Corresponding Text Section
Chapter 25: Undoing the Spell of Specialness
7. All That the World Is For
Before your sisters and brothers’ holiness the world is still, and Peace descends on it in Gentleness and Blessing so complete that not one trace of conflict still remains to haunt you in the darkness of the night. They are your awakeners from the dreams of terror. They are the healing of your sense of sacrifice and fear that what you have will scatter with the wind and turn to dust. In them is your assurance that the Divine is here and with you now. While they are what they are, you can be sure that the Divine is knowable, and will be known to you. And what they are is forever, for the Divine could never leave Its Own Creation. And the Sign that this is so is in your sisters and brothers, offered you that all your doubts about yourself may disappear before their holiness.
See in your sisters and brothers the Divine’s Creation. For in them your Creator waits for your acknowledgment that It created you as Part of Itself. Without you there would be a lack in the Divine, a Heaven incomplete, a Child without a Creator. There could be no Universe and no Reality. For what the Divine wills is Whole, and Part of It because Its Will is One. Everything that is is Part of the Divine, and Everything that is is alive in It. Your sisters and brothers’ holiness shows you that the Divine is One with them and you, and that what they have is yours because you are joined with them and with your Creator.
Everything that the Divine created has It bestowed on you lovingly as yours forever. Nothing can be lost to you in all the Universe. And every Thought within Its Mind is present in your own. It is Its Will that you share Its Love for you, and behold yourself as lovingly as It conceived of you in your creation, and as It knows you still. The Divine changes not Its Mind about Its Children with passing circumstance that has no meaning in Eternity where It abides, and you with It. Your sisters and brothers, like you, are as the Divine created them. And it is this that awakens you from a world that It created not. For how could Reality create the unreal?
Remember that the healing of the separated ones is all the world is for now. That is the only Purpose the Holy Spirit sees in it, and thus the only one it has. When you see the healing of the separated ones, including yourself, as all you will to be accomplished by the world, by time and all appearances, you will know the Creator and yourself. For until then you will use the world for what is not its Purpose, and will not escape its “laws” of guilt, fear, conflict and confusion. Yet it is given you to be beyond its laws in all respects, in every way and every circumstance, in all temptation to perceive what is not there, and all belief that the Divine’s Children can suffer pain because they perceive themselves as they are not.
Behold your sisters and brothers, and see in them the whole reversal of the laws that seem to rule this world. See in their Freedom your own, for such It is. Let not their belief in specialness obscure the Truth in them, for every law of this world you free them from you release yourself from, while every “shortcoming” you look upon in them only keeps you both bound in nightmares. Yet their and your perfect Innocence will release you both, for Holiness is quite impartial, with one Interpretation made for all It perceives. And that is made not of Itself, but through the Voice that speaks for the Divine in Everything that shares Its Being. It is the Innocence of Divine Essence that eyes that see behold. It is Its Loveliness they see in everything. And it is for It they seek everywhere, and find It in every sight and place and time they see.
Your sisters and brothers’ holiness is the perfect Frame for your awakening and the world’s, and within this Frame is set the shining Memory of Divine Essence, in Whom your sisters and brothers live, and you along with them. Let not your eyes be blinded by the veil of specialness that hides the Presence or Face of Divine Essence from them, and from you as well. And no longer let the fear of the Divine hold from you the Vision you were meant to see.
Your sisters and brothers’ bodies do not show Divine Essence to you. It is their holiness in which Divine Essence is set. Choose, then, their bodies or their holiness as what you want to perceive, and the one you choose is yours to perceive. And you will choose in countless situations, and through time that seems to have no end, until the Truth be your decision. For Eternity is not regained by still one more denial of Divine Essence in them. And where is your awakening if they are merely a body? Where is your Peace but in their holiness? And where is the Divine Itself but in that Part of Itself It set forever in your sisters and brothers’ holiness, that you might see the Truth about yourself set forth at last in terms you recognized and understood?
Your sisters and brothers’ holiness is sacrament and benediction unto you. Their errors cannot withhold the Divine’s Blessing from themselves, nor from you who perceive them truly. Their mistakes can cause delay, which it is given you to take from them, that both you and they may end a journey that was never begun, and needs no end. What never was is not a part of you. Yet will you think it is until you realize that it is not a part of them who stand beside you. They are the mirror of yourself, wherein you look upon the judgment you have laid on both of you, or see the true Interpretation you have allowed be given you.
Your specialness looks on your sisters and brothers’ bodies and sees them not, but Divine Essence in you beholds their holiness. See them as what they are, that your release from illusions may be soon. A senseless wandering without a purpose and without accomplishment of any kind is all the other choice can offer you. Futility of function not fulfilled will haunt you while your sisters and brothers lie asleep, until what has been assigned to you is completed, and they are risen from the past, with you. They who condemned themselves, and you as well, are given you to awaken from condemnation, along with you. And both shall see the Divine’s Glory in Its Children, whom you mistook as flesh and bound to laws that have no power over you at all.
Would you not gladly realize that these laws are not for you? Then see your sisters and brothers as free from them. It cannot be that what governs Part of the Divine holds not for all the rest. You place yourself under the laws you perceive as ruling your sisters and brothers. Think, then, how great the Love of the Divine for you must be, that It has given you a Part of Itself to awaken from the dream of pain and give you Happiness. And never doubt that your belief in specialness will disappear before the Will of the Divine, Who loves each Part of Itself with equal Love. Divine Essence in you can perceive your sisters and brothers truly. And in Truth you will decide with the Holiness It sees.
Specialness is the function that you gave yourself. It stands for you alone, as self-created, self-maintained, in need of nothing, and unjoined with anything beyond the body. In its eyes you are a separate universe, with all the power to hold itself complete within itself, with every entry shut against intrusion, and every window barred against the Light. Always attacked and always defensive, with anger always fully justified, you have pursued this goal of specialness with vigilance you never thought to yield, and effort that you never thought to cease. And all this grim determination was for this: you wanted specialness to be the truth.
Now you are merely asked that you pursue another goal with far less vigilance, with little effort and with little time, and with the Power of the Divine maintaining it and promising success. Yet of the two it is this new goal that you may find more difficult. The “sacrifice” of Self you understand, nor do you deem this cost too heavy if it seems to bring you what you think you want. But a tiny willingness, a nod to the Divine, a greeting to Divine Essence in you, you may find a burden wearisome and tedious, too heavy to be borne. Yet for dedication to the Truth no sacrifice is asked, no strain called forth, and all the Power of Heaven and the Might of Truth Itself given to provide the Means and guarantee the Goal’s Accomplishment.
You who believe it easier to look upon your sisters and brothers’ bodies than to see their holiness, be sure you understand what made this judgment. Here is the voice of specialness heard clearly, judging against Divine Essence, and setting forth for you the purpose that it wants you to believe you can attain, and what you cannot do. Remember that this judgment must apply to what you do with specialness as your ally. For what you do through Divine Essence it does not know. To Divine Essence this judgment makes no sense at all, for only what Its Creator wills is possible, and there is no alternative for It to see. Out of Its lack of conflict comes your Peace. And from Its Purpose come the Means for effortless Accomplishment and Rest.
