ARCIM

Daily Lesson 99 ~
April 9

Awakening is my only function here.

Awakening and forgiveness are the same. They both imply that something has gone wrong, something you need be awakened from or forgiven for, something amiss that needs corrective change, something apart or different from the Will of the Divine. Thus do both terms imply something impossible, yet which seemingly has occurred, resulting in a state of apparent conflict between what is and what could never be. Truth and illusions both appear to be equal now, for both appear to have happened. The impossible becomes the thing you need forgiveness for, and awakening from. Awakening thus becomes a borderland between Truth and illusion. It reflects the Truth because it is the Means by which you can release yourself from illusions. Yet it is not Truth because it undoes what was never done.

How could there be a meeting place at all where Earth and Heaven can be reconciled within a mind where both of them exist? The mind that looks upon illusions thinks them real. They have existence in that they are thoughts. And yet they are not real because the part of the mind that thinks these thoughts believes itself to be separate from the Divine.

What can join the separated mind and its thoughts with Mind and Thought that are forever One? What plan could hold the Truth unaltered, yet recognize the need illusions bring, and offer Means by which they are undone without attack, and with no touch of pain? What but a Thought of the Divine could be this Plan by which the never done is seen beyond, and mistakes forgiven and forgotten that were never real?

The Holy Spirit holds this Plan of the Divine exactly as It was received of the Divine within the Mind of the Divine, and in your own. This Plan is apart from time in that Its Source is eternal. Yet It operates in time because of your belief that time is real and that you reside within it. Unshaken does the Holy Spirit see what you look upon: on separation and loss and grief, on unholiness and pain and death. Yet does It know one thing must still be true: the Divine still is Love, and illusions are not Its Will. This is the Thought that brings illusions to the Truth, and sees them as appearances behind which is the Changeless and the Sure. This is the Thought that forgives and that awakens because It lays no faith in what is not created by the only Source It knows. This is the Thought whose function is to awaken by giving you Its Function as your own.

Awakening is your function, along with the One to Whom the Plan was given. Now are you entrusted with this Plan, along with It. It has one Answer to appearances regardless of their form, their size, their depth, or any attribute they seem to have:

“Awakening is my only function here. The Divine still is Love, and illusions are not Its Will.”

You who will work miracles, be sure you practice well the idea for today. Try to perceive the Strength in what you say, for these are words in which your Freedom is. Your Creator loves you. All the world of pain is not Its Will. Forgive yourself the thought that It wanted this for you. Then let the Thought with which It has replaced all your mistakes enter the darkened places of your mind that thought the thoughts that never were Its Will. This part belongs to the Divine, as does the rest. This part does not make its solitary thoughts real even by hiding them from the Divine. Let in the Light, and you will behold no obstacle to what your Creator wills for you. Open your secrets to Its kindly Light, and see how bright this Light still shines in you. Practice Its Thought today, and let Its Light seek out and lighten up all darkened spots, and shine through them to join them to the Whole.

It is the Divine’s Will that your mind be One with Its. It is the Divine’s Will that It has only One Creation, One Divine Family. It is the Divine’s Will that Its One Creation includes you. Think of these things in practicing today, and start your longer practice periods with this instruction in the Way of Truth:

“Awakening is my only function here. Forgiveness and awakening are the same.”

Then turn to It who shares your function with you here, and let It teach you what you need to learn to lay all fear aside, and know your Self as Love, which has no opposite in you.

Forgive all thoughts that would oppose the Truth of your Completeness, Unity, and Peace. You cannot lose the Gifts your Creator gives. You do not want to be another self. You have no function that is not of the Divine. Forgive yourself the one you think you made. Forgiveness and awakening are the same. Forgive what you have made, and you are awakened and saved from all illusions.

There is a particular message for you today that has the power to remove all forms of doubt and fear forever from your mind. If you are tempted to believe that fear thoughts are true, remember that appearances cannot withstand the truth these mighty words contain:

“Awakening is my only function here. The Divine still is Love, and this appearance of fear is not Its Will.”

Your only function reminds you that you are One. Remind yourself of this between the times you give five minutes each hour to be shared with It Who shares the Divine’s Plan with you. Remind yourself:

“Awakening is my only function here.”

Thus do you lay forgiveness on your mind, and let all fear be gently laid aside that Love may find Its rightful Place in you, and show you that you are the Child of the Divine.

 

Corresponding Text Section

 

Chapter 7: Healing and the Realm of Heaven Within

 

1. An Immutable Law of Mind

To heal is the only kind of thinking in this world that resembles the Thought of the Divine, and, because of the elements that they share, can transfer to It. When a brother or sister perceives themself as sick, they are perceiving themself as not whole, and therefore in need. If you, too, perceive them this way, you are perceiving them as if they were absent from the Realm of Heaven, or separated from It, thus making the Realm Itself obscure to both of you. Sickness and separation are not of the Divine, but the Realm is. If you obscure the Realm, you are perceiving what is not of the Divine.

