Lesson 134

"Let me perceive forgiveness as it is."

If you find it difficult still to forgive, it is because you believe you must forgive the truth and not the illusions. Forgiveness is the only thing that stands for truth in the illusions of the world. It looks straight through them and sees their nothingness. It looks on lies, and is not deceived. The strength of pardon is its honesty. It is able to overlook what is not there and it opens the way to truth. When you feel you want to accuse someone of sin, do not allow your mind to dwell upon such a thought. Seek alternative meaningful choices and keep your mind free of guilt and pain. Forgiveness stands between illusions and the truth. By our practicing of forgiveness we light up the way for all our brothers to follow us in sharing this reality. Choose one brother and catalogue his ‘sins' and consider all the evil things you thought of him. Ask yourself if you would condemn yourself for doing such things. Allow him to be free from all your thoughts of him. Practice this willingly and honestly and feel the weight be lifted off your chest. You are relieved.

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

In everything you do remember this:

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

Lesson 135

"If I defend myself I am attacked."

Who would defend himself unless he thought he were attacked, that the attack were real, and that his own defense could save himself? This can only give illusions full reality. It is twice as difficult to correct illusions based upon illusions. You may believe you must protect yourself from what is happening because it may contain something threatening. Defense comes from fear and justifies terror. Something that you defend must be weak and easily assaulted, unable to protect itself. The body does not need defense. It is strong and healthy if the mind does not abuse it with roles it cannot fulfill and aims it cannot accomplish. It seems to fail your hopes, needs, values and dreams. The ‘self' that needs protection is not real. Your body will respond with health when you heal your thoughts that the mind and body are separate. A healed mind does not plan. It goes by the Wisdom it receives that is not its own. It is secure in its adequate knowing that obstacles cannot impede its progress to accomplish any goal that serves the highest good of all. The unhealed mind enslaves the body to set up plans and makes it sick.

Self-initiated plans are only defenses of the mind to protect itself, at the expense of the truth. The mind engaged in planning for itself is occupied in setting up control of future events. It does not believe it will be provided for unless it makes its own provisions. This mind refuses to allow change. Its past experience directs its choice for what will happen in the future. It cannot see that everything it needs to guarantee a different future is right here and now without any old ideas or sick beliefs. Confidence in the present directs the way. If you knew that everything and all events are planned by One whose only purpose is your highest good what could you not accept? Your defenses obscure His loving blessing that shines on every step you took. Your present trust in Him is the defense that promises and directs a bright immortal future. Without defenses, Heaven gratefully acknowledges your light and will lead you according to plan. As brothers let go their defenses and join their light with yours, the world will light up in Joy. We are sure that everything we need is given to us for our accomplishment of this lesson today. We realize that our defensivelessness is all that is required for truth to dawn upon our minds with certainty. Today we receive instead of plan.

"If I defend myself I am attacked.
But in defensivelessness I will be strong,
And I will learn what my defenses hide."

All your defenses have been aimed at not receiving what you will receive today. Heaven asks nothing, it is hell that makes extravagant demands for sacrifice. You give up nothing when you present yourself without defense as who you really are to your Creator. You are no reborn in the light and hope without defense ready to learn your part within God's plan. Your planning and beliefs hold now value when you have heard the voice of God. Your happiness is much greater now that you no longer plan. Throughout the day as foolish little things attempt to make you defensive remember this:

"This is my Eastertime. And I would keep
It holy. I will not defend myself,
Because the Son of God needs no defense
Against the truth of his reality."

Lesson 136

"Sickness is a defense against the truth."

Sickness serves a purpose and we learn our healing by our understanding of it. We then realize that purpose no longer has meaning and without meaningful intent it can no longer be. This is how healing becomes automatic. This meaningless illusion is dispelled when they are carried to truth and there they disappear. Sickness is a defense and is an insane device for self-deception. Its purpose is to hide reality and to keep the truth from being whole. It is easy to forget the role you play in creating your reality and it makes defenses appear to be beyond your control. Defenses make facts unrecognizable, taking fragments of the whole and reassembling them in skewed relationships, creating illusions. Sickness is a decision and a choice you make. Truth is more powerful than defense, allowing no illusions. Practice welcoming in the truth, setting us free. Truth is waiting for this invitation. Here is a prayer to help us rise above defensiveness:

"Sickness is a defense against the truth.
I will accept the truth of what I am,
And let my mind be wholly healed today."

