ACIM ~ Lesson 200. There is no peace except the peace of God.

Lesson 200. There is no peace except the peace of God.

(1) Seek you no further. You will not find peace except the peace of God. Accept
this fact, and save yourself the agony of yet more bitter disappointments, bleak
despair, and sense of icy hopelessness and doubt. Seek you no further. There is
nothing else for you to find except the peace of God, unless you seek for misery
and pain.

(2) This is the final point to which each one must come at last, to lay aside
all hope of finding happiness where there is none; of being saved by what can
only hurt; of making peace of chaos, joy of pain, and Heaven out of hell.
Attempt no more to win through losing, nor to die to live. You cannot but be
asking for defeat.

(3) Yet you can ask as easily for love, for happiness, and for eternal life in
peace that has no ending. Ask for this, and you can only win. To ask for what
you have already must succeed. To ask that what is false be true can only fail.
Forgive yourself for vain imaginings, and seek no longer what you cannot find.
For what could be more foolish than to seek and seek and seek again for hell,
when you have but to look with open eyes to find that Heaven lies before you,
through a door that opens easily to welcome you?

(4) Come home. You have not found your happiness in foreign places and in alien
forms that have no meaning to you, though you sought to make them meaningful.
This world is not where you belong. You are a stranger here. But it is given you
to find the means whereby the world no longer seems to be a prison house or jail
for anyone.

(5) Freedom is given you where you beheld but chains and iron doors. But you
must change your mind about the purpose of the world, if you would find escape.
You will be bound till all the world is seen by you as blessed, and everyone
made free of your mistakes and honored as he is. You made him not; no more
yourself. And as you free the one, the other is accepted as he is.

(6) What does forgiveness do? In truth it has no function, and does nothing. For
it is unknown in Heaven. It is only hell where it is needed, and where it must
serve a mighty function. Is not the escape of God's beloved Son from evil dreams
that he imagines, yet believes are true, a worthy purpose? Who could hope for
more, while there appears to be a choice to make between success and failure;
love and fear?

(7) There is no peace except the peace of God, because He has one Son who cannot
make a world in opposition to God's Will and to his own, which is the same as
His. What could he hope to find in such a world? It cannot have reality, because
it never was created. Is it here that he would seek for peace? Or must he see
that, as he looks on it, the world can but deceive? Yet can he learn to look on
it another way, and find the peace of God.

(8) Peace is the bridge that everyone will cross, to leave this world behind.
But peace begins within the world perceived as different, and leading from this
fresh perception to the gate of Heaven and the way beyond. Peace is the answer
to conflicting goals, to senseless journeys, frantic, vain pursuits, and
meaningless endeavors. Now the way is easy, sloping gently toward the bridge
where freedom lies within the peace of God.

(9) Let us not lose our way again today. We go to Heaven, and the path is
straight. Only if we attempt to wander can there be delay, and needless wasted
time on thorny byways. God alone is sure, and He will guide our footsteps. He
will not desert His Son in need, nor let him stray forever from his home. The
Father calls; the Son will hear. And that is all there is to what appears to be
a world apart from God, where bodies have reality.

(10) Now is there silence. Seek no further. You have come to where the road is
carpeted with leaves of false desires, fallen from the trees of hopelessness you
sought before. Now are they underfoot. And you look up and on toward Heaven,
with the body's eyes but serving for an instant longer now. Peace is already
recognized at last, and you can feel its soft embrace surround your heart and
mind with comfort and with love.

(11) Today we seek no idols. Peace can not be found in them. The peace of God is
ours, and only this will we accept and want. Peace be to us today. For we have
found a simple, happy way to leave the world of ambiguity, and to replace our
shifting goals and solitary dreams with single purpose and companionship. For
peace is union, if it be of God. We seek no further. We are close to home, and
draw still nearer every time we say:

There is no peace except the peace of God,
And I am glad and thankful it is so.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Excerpted commentary from Kenneth Wapnick's book set
"Journey Through the Workbook of A Course in Miracles"

 http://www.facim.org ~ M. Street
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


Lesson 200. "There is no peace except the peace of God."

