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T-in.1.1 This is a course in miracles. 2 It is a required course. 3 Only the time you
take it is voluntary. 4 Free will does not mean that you can establish the curriculum. 5 It
means only that you can elect what you want to take at a given time. 6 The course does
not aim at teaching the meaning of love, for that is beyond what can be taught. 7 It does
aim, however, at removing the blocks to the awareness of love's presence, which is your
natural inheritance. 8 The opposite of love is fear, but what is all-encompassing can have
no opposite.
T-in.2.1 This course can therefore be summed up very simply in this way:
Chapter 1.
THE MEANING OF MIRACLES
I. Principles of Miracles
T-1.I.1. There is no order of difficulty in miracles. 2 One is not "harder" or "bigger"
than another. 3 They are all the same. 4 All expressions of love are maximal.
T-1.I.2. Miracles as such do not matter. 2 The only thing that matters is their Source,
which is far beyond evaluation.
T-1.I.3. Miracles occur naturally as expressions of love. 2 The real miracle is the
love that inspires them. 3 In this sense everything that comes from love is a miracle.
T-1.I.4. All miracles mean life, and God is the Giver of life. 2 His Voice will direct
you very specifically. 3 You will be told all you need to know.
T-1.I.5. Miracles are habits, and should be involuntary. 2 They should not be under
conscious control. 3 Consciously selected miracles can be misguided.
T-1.I.6. Miracles are natural. 2 When they do not occur something has gone wrong.
T-1.I.7. Miracles are everyone's right, but purification is necessary first.
T-1.I.8. Miracles are healing because they supply a lack; they are performed by those
who temporarily have more for those who temporarily have less.
T-1.I.9. Miracles are a kind of exchange. 2 Like all expressions of love, which are
always miraculous in the true sense, the exchange reverses the physical laws. 3 They
bring more love both to the giver <and> the receiver.
T-1.I.10. The use of miracles as spectacles to induce belief is a misunderstanding of
their purpose.
T-1.I.11. Prayer is the medium of miracles. 2 It is a means of communication of the
created with the Creator. 3 Through prayer love is received, and through miracles love is
expressed.
T-1.I.12. Miracles are thoughts. 2 Thoughts can represent the lower or bodily level of
experience, or the higher or spiritual level of experience. 3 One makes the physical, and
the other creates the spiritual.
T-1.I.13. Miracles are both beginnings and endings, and so they alter the temporal
order. 2 They are always affirmations of rebirth, which seem to go back but really go
forward. 3 They undo the past in the present, and thus release the future.
T-1.I.14. Miracles bear witness to truth. 2 They are convincing because they arise
from conviction. 3 Without conviction they deteriorate into magic, which is mindless and
therefore destructive; or rather, the uncreative use of mind.
T-1.I.15. Each day should be devoted to miracles. 2 The purpose of time is to enable
you to learn how to use time constructively. 3 It is thus a teaching device and a means to
an end. 4 Time will cease when it is no longer useful in facilitating learning.
7 Atonement undoes all errors in this respect, and thus uproots the source of fear. 8
Whenever you experience God's reassurances as threat, it is always because you are
defending misplaced or misdirected loyalty. 9 When you project this to others you
imprison them, but only to the extent to which you reinforce errors they have already
made. 10 This makes them vulnerable to the distortions of others, since their own
perception of themselves is distorted. 11 The miracle worker can only bless them, and
this undoes their distortions and frees them from prison.
T-1.III.6. You respond to what you perceive, and as you perceive so shall you behave.
2 The Golden Rule asks you to do unto others as you would have them do unto you. 3
This means that the perception of both must be accurate. 4 The Golden Rule is the rule
for appropriate behavior. 5 You cannot behave appropriately unless you perceive
correctly. 6 Since you and your neighbor are equal members of one family, as you
perceive both so you will do to both. 7 You should look out from the perception of your
own holiness to the holiness of others.
T-1.III.7. Miracles arise from a mind that is ready for them. 2 By being united this
mind goes out to everyone, even without the awareness of the miracle worker himself. 3
The impersonal nature of miracles is because the Atonement itself is one, uniting all
creations with their Creator. 4 As an expression of what you truly are, the miracle places
the mind in a state of grace. 5 The mind then naturally welcomes the Host within and the
stranger without. 6 When you bring in the stranger, he becomes your brother.
T-1.III.8. That the miracle may have effects on your brothers that you may not
recognize is not your concern. 2 The miracle will always bless <you>. 3 Miracles you are
not asked to perform have not lost their value. 4 They are still expressions of your own
state of grace, but the action aspect of the miracle should be controlled by me because of
my complete awareness of the whole plan. 5 The impersonal nature of miracle-
mindedness ensures your grace, but only I am in a position to know where they can be
bestowed.
T-1.III.9. Miracles are selective only in the sense that they are directed towards those
who can use them for themselves. 2 Since this makes it inevitable that they will extend
them to others, a strong chain of Atonement is welded. 3 However, this selectivity takes
no account of the magnitude of the miracle itself, because the concept of size exists on a
plane that is itself unreal. 4 Since the miracle aims at restoring the awareness of reality, it
would not be useful if it were bound by laws that govern the error it aims to correct.
6 But:
9 Believe this and you will be free. 10 Only God can establish this solution, and this faith
<is His gift.>
Chapter 2.
THE SEPARATION AND THE ATONEMENT
I. The Origins of Separation
T-2.I.1. To extend is a fundamental aspect of God which He gave to His Son. 2 In
the creation, God extended Himself to His creations and imbued them with the same
loving Will to create. 3 You have not only been fully created, but have also been created
perfect. 4 There is no emptiness in you. 5 Because of your likeness to your Creator you
are creative. 6 No child of God can lose this ability because it is inherent in what he is,
but he can use it inappropriately by projecting. 7 The inappropriate use of extension, or
projection, occurs when you believe that some emptiness or lack exists in you, and that
you can fill it with your own ideas instead of truth. 8 This process involves the following
steps:
9 First, you believe that what God created can be changed by your own mind.
10 Second, you believe that what is perfect can be rendered imperfect or lacking.
11 Third, you believe that you can distort the creations of God, including yourself.
12 Fourth, you believe that you can create yourself, and that the direction of your own
creation is up to you.
T-2.I.2. These related distortions represent a picture of what actually occurred in the
separation, or the "detour into fear." 2 None of this existed before the separation, nor does
it actually exist now. 3 Everything God created is like Him. 4 Extension, as undertaken
by God, is similar to the inner radiance that the children of the Father inherit from Him. 5
Its real source is internal. 6 This is as true of the Son as of the Father. 7 In this sense the
creation includes both the creation of the Son by God, and the Son's creations when his
mind is healed. 8 This requires God's endowment of the Son with free will, because all
loving creation is freely given in one continuous line, in which all aspects are of the same
order.
T-2.I.3. The Garden of Eden, or the pre-separation condition, was a state of mind in
which nothing was needed. 2 When Adam listened to the "lies of the serpent," all he
heard was untruth. 3 You do not have to continue to believe what is not true unless you
choose to do so. 4 All that can literally disappear in the twinkling of an eye because it is
merely a misperception. 5 What is seen in dreams seems to be very real. 6 Yet the Bible
says that a deep sleep fell upon Adam, and nowhere is there reference to his waking up. 7
The world has not yet experienced any comprehensive reawakening or rebirth. 8 Such a
rebirth is impossible as long as you continue to project or miscreate. 9 It still remains
within you, however, to extend as God extended His Spirit to you. 10 In reality this is
your only choice, because your free will was given you for your joy in creating the
perfect.
T-2.I.4. All fear is ultimately reducible to the basic misperception that you have the
ability to usurp the power of God. 2 Of course, you neither can nor have been able to do
this. 3 Here is the real basis for your escape from fear. 4 The escape is brought about by
your acceptance of the Atonement, which enables you to realize that your errors never
really occurred. 5 Only after the deep sleep fell upon Adam could he experience
nightmares. 6 If a light is suddenly turned on while someone is dreaming a fearful dream,
he may initially interpret the light itself as part of his dream and be afraid of it. 7
However, when he awakens, the light is correctly perceived as the release from the
dream, which is then no longer accorded reality. 8 This release does not depend on
illusions. 9 The knowledge that illuminates not only sets you free, but also shows you
clearly that you <are> free.
T-2.I.5. Whatever lies you may believe are of no concern to the miracle, which can
heal any of them with equal ease. 2 It makes no distinctions among misperceptions. 3 Its
sole concern is to distinguish between truth on the one hand, and error on the other. 4
Some miracles may seem to be of greater magnitude than others. 5 But remember the first
principle in this course; there is no order of difficulty in miracles. 6 In reality you are
perfectly unaffected by all expressions of lack of love. 7 These can be from yourself and
others, from yourself to others, or from others to you. 8 Peace is an attribute <in> you. 9
You cannot find it outside. 10 Illness is some form of external searching. 11 Health is
inner peace. 12 It enables you to remain unshaken by lack of love from without and
capable, through your acceptance of miracles, of correcting the conditions proceeding
from lack of love in others. p18
Chapter 3.
THE INNOCENT PERCEPTION
I. Atonement without Sacrifice
T-3.I.1. A further point must be perfectly clear before any residual fear still
associated with miracles can disappear. 2 The crucifixion did not establish the
Atonement; the resurrection did. 3 Many sincere Christians have misunderstood this. 4
No one who is free of the belief in scarcity could possibly make this mistake. 5 If the
crucifixion is seen from an upside-down point of view, it does appear as if God permitted
and even encouraged one of His Sons to suffer because he was good. 6 This particularly
unfortunate interpretation, which arose out of projection, has led many people to be
bitterly afraid of God. 7 Such anti-religious concepts enter into many religions. 8 Yet the
real Christian should pause and ask, "How could this be?" 9 Is it likely that God Himself
would be capable of the kind of thinking which His Own words have clearly stated is
unworthy of His Son?
T-3.I.2. The best defense, as always, is not to attack another's position, but rather to
protect the truth. 2 It is unwise to accept any concept if you have to invert a whole frame
of reference in order to justify it. 3 This procedure is painful in its minor applications and
genuinely tragic on a wider scale. 4 Persecution frequently results in an attempt to
"justify" the terrible misperception that God Himself persecuted His Own Son on behalf
of salvation. 5 The very words are meaningless. 6 It has been particularly difficult to
overcome this because, although the error itself is no harder to correct than any other,
many have been unwilling to give it up in view of its prominent value as a defense. 7 In
milder forms a parent says, "This hurts me more than it hurts you," and feels exonerated
in beating a child. 8 Can you believe our Father really thinks this way? 9 It is so essential
that all such thinking be dispelled that we must be sure that nothing of this kind remains
in your mind. 10 I was not "punished" because <you> were bad. 11 The wholly benign
lesson the Atonement teaches is lost if it is tainted with this kind of distortion in any
form.
T-3.I.3. The statement "Vengeance is mine, saith the Lord" is a misperception by
which one assigns his own "evil" past to God. p36 2 The "evil" past has nothing to do
with God. 3 He did not create it and He does not maintain it. 4 God does not believe in
retribution. 5 His Mind does not create that way. 6 He does not hold your "evil" deeds
against you. 7 Is it likely that He would hold them against me? 8 Be very sure that you
recognize how utterly impossible this assumption is, and how entirely it arises from
projection. 9 This kind of error is responsible for a host of related errors, including the
belief that God rejected Adam and forced him out of the Garden of Eden. 10 It is also
why you may believe from time to time that I am misdirecting you. 11 I have made every
effort to use words that are almost impossible to distort, but it is always possible to twist
symbols around if you wish.
T-3.I.4. Sacrifice is a notion totally unknown to God. 2 It arises solely from fear, and
frightened people can be vicious. 3 Sacrificing in any way is a violation of my injunction
that you should be merciful even as your Father in Heaven is merciful. 4 It has been hard
for many Christians to realize that this applies to themselves. 5 Good teachers never
terrorize their students. 6 To terrorize is to attack, and this results in rejection of what the
teacher offers. 7 The result is learning failure.
T-3.I.5. I have been correctly referred to as "the lamb of God who taketh away the
sins of the world," but those who represent the lamb as blood-stained do not understand
the meaning of the symbol. 2 Correctly understood, it is a very simple symbol that speaks
of my innocence. 3 The lion and the lamb lying down together symbolize that strength
and innocence are not in conflict, but naturally live in peace. 4 "Blessed are the pure in
heart for they shall see God" is another way of saying the same thing. 5 A pure mind
knows the truth and this is its strength. 6 It does not confuse destruction with innocence
because it associates innocence with strength, not with weakness.
T-3.I.6. Innocence is incapable of sacrificing anything, because the innocent mind
has everything and strives only to protect its wholeness. 2 It cannot project. 3 It can only
honor other minds, because honor is the natural greeting of the truly loved to others who
are like them. 4 The lamb "taketh away the sins of the world" in the sense that the state of
innocence, or grace, is one in which the meaning of the Atonement is perfectly apparent.
5 The Atonement is entirely unambiguous. 6 It is perfectly clear because it exists in light.
7 Only the attempts to shroud it in darkness have made it inaccessible to those who do
not choose to see. p37
T-3.I.7. The Atonement itself radiates nothing but truth. 2 It therefore epitomizes
harmlessness and sheds only blessing. 3 It could not do this if it arose from anything but
perfect innocence. 4 Innocence is wisdom because it is unaware of evil, and evil does not
exist. 5 It is, however, perfectly aware of everything that is true. 6 The resurrection
demonstrated that nothing can destroy truth. 7 Good can withstand any form of evil, as
light abolishes forms of darkness. 8 The Atonement is therefore the perfect lesson. 9 It is
the final demonstration that all the other lessons I taught are true. 10 If you can accept
this one generalization now, there will be no need to learn from many smaller lessons. 11
You are released from all errors if you believe this.
T-3.I.8. The innocence of God is the true state of the mind of His Son. 2 In this state
your mind knows God, for God is not symbolic; He is Fact. 3 Knowing His Son as he is,
you realize that the Atonement, not sacrifice, is the only appropriate gift for God's altar,
where nothing except perfection belongs. 4 The understanding of the innocent is truth. 5
That is why their altars are truly radiant.
V. Beyond Perception
T-3.V.1. I have said that the abilities you possess are only shadows of your real
strength, and that perception, which is inherently judgmental, was introduced only after
the separation. 2 No one has been sure of anything since. 3 I have also made it clear that
the resurrection was the means for the return to knowledge, which was accomplished by
the union of my will with the Father's. 4 We can now establish a distinction that will
clarify some of our subsequent statements.
T-3.V.2. Since the separation, the words "create" and "make" have become confused.
2 When you make something, you do so out of a specific sense of lack or need. 3
Anything made for a specific purpose has no true generalizability. 4 When you make
something to fill a perceived lack, you are tacitly implying that you believe in separation.
5 The ego has invented many ingenious thought systems for this purpose. 6 None of them
is creative. 7 Inventiveness is wasted effort even in its most ingenious form. 8 The highly
specific nature of invention is not worthy of the abstract creativity of God's creations.
T-3.V.3. Knowing, as we have already observed, does not lead to doing. 2 The
confusion between your real creation and what you have made of yourself is so profound
that it has become literally impossible for you to know anything. 3 Knowledge is always
stable, and it is quite evident that you are not. 4 Nevertheless, you are perfectly stable as
God created you. 5 In this sense, when your behavior is unstable, you are disagreeing
with God's idea of your creation. 6 You can do this if you choose, but you would hardly
want to do it if you were in your right mind.
T-3.V.4. The fundamental question you continually ask yourself cannot properly be
directed to yourself at all. 2 You keep asking what it is you are. 3 This implies that the
answer is not only one you know, but is also one that is up to you to supply. 4 Yet you
cannot perceive yourself correctly. p44 5 You have no image to be perceived. 6 The word
"image" is always perception-related, and not a part of knowledge. 7 Images are symbolic
and stand for something else. 8 The idea of "changing your image" recognizes the power
of perception, but also implies that there is nothing stable to know.
T-3.V.5. Knowing is not open to interpretation. 2 You may try to "interpret" meaning,
but this is always open to error because it refers to the <perception> of meaning. 3 Such
incongruities are the result of attempts to regard yourself as separated and unseparated at
the same time. 4 It is impossible to make so fundamental a confusion without increasing
your overall confusion still further. 5 Your mind may have become very ingenious, but as
always happens when method and content are separated, it is utilized in a futile attempt to
escape from an inescapable impasse. 6 Ingenuity is totally divorced from knowledge,
because knowledge does not require ingenuity. 7 Ingenious thinking is <not> the truth
that shall set you free, but you are free of the need to engage in it when you are willing to
let it go.
T-3.V.6. Prayer is a way of asking for something. 2 It is the medium of miracles. 3
But the only meaningful prayer is for forgiveness, because those who have been forgiven
have everything. 4 Once forgiveness has been accepted, prayer in the usual sense
becomes utterly meaningless. 5 The prayer for forgiveness is nothing more than a request
that you may be able to recognize what you already have. 6 In electing perception instead
of knowledge, you placed yourself in a position where you could resemble your Father
only by perceiving miraculously. 7 You have lost the knowledge that you yourself are a
miracle of God. 8 Creation is your Source and your only real function.
T-3.V.7. The statement "God created man in his own image and likeness" needs
reinterpretation. 2 "Image" can be understood as "thought," and "likeness" as "of a like
quality." 3 God did create spirit in His Own Thought and of a quality like to His Own. 4
There <is> nothing else. 5 Perception, on the other hand, is impossible without a belief in
"more" and "less." 6 At every level it involves selectivity. 7 Perception is a continual
process of accepting and rejecting, organizing and reorganizing, shifting and changing. 8
Evaluation is an essential part of perception, because judgments are necessary in order to
select.
T-3.V.8. What happens to perceptions if there are no judgments and nothing but
perfect equality? 2 Perception becomes impossible p45. 3 Truth can only be known. 4 All
of it is equally true, and knowing any part of it is to know all of it. 5 Only perception
involves partial awareness. 6 Knowledge transcends the laws governing perception,
because partial knowledge is impossible. 7 It is all one and has no separate parts. 8 You
who are really one with it need but know yourself and your knowledge is complete. 9 To
know God's miracle is to know Him.
T-3.V.9. Forgiveness is the healing of the perception of separation. 2 Correct
perception of your brother is necessary, because minds have chosen to see themselves as
separate. 3 Spirit knows God completely. 4 That is its miraculous power. 5 The fact that
each one has this power completely is a condition entirely alien to the world's thinking. 6
The world believes that if anyone has everything, there is nothing left. 7 But God's
miracles are as total as His Thoughts because they <are> His Thoughts.
T-3.V.10. As long as perception lasts prayer has a place. 2 Since perception rests on
lack, those who perceive have not totally accepted the Atonement and given themselves
over to truth. 3 Perception is based on a separated state, so that anyone who perceives at
all needs healing. 4 Communion, not prayer, is the natural state of those who know. 5
God and His miracle are inseparable. 6 How beautiful indeed are the Thoughts of God
who live in His light! 7 Your worth is beyond perception because it is beyond doubt. 8
Do not perceive yourself in different lights. 9 Know yourself in the One Light where the
miracle that is you is perfectly clear.
Chapter 4.
THE ILLUSIONS OF THE EGO
Introduction
T-4.in.1. The Bible says that you should go with a brother twice as far as he asks. 2 It
certainly does not suggest that you set him back on his journey. 3 Devotion to a brother
cannot set you back either. 4 It can lead only to mutual progress. 5 The result of genuine
devotion is inspiration, a word which properly understood is the opposite of fatigue. 6 To
be fatigued is to be dis-spirited, but to be inspired is to be in the spirit. 7 To be egocentric
is to be dis-spirited, but to be Self-centered in the right sense is to be inspired or in spirit.
8 The truly inspired are enlightened and cannot abide in darkness.
T-4.in.2. You can speak from the spirit or from the ego, as you choose. 2 If you speak
from spirit you have chosen to "Be still and know that I am God." 3 These words are
inspired because they reflect knowledge. 4 If you speak from the ego you are disclaiming
knowledge instead of affirming it, and are thus dis-spiriting yourself. 5 Do not embark on
useless journeys, because they are indeed in vain. 6 The ego may desire them, but spirit
cannot embark on them because it is forever unwilling to depart from its Foundation.
T-4.in.3. The journey to the cross should be the last "useless journey." 2 Do not dwell
upon it, but dismiss it as accomplished. 3 If you can accept it as your own last useless
journey, you are also free to join my resurrection. 4 Until you do so your life is indeed
wasted. 5 It merely re-enacts the separation, the loss of power, the futile attempts of the
ego at reparation, and finally the crucifixion of the body, or death. 6 Such repetitions are
endless until they are voluntarily given up. 7 Do not make the pathetic error of "clinging
to the old rugged cross." 8 The only message of the crucifixion is that you can overcome
the cross. 9 Until then you are free to crucify yourself as often as you choose. 10 This is
not the gospel I intended to offer you. 11 We have another journey to undertake, and if
you will read these lessons carefully they will help prepare you to undertake it. p52
10 In this world you need not have tribulation because I have overcome the world. 11
That is why you should be of good cheer.
12 The Kingdom is perfectly united and perfectly protected, and the ego will not prevail
against it. 13 Amen.
Chapter 5.
HEALING AND WHOLENESS
Introduction
T-5.in.1. To heal is to make happy. 2 I have told you to think how many opportunities
you have had to gladden yourself, and how many you have refused. 3 This is the same as
telling you that you have refused to heal yourself. 4 The light that belongs to you is the
light of joy. 5 Radiance is not associated with sorrow. 6 Joy calls forth an integrated
willingness to share it, and promotes the mind's natural impulse to respond as one. 7
Those who attempt to heal without being wholly joyous themselves call forth different
kinds of responses at the same time, and thus deprive others of the joy of responding
wholeheartedly.
T-5.in.2. To be wholehearted you must be happy. 2 If fear and love cannot coexist,
and if it is impossible to be wholly fearful and remain alive, the only possible whole state
is that of love. 3 There is no difference between love and joy. 4 Therefore, the only
possible whole state is the wholly joyous. 5 To heal or to make joyous is therefore the
same as to integrate and to make one. 6 That is why it makes no difference to what part or
by what part of the Sonship the healing is offered. 7 Every part benefits, and benefits
equally.
T-5.in.3. You are being blessed by every beneficent thought of any of your brothers
anywhere. 2 You should want to bless them in return, out of gratitude. 3 You need not
know them individually, or they you. 4 The light is so strong that it radiates throughout
the Sonship and returns thanks to the Father for radiating His joy upon it. 5 Only God's
holy children are worthy channels of His beautiful joy, because only they are beautiful
enough to hold it by sharing it. 6 It is impossible for a child of God to love his neighbor
except as himself. 7 That is why the healer's prayer is:
T-5.I.3. This is the invitation to the Holy Spirit. 2 I have said already that I can reach
up and bring the Holy Spirit down to you, but I can bring Him to you only at your own
invitation. 3 The Holy Spirit is in your right mind, as He was in mine. 4 The Bible says,
"May the mind be in you that was also in Christ Jesus," and uses this as a blessing. 5 It is
the blessing of miracle-mindedness. 6 It asks that you may think as I thought, joining
with me in Christ thinking.
T-5.I.4. The Holy Spirit is the only part of the Holy Trinity that has a symbolic
function. 2 He is referred to as the Healer, the Comforter and the Guide. 3 He is also
described as something "separate," apart from the Father and from the Son. p73 4 I
myself said, "If I go I will send you another Comforter and he will abide with you." 5 His
symbolic function makes the Holy Spirit difficult to understand, because symbolism is
open to different interpretations. 6 As a man and also one of God's creations, my right
thinking, which came from the Holy Spirit or the Universal Inspiration, taught me first
and foremost that this Inspiration is for all. 7 I could not have It myself without knowing
this. 8 The word "know" is proper in this context, because the Holy Spirit is so close to
knowledge that He calls it forth; or better, allows it to come. 9 I have spoken before of
the higher or "true" perception, which is so near to truth that God Himself can flow across
the little gap. 10 Knowledge is always ready to flow everywhere, but it cannot oppose. 11
Therefore you can obstruct it, although you can never lose it.
T-5.I.5. The Holy Spirit is the Christ Mind which is aware of the knowledge that lies
beyond perception. 2 He came into being with the separation as a protection, inspiring the
Atonement principle at the same time. 3 Before that there was no need for healing, for no
one was comfortless. 4 The Voice of the Holy Spirit is the Call to Atonement, or the
restoration of the integrity of the mind. 5 When the Atonement is complete and the whole
Sonship is healed there will be no Call to return. 6 But what God creates is eternal. 7 The
Holy Spirit will remain with the Sons of God, to bless their creations and keep them in
the light of joy.
T-5.I.6. God honored even the miscreations of His children because they had made
them. 2 But He also blessed His children with a way of thinking that could raise their
perceptions so high they could reach almost back to Him. 3 The Holy Spirit is the Mind
of the Atonement. 4 He represents a state of mind close enough to One-mindedness that
transfer to it is at last possible. 5 Perception is not knowledge, but it can be transferred to
knowledge, or cross over into it. 6 It might even be more helpful here to use the literal
meaning of transferred or "carried over," since the last step is taken by God.
T-5.I.7. The Holy Spirit, the shared Inspiration of all the Sonship, induces a kind of
perception in which many elements are like those in the Kingdom of Heaven itself:
2 First, its universality is perfectly clear, and no one who attains it could believe
for one instant that sharing it involves anything but gain.
3 Second, it is incapable of attack and is therefore truly open. p74 4 This means
that although it does not engender knowledge, it does not obstruct it in any way.
5 Finally, it points the way beyond the healing that it brings, and leads the mind
beyond its own integration toward the paths of creation. 6 It is at this point that sufficient
quantitative change occurs to produce a real qualitative shift.
Chapter 6.
THE LESSONS OF LOVE
Introduction
T-6.in.1. The relationship of anger to attack is obvious, but the relationship of anger
to fear is not always so apparent. 2 Anger always involves projection of separation, which
must ultimately be accepted as one's own responsibility, rather than being blamed on
others. 3 Anger cannot occur unless you believe that you have been attacked, that your
attack is justified in return, and that you are in no way responsible for it. 4 Given these
three wholly irrational premises, the equally irrational conclusion that a brother is worthy
of attack rather than of love must follow. 5 What can be expected from insane premises
except an insane conclusion? 6 The way to undo an insane conclusion is to consider the
sanity of the premises on which it rests. 7 You cannot <be> attacked, attack <has> no
justification, and you <are> responsible for what you believe.
T-6.in.2. You have been asked to take me as your model for learning, since an
extreme example is a particularly helpful learning device. 2 Everyone teaches, and
teaches all the time. 3 This is a responsibility you inevitably assume the moment you
accept any premise at all, and no one can organize his life without some thought system.
4 Once you have developed a thought system of any kind, you live by it and teach it. 5
Your capacity for allegiance to a thought system may be misplaced, but it is still a form
of faith and can be redirected.
T-6.I.14. If you interpret the crucifixion in any other way, you are using it as a
weapon for assault rather than as the call for peace for which it was intended. 2 The
Apostles often misunderstood it, and for the same reason that anyone misunderstands it. 3
Their own imperfect love made them vulnerable to projection, and out of their own fear
they spoke of the "wrath of God" as His retaliatory weapon. 4 Nor could they speak of
the crucifixion entirely without anger, because their sense of guilt had made them angry.
p94
T-6.I.15. These are some of the examples of upside-down thinking in the New
Testament, although its gospel is really only the message of love. 2 If the Apostles had
not felt guilty, they never could have quoted me as saying, "I come not to bring peace but
a sword." 3 This is clearly the opposite of everything I taught. 4 Nor could they have
described my reactions to Judas as they did, if they had really understood me. 5 I could
not have said, "Betrayest thou the Son of man with a kiss?" unless I believed in betrayal.
6 The whole message of the crucifixion was simply that I did not. 7 The "punishment" I
was said to have called forth upon Judas was a similar mistake. 8 Judas was my brother
and a Son of God, as much a part of the Sonship as myself. 9 Was it likely that I would
condemn him when I was ready to demonstrate that condemnation is impossible?
T-6.I.16. As you read the teachings of the Apostles, remember that I told them myself
that there was much they would understand later, because they were not wholly ready to
follow me at the time. 2 I do not want you to allow any fear to enter into the thought
system toward which I am guiding you. 3 I do not call for martyrs but for teachers. 4 No
one is punished for sins, and the Sons of God are not sinners. 5 Any concept of
punishment involves the projection of blame, and reinforces the idea that blame is
justified. 6 The result is a lesson in blame, for all behavior teaches the beliefs that
motivate it. 7 The crucifixion was the result of clearly opposed thought systems; the
perfect symbol of the "conflict" between the ego and the Son of God. 8 This conflict
seems just as real now, and its lessons must be learned now as well as then.
T-6.I.17. I do not need gratitude, but you need to develop your weakened ability to be
grateful, or you cannot appreciate God. 2 He does not need your appreciation, but <you>
do. 3 You cannot love what you do not appreciate, for fear makes appreciation
impossible. 4 When you are afraid of what you are you do not appreciate it, and will
therefore reject it. 5 As a result, you will teach rejection.
T-6.I.18. The power of the Sons of God is present all the time, because they were
created as creators. 2 Their influence on each other is without limit, and must be used for
their joint salvation. 3 Each one must learn to teach that all forms of rejection are
meaningless. 4 The separation is the notion of rejection. 5 As long as you teach this you
will believe it. 6 This is not as God thinks, and you must think as He thinks if you are to
know Him again. p95
T-6.I.19. Remember that the Holy Spirit is the Communication Link between God the
Father and His separated Sons. 2 If you will listen to His Voice you will know that you
cannot either hurt or be hurt, and that many need your blessing to help them hear this for
themselves. 3 When you perceive only this need in them, and do not respond to any
other, you will have learned of me and will be as eager to share your learning as I am.
T-6.V.B.8. This is still a preliminary step, since <having> and <being> are still not
equated. 2 It is, however, more advanced than the first step, which is really only the
beginning of the thought reversal. 3 The second step is a positive affirmation of what you
want. 4 This, then, is a step in the direction out of conflict, since it means that alternatives
have been considered, and one has been chosen as more desirable. 5 Nevertheless, the
term "more desirable" still implies that the desirable has degrees. 6 Therefore, although
this step is essential for the ultimate decision, it is clearly not the final one. 7 Lack of
order of difficulty in miracles has not yet been accepted, because nothing is difficult that
is <wholly> desired. 8 To desire wholly is to create, and creating cannot be difficult if
God Himself created you as a creator.
T-6.V.B.9. The second step, then, is still perceptual, although it is a giant step toward
the unified perception that reflects God's knowing. 2 As you take this step and hold this
direction, you will be pushing toward the center of your thought system, where the
fundamental change will occur. 3 At the second step progress is intermittent, but the
second step is easier than the first because it follows. 4 Realizing that it <must> follow is
a demonstration of a growing awareness that the Holy Spirit will lead you on.
T-6.V.C.3. This is a major step toward fundamental change. 2 Yet it still has an aspect
of thought reversal, since it implies that there is something you must be vigilant
<against.> 3 It has advanced far from the first lesson, which is merely the beginning of
the thought reversal, and also from the second, which is essentially the identification of
what is more desirable. 4 This step, which follows from the second as the second follows
from the first, emphasizes the dichotomy between the desirable and the undesirable. 5 It
therefore makes the ultimate choice inevitable.
T-6.V.C.4. While the first step seems to increase conflict and the second may still entail
conflict to some extent, this step calls for consistent vigilance against it. 2 I have already
told you that you can be as vigilant against the ego as for it. 3 This lesson teaches not
only that you can be, but that you <must> be. 4 It does not concern itself with order of
difficulty, but with clear-cut priority for vigilance. p109 5 This lesson is unequivocal in
that it teaches there must be no exceptions, although it does not deny that the temptation
to make exceptions will occur. 6 Here, then, your consistency is called on despite chaos.
7 Yet chaos and consistency cannot coexist for long, since they are mutually exclusive. 8
As long as you must be vigilant against anything, however, you are not recognizing this
mutual exclusiveness, and still believe that you can choose either one. 9 By teaching
<what> to choose, the Holy Spirit will ultimately teach you that you need not choose at
all. 10 This will finally liberate your mind from choice, and direct it towards creation
within the Kingdom.
T-6.V.C.5. Choosing through the Holy Spirit will lead you to the Kingdom. 2 You
create by your true being, but what you are you must learn to remember. 3 The way to
remember it is inherent in the third step, which brings together the lessons implied in the
others, and goes beyond them towards real integration. 4 If you allow yourself to have in
your mind only what God put there, you are acknowledging your mind as God created it.
5 Therefore, you are accepting it as it is. 6 Since it is whole, you are teaching peace
<because> you believe in it. 7 The final step will still be taken for you by God, but by the
third step the Holy Spirit has prepared you for God. 8 He is getting you ready for the
translation of <having> into <being> by the very nature of the steps you must take with
Him.
T-6.V.C.6. You learn first that <having> rests on giving, and not on getting. 2 Next you
learn that you learn what you teach, and that you want to learn peace. 3 This is the
condition for identifying with the Kingdom, since it is the condition <of> the Kingdom. 4
You have believed that you are without the Kingdom, and have therefore excluded
yourself from it in your belief. 5 It is therefore essential to teach you that you must be
included, and that the belief that you are not is the only thing that you must exclude.
T-6.V.C.7. The third step is thus one of protection for your mind, allowing you to
identify only with the center, where God placed the altar to Himself. 2 Altars are beliefs,
but God and His creations are beyond belief because they are beyond question. 3 The
Voice for God speaks only for belief beyond question, which is the preparation for
<being> without question. 4 As long as belief in God and His Kingdom is assailed by any
doubts in your mind, His perfect accomplishment is not apparent to you. 5 This is why
you must be vigilant on God's behalf. p110 6 The ego speaks against His creation, and
therefore engenders doubt. 7 You cannot go beyond belief until you believe fully.
T-6.V.C.8. To teach the whole Sonship without exception demonstrates that you
perceive its wholeness, and have learned that it is one. 2 Now you must be vigilant to
hold its oneness in your mind because, if you let doubt enter, you will lose awareness of
its wholeness and will be unable to teach it. 3 The wholeness of the Kingdom does not
depend on your perception, but your awareness of its wholeness does. 4 It is only your
awareness that needs protection, since being cannot be assailed. 5 Yet a real sense of
being cannot be yours while you are doubtful of what you are. 6 This is why vigilance is
essential. 7 Doubts about being must not enter your mind, or you cannot know what you
are with certainty. 8 Certainty is of God for you. 9 Vigilance is not necessary for truth,
but it is necessary against illusions.
T-6.V.C.9. Truth is without illusions and therefore within the Kingdom. 2 Everything
outside the Kingdom is illusion. 3 When you threw truth away you saw yourself as if you
were without it. 4 By making another kingdom that you valued, you did not keep <only>
the Kingdom of God in your mind, and thus placed part of your mind outside it. 5 What
you made has imprisoned your will, and given you a sick mind that must be healed. 6
Your vigilance against this sickness is the way to heal it. 7 Once your mind is healed it
radiates health, and thereby teaches healing. 8 This establishes you as a teacher who
teaches like me. 9 Vigilance was required of me as much as of you, and those who
choose to teach the same thing must be in agreement about what they believe.
T-6.V.C.10. The third step, then, is a statement of what you want to believe, and entails a
willingness to relinquish everything else. 2 The Holy Spirit will enable you to take this
step, if you follow Him. 3 Your vigilance is the sign that you <want> Him to guide you. 4
Vigilance does require effort, but only until you learn that effort itself is unnecessary. 5
You have exerted great effort to preserve what you made because it was not true. 6
Therefore, you must now turn your effort against it. 7 Only this can cancel out the need
for effort, and call upon the being which you both <have> and <are.> 8 This recognition
is wholly without effort since it is already true and needs no protection. 9 It is in the
perfect safety of God. 10 Therefore, inclusion is total and creation is without limit. p111
Chapter 7.
THE GIFTS OF THE KINGDOM
I. The Last Step
T-7.I.1. The creative power of God and His creations is limitless, but they are not in
reciprocal relationship. 2 You communicate fully with God, as He does with you. 3 This
is an ongoing process in which you share, and because you share it, you are inspired to
create like God. 4 Yet in creation you are not in a reciprocal relation to God, since He
created you but you did not create Him. 5 I have already told you that only in this respect
your creative power differs from His. 6 Even in this world there is a parallel. 7 Parents
give birth to children, but children do not give birth to parents. 8 They do, however, give
birth to their children, and thus give birth as their parents do.
T-7.I.2. If you created God and He created you, the Kingdom could not increase
through its own creative thought. 2 Creation would therefore be limited, and you would
not be co-creator with God. 3 As God's creative Thought proceeds from Him to you, so
must your creative thought proceed from you to your creations. 4 Only in this way can all
creative power extend outward. 5 God's accomplishments are not yours, but yours are
like His. 6 He created the Sonship and you increase it. 7 You have the power to add to the
Kingdom, though not to add to the Creator of the Kingdom. 8 You claim this power when
you become vigilant only for God and His Kingdom. 9 By accepting this power as yours
you have learned to remember what you are.
T-7.I.3. Your creations belong in you, as you belong in God. 2 You are part of God,
as your sons are part of His Sons. 3 To create is to love. 4 Love extends outward simply
because it cannot be contained. 5 Being limitless it does not stop. 6 It creates forever, but
not in time. 7 God's creations have always been, because He has always been. 8 Your
creations have always been, because you can create only as God creates. 9 Eternity is
yours, because He created you eternal.
T-7.I.4. The ego, on the other hand, always demands reciprocal rights, because it is
competitive rather than loving. 2 It is always willing to strike a bargain, but it cannot
understand that to be like another means that no bargains are possible. p112 3 To gain
you must give, not bargain. 4 To bargain is to limit giving, and this is not God's Will. 5
To will with God is to create like Him. 6 God does not limit His gifts in any way. 7 You
<are> His gifts, and so your gifts must be like His. 8 Your gifts to the Kingdom must be
like His gifts to you.
T-7.I.5. I gave only love to the Kingdom because I believed that was what I was. 2
What you believe you are determines your gifts, and if God created you by extending
Himself as you, you can only extend yourself as He did. 3 Only joy increases forever,
since joy and eternity are inseparable. 4 God extends outward beyond limits and beyond
time, and you who are co-creator with Him extend His Kingdom forever and beyond
limit. 5 Eternity is the indelible stamp of creation. 6 The eternal are in peace and joy
forever.
T-7.I.6. To think like God is to share His certainty of what you are, and to create like
Him is to share the perfect Love He shares with you. 2 To this the Holy Spirit leads you,
that your joy may be complete because the Kingdom of God is whole. 3 I have said that
the last step in the reawakening of knowledge is taken by God. 4 This is true, but it is
hard to explain in words because words are symbols, and nothing that is true need be
explained. 5 However, the Holy Spirit has the task of translating the useless into the
useful, the meaningless into the meaningful, and the temporary into the timeless. 6 He
can therefore tell you something about this last step.
T-7.I.7. God does not take steps, because His accomplishments are not gradual. 2 He
does not teach, because His creations are changeless. 3 He does nothing last, because He
created first and for always. 4 It must be understood that the word "first" as applied to
Him is not a time concept. 5 He is first in the sense that He is the First in the Holy Trinity
Itself. 6 He is the Prime Creator, because He created His co-creators. 7 Because He did,
time applies neither to Him nor to what He created. 8 The "last step" that God will take
was therefore true in the beginning, is true now, and will be true forever. 9 What is
timeless is always there, because its being is eternally changeless. 10 It does not change
by increase, because it was forever created to increase. 11 If you perceive it as not
increasing you do not know what it is. 12 You also do not know Who created it. 13 God
does not reveal this to you because it was never hidden. 14 His light was never obscured,
because it is His Will to share it. p113 15 How can what is fully shared be withheld and
then revealed?
T-7.III.4. To be in the Kingdom is merely to focus your full attention on it. 2 As long
as you believe you can attend to what is not true, you are accepting conflict as your
choice. 3 Is it really a choice? 4 It seems to be, but seeming and reality are hardly the
same. 5 You who <are> the Kingdom are not concerned with seeming. 6 Reality is yours
because you are reality. 7 This is how <having> and <being> are ultimately reconciled,
not in the Kingdom, but in your mind. 8 The altar there is the only reality. 9 The altar is
perfectly clear in thought, because it is a reflection of perfect Thought. 10 Your right
mind sees only brothers, because it sees only in its own light.
T-7.III.5. God has lit your mind Himself, and keeps your mind lit by His light because
His light is what your mind is. 2 This is totally beyond question, and when you question
it you are answered. 3 The Answer merely undoes the question by establishing the fact
that to question reality is to question meaninglessly. 4 That is why the Holy Spirit never
questions. 5 His sole function is to undo the questionable and thus lead to certainty. 6 The
certain are perfectly calm, because they are not in doubt. 7 They do not raise questions,
because nothing questionable enters their minds. 8 This holds them in perfect serenity,
because this is what they share, knowing what they are.
Chapter 8.
THE JOURNEY BACK
I. The Direction of the Curriculum
T-8.I.1. Knowledge is not the motivation for learning this course. 2 Peace is. 3 This
is the prerequisite for knowledge only because those who are in conflict are not peaceful,
and peace is the condition of knowledge because it is the condition of the Kingdom. 4
Knowledge can be restored only when you meet its conditions. 5 This is not a bargain
made by God, Who makes no bargains. 6 It is merely the result of your misuse of His
laws on behalf of an imaginary will that is not His. 7 Knowledge <is> His Will. 8 If you
are opposing His Will, how can you have knowledge? 9 I have told you what knowledge
offers you, but perhaps you do not yet regard this as wholly desirable. 10 If you did you
would not be so ready to throw it away when the ego asks for your allegiance.
T-8.I.2. The distractions of the ego may seem to interfere with your learning, but the
ego has no power to distract you unless you give it the power to do so. 2 The ego's voice
is an hallucination. 3 You cannot expect it to say "I am not real." 4 Yet you are not asked
to dispel your hallucinations alone. 5 You are merely asked to evaluate them in terms of
their results to you. 6 If you do not want them on the basis of loss of peace, they will be
removed from your mind for you.
T-8.I.3. Every response to the ego is a call to war, and war does deprive you of
peace. 2 Yet in this war there is no opponent. 3 This is the reinterpretation of reality that
you must make to secure peace, and the only one you need ever make. 4 Those whom
you perceive as opponents are part of your peace, which you are giving up by attacking
them. 5 How can you have what you give up? 6 You share to have, but you do not give it
up yourself. 7 When you give up peace, you are excluding yourself from it. 8 This is a
condition so alien to the Kingdom that you cannot understand the state that prevails
within it.
T-8.I.4. Your past learning must have taught you the wrong things, simply because it
has not made you happy. 2 On this basis alone its value should be questioned. 3 If
learning aims at change, and that is always its purpose, are you satisfied with the changes
your learning has brought you? p138 4 Dissatisfaction with learning outcomes is a sign of
learning failure, since it means that you did not get what you wanted.
T-8.I.5. The curriculum of the Atonement is the opposite of the curriculum you have
established for yourself, but so is its outcome. 2 If the outcome of yours has made you
unhappy, and if you want a different one, a change in the curriculum is obviously
necessary. 3 The first change to be introduced is a change in direction. 4 A meaningful
curriculum cannot be inconsistent. 5 If it is planned by two teachers, each believing in
diametrically opposed ideas, it cannot be integrated. 6 If it is carried out by these two
teachers simultaneously, each one merely interferes with the other. 7 This leads to
fluctuation, but not to change. 8 The volatile have no direction. 9 They cannot choose one
because they cannot relinquish the other, even if it does not exist. 10 Their conflicted
curriculum teaches them that <all> directions exist, and gives them no rationale for
choice.
T-8.I.6. The total senselessness of such a curriculum must be fully recognized before
a real change in direction becomes possible. 2 You cannot learn simultaneously from two
teachers who are in total disagreement about everything. 3 Their joint curriculum
presents an impossible learning task. 4 They are teaching you entirely different things in
entirely different ways, which might be possible except that both are teaching you about
yourself. 5 Your reality is unaffected by both, but if you listen to both, your mind will be
split about what your reality is.
Chapter 9.
THE ACCEPTANCE OF THE ATONEMENT
I. The Acceptance of Reality
T-9.I.1. Fear of the Will of God is one of the strangest beliefs the human mind has
ever made. 2 It could not possibly have occurred unless the mind were already
profoundly split, making it possible for it to be afraid of what it really is. 3 Reality cannot
"threaten" anything except illusions, since reality can only uphold truth. 4 The very fact
that the Will of God, which is what you are, is perceived as fearful, demonstrates that you
<are> afraid of what you are. 5 It is not, then, the Will of God of which you are afraid,
but yours.
T-9.I.2. Your will is not the ego's, and that is why the ego is against you. 2 What
seems to be the fear of God is really the fear of your own reality. 3 It is impossible to
learn anything consistently in a state of panic. 4 If the purpose of this course is to help
you remember what you are, and if you believe that what you are is fearful, then it must
follow that you will not learn this course. 5 Yet the reason for the course is that you do
not know what you are.
T-9.I.3. If you do not know what your reality is, why would you be so sure that it is
fearful? 2 The association of truth and fear, which would be highly artificial at most, is
particularly inappropriate in the minds of those who do not know what truth is. 3 All this
could mean is that you are arbitrarily associating something beyond your awareness with
something you do not want. 4 It is evident, then, that you are judging something of which
you are totally unaware. 5 You have set up this strange situation so that it is impossible to
escape from it without a Guide Who <does> know what your reality is. 6 The purpose of
this Guide is merely to remind you of what you want. 7 He is not attempting to force an
alien will upon you. 8 He is merely making every possible effort, within the limits you
impose on Him, to re-establish your own will in your awareness.
T-9.I.4. You have imprisoned your will beyond your own awareness, where it
remains, but cannot help you. 2 When I said that the Holy Spirit's function is to sort out
the true from the false in your mind, I meant that He has the power to look into what you
have hidden and recognize the Will of God there. p160 3 His recognition of this Will can
make it real to you because He is in your mind, and therefore He is your reality. 4 If,
then, His perception of your mind brings its reality to you, He <is> helping you to
remember what you are. 5 The only source of fear in this process is what you think you
will lose. 6 Yet it is only what the Holy Spirit sees that you can possibly have.
T-9.I.5. I have emphasized many times that the Holy Spirit will never call upon you
to sacrifice anything. 2 But if you ask the sacrifice of reality of yourself, the Holy Spirit
must remind you that this is not God's Will because it is not yours. 3 There is no
difference between your will and God's. 4 If you did not have a split mind, you would
recognize that willing is salvation because it is communication.
T-9.I.6. It is impossible to communicate in alien tongues. 2 You and your Creator
can communicate through creation, because that, and only that is Your joint Will. 3 A
divided mind cannot communicate, because it speaks for different things to the same
mind. 4 This loses the ability to communicate simply because confused communication
does not mean anything. 5 A message cannot be communicated unless it makes sense. 6
How sensible can your messages be, when you ask for what you do not want? 7 Yet as
long as you are afraid of your will, that is precisely what you are asking for.
T-9.I.7. You may insist that the Holy Spirit does not answer you, but it might be
wiser to consider the kind of questioner you are. 2 You do not ask only for what you
want. 3 This is because you are afraid you might receive it, and you would. 4 That is why
you persist in asking the teacher who could not possibly give you what you want. 5 Of
him you can never learn what it is, and this gives you the illusion of safety. 6 Yet you
cannot be safe <from> truth, but only <in> truth. 7 Reality is the only safety. 8 Your will
is your salvation because it is the same as God's. 9 The separation is nothing more than
the belief that it is different.
T-9.I.8. No right mind can believe that its will is stronger than God's. 2 If, then, a
mind believes that its will is different from His, it can only decide either that there is no
God or that God's Will is fearful. 3 The former accounts for the atheist and the latter for
the martyr, who believes that God demands sacrifices. 4 Either of these insane decisions
will induce panic, because the atheist believes he is alone, and the martyr believes that
God is crucifying him. 5 Yet no one really wants either abandonment or retaliation, even
though many may seek both. p161 6 Can you ask the Holy Spirit for "gifts" such as these,
and actually expect to receive them? 7 He cannot give you something you do not want. 8
When you ask the Universal Giver for what you do not want, you are asking for what
cannot be given because it was never created. 9 It was never created, because it was never
your will for <you.>
T-9.I.9. Ultimately everyone must remember the Will of God, because ultimately
everyone must recognize himself. 2 This recognition is the recognition that his will and
God's are one. 3 In the presence of truth, there are no unbelievers and no sacrifices. 4 In
the security of reality, fear is totally meaningless. 5 To deny what is can only <seem> to
be fearful. 6 Fear cannot be real without a cause, and God is the only Cause. 7 God is
Love and you do want Him. 8 This <is> your will. 9 Ask for this and you will be
answered, because you will be asking only for what belongs to you.
T-9.I.10. When you ask the Holy Spirit for what would hurt you He cannot answer
because nothing can hurt you, and so you are asking for nothing. 2 Any wish that stems
from the ego is a wish for nothing, and to ask for it is not a request. 3 It is merely a denial
in the form of a request. 4 The Holy Spirit is not concerned with form, being aware only
of meaning. 5 The ego cannot ask the Holy Spirit for anything, because there is complete
communication failure between them. 6 Yet <you> can ask for everything of the Holy
Spirit, because your requests to Him are real, being of your right mind. 7 Would the Holy
Spirit deny the Will of God? 8 And could He fail to recognize it in His Son?
T-9.I.11. You do not recognize the enormous waste of energy you expend in denying
truth. 2 What would you say of someone who persists in attempting the impossible,
believing that to achieve it is to succeed? 3 The belief that you must have the impossible
in order to be happy is totally at variance with the principle of creation. 4 God could not
will that happiness depended on what you could never have. 5 The fact that God is Love
does not require belief, but it does require acceptance. 6 It is indeed possible for you to
deny facts, although it is impossible for you to change them. 7 If you hold your hands
over your eyes, you will not see because you are interfering with the laws of seeing. 8 If
you deny love, you will not know it because your cooperation is the law of its being. 9
You cannot change laws you did not make, and the laws of happiness were created for
you, not by you. p162
T-9.I.12. Any attempt to deny what <is> must be fearful, and if the attempt is strong it
will induce panic. 2 Willing against reality, though impossible, can be made into a very
persistent goal even though you do not want it. 3 But consider the result of this strange
decision. 4 You are devoting your mind to what you do not want. 5 How real can this
devotion be? 6 If you do not want it, it was never created. 7 If it were never created, it is
nothing. 8 Can you really devote yourself to nothing?
T-9.I.13. God in His devotion to you created you devoted to everything, and gave you
what you are devoted <to.> 2 Otherwise you would not have been created perfect. 3
Reality is everything, and you have everything because you are real. 4 You cannot make
the unreal because the absence of reality is fearful, and fear cannot be created. 5 As long
as you believe that fear is possible, you will not create. 6 Opposing orders of reality make
reality meaningless, and reality <is> meaning.
T-9.I.14. Remember, then, that God's Will is already possible, and nothing else will
ever be. 2 This is the simple acceptance of reality, because only that is real. 3 You cannot
distort reality and know what it is. 4 And if you do distort reality you will experience
anxiety, depression and ultimately panic, because you are trying to make yourself unreal.
5 When you feel these things, do not try to look beyond yourself for truth, for truth can
only be within you. 6 Say, therefore:
7 Christ is in me, and where He is God must be, for Christ is part of Him.
6 Because I will to know myself, I see you as God's Son and my brother.
6 By their fruits ye shall know them, and they shall know themselves.
3 Remember this when the ego speaks, and you will not hear it. 4 The truth about you is
so lofty that nothing unworthy of God is worthy of you. 5 Choose, then, what you want in
these terms, and accept nothing that you would not offer to God as wholly fitting for
Him. 6 You do not want anything else. 7 Return your part to Him, and He will give you
all of Himself in exchange for the return of what belongs to Him and renders Him
complete.
Chapter 10.
THE IDOLS OF SICKNESS
Introduction
T-10.in.1. Nothing beyond yourself can make you fearful or loving, because nothing
<is> beyond you. 2 Time and eternity are both in your mind, and will conflict until you
perceive time solely as a means to regain eternity. 3 You cannot do this as long as you
believe that anything happening to you is caused by factors outside yourself. 4 You must
learn that time is solely at your disposal, and that nothing in the world can take this
responsibility from you. 5 You can violate God's laws in your imagination, but you
cannot escape from them. 6 They were established for your protection and are as
inviolate as your safety.
T-10.in.2. God created nothing beside you and nothing beside you exists, for you are
part of Him. 2 What except Him can exist? 3 Nothing beyond Him can happen, because
nothing except Him is real. 4 Your creations add to Him as you do, but nothing is added
that is different because everything has always been. 5 What can upset you except the
ephemeral, and how can the ephemeral be real if you are God's only creation and He
created you eternal? 6 Your holy mind establishes everything that happens to you. 7
Every response you make to everything you perceive is up to you, because your mind
determines your perception of it.
T-10.in.3. God does not change His Mind about you, for He is not uncertain of
Himself. 2 And what He knows can be known, because He does not know it only for
Himself. 3 He created you for Himself, but He gave you the power to create for yourself
so you would be like Him. 4 That is why your mind is holy. 5 Can anything exceed the
Love of God? 6 Can anything, then, exceed your will? 7 Nothing can reach you from
beyond it because, being in God, you encompass everything. 8 Believe this, and you will
realize how much is up to you. 9 When anything threatens your peace of mind, ask
yourself, "Has God changed His Mind about me?" 10 Then accept His decision, for it is
indeed changeless, and refuse to change your mind about yourself. 11 God will never
decide against you, or He would be deciding against Himself. p181
I. At Home in God
T-10.I.1. You do not know your creations simply because you would decide against
them as long as your mind is split, and to attack what you have created is impossible. 2
But remember that <it is as impossible for God.> 3 The law of creation is that you love
your creations as yourself, because they are part of you. 4 Everything that was created is
therefore perfectly safe, because the laws of God protect it by His Love. 5 Any part of
your mind that does not know this has banished itself from knowledge, because it has not
met its conditions. 6 Who could have done this but you? 7 Recognize this gladly, for in
this recognition lies the realization that your banishment is not of God, and therefore does
not exist.
T-10.I.2. You are at home in God, dreaming of exile but perfectly capable of
awakening to reality. 2 Is it your decision to do so? 3 You recognize from your own
experience that what you see in dreams you think is real while you are asleep. 4 Yet the
instant you waken you realize that everything that seemed to happen in the dream did not
happen at all. 5 You do not think this strange, even though all the laws of what you
awaken to were violated while you slept. 6 Is it not possible that you merely shifted from
one dream to another, without really waking?
T-10.I.3. Would you bother to reconcile what happened in conflicting dreams, or
would you dismiss both together if you discovered that reality is in accord with neither? 2
You do not remember being awake. 3 When you hear the Holy Spirit you may feel better
because loving then seems possible to you, but you do not remember yet that it once was
so. 4 And it is in this remembering that you will know it can be so again. 5 What is
possible has not yet been accomplished. 6 Yet what has once been is so now, if it is
eternal. 7 When you remember, you will know that what you remember is eternal, and
therefore is now.
T-10.I.4. You will remember everything the instant you desire it wholly, for if to
desire wholly is to create, you will have willed away the separation, returning your mind
simultaneously to your Creator and your creations. 2 Knowing Them you will have no
wish to sleep, but only the desire to waken and be glad. 3 Dreams will be impossible
because you will want only truth, and being at last your will, it will be yours. p182
T-11.V.4. When we look at the ego, then, we are not considering dynamics but
delusions. 2 You can surely regard a delusional system without fear, for it cannot have
any effects if its source is not real. 3 Fear becomes more obviously inappropriate if you
recognize the ego's goal, which is so clearly senseless that any effort on its behalf is
necessarily expended on nothing. 4 The ego's goal is quite explicitly ego autonomy. 5
From the beginning, then, its purpose is to be separate, sufficient unto itself and
independent of any power except its own. 6 This is why it is the symbol of separation.
T-11.V.5. Every idea has a purpose, and its purpose is always the natural outcome of
what it is. 2 Everything that stems from the ego is the natural outcome of its central
belief, and the way to undo its results is merely to recognize that their source is not
natural, being out of accord with your true nature. 3 I said before that to will contrary to
God is wishful thinking and not real willing. 4 His Will is One <because> the extension
of His Will cannot be unlike itself. 5 The real conflict you experience, then, is between
the ego's idle wishes and the Will of God, which you share. 6 Can this be a real conflict?
T-11.V.6. Yours is the independence of creation, not of autonomy. 2 Your whole
creative function lies in your complete dependence on God, Whose function He shares
with you. p203 3 By His willingness to share it, He became as dependent on you as you
are on Him. 4 Do not ascribe the ego's arrogance to Him Who wills not to be independent
of you. 5 He has included you in His Autonomy. 6 Can you believe that autonomy is
meaningful apart from Him? 7 The belief in ego autonomy is costing you the knowledge
of your dependence on God, in which your freedom lies. 8 The ego sees all dependency
as threatening, and has twisted even your longing for God into a means of establishing
itself. 9 But do not be deceived by its interpretation of your conflict.
T-11.V.7. The ego always attacks on behalf of separation. 2 Believing it has the power
to do this it does nothing else, because its goal of autonomy <is> nothing else. 3 The ego
is totally confused about reality, but it does not lose sight of its goal. 4 It is much more
vigilant than you are, because it is perfectly certain of its purpose. 5 You are confused
because you do not recognize yours.
T-11.V.8. You must recognize that the last thing the ego wishes you to realize is that
you are afraid of it. 2 For if the ego could give rise to fear, it would diminish your
independence and weaken your power. 3 Yet its one claim to your allegiance is that it can
give power to you. 4 Without this belief you would not listen to it at all. 5 How, then, can
its existence continue if you realize that, by accepting it, you are belittling yourself and
depriving yourself of power?
T-11.V.9. The ego can and does allow you to regard yourself as supercilious,
unbelieving, "lighthearted," distant, emotionally shallow, callous, uninvolved and even
desperate, but not really afraid. 2 Minimizing fear, but not its undoing, is the ego's
constant effort, and is indeed a skill at which it is very ingenious. 3 How can it preach
separation without upholding it through fear, and would you listen to it if you recognized
this is what it is doing?
T-11.V.10. Your recognition that whatever seems to separate you from God is only fear,
regardless of the form it takes and quite apart from how the ego wants you to experience
it, is therefore the basic ego threat. 2 Its dream of autonomy is shaken to its foundation by
this awareness. 3 For though you may countenance a false idea of independence, you will
not accept the cost of fear if you recognize it. 4 Yet this is the cost, and the ego cannot
minimize it. 5 If you overlook love you are overlooking yourself, and you must fear
unreality <because> you have denied yourself. 6 By believing that you have successfully
attacked truth, you are believing that attack has power. p204 7 Very simply, then, you
have become afraid of yourself. 8 And no one wants to find what he believes would
destroy him.
T-11.V.11. If the ego's goal of autonomy could be accomplished God's purpose could be
defeated, and this is impossible. 2 Only by learning what fear is can you finally learn to
distinguish the possible from the impossible and the false from the true. 3 According to
the ego's teaching, <its> goal can be accomplished and God's purpose can <not.> 4
According to the Holy Spirit's teaching, <only> God's purpose can be accomplished, and
it is accomplished already.
T-11.V.12. God is as dependent on you as you are on Him, because His Autonomy
encompasses yours, and is therefore incomplete without it. 2 You can only establish your
autonomy by identifying with Him, and fulfilling your function as it exists in truth. 3 The
ego believes that to accomplish its goal is happiness. 4 But it is given you to know that
God's function is yours, and happiness cannot be found apart from Your joint Will. 5
Recognize only that the ego's goal, which you have pursued so diligently, has merely
brought you fear, and it becomes difficult to maintain that fear is happiness. 6 Upheld by
fear, this is what the ego would have you believe. 7 Yet God's Son is not insane, and
cannot believe it. 8 Let him but recognize it and he will not accept it. 9 For only the
insane would choose fear in place of love, and only the insane could believe that love can
be gained by attack. 10 But the sane realize that only attack could produce fear, from
which the Love of God completely protects them.
T-11.V.13. The ego analyzes; the Holy Spirit accepts. 2 The appreciation of wholeness
comes only through acceptance, for to analyze means to break down or to separate out. 3
The attempt to understand totality by breaking it down is clearly the characteristically
contradictory approach of the ego to everything. 4 The ego believes that power,
understanding and truth lie in separation, and to establish this belief it must attack. 5
Unaware that the belief cannot be established, and obsessed with the conviction that
separation is salvation, the ego attacks everything it perceives by breaking it into small,
disconnected parts, without meaningful relationships and therefore without meaning. 6
The ego will always substitute chaos for meaning, for if separation is salvation, harmony
is threat.
T-11.V.14. The ego's interpretations of the laws of perception are, and would have to be,
the exact opposite of the Holy Spirit's. p205 2 The ego focuses on error and overlooks
truth. 3 It makes real every mistake it perceives, and with characteristically circular
reasoning concludes that because of the mistake consistent truth must be meaningless. 4
The next step, then, is obvious. 5 If consistent truth is meaningless, inconsistency must be
true. 6 Holding error clearly in mind, and protecting what it has made real, the ego
proceeds to the next step in its thought system: Error is real and truth is error.
T-11.V.15. The ego makes no attempt to understand this, and it is clearly not
understandable, but the ego does make every attempt to demonstrate it, and this it does
constantly. 2 Analyzing to attack meaning, the ego succeeds in overlooking it and is left
with a series of fragmented perceptions which it unifies on behalf of itself. 3 This, then,
becomes the universe it perceives. 4 And it is this universe which, in turn, becomes its
demonstration of its own reality.
T-11.V.16. Do not underestimate the appeal of the ego's demonstrations to those who
would listen. 2 Selective perception chooses its witnesses carefully, and its witnesses are
consistent. 3 The case for insanity is strong to the insane. 4 For reasoning ends at its
beginning, and no thought system transcends its source. 5 Yet reasoning without meaning
cannot demonstrate anything, and those who are convinced by it must be deluded. 6 Can
the ego teach truly when it overlooks truth? 7 Can it perceive what it has denied? 8 Its
witnesses do attest to its denial, but hardly to what it has denied. 9 The ego looks straight
at the Father and does not see Him, for it has denied His Son.
T-11.V.17. Would <you> remember the Father? 2 Accept His Son and you will
remember Him. 3 Nothing can demonstrate that His Son is unworthy, for nothing can
prove that a lie is true. 4 What you see of His Son through the eyes of the ego is a
demonstration that His Son does not exist, yet where the Son is the Father must be. 5
Accept what God does not deny, and it will demonstrate its truth. 6 The witnesses for
God stand in His light and behold what He created. 7 Their silence is the sign that they
have beheld God's Son, and in the Presence of Christ they need demonstrate nothing, for
Christ speaks to them of Himself and of His Father. 8 They are silent because Christ
speaks to them, and it is His words they speak.
T-11.V.18. Every brother you meet becomes a witness for Christ or for the ego,
depending on what you perceive in him. p206 2 Everyone convinces you of what you
want to perceive, and of the reality of the kingdom you have chosen for your vigilance. 3
Everything you perceive is a witness to the thought system you want to be true. 4 Every
brother has the power to release you, if you choose to be free. 5 You cannot accept false
witness of him unless you have evoked false witnesses against him. 6 If he speaks not of
Christ to you, you spoke not of Christ to him. 7 You hear but your own voice, and if
Christ speaks through you, you will hear Him.
7 Decide for the answer and you will have it, for you will see it as it is, and it is yours
already.
T-11.VIII.5. You may complain that this course is not sufficiently specific for you to
understand and use. 2 Yet perhaps you have not done what it specifically advocates. 3
This is not a course in the play of ideas, but in their practical application. 4 Nothing could
be more specific than to be told that if you ask you will receive. 5 The Holy Spirit will
answer every specific problem as long as you believe that problems are specific. 6 His
answer is both many and one, as long as you believe that the one is many. 7 You may be
afraid of His specificity, for fear of what you think it will demand of you. 8 Yet only by
asking will you learn that nothing of God demands anything of you. 9 God gives; He
does not take. 10 When you refuse to ask, it is because you believe that asking is taking
rather than sharing.
T-11.VIII.6. The Holy Spirit will give you only what is yours, and will take nothing in
return. 2 For what is yours is everything, and you share it with God. 3 That is its reality. 4
Would the Holy Spirit, Who wills only to restore, be capable of misinterpreting the
question you must ask to learn His answer? 5 You <have> heard the answer, but you
have misunderstood the question. 6 You believe that to ask for guidance of the Holy
Spirit is to ask for deprivation.
T-11.VIII.7. Little child of God, you do not understand your Father. 2 You believe in a
world that takes, because you believe that you can get by taking. 3 And by that perception
you have lost sight of the real world. 4 You are afraid of the world as you see it, but the
real world is still yours for the asking. 5 Do not deny it to yourself, for it can only free
you. 6 Nothing of God will enslave His Son whom He created free and whose freedom is
protected by His Being. 7 Blessed are you who are willing to ask the truth of God without
fear, for only thus can you learn that His answer is the release from fear.
