Lesson 185
HEADER
The Return
 The Return of the Prodigal Son
by Pompeo Batoni [1773]


  
A COURSE IN MIRACLES
  CH 17 "FORGIVENESS AND HEALING" 
I. INTRODUCTION  

1 The betrayal of the Son of God lies only in illusions, and all his "sins" are but his own imagining. His reality is forever sinless. He need not be forgiven, but awakened. In his dreams he has betrayed himself, his brothers, and his God. Yet what is done in dreams has not been really done. It is impossible to convince the dreamer that this is so, for dreams are what they are because of their illusion of reality. Only in waking is the full release from them, for only then does it become perfectly apparent that they had no effect on reality at all and did not change it. Fantasies change reality. That is their purpose. They cannot do so in reality, but they can do so in the mind that would have reality different.

              ON LINE: ACIM.OE.TX.CH 17.I         AUDIO: TEXT CH 17, I-III       
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A COURSE IN MIRACLES
WORKBOOK Part I
INTRODUCTION to LESSONS 181-200
Introduction 181-200
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Voice and Music by CIMS SonShip Radio 
 
*IAMBIC PENTAMETER

Our next few lessons make a special point
of firming up your willingness to make
your weak commitment strong, your scattered goals
blend into one intent. You are not asked
for total dedication all the time,
as yet. But you are asked to practice now
in order to attain the sense of peace
such unified commitment will bestow,
if only intermittently. It is
experiencing this which makes it sure
that you will give your total willingness
to following the way the course sets forth.     

Our lessons now are geared specifically
to widening horizons and direct
approaches to the special blocks which keep
your vision narrow and too limited
to let you see the value of our goal.
We are attempting now to lift these blocks,
however briefly. Words alone can not
convey the sense of liberation which
their lifting brings. But the experience
of freedom and of peace that comes as you
give up your tight control of what you see
speaks for itself. Your motivation will
be so intensified that words become
of little consequence. You will be sure
of what you want and what is valueless.     

And so we start our journey beyond words
by concentrating first on what impedes
our progress still. Experience of what
exists beyond defensiveness remains
beyond achievement while it is denied.
It may be there, but you cannot accept
its presence. So we now attempt to go
past all defenses for a little while
each day. No more than this is asked because
no more than this is needed. It will be
enough to guarantee the rest will come.    

  ~ The Original Handscript Notes


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A COURSE IN MIRACLES
DAILY LESSONS
SonShip Workbook
L e s s o n  185
I want the peace of God. 
 
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Voice and Music by CIMS SonShip Radio

*IAMBIC PENTAMETER*
WHAT IS IAMBIC PENTAMETER?
 
   To say these words is nothing. But to mean  
   these words is everything. If you could but
   mean them for just an instant, there would be
   no further sorrow possible for you
   in any form, or any place or time.
   Heaven would be completely given back
   to full awareness; memory of God
   entirely restored, the resurrection
   of all creation fully recognized.
 
   No-one can mean these words and not be healed.
   He cannot play with dreams, nor think he is
   himself a dream. He cannot make a hell
   and think it real. He wants the peace of God
   and it is given him. For that is all
   he wants, and that is all he will receive.
   Many have said these words. But few indeed
   have meant them. You have but to look upon
   the world you see around you to be sure
   how very few there were. The world would be
   completely changed should any two agree
   these words express the only thing they want.
 
   Two minds with one intent become so strong
   that what they will becomes the Will of God.
   For minds can only join in truth. In dreams,
   no two can share the same intent. To each,
   the hero of the dream is different;
   the outcome wanted not the same for both.
   Loser and gainer merely shift about
   in changing patterns, as the ratio
   of gain to loss and loss to gain takes on
   a different aspect or another form.
 
   Yet compromise alone a dream can bring.
   Sometimes it takes the form of union, but
   only the form. The meaning must escape
   the dream, for compromising is the goal
   of dreaming. Minds cannot unite in dreams.
   They merely bargain. And what bargain can
   give them the peace of God? Illusions come
   to take His place. And what He means is lost
   to sleeping minds intent on compromise,
   each to his gain and to another's loss.
 
   To mean you want the peace of God is to
   renounce all dreams. For no-one means these words
   who wants illusions, and who therefore seeks
   the means which bring illusions. He has looked
   on them and found them wanting. Now he seeks
   to go beyond them, recognizing that
   another dream would offer nothing more
   than all the others. Dreams are one to him.
   And he has learned their only difference
   is one of form, for one will bring the same
   despair and misery as do the rest.
 
   The mind that means that all it wants is peace
   must join with other minds. For that is how
   peace is attained. And when the wish for peace
   is genuine, the means for finding it
   is given in a form each mind which seeks
   for it in honesty can understand.
   Whatever form the lesson takes is planned
   for him in such a way that he can not
   mistake it if his asking is sincere.
   And if he asks without sincerity,
   there is no form in which the lesson will
   meet with acceptance and be truly learned.
 
   Let us today devote our practicing
   to recognizing that we really mean
   the words we say. We want the peace of God.
   This is no idle wish. These words do not
   request another dream be given us.
   They do not ask for compromise, nor try
   to make another bargain in the hope
   that there must yet be one which can succeed
   where all the rest have failed. To mean these words
   acknowledges illusions are in vain,
   requesting the eternal in the place
   of shifting dreams which seem to change in what
   they offer, but are one in nothingness.|
 
   Today devote your practice periods
   to careful searching of your mind, to find
   the dreams you cherish still. What do you ask
   for in your heart? Forget the words you use
   in making your requests. Consider but
   what you believe will comfort you, and bring
   you happiness. But be you not dismayed
   by lingering illusions, for their form
   is not what matters now. Let not some dreams
   be more acceptable, reserving shame
   and secrecy for others. They are one.
 
   And being one, one question should be asked
   of all of them; "Is this what I would have
   in place of Heaven and the peace of God?"|
   This is the choice you make. Be not deceived
   that it is otherwise. No compromise
   is possible in this. You want God's peace
   or you have asked for dreams, and dreams will come
   as you requested them. Yet will God's peace
   come just as certainly, and to remain
   with you forever. It will not be gone
   with every twist and turning of the road,
   to reappear unrecognized in forms
   which shift and change with every step you take.|
 
   You want the peace of God. And so do all
   who seem to seek for dreams. For them as well
   as for yourself you ask but this when you
   make this request in deep sincerity.
   For thus you reach to what they really want,
   and join your own intent with what they seek
   above all things, perhaps unknown to them,
   but sure to you. You have been weak at times,
   uncertain in your purpose, and unsure
   of what you wanted, where to look for it,
   and where to turn for help in the attempt.
   Help has been given you. And would you not
   avail yourself of it by sharing it?|
 
   No-one who truly seeks the peace of God
   can fail to find it. For he merely asks
   that he deceive himself no longer by
   denying to himself what is God's Will.
   Who can remain unsatisfied who asks
   for what he has already? Who could be
   unanswered who requests an answer which
   is his to give? The peace of God is yours.|
   For you it was created, given you
   by its Creator, and established as
   His Own eternal gift. How can you fail
   when you but ask for what He wills for you?
 
   And how could your request be limited
   to you alone? No gift of God can be
   unshared. It is this attribute which sets
   the gifts of God apart from every dream
   that ever seemed to take the place of truth.|
   No-one can lose and everyone must gain
   whenever any gift of God has been
   requested and received by anyone.
   God gives but to unite. To take away
   is meaningless to Him. And when it is
   as meaningless to you, you will be sure
   you share One Will with Him, and He with you.
 
   But you will also know you share One Will
   with all your brothers, whose intent is yours.|
   It is this one intent we seek today,
   uniting our desires with the need
   of every heart, the call of every mind,
   the hope that lies behind despair, the love
   attack would hide, the brotherhood that hate
   has sought to sever but which still remains
   as God created it. With help like this
   beside us, can we fail today as we
   request the peace of God be given us?
 
 
      ~ The Original Handscript Notes
 
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ACIM Edmonton - Sarah's Reflections 
ACIM Edmonton, CA
LESSON 185
I want the peace of God.

