ARCIM

Daily Lesson 221 ~
August 9

Introduction to Part 2

What Is Forgiveness?

Lesson 221: Peace to my mind. Let all my thoughts be still.

Introduction to Part 2

The meaning of our awakening lessons’ guiding words will shift as we proceed into the second part of this Workbook. We use them merely as indicators to that which we now seek and on which we depend. For now we seek direct experience of Truth alone. The lessons that remain are merely introductions to the times in which we leave the world of pain and enter into Peace. Now we begin to experience the timeless benefits of reaching the Goal this Course has set, and to find the End toward which our practicing is directed.

Now we attempt to let each exercise be merely a beginning. For we wait in quiet expectation for our Creator, the Divine. It has promised us that It will take the Final Step Itself, and we are sure Its Promises are kept. We have come far along the Path, and now we wait for Grace.

We will continue spending time with the Divine soon after waking and again before sleeping, as much time as we need each day to find the Peace and Happiness It wills for us. We will continue with a central idea each day for all the lessons to come. And we will use that idea to introduce our times of rest, and to calm our minds at need.

One further use for words we still retain. At the beginning of each group of ten lessons in this second part of the Workbook, instructions on a theme of particular relevance will be given, and this theme will intersperse those ten daily lessons and the periods of wordless, deep experience that they will lead into. These relevant themes should be reviewed each day, each one of them to be continued for ten days until the next one is given. They should be slowly read and thought about a little while, preceding one of the blessed Holy Instants in the day.

We will not consider time a matter of duration now. We use as much as we will need for the result that we desire. We will also remember our hourly reflections in between the longer times we share with our Creator, and to call to It when we have need of It as we are tempted to forget our Goal in the face of all challenges that seem to meet us each day.

Yet we will not content ourselves with simple practicing in the remaining Holy Instants that will conclude the holy year we have given the Divine in our study of this Course. We say some simple words of welcome, and trust our Creator to reveal Itself as It has promised. We have called on It, and It has promised that Its Children will be answered when they call upon Its Nature and Name. Now do we come to It with just Its Word of Truth and Love upon our minds and hearts, and wait for It to take the Step to us that It has told us, through Its Voice, It would certainly take when we invited It and were ready to receive It.

The Divine has been present with Its Children through all their madness, and kept Its Trust in them. Its Faithfulness invites us to extend to It the invitation that It seeks from us to give us the Peace and Happiness It wills for us. We will offer it, and it will be accepted. And we will be ready. So our times with our Creator will now be filled. We say the Words of Invitation that Its Voice suggests each day, and then we wait for It to come to us to prepare us for It.

Now is the time of prophecy fulfilled. Now are all ancient Promises upheld and fully kept. No Step remains for time to separate from Its Accomplishment. For now we must succeed.

Sit silently and wait upon your Creator. It has willed to come to you when you have recognized it is your will It do so. And you have come this far because you saw, however dimly, that it is your will. I am so close to you that the completion of our journey is assured.

 

Creator, we give these holy times to You with gratitude to Spirit, Who taught us how to leave the world of sorrow in exchange for its Replacement – the Real World – given us by You. We look not backward now. We see ahead, and set our vision upon the journey’s End. Accept these little gifts of thanks from us, as through the Vision of Divine Essence we behold a world beyond the one we made, and take that world to be the full Replacement of the one we made.

And now we wait in silence, confident and certain of Your Coming. We have sought to find our way by following the Guide You sent to us. We did not know the Way, but You remembered us. And we know that You will remember us now. We ask only that Your ancient Promises be kept Which are Your Will to keep. We will with You in asking this. The Creator and Its Creation, Whose holy Will created all that is, must succeed in everything. In this Certainty we undertake these last few steps to You, and rest in confidence upon Your Love, Which will uphold and sustain your Children as they call to You.

 

And so we start upon the final part of this holy year that we have spent together in the search for Truth and the Divine, Who is Truth’s one Creator. We have found the Way It chose for us, and made the choice to follow this Way as It would have us go. Its Hand has held us up. Its Thoughts have lit the darkness of our minds. Its Love has called to us unceasingly since time began.

We had a secret wish that the Divine would fail to receive the Children whom It created of Itself. We wanted the Divine to change Itself, and become what we would make of It. And we believed that our senseless desires were the truth. Now we are glad that this is all undone, and we no longer think illusions true.

Now is the need for practice almost done. For in this final part of the Workbook we will come to understand that we need only call to the Divine, and all temptation to engage in illusions disappears. Instead of words, we simply need to feel Its Love. Instead of prayers, we need only call upon Its Nature and Name. Instead of judging, we need only be still and let all things be healed. We will accept the Way the Divine’s Plan will end, as we received the Way it started. Now is It complete. This time together has brought us to Eternity.

