ARCIM

Daily Lesson 156 ~
June 5

I walk with the Divine in perfect Holiness.

Today’s idea merely states the simple Truth that makes the thoughts of separation and sin impossible. It promises that there is no cause for guilt, and being causeless it does not exist. This follows surely from the basic Thought so often mentioned in the Text, that ideas leave not their source. If this be true, how could you be apart from the Divine? How could you walk the world alone and separate from your Source?

This Course is consistent in the Thoughts that are presented in our curriculum. Truth must be true throughout if It be true. It cannot contradict Itself, nor be in parts sure and in others uncertain. You cannot walk the world apart from the Divine because you could not be without It. It is what your life is. Where you are It is. There is one Life. That Life you share with the Divine. Nothing can be apart from It and have Life.

And where the Divine is there must be Holiness as well as Life. Every Attribute of the Divine is shared by Everything that has been created. What has Being is innocent and holy as the Divine because what shares Its Life and Being is Part of Holiness, and could no more be flawed than the Sun could choose to be of ice, the sea elect to be apart from water, or the grass to grow with roots suspended in the air.

There is a Light in you that cannot die, Whose Presence is so holy that the world is sanctified because of you. All things that live bring you gifts, and offer them to you in gladness and with gratitude. The scent of flowers is their gift to you. The waves bow before you, and the trees extend their arms to shield you from the heat and lay their leaves before you on the ground, that you may walk in softness, while the wind sinks to a whisper around your holy head.

The Light in you is what the universe longs to behold. All living things are still before you, for they recognize Who walks with you. The Light you carry is their own, and thus they see in you their innocence and holiness, greeting you as awakener and honoring the Divine in you as in themselves. Accept their reverence, for it is given to Holiness Itself that walks with you, transforming in Its gentle Light all things into Its Likeness and Purity.

This is the way awakening works. As you step back, the Light in you steps forward and encompasses the world. It heralds the end of the belief in separation and sin, not through punishment and death, but in lightness and in laughter, because sin’s quaint absurdity is seen. It is a foolish thought, a silly dream, not frightening, ridiculous perhaps, but who would waste an instant in approach to the Divine Itself for such a senseless whim? Yet many, many years have been wasted on just this foolish thought.

The past is gone with all its fantasies. They keep you bound no longer. The Approach to the Divine is near. And in the little interval of doubt that still remains, you may perhaps lose sight of your Companion, and mistake It for the senseless ancient dream that now is past. But your Companion will never lose sight of you.

 

“Who walks with me?”

 

This question should be asked a thousand times a day, until Certainty has ended doubting and established Peace. Today let doubting cease. The Divine speaks for you in answering your question with these words:

 

“I walk with the Divine in perfect Holiness.

I light the world, I light my mind,

and all the minds that the Divine created One with me.”

 

Corresponding Text Section

 

Chapter 13: From Guilt to the Promise of Heaven

 

6. Being Free of Private Worlds

This Course has said that in this world you can have only two emotions, Love and fear. Love is changeless but continually exchanged, being offered by the Eternal to the Eternal. In this exchange Love is extended, for It increases as It is given. Fear has many forms, for the content of individual illusions differs greatly. But they have one thing in common: they are all unreal. They are made of sights that cannot be seen, and sounds that are not heard. They make up a private world that cannot be shared. For private worlds are meaningful only to their makers, and so they have no Meaning at all. In these worlds their makers move alone, for only they perceive their own private world.

Each one peoples their private world with figures from their individual past, and it is because of this that private worlds differ. But the figures that they look upon were never real, for they are made up only of their reactions to their sisters and brothers, and do not include their sisters and brothers’ reactions to them. Therefore they do not perceive that they made these figures, and that they are not whole. For these figures have no witnesses, being perceived in one separate mind only.

It is through these strange and shadowy figures from the past that those who have forgotten their Sanity relate to their unreal worlds. For they only look upon that which reminds them of these images from their past, and it is to this that they relate. Thus do they communicate with those who are not there, and it is those who are not there who seem to answer them. And no one hears their answer except those who called upon them, and they alone believe that these figures answered them.

Projection makes perception, and you cannot perceive beyond it. Again and again have people opposed each other because they perceived in the other a shadow figure from their private past world. And thus it is that whenever you oppose, you must oppose yourself first. For the only thing that you can ever oppose is not in others. Its only existence is in your own mind, and by opposing others you are literally opposing what is not there.

The delusional can be very destructive, for they know not what they do and do not recognize that they can only condemn themselves. They do not wish to die, yet they will not let condemnation go. And so they withdraw into their private worlds, where everything is upside down, and where what is within appears to be outside. Yet what is truly within they do not perceive, for they cannot perceive the reality of their sisters and brothers while in their mad state of mind.

