WORKBOOK FOR
STUDENTS OF A COURSE IN MIRACLES, THE NEW,
THE
4TH VERSION OF THE ORIGINAL, SEEN THROUGH THE EYES OF BOTH
THE
MASCULINE AND THE FEMININE PRINCIPLE
(The
explanation for the changes in language can be found in the first part
of this book called the text)
A
Course in Miracles, the new, Workbook for Students is created and
manifested
by Harishchandra Sharma
TuTu and Solvejg Sharma TuTu
Second
edition begun January 1st
2026
Introduction
1
A theoretical foundation such as the text is necessary as a background
to make these exercises meaningful. Yet it is the exercises which will
make the goal possible. An untrained mind can accomplish nothing. It is
the purpose of these exercises to train the mind to think along the
lines which the course sets forth.
2
The exercises are very simple. They do not require more than a few
minutes, and it does not matter where or when you do them. They need no
preparation. They are numbered, running from 1 to 365. The training
period is one year. Do not undertake more than one exercise a day.
3
The purpose of these exercises is to train the mind to a different
perception of everything in the world. The workbook is divided into two
sections, the first dealing with the undoing of what you see now and the
second with the restoration of sight. It is recommended that each
exercise be repeated several times a day, preferably in a different
place each time and, if possible, in every situation in which you spend
any long period of time. The purpose is to train the mind to generalize
the lessons, so that you will understand that each of them is as
applicable to one situation as it is to another.
4
Unless specified to the contrary, the exercise should be practiced with
the eyes open, since the aim is to learn how to see. The only rule that
should be followed throughout is to practice the exercises with great
specificity. Each one applies to every situation in which you find
yourself and to everything you see in it. Each day's exercises are
planned around one central idea, the exercises themselves consisting of
applying that idea to as many specifics as possible. Be sure that you do
not decide that there are some things you see to which the idea for the
day is inapplicable. The aim of the exercises will always be to increase
the application of the idea to everything. This will not require effort.
Only be sure that you make no exceptions in applying the idea.
5
Some of the ideas you will find hard to believe, and others will seem
quite startling. It does not matter. You are merely asked to apply them
to what you see. You are not asked to judge them, nor even to believe
them. You are asked only to use them. It is their use which will give
them meaning to you, and show you they are true. Remember only this—you
need not believe them, you need not accept them, and you need not
welcome them. Some of them you may actively resist. None of this will
matter nor decrease their efficacy. But allow yourself to make no
exceptions in applying the ideas the exercises contain. Whatever your
reactions to the ideas may be, use them. Nothing more than this is
required.
Lesson 1
Nothing I see in this room
[on this street, from this window,
in this place] means anything.
Now
look slowly around you, and practice applying this idea very specifically
to whatever you see:
2
This table does not mean anything.
This
chair does not mean anything.
This
hand does not mean anything.
This
foot does not mean anything.
This
pen does not mean anything.
3
Then look farther away from your immediate area, and apply the idea to a
wider range:
4
That door does not mean anything.
That
body does not mean anything.
That
lamp does not mean anything.
That
sign does not mean anything.
That
shadow does not mean anything.
5
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. That is the purpose of the exercise. The statement is merely
applied to anything you see. As you practice applying the idea for the
day, use it totally indiscriminately. Do not attempt to apply it to
everything you see, for these exercises should not become ritualistic.
Only be sure that nothing you see is specifically excluded. One thing is
like another as far as the application of the idea is concerned.
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.
1
The exercises with this idea are the same as those for the first one.
Begin with the things that are near you, and apply the idea to whatever
your glance rests on. Then increase the range outward. Turn your head so
that you include whatever is to either side. If possible, turn around
and apply the idea to what was behind you. 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 in
an area or you will introduce strain. 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. Try to apply the exercise with
equal ease to a body or a button, a fly or a floor, an arm or an apple.
The sole criterion for applying the idea to anything is merely that your
eyes have lighted on it. 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].
1
Apply this idea in the same way as the previous ones, without making
distinctions of any kind. Whatever you see becomes a proper subject for
applying the idea. Be sure that you do not question the suitability of
anything for the application of the idea. These are not exercises in
judgment. Anything is suitable if you see it. Some of the things you see
may have emotionally-charged meaning for you. Try to lay such feelings
aside, and merely use these things exactly as you would anything else.
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. 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.
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].
1
Unlike the preceding ones, these exercises do not begin with the idea
for the day. In these practice periods, begin with noting the thoughts
that are crossing your mind for about a minute. Then apply the idea to
them. If you are already aware of unhappy thoughts, use them as subjects
for the idea. Do not, however, select only the thoughts you think are
"bad." 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." This is why they do not mean anything.
2
In selecting the subjects for the application of today's idea, the usual
specificity is required. Do not be afraid to use "good" thoughts as well
as "bad." None of them represents your real thoughts, which are being
covered up by them. The "good" ones of which you are aware are but
shadows of what lies beyond, and shadows make sight difficult. The "bad"
ones are blocks to sight and make seeing impossible. You do not want
either.
3
This is a major exercise and will be repeated from time to time in
somewhat different form. The aim here is to train you in the first steps
toward the goal of separating the meaningless from the meaningful. It is
a first attempt in the long-range purpose of learning to see the
meaningless as outside you and the meaningful within. It is also the
beginning of training your mind to recognize what is the same and what
is different. In using your thoughts for application of the idea for
today, identify each thought by the central figure or event it contains.
For example:
4
This thought about _____ does not mean anything. It is like the
things I see in this room [or wherever you are].
5You
can also use the idea for a particular thought which you recognize as
harmful. This practice is useful, but is not a substitute for the more
random procedures to be followed for the exercises. Do not, however,
examine your mind for more than a minute or so. You are too
inexperienced as yet to avoid a tendency to become pointlessly
preoccupied. Further, since these exercises are the first of their kind,
you may find the suspension of judgment in connection with thoughts
particularly difficult. Do not repeat these exercises more than three or
four times during the day. We will return to them later.
Lesson 5
I am never upset for the
reason I think.
1
This idea, like the preceding one, can be used with any person,
situation, or event you think is causing you pain. Apply it specifically
to whatever you believe is the cause of your upset, using the
description of the feeling in whatever term seems accurate to you. The
upset may seem to be fear, worry, depression, anxiety, anger, hatred,
jealousy, or any number of forms, all of which will be perceived as
different. This is not true. However, until you learn that form does not
matter, each form becomes a proper subject for the exercises for the
day. Applying the same idea to each of them separately is the first step
in ultimately recognizing they are all the same.
2
When using the idea for today for a specific perceived cause of an upset
in any form, use both the name of the form in which you see the upset
and the cause which you ascribe to it. For example:
3
I am not angry at ____ for the reason I think. I am not afraid of
____ for the reason I think.
4
But again, this should not be substituted for practice periods in which
you first search your mind for "sources" of upset in which you believe
and forms of upset which you think result.
5
In these exercises, more than in the preceding ones, you may find it
hard to be indiscriminate and to avoid giving greater weight to some
subjects than to others. It might help to precede the exercises with the
statement:
6
There are no small upsets. They are all equally disturbing to my
peace of mind.
7
Then examine your mind for whatever is distressing you, regardless of
how much or how little you think it is doing so.
8
You may also find yourself less willing to apply today's idea to some
perceived sources of upset than to others. If this occurs, think first
of this:
9
I cannot keep this form of upset and let the others go. For the
purposes of these exercises, then, I will regard them all as the same.
10
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. 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 feelings as you experience it.
Further examples are:
11
I am not worried about ____ for the reason I think. I am not
depressed about ____ for the reason I think.
12
Three or four times during the day are enough.
Lesson 6
I am upset because I see
something that is not there.
1
The exercises with this idea are very similar to the preceding ones.
Again, it is necessary to name both the form of upset (anger, fear,
worry, depression, and so on) and the perceived source very specifically
for any application of the idea. For example:
2
I am angry at ___ because I see something that is not there. I am
worried about ___ because I see something that is not there.
3Today's
idea is useful for application to anything that seems to upset you and
can profitably be used throughout the day for that purpose. 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.
4
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:
5There
are no small upsets. They are all equally disturbing to my peace of
mind.
6And:
7
I cannot keep this form of upset and let the others go. For the
purposes of these exercises, then, I will regard them all as the same.
Lesson 7
I see only the past.
1
This idea is particularly difficult to believe at first. Yet it is the
rationale for all of the preceding ones.
2
It is the reason why nothing that you see means anything.
3
It is the reason why you have given everything you see all the meaning
that it has for you.
4
It is the reason why you do not understand anything you see.
5
It is the reason why your thoughts do not mean anything and why they are
like the things you see.
6
It is the reason why you are never upset for the reason you think.
7
It is the reason why you are upset because you see something that is not
there.
8
Old ideas about time are very difficult to change because everything you
believe is rooted in time and depends on your not learning these new
ideas about it. Yet that is precisely why you need new ideas about time.
This first time idea is not really so strange as it may sound at first.
Look at a cup, for example.
9
Do you see a cup, or are you merely reviewing your past experiences of
picking up a cup, being thirsty, drinking from a cup, feeling the rim of
a cup against your lips, having breakfast, and so on? Are not your
aesthetic reactions to the cup, too, based on past experiences? How else
would you know whether or not this kind of cup will break if you drop
it? What do you know about this cup except what you learned in the past?
You would have no idea what this cup is except for your past learning.
Do you, then, really see it?
10
Look about you. This is equally true of whatever you look at.
Acknowledge this by applying the idea for today indiscriminately to
whatever catches your eye. For example:
11
I see only the past in this pencil.
I see only the past in this shoe.
I see only the past in this hand.
I see only the past in that body.
I see only the past in that face.
12
Do not linger over any one thing in particular, but remember to omit
nothing specifically. Glance briefly at each subject, and then move on
to the next.
Lesson 8
My mind is preoccupied with
past thoughts.
1
This idea is, of course, the reason why you see only the past. No one
really sees anything. He/she sees only his/her thoughts projected
outward. The mind's preoccupation with the past is the cause of the
total misconception about time from which your seeing suffers. Your mind
cannot grasp the present, which is the only time there is. It therefore
cannot understand time and cannot, in fact, understand anything.
2
The only wholly true thought one can hold about the past is that it is
not here. To think about it at all is therefore to think about
illusions. Very few minds have realized what is actually entailed in
picturing the past or in anticipating the future. The mind is actually
blank when it does this because it is not really thinking about
anything.
3
The purpose of the exercises for today is to begin to train your mind to
recognize when it is not really thinking at all. While thoughtless
"ideas" preoccupy your mind, the truth is blocked. Recognizing that your
mind has been merely blank, rather than believing that it is filled with
real ideas, is the first step to opening the way to vision.
4
The exercises for today should be done with eyes closed. This is because
you actually cannot see anything, and it is easier to recognize that, no
matter how vividly you may picture a thought, you are not seeing
anything. With as little investment as possible, search your mind for
the usual minute or so, merely noting the thoughts you find there. Name
each one by the central figure or theme it contains, and pass on to the
next. Introduce the practice period by saying:
5
I seem to be thinking about _____.
6
Then name each of your thoughts specifically. For example:
7
I seem to be thinking about [name of person],
about
[name of object], about [name of emotion];
8
and so on, concluding at the end of the mind-searching period with:
9
But my mind is preoccupied with past thoughts.
10
This can be done four or five times during the day, unless you find it
irritates you. If you find it trying, three or four times are
sufficient. You might find it helpful, however, to include your
irritation, or any emotion which the idea may induce, in the mind
searching itself.
Lesson 9
I see nothing as it is now.
1
This idea obviously follows from the two preceding ones. But while you
may be able to accept it intellectually, it is unlikely that it will
mean anything to you as yet. However, understanding is not necessary at
this point. In fact, the recognition that you do not understand is a
prerequisite for undoing your false ideas. These exercises are concerned
with practice, not with understanding. You do not need to practice what
you really understand. It would indeed be circular to aim at
understanding and assume that you have it already.
2
It is difficult for the untrained mind to believe that what seems to be
pictured before it is not there. This idea can be quite disturbing and
may meet with active resistance in any number of forms. Yet that does
not preclude applying it. No more than that is required for these or any
other exercises. Each little step will clear a little of the darkness
away, and understanding will finally come to lighten every corner of the
mind which has been cleared of the debris that darkens it.
3
These exercises, for which three or four practice periods are
sufficient, involve looking about you and applying the idea for the day
to whatever you see, remembering the need for its indiscriminate
application and the essential rule of excluding nothing. For example:
4
I do not see this typewriter as it is now.
I do not see this key as it
is now.
I do not see this telephone
as it is now.
5
Begin with things that are nearest you, and then extend the range:
6
I do not see that coat rack as it is now.
I do not see that face as
it is now.
I do not see that door as
it is now.
7
It is emphasized again that while complete inclusion should not be
attempted, specific exclusion must be avoided. Be sure you are honest in
making this distinction. You may be tempted to obscure it.
Lesson 10
My thoughts do not mean
anything.
1
This idea applies to all the thoughts of which you are aware or become
aware in the practice periods. The reason the idea is applicable to all
of them is that they are not your real thoughts. We have made this
distinction before and will again. You have no basis for comparison as
yet. When you do, you will have no doubt that what you once believed
were your thoughts did not mean anything.
2
This is the second time we have used this kind of idea. The form is only
slightly different. This time the idea is introduced with "My thoughts"
instead of "These thoughts" and no link is made overtly with the things
around you. The emphasis is now on the lack of reality of what you think
you think.
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.
Now we are emphasizing that the presence of these "thoughts" means that
you are not thinking. This is merely another way of repeating our
earlier statement that your mind is really a blank. To recognize this is
to recognize nothingness when you think you see it. As such, it is the
prerequisite for vision.
4
Close your eyes for these exercises and introduce them by repeating the
idea for today quite slowly to yourself. Then add:
5
This idea will help to release me from all that I now believe.
6
The exercises consist, as before, in searching your mind for all the
thoughts which are available to you, without selection or judgment. Try
to avoid classification of any kind. 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. As
each one crosses your mind, say:
7
This thought about _____ does not mean anything.
That thought about _____
does not mean anything.
8
Today's idea can obviously serve for any thought that distresses you at
any time. In addition, five practice periods are recommended, each
involving no more than a minute or so of mind searching. It is not
recommended that this time period be extended, and it should be reduced
to half a minute or even less if you experience discomfort. Remember,
however, to repeat the idea slowly before applying it specifically, and
also to add:
9
This idea will help to release me from all
that I now believe.
Lesson 11
My meaningless thoughts are
showing me a meaningless world.
1
This is the first idea we have had which is related to a major phase of
the correction process—the reversal of the thinking of the world. It
seems as if the world determines what you perceive. Today's idea
introduces the concept that your thoughts determine the world you see.
Be glad indeed to practice the idea in this initial form, for in this
idea is your release made sure. The key to forgiveness lies in it.
2
The practice periods for today's idea are to be undertaken somewhat
differently from the previous ones. Begin with eyes closed, and repeat
the idea slowly to yourself. Then open your eyes and look about, near or
far, up or down—anywhere. 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.
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. The words, however, should be used in an unhurried, even
leisurely fashion. The introduction to this idea should be practiced as
casually as possible. It contains the foundation for the peace,
relaxation, and freedom from worry that we are trying to achieve. On
concluding the exercises, close your eyes and repeat the idea once more,
slowly, to yourself.
4
Three practice periods today will probably be sufficient. However, if
there is little or no uneasiness and an inclination to do more, as many
as five may be undertaken. More than this is not recommended.
Lesson 12
I am upset because I see a
meaningless world.
1
The importance of this idea lies in the fact that it contains a
correction for a major perceptual distortion. You think that what upsets
you is a frightening world, or a sad world, or a violent world, or an
insane world. All these attributes are given it by you. The world is
meaningless in itself.
2
These exercises are done with eyes open. Look around you, this time
quite slowly. Try to pace yourself so that the slow shifting of your
glance from one thing to another involves a fairly constant time
interval. Do not allow the time of the shift to become markedly longer
or shorter, but try, instead, to keep a measured, even tempo throughout.
What you see does not matter. You teach yourself this as you give
whatever your glance rests on equal attention and equal time. This is a
beginning step in learning to give them all equal value.
3
As you look about you, say to yourself:
4
I think I see a fearful world, a dangerous world, a hostile
world, a sad world, a
wicked world, a crazy world;
5
and so on, using whatever descriptive terms happen to occur to you. If
terms which seem positive rather than negative occur to you, include
them. For example, you might think of a "good world," or a "satisfying
world." If such terms occur to you, use them along with the rest. 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. All terms which cross
your mind are suitable subjects for today's exercises. Their seeming
quality does not matter.
6
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. For the purposes of these exercises, there is no difference
between them. At the end of the practice period, add:
7
But I am upset because I see a meaningless world.
8
What is meaningless is neither good nor bad. Why, then, should a
meaningless world upset you? If you could accept the world as
meaningless and let the truth be written upon it for you, it would make
you indescribably happy. But because it is meaningless, you are impelled
to write upon it what you would have it be. It is this you see in it. It
is this that is meaningless in truth. Beneath your words is written the
Word of God. The truth upsets you now, but when your words have been
erased, you will see HisHer. That is the ultimate purpose of these
exercises.
9
Three or four times are enough for practicing the idea for today. Nor
should the practice periods exceed a minute. You may find even this too
long. Terminate the exercises whenever you experience a sense of strain.
Lesson 13
A meaningless world engenders
fear.
1
Today's idea is really another form of the preceding one, except that it
is more specific as to the emotion aroused. Actually, a meaningless
world is impossible. Nothing without meaning exists. However, it does
not follow that you will not think you perceive something that has no
meaning. On the contrary, you will be particularly likely to think you
do perceive it.
2
Recognition of meaninglessness arouses intense anxiety in all the
separated ones. It represents a situation in which God and the ego
"challenge" each other as to whose meaning is to be written in the empty
space which meaninglessness provides. The ego rushes in frantically to
establish its own "ideas" there, fearful that the void may otherwise be
used to demonstrate its own unreality. And on this alone it is correct.
3
It is essential, therefore, that you learn to recognize the meaningless
and accept it without fear. If you are fearful, it is certain that you
will endow the world with attributes which it does not possess and crowd
it with images that do not exist. To the ego, illusions are safety
devices, as they must also be to you who equate yourself with the ego.
4
The exercises for today, which should be done about three or four times
for not more than a minute or so at most each time, are to be practiced
in a somewhat different way from the preceding ones. With eyes closed,
repeat today's idea to yourself. Then open your eyes and look about you
slowly, saying:
5
I am looking at a meaningless world.
6
Repeat this statement to yourself as you look about. Then close your
eyes and conclude with:
7
A meaningless world engenders fear because
I think I am in competition
with God.
8
You may find it difficult to avoid resistance in one form or another to
this concluding statement. Whatever form such resistance may take,
remind yourself that you are really afraid of such a thought because of
the "vengeance" of the "enemy." You are not expected to believe the
statement at this point and will probably try to dismiss it as
preposterous. Note carefully, however, any signs of overt or covert fear
which it may arouse. This is our first attempt at stating an explicit
cause and effect relationship of a kind which you are very inexperienced
in recognizing. Do not dwell on the concluding statement, and try not
even to think of it except during the exercise periods. That will
suffice at present.
Lesson 14
God did not create and
manifest a meaningless world.
1
The idea for today is, of course, the reason why a meaningless world is
impossible. What God did not create and manifest does not exist. And
everything that does exist exists as HeShe created and manifested it.
The world you see has nothing to do with reality. It is of your own
making, and it does not exist.
2
The exercises for today are to be practiced with eyes closed throughout.
The mind searching period should be short, a minute at most. Do not have
more than three practice periods with today's idea unless you find them
comfortable. If you do, it will be because you really understand what
they are for.
3
The idea for today is another step in learning to let go the thoughts
which you have written on the world, and see the Word of God in their
place. The early steps in this exchange, which can truly be called
salvation, can be quite difficult and even quite painful. Some of them
will lead you directly into fear. You will not be left there. You will
go far beyond it. Our direction is toward perfect safety and perfect
peace.
4
With eyes closed, think of all the horrors in the world that cross your
mind. Name each one as it occurs to you, and then deny its reality. God
did not create and manifest it, and so it is not real. Say, for example:
5
God did not create and manifest that war, and so it is not real.
God did not create and
manifest that airplane crash, and so it is not real.
God did not create and
manifest that disaster [specify], and so it is not real.
6
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. In each case, name the "disaster" quite specifically. Do
not use general terms. For example, do not say, "God did not create and
manifest illness," but, "God did not create and manifest cancer," or
heart attacks, or whatever may arouse fear in you.
7
This is your personal repertory of horrors at which you are looking.
These things are part of the world you see. Some of them are shared
illusions, and others are part of your personal hell. It does not
matter. What God did not create and manifest can only be in your own
mind apart from HisHer. Therefore, it has no meaning. In recognition of
this fact, conclude the practice periods by repeating today's idea:
8
God did not create and manifest a meaningless world.
9
The idea for today can, of course, be applied to anything that disturbs
you during the day, aside from the practice periods. Be very specific in
applying it. Say:
10
God did not create and manifest a meaningless world.
HeShe did not create and
manifest [specify the situation
which is disturbing you],
and so it is not real.
Lesson 15
My thoughts are images which
I have made.
1
It is because the thoughts you think appear as images that you do not
recognize them as nothing. You think you think them, and so you think
you see them. This is how your "seeing" was made. This is the function
you have given your body's eyes. It is not seeing. It is image-making.
It takes the place of seeing, replacing vision with illusions.
2
This introductory idea to the process of image-making which you call
seeing will not have much meaning for you. You will begin to understand
it when you have seen little edges of light around the same familiar
objects which you see now. That is the beginning of real vision. You can
be certain that real vision will come quickly when this has occurred.
3
As we go along, you may have many "light episodes." They may take many
different forms, some of them quite unexpected. Do not be afraid of
them. They are signs that you are opening your eyes at last. They will
not persist, because they merely symbolize true perception, and they are
not related to knowledge. These exercises will not reveal knowledge to
you. But they will prepare the way to it.
4
In practicing the idea for today, repeat it first to yourself, and then
apply it to whatever you see around you, using its name and letting your
eyes rest on it as you say:
5
This _____ is an image which I have made.
That _____ is an image
which I have made.
6
It is not necessary to include a large number of specific subjects for
the application of today's idea. It is necessary, however, to continue
to look at each subject while you repeat the idea to yourself. The idea
should be repeated quite slowly each time.
7
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. Less than a minute will do for
the practice periods, if you begin to feel uneasy. Do not have more than
three application periods for today's idea unless you feel completely
comfortable with it, and do not exceed four.
Lesson 16
I have no neutral thoughts.
1
The idea for today is a beginning step in dispelling the belief that
your thoughts have no effect. Everything you see is the result of your
thoughts. There is no exception to this fact. Thoughts are not big or
little, powerful or weak. They are merely true or false. Those which are
true create and manifest their own likeness. Those which are false make
theirs.
2
There is no more self-contradictory concept than that of "idle
thoughts." What gives rise to the perception of a whole world can hardly
be called idle. Every thought you have contributes to truth or to
illusion; either it extends the truth or it multiplies illusions. You
can indeed multiply nothing, but you will not extend it by doing so.
3
In addition to never being idle, salvation requires that you recognize
that every thought you have brings either peace or war, either love or
fear. A neutral result is impossible because a neutral thought is
impossible. There is such a temptation to dismiss fear thoughts as
unimportant, trivial, and not worth bothering about that it is essential
you recognize them all as equally destructive but equally unreal. We
will practice this idea in many forms before you really understand it.
4
In applying the idea for today, search your mind for a minute or so,
with eyes closed, and actively seek not to overlook any "little" thought
which tends to elude the search. This is quite difficult until you get
used to it. You will find that it is still hard for you not to make
artificial distinctions. Every thought that occurs to you, regardless of
the quality which you assign to it, is a suitable subject for applying
today's idea.
5
In the practice periods, first repeat the idea, and then as each one
crosses your mind, hold it in awareness while you tell yourself:
6
This thought about _____ is not a neutral thought.
That thought about _____ is
not a neutral thought.
7
As usual, use today's idea whenever you are aware of a particular
thought which arouses uneasiness. The following form is suggested for
this purpose:
8
This thought about _____ is not a neutral thought,
because I have no neutral
thoughts.
9
Four or five practice periods are recommended if you find them
relatively effortless. If strain is experienced, three will be enough.
The length of the exercise period should also be reduced if there is
discomfort.
Lesson 17
I see no neutral things.
1
This idea is another step in the direction of identifying cause and
effect as it really operates. You see no neutral things because you have
no neutral thoughts. It is always the thought that comes first, despite
the temptation to believe that it is really the other way around. This
is not the way the world thinks, but you must learn that it is the way
you think. If it were not so, perception would have no cause and would
itself be the cause of reality. In view of its highly variable nature,
this is hardly likely.
2
In applying today's idea, say to yourself, with eyes open:
3
I see no neutral things because I have no neutral thoughts.
4
Then look about you, resting your glance on each thing that catches your
eye long enough to say:
5
I do not see a neutral _____, because my thoughts
about _____ are not
neutral.
6
For example, you might say:
7
I do not see a neutral wall, because my thoughts
about walls are not
neutral.
I do not see a neutral
body, because my thoughts
about bodies are not
neutral.
8
As usual, it is essential to make no distinction between what you
believe to be animate or inanimate, pleasant or unpleasant. Regardless
of what you may believe, you do not see anything which is really alive
and really joyous. That is because you are unaware as yet of any
thoughts which are really true and therefore really happy.
9
Three or four specific practice periods are recommended and no less than
three are required for maximum benefit even if you experience
resistance. However, if you do, the length of the practice period may be
reduced to less than the minute or so which is otherwise recommended.
Lesson 18
I am not alone in
experiencing the effects of my seeing.
1
The idea for today is another step in learning that the thoughts which
give rise to what you see are never neutral or unimportant. It also
emphasizes the idea that minds are joined, which will be given
increasing stress later.
2
Today's idea does not refer to what you see as much as to how you see
it. Therefore, the exercises for today will emphasize this aspect of
your perception. The three or four practice periods which are
recommended should be done as follows:
3
Selecting subjects for the application of the idea randomly, look at
each one long enough to say:
4
I am not alone in experiencing the effects of how I see ___.
5
Conclude the practice period by repeating the more general statement:
6
I am not alone in experiencing the effects of my seeing.
7
A minute or so or even less will be sufficient.
Lesson 19
I am not alone in
experiencing the effects of my thoughts.
1
The idea for today is obviously the reason why your seeing does not
affect you alone. You will notice that at times the ideas related to
thinking precede those related to perceiving, while at other times the
order is reversed. The reason is that the order does not actually
matter. Thinking and its results are really simultaneous, for cause and
effect are never separate.
2
Today we are again emphasizing the fact that minds are joined. This is
rarely a wholly welcome idea at first, since it seems to carry with it
an enormous sense of responsibility and may even be regarded as an
"invasion of privacy." Yet it is a fact that there are no private
thoughts. Despite your initial resistance to this idea, you will yet
understand that it must be true if salvation is possible at all. And
salvation must be possible because it is the Will of God.
3
The minute or so of mind searching which today's exercises require are
to be undertaken with eyes closed. The idea is to be repeated first, and
then the mind should be carefully searched for the thoughts it contains
at that time. As you consider each one, name it in terms of the central
person or theme it contains and, holding it in your mind as you do so,
say:
4
I am not alone in experiencing the effects of
this thought about ___.
5
The requirement of as much indiscriminateness as possible in selecting
subjects for the practice period should be quite familiar to you by now
and will no longer be repeated each day, although it will occasionally
be included as a reminder. Do not forget, however, that random selection
of subjects for all practice periods remains essential throughout. Lack
of order in this connection will ultimately make the recognition of lack
of order in miracles meaningful to you.
6
Apart from the "as needed" application of today's idea, at least three
practice periods are required, shortening the length of time involved if
necessary. Do not attempt more than four.
Lesson 20
I am determined to see.
1
We have been quite casual about our practice periods thus far. 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. This casual approach has been intentional and
very carefully planned. We have not lost sight of the crucial importance
of the reversal of your thinking. The salvation of the world depends on
it. Yet you will not see if you regard yourself as being coerced and if
you give in to resentment and opposition.
2
This is our first attempt to introduce structure. Do not misconstrue it
as an effort to exert force or pressure. You want salvation. You want to
be happy. You want peace. 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. You are now learning how to
tell them apart. And great indeed will be your reward.
3
Your decision to see is all that vision requires. What you want is
yours. Do not mistake the little effort that is asked of you for a sign
that our goal is of little worth. Can the salvation of the world be a
trivial purpose? And can the world be saved if you are not? God has one
SonDaughter, and heshe is the resurrection and the life. Hisher will is
done because all power is given Himher in the God Realm and on earth. In
your determination to see is vision given you.
4
The exercises for today consist in reminding yourselves throughout the
day that you want to see. Today's idea also tacitly implies the
recognition that you do not see now. 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.
5
Repeat today's idea slowly and positively at least twice an hour today,
attempting to do so every half hour. Do not be distressed if you forget
to do so, but make a real effort to remember. The extra repetitions
should be applied to any situation, person, or event which upsets you.
You can see them differently, and you will. What you desire, you will
see. Such is the real law of cause and effect as it operates in the
world.
Lesson 21
I am determined to see
things differently.
1
The idea for today is obviously a continuation and extension of the
preceding one. This time, however, specific mind searching periods are
necessary in addition to applying the idea to particular situations as
they arise. Five practice periods are urged, allowing a full minute for
each.
2
In the practice periods, begin by repeating the idea to yourself. Then
close your eyes and search your mind carefully for situations past,
present or anticipated, which arouse anger in you. The anger may take
the form of any reaction ranging from mild irritation to rage. The
degree of the emotion you experience does not matter. You will become
increasingly aware that a slight twinge of annoyance is nothing but a
veil drawn over intense fury.
3
Try, therefore, not to let the "little" thoughts of anger escape you in
the practice periods. Remember that you do not really recognize what
arouses anger in you, and nothing that you believe in this connection
means anything. You will probably be tempted to dwell more on some
situations than on others on the fallacious grounds that they are more
"obvious." This is not so. It is merely an example of the belief that
some forms of attack are more justified than others.
4
As you search your mind for all the forms in which attack thoughts
present themselves, hold each one in mind and tell yourself:
5
I am determined to see _____ [name of person] differently.
I am determined to see
_____ [specify the situation] differently.
6
Try to be as specific as possible. You may, for example, focus your
anger on a particular attribute of a particular person, believing that
the anger is limited to this aspect. If your perception of the person is
suffering from this form of distortion, say:
7
I am determined to see _____ [specify the
attribute] in _____ [name
of person] differently.
Lesson 22
What I see is a form of
vengeance.
1
Today's idea accurately describes the way anyone who holds attack
thoughts in his/her mind must see the world. Having projected his/her
anger onto the world, he/she sees vengeance about to strike at him/her.
his/her own attack is thus perceived as self defense. This becomes an
increasingly vicious circle until he/she is willing to change how he/she
sees. Otherwise, thoughts of attack and counter-attack will preoccupy
him/her and people his/her entire world. What peace of mind is possible
to him&her then?
2
It is from this savage fantasy that you want to escape. Is it not joyous
news to hear that it is not real? Is it not a happy discovery to find
that you can escape? You made what you would destroy—everything that you
hate and would attack and kill. All that you fear does not exist.
3
Look at the world about you at least five times today, for at least a
minute each time. As your eyes move slowly from one object to another,
from one body to another, say to yourself:
4
I see only the perishable.
I see nothing that will
last.
What I see is not real.
What I see is a form of
vengeance.
5
At the end of each practice period, ask yourself:
6
Is this the world I really want to see?
7
The answer is surely obvious.
Lesson 23
I can escape from the world
I see by giving up attack thoughts.
1
The idea for today contains the only way out of fear that will ever
succeed. Nothing else will work; everything else is meaningless. But
this way cannot fail. Every thought you have makes up some segment of
the world you see. It is with your thoughts, then, that we must work if
your perception of the world is to be changed.
2
If the cause of the world you see is attack thoughts, you must learn
that it is these thoughts which you do not want. There is no point in
lamenting the world. There is no point in trying to change the world. It
is incapable of change because it is merely an effect. But there is
indeed a point in changing your thoughts about the world. Here you are
changing the cause. The effects will change automatically.
3
The world you see is a vengeful world, and everything in it is a symbol
of vengeance. Each of your perceptions of "external reality" is a
pictorial representation of your own attack thoughts. One can well ask
if this can be called seeing. Is not fantasy a better word for such a
process and hallucination a more appropriate term for the result?
4
You see the world which you have made, but you do not see yourself as
the image-maker. You cannot be saved from the world, but you can escape
from its cause. This is what salvation means, for where is the world you
see when its cause is gone? Vision already holds a replacement for
everything you think you see now. Loveliness can light your images and
so transform them that you will love them even though they were made of
hate. For you will not be making them alone.
5
The idea for today introduces the thought that you are not trapped in
the world you see, because its cause can be changed. This change
requires, first, that the cause be identified and then let go, so that
it can be replaced. The first two steps in this process require your
cooperation. The final one does not. Your images have already been
replaced. By taking the first two steps, you will see that this is so.
6
Besides using it throughout the day as the need arises, five practice
periods are required in applying today's idea. As you look about you,
repeat the idea slowly to yourself and then close your eyes and devote
about a minute to searching your mind for as many attack thoughts as
occur to you. As each one crosses your mind say:
7
I can escape from the world by giving up
attack thoughts about
_____.
8
Hold each attack thought in mind as you say this, and then dismiss that
thought and go on to the next.
9
In the practice periods, be sure to include both your thoughts of
attacking and of being attacked. Their effects are exactly the same
because they are exactly the same. You do not yet recognize this, and
you are asked at this time only to treat them as the same in today's
practice periods. We are still at the stage of identifying the cause of
the world you see. When you finally realize that thoughts of attack and
of being attacked are not different, you will be ready to let the cause
go.
Lesson 24
I do not perceive my own
best interests.
1
In no situation which arises do you realize the outcome that would make
you happy. Therefore you have no guide to appropriate action, and no way
of judging the results. What you do is determined by your perception of
the situation, and that perception is wrong. It is inevitable, then,
that you will not serve your own best interests. Yet they are your only
goal in any situation which is correctly perceived. Otherwise, you will
not recognize what they are.
2
If you realized that you do not perceive your own best interests, you
could be taught what they are. But in the presence of your conviction
that you do know what they are, you cannot learn. The idea for today is
a step toward opening your mind so that learning can begin.
3
The exercises for today require much more honesty than you are
accustomed to using. A few subjects, honestly and carefully considered
in each of the five practice periods which should be undertaken today,
will be more helpful than a more cursory examination of a large number.
Two minutes are suggested for each of the mind searching periods which
the exercises involve.
4
The practice periods begin with repeating today's idea, followed by
searching the mind with closed eyes for unresolved situations about
which you are currently concerned. The emphasis should be on uncovering
the outcome you want. You will quickly realize that you have a number of
goals in mind as part of the desired outcome and also that these goals
are on different levels and often conflict.
5
Name each situation that occurs to you, and enumerate carefully as many
goals as possible that you would like to be met in its resolution. The
form of each application should be roughly as follows:
6
In the situation involving _____, I would
like _____ to happen, and
_____ to happen,
7
and so on. Try to cover as many different kinds of outcome as may
honestly occur to you, even if some of them do not appear to you to be
directly related to the situation or even to be inherent in it at all.
8
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. 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.
9
After covering the list of as many hoped-for goals as possible for each
unresolved situation that crosses your mind, say to yourself:
10
I do not perceive my own best interests in this situation,
11
and go on to the next.
Lesson 25
I do not know what anything
is for.
1
Purpose is meaning. Today's idea explains why nothing you see means
anything. You do not know what it is for. Therefore it is meaningless to
you. Everything is for your own best interests. That is what it is for;
that is its purpose; that is what it means. It is in recognizing this
that your goals become unified. It is in recognizing this that what you
see is given meaning.
2
You perceive the world and everything in it as meaningful in terms of
ego goals. These goals have nothing to do with your own best interests
because the ego is not you. This false identification makes you
incapable of understanding what anything is for. As a result, you are
bound to misuse it. When you believe this, you will try to withdraw the
goals you have assigned to the world instead of attempting to reinforce
them.
3
Another way of describing the goals you now perceive as valuable is to
say that they are all concerned with "personal" interests. Since you
have no personal interests, your goals are really concerned with
nothing. In cherishing them, therefore, you have no goals at all. And
thus you do not know what anything is for.
4
Before you can make any sense out of the exercises for today, one more
thought is necessary. At the most superficial levels, you do recognize
purpose. Yet purpose cannot be understood at these levels. For example,
you do understand that a telephone is for the purpose of talking to
someone who is not physically in your immediate vicinity. What you do
not understand is what you want to reach him&her for. And it is this
that makes your contact with him&her meaningful or not.
5
It is crucial to your learning to be willing to give up the goals you
have established for everything. The recognition that they are
meaningless, rather than "good" or "bad," is the only way to accomplish
this. The idea for today is a step in this direction.
6
Six practice periods, each of two minutes duration, are required. Each
practice period should begin with a slow repetition of the idea for
today followed by looking about you and letting your glance rest on
whatever happens to catch your eye, near or far, "important" or
"unimportant," "human" or "unhuman." With your eyes resting on each
subject you so select, say, for example:
7
I do not know what this chair is for.
I do not know what this
pencil is for.
I do not know what this
hand is for.
8
Say this quite slowly, without shifting your eyes until you have
completed the statement. Then move on to the next subject, and apply
today's idea as before.
Lesson 26
My attack thoughts are
attacking my invulnerability.
1
It is surely obvious that if you can be attacked, you are not
invulnerable. You see attack as a real threat. That is because you
believe that you can really attack. And what would have effects through
you must also have effects on you. It is this law that will ultimately
save you. But you are misusing it now. You must therefore learn how it
can be used for your own best interests rather than against them.
2
Because your attack thoughts will be projected, you will fear attack.
And if you fear attack, you must believe that you are not invulnerable.
Attack thoughts therefore make you vulnerable in your own mind, which is
where the attack thoughts are. Attack thoughts and invulnerability
cannot be accepted together. They contradict each other.
3
The idea for today introduces the thought that you always attack
yourself. If attack thoughts must entail the belief that you are
vulnerable, their effect is to weaken you in your own eyes. Thus they
have attacked your perception of yourself. And because you believe in
them, you can no longer believe in yourself. A false image of yourself
has come to take the place of what you are.
4
Practice with today's idea will help you to understand that
vulnerability or invulnerability is the result of your own thoughts.
Nothing except your thoughts can attack you. Nothing except your
thoughts can make you think you are vulnerable. And nothing except your
thoughts can prove to you this is not so.
5
Six practice periods are required in applying today's idea. A full two
minutes should be attempted for each of them, although the time may be
reduced to a minute if the discomfort is too great. Do not reduce it
further.
6
The practice period should begin with repeating the idea for today, then
closing your eyes and reviewing the unresolved situations whose outcomes
are causing you concern. The concern may take the form of depression,
worry, anger, a sense of imposition, fear, foreboding, or preoccupation.
Any problem as yet unsettled which tends to recur in your thoughts
during the day is a suitable subject. You will not be able to use very
many for any one practice period, because a longer time than usual
should be spent with each one. Today's idea should be applied as
follows:
7
First, name the situation:
8
I am concerned about ______.
9
Then go over every possible outcome which has occurred to you in that
connection and which has caused you concern, referring to each one quite
specifically, saying:
10
I am afraid ______ will happen.
11
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. It is much more helpful to cover a few situations
thoroughly than to touch on a larger number.
12
As the list of anticipated outcomes for each situation continues, you
will probably find some of them, especially those which occur to you
toward the end, less acceptable to you. Try, however, to treat them all
alike to whatever extent you can.
13
After you have named each outcome of which you are afraid, tell
yourself:
14
That thought is an attack upon myself.
15
Conclude each practice period by repeating today's idea once more.
Lesson 27
Above all else I want to
see.
1
Today's idea expresses something stronger than mere determination. It
gives vision priority among your desires. You may feel hesitant about
using the idea on the ground that you are not sure you really mean it.
This does not matter. The purpose of today's exercises is to bring the
time when the idea will be wholly true a little nearer.
2
There may be a great temptation to believe that some sort of sacrifice
is being asked of you when you say you want to see above all else. If
you become uneasy about the lack of reservation involved, add:
3
Vision has no cost to anyone.
4
If fear of loss still persists, add further:
5
It can only bless.
6
The idea for today needs many repetitions for maximum benefit. It should
be used at least every half hour, and more often if possible. You might
try for every 15 or 20 minutes. 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. It will not
be difficult to do this, even if you are engaged in conversation or
otherwise occupied at the time. You can still repeat one short sentence
to yourself without disturbing anything that is going on.
7
The real question is how often will you remember? How much do you want
today's idea to be true? Answer one of these questions, and you have
answered the other. You will probably miss several applications and
perhaps quite a number. Do not be disturbed by this, but do try to keep
on your schedule from then on. 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
Above all else, I want to
see things differently.
1
Today we are really giving specific application to the idea for
yesterday. In these practice periods, you will be making a series of
definite commitments. The question of whether you will keep them in the
future is not our concern here. If you are willing at least to make them
now, you have started on the way to keeping them. And we are still at
the beginning.
2
You may wonder why it is important to say, for example, "Above all else
I want to see this table differently." In itself it is not important at
all. Yet what is by itself? And what does "in itself" mean? You see a
lot of separate things about you, which really means you are not seeing
at all. You either see or not. When you have seen one thing differently,
you will see all things differently. The light you will see in any one
of them is the same light you will see in them all.
3
When you say, "Above all else I want to see this table differently," you
are making a commitment to withdraw your preconceived ideas about the
table and open your mind to what it is and what it is for. You are not
defining it in past terms. You are asking what it is, rather than
telling it what it is. You are not binding its meaning to your tiny
experience of tables, nor are you limiting its purpose to your little
personal thoughts.
4
You will not question what we have already defined. And the purpose of
these exercises is to ask questions and receive the answers. In saying,
"Above all else I want to see this table differently," you are
committing yourself to seeing. It is not an exclusive commitment. It is
a commitment which applies to the table just as much as to anything
else, neither more nor less.
5
You could, in fact, gain vision from just that table if you could
withdraw all your own ideas from it and look upon it with a completely
open mind. It has something to show you—something beautiful and clean
and of infinite value, full of happiness and hope. Hidden under all your
ideas about it is its real purpose, the purpose it shares with all the
universe.
6
In using the table as a subject for applying the idea for today, you are
therefore really asking to see the purpose of the universe. You will be
making this same request of each subject which you use in the practice
periods. And you are making a commitment to each of them to let their
purpose be revealed to you instead of placing your own judgment upon
them.
7
We will have six two minute practice periods today in which the idea for
the day is stated first and then applied to whatever you see in looking
about you. Not only should the subjects be chosen randomly, but each one
should be accorded equal sincerity as today's idea is applied to it in
an attempt to acknowledge the equal value of them all in their
contribution to your seeing.
8
As usual, the applications should include the name of the subject which
your eyes happen to light on, and you should rest your eyes on it while
saying:
9
Above all else, I want to see this ______ differently.
10
Each application should be made quite slowly and as thoughtfully as
possible. There is no hurry.
Lesson 29
God is in everything I see.
1
The idea for today explains why you can see all purpose in anything. It
explains why nothing is separate, by itself or in itself. And it
explains why nothing you see means anything. In fact, it explains every
idea we have used thus far and all subsequent ones as well. Today's idea
is the whole basis for vision.
2
You will probably find this idea very difficult to grasp at this point.
You may find it silly, irreverent, senseless, funny, and even
objectionable. Certainly God is not in a table, for example, as you see
it. Yet we emphasized yesterday that a table shares the purpose of the
universe. And what shares the purpose of the universe shares the purpose
of its CreatorManifestoress.
3
Try then today to begin to learn how to look on all things with love,
appreciation, and open-mindedness. You do not see them now. Would you
know what is in them? Nothing is as it appears to you. Its holy purpose
stands beyond your little range. When vision has shown you the holiness
that lights up the world, you will understand today's idea perfectly.
And you will not understand how you could ever have found it difficult.
4
Our six two-minute practice periods for today should follow a now
familiar pattern: begin with repeating the idea to yourself, and then
apply it to randomly chosen subjects about you, naming each one
specifically. Try to avoid the tendency toward self-directed selection,
which may be particularly tempting in connection with today's idea
because of its wholly alien nature. Remember that any order you impose
is equally alien to reality.
5
Your list of subjects should therefore be as free of self-selection as
possible. For example, a suitable list might include:
6
God is in this coat hanger.
God is in this magazine.
God is in this finger.
God is in this lamp.
God is in that body.
God is in that door.
God is in that waste
basket.
7
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. At least once or twice you should experience a
sense of restfulness as you do this.
Lesson 30
God is in everything I see,
because God is in my mind.
1
The idea for today is the springboard for vision. From this idea will
the world open up before you, and you will look upon it and see in it
what you have never seen before. Nor will what you saw before be even
faintly visible to you.
2
Today we are trying to use the new kind of projection. We are not
attempting to get rid of what we do not like by seeing it outside.
Instead, we are trying to see in the world what is in our minds, and
what we want to recognize is there. Thus we are trying to join with what
we see, rather than keeping it apart from us. That is the fundamental
difference between vision and the way you see.
3
Today's idea should be applied as often as possible throughout the day.
Whenever you have a moment or so, repeat it to yourself slowly, looking
about you and trying to realize that the idea applies to everything you
do see now or could see now if it were within the range of your sight.
4
Real vision is not limited to concepts such as "near" and "far." To help
you begin to get used to this idea, try to think of things beyond your
present range as well as those you can actually see, as you apply
today's idea. Real vision is not only unlimited by space and distance,
but it does not depend on the body's eyes at all. The mind is its only
source.
5
To aid in helping you to become more accustomed to this idea as well,
devote several practice periods to applying today's idea with your eyes
closed, using whatever subjects come to mind and looking within rather
than without. Today's idea applies equally to both.
Lesson 31
I am not the victim of the
world I see.
1
Today's idea is the introduction to your declaration of release. Again,
the idea should be applied to both the world you see without and the
world you see within. In applying the idea, we will use a form of
practice which will be used more and more, with changes as indicated.
Generally speaking, the form includes two aspects, one in which you
apply the idea on a more sustained basis, and the other consisting of
frequent applications of the idea throughout the day.
2
Two longer periods of practice with the idea for today are needed, one
in the morning and one at night. Three to five minutes for each of them
are recommended. During that time, look about you slowly while repeating
the idea two or three times. Then close your eyes and apply the same
idea to your inner world. You will escape from both together, for the
inner is the cause of the outer.
3
As you survey your inner world, merely let whatever thoughts cross your
mind come into your awareness, each to be considered for a moment and
then replaced by the next. Try not to establish any thought of hierarchy
among them. Watch them come and go as dispassionately as possible. Do
not dwell on any one in particular, but try to let the stream move on
evenly and calmly, without any special investment on your part. As you
sit and quietly watch your thoughts, repeat today's idea to yourself as
often as you care to, but with no sense of hurry.
4
In addition, repeat the idea for today as often as possible during the
day. Remind yourself that you are making a declaration of independence
in the name of your own freedom. And in your freedom lies the freedom of
the world.
5
The idea for today is a particularly useful one to use as a response to
any form of temptation. It is a declaration that you will not yield to
it and put yourself in bondage.
Lesson 32
I have invented the world I
see.
1
Today we are continuing to develop the theme of cause and effect. You
are not the victim of the world you see because you invented it. You can
give it up as easily as you made it up. You will see it or not see it,
as you wish. While you want it, you will see it; when you no longer want
it, it will not be there for you to see.
2
The idea for today, like the preceding ones, applies to your inner and
outer worlds, which are actually the same. However, since you see them
as different, the practice periods for today will again include two
phases, one involving the world you see outside you and the other the
world you see in your mind. In today's exercises, try to introduce the
thought that both are in your own imagination.
3
Again we will begin the practice periods for the morning and evening by
repeating the idea for today two or three times while looking around at
the world you see as outside yourself. Then close your eyes and look
around your inner world. Try to treat them both as equally as possible.
Repeat the idea for today unhurriedly as often as you wish as you watch
the images your imagination presents to your awareness.
4
For the two longer practice periods, three to five minutes are
recommended, with not less than three required. More than five can be
utilized if you find the exercises restful. To facilitate this, select a
time when few distractions are anticipated and when you yourself feel
reasonably ready.
5
These exercises are also to be continued during the day as often as
possible. The shorter applications consist of repeating the idea slowly
as you survey either your inner or outer world. It does not matter which
you choose.
6
The idea for today should also be applied immediately to any situation
which may distress you. Apply the idea by telling yourself:
7
I have invented this situation as I see it.
Lesson 33
There is another way of
looking at the world.
1
Today's idea is an attempt to recognize that you can shift your
perception of the world in both its outer and inner aspects. A full five
minutes should be devoted to the morning and evening application.
2
In these practice periods, the idea should be repeated as often as you
find profitable, though unhurried applications are essential. Alternate
between surveying your outer and inner perceptions, but without an
abrupt sense of shifting. Merely glance casually around the world you
perceive as outside yourself, then close your eyes and survey your inner
thoughts with equal casualness. Try to remain equally uninvolved in both
and to maintain this detachment as you repeat the idea throughout the
day.
3
The shorter exercise periods should be as frequent as possible. Specific
applications of today's idea should also be made immediately when any
situation arises which tempts you to become disturbed. For these
applications, say:
4
There is another way of looking at this.
5
Remember to apply today's idea the instant you are aware of distress. It
may be necessary to take a minute or so to sit quietly and repeat the
idea to yourself several times. Closing your eyes will probably help in
this form of application.
Lesson 34
I could see peace instead
of this.
1
The idea for today begins to describe the conditions that prevail in the
other way of seeing. Peace of mind is clearly an internal matter. It
must begin with your own thoughts and then extend outward. It is from
your peace of mind that a peaceful perception of the world arises.
2
Three longer practice periods are required for today's exercises. One in
the morning and one in the evening are advised, with an additional one
to be undertaken at any time in between which seems most conducive to
readiness. All applications should be done with your eyes closed. It is
your inner world to which the applications of today's idea should be
made.
3
Some five minutes of mind searching are required for each of the longer
practice periods. Search your mind for fear thoughts, anxiety provoking
situations, "offending" personalities or events, or anything else about
which you are harboring unloving thoughts. Note them all casually,
repeating the idea for today slowly as you watch them arise in your
mind, and let each one go, to be replaced by the next.
4
If you begin to experience difficulty in thinking of specific subjects,
continue to repeat the idea to yourself in an unhurried the manner,
without applying it to anything in particular. Be sure, however, not to
make any specific exclusions.
5
The shorter applications are to be frequent and made whenever you feel
your peace of mind is threatened in any way. The purpose is to protect
yourself from temptation throughout the day. If a specific form of
temptation arises in your awareness, the exercise should take this form:
6
I could see peace in this situation instead of
what I now see in it.
7
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. 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. It will help you if you tell yourself
specifically:
8
I can replace my feelings of depression, anxiety
or worry [or my thoughts
about this situation,
personality, or event] with
peace.
Lesson 35
My mind is part of God's. I
am very holy.
1
Today's idea does not describe the way you see yourself now. It does,
however, describe what vision will show you. It is difficult for anyone
who thinks he/she is in this world to believe this of himself/herself.
Yet the reason he/she thinks he/she is in this world is because he/she
does not believe it.
2
You will believe that you are part of where you think you are. That is
because you surround yourself with the environment you want. And you
want it to protect the image of yourself that you have made. The image
is part of it. What you see while you believe you are in it is seen
through the eyes of the image. This is not vision. Images cannot see.
3
The idea for today presents a very different view of yourself. By
establishing your Source, it establishes your identity, and it describes
you as you must really be in truth. We will use a somewhat different
kind of application for today's idea, because the emphasis for today is
on the perceiver rather than on what he/she perceives.
4
For each of the three five-minute practice periods today, begin by
repeating today's idea to yourself and then close your eyes and search
your mind for the various kinds of descriptive terms in which you see
yourself. Include all of the ego-based attributes which you ascribe to
yourself, positive or negative, desirable or undesirable, grandiose or
debased. All of them are equally unreal, because you do not look upon
yourself through the eyes of holiness.
5
In the earlier part of the mind searching period, you will probably
emphasize what you consider to be the more negative aspects of your
perception of yourself. Toward the latter part of the exercise period,
however, more self-inflating descriptive terms may well cross your mind.
Try to recognize that the direction of your fantasies about yourself
does not matter. Illusions have no direction in reality. They are merely
not true.
6
A suitable unselected list for applying the idea for today might be as
follows:
7
I see myself as imposed on.
I see myself as depressed.
I see myself as failing.
I see myself as endangered.
I see myself as helpless.
I see myself as victorious.
I see myself as losing out.
I see myself as charitable.
I see myself as virtuous.
8
You should not think of these terms in an abstract way. They will occur
to you as various situations, personalities and events in which you
figure cross your mind. Pick up any specific situation that occurs to
you, identify the descriptive term or terms which you feel are
applicable to your reactions to that situation, and use them in applying
today's idea. After you have named each one, add:
9
But my mind is part of God's. I am very holy.
10
During the longer exercise periods, there will probably be intervals in
which nothing specific occurs to you. 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. Although nothing that does occur
should be omitted from the exercises, nothing should be "dug out" with
effort. Neither force nor discrimination should be used.
11
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 to each of them in the form stated
above. If nothing particular occurs to you, merely repeat the idea to
yourself with closed eyes.
Lesson 36
My holiness envelops
everything I see.
1
Today's idea extends the idea for yesterday from the perceiver to the
perceived. You are holy because your mind is part of God's. And because
you are holy, your sight must be holy as well. "Sinless" means without
sin. You cannot be without sin a little. You are sinless or not. If your
mind is part of God's, you must be sinless or a part of HisHer Mind
would be sinful. Your sight is related to HisHer holiness, not to your
ego and therefore not to your body.
2
Four three- to five-minute practice periods are required for today. Try
to distribute them fairly evenly, and make the shorter applications
frequently to protect your protection throughout the day. The longer
practice periods should take this form:
3
First, close your eyes and repeat the idea for today several times
slowly. Then open your eyes and look quite slowly about you, applying
the idea specifically to whatever you note in your casual survey. Say,
for example:
4
My holiness envelops that rug.
My holiness envelops that
wall.
My holiness envelops these
fingers.
My holiness envelops that
chair.
My holiness envelops that
body.
My holiness envelops this
pen.
5
Several times during these practice periods, close your eyes and repeat
the idea to yourself. Then open your eyes and continue as before.
6
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. All applications should, of course, be
made quite slowly, as effortlessly and unhurriedly as possible.
Lesson 37
My holiness blesses the
world.
1
This idea contains the first glimmerings of your true function in the
world or why you are here. Your purpose is to see the world through your
own holiness. Thus are you and the world blessed together. No one loses;
nothing is taken away from anyone; everyone gains through your holy
vision. It signifies the end of sacrifice because it offers everyone
his/her full due. And he/she is entitled to everything because it is
his/her birthright as a SonDaughter of God.
2
There is no other way in which the idea of sacrifice can be removed from
the world's thinking. Any other way of seeing will inevitably demand
payment of someone or something. As a result, the perceiver will lose.
Nor will he/she have any idea why he/she is losing. Yet is his/her
wholeness restored to his/her awareness through your vision. Your
holiness blesses him/her by asking nothing of him. Those who see
themselves as whole make no demands.
3
Your holiness is the salvation of the world. It lets you teach the world
that it is one with you, not by preaching to it, not by telling it
anything, but merely by your quiet recognition that in your holiness are
all things blessed, along with you.
4
Today's four longer exercise periods, each to involve three to five
minutes of practice, begin with the repetition of the idea for today
followed by a minute or so of looking about you as you apply the idea to
whatever you see:
5
My holiness blesses this chair.
My holiness blesses that
window.
My holiness blesses this
body.
6
Then close your eyes and apply the idea to any person who occurs to you,
using his/her name and saying:
7
My holiness blesses you, [name].
8
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 it 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 which you prefer. The
practice period should conclude with a repetition of the idea made with
your eyes closed and another following immediately with your eyes open.
9
The shorter exercises consist of repeating the idea as often as you can.
It is particularly helpful to apply it silently to anyone you meet,
using his/her name as you do so. It is essential to use the idea if
anyone seems to cause an adverse reaction in you. Offer him&her the
blessing of your holiness immediately that you may learn to keep it in
your own awareness.
Lesson 38
There is nothing my
holiness cannot do.
1
Your holiness reverses all the laws of the world. It is beyond every
restriction of time, space, distance, and limits of any kind. Your
holiness is totally unlimited in its power because it establishes you as
a SonDaughter of God, at one with the Mind of hisher
CreatorManifestoress. Through your holiness, the power of God is made
manifest. Through your holiness the power of God is made available. And
there is nothing the power of God cannot do.
2
Your holiness, then, can remove all pain, can end all sorrow, and can
solve all problems. It can do so in connection with yourself and with
anyone else. It is equal in its power to help anyone because it is equal
in its power to save anyone. If you are holy, so is everything God
created and manifested. You are holy because all things HeShe created
and manifested are holy. And all things HeShe created and manifested are
holy because you are.
3
In today's exercises, we will apply the power of your holiness to all
problems, difficulties, or suffering in any form that you happen to
think of in yourself or someone else. We will make no distinctions
because there are no distinctions.
4
In the four longer practice periods, each preferably to last a full five
minutes, repeat the idea for today, close your eyes, and then search
your mind for any sense of loss or unhappiness of any kind as you see
it. Try to make as little distinction as possible between a situation
that is difficult for you and one that is difficult for someone else.
Identify the situation specifically and also the name of the person
concerned. Use this form in applying the idea for today:
5
In the situation involving ______ in which I see myself, there is
nothing that my holiness cannot do. In the situation involving ______
in which _____ sees himself/herself, there is nothing my holiness
cannot do.
6
From time to time you may want to vary this procedure and add some
relevant thoughts of your own. You might like, for example, to include
thoughts such as:
7
There is nothing my holiness cannot do because the power of God lies
in it.
8
Introduce whatever variations appeal to you, but keep the exercises
focused on the theme "There is nothing my holiness cannot do." 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.
9
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. In that event, use the more specific form of application.
Lesson 39
My holiness is my
salvation.
1
If guilt is hell, what is its opposite? Like the text for which this
workbook was written, the ideas which are used for the exercises are
very simple, very clear, and totally unambiguous. We are not concerned
with intellectual feats nor logical toys. We are dealing only in the
very obvious, which has been overlooked in the clouds of complexity in
which you think you think.
2
If guilt is hell, what is its opposite? This is not difficult, surely.
The hesitation you may feel in answering is not due to the ambiguity of
the question. But do you believe that guilt is hell? If you did, you
would see at once how direct and simple the text is, and you would not
need a workbook at all. No one needs practice to gain what is already
his/hers.
3
We have already said that your holiness is the salvation of the world.
What about your own salvation? You cannot give what you do not have. A
savior/savioress must be saved. How else can he/she teach salvation?
Today's exercises will apply to you alone, recognizing that your
salvation is crucial to the salvation of the world. As you apply the
exercises to your own world, the whole world stands to benefit.
4
Your holiness is the answer to every question that was ever asked, is
being asked now, or will be asked in the future. Your holiness means the
end of guilt and therefore the end of hell. Your holiness is the
salvation of the world and your own. How could you to whom your holiness
belongs be excluded from it? God does not know unholiness. Can it be
HeShe does not know HisHer SonDaughter?
5
A full five minutes are urged for the four longer practice periods for
today. Longer and more frequent practice sessions are encouraged. If you
want to exceed the minimum requirements, more rather than longer
sessions are recommended, although both are encouraged.
6
Begin the practice periods as usual by repeating today's idea to
yourself. Then with closed eyes search out your unloving thoughts in
whatever form they appear—uneasiness, depression, anger, fear, worry,
attack, insecurity, and so on. Whatever form they take, they are
unloving and therefore fearful. And so it is from them that you need to
be saved.
7
Specific situations, events, or personalities you associate with
unloving thoughts of any kind are suitable subjects for today's
exercises. It is imperative for your own salvation that you see them
differently. And it is your blessing on them that will save you and give
you vision.
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. Apply the idea for today to each one of
them in this way:
9
My unloving thoughts about ___ are keeping me in hell. My holiness is
my salvation.
10
You may find these sessions easier if you intersperse the applications
with several short periods during which you merely repeat today's idea
to yourself slowly a few times. 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. Sustained concentration is very difficult at
first. It will become much easier as your mind becomes more disciplined
and less distractible.
11
Meanwhile, you should feel free to introduce variety into your practice
periods in whatever form appeals to you. Do not, however, change the
idea itself in varying the method of applying it. However you elect to
use it, the idea should be stated so that its meaning remains that your
holiness is your salvation.
12
End each practice period by repeating the idea in its original form once
more, and adding:
13
If guilt is hell, what is its opposite?
14
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, or preferably both. If temptations arise, a
particularly helpful form of the idea is:
15
My holiness is my salvation from this.
Lesson 40
I am blessed as a
SonDaughter of God.
1
Today we will begin to assert some of the happy things to which you are
entitled, being what you are. No long practice periods are required
today, but very frequent short ones are necessary. Once every ten
minutes would be highly desirable, and you are urged to attempt this
schedule and to adhere to it whenever possible. If you forget, try
again. If there are long interruptions, try again. Whenever you
remember, try again.
2
You need not close your eyes for the exercise periods, although you will
probably find it more helpful if you do. However, you may be in a number
of situations during the day when closing your eyes would not be
appropriate. Do not miss a practice period because of this. You can
practice quite well under almost any circumstance, if you really want
to.
3
Today's exercises take little time and no effort. Repeat today's idea,
and then add several of the attributes which you associate with being a
SonDaughter of God, applying them to yourself. One practice period
might, for example, consist of the following:
4
I am blessed as a SonDaughter of God.
I am happy, peaceful,
loving, and contented.
5
Another might be something as follows:
6
I am blessed as a SonDaughter of God.
I am calm, quiet, assured,
and confident.
7
If only a brief period is available, merely telling yourself that you
are blessed as a SonDaughter of God will do.
Lesson 41
God goes with me wherever I
go.
1
Today's idea will eventually overcome completely the sense of loneliness
and abandonment which all the separated ones experience. Depression is
an inevitable consequence of separation. So are anxiety, worry, a deep
sense of helplessness, misery, suffering, and intense fear of loss. The
separated ones have invented many "cures" for what they believe to be
the "ills of the world." But the one thing they do not do is to question
the reality of the problem. Yet its effects cannot be cured because the
problem is not real.
2
The idea for today has the power to end all this foolishness forever.
And foolishness it is, despite the serious and tragic forms it may take.
Deep within you is everything that is perfect, ready to radiate through
you and out into the whole world. It will cure all sorrow and pain and
fear and loss because it will heal the mind that thought these things
were real and suffered out of its allegiance to them.
3
You can never be deprived of your perfect holiness, because its Source
goes with you wherever you go. You can never suffer, because the Source
of all joy goes with you wherever you go. You can never be alone,
because the Source of all life goes with you wherever you go. Nothing
can destroy your peace of mind, because God goes with you wherever you
go.
4
We understand that you do not believe all this. How could you, when the
truth is hidden deep within under a heavy cloud of insane thoughts,
dense and obscuring, yet representing all you see? Today we will make
our first real attempt to get past this dark and heavy cloud and to go
through it to the light beyond.
5
There will be only one long practice period today. In the morning, as
soon as you get up if possible, sit quietly for some three to five
minutes with your eyes closed. At the beginning of the practice period,
repeat today's idea very slowly. Then make no effort to think of
anything. Try instead to get a sense of turning inward, past all the
idle thoughts of the world. Try to enter very deeply into your own mind,
keeping it clear of any thoughts that might divert your attention.
6
From time to time, you may repeat today's idea if you find it helpful.
But most of all, try to sink down and inward, away from the world and
all the foolish thoughts of the world. You are trying to reach past all
these things. You are trying to leave appearances and approach reality.
7
It is quite possible to reach God. In fact it is very easy because it is
the most natural thing in the world. You might even say it is the only
natural thing in the world. The way will open if you believe that it is
possible. This exercise can bring very startling results even the first
time it is attempted. And sooner or later, it is always successful. We
will go into more detail in connection with this kind of practice as we
go along. But it will never fail completely, and instant success is
possible.
8
Throughout the day, use today's idea often, repeating it very slowly and
preferably with eyes closed. Think of what you are saying; what the
words mean. Concentrate on the holiness which they imply about you; on
the unfailing companionship which is yours; on the complete protection
that surrounds you.
9
You can indeed afford to laugh at fear thoughts, remembering that God
goes with you wherever you go.
Lesson 42
God is my strength. Vision
is HisHer gift.
1
The idea for today combines two very powerful thoughts, both of major
importance. It also sets forth a cause and effect relationship which
explains why you cannot fail in your efforts to achieve the goal of the
course. You will see because it is the Will of God. It is HisHer
strength, not your own, that gives you power. And it is HisHer gift to
you, rather than your own, which offers vision to you.
2
God is indeed your strength. And what HeShe gives is truly given. This
means that you can receive it any time and anywhere, wherever you are
and in whatever circumstances you find yourself. Your passage through
time and space is not random. You cannot but be in the right place at
the right time. Such is the strength of God. Such are HisHer gifts.
3
We will have two three- to five-minute longer exercise periods today,
one as soon as possible after you wake and another as close as possible
to the time you go to sleep. It is better, however, to wait until you
can sit quietly by yourself at a time when you feel ready than it is to
be concerned with the time as such.
4
Begin the practice period by repeating the idea for today slowly with
eyes open, looking about you. Then close your eyes and repeat the idea
again, quite slowly. After this, try to think of nothing except thoughts
which occur to you in relation to today's idea. You might think, for
example:
5
Vision must be possible. God gives truly; or,
God's gifts to me must be
mine because HeShe gave them to me.
6
Whatever thought that is clearly related to the idea itself is suitable.
You may, in fact, be astonished at the amount of course-related
understanding some of your own thoughts contain. Let them come without
censoring unless you realize your mind is merely wandering and you have
let obviously irrelevant thoughts intrude. You may also reach a point
where no thoughts at all seem to come to mind. 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.
7
Remember, though, that active searching is not appropriate for today's
exercises. Try merely to step back and let the thoughts come. If you
find this difficult, it is better to spend the practice period
alternating between slow repetitions of the idea with eyes open, then
closed, then open, and so on, than it is to strain in order to find
suitable thoughts.
8
There is no limit on the number of short practice periods which would be
most beneficial. The idea for the day is a beginning step in bringing
thoughts together and teaching you that what you are studying is a
unified thought system in which nothing is lacking that is needed, and
nothing is included that is contradictory or irrelevant.
9
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 HimHer.
1
Perception is not an attribute of God. HisHer is the realm of knowledge.
Yet HeShe has created and manifested the Holy Spirit as the Mediator
between perception and knowledge. Without this link with God, perception
would have replaced knowledge forever in your minds. With this link with
God, perception will become so changed and purified that it will lead to
knowledge. That is its function as the Holy Spirit sees it. Therefore,
that is its function in truth.
