ARCIM

Daily Lesson 161 ~
June 10

Give me your blessing, holy Child of the Divine.

Today we practice differently, and take a stand apart from our fears, that all our negating emotions may disappear and offer room for the Presence of Love to enter awareness. Here is awakening in the simple words in which we practice with today’s idea. Here is the answer to the temptation to mis-project and misperceive that can never fail to welcome in Divine Essence where fear and guilt had prevailed before. Here is the world of illusions passed safely by, Atonement made complete, and Heaven now restored. Here is the Answer of the Voice of the Divine.

Complete Universality is the natural condition of the mind. But part of the mind now believes itself to be unnatural. It does not see everything as Whole and One. It looks instead only on fragments of the whole, for only thus could it make the partial world you perceive.

The purpose of all perceiving is to show the mind what it wishes to perceive. All sensing merely brings to the mind the sights and sounds and other sensations it wants or feels compelled to receive, filtering all others out. Thus were specifics made. And now it is specifics we must use in practicing. We give them to the Holy Spirit that It may employ them for a Purpose that is different from the one we gave to them. Yet Spirit can use what we made to teach us from a different point of view, so we can perceive a different use in everything.

One brother or sister represents all sisters and brothers. Every mind contains all minds, for every mind is One. Such is the Truth. Yet do these Thoughts make clear the Meaning of Creation? Do these Words bring perfect Clarity with them to you? What can they seem to be but empty sounds, pretty, perhaps, correct in sentiment, yet fundamentally not understood or understandable. The mind that taught itself to think specifically can no longer grasp Universality in the sense that It is all-encompassing. So we now need to grasp a little that we may learn a lot.

It seems to be the body that you feel limits your freedom, makes you suffer, and at last puts out your life. Yet bodies perceived thus are merely symbols of specific forms of fear. Symbols of fear seem to call for fearful responses. Yet when symbols stand for the meaningless, as symbols of fear do, they are meaningless to respond to. Love needs no symbols, being true. But fear attaches to specifics, being false.

A thought from our Text is relevant here—that only through the physical does attack appear to be acted out, but minds do not seem to attack. This is the reason bodies easily become fear’s symbols, or what fear attaches itself to. You have many times been urged to see beyond the body, for misperceiving it makes it a symbol of fear – an “enemy” of Love – which the Vision of Divine Essence cannot see. The body is the target for attack, for how could a mind not associated with a body be attacked? Yet what except mind directs the body to attack? What else could be the seat of fear except what thinks of fear?

Antipathy in any of its forms from irritation to hate is specific. There must be a thing to be attacked. An enemy must be perceived in such a form that it can be looked upon, and heard, and touched, and ultimately neutralized, removed, or killed. When hatred rests upon a thing, it calls for death as surely as the Divine’s Voice proclaims there is no death. Fear is insatiable, consuming everything the senses perceive, perceiving itself in everything, compelled to turn upon itself and to destroy.

Whoever perceives a brother or sister as merely a body secretly perceives them as fear’s symbol. And they will attack this symbol – in thought at least – because what they look upon is their own fear made external to themself, in their mind poised to attack them, and howling to unite again with the one who cast this symbol out in mis-projection. Mistake not the intensity of rage that projected fear must spawn. It shrieks in wrath, and claws the air in frantic hope that it can reach to its maker and devour it.

This do the body’s eyes look upon when perceiving as a body one whom Heaven cherishes, the angels love, and the Divine created perfect. This becomes the projected “reality” of the Divine’s Children. Yet in Divine Essence’s Vision is their Loveliness reflected in a form so holy and so beautiful that you could scarce refrain from kneeling at their feet when you behold it. Yet you will take their hands instead, for you are like them in the Sight that sees them thus. Attack on them in any form is no friend to you, for in the insanity of attack you will not perceive that in their hands is your awakening. Ask them only for this, and they will give it to you. Ask them not to symbolize your fear. Would you request that Love destroy Itself? Or would you have It be revealed to you through your sisters and brothers, and set you free?

Today we practice in a form we have attempted earlier. Your readiness is closer now, and today you will come nearer to Divine Essence’s Vision. If you are fully intent on reaching It, you will succeed today. And once you have succeeded, you will not be willing to accept the witnesses your body’s senses call forth. What you will receive will sing to you of ancient Melodies you will remember. You are remembered in Heaven. Would you not remember It?

Select one brother or sister, symbol of the rest, and ask awakening of them. Picture them first as clearly as you can, in that same form to which you are accustomed. Picture their face, their hands and feet, their clothing. Watch them smile, and picture the familiar gestures that they make so frequently.

Then think of this: what you are picturing conceals from you the Vision of one who can forgive you all your perceived shortcomings and mistakes, whose sacred hands can take away the nails that pierce your own, and lift the crown of thorns that you have placed upon your bleeding head.

Ask this of them that they may set you free:

 

“Give me your blessing, holy Child of the Divine.

I would behold you with the Vision of Divine Essence,

and see my perfect Innocence in you.”

