Corresponding Text Section
Chapter 9: The Plan of Atonement
1. Asking Only for What Can Be Received
Fear of the Divine Will is one of the strangest beliefs the human mind has ever made. This could not possibly have occurred unless the mind was already profoundly split, making it possible for it to be afraid of what it really is. It should be apparent that Reality cannot “threaten” anything except illusions, given that Reality can only uphold Truth. The very fact that the Divine Will, which is what the Children of the Divine are, is perceived as fearful to them demonstrates that they are afraid of what they are. It is not, then, the Will of the Divine of which they are afraid, but their own will. Yet their will is not the ego’s, and that is why the ego in their minds opposes them. What seems to be the fear of the Divine is really only the fear of their own reality.
It is impossible to learn anything consistently in a state of fear. If the purpose of mastering this Course is to learn what you are, and if you have already decided that what you are is fearful, then it must follow that you will not be able to learn this Course until you fundamentally change your mind about what or who you are. You might bring to mind that the reason this Course exists is because you do not know who you are. If you do not know your reality, how would you know whether it is fearful or not? The association of Truth and fear, which would be highly unnatural at best, is particularly inappropriate in the minds of those who do not know what Truth is (and impossible in the minds of those who do). All that this kind of association means is that you are arbitrarily endowing something quite beyond your awareness – Truth – with something you do not want—fear.
It is evident, then, that you are judging something of which you as yet are totally unaware. You have set this strange situation up so that it is completely impossible to escape from it without a Guide who does know what Reality is. The purpose of this Guide is merely to remind you of what you want. This Guide is not attempting to force an alien will upon you. It is merely making every possible effort, within the limits you impose upon It, to reestablish your own will in your consciousness. You have imprisoned your own will in your unconscious, where it remains potentially available but cannot help you in a practical way while it remains imprisoned. When this Course said that Spirit sorts out the true from the false in your mind, this also means that Spirit has the Power to see what you have hidden and therefore imprisoned in your unconscious, and see the Will of the Divine there. Spirit’s Perception of this Will can make It real to you, because Spirit is in your mind, and therefore Spirit is your reality. If, then, Its Perception of your mind brings its reality to you, It is teaching you what you are.
The only source of fear in this whole process can therefore only be what you think you stand to lose. But it is only what the Holy Spirit sees in your mind that you can possibly have and keep. It has been emphasized many times that the Holy Spirit will never call upon you to sacrifice anything. But if you ask yourself to sacrifice Reality, the Holy Spirit must remind you that this is not your will because it is not the Divine’s Will.
There is no difference between the Divine’s Will and your true will. If you did not currently have a divided will, you would recognize that willing is awakening because it is communication. It is impossible to communicate clearly in a language unfamiliar to you. You and your Creator can communicate through Creation, because that, and only that, is your joint Will. A divided will does not communicate clearly or effectively because the parts of it speak for different things to the same mind. This causes the ability to communicate to be lost, simply because confused communication does not mean anything.
A message cannot be said to be truly communicated unless it makes sense to the receiver. How sensible can your messages be when they ask for what you don’t actually want? Yet as long as you are afraid of your will, this is precisely what you will ask for. You may insist that the Holy Spirit does not answer your requests, but it might be wiser to consider the kind of requester you are. Often you do not ask only for what you truly want. This is solely because you are afraid you might receive it, and indeed you would. This is really why you persist in asking a teacher – the ego – to teach you your will who could not possibly teach this. From this teacher you can never learn it, and this gives you the illusion of safety from what it would mean if you did learn it. But you cannot be safe from Truth, but only in It. Reality is the only Safety.
Your will is your awakening because it is the same Will as the Divine’s. The separation is nothing more than the belief that your will is different. No sane mind can believe that its will is stronger than the Divine’s. If, then, a mind with some semblance of sanity believes that its will is different from the Divine’s, it can only decide either that the Divine does not exist, or that the Divine’s Will is fearful. The former belief is that of the atheist, and the latter that of the martyr. Martyrdom takes many forms, including all doctrines that hold that the Divine demands sacrifice of any kind.