2
In God you cannot see. Perception has no function in God and does not
exist. Yet in salvation, which is the undoing of what never was,
perception has a mighty purpose. Made by the SonDaughter of God for an
unholy purpose, it must become the means for the restoration of hisher
holiness to hisher awareness. Perception has no meaning. Yet does the
Holy Spirit give it a meaning very close to God's. Healed perception
becomes the means by which the SonDaughter of God forgives hisher
brother or sister and thus forgives himherself.
3
You cannot see apart from God because you cannot be apart from God.
Whatever you do, you do in HimHer because whatever you think, you think
with HisHer Mind. 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.
4
Three five-minute practice periods are required today, one as early as
possible and another as late as possible. The third may be undertaken at
the most convenient and suitable time which circumstances and readiness
permit.
5
At the beginning of these practice periods, repeat the idea to yourself
with eyes open. Then glance around you for a short time, applying the
idea specifically to what you see. Four or five subjects for this phase
of the exercises are sufficient. You might say, for example:
6
God is my Source. I cannot see this desk apart from HimHer.
God is my Source. I cannot
see that picture apart from HimHer.
7
Although this part of the exercise period should be relatively short, be
sure that you select the subjects for this phase indiscriminately,
without self-directed inclusion or exclusion.
8
For the second and longer phase of the exercise period, 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. Thoughts such as:
9
I see through the eyes of forgiveness.
I see the world as blessed.
The world can show me
myself.
I see my own thoughts,
which are like God's.
10
Any thought related more or less directly to today's idea is suitable.
The thoughts need not bear an obvious relationship to the idea, but they
should not be in opposition to it.
11
If you should 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, and then try the second phase again. Do not allow any protracted
period to occur in which you become preoccupied with irrelevant
thoughts. Return to the first phase of the exercises as often as
necessary to prevent this.
12
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. When you are with someone else, for example,
try to remember to tell him&her silently,
13
God is my Source. I cannot see you apart from HimHer.
14
This form is equally applicable to strangers and to those you know well.
Try, in fact, not to make distinctions of this kind at all.
15
The idea should also be applied throughout the day to various situations
and events which may occur, particularly to those which distress you in
any way. For this kind of application, use this form:
16
God is my Source. I cannot see this apart from HimHer.
17
If no particular subject presents itself to your awareness, merely
repeat the idea in its original form.
18
Try today not to allow long periods of time to slip by without
remembering today's idea and thus remembering your function.
Lesson 44
God is the Light in which I
see.
1
Today we are continuing with the idea for yesterday, adding another
dimension to it. You cannot see in darkness, and you cannot make light.
You can make darkness and then think you see in it, but light reflects
life and is therefore an aspect of the manifested creation. Creation and
manifestation and darkness cannot coexist, but light and life must go
together, being but different aspects of the manifested
creation
.
2
In order to see, one must recognize that light is within, not without.
You do not see outside yourself, nor is the equipment for seeing outside
you. An essential part of this equipment is the light that makes seeing
possible. It is with you always, making vision possible in every
circumstance.
3
Today we are going to attempt to reach that light. For that purpose, we
will use a form of practice which has been suggested once before and
which we will utilize increasingly. It is a particularly difficult form
for the undisciplined mind because it represents a major goal of mind
training. It embodies precisely what the untrained mind lacks. Yet the
training must be accomplished if you are to see.
4
Have at least three practice periods today, each lasting three to five
minutes. A longer time is highly recommended, but only if you find the
time merely slipping by with little or no sense of strain. The form of
exercise we will use today is the most natural and easy one in the world
for the trained mind, just as it seems to be the most unnatural and
difficult for the untrained mind.
5
Your mind is no longer wholly untrained. You are quite ready to learn
the form of exercise we will use today, but you may find that you will
encounter strong resistance. The reason is very simple. While you
practice in this form, you leave behind everything that you now believe
and all the thoughts which you have made up. Properly speaking, this is
the release from hell. Perceived through the ego's eyes, it is loss of
identity and a descent into hell.
6
If you can stand aside from the ego ever so little, you will have no
difficulty in recognizing that its opposition and fears are meaningless.
You might find it helpful to remind yourself from time to time that to
reach light is to escape from darkness, whatever you may believe to the
contrary. God is the Light in which you see. You are attempting to reach
HimHer.
7
Begin the practice period by repeating today's idea with your eyes open
and close them slowly, repeating the idea several times more. Then try
to sink into your mind, letting go every kind of interference and
intrusion by quietly sinking past them. Your mind cannot be stopped in
this unless you choose to stop it. It is merely taking its natural
course. Try to observe your passing thoughts without involvement and
slip quietly by them.
8
While no particular form of approach is advocated, what is needful is a
sense of the importance of what you are doing, its inestimable value to
you, and an awareness that you are attempting something very holy.
Salvation is your happiest accomplishment. It is also the only one that
has any meaning because it is the only one that has any use to you at
all.
9
If resistance rises in any form, pause long enough to repeat today's
idea, keeping your eyes closed unless you are aware of fear. In that
case, you will probably find it more reassuring to open your eyes
briefly. Try, however, to return to the exercises as soon as possible.
10
If you are doing the exercises correctly, you should experience some
sense of relaxation and even a feeling that you are approaching if not
actually entering into light. Try to think of light, formless and
without limit, as you pass by the thoughts of this world. And do not
forget that they cannot hold you to the world unless you give them the
power to do so.
11
Throughout the day, repeat the idea often with eyes open or closed as
seems better to you at the time. Do not forget. Above all, be determined
not to forget today.
Lesson 45
God is the Mind with which
I think.
1
Today's idea holds the key to what your real thoughts are. They are
nothing that you think you think, just as nothing that you think you see
is related to vision in any way. There is no relationship between what
is real and what you think is real. Nothing that you think are your real
thoughts resemble your real thoughts in any respect. Nothing that you
think you see bears any resemblance to what vision will show you.
2
You think with the Mind of God. Therefore you share your thoughts with
HimHer, as HeShe shares HisHer with you. They are the same thoughts
because they are thought by the same Mind. To share is to make alike or
to make one. Nor do the thoughts you think with the Mind of God leave
your mind, because thoughts do not leave their source. Therefore your
thoughts are in the Mind of God, as you are. They are in your mind as
well, where HeShe is. As you are part of HisHer Mind, so are your
thoughts part of HisHer Thoughts.
3
Where, then, are your real thoughts? Today we will attempt to reach
them. We will have to look for them in your mind because that is where
they are. They must still be there because they cannot have left. What
is thought by the Mind of God is eternal, being part of creation and
manifestation.
4
Our three five-minute practice periods for today will take the same
general form that we used in applying yesterday's idea. We will attempt
to leave the unreal and seek for the real. We will deny the world in
favor of truth. We will not let the thoughts of the world hold us back,
and we will not let the beliefs of the world tell us that what God would
have us do is impossible.
5
Instead, we will try to recognize that only what God would have us do is
possible. We will also try to understand that only what God would have
us do is what we want to do. And we will also try to remember that we
cannot fail in doing what HeShe would have us do. There is every reason
to feel confident that you will succeed today. It is the Will of God.
6
Begin the exercises for today by repeating the idea to yourself, closing
your eyes as you do so. Spend a fairly short period in thinking a few
relevant thoughts of your own, keeping the idea in mind as you do so.
After you have added some four or five thoughts of your own, repeat the
idea again, and tell yourself gently:
7
My real thoughts are in my mind. I would like to find them.
8
Then try to go past all the unreal thoughts that cover the truth in your
mind, and reach to the eternal.
9
Under all the senseless thoughts and mad ideas with which you have
cluttered up your mind are the thoughts which you thought with God in
the beginning. They are there in your mind now, completely unchanged.
They will always be in your mind, exactly as they always were.
10
Everything that you have thought since then will change, but the
foundation on which they rest is wholly changeless. It is this
foundation toward which the exercises for today are directed. Here is
your mind joined with the Mind of God. Here are your thoughts one with
HisHers.
11
For this kind of practice, only one thing is necessary—approach it as
you would an altar dedicated in the God Realm itself to God the
FatherMother and God the SonDaughter. For such is the place you are
trying to reach. You will probably be unable as yet to realize how high
you are trying to go. 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 God
realm.
12
In using the shorter form for applying today's idea, try to remember how
important it is to you to understand the holiness of the mind that
thinks with God. Take a minute or two as you repeat the idea throughout
the day to appreciate your mind's holiness. Stand aside, however
briefly, from all thoughts that are unworthy of HimHer Whose host you
are. And thank HimHer for the thoughts HeShe is thinking with you.
Lesson 46
God is the Love in which I
forgive.
1
God does not forgive because HeShe has never condemned. And there must
be condemnation before forgiveness is necessary. Forgiveness is the
great need of this world, but that is because it is a world of
illusions. Those who forgive are thus releasing themselves from
illusions, while those who withhold forgiveness are binding themselves
to them. As you condemn only yourself, so do you forgive only yourself.
2
Although God does not forgive, HisHer Love is nevertheless the basis of
forgiveness. Fear condemns, and love forgives. Forgiveness thus undoes
what fear has produced, returning the mind to the awareness of God. For
this reason, forgiveness can truly be called salvation. It is the means
by which illusions disappear.
3
Today's exercises require at least three full five-minute practice
periods and as many shorter applications as possible. Begin the practice
periods by repeating today's idea to yourself, as usual. Close your eyes
as you do so and spend a minute or two in searching your mind for those
whom you have not forgiven. It does not matter "how much" you have not
forgiven. You have forgiven them entirely or not at all.
4
If you are doing the exercises well, you should have no difficulty in
finding a number of people you have not forgiven. It is a safe rule that
anyone you do not like is a suitable subject. Mention each one by name
and say:
5
God is the Love in which I forgive you, [name].
6
The purpose of the first phase of today's practice is to put you in the
best position to forgive yourself. After you have applied the idea for
today to all those who have come to mind, tell yourself,
7
God is the Love in which I forgive myself.
8
Then devote the remainder of the practice period to offering related
ideas such as:
9
God is the Love with which I love myself.
God is the Love in which I am
blessed.
10
The form of the applications may vary considerably, but the central idea
should not be lost sight of. You might say, for example:
11
I cannot be guilty because I am a SonDaughter of God.
I have already been forgiven.
No fear is possible in a mind
beloved of God.
There is no need to attack because
Love has forgiven me.
12
The practice period should end, however, with a repetition of today's
idea as originally stated.
13
The shorter applications may consist either of a repetition of the idea
for today in the original or in a related form, or in more specific
applications if needed. 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. In this event, tell him&her silently,
14
God is the Love in which I forgive you.
Lesson 47
God is the Strength in
which I trust.
1
If you are trusting your own strength, you have every reason to be
apprehensive, anxious, and fearful. What can you predict or control?
What is there in you that can be counted on? What would give you the
ability to be aware of all the facets of any problem and to resolve them
in such a way that only good can come of it? What is there in you that
gives you the recognition of the right solution and the guarantee that
it will be accomplished?
2
Of yourself, you can do none of these things. To believe that you can is
to put your trust where trust is unwarranted and to justify fear,
anxiety, depression, anger, and sorrow. Who can put his/her faith in
weakness and feel safe? Yet who can put his/her faith in strength and
feel weak?
3
God is your safety in every circumstance. HisHer Voice speaks for HimHer
in all situations and in every aspect of all situations, telling you
exactly what to do to call upon HisHer strength and HisHer protection.
There are no exceptions because God has no exceptions. And the Voice
Which speaks for HimHer thinks as HeShe does.
4
Today we will try to reach past your own weakness to the Source of real
strength. Four five-minute practice periods are necessary today, and
longer and more frequent ones are urged. Close your eyes and begin as
usual by repeating today's idea. Then spend a minute or two in searching
for situations in your life which you have invested with fear,
dismissing each one by telling yourself,
5
God is the Strength in which I trust.
6
Now try to slip past all concerns related to your own sense of
inadequacy. It is obvious that any situation that causes you concern is
associated with feelings of inadequacy, since otherwise you would
believe that you could deal with the situation successfully. It is not
by trusting yourself that you will gain confidence. But the strength of
God in you is successful in all things.
7
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. You
must also gain an awareness that your confidence in your real strength
is fully justified in every respect and in all circumstances.
8
In the latter phase of the practice period, try to reach down into your
mind to a place of real safety. You will recognize that you have reached
it if you feel a deep peace, however briefly. Let go all the trivial
things that churn and bubble on the surface of your mind, and reach down
and below them to the God realm. There is a place in you where there is
perfect peace. There is a place in you where nothing is impossible.
There is a place in you where the strength of God abides.
9
Repeat the idea for today often. Use it as your answer to any
disturbance. Remember that peace is your right because you are giving
your trust to the strength of God.
Lesson 48
There is nothing to fear.
1
The idea for today simply states a fact. It is not a fact to those who
believe in illusions, but illusions are not facts. In truth there is
nothing to fear. It is very easy to recognize this. But it is very
difficult to recognize for those who want illusions to be true.
2
Today's practice periods will be very short, very simple, and very
frequent. Merely repeat the idea as often as possible. You can use it
with your eyes open at any time and in any situation. It is strongly
recommended, however, that you take a minute or so whenever possible to
close your eyes and repeat the idea slowly to yourself several times. It
is particularly important that you use the idea immediately should
anything disturb your peace of mind.
3
The presence of fear is a sure sign that you are trusting in your own
strength. The awareness that there is nothing to fear shows that
somewhere in your mind, not necessarily in a place which you recognize
as yet, you have remembered God and let HisHer strength take the place
of yours. The instant you are willing to do this there is indeed nothing
to fear.
Lesson 49
God's Voice speaks to me
all through the day.
1
It is quite possible to listen to God's Voice all through the day
without interrupting your regular activities in any way. The part of
your mind in which truth abides is in constant communication with God,
whether you are aware of it or not. It is the other part of your mind
that functions in the world and obeys the world's laws. It is this part
which is constantly distracted, disorganized, and highly uncertain.
2
The part that is listening to the Voice of God is calm, always at rest,
and wholly certain. It is really the only part there is. The other part
is a wild illusion, frantic and distraught, but without reality of any
kind. Try today not to listen to it. Try to identify with the part of
your mind where stillness and peace reign forever. Try to hear God's
Voice call to you lovingly, reminding you that your CreatorManifestoress
has not forgotten HisHer SonDaughter.
3
We will need at least four five-minute practice periods today and more
if possible. We will try actually to hear the Voice reminding you of God
and of your Self. We will approach this happiest and holiest of thoughts
with confidence, knowing that in doing so we are joining our will with
the Will of God. HeShe wants you to hear HisHer Voice. HeShe gave It to
you to be heard.
4
Listen in deep silence. Be very still, and open your mind. Go past all
the raucous shrieks and sick imaginings that cover your real thoughts
and obscure your eternal link with God. Sink deep into the peace that
waits for you beyond the frantic, riotous thoughts and sounds and sights
of this insane world. You do not live there. We are trying to reach your
real home. We are trying to reach the place where you are truly welcome.
We are trying to reach God.
5
Do not forget to repeat today's idea very frequently. Do so with your
eyes open when necessary, but closed when possible. And be sure that you
sit quietly and repeat the idea for today slowly whenever you can,
closing your eyes on the world and realizing that you are inviting God's
Voice to speak to you.
Lesson 50
I am sustained by the Love
of God.
1
Here is the answer to every problem that confronts you today and
tomorrow and throughout time. In this world, you believe you are
sustained by everything but God. Your faith is placed in the most
trivial and insane symbols—pills, money, "protective" clothing,
"influence," "prestige," being liked, knowing the "right" people, and an
endless list of forms of nothingness which you endow with magical
powers. All these things are your replacements for the Love of God. All
these things are cherished to ensure a body identification. They are
songs of praise to the ego.
2
Do not put your faith in the worthless. It will not sustain you. Only
the Love of God will protect you in all circumstances. It will lift you
out of every trial and raise you high above all the perceived dangers of
this world into a climate of perfect peace and safety. It will transport
you into a state of mind which nothing can threaten, nothing can
disturb, and where nothing can intrude upon the eternal calm of the
SonDaughter of God.
3
Put not your faith in illusions. They will fail you. Put all your faith
in the Love of God within you, eternal, changeless and forever
unfailing. This is the answer to whatever confronts you today. Through
the Love of God in you, you can resolve all seeming difficulties without
effort and in sure confidence. Tell yourself this often today. It is a
declaration of release from the belief in idols/idolresses. It is your
acknowledgment of the truth about yourself.
4
For ten minutes twice today, morning and evening, let the idea for today
sink deep into your consciousness. Repeat it, think about it, let
related thoughts come to help you recognize its truth, and allow peace
to flow over you like a blanket of protection and surety. Let no idle
and foolish thoughts enter to disturb the holy mind of the SonDaughter
of God. Such is the God realm. Such is the resting place where your
FatherMother has placed you forever.
Review I
R1:1
Beginning with today, we will have a series of review periods. Each of
them will cover five of the ideas already presented, starting with the
first and ending with the fiftieth. There will be a few short comments
after each of the ideas which you should consider in your review. In the
practice periods, the exercises should be done as follows:
2
Begin the day by reading the five ideas, with the comments included.
Thereafter, it is not necessary to follow any particular order in
considering them, though each one should be practiced at least once.
Devote two minutes or more to each practice period, thinking about the
idea and the related comments. Do this as often as possible during the
day. If any one of the five ideas appeals to you more than the others,
concentrate on that one. At the end of the day, however, be sure to
review all of them once more.
3
It is not necessary to cover the comments that follow each idea
literally or thoroughly in the practice periods. Rather, try merely to
emphasize the central point and think about it as part of your review of
the idea to which it relates.
4
The review exercises should be done with your eyes closed and when you
are alone in a quiet place if possible. This is emphasized particularly
for reviews at your stage of learning. It will be necessary, however,
that you learn to require no special settings in which to apply what you
have learned. You will need it most in situations which appear to be
upsetting, rather than in those which already seem to be calm and quiet.
5
The purpose of your learning is to enable you to bring the quiet with
you and to heal distress and turmoil. This is not done by avoiding them
and seeking a haven of isolation for yourself. 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. And finally you will learn that there is no
limit to where you are, so that your peace is everywhere, as you are.
6
You will note that for review purposes the ideas are not always given in
quite their original form of statement. Use them as they are given here.
It is not necessary to return to the original statements nor to apply
the ideas as was suggested then. 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
1
The review for today covers the following ideas:
[1] Nothing I see means anything.
2
The reason this is so is that I see nothing, and nothing has no
meaning. It is necessary that I recognize this, that I may learn to
see. What I think I see now is taking the place of vision. I must let
it go by realizing that it has no meaning so that vision may take its
place.
[2] I have given what I see all the
meaning it has for me.
3
I have judged everything I look upon. And it is this and only this
that I see. This is not vision. It is merely an illusion of reality,
because my judgments have been made quite apart from reality. I am
willing to recognize the lack of validity in my judgments because I
want to see. My judgments have hurt me, and I do not want to see
according to them.
[3] I do not understand anything I see.
4
How could I understand what I see when I have judged it amiss? What
I see is the projection of my own errors of thought. I do not
understand what I see because it is not understandable. There is no
sense in trying to understand it. But there is every reason to let it
go and make room for what can be seen and understood and loved. I can
exchange what I see now for this merely by being willing to do so. Is
not this a better choice than the one I made before?
[4] These thoughts do not mean
anything.
5
The thoughts of which I am aware do not mean anything because I am
trying to think without God. What I call "my" thoughts are not my real
thoughts. My real thoughts are the thoughts I think with God. I am not
aware of them because I have made "my" thoughts to take their place. I
am willing to recognize that "my" thoughts do not mean anything and to
let them go. I choose to have them be replaced by what they were
intended to replace. "My" thoughts are meaningless, but all creation
and manifestation lies in the thoughts I think with God.
[5] I am never upset for the reason I
think.
6
I am never upset for the reason I think because I am constantly
trying to justify "my" thoughts. I am constantly trying to make them
true. I make all things my "enemies" so that my anger is justified and
my attacks are warranted. I have not realized how much I have misused
everything I see by assigning this role to it. I have done this to
defend a thought system which has hurt me and which I no longer want.
I am willing to let it go.
Lesson 52
1
Today's review covers these ideas:
[6] I am upset because I see what is
not there.
2
Reality is never frightening. It is impossible that it could upset
me. Reality brings only perfect peace. When I am upset, it is always
because I have replaced reality with illusions which I made up. The
illusions are upsetting because I have given them reality and thus
regard reality as an illusion. Nothing in God's creation and
manifestation is affected in any way by this confusion of mine. I am
always upset by nothing.
[7] I see only the past.
3
As I look about, I condemn the world I look upon. I call this
seeing. I hold the past against everyone and everything, making them
my "enemies." When I have forgiven myself and remembered who I am, I
will bless everyone and everything I see. There will be no past and
therefore no "enemies." And I will look with love on all that I failed
to see before.
[8] My mind is preoccupied with past
thoughts.
4
I see only my own thoughts, and my mind is preoccupied with the past.
What, then, can I see as it is? Let me remember that I look on the
past to prevent the present from dawning on my mind. Let me understand
that I am trying to use time against God. Let me learn to give the
past away, realizing that in so doing I am giving up nothing.
[9] I see nothing as it is now.
5
If I see nothing as it is now, it can truly be said that I see
nothing. I can see only what is now. The choice is not whether to see
the past or the present: it is merely whether to see or not. What I
have chosen to see has cost me vision. Now I would choose again that I
may see.
[10] My thoughts do not mean anything.
6
I have no private thoughts. Yet it is only private thoughts of which
I am aware. What can these thoughts mean? They do not exist, and so
they mean nothing. Yet my mind is part of creation and manifestation
and part of its CreatorManifestoress. Would I not rather join the
thinking of the universe than to obscure all that is really mine with
my pitiful and meaningless "private" thoughts?
Lesson 53
1
Today we will review the following:
[11] My meaningless thoughts are
showing me a meaningless world.
2
Since the thoughts of which I am aware do not mean anything, the
world which pictures them can have no meaning. What is producing this
world is insane, and so is what it produces. Reality is not insane,
and I have real thoughts as well as insane ones. I can therefore see a
real world if I look to my real thoughts as my guide for seeing.
[12] I am upset because I see a
meaningless world.
3
Insane thoughts are upsetting. They produce a world in which there is
no order anywhere. Only chaos rules a world which represents chaotic
thinking, and chaos has no laws. I cannot live in peace in such a
world. I am grateful that this world is not real and that I need not
see it at all unless I choose to value it. And I do not choose to
value what is totally insane and has no meaning.
[13] A meaningless world engenders
fear.
4
The totally insane engenders fear because it is completely
undependable and offers no grounds for trust. Nothing in madness is
dependable. It holds out no safety and no hope. But such a world is
not real. I have given it the illusion of reality, and have suffered
from my belief in it. Now I choose to withdraw this belief and place
my trust in reality. In choosing this, I will escape all the effects
of the world of fear because I am acknowledging that it does not
exist.
[14] God did not create and manifest a
meaningless world.
5
How can a meaningless world exist if God did not create and manifest
it? HeShe is the Source of all meaning, and everything that is real is
in HisHer Mind. It is in my mind too because HeShe created and
manifested it with me. Why should I continue to suffer from the
effects of my own insane thoughts when the perfection of creation and
manifestation is my home? Let me remember the power of my decision and
recognize where I really abide.
[15] My thoughts are images which I
have made.
6
Whatever I see reflects my thoughts. It is my thoughts which tell me
where I am and what I am. The fact that I see a world in which there
is suffering and loss and death shows me that I am seeing only the
representation of my insane thoughts and am not allowing my real
thoughts to cast their beneficent light on what I see. Yet God's way
is sure. The images I have made cannot prevail against HimHer because
it is not my will that they do so. My will is HisHer, and I will place
no other gods before HimHer.
Lesson 54
1
These are the review ideas for today:
[16] I have no neutral thoughts.
2
Neutral thoughts are impossible because all thoughts have power. They
will either make a false world or lead me to the real one. But
thoughts cannot be without effects. As the world I see arises from my
thinking errors, so will the real world rise before my eyes as I let
my errors be corrected. My thoughts cannot be neither true nor false.
They must be one or the other. What I see shows me which they are.
[17] I see no neutral things.
3
What I see witnesses to what I think. If I did not think, I would not
exist, because life is thought. Let me look on the world I see as the
representation of my own state of mind. I know that my state of mind
can change. And so I also know the world I see can change as well.
[18] I am not alone in experiencing the
effects of my seeing.
4
If I have no private thoughts, I cannot see a private world. Even the
mad idea of separation had to be shared before it could form the basis
of the world I see. Yet that sharing was a sharing of nothing. I can
also call upon my real thoughts, which share everything with
everybody. As my thoughts of separation call to the separation
thoughts of others, so my real thoughts awaken the real thoughts in
them. And the world my real thoughts show me will dawn on their sight
as well as mine.
[19] I am not alone in experiencing the
effects of my thoughts.
5
I am alone in nothing. Everything I think or say or do touches all
the universe. A SonDaughter of God cannot think or speak or act in
vain. Heshe cannot be alone in anything. It is therefore in my power
to change every mind along with mine, for mine is the power of God.
[20] I am determined to see.
6
Recognizing the shared nature of my thoughts, I am determined to see.
I would look upon the witnesses that show me the thinking of the world
has been changed. I would behold the proof that what has been done
through me has enabled love to replace fear, laughter to replace
weeping, and abundance to replace loss. I would look upon the real
world, and let it teach me that my will and the Will of God are one.
Lesson 55
1
Today's review includes the following:
[21] I am determined to see things
differently.
2
What I see now are but signs of disease, disaster, and death. This
cannot be what God created and manifested for HisHer beloved
SonDaughter. The very fact that I see such things is proof that I do
not understand God. Therefore I also do not understand HisHer
SonDaughter. What I see tells me that I do not know who I am. I am
determined to see the witnesses to the truth in me, rather than those
that show me an illusion of myself.
[22] What I see is a form of vengeance.
3
The world I see is hardly the representation of loving thoughts. It
is a picture of attack on everything and by everything. It is anything
but a reflection of the Love of God and the love of HisHer
SonDaughter. It is my own attack thoughts which give rise to this
picture. My loving thoughts will save me from this perception of the
world and give me the peace God intended me to have.
[23] I can escape from the world by
giving up attack thoughts.
4
Herein lies my salvation, and nowhere else. Without attack thoughts I
could not see a world of attack. As forgiveness allows love to return
to my awareness, I will see a world of peace and safety and joy. And
it is this that I choose to see, in place of what I look on now.
[24] I do not perceive my own best
interests.
5
How could I recognize my own best interests when I do not know who I
am? What I think are my best interests would merely bind me closer to
the world of illusions. I am willing to follow the Guide God has given
me to find out what my own best interests are, recognizing that I
cannot perceive them by myself.
[25] I do not know what anything is
for.
6
To me, the purpose of everything is to prove that my illusions about
myself are real. It is for that purpose that I attempt to use everyone
and everything. It is this that I believe the world is for. Therefore
I do not recognize its real purpose. The purpose I have given the
world has led to a frightening picture of it. Let me open my mind to
its real purpose by withdrawing the one I have given it, and learning
the truth about it.
Lesson 56
1
Our review for today covers the following:
[26] My attack thoughts are attacking
my invulnerability.
2
How can I know who I am when I see myself as under constant attack?
Pain, illness, loss, age, and death seem to threaten me. All my hopes
and wishes and plans appear to be at the mercy of a world I cannot
control. Yet perfect security and complete fulfilment are my
inheritance. I have tried to give my inheritance away in exchange for
the world I see. But God has kept my inheritance safe for me. My own
real thoughts will teach me what it is.
[27] Above all else I want to see.
3
Recognizing that what I see reflects what I think I am, I realize
that vision is my greatest need. The world I see attests to the
fearful nature of the self-image I have made. If I would remember who
I am, it is essential that I let this image of myself go. As it is
replaced by truth, vision will surely be given me. And with this
vision, I will look upon the world and upon myself with charity and
love.
[28] Above all else I want to see
differently.
4
The world I see holds my fearful self-image in place, and guarantees
its continuance. While I see the world as I see it now, truth cannot
enter my awareness. I would let the door behind this world be opened
for me that I may look past it to the world that reflects the Love of
God.
[29] God is in everything I see.
5
Behind every image I have made, the truth remains unchanged. Behind
every veil I have drawn across the face of love, its light remains
undimmed. Beyond all my insane wishes is my will united with the Will
of my FatherMother. God is still everywhere and in everything forever.
And we who are part of HimHer will yet look past all appearances and
recognize the truth beyond them all.
[30] God is in everything I see because
God is in my mind.
6
In my own mind, behind all my insane thoughts of separation and
attack, is the knowledge that all is one forever. I have not lost the
knowledge of who I am because I have forgotten it. It has been kept
for me in the Mind of God, Who has not left HisHer Thoughts. And I,
who am among them, am one with them and one with HimHer.
Lesson 57
1
Today let us review these ideas:
[31] I am not the victim of the world I
see.
2
How can I be the victim of a world that can be completely undone if I
so choose? My chains are loosened. I can drop them off merely by
desiring to do so. The prison door is open. I can leave it simply by
walking out. Nothing holds me in this world. Only my wish to stay
keeps me a prisoner. I would give up my insane wishes and walk into
the sunlight at last.
[32] I have invented the world I see.
3
I made up the prison in which I see myself. All I need do is
recognize this, and I am free. I have deluded myself into believing it
is possible to imprison the SonDaughter of God. I was bitterly
mistaken in this belief, which I no longer want. The SonDaughter of
God must be forever free. Heshe is as God created and manifested
himher, and not what I would make of himher. Heshe is where God would
have himher be, and not where I thought to hold himher prisoner.
[33] There is another way of looking at
the world.
4
Since the purpose of the world is not the one I ascribed to it, there
must be another way of looking at it. I see everything upside down,
and my thoughts are the opposite of truth. I see the world as a prison
for God’s SonDaughter. It must be, then, that the world is really a
place where heshe can be set free. I would look upon the world as it
is, and see it as a place where the SonDaughter of God finds hisher
freedom.
[34] I could see peace instead of this.
5
When I see the world as a place of freedom, I will realize that it
reflects the laws of God instead of the rules which I made up for it
to obey. I will understand that peace, not war, abides in it. And I
will perceive that peace also abides in the hearts of all who share
this place with me.
[35] My mind is part of God's. I am
very holy.
6
As I share the peace of the world with my brothers&sisters,
I begin to understand that this peace comes from deep within myself.
The world I look upon has taken on the light of my forgiveness and
shines forgiveness back at me. In this light, I begin to see what my
illusions about myself had kept hidden. I begin to understand the
holiness of all living things including myself, and their oneness with
me.
Lesson 58
1
These ideas are for review today:
[36] My holiness envelops everything I
see.
2
From my holiness does the perception of the real world come. Having
forgiven, I no longer see myself as guilty. I can accept the innocence
that is the truth about me. Seen through understanding eyes, the
holiness of the world is all I see, for I can picture only the
thoughts I hold about myself.
[37] My holiness blesses the world.
3
The perception of my holiness does not bless me alone. Everyone and
everything I see in its light shares in the joy it brings to me. There
is nothing that is apart from this joy because there is nothing that
does not share my holiness. As I recognize my holiness, so does the
holiness of the world shine forth for everyone to see.
[38] There is nothing my holiness
cannot do.
4
My holiness is unlimited in its power to heal because it is unlimited
in its power to save. What is there to be saved from except illusions?
And what are all illusions except false ideas about myself? My
holiness undoes them all by asserting the truth about me. In the
presence of my holiness, which I share with God HimHerself, all
idols/idolresses vanish.
[39] My holiness is my salvation.
5
Since my holiness saves me from all guilt, recognizing my holiness is
recognizing my salvation. It is also recognizing the salvation of the
world. Once I have accepted my holiness, nothing can make me afraid.
And because I am unafraid, everyone must share in my understanding,
which is the gift of God to me and to the world.
[40] I am blessed as a SonDaughter of
God.
6
Herein lies my claim to all good and only good. I am blessed as a
SonDaughter of God. All good things are mine because God intended them
for me. I cannot suffer any loss or deprivation or pain because of who
I am. My FatherMother supports me, protects me, and directs me in all
things. HisHer care for me is infinite and is with me forever. I am
eternally blessed as HisHer SonDaughter.
Lesson 59
1
The following ideas are for review today:
[41] God goes with me wherever I go.
2
How can I be alone when God always goes with me? How can I be
doubtful and unsure of myself when perfect certainty abides in HimHer?
How can I be disturbed by anything when HeShe rests in me in absolute
peace? How can I suffer when love and joy surround me through HimHer?
Let me not cherish illusions about myself. I am perfect because God
goes with me wherever I go.
[42] God is my strength. Vision is
HisHer gift.
3
Let me not look to my own eyes to see today. Let me be willing to
exchange my pitiful illusion of seeing for the vision that is given by
God. the Christ Consciousness’/the Mercy Consciousness’ vision is HisHer
gift, and HeShe has given it to me. Let me call upon this gift today, so
that this day may help me to understand eternity.
[43] God is my Source. I cannot see
apart from HimHer.
4
I can see what God wants me to see. I cannot see anything else.
Beyond HisHer Will lie only illusions. It is these I choose when I
think I can see apart from HimHer. It is these I choose when I try to
see through the body's eyes. Yet the vision of the Christ
Consciousness/the Mercy Consciousness has been given me to replace
them. It is through this vision that I choose to see.
[44] God is the Light in which I see.
5
I cannot see in darkness. God is the only Light. Therefore if I am to
see, it must be through HimHer. I have tried to define what seeing is,
and I have been wrong. Now it is given me to understand that God is
the Light in which I see. Let me welcome vision and the happy world it
will show me.
[45] God is the Mind with which I
think.
6
I have no thoughts I do not share with God. I have no thoughts apart
from HimHer because I have no mind apart from HisHers. As part of
HisHer Mind, my thoughts are HisHers and HisHer Thoughts are mine.
Lesson 60
1
These ideas are for today's review:
[46] God is the Love in which I
forgive.
2
God does not forgive because HeShe has never condemned. The blameless
cannot blame, and those who have accepted their innocence see nothing
to forgive. Yet forgiveness is the means by which I will recognize my
innocence. It is the reflection of God's Love on earth. It will bring
me near enough to the God Realm that the Love of God can reach down to
me and raise me to my home.
[47] God is the Strength in which I
trust.
3
It is not my own strength through which I forgive. It is through the
strength of God in me, which I am remembering as I forgive. As I begin
to see, I recognize HisHer reflection on earth. I forgive all things
because I feel the stirring of HisHer strength in me. And I begin to
remember the Love I chose to forget, but Which has not forgotten me.
[48] There is nothing to fear.
4
How safe the world will look to me when I can see it! It will not
look anything like what I imagine I see now. Everyone and everything I
see will lean toward me to bless me. I will recognize in everyone my
dearest MaleFemalefriend. What could there be to fear in a world which
I have forgiven and which has forgiven me?
[49] God's Voice speaks to me all
through the day.
5
There is not a moment in which God's Voice ceases to call on my
forgiveness to save me. There is not a moment in which HisHer Voice
fails to direct my thoughts, guide my actions, and lead my feet. I am
walking steadily on toward truth. There is nowhere else I can go
because God's Voice is the only voice and the only guide that has been
given to HisHer SonDaughter.
[50] I am sustained by the Love of God.
6
As I listen to God's Voice, I am sustained by HisHer Love. As I open
my eyes, HisHer Love lights up the world for me to see. As I forgive,
HisHer Love reminds me that HisHer SonDaughter is sinless. And as I
look upon the world with the vision HeShe has given me, I remember
that I am HisHer SonDaughter.
Lesson 61
I am the light of the
world.
1
Who is the light of the world except God’s SonDaughter? This, then, is
merely a statement of the truth about yourself. It is the opposite of a
statement of pride, of arrogance, or of self-deception. It does not
describe the self-concept you have made. It does not refer to any of the
characteristics with which you have endowed your idols/idolresses. It
refers to you as you were created and manifested by God. It simply
states the truth.
2
To the ego, today's idea is the epitome of self-glorification. But the
ego does not understand humility, mistaking it for self-debasement.
Humility consists of accepting your role in salvation and in taking no
other. It is not humility to insist that you cannot be the light of the
world if that is the function God assigned to you. It is only arrogance
that would assert this function cannot be for you, and arrogance is
always of the ego.
3
True humility requires that you accept today's idea because it is God's
Voice Which tells you it is true. This is a beginning step in accepting
your real function on earth. It is a giant stride toward taking your
rightful place in salvation. It is a positive assertion of your right to
be saved and an acknowledgment of the power that is given you to save
others.
4
You will want to think about this idea as often as possible today. It is
the perfect answer to all illusions and therefore to all temptation. It
brings all the images you have made about yourself to the truth and
helps you depart in peace, unburdened and certain of your purpose.
5
As many practice periods as possible should be undertaken today,
although each one need not exceed a minute or two. They should begin
with telling yourself:
6
I am the light of the world.
That is my only function.
That is why I am here.
7
Then think about these statements for a short while, preferably with
your eyes closed if the situation permits. Let a few related thoughts
come to you, and repeat the idea to yourself if your mind wanders away
from the central thought.
8
Be sure both to begin and end the day with a practice period. 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. These two practice periods may be
longer than the rest if you find them helpful and want to extend them.
9
Today's idea goes far beyond the ego's petty views of what you are and
what your purpose is. As a bringer of salvation, this is obviously
necessary. This is the first of a number of giant steps we will take in
the next few weeks. Try today to begin to build a firm foundation for
these advances.
10
You are the light of the world. God has built HisHer plan for the
salvation of HisHer SonDaughter on you.
Lesson 62
Forgiveness is my function
as the light of the world.
1
It is your forgiveness that will bring the world of darkness to the
light. It is your forgiveness that lets you recognize the light in which
you see. Forgiveness is the demonstration that you are the light of the
world. Through your forgiveness does the truth about yourself return to
your memory. Therefore in your forgiveness lies your salvation.
2
Illusions about yourself and the world are one. That is why all
forgiveness is a gift to yourself. Your goal is to find out who you are,
having denied your identity by attacking creation and manifestation and
its CreatorManifestoress. Now you are learning how to remember the
truth. For this, attack must be replaced by forgiveness so that thoughts
of life may replace thoughts of death.
3
Remember that in every attack you call upon your own weakness, while
every time you forgive you call upon the strength of the Christ
Consciousness/the Mercy Consciousness in you. Do you not then begin to
understand what forgiveness will do for you? It will remove all sense of
weakness, strain, and fatigue from your mind. It will take away all fear
and guilt and pain. It will restore the invulnerability and power God
gave HisHer SonDaughter to your awareness.
4
Let us be glad to begin and end this day by practicing today's idea and
to use it as frequently as possible throughout the day. It will help to
make the day as happy for you as God wants you to be. And it will help
those around you as well as those who seem to be far away in space and
time to share this happiness with you.
5
As often as you can, closing your eyes if possible, say to yourself:
6
Forgiveness is my function as the light of the world.
I would fulfill my function that I
may be happy.
7
Then devote a minute or two to considering your function and the
happiness and release it will bring you.
8
Let related thoughts come freely, for your heart will recognize these
words, and in your mind is the awareness that they are true. Should your
attention wander, repeat the idea and add:
9
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.
1
How holy are you who have the power to bring peace to every mind! How
blessed are you who can learn to recognize the means for letting this be
done through you! What purpose could you have that would bring you
greater happiness?
2
You are indeed the light of the world with such a function. The
SonDaughter of God looks to you for hisher redemption. It is yours to
give himher, for it belongs to you. Accept no trivial purpose or
meaningless desire in its place, or you will forget your function and
leave the SonDaughter of God in hell. This is no idle request that is
being asked of you. You are asked to accept salvation that it may be
yours to give.
3
Recognizing the importance of this function, we will be happy to
remember it very often today. We will begin the day by acknowledging it
and close the day with the thought of it in our awareness. 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.
I am the means God has
appointed for the salvation of the world.
5
You will probably find it easier to let the related thoughts come to you
in the minute or two which you should devote to considering this if you
can close your eyes. Do not, however, wait for such an opportunity. No
chance should be lost for reinforcing today's idea.
6
Remember that God’s SonDaughter looks to you for hisher salvation. And
who but your Self must be HisHer SonDaughter?
Lesson 64
Let me not forget my
function.
1
Today's idea is merely another way of saying, "Let me not wander into
temptation." The purpose of the world you see is to obscure your
function of forgiveness and provide you with a justification for
forgetting it. It is the temptation to abandon God and HisHer
SonDaughter, taking on a physical appearance. It is this which the
body's eyes look upon.
2
Nothing the body's eyes seem to see can be anything but a form of
temptation, since this was the purpose of the body itself. Yet we have
learned that the Holy Spirit has another use for all the illusions you
have made, and therefore She sees another purpose in them. To the Holy
Spirit, the world is a place where you learn to forgive yourself what
you think of as your sins. In this perception, the physical appearance
of temptation becomes the spiritual recognition of salvation.
3
To review our last few lessons, your function here is to be the light of
the world, a function given you by God. It is only the arrogance of the
ego that leads you to question this and only the fear of the ego that
induces you to regard yourself as unworthy of the task assigned to you
by God HimHerself.
4
The world's salvation awaits your forgiveness, because through it does
the SonDaughter of God escape from all illusions and thus from all
temptation. The SonDaughter of God is you. Only by fulfilling the
function given you by God will you be happy. That is because your
function is to be happy by using the means by which happiness becomes
inevitable.
5
There is no other way. Therefore every time you choose whether or not to
fulfill your function, you are really choosing whether to be happy or
not. Let us remember this today. Let us remind ourselves of it in the
morning and again at night and all through the day as well.
6
Prepare yourself in advance for all the decisions you will make today by
remembering that they are all really very simple. Each one will lead to
happiness or unhappiness. Can such a simple decision really be difficult
to make? Let not the form of the decision deceive you. Complexity of
form does not imply complexity of content. It is impossible that any
decision on earth can have a content different from just this one simple
choice. That is the only choice the Holy Spirit sees. Therefore it is
the only choice there is.
7
Today, then, let us practice with these thoughts:
8
Let me not forget my function.
Let me not try to substitute mine
for God's.
Let me forgive and be happy.
9
At least once devote ten or 15 minutes to reflecting on this with closed
eyes. Related thoughts will come to help you if you remember the crucial
importance of your function to you and to the world.
10
In the frequent applications of today's idea to be made throughout the
day, devote several minutes to reviewing these thoughts and then to
thinking about them and about nothing else. This will be difficult at
first, particularly since you are not proficient in the mind discipline
which it requires. You may need to repeat "Let me not forget my
function" quite often, to help you concentrate.
11
Two forms of shorter practice periods are required. At times, do the
exercises with your eyes closed, trying to concentrate on the thoughts
you are applying. At other times keep your eyes open after reviewing the
thoughts and look slowly and unselectively about you, telling yourself:
12
This is the world it is my function to save.
Lesson 65
My only function is the one
God gave me.
1
The idea for today reaffirms your commitment to salvation. It also
reminds you that you have no function other than this. Both of these
thoughts are obviously necessary for a total commitment. Salvation
cannot be the only purpose you hold while you still cherish others. 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.
This is the only way in which you can take your rightful place among the
saviors/savioresses of the world. This is the only way in which you can
say and mean, "My only function is the one God gave me." This is the
only way in which you can find peace of mind.
2
Today and for a number of days to follow, set aside ten to 15 minutes
for a more sustained practice period in which you try to understand and
accept what today's idea really means. It offers you escape from all
your perceived difficulties. It places the key to the door of peace,
which you have closed upon yourself, in your own hands. It gives you the
answer to all the searching you have done since time began.
3
Try, if possible, to undertake the daily extended practice periods at
approximately the same time each day. Try, also, to determine this time
today in advance and then adhere to it as closely as possible.
4
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. This is part of the long range disciplinary training which
your mind needs, so that the Holy Spirit can use it consistently for the
purpose She shares with you.
5
For this longer practice period, begin by reviewing the idea for today.
Then close your eyes, repeat the idea to yourself once again, and watch
your mind carefully to catch whatever thoughts cross it.
6
At first, make no attempt to concentrate only on thoughts related to the
idea for today. Rather, try to uncover each thought that arises to
interfere with it. Note each one as it comes to you with as little
involvement or concern as possible, dismissing each one by telling
yourself:
7
This thought reflects a goal that is preventing me
from accepting my only
function.
8
After a while, interfering thoughts will become harder to find. Try,
however, to continue a minute or so longer, attempting to catch a few of
the idle thoughts which escaped your attention before, but do not strain
or make undue effort in doing this. Then tell yourself:
9
On this clean slate, let my true function be written for me.
10
You need not use these exact words, but try to get a sense of being
willing to have your illusions of purpose be replaced by truth.
11
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.
12
In the shorter practice periods, which should be undertaken at least
once an hour, use this form in applying today's idea:
13
My only function is the one God gave me.
I want no other and I have no
other.
14
Sometimes close your eyes as you practice, and sometimes keep them open
and look about you. It is what you see now that will be totally changed
when you accept today's idea completely.
Lesson 66
My happiness and my
function are one.
1
You have surely noticed an emphasis throughout our recent lessons on the
connection between fulfilling your function and achieving happiness.
This is because you do not really see the connection. Yet there is more
than just a connection between them; they are the same. Their forms are
different, but their content is completely one.
2
The ego does constant battle with the Holy Spirit on the fundamental
question of what your function is. So does it do constant battle with
the Holy Spirit about what your happiness is. It is not a two-way
battle. The ego attacks and the Holy Spirit does not respond. She knows
what your function is. She knows that it is your happiness.
3
Today we will try to go past this wholly meaningless battle and arrive
at the truth about your function. We will not engage in ceaseless
arguments about what it is. We will not become hopelessly involved in
defining happiness and determining the means for achieving it. We will
not indulge the ego by listening to its attacks on truth. We will merely
be glad that we can find out what truth is.
4
Our longer practice period today has as its purpose your acceptance of
the fact that not only is there a very real connection between the
function God gave you and your happiness, but that they are actually
identical. God gives you only happiness. Therefore the function HeShe
gave you must be happiness, even if it appears to be different. Today's
exercises are an attempt to go beyond these differences in appearance,
and recognize a common content where it exists in truth.
5
Begin the ten- to 15-minute practice period by reviewing these thoughts:
6
God gives me only happiness.
HeShe has given my function to me.
Therefore my function must be
happiness.
7
Try to see the logic in this sequence, even if you do not yet accept the
conclusion. It is only if the first two thoughts are wrong that the
conclusion could be false. Let us, then, think about the premises for a
while, as we are practicing.
8
The first premise is that God gives you only happiness. This could be
false, of course, but in order to be false it is necessary to define God
as something HeShe is not. Love cannot give evil, and what is not
happiness is evil. God cannot give what HeShe does not have, and HeShe
cannot have what HeShe is not. Unless God gives you only happiness,
HeShe must be evil. And it is this definition of HimHer, which you are
believing if you do not accept the first premise.
9
The second premise is that God has given you your function. We have seen
that there are only two parts of your mind. One is ruled by the ego and
is made up of illusions. The other is the home of the Holy Spirit, where
truth abides. There are no other guides but these to choose between and
no other outcomes possible as a result of your choice but the fear which
the ego always engenders and the love which the Holy Spirit always
offers to replace it.
10
Thus it must be that your function is established by God through HisHer
Voice or is made by the ego which you have made to replace HimHer. Which
is true? Unless God gave your function to you, it must be the gift of
the ego. Does the ego really have gifts to give, being itself an
illusion and offering only the illusion of gifts?
11
Think about this during the longer practice period today. Think also
about the many forms which the illusion of your function has taken in
your mind and the many ways in which you try to find salvation under the
ego's guidance. Did you find it? Were you happy? Did they bring you
peace?
12
We need great honesty today. Remember the outcomes fairly, and consider
also whether it was ever reasonable to expect happiness from anything
the ego has ever proposed. Yet the ego is the only alternative to the
Holy Spirit's Voice. You will listen to madness or hear the truth. Try
to make this choice as you think about the premises on which our
conclusion rests. We can share in this conclusion, but in no other. For
God HimHerself shares it with us.
13
Today's idea is another giant stride in the perception of the same as
the same and the different as different. On one side stand all
illusions. All truth stands on the other. Let us try today to realize
that only the truth is true.
14
In the shorter practice periods, which would be most helpful today if
undertaken twice an hour, this form of the application is suggested:
15
My happiness and function are one
because God has given me both.
16
It will not take more than a minute, and probably less, to repeat these
words slowly and think about them a little as you say them.
Lesson 67
Love created and manifested
me like Itself.
1
Today's idea is a complete and accurate statement of what you are. This
is why you are the light of the world. This is why God appointed you as
the world's savior. This is why the SonDaughter of God looks to you for
hisher salvation. Heshe is saved by what you are.
2
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. In the longer
practice period, we will think about your reality and its wholly
unchanged and unchangeable nature. We will begin by repeating this truth
about you and then spend a few minutes adding some relevant thoughts,
such as:
3
Holiness created and manifested me holy.
Kindness created and
manifested me kind.
Helpfulness
created and manifested me helpful.
Perfection created and
manifested me perfect.
4
Any attribute which is in accord with God as HeShe defines HimHerself is
appropriate for use. We are trying today to undo your definition of God
and replace it with HisHer own. We are also trying to emphasize that you
are part of HisHer definition of HimHerself.
5
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. If Love created and manifested you like Itself, this Self
must be in you. And somewhere in your mind, It is there for you to find.
6
You may find it necessary to repeat the idea for today from time to time
to replace distracting thoughts. You may also find that this is not
sufficient and that you need to continue adding other thoughts related
to the truth about yourself. 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 and
manifested you. Be confident that you will do much today to bring that
awareness nearer, whether you feel you have succeeded or not.
7
It will be particularly helpful today to practice the idea for today as
often as you can. You need to hear the truth about yourself as
frequently as possible because your mind is so preoccupied with false
self-images. Four or five times an hour, and perhaps even more, it would
be most beneficial to remind yourself that Love created and manifested
you like Itself. Hear the truth about yourself in this.
8
Try to realize in the shorter practice periods that this is not your
tiny solitary voice that tells you this. This is the Voice for God
reminding you of your FatherMother and of your Self. This is the Voice
of truth replacing everything that the ego tells you about yourself with
the simple truth about the SonDaughter of God. You were created and
manifested by Love like Itself.
Lesson 68
Love holds no grievances.
1
You who were created and manifested by Love like Itself can hold no
grievances and know your Self. To hold a grievance is to forget who you
are. To hold a grievance is to see yourself as a body. It is the
decision to let the ego rule your mind and to condemn the body to death.
2
Perhaps you do not yet fully realize just what holding grievances does
to your awareness. It seems to split you off from your source and make
you unlike himher. It makes you believe that heshe is like what you
think you have become, for no one can conceive of his/her
CreatorManifestoress as unlike himself/herself.
3
Shut off from your Self, Who remains aware of his/her likeness to hisher
CreatorManifestoress, your Self seems to sleep, while the part of your
mind that weaves illusions in its sleep appears to be awake. Can all
this arise from holding grievances? Oh, yes! For he/she who holds
grievances denies he/she was created and manifested by Love, and his/her
CreatorManifestoress has become fearful to him&her in his/her dream
of hate. Who can dream of hatred and not fear God?
4
It is as sure that those who hold grievances will redefine God in their
own image as it is certain that God created and manifested them like
HimHerself and defined them as part of HimHer. It is as sure that those
who hold grievances will suffer guilt as it is certain that those who
forgive will find peace. It is as sure that those who hold grievances
will forget who they are as it is certain that those who forgive will
remember. Would you not be willing to relinquish your grievances if you
believed all this were so?
5
Perhaps you do not think you can let all your grievances go. That,
however, is simply a question of motivation. Today we will try to find
out how you would feel without them. If you succeed even by ever so
little, there will never be a problem in motivation ever again.
6
Begin today's extended practice period by searching your mind for those
against whom you hold what you regard as major grievances. Some of these
will be quite easy to find. Then think of the seemingly minor grievances
you hold against those you like and even think you love. It will quickly
become apparent that there is no one against whom you do not cherish
grievances of some sort. This has left you alone in all the universe in
your perception of yourself.
7
Determine now to see all these people as friends. Say to them all
collectively, thinking of each one in turn as you do so:
8
I would see you as my friend
that I may remember you
are part of me
and come to know myself.
9
Spend the remainder of the practice period trying to think of yourself
as completely at peace with everyone and everything, safe in a world
which protects you and loves you and which you love in return. Try to
feel safety surrounding you, hovering over you, and holding you up. Try
to believe, however briefly, that nothing can harm you in any way. At
the end of the practice period tell yourself:
10
Love holds no grievances.
When I let all my grievances go,
I will know I am perfectly safe.
11
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:
12
Love holds no grievances.
Let me not betray my Self.
13
In addition, repeat the idea several times an hour in this form:
14
Love holds no grievances.
I would wake to my Self by laying
all my
grievances aside and
wakening in himher.
Lesson 69
My grievances hide the
light of the world in me.
1
No one can look upon what your grievances conceal. Because your
grievances are hiding the light of the world in you, everyone stands in
darkness, and you beside him&her. But as the veil of your grievances
is lifted, you are released with him&her. Share your salvation now
with him&her who stood beside you when you were in hell. he/she is
your brother or sister in the light of the world which saves you both.
2
Today let us make another real attempt to reach the light in you. Before
we undertake this in our more extended practice period, let us devote
several minutes in thinking about what we are trying to do. We are
literally attempting to get in touch with the salvation of the world. We
are trying to see past the veil of darkness that keeps it concealed. We
are trying to let the veil be lifted and see the tears of God’s
SonDaughter disappear in the sunlight.
3
Let us begin our longer practice period today with the full realization
of all this and real determination to reach what is dearer to us than
all else. Salvation is our only need. There is no other purpose here and
no other function to fulfill. Learning salvation is our only goal. Let
us end the ancient search today by finding the light in us and holding
it up for everyone who searches with us to look upon and rejoice.
4
Very quietly now, with your eyes closed, try to let go of all the
content which generally occupies your consciousness. Think of your mind
as a vast round area, surrounded by a layer of heavy dark clouds. You
can see only the clouds because you seem to be standing outside the
whole area, and quite apart from it.
5
From where you stand, you can see no reason to believe there is a
brilliant light hidden by the clouds. The clouds seem to be the only
reality. They seem to be all there is to see. Therefore you do not
attempt to go through them and past them, which is the only way in which
you would be really convinced of their lack of substance. We will make
this attempt today.
6
After you have thought about the importance of what you are trying to do
for yourself and the world, try to settle down in perfect stillness,
remembering only how much you want to reach the light in you today—now.
Determine to go past the clouds. Reach out and touch them in your mind;
brush them aside with your hand; feel them resting on your cheeks and
forehead and eyelids as you go through them. Go on; clouds cannot stop
you.
7
If you are doing the exercises properly, you will begin to feel a sense
of being lifted up and carried ahead. Your little effort and small
determination call on the power of the universe to help you, and God
HimHerself will raise you from darkness into light. You are in accord
with HisHer Will. You cannot fail because your will is HisHer.
8
Have confidence in your FatherMother today. And be certain that HeShe
has heard you and has answered you. You may not recognize HisHer answer
yet, but you can indeed be sure that it is given you, and you will yet
receive it. Try, as you attempt to go through the clouds to the light,
to hold this confidence in your mind. Try to remember that you are at
last joining your will to God's. Try to keep the thought clearly in mind
that what you undertake with God must succeed. Then let the power of God
work in you and through you, that HisHer Will and yours may be done.
9
In the shorter practice periods, which you will want to do as often as
possible in view of the importance of today's idea to you and your
happiness, remind yourself that your grievances are hiding the light of
the world from your awareness. Remind yourself also that you are not
searching for it alone and that you do know where to look for it. Say,
then:
10
My grievances hide the light of the world in me.
I cannot see what I have hidden.
Yet I want to let it be revealed
to me
for my salvation and the salvation
of the world.
11
Also, be sure to tell yourself:
12
If I hold this grievance, the light of the world
will be hidden from me.
13
if you are tempted to hold anything against anyone today.
Lesson 70
My salvation comes from me.
1
All temptation is nothing more than some form of the basic temptation
not to believe the idea for today. Salvation seems to come from anywhere
except from you. So, too, does the source of guilt. You see neither
guilt nor salvation as in your own mind and nowhere else. When you
realize that all guilt is solely an invention of your mind, you must
also realize that guilt and salvation must be in the same place.
Understanding this, you are saved.
2
The seeming "cost" of accepting today's idea is this: it means that
nothing outside yourself can save you; nothing outside yourself can give
you peace. But it also means that nothing outside yourself can hurt you
or disturb your peace or upset you in any way.
3
Today's idea places you in charge of the universe, where you belong
because of who you are. This is not a role which can be partially
accepted. And you must surely begin to see that accepting it is
salvation. It may not, however, be clear to you why the recognition that
guilt is in your own mind entails the realization that salvation is
there as well.
4
God would not have put the remedy for sickness where it cannot help.
That is the way your mind has worked, but hardly HisHer. HeShe wants you
to be healed, and so HeShe has kept the Source of healing where the need
for healing lies. You have tried to do just the opposite, making every
attempt, however distorted and fantastic it might be, to separate
healing from the sickness for which it was intended and thus keep the
sickness.
5
Your purpose was to ensure that healing did not occur; God's purpose was
to ensure that it did. Today we practice realizing that God's Will and
ours are really the same in this.
6
God wants us to be healed, and we do not really want to be sick because
it makes us unhappy. Therefore, in accepting the idea for today, we are
in agreement with God. HeShe does not want us to be sick. Neither do we.
HeShe wants us to be healed. So do we.
7
We are ready for two longer practice periods today, each of which should
last some ten to 15 minutes. We will, however, still let you decide when
to undertake them. We will follow this practice for a number of lessons,
and it would again be well to decide in advance when would be a good
time to lay aside for each of them and adhere to your own decision as
closely as possible.
8
Begin these practice periods by repeating the idea for today, adding a
statement signifying your recognition that salvation comes from nothing
outside of you. You might put it this way:
9
My salvation comes from me.
It cannot come from anywhere else.
10
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 which you sought to make real. Recognize that it was not
there. Tell yourself:
11
My salvation cannot come from any of these things.
My salvation comes from me, and
only from me.
12
Now we will try again to reach the light in you, which is where your
salvation is. You cannot find it in the clouds that surround the light,
and it is in them you have been looking for it. It is not there. It is
past the clouds and in the light beyond. Remember that you will have to
go through the clouds before you can reach the light. But remember also
that you have never found anything in the cloud patterns you imagined
that endured or that you wanted.
13
Since all illusions of salvation have failed you, surely you do not want
to remain in the clouds looking vainly for idols/idolesses there when
you could so easily walk on into the light of real salvation. Try to
pass the clouds by whatever means appeals to you. If it helps you, think
of me holding your hand and leading you. And I assure you this will be
no idle fantasy.
14
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. You are free from all external interference. You
are in charge of your salvation. You are in charge of the salvation of
the world. Say, then:
15
My salvation comes from me.
Nothing outside of me can hold me
back.
Within me is the world's salvation
and my own.
Lesson 71
Only God's plan for
salvation will work.
1
You may not realize that the ego has set up a plan for salvation in
opposition to God's. It is this plan in which you believe. Since it is
the opposite of God's, you also believe that to accept God's plan in
place of the ego's is to be damned. This sounds preposterous, of course.
Yet after we have considered just what the ego's plan is, perhaps you
will realize that, however preposterous it may be, you do believe it.
2
The ego's plan for salvation centers around holding grievances. It
maintains that if someone else spoke or acted differently, if some
external circumstance or event were changed, you would be saved. Thus
the source of salvation is constantly perceived as outside yourself.
3
Each grievance you hold is a declaration and an assertion in which you
believe that says, "If this were different, I would be saved." The
change of mind that is necessary for salvation is thus demanded of
everyone and everything except yourself.
4
The role assigned to your own mind in this plan, then, is simply to
determine what other than itself must change if you are to be saved.
According to this insane plan, any perceived source of salvation is
acceptable, provided that it will not work. This ensures that the
fruitless search will continue, for the illusion persists that, although
this hope has always failed, there are still grounds for hope in other
places and in other things. Another person will yet serve better;
another situation will yet offer success.
5
Such is the ego's plan for your salvation. Surely you can see how it is
in strict accord with the ego's basic doctrine, "Seek but do not find."
For what could more surely guarantee that you will not find salvation
than to channelize all your efforts in searching for it where it is not?
6
God's plan for salvation works simply because, by following HisHer
direction, you seek for salvation where it is. But if you are to
succeed, as God promises you will, you must be willing to seek there
only. Otherwise your purpose is divided, and you will attempt to follow
two plans for salvation which are diametrically opposed in all ways. The
result can only bring confusion, misery, and a deep sense of failure and
despair.
7
How can you escape all this? Very simply. The idea for today is the
answer. Only God's plan for salvation will work. There can be no real
conflict about this, because there is no possible alternative to God's
plan that will save you. HisHer is the only plan that is certain in its
outcome. HisHer is the only plan that must succeed.
8
Let us practice recognizing this certainty today. And let us rejoice
that there is an answer to what seems to be a conflict with no
resolution possible. All things are possible to God. Salvation must be
yours because of HisHer plan, which cannot fail.
9
Begin the two longer practice periods for today by thinking about
today's idea and realizing that it contains two parts, each making equal
contribution to the whole. God's plan for your salvation will work, and
other plans will not. Do not allow yourself to become depressed or angry
at the second part; it is inherent in the first. And in the first is
your full release from all your own insane attempts and mad proposals to
free yourself. They have led to depression and anger. But God's plan
will succeed. It will lead to release and joy.
10
Remembering this, let us devote the remainder of the extended practice
periods to asking God to reveal HisHer plan to us. Ask HimHer very
specifically:
11
What would You have me do?
Where would You have me go?
What would You have me say, and to
whom?
12
Give HimHer full charge of the rest of the practice period, and let
HimHer tell you what needs to be done by you in HisHer plan for your
salvation. HeShe will answer you in proportion to your willingness to
hear HisHer Voice. Refuse not to hear. The very fact that you are doing
the exercises proves that you have some willingness to listen. This is
enough to establish your claim to God's answer.
13
In the shorter practice periods tell yourself often that God's plan for
salvation, and only His, will work. Be alert to all temptation to hold
grievances today, and respond to them with this form of today's idea:
14
Holding grievances is the opposite of God's plan for
Salvation. And only HisHer plan
will work.
15
Try to remember the idea for today some six or seven times an hour.
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
Holding grievances is an
attack on
God's plan for salvation.
1
While we have recognized that the ego's plan for salvation is the
opposite of God's, we have not yet emphasized that it is an active
attack on HisHer plan and a deliberate attempt to destroy it. In the
attack, God is assigned the attributes which are actually associated
with the ego, while the ego appears to take on the attributes of God.
2
The ego's fundamental wish is to replace God. In fact, the ego is the
physical embodiment of this wish. For it is this wish which seems to
surround the mind with a body, keeping it separate and alone and unable
to reach other minds except through the body which was made to imprison
it. The limit on communication cannot be the best means to expand
communication. Yet the ego would have you believe that it is.
3
Although the attempt to keep the limitations which a body would impose
is obvious here, it is perhaps not so apparent why holding grievances is
an attack on God's plan for salvation. But let us consider the kinds of
things which you are apt to hold grievances for. Are they not always
associated with something a body does? A person says something we do not
like; he/she does something that displeases us, he/she "betrays" his/her
hostile thoughts in his/her behavior.
4
We are not dealing here with what the person is. On the contrary, we are
exclusively concerned with what he/she does in a body. We are doing more
than failing to help in freeing him&her from its limitations. We are
actively trying to hold him&her to it by confusing it with
him&her and judging them as one. Herein is God attacked, for if
HisHer SonDaughter is only a body, so must HeShe be as well. A
CreatorManifestoress wholly unlike his/her manifested creation is
inconceivable.
5If
God is a body, what must HisHer plan for salvation be? What could it be
but death? In trying to present HimHerself as the author/authoress of
life and not of death, HeShe is a liar and a deceiver, full of false
promises and offering illusions in place of truth.
6
The body's apparent reality makes this view of God quite convincing. In
fact, if the body were real, it would be difficult indeed to escape this
conclusion. And every grievance that you hold insists that the body is
real. It overlooks entirely what your brother or sister is. It
reinforces your belief that he/she is a body and condemns him&her
for it. And it asserts that his/her salvation must be death, projecting
this attack onto God and holding HimHer responsible for it.
7
To this carefully prepared arena, where angry animals seek for prey and
mercy cannot enter, the ego comes to save you. God made you a body. Very
well. Let us accept this and be glad. As a body, do not let yourself be
deprived of what the body offers. Take the little you can get. God gave
you nothing. The body is your only savior. It is the death of God and
your salvation.
8
This is the universal belief of the world you see. Some hate the body
and try to hurt and humiliate it. Others love the body and try to
glorify and exalt it. But while it stands at the center of your concept
of yourself, you are attacking God's plan for salvation and holding your
grievances against HimHer and HisHer manifested creation that you may
not hear the Voice of Truth and welcome it as Female Friend. Your chosen
savior/savioress takes Her place instead. It is your male/female friend;
She is your enemy.
9
We will try today to stop these senseless attacks on salvation. We will
try to welcome it instead. Your upside-down perception has been ruinous
to your peace of mind. You have seen yourself in a body and the truth
outside you, locked away from your awareness by the body's limitations.
Now we are going to try to see this differently.
10
The light of truth is in us, where it was placed by God. It is the body
that is outside us and is not our concern. To be without a body is to be
in our natural state. To recognize the light of truth in us is to
recognize ourselves as we are. To see our Self as separate from the body
is to end the attack on God's plan for salvation and to accept it
instead. And wherever HisHer plan is accepted, it is accomplished
already.
11
Our goal in the longer practice periods today is to become aware that
God's plan for salvation has already been accomplished in us. To achieve
this goal, we must replace attack with acceptance. As long as we attack
it, we cannot understand what God's plan for us is. We are therefore
attacking what we do not recognize. Now we are going to try to lay
judgment aside and ask what God's plan for us is:
12
What is salvation, FatherMother?
I do not know.
Tell me, that I may
understand.
13
Then we will wait in quiet for HisHer answer.
14
We have attacked God's plan for salvation without waiting to hear what
it is. We have shouted our grievances so loudly that we have not
listened to HisHer Voice. We have used our grievances to close our eyes
and stop our ears. Now we would see and hear and learn. "What is
salvation, FatherMother?" Ask and you will be answered. Seek and you
will find.
15
We are no longer asking the ego what salvation is and where to find it.
We are asking it of truth. Be certain, then, that the answer will be
true because of Whom you ask. 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 them of the infinite
CreatorManifestoress of infinity, Who created and manifested you like
HimHerself:
16
What is salvation, FatherMother?
I do not know.
Tell me, that I may understand.
17
HeShe will answer. Be determined to hear.
18
One or perhaps two shorter practice periods an hour will be enough for
today since they will be somewhat longer than usual. These exercises
begin with this:
19
Holding grievances is an attack on God's plan for salvation.
Let
me accept it instead.
What
is salvation, FatherMother?
20
Then wait a minute or so in silence, preferably with your eyes closed,
and listen for HisHer answer.
Lesson 73
I will there be light.
1
Today we are considering the will you share with God. This is not the
same as the ego's idle wishes, out of which darkness and nothingness
arise. The will you share with God has all the power of creation and
manifestation in it. The ego's idle wishes are unshared and therefore
have no power at all. Its wishes are not idle in the sense that they
cannot make a world of illusions in which your belief can be very
strong. But they are idle indeed in terms of creation and manifestation.
