ARCIM

Daily Lesson 155 ~
June 4

I will step back and let Truth lead the way.

There is a Way of living in the world that is not imprisoned by its illusions, although It is fully present within the world. This Way of living appears to be in the world, but is not of the world. The way you appear in the world doesn’t change when your feet have found this Way, though you smile more frequently, your forehead is more serene, and your eyes are quieter. And the ones who walk the world as you do recognize their own. Yet those who have not yet perceived this Way of living will recognize you also, and believe that you are like them, as you were before.

The world is an illusion. Those who choose to come to it are seeking for a place where they can also be illusions, and avoid Reality. Yet when they find that Reality is even here, they then step back and let It lead the way. What other choice is really theirs to make? To let illusion walk ahead of Truth is madness, but to let illusion recede behind the Truth, and let the Truth stand forth as what It is, is merely sanity.

This is the simple choice we make today. The mad illusion of the world will remain awhile in evidence, for those to look upon who chose to come and have not yet rejoiced to find they were mistaken in the choice. They cannot yet learn directly from the Truth, because they have denied that It exists, or that It and only It is true. And so they need a Teacher Who perceives their madness, but Who still can see beyond illusion to the simple Truth in them.

If Truth demanded that they give up the world, it would appear to them as if It asked the sacrifice of something that is real and of value. Many have chosen to renounce the world while still believing in its illusion, and they have suffered from a sense of loss, and have not been released accordingly. Others have chosen nothing but the world, and they have suffered from a sense of loss still deeper, which they did not understand. Between these paths there is another way that leads away from loss of every kind, for deprivation and sacrifice both are quickly left behind. This is the Way appointed for you now. You walk this Path of Truth as others walk their paths of illusion, nor do you seem to be distinct from them, although you are indeed. Thus can you serve them while you serve yourself truly, and set their footsteps on the Way that the Divine has opened up to you, and to them through you.

The illusion of living in this world still appears to cling to you so that you may reach your sisters and brothers. Yet this illusion has stepped back, and it is not illusion that they hear you speak of, nor illusion that you bring their eyes to perceive and their minds to grasp. Now can the Truth, which walks ahead of you, speak to them through their illusions, for the Way leads past illusion now, and goes along the Path from which you call to them that they may walk with you.

All paths will lead to this one in the end. For deprivation and sacrifice are paths that lead nowhere, choices for defeat, and aims that will remain impossible to achieve. All this steps back as Truth comes forth in you to lead your sisters and brothers from the ways of despair and death, and set them on the Way to Peace and Happiness and Life. Their suffering is merely illusion. Yet they need a Guide to lead them out of it, for they mistook illusion for the Truth.

Such is awakening’s Call, and nothing more. It asks that you accept the Truth, and let It go before you, lighting up the Path of freedom from illusion. It is not a freedom with a price or cost. There is no cost, but only gain. Illusion can only seem to hold in chains the holy Children of the Divine. It is only from illusions that they are released and saved. As illusions step back, they find themselves again.

Walk safely now, yet carefully, because this Way is new to you. And you may find that you are tempted still to walk ahead of Truth, and again let illusion be your guide. Your holy sisters and brothers have been appointed to walk with you on this Path, as you walk with certainty of Purpose to the Truth. Truth goes before you now, that you and they may perceive something with which you can identify; something you understand to lead the Way.

Yet at the journey’s Ending there will be no gap, no distance between Truth and you. And all illusions walking in the way you travelled will be gone from you as well, with nothing left to keep the Truth apart from the Divine’s Completion, holy as Itself. Step back in faith and let Truth lead the way. You know not where you go, but One Who knows goes with you. Let It gently lead you with the rest.

When time has closed the door on all things that pass, when dreams are over and miracles are purposeless, the holy Children of the Divine will make no journeys. There will be no wish to be illusion rather than the Truth. And we step forth toward this as we progress along the Way that Truth points out to us. This is our final journey, which we make for everyone. We must not lose our way, for as Truth goes before us so It goes before all our sisters and brothers, who will walk with us.

We walk to the Divine. Pause and reflect on this. Could any path be holier, or more deserving of your effort, of your love, and of your full intent? What way could give you more than Everything, or offer less and still content the holy Children of the Divine?

We walk to the Divine. The Truth that walks before us now is One with the Divine, and leads us to where It has always been. What way but this could be a path that you would choose instead?

Your feet are safely set upon the Path that leads the world to the Divine. Look not to ways that seem to lead you elsewhere. Dreams are not a worthy guide for you who are the Divine’s Child. Remember that It has placed Its Hand in yours, and given you your sisters and brothers in Its Trust that you are worthy of Its Trust in you. It cannot be deceived. Its Trust has made your Way certain and your Goal secure. You will not fail your sisters and brothers or your holy Self.