The Memory of the Divine is shimmering across the wide horizons of our minds. A moment more, and It will rise again. A moment more, and we who are the Divine’s Children are safely Home, where It would have us be.

 

What Is Forgiveness? (Lessons 221-230)

Forgiveness recognizes that what you thought your sisters and brothers did to you and to the world has not occurred in Reality but only in a dream of separation. It does not pardon errors that have actual effects in Truth, as any such errors would be real and couldn’t be pardoned, because those who committed them would have to suffer just consequences or Justice would be violated. Forgiveness sees that there were no actual effects. And in this view are all your mistakes, including your belief in separation and sin, forgiven.

What are separation and sin except false ideas about the Divine’s Children? Forgiveness merely sees their falsity, and therefore lets them go. What then is free to take their place is now the Will of the Divine.

An unforgiving thought is one that makes a judgment that the mind will not give to Spirit to evaluate, although it is untrue. The mind is closed and will not be released. The thought protects mis-projection, tightening its chains, so that distortions are more veiled and more obscure, less easily accessible to Light, and further kept from true reason. What can come between a fixed mis-projection and the aim that it has chosen as its desired goal?

An unforgiving thought does many things. In frantic action it pursues its goal, twisting and overturning what it perceives as interfering with its chosen path. Distortion is its purpose, and the means by which it would accomplish it as well. It sets about its furious attempts to smash Reality without concern for anything that would appear to pose a contradiction to its point of view.

Forgiveness, on the other hand, is still, and quietly does nothing. It disregards no Aspect of Reality, nor seeks to twist It to appearance it likes. It merely observes and waits and judges not.

They who would not forgive must judge, for they must justify their failure to forgive. But they who would forgive and accept their own forgiveness must learn to welcome Truth exactly as It is.

Do nothing of yourself, then, and let forgiveness show you what to do through It Who is your Guide, your Awakener and Protector, strong in Hope and certain of your ultimate success. It has forgiven you already, for such is Its Function, given It by the Divine. Now must you share Its Function, and forgive all whose Innocence It sees, and whom It honors as the Children of the Divine.

 

What is forgiveness?

Lesson 221
Peace to my mind. Let all my thoughts be still.

 

Creator, I come to You today to seek the Peace that You alone can give. I come in silence. In the quiet of my heart, the deep recesses of my mind, I wait and listen for Your Voice. My Creator, speak to me today. I come to hear Your Voice in silence and with certainty and love, sure that You will hear my call and answer me.

 

Now do we wait in quiet. The Divine is here because we wait together. I am sure that It will speak to you, and you will hear. Accept my confidence, for it is yours. Our minds are joined. We wait with one intent: to hear our Creator’s Answer to our call, to let our thoughts be still and find Its Peace, to hear It speak to us of what we are, and to reveal Itself unto Its Children.

 

Corresponding Text Section

 

Chapter 21: Seeing Reality

 

2. The Gift of Thorns or Flowers

Observe all the trinkets made to hang upon the body or to cover it, and all the toys for its use. Observe all the useless things made for its eyes to look upon. Think on the many offerings made for its fleeting pleasure, and remember that all these were put together to make seem lovely what the ego – and you when you associate with it – secretly regards with disdain. Would you employ this thing, secretly despised, to attract the body’s eyes of your brother or sister, and thus to draw them to you? Learn that in doing so you merely offer them a crown of thorns, not recognizing it for what it is, and trying to justify your own interpretation of its value by their acceptance. Yet still the gift proclaims, on a level perhaps unrecognized, their value to you, as their acceptance and delight acknowledges on that same level the lack of true value they place on themselves.

Gifts are not made through bodies if they be truly given and received. For bodies can neither offer nor accept, hold out or take, except in a world of illusions. In reality only the mind can value, and only the mind decides what it would receive and give. And every gift it offers depends on what it wants to receive. It will adorn its chosen home most carefully, making it ready to receive the gifts it wants, by offering them to those who come unto its home, or to those it would attract to it. And there they will exchange their gifts, offering and receiving what their minds judge to be worthy of them.

Each gift given is an evaluation of the receiver and of the giver. Many perceive in their chosen home an altar to themselves. Many seek to draw to it the worshippers of what they placed upon it, making it worthy of their devotion. And each has set a light upon their altar, that they may perceive what they have placed upon it, and take it for their own. Here is the value that you lay upon your sisters and brothers, and on yourself. Here is your gift to both, your judgment or assessment upon the Children of the Divine for what you believe they are. Remember that it is your awakener to whom your gift is offered. Offer them the thorns of illusions, and you will feel abandoned and martyred. Offer them the flowers of forgiveness, and it is yourself you free.