*This is the last full lesson in Part 1, a wonderful culmination of our previous
discussions. In centering on the theme of seeking and finding, and even in some
of its phrasing, this lesson reflects "Seek Not Outside Yourself" (T-29.VII).
Jesus helps us recognize that we are never really successful in seeking for
happiness and freedom from pain in the world. Whatever pleasure and peace we
seem to attain is short lived, for true happiness comes only from remembering
who we are as children of love. Yet if the body is a limitation on love, it is
impossible to find the love we seek here. Since we have been seeking in the
wrong place and, as a result, never finding what we want, we live in a constant
state of hopeless despair. Real hope, that offered by A Course in Miracles, lies
in going back to the problem and solution -- in our minds. If we seek for the
solution where it is, we will certainly find it. This message, then, is the
burden of the lesson.*

(1:1-2) "Seek you no further. You will not find peace except the peace of God."

*Peace cannot be found here, for the body and world were specifically made to
hide the source of peace of mind.*

(1:3-5) "Accept this fact, and save yourself the agony of yet more bitter
disappointments, bleak despair, and sense of icy hopelessness and doubt. Seek
you no further. There is nothing else for you to find except the peace of God,
unless you seek for misery and pain."

*The ego would have us seek for pain in the world, and then blame everyone else
for our misery. It never wants us to understand that the source of our suffering
lies in our choice for its thought system instead of the Holy Spirit's. To keep
this choice concealed and to guarantee we never change our minds, beginning at
birth and following our life's path until we die. Yet the misery is not our
fault -- we who sought for what we could never find -- for it was the idols of
specialness that failed us:

"The world believes in idols. No one comes unless he worshipped them, and
still attempts to seek for one that yet might offer him a gift reality does not
contain. Each worshipper of idols harbors hope his special deities will give him
more than other men possess. ... And when one fails another takes its place,
with hope of finding more of something else." (T-29:VIII.8:4-6,10).

"He does not see what he is asking for. And so he seeks it in a thousand
ways and in a thousand places, each time believing it is there, and each time
disappointed in the end. "Seek but do not find" remains this world's stern
decree, and no one who pursues the world's goal can do otherwise."
(M-13.5:6-8).*

(2) "This is the final point to which each one must come at last, to lay aside
all hope of finding happiness where there is none; of being saved by what can
only hurt; of making peace of chaos, joy of pain, and Heaven out of hell.
Attempt no more to win through losing, nor to die to live. You cannot but be
asking for defeat."

*The final point we reach is the realization we have been wrong; we will never
find hope or happiness, God or truth here. Indeed, we will never find anything
of value, for nothing here is meaningful. If, as Jesus says, the purpose of A
Course in Miracles is to save us time, we need not exhaust every possibility of
the special relationship, hoping "this time it will work." It will never work,
so we may as well not even begin. Ultimately we realize he was right and we were
wrong, but in the meantime we cause ourselves unnecessary pain and suffering by
continuing to search for happiness and hope in the body's specialness. At some
point we must see our mistake in believing that joy and freedom are pain and
imprisonment, and vice versa:

"The Holy Spirit will direct you only so as to avoid pain. Surely no one
would object to this goal if he recognized it. The problem is not whether what
the Holy Spirit says is true, but whether you want to listen to what He says.
You no more recognize what is painful than you know what is joyful, and are, in
fact, very apt to confuse the two. The Holy Spirit's main function is to teach
you to tell them apart. What is joyful to you is painful to the ego, and as long
as you are in doubt about what you are, you will be confused about joy and
pain." (T-29.VIII.8:4-6,10).

