ARCIM

Daily Lesson 129 ~
May 9

A world that can be seen [the Real World] is a world I want.

This is the thought that follows from the one we practiced yesterday. We cannot stop with the idea that the world as it appears when looked upon is without Worth, for unless it is understood that there is something real to hope for, depression will result. Our emphasis is not on giving up the world, which would only strengthen the belief in sacrifice, but on exchanging it for what is truly satisfying, filled with Joy, and capable of offering you Peace. Think you the world of illusions can offer that to you?

It might be worth a little time to think once more about the value of this world that you look upon. This is the world of time as the ego conceives it, where all things must perish and end. This world gives only to rescind, and finally takes away all things that you have cherished for a while. Thus no lasting, perfect love can be found in such a world, for none is here. The world that can be looked upon, left by itself, knows not of mercy. Its impersonal nature means that it is unconcerned with you. It is in constant fluctuation and therefore unstable. Because it is a dream, it is a place where anything can be acted out, including all that the Divine is not. Perhaps you will concede there is no loss in letting go all thought of true value here.

Is it a loss to find a world instead where loss is impossible, where Love endures forever, hate cannot exist, and fear has no meaning? Is it loss to find all things you really want, and know they will remain throughout time exactly as they truly are, and that they have no ending beyond time?

Yet even these things will be exchanged at last for what we cannot speak of, for you go from there to where words fail entirely, into a Silence where Communication is unspoken and yet perfectly understood; where Understanding, unambiguous and clear as sunshine, remains limitless for all Eternity. And the Divine Itself speaks to Its Children as Its Children speak to It. Their Language has no words, for what they communicate cannot be symbolized. Their Knowledge is direct, wholly shared, and wholly One.

How far from Knowledge are those who choose to stay bound to the world of illusions. And yet how near are you to Knowledge when you exchange this world for the world you want—the Real World. Now is it certain that the Final Step to be taken by the Divine is near. Now you stand an Instant’s Space away from Timelessness. Here you can only see forward into Eternity, never glancing back to look again upon the world you do not want. Here is the Real World, which comes to take the former world’s place as you release your mind from little things the world sets forth to keep you bound there, by your choice. Value them not, and they will disappear. Esteem them, and they will seem real to you.

Such is the choice. What loss can there be for you in choosing not to value nothingness? The world of illusions holds nothing that you really want, but what you choose instead you want indeed! Let it be given you today. It waits only for your choosing, to take the place of all the things you sought but did not really want.

Ten minutes in the morning and at night, and once more in between, practice your willingness to make this exchange. Begin with this:

“A world that can be seen is a world I want.

I choose to see that world instead of one I look upon,

for here is nothing that I really want.”

Then close your eyes upon the world you are used to perceiving, and in the silent darkness watch the Lights that are not of this world light one by one, until the idea that where one begins, another ends, loses all meaning as they blend in One.

Today the Lights of Heaven reach to you, to illuminate your sight as you rest beyond the world of darkness. Here is Light that your body’s eyes cannot perceive. And yet your mind’s spiritual eye can see It plainly, and can understand. A day of Grace is given you today, and we give thanks.

This day you realize that what you feared to lose was only an idea: the fear that you could lose. Now do we understand that there is no loss. For we have seen the opposite of loss at last, and we are grateful we have chosen this.

Remember your decision hourly, and take a moment to confirm your choice by laying by whatever thoughts you have, and dwelling briefly only upon this:

“A world that can be looked upon holds nothing that I want. A world that can be seen is a world I want.”

 

Corresponding Text Section

 

Chapter 10: Idols, Gods, or the Divine

 

5. The Spark and the Great Rays

Reality can dawn only in an unclouded mind. It is always there to be accepted, but Its acceptance depends on your willingness to have It. To know Reality must involve the willingness to assess unreality honestly for what it is. This is the right use of selective perception. To see beyond nothingness is merely to assess it correctly, and, because of your ability to assess it truly, to let it go. Knowledge cannot dawn on a mind full of illusions, because Truth and illusions are irreconcilable. Truth is whole, and cannot be known by part of a mind.