They make nothing that is real.
2
Idle wishes and grievances are partners or co-makers in picturing the
world you see. 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. They
become the middlemen/midlewomen the ego employs to traffic in grievances
and stand between your awareness and your brothers’&sisters’
reality. Beholding them, you do not know your brothers&sisters
nor your Self.
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. Can
such a world have been created and manifested by the will the
SonDaughter of God shares with hisher FatherMother? Did God create and
manifest disaster for HisHer SonDaughter? creation and manifestation is
the Will of Both together. Would God create and manifest a world that
kills HimHerself?
4
Today we will try once more to reach the world that is in accordance
with your will. The light is in it because it does not oppose the Will
of God. It is not the God Realm, but the light of the God Realm shines
on it. Darkness has vanished; the ego's idle wishes have been withdrawn.
5
Yet the light which shines upon this world reflects your will, and so it
must be in you that we will look for it. Your picture of the world can
only mirror what is within. The source of neither light nor darkness can
be found without. Grievances darken your mind, and you look out on a
darkened world. Forgiveness lifts the darkness, reasserts your will, and
lets you look upon a world of light.
6
We have repeatedly emphasized that the barrier of grievances is easily
passed and cannot stand between you and your salvation. The reason is
very simple. Do you really want to be in hell? Do you really want to
weep and suffer and die? Forget the ego's arguments which seek to prove
all this is really the God Realm. You know it is not so. You cannot want
this for yourself. There is a point beyond which illusions cannot go.
7
Suffering is not happiness, and it is happiness you really want. Such is
your will in truth. And so salvation is your will as well. You want to
succeed in what we are trying to do today. We undertake it with your
blessing and your glad accord.
8
We will succeed today if you remember that you will salvation for
yourself. You will to accept God's plan because you share in it. You
have no will that can really oppose it, and you do not want to do so.
Salvation is for you. Above all else you want the freedom to remember
who you really are.
9
Today it is the ego which stands powerless before your will. Your will
is free, and nothing can prevail against it. 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.
No idle wishes can detain us nor deceive us with an illusion of
strength. Today let your will be done. And end forever the insane belief
that it is hell in place of the God Realm that you choose.
10
We will begin our longer practice periods with the recognition that
God's plan for salvation, and only HisHer, is wholly in accord with your
will. It is not the purpose of an alien power, thrust upon you
unwillingly. It is the one purpose here on which you and your
FatherMother are in perfect accord.
11
You will succeed today, the time appointed for the release of the
SonDaughter of God from hell and from all idle wishes. Hisher will is
now restored to hisher awareness. Heshe is willing this very day to look
upon the light in himselfherself and be saved.
12
After reminding yourself of this and determining to keep your will
clearly in mind, tell yourself with gentle firmness and quiet certainty:
13
I will there be light.
Let me behold the light that
reflects God's Will and mine.
14
Then let your will assert itself, joined with the power of God and
united with your Self. Put the rest of the practice period under Their
guidance. Join with Them as They lead the way.
15
In the shorter practice periods, again make a declaration of what you
really want. Say:
16
I will there be light.
Darkness is not my will.
17
This should be repeated several times an hour. It is most important,
however, to apply today's idea in this form immediately you are tempted
to hold a grievance of any kind. This will help you let your grievances
go instead of cherishing them and hiding them in the darkness.
Lesson 74
There is no will but God's.
1
The idea for today can be regarded as the central thought toward which
all our exercises are directed. God's is the only will. When you have
recognized this, you have recognized that your will is HisHer. The
belief that conflict is possible has gone. Peace has replaced the
strange idea that you are torn by conflicting goals. As an expression of
the Will of God, you have no goal but HisHer.
2
There is great peace in today's idea. And the exercises for today are
directed towards finding it. The idea itself is wholly true. Therefore
it cannot give rise to illusions. Without illusions, conflict is
impossible. Let us try to recognize this today and experience the peace
this recognition brings.
3
Begin the longer practice periods by repeating these thoughts several
times, slowly and with firm determination to understand what they mean
and to hold them in mind:
4
There is no will but God's.
I cannot be in
conflict.
5
Then spend several minutes in adding some related thoughts, such as:
6
I am at peace.
Nothing can disturb me. My
will is God's.
My will and God's are one.
God wills peace for HisHer
SonDaughter.
7
During this introductory phase, be sure to deal quickly with any
conflict thoughts that may cross your mind. Tell yourself immediately:
8
There is no will but God's.
These conflict thoughts
are meaningless.
9
If there is one conflict area which seems particularly difficult to
resolve, single it out for special consideration. Think about it briefly
but very specifically, identify the particular person or persons and the
situation or situations involved, and tell yourself:
10
There is no will but God's.
I
share it with HimHer.
My
conflicts
about _____ cannot be real.
11
After you have cleared your mind in this way, close your eyes and try to
experience the peace to which your reality entitles you. Sink into it,
and feel it closing around you. There may be some temptation to mistake
these attempts for withdrawal, but the difference is easily detected. If
you are succeeding, you will feel a deep sense of joy and an increased
alertness rather than a feeling of drowsiness and enervation. Joy
characterizes peace. By this experience will you recognize that you have
reached it.
12
If you feel yourself slipping off into withdrawal, quickly repeat the
idea for today and try again. Do this as often as necessary. There is
definite gain in refusing to allow retreat into withdrawal, even if you
do not experience the peace you seek.
13
In the shorter periods, which should be undertaken at regular and
predetermined intervals today, say to yourself:
14
There is no will but God's.
I
seek HisHer peace today.
15
Then try to find what you are seeking. A minute or two every half-hour,
with eyes closed if possible, would be well spent on this today.
Lesson 75
The light has come.
1
The light has come. You are healed and you can heal. The light has come.
You are saved, and you can save. You are at peace, and you bring peace
with you wherever you go. Darkness and turmoil and death have
disappeared. The light has come.
2
Today we celebrate the happy ending to your long dream of disaster.
There are no dark dreams now. The light has come. Today the time of
light begins for you and everyone. It is a new era in which a new world
is born. The old one has left no trace upon it in its passing. Today we
see a different world because the light has come.
3
Our exercises for today will be happy ones in which we offer thanks for
the passing of the old and the beginning of the new. No shadows from the
past remain to darken our sight and hide the world forgiveness offers
us. Today we will accept the new world as what we want to see. We will
be given what we desire. We will to see the light; the light has come.
4
Our longer practice periods will be devoted to looking at the world
which our forgiveness shows us. This is what we want to see, and only
this. Our single purpose makes our goal inevitable. Today the real world
rises before us in gladness, to be seen at last. Sight is given us, now
that the light has come.
5
We do not see the ego's shadow on the world today. We see the light, and
in it we see the God Realm's reflection lie across the world. Begin the
longer practice periods by telling yourself the glad tidings of your
release:
6
The light has come. I have forgiven the world.
7
Dwell not upon the past today. Keep a completely open mind, washed of
all past ideas and clean of every concept you have made. You have
forgiven the world today. You can look upon it now as if you never saw
it before. You do not know yet what it looks like. You merely wait to
have it shown to you. While you wait, repeat several times slowly and in
complete patience:
8
The light has come. I have forgiven the world.
9
Realize that your forgiveness entitles you to vision. Understand that
the Holy Spirit never fails to give the gift of sight to the forgiving.
Believe She will not fail you now. You have forgiven the world. She will
be with you as you watch and wait. She will show you what true vision
sees. It is Her Will, and you have joined with Her. Wait patiently for
Her. She will be there. The light has come. You have forgiven the world.
10
Tell Her you know you cannot fail because you trust in Her. Tell
yourself you wait in certainty to look upon the world She promised you.
From this time forth you will see differently. Today the light has come.
And you will see the world that has been promised you since time began,
and in which is the end of time ensured.
11
The shorter practice periods, too, will be joyful reminders of your
release. Remind yourself every quarter of an hour or so that today is a
time for special celebration. Give thanks for mercy and the Love of God.
Rejoice in the power of forgiveness to heal your sight completely. Be
confident that on this day there is a new beginning. Without the
darkness of the past upon your eyes, you cannot fail to see today. And
what you see will be so welcome that you will gladly extend today
forever. Say, then:
12
The light has come. I have forgiven the world.
13
Should you be tempted, say to anyone who seems to pull you back to
darkness:
14
The light has come. I have forgiven you.
15
We dedicate this day to the serenity in which God would have you be.
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
I am under no laws but
God's.
1
We have observed before how many senseless things have seemed to you to
be salvation. Each has imprisoned you with laws as senseless as itself.
You are not bound by them. Yet to understand that this is so, you must
first realize salvation lies not there. While you would seek for it in
things that have no meaning, you bind yourself to laws that make no
sense. Thus do you seek to prove salvation is where it is not.
2
Today we will be glad you cannot prove it. For if you could, you would
forever seek where it is not and never find it. The idea for today tells
you once again how simple is salvation. Look for it where it waits for
you, and there it will be found. Look nowhere else, for it is nowhere
else.
3
Think of the freedom in the recognition that you are not bound by all
the strange and twisted laws which you have set up to save you. You
really think that you would starve unless you have stacks of green paper
strips and piles of metal discs. You really think a small round pellet
or some fluid pushed into your veins through a sharpened needle will
ward off death. You really think you are alone unless another body is
with you.
4
It is insanity that thinks these things. You call them laws, and put
them under different names in a long catalogue of rituals that have no
use and serve no purpose. You think you must obey the "laws" of
medicine, of economics, and of health. Protect the body, and you will be
saved.
5
These are not laws, but madness. The body is endangered by the mind that
hurts itself. The body suffers that the mind will fail to see it is the
victim of itself. The body's suffering is a mask the mind holds up to
hide what really suffers. It would not understand it is its own enemy,
that it attacks itself and wants to die. It is from this your "laws"
would save the body. It is for this you think you are a body.
6
There are no laws except the laws of God. This needs repeating over and
over until you realize that it applies to everything that you have made
in opposition to HisHer Will. Your magic has no meaning. What it is
meant to save does not exist. Only what it is meant to hide will save
you.
7
The laws of God can never be replaced. We will devote today to rejoicing
that this is so. It is no longer a truth which we would hide. We realize
instead it is a truth which keeps us free forever. Magic imprisons, but
the laws of God set free. The light has come because there are no laws
but HisHers.
8
We will begin the longer practice period today with a short review of
the different kinds of "laws" we have believed we must obey. These would
include, for example, the laws of nutrition, of immunization, of
medication, and of the body's protection in innumerable ways. Think
further—you believe in the laws of friendship, of "good" relationships,
and reciprocity.
9
Perhaps you even think that there are laws which set forth what is God's
and what is yours. Many "religions" have been based on this. They would
not save, but damn in the God Realm's name. Yet they are no more strange
than other "laws" you hold must be obeyed to make you safe.
10
There are no laws but God's. Dismiss all foolish magical beliefs today,
and hold your mind in silent readiness to hear the Voice that speaks the
truth to you. You will be listening to One Who says there is no loss
under the laws of God. Payment is neither given nor received. Exchange
cannot be made, there are no substitutes, and nothing is replaced by
something else. God's laws forever give and never take.
11
Hear Her Who tells you this, and realize how foolish are the laws you
thought upheld the world you thought you saw. Then listen further. She
will tell you more. About the Love your FatherMother has for you. About
the endless joy HeShe offers you. About HisHer yearning for HisHer only
SonDaughter, created and manifested as HisHer channel for creation and
manifestation; denied to HimHer by his/her belief in hell.
12
Let us today open God's channels to HimHer and let HisHer Will extend
through us to HimHer. Thus is creation and manifestation endlessly
increased. Her Voice will speak of this to us, as well as of the joys of
the God Realm which HisHer laws keep limitless forever. We will repeat
today's idea until we have listened and understood there are no laws but
God's. Then we will tell ourselves, as a dedication with which the
practice period concludes:
13
I am under no laws but God's.
14
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. It is
our statement of freedom from all danger and all tyranny. It is our
acknowledgment that God is our FatherMother, and that HisHer SonDaughter
is saved.
Lesson 77
I am entitled to miracles.
1
You are entitled to miracles because of what you are. You will receive
miracles because of what God is. And you will offer miracles because you
are one with God. Again, how simple is salvation! It is merely a
statement of your true identity. It is this that we will celebrate
today.
2
Your claim to miracles does not lie in your illusions about yourself. It
does not depend on any magical powers you have ascribed to yourself nor
on any of the rituals you have devised. It is inherent in the truth of
what you are. It is implicit in what God your FatherMother is. It was
ensured in your creation and manifestation and guaranteed by the laws of
God.
3
Today we will claim the miracles which are your right since they belong
to you. You have been promised full release from the world you made. You
have been assured that the God Realm is within you and can never be
lost. We ask no more than what belongs to us in truth. Today, however,
we will also make sure that we will not content ourselves with less.
4
Begin the longer practice periods by telling yourself quite confidently
that you are entitled to miracles. Closing your eyes, remind yourself
that you are asking only for what is rightfully yours. 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.
Miracles do not obey the laws of this world. They merely follow from the
laws of God.
5
After this brief introductory phase, wait quietly for the assurance that
your request is granted. You have asked for the salvation of the world
and for your own. You have requested that you be given the means by
which this is accomplished. You cannot fail to be assured in this. You
are but asking that the Will of God be done. In doing this, you do not
really ask for anything. You state a fact that cannot be denied.
6
The Holy Spirit cannot but assure you that your request is granted. The
fact that you accepted must be so. There is no room for doubt and
uncertainty today. We are asking a real question at last. The answer is
a simple statement of a simple fact. You will receive the assurance that
you seek.
7
Our shorter practice periods will be frequent and will also be devoted
to a reminder of a simple factGri. Tell yourself often today:
8
I am entitled to miracles.
9
Ask for them whenever a situation arises in which they are called for.
You will recognize these situations; you are not relying on yourself to
find them, you are therefore fully entitled to receive them whenever you
ask.
10
Remember, too, not to be satisfied with less than the perfect answer. Be
quick to tell yourself, should you be tempted:
11
I will not trade miracles for grievances.
I want only what belongs to me.
God has established
miracles as my right.
Lesson 78
Let miracles replace all
grievances.
1
Perhaps it is not yet quite clear to you that each decision that you
make is one between a grievance and a miracle. Each grievance stands
like a dark shield of hate before the miracle it would conceal. And as
you raise it up before your eyes, you will not see the miracle beyond.
Yet all the while it waits for you in light, but you behold your
grievances instead.
2
Today we go beyond the grievances to look upon the miracle instead. We
will reverse the way you see by not allowing sight to stop before it
sees. We will not wait before the shield of hate, but lay it down and
gently lift our eyes in silence to behold the SonDaughter of God.
3
Heshe waits for you behind your grievances, and as you lay them down
heshe will appear in shining light where each one stood before. For
every grievance is a block to sight, and as it lifts, you see the
SonDaughter of God where heshe has always been. Heshe stands in light,
but you were in the dark. Each grievance made the darkness deeper, and
you could not see.
4
Today we will attempt to see God’s SonDaughter. We will not let
ourselves be blind to himher; we will not look upon our grievances. So
is the seeing of the world reversed, as we look out toward truth, away
from fear.
5
We will select one person you have used as target for your grievances
and lay the grievances aside and look at him&her. Someone perhaps
you fear and even hate; someone you think you love who angers you;
someone you call a friend, but whom you see as difficult at times or
hard to please—demanding, irritating, or untrue to the ideal he/she
should accept as his/her according to the role you set for him/her.
6
You know the one to choose; his/her name has crossed your mind already.
he/she will be the one of whom we ask God’s SonDaughter be shown to us.
Through seeing himher behind the grievances that we have held against
himher, you will learn that what lay hidden while you saw himher not is
there in everyone and can be seen. he/she who was enemy is more than
friend when he/she is freed to take the holy role the Holy Spirit has
assigned to him&her. Let him&her be
saviors/savioresses unto you today. Such is his/her role in God
your Father’sMother's plan.
7
Our longer practice periods today will see him&her in this role. We
will attempt to hold him&her in our mind, first as you now consider
him&her. We will review his/her faults, the difficulties you have
had with him&her, the pain he/she caused you, his/her neglect, and
all the little and the larger hurts he/she gave. We will regard his/her
body with its flaws and better points as well, and we will think of
his/her mistakes and even of his/her "sins."
8
Then let us ask of Her Who knows this SonDaughter of God in hisher
reality and truth that we may look on him&her a different way and
see our saviors/savioresses shining in the light of true
forgiveness given unto us. We ask Her in the Holy Name of God and of
HisHer SonDaughter, as holy as HimHerself:
9
Let me behold my saviors/savioresses in this one
You have appointed as the one for
me
To ask to lead me to the holy
light
In which heshe stands, that I may
join with himher.
10
The body's eyes are closed, and as you think of him&her who grieved
you, let your mind be shown the light in himher beyond your grievances.
What you have asked for cannot be denied. Your
saviors/savioresses has been waiting long for this. Heshe would be
free and make hisher freedom yours. The Holy Spirit leans from himher to
you, seeing no separation in God’s SonDaughter. And what you see through
Her will free you both.
11
Be very quiet now and look upon your shining savior. No dark grievances
obscure the sight of himher. You have allowed the Holy Spirit to express
through himher the role God gave Her that you might be saved. 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. The world and the God Realm join in thanking you, for not one
Thought of God but must rejoice as you are saved and all the world with
you.
12
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. Temptation falls
away when we allow each one we meet to save us and refuse to hide
his/her light behind our grievances. To everyone you meet and to the
ones you think of or remember from the past, allow the role of
saviors/savioresses to be given that you may share it with them.
For you both, and all the sightless ones as well, we pray:
13
Let miracles replace all grievances.
Lesson 79
Let me recognize the
problem so it can be solved.
1
A problem cannot be solved if you do not know what it is. Even if it is
really solved already, you will still have the problem because you
cannot recognize that it has been solved. This is the situation of the
world. The problem of separation, which is really the only problem, has
already been solved. But the solution is not recognized because the
problem is not recognized.
2
Everyone in this world seems to have his/her own special problems. Yet
they are all the same and must be recognized as one if the one solution
which solves them all is to be accepted. Who can see that a problem has
been solved if he/she thinks the problem is something else? Even if
he/she is given the answer, he/she cannot see its relevance.
3
That is the position in which you find yourself now. You have the
answer, but you are still uncertain about what the problem is. A long
series of different problems seems to confront you, and as one is
settled the next one and the next arise. There seems to be no end to
them. There is no time in which you feel completely free of problems and
at peace.
4
The temptation to regard problems as many is the temptation to keep the
problem of separation unsolved. The world seems to present you with a
vast number of problems, each requiring a different answer. This
perception places you in a position in which your problem solving must
be inadequate and failure must be inevitable.
5
No one could solve all the problems the world appears to hold. They seem
to be on so many levels, in such varying forms, and with such varied
content that they confront you with an impossible situation. Dismay and
depression are inevitable as you regard them. Some spring up
unexpectedly, just as you think you have resolved the previous ones.
Others remain unsolved under a cloud of denial and rise to haunt you
from time to time, only to be hidden again but still unsolved.
6
All this complexity is but a desperate attempt not to recognize the
problem and therefore not to let it be resolved. If you could recognize
that your only problem is separation, no matter what form it takes, you
could accept the answer because you would see its relevance. Perceiving
the underlying constancy in all the problems which confront you, you
would understand that you have the means to solve them all. And you
would use the means because you recognize the problem.
7
In our longer practice periods today, we will ask what the problem is
and what is the answer to it. We will not assume that we already know.
We will try to free our minds of all the many different kinds of
problems that we think we have. We will try to realize that we have only
one problem, which we have failed to recognize. We will ask what it is
and wait for the answer. We will be told. Then we will ask for the
solution to it. And we will be told.
8
Our exercises for today will be successful to the extent to which we do
not insist on defining the problem. Perhaps we will not succeed in
letting all our preconceived notions go, but that is not necessary. All
that is necessary is to entertain some doubt about the reality of our
version of what our problems are. We are trying to recognize that we
have been given the answer by recognizing the problem, so that the
problem and the answer can be brought together, and we can be at peace.
9
The shorter practice periods for today will not be set by time but by
need. You will see many problems today, each one calling for an answer.
Our efforts will be directed toward recognizing that there is only one
problem and one answer. In this recognition are all problems resolved.
In this recognition there is peace.
10
Be not deceived by the form of problems today. Whenever any difficulty
seems to rise, tell yourself quickly:
11
Let me recognize this problem so it can be solved.
12
Then try to suspend all judgment about what the problem is. If possible,
close your eyes for a moment and ask what it is. You will be heard and
you will be answered.
Lesson 80
Let me recognize my
problems have been solved.
1
If you are willing to recognize your problems, you will recognize that
you have no problems. Your one central problem has been answered, and
you have no other. Therefore you must be at peace. Salvation does depend
on recognizing this one problem and understanding that it has been
solved. One problem—one solution. Salvation is accomplished. Freedom
from conflict has been given you. Accept that fact, and you are ready to
take your rightful place in God's plan for salvation.
2
Your only problem has been solved! Repeat this over and over to yourself
today with gratitude and conviction. You have recognized your only
problem, opening the way for the Holy Spirit to give you God's answer.
You have laid deception aside and seen the light of truth. You have
accepted salvation for yourself by bringing the problem to the answer.
And you can recognize the answer because the problem has been
identified.
3
You are entitled to peace today. A problem that has been resolved cannot
trouble you. Only be certain you do not forget that all problems are the
same. Their many forms will not deceive you while you remember this. One
problem—one solution. Accept the peace this simple statement brings.
4
In our longer practice periods today, we will claim the peace that must
be ours when the problem and the answer have been brought together. The
problem must be gone because God's answer cannot fail. Having recognized
one, you have recognized the other. The solution is inherent in the
problem. You are answered and have accepted the answer. You are saved.
5
Now let the peace that your acceptance brings be given you. Close your
eyes and receive your reward. Recognize that your problems have been
solved. Recognize that you are out of conflict, free, and at peace.
Above all, remember that you have one problem and that the problem has
one solution. It is in this that the simplicity of salvation lies. It is
because of this that it is guaranteed to work.
6
Assure yourself often today that your problems have been solved. Repeat
the idea with deep conviction as frequently as possible. And be
particularly sure to remember to apply the idea for today to any
specific problem that may arise. Say quickly:
7
Let me recognize this problem has been solved.
8
Let us be determined not to collect grievances today. Let us be
determined to be free of problems that do not exist. The means is simple
honesty. Do not deceive yourself about what the problem is, and you must
recognize it has been solved.
Review II
R2:1
We are now ready for another review. We will begin where our last review
left off and cover two ideas each day. The earlier part of each day will
be devoted to one of these ideas, and the latter part of the day to the
other. We will have one longer exercise period and frequent shorter ones
in which we practice each of them.
2
The longer practice periods will follow this general form: take about 15
minutes for each of them, and begin by thinking about the idea and the
comments which are included in the assignments. Devote about three or
four minutes to reading them over slowly, several times if you wish, and
then close your eyes and listen. Repeat the first phase if you find your
mind wandering, but try to spend the major part of the practice period
listening quietly but attentively.
3
There is a message waiting for you. Be confident that you will receive
it. Remember that it belongs to you and that you want it. Do not allow
your intent to waver in the face of distracting thoughts. Realize that,
whatever form they take, they have no meaning and no power. Replace them
with your determination to succeed. Do not forget that your will has
power over all fantasies and dreams. Trust it to see you through and
carry you beyond them all.
4
Regard these practice periods as dedications to the way, the truth, and
the life. Refuse to be side-tracked into detours, illusions, and
thoughts of death. You are dedicated to salvation. Be determined each
day not to leave your function unfulfilled.
5
Reaffirm your determination in the shorter practice periods as well,
using the original form of the idea for general application and a more
specific form when needed. Some specific forms will be included in the
comments. These, however, are merely suggestions. It is not the
particular words you use that matter.
Lesson 81
1
Our ideas for review today are:
[61] I am the light of the world.
2
How holy am I, who have been given the function of lighting up the
world! Let me be still before my holiness. In its calm light, let all
my conflicts disappear. In its peace, let me remember who I am.
3
Some specific forms for applying the idea when specific difficulties
seem to arise might be:
4
Let me not obscure the light of the world in me.
Let the light of the world shine
through this appearance.
This shadow will vanish before the
light.
[62] Forgiveness is my function as the
light of the world.
5
It is through accepting my function that I will see the light in me.
And in this light will my function stand clear and perfectly
unambiguous before my sight. My acceptance does not depend on my
recognizing what my function is, for I do not yet understand
forgiveness. Yet I will trust that in the light I will see it as it
is.
6
Specific forms for using the idea might include:
7
Let this help me learn what forgiveness means.
Let me not separate my function
from my will.
I would not use this for an alien
purpose.
Lesson 82
1
We will review these ideas today:
[63] The light of the world brings
peace to every mind through my forgiveness.
2
My forgiveness is the means by which the light of the world finds
expression through me. My forgiveness is the means by which I become
aware of the light of the world in me. My forgiveness is the means by
which the world is healed, together with myself. Let me, then, forgive
the world that it may be healed along with me.
3
Suggestions for specific forms for applying this idea are:
4
Let peace extend from my mind to yours, [name].
I share the light of the
world with you, [name].
Through my forgiveness I
can see this as it is.
[64] Let me not forget my function.
5
I would not forget my function because I would remember my Self. I
cannot fulfill my function by forgetting. And unless I fulfill my
function, I will not experience the joy that God intends for me.
6
Suitable specific forms of this idea include:
7
Let me not use this to hide my function from me.
I would use this as an
opportunity to fulfill my function.
This may threaten my ego
but cannot change my function in any way.
Lesson 83
1
Today let us review these ideas:
[65] My only function is the one God
gave me.
2
I have no function but the one God gave me. This recognition releases
me from all conflict because it means I cannot have conflicting goals.
With one purpose only, I am always certain what to do, what to say,
and what to think. All doubt must disappear as I acknowledge that my
only function is the one God gave me.
3
More specific applications of this idea might take these forms:
4
My perception of this does not change my function.
This does not give me a
function other than the one God gave me.
Let me not use this to
justify a function God did not give to me.
[66] My happiness and my function are
one.
5
All things that come from God are one. They come from Oneness and
must be received as one. Fulfilling my function is my happiness
because both come from the same Source. And I must learn to recognize
what makes me happy if I would find happiness.
6
Some useful forms for specific applications of this idea are:
7
This cannot separate my happiness from my function.
The oneness of my
happiness and my function
remains wholly unaffected
by this.
Nothing, including this,
can justify the illusion of happiness
apart from my function.
Lesson 84
1
These are the ideas for today's review:
[67] Love created and manifested me
like Itself.
2
I am in the likeness of my CreatorManifestoress. I cannot suffer, I
cannot experience loss, and I cannot die. I am not a body. I would
recognize my reality today. I will worship no idols/idolresses nor
raise my own self-concepts to replace my Self. I am in the likeness of
my CreatorManifestoress. Love created and manifested me like Itself.
3
You might find these specific forms helpful in applying the idea:
4
Let me not see an illusion of myself in this.
As I look on this, let me remember
my CreatorManifestoress.
My CreatorManifestoress did not
create and manifest this as I see it.
[68] Love holds no grievances.
5
Grievances are completely alien to love. Grievances attack love and
keep its light obscure. If I hold grievances I am attacking love and
therefore attacking my Self. My Self thus becomes alien to me. I am
determined not to attack my Self today, so that I can remember who I
am.
6
These specific forms for applying this idea would be helpful:
7
This is no justification for denying my Self.
I will not use this to attack
love.
Let this not tempt me to attack
myself.
Lesson 85
1
Today's review will cover these ideas:
[69] My grievances hide the light of
the world in me.
2
My grievances show me what is not there and hide from me what I would
see. Recognizing this, what do I want my grievances for? They keep me in
darkness and hide the light. Grievances and light cannot go together,
but light and vision must be joined for me to see. To see, I must lay
grievances aside. I want to see, and this will be the means by which I
will succeed.
3
Specific applications of this idea might be made in these forms:
4
Let me not use this as a block to sight.
The light of the world will shine
all this away.
I have no need for this. I want to
see.
[70] My salvation comes from me.
5
Today I will recognize where my salvation is. It is in me because its
Source is there. It has not left its Source, and so it cannot have left
my mind. I will not look for it outside myself. It is not found outside
and then brought in. But from within me it will reach beyond, and
everything I see will but reflect the light that shines in me and in
itself.
6
These forms of the idea are suitable for more specific application:
7
Let this not tempt me to look away from me for my salvation.
I will not let this interfere with
my awareness of the Source of my salvation.
This has no power to remove
salvation from me.
Lesson 86
1
These ideas are for review today:
[71] Only God's plan for salvation will
work.
2
It is senseless for me to search wildly about for salvation. I have seen
it in many people and in many things, but when I reached for it, it was
not there. I was mistaken about where it is. I was mistaken about what
it is. I will undertake no more idle seeking. Only God's plan for
salvation will work. And I will rejoice because HisHer plan can never
fail.
3
These are some suggested forms for applying this idea specifically:
4
God's plan for salvation will save me from my perception of this.
This is no exception in God's plan
for my salvation.
Let me perceive this only in the
light of God's plan for salvation.
[72] Holding grievances is an attack on
God's plan for salvation.
5
Holding grievances is an attempt to prove that God's plan for salvation
will not work. Yet only HisHer plan will work. By holding grievances, I
am therefore excluding my only hope of salvation from my awareness. I
would no longer defeat my own best interests in this insane way. I would
accept God's plan for salvation and be happy.
6
Specific applications of this idea might be in these forms:
7
I am choosing between misperception and salvation as I look on this.
If I see grounds for grievances in
this
I will not see the grounds for my
salvation.
This calls for salvation, not
attack.
Lesson 87
1
Our review today will cover these ideas:
[73] I will there be light.
2
I will use the power of my will today. It is not my will to grope
about in darkness, fearful of shadows and afraid of things unseen and
unreal. Light shall be my guide today. I will follow it where it leads
me, and I will look only on what it shows me. This day I will
experience the peace of true perception.
3
These forms of this idea would be helpful for specific application:
4
This cannot hide the light I will to see.
You stand with me in light,
[name].
In the light this will look
different.
[74] There is no will but God's.
5
I am safe today because there is no will but God's. I can become
afraid only when I believe that there is another will. I try to attack
only when I am afraid, and only when I try to attack can I believe
that my eternal safety is threatened. Today I will recognize that all
this has not occurred. I am safe because there is no will but God's.
6
These are some useful forms of this idea for specific applications:
7
Let me perceive this in accordance with the Will of God.
It is God's Will you are HisHer
SonDaughter, [name], and mine as well.
This is part of God's Will for me,
however I may see it.
Lesson 88
1
Today we will review these ideas:
[75] The light has come.
2
In choosing salvation rather than attack, I merely choose to
recognize what is already here. Salvation is a decision made already.
Attack and grievances are not there to choose. That is why I always
choose between truth and illusion, between what is there and what is
not. The light has come. I can but choose the light, for it has no
alternative. It has replaced the darkness, and the dark is gone.
3
These would prove useful forms for specific applications of this
idea:
4
This cannot show me darkness, for the light has come.
The light in you is all that I
would see, [name].
I would see in this only what is
there.
[76] I am under no laws but God's.
5
Here is the perfect statement of my freedom. I am under no laws but
God's. I am constantly tempted to make up other laws and give them
power over me. I suffer only because of my belief in them. They have
no real effect on me at all. I am perfectly free of the effects of all
laws save God's. And HisHer are the laws of freedom.
6
For specific forms in applying this idea, these would be useful:
7
My perception of this shows me I believe in laws which do not exist.
I see only the laws of God at work
in this.
Let me allow God's laws to work in
this and not my own.
Lesson 89
1
These are our review ideas for today:
[77] I am entitled to miracles.
2
I am entitled to miracles because I am under no laws but God's.
HisHer laws release me from all grievances and replace them with
miracles. And I would accept the miracles in place of the grievances,
which are but illusions that hide the miracles beyond. Now I would
accept only what the laws of God entitle me to have that I may use it
on behalf of the function HeShe has given me.
3
You might use these suggestions for specific applications of this idea:
4
Behind this is a miracle to which I am entitled.
Let me not hold a grievance
against you [name],
but offer you the miracle that
belongs to you instead.
Seen truly, this offers me a
miracle.
[78] Let miracles replace all
grievances.
5
By this idea do I unite my will with the Holy Spirit's and perceive
them as one. By this idea do I accept my release from hell. By this
idea do I express my willingness to have all my illusions be replaced
with truth according to God's plan for my salvation. I would make no
exceptions and no substitutes. I want all of the God Realm and only
the God Realm, as God wills me to have.
6
Useful specific forms for applying this idea would be:
7
I would not hold this grievance apart from my salvation.
Let our grievances be replaced by
miracles, [name].
Beyond this is the miracle
by which all my grievances are replaced.
Lesson 90
1
For this review we will use these ideas:
[79] Let me recognize the problem so it
can be solved.
2
Let me realize today that the problem is always some form of grievance
which I would cherish. Let me also understand that the solution is
always a miracle with which I let the grievance be replaced. Today I
would remember the simplicity of salvation by reinforcing the lesson
that there is one problem and one solution. The problem is a grievance;
the solution is a miracle. And I invite the solution to come to me
through my forgiveness of the grievance and my welcome of the miracle
which takes its place.
3
Specific applications of this idea might be in these forms:
4
This presents a problem to me which I would have resolved.
The miracle behind this grievance
will resolve it for me.
The answer to this problem is the
miracle which it conceals.
[80] Let me recognize my problems have
been solved.
5
I seem to have problems only because I am misusing time. I believe that
the problem comes first, and time must elapse before it can be worked
out. I do not see the problem and the answer as simultaneous in their
occurrence. That is because I do not yet realize that God has placed the
answer together with the problem, so that they cannot be separated by
time. The Holy Spirit will teach me this if I will let Her. And I will
understand it is impossible that I could have a problem which has not
been solved already.
6
These forms of the idea will be useful for specific applications:
7
I need not wait for this to be resolved.
The answer to this problem is
already given me if I will accept it.
Time cannot separate this problem
from its solution.
Lesson 91
Miracles are seen in light.
1
It is important to remember that miracles and vision necessarily go
together. This needs repeating and frequent repeating. It is a central
idea in your new thought system and the perception which it produces.
The miracle is always there. Its presence is not caused by your vision;
its absence is not the result of your failure to see. It is only your
awareness of miracles that is affected. You will see it in the light;
you will not see it in the dark.
2
To you, then, light is crucial. While you remain in darkness, the
miracle remains unseen. Thus you are convinced it is not there. This
follows from the premises from which the darkness comes. Denial of light
leads to failure to perceive it. Failure to perceive light is to
perceive darkness. The light is useless to you then, even though it is
there. You cannot use it because its presence is unknown to you. And the
seeming reality of the darkness makes the idea of light meaningless.
3
To be told that what you do not see is there sounds like insanity. It is
very difficult to become convinced that it is insanity not to see what
is there and to see what is not there instead. You do not doubt that the
body's eyes can see. You do not doubt the images they show you are
reality. Your faith lies in the darkness, not the light.
4
How can this be reversed? For you it is impossible, but you are not
alone in this. Your efforts, however little they may be, have strong
support. Did you but realize how great this strength, your doubts would
vanish. Today we will devote ourselves to the attempt to let you feel
this strength. When you have felt the strength in you which makes all
miracles within your easy reach, you will not doubt. The miracles your
sense of weakness hides will leap into awareness as you feel the
strength in you.
5
Three times today, set aside about ten minutes for a quiet time in which
you try to leave your weakness behind. This is accomplished very simply,
as you instruct yourself that you are not a body. Faith goes to what you
want, and you instruct your mind accordingly. Your will remains your
teacher or teacheress, and your will has all the strength to do what it
desires. You can escape the body if you choose. You can experience the
strength in you.
6
Begin the longer practice periods with this statement of true cause and
effect relationships:
7
Miracles are seen in light.
The body's eyes do not perceive
the light.
But I am not a body. What am I?
8
The question with which this statement ends is needed for our exercises
today. What you think you are is a belief to be undone. But what you
really are must be revealed to you. The belief you are a body calls for
correction, being a mistake. The truth of what you are calls on the
strength in you to bring to your awareness what the mistake concealed.
9
If you are not a body, what are you? You need to be aware of what the
Holy Spirit uses to replace the image of a body in your mind. You need
to feel something to put your faith in, as you lift it from the body.
You need a real experience of something else, something more solid and
more sure, more worthy of your faith, and really there.
10
If you are not a body, what are you? Ask this in honesty, and then
devote several minutes to allowing your mistaken thoughts about your
attributes to be corrected, and their opposites to take their place.
Say, for example:
11
I am not weak, but strong.
I am not helpless, but all
powerful.
I am not limited, but
unlimited.
I am not doubtful, but
certain.
I am not an illusion, but
a reality.
I cannot see in darkness,
but in light.
12
In the second phase of the exercise period, try to experience these
truths about yourself. Concentrate particularly on the experience of
strength. Remember that all sense of weakness is associated with the
belief you are a body, a belief that is mistaken and deserves no faith.
Try to remove your faith from it, if only for a moment. You will become
accustomed to keeping faith with the more worthy in you as we go along.
13
Relax for the rest of the practice period, confident that your efforts,
however meager, are fully supported by the strength of God and all
HisHer Thoughts. It is from Them your strength will come. It is through
Their strong support that you will feel the strength in you. They are
united with you in this practice period in which you share a purpose
like Their own. Theirs is the light in which you will see miracles
because Their strength is yours. Their strength becomes your eyes that
you may see.
14
Five or six times an hour at reasonably regular intervals remind
yourself that miracles are seen in light. Also, be sure to meet
temptation with today's idea. This form would be helpful for this
special purpose:
15
Miracles are seen in light. Let me not close my eyes because of this.
Lesson 92
Miracles are seen in light,
and light and strength are one.
1
The idea for today is an extension of the previous one. You do not think
of light in terms of strength and darkness in terms of weakness. That is
because your idea of what seeing means is tied up with the body and its
eyes and brain. This is why you believe that you can change what you see
by keeping little bits of glass or other clear material before your eyes
held in a frame or placed against the eye.
2
These are among the many magical beliefs that come from the conviction
you are a body and the body's eyes can see. You also believe the body's
brain can think. If you but understood the nature of thought, you could
but laugh at this insane idea. It is as if you thought you held the
match that lights the sun and gives it all its warmth or that you had
the universe imprisoned in your hand, securely bound until you let it
go. Yet this is no more foolish than to believe the body's eyes can see,
the brain can think.
3
It is God's strength in you that is the light in which you see, as it is
HisHer Mind with which you think. HisHer strength denies your weakness.
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. These are seen through eyes
which cannot see and cannot bless.
4
Strength overlooks these things by seeing past appearances. It keeps its
steady gaze upon the light that lies beyond them. It unites with light,
of which it is a part. It sees itself. It brings the light in which your
Self appears. In darkness you perceive a self that is not there.
5
Strength is the truth about you; weakness is an idol or idolress falsely
worshipped, and adored that strength may be dispelled and darkness rule
where God appointed that there should be light. Strength comes from
truth and shines with light its Source has given it; weakness reflects
the darkness of its maker. It is sick and looks on sickness, which is
like itself.
6
Truth is a saviors/savioresses and can only will for
happiness and peace for everyone. It gives its strength to everyone who
asks, in limitless supply. It sees that lack in anyone would be a lack
in all, and so it gives its light that all may see and benefit as one.
Its strength is shared that it may bring to all the miracle in which
they will unite in purpose and forgiveness and in love.
7
Weakness, which looks in darkness, cannot see a purpose in forgiveness
and in love. It sees all others different from itself and nothing in the
world that it would share. It judges and condemns but does not love. 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. It fears and it attacks and hates itself, and darkness
covers everything it sees, leaving its dreams as fearful as itself. No
miracles are here, but only hate. It separates itself from what it sees,
while light and strength perceive themselves as one.
8
The light of strength is not the light you see. It does not change and
flicker and go out. It does not shift from night to day and back to
darkness till the morning comes again. The light of strength is
constant, sure as love, forever glad to give itself away because it
cannot give but to itself. No one can ask in vain to share its sight,
and none who enters its abode can leave without a miracle before his/her
eyes and strength and light abiding in his/her heart.
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. Strength and light unite in you, and where they meet,
your Self stands ready to embrace you as Its own. Such is the meeting
place we try today to find and rest in, for the peace of God is where
your Self, HisHer SonDaughter, is waiting now to meet itself again and
be as one.
10
Let us give 20 minutes twice today to join this meeting. Let yourself be
brought unto your Self. Its strength will be the light in which the gift
of sight is given you. 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.
11
After the morning meeting, we will use the day in preparation for the
time at night when we will meet again in hope and trust. 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
Light and joy and peace
abide in me.
1
You think you are the home of evil, darkness, and sin. You think if
anyone could see the truth about you he/she would be repelled, recoiling
from you as if from a poisonous snake. You think if what is true about
you were revealed to you, you would be struck with horror so intense
that you would rush to death by your own hand, living on after seeing
this being impossible.
2
These are beliefs so firmly fixed that it is difficult to help you see
that they are based on nothing. That you have made mistakes is obvious.
That you have sought salvation in strange ways—have been deceived,
deceiving, and afraid of foolish fantasies and savage dreams and have
bowed down to idols/idolresses made of dust—all this is true by what you
now believe.
3
Today we question this, not from the point of view of what you think,
but from a very different reference point from which such idle thoughts
are meaningless. These thoughts are not according to God's Will. These
weird beliefs HeShe does not share with you. This is enough to prove
that they are wrong, but you do not perceive that this is so.
4
Why would you not be overjoyed to be assured that all the evil that you
think you did was never done, that all your "sins" are nothing, that you
are as pure and holy as you were created and manifested, and that light
and joy and peace abide in you? Your image of yourself cannot withstand
the Will of God. You think that this is death, but it is life. You think
you are destroyed, but you are saved.
5
The self you made is not the SonDaughter of God. Therefore, this self
does not exist at all. And anything it seems to do and think means
nothing. It is neither bad nor good. It is unreal and nothing more than
that. It does not battle with the SonDaughter of God. It does not hurt
himher nor attack hisher peace. It has not changed creation and
manifestation nor reduced eternal sinlessness to sin and love to hate.
What power can this self you made possess when it would contradict the
Will of God?
6
Your sinlessness is guaranteed by God. Over and over this must be
repeated until it is accepted. It is true. Your sinlessness is
guaranteed by God. Nothing can touch it nor can change what God created
and manifested as eternal. The self you made, evil and full of sin, is
meaningless. Your sinlessness is guaranteed by God, and light and joy
and peace abide in you.
7
Salvation requires the acceptance of but one thought—you are as God
created and manifested you, not what you made of yourself. Whatever evil
you may think you did, you are as God created and manifested you.
Whatever mistakes you made, the truth about you is unchanged. creation
and manifestation is eternal and unalterable. Your sinlessness is
guaranteed by God. You are and will forever be exactly as you were
created and manifested. Light and joy and peace abide in you because God
put them there.
8
In our longer exercise periods today, which would be most profitable if
done for the first five minutes of every waking hour, we will begin by
stating the truth about our creation and manifestation:
9
Light and joy and peace abide in me.
My sinlessness is guaranteed by
God.
10
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.
11
You are what God created and manifested or what you made. One Self is
true; the other is not there. Try to experience the unity of your One
Self. Try to appreciate its holiness and the love from which it was
created and manifested. Try not to interfere with the Self which God
created and manifested as you by hiding its majesty behind the tiny
idols/idolresses of evil and sinfulness you have made to replace it. Let
it come into its own. Here you are. This is you. And light and joy and
peace abide in you because this is so.
12
You may not be willing or even able to use the first five minutes of
each hour for these exercises. Try, however, to do so when you can. At
least remember to repeat these thoughts each hour:
13
Light and joy and peace abide in me.
My sinlessness is
guaranteed by God.
14
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.
15
If a situation arises that seems to be disturbing, quickly dispel the
illusion of fear by repeating these thoughts again. Should you be
tempted to become angry with someone, tell him&her silently:
16
Light and joy and peace abide in you.
Your sinlessness is
guaranteed by God.
17
You can do much for the world's salvation today. You can do much today
to bring you closer to the part in salvation which God has assigned to
you. And you can do much today to bring the conviction to your mind that
the idea for the day is true indeed.
Lesson 94
I am as God created and
manifested me.
1
Today we continue with the one idea which brings complete salvation; the
one statement which makes all forms of temptation powerless; the one
thought which renders the ego silent and entirely undone. You are as God
created and manifested you. The sounds of this world are still, the
sights of this world disappear, and all the thoughts that this world
ever held are wiped away forever by this one idea. Here is salvation
accomplished. Here is sanity restored.
2
True light is strength, and strength is sinlessness. If you remain as
God created and manifested you, you must be strong and light must be in
you. HeShe Who ensured your sinlessness must be the guarantee of
strength and light as well. You are as God created and manifested you.
Darkness cannot obscure the glory of the SonDaughter of God. You stand
in light, strong in the sinlessness in which you were created and
manifested and in which you will remain throughout eternity.
3
Today we will again devote the first five minutes of each waking hour to
the attempt to feel the truth in you. Begin these times of searching
with these words:
4
I am as God created and manifested me.
I am HisHer SonDaughter eternally.
5
Now try to reach the SonDaughter of God in you. This is the Self that
never sinned nor made an image to replace reality. This is the Self
which never left its home in God to walk the world uncertainly. This is
the Self which knows no fear nor could conceive of loss or suffering or
death.
6
Nothing is required of you to reach this goal except to lay all
idols/idolresses and self-images aside, go past the long list of
attributes, both "good" and "bad," you have ascribed to yourself and
wait in silent expectancy for the truth. God has HimHerself promised
that it will be revealed to all who ask for it. You are asking now. You
cannot fail because HeShe cannot fail.
7
If you do not meet the requirement of practicing for the first five
minutes of every hour, at least remind yourself hourly:
8
I am as God created and manifested me.
I am HisHer SonDaughter eternally.
9
Tell yourself frequently today that you are as God created and
manifested you. And be sure to respond to anyone who seems to irritate
you with these words:
10
You are as God created and manifested you.
You are HisHer SonDaughter
eternally.
11
Make every effort to do the hourly exercises today. 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
I am One Self, united with
my CreatorManifestoress.
1
Today's idea accurately describes you as God created and manifested you.
You are one within yourself and one with HimHer. Yours is the unity of
all creation and manifestation. Your perfect unity makes change in you
impossible. You do not accept this and you fail to realize it must be
so, only because you believe that you have changed yourself already. You
see yourself as a ridiculous parody on God's manifested creation —weak,
vicious, ugly and sinful, miserable and beset with pain.
2
Such is your version of yourself—a self divided into many warring parts,
separate from God, and tenuously held together by its erratic and
capricious maker, to which you pray. It does not hear your prayers, for
it is deaf. It does not see the oneness in you, for it is blind. It does
not understand you are the SonDaughter of God, for it is senseless and
understands nothing.
3
We will attempt today to be aware of only what can hear and see and what
makes perfect sense. We will again direct our exercises towards reaching
your One Self, which is united with its CreatorManifestoress. In
patience and in hope we try again today.
4
The use of the first five minutes of every waking hour for practicing
the idea for the day has special advantages at the stage of learning in
which you are at present. It is difficult at this point not to allow
your mind to wander if it undertakes extended attempts. You have surely
realized this by now. You have seen the extent of your lack of mental
discipline and of your need for mind training. It is necessary that you
be aware of this, for it is indeed a hindrance to your advance.
5
Frequent but shorter practice periods have other advantages for you at
this time. In addition to recognizing your difficulties with sustained
attention, you must also have noticed that, unless you are reminded of
your purpose frequently, you tend to forget about it for long periods of
time. You often fail to remember the short applications of the idea for
the day, and you have not yet formed the habit of using it as an
automatic response to temptation.
6
Structure, then, is necessary for you at this time, planned to include
frequent reminders of your goal and regular attempts to reach it.
Regularity in terms of time is not the ideal requirement for the most
beneficial form of practice in salvation. It is advantageous, however,
for those whose motivation is inconsistent and who remain heavily
defended against learning.
7
We will therefore keep to the five minutes an hour practice periods for
a while and urge you to omit as few as possible. Using the first five
minutes of the hour will be particularly helpful since it imposes firmer
structure. Do not, however, use your lapses from this schedule as an
excuse not to return to it again as soon as you can.
8
There may well be a temptation to regard the day as lost because you
have already failed to do what is required. This should, however, merely
be recognized as what it is—a refusal to let your mistakes be corrected
and an unwillingness to try again.
9
The Holy Spirit is not delayed in Her teaching by your mistakes. She can
be held back only by your unwillingness to let them go. Let us therefore
be determined, particularly for the next week or so, to be willing to
forgive ourselves for our lapses in diligence and our failures to follow
the instructions for practicing the day's idea.
10
This tolerance for weakness will enable us to overlook it, rather than
give it power to delay our learning. If we give it power to do this, we
are regarding it as strength and are confusing strength with weakness.
When you fail to comply with the requirements of this course, you have
merely made a mistake. This calls for correction and for nothing else.
11
To allow a mistake to continue is to make additional mistakes based on
the first and reinforcing it. It is this process that must be laid
aside, for it is but another way in which you would defend illusions
against the truth. Let all these errors go by recognizing them for what
they are. They are attempts to keep you unaware you are One Self, united
with your CreatorManifestoress, at one with every aspect of creation and
manifestation, and limitless in power and in peace.
12
This is the truth, and nothing else is true. Today we will affirm this
truth again and try to reach the place in you in which there is no doubt
that only this is true. Begin the practice periods today with this
assurance, given to your mind with all the certainty that you can give:
13
I am One Self, united with my CreatorManifestoress,
At one with every aspect
of creation and manifestation,
And limitless in power and
in peace.
14
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:
15
I am One Self.
16
Repeat this several times, and then attempt to feel the meaning which
the words convey. You are One Self, united and secure in light and joy
and peace. You are God’s SonDaughter, One Self with one
CreatorManifestoress and one goal—to bring awareness of this oneness to
all minds, that true manifested creation may extend the Allness and the
Unity of God.
17
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 itself. You are One Self, in perfect
harmony with all there is and all that there will be. You are One Self,
the holy SonDaughter of God, united with your brothers&sisters
in this Self, united with your FatherMother in HisHer Will.
18
Feel this One Self in you, and let it shine away all your illusions and
your doubts. This is your Self, the SonDaughter of God HimHerself,
sinless as its CreatorManifestoress, with HisHer strength within you and
HisHer Love forever yours. 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
which is this Self, the holy truth in you.
19
Do not forget today. We need your help, your little part in bringing
happiness to all the world. And the God Realm looks to you in confidence
that you will try today. Share, then, its surety, for it is yours. Be
vigilant. Do not forget today.
20
Throughout the day do not forget your goal. 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/her mind, the
gentle rustling of the wings of peace. Your own acknowledgment you are
One Self, united with your FatherMother, is a call to all the world to
be at one with you. To everyone you meet today be sure to give the
promise of today's idea and tell him&her this:
21
You are One Self with me,
United with our
CreatorManifestoress in this Self.
I honor you because of what I am,
And what HeShe is, Who
loves us both as one.
Lesson 96
Salvation comes from my One
Self.
1
Although you are One Self, you experience yourself as two—as both good
and evil, loving and hating, mind and body. This sense of being split
into opposites induces feelings of acute and constant conflict and leads
to frantic attempts to reconcile the contradictory aspects of this
self-perception. You have sought many such solutions, and none of them
has worked. The opposites you see in you will never be compatible. But
one exists.
2
The fact that truth and illusion cannot be reconciled, no matter how you
try, what means you use, and where you see the problem, must be accepted
if you would be saved. Until you have accepted this, you will attempt
endless lists of goals you cannot reach; a senseless series of
expenditures of time and effort, hopefulness and doubt, each one as
futile as the one before and failing as the next one surely will.
3
Problems that have no meaning cannot be resolved within the framework
they are set. Two selves in conflict could not be resolved, and good and
evil have no meeting place. The self you made can never be your Self,
nor can your Self be split in two and still be what it is and must
forever be.
4
A mind and body cannot both exist. Make no attempt to reconcile the two,
for one denies the other can be real. If you are physical, your mind is
gone from your self-concept, for it has no place in which it could be
really part of you. If you are Spirit, then the body must be meaningless
to your reality.
5
Spirit makes use of mind as means to find its Self-expression. And the
mind which serves the Spirit is at peace and filled with joy. Its power
comes from Spirit, and it is fulfilling happily its function here. Yet
mind can also see itself divorced from Spirit and perceive itself within
a body it confuses with itself. Without its function then, it has no
peace, and happiness is alien to its thoughts.
6
Yet mind apart from Spirit cannot think. It has denied its Source of
strength and sees itself as helpless, limited, and weak. Dissociated
from its function now, it thinks it is alone and separate, attacked by
armies massed against itself and hiding in the body's frail support. Now
must it reconcile unlike with like, for this is what it thinks that it
is for.
7
Waste no more time on this. Who can resolve the senseless conflicts
which a dream presents? What could the resolution mean in truth? What
purpose could it serve? What is it for? Salvation cannot make illusions
real and solve a problem that does not exist. Perhaps you hope it can.
Yet would you have God's plan for the release of HisHer dear SonDaughter
bring pain to himher and fail to set himher free?
8
Your Self retains its thoughts, and they remain within your mind and in
the Mind of God. The Holy Spirit holds salvation in your mind and offers
it the way to peace. Salvation is a thought you share with God, because
HisHer Voice accepted it for you and answered in your name that it was
done. Thus is salvation kept among the thoughts your Self holds dear and
cherishes for you.
9
We will attempt today to find this thought, whose presence in your mind
is guaranteed by Her Who speaks to you from your One Self. Our hourly
five minute practicing will be a search for Her within your mind.
Salvation comes from this One Self through Her Who is the bridge between
your mind and it.
10
Wait patiently, and let Her speak to you about your Self, and what your
mind can do, restored to it and free to serve its will.
11
Begin by saying this:
12
Salvation comes from my One Self. Its thoughts are mine to use.
13
Then seek its thoughts, and claim them as your own.
14
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. Here
are your thoughts, the only ones you have. Salvation is among them; find
it there.
15
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.
Your Self will welcome it and give it peace. Restored in strength, it
will again flow out from Spirit to the Spirit in all things created and
manifested by the Spirit as Itself. Your mind will bless all things.
Confusion done, you are restored, for you have found your Self.
16
Your Self knows that you cannot fail today. Perhaps your mind remains
uncertain yet a little while. Be not dismayed by this. The joy your Self
experiences It will save for you, and it will yet be yours in full
awareness. Every time you spend five minutes of the hour seeking Her Who
joins your mind and Self, you offer Her another treasure to be kept for
you.
17
Each time today you tell your frantic mind salvation comes from your One
Self, you lay another treasure in your growing store. And all of it is
given everyone who asks for it and will accept the gift. Think, then,
how much is given unto you to give this day, that it be given you!
Lesson 97
I am Spirit.
1
Today's idea identifies you with your One Self. It accepts no split
identity, nor tries to weave opposing factors into unity. It simply
states the truth. Practice this truth today as often as you can, for it
will bring your mind from conflict to the quiet fields of peace. No
chill of fear can enter, for your mind has been absolved from madness,
letting go illusions of a split identity.
2
We state again the truth about your Self, the holy SonDaughter of God
who rests in you, whose mind has been restored to sanity. You are the
Spirit lovingly endowed with all your Father’sMother’s love and peace
and joy. You are the Spirit which completes HimHerself and shares HisHer
function as CreatorManifestoress. HeShe is with you always, as you are
with HimHer.
3
Today we try to bring reality still closer to your mind. Each time you
practice, awareness is brought a little nearer at least; sometimes a
thousand years or more are saved. The minutes which you give are
multiplied over and over, for the miracle makes use of time but is not
ruled by it. Salvation is a miracle, the first and last; the first that
is the last, for it is one.
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 which has no
length and which has no end. Give, then, these minutes willingly, and
count on HimHer Who promised to lay timelessness beside them. HeShe
will offer all HisHer strength to every little effort which you make.
5 Give HImHer the minutes which HeShe needs today to help you
understand with HimHer you are the Spirit that abides in HimHer, and
Which calls through HisHer Voice to every living thing; offers HisHer
sight to everyone who asks; replaces error with the simple truth.
6The 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. She will not overlook one open mind that will
accept the healing gift She brings, and She will lay them everywhere
She knows they will be welcome. And they will increase in healing
power each time someone accepts them as his/her thoughts and uses them
to heal.
7 Thus will your gift to HimHer be multiplied a thousand-fold and tens
of thousands more. 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. Yet will the steady brilliance of this light remain and lead you
out of darkness, nor will you be able to forget the way again..
8
Begin these happy exercises with the words the Holy Spirit speaks to
you, and let them echo round the world through Her:
9
Spirit am I, a holy Daughter of God,
free of all limits, safe and
healed and whole,
free to forgive, and free to save
the world.
10
Expressed through you, the Holy Spirit will accept this gift which you
received of Her, increase its power, and give it back to you.
11
Offer each practice period today gladly to Her. And She will speak to
you, reminding you that you are Spirit, one with Her and God, your
brotherssisters and your Self. Listen for Her assurance every time you
speak the words She offers you today, and let Her tell your mind that
they are true.
12
Use them against temptation, and escape its sorry consequences if you
yield to the belief that you are something else. The Holy Spirit gives
you peace today. Receive Her words, and offer them to Her.
Lesson 98
I will accept my part in
God's plan for salvation.
1
Today is a day of special dedication. We take a stand on but one side
today. We side with truth and let illusions go. We will not vacillate
between the two but take a firm position with the one. We dedicate
ourselves to truth today and to salvation as God planned it be. We will
not argue it is something else; we will not seek for it where it is not.
In gladness we accept it as it is and take the part assigned to us by
God.
2
How happy to be certain! All our doubts we lay aside today and take our
stand with certainty of purpose and with thanks that doubt is gone and
surety has come. We have a mighty purpose to fulfill and have been given
everything we need with which to reach the goal. Not one mistake stands
in our way, for we have been absolved from errors. All our sins are
washed away by realizing that they were but mistakes.
3
The guiltless have no fear, for they are safe and recognize their
safety. They do not appeal to magic nor invent escapes from fancied
threats without reality. They rest in quiet certainty that they will do
what it is given them to do. They do not doubt their own ability because
they know their function will be filled completely in the perfect time
and place. They took the stand which we will take today that we may
share their certainty and thus increase it by accepting it ourselves.
4
They will be with us—all who took the stand we take today will gladly
offer us all that they learned and every gain they made. Those still
uncertain too will join with us and, borrowing our certainty, will make
it stronger still. While those as yet unborn will hear the call we heard
and answer it, when they have come to make their choice again. We do not
choose but for ourselves today.
5
Is it not worth five minutes of your time each hour to be able to accept
the happiness that God has given you? Is it not worth five minutes
hourly to recognize your special function here? Is not five minutes of
the hour but a small request to make in terms of a reward so great it
has no measure? You have made a thousand losing bargains at the least.
6
Here is an offer guaranteeing you your full release from pain of every
kind and joy the world does not contain. You can exchange a little of
your time for peace of mind and certainty of purpose with the promise of
complete success. And since time has no meaning, you are being asked for
nothing in return for everything. Here is a bargain that you cannot
lose. And what you gain is limitless indeed!
7 Each hour today give Her your tiny
gift of but five minutes. HeShe will give the words you use in
practicing today's idea the deep conviction and the certainty you
lack. HisHer words will join with yours and make each repetition of
today's idea a total dedication, made in faith as perfect and as sure
as HisHer in you.
8 HisHer confidence in you will bring the light to all the words you
say, and you will go beyond their sound to what they really mean.
Today you practice with Her as you say:
9 I will accept my part in God's plan for salvation.
10 In each five minutes that you spend with HisHer, HeShe 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. Do not lose one chance to be the glad receiver of HisHer
gifts, that you may give them to the world today.
11 Give HimHer the words, and HeShe will do the rest. HeShe will
enable you to understand your special function. HeShe will open up the
way to happiness, and peace and trust will be HisHer gifts, HisHer
answer to your words. HeShe will respond with all HisHer faith and joy
and certainty that what you say is true. And you will have conviction
then of HimHer Who knows the function that you have on earth as well
as the God Realm. HeShe will be with you each practice period you
share with HimHer, exchanging every instant of the time you offer
HimHer for timelessness and peace.
12 Throughout the hour, let your time be spent in happy preparation
for the next five minutes you will spend again with HamHer. Repeat
today's idea while you wait for the glad time to come to you again.
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.
13 And when the hour is gone and HeShe 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
HimHer. Tell HimHer once more that you accept the part which HeShe
would have you take and help you fill, and HeShe will make you sure
you want this choice, which HeShe has made with you and you with
HimHer..
Lesson 99
Salvation is my only
function here.
1
Salvation and forgiveness are the same. They both imply that something
has gone wrong—something you need to be saved from or forgiven for,
something amiss that needs corrective change, something apart or
different from the Will of God. Thus do both terms imply something
impossible but yet which has occurred, resulting in a state of conflict
between what is and what could never be.
2
Truth and illusions both are equal now, for both have happened. The
impossible becomes the thing you need forgiveness for, salvation from.
Salvation is the borderland between the truth and illusion. It reflects
the truth because it is the means by which you can escape illusions. Yet
it is not truth because it undoes what was never done.
3
How could there be a meeting place at all where earth and God Realm can
be reconciled within a mind where both of them exist? The mind that sees
illusions thinks them real. They have existence in that they are
thoughts. And yet they are not real because the mind that thinks these
thoughts is separate from God.
4
What joins the separated mind and thoughts with Mind and Thought which
are forever one? What plan could hold the truth inviolate, yet recognize
the need illusions bring and offer means by which they are undone
without attack and with no touch of pain? What but a Thought of God
could be this plan by which the never done is overlooked and sins
forgotten which were never real?
5
The Holy Spirit holds this plan of God exactly as it was received of Her
within the Mind of God and in your own. It is apart from time in that
its Source is timeless. Yet it operates in time because of your belief
that time is real. Unshaken does the Holy Spirit look on what you see—on
sin and pain and death, on grief and separation, and on loss. Yet does
She know one thing must still be true—God still is Love, and this is not
HisHer Will.
6
This is the Thought which brings illusions to the truth, and sees them
as appearances behind which is the changeless and the sure. This is the
Thought which saves and which forgives, because it lays no faith in what
is not created and manifested by the only Source it knows. This is the
Thought whose function is to save by giving you its function as your
own.
7
Salvation is your function with the One to Whom the plan was given. Now
are you entrusted with this plan, along with Her. She has one answer to
appearances regardless of their form, their size, their depth, or any
attribute they seem to have:
8
Salvation is my only function here.
God still is Love, and this is not
HisHer Will.
9
You who will yet work miracles, be sure you practice well the idea for
today. Try to perceive the strength in what you say, for these are words
in which your freedom lies. Your FatherMother loves you. All the world
of pain is not HisHer Will. Forgive yourself the thought HeShe wanted
this for you. Then let the Thought with which HeShe has replaced all
your mistakes enter the darkened places of your mind which thought the
thoughts that never were HisHer Will.
10
This part belongs to God, as does the rest. It does not think its
solitary thoughts and make them real by hiding them from HimHer. Let in
the light, and you will look upon no obstacle to what HeShe wills for
you. Open your secrets to HisHer kindly Light, and see how bright this
Light still shines in you.
11
Practice HisHer Thought today, and let HisHer Light seek out and lighten
up all darkened spots and shine through them to join them to the rest.
It is God's Will your mind be one with HisHer. It is God's Will that
HeShe has but one SonDaughter. It is God's Will that HisHer one
SonDaughter is you.
12
Think of these things in practicing today, and start your longer
practice periods with this instruction in the way of truth:
13
Salvation is my only function here.
Salvation and forgiveness
are the same.
14
Then turn to Her who shares your function with you, and let Her teach
you what you need to learn to lay all fear aside and know your Self as
Love Which has no opposite in you.
15
Forgive all thoughts which would oppose the truth of your completeness,
unity, and peace. You cannot lose the gifts your FatherMother gave. You
do not want to be another self. You have no function that is not of God.
Forgive yourself the one you think you made. Forgiveness and salvation
are the same. Forgive what you have made, and you are saved.
16
You have a special message for today which has the power to remove all
forms of doubt and fear forever from your mind. If you are tempted to
believe them true, remember that appearances cannot withstand the truth
these mighty words contain:
17
Salvation is my only function here.
God still is Love, and
this is not HisHer Will.
18
Your only function tells you you are one. Remind yourself of this
between the times you give five minutes to be shared with Her Who shares
God's plan with you. Remind yourself:
19
Salvation is my only function here.
20
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 SonDaughter of God.
Lesson 100
My part is essential to God's
plan for salvation.
1
Just as God’s SonDaughter completes hisher FatherMother, so your part in
it completes your Father’sMother's plan. Salvation must reverse the mad
belief in separate thoughts and separate bodies which lead separate
lives and go their separate ways. One function shared by separate minds
unites them in one purpose, for each one is equally essential to them
all.
2
God's Will for you is perfect happiness. Why should you choose to go
against HisHer Will? The part that HeShe has saved for you to take in
working out HisHer plan is given you that you might be restored to what
HeShe wills. This part is as essential to HisHer plan as to your
happiness. Your joy must be complete to let HisHer plan be understood by
those to whom HeShe sends you. They will see their function in your
shining face and hear God calling to them in your happy laugh.
3
You are indeed essential to God's plan. Without your joy, HisHer joy is
incomplete. Without your smile, the world cannot be saved. While you are
sad, the light which God HimHerself appointed as the means to save the
world is dim and lusterless. And no one laughs, because all laughter can
but echo yours.
4
You are indeed essential to God's plan. Just as your light increases
every light that shines in the God Realm, so your joy on earth calls to
all minds to let their sorrows go and take their place beside you in
God's plan. God's messengers are joyous, and their joy heals sorrow and
despair. They are the proof that God wills perfect happiness for all who
will accept their Father’sMother’s gifts as theirs.
5
We will not let ourselves be sad today. For if we do, we fail to take
the part that is essential to God's plan as well as to our vision.
Sadness is the sign that you would play another part instead of what has
been assigned to you by God. Thus do you fail to show the world how
great the happiness HeShe wills for you. And so you do not recognize
that it is yours.
6
Today we will attempt to understand joy is our function here. If you are
sad, your part is unfulfilled and all the world is thus deprived of joy
along with you. God asks that you be happy so the world can see how much
HeShe loves HisHer SonDaughter and wills no sorrow rises to abate hisher
joy; no fear besets himher to disturb hisher peace.
7
You are God's messenger today. You bring HisHer happiness to all you
look upon, HisHer peace to everyone who looks on you and sees HisHer
message in your happy face. We will prepare ourselves for this today in
our five minute practice periods by feeling happiness arise in us
according to our Father'sMother's Will and ours.
8
Begin the exercises with the thought today's idea contains. Then realize
your part is to be happy. Only this is asked of you or anyone who wants
to take his/her place among God's messengers. Think what this means. You
have indeed been wrong in your belief that sacrifice is asked. You but
receive according to God's plan and never lose or sacrifice or die.
