ARCIM

Daily Lesson 188 ~
July 7

The Peace of the Divine is shining in me now.

Why wait for Heaven? Those who “seek” the Light as if they do not have it are merely covering their eyes, for the Light is in them now. Enlightenment is merely a recognition of Reality, not a change in It at all. Light is not of the world, and you who bear the Light in you are not of the world as well. The Light came with you from your eternal Home, and stayed with you because It is your own. It is the only thing you bring with you from That Which is your Source. It shines in you because It lights your mind, and leads you to where It came from and where you are at home.

This Light cannot be lost. Why wait to find It in the future, or believe It has been lost already, or was never there? It can so easily be seen that arguments that seek to prove It is not there become ridiculous. Who can deny the presence of what they behold in themselves?

It is not difficult to see within, for there all vision starts. There is no perception, be it of dreams or outer beauty, that is not but the shadow of what is seen through inward vision. There true perception starts and ends. It has no source but this.

The Peace of the Divine is shining in you now, and from your heart extends around the world. It pauses to caress each created thing, and leave a Blessing with it that remains forever and forever. What It gives must be eternal. It removes all thoughts of the ephemeral and valueless. It brings Renewal to all tired hearts, and lights all vision as It passes by. All of Its Gifts are given everyone, and everyone unites in giving thanks to you who give and you who have received.

The Light in your mind reminds the world of what it has forgotten, and the world restores the Memory to you as well. From you awakening radiates with Gifts beyond all measure, given and returned. To you, the giver of the Gift, does the Divine Itself give thanks. And in Its Blessing does the Light in you shine brighter, adding to the gifts you have to offer to the world.

The Peace of the Divine must always extend beyond that which It fills. Who recognizes It within themselves must give It, and the means for giving It rest in their recognition. They forgive because they recognize the Truth in themselves.

The Peace of the Divine is shining in you now, and in all created things. In Quietness is It acknowledged universally. For what your inward vision beholds is your true perception of the Universe.

Sit quietly and close your eyes. The Light within you is sufficient. It alone has Power to give the Gift of Vision to you. Set aside the outer world, and let your thoughts soar to the Peace within. They know the way. For honest thoughts, untainted by the dream of worldly things outside yourself, become the holy Messengers of the Divine Itself. These become the Thoughts you think with the Divine. They recognize their Home. And They point surely to Their Source, where the Creator and Its Creation are One.

The Divine’s Peace is shining in your honest thoughts, which must remain with you as well, for they were created within your mind, as your mind was created in the Divine’s. These thoughts that are one with the Divine’s Thoughts lead you Home to Peace, from where they came just to remind you how you must return. These thoughts resonate with your Creator’s Voice even when you decline to listen. And they urge you gently to accept Its Word for what you are, instead of fantasies and shadows. They remind you that you are the Cocreator of all things that are. For as the Peace of the Divine is shining in you, It must shine in them, your true thoughts.

We practice coming nearer to the Light in us today. We take our wandering thoughts and gently bring them again to where they align with all the Thoughts we share with the Divine. We will not let our thoughts stray. We let the Light within our minds direct our true thoughts to come Home. In the separation we were not true to the Divine’s Thoughts, demanding that They depart from us. But now we call Them to return through cleansing our thoughts of all the strange desires and disordered wishes we have laid on them. Thus we restore to our thoughts the Holiness of their Inheritance.

Thus are our minds restored with our true thoughts, and we acknowledge that the Peace of the Divine still shines in us, and from us to all things that share Being and Life. We will forgive them all, absolving all the world of what we thought it did to us. For it is we who choose the world as we would have it. Now we choose that it be innocent, devoid of the belief in separation, and open to awakening. And we lay our awakening blessing on it as we say:

 

“The Peace of the Divine is shining in me now.

Let all things shine upon me in that Peace,

and let me bless them with the Light in me.”

 

Corresponding Text Section

 

Chapter 17: The Illusion of the Special Relationship

 

3. The Rewards of Teaching Truth

You may be demonstrating in your life what you are learning in this Course, and yet you may not have learned how to accept the comfort of the teaching that your demonstration really is. If you will consider what you have demonstrated and therefore taught of your awakening to Truth, and how different it is from what you thought you knew, you will be drawn to recognize that your Teacher came from beyond your old thought system – from Truth – and so could perceive your old thought system truly and evaluate it fairly, and thus show you that it was untrue. And so what you are now learning and demonstrating in your new relationship with your life must be from the basis of a very different thought system, and one with nothing in common with your old one. For certainly what Spirit has taught you, and what you are learning and teaching through It, has nothing in common with what you demonstrated in your mind and life directly and indirectly before you invited It. And the results have been to bring Peace where there was pain, and Joy where there was suffering.

This Course has stated, “By their fruits (or results) you shall know them, and they shall know themselves.” For it is certain that you will judge or assess yourself according to the thought system you demonstrate through its results in your mind and life. The ego’s teaching produced immediate reactions in your mind and subsequent results in your life, because its framing of events and your decisions based on this framing were immediately accepted without question as your choice, as this was the only thought system and framing you were familiar with. And this acceptance has meant that you have been willing to judge yourself accordingly. Cause and effect, framed as outward trigger and inward resentment, seem very obvious in the ego’s thought system, because all your learning has been directed toward establishing the relationship between them, as the ego perceives this. And wouldn’t you have faith in what you have so diligently taught yourself to believe?

