TRANSCRIBER'S NOTE:

The text is taken from the JCIM edition <now referred to as the original edition>

of A Course In Miracles. 

 

The Course is a Miracle in itself, and I have so much appreciation for Helen Schucman's ability to hear and express His Voice with such supreme beauty.
 
I have not changed the Course text at all, except as it is interspersed with Jesus' current Guidance on it.
 
The Course text is in BLUE. The Guidance is in normal type.
 
In His Guidance, He has asked Me to capitalize the pronouns You and We as an acknowledgement of the Divinity of All of Us, an acknowledgement of Equality, an expression of His Love and respect for You.  

When You see the word 'YOU'  capitalized in the Guidance, know that He is not just speaking to YOU, He is honoring YOU.  

 

 

Chapter 12
THE PROBLEM OF GUILT
VII. The Attainment of the Real World
Course In Miracles ~ original edition

 

 original edition ~ CH 12 Sec VII 58

 

Sit quietly - not just a stillness of the mouth, but of the mind.  The quietness of mind You would have if You were walking by a precipice in total dark, and needed Me to Guide each step.  That - that - is the quietness I want, the attentiveness, as if your life depended on it, and, indeed, it does.  For what You are experiencing now is far from Life Itself - a deadened, flat perception of Something Infinite. 

 

Like feeling your way along the precipice, not with your feet, but with the Wholeness of our Joining, knowing I can See and Feel, and now can You - and so we look upon the world you see, and tell yourself,
"The real world is not like this. It has no buildings, and there are no streets where people walk alone and separate. As I have said before, Oneness is the universal law.  Nothing is ever left out, a concept that does not exist as Heaven.  Every One and every Thing is precious to Us All. 

 

Because there is no separation, there are no buildings as You know them, nor streets nor gardens as You know them, yet Heaven is not empty!  The Ideas behind the buildings - the Gatherings of Love - these exist.  And streets?  There are Ways - a Holiness of Movement - Infinite Ways.  And Gardens: the Experience of Flowers, Plant Life in Infinite Dances and Songs of Harmony, Experiences that even as Heaven are exquisite, joyous.

 

There are no stores where people buy an endless list of things they do not need. Because there is no need, there are no stores.  There are designs ... of Ideas, again as Dance and Song (Movement and Music) and Mathematics; Beauty coming together in Infinite Experience - a Kaleidoscope of joyous Life. 

 

As Reality, You always have exactly what You need.  This is better said: You always have exactly what is right, and it is given as God's Gift to You.  This is what the Holy Instant is: sequential and exquisite moments of the Oneness that You share as God is Be-ing You and You and You.  There are not words to give the expression of this Life of seamless Holy Instants, as they flow from Joy and Peace that You have barely tasted yet.  And taste it soon You will, as You allow My Love to Be You, and your experience as Light begins.

 

The new Jerusalem of which the Bible speaks is the Place of Only Love.  It is not lit with artificial light, and night comes not upon it. There is no day that brightens and grows dim. There is no loss. Nothing is there but shines, and shines forever." It isn't lit because All is Light!  You are Light Itself.  And how beautiful You are.

The world YOU see must be DENIED, - not that there is no place for You to be; far from it!  Instead of the world with all its limits, the Universe is yours, with all of Its Infinity of God's Ideas for You to see, and smell, and hear, and taste and feel.  It is a Universe of rejoicing for everything in It is Love and loving You.  And this is why You must deny what seems to play out before your eyes - for sight of it is costing you a different kind of vision. 

 

And would You not be happy to see with Me as I do?  To share My Peace and Joy with every view of Reality, another name for Heaven?  We long for You to join the Brotherhood again, for It is lonesome without You.  To do this is not hard.  Again I only ask a little willingness to ask for My True Vision instead of the world You think You see.

 

YOU CANNOT SEE BOTH WORLDS, for each of them involves a different kind of seeing and depends on what you cherish.  And what do You hold dear?  Is it the world You made with all its pain and loss, or will You let it be that little memory that You feel when We are joined, of what it's like to feel My Love for You and how secure It is.

 

The sight of one is possible BECAUSE you have denied the other. When You chose the strange and limited view that We've called the world, the Heaven that You'd always known slipped quietly out of sight, hidden by the travesty of life You've come to know since then.

 

And yet its claim to any Reality or Truth is false, for only one is Real. Both are not true, - and only Heaven is the Real - yet either one will seem as real to you as the amount to which you hold it dear.

 

For eons now the world has been your choice, and it seems to have You tightly in its grip, spinning endlessly between birth and death, and birth and death again, lifetime after lifetime.  What a foolish use of Life Eternal.

 

And yet their power is NOT the same because their real attraction to you is unequal. What does that mean?  The world You see, what is it but your own invention overlaid upon the joy that Heaven is.  It has no power over You but that with which You do endow it.  It is a useless thing, being non-existent.  And yet You live as if it were reality itself.

