He who looks upon me
and truly sees me
has learned
to look upon himself
as our Father knows him.
She who sees me,
thus has she seen
the One who has sent me,
even as she, too,
has been sent of the Father
to proclaim but this:
Love alone is Real.
God is but Love.
Therefore,
God is.
Herein lies the meaning of my words,
read often,
yet often not understood:
It is not possible
for what is Real to be threatened,
nor is it possible
for what is unreal to exist.
Because you know only that you exist,
you must be in God,
and cannot be threatened
in any way.
Nor does the illumined mind
behold the place where it begins
and God ends.
For what alone is Real
is without beginning or end.
Yet,
always does such a mind
recognize that it is created,
and not Creator,
knowing not the unfathomable Source
of its beginning.
This recognition
is the seat of humility.
Humility begets
the recognition of freedom,
and in perfect freedom
lies true power:
I can do absolutely nothing,
nor need I do anything,
for the One who has sent me
alone does all things.
Joy flows gently from the heart
of one who has awakened.
It is a joy
neither created nor possessed,
but allowed.
Flowing as the radiant extension
of a Light that meets no obstacle,
it attracts those
who would choose to Remember,
and behold themselves reflected
in the one who has awakened.
When you see me
in the face of your brother and sister,
you become the mirror
of their only Reality,
and in you can they know Christ.
Therefore,
your relationship with each of them
is the means of your salvation,
and your only appropriate gift to them
is to be one who has refused to tolerate
the error of separation
in yourself,
offering to them the gift of their perfect –
and holy –
reflection.
The holiest place on Earth is, indeed,
wherever an ancient hatred
has become a present love.
Hatred is ancient,
being born of separation;
having a beginning,
it must have an end.
Love,
being of God,
knows neither beginning nor end.
To offer your brother and sister
the gift of your holiness
is to offer the gift of what is eternal.
Eternity must speak to them of Grace,
and by Grace and Grace alone
the world is overcome.
Join with me
and offer our friends
the holiness
you share with me
from before the foundations
of the world.
Nothing beyond this
can be found,
and in this
there is nothing lacking.
All searching has ended,
and in what is eternal
there can be nothing you want still.
In giving your Self,
you must remember your Self.
This alone
is the straight and narrow path,
the bridge given you when,
in a distant and forgotten past,
you looked upon one insane thought,
and failed to laugh.
Your seriousness
made the insanity of separation
seem real to you.
Gone now is all fear,
for we see together
that what is unreal
cannot possibly exist.
Now,
we are safe.
Now,
peace has come.
Giving this alone to everyone,
we have received it forever.
The servant gives,
and therefore receives.
I have said
that I come to gather my friends
to myself.
Gather those who are given to you,
and it is enough.
And because you have received
the ones I send to you
in order that they might behold
in your holiness
their true reflection,
verily,
you have received me.
And our friendship must be eternal,
being established in God.
When I said,
“Go, and do likewise,”
it is just this
to which I was referring.
For as many as received Him,
gave He the power to become
the Sons and Daughters
of the Living God.
This can only mean
that when you give the gift
of your holiness,
you have paid witness to the truth
that you have received me.
Because you have allowed me
to raise you from the dead,
you are the one
in whom I now live,
and the only logical meaning
of the Second Coming
is witnessed by those
who are given to you.
If but one of our precious friends
sees that I live in you,
the whole of Creation is uplifted.
You are sent forth “in my name”
to extend the power to awaken
unto all who will be sent to you,
and in you will they be provided
with the opportunity to see themselves
as they are held eternally
in the mind of God.
Remember
that in the Kingdom
there is no effort.
Because you are awake in me,
you need do nothing,
yet not one thing
shall be left undone.
And what I ask of you
you will accomplish,
because our wills are joined.
It is not possible that you fail,
for this would mean
that God has failed me,
and my Father fails not his Son.
The choice for Love,
which is the end of fear,
is the choice to see
with the eyes of Christ:
God has not failed me,
and I cannot fail those
who are sent to me,
because the One who has sent me
lives in me.
Giving them to God –
by seeing that Christ is in them –
they are received through me,
but by God,
who receives his own.
All praise to the One
beyond all comprehension!
I am not the doer,
I am not the maker.
I AM
but the humble servant,
allowing
the witnessing of Love in me,
because Christ lives in me.
And this is enough.
What perfection the world reveals!
What sublime beauty
do all things show me!
My joy
is beyond measure,
my pleasure unending!
Weariness is gone,
and the dance begun.
The song of the One
in whom I dwell
lifts me gently in dancing!
The leaves tossed in the wind,
the laughter of a child,
the radiance of the farthest star,
each one who stands before me,
these are the partners
with whom I dance!
Perfection shines forth
in all things;
the weaver of the dance is trusted.
If I am with you in this moment,
we dance as friends in holiness,
for we cannot fail to be
where God has asked us to be.
The eternal melody shifts,
and moves on.
I dance with the one sent unto me,
yet lose not the one
who appears to have gone.
For minds that have joined in Love
can in no way be separate,
one from another.
Fail not to dance, oh holy Son of God!
Know you not what comes to pass?
The crucifixion is past,
the resurrection completed,
and ascension now descends upon us
as a gentle dove,
lifting us to the abode
of the One who is but Love!
Forget you not to dance
with every breath you breathe,
for Love waits upon your welcome,
and desires to be heard
with every spoken word!
You are the one sent forth from God!
You are the one
in whom He remains
eternally well pleased!
You are the one in whom I live,
and reveal myself to the world!
You, precious friend,
you are as I AM!
In your joyousness
is my laughter heard.
In your giving
am I received.
