VII. I Need Do Nothing

T-18.VII.1. You still have too much faith in the body as a source of strength. ² What plans do you make that do not involve its comfort or protection or enjoyment in some way? ³ This makes the body an end and not a means in your interpretation, and this always means you still find sin attractive. ⁴ No one accepts Atonement for himself who still accepts sin as his goal. ⁵ You have thus not met your one responsibility. ⁶ Atonement is not welcomed by those who prefer pain and destruction.

T-18.VII.2. There is one thing that you have never done; you have not utterly forgotten the body. ² It has perhaps faded at times from your sight, but it has not yet completely disappeared. ³ You are not asked to let this happen for more than an instant, yet it is in this instant that the miracle of Atonement happens. ⁴ Afterwards you will see the body again, but never quite the same. ⁵ And every instant that you spend without awareness of it gives you a different view of it when you return.

T-18.VII.3. At no single instant does the body exist at all. ² It is always remembered or anticipated, but never experienced just now. ³ Only its past and future make it seem real. ⁴ Time controls it entirely, for sin is never wholly in the present. ⁵ In any single instant the attraction of guilt would be experienced as pain and nothing else, and would be avoided. ⁶ It has no attraction now. ⁷ Its whole attraction is imaginary, and therefore must be thought of in the past or in the future.

T-18.VII.4. It is impossible to accept the holy instant without reservation unless, just for an instant, you are willing to see no past or future. ² You cannot prepare for it without placing it in the future. ³ Release is given you the instant you desire it. ⁴ Many have spent a lifetime in preparation, and have indeed achieved their instants of success. ⁵ This course does not attempt to teach more than they learned in time, but it does aim at saving time. ⁶ You may be attempting to follow a very long road to the goal you have accepted. ⁷ It is extremely difficult to reach Atonement by fighting against sin. ⁸ Enormous effort is expended in the attempt to make holy what is hated and despised. ⁹ Nor is a lifetime of contemplation and long periods of meditation aimed at detachment from the body necessary. ¹⁰ All such attempts will ultimately succeed because of their purpose. ¹¹ Yet the means are tedious and very time consuming, for all of them look to the future for release from a state of present unworthiness and inadequacy.

T-18.VII.5. Your way will be different, not in purpose but in means. ² A holy relationship is a means of saving time. ³ One instant spent together with your brother restores the universe to both of you. ⁴ You are prepared. ⁵ Now you need but to remember you need do nothing. ⁶ It would be far more profitable now merely to concentrate on this than to consider what you should do. ⁷ When peace comes at last to those who wrestle with temptation and fight against the giving in to sin; when the light comes at last into the mind given to contemplation; or when the goal is finally achieved by anyone, it always comes with just one happy realization; " I need do nothing.

T-18.VII.6. Here is the ultimate release which everyone will one day find in his own way, at his own time. ² You do not need this time. ³ Time has been saved for you because you and your brother are together. ⁴ This is the special means this course is using to save you time. ⁵ You are not making use of the course if you insist on using means which have served others well, neglecting what was made for you. ⁶ Save time for me by only this one preparation, and practice doing nothing else. ⁷ "I need do nothing" is a statement of allegiance, a truly undivided loyalty. ⁸ Believe it for just one instant, and you will accomplish more than is given to a century of contemplation, or of struggle against temptation.

T-18.VII.7. To do anything involves the body. ² And if you recognize you need do nothing, you have withdrawn the body's value from your mind. ³ Here is the quick and open door through which you slip past centuries of effort, and escape from time. ⁴ This is the way in which sin loses all attraction right now. ⁵ For here is time denied, and past and future gone. ⁶ Who needs do nothing has no need for time. ⁷ To do nothing is to rest, and make a place within you where the activity of the body ceases to demand attention. ⁸ Into this place the Holy Spirit comes, and there abides. ⁹ He will remain when you forget, and the body's activities return to occupy your conscious mind.

T-18.VII.8. Yet there will always be this place of rest to which you can return. ² And you will be more aware of this quiet center of the storm than all its raging activity. ³ This quiet center, in which you do nothing, will remain with you, giving you rest in the midst of every busy doing on which you are sent. ⁴ For from this center will you be directed how to use the body sinlessly. ⁵ It is this center, from which the body is absent, that will keep it so in your awareness of it.