A Course Of Love, BOOK 3: CHAPTER 5:

5.1 Within this Course your “imitation” of creation was often spoken of. This was about your ability to “remember” much of creation in a non-cognitive, intuitive way. It was also about the minor distortions that occurred between this non-cognitive memory and how you acted upon it, distortions that created major departures from the nature of creation.

5.2 These distortions occurred as you assigned meaning or “truth” to things, truly believing in your ability to do so. You thus determined what the world around you was meant to represent. It was in much the same way that the ego came to represent you.

5.3 What we are doing now is returning the world to its true representation. As was said in “A Treatise on the Personal Self”, there is a huge difference between a true representation and a false representation. While the false representation of the ego self led to the world you see, it did not change the truth but only created illusion. Thus the truth is still available to be seen.

5.4 The world without was created as a true representation of the world within, and as you become aware of the truth represented in all that encompasses and surrounds you, the boundaries between the inner and outer world will diminish and eventually cease to be.

5.5 Let me provide you with an example that illustrates how one aspect of what was created in the pattern of learning, while not being seen in the way it was intended, still represents what is and thus contains all meaning or the truth.

5.6 When two bodies join and joy results from this joining, this is form mimicking content—form representing what “is.” The form was created in order to show—to teach—that joining is the way. Think of the word desire and its association with sex. To desire someone is to desire joining. This desire was created to remind you—to point the way—to your true desire for your true identity as a being joined in oneness. This seeking of completion through oneness, this joining, is a true representation that shows you that completion does not come of standing alone but of joining, as love does not come alone but in relationship.

5.7 You have determined sex to be the ultimate fulfillment of love and called it “making love.” If it were painful rather than pleasurable, pleasurable, if you did not lose yourself and experience completion, you would not desire it. Sex, experienced for this pleasure and completion, regardless of emotional attachment or non-attachment, still would produce the desired effect of creating desire for oneness if you truly saw and understood the body and its acts as representative of truth. You have thought the things you do represent your drives, but they simply represent what was given to help you remember and return to who you truly are.

5.8 Obviously—as you have been told that the ego has represented a false self—it is possible to misrepresent. But the new world you have entered need not be filled with misrepresentations, for you are cause and effect. It is through the representation of the true that the false is exposed as nothing. A lie is nothing but a lie. The false is nothing but the false. It does not become some “thing,” for in the becoming it would need to take on the properties of the truth. Think of the ego again as an example here. The ego but seemed to be who you were for a time. Now that you know who you are in truth, the ego does not remain, a separate entity with a life of its own. No. The ego is gone. Because it was a lie its exposure to the truth dissolved it.

5.9 Thus must it be now with everything in your world. Everywhere you look the lie of false representation will be exposed and the truth will be represented once again. As was said earlier, this seeing of the truth is the first step as it is the step necessary for the restoration of divine design. True seeing facilitates the return to what is and we but proceed from this starting point.

5.10 While you have learned to take judgment from your seeing, this must be reemphasized now as you are called to see what you might previously have thought of as inconsequential in the light of truth. Everything given represents the truth.

5.11 Remember now that you are not called to reinterpret but to accept revelation. You will not arrive at the truth through thinking about what everything means. This is the old way that led to so much misinterpretation and misrepresentation. Acceptance of what is given is acceptance of what is given. All was given to you to remind you of who you are in the time of learning that is now passing away. Thus all was given to you to represent what is rather than to be what is. Now, as you join with the truth, your representation, in the new time that is before us, will be what is, in its representation. Simply put, this means that form will never be all that you are, but will return to being as it was intended and will represent the truth of who you are. This true representation, being of the truth, returns you to the reality of the truth where you exist in oneness.

5.12 Love and the loving patterns given in the time of learning are all that exist in all you see. But what now will become of these patterns that are no longer needed as your learning and that of those around you comes to an end? What was created to serve the time of learning, to represent what is and aid you in your return to what is, will become what is once again. What you can see with your body’s eyes will not be all that is but will represent all that is truly.

