LESSON ONE HUNDRED-EIGHTY-FIVE

TRANSCRIBER’S NOTE: The Course text is in bold face. The Guidance is in normal type In His Guidance, He has asked Me to capitalize the pronouns You and We as an acknowledgement of the Divinity of All of Us, an acknowledgement of Equality, an expression of His Love and respect for You. When You see the word ‘YOU’ capitalized in the Guidance, know that He is not just speaking to YOU, He is honoring YOU.

L e s s o n  185

I want the peace of God.  It is the only peace there is, for the world holds none at all.  To experience the peace of God, then, is but the experience of Heaven.

So to request the peace of God then is to be willing to relinquish the dream.  An important step is this, in Your return to happiness.

¹ To say these words is nothing. But to mean these words is everything.  – Intention is what is most important. – If you could but mean them for just an instant, there would be no further sorrow possible for you in any form, in any place or time.  You wonder at the Truth of this for You do want the Peace with all Your heart and soul and mind, yet what that means is to want it every instant.  For example:  Did You want Peace half an hour ago when You were fed up, or preferred You to be right and vent Your spleen?  You get My drift here?  Heaven would be completely given back to full awareness, memory of God entirely restored, the resurrection of all creation fully recognized.  Well here We are three hours later, (this is to Sun~Rose, yet germane to All), after You’ve been rudely awakened, opened this to listen more and read the perfect words above … and laughed.  And You’ve got Your Peace!

² No one can mean these words and not be healed. He cannot play with dreams nor think he is himself a dream. He cannot make a hell and think it real. He wants the peace of God, and it is given him. For that is all he wants, and that is all he will receive.  Belovèd Brothers, Sisters, I promise You that this is true. And that Be-ing True Peace is far superior to dreaming!

And I will redo the Earl of Montrose’s quote below here:  You must fear Awakening too much, and Your courage is too small, Who dares not put it to the touch, to win and win It All!₁

Many have said these words. But few indeed have meant them. You have but to look upon the world you see around you to be sure how very few they are. The world would be completely changed should any two agree these words express the only thing they want.  Why do You think this is? (the lack of agreement) The dream is far more compelling than You think, for it is so familiar.  And as the saying goes – and where do You think these sayings come from but the ego! – “Better the devil that You know, than the one You don’t.” i.e. stick with the familiar for the unknown might be worse.  This is quite the antithesis of: “He either fears His fate too much or His desserts are small, Who dares not put it to the touch, to win or lose it all.”₁ As I said above, You can’t help but win it all, when You completely trust My words.

³ Two minds with one intent become so strong that what they will becomes the Will of God. For minds can only join in truth. In dreams no two can share the same intent. To each the hero of the dream is different; the outcome wanted not the same for both. Loser and gainer merely shift about in changing patterns, as the ratio of gain to loss and loss to gain takes on a different aspect of another form.  What am I saying here but to put Your reliance on One Who is free of the dream: God, Guide, Me, or the Holy Spirit.

⁴ Yet compromise alone a dream can bring. Sometimes it takes the form of union, but only the form. The meaning must escape the dream, for compromising is the goal of dreaming. Minds cannot unite in dreams. They merely bargain. And what bargain can give them the peace of God? Illusions come to take His place. And what He means is lost to sleeping minds intent on compromise, each to his gain and to another’s loss.  Will You most kindly take to heart what I am explaining here about the dream, Dreamers, and dreaming.  “There’s nothing here to trust”₃

There’s nothing here within the dream to trust, so do heed the words that come from beyond the dream as has A Course In Miracles.  These teachings are to return You to Your Peace as well as to God’s Reality.

⁵ To mean you want the peace of God is to renounce all dreams. – That’s it in a nutshell! No more dreaming. – For no one means these words who wants illusions and who therefore seeks the means which bring illusions. He has looked on them and found them wanting. Now he seeks to go beyond them, recognizing that another dream would offer nothing more than all the others. Dreams are one to him. And he has learned their only difference is one of form, for one will bring the same despair and misery as do the rest.  For all dreams do end in dying and deterioration.  Not from God, these things.

Id You’re on the road to hell, would You prefer a happy trip or a miserable one?  Might not the one so miserable suggest a different way? (Making misery in the dream preferable to happiness, if that’s what it takes to break the hypnotic spell of dreaming!)