And now the Divine asks only that you think of It a while each day, that It may speak to you and tell you of Its Love, reminding you how great Its Trust and limitless Its Love. In your name and Its Own, which are the same, we practice gladly with this Thought today:

 

“I will step back and let Truth lead the way, for I would walk along the Path to the Divine.”

 

Corresponding Text Section

 

Chapter 13: From Guilt to the Promise of Heaven

 

5. Reinterpreting Time’s Purpose and Function

The ego has a very strange notion of time, and it is with this notion that our questioning of what is real might well begin. The ego invests heavily in the past, and in the end believes that the past and its continuation as the future is the only aspect of time that is meaningful. This Course has said that the ego’s emphasis on guilt enables it to ensure its continuity by making the future like the past, and thus avoiding the present. Through the notion of paying for the past in the future, the past becomes the determiner of the future, making them continuous, without an intervening present in which Release and Eternity can be found. For the ego uses the present only as a brief transition to the future, in which it brings the past to the future, by interpreting the present and future in past terms.

Now has no meaning to the ego. The present merely reminds it of past hurts, resentment, grievances, grudges, and feelings of being offended, and thus it reacts to the present as if it were past. For the ego cannot tolerate release from the past, and though the past is no more, the ego tries to preserve the past’s image by responding as if it were present. Thus, it dictates reactions to those you meet now from a past reference point only, obscuring their present reality. In effect, if you follow its dictates, you will react to your sisters and brothers as though they were someone else, and this will surely prevent you from perceiving them as they are. And you will receive messages from them out of your own past instead of your shared present because, by making the past real in the present, you are preventing yourself from letting it go. You thus are denying yourself the Message of Release that every sister and brother as they truly are offers you now.

The shadowy figures from the past are precisely what you must release yourself and your sisters and brothers from. For these figures are not real, and have no hold over you unless you bring them with you into the present. They carry the spots of pain in your mind, directing you to attack in the present in retaliation for a past that is no more. And this decision is one of future pain. For unless you learn that past pain experienced in the present is delusional, you are choosing a future of delusions, and losing the endless opportunities that you could find for Release in the present. For the ego would preserve your nightmares, and prevent you from understanding that they are past, and awakening from them now. But you must learn that no pain is possible in Eternity, including Eternity as It touches time now.

How would you recognize a holy encounter in the present moment if you merely perceive it as a meeting with your own past? To perceive it thus would be to meet no one, and the sharing of awakening, which is what makes the encounter holy, would be excluded from your sight. The Holy Spirit teaches that in every encounter in the Holy Instant you always meet your holy Self, and the encounter is always holy because you and your sisters and brothers are. The ego teaches that you always encounter your past, and because your dreams in the past were not holy, the future cannot be, and the present is therefore without meaning.

It is evident that the Holy Spirit’s Perception of time is the exact opposite of the ego’s. And the reason is equally clear, for they have diametrically-opposed perceptions of the goal of time. The Holy Spirit interprets time’s purpose as rendering the need for time unnecessary. Thus does It regard the function of time as temporary, serving only Its Teaching Function, which is temporary by definition. Spirit’s Emphasis is therefore on the only aspect of time that can extend to the Infinite. For now is the only experience of Eternity that this world offers. And it is in the reality of now, without past or future, that the beginning of the Appreciation of Eternity is. For only now is here, and only it presents the opportunities for the holy encounters in which awakening can be found.

The ego, on the other hand, regards the function of time as one of projecting itself in place of Eternity. For, like the Holy Spirit, the ego interprets the goal of time as its own. The continuity of past and future, under the ego’s direction, is the only purpose it perceives in time, and it closes over the present so that no gap in the ego’s continuity can occur. Its continuity, then, and its interpretation of time that is designed to assure this, would keep you perpetually in time, while the Holy Spirit would release you from time. And it is Spirit’s Interpretation of the Means of awakening, including time, that you must learn to accept, if you would share Its Goal of awakening for you.

You, too, will interpret the purpose and function of time as you interpret your own purpose and function. And time will be as you interpret it, for of itself it is nothing. If you interpret your function as the ego does, as seeking the autonomy of separation, you will lose sight of the present, and hold on to the past to ensure a destructive future. But if you accept your function in the world of time as one of healing, you will emphasize only the aspect of time in which healing can occur. For healing cannot be accomplished in the past, but must be accomplished in the present to release the future. This interpretation connects the future to the present, and extends the present rather than the past.