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Chapter 19: The Passing of the Dream

6. The Desert Becomes a Garden

It is only the awareness of the body that makes Love seem limited. For the body is a limit on Love. The belief in limited love was the body’s origin, and thus it was made to limit the Unlimited. Think not that this is merely allegorical, for it was made to limit you. Can you who perceive yourself within a body know yourself as an infinite Idea? Everything you currently think that you recognize you identify by externals—something outside itself. You cannot even think of the Divine without a body, or some form or image you think you recognize.

Because it is limited, the body cannot know and therefore cannot truly recognize. And while you limit your awareness to its tiny senses, you will not see the Grandeur that surrounds you. The Divine cannot come into a body, nor can you join It there. Attempted limits on Love will always seem to shut the Divine out, and to keep you apart from It. The body is a tiny fence around a little part of a glorious and completely limitless Idea. It draws a circle, infinitely small, around what then seems to be a very little segment of Heaven, splintered from the Whole, proclaiming that within this circle is your kingdom, where the Divine can enter not. Within this “kingdom” the ego aspect of your mind rules, and despotically. And to defend this little speck of dust the ego bids you fight against the Universe.

This fragment of your mind is such a tiny part of it that if you could just appreciate the Whole, you would see instantly that it is like the smallest sunbeam compared to the Sun, or like the faintest ripple on the surface of the ocean. In its amazing arrogance, this tiny sunbeam has decided it is the Sun. This almost imperceptible ripple hails itself as the ocean. Think how alone and frightened is this little thought, this infinitesimal illusion, holding itself apart against the Universe. The Sun becomes the sunbeam’s “enemy,” which would devour it. And the ocean terrifies the little ripple, and wants to swallow it.

Yet neither Sun nor ocean is even aware of all this strange and meaningless activity. They merely continue, unaware that they are feared and disdained by a tiny segment of themselves. Even that segment is not lost to them, for it could not survive apart from them. And what it thinks it is in no way changes its total dependence on them for its being. Its whole existence still remains in them. Without the Sun, the sunbeam would be gone. The ripple without the ocean is inconceivable.

Such is the strange position in which those in a world inhabited by bodies seem to be. Each body seems to house a separate mind, a disconnected thought, living alone and in no way joined to the Thought by which it was created. Each tiny fragment seems to be self-contained, apparently needing other fragments for some things, but by no means totally dependent on their one Creator for everything. The fragments do not conceive that they need the Whole to give them any Meaning, for by themselves they have lost their Meaning. Nor have they any Life apart and by themselves.

Yet, like the Sun and ocean, your holy Self continues, unmindful that this tiny part regards itself as you. Your Self is not missing. It could not exist if It were separate, nor would the Whole be whole without It. It is not a separate realm, ruled by an idea of separation from the rest. Nor does a fence surround It, preventing It from joining with the rest, and keeping It apart from its Creator. This individual Aspect is no different from the Whole, being continuous with It, and at One with It. It leads no separate life, because Its Life is in the Oneness in which Its being was created.

Do not accept the little, fenced-off belief in separation in your mind as yourself. The Sun and ocean are as nothing beside what you are. The sunbeam sparkles only in the sunlight, and the ripple dances as it rests upon the ocean. Yet in neither Sun nor ocean is the Power that rests in you. Would you remain within your tiny realm, a sorry and bitter ruler of all you survey, who looks on nothingness but who would still die to defend it? This little self is not your Realm. Arched high above it, and surrounding it with Love, is the glorious Whole, Which offers all Its Happiness and deep Content to every Part.

The little aspect of yourself that you think you set apart is no exception. Perfect Love, being limitless, knows no bodies, and reaches to Everything created like Itself. Its total lack of limit is Its Meaning. It is completely impartial in Its Giving, encompassing only to keep eternally complete what It would give. In your tiny realm you have so little! Then shouldn’t it be there that you would call on Love to enter? Look at the desert, dry and unproductive, scorched and joyless, that makes up your little realm. And realize the Life and Joy that Love would bring to it, from where It comes, and where It would return with you.

The Thought of the Divine surrounds your little realm, waiting, at the barrier you built, to come in and shine upon the barren ground. See how Life springs up everywhere! The desert becomes a garden, green and deep and quiet, offering rest to those who lost their way and who wander in the dust. Give them a place of refuge, prepared by Love for them, where once a desert was. And everyone you welcome will bring Love with them from Heaven for you. They enter one by one into this Holy Place, but they will not depart alone as they had come. The Love they brought with them will stay with them, as It will stay with you.

And within Its Beneficence your little garden will expand and reach out to everyone who thirsts for living water, but has grown too weary to go on alone. Go out and find them, for they bring your holy Self with them. And lead them gently to your quiet garden, and receive their blessing there. So will your garden grow and stretch across the desert, leaving no lonely little realms locked away from Love with you outside. And you will recognize your Self, and see your little garden gently transformed into the Realm of Heaven, with all the Love of Its Creator shining upon It.

The Holy Instant is your invitation to Love to enter into your bleak and joyless realm and transform it into a Garden of Peace and Welcome. Love’s Answer is inevitable. It will come because you came to It without the body, and interposed no barriers that would interfere with Its glad Coming. In the Holy Instant you ask of Love only what It offers everyone, neither less nor more. Asking for Everything, you will receive It. And your shining Self will lift straight into Heaven the tiny aspect that you tried to hide from Heaven. Every Part of Love that calls on the Whole is answered abundantly. Every Child of the Divine remains forever within Its Creatorship.

Be sure of this: Love has entered your relationship, and entered fully, even at your weak request. You may not yet fully recognize that Love has come, because you have not yet let go of all the barriers that you hold against each other. And you will not be able to give Love welcome separately. You could no more know the Divine alone than It knows you without your sisters and brothers. But together you could no more be unaware of Love than Love could know you not, or fail to recognize Itself in you.

You have reached the end of an ancient journey not realizing yet that it is over. You are still worn and tired, and the desert’s dust still seems to cloud your eyes and blur your vision. Yet It Whom you welcomed has come to you, and would welcome you. It has waited long to give you this Welcome. Receive It now of Spirit, for It would have you know It. Only a little wall of dust still stands between you and your sisters and brothers. Blow on it lightly and with happy laughter, and it will fall away. And walk into the Garden Love has prepared for you.