 We continue today with Chapter 13. The Guiltless Son of God The ultimate purpose of projection is always to get rid of guilt. Yet, characteristically, the ego attempts to get rid of guilt from its viewpoint only. For much as the ego wants to retain guilt, you find it intolerable since guilt stands in the way of your remembering God. Whose pull is so strong that you cannot resist it. On this issue, then, the deepest split of all occurs. For if you are to retain guilt as the ego insists, you cannot be you. Only by persuading you that it is you could the ego possibly induce you to project guilt and thereby keep it in your mind. Yet, consider how strange a solution the ego's arrangement is. You project guilt to get rid of it, but you are actually merely concealing it. You do experience the guilt, but you have no idea why. On the contrary, you associate it with a weird assortment of, quote, ego ideals which the ego claims you have failed. Yet, you have no idea that you are failing the Son of God by seeing Him as guilty. Believing you are no longer you, you do not realize that you are failing yourself. The darkest of your hidden cornerstones holds your belief in guilt from your awareness. For in that dark and secret place is the realization that you have betrayed God's Son by condemning Him to death. You do not even suspect this murderous but insane idea lies hidden there. For the ego's destructive urge is so intense that nothing short of the crucifixion of God's Son can ultimately satisfy it. It does not know who the Son of God is because it is blind. Yet, let it perceive guiltlessness anywhere and it will try to destroy it because it is afraid. Much of the ego's strange behavior is directly attributable to its definition of guilt. To the ego, the guiltless are guilty. Those who do not attack are its, quote, enemies because, by not valuing its interpretation of salvation, they are in an excellent position to let it go. They have approached the darkest and deepest cornerstone in the ego's foundation and while the ego can withstand your raising all else to question, it guards this one secret with its life. For its existence depends on keeping this secret. So, it is this secret that we must look upon for the ego cannot protect you against truth and in its presence the ego is dispelled. In the calm light of truth, let us recognize that you believe you have crucified God's Son. You have not admitted to this, quote, terrible secret because you would still wish to crucify Him if you could find Him. Yet, the wish has hidden Him from you because it is very fearful and so you are afraid to find Him. You have handled this wish to kill yourself by not knowing who you are and identifying with something else. You have projected guilt blindly and indiscriminately, but you have not uncovered its source. For the ego does want to kill you and if you identify with it, you must believe its goal is yours. I have said that the crucifixion is the symbolic symbol of the ego. When it was confronted with the real guiltlessness of God's Son, it did attempt to kill Him and the reason it gave was that guiltlessness is blasphemous to God. To the ego, the ego is God and guiltlessness must be interpreted as the final guilt that fully justifies murder. You do not yet understand that any fear you may experience in connection with this course stems ultimately from this interpretation. But if you will consider your reactions to it, you will become increasingly convinced that this is so. This course has explicitly stated that its goal for you is happiness and peace, yet you are afraid of it. You have been told again and again that it will set you free, yet you sometimes react as if it is trying to imprison you. You often dismiss it more readily than you dismiss the ego's thought system. To some extent then, you must believe that by not learning the course you are protecting yourself and you do not realize that it is only your guiltlessness that can protect you. The atonement has always been interpreted as the release from guilt and this is correct if it is understood. Yet even when I interpret it for you, you may reject it and do not accept it for yourself. You have perhaps recognized the futility of the ego and its offerings, but though you do not want them, you may not yet look upon the alternative with gladness. In the extreme, you are afraid of redemption and you believe it will kill you. Make no mistake about the depth of this fear, for you believe that in the presence of truth, you might turn on yourself and destroy yourself. Little child, this is not so. Your, quote, guilty secret is nothing and if you will but bring it to the light, the light will dispel it and then no dark cloud will remain between you and the remembrance of your father, for you will remember his guilty son who did not die because he is immortal and you will see that you were redeemed with him and have never been separated from him. In this understanding lies your remembering, for it is the recognition of love without fear. There will be great joy in heaven on your homecoming and the joy will be yours. For the redeemed son of man is the guiltless son of God and to recognize him is your redemption. And from the workbook, lesson 95. I am one self united with my Creator. Today's idea accurately describes you as God created you. You are one within yourself and one with him. Yours is the unity of all creation. Your perfect unity makes change in you impossible. You do not accept this and you fail to realize it must be so, only because you believe that you have changed yourself already. You see yourself as a ridiculous parody on God's creation. Weak, vicious, ugly and sinful, miserable and beset with pain. Such is your version of yourself. A self divided into many worrying parts separate from God and tenuously held together by its erratic and capricious maker to which you pray. It does not hear your prayers for it is deaf. It does not see the oneness in you for it is blind. It does not understand you are the son of God for it is senseless and understands nothing. We will attempt today to be aware only of what can hear and see and what makes perfect sense. We will again direct our exercises towards reaching your one self which is united with its creator in patience and in hope we try again today. The use of the first five minutes of every waking hour for practicing the idea for the day has special advantages at the stage of learning in which you are present. It is difficult at this point not to allow your mind to wander if it undertakes extended practice. You have surely realized this by now. You have seen the extent of your lack of mental discipline and of your need for mind training. It is necessary that you be aware of this for it is indeed a hindrance to your advance. Frequent but shorter practice periods have other advantages for you