I have great need for the gift of these flowers, for many sisters and brothers have not yet forgiven me for the illusions done in my name. And they will not accept my forgiveness while they offer thorns to me. For they who offer thorns to anyone are against me still, and who can be whole without them? Be you their friend for me, that I may be forgiven, and that you may behold the Children of the Divine as whole. But behold first the altar in your chosen home, and see what you have laid upon it, to offer me and all our sisters and brothers. If it be thorns, whose points gleam sharply in a blood-red light, then the body is your chosen home, and it is separation that you offer yourself and me.

And yet the thorns are gone. Observe them closer now, and you will see your altar is no longer what it was. You perceive still with the body’s eyes, and they can only look on thorns. But you have asked for and received another perception. Those who accept the Holy Spirit’s Purpose as their own share also in Its Vision. And what enables Spirit to see Its Purpose shine forth from every Altar is now yours as well. Spirit’s Sight perceives no strangers, but only dearly loved and loving friends. It perceives no thorns, but only flowers glistening in the gentle Glow of Peace that shines on everything It beholds and loves.

In this time of celebration that the journey’s End draws near, perceive each other with different eyes. You have forgiven me for the illusions you thought were not of your own making. And yet I cannot use your gift of flowers while you perceive them not. Nor can you use what I have given unless you share it. The Holy Spirit’s Perspective is no idle gift, no plaything to be tossed about a while and then laid aside. Listen to this Perspective carefully, and hear It, and do not believe It to be only a dream, a careless thought to play with, or a toy you would pick up from time to time and then put by. For if you do, so will It be to you. But It can also be different if you choose. You now have the vision to see beyond all illusions. It has been given you to see no thorns, no strangers, and no obstacles to Peace.

The fear of the Divine is nothing to you now. You who know that your Awakener stands beside you will have courage to perceive illusions clearly. Knowing your sisters and brothers as your awakeners, the vision of your new perspective has become the greatest Power for the undoing of illusion that the Divine Itself could give. For you have received what the Divine gave the Holy Spirit for you. The Children of the Divine turn now to you for their Release, for you have asked for and been given the Strength to see beyond the obstacles to Peace, and behold no thorns to mock and hurt the Children of the Divine, no nails to fasten them to death. Your new chosen Home is on the other side, beyond the veil. It has been carefully prepared for you, and It is ready to receive you now.

You will not perceive your new chosen Home with the body’s eyes. But you have all you need to see It. Your true Home has called to you since time began, nor have you ever failed entirely to hear Its Call. You heard, but knew not how to see, nor where to find It. And now you know. In you the Knowledge resides, ready to be unveiled and freed from all the false terror that kept It hidden. For there is no fear in Love.

The song of the time of celebration is the glad refrain that the Children of the Divine were never abandoned or martyred. Let us lift up our eyes together, not in fear but faith. And there will be no fear in us, for in our seeing will be no judgment and therefore no illusions, but only a Pathway to the open Gate of Heaven, the Home we share in Quietness, and where we live in Gentleness and Peace forever, as One together.

Would you have your holy sisters and brothers lead you there? Their Innocence will light your way, offering you Its guiding Light and sure Protection, and shining from the holy Altar within them, where you laid the flowers of forgiveness. Let them be to you the Awakener from illusions, and see them with the new vision that beholds the gift of flowers, and brings you Joy. We go beyond the veil of fear, lighting each other’s way. The Holiness that leads us is within us, as is our Home. So will we find what we were meant to find by It Who leads us.

This is the Way to Heaven and to the Peace of the time of celebration, in which we join in glad awareness that the Children of the Divine are risen from the past, and have awakened to the true present. Now are they free, unlimited in their Understanding and Oneness with all that is within them. Now are the flowers of their Innocence untouched by guilt, and perfectly protected from the cold chill of fear and withering blight of the belief in separation and sin alike. Your gift of vision on the true Altar of the Divine has released your sisters and brothers from all thorns and nails, and their strong arms are free to guide you safely through all obstacles and beyond.

Walk now with them rejoicing, for the Awakener from illusions has come to greet you all, and lead you Home with It. Here is your Protector and your Friend, released from the belief in abandonment and martyrdom through your vision, and free to lead you now where It would have you be with It. It will never leave nor forsake you—the deliverer from their pain of those who slept and dreamed nightmares. And gladly will you walk the Way of Innocence together, singing as you behold the open Gate of Heaven, and the Home that calls to you.

Give joyously to one another the Freedom and the Strength that brought you here. And come before each other’s holy Altar, where wait the Strength and Freedom to offer and receive the bright awareness that leads you Home. The Lamp is lit in each of you, for one another. And by the Hands that gave it to each other, shall each of you be led past fear to Love.