A Course in Miracles

Chapter 30 - The New Beginnging

The Only Purpose

The real world is the state of mind in which the only purpose of the world is seen to be forgiveness.

Fear is not its goal, and the escape from guilt becomes its aim. The value of forgiveness is perceived and takes the place of idols, which are sought no longer, for their “gifts” are not held dear. No rules are idly set, and no demands are made of anyone or anything to twist and fit into the dream of fear.

Instead, there is a wish to understand all things created as they really are, and it is recognized that all things must be first forgiven, and then understood.

Here, it is thought that understanding is acquired by attack. There, it is clear that by attack is understanding lost. The folly of pursuing guilt as goal is fully recognized. And idols are not wanted there, for guilt is understood as the sole cause of pain in any form. No one is tempted by its (guilt's) vain appeal, for suffering and death have been perceived as things not wanted and not striven for. The possibility of freedom has been grasped and welcomed, and the means by which it can be gained can now be understood.

The Real World

The world becomes a place of hope, because its only purpose is to be a place where hope of happiness can be fulfilled. And no one stands outside this hope, because the world has been united in belief the purpose of the world is one which all must share, if hope be more than just a dream.

Not yet is Heaven quite remembered, for the purpose of forgiveness still remains.

Yet everyone is certain he will go beyond forgiveness, and he but remains until it is made perfect in himself. He has no wish for anything but this. And fear has dropped away, because he is united in his purpose with himself.

There is a hope of happiness in him so sure and constant he can barely stay, and wait a little longer with his feet still touching earth. Yet is he glad to wait till every hand is joined, and every heart made ready to arise and go with him, for thus is he made ready for the step in which is all forgiveness left behind.

The final step is God’s, because it is but God Who could create a perfect Son, and share His Fatherhood with him.

No one outside of Heaven knows how this can be, for understanding this is Heaven itself.

Even the real world has a purpose still beneath creation and eternity. But fear is gone, because its purpose is forgiveness, not idolatry. And so is Heaven’s Son prepared to be Himself, and to remember that the Son of God knows everything his Father understands, and understands it perfectly with Him.

The real world still falls short of this, for this is God’s Own purpose; only His, and yet completely shared and perfectly fulfilled.

The real world is a state in which the mind has learned how easily do idols go when they are still perceived, but wanted not. How willingly the mind can let them go when it has understood that idols are nothing and nowhere, and are purposeless, for only then can guilt and sin be seen without a purpose, and as meaningless.

Thus is the real world’s purpose gently brought into awareness, to replace the goal of sin and guilt. And all that stood between your image of yourself and what you are, forgiveness washes joyfully away.

Yet God need not create His Son again, that what is his be given back to him. The gap between your brother and yourself was never there,and what the Son of God knew in creation he must know again.

Look On Him Whose Hand You Hold

When brothers join in purpose in the world of fear, they stand already at the edge of the real world.

Perhaps they still look back and think they see an idol that they want. Yet has their path been surely set away from idols toward reality, for when they joined their hands, it was Christ’s hand they took, and they will look on Him Whose hand they hold.

The face of Christ is looked upon before the Father is remembered, for He must be unremembered till His Son has reached beyond forgiveness, to the love of God. Yet is the love of Christ accepted first, and then will come the knowledge They are One.

How light and easy is the step across the narrow boundaries of the world of fear, when you have recognized Whose hand you hold! Within your hand is everything you need to walk with perfect confidence away from fear forever, and to go straight on and quickly reach the gate of Heaven itself, for He Whose hand you hold was waiting but for you to join Him.

Now that you have come, would He delay in showing you the way that He must walk with you?

His blessing lies on you as surely as His Father’s love rests upon Him. His gratitude to you is past your understanding, for you have enabled Him to rise from chains, and go with you, together, to His Father’s house. An ancient hate is passing from the world, and with it goes all hatred and all fear.

When An Idol Tempts You

Look back no longer, for what lies ahead is all you ever wanted in your hearts.

Give up the world! But not to sacrifice. You never wanted it.

What happiness have you sought here that did not bring you pain?

What moment of content has not been bought at fearful price in coins of suffering?

Joy has no cost; it is your sacred right, and what you pay for is not happiness.

Be speeded on your way by honesty, and let not your experiences here deceive in retrospect.

They were not free from bitter cost and joyless consequence.

Do not look back except in honesty.

And when an idol tempts you, think of this:

There never was a time an idol brought you anything except the “gift” of guilt.

Not one was bought except at cost of pain, nor was it ever paid by you alone.

Be merciful unto your brother, then.

And do not choose an idol thoughtlessly, remembering that he will pay the cost as well as you.

For he will be delayed when you look back, and you will not perceive Whose loving hand you hold.

Look forward, then, and walk in confidence, with happy hearts that beat in hope and do not pound in fear.

The Will of God forever lies in those whose hands are joined.

Until they joined, they thought He was their enemy.

But when they joined and shared a purpose, they were free to learn their will is one, and thus the Will of God must reach to their awareness.

Nor can they forget for long that it is but their own (will)

A Course in Miracles

Chapter 30 - The New Beginnging

The Justification For Forgiveness

Anger is never justified.

