Would
God have left the meaning of the world to your interpretation? If
He had, it has no meaning, for it cannot be that meaning changes
constantly and yet is true.
The
Holy Spirit looks upon the world as with one purpose, changelessly
established, and no situation can affect its aim, but must be in
accord with it. For only if its aim could change with every situation
could each one be open to interpretation which is different every
time you think of it.
You add
an element into the script you write for
every minute in the day, and all that happens now means something
else. You take away another element, and every meaning shifts accordingly.
What do
your scripts reflect except your plans for what the day should
be? And thus you judge disaster and success, advance,
retreat, and gain and loss.
These judgments
all are made according to the roles the script assigns. The
fact they have no meaning in themselves is demonstrated by the ease
with which these labels change with other judgments, made on different
aspects of experience. And then, in looking back, you think you
see another meaning in what went before. What have you
really done, except to show there was no meaning there?
But you assigned a meaning in the light of goals that change, with
every meaning shifting as they change.
Only
a constant purpose can endow events with stable meaning. But it
must accord onr meaning to them all. If they are given
different meanings, it must be that they reflect but different purposes.
And this is all the meaning that they have.
Can
this be meaning? Can confusion be what meaning means?
Perception
cannot be in constant flux and make allowance for stability of meaning
anywhere. Fear is a judgment
never justified. Its presence has no meaning
but to show you wrote a fearful script and are afraid accordingly.
But not because the thing you fear has fearful meaning in itself.
A common
purpose is the only means whereby perception can be stabilized and
one interpretation given to the world and all experiences here.
In this sharedpurpose is one judgment shared
by everyone and everything you see. You do not have to
judge, for you have learned one meaning has been given everything
and you are glad to see it everywhere. It cannot change because
you would perceive it everywhere, unchanged by circumstance, and
so you offer it to all events and let them offer you stability.
Escape from
judgement simply lies in this...
all
things have but one purpose, which you share with all the world;
and nothing in the world can be opposed to it, for it belongs
to everything as it belongs to you.
In single
purpose is the end of all ideas of sacrifice, which must assume
a different purpose for the one who gains and him who loses. There
could be no thought of sacrifice apart from this idea. And
it is this idea of different goals which makes perception
shift and meaning change. In one, united goal does this
become impossible, for your agreement makes interpretation stabilize
and last.
How
can communication really be established while the symbols which
are used mean different things? The
Holy Spirit’s goal gives one interpretation, meaningful to
you and to your brother; thus can you communicate with him, and
he with you. In symbols which you both can understand, the sacrifice
of meaning is undone. All sacrifice entails the loss of your ability
to see relationships among events. And looked at separately, they
have no meaning, for there is no light by which they can be seen
and understood. They have no purpose, and what they are for cannot
be seen.
In
any thought of loss, there is no meaning. No one has agreed with
you on what it means. It is a part of a distorted script which cannot
be interpreted with meaning. It must be forever unintelligible.
This is not communication. Your dark dreams are but the senseless,
isolated scripts you write in sleep.
Look
not to separate dreams for meaning. Only dreams of pardon can be
shared. They mean the same to both of you.
Do not
interpret out of solitude, for what you see means nothing. It
will shift in what it stands for, and you will believe the world
is an uncertain place, in which you walk in danger and
uncertainty. It is but your interpretations which are
lacking in stability, for they are not in line with what you really
are. This is a state so seemingly unsafe that fear must
rise.
Do not continue
thus, my brothers.
We have
one Interpreter, and through His use of symbols are we joined, so
that they mean the same to all of us. Our common language
lets us speak to all our brothers and to understand with them forgiveness
has been given to us all, and thus we can communicate again.
