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Chapter 3: Oneness and Irreconcilability

6. Perception’s Role in Attuning

It was previously stated that the spirit’s true Functions are knowing, loving, and creating; that most of the abilities human beings now possess are only shadows of their real strengths; and that the intrusion of the ability to perceive, which is inherently judgmental, was introduced only after the mind became split. Since then no separated one has been completely sure of anything.

The Resurrection, which was accomplished by the complete Union of my will with the Divine Will, was the start of the return to Knowledge for all my sisters and brothers.

In the separation, the meanings of the words “create” and “make” have inevitably become tangled. When something is made, constructed, or invented, it is brought about first out of a sense of lack or need, and then fashioned out of something that already exists. Anything made is made for a specific purpose. It has no true universal generalizability. Therefore when something is made it is a tacit implying of belief in the separation.

It was previously observed that knowing does not lead to doing, and that knowing and revelation are of the same dimension, one that is different than the experience of perceiving and miracles. Thus the miracle is associated with perception and not with knowing. However, it was also noted in a miracle principle that attuning to the Divine is the medium of miracles; that attuning is the natural Communication of the Created with the Creator (revelation being the natural Communication of the Creator with the Created); and that the Presence of Love is known through attuning, and expressed through miracles. From the third part of this principle, attuning is seen to be associated with Knowledge in the way it connects us with the Divine and Its Love. That attuning plays a major role in both miracles and connecting us with Knowledge may appear to contradict the statement that knowing and revelation are a different dimension than perceiving and miracles. This apparent contradiction is actually a misunderstanding about attuning, which if not clarified can become a cause of subsequent errors.

Because of its role as our natural Communication with the Divine, attunement is always an affirmation of Knowledge, not of accurate perception. However, if perception enters into the process of attuning, attuning becomes the medium of miracles, through which the Love of the Divine we have experienced is expressed. If perception doesn’t enter in, attuning calls forth revelation through the Holy Spirit, Who is the eternal Communication Medium and the Bringer of Revelation. This understanding of how perception impacts attuning is the clarity that prevents misunderstanding about the difference between the levels of experience of knowing and revelation on the one hand, and perceiving and miracles on the other.

The confusion between your own perfect creation by the Creator of Perfection and what you create or miscreate as a Child of the Divine and a creator yourself has become so pronounced that it has literally become impossible with this kind of thinking to know anything, because Knowledge is always stable and never confused. It is quite evident that many human beings are currently just the opposite, i.e., unstable and confused. Nevertheless, they are perfectly stable as the Divine created them, and completely certain. In this sense, when their behavior is unstable they are obviously disagreeing with the Divine’s Knowledge of them. It is a fundamental right of the human being to disagree with anything, including the Divine’s Knowledge, although this is not a right anyone would care to exercise if they were in their right mind.

A problem that perplexes many is the fundamental question that people continually ask of themselves but which cannot properly be directed to themselves at all, namely what or who they are. To direct this question to themselves implies that the answer is one that they know, and that the content of the answer is up to them to provide. The first part of this statement is perfectly true: they do know this Answer. But the second part is not: the Content of the Answer is not up to them.

The absolute necessity of correcting all fallacious thinking that associates human creativity in any way with their own perfect creation by their Creator has been emphasized previously. A corollary of this is that human beings cannot perceive themselves correctly. This is because they have no image of themselves in Creation at all that could be perceived. The word “image” is always perception-related, and is not a result of knowing. Images are symbolic and stand for something else. The contemporary idea about “changing one’s image” is a good description of the power of perception, but it implies that there is nothing to know, because Knowledge doesn’t change.

Attuning with the Divine is the medium of miracles not because the Divine created perceptions, but because the Divine created us. One of the miracle principles stated that you are a miracle because the Divine creates only that which is and those who are of surpassing excellence and merit. It follows that you are a miracle not of your own creation. The Divine Miracle of Creation places all miracles, and the perceptions that they heal, on stable ground. Unless perception rests on some knowing basis, it is so unstable that it doesn’t mean anything.

Knowledge (and its verb, knowing) is not open to interpretation, because Its Meaning is Its Own. It is possible to interpret meaning from outside of knowing, but this is always open to error because it involves the perception of meaning. All of these entirely needless complexities are the result of people’s attempts to regard themselves both as separated and unseparated at the same time. It is impossible to engage in confusion as fundamental as this without engaging in further confusion. Sorting this confusion out is quite simple, as all true solutions are. The separated ones are separated in the world of illusion, but are unseparated in Truth. The Process of Atonement means moving from illusion to the Truth.

Methodologically, the human mind has been very creatively engaged. But as always occurs when method and content are separated, this creative activity directed by the split mind has not been utilized for anything but an attempt to escape a fundamental and entirely inescapable impasse. This kind of thinking cannot produce a truly creative outcome, though it has resulted in considerable ingenuity. It is noteworthy, however, that this ingenuity has almost totally divorced the human being from Knowledge.