Attack has no foundation. It is here escape from fear begins, and will be made complete. Here is the real world given in exchange for dreams of terror, for it is on this forgiveness rests, and is but natural.

You are not asked to offer pardon where attack is due, and would be justified, for this would mean that you forgive a sin by overlooking what is really there.

This is not pardon, for it would assume that by responding in a way which is not justified, your pardon will become the answer to attack that has been made, and thus is pardon inappropriate, by being granted where is it not due.

Pardon is always justified.

It has a sure foundation. You do not forgive the unforgivable, nor overlook a real attack that calls for punishment. Salvation does not lie in being asked to make unnatural responses which are inappropriate to what is real. Instead, it merely asks that you respond appropriately to what is not real by not perceiving what has not occurred.

If pardon were unjustified, you would be asked to sacrifice your rights when you return forgiveness for attack. But you are merely asked to see forgiveness as the natural reaction to distress which rests on error, and thus calls for help. Forgiveness is the only sane response; It keeps your rights from being sacrificed.

This understanding is the only change that lets the real world rise to take the place of dreams of terror. Fear cannot arise unless attack is justified, and if it had a real foundation, pardon would have none.

The real world is achieved when you perceive the basis of forgiveness is quite real and fully justified.

While you regard it as a gift unwarranted, it must uphold the guilt you would “forgive”. Unjustified forgiveness is attack, and this is all the world can ever give. It pardons “sinners” sometimes, but remains aware that they have sinned, and so they do not merit the forgiveness that it gives.

This is the false forgiveness which the world employs to keep the sense of sin alive, and recognizing God is just, it seems impossible His pardon could be real; thus is the fear of God the sure result of seeing pardon as unmerited.

No one who sees himself as guilty can avoid the fear of God. But he is saved from this dilemma if he can forgive.

The mind must think of its Creator as it looks upon itself: If you can see your brother merits pardon, you have learned forgiveness is your right as much as his.

Nor will you think that God intends for you a fearful judgement which your brother does not merit, for it is the truth that you can merit neither more nor less than he.

Merited Forgiveness Heals

Forgiveness recognized as merited will heal. It gives the miracle its strength to overlook illusions. This is how you learn that you must be forgiven, too.

There can be no appearance that can not be overlooked, for if there were, it would be necessary first there be some sin which stands beyond forgiveness.

There would be an error that is more than a mistake; a special form of error which remains unchangeable, eternal and beyond correction or escape.

There would be one mistake which had the power to undo creation, and to make a world which could replace it and destroy the Will of God.

Only if this were possible could there be some appearances which could withstand the miracle, and not be healed by it.

There is no surer proof idolatry is what you wish than a belief there are some forms of sickness and of joylessness forgiveness cannot heal. This means that you prefer to keep some idols and are not prepared, as yet, to let all idols go. And thus you think that some appearances are real and not appearances at all.

Be not deceived about the meaning of a fixed belief that some appearances are harder to look past than others are.

It always means you think forgiveness must be limited, and you have set a goal of partial pardon and a limited escape from guilt for you.

What can this be except a false forgiveness of yourself and everyone who seems apart from you?

A Course in Miracles

Chapter 30 - The New Beginnging

The New Interpretation

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?

Constant Purpose

Only a constant purpose can endow events with stable meaning, but it must accord ONE 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.

Shared Purpose

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 shared purpose 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.

A Course in Miracles

Chapter 30 - The New Beginnging

The Changeless Reality

Appearances deceive, but can be changed.

Reality is changeless. It does not deceive at all. And if you fail to see beyond appearances, you are deceived. For everything you see will change, and yet you thought it real before, and now you think it real again. Reality is thus reduced to form and capable of change.

Reality is changeless. It is this that makes it real and keeps it separate from all appearances. It must transcend all form to be itself. It cannot change.

The miracle is means to demonstrate that all appearances can change because they are appearances, and cannot have the changelessness reality entails. The miracle attests salvation from appearances by showing they can change.

Your brother has a changelessness in him beyond appearance and deception, both. It is obscured by changing views of him which you perceive as his reality.

The happy dream about him takes the form of the appearance of his perfect health, his perfect freedom from all forms of lack, and safety from disaster of all kinds.

The miracle is proof he is not bound by loss or suffering in any form, because it can so easily be changed. This demonstrates that it was never real and could not stem from his reality, for that is changeless and has no effects which anything in Heaven or on earth could ever alter. But appearances are shown to be unreal because they change.

What is temptation but a wish to make illusions real?

It does not seem to be the wish that no reality be so. Yet it is an assertion that some forms of idols have a powerful appeal which makes them harder to resist than those you would not want to have reality.

Temptation, then, is nothing more than this; a prayer the miracle touch not some dreams, but keep their unreality obscure and give to them reality instead.

And Heaven gives no answer to the prayer, nor can a miracle be given you to heal appearances you do not like.

You have established limits. What you ask is given you, but not of God Who knows no
limits. You have limited yourself.

Reality is changeless. Miracles but show what you have interposed between reality and your awareness is unreal, and does not interfere at all.

The cost of the belief there must be some appearances beyond the hope of change is that the miracle cannot come forth from you consistently, for you have asked it be withheld from power to heal all dreams.