at this time. In addition to recognizing your difficulties with sustained attention you must also have noticed that unless you are reminded of your purpose frequently you tend to forget about it for long periods of time. You often fail to remember the short applications of the idea for the day and you have not yet formed a habit of using the idea as an automatic response to temptation. Structure then is necessary for you at this time. Plan to include frequent reminders of your goal and regular attempts to reach it. Regularity in terms of time is not the ideal requirement for the most beneficial form of practice in salvation. It is advantageous, however, for those whose motivation is inconsistent and who remain heavily defended against learning. We will therefore keep to the five minutes an hour practice periods for a while and urge you to admit as few as possible. Using the first five minutes of the hour will be particularly helpful since it imposes firmer structure. Do not, however, use your lapses from this schedule as an excuse not to return to it again as soon as you can. There may well be a temptation to regard the day as lost because you have already failed to do what is required. This should, however, merely be recognized as what it is, a refusal to let your mistake be corrected, and an unwillingness to try again. The Holy Spirit is not delayed in his teaching by your mistakes. He can be held back only by your unwillingness to let them go. Let us therefore be determined, particularly for the next week or so, to be willing to forgive ourselves for our lapses in diligence and our failures to follow the instructions for practicing the day's idea. This tolerance for weakness will help us to overlook it rather than give it power to delay our learning. If we give it power to do this, we are regarding it as strength in our confusing strength with weakness. When you fail to comply with the requirements of this course, you have merely made a mistake. This calls for correction and for nothing else. To allow a mistake to continue is to make additional mistakes based on the first and reinforcing it. It is this process that must be laid aside for it is but another way in which you would defend illusions against the truth. Let all these errors go by, recognizing them for what they are. They are attempts to keep you unaware you are one self united with your Creator, at one with every aspect of creation and limitless in power and in peace. This is the truth and nothing else is true. Today we will affirm this truth again and try to reach the place in you in which there is no doubt that only this is true. Begin the practice periods today with this assurance offered to your mind with all the certainty that you can give. I am one self united with my Creator at one with every aspect of creation and limitless in power and in peace. Then close your eyes and tell yourself again slowly and thoughtfully, attempting to allow the meaning of the words to sink into your mind, replacing false ideas. I am one self. Repeat this several times and then attempt to feel the meaning that the words convey. You are one self united and secure in light and joy and peace. You are God's Son, one self with one Creator and one goal to bring awareness of this oneness to all minds that true creation may extend the allness and the unity of God. You are one self complete and healed and whole with power to lift the veil of darkness from the world and let the light in you come through to teach the world the truth about yourself. You are one self in perfect harmony with all there is and all that there will be. You are one self, the Holy Son of God, united with your brothers in that self, united with your father in his will. Feel this one self in you and let it shine away all your illusions and all doubts. This is your self, the Son of God himself, sinless as its Creator, with his strength within you and his love for ever yours. You are one self and it has given you to feel this self within you and to cast all your illusions out of the one mind that is the self, the Holy Truth in you. Do not forget today. We need your help, your little part in bringing happiness to all the world and heaven looks to you in confidence that you will try today. Share then its surety for it is yours. Be vigilant. Do not forget today. Throughout the day, do not forget your goal. Repeat today's idea as frequently as possible and understand each time you do so, someone hears the voice of hope, the stirring of truth within his mind, the gentle rustling of the wings of peace. Your own acknowledgement, you are one self, united with your father, is a call to all the world to be at one with you, to everyone you meet today. Be sure to give the promise of today's idea and tell him this. You are one self with me, united with our Creator in this self. I honor you because of what I am and what he is who loves us both as one. Today, I am one self, united with my Creator. Today, I accept the guiltless Son of God. Today, I see the insanity of projection, of attempting to let go of guilt by seeing the guilt outside. Today, I recognize there is no outside. There is no inside. Everything is mind and I can be hurt by nothing but my thoughts. Today, I would no longer harbor guilt. I cannot harbor guilt and accept my divine innocence. If I harbor guilt, it means I believe I have betrayed God's Son and condemned him to death. I would not hide in secret this belief in separation, this belief in crucifixion. Today, I let it arise and give it to the light of truth. I offer this secret, this hidden belief to the Holy Spirit for healing that I may accept the correction, the atonement. Today, I will no longer fear happiness and peace and joy. Today, I will not be afraid of love. Today, I am guiltless and sinless and remain this way because I was created by God. Today, I am not the author of myself. I was created by God and I am as God created me. I will let no cloud stand between the remembrance of my Father. Today, I see I am guiltless. The Son of God is innocent. I am one self, united with my Creator. This self is perfect spirit. I release all false concepts of myself that would veil the truth. Today, I accept the light of my being, the eternal nature of love that is my being. I would delay no further. I would hold on to no mistakes, forgiving all mistakes. Today, I will listen to the voice of Jesus as he tells me, that all errors go by recognizing them for what they are. They are attempts to keep you unaware you are one self, united with your Creator. At one with every aspect of creation and limitless in power and in peace. This is the truth and nothing else is true. Today, we will affirm this truth again. I am one self, united with my Creator. At one with every aspect of creation and limitless in power and in peace. I am one self, united with my Creator. Amen.