9
Now let us try to find that joy which proves to us and all the world
God's Will for us. It is your function that you find it here and that
you find it now. For this you came. Let this one be the day that you
succeed! Look deep within you, undismayed by all the little thoughts and
foolish goals you pass as you ascend to meet the Christ
Consciousness/the Mercy Consciousness in you.
10
HeShe will be there. And you can reach HimHer now. What could you rather
look upon in place of HimHer Who waits that you may look on HimHer? What
little thought has power to hold you back? What foolish goal can keep
you from success when HeShe Who calls to you is God HimHerself? HeShe
will be there. You are essential to HisHer plan. You are HisHer
messenger today. And you must find what HeShe would have you give.
11
Do not forget the idea for today between your longer practice periods.
It is your Self Who calls to you today. And it is himher you answer
every time you tell yourself you are essential to God's plan for the
salvation of the world.
Lesson 101
God's Will for me is
perfect happiness.
1
Today we will continue with the theme of happiness. This is a key idea
in understanding what salvation means. You still believe it asks for
suffering as penance for your "sins." This is not so. Yet you must think
it so while you believe that sin is real and that God’s SonDaughter can
sin. If sin is real, then punishment is just and cannot be escaped.
Salvation thus cannot be purchased but through suffering.
2
If sin is real then happiness must be illusion, for they cannot both be
true. The sinful warrant only death and pain, and it is this they ask
for, for they know it waits for them and it will seek them out and find
them somewhere, sometime, in some form which evens the account they owe
to God. They would escape HimHer in their fear. And yet HeShe will
pursue, and they cannot escape.
3
If sin is real, salvation must be pain. Pain is the cost of sin, and
suffering can never be escaped if sin is real. Salvation must be feared,
for it will kill but slowly, taking everything away before it grants the
welcome boon of death to victims who are little more than bones before
salvation is appeased. Its wrath is boundless, merciless, but wholly
just.
4 Who would seek out such savage
punishment? Who would not flee salvation and attempt in every way he/she
can to drown the Voice Which offers it to him&her? Why would he/she
try to listen and accept Its offering? If sin is real, its offering is
death and meted out in cruel form to match the vicious wishes in which
sin is born. If sin is real, salvation has become your bitter enemy, the
curse of God upon you who have crucified HisHer SonDaughter.
5
You need the practice periods today. The exercises teach sin is not
real, and all that you believe must come from sin will never happen, for
it has no cause. Accept Atonement with an open mind which cherishes no
lingering belief that you have made a devil of God’s SonDaughter.
6
There is no sin. We practice with this thought as often as we can today
because it is the basis for today's idea. God's Will for you is perfect
happiness because there is no sin, and suffering is causeless. Joy is
just, and pain is but the sign you have misunderstood yourself.
7
Fear not the Will of God. But turn to it in confidence that it will set
you free from all the consequences sin has wrought in feverish
imagination. Say:
8
God's Will for me is perfect happiness.
There is no sin; it has no
consequence.
9
So should you start your practice periods, and then attempt again to
find the joy these thoughts will introduce into your mind. Give these
five minutes gladly to remove the heavy load you laid upon yourself with
the insane belief that sin is real.
10
Today escape from madness. 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. There is no sin. Remember this today, and
tell yourself as often as you can:
11
God's Will for me is perfect happiness.
This is the truth because there is
no sin.
Lesson 102
I share God's Will for
happiness for me.
1
You do not want to suffer. You may think it buys you something and may
still believe a little that it buys you what you want. Yet this belief
is surely shaken now, at least enough to let you question it and to
suspect it really makes no sense. It has not gone as yet but lacks the
roots that once secured it tightly to the dark and hidden secret places
of your mind.
2
Today we try to loose its weakened hold still further. And to realize
that pain is purposeless, without a cause, and with no power to
accomplish anything. It cannot purchase anything at all. It offers
nothing and does not exist. And everything you think it offers you is
lacking in existence like itself. You have been slave to nothing. Be you
free today to join the happy Will of God.
3
For several days we will continue to devote our longer practice periods
to exercises planned to help you reach the happiness God's Will has
placed in you. Here is your home, and here your safety is. Here is your
peace, and here there is no fear. Here is salvation. Here is rest at
last.
4
Begin the longer practice periods today with this acceptance of God's
Will for you:
5
I share God's Will for happiness for me,
And I accept it as my function
now.
6
Then seek this function deep within your mind, for it is there, awaiting
but your choice. You cannot fail to find it when you learn it is your
choice and that you share God's Will.
7
Be happy, for your only function here is happiness. You have no need to
be less loving to God’s SonDaughter than HeShe Whose Love created and
manifested himher as loving as HimHerself. Besides these hourly five
minute rests, pause frequently today to tell yourself that you have now
accepted happiness as your one function. And be sure that you are
joining with God's Will in doing this.
Lesson 103
God, being Love, is also
happiness.
1
Happiness is an attribute of love. It cannot be apart from it, nor can
it be experienced where love is not. Love has no limits, being
everywhere. And therefore joy is everywhere as well. Yet can the mind
deny that this is so, believing there are gaps in love where sin can
enter, bringing pain instead of joy.
2
This strange belief would limit happiness by redefining love as limited
and introducing opposition in what has no limit and no opposite. Fear is
associated then with love, and its results become the heritage of minds
that think what they have made is real. These images, with no reality in
truth, bear witness to the fear of God, forgetting being Love, HeShe
must be joy.
3
This basic error we will try again to bring to truth today and teach
ourselves:
4
God, being Love, is also happiness.
To fear HimHer is to be afraid of
joy.
5
Begin your longer practice periods for today with this association,
which corrects the false belief that God is fear. It also emphasizes
happiness belongs to you because of what HeShe is.
6
Allow this one correction to be placed within your mind each waking hour
today. Then welcome all the happiness it brings, as truth replaces fear,
and joy becomes what you expect to take the place of pain. God being
Love, it will be given you. Bolster this expectation frequently
throughout the day, and quiet all your fears with this assurance, kind
and wholly true:
7
God, being Love, is also happiness.
And it is happiness I seek today.
I cannot fail because I seek the
truth.
Lesson 104
I seek but what belongs to
me in truth.
1
Today's idea continues with the thought that joy and peace are not but
idle dreams. They are your right because of what you are. They come to
you from God, Who cannot fail to give you what HeShe wills. Yet must
there be a place made ready to receive HisHer gifts. They are not
welcomed gladly by a mind which has instead received the gifts it made
where HisHer belong, as substitutes for them.
2
Today we would remove all meaningless and self-made gifts which we have
placed upon the holy altar where God's gifts belong. These are the gifts
which are our own in truth. HisHer are the gifts which we inherited
before time was and which will still be ours when time has passed into
eternity.
3
These are the gifts which are within us now, for they are timeless. And
we need not wait to have them. They belong to us today. Therefore we
will to have them now and know in choosing them in place of what we made
we but unite our will with what God wills and recognize the same as
being one.
4
Our longer practice periods today, the hourly five minutes given truth
for your salvation, should begin with this:
5
I seek but what belongs to me in truth,
And joy and peace are my
inheritance.
6
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. All this we lay aside and seek instead that which
is truly ours, as we ask to recognize what God has given us.
7
We clear a holy place within our minds before HisHer altar, where HisHer
gifts of peace and joy are welcome and to which we come to find what has
been given us by HimHer. We come in confidence today, aware that what
belongs to us in truth is what HeShe gives. And we would wish for
nothing else, for nothing else belongs to us in truth.
8
So do we clear the way for HimHer today by simply recognizing that
HisHer Will is done already and that joy and peace belong to us as
HisHer eternal gifts. We will not let ourselves lose sight of them
between the times we come to seek for them where HeShe has laid them.
This reminder will we bring to mind as often as we can:
9
I seek but what belongs to me in truth.
God's gifts of joy and peace are
all I want.
Lesson 105
God's peace and joy are
mine.
1
God's peace and joy are yours. Today we will accept them, knowing they
belong to us. And we will try to understand these gifts increase as we
receive them. They are not like to the gifts the world can give, in
which the giver loses as he/she gives the gift; the taker is the richer
by his/her loss. These are not gifts, but bargains made with guilt.
2
The truly given gift entails no loss. It is impossible that one can gain
because another loses. This implies a limit and an insufficiency. No
gift is given thus. Such "gifts" are but a bid for a more valuable
return—a loan with interest to be paid in full; a temporary lending,
meant to be a pledge of debt to be repaid with more than was received by
him/her who took the gift.
3
This strange distortion of what giving means pervades all levels of the
world you see. It strips all meaning from the gifts you give and leaves
you nothing in the ones you take. A major learning goal this course has
set is to reverse your view of giving, so you can receive. For giving
has become a source of fear, and so you would avoid the only means by
which you can receive.
4
Accept God's peace and joy, and you will learn a different way of
looking at a gift. God's gifts will never lessen when they are given
away. They but increase thereby. As the God Realm's peace and joy
intensify when you accept them as God's gift to you, so does the joy of
your CreatorManifestoress grow when you accept HisHer joy and peace as
yours.
5
True giving is creation and manifestation. It extends the limitless to
the unlimited, eternity to timelessness, and love unto itself. It adds
to all that is complete already, not in simple terms of adding more, for
that implies that it was less before. It adds by letting what cannot
contain itself fulfill its aim of giving everything it has away,
securing it forever for itself.
6
Today accept God's peace and joy as yours. Let HimHer complete
HimHerself as HeShe defines completion. You will understand that what
completes HimHer must complete HisHer SonDaughter as well. HeShe cannot
give through loss. No more can you. Receive HisHer gift of joy and peace
today, and HeShe will thank you for your gift to HimHer.
7
Today our practice periods will start a little differently. Begin today
by thinking of those brothers/sisters who have been denied by you
the peace and joy that are their right under the equal laws of God. Here
you denied them to yourself. And here you must return to claim them as
your own. Think of your "enemies" a little while, and tell each one as
he/she occurs to you:
8
My brother/sister, peace and joy I offer you,
That I may have God's peace and
joy as mine.
9
Thus you prepare yourself to recognize God's gifts to you and let your
mind be free of all that would prevent success today. Now are you ready
to accept the gift of peace and joy which God has given you. Now are you
ready to experience the joy and peace you have denied yourself. Now you
can say, "God's peace and joy are mine," for you have given what you
would receive.
10
You must succeed today if you prepare your mind as we suggest, for you
have let all bars to peace and joy be lifted up, and what is yours can
come to you at last. So tell yourself "God's peace and joy are mine,"
and close your eyes a while, and let HisHer Voice assure you that the
words you speak are true.
11
Spend your five minutes thus with HimHer each time you can today, but do
not think that less is worthless when you cannot give HimHer more. At
least remember hourly to say the words which call on HimHer to give you
what HeShe wills to give and wills you to receive.
12
Determine not to interfere today with what HeShe wills. And if a
brother/sister seems to tempt you to deny God's gift to him/her, see it
as but another chance to let yourself receive the gifts of God as yours.
Then bless your brother/sister thankfully, and say:
13
My brother or sister, peace and joy I offer you,
That I may have God's
peace and joy as mine.
Lesson 106
Let me be still and listen
to the truth.
1
If you will lay aside the ego's voice, however loudly it may seem to
call; if you will not accept its petty gifts which give you nothing that
you really want; if you will listen with an open mind, which has not
told you what salvation is; then you will hear the mighty Voice of
truth, quiet in power, strong in stillness, and completely certain in
its messages.
2
Listen, and hear your FatherMother speak to you through HisHer appointed
Voice, Which silences the thunder of the meaningless and shows the way
to peace to those who cannot see. Be still today and listen to the
truth. Be not deceived by voices of the dead which tell you they have
found the source of life and offer it to you for your belief. Attend
them not, but listen to the truth.
3
Be not afraid today to circumvent the voices of the world; walk lightly
past their meaningless persuasion. Hear them not. Be still today, and
listen to the truth. Go past all things which do not speak of Her Who
holds your happiness within HisHer hand, held out to you in welcome and
in love. Hear only Her today, and do not wait to reach Her longer. Hear
one Voice today.
4
Today the promise of God's Word is kept. Hear and be silent. She would
speak to you. She comes with miracles a thousand times as happy and as
wonderful as those you ever dreamt or wished for in your dreams. Her
miracles are true. They will not fade when dreaming ends. They end the
dream instead and last forever, for they come from God to HisHer dear
SonDaughter, whose other name is you.
5
Prepare yourself for miracles today. Today allow your Father’sMother’s
ancient pledge to you and all your brothers&sisters to be
kept. Hear Her today, and listen to the Word which lifts the veil which
lies upon the earth and wakes all those who sleep and cannot see. God
calls to them through you. HeShe needs your voice to speak to them, for
who could reach God’s SonDaughter except hisher FatherMother calling
through your Self?
6
Hear Her today, and offer Her your voice to speak to all the multitudes
who wait to hear the Word that She will speak today. Be ready for
salvation. It is here and will today be given unto you. And you will
learn your function from the One Who chose it in your Father’sMother’s
Name for you.
7
Listen today, and you will hear a Voice Which will resound throughout
the world through you. The Bringer of all miracles has need that you
receive them first and thus become the joyous giver of what you
received. Thus does salvation start and thus it ends; when everything is
yours, and everything is given away, it will remain with you forever.
And the lesson has been learned.
8
Today we practice giving, not the way you understand it now, but as it
is. The longer exercises should begin with this request for your
enlightenment:
9
I will be still and listen to the truth.
What does it mean to give and to
receive?
10
Ask and expect an answer. Your request is one whose answer has been
waiting long to be received by you. It will begin the ministry for which
you came and which will free the world from thinking giving is a way to
lose. And so the world becomes ready to understand and to receive.
11
Be still and listen to the truth today. For each five minutes spent in
listening, a thousand minds are opened to the truth. And they will hear
the holy Word you hear. 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.
12
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 Her. 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:
13
Let me be still and listen to the truth.
I am the messenger of God
today.
My voice is HisHer,
to give what I receive.
Lesson 107
Truth will correct all
errors in my mind.
1
What can correct illusions but the truth? And what are errors but
illusions that remain unrecognized for what they are? Where truth has
entered, errors disappear. They merely vanish, leaving not a trace by
which to be remembered. They are gone because without belief they have
no life, and so they disappear to nothingness, returning whence they
came. From dust to dust they come and go, for only truth remains.
2
Can you imagine what a state of mind without illusions is? How it would
feel? Try to remember when there was a time—perhaps a minute, maybe even
less—when nothing came to interrupt your peace; when you were certain
you were loved and safe. Then try to picture what it would be like to
have that moment be extended to the end of time and to eternity.
3
Then let the sense of quiet that you felt be multiplied a hundred times
and then be multiplied another hundred more. And now you have a hint,
not more than just the faintest intimation of the state your mind will
rest in when the truth has come.
4
Without illusions there could be no fear, no doubt, and no attack. When
truth has come, all pain is over, for there is no room for transitory
thoughts and dead ideas to linger in your mind. Truth occupies your mind
completely, liberating you from all beliefs in the ephemeral. They have
no place because the truth has come, and they are nowhere. They cannot
be found, for truth is everywhere forever now.
5
When truth has come, it does not stay a while to disappear or change to
something else. It does not shift and alter in its form, nor come and go
and go and come again. It stays exactly as it always was, to be depended
on in every need and trusted with a perfect trust in all the seeming
difficulties and the doubts that the appearances the world presents
engender. They will merely flow away when truth corrects the errors in
your mind.
6
When truth has come, it harbors in its wings the gift of perfect
constancy and love which does not falter in the face of pain but looks
beyond it, steadily and sure. Here is the gift of healing, for the truth
needs no defense, and therefore no attack is possible. Illusions can be
brought to truth to be corrected. But the truth stands far beyond
illusions and cannot be brought to them to turn them into truth.
7
Truth does not come and go nor shift nor change, in this appearance now
and then in that, evading capture and escaping grasp. It does not hide.
It stands in open light, in obvious accessibility. It is impossible that
anyone could seek it truly and would not succeed.
8
Today belongs to truth. Give truth its due, and it will give you yours.
You were not meant to suffer and to die. Your FatherMother wills these
dreams be gone. Let truth correct them all. We do not ask for what we do
not have. We merely ask for what belongs to us, that we may recognize it
as our own.
9
Today we practice on the happy note of certainty that has been born of
truth. The shaky and unsteady footsteps of illusion is not our approach
today. We are as certain of success as we are sure we live and hope and
breathe and think. We do not doubt we walk with truth today and count on
it to enter into all the exercises that we do this day.
10
Begin by asking Her, who goes with you upon this undertaking that She be
in your awareness as you go with Her. You are not made of flesh and
blood and bone but were created and manifested by the self-same Thought
which gave the gift of life to Her as well. She is your Sister and so
like to you your FatherMother knows that you are both the same. It is
your Self you ask to go with you, and how could She be absent where you
are?
11
Truth will correct all errors in your mind which tell you you could be
apart from Her. You speak to Her today and make your pledge to let
hisher function be fulfilled through you. To share Her function is to
share Her joy. Her confidence is with you, as you say:
12
Truth will correct all errors in my mind,
And I will rest in Her who
is my Self.
13
Then let Her 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.
14
And yet you will be glad to look again upon this world. For you will
bring with you the promise of the changes which the truth that goes with
you will carry to the world. 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.
15
Do not forget your function for today. Each time you tell yourself with
confidence, "Truth will correct all errors in my mind," you speak for
all the world and Her Who would release the world as She would set you
free.
Lesson 108
To give and to receive are
one in truth.
1
Vision depends upon today's idea. The light is in it, for it reconciles
all seeming opposites. And what is light except the resolution, born of
peace, of all your conflicts and mistaken thoughts into one concept
which is wholly true? Even that one will disappear because the Thought
behind it will appear instead, to take its place. And now we are at
peace forever, for the dream is over now.
2
True light which makes true vision possible is not the light the body's
eyes behold. It is a state of mind which has become so unified that
darkness cannot be perceived at all. And thus what is the same is seen
as one, while what is not the same remains unnoticed, for it is not
there.
3
This is the light which shows no opposites, and vision, being healed,
has power to heal. This is the light that brings your peace of mind to
other minds, to share it and be glad that they are one with you and with
themselves. This is the light which heals because it brings single
perception, based upon one frame of reference from which one meaning
comes.
4
Here are both giving and receiving seen as different aspects of one
Thought Whose truth does not depend on which is seen as first, nor which
appears to be in second place. Here it is understood that both occur
together, that the Thought remain complete. And in this understanding is
the base on which all opposites are reconciled because they are
perceived from the same frame of reference which unifies this Thought.
5
One thought, completely unified, will serve to unify all thought. This
is the same as saying one correction will suffice for all correction or
that to forgive one brother/sister wholly is enough to bring salvation
to all minds. For these are but some special cases of one law which
holds for every kind of learning if it be directed by the One Who knows
the truth.
6
To learn that giving and receiving are the same has special usefulness
because it can be tried so easily and seen as true. And when this
special case has proved it always works in every circumstance where it
is tried, the thought behind it can be generalized to other areas of
doubt and double vision. And from there it will extend and finally
arrive at the one Thought Which underlies them all.
7
Today we practice with the special case of giving and receiving. We will
use this simple lesson in the obvious because it has results we cannot
miss. To give is to receive. Today we will attempt to offer peace to
everyone and see how quickly peace returns to us. Light is tranquility,
and in that peace is vision given us and we can see.
8
So we begin the practice periods with the instruction for today and say:
9
To give and to receive are one in truth.
I will receive what I am
giving now.
10
Then close your eyes, and for five minutes think of what you would hold
out to everyone to have it yours. You might, for instance, say:
11
To everyone I offer quietness.
To everyone I offer peace
of mind.
To everyone I offer
gentleness.
12
Say each one slowly, and then pause a while, expecting to receive the
gift you gave, and it will come to you in the amount in which you gave
it. You will find you have exact return, for this is what you asked. It
might be helpful, too, to think of one to whom to give your gifts.
He/she represents the others, and through him/her you give to all.
13
Our very simple lesson for today will teach you much. Effect and cause
will be far better understood from this time on, and we will make much
faster progress now. Think of the exercises for today as quick advances
in your learning, made still faster and more sure each time you say:
14
To give and to receive are one in truth.
Lesson 109
I rest in God.
1
We ask for rest today and quietness unshaken by the world's appearances.
We ask for peace and stillness in the midst of all the turmoil born of
clashing dreams. We ask for safety and for happiness, although we seem
to look on danger and on sorrow. And we have the thought that will
answer our asking with what we request.
2
"I rest in God." This thought will bring to you the rest and quiet,
peace and stillness, and the safety and the happiness you seek. "I rest
in God." 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. Here is the end of suffering for all the world and
everyone who ever came and yet will come to linger for a while. Here is
the thought in which the SonDaughter of God is born again, to recognize
himherself.
3
"I rest in God." 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. There is no suffering it cannot
heal. There is no problem which it cannot solve. And no appearance but
will turn to truth before the eyes of you who rest in God.
4
This is the day of peace. You rest in God, and while the world is torn
by winds of hate, your rest remains completely undisturbed. Yours is the
rest of truth. Appearances cannot intrude on you. You call to all to
join you in your rest, and they will hear and come to you because you
rest in God. They will not hear another voice but yours because you gave
your voice to God and now you rest in HimHer and let HimHer speak
through you.
5
In HimHer you have no cares and no concerns, no burdens, no anxiety, no
pain, no fear of future, and no past regrets. In timelessness you rest,
while time goes by without its touch upon you, for your rest can never
change in any way at all.
6
You rest today. And as you close your eyes, sink into stillness. 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. Let
it be still and thankfully accept its healing. No more fearful dreams
will come now that you rest in God. Take time today to slip away from
dreams and into peace.
7
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. 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.
8 With
each five minutes that you rest today the world is nearer waking. 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. 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.
9
You rest within the peace of God today and call upon your
brothers&sisters from your rest, to draw them to their rest along
with you. 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.
10
Open the temple doors, and let them come from far across the world, and
near as well—your distant brothers&sisters and your closest
male/female friends—bid them all enter here and rest with you. You rest
within the peace of God today, quiet and unafraid. Each brother or
sister comes to take his/her rest and offer it to you.
11
We rest together here, for thus our rest is made complete, and what we
give today we have received already. Time is not the guardian of what we
give today. 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. And we remind them of their resting place each time we
tell ourselves,
12
I rest in God.
Lesson 110
I am as God created and
manifested me.
1We
will repeat today's idea from time to time. For this one thought would
be enough to save you and the world if you believed that it is true. Its
truth would mean that you have made no changes in yourself which have
reality, nor changed the universe so that what God created and
manifested was replaced by fear and evil, misery and death.
2
If you remain as God created and manifested you, fear has no meaning,
evil is not real, and misery and death do not exist. Today's idea is
therefore all you need to let complete correction heal your mind and
give you perfect vision which will heal all the mistakes that any mind
has made at any time or place. It is enough to heal the past and make
the future free. It is enough to let the present be accepted as it is.
It is enough to let time be the means for all the world to learn escape
from time and every change that time appears to bring in passing by.
3
If you remain as God created and manifested you, appearances cannot
replace the truth, health cannot turn to sickness, nor can death be
substitute for life or fear for love. All this has not occurred if you
remain as God created and manifested you. You need no thought but just
this one to let redemption come to light the world and free it from the
past.
4
In this one thought is all the past undone; the present saved to quietly
extend into a timeless future. If you are as God created and manifested
you, then there has been no separation of your mind from HisHer, no
split between your mind and other minds, and only unity within your own.
5
The healing power of today's idea is limitless. It is the birthplace of
all miracles, the great restorer of the truth to the awareness of the
world. Practice today's idea with gratitude. This is the truth that
comes to set you free. This is the truth that God has promised you. This
is the Word in which all sorrow ends.
6
For your five minute practice periods, begin with this quotation from
the text:
7
I am as God created and manifested me. HisHer SonDaughter can suffer
nothing.
And I am HisHer SonDaughter.
8
Then, with this statement firmly in your mind, try to discover in your
mind the Self Who is the holy SonDaughter of God HimHerself. Seek Her
within you Who is the Christ Consciousness, the Mercy Consciousness in
you, the SonDaughter of God and Sister to the world—the Savioress who
has been forever saved, with power to save whoever touches Her however
lightly, asking for the Word that tells him/her he/she is brother/sister
unto Her.
9 You are as God Created and Manifested you. Today honor your Self. Let
graven images you made to be the SonDaughter of God instead of what
heshe is be worshipped not today. Deep in your mind the holy, the Christ
Consciousness, the Mercy Consciousness in you is waiting your
acknowledgment as you. And you are lost and do not know yourself while
She is unacknowledged and unknown.
10 Seek Her today, and find Her. She will be your Savioress from all
Idols/Idolresses you have made. For when you find himher you will
understand how worthless are your Idols/Idolresses and how false the
images which you believed were you. Today we make a great advance to
truth by letting Idols/Idolresses go and opening our hands and hearts
and minds to God today.
11 We will remember Her throughout the day with thankful hearts and
loving thoughts for all who meet with us today, for it is thus that we
remember Her. And we will say, that we may be reminded of HisHer
SonDaughter, our holy Self, the Christ Consciousness, the Mercy
Consciousness in each of us
12
I am as God created and manifested me.
13
Let us declare this truth as often as we can. This is the Word of God
that sets you free. This is the key that opens up the gate of the God
Realm, and which lets you enter in the peace of God and HisHer eternity.
Review III
R3:1
Our third review begins today. We will review two of the last 20 ideas
each day until we have reviewed them all. We will observe a special
format for these practice periods which you are urged to follow as
closely as you can. 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. Nor is it necessary that you make
excessive efforts to be sure that you catch up in terms of numbers.
Rituals are not our aim and would defeat our learning goal.
3
But learning will be hampered when you skip a practice period because
you are unwilling to devote the time to it which you are asked to give.
Do not deceive yourself in this. Unwillingness can be most carefully
concealed behind a cloak of situations you cannot control. Learn to
distinguish situations which are poorly suited to your practicing from
those which you establish to uphold a camouflage for your unwillingness.
4
Those practice periods which 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. You are unwilling to cooperate in practicing
salvation only if it interferes with goals you hold more dear. When you
withdraw the value given them, allow your practice periods to be
replacements for your litanies to them. They gave you nothing. But your
practice periods offer you everything. Accept their offering and be at
peace.
5
The format you should use for these reviews is this: devote five minutes
twice a day or longer if you would prefer to contemplating the ideas
assigned. Read over the ideas and comments which are written first in
each day's exercises. Then begin to think about them quietly, letting
your mind relate them to your needs, your seeming problems, and all your
concerns.
6
Place the ideas within your mind, and let it use them as it chooses.
Give it faith that it will use them wisely, being helped in its
decisions by the One Who gave the thoughts to you. What can you trust
but what is in your mind? Have faith, in these reviews, the means the
Holy Spirit uses will not fail. The wisdom of your mind will come to
your assistance. Give it direction at the start, then lean back in quiet
faith, and let it use the ideas you have given it as they were given
you.
7
You have been given them in perfect trust, in perfect confidence that
you would use them well, in perfect faith that you would understand
their messages and use them for yourself. Offer them to your mind in
that same trust and confidence and faith. It will not fail. It is the
Holy Spirit's chosen means for your salvation. And with Her trust merits
yours as well.
8
We emphasize the benefits to you if you devote the first five minutes of
the day to your review and also give the last five minutes of your
waking day to it. 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.
9
The exercises to be done throughout the day are equally important and
perhaps of even greater value. You have been inclined to do the
exercises and then go on to other things, without applying what you
learned to them. As a result, your learning has had little
reinforcement, and you have not given it the opportunity to prove its
worth to you.
10
Here is another chance to use it well. In these reviews we stress the
need to let your learning not lie idly by between your longer practice
periods. Attempt to give your daily two ideas a brief but serious review
each hour. Use one on the hour and the other one a half an hour later.
You need not give more than just a moment to each one.
11
Repeat it, and allow your mind to rest a little time in silence and in
peace. 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. If you
are shaken, think of it again. These practice periods are planned to
help you form the habit of applying what you learn each day to
everything you do.
12
Do not repeat it and then lay it down. Its usefulness is limitless to
you. And it is meant to serve you in all ways, all times and places, and
whenever you need help of any kind. Try, then, to take it with you in
the business of the day and make it holy, worthy of God’s SonDaughter,
acceptable to God and to your Self.
13
Each day's review assignment will conclude with a restatement of the
thought to use each hour and the one to be applied on each half hour as
well. Forget them not. This second chance with each of these ideas will
bring such large advances that we come from these reviews with learning
gains so great that we begin again on solid ground.
14
Do not forget how little you have learned. Do not forget how much you
can learn now. Do not forget your Father’sMother's need of you as you
review these thoughts HeShe gave to you.
Lesson 111
1
For morning and evening review:
[91] Miracles are seen in light.
2
I cannot see in darkness. Let the light
Of holiness and truth light up my
mind,
And let me see the innocence
within.
[92] Miracles are seen in light, and
light and strength are one.
3
I see through strength, the gift of God to me.
My weakness is the dark HisHer
gift dispels
By giving me HisHer strength to
take its place.
4
On the hour:
5
Miracles are seen in light.
6
On the half hour:
7
Miracles are seen in light, and light and strength are one.
Lesson 112
1
For morning and evening review:
[93] Light and joy and peace abide in
me.
2
I am the home of light and joy and peace.
I welcome them into the home I
share
With God because I am a part of
HimHer.
[94] I am as God created and manifested
me.
3
I will remain forever as I was,
created and manifested by the
Changeless like HimHerself.
And I am one with HimHer, and
HeShe with me.
4
On the hour:
5
Light and joy and peace abide in me.
6
On the half hour:
7
I am as God created and manifested me.
Lesson 113
1For
morning and evening review:
[95] I am One Self, united with my
CreatorManifestoress.
2
Serenity and perfect peace are mine
Because I am One Self, completely
whole,
At one with all creation and
manifestation and with God.
[96] Salvation comes from my One Self.
3
From my One Self, Whose knowledge still remains
Within my mind, I see God's
perfect plan
For my salvation perfectly
fulfilled.
4
On the hour:
5
I am One Self, united with my CreatorManifestoress.
6
On the half hour:
7
Salvation comes from my One Self.
Lesson 114
1
For morning and evening review:
[97] I am Spirit.
2
I am the SonDaughter of God. No body can
Contain my spirit nor impose on me
A limitation God created and
manifested not.
[98] I will accept my part in God's
plan for salvation.
3
What can my function be but to accept
The Word of God, Who has created
and manifested me,
For what I am and will forever be?
4
On the hour:
5
I am Spirit.
6
On the half hour:
7
I will accept my part in God's plan for salvation.
Lesson 115
1
For morning and evening review:
[99] Salvation is my only function here.
2
My function here is to forgive the world
For all the errors I have made.
For thus
Am I released from them
with all the world.
[100] My part is essential to God's
plan for salvation.
3
I am essential to the plan of God
For the salvation of the world.
For HeShe
Gave me HisHer plan that I
might save the world.
4
On the hour:
5
Salvation is my only function here.
6
On the half hour:
7
My part is essential to God's plan for salvation.
Lesson 116
1
For morning and evening review:
[101] God's Will for me is perfect
happiness.
2
God's Will is perfect happiness for me.
And I can suffer but from the
belief
There is another will apart
from HisHers.
[102] I share God's Will for happiness
for me.
3
I share my Father’sMother’s Will for me, HisHer SonDaughter.
What HeShe has given me is all I
want.
What HeShe has given me is
all there is.
4
On the hour:
5
God's Will for me is perfect happiness.
6
On the half hour:
7
I share God's Will for happiness for me.
Lesson 117
1
For morning and evening review:
[103] God, being Love, is also
happiness.
2
Let me remember love is happiness
And nothing else brings joy. And
so I choose
To entertain no substitutes
for love.
[104] I seek but what belongs to me in
truth.
3
Love is my heritage and with it joy.
These are the gifts my
FatherMother gave to me.
I would accept all that is mine in
truth.
4
On the hour:
5
God, being Love, is also happiness.
6
On the half hour:
7
I seek but what belongs to me in truth.
Lesson 118
1
For morning and evening review:
[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
Which I have made for
happiness and peace.
[106] Let me be still and listen to the
truth.
3
Let mine own feeble voice be still, and let
Me hear the mighty Voice of truth
itself
Assure me that I am God's
perfect SonDaughter.
4
On the hour:
5
God's peace and joy are mine.
6
On the half hour:
7
Let me be still and listen to the truth.
Lesson 119
1
For morning and evening review:
[107] Truth will correct all errors in
my mind.
2
I am mistaken when I think I can
Be hurt in any way. I am God’s
SonDaughter,
Whose Self rests safely in the
Mind of God.
[108] To give and to receive are one in
truth.
3
I will forgive all things today, that I
May learn how to accept the truth
in me,
And come to recognize my
sinlessness.
4
On the hour:
5
Truth will correct all errors in my mind.
6
On the half hour:
7
To give and to receive are one in truth.
Lesson 120
1
For morning and evening review:
[109] I rest in God.
2
I rest in God today and let HimHer work
In me and through me, while I rest
in HimHer
In quiet and in perfect
certainty.
[110] I am as God created and
manifested me.
3
I am God’s SonDaughter. Today I lay aside
All sick illusions of myself and
let
My FatherMother tell me Who I
really am.
4
On the hour:
5
I rest in God.
6
On the half hour:
7
I am as God created and manifested me.
Lesson 121
Forgiveness is the key to
happiness.
1
Here is the answer to your search for peace. Here is the key to meaning
in a world which seems to make no sense. Here is the way to safety in
apparent dangers which appear to threaten you at every turn and bring
uncertainty to all your hopes of ever finding quietness and peace. Here
are all questions answered; here the end of all uncertainty ensured at
last.
2
The unforgiving mind is full of fear and offers love no room to be
itself, no place where it can spread its wings in peace and soar above
the turmoil of the world. The unforgiving mind is sad, without the hope
of respite and release from pain. It suffers and abides in misery,
peering about in darkness, seeing not, yet certain of the danger lurking
there.
3
The unforgiving mind is torn with doubt, confused about itself and all
it sees, afraid and angry, weak and blustering, afraid to go ahead,
afraid to stay, afraid to waken or to go to sleep, afraid of every
sound, yet more afraid of stillness; terrified of darkness, yet more
terrified at the approach of light.
4
What can the unforgiving mind perceive but its damnation? What can it
behold except the proof that all its sins are real? The unforgiving mind
sees no mistakes, but only sins. It looks upon the world with sightless
eyes and shrieks as it beholds its own projections rising to attack its
miserable parody of life. It wants to live, yet wishes it were dead. It
wants forgiveness, yet it sees no hope. It wants escape, yet can
conceive of none because it sees the sinful everywhere.
5
The unforgiving mind is in despair, without the prospect of a future
which can offer anything but more despair. Yet it regards its judgment
of the world as irreversible and does not see it has condemned itself to
this despair. It thinks it cannot change, for what it sees bears witness
that its judgment is correct. It does not ask because it thinks it
knows. It does not question, certain it is right.
6
Forgiveness is acquired. It is not inherent in a mind, which cannot sin.
As sin was an idea you taught yourself, forgiveness must be learned by
you as well, but from a teacher/teacheress other than yourself, who
represents the other Self in you. Through him/her you learn how to
forgive the self you think you made and let it disappear. Thus you
return your mind as one to himher, who is your Self and who can never
sin.
7
Each unforgiving mind presents you with an opportunity to teach your own
how to forgive itself. Each one awaits release from hell through you and
turns to you imploringly for the God Realm here and now. It has no hope,
but you become its hope. And as its hope, do you become your own. The
unforgiving mind must learn through your forgiveness that it has been
saved from hell. And as you teach salvation, you will learn.
8
Yet all your teaching and your learning will be not of you,
but of the Teacheress,
Who was
given you to show the way to you. Today we practice learning to forgive.
If you
are willing, you can learn today to take the key to happiness and use it
on
your own behalf. We will devote ten minutes in the morning and at night
another
ten, to learning how to give forgiveness and receive forgiveness too.
9
The unforgiving mind does not believe that giving and
receiving are the same. Yet we will try to learn today that they are one
through practicing forgiving toward one whom you think of as a male/female enemy and one whom
you
consider as a male/female
friend.
And as you learn to see them both as one, we will extend the lesson to
ourselves and see that their escape included ours.
10
Begin the longer practice periods by thinking of someone you
do not like, who seems to irritate you or to cause regret in you if you
should
meet him/her; one
you
actively despise or merely try to overlook. It does not matter what the
form
your anger takes. You probably have chosen him/her
already. He/she will do.
11
Now close your eyes and see him/her in your mind and look at
him/her a while. Try to perceive some light in him/her somewhere-a
little gleam, which you had never
noticed. Try to
find some little spark of brightness shining through the ugly picture, which you hold of
him/her. Look
at this picture till you see a light somewhere within it, and then try
to let
this light extend until it covers him/her and makes the picture
beautiful and
good.
12
Look at this changed perception for a while, and turn your
mind to one you call a friend. Try to transfer the light you learned to
see
around your former "enemy" to him/her. Perceive him/her now as more
than male/female
friend to
you, for in that light his/hers holiness shows you your savior, saved
and
saving, healed and whole. Then let him/her offer you the light you see
in
him/her and let your "enemy" and
male/female friend unite in blessing you with what you gave.
Now are you one with them and they with you. Now have you been forgiven
by
yourself.
13
Do
not forget throughout the day the role forgiveness plays in bringing
happiness
to every unforgiving mind, with yours among them. Every hour tell
yourself:
14
Forgiveness is the key to happiness.
I will awaken from the
dream that I
Am mortal, fallible, and
full of sin,
And know I am the perfect
SonDaughter of God.
Lesson 122
Forgiveness offers
everything I want.
1
What could you want forgiveness cannot give? Do you want peace?
Forgiveness offers it. Do you want happiness, a quiet mind, a certainty
of purpose, and a sense of worth and beauty that transcends the world?
Do you want care and safety and the warmth of sure protection always? Do
you want a quietness that cannot be disturbed, a gentleness that never
can be hurt, a deep, abiding comfort, and a rest so perfect it can never
be upset?
2
All this forgiveness offers you, and more. It sparkles in your eyes as
you awake and gives you joy with which to meet the day. It soothes your
forehead while you sleep and rests upon your eyelids so you see no
dreams of fear and evil, malice, and attack. And when you wake again, it
offers you another day of happiness and peace. All this forgiveness
offers you, and more.
3
Forgiveness lets the veil be lifted up which hides the face of the
Christ Consciousness/the Mercy Consciousness from those who look with
unforgiving eyes upon the world. It lets you recognize the SonDaughter
of God and clears your memory of all dead thoughts so that remembrance
of your FatherMother can arise across the threshold of your mind.
4
What would you want forgiveness cannot give? What gifts but these are
worthy to be sought? What fancied value, trivial effect, or transient
promise never to be kept can hold more hope than what forgiveness
brings? Why would you seek an answer other than the answer that will
answer everything? Here is the perfect answer, given to imperfect
questions, meaningless requests, half-hearted willingness to hear, and
less than halfway diligence and partial trust.
5
Here is the answer! Seek for it no more. You will not find another one
instead. God's plan for your salvation cannot change, nor can it fail.
Be thankful it remains exactly as HeShe planned it. Changelessly it
stands before you like an open door with warmth and welcome calling from
beyond the doorway, bidding you to enter in and make yourself at home
where you belong.
6
Here is the answer! Would you stand outside while all of the God Realm
waits for you within? Forgive and be forgiven. As you give, you will
receive. There is no plan but this for the salvation of the SonDaughter
of God. Let us today rejoice that this is so, for here we have an
answer, clear and plain, beyond deceit in its simplicity. All the
complexities the world has spun of fragile cobwebs disappear before the
power and the majesty of this extremely simple statement of the truth.
7
Here is the answer! Do not turn away in aimless wandering again. Accept
salvation now. It is the gift of God and not the world. The world can
give no gifts of any value to a mind which has received what God has
given as its own. God wills salvation be received today and that the
intricacies of your dreams no longer hide their nothingness from you.
8
Open your eyes today, and look upon a happy world of safety and of
peace. Forgiveness is the means by which it comes to take the place of
hell. In quietness it rises up to greet your open eyes and fill your
heart with deep tranquility as ancient truths, forever newly born, arise
in your awareness. What you will remember then can never be described.
Yet your forgiveness offers it to you.
9
Remembering the gifts forgiveness gives, we undertake our practicing
today with hope and faith that this will be the day salvation will be
ours. Earnestly and gladly will we seek for it today, aware we hold the
key within our hands, accepting the God Realm's answer to the hell we
made, but where we would remain no more.
10
Morning and evening do we gladly give a quarter of an hour to the search
in which the end of hell is guaranteed. Begin in hopefulness, for we
have reached the turning point at which the road becomes far easier. And
now the way is short that yet we travel. We are close indeed to the
appointed ending of the dream.
11
Sink into happiness as you begin these practice periods, for they hold
out the sure rewards of questions answered, and what your acceptance of
the answer brings. Today it will be given you to feel the peace
forgiveness offers and the joy the lifting of the veil holds out to you.
12
Before the light you will receive today the world will fade until it
disappears, and you will see another world arise you have no words to
picture. Now we walk directly into light, and we receive the gifts which
have been held in store for us since time began, kept waiting for today.
Forgiveness offers everything you want. Today all things you want are
given you.
13
Let not your gifts recede throughout the day, as you return again to
meet a world of shifting change and bleak appearances. Retain your gifts
in clear awareness as you see the changeless in the heart of change, the
light of truth behind appearances. Be tempted not to let your gifts slip
by and drift into forgetfulness but hold them firmly in your mind by
your attempts to think of them at least a minute as each quarter of an
hour passes by.
14
Remind yourself how precious are these gifts with this reminder, which
has power to hold your gifts in your awareness through the day:
15
Forgiveness offers everything I want.
Today I have accepted this
as true.
Today I have received the
gifts of God.
Lesson 123
I thank my FatherMother for
HisHer gifts to me.
1
Today let us be thankful. We have come to gentler pathways and to
smoother roads. There is no thought of turning back and no implacable
resistance to the truth. A bit of wavering remains, some small
objections, and a little hesitance, but we can well be grateful for our
gains, which are far greater than we realize.
2
A day devoted now to gratitude will add the benefit of some insight into
the real extent of all the gains which you have made; the gifts you have
received. Be glad today in loving thankfulness your FatherMother has not
left you to yourself, nor let you wander in the dark alone. Be grateful
HeShe has saved you from the self you thought you made to take the place
of HimHer and HisHer creation and manifestation. Give HimHer thanks
today.
3
Give thanks that HeShe has not abandoned you and that HisHer Love
forever will remain shining on you, forever without change. Give thanks
as well that you are changeless, for the SonDaughter HeShe loves is
changeless as HimHerself. Be grateful you are saved. Be glad you have a
function in salvation to fulfill. Be thankful that your value far
transcends your meager gifts and petty judgments of the one whom God
established as HisHer SonDaughter.
4
Today in gratitude we lift our hearts above despair and raise our
thankful eyes, no longer looking downward to the dust. We sing the song
of thankfulness today in honor of the Self Which God has willed to be
our true identity in HimHer. Today we smile on everyone we see and walk
with lightened footsteps as we go to do what is appointed us to do. We
do not go alone. And we give thanks that in our solitude a Female Friend
has come to speak the saving Word of God to us.
5
And thanks to you for listening to Her. Her Word is soundless if it be
not heard. In thanking Her the thanks are yours as well. An unheard
message will not save the world, however mighty be the Voice that
speaks, however loving may the message be. Thanks be to you who heard,
for you become the messenger who brings Her Voice with you and let it
echo round and round the world.
6
Receive the thanks of God today, as you give thanks to HimHer. For HeShe
would offer you the thanks you give, since HeShe receives your gifts in
loving gratitude and gives them back a thousand and a hundred thousand
more than they were given. HeShe will bless your gifts by sharing them
with you, and so they grow in power and in strength until they fill the
world with gladness and with gratitude.
7
Receive HisHer thanks and offer yours to HimHer for 15 minutes twice
today. And you will realize to Whom you offer thanks, and Whom HeShe
thanks as you are thanking HimHer. This holy half an hour given HimHer
will be returned to you in terms of years for every second, power to
save the world eons more quickly for your thanks to HimHer.
8
Receive HisHer thanks, and you will understand how lovingly HeShe holds
you in HisHer Mind, how deep and limitless HisHer care for you, how
perfect is HisHer gratitude to you. Remember hourly to think of HimHer
and give HimHer thanks for everything HeShe gave HisHer SonDaughter that
he/she might rise above the world remembering his/her FatherMother and
his/her Self.
Lesson 124
Let me remember I am one
with God.
1
Today we will again give thanks for our identity in God. Our home is
safe, protection guaranteed in all we do, power and strength available
to us in all our undertakings. We can fail in nothing. Everything we
touch takes on a shining light which blesses and which heals. At one
with God and with the universe, we go our way rejoicing, with the
thought that God HimHerself goes everywhere with us.
2
How holy are our minds! And everything we see reflects the holiness
within the mind at one with God and with itself. How easily do errors
disappear, and death give place to everlasting life. Our shining
footprints point the way to truth, for God is our Companion as we walk
the world a little while. And those who come to follow us will recognize
the way because the light we carry stays behind, yet still remains with
us as we walk on.
3
What we receive is our eternal gift to those who follow after and to
those who went before or stayed with us a while. And God, Who loves us
with the equal love in which we were created and manifested, smiles on
us and offers us the happiness we gave. Today we will not doubt HisHer
Love for us nor question HisHer protection and HisHer care.
4
No meaningless anxieties can come between our faith and our awareness of
HisHer Presence. We are one with HimHer today in recognition and
remembrance. We feel HimHer in our hearts. Our minds contain HisHer
Thoughts; our eyes behold HisHer loveliness in all we look upon. Today
we see only the loving and the lovable.
5
We see it in appearances of pain, and pain gives way to peace. We see it
in the frantic, in the sad and the distressed, the lonely and afraid,
who are restored to the tranquility and peace of mind in which they were
created and manifested. And we see it in the dying and the dead as well,
restoring them to life. All this we see because we saw it first within
ourselves.
6
No miracle can ever be denied to those who know that they are one with
God. No thought of theirs but has the power to heal all forms of
suffering in anyone in times gone by and times as yet to come as easily
as in the ones who walk beside them now. Their thoughts are timeless and
apart from distance as apart from time.
7
We join in this awareness as we say that we are one with God. For in
these words we say as well that we are saved and healed, that we can
save and heal accordingly. We have accepted and we now would give, for
we would keep the gifts our FatherMother gave. Today we would experience
ourselves at one with HimHer, so that the world may share our
recognition of reality. In our experience the world is freed; as we deny
our separation from our FatherMother, it is healed along with us.
8
Peace be to you today. Secure your peace by practicing awareness you are
one with your CreatorManifestoress, as HeShe is with you. Sometime
today, whenever it seems best, devote a half an hour to the thought that
you are one with God. This is our first attempt at an extended period
for which we give no rules nor special words to guide your meditation.
We will trust God's Voice to speak as HeShe sees fit today, certain
HeShe will not fail. Abide with HimHer this half an hour. HeShe will do
the rest.
9
Your benefit will not be less if you believe that nothing happens. You
may not be ready to accept the gain today. Yet sometime, somewhere, it
will come to you, nor will you fail to recognize it when it dawns with
certainty upon your mind. This half an hour will be framed in gold, with
every minute like a diamond set around the mirror that this exercise
will offer you. And you will see the face of the Christ
Consciousness/the Mercy Consciousness upon it, in reflection of your
own.
10
Perhaps today, perhaps tomorrow, you will see your own transfiguration
in the glass this holy half an hour will hold out to you to look upon
yourself. When you are ready, you will find it there within your mind
and waiting to be found. You will remember then the thought to which you
gave this half an hour, thankfully aware no time was ever better spent.
11
Perhaps today, perhaps tomorrow, you will look into this glass and
understand the sinless light you see belongs to you, the loveliness you
look on is your own. Count this half hour as your gift to God, in
certainty that HisHer return will be a sense of love you cannot
understand, a joy too deep for you to comprehend, a sight too holy for
the body's eyes to see, and yet you can be sure someday, perhaps today,
perhaps tomorrow, you will understand and comprehend and see.
12
Add further jewels to the golden frame that holds the mirror offered you
today by hourly repeating to yourself:
13
Let me remember I am one with God,
At one with all my
brothers&sisters and mySelf,
In everlasting
holiness and peace.
Lesson 125
In quiet I receive God's
Word today.
1
Let this day be a day of stillness and of quiet listening. Your
FatherMother wills you hear HisHer Word today. HeShe calls to you from
deep within your mind where HeShe abides. Hear HimHer today. No peace is
possible until HisHer Word is heard around the world; until your mind,
in quiet listening, accepts the message which the world must hear to
usher in the quiet time of peace.
2
This world will change through you. No other means can save it, for
God's plan is simply this: the SonDaughter of God is free to save
himself/herself, given the Word of God to be his/her Guide, forever in
hisher mind and at hisher side to lead himher surely to his/her
Father’sMother's house by his/her own will, forever free as God's. Heshe
is not led by force, but only love. he/she is not judged, but only
sanctified.
3
In stillness we will hear God's Voice today without intrusion of our
petty thoughts, without our personal desires, and without all judgment
of HisHer holy Word. We will not judge ourselves today, for what we are
cannot be judged. We stand apart from all the judgments which the world
has laid upon the SonDaughter of God. It knows himher not. Today we will
not listen to the world, but wait in silence for the Word of God.
4
Hear, holy SonDaughter of God, your FatherMother speak. HisHer Voice
would give to you HisHer holy Word to spread across the world the
tidings of salvation and the holy time of peace. We gather at the throne
of God today, the quiet place within your mind where HeShe abides
forever in the holiness which HeShe created and manifested and will
never leave.
5
HeShe has not waited until you return your mind to HimHer to give HisHer
Word to you. HeShe has not hid HimHerself from you while you have
wandered off a little while from HimHer. HeShe does not cherish the
illusions which you hold about yourself. HeShe knows HisHer SonDaughter
and wills that heshe remain as part of HimHer regardless of hisher
dreams, regardless of hisher madness that hisher will is not his/her
own.
6
Today HeShe speaks to you. HisHer Voice awaits your silence, for HisHer
Word cannot be heard until your mind is quiet for a while and
meaningless desires have been stilled. Await HisHer Word in quiet. There
is peace within you to be called upon today to help make ready your most
holy mind to hear the Voice of its CreatorManifestoress speak.
7
Three times today, at times most suitable for silence, give ten minutes
set apart from listening to the world and choose instead a gentle
listening to the Word of God. HeShe speaks from nearer than your heart
to you. HisHer Voice is closer than your hand. HisHer Love is everything
you are and that HeShe is— the same as you, and you the same as HeShe.
8
It is your voice to which you listen as HeShe speaks to you. It is your
Word HeShe speaks. It is the Word of freedom and of peace, of unity of
will and purpose, with no separation nor division in the single Mind of
FatherMother and of SonDaughter. In quiet listen to your Self today, and
let himher tell you God has never left HisHer SonDaughter, and you have
never left your Self.
9
Only be quiet. You will need no rule but this to let your practicing
today lift you above the thinking of the world and free your vision from
the body's eyes. Only be still and listen. You will hear the Word in
which the Will of God the SonDaughter joins in HisHer Father’sMother’s
Will, at one with It, with no illusions interposed between the wholly
indivisible and true.
10
As every hour passes by today, be still a moment and remind yourself you
have a special purpose for this day—in quiet to receive the Word of God.
Lesson 126
All that I give is given to
myself.
1
Today's idea, completely alien to the ego and the thinking of the world,
is crucial to the thought reversal which this course will bring about.
If you believed this statement, there would be no problem in complete
forgiveness, certainty of goal, and sure direction. You would understand
the means by which salvation comes to you and would not hesitate to use
it now.
2
Let us consider what you do believe in place of this idea. It seems to
you that other people are apart from you and able to behave in ways
which have no bearing on your thoughts, nor theirs on yours. Therefore
your attitudes have no effect on them, and their appeals for help are
not in any way related to your own. You further think that they can sin
without affecting your perception of yourself, while you can judge their
sin and yet remain apart from condemnation and at peace.
3
When you "forgive" a sin there is no gain to you directly. You give
charity to one unworthy merely to point out that you are better, on a
higher plane than he/she whom you forgive. he/she has not earned your
charitable tolerance, which you bestow on one unworthy of the gift
because his/her sins have lowered him&her beneath a true equality
with you. he/she has no claim on your forgiveness. It holds out a gift
to him&her but hardly to yourself.
4
Thus is forgiveness basically unsound—a charitable whim, benevolent yet
undeserved; a gift bestowed at times, at other times withheld.
Unmerited, withholding it is just, nor is it fair that you should suffer
when it is withheld. The sin which you forgive is not your own. Someone
apart from you committed it. And if you then are gracious unto
him&her by giving him&her what he/she does not deserve, your
gift is no more yours than was his/her sin.
5
If this be true, forgiveness has no grounds on which to rest dependably
and sure. It is an eccentricity in which you sometimes choose to give
indulgently an undeserved reprieve. Yet it remains your right to let the
sinner not escape the justified repayment for his/her sin. Think you the
LordLady of the God Realm would allow the world's salvation to depend on
this? Would not HisHer care for you be small indeed if your salvation
rested on a whim?
6
You do not understand forgiveness. As you see it, it is but a check upon
overt attack, without requiring correction in your mind. It cannot give
you peace as you perceive it. It is not a means for your release from
what you see in someone other than yourself. It has no power to restore
your unity with him&her to your awareness. It is not what God
intended it to be for you.
7
Not having given HimHer the gift HeShe asks of you, you cannot recognize
HisHer gifts and think HeShe has not given them to you. Yet would HeShe
ask you for a gift unless it was for you? Could HeShe be satisfied with
empty gestures and evaluate such petty gifts as worthy of HisHer
SonDaughter? Salvation is a better gift than this, and true forgiveness,
as the means by which it is attained, must heal the mind that gives, for
giving is receiving. What remains as unreceived has not been given, but
what has been given must have been received.
8
Today we try to understand the truth that giver and receiver are the
same. You will need help to make this meaningful because it is so alien
to the thoughts to which you are accustomed. But the Help you need is
there. Give Her your faith today and ask Her that She share your
practicing in truth today. And if you only catch a tiny glimpse of the
release which lies in the idea we practice for today, this is a day of
glory for the world.
9
Give 15 minutes twice today to the attempt to understand today's idea.
It is the thought by which forgiveness takes its proper place in your
priorities. It is the thought that will release your mind from every bar
to what forgiveness means and let you realize its worth to you.
10
In silence close your eyes upon the world which does not understand
forgiveness and seek sanctuary in the quiet place where thoughts are
changed and false beliefs laid by. Repeat today's idea, and ask for help
in understanding what it really means. Be willing to be taught. Be glad
to hear the Voice of truth and healing speak to you, and you will
understand the words She speaks and recognize She speaks your words to
you.
11
As often as you can, remind yourself you have a goal today—an aim which
makes this day of special value to yourself and all your
brothers&sisters . Do not let your mind forget this goal for long,
but tell yourself:
12
All that I give is given to myself.
The Help I need to learn
that this is true
Is with me now. And I will
trust in Her.
13
Then spend a quiet moment, opening your mind to Her correction and Her
Love. And what you hear of Her you will believe, for what She gives will
be received by you.
Lesson 127
There is no love but God's.
1
Perhaps you think that different kinds of love are possible. Perhaps you
think there is a kind of love for this, a kind for that; a way of loving
one, another way of loving still another. Love is one. It has no
separate parts and no degrees; no kinds nor levels, no divergencies and
no distinctions. It is like itself, unchanged throughout. It never
alters with a person or a circumstance. It is the heart of God, and also
of HisHer SonDaughter.
2
Love's meaning is obscure to anyone who thinks that love can change.
he/she does not see that changing love must be impossible. And thus
he/she thinks that he/she can love at times and hate at other times.
he/she also thinks that love can be bestowed on one and yet remain
itself although it is withheld from others. To believe these things of
love is not to understand it. If it could make such distinctions it
would have to judge between the righteous and the sinner and perceive
the SonDaughter of God in separate parts.
3
Love cannot judge. As it is one itself, it looks on all as one. Its
meaning lies in oneness. And it must elude the mind that thinks of it as
partial or in part. There is no love but God's, and all of love is
HisHers. There is no principle which rules where love is not. Love is a
law without an opposite. Its wholeness is the power holding everything
as one, the link between the FatherMother and the SonDaughter which
holds them both forever as the same.
4
No course whose purpose is to teach you what you really are could fail
to emphasize there is no difference in what you are and what love is.
Love's meaning is your own, and shared by God HimHerself. For what you
are is what HeShe is. There is no love but His, and what HeShe is, is
everything there is. There is no limit placed upon HimHerself, and so
are you unlimited as well.
5
No laws the world obeys can help you grasp love's meaning. What the
world believes was made to hide love's meaning and to keep it dark and
secret. There is not one principle the world upholds but violates the
truth of what love is and what you are as well. Seek not within the
world to find your Self. Love is not found in darkness and in death. Yet
it is perfectly apparent to eyes that see and ears that hear its Voice.
6
Today we practice making free our mind of all the laws you think you
must obey, of all the limits under which you live, and all the changes
which you think are part of human destiny. Today we take the largest
single step this course requests in your advance toward its established
goal. If you achieve the faintest glimmering of what love means today,
you have advanced in distance without measure and in time beyond the
count of years to your release.
7
Let us together, then, be glad to give some time to God today and
understand there is no better use for time than this. For 15 minutes
twice today escape from every law in which you now believe. Open your
mind and rest. The world that seems to hold you prisoner can be escaped
by anyone who does not hold it dear. Withdraw all value you have placed
upon its meager offerings and senseless gifts, and let the Gift of God
replace them all.
8
Call to your FatherMother, certain that HisHer Voice will answer. HeShe
HimHerself has promised this. And HeShe HimHerself will place a spark of
truth within your mind wherever you give up a false belief, a dark
illusion of your own reality and what love means. HeShe will shine
through your idle thoughts today and help you understand the truth of
love. In loving gentleness, HeShe will abide with you as you allow
HisHer Voice to teach love's meaning to your clean and open mind. And
HeShe will bless the lesson with HisHer Love.
9
Today the legion of the future years of waiting for salvation disappears
before the timelessness of what you learn. Let us give thanks today that
we are spared a future like the past. Today we leave the past behind us,
never more to be remembered. And we raise our eyes upon a different
present, where a future shines unlike the past in every attribute.
10
The world in infancy is newly born. And we will watch it grow in
strength and health to shed its blessing upon all who come to learn to
cast aside the world they thought was made in hate to be love's enemy.
Now are they all made free along with us. Now are they all our
brothers&sisters in God's Love.
11
We will remember them throughout the day because we cannot leave a part
of us outside our love if we would know our Self. At least three times
an hour think of one who makes the journey with you and who came to
learn what you must learn. And as he/she comes to mind, give him&her
this message from your Self:
12
I bless you, brother/sister, with the Love of God
Which I would share with
you. For I would learn
The joyous lesson that
there is no love
But God's and yours
and mine and everyone's.
Lesson 128
The world I see has nothing
that I want.
1
The world you see has nothing that you need to offer you, nothing that
you can use in any way, nor anything at all that serves to give you joy.
Believe this thought, and you are saved from years of misery, from
countless disappointments, and from hopes that turn to bitter ashes of
despair. No one but must accept this thought as true, if he/she would
leave this world behind and soar beyond its petty scope and little ways.
2
Each thing you value here is but a chain that binds you to the world,
and it will serve no other end but this. For everything must serve the
purpose you have given it until you see a different purpose there. The
only purpose worthy of your mind this world contains is that you pass it
by, without delaying to perceive some hope where there is none. Be you
deceived no more. The world you see has nothing that you want.
3
Escape today the chains you place upon your mind when you perceive
salvation here. For what you value you make part of you as you perceive
yourself. All things you seek to make your value greater in your sight
limit you further, hide your worth from you, and add another bar across
the door that leads to true awareness of your Self.
4
Let nothing which relates to body thoughts delay your progress to
salvation, nor permit temptation to believe the world has anything you
want to hold you back. Nothing is here to cherish. Nothing here is worth
one instant of delay and pain, one moment of uncertainty and doubt. The
worthless offer nothing. Certainty of worth cannot be found in
worthlessness.
5
Today we practice letting go all thought of values we have given to the
world. We leave it free of purposes we gave its aspects and its phases
and its dreams. We hold it purposeless within our minds and loosen it
from all we wish it were. Thus do we lift the chains which bar the door
to freedom from the world and go beyond all little values and diminished
goals.
6
Peace and be still a little while, and see how far you rise above the
world when you release your mind from chains and let it seek the level
where it finds itself at home. It will be grateful to be free a while.
It knows where it belongs. But free its wings, and it will fly in
sureness and in joy to join its holy purpose. Let it rest in its
CreatorManifestoress, there to be restored to sanity, to freedom, and to
love.
7
Give it ten minutes rest three times today. And when your eyes are
opened afterwards, you will not value anything you see as much as when
you looked at it before. Your whole perspective on the world will shift
by just a little every time you let your mind escape its chains. The
world is not where it belongs. And you belong where it would be and
where it goes to rest when you release it from the world. Your Guide is
sure. Open your mind to Her. Be still and rest.
8
Protect your mind throughout the day as well. And when you think you see
some value in an aspect or an image of the world, refuse to lay this
chain upon your mind and tell yourself with quiet certainty:
9
This will not tempt me to delay myself.
The world I see has nothing that I
want.
Lesson 129
Beyond this world there is
a world I want.
1
This is the thought which follows from the one we practiced yesterday.
You cannot stop with the idea the world is worthless, for unless you see
that there is something else to hope for, you will only be depressed.
Our emphasis is not on giving up the world but on exchanging it for what
is far more satisfying, filled with joy, and capable of offering you
peace. Think you this world can offer that to you?
2
It might be worth a little time to think once more about the value of
this world. Perhaps you will concede there is no loss in letting go all
thought of value here. The world you see is merciless indeed, unstable,
cruel, unconcerned with you, quick to avenge, and pitiless with hate. It
gives but to rescind and takes away all things that you have cherished
for a while. No lasting love is found, for none is here. This is the
world of time, where all things end.
3
Is it a loss to find a world instead where losing is impossible, where
love endures forever, hate cannot exist, and vengeance has no meaning?
Is it loss to find all things you really want and know they have no
ending, and they will remain exactly as you want them throughout time?
4
Yet even they will be exchanged at last for what we cannot speak of, for
you go from there to where words fail entirely, into a silence where the
language is unspoken and yet surely understood. Communication,
unambiguous and plain as day, remains unlimited for all eternity. And
God HimHerself speaks to HisHer SonDaughter as HisHer SonDaughter speaks
to HimHer. Their language has no words, for what they say cannot be
symbolized. Their knowledge is direct and wholly shared and wholly one.
5
How far away from this are you who stay bound to this world. And yet how
near are you when you exchange it for the world you want. Now is the
last step certain; now you stand an instant's space away from
timelessness. Here can you but look forward, never back to see again the
world you do not want. Here is the world that comes to take its place as
you unbind your mind from little things the world sets forth to keep you
prisoner there. Value them not, and they will disappear. Esteem them,
and they will seem real to you.
6
Such is the choice. What loss can be for you in choosing not to value
nothingness? This world holds nothing that you really want, but what you
choose instead you want indeed! Let it be given you today. It waits but
for your choosing it to take the place of all the things you seek but do
not want.
7
Practice your willingness to make this change ten minutes in the morning
and at night and once more in between. Begin with this:
8
Beyond this world there is a world I want.
I choose to see that world instead
of this,
For here is nothing that I
really want.
9
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, losing all meaning as they blend in one.
10
Today the lights of the God Realm bend to you, to shine upon your
eyelids as you rest beyond the world of darkness. Here is light your
eyes cannot behold. And yet your mind can see it plainly and can
understand. A day of grace is given you today, and we give thanks. This
day we realize that what you feared to lose was only loss.
11
Now do we understand there is no loss, for we have seen its opposite at
last, and we are grateful that the choice is made. 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:
12
The world I see has nothing that I want.
Beyond
this
world there is a world I want.
Lesson 130
It is impossible to see two
worlds.
1
Perception is consistent. What you see reflects your thinking. And your
thinking but reflects your choice of what you want to see. Your values
are determiners of this, for what you value you must want to see,
believing what you see is really there. No one can see a world his/her
mind has not accorded value. And no one can fail to look upon what
he/she believes he/she wants.
2
Yet who can really hate and love at once? Who can desire what
he/she does not want to have reality? And who can choose to see
a world of which he/she is
afraid? Fear must make blind, for this its weapon is—that which you fear
to see you cannot see. Love and perception thus go hand in hand, but
fear obscures in darkness what is there.
3
What, then, can fear project upon the world? What can be seen in
darkness that is real? Truth is eclipsed by fear, and what remains is
but imagined. Yet what can be real in blind imaginings of panic borne?
What would you want that this is shown to you? What would you wish to
keep in such a dream?
4
Fear has made everything you think you see. All separation, all
distinctions, and the multitude of differences you believe make up the
world. They are not there. Love's enemy has made them up. Yet love can
have no enemy, and so they have no cause, no being, and no consequence.
They can be valued but remain unreal. They can be sought, but they can
not be found.
5
Today we will not seek for them nor waste this day in seeking not what
can be found. It is impossible to see two worlds which have no overlap
of any kind. Seek for the one; the other disappears. But one remains.
They are the range of choice beyond which your decision cannot go. The
real and the unreal are all there is to choose between, and nothing more
than these.
6
Today we will attempt no compromise where none is possible. The world
you see is proof you have already made a choice as all-embracing as its
opposite. What we would learn today is more than just the lesson that
you cannot see two worlds. It also teaches that the one you see is quite
consistent from the point of view from which you see it. It is all a
piece because it stems from one emotion, and reflects its source in
everything you see.
7
Six times today in thanks and gratitude we gladly give five minutes to
the thought which ends all compromise and doubt and go beyond them all
as one. We will not make a thousand meaningless distinctions, nor
attempt to bring with us a little part of unreality as we devote our
minds to finding only what is real.
8
Begin your searching for the other world by asking for a strength beyond
your own, and recognize what it is you seek. You do not want illusions.
And you come to these five minutes emptying your hands of all the petty
treasures of this world. You wait for God to help you as you say:
9
It is impossible to see two worlds.
Let me accept the strength
God offers me
And see no value in this
world that I
May find my freedom and
deliverance.
10
God will be there. For you have called upon the great unfailing Power
Who will take this giant step with you in gratitude. Nor will you fail
to see HisHer thanks expressed in tangible perception and in truth. 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.
And you will know God's strength upheld you as you made this choice.
11
Dismiss temptation easily today whenever it arises merely by remembering
the limits on your choice. The unreal or the real, the false or true is
what you see, and only what you see. Perception is consistent with your
choice, and hell or the God Realm comes to you as one.
12
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. Yet the
release of the God Realm still remains within your range of choice to
take the place of everything that hell would show to you. All you need
say to any part of hell, whatever form it takes, is simply this:
13
It is impossible to see two worlds.
I seek my freedom
and deliverance,
And this is not a
part of what I want.
Lesson 131
No one can fail who asks to
reach the truth.
1
Failure is all about you while you seek for goals that cannot be
achieved. You look for permanence in the impermanent, for love where
there is none, for safety in the midst of danger, immortality within the
darkness of the dream of death. Who could succeed where contradiction is
the setting of his/her searching and the place to which he/she comes to
find stability?
