T. 18. VII. 4 – 6. Jesus: “It is impossible to accept the holy instant without reservation, unless, just for an instant, you are willing to see no past or future. You would not mistakenly attempt to ‘prepare for’ the holy instant unless you judged it to be ‘only in the future!’ But in actuality, release is given you the very instant you wholly desire it!
Many have spent an entire lifetime ‘in preparation,’ and have indeed, eventually achieved their instants of success. This course does not attempt to teach more than they in time learned, but it does aim at saving time. You may be attempting to follow a very long and circuitous road to the goal you have recently accepted. It is extremely difficult to reach Atonement by ‘fighting against sin,’ which is what your ‘preparation’ would presumably consist of. Enormous effort can be expended in the attempt to ‘make holy’ a self that is hated and despised!
Nor is a lifetime of contemplation and long periods of meditation, all aimed at detachment from the body, really necessary. All such attempts will ultimately succeed because of their purpose. Yet the means are tedious and very time consuming, for all of them look to the future for release from a state of present unworthiness and inadequacy. Your way will be different, not in purpose but in means.
A holy relationship is a means of saving time. One instant of wholeness spent together with your brother restores the universe to both of you. You are prepared! Now you need but to remember, you need do nothing. It would be far more profitable now merely to concentrate on this than to contemplate what you ‘should do.’
When peace comes at last to those who wrestle with temptation and fight against ‘the giving in to sin;’ when the light comes at last into the mind given to contemplation; or when the Holy Spirit’s goal is finally achieved by anyone, it always comes with just one happy realization; ‘I need do nothing.’ Here is the ultimate release which everyone will one day find in his own way, at his own time. You do not need to take all that time, however.
Time has been saved for you when you experience in the holy relationship that you and your brother are joined as one. This is the special means this course is using to save you time. You are not making use of this course if you insist on using means which may have served others well, while neglecting what was made for you.
Save time for me by only this one ‘preparation,’ and practice doing nothing else! ‘I need do nothing’ is a statement of allegiance, of truly undivided loyalty. Believe in it for just one instant, and you will accomplish more than is given to a century of contemplation, or of struggle against temptation!”