IA´s Journal

[IA56]

Littleness versus Magnitude

Be not content with littleness. But be sure you understand what littleness is, and why you could never be content with it. Littleness is the offering you give yourself. You offer this in place of magnitude, and you accept it. Everything in this world is little because it is a world made out of littleness, in the strange belief that littleness can content you. When you strive for anything in this world in the belief that it will bring you peace,you are belittling yourself and blinding yourself to glory. Littleness and glory are the choices open to your striving and your vigilance. You will Always choose one at the expense of the other. Yet what you do not realize, each time you choose, is that your choice is your evaluation of yourself. Choose littleness and you will not have peace, for you will have judged yourself unwotrty of it. And whatever you offer as a substitute is much too poor a gift to satisfy you. It is essential that you accept the fact, and accept it gladly,that there is no form of littleness that can ever content you. You are free to try as many as you wish, but all you will be doing is to delay your homcoming.For you will be content only in magnitude, which is your home. There is a deepresponsibility you owe yourself, and one you must learn to remember all thetime. The lesson may seem hard at first, but you will learn to love it when yourealize that it is true and is but a tribute to your power. You who have soughtand found littleness, remember this: Every decision you make stems from whatyou think you are, and represents the value that you put upon yourself. Believethe little can content you, and by limiting yourself you will not be satisfied.For your function is not little, and it is only by finding your function andfulfilling it that you can escape from littleness. There is no doubt about whatyour function is, for the Holy Spirit knows what it is. There is no doubt aboutits maginitude, for it reaches you through Him from Magnitude. You do not haveto strive for it, because you have it. All striving must be directed againstlittleness, for it does require vigilance to protect your magnitude in thisworld. To hold your magnitude in perfect awareness in a world of littleness isa task little cannot undertake. Yet it is asked of you, in trubute to yourmagnitude and not your littleness. Nor is it asked of you alone. The power ofGod will support every effort you make on behalf of His dear Son. Serch for thelittle, and you deny yourself His power. God is not willing that His Son becontent with less than everything. For He is not content without His Son, andHis Son cannot be content with less than His Father has given him. I askederlier, ”Would you be hostage to the ego or host to God?” Let this question beasked you by the Holy Spirit every time you make a decision. For every decisionyou make does answer this, and invites sorrow or joy accordingly. When God gaveHimself to you in your creation, He established you as host to Him forever. Hehas not left you, and you have not left Him. All your attempts to deny Hismagnitude, and make His Son hostage to the ego, cannot make little whom God hasjoined with Him. Every decision you make is for Heaven, or for hell, and bringsyou the awareness of what you decided for. The Holy Spirit can hold yourmagnitude, clean of all littleness, clearly and in perfect safety in your mind,untouched by every little gift the world of littleness would offer you. But forthis, you cannot side against Him in what He wills for you. Decide for Godthrough Him. For littleness, and the belief that you can be content withlittleness, are decisions you make about yourself. The power and the glory thatlie in your from God are for all who, like you, perceive themselves as little,and believe that littleness can be blown up into a sense of magnitude that cancontent them. Neither give littleness, nor accept it. All honor is due the hostof God. Your littleness deceives you, but your magnitude is of Him Who dwellsin you, and in Whom you dwell. Touch no one, then, with littleness inthe Nameof Christ, eternal Host unto His Father. In this season (Christmas) whichcelebrates the birth of holiness into world, join with me who decided for holinessfor you. It is our task together to restore the awareness of magintude to thehost whom God appointed for Himself. It is beyond all your littleness to givethe gift of God, but not beyond you. For God would give Himself through you. Hereaches from you to everyone and beyond everyone to His Son´s creations, butwithout leaving you. Far beyond your little world but still in you. He extendsforever. Yet He brings all His extentions to you, as host to Him. Is it asacrifiece to leave littleness behind, and wander not in vain? It is notdacrifice to wake to glory. But it is sacrifice to accept anything less thanglory. Learn that you must be worthy or the Prince of Peace, born in you inhonor of Him Whose host you are. You know not what love means because you havesought to purchase it with little gifts, thus valuing it too little tounderstand its magnitude. Love is not little and love dwells in you, for youare host to Him. Before the greatness that lives in you, your poor appreciationof yourself and all the little offerings you give slip into nothingness. Holychild of God, when will learn that only holiness can content you and give youpeace? Remember that you learn not for yourself alone, no more than I did. Itis because I learned for you that you can learn from me. I would but teach you what is yours, so that togetherwe can replace the shabby littleness that binds the host to God to guilt andweakness with the glad awareness of the glory that is in him. My birth in youis your awakening to grandeur. Welcome me not into a manger, but into the altarto holiness, where holiness abides in perfect peace. My Kingdom is not of thisworld because it is in you. And you are of your Father. Le tus join in honoringyou, who has decided to abide with you. I will as my Father wills, knowing HisWill is constant and at peace forever with itself. You will be content withnothing but His Will. Accept no less, remembering that everything I learned isyours. What my Father loves I love as He does, and I can no more accept it aswhat it as what it is not, than He can. And no more can you. And no more canyou. When you have learned to accept, what you are, you will make no more giftsto offer to yourself, for you will know you are complete, in need of nothing,and unable to accept anything for yourself. But you will gladly give, havingreceived. The host of God needs not seek to find anything. If you are whollywilling to leave salvation to the plan of God and unwilling to attemtp to graspfor peace yourself, salvation will be given you. Yet think not you cansubstitute your plan for His. Rather, join with me in His, that we may releaseall those who would be bound, proclaiming together that the Son of God is hostto Him. Thus will we let no one forget what you would remember. Andthus willyou remember it. Call forth in everyone only the remembrance of God, and of theHeaven that is in him. For where you would have your brother be, there will youthink you are. Hear not his appeal to hell and littleness, but only his call toHeaven and greatness. Forget not that his call is yours, and answer him withme. God´s power is forever on the side of His host, for it protectss only thepeace in which He dwells. Lay not littleness before His holy altar, which risesabove the stars and reaches even to Heaven, because of what is given it.

