When we experience a miracle, our perception is shifted. We no longer see things quite the way we saw them before. Jesus said the reason for his bringing the Course to the world when he did was to trigger a celestial speedup. We are part of this speedup, in the process of awakening. A celestial speedup is the recognition that there is no time and nothing has happened. It is all a dream. Now he says that "our eyes are opening at last." (W.302.1.1) Now there is more light in our lives. Enlightenment is the opening up to the light and to the truth of who we are and always have been. And the Second Coming is the correction of our mistakes and the return to sanity. This is the restoration of our true Self, which was never lost. We just forgot because we experienced the temporary insanity of the separation. Temporary? Yes. "Only an instant does the world endure." (W.300) Our release is just a thought away "from what we made." (W.184.15.7)
 

"Now we see that darkness is our own imagining, and light is there for us to look upon." (W.302.1.5) We made up the stories of our lives. We gave the events of our lives our own meaning and our own interpretation. We saw attack where all there ever was was love or a call for love. We experience fear, yet "fear must disappear when love has come." (W.302.1.6) The only way out of this darkness is by bringing our awareness to our fears and being totally willing to release them. There is nothing more than that to do. In fact, if we try to undertake to do anything more, we are getting in the way by putting the ego in charge of its own undoing, and that will never work.
   

If we accept everything in our lives, including the things that seem dark, and recognize they are all a part of the classroom to help us to learn to forgive, we can become happy learners. What that means is that when our purpose is to awaken, we can be happy about everything that shows up because it is all for the purpose of releasing the darkness so the light that we are can shine through. It is always there behind the dark clouds of our own thoughts. Our thoughts are just hallucinations.

We can choose to be grateful for the valleys that we go through, where some of our greatest insights can take place. These times can feel like battles in our lives, but all we are battling is our perception, which keeps our joy out of our awareness. Joy is always there, but the battle that seems to be going on in our minds is actually between what the ego tells us and the truth. It seems like two wills battling, yet the Holy Spirit is still and does not do battle. It simply waits patiently for us to change our minds.

We think we need or want something to be different than it is. Thus, we suffer because wanting makes us unhappy. Now we must learn to surrender everything wholly to Spirit and trust that all is for our good. "Some of your greatest advances you have judged as failures, and some of your deepest retreats you have evaluated as success." (T.18.V.1.6)(ACIM OE T.18.VI.41) Our wanting things to be different than they are makes us unhappy. The judgment of what is good or bad makes us suffer. Our job is simply to look at our darkness and be willing it be shifted, and the result is always peace. We allow the valleys to be what they are so we can experience the hilltop when we are ready. It does not matter how much time this takes. Time is our friend when our purpose is to use everything in our lives for awakening.
 

Often in my life there were times when everything seemed hopeless and dark. Yet even without the deep resolve and devotion I have now, there was a part of my mind that knew there was value in these dark valleys, even while I was in the midst of them. I found myself watching the experience that ultimately had a "tenderizing" effect on me. There is a callousness we can develop when we are riding high on worldly successes. We are not being deeply challenged or humbled by events in our lives. I suppose it is a kind of arrogance when everything in our lives seems to be working. It is a kind of egocentric focus, where we can become insensitive to others. Falling into the pit can teach us more compassion for ourselves and others.

These times of being challenged, at least for me, have been experiences where the heart gets broken open, and this can bring a deeper level of awareness and empathy. Through each of these experiences, I found I was able to look deeper at the caverns in my mind where the openings had been shut to the light. Looking into these dark places always brought new awareness and beauty for which I felt grateful in the end. No, it is not fun nor easy to go there, but if we become the watcher of the experience, it is easier to move into those places with at least some degree of detachment. There is no way to get to the love without going through the fear.

When we become the observer of our experiences, we come from a place of awareness from above the battleground. We distance ourselves from the dream and become the observer of the experience, with the love of Jesus holding our hands and hearts as we go through these dark places in our minds. I have found, even in the midst of the darkness of the distress and pain, there can still be a realization that we are not the experience of the distress and pain. It is like we are experiencing it, as if it were happening to someone else, like a character in a play with whom we identify, but we know we are not this character. It is like watching a movie and identifying with the characters, but knowing we are the watcher and not the characters in the movie. Thus, there is some detachment. Jesus says we can actually watch what is happening, while smiling at the idea that there is anything real going on.

Everywhere we go, "Love walks beside us showing us the way." (W.302.2.1) When we are entering these dark and dismal places, Spirit is walking with us. It reminds me of the Lesson where we are told, "He is my Source of life, the life within, the air I breathe, the food by which I am sustained, the water which renews and cleanses me." (W.222.1.2) Or as he says in Lesson 125, "He speaks from nearer than your heart to you. His Voice is closer than your hand. His Love is everything you are and that He is; the same as you, and you the same as He." (W.125. 7.2-3) We never go alone. "He fails in nothing." (W.302.2.2) What a beautiful reminder! "Where darkness was I look upon the light." (W.302) We are not these dense beings. Where we think we are, there is only light, but there is no way around the darkness of our thoughts. Covering them over, trying to stay positive or trying to dismiss them is simply a spiritual bypass or a denial of our experience. This will never work, as the darkness is still there, just covered over. Thus, courage and willingness are called for to look with honesty and dedication to our mission, which is the only way through. Instead of bracing ourselves against our feelings, we surrender into them, feel them, accept them, examine the beliefs behind them and keep looking at them with Spirit.
         

