The wearying, dissatisfying gods you made
are blown-up children's toys. A child is frightened when a wooden
head springs up as a closed box is opened suddenly, or when a soft and silent
woolly bear begins to squeak as he takes hold of it. The rules he made for
boxes and for bears have failed him, and have broken his "control" of
what surrounds him. And he is afraid, because he thought the rules protected
him. Now must he learn the boxes and the bears did not deceive him, broke no
rules, nor mean his world is made chaotic and unsafe. He was mistaken. He
misunderstood what made him safe, and thought that it had left.
The gap that is not there is filled with toys in countless forms. And each one seems to break the
rules you set for it. It never was the thing you thought. It must appear to
break your rules for safety, since the rules were wrong. But you are not endangered. You can laugh
at popping heads and squeaking toys, as does the child who learns they are
no threat to him. Yet while he likes to play with them, he still perceives them
as obeying rules he made for his enjoyment. So there still are rules that they
can seem to break and frighten him. Yet is
he at the mercy of his toys? And can they represent a threat to him?
Reality observes the laws of God, and not
the rules you set. It is His laws that guarantee your safety. All illusions
that you believe about yourself obey no laws. They seem to dance a little
while, according to the rules you set for them. But then they fall and cannot
rise again. They are but toys, my child, so do not grieve for them.
Their dancing never brought you joy. But neither were they things to frighten
you, nor make you safe if they obeyed your rules. They must be neither
cherished nor attacked, but merely looked upon as children's toys without a single meaning of their own. See one in them
and you will see them all. See none in them and they will touch you not.
Appearances deceive because they are appearances and not
reality. Dwell not on them in any form. They but obscure reality, and they
bring fear because they hide the
truth. Do not attack what you have made to let you be deceived, for thus you
prove that you have been deceived. Attack has power to make illusions real. Yet
what it makes is nothing. Who could be made fearful by a power that can have no
real effects at all? What could it be but an illusion, making things appear
like to itself? Look calmly at its toys, and understand that they are idols which but dance to
vain desires. Give them not your worship, for they are not there. Yet this is
equally forgotten in attack. God's Son needs no defense against his dreams. His
idols do not threaten him at all. His one mistake is that he thinks them real.
What can the power of illusions do?
Appearances can but deceive the mind that
wants to be deceived. And you can make a simple choice that will forever place
you far beyond deception. You need not concern yourself with how this will be
done, for this you cannot understand. But you will understand that mighty
changes have been quickly brought about, when you decide one very simple thing;
you do not want whatever you believe an idol gives. For thus the Son of God
declares that he is free of idols. And thus is he free.
Salvation is a paradox indeed! What could
it be except a happy dream? It asks you but that you forgive all things that no
one ever did; to overlook what is not there, and not to look upon the unreal as
reality. You are but asked to let your will be done, and seek no longer for the
things you do not want. And you are asked to let yourself be free of all the
dreams of what you never were, and seek no more to substitute the strength of
idle wishes for the Will of God.
Here does the dream of separation start
to fade and disappear. For here the gap that is not there begins to be
perceived without the toys of terror that you made. No more than
this is asked. Be glad indeed salvation asks so little, not so much. It asks
for nothing in reality. And even in illusions it but asks forgiveness be the
substitute for fear. Such is the only rule for happy dreams. The gap is emptied
of the toys of fear, and then its unreality is
plain. Dreams are for nothing. And the Son of God can have no need of them.
They offer him no single thing that he could ever want. He is delivered from
illusions by his will, and but restored to what he is. What could God's plan
for his salvation be, except a means to give him to Himself? ACiM - Text Chapter Thirty -
The New Beginning - Section 5 - The Truth behind Illusions
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