ARCIM

Daily Lesson 134 ~
May 14

Let me perceive forgiveness as it is.

Let us review what it means to “forgive,” for in the world this is apt to be perceived as something that entails an unfair sacrifice of righteous justice, a gift unjustified and undeserved, and a complete denial of the truth. In such a view, forgiveness must be perceived as mere eccentric folly, and this Course must appear to rest awakening on a whim.

Such an erroneous view of what forgiveness really means is easily corrected when you can accept the fact that forgiveness is not asked of what is true. It must be limited to what is false. It is irrelevant to everything except illusions. Truth is the Divine’s Creation, and to forgive That is meaningless. All Truth belongs to the Divine, reflects Its Laws, and radiates Its Love. Does this need forgiveness? How can the Innocent, Perfect, and eternally Benign ever be forgiven?

Thus the major difficulty with understanding genuine forgiveness is when it is believed that the Truth rather than illusions must be forgiven. Honestly considered, this would be to conceive of forgiveness as a vain attempt to look past what is really there, to overlook the truth in an unfounded effort to deceive oneself by making a falsehood true—that what demands justice is being falsely pardoned. This distorted viewpoint simply reflects the hold that the idea of unforgivable error still retains upon the mind as it currently conceives and perceives the world.

If you believe that your errors are real–that they have effects beyond the world of illusions–you will look on forgiveness as deception. For it is impossible to think of error as real and not believe forgiveness is a lie. Conceived in this way, forgiveness is really an error, like all the rest of what separation shows you. From this perspective forgiveness asserts that the Truth is false, and wants to smile on the corrupt as if it were as blameless as the grass, as pure as snow. In this framework forgiveness must be delusional in what it thinks it can accomplish. It would perceive as right the plainly wrong, the loathsome as the good.

In such a view forgiveness is no true release from illusion. It is merely a further sign that what is false is unforgivable, at best to be concealed, denied, or called another name, for forgiveness thus understood would be a treachery to truth. If guilt is real, it cannot justly be forgiven. If you could actually sin, your guilt would be everlasting for it would extend past the world of illusions into Eternity. Those who are forgiven from the view that their sins are real are pitifully mocked and twice condemned, first by themselves for what they think they did, and once again by those who “forgive” them.

In Truth it is separation’s unreality and Atonement’s Reality in Its Correction of all mistakes that makes forgiveness natural and wholly Sane, a deep relief to those who offer it, a quiet blessing where it is received. True forgiveness does not accept illusions as being real, but collects them lightly and gently lays them at the Feet of Truth. And there they disappear entirely.

In fact, forgiveness is the only thing that stands for Truth within the illusions of the world. It beholds their nothingness, seeing through the countless forms in which they appear. It perceives lies but it is not deceived. It does not heed the self-accusing shrieks of sinners mad with guilt. With a quiet heart, those who forgive see their sisters and brothers and merely say to them, “My sister, brother, what you have thought about yourself and others is not the Truth.”

The strength of true forgiveness is thus its honesty, which is so uncorrupted that it sees illusions as illusions, not as Truth. It is because of this that it becomes the undeceiver in the face of lies, the great Restorer of the simple Truth. By its ability to see beyond what is not there, it opens up the Way to Truth, which had been blocked by dreams of guilt. Now are you free to follow in the Way true forgiveness opens up to you. For if one brother or sister has received this gift of you, the door is open to yourself.

There is a very simple way to find the door to true forgiveness, and perceive it open wide in welcome. When you feel that someone has committed a sin or unforgivable error in any form, direct your mind away from what you think they did, and ask yourself:

 

“In my right mind, would I condemn myself to hell for this?”

 

For condemnation is hell—the wish to extend guilt into Eternity. By questioning yourself thus will you perceive your two alternatives for choice in terms that render choosing meaningful in this situation – the nightmare of guilt or the happy dream of forgiveness – and keep your mind as free of guilt and pain as the Divine Itself intended it to be, and as it is in Truth. Truly it is only a limited perspective that would condemn. In Truth is Innocence the only thing there is. Forgiveness stands between illusions and the Truth, between the world looked upon and that which is beyond, between the hell of separation and the Gate of Heaven.

