My eyes and ears and mouth, my hands, my feet today have only one purpose: to be given Divine Essence to use to bless the world with miracles.
What am I?
Creator, I give all that is mine today to Divine Essence, to use in any way that best will serve the Purpose that I share with It. Nothing is mine alone, for Divine Essence and I have joined in Purpose. Thus has learning come almost to its appointed end. A while I work with Divine Essence to serve Its Purpose. Then I lose myself in my Identity, and recognize that Divine Essence is just my holy Self.
5. What is the Peace of the Divine?
It has been said that there is a kind of Peace that is not of this world. How is It recognized? How is It found? And being recognized and found, how can It be retained? Let us consider each of these questions separately, for each reflects a different Step along the Way.
How can the Peace of the Divine be recognized? The Divine’s Peace is recognized at first by just one thing: in every way It is totally unlike all previous experiences. It calls to mind nothing that went before. It brings with It no past associations. It is a new thing entirely. There is a contrast, yes, between this thing and all the past because they are completely different. But strangely it is not a contrast of true differences. The past merely slips away, and in its place is everlasting Quiet. Only that. The contrast that was perceived is merely gone. Quiet has reached to cover everything.
How is this Quiet found? No one can fail to find It who just seeks out Its Conditions. The Divine’s Peace can never come where anger is, for anger must deny that Peace exists. Who believes anger as justified in any way or any circumstance proclaims that Peace is meaningless, and must therefore believe that It cannot exist. In this condition, Peace cannot be found. Therefore, forgiveness is the necessary condition for finding the Peace of the Divine. More than this, where forgiveness is there must be Peace. For what except conflict leads to attack? What but attack leads to battle? And what but Peace is opposite to battle? Here the initial contrast between Peace and conflict stands out clear and apparent. Yet when Peace is found, all conflict, attack, and battle are meaningless. And it is conflict now that is perceived as nonexistent and unreal.
How is the Peace of the Divine retained, once it is found? Returning to anger, in whatever form, will drop the heavy curtain once again, and the belief that Peace cannot exist will certainly return. Conflict, attack, and battle will again be accepted as the one reality of life in this world. Now you must once again lay down your weapon, although you may not realize that you picked it up again. But as you remember even faintly now what Happiness was yours without your weapon, you will learn that you must have picked it up again as your defense. Stop now for a moment and think of this: Is conflict what you want, or is the Divine’s Peace the better choice? Which gives you what you want? A tranquil mind is a priceless Gift. Would you not rather choose the Reality of Life than the illusion of death?
True living is Joy, but death can only weep. You seek in death escape from the nightmare of hell you made. But this you do not see: that you made death, and it is but an illusion of an escape and of an end. Death cannot be an escape because it is not Life in which the problem lies. Life has no opposite, for It is the Divine. Life and death seem to be opposites because you have decided that death ends life. Forgive yourself and the world, and you will understand that Everything that the Divine created must live forever, and nothing It did not create is real. In this one sentence is our Course explained. In this one sentence is our practicing given its one direction. And in this is the Holy Spirit’s whole Curriculum specified exactly as It is.
What is the Peace of the Divine? No more than this: the simple Understanding that the Divine’s Will is wholly without opposite. Any thought that contradicts Its Will cannot be true. The conflict between Its Will and yours only seemed to be real. In Truth there is no conflict, because the Divine’s Will is yours.
Now is the mighty Will of the Divine Itself Its Gift to you. It does not seek to keep It for Itself. Why would you seek to keep your tiny, frail imaginings apart from It? The Will of the Divine is One, and is all there is. This is your Inheritance. The Universe beyond the Sun and stars and all the thoughts of which you can conceive belongs to you. The Divine’s Peace is the Condition for Its Will. Attain Its Peace, and you remember the Divine and Its Will.
