Lesson 188

W-pI.188.1. Why wait for Heaven? ² Those who seek the light are merely covering their eyes. ³ The light is in them now. ⁴ Enlightenment is but a recognition, not a change at all. ⁵ Light is not of the world, yet you who bear the light in you are alien here as well. ⁶ The light came with you from your native home, and stayed with you because it is your own. ⁷ It is the only thing you bring with you from Him Who is your Source. ⁸ It shines in you because it lights your home, and leads you back to where it came from and you are at home.

W-pI.188.2. This light can not be lost. ² Why wait to find it in the future, or believe it has been lost already, or was never there? ³ It can so easily be looked upon that arguments which prove it is not there become ridiculous. ⁴ Who can deny the presence of what he beholds in him? ⁵ It is not difficult to look within, for there all vision starts. ⁶ There is no sight, be it of dreams or from a truer Source, that is not but the shadow of the seen through inward vision. ⁷ There perception starts, and there it ends. ⁸ It has no source but this.

W-pI.188.3. The peace of God is shining in you now, and from your heart extends around the world. ² It pauses to caress each living thing, and leaves a blessing with it that remains forever and forever. ³ What it gives must be eternal. ⁴ It removes all thoughts of the ephemeral and valueless. ⁵ It brings renewal to all tired hearts, and lights all vision as it passes by. ⁶ All of its gifts are given everyone, and everyone unites in giving thanks to you who give, and you who have received.

W-pI.188.4. The shining in your mind reminds the world of what it has forgotten, and the world restores the memory to you as well. ² From you salvation radiates with gifts beyond all measure, given and returned. ³ To you, the giver of the gift, does God Himself give thanks. ⁴ And in His blessing does the light in you shine brighter, adding to the gifts you have to offer to the world.

W-pI.188.5. The peace of God can never be contained. ² Who recognizes it within himself must give it. ³ And the means for giving it are in his understanding. ⁴ He forgives because he recognized the truth in him. ⁵ The peace of God is shining in you now, and in all living things. ⁶ In quietness is it acknowledged universally. ⁷ For what your inward vision looks upon is your perception of the universe.

W-pI.188.6. Sit quietly and close your eyes. ² The light within you is sufficient. ³ It alone has power to give the gift of sight to you. ⁴ Exclude the outer world, and let your thoughts fly to the peace within. ⁵ They know the way. ⁶ For honest thoughts, untainted by the dream of worldly things outside yourself, become the holy messengers of God Himself.

W-pI.188.7. These thoughts you think with Him. ² They recognize their home. ³ And they point surely to their Source, Where God the Father and the Son are One. ⁴ God's peace is shining on them, but they must remain with you as well, for they were born within your mind, as yours was born in God's. ⁵ They lead you back to peace, from where they came but to remind you how you must return.

W-pI.188.8. They heed your Father's Voice when you refuse to listen. ² And they urge you gently to accept His Word for what you are, instead of fantasies and shadows. ³ They remind you that you are the co-creator of all things that live. ⁴ For as the peace of God is shining in you, it must shine on them.

W-pI.188.9. We practice coming nearer to the light in us today. ² We take our wandering thoughts, and gently bring them back to where they fall in line with all the thoughts we share with God. ³ We will not let them stray. ⁴ We let the light within our minds direct them to come home. ⁵ We have betrayed them, ordering that they depart from us. ⁶ But now we call them back, and wash them clean of strange desires and disordered wishes. ⁷ We restore to them the holiness of their inheritance.

W-pI.188.10. Thus are our minds restored with them, and we acknowledge that the peace of God still shines in us, and from us to all living things that share our life. ² We will forgive them all, absolving all the world from what we thought it did to us. ³ For it is we who make the world as we would have it. ⁴ Now we choose that it be innocent, devoid of sin and open to salvation. ⁵ And we lay our saving blessing on it, as we say: