ARCIM

Daily Lesson 170 ~
June 19

There is only Gentleness and Mercy in the Divine, and also in me.

No one attacks without intent to hurt. This can have no exception. When you think that you attack in self-defense, you mean that to be hurtful is protection; that you are safe because of harm. You mean that you believe to hurt another can bring you freedom from what you fear. And you mean that to attack is to exchange the state in which you are for something better, safer, more secure from threat and from fear.

How thoroughly nonsensical is the idea that attacking means defending from fear! For here is fear fed with bloodshed, actual or intended, to make it grow and swell and rage. And thus is fear protected, not escaped.

Today we learn a lesson that can save you more delay and needless misery than you can possibly imagine. It is this: You make in your own mind what you defend against, and by your own defense against it does this image become real and inescapable to you. Lay down your arms, and only then do you perceive its falsity.

It seems to be an enemy outside of you that you attack even in defense. Yet your attack sets up an enemy within, an alien thought at war with you, depriving you of Peace, splitting your mind into two camps that seem entirely irreconcilable. For Love, Which is all-encompassing, now has an opposite, an “enemy” that needs to be attacked. And fear, the actual intruder into your holy mind, now needs your defense against the “threat” of Love, your true Identity.

If you consider carefully the means by which your phantom self-defense proceeds on its imagined way, you will conceive the premises on which the idea stands.

First, for self-defense to be believed it must also be believed that ideas can leave their source. For it is you who prepares for and engages in attack in your defense, and thus you must have first conceived of attack and then projected the idea as outside of yourself, coming back at you from beyond your control. You must have full faith that the split you made between what is inside and outside of you is real.

Next are the Attributes of Love bestowed upon Its imagined “enemy.” For fear instead of Love becomes your safety and protector of your peace, to which you turn for solace and escape from doubts about your strength, and hope of rest in dreamless quiet. And as Love is cut off from what belongs to It and It alone, It is endowed with attributes of fear. For Love would ask you to lay down all defense as merely foolish. And then your weapons indeed would crumble into dust. For such they are.

With Love as enemy must fear in form of self-preservation become a god, and gods demand that those who worship them obey their dictates, and refuse to question them. Harsh punishment is meted out relentlessly to those who ask if the demands are sensible or even sane. It is these gods’ enemies who are insane and treacherous, while they are always merciful and just.

Today we observe dispassionately this cruel god of fear. And we note that though its lips are smeared with blood and fire seems to flame from it, it is only made of stone. It can do nothing. We need not defy its power, for it has none. And those who perceive in it their safety have no guardian, no strength to call upon in danger, and no mighty warrior to fight for them.

This moment can be terrible, as what you have so long believed to be your safety is seen to be not there. But it can also be the time of your release from wretched imprisonment. You make a choice, standing before this idol, perceiving it exactly as it is. Will you restore to Love what you sought to wrest from It and lay before this mindless piece of stone? Or will you make another idol to replace it? For the god of fear in form of self-preservation takes many forms. Another can be found.

You do not truly believe that fear is the answer to, or release from, fear. Let us remember what this Course has stressed about the obstacles to Peace. The final one, the hardest to believe is nothing, and a seeming obstacle with the appearance of a solid block, impenetrable, fearful and beyond surmounting, is the fear of the Divine Itself. Here is the basic premise that enthrones the thought of fear as god. For fear is esteemed by those who honor it, and Love appears to be invested now with attributes of fear.

Where does the totally insane belief in gods of vengeance come from? Love has not confused Its Attributes with those of fear. Yet must the worshippers of fear perceive their own confusion in what they believe to be fear’s “enemy,” its insanity now a part of Love. And what, misperceived in madness, could be more fearful than the Heart of Love Itself? The blood that is shed in self-defense appears to be upon Its lips; the fire of destruction comes from It. And It is terrible above all else, cruel beyond conception, striking down all who acknowledge It to be their god.

The choice you make today is certain. For you perceive for the last time this bit of carven stone you made, and call it god no longer. You have reached this place before, but you have chosen that this cruel god remain with you in still another form, and so the fear of the Divine returned with you. This time you leave it here. And you return to a new world unburdened by its weight, perceived not through its sightless eyes, but beheld in the Vision that your choice has restored to you.

Now does your perceiving belong to Divine Essence, and It sees through you. Now your voice belongs to the Divine, and echoes Its Voice. And now your heart remains in Peace forever. You have chosen Love in place of idols, and your true attributes, given you by your Creator, are restored to you at last. The Call of the Divine is heard and answered. Now has fear disappeared in the Presence of Love, as the Divine Itself replaces judgment and harm with Its Gentleness and Mercy, which are our own.