Across this bridge of forgiveness, as powerful as the Love that laid Its Blessing on it, are all dark dreams brought silently to Truth. They are not kept to swell and bluster and terrify the dazed dreamers who believe in them. The dreamers have been gently awakened from their fearful dreams by understanding that what they thought they looked upon was never there in truth. And now they can recognize that release has been given to them. They do not have to fight to save themselves. They do not have to destroy the evil they thought was plaguing them and ravaging the world because the evil, perceived clearly, is gone. Nor need they erect the heavy walls of stone and doors of steel they thought would make them safe. They can remove the ponderous and useless armor made to chain their minds to fear and misery. Their step becomes light, and as they lift their feet to stride ahead, a Star of Light is left behind to point the Way to those who follow them.

Forgiveness must be practiced until its Meaning becomes a steady illumination leading you through the shifting mists of the world. Nor can the world provide a guide to teach you forgiveness’s Beneficence. There is no thought in all the world that leads to any understanding of the Laws of Eternity forgiveness follows, or of the Thought that it reflects. It is as strange to the world of illusions as is Reality. And yet it can join your mind with the Reality in you.

Today we practice true forgiveness so that the Time of Joining be no more delayed. For we would enter Reality in Freedom and in Peace. Our practicing becomes the footsteps lightening the way for all our sisters and brothers, who will follow us to the Reality we share with them.

That this may be accomplished, let us give a quarter of an hour twice today, and spend it with the Guide Who understands the Meaning of forgiveness, and was sent to teach It to us. Let us ask of Spirit:

 

“Let me perceive forgiveness as it is.”

 

Then choose one brother or sister as Spirit will direct, and review their flaws, their faults and transgressions and “sins,” as one by one these cross your mind. Be certain not to dwell on any one of them, but realize that you are now using their “offenses” to awaken the world from all beliefs in separation and guilt and hell. After briefly considering the “wrongs” you thought of them, ask yourself:

 

“In my right mind, would I condemn myself to hell for this?”

 

Let this brother or sister be freed from all the thoughts you had of flaw, fault, and wrong in them. And now you are prepared for Freedom. If you have been practicing thus far in willingness and honesty, you will begin to sense a lifting up, a lightening of weight from across your chest, a deep and certain feeling of relief. The time remaining should be given to experiencing the release from all the heavy chains of judgment you sought to lay upon your sisters and brothers, which were also laid upon yourself.

Forgiveness should be practiced through the day, for there will still be many times when you will be tempted to forget its Meaning in the shifting mists of the world, and hold hurtful thoughts about your sisters and brothers and yourself. When this occurs, allow your mind to see through this illusion as you tell yourself:

 

“Let me perceive forgiveness as it is.

In my right mind, would I condemn myself to hell for this?

I will not lay this chain upon myself.”

 

In everything you do today remember this:

 

“No one is condemned or harmed alone,

just as no one can enter Heaven by themself.”

 

Corresponding Text Section

 

Chapter 11: The Dissolution of the Ego

 

4. Relinquishing the Shadow Companions

When you feel weary “in your soul,” remember that you have wearied or dispirited yourself. Your Comforter will inspire and renew you, but you do not know how, for if you did you could never have grown weary or dispirited. Unless you have hurt yourself, you could never suffer in any way, for that is not the Divine’s Will for Its Children. Pain is not of the Divine, for It knows no fear or attack, and Its Peace surrounds you silently. The Divine is found in the deepest Quiet, for there is no conflict in It. Conflict is the root of all that is “evil” or energy veiling, and being blind it does not perceive whom it opposes. But it always opposes the Child of the Divine, and the Child of the Divine is you.

