Greetings,
my brothers and sisters! You have heard the good news of release from the
bondage to dead laws and rituals of men, but you are unsure of the message’s fuller
meaning. In these glad tidings, may you find the joy of Jesus, or as he was
called 2,000 years ago, Yeshua, and may his peace that transcends our past understanding
dwell in you richly and keep your hearts, now and forever.
If
you continue seeking, you will discover something beyond the man Jesus of
Nazareth--hidden to the haughty men who are spiritually blind but revealed to
the humble--the Christ, Son of the living Father, perfect in holiness and peace and power.
And finding Him, you will find yourself to be as He is. Truly, it takes no time to
learn to heal the sick and raise the dead after you have discovered the indwelling
Christ. Hear him knock upon your heart, asking but welcome and acceptance of His
Reality as yours. He was your only true Self from the beginning. When you learn
to see Him within you, you will see Him in all others as well. In the interim, you
have failed to recognize him, and have generally made things very hard on
yourself. In your current environment, fear and doubt run rampant. But be not dismayed, for you will yet
rise to great heights of consciousness, and then you will easily grasp ancient,
hidden truths that cannot be spoken, but only revealed. And from a newfound blissful awareness, united then with God's, will shine forth the miracles of love and devotion to all Creation.
Intention
never departs from its purpose, which is always an answer to the simple question,
“what for? What could this possibly bring me that I do not have already?” At
the highest level, the Son of God knows he has no needs, for he is aware of everything
the Father has already given him, and He has indeed given Him everything. If God, His
Sons, and their shared Spirit are all that there is to Reality, then they are
the All in all. In this totality, there can be no lack whatsoever, for what
emptiness could abide in the fullness of the Trinity? The Trinity brings to
your mind a deep sense of fulfillment any time you choose to identify with
Them. All needs are always met, it is true. But true as well it is that they are not always met as—or
when—you think they should be. If you doubt, it could only be because you
are not in perfect alignment with the Plan, and therefore do not know what you're asking for, nor what you want or need. More than anything, the Son wants what
the Father wants, but choosing this can seem like a difficult decision when
your intention vacillates so often. You know that your attitudes also vacillate from depression to attack and back again. It
may take a very long time for the separated son to realize that he wants only
the Father and to recall His great Love. What else could satisfy him? And what else could the Father want but that the Son's inheritance be restored to him? Wanting
different things on different levels is a painful experience that all the separate ones are
familiar with. Projecting this basic conflict, in the extreme, man may even believe God wants
him to sacrifice himself on Love’s behalf.
All man’s difficulties can be traced to the fact that, in his current state, he is incapable of truly forgiving anything. This is because his experience has taught him that grudges get him something. Judgment is the only thing one should judge against, and it will be found wanting, for there is much to be desired in the unbalanced scales men use in blaming others for their own discontent. “He made me angry.” “She made me sad.” Phrases like these are all setup to assign guilt to some “other” for what they “did”, and of course this upsets you. We can begin our foray into forgiveness lessons with the understanding that what you really want is to reclaim your peace, and you can start to move in this direction by first taking complete responsibility for your own emotional state. Slowly, we begin to accept that whatever we think they did, this other never could, and therefore never did pull off this feat: they never made you feel anything, for we always choose our emotions based on our interpretations of the situation.
When
the laser-like focus of intention moves you with all the power of gale-force
winds, you may fall weeping on the floor, or laugh in boundless jubilation. You
may have a vision of God, or intuitively understand just what the right thing
is to do next. The particular response evoked in the process does not matter,
because their Source is identical. That is the moment of remembrance. And
remembering where we really are, namely, in God’s Mind, we begin to open to the
experience of revelation. Say, “Here I am Lord. Speak, for Thy servant
listens.”