 

Creator, we are like You. Only Gentleness and Mercy abide in us, for These alone abide in You. Your Peace is ours. And we bless the world with what we have received from You alone. We choose again and make our choice for all our sisters and brothers, knowing they are One with us. We bring them Your Awakening as we have received It now. And we give thanks for them who render us complete. In them we see Your Glory, and in them we find our Peace. Holy are we because Your Holiness has set us free. And we give thanks. Amen.

 

Corresponding Text Section

 

Chapter 15: Dissolving Dissociation

 

6. The Circle of Atonement

Unless you are innocent you cannot know the Divine, Whose Will is that you do know It. Therefore, you must be innocent. But if you do not accept this necessary Condition for knowing the Divine, then you have denied the Divine, and do not recognize It though It is all around you. The Divine cannot be known without Its Children, whose Innocence is the Condition for knowing It. Accepting any of Its Children as guilty is denial of the Creator so complete that Knowledge is swept away from recognition in the very mind where the Divine Itself has placed It. Just listen, and learn how impossible this is! Do not endow the Divine with attributes you made and believe you understand. You did not make the Divine, and anything you think you understand of It in your split mind is not of It.

Your task is not to attempt to make Reality. Reality is here without your making, but not without you. You who have thrown yourself away, and valued the Divine so little, hear me speak for It and for you. You cannot understand how much your Creator loves you, for there is no parallel in your experience of the world to help you understand this Love. There is nothing on Earth with which It can compare, and nothing you have ever felt apart from this Love resembles It ever so faintly. You cannot yet even give a blessing with perfect Gentleness. Would you know of One Who blesses forever, and Who knows of nothing except giving?

The Children of Heaven live in the Light of the Blessing of their Creator because they know they are innocent, blameless, and guiltless. The Atonement was established as the Means of restoring Innocence to the mind that has denied It, and thus denied Heaven to Itself. Atonement teaches you the true Condition of knowing the Children of the Divine. It does not teach you what you are, or what your Creator is. The Holy Spirit, Who remembers this for you, merely teaches you how to remove the blocks that stand between you and what you know. Its Memory is yours. If you remember what you have made, you are remembering nothing. Remembrance of Reality is in Spirit, and therefore in you.

Those who have forgotten guilt and know their Innocence and those who believe themselves to be guilty are totally incapable of understanding one another. Each perceives the other as like themself, making them unable to communicate because each perceives the other unlike the way the other perceives themself.

The Divine can communicate only to the Holy Spirit in your mind – your spirit – because only Spirit in your mind shares the Knowledge of what you are with the Divine. And only Spirit can answer the Divine for you, for It knows what the Divine is. Everything else that you have placed within your mind cannot exist in Truth and Reality, for what is not in Communication with the Mind of the Divine has never been. Communication with the Divine is Life. Nothing without It is at all.

The only part of your mind that has Truth and Reality is the part that still links you with the Divine. Would you deny the Divine’s Yearning to be known, or would you have all of your mind transformed into a radiant Message of the Divine’s Love, to share with all the lonely ones who have denied It as you did? The Divine makes this possible. You yearn for your Creator, as It for you. This is forever changeless. Accept, then, the Immutable. Leave the world of death behind, and return quietly to the Realm of Heaven. There is nothing of Value in this world of illusions, and everything of Value there. Listen to the Holy Spirit, and to the Divine through Spirit. It speaks of you to you. There is no guilt in you, for the Divine is only blessed in Its Children, as Its Children are only blessed in It.

Each person has a unique part to play in the Atonement, but the Message given to each to share is always the same: the Divine’s Children are pure and innocent as they were in their creation, and will forever be. Each person learns the Message differently, and teaches It uniquely. But until they teach It and learn It, they will suffer the pain of the dim awareness that their true function on Earth remains unfulfilled in them. The burden of guilt is heavy, but the Divine would not have you bound by it. Its Plan for your awakening is as perfect as yours is fallible. You know not what you do, but the Divine knows and is with you. Its Gentleness and Mercy is yours, and It holds in trust for you all the Love you share with It. It would teach you only how to be happy.

Blessed Child of the Creator, Who only and wholly blesses, Joy was created for you. Who can condemn whom the Divine has blessed? There is nothing in the Mind of the Divine that does not share Its shining Innocence. Creation is the natural Extension of the Divine’s perfect Essence. Your only calling here is to devote yourself, with active willingness, to accepting Atonement for yourself, which is the denial of guilt in all its forms. Thus the Memory of Divine Essence is restored in you.

