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Chapter
14 - Bringing Illusions to Truth
Shift to
Miracles
When
no perception stands between God and His creations,
or between His Children and their own, the knowledge
of creation must continue forever. The reflections which
you accept into the mirror of your minds in time but
bring eternity nearer or farther. But eternity itself
is beyond all time. Reach out of time and touch it,
with the help of its reflection in you. And you will
turn from time to holiness as surely as the reflection
of holiness calls everyone to lay all guilt aside. Reflect
the peace of Heaven here and bring this world to Heaven.
For the reflection of truth draws everyone to truth,
and as they enter into it, they leave all reflections
behind..
In Heaven
reality is shared and not reflected.
By sharing
its (reality's) reflection here, its truth becomes the
only perception the Son of God accepts. And thus, remembrance
of his Father dawns on him, and he can no longer be
satisfied with anything but his own reality. You on
earth have no conception of limitlessness, for the world
you seem to live in is a world of limits. In this world,
it is not true that anything without order of difficulty
can occur. The miracle, therefore, has a unique function
and is motivated by a unique Teacher, Who brings the
laws of another world to this one. The miracle is the
one thing you can do that transcends order, being based
not on differences but on equality.
Miracles
are not in competition, and the number of them that
you can do is limitless.
They can
be simultaneous and legion. This is not difficult to
understand, once you conceive of them as possible at
all. What is more difficult to grasp is the lack of
order of difficulty which stamps the miracle as something
that must come from elsewhere, not from here. From the
world's viewpoint, this is impossible. You have experienced
lack of competition among your thoughts, which, even
though they may conflict, can occur to you together
and in great numbers. You are so used to this that it
can cause you little surprise.
Yet
you are also used to classifying some of your thoughts
as more important, larger or better, wiser or more productive
and valuable than others. And this is true about the
thoughts which cross the mind of those who think they
live apart. For some are reflections of Heaven, while
others are motivated by the ego, which but seems to
think. The result is a weaving, changing pattern which
never rests and is never still. It shifts unceasingly
across the mirror of your mind, and the reflections
of Heaven last but a moment and grow dim as darkness
blots them out. Where there was light, darkness removes
it in an instant, and alternating patterns of light
and darkness sweep constantly across your minds.
The little
sanity which still remains is held together by a sense
of order which you establish. Yet the very fact that
you can do this and bring any order into chaos shows
you that you are not an ego and that more than an ego
must be in you. For the ego is chaos, and if it were
all of you, no order at all would be possible. Yet though
the order which you impose upon your minds limits the
ego, it also limits you. To order is to judge and to
arrange by judgment. [Therefore, it is not your function,
but the Holy Spirit's.] It will seem difficult for you
to learn that you have no basis at all for ordering
your thoughts. This lesson the Holy Spirit teaches by
giving you shining examples to show you that your way
of ordering is wrong, but that a better way is offered
you.
The miracle offers exactly the same response to every
call for help.
It does
not judge the call. It merely recognizes what it is
and answers accordingly. It does not consider which
call is louder or greater or more important. You may
wonder how you who are still bound to judgment can be
asked to do that which requires no judgment of your
own. The answer is very simple. The power of God, and
not of you, engenders miracles. The miracle itself is
but the witness that you have the power of God in you.
That is the reason why the miracle gives equal blessing
to all who share in it, and that is also why everyone
shares in it. The power of God is limitless. And being
always maximal, it offers everything to every call from
anyone. There is no order of difficulty here. A call
for help is given help.
The
only judgment involved at all is the Holy Spirit's one
division into two categories—one of love and the
other the call for love.
You cannot
safely make this division, for you are much too confused
either to recognize love or to believe that everything
else is nothing but a need for love. You are too bound
to form and not to content. What you consider content
is not content at all. It is merely form, and nothing
else. For you do not respond to what a brother really
offers you, but only to the particular perception of
his offering by which the ego judges it.
The ego
is incapable of understanding content and is totally
unconcerned with it. To the ego, if the form is acceptable,
the content must be. Otherwise, it will attack the form.
You who believe you understand something of the dynamics
of the mind, let me assure you that you know nothing
of it at all. For of yourselves you could not know of
it. The study of the ego is not the study of the mind.
In fact, the ego enjoys the study of itself and thoroughly
approves the undertakings of students who would analyze
it, approving its importance. Yet they but study form
with meaningless content. For their teacher is senseless,
though careful to conceal this fact behind a lot of
words which sound impressive but which lack any consistent
sense when they are put together.
This
is characteristic of the ego's judgments. Separately,
they seem to hold, but put them together and the system
of thought which arises from joining them is incoherent
and utterly chaotic. For form is not enough for meaning,
and the underlying lack of content makes a cohesive
system impossible. Separation therefore remains the
ego's chosen condition. For no one alone can judge the
ego truly. Yet when two or more join together in searching
for truth, the ego can no longer defend its lack of
content. The fact of union tells them it is not true.
It
is impossible to remember God in secret and alone. For
remembering Him means you are not alone and willing
to remember it.
Take no
thought for yourself, for no thought you hold is for
yourself. If you would remember your Father, let the
Holy Spirit order your thoughts and give only the answer
with which He answers you. Everyone seeks for love as
you do and knows it not unless he joins with you in
seeking it. If you undertake the search together, you
bring with you a light so powerful that what you see
is given meaning. The lonely journey fails because it
has excluded what it would find.
As God
communicates to the Holy Spirit in you, so does the
Holy Spirit translate His communications through you
so you can understand them. God has no secret communications,
for everything of Him is perfectly open and freely accessible
to all, being for all. Nothing lives in secret, and
what you would hide from the Holy Spirit is nothing.
Every interpretation you would lay upon a brother is
senseless.
Let
the Holy Spirit show him to you and teach you both his
love and need for love. Neither his mind nor yours holds
more than these two orders of thought.
The miracle
is the recognition that this is true. Where there is
love, your brother must give it to you because of what
it is. But where there is need for love, you must give
it because of what you are.
Long
ago we said this course will teach you what you are,
restoring to you your identity.
We have
already learned that this identity is shared. The miracle
becomes the means of sharing it. By supplying your identity
wherever it is not recognized, you will recognize it.
And God Himself, Who wills to be with His Son forever,
will bless each recognition of His Son with all the
love He holds for him. Nor will the power of all His
love be absent from any miracle you offer to His Son.
How, then, can there be any order of difficulty among
them?.
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