A Course in Miracles

Chapter 29 - The Awakening

God's Witnesses

Condemn your Savior not because he thinks he is a body. For beyond his dreams is his reality. But he must learn he is a Savior first, before he can remember what he is. And he must save who would (wants to) be saved.

On saving you depends his happiness.

For who is Savior but the one who gives salvation? Thus he learns it must be his to give. Unless he gives, he will not know he has, for giving is the proof of having. Only those who think that God is lessened by their strength could fail to understand this must be so. For who could give unless he has, and who could lose by giving what must be increased thereby?

Think you the Father lost Himself when He created you? Was He made weak because He shared His love? Was He made incomplete by your perfection? Or are you the proof that He is perfect and complete?

Deny Him not His witness in the dream His Son prefers to his reality.

He must be Savior from the dream he made, that he be free of it. He must see someone else as not a body, one with him, without the wall the world has built to keep apart all living things who know not that they live.

Within the dream of bodies and of death is yet one theme of truth; no more, perhaps, than just a tiny spark, a space of light created in the dark, where God still shines.

You cannot wake yourself. Yet you can let yourself be wakened. You can overlook your brother’s dreams. So perfectly can you forgive him his illusions, he becomes your Savior from your dreams.

And as you see him shining in the space of light where God abides within the darkness, you will see that God Himself is where his body is. Before this light the body disappears, as heavy shadows must give way to light. The darkness cannot choose that it remain. The coming of the light means it is gone. In glory will you see your brother then and understand what really fills the gap so long perceived as keeping you apart.

There, in its place, God’s Witness has set forth the gentle way of kindness to God’s Son. Whom you forgive is given power to forgive you your illusions. By your gift of freedom is it given unto you.

Make way for love which you did not create, but which you can extend.

On earth this means forgive your brother, that the darkness may be lifted from your mind.

When light has come to him through your forgiveness, he will not forget his Savior, leaving him unsaved. For it was in your face he saw the light that he would keep beside him, as he walks through darkness to the everlasting light.

How holy are you, that the Son of God can be your Savior in the midst of dreams of desolation and disaster. See how eagerly he comes, and steps aside from heavy shadows that have hidden him, and shines on you in gratitude and love. He is himself, but not himself alone. And as his Father lost not part of Him in your creation, so the light in him is brighter still because you gave your light to him to save him from the dark. And now the light in you must be as bright as shines in him. This is the spark that shines within the dream; that you can help him waken, and be sure his waking eyes will rest on you. And in his glad salvation you are saved.

A Course in Miracles

Chapter 29 - The Awakening

Dream Roles

Do you believe that truth can be but some illusions? They are dreams because they are not true. Their equal lack of truth becomes the basis for the miracle which means that you have understood that dreams are dreams and that escape depends, not on the dream but only on awaking.

Could it be some dreams are kept and others wakened from?

The choice is not between which dreams to keep, but only if you want to live in dreams or to awaken from them. Thus it is the miracle does not select some dreams to leave untouched by its beneficence.

You cannot dream some dreams and wake from some, for you are either sleeping or awake. And dreaming goes with only one of these.

The dreams you think you like would hold you back as much as those in which the fear is seen. For every dream is but a dream of fear, no matter what the form it seems to take. The fear is seen within, without, or both. Or it can be disguised in pleasant form. But never is it absent from the dream, for fear is the material of dreams from which they all are made. Their form can change, but they cannot be made of something else. The miracle were treacherous indeed if it allowed you still to be afraid because you did not recognize the fear. You would not then be willing to awake, for which the miracle prepares the way.

In simplest form, it can be said attack is a response to function unfulfilled as you perceive the function.

It can be in you or someone else, but where it is perceived it will be there it is attacked. Depression or assault must be the theme of every dream, for they are made of fear. The thin disguise of pleasure and of joy in which they may be wrapped but slightly veils the heavy lump of fear which is their core. And it is this the miracle perceives, and not the wrappings in which it is bound.