Love

[IA56]

Practising the Holy Instant

This course is not beyond immediate learning, unless you believe that what God wills takes time. And this means only that you would rather delay the recognition that His Will is so. The holy instant is this instant and every instant. The one you want it to be it is. The one you would not have it be is lost to you. You must decide when it is. Delay it not. For beyond the past and future, where you will not find it, it stands in shimmering readiness for your acceptance. Yet you cannot bring it into glad awareness while you do not want it, for it holds the whole release from littleness. Your practice must therefore rest upon your willingness to let all littleness go.The instant in which magnitude dawns upon you is but as far away as your desire for it. As long as you desire it not and cherish littleness instead, by so much is it far from you. By so much as you want it will you bring it nearer. Think not that you can find salvation in your own way and have it. Give over every plan you have made for your salvation in exchange for God´s. His will contentyou, and nothing else can bring you peace. For peace is of God, and no onebeside Him. Be humble before Him, and yet great in Him. And value no plan ofthe ego before the plan of God. For you leave empty your place in His plan,which you must fill if you would join with me, by your decision to join in anyplan but His. I call you to fulfill your holy part in the plan that He hasgiven to the world for its release from littleness. God would have His hostabide in perfect freedom. Every allegiance to a plan of salvation apart fromHim diminishes the value of His Will for you in your own mind. And yet it issyour mind that is the host to Him. Wouldyou learn how perfect and immaculate is the holy altar on which your Father hasplaced Himself? This you will recognize in the holy instant, in which youwillingly and gladly give over every plan but His. For there lies peace,perfectly clear because you have been willing to meet its conditions. You canclaim the holy instant and time and anywhere you want it. In your practise, tryto give over every plan you have accepted for finding magnitude in littleness.It is not there. Use the holy instant only to recognize that your alone cannotknow where it is, and can onlly deceive yourself. I stand within the holyinstant, as clear as ou would have me. And the extent to which you learn toaccept me is the measure of the time in which the holy instant will be yours. Icall to you to make the holy instant yours at once, for the release fromlittleness in the mind of the host of God depends on willingness, and not ontime. The reason this course is simple is that truth is simple. Complexity isof the ego, and is nothing more than the ego´s attempt to obscure the obvious.You could live forever in the holy instant, beginning now and reaching toeternity, but for a very simple reason. Do not obscure the simplicity of thisreason, for if you do, it will be only because you prefer not to recognize itand not let it go. The simple reason, simply stated, is this: The holy instantis a time in which you receive and give perfect communication. This means,however, that it is a time in which your mind is open, both to receive and give. It i the recognition that all minds are in communication. It therefore seeksto change nothing, but merely to accept everything. How can you do this whenyou would prefer to have private thoughts and keep them? The only way you coulddo that would be to deny the perfect communication that makes the holy instantwhat it is. You believe you can harbor thoughts you would not share, and thatsalvation lies in keeping thoughts to your self alone. For in privat thoughts,known only to yourself, you think you find a way to keep what you would havealone, and share what you would share. And then you wonder why it is that youare not in full communication with those around you, and with God Who surroundsall of you together. Every thought you would keep hidden shuts communicationoff, because you would have it so. It is impossible to recognize perfect communicationwhile breaking communication holds value to you. Ask yourself honestly, ”WouldI want to have perfect communication,and am I wholly willing to let everything that interferes with it go forever?”If the answer is no, then the Holy Spirit´s readiness to give it to you is notenough to make it yours, for you are not ready to share it with Him. And itcannot come into a mind that has decided to oppose it. For the holy instant isgiven and received with equal willingness, being the acceptance of the singleWill that governs all thought. The necessary conditon for the holy instant doesnot require that you have none that you would keep. Innocence is not of yourmaking. It is given you the instant you would have it. Atonement would not beif there were no need for it. You will not be able to accept perfectcommunication as long as you would hide it from yourself. For what you wouldhide is hidden from you. In your practice, then, try only to be vigilantagainst deception, and seek not to pretect the thoughts you would keep toyourself. Let the Holy Spirit´s purity shine them away, and bring all yourawareness to the readiness for purity He offers you. Thus will He make youready to acknowledge that you are host to God, and hostage to no one and to nothing.

Love

[IA56]