  
Sarah's Commentary:

This is another interesting Lesson that contrasts special and holy relationships. This Lesson is long, and so much could be said about each paragraph. Basically, in our special relationships, our interests are separate. Each one tries to benefit at the expense of the other. "In dreams, no two can share the same intent." (W.185.3.3) In the special relationship, what one gains the other loses. The happiness of each one takes primacy over the other. In other words, I want my needs met at your expense. The relationship reflects the ego's principle of one or the other. "To each, the hero of the dream is different; the outcome wanted not the same for both." (W.185.3.4) In other words, if my needs are being met, you will have to sacrifice something of yours.
 
Special relationships are based on bargaining and compromise. Thus, "Loser and gainer merely shift about in changing patterns, as the ratio of gain to loss and loss to gain takes on a different aspect or another form." (W.185.3.5) Such relationships may look quite perfect in form, but it is always about offering as little as possible to get as much as possible. It is always about self-interest. It is a relationship where "This 'self' seeks the relationship to make itself complete. Yet when it finds the special relationship in which it thinks it can accomplish this it gives itself away, and tries to 'trade' itself for the self of another." (T.16.V.7.2-3) (ACIM OE T.16.VI.49)
 
He goes on to say that each tries to sacrifice the self he does not want and trade it for something better or someone more special. We call this love in the world, where we are happy when we get what we want. It is a relationship where if my needs are being met, and if the other person's needs are met as well, we see the relationship as one made in heaven because we each take turns at winning. We each play our part perfectly in meeting each other's expectations, but there can never be a gain for both. In the end, the relationship is one of compromise that is approved of in the world of the ego.
 
My happiness depends on my partner being a certain way that I have determined is important to my happiness. If he would only...then I would have peace. If the towels were folded a certain way, if the dishes were put away, if the toothpaste was not squeezed from the middle, if he didn't interrupt me, if the garbage was emptied, if he didn't flirt with everyone, and on and on it goes---then I would have peace. We set these foolish requirements and demands in order to address our specialness. This becomes more important than peace. Is it worth giving away our peace for such nonsense? It is all nonsense because it is all illusion. We throw peace away to meet a myriad of imagined needs and requirements, and we are using these situations precisely for this purpose. The first obstacle to peace is the desire to be rid of it. "If you would make it homeless, how can it abide within the Son of God?" (T.19.IV.A.1.5) (ACIM OE T.19.V.a.40) We make peace homeless by blaming others and making them responsible for taking it from us. If we do not have peace, it is because we do not want it. In the end, we can ask ourselves, in each situation, if this is more important than the peace of God?
 
In this world of illusion, we can never share the same intent. (W.185.3.3) We each put our focus on a different outcome, which is always about having our own needs met. Now the meaning of love is lost because when we are in a state of need and engage in bargaining to have our needs met. We give as little as possible in these bargains in order to get as much as possible. The value of the relationship is now on the form rather than on the content of love. "Sometimes it takes the form of union, but only the form." (W.185.4.2)
 
If we really want the peace of God, Jesus says that we must mean these words even for just an instant and then, "Heaven would be completely given back to full awareness, memory of God entirely restored, the resurrection of all creation fully recognized." (W.185.1.4) In other words, peace would prevail over our specialness. Joining with our brother would take precedence over having our needs met. This requires that "To mean you want the peace of God is to renounce all dreams. For no one means these words who wants illusions, and who therefore seeks the means which bring illusions." (W.185.5.1-2) In other words, if we are sincere in our desire to know God's Love and know who we are, we must bring our illusions to the truth. We need to recognize that continuing to manipulate and strategize, using other people to meet our needs, will never bring true peace and joy and will continue to keep us in the illusion.
 
Our experience has shown us that our special relationships keep us in fear and in a state of lack and need. We sincerely ask for a better way to live in this world when we have reached a state of disillusionment, having done everything we could think of to make our relationships work. We are at a point where we begin to recognize ". . . that another dream would offer nothing more than all the others." (W.185.5.4) In other words, we can go out and find another relationship, but, increasingly, we see that we will never find what we truly want, which is the peace of God, until we heal our minds and make peace a priority in our lives. We will not find it in the next relationship, in the next house we buy, in the next job, or anything else in the world that we try to use to fulfill our lack. In the end, all it will bring is more despair. Fortunately, Jesus has the answer for us when we are ready to hear it.
 