There
is something I would like to elucidate here: level confusion is the primary
impediment to the transitional period you are currently going through known as the “celestial speed-up”. The
risks involved in the speed-up have been mentioned, without further
explanation. One risk is that the speed-up goes “off track” and become muddled
up with magical thinking, for instance. Another risk is that students get
caught up in philosophical speculation over ideas that they are not yet in a
position to assimilate. This results in a sort of spiritual indigestion, which
may become chronic if not straightened out with a miracle. This is level confusion. Another danger is
that the Course be used for monetary gain among some who may claim to receive
additional revelations from me, but did not. These may lead many astray. For
you cannot serve God, or His Son--who are One and the Same--and at the same
time serve money. However, there is nothing hidden that shall not be revealed. Leave
this to me, and do not make the mistake of going on “witch hunts”. My Word is
eternal and My Sheep hear my voice. Hear my reassurance to you, oh simple and
pure of heart: “God is not mocked.”
The
reason the Course is intended for self-study, as many have correctly stated
(although there is a very good purpose for group readings), is that all
spiritual truths come to the mind through intuition. The spirit is not
discernible with the ordinary intellect. Why should you trust another’s
interpretation of what the Course is saying over your own? This can be
particularly dangerous, or misguided, if you do not have your own
interpretation before listening to what the “scholars” of the Course have to
say. Indeed, it is a part of God’s perfect Plan that hidden wisdom be obscure
to the wise and prudent, but perfectly obvious to the simple and childlike ones,
who read the Course and all the scriptures with the same spirit with which it was given. This spirit
is the Holy Spirit, and the goal of the Course is to commune with Him
constantly. Then, there will be no need for the Course, for it will be written
in your heart. There will be no need to learn what this one, or that one, says
I mean. Do not think of what you will say in any hour, for if you but trust
like a child, the Holy One will speak from your lips then. Remember that I have
said that I will also witness for anyone who will let me. The Course cannot
teach the meaning of love, but the Holy Spirit can. He calls you now, with a
still, small voice that grows in power and glory as you increasingly learn to listen
to Him.
You
find yourself in a dream. Within this dream there is no way out. Every escape
route leads nowhere but straight back into the same impossible situation you originally
sought release from. The situation, as you set it up, is inescapable. But that
does not mean you cannot escape. Hear the Voice that calls from outside of the
dream. See the Light that illuminates even the darkness of what may sometimes seem
more a nightmare than dream. God is here, though you tried to shut Him out. God
is here, and you cannot change that fact, no matter where you go. You are
surrounded only by Him. This is meant as a reassurance, but you continue to
perceive God’s promises as threats. This is also level confusion. It was for
this purpose that revelation was built into the Plan. In the revelatory state,
all threat has already been transformed to reassurance, for revelation is the felt
experience of intense love.
Remember
that free will does not mean that you establish the overarching purpose of the
curriculum, nor the lessons which comprise it. Free will, in fact, is not free
while it is subject to self-will, or the will of the ego. Its
self-contradictory nature is perfectly apparent in this. It is only free when
it is released to create in love, peace, and joy, in the same Spirit in which
you were created. This is the final lesson, that you desire only to create as
your Father does, and only in this can your will find the freedom it threw
away. After throwing God, Love, your Self away, what then was left for your
will to do but scour the earth in search of itself and the power it lost? All
power and glory are yours who seek them not, but offer them up to God in praise
of His Son. Hallowed be the name Father, and hallowed as well be his hidden
name, the Son.
Who has known the son of man? And who
has understood his purpose here? He came to heal the sick and show the way to
those who are lost. He came to bind up the broken-hearted; to strengthen the
remnant that remain, who are the few who chose to listen to Him. He came to
humble the exalted, and exalt the humble. He came to show himself great to the
great, and small to the small; wise to the wise, and foolish to the foolish.
Yeshua came as a mirror of men, and each man made him in his own image. Men see
in a glass, darkly. And dark indeed is the reflection of themselves they behold
in their brothers. Put simply, the form of the son of man was lowly, for the
Son of God hid his glory. But there were occasions when the Great Rays stole through,
and pierced the darkness of the disciple’s misunderstanding.
When I appeared, I did not come alone,
but came with others who were to testify of the Light for those who would come
after. They were not the Light, but they came from it. They did not know that
in following me, they were following me to the cross. But the cross was only a
bridge for them to return to the Light. It did not harm them; when the time
came, they merely shuffled off their mortal coils as a man disrobes before
taking his rest. I came to bring rest to mankind, but before my rest can
envelop them, they must become troubled and astonished. The shaking up of
erroneous perception is always discomforting, but necessary before it can snap it
into place and order its levels appropriately.