To heal, then, is to correct perception in your sisters and brothers and yourself by sharing the Holy Spirit with them. This places you all within the Realm, and restores Its Wholeness in your minds. This parallels Creation because it unifies by increasing, and integrates by extending. What you project you believe or know. This is an immutable law of mind in this world as well as in the Realm of Heaven. However, the content of this law is somewhat different in this world from what it really is, because the thoughts it governs here are very different from the Thoughts in the Realm. Laws must be adapted to circumstances if they are to have meaning and maintain order.

The outstanding characteristic of the laws of mind as they operate in this world is that by obeying them, and I assure you that you must obey them, you can arrive at diametrically opposed results. This is because the laws have adapted to the circumstances of this world, in which diametrically-opposed outcomes are believed in. The laws of mind govern thoughts, and you still do respond to two conflicting voices in your thoughts.

The world has presented many arguments on behalf of the universal “freedoms” that all should enjoy, e.g., freedom of expression and worship, and freedom from want and fear. These would indeed translate into freedom if people lived them instead of merely choosing to fight for them. Then these freedoms would be perceived as one instead of many. The argument that underlies the defense of freedom is perfectly valid. Because it is true, it should not be fought for, but it should be sided with.

Those who are against freedom believe that its outcome will hurt them, which of course cannot be true. But those who are for freedom, even if they are misguided in how they uphold it, are siding with the one thing in this world that is true. Whenever anyone can listen fairly and with open mind to all sides of any issue, including freedom, they will make the right decision. This is because everyone already has the Answer.

Conflict can indeed be mis-projected, but it must be intrapersonal, or within the individual, first. Actually, the term “intrapersonal” is an ego term because “personal” implies of one person and not of others. The term “interpersonal” contains a similar error because it implies something that exists between different individuals, when the only thing that can be shared, and therefore that can exist between individuals, is Love. When this Course spoke before of the extremely personal nature of revelation, this statement was followed immediately with a description of the inevitable outcomes of revelation in terms of sharing. People conceive of themselves as separate largely because they perceive of themselves as bounded by bodies. Only if you perceive as a mind can you overcome this misconception. Then you will be free to use terms like “intra-psychic” and “inter-psychic,” “intra-universal” and “inter-universal,”  without perceiving the terms as different and conflicting, because minds can be in perfect accord both in themselves and with each other, and when they are they do reflect their universality.

Outside the Realm of Heaven, the Law that prevails inside It is adapted to the principle: “What you project you believe” (instead of know). This is the Law’s teaching form, because outside the Realm teaching is mandatory since learning is essential. This form of the Law clearly implies that you will learn what you are from what you have projected onto others and therefore believe they are. In the Realm there is no teaching or learning because there is no belief, but only Certainty. The Divine and Its Children, in the Surety of Being, know that you can only extend what you are. That form of the Law is not adapted at all, being the Law of Creation. The Divine Itself created the Law by creating by It. And Its Children, who create like their Creator, follow this Law gladly, knowing that the Increase of the Realm depends on It, just as their creation by their Creator did.

Laws must be communicated if they are to be helpful. In effect, they must be translated for those who speak a different language. A good translator, although they must alter the form of what they translate, never changes the meaning. In fact, their whole purpose is to change the form so that the original meaning is retained. The Holy Spirit is the Translator of the Laws of the Divine to those who have forgotten them and therefore do not yet again understand Them. You could not meaningfully do this translating yourself because conflicted minds cannot be faithful to one meaning, and will therefore change the meaning to preserve the form. The Holy Spirit’s Purpose in translating is naturally exactly the opposite. It translates only to preserve the original Meaning in all respects and in all languages. Therefore, It emphasizes always that these differences in form do not matter and therefore are not meaningful. The Meaning of Spirit’s Message is always the same, and only this Meaning matters.

The Divine’s Law of Creation, in perfect form, does not involve the use of Truth to convince Its Children of Truth. The Extension of Truth, which is the Law of the Realm, rests only on the Knowledge of what Truth is. This is your Inheritance, and requires no learning at all. But when you disinherited yourself from the Realm you became a learner. Few would question the intimate connection of learning and memory. Indeed learning is impossible without memory, because it cannot be consistent unless it is remembered. That is why the Holy Spirit is a Lesson in remembering. It was stated before that miracles help you to forget and remember, but the forgetting aspect is only to help the remembering be consistent. You need to forget what you have taught yourself that is not true in order to remember Truth better. You will not understand Spirit’s Translations while you listen to two ways of perceiving them. Therefore, you must forget or relinquish one to understand the other. This is the only way you can learn consistency, so that you can finally be consistent.

What can the perfect Consistency of the Realm of Heaven mean to the confused? It must be apparent that confusion interferes with meaning, and therefore prevents the learner from appreciating it. There is no confusion in the Realm, because there is only one Meaning. This Meaning comes from the Divine and is the Divine. Because It is also you, you share It and extend It as your Creator did. This needs no translation because It is perfectly understood, but It does need Extension because It means Extension.

Communication in the Realm is therefore perfectly direct and perfectly united. It is totally without strain because nothing discordant ever enters. That is why It is the Realm of the Divine. It belongs to the Divine and is therefore like It. That is Its Reality, and nothing can assail It.