Healing will flash across your open mind, as peace and truth arise and take the place of illusions. When you suffer pain, your body suffers, making you one with your body. Now with the body healed, the body will no longer feel. This removes the limits you placed on the body by the purposes you gave it. Set these aside and the strength of the body will be plenty to serve all true purposes. The body's health is fully guaranteed, not limited by time or any laws you made it serve previously. Sickness is made impossible. Be careful and continue to watch you're your mind and protect it from attacking thoughts, judgments or making plans against uncertainty. Do not let your defensiveness hurt you or be confused about what must be healed.

"I have forgotten what I really am.
For I mistook my body for myself.
Sickness is a defense against the truth.
But I am not a body. And my mind
Cannot attack. So I can not be sick."

Lesson 137

"When I am healed I am not healed alone."

Sickness is a retreat from others, keeping one separate, isolated and alone. It gives the body final power to make separation real. The world obeys the laws sickness serves. It is impossible for anyone to be healed alone. Healing is one's decision to be one again and to accept his Self as whole. Healing is accomplished as the body has no power to attack the universal Oneness of God's Son. Sickness proves that lies must be truth, and healing shows that truth is true. Eyes accustomed to illusions must be shown that what they look upon is false. Healing never needed by the truth must demonstrate that sickness is not real. Healing might be called a counter dream which cancels out the dream of sickness in the name of truth. Just as forgiveness overlooks all sins that never were committed, healing removes illusions that have not occurred. Healing replaces the fantasies of sickness. Healing is freedom. Dreams will not prevail against the truth. As you allow yourself to be healed, you see all those around you healed with you. Those who are healed become the instruments of healing. Ask the inevitable to occur, and you will never fail. Only truth will occupy our minds. Our function is to allow our minds to be healed so that we may carry healing to the world. We exchange curse for blessing, pain for joy, and separation for God's peace.

"When I am healed I am not healed alone.
And I would share my healing with the world,
That sickness may be banished from the mind
Of God's one Son, who is my only self."

Allow healing be through you today. Resting in quiet, be prepared to give as you receive and to receive the word of God to replace all foolish thoughts ever imagined. We now come together to make well all that was sick and we offer blessing where there was attack. Remember our purpose with this thought:

"When I am healed I am not healed alone.
And I would bless my brothers, for I would
Be healed with them, as they are healed with me."

Lesson 138

"Heaven is the decision I must make."

In this world Heaven is a choice. We think all things have an opposite. Creation knows no opposite. Truth cannot come from where it could only be perceived with fear. Choice is an obvious escape from what appears as opposites. Do not confuse yourself with all the doubts that myriad decisions would induce. Make only one and when it is made you will perceive there was no choice at all. There is no contradiction to the truth. Choosing depends on learning. Truth cannot be learned, only recognized. It is accepted by recognizing it. Decisions are outcomes of your learning, they rest on what you've accepted as truth according to who you are and your needs. In a complicated world Heaven appears to take the form of choice. Of all the choices this one is the simplest, it is the prototype for all others and with this one all others are resolved with it. Heaven is a conscious choice. Alternatives must be accurately seen and understood. All that is veiled in shadows must be raised to understanding, to be judged only with Heaven's help. Reaffirm your choice before you sleep tonight.

"Heaven is the decision I must make.
I make it now, and will not change my mind,
Because it is the only thing I want."

Lesson 139

"I will accept Atonement for myself."

This is the end of choice. Now we come to a decision to accept ourselves as God created us. Choice is the uncertainty of what we are. Life is to be yourself. Only one who has not recognized himself could ask, "Who am I?" To be alive and not know yourself is to believe that you are really dead. Atonement remedies any idea that it is possible to doubt yourself and doubt what you really are. Do not accept the madness of the world by sharing this universal question of what you really are. With the acceptance of Atonement, what you are is certain and is so far beyond all doubt and question. We did not come here to reinforce the madness of the world. We have a mission here, a goal that we have accepted. We have not lost the knowledge that God gave us when he created us like him. Clear your mind of the world and learn the fragile nature of the chains that seem to keep knowledge of yourself apart from your awareness.

"I will accept Atonement for myself,
For I remain as God created me."

Lesson 140

"Only salvation can be said to cure."

A cure can only come from holiness and is not found where sin is cherished. Holiness is everywhere and there is no place where sin and sickness can abide. Do not be misled by what appears to us as sickness. We go beyond appearances and reach the source of healing. Atonement cures all sickness and heals with certainty. The mind which understands that sickness is only a dream, cannot be deceived by the illusions.

"Only salvation can be said to cure.
Speak to us, Father, that we may be healed."