What is the Last Judgment?
Our special theme makes each of the following statements:
- … perception gives a silent blessing and then disappears, its goal accomplished and its mission done.
- The final judgment … sees the world as totally forgiven, without sin and wholly purposeless.
- Bodies now are useless, and will therefore fade away to nothingness …
The three previous statements refer to perception, the world and bodies as having completed their mission and no longer having a purpose. Now they are useless. These statements are worth contemplating.
If perception’s mission is done, doesn’t that mean it had a mission? If the world and bodies “now are useless,” wasn’t there once a purpose and use for them?
Since none of us are at the point of the last judgment, we are each still at the point where perception has a mission, the world has a purpose and bodies are useful.
What are perception, the world and bodies for?
Let writing (or speaking into a recorder) lead you to the answer to this question. Start by writing the answer that feels true to you. Write to the boundary of your knowledge, and then wait to see what truth comes from beyond the boundary of your current knowledge.
I seek a future different from the past.
Today’s lesson says, “From new perception of the world there comes a future very different from the past. The future now is recognized as but the extension of the present.”
This means that prior to purification and the completion of merging, our future is based on our past.
How is that possible?
It’s possible because we hold onto the past and to what we think we learned from the past, and then we see the current moment through that lens. Since we are seeing with a filter based on the past, that perception is fed into the creation principle, which results in a future based on expectations that were derived from the past.
What a mess!
Why should we keep building a future based on past confusion?
It is time to be with the present, now, in a different way, so that our new way of being is fed into the creative principle, which will result in a future different from the past. As the prayer in today’s lesson says, “Father, we were mistaken in the past, and choose to use the present to be free.”
Let’s add a step to our practice of letting go of judgment. Today, practice in this way:
- Look when judgment happens.
- Silently inquire to discover the past in this current judgment. For example, you might ask, “What idea did I believe in the past that has caused this current judgment?”
- Notice the perception of separation that is caused by judgment.
- Remember your desire to see without separation or confusion.
- Let go of your judgment simply because it conflicts with what you truly want.
Meditation Options