Lesson 197: It can be but my gratitude I earn.

The first step to free your mind from the belief in outside forces pitted against your own is in Lesson 196: It can be but myself I crucify. This lesson teaches that your attacks are always directed at yourself even if they are intended for another, and that the attacks you thought were coming from outside of yourself really originated in your mind, were projected onto your brother, and then reflected back to you by him. If you remember, your brother is you, so you merely project your thoughts onto yourself, all the while thinking you are attacking your brother. It is not so. Once you understand that:

It is impossible that you be hurt except by your own thoughts.

(W-pI.196.8:3)

THEN your fear of God and your brothers must disappear, for you will then realize that fear is merely a false internal thought that can and must simply be changed. It can be but yourself that you crucify. No one and nothing outside yourself is responsible for inducing fear and hurt into your mind, only you.

Do you understand that these are not just “words”? This is a fresh concept that explains what projection is, and that what it seems to do is not real. Projection is only in your mind. There is only one of us here and the world you see is not real, therefore there is no person or place to project fear upon except you – and even that is only an illusion. In Heaven such nonsense does not take place.

The second step to free your mind is in Lesson 197: It can be but my gratitude I earn. In the course it is stated that you make “attempts” at kindness and forgiveness. Yet then you turn to attack again, unless you find external gratitude and lavish thanks for your “generosity.” Your gifts must be received with honor, or else you will be tempted to withdraw them, and give the gift to another whom you think will be more “showy” in the appreciation. Since this is how you “give,” you may lead yourself to think God’s gifts are at best “loans,” or at worst that God’s gifts are “deceptions” to lull you into letting go of your defenses. How easily are God and His gifts confused by those whose thoughts are distorted.

Yet it does not matter if your gifts seem to be improperly received. They are indeed received where they are given. They are given to the Christ in your brother (not the body), to the Holy Spirit, to the Heart of God Himself, and to YOU in Oneness with All. Now would you take back your gifts?

Lesson 198: Only my condemnation injures me.

What you find acceptable for your brothers opens the door to establish what is acceptable for yourself, because your brother is yourself. You may have heard “what is good for the goose is good for the gander.” Conceivably, then, if you can condemn, then you can be condemned. If you can injure your brother, then you can be injured. If you can judge, then you can be judged. Therefore, until you lay condemnation, injury and judgment aside as valueless, they will appear to have effects on YOU. Lay them down, and you and your brother will both be free of them in your interactions.

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. Forgiveness is the final dream of awakening. All illusions save this one must multiply a thousandfold. Look beyond appearances to the dawning light of truth. You and your brother are as God created you, not as you made yourselves. Forgiveness, then, is a dream in which the Son of God awakens to his Self and to his Father, knowing They are one. It is the only way that leads out of disaster, past all suffering, and finally away from death. This is the plan of God Himself. Why look for another way when this has been given you by Him? Instead of looking for an alternate route to truth, be grateful that you hold the answer to problems (in whatever form they may appear) in your own hand. Accept forgiveness as the one way that Heaven can be remembered instantly. Be glad salvation is up to you. And be grateful to the One Who gives the means for salvation to you.

Lesson 199: I am not a body. I am free.

I am not a body. I am free. I hear the Voice That God has given me,

and it is only This my mind obeys.

(W-199.8:7-9)

Freedom must be impossible as long as you perceive a body as yourself. The body is a limit. Yet freedom is not found in limitation, is it? The mind that serves the Holy Spirit is unlimited forever, in all ways, beyond the laws of time and space, unbound by any preconceptions, and with strength and power to do whatever it is asked. Attack thoughts cannot enter such a mind, because it has been given to the Source of love, and fear can never enter in a mind that has attached itself to love. It rests in God. And who can be afraid who lives in Innocence, and only loves?

Illustration: If barnacles are attached to the bottom of a ship, when the ship moves, the barnacles will go where the ship goes. If your mind has attached itself to love, you will go in the direction that love leads you, and no other. So do not attach your mind to the world or to the ego, only to God and to Love.

Lesson 200: There is no peace except the peace of God.

There is nothing else for you to find except the peace of God. This is the final point to which each one must come at last: to lay aside all hope of finding happiness where there is none! You cannot make peace in this world, because you cannot make peace of chaos, or joy from pain, or Heaven out of hell. And that is all there is to what appears to be a world apart from God, where bodies appear to have reality. If you would find escape, you must change your mind about the purpose of the world.

The escape of God’s beloved Son from evil dreams that he imagines, yet believes are true, is a worthy purpose. You will be bound until all the world is seen by you as blessed, and everyone is made free of your mistakes and honored as he is. You have projected your mistakes onto your brothers and used them as your scapegoats. You must now free them all of the false perceptions you laid upon the world, so it will then appear to you as beautiful again. As you now look on it, the world can but deceive. Yet you can learn to look on it another way, using the fresh true perception of the Holy Spirit, and THEN you will find the peace of God. This is the only Way. So today, go directly to Heaven via the Holy Spirit. Do not pass judgments, do not collect grievances, go directly Home. Do not attempt to wander and waste time on thorny byways. The Father is calling you. Hear Him.

Lesson 201-203: I am not a body. I am free. For I am still as God created me.

Permit no idle thought to go unchallenged. If you notice one, deny its hold and hasten to assure your mind that this is not what it would have. Then gently let the thought which you denied be given up, in sure and quick exchange for the idea of the day. Say:

This thought I do not want. I choose instead ___________.

(idea for the day)

Lesson 201: Review (181) I trust my brothers who are one with me.

Lest there be some mistake, know this: everyone is your brother. Trusting your brothers is essential to establishing and upholding your faith in your ability to transcend doubt and lack of sure conviction in yourself. Have you noticed when you express your trust in someone, how quickly they move to be worthy of it? Yet when you attack a brother, you proclaim that he is limited by what you perceive in him, which is the same as projecting your own perceived lacks upon him. Therefore, look beyond your errors and your brothers errors to the truth in you both. Your Father and your brothers are one with you. It cannot be otherwise due to the idea of oneness. See Oneness everywhere and you see only truth.

Lesson 202: Review (182) I will be still an instant and go home.

Ask yourself this question: “Why would I choose to stay an instant more where I do not belong, when God Himself has given me His Voice to call me home?” There is nothing to fear about going home. Do you remember the story of the prodigal son? You are welcome in Heaven to be sure. You have not lost your innocence, and there is no punishment waiting for you in Heaven where the ideas of guilt and punishment are not known. God’s “judgement” of His Son is this:

“My Son is pure and holy as Myself.”

(W-276.1:2)

It is not death that calls you home. You but transcend this illusion of problems, unhappiness, and limitation, and return to the Joy of LIFE ETERNAL. It is not even a change of venue. It is a change of mind from unhappiness to happiness, from struggle to holy ease, from deprivation and lack to abundance – from illusion to truth. Do you get the idea? You just change your mind!!! This is so easy and so preferable to what you have previously chosen, that it is a wonder that the world as you see it appeared to happen at all. Oh, right -- it did not happen. It was all an ILLUSION, a hoax the Son of God perpetrated upon himself -- easily righted now by accepting the truth instead:

“I am not a body. I am free. For I am still as God created me.”

Lesson 203: Review (183) I call upon God’s Name and on my own.