T. 22. III. 6 – 9. Jesus: “The body’s eyes, made not to see, will never see! For the idea of separation they represent, has left not its maker. And it is their maker that uses them for its ’seeing!’ What was their maker’s goal but not to see? For this the body’s eyes are perfect means, but not for truly seeing!
See how the body’s eyes rest on external appearances and cannot go beyond them! Watch how, unable to go beyond the form to meaning, they stop at nothingness! Nothing is so blinding as perception of form. For sight of form means understanding has been obscured!
Only mistakes have different forms. That is why they can easily deceive! You can change a form because it is not true! It could not be reality because it can be changed. Reason will tell you, however, that if form is not reality it must be an illusion, and is not really there to see! And if you see it, you must be mistaken, for you are seeing what cannot be real as if it were! What cannot see beyond ‘what is not there’ must be distorted perception, and must perceive illusions as the truth. Could it, then, recognize the truth?
Let not the form of his mistakes keep you from your brother, whose holiness is yours. Let not the vision of his holiness, the sight of which would show you your forgiveness, be kept from you by what the body’s eyes can see.
Let your awareness of your brother not be blocked by your perception of his sins and of his body! What is there in him that you would attack except what you associate with his body, which you believe can sin? Beyond his errors is his holiness, and your salvation! You saw not his holiness in him, but tried to see your sins in him to save yourself. And yet, his holiness is your forgiveness! Can you be saved by making sinful the one whose holiness is your salvation?
A holy relationship, however newly born, must value holiness above all else. Any unholy values will produce confusion in the relationship and in your awareness. In an unholy relationship, each one is valued because he seems to justify the other’s sin. Each sees within the other what impels him ‘to sin against his will!’ And thus he lays his sins upon the other, and is attracted to the other to perpetuate his sins. And so it must become impossible for each to see himself as causing sin by his desire to have sin real.
Yet reason sees a holy relationship as what it is; a common state of mind, where both give errors gladly to correction, that both may happily be healed as one!”