Corresponding Text Section
Chapter 21: Seeing Reality
3. The End of Adjustment
The belief in separation is an adjustment in the mind to the shifting elements of a dream. And an adjustment is a change, a shift in perception, a belief that what was true before has been made different. Every adjustment is therefore a distortion, and calls upon defenses to uphold it against Reality.
Knowledge requires no adjustment, and, in fact, is lost if any shift or change is undertaken away from It. For this reduces It at once to mere perception, a way of relating in which doubt has entered and Certainty is lost. Only to this impaired condition are adjustments necessary, because this condition is not true. Who need adjust to Truth, Which to understand calls upon only what we are?
Adjustments of any kind are of the ego. For it is the ego’s fixed belief that all relationships depend upon adjustments to make of them what it would have them be. Innocent, direct relationships – holy relationships – in which there are no interferences with Reality and Union and therefore no need for adjustments, are always perceived by the ego as dangerous.
The ego is the self-appointed mediator of all relationships that have not become holy, making whatever adjustments in them it deems necessary, and interposing these adjustments between those who wish to truly meet, to keep them separate and prevent their union. It is this steady interference that makes it difficult to recognize your holy relationships for what they are, until you arrive at a point beyond doubt, and thus beyond the belief in the need for adjustments.
Those who have remembered their holiness do not interfere with Truth. They are not afraid of It, for it is within Truth that they recognize their holiness, and rejoice at what they see. They behold Truth directly, without attempting to adjust themselves to It, or It to them. And so they see that It is in them, not deciding first where they would have It be. Their beholding merely asks a real question, and it is what they see that answers.
When you made the world of illusions, you then adjusted to it, and it to you. Nor was there any difference between yourself and the world in your perception, for the adjustment of your perception made them both. A simple question then remains, and needs an answer: Are you happy with what you made? For this is a world of threat and fear, through which you thread your timid way through constant dangers, alone and frightened, hoping at most that death will wait a little longer before it overtakes you and you disappear. You made up this world. It is a picture of what you thought you were, of how you looked upon yourself. Those who hurt are frightened, and those who feel guilt fear death. These are merely the fearful thoughts of those who would adjust themselves to a world made fearful by their adjustments. And they look out in sorrow and pain from what is sad and hurt within, and perceive their sadness and hurt in their world.
You have wondered in moments of sanity what the world is really like, and how it is seen through happy eyes. The world you look upon is merely a self-judgment, and is not there at all. Judgment merely lays a sentence on what appears to be the world, and the experience of this world then seems to justify the judgment and make the world appear real. Such is the world you look upon: a judgment on yourself, and made by you. This sickly picture of yourself, placed outside you in the “world,” is carefully preserved by the ego, whose image it is and which it loves. And to this world must you adjust as long as you believe this picture is outside, and that you are its victim.
This world you look upon and adjust to is a reflection of something merciless, and were it outside you, you should indeed be fearful. But it is you who made it merciless in forgetting who you are. Recognizing this, if mercilessness seems to look back at you from outside yourself, it can be corrected.
Who in a holy relationship can long maintain the belief in unholiness? The world the holy see is one with them, just as the world the ego looks upon is like itself, though it appears separate. The world the holy see is beautiful because they see their Innocence in it. They do not tell this world what it is. They do not make adjustments to fit the orders of their egos. They gently ask the world, “What are you?” And Spirit, Who watches over all perception, answers.
Take not the judgment of the world looked upon outside yourself as answer to the question, “What am I?” That world believes in separation and sin rather than knowing Perfection and Innocence. But the belief that made it as you have perceived it is not outside you.
Seek not to make any Child of the Divine adjust to their insanity. There is a stranger in the minds of the separated ones, a strange thought that wandered carelessly into the Mind that is the Home of Truth, and which will wander off into the nothingness from which it came. It came without a purpose. But it will not remain before the shining Light the Holy Spirit offers, and you have accepted. For in that Light the stranger is returned to where it came from, and you are welcomed again into your Home. Ask not this transient stranger, “Who am I?” For it is the only thing in all the Universe that does not know.
It was from this stranger that you once sought this answer, and it was to its answer that you attempted to adjust. This one wild thought, fierce in its arrogance and yet so tiny and so meaningless it slips unnoticed through the Universe of Truth, became your guide a while in time. To it you turned to ask the Meaning of the Universe. And of the one blind thing in all the seeing Universe you asked, “How shall I behold the Children of the Divine?”
But Meaning cannot be meaningfully asked of what is totally bereft of Meaning. And learning that this is what you have done, you can no longer believe the answer and adjust to it as if it were the truth.
The world you look upon is the answer that the stranger gave you. And you gave it power to adjust the world to make its answer appear true. You asked this puff of madness for the meaning of your relationships, and adjusted them according to its insane answer that the meaning was unholiness. How happy did it make you? Did you meet your sisters and brothers with Joy, to bless the Children of the Divine, and give them thanks for all the Happiness they held out to you? Did you recognize each other as the eternal Gift of the Divine to you? Did you see the Holiness that shines in each of you to bless the other? That is the Purpose of your holy relationship. Ask not the Means of its Attainment of the one thing that still would have it be unholy. Give it no power to adjust its means with your Purpose.
Prisoners bound with heavy chains for years, starved and emaciated, weak and exhausted, and with eyes so long cast down in darkness that they remember not the light, do not leap up in joy the instant they are set free. It takes a while for them to understand what freedom is. For ages the separated ones cast about feebly in the dust and have now found each other’s hand, uncertain whether to let it go, or to take hold on Life so long forgotten. Strengthen your hold, and raise your eyes unto your strong Companion, in whom the Meaning of your Freedom is.
Your sisters and brothers seemed to be abandoned and martyred beside you. And yet their holiness remained untouched and perfect, and with them beside you shall you in this time of celebration enter into the Real World with them, and know the Peace of the Divine.
Such is my will for each of you, and for each of you for one another. In Heaven there is only Holiness, and Union without limit. For what is Heaven but Union, direct and perfect, and without the veil of fear upon It? The Real World reflects Heaven’s Oneness, and here we see ourselves and each other with perfect Gentleness. Here all thought of any separation between us becomes impossible.
You who were prisoners in separation are now set free in the Real World. And here would I unite with you: my friends, my sisters and brothers, and our holy Self. Your gift unto each other has given me the Certainty that our Union will be soon. Share then this faith with me, for I know that it is justified.
There is no fear in perfect Love because It knows no separation or sin. And It must see others as Itself. Seeing Charity within, what can be feared without? The Innocent see Safety, and the Pure of Heart see the Divine within Its Children, and behold the Children to lead them to the Creator. And where else would they go but where they will to be? Each of you now will lead the other to the Creator, as surely as the Divine created Its Children holy, and kept them so. In your sisters and brothers is the Light of the Divine’s eternal Promise of our Oneness. See them as innocent and there can be no fear in you.