 

And the One you call upon will answer, for It will hear the Voice of the Divine in you, and answer in your own voice. Behold now the brother or sister whom you had looked upon before as merely a body, and recognize that Divine Essence has come to you.

Today’s idea is your safe release from all forms of fear and attack. Be sure you use it instantly, should you be tempted to misperceive a brother or sister as a body, and thus look upon in them the symbol of your fear. And you will see them suddenly transformed from foe to friend, from opposer to awakener, from a shadow figure into Divine Essence.

 

Corresponding Text Section

 

Chapter 14: Reality and Release

 

2. Guilt and the Fear of Seeing Within

Release from guilt is the ego’s entire undoing, for when all other illusions have been undone, guilt remains the only thing that hides the Creator from awareness. For guilt is the first and last attack upon Its Children. The guilty always condemn, and having done so they will condemn again, linking the future to the past, as is the ego’s law. Fidelity unto this law lets no light in, for it demands faithfulness to darkness, and forbids awakening.

The ego’s laws are strict, and breaches of these laws are severely punished in the ego’s world. Therefore, give no obedience to its laws, for they are laws of retribution. And those who follow them believe that they are guilty, and so they must condemn. If you would free yourself, then the Laws of the Divine must intervene between the past and the future. Atonement stands between them, like a Lamp that shines so brightly that the chain of darkness, in which you bound yourself, will disappear.

Make no one fearful, for their guilt is yours. By obeying the ego’s harsh commandments you bring its condemnation on yourself, for no one escapes the “reward” of punishment it offers those who obey it. The ego rewards fidelity to it with pain, for faith in it is pain. And faith can be rewarded only in terms of the belief in which the faith was placed. Faith makes the power of belief, and what faith is invested in determines its reward. For faith is always given to what is treasured, and what is treasured is returned to you.

The world can give you only what you gave it, for, being nothing in itself, it has no meaning apart from what you want to find in it, and place your faith in. Allow the Divine’s Meaning to be projected there, and you will find It and see It, because you had faith in It. Be faithful unto darkness and you will not see, because your faith will be rewarded as you gave it. You will accept your treasure, and if you place your faith in the past, the future will be like it. Whatever you hold as dear you will think as yours. The power of your valuing will make it so.

Atonement brings a reevaluation of everything you cherish, for It is the Means by which the Holy Spirit separates the false from the true, both of which you have accepted into your mind without distinction. Because of this, you cannot value the true without the false, and guilt has become as true for you as innocence. If you don’t yet truly believe that the Children of the Divine are innocent, it is because you look upon the past and do not yet see only loving thoughts there. When you condemn a brother or sister, you are saying, “I who believed myself to be guilty choose to remain so.” Condemning them, you have denied their freedom, and by so doing you have denied the witness unto yours. You can just as easily free them from the past, and lift from their mind the cloud of guilt that binds them to it. And in their freedom you will find your own.

Lay not their guilt upon your sisters and brothers, for their guilt lies in their secret belief that they have done this unto you. Would you then teach them that they are right in their delusion? The idea that the innocent Children of the Divine can attack themselves and make themselves and each other guilty is insane. In any form, in anyone, believe this not. For separation and sin and condemnation are the same, and the belief in one is faith in the other, calling for retribution instead of Love. Nothing can justify insanity, and to call for retribution upon yourself or others must be insane.

Guilt blinds. So while you look upon one spot of guilt within yourself or in your brother or sister, you will not see the Light. And by projecting guilt the world will seem dark and shrouded in guilt. You throw a dark veil over it, and cannot see it, because you cannot see within. You are afraid of what you would see there, but it is not there. The thing you fear is gone. If you would see within, you would see only the Atonement, shining in Quiet and in Peace upon the Altar to your Creator.

Have courage to see within. The ego tells you all is dark with guilt within you, and bids you not to turn there. Instead, it bids you look upon your sisters and brothers, and look upon the guilt in them. Yet this you cannot do without remaining blind. For those who look upon their sisters and brothers as guilty, in the dark in which they shroud them, are too afraid to see the Light within. Within you is not what you believe is there, and have put your faith in. Within you is the holy Sign of perfect Faith your Creator has in you. The Divine does not value you as you currently do. It knows Itself, and knows the Truth in you. It knows there is no difference between you and It, for It knows not of differences. Can you perceive guilt where the Divine knows there is perfect Innocence? You can deny Its Knowledge, but you cannot change It. Behold, then, the Light It placed within you, and learn that what you feared was there has been healed with Love.

See no one, then, as guilty, and you will affirm the Truth of Innocence unto yourself. In every condemnation that you offer the Children of the Divine is the conviction of your own guilt. If you would have the Holy Spirit set you free of it, accept Its Offer of Atonement for all your sisters and brothers. For so you learn that It is true for you. And remember always that it is impossible to condemn the Children of the Divine in part. Those you look upon with condemnation become the witnesses to guilt in you, and you will perceive it there, for it is there until it becomes undone. Guilt is always only in your own mind, which has condemned itself. Project it not, for while you do, it cannot be undone. Great is the Joy in Heaven with everyone you release from guilt, where the Witnesses to your creatorship rejoice.