⁶ The mind which means that all it wants is peace must join with other minds, for that is how peace is obtained. And when the wish for peace is genuine, the means for finding it are given in a form each mind which seeks for it in honesty can understand. Whatever form the lesson takes is planned for him in such a way that he can not mistake it if his asking is sincere. And if he asks without sincerity, there is no form in which the lesson will meet with acceptance and be truly learned.  You have Joined with Me on this happy trip.  Bless You My Brothers.  Bless You My Sisters.

⁷ Let us today devote our practicing to recognizing that we really mean the words we say. – Could anything within the dream be more appealing?  I tell You not, for all dream things do wane and fail and pass away, while the Peace of God stays and stands Eternal. – We want the peace of God. This is no idle wish. These words do not request another dream be given us. They do not ask for compromise nor try to make another bargain in the hope that there may yet be one which can succeed where all the rest have failed. – The dream is failure by definition.  Who now cares about Genghis Kahn or about Napoleon.  To dream is meaningless, a figment of imagination.  The Peace of God is what is substantial. – To mean these words acknowledges illusions are in vain, requesting the eternal in the place of shifting dreams which seem to change in what they offer, but are one in nothingness.  Attached most Dreamers are to making their mark, leaving children with their name, a successful business providing the unnecessary to the Son of God, who already is complete, though S/He knows it not.

In the dream unselfish Love is lasting.  Mother Teresa has more to teach than all the many great and famous scholars.

To teach the Ways of God is one thing, to live them quite another.

⁸ Today devote your practice periods to careful searching of your mind to find the dreams you cherish still. What do you ask for in your heart? Forget the words you use in making your requests. Consider but what you believe will comfort you and bring you happiness. But be you not dismayed by lingering illusions, for their form is not what matters now. Let not some dreams be more acceptable, reserving shame and secrecy for others. They are one.  Dreams are dreams, no matter what form they take.

⁹ And being one, one question should be asked of all of them: “Is this what I would have, in place of Heaven and the peace of God?” This is the choice you make. Be not deceived that it is otherwise. No compromise is possible in this. You choose God’s peace, or you have asked for dreams. And dreams will come as you requested them.  – What dreams will come, indeed.  For they always turn into nightmares. – Yet will God’s peace come just as certainly and to remain with you forever. It will not be gone with every twist and turning of the road to reappear unrecognized in forms which shift and change with every step you take.  God’s Peace is here as soon as You choose It.  It is always at hand, available to You with that willingness to say yes.

¹⁰ You want the peace of God. And so do all who seem to seek for dreams. For them as well as for yourself you ask but this when you make this request with deep sincerity. For thus you reach to what they really want and join your own intent with what they seek above all things, perhaps unknown to them, but sure to you. You have been weak at times, uncertain in your purpose and unsure of what you wanted, where to look for it, and where to turn for help in the attempt. Help has been given you. And would you not avail yourself of it by sharing it?  For if You are willing to give It, then must You already have It.

¹¹ No one who truly seeks the peace of God can fail to find it.  For, as I said,  “Where Your treasure is, there is Your heart as well.”₂

For he merely asks that he deceive himself no longer by denying to himself what is God’s Will. Who can remain unsatisfied who asks for what he has already? Who could be unanswered who requests an answer which is his to give? The peace of God is yours.  Always has been and It always will be.   And It’s here right now!

¹² For you it was created, given you by its Creator and established as His own eternal gift. – For Peace is quite natural to Heaven.  And Heaven is right here although You remain unaware of It, while You choose to continue dreaming. – How can you fail when you but ask for what He wills for you? – You have not understood what it means that God is Love, because of ego misperception.  Stop now, and let the words sink in: God is Love and Good is His Will for Me.  He has not set up all this pain and struggle, yet His Goodness can easily dismiss it forever! – And how could your request be limited to you alone? No gift of God can be unshared. It is this attribute that sets the gifts of God apart from every dream that ever seemed to take the place of truth.  Good is – and has to be – universal.

¹³ No one can lose and everyone must gain whenever any gift of God has been requested and received by anyone.  Impartially and universally.

God gives but to unite.  To take away is meaningless to Him. And when it is as meaningless to you, you can be sure you share one Will with Him, and He with you. And you will also know you share one Will with all your brothers, – perfect Harmony – whose intent is yours.  And You’ll remember what Love really is.

