 We continue today with chapter 21, Reason and Perception, Introduction. Projection makes perception. The world you see is what you gave it, nothing more than that. But though it is no more than that, it is not less. Therefore to you it is important. It is the witness to your state of mind, the outside picture of an inward condition. As a man thinketh, so does he perceive. Therefore seek not to change the world, but choose to change your mind about the world. Perception is a result and not a cause. And that is why order of difficulty in miracles is meaningless. Everything looked upon with vision is healed and holy. Nothing perceived without it means anything. And where there is no meaning, there is chaos. Damnation is your judgment on yourself and this you will project upon the world. See it as damned and all you see is what you did to hurt the Son of God. If you behold disaster and catastrophe, you tried to crucify him. If you see holiness and hope, you joined the will of God to set him free. There is no choice that lies between these two decisions. And you will see the witness to the choice you made and learn from this to recognize which one you chose. The world you see but shows you how much joy you have allowed yourself to see in you and to accept as yours. And if this is its meaning, then the power to give it joy must lie within you. The forgotten song. Never forget the world the sightless quote see must be imagined for what it really looks like is unknown to them. They must infer what could be seen from evidence forever indirect and reconstruct their inferences as they stumble and fall because of what they did not recognize or walk unharmed through open doorways that they thought were closed. And so it is with you. You do not see your cues for inference are wrong and so you stumble and fall down upon the stones you did not recognize but fail to be aware you can go through the doors you thought were closed but which stand open before unseeing eyes waiting to welcome you. How foolish is it to attempt to judge what could be seen instead? It is not necessary to imagine what the world must look like. It must be seen before you recognize it for what it is. You can be shown which doors are open and you can see where safety lies in which way leads to darkness which to light. Judgment will always give you false directions but vision shows you where to go. Why should you guess? There is no need to learn through pain and gentle lessons are acquired joyously and are remembered gladly. What gives you happiness you want to learn and not forget. It is not this you would deny. Your question is whether the means by which this course is learned will bring you the joy it promises. If you believed it would, the learning of it would be no problem. You are not a happy learner yet because you still remain uncertain that vision gives you more than judgment does and you have learned that both you cannot have. The blind become accustomed to their world by their adjustments to it. They think they know their way about in it. They learned it not through joyous lessons but through the stern necessity of limits they believed they could not overcome. And still believing this they hold those lessons dear and cling to them because they cannot see. They do not understand the lessons keep them blind. This they do not believe. And so they keep the world they learned to quote see in their imagination believing that their choice is that or nothing. They hate the world they learned through pain and everything they think is in it serves to remind them that they are incomplete and bitterly deprived. Thus they define their life and where they live adjusting to it as they think they must afraid to lose the little that they have. And so it is with all who see the body as all they have and all their brothers have. They try to reach each other and they fail and fail again. And they adjust to loneliness believing that to keep the body is to save the little that they have. Listen and try to think if you remember what we will speak of now. Listen. Perhaps you catch a hint of an ancient state not quite forgotten dim perhaps and not yet altogether unfamiliar like a song whose name is long forgotten and the circumstances in which you heard completely unremembered. Not the whole song has stayed with you but just a little wisp of melody attached not to a person or a place or anything particular. But you remember from just this little part how lovely was the song, how wonderful the setting where you heard it and how you loved those who were there and listened with you. The notes are nothing. Yet you have kept them with you not for themselves but as a soft reminder of what would make you weep if you remembered how dear it was to you. You could remember that you are afraid believing you would lose the world you learned since then and yet you know that nothing in the world you learned is half so dear as this. Listen and see if you remember an ancient song you knew so long ago and held more dear than any melody you taught yourself to cherish since. Beyond the body, beyond the sun and stars past everything you see and yet somehow familiar is an arc of golden light that stretches as you look into a great and shining circle and all the circle fills with light before your eyes. The edges of the circle disappear and what is in it is no longer contained at all. The light expands and covers everything extending to infinity forever shining and with no break or limit anywhere. Within it everything is joined in perfect continuity nor is it possible to imagine that anything could be outside for there is no where that this light is not. This is the vision of the Son of God whom you know well. Here is the sight of Him who knows His Father. Here is the memory of what you are, a part of this, with all of it within and joined to all as surely as all is joined with you except the vision that can show you this and not the body. You know the ancient song and know it well. Nothing will ever be as dear to you as is this ancient hymn of love. The Son of God sings to His Father still and now the blind can see for that same song they sing in honor of their Creator gives praise to them as well. The blindness that they made will not withstand the memory of