35 This course is not beyond
immediate learning unless you prefer to believe that what God wills takes time. And this means only that you would
rather delay the recognition that His Will is so. The holy instant is
this one and
every one. The one you
want it to be it
is. The one you would not have it be is lost to you.
You must decide on when it is. Delay it not. For beyond the past and future, in which you will not find it, it stands in shimmering readiness for your acceptance. Yet you cannot bring it into glad awareness while you do not want it, for it holds the whole release from littleness.
36 Your practice must therefore rest upon your willingness to let all littleness go. The instant in which magnitude will dawn upon you is but as far away as your
desire for it. As long as you desire it not and cherish littleness instead, by so much is it far from you. By so much as you want it will you bring it nearer. Think not that you can find salvation in your own way and
have it. Give over
every plan that you have made for your salvation in exchange for God's. His will content you, and there is nothing else that can bring you peace. For peace is of God and of no one beside Him.
37 Be humble before Him and yet great
in Him. And value no plan of the ego before the plan of God. For you leave empty your place in His plan, which you must fulfill if you would join with me, by your decision to join in any plan
but His. I call you to fulfill your holy part in the plan that He has given to the world for its release from littleness. God would have His host abide in perfect freedom. Every allegiance to a plan of salvation that is apart from Him diminishes the value of His Will for you in your own minds. And yet it is your mind that
is the host to Him.
38 Would you learn how perfect and immaculate is the holy altar on which your Father has placed Himself? This you will recognize in the holy instant in which you willingly and gladly give over every plan but His. For there lies peace, perfectly clear because you have been willing to meet its conditions. You can claim the holy instant any time and anywhere you want it. In your practice, try to give over every plan you have accepted for finding magnitude in littleness.
It is not there. Use the holy instant only to recognize that you alone
cannot know where it is and can only deceive yourself.
39 I stand within the holy instant, as clear as you would have me. And the extent to which you learn to be willing to accept me is the measure of the time in which the holy instant will be yours. I call to you to make the holy instant yours at once, for the release from littleness in the mind of the host of God depends on willingness and
not on time. The reason why this course is simple is that
truth is simple. Complexity is of the ego and is nothing more than the ego's attempt to obscure the obvious.
40 You could live forever in the holy instant,
beginning now and reaching to eternity, but for a very simple reason. Do not obscure the simplicity of this reason, for if you do, it will be only because you prefer not to recognize it and not to let it go. The simple reason, simply stated, is this: The holy instant is a time in which you receive and
give perfect communication. This means, however, that it is a time in which your mind is
open, both to receive and give. It is the recognition that all minds
are in communication. It therefore seeks to
change nothing, but merely to
accept everything.
41 How can you do this when you would prefer to have
private thoughts and
keep them? The only way you could do
that is to
deny the perfect communication that makes the holy instant what it is. You believe that it is possible to harbor thoughts you would not share and that salvation lies in keeping your thoughts to yourself
alone. For in private thoughts, known only to yourself, you think you find a way to keep what you would
have alone and share what
you would share. And then you wonder why it is that you are not in full communication with those around you and with God Who surrounds
all of you together.
42 Every thought you would keep hidden shuts communication off because you would
have it so. It is impossible to recognize perfect communication while
breaking communication holds value to you. Ask yourselves honestly, "Would I
want to have perfect communication, and am I wholly willing to let everything that interferes with it go forever?" If the answer is no, then the Holy Spirit's readiness to give it to you is not enough to make it yours, for you are not ready to
share it with Him. And it cannot come into a mind that has decided to oppose it. For the holy instant is given and received with
equal willingness, being the acceptance of the single Will that governs
all thought.
43 The necessary condition for the holy instant does
not require that you have no thoughts which 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. Yet it would not be Atonement if there were no
need for Atonement. 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.
44 In your practice, then, try only to be vigilant against deception and seek not to protect the thoughts you would keep unto yourself. Let the Holy Spirit's purity shine them away and bring all your awareness to the readiness for purity He offers you. Thus will He make you ready to acknowledge that you
are host to God and hostage to no one and nothing.