5.13 What was made of what was created in order to serve the ego will cease to be, just as the ego has ceased to be. To outline and define the differences between what was created and what was made would be to create a tome of information, and this is not needed now. The desire for such is a desire to think through once again the meaning of everything and to have a tool to help you do so. This would assume that you are still a learning being and have need of such help. You are no longer a learning being and need not this assistance.

5.14 In this time of Christ, we are not called to recreate the “tools” of learning but to allow all that was created to show the way back to Self and God to be what it is in truth. This is the return of love to love. This is acceptance of your Self.

5.15 What then is the call to creation that has been spoken of? This is the acceptance of the new you—acceptance that you are going beyond simple recognition and acceptance of the Self as God created the Self—to the living of this Self in form. This is an acceptance that recognizes that while the Self that God created is eternal and the self of form as ancient as the sea and stars, the elevated Self of form is new and will create a new world. 5.16This is the answer to the question of “What is next?” If there is nothing to learn, if coursework is behind you and accomplishment is complete, what then are you to do? You are to create in community, in dialogue, in commitment and togetherness. You are to be the living Covenant of the New.

5.17 But while this is what awaits you, I am merely answering the questions that remain and that occur as this dialogue proceeds. What I am attempting to answer now is your confusion concerning what is. This is crucial as you learn to accept what is and to deny what is not. While the question of what is not has been answered as fully as is possible, your questions and my answers in regard to what is are somewhat confusing to you, because what is is not a constant that can be answered. That you want answers while I tell you to await revelation speaks to the impatience of the human spirit, the longing that has so long gone unfulfilled that now that you are close you cannot bear to wait another day, another hour. You want release from your prison now, and so you should.

5.18 Yet what you think imprisons you is also what I am addressing here. Release through death is no longer the answer. Release through life is the answer. Release through resurrection is the answer. You have died to the old. But surely it would seem easier in some ways to have literally died and been released from the prison of the body, the prison of the Earth and your immediate environment, the prison of your mind and the thoughts that so confuse you, the prison of past and future and a now that isn’t changing fast enough to suit the new you whom you have become.

5.19 This is what we discuss today. We discuss being what you represent in truth. We discuss the elevation of form. And what we have discussed thus far is the acceptance of form as what it is. This is the new reality you have desired. To live as who you are in form. To not wait for death’s release but to find release while still living in form. Thus we begin with the true content of the form you occupy. We return the form you occupy to its natural state. Only then can we proceed to creation of the new. Because Christ-consciousness is consciousness of what is, we begin with what is, with creation as it was created rather than as you have perceived it to be. From this starting point only can we move forward to the future we create together.

5.20 What I’m revealing to you here is that what was once a prison may no longer be a prison! If you continue to think of your body as a prison, if you continue to think of your environment, your mind, and time as a prison, how can it exist in perfect harmony with the universe? As you can see, you are now approaching another thought reversal. Fear not that your confusion will last, for with this thought reversal will come your final release.

5.21 You will soon wonder, if you haven’t already, just how it is going to be possible to live as your new Self while still in form, while still in a form that seems inconsistent with your being, while still in a form that exists within a form, within a world that seems inconsistent with your being. You will wonder how, if you are done learning, the patterns of learning will change to help you embrace the acceptance of this new time of no time. You will wonder how to live in time as a being no longer bound by time. And I tell you truly, that once acceptance of what is is complete, we will go on to these questions of the new and together we will find the answers.

5.22 So let today’s dialogue serve as a final call, a most emphatic call, to acceptance. See the importance of this acceptance to everything that is still to come. Hesitate no longer. Let your willingness exceed your trepidation. No longer wait to be told more before you accept what you have already been told. Do not wait for a grander call before you accept the call that has already sounded in your heart. Let this be the day of your final surrender, the day that will usher in a new day.

Perron, Mari. A Course of Love: Combined Volume (p. 388). Take Heart Publications. Kindle Edition.