this song and they will look upon the vision of the Son of God remembering who He is they sing of. What is a miracle but this remembering and who is there in whom this memory lies not? The light in one awakens it in all and when you see it in your brother you are remembering for everyone and from the workbook Lesson 166 I am entrusted with the gifts of God all things are given you God's trust in you is limitless He knows His Son He gives without exception holding nothing back that can contribute to your happiness and yet unless your will is one with His His gifts are not received but what would make you think there is another will than His? Here is the paradox that underlies the making of the world this world is not the will of God and so it is not real yet those who think it real must still believe there is another will and one that leads to opposite effects from those He wills impossible indeed but every mind that looks upon the world and judges it as certain solid trustworthy and true believes in two creators or in one Himself alone but never in one God the gifts of God are not acceptable to anyone who holds such strange beliefs He must believe that to accept God's gifts however evident they may become however urgently He may be called to claim them as His own is to be pressed to treachery against Himself He must deny their presence contradict the truth and suffer to preserve the world He made Here is the only home He thinks He knows the only safety He believes that He can find without the world He made is He an outcast homeless and afraid He does not realize that it is here He is afraid indeed and homeless too an outcast wandering so far from home so long away He does not realize He has forgotten where He came from where He goes even who He really is yet in His lonely senseless wanderings God's gifts go with Him all unknown to Him He cannot lose them but He will not look at what is given Him He wanders on aware of the futility He sees about Him everywhere perceiving how this little lot but dwindles as He goes ahead to nowhere still He wanders on in misery and poverty alone though God is with Him and a treasure His so great that everything in the world contains is valueless before its magnitude He seems a sorry figure weary, born in threadbare clothing and with feet that bleed a little from the rocky road He walks no one but has identified with Him for everyone who comes here has pursued the path He follows and has felt defeat and hopelessness as He is feeling them yet is He really tragic when you see that He is following the way He chose and need but realize who walks with Him and open up His treasures to be free this is your chosen self the one you made as a replacement for reality this is the self you savagely defend against all reason every evidence and all the witnesses with proof to show you this is not you you heed them not you go on your appointed way with eyes cast down lest you might catch a glimpse of truth and be released from self deception and set free you cower fearfully lest you should feel Christ touch upon your shoulder and perceive His gentle hand directing you to look upon your gifts how could you then proclaim your poverty in exile He would make you laugh at this perception of yourself where is self pity then and what becomes of all the tragedy you sought to make for Him whom God intended only joy your ancient fear has come upon you now and justice has caught up with you at last Christ hand has touched your shoulder and you feel that you are not alone you even think the miserable self you thought you was you may not be your identity perhaps God's word is truer than your own perhaps His gifts to you are real perhaps He has not wholly been outwitted by your plan to keep His Son in deep oblivion and go the way you chose without yourself God's will does not oppose it merely is it is not God you have imprisoned in your plan to lose yourself He does not know about a plan so alien to His will there was a need He did not understand to which He gave an answer that is all and you who have this answer given you have need no more of anything but this now do we live for now we cannot die the wish for death is answered and the sight that looked upon it now has been replaced by vision which perceives that you are not what you pretend to be one walks with you who gently answers all your fears with this one merciful reply it is not so He points to all the gifts you have each time the thought of poverty oppresses you and speaks of His companionship when you perceive yourself as lonely and afraid yet He reminds you still of one thing or you had forgotten for His touch on you has made you like Himself the gifts you have are not for you alone what He has come to offer you you now must learn to give this is the lesson that His giving holds for He has saved you from the solitude you sought to make in which to hide from God He has reminded you of all the gifts that God has given you He speaks as well of what becomes your will when you accept these gifts and recognize they are your own the gifts are yours entrusted to your care to give to all who chose the lonely road you have escaped they do not understand they but pursue their wishes it is you who teach them now for you have learned of Christ there is another way for them to walk teach them by showing them the happiness that comes to those who feel the touch of Christ and recognize God's gifts let sorrow not tempt you to be unfaithful to your trust your size will now betray the hopes of those who look to you your tears are theirs if you are sick you but withhold their healing what you fear but teaches them their fears are justified your hand becomes the giver of Christ's touch your change of mind becomes the proof that who accepts God's gifts can never suffer anything you are entrusted with the world's release from pain betray it not become the living proof of what Christ's touch can offer everyone God has entrusted all his gifts to you be witness in your happiness to how transformed the mind becomes which chooses to accept his gifts and feel the touch of Christ such is your mission now for God entrusts the giving of his gifts to all who have received them he has shared his joy with you and now you go to share it with the world Amen