T-11.VIII.8. Beautiful child of God, you are asking only for what I promised you. 2 Do
you believe I would deceive you? 3 The Kingdom of Heaven <is> within you. p212 4
Believe that the truth is in me, for I know that it is in you. 5 God's Sons have nothing they
do not share. 6 Ask for truth of any Son of God, and you have asked it of me. 7 Not one
of us but has the answer in him, to give to anyone who asks it of him.
T-11.VIII.9. Ask anything of God's Son and his Father will answer you, for Christ is not
deceived in His Father and His Father is not deceived in Him. 2 Do not, then, be deceived
in your brother, and see only his loving thoughts as his reality, for by denying that his
mind is split you will heal yours. 3 Accept him as his Father accepts him and heal him
unto Christ, for Christ is his healing and yours. 4 Christ is the Son of God Who is in no
way separate from His Father, Whose every thought is as loving as the Thought of His
Father by which He was created. 5 Be not deceived in God's Son, for thereby you must be
deceived in yourself. 6 And being deceived in yourself you are deceived in your Father,
in Whom no deceit is possible.
T-11.VIII.10. In the real world there is no sickness, for there is no separation and no
division. 2 Only loving thoughts are recognized, and because no one is without your help,
the Help of God goes with you everywhere. 3 As you become willing to accept this Help
by asking for It, you will give It because you want It. 4 Nothing will be beyond your
healing power, because nothing will be denied your simple request. 5 What problems will
not disappear in the Presence of God's Answer? 6 Ask, then, to learn of the reality of your
brother, because this is what you will perceive in him, and you will see your beauty
reflected in his.
T-11.VIII.11. Do not accept your brother's variable perception of himself for his
split mind is yours, and you will not accept your healing without his. 2 For you share the
real world as you share Heaven, and his healing is yours. 3 To love yourself is to heal
yourself, and you cannot perceive part of you as sick and achieve your goal. 4 Brother,
we heal together as we live together and love together. 5 Be not deceived in God's Son,
for he is one with himself and one with his Father. 6 Love him who is beloved of his
Father, and you will learn of the Father's Love for you.
T-11.VIII.12. If you perceive offense in a brother pluck the offense from your mind,
for you are offended by Christ and are deceived in Him. 2 Heal in Christ and be not
offended by Him, for there is no offense in Him. 3 If what you perceive offends you, you
are offended in yourself and are condemning God's Son whom God condemneth not.
p213 4 Let the Holy Spirit remove all offenses of God's Son against himself and perceive
no one but through His guidance, for He would save you from all condemnation. 5
Accept His healing power and use it for all He sends you, for He wills to heal the Son of
God, in whom He is not deceived.
T-11.VIII.13. Children perceive frightening ghosts and monsters and dragons, and
they are terrified. 2 Yet if they ask someone they trust for the meaning of what they
perceive, and are willing to let their own interpretations go in favor of reality, their fear
goes with them. 3 When a child is helped to translate his "ghost" into a curtain, his
"monster" into a shadow, and his "dragon" into a dream he is no longer afraid, and laughs
happily at his own fear.
T-11.VIII.14. You, my child, are afraid of your brothers and of your Father and of
yourself. 2 But you are merely deceived in them. 3 Ask what they are of the Teacher of
reality, and hearing His answer, you too will laugh at your fears and replace them with
peace. 4 For fear lies not in reality, but in the minds of children who do not understand
reality. 5 It is only their lack of understanding that frightens them, and when they learn to
perceive truly they are not afraid. 6 And because of this they will ask for truth again when
they are frightened. 7 It is not the reality of your brothers or your Father or yourself that
frightens you. 8 You do not know what they are, and so you perceive them as ghosts and
monsters and dragons. 9 Ask what their reality is from the One Who knows it, and He
will tell you what they are. 10 For you do not understand them, and because you are
deceived by what you see you need reality to dispel your fears.
T-11.VIII.15. Would you not exchange your fears for truth, if the exchange is yours
for the asking? 2 For if God is not deceived in you, you can be deceived only in yourself.
3 Yet you can learn the truth about yourself from the Holy Spirit, Who will teach you
that, as part of God, deceit in you is impossible. 4 When you perceive yourself without
deceit, you will accept the real world in place of the false one you have made. 5 And then
your Father will lean down to you and take the last step for you, by raising you unto
Himself. p214
Chapter 12.
THE HOLY SPIRIT'S CURRICULUM
I. The Judgment of the Holy Spirit
T-12.I.1. You have been told not to make error real, and the way to do this is very
simple. 2 If you want to believe in error, you would have to make it real because it is not
true. 3 But truth is real in its own right, and to believe in truth <you do not have to do
anything>. 4 Understand that you do not respond to anything directly, but to your
interpretation of it. 5 Your interpretation thus becomes the justification for the response.
6 That is why analyzing the motives of others is hazardous to you. 7 If you decide that
someone is really trying to attack you or desert you or enslave you, you will respond as if
he had actually done so, having made his error real to you. 8 To interpret error is to give
it power, and having done this you will overlook truth.
T-12.I.2. The analysis of ego motivation is very complicated, very obscuring, and
never without your own ego involvement. 2 The whole process represents a clear-cut
attempt to demonstrate your own ability to understand what you perceive. 3 This is
shown by the fact that you react to your interpretations as if they were correct. 4 You may
then control your reactions behaviorally, but not emotionally. 5 This would obviously be
a split or an attack on the integrity of your mind, pitting one level within it against
another.
T-12.I.3. There is but one interpretation of motivation that makes any sense. 2 And
because it is the Holy Spirit's judgment it requires no effort at all on your part. 3 Every
loving thought is true. 4 Everything else is an appeal for healing and help, regardless of
the form it takes. 5 Can anyone be justified in responding with anger to a brother's plea
for help? 6 No response can be appropriate except the willingness to give it to him, for
this and only this is what he is asking for. 7 Offer him anything else, and you are
assuming the right to attack his reality by interpreting it as you see fit. 8 Perhaps the
danger of this to your own mind is not yet fully apparent. 9 If you believe that an appeal
for help is something else you will react to something else. 10 Your response will
therefore be inappropriate to reality as it is, but not to your perception of it.
T-12.I.4. There is nothing to prevent you from recognizing all calls for help as exactly
what they are except your own imagined need to attack. p215 2 It is only this that makes
you willing to engage in endless "battles" with reality, in which you deny the reality of
the need for healing by making it unreal. 3 You would not do this except for your
unwillingness to accept reality as it is, and which you therefore withhold from yourself.
T-12.I.5. It is surely good advice to tell you not to judge what you do not understand.
2 No one with a personal investment is a reliable witness, for truth to him has become
what he wants it to be. 3 If you are unwilling to perceive an appeal for help as what it is,
it is because you are unwilling to give help and to receive it. 4 To fail to recognize a call
for help is to refuse help. 5 Would you maintain that you do not need it? 6 Yet this is
what you are maintaining when you refuse to recognize a brother's appeal, for only by
answering his appeal <can> you be helped. 7 Deny him your help and you will not
recognize God's Answer to you. 8 The Holy Spirit does not need your help in interpreting
motivation, but you do need His.
T-12.I.6. Only appreciation is an appropriate response to your brother. 2 Gratitude is
due him for both his loving thoughts and his appeals for help, for both are capable of
bringing love into your awareness if you perceive them truly. 3 And all your sense of
strain comes from your attempts not to do just this. 4 How simple, then, is God's plan for
salvation. 5 There is but one response to reality, for reality evokes no conflict at all. 6
There is but one Teacher of reality, Who understands what it is. 7 He does not change His
Mind about reality because reality does not change. 8 Although your interpretations of
reality are meaningless in your divided state, His remain consistently true. 9 He gives
them to you because they are <for> you. 10 Do not attempt to "help" a brother in your
way, for you cannot help yourself. 11 But hear his call for the Help of God, and you will
recognize your own need for the Father.
T-12.I.7. Your interpretations of your brother's needs are your interpretation of yours.
2 By giving help you are asking for it, and if you perceive but one need in yourself you
will be healed. 3 For you will recognize God's Answer as you want It to be, and if you
want It in truth, It will be truly yours. 4 Every appeal you answer in the Name of Christ
brings the remembrance of your Father closer to your awareness. 5 For the sake of your
need, then, hear every call for help as what it is, so God can answer <you.> p216
T-12.I.8. By applying the Holy Spirit's interpretation of the reactions of others more
and more consistently, you will gain an increasing awareness that His criteria are equally
applicable to you. 2 For to recognize fear is not enough to escape from it, although the
recognition is necessary to demonstrate the need for escape. 3 The Holy Spirit must still
translate the fear into truth. 4 If you were left with the fear, once you had recognized it,
you would have taken a step away from reality, not towards it. 5 Yet we have repeatedly
emphasized the need to recognize fear and face it without disguise as a crucial step in the
undoing of the ego. 6 Consider how well the Holy Spirit's interpretation of the motives of
others will serve you then. 7 Having taught you to accept only loving thoughts in others
and to regard everything else as an appeal for help, He has taught you that fear itself is an
appeal for help. 8 This is what recognizing fear really means. 9 If you do not protect it,
He will reinterpret it. 10 That is the ultimate value in learning to perceive attack as a call
for love. 11 We have already learned that fear and attack are inevitably associated. 12 If
only attack produces fear, and if you see attack as the call for help that it is, the unreality
of fear must dawn on you. 13 For fear <is> a call for love, in unconscious recognition of
what has been denied.
T-12.I.9. Fear is a symptom of your own deep sense of loss. 2 If when you perceive it
in others you learn to supply the loss, the basic cause of fear is removed. 3 Thereby you
teach yourself that fear does not exist in you. 4 The means for removing it is in yourself,
and you have demonstrated this by giving it. 5 Fear and love are the only emotions of
which you are capable. 6 One is false, for it was made out of denial; and denial depends
on the belief in what is denied for its own existence. 7 By interpreting fear correctly as a
positive affirmation of the underlying belief it masks, you are undermining its perceived
usefulness by rendering it useless. 8 Defenses that do not work at all are automatically
discarded. 9 If you raise what fear conceals to clear-cut unequivocal predominance, fear
becomes meaningless. 10 You have denied its power to conceal love, which was its only
purpose. 11 The veil that you have drawn across the face of love has disappeared.
T-12.I.10. If you would look upon love, which <is> the world's reality, how could you
do better than to recognize, in every defense against it, the underlying appeal <for> it? 2
And how could you better learn of its reality than by answering the appeal for it by giving
it? 3 The Holy Spirit's interpretation of fear does dispel it, for the awareness of truth
cannot be denied. p217 4 Thus does the Holy Spirit replace fear with love and translate
error into truth. 5 And thus will you learn of Him how to replace your dream of
separation with the fact of unity. 6 For the separation is only the denial of union, and
correctly interpreted, attests to your eternal knowledge that union is true.
Chapter 13.
THE GUILTLESS WORLD
Introduction
T-13.in.1. If you did not feel guilty you could not attack, for condemnation is the root
of attack. 2 It is the judgment of one mind by another as unworthy of love and deserving
of punishment. 3 But herein lies the split. 4 For the mind that judges perceives itself as
separate from the mind being judged, believing that by punishing another, it will escape
punishment. 5 All this is but the delusional attempt of the mind to deny itself, and escape
the penalty of denial. 6 It is not an attempt to relinquish denial, but to hold on to it. 7 For
it is guilt that has obscured the Father to you, and it is guilt that has driven you insane.
T-13.in.2. The acceptance of guilt into the mind of God's Son was the beginning of the
separation, as the acceptance of the Atonement is its end. 2 The world you see is the
delusional system of those made mad by guilt. 3 Look carefully at this world, and you
will realize that this is so. 4 For this world is the symbol of punishment, and all the laws
that seem to govern it are the laws of death. 5 Children are born into it through pain and
in pain. 6 Their growth is attended by suffering, and they learn of sorrow and separation
and death. 7 Their minds seem to be trapped in their brain, and its powers to decline if
their bodies are hurt. 8 They seem to love, yet they desert and are deserted. 9 They appear
to lose what they love, perhaps the most insane belief of all. 10 And their bodies wither
and gasp and are laid in the ground, and are no more. 11 Not one of them but has thought
that God is cruel.
T-13.in.3. If this were the real world, God <would> be cruel. 2 For no Father could
subject His children to this as the price of salvation and <be> loving. 3 <Love does not
kill to save.> 4 If it did, attack would be salvation, and this is the ego's interpretation, not
God's. 5 Only the world of guilt could demand this, for only the guilty could conceive of
it. 6 Adam's "sin" could have touched no one, had he not believed it was the Father Who
drove him out of Paradise. 7 For in that belief the knowledge of the Father was lost, since
only those who do not understand Him could believe it.
T-13.in.4. This world <is> a picture of the crucifixion of God's Son. 2 And until you
realize that God's Son cannot be crucified, this is the world you will see. p236 3 Yet you
will not realize this until you accept the eternal fact that God's Son is not guilty. 4 He
deserves only love because he has given only love. 5 He cannot be condemned because
he has never condemned. 6 The Atonement is the final lesson he need learn, for it teaches
him that, never having sinned, he has no need of salvation.
2 The Holy Spirit leads me unto Christ, and where else would I go? 3 What need have I
but to awake in Him?
T-13.VII.15.Then follow Him in joy, with faith that He will lead you safely through all
dangers to your peace of mind this world may set before you. 2 Kneel not before the
altars to sacrifice, and seek not what you will surely lose. 3 Content yourself with what
you will as surely keep, and be not restless, for you undertake a quiet journey to the peace
of God, where He would have you be in quietness.
T-13.VII.16.In me you have already overcome every temptation that would hold you
back. 2 We walk together on the way to quietness that is the gift of God. 3 Hold me dear,
for what except your brothers can you need? 4 We will restore to you the peace of mind
that we must find together. 5 The Holy Spirit will teach you to awaken unto us and to
yourself. 6 This is the only real need to be fulfilled in time. 7 Salvation from the world
lies only here. 8 My peace I give you. 9 Take it of me in glad exchange for all the world
has offered but to take away. 10 And we will spread it like a veil of light across the
world's sad face, in which we hide our brothers from the world, and it from them.
T-13.VII.17.We cannot sing redemption's hymn alone. 2 My task is not completed until I
have lifted every voice with mine. 3 And yet it is not mine, for as it is my gift to you, so
was it the Father's gift to me, given me through His Spirit. 4 The sound of it will banish
sorrow from the mind of God's most holy Son, where it cannot abide. 5 Healing in time is
needed, for joy cannot establish its eternal reign where sorrow dwells. 6 You dwell not
here, but in eternity. 7 You travel but in dreams, while safe at home. 8 Give thanks to
every part of you that you have taught how to remember you. p257 9 Thus does the Son
of God give thanks unto his Father for his purity.
10 Behold the Son of God, and look upon his purity and be still. 11 In quiet look upon his
holiness, and offer thanks unto his Father that no guilt has ever touched him.
T-13.X.12. No illusion that you have ever held against him has touched his innocence in
any way. 2 His shining purity, wholly untouched by guilt and wholly loving, is bright
within you. 3 Let us look upon him together and love him. 4 For in love of him is your
guiltlessness. 5 But look upon yourself, and gladness and appreciation for what you see
will banish guilt forever. 6 I thank You, Father, for the purity of Your most holy Son,
whom You have created guiltless forever.
T-13.X.13. Like you, my faith and my belief are centered on what I treasure. 2 The
difference is that I love <only> what God loves with me, and because of this I treasure
you beyond the value that you set on yourself, even unto the worth that God has placed
upon you. 3 I love all that He created, and all my faith and my belief I offer unto it. p265
4 My faith in you is as strong as all the love I give my Father. 5 My trust in you is
without limit, and without the fear that you will hear me not. 6 I thank the Father for your
loveliness, and for the many gifts that you will let me offer to the Kingdom in honor of its
wholeness that is of God.
T-13.X.14. Praise be to you who make the Father One with His Own Son. 2 Alone we
are all lowly, but together we shine with brightness so intense that none of us alone can
even think of it. 3 Before the glorious radiance of the Kingdom guilt melts away, and
transformed into kindness will never more be what it was. 4 Every reaction you
experience will be so purified that it is fitting as a hymn of praise unto your Father. 5 See
only praise of Him in what He has created, for He will never cease His praise of you. 6
United in this praise we stand before the gates of Heaven where we will surely enter in
our sinlessness. 7 God loves you. 8 Could I, then, lack faith in you and love Him
perfectly?
Chapter 14.
TEACHING FOR TRUTH
Introduction
T-14.in.1. Yes, you are blessed indeed. 2 Yet in this world you do not know it. 3 But
you have the means for learning it and seeing it quite clearly. 4 The Holy Spirit uses logic
as easily and as well as does the ego, except that His conclusions are not insane. 5 They
take a direction exactly opposite, pointing as clearly to Heaven as the ego points to
darkness and to death. 6 We have followed much of the ego's logic, and have seen its
logical conclusions. 7 And having seen them, we have realized that they cannot be seen
except in illusions, for there alone their seeming clearness seems to be clearly seen. 8 Let
us now turn away from them, and follow the simple logic by which the Holy Spirit
teaches the simple conclusions that speak for truth, and only truth.
3 The truth is true. 4 Nothing else matters, nothing else is real, and everything beside it is
not there. 5 Let Me make the one distinction for you that you cannot make, but need to
learn. 6 Your faith in nothing is deceiving you. 7 Offer your faith to Me, and I will place
it gently in the holy place where it belongs. p272 8 You will find no deception there, but
only the simple truth. 9 And you will love it because you will understand it.
T-14.II.4. Like you, the Holy Spirit did not make truth. 2 Like God, He knows it to be
true. 3 He brings the light of truth into the darkness, and lets it shine on you. 4 And as it
shines your brothers see it, and realizing that this light is not what you have made, they
see in you more than you see. 5 They will be happy learners of the lesson this light brings
to them, because it teaches them release from nothing and from all the works of nothing.
6 The heavy chains that seem to bind them to despair they do not see as nothing, until
you bring the light to them. 7 And then they see the chains have disappeared, and so they
<must> have been nothing. 8 And you will see it with them. 9 Because you taught them
gladness and release, they will become your teachers in release and gladness.
T-14.II.5. When you teach anyone that truth is true, you learn it with him. 2 And so
you learn that what seemed hardest was the easiest. 3 Learn to be a happy learner. 4 You
will never learn how to make nothing everything. 5 Yet see that this has been your goal,
and recognize how foolish it has been. 6 Be glad it is undone, for when you look at it in
simple honesty, it <is> undone. 7 I said before, "Be not content with nothing," for you
have believed that nothing could content you. 8 <It is not so.>
T-14.II.6. If you would be a happy learner, you must give everything you have learned
to the Holy Spirit, to be unlearned for you. 2 And then begin to learn the joyous lessons
that come quickly on the firm foundation that truth is true. 3 For what is builded there
<is> true, and built on truth. 4 The universe of learning will open up before you in all its
gracious simplicity. 5 With truth before you, you will not look back.
T-14.II.7. The happy learner meets the conditions of learning here, as he meets the
conditions of knowledge in the Kingdom. 2 All this lies in the Holy Spirit's plan to free
you from the past, and open up the way to freedom for you. 3 For truth <is> true. 4 What
else could ever be, or ever was? 5 This simple lesson holds the key to the dark door that
you believe is locked forever. 6 You made this door of nothing, and behind it <is>
nothing. 7 The key is only the light that shines away the shapes and forms and fears of
nothing. 8 Accept this key to freedom from the hands of Christ Who gives it to you, that
you may join Him in the holy task of bringing light. 9 For, like your brothers, you do not
realize the light has come and freed you from the sleep of darkness. p273
T-14.II.8. Behold your brothers in their freedom, and learn of them how to be free of
darkness. 2 The light in you will waken them, and they will not leave you asleep. 3 The
vision of Christ is given the very instant that it is perceived. 4 Where everything is clear,
it is all holy. 5 The quietness of its simplicity is so compelling that you will realize it is
impossible to deny the simple truth. 6 For there is nothing else. 7 God is everywhere, and
His Son is in Him with everything. 8 Can he sing the dirge of sorrow when this is true?
T-14.III.4. Each day, each hour and minute, even each second, you are deciding
between the crucifixion and the resurrection; between the ego and the Holy Spirit. 2 The
ego is the choice for guilt; the Holy Spirit the choice for guiltlessness. 3 The power of
decision is all that is yours. 4 What you can decide between is fixed, because there are no
alternatives except truth and illusion. 5 And there is no overlap between them, because
they are opposites which cannot be reconciled and cannot both be true. 6 You are guilty
or guiltless, bound or free, unhappy or happy.
T-14.III.5. The miracle teaches you that you have chosen guiltlessness, freedom and
joy. 2 It is not a cause, but an effect. 3 It is the natural result of choosing right, attesting to
your happiness that comes from choosing to be free of guilt. 4 Everyone you offer
healing to returns it. 5 Everyone you attack keeps it and cherishes it by holding it against
you. 6 Whether he does this or does it not will make no difference; you will think he
does. 7 It is impossible to offer what you do not want without this penalty. 8 The cost of
giving <is> receiving. 9 Either it is a penalty from which you suffer, or the happy
purchase of a treasure to hold dear.
T-14.III.6. No penalty is ever asked of God's Son except by himself and of himself. 2
Every chance given him to heal is another opportunity to replace darkness with light and
fear with love. 3 If he refuses it he binds himself to darkness, because he did not choose
to free his brother and enter light with him. 4 By giving power to nothing, he throws
away the joyous opportunity to learn that nothing has no power. 5 And by not dispelling
darkness, he became afraid of darkness and of light. 6 The joy of learning that darkness
has no power over the Son of God is the happy lesson the Holy Spirit teaches, and would
have you teach with Him. 7 It is His joy to teach it, as it will be yours.
T-14.III.7. The way to teach this simple lesson is merely this: Guiltlessness is
invulnerability. 2 Therefore, make your invulnerability manifest to everyone. 3 Teach
him that, whatever he may try to do to you, your perfect freedom from the belief that you
can be harmed shows him that he is guiltless. 4 He can do nothing that can hurt you, and
by refusing to allow him to think he can, you teach him that the Atonement, which you
have accepted for yourself, is also his. p275 5 There is nothing to forgive. 6 No one can
hurt the Son of God. 7 His guilt is wholly without cause, and being without cause, cannot
exist.
T-14.III.8. God is the only Cause, and guilt is not of Him. 2 Teach no one he has hurt
you, for if you do, you teach yourself that what is not of God has power over you. 3 <The
causeless cannot be.> 4 Do not attest to it, and do not foster belief in it in any mind. 5
Remember always that mind is one, and cause is one. 6 You will learn communication
with this oneness only when you learn to deny the causeless, and accept the Cause of God
as yours. 7 The power that God has given to His Son <is> his, and nothing else can His
Son see or choose to look upon without imposing on himself the penalty of guilt, in place
of all the happy teaching the Holy Spirit would gladly offer him.
T-14.III.9. Whenever you choose to make decisions for yourself you are thinking
destructively, and the decision will be wrong. 2 It will hurt you because of the concept of
decision that led to it. 3 It is not true that you can make decisions by yourself or for
yourself alone. 4 No thought of God's Son can be separate or isolated in its effects. 5
Every decision is made for the whole Sonship, directed in and out, and influencing a
constellation larger than anything you ever dreamed of.
T-14.III.10. Those who accept the Atonement <are> invulnerable. 2 But those who
believe they are guilty will respond to guilt, because they think it is salvation, and will
not refuse to see it and side with it. 3 They believe that increasing guilt is self-protection.
4 And they will fail to understand the simple fact that what they do not want must hurt
them. 5 All this arises because they do not believe that what they want is good. 6 Yet will
was given them because it is holy, and will bring to them all that they need, coming as
naturally as peace that knows no limits. 7 There is nothing their will fails to provide that
offers them anything of value. 8 Yet because they do not understand their will, the Holy
Spirit quietly understands it for them, and gives them what they want without effort,
strain, or the impossible burden of deciding what they want and need alone.
T-14.III.11. It will never happen that you must make decisions for yourself. 2 You are
not bereft of help, and Help that knows the answer. 3 Would you be content with little,
which is all that you alone can offer yourself, when He Who gives you everything will
simply offer it to you? 4 He will never ask what you have done to make you worthy of
the gift of God. p276 5 Ask it not therefore of yourself. 6 Instead, accept His answer, for
He knows that you are worthy of everything God wills for you. 7 Do not try to escape the
gift of God He so freely and so gladly offers you. 8 He offers you but what God gave
Him for you. 9 You need not decide whether or not you are deserving of it. 10 God
knows you are.
T-14.III.12. Would you deny the truth of God's decision, and place your pitiful appraisal
of yourself in place of His calm and unswerving value of His Son? 2 Nothing can shake
God's conviction of the perfect purity of everything that He created, for it <is> wholly
pure. 3 Do not decide against it, for being of Him it must be true. 4 Peace abides in every
mind that quietly accepts the plan God set for its Atonement, relinquishing its own. 5
You know not of salvation, for you do not understand it. 6 Make no decisions about what
it is or where it lies, but ask the Holy Spirit everything, and leave all decisions to His
gentle counsel.
T-14.III.13. The One Who knows the plan of God that God would have you follow can
teach you what it is. 2 Only His wisdom is capable of guiding you to follow it. 3 Every
decision you undertake alone but signifies that you would define what salvation <is,> and
what you would be saved <from.> 4 The Holy Spirit knows that all salvation is escape
from guilt. 5 You have no other "enemy," and against this strange distortion of the purity
of the Son of God the Holy Spirit is your only Friend. 6 He is the strong protector of the
innocence that sets you free. 7 And it is His decision to undo everything that would
obscure your innocence from your unclouded mind.
T-14.III.14. Let Him, therefore, be the only Guide that you would follow to salvation. 2
He knows the way, and leads you gladly on it. 3 With Him you will not fail to learn that
what God wills for you <is> your will. 4 Without His guidance you will think you know
alone, and will decide against your peace as surely as you decided that salvation lay in
you alone. 5 Salvation is of Him to Whom God gave it for you. 6 He has not forgotten it.
7 Forget Him not and He will make every decision for you, for your salvation and the
peace of God in you.
T-14.III.15. Seek not to appraise the worth of God's Son whom He created holy, for to do
so is to evaluate his Father and judge against Him. 2 And you <will> feel guilty for this
imagined crime, which no one in this world or Heaven could possibly commit. 3 The
Holy Spirit teaches only that the "sin" of self-replacement on the throne of God is not a
source of guilt. p277 4 What cannot happen can have no effects to fear. 5 Be quiet in your
faith in Him Who loves you, and would lead you out of insanity. 6 Madness may be your
choice, but not your reality. 7 Never forget the Love of God, Who has remembered you. 8
For it is quite impossible that He could ever let His Son drop from the loving Mind
wherein he was created, and where his abode was fixed in perfect peace forever.
T-14.III.16. Say to the Holy Spirit only, "Decide for me," and it is done. 2 For His
decisions are reflections of what God knows about you, and in this light, error of any kind
becomes impossible. 3 Why would you struggle so frantically to anticipate all you cannot
know, when all knowledge lies behind every decision the Holy Spirit makes for you? 4
Learn of His wisdom and His Love, and teach His answer to everyone who struggles in
the dark. 5 For you decide for them and for yourself.
T-14.III.17. How gracious it is to decide all things through Him Whose equal Love is
given equally to all alike! 2 He leaves you no one outside you. 3 And so He gives you
what is yours, because your Father would have you share it with Him. 4 In everything be
led by Him, and do not reconsider. 5 Trust Him to answer quickly, surely, and with Love
for everyone who will be touched in any way by the decision. 6 And everyone will be. 7
Would you take unto yourself the sole responsibility for deciding what can bring only
good to everyone? 8 Would you know this?
T-14.III.18. You taught yourself the most unnatural habit of not communicating with
your Creator. 2 Yet you remain in close communication with Him, and with everything
that is within Him, as it is within yourself. 3 Unlearn isolation through His loving
guidance, and learn of all the happy communication that you have thrown away but could
not lose.
T-14.III.19. Whenever you are in doubt what you should do, think of His Presence in
you, and tell yourself this, and only this:
5 Then let Him teach you quietly how to perceive your guiltlessness, which is already
there. p278
7 I do not know what anything, including this, means. 8 And so I do not know how to
respond to it. 9 And I will not use my own past learning as the light to guide me now.
10 By this refusal to attempt to teach yourself what you do not know, the Guide Whom
God has given you will speak to you. 11 He will take His rightful place in your awareness
the instant you abandon it, and offer it to Him.
T-14.XI.7. You cannot be your guide to miracles, for it is you who made them
necessary. 2 And because you did, the means on which you can depend for miracles has
been provided for you. 3 God's Son can make no needs his Father will not meet, if he but
turn to Him ever so little. 4 Yet He cannot compel His Son to turn to Him and remain
Himself. 5 It is impossible that God lose His Identity, for if He did, you would lose yours.
6 And being yours He cannot change Himself, for your Identity is changeless. 7 The
miracle acknowledges His changelessness by seeing His Son as he always was, and not
as he would make himself. 8 The miracle brings the effects that only guiltlessness can
bring, and thus establishes the fact that guiltlessness must be.
T-14.XI.8. How can you, so firmly bound to guilt and committed so to remain, establish
for yourself your guiltlessness? 2 That is impossible. 3 But be sure that you are willing to
acknowledge that it <is> impossible. 4 It is only because you think that you can run some
little part, or deal with certain aspects of your life alone, that the guidance of the Holy
Spirit is limited. 5 Thus would you make Him undependable, and use this fancied
undependability as an excuse for keeping certain dark lessons from Him. 6 And by so
limiting the guidance that you would accept, you are unable to depend on miracles to
answer all your problems for you.
T-14.XI.9. Do you think that what the Holy Spirit would have you give He would
withhold from you? 2 You have no problems that He cannot solve by offering you a
miracle. 3 Miracles are for you. 4 And every fear or pain or trial you have has been
undone. 5 He has brought all of them to light, having accepted them instead of you, and
recognized they never were. 6 There are no dark lessons He has not already lightened for
you. 7 The lessons you would teach yourself He has corrected already. 8 They do not
exist in His Mind at all. 9 For the past binds Him not, and therefore binds not you. 10 He
does not see time as you do. 11 And each miracle He offers you corrects your use of time,
and makes it His. p298
T-14.XI.10. He Who has freed you from the past would teach you are free of it. 2 He
would but have you accept His accomplishments as yours, because He did them for you.
3 And because He did, they <are> yours. 4 He has made you free of what you made. 5
You can deny Him, but you cannot call on Him in vain. 6 He always gives His gifts in
place of yours. 7 He would establish His bright teaching so firmly in your mind, that no
dark lesson of guilt can abide in what He has established as holy by His Presence. 8
Thank God that He is there and works through you. 9 And all His works are yours. 10 He
offers you a miracle with every one you let Him do through you.
T-14.XI.11. God's Son will always be indivisible. 2 As we are held as one in God, so do
we learn as one in Him. 3 God's Teacher is as like to His Creator as is His Son, and
through His Teacher does God proclaim His Oneness and His Son's. 4 Listen in silence,
and do not raise your voice against Him. 5 For He teaches the miracle of oneness, and
before His lesson division disappears. 6 Teach like Him here, and you will remember that
you have always created like your Father. 7 The miracle of creation has never ceased,
having the holy stamp of immortality upon it. 8 This is the Will of God for all creation,
and all creation joins in willing this.
T-14.XI.12. Those who remember always that they know nothing, and who have become
willing to learn everything, will learn it. 2 But whenever they trust themselves, they will
not learn. 3 They have destroyed their motivation for learning by thinking they already
know. 4 Think not you understand anything until you pass the test of perfect peace, for
peace and understanding go together and never can be found alone. 5 Each brings the
other with it, for it is the law of God they be not separate. 6 They are cause and effect,
each to the other, so where one is absent the other cannot be.
T-14.XI.13. Only those who recognize they cannot know unless the effects of
understanding are with them, can really learn at all. 2 For this it must be peace they want,
and nothing else. 3 Whenever you think you know, peace will depart from you, because
you have abandoned the Teacher of peace. 4 Whenever you fully realize that you know
not, peace will return, for you will have invited Him to do so by abandoning the ego on
behalf of Him. 5 Call not upon the ego for anything; it is only this that you need do. 6
The Holy Spirit will, of Himself, fill every mind that so makes room for Him.
T-14.XI.14. If you want peace you must abandon the teacher of attack. 2 The Teacher of
peace will never abandon you. 3 You can desert Him but He will never reciprocate, for
His faith in you is His understanding. p299 4 It is as firm as is His faith in His Creator,
and He knows that faith in His Creator must encompass faith in His creation. 5 In this
consistency lies His Holiness which He cannot abandon, for it is not His Will to do so. 6
With your perfection ever in His sight, He gives the gift of peace to everyone who
perceives the need for peace, and who would have it. 7 Make way for peace, and it will
come. 8 For understanding is in you, and from it peace must come.
T-14.XI.15. The power of God, from which they both arise, is yours as surely as it is His.
2 You think you know Him not, only because, alone, it is impossible to know Him. 3 Yet
see the mighty works that He will do through you, and you must be convinced you did
them through Him. 4 It is impossible to deny the Source of effects so powerful they could
not be of you. 5 Leave room for Him, and you will find yourself so filled with power that
nothing will prevail against your peace. 6 And this will be the test by which you
recognize that you have understood. p300
Chapter 15.
THE HOLY INSTANT
I. The Two Uses of Time
T-15.I.1. Can you imagine what it means to have no cares, no worries, no anxieties,
but merely to be perfectly calm and quiet all the time? 2 Yet that is what time is for; to
learn just that and nothing more. 3 God's Teacher cannot be satisfied with His teaching
until it constitutes all your learning. 4 He has not fulfilled His teaching function until you
have become such a consistent learner that you learn only of Him. 5 When this has
happened, you will no longer need a teacher or time in which to learn.
T-15.I.2. One source of perceived discouragement from which you may suffer is your
belief that this takes time, and that the results of the Holy Spirit's teaching are far in the
future. 2 This is not so. 3 For the Holy Spirit uses time in His Own way, and is not bound
by it. 4 Time is His friend in teaching. 5 It does not waste Him, as it does you. 6 And all
the waste that time seems to bring with it is due but to your identification with the ego,
which uses time to support its belief in destruction. 7 The ego, like the Holy Spirit, uses
time to convince you of the inevitability of the goal and end of teaching. 8 To the ego the
goal is death, which <is> its end. 9 But to the Holy Spirit the goal is life, which <has> no
end.
T-15.I.3. The ego is an ally of time, but not a friend. 2 For it is as mistrustful of death
as it is of life, and what it wants for you it cannot tolerate. 3 The ego wants <you> dead,
but not itself. 4 The outcome of its strange religion must therefore be the conviction that
it can pursue you beyond the grave. 5 And out of its unwillingness for you to find peace
even in death, it offers you immortality in hell. 6 It speaks to you of Heaven, but assures
you that Heaven is not for you. 7 How can the guilty hope for Heaven?
T-15.I.4. The belief in hell is inescapable to those who identify with the ego. 2 Their
nightmares and their fears are all associated with it. 3 The ego teaches that hell is in the
future, for this is what all its teaching is directed to. 4 Hell is its goal. 5 For although the
ego aims at death and dissolution as an end, it does not believe it. 6 The goal of death,
which it craves for you, leaves it unsatisfied. 7 No one who follows the ego's teaching is
without the fear of death. p301 8 Yet if death were thought of merely as an end to pain,
would it be feared? 9 We have seen this strange paradox in the ego's thought system
before, but never so clearly as here. 10 For the ego must seem to keep fear from you to
hold your allegiance. 11 Yet it must engender fear in order to maintain itself. 12 Again
the ego tries, and all too frequently succeeds, in doing both, by using dissociation for
holding its contradictory aims together so that they seem to be reconciled. 13 The ego
teaches thus: Death is the end as far as hope of Heaven goes. 14 Yet because you and the
ego cannot be separated, and because it cannot conceive of its own death, it will pursue
you still, because guilt is eternal. 15 Such is the ego's version of immortality. 16 And it is
this the ego's version of time supports.
T-15.I.5. The ego teaches that Heaven is here and now because the future is hell. 2
Even when it attacks so savagely that it tries to take the life of someone who thinks its is
the only voice, it speaks of hell even to him. 3 For it tells him hell is here as well, and
bids him leap from hell into oblivion. 4 The only time the ego allows anyone to look
upon with equanimity is the past. 5 And even there, its only value is that it is no more.
T-15.I.6. How bleak and despairing is the ego's use of time! 2 And how terrifying! 3
For underneath its fanatical insistence that the past and future be the same is hidden a far
more insidious threat to peace. 4 The ego does not advertise its final threat, for it would
have its worshippers still believe that it can offer them escape. 5 But the belief in guilt
must lead to the belief in hell, and always does. 6 The only way in which the ego allows
the fear of hell to be experienced is to bring hell here, but always as a foretaste of the
future. 7 For no one who considers himself as deserving of hell can believe that
punishment will end in peace.
T-15.I.7. The Holy Spirit teaches thus: There is no hell. 2 Hell is only what the ego
has made of the present. 3 The belief in hell is what prevents you from understanding the
present, because you are afraid of it. 4 The Holy Spirit leads as steadily to Heaven as the
ego drives to hell. 5 For the Holy Spirit, Who knows only the present, uses it to undo the
fear by which the ego would make the present useless. 6 There is no escape from fear in
the ego's use of time. 7 For time, according to its teaching, is nothing but a teaching
device for compounding guilt until it becomes all-encompassing, demanding vengeance
forever.
T-15.I.8. The Holy Spirit would undo all of this <now.> 2 Fear is not of the present,
but only of the past and future, which do not exist. p302 3 There is no fear in the present
when each instant stands clear and separated from the past, without its shadow reaching
out into the future. 4 Each instant is a clean, untarnished birth, in which the Son of God
emerges from the past into the present. 5 And the present extends forever. 6 It is so
beautiful and so clean and free of guilt that nothing but happiness is there. 7 No darkness
is remembered, and immortality and joy are now.
T-15.I.9. This lesson takes no time. 2 For what is time without a past and future? 3 It
has taken time to misguide you so completely, but it takes no time at all to be what you
are. 4 Begin to practice the Holy Spirit's use of time as a teaching aid to happiness and
peace. 5 Take this very instant, now, and think of it as all there is of time. 6 Nothing can
reach you here out of the past, and it is here that you are completely absolved, completely
free and wholly without condemnation. 7 From this holy instant wherein holiness was
born again you will go forth in time without fear, and with no sense of change with time.
T-15.I.10. Time is inconceivable without change, yet holiness does not change. 2 Learn
from this instant more than merely that hell does not exist. 3 In this redeeming instant lies
Heaven. 4 And Heaven will not change, for the birth into the holy present is salvation
from change. 5 Change is an illusion, taught by those who cannot see themselves as
guiltless. 6 There is no change in Heaven because there is no change in God. 7 In the holy
instant, in which you see yourself as bright with freedom, you will remember God. 8 For
remembering Him <is> to remember freedom.
T-15.I.11. If you are tempted to be dispirited by thinking how long it would take to
change your mind so completely, ask yourself, "How long is an instant?" 2 Could you not
give so short a time to the Holy Spirit for your salvation? 3 He asks no more, for He has
no need of more. 4 It takes far longer to teach you to be willing to give Him this than for
Him to use this tiny instant to offer you the whole of Heaven. 5 In exchange for this
instant He stands ready to give you the remembrance of eternity.
T-15.I.12. You will never give this holy instant to the Holy Spirit on behalf of your
release while you are unwilling to give it to your brothers on behalf of theirs. 2 For the
instant of holiness is shared, and cannot be yours alone. 3 Remember, then, when you are
tempted to attack a brother, that his instant of release is yours. 4 Miracles are the instants
of release you offer, and will receive. p303 5 They attest to your willingness to <be>
released, and to offer time to the Holy Spirit for His use of it.
T-15.I.13. How long is an instant? 2 It is as short for your brother as it is for you. 3
Practice giving this blessed instant of freedom to all who are enslaved by time, and thus
make time their friend for them. 4 The Holy Spirit gives their blessed instant to you
through your giving it. 5 As you give it, He offers it to you. 6 Be not unwilling to give
what you would receive of Him, for you join with Him in giving. 7 In the crystal
cleanness of the release you give is your instantaneous escape from guilt. 8 You must be
holy if you offer holiness.
T-15.I.14. How long is an instant? 2 As long as it takes to re-establish perfect sanity,
perfect peace and perfect love for everyone, for God and for yourself. 3 As long as it
takes to remember immortality, and your immortal creations who share it with you. 4 As
long as it takes to exchange hell for Heaven. 5 Long enough to transcend all of the ego's
making, and ascend unto your Father.
T-15.I.15. Time is your friend, if you leave it to the Holy Spirit to use. 2 He needs but
very little to restore God's whole power to you. 3 He Who transcends time for you
understands what time is for. 4 Holiness lies not in time, but in eternity. 5 There never
was an instant in which God's Son could lose his purity. 6 His changeless state is beyond
time, for his purity remains forever beyond attack and without variability. 7 Time stands
still in his holiness, and changes not. 8 And so it is no longer time at all. 9 For caught in
the single instant of the eternal sanctity of God's creation, it is transformed into forever.
10 Give the eternal instant, that eternity may be remembered for you, in that shining
instant of perfect release. 11 Offer the miracle of the holy instant through the Holy Spirit,
and leave His giving it to you to Him.
8 So will the year begin in joy and freedom. 9 There is much to do, and we have been
long delayed. 10 Accept the holy instant as this year is born, and take your place, so long
left unfulfilled, in the Great Awakening. 11 Make this year different by making it all the
same. 12 And let all your relationships be made holy for you. 13 This is our will. 14
Amen. p329
Chapter 16.
THE FORGIVENESS OF ILLUSIONS
I. True Empathy
T-16.I.1. To empathize does not mean to join in suffering, for that is what you must
<refuse> to understand. 2 That is the ego's interpretation of empathy, and is always used
to form a special relationship in which the suffering is shared. 3 The capacity to
empathize is very useful to the Holy Spirit, provided you let Him use it in His way. 4 His
way is very different. 5 He does not understand suffering, and would have you teach it is
not understandable. 6 When He relates through you, He does not relate through your ego
to another ego. 7 He does not join in pain, understanding that healing pain is not
accomplished by delusional attempts to enter into it, and lighten it by sharing the
delusion.
T-16.I.2. The clearest proof that empathy as the ego uses it is destructive lies in the
fact that it is applied only to certain types of problems and in certain people. 2 These it
selects out, and joins with. 3 And it never joins except to strengthen itself. 4 Having
identified with what it thinks it understands, the ego sees itself and would increase itself
by sharing what is like itself. 5 Make no mistake about this maneuver; the ego always
empathizes to weaken, and to weaken is always to attack. 6 You do not know what
empathizing means. 7 Yet of this you may be sure; if you will merely sit quietly by and
let the Holy Spirit relate through you, you will empathize with strength, and will gain in
strength and not in weakness.
T-16.I.3. Your part is only to remember this; you do not want anything you value to
come of a relationship. 2 You choose neither to hurt it nor to heal it in your own way. 3
You do not know what healing is. 4 All you have learned of empathy is from the past. 5
And there is nothing from the past that you would share, for there is nothing from the past
that you would keep. 6 Do not use empathy to make the past real, and so perpetuate it. 7
Step gently aside, and let healing be done for you. 8 Keep but one thought in mind and do
not lose sight of it, however tempted you may be to judge any situation, and to determine
your response <by> judging it. 9 Focus your mind only on this: p330
10 I am not alone, and I would not intrude the past upon my Guest.
11 I have invited Him, and He is here.
12 I need do nothing except not to interfere.
T-16.I.4. True empathy is of Him Who knows what it is. 2 You will learn His
interpretation of it if you let Him use your capacity for strength, and not for weakness. 3
He will not desert you, but be sure that you desert not Him. 4 Humility is strength in this
sense only; that to recognize and accept the fact that you do not know is to recognize and
accept the fact that He <does> know. 5 You are not sure that He will do His part, because
you have never yet done yours completely. 6 You cannot know how to respond to what
you do not understand. 7 Be tempted not in this, and yield not to the ego's triumphant use
of empathy for its glory.
T-16.I.5. The triumph of weakness is not what you would offer to a brother. 2 And yet
you recognize no triumph but this. 3 This is not knowledge, and the form of empathy
which would bring this about is so distorted that it would imprison what it would release.
4 The unredeemed cannot redeem, yet they have a Redeemer. 5 Attempt to teach Him
not. 6 You are the learner; He the Teacher. 7 Do not confuse your role with His, for this
will never bring peace to anyone. 8 Offer your empathy to Him for it is <His> perception
and <His> strength that you would share. 9 And let Him offer you His strength and His
perception, to be shared through you.
T-16.I.6. The meaning of love is lost in any relationship that looks to weakness, and
hopes to find love there. 2 The power of love, which <is> its meaning, lies in the strength
of God that hovers over it and blesses it silently by enveloping it in healing wings. 3 Let
this be, and do not try to substitute your "miracle" for this. 4 I have said that if a brother
asks a foolish thing of you to do it. 5 But be certain that this does not mean to do a foolish
thing that would hurt either him or you, for what would hurt one will hurt the other. 6
Foolish requests are foolish merely because they conflict, since they always contain some
element of specialness. 7 Only the Holy Spirit recognizes foolish needs as well as real
ones. 8 And He will teach you how to meet both without losing either.
T-16.I.7. <You> will attempt to do this only in secrecy. 2 And you will think that by
meeting the needs of one you do not jeopardize another, because you keep them separate
and secret from each other. p331 3 That is not the way, for it leads not to life and truth. 4
No needs will long be left unmet if you leave them all to Him Whose function is to meet
them. 5 That is His function, and not yours. 6 He will not meet them secretly, for He
would share everything you give through Him. 7 That is why He gives it. 8 What you
give through Him is for the whole Sonship, not for part of it. 9 Leave Him His function,
for He will fulfill it if you but ask Him to enter your relationships, and bless them for
you.
Chapter 17.
FORGIVENESS AND THE HOLY RELATIONSHIP
I. Bringing Fantasy to Truth
T-17.I.1. The betrayal of the Son of God lies only in illusions, and all his "sins" are
but his own imagining. 2 His reality is forever sinless. 3 He need not be forgiven but
awakened. 4 In his dreams he has betrayed himself, his brothers and his God. 5 Yet what
is done in dreams has not been really done. 6 It is impossible to convince the dreamer that
this is so, for dreams are what they are <because> of their illusion of reality. 7 Only in
waking is the full release from them, for only then does it become perfectly apparent that
they had no effect upon reality at all, and did not change it. 8 Fantasies change reality. 9
That is their purpose. 10 They cannot do so in reality, but they <can> do so in the mind
that would have reality be different.
T-17.I.2. It is, then, only your wish to change reality that is fearful, because by your
wish you think you have accomplished what you wish. 2 This strange position, in a sense,
acknowledges your power. 3 Yet by distorting it and devoting it to "evil," it also makes it
unreal. 4 You cannot be faithful to two masters who ask conflicting things of you. 5 What
you use in fantasy you deny to truth. 6 Yet what you give to truth to use for you is safe
from fantasy.
T-17.I.3. When you maintain that there must be an order of difficulty in miracles, all
you mean is that there are some things you would withhold from truth. 2 You believe
truth cannot deal with them only because you would keep them from truth. 3 Very
simply, your lack of faith in the power that heals all pain arises from your wish to retain
some aspects of reality for fantasy. 4 If you but realized what this must do to your
appreciation of the whole! 5 What you reserve for yourself, you take away from Him
Who would release you. 6 Unless you give it back, it is inevitable that your perspective
on reality be warped and uncorrected.
T-17.I.4. As long as you would have it so, so long will the illusion of an order of
difficulty in miracles remain with you. 2 For you have established this order in reality by
giving some of it to one teacher, and some to another. 3 And so you learn to deal with
part of the truth in one way, and in another way the other part. 4 To fragment truth is to
destroy it by rendering it meaningless. 5 Orders of reality is a perspective without
understanding; a frame of reference for reality to which it cannot really be compared at
all.
T-17.I.5. Think you that you can bring truth to fantasy, and learn what truth means
from the perspective of illusions? 2 Truth <has> no meaning in illusion. 3 The frame of
reference for its meaning must be itself. 4 When you try to bring truth to illusions, you
are trying to make illusions real, and keep them by justifying your belief in them. p351 5
But to give illusions to truth is to enable truth to teach that the illusions are unreal, and
thus enable you to escape from them. 6 Reserve not one idea aside from truth, or you
establish orders of reality that must imprison you. 7 There is no order in reality, because
everything there is true.
T-17.I.6. Be willing, then, to give all you have held outside the truth to Him Who
knows the truth, and in Whom all is brought to truth. 2 Salvation from separation would
be complete, or will not be at all. 3 Be not concerned with anything except your
willingness to have this be accomplished. 4 He will accomplish it; not you. 5 But forget
not this: When you become disturbed and lose your peace of mind because another is
attempting to solve his problems through fantasy, you are refusing to forgive yourself for
just this same attempt. 6 And you are holding both of you away from truth and from
salvation. 7 As you forgive him, you restore to truth what was denied by both of you. 8
And you will see forgiveness where you have given it.
Chapter 18.
THE PASSING OF THE DREAM
I. The Substitute Reality
T-18.I.1. To substitute is to accept instead. 2 If you would but consider exactly what
this entails, you would perceive at once how much at variance this is with the goal the
Holy Spirit has given you, and would accomplish for you. 3 To substitute is to choose
between, renouncing one aspect of the Sonship in favor of the other. 4 For this special
purpose, one is judged more valuable and the other is replaced by him. 5 The relationship
in which the substitution occurred is thus fragmented, and its purpose split accordingly. 6
To fragment is to exclude, and substitution is the strongest defense the ego has for
separation.
T-18.I.2. The Holy Spirit never uses substitutes. 2 Where the ego perceives one
person as a replacement for another, the Holy Spirit sees them joined and indivisible. 3
He does not judge between them, knowing they are one. 4 Being united, they are one
because they are the same. 5 Substitution is clearly a process in which they are perceived
as different. 6 One would unite; the other separate. 7 Nothing can come between what
God has joined and what the Holy Spirit sees as one. 8 But everything <seems> to come
between the fragmented relationships the ego sponsors to destroy.
T-18.I.3. The one emotion in which substitution is impossible is love. 2 Fear involves
substitution by definition, for it is love's replacement. 3 Fear is both a fragmented and
fragmenting emotion. 4 It seems to take many forms, and each one seems to require a
different form of acting out for satisfaction. 5 While this appears to introduce quite
variable behavior, a far more serious effect lies in the fragmented perception from which
the behavior stems. 6 No one is seen complete. 7 The body is emphasized, with special
emphasis on certain parts, and used as the standard for comparison of acceptance or
rejection for acting out a special form of fear.
T-18.I.4. You who believe that God is fear made but one substitution. 2 It has taken
many forms, because it was the substitution of illusion for truth; of fragmentation for
wholeness. 3 It has become so splintered and subdivided and divided again, over and
over, that it is now almost impossible to perceive it once was one, and still is what it was.
4 That one error, which brought truth to illusion, infinity to time, and life to death, was all
you ever made. 5 Your whole world rests upon it. 6 Everything you see reflects it, and
every special relationship that you have ever made is part of it.
T-18.I.5. You may be surprised to hear how very different is reality from what you
see. 2 You do not realize the magnitude of that one error. 3 It was so vast and so
completely incredible that from it a world of total unreality <had> to emerge. p372 4
What else could come of it? 5 Its fragmented aspects are fearful enough, as you begin to
look at them. 6 But nothing you have seen begins to show you the enormity of the
original error, which seemed to cast you out of Heaven, to shatter knowledge into
meaningless bits of disunited perceptions, and to force you to make further substitutions.
T-18.I.6. That was the first projection of error outward. 2 The world arose to hide it,
and became the screen on which it was projected and drawn between you and the truth. 3
For truth extends inward, where the idea of loss is meaningless and only increase is
conceivable. 4 Do you really think it strange that a world in which everything is
backwards and upside down arose from this projection of error? 5 It was inevitable. 6 For
truth brought to this could only remain within in quiet, and take no part in all the mad
projection by which this world was made. 7 Call it not sin but madness, for such it was
and so it still remains. 8 Invest it not with guilt, for guilt implies it was accomplished in
reality. 9 And above all, <be not afraid of it>.
T-18.I.7. When you seem to see some twisted form of the original error rising to
frighten you, say only, "God is not fear, but Love," and it will disappear. 2 The truth will
save you. 3 It has not left you, to go out into the mad world and so depart from you. 4
Inward is sanity; insanity is outside you. 5 You but believe it is the other way; that truth
is outside, and error and guilt within. 6 Your little, senseless substitutions, touched with
insanity and swirling lightly off on a mad course like feathers dancing insanely in the
wind, have no substance. 7 They fuse and merge and separate, in shifting and totally
meaningless patterns that need not be judged at all. 8 To judge them individually is
pointless. 9 Their tiny differences in form are no real differences at all. 10 None of them
matters. 11 <That> they have in common and nothing else. 12 Yet what else is necessary
to make them all the same?
T-18.I.8. Let them all go, dancing in the wind, dipping and turning till they disappear
from sight, far, far outside of you. 2 And turn you to the stately calm within, where in
holy stillness dwells the living God you never left, and Who never left you. p373 3 The
Holy Spirit takes you gently by the hand, and retraces with you your mad journey outside
yourself, leading you gently back to the truth and safety within. 4 He brings all your
insane projections and the wild substitutions that you have placed outside you to the
truth. 5 Thus He reverses the course of insanity and restores you to reason.
T-18.I.9. In your relationship with your brother, where He has taken charge of
everything at your request, He has set the course inward to the truth you share. 2 In the
mad world outside you nothing can be shared but only substituted, and sharing and
substituting have nothing in common in reality. 3 Within yourself you love your brother
with a perfect love. 4 Here is holy ground, in which no substitution can enter, and where
only the truth in your brother can abide. 5 Here you are joined in God, as much together
as you are with Him. 6 The original error has not entered here, nor ever will. 7 Here is the
radiant truth, to which the Holy Spirit has committed your relationship. 8 Let Him bring
it here, where <you> would have it be. 9 Give Him but a little faith in your brother, to
help Him show you that no substitute you made for Heaven can keep you from it.
T-18.I.10. In you there is no separation, and no substitute can keep you from your
brother. 2 Your reality was God's creation, and has no substitute. 3 You are so firmly
joined in truth that only God is there. 4 And He would never accept something else
instead of you. 5 He loves you both, equally and as one. 6 And as He loves you, so you
are. 7 You are not joined together in illusions, but in the Thought so holy and so perfect
that illusions cannot remain to darken the holy place in which you stand together. 8 God
is with you, my brother. 9 Let us join in Him in peace and gratitude, and accept His gift
as our most holy and perfect reality, which we share in Him.
T-18.I.11. Heaven is restored to all the Sonship through your relationship, for in it lies
the Sonship, whole and beautiful, safe in your love. 2 Heaven has entered quietly, for all
illusions have been gently brought unto the truth in you, and love has shined upon you,
blessing your relationship with truth. 3 God and His whole creation have entered it
together. 4 How lovely and how holy is your relationship, with the truth shining upon it!
5 Heaven beholds it, and rejoices that you have let it come to you. 6 And God Himself is
glad that your relationship is as it was created. p374 7 The universe within you stands
with you, together with your brother. 8 And Heaven looks with love on what is joined in
it, along with its Creator.
T-18.I.12. Whom God has called should hear no substitutes. 2 Their call is but an echo
of the original error that shattered Heaven. 3 And what became of peace in those who
heard? 4 Return with me to Heaven, walking together with your brother out of this world
and through another, to the loveliness and joy the other holds within it. 5 Would you still
further weaken and break apart what is already broken and hopeless? 6 Is it here that you
would look for happiness? 7 Or would you not prefer to heal what has been broken, and
join in making whole what has been ravaged by separation and disease?
T-18.I.13. You have been called, together with your brother, to the most holy function
this world contains. 2 It is the only one that has no limits, and reaches out to every broken
fragment of the Sonship with healing and uniting comfort. 3 This is offered you, in your
holy relationship. 4 Accept it here, and you will give as you have accepted. 5 The peace
of God is given you with the glowing purpose in which you join with your brother. 6 The
holy light that brought you and him together must extend, as you accepted it.
II. The Basis of the Dream
T-18.II.1. Does not a world that seems quite real arise in dreams? 2 Yet think what this
world is. 3 It is clearly not the world you saw before you slept. 4 Rather it is a distortion
of the world, planned solely around what you would have preferred. 5 Here, you are
"free" to make over whatever seemed to attack you, and change it into a tribute to your
ego, which was outraged by the "attack." 6 This would not be your wish unless you saw
yourself as one with the ego, which always looks upon itself, and therefore on you, as
under attack and highly vulnerable to it.
T-18.II.2. Dreams are chaotic because they are governed by your conflicting wishes,
and therefore they have no concern with what is true. 2 They are the best example you
could have of how perception can be utilized to substitute illusions for truth. 3 You do
not take them seriously on awaking because the fact that reality is so outrageously
violated in them becomes apparent. 4 Yet they are a way of looking at the world, and
changing it to suit the ego better. p375 5 They provide striking examples, both of the
ego's inability to tolerate reality, and of your willingness to change reality on its behalf.
T-18.II.3. You do not find the differences between what you see in sleep and on
awaking disturbing. 2 You recognize that what you see on waking is blotted out in
dreams. 3 Yet on awakening, you do not expect it to be gone. 4 In dreams <you> arrange
everything. 5 People become what you would have them be, and what they do you order.
6 No limits on substitution are laid upon you. 7 For a time it seems as if the world were
given you, to make it what you wish. 8 You do not realize you are attacking it, trying to
triumph over it and make it serve you.
T-18.II.4. Dreams are perceptual temper tantrums, in which you literally scream, "I
want it thus!" 2 And thus it seems to be. 3 And yet the dream cannot escape its origin. 4
Anger and fear pervade it, and in an instant the illusion of satisfaction is invaded by the
illusion of terror. 5 For the dream of your ability to control reality by substituting a world
that you prefer <is> terrifying. 6 Your attempts to blot out reality are very fearful, but this
you are not willing to accept. 7 And so you substitute the fantasy that reality is fearful,
not what you would do to it. 8 And thus is guilt made real.
T-18.II.5. Dreams show you that you have the power to make a world as you would
have it be, and that because you want it you see it. 2 And while you see it you do not
doubt that it is real. 3 Yet here is a world, clearly within your mind, that seems to be
outside. 4 You do not respond to it as though you made it, nor do you realize that the
emotions the dream produces must come from you. 5 It is the figures in the dream and
what they do that seem to make the dream. 6 You do not realize that you are making
them act out for you, for if you did the guilt would not be theirs, and the illusion of
satisfaction would be gone. 7 In dreams these features are not obscure. 8 You seem to
waken, and the dream is gone. 9 Yet what you fail to recognize is that what caused the
dream has not gone with it. 10 Your wish to make another world that is not real remains
with you. 11 And what you seem to waken to is but another form of this same world you
see in dreams. 12 All your time is spent in dreaming. 13 Your sleeping and your waking
dreams have different forms, and that is all. 14 Their content is the same. 15 They are
your protest against reality, and your fixed and insane idea that you can change it. 16 In
your waking dreams, the special relationship has a special place. p376 17 It is the means
by which you try to make your sleeping dreams come true. 18 From this, you do not
waken. 19 The special relationship is your determination to keep your hold on unreality,
and to prevent yourself from waking. 20 And while you see more value in sleeping than
in waking, you will not let go of it.
T-18.II.6. The Holy Spirit, ever practical in His wisdom, accepts your dreams and uses
them as means for waking. 2 You would have used them to remain asleep. 3 I said before
that the first change, before dreams disappear, is that your dreams of fear are changed to
happy dreams. 4 That is what the Holy Spirit does in the special relationship. 5 He does
not destroy it, nor snatch it away from you. 6 But He does use it differently, as a help to
make His purpose real to you. 7 The special relationship will remain, not as a source of
pain and guilt, but as a source of joy and freedom. 8 It will not be for you alone, for
therein lay its misery. 9 As its unholiness kept it a thing apart, its holiness will become an
offering to everyone.
T-18.II.7. Your special relationship will be a means for undoing guilt in everyone
blessed through your holy relationship. 2 It will be a happy dream, and one which you
will share with all who come within your sight. 3 Through it, the blessing the Holy Spirit
has laid upon it will be extended. 4 Think not that He has forgotten anyone in the purpose
He has given you. 5 And think not that He has forgotten you to whom He gave the gift. 6
He uses everyone who calls on Him as means for the salvation of everyone. 7 And He
will waken everyone through you who offered your relationship to Him. 8 If you but
recognized His gratitude! 9 Or mine through His! 10 For we are joined as in one purpose,
being of one mind with Him.
T-18.II.8. Let not the dream take hold to close your eyes. 2 It is not strange that dreams
can make a world that is unreal. 3 It is the <wish> to make it that is incredible. 4 Your
relationship with your brother has now become one in which the wish has been removed,
because its purpose has been changed from one of dreams to one of truth. 5 You are not
sure of this because you think it may be this that is the dream. 6 You are so used to
choosing among dreams you do not see that you have made, at last, the choice between
the truth and <all> illusions.
T-18.II.9. Yet Heaven is sure. 2 This is no dream. 3 Its coming means that you have
chosen truth, and it has come because you have been willing to let your special
relationship meet its conditions. p377 4 In your relationship the Holy Spirit has gently
laid the real world; the world of happy dreams, from which awaking is so easy and so
natural. 5 For as your sleeping and your waking dreams represent the same wishes in
your mind, so do the real world and the truth of Heaven join in the Will of God. 6 The
dream of waking is easily transferred to its reality. 7 For this dream reflects your will
joined with the Will of God. 8 And what this Will would have accomplished has never
<not> been done.
T-18.IV.6. And that is all. 2 Add more, and you will merely take away the little that is
asked. 3 Remember you made guilt, and that your plan for the escape from guilt has been
to bring Atonement to it, and make salvation fearful. 4 And it is only fear that you will
add, if you prepare yourself for love. 5 The preparation for the holy instant belongs to
Him Who gives it. 6 Release yourself to Him Whose function is release. 7 Do not assume
His function for Him. 8 Give Him but what He asks, that you may learn how little is your
part, and how great is His.
T-18.IV.7. It is this that makes the holy instant so easy and so natural. 2 You make it
difficult, because you insist there must be more that you need do. 3 You find it difficult to
accept the idea that you need give so little, to receive so much. 4 And it is very hard for
you to realize it is not personally insulting that your contribution and the Holy Spirit's are
so extremely disproportionate. 5 You are still convinced that your understanding is a
powerful contribution to the truth, and makes it what it is. 6 Yet we have emphasized that
you need understand nothing. 7 Salvation is easy just <because> it asks nothing you
cannot give right now.
T-18.IV.8. Forget not that it has been your decision to make everything that is natural
and easy for you impossible. 2 If you believe the holy instant is difficult for you, it is
because you have become the arbiter of what is possible, and remain unwilling to give
place to One Who knows. 3 The whole belief in orders of difficulty in miracles is
centered on this. 4 Everything God wills is not only possible, but has already happened. 5
And that is why the past has gone. 6 It never happened in reality. 7 Only in your mind,
which thought it did, is its undoing needful.
3 I desire this holy instant for myself, that I may share it with my brother, whom I love.
4 It is not possible that I can have it without him, or he without me.
5 Yet it is wholly possible for us to share it now.
6 And so I choose this instant as the one to offer to the Holy Spirit, that His blessing may
descend on us, and keep us both in peace.
Chapter 19.
THE ATTAINMENT OF PEACE
I. Healing and Faith
T-19.I.1. We said before that when a situation has been dedicated wholly to truth,
peace is inevitable. 2 Its attainment is the criterion by which the wholeness of the
dedication can be safely assumed. 3 Yet we also said that peace without faith will never
be attained, for what is dedicated to truth as its only goal is brought to truth <by> faith. 4
This faith encompasses everyone involved, for only thus the situation is perceived as
meaningful and as a whole. 5 And everyone must be involved in it, or else your faith is
limited and your dedication incomplete.
T-19.I.2. Every situation, properly perceived, becomes an opportunity to heal the Son
of God. 2 And he is healed <because> you offered faith to him, giving him to the Holy
Spirit and releasing him from every demand your ego would make of him. 3 Thus do you
see him free, and in this vision does the Holy Spirit share. 4 And since He shares it He
has given it, and so He heals through you. 5 It is this joining Him in a united purpose that
makes this purpose real, because you make it whole. 6 And this <is> healing. 7 The body
is healed because you came without it, and joined the Mind in which all healing rests.
T-19.I.3. The body cannot heal, because it cannot make itself sick. 2 It <needs> no
healing. 3 Its health or sickness depends entirely on how the mind perceives it, and the
purpose that the mind would use it for. 4 It is obvious that a segment of the mind can see
itself as separated from the Universal Purpose. 5 When this occurs the body becomes its
weapon, used against this Purpose, to demonstrate the "fact" that separation has occurred.
6 The body thus becomes the instrument of illusion, acting accordingly; seeing what is
not there, hearing what truth has never said and behaving insanely, being imprisoned
<by> insanity.