The Divine’s Children in separation are indeed in need of comfort, for they know not what they do, believing their will is not their own. The Realm of Heaven is theirs, and yet they wander without a place to call home. At Home in the Divine only, they are lonely, and among all their sisters and brothers they feel friendless. Would the Divine let this be real, if Its Will Itself is to be joined? And if Its Will is yours, and yours Its, aloneness cannot be true of you, because it is not true of It.

Oh my sisters and brothers, if you knew what the Divine wills for you, your Joy would be complete! And what It wills has happened and is happening, for this was and is always true.

When the Light comes and you have said and willed that “The Divine’s Will is mine,” you will see such Beauty that you will know It is of your Creator. Out of your Joy you will create Beauty in Its Name, for your Joy could no more be contained than the Divine’s. The bleak little world that has been made to look upon will vanish into nothingness, and your heart will be so filled with Joy that It will leap into Heaven and into the Presence of the Divine. I cannot tell you or give you a vision of what this will be like, for words cannot convey it and your heart is not yet ready. But I can tell you, and remind you often, that what the Divine wills for Itself It wills for Its Children, and what It wills for you is yours.

The Way of Truth is not difficult, but It is very different from what you have taught yourself. Yours has been the way of pain, of which the Divine knows nothing. That way is hard indeed, and very lonely. Fear and grief have been your shadow companions and guests, and they have gone with you, and stayed with you on the way. But the dark journey is not the Way of the Divine’s Children. Walk in Light, and do not look upon the shadow companions, for they are not fit companions for the Children of the Divine, who were created of Light and in Light.

The Great Light always surrounds you, and shines out from you. How can you perceive the shadow companions in a Light such as this? If you look upon them, it is only because you are keeping your spiritual eye shut tight and denying the Light. Deny them instead, for the Light is here, and the Way is clear.

The Divine hides nothing from Its Children, even though they have attempted to hide themselves from It. Yet the Children of the Divine cannot hide their Glory, for the Divine wills them to be glorious, and gave them the Light that shines in them. You will never lose your way Home, for the Divine leads you. When you wander, you merely undertake a journey that is not real. The shadow companions and guests and the dark way are all illusions. Turn toward the Light, for the little Spark in you is Part of a Light so great that It will lift you out of all darkness forever. For the Divine is your Creator, and you are like It. The Children of Light cannot abide in darkness, for darkness is not in them.

Do not be deceived by the shadow comforters, and do not let them enter or abide in the mind of the Divine’s Child, for they have no place in the Temple that holds your holy Altar. When you are tempted to deny the Divine by affirming illusions, remember that there are no idols or gods that you can place in your Temple and still accept the Divine’s Will for you in Peace. For you cannot accept Its Will other than in Peace. Only the Divine’s Comforter can comfort you. In the quiet of Its Temple, It waits to give you the Peace that is yours. Accept and give Its Peace that you may enter the Temple, and find Its Will waiting for you. But be holy in the Presence of the Divine, or you will not know that you are there. For what is unlike the Divine cannot enter Its Mind, because it was not in Its Thought from the beginning, and therefore does not belong to It. Your mind is as pure as the Divine’s, and must be if you would know what belongs to you in Eternity.

Guard carefully your Temple by being diligent only for the Divine, for the Divine Itself dwells there, and abides in Peace. You cannot enter the Divine’s Presence with the shadow companions beside you, but you also cannot enter alone. All your sisters and brothers must enter with you, for until you have forgiven and accepted them, you cannot enter. For you cannot understand Wholeness unless you are whole, and no Part of the Divine Family can be excluded if you would know the Wholeness of your Creator.

In your mind you can accept the whole Divine Family, and bless It with the Light your Creator gave It. Then you will know you are worthy to dwell in the Temple with your sisters and brothers and Creator, because it is also your will to be joined. The Divine has blessed Its Children forever. If you will bless them in time, you will be in Eternity. Time cannot separate you from the Divine if you use it on behalf of the Eternal.