Of all the many causes you perceived as bringing pain and suffering to you, your guilt was not among them. Nor did you in any way request them for yourself. This is how all illusions came about. The one who makes them does not see himself as making them, and their reality does not depend on him. Whatever cause they have [he believes] is something quite apart from him, and what he sees is separate from his mind. He cannot doubt his dreams’ reality, because he does not see the part he plays in making them and making them seem real.
This is the only picture you can see; the one alternative that you can choose, the other possibility of cause, if you [are] not the dreamer of your dreams. And this is what you choose if you deny the cause of suffering is in your mind. Be glad indeed it is [in your mind], for thus are you the one decider of your destiny in time. The choice is yours to make between a sleeping death and dreams of evil or a happy wakening and joy of life.
What could you choose between but life or death, waking or sleeping, peace or war, your dreams or your reality? There is a risk of thinking death is peace, because the world equates the body with the Self which God created. Yet a thing can never be its opposite. And death is opposite to peace, because it is the opposite of life. And life is peace. Awaken and forget all thoughts of death, and you will find you have the peace of God. (A Course in Miracles, T-27.VII.7:4-9;9:1-10:6. See also ACIM Text Q & A.)
There is one life and that we share with God (W-pI.167). Thoughts of death are thoughts of separation from God, the only Source of Life. The body is an image of separation, defined by being different and separate from other bodies and the world. When we identify with the body, we believe it is our self. Yet this “self” could never be real because it is an image of death, for that is its ultimate end. Because God is eternal Life, He could not create a self that is not eternal. The Self He created is Life and therefore is peace, eternally united with the peace of God.
God has given us the means to transform the dream of fear, guilt and death to a happy dream that sees innocence everywhere, for it has forgiven imagined barriers to Love’s presence. From this happy dream we easily awaken to the reality of the peace-filled Life we share with God.
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