The Consistency of Means and End
We have said much about discrepancies of means and end, and how these must be brought in line before your holy relationship can bring you only joy. But we have also said the means to meet the Holy Spirit´s goal will come from the same Source as does His purpose. Being so simple and direct, this course has nothing in it that is not consistent. The seeming inconsistencies,or parts you find more difficult than others, are merely indications of are as where means and end are still discrepant. And this produces great discomfort.This need not be. This course requires almost nothing of you. It is impossible to imagine one tht asks so little, or could offer more. The period of discomfort that follows the sudden change in a relationship from sin to holiness may not be almost over. To the extent you still experience it, you are refusing to leave the means to Him Who changed the purpose. You recognize you want the goal. Are you not also willing to accept the means? If you are not, letus admit that you are inconsistent. A purpose is attained by means, and if you want a purpose you must be willing to want the means as well. How can one be sincere and say, ”I want this above all else, and yet I do not want to learnthe means to get it?” To obtain the goal the Holy Spirit indeed asks little. And He asks no more to give the means as well. The means are second to the goal. And when you you will make the error of believing the means are difficult. Yet how can they be difficult if they are merely given you? They guarantee the goal,and they are perfectly in line with it. Before we look at them a little closer,remember if you think they are impossible, your wanting of the purpose has been shaken. For if a goal is possible to reach, the means to do so must be possible as well. It is impossible to see your brother as sinless and yet to look uponhim as a body. Is this not perfectly consistent with the goal of holiness? Forholiness is merely the result of letting the effect of sin be lifted, so whatwas always true is recognized. To see a sinless body is impossbible, forholiness is postive and the body is merely neutral. It is not sinful, butneither is it sinless. As nothing, which it is, the body cannot meaningfully beinvested with attributes of Christ or of the ego. Either must be an error, forboth would place the attributes where they cannot be. And both must be undonefor purpose of truth. The body is the means by which the ego tries to make theunholy relationship seem real. The unholy instant is the time of bodies. Butthe purpose here is sin. It cannot be attained but in illusion, and so theillusion of a brother as a holy is quite in keeping with the purpose ofunholiness. Because of this consistency, the means remain unquestioned whilethe end is cherished. Seeing adapts to wish, for sight is always secondary todesire. And if you see the body, you have chosen judgment and not vision. Forvision, like relationships, has no order. You either see or not. Who sees abrother´s body has laid a judgment on him, and sees him not. He does not reallysee him as sinful; he does not see him at all. In the darkness of sin he is invisible.He can but be imagined in the darkness, and it is here that the illusions youhold about him are not held up to his reality. Here are illusions and realitykept separated. Here are illusions never brought to truth, and always hiddenfrom it. And here, in darkness, is your brother´s reality imagined as a body,in unholy relationships with other bodies, serving the cause of sin an instantbefore he dies. There is indeed a difference between this vain imagining andvision. The difference lies not in them, but in their purpose. Both are butmeans, each one appropriate to the end for which it is employed. Neither canserve the purpose of the other, for each one is a choice of purpose, empoyed ofits behalf. Either is meaningless without the end for which it was intented,nor is it valued as a separate thing apart from the intention. The means seemreal because the goal is valued. And judgment has no value unless the goal issin. The body cannot be looked upon except through judgment. To see the body isthe sign that you lack vision, and have denied the means the Holy Spirit offersyou to serve His purpose. How can a body relationship achieve its purposethrough them means of sin? Judgment you taught yourself; vision is learned fromHim Who would undo your teaching. His vision cannot see the body because itcannot look on sin. And thus it leads you to reality. Your holy brother, sightof whom is your release, is no illusion. Attempt to see him not in darkness,for your imaginings about him will seem real there. You closed your eyes toshut him out. Such was your purpose and while this purpose seems to have ameaning, the means for it attainment will be evaluated as worth the seeing, andso you will not see. Your questioning should not be, ”How can I see my brotherwithout the body?” Ask only, ”Do I really wish to see him sinless? And as youask, forget not this at his sinlessness is your escape from fear. Salvation isthe Holy Spirit´s goal. The means is vision. For what the seeing look upon issinless. No one who loves can judge, and what he sees is free of condemnation.And what he sees he did not make, for it was given him to see, as was thevision that made his seeing possible.
Love