T-19.I.4. Do not overlook our earlier statement that faithlessness leads straight to
illusions. 2 For faithlessness is the perception of a brother as a body, and the body cannot
be used for purposes of union. 3 If, then, you see your brother as a body, you have
established a condition in which uniting with him becomes impossible. 4 Your
faithlessness to him has separated you from him, and kept you both apart from being
healed. p398 5 Your faithlessness has thus opposed the Holy Spirit's purpose, and
brought illusions, centered on the body, to stand between you. 6 And the body will seem
to be sick, for you have made of it an "enemy" of healing and the opposite of truth.
T-19.I.5. It cannot be difficult to realize that faith must be the opposite of
faithlessness. 2 Yet the difference in how they operate is less apparent, though it follows
directly from the fundamental difference in what they are. 3 Faithlessness would always
limit and attack; faith would remove all limitations and make whole. 4 Faithlessness
would destroy and separate; faith would unite and heal. 5 Faithlessness would interpose
illusions between the Son of God and his Creator; faith would remove all obstacles that
seem to rise between them. 6 Faithlessness is wholly dedicated to illusions; faith wholly
to truth. 7 Partial dedication is impossible. 8 Truth is the absence of illusion; illusion the
absence of truth. 9 Both cannot be together, nor perceived in the same place. 10 To
dedicate yourself to both is to set up a goal forever impossible to attain, for part of it is
sought through the body, thought of as a means for seeking out reality through attack. 11
The other part would heal, and therefore calls upon the mind and not the body.
T-19.I.6. The inevitable compromise is the belief that the body must be healed, and
not the mind. 2 For this divided goal has given both an equal reality, which could be
possible only if the mind is limited to the body and divided into little parts of seeming
wholeness, but without connection. 3 This will not harm the body, but it <will> keep the
delusional thought system in the mind. 4 Here, then, is healing needed. 5 And it is here
that healing <is.> 6 For God gave healing not apart from sickness, nor established remedy
where sickness cannot be. 7 They are together, and when they are seen together, all
attempts to keep both truth and illusion in the mind, where both must be, are recognized
as dedication to illusion; and given up when brought to truth, and seen as totally
unreconcilable with truth, in any respect or in any way.
T-19.I.7. Truth and illusion have no connection. 2 This will remain forever true,
however much you seek to connect them. 3 But illusions are always connected, as is
truth. 4 Each is united, a complete thought system, but totally disconnected to each other.
5 And to perceive this is to recognize where separation is, and where it must be healed.
p399 6 The result of an idea is never separate from its source. 7 The idea of separation
produced the body and remains connected to it, making it sick because of the mind's
identification with it. 8 You think you are protecting the body by hiding this connection,
for this concealment seems to keep your identification safe from the "attack" of truth.
T-19.I.8. If you but understood how much this strange concealment has hurt your
mind, and how confused your own identification has become because of it! 2 You do not
see how great the devastation wrought by your faithlessness, for faithlessness is an attack
that seems to be justified by its results. 3 For by withholding faith you see what is
unworthy of it, and cannot look beyond the barrier to what is joined with you.
T-19.I.9. To have faith is to heal. 2 It is the sign that you have accepted the
Atonement for yourself, and would therefore share it. 3 By faith, you offer the gift of
freedom from the past, which you received. 4 You do not use anything your brother has
done before to condemn him now. 5 You freely choose to overlook his errors, looking
past all barriers between yourself and him, and seeing them as one. 6 And in that one you
see your faith is fully justified. 7 There is no justification for faithlessness, but faith is
always justified.
T-19.I.10. Faith is the opposite of fear, as much a part of love as fear is of attack. 2
Faith is the acknowledgment of union. 3 It is the gracious acknowledgment of everyone
as a Son of your most loving Father, loved by Him like you, and therefore loved by you
as yourself. 4 It is His Love that joins you and your brother, and for His Love you would
keep no one separate from yours. 5 Each one appears just as he is perceived in the holy
instant, united in your purpose to be released from guilt. 6 You see the Christ in him, and
he is healed because you look on what makes faith forever justified in everyone.
T-19.I.11. Faith is the gift of God, through Him Whom God has given you. 2
Faithlessness looks upon the Son of God, and judges him unworthy of forgiveness. 3 But
through the eyes of faith, the Son of God is seen already forgiven, free of all the guilt he
laid upon himself. 4 Faith sees him only <now> because it looks not to the past to judge
him, but would see in him only what it would see in you. 5 It sees not through the body's
eyes, nor looks to bodies for its justification. 6 It is the messenger of the new perception,
sent forth to gather witnesses unto its coming, and to return their messages to you. p400
T-19.I.12. Faith is as easily exchanged for knowledge as is the real world. 2 For faith
arises from the Holy Spirit's perception, and is the sign you share it with Him. 3 Faith is a
gift you offer to the Son of God through Him, and wholly acceptable to his Father as to
Him. 4 And therefore offered you. 5 Your holy relationship, with its new purpose, offers
you faith to give unto your brother. 6 Your faithlessness has driven you and him apart,
and so you do not recognize salvation in him. 7 Yet faith unites you in the holiness you
see, not through the body's eyes, but in the sight of Him Who joined you, and in Whom
you are united.
T-19.I.13. Grace is not given to a body, but to a mind. 2 And the mind that receives it
looks instantly beyond the body, and sees the holy place where it was healed. 3 There is
the altar where the grace was given, in which it stands. 4 Do you, then, offer grace and
blessing to your brother, for you stand at the same altar where grace was laid for both of
you. 5 And be you healed by grace together, that you may heal through faith.
T-19.I.14. In the holy instant, you and your brother stand before the altar God has
raised unto Himself and both of you. 2 Lay faithlessness aside, and come to it together. 3
There will you see the miracle of your relationship as it was made again through faith. 4
And there it is that you will realize that there is nothing faith cannot forgive. 5 No error
interferes with its calm sight, which brings the miracle of healing with equal ease to all of
them. 6 For what the messengers of love are sent to do they do, returning the glad tidings
that it was done to you and your brother who stand together before the altar from which
they were sent forth.
T-19.I.15. As faithlessness will keep your little kingdoms barren and separate, so will
faith help the Holy Spirit prepare the ground for the most holy garden that He would
make of it. 2 For faith brings peace, and so it calls on truth to enter and make lovely what
has already been prepared for loveliness. 3 Truth follows faith and peace, completing the
process of making lovely that they begin. 4 For faith is still a learning goal, no longer
needed when the lesson has been learned. 5 Yet truth will stay forever.
T-19.I.16. Let, then, your dedication be to the eternal, and learn how not to interfere
with it and make it slave to time. 2 For what you think you do to the eternal you do to
<you.> 3 Whom God created as His Son is slave to nothing, being lord of all, along with
his Creator. 4 You can enslave a body, but an idea is free, incapable of being kept in
prison or limited in any way except by the mind that thought it. p401 5 For it remains
joined to its source, which is its jailer or its liberator, according to which it chooses as its
purpose for itself.
B. The Second Obstacle: The Belief the Body is Valuable for What It Offers
T-19.IV.B.1. We said that peace must first surmount the obstacle of your desire to
get rid of it. 2 Where the attraction of guilt holds sway, peace is not wanted. 3 The second
obstacle that peace must flow across, and closely related to the first, is the belief that the
body is valuable for what it offers. 4 For here is the attraction of guilt made manifest in
the body, and seen in it.
T-19.IV.B.2. This is the value that you think peace would rob you of. 2 This is what
you believe that it would dispossess, and leave you homeless. 3 And it is this for which
you would deny a home to peace. 4 This "sacrifice" you feel to be too great to make, too
much to ask of you. 5 Is it a sacrifice, or a release? 6 What has the body really given you
that justifies your strange belief that in it lies salvation? 7 Do you not see that this is the
belief in death? 8 Here is the focus of the perception of Atonement as murder. 9 Here is
the source of the idea that love is fear.
T-19.IV.B.3. The Holy Spirit's messengers are sent far beyond the body, calling the
mind to join in holy communion and be at peace. 2 Such is the message that I gave them
for you. 3 It is only the messengers of fear that see the body, for they look for what can
suffer. 4 Is it a sacrifice to be removed from what can suffer? 5 The Holy Spirit does not
demand you sacrifice the hope of the body's pleasure; it <has> no hope of pleasure. 6 But
neither can it bring you fear of pain. 7 Pain is the only "sacrifice" the Holy Spirit asks,
and this He <would> remove. p412
T-19.IV.B.4. Peace is extended from you only to the eternal, and it reaches out from
the eternal in you. 2 It flows across all else. 3 The second obstacle is no more solid than
the first. 4 For you want neither to get rid of peace nor limit it. 5 What are these obstacles
that you would interpose between peace and its going forth but barriers you place
between your will and its accomplishment? 6 You want communion, not the feast of fear.
7 You want salvation, not the pain of guilt. 8 And you want your Father, not a little
mound of clay, to be your home. 9 In your holy relationship is your Father's Son. 10 He
has not lost communion with Him, nor with himself. 11 When you agreed to join your
brother, you acknowledged this is so. 12 This has no cost, but it has release from cost.
T-19.IV.B.5. You have paid very dearly for your illusions, and nothing you have
paid for brought you peace. 2 Are you not glad that Heaven cannot be sacrificed, and
sacrifice cannot be asked of you? 3 There is no obstacle that you can place before our
union, for in your holy relationship I am there already. 4 We will surmount all obstacles
together, for we stand within the gates and not outside. 5 How easily the gates are opened
from within, to let peace through to bless the tired world! 6 Can it be difficult for us to
walk past barriers together, when you have joined the limitless? 7 The end of guilt is in
your hands to give. 8 Would you stop now to look for guilt in your brother?
T-19.IV.B.6. Let me be to you the symbol of the end of guilt, and look upon your
brother as you would look on me. 2 Forgive me all the sins you think the Son of God
committed. 3 And in the light of your forgiveness he will remember who he is, and forget
what never was. 4 I ask for your forgiveness, for if you are guilty, so must I be. 5 But if I
surmounted guilt and overcame the world, you were with me. 6 Would you see in me the
symbol of guilt or of the end of guilt, remembering that what I signify to you you see
within yourself?
T-19.IV.B.7. From your holy relationship truth proclaims the truth, and love looks
on itself. 2 Salvation flows from deep within the home you offered to my Father and to
me. 3 And we are there together, in the quiet communion in which the Father and the Son
are joined. 4 O come ye faithful to the holy union of the Father and the Son in you! 5 And
keep you not apart from what is offered you in gratitude for giving peace its home in
Heaven. 6 Send forth to all the world the joyous message of the end of guilt, and all the
world will answer. 7 Think of your happiness as everyone offers you witness of the end
of sin, and shows you that its power is gone forever. p413 8 Where can guilt be, when the
belief in sin is gone? 9 And where is death, when its great advocate is heard no more?
T-19.IV.B.8. Forgive me your illusions, and release me from punishment for what I
have not done. 2 So will you learn the freedom that I taught by teaching freedom to your
brother, and so releasing me. 3 I am within your holy relationship, yet you would
imprison me behind the obstacles you raise to freedom, and bar my way to you. 4 Yet it is
not possible to keep away One Who is there already. 5 And in Him it <is> possible that
our communion, where we are joined already, will be the focus of the new perception that
will bring light to all the world, contained in you.
i. The Attraction of Pain
T-19.IV.B.9. Your little part is but to give the Holy Spirit the whole idea of
sacrifice. 2 And to accept the peace He gives instead, without the limits that would hold
its extension back, and so would limit your awareness of it. 3 For what He gives must be
extended if you would have its limitless power, and use it for the Son of God's release. 4
It is not this you would be rid of, and having it you cannot limit it. 5 If peace is homeless,
so are you and so am I. 6 And He Who is our home is homeless with us. 7 Is this your
wish? 8 Would you forever be a wanderer in search of peace? 9 Would you invest your
hope of peace and happiness in what must fail?
T-19.IV.B.10. Faith in the eternal is always justified, for the eternal is forever kind,
infinite in its patience and wholly loving. 2 It will accept you wholly, and give you peace.
3 Yet it can unite only with what already is at peace in you, immortal as itself. 4 The
body can bring you neither peace nor turmoil; neither joy nor pain. 5 It is a means, and
not an end. 6 It has no purpose of itself, but only what is given to it. 7 The body will seem
to be whatever is the means for reaching the goal that you assign to it. 8 Only the mind
can set a purpose, and only the mind can see the means for its accomplishment, and
justify its use. 9 Peace and guilt are both conditions of the mind, to be attained. 10 And
these conditions are the home of the emotion that calls them forth, and therefore is
compatible with them.
T-19.IV.B.11. But think you which it is that is compatible with you. 2 Here is your
choice, and it <is> free. 3 But all that lies in it will come with it, and what you think you
are can never be apart from it. 4 The body is the great seeming betrayer of faith. p414 5
In it lies disillusionment and the seeds of faithlessness, but only if you ask of it what it
cannot give. 6 Can your mistake be reasonable grounds for depression and
disillusionment, and for retaliative attack on what you think has failed you? 7 Use not
your error as the justification for your faithlessness. 8 You have not sinned, but you have
been mistaken in what is faithful. 9 And the correction of your mistake will give you
grounds for faith.
T-19.IV.B.12. It is impossible to seek for pleasure through the body and not find
pain. 2 It is essential that this relationship be understood, for it is one the ego sees as
proof of sin. 3 It is not really punitive at all. 4 It is but the inevitable result of equating
yourself with the body, which is the invitation to pain. 5 For it invites fear to enter and
become your purpose. 6 The attraction of guilt <must> enter with it, and whatever fear
directs the body to do is therefore painful. 7 It will share the pain of all illusions, and the
illusion of pleasure will be the same as pain.
T-19.IV.B.13. Is not this inevitable? 2 Under fear's orders the body will pursue guilt,
serving its master whose attraction to guilt maintains the whole illusion of its existence. 3
This, then, is the attraction of pain. 4 Ruled by this perception the body becomes the
servant of pain, seeking it dutifully and obeying the idea that pain is pleasure. 5 It is this
idea that underlies all of the ego's heavy investment in the body. 6 And it is this insane
relationship that it keeps hidden, and yet feeds upon. 7 To you it teaches that the body's
pleasure is happiness. 8 Yet to itself it whispers, "It is death."
T-19.IV.B.14. Why should the body be anything to you? 2 Certainly what it is made
of is not precious. 3 And just as certainly it has no feeling. 4 It transmits to you the
feelings that you want. 5 Like any communication medium the body receives and sends
the messages that it is given. 6 It has no feeling for them. 7 All of the feeling with which
they are invested is given by the sender and the receiver. 8 The ego and the Holy Spirit
both recognize this, and both also recognize that here the sender and receiver are the
same. 9 The Holy Spirit tells you this with joy. 10 The ego hides it, for it would keep you
unaware of it. 11 Who would send messages of hatred and attack if he but understood he
sends them to himself? 12 Who would accuse, make guilty and condemn himself?
T-19.IV.B.15. The ego's messages are always sent away from you, in the belief that
for your message of attack and guilt will someone other than yourself suffer. p415 2 And
even if you suffer, yet someone else will suffer more. 3 The great deceiver recognizes
that this is not so, but as the "enemy" of peace, it urges you to send out all your messages
of hate and free yourself. 4 And to convince you this is possible, it bids the body search
for pain in attack upon another, calling it pleasure and offering it to you as freedom
<from> attack.
T-19.IV.B.16. Hear not its madness, and believe not the impossible is true. 2 Forget
not that the ego has dedicated the body to the goal of sin, and places in it all its faith that
this can be accomplished. 3 Its sad disciples chant the body's praise continually, in
solemn celebration of the ego's rule. 4 Not one but must believe that yielding to the
attraction of guilt is the escape from pain. 5 Not one but must regard the body as himself,
without which he would die, and yet within which is his death equally inevitable.
T-19.IV.B.17. It is not given to the ego's disciples to realize that they have dedicated
themselves to death. 2 Freedom is offered them but they have not accepted it, and what is
offered must also be received, to be truly given. 3 For the Holy Spirit, too, is a
communication medium, receiving from the Father and offering His messages unto the
Son. 4 Like the ego, the Holy Spirit is both the sender and the receiver. 5 For what is sent
through Him returns to Him, seeking itself along the way, and finding what it seeks. 6 So
does the ego find the death <it> seeks, returning it to you.
8 Take this from me and look upon it, judging it for me.
9 Let me not see it as a sign of sin and death, nor use it for destruction.
10 Teach me how not to make of it an obstacle to peace, but let You use it for me, to
facilitate its coming. p419
Chapter 20.
THE VISION OF HOLINESS
I. Holy Week
T-20.I.1. This is Palm Sunday, the celebration of victory and the acceptance of the
truth. 2 Let us not spend this holy week brooding on the crucifixion of God's Son, but
happily in the celebration of his release. 3 For Easter is the sign of peace, not pain. 4 A
slain Christ has no meaning. 5 But a risen Christ becomes the symbol of the Son of God's
forgiveness on himself; the sign he looks upon himself as healed and whole.
T-20.I.2. This week begins with palms and ends with lilies, the white and holy sign
the Son of God is innocent. 2 Let no dark sign of crucifixion intervene between the
journey and its purpose; between the acceptance of the truth and its expression. 3 This
week we celebrate life, not death. 4 And we honor the perfect purity of the Son of God,
and not his sins. 5 Offer your brother the gift of lilies, not the crown of thorns; the gift of
love and not the "gift" of fear. 6 You stand beside your brother, thorns in one hand and
lilies in the other, uncertain which to give. 7 Join now with me and throw away the
thorns, offering the lilies to replace them. 8 This Easter I would have the gift of your
forgiveness offered by you to me, and returned by me to you. 9 We cannot be united in
crucifixion and in death. 10 Nor can the resurrection be complete till your forgiveness
rests on Christ, along with mine.
T-20.I.3. A week is short, and yet this holy week is the symbol of the whole journey
the Son of God has undertaken. 2 He started with the sign of victory, the promise of the
resurrection, already given him. 3 Let him not wander into the temptation of crucifixion,
and delay him there. 4 Help him to go in peace beyond it, with the light of his own
innocence lighting his way to his redemption and release. 5 Hold him not back with
thorns and nails when his redemption is so near. 6 But let the whiteness of your shining
gift of lilies speed him on his way to resurrection.
T-20.I.4. Easter is not the celebration of the <cost> of sin, but of its <end.> 2 If you
see glimpses of the face of Christ behind the veil, looking between the snow-white petals
of the lilies you have received and given as your gift, you will behold your brother's face
and recognize it. p425 3 I was a stranger and you took me in, not knowing who I was. 4
Yet for your gift of lilies you will know. 5 In your forgiveness of this stranger, alien to
you and yet your ancient Friend, lies his release and your redemption with him. 6 The
time of Easter is a time of joy, and not of mourning. 7 Look on your risen Friend, and
celebrate his holiness along with me. 8 For Easter is the time of your salvation, along
with mine.
II. The Gift of Lilies
T-20.II.1. Look upon all the trinkets made to hang upon the body, or to cover it or for
its use. 2 See all the useless things made for its eyes to see. 3 Think on the many
offerings made for its pleasure, and remember all these were made to make seem lovely
what you hate. 4 Would you employ this hated thing to draw your brother to you, and to
attract his body's eyes? 5 Learn you but offer him a crown of thorns, not recognizing it
for what it is, and trying to justify your own interpretation of its value by his acceptance.
6 Yet still the gift proclaims his worthlessness to you, as his acceptance and delight
acknowledges the lack of value he places on himself.
T-20.II.2. Gifts are not made through bodies, if they be truly given and received. 2 For
bodies can neither offer nor accept; hold out nor take. 3 Only the mind can value, and
only the mind decides on what it would receive and give. 4 And every gift it offers
depends on what it wants. 5 It will adorn its chosen home most carefully, making it ready
to receive the gifts it wants by offering them to those who come unto its chosen home, or
those it would attract to it. 6 And there they will exchange their gifts, offering and
receiving what their minds judge to be worthy of them.
T-20.II.3. Each gift is an evaluation of the receiver and the <giver.> 2 No one but sees
his chosen home as an altar to himself. 3 No one but seeks to draw to it the worshippers
of what he placed upon it, making it worthy of their devotion. 4 And each has set a light
upon his altar, that they may see what he has placed upon it and take it for their own. 5
Here is the value that you lay upon your brother and on yourself. 6 Here is your gift to
both; your judgment on the Son of God for what he is. 7 Forget not that it is your savior
to whom the gift is offered. 8 Offer him thorns and <you> are crucified. 9 Offer him lilies
and it is yourself you free.
T-20.II.4. I have great need for lilies, for the Son of God has not forgiven me. p426 2
And can I offer him forgiveness when he offers thorns to me? 3 For he who offers thorns
to anyone is against me still, and who is whole without him? 4 Be you his friend for me,
that I may be forgiven and you may look upon the Son of God as whole. 5 But look you
first upon the altar in your chosen home, and see what you have laid upon it to offer me.
6 If it be thorns whose points gleam sharply in a blood-red light, the body is your chosen
home and it is separation that you offer me. 7 And yet the thorns are gone. 8 Look you
still closer at them now, and you will see your altar is no longer what it was.
T-20.II.5. You look still with the body's eyes, and they can see but thorns. 2 Yet you
have asked for and received another sight. 3 Those who accept the Holy Spirit's purpose
as their own share also His vision. 4 And what enables Him to see His purpose shine
forth from every altar now is yours as well as His. 5 He sees no strangers; only dearly
loved and loving friends. 6 He sees no thorns but only lilies, gleaming in the gentle glow
of peace that shines on everything He looks upon and loves.
T-20.II.6. This Easter, look with different eyes upon your brother. 2 You <have>
forgiven me. 3 And yet I cannot use your gift of lilies while you see them not. 4 Nor can
you use what I have given unless you share it. 5 The Holy Spirit's vision is no idle gift, no
plaything to be tossed about a while and laid aside. 6 Listen and hear this carefully, nor
think it but a dream, a careless thought to play with, or a toy you would pick up from
time to time and then put by. 7 For if you do, so will it be to you.
T-20.II.7. You have the vision now to look past all illusions. 2 It has been given you to
see no thorns, no strangers and no obstacles to peace. 3 The fear of God is nothing to you
now. 4 Who is afraid to look upon illusions, knowing his savior stands beside him? 5
With him, your vision has become the greatest power for the undoing of illusion that God
Himself could give. 6 For what God gave the Holy Spirit, you have received. 7 The Son
of God looks unto you for his release. 8 For you have asked for and been given the
strength to look upon this final obstacle, and see no thorns nor nails to crucify the Son of
God, and crown him king of death.
T-20.II.8. Your chosen home is on the other side, beyond the veil. 2 It has been
carefully prepared for you, and it is ready to receive you now. 3 You will not see it with
the body's eyes. 4 Yet all you need you have. 5 Your home has called to you since time
began, nor have you ever failed entirely to hear. 6 You heard, but knew not how to look,
nor where. p427 7 And now you know. 8 In you the knowledge lies, ready to be unveiled
and freed from all the terror that kept it hidden. 9 There <is> no fear in love. 10 The song
of Easter is the glad refrain the Son of God was never crucified. 11 Let us lift up our eyes
together, not in fear but faith. 12 And there will be no fear in us, for in our vision will be
no illusions; only a pathway to the open door of Heaven, the home we share in quietness
and where we live in gentleness and peace, as one together.
T-20.II.9. Would you not have your holy brother lead you there? 2 His innocence will
light your way, offering you its guiding light and sure protection, and shining from the
holy altar within him where you laid the lilies of forgiveness. 3 Let him be to you the
savior from illusions, and look on him with the new vision that looks upon the lilies and
brings you joy. 4 We go beyond the veil of fear, lighting each other's way. 5 The holiness
that leads us is within us, as is our home. 6 So will we find what we were meant to find
by Him Who leads us.
T-20.II.10. This is the way to Heaven and to the peace of Easter, in which we join in
glad awareness that the Son of God is risen from the past, and has awakened to the
present. 2 Now is he free, unlimited in his communion with all that is within him. 3 Now
are the lilies of his innocence untouched by guilt, and perfectly protected from the cold
chill of fear and withering blight of sin alike. 4 Your gift has saved him from the thorns
and nails, and his strong arm is free to guide you safely through them and beyond. 5
Walk with him now rejoicing, for the savior from illusions has come to greet you, and
lead you home with him.
T-20.II.11. Here is your savior and your friend, released from crucifixion through your
vision, and free to lead you now where he would be. 2 He will not leave you, nor forsake
the savior in his pain. 3 And gladly will you and your brother walk the way of innocence
together, singing as you behold the open door of Heaven and recognize the home that
called to you. 4 Give joyously to your brother the freedom and the strength to lead you
there. 5 And come before his holy altar where the strength and freedom wait, to offer and
receive the bright awareness that leads you home. 6 The lamp is lit in you for your
brother. 7 And by the hands that gave it to him shall you be led past fear to love. p428
III. Sin as an Adjustment
T-20.III.1. The belief in sin is an adjustment. 2 And an adjustment is a change; a shift in
perception, or a belief that what was so before has been made different. 3 Every
adjustment is therefore a distortion, and calls upon defenses to uphold it against reality. 4
Knowledge requires no adjustments and, in fact, is lost if any shift or change is
undertaken. 5 For this reduces it at once to mere perception; a way of looking in which
certainty is lost and doubt has entered. 6 To this impaired condition <are> adjustments
necessary, because it is not true. 7 Who need adjust to truth, which calls on only what he
is, to understand?
T-20.III.2. Adjustments of any kind are of the ego. 2 For it is the ego's fixed belief that
all relationships depend upon adjustments, to make of them what it would have them be.
3 Direct relationships, in which there are no interferences, are always seen as dangerous.
4 The ego is the self-appointed mediator of all relationships, making whatever
adjustments it deems necessary and interposing them between those who would meet, to
keep them separate and prevent their union. 5 It is this studied interference that makes it
difficult for you to recognize your holy relationship for what it is.
T-20.III.3. The holy do not interfere with truth. 2 They are not afraid of it, for it is
within the truth they recognize their holiness, and rejoice at what they see. 3 They look
on it directly, without attempting to adjust themselves to it, or it to them. 4 And so they
see that it was in them, not deciding first where they would have it be. 5 Their looking
merely asks a question, and it is what they see that answers them. 6 You make the world
and then adjust to it, and it to you. 7 Nor is there any difference between yourself and it
in your perception, which made them both.
T-20.III.4. A simple question yet remains, and needs an answer. 2 Do you like what you
have made?–a world of murder and attack, through which you thread your timid way
through constant dangers, alone and frightened, hoping at most that death will wait a little
longer before it overtakes you and you disappear. 3 <You made this up.> 4 It is a picture
of what you think you are; of how you see yourself. 5 A murderer <is> frightened, and
those who kill fear death. 6 All these are but the fearful thoughts of those who would
adjust themselves to a world made fearful by their adjustments. 7 And they look out in
sorrow from what is sad within, and see the sadness there. p429
T-20.III.5. Have you not wondered what the world is really like; how it would look
through happy eyes? 2 The world you see is but a judgment on yourself. 3 It is not there
at all. 4 Yet judgment lays a sentence on it, justifies it and makes it real. 5 Such is the
world you see; a judgment on yourself, and made by you. 6 This sickly picture of
yourself is carefully preserved by the ego, whose image it is and which it loves, and
placed outside you in the world. 7 And to this world must you adjust as long as you
believe this picture is outside, and has you at its mercy. 8 This world <is> merciless, and
were it outside you, you should indeed be fearful. 9 Yet it was you who made it
merciless, and now if mercilessness seems to look back at you, it can be corrected.
T-20.III.6. Who in a holy relationship can long remain unholy? 2 The world the holy
see is one with them, just as the world the ego looks upon is like itself. 3 The world the
holy see is beautiful because they see their innocence in it. 4 They did not tell it what it
was; they did not make adjustments to fit their orders. 5 They gently questioned it and
whispered, "What are you?" 6 And He Who watches over all perception answered. 7
Take not the judgment of the world as answer to the question, "What am I?" 8 The world
believes in sin, but the belief that made it as you see it is not outside you.
T-20.III.7. Seek not to make the Son of God adjust to his insanity. 2 There is a stranger
in him, who wandered carelessly into the home of truth and who will wander off. 3 He
came without a purpose, but he will not remain before the shining light the Holy Spirit
offered, and you accepted. 4 For there the stranger is made homeless and <you> are
welcome. 5 Ask not this transient stranger, "What am I?" 6 He is the only thing in all the
universe that does not know. 7 Yet it is he you ask, and it is to his answer that you would
adjust. 8 This one wild thought, fierce in its arrogance, and yet so tiny and so
meaningless it slips unnoticed through the universe of truth, becomes your guide. 9 To it
you turn to ask the meaning of the universe. 10 And of the one blind thing in all the
seeing universe of truth you ask, "How shall I look upon the Son of God?"
T-20.III.8. Does one ask judgment of what is totally bereft of judgment? 2 And if you
have, would you believe the answer, and adjust to it as if it were the truth? 3 The world
you look on is the answer that it gave you, and you have given it power to adjust the
world to make its answer true. 4 You asked this puff of madness for the meaning of your
unholy relationship, and adjusted it according to its insane answer. p430 5 How happy
did it make you? 6 Did you meet your brother with joy to bless the Son of God, and give
him thanks for all the happiness that he held out to you? 7 Did you recognize your
brother as the eternal gift of God to you? 8 Did you see the holiness that shone in both
you and your brother, to bless the other? 9 That is the purpose of your holy relationship.
10 Ask not the means of its attainment of the one thing that still would have it be unholy.
11 Give it no power to adjust the means and end.
T-20.III.9. Prisoners bound with heavy chains for years, starved and emaciated, weak
and exhausted, and with eyes so long cast down in darkness they remember not the light,
do not leap up in joy the instant they are made free. 2 It takes a while for them to
understand what freedom is. 3 You groped but feebly in the dust and found your brother's
hand, uncertain whether to let it go or to take hold on life so long forgotten. 4 Strengthen
your hold and raise your eyes unto your strong companion, in whom the meaning of your
freedom lies. 5 He seemed to be crucified beside you. 6 And yet his holiness remained
untouched and perfect, and with him beside you, you shall this day enter with him to
Paradise, and know the peace of God.
T-20.III.10. Such is my will for you and your brother, and for each of you for one
another and for himself. 2 Here there is only holiness and joining without limit. 3 For
what is Heaven but union, direct and perfect, and without the veil of fear upon it? 4 Here
are we one, looking with perfect gentleness upon each other and on ourselves. 5 Here all
thoughts of any separation between us become impossible. 6 You who were a prisoner in
separation are now made free in Paradise. 7 And here would I unite with you, my friend,
my brother and my Self.
T-20.III.11. Your gift unto your brother has given me the certainty our union will be
soon. 2 Share, then, this faith with me, and know that it is justified. 3 There is no fear in
perfect love <because> it knows no sin, and it must look on others as on itself. 4 Looking
with charity within, what can it fear without? 5 The innocent see safety, and the pure in
heart see God within His Son, and look unto the Son to lead them to the Father. 6 And
where else would they go but where they will to be? 7 You and your brother now will
lead the other to the Father as surely as God created His Son holy, and kept him so. 8 In
your brother is the light of God's eternal promise of your immortality. 9 See him as
sinless, and there can <be> no fear in you. p431
V. Heralds of Eternity
T-20.V.1. In this world, God's Son comes closest to himself in a holy relationship. 2
There he begins to find the certainty his Father has in him. 3 And there he finds his
function of restoring his Father's laws to what was held outside them, and finding what
was lost. 4 Only in time can anything be lost, and never lost forever. 5 So do the parts of
God's Son gradually join in time, and with each joining is the end of time brought nearer.
6 Each miracle of joining is a mighty herald of eternity. 7 No one who has a single
purpose, unified and sure, can be afraid. 8 No one who shares his purpose with him can
<not> be one with him.
T-20.V.2. Each herald of eternity sings of the end of sin and fear. 2 Each speaks in
time of what is far beyond it. 3 Two voices raised together call to the hearts of everyone,
to let them beat as one. 4 And in that single heartbeat is the unity of love proclaimed and
given welcome. 5 Peace to your holy relationship, which has the power to hold the unity
of the Son of God together. 6 You give to your brother for everyone, and in your gift is
everyone made glad. 7 Forget not Who has given you the gifts you give, and through
your not forgetting this, will you remember Who gave the gifts to Him to give to you.
T-20.V.3. It is impossible to overestimate your brother's value. 2 Only the ego does
this, but all it means is that it wants the other for itself, and therefore values him too little.
3 What is inestimable clearly cannot be evaluated. 4 Do you recognize the fear that rises
from the meaningless attempt to judge what lies so far beyond your judgment you cannot
even see it? 5 Judge not what is invisible to you or you will never see it, but wait in
patience for its coming. p434 6 It will be given you to see your brother's worth when all
you want for him is peace. 7 And what you want for him you will receive.
T-20.V.4. How can you estimate the worth of him who offers peace to you? 2 What
would you want except his offering? 3 His worth has been established by his Father, and
you will recognize it as you receive his Father's gift through him. 4 What is in him will
shine so brightly in your grateful vision that you will merely love him and be glad. 5 You
will not think to judge him, for who would see the face of Christ and yet insist that
judgment still has meaning? 6 For this insistence is of those who do not see. 7 Vision or
judgment is your choice, but never both of these.
T-20.V.5. Your brother's body is as little use to you as it is to him. 2 When it is used
only as the Holy Spirit teaches, it has no function. 3 For minds need not the body to
communicate. 4 The sight that sees the body has no use which serves the purpose of a
holy relationship. 5 And while you look upon your brother thus, the means and end have
not been brought in line. 6 Why should it take so many holy instants to let this be
accomplished, when one would do? 7 There <is> but one. 8 The little breath of eternity
that runs through time like golden light is all the same; nothing before it, nothing
afterwards.
T-20.V.6. You look upon each holy instant as a different point in time. 2 It never
changes. 3 All that it ever held or will ever hold is here right now. 4 The past takes
nothing from it, and the future will add no more. 5 Here, then, is everything. 6 Here is the
loveliness of your relationship, with means and end in perfect harmony already. 7 Here is
the perfect faith that you will one day offer to your brother already offered you; and here
the limitless forgiveness you will give him already given, the face of Christ you yet will
look upon already seen.
T-20.V.7. Can you evaluate the giver of a gift like this? 2 Would you exchange this gift
for any other? 3 This gift returns the laws of God to your remembrance. 4 And merely by
remembering them, the laws that held you prisoner to pain and death must be forgotten. 5
This is no gift your brother's body offers you. 6 The veil that hides the gift hides him as
well. 7 He <is> the gift, and yet he knows it not. 8 No more do you. 9 And yet, have faith
that He Who sees the gift in you and your brother will offer and receive it for you both.
10 And through His vision will you see it, and through His understanding recognize it
and love it as your own. p435
T-20.V.8. Be comforted, and feel the Holy Spirit watching over you in love and perfect
confidence in what He sees. 2 He knows the Son of God, and shares his Father's certainty
the universe rests in his gentle hands in safety and in peace. 3 Let us consider now what
he must learn, to share his Father's confidence in him. 4 What is he, that the Creator of
the universe should offer it to him and know it rests in safety? 5 He looks upon himself
not as his Father knows him. 6 And yet it is impossible the confidence of God should be
misplaced.
Chapter 21.
REASON AND PERCEPTION
Introduction
T-21.in.1. Projection makes perception. 2 The world you see is what you gave it,
nothing more than that. 3 But though it is no more than that, it is not less. 4 Therefore, to
you it is important. 5 It is the witness to your state of mind, the outside picture of an
inward condition. 6 As a man thinketh, so does he perceive. 7 Therefore, seek not to
change the world, but choose to change your mind about the world. 8 Perception is a
result and not a cause. 9 And that is why order of difficulty in miracles is meaningless. 10
Everything looked upon with vision is healed and holy. 11 Nothing perceived without it
means anything. 12 And where there is no meaning, there is chaos.
T-21.in.2. Damnation is your judgment on yourself, and this you will project upon the
world. 2 See it as damned, and all you see is what you did to hurt the Son of God. 3 If
you behold disaster and catastrophe, you tried to crucify him. 4 If you see holiness and
hope, you joined the Will of God to set him free. 5 There is no choice that lies between
these two decisions. 6 And you will see the witness to the choice you made, and learn
from this to recognize which one you chose. 7 The world you see but shows you how
much joy you have allowed yourself to see in you, and to accept as yours. 8 And, if this
<is> its meaning, then the power to give it joy must lie within you.
T-21.VII.6. You may already have answered the first three questions, but not yet the last.
2 For this one still seems fearful, and unlike the others. 3 Yet reason would assure you
they are all the same. 4 We said this year would emphasize the sameness of things that
are the same. 5 This final question, which is indeed the last you need decide, still seems
to hold a threat the rest have lost for you. 6 And this imagined difference attests to your
belief that truth may be the enemy you yet may find. 7 Here, then, would seem to be the
last remaining hope of finding sin, and not accepting power.
T-21.VII.7. Forget not that the choice of sin or truth, helplessness or power, is the choice
of whether to attack or heal. 2 For healing comes of power, and attack of helplessness. 3
Whom you attack you <cannot> want to heal. 4 And whom you would have healed must
be the one you chose to be protected from attack. 5 And what is this decision but the
choice whether to see him through the body's eyes, or let him be revealed to you through
vision? 6 How this decision leads to its effects is not your problem. 7 But what you want
to see must be your choice. 8 This is a course in cause and not effect.
T-21.VII.8. Consider carefully your answer to the last question you have left unanswered
still. 2 And let your reason tell you that it must be answered, and is answered in the other
three. 3 And then it will be clear to you that, as you look on the effects of sin in any form,
all you need do is simply ask yourself: p463
T-21.VII.9. This is your one decision; this the condition for what occurs. 2 It is irrelevant
to how it happens, but not to why. 3 You <have> control of this. 4 And if you choose to
see a world without an enemy, in which you are not helpless, the means to see it will be
given you.
T-21.VII.10.Why is the final question so important? 2 Reason will tell you why. 3 It is
the same as are the other three, except in time. 4 The others are decisions that can be
made, and then unmade and made again. 5 But truth is constant, and implies a state where
vacillations are impossible. 6 You can desire a world you rule that rules you not, and
change your mind. 7 You can desire to exchange your helplessness for power, and lose
this same desire as a little glint of sin attracts you. 8 And you can want to see a sinless
world, and let an "enemy" tempt you to use the body's eyes and change what you desire.
T-21.VII.11.In content all the questions are the same. 2 For each one asks if you are
willing to exchange the world of sin for what the Holy Spirit sees, since it is this the
world of sin denies. 3 And therefore those who look on sin are seeing the denial of the
real world. 4 Yet the last question adds the wish for constancy in your desire to see the
real world, so the desire becomes the only one you have. 5 By answering the final
question "yes," you add sincerity to the decisions you have already made to all the rest. 6
For only then have you renounced the option to change your mind again. 7 When it is this
you do not want, the rest are wholly answered.
T-21.VII.12.Why do you think you are unsure the others have been answered? 2 Could it
be necessary they be asked so often, if they had? 3 Until the last decision has been made,
the answer is both "yes" and "no." 4 For you have answered "yes" without perceiving that
"yes" must mean "not no." 5 No one decides against his happiness, but he may do so if he
does not see he does it. 6 And if he sees his happiness as ever changing, now this, now
that, and now an elusive shadow attached to nothing, he does decide against it.
T-21.VII.13.Elusive happiness, or happiness in changing form that shifts with time and
place, is an illusion that has no meaning. 2 Happiness must be constant, because it is
attained by giving up the wish for the <inconstant.> 3 Joy cannot be perceived except
through constant vision. 4 And constant vision can be given only those who wish for
constancy. 5 The power of the Son of God's desire remains the proof that he is wrong
who sees himself as helpless. p464 6 Desire what you want, and you will look on it and
think it real. 7 No thought but has the power to release or kill. 8 And none can leave the
thinker's mind, or leave him unaffected.
VIII. The Inner Shift
T-21.VIII.1. Are thoughts, then, dangerous? 2 To bodies, yes! 3 The thoughts that seem
to kill are those that teach the thinker that he <can> be killed. 4 And so he "dies" because
of what he learned. 5 He goes from life to death, the final proof he valued the inconstant
more than constancy. 6 Surely he thought he wanted happiness. 7 Yet he did not desire it
<because> it was the truth, and therefore must be constant.
T-21.VIII.2. The constancy of joy is a condition quite alien to your understanding. 2 Yet
if you could even imagine what it must be, you would desire it although you understand it
not. 3 The constancy of happiness has no exceptions; no change of any kind. 4 It is
unshakable as is the Love of God for His creation. 5 Sure in its vision as its Creator is in
what He knows, happiness looks on everything and sees it is the same. 6 It sees not the
ephemeral, for it desires everything be like itself, and sees it so. 7 Nothing has power to
confound its constancy, because its own desire cannot be shaken. 8 It comes as surely
unto those who see the final question is necessary to the rest, as peace must come to those
who choose to heal and not to judge.
T-21.VIII.3. Reason will tell you that you cannot ask for happiness inconstantly. 2 For if
what you desire you receive, and happiness is constant, then you need ask for it but once
to have it always. 3 And if you do not have it always, being what it is, you did not ask for
it. 4 For no one fails to ask for his desire of something he believes holds out some
promise of the power of giving it. 5 He may be wrong in what he asks, where, and of
what. 6 Yet he will ask because desire is a request, an asking for, and made by one whom
God Himself will never fail to answer. 7 God has already given all that he really wants. 8
Yet what he is uncertain of, God cannot give. 9 For he does not desire it while he remains
uncertain, and God's giving must be incomplete unless it is received.
T-21.VIII.4. You who complete God's Will and are His happiness, whose will is powerful
as His, a power that is not lost in your illusions, think carefully why you have not yet
decided how you would answer the final question. 2 Your answer to the others has made
it possible to help you be already partly sane. 3 And yet it is the final one that really asks
if you are willing to be wholly sane.
T-21.VIII.5. What is the holy instant but God's appeal to you to recognize what He has
given you? 2 Here is the great appeal to reason; the awareness of what is always there to
see, the happiness that could be always yours. p465 3 Here is the constant peace you
could experience forever. 4 Here is what denial has denied revealed to you. 5 For here the
final question is already answered, and what you ask for given. 6 Here is the future
<now,> for time is powerless because of your desire for what will never change. 7 For
you have asked that nothing stand between the holiness of your relationship and your
<awareness> of its holiness. p466
Chapter 22.
SALVATION AND THE HOLY RELATIONSHIP
Introduction
T-22.in.1. Take pity on yourself, so long enslaved. 2 Rejoice whom God hath joined
have come together and need no longer look on sin apart. 3 No two can look on sin
together, for they could never see it in the same place and time. 4 Sin is a strictly
individual perception, seen in the other yet believed by each to be within himself. 5 And
each one seems to make a different error, and one the other cannot understand. 6 Brother,
it is the same, made by the same, and forgiven for its maker in the same way. 7 The
holiness of your relationship forgives you and your brother, undoing the effects of what
you both believed and saw. 8 And with their going is the need for sin gone with them.
T-22.in.2. Who has need for sin? 2 Only the lonely and alone, who see their brothers
different from themselves. 3 It is this difference, seen but not real, that makes the need
for sin, not real but seen, seem justified. 4 And all this would be real if sin were so. 5 For
an unholy relationship is based on differences, where each one thinks the other has what
he has not. 6 They come together, each to complete himself and rob the other. 7 They
stay until they think that there is nothing left to steal, and then move on. 8 And so they
wander through a world of strangers, unlike themselves, living with their bodies perhaps
under a common roof that shelters neither; in the same room and yet a world apart.
T-22.in.3. A holy relationship starts from a different premise. 2 Each one has looked
within and seen no lack. 3 Accepting his completion, he would extend it by joining with
another, whole as himself. 4 He sees no difference between these selves, for differences
are only of the body. 5 Therefore, he looks on nothing he would take. 6 He denies not his
own reality <because> it is the truth. 7 Just under Heaven does he stand, but close enough
not to return to earth. 8 For this relationship has Heaven's Holiness. 9 How far from home
can a relationship so like to Heaven be?
T-22.in.4. Think what a holy relationship can teach! 2 Here is belief in differences
undone. 3 Here is the faith in differences shifted to sameness. 4 And here is sight of
differences transformed to vision. p467 5 Reason now can lead you and your brother to
the logical conclusion of your union. 6 It must extend, as you extended when you and he
joined. 7 It must reach out beyond itself, as you reached out beyond the body, to let you
and your brother be joined. 8 And now the sameness that you saw extends and finally
removes all sense of differences, so that the sameness that lies beneath them all becomes
apparent. 9 Here is the golden circle where you recognize the Son of God. 10 For what is
born into a holy relationship can never end.
Chapter 23.
THE WAR AGAINST YOURSELF
Introduction
T-23.in.1. Do you not see the opposite of frailty and weakness is sinlessness? 2
Innocence is strength, and nothing else is strong. 3 The sinless cannot fear, for sin of any
kind is weakness. 4 The show of strength attack would use to cover frailty conceals it not,
for how can the unreal be hidden? 5 No one is strong who has an enemy, and no one can
attack unless he thinks he has. 6 Belief in enemies is therefore the belief in weakness, and
what is weak is not the Will of God. 7 Being opposed to it, it is God's "enemy." 8 And
God is feared as an opposing will.
T-23.in.2. How strange indeed becomes this war against yourself! 2 You will believe
that everything you use for sin can hurt you and become your enemy. 3 And you will
fight against it, and try to weaken it because of this; and you will think that you
succeeded, and attack again. 4 It is as certain you will fear what you attack as it is sure
that you will love what you perceive as sinless. 5 He walks in peace who travels sinlessly
along the way love shows him. 6 For love walks with him there, protecting him from
fear. 7 And he will see only the sinless, who can not attack.
T-23.in.3. Walk you in glory, with your head held high, and fear no evil. 2 The
innocent are safe because they share their innocence. 3 Nothing they see is harmful, for
their awareness of the truth releases everything from the illusion of harmfulness. 4 And
what seemed harmful now stands shining in their innocence, released from sin and fear
and happily returned to love. 5 They share the strength of love <because> they looked on
innocence. 6 And every error disappeared because they saw it not. 7 Who looks for glory
finds it where it is. 8 Where could it be but in the innocent?
T-23.in.4. Let not the little interferers pull you to littleness. 2 There can be no attraction
of guilt in innocence. 3 Think what a happy world you walk, with truth beside you! 4 Do
not give up this world of freedom for a little sigh of seeming sin, nor for a tiny stirring of
guilt's attraction. 5 Would you, for all these meaningless distractions, lay Heaven aside? 6
Your destiny and purpose are far beyond them, in the clean place where littleness does
not exist. p485 7 Your purpose is at variance with littleness of any kind. 8 And so it is at
variance with sin.
T-23.in.5. Let us not let littleness lead God's Son into temptation. 2 His glory is beyond
it, measureless and timeless as eternity. 3 Do not let time intrude upon your sight of him.
4 Leave him not frightened and alone in his temptation, but help him rise above it and
perceive the light of which he is a part. 5 Your innocence will light the way to his, and so
is yours protected and kept in your awareness. 6 For who can know his glory, and
perceive the little and the weak about him? 7 Who can walk trembling in a fearful world,
and realize that Heaven's glory shines on him?
T-23.in.6. Nothing around you but is part of you. 2 Look on it lovingly, and see the
light of Heaven in it. 3 So will you come to understand all that is given you. 4 In kind
forgiveness will the world sparkle and shine, and everything you once thought sinful now
will be reinterpreted as part of Heaven. 5 How beautiful it is to walk, clean and redeemed
and happy, through a world in bitter need of the redemption that your innocence bestows
upon it! 6 What can you value more than this? 7 For here is your salvation and your
freedom. 8 And it must be complete if you would recognize it.
Chapter 24.
THE GOAL OF SPECIALNESS
Introduction
T-24.in.1. Forget not that the motivation for this course is the attainment and the
keeping of the state of peace. 2 Given this state the mind is quiet, and the condition in
which God is remembered is attained. 3 It is not necessary to tell Him what to do. 4 He
will not fail. 5 Where He can enter, there He is already. 6 And can it be He cannot enter
where He wills to be? 7 Peace will be yours <because> it is His Will. 8 Can you believe a
shadow can hold back the Will that holds the universe secure? 9 God does not wait upon
illusions to let Him be Himself. 10 No more His Son. 11 They <are.> 12 And what
illusion that idly seems to drift between Them has the power to defeat what is Their Will?
T-24.in.2. To learn this course requires willingness to question every value that you
hold. 2 Not one can be kept hidden and obscure but it will jeopardize your learning. 3 No
belief is neutral. 4 Every one has the power to dictate each decision you make. 5 For a
decision is a conclusion based on everything that you believe. 6 It is the outcome of
belief, and follows it as surely as does suffering follow guilt and freedom sinlessness. 7
There is no substitute for peace. 8 What God creates has no alternative. 9 The truth arises
from what He knows. 10 And your decisions come from your beliefs as certainly as all
creation rose in His Mind <because> of what He knows.
T-24.VII.9. Look at yourself, and you will see a body. 2 Look at this body in a different
light and it looks different. 3 And without a light it seems that it is gone. 4 Yet you are
reassured that it is there because you still can feel it with your hands and hear it move. 5
Here is an image that you want to be yourself. 6 It is the means to make your wish come
true. 7 It gives the eyes with which you look on it, the hands that feel it, and the ears with
which you listen to the sounds it makes. 8 It proves its own reality to you.
T-24.VII.10.Thus is the body made a theory of yourself, with no provisions made for
evidence beyond itself, and no escape within its sight. 2 Its course is sure, when seen
through its own eyes. 3 It grows and withers, flourishes and dies. 4 And you cannot
conceive of you apart from it. 5 You brand it sinful and you hate its acts, judging it evil.
p516 6 Yet your specialness whispers, "Here is my own beloved son, in whom I am well
pleased." 7 Thus does the "son" become the means to serve his "father's" purpose. 8 Not
identical, not even like, but still a means to offer to the "father" what he wants. 9 Such is
the travesty on God's creation. 10 For as His Son's creation gave Him joy and witness to
His Love and shared His purpose, so does the body testify to the idea that made it, and
speak for its reality and truth.
T-24.VII.11.And thus are two sons made, and both appear to walk this earth without a
meeting place and no encounter. 2 One do you perceive outside yourself, your own
beloved son. 3 The other rests within, his Father's Son, within your brother as he is in
you. 4 Their difference does not lie in how they look, nor where they go, nor even what
they do. 5 They have a different purpose. 6 It is this that joins them to their like, and
separates each from all aspects with a different purpose. 7 The Son of God retains his
Father's Will. 8 The son of man perceives an alien will and wishes it were so. 9 And thus
does his perception serve his wish by giving it appearances of truth. 10 Yet can
perception serve another goal. 11 It is not bound to specialness but by your choice. 12
And it is given you to make a different choice, and use perception for a different purpose.
13 And what you see will serve that purpose well, and prove its own reality to you. p517
Chapter 25.
THE JUSTICE OF GOD
Introduction
T-25.in.1. The Christ in you inhabits not a body. 2 Yet He is in you. 3 And thus it must
be that you are not within a body. 4 What is within you cannot be outside. 5 And it is
certain that you cannot be apart from what is at the very center of your life. 6 What gives
you life cannot be housed in death. 7 No more can you. 8 Christ is within a frame of
Holiness whose only purpose is that He may be made manifest to those who know Him
not, that He may call to them to come to Him and see Him where they thought their
bodies were. 9 Then will their bodies melt away, that they may frame His Holiness in
them.
T-25.in.2. No one who carries Christ in him can fail to recognize Him everywhere. 2
<Except> in bodies. 3 And as long as he believes he is in a body, where he thinks he is
He cannot be. 4 And so he carries Him unknowingly, and does not make Him manifest. 5
And thus he does not recognize Him where He is. 6 The son of man is not the risen
Christ. 7 Yet does the Son of God abide exactly where he is, and walks with him within
his holiness, as plain to see as is his specialness set forth within his body.
T-25.in.3. The body needs no healing. 2 But the mind that thinks it is a body is sick
indeed! 3 And it is here that Christ sets forth the remedy. 4 His purpose folds the body in
His light, and fills it with the Holiness that shines from Him. 5 And nothing that the body
says or does but makes Him manifest. 6 To those who know Him not it carries Him in
gentleness and love, to heal their minds. 7 Such is the mission that your brother has for
you. 8 And such it must be that your mission is for him.
7 What is the same can not be different, and what is one can not have separate parts.
II. The Savior from the Dark
T-25.II.1. Is it not evident that what the body's eyes perceive fills you with fear? 2
Perhaps you think you find a hope of satisfaction there. 3 Perhaps you fancy to attain
some peace and satisfaction in the world as you perceive it. 4 Yet it must be evident the
outcome does not change. 5 Despite your hopes and fancies, always does despair result. 6
And there is no exception, nor will there ever be. 7 The only value that the past can hold
is that you learn it gave you no rewards which you would want to keep. 8 For only thus
will you be willing to relinquish it, and have it gone forever. p520
T-25.II.2. Is it not strange that you should cherish still some hope of satisfaction from
the world you see? 2 In no respect, at any time or place, has anything but fear and guilt
been your reward. 3 How long is needed for you to realize the chance of change in this
respect is hardly worth delaying change that might result in better outcome? 4 For one
thing is sure; the way you see, and long have seen, gives no support to base your future
hopes, and no suggestions of success at all. 5 To place your hopes where no hope lies
must make you hopeless. 6 Yet is this hopelessness your choice, while you would seek
for hope where none is ever found.
T-25.II.3. Is it not also true that you have found some hope apart from this; some
glimmering,–inconstant, wavering, yet dimly seen,–that hopefulness is warranted on
grounds that are not in this world? 2 And yet your hope that they may still be here
prevents you still from giving up the hopeless and unrewarding task you set yourself. 3
Can it make sense to hold the fixed belief that there is reason to uphold pursuit of what
has always failed, on grounds that it will suddenly succeed and bring what it has never
brought before?
T-25.II.4. Its past <has> failed. 2 Be glad that it is gone within your mind, to darken
what is there. 3 Take not the form for content, for the form is but a means for content. 4
And the frame is but a means to hold the picture up, so that it can be seen. 5 A frame that
hides the picture has no purpose. 6 It cannot be a frame if it is what you see. 7 Without
the picture is the frame without its meaning. 8 Its purpose is to set the picture off, and not
itself.
T-25.II.5. Who hangs an empty frame upon a wall and stands before it, deep in
reverence, as if a masterpiece were there to see? 2 Yet if you see your brother as a body,
it is but this you do. 3 The masterpiece that God has set within this frame is all there is to
see. 4 The body holds it for a while, without obscuring it in any way. 5 Yet what God has
created needs no frame, for what He has created He supports and frames within Himself.
6 His masterpiece He offers you to see. 7 And would you rather see the frame instead of
this? 8 And see the picture not at all?
T-25.II.6. The Holy Spirit is the frame God set around the part of Him that you would
see as separate. 2 Yet its frame is joined to its Creator, One with Him and with His
masterpiece. 3 This is its purpose, and you do not make the frame into the picture when
you choose to see it in its place. 4 The frame that God has given it but serves His
purpose, not yours apart from His. 5 It is your separate purpose that obscures the picture,
and cherishes the frame instead of it. p521 6 Yet God has set His masterpiece within a
frame that will endure forever, when yours has crumbled into dust. 7 But think you not
the picture is destroyed in any way. 8 What God creates is safe from all corruption,
unchanged and perfect in eternity.
T-25.II.7. Accept God's frame instead of yours, and you will see the masterpiece. 2
Look at its loveliness, and understand the Mind that thought it, not in flesh and bones, but
in a frame as lovely as itself. 3 Its holiness lights up the sinlessness the frame of darkness
hides, and casts a veil of light across the picture's face which but reflects the light that
shines from it to its Creator. 4 Think not this face was ever darkened because you saw it
in a frame of death. 5 God kept it safe that you might look on it, and see the holiness that
He has given it.
T-25.II.8. Within the darkness see the savior <from> the dark, and understand your
brother as his Father's Mind shows him to you. 2 He will step forth from darkness as you
look on him, and you will see the dark no more. 3 The darkness touched him not, nor you
who brought him forth for you to look upon. 4 His sinlessness but pictures yours. 5 His
gentleness becomes your strength, and both will gladly look within, and see the holiness
that must be there because of what you looked upon in him. 6 He is the frame in which
your holiness is set, and what God gave him must be given you. 7 However much he
overlooks the masterpiece in him and sees only a frame of darkness, it is still your only
function to behold in him what he sees not. 8 And in this seeing is the vision shared that
looks on Christ instead of seeing death.
T-25.II.9. How could the Lord of Heaven not be glad if you appreciate His
masterpiece? 2 What could He do but offer thanks to you who love His Son as He does?
3 Would He not make known to you His Love, if you but share His praise of what He
loves? 4 God cherishes creation as the perfect Father that He is. 5 And so His joy is made
complete when any part of Him joins in His praise, to share His joy. 6 This brother is His
perfect gift to you. 7 And He is glad and thankful when you thank His perfect Son for
being what he is. 8 And all His thanks and gladness shine on you who would complete
His joy, along with Him. 9 And thus is yours completed. 10 Not one ray of darkness can
be seen by those who will to make their Father's happiness complete, and theirs along
with His. 11 The gratitude of God Himself is freely offered to everyone who shares His
purpose. p522 12 It is not His Will to be alone. 13 And neither is it yours.
T-25.II.10. Forgive your brother, and you cannot separate yourself from him nor from
his Father. 2 You need no forgiveness, for the wholly pure have never sinned. 3 Give,
then, what He has given you, that you may see His Son as one, and thank his Father as He
thanks you. 4 Nor believe that all His praise is given not to you. 5 For what you give is
His, and giving it, you learn to understand His gift to you. 6 And give the Holy Spirit
what He offers unto the Father and the Son alike. 7 Nothing has power over you except
His Will and yours, which but extends His Will. 8 It was for this you were created, and
your brother with you and at one with you.
T-25.II.11. You and your brother are the same, as God Himself is One and not divided
in His Will. 2 And you must have one purpose, since He gave the same to both of you. 3
His Will is brought together as you join in will, that you be made complete by offering
completion to your brother. 4 See not in him the sinfulness he sees, but give him honor
that you may esteem yourself and him. 5 To you and your brother is given the power of
salvation, that escape from darkness into light be yours to share; that you may see as one
what never has been separate, nor apart from all God's Love as given equally.
Chapter 26.
THE TRANSITION
I. The "Sacrifice" of Oneness
T-26.I.1. In the "dynamics" of attack is sacrifice a key idea. 2 It is the pivot upon
which all compromise, all desperate attempts to strike a bargain, and all conflicts achieve
a seeming balance. 3 It is the symbol of the central theme that <somebody must lose.> 4
Its focus on the body is apparent, for it is always an attempt to limit loss. 5 The body is
itself a sacrifice; a giving up of power in the name of saving just a little for yourself. 6 To
see a brother in another body, separate from yours, is the expression of a wish to see a
little part of him and sacrifice the rest. 7 Look at the world, and you will see nothing
attached to anything beyond itself. 8 All seeming entities can come a little nearer, or go a
little farther off, but cannot join.
T-26.I.2. The world you see is based on "sacrifice" of oneness. 2 It is a picture of
complete disunity and total lack of joining. 3 Around each entity is built a wall so
seeming solid that it looks as if what is inside can never reach without, and what is out
can never reach and join with what is locked away within the wall. 4 Each part must
sacrifice the other part, to keep itself complete. 5 For if they joined each one would lose
its own identity, and by their separation are their selves maintained.
T-26.I.3. The little that the body fences off becomes the self, preserved through
sacrifice of all the rest. 2 And all the rest must lose this little part, remaining incomplete
to keep its own identity intact. 3 In this perception of yourself the body's loss would be a
sacrifice indeed. 4 For sight of bodies becomes the sign that sacrifice is limited, and
something still remains for you alone. 5 And for this little to belong to you are limits
placed on everything outside, just as they are on everything you think is yours. 6 For
giving and receiving are the same. 7 And to accept the limits of a body is to impose these
limits on each brother whom you see. 8 For you must see him as you see yourself.
T-26.I.4. The body <is> a loss, and <can> be made to sacrifice. 2 And while you see
your brother as a body, apart from you and separate in his cell, you are demanding
sacrifice of him and you. 3 What greater sacrifice could be demanded than that God's Son
perceive himself without his Father? p542 4 And his Father be without His Son? 5 Yet
every sacrifice demands that they be separate and without the other. 6 The memory of
God must be denied if any sacrifice is asked of anyone. 7 What witness to the Wholeness
of God's Son is seen within a world of separate bodies, however much he witnesses to
truth? 8 He is invisible in such a world. 9 Nor can his song of union and of love be heard
at all. 10 Yet is it given him to make the world recede before his song, and sight of him
replace the body's eyes.
T-26.I.5. Those who would see the witnesses to truth instead of to illusion merely ask
that they might see a purpose in the world that gives it sense and makes it meaningful. 2
Without your special function has this world no meaning for you. 3 Yet it can become a
treasure house as rich and limitless as Heaven itself. 4 No instant passes here in which
your brother's holiness cannot be seen, to add a limitless supply to every meager scrap
and tiny crumb of happiness that you allot yourself.
T-26.I.6. You can lose sight of oneness, but can not make sacrifice of its reality. 2 Nor
can you lose what you would sacrifice, nor keep the Holy Spirit from His task of showing
you that it has not been lost. 3 Hear, then, the song your brother sings to you, and let the
world recede, and take the rest his witness offers on behalf of peace. 4 But judge him not,
for you will hear no song of liberation for yourself, nor see what it is given him to
witness to, that you may see it and rejoice with him. 5 Make not his holiness a sacrifice to
your belief in sin. 6 You sacrifice your innocence with his, and die each time you see in
him a sin deserving death.
T-26.I.7. Yet every instant can you be reborn, and given life again. 2 His holiness
gives life to you, who cannot die because his sinlessness is known to God; and can no
more be sacrificed by you than can the light in you be blotted out because he sees it not. 3
You who would make a sacrifice of life, and make your eyes and ears bear witness to the
death of God and of His holy Son, think not that you have power to make of Them what
God willed not They be. 4 In Heaven, God's Son is not imprisoned in a body, nor is
sacrificed in solitude to sin. 5 And as he is in Heaven, so must he be eternally and
everywhere. 6 He is the same forever. 7 Born again each instant, untouched by time, and
far beyond the reach of any sacrifice of life or death. 8 For neither did he make, and only
one was given him by One Who knows His gifts can never suffer sacrifice and loss. p543
T-26.I.8. God's justice rests in gentleness upon His Son, and keeps him safe from all
injustice the world would lay upon him. 2 Could it be that you could make his sins
reality, and sacrifice his Father's Will for him? 3 Condemn him not by seeing him within
the rotting prison where he sees himself. 4 It is your special function to ensure the door
be opened, that he may come forth to shine on you, and give you back the gift of freedom
by receiving it of you. 5 What is the Holy Spirit's special function but to release the holy
Son of God from the imprisonment he made to keep himself from justice? 6 Could your
function be a task apart and separate from His Own?
Chapter 27.
THE HEALING OF THE DREAM
I. The Picture of Crucifixion
T-27.I.1. The wish to be unfairly treated is a compromise attempt that would combine
attack and innocence. 2 Who can combine the wholly incompatible, and make a unity of
what can never join? 3 Walk you the gentle way, and you will fear no evil and no
shadows in the night. 4 But place no terror symbols on your path, or you will weave a
crown of thorns from which your brother and yourself will not escape. 5 You cannot
crucify yourself alone. 6 And if you are unfairly treated, he must suffer the unfairness
that you see. 7 You cannot sacrifice yourself alone. 8 For sacrifice is total. 9 If it could
occur at all it would entail the whole of God's creation, and the Father with the sacrifice
of His beloved Son.
T-27.I.2. In your release from sacrifice is his made manifest, and shown to be his
own. 2 But every pain you suffer do you see as proof that he is guilty of attack. 3 Thus
would you make yourself to be the sign that he has lost his innocence, and need but look
on you to realize that he has been condemned. 4 And what to you has been unfair will
come to him in righteousness. 5 The unjust vengeance that you suffer now belongs to
him, and when it rests on him are you set free. 6 Wish not to make yourself a living
symbol of his guilt, for you will not escape the death you made for him. 7 But in his
innocence you find your own.
T-27.I.3. Whenever you consent to suffer pain, to be deprived, unfairly treated or in
need of anything, you but accuse your brother of attack upon God's Son. 2 You hold a
picture of your crucifixion before his eyes, that he may see his sins are writ in Heaven in
your blood and death, and go before him, closing off the gate and damning him to hell. 3
Yet this is writ in hell and not in Heaven, where you are beyond attack and prove his
innocence. 4 The picture of yourself you offer him you show yourself, and give it all your
faith. 5 The Holy Spirit offers you, to give to him, a picture of yourself in which there is
no pain and no reproach at all. 6 And what was martyred to his guilt becomes the perfect
witness to his innocence.