This is a course in how to know yourself. You have demonstrated to yourself and others what you have believed you are, but are still learning to let what you truly are demonstrate Itself to you. Previously you were very careful to avoid what is evident if perceived clearly, and not to perceive the real cause and effect relationship that is perfectly apparent in true vision. Just recall honestly how much care you exerted in choosing the witnesses to the ego, and in avoiding Those that spoke for the Cause of Truth and Its Effects, even though you didn’t yet know These. Yet within you is everything true that you have truly demonstrated and therefore truly taught. What can it be in you that has not learned these real lessons? It must be that this part that hasn’t learned truly is really outside yourself, not by your own projection, but in Truth. And it is what is actually outside yourself but that you have taken in – an erroneous frame of mind – that is not you and does not accept the new thought system you have decided to learn.

It is impossible to teach successfully wholly without conviction or confidence, and it is equally impossible that conviction or confidence be outside you. You have taught Freedom, but you are still learning how to be free of the old thought system. You could never have taught Freedom unless you did believe in It. And it must be that what you taught was also in some part of yourself, or you could not have taught It. And yet you are just beginning to recognize and know this Self from which your teaching of Freedom comes, even though this Self clearly functions. What functions must be there. And it is only if you deny what It has done in your mind and life that you could possibly deny Its Presence. Does not the fact that you are as yet only partially demonstrating what you are learning in this Course show you that you do not yet perceive the Divine Family as One? And does this not also show you that you do not yet regard yourself as integrated: one mind allowing its one Self to demonstrate one thought system in your life?

What you accept into your mind does not really change it, because your spirit doesn’t change. Illusions change because they are merely beliefs in what is not there. And the seeming conflict between Truth and illusion can only be resolved by separating yourself from the illusion, and not from Truth, so that you can perceive both clearly. What you have demonstrated and therefore taught truly has already done this, for the Holy Spirit is part of you, and does teach you that what is true is eternally true and what is false will always be false, and how to know the difference between the two. Through this knowing, the time of your awakening is shortened immeasurably, as your learn to avoid trying to make even one illusion true, or Truth an illusion in any way.

Created by the Divine beyond time, Spirit has always been with both the Divine and Its Creation. It is both the Divine and you, as you are the Divine and It together. For the Divine’s Answer to the separation added more to you than you tried to take away. It protected both your creations and you together, keeping united with you what you would have excluded, and separate from you what you tried to join that could never be joined. And Spirit and your creations will take the place of what you took into yourself to replace them. They are quite real, being Part of Reality, and Part of the holy Self you have forgotten and therefore do not currently know. Your true creations communicate to you through the Holy Spirit, and their Power and Gratitude to you for their creation they offer gladly to your teaching of your Self, Who is their Home.

You who are Host to the Divine are also Host to Spirit and your true creations. For nothing real has ever left the mind of its creator. And what is not real was never truly in your mind. You are not two selves in conflict. What could be outside of or beyond the Divine? If you who hold the Divine, and whom It holds, are the Universe, then all else must be outside of your Union, and outside of your Union nothing is or ever can be. You have demonstrated and taught this. And from the infinite Universe, yet not beyond yourself, the Witnesses to your teaching have gathered to help you truly learn. Their Gratitude has joined with yours and the Divine’s to strengthen your faith in what you have taught truly. For what you have taught of Truth is true. Alone, you stand outside your teaching and apart from it. But with the Witnesses to your teaching, you must learn that you simply allowed yourself to be taught by Truth, and learned from the Conviction you then shared with Them.

This is a Time of Joy because it is a time when you truly begin to integrate and know that the Divine Family is One. As you demonstrate this you will make learning commensurate with teaching. You have chosen this Time of Joy by your own willingness to teach—to demonstrate in your mind and life what you are learning from your Teacher. Though at times you have seemed to suffer for it, the Joy of teaching Truth will yet be yours. For the joy of teaching is in the learner, who offers their joy to their teacher with gratitude, and shares this joy with their teacher. As you truly learn, your gratitude to your holy Self, Who teaches you what It is and who you are, will grow and help you honor It. And you will learn Its Power and Strength and Purity, and love It as Its Creator does. Its Realm has no limits and no end, and there is nothing in It that is not perfect and eternal. All this is you, and nothing outside of this is you.

To our most holy Self all Praise is due, for what we are and for what It is Who created us as we are.

Sooner or later must everyone bridge the gap that they imagine exists between their selves. Each person builds this Bridge that carries them across the gap as soon as they are willing to expend some little effort on behalf of bridging it. Each one’s little efforts are powerfully supplemented by the Strength of Heaven, and by the united Will of all who cocreate Heaven as what It is, being joined within It. And so each one who would cross over is literally trans-ported there. Your Bridge is built stronger than you think, and your foot is planted firmly on It. Have no fear that the attraction of Those who stand on the other side and wait for you will not draw you safely across. For you will come where you will to be, and where your Self awaits you.