2
Goals which are meaningless are not attained. There is no way to reach
them, for the means by which you strive for them are meaningless as they
are. Who can use such senseless means and hope through them to gain in
anything? Where can they lead? And what could they achieve that offers
any hope of being real?
3
Pursuit of the imagined leads to death because it is the search for
nothingness, and while you seek for life you ask for death. You look for
safety and security while in your heart you pray for danger and
protection for the little dream you made.
4
Yet searching is inevitable here. For this you came, and you will surely
do the thing you came for. But the world can not dictate the goal for
which you search unless you give it power to do so. Otherwise, you still
are free to choose a goal that lies beyond the world and every worldly
thought and one which comes to you from an idea relinquished yet
remembered, old yet new—an echo of a heritage forgot, yet holding
everything you really want.
5
Be glad that search you must. Be glad as well to learn you search for
the God Realm and must find the goal you really want. No one can fail to
want this goal and reach it in the end. God’s SonDaughter cannot seek
vainly, though heshe try to force delay, deceive himherself, and think
that it is hell heshe seeks. When heshe is wrong, heshe finds
correction; when heshe wanders off,
he/she is led back to his/her appointed task.
6
No one remains in hell, for no one can abandon his/her
CreatorManifestoress nor affect HisHer perfect, timeless, and unchanging
Love. You will find the God Realm. Everything you seek but this will
fall away, yet not because it has been taken from you. It will go
because you do not want it. You will reach the goal you really want as
certainly as God created and manifested you in sinlessness.
7
Why wait for the God Realm? It is here today. Time is the great illusion
it is past or in the future. Yet this cannot be if it is where God wills
HisHer SonDaughter to be. How could the Will of God be in the past or
yet to happen? What HeShe wills is now, without a past and wholly
futureless. It is as far removed from time as is a tiny candle from a
distant star, or what you chose from what you really want.
8
The God Realm remains your one alternative to this strange world you
made and all its ways—its shifting patterns and uncertain goals, its
painful pleasures, and its tragic joys. God made no contradictions. What
denies its own existence and attacks itself is not of HimHer. HeShe did
not make two minds, with the God Realm as the glad effect of one and
earth the other's sorry outcome that is the God Realm's opposite in
every way.
9
God does not suffer conflict. Nor is HisHer creation and manifestation
split in two. How could it be HisHer SonDaughter could be in hell when
God HimHerself established himher in the God Realm? Could heshe lose
what the Eternal Will has given himher to be hisher home forever? Let us
not try longer to impose an alien will upon HisHer single purpose. HeShe
is here because HeShe wills to be, and what HeShe wills is present now
beyond the reach of time.
10
Today we will not choose a paradox in place of truth. How could the
SonDaughter of God make time to take away the Will of God? he/she thus
denies himself/herself and contradicts what has no opposite. he/she
thinks he/she made a hell opposing the God Realm and believes that
he/she abides in what does not exist, while the God Realm is the place
he/she cannot find. Leave foolish thoughts like these behind today, and
turn your mind to true ideas instead.
11
No one can fail who asks to reach the truth, and it is truth we ask to
reach today. We will devote ten minutes to this goal three times today,
and we will ask to see the rising of the real world to replace the
foolish images that we held dear, with true ideas arising in the place
of thoughts which have no meaning, no effect, and neither source nor
substance in the truth.
12
This we acknowledge as we start upon our practice periods. Begin with
this:
13
I ask to see a different world and think
A different kind of
thought from those I made.
The world I seek I did not
make alone,
The thoughts I want to
think are not my own.
14
For several minutes watch your mind and see, although your eyes are
closed, the senseless world you think is real. Review the thoughts as
well which are compatible with such a world and which you think are
true. Then let them go, and sink below them to the holy place where they
can enter not. There is a door beneath them in your mind which you could
not completely lock to hide what lies beyond.
15
Seek for that door and find it. But before you try to open it, remind
yourself no one can fail who asks to reach the truth, and it is this
request you make today. 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.
16
Put out your hand and see how easily the door swings open with your one
intent to go beyond it. 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. 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.
17
You cannot fail today. There walks with you the Spirit the God Realm
sent you that you might approach this door some day and through Her aid
slip effortlessly past it to the light. Today that day has come. Today
God keeps HisHer ancient promise to HisHer holy SonDaughter, as does
HisHer SonDaughter remember hisher to HimHer. 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 ends
together as you pass beyond the door.
18
Remember often that today should be a time of special gladness, and
refrain from dismal thoughts and meaningless laments. Salvation's time
has come. Today is set by the God Realm Itself to be a time of grace for
you and for the world. If you forget this happy fact, remind yourself
with this:
19
Today I seek and find all that I want.
My
single
purpose offers it to me.
No
one can fail who asks to reach the truth.
Lesson 132
I loose the world from all
I thought it was.
1
What keeps the world in chains but your beliefs? And what can save the
world except your Self? Belief is powerful indeed. The thoughts you hold
are mighty, and illusions are as strong in their effects as is the
truth. A mad man or woman thinks the world he/she sees is real and does
not doubt it. Nor can he/she be swayed by questioning his/her thoughts'
effects. It is but when their source is raised to question that the hope
of freedom comes to him&her at last.
2
Yet is salvation easily achieved, for anyone is free to change his/her
mind, and all his/her thoughts change with it. Now the source of thought
has shifted, for to change your mind means you have changed the source
of all ideas you think or ever thought or yet will think.
3
You free the past from what you thought before. You free the future from
all ancient thoughts of seeking what you do not want to find. The
present now remains the only time. Here in the present is the world set
free. For as you let the past be lifted and release the future from your
ancient fears, you find escape and give it to the world.
4
You have enslaved the world with all your fears, with doubts and
miseries, your pain and tears, and all your sorrows press upon it and
keep it a prisoner to your beliefs. Death strikes it everywhere because
you hold the bitter thought of death within your mind. The world is
nothing in itself. Your mind must give it meaning. And what you behold
upon it are your wishes, acted out so you can look on them and think
them real.
5
Perhaps you think you did not make the world but came unwillingly to
what was made already, hardly waiting for your thoughts to give it
meaning. Yet in truth you found exactly what you looked for when you
came. There is no world apart from what you wish, and herein lies your
ultimate release. Change but your mind on what you want to see, and all
the world must change accordingly.
6
Ideas leave not their source. This central theme is often stated in the
text and must be borne in mind if you would understand the lesson for
today. It is not pride which tells you that you made the world you see
and that it changes as you change your mind. But it is pride that argues
you have come into a world quite separate from yourself, impervious to
what you think, and quite apart from what you chance to think it is.
7
There is no world! This is the central thought the course attempts to
teach. Not everyone is ready to accept it, and each one must go as far
as he/she can let himself or herself be led along the road to truth.
he/she will return and go still farther, or perhaps step back a while
and then return again.
8
But healing is the gift of those who are prepared to learn there is no
world and can accept the lesson now. Their readiness will bring the
lesson to them in some form which they can understand and recognize.
Some see it suddenly on point of death and rise to teach it. Others find
it in experience that is not of this world, which shows them that the
world does not exist because what they behold must be the truth, and yet
it clearly contradicts the world. And some will find it in this course
and in the exercises that we do today.
9
Today's idea is true because the world does not exist. And if it is
indeed your own imagining, then you can loose it from all things you
ever thought it was by merely changing all the thoughts that gave it
these appearances. The sick are healed as you let go all thoughts of
sickness, and the dead arise when you let thoughts of life replace all
thoughts you ever held of death.
10
A lesson earlier repeated once must now be stressed again, for it
contains the firm foundation for today's idea. You are as God created
and manifested you. There is no place where you can suffer and no time
that can bring change to your eternal state. How can a world of time and
place exist if you remain as God created and manifested you?
11
What is the lesson for today except another way of saying that to know
your Self is the salvation of the world? To free the world from every
kind of pain is but to change your mind about yourself. There is no
world apart from your ideas because ideas leave not their source, and
you maintain the world within your mind in thought.
12
Yet if you are as God created and manifested you, you cannot think apart
from HimHer nor make what does not share HisHer timelessness and love.
Are these inherent in the world you see? Does it create and manifest
like HimHer? Unless it does, it is not real and cannot be at all. If you
are real, the world you see is false, for God's creation and
manifestation is unlike the world in every way. And as it was HisHer
Thought by which you were created and manifested, so it is your thoughts
which made it and must set it free that you may know the Thoughts you
share with God.
13
Release the world! Your real creations and manifestations wait for this
release to give you FatherMotherhood, not of illusions, but as God in
truth. God shares HisHer FatherMotherhood with you who are HisHer
SonDaughter, for HeShe makes no distinctions in what is HimHerself and
what is still HimHerself. What HeShe creates and manifests is not apart
from HimHer, and nowhere does the FatherMother end, the SonDaughter
begin as something separate from HimHer.
14
There is no world because it is a thought apart from God and made to
separate the FatherMother and the SonDaughter and break away a part of
God HimHerself and thus destroy HisHer wholeness. Can a world which
comes from this idea be real? Can it be anywhere? Deny illusions, but
accept the truth. Deny you are a shadow briefly laid upon a dying world.
Release your mind, and you will look upon a world released.
15
Today our purpose is to free the world from all the idle thoughts we
ever held about it and about all living things we see upon it. They can
not be there—no more than we. For we are in the home our FatherMother
set for us along with them. And we who are as HeShe created and
manifested us would loose the world this day from every one of our
illusions that we may be free.
16
Begin the 15 minute periods in which we practice twice today with this:
17
I who remain as God created and manifested me
Would loose the world from
all I thought it was.
For I am real because the
world is not,
And I would know my
own reality.
18
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.
19
You need not realize that healing comes to many
brothers&sisters far across the world as well as to the ones you see
near by as you send out these thoughts to bless the world. But you will
sense your own release, although you may not fully understand as yet
that you could never be released alone.
20
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:
21
I loose the world from all I thought it was
And choose my own reality
instead.
Lesson 133
I will not value what is
valueless.
1
Sometimes in teaching there is benefit, particularly after you have gone
through what seems theoretical and quite remote from what the student
has already learned, to bring him&her back to practical concerns.
This we will do today. We will not speak of lofty, world-encompassing
ideas but dwell instead on benefits to you.
2
You do not ask too much of life, but far too little. When you let your
mind be drawn to bodily concerns, to things you buy, to eminence as
valued by the world, you ask for sorrow, not for happiness. This course
does not attempt to take from you the little that you have. It does not
try to substitute utopian ideas for satisfactions which the world
contains.
3
There are no satisfactions in the world. Today we list the real criteria
by which to test all things you think you want. Unless they meet these
sound requirements, they are not worth desiring at all, for they can but
replace what offers more.
4
The laws which govern choice you cannot make, no more than you can make
alternatives from which to choose. The choosing you can do; indeed you
must. But it is wise to learn the laws you set in motion when you choose
and what alternatives you choose between. We have already stressed there
are but two, however many there appear to be.
5
The range is set, and this we cannot change. It would be most ungenerous
to you to let alternatives be limitless and thus delay your final choice
until you had considered all of them in time and not been brought so
clearly to the place where there is but one choice that must be made.
6
Another kindly and related law is that there is no compromise in what
your choice must bring. It cannot give you just a little, for there is
no in-between. Each choice you make brings everything to you or nothing.
Therefore, if you learn the tests by which you can distinguish
everything from nothing, you will make the better choice.
7
First, if you choose a thing that will not last forever, what you chose
is valueless. A temporary value is without all value. Time can never
take away a value that is real. What fades and dies was never there and
makes no offering to him&her who chooses it. he/she is deceived by
nothing in a form he/she thinks he/she likes.
8
Next, if you choose to take a thing away from someone else, you will
have nothing left. This is because when you deny his/her right to
everything, you have denied your own. You therefore will not recognize
the things you really have, denying they are there. Who seeks to take
away has been deceived by the illusion loss can offer gain. Yet loss
must offer loss and nothing more.
9
Your next consideration is the one on which the others rest. Why is the
choice you make of value to you? What attracts your mind to it? What
purpose does it serve? Here it is easiest of all to be deceived, for
what the ego wants it fails to recognize. It does not even tell the
truth as it perceives it, for it needs to keep the halo which it uses to
protect its goals from tarnish and from rust that you may see how
innocent it is.
10
Yet is its camouflage a thin veneer which could deceive but those who
are content to be deceived. Its goals are obvious to anyone who cares to
look for them. Here is deception doubled, for the one who is deceived
will not perceive that he/she has merely failed to gain. he/she will
believe that he/she has served the ego's hidden goals. And though he/she
tries to keep its halo clear within his/her vision, yet must he/she
perceive its tarnished edges and its rusted core.
11
his/her ineffectual mistakes appear as sins to him&her because
he/she looks upon the tarnished as his/her own—the rust a sign of deep
unworthiness within himself/herself. he/she who would still preserve the
ego's goals and serve them as his/her own makes no mistakes according to
the dictates of his/her guide. This guidance teaches it is error to
believe that sins are but mistakes, for who would suffer for his/her
sins if this were so?
12
And so we come to the criterion for choice which is the hardest to
believe, because its obviousness is overlaid with many levels of
obscurity. If you feel any guilt about your choice, you have allowed the
ego's goals to come between the real alternatives, and thus you do not
realize there are but two. And the alternative you think you chose seems
fearful and too dangerous to be the nothingness it actually is.
13All
things are valuable or valueless, worthy or not of being sought at all,
entirely desirable or not worth the slightest effort to obtain. Choosing
is easy just because of this. Complexity is nothing but a screen of
smoke which hides the very simple fact that no decision can be
difficult.
14What
is the gain to you in learning this? It is far more than merely letting
you make choices easily and without pain. The God Realm Itself is
reached by empty hands and open minds, which come with nothing to find
everything and claim it as their own. We will attempt to reach this
state today, with self-deception laid aside and with an honest
willingness to value but the truly valuable and the real.
15
Our two extended practice periods of 15 minutes will begin with this:
16
I will not value what is valueless,
And only what has value do I seek,
For only that do I desire
to find.
17
And then receive what waits for everyone who reaches unencumbered to the
gate of the God Realm, which swings open as he/she comes. 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:
18
I will not value what is valueless,
For what is valuable
belongs to me.
Lesson 134
Let me perceive forgiveness
as it is.
1
Let us review the meaning of "forgive," for it is apt to be distorted
and to be perceived as something which entails an unfair sacrifice of
righteous wrath, a gift unjustified and undeserved, and a complete
denial of the truth. In such a view, forgiveness must be seen as mere
eccentric folly, and this course appear to rest salvation on a whim.
2
This twisted view of what forgiveness means is easily corrected when you
can accept the fact that pardon is not asked for what is true. It must
be limited to what is false. It is irrelevant to everything except
illusions. Truth is God's creation and manifestation, and to pardon this
is meaningless. All truth belongs to HimHer, reflects HisHer laws and
radiates HisHer Love. Does this need pardon? How can you forgive the
sinless and eternally benign?
3
The major difficulty that you find in genuine forgiveness on your part
is that you still believe you must forgive the truth and not illusions.
You conceive of pardon as a vain attempt to look past what is there; to
overlook the truth in an unfounded effort to deceive yourself by making
an illusion true. This twisted viewpoint but reflects the hold that the
idea of sin retains as yet upon your mind as you regard yourself.
4
Because you think your sins are real, you look on pardon as deception.
For it is impossible to think of sin as true and not believe forgiveness
is a lie. Thus is forgiveness really but a sin, like all the rest. It
says the truth is false and smiles on the corrupt as if they were as
blameless as the grass; as white as snow. It is delusional in what it
thinks it can accomplish. It would see as right the plainly wrong, the
loathsome as the good.
5
Pardon is no escape in such a view. It merely is a further sign that sin
is unforgivable, at best to be concealed, denied, or called another
name, for pardon is a treachery to truth. Guilt can not be forgiven. If
you sin, your guilt is everlasting. Those who are forgiven from the view
their sins are real are pitifully mocked and twice condemned—first by
themselves for what they think they did and once again by those who
pardon them.
6
It is sin's unreality that makes forgiveness natural and wholly sane, a
deep relief to those who offer it; a quiet blessing where it is
received. It does not countenance illusions but collects them lightly
with a little laugh and gently lays them at the feet of truth. And there
they disappear entirely.
7
Forgiveness is the only thing that stands for truth in the illusions of
the world. It sees their nothingness and looks right through the
thousand forms in which they may appear. It looks on lies but it is not
deceived. It does not heed the self-accusing shrieks of sinners mad with
guilt. It looks on them with quiet eyes and merely says to them, "My
brother/sister, what you think is not the truth."
8
The strength of pardon is its honesty, which is so uncorrupted that it
sees illusions as illusions, not as truth. It is because of this that it
becomes the undeceiver in the face of lies, the great restorer of the
simple truth. By its ability to overlook what is not there, it opens up
the way to truth, which had been blocked by dreams of guilt.
9
Now are you free to follow in the way your true forgiveness opens up to
you. For if one brother/sister has received this gift of you, the door
is open to yourself. There is a very simple way to find the door to true
forgiveness and perceive it open wide in welcome. When you feel that you
are tempted to accuse someone of sin in any form, do not allow your mind
to dwell on what you think he/she did, for this is self-deception. Ask
instead, "Should I accuse myself of doing this?"
10
Thus will you see alternatives for choice in terms which render choosing
meaningful and keep your mind as free of guilt and pain as God
HimHerself intended it to be and as it is in truth. It is but lies which
would condemn. In truth is innocence the only thing there is.
Forgiveness stands between illusions and the truth, between the world
you see and that which lies beyond, between the hell of guilt and the
God Realm's gate.
11
Across this bridge, as powerful as Love Which laid Its blessing on it,
are all dreams of evil and of hatred and attack brought silently to
truth. They are not kept to swell and bluster and to terrify the foolish
dreamer who believes in them. he/she has been gently wakened from
his/her dream by understanding what he/she thought he/she saw was never
there. And now he/she cannot feel that all escape has been denied to
him&her.
12
he/she does not have to fight to save himself/herself. he/she does not
have to kill the dragons which he/she thought pursued him&her. Nor
need he/she erect the heavy walls of stone and iron doors he/she thought
would make him&her safe. he/she can remove the ponderous and useless
armor made to chain his/her mind to fear and misery. his/her step is
light, and as he/she lifts his/her foot to stride ahead, a star is left
behind to point the way to those who follow him&her.
13
Forgiveness must be practiced, for the world cannot perceive its meaning
nor provide a guide to teach you its beneficence. There is no thought in
all the world which leads to any understanding of the laws it follows
nor the Thought which it reflects. It is as alien to the world as is
your own reality. And yet it joins your mind with the reality in you.
14Today
we practice true forgiveness that the time of joining be no more
delayed. For we would meet with our reality in freedom and in peace. Our
practicing becomes the footsteps lightening up the way for all our
brothers&sisters, who will follow us to the reality we share with
them.
15
That this may be accomplished, let us give a quarter of an hour twice
today and spend it with the Guide Who understands the meaning of
forgiveness and was sent to us to teach it. Let us ask of Her:
16
Let me perceive forgiveness as it is.
17
Then choose one brother/sister as She will direct, and catalogue his/her
"sins," as one by one they cross your mind. Be certain not to dwell on
any one of them, but realize that you are using his/her "offenses" but
to save the world from all ideas of sin. Briefly consider all the evil
things you thought of him&her, and each time ask yourself "Would I
condemn myself for doing this?".
18
Let him&her be freed from all the thoughts you had of sin in
him&her. And now you are prepared for freedom. 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. The time remaining should be given to
experiencing the escape from all the heavy chains you sought to lay upon
your brother/sister which were laid upon yourself.
19
Forgiveness should be practiced through the day, for there will be so
many times when you forget its meaning and attack yourself. When this
occurs, allow your mind to see through this illusion as you tell
yourself:
20
Let me perceive forgiveness as it is.
Should I accuse myself of doing
this?
I will not lay this chain
upon myself.
21
In everything you do, remember this:
22
No one is crucified alone, and yet
No one can enter the God Realm by
himself/herself.
Lesson 135
If I defend myself, I am
attacked.
1
Who would defend himself/herself unless he/she thought he/she was
attacked, that the attack is real, and that his/her own defense can save
himself/herself? And herein lies the folly of defense—it gives illusions
full reality and then attempts to handle them as real. It adds illusions
to illusions, thus making correction doubly difficult.
2
And it is this you do when you attempt to plan the future, activate the
past, or organize the present as you wish. You operate from the belief
you must protect yourself from what is happening because it must contain
what threatens you. A sense of threat is an acknowledgment of an
inherent weakness, a belief that there is danger which has power to call
on you to make appropriate defense.
3
The world is based on this insane belief. And all its structures, all
its thoughts and doubts, its penalties and heavy armaments, its legal
definitions and its codes, its ethics and its leaders and its gods, all
serve but to preserve its sense of threat. For no one walks the world in
armature but must have terror striking at his/her heart.
4
Defense is frightening. It stems from fear, increasing fear as each
defense is made. You think it offers safety. Yet it speaks of fear made
real and terror justified. Is it not strange you do not pause to ask, as
you elaborate your plans and make your armor thicker and your locks more
tight, what you defend, and how, and against what?
5
Let us consider first what you defend. It must be something that is very
weak and easily assaulted. It must be something made easy prey, unable
to protect itself, and needing your defense. What but the body has such
frailty that constant care and watchful, deep concern is needful to
protect its little life? What but the body falters and must fail to
serve the SonDaughter of God as worthy host?
6
Yet it is not the body that can fear, nor be a thing to fear. It has no
needs but those which you assign to it. It needs no complicated
structures of defense, no health-inducing medicine, no care, and no
concern at all. Defend its life, or give it gifts to make it beautiful
or walls to make it safe, and you but say your home is open to the thief
of time, corruptible and crumbling, so unsafe it must be guarded with
your very life.
7
Is not this picture fearful? Can you be at peace with such a concept of
your home? Yet what endowed the body with the right to serve you thus
except your own belief? It is your mind which gave the body all the
functions that you see in it and set its value far beyond a little pile
of dust and water. Who would make defense of something that he/she
recognized as this?
8
The body is in need of no defense. This cannot be too often emphasized.
It will be strong and healthy if the mind does not abuse it by assigning
it to roles it cannot fill, to purposes beyond its scope, and to exalted
aims which it cannot accomplish. Such attempts, ridiculous yet deeply
cherished, are the sources for the many mad attacks you make upon it.
For it seems to fail your hopes, your needs, your values, and your
dreams.
9
The "self" that needs protection is not real. The body, valueless and
hardly worth the least defense, need merely be perceived as quite apart
from you, and it becomes a healthy, serviceable instrument through which
the mind can operate until its usefulness is over. Who would want to
keep it when its usefulness is done?
10
Defend the body, and you have attacked your mind. For you have seen in
it the faults, the weaknesses, the limits, and the lacks from which you
think the body must be saved. You will not see the mind as separate from
bodily conditions. And you will impose upon the body all the pain that
comes from the conception of the mind as limited and fragile, and apart
from other minds and separate from its Source.
11
These are the thoughts in need of healing, and the body will respond
with health when they have been corrected and replaced with truth. This
is the body's only real defense. Yet is this where you look for its
defense? You offer it protection of a kind from which it gains no
benefit at all but merely adds to your distress of mind. You do not heal
but merely take away the hope of healing, for you fail to see where hope
must lie if it be meaningful.
12
A healed mind does not plan. It carries out the plans which it receives
through listening to Wisdom that is not its own. It waits until it has
been taught what should be done and then proceeds to do it. It does not
depend upon itself for anything except its adequacy to fulfill the plans
assigned to it. It is secure in certainty that obstacles cannot impede
its progress to accomplishment of any goal which serves the greater plan
established for the good of everyone.
13
A healed mind is relieved from the belief that it must plan, although it
cannot know the outcome which is best, the means by which it is
achieved, nor how to recognize the problem that the plan is made to
solve. It must misuse the body in its plans until it recognizes this is
so. But when it has accepted this as true, then is it healed and lets
the body go.
14
Enslavement of the body to the plans the unhealed mind sets up to save
itself must make the body sick. It is not free to be a means of helping
in a plan which far exceeds its own protection and which needs its
service for a little while. In this capacity is health assured. For
everything the mind employs for this will function flawlessly and with
the strength that has been given it and cannot fail.
15
It is, perhaps, not easy to perceive that self-initiated plans are but
defenses with the purpose all of them were made to realize. They are the
means by which a frightened mind would undertake its own protection at
the cost of truth. This is not difficult to realize in some forms which
these self-deceptions take, for the denial of reality is very obvious.
Yet planning is not often recognized as a defense.
16
The mind engaged in planning for itself is occupied in setting up
control of future happenings. It does not think that it will be provided
for unless it makes its own provisions. Time becomes a future emphasis
to be controlled by learning and experience obtained from past events
and previous beliefs. It overlooks the present, for it rests on the idea
the past has taught enough to let the mind direct its future course.
17The
mind that plans is thus refusing to allow for change. What it has
learned before becomes the basis for its future goals. Its past
experience directs its choice of what will happen. And it does not see
that here and now is everything it needs to guarantee a future quite
unlike the past without a continuity of any old ideas and sick beliefs.
Anticipation plays no part at all, for present confidence directs the
way.
18
Defenses are the plans you undertake to make against the truth. Their
aim is to select what you approve and disregard what you consider
incompatible with your beliefs of your reality. Yet what remains is
meaningless indeed. For it is your reality which is the "threat" that
your defenses would attack, obscure, and take apart and crucify.
19
What could you not accept if you but knew that everything that happens,
all events, past, present, and to come, are gently planned by One Whose
only purpose is your good? Perhaps you have misunderstood HisHer plan,
for HeShe would never offer pain to you. But your defenses did not let
you see HisHer loving blessing shine in every step you ever took. While
you made plans for death, HeShe led you gently to eternal life.
20
Your present trust in HimHer is the defense which promises a future
undisturbed, without a trace of sorrow and with joy which constantly
increases as this life becomes a holy instant, set in time but heeding
only immortality. Let no defenses but your present trust direct the
future, and this life becomes a meaningful encounter with the truth that
only your defenses would conceal.
21
Without defenses, you become a light which the God Realm gratefully
acknowledges to be its own. And it will lead you on in ways appointed
for your happiness according to the ancient plan begun when time was
born. Your followers will join their light with yours, and it will be
increased until the world is lighted up with joy. And gladly will
our brothers&sisters lay aside their cumbersome defenses which
availed them nothing and could only terrify.
22
We will anticipate that time today with present confidence, for this is
part of what was planned for us. We will be sure that everything we need
is given us for our accomplishment of this today. We make no plans for
how it will be done but realize that our defenselessness is all that is
required for the truth to dawn upon our minds with certainty.
23
For 15 minutes twice today, we rest from senseless planning and from
every thought which blocks the truth from entering our minds. Today we
will receive instead of plan, that we may give instead of organize. And
we are given truly, as we say:
24
If I defend myself, I am attacked.
But in defenselessness, I will be
strong,
And I will learn what my
defenses hide.
25
Nothing but that. If there are plans to make, you will be told of them.
They may not be the plans you thought were needed nor indeed the answers
to the problems which you thought confronted you. 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.
26
All your defenses have been aimed at not receiving what you will receive
today. And in the light and joy of simple truth, you will but wonder why
you ever thought that you must be defended from release. The God Realm
asks nothing. It is hell that makes extravagant demands for sacrifice.
You give up nothing in these times today when undefended you present
yourself to your CreatorManifestoress as you really are.
27
HeShe has remembered you. Today we will remember HimHer. For this is
Easter time in your salvation. And you rise again from what was seeming
death and hopelessness. 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. What little plans or magical beliefs can still have value when you
have received your function from the Voice of God HimHerself?
28
Try not to shape this day as you believe would benefit you most. For you
can not conceive of all the happiness that comes to you without your
planning. Learn today. And all the world will take this giant stride and
celebrate your Easter time with you. 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:
29
This is my Easter time. And I would keep It holy.
I will not defend myself,
Because the SonDaughter of God
needs no defense
Against the truth of hisher
reality.
Lesson 136
Sickness is a defence
against the truth.
1
No one can heal unless he/she understands what purpose sickness seems to
serve. For then he/she understands as well its purpose has no meaning.
Being causeless and without a meaningful intent of any kind, it cannot
be at all. When this is seen, healing is automatic. It dispels this
meaningless illusion by the same approach that carries all of them to
truth and merely leaves them there to disappear.
2
Sickness is not an accident. Like all defenses, it is an insane device
for self-deception. And like all the rest, its purpose is to hide
reality, attack it, change it, render it inept, distort it, twist it, or
reduce it to a little pile of unassembled parts. The aim of all defenses
is to keep the truth from being whole. The parts are seen as if each one
were whole within itself.
3
Defenses are not unintentional nor are they made without awareness. They
are secret magic wands you wave when truth appears to threaten what you
would believe. They seem to be unconscious but because of the rapidity
with which you choose to use them. In that second, even less, in which
the choice is made, you recognize exactly what you would attempt to do
and then proceed to think that it is done.
4
Who but yourself evaluates a threat, decides escape is necessary, and
sets up a series of defenses to reduce the threat that has been judged
as real? All this cannot be done unconsciously. But afterwards your plan
requires that you must forget you made it, so it seems to be external to
your own intent-a happening beyond your state of mind, an outcome with a
real effect on you instead of one effected by your self.
5
It is this quick forgetting of the part you play in making your
"reality" which makes defenses seem to be beyond your own control. But
what you have forgot can be remembered, given willingness to reconsider
the decision which is doubly shielded by oblivion. Your not remembering
is but the sign that this decision still remains in force as far as your
desires are concerned.
6
Mistake this not for fact. Defenses must make facts unrecognizable. They
aim at doing this, and this they seem to do. Every defense takes
fragments of the whole, assembles them without regard to all their true
relationships, and thus constructs illusions of a whole which is not
there. It is this process which imposes threat, and not whatever outcome
may result.
7
When parts are wrested from the whole and seen as separate and wholes
within themselves, they become symbols standing for attack upon the
whole, successful in effect, and never to be seen as whole again. And
yet you have forgotten that they stand but for your own decision of what
should be real, to take the place of what is real.
8
Sickness is a decision. It is not a thing that happens to you quite
unsought, which makes you weak and brings you suffering. It is a choice
you make, a plan you lay when for an instant truth arises in your own
deluded mind and all your world appears to totter and prepare to fall.
Now are you sick that truth may go away and threaten your establishments
no more.
9
How do you think that sickness can succeed in shielding you from truth?
Because it proves the body is not separate from you, and so you must be
separate from the truth. You suffer pain because the body does, and in
this pain are you made one with it. Thus is your "true" identity
preserved and the strange, haunting thought that you might be something
beyond this little pile of dust silenced and stilled. For see, this dust
can make you suffer, twist your limbs, and stop your heart, commanding
you to die and cease to be.
10
Thus is the body stronger than the truth, which asks you live but cannot
overcome your choice to die. And so the body is more powerful than
everlasting life, the God Realm more frail than hell, and God's design
for the salvation of HisHer SonDaughter opposed by a decision stronger
than HisHer Will. HisHer SonDaughter is dust, the FatherMother
incomplete, and chaos sits in triumph on HisHer throne.
11
Such is your planning for your own defense. And you believe that the God
Realm quails before such mad attacks as these, with God made blind by
your illusions, truth turned into lies, and all the universe made slave
to laws which your defenses would impose on it. Yet who believes
illusions but the one who made them up? Who else can see them and react
to them as if they were the truth?
12
God knows not of your plans to change HisHer Will. The universe remains
unheeding of the laws by which you thought to govern it. And the God
Realm has not bowed to hell, nor life to death. You can but choose to
think you die or suffer sickness or distort the truth in any way. What
is created and manifested is apart from all of this. Defenses are plans
to defeat what cannot be attacked. What is unalterable cannot change.
And what is wholly sinless cannot sin.
13Such
is the simple truth. It does not make appeal to might nor triumph. It
does not command obedience nor seek to prove how pitiful and futile are
your attempts to plan defenses which would alter it. It merely wants to
give you happiness, for such its purpose is. Perhaps it sighs a little
when you throw away its gifts, and yet it knows with perfect certainty
that what God wills for you must be received.
14
It is this fact which demonstrates that time is an illusion. For it lets
you think what God has given you is not the truth right now, as it must
be. The Thoughts of God are quite apart from time. For time is but
another meaningless defense you made against the truth. Yet what God
wills is here, and you remain as HeShe created and manifested you.
15
Truth has a power far beyond defense, for no illusions can remain where
it has been allowed to enter. And it comes to any mind that would lay
down its arms and cease to play with folly. It is found at any
time-today, if you will choose to practice giving welcome to the truth.
This is our aim today. And we will give a quarter of an hour twice to
ask the truth to come to us and set us free.
16
And truth will come, for it has never been apart from us. It merely
waits for just this invitation which we give today. We introduce it with
a healing prayer to help us rise above defensiveness and let truth be as
it has always been:
17
Sickness is a defense against the truth.
I will accept the truth of
what I am
And let my mind be
wholly healed today.
18
Healing will flash across your open mind as peace and truth arise to
take the place of war and vain imaginings. There will be no dark corners
sickness can conceal and keep defended from the light of truth. There
will be no dim figures from your dreams nor their obscure and
meaningless pursuits with double purposes insanely sought, remaining in
your mind. It will be healed of all the sickly wishes that it tried to
authorize the body to obey.
19
Now is the body healed because the source of sickness has been opened to
relief. And you will recognize you practiced well by this-the body
should not feel at all. If you have been successful, there will be no
sense of feeling ill or feeling well, of pain or pleasure. No response
at all is in the mind to what the body does. Its usefulness remains and
nothing more.
20
Perhaps you do not realize that this removes the limits you had placed
upon the body by the purposes you gave to it. As these are laid aside,
the strength the body has will always be enough to serve all truly
useful purposes. 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. You need do nothing now to make it well, for
sickness has become impossible.
21
Yet this protection needs to be preserved by careful watching. 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.
Give instant remedy should this occur by not allowing your defensiveness
to hurt you longer. Do not be confused about what must be healed, but
tell yourself:
22
I have forgotten what I really am,
For I mistook my body for
myself.
Sickness is a defense
against the truth,
But I am not a body. And
my mind
Cannot attack. So I
can not be sick.
Lesson 137
When I am healed, I am not
healed alone.
1
Today's idea remains the central thought on which salvation rests. For
healing is the opposite of all the world's ideas which dwell on sickness
and on separate states. Sickness is a retreat from others and a shutting
off of joining. It becomes a door that closes on a separate self and
keeps it isolated and alone.
2
Sickness is isolation. For it seems to keep one self apart from all the
rest to suffer what the others do not feel. It gives the body final
power to make the separation real and keep the mind in solitary prison,
split apart and held in pieces by a solid wall of sickened flesh which
it can not surmount. The world obeys the laws that sickness serves, but
healing operates apart from them.
3
It is impossible that anyone be healed alone. In sickness must he/she be
apart and separate. But healing is his/her own decision to be one again
and to accept his/her Self with all its parts intact and unassailed. In
sickness does his/her Self appear to be dismembered and without the
unity that gives it life. But healing is accomplished as he/she sees the
body has no power to attack the universal oneness of God’s SonDaughter.
4
Sickness would prove that lies must be the truth. But healing
demonstrates that truth is true. The separation sickness would impose
has never really happened. To be healed is merely to accept what always
was the simple truth and always will remain exactly as it has forever
been. Yet eyes accustomed to illusions must be shown that what they look
upon is false. So healing, never needed by the truth, must demonstrate
that sickness is not real.
5
Healing might thus be called a counter-dream which cancels out the dream
of sickness in the name of Truth but not in Truth itself. Just as
forgiveness overlooks all sins that never were accomplished, healing but
removes illusions that have not occurred. Just as the real world will
arise to take the place of what has never been at all, healing offers
restitution for imagined states and false ideas which dreams embroider
into pictures of the truth.
6
Yet think not healing is unworthy of your function here. For anti-Christ
becomes more powerful than the Christ Consciousness/the Mercy
Consciousness to those who dream the world is real. The body seems to be
more solid and more stable than the mind. And love becomes a dream,
while fear remains the one reality that can be seen and justified and
fully understood.
7
Just as forgiveness shines away all sin and the real world will occupy
the place of what you made, so healing must replace the fantasies of
sickness which you hold before the simple truth. When sickness has been
seen to disappear in spite of all the laws that hold it cannot but be
real, then questions have been answered. And the laws can be no longer
cherished nor obeyed.
8
Healing is freedom. For it demonstrates that dreams will not prevail
against the truth. Healing is shared. And by this attribute, it proves
that laws unlike the ones which hold that sickness is inevitable are
more potent than their sickly opposites. Healing is strength. For by its
gentle hand is weakness overcome. And minds which were walled off within
a body free to join with other minds, to be forever strong.
9
Healing, forgiveness, and the glad exchange of all the world of sorrow
for a world where sadness cannot enter, are the means by which the Holy
Spirit urges you to follow Her. Her gentle lessons teach how easily
salvation can be yours, how little practice you need undertake to let
Her laws replace the ones you made to hold yourself a prisoner to death.
10
Her life becomes your own as you extend the little help She asks in
freeing you from everything that ever caused you pain. And as you let
yourself be healed, you see all those around you or who cross your mind
or whom you touch or those who seem to have no contact with you healed
along with you. Perhaps you will not recognize them all, nor realize how
great your offering to all the world when you let healing come to you.
But you are never healed alone. And legions upon legions will receive
the gift which you receive when you are healed.
11
Those who are healed become the instruments of healing. Nor does time
elapse between the instant they are healed and all the grace of healing
it is given them to give. What is opposed to God does not exist. And who
accepts it not within his/her mind becomes a haven where the weary can
remain to rest. For here is truth bestowed, and here are all illusions
brought to truth.
12
Would you not offer shelter to God's Will? You but invite your Self to
be at home, and can this invitation be refused? Ask the inevitable to
occur, and you will never fail. The other choice is but to ask what
cannot be to be, and this cannot succeed. Today we ask that only truth
will occupy our minds, that thoughts of healing will this day go forth
from what is healed to what must yet be healed, aware that they will
both occur as one.
13
We will remember, as the hour strikes, our function is to let our minds
be healed that we may carry healing to the world, exchanging curse for
blessing, pain for joy, and separation for the peace of God. Is not a
minute of the hour worth the giving to receive a gift like this? Is not
a little time a small expense to offer for the gift of everything?
14
Yet must we be prepared for such a gift. And so we will begin the day
with this and give ten minutes to these thoughts with which we will
conclude today at night as well:
15
When I am healed, I am not healed alone.
And I would share my
healing with the world,
That sickness may be
banished from the mind
Of God's one SonDaughter,
Who is my only Self.
16
Let healing be through you this very day. 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. Now we come together to make well all that was
sick and offer blessing where there was attack. Nor will we let this
function be forgot as every hour of the day slips by, remembering our
function with this thought:
17
When I am healed, I am not healed alone.
And I would bless my
brothers&sisters, for I would
Be healed with them as
they are healed with me.
Lesson 138
The God Realm is the
decision I must make.
1
In this world, the God Realm is a choice because here we believe there
are alternatives to choose between. We think that all things have an
opposite, and what we want we choose. If the God Realm exists, there
must be hell as well, for contradiction is the way we make what we
perceive and what we think is real. creation and manifestation knows no
opposite. But here is opposition part of being "real."
2
It is this strange perception of the truth that makes the choice of the
God Realm seem to be the same as the relinquishment of hell. It is not
really thus. Yet what is true in God's creation and manifestation cannot
enter here unless it is reflected in some form the world can understand.
Truth cannot come where it could only be perceived with fear, for this
would be the error truth can be brought to illusions. Opposition makes
the truth unwelcome, and it cannot come.
3
Choice is the obvious escape from what appears as opposites. Decision
lets one of conflicting goals become the aim of effort and expenditure
of time. Without decision, time is but a waste and effort dissipated. It
is spent for nothing in return. And time goes by without results. There
is no sense of gain, for nothing is accomplished; nothing learned.
4
You need to be reminded that you think a thousand choices are
confronting you when there is really only one to make. And even this but
seems to be a choice. Do not confuse yourself with all the doubts that
myriad decisions would induce. You make but one. And when that one is
made, you will perceive it was no choice at all, for truth is true and
nothing else is real. There is no opposite to choose instead. There is
no contradiction to the truth.
5
Choosing depends on learning. But the truth cannot be learned but only
recognized. In recognition its acceptance lies, and as it is accepted,
it is known. But knowledge is beyond the goals we seek to teach within
the framework of this course. Ours are teaching goals to be attained
through learning how to reach them, what they are, and what they offer
you. Decisions are the outcome of your learning, for they rest on what
you have accepted as the truth of what you are and what your needs must
be.
6
In this insanely complicated world, the God Realm appears to take the
form of choice rather than merely being what it is. Of all the choices
you have tried to make, this is the simplest, most definitive, the
prototype of all the rest, the one which settles all decisions. If you
could decide the rest, this one remains unsolved. But when you solve
this one, the others are resolved with it, for all decisions but conceal
this one by taking different forms. Here is the final and the only
choice in which is truth accepted or denied.
7
So we begin today considering the choice that time was made to help us
make. Such is its holy purpose, now transformed from the intent you gave
it, that it be a means for demonstrating hell is real, hope changes to
despair, and life itself must in the end be overcome by death. In death
alone are opposites resolved, for ending opposition is to die. And thus
salvation must be seen as death, for life is seen as conflict. To
resolve the conflict is to end your life as well.
8
These mad beliefs can gain unconscious hold of great intensity and grip
the mind with terror and anxiety so strong that it will not relinquish
its ideas about its own protection. It must be saved from salvation,
threatened to be safe, and magically armored against truth. And these
decisions are made unaware to keep them safely undisturbed, apart from
question and from reason and from doubt.
9
The God Realm is chosen consciously. The choice cannot be made until
alternatives are accurately seen and understood. All that is veiled in
shadows must be raised to understanding to be judged again, this time
with the God Realm's help, and all mistakes in judgment which the mind
had made before are open to correction as the truth dismisses them as
causeless. Now are they without effects. They cannot be concealed
because their nothingness is recognized.
10The
conscious choice of the God Realm is as sure as is the ending of the
fear of hell when it is raised from its protective shield of unawareness
and is brought to light. Who can decide between the clearly seen and the
unrecognized? Yet who can fail to make a choice between alternatives
when only one is seen as valuable, the other as a wholly worthless
thing, a but imagined source of guilt and pain? Who hesitates to make a
choice like this? And shall we hesitate to choose today?
11
We make the choice for the God Realm as we wake and spend five minutes
making sure that we have made the one decision that is sane. We
recognize we make a conscious choice between what has existence and what
has nothing but an appearance of the truth. Its pseudo-being, brought to
what is real, is flimsy and transparent in the light. It holds no terror
now, for what was made enormous, vengeful, pitiless with hate demands
obscurity for fear to be invested there. Now it is recognized as but a
foolish, trivial mistake.
12
Before we close our eyes in sleep tonight, we reaffirm the choice that
we have made each hour in between. And now we give the last five minutes
of our waking day to the decision with which we awoke. As every hour
passed, we have declared our choice again in a brief quiet time devoted
to maintaining sanity. And finally we close the day with this,
acknowledging we chose but what we want:
13
The God Realm is the decision I must make.
I make it now and will not change
my mind,
Because it is the only thing I
want.
Lesson 139
I will accept Atonement for
myself.
1
Here is the end of choice. For here we come to a decision to accept
ourselves as God created and manifested us. And what is choice except
uncertainty of what we are? There is no doubt that is not rooted here.
There is no question but reflects this one. There is no conflict that
does not entail the single simple question, "What am I?"
2
Yet who could ask this question except one who has refused to recognize
himself/herself? Only refusal to accept yourself could make the question
seem to be sincere. The only thing that can be surely known by any
living thing is what it is. From this one point of certainty it looks on
other things as certain as itself. Uncertainty about what you must be is
self-deception on a scale so vast its magnitude can hardly be conceived.
3
To be alive and not to know yourself is to believe that you are really
dead. For what is life except to be yourself, and what but you can be
alive instead? Who is the doubter? What is it he/she doubts? Whom does
he/she question? Who can answer him&her? he/she merely states that
he/she is not himself/herself and therefore, being something else,
becomes a questioner of what that something is.
4
Yet he/she could never be alive at all unless he/she knew the answer. If
he/she asks as if he/she did not know, it merely shows he/she does not
want to be the thing he/she is. he/she has accepted it because he/she
lives, has judged against it and denied its worth, and has decided that
he/she does not know the only certainty by which he/she lives. Thus
he/she becomes uncertain of his/her life, for what it is has been denied
by him&her.
5
It is for this denial that you need Atonement. Your denial made no
change in what you are. But you have split your mind into what knows and
does not know the truth. You are yourself. There is no doubt of this,
and yet you doubt it. But you do not ask what part of you can really
doubt yourself. It cannot really be a part of you that asks this
question, for it asks of one who knows the answer. Were it part of you,
uncertainty would be impossible.
6Atonement
remedies the strange idea that it is possible to doubt yourself and be
unsure of what you really are. This is the depth of madness. Yet it is
the universal question of the world. What does this prove except the
world is mad? Why share its madness in the sad belief that what is
universal here is true? Nothing the world believes is true. It is a
place whose purpose is to be a home where those who claim they do not
know themselves can come to question what it is they are.
7
And they will come again until the time Atonement is accepted, and they
learn it is impossible to doubt yourself and not to be aware of what you
are. Only acceptance can be asked of you, for what you are is certain.
It is set forever in the holy Mind of God and in your own. It is so far
beyond all doubt and question that to ask what it must be is all the
proof you need to show that you believe the contradiction that you know
not what you cannot fail to know.
8
Is this a question or a statement which denies itself in statement? Let
us not allow our holy minds to occupy themselves with senseless musings
such as this. We have a mission here. We did not come to reinforce the
madness which we once believed in. Let us not forget the goal that we
accepted. It is more than just our happiness alone we came to gain. What
we accept as what we are proclaims what everyone must be along with us.
9
Fail not your brothers&sisters , or you fail yourself. Look
lovingly on them that they may know that they are part of you and you of
them. This does Atonement teach and demonstrates the oneness of God’s
SonDaughter is unassailed by hisher belief heshe knows not what heshe
is. Today accept Atonement, not to change reality, but merely to accept
the truth about yourself and go your way rejoicing in the endless Love
of God. It is but this that we are asked to do. It is but this that we
will do today.
10
Five minutes in the morning and at night we will devote to dedicate our
minds to our assignment for today. We start with this review of what our
mission is:
11
I will accept Atonement for myself,
For I remain as God created and
manifested me.
12
We have not lost the knowledge that God gave to us when HeShe created
and manifested us like HimHer. We can remember it for everyone, for in
creation and manifestation are all minds as one and in our memory is the
recall how dear our brothers&sisters 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’sMother's Love contains us all.
13 In
thanks for all creation and manifestation, in the name of its
CreatorManifestoress and HisHer oneness with all aspects of creation and
manifestation, we repeat our dedication to our cause today each hour, as
we lay aside all thoughts that would distract us from our holy aim. For
several minutes let your mind be cleared of all the foolish cobwebs
which the world would weave around the holy SonDaughter of God. And
learn the fragile nature of the chains that seem to keep the knowledge
of yourself apart from your awareness, as you say:
14
I will accept Atonement for myself,
For I remain as God created and
manifested me.
Lesson 140
Only salvation can be said
to cure.
1
Cure is a word that cannot be applied to any remedy the world accepts as
beneficial. What the world perceives as therapeutic is but what will
make the body "better." When it tries to heal the mind, it sees no
separation from the body, where it thinks the mind exists. Its forms of
healing thus must substitute illusion for illusion. One belief in
sickness takes another form, and so the patient now perceives
himself/herself as well.
2
he/she is not healed. he/she merely had a dream that he/she was sick,
and in the dream he/she found a magic formula to make him&her well.
Yet he/she has not awakened from the dream, and so his/her mind remains
exactly as it was before. he/she has not seen the light that would
awaken him&her and end the dream. What difference does the content
of a dream make in reality? One either sleeps or wakens. There is
nothing in between.
3
The happy dreams the Holy Spirit brings are different from the dreaming
of the world, where one can merely dream he/she is awake. The dreams
forgiveness lets the mind perceive do not induce another form of sleep,
so that the dreamer dreams another dream. his/her happy dreams are
heralds of the dawn of truth upon the mind. They lead from sleep to
gentle waking, so that dreams are gone. And thus they cure for all
eternity.
4
Atonement heals with certainty and cures all sickness. For the mind
which understands that sickness can be nothing but a dream is not
deceived by forms the dream may take. Sickness where guilt is absent
cannot come, for it is but another form of guilt. Atonement does not
heal the sick, for that is not a cure. It takes away the guilt that
makes the sickness possible. And that is cure indeed. For sickness now
is gone, with nothing left to which it can return.
5
Peace be to you who have been cured in God and not in idle dreams. For
cure must come from holiness, and holiness can not be found where sin is
cherished. God abides in holy temples. HeShe is barred where sin has
entered. Yet there is no place where HeShe is not. And therefore sin can
have no home in which to hide from HisHer beneficence. There is no place
where holiness is not, and nowhere sin and sickness can abide.
6
This is the thought that cures. It does not make distinctions among
unrealities. Nor does it seek to heal what is not sick, unmindful where
the need for healing is. This is no magic. It is merely an appeal to
truth which cannot fail to heal and heal forever. It is not a thought
which judges an illusion by its size, its seeming gravity, or anything
that is related to the form it takes. It merely focuses on what it is
and knows that no illusion can be real.
7
Let us not try today to seek to cure what cannot suffer sickness.
Healing must be sought but where it is and then applied to what is sick
so that it can be cured. There is no remedy the world provides that can
effect a change in anything. The mind that brings illusions to the truth
is really changed. There is no change but this. For how can one illusion
differ from another but in attributes that have no substance, no
reality, no core, and nothing that is truly different?
8
Today we seek to change our minds about the source of sickness, for we
seek a cure for all illusions, not another shift among them. We will try
today to find the source of healing, which is in our minds because our
FatherMother placed it there for us. It is not further from us than
ourselves. It is as near to us as our own thoughts—so close it is
impossible to lose. We need but seek it, and it must be found.
9
We will not be misled today by what appears to us as sick. We go beyond
appearances today and reach the source of healing from which nothing is
exempt. We will succeed to the extent to which we realize that there can
never be a meaningful distinction made between what is untrue and
equally untrue. Here there are no degrees and no beliefs that what does
not exist is truer in some forms than others. All of them are false and
can be cured because they are not true.
10
So do we lay aside our amulets, our charms and medicines, our chants and
bits of magic in whatever form they took. We will be still and listen
for the Voice of healing which will cure all ills as one, restoring
saneness to the SonDaughter of God. No voice but this can cure. Today we
hear a single Voice which speaks to us of truth where all illusions end,
and peace returns to the eternal quiet home of God.
11
We waken hearing Her and let Her speak to us five minutes as the day
begins and end the day by listening again five minutes more before we go
to sleep. Our only preparation is to let our interfering thoughts be
laid aside, not separately, but all of them as one. They are the same.
We have no need to make them different and thus delay the time when we
can hear our FatherMother speak to us. We hear HimHer now. We come to
HimHer today.
12
With nothing in our hands to which we cling, with lifted hearts and
listening minds we pray:
13
Only salvation can be said to cure.
Speak to us, FatherMother,
that we may be healed.
14
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. This will we learn today. 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.
This is the day when healing comes to us. This is the day when
separation ends and we remember Who we really are.
Review IV
R4:1
Now we review again, this time aware we are preparing for the second
part of learning how the truth can be applied. Today we will begin to
concentrate on readiness for what will follow next. Such is our aim for
this review and for the lessons following. Thus we review the recent
lessons and their central thoughts in such a way as will facilitate the
readiness which we would now achieve.
2
There is a central theme that unifies each step in the review we
undertake, which can be simply stated in these words:
3
My mind holds only what I think with God.
4
This is a fact and represents the truth of what you are and what your
FatherMother is. It is this thought by which the FatherMother gave
creation and manifestation to the SonDaughter, establishing the
SonDaughter as co-CreatorManifestoress with HimHerself. It is this
thought which fully guarantees salvation to the SonDaughter. For in
hisher mind no thoughts can dwell but those hisher FatherMother shares.
Lack of forgiveness blocks this thought from hisher awareness. Yet it is
forever true.
5
Let us begin our preparation with some understanding of the many forms
in which the lack of true forgiveness may be carefully concealed.
Because they are illusions, they are not perceived to be but what they
are—defenses which protect your unforgiving thoughts from being seen and
recognized. Their purpose is to show you something else and hold
correction off through self-deceptions made to take its place.
6
And yet your mind holds only what you think with God. Your
self-deceptions cannot take the place of truth. 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. 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 which they offer us.
7
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. Open your mind and clear it of all thoughts that would
deceive, and let this thought alone engage it fully and remove the rest:
8
My mind holds only what I think with God.
9
Five minutes with this thought will be enough to set the day along the
lines which God appointed and to place HisHer Mind in charge of all the
thoughts you will receive that day. They will not come from you alone,
for they will all be shared with HimHer. And so each one will bring the
message of HisHer Love to you, returning messages of yours to HimHer. So
will communion with the Lord of Hosts be yours, as HeShe HimHerself has
willed it be. And as HisHer own completion joins with HimHer, so will
HeShe join with you who are complete as you unite with HimHer and HeShe
with you.
10After
your preparation, merely read each of the two ideas assigned to you to
be reviewed that day. Then close your eyes and say them slowly to
yourself. There is no hurry now, for you are using time for its intended
purpose. Let each word shine with the meaning God has given it as it was
given to you through HisHer Voice. Let each idea that you review that
day give you the gift which HeShe has laid in it for you to have of
HimHer. And we will use no format for our practicing but this:
11
Each hour of the day bring to your mind the thought with which the day
began and spend a quiet moment with it. Then repeat the two ideas you
practice for the day unhurriedly, with time enough to see the gifts
which they contain for you, and let them be received where they were
meant to be. We add no other thoughts, but let them be the messages they
are. We need no more than this to give us happiness and rest and endless
quiet, perfect certainty, and all our Father’sMother’s will that we
receive as the inheritance we have of HimHer.
12
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. God offers thanks to you who practice thus the keeping of
HisHer Word. And as you give your mind to the ideas for the day again
before you sleep, HisHer gratitude surrounds you in the peace wherein
HeShe wills you be forever and are learning now to claim again as your
inheritance.
Lesson 141
My mind holds only what I
think with God.
[121] Forgiveness is the key to
happiness.
[122] Forgiveness offers everything I
want.
Lesson 142
My mind holds only what I
think with God.
[123] I thank my FatherMother for
HisHer gifts to me.
[124] Let me remember I am one with
God.
Lesson 143
My mind holds only what I
think with God.
[125] In quiet I receive God's Word
today.
[126] All that I give is given to
myself.
Lesson 144
My mind holds only what I
think with God.
[127] There is no love but God's.
[128] The world I see has nothing that
I want.
Lesson 145
My mind holds only what I
think with God.
[129] Beyond this world there is a
world I want.
[130] It is impossible to see two
worlds.
Lesson 146
My mind holds only what I
think with God.
[131] No one can fail who asks to reach
the truth.
[132] I loose the world from all I
thought it was.
Lesson 147
My mind holds only what I
think with God.
[133] I will not value what is
valueless.
[134] Let me perceive forgiveness as it
is.
Lesson 148
My mind holds only what I
think with God.
[135] If I defend myself, I am
attacked.
[136] Sickness is a defense against the
truth.
Lesson 149
My mind holds only what I
think with God.
[137] When I am healed, I am not healed
alone.
[138] The God Realm is the decision I
must make.
Lesson 150
My mind holds only what I
think with God.
[139] I will accept Atonement for
myself.
[140] Only salvation can be said to
cure.
Lesson 151
All things are echoes of
the Voice of God.
1
No one can judge on partial evidence. That is not judgment. It is merely
an opinion based on ignorance and doubt. Its seeming certainty is but a
cloak for the uncertainty it would conceal. It needs irrational defense
because it is irrational. And its defense seems strong, convincing, and
without a doubt because of all the doubting underneath.
2
You do not seem to doubt the world you see. You do not really question
what is shown you through the body's eyes. Nor do you ask why you
believe it, even though you learned a long while since your senses do
deceive. That you believe them to the last detail which they report is
even stranger when you pause to recollect how frequently they have been
faulty witnesses indeed! Why would you trust them so implicitly? Why but
because of underlying doubt which you would hide with show of certainty?
3
How can you judge? Your judgment rests upon the witness that your senses
offer you. Yet witness never falser was than this. But how else do you
judge the world you see? You place pathetic faith in what your eyes and
ears report. You think your fingers touch reality and close upon the
truth. This is awareness which you understand and think more real than
what is witnessed to by the eternal Voice of God HimHerself.
4
Can this be judgment? You have often been urged to refrain from judging,
not because it is a right to be withheld from you. You cannot judge. You
merely can believe the ego's judgments, all of which are false. It
guides your senses carefully, to prove how weak you are, how helpless
and afraid, how apprehensive of just punishment, how black with sin, how
wretched in your guilt.
5
This thing it speaks of and would yet defend it tells you is yourself.
And you believe that this is so with stubborn certainty. Yet underneath
remains the hidden doubt that what it shows you as reality with such
conviction it does not believe. It is itself alone that it condemns. It
is within itself it sees the guilt. It is its own despair it sees in
you.
6
Hear not its voice. The witnesses it sends to prove to you its evil is
your own are false and speak with certainty of what they do not know.
Your faith in them is blind because you would not share the doubts their
lord/lady cannot completely vanquish. You believe to doubt his/her
vassals is to doubt yourself. Yet you must learn to doubt their evidence
will clear the way to recognize yourself and let the Voice for God alone
be Judge of what is worthy of your own belief.
7
She will not tell you that your brother or sister should be judged by
what your eyes behold in him&her, nor what his/her body's mouth says
to your ears, nor what your fingers' touch reports of him&her. She
passes by such idle witnesses, which merely bear false witness to God’s
SonDaughter. She recognizes only what God loves, and in the holy light
of what She sees do all the ego's dreams of what you are vanish before
the splendor She beholds.
8
Let Her be judge of what you are, for She has certainty in which there
is no doubt, because it rests on certainty so great that doubt is
meaningless before Its face. the Christ Consciousness/the Mercy
Consciousness cannot doubt itself. The Voice of God can only honor
HimHer, rejoicing in HisHer perfect, everlasting sinlessness. Whom She
has judged can only laugh at guilt, unwilling now to play with toys of
sin, unheeding of the body's witnesses before the rapture of Her holy
face.
9
And thus She judges you. Accept Her word of what you are, for She bears
witness to your beautiful creation and manifestation and the Mind Whose
Thought created and manifested your reality. What can the body mean to
Her Who knows the glory of the FatherMother and the SonDaughter? What
whispers of the ego can HeShe hear? What could convince Her that your
sins are real?
10
Let Her be judge as well of everything that seems to happen to you in
this world. Her lessons will enable you to bridge the gap between
illusions and the truth. She will remove all faith that you have placed
in pain, disaster, suffering, and loss. She gives you vision which can
look beyond these grim appearances and can behold the gentle face of the
Christ Consciousness/the Mercy Consciousness in all of them. You will no
longer doubt that only good can come to you who are beloved of God, for
She will judge all happenings and teach the single lesson which they all
contain.
11
She will select the elements in them that represent the truth and
disregard those aspects which reflect but idle dreams. And She will
reinterpret all you see and all occurrences, each circumstance, and
every happening which seems to touch on you in any way from Her one
frame of reference, wholly unified and sure. And you will see the love
beyond the hate, the constancy in change, the pure in sin, and only the
God Realm's blessing on the world.
12
Such is your resurrection, for your life is not a part of anything you
see. It stands beyond the body and the world, past every witness for
unholiness, within the Holy, holy as Itself. In everyone and everything,
Her Voice would speak to you of nothing but your Self and your
CreatorManifestoress, Who is one with Her. So will you see the holy face
of the Christ Consciousness/the Mercy Consciousness in everything and
hear in everything no sound except the echo of God's Voice.
13
We practice wordlessly today, except at the beginning of the time you
spend with God. We introduce these times with but a single, slow
repeating of the thought with which the day begins. And then we watch
our thoughts, appealing silently to Her Who sees the elements of truth
in them. Let Her evaluate each thought that comes to mind, remove the
elements of dreams, and give them back to you as clean ideas that do not
contradict the Will of God.
14
Give Her your thoughts, and She will give them back as miracles which
joyously proclaim the wholeness and the happiness God wills HisHer
SonDaughter as proof of HisHer eternal Love. And as each thought is thus
transformed, it takes on healing power from the Mind Which saw the truth
in it and failed to be deceived by what was falsely added. All the
threads of fantasy are gone, and what remains is unified into a perfect
thought that offers its perfection everywhere.
15Spend
15 minutes thus when you awake and gladly give another 15 more before
you go to sleep. Your ministry begins as all your thoughts are purified.
So are you taught to teach the SonDaughter of God the holy lesson of
his/her sanctity. No one can fail to listen when you hear the Voice for
God give honor to God’s SonDaughter. And everyone will share the
thoughts with you which HeShe has retranslated in your mind.
16
Such is your Eastertide. And so you lay the gift of snow-white lilies on
the world, replacing witnesses to sin and death. Through your
transfiguration is the world redeemed and joyfully released from guilt.
Now do we lift our resurrected minds in gladness and in gratitude to
HimHer Who has restored our sanity to us.
17
And we will hourly remember HimHer Who is salvation and deliverance. As
we give thanks the world unites with us and happily accepts our holy
thoughts which the God Realm has corrected and made pure. Now has our
male/female ministry begun at last, to carry round the world the joyous
news that truth has no illusions and the peace of God, through us,
belongs to everyone.
Lesson 152
The power of decision is my
own.
1
No one can suffer loss unless it be his/her own decision. No one suffers
pain except his/her choice elects this state for him. No one can grieve
nor fear nor think himself/herself sick unless these are the outcomes
that he/she wants. And no one dies without his/her own consent. Nothing
occurs but represents your wish, and nothing is omitted that you choose.
Here is your world, complete in all details. Here is its whole reality
for you. And it is only here salvation is.
2
You may believe that this position is extreme and too inclusive to be
true. Yet can truth have exceptions? If you have the gift of everything,
can loss be real? Can pain be part of peace, or grief of joy? Can fear
and sickness enter in a mind where love and perfect holiness abide?
Truth must be all-inclusive if it be the truth at all. Accept no
opposite and no exceptions, for to do so is to contradict the truth
entirely.
3
Salvation is the recognition that the truth is true and nothing else is
true. This you have heard before, but may not yet accept both parts of
it. Without the first, the second has no meaning, but without the second
is the first no longer true. Truth cannot have an opposite. This can not
be too often said and thought about. For if what is not true is true as
well as what is true, then part of truth is false, and truth has lost
its meaning. Nothing but the truth is true, and what is false is false.
4
This is the simplest of distinctions, yet the most obscure. But not
because it is a difficult distinction to perceive. It is concealed
behind a vast array of choices which do not appear to be entirely your
own. And thus the truth appears to have some aspects that belie
consistency but do not seem to be but contradictions introduced by you.
5
As God created and manifested you, you must remain unchangeable with
transitory states by definition false. And that includes all shifts in
feeling, alterations in conditions of the body and the mind, in all
awareness, and in all response. This is the all-inclusiveness which sets
the truth apart from falsehood, and the false kept separate from the
truth as what it is.
6
Is it not strange that you believe to think you made the world you see
is arrogance? God made it not. Of this you can be sure. What can HeShe
know of the ephemeral, the sinful and the guilty, the afraid, the
suffering and lonely, and the mind that lives within a body that must
die? You but accuse HimHer of insanity, to think HeShe made a world
where such things seem to have reality. HeShe is not mad. Yet only
madness makes a world like this.
7
To think that God made chaos, contradicts HisHer Will, invented
opposites to truth, and suffers death to triumph over life—all this is
arrogance. Humility would see at once these things are not of HimHer.
And can you see what God created and manifested not? To think you can is
merely to believe you can perceive what God willed not to be. And what
could be more arrogant than this?
8
Let us today be truly humble and accept what we have made as what it is.
The power of decision is our own. Decide but to accept your rightful
place as co-creatorcomanifestor of the universe, and all you think you
made will disappear. What rises to awareness then will be all that there
ever was, eternally as it is now. And it will take the place of
self-deceptions made but to usurp the altar to the FatherMother and the
SonDaughter.
9
Today we practice true humility, abandoning the false pretense by which
the ego seeks to prove it arrogant. Only the ego can be arrogant. But
truth is humble in acknowledging its mightiness, its changelessness, and
its eternal wholeness—all-encompassing, God's perfect gift to HisHer
beloved SonDaughter.
10
We lay aside the arrogance which says that we are sinners, guilty and
afraid, ashamed of what we are. And we lift our hearts in true humility
instead to HimHer Who has created and manifested us immaculate, like to
HimHerself in power and in love. The power of decision is our own. And
we accept of HimHer that which we are and humbly recognize the
SonDaughter of God.
11
To recognize God’s SonDaughter implies as well that all self-concepts
have been laid aside and recognized as false. Their arrogance has been
perceived. And in humility the radiance of God’s SonDaughter, hisher
gentleness, hisher perfect sinlessness, hisher Father’sMother's Love,
hisher right to the God Realm and release from hell are joyously
accepted as our own. Now do we join in glad acknowledgment that lies are
false and only truth is true.
12
We think of truth alone as we arise and spend five minutes practicing
its ways, encouraging our frightened minds with this:
13
The power of decision is my own.
This day I will accept
myself as what
My Father’sMother's
Will created and manifested me to be.
14
Then will we wait in silence, giving up all self-deceptions as we humbly
ask our Self that hanhun reveal himherself to us. And heshe, who never
left will come again to our awareness, grateful to restore hisher home
to God as it was meant to be.
15
In patience wait for himher throughout the day and hourly invite himher
with the words with which the day began, concluding it with this same
invitation to your Self. God's Voice will answer, for She speaks for you
and for your FatherMother. She will substitute the peace of God for all
your frantic thoughts, the truth of God for self-deceptions, and God’s
SonDaughter for your illusions of yourself.
Lesson 153
In my defenselessness my
safety lies.
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. The world
provides no safety. It is rooted in attack and all its "gifts" of
seeming safety are illusory deceptions. It attacks and then attacks
again. No peace of mind is possible where danger threatens thus.
2
The world gives rise but to defensiveness. For threat brings anger,
anger makes attack seem reasonable, honestly provoked, and righteous in
the name of self defense. Yet is defensiveness a double threat. For it
attests to weakness and sets up a system of defense that cannot work.
Now are the weak still further undermined, for there is treachery
without and still a greater treachery within. The mind is now confused
and knows not where to turn to find escape from its imaginings.
3
It is as if a circle held it fast, wherein another circle bound it, and
another in that one, until escape no longer can be hoped for nor
obtained. 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. There seems to be no break nor
ending in the ever-tightening grip of imprisonment upon the mind.
4
Defenses are the costliest of all the prices which the ego would exact.
In them lies madness in a form so grim that hope of sanity seems but to
be an idle dream, beyond the possible. 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. You are its slave. You know not what you do in fear of
it. You do not understand how much you have been made to sacrifice who
feel its iron grip upon your heart.