You
will not find your freedom until you offer it to your brother, for in his
acceptance lies your own recognition of Where and What you are, and have always
been. While you withhold your lilies, they wilt and wither in your lonely hands.
When you lay them on his altar, you suddenly find the gift of release as he returns
them, now made whole, to you. His face shines in gratitude for your gifts.
Ancient hatreds will then have passed away, and all things will become new in
your perception of them, transformed into majesty through the Vision of Christ.
His eyes can see the Real World plainly, and He can lend you his own in
exchange for your blurry sight that can see only dim and grotesque figures that
populate your world of illusions.
Dearly
beloved of the Lord, hear His message to you: I did not come to shatter men’s
illusions, but that, through me, they may come to feel the irresistible attraction
to the Truth and voluntarily leave them behind. Only in this way is the sense
of deprivation avoided, guilt corrected, and all illusions brought to Truth. My
appearance in this world signified, among other things, man’s ability to obtain
the same enlightenment that I consistently demonstrated (even during those
times when it may seem I acted inconsistently). Truth is never out of accord
with itself, and only illusions war against themselves. I came as a revealer,
as you have heard, and men hid themselves for fear of having their darkness
exposed. But only in this way is the darkness healed. So it is that the son of
man came for the sick, not for those who were well (or those who considered
themselves well but were not). A righteous man need not repent (or atone), but
a sinner (one who struggles with lack of love) has great need to hear my call
unto repentance. I baptize, not as John did, with water, but with the illumination
of the Holy Spirit. Through Him, I am with you even unto the ends of the earth.
Blessed are you who have not seen me, but believe, for great is your reward,
even during your brief sojourn on earth.
Lift up your head, oh man, and observe the place to which
you have descended, and bring to mind the Grandeur you left behind in that descent. See what great wealth has come to dwell in such poverty! I once reminded Helen, "In dying I live." This frightened her, but what I was referring to is not physical death, as she interpreted it then to mean, but the relinquishment of the ego to Me. Man indeed must be reborn, but before he does it is needful that he first die to himself. "Unless a grain of wheat falls to the earth and dies, it is alone. But if it dies, it bears much fruit." Lucifer is indeed the symbol for man, and it is he who fell like lightning from heaven. Angels, however, don't cease to be angels by falling, and you still are what you were.
See that your life is but a fleeting shadow. Truly, all your
days are but vanity. And vanity of vanities! Man puffs himself up and in vainglory seeks to win the
favor of men; possessed by a bloated sense of specialness. But his stiff neck and prideful heart may never approach the
Kingdom’s gates. If there is such a thing as sacrifice, it is letting the chip
be knocked off your shoulder, and letting your heart be pierced by His Word. There
is no loss in this; only gain. As you decrease, the Christ in you must
increase. And as He comes to the fore, others notice something different about
you. The manner and depth of your relating changes. Your face and forehead
soften; a kindness and compassion manifests itself in your gaze, which blesses
all that it falls upon. As you represent me more and more in the world, you
begin to exude a natural fragrance, sweetness, and a grace that attracts others
to you like honey draws bees.
This world was made as
substitute for the Kingdom, and so it is that the Holy Spirit must translate it
back into the Kingdom in your mind. For in reality, it never ceased to be
anything but that. There is a place in your mind where you know that God is
here, even now. There is also that in you which knows all as an illusion, or
dream. How can these be reconciled? This is the task of the Holy Spirit. He
takes what is true in your mind, and preserves it; the partially true, He purifies;
and the false, he purges. This need not be painful, but it often is experienced
as such. He cannot take that to which you cling, however, so you must learn to
begin to loosen your grip on what you think you know, need, and want. If you
give to Him your thoughts, your emotions, your plans, and your desires, He will
gladly take them from you and perform a sort of psychic surgery. Cast not only your
cares, but your very being upon Him as well, and recall how much he cares for you.
The path that I have
set you on is one of love and devotion. I sent you as a sheep amongst wolves.