To accuse and make guilty is not to understand. The happy learners of the Atonement become the teachers of the Innocence that is the Inheritance of all that the Divine created. Grant the Children of the Divine what is their Due, for if you withhold It, you withhold It from them and yourself. The Inheritance of the Realm is the right of all the Divine’s Children, given them in their creation. Do not try to withhold or take It from them, or you will ask for guilt and will experience it. Protect their Innocence from every thought that would steal It away and keep It from their sight. Bring Innocence to light, in answer to the Call of the Atonement. Never allow Innocence to remain hidden, but shine away the heavy veils of guilt within which the Children of the Divine have hidden themselves from their own sight. We are all joined in the Atonement here, and nothing else can unite us in this world. So will the world of separation slip away, and full Communication be restored between the Creator and Its Children.

The miracle acknowledges the Innocence that must have been denied to bring about the need for healing. Grant this glad acknowledgment, for Hope of Happiness and Release from suffering of every kind rests in it. Everyone wishes to be free of pain. Many have not yet learned how to exchange their guilt for Innocence, nor realized that only in this exchange can freedom from pain be theirs. But those who have failed to learn need teaching, not attack. To attack those who have need of teaching is to fail to learn the right lesson from them.

Teachers of Innocence, each in their unique way, are joining together and taking their part in the unified Curriculum of the Atonement. There is no unity of learning goals apart from this. There is no conflict in this Curriculum, which has one Aim, however It is taught. Each effort made on behalf of this Curriculum is offered to the single Purpose of Release from guilt, to the eternal Glory of the Divine and Its Creation. And every teaching that points to this points straight to Heaven and to the Peace of the Divine. There is no appearance, no pain, no trial, no fear, that teaching this can fail to overcome. The Power of the Divine Itself supports this teaching, and guarantees its limitless Results. This is the Great Awakening.

Join your own efforts with the Power that cannot fail, and that must result in Peace. Everyone will be touched by teaching such as this. You will perceive yourself within the Power of the Divine to heal and awaken if you teach only this. You will be included in the Effect of this most holy Lesson of Atonement, which seeks only to restore what is the Inheritance of the Divine’s Creation. From everyone whom you accord release from guilt you will inevitably learn your Innocence. The Circle of Atonement has no end. And you will find ever-increasing confidence in your safe Inclusion in what is for all, in everyone you bring within the Safety and perfect Peace of this Circle.

Peace be, then, unto everyone who becomes a teacher of Peace. For Peace is the Acknowledgment of perfect Innocence, in which everyone is included. Everyone the Divine created as Its Children is within Its holy Circle. Joy is Its unifying Attribute, with no one left outside or alone to suffer guilt. The Power of the Divine draws everyone to Its safe Embrace of Love and Union. Stand quietly within this Circle, and invite all minds troubled by fear and guilt to join with you in the Safety of Its Peace and Holiness. Abide with me within It as teachers of Atonement, not of guilt.

Blessed are you who teach with me. Our Power comes not of us, but of our Creator. In Innocence we know It, as It knows us innocent. I stand within the Circle, calling you to Peace. Teach Peace with me, and stand with me on holy ground. Remember for everyone your Creator’s Joy and Peace that It has given you and them. Believe that you can teach Its perfect Peace. Stand not outside this Circle, but join with me within. Succeed now in the only Purpose to which my teaching calls you. Restore to the Divine Its Children as It created them, by teaching them their Innocence.

The crucifixion – the belief in abandonment and martyrdom – has no part in the Atonement. But the Resurrection – the complete awakening to Reality – is the Atonement. Setting the Atonement into motion in time through the Resurrection became my part in It. Your joining me is the Sign of your Release from guilt by Innocence. Whomever you look upon as guilty you would condemn. But you restore Innocence to whomever you see as guiltless.

Abandonment and martyrdom are always the ego’s aims. It looks upon all as guilty, and in its harsh judgment all deserve condemnation without mercy. The Holy Spirit sees only Innocence, and in Its Gentleness It would release from fear and reestablish the Strength of Love. The Power of Love is in Its Gentleness, which is of the Divine and therefore cannot attack or suffer harm of any kind. The inner temple you restore becomes your Altar, for it was rebuilt through you. And everything you give to the Divine is yours. Thus the Divine creates, and thus must you restore.

Everyone you perceive you either place within the holy Circle of Atonement or leave outside, assessing them fit for awakening or judging them as deserving of condemnation. If you bring them into the Circle of Innocence, you will rest there with them. If you leave them outside, you will believe you join them there. Judge not, but allow Spirit to interpret all things in Quietness that is not of you. Refuse to leave anyone outside the Blessing of Atonement, and bring everyone into It by blessing them. Holiness must be shared for It to bless everyone. Come gladly to the holy Circle, and behold with Peace all who think they are outside. Cast no one out, for Atonement is what each seeks along with you. Come, let us join our sisters and brothers in the Holy Place of Peace, which is for all of us, united as One, within the Source of Peace.