T-27.I.4. The power of witness is beyond belief because it brings conviction in its
wake. p565 2 The witness is believed because he points beyond himself to what he
represents. 3 A sick and suffering you but represents your brother's guilt; the witness that
you send lest he forget the injuries he gave, from which you swear he never will escape. 4
This sick and sorry picture <you> accept, if only it can serve to punish him. 5 The sick
are merciless to everyone, and in contagion do they seek to kill. 6 Death seems an easy
price, if they can say, "Behold me, brother, at your hand I die." 7 For sickness is the
witness to his guilt, and death would prove his errors must be sins. 8 Sickness is but a
"little" death; a form of vengeance not yet total. 9 Yet it speaks with certainty for what it
represents. 10 The bleak and bitter picture you have sent your brother <you> have looked
upon in grief. 11 And everything that it has shown to him have you believed, because it
witnessed to the guilt in him which you perceived and loved.
T-27.I.5. Now in the hands made gentle by His touch, the Holy Spirit lays a picture of
a different you. 2 It is a picture of a body still, for what you really are cannot be seen nor
pictured. 3 Yet this one has not been used for purpose of attack, and therefore never
suffered pain at all. 4 It witnesses to the eternal truth that you cannot be hurt, and points
beyond itself to both your innocence and his. 5 Show this unto your brother, who will see
that every scar is healed, and every tear is wiped away in laughter and in love. 6 And he
will look on his forgiveness there, and with healed eyes will look beyond it to the
innocence that he beholds in you. 7 Here is the proof that he has never sinned; that
nothing which his madness bid him do was ever done, or ever had effects of any kind. 8
That no reproach he laid upon his heart was ever justified, and no attack can ever touch
him with the poisoned and relentless sting of fear.
T-27.I.6. Attest his innocence and not his guilt. 2 Your healing is his comfort and his
health because it proves illusions are not true. 3 It is not will for life but wish for death
that is the motivation for this world. 4 Its only purpose is to prove guilt real. 5 No worldly
thought or act or feeling has a motivation other than this one. 6 These are the witnesses
that are called forth to be believed, and lend conviction to the system they speak for and
represent. 7 And each has many voices, speaking to your brother and yourself in different
tongues. 8 And yet to both the message is the same. 9 Adornment of the body seeks to
show how lovely are the witnesses for guilt. 10 Concerns about the body demonstrate
how frail and vulnerable is your life; how easily destroyed is what you love. p566 11
Depression speaks of death, and vanity of real concern with anything at all.
T-27.I.7. The strongest witness to futility, that bolsters all the rest and helps them
paint the picture in which sin is justified, is sickness in whatever form it takes. 2 The sick
have reason for each one of their unnatural desires and strange needs. 3 For who could
live a life so soon cut short and not esteem the worth of passing joys? 4 What pleasures
could there be that will endure? 5 Are not the frail entitled to believe that every stolen
scrap of pleasure is their righteous payment for their little lives? 6 Their death will pay
the price for all of them, if they enjoy their benefits or not. 7 The end of life must come,
whatever way that life be spent. 8 And so take pleasure in the quickly passing and
ephemeral.
T-27.I.8. These are not sins, but witnesses unto the strange belief that sin and death
are real, and innocence and sin will end alike within the termination of the grave. 2 If this
were true, there would be reason to remain content to seek for passing joys and cherish
little pleasures where you can. 3 Yet in this picture is the body not perceived as neutral
and without a goal inherent in itself. 4 For it becomes the symbol of reproach, the sign of
guilt whose consequences still are there to see, so that the cause can never be denied.
T-27.I.9. Your function is to show your brother sin can have no cause. 2 How futile
must it be to see yourself a picture of the proof that what your function is can never be! 3
The Holy Spirit's picture changes not the body into something it is not. 4 It only takes
away from it all signs of accusation and of blamefulness. 5 Pictured without a purpose, it
is seen as neither sick nor well, nor bad nor good. 6 No grounds are offered that it may be
judged in any way at all. 7 It has no life, but neither is it dead. 8 It stands apart from all
experience of love or fear. 9 For now it witnesses to nothing yet, its purpose being open,
and the mind made free again to choose what it is for. 10 Now is it not condemned, but
waiting for a purpose to be given, that it may fulfill the function that it will receive.
T-27.I.10. Into this empty space, from which the goal of sin has been removed, is
Heaven free to be remembered. 2 Here its peace can come, and perfect healing take the
place of death. 3 The body can become a sign of life, a promise of redemption, and a
breath of immortality to those grown sick of breathing in the fetid scent of death. p567 4
Let it have healing as its purpose. 5 Then will it send forth the message it received, and
by its health and loveliness proclaim the truth and value that it represents. 6 Let it receive
the power to represent an endless life, forever unattacked. 7 And to your brother let its
message be, "Behold me, brother, at your hand I live."
T-27.I.11. The simple way to let this be achieved is merely this; to let the body have no
purpose from the past, when you were sure you knew its purpose was to foster guilt. 2
For this insists your crippled picture is a lasting sign of what it represents. 3 This leaves
no space in which a different view, another purpose, can be given it. 4 You do <not>
know its purpose. 5 You but gave illusions of a purpose to a thing you made to hide your
function from yourself. 6 This thing without a purpose cannot hide the function that the
Holy Spirit gave. 7 Let, then, its purpose and your function both be reconciled at last and
seen as one.
Chapter 28.
THE UNDOING OF FEAR
I. The Present Memory
T-28.I.1. The miracle does nothing. 2 All it does is to undo. 3 And thus it cancels out
the interference to what has been done. 4 It does not add, but merely takes away. 5 And
what it takes away is long since gone, but being kept in memory appears to have
immediate effects. 6 This world was over long ago. 7 The thoughts that made it are no
longer in the mind that thought of them and loved them for a little while. 8 The miracle
but shows the past is gone, and what has truly gone has no effects. 9 Remembering a
cause can but produce illusions of its presence, not effects.
T-28.I.2. All the effects of guilt are here no more. 2 For guilt is over. 3 In its passing
went its consequences, left without a cause. 4 Why would you cling to it in memory if
you did not desire its effects? 5 Remembering is as selective as perception, being its past
tense. 6 It is perception of the past as if it were occurring now, and still were there to see.
7 Memory, like perception, is a skill made up by you to take the place of what God gave
in your creation. 8 And like all the things you made, it can be used to serve another
purpose, and to be the means for something else. 9 It can be used to heal and not to hurt,
if you so wish it be.
T-28.I.3. Nothing employed for healing represents an effort to do anything at all. 2 It
is a recognition that you have no needs which mean that something must be done. 3 It is
an unselective memory, that is not used to interfere with truth. 4 All things the Holy
Spirit can employ for healing have been given Him, without the content and the purposes
for which they have been made. 5 They are but skills without an application. 6 They
await their use. 7 They have no dedication and no aim.
T-28.I.4. The Holy Spirit can indeed make use of memory, for God Himself is there. 2
Yet this is not a memory of past events, but only of a present state. 3 You are so long
accustomed to believe that memory holds only what is past, that it is hard for you to
realize it is a skill that can remember <now.> 4 The limitations on remembering the
world imposes on it are as vast as those you let the world impose on you. 5 There is no
link of memory to the past. 6 If you would have it there, then there it is. p589 7 But only
your desire made the link, and only you have held it to a part of time where guilt appears
to linger still.
T-28.I.5. The Holy Spirit's use of memory is quite apart from time. 2 He does not seek
to use it as a means to keep the past, but rather as a way to let it go. 3 Memory holds the
message it receives, and does what it is given it to do. 4 It does not write the message, nor
appoint what it is for. 5 Like to the body, it is purposeless within itself. 6 And if it seems
to serve to cherish ancient hate, and gives you pictures of injustices and hurts that you
were saving, this is what you asked its message be and that it is. 7 Committed to its
vaults, the history of all the body's past is hidden there. 8 All of the strange associations
made to keep the past alive, the present dead, are stored within it, waiting your command
that they be brought to you, and lived again. 9 And thus do their effects appear to be
increased by time, which took away their cause.
T-28.I.6. Yet time is but another phase of what does nothing. 2 It works hand in hand
with all the other attributes with which you seek to keep concealed the truth about
yourself. 3 Time neither takes away nor can restore. 4 And yet you make strange use of it,
as if the past had caused the present, which is but a consequence in which no change can
be made possible because its cause has gone. 5 Yet change must have a cause that will
endure, or else it will not last. 6 No change can be made in the present if its cause is past.
7 Only the past is held in memory as you make use of it, and so it is a way to hold the
past against the now.
T-28.I.7. Remember nothing that you taught yourself, for you were badly taught. 2
And who would keep a senseless lesson in his mind, when he can learn and can preserve
a better one? 3 When ancient memories of hate appear, remember that their cause is gone.
4 And so you cannot understand what they are for. 5 Let not the cause that you would
give them now be what it was that made them what they were, or seemed to be. 6 Be glad
that it is gone, for this is what you would be pardoned from. 7 And see, instead, the new
effects of cause accepted <now,> with consequences <here.> 8 They will surprise you
with their loveliness. 9 The ancient new ideas they bring will be the happy consequences
of a Cause so ancient that It far exceeds the span of memory which your perception sees.
T-28.I.8. This is the Cause the Holy Spirit has remembered for you, when you would
forget. 2 It is not past because He let It not be unremembered. 3 It has never changed,
because there never was a time in which He did not keep It safely in your mind. 4 Its
consequences will indeed seem new, because you thought that you remembered not their
Cause. 5 Yet was It never absent from your mind, for it was not your Father's Will that
He be unremembered by His Son.
T-28.I.9. What <you> remember never was. 2 It came from causelessness which you
confused with cause. p590 3 It can deserve but laughter, when you learn you have
remembered consequences that were causeless and could never be effects. 4 The miracle
reminds you of a Cause forever present, perfectly untouched by time and interference. 5
Never changed from what It is. 6 And you are Its Effect, as changeless and as perfect as
Itself. 7 Its memory does not lie in the past, nor waits the future. 8 It is not revealed in
miracles. 9 They but remind you that It has not gone. 10 When you forgive It for your
sins, It will no longer be denied.
T-28.I.10. You who have sought to lay a judgment on your own Creator cannot
understand it is not He Who laid a judgment on His Son. 2 You would deny Him His
Effects, yet have They never been denied. 3 There was no time in which His Son could
be condemned for what was causeless and against His Will. 4 What your remembering
would witness to is but the fear of God. 5 He has not done the thing you fear. 6 No more
have you. 7 And so your innocence has not been lost. 8 You need no healing to be healed.
9 In quietness, see in the miracle a lesson in allowing Cause to have Its Own Effects, and
doing nothing that would interfere.
T-28.I.11. The miracle comes quietly into the mind that stops an instant and is still. 2 It
reaches gently from that quiet time, and from the mind it healed in quiet then, to other
minds to share its quietness. 3 And they will join in doing nothing to prevent its radiant
extension back into the Mind which caused all minds to be. 4 Born out of sharing, there
can be no pause in time to cause the miracle delay in hastening to all unquiet minds, and
bringing them an instant's stillness, when the memory of God returns to them. 5 Their
own remembering is quiet now, and what has come to take its place will not be wholly
unremembered afterwards.
T-28.I.12. He to Whom time is given offers thanks for every quiet instant given Him. 2
For in that instant is God's memory allowed to offer all its treasures to the Son of God,
for whom they have been kept. 3 How gladly does He offer them unto the one for whom
He has been given them! 4 And His Creator shares His thanks, because He would not be
deprived of His Effects. p591 5 The instant's silence that His Son accepts gives welcome
to eternity and Him, and lets Them enter where They would abide. 6 For in that instant
does the Son of God do nothing that would make himself afraid.
T-28.I.13. How instantly the memory of God arises in the mind that has no fear to keep
the memory away! 2 Its own remembering has gone. 3 There is no past to keep its fearful
image in the way of glad awakening to present peace. 4 The trumpets of eternity resound
throughout the stillness, yet disturb it not. 5 And what is now remembered is not fear, but
rather is the Cause that fear was made to render unremembered and undone. 6 The
stillness speaks in gentle sounds of love the Son of God remembers from before his own
remembering came in between the present and the past, to shut them out.
T-28.I.14. Now is the Son of God at last aware of present Cause and Its benign Effects.
2 Now does he understand what he has made is causeless, having no effects at all. 3 He
has done nothing. 4 And in seeing this, he understands he never had a need for doing
anything, and never did. 5 His Cause <is> Its Effects. 6 There never was a cause beside It
that could generate a different past or future. 7 Its Effects are changelessly eternal,
beyond fear, and past the world of sin entirely.
T-28.I.15. What has been lost, to see the causeless not? 2 And where is sacrifice, when
memory of God has come to take the place of loss? 3 What better way to close the little
gap between illusions and reality than to allow the memory of God to flow across it,
making it a bridge an instant will suffice to reach beyond? 4 For God has closed it with
Himself. 5 His memory has not gone by, and left a stranded Son forever on a shore where
he can glimpse another shore that he can never reach. 6 His Father wills that he be lifted
up and gently carried over. 7 He has built the bridge, and it is He Who will transport His
Son across it. 8 Have no fear that He will fail in what He wills. 9 Nor that you be
excluded from the Will that is for you.
Chapter 29.
THE AWAKENING
I. The Closing of the Gap
T-29.I.1. There is no time, no place, no state where God is absent. 2 There is nothing
to be feared. 3 There is no way in which a gap could be conceived of in the Wholeness
that is His. 4 The compromise the least and littlest gap would represent in His eternal
love is quite impossible. 5 For it would mean His Love could harbor just a hint of hate,
His gentleness turn sometimes to attack, and His eternal patience sometimes fail. 6 All
this do you believe, when you perceive a gap between your brother and yourself. 7 How
could you trust Him, then? 8 For He must be deceptive in His Love. 9 Be wary, then; let
Him not come too close, and leave a gap between you and His Love, through which you
can escape if there be need for you to flee.
T-29.I.2. Here is the fear of God most plainly seen. 2 For love <is> treacherous to
those who fear, since fear and hate can never be apart. 3 No one who hates but is afraid of
love, and therefore must he be afraid of God. 4 Certain it is he knows not what love
means. 5 He fears to love and loves to hate, and so he thinks that love is fearful; hate is
love. 6 This is the consequence the little gap must bring to those who cherish it, and think
that it is their salvation and their hope.
T-29.I.3. The fear of God! 2 The greatest obstacle that peace must flow across has not
yet gone. 3 The rest are past, but this one still remains to block your path, and make the
way to light seem dark and fearful, perilous and bleak. 4 You had decided that your
brother is your enemy. 5 Sometimes a friend, perhaps, provided that your separate
interests made your friendship possible a little while. 6 But not without a gap perceived
between you and him, lest he turn again into an enemy. 7 Let him come close to you, and
you jumped back; as you approached, did he but instantly withdraw. 8 A cautious
friendship, and limited in scope and carefully restricted in amount, became the treaty that
you had made with him. 9 Thus you and your brother but shared a qualified entente, in
which a clause of separation was a point you both agreed to keep intact. 10 And violating
this was thought to be a breach of treaty not to be allowed. p606
T-29.I.4. The gap between you and your brother is not one of space between two
separate bodies. 2 And this but seems to be dividing off your separate minds. 3 It is the
symbol of a promise made to meet when you prefer, and separate till you and he elect to
meet again. 4 And then your bodies seem to get in touch, and thereby signify a meeting
place to join. 5 But always is it possible for you and him to go your separate ways. 6
Conditional upon the "right" to separate will you and he agree to meet from time to time,
and keep apart in intervals of separation, which do protect you from the "sacrifice" of
love. 7 The body saves you, for it gets away from total sacrifice and gives to you the time
in which to build again your separate self, which you truly believe diminishes as you and
your brother meet.
T-29.I.5. The body could not separate your mind from your brother's unless you
wanted it to be a cause of separation and of distance seen between you and him. 2 Thus
do you endow it with a power that lies not within itself. 3 And herein lies its power over
you. 4 For now you think that it determines when your brother and you meet, and limits
your ability to make communion with your brother's mind. 5 And now it tells you where
to go and how to go there, what is feasible for you to undertake, and what you cannot do.
6 It dictates what its health can tolerate, and what will tire it and make it sick. 7 And its
"inherent" weaknesses set up the limitations on what you would do, and keep your
purpose limited and weak.
T-29.I.6. The body will accommodate to this, if you would have it so. 2 It will allow
but limited indulgences in "love," with intervals of hatred in between. 3 And it will take
command of when to "love," and when to shrink more safely into fear. 4 It will be sick
because you do not know what loving means. 5 And so you must misuse each
circumstance and everyone you meet, and see in them a purpose not your own.
T-29.I.7. It is not love that asks a sacrifice. 2 But fear demands the sacrifice of love,
for in love's presence fear cannot abide. 3 For hate to be maintained, love must be feared;
and only sometimes present, sometimes gone. 4 Thus is love seen as treacherous, because
it seems to come and go uncertainly, and offer no stability to you. 5 You do not see how
limited and weak is your allegiance, and how frequently you have demanded that love go
away, and leave you quietly alone in "peace." p607
T-29.I.8. The body, innocent of goals, is your excuse for variable goals you hold, and
force the body to maintain. 2 You do not fear its weakness, but its lack of strength <or>
weakness. 3 Would you know that nothing stands between you and your brother? 4
Would you know there is no gap behind which you can hide? 5 There is a shock that
comes to those who learn their savior is their enemy no more. 6 There is a wariness that
is aroused by learning that the body is not real. 7 And there are overtones of seeming fear
around the happy message, "God is Love."
T-29.I.9. Yet all that happens when the gap is gone is peace eternal. 2 Nothing more
than that, and nothing less. 3 Without the fear of God, what could induce you to abandon
Him? 4 What toys or trinkets in the gap could serve to hold you back an instant from His
Love? 5 Would you allow the body to say "no" to Heaven's calling, were you not afraid
to find a loss of self in finding God? 6 Yet can your self be lost by being found?
Chapter 30.
THE NEW BEGINNING
Introduction
T-30.in.1. The new beginning now becomes the focus of the curriculum. 2 The goal is
clear, but now you need specific methods for attaining it. 3 The speed by which it can be
reached depends on this one thing alone; your willingness to practice every step. 4 Each
one will help a little, every time it is attempted. 5 And together will these steps lead you
from dreams of judgment to forgiving dreams and out of pain and fear. 6 They are not
new to you, but they are more ideas than rules of thought to you as yet. 7 So now we need
to practice them awhile, until they are the rules by which you live. 8 We seek to make
them habits now, so you will have them ready for whatever need.
3 This means that you are choosing not to be the judge of what to do. 4 But it must also
mean you will not judge the situations where you will be called upon to make response. 5
For if you judge them, you have set the rules for how you should react to them. 6 And
then another answer cannot but produce confusion and uncertainty and fear. p625
T-30.I.3. This is your major problem now. 2 You still make up your mind, and <then>
decide to ask what you should do. 3 And what you hear may not resolve the problem as
you saw it first. 4 This leads to fear, because it contradicts what you perceive and so you
feel attacked. 5 And therefore angry. 6 There are rules by which this will not happen. 7
But it does occur at first, while you are learning how to hear.
T-30.I.4. (2) Throughout the day, at any time you think of it and have a quiet moment
for reflection, tell yourself again the kind of day you want; the feelings you would have,
the things you want to happen to you, and the things you would experience, and say:
2 If I make no decisions by myself, this is the day that will be given me.
3 These two procedures, practiced well, will serve to let you be directed without fear, for
opposition will not first arise and then become a problem in itself.
T-30.I.5. But there will still be times when you have judged already. 2 Now the
answer will provoke attack, unless you quickly straighten out your mind to want an
answer that will work. 3 Be certain this has happened if you feel yourself unwilling to sit
by and ask to have the answer given you. 4 This means you have decided by yourself,
and can not see the question. 5 Now you need a quick restorative before you ask again.
T-30.I.6. (3) Remember once again the day you want, and recognize that something
has occurred that is not part of it. 2 Then realize that you have asked a question by
yourself, and must have set an answer in your terms. 3 Then say:
6 This cancels out the terms that you have set, and lets the answer show you what the
question must have really been.
T-30.I.7. Try to observe this rule without delay, despite your opposition. 2 For you
have already gotten angry. 3 And your fear of being answered in a different way from
what your version of the question asks will gain momentum, until you believe the day
you want is one in which you get <your> answer to <your> question. 4 And you will not
get it, for it would destroy the day by robbing you of what you really want. p626 5 This
can be very hard to realize, when once you have decided by yourself the rules that
promise you a happy day. 6 Yet this decision still can be undone, by simple methods that
you can accept.
T-30.I.8. (4) If you are so unwilling to receive you cannot even let your question go,
you can begin to change your mind with this:
3 This much is obvious, and paves the way for the next easy step.
T-30.I.9. (5) Having decided that you do not like the way you feel, what could be
easier than to continue with:
3 This works against the sense of opposition, and reminds you that help is not being
thrust upon you but is something that you want and that you need, because you do not
like the way you feel. 4 This tiny opening will be enough to let you go ahead with just a
few more steps you need to let yourself be helped.
T-30.I.10. Now you have reached the turning point, because it has occurred to you that
you will gain if what you have decided is not so. 2 Until this point is reached, you will
believe your happiness depends on being right. 3 But this much reason have you now
attained; you would be better off if you were wrong.
T-30.I.11. (6) This tiny grain of wisdom will suffice to take you further. 2 You are not
coerced, but merely hope to get a thing you want. 3 And you can say in perfect honesty:
5 Thus you now can ask a question that makes sense, and so the answer will make sense
as well. 6 Nor will you fight against it, for you see that it is you who will be helped by it.
T-30.I.13. It must be clear that it is easier to have a happy day if you prevent
unhappiness from entering at all. 2 But this takes practice in the rules that will protect
you from the ravages of fear. 3 When this has been achieved, the sorry dream of
judgment has forever been undone. 4 But meanwhile, you have need for practicing the
rules for its undoing. 5 Let us, then, consider once again the very first of the decisions
which are offered here.
T-30.I.14. We said you can begin a happy day with the determination not to make
decisions by yourself. 2 This seems to be a real decision in itself. 3 And yet, you
<cannot> make decisions by yourself. 4 The only question really is with what you choose
to make them. 5 That is really all. 6 The first rule, then, is not coercion, but a simple
statement of a simple fact. 7 You will not make decisions by yourself whatever you
decide. 8 For they are made with idols or with God. 9 And you ask help of anti-Christ or
Christ, and which you choose will join with you and tell you what to do.
T-30.I.15. Your day is not at random. 2 It is set by what you choose to live it with, and
how the friend whose counsel you have sought perceives your happiness. 3 You always
ask advice before you can decide on anything. 4 Let this be understood, and you can see
there cannot be coercion here, nor grounds for opposition that you may be free. 5 There is
no freedom from what must occur. 6 And if you think there is, you must be wrong.
T-30.I.16. The second rule as well is but a fact. 2 For you and your adviser must agree
on what you want before it can occur. 3 It is but this agreement that permits all things to
happen. 4 Nothing can be caused without some form of union, be it with a dream of
judgment or the Voice for God. 5 Decisions cause results <because> they are not made in
isolation. 6 They are made by you and your adviser, for yourself and for the world as
well. 7 The day you want you offer to the world, for it will be what you have asked for,
and will reinforce the rule of your adviser in the world. 8 Whose kingdom is the world for
you today? 9 What kind of day will you decide to have?
T-30.I.17. It needs but two who would have happiness this day to promise it to all the
world. p628 2 It needs but two to understand that they cannot decide alone, to guarantee
the joy they asked for will be wholly shared. 3 For they have understood the basic law
that makes decision powerful, and gives it all effects that it will ever have. 4 It needs but
two. 5 These two are joined before there can be a decision. 6 Let this be the one reminder
that you keep in mind, and you will have the day you want, and give it to the world by
having it yourself. 7 Your judgment has been lifted from the world by your decision for a
happy day. 8 And as you have received, so must you give.
3 There never was a time an idol brought you anything except the "gift" of guilt. 4 Not
one was bought except at cost of pain, nor was it ever paid by you alone.
5 Be merciful unto your brother, then. 6 And do not choose an idol thoughtlessly,
remembering that he will pay the cost as well as you. 7 For he will be delayed when you
look back, and you will not perceive Whose loving hand you hold. 8 Look forward, then;
in confidence walk with a happy heart that beats in hope and does not pound in fear. p637
T-30.V.11. The Will of God forever lies in those whose hands are joined. 2 Until they
joined, they thought He was their enemy. 3 But when they joined and shared a purpose,
they were free to learn their will is one. 4 And thus the Will of God must reach to their
awareness. 5 Nor can they forget for long that it is but their own.
4 I thank You, Father, for Your perfect Son, and in his glory will I see my own.
5 Here is the joyful statement that there are no forms of evil that can overcome the Will
of God; the glad acknowledgment that guilt has not succeeded by your wish to make
illusions real. 6 And what is this except a simple statement of the truth?
T-30.VI.10. Look on your brother with this hope in you, and you will understand he
could not make an error that could change the truth in him. 2 It is not difficult to overlook
mistakes that have been given no effects. 3 But what you see as having power to make an
idol of the Son of God you will not pardon. 4 For he has become to you a graven image
and a sign of death. 5 Is this your savior? 6 Is his Father wrong about His Son? 7 Or have
you been deceived in him who has been given you to heal, for your salvation and
deliverance?
Chapter 31.
THE FINAL VISION
I. The Simplicity of Salvation
T-31.I.1. How simple is salvation! 2 All it says is what was never true is not true now,
and never will be. 3 The impossible has not occurred, and can have no effects. 4 And that
is all. 5 Can this be hard to learn by anyone who wants it to be true? 6 Only unwillingness
to learn it could make such an easy lesson difficult. 7 How hard is it to see that what is
false can not be true, and what is true can not be false? 8 You can no longer say that you
perceive no differences in false and true. 9 You have been told exactly how to tell one
from the other, and just what to do if you become confused. 10 Why, then, do you persist
in learning not such simple things?
T-31.I.2. There is a reason. 2 But confuse it not with difficulty in the simple things
salvation asks you learn. 3 It teaches but the very obvious. 4 It merely goes from one
apparent lesson to the next, in easy steps that lead you gently from one to another, with
no strain at all. 5 This cannot be confusing, yet you are confused. 6 For somehow you
believe that what is totally confused is easier to learn and understand. 7 What you have
taught yourself is such a giant learning feat it is indeed incredible. 8 But you
accomplished it because you wanted to, and did not pause in diligence to judge it hard to
learn or too complex to grasp.
T-31.I.3. No one who understands what you have learned, how carefully you learned
it, and the pains to which you went to practice and repeat the lessons endlessly, in every
form you could conceive of them, could ever doubt the power of your learning skill. 2
There is no greater power in the world. 3 The world was made by it, and even now
depends on nothing else. 4 The lessons you have taught yourself have been so
overlearned and fixed they rise like heavy curtains to obscure the simple and the obvious.
5 Say not you cannot learn them. 6 For your power to learn is strong enough to teach you
that your will is not your own, your thoughts do not belong to you, and even you are
someone else.
T-31.I.4. Who could maintain that lessons such as these are easy? 2 Yet you have
learned more than this. 3 You have continued, taking every step, however difficult,
without complaint, until a world was built that suited you. p645 4 And every lesson that
makes up the world arises from the first accomplishment of learning; an enormity so
great the Holy Spirit's Voice seems small and still before its magnitude. 5 The world
began with one strange lesson, powerful enough to render God forgotten, and His Son an
alien to himself, in exile from the home where God Himself established him. 6 You who
have taught yourself the Son of God is guilty, say not that you cannot learn the simple
things salvation teaches you!
T-31.I.5. Learning is an ability you made and gave yourself. 2 It was not made to do
the Will of God, but to uphold a wish that it could be opposed, and that a will apart from
it was yet more real than it. 3 And this has learning sought to demonstrate, and you have
learned what it was made to teach. 4 Now does your ancient overlearning stand
implacable before the Voice of truth, and teach you that Its lessons are not true; too hard
to learn, too difficult to see, and too opposed to what is really true. 5 Yet you will learn
them, for their learning is the only purpose for your learning skill the Holy Spirit sees in
all the world. 6 His simple lessons in forgiveness have a power mightier than yours,
because they call from God and from your Self to you.
T-31.I.6. Is this a little Voice, so small and still It cannot rise above the senseless
noise of sounds that have no meaning? 2 God willed not His Son forget Him. 3 And the
power of His Will is in the Voice that speaks for Him. 4 Which lesson will you learn? 5
What outcome is inevitable, sure as God, and far beyond all doubt and question? 6 Can it
be your little learning, strange in outcome and incredible in difficulty will withstand the
simple lessons being taught to you in every moment of each day, since time began and
learning had been made?
T-31.I.7. The lessons to be learned are only two. 2 Each has its outcome in a different
world. 3 And each world follows surely from its source. 4 The certain outcome of the
lesson that God's Son is guilty is the world you see. 5 It is a world of terror and despair. 6
Nor is there hope of happiness in it. 7 There is no plan for safety you can make that ever
will succeed. 8 There is no joy that you can seek for here and hope to find. 9 Yet this is
not the only outcome which your learning can produce. 10 However much you may have
overlearned your chosen task, the lesson that reflects the Love of God is stronger still. 11
And you will learn God's Son is innocent, and see another world. p646
T-31.I.8. The outcome of the lesson that God's Son is guiltless is a world in which
there is no fear, and everything is lit with hope and sparkles with a gentle friendliness. 2
Nothing but calls to you in soft appeal to be your friend, and let it join with you. 3 And
never does a call remain unheard, misunderstood, nor left unanswered in the selfsame
tongue in which the call was made. 4 And you will understand it was this call that
everyone and everything within the world has always made, but you had not perceived it
as it was. 5 And now you see you were mistaken. 6 You had been deceived by forms the
call was hidden in. 7 And so you did not hear it, and had lost a friend who always wanted
to be part of you. 8 The soft eternal calling of each part of God's creation to the whole is
heard throughout the world this second lesson brings.
T-31.I.9. There is no living thing that does not share the universal Will that it be
whole, and that you do not leave its call unheard. 2 Without your answer is it left to die,
as it is saved from death when you have heard its calling as the ancient call to life, and
understood that it is but your own. 3 The Christ in you remembers God with all the
certainty with which He knows His Love. 4 But only if His Son is innocent can He be
Love. 5 For God were fear indeed if he whom He created innocent could be a slave to
guilt. 6 God's perfect Son remembers his creation. 7 But in guilt he has forgotten what he
really is.
T-31.I.10. The fear of God results as surely from the lesson that His Son is guilty as
God's Love must be remembered when he learns his innocence. 2 For hate must father
fear, and look upon its father as itself. 3 How wrong are you who fail to hear the call that
echoes past each seeming call to death, that sings behind each murderous attack and
pleads that love restore the dying world. 4 You do not understand Who calls to you
beyond each form of hate; each call to war. 5 Yet you will recognize Him as you give
Him answer in the language that He calls. 6 He will appear when you have answered
Him, and you will know in Him that God is Love.
T-31.I.11. What is temptation but a wish to make the wrong decision on what you
would learn, and have an outcome that you do not want? 2 It is the recognition that it is a
state of mind unwanted that becomes the means whereby the choice is reassessed;
another outcome seen to be preferred. 3 You are deceived if you believe you want
disaster and disunity and pain. 4 Hear not the call for this within yourself. p647 5 But
listen, rather, to the deeper call beyond it that appeals for peace and joy. 6 And all the
world will give you joy and peace. 7 For as you hear, you answer. 8 And behold! 9 Your
answer is the proof of what you learned. 10 Its outcome is the world you look upon.
T-31.I.12. Let us be still an instant, and forget all things we ever learned, all thoughts
we had, and every preconception that we hold of what things mean and what their
purpose is. 2 Let us remember not our own ideas of what the world is for. 3 We do not
know. 4 Let every image held of everyone be loosened from our minds and swept away.
T-31.I.13. Be innocent of judgment, unaware of any thoughts of evil or of good that
ever crossed your mind of anyone. 2 Now do you know him not. 3 But you are free to
learn of him, and learn of him anew. 4 Now is he born again to you, and you are born
again to him, without the past that sentenced him to die, and you with him. 5 Now is he
free to live as you are free, because an ancient learning passed away, and left a place for
truth to be reborn.
2 The answer that I give my brother is what I am asking for. 3 And what I learn of him is
what I learn about myself.
4 Then let us wait an instant and be still, forgetting everything we thought we heard;
remembering how much we do not know. 5 This brother neither leads nor follows us, but
walks beside us on the selfsame road. 6 He is like us, as near or far away from what we
want as we will let him be. 7 We make no gains he does not make with us, and we fall
back if he does not advance. p649 8 Take not his hand in anger but in love, for in his
progress do you count your own. 9 And we go separately along the way unless you keep
him safely by your side.
T-31.II.7. Because he is your equal in God's Love, you will be saved from all
appearances and answer to the Christ Who calls to you. 2 Be still and listen. 3 Think not
ancient thoughts. 4 Forget the dismal lessons that you learned about this Son of God who
calls to you. 5 Christ calls to all with equal tenderness, seeing no leaders and no
followers, and hearing but one answer to them all. 6 Because He hears one Voice, He
cannot hear a different answer from the one He gave when God appointed Him His only
Son.
T-31.II.8. Be very still an instant. 2 Come without all thought of what you ever learned
before, and put aside all images you made. 3 The old will fall away before the new
without your opposition or intent. 4 There will be no attack upon the things you thought
were precious and in need of care. 5 There will be no assault upon your wish to hear a
call that never has been made. 6 Nothing will hurt you in this holy place, to which you
come to listen silently and learn the truth of what you really want. 7 No more than this
will you be asked to learn. 8 But as you hear it, you will understand you need but come
away without the thoughts you did not want, and that were never true.
T-31.II.9. Forgive your brother all appearances, that are but ancient lessons you have
taught yourself about the sinfulness in you. 2 Hear but his call for mercy and release from
all the fearful images he holds of what he is and of what you must be. 3 He is afraid to
walk with you, and thinks perhaps a bit behind, a bit ahead would be a safer place for him
to be. 4 Can you make progress if you think the same, advancing only when he would
step back, and falling back when he would go ahead? 5 For so do you forget the journey's
goal, which is but to decide to walk with him, so neither leads nor follows. 6 Thus it is a
way you go together, not alone. 7 And in this choice is learning's outcome changed, for
Christ has been reborn to both of you.
T-31.II.10. An instant spent without your old ideas of who your great companion is and
what he should be asking for, will be enough to let this happen. 2 And you will perceive
his purpose is the same as yours. 3 He asks for what you want, and needs the same as
you. 4 It takes, perhaps, a different form in him, but it is not the form you answer to. 5 He
asks and you receive, for you have come with but one purpose; that you learn you love
your brother with a brother's love. p650 6 And as a brother, must his Father be the same
as yours, as he is like yourself in truth.
T-31.II.11. Together is your joint inheritance remembered and accepted by you both. 2
Alone it is denied to both of you. 3 Is it not clear that while you still insist on leading or
on following, you think you walk alone, with no one by your side? 4 This is the road to
nowhere, for the light cannot be given while you walk alone, and so you cannot see
which way you go. 5 And thus there is confusion, and a sense of endless doubting as you
stagger back and forward in the darkness and alone. 6 Yet these are but appearances of
what the journey is, and how it must be made. 7 For next to you is One Who holds the
light before you, so that every step is made in certainty and sureness of the road. 8 A
blindfold can indeed obscure your sight, but cannot make the way itself grow dark. 9 And
He Who travels with you <has> the light.
7 I do not know the thing I am, and therefore do not know what I am doing, where I am,
or how to look upon the world or on myself.
8 Yet in this learning is salvation born. 9 And What you are will tell you of Itself.
5 Choose once again if you would take your place among the saviors of the world, or
would remain in hell, and hold your brothers there.
2 I am as God created me. 3 His Son can suffer nothing. 4 And I am His Son.
5 Thus is Christ's strength invited to prevail, replacing all your weakness with the
strength that comes from God and that can never fail. 6 And thus are miracles as natural
as fear and agony appeared to be before the choice for holiness was made. 7 For in that
choice are false distinctions gone, illusory alternatives laid by, and nothing left to
interfere with truth.
T-31.VIII.6. You <are> as God created you, and so is every living thing you look upon,
regardless of the images you see. 2 What you behold as sickness and as pain, as weakness
and as suffering and loss, is but temptation to perceive yourself defenseless and in hell. 3
Yield not to this, and you will see all pain, in every form, wherever it occurs, but
disappear as mists before the sun. 4 A miracle has come to heal God's Son, and close the
door upon his dreams of weakness, opening the way to his salvation and release. 5
Choose once again what you would have him be, remembering that every choice you
make establishes your own identity as you will see it and believe it is.
T-31.VIII.7. Deny me not the little gift I ask, when in exchange I lay before your feet the
peace of God, and power to bring this peace to everyone who wanders in the world
uncertain, lonely, and in constant fear. p667 2 For it is given you to join with him, and
through the Christ in you unveil his eyes, and let him look upon the Christ in him.
T-31.VIII.8. My brothers in salvation, do not fail to hear my voice and listen to my
words. 2 I ask for nothing but your own release. 3 There is no place for hell within a
world whose loveliness can yet be so intense and so inclusive it is but a step from there to
Heaven. 4 To your tired eyes I bring a vision of a different world, so new and clean and
fresh you will forget the pain and sorrow that you saw before. 5 Yet this a vision is which
you must share with everyone you see, for otherwise you will behold it not. 6 To give this
gift is how to make it yours. 7 And God ordained, in loving kindness, that it be for you.
T-31.VIII.9. Let us be glad that we can walk the world, and find so many chances to
perceive another situation where God's gift can once again be recognized as ours! 2 And
thus will all the vestiges of hell, the secret sins and hidden hates be gone. 3 And all the
loveliness which they concealed appear like lawns of Heaven to our sight, to lift us high
above the thorny roads we travelled on before the Christ appeared. 4 Hear me, my
brothers, hear and join with me. 5 God has ordained I cannot call in vain, and in His
certainty I rest content. 6 For you <will> hear, and you <will> choose again. 7 And in
this choice is everyone made free.
T-31.VIII.10. I thank You, Father, for these holy ones who are my brothers as they
are Your Sons. 2 My faith in them is Yours. 3 I am as sure that they will come to me as
You are sure of what they are, and will forever be. 4 They will accept the gift I offer
them, because You gave it me on their behalf. 5 And as I would but do Your holy Will,
so will they choose. 6 And I give thanks for them. 7 Salvation's song will echo through
the world with every choice they make. 8 For we are one in purpose, and the end of hell
is near.
T-31.VIII.11. In joyous welcome is my hand outstretched to every brother who
would join with me in reaching past temptation, and who looks with fixed determination
toward the light that shines beyond in perfect constancy. 2 Give me my own, for they
belong to You. 3 And can You fail in what is but Your Will? 4 I give You thanks for
what my brothers are. 5 And as each one elects to join with me, the song of thanks from
earth to Heaven grows from tiny scattered threads of melody to one inclusive chorus from
a world redeemed from hell, and giving thanks to You. p668
T-31.VIII.12. And now we say "Amen." 2 For Christ has come to dwell in the abode
You set for Him before time was, in calm eternity. 3 The journey closes, ending at the
place where it began. 4 No trace of it remains. 5 Not one illusion is accorded faith, and
not one spot of darkness still remains to hide the face of Christ from anyone. 6 Thy Will
is done, complete and perfectly, and all creation recognizes You, and knows You as the
only Source it has. 7 Clear in Your likeness does the light shine forth from everything
that lives and moves in You. 8 For we have reached where all of us are one, and we are
home, where You would have us be. p669
INTRODUCTION
W-in.1. A theoretical foundation such as the text provides is necessary as a
framework to make the exercises in this workbook meaningful. 2 Yet it is doing the
exercises that will make the goal of the course possible. 3 An untrained mind can
accomplish nothing. 4 It is the purpose of this workbook to train your mind to think along
the lines the text sets forth.
W-in.2. The exercises are very simple. 2 They do not require a great deal of time,
and it does not matter where you do them. 3 They need no preparation. 4 The training
period is one year. 5 The exercises are numbered from 1 to 365. 6 Do not undertake to do
more than one set of exercises a day.
W-in.3. The workbook is divided into two main sections, the first dealing with the
undoing of the way you see now, and the second with the acquisition of true perception. 2
With the exception of the review periods, each day's exercises are planned around one
central idea, which is stated first. 3 This is followed by a description of the specific
procedures by which the idea for the day is to be applied.
W-in.4. The purpose of the workbook is to train your mind in a systematic way to a
different perception of everyone and everything in the world. 2 The exercises are planned
to help you generalize the lessons, so that you will understand that each of them is
equally applicable to everyone and everything you see.
W-in.5. Transfer of training in true perception does not proceed as does transfer of
the training of the world. 2 If true perception has been achieved in connection with any
person, situation or event, total transfer to everyone and everything is certain. 3 On the
other hand, one exception held apart from true perception makes its accomplishments
anywhere impossible.
W-in.6. The only general rules to be observed throughout, then, are: First, that the
exercises be practiced with great specificity, as will be indicated. 2 This will help you to
generalize the ideas involved to every situation in which you find yourself, and to
everyone and everything in it. 3 Second, be sure that you do not decide for yourself that
there are some people, situations or things to which the ideas are inapplicable. 4 This will
interfere with transfer of training. 5 The very nature of true perception is that it has no
limits. 6 It is the opposite of the way you see now.
W-in.7. The overall aim of the exercises is to increase your ability to extend the
ideas you will be practicing to include everything. 2 This will require no effort on your
part. 3 The exercises themselves meet the conditions necessary for this kind of transfer.
W-in.8. Some of the ideas the workbook presents you will find hard to believe, and
others may seem to be quite startling. 2 This does not matter. 3 You are merely asked to
apply the ideas as you are directed to do. 4 You are not asked to judge them at all. 5 You
are asked only to use them. 6 It is their use that will give them meaning to you, and will
show you that they are true.
W-in.9. Remember only this; you need not believe the ideas, you need not accept
them, and you need not even welcome them. 2 Some of them you may actively resist. 3
None of this will matter, or decrease their efficacy. 4 But do not allow yourself to make
exceptions in applying the ideas the workbook contains, and whatever your reactions to
the ideas may be, use them. 5 Nothing more than that is required.
PART I
LESSON 1.
Nothing I see in this room [on this street, from this window, in this place] means
anything.
W-1.1. Now look slowly around you, and practice applying this idea very
specifically to whatever you see:
W-1.2. Then look farther away from your immediate area, and apply the idea to a
wider range:
W-1.3. Notice that these statements are not arranged in any order, and make no
allowance for differences in the kinds of things to which they are applied. 2 That is the
purpose of the exercise. 3 The statement should merely be applied to anything you see. 4
As you practice the idea for the day, use it totally indiscriminately. 5 Do not attempt to
apply it to everything you see, for these exercises should not become ritualistic. 6 Only
be sure that nothing you see is specifically excluded. 7 One thing is like another as far as
the application of the idea is concerned.
W-1.4. Each of the first three lessons should not be done more than twice a day
each, preferably morning and evening. 2 Nor should they be attempted for more than a
minute or so, unless that entails a sense of hurry. 3 A comfortable sense of leisure is
essential.
LESSON 2.
I have given everything I see in this room [on this street, from this window, in this place]
all the meaning that it has for me.
W-2.1. The exercises with this idea are the same as those for the first one. 2 Begin
with the things that are near you, and apply the idea to whatever your glance rests on. 3
Then increase the range outward. 4 Turn your head so that you include whatever is on
either side. 5 If possible, turn around and apply the idea to what was behind you. 6
Remain as indiscriminate as possible in selecting subjects for its application, do not
concentrate on anything in particular, and do not attempt to include everything you see in
a given area, or you will introduce strain.
W-2.2. Merely glance easily and fairly quickly around you, trying to avoid selection
by size, brightness, color, material, or relative importance to you. 2 Take the subjects
simply as you see them. 3 Try to apply the exercise with equal ease to a body or a button,
a fly or a floor, an arm or an apple. 4 The sole criterion for applying the idea to anything
is merely that your eyes have lighted on it. 5 Make no attempt to include anything
particular, but be sure that nothing is specifically excluded.
LESSON 3.
I do not understand anything I see in this room [on this street, from this window, in this
place].
W-3.1. Apply this idea in the same way as the previous ones, without making
distinctions of any kind. 2 Whatever you see becomes a proper subject for applying the
idea. 3 Be sure that you do not question the suitability of anything for application of the
idea. 4 These are not exercises in judgment. 5 Anything is suitable if you see it. 6 Some
of the things you see may have emotionally charged meaning for you. 7 Try to lay such
feelings aside, and merely use these things exactly as you would anything else.
W-3.2. The point of the exercises is to help you clear your mind of all past
associations, to see things exactly as they appear to you now, and to realize how little you
really understand about them. 2 It is therefore essential that you keep a perfectly open
mind, unhampered by judgment, in selecting the things to which the idea for the day is to
be applied. 3 For this purpose one thing is like another; equally suitable and therefore
equally useful.
LESSON 4.
These thoughts do not mean anything. They are like the things I see in this room [on this
street, from this window, in this place].
W-4.1. Unlike the preceding ones, these exercises do not begin with the idea for the
day. 2 In these practice periods, begin with noting the thoughts that are crossing your
mind for about a minute. 3 Then apply the idea to them. 4 If you are already aware of
unhappy thoughts, use them as subjects for the idea. 5 Do not, however, select only the
thoughts you think are "bad." 6 You will find, if you train yourself to look at your
thoughts, that they represent such a mixture that, in a sense, none of them can be called
"good" or "bad." 7 This is why they do not mean anything.
W-4.2. In selecting the subjects for the application of today's idea, the usual
specificity is required. 2 Do not be afraid to use "good" thoughts as well as "bad." 3 None
of them represents your real thoughts, which are being covered up by them. 4 The "good"
ones are but shadows of what lies beyond, and shadows make sight difficult. 5 The "bad"
ones are blocks to sight, and make seeing impossible. 6 You do not want either.
W-4.3. This is a major exercise, and will be repeated from time to time in somewhat
different form. 2 The aim here is to train you in the first steps toward the goal of
separating the meaningless from the meaningful. 3 It is a first attempt in the long-range
purpose of learning to see the meaningless as outside you, and the meaningful within. 4 It
is also the beginning of training your mind to recognize what is the same and what is
different.
W-4.4. In using your thoughts for application of the idea for today, identify each
thought by the central figure or event it contains; for example:
W-4.5. You can also use the idea for a particular thought that you recognize as
harmful. 2 This practice is useful, but is not a substitute for the more random procedures
to be followed for the exercises. 3 Do not, however, examine your mind for more than a
minute or so. 4 You are too inexperienced as yet to avoid a tendency to become
pointlessly preoccupied.
W-4.6. Further, since these exercises are the first of their kind, you may find the
suspension of judgment in connection with thoughts particularly difficult. 2 Do not repeat
these exercises more than three or four times during the day. 3 We will return to them
later.
LESSON 5.
3 There are no small upsets. 4 They are all equally disturbing to my peace of mind.
W-5.5. Then examine your mind for whatever is distressing you, regardless of how
much or how little you think it is doing so.
W-5.6. You may also find yourself less willing to apply today's idea to some
perceived sources of upset than to others. 2 If this occurs, think first of this:
3 I cannot keep this form of upset and let the others go. 4 For the purposes of these
exercises, then, I will regard them all as the same.
W-5.7. Then search your mind for no more than a minute or so, and try to identify a
number of different forms of upset that are disturbing you, regardless of the relative
importance you may give them. 2 Apply the idea for today to each of them, using the
name of both the source of the upset as you perceive it, and of the feeling as you
experience it. 3 Further examples are:
LESSON 6.
W-6.2. Today's idea is useful for application to anything that seems to upset you,
and can profitably be used throughout the day for that purpose. 2 However, the three or
four practice periods which are required should be preceded by a minute or so of mind
searching, as before, and the application of the idea to each upsetting thought uncovered
in the search.
W-6.3. Again, if you resist applying the idea to some upsetting thoughts more than
to others, remind yourself of the two cautions stated in the previous lesson:
2 There are no small upsets. 3 They are all equally disturbing to my peace of mind.
4 And:
5 I cannot keep this form of upset and let the others go. 6 For the purposes of these
exercises, then, I will regard them all as the same.
LESSON 7.
W-7.5. Do not linger over any one thing in particular, but remember to omit nothing
specifically. 2 Glance briefly at each subject, and then move on to the next. 3 Three or
four practice periods, each to last a minute or so, will be enough.
LESSON 8.
2 I seem to be thinking about [name of a person], about [name of an object], about [name
of an emotion],
LESSON 9.
W-9.4. Begin with things that are nearest you, and then extend the range outward:
LESSON 10.
My thoughts do not mean anything.
W-10.1. This idea applies to all the thoughts of which you are aware, or become
aware in the practice periods. 2 The reason the idea is applicable to all of them is that
they are not your real thoughts. 3 We have made this distinction before, and will do so
again. 4 You have no basis for comparison as yet. 5 When you do, you will have no
doubt that what you once believed were your thoughts did not mean anything.
W-10.2. This is the second time we have used this kind of idea. 2 The form is only
slightly different. 3 This time the idea is introduced with "My thoughts" instead of "These
thoughts," and no link is made overtly with the things around you. 4 The emphasis is now
on the lack of reality of what you think you think.
W-10.3. This aspect of the correction process began with the idea that the thoughts of
which you are aware are meaningless, outside rather than within; and then stressed their
past rather than their present status. 2 Now we are emphasizing that the presence of these
"thoughts" means that you are not thinking. 3 This is merely another way of repeating our
earlier statement that your mind is really a blank. 4 To recognize this is to recognize
nothingness when you think you see it. 5 As such, it is the prerequisite for vision.
W-10.4. Close your eyes for these exercises, and introduce them by repeating the idea
for today quite slowly to yourself. 2 Then add:
3 This idea will help to release me from all that I now believe.
4 The exercises consist, as before, in searching your mind for all the thoughts that are
available to you, without selection or judgment. 5 Try to avoid classification of any kind.
6 In fact, if you find it helpful to do so, you might imagine that you are watching an
oddly assorted procession going by, which has little if any personal meaning to you. 7 As
each one crosses your mind, say:
W-10.5. Today's thought can obviously serve for any thought that distresses you at
any time. 2 In addition, five practice periods are recommended, each involving no more
than a minute or so of mind searching. 3 It is not recommended that this time period be
extended, and it should be reduced to half a minute or less if you experience discomfort.
4 Remember, however, to repeat the idea slowly before applying it specifically, and also
to add:
5 This idea will help to release me from all that I now believe.
LESSON 11.
My meaningless thoughts are showing me a meaningless world.
W-11.1. This is the first idea we have had that is related to a major phase of the
correction process; the reversal of the thinking of the world. 2 It seems as if the world
determines what you perceive. 3 Today's idea introduces the concept that your thoughts
determine the world you see. 4 Be glad indeed to practice the idea in its initial form, for
in this idea is your release made sure. 5 The key to forgiveness lies in it.
W-11.2. The practice periods for today's idea are to be undertaken somewhat
differently from the previous ones. 2 Begin with your eyes closed, and repeat the idea
slowly to yourself. 3 Then open your eyes and look about, near and far, up and down,–
anywhere. 4 During the minute or so to be spent in using the idea merely repeat it to
yourself, being sure to do so without haste, and with no sense of urgency or effort.
W-11.3. To do these exercises for maximum benefit, the eyes should move from one
thing to another fairly rapidly, since they should not linger on anything in particular. 2
The words, however, should be used in an unhurried, even leisurely fashion. 3 The
introduction to this idea, in particular, should be practiced as casually as possible. 4 It
contains the foundation for the peace, relaxation and freedom from worry that we are
trying to achieve. 5 On concluding the exercises, close your eyes and repeat the idea once
more slowly to yourself.
W-11.4. Three practice periods today will probably be sufficient. 2 However, if there
is little or no uneasiness and an inclination to do more, as many as five may be
undertaken. 3 More than this is not recommended.
LESSON 12.
2 I think I see a fearful world, a dangerous world, a hostile world, a sad world, a wicked
world, a crazy world,
and so on, using whatever descriptive terms happen to occur to you. 3 If terms which
seem positive rather than negative occur to you, include them. 4 For example, you might
think of "a good world," or "a satisfying world." 5 If such terms occur to you, use them
along with the rest. 6 You may not yet understand why these "nice" adjectives belong in
these exercises but remember that a "good world" implies a "bad" one, and a "satisfying
world" implies an "unsatisfying" one. 7 All terms which cross your mind are suitable
subjects for today's exercises. 8 Their seeming quality does not matter.
W-12.4. Be sure that you do not alter the time intervals between applying today's idea
to what you think is pleasant and what you think is unpleasant. 2 For the purposes of
these exercises, there is no difference between them. 3 At the end of the practice period,
add:
W-12.5. What is meaningless is neither good nor bad. 2 Why, then, should a
meaningless world upset you? 3 If you could accept the world as meaningless and let the
truth be written upon it for you, it would make you indescribably happy. 4 But because it
is meaningless, you are impelled to write upon it what you would have it be. 5 It is this
you see in it. 6 It is this that is meaningless in truth. 7 Beneath your words is written the
Word of God. 8 The truth upsets you now, but when your words have been erased, you
will see His. 9 That is the ultimate purpose of these exercises.
W-12.6. Three or four times is enough for practicing the idea for today. 2 Nor should
the practice periods exceed a minute. 3 You may find even this too long. 4 Terminate the
exercises whenever you experience a sense of strain.
LESSON 13.
5 Repeat this statement to yourself as you look about. 6 Then close your eyes, and
conclude with:
W-13.5. You may find it difficult to avoid resistance, in one form or another, to this
concluding statement. 2 Whatever form such resistance may take, remind yourself that
you are really afraid of such a thought because of the "vengeance" of the "enemy." 3 You
are not expected to believe the statement at this point, and will probably dismiss it as
preposterous. 4 Note carefully, however, any signs of overt or covert fear which it may
arouse.
W-13.6. This is our first attempt at stating an explicit cause and effect relationship of
a kind which you are very inexperienced in recognizing. 2 Do not dwell on the
concluding statement, and try not even to think of it except during the practice periods. 3
That will suffice at present.
LESSON 14.
W-14.5. Suitable subjects for the application of today's idea also include anything
you are afraid might happen to you, or to anyone about whom you are concerned. 2 In
each case, name the "disaster" quite specifically. 3 Do not use general terms. 4 For
example, do not say, "God did not create illness," but, "God did not create cancer," or
heart attacks, or whatever may arouse fear in you.
W-14.6. This is your personal repertory of horrors at which you are looking. 2 These
things are part of the world you see. 3 Some of them are shared illusions, and others are
part of your personal hell. 4 It does not matter. 5 What God did not create can only be in
your own mind apart from His. 6 Therefore, it has no meaning. 7 In recognition of this
fact, conclude the practice periods by repeating today's idea:
W-14.7. The idea for today can, of course, be applied to anything that disturbs you
during the day, aside from the practice periods. 2 Be very specific in applying it. 3 Say:
4 God did not create a meaningless world. 5 He did not create [specify the situation
which is disturbing you], and so it is not real.
LESSON 15.
4 It is not necessary to include a large number of specific subjects for the application of
today's idea. 5 It is necessary, however, to continue to look at each subject while you
repeat the idea to yourself. 6 The idea should be repeated quite slowly each time.
W-15.5. Although you will obviously not be able to apply the idea to very many
things during the minute or so of practice that is recommended, try to make the selection
as random as possible. 2 Less than a minute will do for the practice periods, if you begin
to feel uneasy. 3 Do not have more than three application periods for today's idea unless
you feel completely comfortable with it, and do not exceed four. 4 However, the idea can
be applied as needed throughout the day.
LESSON 16.
4 As usual, use today's idea whenever you are aware of a particular thought that arouses
uneasiness. 5 The following form is suggested for this purpose:
6 This thought about ___ is not a neutral thought, because I have no neutral thoughts.
W-16.6. Four or five practice periods are recommended, if you find them relatively
effortless. 2 If strain is experienced, three will be enough. 3 The length of the exercise
period should also be reduced if there is discomfort.
LESSON 17.
3 Then look about you, resting your glance on each thing you note long enough to say:
4 I do not see a neutral ___, because my thoughts about ___ are not neutral.
6 I do not see a neutral wall, because my thoughts about walls are not neutral.
7 I do not see a neutral body, because my thoughts about bodies are not neutral.
LESSON 18.
5 A minute or so, or even less, will be sufficient for each practice period.
LESSON 19.
LESSON 20.
I am determined to see.
W-20.1. We have been quite casual about our practice periods thus far. 2 There has
been virtually no attempt to direct the time for undertaking them, minimal effort has been
required, and not even active cooperation and interest have been asked. 3 This approach
has been intentional, and very carefully planned. 4 We have not lost sight of the crucial
importance of the reversal of your thinking. 5 The salvation of the world depends on it. 6
Yet you will not see if you regard yourself as being coerced, and if you give in to
resentment and opposition.
W-20.2. This is our first attempt to introduce structure. 2 Do not misconstrue it as an
effort to exert force or pressure. 3 You want salvation. 4 You want to be happy. 5 You
want peace. 6 You do not have them now, because your mind is totally undisciplined, and
you cannot distinguish between joy and sorrow, pleasure and pain, love and fear. 7 You
are now learning how to tell them apart. 8 And great indeed will be your reward.
W-20.3. Your decision to see is all that vision requires. 2 What you want is yours. 3
Do not mistake the little effort that is asked of you for an indication that our goal is of
little worth. 4 Can the salvation of the world be a trivial purpose? 5 And can the world be
saved if you are not? 6 God has one Son, and he is the resurrection and the life. 7 His will
is done because all power is given him in Heaven and on earth. 8 In your determination to
see is vision given you.
W-20.4. The exercises for today consist in reminding yourself throughout the day that
you want to see. 2 Today's idea also tacitly implies the recognition that you do not see
now. 3 Therefore, as you repeat the idea, you are stating that you are determined to
change your present state for a better one, and one you really want.
W-20.5. Repeat today's idea slowly and positively at least twice an hour today,
attempting to do so every half hour. 2 Do not be distressed if you forget to do so, but
make a real effort to remember. 3 The extra repetitions should be applied to any situation,
person or event that upsets you. 4 You can see them differently, and you will. 5 What you
desire you will see. 6 Such is the real law of cause and effect as it operates in the world.
LESSON 21.
W-21.5. Try to be as specific as possible. 2 You may, for example, focus your anger
on a particular attribute of a particular person, believing that the anger is limited to this
aspect. 3 If your perception is suffering from this form of distortion, say:
4 I am determined to see ___ [specify the attribute] in ___ [name of person] differently.
LESSON 22.
What I see is a form of vengeance.
W-22.1. Today's idea accurately describes the way anyone who holds attack thoughts
in his mind must see the world. 2 Having projected his anger onto the world, he sees
vengeance about to strike at him. 3 His own attack is thus perceived as self defense. 4
This becomes an increasingly vicious circle until he is willing to change how he sees. 5
Otherwise, thoughts of attack and counter-attack will preoccupy him and people his
entire world. 6 What peace of mind is possible to him then?
W-22.2. It is from this savage fantasy that you want to escape. 2 Is it not joyous news
to hear that it is not real? 3 Is it not a happy discovery to find that you can escape? 4 You
made what you would destroy; everything that you hate and would attack and kill. 5 All
that you fear does not exist.
W-22.3. Look at the world about you at least five times today, for at least a minute
each time. 2 As your eyes move slowly from one object to another, from one body to
another, say to yourself:
LESSON 23.
4 I can escape from the world I see by giving up attack thoughts about ___.
5 Hold each attack thought in mind as you say this, and then dismiss that thought and go
on to the next.
W-23.7. In the practice periods, be sure to include both your thoughts of attacking
and of being attacked. 2 Their effects are exactly the same because they are exactly the
same. 3 You do not recognize this as yet, and you are asked at this time only to treat them
as the same in today's practice periods. 4 We are still at the stage of identifying the cause
of the world you see. 5 When you finally learn that thoughts of attack and of being
attacked are not different, you will be ready to let the cause go.
LESSON 24.
3 In the situation involving ___, I would like ___ to happen, and ___ to happen,
and so on. 4 Try to cover as many different kinds of outcomes as may honestly occur to
you, even if some of them do not appear to be directly related to the situation, or even to
be inherent in it at all.
W-24.6. If these exercises are done properly, you will quickly recognize that you are
making a large number of demands of the situation which have nothing to do with it. 2
You will also recognize that many of your goals are contradictory, that you have no
unified outcome in mind, and that you must experience disappointment in connection
with some of your goals, however the situation turns out.
W-24.7. After covering the list of as many hoped-for goals as possible, for each
unresolved situation that crosses your mind say to yourself:
LESSON 25.
7 Say this quite slowly, without shifting your eyes from the subject until you have
completed the statement about it. 8 Then move on to the next subject, and apply today's
idea as before.
LESSON 26.
3 Then go over every possible outcome that has occurred to you in that connection and
which has caused you concern, referring to each one quite specifically, saying:
W-26.8. If you are doing the exercises properly, you should have some five or six
distressing possibilities available for each situation you use, and quite possibly more. 2 It
is much more helpful to cover a few situations thoroughly than to touch on a larger
number. 3 As the list of anticipated outcomes for each situation continues, you will
probably find some of them, especially those that occur to you toward the end, less
acceptable to you. 4 Try, however, to treat them all alike to whatever extent you can.
W-26.9. After you have named each outcome of which you are afraid, tell yourself:
LESSON 27.
W-27.3. The idea for today needs many repetitions for maximum benefit. 2 It should
be used at least every half hour, and more if possible. 3 You might try for every fifteen or
twenty minutes. 4 It is recommended that you set a definite time interval for using the
idea when you wake or shortly afterwards, and attempt to adhere to it throughout the day.
5 It will not be difficult to do this, even if you are engaged in conversation, or otherwise
occupied at the time. 6 You can still repeat one short sentence to yourself without
disturbing anything.
W-27.4. The real question is, how often will you remember? 2 How much do you
want today's idea to be true? 3 Answer one of these questions, and you have answered the
other. 4 You will probably miss several applications, and perhaps quite a number. 5 Do
not be disturbed by this, but do try to keep on your schedule from then on. 6 If only once
during the day you feel that you were perfectly sincere while you were repeating today's
idea, you can be sure that you have saved yourself many years of effort.
LESSON 28.
3 Each application should be made quite slowly, and as thoughtfully as possible. 4 There
is no hurry.
LESSON 29.
10 In addition to the assigned practice periods, repeat the idea for today at least once an
hour, looking slowly about you as you say the words unhurriedly to yourself. 11 At least
once or twice, you should experience a sense of restfulness as you do this.
LESSON 30.
LESSON 31.
LESSON 32.
LESSON 33.
W-33.4. Remember to apply today's idea the instant you are aware of distress. 2 It
may be necessary to take a minute or so to sit quietly and repeat the idea to yourself
several times. 3 Closing your eyes will probably help in this form of application.
LESSON 34.
W-34.6. If the inroads on your peace of mind take the form of more generalized
adverse emotions, such as depression, anxiety or worry, use the idea in its original form.
2 If you find you need more than one application of today's idea to help you change your
mind in any specific context, try to take several minutes and devote them to repeating the
idea until you feel some sense of relief. 3 It will help you if you tell yourself specifically:
4 I can replace my feelings of depression, anxiety or worry [or my thoughts about this
situation, personality or event] with peace.
LESSON 35.
W-35.7. You should not think of these terms in an abstract way. 2 They will occur to
you as various situations, personalities and events in which you figure cross your mind. 3
Pick up any specific situation that occurs to you, identify the descriptive term or terms
you feel are applicable to your reactions to that situation, and use them in applying
today's idea. 4 After you have named each one, add:
W-35.8. During the longer exercise periods, there will probably be intervals in which
nothing specific occurs to you. 2 Do not strain to think up specific things to fill the
interval, but merely relax and repeat today's idea slowly until something occurs to you. 3
Although nothing that does occur should be omitted from the exercises, nothing should
be "dug out" with effort. 4 Neither force nor discrimination should be used.
W-35.9. As often as possible during the day, pick up a specific attribute or attributes
you are ascribing to yourself at the time and apply the idea for today to them, adding the
idea in the form stated above to each of them. 2 If nothing particular occurs to you,
merely repeat the idea to yourself, with closed eyes.
LESSON 36.
10 Several times during these practice periods, close your eyes and repeat the idea to
yourself. 11 Then open your eyes, and continue as before.
W-36.4. For the shorter exercise periods, close your eyes and repeat the idea; look
about you as you repeat it again; and conclude with one more repetition with your eyes
closed. 2 All applications should, of course, be made quite slowly, as effortlessly and
unhurriedly as possible.
LESSON 37.
5 Then close your eyes and apply the idea to any person who occurs to you, using his
name and saying:
W-37.5. You may continue the practice period with your eyes closed; you may open
your eyes again and apply the idea for today to your outer world if you so desire; you
may alternate between applying the idea to what you see around you and to those who are
in your thoughts; or you may use any combination of these two phases of application that
you prefer. 2 The practice period should conclude with a repetition of the idea with your
eyes closed, and another, following immediately, with your eyes open.
W-37.6. The shorter exercises consist of repeating the idea as often as you can. 2 It is
particularly helpful to apply it silently to anyone you meet, using his name as you do so.
3 It is essential to use the idea if anyone seems to cause an adverse reaction in you. 4
Offer him the blessing of your holiness immediately, that you may learn to keep it in your
own awareness.
LESSON 38.
