ARCIM

Daily Lesson 157 ~
June 6

Into the Presence of Divine Essence I would enter now.

This is a day of Silence and of Trust. It is a beautiful time of Promise in your calendar of days. For today it is given you to hear the Resonance of the Harmony of Heaven and to see the Light of Eternity that this day offers you. This day is holy, for it ushers in a new experience, a different kind of feeling and awareness. You have spent long days and nights celebrating what was only death disguised. Today you learn to feel the Joy of Life.

This is another crucial turning point in our curriculum. We add a new dimension now, a fresh experience that sheds Light on all that we have learned already, and prepares us for what we have yet to learn to allow us to see and to awaken. This experience of the Presence of Divine Essence brings us to the Door where learning ceases, and we catch a glimpse of what is beyond the highest reaches learning can possibly attain. There we behold in a timeless Instant what words cannot convey, and we go forward with this Blessing before us, sure of our direction and of our only goal.

Today it will be given you to feel a Touch of Heaven. Though you will return to paths of learning, yet you have come far enough along the Way to alter time sufficiently to rise above its laws, and walk into Eternity a while. This you will learn to do increasingly, as every lesson in awakening, faithfully practiced, brings you more swiftly to this sacred Place and leaves you, for an Instant, to your holy Self.

Your Self will direct your practicing today, for what you ask for now is what It wills. And having joined your will with Its this day, what you are asking for must be given you. Nothing but today’s idea is needed to light your mind, and let it rest in still anticipation and in quiet Joy wherein you quickly leave the world behind.

From this day forth your Mission of awakening takes on a genuine devotion, and a glow that travels from your fingertips to those you touch, and blesses those you perceive. A vision reaches everyone you meet, and everyone you think of, or who thinks of you. For your experience today will so transform your mind that it becomes the Touchstone for the holy Thoughts of the Divine.

Your body will also be sanctified today, its only purpose now being to bring the vision of what you experience this day to light the world. Experience like this cannot be shared directly with others. Yet it leaves a vision in your eyes that you can offer everyone, that they may come the sooner to the same experience in which the world is quietly forgotten, and Heaven is remembered for a while.

As this experience increases and all goals except this become of little worth, the world to which you will return becomes a little closer to the end of time, a little more like Heaven in its ways, a little nearer its awakening. And you who bring it Light will come to see the Light with more certainty, receiving more distinctly the Vision It gives. The time will come when you will not return in the same form in which you now appear, for you will have no need of it. Yet currently it has a Purpose, and will serve It well.

Today we will embark upon a course you have not dreamed of. But the Holy One, the Giver of the happy Dreams of Life, Translator of perception into Truth, the holy Guide to Heaven given you, has envisioned for you this journey, which you start and make today with the experience this day holds out to you to be your own.

Into the Presence of Divine Essence will we enter now, serenely unaware of everything except Its shining Face and perfect Love. The Vision of Its Face – Its Essence in all things – will stay with you, but there will be an Instant that transcends all vision, even this, the holiest. This you will never teach, for you attained It not through learning. Yet the Vision speaks of your remembrance of what you knew that Instant, and will surely know again.

 

Corresponding Text Section

 

Chapter 13: From Guilt to the Promise of Heaven

 

7. All That the Present Offers

To perceive truly is to be aware of all Reality through the awareness of your own. But to experience this, no illusions can rise to distort your sight, for all Reality leaves no room for any error or illusion. This means that the only perception you have of a brother or sister is as you perceive them now. Their past has no reality in the present, and therefore their past cannot be seen, so you don’t perceive it. Your past reactions to your sisters and brothers are also not now, for if it is to these that you react in the present, then you only look upon an image of them that you made and cherish instead of their reality.

In your questioning of delusions ask yourself if it is really sane to perceive what was in the past as if it is now. If you remember the past while perceiving your sisters and brothers in the present, you will be unable to perceive the Reality that is now.

You may consider it “natural” to use your past experience as the reference point from which to judge the present. Yet this is unnatural because it is delusional, for judgment, being only of the past, has nothing to do with the present. The past is by definition gone and therefore nowhere and nothing. Basing anything on nothing is clearly unstable and can only lead to collapse—the collapse of your experience away from Reality. When you have learned to perceive everyone and everything with no reference at all to the past, either their own or yours as you perceived it, you will be able to learn from what you perceive now. For the past can cast no shadow to darken the present unless you are afraid of Light. And only if you are afraid of Light would you choose to bring the darkness with you, and by holding it in your mind perceive it as a dark cloud that shrouds your sisters and brothers, and conceals their present reality from your sight.

This darkness is only in your mind. Divine Essence revealed to you now has no past, for It is changeless. And in Its Changelessness is your Release. For if It is as It was created, then there is no guilt in It. No cloud of guilt has ever risen to obscure It, and It stands revealed in everyone you meet, because you behold It through everyone, as you behold everyone through It.

To be born anew is to let the past go and perceive the present without judgment or condemnation. For the cloud that obscures the Divine’s Children from you is the past, and if you would have it past and gone, then you must not perceive it now. And if you look upon it in the present in your delusions, then it has not gone from you, although it is not there. But Reality has gone from you as long as you choose to replace It with the past.