"And when the wish for peace is genuine, the means for finding it is given, in a form each mind that seeks for it in honesty can understand." (W.185.6.2) Now our relationships have a different purpose. They are used for healing the mind. Instead of focusing on how to get our needs met, we bring our needs, and the belief in lack, to the Holy Spirit. Instead of blaming others for our lack of happiness and peace, we take responsibility for the dark thoughts in the mind and recognize that we are the ones responsible for how we feel. Instead of projecting guilt onto others, making them responsible for our lack of peace, we are willing to look at our misperceptions with the Holy Spirit. This means that we look on our mistaken perceptions without judgment. We ask for help to forgive ourselves for using the other to keep us from the love we are. We see the other as simply a mirror, reflecting back to us our own unhealed perceptions. In this way, they are our saviors, showing us where we need healing. We increasingly see that our relationships provide the perfect opportunity to learn the lessons of forgiveness, where the ego's insanity can be brought to the perfect Oneness of God's peace and love.
 
This Lesson challenges us to be really honest with ourselves by matching our words with our true intent. If we really meant it, when we say: "I want the peace of God," (W.185) we would have it. So there must still be other things we want more, and this is something we need to look at honestly. What is it that we are substituting for the peace of God? Jesus tells us to say, "I want the peace of God," (W.185) and that to mean it is to have it. "No one can mean these words and not be healed." (W.185.2.1) This suggests, for the most part, that we don't really mean it, for "If you could but mean them for just an instant, there would be no further sorrow possible for you in any form; in any place or time. Heaven would be completely given back to full awareness, memory of God entirely restored, the resurrection of all creation fully recognized." (W.185.1.3-4) The mind is silenced in that moment. Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor speaks about her experience of having a stroke, where the mind went silent and all was still. The ego's thought system disappeared. She speaks eloquently of the beauty of the release from the incessant chatter of the ego. It was an experience of the holy instant.
 
Yesterday, I put a chicken on the barbecue and it came out black and charred because I did not attend to it soon enough. We had a friend over for dinner. There was a time that such an event would have spoiled my whole evening. I would have crucified myself mercilessly. My self-esteem depended on perfection. I could not allow myself to have peace if I did not do things perfectly, which ultimately meant I was not valued by God. Yet God values us, regardless. Only my own judgments of myself keep me from this knowledge. Our healing depends on looking at our self-attacks and how they are projected onto others. Our peace does not depend on outside events or conditions. We must stay constantly aware of how subtle our investments are in our specialness and aware of what we believe needs to happen for us to have peace.
 
If we are stuck in traffic, burn the dinner, spill the milk, someone beats us to the parking spot, cuts us off in traffic, increases our rent, or challenges our integrity, our peace gets threatened. But can any event do that unless we give it the power to do so? Everything is neutral. We give all events the meaning they have for us. Are we victims of these circumstances, or can we exercise choice? When these things happen and we are out of peace, do we crucify ourselves or simply recognize that we have generated these events for our healing and as part of the script of our lives.
 
When we defend against the pain of betrayal, we hide our emotions from ourselves. When this is the case, our lives and our relationships become dry, brittle, and dead. Without an open heart, we need excitement to generate a sense of aliveness. We escape from the boredom of our lives with the many games in which we engage in the world. But with willingness to look behind our defenses, to take responsibility for our pain, and to go through our darkness, giving it over to the light, a new birth comes. We are given many opportunities to heal in this classroom, where the events of our lives are perfectly orchestrated by our own soul. It invites us to go deeper into our hearts. The pain will bring a deeper opening, either to open like a flower or be cracked open. It does not matter which. What matters is that we have the courage not to turn away from these opportunities and not to continue to defend against them through blame, judgment, and defensiveness.
 