The Holy Instant and Special Relationships

The holy instant is the Holy Spirit´s most useful Learning device for teaching you love´s meaning. For its purpose is to suspend judgment entirely. Judgment always rests on the past, for past experience is the basis on which you judge. Jugment becomes impossible without the past, for without it you do not understant anything. You would make no attempt to judge, because it would be quite apparent to you that you do not understand what anything means.You are afraid of this because you believe that without the ego, all would be chaos. Yet I assure you that without the ego, all would be love. The past is the ego´s chief learning device, for it is in the past that you learned to define your own needs and acquire methods for meeting them on your own terms.We have said that to limit love to part of the Sonship is to bring guilt into your relationships, and thus make them unreal. If you seek to separate out certain aspects of the totality and look to them to meet your imagined needs,you are attempting to use separation to save you. How, then, could guilt notenter? For separation is the source of guilt, and to appeal to it for salvationis to believe you are alone. To be alone is to be guilty. For to experienceyourself as alone is to deny the Onenessof the Father and His Son, and thus attack reality. You cannot love parts ofreality and understand what love means. If you would love unlike to God, Whoknows no special love, how can you understand it? To believe that specialrelationships, with special love, can offer you salvation is the belief of theAtonement in which salvation lies. Howw can you decide that special aspects ofthe Sonship can give you more than others? The past has taught you this. Yetthe holy instant teaches you it is not so. Because of guilt, all specialrelationships, have elements of fear in them. This is why they shift and changeso frequently. They are not based on changeless love alone. And love, wherefear has entered, cannot be depended on because it is not perfect. In Hisfunction as interpreted of what you made, the Holy Spirit uses specialrelationshps, which you have chosen to support the ego, as learning experiencesthat point to truth. Under His teaching, every relationship, becomes a lessonin love. The Holy Spirit knows no one is special. Yet He also perceives thatyou have made special relationships, which He would purify and not let youdestroy. However unholy the reason you made them may be, He can translate theminto holiness by removing as much fear as you will let Him. You can place anyrelationship under His care and be sure that it will not result in pain, if youoffer Him you willingness to have it serve no need but His. All the guilt in itarises from your use of it. All the love form His. Do not, then, be afraid tolet go your imagined needs, which would destroy the realtionship. Your own needis His. Any relationship you would substitut for another has not been offeredto the Holy Spirit for His use. There is no substitute for love. If you wouldattempt to substitute one aspect of love for another, you have placed less valueon one and more on the other. You have not only separated them, but you havealso judged against both. Yet you have judged against yourself first, or youwould never have imagined that you needed your brothers as they were not.Unless you had seen yourself as without love, you could not have judged them solike you in lack. The ego´s use of relationships is so fragmentd that itfrequently goes ever farther; one part of of one aspect suits its purpose,while it prefers different parts of another aspect. Thus does it assemblereality to its own capricious liking, offering for your seeking a picture whoselikeness does not exist. For there is nothing in Heaven or earth that isresembles, as so, however much you seek for its reality, you cannot find it because it is not real. Everyone onearth has formed special relationships, and although this is not so in Heaven,and Holy Spirit knows how to bring a touch of Heaven to them here. In the holyinstant no one is special, for your personal needs intrude on no one to makeyour brothers seem different. Without the values from the past, you would seethem all the same and like yourself. Nor would you see any separation betweenyourself and them. In the holy instant, you see in each relationship what itwill be when you perceive only the present. God knows you now. He remembersnothing, having always known you exactly as He knows you now. The holy instantreflects His knowing by bringing all perception out of the past, thus removingthe frame of referece you have built by which to judge your brothers. Once thisis gone, the Holy Spirit substitutes His frame of reference for it. His frameof reference is simply God. The Holy Spirit´s timelessness lies only here. Forin the holy instant, free of the past, you see that love is in you, and youhave no need to look without and snatch love guiltily from where you thought itwas. All your relationships are blessed in the holy instant, because theblessing is not limited. In the holy instant the Sonship gains as one, and unitedin your blessing it becomes one to you. The meaning of love is the meaning Godgave to it. Give to it any meaning apart from His, and it is impossible tounderstand it. God loves every brother as He loves you; neither less nor more.He needs them all equally, and so do you. In time, you have been told to offermiracles as I direct, and let the Holy Spirit bring to you those who areseeking you. Yet in the holy instant you unite directly with God, and all yourbrothers join in Christ. Those who are joined in Christ are in no way spearate.For Christ is the Self the Sonship shares, as God shares His Self with Christ.Think you that you can judge the Self of God? God has created It beyondjudgment, out of His need to extend His Love. With love in you, you have noneed except to extend it. In the holy instant there is no conflict of needs,for there is only one. For the holy instant reaches to eternity, and to theMind of God. And it is only there love has meaning, and only there can it beunderstood.

Love

[IA56]

The Holy Instant and the Laws of God

It is impossible to use one relationship at the expence of another and not to suffer guilt. And it is equally impossible to condemn part of a relationship and find peace within it. Under the Holy Spirit´s teaching all relationships are seen as total commitments, yet they do not conflict with one another in any way. Perfect faith in each one, for its ability to satisfy you completely, arises only from perfect faith in yourself. And this you cannot have while guilt remains. And there will be guilt as long as you accept the possiblility, and cherish it, that you can make a brother into what he is not,because you would have him so. You have so little faith in yourself because you are unwilling to accept the fact that perfect love is in you. And so you seek without for what you cannot find without. I offer you my perfect faith in you,in place of all your doubts. But forget not that my faith must be as perfect in all your brothers as it is in you, or it would be a limited gift to you. In the holy instant we share out faith in God´s Son because we recognize, together,that he is wholly worthy of it, and in our appreciation of his worth we cannotdoubt his holiness. And so we love him. All separation vanishes as holiness isshared. For holiness is power, and by sharing it, it gains in strength. If youseek for satisfaction in gratifying your your needs as you perceive them. You mustbelieve that strength comes from another, and what you gain he loses. Someonemust always lose if you perceive yourself as weak. Yet there is anotherinterpretation of relationships that transcends the consept of loss of powercompletely. You do not find it difficult to believe that when another calls onGod for love, your call remains as strong. Nor do you think that when Godanswers him, your hope of answer is dimished. On the contrary, you are moreinclined to regard his success as witness to the possiblility of yours. That isbecause you recognize, however dimly, that God is an idea, and so your faith inHim is strengthened by sharing. What you find difficult to accept is the factthat, like your Father, you are an idea. And like Him, you can give yourself completely,wholly without loss and only with gain. Herein lies peace, for here there is noconflict. In the world of scarcity, love has no meaning and peace isimpossible. For gain and loss are both accepted, and so no one is aware thatperfect love is in him. In the holy instant you recognize the idea of love inyou, and unite this idea with the Mind that thought it, and could notrelinguish it. By holding it within himself, there is no loss. The holy instantthus becomes a lesson in how to hold all of your brothers in your mind,experiencing not loss but completion. From this it follows you can only give.And this is love, for this alone is natural under the law of God. In the holyinstant the laws of God prevail, and only they have meaning. The laws of thisworld cease to hold any meaning at all. When the Son of God accepts the laws ofGod as what he gladly wills, it is impossible that he be bound, or limited inany way. In that instant he is as free as God would have him be. For theinstant he refuses to be bound, he is not bound. In the holy instant nothinghappens that has not always been. Onlythe veil that has been drawn across reality is lifted. Nothing has changed. Yetthe awareness of changelessness comes swiftly as the veil of time is puschedaside. No one who has not yet experienced the lifting of the veil, and felthimself drawn irresistably into the light behind it, can have faith in lovewithout fear. Yet the Holy Spirit gives you this faith, because He offered itto me and I accepted it. Fear not the holy instant will be denied you, for Idenied it not. And through me the Holy Sprit gives it unto you, as you willgive it. Let no need you perceive obscure your need of this. For in the holyinstant you will recognize the only need the Sons of God share equally, and bythis recognition you will join with me in offering what is needed. It isthrough us that peace will come. Join me in the idea of peace, for in ideasminds can communicate. If you would give yourself as your Father gives HisSelf, you will learn to understand Selfhood. And therein is love´s meaningunderstood. But remember that understanding is of the mind, and only of themind. Knowledge is therefore of the mind, and its conditions are in the mind withit. If you were not an idea, and nothing but an idea, you could not be in fullcommunication with all that ever was. Yet as long as you prefer to be somethingelse, or would attempt to be nothing else and something else together, you willnot remember the language of communication, which you know perfectly. In theholy instant God is rememberd, and the language of communication with all yourbrothers is remembered with Him. For communication is rememberd together, as istruth. There is no exclusion in the holy instant because the past is gone, andwith it goes the whole basis for exclusion. Without its source exclusionvanishes. And this permits your Source, and That of all your brothers, toreplace it in your awareness. God and the power of God will take Their rightfulplace in you, and you will experience the full communication of ideas. Throughyour ability to do this you will learn what you must be, for you will begin tounderstand what your Creator is, and what His creation is along with Him.

