This is the thought which follows from the one we practiced yesterday.
You cannot stop with the idea the world is worthless, for unless you see
that there is something else to hope for you will only be depressed. Our
emphasis is not on giving up the world, but on exchanging it for what is
far more satisfying, filled with joy, and capable of offering you
peace. Think you this world can offer that to you?
It might be worth a little time to think once more about the value of
this world. Perhaps you will concede there is no loss in letting go all
thought of value here. The world you see is merciless indeed, unstable,
cruel, unconcerned with you, quick to avenge and pitiless with hate. It
gives but to rescind, and takes away all things that you have cherished
for a while. No lasting love is found, for none is here. This is the
world of time, where all things end.
Is it a loss to find a world instead where losing is impossible, where
love endures forever, hate cannot exist, and vengeance has no meaning?
Is it loss to find all things you really want and know they have no
ending, and they will remain exactly as you want them throughout time?
Yet even they will be exchanged at last for what we cannot speak of, for
you go from there to where words fail entirely, into a silence where the
language is unspoken and yet surely understood. Communication,
unambiguous and plain as day, remains unlimited for all eternity. And
God Himself speaks to His Son as His Son speaks to Him. Their language
has no words, for what they say cannot be symbolized. Their knowledge is
direct and wholly shared and wholly one.
How far away from this are you who stay bound to this world. And yet how
near are you when you exchange it for the world you want. Now is the
last step certain; now you stand an instant’s space away from
timelessness. Here can you but look forward, never back to see again the
world you do not want. Here is the world that comes to take its place as
you unbind your mind from little things the world sets forth to keep you
prisoner there. Value them not, and they will
disappear. Esteem them, and they will seem real to you.
Such is the choice. What loss can be for you in choosing not to value
nothingness? This world holds nothing that you really want, but what you
choose instead you want indeed! Let it be given you today. It waits but
for your choosing it to take the place of all the things you seek but do
not want.
Practice your willingness to make this change ten minutes in the morning
and at night, and once more in between. Begin with this:
“Beyond this world there is a world I want.
I choose to see that world instead of this,
For here is nothing that I really want.”
Then close your eyes upon the world you see, and in the silent darkness
watch the lights that are not of this world light one by one until where
one begins, another ends, loses all meaning as they blend in one.
Today the lights of Heaven bend to you, to shine upon your eyelids as
you rest beyond the world of darkness. Here is light your eyes cannot
behold. And yet your mind can see it plainly, and can understand. A day
of grace is given you today, and we give thanks. This day we realize
that what you feared to lose was only loss.
Now do we understand there is no loss, for we have seen its opposite at
last, and we are grateful that the choice is made. Remember your
decision hourly, and take a moment to confirm your choice by laying by
whatever thoughts you have, and dwelling briefly only upon this:
“The world I see has nothing that I want.
Beyond this world there is a world I want.”