5
You do not realize what you have done to sabotage the holy peace of God
by your defensiveness. For you behold the SonDaughter of God as but a
victim to attack by fantasies, by dreams, and by illusions HeShe has
made; yet helpless HeShe is in their presence, needful only of defense
by still more fantasies and dreams by which illusions of HisHer safety
comfort HimHer.
6
Defenselessness is strength. It testifies to recognition of the Christ
Consciousness/the Mercy Consciousness in you. Perhaps you will recall
the course maintains that choice is always made between It’s strength
and your own weakness seen apart from It. 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/she becomes too sleepy to
remember what he/she wants.
7
Defensiveness is weakness. It proclaims you have denied the Christ
Consciousness/the Mercy Consciousness and come to fear It’s
Father’sMother’s anger. 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? What but illusions could defend you now, when it is
but illusions which you fight?
8
We will not play such childish games today. For our true purpose is to
save the world, and we would not exchange for foolishness the endless
joy our function offers us. We would not let our happiness slip by
because a senseless fragment of a dream happened to cross our minds, and
we mistook the figures in it for the Son of God, its tiny instant for
eternity.
9
We look past dreams today and recognize that we need no defense because
we are created and manifested unassailable, without all thought or wish
or dream in which attack has any meaning. Now we cannot fear, for we
have left all fearful thoughts behind. And in defenselessness we stand
secure, serenely certain of our safety now, sure of salvation; sure we
will fulfil our chosen purpose as our ministry extends its holy blessing
through the world.
10
Be still a moment, and in silence think how holy is your purpose, how
secure you rest, untouchable within its light. God's
ministers/ministeresses have chosen that the truth be with them. Who is
holier than they? Who could be surer that his/her happiness is fully
guaranteed? And who could be more mightily protected? What defense could
possibly be needed now by those who are among the chosen ones of God by
HisHer election and their own as well?
11
It is the function of God's ministers/ministeresses to help their
brothers&sisters choose as they have done. God has elected all, but
few have come to realize HisHer Will is but their own. And while you
fail to teach what you have learned, salvation waits and darkness holds
the world in grim imprisonment. Nor will you learn that light has come
to you, and your escape has been accomplished. For you will not see the
light until you offer it to all your brothers&sisters . As
they take it from your hands, so will you recognize it as your own.
12
Salvation can be thought of as a game that happy children play. It was
designed by One Who loves HisHer children, and Who would replace their
fearful toys with joyous games which teach them that the game of fear is
gone. HisHer game instructs in happiness because there is no loser.
Everyone who plays must win, and in his/her winning is the gain to
everyone ensured. The game of fear is gladly laid aside when children
come to see the benefits salvation brings.
13
You who have played that you are lost to hope, abandoned by your
FatherMother, left alone in terror in a fearful world made mad by sin
and guilt, be happy now. That game is over. 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 the God Realm's
children and the SonDaughter of God. We pause but for a moment more to
play our final happy game upon this earth. And then we go to take our
rightful place where truth abides and games are meaningless.
14
So is the story ended. Let this day bring the last chapter closer to the
world that everyone may learn the tales he/she reads of terrifying
destiny, defeat of all his/her hopes, his/her pitiful defense against a
vengeance he/she can not escape, are but his/her own deluded fantasies.
God's ministers/ministeresses have come to waken him&her from the
dark dreams this story has evoked in his/her confused, bewildered memory
of this distorted tale. God’s SonDaughter can smile at last on learning
that it is not true.
15
Today we practice in a form we will maintain for quite a while. We will
begin each day by giving our attention to the daily thought as long as
possible. Five minutes now becomes the least we give to preparation for
a day in which salvation is the only goal we have. Ten would be better;
15 better still. 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. Nor will we willingly give less at night in gratitude and joy.
16
Each hour adds to our increasing peace, as we remember to be faithful to
the Will we share with God. At times, perhaps, a minute, even less, will
be the most that we can offer as the hour strikes. Sometimes we will
forget. 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.
17
Yet when we can, we will observe our trust as
ministers&ministeresses of God in hourly remembrance of our mission
and HisHer Love. And we will quietly sit by and wait on HimHer and
listen to HisHer Voice and learn what HeShe would have us do the hour
that is yet to come, while thanking HimHer for all the gifts HeShe gave
us in the one gone by.
18
In time, with practice, you will never cease to think of HimHer and hear
HisHer loving Voice guiding your footsteps into quiet ways where you
will walk in true defenselessness, for you will know that the God Realm
goes with you. Nor would you keep your mind away from HimHer a moment,
even though your time is spent in offering salvation to the world. Think
you HeShe will not make this possible for you who chose to carry out
HisHer plan for the salvation of the world and yours?
19
Today our theme is our defenselessness. We clothe ourselves in it as we
prepare to meet the day. We rise up strong in the Christ
Consciousness/the Mercy Consciousness and let our weakness disappear as
we remember that It’s strength abides in us. We will remind ourselves
that It remains beside us through the day and never leaves our weakness
unsupported by Its strength.
20
We call upon It’s strength each time we feel the threat of our defenses
undermine our certainty of purpose. We will pause a moment as It tells
us, "I am here." Your practicing will now begin to take the earnestness
of love to help you keep your mind from wandering from its intent.
21
Be not afraid nor timid. There can be no doubt that you will reach your
final goal. The ministers&ministeresses of God can never fail
because the love and strength and peace that shine from them to all
their brothers&sisters come from It. These are It’s gifts to
you. Defenselessness is all you need to give It in return. You lay aside
but what was never real to look on the Christ Consciousness/the Mercy
Consciousness and see It’s sinlessness.
Lesson 154
I am among the
ministers/ministeresses of God.
1
Let us today be neither arrogant nor falsely humble. We have gone beyond
such foolishness. We cannot judge ourselves, nor need we do so. These
are but attempts to hold decision off, and to delay commitment to our
function. It is not our part to judge our worth, nor can we know what
role is best for us; what we can do within a larger plan we cannot see
in its entirety. Our part is cast in the God Realm, not in hell. And
what we think is weakness can be strength; what we believe to be our
strength is often arrogance.
2
Whatever your appointed role may be, it was selected by the Voice for
God, Whose function is to speak for you as well. Seeing your strengths
exactly as they are and equally aware of where they can be best applied,
for what, to whom, and when, She chooses and accepts your part for you.
She does not work without your own consent, but She is not deceived in
what you are and listens only to Her Voice in you.
3
It is through Her ability to hear One Voice Which is Her own that you
become aware at last there is One Voice in you. And that One Voice
appoints your function and relays it to you, giving you the strength to
understand it, do what it entails, and to succeed in everything you do
that is related to it. God has joined HisHer SonDaughter in this, and
thus HisHer SonDaughter becomes HisHer messenger of unity with HimHer.
4
It is this joining through the Voice of God of FatherMother and of
SonDaughter that sets apart salvation from the world. It is this Voice
which speaks of laws the world does not obey, which promises salvation
from all sin, with guilt abolished in the mind that God created and
manifested sinless. Now this mind becomes aware again of Who created and
manifested it, and of HisHer lasting union with itself. So is its Self
the one reality in which its will and that of God are joined.
5
A messenger does not elect to make the message he/she delivers. Nor does
he/she question the right of him&her who does nor ask why he/she has
chosen those who will receive the message that he/she brings. It is
enough that he/she accept it, bring it to the ones for whom it is
appointed, and fulfill his/her role in its delivery. If he/she
determines what the messages should be or what their purpose is or where
they should be carried, he/she is failing to perform his/her proper part
as bringer of the Word.
6
There is one major difference in the role of the God Realm's messengers
which sets them off from those the world appoints. The messages which
they deliver are intended first for them. And it is only as they can
accept them for themselves that they become able to bring them further
and to give them everywhere that they were meant to be. Like earthly
messengers, they did not write the messages they bear, but they become
their first receivers in the truest sense, receiving to prepare
themselves to give.
7
An earthly messenger fulfills his/her role by giving all the messages
away. The messengers of God perform their part by their acceptance of
HisHer messages as for themselves and show they understand the messages
by giving them away. They choose no roles that are not given them by
HisHer authority. And so they gain by every message which they give
away.
8
Would you receive the messages of God? For thus do you become HisHer
messengers. You are appointed now. And yet you wait to give the messages
you have received, and so you do not know that they are yours and do not
recognize them. No one can receive and understand he/she has received
until he/she gives. For in the giving is his/her own acceptance of what
he/she received.
9
You who are now the messengers of God receive HisHer messages, for that
is part of your appointed role. God has not failed to offer what you
need, nor has it been left unaccepted. Yet another part of your
appointed task is yet to be accomplished. She Who has received for you
the messages of God would have them be received by you as well. For thus
do you identify with HimHer and claim your own.
10
It is this joining that we undertake to recognize today. We will not
seek to keep our minds apart from Her Who speaks for us, for it is but
our voice we hear as we attend Her. She alone can speak to us and for
us, joining in One Voice the getting and the giving of God's Word, the
giving and receiving of HisHer Will.
11
We practice giving Her what She would have that we may recognize Her
gifts to us. She needs our voice that She may speak through us. She
needs our hands to hold Her messages and carry them to those whom She
appoints. She needs our feet to bring us where She wills, that those who
wait in misery may be at last delivered. And She needs our will united
with Her own, that we may be the true receivers of the gifts She gives.
12
Let us but learn this lesson for today: we will not recognize what we
receive until we give it. You have heard this said a hundred times, and
yet belief is lacking still. But this is sure—until belief is given it,
you will receive a thousand miracles and then receive a thousand more
but will not know that God HimHerself has left no gift beyond what you
already have nor has denied the tiniest of blessings to HisHer
SonDaughter. What can this mean to you until you have identified with
HimHer and with HisHer own?
13
Our lesson for today is stated thus:
14
I am among the ministers/ministeresses of God,
And I am grateful that I have the
means
By which to recognize that I am
free.
15
The world recedes as we light up our minds and realize these holy words
are true. They are the message sent to us today from our
CreatorManifestoress. Now we demonstrate how they have changed our minds
about ourselves and what our function is. For as we prove that we accept
no will we do not share, our many gifts from our CreatorManifestoress
will spring to our sight and leap into our hands, and we will understand
what we received.
Lesson 155
I will step back and let
HimHer lead the way.
1
There is a way of living in the world that is not here, although it
seems to be. You do not change appearance, though you smile more
frequently. Your forehead is serene; your eyes are quiet. And the ones
who walk the world as you do recognize their own. Yet those who have not
yet perceived the way will recognize you also and believe that you are
like them as you were before.
2
The world is an illusion. Those who choose to come to it are seeking for
a place where they can be illusions and avoid their own reality. Yet
when they find their own reality is even here, then they step back and
let it lead the way. What other choice is really theirs to make? To let
illusion walk ahead of truth is madness, but to let illusion sink behind
the truth and let the truth stand forth as what it is, is simple sanity.
3This
is the simple choice we make today. The mad illusion will remain awhile
in evidence for those to look upon who chose to come and have not yet
rejoiced to find they were mistaken in the choice. They cannot learn
directly from the truth, because they have denied that it is so. And so
they need a teacher/teacheress who perceives their madness, but who
still can look beyond illusion to the simple truth in them.
4
If truth demanded they give up the world, it would appear to them as if
it asked the sacrifice of something that is real. Many have chosen to
renounce the world while still believing its reality, and they have
suffered from a sense of loss and have not been released accordingly.
Others have chosen nothing but the world, and they have suffered from a
sense of loss still deeper, which they did not understand.
5
Between these paths there is another road that leads away from loss of
every kind, for sacrifice and deprivation both are quickly left behind.
This is the way appointed for you now. You walk this path as others
walk, nor do you seem to be distinct from them although you are indeed.
Thus can you serve them while you serve yourself and set their footsteps
on the way which God has opened up to you, and them through you.
6
Illusion still appears to cling to you that you may reach them. Yet it
has stepped back, and it is not illusion that they hear you speak of nor
illusion which you bring their eyes to look on and their minds to grasp.
Now can the truth, which walks ahead of you, speak to them through
illusion, for the road leads past illusion now, while on the way you
call to them that they may follow you.
7All
roads will lead to this one in the end. For sacrifice and deprivation
are paths which lead nowhere, choices for defeat, and aims which will
remain impossible. All this steps back as truth comes forth in you to
lead your brothers&sisters from the ways of death and set them
on the way to happiness. Their suffering is but illusion. Yet they need
a guide to lead them out of it, for they mistake illusion for the truth.
8
Such is salvation's call, and nothing more. It asks that you accept the
truth, and let it go before you, lighting up the path of ransom from
illusion. It is not a ransom with a price. There is no cost, but only
gain. Illusion can but seem to hold in chains the holy SonDaughter of
God. It is but from illusions heshe is saved. As they step back, heshe
finds himherself again.
9Walk
safely now, yet carefully, because this path is new to you. And you may
find that you are tempted still to walk ahead of truth and let illusions
be your guide. Your holy brothers&sisters have been given you
to follow in your footsteps as you walk with certainty of purpose to the
truth. It goes before you now, that they may see something with which
they can identify, something they understand to lead the way.
10
Yet at the journey's ending there will be no gap, no distance between
truth and you. And all illusions walking in the way you travelled will
be gone from you as well, with nothing left to keep the truth apart from
God's completion, holy as HimHerself. Step back in faith, and let truth
lead the way. You know not where you go, but One Who knows goes with
you. Let Her lead you with the rest.
11
When dreams are over, time has closed the door on all the things that
pass, and miracles are purposeless, the holy SonDaughter of God will
make no journeys. There will be no wish to be illusion rather than the
truth. And we step forth toward this as we progress along the way that
truth points out to us. This is our final journey, which we make for
everyone. We must not lose our way. For as truth goes before us, so it
goes before our brothers&sisters who will follow us.
12
We walk to God. Pause and reflect on this. Could any way be holier or
more deserving of your effort, of your love, and of your full intent?
What way could give you more than everything or offer less and still
content the holy SonDaughter of God? We walk to God. The truth that
walks before us now is one with HimHer and leads us to where HeShe has
always been. What way but this could be a path that you would choose
instead?
13
Your feet are safely set upon the road which leads the world to God.
Look not to ways that seem to lead you elsewhere. Dreams are not a
worthy guide for you who are God’s SonDaughter. Forget not HeShe has
placed HisHer hand in yours and given you your
brothers&sisters in HisHer trust that you are worthy of HisHer trust
in you. HeShe cannot be deceived. HisHer trust has made your pathway
certain and your goal secure. You will not fail your
brothers&sisters nor your Self.
14
And now HeShe asks but that you think of HimHer a while each day that
HeShe may speak to you and tell you of HisHer Love, reminding you how
great HisHer trust, how limitless HisHer Love. In your name and HisHer
own, which are the same, we practice gladly with this thought today:
15
I will step back and let HimHer lead the way,
For I would walk along the road to
HimHer.
Lesson 156
I walk with God in perfect
holiness.
1
Today's idea but states the simple truth that makes the thought of sin
impossible. It promises there is no cause for guilt, and being causeless
it does not exist. It follows surely from the basic thought so often
mentioned in the text—ideas leave not their source. If this be true, how
can you be apart from God? How could you walk the world alone and
separate from your Source?
2
We are not inconsistent in the thoughts that we present in our
curriculum. Truth must be true throughout if it be true. It cannot
contradict itself nor be in parts uncertain and in others sure. You
cannot walk the world apart from God because you could not be without
HimHer. HeShe is what your life is. Where you are, HeShe is. There is
one Life. That Life you share with HimHer. Nothing can be apart from
HimHer and live.
3
Yet where HeShe is there must be holiness as well as life. No attribute
of HisHer remains unshared by everything that lives. What lives is holy
as HimHerself because what shares HisHer life is part of Holiness and
could no more be sinful than the sun could choose to be of ice, the sea
elect to be apart from water, or the grass to grow with roots suspended
in the air.
4
There is a Light in you Which cannot die, Whose Presence is so holy that
the world is sanctified because of you. All things that live bring gifts
to you and offer them in gratitude and gladness at your feet. The scent
of flowers is their gift to you. The waves bow down before you, and the
trees extend their arms to shield you from the heat and lay their leaves
before you on the ground that you may walk in softness, while the wind
sinks to a whisper round your holy head.
5
The Light in you is what the universe longs to behold. All living things
are still before you, for they recognize Who walks with you. The light
you carry is their own, and thus they see in you their holiness,
saluting you as saviors/savioresses and as God. Accept their
reverence, for it is due to Holiness itself Which walks with you,
transforming in Its gentle Light all things into Its likeness and Its
purity.
6
This is the way salvation works. As you step back, the Light in you
steps forward and encompasses the world. It heralds not the end of sin
in punishment and death. In lightness and in laughter is it gone,
because its quaint absurdity is seen. It is a foolish thought, a silly
dream, not frightening, ridiculous perhaps, but who would waste an
instant in approach to God HimHerself for such a senseless whim?
7
Yet you have wasted many, many years on just this foolish thought. The
past is gone with all its fantasies. They keep you bound no longer. The
approach to God is near. And in the little interval of doubt which still
remains, you may perhaps lose sight of your Companion, and mistake
HimHer for the senseless, ancient dream that now is past.
8
" Who walks with me?" This question should be asked a
thousand times a day, till certainty has ended doubting and established
peace. Today let doubting cease. God speaks for you in answering your
question with these words:
9
I walk with God in perfect holiness.
I
light the world, I light my mind and all
The
minds which God created and manifested one with me.
Lesson 157
Into HisHer Presence would
I enter now.
1
This is a day of silence and of trust. It is a special time of promise
in your calendar of days. It is a time the God Realm has set apart to
shine upon, and cast a timeless light upon this day when echoes of
eternity are heard. This day is holy, for it ushers in a new experience,
a different kind of feeling and awareness. You have spent long days and
nights in celebrating death. Today you learn to feel the joy of life.
2
This is another crucial turning point in the curriculum. We add a new
dimension now—a fresh experience that sheds a light on all that we have
learned already and prepares us for what we have yet to learn. It brings
us to the door where learning ceases, and we catch a glimpse of what
lies past the highest reaches it can possibly attain. It leaves us there
an instant and we go beyond it, sure of our direction and our only goal.
3
Today it will be given you to feel a touch of the God Realm, though you
will return to paths of learning. Yet you have come far enough along the
way to alter time sufficiently to rise above its laws and walk into
eternity a while. This you will learn to do increasingly, as every
lesson, faithfully rehearsed, brings you more swiftly to this holy place
and leaves you for a moment to your Self.
4
HeShe will direct your practicing today, for what you ask for now is
what HeShe wills. And having joined your will with HisHer this day, what
you are asking must be given you. Nothing is needed but today's idea to
light your mind and let it rest in still anticipation and in quiet joy
wherein you quickly leave the world behind.
5
From this day forth, your ministry takes on a genuine devotion and a
glow that travels from your fingertips to those you touch and blesses
those you look upon. A vision reaches everyone you meet, and everyone
you think of, or who thinks of you. For your experience today will so
transform your mind that it becomes the touchstone for the holy Thoughts
of God.
6
Your body will be sanctified today, its only purpose being now to bring
the vision of what you experience this day to light the world. We cannot
give experience like this directly. Yet it leaves a vision in our eyes
which we can offer everyone that he/she may come the sooner to the same
experience in which the world is quietly forgot and the God Realm is
remembered for a while.
7
As this experience increases and all goals but this become of little
worth, the world to which you will return becomes a little closer to the
end of time, a little more like the God Realm in its ways, a little
nearer its deliverance. And you who bring it light will come to see the
light more sure, the vision more distinct.
8
The time will come when you will not return in the same form in which
you now appear, for you will have no need of it. Yet now it has a
purpose and will serve it well. Today we will embark upon a course you
have not dreamed of. But the Holy One, the Giver of the happy dreams of
life, Translator of perception into truth, the holy Guide to the God
Realm given you has dreamed for you this journey which you make and
start today with the experience this day holds out to you to be your
own.
9
Into the Christ Consciousness’/the Mercy Consciousness’ Presence will we
enter now, serenely unaware of everything except HisHer shining face and
perfect Love. The vision of HisHer face will stay with you, but there
will be an instant which transcends all vision, even this, the holiest.
This you will never teach, for you attained it not through learning. Yet
the vision speaks of your remembrance of what you knew that instant and
will surely know again.
Lesson 158
Today I learn to give as I
receive.
1
What has been given you? The knowledge that you are a mind, in Mind and
purely mind, sinless forever, wholly unafraid because you were created
and manifested out of Love. Nor have you left your Source, remaining as
you were created and manifested. This was given you as knowledge which
you cannot lose. It was given as well to every living thing, for by that
knowledge only does it live.
2
You have received all this. No one who walks the world but has received
it. It is not this knowledge which you give, for that is what creation
and manifestation gave. All this cannot be learned. What, then, are you
to learn to give today? Our lesson yesterday evoked a theme found early
in the text. Experience cannot be shared directly in the way that vision
can. The revelation that the FatherMother and the SonDaughter are one
will come in time to every mind. Yet is that time determined by the mind
itself, not taught.
3
The time is set already. It appears to be quite arbitrary. Yet there is
no step along the road that anyone takes but by chance. It has already
been taken by him&her, although he/she has not yet embarked on it.
For time but seems to go in one direction. We but undertake a journey
that is over. Yet it seems to have a future still unknown to us.
4
Time is a trick-a sleight of hand, a vast illusion in which figures come
and go as if by magic. Yet there is a plan behind appearances which does
not change. The script is written. When experience will come to end your
doubting has been set. For we but see the journey from the point at
which it ended, looking back on it, imagining we make it once again;
reviewing mentally what has gone by.
5
A teacher/teacheress does not give experience because he/she did not
learn it. It revealed itself to him&her at its appointed time. But
vision is his/her gift. This he/she can give directly, for the knowledge
of the Christ Consciousness/the Mercy Consciousness is not lost because
he/she has a vision he/she can give to anyone who asks. The
Father’sMother's Will and his/her are joined in knowledge. Yet there is
a vision which the Holy Spirit sees because the mind of the Christ
Consciousness/the Mercy Consciousness beholds it too.
6Here
is the joining of the world of doubt and shadows made with the
intangible. Here is a quiet place within the world made holy by
forgiveness and by love. Here are all contradictions reconciled, for
here the journey ends. Experience, unlearned, untaught, unseen, is
merely there. This is beyond our goal, for it transcends what needs to
be accomplished. Our concern is with the vision of the Christ
Consciousness/the Mercy Consciousness . This we can attain.
7
The vision of the Christ Consciousness/the Mercy Consciousness has one
law. It does not look upon a body and mistake it for the SonDaughter
whom God created and manifested. It beholds a light beyond the body, an
idea beyond what can be touched, a purity undimmed by errors, pitiful
mistakes, and fearful thoughts of guilt from dreams of sin. It sees no
separation. And it looks on everyone, on every circumstance, all
happenings, and all events without the slightest fading of the light it
sees.
8
This can be taught and must be taught by all who would achieve it. It
requires but the recognition that the world cannot give anything that
faintly can compare with this in value; nor set up a goal which does not
merely disappear when this has been perceived. And this you give
today-see no one as a body. Greet him&her as the SonDaughter of God
he/she is, acknowledging that he/she is one with you in holiness.
9
Thus are his/her sins forgiven him&her, for the Christ
Consciousness/the Mercy Consciousness has vision which has power to
overlook them all. In It’s forgiveness, they are gone. Unseen by One,
they merely disappear because a vision of the holiness which lies beyond
them comes to take their place. It matters not what form they took nor
how enormous they appeared to be nor who seemed to be hurt by them. They
are no more, and all effects they seemed to have are gone with them,
undone and never to be done.
10Thus
do you learn to give as you receive. And thus the vision of the Christ
Consciousness/the Mercy Consciousness looks on you as well. This lesson
is not difficult to learn if you remember in your brother or sister you
but see yourself. If he/she be lost in sin so must you be; if you see
light in him&her your sins have been forgiven by yourself. Each
brother or sister whom you meet today provides another chance to let the
vision of the Christ Consciousness/the Mercy Consciousness shine on you
and offer you the peace of God.
11
It matters not when revelation comes, for that is not of time. Yet time
has still one gift to give in which true knowledge is reflected in a way
so accurate its image shares its unseen holiness; its likeness shines
with its immortal love. We practice seeing with the eyes of the Christ
Consciousness/the Mercy Consciousness today. And by the holy gifts we
give, the vision of the Christ Consciousness/the Mercy Consciousness
looks upon ourselves as well.
Lesson 159
I give the miracles I have
received.
1
No one can give what he/she has not received. To give a thing requires
first you have it in your own possession. Here the laws of the God Realm
and the world agree. But here they also separate. The world believes
that to possess a thing, it must be kept. Salvation teaches otherwise.
To give is how to recognize you have received. It is the proof that what
you have is yours.
2
You understand that you are healed when you give healing. You accept
forgiveness as accomplished in yourself when you forgive. You recognize
your brother or sister as yourself and thus do you perceive that you are
whole. There is no miracle you cannot give, for all are given you.
Receive them now by opening the storehouse of your mind where they are
laid and giving them away.
3
The vision of the Christ Consciousness/the Mercy Consciousness is a
miracle. It comes from far beyond itself, for it reflects eternal love
and the rebirth of love which never died but has been kept obscure. The
Christ Consciousness’, the Mercy Consciousness’ vision pictures the God
Realm, for it sees a world so like to the God Realm that what God
created and manifested perfect can be mirrored there. The darkened glass
the world presents can show but twisted images in broken parts. The real
world pictures the God Realm's innocence.
4
The vision of the Christ Consciousness, the Mercy Consciousness is the
miracle in which all miracles are born. It is their source, remaining
with each miracle you give and yet remaining yours. It is the bond by
which the giver and receiver are united in extension here on earth as
they are one in the God Realm. The Christ Consciousness/the Mercy
Consciousness beholds no sin in anyone, and in Her sight the sinless are
as one. Their holiness was given by Her FatherMother and Herself.
5
The vision of the Christ Consciousness/the Mercy Consciousness is the
bridge between the worlds. And in its power can you safely trust to
carry you from this world into one made holy by forgiveness. Things
which seem quite solid here are merely shadows there, transparent,
faintly seen, at times forgot, and never able to obscure the light that
shines beyond them. Holiness has been restored to vision, and the blind
can see.
6
This is the Holy Spirit's single gift—the treasure house to which you
can appeal with perfect certainty for everything that can contribute to
your happiness. All are laid here already. All can be received but for
the asking. Here the door is never locked, and no one is denied his/her
least request or his/her most urgent need. There is no sickness not
already healed, no lack unsatisfied, no need unmet within this golden
treasury of the Christ Consciousness, the Mercy Consciousness .
7
Here does the world remember what was lost when it was made. For here it
is repaired, made new again but in a different light. What was to be the
home of sin becomes the center of redemption and the hearth of mercy
where the suffering are healed and welcome. No one will be turned away
from this new home where his/hers salvation waits. No one is stranger to
him&her. No one asks for anything of him&her except the gift of
his/her acceptance of his/her welcoming.
8
The Christ Consciousness’/the Mercy Consciousness’ vision is the holy
ground in which the lilies of forgiveness set their roots. This is their
home. They can be brought from here back to the world, but they can
never grow in its unnourishing and shallow soil. They need the light and
warmth and kindly care The Christ Consciousness’/the Mercy
Consciousness’ charity provides. They need the love with which She looks
on them. And they become Her messengers who give as they received.
9
Take from Her storehouse that its treasures may increase. Her lilies do
not leave their home when they are carried back into the world. Their
roots remain. They do not leave their source, but carry its beneficence
with them and turn the world into a garden like the one they came from
and to which they go again with added fragrance. Now are they twice
blessed. The messages they brought from the Christ Consciousness/the
Mercy Consciousness have been delivered and returned to them. And they
return them gladly unto Her.
10
Behold the store of miracles set out for you to give. Are you not worth
the gift when God appointed it be given you? Judge not God’s
SonDaughter, but follow in the way heshe has established. the Christ
Consciousness/the Mercy Consciousness has dreamed the dream of a
forgiven world. It is Her gift whereby a sweet transition can be made
from death to life, from hopelessness to hope. Let us an instant dream
with Her. Her dream awakens us to truth. Her vision gives the means for
a return to our unlost and everlasting sanctity in God.
Lesson 160
I am at home. Fear is the
stranger here.
1
Fear is a stranger to the ways of love. Identify with fear, and you will
be a stranger to yourself. And thus you are unknown to you. What is your
Self remains an alien to the part of you which thinks that it is real
but different from yourself. Who could be sane in such a circumstance?
Who but a madman or madwoman could believe he/she is what he/she is not
and judge against himself/herself?
2
There is a stranger in our midst who comes from an idea so foreign to
the truth he/she speaks a different language, looks upon a world truth
does not know, and understands what truth regards as senseless. Stranger
yet, he/she does not recognize to whom he/she comes and yet maintains
his/her home belongs to him&her, while he/she is alien now who is at
home.
3And
yet how easy it would be to say, "This is my home. Here I belong and
will not leave because a madman or madwoman says I must." What reason is
there for not saying this? What could the reason be except that you had
asked this stranger in to take your place and let you be a stranger to
yourself? No one would let himself/herself be dispossessed so needlessly
unless he/she thought there was another home more suited to his/her
tastes.
4
Who is the stranger? Is it fear or you that is unsuited to the home
which God provided for HisHer SonDaughter? Is fear hisher own, created
and manifested in hisher likeness? Is it fear that love completes and is
completed by? There is no home can shelter love and fear. They cannot
coexist. If you are real, then fear must be illusion. And if fear is
real, then you do not exist at all.
5
How simply, then, the question is resolved. Who fears has but denied
himself/herself and said, "I am the stranger here. And so I leave my
home to one more like me than myself and give him&her all I thought
belonged to me." Now is he/she exiled of necessity, not knowing who
he/she is, uncertain of all things but this—that he/she is not
himself/herself and that his/her home has been denied to him&her.
6
What does he/she search for now? What can he/she find? A stranger to
himself/herself can find no home wherever he/she may look, for he/she
has made return impossible. his/her way is lost except a miracle will
search him&her out and show him&her that he/she is no stranger
now. The miracle will come. For in his/her home his/her Self remains. It
asked no stranger in and took no alien thought to be Itself. And It will
call its own unto Itself, in recognition of what is Its own.
7
Who is the stranger? Is he/she not the one your Self calls not? You are
unable now to recognize this stranger in your midst, for you have given
him&her your rightful place. Yet is your Self as certain of Its own
as God is of HisHer SonDaughter. HeShe cannot be confused about creation
and manifestation. HeShe is sure of what belongs to HimHer. No stranger
can be interposed between HisHer knowledge and HisHer Son’sDaughter's
reality. HeShe does not know of strangers. HeShe is certain of HisHer
SonDaughter.
8
God's certainty suffices. Who HeShe knows to be HisHer SonDaughter
belongs where HeShe has set HisHer SonDaughter forever. HeShe has
answered you who ask, "Who is the stranger?" Hear HisHer Voice assure
you, quietly and sure, that you are not a stranger to your FatherMother,
nor is your CreatorManifestoress stranger made to you. Whom God has
joined remains forever one, at home in HimHer, no stranger to
HimHerself.
9 Today
we offer thanks that the Christ Consciousness/Mercy Consciousness has
come to search the world for what belongs to Her. Her vision sees no
strangers, but beholds Her own and joyously unites with them. They see
Her as a stranger, for they do not recognize themselves. Yet as they
give Her welcome, they remember. And She leads them gently home again
where they belong.
10Not
one does the Christ Consciousness/the Mercy Consciousness forget. Not
one She fails to give you to remember that your home may be complete and
perfect as it was established. She has not forgotten you. But you will
not remember Her until you look on all as She does. Who denies his/her
brother or sister is denying Her and thus refusing to accept the gift of
sight by which his/her Self is clearly recognized, his/her home
remembered, and salvation come.
Lesson 161
Give me your blessing, holy
SonDaughter of God.
1
Today we practice differently and take a stand against our anger that
our fears may disappear and offer room to love. Here is salvation in the
simple words in which we practice today's idea. Here is the answer to
temptation which can never fail to welcome in the Christ
Consciousness/the Mercy Consciousness where fear and anger had prevailed
before. Here is Atonement made complete, the world passed safely by, and
the God Realm now restored. Here is the answer of the Voice of God.
2
Complete abstraction is the natural condition of the mind. But part of
it is now unnatural. It does not look on everything as one. It sees
instead but fragments of the whole, for only thus could it invent the
partial world you see. The purpose of all seeing is to show you what you
wish to see. All hearing but brings to your mind the sounds it wants to
hear.
3
Thus were specifics made. And now it is specifics we must use in
practicing. We give them to the Holy Spirit that She may employ them for
a purpose which is different from the one we gave to them. Yet She can
use but what we made to teach us from a different point of view, so we
can see a different use in everything.
4
One brother/sister is all brothers&sisters . Every mind
contains all minds, for every mind is one. Such is the truth. Yet do
these thoughts make clear the meaning of creation and manifestation? Do
these words bring perfect clarity with them to you? What can they seem
to be but empty sounds, pretty, perhaps; correct in sentiment, yet
fundamentally not understood nor understandable. The mind that taught
itself to think specifically can no longer grasp abstraction in the
sense that it is all-encompassing. We need to see a little that we learn
a lot.
5
It seems to be the body that we feel limits our freedom, makes us
suffer, and at last puts out our life. Yet bodies are but symbols of a
concrete form of fear. Fear without symbols calls for no response, for
symbols can stand for the meaningless. Love needs no symbols, being
true. But fear attaches to specifics, being false.
6
Bodies attack but minds do not. This thought is surely reminiscent of
our text, where it is often emphasized. This is the reason bodies easily
become fear's symbols. You have many times been urged to look beyond the
body, for its sight presents the symbol of love's "enemy" The Christ
Consciousness’/the Mercy Consciousness’ vision does not see. The body is
the target for attack, for no one thinks he/she hates a mind. Yet what
but mind directs the body to attack? What else could be the seat of fear
except what thinks of fear?
7
Hate is specific. There must be a thing to be attacked. An enemy must be
perceived in such a form he/she can be touched and seen and heard and
ultimately killed. When hatred rests upon a thing, it calls for death as
surely as God's Voice proclaims there is no death. Fear is insatiable,
consuming everything its eyes behold, seeing itself in everything,
compelled to turn upon itself and to destroy.
8
Who sees a brother or sister as a body sees him&her as fear's
symbol. And he/she will attack because what he/she beholds is his/her
own fear external to himself/herself, poised to attack and howling to
unite with him&her again. Mistake not the intensity of rage
projected fear must spawn. It shrieks in wrath and claws the air in
frantic hope it can reach to its maker/makeress and devour him/her.
9
This do the body's eyes behold in one whom the God Realm cherishes, the
angels love, and God created and manifested perfect. This is his/her
reality. And in the Christ Consciousness’/the Mercy Consciousness’
vision is his/her loveliness reflected in a form so holy and so
beautiful that you could scarce refrain from kneeling at his/her feet.
Yet you will take his/her hand instead, for you are like him&her in
the sight that sees him&her thus.
10
Attack on him&her is enemy to you, for you will not perceive that in
his/her hands is your salvation. Ask him&her but for this, and
he/she will give it to you. Ask him&her not to symbolize your fear.
Would you request that love destroy itself? Or would you have it be
revealed to you and set you free?
11
Today we practice in a form we have attempted earlier. Your readiness is
closer now, and you will come today nearer the Christ Consciousness’/the
Mercy Consciousness’ vision. If you are intent on reaching it, you will
succeed today. And once you have succeeded, you will not be willing to
accept the witnesses your body's eyes call forth. What you will see will
sing to you of ancient melodies you will remember. You are not forgot in
the God Realm. Would you not remember it?
12
Select one brother or sister, symbol of the rest, and ask salvation of
him&her. See him&her first as clearly as you can in that same
form to which you are accustomed. See his/her face, his/her hands and
feet, his/her clothing. Watch him&her smile, and see familiar
gestures which he/she makes so frequently. Then think of this—what you
are seeing now conceals from you the sight of one who can forgive you
all your sins, whose sacred hands can take the nails which pierce your
own away and lift the crown of thorns which you have placed upon your
bleeding head.
13
Ask this of him&her that he/she may set you free:
14
Give me your blessing, holy SonDaughter of God.
I would behold you with
the eyes of the Christ Consciousness/the Mercy Consciousness,
And see my perfect
sinlessness in you.
15
And She will answer Whom you called upon, for She will hear the Voice of
God in you and answer in your own. Behold him&her now whom you had
seen as merely flesh and bone and recognize that the Christ
Consciousness/the Mercy Consciousness has come to you.
16
Today's idea is your safe escape from anger and from fear. Be sure you
use it instantly, should you be tempted to attack a brother or sister
and perceive in him&her the symbol of your fear. And you will see
him&her suddenly transformed from enemy to savior, from the devil
into the Christ Consciousness/the Mercy Consciousness.
Lesson 162
I am as God created and
manifested me.
1
This single thought, held firmly in the mind, would save the world. From
time to time we will repeat it, as we reach another stage in learning.
It will mean far more to you as you advance. These words are sacred, for
they are the words God gave in answer to the world you made. By them it
disappears, and all things seen within its misty clouds and vaporous
illusions vanish as these words are spoken. For they come from God.
2
Here is the Word by which the SonDaughter became HisHer Father’sMother’s
happiness, HisHer Love, and HisHer completion. Here creation and
manifestation is proclaimed and honored as it is. There is no dream
these words will not dispel, no thought of sin, and no illusion that the
dream contains that will not fade away before their might. They are the
trumpet of awakening that sounds around the world. The dead awake in
answer to its call. And those who live and hear this sound will never
look on death.
3
Holy indeed is he/she who makes these words his/her own—arising with
them in his/her mind, recalling them throughout the day, at night
bringing them with him&her as he/she goes to sleep. his/her dreams
are happy and his/her rest secure, his/her safety certain and his/her
body healed because he/she sleeps and wakens with the truth before
him&her always. he/she will save the world because he/she gives the
world what he/she receives each time he/she practices the words of
truth.
4
Today we practice simply. For the words we use are mighty, and they need
no thoughts beyond themselves to change the mind of him&her who uses
them. So wholly is it changed that it is now the treasury in which God
places all HisHer gifts and all HisHer Love to be distributed to all the
world, increased in giving, kept complete because its sharing is
unlimited. And thus you learn to think with God. The Christ
Consciousness’/the Mercy Consciousness’ vision has restored your sight
by salvaging your mind.
5
We honor you today. Yours is the right to perfect holiness you now
accept. With this acceptance is salvation brought to everyone, for who
could cherish sin when holiness like this has blessed the world? Who
could despair when perfect joy is yours, available to all as remedy for
grief and misery, all sense of loss, and for complete escape from sin
and guilt?
6
And who would not be brother or sister to you now—you, his/her redeemer
and his/her savior. Who could fail to welcome you into his/her heart
with loving invitation, eager to unite with one like him&her in
holiness? You are as God created and manifested you. These words dispel
the night, and darkness is no more. The light is come today to bless the
world, for you have recognized the SonDaughter of God, and in your
recognition is the world's.
Lesson 163
There is no death. The
SonDaughter of God is free.
1
Death is a thought which takes on many forms, often unrecognized. It may
appear as sadness, fear, anxiety, or doubt; as anger, faithlessness, and
lack of trust; concern for bodies, envy, and all forms in which the wish
to be as you are not may come to tempt you. All such thoughts are but
reflections of the worshipping of death as
saviors/savioresses and as giver of release.
2
Embodiment of fear, the host of sin, god of the guilty, and the lord of
all illusions and deceptions, does the thought of death seem mighty. For
it seems to hold all living things within its withered hand; all hopes
and wishes in its blighting grasp. All goals perceived but in its
sightless eyes. The frail, the helpless, and the sick bow down before
its image, thinking it alone is real, inevitable, worthy of their trust.
For it alone will surely come.
3
All things but death are seen to be unsure, too quickly lost however
hard to gain, uncertain in their outcome, apt to fail the hopes they
once engendered and to leave the taste of dust and ashes in their wake
in place of aspirations and of dreams. But death is counted on. For it
will come with certain footsteps when the time has come for its arrival.
It will never fail to take all life as hostage to itself.
4
Would you bow down to idols/idolresses such as this? Here is the
strength and might of God HimHerself perceived within an idol or
idolress made of dust. Here is the opposite of God proclaimed as lord of
all creation and manifestation, stronger than God's Will for life, the
endlessness of love and the God Realm's perfect, changeless constancy.
Here is the Will of FatherMother and of SonDaughter defeated finally and
laid to rest beneath the headstone death has placed upon the body of the
holy SonDaughter of God.
5
Unholy in defeat, he/she has become what death would have him&her
be. his/her epitaph, which death itself has written, gives no name to
him, for he/she has passed to dust. It says but this: "Here lies a
witness God is dead." And this it writes again and still again, while
all the while its worshippers agree, and kneeling down with foreheads to
the ground, they whisper fearfully that it is so.
6
It is impossible to worship death in any form and still select a few you
would not cherish and would yet avoid while still believing in the rest.
For death is total. Either all things die or else they live and cannot
die. No compromise is possible. For here again we see an obvious
position which we must accept if we be sane; what contradicts one
thought entirely can not be true unless its opposite is proven false.
7
The idea of the death of God is so preposterous that even the insane
have difficulty in believing it. For it implies that God was once alive
and somehow perished, killed, apparently, by those who did not want
HimHer to survive. Their stronger will could triumph over HisHers, and
so eternal life gave way to death. And with the FatherMother died the
SonDaughter as well.
8
Death's worshippers may be afraid. And yet can thoughts like these be
fearful? If they saw that it is only this which they believed, they
would be instantly released. And you will show them this today. There is
no death, and we renounce it now in every form for their salvation and
our own as well. God made not death. Whatever form it takes must
therefore be illusion. This the stand we take today. And it is given us
to look past death and see the life beyond.
9
Our FatherMother, bless our eyes today. We are Your messengers, and we
would look upon the glorious reflection of Your Love which shines in
everything. We live and breathe in You alone. We are not separate from
Your eternal life. There is no death, for death is not Your Will. 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. We accept
Your Thoughts as ours, and our will is one with Yours eternally. Amen.
Lesson 164
Now are we one with HimHer
Who is our Source.
1
What time but now can truth be recognized? The present is the only time
there is. And so today, this instant, now, we come to look upon what is
forever there—not in our sight, but in the eyes of the Christ
Consciousness/the Mercy Consciousness. She looks past time and sees
eternity as represented there. She hears the sounds the senseless busy
world engenders, yet She hears them faintly, for beyond them all She
hears the Song of the God Realm and the Voice of God more clear, more
meaningful, more near.
2
The world fades easily away before Her sight. Its sounds grow dim. A
melody from far beyond the world increasingly is more and more
distinct—an ancient call to which She gives an ancient answer. You will
recognize them both. For they are but your answer to your
Father’sMother’s call to you. The Christ Consciousness/the Mercy
Consciousness answers for you, echoing your Self, using your voice to
give Her glad consent, accepting your deliverance for you.
3
How holy is your practicing today, as the Christ Consciousness/the Mercy
Consciousness gives you Her sight and hears for you and answers in your
name the call She hears. How quiet is the time you give to spend with
HimHer beyond the world. How easily are all your seeming sins forgot and
all your sorrows unremembered. On this day is grief laid by, for sights
and sounds which come from nearer than the world are made clear to you
who will today accept the gifts She gives.
4
There is a silence into which the world can not intrude. There is an
ancient peace you carry in your heart and have not lost. There is a
sense of holiness in you the thought of sin has never touched. All this
today you will remember. Faithfulness in practicing today will bring
rewards so great and so completely different from all things you sought
before that you will know that here your treasure is and here your rest.
5
This is the day when vain imaginings part like a curtain to reveal what
lies beyond them. Now is what is really there made visible, while all
the shadows which appeared to hide it sink to obscurity. Now is the
balance righted and the scales of judgment left to Her Who judges true.
And in Her judgment will a world unfold in perfect innocence before your
eyes. Now will you see it with the eyes of the Christ Consciousness/the
Mercy Consciousness. Now is its transformation clear to you.
6
Brothers&sisters , this day is sacred to the world. Your vision,
given you from far beyond all things within the world, looks back on
them in a new light. And what you see becomes the healing and salvation
of the world. The valuable and valueless are both perceived and
recognized for what they are. And what is worthy of your love receives
your love, while nothing to be feared remains.
7
We will not judge today. We will receive but what is given us from
judgment made beyond the world. Our practicing today becomes our gift of
thankfulness for our release from blindness and from misery. All that we
see will but increase our joy because its holiness reflects our own. We
stand forgiven in the sight of the Christ Consciousness/the Mercy
Consciousness, with all the world forgiven in our own.
8
We bless the world as we behold it in the light in which our
Savioresses looks on us and offer it the freedom given us through
Her forgiving vision, now our own. Open the curtain in your practicing
by merely letting go all things you think you want. Your trifling
treasures put away and leave a clean and open space within your mind
where the Christ Consciousness/the Mercy Consciousness can come and
offer you the treasure of salvation. She has need of your most holy mind
to save the world.
9
Is not this purpose worthy to be yours? Is not the Christ
Consciousness’/the Mercy Consciousness’ vision worthy to be sought above
the world's unsatisfying goals? Let not today slip by without the gifts
it holds for you receiving your consent and your acceptance. We can
change the world if you acknowledge them. You may not see the value your
acceptance gives the world. But this you surely want—you can exchange
all suffering for joy this very day. Practice in earnest, and the gift
is yours. Would God deceive you? Can HisHer promise fail? Can you
withhold so little when HisHer Hand holds out complete salvation to
HisHer SonDaughter?
Lesson 165
Let not my mind deny the
Thought of God.
1
What makes this world seem real except your own denial of the truth
which lies beyond? What but your thoughts of misery and death obscure
the perfect happiness and the Eternal Life your FatherMother wills for
you? And what could hide what cannot be concealed except illusion? What
could keep from you what you already have except your choice to see it
not, denying it is there?
2
The Thought of God created and manifested you. It left you not, nor have
you ever been apart from It an instant. It belongs to you. By It you
live. It is your Source of life, holding you one with It, and everything
is one with you because It left you not. The Thought of God protects
you, cares for you, makes soft your resting place and smooth your way,
lighting your mind with happiness and love. Eternity and everlasting
life shine in your mind because the Thought of God has left you not and
still abides with you.
3
Who would deny his/her safety and his/her peace, his/her joy, his/her
healing and his/her peace of mind, his/her quiet rest, his/her calm
awakening if he/she but recognized where they abide? Would he/she not
instantly prepare to go where they are found, abandoning all else as
worthless in comparison with them? And having found them, would he/she
not make sure they stay with him&her and he/she remains with them?
4
Deny not the God Realm. It is yours today but for the asking. Nor need
you perceive how great the gift, how changed your mind will be before it
comes to you. Ask to receive, and it is given you. Conviction lies
within it. Till you welcome it as yours, uncertainty remains. Yet God is
fair. Sureness is not required to receive what only your acceptance can
bestow.
5
Ask with desire. You need not be sure that you request the only thing
you want. But when you have received, you will be sure you have the
treasure you have always sought. What would you then exchange it for?
What would induce you now to let it fade away from your ecstatic vision?
For this sight proves that you have exchanged your blindness for the
seeing eyes of the Christ Consciousness/the Mercy Consciousness; your
mind has come to lay aside denial and accept the Thought of God as its
inheritance.
6
Now is all doubting past, the journey's end made certain, and salvation
given you. Now is the Christ Consciousness’/the Mercy Consciousness’
power in your mind to heal as you were healed. For now you are among the
saviors&savioresses of the world. Your destiny lies there and
nowhere else. Would God consent to let HisHer SonDaughter remain forever
starved by hisher denial of the nourishment heshe needs to live?
Abundance dwells in himher, and deprivation cannot cut himher off from
God's sustaining Love and from hisher home.
7
Practice today in hope. For hope indeed is justified. Your doubts are
meaningless, for God is certain. And the Thought of HimHer is never
absent. Sureness must abide within you who are host to HimHer. This
course removes all doubts which you have interposed between HimHer and
your certainty of HimHer. We count on God and not upon ourselves to give
us certainty. And in HisHer Name we practice as HisHer Word directs we
do. HisHer sureness lies beyond our every doubt. HisHer Love remains
beyond our every fear. The Thought of HimHer is still beyond all dreams
and in our minds according to HisHer Will.
Lesson 166
I am entrusted with the
gifts of God.
1
All things are given you. God's trust in you is limitless. HeShe knows
HisHer SonDaughter. HeShe gives without exception, holding nothing back
that can contribute to your happiness. And yet unless your will is one
with HisHer, HisHer gifts are not received. But what would make you
think there is another will than HisHer?
2
Here is the paradox that underlies the making of the world. This world
is not the Will of God, and so it is not real. Yet those who think it
real must still believe there is another will, and one that leads to
opposite effects from those HeShe wills. Impossible indeed, but every
mind that looks upon the world and judges it as certain, solid,
trustworthy, and true believes in two Creators&Manifestoresses or in
one, himself/herself alone. But never in one God.
3 The gifts of God are not acceptable
to anyone who holds such strange beliefs. He/she must believe that, to
accept God's gifts, however evident they may become, however urgently
he/she may be called to claim them as his/her own, is being pressed to
treachery against himself/herself. He/she must deny their presence,
contradict the truth, and suffer to preserve the world he/she made.
4 Here is the only home he/she thinks he/she knows. Here is the only
safety he/she believes that he/she can find. Without the world he/she
made is he/she an outcast, homeless and afraid. He/she does not
realize that it is here he/she is afraid indeed and homeless too—an
outcast wandering so far from home, so long away, he/she does not
realize he/she has forgotten where he/she came from, where he/she
goes, and even who he/she really is.
5 Yet in his/her lonely, senseless wanderings, God's gifts go with
him/her, all unknown to him/her. He/she cannot lose them. But he/she
will not look at what is given him/her. He/she wanders on, aware of
the futility he/she sees about him/her everywhere, perceiving how
his/her little lot but dwindles as he/she goes ahead to nowhere. Still
he/she wanders on in misery and poverty, alone though God is with
him/her, and a treasure is his/her so great that everything the world
contains is valueless before its magnitude.
6 He/she seems a sorry figure—weary, worn, in threadbare clothing, and
with feet that bleed a little from the rocky road he/she walks. No one
but has identified with him/her, for everyone who comes here has
pursued the path he/she follows and has felt defeat and hopelessness
as he/she is feeling them. Yet is he/she really tragic when you see
that he/she is following the way he/she chose and needs but realize
Who walks with him/her and open up his/her treasures to be free?
7 This is your chosen self, the one you made as a replacement for
reality. This is the self you savagely defend against all reason,
every evidence, and all the witnesses with proof to show this is not
you. You heed them not. You go on your appointed way, with eyes cast
down lest you might catch a glimpse of truth and be released from
self-deception and set free.
8 You cower fearfully lest you should feel the Christ Consciousness,
the Mercy Consciousness touch upon your shoulder and perceive Her
gentle hand directing you to look upon your gifts. How could you then
proclaim your poverty in exile? She would make you laugh at this
perception of yourself. Where is self-pity then? And what becomes of
all the tragedy you sought to make for him/her for whom God intended
only joy.
9 Your ancient fear has come upon you now,
and
justice has caught up with you at last. The Christ Consciousness’, the
Mercy
Consciousness’ hand has touched your shoulder, and you feel that you are
not
alone. You even think the miserable self you thought was you may not be
your
identity. Perhaps God's Word is truer than your own. Perhaps HisHer gifts
to
you are real. Perhaps HeShe has not wholly been outwitted by your plan to
keep
HisHer SonDaughter in deep oblivion and go the way you chose without your
Self.
10
God's Will does not oppose. It merely is. It is not God you have
imprisoned in your plan to lose your Self. HeShe does not know about a
plan so alien to HisHer Will. There was a need HeShe did not understand,
to which HeShe gave an Answer. That is all. And you who have this Answer
given you have need no more of anything but this.
11
Now do we live, for now we cannot die. The wish for death is answered,
and the sight that looked upon it now has been replaced by vision which
perceives that you are not what you pretend to be. One walks with you
Who gently answers all your fears with this one merciful reply: "It is
not so." She points to all the gifts you have each time the thought of
poverty oppresses you and speaks of HisHer companionship when you
perceive yourself as lonely and afraid.
12
Yet She reminds you still of one thing more you had forgotten. For Her
touch on you has made you like Herself. The gifts you have are not for
you alone. What She has come to offer you, you now must learn to give.
This is the lesson that Her giving holds, for She has saved you from the
solitude you sought to make in which to hide from God. She has reminded
you of all the gifts that God has given you. She speaks as well of what
becomes your will when you accept these gifts and recognize they are
your own.
13
The gifts are yours, entrusted to your care to give to all who chose the
lonely road you have escaped. They do not understand they but pursue
their wishes. It is you who teach them now. For you have learned of the
Christ Consciousness/the Mercy Consciousness there is another way for
them to walk. Teach them by showing them the happiness that comes to
those who feel the touch of the Christ Consciousness/the Mercy
Consciousness and recognize God's gifts. Let sorrow not tempt you to be
unfaithful to your trust.
14
Your sighs will now betray the hopes of those who look to you for their
release. Your tears are theirs. If you are sick, you but withhold their
healing. What you fear but teaches them their fears are justified. Your
hand becomes the giver of the Christ Consciousness’/the Mercy
Consciousness’ touch; your change of mind becomes the proof that who
accepts God's gifts can never suffer anything. You are entrusted with
the world's release from pain.
15
Betray it not. Become the living proof of what the Christ
Consciousness’/the Mercy Consciousness’ touch can offer everyone. God
has entrusted all HisHer gifts to you. Be witness in your happiness to
how transformed the mind becomes which chooses to accept HisHer gifts
and feel the touch of the Christ Consciousness/the Mercy Consciousness.
Such is your mission now. For God entrusts the giving of HisHer gifts to
all who have received them. HeShe has shared HisHer joy with you. And
now you go to share it with the world.
Lesson 167
There is one life, and that
I share with God.
1
There are not different kinds of life, for life is like the truth. It
does not have degrees. It is the one condition in which all that God
created and manifested share. Like all HisHer Thoughts, it has no
opposite. There is no death because what God created and manifested
shares HisHer Life. There is no death because an opposite to God does
not exist. There is no death because the FatherMother and the
SonDaughter are one.
2
In this world there appears to be a state that is life's opposite. You
call it death. Yet we have learned that the idea of death takes many
forms. It is the one idea which underlies all feelings that are not
supremely happy. It is the alarm to which you give response of any kind
that is not perfect joy. All sorrow, loss, anxiety, and suffering and
pain, even a little sigh of weariness, a slight discomfort or the merest
frown, acknowledge death. And thus deny you live.
3
You think that death is of the body. Yet it is but an idea, irrelevant
to what is seen as physical. A thought is in the mind. It can be then
applied as mind directs it. But its origin is where it must be changed
if change occurs. Ideas leave not their source. The emphasis this course
has placed on that idea is due to its centrality in our attempts to
change your mind about yourself. It is the reason you can heal. It is
the cause of healing. It is why you cannot die. Its truth established
you as one with God.
4
Death is the thought that you are separate from your
CreatorManifestoress. It is the belief conditions change, emotions
alternate because of causes you cannot control, you did not make, and
you can never change. It is the fixed belief ideas can leave their
source and take on qualities the source does not contain, becoming
different from their own origin, apart from it in kind as well as
distance, time, and form.
5
Death cannot come from life. Ideas remain united to their source. They
can extend all that their source contains. In that they can go far
beyond themselves. But they cannot give birth to what was never given
them. As they are made, so will their making be. As they were born, so
will they then give birth. And where they come from, there will they
return.
6
The mind can think it sleeps, but that is all. It cannot change what is
its waking state. It cannot make a body nor abide within a body. What is
alien to the mind does not exist because it has no source. For mind
creates and manifests all things that are and cannot give them
attributes it lacks nor change its own eternal, mindful state. It cannot
make the physical. What seems to die is but the sign of mind asleep.
7
The opposite of life can only be another form of life. As such, it can
be reconciled with what created and manifested it because it is not
opposite in truth. Its form may change; it may appear to be what it is
not. Yet mind is mind awake or sleeping. It is not its opposite in
anything created and manifested nor in what it seems to make when it
believes it sleeps.
8
God creates and manifests only mind awake. HeShe does not sleep, and
HisHer creations and manifestations cannot share what HeShe gives not
nor make conditions which HeShe does not share with them. The thought of
death is not the opposite to thoughts of life. Forever unopposed by
opposites of any kind, the Thoughts of God remain forever changeless
with the power to extend forever changelessly but yet within Themselves,
for They are everywhere.
9
What seems to be the opposite of life is merely sleeping. When the mind
elects to be what it is not and to assume an alien power which it does
not have, a foreign state it cannot enter or a false condition not
within its Source, it merely seems to go to sleep a while. It dreams of
time—an interval in which what seems to happen never has occurred, the
changes wrought are substanceless, and all events are nowhere. When the
mind awakes, it but continues as it always was.
10
Let us today be children of the truth and not deny our holy heritage.
Our life is not as we imagine it. Who changes life because he/she shuts
his/her eyes or makes himself/herself what he/she is not because he/she
sleeps and sees in dreams an opposite to what he/she is? We will not ask
for death in any form today. Nor will we let imagined opposites to life
abide even an instant where the Thought of life eternal has been set by
God HimHerself.
11
HisHer holy home we strive to keep today as HeShe established it, and
wills it be forever and forever. HeShe is LordLady of what we think
today. And in HisHer Thoughts, which have no opposite, we understand
there is one life and that we share with HimHer, with all creation and
manifestation, with their thoughts as well, whom HeShe created and
manifested in a unity of life that cannot separate in death and leave
the Source of Life from where it came.
12
We share our life because we have one Source, a Source from Which
perfection comes to us, remaining always in the holy minds which HeShe
created and manifested perfect. As we were, so are we now and will
forever be. A sleeping mind must waken as it sees its own perfection
mirroring the Lord of Life so perfectly it fades into what is reflected
there. And now it is no more a mere reflection. It becomes the thing
reflected and the light which makes reflection possible. No vision now
is needed. For the wakened mind is one that knows its Source, its Self,
its holiness.
Lesson 168
Your grace is given us. We
claim it now.
1
God speaks to us. Shall we not speak to HimHer? HeShe is not distant.
HeShe makes no attempt to hide from us. We try to hide from HimHer and
suffer from deception. HeShe remains entirely accessible. HeShe loves
HisHer SonDaughter. There is no certainty but this, yet this suffices.
HeShe will love HisHer SonDaughter forever. When hisher mind remains
asleep, HeShe loves himher still. And when hisher mind awakes, HeShe
loves himher with a never-changing Love.
2
If you but knew the meaning of HisHer Love, hope and despair would be
impossible, for hope would be forever satisfied; despair of any kind
unthinkable. HisHer grace HisHer answer is to all despair, for in it
lies remembrance of HisHer Love. Would HeShe not gladly give the means
by which HisHer Will is recognized? HisHer grace is yours by your
acknowledgment. And memory of HimHer awakens in the mind which asks the
means of HimHer whereby its sleep is done.
3
Today we ask of God the gift HeShe has most carefully preserved within
our hearts, waiting to be acknowledged. This the gift by which God leans
to us and lifts us up, taking salvation's final step HimHerself. All
steps but this we learn, instructed by HisHer Voice. But finally HeShe
comes HimHerself and takes us in HisHer arms and sweeps away the cobwebs
of our sleep. HisHer gift of grace is more than just an answer. It
restores all memories the sleeping mind forgot; all certainty of what
love's meaning is.
4
God loves HisHer SonDaughter. Request HimHer now to give the means by
which this world will disappear, and vision first will come with
knowledge but an instant later. For in grace you see a light that covers
all the world in love and watch fear disappear from every face as hearts
rise up and claim the light as theirs. What now remains that the God
Realm be delayed an instant longer? What remains undone when your
forgiveness rests on everything?
5
It is a new and holy day today, for we receive what has been given us.
Our faith lies in the Giver, not our own acceptance. We acknowledge our
mistakes, but HeShe to Whom all error is unknown is yet the One Who
answers our mistakes by giving us the means to lay them down and rise to
HimHer in gratitude and love.
6
And HeShe descends to meet us as we come to HimHer, for what HeShe has
prepared for us HeShe gives and we receive. Such is HisHer Will because
HeShe loves HisHer SonDaughter. To HimHer we pray today, returning but
the words HeShe gave to us through HisHer own Voice, HisHer Word, HisHer
Love:
7
Your grace is given us. We claim it now.
FatherMother, we come to You. And
You will come
To us who ask. We are the
SonDaughter You love.
Lesson 169
By grace I live. By grace I
am released.
1
Grace is an aspect of the Love of God which is most like the state
prevailing in the unity of truth. It is the world's most lofty
aspiration, for it leads beyond the world entirely. It is past learning
yet the goal of learning, for grace cannot come until the mind prepares
itself for true acceptance. Grace becomes inevitable instantly in those
who have prepared a table where it can be gently laid and willingly
received, an altar clean and holy for the gift.
2
Grace is acceptance of the Love of God within a world of seeming hate
and fear. By grace alone the hate and fear are gone, for grace presents
a state so opposite to everything the world contains that those whose
minds are lighted by the gift of grace can not believe the world of fear
is real.
3
Grace is not learned. The final step must go beyond all learning. Grace
is not the goal this course aspires to attain. Yet we prepare for grace
in that an open mind can hear the call to waken. It is not shut tight
against God's Voice. It has become aware that there are things it does
not know and thus is ready to accept a state completely different from
experience with which it is familiarly at home.
4
We have perhaps appeared to contradict our statement that the revelation
of the FatherMother and the SonDaughter as one has been already set. But
we have also said the mind determines when that time will be and has
determined it. And yet we urge you to bear witness to the Word of God to
hasten the experience of truth and speed its advent into every mind
which recognizes its effects on you.
5
Oneness is simply the idea God is. And in HisHer Being, HeShe
encompasses all things. No mind holds anything but HimHer. We say "God
is," and then we cease to speak, for in that knowledge words are
meaningless. There are no lips to speak them and no part of mind
sufficiently distinct to feel that it is now aware of something not
itself. It has united with its Source, and like its Source Itself, it
merely is.
6
We cannot speak nor write nor even think of this at all. It comes to
every mind when total recognition that its will is God's has been
completely given and received completely. It returns the mind into the
endless present, where the past and future cannot be conceived. It lies
beyond salvation—past all thought of time, forgiveness, and the holy
face of the Christ Consciousness/the Mercy Consciousness. The
SonDaughter of God has merely disappeared into hisher FatherMother, as
hisher FatherMother has in him. The world has never been at all.
Eternity remains a constant state.
7
This is beyond experience we try to hasten. Yet forgiveness, taught and
learned, brings with it the experiences which bear witness that the time
the mind itself determined to abandon all but this is now at hand. We do
not hasten it, in that what you will offer was concealed from Her Who
teaches what forgiveness means. All learning was already in Her Mind,
accomplished and complete. She recognized all that time holds and gave
it to all minds that each one might determine from a point where time
has ended when it is released to revelation and eternity.
8
We have repeated several times before that you but make a journey that
is done. For oneness must be here. Whatever time the mind has set for
revelation is entirely irrelevant to what must be a constant state,
forever as
it always was; forever to remain as it is now. We merely take the part
assigned
long since and fully recognized as perfectly fulfilled by Her Who
wrote
salvation's script in Her Creator’sManifestoresse's name and in the
name of Her
Creator’sManifestoresess's SonDaughter.
9
There is no need to further clarify what no one in the world can
understand. When revelation of your oneness comes, it will be known and
fully understood. Now we have work to do, for those in time can speak of
things beyond and listen to words which explain what is to come is past
already. Yet what meaning can the words convey to those who count the
hours still and rise and work and go to sleep by them?
10
Suffice it, then, that you have work to do to play your part. The ending
must remain obscure to you until your part is done. It does not matter.
For your part is still what all the rest depends on. As you take the
role assigned to you, salvation comes a little nearer each uncertain
heart that does not beat as yet in tune with God. Forgiveness is the
central theme which runs throughout salvation, holding all its parts in
meaningful relationships, the course it runs directed, and its outcome
sure.
11
And now we ask for grace, the final gift salvation can bestow.
Experience that grace provides will end in time, for grace foreshadows
the God Realm yet does not replace the thought of time but for a little
while. The interval suffices. It is here that miracles are laid, to be
returned by you from holy instants you receive through grace in your
experience to all who see the light that lingers on your face.
12
What is the face of the Christ Consciousness/the Mercy Consciousness but
his/her who went a moment into timelessness and brought a clear
reflection of the unity he/she felt an instant back to bless the world?
How could you finally attain to it forever while a part of you remains
outside, unknowing, unawakened, and in need of you as witness to the
truth?
13
Be grateful to return, as you were glad to go an instant and accept the
gifts that grace provided you. You carry them back to yourself. And
revelation stands not far behind. Its coming is ensured. We ask for
grace and for experience that comes from grace. We welcome the release
it offers everyone. We do not ask for the unaskable. We do not look
beyond what grace can give. For this we can give in the grace that has
been given us.
14
Our learning goal today does not exceed this prayer, yet in the world,
what could be more than what we ask this day of Her Who gives the grace
we ask as it was given Her?
15
By grace I live. By grace I am released.
By grace I give. By grace
I will release.
Lesson 170
There is no cruelty in God
and none in me.
1
No one attacks without intent to hurt. This can have no exception. When
you think that you attack in self defense, you mean that to be cruel is
protection; you are safe because of cruelty. You mean that you believe
to hurt another brings you freedom. And you mean that to attack is to
exchange the state in which you are for something better, safer, more
secure from dangerous invasion and from fear.
2
How thoroughly insane is the idea that to defend from fear is to attack!
For here is fear begot and fed with blood, to make it grow and swell and
rage. And thus is fear protected, not escaped. Today we learn a lesson
which can save you more delay and needless misery than you can possibly
imagine. It is this:
3
You make what you defend against, and by
your own defense against it, is it
real
and inescapable. Lay down your
arms,
and only then do you perceive it
false.
4
It seems to be the enemy without that you attack. 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. For love now has an "enemy," an opposite; and fear, the
alien, now needs your defense against the threat of what you really are.
5
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. First, it is obvious ideas must leave their source. For
it is you who make attack and must have first conceived of it. Yet you
attack outside yourself and separate your mind from him&her who is
to be attacked with perfect faith the split you made is real.
6
Next are the attributes of love bestowed upon its "enemy." 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. And as love is shorn of what belongs to it and it
alone, love is endowed with attributes of fear. For love would ask you
lay down all defense as merely foolish. And your arms indeed would
crumble into dust. For such they are.
7
With love as enemy must cruelty become a god, and gods demand that those
who worship them obey their dictates and refuse to question them. Harsh
punishment is meted out relentlessly to those who ask if the demands are
sensible or even sane. It is their enemies who are unreasonable and
insane, while they are always merciful and just.
8
Today we look upon this cruel god/goddess dispassionately. And we note
that though his/her lips are smeared with blood and fire seems to flame
from him, he/she is but made of stone. he/she can do nothing. We need
not defy his/her power. he/she has none. And those who see in
him&her their safety have no guardian, no strength to call upon in
danger, and no mighty warrior to fight for them.
9
This moment can be terrible. But it can also be the time of your release
from abject slavery. You make a choice, standing before this
idol/idolress, seeing him/her exactly as he/she is. Will you restore to
love what you have sought to wrest from it and lay before this mindless
piece of stone? Or will you make another idol/idolress to replace it?