Love

[IA56]

The Needless Sacrifice

Beyond the poor attraction of the special love relationship,and always obscure by it, is the powerful attraction of the Father for His Son.There is no other love that can satisfy you, because there is no other love.This is the only love that is fully given and fylly returned. Being complet, it asks nothing. Being whollypure, everyone joined in it has everything. This is not the basis for anyrelationship in which the ego enters. For every realationship on which the egoembarks is special. The ego establishes relationships only to get something.And it would keep the giver bound to itself through guilt. It is impossible forthe ego to enter into any relationship without anger, for the ego believes thatanger makes friends. This is not its statement, but it is its purpose. For the ego reallybelievers that it can get and keep by making guilty. This is its one attractionso weak that it would have no hold at all, except that one recognizes it. Forthe ego always seem to attract through love, and has no attraction at all toanyone who perceives that it attracts through guilt. The sick attraction ofguilt must be recognized for what it is. For haveing been made real to you, itis essential to look at it clearly, and by withdrawing your investment in it,to learn to let it go. No one would choose to let go what he believes hasvalue. Yet the attraction of guilt has valued to you only because you have notlooked at what it is, and have judged it completely in the dark. As we bring itto light, your only guestion will be why it was you ever wanted it.You havenothing to lose by looking open-eyed, for ugliness such as this belongs not inyour holy mind. This host of God can have no real investment here. We saidbefore that the ego attmepts to maintain and increase guilt, but in such a waythat you do not recognize what it would do to you. For it is the ego´sfundamental doctrine that what you do to others you have escaped. The egowishes no one well. Yet its survival depends on your belief that you are exemptfrom its evill intentions. It counsels, therefore, that if you are host to it,it will enable you to direct its anger outward, thus protecting you. And thusit embarks on an endless, unrewarding chain of special relationships, forgedout of anger and dedicated to but one insane belief; that the more anger youinvest outside yourself, the safer you become. It is this chain that binds theSon of God to guilt, and it is this chain the Holy Spirit would remove fro hisholy mind. For the chain of savagery belongs not around the chosen host of God,who cannot make himself host to the ego. In the name of his release, and in theName of Him Who would release him, le tus look more closely at the relationshipsthe ego contrives, and let the Holy Spirit judget hem truly. For it is certainthat if you will look at them, you will offer them gladly to Him. What He canmake of them you do not know, but you will become willing to find out, if you are willing first to perceive whatyou have made of them. In one way of another, every relationship the ego makesit based on the idea that by sacrificing itself, it becomes bigger. The”sacrifice,” which it regards as purification, is actually the root of tisbitter resentment. For it would prefer to attack directly, and avoid delayingwhat it really wants. Yet the ego acknowledges ”reality” as it sees it, andrecognizes that no one could interpret direct attack as love. Yet to makeguilty is direct attack, although it does not seem to be. For the guilty expectattack, and having asked for it they as attracted to it. In such insanerelationships, the attraction of what you do not want seems to be much strongerthan the attraction of what you do want. For each one thinks that he has sacrificedsomething to the other, and hates him for it. Yet this is what he thinks hewants. He is not in love with the other at all. He merely believes he is inlove with sacrifice. And for this sacrifice, which he demands of himself, hedemands that the other accept the guilt and sacrifice himself as well.Forgiveness becomes impossible, for the ego believes that to forgive another isto lose him. It is only by attack without forgiveness that the ego can ensurethe guilt that holds all its relationships together. Yet they only seem to betogether. For relationships, to the ego, mean only the bodies are together. Itis always this that the ego demands, and it does not object where the mind goesor what it thinks, for this seems unimportant. As long as the body is there toreceive its sacrifice, it is content. To the ego the mind is private, and onlythe body can be shared. Ideas are basically of no concern, except as they bringthe body of another closer or farther. And it is in these terms tht itevaluates ideas as good of bad. What makes another guilty and holds him throughguilt is ”good.” What releases him from guilt is ”bad,” because he would nolonger believe that bodies communicate, and so he would be ”gone.” Sufferingand sacrifice are the gifts with which the ego would ”bless” all unions. Andthose who are united at its alter accept suffering and sacrifice as the priceof union. In their angry alliances, born of the fear of loneliness and yetdedicated to the continuance of loneliness, each seeks relief from guilt byincreasing it in the other. For each believes that this decreases guilt in him.The other seems always to be attacking and wounding him, perhaps little ways,perhaps ”unconsciously,” yet never without demand of sacrifice. The fury ofthose joined at the ego´s altar far exceeds your awareness of it. For what theego really wants you do not realize. Whenever you are angry, you can be surethat you have formed a special relationship which the ego has ”blessed”, foranger is its blessing. Anger takes many forms, but it cannot long deceive those who will learn that lovebrings no guilt at all, and what brings guilt cannot be love and must be anger.All anger is nothing more than an attempt to make someone feel guilty, and thisattempt is the only basis the ego accepts for special relationships. Guilt is theonly need the ego has, and as long as you identify with it, guilt will remainattractive to you. Yet remember this; to be with a body is not communication.And if you think it is, you will feel guilty about communication and will beafraid to hear the Holy Spirit, recognizing in His Voice your own need tocommunicate. The Holy Spirit cannot teach through fear. And how can Hecomminicate with you, while you believe that to communicate is to make yourselfalone? It is clearly insane to believe that by communicating you will beabondoned. And yet many do believe it. For they think their minds must be keptprivate or they will lose them. But if their bodies are together their mindsrremain their own. The union of bodies thus becomes the way in which they wouldkeep minds apart. For bodies cannnot forgive. They can only do as the minddirects. The illusion of the autonomy of the body and it ability to overcomeloneliness is but the working of the ego´s plan of establish its own autonomy.As long as you believe that to be with a body is companionship, you will becompelled to attempt to keep your brother in his body, held there by guilt. Andyou will see safety in guilt and danger in communication. For the ego willalways teach that loneliness is solved by guilt, and that communication is thecause of loneliness. And despite the evident insanity of this lesson, many havelearned it. Forgiveness lies in communication as surely as damnation lies inguilt. It is the Holy Spirit´s teaching function to instruct those who believecommunication to be damnation that communication is salvation. And He will doso, for the power of God in Him and you is joined in a real relationship soholy and so strong, that it can overcome eventhis without fear. It is throughthe holy instant that what seems impossible is accomplished, making it evidentthat it is not impossible. In the holy instant guilt holds no attraction, sincecommunication has been restored. And guilt, whose only purpose is to disruptcommunication, has no function here. Here there is no concealment, and noprivat thoughts. The willingness to communicate attracts communication to it,and overcomes loneliness completely. There is complete forgivness here, forthere is no desire to exclude anyone form your completion, in suddenrecongnition of the value of his part in it. In the protection of yourwholeness, all are invited and made welcome. And you understand that yourcompletion is God´s, Whose only need is to have you be complete. For your completionmakes you His in your awareness. And here it is that you experience yourself asyou were created, and as you are.