Dance you therefore with passion,
not for the things of the world,
but for that which alone is Real
and cannot be taken from us.
Because Light
is reborn in you,
your brothers and sisters rejoice!
You have become their salvation
and they, yours.
Their gratitude is joined with mine,
and our voices are raised as one:
“God is!”
The ancient melody is heard,
the sacred and happy dance enjoined.
Because we dance,
we do know what comes to pass.
We are the bringers of Heaven to Earth,
that the things of the world
might be forgotten,
and the purpose of time
might be completed.
The translation
of a brief and harmless dream
is finished,
and all things are quietly returned.
The Sonship is remembered as One
and the first, is first,
eternally.
The field of obstacles
through which the dreamer stumbles
are but various symbols
of the one thing
he seems to have created in error.
For appearances are error
and nothing more.
I have often said –
in many ways
and through many channels –
that there is but one lesson
you need learn:
There is nothing outside you.
As with all expressions of wisdom,
this statement is true
at many levels.
Levels appear to exist
as long as the dream seems to remain.
Because you are awake,
the idea of levels
no longer pertains to you.
Therefore,
the “secret” of this work
is now revealed;
it is given to those
who are the teachers of God,
for only they will truly
and clearly
understand it.
In knowing that they
do understand it,
they will know they have received
the “sign from Heaven”
I once promised them.
Now
they are free
to take up their cross
and follow me,
for where I have gone
they now can come.
And the whole thought structure
of the world
has been reversed in them.
Because it is completed in them,
it shall quickly be completed
in the entire Sonship.
This are they certain of,
and our voices are raised as one.
All things perceived
arise only within the mind.
Because all minds are joined,
whatever is perceived has arisen
in one mind,
shared equally by all.
To say “all minds are joined”
is to say only that there is one mind,
and the things of Heaven and Earth
arise
and pass away
within it.
You have learned
that the body’s senses
have led you to believe
that everything
beyond the boundary
of the body
is outside you.
But you have recognized
that this cannot be true.
It has always made sense to you
that your thoughts are not outside you.
It has required great courage
to learn the truth
that your brother’s or sister’s thought
is also not outside you.
Until recently,
you have remained fearful
of taking the next logical step.
While just a few traces of guilt remained
you have feared what you perceived
as an overwhelming responsibility.
But because the Father
has taken the final step for you,
you abide in the perfect safety
where the next step
is no longer fearful.
I have said that the Holy Spirit
never teaches you
what you are still
fearful of learning.
Because of this, two things follow.
First:
Before you chose
to be awake in me,
it appeared that a prayer
could fail to be answered.
This was because you feared
receiving the answer,
and so it was not given you.
But what you were willing to receive
always was given.
Now,
because you are willing
to receive all,
all is given you.
Yet,
because your eyes are open,
you no longer pray
“in vain.”
This means only
that you have gone beyond
the childish prayers for those things
you once believed you needed
to save you
from what you thought you feared.
Because fear is gone,
childish prayer has vanished.
Awake in our Remembrance,
you have learned to pray
only for the Atonement of the Sonship,
and have extended to me
your willingness to join with me
in answering the only true prayer.
This has required
the re-learning of trust,
and trust is the inevitable fruit
of the forgiveness
you have extended to the world,
of which you are a worthy part.
This willingness
has given me permission
to dismantle the “mansions”
you had made in error;
every teacher of God
has faced crucifixion.
Through forgiveness,
and mastery
of the keys to the Kingdom,
you have passed through
the eye of the needle
to join me in the resurrection.
All things have been made new again!
Second:
Because you are now taking
the next step,
it must mean that the fear
which had kept
what you prayed for from you
is no longer present.
This can only mean
that my promise has been kept:
I have given you my strength
until yours has become
as certain as mine.
Because you know that I live in you,
your strength is as certain as mine,
and the next step
we can now take together.
For those who have chosen
to learn this curriculum
through my Course in Miracles,
you will clearly remember
that it was not designed
to answer every question
a teacher of God might have.
It could not do so,
being only a teaching device
aimed at a specific goal:
peace.
Peace is the necessary foundation
from which the teacher of God
moves to complete the Atonement
on Earth,
as it is already completed in Heaven.
Now
are we ready
to take the necessary step,
and accept the final meaning
of the one lesson:
There is nothing outside you.
You are your brother’s keeper
because you are your brother.
The translation
of the unhappy dream of separation
into the final,
happy dream –
the final manifestation in time –
requires that it be accomplished
through you.
Those of you
who understand clearly
the meaning of this work
are those in whom all preparation
is completed.
You have learned
that the purpose of your life
is exactly the same as was mine,
to demonstrate that, with God,
all things are not simply possible,
but inevitable.
You are now ready
to become a living demonstration
of complete mastery.
Because all resistance is gone
(for what is ego but this?),
the discipline necessary
for the completion of your demonstration
is as an “easy yoke.”
It is a discipline
that must joyfully touch
upon every aspect of your life.
It is through you
that the simple and natural righteousness
of God’s “laws”
can be demonstrated.
Mastery in every aspect
of the life given unto you
is the only way you can teach
your brother and your sister
that God is.
This means that now
we look together
beyond the mind’s tendency
to separate itself from the world
by looking upon aspects of life
not yet mastered,
and decreeing them to be simply illusions.
While this is true,
it is not appropriate to conclude
that they be left untransformed.
To those with ears to hear:
It is simply not possible to transcend
what you refuse to acknowledge
and embrace.
Denial is but the ploy of ego
to ensure that your Self
remains imprisoned,
and the ego remains enthroned.
Again I ask of you:
What do you want, truly?
