OrEd-T-21.2-The Imagined World

OrEd-T-21.2-The Imagined World3. The world the sightless "see" must be imagined, for what it really looks like is unknown to them. They must infer from INDIRECT evidence, and reconstruct their inferences. They stumble and fall, or walk unharmed through doors that they thought were closed. So it is with me. I do not see. My cues for inference are wrong. I stumble, fall down, and am not aware I can go through doors I thought were closed. But the doors stand open before my unseeing eyes, waiting in welcome for me. 4. The world must be seen, before I can recognize the world for what it is. What can be seen, cannot be imagined or judged. Judgment will give me false directions that lead to darkness. Vision shows me which doors are open that lead to safety and the light. Why should I guess which way to go?5. There is no need to learn through pain. Gentle lessons are acquired joyously and are remembered gladly. I want to learn and not forget what gives me happiness. I would not deny this. Our question is whether the means by which this course is learned will bring us the joy it promises. If we believed it would, the learning would be no problem. We are not happy learners yet, because we are uncertain that vision gives us more than judgment. And we have learned that we cannot have both vision and judgment. 6. The blind become accustomed to their world by their adjustments to it. They think they know their way around in their world. So they KEEP the world they learned to "see" in their imagination, believing that their choice is that or nothing. They hate the world they learned through pain and stern limits they believed they could not overcome, not understanding the limiting lessons keep them blind. And everything they "see" in their world serves to remind them that they are incomplete and bitterly deprived. And still they cannot see. 7. Thus they define their life and where they live, adjusting to it as they think they must, afraid to lose the little that they have. And so it is with all who see the body as all they have and all their brothers have. They try to reach each other, failing again and again. And they adjust to loneliness, believing that to keep the body is to save the little that they have. I will listen to what Jesus speaks of now, and try to remember: 8. Listening---perhaps I will catch a hint of an ancient state, dim and almost forgotten, and yet familiar, like a song whose name and the circumstances where I heard it are forgotten. The whole song has not stayed with me, only a little wisp of the melody, not associated with a person, place, or anything particular. Yet remembering from this little part, how lovely was the song, how wonderful where I heard it, and how I loved those who were there, and listened with me.9. I have kept the notes with me, not for themselves, but as a soft reminder of what would make me weep if I remembered how dear the song was to me. Nothing in the world I learned is so dear as this. I listen to see if I remember what I knew so long ago, and held more dear than any melody I taught myself to cherish since. I could remember, yet I am afraid, believing I would lose the world I learned, since then. 10. There is an arc of familiar golden light, that stretches into a great, shining circle, as I look beyond the body, beyond the sun and stars, past everything I see. And all the circle fills with light before my eyes. The edges of the circle disappear, and what is in the circle is not contained at all. The light expands, covering everything, forever shining, extending to infinity, with no break or limit anywhere. Within the light, everything is joined in perfect continuity. There is nowhere that this light is not, and it is impossible to imagine that anything could be outside. 11. I know well this vision of the Son of God. This is the sight of him who knows his Father. Here is the memory of what I am---a part of this, with all of it within, and joined to all as surely as all is joined in me. I accept the vision which can show me this, and not the body. I know well the ancient song. Nothing will ever be as dear to me as is this ancient hymn of love the Son of God still sings to his Father. 12. And now the blind can see, for that same song they sing in honor of their Creator gives praise to them as well. The blindness which they made, will not withstand the memory of this song. And they look upon the vision of the Son of God, remembering it is of him they sing. The light in one awakens the light in all. And when we see the light in each other, we are remembering for everyone, for this memory lies in everyone. This remembering is the miracle!