 We continue today with Chapter 7, The Law of the Kingdom. To heal is the only kind of thinking in this world that resembles the thoughts of God. And because of the elements they share, can transfer easily to it. When a brother perceives himself as sick, he is perceiving himself as not whole, and therefore in need. If you too see him this way, you are seeing him as if he were absent from the kingdom or separated from it, thus making the kingdom itself obscure to both of you. Sickness and separation are not of God, but the kingdom is. If you obscure the kingdom, you are perceiving what is not of God. To heal, then, is to correct perception in your brother and yourself by sharing the Holy Spirit with him. This places you both within the kingdom and restores its wholeness in your mind. This reflects creation because it unifies by increasing and integrates by extending. What you project or extend is real for you. This is an immutable law of the mind in this world as well as in the kingdom. However, the content is different in this world because the thoughts it governs are very different from the thoughts in the kingdom. Laws must be adapted to the circumstances if they are to maintain order. The outstanding characteristic of the laws of mind as they operate in this world is that by obeying them, and I assure you that you must obey them, you can arrive at diametrically opposed results. This is because the laws have been adapted to the circumstances of this world in which diametrically opposed outcomes seem possible because you can respond to two conflicting voices. Outside the kingdom, the law that prevails inside is adapted to what you project you believe. This is its teaching form because outside the kingdom learning is essential. This form implies that you will learn what you are from what you have projected onto others and therefore believe they are. In the kingdom there is no teaching or learning because there is no belief. There is only certainty. God and His sons in the surety of being know that what you extend you are. That form of the law is not adapted at all being the law of creation. God himself created the law by creating by it and His sons who create like Him follow it gladly knowing that the increase of the kingdom depends on it just as their own creation did. Laws must be communicated if they are to be helpful. In effect they must be translated for those who speak different languages. Nevertheless a good translator although he must alter the form of what he translates never changes the meaning. In fact his whole purpose is to change the form so that the original meaning is retained. The Holy Spirit is the translator of the laws of God to those who do not understand them. You could not do this yourself because a conflicted mind cannot be faithful to one meaning and will therefore change the meaning to preserve the form. The Holy Spirit's purpose in translating is exactly the opposite. He translates only to preserve the original meaning in all respects and in all languages. Therefore he opposes the idea that differences in form are meaningful emphasizing always that these differences do not matter. The meaning of his message is always the same only the meaning matters. God's law of creation does not involve the use of truth to convince His sons of truth. The extension of truth which is the law of the kingdom rest only on the knowledge of what truth is. This is your inheritance and requires no learning at all but when you disinherited yourself you became a learner of necessity. No one questions the connection of learning and memory. Learning is impossible without memory since it must be consistent to be remembered. That is why the Holy Spirit's teaching is a lesson in remembering. I said before that he teaches remembering and forgetting but the forgetting is only to make the remembering consistent. You forget in order to remember better. You will not understand his translations while you listen to two ways of interpreting them. Therefore you must forget or relinquish one to understand the other. This is the only way you can learn consistency so that you can finally be consistent. What can the perfect consistency of the kingdom mean to the confused? It is apparent that confusion interferes with meaning and therefore prevents the learner from appreciating it. There is no confusion in the kingdom because there is only one meaning. This meaning comes from God and is God because it is also you. You share it and extend it as your Creator did. This needs no translation because it is perfectly understood but it does need extension because it means extension. Communication is perfectly direct and perfectly united. It is totally free because nothing discordant ever enters. That is why it is the kingdom of God. It belongs to him and is therefore like him. That is its reality and nothing can assail it. And from the workbook, God is the love in which I forgive. God does not forgive because he has never condemned and there must be condemnation before forgiveness is necessary. Forgiveness is the great need of this world but that is because it is a world of illusions. Those who forgive are thus releasing themselves from illusions while those who withhold forgiveness are binding themselves to them. As you condemn only yourself, so do you forgive only yourself. Yet although God does not forgive, his love is nevertheless the basis of forgiveness. Fear condemns and love forgives. Forgiveness thus undoes what fear has produced returning the mind to the awareness of God. For this reason, forgiveness can truly be called salvation. It is the means by which illusions disappear. Today's exercises require at least three full five-minute practice periods and as many shorter ones as possible. Begin the longer practice periods by repeating today's idea to yourself as usual. God is the love in which I forgive. God is the love in which I forgive. Close your eyes as you do so. And spend a minute or two in searching your mind for those whom you have not forgiven. It does not matter how much you have not forgiven them. You have forgiven them entirely or not at all. If you are doing the exercises well, you should have no difficulty in finding a number of people you have not forgiven. It is a safe rule that anyone you do not like is a suitable subject. Mention each one by name and say, God is the love in which I forgive you. The purpose of the first phase of today's practice periods is to put you in a position to forgive yourself. After you have applied the idea to all those who have come to mind, tell yourself, God is the love in which I forgive myself. Then devote the remainder of the practice periods to adding related ideas such as God is the love with which I love myself. God is the love in which I am blessed. The form of the application may vary considerably, but the central idea should not be lost sight of. You might say, for example, I cannot be guilty because I am a son of God. I have already been forgiven. No fear is possible in a mind beloved of God. There is no need to attack because love has forgiven me. The practice period should end, however, with a repetition of today's idea, as originally stated. The shorter practice periods may consist either of a repetition of the idea for today in the original or in a related form as you prefer. Be sure, however, to make more specific applications if they are needed. They will be needed at any time during the day when you become aware of any kind of negative reaction to anyone, present or not. In that event, tell him silently, God is the love in which I forgive you. Is the love in which I forgive? So today we practice using love of God to forgive. Remembering the law of the kingdom, what you extend, you are opening to forgiveness by seeing the adaptation of that law in this world, what you project, you believe. Realizing that as the mind attempts to project anything to see it as outside, it is setting up learning by definition and with that learning comes the need to learn to forgive, to learn that there is nothing outside of mind. See that sickness and separation are not of God, but the kingdom is. If you obscure the kingdom in any way, you are perceiving what is not of God. To believe there is something when there is only God is to invent perception, a false perception of self and our brothers and sisters. And as we deal with perception, we must share the Holy Spirit. We call upon the Holy Spirit to direct our thoughts and words and actions to heal our perception of fragmentation, of linearity, to experience the moment, to experience the simultaneity of time, truly to forgive. We want to come to certainty. In the kingdom there is no teaching or learning because there is no belief. There is only certainty knowing the law of the kingdom, that what you extend that you are, you extend love because you are love. So our workbook lesson today gives us this opportunity. Forgiveness is the great need of this world because it is a world of illusions. We are not asking God to forgive us. God does not forgive because he has never condemned. There must be condemnation before forgiveness is necessary. So we are forgiving ourselves, releasing our mind from illusions, letting God's love extend through us, knowing ourself as the Christ, extending the love that was given us in our creation, accepting salvation. Forgiveness can truly be called salvation. So today we practice in deep sincerity, deep devotion, filled with God's presence, as we say, God is the love in which I forgive.