T. 20. VII. 5 – 9. Jesus: “The body is the means by which the ego tries to make the unholy relationship seem real. The unholy instant is the time of bodies. But the purpose here is sin, the attempt to make separation real! It cannot be attained but in illusion, and so the illusion of ‘a brother as a body’ is quite in keeping with the ego’s purpose. Because of this ‘consistency,’ the means remain unquestioned while the unholy end still is cherished.
You see but what you want! Seeing adapts to wish, for sight is always secondary to desire. And if you see the body, you have chosen ego judgment and not vision. For vision, like relationships, has no order. You either see or not!
Who sees a brother ‘as a body’ does so by laying a judgment on him as ‘something separate,’ and thereby sees him not. He does not really see him as sinful, but looking with judgment, he just does not see him at all! In the darkness of sin, your brother is invisible! He can but be imagined in the darkness! And it is here in the darkness that the illusions you hold about him are kept from the bright light of his reality. Here are illusions and reality kept separated. Here are illusions never brought to truth, and always hidden from it. And here, in darkness, is your brother’s reality imagined as a body, in unholy relationships with other bodies, serving the cause of sin for an instant before he dies!
There is indeed a difference between this vain imagining and vision! The difference lies not in them, but in their purpose. Both are but means, each one appropriate to the end for which it is employed. Neither can serve the purpose of the other, for each one entails a choice of purpose, then employed on its behalf. Either imagining or vision is meaningless without the end for which it was intended, nor is it valued as a separate thing apart from the intention. The means seem real only because the goal is valued. And judgment has no value unless the goal is sin!
The body cannot be looked upon except through judgment! To see the body is the sign that you lack vision, and have denied the means the Holy Spirit offers you to serve His purpose. How can a holy relationship achieve its purpose through the means contrived for sin?
Judgment you have taught yourself; vision is learned from Him Who would undo your past learning. The Holy Spirit’s vision cannot see the body because it cannot look on sin. And thus it leads you to reality. Your holy brother, sight of whom is your release, is no illusion. Attempt to see him not in darkness, for your imaginings about him will seem real there. You closed your holy eyes to shut him out. Such was your purpose, and while this purpose seems to have a meaning, the means for its attainment will be evaluated as worth the sacrifice of seeing, and so you will not see!
Your question should not be, ‘How can I see my brother without the body?’ Ask yourself only, ‘Do I really wish to see him sinless?’ And as you ask, forget not that his sinlessness is your escape from fear. Salvation is the Holy Spirit’s goal. The means is vision. For what the seeing look upon is only sinless.
No one who loves can judge, and what he sees is free of condemnation. And what he sees he did not make, for it was given him to see, as was the vision that made his seeing possible.“