Time can release as well as imprison, depending on whose interpretation of it you use. Past, present and future are not continuous unless you force continuity on them. You can perceive them as continuous, and make them so for yourself. But do not allow yourself to be deceived and believe that this is how time really is, as interpreted by Spirit, for to believe that Reality is what you would have It be, according to your use for It, is delusional.

Time’s true continuity is destroyed by breaking it into past, present, and future for your own purposes. You would anticipate the future on the basis of your past experience, and plan for it accordingly. And by so doing, you are aligning past and future, and not allowing miracles, which could intervene between them in the present, to free you to be born anew. The miracle enables you to perceive your sisters and brothers without their past, and so see them as also born anew. Their errors are all past, even those that seem to be happening now, and by perceiving them free of all errors you release them from their illusions. And since their past is yours, you share in this Release.

Let no dark cloud out of your past obscure the reality of your sisters and brothers from you, for Truth can be found only in the present, and you will find It if you seek It there. You have sought It where It cannot be found, and therefore have not found It. Learn, then, to seek It where It is, and It will dawn on eyes that see.

Your past was made in fear, and if you use it to deny or oppose or attack the present, you will not see the freedom that the present holds. Fear and judgment and condemnation are behind you, and unless you bring them with you, you will see that you are free.

Perceive the present lovingly, for it alone in all of time holds the only things that are forever true. All healing rests within it, because its continuity is real. The present extends to all aspects of consciousness at the same time, and thus enables them to reach each other. The present is before time was, and will be when time is no more. In it are all Things that are eternal, and they are One. Their Continuity is timeless, and Their Communication is unbroken, for They are not separated by the past. Only the past can seem to separate, and it is nowhere.

The present offers you your sisters and brothers in the Light that would unite you with them, and free you from the past. Would you, then, hold the past against them? For if you do, you are choosing to remain in the darkness that is not there, and refusing to accept the Light that is there, and that is offered you. For the Light of perfect Vision must be freely received, as It is freely given, and can be accepted only without limit. In this single, still dimension of time, which does not change, and where there is no perception of what you or your sisters and brothers were, you behold Divine Essence, and call Its Witnesses to shine on you, because you invited Them forth. And They will not deny the Truth in you, because you sought It in Them, and found It there.

Now is the time for awakening, for now is the Release from time. Reach out to all your sisters and brothers, and touch them with the Touch of Divine Essence. In timeless Union with them is your Continuity, unbroken because It is wholly shared. The Divine’s innocent Children are only Light. There is no darkness in them anywhere, for they are whole. Call all your sisters and brothers to witness to their Wholeness, as I am calling you to join with me. Every voice has a part in the Song of Awakening—the Hymn of Gladness and Thanksgiving to the Creator of Light. The holy Light that shines forth from the Divine’s Children is the Witness that their Light is of their Creator.

Shine on your sisters and brothers in remembrance of your Creator, for you will remember It as you call forth the Witnesses to Its Creation. Those whom you heal bear witness to your healing, for in their wholeness you will see your own. And as your hymns of praise and gladness rise to your Creator, It will return your thanks in Its clear Answer to your call. For it can never be that Its Children called upon It and remained unanswered. Its Call to you is just your call to It. And in It you are answered by Its Peace.

Children of Light, the world of darkness you still dream means you have forgotten that the Light is in you. You will find It through Its Witnesses. For having given Light to Them, They will return It. Everyone you see in Light brings your Light closer to your own awareness. Love always leads to Love. The sick who ask for Love are grateful when they receive It, and in their Joy they shine with holy thanks. And this they offer you, who gave them Joy. They are your guides to Joy, for having received It of you, they would keep It. You have established them as guides to Peace, for you have made It manifest in them. And seeing It, Its Beauty calls you home.

There is a Light that this world – conceived in the darkness of fear – cannot give. Yet you can give It, as It was given you. And as you give It, It shines forth to call you from the world, through following It. For this Light will attract you as nothing in this world can. And you will lay aside this world and find another. This other world – the Real World – is bright with Love that you have given it. And here will everything remind you of your Creator and Its holy Creation. Light is unlimited, and spreads across the Real World in quiet Joy. All those you brought with you will shine on you, and you will shine on them with gratitude, because they brought you here, as you did them. Your Light will join with theirs in Power so compelling that it will draw all others out of darkness as you behold them.

Awakening to Divine Essence is following of your free will the Laws of Love, out of quiet Recognition of the Truth in these Laws. The Attraction of Light must draw you willingly, and willingness is signified by giving. Those who accept Love of you become your willing witnesses to the Love you gave them, and it is they who hold It out to you.

In sleep you are alone, and your awareness is narrowed to yourself. And that is why nightmares come. You dream of isolation because your eyes are closed. You do not see your sisters and brothers when you sleep, and in the darkness you cannot behold the Light you give to them.

And yet the Laws of Love are not suspended because you sleep. And you have followed Love’s Laws through all your nightmares, and have been faithful in your giving, for you were not alone. Even in sleep has Divine Essence protected you, ensuring the Real World for you when you awaken. In your name It has given Itself for you, and given you the Gifts It gave your sisters and brothers.

The Divine’s Children are still as loving as their Creator. Continuous with their Creator, they have no time apart from the Divine. So they have never ceased to be their Creator’s Witnesses, and their own. Although they slept, the Vision of Divine Essence did not leave them. And so it is that they can call unto themselves the Witnesses that teach them that in Reality they never slept.