Library of Christ Mind Teachings
ACIM Original Edition
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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 found, how can
it be retained? Let us consider each of these questions separately, for
each reflects a different step along the way.
2 First, how can the peace of God be recognized? God’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.
But strangely, it is not a contrast of true differences. The past just
slips away and in its place is everlasting quiet. Only that. The
contrast first perceived has merely gone. Quiet has reached to cover
everything.
3 How is this quiet found? No one can fail to find it who but
seeks out its conditions. God’s peace can never come where anger is, for
anger must deny that peace exists. Who sees anger as justified in any
way or any circumstance proclaims that peace is meaningless and must
believe that it cannot exist. In this condition peace cannot be found.
Therefore forgiveness is the necessary condition for finding the peace
of God. More than this, given forgiveness there must be peace. For what
except attack will lead to war? And what but peace is opposite to war?
Here the initial contrast stands out clear and apparent. Yet when peace
is found, the war is meaningless. And it is conflict now that is
perceived as non-existent and unreal.
4 How is the peace of God retained once it is found?
Returning anger, in whatever form, will drop the heavy curtain once
again, and the belief that peace cannot exist will certainly return. War
is again accepted as the one reality. Now must you once again lay down
your sword, although you may not recognize that you have picked it up
again. But you will learn, as you remember even faintly now what
happiness was yours without it, that you must have taken it again as
your defense. Stop for a moment now and think of this: is conflict what
you want, or is God’s peace the better choice? Which gives you more? A
tranquil mind is not a little gift. Would you not rather live than
choose to die?
5 Living is joy, but death can only weep. You see in death
escape from what you made. But this you do not see—that you made death,
and it is but illusion of an end. Death cannot be escape, because it is
not life in which the problem lies. Life has no opposite, for it is God.
Life and death seem to be opposites, because you have decided that death
ends life. Forgive the world, and you will understand that everything
which God created cannot have an end, and nothing He 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 the Holy Spirit’s
whole curriculum is specified exactly as it is.
6 What is the peace of God? No more than this—the simple
understanding that His Will is wholly without opposite. There is no
thought that contradicts His Will yet can be true. The contrast between
His Will and yours but seemed to be reality. In truth there is no
conflict, because His Will is yours. Now is the mighty Will of God
Himself His gift to you. He does not seek to keep it for Himself. Why
would you seek to keep your tiny, frail imaginings apart from Him? The
Will of God is one and all there is. This is your heritage. The universe
beyond the sun and stars and all the thoughts of which you can conceive
belong to you. God’s peace is the condition for His Will. Attain His
peace, and you remember Him.