This course is not beyond IMMEDIATE learning, unless you prefer to
believe that what God wills takes time. And this means only that you
would RATHER delay the recognition that His Will is so. The holy instant
is THIS one and EVERY one. The one you WANT it to be it IS. The one you
would not have it be is lost to you. YOU must decide on when it is.
Delay it not. For beyond the past and future, in which you will not find
it, it stands in shimmering readiness for your acceptance. Yet you cannot
bring it into glad awareness while you do not want it, for it holds the
whole release from littleness.

Your practice must therefore rest upon your willingness to let all
littleness go. The instant in which magnitude will dawn upon you is but
as far away as your DESIRE for it. As long as you desire it not, and
cherish littleness instead, by so much is it far from you. By so much as
you want it will you bring it nearer. Think not that you can find
salvation in your own way and HAVE it. Give over EVERY plan that you
have made for your salvation in exchange for God’s. His will content
you, and there is nothing else that can bring you peace. For peace is of
God, and of no-one beside Him.

Be humble before Him, and yet great IN Him. And value no plan of the ego
before the plan of God. For you leave empty your place in His plan,
which you must fulfill if you would join with me, by your decision to
join in any plan BUT His. I call you to fulfill your
holy part in the plan that He has given to the world for its release
from littleness. God would have His host abide in perfect freedom. Every
allegiance to a plan of salvation that is apart from Him diminishes the
value of His Will for you in your own minds. And yet it is your mind
that IS the host to Him.

Would you learn how perfect and immaculate is the holy altar on which
your Father has placed Himself? This you will recognize in the holy
instant in which you willingly and gladly give over every plan but His.
For there lies peace, perfectly clear because you have been willing to
meet its conditions. You can claim the holy instant any time and
anywhere you want it. In your practice, try to give over every plan you
have accepted for finding magnitude in littleness. IT IS NOT THERE. Use
the holy instant only to recognize that you alone CANNOT know where it
is, and can only deceive yourself.

I stand within the holy instant, as clear as you would have me. And the
extent to which you learn to be willing to accept me is the measure of
the time in which the holy instant will be yours. I call to you to make
the holy instant yours at once, for the release from littleness in the
mind of the host of God depends on willingness, and NOT on time. The
reason why this course is simple is that TRUTH is simple. Complexity is
of the ego, and is nothing more than the ego’s attempt to obscure the
obvious.

You could live forever in the holy instant, BEGINNING NOW and reaching
to eternity, but for a very simple reason. Do not obscure the simplicity
of this reason, for if you do, it will be only because you prefer not to
recognize it, and not to let it go. The simple reason, simply stated, is
this: The holy instant is a time in which you receive and GIVE perfect
communication. This means, however, that it is a time in which your mind
is OPEN, both to receive and give. It is the recognition that all minds
ARE in communication. It therefore seeks to CHANGE nothing, but merely
to ACCEPT everything.

How can you do this when you would prefer to have PRIVATE thoughts, and
KEEP them? The only way you could do THAT is to DENY the perfect
communication that makes the holy instant what it is. You believe that it
is possible to harbor thoughts you would not share, and that salvation
lies in keeping your thoughts to yourself ALONE. For in private
thoughts, known only to yourself, you think
you find a way to keep what you would HAVE alone, and share what YOU
would share. And then you wonder why it is that you are not in full
communication with those around you, and with God Who surrounds ALL of
you together.

Every thought you would keep hidden shuts communication off because you
would HAVE it so. It is impossible to recognize perfect communication
while BREAKING communication holds value to you. Ask yourselves
honestly, “Would I WANT to have perfect communication, and am I wholly
willing to let everything that interferes with it go forever?” If the
answer is no, then the Holy Spirit’s readiness to give it to you is not
enough to make it yours, for you are not ready to SHARE it with Him. And
it cannot come into a mind that has decided to oppose it. For the holy
instant is given and received with EQUAL willingness, being the
acceptance of the single Will that governs ALL thought.

The necessary condition for the holy instant does NOT require that you
have no thoughts which are not pure. But it DOES require that you have
none that you would KEEP. Innocence is not of your making. It is given
you the instant you would HAVE it. Yet it would not be Atonement if there
were no NEED for Atonement. You will not be able to accept perfect
communication as long as you would HIDE it from yourself. For what you
would hide IS hidden from you.

In your practice, then, try only to be vigilant against deception, and
seek not to protect the thoughts you would keep unto yourself. Let the
Holy Spirit’s purity shine them away, and bring all your awareness to
the readiness for purity He offers you. Thus will He make you ready to
acknowledge that you ARE host to God, and hostage to no-one and nothing.