Only my condemnation injures me.
Only my condemnation injures me.
Injury is impossible. And yet illusion makes illusion. If
you can condemn, you can be injured. For you have believed that you can
injure, and the right you have established for yourself can be now used
against you till you lay it down as valueless, unwanted, and unreal.
Then does illusion cease to have effects, and all it seemed to have will
be undone. Then are you free, for freedom is your gift, and you can now
receive the gift you gave.
Condemn and you are made a prisoner. Forgive and you are
freed. Such is the law that rules perception. It is not a law that
knowledge understands, for freedom is a part of knowledge. To condemn is
thus impossible in truth. What seems to be its influence and its effects
have not occurred at all. Yet must we deal with them a while as if they
had. Illusion makes illusion. Except one. Forgiveness is illusion that
is answer to the rest.
Forgiveness sweeps all other dreams away, and though it is
itself a dream, it breeds no others. All illusions save this one must
multiply a thousand fold. But this is where illusions end. Forgiveness
is the end of dreams because it is a dream of waking. It is not itself
the truth. Yet does it point to where the truth must be and gives
direction with the certainty of God Himself. It is a dream in which the
Son of God awakens to his Self and to his Father, knowing They are one.
Forgiveness is the only road that leads out of disaster,
past all suffering, and finally away from death. How could there be
another way, when this one is the plan of God Himself? And why would you
oppose it, quarrel with it, seek to find a thousand ways in which it
must be wrong, a thousand other possibilities?
Is it not wiser to be glad you hold the answer to your
problems in your hand? Is it not more intelligent to thank the One Who
gives salvation, and accept His gift with gratitude? And is it not a
kindness to yourself to hear His Voice and learn the simple lessons He
would teach, instead of trying to dismiss His words and substitute your
own in place of His?
His words will work. His words will save. His words contain
all hope, all blessing and all joy that ever can be found upon this
earth. His words are born in God, and come to you with Heaven's love
upon them. Those who hear His words have heard the song of Heaven, for
these are the words in which all will merge as one at last. And as this
one will fade away, the Word of God will come to take its place, for it
will be remembered then and loved.
This world has many seeming separate haunts where mercy has
no meaning and attack appears as justified. Yet all are one—a place
where death is offered to God's Son and to his Father. You may think
They have accepted, but if you will look again upon the place where you
beheld Their blood, you will perceive a miracle instead.
How foolish to believe that They could die! How foolish to
believe you can attack! How mad to think that you could be condemned and
that the holy Son of God can die! The stillness of your Self remains
unmoved, untouched by thoughts like these, and unaware of any
condemnation which could need forgiveness. Dreams of any kind are
strange and alien to the truth. Yet what but Truth could have a thought
which builds a bridge to truth which brings illusions to the other side?
Today we practice letting freedom come to make its home
with you. The truth bestows these words upon your mind that you may find
the key to light and let the darkness end:
*Only my condemnation injures me.
Only my own forgiveness sets me free*.
Do not forget today that there can be no form of suffering
that fails to hide an unforgiving thought. Nor can there be a form of
pain forgiveness cannot heal.
Accept the one illusion which proclaims there is no
condemnation in God's Son, and Heaven is remembered instantly; the world
forgotten, all its weird beliefs forgotten with it, as the face of
Christ appears unveiled at last in this one dream. This is the gift the
Holy Spirit holds for you from God your Father. Let today be celebrated
both on earth and in your holy home as well. Be kind to both, as you
forgive the trespasses you thought them guilty of, and see your
innocence shining upon you from the face of Christ.
Now is there silence all around the world. Now is there
stillness where before there was a frantic rush of thoughts that made no
sense. Now is there tranquil light across the face of earth, made quiet
in a dreamless sleep. And now the Word of God alone remains upon it.
Only that can be perceived an instant longer. Then are symbols done and
everything you ever thought you made completely vanished from the mind
which God forever knows to be His only Son.
There is no condemnation in him. He is perfect in his
holiness. He needs no thoughts of mercy. Who could give him gifts when
everything is his? And who could dream of offering forgiveness to the
Son of Sinlessness Itself, so like to Him Whose Son he is, that to
behold the Son is to perceive no more and only know the Father? In this
vision of the Son, so brief that not an instant stands between this
single sight and timelessness itself, you see the vision of yourself and
then you disappear forever into God.
Today we come still nearer to the end of everything that
yet would stand between this vision and our sight. And we are glad that
we have come this far and recognize that He Who brought us here will not
forsake us now. For He would give to us the gift that God has given us
through Him today. Now is it time for your deliverance. The time has
come. The time has come today.