"He does not see what he is asking for. And so he seeks it in a thousand ways
and in a thousand places, each time believing it is there, and each time
disappointed in the end. "Seek but do not find" remains this world's stern
decree, and no one who pursues the world's goal can do otherwise."
(M.13.5:6-8).*

(3:1-2) "Yet you can ask as easily for love, for happiness, and for eternal life
in peace that has no ending. Ask for this, and you can only win."

*As Jesus often assures us, he is not denying us love, happiness, or peace, but
pointing out that we will never find them in the world. His course, however,
offers them to us, for the learning:

"Decide for God, and everything is given you at no cost at all. Decide
against Him, and you choose nothing, at the expense of the awareness of
everything. ... Atonement is for you. Your learning claims it and your learning
gives it. The world contains it not. But learn this course and it is yours."
(M-13.8:2-3,7-10).*

(3:4) "To ask for what you have already must succeed. To ask that what is false
be true can only fail."

*This is obvious when we look at our insane lives in which we try to prove that
God's truth is wrong and our illusions true: a world of hatred, betrayal,
loneliness, and despair. However, since the truth is already within us, we place
ourselves in perpetual conflict -- torn between teachers who lead us in opposite
directions. How could we not fail to learn?

"The curriculum of the Atonement is the opposite of the curriculum you have
established for yourself, but so is its outcome. If the outcome of yours has
made you unhappy, and if you want a different one, a change in the curriculum is
obviously necessary. The first change to be introduced is a change in direction.
A meaningful curriculum cannot be inconsistent. If it is planned by two
teachers, each believing in diametrically opposed ideas, it cannot be
integrated. If it is carried out by these two teachers simultaneously, each one
merely interferes with the other. ... The total senselessness of such a
curriculum must be fully recognized before a real change in direction becomes
possible. You cannot learn simultaneously from two teachers who are in total
disagreement about everything. Their joint curriculum presents an impossible
learning task. They are teaching you entirely different things in entirely
different ways, which might be possible except that both are teaching you about
yourself. Your reality is unaffected by both, but if you listen to both, your
mind will be split about what your reality is." (T-8.1.5:1-6,6).*

(3:5) "Forgive yourself for vain imaginings, and seek no longer what you cannot
find."

*Thus we look with Jesus at our guilt, and hear him say: "Look at your vain
imaginings, how mistaken you have been -- but look without judgment. There <is>
another way of looking at the world, not as a means of fulfilling your ego's
dreams, but as a classroom in which you learn of the reality beyond all dreams
-- your purpose for being here."

"To change all this [ dreams of depression, death, and disappointment ],
and open up a road of hope and of release in what appeared to be an endless
circle of despair, you need but to decide you do not know the purpose of the
world. You give it goals it does not have, and thus do you decide what it is
for. You try to see in it a place of idols found outside yourself ... [they] do
what you would have them do, and have the power you ascribe to them. And you
pursue them vainly in the dream, because you want their power as your own."
(T-29.VII.8:1-3,5-6).*

(3:6) For what could be more foolish than to seek and seek and seek again for
hell, when you have but to look with open eyes to find that Heaven lies before
you, through a door that opens easily to welcome you?"

*That door will open easily to welcome us when we welcome it, accomplished by
Christ's vision. Yet we do not welcome it, because then our specialness would
disappear. To restate this central point, we need to see how almost everything
we do conceals a thought that says: "I am going to prove this course does not
work, and that Jesus does not tell the truth." It is imperative we realize how
subtly that underlying thought influences our daily experiences.*

(4) "Come home. You have not found your happiness in foreign places and in alien
forms that have no meaning to you, though you sought to make them meaningful.
This world is not where you belong. You are a stranger here. But it is given you
to find the means whereby the world no longer seems to be a prison house or jail
for anyone."

*Among others, this refers specifically to Lesson 160, "I am at home. Fear is
the stranger here," and Lesson 182, "I will be still an instant and go home, and
consider whether the body is really where we wish to remain -- prisoner to guilt
and sorrow.