For the god/goddess of cruelty takes many forms. Another can be found.
10
Yet do not think that fear is the escape from fear. Let us remember what
the course has stressed about the obstacles to peace. 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 HimHerself. Here is the basic premise
which enthrones the thought of fear as god. For fear is loved by those
who worship it, and love appears to be invested now with cruelty.
11
Where does the totally insane belief in gods of vengeance come from?
Love has not confused its attributes with those of fear. Yet must the
worshippers of fear perceive their own confusion in fear's "enemy," its
cruelty as now a part of love. And what becomes more fearful than the
heart of Love Itself? The blood appears to be upon HisHer Lips; the fire
comes from HimHer. And HeShe is terrible above all else, cruel beyond
conception, striking down all who acknowledge HimHer to be their God.
12
The choice you make today is certain. For you look for the last time
upon this bit of carven stone you made and call it god/goddess no
longer. You have reached this place before, but you have chosen that
this cruel god/goddess remain with you in still another form, and so the
fear of God returned with you. This time you leave it here. 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.
13
Now do your eyes belong to the Christ Consciousness/the Mercy
Consciousness, and She looks through them. Now your voice belongs to God
and echoes HisHers. And now your heart remains at peace forever. You
have chosen HimHer in place of idols/idolesses, and your attributes,
given by your CreatorManifestoress, are restored to you at last. The
Call of God is heard and answered. Now has fear made way for love, as
God HimHerself replaces cruelty.
14
FatherMother, we are like You. No cruelty abides in us for there is
none in You. Your peace is ours. And we bless the world with what we
have received from You alone. We choose again and make our choice for
all our brothers&sisters, knowing they are one with us. We
bring them Your salvation as we have received it now. And we give
thanks for them who render us complete. In them we see Your glory, and
in them we find our peace. Holy are we because Your holiness has set
us free. And we give thanks. Amen.
Review V
R5:1
We now review again. This time we are ready to give more effort and
more time to what we undertake. We recognize we are preparing for
another phase of understanding. We would take this step completely,
that we may go on again more certain, more sincere, with faith upheld
more surely. Our footsteps have not been unwavering, and doubts have
made us walk uncertainly and slowly on the road this course sets
forth. But now we hasten on, for we approach a greater certainty, a
firmer purpose and a surer goal.
2
Steady our feet, our FatherMother; let our doubts be quiet and our
holy minds be still, and speak to us. We have no words to give to You.
We would but listen to Your Word and make it ours. Lead our practicing
as does a father&mother lead a little child along a way he/she
does not understand. Yet does he/she follow, sure that he/she is safe
because his/her father&mother leads the way for him/her.
3
So do we bring our practicing to You. And if we stumble, You will raise
us up. If we forget the way, we count upon Your sure remembering. We
wander off, but You will not forget to call us back. Quicken our
footsteps now, that we may walk more certainly and quickly unto You. And
we accept the Word You offer us to unify our practicing, as we review
the thoughts that You have given us.
4
This is the thought which should precede the thoughts that we review.
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:
5
God is but Love, and therefore so am I.
6
This Self alone knows love. This Self alone is perfectly consistent in
Its thoughts, knows Its CreatorManifestoress, understands Itself, is
perfect in Its knowledge and Its love, and never changes from Its
constant state of union with Its FatherMother and Itself.
7
And it is This that waits to meet us at the journey's ending. Every step
we take brings us a little nearer. 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. 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.
8
I take the journey with you. 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. We walk together. I must
understand
uncertainty and pain, although I know they have no meaning. Yet a
savior/savioress
must remain with those he/she teaches, seeing what they see, but still
retaining in his/her mind the way that led him/her out and now will lead
you
out with him/her. God’s SonDaughter is crucified until you walk along
the road
with me.
9
My resurrection comes again each time I lead a brother/sister
safely to the place at which the journey ends and is forgot. I am
renewed each
time a brother&sister learns there is a way from misery and pain. I
am reborn
each time a brother’s/sister’s mind turns to the light in him/her and
looks for
me. I have forgotten no one. Help me now to lead you back to where the
journey
was begun, to make another choice with me.
10
Release me as you practice once again the thoughts I
brought to you from Her Who sees your bitter need and knows the answer
God has
given Her. Together we review these thoughts. Together we devote our
time and
effort to them. And together we will teach them to our
brothers&sisters .
God would not have the God Realm incomplete. It waits for you as I do. I
am
incomplete without your part in me. 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.
11
Let this review be then your gift to me. For this alone I need—that you
will
hear the words I speak and give them to the world. You are my voice, my
eyes,
my feet, my hands, through which I save the world. The Self from Which I
call
to you is but your own. To HimHer we go together. Take your
brother’s&sister’s
hand, for this is not a way we walk alone. In him/her I walk with you and
you
with me. Our FatherMother wills HisHer SonDaughter be one with HimHer.
What
lives but must not then be one with you?
12
Let this review become a time in which we share a new experience for
you, yet one as old as time, and older still. Hallowed your name. Your
glory undefiled forever. And your wholeness now complete, as God
established it. You are HisHer SonDaughter, completing HisHer extension
in your own. We practice but an ancient truth we knew before illusion
seemed to claim the world. And we remind the world that it is free of
all illusions every time we say,
13
God is but Love, and therefore so am I.
14
With this we start each day of our review. With this we start and end
each period of practice time. And with this thought we sleep, to waken
once again with these same words upon our lips to greet another day. 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 remembrance
throughout the day. And thus when we have finished this review, we will
have recognized the words we speak are true.
15
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. We place faith in the experience that comes from practice, not
the means we use. We wait for the experience and recognize that it is
only here conviction lies. We use the words, and try and try again to go
beyond them to their meaning, which is far beyond their sound. The sound
grows dim and disappears as we approach the Source of meaning. It is
here that we find rest.
Lesson 171
God
is but Love, and therefore so am I.
[151] All things are echoes of the
Voice of God.
God is but Love, and therefore so am I.
[152] The power of decision is my own.
God is but Love, and therefore so am I.
Lesson 172
God is but Love, and therefore so am I.
[153] In my defenselessness my safety
lies.
God is but Love, and therefore so am I.
[154] I am among the
ministers/ministeresses of God.
God is but Love, and therefore so am I.
Lesson 173
God
is but Love, and therefore so am I.
[155] I will step back and let HimHer
lead the way.
God is but Love, and therefore so am I.
[156] I walk with God in perfect
holiness.
God is but Love, and therefore so am
I.
Lesson 174
God
is but Love, and therefore so am I.
[157] Into HisHer Presence would I
enter now.
God is but Love, and therefore so am I.
[158] Today I learn to give as I
receive.
God is but Love, and therefore so am I.
Lesson 175
God
is but Love, and therefore so am I.
[159] I give the miracles I have
received.
God is but Love, and therefore so am I.
[160] I am at home. Fear is the
stranger here.
God is but Love, and therefore so am
I.
Lesson 176
God
is but Love, and therefore so am I.
[161] Give me your blessing, holy
SonDaughter of God.
God is but Love, and therefore so am I.
[162] I am as God created and
manifested me.
God is but Love, and therefore so am I.
Lesson 177
God
is but Love, and therefore so am I.
[163] There is no death. The
SonDaughter of God is free.
God is but Love, and therefore so am I.
[164] Now are we one with HimHer Who is
our Source.
God is but Love, and therefore so am I.
Lesson 178
God
is but Love, and therefore so am I.
[165] Let not my mind deny the Thought
of God.
God is but Love, and therefore so am I.
[166] I am entrusted with the gifts of
God.
God is but Love, and therefore so am I.
Lesson 179
God
is but Love, and therefore so am I.
[167] There is one life, and that I share
with God.
God is but Love, and therefore so am I.
[168] Your grace is given me. I claim it
now.
God is but Love, and therefore so am I.
Lesson 180
God
is but Love, and therefore so am I.
[169] By
grace I live. By grace I am released.
God is but Love, and therefore so am I.
[170] There
is no cruelty in God and none in me.
God is but Love, and therefore so am I.
Introduction to Lessons
181-200
I181:1
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. You are not asked for total dedication all the time, as yet. But
you are asked to practice now in order to attain the sense of peace such
unified commitment will bestow, if only intermittently. It is
experiencing this which makes it sure that you will give your total
willingness to following the way the course sets forth.
2
Our lessons now are geared specifically to widening horizons and direct
approaches to the special blocks which keep your vision narrow and too
limited to let you see the value of our goal. We are attempting now to
lift these blocks, however briefly. Words alone can not convey the sense
of liberation which their lifting brings. But the experience of freedom
and of peace that comes as you give up your tight control of what you
see speaks for itself. Your motivation will be so intensified that words
become of little consequence. You will be sure of what you want and what
is valueless.
3
And so we start our journey beyond words by concentrating first on what
impedes our progress still. Experience of what exists beyond
defensiveness remains beyond achievement while it is denied. It may be
there, but you cannot accept its presence. So we now attempt to go past
all defenses for a little while each day. No more than this is asked
because no more than this is needed. It will be enough to guarantee the
rest will come.
Lesson 181
I trust my
brothers&sisters, who are one with me.
1 Trusting your brothers&sisters
is essential to establishing and holding up your faith in your ability
to transcend doubt and lack of sure conviction in yourself. When you
attack a brother&sister, you proclaim that he/she is limited by
what you have perceived in him/her. You do not look beyond his/her
errors. Rather, they are magnified, becoming blocks to your awareness
of the Self that lies beyond your own mistakes and past his/her
seeming sins as well as yours.
2 Perception has a focus. It is this which gives consistency to what
you see. Change but this focus, and what you behold will change
accordingly. Your vision now will shift to give support to the intent
which has replaced the one you held before. Remove your focus on your
brother’s/sister’s sins, and you experience the peace that comes from
faith in sinlessness. This faith receives its only sure support from
what you see in others past their sins. For their mistakes, if focused
on, are witnesses to sins in you. And you will not transcend their
sight and see the sinlessness that lies beyond.
3 Therefore, in practicing today, we first let all such little focuses
give way to our great need to let our sinlessness become apparent. We
instruct our minds that it is this we seek and only this, for just a
little while. We do not care about our future goals, and what we saw
an instant previous has no concern for us within this interval of time
wherein we practice changing our intent. We seek for innocence and
nothing else. We seek for it with no concern but now.
4 A major hazard to success has been involvement with your past and
future goals. You have been quite preoccupied with how extremely
different the goals this course is advocating are from those you held
before. And you have also been dismayed by the depressing and
restricting thought that, even if you should succeed, you will
inevitably lose your way again. How could this matter? For the past is
gone, the future but imagined. These concerns are but defenses against
present change of focus in perception. Nothing more.
5 We lay these pointless limitations by a little while. We do not look
to past beliefs, and what we will believe will not intrude upon us
now. We enter in the time of practicing with one intent—to look upon
the sinlessness within. We recognize that we have lost this goal if
anger blocks our way in any form. And if a brother’/sister’s sins
occur to us, our narrowed focus will restrict our sight and turn our
eyes upon our own mistakes, which we will magnify and call our "sins."
6 So, for a little while, without regard to past or future, should
such blocks arise, we will transcend them with instructions to our
minds to change their focus, as we say:
7 It is not this that I would look upon.
I trust my brothers&sisters, who are one with me.
8 And we will also use these thoughts to keep us safe throughout the
day. We do not seek for long range goals. 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.
9 Nor do we ask for fantasies. For what we seek to look upon is really
there. And as our focus goes beyond mistakes, we will behold a wholly
sinless world. 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 the
Christ Consciousness, the Mercy Consciousness inevitably ours. And the
love She feels for us becomes our own as well. This will become the
only thing we see reflected in the world and in ourselves.
10 The world which once proclaimed our sins becomes the proof that we
are sinless. 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. We seek for this
remembrance as we turn our minds to practicing today. We look neither
ahead nor backwards. We look straight into the present. And we give
our trust to the experience we ask for now. Our sinlessness is but the
Will of God. This instant is our willing one with HisHers.
Lesson 182
I will be still a moment and
go home.
1 This world you seem to live in is
not home to you. And somewhere in your mind you know that this is
true. A memory of home keeps haunting you, as if there were a place
that called you to return, although you do not recognize the Voice nor
what it is the Voice reminds you of. Yet still you feel an alien here,
from somewhere all unknown. Nothing so definite that you could say
with certainty you are an exile here. Just a persistent feeling,
sometimes not more than a tiny throb, at other times hardly
remembered, actively dismissed, but surely to return to mind again.
2 No one but knows whereof we speak. Yet some try to put by their
suffering in games they play to occupy their time and keep their
sadness from them. Others will deny that they are sad and do not
recognize their tears at all. Still others will maintain that what we
speak of is illusion, not to be considered more than but a dream. Yet
who in simple honesty, without defensiveness and self-deception, would
deny he/she understands the words we speak?
3 We speak today for everyone who walks this world, for he/she is not
at home. He/she goes uncertainly about in endless search, seeking in
darkness what he/she cannot find, not recognizing what it is he/she
seeks. A thousand homes he/she makes, yet none contents his/her
restless mind. He/she does not understand he/she builds in vain. The
home he/she seeks can not be made by him/her. There is no substitute
for the God Realm. All he/she ever made was hell.
4 Perhaps you think it is your childhood home that you would find
again. The childhood of your body and its place of shelter are a
memory now so distorted that you merely hold a picture of a past that
never happened. Yet there is a Child in you who seeks hisher
Father’sMother's house and knows that he/she is alien here. This
Childhood is eternal, with an innocence that will endure forever.
Where this Child shall go is holy ground. It is his/her holiness that
lights up the God Realm and that brings to earth the pure reflection
of the light above, wherein are earth and the God Realm joined as one.
5 It is this Child in you your FatherMother knows as HisHer own
SonDaughter. It is this Child who knows his/her FatherMother. He/she
desires to go home so deeply, so unceasingly, his/her voice cries unto
you to let him/her rest a while. He/she does not ask for more than
just a few instants of respite—just an interval in which he/she can
return to breathe again the holy air that fills hi/sher
Father’sMother's house. You are his/her home as well. He/she will
return. But give him/her just a little time to be himself/herself
within the peace that is his/her home, resting in silence and in peace
and love.
6 This Child needs your protection. He/she is far from home. He/she is
so little that he/she seems so easily shut out, his/her tiny Voice so
readily obscured, his/her calls for help almost unheard amid the
grating sounds and harsh and rasping noises of the world. Yet does
he/she know that in you still abides his/her sure protection. You will
fail him/her not. He/she will go home, and you along with him/her.
7 This Child is your defenselessness, your strength. He/she trusts in
you. He/she came because he/she knew you would not fail. He/she
whispers of his/her home unceasingly to you. For he/she would bring
you back with him/her, that he/she himself/herself might stay and not
return again where he/she does not belong and where he/she lives an
outcast in a world of alien thoughts. His/her patience has no limits.
He/she will wait until you hear his/her gentle Voice within you,
calling you to let him/her go in peace along with you to where he/she
is at home and you with him/her.
8 When you are still an instant, when the world recedes from you, when
valueless ideas cease to have value in your restless mind, then will
you hear his/her Voice. So poignantly he/she calls to you that you
will not resist him/her longer. In that instant, he/she will take you
to his/her home, and you will stay with him/her in perfect stillness,
silent and at peace, beyond all words, untouched by fear and doubt,
that you are at home.
9 Rest with him/her frequently today. For he/she was willing to become
a little child that you might learn of him/her how strong is he/she
who comes without defenses, offering only love's messages to those who
think he/she is their enemy. He/she holds the might of the God Realm
in his/her hand and calls them friend, and gives his/her strength to
them that they may see he/she would be friend to them. He/she asks but
they protect him/her, for his/her home is far away, and he/she will
not return to it alone.
10 The Christ Consciousness, the Mercy Consciousness is reborn as but
a little Child each time a wanderer would leave his/her home. For
he/she must learn that what he/she would protect is but this Child,
who comes defenseless and who is protected by defenselessness. Go home
with him/her from time to time today. You are as much an alien here as
he/she.
11 Take time today to lay aside your shield which profits nothing and
lay down the spear and sword you raised against an enemy without
existence. The Christ Consciousness, the Mercy Consciousness has
called you friend and brother&sister. He/she has even come to you
to ask your help in letting him/her go home completed and completely.
He/she has come as does a little child who must beseech his/her
father/mother for protection and for love. He/she rules the universe,
and yet he/she asks unceasingly that you return with him/her and take
illusions as your gods/goddesses no more.
12 You have not lost your innocence. It is for this you yearn. This is
your heart's desire. This is the Voice you hear, and this the call
which cannot be denied. The holy Child remains with you. His/her home
is yours. Today he/she gives you his/her defenselessness, and you
accept it in exchange for all the toys of battle you have made. And
now the way is open, and the journey has an end in sight at last. Be
still a moment and go home with him/her, and be at peace a while.
Lesson 183
I call upon God's Name and
on my own.
1
God's Name is holy, but no holier than yours. To call upon HisHer Name is
but
to call upon your own. A father/mother gives his/her son/daughter his/her
name,
and thus identifies the son/daughter with him/her. His/her
brothers&sisters
share his/her name, and thus are they united in a bond to which they turn
for
their identity. Your Father’s/Mother's Name reminds you who you are, even
within a world that does not know; even though you have not
.
2
God's Name cannot be heard without response, nor said without an echo in
the mind which calls you to remember. Say HisHer Name, and you invite
the angels to surround the ground on which you stand and sing to you as
they spread out their wings to keep you safe and shelter you from every
worldly thought that would intrude upon your holiness.
3
Repeat God's Name and all the world responds by laying down illusions.
Every dream the world holds dear has suddenly gone by, and where it
seemed to stand you find a star; a miracle of grace. The sick arise,
healed of their sickly thoughts. The blind can see; the deaf can hear;
the sorrowful cast off their mourning, and the tears of pain are dried
as happy laughter comes to bless the world.
4
Repeat the Name of God and little names have lost their meaning. No
temptation but becomes a nameless and unwanted thing before God's Name.
Repeat HisHer Name and see how easily you will forget the names of all
the gods you value. They have lost the name of god you gave them. They
become anonymous and valueless to you, although before you let the Name
of God replace their little names, you stood before them worshipfully,
naming them as gods.
5
Repeat the Name of God and call upon your Self, Whose Name is HisHers.
Repeat HisHer Name and all the tiny, nameless things on earth slip into
right perspective. Those who call upon the Name of God cannot mistake
the nameless for the Name, nor sin for grace, nor bodies for the holy
SonDaughter of God.
6
And should you join a brother/sister as you sit with him&her in
silence and repeat God's Name along with him&her within your quiet
minds, you have established there an altar which reaches to God
HimHerself and to HisHer SonDaughter. Practice but this today; repeat
God's Name slowly again and still again. Become oblivious to every name
but His.
7
Hear nothing else. Let all your thoughts become anchored on this. No
other words we use except at the beginning, when we say today's idea but
once. And then God's Name becomes our only thought, our only word, the
only thing that occupies our minds, the only wish we have, the only
sound with any meaning, and the only name of everything that we desire
to see; of everything that we would call our own.
8
Thus do we give an invitation which can never be refused. And God will
come and answer it HimHerself. Think not HeShe hears the little prayers
of those who call on HimHer with names of idols/idolesses cherished by
the world. They cannot reach HimHer thus. HeShe cannot hear requests
that HeShe be not HimHerself or that HisHer SonDaughter receive another
name than HisHers.
9
Repeat HisHer Name, and you acknowledge HimHer as sole
CreatorManifestoress of reality. And you acknowledge also that HisHer
SonDaughter is part of HimHer, creating and manifesting in HisHer Name.
Sit silently, and let HisHer Name become the all-encompassing idea which
holds your mind completely. Let all thoughts be still except this one.
And to all other thoughts respond with this, and see God's Name replace
the thousand little names you gave your thoughts, not realizing that
there is One Name for all there is and all that there will be.
10
Today you can achieve a state in which you will experience the gifts of
grace. You can escape all bondage of the world and give the world the
same release you found. You can remember what the world forgot and offer
it your own remembering. You can accept today the part you play in its
salvation and your own as well, and both can be accomplished perfectly.
11
Turn to the Name of God for your release, and it is given you. No prayer
but this is necessary, for it holds them all within it. Words are
insignificant and all requests unneeded when God’s SonDaughter calls on
hisher Father’sMother's Name. Hisher Father’sMother's Thoughts become
hisher own. Heshe makes hisher claim to all hisher FatherMother gave, is
giving still, and will forever give. Heshe calls on HimHer to let all
things heshe thought heshe made be nameless now, and in their place the
holy Name of God becomes hisher judgment of their worthlessness.
12
All little things are silent. Little sounds are soundless now. The
little things of earth have disappeared. The universe consists of
nothing but the SonDaughter of God who calls upon hisher FatherMother.
And hisher Father’sMother’s Voice gives answer in hisher
Father’sMother's holy Name. In this eternal, still relationship, in
which communication far transcends all words and yet exceeds in depth
and height whatever words could possibly convey, is peace eternal. In
our Father’sMother's Name, we would experience this peace today. And in
HisHer Name it shall be given us.
Lesson 184
The Name of God is my
inheritance.
1
You live by symbols. You have made up names for everything you see. Each
one becomes a separate entity, identified by its own name. By this you
carve it out of unity. By this you designate its special attributes and
set it off from other things by emphasizing space surrounding it. This
space you lay between all things to which you give a different name—all
happenings in terms of place and time, all bodies which are greeted by a
name.
2
This space you see as setting off all things from one another is the
means by which the world's perception is achieved. You see something
where nothing is and see as well nothing where there is unity—a space
between all things, between all things and you. Thus do you think that
you have given life in separation. By this split you think you are
established as a unity which functions with an independent will.
3
What are these names by which the world becomes a series of discrete
events, of things un-unified, of bodies kept apart and holding bits of
mind as separate awarenesses? You gave these names to them, establishing
perception as you wished to have perception be. The nameless things were
given names and thus reality was given them as well. For what is named
is given meaning and will then be seen as meaningful, a cause of true
effects with consequence inherent in itself.
4
This is the way reality is made by partial vision, purposefully set
against the given truth. Its enemy is wholeness. It conceives of little
things and looks upon them. And a lack of space, a sense of unity or
vision which sees differently become the threats which it must overcome,
conflict with, and deny.
5
Yet does this other vision still remain a natural direction for the mind
to channel its perception. It is hard to teach the mind a thousand alien
names and thousands more. Yet you believe this is what learning
means—its one essential goal by which communication is achieved and
concepts can be meaningfully shared.
6
This is the sum of the inheritance the world bestows. And everyone who
learns to think that it is so accepts the signs and symbols which assert
the world is real. It is for this they stand. They leave no doubt that
what is named is there. It can be seen, as is anticipated. What denies
that it is true is but illusion, for it is the ultimate reality. To
question it is madness; to accept its presence is the proof of sanity.
7
Such is the teaching of the world. It is a phase of learning everyone
who comes must go through. But the sooner he/she perceives on what it
rests, how questionable are its premises, how doubtful its results, the
sooner does he/she question its effects. Learning which stops with what
the world would teach stops short of meaning. In its proper place, it
serves but as a starting point from which another kind of learning can
begin, a new perception can be gained, and all the arbitrary names the
world bestows can be withdrawn as they are raised to doubt.
8
Think not you made the world. Illusions, yes! But what is true in earth
and the God Realm is beyond your naming. When you call upon a
brother/sister, it is to his/her body that you make appeal. his/her true
identity is hidden from you by what you believe he/she really is.
his/her body makes response to what you call him&her, for his/her
mind consents to take the name you give him&her as his/her own. And
thus his/her unity is twice denied, for you perceive him&her
separate from you, and he/she accepts this separate name as his/hers.
9
It would indeed be strange if you were asked to go beyond all symbols of
the world, forgetting them forever; yet were asked to take a teaching
function. You have need to use the symbols of the world a while. But be
you not deceived by them as well. They do not stand for anything at all,
and in your practicing, it is this thought that will release you from
them. They become but means by which you can communicate in ways the
world can understand, but which you recognize is not the unity where
true communication can be found.
10
Thus what you need are intervals each day in which the learning of the
world becomes a transitory phase—a prison house from which you go into
the sunlight and forget the darkness. Here you understand the Word, the
Name Which God has given you; the One Identity Which all things share;
the one acknowledgment of what is true. And then step back to darkness,
not because you think it real, but only to proclaim its unreality in
terms which still have meaning in the world which darkness rules.
11
Use all the little names and symbols which delineate the world of
darkness. Yet accept them not as your reality. The Holy Spirit uses all
of them, but She does not forget creation and manifestation has One
Name, One Meaning, and a single Source Which unifies all things within
Itself. Use all the names the world bestows on them but for convenience,
yet do not forget they share the Name of God along with you.
12
God has no name. And yet HisHer Name becomes the final lesson that all
things are one, and at this lesson does all learning end. All names are
unified; all space is filled with truth's reflection. Every gap is
closed and separation healed. The Name of God is the inheritance HeShe
gave to those who chose the teaching of the world to take the place of
the God Realm. In our practicing, our purpose is to let our minds accept
what HeShe has given as the answer to the pitiful inheritance you made
as fitting tribute to the SonDaughter HeShe loves.
13
No one can fail who seeks the meaning of the Name of God. Experience
must come to supplement the Word. But first you must accept One Name for
all reality, and realize the many names you gave its aspects have
distorted what you see but have not interfered with truth at all. One
Name we bring into our practicing. One Name we use to unify our sight.
14
And though we use a different name for each awareness of an aspect of
God’s SonDaughter, we understand that they have but One Name, Which
HeShe has given them. It is this Name we use in practicing. And through
Its use, all foolish separations disappear which kept us blind. And we
are given strength to see beyond them. Now our sight is blessed with
blessings we can give as we receive.
15 FatherMother,
our Name is Yours. In It we are united with all living things and You
Who are their One CreatorManifestoress. What we made and call by many
different names is but a shadow we have tried to cast across Your Own
Reality. And we are glad and thankful we were wrong. All our mistakes we
give to You, that we may be absolved of all effects our errors seemed to
have. And we accept the truth You give in place of every one of them.
Your Name is our salvation and escape from what we made. Your Name
unites us in the Oneness which is our inheritance and peace. Amen.
Lesson 185
I want the peace of God.
1
To say these words is nothing. But to mean these words is everything. If
you could but mean them for just an instant, there would be no further
sorrow possible for you in any form, in any place or time. The God Realm
would be completely given back to full awareness, memory of God entirely
restored, the resurrection of all creation and manifestation fully
recognized.
2
No one can mean these words and not be healed. he/she cannot play with
dreams nor think he/she is himself/herself a dream. he/she cannot make a
hell and think it real. HeShe wants the peace of God, and it is given
him. For that is all he/she wants, and that is all he/she will receive.
Many have said these words. But few indeed have meant them. You have but
to look upon the world you see around you to be sure how very few they
are. The world would be completely changed should any two agree these
words express the only thing they want.
3
Two minds with one intent become so strong that what they will becomes
the Will of God. For minds can only join in truth. In dreams no two can
share the same intent. To each the hero of the dream is different—the
outcome wanted not the same for both. Loser and gainer merely shift
about in changing patterns, as the ratio of gain to loss and loss to
gain takes on a different aspect of another form.
4
Yet compromise alone a dream can bring. Sometimes it takes the form of
union, but only the form. The meaning must escape the dream, for
compromising is the goal of dreaming. Minds cannot unite in dreams. They
merely bargain. And what bargain can give them the peace of God?
Illusions come to take HisHer place. And what HeShe means is lost to
sleeping minds intent on compromise, each to his/her gain and to
another's loss.
5
To mean you want the peace of God is to renounce all dreams. For no one
means these words who wants illusions and who therefore seeks the means
which bring illusions. he/she has looked on them and found them wanting.
Now he/she seeks to go beyond them, recognizing that another dream would
offer nothing more than all the others. Dreams are one to him&her.
And he/she has learned their only difference is one of form, for one
will bring the same despair and misery as do the rest.
6
The mind which means that all it wants is peace must join with other
minds, for that is how peace is obtained. And when the wish for peace is
genuine, the means for finding it are given in a form each mind which
seeks for it in honesty can understand. Whatever form the lesson takes
is planned for him&her in such a way that he/she can not mistake it
if his/her asking is sincere. And if he/she asks without sincerity,
there is no form in which the lesson will meet with acceptance and be
truly learned.
7
Let us today devote our practicing to recognizing that we really mean
the words we say. We want the peace of God. This is no idle wish. These
words do not request another dream be given us. They do not ask for
compromise nor try to make another bargain in the hope that there may
yet be one which can succeed where all the rest have failed. To mean
these words acknowledges illusions are in vain, requesting the eternal
in the place of shifting dreams which seem to change in what they offer,
but are one in nothingness.
8
Today devote your practice periods to careful searching of your mind to
find the dreams you cherish still. What do you ask for in your heart?
Forget the words you use in making your requests. Consider but what you
believe will comfort you and bring you happiness. But be you not
dismayed by lingering illusions, for their form is not what matters now.
Let not some dreams be more acceptable, reserving shame and secrecy for
others. They are one.
9
And being one, one question should be asked of all of them: "Is this
what I would have, in place of the God Realm and the peace of God?" This
is the choice you make. Be not deceived that it is otherwise. No
compromise is possible in this. You choose God's peace, or you have
asked for dreams. And dreams will come as you requested them. Yet will
God's peace come just as certainly and to remain with you forever. It
will not be gone with every twist and turning of the road to reappear
unrecognized in forms which shift and change with every step you take.
10
You want the peace of God. And so do all who seem to seek for dreams.
For them as well as for yourself you ask but this when you make this
request with deep sincerity. For thus you reach to what they really want
and join your own intent with what they seek above all things, perhaps
unknown to them, but sure to you. You have been weak at times, uncertain
in your purpose and unsure of what you wanted, where to look for it, and
where to turn for help in the attempt. Help has been given you. And
would you not avail yourself of it by sharing it?
11
No one who truly seeks the peace of God can fail to find it. For he/she
merely asks that he/she deceive himself/herself no longer by denying to
himself/herself what is God's Will. Who can remain unsatisfied who asks
for what he/she has already? Who could be unanswered who requests an
answer which is his/her to give? The peace of God is yours.
12
For you it was created and manifested, given you by its
CreatorManifestoress and established as HisHer own eternal gift. How can
you fail when you but ask for what HeShe wills for you? And how could
your request be limited to you alone? No gift of God can be unshared. It
is this attribute that sets the gifts of God apart from every dream that
ever seemed to take the place of truth.
13
No one can lose and everyone must gain whenever any gift of God has been
requested and received by anyone. God gives but to unite. To take away
is meaningless to HimHer. And when it is as meaningless to you, you can
be sure you share one Will with HimHer, and HeShe with you. And you will
also know you share one Will with all your brothers&sisters,
whose intent is yours.
14
It is this one intent we seek today, uniting our desires with the need
of every heart, the call of every mind, the hope that lies beyond
despair, the love attack would hide, the brotherhood or sisterhood that
hate has sought to sever, but which still remains as God created and
manifested it. With help like this beside us, can we fail today as we
request the peace of God be given us?
Lesson 186
Salvation of the world depends on me.
1
Here is the statement that will one day take all arrogance away from
every mind. Here is the thought of true humility which holds no function
as your own but that which has been given you. It offers your acceptance
of a part assigned to you, without insisting on another role. It does
not judge your proper role. It but acknowledges the Will of God is done
on earth as well as the God Realm. It unites all wills on earth in the
God Realm's plan to save the world, restoring it to the God Realm's
peace.
2
Let us not fight our function. We did not establish it. It is not our
idea. The means are given us by which it will be perfectly accomplished.
All that we are asked to do is to accept our part in genuine humility
and not deny with self-deceiving arrogance that we are worthy. What is
given us to do we have the strength to do. Our minds are suited
perfectly to take the part assigned to us by One Who knows us well.
3
Today's idea may seem quite sobering until you see its meaning. All it
says is that your FatherMother still remembers you and offers you the
perfect trust HeShe holds in you who are HisHer SonDaughter. It does not
ask that you be different in any way from what you are. What could
humility request but this? And what could arrogance deny but this? Today
we will not shrink from our assignment on the specious grounds that
modesty is outraged. It is pride that would deny the call of God
HimHerself.
4
All false humility we lay aside today that we may listen to God's Voice
reveal to us what HeShe would have us do. We do not doubt our adequacy
for the function HeShe will offer us. We will be certain only that HeShe
knows our strengths, our wisdom, and our holiness. And if HeShe deems us
worthy, so we are. It is but arrogance that judges otherwise.
5
There is one way and only one to be released from the imprisonment your
plan to prove the false is true has brought to you. Accept the plan you
did not make instead. Judge not your value to it. If God's Voice assures
you that salvation needs your part and that the whole depends on you, be
sure that it is so. The arrogant must cling to words, afraid to go
beyond them to experience which might affront their stance. Yet are the
humble free to hear the Voice which tells them what they are and what to
do.
6
Arrogance makes an image of yourself that is not real. It is this image
which quails and retreats in terror as the Voice for God assures you
that you have the strength, the wisdom, and the holiness to go beyond
all images. You are not weak, as is the image of yourself. You are not
ignorant and helpless. Sin can not tarnish the truth in you, and misery
can come not near the holy home of God.
7
All this the Voice for God relates to you. And as She speaks, the image
trembles and seeks to attack the threat it does not know, sensing its
basis crumble. Let it go. Salvation of the world depends on you and not
upon this little pile of dust. What can it tell the holy SonDaughter of
God? Why need heshe be concerned with it at all?
8
And so we find our peace. We will accept the function God has given us,
for all illusions rest upon the weird belief that we can make another
for ourselves. Our self-made roles are shifting, and they seem to change
from mourner to ecstatic bliss of loved and loving. We can laugh or weep
and greet the day with welcome or with tears. Our very being seems to
change as we experience a thousand shifts in mood, and our emotions
raise us high indeed or dash us to the ground in hopelessness.
9
Is this the SonDaughter of God? Could heshe create and manifest such
instability and call it SonDaughter? HeShe Who is changeless shares
HisHer attributes with HisHer creation and manifestation. All the images
HisHer SonDaughter appears to make have no effect on what HeShe is. They
blow across HisHer mind like windswept leaves that form a patterning an
instant, break apart to group again, and scamper off. Or like mirages
seen above a desert, rising from the dust.
10
These unsubstantial images will go and leave your mind unclouded and
serene when you accept the function given you. The images you make give
rise to but conflicting goals, impermanent and vague, uncertain and
ambiguous. Who could be constant in his/her efforts or direct his/her
energies and concentrated drive toward goals like these? The functions
which the world esteems are so uncertain that they change ten times an
hour at their most secure. What hope of gain can rest on goals like
this?
11
In lovely contrast, certain as the sun's return each morning to dispel
the night, your truly given function stands out clear and wholly
unambiguous. There is no doubt of its validity. It comes from One Who
knows no error. And HisHer Voice is certain of its messages. They will
not change nor be in conflict. All of them point to one goal, and one
you can attain. Your plan may be impossible, but God's can never fail
because HeShe is its Source.
12
Do as HisHer Voice directs. And if it asks a thing of you that seems
impossible, remember Who it is that asks and who would make denial. Then
consider this—which is more likely to be right? The Voice that speaks
for the CreatorManifestoress of all things Who knows all things exactly
as they are, or a distorted image of yourself, confused, bewildered,
inconsistent and unsure of everything? Let not its voice direct you.
Hear instead a certain Voice Which tells you of a function given you by
your CreatorManifestoress, Who remembers you and urges that you now
remember HimHer.
13
HisHer gentle Voice is calling from the known to the unknowing. HeShe
would comfort you, although HeShe knows no sorrow. HeShe would make a
restitution, though HeShe is complete; a gift to you, although HeShe
knows that you have everything already. HeShe has Thoughts which answer
every need HisHer SonDaughter perceives, although HeShe sees them not.
For Love must give, and what is given in HisHer Name takes on the form
most useful in a world of form.
14
These are the forms which never can deceive, although they come from
Formlessness Itself. Forgiveness is an earthly form of love which as it
is in the God Realm has no form. Yet what is needed here is given here
as it is needed. In this form, you can fulfil your function even here,
although what love will mean to you when formlessness has been restored
to you is greater still. Salvation of the world depends on you who can
forgive. Such is your function here.
Lesson 187
I bless the world because I bless myself.
1
No one can give unless he/she has. In fact, giving is proof of having.
We have made this point before. What seems to make it hard to credit is
not this. No one can doubt that you must first possess what you would
give. It is the second phase on which the world and true perception
differ. Having had and given, then the world asserts that you have lost
what you possessed. The truth maintains that giving will increase what
you possess.
2
How is this possible? For it is sure that if you give a finite thing
away, your body's eyes will not perceive it yours. Yet we have learned
that things but represent the thoughts that make them. And you do not
lack for proof that when you give ideas away, you strengthen them in
your own mind. Perhaps the form in which the thought seems to appear is
changed in giving. Yet it must return to him&her who gives. Nor can
the form it takes be less acceptable. It must be more.
3
Ideas must first belong to you before you give them. If you are to save
the world, you first accept salvation for yourself. But you will not
believe that this is done until you see the miracles it brings to
everyone you look upon. Herein is the idea of giving clarified and given
meaning. Now you can perceive that by your giving is your store
increased.
4
Protect all things you value by the act of giving them away, and you are
sure that you will never lose them. What you thought you did not have is
thereby proven yours. Yet value not its form. For this will change and
grow unrecognizable in time, however much you try to keep it safe. No
form endures. It is the thought behind the form of things that lives
unchangeable.
5
Give gladly. You can only gain thereby. The thought remains and grows in
strength as it is reinforced by giving. Thoughts extend as they are
shared, for they cannot be lost. There is no giver and receiver in the
sense the world conceives of them. There is a giver who retains, another
who will give as well. And both must gain in this exchange, for each
will have the thought in form most helpful to him&her. What he/she
seems to lose is always something he/she will value less than what will
surely be returned to him&her.
6
Never forget you give but to yourself. Who understands what giving means
must laugh at the idea of sacrifice. Nor can he/she fail to recognize
the many forms which sacrifice may take. he/she laughs as well at pain
and loss, at sickness and at grief, at poverty, starvation and at death.
he/she recognizes sacrifice remains the one idea that stands behind them
all, and in his/her gentle laughter are they healed.
7
Illusions recognized must disappear. Accept not suffering, and you
remove the thought of suffering. Your blessing lies on everyone who
suffers when you choose to see all suffering as what it is. The thought
of sacrifice gives rise to all the forms that suffering appears to take.
And sacrifice is an idea so mad that sanity dismisses it at once.
8
Never believe that you can sacrifice. There is no place for sacrifice in
what has any value. If the thought occurs, its very presence proves that
error has arisen and correction must be made. Your blessing will correct
it. Given first to you, it now is yours to give as well. No form of
sacrifice and suffering can long endure before the face of one who has
forgiven and has blessed himself/herself.
9
The lilies that your brother or sister offers you are laid upon your
altar, with the ones you offer him&her beside them. Who could fear
to look upon such lovely holiness? The great illusion of the fear of God
diminishes to nothingness before the purity that you will look on here.
Be not afraid to look. The blessedness you will behold will take away
all thought of form, and leave instead the perfect gift forever there,
forever to increase, forever yours, forever given away.
10
Now are we one in thought, for fear has gone. And here, before the altar
to one God, one FatherMother, one CreatorManifestoress and one Thought,
we stand together as one SonDaughter of God. Not separate from HimHer
Who is our Source; not distant from one brother or sister who is part of
our One Self Whose innocence has joined us all as one, we stand in
blessedness and give as we receive. The Name of God is on our lips. And
as we look within, we see the purity of the God Realm shine in our
reflection of our Father’sMother’s Love.
11
Now are we blessed, and now we bless the world. What we have looked upon
we would extend, for we would see it everywhere. We would behold it
shining with the grace of God in everyone. We would not have it be
withheld from anything we look upon. And to ensure this holy sight is
ours, we offer it to everything we see. For where we see it, it will be
returned to us in form of lilies we can lay upon our altar, making it a
home for Innocence Itself, Who dwells in us and offers us HisHer
Holiness as ours.
Lesson 188
The peace of God is shining in me now.
1
Why wait for the God Realm? Those who seek the light are merely covering
their eyes. The light is in them now. Enlightenment is but a
recognition, not a change at all. Light is not of the world, yet you who
bear the light in you are alien here as well. The light came with you
from your native home and stayed with you because it is your own. It is
the only thing you bring with you from HimHer Who is your Source. It
shines in you because it lights your home and leads you back to where it
came from and you are at home.
2
This light cannot be lost. Why wait to find it in the future or believe
it has been lost already or was never there? It can so easily be looked
upon that arguments which prove it is not there become ridiculous. Who
can deny the presence of what he/she beholds in him&her? It is not
difficult to look within, for there all vision starts. There is no
sight, be it of dreams or from a truer source, that is not but the
shadow of the seen through inward vision. There perception starts, and
there it ends. It has no source but this.
3
The peace of God is shining in you now and from your heart extends
around the world. It pauses to caress each living thing and leave a
blessing with it which remains forever and forever. What it gives must
be eternal. It removes all thoughts of the ephemeral and valueless. It
brings renewal to all tired hearts and lights all vision as it passes
by. All of its gifts are given everyone, and everyone unites in giving
thanks to you who give and you who have received.
4
The shining in your mind reminds the world of what it has forgotten, and
the world restores the memory to you as well. From you salvation
radiates with gifts beyond all measure, given and returned. To you, the
giver of the gift, does God HimHerself give thanks. And in HisHer
blessing does the light in you shine brighter, adding to the gifts you
have to offer to the world.
5
The peace of God can never be contained. Who recognizes it within
himself/herself must give it. And the means for giving it are in his/her
understanding. he/she forgives because he/she recognized the truth in
him&her. The peace of God is shining in you now and in all living
things. In quietness is it acknowledged universally. For what your
inward vision looks upon is your perception of the universe.
6
Sit quietly and close your eyes. The light within you is sufficient. It
alone has power to give the gift of sight to you. Exclude the outer
world and let your thoughts fly to the peace within. They know the way.
For honest thoughts, untainted by the dream of worldly things outside
yourself, become the holy messengers of God HimHerself. These thoughts
you think with HimHer. They recognize their home. And they point surely
to their Source where God the FatherMother and the SonDaughter are one.
7
God's peace is shining on them, but they must remain with you as well,
for they were born within your mind as yours was born in God's. They
lead you back to peace from where they came but to remind you how you
must return. They heed your Father’sMother’s Voice when you refuse to
listen. And they urge you gently to accept Her Word for what you are
instead of fantasies and shadows. They remind you that you are the
cocreatorcomanifestor of all things that live. For as the peace of God
is shining in you, it must shine on them.
8
We practice coming nearer to the light in us today. We take our
wandering thoughts and gently bring them back to where they fall in line
with all the thoughts we share with God. We will not let them stray. We
let the light within our minds direct them to come home. We have
betrayed them, ordering that they depart from us. But now we call them
back and wash them clean of strange desires and disordered wishes. We
restore to them the holiness of their inheritance.
9
Thus are our minds restored with them, and we acknowledge that the peace
of God still shines in us and from us to all living things that share
our life. We will forgive them all, absolving all the world of what we
thought it did to us. For it is we who make the world as we would have
it. Now we choose that it be innocent, devoid of sin, and open to
salvation. And we lay our saving blessing on it as we say:
10
The peace of God is shining in me now.
Let
all things shine upon me in that peace,
And
let me bless them with the light in me.
Lesson 189
I feel the Love of God within me now.
1
There is a light in you the world can not perceive. And with its eyes
you will not see this light, for you are blinded by the world. Yet you
have eyes to see it. It is there for you to look upon. It was not placed
in you to be kept hidden from your sight. This light is a reflection of
the thought we practice now. To feel the Love of God within you is to
see the world anew, shining in innocence, alive with hope, and blessed
with perfect charity and love.
2
Who could feel fear in such a world as this? It welcomes you, rejoices
that you came, and sings your praises as it keeps you safe from every
form of danger and of pain. It offers you a warm and gentle home in
which to stay a while. It blesses you throughout the day and watches
through the night as silent guardian of your holy sleep. It sees
salvation in you and protects the light in you in which it sees its own.
It offers you its flowers and its snow in thankfulness for your
benevolence.
3
This is the world the Love of God reveals. It is so different from the
world you see through darkened eyes of malice and of fear that one
belies the other. Only one can be perceived at all. The other one is
wholly meaningless. A world in which forgiveness shines on everything
and peace offers its gentle light to everyone is inconceivable to those
who see a world of hatred, rising from attack, poised to avenge, to
murder and destroy.
4
Yet is the world of hatred equally unseen and inconceivable to those who
feel God's Love in them. Their world reflects the quietness and peace
that shines in them, the gentleness and innocence they see surrounding
them, the joy with which they look out from the endless wells of joy
within. What they have felt in them they look upon and see its sure
reflection everywhere.
5
What would you see? The choice is given you. But learn and do not let
your mind forget this law of seeing: you will look upon that which you
feel within. If hatred finds a place within your heart, you will
perceive a fearful world, held cruelly in death's sharp-pointed, bony
fingers. If you feel the Love of God within you, you look out upon a
world of mercy and of love.
6
Today we pass illusions as we seek to reach to what is true in us and
feel Its all-embracing tenderness, Its Love Which knows us perfect as
Itself, Its sight which is the gift Its Love bestows on us. We learn the
way today. It is as sure as Love Itself, to Which it carries us. For its
simplicity avoids the snares the foolish convolutions of the world's
apparent reasoning but serve to hide.
7
Simply do this: be still and lay aside all thoughts of what you are and
what God is, all concepts you have learned about the world, all images
you hold about yourself. Empty your mind of everything it thinks is
either true or false or good or bad, of every thought it judges worthy
and all the ideas of which it is ashamed. Hold onto nothing. Do not
bring with you one thought the past has taught nor one belief you ever
learned before from anything. Forget this world, forget this course, and
come with wholly empty hands unto your God.
8
Is it not HeShe Who knows the way to you? You need not know the way to
HimHer. Your part is simply to allow all obstacles that you have
interposed between the SonDaughter and God the FatherMother to be
quietly removed forever. God will do HisHer part in joyful and immediate
response. Ask and receive. But do not make demands nor point the road to
God by which HeShe should appear to you. The way to reach HimHer is
merely to let HimHer be. For in that way is your reality acclaimed as
well.
9
And so today we do not choose the way in which we go to HimHer. But we
do choose to let HimHer come. And with this choice we rest. And in our
quiet hearts and open minds HisHer Love will blaze its pathway of
itself. What has not been denied is surely there if it be true, and can
be surely reached. God knows HisHer SonDaughter and knows the way to
himher. HeShe does not need HisHer SonDaughter to show HimHer how to
find HisHer way. Through every opened door HisHer Love shines outward
from its home within and lightens up the world in innocence.
10
FatherMother, we do not know the way to You. But we have called, and
You have answered us. We will not interfere. Salvation's ways are not
our own, for they belong to You. And it is unto You we look for them.
Our hands are open to receive Your gifts. We have no thoughts we think
apart from You and cherish no beliefs of what we are or who created
and manifested us. Yours is the way that we would find and follow. 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 the God Realm now. Amen.
Lesson 190
I choose the joy of God instead of pain.
1
Pain is a wrong perspective. When it is experienced in any form, it is a
proof of self-deception. It is not a fact at all. There is no form it
takes which will not disappear if seen aright. For pain proclaims God
cruel. How could it be real in any form? It witnesses to God the
Father’sMother’s hatred of HisHer SonDaughter, the sinfulness HeShe sees
in him&her, and HisHer insane desire for revenge and death. Can such
projections be attested to? Can they be anything but wholly false?
2
Pain is but witness to the Son’sDaughter’s mistakes in what heshe thinks
heshe is. It is a dream of fierce retaliation for a crime that could not
be committed, for attack on what is wholly unassailable. It is a
nightmare of abandonment by an eternal Love which could not leave the
SonDaughter whom it created and manifested out of love.
3
Pain is a sign illusions reign in place of truth. It demonstrates God is
denied, confused with fear, perceived as mad, and seen as traitor to
HimHerself. If God is real, there is no pain. If pain is real, there is
no God. For vengeance is not part of love. And fear, denying love and
using pain to prove that God is dead, has shown that death is victor
over life. The body is the SonDaughter of God, corruptible in death, as
mortal as the FatherMother heshe has slain.
4
Peace to such foolishness! The time has come to laugh at such insane
ideas. There is no need to think of them as savage crimes or secret sins
with weighty consequence. Who but a madman or madwoman could conceive of
them as cause of anything? Their witness, pain, is mad as they and no
more to be feared than the insane illusions which it shields and tries
to demonstrate must still be true.
5
It is your thoughts alone that cause you pain. Nothing external to your
mind can hurt or injure you in any way. There is no cause beyond
yourself that can reach down and bring oppression. No one but yourself
affects you. There is nothing in the world which has the power to make
you ill or sad or weak or frail. But it is you who have the power to
dominate all things you see by merely recognizing what you are. As you
perceive the harmlessness in them, they will accept your holy will as
theirs. And what was seen as fearful now becomes a source of innocence
and holiness.
6
My holy brothers&sisters, think of this awhile—the world you
see does nothing. It has no effects at all. It merely represents your
thoughts. And it will change entirely as you elect to change your mind
and choose the joy of God as what you really want. Your Self is radiant
in this holy joy, unchanged, unchanging, and unchangeable forever and
forever. And would you deny a little corner of your mind its own
inheritance and keep it as a hospital for pain, a sickly place where
living things must come at last to die?
7
The world may seem to cause you pain. And yet the world, as causeless,
has no power to cause. As an effect, it cannot make effects. As an
illusion it is what you will. Your idle wishes represent its pains. Your
strange desires bring it evil dreams. Your thoughts of death envelop it
in fear, while in your kind forgiveness does it live.
8
Pain is the thought of evil taking form and working havoc in your holy
mind. Pain is the ransom you have gladly paid not to be free. In pain is
God denied the SonDaughter HeShe loves. In pain does fear appear to
triumph over love and time replace eternity and the God Realm. And the
world becomes a cruel and a bitter place, where sorrow rules and little
joys give way before the onslaught of the savage pain that waits to end
all joy in misery.
9
Lay down your arms and come without defense into the quiet place where
the God Realm's peace holds all things still at last. Lay down all
thoughts of danger and of fear. Let no attack enter with you. Lay down
the cruel sword of judgment that you hold against your throat, and put
aside the withering assaults with which you seek to hide your holiness.
Here will you understand there is no pain. Here does the joy of God
belong to you.
10
This is the day when it is given you to realize the lesson which
contains all of salvation's power. It is this: pain is illusion; joy
reality. Pain is but sleep; joy is awakening. Pain is deception; joy
alone is truth.
11
And so again we make the only choice that ever can be made—we choose
between illusions and the truth, or pain and joy, or hell and God Realm.
Let our gratitude unto our Teacheress fill our hearts as we are free to
choose our joy instead of pain, our holiness in place of sin, the peace
of God instead of conflict, and the light of the God Realm for the
darkness of the world.
Lesson 191
I am the holy SonDaughter of God HimHerself.
1
Here is your declaration of release from bondage of the world. And here
as well is all the world released. You do not see what you have done by
giving to the world the role of jailer to the SonDaughter of God. What
could it be but vicious and afraid, fearful of shadows, punitive and
wild, lacking all reason, blind, insane, and sad?
2
What have you done that this should be your world? What have you done
that this is what you see? Deny your own identity, and this is what
remains. You look on chaos and proclaim it as yourself. There is no
sight that fails to witness this to you. There is no sound that does not
speak of frailty within you and without, no breath you draw that does
not seem to bring you nearer death, no hope you hold but will dissolve
in tears.
3
Deny your own identity, and you will not escape the madness which
induced this weird, unnatural, and ghostly thought which mocks creation
and manifestation and which laughs at God. Deny your own identity, and
you assail the universe alone, without a friend, a tiny particle of dust
against the legions of your enemies. Deny your own identity and look on
evil, sin, and death. And watch despair snatch from your fingers every
scrap of hope, leaving you nothing but the wish to die.
4
Yet what is it except a game you play in which identity can be denied?
You are as God created and manifested you. All else but this one thing
is folly to believe. In this one thought is everything set free. In this
one truth are all illusions gone. In this one fact is sinlessness
proclaimed to be forever part of everything, the central core of its
existence, and its guarantee of immortality.
5
But let today's idea find a place among your thoughts, and you have
risen far above the world and all the worldly thoughts that hold it
prisoner. And from this place of safety and escape, you will return and
set it free. For he/she who can accept his/her true identity is truly
saved. And his/her salvation is the gift he/she gives to everyone in
gratitude to Her Who pointed out the way to happiness that changed
his/her whole perception of the world.
6
One holy thought like this, and you are free; you are the holy
SonDaughter of God HimHerself. And with this holy thought, you learn as
well that you have freed the world. You have no need to use it cruelly
and then perceive this savage need in it. You set it free of your
imprisonment. You will not see a devastating image of yourself walking
the world in terror with the world twisting in agony because your fears
have laid the mark of death upon its heart.
7
Be glad today how very easily is hell undone. You need but tell
yourself:
8
I am the holy SonDaughter of God HimHerself.
I cannot suffer, cannot be in pain;
I cannot lose, nor can I fail to do
All that salvation asks.
9
And in that thought is everything you look on wholly changed.
10
A miracle has lighted up all dark and ancient caverns where the rites of
death echoed since time began. For time has lost its hold upon the
world. The SonDaughter of God has come in glory to redeem the lost, to
save the helpless, and to give the world the gift of hisher forgiveness.
Who could see the world as dark and sinful when God’s SonDaughter has
come again at last to set it free?
11
You who perceive yourself as weak and frail, with futile hopes and
devastated dreams, born but to die, to weep, and suffer pain, hear this:
all power is given unto you in earth and the God Realm. There is nothing
that you cannot do. You play the game of death, of being helpless,
pitifully tied to dissolution in a world which shows no mercy to you.
Yet when you accord it mercy will its mercy shine on you.
12
Then let the SonDaughter of God awaken from hisher sleep, and opening
hisher holy eyes return again to bless the world heshe made. In error it
began. But it will end in the reflection of hisher holiness. And heshe
will sleep no more and dream of death. Then join with me today. Your
glory is the light that saves the world. Do not withhold salvation
longer. Look about the world, and see the suffering there. Is not your
heart willing to bring your weary brothers&sisters rest?
13
They must await your own release. They stay in chains till you are free.
They cannot see the mercy of the world until you find it for yourself.
They suffer pain until you have denied its hold on you. They die till
you accept your own eternal life. You are the holy SonDaughter of God
HimHerself. Remember this, and all the world is free. Remember this, and
earth and the God Realm are one.
Lesson 192
I have a function God would have me fill.
1
It is your Father’sMother’s holy Will that you complete HimHerself and
that your Self shall be HisHer sacred SonDaughter, forever pure as
HeShe, of love created and manifested and in love preserved, extending
love, creatingmanifesting in its name, forever one with God and with
your Self. Yet what can such a function mean within a world of envy,
hatred, and attack? Therefore you have a function in the world in its
own terms. For who can understand a language far beyond his/her simple
grasp?
2
Forgiveness represents your function here. It is not God's creation and
manifestation, for it is the means by which untruth can be undone. And
who would pardon the God Realm? Yet on earth you need the means to let
illusion go. creation and manifestation merely waits for your return to
be acknowledged, not to be complete.
3
creation and manifestation cannot even be conceived of in the world. It
has no meaning here. Forgiveness is the closest it can come to earth.
For being God Realm-borne, it has no form at all. Yet God created and
manifested One Who has the power to translate into form the wholly
formless. What She makes are dreams, but of a kind so close to waking
that the light of day already shines in them. And eyes already opening
behold the joyful sights their offerings contain.
4
Forgiveness gently looks upon all things unknown in the God Realm, sees
them disappear, and leaves the world a clean and unmarked slate on which
the Word of God can now replace the senseless symbols written there
before. Forgiveness is the means by which the fear of death is overcome
because it holds no fierce attraction now, and guilt is gone.
5
Forgiveness lets the body be perceived as what it is—a simple teaching
aid to be laid by when learning is complete, but hardly changing
him&her who learns at all. The mind without the body cannot make
mistakes. It cannot think that it will die nor be the prey of merciless
attack. Anger becomes impossible, and where is terror then? What fears
could still assail those who have lost the source of all attack, the
core of anguish, and the seat of fear?
6
Only forgiveness can relieve the mind of thinking that the body is its
home. Only forgiveness can restore the peace that God intended for
HisHer holy SonDaughter. Only forgiveness can persuade the SonDaughter
to look again upon hisher holiness. With anger gone, you will indeed
perceive that for the vision of the Christ Consciousness/Mercy
Consciousness and the gift of sight no sacrifice was asked, and only
pain was lifted from a sick and tortured mind.
7
Is this unwelcome? Is it to be feared? Or is it to be hoped for, met
with thanks, and joyously accepted? We are one and therefore give up
nothing. But we have indeed been given everything by God. Yet do we need
forgiveness to perceive that this is so. Without its kindly light we
grope in darkness, using reason but to justify our rage and our attack.
Our understanding is so limited that what we think we understand is but
confusion born of error. We are lost in mists of shifting dreams and
fearful thoughts, our eyes shut tight against the light, our minds
engaged in worshipping what is not there.
8
Who can be born again in the Christ Consciousness/Mercy Consciousness
but him&her who has forgiven everyone he/she sees or thinks of or
imagines? Who could be set free while he/she imprisons anyone? A jailer
is not free, for he/she is bound together with his/her prisoner. he/she
must be sure that he/she does not escape, and so he/she spends his/her
time in keeping watch on him&her. The bars which limit him&her
become the world in which the jailer lives, along with him&her. And
it is on his/her freedom that the way to liberty depends for both of
them.
9
Therefore hold no one prisoner. Release instead of bind, for thus are
you made free. The way is simple. Every time you feel a stab of anger,
realize you hold a sword above your head. And it will fall or be averted
as you choose to be condemned or free. Thus does each one who seems to
tempt you to be angry represent your saviors/savioresses
from the prison-house of death. And so you owe him&her thanks
instead of pain.
10
Be merciful today. The SonDaughter of God deserves your mercy. It is
heshe who asks that you accept the way to freedom now. Deny himher not.
Hisher Father’sMother’s Love for himher belongs to you. Your function
here on earth is only to forgive himher, that you may accept himher back
as your identity. Heshe is as God created himher. And you are what heshe
is. Forgive himher now hisher sins, and you will see that you are one
with himher.
Lesson 193
All things are lessons God would have me learn.
1
God does not know of learning. Yet HisHer Will extends to what HeShe
does not understand in that HeShe wills the happiness HisHer SonDaughter
inherited of HimHer be undisturbed, eternal and forever gaining scope,
eternally expanding in the joy of full creation and manifestation, and
eternally open and wholly limitless in HimHer. This is HisHer Will. And
thus HisHer Will provides the means to guarantee that it is done.
2
God sees no contradictions. Yet HisHer SonDaughter believes heshe sees
them. Thus heshe has a need for One Who can correct hisher erring sight
and give himher vision that will lead himher back to where perception
ceases. God does not perceive at all. Yet it is HeShe Who gives the
means by which perception is made true and beautiful enough to let the
light of the God Realm shine upon it. It is HeShe Who answers what
HisHer SonDaughter would contradict and keeps hisher sinlessness forever
safe.
3 God
offers no forgiveness, for HeShe knows no sin is possible. And yet HeShe
let HisHer holy law of Love be given form in which it could be offered
to the world. And HeShe created and manifested One Who could perceive
what form this law should take, to be received by every mind which had
forgotten it as it exists in the God Realm and in God. Thus HeShe
encompassed what HeShe could not see nor understand by giving of HisHer
Love and making Answer to a question which, though meaningless, HisHer
SonDaughter had asked of HimHer.
4
The One Whom God created and manifested to replace the foolish thoughts
which crept into the mind of HisHer most holy SonDaughter with peace and
joy fulfills Her function now. She redirects each lesson you would teach
in hate to one in which forgiveness enters, and returns the hate to
love, so that the fear is gone. And now guilt cannot enter, for its
source has been excluded as the purpose of the lesson has been changed
to guiltlessness; the hatred has been rooted out by love.
5
These are the lessons God would have you learn. HisHer Will reflects
them all, and they reflect HisHer loving kindness to the SonDaughter
HeShe loves. Each lesson has a central thought, the same in all of them.
The form alone is changed, with different circumstances and events, with
different characters and different themes apparent but not real. They
are the same in fundamental content. It is this:
6
Forgive and you will see this differently.
7
Certain it is that all distress does not appear to be but unforgiveness.
Yet that is the content underneath the form. It is this sameness which
makes learning sure because the lesson is so simple that it cannot be
rejected in the end. 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.
8
Forgive and you will see this differently.
9
These are the words the Holy Spirit speaks in all your tribulations, all
your pain, all suffering regardless of its forms. These are the words
with which temptation ends and guilt, abandoned, is revered no more.
These are the words which end the dream of sin and rid the mind of fear.
These are the words by which salvation comes to all the world.
10
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? Shall we
not learn to say these words when we have understood their power to
release all minds from bondage? These are words which give you power
over all events which seem to have been given power over you. 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 or sister
looks upon amiss.
11
How can you tell when you are seeing wrong or someone else is failing to
perceive the lesson he/she should learn? Does pain seem real in the
perception? If it does, be sure the lesson is not learned. And there
remains an unforgiveness hiding in the mind which sees the pain through
eyes the mind directs.
12
God would not have you suffer thus. HeShe would help you forgive
yourself. HisHer SonDaughter does not remember who heshe is. And God
would have himher not forget HisHer Love and all the gifts HisHer Love
brings with it. Would you now renounce your own salvation? Would you
fail to learn the simple lessons the God Realm's Teacheress sets before
you that all pain may disappear and God may be remembered by HisHer
SonDaughter?
13
All things are lessons God would have you learn. HeShe would not leave
an unforgiving thought without correction nor one thorn or nail to hurt
HisHer sacred SonDaughter in any way. HeShe would ensure hisher holy
rest remain untroubled and serene, without a care in an eternal home
which cares for himher. And heshe would have all tears be wiped away
with none remaining yet unshed and none but waiting their appointed time
to fall. For God has willed that laughter should replace each one and
that HisHer SonDaughter be free again.
14
We will attempt today to overcome a thousand seeming obstacles to peace
in just one day. Let mercy come to you more quickly. Do not try to hold
it off another day, another minute, or another instant. Time was made
for this. Use it today for what its purpose is. 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.
15
Give all you can and give a little more, for now we would arise in haste
and go unto our Father’sMother’s house. We have been gone too long, and
we would linger here no more. And as we practice, let us think about all
things we saved to settle by ourselves and kept apart from healing. Let
us give them all to Her Who knows the way to look upon them so that they
will disappear. Truth is Her message; truth Her teaching is. Her are the
lessons God would have us learn.
16
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. And try to give it application to the happenings the hour brought,
so that the next one is free of the one before. The chains of time are
easily unloosened in this way.
17
Let no one hour cast its shadow on the one that follows, and when that
one goes, let everything that happens in its course go with it. Thus
will you remain unbound, in peace eternal in the world of time. 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 HimHer and to
salvation of the world.
18
To all that speaks of terror, answer thus:
19
I will forgive and this will disappear.
20
To every apprehension, every care, and every form of suffering, repeat
these selfsame words. In them you hold the key that opens the God
Realm's gate and brings the Love of God the FatherMother down to earth
at last, to raise it up to the God Realm. God will take this final step
HimHerself. Do not deny the little steps HeShe asks you take to HimHer.
Lesson 194
I place the future in the hands of God.
1
Today's idea takes another step toward quick salvation, and a giant
stride it is indeed! So great the distance is that it encompasses, it
sets you down just short of the God Realm, with the goal in sight and
obstacles behind. Your foot has reached the lawns that welcome you to
the God Realm's gate, the quiet place of peace where you await with
certainty the final step of God. How far are we progressing now from
earth! How close are we approaching to our goal! How short the journey
still to be pursued!
2
Accept today's idea, and you have passed all anxiety, all pits of hell,
all blackness of depression, thoughts of sin, and devastation brought
about by guilt. Accept today's idea, and you have released the world
from all imprisonment by loosening the heavy chains that locked the door
to freedom on it. You are saved, and your salvation thus becomes the
gift you give the world because you have received.
3
In no one instant is depression felt or pain experienced or loss
perceived. In no one instant sorrow can be set upon a throne and
worshipped faithfully. In no one instant can one even die. And so each
instant given unto God in passing, with the next one given HimHer
already, is a time of your release from sadness, pain and even death
itself.
4
God holds your future as HeShe holds your past and present. They are one
to HimHer, and so they should be one to you. Yet in this world the
temporal progression still seems real. And so you are not asked to
understand the lack of sequence really found in time. You are but asked
to let the future go and place it in God's hands. And you will see by
your experience that you have laid the past and present in HisHer hands
as well because the past will punish you no more and future dread will
now be meaningless.
5
Release the future. For the past is gone, and what is present, freed
from its bequest of grief and misery, of pain and loss, becomes the
instant in which time escapes the bondage of illusions where it runs its
pitiless, inevitable course. Then is each instant, which was slave to
time, transformed into a holy instant when the light that was kept
hidden in God’s SonDaughter is freed to bless the world. Now is heshe
free, and all hisher glory shines upon a world made free with himher to
share hisher holiness.
6
If you can see the lesson for today as the deliverance it really is, you
will not hesitate to give as much consistent effort as you can to make
it be a part of you. As it becomes a thought which rules your mind, a
habit in your problem-solving repertoire, a way of quick reaction to
temptation, you extend your learning to the world. And as you learn to
see salvation in all things, so will the world perceive that it is
saved.
7
What worry can beset the one who gives his/her future to the loving
hands of God? What can he/she suffer? What can cause him&her pain or
bring experience of loss to him&her? What can he/she fear? And what
can he/she regard except with love? For he/she who has escaped all fear
of future pain has found his/her way to present peace and certainty of
care the world can never threaten. he/she is sure that his/her
perception may be faulty but will never lack correction. he/she is free
to choose again when he/she has been deceived, to change his/her mind
when he/she has made mistakes.
8
Place, then, your future in the hands of God. For thus you call the
memory of HimHer to come again, replacing all your thoughts of sin and
evil with the truth of love. Think you the world could fail to gain
thereby and every living manifested creature not respond with healed
perception? Who entrusts himself/herself to God has also placed the
world within the hands to which he/she has himself/herself appealed for
comfort and security. he/she lays aside the sick illusions of the world
along with his/her and offers peace to both.
9
Now are we saved indeed. For in God's hands we rest untroubled, sure
that only good can come to us. If we forget, we will be gently
reassured. If we accept an unforgiving thought, it will be soon replaced
by love's reflection. And if we are tempted to attack, we will appeal to
HimHer Who guards our rest to make the choice for us that leaves
temptation far behind. No longer is the world our enemy, for we have
chosen that we be its friends.
Lesson 195
Love is the way I walk in gratitude.
1
Gratitude is a lesson hard to learn for those who look upon the world
amiss. The most that they can do is see themselves as better off than
others. And they try to be content because another seems to suffer more
than they. How pitiful and deprecating are such thoughts! For who has
cause for thanks while others have less cause, and who could suffer less
because he/she sees another suffer more? Your gratitude is due to Her
alone Who made all cause of sorrow disappear throughout the world.