W-38.5. From time to time you may want to vary this procedure, and add some
relevant thoughts of your own. 2 You might like, for example, to include thoughts such
as:
3 There is nothing my holiness cannot do because the power of God lies in it.
4 Introduce whatever variations appeal to you, but keep the exercises focused on the
theme, "There is nothing my holiness cannot do." 5 The purpose of today's exercises is to
begin to instill in you a sense that you have dominion over all things because of what you
are.
W-38.6. In the frequent shorter applications, apply the idea in its original form unless
a specific problem concerning you or someone else arises, or comes to mind. 2 In that
event, use the more specific form in applying the idea to it.
LESSON 39.
My holiness is my salvation.
W-39.1. If guilt is hell, what is its opposite? 2 Like the text for which this workbook
was written, the ideas used for the exercises are very simple, very clear and totally
unambiguous. 3 We are not concerned with intellectual feats nor logical toys. 4 We are
dealing only in the very obvious, which has been overlooked in the clouds of complexity
in which you think you think.
W-39.2. If guilt is hell, what is its opposite? 2 This is not difficult, surely. 3 The
hesitation you may feel in answering is not due to the ambiguity of the question. 4 But do
you believe that guilt is hell? 5 If you did, you would see at once how direct and simple
the text is, and you would not need a workbook at all. 6 No one needs practice to gain
what is already his.
W-39.3. We have already said that your holiness is the salvation of the world. 2 What
about your own salvation? 3 You cannot give what you do not have. 4 A savior must be
saved. 5 How else can he teach salvation? 6 Today's exercises will apply to you,
recognizing that your salvation is crucial to the salvation of the world. 7 As you apply the
exercises to your world, the whole world stands to benefit.
W-39.4. Your holiness is the answer to every question that was ever asked, is being
asked now, or will be asked in the future. 2 Your holiness means the end of guilt, and
therefore the end of hell. 3 Your holiness is the salvation of the world, and your own. 4
How could you to whom your holiness belongs be excluded from it? 5 God does not
know unholiness. 6 Can it be He does not know His Son?
W-39.5. A full five minutes are urged for the four longer practice periods for today,
and longer and more frequent practice sessions are encouraged. 2 If you want to exceed
the minimum requirements, more rather than longer sessions are recommended, although
both are suggested.
W-39.6. Begin the practice periods as usual, by repeating today's idea to yourself. 2
Then, with closed eyes, search out your unloving thoughts in whatever form they appear;
uneasiness, depression, anger, fear, worry, attack, insecurity and so on. 3 Whatever form
they take, they are unloving and therefore fearful. 4 And so it is from them that you need
to be saved.
W-39.7. Specific situations, events or personalities you associate with unloving
thoughts of any kind are suitable subjects for today's exercises. 2 It is imperative for your
salvation that you see them differently. 3 And it is your blessing on them that will save
you and give you vision.
W-39.8. Slowly, without conscious selection and without undue emphasis on any one
in particular, search your mind for every thought that stands between you and your
salvation. 2 Apply the idea for today to each of them in this way:
W-39.9. You may find these practice periods easier if you intersperse them with
several short periods during which you merely repeat today's idea to yourself slowly a
few times. 2 You may also find it helpful to include a few short intervals in which you
just relax and do not seem to be thinking of anything. 3 Sustained concentration is very
difficult at first. 4 It will become much easier as your mind becomes more disciplined and
less distractible.
W-39.10. Meanwhile, you should feel free to introduce variety into the exercise
periods in whatever form appeals to you. 2 Do not, however, change the idea itself as you
vary the method of applying it. 3 However you elect to use it, the idea should be stated so
that its meaning is the fact that your holiness is your salvation. 4 End each practice period
by repeating the idea in its original form once more, and adding:
W-39.11. In the shorter applications, which should be made some three or four times
an hour and more if possible, you may ask yourself this question, repeat today's idea, and
preferably both. 2 If temptations arise, a particularly helpful form of the idea is:
9 If only a brief period is available, merely telling yourself that you are blessed as a Son
of God will do.
LESSON 41.
LESSON 42.
W-42.5. Any thought that is clearly related to the idea for today is suitable. 2 You
may, in fact, be astonished at the amount of course-related understanding some of your
thoughts contain. 3 Let them come without censoring unless you find your mind is
merely wandering, and you have let obviously irrelevant thoughts intrude. 4 You may
also reach a point where no thoughts at all seem to come to mind. 5 If such interferences
occur, open your eyes and repeat the thought once more while looking slowly about;
close your eyes, repeat the idea once more, and then continue to look for related thoughts
in your mind.
W-42.6. Remember, however, that active searching for relevant thoughts is not
appropriate for today's exercises. 2 Try merely to step back and let the thoughts come. 3
If you find this difficult, it is better to spend the practice period alternating between slow
repetitions of the idea with eyes open, then with eyes closed, than it is to strain to find
suitable thoughts.
W-42.7. There is no limit on the number of short practice periods that would be
beneficial today. 2 The idea for the day is a beginning step in bringing thoughts together,
and teaching you that you are studying a unified thought system in which nothing is
lacking that is needed, and nothing is included that is contradictory or irrelevant.
W-42.8. The more often you repeat the idea during the day, the more often you will
be reminding yourself that the goal of the course is important to you, and that you have
not forgotten it.
LESSON 43.
God is my Source. I cannot see apart from Him.
W-43.1. Perception is not an attribute of God. 2 His is the realm of knowledge. 3 Yet
He has created the Holy Spirit as the Mediator between perception and knowledge. 4
Without this link with God, perception would have replaced knowledge forever in your
mind. 5 With this link with God, perception will become so changed and purified that it
will lead to knowledge. 6 That is its function as the Holy Spirit sees it. 7 Therefore, that
is its function in truth.
W-43.2. In God you cannot see. 2 Perception has no function in God, and does not
exist. 3 Yet in salvation, which is the undoing of what never was, perception has a mighty
purpose. 4 Made by the Son of God for an unholy purpose, it must become the means for
the restoration of his holiness to his awareness. 5 Perception has no meaning. 6 Yet does
the Holy Spirit give it a meaning very close to God's. 7 Healed perception becomes the
means by which the Son of God forgives his brother, and thus forgives himself.
W-43.3. You cannot see apart from God because you cannot be apart from God. 2
Whatever you do you do in Him, because whatever you think, you think with His Mind. 3
If vision is real, and it is real to the extent to which it shares the Holy Spirit's purpose,
then you cannot see apart from God.
W-43.4. Three five-minute practice periods are required today, one as early and one
as late as possible in the day. 2 The third may be undertaken at the most convenient and
suitable time that circumstances and readiness permit. 3 At the beginning of these
practice periods, repeat the idea for today to yourself with eyes open. 4 Then glance
around you for a short time, applying the idea specifically to what you see. 5 Four or five
subjects for this phase of the practice period are sufficient. 6 You might say, for example:
W-43.5. Although this part of the exercise period should be relatively short, be sure
that you select the subjects for this phase of practice indiscriminately, without self-
directed inclusion or exclusion. 2 For the second and longer phase, close your eyes,
repeat today's idea again, and then let whatever relevant thoughts occur to you add to the
idea in your own personal way. 3 Thoughts such as:
8 Any thought related more or less directly to today's idea is suitable. 9 The thoughts
need not bear any obvious relationship to the idea, but they should not be in opposition to
it.
W-43.6. If you find your mind wandering; if you begin to be aware of thoughts which
are clearly out of accord with today's idea, or if you seem to be unable to think of
anything, open your eyes, repeat the first phase of the exercise period, and then attempt
the second phase again. 2 Do not allow any protracted period to occur in which you
become preoccupied with irrelevant thoughts. 3 Return to the first phase of the exercises
as often as necessary to prevent this.
W-43.7. In applying today's idea in the shorter practice periods, the form may vary
according to the circumstances and situations in which you find yourself during the day.
2 When you are with someone else, for example, try to remember to tell him silently:
5 This form is equally applicable to strangers as it is to those you think are closer to you.
6 In fact, try not to make distinctions of this kind at all.
W-43.8. Today's idea should also be applied throughout the day to various situations
and events that may occur, particularly to those which seem to distress you in any way. 2
For this purpose, apply the idea in this form:
W-43.9. If no particular subject presents itself to your awareness at the time, merely
repeat the idea in its original form. 2 Try today not to allow any long periods of time to
slip by without remembering today's idea, and thus remembering your function.
LESSON 44.
LESSON 45.
God is the Mind with which I think.
W-45.1. Today's idea holds the key to what your real thoughts are. 2 They are
nothing that you think you think, just as nothing that you think you see is related to vision
in any way. 3 There is no relationship between what is real and what you think is real. 4
Nothing that you think are your real thoughts resemble your real thoughts in any respect.
5 Nothing that you think you see bears any resemblance to what vision will show you.
W-45.2. You think with the Mind of God. 2 Therefore you share your thoughts with
Him, as He shares His with you. 3 They are the same thoughts, because they are thought
by the same Mind. 4 To share is to make alike, or to make one. 5 Nor do the thoughts you
think with the Mind of God leave your mind, because thoughts do not leave their source.
6 Therefore, your thoughts are in the Mind of God, as you are. 7 They are in your mind as
well, where He is. 8 As you are part of His Mind, so are your thoughts part of His Mind.
W-45.3. Where, then, are your real thoughts? 2 Today we will attempt to reach them.
3 We will have to look for them in your mind, because that is where they are. 4 They
must still be there, because they cannot have left their source. 5 What is thought by the
Mind of God is eternal, being part of creation.
W-45.4. Our three five-minute practice periods for today will take the same general
form that we used in applying yesterday's idea. 2 We will attempt to leave the unreal and
seek for the real. 3 We will deny the world in favor of truth. 4 We will not let the
thoughts of the world hold us back. 5 We will not let the beliefs of the world tell us that
what God would have us do is impossible. 6 Instead, we will try to recognize that only
what God would have us do is possible.
W-45.5. We will also try to understand that only what God would have us do is what
we want to do. 2 And we will also try to remember that we cannot fail in doing what He
would have us do. 3 There is every reason to feel confident that we will succeed today. 4
It is the Will of God.
W-45.6. Begin the exercises for today by repeating the idea to yourself, closing your
eyes as you do so. 2 Then spend a fairly short period in thinking a few relevant thoughts
of your own, keeping the idea in mind. 3 After you have added some four or five
thoughts of your own to the idea, repeat it again and tell yourself gently:
6 Then try to go past all the unreal thoughts that cover the truth in your mind, and reach
to the eternal.
W-45.7. Under all the senseless thoughts and mad ideas with which you have
cluttered up your mind are the thoughts that you thought with God in the beginning. 2
They are there in your mind now, completely unchanged. 3 They will always be in your
mind, exactly as they always were. 4 Everything you have thought since then will
change, but the Foundation on which it rests is wholly changeless.
W-45.8. It is this Foundation toward which the exercises for today are directed. 2
Here is your mind joined with the Mind of God. 3 Here are your thoughts one with His. 4
For this kind of practice only one thing is necessary; approach it as you would an altar
dedicated in Heaven to God the Father and to God the Son. 5 For such is the place you
are trying to reach. 6 You will probably be unable as yet to realize how high you are
trying to go. 7 Yet even with the little understanding you have already gained, you should
be able to remind yourself that this is no idle game, but an exercise in holiness and an
attempt to reach the Kingdom of Heaven.
W-45.9. In the shorter exercise periods for today, try to remember how important it is
to you to understand the holiness of the mind that thinks with God. 2 Take a minute or
two, as you repeat the idea throughout the day, to appreciate your mind's holiness. 3
Stand aside, however briefly, from all thoughts that are unworthy of Him Whose host you
are. 4 And thank Him for the Thoughts He is thinking with you.
LESSON 46.
W-46.5. The purpose of the first phase of today's practice periods is to put you in a
position to forgive yourself. 2 After you have applied the idea to all those who have come
to mind, tell yourself:
4 Then devote the remainder of the practice period to adding related ideas such as:
5 God is the Love with which I love myself
6 God is the Love in which I am blessed.
W-46.6. The form of the application may vary considerably, but the central idea
should not be lost sight of. 2 You might say, for example:
7 The practice period should end, however, with a repetition of today's idea as originally
stated.
W-46.7. The shorter practice periods may consist either of a repetition of the idea for
today in the original or in a related form, as you prefer. 2 Be sure, however, to make more
specific applications if they are needed. 3 They will be needed at any time during the day
when you become aware of any kind of negative reaction to anyone, present or not. 4 In
that event, tell him silently:
LESSON 47.
W-47.5. Now try to slip past all concerns related to your own sense of inadequacy. 2
It is obvious that any situation that causes you concern is associated with feelings of
inadequacy, for otherwise you would believe that you could deal with the situation
successfully. 3 It is not by trusting yourself that you will gain confidence. 4 But the
strength of God in you is successful in all things.
W-47.6. The recognition of your own frailty is a necessary step in the correction of
your errors, but it is hardly a sufficient one in giving you the confidence which you need,
and to which you are entitled. 2 You must also gain an awareness that confidence in your
real strength is fully justified in every respect and in all circumstances.
W-47.7. In the latter phase of the practice period, try to reach down into your mind to
a place of real safety. 2 You will recognize that you have reached it if you feel a sense of
deep peace, however briefly. 3 Let go all the trivial things that churn and bubble on the
surface of your mind, and reach down and below them to the Kingdom of Heaven. 4
There is a place in you where there is perfect peace. 5 There is a place in you where
nothing is impossible. 6 There is a place in you where the strength of God abides.
W-47.8. During the day, repeat the idea often. 2 Use it as your answer to any
disturbance. 3 Remember that peace is your right, because you are giving your trust to the
strength of God.
LESSON 48.
LESSON 50.
REVIEW I
Introduction
W-rI.in.1. Beginning with today we will have a series of review periods. 2 Each of
them will cover five of the ideas already presented, starting with the first and ending with
the fiftieth. 3 There will be a few short comments after each of the ideas, which you
should consider in your review. 4 In the practice periods, the exercises should be done as
follows:
W-rI.in.2. Begin the day by reading the five ideas, with the comments included. 2
Thereafter, it is not necessary to follow any particular order in considering them, though
each one should be practiced at least once. 3 Devote two minutes or more to each practice
period, thinking about the idea and the related comments after reading them over. 4 Do
this as often as possible during the day. 5 If any one of the five ideas appeals to you more
than the others, concentrate on that one. 6 At the end of the day, however, be sure to
review all of them once more.
W-rI.in.3. It is not necessary to cover the comments that follow each idea either
literally or thoroughly in the practice periods. 2 Try, rather, to emphasize the central
point, and think about it as part of your review of the idea to which it relates. 3 After you
have read the idea and the related comments, the exercises should be done with your eyes
closed and when you are alone in a quiet place, if possible.
W-rI.in.4. This is emphasized for practice periods at your stage of learning. 2 It will be
necessary, however, that you learn to require no special settings in which to apply what
you have learned. 3 You will need your learning most in situations that appear to be
upsetting, rather than in those that already seem to be calm and quiet. 4 The purpose of
your learning is to enable you to bring the quiet with you, and to heal distress and
turmoil. 5 This is not done by avoiding them and seeking a haven of isolation for
yourself.
W-rI.in.5. You will yet learn that peace is part of you, and requires only that you be
there to embrace any situation in which you are. 2 And finally you will learn that there is
no limit to where you are, so that your peace is everywhere, as you are.
W-rI.in.6. You will note that, for review purposes, some of the ideas are not given in
quite their original form. 2 Use them as they are given here. 3 It is not necessary to return
to the original statements, nor to apply the ideas as was suggested then. 4 We are now
emphasizing the relationships among the first fifty of the ideas we have covered, and the
cohesiveness of the thought system to which they are leading you.
LESSON 51.
LESSON 52.
LESSON 54.
LESSON 55.
LESSON 56.
LESSON 57.
LESSON 58.
LESSON 59.
LESSON 60.
LESSON 61.
3 I am the light of the world. 4 That is my only function. 5 That is why I am here.
6 Then think about these statements for a short while, preferably with your eyes closed if
the situation permits. 7 Let a few related thoughts come to you, and repeat the idea to
yourself if your mind wanders away from the central thought.
W-61.6. Be sure both to begin and end the day with a practice period. 2 Thus you will
awaken with an acknowledgment of the truth about yourself, reinforce it throughout the
day, and turn to sleep as you reaffirm your function and your only purpose here. 3 These
two practice periods may be longer than the rest, if you find them helpful and want to
extend them.
W-61.7. Today's idea goes far beyond the ego's petty views of what you are and what
your purpose is. 2 As a bringer of salvation, this is obviously necessary. 3 This is the first
of a number of giant steps we will take in the next few weeks. 4 Try today to begin to
build a firm foundation for these advances. 5 You are the light of the world. 6 God has
built His plan for the salvation of His Son on you.
LESSON 62.
2 Forgiveness is my function as the light of the world. 3 I would fulfill my function that I
may be happy.
4 Then devote a minute or two to considering your function and the happiness and release
it will bring you. 5 Let related thoughts come freely, for your heart will recognize these
words, and in your mind is the awareness they are true. 6 Should your attention wander,
repeat the idea and add:
7 I would remember this because I want to be happy.
LESSON 63.
The light of the world brings peace to every mind through my forgiveness.
W-63.1. How holy are you who have the power to bring peace to every mind! 2 How
blessed are you who can learn to recognize the means for letting this be done through
you! 3 What purpose could you have that would bring you greater happiness?
W-63.2. You are indeed the light of the world with such a function. 2 The Son of God
looks to you for his redemption. 3 It is yours to give him, for it belongs to you. 4 Accept
no trivial purpose or meaningless desire in its place, or you will forget your function and
leave the Son of God in hell. 5 This is no idle request that is being asked of you. 6 You
are being asked to accept salvation that it may be yours to give.
W-63.3. Recognizing the importance of this function, we will be happy to remember
it very often today. 2 We will begin the day by acknowledging it, and close the day with
the thought of it in our awareness. 3 And throughout the day we will repeat this as often
as we can:
4 The light of the world brings peace to every mind through my forgiveness. 5 I am the
means God has appointed for the salvation of the world.
W-63.4. If you close your eyes, you will probably find it easier to let the related
thoughts come to you in the minute or two that you should devote to considering this. 2
Do not, however, wait for such an opportunity. 3 No chance should be lost for reinforcing
today's idea. 4 Remember that God's Son looks to you for his salvation. 5 And Who but
your Self must be His Son?
LESSON 64.
5 At least once devote ten or fifteen minutes today to reflecting on this with closed eyes.
6 Related thoughts will come to help you, if you remember the crucial importance of your
function to you and to the world.
W-64.7. In the frequent applications of today's idea throughout the day, devote
several minutes to reviewing these thoughts, and then thinking about them and about
nothing else. 2 This will be difficult, at first particularly, since you are not proficient in
the mind discipline that it requires. 3 You may need to repeat "Let me not forget my
function" quite often to help you concentrate.
W-64.8. Two forms of shorter practice periods are required. 2 At times, do the
exercises with your eyes closed, trying to concentrate on the thoughts you are using. 3 At
other times, keep your eyes open after reviewing the thoughts, and then look slowly and
unselectively around you, telling yourself:
LESSON 65.
My only function is the one God gave me.
W-65.1. The idea for today reaffirms your commitment to salvation. 2 It also reminds
you that you have no function other than that. 3 Both these thoughts are obviously
necessary for a total commitment. 4 Salvation cannot be the only purpose you hold while
you still cherish others. 5 The full acceptance of salvation as your only function
necessarily entails two phases; the recognition of salvation as your function, and the
relinquishment of all the other goals you have invented for yourself.
W-65.2. This is the only way in which you can take your rightful place among the
saviors of the world. 2 This is the only way in which you can say and mean, "My only
function is the one God gave me." 3 This is the only way in which you can find peace of
mind.
W-65.3. Today, and for a number of days to follow, set aside ten to fifteen minutes
for a more sustained practice period, in which you try to understand and accept what the
idea for the day really means. 2 Today's idea offers you escape from all your perceived
difficulties. 3 It places the key to the door of peace, which you have closed upon yourself,
in your own hands. 4 It gives you the answer to all the searching you have done since
time began.
W-65.4. Try, if possible, to undertake the daily extended practice periods at
approximately the same time each day. 2 Try, also, to determine this time in advance, and
then adhere to it as closely as possible. 3 The purpose of this is to arrange your day so
that you have set apart the time for God, as well as for all the trivial purposes and goals
you will pursue. 4 This is part of the long-range disciplinary training your mind needs, so
that the Holy Spirit can use it consistently for the purpose He shares with you.
W-65.5. For the longer practice period, begin by reviewing the idea for the day. 2
Then close your eyes, repeat the idea to yourself once again, and watch your mind
carefully to catch whatever thoughts cross it. 3 At first, make no attempt to concentrate
only on thoughts related to the idea for the day. 4 Rather, try to uncover each thought that
arises to interfere with it. 5 Note each one as it comes to you, with as little involvement or
concern as possible, dismissing each one by telling yourself:
6 This thought reflects a goal that is preventing me from accepting my only function.
W-65.6. After a while, interfering thoughts will become harder to find. 2 Try,
however, to continue a minute or so longer, attempting to catch a few of the idle thoughts
that escaped your attention before, but do not strain or make undue effort in doing this. 3
Then tell yourself:
5 You need not use these exact words, but try to get the sense of being willing to have
your illusions of purpose be replaced by truth.
W-65.7. Finally, repeat the idea for today once more, and devote the rest of the
practice period to trying to focus on its importance to you, the relief its acceptance will
bring you by resolving your conflicts once and for all, and the extent to which you really
want salvation in spite of your own foolish ideas to the contrary.
W-65.8. In the shorter practice periods, which should be undertaken at least once an
hour, use this form in applying today's idea:
2 My only function is the one God gave me. 3 I want no other and I have no other.
4 Sometimes close your eyes as you practice this, and sometimes keep them open and
look about you. 5 It is what you see now that will be totally changed when you accept
today's idea completely.
LESSON 66.
2 My happiness and function are one, because God has given me both.
3 It will not take more than a minute, and probably less, to repeat these words slowly and
think about them a little while as you say them.
LESSON 67.
Love created me like itself.
W-67.1. Today's idea is a complete and accurate statement of what you are. 2 This is
why you are the light of the world. 3 This is why God appointed you as the world's
savior. 4 This is why the Son of God looks to you for his salvation. 5 He is saved by what
you are. 6 We will make every effort today to reach this truth about you, and to realize
fully, if only for a moment, that it is the truth.
W-67.2. In the longer practice period, we will think about your reality and its wholly
unchanged and unchangeable nature. 2 We will begin by repeating this truth about you,
and then spend a few minutes adding some relevant thoughts, such as:
7 Any attribute which is in accord with God as He defines Himself is appropriate for use.
8 We are trying today to undo your definition of God and replace it with His Own. 9 We
are also trying to emphasize that you are part of His definition of Himself.
W-67.3. After you have gone over several such related thoughts, try to let all
thoughts drop away for a brief preparatory interval, and then try to reach past all your
images and preconceptions about yourself to the truth in you. 2 If love created you like
itself, this Self must be in you. 3 And somewhere in your mind It is there for you to find.
W-67.4. You may find it necessary to repeat the idea for today from time to time to
replace distracting thoughts. 2 You may also find that this is not sufficient, and that you
need to continue adding other thoughts related to the truth about yourself. 3 Yet perhaps
you will succeed in going past that, and through the interval of thoughtlessness to the
awareness of a blazing light in which you recognize yourself as love created you. 4 Be
confident that you will do much today to bring that awareness nearer, whether you feel
you have succeeded or not.
W-67.5. It will be particularly helpful today to practice the idea for the day as often
as you can. 2 You need to hear the truth about yourself as frequently as possible, because
your mind is so preoccupied with false self-images. 3 Four or five times an hour, and
perhaps even more, it would be most beneficial to remind yourself that love created you
like itself. 4 Hear the truth about yourself in this.
W-67.6. Try to realize in the shorter practice periods that this is not your tiny, solitary
voice that tells you this. 2 This is the Voice for God, reminding you of your Father and of
your Self. 3 This is the Voice of truth, replacing everything that the ego tells you about
yourself with the simple truth about the Son of God. 4 You were created by love like
itself.
LESSON 68.
Love holds no grievances.
W-68.1. You who were created by love like itself can hold no grievances and know
your Self. 2 To hold a grievance is to forget who you are. 3 To hold a grievance is to see
yourself as a body. 4 To hold a grievance is to let the ego rule your mind and to condemn
the body to death. 5 Perhaps you do not yet fully realize just what holding grievances
does to your mind. 6 It seems to split you off from your Source and make you unlike
Him. 7 It makes you believe that He is like what you think you have become, for no one
can conceive of his Creator as unlike himself.
W-68.2. Shut off from your Self, which remains aware of Its likeness to Its Creator,
your Self seems to sleep, while the part of your mind that weaves illusions in its sleep
appears to be awake. 2 Can all this arise from holding grievances? 3 Oh, yes! 4 For he
who holds grievances denies he was created by love, and his Creator has become fearful
to him in his dream of hate. 5 Who can dream of hatred and not fear God?
W-68.3. It is as sure that those who hold grievances will redefine God in their own
image, as it is certain that God created them like Himself, and defined them as part of
Him. 2 It is as sure that those who hold grievances will suffer guilt, as it is certain that
those who forgive will find peace. 3 It is as sure that those who hold grievances will
forget who they are, as it is certain that those who forgive will remember.
W-68.4. Would you not be willing to relinquish your grievances if you believed all
this were so? 2 Perhaps you do not think you can let your grievances go. 3 That, however,
is simply a matter of motivation. 4 Today we will try to find out how you would feel
without them. 5 If you succeed even by ever so little, there will never be a problem in
motivation ever again.
W-68.5. Begin today's extended practice period by searching your mind for those
against whom you hold what you regard as major grievances. 2 Some of these will be
quite easy to find. 3 Then think of the seemingly minor grievances you hold against those
you like and even think you love. 4 It will quickly become apparent that there is no one
against whom you do not cherish grievances of some sort. 5 This has left you alone in all
the universe in your perception of yourself.
W-68.6. Determine now to see all these people as friends. 2 Say to them all, thinking
of each one in turn as you do so:
3 I would see you as my friend, that I may remember you are part of me and come to
know myself.
4 Spend the remainder of the practice period trying to think of yourself as completely at
peace with everyone and everything, safe in a world that protects you and loves you, and
that you love in return. 5 Try to feel safety surrounding you, hovering over you and
holding you up. 6 Try to believe, however briefly, that nothing can harm you in any way.
7 At the end of the practice period tell yourself:
8 Love holds no grievances. 9 When I let all my grievances go I will know I am perfectly
safe.
W-68.7. The short practice periods should include a quick application of today's idea
in this form, whenever any thought of grievance arises against anyone, physically present
or not:
5 Love holds no grievances. 6 I would wake to my Self by laying all my grievances aside
and wakening in Him.
LESSON 69.
4 My grievances hide the light of the world in me. 5 I cannot see what I have hidden. 6
Yet I want to let it be revealed to me, for my salvation and the salvation of the world.
8 If I hold this grievance the light of the world will be hidden from me, if you are
tempted to hold anything against anyone today.
LESSON 70.
5 Then devote a few minutes, with your eyes closed, to reviewing some of the external
places where you have looked for salvation in the past;–in other people, in possessions, in
various situations and events, and in self-concepts that you sought to make real. 6
Recognize that it is not there, and tell yourself:
7 My salvation cannot come from any of these things. 8 My salvation comes from me and
only from me.
W-70.8. Now we will try again to reach the light in you, which is where your
salvation is. 2 You cannot find it in the clouds that surround the light, and it is in them
you have been looking for it. 3 It is not there. 4 It is past the clouds and in the light
beyond. 5 Remember that you will have to go through the clouds before you can reach
the light. 6 But remember also that you have never found anything in the cloud patterns
you imagined that endured, or that you wanted.
W-70.9. Since all illusions of salvation have failed you, surely you do not want to
remain in the clouds, looking vainly for idols there, when you could so easily walk on
into the light of real salvation. 2 Try to pass the clouds by whatever means appeals to
you. 3 If it helps you, think of me holding your hand and leading you. 4 And I assure you
this will be no idle fantasy.
W-70.10. For the short and frequent practice periods today, remind yourself that your
salvation comes from you, and nothing but your own thoughts can hamper your progress.
2 You are free from all external interference. 3 You are in charge of your salvation. 4
You are in charge of the salvation of the world. 5 Say, then:
6 My salvation comes from me. 7 Nothing outside of me can hold me back. 8 Within me
is the world's salvation and my own.
LESSON 71.
6 Give Him full charge of the rest of the practice period, and let Him tell you what needs
to be done by you in His plan for your salvation. 7 He will answer in proportion to your
willingness to hear His Voice. 8 Refuse not to hear. 9 The very fact that you are doing the
exercises proves that you have some willingness to listen. 10 This is enough to establish
your claim to God's answer.
W-71.10. In the shorter practice periods, tell yourself often that God's plan for
salvation, and only His, will work. 2 Be alert to all temptation to hold grievances today,
and respond to them with this form of today's idea:
3 Holding grievances is the opposite of God's plan for salvation. 4 And only His plan will
work.
5 Try to remember today's idea some six or seven times an hour. 6 There could be no
better way to spend a half minute or less than to remember the Source of your salvation,
and to see It where It is.
LESSON 72.
6 What is salvation, Father? 7 I do not know. 8 Tell me, that I may understand.
9 Then we will wait in quiet for His answer. 10 We have attacked God's plan for
salvation without waiting to hear what it is. 11 We have shouted our grievances so loudly
that we have not listened to His Voice. 12 We have used our grievances to close our eyes
and stop our ears.
W-72.11. Now we would see and hear and learn. 2 "What is salvation, Father?" 3 Ask
and you will be answered. 4 Seek and you will find. 5 We are no longer asking the ego
what salvation is and where to find it. 6 We are asking it of truth. 7 Be certain, then, that
the answer will be true because of Whom you ask.
W-72.12. Whenever you feel your confidence wane and your hope of success flicker
and go out, repeat your question and your request, remembering that you are asking of
the infinite Creator of infinity, Who created you like Himself:
2 What is salvation, Father? 3 I do not know. 4 Tell me, that I may understand.
3 Holding grievances is an attack on God's plan for salvation. 4 Let me accept it instead.
5 What is salvation, Father?
6 Then wait a minute or so in silence, preferably with your eyes closed, and listen for His
answer.
LESSON 73.
I will there be light.
W-73.1. Today we are considering the will you share with God. 2 This is not the
same as the ego's idle wishes, out of which darkness and nothingness arise. 3 The will
you share with God has all the power of creation in it. 4 The ego's idle wishes are
unshared, and therefore have no power at all. 5 Its wishes are not idle in the sense that
they can make a world of illusions in which your belief can be very strong. 6 But they are
idle indeed in terms of creation. 7 They make nothing that is real.
W-73.2. Idle wishes and grievances are partners or co-makers in picturing the world
you see. 2 The wishes of the ego gave rise to it, and the ego's need for grievances, which
are necessary to maintain it, peoples it with figures that seem to attack you and call for
"righteous" judgment. 3 These figures become the middlemen the ego employs to traffic
in grievances. 4 They stand between your awareness and your brothers' reality. 5
Beholding them, you do not know your brothers or your Self.
W-73.3. Your will is lost to you in this strange bartering, in which guilt is traded back
and forth, and grievances increase with each exchange. 2 Can such a world have been
created by the Will the Son of God shares with his Father? 3 Did God create disaster for
His Son? 4 Creation is the Will of Both together. 5 Would God create a world that kills
Himself?
W-73.4. Today we will try once more to reach the world that is in accordance with
your will. 2 The light is in it because it does not oppose the Will of God. 3 It is not
Heaven, but the light of Heaven shines on it. 4 Darkness has vanished. 5 The ego's idle
wishes have been withdrawn. 6 Yet the light that shines upon this world reflects your
will, and so it must be in you that we will look for it.
W-73.5. Your picture of the world can only mirror what is within. 2 The source of
neither light nor darkness can be found without. 3 Grievances darken your mind, and you
look out on a darkened world. 4 Forgiveness lifts the darkness, reasserts your will, and
lets you look upon a world of light. 5 We have repeatedly emphasized that the barrier of
grievances is easily passed, and cannot stand between you and your salvation. 6 The
reason is very simple. 7 Do you really want to be in hell? 8 Do you really want to weep
and suffer and die?
W-73.6. Forget the ego's arguments which seek to prove all this is really Heaven. 2
You know it is not so. 3 You cannot want this for yourself. 4 There is a point beyond
which illusions cannot go. 5 Suffering is not happiness, and it is happiness you really
want. 6 Such is your will in truth. 7 And so salvation is your will as well. 8 You want to
succeed in what we are trying to do today. 9 We undertake it with your blessing and your
glad accord.
W-73.7. We will succeed today if you remember that you want salvation for yourself.
2 You want to accept God's plan because you share in it. 3 You have no will that can
really oppose it, and you do not want to do so. 4 Salvation is for you. 5 Above all else,
you want the freedom to remember Who you really are. 6 Today it is the ego that stands
powerless before your will. 7 Your will is free, and nothing can prevail against it.
W-73.8. Therefore, we undertake the exercises for today in happy confidence, certain
that we will find what it is your will to find, and remember what it is your will to
remember. 2 No idle wishes can detain us, nor deceive us with an illusion of strength. 3
Today let your will be done, and end forever the insane belief that it is hell in place of
Heaven that you choose.
W-73.9. We will begin our longer practice periods with the recognition that God's
plan for salvation, and only His, is wholly in accord with your will. 2 It is not the purpose
of an alien power, thrust upon you unwillingly. 3 It is the one purpose here on which you
and your Father are in perfect accord. 4 You will succeed today, the time appointed for
the release of the Son of God from hell and from all idle wishes. 5 His will is now
restored to his awareness. 6 He is willing this very day to look upon the light in him and
be saved.
W-73.10. After reminding yourself of this, and determining to keep your will clearly in
mind, tell yourself with gentle firmness and quiet certainty:
2 I will there be light. 3 Let me behold the light that reflects God's Will and mine.
4 Then let your will assert itself, joined with the power of God and united with your Self.
5 Put the rest of the practice period under Their guidance. 6 Join with Them as They lead
the way.
W-73.11. In the shorter practice periods, again make a declaration of what you really
want. 2 Say:
5 This should be repeated several times an hour. 6 It is most important, however, to apply
today's idea in this form immediately you are tempted to hold a grievance of any kind. 7
This will help you let your grievances go, instead of cherishing them and hiding them in
darkness.
LESSON 74.
4 Then spend several minutes in adding some related thoughts, such as:
5 I am at peace.
6 Nothing can disturb me. 7 My will is God's.
8 My will and God's are one.
9 God wills peace for His Son.
10 During this introductory phase, be sure to deal quickly with any conflict thoughts that
may cross your mind. 11 Tell yourself immediately:
W-74.4. If there is one conflict area that seems particularly difficult to resolve, single
it out for special consideration. 2 Think about it briefly but very specifically, identify the
particular person or persons and the situation or situations involved, and tell yourself:
3 There is no will but God's. 4 I share it with Him. 5 My conflicts about ___ cannot be
real.
W-74.5. After you have cleared your mind in this way, close your eyes and try to
experience the peace to which your reality entitles you. 2 Sink into it and feel it closing
around you. 3 There may be some temptation to mistake these attempts for withdrawal,
but the difference is easily detected. 4 If you are succeeding, you will feel a deep sense of
joy and an increased alertness, rather than a feeling of drowsiness and enervation.
W-74.6. Joy characterizes peace. 2 By this experience will you recognize that you
have reached it. 3 If you feel yourself slipping off into withdrawal, quickly repeat the
idea for today and try again. 4 Do this as often as necessary. 5 There is definite gain in
refusing to allow retreat into withdrawal, even if you do not experience the peace you
seek.
W-74.7. In the shorter periods, which should be undertaken at regular and
predetermined intervals today, say to yourself:
4 Then try to find what you are seeking. 5 A minute or two every half an hour, with eyes
closed if possible, would be well spent on this today.
LESSON 75.
W-75.6. Dwell not upon the past today. 2 Keep a completely open mind, washed of
all past ideas and clean of every concept you have made. 3 You have forgiven the world
today. 4 You can look upon it now as if you never saw it before. 5 You do not know yet
what it looks like. 6 You merely wait to have it shown to you. 7 While you wait, repeat
several times, slowly and in complete patience:
W-75.7. Realize that your forgiveness entitles you to vision. 2 Understand that the
Holy Spirit never fails to give the gift of sight to the forgiving. 3 Believe He will not fail
you now. 4 You have forgiven the world. 5 He will be with you as you watch and wait. 6
He will show you what true vision sees. 7 It is His Will, and you have joined with Him. 8
Wait patiently for Him. 9 He will be there. 10 The light has come. 11 You have forgiven
the world.
W-75.8. Tell Him you know you cannot fail because you trust in Him. 2 And tell
yourself you wait in certainty to look upon the world He promised you. 3 From this time
forth you will see differently. 4 Today the light has come. 5 And you will see the world
that has been promised you since time began, and in which is the end of time ensured.
W-75.9. The shorter practice periods, too, will be joyful reminders of your release. 2
Remind yourself every quarter of an hour or so that today is a time for special
celebration. 3 Give thanks for mercy and the Love of God. 4 Rejoice in the power of
forgiveness to heal your sight completely. 5 Be confident that on this day there is a new
beginning. 6 Without the darkness of the past upon your eyes, you cannot fail to see
today. 7 And what you see will be so welcome that you will gladly extend today forever.
W-75.10. Say, then:
4 Should you be tempted, say to anyone who seems to pull you back into darkness:
W-75.11. We dedicate this day to the serenity in which God would have you be. 2
Keep it in your awareness of yourself and see it everywhere today, as we celebrate the
beginning of your vision and the sight of the real world, which has come to replace the
unforgiven world you thought was real.
LESSON 76.
W-76.12. We will repeat this dedication as often as possible today; at least four or five
times an hour, as well as in response to any temptation to experience ourselves as subject
to other laws throughout the day. 2 It is our statement of freedom from all danger and all
tyranny. 3 It is our acknowledgment that God is our Father, and that His Son is saved.
LESSON 77.
I am entitled to miracles.
W-77.1. You are entitled to miracles because of what you are. 2 You will receive
miracles because of what God is. 3 And you will offer miracles because you are one with
God. 4 Again, how simple is salvation! 5 It is merely a statement of your true Identity. 6
It is this that we will celebrate today.
W-77.2. Your claim to miracles does not lie in your illusions about yourself. 2 It does
not depend on any magical powers you have ascribed to yourself, nor on any of the
rituals you have devised. 3 It is inherent in the truth of what you are. 4 It is implicit in
what God your Father is. 5 It was ensured in your creation, and guaranteed by the laws of
God.
W-77.3. Today we will claim the miracles which are your right, since they belong to
you. 2 You have been promised full release from the world you made. 3 You have been
assured that the Kingdom of God is within you, and can never be lost. 4 We ask no more
than what belongs to us in truth. 5 Today, however, we will also make sure that we will
not content ourselves with less.
W-77.4. Begin the longer practice periods by telling yourself quite confidently that
you are entitled to miracles. 2 Closing your eyes, remind yourself that you are asking
only for what is rightfully yours. 3 Remind yourself also that miracles are never taken
from one and given to another, and that in asking for your rights, you are upholding the
rights of everyone. 4 Miracles do not obey the laws of this world. 5 They merely follow
from the laws of God.
W-77.5. After this brief introductory phase, wait quietly for the assurance that your
request is granted. 2 You have asked for the salvation of the world, and for your own. 3
You have requested that you be given the means by which this is accomplished. 4 You
cannot fail to be assured in this. 5 You are but asking that the Will of God be done.
W-77.6. In doing this, you do not really ask for anything. 2 You state a fact that
cannot be denied. 3 The Holy Spirit cannot but assure you that your request is granted. 4
The fact that you accepted must be so. 5 There is no room for doubt and uncertainty
today. 6 We are asking a real question at last. 7 The answer is a simple statement of a
simple fact. 8 You will receive the assurance that you seek.
W-77.7. Our shorter practice periods will be frequent, and will also be devoted to a
reminder of a simple fact. 2 Tell yourself often today:
3 I am entitled to miracles.
4 Ask for them whenever a situation arises in which they are called for. 5 You will
recognize these situations. 6 And since you are not relying on yourself to find the
miracle, you are fully entitled to receive it whenever you ask.
W-77.8. Remember, too, not to be satisfied with less than the perfect answer. 2 Be
quick to tell yourself, should you be tempted:
3 I will not trade miracles for grievances. 4 I want only what belongs to me. 5 God has
established miracles as my right.
LESSON 78.
3 Let me behold my savior in this one You have appointed as the one for me to ask to
lead me to the holy light in which he stands, that I may join with him.
4 The body's eyes are closed, and as you think of him who grieved you, let your mind be
shown the light in him beyond your grievances.
W-78.8. What you have asked for cannot be denied. 2 Your savior has been waiting
long for this. 3 He would be free, and make his freedom yours. 4 The Holy Spirit leans
from him to you, seeing no separation in God's Son. 5 And what you see through Him
will free you both. 6 Be very quiet now, and look upon your shining savior. 7 No dark
grievances obscure the sight of him. 8 You have allowed the Holy Spirit to express
through him the role God gave Him that you might be saved.
W-78.9. God thanks you for these quiet times today in which you laid your images
aside, and looked upon the miracle of love the Holy Spirit showed you in their place. 2
The world and Heaven join in thanking you, for not one Thought of God but must rejoice
as you are saved, and all the world with you.
W-78.10. We will remember this throughout the day, and take the role assigned to us
as part of God's salvation plan, and not our own. 2 Temptation falls away when we allow
each one we meet to save us, and refuse to hide his light behind our grievances. 3 To
everyone you meet, and to the ones you think of or remember from the past, allow the
role of savior to be given, that you may share it with him. 4 For you both, and all the
sightless ones as well, we pray:
LESSON 79.
LESSON 80.
Introduction
W-rII.in.1. We are now ready for another review. 2 We will begin where our last review
left off, and cover two ideas each day. 3 The earlier part of each day will be devoted to
one of these ideas, and the latter part of the day to the other. 4 We will have one longer
exercise period, and frequent shorter ones in which we practice each of them.
W-rII.in.2. The longer practice periods will follow this general form: Take about fifteen
minutes for each of them, and begin by thinking about the ideas for the day, and the
comments that are included in the assignments. 2 Devote some three or four minutes to
reading them over slowly, several times if you wish, and then close your eyes and listen.
W-rII.in.3. Repeat the first phase of the exercise period if you find your mind
wandering, but try to spend the major part of the time listening quietly but attentively. 2
There is a message waiting for you. 3 Be confident that you will receive it. 4 Remember
that it belongs to you, and that you want it.
W-rII.in.4. Do not allow your intent to waver in the face of distracting thoughts. 2
Realize that, whatever form such thoughts may take, they have no meaning and no
power. 3 Replace them with your determination to succeed. 4 Do not forget that your will
has power over all fantasies and dreams. 5 Trust it to see you through, and carry you
beyond them all.
W-rII.in.5. Regard these practice periods as dedications to the way, the truth and the
life. 2 Refuse to be sidetracked into detours, illusions and thoughts of death. 3 You are
dedicated to salvation. 4 Be determined each day not to leave your function unfulfilled.
W-rII.in.6. Reaffirm your determination in the shorter practice periods as well, using the
original form of the idea for general applications, and more specific forms when needed.
2 Some specific forms are included in the comments which follow the statement of the
ideas. 3 These, however, are merely suggestions. 4 It is not the particular words you use
that matter.
LESSON 81.
LESSON 82.
LESSON 83.
Today let us review these ideas:
W-83.1. (65) My only function is the one God gave me.
2 I have no function but the one God gave me. 3 This recognition releases me from all
conflict, because it means I cannot have conflicting goals. 4 With one purpose only, I am
always certain what to do, what to say and what to think. 5 All doubt must disappear as I
acknowledge that my only function is the one God gave me.
W-83.2. More specific applications of this idea might take these forms:
LESSON 84.
LESSON 85.
LESSON 86.
LESSON 87.
LESSON 88.
LESSON 89.
LESSON 90.
LESSON 91.
W-91.9. In the second phase of the exercise period, try to experience these truths
about yourself. 2 Concentrate particularly on the experience of strength. 3 Remember that
all sense of weakness is associated with the belief you are a body, a belief that is
mistaken and deserves no faith. 4 Try to remove your faith from it, if only for a moment.
5 You will be accustomed to keeping faith with the more worthy in you as we go along.
W-91.10. Relax for the rest of the practice period, confident that your efforts, however
meager, are fully supported by the strength of God and all His Thoughts. 2 It is from
Them that your strength will come. 3 It is through Their strong support that you will feel
the strength in you. 4 They are united with you in this practice period, in which you share
a purpose like Their Own. 5 Theirs is the light in which you will see miracles, because
Their strength is yours. 6 Their strength becomes your eyes, that you may see.
W-91.11. Five or six times an hour, at reasonably regular intervals, remind yourself
that miracles are seen in light. 2 Also, be sure to meet temptation with today's idea. 3 This
form would be helpful for this special purpose:
4 Miracles are seen in light. 5 Let me not close my eyes because of this.
LESSON 92.
Miracles are seen in light, and light and strength are one.
W-92.1. The idea for today is an extension of the previous one. 2 You do not think of
light in terms of strength, and darkness in terms of weakness. 3 That is because your idea
of what seeing means is tied up with the body and its eyes and brain. 4 Thus you believe
that you can change what you see by putting little bits of glass before your eyes. 5 This is
among the many magical beliefs that come from the conviction you are a body, and the
body's eyes can see.
W-92.2. You also believe the body's brain can think. 2 If you but understood the
nature of thought, you could but laugh at this insane idea. 3 It is as if you thought you
held the match that lights the sun and gives it all its warmth; or that you held the world
within your hand, securely bound until you let it go. 4 Yet this is no more foolish than to
believe the body's eyes can see; the brain can think.
W-92.3. It is God's strength in you that is the light in which you see, as it is His Mind
with which you think. 2 His strength denies your weakness. 3 It is your weakness that
sees through the body's eyes, peering about in darkness to behold the likeness of itself;
the small, the weak, the sickly and the dying, those in need, the helpless and afraid, the
sad, the poor, the starving and the joyless. 4 These are seen through eyes that cannot see
and cannot bless.
W-92.4. Strength overlooks these things by seeing past appearances. 2 It keeps its
steady gaze upon the light that lies beyond them. 3 It unites with light, of which it is a
part. 4 It sees itself. 5 It brings the light in which your Self appears. 6 In darkness you
perceive a self that is not there. 7 Strength is the truth about you; weakness is an idol
falsely worshipped and adored that strength may be dispelled, and darkness rule where
God appointed that there should be light.
W-92.5. Strength comes from truth, and shines with light its Source has given it;
weakness reflects the darkness of its maker. 2 It is sick and looks on sickness, which is
like itself. 3 Truth is a savior and can only will for happiness and peace for everyone. 4 It
gives its strength to everyone who asks, in limitless supply. 5 It sees that lack in anyone
would be a lack in all. 6 And so it gives its light that all may see and benefit as one. 7 Its
strength is shared, that it may bring to all the miracle in which they will unite in purpose
and forgiveness and in love.
W-92.6. Weakness, which looks in darkness, cannot see a purpose in forgiveness and
in love. 2 It sees all others different from itself, and nothing in the world that it would
share. 3 It judges and condemns, but does not love. 4 In darkness it remains to hide itself,
and dreams that it is strong and conquering, a victor over limitations that but grow in
darkness to enormous size.
W-92.7. It fears and it attacks and hates itself, and darkness covers everything it sees,
leaving its dreams as fearful as itself. 2 No miracles are here, but only hate. 3 It separates
itself from what it sees, while light and strength perceive themselves as one. 4 The light
of strength is not the light you see. 5 It does not change and flicker and go out. 6 It does
not shift from night to day, and back to darkness till the morning comes again.
W-92.8. The light of strength is constant, sure as love, forever glad to give itself
away, because it cannot give but to itself. 2 No one can ask in vain to share its sight, and
none who enters its abode can leave without a miracle before his eyes, and strength and
light abiding in his heart.
W-92.9. The strength in you will offer you the light, and guide your seeing so you do
not dwell on idle shadows that the body's eyes provide for self-deception. 2 Strength and
light unite in you, and where they meet, your Self stands ready to embrace you as Its
Own. 3 Such is the meeting place we try today to find and rest in, for the peace of God is
where your Self, His Son, is waiting now to meet Itself again, and be as One.
W-92.10. Let us give twenty minutes twice today to join this meeting. 2 Let yourself
be brought unto your Self. 3 Its strength will be the light in which the gift of sight is
given you. 4 Leave, then, the dark a little while today, and we will practice seeing in the
light, closing the body's eyes and asking truth to show us how to find the meeting place of
self and Self, where light and strength are one.
W-92.11. Morning and evening we will practice thus. 2 After the morning meeting, we
will use the day in preparation for the time at night when we will meet again in trust. 3
Let us repeat as often as we can the idea for today, and recognize that we are being
introduced to sight, and led away from darkness to the light where only miracles can be
perceived.
LESSON 93.
4 Then put away your foolish self-images, and spend the rest of the practice period in
trying to experience what God has given you, in place of what you have decreed for
yourself.
W-93.9. You are what God created or what you made. 2 One Self is true; the other is
not there. 3 Try to experience the unity of your one Self. 4 Try to appreciate Its Holiness
and the love from which It was created. 5 Try not to interfere with the Self which God
created as you, by hiding Its majesty behind the tiny idols of evil and sinfulness you have
made to replace It. 6 Let It come into Its Own. 7 Here you are; This is You. 8 And light
and joy and peace abide in you because this is so.
W-93.10. You may not be willing or even able to use the first five minutes of each
hour for these exercises. 2 Try, however, to do so when you can. 3 At least remember to
repeat these thoughts each hour:
6 Then try to devote at least a minute or so to closing your eyes and realizing that this is a
statement of the truth about you.
W-93.11. If a situation arises that seems to be disturbing, quickly dispel the illusion of
fear by repeating these thoughts again. 2 Should you be tempted to become angry with
someone, tell him silently:
5 You can do much for the world's salvation today. 6 You can do much today to bring
you closer to the part in salvation that God has assigned to you. 7 And you can do much
today to bring the conviction to your mind that the idea for the day is true indeed.
LESSON 94.
5 Now try to reach the Son of God in you. 6 This is the Self that never sinned, nor made
an image to replace reality. 7 This is the Self that never left Its home in God to walk the
world uncertainly. 8 This is the Self that knows no fear, nor could conceive of loss or
suffering or death.
W-94.4. Nothing is required of you to reach this goal except to lay all idols and self-
images aside; go past the list of attributes, both good and bad, you have ascribed to
yourself; and wait in silent expectancy for the truth. 2 God has Himself promised that it
will be revealed to all who ask for it. 3 You are asking now. 4 You cannot fail because
He cannot fail.
W-94.5. If you do not meet the requirement of practicing for the first five minutes of
every hour, at least remind yourself hourly:
2 I am as God created me.
3 I am His Son eternally.
4 Tell yourself frequently today that you are as God created you. 5 And be sure to
respond to anyone who seems to irritate you with these words:
8 Make every effort to do the hourly exercises today. 9 Each one you do will be a giant
stride toward your release, and a milestone in learning the thought system which this
course sets forth.
LESSON 95.
2 I am one Self, united with my Creator, at one with every aspect of creation, and
limitless in power and in peace.
3 Then close your eyes and tell yourself again, slowly and thoughtfully, attempting to
allow the meaning of the words to sink into your mind, replacing false ideas:
4 I am one Self.
5 Repeat this several times, and then attempt to feel the meaning that the words convey.
W-95.12. You are one Self, united and secure in light and joy and peace. 2 You are
God's Son, one Self, with one Creator and one goal; to bring awareness of this oneness to
all minds, that true creation may extend the allness and the unity of God. 3 You are one
Self, complete and healed and whole, with power to lift the veil of darkness from the
world, and let the light in you come through to teach the world the truth about yourself.
W-95.13. You are one Self, in perfect harmony with all there is, and all that there will
be. 2 You are one Self, the holy Son of God, united with your brothers in that Self; united
with your Father in His Will. 3 Feel this one Self in you, and let It shine away all your
illusions and your doubts. 4 This is your Self, the Son of God Himself, sinless as Its
Creator, with His strength within you and His Love forever yours. 5 You are one Self,
and it is given you to feel this Self within you, and to cast all your illusions out of the one
Mind that is this Self, the holy truth in you.
W-95.14. Do not forget today. 2 We need your help; your little part in bringing
happiness to all the world. 3 And Heaven looks to you in confidence that you will try
today. 4 Share, then, its surety, for it is yours. 5 Be vigilant. 6 Do not forget today. 7
Throughout the day do not forget your goal. 8 Repeat today's idea as frequently as
possible, and understand each time you do so, someone hears the voice of hope, the
stirring of the truth within his mind, the gentle rustling of the wings of peace.
W-95.15. Your own acknowledgment you are one Self, united with your Father, is a
call to all the world to be at one with you. 2 To everyone you meet today, be sure to give
the promise of today's idea and tell him this:
3 You are one Self with me, united with our Creator in this Self. 4 I honor you because of
What I am, and What He is, Who loves us both as One.
LESSON 96.
2 Salvation comes from my one Self. 3 Its Thoughts are mine to use.
4 Then seek Its Thoughts, and claim them as your own. 5 These are your own real
thoughts you have denied, and let your mind go wandering in a world of dreams, to find
illusions in their place. 6 Here are your thoughts, the only ones you have. 7 Salvation is
among them; find it there.
W-96.10. If you succeed, the thoughts that come to you will tell you you are saved,
and that your mind has found the function that it sought to lose. 2 Your Self will welcome
it and give it peace. 3 Restored in strength, it will again flow out from spirit to the spirit
in all things created by the Spirit as Itself. 4 Your mind will bless all things. 5 Confusion
done, you are restored, for you have found your Self.
W-96.11. Your Self knows that you cannot fail today. 2 Perhaps your mind remains
uncertain yet a little while. 3 Be not dismayed by this. 4 The joy your Self experiences It
will save for you, and it will yet be yours in full awareness. 5 Every time you spend five
minutes of the hour seeking Him Who joins your mind and Self, you offer Him another
treasure to be kept for you.
W-96.12. Each time today you tell your frantic mind salvation comes from your one
Self, you lay another treasure in your growing store. 2 And all of it is given everyone
who asks for it, and will accept the gift. 3 Think, then, how much is given unto you to
give this day, that it be given you!
LESSON 97.
I am spirit.
W-97.1. Today's idea identifies you with your one Self. 2 It accepts no split identity,
nor tries to weave opposing factors into unity. 3 It simply states the truth. 4 Practice this
truth today as often as you can, for it will bring your mind from conflict to the quiet fields
of peace. 5 No chill of fear can enter, for your mind has been absolved from madness,
letting go illusions of a split identity.
W-97.2. We state again the truth about your Self, the holy Son of God Who rests in
you; whose mind has been restored to sanity. 2 You are the spirit lovingly endowed with
all your Father's Love and peace and joy. 3 You are the spirit which completes Himself,
and shares His function as Creator. 4 He is with you always, as you are with Him.
W-97.3. Today we try to bring reality still closer to your mind. 2 Each time you
practice, awareness is brought a little nearer at least; sometimes a thousand years or more
are saved. 3 The minutes which you give are multiplied over and over, for the miracle
makes use of time, but is not ruled by it. 4 Salvation is a miracle, the first and last; the
first that is the last, for it is one.
W-97.4. You are the spirit in whose mind abides the miracle in which all time stands
still; the miracle in which a minute spent in using these ideas becomes a time that has no
limit and that has no end. 2 Give, then, these minutes willingly, and count on Him Who
promised to lay timelessness beside them. 3 He will offer all His strength to every little
effort that you make. 4 Give Him the minutes which He needs today, to help you
understand with Him you are the spirit that abides in Him, and that calls through His
Voice to every living thing; offers His sight to everyone who asks; replaces error with the
simple truth.
W-97.5. The Holy Spirit will be glad to take five minutes of each hour from your
hands, and carry them around this aching world where pain and misery appear to rule. 2
He will not overlook one open mind that will accept the healing gifts they bring, and He
will lay them everywhere He knows they will be welcome. 3 And they will increase in
healing power each time someone accepts them as his thoughts, and uses them to heal.
W-97.6. Thus will each gift to Him be multiplied a thousandfold and tens of
thousands more. 2 And when it is returned to you, it will surpass in might the little gift
you gave as much as does the radiance of the sun outshine the tiny gleam a firefly makes
an uncertain moment and goes out. 3 The steady brilliance of this light remains and leads
you out of darkness, nor will you be able to forget the way again.
W-97.7. Begin these happy exercises with the words the Holy Spirit speaks to you,
and let them echo round the world through Him:
2 Spirit am I, a holy Son of God, free of all limits, safe and healed and whole, free to
forgive, and free to save the world.
3 Expressed through you, the Holy Spirit will accept this gift that you received of Him,
increase its power and give it back to you.
W-97.8. Offer each practice period today gladly to Him. 2 And He will speak to you,
reminding you that you are spirit, one with Him and God, your brothers and your Self. 3
Listen for His assurance every time you speak the words He offers you today, and let
Him tell your mind that they are true. 4 Use them against temptation, and escape its sorry
consequences if you yield to the belief that you are something else. 5 The Holy Spirit
gives you peace today. 6 Receive His words, and offer them to Him.
LESSON 98.
W-98.8. In each five minutes that you spend with Him, He will accept your words
and give them back to you all bright with faith and confidence so strong and steady they
will light the world with hope and gladness. 2 Do not lose one chance to be the glad
receiver of His gifts, that you may give them to the world today.
W-98.9. Give Him the words, and He will do the rest. 2 He will enable you to
understand your special function. 3 He will open up the way to happiness, and peace and
trust will be His gifts; His answer to your words. 4 He will respond with all His faith and
joy and certainty that what you say is true. 5 And you will have conviction then of Him
Who knows the function that you have on earth as well as Heaven. 6 He will be with you
each practice period you share with Him, exchanging every instant of the time you offer
Him for timelessness and peace.
W-98.10. Throughout the hour, let your time be spent in happy preparation for the next
five minutes you will spend again with Him. 2 Repeat today's idea while you wait for the
glad time to come to you again. 3 Repeat it often, and do not forget each time you do so,
you have let your mind be readied for the happy time to come.
W-98.11. And when the hour goes and He is there once more to spend a little time
with you, be thankful and lay down all earthly tasks, all little thoughts and limited ideas,
and spend a happy time again with Him. 2 Tell Him once more that you accept the part
that He would have you take and help you fill, and He will make you sure you want this
choice, which He has made with you and you with Him.
LESSON 99.
W-99.7. You who will yet work miracles, be sure you practice well the idea for
today. 2 Try to perceive the strength in what you say, for these are words in which your
freedom lies. 3 Your Father loves you. 4 All the world of pain is not His Will. 5 Forgive
yourself the thought He wanted this for you. 6 Then let the Thought with which He has
replaced all your mistakes enter the darkened places of your mind that thought the
thoughts that never were His Will.
W-99.8. This part belongs to God, as does the rest. 2 It does not think its solitary
thoughts, and make them real by hiding them from Him. 3 Let in the light, and you will
look upon no obstacle to what He wills for you. 4 Open your secrets to His kindly light,
and see how bright this light still shines in you.
W-99.9. Practice His Thought today, and let His light seek out and lighten up all
darkened spots, and shine through them to join them to the rest. 2 It is God's Will your
mind be one with His. 3 It is God's Will that He has but one Son. 4 It is God's Will that
His one Son is you. 5 Think of these things in practicing today, and start the lesson that
we learn today with this instruction in the way of truth:
8 Then turn to Him Who shares your function here, and let Him teach you what you need
to learn to lay all fear aside, and know your Self as Love which has no opposite in you.
W-99.10. Forgive all thoughts which would oppose the truth of your completion, unity
and peace. 2 You cannot lose the gifts your Father gave. 3 You do not want to be another
self. 4 You have no function that is not of God. 5 Forgive yourself the one you think you
made. 6 Forgiveness and salvation are the same. 7 Forgive what you have made and you
are saved.
W-99.11. There is a special message for today which has the power to remove all
forms of doubt and fear forever from your mind. 2 If you are tempted to believe them
true, remember that appearances can not withstand the truth these mighty words contain:
W-99.12. Your only function tells you you are one. 2 Remind yourself of this between
the times you give five minutes to be shared with Him Who shares God's plan with you. 3
Remind yourself:
5 Thus do you lay forgiveness on your mind and let all fear be gently laid aside, that love
may find its rightful place in you and show you that you are the Son of God.
LESSON 100.
LESSON 101.
8 So should you start your practice periods, and then attempt again to find the joy these
thoughts will introduce into your mind.
W-101.7. Give these five minutes gladly, to remove the heavy load you lay upon
yourself with the insane belief that sin is real. 2 Today escape from madness. 3 You are
set on freedom's road, and now today's idea brings wings to speed you on, and hope to go
still faster to the waiting goal of peace. 4 There is no sin. 5 Remember this today, and tell
yourself as often as you can:
LESSON 102.
2 I share God's Will for happiness for me, and I accept it as my function now.
3 Then seek this function deep within your mind, for it is there, awaiting but your choice.
4 You cannot fail to find it when you learn it is your choice, and that you share God's
Will.
W-102.5. Be happy, for your only function here is happiness. 2 You have no need to
be less loving to God's Son than He Whose Love created him as loving as Himself. 3
Besides these hourly five-minute rests, pause frequently today, to tell yourself that you
have now accepted happiness as your one function. 4 And be sure that you are joining
with God's Will in doing this.
LESSON 103.
6 Begin your periods of practicing today with this association, which corrects the false
belief that God is fear. 7 It also emphasizes happiness belongs to you, because of what He
is.
W-103.3. Allow this one correction to be placed within your mind each waking hour
today. 2 Then welcome all the happiness it brings as truth replaces fear, and joy becomes
what you expect to take the place of pain. 3 God, being Love, it will be given you. 4
Bolster this expectation frequently throughout the day, and quiet all your fears with this
assurance, kind and wholly true:
LESSON 104.
3 I seek but what belongs to me in truth, And joy and peace are my inheritance.
4 Then lay aside the conflicts of the world that offer other gifts and other goals made of
illusions, witnessed to by them, and sought for only in a world of dreams.
W-104.4. All this we lay aside, and seek instead that which is truly ours, as we ask to
recognize what God has given us. 2 We clear a holy place within our minds before His
altar, where His gifts of peace and joy are welcome, and to which we come to find what
has been given us by Him. 3 We come in confidence today, aware that what belongs to us
in truth is what He gives. 4 And we would wish for nothing else, for nothing else belongs
to us in truth.
W-104.5. So do we clear the way for Him today by simply recognizing that His Will is
done already, and that joy and peace belong to us as His eternal gifts. 2 We will not let
ourselves lose sight of them between the times we come to seek for them where He has
laid them. 3 This reminder will we bring to mind as often as we can:
LESSON 105.
2 My brother, peace and joy I offer you, That I may have God's peace and joy as mine.
3 Thus you prepare yourself to recognize God's gifts to you, and let your mind be free of
all that would prevent success today. 4 Now are you ready to accept the gift of peace and
joy that God has given you. 5 Now are you ready to experience the joy and peace you
have denied yourself. 6 Now you can say, "God's peace and joy are mine," for you have
given what you would receive.
W-105.8. You must succeed today, if you prepare your mind as we suggest. 2 For you
have let all bars to peace and joy be lifted up, and what is yours can come to you at last. 3
So tell yourself, "God's peace and joy are mine," and close your eyes a while, and let His
Voice assure you that the words you speak are true.
W-105.9. Spend your five minutes thus with Him each time you can today, but do not
think that less is worthless when you cannot give Him more. 2 At least remember hourly
to say the words which call to Him to give you what He wills to give, and wills you to
receive. 3 Determine not to interfere today with what He wills. 4 And if a brother seems
to tempt you to deny God's gift to him, see it as but another chance to let yourself receive
the gifts of God as yours. 5 Then bless your brother thankfully, and say:
6 My brother, peace and joy I offer you, That I may have God's peace and joy as mine.
LESSON 106.
W-106.8. Ask and expect an answer. 2 Your request is one whose answer has been
waiting long to be received by you. 3 It will begin the ministry for which you came, and
which will free the world from thinking giving is a way to lose. 4 And so the world
becomes ready to understand and to receive.
W-106.9. Be still and listen to the truth today. 2 For each five minutes spent in
listening, a thousand minds are opened to the truth and they will hear the holy Word you
hear. 3 And when the hour is past, you will again release a thousand more who pause to
ask that truth be given them, along with you.
W-106.10. Today the holy Word of God is kept through your receiving it to give away,
so you can teach the world what giving means by listening and learning it of Him. 2 Do
not forget today to reinforce your choice to hear and to receive the Word by this
reminder, given to yourself as often as is possible today:
LESSON 107.
5 Truth will correct all errors in my mind, And I will rest in Him Who is my Self.
6 Then let Him lead you gently to the truth, which will envelop you and give you peace
so deep and tranquil that you will return to the familiar world reluctantly.
W-107.10. And yet you will be glad to look again upon this world. 2 For you will bring
with you the promise of the changes which the truth that goes with you will carry to the
world. 3 They will increase with every gift you give of five small minutes, and the errors
that surround the world will be corrected as you let them be corrected in your mind.
