A Course In Miracles excerpt on perception, perception is illusion, only knowledge is truth. Instructions on finding the present.
Finding the ability to perceive genuinely is to be aware of all reality through the awareness of your own, but for this, no illusions can rise to meet your sight, for fact leaves no room for any error. This means that you perceive a brother only as you see him now, as his past has no truth in the present, so you cannot see it. Your past reactions to him are also not there, and if it is to them you react, you see but an image of him you made and cherished instead of him. When questioning illusions, ask yourself if perceiving what was as now is sane.
If you remember the past as you look upon your brother, you cannot perceive the current reality. You consider it natural to use your experience as the reference point to judge the present, yet this is unnatural because it is delusional. When you have learned to look at everyone with no reference to the past, either his or yours, as you perceived it, you can learn from what you see now. For the past can cast no shadow to darken the present unless you are afraid of light, and only if you are would you choose to bring darkness with you. By holding it in your mind, see it as a dark cloud that shrouds your brothers and conceals their reality from your sight. This darkness is in you as Christ has revealed to you now has no past, for he is changeless, and in his changelessness lies your release.
If he is as he was created, he has no guilt. No cloud of guilt has risen to obscure him, and he stands revealed and everyone you meet because you see him through himself. To be born again is to let the past go.
and look without condemnation upon the present the cloud that obscures God’s Sun to you is the past and if you would have it passed and gone, you must not see it now if you see it now in your illusions it has not gone from you although it is not there time can release as well as imprison depending on whose interpretation of it you use past present and future are not continuous unless you force continuity on them you can perceive them as continuous and make them sole for you but do not be deceived and then believe
that this is how it is for to believe reality is what you would have it be according to your use for it is delusional you would destroy times continuity by breaking it into past present and future for your own purposes you would expect the future based on your experience and plan for it accordingly yet by doing so you are aligning past and future and not allowing the miracle which could intervene between them to free you to be born again the miracle enables you to see your brother without his past and so perc he is born again. His errors are all history, and by perceiving him without them, you are releasing him, and since his past is yours, you share in this release. Let no dark cloud out of your past obscure him from you, or truce lies only in the present, and you will find it if you seek it there. You have looked for it where it is not and therefore have not found it. Learn then to seek it where it is, and it will dawn on eyes that see your past was made in anger, and if you use it to attack the present, you will not know the freedom that the gift
holes judgment and condemnation are behind you and unless you bring them with you you see that you are free of them look lovingly upon the present for it holds the only things that are forever true all healing lies within it because it’s continuity is real it extends to all aspects of the sonship at the same time and thus enables them to reach each other the present is before time was and will be when time is no more in it are all things that are eternal and they are one their continuity is timeless and
Their communication is unbroken, and it does not separate them from the past. Only the past can separate, and it is nowhere the present offers you your brothers in the light that would unite you with them and free you from the past. You would then hold the past against them, if you choose to remain in the darkness and refuse to accept the light that is offered you.
Where there is no sight of what you were, you look at Christ and call his witnesses to shine on you because you called them forth. They will not deny the truth in you because you looked for it in them and found it there. Now is the time of salvation or the release from time? Reach out to all your brothers and touch them with a touch of Christ. In timeless union with them is your continuity unbroken because it is wholly shared. God’s guiltless son is only light. There is no darkness in him anywhere, for he is the whole call all your brothers to witness to his wholeness as I am calling you to join with me. Each voice has a part in the song of redemption, the hymn of gladness, and Thanksgiving for the light to the creator of light; the holy light that shines forth from God’s son is the witness that his light is of his father.
Shine on your brothers and remembrance of your Creator, for you will remember him as you call forth the witnesses to his creation, those whom you he’ll bear witness to your healing for in their wholeness, you will see your own, and as your hymns of praise and gladness rise to your creator, he will return your thanks in his clear answer to your call, for it can never be that his son called upon him and remained unanswered is called to you is. He will answer your call to him with his peaceful child of light. You know not that the light is in you, yet it is through its witnesses to give them light. They will return each one you see in the morning, bringing your light closer to your awareness.
Love always leads to love; the sick who ask for love are grateful for it, and they shine with holy thanks in their joy. This they offer you who gave them pleasure. They are your guides to joy for having received it of you; they would keep it. You have established them as guides to peace, for you have made it manifest in them, and seeing its beauty called you home. You can give a light that this world cannot give. As you give it, it will shine forth to call you away from the world and follow it. This light will attract you more than anything in this world, and you will lay aside the world and find something else. This other world is bright with the love you have given it, and here we’ll have everything to remind you of your father and his holy son.
Light is unlimited and spreads across this world, and quiet joy, all those you brought with you will shine on you, and you will shine on them in gratitude because they got you here. Your light will join with theirs and power so interesting that it will draw the others out of the darkness as you look at them. Awaking unto Christ is following the laws of love of your free will. Out of quiet recognition of the truth in them, the attraction of light must draw you willingly. Your willing witnesses signify their willingness to accept your love, and they hold it out to you in sleep when you are alone. That is why the nightmares come.
You dream of isolation because your eyes are closed, you do not see your brothers, and in the darkness, you cannot look upon the light you gave to them. Christ protected you, ensuring the real world for you when you awake, so that it does not suspend the laws of love even though you have followed them through all your nightmares and have been faithful in your giving. In your name, he has given for you and give you the gifts he shared. God’s Son is still as loving as his father, continuous with his father. He has no past apart from him, so he has never ceased to be his father’s witness and his own. Although he slept, Christ’s vision did not leave him, and so it is that he can call unto himself the witnesses that teach him he never slept. You misunderstood. You can come on and all pretty plain. I formed you.
