Day 134

Today's Lesson:

Let me perceive forgiveness as it is.

Today we will review the meaning of "forgive," for it is apt to be distorted and to be perceived as something that entails an unfair sacrifice of righteous wrath, a gift unjustified and undeserved, and a complete denial of the truth.

This twisted view of what forgiveness means is easily corrected, when we can accept the fact that pardon is not asked for what is true. It must be limited to what is false. It is irrelevant to everything except illusions. Truth is God's creation, and to pardon that is meaningless. All truth belongs to Him, reflects His laws and radiates His Love. Does this need pardon? How can we forgive the sinless and eternally benign?

Because we think our sins are real, we look on pardon as deception. For it is impossible to think of sin as true and not believe forgiveness is a lie. Pardon is no escape in such a view. It merely is a further sign that sin is unforgivable, at best to be concealed, denied or called another name, for pardon is a treachery to truth. Guilt cannot be forgiven. If you sin, your guilt is everlasting. Those who are forgiven from the view their sins are real are pitifully mocked and twice condemned; first, by themselves for what they think they did, and once again by those who pardon them.

It is sin's unreality that makes forgiveness natural and wholly sane, a deep relief to those who offer it; a quiet blessing where it is received. It does not countenance illusions, but collects them lightly with a little laugh, and gently lays them at the feet of truth. And there they disappear entirely.

Forgiveness is the only thing that stands for truth in the illusions of the world. It sees their nothingness, and looks straight through the thousand forms in which they may appear. It looks on lies, but it is not deceived. It does not heed the self-accusing shrieks of sinners mad with guilt. It looks on them with quiet eyes, and merely says to them, "My brother, what you think is not the truth."

The strength of pardon is its honesty, which is so uncorrupted that it sees illusions as illusions, not as truth. It is because of this that it becomes the undeceiver in the face of lies; the great restorer of the simple truth. By its ability to overlook what is not there, it opens up the way to truth, which has been blocked by dreams of guilt. Now are we free to follow in the way our true forgiveness opens up to us. For if one brother has received this gift of us, the door is open to ourselves.

There is a very simple way to find the door to true forgiveness, and perceive it open wide in welcome. When we feel that we are tempted to accuse someone of sin in any form, do not allow our minds to dwell on what we think he did, for that is self-deception. Ask instead, "Would I accuse myself of doing this?"

Thus will we see alternatives for choice in terms that render choosing meaningful, and keep our minds as free of guilt and pain as God Himself intended them to be, and as they are in truth. It is but lies that would condemn. In truth is innocence the only thing there is. Forgiveness stands between illusions and the truth; between the world we see and that which lies beyond; between the hell of guilt and Heaven's gate.

Across this bridge, as powerful as love which laid its blessing on it, are all dreams of evil and of hatred and attack brought silently to truth. They are not kept to swell and bluster, and to terrify the foolish dreamer who believes in them. He has been gently wakened from his dream by understanding what he thought he saw was never there. And now he cannot feel that all escape has been denied to him.

Forgiveness must be practiced, for the world cannot perceive its meaning, nor provide a guide to teach us its beneficence. There is no thought in all the world that leads to any understanding of the laws it follows, nor the Thought that it reflects. It is as alien to the world as is our own reality. And yet it joins our minds with the reality in us.

Today we practice true forgiveness, that the time of joining be no more delayed. For we would meet with our reality in freedom and in peace. Our practicing becomes the footsteps lighting up the way for all our brothers, who will follow us to the reality we share with them. That this may be accomplished, let us give a quarter of an hour twice today, and spend it with the Guide Who understands the meaning of forgiveness, and was sent to us to teach it. Let us ask of Him:

Let me perceive forgiveness as it it.

Then choose one brother as He will direct, and catalogue his "sins," as one by one they cross your mind. Be certain not to dwell on any one of them, but realize that you are using his "offenses" but to save the world from all ideas of sin. Briefly consider all the evil things you thought of him, and each time ask yourself, "Would I condemn myself for doing this?"

Let him be freed from all the thoughts you had of sin in him. And now we are prepared for freedom. If we have been practicing thus far in willingness and honesty, we will begin to sense a lifting up, a lightening of weigh across our chests, a deep and certain feeling of relief. The time remaining should be given to experiencing the escape from all the heavy chains we sought to lay upon our brother, but were laid upon ourselves.

Forgiveness should be practiced through the day, for there will still be many times when we forget its meaning and attack ourselves. When this occurs, we are to allow our minds to see through this illusion as we tell ourselves:

Let me perceive forgiveness as it is. Would I accuse myself of doing this? I will not lay this chain upon myself.

In everything we do, we are to remember this:

No one is crucified alone, and yet no one can enter Heaven by himself.

Miracles I'm noticing:

As I was meditating on today's lesson, I was thinking of people whose "sins" I recall and what I realized is that I want to forgive my own "sin" of judging their actions. There is no one else. And I thought of another booklet my mother sent me from her church, regarding "new age" and "goddess" thinking and how thorough that literature was in disputing anything that would threaten the traditional church teaching. They really do have to be very knowledgeable about "the other side" so they know exactly what they are rejecting. But when I glanced through that booklet, it occurred to me that they way they were describing the "new age" material was very appealing to me. As I recollect - and I read through it very quickly, so didn't really absorb too much of it - it was talking about how "New Age" thinking doesn't seem to know enough about traditional religious teaching because it leaves out anything that is negative, or goes against traditional Western culture. But that's what I love about this teaching. I love that it focuses on the good and the unity of people. I love that this course teaches us not to discount what we have learned from our traditional beliefs, but to add to them.

So I thought about forgiving myself as well for judging anyone's beliefs who may be different from my own. Only then can we all move to a state of love and peace rather than fighting "against" something else. That's what I really don't understand. When each religion believes itself to be the only one, and only has one way of looking at the world, I can't see how we will ever achieve peace. So I must start with myself - forgiving myself for ever believing that my way will be the one way to peace. World peace starts with me - and with my own forgiveness.

That is my miracle for today.