Lesson 221
Review VI, Part II-1
Part II
Introduction
1. Words will mean little now. ²We use them but as guides on which we do not now depend. ³For now we seek direct experience of truth alone. ⁴The lessons that remain are merely introductions to the times in which we leave the world of pain, and go to enter peace. ⁵Now we begin to reach the goal this course has set, and find the end toward which our practicing was always geared.
2. Now we attempt to let the exercise be merely a beginning. ²For we wait in quiet expectation for our God and Father. ³He has promised He will take the final step Himself. ⁴And we are sure His promises are kept. ⁵We have come far along the road, and now we wait for Him. ⁶We will continue spending time with Him each morning and at night, as long as makes us happy. ⁷We will not consider time a matter of duration now. ⁸We use as much as we will need for the result that we desire. ⁹Nor will we forget our hourly remembrance in between, calling to God when we have need of Him as we are tempted to forget our goal.
3. We will continue with a central thought for all the days to come, and we will use that thought to introduce our times of rest, and calm our minds at need. ²Yet we will not content ourselves with simple practicing in the remaining holy instants which conclude the year that we have given God. ³We say some simple words of welcome, and expect our Father to reveal Himself, as He has promised. ⁴We have called on Him, and He has promised that His Son will not remain unanswered when he calls His Name.
4. Now do we come to Him with but His Word upon our minds and hearts, and wait for Him to take the step to us that He has told us, through His Voice, He would not fail to take when we invited Him. ²He has not left His Son in all his madness, nor betrayed his trust in Him. ³Has not His faithfulness earned Him the invitation that He seeks to make us happy? ⁴We will offer it, and it will be accepted. ⁵So our times with Him will now be spent. ⁶We say the words of invitation that His Voice suggests, and then we wait for Him to come to us.
5. Now is the time of prophecy fulfilled. ²Now are all ancient promises upheld and fully kept. ³No step remains for time to separate from its accomplishment. ⁴For now we cannot fail. ⁵Sit silently and wait upon your Father. ⁶He has willed to come to you when you have recognized it is your will He do so. ⁷And you could have never come this far unless you saw, however dimly, that it is your will.
6. I am so close to you we cannot fail. ²Father, we give these holy times to You, in gratitude to Him Who taught us how to leave the world of sorrow in exchange for its replacement, given us by You. ³We look not backward now. ⁴We look ahead, and fix our eyes upon the journey’s end. ⁵Accept these little gifts of thanks from us, as through Christ’s vision we behold a world beyond the one we made, and take that world to be the full replacement of our own.
7. And now we wait in silence, unafraid and certain of Your coming. ²We have sought to find our way by following the Guide You sent to us. ³We did not know the way, but You did not forget us. ⁴And we know that You will not forget us now. ⁵We ask but that Your ancient promises be kept which are Your Will to keep. ⁶We will with You in asking this. ⁷The Father and the Son, Whose holy Will created all that is, can fail in nothing. ⁸In this certainty, we undertake these last few steps to You, and rest in confidence upon Your Love, which will not fail the Son who calls to You.
8. And so we start upon the final part of this one holy year, which we have spent together in the search for truth and God, Who is its one Creator. ²We have found the way He chose for us, and made the choice to follow it as He would have us go. ³His Hand has held us up. ⁴His Thoughts have lit the darkness of our minds. ⁵His Love has called to us unceasingly since time began.
9. We had a wish that God would fail to have the Son whom He created for Himself. ²We wanted God to change Himself, and be what we would make of Him. ³And we believed that our insane desires were the truth. ⁴Now we are glad that this is all undone, and we no longer think illusions true. ⁵The memory of God is shimmering across the wide horizons of our minds. ⁶A moment more, and it will rise again. ⁷A moment more, and we who are God’s Sons are safely home, where He would have us be.
10. Now is the need for practice almost done. ²For in this final section, we will come to understand that we need only call to God, and all temptations disappear. ³Instead of words, we need but feel His Love. ⁴Instead of prayers, we need but call His Name. ⁵Instead of judging, we need but be still and let all things be healed. ⁶We will accept the way God’s plan will end, as we received the way it started. ⁷Now it is complete. ⁸This year has brought us to eternity.
11. One further use for words we still retain. ²From time to time, instructions on a theme of special relevance will intersperse our daily lessons and the periods of wordless, deep experience which should come afterwards. ³These special thoughts should be reviewed each day, each one of them to be continued till the next is given you. ⁴They should be slowly read and thought about a little while, preceding one of the holy and blessed instants in the day. ⁵We give the first of these instructions now.
1. What Is Forgiveness?
1. Forgiveness recognizes what you thought your brother did to you has not occurred. ²It does not pardon sins and make them real. ³It sees there was no sin. ⁴And in that view are all your sins forgiven. ⁵What is sin, except a false idea about God’s Son? ⁶Forgiveness merely sees its falsity, and therefore lets it go. ⁷What then is free to take its place is now the Will of God.
2. An unforgiving thought is one which makes a judgment that it will not raise to doubt, although it is not true. ²The mind is closed, and will not be released. ³The thought protects projection, tightening its chains, so that distortions are more veiled and more obscure; less easily accessible to doubt, and further kept from reason. ⁴What can come between a fixed projection and the aim that it has chosen as its wanted goal?
3. An unforgiving thought does many things. ²In frantic action it pursues its goal, twisting and overturning what it sees as interfering with its chosen path. ³Distortion is its purpose, and the means by which it would accomplish it as well. ⁴It sets about its furious attempts to smash reality, without concern for anything that would appear to pose a contradiction to its point of view.
4. Forgiveness, on the other hand, is still, and quietly does nothing. ²It offends no aspect of reality, nor seeks to twist it to appearances it likes. ³It merely looks, and waits, and judges not. ⁴He who would not forgive must judge, for he must justify his failure to forgive. ⁵But he who would forgive himself must learn to welcome truth exactly as it is.
5. Do nothing, then, and let forgiveness show you what to do, through Him Who is your Guide, your Savior and Protector, strong in hope, and certain of your ultimate success. ²He has forgiven you already, for such is His function, given Him by God. ³Now must you share His function, and forgive whom He has saved, whose sinlessness He sees, and whom He honors as the Son of God.
Lesson 221
Peace to my mind. Let all my thoughts be still.
1. Father, I come to You today to seek the peace that You alone can give. ²I come in silence. ³In the quiet of my heart, the deep recesses of my mind, I wait and listen for Your Voice. ⁴My Father, speak to me today. ⁵I come to hear Your Voice in silence and in certainty and love, sure You will hear my call and answer me.
2. Now do we wait in quiet. ²God is here, because we wait together. ³I am sure that He will speak to you, and you will hear. ⁴Accept my confidence, for it is yours. ⁵Our minds are joined. ⁶We wait with one intent; to hear our Father’s answer to our call, to let our thoughts be still and find His peace, to hear Him speak to us of what we are, and to reveal Himself unto His Son.