The Divine Family cannot be seen as partly sick, because to perceive It that way is not to see It at all. If the Divine Family is One, It is One in all respects. Oneness cannot be divided. If you perceive gods or idols or demons, your mind is split, and you will not be able to limit the split, because the split is the sign that you have removed part of your mind from the Divine’s Will, and this means that part of your mind is out of control. To be out of control is to be outside of Spirit’s true Reasoning (Reason), and even outside of normal human reasoning (rationalization). And the mind does become unreasonable without reason, human or Divine. Yet this is merely a matter of definition. By defining the mind wrongly, you perceive it as functioning wrongly.

The Divine’s Laws will keep your mind at peace, because Peace is the Divine’s Will, and Its Laws are established to uphold Peace. Its are the Laws of Freedom, but the laws split minds made up are the laws of bondage. Since Freedom and bondage are irreconcilable, their laws cannot be understood together. The Laws of the Divine work only for your good, and there are no other laws beside Its. Everything else is merely lawless, and therefore chaotic. But by Its Laws the Divine Itself has protected Everything It created. Therefore, anything that is not within Its Laws does not exist.

“Laws of chaos” are meaningless by definition. Creation is perfectly lawful because it is of one perfect Order. Therefore if anything could actually be chaotic – that is, utterly lacking order rather than merely having an order not yet understood – it would be without meaning, because it would be without the Divine. You have attempted to give your peace and freedom away to the gods and idols and demons you made, but they do not exist, and therefore are not there to take your peace and freedom from you, and you are not able to give these to them. You are not free to give up Peace and Freedom, but only to temporarily deny Them. In fact, denying Them is what makes the temporal. You cannot do what the Divine did not intend, because what It did not intend cannot and does not take place in Reality.

Your gods and idols and demons do not bring chaos. You are endowing them with chaos, and accepting it of them. None of this has ever occurred or been. Nothing but the Laws of the Divine has ever operated, and nothing except Its Will will ever be. You were created by Its Will and through Its Laws, and the Manner of your creation established you as a creator. What you have made in your dream of a world of illusions is so unworthy of you that you could hardly want it if you were willing to perceive it as it is. When you are willing and do see it as it is you will see nothing at all, because nothing is there. And your vision will automatically see beyond it to what is in you and all around you. In honor of the sanctity of your will, Reality cannot break through the obstructions you interpose, but It will envelop you completely when you let them go.

When you have experienced the Protection of the Divine, the making and honoring or fearing of gods and idols and demons becomes inconceivable. There are no strange images in the Mind of the Divine, and what is not in Its Mind cannot be in yours, because you are of One Mind, and that Mind belongs to the Divine. It is yours because It belongs to the Divine, for to It ownership is sharing. And if it is so for It, it is so for you. Its Definitions are Its Laws, for by them It established the eternal Universe as what It is. No gods or idols or demons you attempt to interpose between yourself and your reality affect Truth at all. Peace and Freedom are yours because the Divine created you. And It created nothing else.

A miracle is an act of the Children of the Divine who have at least temporarily laid aside all gods and idols and demons, and who call on their sisters and brothers to do likewise. It is an act of faith, because it is the recognition that the Children of the Divine who sleep can lay aside all delusions and awaken. It is a call to the Holy Spirit in their mind, a call which is strengthened by this faith. Because miracle workers have heard the Divine, they strengthen Its Voice in their sisters and brothers by weakening their belief in fear, which they do not share. The Power of one mind can shine into another, because all the Lamps of the Divine were lit by the same Spark. It is Everywhere, and It is eternal.

In many human beings only this Spark remains, for the Great Rays of the Divine are obscured. But the Divine has kept the Spark alive, so the Rays can never be completely forgotten. If you will just see the little Spark, you will learn of the greater Light, for the Rays are there as yet unseen. Perceiving the Spark will heal, and knowing the Great Rays will create. Yet in returning to the Great Rays, the Spark must be acknowledged first, for the separation was a descent from Magnitude to littleness. But the Spark is still as pure as the Great Rays and the Light from Which It came, because It is the remaining Call of Creation. Put all your faith in It, and the Divine Itself will answer you.