9. The veil across the face of Christ, the fear of God and of salvation, and the love of guilt and death, they all are different names for just one error; that there is a space between you and your brother, kept apart by an illusion of yourself that holds him off from you, and you away from him. The sword of judgment is the weapon that you give to the illusion of yourself, that it may fight to keep the space that holds your brother off unoccupied by love. Yet while you hold this sword, you must perceive the body as yourself, for you are bound to separation from the sight of him who holds the mirror to another view of what he is, and thus what you must be.
10. What is temptation but the wish to stay in hell and misery? And what could this give rise to but an image of yourself that can be miserable, and remain in hell and torment? Who has learned to see his brother not as this has saved himself, and thus is he a savior to the rest. To everyone has God entrusted all, because a partial savior would be one who is but partly saved. The holy ones whom God has given you to save are but everyone you meet or look upon, not knowing who they are; all those you saw an instant and forgot, and those you knew a long while since, and those you will yet meet; the unremembered and the not yet born. For God has given you His Son to save from every concept that he ever held.
11. Yet while you wish to stay in hell, how could you be the savior of the Son of God? How would you know his holiness while you see him apart from yours? For holiness is seen through holy eyes that look upon the innocence within, and thus expect to see it everywhere. And so they call it forth in everyone they look upon, that he may be what they expect of him. This is the savior’s vision; that he see his innocence in all he looks upon and see his own salvation everywhere. He holds no concept of himself between his calm and open eyes and what he sees. He brings the light to what he looks upon, that he may see it as it really is.
12. Whatever form temptation seems to take, it always but reflects a wish to be a self that you are not. And from that wish a concept rises, teaching that you are the thing you wish to be. It will remain your concept of yourself until the wish that fathered it no longer is held dear. But while you cherish it, you will behold your brother in the likeness of the self whose image has the wish begot of you. For seeing can but represent a wish because it has no power to create. Yet it can look with love or look with hate, depending only on the simple choice of whether you would join with what you see, or keep yourself apart and separate.
13. The savior’s vision is as innocent of what your brother is as it is free of any judgment made upon yourself. It sees no past in anyone at all. And thus it serves a wholly open mind, unclouded by old concepts, and prepared to look on only what the present holds. It cannot judge because it does not know. And recognizing this, it merely asks, “What is the meaning of what I behold?” Then is the answer given. And the door held open for the face of Christ to shine upon the one who asks, in innocence, to see beyond the veil of old ideas and ancient concepts held so long and dear against the vision of the Christ in you.
14. Be vigilant against temptation, then, remembering that it is but a wish, insane and meaningless, to make yourself a thing that you are not. And think as well upon the thing that you would be instead. It is a thing of madness, pain and death; a thing of treachery and black despair, of failing dreams and no remaining hope except to die and end the dream of fear. This is temptation; nothing more than this. Can this be difficult to choose against? Consider what temptation is and see the real alternatives you chose between. There are but two. Be not deceived by what appears as many choices. There is hell and Heaven, and of these you choose but one.
15. Let not the world’s light, given unto you, be hidden from the world. It needs the light, for it is dark indeed, and men despair because the savior’s vision is withheld and what they see is death. Their savior stands, unknowing and unknown, beholding them with seeing eyes and offers them forgiveness with his own. Can you to whom God says, “Release My Son!” be tempted not to listen, when you learn that it is you for whom He asks release? And what but this is what this course would teach? And what but this is there for you to learn? [1]
When we see each other as separate entities, when there is something between us, when I judge you or you judge me unworthy of love, of Christ, of Sonship – we keep ourselves in a state of hell and misery. For as long as I see you with my flesh eyes and judge you according to my human perceptions, I will not know you. I cannot know you. I will think that your mistakes define you. I will misinterpret the wonderful things you do as a way to get brownie points. I will think that all your goodness only serves to be a cover for your ultimate deceit and treachery. Our whole relationship will be governed on a moment-to-moment basis of how much we are willing to sacrifice to it, to pour into it, to be special together. When one or the other makes a mistake, pulls out, or goes on to make new friends, finds a new church, or marries someone we are not crazy about, we will be as strangers to one another. This is the way of human relationships. They are not based upon truth or reality – they are based upon an image of one another that is either displeasing or pleasing at any given time, but never the one true thing of Christ.
When we learn to see only Christ in each other, we not only save ourselves, but we save everyone involved. Each of us are entrusted with the savior’s vision. We behold each other not as merely another human form, a body, a good person or a bad person, a soul which is saved or unsaved, a friend or an enemy, we behold each other and everyone we meet with the sanctity we give Christ. It does not matter if we behold a liberal or a conservative, a Muslim or a Christian, a Catholic or a Protestant. Rich and poor, black and white, big-mouth or quiet, the free and the imprisoned – God has entrusted us to one another saving us from every false image and mean concept that we would make ourselves to be. This is the vision of Christ, and it is ours.