We need to have courage and be very honest with ourselves. "The Holy Spirit asks of you but this; bring to Him every secret you have locked away from Him. Open every door to Him, and bid Him enter the darkness and lighten it away. At your request He enters gladly. He brings the light to darkness if you make the darkness open to Him. But what you hide He cannot look upon." (T.14.VII.6.1-5) (ACIM OE T.14.IV.30) When we uncover the darkness, it is important not to get upset or to judge ourselves if we see that there are still attack thoughts in the mind. The idea is to be willing to open the door to them and let the light in. Hiding our specialness, spiritualizing it, or justifying it is never helpful if we want to awaken from this dream. We just need to let the light in by being willing to look at our darkness. Carrie Triffet recently wrote, in her blog, how each of us has a tipping point that seems to take us into distress. She looked at her own tipping point with such open honesty and humor. Someone responded to her by noting: "I am so thankful for your writing. Too many people out there trying to come over all peaceful and enlightened. It gets really boring, fast. You are always fun. All the best teachers are." I share this perspective. A spiritualized ego is not attractive, although it may seduce followers for a time.
 
What heals is when we are willing to open every dark corner of our minds to the Holy Spirit. Keeping secrets from the Holy Spirit creates barriers to joining our will with God's. Jesus encourages us, "Let in the light, and you will look upon no obstacle to what He wills for you. Open your secrets to His kindly light, and see how bright this light still shines in you." (W.99.8.3-4) What are these secrets that we hide from the Holy Spirit? Jesus invites us to search our minds to "find the dreams you cherish still." (W.185.8.1) These can be fantasies of what we think would make us happy, the needs we think we have, or those things that make us angry, ashamed, and hateful. Either way, we need to recognize and admit to the obstacles we put in the way of peace. If we truly desire peace, we will have it. It is not something to search for or to beseech God for because it is already in us. All that is required is the courage and honesty to look at our own dark thoughts.
 
Certainly, if the desires of our heart are for things in the illusion, we can manifest them as well because of the power of our minds. In coming to the recognition that those things will not bring us peace but only temporary pleasure, we become motivated to pursue true healing. When we learn that pleasure and pain are ultimately the same, our focus changes to one of healing. True happiness and peace cannot be found in illusion. Yet even when we are asking the Holy Spirit for something we think we want in this dream, it does not make it wrong. What we are doing is asking for a better dream rather than to be released from the dream. Release from the dream is where our peace and happiness lie.
 
"And when the wish for peace is genuine, the means for finding it is given, in a form each mind that seeks for it in honesty can understand." (W.185.6.2) When Bill Thetford, co-scribe of the Course, said to Helen Schucman, scribe, that he wanted to find a better way of being in the world than the strife he and Helen were experiencing, she agreed to help him find it. In their joining together on this mission, in a united goal, the form given to them was this Course. Through it, the world has been changed. This is the power of minds, joining in one intent. "Two minds with one intent become so strong that what they will becomes the Will of God." (W.185.3.1)
 
Only in the agreement to join, for the purpose of healing a relationship, is it made holy. When we join in a purpose to heal any relationship, we are fully supported by the power of the Divine. The person may not even be currently in our life since it is not about bodies joining but only minds. Joining with them does not mean they have to join with us. Joining is what is happening in our own mind. The ultimate goal is the recognition of Oneness.
 
It is challenging to be very honest in looking at our desires, but fortunately, we have the help of the Holy Spirit. We are told not to be dismayed by the lingering illusions that cling to us still. The dream of wanting to be a special Course student is still a dream and no different than a sexual fantasy or a dream of having a new car. Either way, we are dreaming. "The necessary condition for the holy instant does not require that you have no thoughts that are not pure. But it does require that you have none that you would keep. Innocence is not of your making. It is given you the instant you would have it. Atonement would not be there if there were no need for it. You will not be able to accept perfect communication as long as you would hide it from yourself. For what you would hide is hidden from you. In your practice, then, try only to be vigilant against deception, and seek not to protect the thoughts you would keep to yourself. Let the Holy Spirit's purity shine them away, and bring all your awareness to the readiness for purity He offers you." (T.15.IV.9.1-9) (ACIM OE T.15.V.43-44) This is all that healing requires, but it does mean constant mind watching.
 
Today, we make a strong affirmative statement: "I want the peace of God." (W.185) It is not only a statement but a request in statement form. All we have to realize is that we already have it. It is already ours, as given by God, and indeed it is something we cannot change. We ask for what we have already but are simply not aware of. (W.185.11.3) We are blocking the truth by the thoughts we are holding in our minds, and now we are willing to look at them and bring them to the light. Be willing to look with Jesus beside you as a symbol of love and non-judgment.
 
