as well
in which salvation comes. For fear of God
has disappeared. And you can call on Him
to save you from illusions in His Love,
calling Him Father and yourself His Son.
Pray that the instant may be soon, -today!
Step back from fear, and make advance to love.
There is no Thought of God that does not go
with you, to help you reach that instant, and
to go beyond it quickly, surely and
forever. When the fear of God is gone,
there are no obstacles which still remain
between you and the holy peace of God.
How kind and merciful is the idea
we practice! Give it welcome, as you should,
for it is your release. It is indeed
but you your mind can try to crucify.
Yet your redemption, too, will come from you.