You can have only two emotions, yet in your private world you react to each of them as though it were the other. For Love cannot abide in a world split apart, where, when Love comes, It is not recognized and therefore not extended. If you perceive your own antipathy projected outward as your image of your brother or sister, you are not seeing them.

Everyone draws near to what they love, and recoils from what they fear. And so a disoriented mind reacts with fear to Love, and recoils from It. But fear attracts the disoriented mind, and, believing that fear is Love, such a mind draws near to it. Each one’s private world is filled with the figures of fear they have invited into it. And they do not perceive all the Love their sisters and brothers offer them.

As you observe your world with open eyes and mind, consider whether you have withdrawn into the disorientation of your private world. Do you perceive a world of stress and conflict outside yourself, and hear the discordant noises of such a world that are actually soundless? Are your behavioral manifestations of the two emotions, Love and fear, the opposite of what these emotions are? Do you communicate with the reality of all your sisters and brothers as Children of the Divine, or do you perceive yourself isolated, as if you were alone in all the universe? Do you hear the Divine when It calls to you through Its Voice, or are you preoccupied with another voice? Do your eyes cast about in shadows or are you beginning to see Light?

Sisters and brothers, would you offer an experience of a private world to your Creator? For if you offer it to yourself, you are offering it to the Divine. But the Divine will not return it, for it is unworthy of you because it is unworthy of your Creator. But your Creator would release you from it, and set you free. Its Answer, wholly sane, tells you that what you have offered yourself is not true, but Its Offering to you has never changed.

You who know not what you do can learn what Sanity is, and learn to see It beyond your dark dreams of insanity. It is given you to learn how to deny madness, and come forth from your private world in Peace. And you will see all that you denied in your sisters and brothers that resulted because you denied it in yourself. For you will love them, and by drawing near to them you will draw them to yourself, perceiving them as witnesses to your reality, which you share with the Divine. For I am with them, as I am with you. And we will draw them from their private worlds, for as we are united so would we unite with them.

The Creator welcomes all of us in Gladness, and gladness is what we would offer It. For every Child of the Divine is given you, to whom the Divine gave Itself. And you must offer your appreciation of them to the Divine, to recognize Its Gift to you.

Vision depends on Light because you cannot see in darkness. Yet in the darkness, in the private world of sleep, you look upon dreams, although your eyes are closed. And it is here that you perceive what you alone made. Just let the darkness go, and all you made you will no longer perceive, for sight of it depends upon denying true vision. But it does not follow that as a result of denying vision you cannot see. Yet denial of Reality makes you think it does follow, for by this denial you accepted insanity, believing that you could make a private world of your own, and rule your own perception. But for this to seem real, Light must be excluded.

Dreams disappear when Light has come, and then you can see. Do not seek vision through your body’s eyes. For you made your way of perceiving so that you might believe you could perceive in darkness, and in this you were deceived. Beyond this darkness, and yet still within you, is the Vision of Divine Essence, Who sees Everything in Light. Your current perception comes from fear, as Divine Essence’s comes from Love. And It sees for you as your Witness to the Real World. Divine Essence is made manifest through the Holy Spirit, seeing the Real World always, and calling forth its Witnesses and drawing them unto you. For Spirit loves what It sees within you, and It would extend It. And It will not return unto the Creator until It has extended your perception even unto the Gate of Heaven. And there perception is no more, for Spirit has returned you to the Creator in Divine Essence.

You can have only two emotions. One was given you in your creation and the other you made. Each is a way of perceiving, and different worlds arise from their different perceptions. See through the vision that is given you, for through Divine Essence’s Vision It beholds Itself. And seeing what It is, It knows Its Creator. Beyond your darkest dreams It sees the Divine’s innocent Child within you, shining in perfect Radiance, which is undimmed by your dreams. And this you will see as you perceive with Divine Essence. For Its Vision is Its Gift of Love to you, given It of the Creator for you.

The Holy Spirit is the Light in which Divine Essence stands revealed. And all who would behold It can see It, for they have asked for Light and Truth. Nor will they see It alone, for It is no more alone than they are. Because they recognized the Divine Child, they have risen in It to the Creator. And all this will they understand because they saw within and beheld, beyond the darkness, Divine Essence in them, and recognized It. In the Sanity of Its Vision they beheld themselves with Love, seeing themselves as the Holy Spirit sees them. And with this Vision of the Truth in them came all the Beauty of the world to shine upon them.