There is an edifice that you have built to block out light. You built this edifice out of thought, and you did it because you thought it was essential for your safety. You thought, and you think, that it protects you from punishment. What you forgot is that punishment belongs to the illusion you made with thought in order to disguise your true nature. This is why you see punishing scenarios being enacted around you, why you may look into a future in which punishing scenarios for the world, for others, or for yourself seem likely, why you remember a past during which punishing scenarios for the world, for others, or for yourself seem to have taken place.

You forgot that it is impossible for punishment to come from what is Real. Punishment cannot come from what is Real because punishment doesn’t truly exist. Punishment can only come from illusion, and it can only be experienced as such if you believe you are a separate you–a body–subject to the illusion.

In any moment of disquiet you experience, you are using thought to build the edifice–the separate identity, the body identification for you and others–that you believe protects you from punishment. Today we present to you an altar of light. We invite you to place these beliefs on the altar:

• I am a body.
• Every other that I see or think about is a body.
• Punishment is coming for me and others.
• Punishment has happened to me and others in the past.
• I need to keep myself safe.
• I need to avoid future punishment, so I need to control things.

Who would you be without these beliefs? Who would everyone perceived as other be without these beliefs? Give the beliefs any seeming physical form you want to give them. Maybe each belief is a rope you have used to tie yourself and others down in limits. As you place the ropes upon the altar, watch as they dissolve into nothingness. 

Every time you feel a moment of disquiet or stress, it is a signal that you are using thought to build the edifice that keeps you seeing you as a separate and threatened self, seeing others as separate and threatened selves. The alternative is seeing you all, without exception, as unified and blessed. We invite you to notice two things. The first is that that you are much less tolerant of stress than you used to be. The second is that even though you are not as tolerant of stress, you can see that you are still very tolerant of it. Woven into the experience to which you are accustomed is stress, defense and disquiet. Now that you can see it, you can allow it to be dismantled. 

It is dismantled for you. You are always served. You are always loved as the perfect being you have always been. As you allow yourself to be served, you serve all others effortlessly and without strain, in joy and in peace.

You fear the light because ego has been telling you for all of time that it is the source of punishment, but when you allow it to be uncovered, you’ll find it very helpful. Every situation you could point to in the world you see, calling it “problem,” is a distraction from the fact that you fear light and are attempting to block it. Your blocking of the light can be disguised by what you perceive to be problems–personal problems, world problems, any problems at all. They are all distractions made of thought. When you acknowledge this and find your willingness to allow the light to shine, you quite naturally stop blocking the light.

It is a very deep habit to use fear defensively, but every day now is about allowing this fear to be exposed so you can let go of it. When you can see where you are holding onto fear as a defense, you can let go of it.

This is why you owe your gratitude to every being you experience in the physical and to every being who comes to mind. No exceptions. If there were exceptions, that would mean that the beings have different values, and that is not possible. Each being comes into your physical experience or into your mind to help you remember how to allow your edifice to disintegrate. If you look at it in this way–that everyone is specifically here to help you, whether they seem to realize it or not–this is where you find that genuine gratitude. This is the home of humility, of seeing your right-now equality. You need each other equally. You are all helping each other.

If a being reminds you that you are joy itself, you owe that being your gratitude. If a being shows you how you are holding onto fear right now, and you know this because you are feeling disquiet of some kind, you owe that being your gratitude. Gratitude is an openness to being helped, a giving thanks for the equally helpful function of all. You help them just as much as they help you, always. This is guaranteed and cannot be changed. Gratitude is simply waking up to what is really going on here, what has always been going on here beyond all judgment.

The best use of your effort is in recognizing where you are projecting. If you feel disquiet of any kind, and you do most of the time, of course, because you are experiencing this physical world as a body, you are projecting. You. Are. Projecting. We offer this as a playful, slow-down invitation. What are you projecting? A world of illusion, with fear as an essential component. Disquiet of any kind is never, ever, the other guy’s problem. Ego has been telling you for all of time that it is, that there is this thing called fault, and if fault doesn’t belong to the other guy it belongs to you.

In truth, there is no fault. The only fault is in thinking, in believing false thought from ego. There is no fault in illusion because illusion is not real. We drop a bit of a bomb when we say that you feel disquiet most of the time, but only a bit of a bomb. Because you have paid careful attention to how you feel, you have seen that disquiet is the foundation of the entire physical experience, of the entire experience of space and time.

This disquiet keeps your experience of separate-you and separate-other in place. You are seeing it, and you are willing to allow it to be undone. You realize that you have been intentionally using these thoughts of disquiet to keep the illusion going. You are becoming willing to allow all egoic thinking to go now. First the thoughts are exposed, and then you let them go.

In any moment of disquiet, find your willingness to be escorted into happiness by the most direct means possible. The most direct means possible is the Light that is available to all at all times. Think of the Light as a little vehicle. In any moment of disquiet, you always have a choice. Are you going to be loyal to stressful thoughts, or are you willing to turn away from that thinking, to step into this vehicle of light? This vehicle carries you and provides all thought, speech, action and resources. This vehicle is always at everyone’s side, and it is always their option to step into it, to be carried by it. The way you help everyone notice their very helpful vehicle is to step into yours. When you’re in this vehicle, you are extending the love you are quite naturally, without effort or strain. Those are your two choices–projection of illusion or extension of love. You are coming to see that the obvious choice is extension.

When you step back toward stressful thinking, the vehicle dissolves around you, and life feels like hard work and toil again. Turn away from stressful thinking, and you are back in the vehicle. Yes, it is natural that everything be provided for you easily and without your effort. You are worthy of being uplifted by the Whole, and so are all.

Your return to Home to full awareness of the Light is inevitable, and it is our great honor to assist you and all.