As long as we are content to call each other names, to get our feathers ruffled over slights and slurs, to let the news feed steal our peace, joy, and well-being, we withhold the savior’s vision. When we lose track of that which is holy, pure, and good in one another, we lose track of that which is holy, pure, and good in us! We call forth holiness in one another when we choose to see holiness in each other, when we choose to have faith in each other as we would have faith in God Who created us. We call forth all that is good and pure and righteous in each other by choosing to see past and give no credence to all that would oppose goodness, purity, and righteousness.
In paragraph 11, Jesus informs us that the savior’s vision is one that sees innocence everywhere. The savior’s vision has no judgment. It lets go of all concepts that would oppose the truth of God. So when you come to me to tell me of the spite and vengeance of a certain someone, instead of believing in spite and vengeance, my calm and open eyes, dedicated to the savior’s vision brings light to what I look upon that I may see it as it really is. Because you chose to perceive spite and vengeance, I must trust that you brought this to me out of purity and a real desire to protect me. Yet I must also choose not to perceive any concept that would oppose peace and deceive my perceptions. This is not a practice in self-deceit. This is a practice in choosing to see with a heightened perception. When we choose to see with the Vision of Christ we release ourselves from the dim view. Our understanding is broadened. We see from a higher vantage point. We go from the low mind of fault-finding, blame, and shame to the high mind of understanding, trust, forgiveness, and love.
When we are tempted to join in with the low-minded take on others, events, and circumstances, we are enticed to give up the Christ in us, to become an enemy of God, to join the ranks of those who would oppose the healing of the Sonship and the return to God’s Kingdom. See yourself as a gossiper, a lover of deceit and treachery, a vulnerable little victim lashing out at those who ruined your life and stole your joy, you will seem to be exactly what this concept of yourself tells you that you are. This is a choice you make. This concept of yourself will be your self-concept until you realize it is not you. As long as you cherish this concept of yourself, you will look on others as either “for you,” or “against you.” You will spend your days looking for happiness, protection, meaning, and sustenance outside of yourself. And all of the things you seek will come and go, never gratifying or making you happy.
When we give up such concepts of our selves and reach for that which is holy and pure inside of us, we are set free from all judgment, self-pity, and condemnation. We accept ourselves and each other in the present moment. We do not remind each other of our wrongdoing. We do not tease each other about old mistakes. We do not compare our outward appearances with others. We realize that we simply cannot judge ourselves or each other because we do not know ourselves or each other! If I do not know the reasons why I did the things I did, how can I be expected to know about you? If I do not remember what I was going through, how could I know what you were going through? Recognize that we are incapable of making any kind of pronouncements upon anything at all, our minds are free to reach for meaning from the Higher Source. Only there is the answer given.
As long as I judge you on what I think I know about you, how you treated me and my family, how lazy you are, how mean and spiteful, how misguided and misdirected, convinced that I have every right to condemn you and refuse to see you as Christ, I am an enemy of God, I am in opposition to love, I am trusting in the low-minded realm of flesh and not in the high mind of Christ.
We are to be vigilant against this temptation for we are never to place ourselves as judge and juror over our brothers. The world will give us many seemingly good reasons to oppose the savior’s vision, to condone vengeance, to fail to put our trust in God. We will be tempted to take up arms against each other and feel justified in doing so. We will be tempted to believe the rampant lies about each other, the trumped-up charges, the images of hate and stupidity. We are not to believe the madness, pain, and death that our news feeds would nurture us upon. We are not to believe the spin that would obscure the truth of Christ in each other. We are not to be deceived by all the reasons we would have to turn upon each other with intent to harm and to kill. This is temptation. Do not fall for it.
We are the light of the world because Christ is in us. When we hide our Sonship from each other, we are blinded, we weaken, we get sick, we lose our minds, we maim and kill each other, we die. God calls us to awaken, to release each other from the nightmare of discord, disunity, and death. We are created in Love, in Joy, and in Peace – this is our Identity, our function, this is who and what we are. This is all this course would teach and this is all there is to learn.
[1]A Course in Miracles. Chapter 31 The final vision vii. the savior’s vision 9-15. Foundation for Inner Peace, Second Edition (1992).
For daily 2021 Workbook lessons visit www.i-choose-love.com courtesy of Linda R.
Audio credit: www.eckiefriar.com
the friar patch 
Absolutely Beautiful!! Thank You 🙏🥰
Thank you for learning this with me – firsthand no less!