Love

[IA56]

The Only Real Relationship

The holy instant does not replace the need for learning, forthe Holy Spirit must not leave you as your Teacher until the holy instant has extended far beyond time. For a teaching assignment such as His, He must use everything in this world for your release. He must side with every sign or token of your willingness to learn of Him what the truth must be. He is Swift to utilize whatever you offer Him on behalf of this. He concern and care for you are limitless. In the face of your fear of forgivness, which He Perceives as clearly as He knows forgivness is release, He will teach you to remember that forgivness is not loss, but your salvation. And that in complete forgivness, in which you recognize tht there is nothing to forgive, you are absolved completely. Hear him gladly, and learn of Him that you have need of no special relationships at all. You but seek in them what you have thrown away. And through them you will never learn the value of wht you have cast aside, but still desire with all your heart. Let us join together in making the holyinstant all that there is, but desiring that it be all that there is. God´s Sonhas such great need of your willingness to strive for this that you cannotconceive of need so great. Behold the only need that God and His Son share, andwill to meet together. You are not alone in this. The will of your creationscalls to you, to share your will with them. Turn, then, in peace from guilt toGod and them. Relate only with what will never leave you, and what you cannever leave. The loneliness of God´s Son is the loneliness of his Father.Refuse not the awareness of your completion, and seek not to restore it toyourself. Fear not to give redemtption over to your Redeemer´s Love. He will notfail you, for He comes from One Who cannot fail. Accept your sense of failureas nothing more than a mistake in who you are. For the holy host of God isbeyond failure, and nothing that he wills can be denied. You are forever in arelationship so holy that it calls to everyone to escape from loneliness, andjoin you in your love. And where you are must everyone seek; and find yourthere. Think but an instant on this: God gave his Sonship to you, to ensureyour perfect creation. This was His gift, for as He withheld Himself not fromyou. He withheld not His creation. Nothing that ever was created but is yours.Your relationships are with the universe. And this universe, being of God, is far beyondthe petty sum of all the separate bodies you perceive. For all its parts arejoined in God through Christ, where they become like to their Father. Christknows of no separation from His Father, Who is His one relationship, in whichHe gives as His Father gives to Him. The Holy Spirit is God´s attempt to freeyou of what He does not understand. And because of the Source of the attempt,it will succeed. The Holy Spirit asks you to respond as God does, for He wouldteach you what you do not understand. God would respond to every need, whateverform it takes. And so He keeps this channel open to receive His communicationto you, and yours to Him. God does not understand your problem incommunication, for He does not share it with you. It is only you who believesthat it is understandable. The Holy Spirit knows that it is not understandable,and yet He understands it because you made it. In the Holy Spirit alone liesthe awareness of what God cannot know, and what you do not understand. It isHis holy function to accept them both, and by removing every element ofdisagreement, to joint hem into one. He will do this because it is Hisfunction. Leave, then, what seems to you to be impossible, because it is theWill of God. And let Him Whose teaching is only of God teach you the onlymeaning of relationships. For God created the only relationship that hasmeaning, and that it His relationship with you.