Ask yourself, "What am I asking for in my heart today?" (W.185.8.2) "Today devote your practice periods to careful searching of your mind, to find the dreams you cherish still." (W.185.8.1) "Forget the words you use in making your requests. Consider but what you believe will comfort you, and bring you happiness. But be you not dismayed by lingering illusions, for their form is not what matters now. Let not some dreams be more acceptable, reserving shame and secrecy for others. They are one. And being one, one question should be asked of all of them, 'Is this what I would have, in place of Heaven and the peace of God'?"(W.185.8.3-8) We do still hold onto dreams of specialness, but we are called not to judge ourselves for those dreams, nor feel guilty that we still have them. The only request Jesus is making of us is not to keep those dreams away from him by trying to hide them, justify them, or make them spiritual. He can only help us if we get honest with him.
 
"With Help like this beside us, can we fail today as we request the peace of God be given us?" (W.185.14.2) If Help and Love are in us, right this minute, and we don't feel them or experience them, it is only because we have chosen to separate ourselves from them. We have chosen to suffer and to blame something outside of us for separating us from His love. We are the ones that have actively chosen to throw it away. When we become aware that this is so, then indeed we have the opportunity to change our minds and give over our mistaken perceptions to the Holy Spirit.
 
Let us commit to bringing all our dreams, all our shame, all our guilt, and all our fears to the truth so they can be healed, and we can know the peace and joy that is our inheritance. If anything shows up to upset you today, be willing to see that you are holding onto the upset because of your fear of love. In other words, what we are doing, by holding onto upsets, is pushing the love we are away from ourselves and choosing to maintain our individuality. The cost to us is always to keep from us the awareness of the peace and joy within our right minds. Ask yourself honestly, "What do I want? What is the desire of my heart?"

Love and blessings, Sarah 
huemmert@shaw.ca 

A Course in Miracles
TEXT
ACIM Original Edition
Chapter Seventeen

Forgiveness and Healing  

   Voice and Music by Martin Weber, CIMS SonShip Radio


I. Introduction         
 
1 The betrayal of the Son of God lies only in illusions, and all his "sins" are but his own imagining. His reality is forever sinless. He need not be forgiven, but awakened. In his dreams he has betrayed himself, his brothers, and his God. Yet what is done in dreams has not been really done. It is impossible to convince the dreamer that this is so, for dreams are what they are because of their illusion of reality. Only in waking is the full release from them, for only then does it become perfectly apparent that they had no effect on reality at all and did not change it. Fantasies change reality. That is their purpose. They cannot do so in reality, but they can do so in the mind that would have reality different.
  
2 It is, then, only your wish to change reality that is fearful because by your wish you think you have accomplished what you wish. This strange position in a sense acknowledges your power. Yet by distorting it and devoting it to "evil," it also makes it unreal. You cannot be faithful to two masters who ask of you conflicting things. What you use in fantasy you deny to truth. Yet what you give to truth to use for you is safe from fantasy.


II. Fantasy and Distorted Perception          
 
3 When you maintain that there must be order of difficulty in miracles, all you mean is that there are some things you would withhold from truth. You believe that truth cannot deal with them only because you would keep them from truth. Very simply, your lack of faith in the power that heals all pain arises from your wish to retain some aspects of reality for fantasy. If you but realized what this must do to your appreciation of the whole! What you reserve unto yourself, you take away from Him Who would release you. Unless you give it back, it is inevitable that your perspective on reality be warped and uncorrected.
  
4 As long as you would have it so, so long will the illusion of order of difficulty in miracles remain with you. For you have established this order in reality by giving some of it to one teacher and some to another. And so you learn to deal with part of truth in one way and in another way the other part. To fragment truth is to destroy it by rendering it meaningless. Orders of reality is a perspective without understanding, a frame of reference for reality to which it cannot really be compared at all.
  
5 Think you that you can bring truth to fantasy and learn what truth means from the perspective of illusions? Truth has no meaning in illusion. The frame of reference for its meaning must be itself. When you try to bring truth to illusions, you are trying to make illusions real and keep them by justifying your belief in them. But to give illusions to truth is to enable truth to teach that the illusions are unreal and thus enable you to escape from them. Reserve not one idea aside from truth, or you establish orders of reality which must imprison you. There is no order in reality because everything there is true.
  