Either basic type of senseless belief about the Divine will induce intense if unconscious fear because atheists believe that they are alone in the universe and martyrs believe that the Divine is crucifying them. Both types really fear both abandonment and retribution, but the former is more reactive against abandonment and the latter against retribution. Atheists unconsciously maintain that the Divine has left them, but that they do not care. They will, however, become very fearful, and hence very angry, if anyone suggests that the Divine has not left them. Martyrs, on the other hand, are more aware of guilt, and, believing that punishment is inevitable, attempt to teach themselves to tolerate it.
The truth, very simply, is that no one really wants either abandonment or retribution. Many people seek one or the other or both, and then believe that these are happening to them, but it is still true that they do not want either. Can you ask the Holy Spirit for “gifts” such as these, and actually expect to receive them? From the ego, yes. But the Holy Spirit is totally incapable of giving you anything that does not come from the Divine. Its Task is to help and never to command. It cannot make you want something you think you don’t want, or to avoid something you think you want. When you ask the Universal Giver for what you do not want, you are asking for what cannot be given because it was never created. It was never created because it was never your will for yourself or the Divine’s Will for you.
Ultimately everyone must learn to recognize the Will of the Divine, because ultimately everyone must recognize their holy Self. This Recognition is the Recognition that their will and the Divine’s Will are One. In the Presence of Truth there are no unbelievers, no martyrs, and no sacrifices. In the Security of Reality fear is totally meaningless. To deny what is can only seem to be fearful. Fear cannot be real without a cause, and the Divine is the only Cause. The Divine is Love, and you do want It. This is your will. Ask for this and you will be answered because you will be asking only for what belongs to you in Truth.
When you ask the Holy Spirit for what would hurt you, It cannot answer, because nothing can hurt you and so you are asking for nothing. Any desire that stems from the ego is a desire for nothing, and to ask for it is not a request, it is merely a denial in the form of a request. The Holy Spirit is not concerned with form at all, being aware only of Meaning. Since the ego has no Meaning, Spirit is unaware of it. The ego cannot ask the Holy Spirit for anything because it completely misunderstands Spirit and therefore has no way to communicate with It. But you can ask for Everything of the Holy Spirit, because your true requests are real, being of your will. Would the Holy Spirit deny the Will of the Divine? And could It fail to recognize this Will in the Divine’s Children?
The energy you withdraw from Creation you expend on fear. This is not because your energy is inherently limited, but because you will have limited it. You do not recognize the enormous waste of energy you expend in denying Truth. What would you say of someone who persisted in attempting what is literally impossible because of their belief that only to achieve it is success? The belief that you must have the impossible, that is, what would hurt you, in order to be happy is totally out of accord with the Law of Creation. The Divine could not will that Happiness depended on what you could never have.
The truth that the Divine is Love does not require belief, but it does require acceptance. It is indeed possible for you to deny truths, although it is impossible for you to change them. If you hold your hands over your eyes you will not be able to look through your eyes, because you are interfering with the physical laws of perception. If you deny Love you will not know It because your Cooperation is the Law of Its Being. You cannot change Divine Laws, which you did not make, and the Laws of Happiness were created for you, not by you.
Attempts of any kind to deny what is are fearful, and if they are strong they will induce acute anxiety, even panic. Willing against Reality, though impossible, can be made into a very persistent goal, even though you do not truly want to achieve it. But consider the result of this strange decision. You are devoting your mind to what you do not want. How real can this devotion be? If you do not want it, it was never created. If it was never created, it is nothing. Can you really devote yourself to nothing?
The Divine, in Its Devotion to you, created you devoted to everything Real, and gave you what you are devoted to. Otherwise, you would not have been created perfect. Reality is everything Real, and you therefore have Everything because you are real. You cannot create the unreal because the absence of Reality is fearful, and fear cannot be created. As long as you believe that fear is possible, your creativity will lie dormant in your experience, because you will fear it. Opposing orders of reality make Reality meaningless, and Reality is Meaning.
Remember, then, that the Divine’s Will is already Reality, and that nothing else will ever be. This is the simple acceptance of Reality because only this is real. You cannot distort Reality and know what It is. And if you do distort Reality you will experience anxiety, depression, and ultimately panic, because you will be trying to make yourself unreal. When you feel these things, do not try to look past yourself for Truth, for Truth can only be within you. Say, therefore:
Divine Essence is in me, and where It is the Divine must be, for Divine Essence is Part of the Divine.
