Corresponding Text Section
Chapter 23: The Grace of the Holy Relationship
7. Freedom of the Body or the Mind
Do you want freedom of the body or of the mind? For both you cannot have. Which do you value? Which is your goal? For one you will perceive as means, the other, end. And one must serve the other, and lead to the other’s predominance, increasing the other’s importance by diminishing its own. Means serve their end, and as the end is reached, the value of the means decreases, and is eclipsed entirely when the means are recognized as functionless because the end has been achieved.
Everyone yearns for Freedom, and tries to find It, and will seek for It where they believe It is and can be found. Each will believe Freedom is possible of mind or body, and they will make the other serve their choice as means to find It. Where freedom of the body has been chosen as the goal, the mind is used as means whose value lies in its ability to contrive ways to achieve the body’s freedom. Yet freedom of the body has no meaning because the body is finite and temporary, and so the mind will be dedicated to serve illusions and nothingness. This is a situation so contradictory and impossible that anyone who chooses it has no idea of what is truly valuable.
Yet even in this confusion, so profound it cannot be described, the Holy Spirit waits in gentle Patience, as certain of the ultimate Outcome as It is sure of Its Creator’s Love. It knows this senseless decision was made by one as dear to Its Creator as Love is to Itself. Be not disturbed at all to think how Spirit can change the role of means and end so easily in what the Divine loves and would have free forever. But be, rather, grateful that you can be the means to serve Its End. This is the only service that leads to Freedom.
To serve this End, the body must be perceived as neutral and therefore sinless, because the Goal is Innocence. The lack of contradiction now between body and mind makes the soft transition from means to end as easy as is the shift from hate to gratitude before forgiving eyes. You will be sanctified by one another, using your bodies only to serve Holiness and Wholeness. And it will be impossible for you to hate what serves what you would heal.
This holy relationship, lovely in its Innocence, mighty in Strength, and blazing with a Light far brighter than the sun that lights the sky you perceive, is chosen of your Creator as Means for Its Own Plan. Be thankful that it serves yours not at all. Everything entrusted to this Plan will be used, and used rightly. This holy relationship has the Power to heal all pain, regardless of its form. Neither of you alone can serve at all, for neither of you is alone. Only in your joined will does healing reside. For here your healing is, and here will you accept Atonement. And in your healing is the Divine Family healed, because your wills are joined.
In a holy relationship there is no guilt. The form of error is no longer perceived and cherished. And Reason, joined with Love, quietly beholds all confusion, observing merely, “This was a mistake.” And then the same Atonement you accepted in your relationship corrects the error, and lays a Part of Heaven in its place. How blessed are you who let this Gift be given! Each Part of Heaven that you bring is given you. And every empty place that you fill again with the eternal Light you bring shines now on you. The Means of Divine Essence can know no fear, because they carry only Love with them.
Children of Peace, the Light has come to you. The Light you bring you may not yet fully recognize, and yet you will remember. Who can deny themselves the Vision that they bring to others? And who could fail to recognize a Gift they let be placed in Heaven through themselves? The gentle service that you give the Holy Spirit is service to yourself. You who are now Spirit’s Means must love all that It loves. And what you bring is your remembrance of Everything that is eternal. No trace of anything in time can long remain in minds that serve the Eternal. And no illusion can disturb the Peace of a relationship that has become the Means of Peace.
When you have seen each other with complete forgiveness, from which no error is excluded and nothing kept hidden, what mistake can there be anywhere that you can’t see beyond and pass through? What form of suffering could block your sight, preventing you from seeing beyond it? And what illusion could there be that you will not recognize as a mistake, a shadow through which you walk completely undismayed? The Divine would let nothing interfere with those whose wills are Its. And they will recognize their wills are Its because they serve Its Will, and serve It willingly. How can It not be theirs? And could Remembrance of what they are be long delayed?
You will see your Worth through each other’s eyes, and each one will be released as they behold their awakener in place of the attacker they thought was there. Through this releasing is the world released. This is your part in bringing Peace. For you have asked what your function is here, and you have been answered. Seek not to change it, or to substitute another in its place. This function was given you, and only this. Accept this one and serve it willingly, for what the Holy Spirit does with the gifts you give each other, to whom It offers them, and where and when, is up to It. It will bestow them where they are received and welcomed. It will use every one of them for Peace. Nor will one little smile or willingness to see beyond the tiniest mistake be lost to anyone.
What can it be but universal Blessing to behold with Charity what your Creator loves? Extension of forgiveness is the Holy Spirit’s Function. Leave this to It. Let your concern be only that you give to It that which can be extended. Save no dark secrets for yourself, for these It cannot use. Just give to Spirit the dark lessons you have taught yourself so It can remove these from your mind forever. And offer It the tiny gifts you have so that these It can extend forever. It will take every gift you offer and make of it a potent Force for Peace. It will bestow every Blessing on each gift, limitless in every way. It will join to it all the Power that the Divine has given It, to make each little gift of Love a Source of healing for everyone.
On your learning depends the well-being of the world. Each little gift you offer to each other in the holy relationship lights up the world. Be not concerned with darkness. Just see beyond it, and toward each other. And let the darkness be dispelled by Spirit, Who knows the Light, and places It gently in each gentle smile of faith and confidence with which you bless each other.