When you are angry, is it not because someone has failed to fill the function you allotted him? And does not this become the “reason” your attack is justified?

Dreams are not wanted more or less. They are desired or not. And each one represents some function which you have assigned, some goal which an event, or body, or a thing should represent and should achieve for you. If it succeeds, you think you like the dream. If it should fail, you think the dream is sad. But whether it succeeds or fails is not its core but just the flimsy covering.

How happy would your dreams become if you were not the one who gave the “proper” role to every figure which the dream contains.

A Course in Miracles

Chapter 29 - The Awakening

Changeless Dwelling Place

There is a place in you where this whole world has been forgotten; where no memory of sin and of illusion linger still. There is a place in you which time has left, and echoes of eternity are heard. There is a resting place so still no sound except a hymn to Heaven rises up to gladden God the Father and the Son. Where both abide, are They (God the Father and the Son) remembered, both, and where They are, is Heaven and is peace. Think not that you can change Their dwelling-place. For your identity abides in Them, and where They are, forever must you be.

The changelessness of Heaven is in you, so deep within that nothing in this world but passes by, unnoticed and unseen.

The still infinity of endless peace surrounds you gently in its soft embrace, so strong and quiet, tranquil in the might of its Creator, nothing can intrude upon the sacred Son of God within.

Here is the role the Holy Spirit gives to you who wait upon the Son of God and would behold him waken and be glad. He is a part of you, and you of him because he is his Father’s Son and not for any purpose you may see in him.

Nothing is asked of you but to accept the changeless and eternal that abide in him, for your identity is there.

The peace in you can but be found in him. And every thought of love you offer him but brings you nearer to your wakening to peace eternal and to endless joy.

This sacred Son of God is like yourself; the mirror of his Father’s love for you, the soft reminder of his Father’s love by which he was created and which still abides in him, as it abides in you. Be very still, and hear God’s Voice in him, and let It tell you what his function is. He was created that you might be whole, for only the complete can be a part of God’s completion, Which created you.

There is no gift the Father asks of you but that you see in all creation but the shining glory of His gift to you. Behold His Son, His perfect gift in whom his Father shines forever, and to whom is all creation given as his own. Because he has it is it given you, and where it lies in him, behold your peace.

The quiet that surrounds you dwells in him, and from this quiet come the happy dreams in which your hands are joined in innocence.

These are not hands that grasp in dreams of pain. They hold no sword, for they have left their hold on every vain illusion of the world. And being empty, they received, instead, a brother’s hand in which completion lay.

If you but knew the glorious goal that lies beyond forgiveness, you would not keep hold on any thought, however light the touch of evil on it may appear to be. For you would understand how great the cost of holding anything God did not give in minds that can direct the hand to bless and lead God’s Son unto his Father’s house. Would you not want to be a friend to him, created by his Father as His home? If God esteems him worthy of Himself, would you attack him with the hands of hate? Who would lay bloody hands on Heaven itself, and hope to find its peace?

Your brother thinks he holds the hand of death.

Believe him not. But learn, instead, how blessed are you who can release him, just by offering him yours.

A dream is given you in which he is your Savior, not your enemy in hate. A dream is given you in which you have forgiven him for all his dreams of death; a dream of hope you share with him, instead of dreaming evil separate dreams of hate.

Why does it seem so hard to share this dream?

Because unless the Holy Spirit gives the dream its function, it was made for hate and will continue in death’s services. Each form it takes in some way calls for death. And those who serve the lord of death have come to worship in a separated world, each with his tiny spear and rusted sword, to keep his ancient promises to die.

Such is the core of fear in every dream that has been kept apart from use by Him Who sees a different function for a dream. When dreams are shared, they lose the function of attack and separation, even though it was for this that every dream was made. Yet nothing in the world of dreams remains without the hope of change and betterment, for here is not where changelessness is found.

Let us be glad indeed that this is so, and seek not the eternal in this world.

Forgiving dreams are means to step aside from dreaming of a world outside yourself. And leading finally beyond all dreams, unto the peace of everlasting life.