"The world you see is the delusional system of those made mad by guilt. Look
carefully at this world, and you will realize that this is so. For this world is
the symbol of punishment, and all the laws that seem to govern it are the laws
of death. Children are born into it through pain and in pain. Their growth is
attended by suffering, and they learn of sorrow and separation and death. Their
minds seem to be trapped in their brain, and its powers to decline if their
bodies are hurt. They seem to love, yet they desert and are deserted. They
appear to lose what they love, perhaps the most insane belief of all. And their
bodies wither and gasp and are laid in the ground, and are no more."
(T-13.in.2:2-10).*

(5:1-2) "Freedom is given you where you beheld but chains and iron doors. But
you must change your mind about the purpose of the world, if you would find
escape."

*This is another pellucid statement, reflecting the text's: "Seek not to change
the world, but choose to change your mind about the world" (T-21.in.1:7). The
purpose of the world, kept hidden by the ego, is to keep us mindless. It tells
us instead that the world's purpose is to maximize our pleasure, minimize our
pain, and blame everyone else for what goes wrong by our accepting no
responsibility for the world and its vicissitudes. Yet having chosen a new
Teacher, we see the world's purpose to be a classroom in which we learn the Holy
Spirit's lessons:

"The ego made the world as it perceives it, but the Holy Spirit, the
re-interpreter of what the ego made, sees the world as a teaching device for
bringing you home. ... Correct and learn, and be open to learning. You have not
made truth, but truth can still set you free. Look as the Holy Spirit looks, and
understand as He understands." (T-5.III.11:1,4-6).*

(5:3-5) "You will be bound till all the world is seen by you as blessed, and
everyone made free of your mistakes and honored as he is. You made him not; no
more yourself. And as you free the one, the other is accepted as he is."

*On the ego level we made our brother and ourselves. However, all we made were
the illusory "shadows of the past" (T-17.III). Our real Self has nothing to do
with the unreal, and so we need do nothing but change our minds and look
through Christ's vision. Everyone is made free of our mistakes because we are
one -- there can be no exceptions. Thus Jesus leads us to bless everyone in our
holy relationship, which his love exemplifies:

"My holy brother, I would enter into all your relationships, and step
between you and your fantasies. Let my relationship to you be real to you, and
let me bring reality to your perception of your brothers. ... Be not separate
from me, and let not the holy purpose of Atonement be lost to you in dreams of
vengeance. Relationships in which such dreams are cherished have excluded me.
Let me enter in the Name of God and bring you peace, that you may offer peace to
me." (T-17.III.10:1-2,6-8).*

(6:1-4) "What does forgiveness do? In truth it has no function, and does
nothing. For it is unknown in Heaven. It is only hell where it is needed, and
where it must serve a mighty function."

*At the beginning of Part II we will read of forgiveness: "[it] is still, and
quietly does nothing ... It merely looks, and waits, and judges not"
(W-pII.1.4.1,3). There is nothing to do, because there is no world in which to
act. Forgiveness merely undoes belief in such an illusory world, and thus has no
place in Heaven's truth, which needs no correction.*

(6:5-6) "Is not the escape of God's beloved Son from evil dreams that he
imagines, yet believes are true, a worthy purpose? Who could hope for more,
while there appears to be a choice to make between success and failure; love and
fear?"

*The choice between success and failure, love and fear is an illusory one. Yet
within the world's dream it is the only choice available to me. As long I
believe I can choose one or the other, both have become real, which means that
love has ceased to be itself and has turned into special love. True choice --
between truth and illusion -- occurs when I realize the world offers none. Once
I recognize I choose between illusions, both disappear. Even the forgiveness I
finally choose is an illusion, and yet it leads beyond them all as we go from
nightmares to happy dreams, and then awaken to the reality we never lost:

"You will first dream of peace, and then awaken to it. Your first exchange
of what you made for what you want is the exchange of nightmares for the happy
dreams of love. In these lie your true perceptions, for the Holy Spirit corrects
the world of dreams, where all perception is. Knowledge needs no correction. Yet
the dreams of love lead unto knowledge. In them you see nothing fearful, and
because of this they are the welcome that you offer knowledge. Love waits on
welcome, not on time, and the real world is but your welcome of what always was.
Therefore the call of joy is in it, and your glad response is your awakening to
what you have not lost." (T-13.VII.9).