W-107.11. Do not forget your function for today. 2 Each time you tell yourself with
confidence, "Truth will correct all errors in my mind," you speak for all the world and
Him Who would release the world, as He would set you free.
LESSON 108.
4 Then close your eyes, and for five minutes think of what you would hold out to
everyone, to have it yours. 5 You might, for instance, say:
W-108.9. Say each one slowly and then pause a while, expecting to receive the gift
you gave. 2 And it will come to you in the amount in which you gave it. 3 You will find
you have exact return, for that is what you asked. 4 It might be helpful, too, to think of
one to whom to give your gifts. 5 He represents the others, and through him you give to
all.
W-108.10. Our very simple lesson for today will teach you much. 2 Effect and cause
will be far better understood from this time on, and we will make much faster progress
now. 3 Think of the exercises for today as quick advances in your learning, made still
faster and more sure each time you say, "To give and to receive are one in truth."
LESSON 109.
I rest in God.
W-109.1. We ask for rest today, and quietness unshaken by the world's appearances. 2
We ask for peace and stillness, in the midst of all the turmoil born of clashing dreams. 3
We ask for safety and for happiness, although we seem to look on danger and on sorrow.
4 And we have the thought that will answer our asking with what we request.
W-109.2. "I rest in God." 2 This thought will bring to you the rest and quiet, peace and
stillness, and the safety and the happiness you seek. 3 "I rest in God." 4 This thought has
power to wake the sleeping truth in you, whose vision sees beyond appearances to that
same truth in everyone and everything there is. 5 Here is the end of suffering for all the
world, and everyone who ever came and yet will come to linger for a while. 6 Here is the
thought in which the Son of God is born again, to recognize himself.
W-109.3. "I rest in God." 2 Completely undismayed, this thought will carry you
through storms and strife, past misery and pain, past loss and death, and onward to the
certainty of God. 3 There is no suffering it cannot heal. 4 There is no problem that it
cannot solve. 5 And no appearance but will turn to truth before the eyes of you who rest
in God.
W-109.4. This is the day of peace. 2 You rest in God, and while the world is torn by
winds of hate your rest remains completely undisturbed. 3 Yours is the rest of truth. 4
Appearances cannot intrude on you. 5 You call to all to join you in your rest, and they
will hear and come to you because you rest in God. 6 They will not hear another voice
than yours because you gave your voice to God, and now you rest in Him and let Him
speak through you.
W-109.5. In Him you have no cares and no concerns, no burdens, no anxiety, no pain,
no fear of future and no past regrets. 2 In timelessness you rest, while time goes by
without its touch upon you, for your rest can never change in any way at all. 3 You rest
today. 4 And as you close your eyes, sink into stillness. 5 Let these periods of rest and
respite reassure your mind that all its frantic fantasies were but the dreams of fever that
has passed away. 6 Let it be still and thankfully accept its healing. 7 No more fearful
dreams will come, now that you rest in God. 8 Take time today to slip away from dreams
and into peace.
W-109.6. Each hour that you take your rest today, a tired mind is suddenly made glad,
a bird with broken wings begins to sing, a stream long dry begins to flow again. 2 The
world is born again each time you rest, and hourly remember that you came to bring the
peace of God into the world, that it might take its rest along with you.
W-109.7. With each five minutes that you rest today, the world is nearer waking. 2
And the time when rest will be the only thing there is comes closer to all worn and tired
minds, too weary now to go their way alone. 3 And they will hear the bird begin to sing
and see the stream begin to flow again, with hope reborn and energy restored to walk
with lightened steps along the road that suddenly seems easy as they go.
W-109.8. You rest within the peace of God today, and call upon your brothers from
your rest to draw them to their rest, along with you. 2 You will be faithful to your trust
today, forgetting no one, bringing everyone into the boundless circle of your peace, the
holy sanctuary where you rest. 3 Open the temple doors and let them come from far
across the world, and near as well; your distant brothers and your closest friends; bid
them all enter here and rest with you.
W-109.9. You rest within the peace of God today, quiet and unafraid. 2 Each brother
comes to take his rest, and offer it to you. 3 We rest together here, for thus our rest is
made complete, and what we give today we have received already. 4 Time is not the
guardian of what we give today. 5 We give to those unborn and those passed by, to every
Thought of God, and to the Mind in which these Thoughts were born and where they rest.
6 And we remind them of their resting place each time we tell ourselves, "I rest in God."
LESSON 110.
W-110.7. Then, with this statement firmly in your mind, try to discover in your mind
the Self Who is the holy Son of God Himself.
W-110.8. Seek Him within you Who is Christ in you, the Son of God and brother to
the world; the Savior Who has been forever saved, with power to save whoever touches
Him, however lightly, asking for the Word that tells him he is brother unto Him.
W-110.9. You are as God created you. 2 Today honor your Self. 3 Let graven images
you made to be the Son of God instead of what he is be worshipped not today. 4 Deep in
your mind the holy Christ in you is waiting your acknowledgment as you. 5 And you are
lost and do not know yourself while He is unacknowledged and unknown.
W-110.10. Seek Him today, and find Him. 2 He will be your Savior from all idols you
have made. 3 For when you find Him, you will understand how worthless are your idols,
and how false the images which you believed were you. 4 Today we make a great
advance to truth by letting idols go, and opening our hands and hearts and minds to God
today.
W-110.11. We will remember Him throughout the day with thankful hearts and loving
thoughts for all who meet with us today. 2 For it is thus that we remember Him. 3 And
we will say, that we may be reminded of His Son, our holy Self, the Christ in each of us:
REVIEW III
Introduction
W-rIII.in.1. Our next review begins today. 2 We will review two recent lessons every
day for ten successive days of practicing. 3 We will observe a special format for these
practice periods, that you are urged to follow just as closely as you can.
W-rIII.in.2. We understand, of course, that it may be impossible for you to undertake
what is suggested here as optimal each day and every hour of the day. 2 Learning will not
be hampered when you miss a practice period because it is impossible at the appointed
time. 3 Nor is it necessary that you make excessive efforts to be sure that you catch up in
terms of numbers. 4 Rituals are not our aim, and would defeat our goal.
W-rIII.in.3. But learning will be hampered when you skip a practice period because you
are unwilling to devote the time to it that you are asked to give. 2 Do not deceive yourself
in this. 3 Unwillingness can be most carefully concealed behind a cloak of situations you
cannot control. 4 Learn to distinguish situations that are poorly suited to your practicing
from those that you establish to uphold a camouflage for your unwillingness.
W-rIII.in.4. Those practice periods that you have lost because you did not want to do
them, for whatever reason, should be done as soon as you have changed your mind about
your goal. 2 You are unwilling to cooperate in practicing salvation only if it interferes
with goals you hold more dear. 3 When you withdraw the value given them, allow your
practice periods to be replacements for your litanies to them. 4 They gave you nothing. 5
But your practicing can offer everything to you. 6 And so accept their offering and be at
peace.
W-rIII.in.5. The format you should use for these reviews is this: Devote five minutes
twice a day, or longer if you would prefer it, to considering the thoughts that are
assigned. 2 Read over the ideas and comments that are written down for each day's
exercise. 3 And then begin to think about them, while letting your mind relate them to
your needs, your seeming problems and all your concerns.
W-rIII.in.6. Place the ideas within your mind, and let it use them as it chooses. 2 Give it
faith that it will use them wisely, being helped in its decisions by the One Who gave the
thoughts to you. 3 What can you trust but what is in your mind? 4 Have faith, in these
reviews, the means the Holy Spirit uses will not fail. 5 The wisdom of your mind will
come to your assistance. 6 Give direction at the outset; then lean back in quiet faith, and
let the mind employ the thoughts you gave as they were given you for it to use.
W-rIII.in.7. You have been given them in perfect trust; in perfect confidence that you
would use them well; in perfect faith that you would see their messages and use them for
yourself. 2 Offer them to your mind in that same trust and confidence and faith. 3 It will
not fail. 4 It is the Holy Spirit's chosen means for your salvation. 5 Since it has His trust,
His means must surely merit yours as well.
W-rIII.in.8. We emphasize the benefits to you if you devote the first five minutes of the
day to your reviews, and also give the last five minutes of your waking day to them. 2 If
this cannot be done, at least try to divide them so you undertake one in the morning, and
the other in the hour just before you go to sleep.
W-rIII.in.9. The exercises to be done throughout the day are equally important, and
perhaps of even greater value. 2 You have been inclined to practice only at appointed
times, and then go on your way to other things, without applying what you learned to
them. 3 As a result, you have gained little reinforcement, and have not given your
learning a fair chance to prove how great are its potential gifts to you. 4 Here is another
chance to use it well.
W-rIII.in.10.In these reviews, we stress the need to let your learning not lie idly by
between your longer practice periods. 2 Attempt to give your daily two ideas a brief but
serious review each hour. 3 Use one on the hour, and the other one a half an hour later. 4
You need not give more than just a moment to each one. 5 Repeat it, and allow your mind
to rest a little time in silence and in peace. 6 Then turn to other things, but try to keep the
thought with you, and let it serve to help you keep your peace throughout the day as well.
W-rIII.in.11.If you are shaken, think of it again. 2 These practice periods are planned to
help you form the habit of applying what you learn each day to everything you do. 3 Do
not repeat the thought and lay it down. 4 Its usefulness is limitless to you. 5 And it is
meant to serve you in all ways, all times and places, and whenever you need help of any
kind. 6 Try, then, to take it with you in the business of the day and make it holy, worthy
of God's Son, acceptable to God and to your Self.
W-rIII.in.12.Each day's review assignments will conclude with a restatement of the
thought to use each hour, and the one to be applied on each half hour as well. 2 Forget
them not. 3 This second chance with each of these ideas will bring such large advances
that we come from these reviews with learning gains so great we will continue on more
solid ground, with firmer footsteps and with stronger faith.
W-rIII.in.13.
Do not forget how little you have learned.
2 Do not forget how much you can learn now.
3 Do not forget your Father's need of you,
As you review these thoughts He gave to you.
LESSON 111.
W-111.2. (92) Miracles are seen in light, and light and strength are one.
2 I see through strength, the gift of God to me. 3 My weakness is the dark His gift
dispels, by giving me His strength to take its place.
LESSON 112.
2 I am the home of light and joy and peace. 3 I welcome them into the home I share with
God, because I am a part of Him.
2 I will remain forever as I was, created by the Changeless like Himself. 3 And I am one
with Him, and He with me.
LESSON 113.
2 Serenity and perfect peace are mine, because I am one Self, completely whole, at one
with all creation and with God.
LESSON 114.
2 I am the Son of God. 3 No body can contain my spirit, nor impose on me a limitation
God created not.
2 What can my function be but to accept the Word of God, Who has created me for what
I am and will forever be?
LESSON 115.
2 My function here is to forgive the world for all the errors I have made. 3 For thus am I
released from them with all the world.
2 I am essential to the plan of God for the salvation of the world. 3 For He gave me His
plan that I might save the world.
LESSON 116.
2 God's Will is perfect happiness for me. 3 And I can suffer but from the belief there is
another will apart from His.
2 I share my Father's Will for me, His Son. 3 What He has given me is all I want. 4 What
He has given me is all there is.
LESSON 117.
2 Let me remember love is happiness, and nothing else brings joy. 3 And so I choose to
entertain no substitutes for love.
2 Love is my heritage, and with it joy. 3 These are the gifts my Father gave to me. 4 I
would accept all that is mine in truth.
LESSON 118.
For morning and evening review:
W-118.1. (105) God's peace and joy are mine.
2 Today I will accept God's peace and joy, in glad exchange for all the substitutes that I
have made for happiness and peace.
2 Let my own feeble voice be still, and let me hear the mighty Voice for Truth Itself
assure me that I am God's perfect Son.
LESSON 119.
2 I am mistaken when I think I can be hurt in any way. 3 I am God's Son, whose Self
rests safely in the Mind of God.
2 I will forgive all things today, that I may learn how to accept the truth in me, and come
to recognize my sinlessness.
LESSON 120.
2 I am God's Son. 3 Today I lay aside all sick illusions of myself, and let my Father tell
me Who I really am.
LESSON 121.
6 Forgiveness is the key to happiness. 7 I will awaken from the dream that I am mortal,
fallible and full of sin, and know I am the perfect Son of God.
LESSON 122.
LESSON 123.
LESSON 124.
2 Let me remember I am one with God, at one with all my brothers and my Self, in
everlasting holiness and peace.
LESSON 125.
LESSON 126.
3 All that I give is given to myself. 4 The Help I need to learn that this is true is with me
now. 5 And I will trust in Him.
6 Then spend a quiet moment, opening your mind to His correction and His Love. 7 And
what you hear of Him you will believe, for what He gives will be received by you.
LESSON 127.
4 I bless you, brother, with the Love of God, which I would share with you. 5 For I would
learn the joyous lesson that there is no love but God's and yours and mine and everyone's.
LESSON 128.
LESSON 129.
3 Beyond this world there is a world I want. 4 I choose to see that world instead of this,
for here is nothing that I really want.
5 Then close your eyes upon the world you see, and in the silent darkness watch the lights
that are not of this world light one by one, until where one begins another ends loses all
meaning as they blend in one.
W-129.8. Today the lights of Heaven bend to you, to shine upon your eyelids as you
rest beyond the world of darkness. 2 Here is light your eyes can not behold. 3 And yet
your mind can see it plainly, and can understand. 4 A day of grace is given you today,
and we give thanks. 5 This day we realize that what you feared to lose was only loss.
W-129.9. Now do we understand there is no loss. 2 For we have seen its opposite at
last, and we are grateful that the choice is made. 3 Remember your decision hourly, and
take a moment to confirm your choice by laying by whatever thoughts you have, and
dwelling briefly only upon this:
LESSON 130.
5 It is impossible to see two worlds. 6 Let me accept the strength God offers me and see
no value in this world, that I may find my freedom and deliverance.
W-130.9. God will be there. 2 For you have called upon the great unfailing power
which will take this giant step with you in gratitude. 3 Nor will you fail to see His thanks
expressed in tangible perception and in truth. 4 You will not doubt what you will look
upon, for though it is perception, it is not the kind of seeing that your eyes alone have
ever seen before. 5 And you will know God's strength upheld you as you made this
choice.
W-130.10. Dismiss temptation easily today whenever it arises, merely by remembering
the limits of your choice. 2 The unreal or the real, the false or true is what you see and
only what you see. 3 Perception is consistent with your choice, and hell or Heaven comes
to you as one.
W-130.11. Accept a little part of hell as real, and you have damned your eyes and
cursed your sight, and what you will behold is hell indeed. 2 Yet the release of Heaven
still remains within your range of choice, to take the place of everything that hell would
show to you. 3 All you need say to any part of hell, whatever form it takes, is simply this:
4 It is impossible to see two worlds. 5 I seek my freedom and deliverance, and this is not
a part of what I want.
LESSON 131.
3 I ask to see a different world, and think a different kind of thought from those I made. 4
The world I seek I did not make alone, the thoughts I want to think are not my own.
5 For several minutes watch your mind and see, although your eyes are closed, the
senseless world you think is real. 6 Review the thoughts as well which are compatible
with such a world, and which you think are true. 7 Then let them go, and sink below them
to the holy place where they can enter not. 8 There is a door beneath them in your mind,
which you could not completely lock to hide what lies beyond.
W-131.12. Seek for that door and find it. 2 But before you try to open it, remind
yourself no one can fail who seeks to reach the truth. 3 And it is this request you make
today. 4 Nothing but this has any meaning now; no other goal is valued now nor sought,
nothing before this door you really want, and only what lies past it do you seek.
W-131.13. Put out your hand, and see how easily the door swings open with your one
intent to go beyond it. 2 Angels light the way, so that all darkness vanishes, and you are
standing in a light so bright and clear that you can understand all things you see. 3 A tiny
moment of surprise, perhaps, will make you pause before you realize the world you see
before you in the light reflects the truth you knew, and did not quite forget in wandering
away in dreams.
W-131.14. You cannot fail today. 2 There walks with you the Spirit Heaven sent you,
that you might approach this door some day, and through His aid slip effortlessly past it,
to the light. 3 Today that day has come. 4 Today God keeps His ancient promise to His
holy Son, as does His Son remember his to Him. 5 This is a day of gladness, for we come
to the appointed time and place where you will find the goal of all your searching here,
and all the seeking of the world, which end together as you pass beyond the door.
W-131.15. Remember often that today should be a time of special gladness, and refrain
from dismal thoughts and meaningless laments. 2 Salvation's time has come. 3 Today is
set by Heaven itself to be a time of grace for you and for the world. 4 If you forget this
happy fact, remind yourself with this:
LESSON 132.
2 I who remain as God created me would loose the world from all I thought it was. 3 For
I am real because the world is not, and I would know my own reality.
4 Then merely rest, alert but with no strain, and let your mind in quietness be changed so
that the world is freed, along with you.
W-132.16. You need not realize that healing comes to many brothers far across the
world, as well as to the ones you see nearby, as you send out these thoughts to bless the
world. 2 But you will sense your own release, although you may not fully understand as
yet that you could never be released alone.
W-132.17. Throughout the day, increase the freedom sent through your ideas to all the
world, and say whenever you are tempted to deny the power of your simple change of
mind:
2 I loose the world from all I thought it was, and choose my own reality instead.
LESSON 133.
4 I will not value what is valueless, and only what has value do I seek, for only that do I
desire to find.
W-133.14. And then receive what waits for everyone who reaches, unencumbered, to
the gate of Heaven, which swings open as he comes. 2 Should you begin to let yourself
collect some needless burdens, or believe you see some difficult decisions facing you, be
quick to answer with this simple thought:
3 I will not value what is valueless, for what is valuable belongs to me.
LESSON 134.
W-134.15. Then choose one brother as He will direct, and catalogue his "sins," as one
by one they cross your mind. 2 Be certain not to dwell on any one of them, but realize
that you are using his "offenses" but to save the world from all ideas of sin. 3 Briefly
consider all the evil things you thought of him, and each time ask yourself, "Would I
condemn myself for doing this?"
W-134.16. Let him be freed from all the thoughts you had of sin in him. 2 And now you
are prepared for freedom. 3 If you have been practicing thus far in willingness and
honesty, you will begin to sense a lifting up, a lightening of weight across your chest, a
deep and certain feeling of relief. 4 The time remaining should be given to experiencing
the escape from all the heavy chains you sought to lay upon your brother, but were laid
upon yourself.
W-134.17. Forgiveness should be practiced through the day, for there will still be many
times when you forget its meaning and attack yourself. 2 When this occurs, allow your
mind to see through this illusion as you tell yourself:
3 Let me perceive forgiveness as it is. 4 Would I accuse myself of doing this? 5 I will not
lay this chain upon myself.
7 No one is crucified alone, and yet no one can enter Heaven by himself.
LESSON 135.
W-135.23. Nothing but that. 2 If there are plans to make, you will be told of them. 3
They may not be the plans you thought were needed, nor indeed the answers to the
problems which you thought confronted you. 4 But they are answers to another kind of
question, which remains unanswered yet in need of answering until the Answer comes to
you at last.
W-135.24. All your defenses have been aimed at not receiving what you will receive
today. 2 And in the light and joy of simple trust, you will but wonder why you ever
thought that you must be defended from release. 3 Heaven asks nothing. 4 It is hell that
makes extravagant demands for sacrifice. 5 You give up nothing in these times today
when, undefended, you present yourself to your Creator as you really are.
W-135.25. He has remembered you. 2 Today we will remember Him. 3 For this is
Eastertime in your salvation. 4 And you rise again from what was seeming death and
hopelessness. 5 Now is the light of hope reborn in you, for now you come without
defense, to learn the part for you within the plan of God. 6 What little plans or magical
beliefs can still have value, when you have received your function from the Voice for
God Himself?
W-135.26. Try not to shape this day as you believe would benefit you most. 2 For you
can not conceive of all the happiness that comes to you without your planning. 3 Learn
today. 4 And all the world will take this giant stride, and celebrate your Eastertime with
you. 5 Throughout the day, as foolish little things appear to raise defensiveness in you
and tempt you to engage in weaving plans, remind yourself this is a special day for
learning, and acknowledge it with this:
6 This is my Eastertime. 7 And I would keep it holy. 8 I will not defend myself, because
the Son of God needs no defense against the truth of his reality.
LESSON 136.
6 Sickness is a defense against the truth. 7 I will accept the truth of what I am, and let my
mind be wholly healed today.
W-136.16. Healing will flash across your open mind, as peace and truth arise to take the
place of war and vain imaginings. 2 There will be no dark corners sickness can conceal,
and keep defended from the light of truth. 3 There will be no dim figures from your
dreams, nor their obscure and meaningless pursuits with double purposes insanely
sought, remaining in your mind. 4 It will be healed of all the sickly wishes that it tried to
authorize the body to obey.
W-136.17. Now is the body healed, because the source of sickness has been opened to
relief. 2 And you will recognize you practiced well by this: The body should not feel at
all. 3 If you have been successful, there will be no sense of feeling ill or feeling well, of
pain or pleasure. 4 No response at all is in the mind to what the body does. 5 Its
usefulness remains and nothing more.
W-136.18. Perhaps you do not realize that this removes the limits you had placed upon
the body by the purposes you gave to it. 2 As these are laid aside, the strength the body
has will always be enough to serve all truly useful purposes. 3 The body's health is fully
guaranteed, because it is not limited by time, by weather or fatigue, by food and drink, or
any laws you made it serve before. 4 You need do nothing now to make it well, for
sickness has become impossible.
W-136.19. Yet this protection needs to be preserved by careful watching. 2 If you let
your mind harbor attack thoughts, yield to judgment or make plans against uncertainties
to come, you have again misplaced yourself, and made a bodily identity which will attack
the body, for the mind is sick.
W-136.20. Give instant remedy, should this occur, by not allowing your defensiveness
to hurt you longer. 2 Do not be confused about what must be healed, but tell yourself:
3 I have forgotten what I really am, for I mistook my body for myself. 4 Sickness is a
defense against the truth. 5 But I am not a body. 6 And my mind cannot attack. 7 So I can
not be sick.
LESSON 137.
3 When I am healed I am not healed alone. 4 And I would share my healing with the
world, that sickness may be banished from the mind of God's one Son, Who is my only
Self.
W-137.15. Let healing be through you this very day. 2 And as you rest in quiet, be
prepared to give as you receive, to hold but what you give, and to receive the Word of
God to take the place of all the foolish thoughts that ever were imagined. 3 Now we come
together to make well all that was sick, and offer blessing where there was attack. 4 Nor
will we let this function be forgot as every hour of the day slips by, remembering our
purpose with this thought:
5 When I am healed I am not healed alone. 6 And I would bless my brothers, for I would
be healed with them, as they are healed with me.
LESSON 138.
5 Heaven is the decision I must make. 6 I make it now, and will not change my mind,
because it is the only thing I want.
LESSON 139.
3 I will accept Atonement for myself, For I remain as God created me.
4 We have not lost the knowledge that God gave to us when He created us like Him. 5
We can remember it for everyone, for in creation are all minds as one. 6 And in our
memory is the recall how dear our brothers are to us in truth, how much a part of us is
every mind, how faithful they have really been to us, and how our Father's Love contains
them all.
W-139.12. In thanks for all creation, in the Name of its Creator and His Oneness with
all aspects of creation, we repeat our dedication to our cause today each hour, as we lay
aside all thoughts that would distract us from our holy aim. 2 For several minutes let your
mind be cleared of all the foolish cobwebs which the world would weave around the holy
Son of God. 3 And learn the fragile nature of the chains that seem to keep the knowledge
of yourself apart from your awareness, as you say:
4 I will accept Atonement for myself, For I remain as God created me.
LESSON 140.
4 And we will feel salvation cover us with soft protection, and with peace so deep that no
illusion can disturb our minds, nor offer proof to us that it is real. 5 This will we learn
today. 6 And we will say our prayer for healing hourly, and take a minute as the hour
strikes, to hear the answer to our prayer be given us as we attend in silence and in joy. 7
This is the day when healing comes to us. 8 This is the day when separation ends, and we
remember Who we really are.
REVIEW IV
Introduction
W-rIV.in.1. Now we review again, this time aware we are preparing for the second part
of learning how the truth can be applied. 2 Today we will begin to concentrate on
readiness for what will follow next. 3 Such is our aim for this review, and for the lessons
following. 4 Thus, we review the recent lessons and their central thoughts in such a way
as will facilitate the readiness that we would now achieve.
W-rIV.in.2. There is a central theme that unifies each step in the review we undertake,
which can be simply stated in these words:
3 That is a fact, and represents the truth of What you are and What your Father is. 4 It is
this thought by which the Father gave creation to the Son, establishing the Son as co-
creator with Himself. 5 It is this thought that fully guarantees salvation to the Son. 6 For
in his mind no thoughts can dwell but those his Father shares. 7 Lack of forgiveness
blocks this thought from his awareness. 8 Yet it is forever true.
W-rIV.in.3. Let us begin our preparation with some understanding of the many forms in
which the lack of true forgiveness may be carefully concealed. 2 Because they are
illusions, they are not perceived to be but what they are; defenses that protect your
unforgiving thoughts from being seen and recognized. 3 Their purpose is to show you
something else, and hold correction off through self-deceptions made to take its place.
W-rIV.in.4. And yet, your mind holds only what you think with God. 2 Your self-
deceptions cannot take the place of truth. 3 No more than can a child who throws a stick
into the ocean change the coming and the going of the tides, the warming of the water by
the sun, the silver of the moon on it by night. 4 So do we start each practice period in this
review with readying our minds to understand the lessons that we read, and see the
meaning that they offer us.
W-rIV.in.5. Begin each day with time devoted to the preparation of your mind to learn
what each idea you will review that day can offer you in freedom and in peace. 2 Open
your mind, and clear it of all thoughts that would deceive, and let this thought alone
engage it fully, and remove the rest:
4 Five minutes with this thought will be enough to set the day along the lines which God
appointed, and to place His Mind in charge of all the thoughts you will receive that day.
W-rIV.in.6. They will not come from you alone, for they will all be shared with Him. 2
And so each one will bring the message of His Love to you, returning messages of yours
to Him. 3 So will communion with the Lord of Hosts be yours, as He Himself has willed
it be. 4 And as His Own completion joins with Him, so will He join with you who are
complete as you unite with Him, and He with you.
W-rIV.in.7. After your preparation, merely read each of the two ideas assigned to you to
be reviewed that day. 2 Then close your eyes, and say them slowly to yourself. 3 There is
no hurry now, for you are using time for its intended purpose. 4 Let each word shine with
the meaning God has given it, as it was given to you through His Voice. 5 Let each idea
which you review that day give you the gift that He has laid in it for you to have of Him.
6 And we will use no format for our practicing but this:
W-rIV.in.8. Each hour of the day, bring to your mind the thought with which the day
began, and spend a quiet moment with it. 2 Then repeat the two ideas you practice for the
day unhurriedly, with time enough to see the gifts that they contain for you, and let them
be received where they were meant to be.
W-rIV.in.9. We add no other thoughts, but let these be the messages they are. 2 We need
no more than this to give us happiness and rest, and endless quiet, perfect certainty, and
all our Father wills that we receive as the inheritance we have of Him. 3 Each day of
practicing, as we review, we close as we began, repeating first the thought that made the
day a special time of blessing and of happiness for us; and through our faithfulness
restored the world from darkness to the light, from grief to joy, from pain to peace, from
sin to holiness.
W-rIV.in.10. God offers thanks to you who practice thus the keeping of His Word.
2 And as you give your mind to the ideas for the day again before you sleep, His
gratitude surrounds you in the peace wherein He wills you be forever, and are learning
now to claim again as your inheritance.
LESSON 141.
LESSON 142.
LESSON 143.
LESSON 144.
LESSON 145.
LESSON 146.
LESSON 147.
LESSON 148.
LESSON 149.
LESSON 151.
LESSON 152.
5 Then will we wait in silence, giving up all self-deceptions, as we humbly ask our Self
that He reveal Himself to us. 6 And He Who never left will come again to our awareness,
grateful to restore His home to God, as it was meant to be.
W-152.12. In patience wait for Him throughout the day, and hourly invite Him with the
words with which the day began, concluding it with this same invitation to your Self. 2
God's Voice will answer, for He speaks for you and for your Father. 3 He will substitute
the peace of God for all your frantic thoughts, the truth of God for self-deceptions, and
God's Son for your illusions of yourself.
LESSON 153.
In my defenselessness my safety lies.
W-153.1. You who feel threatened by this changing world, its twists of fortune and its
bitter jests, its brief relationships and all the "gifts" it merely lends to take away again;
attend this lesson well. 2 The world provides no safety. 3 It is rooted in attack, and all its
"gifts" of seeming safety are illusory deceptions. 4 It attacks, and then attacks again. 5 No
peace of mind is possible where danger threatens thus.
W-153.2. The world gives rise but to defensiveness. 2 For threat brings anger, anger
makes attack seem reasonable, honestly provoked, and righteous in the name of self-
defense. 3 Yet is defensiveness a double threat. 4 For it attests to weakness, and sets up a
system of defense that cannot work. 5 Now are the weak still further undermined, for
there is treachery without and still a greater treachery within. 6 The mind is now
confused, and knows not where to turn to find escape from its imaginings.
W-153.3. It is as if a circle held it fast, wherein another circle bound it and another one
in that, until escape no longer can be hoped for nor obtained. 2 Attack, defense; defense,
attack, become the circles of the hours and the days that bind the mind in heavy bands of
steel with iron overlaid, returning but to start again. 3 There seems to be no break nor
ending in the ever-tightening grip of the imprisonment upon the mind.
W-153.4. Defenses are the costliest of all the prices which the ego would exact. 2 In
them lies madness in a form so grim that hope of sanity seems but to be an idle dream,
beyond the possible. 3 The sense of threat the world encourages is so much deeper, and
so far beyond the frenzy and intensity of which you can conceive, that you have no idea
of all the devastation it has wrought.
W-153.5. You are its slave. 2 You know not what you do, in fear of it. 3 You do not
understand how much you have been made to sacrifice, who feel its iron grip upon your
heart. 4 You do not realize what you have done to sabotage the holy peace of God by
your defensiveness. 5 For you behold the Son of God as but a victim to attack by
fantasies, by dreams, and by illusions he has made; yet helpless in their presence, needful
only of defense by still more fantasies, and dreams by which illusions of his safety
comfort him.
W-153.6. Defenselessness is strength. 2 It testifies to recognition of the Christ in you.
3 Perhaps you will recall the text maintains that choice is always made between Christ's
strength and your own weakness, seen apart from Him. 4 Defenselessness can never be
attacked, because it recognizes strength so great attack is folly, or a silly game a tired
child might play, when he becomes too sleepy to remember what he wants.
W-153.7. Defensiveness is weakness. 2 It proclaims you have denied the Christ and
come to fear His Father's anger. 3 What can save you now from your delusion of an angry
god, whose fearful image you believe you see at work in all the evils of the world? 4
What but illusions could defend you now, when it is but illusions that you fight?
W-153.8. We will not play such childish games today. 2 For our true purpose is to
save the world, and we would not exchange for foolishness the endless joy our function
offers us. 3 We would not let our happiness slip by because a fragment of a senseless
dream happened to cross our minds, and we mistook the figures in it for the Son of God;
its tiny instant for eternity.
W-153.9. We look past dreams today, and recognize that we need no defense because
we are created unassailable, without all thought or wish or dream in which attack has any
meaning. 2 Now we cannot fear, for we have left all fearful thoughts behind. 3 And in
defenselessness we stand secure, serenely certain of our safety now, sure of salvation;
sure we will fulfill our chosen purpose, as our ministry extends its holy blessing through
the world.
W-153.10. Be still a moment, and in silence think how holy is your purpose, how secure
you rest, untouchable within its light. 2 God's ministers have chosen that the truth be with
them. 3 Who is holier than they? 4 Who could be surer that his happiness is fully
guaranteed? 5 And who could be more mightily protected? 6 What defense could
possibly be needed by the ones who are among the chosen ones of God, by His election
and their own as well?
W-153.11. It is the function of God's ministers to help their brothers choose as they
have done. 2 God has elected all, but few have come to realize His Will is but their own.
3 And while you fail to teach what you have learned, salvation waits and darkness holds
the world in grim imprisonment. 4 Nor will you learn that light has come to you, and
your escape has been accomplished. 5 For you will not see the light, until you offer it to
all your brothers. 6 As they take it from your hands, so will you recognize it as your own.
W-153.12. Salvation can be thought of as a game that happy children play. 2 It was
designed by One Who loves His children, and Who would replace their fearful toys with
joyous games, which teach them that the game of fear is gone. 3 His game instructs in
happiness because there is no loser. 4 Everyone who plays must win, and in his winning
is the gain to everyone ensured. 5 The game of fear is gladly laid aside, when children
come to see the benefits salvation brings.
W-153.13. You who have played that you are lost to hope, abandoned by your Father,
left alone in terror in a fearful world made mad by sin and guilt; be happy now. 2 That
game is over. 3 Now a quiet time has come, in which we put away the toys of guilt, and
lock our quaint and childish thoughts of sin forever from the pure and holy minds of
Heaven's children and the Son of God.
W-153.14. We pause but for a moment more, to play our final, happy game upon this
earth. 2 And then we go to take our rightful place where truth abides and games are
meaningless. 3 So is the story ended. 4 Let this day bring the last chapter closer to the
world, that everyone may learn the tale he reads of terrifying destiny, defeat of all his
hopes, his pitiful defense against a vengeance he can not escape, is but his own deluded
fantasy. 5 God's ministers have come to waken him from the dark dreams this story has
evoked in his confused, bewildered memory of this distorted tale. 6 God's Son can smile
at last, on learning that it is not true.
W-153.15. Today we practice in a form we will maintain for quite a while. 2 We will
begin each day by giving our attention to the daily thought as long as possible. 3 Five
minutes now becomes the least we give to preparation for a day in which salvation is the
only goal we have. 4 Ten would be better; fifteen better still. 5 And as distraction ceases
to arise to turn us from our purpose, we will find that half an hour is too short a time to
spend with God. 6 Nor will we willingly give less at night, in gratitude and joy.
W-153.16. Each hour adds to our increasing peace, as we remember to be faithful to the
Will we share with God. 2 At times, perhaps, a minute, even less, will be the most that
we can offer as the hour strikes. 3 Sometimes we will forget. 4 At other times the
business of the world will close on us, and we will be unable to withdraw a little while,
and turn our thoughts to God.
W-153.17. Yet when we can, we will observe our trust as ministers of God, in hourly
remembrance of our mission and His Love. 2 And we will quietly sit by and wait on Him
and listen to His Voice, and learn what He would have us do the hour that is yet to come;
while thanking Him for all the gifts He gave us in the one gone by.
W-153.18. In time, with practice, you will never cease to think of Him, and hear His
loving Voice guiding your footsteps into quiet ways, where you will walk in true
defenselessness. 2 For you will know that Heaven goes with you. 3 Nor would you keep
your mind away from Him a moment, even though your time is spent in offering
salvation to the world. 4 Think you He will not make this possible, for you who chose to
carry out His plan for the salvation of the world and yours?
W-153.19. Today our theme is our defenselessness. 2 We clothe ourselves in it, as we
prepare to meet the day. 3 We rise up strong in Christ, and let our weakness disappear, as
we remember that His strength abides in us. 4 We will remind ourselves that He remains
beside us through the day, and never leaves our weakness unsupported by His strength. 5
We call upon His strength each time we feel the threat of our defenses undermine our
certainty of purpose. 6 We will pause a moment, as He tells us, "I am here."
W-153.20. Your practicing will now begin to take the earnestness of love, to help you
keep your mind from wandering from its intent. 2 Be not afraid nor timid. 3 There can be
no doubt that you will reach your final goal. 4 The ministers of God can never fail,
because the love and strength and peace that shine from them to all their brothers come
from Him. 5 These are His gifts to you. 6 Defenselessness is all you need to give Him in
return. 7 You lay aside but what was never real, to look on Christ and see His sinlessness.
LESSON 154.
2 I am among the ministers of God, and I am grateful that I have the means by which to
recognize that I am free.
W-154.14. The world recedes as we light up our minds, and realize these holy words are
true. 2 They are the message sent to us today from our Creator. 3 Now we demonstrate
how they have changed our minds about ourselves, and what our function is. 4 For as we
prove that we accept no will we do not share, our many gifts from our Creator will spring
to our sight and leap into our hands, and we will recognize what we received.
LESSON 155.
3 I will step back and let Him lead the way, For I would walk along the road to Him.
LESSON 156.
5 I walk with God in perfect holiness. 6 I light the world, I light my mind and all the
minds which God created one with me.
LESSON 157.
LESSON 159.
LESSON 160.
LESSON 161.
7 Give me your blessing, holy Son of God. 8 I would behold you with the eyes of Christ,
and see my perfect sinlessness in you.
W-161.12. And He will answer Whom you called upon. 2 For He will hear the Voice
for God in you, and answer in your own. 3 Behold him now, whom you have seen as
merely flesh and bone, and recognize that Christ has come to you. 4 Today's idea is your
safe escape from anger and from fear. 5 Be sure you use it instantly, should you be
tempted to attack a brother and perceive in him the symbol of your fear. 6 And you will
see him suddenly transformed from enemy to savior; from the devil into Christ.
LESSON 162.
LESSON 163.
W-163.9. <Our Father, bless our eyes today. 2 We are Your messengers, and we
would look upon the glorious reflection of Your Love which shines in everything. 3 We
live and move in You alone. 4 We are not separate from Your eternal life. 5 There is no
death, for death is not Your Will. 6 And we abide where You have placed us, in the life
we share with You and with all living things, to be like You and part of You forever. 7
We accept Your Thoughts as ours, and our will is one with Yours eternally. 8 Amen.>
LESSON 164.
LESSON 165.
LESSON 166.
LESSON 167.
LESSON 168.
5 Your grace is given me. 6 I claim it now. 7 Father, I come to You. 8 And You will
come to me who ask. 9 I am the Son You love.
LESSON 169.
LESSON 170.
6 You make what you defend against, and by your own defense against it is it real and
inescapable. 7 Lay down your arms, and only then do you perceive it false.
W-170.3. It seems to be the enemy without that you attack. 2 Yet your defense sets up
an enemy within; an alien thought at war with you, depriving you of peace, splitting your
mind into two camps which seem wholly irreconcilable. 3 For love now has an "enemy,"
an opposite; and fear, the alien, now needs your defense against the threat of what you
really are.
W-170.4. If you consider carefully the means by which your fancied self-defense
proceeds on its imagined way, you will perceive the premises on which the idea stands. 2
First, it is obvious ideas must leave their source, for it is you who make attack, and must
have first conceived of it. 3 Yet you attack outside yourself, and separate your mind from
him who is to be attacked, with perfect faith the split you made is real.
W-170.5. Next, are the attributes of love bestowed upon its "enemy." 2 For fear
becomes your safety and protector of your peace, to which you turn for solace and escape
from doubts about your strength, and hope of rest in dreamless quiet. 3 And as love is
shorn of what belongs to it and it alone, love is endowed with attributes of fear. 4 For
love would ask you lay down all defense as merely foolish. 5 And your arms indeed
would crumble into dust. 6 For such they are.
W-170.6. With love as enemy, must cruelty become a god. 2 And gods demand that
those who worship them obey their dictates, and refuse to question them. 3 Harsh
punishment is meted out relentlessly to those who ask if the demands are sensible or even
sane. 4 It is their enemies who are unreasonable and insane, while they are always
merciful and just.
W-170.7. Today we look upon this cruel god dispassionately. 2 And we note that
though his lips are smeared with blood, and fire seems to flame from him, he is but made
of stone. 3 He can do nothing. 4 We need not defy his power. 5 He has none. 6 And those
who see in him their safety have no guardian, no strength to call upon in danger, and no
mighty warrior to fight for them.
W-170.8. This moment can be terrible. 2 But it can also be the time of your release
from abject slavery. 3 You make a choice, standing before this idol, seeing him exactly as
he is. 4 Will you restore to love what you have sought to wrest from it and lay before this
mindless piece of stone? 5 Or will you make another idol to replace it? 6 For the god of
cruelty takes many forms. 7 Another can be found.
W-170.9. Yet do not think that fear is the escape from fear. 2 Let us remember what
the text has stressed about the obstacles to peace. 3 The final one, the hardest to believe is
nothing, and a seeming obstacle with the appearance of a solid block, impenetrable,
fearful and beyond surmounting, is the fear of God Himself. 4 Here is the basic premise
which enthrones the thought of fear as god. 5 For fear is loved by those who worship it,
and love appears to be invested now with cruelty.
W-170.10. Where does the totally insane belief in gods of vengeance come from? 2
Love has not confused its attributes with those of fear. 3 Yet must the worshippers of fear
perceive their own confusion in fear's "enemy"; its cruelty as now a part of love. 4 And
what becomes more fearful than the Heart of Love Itself? 5 The blood appears to be upon
His Lips; the fire comes from Him. 6 And He is terrible above all else, cruel beyond
conception, striking down all who acknowledge Him to be their God.
W-170.11. The choice you make today is certain. 2 For you look for the last time upon
this bit of carven stone you made, and call it god no longer. 3 You have reached this
place before, but you have chosen that this cruel god remain with you in still another
form. 4 And so the fear of God returned with you. 5 This time you leave it there. 6 And
you return to a new world, unburdened by its weight; beheld not in its sightless eyes, but
in the vision that your choice restored to you.
W-170.12. Now do your eyes belong to Christ, and He looks through them. 2 Now your
voice belongs to God and echoes His. 3 And now your heart remains at peace forever. 4
You have chosen Him in place of idols, and your attributes, given by your Creator, are
restored to you at last. 5 The Call for God is heard and answered. 6 Now has fear made
way for love, as God Himself replaces cruelty.
W-170.13. <Father, we are like You. 2 No cruelty abides in us, for there is none in
You. 3 Your peace is ours. 4 And we bless the world with what we have received from
You alone. 5 We choose again, and make our choice for all our brothers, knowing they
are one with us. 6 We bring them Your salvation as we have received it now. 7 And we
give thanks for them who render us complete. 8 In them we see Your glory, and in them
we find our peace. 9 Holy are we because Your Holiness has set us free. 10 And we give
thanks. 11 Amen.>
REVIEW V
Introduction
W-rV.in.1. We now review again. 2 This time we are ready to give more effort and
more time to what we undertake. 3 We recognize we are preparing for another phase of
understanding. 4 We would take this step completely, that we may go on again more
certain, more sincere, with faith upheld more surely. 5 Our footsteps have not been
unwavering, and doubts have made us walk uncertainly and slowly on the road this
course sets forth. 6 But now we hasten on, for we approach a greater certainty, a firmer
purpose and a surer goal.
W-rV.in.2. <Steady our feet, our Father. 2 Let our doubts be quiet and our holy minds
be still, and speak to us. 3 We have no words to give to You. 4 We would but listen to
Your Word, and make it ours. 5 Lead our practicing as does a father lead a little child
along a way he does not understand. 6 Yet does he follow, sure that he is safe because his
father leads the way for him.>
W-rV.in.3. <So do we bring our practicing to You. 2 And if we stumble, You will raise
us up. 3 If we forget the way, we count upon Your sure remembering. 4 We wander off,
but You will not forget to call us back. 5 Quicken our footsteps now, that we may walk
more certainly and quickly unto You. 6 And we accept the Word You offer us to unify
our practicing, as we review the thoughts that You have given us.>
W-rV.in.4. This is the thought which should precede the thoughts that we review. 2
Each one but clarifies some aspect of this thought, or helps it be more meaningful, more
personal and true, and more descriptive of the holy Self we share and now prepare to
know again:
4 This Self alone knows Love. 5 This Self alone is perfectly consistent in Its Thoughts;
knows Its Creator, understands Itself, is perfect in Its knowledge and Its Love, and never
changes from Its constant state of union with Its Father and Itself.
W-rV.in.5. And it is this that waits to meet us at the journey's ending. 2 Every step we
take brings us a little nearer. 3 This review will shorten time immeasurably, if we keep in
mind that this remains our goal, and as we practice it is this to which we are approaching.
4 Let us raise our hearts from dust to life, as we remember this is promised us, and that
this course was sent to open up the path of light to us, and teach us, step by step, how to
return to the eternal Self we thought we lost.
W-rV.in.6. I take the journey with you. 2 For I share your doubts and fears a little while,
that you may come to me who recognize the road by which all fears and doubts are
overcome. 3 We walk together. 4 I must understand uncertainty and pain, although I
know they have no meaning. 5 Yet a savior must remain with those he teaches, seeing
what they see, but still retaining in his mind the way that led him out, and now will lead
you out with him. 6 God's Son is crucified until you walk along the road with me.
W-rV.in.7. My resurrection comes again each time I lead a brother safely to the place at
which the journey ends and is forgot. 2 I am renewed each time a brother learns there is a
way from misery and pain. 3 I am reborn each time a brother's mind turns to the light in
him and looks for me. 4 I have forgotten no one. 5 Help me now to lead you back to
where the journey was begun, to make another choice with me.
W-rV.in.8. Release me as you practice once again the thoughts I brought to you from
Him Who sees your bitter need, and knows the answer God has given Him. 2 Together
we review these thoughts. 3 Together we devote our time and effort to them. 4 And
together we will teach them to our brothers. 5 God would not have Heaven incomplete. 6
It waits for you, as I do. 7 I am incomplete without your part in me. 8 And as I am made
whole we go together to our ancient home, prepared for us before time was and kept
unchanged by time, immaculate and safe, as it will be at last when time is done.
W-rV.in.9. Let this review be then your gift to me. 2 For this alone I need; that you will
hear the words I speak, and give them to the world. 3 You are my voice, my eyes, my
feet, my hands through which I save the world. 4 The Self from which I call to you is but
your own. 5 To Him we go together. 6 Take your brother's hand, for this is not a way we
walk alone. 7 In him I walk with you, and you with me. 8 Our Father wills His Son be
one with Him. 9 What lives but must not then be one with you?
W-rV.in.10. Let this review become a time in which we share a new experience for you,
yet one as old as time and older still. 2 Hallowed your Name. 3 Your glory undefiled
forever. 4 And your wholeness now complete, as God established it. 5 You are His Son,
completing His extension in your own. 6 We practice but an ancient truth we knew before
illusion seemed to claim the world. 7 And we remind the world that it is free of all
illusions every time we say:
W-rV.in.11. With this we start each day of our review. 2 With this we start and end each
period of practice time. 3 And with this thought we sleep, to waken once again with these
same words upon our lips, to greet another day. 4 No thought that we review but we
surround with it, and use the thoughts to hold it up before our minds, and keep it clear in
our rememberance throughout the day. 5 And thus, when we have finished this review,
we will have recognized the words we speak are true.
W-rV.in.12. Yet are the words but aids, and to be used, except at the beginning and the
end of practice periods, but to recall the mind, as needed, to its purpose. 2 We place faith
in the experience that comes from practice, not the means we use. 3 We wait for the
experience, and recognize that it is only here conviction lies. 4 We use the words, and try
and try again to go beyond them to their meaning, which is far beyond their sound. 5 The
sound grows dim and disappears, as we approach the Source of meaning. 6 It is Here that
we find rest.
LESSON 171.
LESSON 172.
LESSON 173.
LESSON 174.
LESSON 176.
LESSON 177.
W-177.2. (164) Now are we one with Him Who is our Source.
2 God is but Love, and therefore so am I.
LESSON 178.
LESSON 179.
LESSON 180.
WpI.in.181-200.1. Our next few lessons make a special point of firming up your
willingness to make your weak commitment strong; your scattered goals blend into one
intent. 2 You are not asked for total dedication all the time as yet. 3 But you are asked to
practice now in order to attain the sense of peace such unified commitment will bestow, if
only intermittently. 4 It is experiencing this that makes it sure that you will give your
total willingness to following the way the course sets forth.
WpI.in.181-200.2. Our lessons now are geared specifically to widening horizons, and
direct approaches to the special blocks that keep your vision narrow, and too limited to let
you see the value of our goal. 2 We are attempting now to lift these blocks, however
briefly. 3 Words alone can not convey the sense of liberation which their lifting brings. 4
But the experience of freedom and of peace that comes as you give up your tight control
of what you see speaks for itself. 5 Your motivation will be so intensified that words
become of little consequence. 6 You will be sure of what you want, and what is valueless.
WpI.in.181-200.3. And so we start our journey beyond words by concentrating first on
what impedes your progress still. 2 Experience of what exists beyond defensiveness
remains beyond achievement while it is denied. 3 It may be there, but you cannot accept
its presence. 4 So we now attempt to go past all defenses for a little while each day. 5 No
more than this is asked, because no more than this is needed. 6 It will be enough to
guarantee the rest will come.
LESSON 181.
W-181.7. And we will also use this thought to keep us safe throughout the day. 2 We
do not seek for long-range goals. 3 As each obstruction seems to block the vision of our
sinlessness, we seek but for surcease an instant from the misery the focus upon sin will
bring, and uncorrected will remain.
W-181.8. Nor do we ask for fantasies. 2 For what we seek to look upon is really there.
3 And as our focus goes beyond mistakes, we will behold a wholly sinless world. 4 When
seeing this is all we want to see, when this is all we seek for in the name of true
perception, are the eyes of Christ inevitably ours. 5 And the Love He feels for us
becomes our own as well. 6 This will become the only thing we see reflected in the world
and in ourselves.
W-181.9. The world which once proclaimed our sins becomes the proof that we are
sinless. 2 And our love for everyone we look upon attests to our remembrance of the holy
Self which knows no sin, and never could conceive of anything without Its sinlessness. 3
We seek for this remembrance as we turn our minds to practicing today. 4 We look
neither ahead nor backwards. 5 We look straight into the present. 6 And we give our trust
to the experience we ask for now. 7 Our sinlessness is but the Will of God. 8 This instant
is our willing one with His.
LESSON 182.
LESSON 183.
LESSON 184.
W-184.15. Father, our Name is Yours. 2 In It we are united with all living things, and
You Who are their one Creator. 3 What we made and call by many different names is but
a shadow we have tried to cast across Your Own reality. 4 And we are glad and thankful
we were wrong. 5 All our mistakes we give to You, that we may be absolved from all
effects our errors seemed to have. 6 And we accept the truth You give, in place of every
one of them. 7 Your Name is our salvation and escape from what we made. 8 Your Name
unites us in the oneness which is our inheritance and peace. 9 Amen.
LESSON 185.
LESSON 186.
LESSON 187.
LESSON 188.
LESSON 189.
W-189.10. <Father, we do not know the way to You. 2 But we have called, and You
have answered us. 3 We will not interfere. 4 Salvation's ways are not our own, for they
belong to You. 5 And it is unto You we look for them. 6 Our hands are open to receive
Your gifts. 7 We have no thoughts we think apart from You, and cherish no beliefs of
what we are, or Who created us. 8 Yours is the way that we would find and follow. 9 And
we ask but that Your Will, which is our own as well, be done in us and in the world, that
it become a part of Heaven now. 10 Amen.>
LESSON 190.
LESSON 191.
3 I am the holy Son of God Himself. 4 I cannot suffer, cannot be in pain; I cannot suffer
loss, nor fail to do all that salvation asks.
LESSON 192.
LESSON 193.
W-193.4. Certain it is that all distress does not appear to be but unforgiveness. 2 Yet
that is the content underneath the form. 3 It is this sameness which makes learning sure,
because the lesson is so simple that it cannot be rejected in the end. 4 No one can hide
forever from a truth so very obvious that it appears in countless forms, and yet is
recognized as easily in all of them, if one but wants to see the simple lesson there.
W-193.5. <Forgive, and you will see this differently.>
2 These are the words the Holy Spirit speaks in all your tribulations, all your pain, all
suffering regardless of its form. 3 These are the words with which temptation ends, and
guilt, abandoned, is revered no more. 4 These are the words which end the dream of sin,
and rid the mind of fear. 5 These are the words by which salvation comes to all the world.
W-193.6. Shall we not learn to say these words when we are tempted to believe that
pain is real, and death becomes our choice instead of life? 2 Shall we not learn to say
these words when we have understood their power to release all minds from bondage? 3
These are words which give you power over all events that seem to have been given
power over you. 4 You see them rightly when you hold these words in full awareness,
and do not forget these words apply to everything you see or any brother looks upon
amiss.
W-193.7. How can you tell when you are seeing wrong, or someone else is failing to
perceive the lesson he should learn? 2 Does pain seem real in the perception? 3 If it does,
be sure the lesson is not learned. 4 And there remains an unforgiveness hiding in the
mind that sees the pain through eyes the mind directs.
W-193.8. God would not have you suffer thus. 2 He would help you forgive yourself.
3 His Son does not remember who he is. 4 And God would have him not forget His Love,
and all the gifts His Love brings with it. 5 Would you now renounce your own salvation?
6 Would you fail to learn the simple lessons Heaven's Teacher sets before you, that all
pain may disappear and God may be remembered by His Son?
W-193.9. All things are lessons God would have you learn. 2 He would not leave an
unforgiving thought without correction, nor one thorn or nail to hurt His holy Son in any
way. 3 He would ensure his holy rest remain untroubled and serene, without a care, in an
eternal home which cares for him. 4 And He would have all tears be wiped away, with
none remaining yet unshed, and none but waiting their appointed time to fall. 5 For God
has willed that laughter should replace each one, and that His Son be free again.
W-193.10. We will attempt today to overcome a thousand seeming obstacles to peace in
just one day. 2 Let mercy come to you more quickly. 3 Do not try to hold it off another
day, another minute or another instant. 4 Time was made for this. 5 Use it today for what
its purpose is. 6 Morning and night, devote what time you can to serve its proper aim, and
do not let the time be less than meets your deepest need.
W-193.11. Give all you can, and give a little more. 2 For now we would arise in haste
and go unto our Father's house. 3 We have been gone too long, and we would linger here
no more. 4 And as we practice, let us think about all things we saved to settle by
ourselves, and kept apart from healing. 5 Let us give them all to Him Who knows the
way to look upon them so that they will disappear. 6 Truth is His message; truth His
teaching is. 7 His are the lessons God would have us learn.
W-193.12. Each hour, spend a little time today, and in the days to come, in practicing
the lesson in forgiveness in the form established for the day. 2 And try to give it
application to the happenings the hour brought, so that the next one is free of the one
before. 3 The chains of time are easily unloosened in this way. 4 Let no one hour cast its
shadow on the one that follows, and when that one goes, let everything that happened in
its course go with it. 5 Thus will you remain unbound, in peace eternal in the world of
time.
W-193.13. This is the lesson God would have you learn: There is a way to look on
everything that lets it be to you another step to Him, and to salvation of the world. 2 To
all that speaks of terror, answer thus:
4 To every apprehension, every care and every form of suffering, repeat these selfsame
words. 5 And then you hold the key that opens Heaven's gate, and brings the Love of God
the Father down to earth at last, to raise it up to Heaven. 6 God will take this final step
Himself. 7 Do not deny the little steps He asks you take to Him.
LESSON 194.
LESSON 195.
LESSON 196.
LESSON 197.
LESSON 198.
5 Do not forget today that there can be no form of suffering that fails to hide an
unforgiving thought. 6 Nor can there be a form of pain forgiveness cannot heal.
W-198.10. Accept the one illusion which proclaims there is no condemnation in God's
Son, and Heaven is remembered instantly; the world forgotten, all its weird beliefs
forgotten with it, as the face of Christ appears unveiled at last in this one dream. 2 This is
the gift the Holy Spirit holds for you from God your Father. 3 Let today be celebrated
both on earth and in your holy home as well. 4 Be kind to Both, as you forgive the
trespasses you thought Them guilty of, and see your innocence shining upon you from
the face of Christ.
W-198.11. Now is there silence all around the world. 2 Now is there stillness where
before there was a frantic rush of thoughts that made no sense. 3 Now is there tranquil
light across the face of earth, made quiet in a dreamless sleep. 4 And now the Word of
God alone remains upon it. 5 Only that can be perceived an instant longer. 6 Then are
symbols done, and everything you ever thought you made completely vanished from the
mind that God forever knows to be His only Son.
W-198.12. There is no condemnation in him. 2 He is perfect in his holiness. 3 He needs
no thoughts of mercy. 4 Who could give him gifts when everything is his? 5 And who
could dream of offering forgiveness to the Son of Sinlessness Itself, so like to Him
Whose Son he is, that to behold the Son is to perceive no more, and only know the
Father? 6 In this vision of the Son, so brief that not an instant stands between this single
sight and timelessness itself, you see the vision of yourself, and then you disappear
forever into God.
W-198.13. Today we come still nearer to the end of everything that yet would stand
between this vision and our sight. 2 And we are glad that we have come this far, and
recognize that He Who brought us here will not forsake us now. 3 For He would give to
us the gift that God has given us through Him today. 4 Now is the time for your
deliverance. 5 The time has come. 6 The time has come today.
LESSON 199.
7 I am not a body. 8 I am free. 9 I hear the Voice that God has given me, and it is only
this my mind obeys.
LESSON 200.
9 There is no peace except the peace of God, And I am glad and thankful it is so.
REVIEW VI
Introduction
W-rVI.in.1. For this review we take but one idea each day, and practice it as often as is
possible. 2 Besides the time you give morning and evening, which should not be less than
fifteen minutes, and the hourly remembrances you make throughout the day, use the idea
as often as you can between them. 3 Each of these ideas alone would be sufficient for
salvation, if it were learned truly. 4 Each would be enough to give release to you and to
the world from every form of bondage, and invite the memory of God to come again.
W-rVI.in.2. With this in mind we start our practicing, in which we carefully review the
thoughts the Holy Spirit has bestowed on us in our last twenty lessons. 2 Each contains
the whole curriculum if understood, practiced, accepted, and applied to all the seeming
happenings throughout the day. 3 One is enough. 4 But from that one, there must be no
exceptions made. 5 And so we need to use them all and let them blend as one, as each
contributes to the whole we learn.
W-rVI.in.3. These practice sessions, like our last review, are centered round a central
theme with which we start and end each lesson. 2 It is this:
6 The day begins and ends with this. 7 And we repeat it every time the hour strikes, or we
remember, in between, we have a function that transcends the world we see. 8 Beyond
this, and a repetition of the special thought we practice for the day, no form of exercise is
urged, except a deep relinquishment of everything that clutters up the mind, and makes it
deaf to reason, sanity and simple truth.
W-rVI.in.4. We will attempt to get beyond all words and special forms of practicing for
this review. 2 For we attempt, this time, to reach a quickened pace along a shorter path to
the serenity and peace of God. 3 We merely close our eyes, and then forget all that we
thought we knew and understood. 4 For thus is freedom given us from all we did not
know and failed to understand.
W-rVI.in.5. There is but one exception to this lack of structuring. 2 Permit no idle
thought to go unchallenged. 3 If you notice one, deny its hold and hasten to assure your
mind that this is not what it would have. 4 Then gently let the thought which you denied
be given up, in sure and quick exchange for the idea we practice for the day.
W-rVI.in.6. When you are tempted, hasten to proclaim your freedom from temptation, as
you say:
4 And then repeat the idea for the day, and let it take the place of what you thought. 5
Beyond such special applications of each day's idea, we will add but a few formal
expressions or specific thoughts to aid in practicing. 6 Instead, we give these times of
quiet to the Teacher Who instructs in quiet, speaks of peace, and gives our thoughts
whatever meaning they may have.
W-rVI.in.7. To Him I offer this review for you. 2 I place you in His charge, and let Him
teach you what to do and say and think, each time you turn to Him. 3 He will not fail to
be available to you, each time you call to Him to help you. 4 Let us offer Him the whole
review we now begin, and let us also not forget to Whom it has been given, as we
practice day by day, advancing toward the goal He set for us; allowing Him to teach us
how to go, and trusting Him completely for the way each practice period can best become
a loving gift of freedom to the world.
LESSON 201.
2 No one but is my brother. 3 I am blessed with oneness with the universe and God, my
Father, one Creator of the whole that is my Self, forever One with me.
LESSON 202.
2 Why would I choose to stay an instant more where I do not belong, when God Himself
has given me His Voice to call me home?
3 I am not a body. 4 I am free.
5 For I am still as God created me.
LESSON 203.
2 The Name of God is my deliverance from every thought of evil and of sin, because it is
my own as well as His.
LESSON 204.
2 God's Name reminds me that I am His Son, not slave to time, unbound by laws which
rule the world of sick illusions, free in God, forever and forever one with Him.
LESSON 205.
2 The peace of God is everything I want. 3 The peace of God is my one goal; the aim of
all my living here, the end I seek, my purpose and my function and my life, while I abide
where I am not at home.
2 I am entrusted with the gifts of God, because I am His Son. 3 And I would give His
gifts where He intended them to be.
LESSON 207.
2 God's blessing shines upon me from within my heart, where He abides. 3 I need but
turn to Him, and every sorrow melts away, as I accept His boundless Love for me.
LESSON 208.
2 I will be still, and let the earth be still along with me. 3 And in that stillness we will find
the peace of God. 4 It is within my heart, which witnesses to God Himself.
LESSON 209.
2 The Love of God is what created me. 3 The Love of God is everything I am. 4 The
Love of God proclaimed me as His Son. 5 The Love of God within me sets me free.
LESSON 210.
2 Pain is my own idea. 3 It is not a Thought of God, but one I thought apart from Him
and from His Will. 4 His Will is joy, and only joy for His beloved Son. 5 And that I
choose, instead of what I made.
LESSON 211.
2 In silence and in true humility I seek God's glory, to behold it in the Son whom He
created as my Self.
LESSON 212.
LESSON 213.
W-213.1. (193) All things are lessons God would have me learn.
2 A lesson is a miracle which God offers to me, in place of thoughts I made that hurt me.
3 What I learn of Him becomes the way I am set free. 4 And so I choose to learn His
lessons and forget my own.
LESSON 214.
2 The past is gone; the future is not yet. 3 Now am I freed from both. 4 For what God
gives can only be for good. 5 And I accept but what He gives as what belongs to me.
LESSON 215.
2 The Holy Spirit is my only Guide. 3 He walks with me in love. 4 And I give thanks to
Him for showing me the way to go.
5 I am not a body. 6 I am free.
7 For I am still as God created me.
LESSON 216.
2 All that I do I do unto myself. 3 If I attack, I suffer. 4 But if I forgive, salvation will be
given me.
LESSON 217.
2 Who should give thanks for my salvation but myself? 3 And how but through salvation
can I find the Self to Whom my thanks are due?
LESSON 218.
2 My condemnation keeps my vision dark, and through my sightless eyes I cannot see the
vision of my glory. 3 Yet today I can behold this glory and be glad.
3 I am God's Son. 4 Be still, my mind, and think a moment upon this. 5 And then return
to earth, without confusion as to what my Father loves forever as His Son.
LESSON 220.
2 Let me not wander from the way of peace, for I am lost on other roads than this. 3 But
let me follow Him Who leads me home, and peace is certain as the Love of God.
PART II
Introduction
W-pII.in.1. Words will mean little now. 2 We use them but as guides on which we do
not now depend. 3 For now we seek direct experience of truth alone. 4 The lessons that
remain are merely introductions to the times in which we leave the world of pain, and go
to enter peace. 5 Now we begin to reach the goal this course has set, and find the end
toward which our practicing was always geared.
W-pII.in.2. Now we attempt to let the exercise be merely a beginning. 2 For we wait in
quiet expectation for our God and Father. 3 He has promised He will take the final step
Himself. 4 And we are sure His promises are kept. 5 We have come far along the road,
and now we wait for Him. 6 We will continue spending time with Him each morning and
at night, as long as makes us happy. 7 We will not consider time a matter of duration
now. 8 We use as much as we will need for the result that we desire. 9 Nor will we forget
our hourly remembrance in between, calling to God when we have need of Him as we are
tempted to forget our goal.
W-pII.in.3. We will continue with a central thought for all the days to come, and we will
use that thought to introduce our times of rest, and calm our minds at need. 2 Yet we will
not content ourselves with simple practicing in the remaining holy instants which
conclude the year that we have given God. 3 We say some simple words of welcome, and
expect our Father to reveal Himself, as He has promised. 4 We have called on Him, and
He has promised that His Son will not remain unanswered when he calls His Name.
W-pII.in.4. Now do we come to Him with but His Word upon our minds and hearts, and
wait for Him to take the step to us that He has told us, through His Voice, He would not
fail to take when we invited Him. 2 He has not left His Son in all his madness, nor
betrayed his trust in Him. 3 Has not His faithfulness earned Him the invitation that He
seeks to make us happy? 4 We will offer it, and it will be accepted. 5 So our times with
Him will now be spent. 6 We say the words of invitation that His Voice suggests, and
then we wait for Him to come to us.
W-pII.in.5. Now is the time of prophecy fulfilled. 2 Now are all ancient promises upheld
and fully kept. 3 No step remains for time to separate from its accomplishment. 4 For
now we cannot fail. 5 Sit silently and wait upon your Father. 6 He has willed to come to
you when you have recognized it is your will He do so. 7 And you could have never
come this far unless you saw, however dimly, that it is your will.
W-pII.in.6. I am so close to you we cannot fail. 2 Father, we give these holy times to
You, in gratitude to Him Who taught us how to leave the world of sorrow in exchange for
its replacement, given us by You. 3 We look not backward now. 4 We look ahead, and
fix our eyes upon the journey's end. 5 Accept these little gifts of thanks from us, as
through Christ's vision we behold a world beyond the one we made, and take that world
to be the full replacement of our own.