You do not really want the world you see, for it has disappointed you since time began.  And how did time 'begin?  Time is not real, but rather a default state of the ignorance of Mind being All and your projections nothing. This is the fact despite their screaming for reality. 

 

The homes you built have never sheltered you. And do You think there is need for shelter in Reality?  Then think again and try - yes try! - to imagine what could ever harm the Spirit of God that's known as You?  For That is what You truly are.

 

The roads you made have led you nowhere, for there is nowhere to go for now here is always where You are, as infinite variety. - and no city that you built has withstood the crumbling assault of time. For You have forgotten that your creations are always only Spirit.  Nothing you made but has the mark of death upon it. Yet all Real Things teach only Life Eternal. 

 

Hold it not dear, for it is old and tired, - and dear it certainly isn't - and ready to return to dust even as you made it.  A great distinction between this world and Heaven is that: in the world things are constructed while as Heaven they just are; having ... no, Be-ing Complete from God. 

 

This aching world has not the power to touch the living world at all.  It waits in joyous, patient expectation for your glad return.  Your robe, and ring and sandals are resting by the open door.  You could not give it that, - and yet the time is drawing nearer every instant - and so although you - did, and do no longer - turn in sadness from it, - because You know you cannot find in IT the road that leads away from it into another world, the one You made, or so You think. And yet it is nothing new, but just a limited distortion of a Place so perfect and so beautiful that fills Eternity, and You have only buried - not forgotten - the Knowledge of It.

And so, although the memory is deeply hidden: Yet the real world has the power to touch you even here BECAUSE YOU LOVE IT. Yes!!  You felt the power and the Truth behind those words.  You have NOT FORGOTTEN WHAT True Love is,  And what you call with love WILL come to You because It is already here.  What You thought You left is always with You.  It is You who is ignoring It and not the other way around!  And isn't this good news.

 

Love always answers, because It abides as You, and therefore, Its very Be-ing, is being unable to deny a call for help, or not to hear the cries of pain that rise to it from every part of this strange world you made but do not want, It stands ever ready to give You all the aid You need. The only effort - and it is really effortless once You realize the pain it is - you need make to give this world away in glad exchange for what you did not make is willingness to learn THE ONE YOU MADE IS FALSE. For never could You change Reality.  It is as Permanent as God, unchanging Good; for God It is, Be-ing All Creation.

You HAVE been wrong about the world because you have misjudged YOURSELF. The moment that You chose to see a different way, so different became Your world, for your world is only What You see or what You think You see.  And that is literally: what You think, ... You see?

 

And once You'd thought to see a different way, well: From such a twisted reference point what COULD you see but God's Creation twisted beyond recognition?

 

All vision starts WITH THE PERCEIVER, who judges what is true and what is false. And what is judgment but an exercise of thinking on your own, the very antipode of Knowing, your original Consciousness.   Having shrunken your vision and 'invented' a place so unlike Heaven that it should have been laughable to You, rather than embraceable.  And embrace it You have till your memory of Home and Joy is completely gone, there remaining only the sense that You should be happy, if only You remembered how.

 

And what he judges false HE DOES NOT SEE. All that remains to You is the strange exercise of 'thinking', which is what your Knowing shrunk to.  And with it You endlessly attempt to justify yourself in every situation. 

 

You who would judge reality CANNOT see it, - as It is hidden by your misperceptions - for whenever judgment enters reality has slipped away.  And why?  Because Reality is Love, and Love sees All through the Vision of Perfection.  Yes, You felt a faint reminder of what it means to be loved like that, and You are remembering your first experience of that Love as You, and how You saw the great gulf between the love that serves the world and the Love of Heaven, the only Reality.

 

The relentless judgment of the ego, with its darkened sense, hides Reality from view, and not remembering what You've lost, You search frantically for some one or some thing - or many ones and many things to fill an emptiness without measure, when all it takes to feel fulfilled and safe is to reach out for My hand and open up your mind to Me and let Love in.

 

The out of mind is out of sight - and so You do not see the glorious Self You are - because what is denied is there, but is not RECOGNIZED. Christ is still there - right where You are - although you know Him not. His Being does not depend upon your recognition. And so He waits in loving silence for You to ask for help.  He lives within you - as You - in the quiet present - which is always Now and Here. And it is quiet because You have moved all your attention to the past and to the future, totally neglecting Now.  And Now is where You really are while You dwell endlessly in the past and dream within the dream about the future.

 

And so that lovely, "quiet present" - also known as Now - abides, and waits for you to - to shut the door forever on the future and leave the past behind - as it never was - and enter into the Present - ever-present - world He holds out to you in love - as His eternal Gift of You. Will You not take it Now and let His Love become You?  And your return to Home is sure and steady, filled with both His Joy and Yours.

 

 

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