Love

[IA56]

The Holy Instant and the Attraction of God

As the ego would limit your perception of your brothers to the body, so would the Holy Spirit release your vision and let you see the Great Rays shining from them, so unlimited that they reach to God. It is this shift to vision that is accomplished in the holy instant. Yet it is needful for you to learn just what this shift entails, so you will become willing to make it permanent. Given this willingness it will not leave you, for it is permanent. Once you have accpeted it as the only perception you want, it is transslated into knowledge by the part that God Himself plays in the Atonement,for it is the only step in it He understands. Therefore, in this there will be no delay when you are ready for it. God is ready now, but you are not. Our task is but to continue, as fast as possible, the necessary process of looking straight at all the interference and seeing it exactly as it is. For it isimpossible to recognize as wholly without gratification what you think you want. The body is the symbol of the ego, as the ego is the symbol of the separation. And both are nothing more than attempts to limit communication, and thereby to make it impossible. For communication must be unlimited in order to have meaning, and deprived of meaning, it will not satsify you completely. Yet it remains the only means by which you can establish real relationships, whichhave no limits, having been established by God. In the holy instant, where theGreat Rays replace the body in awareness, the recognition of relationshipswithout limits is given you. But in order to see this, it is necessary to giveup every use the ego has for the body, and to accept the fact that the ego hasno purpose you would share with it. For the ego would limit everyone to a bodyfor its own purpose, and while you think it has a purpose, you will choose toutilize the means by which it tries to tur nits purpose into accomplishment.This will never be accormplished. Yet you have surely recognized that the ego,whose goals are altogether unattainable, will strive for them with all itsmight, and will do so with the strength that you have given it. It isimpossible to divide your strength between Heaven and hell, God and the ego,and release your power to creation, which is the only purpose for which it wasgiven you. Love would always give increase. Limits are demanded by the ego, andrepresent its demands to make little and ineffectual. Limit your sight of abrother to his body, which you will do as long as you would not release himfrom it, and you have denied his gift to you. His body cannot give it. And seekit not through yours. Yet your minds are already continuous, and their unionneed only be accepted and the loneliness in Heaven is gone. If you would butlet the Holy Spirit tell you of the Love of God for you, and the need yourcreations have to be with you forever, you would experience the attraction ofthe eternal. No one can hear Him speak of this and long remian willing tolinger here. For it is your will to be in Heaven, where you are complete andquiet, in such sure and loving relationships that any limit is impossible.Would you not exchange your little relationships for this? For the body islittle and limited, and only those whom you would see without the limits theego would impose on them can offer you the gift of freedom. You have noconception of the limits you have placed on your percetption, and no idea ofall the loveliness that you could see. But this you must remember; theattraction of guilt oppose the attraction of God. His attraction for youremains unlimited, but because your power, being His, is as great as His, youcan turn away from love. What you invest in guilt you withdraw from God. Andyour sight grows wek and dim and limited, for you have attempted to separatethe Father from the Son, and limit their communication. Seek not Atonement infurther separation. And limit not your vision of God´s Son to what interfereswith his release, and what the Holy Spirit must undo to set him free. For hisbelief in limits has omprisoned him. When the body ceases to attract you, andwhen you place no value on it as a means of getting anything, then there willbe no interferece in communication and your thoughts will be as free as God´s.As you let the Holy Spirit teach you how to use the body only for purposes ofcommunication, and renounce its use for separation and attack which the egosees in it, you will learn you have no need of a body at all. In the holyinstant there are no bodies, and you expereince only the attraction of God.Accepting it as undivided you join Him wholly, in an instant. The reality ofthis relationship becomes the only truth that you could ever want. All truth ishere.

Love

[IA56]