W-pII.in.7. And now we wait in silence, unafraid and certain of Your coming. 2 We
have sought to find our way by following the Guide You sent to us. 3 We did not know
the way, but You did not forget us. 4 And we know that You will not forget us now. 5
We ask but that Your ancient promises be kept which are Your Will to keep. 6 We will
with You in asking this. 7 The Father and the Son, Whose holy Will created all that is,
can fail in nothing. 8 In this certainty, we undertake these last few steps to You, and rest
in confidence upon Your Love, which will not fail the Son who calls to You.
W-pII.in.8. And so we start upon the final part of this one holy year, which we have
spent together in the search for truth and God, Who is its one Creator. 2 We have found
the way He chose for us, and made the choice to follow it as He would have us go. 3 His
Hand has held us up. 4 His Thoughts have lit the darkness of our minds. 5 His Love has
called to us unceasingly since time began.
W-pII.in.9. We had a wish that God would fail to have the Son whom He created for
Himself. 2 We wanted God to change Himself, and be what we would make of Him. 3
And we believed that our insane desires were the truth. 4 Now we are glad that this is all
undone, and we no longer think illusions true. 5 The memory of God is shimmering
across the wide horizons of our minds. 6 A moment more, and it will rise again. 7 A
moment more, and we who are God's Sons are safely home, where He would have us be.
W-pII.in.10. Now is the need for practice almost done. 2 For in this final section, we will
come to understand that we need only call to God, and all temptations disappear. 3
Instead of words, we need but feel His Love. 4 Instead of prayers, we need but call His
Name. 5 Instead of judging, we need but be still and let all things be healed. 6 We will
accept the way God's plan will end, as we received the way it started. 7 Now it is
complete. 8 This year has brought us to eternity.
W-pII.in.11. One further use for words we still retain. 2 From time to time, instructions
on a theme of special relevance will intersperse our daily lessons and the periods of
wordless, deep experience which should come afterwards. 3 These special thoughts
should be reviewed each day, each one of them to be continued till the next is given you.
4 They should be slowly read and thought about a little while, preceding one of the holy
and blessed instants in the day. 5 We give the first of these instructions now.
1. What Is Forgiveness?
W-pII.1.1. Forgiveness recognizes what you thought your brother did to you has not
occurred. 2 It does not pardon sins and make them real. 3 It sees there was no sin. 4 And
in that view are all your sins forgiven. 5 What is sin, except a false idea about God's Son?
6 Forgiveness merely sees its falsity, and therefore lets it go. 7 What then is free to take
its place is now the Will of God.
W-pII.1.2. An unforgiving thought is one which makes a judgment that it will not raise
to doubt, although it is not true. 2 The mind is closed, and will not be released. 3 The
thought protects projection, tightening its chains, so that distortions are more veiled and
more obscure; less easily accessible to doubt, and further kept from reason. 4 What can
come between a fixed projection and the aim that it has chosen as its wanted goal?
W-pII.1.3. An unforgiving thought does many things. 2 In frantic action it pursues its
goal, twisting and overturning what it sees as interfering with its chosen path. 3
Distortion is its purpose, and the means by which it would accomplish it as well. 4 It sets
about its furious attempts to smash reality, without concern for anything that would
appear to pose a contradiction to its point of view.
W-pII.1.4. Forgiveness, on the other hand, is still, and quietly does nothing. 2 It offends
no aspect of reality, nor seeks to twist it to appearances it likes. 3 It merely looks, and
waits, and judges not. 4 He who would not forgive must judge, for he must justify his
failure to forgive. 5 But he who would forgive himself must learn to welcome truth
exactly as it is.
W-pII.1.5. Do nothing, then, and let forgiveness show you what to do, through Him
Who is your Guide, your Savior and Protector, strong in hope, and certain of your
ultimate success. 2 He has forgiven you already, for such is His function, given Him by
God. 3 Now must you share His function, and forgive whom He has saved, whose
sinlessness He sees, and whom He honors as the Son of God.
LESSON 221.
LESSON 222.
W-222.2. <Father, we have no words except Your Name upon our lips and in our
minds, as we come quietly into Your Presence now, and ask to rest with You in peace a
while.>
LESSON 223.
W-223.2. <Our Father, let us see the face of Christ instead of our mistakes. 2 For we
who are Your holy Son are sinless. 3 We would look upon our sinlessness, for guilt
proclaims that we are not Your Son. 4 And we would not forget You longer. 5 We are
lonely here, and long for Heaven, where we are at home. 6 Today we would return. 7 Our
Name is Yours, and we acknowledge that we are Your Son.>
LESSON 224.
W-224.2. <My Name, O Father, still is known to You. 2 I have forgotten It, and do
not know where I am going, who I am, or what it is I do. 3 Remind me, Father, now, for I
am weary of the world I see. 4 Reveal what You would have me see instead.>
LESSON 225.
W-225.2. Brother, we find that stillness now. 2 The way is open. 3 Now we follow it
in peace together. 4 You have reached your hand to me, and I will never leave you. 5 We
are one, and it is but this oneness that we seek, as we accomplish these few final steps
which end a journey that was not begun.
LESSON 226.
W-226.2. <Father, my home awaits my glad return. 2 Your Arms are open and I hear
Your Voice. 3 What need have I to linger in a place of vain desires and of shattered
dreams, when Heaven can so easily be mine?>
LESSON 227.
W-227.2. And so today we find our glad return to Heaven, which we never really left.
2 The Son of God this day lays down his dreams. 3 The Son of God this day comes home
again, released from sin and clad in holiness, with his right mind restored to him at last.
LESSON 228.
W-228.2. <Father, I was mistaken in myself, because I failed to realize the Source
from which I came. 2 I have not left that Source to enter in a body and to die. 3 My
holiness remains a part of me, as I am part of You. 4 And my mistakes about myself are
dreams. 5 I let them go today. 6 And I stand ready to receive Your Word alone for what I
really am.>
LESSON 229.
W-229.2. <Father, my thanks to You for what I am; for keeping my Identity
untouched and sinless, in the midst of all the thoughts of sin my foolish mind made up. 2
And thanks to You for saving me from them. 3 Amen.>
LESSON 230.
W-230.2. <Father, I seek the peace You gave as mine in my creation. 2 What was
given then must be here now, for my creation was apart from time, and still remains
beyond all change. 3 The peace in which Your Son was born into Your Mind is shining
there unchanged. 4 I am as You created me. 5 I need but call on You to find the peace
You gave. 6 It is Your Will that gave it to Your Son.>
2. What Is Salvation?
W-pII.2.1. Salvation is a promise, made by God, that you would find your way to Him
at last. 2 It cannot but be kept. 3 It guarantees that time will have an end, and all the
thoughts that have been born in time will end as well. 4 God's Word is given every mind
which thinks that it has separate thoughts, and will replace these thoughts of conflict with
the Thought of peace.
W-pII.2.2. The Thought of peace was given to God's Son the instant that his mind had
thought of war. 2 There was no need for such a Thought before, for peace was given
without opposite, and merely was. 3 But when the mind is split there is a need of healing.
4 So the Thought that has the power to heal the split became a part of every fragment of
the mind that still was one, but failed to recognize its oneness. 5 Now it did not know
itself, and thought its own Identity was lost.
W-pII.2.3. Salvation is undoing in the sense that it does nothing, failing to support the
world of dreams and malice. 2 Thus it lets illusions go. 3 By not supporting them, it
merely lets them quietly go down to dust. 4 And what they hid is now revealed; an altar
to the holy Name of God whereon His Word is written, with the gifts of your forgiveness
laid before it, and the memory of God not far behind.
W-pII.2.4. Let us come daily to this holy place, and spend a while together. 2 Here we
share our final dream. 3 It is a dream in which there is no sorrow, for it holds a hint of all
the glory given us by God. 4 The grass is pushing through the soil, the trees are budding
now, and birds have come to live within their branches. 5 Earth is being born again in
new perspective. 6 Night has gone, and we have come together in the light.
W-pII.2.5. From here we give salvation to the world, for it is here salvation was
received. 2 The song of our rejoicing is the call to all the world that freedom is returned,
that time is almost over, and God's Son has but an instant more to wait until his Father is
remembered, dreams are done, eternity has shined away the world, and only Heaven now
exists at all.
LESSON 231.
W-231.2. This is your will, my brother. 2 And you share this will with me, and with
the One as well Who is our Father. 3 To remember Him is Heaven. 4 This we seek. 5
And only this is what it will be given us to find.
LESSON 232.
W-232.2. This is as every day should be. 2 Today, practice the end of fear. 3 Have
faith in Him Who is your Father. 4 Trust all things to Him. 5 Let Him reveal all things to
you, and be you undismayed because you are His Son.
LESSON 233.
W-233.2. Today we have one Guide to lead us on. 2 And as we walk together, we will
give this day to Him with no reserve at all. 3 This is His day. 4 And so it is a day of
countless gifts and mercies unto us.
LESSON 234.
W-234.2. <We thank You, Father, that we cannot lose the memory of You and of
Your Love. 2 We recognize our safety, and give thanks for all the gifts You have
bestowed on us, for all the loving help we have received, for Your eternal patience, and
the Word which You have given us that we are saved.>
LESSON 235.
W-235.2. <Father, Your Holiness is mine. 2 Your Love created me, and made my
sinlessness forever part of You. 3 I have no guilt nor sin in me, for there is none in You.>
LESSON 236.
LESSON 237.
W-237.2. <Christ is my eyes today, and He the ears that listen to the Voice for God
today. 2 Father, I come to You through Him Who is Your Son, and my true Self as well.
3 Amen.>
LESSON 238.
W-238.2. And so, again today, we pause to think how much our Father loves us. 2 And
how dear His Son, created by His Love, remains to Him Whose Love is made complete
in him.
LESSON 239.
LESSON 240.
W-240.2. <How foolish are our fears! 2 Would You allow Your Son to suffer? 3 Give
us faith today to recognize Your Son, and set him free. 4 Let us forgive him in Your
Name, that we may understand his holiness, and feel the love for him which is Your Own
as well.>
LESSON 241.
W-241.2. <We have forgiven one another now, and so we come at last to You again. 2
Father, Your Son, who never left, returns to Heaven and his home. 3 How glad are we to
have our sanity restored to us, and to remember that we all are one.>
LESSON 242.
W-242.2. <And so we give today to You. 2 We come with wholly open minds. 3 We
do not ask for anything that we may think we want. 4 Give us what You would have
received by us. 5 You know all our desires and our wants. 6 And You will give us
everything we need in helping us to find the way to You.>
LESSON 243.
LESSON 244.
W-244.2. And there we are in truth. 2 No storms can come into the hallowed haven of
our home. 3 In God we are secure. 4 For what can come to threaten God Himself, or
make afraid what will forever be a part of Him?
LESSON 245.
W-245.2. And so we go in peace. 2 To all the world we give the message that we have
received. 3 And thus we come to hear the Voice for God, Who speaks to us as we relate
His Word; Whose Love we recognize because we share the Word that He has given unto
us.
LESSON 246.
W-246.2. <I will accept the way You choose for me to come to You, my Father. 2 For
in that will I succeed, because it is Your Will. 3 And I would recognize that what You
will is what I will as well, and only that. 4 And so I choose to love Your Son. 5 Amen.>
LESSON 247.
W-247.2. <So would I look on everyone today. 2 My brothers are Your Sons. 3 Your
Fatherhood created them, and gave them all to me as part of You, and my own Self as
well. 4 Today I honor You through them, and thus I hope this day to recognize my Self.>
LESSON 248.
W-248.2. <Father, my ancient love for You returns, and lets me love Your Son again
as well. 2 Father, I am as You created me. 3 Now is Your Love remembered, and my
own. 4 Now do I understand that they are one.>
LESSON 249.
W-249.2. <Father, we would return our minds to You. 2 We have betrayed them, held
them in a vise of bitterness, and frightened them with thoughts of violence and death. 3
Now would we rest again in You, as You created us.>
LESSON 250.
W-250.2. <He is Your Son, my Father. 2 And today I would behold his gentleness
instead of my illusions. 3 He is what I am, and as I see him so I see myself. 4 Today I
would see truly, that this day I may at last identify with him.>
4. What Is Sin?
W-pII.4.1. Sin is insanity. 2 It is the means by which the mind is driven mad, and seeks
to let illusions take the place of truth. 3 And being mad, it sees illusions where the truth
should be, and where it really is. 4 Sin gave the body eyes, for what is there the sinless
would behold? 5 What need have they of sights or sounds or touch? 6 What would they
hear or reach to grasp? 7 What would they sense at all? 8 To sense is not to know. 9 And
truth can be but filled with knowledge, and with nothing else.
W-pII.4.2. The body is the instrument the mind made in its efforts to deceive itself. 2 Its
purpose is to strive. 3 Yet can the goal of striving change. 4 And now the body serves a
different aim for striving. 5 What it seeks for now is chosen by the aim the mind has
taken as replacement for the goal of self-deception. 6 Truth can be its aim as well as lies.
7 The senses then will seek instead for witnesses to what is true.
W-pII.4.3. Sin is the home of all illusions, which but stand for things imagined, issuing
from thoughts that are untrue. 2 They are the "proof" that what has no reality is real. 3 Sin
"proves" God's Son is evil; timelessness must have an end; eternal life must die. 4 And
God Himself has lost the Son He loves, with but corruption to complete Himself, His
Will forever overcome by death, love slain by hate, and peace to be no more.
W-pII.4.4. A madman's dreams are frightening, and sin appears indeed to terrify. 2 And
yet what sin perceives is but a childish game. 3 The Son of God may play he has become
a body, prey to evil and to guilt, with but a little life that ends in death. 4 But all the while
his Father shines on him, and loves him with an everlasting Love which his pretenses
cannot change at all.
W-pII.4.5. How long, O Son of God, will you maintain the game of sin? 2 Shall we not
put away these sharp-edged children's toys? 3 How soon will you be ready to come
home? 4 Perhaps today? 5 There is no sin. 6 Creation is unchanged. 7 Would you still
hold return to Heaven back? 8 How long, O holy Son of God, how long?
LESSON 251.
W-251.2. <And for that peace, our Father, we give thanks. 2 What we denied
ourselves You have restored, and only that is what we really want.>
LESSON 252.
W-252.2. <Father, You know my true Identity. 2 Reveal It now to me who am Your
Son, that I may waken to the truth in You, and know that Heaven is restored to me.>
LESSON 253.
LESSON 254.
W-254.2. Today we let no ego thoughts direct our words or actions. 2 When such
thoughts occur, we quietly step back and look at them, and then we let them go. 3 We do
not want what they would bring with them. 4 And so we do not choose to keep them. 5
They are silent now. 6 And in the stillness, hallowed by His Love, God speaks to us and
tells us of our will, as we have chosen to remember Him.
LESSON 255.
W-255.2. <And so, my Father, would I pass this day with You. 2 Your Son has not
forgotten You. 3 The peace You gave him still is in his mind, and it is there I choose to
spend today.>
LESSON 256.
W-256.2. <And so, our Father, would we come to You in Your appointed way. 2 We
have no goal except to hear Your Voice, and find the way Your sacred Word has pointed
out to us.>
LESSON 257.
W-257.2. <Father, forgiveness is Your chosen means for our salvation. 2 Let us not
forget today that we can have no will but Yours. 3 And thus our purpose must be Yours
as well, if we would reach the peace You will for us.>
LESSON 258.
W-258.2. <Our goal is but to follow in the way that leads to You. 2 We have no goal
but this. 3 What could we want but to remember You? 4 What could we seek but our
Identity?>
LESSON 259.
W-259.2. <Father, I would not be insane today. 2 I would not be afraid of love, nor
seek for refuge in its opposite. 3 For love can have no opposite. 4 You are the Source of
everything there is. 5 And everything that is remains with You, and You with it.>
LESSON 260.
W-260.2. Now is our Source remembered, and Therein we find our true Identity at
last. 2 Holy indeed are we, because our Source can know no sin. 3 And we who are His
Sons are like each other, and alike to Him.
LESSON 261.
W-261.2. <Let me not seek for idols. 2 I would come, my Father, home to You today.
3 I choose to be as You created me, and find the Son whom You created as my Self.>
LESSON 262.
W-262.2. We who are one would recognize this day the truth about ourselves. 2 We
would come home, and rest in unity. 3 For there is peace, and nowhere else can peace be
sought and found.
LESSON 263.
LESSON 264.
W-264.2. My brothers, join with me in this today. 2 This is salvation's prayer. 3 Must
we not join in what will save the world, along with us?
LESSON 265.
W-265.2. <In quiet would I look upon the world, which but reflects Your Thoughts,
and mine as well. 2 Let me remember that they are the same, and I will see creation's
gentleness.>
LESSON 266.
W-266.2. This day we enter into Paradise, calling upon God's Name and on our own,
acknowledging our Self in each of us; united in the holy Love of God. 2 How many
saviors God has given us! 3 How can we lose the way to Him, when He has filled the
world with those who point to Him, and given us the sight to look on them?
LESSON 267.
W-267.2. <Let me attend Your Answer, not my own. 2 Father, my heart is beating in
the peace the Heart of Love created. 3 It is there and only there that I can be at home.>
LESSON 268.
W-268.2. Let not our sight be blasphemous today, nor let our ears attend to lying
tongues. 2 Only reality is free of pain. 3 Only reality is free of loss. 4 Only reality is
wholly safe. 5 And it is only this we seek today.
LESSON 269.
W-269.2. Today our sight is blessed indeed. 2 We share one vision, as we look upon
the face of Him Whose Self is ours. 3 We are one because of Him Who is the Son of
God; of Him Who is our own Identity.
LESSON 270.
W-270.2. The quiet of today will bless our hearts, and through them peace will come
to everyone. 2 Christ is our eyes today. 3 And through His sight we offer healing to the
world through Him, the holy Son whom God created whole; the holy Son whom God
created One.
LESSON 271.
W-271.2. <Father, Christ's vision is the way to You. 2 What He beholds invites Your
memory to be restored to me. 3 And this I choose, to be what I would look upon today.>
LESSON 272.
W-272.2. Today we pass illusions by. 2 And if we hear temptation call to us to stay
and linger in a dream, we turn aside and ask ourselves if we, the Sons of God, could be
content with dreams, when Heaven can be chosen just as easily as hell, and love will
happily replace all fear.
LESSON 273.
W-273.2. <Father, Your peace is mine. 2 What need have I to fear that anything can
rob me of what You would have me keep? 3 I cannot lose Your gifts to me. 4 And so the
peace You gave Your Son is with me still, in quietness and in my own eternal love for
You.>
LESSON 274.
W-274.2. A special blessing comes to us today, from Him Who is our Father. 2 Give
this day to Him, and there will be no fear today, because the day is given unto love.
LESSON 275.
W-275.2. <Your healing Voice protects all things today, and so I leave all things to
You. 2 I need be anxious over nothing. 3 For Your Voice will tell me what to do and
where to go; to whom to speak and what to say to him, what thoughts to think, what
words to give the world. 4 The safety that I bring is given me. 5 Father, Your Voice
protects all things through me.>
LESSON 276.
W-276.2. <Father, Your Word is mine. 2 And it is this that I would speak to all my
brothers, who are given me to cherish as my own, as I am loved and blessed and saved by
You.>
LESSON 277.
W-277.2. Let us not worship idols, nor believe in any law idolatry would make to hide
the freedom of the Son of God. 2 He is not bound except by his beliefs. 3 Yet what he is,
is far beyond his faith in slavery or freedom. 4 He is free because he is his Father's Son. 5
And he cannot be bound unless God's truth can lie, and God can will that He deceive
Himself.
LESSON 278.
W-278.2. <Father, I ask for nothing but the truth. 2 I have had many foolish thoughts
about myself and my creation, and have brought a dream of fear into my mind. 3 Today, I
would not dream. 4 I choose the way to You instead of madness and instead of fear. 5 For
truth is safe, and only love is sure.>
LESSON 279.
W-279.2. <I will accept Your promises today, and give my faith to them. 2 My Father
loves the Son Whom He created as His Own. 3 Would You withhold the gifts You gave
to me?>
LESSON 280.
W-280.2. <Today let me give honor to Your Son, for thus alone I find the way to You.
2 Father, I lay no limits on the Son You love and You created limitless. 3 The honor that
I give to him is Yours, and what is Yours belongs to me as well.>
LESSON 281.
W-281.2. I will not hurt myself today. 2 For I am far beyond all pain. 3 My Father
placed me safe in Heaven, watching over me. 4 And I would not attack the Son He loves,
for what He loves is also mine to love.
LESSON 282.
W-282.2. <Father, Your Name is Love and so is mine. 2 Such is the truth. 3 And can
the truth be changed by merely giving it another name? 4 The name of fear is simply a
mistake. 5 Let me not be afraid of truth today.>
LESSON 283.
W-283.2. Now are we One in shared Identity, with God our Father as our only Source,
and everything created part of us. 2 And so we offer blessing to all things, uniting
lovingly with all the world, which our forgiveness has made one with us.
LESSON 284.
W-284.2. <Father, what You have given cannot hurt, so grief and pain must be
impossible. 2 Let me not fail to trust in You today, accepting but the joyous as Your gifts;
accepting but the joyous as the truth.>
LESSON 285.
LESSON 286.
W-286.2. The stillness of today will give us hope that we have found the way, and
travelled far along it to a wholly certain goal. 2 Today we will not doubt the end which
God Himself has promised us. 3 We trust in Him, and in our Self, Who still is One with
Him.
LESSON 287.
W-287.2. <You are my goal, my Father. 2 What but You could I desire to have? 3
What way but that which leads to You could I desire to walk? 4 And what except the
memory of You could signify to me the end of dreams and futile substitutions for the
truth? 5 You are my only goal. 6 Your Son would be as You created him. 7 What way but
this could I expect to recognize my Self, and be at one with my Identity?>
LESSON 288.
W-288.2. Forgive me, then, today. 2 And you will know you have forgiven me if you
behold your brother in the light of holiness. 3 He cannot be less holy than can I, and you
can not be holier than he.
LESSON 289.
W-289.2. <Father, let me not look upon a past that is not there. 2 For You have
offered me Your Own replacement, in a present world the past has left untouched and
free of sin. 3 Here is the end of guilt. 4 And here am I made ready for Your final step. 5
Shall I demand that You wait longer for Your Son to find the loveliness You planned to
be the end of all his dreams and all his pain?>
LESSON 290.
LESSON 291.
LESSON 292.
W-292.2. <We thank You, Father, for Your guarantee of only happy outcomes in the
end. 2 Help us not interfere, and so delay the happy endings You have promised us for
every problem that we can perceive; for every trial we think we still must meet.>
LESSON 293.
W-293.2. <Father, let not Your holy world escape my sight today. 2 Nor let my ears
be deaf to all the hymns of gratitude the world is singing underneath the sounds of fear. 3
There is a real world which the present holds safe from all past mistakes. 4 And I would
see only this world before my eyes today.>
LESSON 294.
W-294.2. <My body, Father, cannot be Your Son. 2 And what is not created cannot be
sinful nor sinless; neither good nor bad. 3 Let me, then, use this dream to help Your plan
that we awaken from all dreams we made.>
LESSON 295.
W-295.2. <My Father, Christ has asked a gift of me, and one I give that it be given
me. 2 Help me to use the eyes of Christ today, and thus allow the Holy Spirit's Love to
bless all things which I may look upon, that His forgiving Love may rest on me.>
LESSON 296.
W-296.2. We teach today what we would learn, and that alone. 2 And so our learning
goal becomes an unconflicted one, and possible of easy reach and quick accomplishment.
3 How gladly does the Holy Spirit come to rescue us from hell, when we allow His
teaching to persuade the world, through us, to seek and find the easy path to God.
LESSON 297.
Forgiveness is the only gift I give.
W-297.1. Forgiveness is the only gift I give, because it is the only gift I want. 2 And
everything I give I give myself. 3 This is salvation's simple formula. 4 And I, who would
be saved, would make it mine, to be the way I live within a world that needs salvation,
and that will be saved as I accept Atonement for myself.
W-297.2. <Father, how certain are Your ways; how sure their final outcome, and how
faithfully is every step in my salvation set already, and accomplished by Your grace. 2
Thanks be to You for Your eternal gifts, and thanks to You for my Identity.>
LESSON 298.
W-298.2. <Father, I come to You today, because I would not follow any way but
Yours. 2 You are beside me. 3 Certain is Your way. 4 And I am grateful for Your holy
gifts of certain sanctuary, and escape from everything that would obscure my love for
God my Father and His holy Son.>
LESSON 299.
LESSON 300.
Only an instant does this world endure.
W-300.1. This is a thought which can be used to say that death and sorrow are the
certain lot of all who come here, for their joys are gone before they are possessed, or even
grasped. 2 Yet this is also the idea that lets no false perception keep us in its hold, nor
represent more than a passing cloud upon a sky eternally serene. 3 And it is this serenity
we seek, unclouded, obvious and sure, today.
W-300.2. <We seek Your holy world today. 2 For we, Your loving Sons, have lost
our way a while. 3 But we have listened to Your Voice, and learned exactly what to do to
be restored to Heaven and our true Identity. 4 And we give thanks today the world
endures but for an instant. 5 We would go beyond that tiny instant to eternity.>
LESSON 301.
And God Himself shall wipe away all tears.
W-301.1. <Father, unless I judge I cannot weep. 2 Nor can I suffer pain, or feel I am
abandoned or unneeded in the world. 3 This is my home because I judge it not, and
therefore is it only what You will. 4 Let me today behold it uncondemned, through happy
eyes forgiveness has released from all distortion. 5 Let me see Your world instead of
mine. 6 And all the tears I shed will be forgotten, for their source is gone. 7 Father, I will
not judge Your world today.>
W-301.2. God's world is happy. 2 Those who look on it can only add their joy to it,
and bless it as a cause of further joy in them. 3 We wept because we did not understand. 4
But we have learned the world we saw was false, and we will look upon God's world
today.
LESSON 302.
W-302.2. Our Love awaits us as we go to Him, and walks beside us showing us the
way. 2 He fails in nothing. 3 He the End we seek, and He the Means by which we go to
Him.
LESSON 303.
W-303.2. <Your Son is welcome, Father. 2 He has come to save me from the evil self
I made. 3 He is the Self that You have given me. 4 He is but what I really am in truth. 5
He is the Son You love above all things. 6 He is my Self as You created me. 7 It is not
Christ that can be crucified. 8 Safe in Your Arms let me receive Your Son.>
LESSON 304.
W-304.2. <You lead me from the darkness to the light; from sin to holiness. 2 Let me
forgive, and thus receive salvation for the world. 3 It is Your gift, my Father, given me to
offer to Your holy Son, that he may find again the memory of You, and of Your Son as
You created him.>
LESSON 305.
W-305.2. <Father, the peace of Christ is given us, because it is Your Will that we be
saved. 2 Help us today but to accept Your gift, and judge it not. 3 For it has come to us to
save us from our judgment on ourselves.>
LESSON 306.
W-306.2. <And so, our Father, we return to You, remembering we never went away;
remembering Your holy gifts to us. 2 In gratitude and thankfulness we come, with empty
hands and open hearts and minds, asking but what You give. 3 We cannot make an
offering sufficient for Your Son. 4 But in Your Love the gift of Christ is his.>
LESSON 307.
W-307.2. And with this prayer we enter silently into a state where conflict cannot
come, because we join our holy will with God's, in recognition that they are the same.
LESSON 308.
W-308.2. <Thanks for this instant, Father. 2 It is now I am redeemed. 3 This instant is
the time You have appointed for Your Son's release, and for salvation of the world in
him.>
LESSON 309.
LESSON 310.
W-310.2. We spend this day together, you and I. 2 And all the world joins with us in
our song of thankfulness and joy to Him Who gave salvation to us, and Who set us free. 3
We are restored to peace and holiness. 4 There is no room in us for fear today, for we
have welcomed love into our hearts.
LESSON 311.
W-311.2. <Father, we wait with open mind today, to hear Your Judgment of the Son
You love. 2 We do not know him, and we cannot judge. 3 And so we let Your Love
decide what he whom You created as Your Son must be.>
LESSON 312.
W-312.2. <I have no purpose for today except to look upon a liberated world, set free
from all the judgments I have made. 2 Father, this is Your Will for me today, and
therefore it must be my goal as well.>
LESSON 313.
W-313.2. Let us today behold each other in the sight of Christ. 2 How beautiful we
are! 3 How holy and how loving! 4 Brother, come and join with me today. 5 We save the
world when we have joined. 6 For in our vision it becomes as holy as the light in us.
LESSON 314.
W-314.2. <Father, we were mistaken in the past, and choose to use the present to be
free. 2 Now do we leave the future in Your Hands, leaving behind our past mistakes, and
sure that You will keep Your present promises, and guide the future in their holy light.>
LESSON 315.
W-315.2. <I thank You, Father, for the many gifts that come to me today and every
day from every Son of God. 2 My brothers are unlimited in all their gifts to me. 3 Now
may I offer them my thankfulness, that gratitude to them may lead me on to my Creator
and His memory.>
LESSON 316.
All gifts I give my brothers are my own.
W-316.1. As every gift my brothers give is mine, so every gift I give belongs to me. 2
Each one allows a past mistake to go, and leave no shadow on the holy mind my Father
loves. 3 His grace is given me in every gift a brother has received throughout all time,
and past all time as well. 4 My treasure house is full, and angels watch its open doors that
not one gift is lost, and only more are added. 5 Let me come to where my treasures are,
and enter in where I am truly welcome and at home, among the gifts that God has given
me.
W-316.2. <Father, I would accept Your gifts today. 2 I do not recognize them. 3 Yet I
trust that You Who gave them will provide the means by which I can behold them, see
their worth, and cherish only them as what I want.>
LESSON 317.
W-317.2. <Father, Your way is what I choose today. 2 Where it would lead me do I
choose to go; what it would have me do I choose to do. 3 Your way is certain, and the
end secure. 4 The memory of You awaits me there. 5 And all my sorrows end in Your
embrace, which You have promised to Your Son, who thought mistakenly that he had
wandered from the sure protection of Your loving Arms.>
LESSON 318.
LESSON 319.
W-319.2. <Father, Your Will is total. 2 And the goal which stems from it shares its
totality. 3 What aim but the salvation of the world could You have given me? 4 And what
but this could be the Will my Self has shared with You?>
LESSON 320.
W-320.2. <Your Will can do all things in me, and then extend to all the world as well
through me. 2 There is no limit on Your Will. 3 And so all power has been given to Your
Son.>
LESSON 321.
W-321.2. Today we answer for the world, which will be freed along with us. 2 How
glad are we to find our freedom through the certain way our Father has established. 3 And
how sure is all the world's salvation, when we learn our freedom can be found in God
alone.
LESSON 322.
LESSON 323.
W-323.2. And as we pay the debt we owe to truth,–a debt that merely is the letting go
of self-deceptions and of images we worshipped falsely–truth returns to us in wholeness
and in joy. 2 We are deceived no longer. 3 Love has now returned to our awareness. 4
And we are at peace again, for fear has gone and only love remains.
LESSON 324.
W-324.2. So let us follow One Who knows the way. 2 We need not tarry, and we
cannot stray except an instant from His loving Hand. 3 We walk together, for we follow
Him. 4 And it is He Who makes the ending sure, and guarantees a safe returning home.
LESSON 325.
W-325.2. <Our Father, Your ideas reflect the truth, and mine apart from Yours but
make up dreams. 2 Let me behold what only Yours reflect, for Yours and Yours alone
establish truth.>
LESSON 326.
W-326.2. Let us today behold earth disappear, at first transformed, and then, forgiven,
fade entirely into God's holy Will.
LESSON 327.
W-327.2. <Father, I thank You that Your promises will never fail in my experience, if
I but test them out. 2 Let me attempt therefore to try them, and to judge them not. 3 Your
Word is one with You. 4 You give the means whereby conviction comes, and surety of
Your abiding Love is gained at last.>
LESSON 328.
W-328.2. <There is no will but Yours. 2 And I am glad that nothing I imagine
contradicts what You would have me be. 3 It is Your Will that I be wholly safe, eternally
at peace. 4 And happily I share that Will which You, my Father, gave as part of me.>
LESSON 329.
W-329.2. Today we will accept our union with each other and our Source. 2 We have
no will apart from His, and all of us are one because His Will is shared by all of us. 3
Through it we recognize that we are one. 4 Through it we find our way at last to God.
LESSON 330.
W-330.2. <Father, Your Son can not be hurt. 2 And if we think we suffer, we but fail
to know our one Identity we share with You. 3 We would return to It today, to be made
free forever from all our mistakes, and to be saved from what we thought we were.>
LESSON 331.
LESSON 332.
W-332.2. <We would not bind the world again today. 2 Fear holds it prisoner. 3 And
yet Your Love has given us the means to set it free. 4 Father, we would release it now. 5
For as we offer freedom, it is given us. 6 And we would not remain as prisoners, while
You are holding freedom out to us.>
LESSON 333.
W-333.2. <Father, forgiveness is the light You chose to shine away all conflict and all
doubt, and light the way for our return to You. 2 No light but this can end our evil dream.
3 No light but this can save the world. 4 For this alone will never fail in anything, being
Your gift to Your beloved Son.>
LESSON 334.
W-334.2. <I seek but the eternal. 2 For Your Son can be content with nothing less
than this. 3 What, then, can be his solace but what You are offering to his bewildered
mind and frightened heart, to give him certainty and bring him peace? 4 Today I would
behold my brother sinless. 5 This Your Will for me, for so will I behold my sinlessness.>
LESSON 335.
W-335.2. <What could restore Your memory to me, except to see my brother's
sinlessness? 2 His holiness reminds me that he was created one with me, and like myself.
3 In him I find my Self, and in Your Son I find the memory of You as well.>
LESSON 336.
W-336.2. <In quiet may forgiveness wipe away my dreams of separation and of sin. 2
Then let me, Father, look within, and find Your promise of my sinlessness is kept; Your
Word remains unchanged within my mind, Your Love is still abiding in my heart.>
LESSON 337.
My sinlessness protects me from all harm.
W-337.1. My sinlessness ensures me perfect peace, eternal safety, everlasting love,
freedom forever from all thought of loss; complete deliverance from suffering. 2 And
only happiness can be my state, for only happiness is given me. 3 What must I do to
know all this is mine? 4 I must accept Atonement for myself, and nothing more. 5 God
has already done all things that need be done. 6 And I must learn I need do nothing of
myself, for I need but accept my Self, my sinlessness, created for me, now already mine,
to feel God's Love protecting me from harm, to understand my Father loves His Son; to
know I am the Son my Father loves.
W-337.2. <You Who created me in sinlessness are not mistaken about what I am. 2 I
was mistaken when I thought I sinned, but I accept Atonement for myself. 3 Father, my
dream is ended now. 4 Amen.>
LESSON 338.
W-338.2. <Your plan is sure, my Father,–only Yours. 2 All other plans will fail. 3
And I will have thoughts that will frighten me, until I learn that You have given me the
only Thought that leads me to salvation. 4 Mine alone will fail, and lead me nowhere. 5
But the Thought You gave me promises to lead me home, because it holds Your promise
to Your Son.>
LESSON 339.
LESSON 340.
W-340.2. Be glad today! 2 Be glad! 3 There is no room for anything but joy and
thanks today. 4 Our Father has redeemed His Son this day. 5 Not one of us but will be
saved today. 6 Not one who will remain in fear, and none the Father will not gather to
Himself, awake in Heaven in the Heart of Love.
LESSON 341.
W-341.2. Let us not, then, attack our sinlessness, for it contains the Word of God to us.
2 And in its kind reflection we are saved.
LESSON 342.
W-342.2. Brother, forgive me now. 2 I come to you to take you home with me. 3 And
as we go, the world goes with us on our way to God.
LESSON 343.
W-343.2. The mercy and the peace of God are free. 2 Salvation has no cost. 3 It is a
gift that must be freely given and received. 4 And it is this that we would learn today.
LESSON 344.
W-344.2. How near we are to one another, as we go to God. 2 How near is He to us. 3
How close the ending of the dream of sin, and the redemption of the Son of God.
LESSON 345.
W-345.2. Peace to all seeking hearts today. 2 The light has come to offer miracles to
bless the tired world. 3 It will find rest today, for we will offer what we have received.
LESSON 346.
Today the peace of God envelops me,
And I forget all things except His Love.
W-346.1. <Father, I wake today with miracles correcting my perception of all things.
2 And so begins the day I share with You as I will share eternity, for time has stepped
aside today. 3 I do not seek the things of time, and so I will not look upon them. 4 What I
seek today transcends all laws of time and things perceived in time. 5 I would forget all
things except Your Love. 6 I would abide in You, and know no laws except Your law of
love. 7 And I would find the peace which You created for Your Son, forgetting all the
foolish toys I made as I behold Your glory and my own.>
W-346.2. And when the evening comes today, we will remember nothing but the
peace of God. 2 For we will learn today what peace is ours, when we forget all things
except God's Love.
LESSON 347.
W-347.2. Listen today. 2 Be very still, and hear the gentle Voice for God assuring you
that He has judged you as the Son He loves.
LESSON 348.
W-348.2. God's grace suffices us in everything that He would have us do. 2 And only
that we choose to be our will as well as His.
LESSON 349.
W-349.2. Our Father knows our needs. 2 He gives us grace to meet them all. 3 And so
we trust in Him to send us miracles to bless the world, and heal our minds as we return to
Him.
LESSON 350.
W-350.2. And as we gather miracles from Him, we will indeed be grateful. 2 For as
we remember Him, His Son will be restored to us in the reality of Love.
14. What Am I?
W-pII.14.1. <I am God's Son, complete and healed and whole, shining in the reflection
of His Love. 2 In me is His creation sanctified and guaranteed eternal life. 3 In me is love
perfected, fear impossible, and joy established without opposite. 4 I am the holy home of
God Himself. 5 I am the Heaven where His Love resides. 6 I am His holy Sinlessness
Itself, for in my purity abides His Own.>
W-pII.14.2. Our use for words is almost over now. 2 Yet in the final days of this one
year we gave to God together, you and I, we found a single purpose that we shared. 3
And thus you joined with me, so what I am are you as well. 4 The truth of what we are is
not for words to speak of nor describe. 5 Yet we can realize our function here, and words
can speak of this and teach it, too, if we exemplify the words in us.
W-pII.14.3. We are the bringers of salvation. 2 We accept our part as saviors of the
world, which through our joint forgiveness is redeemed. 3 And this, our gift, is therefore
given us. 4 We look on everyone as brother, and perceive all things as kindly and as
good. 5 We do not seek a function that is past the gate of Heaven. 6 Knowledge will
return when we have done our part. 7 We are concerned only with giving welcome to the
truth.
W-pII.14.4. Ours are the eyes through which Christ's vision sees a world redeemed from
every thought of sin. 2 Ours are the ears that hear the Voice for God proclaim the world
as sinless. 3 Ours the minds that join together as we bless the world. 4 And from the
oneness that we have attained we call to all our brothers, asking them to share our peace
and consummate our joy.
W-pII.14.5. We are the holy messengers of God who speak for Him, and carrying His
Word to everyone whom He has sent to us, we learn that it is written on our hearts. 2 And
thus our minds are changed about the aim for which we came, and which we seek to
serve. 3 We bring glad tidings to the Son of God, who thought he suffered. 4 Now is he
redeemed. 5 And as he sees the gate of Heaven stand open before him, he will enter in
and disappear into the Heart of God.
LESSON 351.
LESSON 352.
LESSON 353.
LESSON 354.
LESSON 355.
LESSON 356.
LESSON 357.
LESSON 358.
LESSON 360.
FINAL LESSONS.
Introduction
W.fl.in.1. Our final lessons will be left as free of words as possible. 2 We use them but
at the beginning of our practicing, and only to remind us that we seek to go beyond them.
3 Let us turn to Him Who leads the way and makes our footsteps sure. 4 To Him we
leave these lessons, as to Him we give our lives henceforth. 5 For we would not return
again to the belief in sin that made the world seem ugly and unsafe, attacking and
destroying, dangerous in all its ways, and treacherous beyond the hope of trust and the
escape from pain.
W.fl.in.2. His is the only way to find the peace that God has given us. 2 It is His way
that everyone must travel in the end, because it is this ending God Himself appointed. 3
In the dream of time it seems to be far off. 4 And yet, in truth, it is already here; already
serving us as gracious guidance in the way to go. 5 Let us together follow in the way that
truth points out to us. 6 And let us be the leaders of our many brothers who are seeking
for the way, but find it not.
W.fl.in.3. And to this purpose let us dedicate our minds, directing all our thoughts to
serve the function of salvation. 2 Unto us the aim is given to forgive the world. 3 It is the
goal that God has given us. 4 It is His ending to the dream we seek, and not our own. 5
For all that we forgive we will not fail to recognize as part of God Himself. 6 And thus
His memory is given back, completely and complete.
W.fl.in.4. It is our function to remember Him on earth, as it is given us to be His Own
completion in reality. 2 So let us not forget our goal is shared, for it is that remembrance
which contains the memory of God, and points the way to Him and to the Heaven of His
peace. 3 And shall we not forgive our brother, who can offer this to us? 4 He is the way,
the truth and life that shows the way to us. 5 In him resides salvation, offered us through
our forgiveness, given unto him.
W.fl.in.5. We will not end this year without the gift our Father promised to His holy
Son. 2 We are forgiven now. 3 And we are saved from all the wrath we thought belonged
to God, and found it was a dream. 4 We are restored to sanity, in which we understand
that anger is insane, attack is mad, and vengeance merely foolish fantasy. 5 We have been
saved from wrath because we learned we were mistaken. 6 Nothing more than that. 7 And
is a father angry at his son because he failed to understand the truth?
W.fl.in.6. We come in honesty to God and say we did not understand, and ask Him to
help us to learn His lessons, through the Voice of His Own Teacher. 2 Would He hurt His
Son? 3 Or would He rush to answer him, and say, "This is My Son, and all I have is his"?
4 Be certain He will answer thus, for these are His Own words to you. 5 And more than
that can no one ever have, for in these words is all there is, and all that there will be
throughout all time and in eternity.
EPILOGUE
W.ep.1. This course is a beginning, not an end. 2 Your Friend goes with you. 3 You
are not alone. 4 No one who calls on Him can call in vain. 5 Whatever troubles you, be
certain that He has the answer, and will gladly give it to you, if you simply turn to Him
and ask it of Him. 6 He will not withhold all answers that you need for anything that
seems to trouble you. 7 He knows the way to solve all problems, and resolve all doubts. 8
His certainty is yours. 9 You need but ask it of Him, and it will be given you.
W.ep.2. You are as certain of arriving home as is the pathway of the sun laid down
before it rises, after it has set, and in the half-lit hours in between. 2 Indeed, your pathway
is more certain still. 3 For it can not be possible to change the course of those whom God
has called to Him. 4 Therefore obey your will, and follow Him Whom you accepted as
your voice, to speak of what you really want and really need. 5 His is the Voice for God
and also yours. 6 And thus He speaks of freedom and of truth.
W.ep.3. No more specific lessons are assigned, for there is no more need of them. 2
Henceforth, hear but the Voice for God and for your Self when you retire from the world,
to seek reality instead. 3 He will direct your efforts, telling you exactly what to do, how
to direct your mind, and when to come to Him in silence, asking for His sure direction
and His certain Word. 4 His is the Word that God has given you. 5 His is the Word you
chose to be your own.
W.ep.4. And now I place you in His hands, to be His faithful follower, with Him as
Guide through every difficulty and all pain that you may think is real. 2 Nor will He give
you pleasures that will pass away, for He gives only the eternal and the good. 3 Let Him
prepare you further. 4 He has earned your trust by speaking daily to you of your Father
and your brother and your Self. 5 He will continue. 6 Now you walk with Him, as certain
as is He of where you go; as sure as He of how you should proceed; as confident as He is
of the goal, and of your safe arrival in the end.
W.ep.5. The end is certain, and the means as well. 2 To this we say "Amen." 3 You
will be told exactly what God wills for you each time there is a choice to make. 4 And He
will speak for God and for your Self, thus making sure that hell will claim you not, and
that each choice you make brings Heaven nearer to your reach. 5 And so we walk with
Him from this time on, and turn to Him for guidance and for peace and sure direction. 6
Joy attends our way. 7 For we go homeward to an open door which God has held
unclosed to welcome us.
W.ep.6. We trust our ways to Him and say "Amen." 2 In peace we will continue in
His way, and trust all things to Him. 3 In confidence we wait His answers, as we ask His
Will in everything we do. 4 He loves God's Son as we would love him. 5 And He teaches
us how to behold him through His eyes, and love him as He does. 6 You do not walk
alone. 7 God's angels hover near and all about. 8 His Love surrounds you, and of this be
sure; that I will never leave you comfortless.
INTRODUCTION
M-in.1. The role of teaching and learning is actually reversed in the thinking of the
world. 2 The reversal is characteristic. 3 It seems as if the teacher and the learner are
separated, the teacher giving something to the learner rather than to himself. 4 Further,
the act of teaching is regarded as a special activity, in which one engages only a relatively
small proportion of one's time. 5 The course, on the other hand, emphasizes that to teach
<is> to learn, so that teacher and learner are the same. 6 It also emphasizes that teaching
is a constant process; it goes on every moment of the day, and continues into sleeping
thoughts as well.
M-in.2. To teach is to demonstrate. 2 There are only two thought systems, and you
demonstrate that you believe one or the other is true all the time. 3 From your
demonstration others learn, and so do you. 4 The question is not whether you will teach,
for in that there is no choice. 5 The purpose of the course might be said to provide you
with a means of choosing what you want to teach on the basis of what you want to learn.
6 You cannot give to someone else, but only to yourself, and this you learn through
teaching. 7 Teaching is but a call to witnesses to attest to what you believe. 8 It is a
method of conversion. 9 This is not done by words alone. 10 Any situation must be to
you a chance to teach others what you are, and what they are to you. 11 No more than
that, but also never less.
M-in.3. The curriculum you set up is therefore determined exclusively by what you
think you are, and what you believe the relationship of others is to you. 2 In the formal
teaching situation, these questions may be totally unrelated to what you think you are
teaching. 3 Yet it is impossible not to use the content of any situation on behalf of what
you really teach, and therefore really learn. 4 To this the verbal content of your teaching
is quite irrelevant. 5 It may coincide with it, or it may not. 6 It is the teaching underlying
what you say that teaches you. 7 Teaching but reinforces what you believe about
yourself. 8 Its fundamental purpose is to diminish self-doubt. 9 This does not mean that
the self you are trying to protect is real. 10 But it does mean that the self you think is real
is what you teach.
M-in.4. This is inevitable. 2 There is no escape from it. 3 How could it be otherwise?
4 Everyone who follows the world's curriculum, and everyone here does follow it until he
changes his mind, teaches solely to convince himself that he is what he is not. 5 Herein is
the purpose of the world. 6 What else, then, would its curriculum be? 7 Into this hopeless
and closed learning situation, which teaches nothing but despair and death, God sends
His teachers. 8 And as they teach His lessons of joy and hope, their learning finally
becomes complete.
M-in.5. Except for God's teachers there would be little hope of salvation, for the
world of sin would seem forever real. 2 The self-deceiving must deceive, for they must
teach deception. 3 And what else is hell? 4 This is a manual for the teachers of God. 5
They are not perfect, or they would not be here. 6 Yet it is their mission to become
perfect here, and so they teach perfection over and over, in many, many ways, until they
have learned it. 7 And then they are seen no more, although their thoughts remain a
source of strength and truth forever. 8 Who are they? 9 How are they chosen? 10 What do
they do? 11 How can they work out their own salvation and the salvation of the world?
12 This manual attempts to answer these questions.
I. Trust
M-4.I.1. This is the foundation on which their ability to fulfill their function rests. 2
Perception is the result of learning. 3 In fact, perception <is> learning, because cause and
effect are never separated. 4 The teachers of God have trust in the world, because they
have learned it is not governed by the laws the world made up. 5 It is governed by a
power that is <in> them but not <of> them. 6 It is this power that keeps all things safe. 7
It is through this power that the teachers of God look on a forgiven world.
M-4.I.2. When this power has once been experienced, it is impossible to trust one's
own petty strength again. 2 Who would attempt to fly with the tiny wings of a sparrow
when the mighty power of an eagle has been given him? 3 And who would place his faith
in the shabby offerings of the ego when the gifts of God are laid before him? 4 What is it
that induces them to make the shift?
A. Development of Trust
M-4.I.A.3. First, they must go through what might be called "a period of undoing." 2
This need not be painful, but it usually is so experienced. 3 It seems as if things are being
taken away, and it is rarely understood initially that their lack of value is merely being
recognized. 4 How can lack of value be perceived unless the perceiver is in a position
where he must see things in a different light? 5 He is not yet at a point at which he can
make the shift entirely internally. 6 And so the plan will sometimes call for changes in
what seem to be external circumstances. 7 These changes are always helpful. 8 When the
teacher of God has learned that much, he goes on to the second stage.
M-4.I.A.4. Next, the teacher of God must go through "a period of sorting out." 2 This is
always somewhat difficult because, having learned that the changes in his life are always
helpful, he must now decide all things on the basis of whether they increase the
helpfulness or hamper it. 3 He will find that many, if not most of the things he valued
before will merely hinder his ability to transfer what he has learned to new situations as
they arise. 4 Because he has valued what is really valueless, he will not generalize the
lesson for fear of loss and sacrifice. 5 It takes great learning to understand that all things,
events, encounters and circumstances are helpful. 6 It is only to the extent to which they
are helpful that any degree of reality should be accorded them in this world of illusion. 7
The word "value" can apply to nothing else.
M-4.I.A.5. The third stage through which the teacher of God must go can be called "a
period of relinquishment." 2 If this is interpreted as giving up the desirable, it will
engender enormous conflict. 3 Few teachers of God escape this distress entirely. 4 There
is, however, no point in sorting out the valuable from the valueless unless the next
obvious step is taken. 5 Therefore, the period of overlap is apt to be one in which the
teacher of God feels called upon to sacrifice his own best interests on behalf of truth. 6
He has not realized as yet how wholly impossible such a demand would be. 7 He can
learn this only as he actually does give up the valueless. 8 Through this, he learns that
where he anticipated grief, he finds a happy lightheartedness instead; where he thought
something was asked of him, he finds a gift bestowed on him.
M-4.I.A.6. Now comes "a period of settling down." 2 This is a quiet time, in which the
teacher of God rests a while in reasonable peace. 3 Now he consolidates his learning. 4
Now he begins to see the transfer value of what he has learned. 5 Its potential is literally
staggering, and the teacher of God is now at the point in his progress at which he sees in
it his whole way out. 6 "Give up what you do not want, and keep what you do." 7 How
simple is the obvious! 8 And how easy to do! 9 The teacher of God needs this period of
respite. 10 He has not yet come as far as he thinks. 11 Yet when he is ready to go on, he
goes with mighty companions beside him. 12 Now he rests a while, and gathers them
before going on. 13 He will not go on from here alone.
M-4.I.A.7. The next stage is indeed "a period of unsettling." 2 Now must the teacher of
God understand that he did not really know what was valuable and what was valueless. 3
All that he really learned so far was that he did not want the valueless, and that he did
want the valuable. 4 Yet his own sorting out was meaningless in teaching him the
difference. 5 The idea of sacrifice, so central to his own thought system, had made it
impossible for him to judge. 6 He thought he learned willingness, but now he sees that he
does not know what the willingness is for. 7 And now he must attain a state that may
remain impossible to reach for a long, long time. 8 He must learn to lay all judgment
aside, and ask only what he really wants in every circumstance. 9 Were not each step in
this direction so heavily reinforced, it would be hard indeed!
M-4.I.A.8. And finally, there is "a period of achievement." 2 It is here that learning is
consolidated. 3 Now what was seen as merely shadows before become solid gains, to be
counted on in all "emergencies" as well as tranquil times. 4 Indeed, the tranquility is their
result; the outcome of honest learning, consistency of thought and full transfer. 5 This is
the stage of real peace, for here is Heaven's state fully reflected. 6 From here, the way to
Heaven is open and easy. 7 In fact, it is here. 8 Who would "go" anywhere, if peace of
mind is already complete? 9 And who would seek to change tranquility for something
more desirable? 10 What could be more desirable than this?
II. Honesty
M-4.II.1. All other traits of God's teachers rest on trust. 2 Once that has been achieved,
the others cannot fail to follow. 3 Only the trusting can afford honesty, for only they can
see its value. 4 Honesty does not apply only to what you say. 5 The term actually means
consistency. 6 There is nothing you say that contradicts what you think or do; no thought
opposes any other thought; no act belies your word; and no word lacks agreement with
another. 7 Such are the truly honest. 8 At no level are they in conflict with themselves. 9
Therefore it is impossible for them to be in conflict with anyone or anything.
M-4.II.2. The peace of mind which the advanced teachers of God experience is largely
due to their perfect honesty. 2 It is only the wish to deceive that makes for war. 3 No one
at one with himself can even conceive of conflict. 4 Conflict is the inevitable result of
self-deception, and self-deception is dishonesty. 5 There is no challenge to a teacher of
God. 6 Challenge implies doubt, and the trust on which God's teachers rest secure makes
doubt impossible. 7 Therefore they can only succeed. 8 In this, as in all things, they are
honest. 9 They can only succeed, because they never do their will alone. 10 They choose
for all mankind; for all the world and all things in it; for the unchanging and
unchangeable beyond appearances; and for the Son of God and his Creator. 11 How
could they not succeed? 12 They choose in perfect honesty, sure of their choice as of
themselves.
III. Tolerance
M-4.III.1. God's teachers do not judge. 2 To judge is to be dishonest, for to judge is to
assume a position you do not have. 3 Judgment without self-deception is impossible. 4
Judgment implies that you have been deceived in your brothers. 5 How, then, could you
not have been deceived in yourself? 6 Judgment implies a lack of trust, and trust remains
the bedrock of the teacher of God's whole thought system. 7 Let this be lost, and all his
learning goes. 8 Without judgment are all things equally acceptable, for who could judge
otherwise? 9 Without judgment are all men brothers, for who is there who stands apart?
10 Judgment destroys honesty and shatters trust. 11 No teacher of God can judge and
hope to learn.
IV. Gentleness
M-4.IV.1. Harm is impossible for God's teachers. 2 They can neither harm nor be
harmed. 3 Harm is the outcome of judgment. 4 It is the dishonest act that follows a
dishonest thought. 5 It is a verdict of guilt upon a brother, and therefore on oneself. 6 It is
the end of peace and the denial of learning. 7 It demonstrates the absence of God's
curriculum, and its replacement by insanity. 8 No teacher of God but must learn,–and
fairly early in his training,–that harmfulness completely obliterates his function from his
awareness. 9 It will make him confused, fearful, angry and suspicious. 10 It will make the
Holy Spirit's lessons impossible to learn. 11 Nor can God's Teacher be heard at all, except
by those who realize that harm can actually achieve nothing. 12 No gain can come of it.
M-4.IV.2. Therefore, God's teachers are wholly gentle. 2 They need the strength of
gentleness, for it is in this that the function of salvation becomes easy. 3 To those who
would do harm, it is impossible. 4 To those to whom harm has no meaning, it is merely
natural. 5 What choice but this has meaning to the sane? 6 Who chooses hell when he
perceives a way to Heaven? 7 And who would choose the weakness that must come from
harm in place of the unfailing, all-encompassing and limitless strength of gentleness? 8
The might of God's teachers lies in their gentleness, for they have understood their evil
thoughts came neither from God's Son nor his Creator. 9 Thus did they join their thoughts
with Him Who is their Source. 10 And so their will, which always was His Own, is free
to be itself.
V. Joy
M-4.V.1. Joy is the inevitable result of gentleness. 2 Gentleness means that fear is now
impossible, and what could come to interfere with joy? 3 The open hands of gentleness
are always filled. 4 The gentle have no pain. 5 They cannot suffer. 6 Why would they not
be joyous? 7 They are sure they are beloved and must be safe. 8 Joy goes with gentleness
as surely as grief attends attack. 9 God's teachers trust in Him. 10 And they are sure His
Teacher goes before them, making sure no harm can come to them. 11 They hold His
gifts and follow in His way, because God's Voice directs them in all things. 12 Joy is
their song of thanks. 13 And Christ looks down on them in thanks as well. 14 His need of
them is just as great as theirs of Him. 15 How joyous it is to share the purpose of
salvation!
VI. Defenselessness
M-4.VI.1. God's teachers have learned how to be simple. 2 They have no dreams that
need defense against the truth. 3 They do not try to make themselves. 4 Their joy comes
from their understanding Who created them. 5 And does what God created need defense?
6 No one can become an advanced teacher of God until he fully understands that defenses
are but foolish guardians of mad illusions. 7 The more grotesque the dream, the fiercer
and more powerful its defenses seem to be. 8 Yet when the teacher of God finally agrees
to look past them, he finds that nothing was there. 9 Slowly at first he lets himself be
undeceived. 10 But he learns faster as his trust increases. 11 It is not danger that comes
when defenses are laid down. 12 It is safety. 13 It is peace. 14 It is joy. 15 And it is God.
VII. Generosity
M-4.VII.1. The term generosity has special meaning to the teacher of God. 2 It is not the
usual meaning of the word; in fact, it is a meaning that must be learned and learned very
carefully. 3 Like all the other attributes of God's teachers this one rests ultimately on
trust, for without trust no one can be generous in the true sense. 4 To the world,
generosity means "giving away" in the sense of "giving up." 5 To the teachers of God, it
means giving away in order to keep. 6 This has been emphasized throughout the text and
the workbook, but it is perhaps more alien to the thinking of the world than many other
ideas in our curriculum. 7 Its greater strangeness lies merely in the obviousness of its
reversal of the world's thinking. 8 In the clearest way possible, and at the simplest of
levels, the word means the exact opposite to the teachers of God and to the world.
M-4.VII.2. The teacher of God is generous out of Self interest. 2 This does not refer,
however, to the self of which the world speaks. 3 The teacher of God does not want
anything he cannot give away, because he realizes it would be valueless to him by
definition. 4 What would he want it <for>? 5 He could only lose because of it. 6 He could
not gain. 7 Therefore he does not seek what only he could keep, because that is a
guarantee of loss. 8 He does not want to suffer. 9 Why should he ensure himself pain? 10
But he does want to keep for himself all things that are of God, and therefore for His Son.
11 These are the things that belong to him. 12 These he can give away in true generosity,
protecting them forever for himself.
VIII. Patience
M-4.VIII.1. Those who are certain of the outcome can afford to wait, and wait without
anxiety. 2 Patience is natural to the teacher of God. 3 All he sees is certain outcome, at a
time perhaps unknown to him as yet, but not in doubt. 4 The time will be as right as is the
answer. 5 And this is true for everything that happens now or in the future. 6 The past as
well held no mistakes; nothing that did not serve to benefit the world, as well as him to
whom it seemed to happen. 7 Perhaps it was not understood at the time. 8 Even so, the
teacher of God is willing to reconsider all his past decisions, if they are causing pain to
anyone. 9 Patience is natural to those who trust. 10 Sure of the ultimate interpretation of
all things in time, no outcome already seen or yet to come can cause them fear.
IX. Faithfulness
M-4.IX.1. The extent of the teacher of God's faithfulness is the measure of his
advancement in the curriculum. 2 Does he still select some aspects of his life to bring to
his learning, while keeping others apart? 3 If so, his advancement is limited, and his trust
not yet firmly established. 4 Faithfulness is the teacher of God's trust in the Word of God
to set all things right; not some, but all. 5 Generally, his faithfulness begins by resting on
just some problems, remaining carefully limited for a time. 6 To give up all problems to
one Answer is to reverse the thinking of the world entirely. 7 And that alone is
faithfulness. 8 Nothing but that really deserves the name. 9 Yet each degree, however
small, is worth achieving. 10 Readiness, as the text notes, is not mastery.
M-4.IX.2. True faithfulness, however, does not deviate. 2 Being consistent, it is wholly
honest. 3 Being unswerving, it is full of trust. 4 Being based on fearlessness, it is gentle. 5
Being certain, it is joyous. 6 And being confident, it is tolerant. 7 Faithfulness, then,
combines in itself the other attributes of God's teachers. 8 It implies acceptance of the
Word of God and His definition of His Son. 9 It is to Them that faithfulness in the true
sense is always directed. 10 Toward Them it looks, seeking until it finds. 11
Defenselessness attends it naturally, and joy is its condition. 12 And having found, it rests
in quiet certainty on that alone to which all faithfulness is due.
X. Open-Mindedness
M-4.X.1. The centrality of open-mindedness, perhaps the last of the attributes the
teacher of God acquires, is easily understood when its relation to forgiveness is
recognized. 2 Open-mindedness comes with lack of judgment. 3 As judgment shuts the
mind against God's Teacher, so open-mindedness invites Him to come in. 4 As
condemnation judges the Son of God as evil, so open-mindedness permits him to be
judged by the Voice for God on His behalf. 5 As the projection of guilt upon him would
send him to hell, so open-mindedness lets Christ's image be extended to him. 6 Only the
open-minded can be at peace, for they alone see reason for it.
M-4.X.2. How do the open-minded forgive? 2 They have let go all things that would
prevent forgiveness. 3 They have in truth abandoned the world, and let it be restored to
them in newness and in joy so glorious they could never have conceived of such a
change. 4 Nothing is now as it was formerly. 5 Nothing but sparkles now which seemed
so dull and lifeless before. 6 And above all are all things welcoming, for threat is gone. 7
No clouds remain to hide the face of Christ. 8 Now is the goal achieved. 9 Forgiveness is
the final goal of the curriculum. 10 It paves the way for what goes far beyond all
learning. 11 The curriculum makes no effort to exceed its legitimate goal. 12 Forgiveness
is its single aim, at which all learning ultimately converges. 13 It is indeed enough.
M-4.X.3. You may have noticed that the list of attributes of God's teachers does not
include things that are the Son of God's inheritance. 2 Terms like love, sinlessness,
perfection, knowledge and eternal truth do not appear in this context. 3 They would be
most inappropriate here. 4 What God has given is so far beyond our curriculum that
learning but disappears in its presence. 5 Yet while its presence is obscured, the focus
properly belongs on the curriculum. 6 It is the function of God's teachers to bring true
learning to the world. 7 Properly speaking it is unlearning that they bring, for that is "true
learning" in the world. 8 It is given to the teachers of God to bring the glad tidings of
complete forgiveness to the world. 9 Blessed indeed are they, for they are the bringers of
salvation.
6. IS HEALING CERTAIN?
M-6.1. Healing is always certain. 2 It is impossible to let illusions be brought to
truth and keep the illusions. 3 Truth demonstrates illusions have no value. 4 The teacher
of God has seen the correction of his errors in the mind of the patient, recognizing it for
what it is. 5 Having accepted the Atonement for himself, he has also accepted it for the
patient. 6 Yet what if the patient uses sickness as a way of life, believing healing is the
way to death? 7 When this is so, a sudden healing might precipitate intense depression,
and a sense of loss so deep that the patient might even try to destroy himself. 8 Having
nothing to live for, he may ask for death. 9 Healing must wait, for his protection.
M-6.2. Healing will always stand aside when it would be seen as threat. 2 The
instant it is welcome it is there. 3 Where healing has been given it will be received. 4 And
what is time before the gifts of God? 5 We have referred many times in the text to the
storehouse of treasures laid up equally for the giver and the receiver of God's gifts. 6 Not
one is lost, for they can but increase. 7 No teacher of God should feel disappointed if he
has offered healing and it does not appear to have been received. 8 It is not up to him to
judge when his gift should be accepted. 9 Let him be certain it has been received, and
trust that it will be accepted when it is recognized as a blessing and not a curse.
M-6.3. It is not the function of God's teachers to evaluate the outcome of their gifts.
2 It is merely their function to give them. 3 Once they have done that they have also
given the outcome, for that is part of the gift. 4 No one can give if he is concerned with
the result of giving. 5 That is a limitation on the giving itself, and neither the giver nor the
receiver would have the gift. 6 Trust is an essential part of giving; in fact, it is the part
that makes sharing possible, the part that guarantees the giver will not lose, but only gain.
7 Who gives a gift and then remains with it, to be sure it is used as the giver deems
appropriate? 8 Such is not giving but imprisoning.
M-6.4. It is the relinquishing of all concern about the gift that makes it truly given. 2
And it is trust that makes true giving possible. 3 Healing is the change of mind that the
Holy Spirit in the patient's mind is seeking for him. 4 And it is the Holy Spirit in the mind
of the giver Who gives the gift to him. 5 How can it be lost? 6 How can it be ineffectual?
7 How can it be wasted? 8 God's treasure house can never be empty. 9 And if one gift is
missing, it would not be full. 10 Yet is its fullness guaranteed by God. 11 What concern,
then, can a teacher of God have about what becomes of his gifts? 12 Given by God to
God, who in this holy exchange can receive less than everything?
12. HOW MANY TEACHERS OF GOD ARE NEEDED TO SAVE THE WORLD?
M-12.1. The answer to this question is–one. 2 One wholly perfect teacher, whose
learning is complete, suffices. 3 This one, sanctified and redeemed, becomes the Self
Who is the Son of God. 4 He who was always wholly spirit now no longer sees himself
as a body, or even as in a body. 5 Therefore he is limitless. 6 And being limitless, his
thoughts are joined with God's forever and ever. 7 His perception of himself is based
upon God's Judgment, not his own. 8 Thus does he share God's Will, and bring His
Thoughts to still deluded minds. 9 He is forever one, because he is as God created him.