Take care that you don’t perceive specialness in this association, for any and
all can obtain my special mercy and have my personal association. There is, as
I told Helen, nothing special or surprising about this at all. You were chosen
before the world came into being to be my disciple and represent me in the
world. This is not a unique calling, but the calling of all men. I chose the world
as the darkness into which a Light would shine. This Light will not be in the
sky, nor in the earth, but in the bodies and minds of the believers. Accepting
the atonement heals them, and enables them to be used constructively. The point
can’t be overstated, but proper understanding here, as always, is necessary.
There is nothing
magical about the atonement, or its acceptance. Within you there is an altar, and
as you look with the Holy Spirit upon its defilement, a blazing fire suddenly
devours all the impurities, and in their place are beautiful gifts that are
offered you to share with your brothers. No one can give who has not.
Therefore, approach with boldness the altar of your heart, where Christ stands
with hand outstretched, blessing you in benediction. Take his blessing, which
is the anointing of the Holy Spirit, which descends as a tongue of fire upon
your head, enabling you to bring the same message I did. And as you accept My Atonement,
you can raise your head in glory, as a reborn Son of God, raised from the dead,
and participate in my resurrection. Accept that deep release that atonement
offers you, receive the Spirit that cries, “Father! Father! Why have I
perceived You as absent from my experience in this world?” And He smiles, “My
Son, I am here, I have always been here.”
The most important level
confusion that needs correcting is your own. In fact, it is the only one which
should concern you. What matter is it to you if some interpret me differently?
Am I not still in charge of the Atonement? I thank you for your devotion to Me,
and I offer it back to you. Do try to trust Me a little more. I do not take my
promises lightly. You have always loved me, and it has only deepened with time.
I drew the disciples from their nets with curiosity and continued to draw them
into My Love. Together, we will look upon the altar that has been defiled, and
together, we shall look beyond, to the atonement. And together we shall take
His Gifts, and offer them to each other, in gratitude for each other, and Him
who created us as we are. And brother, holy brother, you do remain as he
created you.
“A man shall not live
by bread alone.” This means that the Divine Life is the true Sustenance, and
cannot be fulfilled through the material means of sustanence. When I told my
disciples, “drink, this is my blood.” I again was evocatively suggesting that
they needed to fully imbibe this Divine Life and re-present Me to the world. I
never had a doubt in you, nor did I ever despair of your returning to Me. You
have spent so much time in doubt and despair, you hardly remember what your
true purpose is here most of the time, and sometimes forget you even have one.
There are only two purposes to your life here, which are really only one: that
you accept the Atonement, and offer it to your brothers. They are one because
the offering of it is implicit in its acceptance. It is inevitable that you
extend it, because it was created to be shared, and as an idea, it is
strengthened as it is shared. Minds are joined, so when a man is healed through
this process, the healing becomes a catalyst in a chain reaction that ripples
out into the masses and makes a genuinely positive difference to all, even
those whom he may not yet have met, even to the unborn and the passed-by.
Are you beginning to
see the implications of the fact that any can communicate with me, at any time?
It means that no one is special, and it also means that you all are. I came for
the children of men, not just for the Jews, but the gentiles too. And how could
it be otherwise, when my heart bore the Father’s great Love within it. My
compassion draws you, and so does my humble appearance and mild manners, but
you are also attracted to the fact that I am not as one dimensional as some
make me out to be. As you look upon my face, you can see the sweetest reveries
of Joy, and you can see the darkness that passes over it: behold the
apocalyptic Christ: lightning seems to come from My eyes, and Thunder from my
mouth. And behold now, the cosmic Christ: King and secret Builder of the
Universe. See the dissolution of the All into void. See the end of all things
here. None of it will last. Not one planet will be left spinning around a star,
nor stars around systems, but they all shall be consumed. Man’s life is being
swept away, daily, yet how rarely does he realize his plight and call out “My
God, hear and help me in my hour of need, for I am being carried away, and I know
not whence.” Where tears, sincerity, and a humble heart are, the grace,
strength, and hope of God is not far.
God does resist the
proud, for proud men believe they either do not need Him, or that they already
have Him. They not only do not have him, in the sense they think they do, but they will be stripped of their
insane notion that God can be possessed. Bring the healing power of the
Atonement to them because God is merciful, and desires not that his Children
linger in the madness of false beliefs.