The Time of Rebirth

It is in your power, in time, to delay the perfect union of the Father and the Son. For in this world, the attraction of guilt does stand between them. Neither time nor season means anything in eternity. But here it is the Holy Spirit´s function to use them both, though not as the ego usest hem. This is the season when you would celebrate my birth into the world. Yet you know not how to do it. Let the Holy Spirit teach you, and let me celebrate your birth through Him. The only gift I can accept of you is the gift I gave to you. Release me as I choose your own release. The time of Christ we celebrate together, for it has no meaning if we are apart. The holy instant is truly the time of Christ. For in this liberating instant no guilt is laid upon the Son of God, and his unlimited power is thus restored to him. What other gift can you offer me. I am as incapable of receiving sacrifice as God is, and every sacrifice you ask of yourself you ask of me. Learn now that sacrifice of anykind is nothing but a limitation imposed on giving. And by this limitation youhave limited acceptance of the gift I offer you. We who are one cannot giveseparately. When you are willing to accept our relationship as real, guilt willhold no attraction for you. For in our union you will accept all of ourbrothers. The gift of union is the only gift I was born to give. Give it to me,that you may have it. The time of Christ is the time appointed for the gift offreedom, offered to everyone. And by your acceptance of it, you offer it toeveryone. It is in your power to make this season holy, for it is in your powerto make the time of Christ be now. It is possible to do this all at oncebecause there is but one shift in perception that is necessary, for you madebut one mistake. It seems like many, but it is all the same. For though the egotakes many forms, it is always the same idea. What is not love is always fear,and nothing else. It is not necerrary to follow fear through all the circuitousroutes by which it burrows underground and hides in darkness, to emerge informs guite different from what it is. Yet it is necessary to examine each oneas long as you would retain the principle that governs all of them. When youaer willing to regard them, not as separate, but as different manifestations ofthe same idea, and one you do not want, they go together. The idea is simplythis: you believe it is possible to be host to the ego or hostage to God. Thisis the choice you think you have, and the decision you believe that you mustmake. You see no other alternatives, for you cannot accept the fact thatsacrifice gets nothing. Sacrifice is no essential to your thought system thatsalvation apart from sacrifice means nothing to you. Your confusion ofsacrifice and love is so profound that you cannot conceive of love withoutsacrifice. And it is this that you must look upon; sacrifice is attack, notlove. If you would accept but this one idea, your fear of love would vanish.Guilt cannot last when the idea of sacrifice has been removed. For if there issacrifice, someone must pay and someone must get. And the only guestion thatremains is how much is the price, and for getting what. As host to the ego, youbelieve that you can give all your guilt away whenever you want, and therebypurchase peace. And the payment does not seem to be yours. While it is obviousthat the ego does demand paymant it never seems to be demanding if of you. Youare unwilling to recognize that the ego, which you invited. Is treacherous onlyto those who think they are its host. The ego will never let you perceive this,since this recognition would make it homeless. For when the recognition dawnsclearly, you will not be decived by any form the ego takes to protect itselffrom your sight. Each form will be recognized as but a cover for the only ideathat hides behind them all; that love demands sacrifice, and is thereforeinseparable from attack and fear. And that guilt is the price of love, whichmust be paid by fear. How fearful, then, has God become to you, and how great asacrifice do you believe His Love demands! For total love would demand totalsacrifice. And so the ego seems to demand less of you than God, and of the twois judged as the lesser of two evils, one to be feared a little, perhaps, butthe other to be destroyed. For you see love as destructive, and your onlyquestion is who is to be destroyed, you or another? You seek to answer thisquestion in your special relationships, in which you seem to be both destroyerand destroyed in part, bu table to be neither completely. And this you thinksaves you from from God, Whose total Love would completely destroy you. You thinkthat everyone outside yourself demands your sacrifice, but you do not see thatonly youdemand sacrifice, and only of yourself. Yet the demand of sacrifice isso savage and so fearful that you cannot accept it where it is. The real priceof not accepting this has been so great that you have given God away ratherthan look at it. For if God would demand total sacrifice of you, it seems saferto project Him outward and away from you, and not be host to Him. To Him youascribed the ego´s treachery, inviting it to take His place to protect you fromHim. And you do not recognize that it is what you invited in that would destroyyou, and does demand total sacrifice of you. No partial sacrifice will appeasethis savage guest, for it is an invader who but seems to offer kindness, butalways to make the sacrifice complete. You will not succeed in being partialhostage to the ego, for it keeps no bargains and would leave you nothing. You mustchoose between total freedom and total bondage, for there are no alternativesbut these. You have tried many compromises in the attempt to avoid recognizingthe one decision you must make. And yet it is the recognition of the decision,just as it is, that makes the decision so easy. Salvation is simple, being ofGod, and therefore very easy to understand. Do not try to project it from youand see it outside yourself. In you are both the question and the answer; thedemand for sacrifice and the peace of God.

Love

[IA56]

Christmas as the End of Sacrifice

Fear not to recognize the whole idea of sacrifice as solely of your making. And seek not safety by attmepting to protect yourself from where it is not. Your brothers and your Father have become very fearful to you. And you would bargain with them for a few special relationships, in which you think you see some scraps of safety. Do not try longer to keep apart your thoughts and the Thought that has been given you. When they are brought together and perceived where they are, the choice between them is nothing more than gentle awakening, and as simple as opening your eyes to daylight when you have no more need of sleep. The sign of Christmas is a star, a light in darkness. See it not outside yourself, but shining in the Heaven within, and accept it as the sign the time of Christ has come. He comes demanding nothing. No sacrifice of any kind, of anyone, is asked by Him. In His Presence the whole idea of sacrifise loses all meaning. For He is Host to God. And you need but invite Him in Who is there already, by recognizing that His Hos is One, and nothought alien to His Oneness can abide with Him there. Love must be total togive Him welcome, for the Presence of holiness creates the holiness thatsurrounds it. No fear can touch the Host Who cradles God in the time of Christ,for the Host is as holy as the Perfect Innocence which He protects, and Whosepower protects Him. This Christmas givethe Holy Spirit everything that would hurt you. Let yourself be healedcompletely that you may join with Him in healing, and le tus celebrate ourrelease together by releasing everyone with us. Leave nothing behind, forrelease it total, and when you have accepted it with me you will give it withme. All pain and sacrifice and littleness will disappear in ourrelationship, which is as innocent asour relationship with our Father, and as powerful. Pain will be brought to usand disappear in our presence, and without pain there can be no sacrifice. Andwithout sacrifice there love must be. You who that sacrifice is love must learnthat sacrifice is separation from love. For sacrifice brings guilt as surely aslove brings peace. Guilt is the condition of sacrifice, as peace is theconditin for the awareness of your relationship with God. Through guilt youexclude your Father and your brothers from yourself. Through peace you invitethem back, realizing that they are where your invitation bids them be. What youexclude from yourself seems fearful, for you endow it with fear and try to castit out, through it is part of you. Who can perceive part of himself asloathsome, and live within himself in peace? And who can try to resolve the ”conflict”of Heaven and hell, without experiencing himself as incomplete and lonely? Aslong as you perceive the body as your reality, as long will you perceiveyourself as lonely and deprived. And so long will you also perceive yourself asa victim of sacrifice, justified in sacrificing others. For who could trustHeaven and its Creator aside without a sense of sacrifice and loss? And whocould suffer sacrifce and loss without attempting to restore himself? Yet howcould you accomplish this yourself, when the basis of your attempts is thebelief in the reality of the deprivation? Deprivation breeds attack, being thebelief that attack is justified. And as long as you would retain the deprivation,attack becomes salvation and sacrifice becomes love. So is it that, in all yourseeking for love, you seek for sacrifice and find it. Yet you find not love. Itis impossible to deny what love is and still recognize it. The meaning of lovelies in what you have cast outside yourself, and it has no meaning, while allthat you would keep away holds all the meaning of the universe, and holds theuniverse together in its meaning. Unless the universe were joined in you itwould be apart from God, and to be without Him is to be without meaning. In theholy instant the condition of love is met, for minds are joined without thebody´s interference, and where there is communication there is peace. ThePrince of Peace was born to re-establish the condition of love by teaching thatcommunication remains unbroken even if the body is destroyed, provide that yousee not the body as the necessary means of communication. And if you understandthis lesson, you will realize that to sacrifice the body is to sacrificenothing, and communication, which must be of the mind, cannot be sacrificed.Where, then, is sacrifice? The lesson I was born to teach, and still wouldteach to all my brothers, is that sacrifice is nowhere and love is everywhere. Forcommunication embraces everything, and in the peace it re-establishes, lovecomes of itself. Let no despair darken the joy of Christmas, for the time ofChrist in meaningless apart from joy. Le tus join in celebrating peace bydemanding no sacrifice of anyone, for so you offer me the love I offer you.What can be more joyous than to perceive we are deprived of nothing? Such isthe message of the time of Christ, which I give you that you may give it andreturn it to the Father, Who gave it to me. For in the time of Christcommunication is restored, and He joins us in the celebration of His Son´screation. God offers thanks to the holy host who would receive Him, and letsHim enter and abide where He would be. And by your welcome does He welcome youinto Himself, for what is contained in you who welcome you into Himself, forwhat is contained in you who welcome Him is returned to Him. And we butcelebrate His Wholeness as we welcome Him into ourselves. Those who receive theFather are one with Him, being host to Him Who created them. And by allowingHim to enter, the remembrance of the Father enters with Him, and with Him theyremember the only relationship they ever had, and ever want to have. This isthe time in which a new year will soon be born from the time of Christ. I haveperfect faith in you to do all that you would accomplish. Nothing will belacking, and you will make complete and not destroy. Say, then, to yourbrother:

”I give you to the Holy Spirit as part of myself, I knowthat you will be released, unless I want to use you to imprison myself. In thename of my freedom I choose your release, Because I recognize that we will bereleased together.”

So will then year begin in joy and freedom. There is much todo, and we have been long delayed. Accept the holy instant as this year isborn, and take your place, so long left unfulfilled, in the Great Awakening.Make this year different by making it all the same. And let all yourrelationships be made holy for you. This is our will. Amen.

Love

[IA56]

THE FORGIVENESS OF ILLUSIONS

True Empathy

To empathize does not mean to join in suffering, for that is what you must refuse to understand. That is the ego´s interpretaion of emphaty, and is always used to form a special relationship in which the suffering is shared. The capacity to empathize is very useful to the Holy Spirit, provided you let Him used it in His way. He does not understand suffering, and would have you teach it is not understandable. When He relates through you, He does not relate through your ego to another ego. He does not join in pain, understanding that healing pain is not accomplished by delusional attmepts to enter into it, and lighten it by sharing the delusion. The clearest proof that empathy as the ego used it is destructive lies certain people. These it select out, and joins with. And it never joins except to strengthen itself. Make nomistake about this maneuver; the ego always empathizes means. Yet of this youmay be sure; if you will merely sit quietly by and let the Holy Spirit relatethrough you, you will empathize with strength, and will gain in strength andnot in weakness. Your part is only to remember this; you do not want anythingyou value to come of a relationship. You choose neither to hurt it nor to healit in your own way. You do not know what healing is. All you have learned ofemphaty is from the past. And there is nothing form the past that you wouldshare, for there is nothing from the past that you would keep. Do not use emphatyto make the past real, and so perpetuate it. Step gently aside, and let healingbe done for you. Keep but one thought in mind and do not lose sight of it,however tempted you may be to judge any situation, and to determine yourresponse by judging it. Focus you mind only on this:

”I am not alone, and I would not intrude the past upon myGuest.
I have invited Him, and He is here. I need do nothing exceptnot to interfere.”

True emphaty is of Him Who knows what it is. You will learnHis interpretation of it if you let Him use your capacity for strength, and notfor weakness. He will not desert you, but be sure that you desert not Him.Humility is strength in this sense only ; that to recognize and accept the factthat you do no know is to recognize and accept the fact that He does know. Youare not sure that He will do His part, because you have never yet done yourscompletely. You cannot know how to respond to what you do not understand. Betempted not in this, and yield not to the ego´s triumphat use of empahty forits glory. The triupmf of weakness is not what you would offer to a brother.And yet you recognize no triumph but this. This is not knowledge, and the formof emphaty which would bring this about is so distorted that it would imprisonwhat it would release. The unredeemed cannot redeem, yet they have a Redeemer.Attempt to teach Him not. You are the learner; He the Teacher. Do notconfuse your role with His, for thiswill never bring peace to anyone. Offer your emphaty to Him for it is Hisperception and His strength that you would share. And let Him offer you His strengthand His perception, to be shared through you. The meaning of love is lost inany relationship that looks to weakness, and hopes to find love there. Thepower of love, which is its meaning, lies in the strength of God that hoversover it and blesses it silently by enveloping it in healing wings. Let this be,and do not try to substitute your ”miracle” for this. I have said that if abrother asks a foolish thing of you to do it. But be certain that this does notmean to do a foolish thing that would hurt either him or you, for what wouldhurt one will hurt the other. Foolish requests are foolish merely because theyconflict, since they alwayss contain some element of specialness. Only the HolySpirit recognizes foolish needs as well as real ones. And He will teach you howto meet both without losing either. You will attmept to do this only insecrecy. And you will think that by meeting the needs of one you do notjepoardize another, because you keep them separate and secret from each other.That is not the way, for it leads not to life and truth. No needs will long beleft unmet if you leave them all to Him Whose function is to meet them. That isHis function, and not yours. He will not meet them secretly, for He would shareeverything you give through Him. That is why He gives it. What you give throughHim is for the whole Sonship, not for part of it. Leave Him His function, forHe will fulfill it if you but ask Him to enter your relationships, and blessthem for you.

Love