As Jesus recommends in sentence 5, ask yourself as you go through your day: Is
it not a worthy purpose for me to see this day as one that could make me happy?
Am I not worthy to receive this gift? See how your day answers the negative that
says: "No, I am not worthy to awaken from the world's evil dreams of sorrow and
fear." Recall this last stanza of Helen's poem "The Quiet Dream," which
beautifully expresses our yes to the peace-filled fruits of Jesus' forgiveness:

What can remain of evil in the world
Christ's vision looks upon? And what could still
Appear to me as fearful, with the light
Of His perfection on it/ What could teach
Me sorrow has a cause, or death is real?
Help me forgive the world. The peace You give
In my forgiveness will be given me.
(The Gifts of God, p.65).*

(7:1) "There is no peace except the peace of God, because He has one Son who
cannot make a world in opposition to God's Will and to his own, which is the
same as His."

*There is no peace in this world because there is no world. We only thought
there was. The Holy Spirit's presence in our minds ensures that our wildest
nightmares and most vicious thoughts have had no effect on the peace of Heaven,
which remains far beyond our illusions:

"You whose mind is darkened by doubt and guilt, remember this: God gave the
Holy Spirit to you, and gave Him the mission to remove all doubt and every trace
of guilt that His dear Son has laid upon himself. It is impossible that this
mission fail. Nothing can prevent what God would have accomplished from
accomplishment. Whatever your reactions to the Holy Spirit's Voice may be,
whatever voice you choose to listen to, whatever strange thoughts may occur to
you, God's Will is done. You will find the peace in which He established you,
because He does not change His Mind. ... Peace will be yours because His peace
still flows to you from Him Whose Will is peace. You have it now. ... Learn that
even the darkest nightmare that disturbs the mind of God's sleeping Son holds no
power over him. ... Can God's Son lose himself in dreams, when God has placed
within him the glad call to waken and be glad?" (T-13.X1.5:1-5;8:4-5;9:5;10:1).*

(7:2-6) "What could he hope to find in such a world? It cannot have reality,
because it never was created. Is it here that he would seek for peace? Or must
he see that, as he looks on it, the world can but deceive? Yet can he learn to
look on it another way, and find the peace of God."

*Asking Jesus' help, we look on the specifics of our special relationships and
realize they do not work. They deceive because they will never provide what we
want: the return home. No one truly wants to be in this place of misery, pain,
and death. Yet we must see how we cherish the illusion there is cause for hope
here. In the context of payment in psychotherapy, Jesus reflects the ego's
proviso of seeking in the world, but never finding the salvation we truly seek:

"How much is gained by striving for illusions? How much is lost by throwing
God away? And is it possible to do so? Surely it is impractical to strive for
nothing, and to attempt to do what is impossible. Then stop a while, long enough
to think of this: You have perhaps been seeking for salvation without
recognizing where to look." (P-3.III.7:3-7).*

(8:1) "Peace is the bridge that everyone will cross, to leave this world
behind."

*In the text, Jesus refers to the bridge to the real world (T-16.VI) and how the
Holy Spirit is our Bridge to Heaven (T-16.IV.12.2). Peace, then, is the
inevitable effect of learning to forgive, and of taking Jesus' hand and
journeying with him unto our God:

"The Holy Spirit is the bridge to Him, made from your willingness to unite
with Him and created by His joy in union with you.... Turn with me firmly away
from all illusions now, and let nothing stand in the way of truth. We will take
the last useless journey away from truth together, and then together we go
straight to God, in joyous answer to His call for His completion."
(T-16.IV.12:2,5-6).*

(8:2) "But peace begins within the world perceived as different, and leading
from this fresh perception to the gate of Heaven and the way beyond."