6 Be willing, then, to give all you have held outside the truth to Him who knows the truth and in Whom all is brought to truth. [Salvation from separation will be complete or will be not at all.] Be not concerned with anything except your willingness to have this be accomplished. He will accomplish it; not you. But forget not this: When you become disturbed and lose your peace of mind because another is attempting to solve his problems through fantasy, you are refusing to forgive yourself for just this same attempt. And you are holding both of you away from truth and from salvation. As you forgive him, you restore to truth what was denied by both of you. And you will see forgiveness where you have given it.


III. The Forgiven World           
 
7 Can you imagine how beautiful those you forgive will look to you? In no fantasy have you ever seen anything so lovely. Nothing you see here, sleeping or waking, comes near to such loveliness. And nothing will you value like unto this nor hold so dear. Nothing that you remember that made your heart seem to sing with joy has ever brought you even a little part of the happiness this sight will bring you. For you will see the Son of God. You will behold the beauty which the Holy Spirit loves to look upon and which He thanks the Father for. He was created to see this for you until you learn to see it for yourself. And all His teaching leads to seeing it and giving thanks with Him.
  
8 This loveliness is not a fantasy. It is the real world, bright and clean and new with everything sparkling under the open sun. Nothing is hidden here, for everything has been forgiven, and there are no fantasies to hide the truth. The bridge between that world and this is so little and so easy to cross that you could not believe it is the meeting place of worlds so different. Yet this little bridge is the strongest thing that touches on this world at all. This little step, so small it has escaped your notice, is a stride through time into eternity and beyond all ugliness into beauty that will enchant you and will never cease to cause you wonderment at its perfection.
  
9 This step, the smallest ever taken by anything, is still the greatest accomplishment of all in God's plan of Atonement. All else is learned, but this is given, complete and wholly perfect. No one but Him Who planned salvation could complete it thus. The real world, in its loveliness, you learn to reach. Fantasies are all undone, and no one and nothing remains still bound by them, and by your own forgiveness, you are free to see. Yet what you see is only what you have made, with the blessing of your forgiveness on it. And with this final blessing of God's Son upon himself, the real perception, born of the new perspective he has learned, has served its purpose.
  
10 The stars will disappear in light, and the sun which opened up the world to beauty will vanish. Perception will be meaningless when it has been perfected, for everything that has been used for learning will have no function. Nothing will ever change; no shifts nor shadings, no differences, no variations which made perception possible will occur. The perception of the real world will be so short that you will barely have time to thank God for it. For God will take the last step swiftly when you have reached the real world and have been made ready for Him.
  
11 The real world is attained simply by the complete forgiveness of the old, the world you see without forgiveness. The Great Transformer of perception will undertake with you the careful searching of the mind that made this world and uncover to you the seeming reasons for your making it. In the light of the real reason which He brings, as you follow Him, He will show you that there is no reason here at all. Each spot His reason touches grows alive with beauty, and what seemed ugly in the darkness of your lack of reason is suddenly released to loveliness. Not even what the Son of God made in insanity could be without a hidden spark of beauty which gentleness could release.
  
12 All this beauty will rise to bless your sight as you look upon the world with forgiving eyes. For forgiveness literally transforms vision and lets you see the real world reaching quietly and gently across chaos and removing all illusions which had twisted your perception and fixed it on the past. The smallest leaf becomes a thing of wonder and a blade of grass a sign of God's perfection. From the forgiven world, the Son of God is lifted easily into his home. And there he knows that he has always rested there in peace. Even salvation will become a dream and vanish from his mind. For salvation is the end of dreams and with the closing of the dream will have no meaning. Who awake in Heaven could dream that there could ever be need of salvation?
  
13 How much do you want salvation? It will give you the real world, trembling with readiness to be given you. The eagerness of the Holy Spirit to give you this is so intense He would not wait, although He waits in patience. Meet His patience with your impatience at delay in meeting Him. Go out in gladness to meet with your Redeemer and walk with him in trust out of this world and into the real world of beauty and forgiveness.
 
    ~ The Original Handscript Notes

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  To GIVE and to RECEIVE are One in Truth.  Lesson 108

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