10 He has accepted Christ, and he is saved.
M-12.2. Thus does the son of man become the Son of God. 2 It is not really a change;
it is a change of mind. 3 Nothing external alters, but everything internal now reflects only
the Love of God. 4 God can no longer be feared, for the mind sees no cause for
punishment. 5 God's teachers appear to be many, for that is what is the world's need. 6
Yet being joined in one purpose, and one they share with God, how could they be
separate from each other? 7 What does it matter if they then appear in many forms? 8
Their minds are one; their joining is complete. 9 And God works through them now as
one, for that is what they are.
M-12.3. Why is the illusion of many necessary? 2 Only because reality is not
understandable to the deluded. 3 Only very few can hear God's Voice at all, and even
they cannot communicate His messages directly through the Spirit which gave them. 4
They need a medium through which communication becomes possible to those who do
not realize that they are spirit. 5 A body they can see. 6 A voice they understand and
listen to, without the fear that truth would encounter in them. 7 Do not forget that truth
can come only where it is welcomed without fear. 8 So do God's teachers need a body,
for their unity could not be recognized directly.
M-12.4. Yet what makes God's teachers is their recognition of the proper purpose of
the body. 2 As they advance in their profession, they become more and more certain that
the body's function is but to let God's Voice speak through it to human ears. 3 And these
ears will carry to the mind of the hearer messages that are not of this world, and the mind
will understand because of their Source. 4 From this understanding will come the
recognition, in this new teacher of God, of what the body's purpose really is; the only use
there really is for it. 5 This lesson is enough to let the thought of unity come in, and what
is one is recognized as one. 6 The teachers of God appear to share the illusion of
separation, but because of what they use the body for, they do not believe in the illusion
despite appearances.
M-12.5. The central lesson is always this; that what you use the body for it will
become to you. 2 Use it for sin or for attack, which is the same as sin, and you will see it
as sinful. 3 Because it is sinful it is weak, and being weak, it suffers and it dies. 4 Use it
to bring the Word of God to those who have it not, and the body becomes holy. 5
Because it is holy it cannot be sick, nor can it die. 6 When its usefulness is done it is laid
by, and that is all. 7 The mind makes this decision, as it makes all decisions that are
responsible for the body's condition. 8 Yet the teacher of God does not make this decision
alone. 9 To do that would be to give the body another purpose from the one that keeps it
holy. 10 God's Voice will tell him when he has fulfilled his role, just as It tells him what
his function is. 11 He does not suffer either in going or remaining. 12 Sickness is now
impossible to him.
M-12.6. Oneness and sickness cannot coexist. 2 God's teachers choose to look on
dreams a while. 3 It is a conscious choice. 4 For they have learned that all choices are
made consciously, with full awareness of their consequences. 5 The dream says
otherwise, but who would put his faith in dreams once they are recognized for what they
are? 6 Awareness of dreaming is the real function of God's teachers. 7 They watch the
dream figures come and go, shift and change, suffer and die. 8 Yet they are not deceived
by what they see. 9 They recognize that to behold a dream figure as sick and separate is
no more real than to regard it as healthy and beautiful. 10 Unity alone is not a thing of
dreams. 11 And it is this God's teachers acknowledge as behind the dream, beyond all
seeming and yet surely theirs.
11 Holy are you, eternal, free and whole, at peace forever in the Heart of God. 12 Where
is the world, and where is sorrow now?
M-15.2. Is this your judgment on yourself, teacher of God? 2 Do you believe that this
is wholly true? 3 No; not yet, not yet. 4 But this is still your goal; why you are here. 5 It
is your function to prepare yourself to hear this Judgment and to recognize that it is true.
6 One instant of complete belief in this, and you will go beyond belief to Certainty. 7 One
instant out of time can bring time's end. 8 Judge not, for you but judge yourself, and thus
delay this Final Judgment. 9 What is your judgment of the world, teacher of God? 10
Have you yet learned to stand aside and hear the Voice of Judgment in yourself? 11 Or
do you still attempt to take His role from Him? 12 Learn to be quiet, for His Voice is
heard in stillness. 13 And His Judgment comes to all who stand aside in quiet listening,
and wait for Him.
M-15.3. You who are sometimes sad and sometimes angry; who sometimes feel your
just due is not given you, and your best efforts meet with lack of appreciation and even
contempt; give up these foolish thoughts! 2 They are too small and meaningless to
occupy your holy mind an instant longer. 3 God's Judgment waits for you to set you free.
4 What can the world hold out to you, regardless of your judgments on its gifts, that you
would rather have? 5 You will be judged, and judged in fairness and in honesty. 6 There
is no deceit in God. 7 His promises are sure. 8 Only remember that. 9 His promises have
guaranteed His Judgment, and His alone, will be accepted in the end. 10 It is your
function to make that end be soon. 11 It is your function to hold it to your heart, and offer
it to all the world to keep it safe.
<7 You but mistake interpretation for the truth. 8 And you are wrong. 9 But a mistake is
not a sin, nor has reality been taken from its throne by your mistakes. 10 God reigns
forever, and His laws alone prevail upon you and upon the world. 11 His Love remains
the only thing there is. 12 Fear is illusion, for you are like Him>.
M-18.4. In order to heal, it thus becomes essential for the teacher of God to let all his
own mistakes be corrected. 2 If he senses even the faintest hint of irritation in himself as
he responds to anyone, let him instantly realize that he has made an interpretation that is
not true. 3 Then let him turn within to his eternal Guide, and let Him judge what the
response should be. 4 So is he healed, and in his healing is his pupil healed with him. 5
The sole responsibility of God's teacher is to accept the Atonement for himself. 6
Atonement means correction, or the undoing of errors. 7 When this has been
accomplished, the teacher of God becomes a miracle worker by definition. 8 His sins
have been forgiven him, and he no longer condemns himself. 9 How can he then
condemn anyone? 10 And who is there whom his forgiveness can fail to heal?
19. WHAT IS JUSTICE?
M-19.1. Justice is the divine correction for injustice. 2 Injustice is the basis for all the
judgments of the world. 3 Justice corrects the interpretations to which injustice gives rise,
and cancels them out. 4 Neither justice nor injustice exists in Heaven, for error is
impossible and correction meaningless. 5 In this world, however, forgiveness depends on
justice, since all attack can only be unjust. 6 Justice is the Holy Spirit's verdict upon the
world. 7 Except in His judgment justice is impossible, for no one in the world is capable
of making only just interpretations and laying all injustices aside. 8 If God's Son were
fairly judged, there would be no need for salvation. 9 The thought of separation would
have been forever inconceivable.
M-19.2. Justice, like its opposite, is an interpretation. 2 It is, however, the one
interpretation that leads to truth. 3 This becomes possible because, while it is not true in
itself, justice includes nothing that opposes truth. 4 There is no inherent conflict between
justice and truth; one is but the first small step in the direction of the other. 5 The path
becomes quite different as one goes along. 6 Nor could all the magnificence, the grandeur
of the scene and the enormous opening vistas that rise to meet one as the journey
continues, be foretold from the outset. 7 Yet even these, whose splendor reaches
indescribable heights as one proceeds, fall short indeed of all that wait when the pathway
ceases and time ends with it. 8 But somewhere one must start. 9 Justice is the beginning.
M-19.3. All concepts of your brothers and yourself; all fears of future states and all
concerns about the past, stem from injustice. 2 Here is the lens which, held before the
body's eyes, distorts perception and brings witness of the distorted world back to the
mind that made the lens and holds it very dear. 3 Selectively and arbitrarily is every
concept of the world built up in just this way. 4 "Sins" are perceived and justified by
careful selectivity in which all thought of wholeness must be lost. 5 Forgiveness has no
place in such a scheme, for not one "sin" but seems forever true.
M-19.4. Salvation is God's justice. 2 It restores to your awareness the wholeness of
the fragments you perceive as broken off and separate. 3 And it is this that overcomes the
fear of death. 4 For separate fragments must decay and die, but wholeness is immortal. 5
It remains forever and forever like its Creator, being one with Him. 6 God's Judgment is
His justice. 7 Onto this,–a Judgment wholly lacking in condemnation; an evaluation
based entirely on love,–you have projected your injustice, giving God the lens of warped
perception through which you look. 8 Now it belongs to Him and not to you. 9 You are
afraid of Him, and do not see you hate and fear your Self as enemy.
M-19.5. Pray for God's justice, and do not confuse His mercy with your own insanity.
2 Perception can make whatever picture the mind desires to see. 3 Remember this. 4 In
this lies either Heaven or hell, as you elect. 5 God's justice points to Heaven just because
it is entirely impartial. 6 It accepts all evidence that is brought before it, omitting nothing
and assessing nothing as separate and apart from all the rest. 7 From this one standpoint
does it judge, and this alone. 8 Here all attack and condemnation becomes meaningless
and indefensible. 9 Perception rests, the mind is still, and light returns again. 10 Vision is
now restored. 11 What had been lost has now been found. 12 The peace of God descends
on all the world, and we can see. 13 And we can see!
20. WHAT IS THE PEACE OF GOD?
M-20.1. It has been said that there is a kind of peace that is not of this world. 2 How
is it recognized? 3 How is it found? 4 And being found, how can it be retained? 5 Let us
consider each of these questions separately, for each reflects a different step along the
way.
M-20.2. First, how can the peace of God be recognized? 2 God's peace is recognized
at first by just one thing; in every way it is totally unlike all previous experiences. 3 It
calls to mind nothing that went before. 4 It brings with it no past associations. 5 It is a
new thing entirely. 6 There is a contrast, yes, between this thing and all the past. 7 But
strangely, it is not a contrast of true differences. 8 The past just slips away, and in its
place is everlasting quiet. 9 Only that. 10 The contrast first perceived has merely gone. 11
Quiet has reached to cover everything.
M-20.3. How is this quiet found? 2 No one can fail to find it who but seeks out its
conditions. 3 God's peace can never come where anger is, for anger must deny that peace
exists. 4 Who sees anger as justified in any way or any circumstance proclaims that peace
is meaningless, and must believe that it cannot exist. 5 In this condition, peace cannot be
found. 6 Therefore, forgiveness is the necessary condition for finding the peace of God. 7
More than this, given forgiveness there <must> be peace. 8 For what except attack will
lead to war? 9 And what but peace is opposite to war? 10 Here the initial contrast stands
out clear and apparent. 11 Yet when peace is found, the war is meaningless. 12 And it is
conflict now that is perceived as nonexistent and unreal.
M-20.4. How is the peace of God retained, once it is found? 2 Returning anger, in
whatever form, will drop the heavy curtain once again, and the belief that peace cannot
exist will certainly return. 3 War is again accepted as the one reality. 4 Now must you
once again lay down your sword, although you do not recognize that you have picked it
up again. 5 But you will learn, as you remember even faintly now what happiness was
yours without it, that you must have taken it again as your defense. 6 Stop for a moment
now and think of this: Is conflict what you want, or is God's peace the better choice? 7
Which gives you more? 8 A tranquil mind is not a little gift. 9 Would you not rather live
than choose to die?
M-20.5. Living is joy, but death can only weep. 2 You see in death escape from what
you made. 3 But this you do not see; that you made death, and it is but illusion of an end.
4 Death cannot be escape, because it is not life in which the problem lies. 5 Life has no
opposite, for it is God. 6 Life and death seem to be opposites because you have decided
death ends life. 7 Forgive the world, and you will understand that everything that God
created cannot have an end, and nothing He did not create is real. 8 In this one sentence is
our course explained. 9 In this one sentence is our practicing given its one direction. 10
And in this one sentence is the Holy Spirit's whole curriculum specified exactly as it is.
M-20.6. What is the peace of God? 2 No more than this; the simple understanding
that His Will is wholly without opposite. 3 There is no thought that contradicts His Will,
yet can be true. 4 The contrast between His Will and yours but seemed to be reality. 5 In
truth there was no conflict, for His Will is yours. 6 Now is the mighty Will of God
Himself His gift to you. 7 He does not seek to keep it for Himself. 8 Why would you seek
to keep your tiny frail imaginings apart from Him? 9 The Will of God is One and all there
is. 10 This is your heritage. 11 The universe beyond the sun and stars, and all the
thoughts of which you can conceive, belong to you. 12 God's peace is the condition for
His Will. 13 Attain His peace, and you remember Him.
INTRODUCTION
C-in.1. This is not a course in philosophical speculation, nor is it concerned with
precise terminology. 2 It is concerned only with Atonement, or the correction of
perception. 3 The means of the Atonement is forgiveness. 4 The structure of "individual
consciousness" is essentially irrelevant because it is a concept representing the "original
error" or the "original sin." 5 To study the error itself does not lead to correction, if you
are indeed to succeed in overlooking the error. 6 And it is just this process of overlooking
at which the course aims.
C-in.2. All terms are potentially controversial, and those who seek controversy will
find it. 2 Yet those who seek clarification will find it as well. 3 They must, however, be
willing to overlook controversy, recognizing that it is a defense against truth in the form
of a delaying maneuver. 4 Theological considerations as such are necessarily
controversial, since they depend on belief and can therefore be accepted or rejected. 5 A
universal theology is impossible, but a universal experience is not only possible but
necessary. 6 It is this experience toward which the course is directed. 7 Here alone
consistency becomes possible because here alone uncertainty ends.
C-in.3. This course remains within the ego framework, where it is needed. 2 It is not
concerned with what is beyond all error because it is planned only to set the direction
towards it. 3 Therefore it uses words, which are symbolic, and cannot express what lies
beyond symbols. 4 It is merely the ego that questions because it is only the ego that
doubts. 5 The course merely gives another answer, once a question has been raised. 6
However, this answer does not attempt to resort to inventiveness or ingenuity. 7 These
are attributes of the ego. 8 <The course is simple>. 9 It has one function and one goal. 10
Only in that does it remain wholly consistent because only that can <be> consistent.
C-in.4. The ego will demand many answers that this course does not give. 2 It does
not recognize as questions the mere form of a question to which an answer is impossible.
3 The ego may ask, "How did the impossible occur?", "To what did the impossible
happen?", and may ask this in many forms. 4 Yet there is no answer; only an experience.
5 Seek only this, and do not let theology delay you.
C-in.5. You will notice that the emphasis on structural issues in the course is brief
and early. 2 Afterwards and soon, it drops away to make way for the central teaching. 3
Since you have asked for clarification, however, these are some of the terms that are
used.
1. MIND–SPIRIT
C-1.1.The term <mind> is used to represent the activating agent of spirit, supplying its
creative energy. 2 When the term is capitalized it refers to God or Christ (ie, the Mind of
God or the Mind of Christ). 3 <Spirit> is the Thought of God which He created like
Himself. 4 The unified spirit is God's one Son, or Christ.
C-1.2.In this world, because the mind is split, the Sons of God appear to be separate. 2
Nor do their minds seem to be joined. 3 In this illusory state, the concept of an
"individual mind" seems to be meaningful. 4 It is therefore described in the course <as
if> it has two parts; spirit and ego.
C-1.3.Spirit is the part that is still in contact with God through the Holy Spirit, Who
abides in this part but sees the other part as well. 2 The term "soul" is not used except in
direct biblical quotations because of its highly controversial nature. 3 It would, however,
be an equivalent of "spirit," with the understanding that, being of God, it is eternal and
was never born.
C-1.4.The other part of the mind is entirely illusory and makes only illusions. 2 Spirit
retains the potential for creating, but its Will, which is God's, seems to be imprisoned
while the mind is not unified. 3 Creation continues unabated because that is the Will of
God. 4 This Will is always unified and therefore has no meaning in this world. 5 It has no
opposite and no degrees.
C-1.5.The mind can be right or wrong, depending on the voice to which it listens. 2
<Right-mindedness> listens to the Holy Spirit, forgives the world, and through Christ's
vision sees the real world in its place. 3 This is the final vision, the last perception, the
condition in which God takes the final step Himself. 4 Here time and illusions end
together.
C-1.6.<Wrong-mindedness> listens to the ego and makes illusions; perceiving sin and
justifying anger, and seeing guilt, disease and death as real. 2 Both this world and the real
world are illusions because right-mindedness merely overlooks, or forgives, what never
happened. 3 Therefore it is not the <One-mindedness> of the Christ Mind, Whose Will is
One with God's.
C-1.7.In this world the only remaining freedom is the freedom of choice; always between
two choices or two voices. 2 Will is not involved in perception at any level, and has
nothing to do with choice. 3 <Consciousness> is the receptive mechanism, receiving
messages from above or below; from the Holy Spirit or the ego. 4 Consciousness has
levels and awareness can shift quite dramatically, but it cannot transcend the perceptual
realm. 5 At its highest it becomes aware of the real world, and can be trained to do so
increasingly. 6 Yet the very fact that it has levels and can be trained demonstrates that it
cannot reach knowledge.
4. TRUE PERCEPTION–KNOWLEDGE
C-4.1.The world you see is an illusion of a world. 2 God did not create it, for what He
creates must be eternal as Himself. 3 Yet there is nothing in the world you see that will
endure forever. 4 Some things will last in time a little while longer than others. 5 But the
time will come when all things visible will have an end.
C-4.2.The body's eyes are therefore not the means by which the real world can be seen,
for the illusions that they look upon must lead to more illusions of reality. 2 And so they
do. 3 For everything they see not only will not last, but lends itself to thoughts of sin and
guilt. 4 While everything that God created is forever without sin and therefore is forever
without guilt.
C-4.3.Knowledge is not the remedy for false perception since, being another level, they
can never meet. 2 The one correction possible for false perception must be <true
perception>. 3 It will not endure. 4 But for the time it lasts it comes to heal. 5 For true
perception is a remedy with many names. 6 Forgiveness, salvation, Atonement, true
perception, all are one. 7 They are the one beginning, with the end to lead to oneness far
beyond themselves. 8 True perception is the means by which the world is saved from sin,
for sin does not exist. 9 And it is this that true perception sees.
C-4.4.The world stands like a block before Christ's face. 2 But true perception looks on it
as nothing more than just a fragile veil, so easily dispelled that it can last no longer than
an instant. 3 It is seen at last for only what it is. 4 And now it cannot fail to disappear, for
now there is an empty place made clean and ready. 5 Where destruction was perceived
the face of Christ appears, and in that instant is the world forgot, with time forever ended
as the world spins into nothingness from where it came.
C-4.5.A world forgiven cannot last. 2 It was the home of bodies. 3 But forgiveness looks
past bodies. 4 This is its holiness; this is how it heals. 5 The world of bodies is the world
of sin, for only if there were a body is sin possible. 6 From sin comes guilt as surely as
forgiveness takes all guilt away. 7 And once all guilt is gone what more remains to keep a
separated world in place? 8 For place has gone as well, along with time. 9 Only the body
makes the world seem real, for being separate it could not remain where separation is
impossible. 10 Forgiveness proves it is impossible because it sees it not. 11 And what
you then will overlook will not be understandable to you, just as its presence once had
been your certainty.
C-4.6.This is the shift that true perception brings: What was projected out is seen within,
and there forgiveness lets it disappear. 2 For there the altar to the Son is set, and there his
Father is remembered. 3 Here are all illusions brought to truth and laid upon the altar. 4
What is seen outside must lie beyond forgiveness, for it seems to be forever sinful. 5
Where is hope while sin is seen as outside? 6 What remedy can guilt expect? 7 But seen
within your mind, guilt and forgiveness for an instant lie together, side by side, upon one
altar. 8 There at last are sickness and its single remedy joined in one healing brightness. 9
God has come to claim His Own. 10 Forgiveness is complete.
C-4.7.And now God's <knowledge>, changeless, certain, pure and wholly
understandable, enters its kingdom. 2 Gone is perception, false and true alike. 3 Gone is
forgiveness, for its task is done. 4 And gone are bodies in the blazing light upon the altar
to the Son of God. 5 God knows it is His Own, as it is his. 6 And here They join, for here
the face of Christ has shone away time's final instant, and now is the last perception of the
world without a purpose and without a cause. 7 For where God's memory has come at last
there is no journey, no belief in sin, no walls, no bodies, and the grim appeal of guilt and
death is there snuffed out forever.
C-4.8.O my brothers, if you only knew the peace that will envelop you and hold you safe
and pure and lovely in the Mind of God, you could but rush to meet Him where His altar
is. 2 Hallowed your Name and His, for they are joined here in this holy place. 3 Here He
leans down to lift you up to Him, out of illusions into holiness; out of the world and to
eternity; out of all fear and given back to love.
5. JESUS – CHRIST
C-5.1.There is no need for help to enter Heaven for you have never left. 2 But there is
need for help beyond yourself as you are circumscribed by false beliefs of your Identity,
which God alone established in reality. 3 Helpers are given you in many forms, although
upon the altar they are one. 4 Beyond each one there is a Thought of God, and this will
never change. 5 But they have names which differ for a time, for time needs symbols,
being itself unreal. 6 Their names are legion, but we will not go beyond the names the
course itself employs. 7 God does not help because He knows no need. 8 But He creates
all Helpers of His Son while he believes his fantasies are true. 9 Thank God for them for
they will lead you home.
C-5.2.The name of <Jesus> is the name of one who was a man but saw the face of Christ
in all his brothers and remembered God. 2 So he became identified with <Christ>, a man
no longer, but at one with God. 3 The man was an illusion, for he seemed to be a separate
being, walking by himself, within a body that appeared to hold his self from Self, as all
illusions do. 4 Yet who can save unless he sees illusions and then identifies them as what
they are? 5 Jesus remains a Savior because he saw the false without accepting it as true. 6
And Christ needed his form that He might appear to men and save them from their own
illusions.
C-5.3.In his complete identification with the Christ–the perfect Son of God, His one
creation and His happiness, forever like Himself and One with Him–Jesus became what
all of you must be. 2 He led the way for you to follow him. 3 He leads you back to God
because he saw the road before him, and he followed it. 4 He made a clear distinction,
still obscure to you, between the false and true. 5 He offered you a final demonstration
that it is impossible to kill God's Son; nor can his life in any way be changed by sin and
evil, malice, fear or death.
C-5.4.And therefore all your sins have been forgiven because they carried no effects at
all. 2 And so they were but dreams. 3 Arise with him who showed you this because you
owe him this who shared your dreams that they might be dispelled. 4 And shares them
still, to be at one with you.
C-5.5.Is he the Christ? 2 O yes, along with you. 3 His little life on earth was not enough
to teach the mighty lesson that he learned for all of you. 4 He will remain with you to
lead you from the hell you made to God. 5 And when you join your will with his, your
sight will be his vision, for the eyes of Christ are shared. 6 Walking with him is just as
natural as walking with a brother whom you knew since you were born, for such indeed
he is. 7 Some bitter idols have been made of him who would be only brother to the world.
8 Forgive him your illusions, and behold how dear a brother he would be to you. 9 For he
will set your mind at rest at last and carry it with you unto your God.
C-5.6.Is he God's only Helper? 2 No, indeed. 3 For Christ takes many forms with
different names until their oneness can be recognized. 4 But Jesus is for you the bearer of
Christ's single message of the Love of God. 5 You need no other. 6 It is possible to read
his words and benefit from them without accepting him into your life. 7 Yet he would
help you yet a little more if you will share your pains and joys with him, and leave them
both to find the peace of God. 8 Yet still it is his lesson most of all that he would have
you learn, and it is this:
<9 There is no death because the Son of God is like his Father. 10 Nothing you can do
can change Eternal Love. 11 Forget your dreams of sin and guilt, and come with me
instead to share the resurrection of God's Son. 12 And bring with you all those whom He
has sent to you to care for as I care for you.>
EPILOGUE
C-ep.1. Forget not once this journey is begun the end is certain. 2 Doubt along the
way will come and go and go to come again. 3 Yet is the ending sure. 4 No one can fail
to do what God appointed him to do. 5 When you forget, remember that you walk with
Him and with His Word upon your heart. 6 Who could despair when hope like this is his?
7 Illusions of despair may seem to come, but learn how not to be deceived by them. 8
Behind each one there is reality and there is God. 9 Why would you wait for this and
trade it for illusions, when His Love is but an instant farther on the road where all
illusions end? 10 The end <is> sure and guaranteed by God. 11 Who stands before a
lifeless image when a step away the Holy of the Holies opens up an ancient door that
leads beyond the world?
C-ep.2. You <are> a stranger here. 2 But you belong to Him Who loves you as He
loves Himself. 3 Ask but my help to roll the stone away, and it is done according to His
Will. 4 We <have> begun the journey. 5 Long ago the end was written in the stars and set
into the Heavens with a shining Ray that held it safe within eternity and through all time
as well. 6 And holds it still; unchanged, unchanging and unchangeable.
C-ep.3. Be not afraid. 2 We only start again an ancient journey long ago begun that
but seems new. 3 We have begun again upon a road we travelled on before and lost our
way a little while. 4 And now we try again. 5 Our new beginning has the certainty the
journey lacked till now. 6 Look up and see His Word among the stars, where He has set
your Name along with His. 7 Look up and find your certain destiny the world would hide
but God would have you see.
C-ep.4. Let us wait here in silence, and kneel down an instant in our gratitude to
Him Who called to us and helped us hear His Call. 2 And then let us arise and go in faith
along the way to Him. 3 Now we are sure we do not walk alone. 4 For God is here, and
with Him all our brothers. 5 Now we know that we will never lose the way again. 6 The
song begins again which had been stopped only an instant, though it seems to be unsung
forever. 7 What is here begun will grow in life and strength and hope, until the world is
still an instant and forgets all that the dream of sin had made of it.
C-ep.5. Let us go out and meet the newborn world, knowing that Christ has been
reborn in it, and that the holiness of this rebirth will last forever. 2 We had lost our way
but He has found it for us. 3 Let us go and bid Him welcome Who returns to us to
celebrate salvation and the end of all we thought we made. 4 The morning star of this
new day looks on a different world where God is welcomed and His Son with Him. 5 We
who complete Him offer thanks to Him, as He gives thanks to us. 6 The Son is still, and
in the quiet God has given him enters his home and is at peace at last.
Introduction
P-in.1. Psychotherapy is the only form of therapy there is. 2 Since only the mind
can be sick, only the mind can be healed. 3 Only the mind is in need of healing. 4 This
does not appear to be the case, for the manifestations of this world seem real indeed. 5
Psychotherapy is necessary so that an individual can begin to question their reality. 6
Sometimes he is able to start to open his mind without formal help, but even then it is
always some change in his perception of interpersonal relationships that enables him to
do so. 7 Sometimes he needs a more structured, extended relationship with an "official"
therapist. 8 Either way, the task is the same; the patient must be helped to change his
mind about the "reality" of illusions.
12 You were lost in the darkness of the world until you asked for light.
13 And then God sent His Son to give it to you.
1. PRAYER
Introduction
S-1.in.1. Prayer is the greatest gift with which God blessed His Son at his creation. 2
It was then what it is to become; the single voice Creator and creation share; the song the
Son sings to the Father, Who returns the thanks it offers Him unto the Son. 3 Endless the
harmony, and endless, too, the joyous concord of the Love They give forever to Each
Other. 4 And in this, creation is extended. 5 God gives thanks to His extension in His
Son. 6 His Son gives thanks for his creation, in the song of his creating in his Father's
Name. 7 The Love They share is what all prayer will be throughout eternity, when time is
done. 8 For such it was before time seemed to be.
S-1.in.2. To you who are in time a little while, prayer takes the form that best will suit
your need. 2 You have but one. 3 What God created one must recognize its oneness, and
rejoice that what illusions seemed to separate is one forever in the Mind of God. 4 Prayer
now must be the means by which God's Son leaves separate goals and separate interests
by, and turns in holy gladness to the truth of union in his Father and himself.
S-1.in.3. Lay down your dreams, you holy Son of God, and rising up as God created
you, dispense with idols and remember Him. 2 Prayer will sustain you now, and bless
you as you lift your heart to Him in rising song that reaches higher and then higher still,
until both high and low have disappeared. 3 Faith in your goal will grow and hold you up
as you ascend the shining stairway to the lawns of Heaven and the gate of peace. 4 For
this is prayer, and here salvation is. 5 This is the way. 6 It is God's gift to you.
I. True Prayer
S-1.I.1. Prayer is a way offered by the Holy Spirit to reach God. 2 It is not merely a
question or an entreaty. 3 It cannot succeed until you realize that it asks for nothing. 4
How else could it serve its purpose? 5 It is impossible to pray for idols and hope to reach
God. 6 True prayer must avoid the pitfall of asking to entreat. 7 Ask, rather, to receive
what is already given; to accept what is already there.
S-1.I.2. You have been told to ask the Holy Spirit for the answer to any specific
problem, and that you will receive a specific answer if such is your need. 2 You have also
been told that there is only one problem and one answer. 3 In prayer this is not
contradictory. 4 There are decisions to make here, and they must be made whether they
be illusions or not. 5 You cannot be asked to accept answers which are beyond the level
of need that you can recognize. 6 Therefore, it is not the form of the question that matters,
nor how it is asked. 7 The form of the answer, if given by God, will suit your need as you
see it. 8 This is merely an echo of the reply of His Voice. 9 The real sound is always a
song of thanksgiving and of Love.
S-1.I.3. You cannot, then, ask for the echo. 2 It is the song that is the gift. 3 Along
with it come the overtones, the harmonics, the echoes, but these are secondary. 4 In true
prayer you hear only the song. 5 All the rest is merely added. 6 You have sought first the
Kingdom of Heaven, and all else has indeed been given you.
S-1.I.4. The secret of true prayer is to forget the things you think you need. 2 To ask
for the specific is much the same as to look on sin and then forgive it. 3 Also in the same
way, in prayer you overlook your specific needs as you see them, and let them go into
God's Hands. 4 There they become your gifts to Him, for they tell Him that you would
have no gods before Him; no Love but His. 5 What could His answer be but your
remembrance of Him? 6 Can this be traded for a bit of trifling advice about a problem of
an instant's duration? 7 God answers only for eternity. 8 But still all little answers are
contained in this.
S-1.I.5. Prayer is a stepping aside; a letting go, a quiet time of listening and loving. 2
It should not be confused with supplication of any kind, because it is a way of
remembering your holiness. 3 Why should holiness entreat, being fully entitled to
everything Love has to offer? 4 And it is to Love you go in prayer. 5 Prayer is an
offering; a giving up of yourself to be at one with Love. 6 There is nothing to ask because
there is nothing left to want. 7 That nothingness becomes the altar of God. 8 It disappears
in Him.
S-1.I.6. This is not a level of prayer that everyone can attain as yet. 2 Those who
have not reached it still need your help in prayer because their asking is not yet based
upon acceptance. 3 Help in prayer does not mean that another mediates between you and
God. 4 But it does mean that another stands beside you and helps to raise you up to Him.
5 One who has realized the goodness of God prays without fear. 6 And one who prays
without fear cannot but reach Him. 7 He can therefore also reach His Son, wherever he
may be and whatever form he may seem to take.
S-1.I.7. Praying to Christ in anyone is true prayer because it is a gift of thanks to His
Father. 2 To ask that Christ be but Himself is not an entreaty. 3 It is a song of
thanksgiving for what you are. 4 Herein lies the power of prayer. 5 It asks nothing and
receives everything. 6 This prayer can be shared because it receives for everyone. 7 To
pray with one who knows that this is true is to be answered. 8 Perhaps the specific form
of resolution for a specific problem will occur to either of you; it does not matter which. 9
Perhaps it will reach both, if you are genuinely attuned to one another. 10 It will come
because you have realized that Christ is in both of you. 11 That is its only truth.
5 What I have asked for for my brother is not what I would have. 6 Thus have I made of
him my enemy.
7 It is apparent that this step cannot be reached by anyone who sees no value or
advantage to himself in setting others free. 8 This may be long delayed, because it may
seem to be dangerous instead of merciful. 9 To the guilty there seems indeed to be a real
advantage in having enemies, and this imagined gain must go, if enemies are to be set
free.
S-1.III.4. Guilt must be given up, and not concealed. 2 Nor can this be done without
some pain, and a glimpse of the merciful nature of this step may for some time be
followed by a deep retreat into fear. 3 For fear's defenses are fearful in themselves, and
when they are recognized they bring their fear with them. 4 Yet what advantage has an
illusion of escape ever brought a prisoner? 5 His real escape from guilt can lie only in the
recognition that the guilt has gone. 6 And how can this be recognized as long as he hides
it in another, and does not see it as his own? 7 Fear of escape makes it difficult to
welcome freedom, and to make a jailer of an enemy seems to be safety. 8 How, then, can
he be released without an insane fear for yourself? 9 You have made of him your
salvation and your escape from guilt. 10 Your investment in this escape is heavy, and
your fear of letting it go is strong.
S-1.III.5. Stand still an instant, now, and think what you have done. 2 Do not forget
that it is you who did it, and who can therefore let it go. 3 Hold out your hand. 4 This
enemy has come to bless you. 5 Take his blessing, and feel how your heart is lifted and
your fear released. 6 Do not hold on to it, nor onto him. 7 He is a Son of God, along with
you. 8 He is no jailer, but a messenger of Christ. 9 Be this to him, that you may see him
thus.
S-1.III.6. It is not easy to realize that prayers for things, for status, for human love, for
external "gifts" of any kind, are always made to set up jailers and to hide from guilt. 2
These things are used for goals that substitute for God, and therefore distort the purpose
of prayer. 3 The desire for them <is> the prayer. 4 One need not ask explicitly. 5 The
goal of God is lost in the quest for lesser goals of any kind, and prayer becomes requests
for enemies. 6 The power of prayer can be quite clearly recognized even in this. 7 No one
who wants an enemy will fail to find one. 8 But just as surely will he lose the only true
goal that is given him. 9 Think of the cost, and understand it well. 10 All other goals are
at the cost of God.
S-1.IV.2. Now it is possible to help in prayer, and so reach up yourself. 2 This step
begins the quicker ascent, but there are still many lessons to learn. 3 The way is open, and
hope is justified. 4 Yet it is likely at first that what is asked for even by those who join in
prayer is not the goal that prayer should truly seek. 5 Even together you may ask for
things, and thus set up but an illusion of a goal you share. 6 You may ask together for
specifics, and not realize that you are asking for effects without the cause. 7 And this you
cannot have. 8 For no one can receive effects alone, asking a cause from which they do
not come to offer them to him.
S-1.IV.3. Even the joining, then, is not enough, if those who pray together do not ask,
before all else, what is the Will of God. 2 From this Cause only can the answer come in
which are all specifics satisfied; all separate wishes unified in one. 3 Prayer for specifics
always asks to have the past repeated in some way. 4 What was enjoyed before, or
seemed to be; what was another's and he seemed to love,–all these are but illusions from
the past. 5 The aim of prayer is to release the present from its chains of past illusions; to
let it be a freely chosen remedy from every choice that stood for a mistake. 6 What prayer
can offer now so far exceeds all that you asked before that it is pitiful to be content with
less.
S-1.IV.4. You have chosen a newborn chance each time you pray. 2 And would you
stifle and imprison it in ancient prisons, when the chance has come to free yourself from
all of them at once? 3 Do not restrict your asking. 4 Prayer can bring the peace of God. 5
What time-bound thing can give you more than this, in just the little space that lasts until
it crumbles into dust?
10 And so he is in truth. 11 Now can you pray only for what you truly share with him. 12
For you have understood he never left, and you, who seemed alone, are one with him.
S-1.V.4. The ladder ends with this, for learning is no longer needed. 2 Now you stand
before the gate of Heaven, and your brother stands beside you there. 3 The lawns are
deep and still, for here the place appointed for the time when you should come has waited
long for you. 4 Here will time end forever. 5 At this gate eternity itself will join with you.
6 Prayer has become what it was meant to be, for you have recognized the Christ in you.
2. FORGIVENESS
Introduction
S-2.in.1. Forgiveness offers wings to prayer, to make its rising easy and its progress
swift. 2 Without its strong support it would be vain to try to rise above prayer's bottom
step, or even to attempt to climb at all. 3 Forgiveness is prayer's ally; sister in the plan for
your salvation. 4 Both must come to hold you up and keep your feet secure; your purpose
steadfast and unchangeable. 5 Behold the greatest help that God ordained to be with you
until you reach to Him. 6 Illusion's end will come with this. 7 Unlike the timeless nature
of its sister, prayer, forgiveness has an end. 8 For it becomes unneeded when the rising up
is done. 9 Yet now it has a purpose beyond which you cannot go, nor have you need to
go. 10 Accomplish this and you have been redeemed. 11 Accomplish this and you have
been transformed. 12 Accomplish this and you will save the world.
I. Forgiveness of Yourself
S-2.I.1. No gift of Heaven has been more misunderstood than has forgiveness. 2 It
has, in fact, become a scourge; a curse where it was meant to bless, a cruel mockery of
grace, a parody upon the holy peace of God. 3 Yet those who have not yet chosen to
begin the steps of prayer cannot but use it thus. 4 Forgiveness' kindness is obscure at first,
because salvation is not understood, <nor truly sought for>. 5 What was meant to heal is
used to hurt because forgiveness is not wanted. 6 Guilt becomes salvation, and the
remedy appears to be a terrible alternative to life.
S-2.I.2. Forgiveness-to-destroy will therefore suit the purpose of the world far better
than its true objective, and the honest means by which this goal is reached. 2
Forgiveness-to-destroy will overlook no sin, no crime, no guilt that it can seek and find
and "love." 3 Dear to its heart is error, and mistakes loom large and grow and swell
within its sight. 4 It carefully picks out all evil things, and overlooks the loving as a
plague; a hateful thing of danger and of death. 5 Forgiveness-to-destroy <is> death, and
this it sees in all it looks upon and hates. 6 God's mercy has become a twisted knife that
would destroy the holy Son He loves.
S-2.I.3. Would you forgive yourself for doing this? 2 Then learn that God has given
you the means by which you can return to Him in peace. 3 <Do not see error>. 4 Do not
make it real. 5 Select the loving and forgive the sin by choosing in its place the face of
Christ. 6 How otherwise can prayer return to God? 7 He loves His Son. 8 Can you
remember Him and hate what He created? 9 You will hate his Father if you hate the Son
He loves. 10 For as you see the Son you see yourself, and as you see yourself is God to
you.
S-2.I.4. As prayer is always for yourself, so is forgiveness always given you. 2 It is
impossible to forgive another, for it is only your sins you see in him. 3 You want to see
them there, and not in you. 4 That is why forgiveness of another is an illusion. 5 Yet it is
the only happy dream in all the world; the only one that does not lead to death. 6 Only in
someone else can you forgive yourself, for you have called him guilty of your sins, and in
him must your innocence now be found. 7 Who but the sinful need to be forgiven? 8 And
do not ever think you can see sin in anyone except yourself.
S-2.I.5. This is the great deception of the world, and you the great deceiver of
yourself. 2 It always seems to be another who is evil, and in his sin you are the injured
one. 3 How could freedom be possible if this were so? 4 You would be slave to everyone,
for what he does entails your fate, your feelings, your despair or hope, your misery or joy.
5 You have no freedom unless he gives it to you. 6 And being evil, he can only give of
what he is. 7 You cannot see his sins and not your own. 8 But you can free him and
yourself as well.
S-2.I.6. Forgiveness, truly given, is the way in which your only hope of freedom lies.
2 Others will make mistakes and so will you, as long as this illusion of a world appears to
be your home. 3 Yet God Himself has given all His Sons a remedy for all illusions that
they think they see. 4 Christ's vision does not use your eyes, but you can look through His
and learn to see like Him. 5 Mistakes are tiny shadows, quickly gone, that for an instant
only seem to hide the face of Christ, which still remains unchanged behind them all. 6
His constancy remains in tranquil silence and in perfect peace. 7 He does not know of
shadows. 8 His the eyes that look past error to the Christ in you.
S-2.I.7. Ask, then, His help, and ask Him how to learn forgiveness as His vision lets
it be. 2 You are in need of what He gives, and your salvation rests on learning this of
Him. 3 Prayer cannot be released to Heaven while forgiveness-to-destroy remains with
you. 4 God's mercy would remove this withering and poisoned thinking from your holy
mind. 5 Christ has forgiven you, and in His sight the world becomes as holy as Himself. 6
Who sees no evil in it sees like Him. 7 For what He has forgiven has not sinned, and guilt
can be no more. 8 Salvation's plan is made complete, and sanity has come.
S-2.I.8. Forgiveness is the call to sanity, for who but the insane would look on sin
when he could see the face of Christ instead? 2 This is the choice you make; the simplest
one, and yet the only one that you <can> make. 3 God calls on you to save His Son from
death by offering Christ's Love to him. 4 This is your need, and God holds out this gift to
you. 5 As He would give, so must you give as well. 6 And thus is prayer restored to
formlessness, beyond all limits into timelessness, with nothing of the past to hold it back
from reuniting with the ceaseless song that all creation sings unto its God.
S-2.I.9. But to achieve this end you first must learn, before you reach where learning
cannot go. 2 Forgiveness is the key, but who can use a key when he has lost the door for
which the key was made, and where alone it fits? 3 Therefore we make distinctions, so
that prayer can be released from darkness into light. 4 Forgiveness' role must be reversed,
and cleansed from evil usages and hateful goals. 5 Forgiveness-to-destroy must be
unveiled in all its treachery, and then let go forever and forever. 6 There can be no trace
of it remaining, if the plan that God established for returning be achieved at last, and
learning be complete.
S-2.I.10. This is the world of opposites. 2 And you must choose between them every
instant while this world retains reality for you. 3 Yet you must learn alternatives for
choice, or you will not be able to attain your freedom. 4 Let it then be clear to you exactly
what forgiveness means to you, and learn what it should be to set you free. 5 The level of
your prayer depends on this, for here it waits its freedom to ascend above the world of
chaos into peace.
II. Forgiveness-to-Destroy
S-2.II.1. Forgiveness-to-destroy has many forms, being a weapon of the world of
form. 2 Not all of them are obvious, and some are carefully concealed beneath what
seems like charity. 3 Yet all the forms that it may seem to take have but this single goal;
their purpose is to separate and make what God created equal, different. 4 The difference
is clear in several forms where the designed comparison cannot be missed, nor is it really
meant to be.
S-2.II.2. In this group, first, there are the forms in which a "better" person deigns to
stoop to save a "baser" one from what he truly is. 2 Forgiveness here rests on an attitude
of gracious lordliness so far from love that arrogance could never be dislodged. 3 Who
can forgive and yet despise? 4 And who can tell another he is steeped in sin, and yet
perceive him as the Son of God? 5 Who makes a slave to teach what freedom is? 6 There
is no union here, but only grief. 7 This is not really mercy. 8 This is death.
S-2.II.3. Another form, still very like the first if it is understood, does not appear in
quite such blatant arrogance. 2 The one who would forgive the other does not claim to be
the better. 3 Now he says instead that here is one whose sinfulness he shares, since both
have been unworthy and deserve the retribution of the wrath of God. 4 This can appear to
be a humble thought, and may indeed induce a rivalry in sinfulness and guilt. 5 It is not
love for God's creation and the holiness that is His gift forever. 6 Can His Son condemn
himself and still remember Him?
S-2.II.4. Here the goal is to separate from God the Son He loves, and keep him from
his Source. 2 This goal is also sought by those who seek the role of martyr at another's
hand. 3 Here must the aim be clearly seen, for this may pass as meekness and as charity
instead of cruelty. 4 Is it not kind to be accepting of another's spite, and not respond
except with silence and a gentle smile? 5 Behold, how good are you who bear with
patience and with saintliness the anger and the hurt another gives, and do not show the
bitter pain you feel.
S-2.II.5. Forgiveness-to-destroy will often hide behind a cloak like this. 2 It shows
the face of suffering and pain, in silent proof of guilt and of the ravages of sin. 3 Such is
the witness that it offers one who could be savior, not an enemy. 4 But having been made
enemy, he must accept the guilt and heavy-laid reproach that thus is put upon him. 5 Is
this love? 6 Or is it rather treachery to one who needs salvation from the pain of guilt? 7
What could the purpose be, except to keep the witnesses of guilt away from love?
S-2.II.6. Forgiveness-to-destroy can also take the form of bargaining and
compromise. 2 "I will forgive you if you meet my needs, for in your slavery is my
release." 3 Say this to anyone and you are slave. 4 And you will seek to rid yourself of
guilt in further bargains which can give no hope, but only greater pain and misery. 5 How
fearful has forgiveness now become, and how distorted is the end it seeks. 6 Have mercy
on yourself who bargains thus. 7 God gives and does not ask for recompense. 8 There is
no giving but to give like Him. 9 All else is mockery. 10 For who would try to strike a
bargain with the Son of God, and thank his Father for his holiness?
S-2.II.7. What would you show your brother? 2 Would you try to reinforce his guilt
and thus your own? 3 Forgiveness is the means for your escape. 4 How pitiful it is to
make of it the means for further slavery and pain. 5 Within the world of opposites there is
a way to use forgiveness for the goal of God, and find the peace He offers you. 6 Take
nothing else, or you have sought your death, and prayed for separation from your Self. 7
Christ is for all because He is in all. 8 It is His face forgiveness lets you see. 9 It is His
face in which you see your own.
S-2.II.8. All forms forgiveness takes that do not lead away from anger, condemnation
and comparisons of every kind are death. 2 For that is what their purposes have set. 3 Be
not deceived by them, but lay them by as worthless in their tragic offerings. 4 You do not
want to stay in slavery. 5 You do not want to be afraid of God. 6 You want to see the
sunlight and the glow of Heaven shining on the face of earth, redeemed from sin and in
the Love of God. 7 From here is prayer released, along with you. 8 Your wings are free,
and prayer will lift you up and bring you home where God would have you be.
III. Forgiveness-for-Salvation
S-2.III.1. Forgiveness-for-Salvation has one form, and only one. 2 It does not ask for
proof of innocence, nor pay of any kind. 3 It does not argue, nor evaluate the errors that it
wants to overlook. 4 It does not offer gifts in treachery, nor promise freedom while it asks
for death. 5 Would God deceive you? 6 He but asks for trust and willingness to learn how
to be free. 7 He gives His Teacher to whoever asks, and seeks to understand the Will of
God. 8 His readiness to give lies far beyond your understanding and your simple grasp. 9
Yet He has willed you learn the way to Him, and in His willing there is certainty.
S-2.III.2. You child of God, the gifts of God are yours, not by your plans but by His
holy Will. 2 His Voice will teach you what forgiveness is, and how to give it as He wills
it be. 3 Do not, then, seek to understand what is beyond you yet, but let it be a way to
draw you up to where the eyes of Christ become the sight you choose. 4 Give up all else,
for there <is> nothing else. 5 When someone calls for help in any form, He is the One to
answer for you. 6 All that you need do is to step back and not to interfere. 7 Forgiveness-
for-Salvation is His task, and it is He Who will respond for you.
S-2.III.3. Do not establish what the form should be that Christ's forgiveness takes. 2
He knows the way to make of every call a help to you, as you arise in haste to go at last
unto your Father's house. 3 Now can He make your footsteps sure, your words sincere;
not with your own sincerity, but with His Own. 4 Let Him take charge of how you would
forgive, and each occasion then will be to you another step to Heaven and to peace.
S-2.III.4. Are you not weary of imprisonment? 2 God did not choose this sorry path
for you. 3 What you have chosen still can be undone, for prayer is merciful and God is
just. 4 His is a justice He can understand, but you cannot as yet. 5 Still will He give the
means to you to learn of Him, and know at last that condemnation is not real and makes
illusions in its evil name. 6 And yet it matters not the form that dreams may seem to take.
7 Illusions are untrue. 8 God's Will is truth, and you are one with Him in Will and
purpose. 9 Here all dreams are done.
S-2.III.5. "What should I do for him, Your holy Son?" should be the only thing you
ever ask when help is needed and forgiveness sought. 2 The form the seeking takes you
need not judge. 3 And let it not be you who sets the form in which forgiveness comes to
save God's Son. 4 The light of Christ in him is his release, and it is this that answers to his
call. 5 Forgive him as the Christ decides you should, and be His eyes through which you
look on him, and speak for Him as well. 6 He knows the need; the question and the
answer. 7 He will say exactly what to do, in words that you can understand and you can
also use. 8 Do not confuse His function with your own. 9 He is the Answer. 10 You the
one who hears.
S-2.III.6. And what is it He speaks to you about? 2 About salvation and the gift of
peace. 3 About the end of sin and guilt and death. 4 About the role forgiveness has in
Him. 5 Do you but listen. 6 For He will be heard by anyone who calls upon His Name,
and places his forgiveness in His hands. 7 Forgiveness has been given Him to teach, to
save it from destruction and to make the means for separation, sin and death become
again the holy gift of God. 8 Prayer is His Own right Hand, made free to save as true
forgiveness is allowed to come from His eternal vigilance and Love. 9 Listen and learn,
and do not judge. 10 It is to God you turn to hear what you should do. 11 His answer will
be clear as morning, nor is His forgiveness what you think it is.
S-2.III.7. Still does He know, and that should be enough. 2 Forgiveness has a Teacher
Who will fail in nothing. 3 Rest a while in this; do not attempt to judge forgiveness, nor
to set it in an earthly frame. 4 Let it arise to Christ, Who welcomes it as gift to Him. 5 He
will not leave you comfortless, nor fail to send His angels down to answer you in His
Own Name. 6 He stands beside the door to which forgiveness is the only key. 7 Give it to
Him to use instead of you, and you will see the door swing silently open upon the shining
face of Christ. 8 Behold your brother there beyond the door; the Son of God as He
created him.
3. HEALING
Introduction
S-3.in.1. Prayer has both aids and witnesses which make the steep ascent more gentle
and more sure, easing the pain of fear and offering the comfort and the promises of hope.
2 Forgiveness' witness and an aid to prayer, a giver of assurance of success in ultimate
attainment of the goal, is healing. 3 Its importance should not be too strongly
emphasized, for healing is a sign or symbol of forgiveness' strength, and only an effect or
shadow of a change of mind about the goal of prayer.
S-3.IV.4. You first forgive, then pray, and you are healed. 2 Your prayer has risen up
and called to God, Who hears and answers. 3 You have understood that you forgive and
pray but for yourself. 4 And in this understanding you are healed. 5 In prayer you have
united with your Source, and understood that you have never left. 6 This level cannot be
attained until there is no hatred in your heart, and no desire to attack the Son of God.
S-3.IV.5. Never forget this; it is you who are God's Son, and as you choose to be to
him so are you to yourself, and God to you. 2 Nor will your judgment fail to reach to
God, for you will give the role to Him you see in His creation. 3 Do not choose amiss, or
you will think that it is you who are creator in His place, and He is then no longer Cause
but only an effect. 4 Now healing is impossible, for He is blamed for your deception and
your guilt. 5 He Who is Love becomes the source of fear, for only fear can now be
justified. 6 Vengeance is His. 7 His great destroyer, death. 8 And sickness, suffering and
grievous loss become the lot of everyone on earth, which He abandoned to the devil's
care, swearing He will deliver it no more.
S-3.IV.6. Come unto Me, My children, once again, without such twisted thoughts
upon your hearts. 2 You still are holy with the Holiness which fathered you in perfect
sinlessness, and still surrounds you with the Arms of peace. 3 Dream now of healing. 4
Then arise and lay all dreaming down forever. 5 You are he your Father loves, who never
left his home, nor wandered in a savage world with feet that bleed, and with a heavy heart
made hard against the love that is the truth in you. 6 Give all your dreams to Christ and
let Him be your Guide to healing, leading you in prayer beyond the sorry reaches of the
world.
S-3.IV.7. He comes for Me and speaks My Word to you. 2 I would recall My weary
Son to Me from dreams of malice to the sweet embrace of everlasting Love and perfect
peace. 3 My Arms are open to the Son I love, who does not understand that he is healed,
and that his prayers have never ceased to sing his joyful thanks in unison with all
creation, in the holiness of Love. 4 Be still an instant. 5 Underneath the sounds of harsh
and bitter striving and defeat there is a Voice that speaks to you of Me. 6 Hear this an
instant and you will be healed. 7 Hear this an instant and you have been saved.
S-3.IV.8. Help Me to wake My children from the dream of retribution and a little life
beset with fear, that ends so soon it might as well have never been. 2 Let Me instead
remind you of eternity, in which your joy grows greater as your love extends along with
Mine beyond infinity, where time and distance have no meaning. 3 While you wait in
sorrow Heaven's melody is incomplete, because your song is part of the eternal harmony
of love. 4 Without you is creation unfulfilled. 5 Return to Me Who never left My Son. 6
Listen, My child, your Father calls to you. 7 Do not refuse to hear the Call for Love. 8 Do
not deny to Christ what is His Own. 9 Heaven is here and Heaven is your home.
S-3.IV.9. Creation leans across the bars of time to lift the heavy burden from the
world. 2 Lift up your hearts to greet its advent. 3 See the shadows fade away in
gentleness; the thorns fall softly from the bleeding brow of him who is the holy Son of
God. 4 How lovely are you, child of Holiness! 5 How like to Me! 6 How lovingly I hold
you in My Heart and in My Arms. 7 How dear is every gift to Me that you have made,
who healed My Son and took him from the cross. 8 Arise and let My thanks be given
you. 9 And with My gratitude will come the gift first of forgiveness, then eternal peace.
S-3.IV.10. So now return your holy voice to Me. 2 The song of prayer is silent without
you. 3 The universe is waiting your release because it is its own. 4 Be kind to it and to
yourself, and then be kind to Me. 5 I ask but this; that you be comforted and live no more
in terror and in pain. 6 Do not abandon Love. 7 Remember this; whatever you may think
about yourself, whatever you may think about the world, your Father needs you and will
call to you until you come to Him in peace at last.
PREFACE
This Preface was written in 1977, in response to many requests for a brief introduction to
A Course in Miracles®. The first two parts–How It Came; What It Is–Helen Schucman
wrote herself; the final part–What It Says–was written by the process of inner dictation
described in the Preface.
How It Came
A Course in Miracles began with the sudden decision of two people to join in a common
goal. Their names were Helen Schucman and William Thetford, Professors of Medical
Psychology at Columbia University's College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York
City. It does not matter who they were, except that the story shows that with God all
things are possible. They were anything but spiritual. Their relationship with each other
was difficult and often strained, and they were concerned with personal and professional
acceptance and status. In general, they had considerable investment in the values of the
world. Their lives were hardly in accord with anything that the Course advocates. Helen,
the one who received the material, describes herself:
Three startling months preceded the actual writing, during which time Bill suggested that
I write down the highly symbolic dreams and descriptions of the strange images that were
coming to me. Although I had grown more accustomed to the unexpected by that time, I
was still very surprised when I wrote, "This is a course in miracles." That was my
introduction to the Voice. It made no sound, but seemed to be giving me a kind of rapid,
inner dictation which I took down in a shorthand notebook. The writing was never
automatic. It could be interrupted at any time and later picked up again. It made me very
uncomfortable, but it never seriously occurred to me to stop. It seemed to be a special
assignment I had somehow, somewhere agreed to complete. It represented a truly
collaborative venture between Bill and myself, and much of its significance, I am sure,
lies in that. I would take down what the Voice "said" and read it to him the next day, and
he typed it from my dictation. I expect he had his special assignment, too. Without his
encouragement and support I would never have been able to fulfill mine. The whole
process took about seven years. The Text came first, then the Workbook for Students,
and finally the Manual for Teachers. Only a few minor changes have been made. Chapter
titles and subheadings have been inserted in the Text, and some of the more personal
references that occurred at the beginning have been omitted. Otherwise the material is
substantially unchanged.
The names of the collaborators in the recording of the Course do not appear on the cover
because the Course can and should stand on its own. It is not intended to become the
basis for another cult. Its only purpose is to provide a way in which some people will be
able to find their own Internal Teacher.
What It Is
As its title implies, the Course is arranged throughout as a teaching device. It consists of
three books: a 669-page Text, a 488-page Workbook for Students, and a 92-page Manual
for Teachers. The order in which students choose to use the books, and the ways in which
they study them, depend on their particular needs and preferences.
The curriculum the Course proposes is carefully conceived and is explained, step by step,
at both the theoretical and practical levels. It emphasizes application rather than theory,
and experience rather than theology. It specifically states that "a universal theology is
impossible, but a universal experience is not only possible but necessary" (Manual, p.
77). Although Christian in statement, the Course deals with universal spiritual themes. It
emphasizes that it is but one version of the universal curriculum. There are many others,
this one differing from them only in form. They all lead to God in the end.
The Text is largely theoretical, and sets forth the concepts on which the Course's thought
system is based. Its ideas contain the foundation for the Workbook's lessons. Without the
practical application the Workbook provides, the Text would remain largely a series of
abstractions which would hardly suffice to bring about the thought reversal at which the
Course aims.
The Workbook includes 365 lessons, one for each day of the year. It is not necessary,
however, to do the lessons at that tempo, and one might want to remain with a
particularly appealing lesson for more than one day. The instructions urge only that not
more than one lesson a day should be attempted. The practical nature of the Workbook is
underscored by the introduction to its lessons, which emphasizes experience through
application rather than a prior commitment to a spiritual goal:
Some of the ideas the workbook presents you will find hard to believe, and others may
seem to be quite startling. This does not matter. You are merely asked to apply the ideas
as you are directed to do. You are not asked to judge them at all. You are asked only to
use them. It is their use that will give them meaning to you, and will show you that they
are true.
Remember only this; you need not believe the ideas, you need not accept them, and you
need not even welcome them. Some of them you may actively resist. None of this will
matter, or decrease their efficacy. But do not allow yourself to make exceptions in
applying the ideas the workbook contains, and whatever your reactions to the ideas may
be, use them. Nothing more than that is required (Workbook, p. 2).
Finally, the Manual for Teachers, which is written in question and answer form, provides
answers to some of the more likely questions a student might ask. It also includes a
clarification of a number of the terms the Course uses, explaining them within the
theoretical framework of the Text.
The Course makes no claim to finality, nor are the Workbook lessons intended to bring
the student's learning to completion. At the end, the reader is left in the hands of his or
her own Internal Teacher, Who will direct all subsequent learning as He sees fit. While
the Course is comprehensive in scope, truth cannot be limited to any finite form, as is
clearly recognized in the statement at the end of the Workbook:
This Course is a beginning, not an end...No more specific lessons are assigned, for there
is no more need of them. Henceforth, hear but the Voice for God...He will direct your
efforts, telling you exactly what to do, how to direct your mind, and when to come to
Him in silence, asking for His sure direction and His certain Word (Workbook, p. 487).
What It Says
Nothing real can be threatened.
Nothing unreal exists.
Herein lies the peace of God.
This is how A Course in Miracles begins. It makes a fundamental distinction between the
real and the unreal; between knowledge and perception. Knowledge is truth, under one
law, the law of love or God. Truth is unalterable, eternal and unambiguous. It can be
unrecognized, but it cannot be changed. It applies to everything that God created, and
only what He created is real. It is beyond learning because it is beyond time and process.
It has no opposite; no beginning and no end. It merely is.
The world of perception, on the other hand, is the world of time, of change, of beginnings
and endings. It is based on interpretation, not on facts. It is the world of birth and death,
founded on the belief in scarcity, loss, separation and death. It is learned rather than
given, selective in its perceptual emphases, unstable in its functioning, and inaccurate in
its interpretations.
From knowledge and perception respectively, two distinct thought systems arise which
are opposite in every respect. In the realm of knowledge no thoughts exist apart from
God, because God and His Creation share one Will. The world of perception, however, is
made by the belief in opposites and separate wills, in perpetual conflict with each other
and with God. What perception sees and hears appears to be real because it permits into
awareness only what conforms to the wishes of the perceiver. This leads to a world of
illusions, a world which needs constant defense precisely because it is not real.
When you have been caught in the world of perception you are caught in a dream. You
cannot escape without help, because everything your senses show merely witnesses to the
reality of the dream. God has provided the Answer, the only Way out, the true Helper. It
is the function of His Voice, His Holy Spirit, to mediate between the two worlds. He can
do this because, while on the one hand He knows the truth, on the other He also
recognizes our illusions, but without believing in them. It is the Holy Spirit's goal to help
us escape from the dream world by teaching us how to reverse our thinking and unlearn
our mistakes. Forgiveness is the Holy Spirit's great learning aid in bringing this thought
reversal about. However, the Course has its own definition of what forgiveness really is
just as it defines the world in its own way.
The world we see merely reflects our own internal frame of reference–the dominant
ideas, wishes and emotions in our minds. "Projection makes perception" (Text, p. 445).
We look inside first, decide the kind of world we want to see and then project that world
outside, making it the truth as we see it. We make it true by our interpretations of what it
is we are seeing. If we are using perception to justify our own mistakes–our anger, our
impulses to attack, our lack of love in whatever form it may take–we will see a world of
evil, destruction, malice, envy and despair. All this we must learn to forgive, not because
we are being "good" and "charitable," but because what we are seeing is not true. We
have distorted the world by our twisted defenses, and are therefore seeing what is not
there. As we learn to recognize our perceptual errors, we also learn to look past them or
"forgive." At the same time we are forgiving ourselves, looking past our distorted self-
concepts to the Self That God created in us and as us.
Sin is defined as "lack of love" (Text, p. 11). Since love is all there is, sin in the sight of
the Holy Spirit is a mistake to be corrected, rather than an evil to be punished. Our sense
of inadequacy, weakness and incompletion comes from the strong investment in the
"scarcity principle" that governs the whole world of illusions. From that point of view,
we seek in others what we feel is wanting in ourselves. We "love" another in order to get
something ourselves. That, in fact, is what passes for love in the dream world. There can
be no greater mistake than that, for love is incapable of asking for anything.
Only minds can really join, and whom God has joined no man can put asunder (Text, p.
356). It is, however, only at the level of Christ Mind that true union is possible, and has,
in fact, never been lost. The "little I" seeks to enhance itself by external approval,
external possessions and external "love." The Self That God created needs nothing. It is
forever complete, safe, loved and loving. It seeks to share rather than to get; to extend
rather than project. It has no needs and wants to join with others out of their mutual
awareness of abundance.
The special relationships of the world are destructive, selfish and childishly egocentric.
Yet, if given to the Holy Spirit, these relationships can become the holiest things on
earth–the miracles that point the way to the return to Heaven. The world uses its special
relationships as a final weapon of exclusion and a demonstration of separateness. The
Holy Spirit transforms them into perfect lessons in forgiveness and in awakening from
the dream. Each one is an opportunity to let perceptions be healed and errors corrected.
Each one is another chance to forgive oneself by forgiving the other. And each one
becomes still another invitation to the Holy Spirit and to the remembrance of God.
Perception is a function of the body, and therefore represents a limit on awareness.
Perception sees through the body's eyes and hears through the body's ears. It evokes the
limited responses which the body makes. The body appears to be largely self-motivated
and independent, yet it actually responds only to the intentions of the mind. If the mind
wants to use it for attack in any form, it becomes prey to sickness, age and decay. If the
mind accepts the Holy Spirit's purpose for it instead, it becomes a useful way of
communicating with others, invulnerable as long as it is needed, and to be gently laid by
when its use is over. Of itself it is neutral, as is everything in the world of perception.
Whether it is used for the goals of the ego or the Holy Spirit depends entirely on what the
mind wants.
The opposite of seeing through the body's eyes is the vision of Christ, which reflects
strength rather than weakness, unity rather than separation, and love rather than fear. The
opposite of hearing through the body's ears is communication through the Voice for God,
the Holy Spirit, which abides in each of us. His Voice seems distant and difficult to hear
because the ego, which speaks for the little, separated self, seems to be much louder. This
is actually reversed. The Holy Spirit speaks with unmistakable clarity and overwhelming
appeal. No one who does not choose to identify with the body could possibly be deaf to
His messages of release and hope, nor could he fail to accept joyously the vision of Christ
in glad exchange for his miserable picture of himself.
Christ's vision is the Holy Spirit's gift, God's alternative to the illusion of separation and
to the belief in the reality of sin, guilt and death. It is the one correction for all errors of
perception; the reconciliation of the seeming opposites on which this world is based. Its
kindly light shows all things from another point of view, reflecting the thought system
that arises from knowledge and making return to God not only possible but inevitable.
What was regarded as injustice done to one by someone else now becomes a call for help
and for union. Sin, sickness and attack are seen as misperceptions calling for remedy
through gentleness and love. Defenses are laid down because where there is no attack
there is no need for them. Our brothers' needs become our own, because they are taking
the journey with us as we go to God. Without us they would lose their way. Without them
we could never find our own.
Forgiveness is unknown in Heaven, where the need for it would be inconceivable.
However, in this world, forgiveness is a necessary correction for all the mistakes that we
have made. To offer forgiveness is the only way for us to have it, for it reflects the law of
Heaven that giving and receiving are the same. Heaven is the natural state of all the Sons
of God as He created them. Such is their reality forever. It has not changed because it has
been forgotten.
Forgiveness is the means by which we will remember. Through forgiveness the thinking
of the world is reversed. The forgiven world becomes the gate of Heaven, because by its
mercy we can at last forgive ourselves. Holding no one prisoner to guilt, we become free.
Acknowledging Christ in all our brothers, we recognize His Presence in ourselves.
Forgetting all our misperceptions, and with nothing from the past to hold us back, we can
remember God. Beyond this, learning cannot go. When we are ready, God Himself will
take the final step in our return to Him.