I will just share as briefly as possible a recent experience of feeling fear I initially tried to distract myself from. I was concerned about a family member who seemed to be suffering and in great difficulty in his life. I was gripped with thoughts of fear, playing in my mind all kinds of tragic scenarios. I was reminded our thoughts are nothing but hallucinations. With each thought came a scenario like a movie playing in the mind, but the scenes were all scenes of devastation, and with them came a lot of fear. I kept trying to give over the fear, but I just kept bringing it back into my mind until I started to trace it back to a thought. What was that thought? It became apparent that I believed the Son of God could suffer, and with that thought came evidence of that suffering. I forgot this is his perfect classroom that he had chosen and is not a victim. I was judging the situation and choosing to see it as wrong and giving my mind evidence of ultimate destruction, which brought up a lot of fear. My belief in suffering was an error. When I gave over that belief, all the fear was lifted from my mind.

The Lesson is always the same, regardless of the situation, "Forgive, and you will see this differently." (W.193.3.7) It does not matter what the problem is, there is only one lesson to be learned. We are called to trust and to remember again that the world is a classroom and we are called to watch our thoughts and beliefs and keep turning them over for healing. We are always remembering our purpose. When we keep focused on our purpose of awakening, everything and everyone that shows up on our path contributes to that purpose.
 

The Lesson is all about how we have perceived everything and everyone wrongly based on our own thoughts, values, concepts and beliefs. Now we are called to forgive our misperceptions so we can see with vision. We are asked to recognize that our unforgiving thoughts are keeping us from the love we are. They are beliefs that we have sinned, are guilty, and now we expect the world to deliver the punishment we think we deserve.

Today, we pray this prayer to ourselves, that we choose another way, realizing we have made a wrong choice. "Our Love awaits us as we go to Him, and walks beside us showing us the way. He fails in nothing. He the End we seek, and He the Means by which we go to Him." (W.302.2.1-3) Through forgiveness, God's love is reflected in this world. He is the End we seek in that our goal is to know who we are as One with God. We already are, but we don't know our own reality. He is the Means because His love will be the Source of our comfort along the way we seem to travel. We are not alone. He goes with us wherever we go. We rest in Him. His Love will be reflected in specific forms in our lives, for as long as we need to experience it in that way and as long as we think we are in bodily form.
 

With the introduction to the question "What is the Second Coming?" (W.PII.Q9), and the coming section on "What is the Last Judgment?" (W.PII.Q10), I decided to have a look at the Book of Revelation in the Bible. While I am not very familiar with the Bible, the view presented in the Book of Revelation is exactly what is being refuted in the teachings and Lessons that we are currently reading. In fact, in looking at the Book of Revelation, I found the words from the Lesson yesterday, "And God Himself shall wipe away all tears." (W.301) Now it is all being reinterpreted for us in this Course.
 

The Book of Revelation reiterates the fall of Satan and the doom he and his angels are bound for. We are shown the duties of all creatures and angels of heaven and the promises of the saints, who will live forever and ever with Jesus in the New Jerusalem. The Book of Revelation is lavish in colorful descriptions of the visions, which proclaim the Last Days before the triumphant return of Jesus as a powerful world ruler and the ushering in of his kingdom. The Book of Revelation reveals the series of devastations poured out upon the earth such as the mark of the beast '666,' the climactic battle of Armageddon and the binding of Satan. Even though we may not have been schooled in this teaching, it permeates the culture and there is a sense of fear about this Second Coming and especially about the Last Judgment. This fear seems to be exacerbated daily with discussions of the devastation of the world. Clearly Jesus takes issue with this in the Course and redefines it entirely.

Instead of reigning terror on the world, the Second Coming "is merely the correction of mistakes, and the return of sanity." (W.PII.Q9.1.1) All that happens is it "restores the never lost, and re-establishes what is forever and forever true." (W.PII.Q9.1.2) It is an entirely different meaning from the Biblical teachings about fear and punishment. In the Bible, the Second Coming is about Jesus returning to judge the living and the dead. In the Course, Jesus teaches that the Second Coming is about our decision to "let forgiveness rest on all things without exception and without reserve," (W.PII.Q9.1.3) so we can awaken to the truth of who we are. Thus, it is undoing what never happened. It is the recognition, we have been mistaken. The entire world of time and space has been nothing but a dream. Now we are waking up. When all minds have joined in this, the Second Coming will be the total undoing of the dream. Instead of being fearful, it is our beautiful awakening and remembering who we are. I even recently heard a new interpretation of the dreaded '666'. Turned upside down it becomes '999'. At one thousand, we are totally in the light and '999' is close to total willingness.