¹⁴ It is this one intent we seek today, uniting our desires with the need of every heart, the call of every mind, the hope that lies beyond despair, the love attack would hide, the brotherhood that hate has sought to sever, but which still remains as God created it. With help like this beside us, can we fail today as we request the peace of God be given us?

You All are embraced by mighty Companions, just like Elisha and His Servant.₃  And what makes them strong but Love.  And what can Peace be but Love’s Awareness, Knowing All is well.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

¹ “He either fears his fate too much,
Or his desserts are small,
Who dares not put it to the touch,
To win or lose it all!”

James Graham, 5th Earl of Montrose
1612 to 1650
Royalist General during the English Civil War

³ IF worlds were formed by matter,

And mankind from the dust;

Till time shall end more timely,

There’s nothing here to trust.

Thenceforth to evolution’s

Geology, we say, –

Nothing have we gained therefrom,

And nothing have to pray:

MY world has sprung from Spirit,

In everlasting day;

Whereof, I’ve more to glory,

Wherefor, have much to pay.

MARY BAKER EDDY

(Brother’s Note: The only ‘cost’ is the giving up of pain and suffering.)

² Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 6:21; Luke 12:34 “For where Your treasure is, there will be also Your heart.”

³ Second Kings, 6:17

And Elisha prayed, and said, LORD, I pray thee, open his eyes, that he may see. And the LORD opened the eyes of the young man; and he saw: and, behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha.

INTRODUCTION to Lessons 181 – 200

^I181:1 Our next few lessons make a special point of firming up your willingness to make your weak commitment strong, your scattered goals blend into one intent. – All commitment does start with this one thing: just the little willingness to do it, whatever it takes.  So even if You do slip and fall, You get right up again. – You are not asked for total dedication all the time, as yet. But you are asked to practice now in order to attain the sense of peace such unified commitment will bestow, if only intermittently. It is experiencing this which makes it sure that you will give your total willingness to following the way the course sets forth.  How did He segue from the little willingness to total?!  (He is laughing hard!)  Only the ego would ask that question!  By now, don’t You think that You should know Me!  Give Me an inch of good, and I’ll give You back a mile of it.  Give Me a drop of Love, and I’ll return to You an ocean.

With what are We dealing but the Divine Qualities of God.  Life, Truth and Love.  Spirit, Soul and Mind.  Holy Divine Principle, Its Joy and Peace.  How precious are the attributes of God.  They are Your treasure.  And where Your treasure is, there is Your Love.

² Our lessons now are geared specifically to widening horizons – by loosening the ego’s stranglehold that it has on You – and direct approaches to the special blocks which keep your vision narrow and too limited to let you see the value of our goal.  What has it been that has severely narrowed Your horizons?

Well, what else but sir and lady ego?

We are attempting now to lift these blocks, however briefly. Words alone can not convey the sense of liberation which their lifting brings. – Yes, that day that Helen had, recounted in “Absence From Felicity”₁ is a perfect example.  Every day – and every moment can and will be like that! – But the experience of freedom and of peace that comes as you give up your tight control of what you see speaks for itself. Your motivation will be so intensified that words become of little consequence. You will be sure of what you want and what is valueless.  The ego will attempt to deter Your progress, tell You that You can’t sustain such an experience.  And yet the ego is always lying.  Do not believe it.  Tell it to shut up, and really mean it!

³ And so we start our journey beyond words by concentrating first on what impedes our progress still. Experience of what exists beyond defensiveness remains beyond achievement while it is denied. It may be there, but you cannot accept its presence.  For You are quite defended against It.  And what does live in the Silence but experience of perfect Love and safety. So we now attempt to go past all defenses for a little while each day. No more than this is asked because no more than this is needed. It will be enough to guarantee the rest will come.  One Holy Moment is but a promise of All which await Your invitation!

[Thank you Dear Brother]

*Sun~Rose is the scribe of the recently published book, “YOU ARE LOVED AND SAFE: PREP NOTES FOR EXPERIENCING GOD’S LOVE“, Jesus’ Guidance on the Miracle Principles

She is also author of, “RADIANT LIFE: RAW FOOD AND THE PRESENCE OF LOVE”

BOTH now available on amazon.com