Knowledge does not require ingenuity at all. One meaning of, “The Truth shall set you free,” is that all such kinds of ingenious thinking are a waste of time, but that you are free of the need of engaging in them.

Note again that the Functions of the spirit reiterated at the beginning of this section were not referred to as abilities. This point requires clarification, because abilities are beliefs that are based on the scarcity fallacy, or the principle of non-universality, since they do not mean anything without comparisons. Given any group of people who share an ability, no one in the group has none of the ability (because it is shared), and no one in the group has all of it (also because it is shared). This relative quality of abilities and their lack of universality demonstrates that they are not Functions of the spirit. The spirit’s Functions are not relative but are absolute. They are from the Divine and of the Divine’s Nature, and therefore are Divine.

Prayer is a way of asking for or inviting something. It was stated in the commentary to one of the miracle principles that the only thing you should pray for is forgiveness because once you receive forgiveness by extending it you also receive healing, because true forgiveness releases you from the world of illusions, the only place sickness can appear to be. Because of this release, those who accept forgiveness by extending it also have everything. Thus once forgiveness has been accepted, prayer in the usual sense of asking for something becomes utterly without meaning. Essentially, a prayer for forgiveness is nothing more than a request that we may be able to recognize something we already have.

In electing the ability to perceive instead of the will to know, human beings placed themselves in a position where they could resemble their Creator only by perceiving miraculously. But they temporarily lost the Knowledge that they themselves are a Miracle. Miraculous Creation is their own Source and also their own real Function. “The Divine created the human being in Its Own image and likeness” is correct in meaning, but some of the words are open to considerable misinterpretation. This is avoided, however, if “image” is understood to mean “thought,” and “likeness” is taken as “of a like-quality.” The Divine did create Its Children, or perfect Creation, in Its Own Thought, and of a Quality like to Its Own. There is nothing else.

Perception is impossible without a belief in “more” and “less,” of aspects, intervals, degrees, and levels and orders of magnitude of difficulty. Unless perception, at every level, involves selectivity, it is incapable of organization. In all types of perception there is a continual process of accepting and rejecting, of organizing and reorganizing, and of shifting and changing focus. Assessing is an essential aspect of perception because judgment or evaluation must be made regarding which perceptions to accept into awareness and which ones to reject. “Lack of lack” is a concept that is meaningless to a perceiver because the ability to perceive at all rests on lack rather than completeness. What happens to perceptions if there are no judgments, nothing but perfect Equality? Perception then is seeing and becomes automatically useless as looking.

Truth can only be known. All of It is equally true, and so knowing any Part of It is to know All of It. Only perception involves partial awareness. Knowledge transcends all of the laws that govern perception. Partial Knowledge is impossible. It is all One and complete and eternal, and therefore has no separate parts, that is, parts that have been separated. This is real Knowledge. You who are really One with Knowledge need only know yourself and your knowing is complete. To know the Divine’s Miracle of Creation is to know the Divine.

Forgiveness is the healing of the perception of separation. Correct perception of one another is necessary only because minds have chosen to perceive themselves as separate beings. Each spirit knows the Divine completely. This is the miraculous Power of spirit. The fact that each spirit has this Power completely is a fact that is entirely alien to confused human thinking, in which if any one has everything, there is nothing left for anyone else. The Divine’s Miracles are as total as Its Thoughts, because They are Its Thoughts. The Holy Spirit shines in them all with perfect Light. If anyone recognizes this Light anywhere, they know It universally.

Revelation cannot be explained because it is Knowledge and can therefore only be experienced and known. Revelation just happens. It is truly natural because it reflects the Nature of the Divine.

As long as perception lasts prayer has a place. Since perception until it becomes vision rests on lack, those who perceive without vision have not totally accepted the Atonement and given themselves wholly to Truth. Perception even in its holiest application is a separated state because it involves the perceiver and the perceived. Perceivers thus always need healing from separation, and should bless their perceptions with the prayer for healing and the invitation for attunement. True connection with others is the natural state of those who know. The Divine and Its Miracles are inseparable.

Prayer is not dependent on words. All words, at best, are preparatory. A word is really a thought. No one word is universally meaningful because a word is one of any number of symbols, but Thought is not divisible in Creation. The original name for “thought” and “word” was the same. In this light, the statement about the Beginning should read: “In the Beginning was the Thought, and the Thought was with the Divine, and the Thought was the Divine.” How beautiful indeed are the Thoughts or Children of the Divine, who live in Its Light!

Your Worth is beyond perception because it is beyond doubt. Do not attempt to perceive yourself in different lights. Know yourself in the One Light, where the Miracle that is you is perfectly clear.