I Would Be in His Presence Now.
1. This is a day of quiet and of trust.
²It is a time especially promising in the calendar of your days.
³It is a time Heaven has appointed to cast a timeless Light upon this day, where echoes of eternity are heard.
⁴This day is holy, for it marks a fresh beginning, a new experience, a different kind of feeling, and a renewed awareness.
⁵You have spent many days and nights in celebration of death.
⁶Today you will learn to feel the joy of Life.
2. This is another turning point in the curriculum. I
²Now we introduce a new dimension.
³A fresh experience that sheds Light on everything we have already learned, and prepares us for what remains to learn.
⁴This experience leads us to the threshold where learning ends, and we catch a glimpse of what lies beyond the highest levels of what can be learned.
⁵It leaves us there for an instant, and then we move beyond—certain of our direction and of our one intent.
3. Today you will be given a glimpse of Heaven, though you will return again to the ways of learning.
²But you have come far enough along the road to alter time, to rise above its laws, and walk for just a while into eternity.
³You will learn to do this more and more, as every lesson well practiced brings you more quickly to this holy place and leaves you for a moment in the arms of your true Self.
4. He will direct your practice today, for what you desire now is but to do His Will.
²And as you join your will with His today, what you ask will be given you.
³You need but today’s idea to light your mind and let it rest in quiet expectation and in joyful peace, by which you swiftly leave the world behind.
5. From this day forward your ministry will gain a real devotion and a glow that touches all whom you encounter, blessing all those you look upon.
²And a vision will reach everyone you meet, or think of, or who thinks of you.
³For what you experience today will so transform your mind that it will become the touchstone for the holy Thoughts of God.
6. Your body will be sanctified today, for its only purpose now is to bring the vision of what you experience today to light the world.
²An experience like this cannot be directly conveyed.
³Yet it leaves a vision in our eyes which we can give to all, that they may come a little closer to the time when they will share this same experience—one in which the world is gently left behind and Heaven is remembered for a while.
7. As this experience intensifies, and all goals but this become of little worth, the world to which you return becomes a little closer to the end of time—more like the Heaven in its forms and nearer to its release.
²And you, who bring the light, will see that light more clearly.
³There will come a time when you will not return in the same form you now appear to have, for you will have no need of it.
⁴But for now it has a purpose, and it will serve it well.
8. Today we undertake a journey new to you—one that you cannot even imagine.
²But the Holy One—The Giver of the happy dreams of Life, the Translator of perception into Truth, the Holy Guide to Heaven given to you—has dreamed this journey for you now, that you might have this day’s experience. II
9. Now we enter in the Presence of Christ serenely, with nothing else on which to focus but His radiant Face and His perfect Love.
²The vision of His Face will stay with you, but there will be a moment that transcends all vision, even this—the holiest of all. III
³This you cannot teach, for you did not learn it.
⁴Yet the vision speaks of your remembrance of what you knew in that instant, and will surely know again.
I The previous turning point in learning is the one that occurs when you truly learn to forgive. “It begins with hope, for we have come to a turning point from which the way becomes much easier” (W-122.10:2). First you forgive, and then you are lifted into an ecstatic vision of Heaven.
II Psalm 16:10 “For You will not abandon my soul to hell, nor will You allow Your Holy One to see corruption.”
Mark 1:24 “Saying, ‘Leave us alone! What have we to do with You, Jesus of Nazareth? Have You come to destroy us? I know who You are—the Holy One of God.’”
Here, the Holy One is the Holy Spirit.
III Today’s lesson is very special. It is not a lesson to be done, but to be experienced. Today you are invited to a deeper silence, to a more radical trust. You are not asked to understand anything, nor to make any effort. You are only asked to be available. Only to say yes. This is a holy day.
Today you are asked to go, without expectations, to the meeting with an experience that transcends all that the world can offer. It is the mystical experience of union with Reality. Nothing more and nothing less. The same one referred to at the end of the Course, in the Introduction to the Glossary: “A universal theology is impossible, but a universal experience is not only possible but necessary” (G-1.2:5).
This entire Course has been designed to lead you here: to the gates of the Presence. All your training, all your inner work, had no other purpose than this: that you remember who you are. That you cease identifying with a personal story and once again recognize your eternal, invulnerable, perfect Self. That is awakening.
You cannot force this experience, but you can desire it. You can create the space for it to occur. You can step aside, grow still, and open yourself. Even if it lasts only an instant, that instant is enough. For it is not an instant of the world: it is a remembrance of what has always been.
Approach it in peace and devotion. Expect nothing. Seek no sensations. Simply offer your small will so that your true Will may be shown to you. For all your time in this world, all that you seem to have lived, has been only the preparation for this. To remember. To return. To awaken.