The Law of the Kingdom

Chapter 7.2 – The Law of the Kingdom
 
To heal is the only kind of thinking in this world that resembles the Thought
of God, and because of the elements they share, can transfer easily to it.
 
When a brother perceives himself as sick, he is perceiving himself as not
whole, and therefore in need. If you, too, see him this way, you are seeing
him as if he were absent from the Kingdom or separated from it, thus
making the Kingdom itself obscure to both of you. Sickness and separation
are not of God, but the Kingdom is. If you obscure the Kingdom, you are
perceiving what is not of God.
 
To heal, then, is to correct perception in your brother and yourself by
sharing the Holy Spirit with him. This places you both within the Kingdom,
and restores its wholeness in your mind. This reflects creation, because it
unifies by increasing and integrates by extending. What you project or
extend is real for you. This is an immutable law of the mind in this world as
well as in the Kingdom. However, the content is different in this world,
because the thoughts it governs are very different from the Thoughts in the
Kingdom. Laws must be adapted to circumstances if they are to maintain
order. The outstanding characteristic of the laws of mind as they operate in
this world is that by obeying them, and I assure you that you must obey
them, you can arrive at diametrically opposed results. This is because the
laws have been adapted to the circumstances of this world, in which
diametrically opposed outcomes seem possible because you can respond to
two conflicting voices.
 
Outside the Kingdom, the law that prevails inside is adapted to “What you
project you believe.” This is its teaching form, because outside the Kingdom
learning is essential. This form implies that you will learn what you are
from what you have projected onto others, and therefore believe they are. In
the Kingdom there is no teaching or learning, because there is no belief.
 
There is only certainty. God and his sons, in the surety of being, know that
what you extend you are. That form of the law is not adapted at all, being
the law of creation. God himself created the law by creating by it. And his
sons, who create like him, follow it gladly, knowing that the increase of the
Kingdom depends on it, just as their own creation did.
 
Laws must be communicated if they are to be helpful. In effect, they must
be translated for those who speak different languages. Nevertheless, a good
translator, although he must alter the form of what he translates, never
changes the meaning. In fact, his whole purpose is to change the form so
that the original meaning is retained. The Holy Spirit is the Translator of the
laws of God to those who do not understand them. You could not do this
yourself because a conflicted mind cannot be faithful to one meaning, and
will therefore change the meaning to preserve the form.
 
The Holy Spirit’s purpose in translating is exactly the opposite. He
translates only to preserve the original meaning in all respects and in all
languages. Therefore, he opposes the idea that differences in form are
meaningful, emphasizing always that these differences do not matter. The
meaning of his message is always the same; only the meaning matters.
 
God’s law of creation does not involve the use of truth to convince his Sons
of truth. The extension of truth, which is the law of the Kingdom, rests only
on the knowledge of what truth is. This is your inheritance and requires no
learning at all, but when you disinherited yourself you became a learner of
necessity.
 
No one questions the connection of learning and memory. Learning is
impossible without memory since it must be consistent to be remembered.
 
That is why the Holy Spirit’s teaching is a lesson in remembering. I said
before that he teaches remembering and forgetting, but the forgetting is only
to make the remembering consistent. You forget in order to remember
better. You will not understand his translations while you listen to two ways
of interpreting them. Therefore you must forget or relinquish one to
understand the other. This is the only way you can learn consistency, so that
you can finally be consistent.
 
What can the perfect consistency of the Kingdom mean to the confused? It
is apparent that confusion interferes with meaning, and therefore prevents
the learner from appreciating it. There is no confusion in the Kingdom,
because there is only one meaning. This meaning comes from God and is
God. Because it is also you, you share it and extend it as your Creator did.
 
This needs no translation because it is perfectly understood, but it does need
extension because it means extension. Communication is perfectly direct
and perfectly united. It is totally free, because nothing discordant ever
enters. That is why it is the Kingdom of God. It belongs to him and is
therefore like him. That is its reality, and nothing can assail it.