Corresponding Text Section
Chapter 31: The New Beginning
8. The Reliability of Changelessness
Reality does not deceive at all, and, being changeless, can never do so. Appearances deceive because they can be changed and are therefore not reliable. If you fail to see beyond appearances, you are deceived. For everything you look upon will change, and yet you thought it real before, and now you think it real again. Reality is thus believed to be reduced to form, and capable of change.
Reality is changeless. It is this that makes It real, and keeps It separate from all appearances. It must transcend all form to be Itself. It cannot change. The miracle is the Means to demonstrate that all appearances can change because they are appearances, and cannot have the Changelessness that Reality entails. The miracle attests awakening from appearances by showing that they can change. And thus they can be given to Spirit in exchange for what cannot change.
Your sisters and brothers have a Changelessness in them beyond both appearance and deception. It is obscured by changing views of them that you perceive as their reality. Spirit’s happy Dream about them takes the form of the appearance of their perfect health, their perfect freedom from all forms of lack, and safety from disaster of all kinds. The miracle is proof that they are not bound by loss or suffering in any form because these forms can so easily be changed. This demonstrates that these forms were never real, and could not stem from Reality. For That is changeless, and Its Effects could never be altered by anything in Heaven or on Earth. But appearances are shown to be unreal because they change.
What is temptation but a wish to make illusions real? Temptation does not seem to be the wish that there be no reality. But it is an assertion that some forms of idols have a powerful appeal that makes them harder to resist than those you would not want to be reality. Temptation, then, is nothing more than this: a prayer that the miracle touch not some fantasies, but keep their unreality obscure, and give to them the appearance of reality instead. And Heaven can give no answer to this prayer, nor can the miracle be given you to heal only the appearances you do not like. For only the source of all illusions and appearances – your split mind – can be healed.
You have established limits. The limits you ask for in doing this are given you, but not from the Divine, Who knows no limits. You have limited yourself.
Reality is changeless. Miracles just show that what you have interposed between Reality and your awareness of It is unreal, and does not interfere with Reality at all. The cost of the belief that there must be some appearances beyond the hope of change, or that there be some forms, idols, dreams or illusions that you want to keep, is that the miracle cannot be performed through you consistently. For in this belief you have asked that the miracle be withheld from Power to heal all dreams. Every miracle is yours when you desire to heal the source of appearances. But the miracle will not be received when you want to withhold an appearance from healing. If you be the one who chooses what you would heal, then Spirit, Who gives all miracles, has not been given freedom by you to bestow Its Gifts upon the Divine’s Children through you. When you are tempted not to let all illusions go, you deny Reality, and become the willing servant of what you chose instead.
Because Reality is changeless is a miracle already there to heal all things that change, and offer them to you to see in happy form, devoid of fear. It will be given you to behold your sisters and brothers thus, but not while you would have this perception be otherwise in some respects. For this merely means that you would not have them healed and whole in all respects.
Divine Essence is perfect in your sisters and brothers, as It is in you. This Perfection radiating in all beings this Course has called the Great Rays. Is it this that you would see? Then let there be no appearances about your sisters and brothers that you would prefer to seeing this. And then you will see Divine Essence in them because you let It come to you. And when It has appeared to you, you will be certain you are like It, for It is the Changeless in your sisters and brothers and in you.
This will you behold when you decide there is not one appearance you would hold in place of what your sisters and brothers really are. Let no temptation to prefer any fantasy or illusion allow uncertainty to enter here. Be not made guilty and afraid when you are tempted by a dream of what they are. But also do not give any appearance power to replace in your perception the Changeless in them. Every false appearance will fade if you request a miracle instead.
Your sisters and brothers are free of every illusion and appearance if you would have them be only what they are. Why should you fear to see the Great Rays in them? You will just behold yourself in what you see. As they are healed are you made free of guilt, and beholding them you behold yourself.