*The eternity of the journey is encapsulated in this statement. I begin in my
perceptual world comprised of differences, the home of specialness. I then
realize that peace does not come from getting what I want from you, but
realizing that what I want is already within me. I need only choose it. I
realize that you and I are the same, and this new perception, born of the
miracle, leads me to the gate of Heaven -- the real world -- and I am alone:

"The miracles you do on earth are lifted up to Heaven and to Him. They
witness to what you do not know, and as they reach the gates of Heaven, God will
open them. For never would He leave His Own beloved Son outside them, and beyond
Himself." (T-13.VIII.10:5-7).*

(8:3-4) "Peace is the answer to conflicting goals, to senseless journeys,
frantic, vain pursuits, and meaningless endeavors. Now the way is easy, sloping
gently toward the bridge where freedom lies within the peace of God."

*This peace is unknown in Heaven, yet it comes from forgiveness here, enabling
us to remember Who we are as God's Son. It is a right-minded correction for
having chosen the wrong mind; the decision to forgive instead of condemn:

"How willing are you to forgive your brother? How much do you desire peace
instead of endless strife and misery and pain? These questions are the same, in
different form. Forgiveness is your peace, for herein lies the end of separation
and the dream of danger and destruction, sin and death; of madness and of
murder, grief and loss." (T-29.VI.1:1-4).*

(9:1-3) "Let us not lose our way again today. We go to Heaven, and the path is
straight. Only if we attempt to wander can there be delay, and needless wasted
time on thorny byways."

*We can delay this as long as we wish, but the outcome is still certain. Why,
though, would we want to continue to journey along painful, thorny detours, when
we could experience the gladness of joining with Jesus and all our brothers on
the lawns of Heaven?

"Let us be glad that we can walk the world, and find so many chances to
perceive another situation where God's gift can once again be recognized as
ours! And thus will all the vestiges of hell, the secret sins and hidden hates
be gone. And all the loveliness which they concealed appear like lawns of Heaven
to our sight, to lift us high above the thorny roads we travelled on before the
Christ appeared. Hear me, my brothers, hear and join with me. God has ordained I
cannot call in vain, and in His certainty I rest content." (T-31.VIII.9:1-5).*

(9:4-7) "God alone is sure, and He will guide our footsteps. He will not desert
His Son in need, nor let him stray forever from his home. The Father calls; the
Son will hear. And that is all there is to what appears to be a world apart from
God, where bodies have reality."

*Nothing of certainty can be found in this world, whose only purpose is to be a
classroom in which we learn to recognize, and then answer the Holy Spirit in our
minds. Within that surety the world disappears into the quietness of God:

"Then follow Him in joy, with faith that He will lead you safely through
all dangers to your peace of mind this world may set before you. Kneel not
before the altars to sacrifice, and seek not what you will surely lose. Content
yourself with what you will as surely keep, and be not restless, for you
undertake a quiet journey to the peace of God, where He would have you be in
quietness." (T-13.VII.15).*

(10:1-4) "Now is there silence. Seek no further. You have come to where the road
is carpeted with leaves of false desires, fallen from the trees of hopelessness
you sought before. Now are they underfoot."

*The road we trod upon is the pathway of the world, marked by hopelessness and
despair. Now we realize there is another way of looking. The fallen leaves of
false desires are behind us, and we recognize the path that will lead us beyond
them to our home. This requires our unequivocal acknowledgment that nothing in
this world has ever worked. Yet must we realize how strenuously we resist this
step, because we will still believe something here will bring us happiness. It
is necessary we see how open we are to changing anything and everything, as long
as we do not have to change our minds. Recall Helen's poem "Conversion" which
contrasts the ego's silence with God'. Here are the first two stanzas,
reflecting each silence:

There is a silence that betrays the Christ
Because the Word of God remains unheard
By those in bitter need. Unspoken still
The Word salvation holds for them, and kept
Away their resurrection from a world
That is but hell and alien to God's Son.
Homeless they wander, nowhere finding peace,
Unknown, unknowing, blind in darkness, and
Unborn within the silence of the tomb

There is a silence into which God's Word
Has poured an ancient meaning, and is still.
Nothing remains unsaid nor unreceived.
Strange dreams are washed in golden water from
The blazing silence of the peace of God,
And what was evil suddenly becomes
The gift of Christ to those who call on Him.
His final gift is nothing but a dream,
Yet in that single dream is dreaming done.
(The Gifts of God, p.61).*

(10:5-6) "And you look up and on toward Heaven, with the body's eyes but serving
for an instant longer now. Peace is already recognized at last, and you can feel
its soft embrace surround your heart and mind with comfort and with love."

*When we change our minds about the world's purpose, everything shifts. Rather
than the world being a prison, it becomes the means by which we leave the
prison entirely. That is the comfort, love, and soft embrace of peace we now
begin to feel. The world does not change; we change. Rather than constantly
striving after the world's "leaves of false desires," we rise above them, our
gaze directed only toward Heaven.*

(11:1-3) ) "Today we seek no idols. Peace can not be found in them. The peace of
God is ours, and only this will we accept and want."

*This is hardly easy. Recall that Lesson 185, "I want the peace of God," began
with the words: "To say these words is nothing. But to mean these words is
everything." We thus need to let go of the peace we sought here, understanding
that continued seeking for its idols will not work:

All idols of this world were made to keep the truth within from being known
to you, and to maintain allegiance to the dream that you must find what is
outside yourself to be complete and happy. It is vain to worship idols in the
hope of peace. God dwells within, and your completion lies in Him. ... To ...
open up a road of hope and of release in what appeared to be an endless circle
of despair, you need but to decide you do not know the purpose of the world ...
You try to see in it a place of idols found outside yourself ... [S]peed the end
of idols in a world made sad and sick by seeing idols there. Your holy mind is
altar unto God, and where He is no idols can abide.
(T-29.VII.6:1-3;8:1,3,9:4-5).*

(11:4-5) "Peace be to us today. For we have found a simple, happy way to leave
the world of ambiguity, and to replace our shifting goals and solitary dreams
with single purpose and companionship."

*What unifies your worldly experiences is the single purpose that comes from the
single teacher in your mind. See everything that occurs during the day as part
of your script to enslave you and everyone else, but which you now turn into a
happy classroom that Jesus uses to teach you to awaken from the dream. Yet see
how quickly you forget. You close your book and forget everything you just read.
Therefore, join with Jesus in watching this ego reaction, and hear him explain
the fear of realizing you were wrong, which means your identity was misplaced --
you are not separate and alone, but one with the Sonship, the Holy Spirit, and
God.*

(11:6) "For peace is union, if it be of God."

*The Oneness of Christ within Himself, and His Oneness with God are reflected
here in the one purpose of forgiveness we share with everyone. Peace cannot but
follow.*

(11:7-9) " We seek no further. We are close to home, and draw still nearer every
time we say:

There is no peace except the peace of God,
And I am glad and thankful it is so."

*The key is to be glad and thankful this world will never give us to what we
want. Our egos are ungrateful this is so, for it does not want us to see that
the world fails to satisfy our needs. True gratitude, however, comes in
realizing: "Thank God I was wrong, for now I find the peace for which I always
yearned. it will not be found here, but I gratefully know it is in my mind,
along with Jesus and my brothers." And then in the blessed silence of God's
peace our words are still, for our heart sings its silent song of gratitude, as
in Helen's poem "The Peace of God".

Silence and nothing more. There is no sound
And nothing to be seen. No fingers still
Grasp at the world. All prayers have been forgot,
For there is nothing now that can be asked.
The Voice for God no longer speaks. There is
No need remaining. There was once a time,
Now unremembered, when there was a world.
A Word is spoken, and the world is done.
(The Gifts of God, p.94.) *