2
It is insane to offer thanks because of suffering. But it is equally
insane to fail in gratitude to One Who offers you the certain means
whereby all pain is healed and suffering replaced with laughter and with
happiness. Nor could the even partly sane refuse to take the steps which
She directs and follow in the way She sets before them to escape a
prison that they thought contained no door to the deliverance they now
perceive.
3
Your brother or sister is your "enemy" because you see in him&her
the rival for your peace, a plunderer who takes his/her joy from you and
leaves you nothing but a black despair so bitter and relentless that
there is no hope remaining. Now is vengeance all there is to wish for.
Now can you but try to bring him&her down to lie in death with you,
as useless as yourself, as little left within his/her grasping fingers
as in yours.
4
You do not offer God your gratitude because your brother or sister is
more slave than you, nor could you sanely be enraged if he/she seems
freer. Love makes no comparisons. And gratitude can only be sincere if
it is joined to love. We offer thanks to God our FatherMother that in us
all things will find their freedom. It will never be that some are
loosed while others still are bound, for who can bargain in the name of
love?
5
Therefore give thanks, but in sincerity. And let your gratitude make
room for all who will escape with you—the sick, the weak, the needy and
afraid, and those who mourn a seeming loss or feel apparent pain, who
suffer cold or hunger, or who walk the way of hatred and the path of
death. All these go with you. Let us not compare ourselves with them,
for thus we split them off in our awareness from the unity we share with
them, as they must share with us.
6
We thank our FatherMother for one thing alone—that we are separate from
no living thing and therefore one with him&her. And we rejoice that
no exceptions ever can be made which would reduce our wholeness nor
impair or change our function to complete the One Who is HimHerself
completion. We give thanks for every living thing, for otherwise we
offer thanks for nothing and we fail to recognize the gifts of God to
us.
7
Then let our brothers&sisters lean their tired heads against
our shoulders as they rest a while. We offer thanks for them. For if we
can direct them to the peace that we would find, the way is opening at
last to us. An ancient door is swinging free again; a long forgotten
Word re-echoes in our memory and gathers clarity as we are willing once
again to hear.
8
Walk then in gratitude, the way of love. For hatred is forgotten when we
lay comparisons aside. What more remains as obstacles to peace? The fear
of God is now undone at last, and we forgive without comparing. Thus we
cannot choose to overlook some things and yet retain some other things
still locked away as sins. When your forgiveness is complete, you will
have total gratitude, for you will see that everything has earned the
right to love by being loving, even as your Self.
9
Today we learn to think of gratitude in place of anger, malice, and
revenge. We have been given everything. If we refuse to recognize it, we
are not entitled therefore to our bitterness and to a self-perception
which regards us in a place of merciless pursuit where we are badgered
ceaselessly and pushed about without a thought or care for us or for our
future. Gratitude becomes the single thought we substitute for these
insane perceptions. God has cared for us and calls us SonDaughter. Can
there be more than this?
10
Our gratitude will pave the way to HimHer and shorten our learning time
by more than you could ever dream of. Gratitude goes hand in hand with
love, and where one is, the other must be found. For gratitude is but an
aspect of the love which is the Source of all creation and
manifestation. God gives thanks to you, HisHer SonDaughter, for being
what you are—HisHer own completion and the source of love, along with
HimHer. Your gratitude to HimHer is one with HisHer to you. For love can
walk no road except the way of gratitude, and thus we go who walk the
way to God.
Lesson 196
It can be but myself I crucify.
1
When this is firmly understood and kept in full awareness, you will not
attempt to harm yourself nor make your body slave to vengeance. You will
not attack yourself, and you will realize that to attack another is but
to attack yourself. You will be free of the insane belief that to attack
a brother or sister saves yourself. And you will understand his/her
safety is your own, and in his/her healing you are healed.
2
Perhaps at first you will not understand how mercy, limitless and with
all things held in its sure protection, can be found in the idea we
practice for today. It may in fact appear to be a sign that punishment
can never be escaped because the ego, under what it sees as threat, is
quick to cite the truth to save its lies. Yet must it fail to understand
the truth it uses thus. But you can learn to see these foolish
applications and deny the meaning they appear to have.
3
Thus do you also teach your mind that you are not an ego. For the ways
in which the ego would distort the truth will not deceive you longer.
You will not believe you are a body to be crucified. And you will see
within today's idea the light of resurrection, looking past all thoughts
of crucifixion and of death to thoughts of liberation and of life.
4
Today's idea is one step we take in leading us from bondage to the state
of perfect freedom. Let us take this step today that we may quickly go
the way salvation shows us, taking every step in its appointed sequence
as the mind relinquishes its burdens one by one. It is not time we need
for this. It is but willingness. For what would seem to need a thousand
years can easily be done in just one instant by the grace of God.
5
The dreary, hopeless thought that you can make attacks on others and
escape yourself has nailed you to the cross. Perhaps it seemed to be
salvation. Yet it merely stood for the belief the fear of God is real.
And what is that but hell? Who could believe his/her FatherMother is
his/her deadly enemy, separate from him&her and waiting to destroy
his/her life and blot him&her from the universe, without the fear of
hell upon his/her heart?
6
Such is the form of madness you believe if you accept the fearful
thought you can attack another and be free yourself. Until this form is
changed, there is no hope. Until you see that this, at least, must be
entirely impossible, how could there be escape? The fear of God is real
to anyone who thinks this thought is true. And he/she will not perceive
its foolishness nor even see that it is there so that it would be
possible to question it.
7
To question it at all, its form must first be changed at least as much
as will permit fear of retaliation to abate and the responsibility
returned to some extent to you. From there you can at least consider if
you want to go along this painful path. Until this shift has been
accomplished, you cannot perceive that it is but your thoughts that
bring you fear and your deliverance depends on you.
8
Our next steps will be easy if you take this one today. From there we go
ahead quite rapidly. For once you understand it is impossible that you
be hurt except by your own thoughts, the fear of God must disappear. You
do not now believe that fear is caused without. And God, Whom you had
thought to banish, can be welcomed back within the holy mind HeShe never
left.
9
Salvation's Song can certainly be heard in the idea we practice for
today. If it can but be you you crucify, you did not hurt the world and
need not fear its vengeance and pursuit. Nor need you hide in terror
from the deadly fear of God projection hides behind. The thing you dread
the most is your salvation. You are strong, and it is strength you want.
And you are free and glad of freedom. You have sought to be both weak
and bound because you feared your strength and freedom. Yet salvation
lies in them.
10
There is an instant in which terror seems to grip your mind so wholly
that escape appears quite hopeless. When you realize once and for all
that it is you you fear, the mind perceives itself as split. And this
had been concealed while you believed attack could be directed outward
and returned from outside to within. It seemed to be an enemy outside
you had to fear. And thus a god outside yourself became your mortal
enemy—the source of fear.
11
Now for an instant is a murderer perceived within you, eager for your
death, intent on plotting punishment for you until the time when it can
kill at last. Yet in this instant is the time as well in which salvation
comes. For fear of God has disappeared. And you can call on HimHer to
save you from illusions in HisHer Love, calling HimHer FatherMother and
yourself HisHer SonDaughter. Pray that the instant may be soon—today.
Step back from fear and make advance to love.
12
There is no Thought of God that does not go with you to help you reach
that instant and to go beyond it quickly, surely, and forever. When the
fear of God is gone, there are no obstacles that still remain between
you and the holy peace of God. How kind and merciful is the idea we
practice! Give it welcome, as you should, for it is your release. It is
indeed but you your mind can try to crucify. Yet your redemption, too,
will come from you.
Lesson 197
It can be but my gratitude I earn.
1
Here is the second step we take to free your mind from the belief in
outside force pitted against your own. You make attempts at kindness and
forgiveness. Yet you turn them to attack again unless you find external
gratitude and lavish thanks. Your gifts must be received with honor,
lest they be withdrawn. And so you think God's gifts are loans at best;
at worst, deceptions which would cheat you of defenses to ensure that
when HeShe strikes HeShe will not fail to kill.
2
How easily are God and guilt confused by those who know not what their
thoughts can do. Deny your strength, and weakness must become salvation
to you. See yourself as bound, and bars become your home. Nor will you
leave the prison house or claim your strength until guilt and salvation
are not seen as one and freedom and salvation are perceived as joined,
with strength beside them, to be sought and claimed and found and fully
recognized.
3
The world must thank you when you offer it release from your illusions.
Yet your thanks belong to you as well, for its release can only mirror
yours. Your gratitude is all your gifts require that they be a lasting
offering of a thankful heart released from hell forever. Is it this you
would undo by taking back your gifts because they were not honored? It
is you who honor them and give them fitting thanks, for it is you who
have received the gifts.
4
It does not matter if another thinks your gifts unworthy. In his/her
mind there is a part that joins with yours in thanking you. It does not
matter if your gifts seem lost and ineffectual. They are received where
they are given. In your gratitude are they accepted universally and
thankfully acknowledged by the Heart of God HimHerself. And would you
take them back when HeShe has gratefully accepted them?
5
God blesses every gift you give to HimHer and every gift is given HimHer
because it can be given only to yourself, and what belongs to God must
be HisHer own. Yet you will never realize HisHer gifts are sure,
eternal, changeless, limitless, forever giving out, extending love, and
adding to your never-ending joy, while you forgive but to attack again.
6
Withdraw the gifts you give, and you will think that what is given you
has been withdrawn. But learn to let forgkiveness take away the sins you
think you see outside yourself, and you can never think the gifts of God
are lent but for a little while before HeShe snatches them away again in
death. For death will have no meaning for you then.
7
And with the end of this belief is fear forever over. Thank your Self
for this, for heshe is grateful only unto God, and heshe gives thanks
for you unto himherself. To everyone who lives will the Christ
Consciousness/the Mercy Consciousness yet come, for everyone must live
and breathe in Her. Her Being in Her FatherMother is secure because
Their Will is one. Their gratitude to all They have created and
manifested has no end, for gratitude remains a part of love.
8
Thanks be to you, the holy SonDaughter of God, for as you were created
and manifested you contain all things within your Self. And you are
still as God created and manifested you. Nor can you dim the light of
your perfection. In your heart, the Heart of God is laid. HeShe holds
you dear because you are HimHerself. All gratitude belongs to you
because of what you are.
9
Give thanks as you receive it. Be you free of all ingratitude to anyone
who makes your Self complete. And from this Self is no one left outside.
Give thanks for all the countless channels which extend this Self. All
that you do is given unto himher. All that you think can only be Her
thoughts, sharing with himher the holy Thoughts of God. Earn now the
gratitude you have denied yourself when you forgot the function God has
given you. But never think that HeShe has ever ceased to offer thanks to
you.
Lesson 198
Only my condemnation injures me.
1
Injury is impossible. And yet illusion makes illusion. If you can
condemn, you can be injured. For you have believed that you can injure,
and the right you have established for yourself can be now used against
you till you lay it down as valueless, unwanted, and unreal. Then does
illusion cease to have effects, and all it seemed to have will be
undone. Then are you free, for freedom is your gift, and you can now
receive the gift you gave.
2
Condemn and you are made a prisoner. Forgive and you are freed. Such is
the law that rules perception. It is not a law that knowledge
understands, for freedom is a part of knowledge. To condemn is thus
impossible in truth. What seems to be its influence and its effects have
not occurred at all. Yet must we deal with them a while as if they had.
Illusion makes illusion. Except one. Forgiveness is illusion that is
answer to the rest.
3
Forgiveness sweeps all other dreams away, and though it is itself a
dream, it breeds no others. All illusions save this one must multiply a
thousand fold. But this is where illusions end. Forgiveness is the end
of dreams because it is a dream of waking. It is not itself the truth.
Yet does it point to where the truth must be and gives direction with
the certainty of God HimHerself. It is a dream in which the SonDaughter
of God awakens to hisher Self and to hisher FatherMother, knowing They
are one.
4
Forgiveness is the only road that leads out of disaster, past all
suffering, and finally away from death. How could there be another way,
when this one is the plan of God HimHerself? And why would you oppose
it, quarrel with it, seek to find a thousand ways in which it must be
wrong, a thousand other possibilities?
5
Is it not wiser to be glad you hold the answer to your problems in your
hand? Is it not more intelligent to thank the One Who gives salvation,
and accept Her gift with gratitude? And is it not a kindness to yourself
to hear Her Voice and learn the simple lessons She would teach, instead
of trying to dismiss Her words and substitute your own in place of Her?
6
Her words will work. Her words will save. Her words contain all hope,
all blessing and all joy that ever can be found upon this earth. Her
words are born in God, and come to you with the God Realm's love upon
them. Those who hear Her words have heard the Song of the God Realm, for
these are the words which all will merge as one at last. And as this one
will fade away, the Word of God will come to take its place, for it will
be remembered then and loved.
7
This world has many seeming separate haunts where mercy has no meaning
and attack appears as justified. Yet all are one-a place where death is
offered to God’s SonDaughter and to hisher FatherMother. You may think
They have accepted, but if you will look again upon the place where you
beheld Their blood, you will perceive a miracle instead.
8
How foolish to believe that They could die! How foolish to believe you
can attack! How mad to think that you could be condemned and that the
holy SonDaughter of God can die! The stillness of your Self remains
unmoved, untouched by thoughts like these, and unaware of any
condemnation which could need forgiveness. Dreams of any kind are
strange and alien to the truth. Yet what but Truth could have a Thought
which builds a bridge to truth which brings illusions to the other side?
9
Today we practice letting freedom come to make its home with you. The
truth bestows these words upon your mind that you may find the key to
light and let the darkness end:
10
Only my condemnation injures me.
Only my own forgiveness sets
me free.
11
Do not forget today that there can be no form of suffering that fails to
hide an unforgiving thought. Nor can there be a form of pain forgiveness
cannot heal.
12
Accept the one illusion which proclaims there is no condemnation in
God’s SonDaughter, and the God Realm is remembered instantly; the world
forgotten, all its weird beliefs forgotten with it, as the face of the
Christ Consciousness/the Mercy Consciousness appears unveiled at last in
this one dream. This is the gift the Holy Spirit holds for you from God
your FatherMother. Let today be celebrated both on earth and in your
holy home as well. 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 the Christ Consciousness/the Mercy Consciousness.
13
Now is there silence all around the world. Now is there stillness where
before there was a frantic rush of thoughts that made no sense. Now is
there tranquil light across the face of earth, made quiet in a dreamless
sleep. And now the Word of God alone remains upon it. Only that can be
perceived an instant longer. Then are symbols done and everything you
ever thought you made completely vanished from the mind which God
forever knows to be HisHer only SonDaughter.
14
There is no condemnation in himher. Heshe is perfect in hisher holiness.
Heshe needs no thoughts of mercy. Who could give himher gifts when
everything is hisher? And who could dream of offering forgiveness to the
SonDaughter of Sinlessness Itself, so like to HimHer Whose SonDaughter
heshe is, that to behold the SonDaughter is to perceive no more and only
know the FatherMother? In this vision of the SonDaughter, 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.
15
Today we come still nearer to the end of everything that yet would stand
between this vision and our sight. And we are glad that we have come
this far and recognize that She Who brought us here will not forsake us
now. For She would give to us the gift that God has given us through Her
today. Now is the time of your deliverance. The time has come. The time
has come today.
Lesson 199
I am not a body. I am free.
1
Freedom must be impossible as long as you perceive a body as yourself.
The body is a limit. Who would seek for freedom in a body looks for it
where it can not be found. The mind can be made free when it no longer
sees itself as in a body, firmly tied to it and sheltered by its
presence. If this were the truth, the mind were vulnerable indeed!
2
The mind that serves the Holy Spirit is unlimited forever, in all ways,
beyond the laws of time and space, unbound by any preconceptions, and
with strength and power to do whatever it is asked. Attack thoughts
cannot enter such a mind because it has been given to the Source of
Love. And fear can never enter in a mind that has attached itself to
Love. It rests in God, and who can be afraid who lives in Innocence and
only loves?
3
It is essential for your progress in this course that you accept today's
idea and hold it very dear. Be not concerned that to the ego it is quite
insane. The ego holds the body dear because it dwells in it and lives
united with the home that it has made. It is a part of the illusion that
has sheltered it from being found illusory itself.
4
Here does it hide, and here it will be seen as what it is. Declare your
innocence, and you are free. The body disappears because you have no
need of it except the need the Holy Spirit sees. For this, the body will
appear as useful form for what the mind must do. It thus becomes a
vehicle which helps forgiveness be extended to the all-inclusive goal
that it must reach according to God's plan.
5
Cherish today's idea, and practice it today and every day. Make it a
part of every practice period you take. There is no thought that will
not gain thereby in power to help the world, and none which will not
gain in added gifts to you as well. We sound the call of freedom round
the world with this idea. And would you be exempt from the acceptance of
the gifts you give?
6
The Holy Spirit is the home of mind that seeks for freedom. In Her it
has found what it has sought. The body's purpose now is unambiguous. And
it becomes perfect in the ability to serve an undivided goal. In
conflict-free and unequivocal response to mind with but the thought of
freedom as its goal, the body serves, and serves its purpose well.
Without the power to enslave, it is a worthy servant/maid servant of the
freedom which the mind within the Holy Spirit seeks.
7
Be free today, and carry freedom as your gift to those who still believe
they are enslaved within a body. Be you free, so that the Holy Spirit
can make use of your escape from bondage to set free the many who
perceive themselves as bound and helpless and afraid. Let love replace
their fears through you. Accept salvation now, and give your mind to Her
Who calls to you to make this gift to Her. For She would give you
perfect freedom, perfect joy, and hope that finds its full
accomplishment in God.
8
You are God’s SonDaughter. In immortality you live forever. Would you
not return your mind to this? Then practice well the thought the Holy
Spirit gives you for today. Your brothers&sisters stand
released with you in it; the world is blessed along with you; God’s
SonDaughter will weep no more, and the God Realm offers thanks for the
increase of joy your practice brings even to it. And God HimHerself
extends HisHer Love and happiness each time you say:
9
I am not a body. I am free.
I hear the Voice that God has given
me,
And it is only this my mind obeys.
Lesson 200
There is no peace except the peace of God.
1
Seek you no further. You will not find peace except the peace of God.
Accept this fact, and save yourself the agony of yet more bitter
disappointments, bleak despair, and sense of icy hopelessness and doubt.
Seek you no further. There is nothing else for you to find except the
peace of God, unless you seek for misery and pain.
2
This is the final point to which each one must come at last, to lay
aside all hope of finding happiness where there is none, of being saved
by what can only hurt, of making peace of chaos, joy of pain and the God
Realm out of hell. Attempt no more to win through losing nor to die to
live. You cannot but be asking for defeat.
3
Yet you can ask as easily for love, for happiness, and for eternal life
in peace that has no ending. Ask for this, and you can only win. To ask
for what you have already must succeed. To ask that what is false be
true can only fail. Forgive yourself for vain imaginings, and seek no
longer what you cannot find. For what could be more foolish than to seek
and seek and seek again for hell, when you have but to look with open
eyes to find that the God Realm lies before you, through a door that
opens easily to welcome you?
4
Come home. You have not found your happiness in foreign places and in
alien forms which have no meaning to you, though you sought to make them
meaningful. This world is not where you belong. You are a stranger here.
But it is given you to find the means whereby the world no longer seems
to be a prison house for you or anyone.
5
Freedom is given you where you beheld but chains and iron doors. For you
must change your mind about the purpose of the world if you would find
escape. You will be bound till all the world is seen by you as blessed
and everyone made free of your mistakes and honored as he/she is. You
made him&her not; no more yourself. And as you free the one, the
other is accepted as he/she is.
6
What does forgiveness do? In truth it has no function and does nothing,
for it is unknown in the God Realm. It is only hell where it is needed
and where it must serve a mighty function. Is not the escape of God's
beloved SonDaughter from evil dreams that heshe imagines, yet believes
are true, a worthy purpose? Who could hope for more while there appears
to be a choice to make between success and failure, love and fear?
7
There is no peace except the peace of God because HeShe has one
SonDaughter, who cannot make a world in opposition to God's Will and to
hisher own, which is the same as HisHers. What could heshe hope to find
in such a world? It cannot have reality because it never was created and
manifested. Is it here that heshe would seek for peace? Or must heshe
see that, as heshe looks on it, the world can but deceive? Yet can heshe
learn to look on it another way and find the peace of God.
8
Peace is the bridge that everyone will cross to leave this world behind.
But peace begins within the world perceived as different and leading
from this fresh perception to the gate of the God Realm and the way
beyond. Peace is the answer to conflicting goals, to senseless journeys,
frantic, vain pursuits, and meaningless endeavors. Now the way is easy,
sloping gently toward the bridge where freedom lies within the peace of
God.
9
Let us not lose our way again today. We go to the God Realm, and the
path is straight. Only if we attempt to wander can there be delay and
needless wasted time on thorny byways. God alone is sure, and HeShe will
guide our footsteps. HeShe will not desert HisHer SonDaughter in need,
nor let him&her stray forever from his/her home. The FatherMother
calls; the SonDaughter will hear. And that is all there is to what
appears to be a world apart from God where bodies have reality.
10
Now is there silence. Seek no further. You have come to where the road
is carpeted with leaves of false desires, fallen from the trees of
hopelessness you sought before. Now are they underfoot. And you look up
and on toward the God Realm, with the body's eyes but serving for an
instant longer now. Peace is already recognized at last, and you can
feel its soft embrace surround your heart and mind with comfort and with
love.
11
Today we seek no idols or idolresses. Peace can not be found in them.
The peace of God is ours, and only this will we accept and want. Peace
be to us today. For we have found a simple, happy way to leave the world
of ambiguity and to replace our shifting goals and solitary dreams with
single purpose and companionship. For peace is union if it be of God. We
seek no further. We are close to home and draw still nearer every time
we say:
12
There is no peace except the peace of God,
And
I am glad and thankful it is so.
Review VI
R6:1
For this review, we take but one idea each day and practice it as often
as is possible. Besides the time you give morning and evening, which
should not be less than 15 minutes, and the hourly remembrances you make
throughout the day, use the idea as often as you can between them. Each
of these ideas alone would be sufficient for salvation, if it were
learned truly. 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.
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 20 lessons.
Each contains the whole curriculum if understood, practiced, accepted,
and applied to all the seeming happenings throughout the day. One is
enough. But for that one, there must be no exceptions made. And so we
need to use them all and let them blend as one, as each contributes to
the whole we learn.
3
These practice sessions, like our last review, are centered round a
central theme with which we start and end each lesson. It is this:
4
I am not a body. I am free.
For I am still as God created and
manifested me.
5
The day begins and ends with this. And we repeat it every time the hour
strikes or we remember in between we have a function that transcends the
world we see. 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.
6
We will attempt to get beyond all words and special forms of practicing
for this review. For we attempt this time to reach a quickened pace
along a shorter path to the serenity and peace of God. We merely close
our eyes and then forget all that we thought we knew and understood. For
thus is freedom given us from all we did not know and failed to
understand.
7
There is but one exception to this lack of structuring. Permit no idle
thought to go unchallenged. If you notice one, deny its hold and hasten
to assure your mind that this is not what it would have. Then gently let
the thought which you denied be given up in sure and quick exchange for
the idea you practice for the day.
8
When you are tempted, e from temptation as you say:
9
This thought I do not want. I choose instead….
10
And then repeat the idea for the day, and let it take the place of what
you thought. Beyond such special applications of each day's idea, we
will add but a few formal expressions or specific thoughts to aid your
practicing. Instead we give these times of quiet to the Teacheress Who
instructs in quiet, speaks of peace, and gives our thoughts whatever
meaning they may have.
11
To Her I offer this review for you. I place you in Her charge and let
Her teach you what to do and say and think each time you turn to Her.
She will not fail to be available to you each time you call to Her to
help you. Let us offer Her 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 She set for us, allowing Her to teach us how
to go, and trusting Her completely for the way each practice period can
best become a loving gift of freedom to the world.
Lesson 201
I am not a body. I am free. For I am
still as God created and manifested me.
[181] I trust my
brothers&sisters, who are one with me.
1
No one but is my brother or sister. I am blessed with oneness with the
universe, and God, my FatherMother, One CreatorManifestoress of the
whole that is my Self, forever one with me.
I am not a body. I am free. For I am
still as God created and manifested me.
Lesson 202
I am not a body. I am free. For I am
still as God created and manifested me.
[182] I will be still a moment and go home.
1
Why would I choose to stay an instant more where I do not belong, when
God HimHerself has given me HisHer Voice to call me home?
I am not a body. I am free. For I am
still as God created and manifested me.
Lesson 203
I am not a body. I am free. For I am
still as God created and manifested me.
[183] I call upon God's Name and on my own.
1
The name of God is my deliverance from every thought of evil and of sin,
because it is my own as well HisHers.
I am not a body. I am free. For I am
still as God created and manifested me.
Lesson 204
I am not a body. I am free. For I am
still as God created and manifested me.
[184] The Name of God is my inheritance.
1
God's Name reminds me that I am HisHer SonDaughter, not slave to time,
unbound by laws which rule the world of sick illusions, free in God,
forever and forever one with HimHer.
I am not a body. I am free. For I am
still as God created and manifested me.
Lesson 205
I am not a body. I am free. For I am
still as God created and manifested me.
[185] I want the peace of God.
1
The peace of God is everything I want. 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.
I am not a body. I am free. For I am
still as God created and manifested me.
Lesson 206
I am not a body. I am free. For I am
still as God created and manifested me.
[186] Salvation of the world depends on me.
1
I am entrusted with the gifts of God because I am HisHer SonDaughter.
and I would give HisHer gifts where HeShe intended them to be.
I am not a body. I am free. For I am
still as God created and manifested me.
Lesson 207
I am not a body. I am free. For I am
still as God created and manifested me.
[187] I bless the world because I bless
myself.
1
God's blessing shines upon me from within my heart where HeShe abides. I
need but turn to HimHer, and every sorrow melts away as I accept HisHer
boundless Love for me.
I am not a body. I am free. For I am
still as God created and manifested me.
Lesson 208
I am not a body. I am free. For I am still as God created me.
[188] The peace of God is shining in me now.
1 I will be still and let the earth be still along with me. And
in that stillness, we will find the peace of God. It is within my heart,
which witnesses to God HimHerself.
I am not a body. I am free. For I am still as God created me.
Lesson 209
I am not a body. I am free. For I am
still as God created and manifested me.
[189] I feel the Love of God within me now.
1
The Love of God is what created and manifested me. The Love of God is
everything I am. The Love of God proclaimed me as HisHer SonDaughter.
The Love of God within me sets me free.
I am not a body. I am free. For I am
still as God created and manifested me.
Lesson 210
I am not a body. I am free. For I am
still as God created and manifested me.
[190] I choose the joy of God instead of
pain.
1
Pain is my own idea. It is not a thought of God, but one I thought apart
from HimHer and from HisHer Will. HisHer Will is joy and only joy for
HisHer beloved SonDaughter. And that I choose instead of what I made.
I am not a body. I am free. For I am
still as God created and manifested me.
Lesson 211
I am not a body. I am free. For I am
still as God created and manifested me.
[191] I am the holy SonDaughter of God
HimHerself.
1
In silence and in true humility I seek God's glory to behold it in the
SonDaughter whom HeShe created and manifested as my Self.
I am not a body. I am free. For I am
still as God created and manifested me.
Lesson 212
I am not a body. I am free. For I am
still as God created and manifested me.
[192] I have a function God would have me
fill.
1
I seek the function that would set me free from all the vain illusions
of the world. Only the function God has given me can offer freedom. Only
this I seek, and only this will I accept as mine.
I am not a body. I am free. For I am
still as God created and manifested me.
Lesson 213
I am not a body. I am free. For I am
still as God created and manifested me.
[193] All things are lessons God would have
me learn.
1
A lesson is a miracle which God offers to me in place of thoughts I made
that hurt me. What I learn of HimHer becomes the way I am set free. And
so I choose to learn HisHer lessons and forget my own.
I am not a body. I am free. For I am
still as God created and manifested me.
Lesson 214
I am not a body. I am free. For I am
still as God created and manifested me.
[194] I place the future in the hands of
God.
1
The past is gone; the future is not yet. Now am I freed from both. For
what God gives can only be for good. And I accept the way I am set free.
And so I choose but what HeShe gives as what belongs to me.
I am not a body. I am free. For I am
still as God created and manifested me.
Lesson 215
I am not a body. I am free. For I am
still as God created and manifested me.
[195] Love is the way I walk in gratitude.
1
The Holy Spirit is my only Guide. She walks with me in love and I give
thanks to Her for showing me the way to go.
I am not a body. I am free. For I am
still as God created and manifested me.
Lesson 216
I am not a body. I am free. For I am
still as God created and manifested me.
[196] It can be but myself I crucify.
1
All that I do, I do unto myself. If I attack, I suffer. But if I
forgive, salvation will be given me.
I am not a body. I am free. For I am
still as God created and manifested me.
Lesson 217
I am not a body. I am free. For I am
still as God created and manifested me.
[197] It can be but my gratitude I earn.
1
Who should give thanks for my salvation but myself? And how but through
salvation can I find the Self to Whom my thanks are due?
I am not a body. I am free. For I am
still as God created and manifested me.
Lesson 218
I am not a body. I am free. For I am
still as God created and manifested me.
[198] Only my condemnation injures me.
1
My condemnation keeps my vision dark, and through my sightless eyes I
cannot see the vision of my glory. Yet today I can behold this glory and
be glad.
I am not a body. I am free. For I am
still as God created and manifested me.
Lesson 219
I am not a body. I am free. For I am
still as God created and manifested me.
[199] I am not a body. I am free.
1
I am God’s SonDaughter. Be still, my mind, and think a moment upon this.
And then return to earth without confusion as to what my FatherMother
loves forever as HisHer SonDaughter.
I am not a body. I am free. For I am
still as God created and manifested me.
Lesson 220
I am not a body. I am free. For I am
still as God created and manifested me.
[200] There is no peace except the peace of
God.
1
Let me not wander from the way of peace, for I am lost on other roads
than this. But let me follow Her Who leads me home, and peace is certain
as the Love of God.
I am not a body. I am free. For I am
still as God created and manifested me.
PART 2
Introduction
IP2:1
Words will mean little now. We use them but as guides on which we do not
now depend. For now we seek direct experience of truth alone. The
lessons which remain are merely introductions to the times in which we
leave the world of pain and go to enter peace. Now we begin to reach the
goal this course has set and find the end toward which our practicing
was geared.
2
Now we attempt to let the exercise be merely a beginning. For we wait in
quiet expectation for our God and FatherMother. HeShe has promised HeShe
will take the final step HimHerself. And we are sure HisHer promises are
kept. We have come far along the road, and now we wait for HimHer. We
will continue spending time with HimHer each morning and at night, as
long as makes us happy. We will not consider time a matter of duration
now. We use as much as we will need for the result that we desire. Nor
will we forget our hourly remembrance in between, calling to God when we
have need of HimHer as we are tempted to forget our goal.
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. Yet we will not content ourselves with simple practicing in the
remaining holy instants which conclude the year that we have given God.
We say some simple words of welcome and expect our FatherMother to
reveal HimHerself as HeShe has promised. We have called on HimHer, and
HeShe has promised that HisHer SonDaughter will not remain unanswered
when heshe calls HisHer Name.
4
Now do we come to HimHer with but HisHer Word upon our minds and hearts.
And wait for HimHer to take the step to us that HeShe has told us,
through HisHer Voice, HeShe would not fail to take when we invited
HimHer. HeShe has not left HisHer SonDaughter in all hisher madness nor
betrayed HisHer trust in himher. Has not HisHer faithfulness earned
HimHer the invitation that HeShe seeks to make us happy? We will offer
it, and it will be accepted. So our times with HimHer will now be spent.
We say the words of invitation that HisHer Voice suggests, and then we
wait for HimHer to come to us.
5
Now is the time of prophecy fulfilled. Now are all ancient promises
upheld and fully kept. No step remains for time to separate from its
accomplishment. For now we cannot fail. Sit silently and wait upon your
FatherMother. HeShe has willed to come to you when you have recognized
it is your will HeShe do so. And you could have never come this far
unless you saw, however dimly, that it is your will.
6
I am so close to you we cannot fail. FatherMother, we give these holy
times to You in gratitude to Her Who taught us how to leave the world of
sorrow in exchange for its replacement given us by You. We look not
backward now. We look ahead and fix our eyes upon the journey's end.
Accept these little gifts of thanks from us, as through The Christ
Consciousness’/the Mercy Consciousness’ vision we behold a world beyond
the one we made and take that world to be the full replacement of our
own.
7
And now we wait in silence, unafraid and certain of Your coming. We have
sought to find our way by following the Guide You sent to us. We did not
know the way, but You did not forget us. And we know that You will not
forget us now. We ask but that Your ancient promises be kept which are
Your Will to keep. We will with You in asking this. The FatherMother and
the SonDaughter, Whose holy Will created and manifested all that is, can
fail in nothing. In this certainty, we undertake these last few steps to
You and rest in confidence upon Your Love, Which will not fail the
SonDaughter who calls to You.
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
CreatorManifestoress. We have found the way HeShe chose for us and made
the choice to follow it as HeShe would have us go. HisHer hand has held
us up. HisHer Thoughts have lit the darkness of our minds. HisHer Love
has called to us unceasingly since time began.
9
We had a wish that God would fail to have the SonDaughter whom HeShe
created and manifested for HimHerself. We wanted God to change
HimHerself and be what we would make of HimHer. And we believed that our
insane desires were the truth. Now we are glad that this is all undone,
and we no longer think illusions true. The memory of God is shimmering
across the wide horizons of our minds. A moment more, and it will rise
again. A moment more, and we who are God’s SonsDaughters are safely
home, where HeShe would have us be.
10
Now is the need for practice almost done. For in this final section we
will come to understand that we need only call to God and all
temptations disappear. Instead of words, we need but feel HisHer Love.
Instead of prayer, we need but call HisHer Name. Instead of judging, we
need but be still and let all things be healed. We will accept the way
God's plan will end, as we received the way it started. Now it is
complete. This year has brought us to eternity.
11
One further use for words we still retain. 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. These special thoughts should be reviewed each day, each one
of them to be continued till the next is given you. They should be
slowly read and thought about a little while, preceding one of the holy
and blessed instants in the day. We give the first of these instructions
now.
What is forgiveness?
1
Forgiveness recognizes what you thought your brother or sister did to
you has not occurred. It does not pardon sins and make them real. It
sees there was no sin. And in this view are all your sins forgiven. What
is sin except a false idea about God’s SonDaughter? Forgiveness merely
sees its falsity and therefore lets it go. What then is free to take its
place is now the Will of God.
2
An unforgiving thought is one which makes a judgment that it will not
raise to doubt, although it is not true. The mind is closed and will not
be released. 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. What can come between
a fixed projection and the aim that it has chosen as its needed goal?
3
An unforgiving thought does many things. In frantic action, it pursues
its goal, twisting and overturning what it sees as interfering with its
chosen path. Distortion is its purpose and the means by which it would
accomplish it as well. 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.
4
Forgiveness, on the other hand, is still and quietly does nothing. It
offends no aspect of reality nor seeks to twist it to appearance that it
likes. It merely looks and waits and judges not. he/she who would not
forgive must judge, for he/she must justify his/her failure to forgive.
But he/she who would forgive himself/herself must learn to welcome truth
exactly as it is.
5
Do nothing, then, and let forgiveness show you what to do through Her
Who is your Guide, your Savioress and Defenderess, strong in hope, and
certain of your ultimate success. She has forgiven you already, for such
is Her function given Her by God. Now must you share Her function and
forgive whom She has saved, whose sinlessness She sees, and whom She
honors as the SonDaughter of God.
Lesson 221
Peace to my mind. Let all my thoughts be still.
1
FatherMother, I come to You today to seek the peace that You alone can
give. I come in silence. In the quiet of my heart, the deep recesses of
my mind, I wait and listen for Your Voice. My FatherMother, speak to me
today. I come to hear Your Voice in silence and in certainty and love,
sure You will hear my call and answer me.
2
Now do we wait in quiet. God is here because we wait together. I am sure
that HeShe will speak to you, and you will hear. Accept my confidence,
for it is yours. Our minds are joined. We wait with one intent—to hear
our Father’sMother’s answer to our call, to let our thoughts be still
and find HisHer peace, to hear HimHer speak to us of what we are, and to
reveal Themselves unto Their SonDaughter.
Lesson 222
God is with me. I live and breathe in HimHer.
1
God is with me. HeShe is my Source of life, the life within, the air I
breathe, the food by which I am sustained, the water which renews and
cleanses me. HeShe is my home, wherein I live and move, the Spirit Which
directs my actions, offers me Its Thoughts, and guarantees my safety
from all pain. HeShe covers me with kindness and with care and holds in
love the SonDaughter HeShe shines upon, who also shines on HimHer. How
still is he/she who knows the truth of what She speaks today!
2
FatherMother, 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
God is my life. I have no life but HisHers.
1
I was mistaken when I thought I lived apart from God, a separate entity
which moved in isolation, unattached, and housed within a body. Now I
know my life is God's. I have no other home, and I do not exist apart
from HimHer. HeShe has no Thoughts that are not part of me, and I have
none but those which are of HimHer.
2
Our FatherMother, let us see the face of the Christ Consciousness/the
Mercy Consciousness instead of our mistakes. For we who are Your holy
SonsDaughters are sinless. We would look upon our sinlessness, for guilt
proclaims that we are not Your SonsDaughters. And we would not forget
You longer. We are lonely here and long for the God Realm where we are
at home. Today we would return. Our Name is Yours, and we acknowledge
that we are Your SonDaughter.
Lesson 224
God is my FatherMother, and HeShe loves HisHer SonDaughter.
1
My true identity is so secure, so lofty, sinless, glorious and great,
wholly beneficent and free from guilt that the God Realm looks to it to
give it light. It lights the world as well. It is the gift my
FatherMother gave me, and the one as well I give the world. There is no
gift but this that can be either given or received. This is reality, and
only this. This is illusion's end. It is the Truth.
2
My Name, oh FatherMother, still is known to You. I have forgotten it and
do not know where I am going, who I am, or what it is I do. Remind me,
FatherMother, now, for I am weary of the world I see. Reveal what You
would have me see instead.
Lesson 225
God is my FatherMother, and HisHer SonDaughter loves HimHer.
1
FatherMother, I must return Your Love for me. For giving and receiving
are the same, and You have given all Your Love to me. I must return it,
for I want it mine in full awareness, blazing in my mind, and keeping it
within its kindly light, inviolate—beloved, with fear behind and only
peace ahead. How still the way Your loving SonDaughter is led along to
You!
2
brother or sister, we find that stillness now. The way is open. Now we
follow it in peace together. You have reached your hand to me, and I
will never leave you. 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
My home awaits me. I will hasten there.
1
If I so choose, I can depart this world entirely. It is not death which
makes this possible, but it is change of mind about the purpose of the
world. If I believe it has a value as I see it now, so will it still
remain for me. But if I see no value in the world as I behold it,
nothing that I want to keep as mine or search for as a goal, it will
depart from me. For I have not sought for illusions to replace the
truth.
2
FatherMother, my home awaits my glad return. Your arms are open, and I
hear Your Voice. What need have I to linger in a place of vain desires
and of broken dreams when the God Realm can so easily be mine?
Lesson 227
This is my holy instant of release.
1 FatherMother, it is today that I am free because my will is
Yours. I thought to make another will. Yet nothing that I thought apart
from You exists. And I am free because I was mistaken and did not affect
my own reality at all by my illusions. Now I give them up and lay them
down before the feet of truth, to be removed forever from my mind. This is
my holy instant of release. FatherMother, I know my will is one with
Yours.
2 And so today we find our glad return to the God Realm, which
we never really left. The SonDaughter of God this day lays down his/her
dreams. The SonDaughter of God this day comes home again, released from
sin and clad in holiness, with his/her right mind restored to himher at
last.
Lesson 228
God has condemned me not. No more do I.
1
My FatherMother knows my holiness. Shall I deny HisHer knowledge and
believe in what HisHer knowledge makes impossible? Shall I accept as
true what HeShe proclaims as false? Or shall I take HisHer Word for what
I am since HeShe is my CreatorManifestoress and the Ones Who know the
true condition of HisHer SonDaughter?
2
FatherMother, I was mistaken in myself because I failed to realize the
Source from Which I came. I have not left that Source to enter in a body
and to die. My holiness remains a part of me, as I am part of You. And
my mistakes about myself are dreams. I let them go today. And I stand
ready to receive Your Word alone for what I really am.
Lesson 229
Love, Which created and manifested me, is what I am.
1
I seek my own identity and find it in these words: "Love, Which created
and manifested me, is what I am." Now need I seek no more. Love has
prevailed. So still it waited for my coming home that I will turn away
no longer from the holy face of the Christ Consciousness/the Mercy
Consciousness. And what I look upon attests the truth of the identity I
sought to lose, but which my FatherMother has kept safe for me.
2
FatherMother, 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. And thanks to You for saving me from them. Amen.
Lesson 230
Now will I seek and find the peace of God.
1
In peace I was created and manifested. And in peace do I remain. It is
not given me to change my Self. How merciful is God my FatherMother,
that when HeShe created and manifested me HeShe gave me peace forever.
Now I ask but to be what I am. And can this be denied me, when it is
forever so?
2
FatherMother, I seek the peace You gave as mine in my creation and
manifestation. What was given then must be here now, for my creation and
manifestation was apart from time and still remains beyond all change.
The peace in which Your SonDaughter was born into Your Mind is shining
there unchanged. I am as You created and manifested me. I need but call
on You to find the peace You gave. It is Your Will that gave it to Your
SonDaughter.
What is salvation?
1Salvation
is a promise made by God that you would find your way to HimHer at last.
It cannot not be kept. It guarantees that time will have an end, and all
the thoughts that have been born in time will end as well. 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.
2
The Thought of peace was given to God’s SonDaughter the instant that
hisher mind had thought of war. There was no need for such a Thought
before, for peace was given without opposite and merely was. But when
the mind is split, there is a need of healing. So the Thought which 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. Now it did not
know itself and thought its own identity was lost.
3
Salvation is undoing in the sense that it does nothing, failing to
support the world of dreams and malice. Thus it lets illusions go. By
not supporting them, it merely lets them quietly go down to dust. And
what they hid is now revealed—an altar to the holy Name of God whereon
HisHer Word is written, with the gifts of your forgiveness laid before
it and the memory of God not far behind.
4
Let us come daily to this holy place and spend a while together. Here we
share our final dream. It is a dream in which there is no sorrow, for it
holds a hint of all the glory given us by God. The grass is pushing
through the soil, the trees are budding now, and birds have come to live
within their branches. Earth is being born again in new perception.
Night has gone, and we have come together in the light.
5
From here we give salvation to the world, for it is here salvation was
received. The Song of our rejoicing is the call to all the world that
freedom is returned, that time is almost over, and God’s SonDaughter has
but an instant more to wait until his/her FatherMother is remembered,
dreams are done, eternity has shined away the world, and only the God
Realm now exists at all.
Lesson 231
FatherMother, I will but to remember You.
1
What can I seek for, FatherMother, but Your Love? Perhaps I think I seek
for something else—a something I have called by many names. Yet is Your
Love the only thing I seek or ever sought. For there is nothing else
that I could ever really want to find. Let me remember You. What else
could I desire but the truth about myself?
2
This is your will, my brother or sister. And you share this will with
me, and with the Ones as well Who is our FatherMother. To remember
HimHer is the God Realm. This we seek. And only this is what it will be
given us to find.
Lesson 232
Be in my mind, my FatherMother, through the day.
1
Be in my mind, my FatherMother, when I wake and shine on me throughout
the day today. Let every minute be a time in which I dwell with You. And
let me not forget my hourly thanksgiving that You have remained with me
and always will be there to hear my call to You and answer me. As
evening comes, let all my thoughts be still of You and of Your Love, and
let me sleep sure of my safety, certain of Your care, and happily aware
I am Your SonDaughter.
2
This is as every day should be. Today practice the end of fear. Have
faith in HimHer Who is your FatherMother. Trust all things to HimHer.
Let HimHer reveal all things to you, and be you undismayed because you
are HisHer SonDaughter.
Lesson 233
I give my life to God to run today.
1
FatherMother, I give You all my thoughts today. I would have none of
mine. In place of them, give me Your own. I give You all my acts as well
that I may do Your Will instead of seeking goals which cannot be
obtained and wasting time in vain imaginings. Today I come to You. I
will step back and merely follow You. Be You the Guide and I the
follower who questions not the wisdom of the Infinite nor Love Whose
tenderness I cannot comprehend but which is yet Your perfect gift to me.
2
Today we have one Guide to lead us on. And as we walk together, we will
give this day to HimHer with no reserve at all. This is HisHer day. And
so it is a day of countless gifts and mercies unto us.
Lesson 234
FatherMother, today I am Your SonDaughter again.
1
Today we will anticipate the time when dreams of sin and guilt are gone
and we have reached again the holy peace we never left. Merely a tiny
instant has elapsed between eternity and timelessness. So brief the
interval, there was no lapse in continuity nor break in thoughts which
are forever unified as one. Nothing has ever happened to disturb the
peace of God the FatherMother and the SonDaughter. This we accept as
wholly true today.
2
We thank You, FatherMother, that we cannot lose the memory of You and of
Your Love. 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
God in HisHer mercy wills that I be saved.
1
I need but look upon all things that seem to hurt me and with perfect
certainty assure myself, "God wills that I be saved from this," and
merely watch them disappear. I need but keep in mind my Father’sMother’s
Will for me is only happiness to find that only happiness has come to
me. And I need but remember that HisHer Love surrounds HisHer
SonDaughter and keeps hisher sinlessness forever perfect to be sure that
I am saved and safe forever in HisHer arms. I am the SonDaughter HeShe
loves. And I am saved because God in HisHer mercy wills it so.
2
FatherMother, Your holiness is mine. Your Love created and manifested me
and made my sinlessness forever part of You. I have no guilt nor sin in
me, for there is none in You.
Lesson 236
I rule my mind, which I alone must rule.
1
I have a Realm I must rule. At times, it does not seem I am its king or
queen at all. It seems to triumph over me and tell me what to think and
what to do and feel. And yet it has been given me to serve whatever
purpose I perceive in it. My mind can only serve. Today I give its
service to the Holy Spirit to employ as She sees fit. I thus direct my
mind, which I alone can rule. And thus I set it free to do the Will of
God.
2
FatherMother, my mind is open to Your Thoughts and closed today to every
thought but Yours. I rule my mind and offer it to You. Accept my gift,
for it is Yours to me.
Lesson 237
Now would I be as God created and manifested me.
1
Today I will accept the truth about myself. I will arise in glory and
allow the light in me to shine upon the world throughout the day. I
bring the world the tidings of salvation that I hear as God my
FatherMother speaks to me. And I behold the world that the Christ
Consciousness/the Mercy Consciousness would have me see, aware it ends
the bitter dream of death, aware it is my Father’sMother’s call to me.
2
The Christ Consciousness/the Mercy Consciousness is my eyes today, and
Her the ears which listen to the Voice of God today. FatherMother, I
come to You through himher Who is Your SonDaughter and my true Self as
well. Amen.
Lesson 238
On my decision all salvation rests.
1
FatherMother, Your trust in me has been so great I must be worthy. You
created and manifested me and know me as I am. And yet You placed Your
Son’sDaughter’s salvation in my hands and let it rest on my decision. I
must be beloved of You indeed. And I must be steadfast in holiness as
well, that You would give Your SonDaughter to me in certainty that heshe
is safe Who still is part of You and yet is mine because HeShe is my
Self.
2
And so again today we pause to think how much our FatherMother loves us.
And how dear HisHer SonDaughter, created and manifested by HisHer Love,
remains to HimHer Whose Love is made complete in himher.
Lesson 239
The glory of my FatherMother is my own.
1
Let not the truth about ourselves today be hidden by a false humility.
Let us instead be thankful for the gifts our FatherMother gave us. Can
we see in those with whom HeShe shares HisHer glory any trace of sin and
guilt? And can it be that we are not among them when HeShe loves HisHer
SonDaughter forever and with perfect constancy, knowing heshe is as
HeShe created and manifested himher?
2
We thank You, FatherMother, for the light that shines forever in us. And
we honor it because You share it with us. We are one, united in this
light, and one with You, at peace with all creation and manifestation
and ourselves.
Lesson 240
Fear is not justified in any form.
1
Fear is deception. It attests that you have seen yourself as you could
never be and therefore look upon a world which is impossible. Not one
thing in this world is true. It does not matter what the form in which
it may appear. It witnesses but to your own illusions of yourself. Let
us not be deceived today. We are the SonDaughter of God. There is no
fear in us, for we are each a part of Love Itself.
2
How foolish are our fears! Would You allow Your SonDaughter to suffer?
Give us faith today to recognize Your SonDaughter and set himher free.
Let us forgive himher in Your Name, that we may understand hisher
holiness and feel the love for himher that is Your own as well.
What is the world?
ST241:1The
world
is false perception. It is born of error, and it has not left its
source. It will remain no longer than the thought which gave it birth is
cherished. When the thought of separation has been changed to one of
true forgiveness will the world be seen in quite another light, and one
which leads to truth, where all the world must disappear and all its
errors vanish. Now its source has gone, and its effects are gone as
well.
2
The world was made as an attack on God. It symbolizes fear. And what is
fear except love's absence? Thus the world was meant to be a place where
God could enter not and where HisHer SonDaughter could be apart from
HimHer. Here was perception born, for knowledge could not cause such
insane thoughts. But eyes deceive, and ears hear falsely. Now mistakes
become quite possible, for certainty has gone.
3
The mechanisms of illusion have been born instead. And now they go to
find what has been given them to seek. Their aim is to fulfil the
purpose which the world was made to witness and make real. They see in
its illusions but a solid base where truth exists, upheld apart from
lies. Yet everything that they report is but illusion, which is kept
apart from truth.
4
As sight was made to lead away from truth, it can be redirected. Sounds
become the call of God. And all perception can be given a new purpose by
the one Whom God appointed Savioress to the world. Follow Her light and
see the world as She beholds it. Hear Her Voice alone in all that speaks
to you. And let Her give you peace and certainty, which you have thrown
away but the God Realm has preserved for you in Her.
5
Let us not rest content until the world has joined our changed
perception. Let us not be satisfied until forgiveness has been made
complete. And let us not attempt to change our function. We must save
the world. For we who made it must behold it through the eyes of the
Christ Consciousness/the Mercy Consciousness, that what was made to die
can be restored to Everlasting Life.
Lesson 241
This holy instant is salvation come.
1
What joy there is today! It is a time of special celebration. For today
holds out the instant to the darkened world where its release is set.
The day has come when sorrows pass away and pain is gone. The glory of
salvation dawns today upon a world set free. This is the time of hope
for countless millions. They will be united now as you forgive them all.
For I will be forgiven by you today.
2
We have forgiven one another now, and so we come at last to You again.
FatherMother, Your SonDaughter, who never left, returns to the God Realm
and hisher home. How glad are we to have our sanity restored to us, and
to remember that we all are one.
Lesson 242
This day is God's. It is my gift to HimHer.
1
I will not lead my life alone today. I do not understand the world. And
so to try to lead my life alone must be but foolishness. For there is
One Who knows all that is best for me. And She is glad to make no
choices for me but the ones that lead to God. This day I give to Her,
for I would not delay my coming home, and it is She Who knows the way to
HimHer.
2
And so we give today to You. We come with wholly open minds. We do not
ask for anything that we may think we want. Give us what You would have
received by us. You know all our desires and our needs. And You will
give us everything we want and that will help us find the way to You.
Lesson 243
Today I will judge nothing that occurs.
1
I will be honest with myself today. I will not think that I already know
what must remain beyond my present grasp. I will not think I understand
the whole from bits of my perception, which are all that I can see.
Today I recognize that this is so. And so I am relieved of judgment
which I cannot make. Thus do I free myself and what I look upon, to be
in peace as God created and manifested us.
2
FatherMother, today I leave creation and manifestation free to be
itself. I honor all its parts, in which I am included. We are one
because each part contains Your memory, and truth must shine in all of
us as one.
Lesson 244
I am in danger nowhere in the world.
1
Your SonDaughter is safe wherever he/she may be, for You are there with
him&her. he/she need but call upon Your Name, and he/she will
recollect his/her safety and Your Love, for they are one. How can he/she
fear or doubt or fail to know he/she cannot suffer, be endangered, or
experience unhappiness when he/she belongs to You, beloved and loving,
in the safety of Your FatherMotherly embrace?
2
And there we are in truth. No storms can come into the hallowed haven of
our home. In God are we secure. For what can come to threaten God
HimHerself or make afraid what will forever be a part of HimHer?
Lesson 245
Your peace is with me, FatherMother. I am safe.
1
Your peace surrounds me, FatherMother. Where I go, Your peace goes there
with me. It sheds its light on everyone I meet. I bring it to the
desolate and lonely and afraid. I give Your peace to those who suffer
pain or grieve for loss or think they are bereft of hope and happiness.
Send them to me, my FatherMother. Let me bring Your peace with me. For I
would save Your SonDaughter as is Your Will that I may come to recognize
my Self.
2
And so we go in peace. To all the world we give the message that we have
received. And thus we come to hear the Voice of God, Who speaks to us as
we relate Her Word, Whose Love we recognize because we share the Word
that She has given unto us.
Lesson 246
To love my FatherMother is to love HisHer SonDaughter.
1
Let me not think that I can find the way to God if I have hatred in my
heart. Let me not try to hurt God’s SonDaughter and think that I can
know his/her FatherMother or my Self. Let me not fail to recognize
myself and still believe that my awareness can contain my FatherMother,
or my mind conceive of all the love my FatherMother has for me and all
the love which I return to HimHer.
2
I will accept the way You choose for me to come to You, my FatherMother.
For in that will I succeed because it is Your Will. And I would
recognize that what You will is what I will as well and only that. And
so I choose to love Your SonDaughter. Amen.
Lesson 247
Without forgiveness I will still be blind.
1
Sin is the symbol of attack. Behold it anywhere, and I will suffer. For
forgiveness is the only means whereby The Christ Consciousness’/the
Mercy Consciousness’ vision comes to me. Let me accept what Her sight
shows me as the simple truth and I am healed completely. brother or
sister, come and let me look on you. Your loveliness reflects my own.
Your sinlessness is mine. You stand forgiven, and I stand with you.
2
So would I look on everyone today. My brothers&sisters are
Your SonDaughters. Your FatherhoodMotherhood created and manifested them
and gave them all to me as part of You and my own Self as well. Today I
honor You through them, and thus I hope this day to recognize my Self.
Lesson 248
Whatever suffers is not part of me.
1
I have disowned the truth. Now let me be as faithful in disowning
falsity. Whatever suffers is not part of me. What grieves is not myself.
What is in pain is but illusion in my mind. What dies was never living
in reality and did but mock the truth about myself. Now I disown
self-concepts and deceits and lies about the holy SonDaughter of God.
Now am I ready to accept himher back as God created and manifested
himher and as heshe is.
2
FatherMother, my ancient love for You returns and lets me love Your
SonDaughter again as well. FatherMother, I am as You created and
manifested me. Now is Your Love remembered and my own. Now do I
understand that they are one.
Lesson 249
Forgiveness ends all suffering and loss.
1
Forgiveness paints a picture of a world where suffering is over, loss
becomes impossible, and anger makes no sense. Attack is gone, and
madness has an end. What suffering is now conceivable? What loss can be
sustained? The world becomes a place of joy, abundance, charity, and
endless giving. It is now so like to the God Realm that it quickly is
transformed into the Light that it reflects. And so the journey which
the SonDaughter of God began has ended in the Light from Which he/she
came.
2
FatherMother, we would return our minds to You. We have betrayed them,
held them in a vise of bitterness, and frightened them with thoughts of
violence and death. Now would we rest again in You, as You created and
manifested us.
Lesson 250
Let me not see myself as limited.
1
Let me behold the SonDaughter of God today and witness to hisher glory.
Let me not try to obscure the holy light in himher and see hisher
strength diminished and reduced to frailty nor perceive the lacks in
himher with which I would attack hisher sovereignty.
2
Heshe is Your SonDaughter, my FatherMother. And today I would behold
hisher gentleness instead of my illusions. Heshe is what I am, and as I
see himher, so I see myself. Today I would see truly that this day I may
at last identify with himher.
What is sin?
ST251:1Sin
is insanity. It is the means by which the mind is driven mad and seeks
to let illusions take the place of truth. And being mad, it sees
illusions where the truth should be and where it really is. Sin gave the
body eyes, for what is there the sinless would behold? What need have
they of sights or sounds or touch? What would they hear or reach to
grasp? What would they sense at all? To sense is not to know. And truth
can be but filled with knowledge and with nothing else.
2
The body is the instrument the mind made in its striving to deceive
itself. Its purpose is to strive. Yet can the goal of striving change.
And now the body serves a different aim for striving. What it seeks for
now is chosen by the aim the mind has taken as replacement for the goal
of self-deception. Truth can be its aim as well as lies. The senses then
will seek instead for witnesses to what is true.
3
Sin is the home of all illusions, which but stand for things imagined,
issuing from thoughts which are untrue. They are the "proof" that what
has no reality is real. Sin "proves" God’s SonDaughter is evil;
timelessness must have an end; eternal life must die. And God HimHerself
has lost the SonDaughter HeShe loves, with but corruption to complete
HimHerself, HisHer Will forever overcome by death, love slain by hate,
and peace to be no more.
4
A madman's or madwoman’s dreams are frightening, and sin appears indeed
to terrify. And yet what sin perceives is but a childish game. The
SonDaughter of God may play heshe has become a body, prey to evil and to
guilt, with but a little life that ends in death. But all the while
hisher FatherMother shines on himher and loves himher with an
everlasting Love which hisher pretenses cannot change at all.
5
How long, oh SonDaughter of God, will you maintain the game of sin?
Shall we not put away these sharp-edged children's toys? How soon will
you be ready to come home? Perhaps today? There is no sin. creation and
manifestation is unchanged. Would you still hold return to the God Realm
back? How long, oh holy SonDaughter of God, how long?
Lesson 251
I am in need of nothing but the truth.
1
I sought for many things and found despair. Now do I seek but one, for
in that one is all I need and only what I need. All that I sought before
I needed not and did not even want. My only need I did not recognize.
But now I see that I need only truth. In that, all needs are satisfied,
all cravings end, all hopes are finally fulfilled, and dreams are gone.
Now have I everything that I could need. Now have I everything that I
could want. And now at last I find myself at peace.
2
And for that peace, our FatherMother, we give thanks. What we denied
ourselves You have restored, and only that is what we really want.
Lesson 252
The SonDaughter of God is my Identity.
1
My Self is holy beyond all the thoughts of holiness of which I now
conceive. Its shimmering and perfect purity is far more brilliant than
is any light that I have ever looked upon. Its love is limitless, with
an intensity that holds all things within it in the calm of quiet
certainty. Its strength comes not from burning impulses which move the
world but from the boundless Love of God HimHerself. How far beyond this
world my Self must be, and yet how near to me and close to God!
2
FatherMother, You know my true identity. Reveal it now to me who am Your
SonDaughter, that I may waken to the truth in You and know that the God
Realm is restored to me.
Lesson 253
My Self is rulerruleress of the universe.
1
It is impossible that anything should come to me unbidden by myself.
Even in this world, it is I who rule my destiny. What happens is what I
desire. What does not occur is what I do not want to happen. This must I
accept. For thus am I led past this world to myr creations and
manifestations, children of my Will, in the God Realm where my holy Self
abides with them and HimHer Who has created and manifested me.
2
You are the Self Whom You created and manifested SonDaughter,
creatingmanifesting like Yourself and one with You. My Self, Which rules
the universe, is but Your Will in perfect union with my own, which can
but offer glad assent to Yours that It may be extended to itself.
Lesson 254
Let every voice but God's be still in me.
1
FatherMother, today I would but hear Your Voice. In deepest silence, I
would come to You to hear Your Voice and to receive Your Word. I have no
prayer but this: I come to You to ask You for the truth. And truth is
but Your Will, which I would share with You today.
2
Today we let no evil thoughts direct our words or actions. When such
thoughts occur, we quietly step back and look at them, and then we let
them go. We do not want what they would bring with them. And so we do
not choose to keep them. They are silent now. And in the stillness,
hallowed by HisHer Love, God speaks to us and tells us of our will, as
we have chosen to remember HimHer.
Lesson 255
This day I choose to spend in perfect peace.
1
It does not seem to me that I can choose to have but peace today. And
yet my God assures me that HisHer SonDaughter is like HimHerself. Let me
this day have faith in Her Who says I am God’s SonDaughter. And let the
peace I choose be mine today bear witness to the truth of what She says.
God’s SonDaughter can have no cares and must remain forever in the peace
of the God Realm. In Her name I give today to finding what my
FatherMother wills for me, accepting it as mine and giving it to all my
Father’sMother’s SonDaughters, along with me.
2
And so, my FatherMother, would I pass this day with You. Your
SonDaughter has not forgotten You. The peace You gave himher still is in
hisher mind, and it is there I choose to spend today.
Lesson 256
God is the only goal I have today.
1
The way to God is through forgiveness here. There is no other way. If
sin had not been cherished by the mind, what need would there have been
to find a way to where you are? Who would still be uncertain? Who could
be unsure of who he/she is? And who would yet remain asleep in heavy
clouds of doubt about the holiness of him&her who God created and
manifested sinless? Here we can but dream. But we can dream we have
forgiven himher in whom all sin remains impossible, and it is this we
choose to dream today. God is our goal; forgiveness is the means by
which our minds return to HimHer at last.
2
And so, our FatherMother, would we come to You in Your appointed way. We
have no goal except to hear Your Voice and find the way Your sacred Word
has pointed out to us.
Lesson 257
Let me remember what my purpose is.
1
If I forget my goal, I can be but confused, unsure of what I am and thus
conflicted in my actions. No one can serve contradicting goals and serve
them well. Nor can he/she function without deep distress and great
depression. Let us therefore be determined to remember what we want
today that we may unify our thoughts and actions meaningfully and
achieve only what God would have us do today.
2
FatherMother, forgiveness is Your chosen means for our salvation. Let us
not forget that we can have no will but Yours today. And thus our
purpose must be Yours as well if we would reach the peace You will for
us.
Lesson 258
Let me remember that my goal is God.
1
All that is needful is to train our minds to overlook all little,
senseless aims and to remember that our goal is God. HisHer memory is
hidden in our minds, obscured but by our pointless little goals which
offer nothing and do not exist. Shall we continue to allow God's grace
to shine in unawareness while the toys and trinkets of the world are
sought instead? God is our only goal, our only Love. We have no aim but
to remember HimHer.
2
Our goal is but to follow in the way that leads to You. We have no goal
but this. What could we want but to remember You? What could we seek but
our identity?
Lesson 259
Let me remember that there is no sin.
1
Sin is the only thought that makes the goal of God seem unobtainable.
What else could blind us to the obvious and make the strange and the
distorted seem more clear? What else but sin engenders our attacks? What
else but sin could be the source of guilt, demanding punishment and
suffering? And what but this could be the source of fear, obscuring
God's creation and manifestation, giving love the attributes of fear and
of attack?
2
FatherMother, I would not be insane today. I would not be afraid of love
nor seek for refuge in its opposite. For love can have no opposite. You
are the Source of everything that is. And everything that is remains
with You and You with it.
Lesson 260
Let me remember God created and manifested me.
1
FatherMother, I did not make myself, although in my insanity I thought I
did. Yet as Your Thought, I have not left my Source, remaining part of
What created and manifested me. Your SonDaughter, my FatherMother, calls
on You today. Let me remember You created and manifested me. Let me
remember my Identity. And let my sinlessness arise again before The
Christ Consciousness’/the Mercy Consciousness’ vision, through which I
would look upon my brothers&sisters and myself today.
2
Now is our Source remembered, and therein we find our true Identity at
last. Holy indeed are we because our Source can know no sin. And we who
are HisHer SonDaughters are like each other and alike to HimHer.
What is the body?
1
The body is a fence the SonDaughter of God imagines heshe has built to
separate parts of hisher Self from other parts. It is within this fence,
heshe thinks heshe lives, to die as it decays and crumbles. For within
this fence heshe thinks that heshe is safe from love. Identifying with
hisher safety, heshe regards himselfherself as what hi/her safety is.
How else could heshe be certain heshe remains within the body, keeping
love outside?
2
The body will not stay. Yet this heshe sees as double safety. For the
SonDaughter of God's impermanence is "proof" hisher fences work and do
the task hisher mind assigns to them. For if hisher oneness still
remained untouched, who could attack and who could be attacked? Who
could be victor? Who could be hisher prey? Who could be victim? Who the
murderer? And if heshe did not die, what "proof" is there that God's
eternal SonDaughter can be destroyed?
3
The body is a dream. Like other dreams, it sometimes seems to picture
happiness but can quite suddenly revert to fear, where every dream is
born. For only love creates and manifests in truth, and truth can never
fear. Made to be fearful, must the body serve the purpose given it. But
we can change the purpose which the body will obey by changing what we
think that it is for.
4
The body is the means by which God’s SonDaughter returns to sanity.
Though it was made to fence himher into hell without escape, yet has the
goal of the God Realm been exchanged for the pursuit of hell. The
SonDaughter of God extends hisher hand to reach hisher brother or sister
and to help him&her walk along the road with him. Now is the body
holy. Now it serves to heal the mind that it was made to kill.
5
You will identify with what you think will make you safe. Whatever it
may be, you will believe that it is one with you. Your safety lies in
truth and not in lies. Love is your safety. Fear does not exist.
Identify with love, and you are safe. Identify with love, and you are
home. Identify with love, and find your Self.
Lesson 261
God is my refuge and security.
1
I will identify with what I think is refuge and security. I will behold
myself where I perceive my strength and think I live within the citadel
where I am safe and cannot be attacked. Let me today seek not security
in danger, nor attempt to find my peace in murderous attack. I live in
God. In HimHer I find my refuge and my strength. In HimHer is my
Identity. In HimHer is everlasting peace. And only there will I remember
who I really am.
2
Let me not seek for idols/idolresses. I would come, my FatherMother,
home to You today. I choose to be as You created and manifested me and
find the SonDaughter whom You created and manifested as my Self.
Lesson 262
Let me perceive no differences today.
1
FatherMother, You have one SonDaughter. And it is heshe that I would
look upon today. Heshe is Your one creation and manifestation. Why
should I perceive a thousand forms in what remains as one? Why should I
give this one a thousand names, when only one suffices? For Your
SonDaughter must bear Your Name, for You created and manifested himher.
Let me not see himher as a stranger to hisher FatherMother, nor as
stranger to myself. For heshe is part of me and I of himher, and we are
part of You Who are our Source, eternally united in Your Love, eternally
the holy SonDaughter of God.
2
We who are one would recognize this day the truth about ourselves. We
would come home and rest in unity. For there is peace, and nowhere else
can peace be sought and found.
Lesson 263
My holy vision sees all things as pure.
1
FatherMother, Your Mind created and manifested all that is; Your Spirit
entered into it; Your Love gave life to it. And would I look upon what
You created and manifested as if it could be made sinful? I would not
perceive such dark and fearful images. A madman's or madwoman’s dream is
hardly fit to be my choice instead of all the loveliness with which You
blessed creation and manifestation—all its purity, its joy, and its
eternal, quiet home in You.
2
And while we still remain outside the gate of the God Realm, let us look
on all we see through holy vision and the eyes of the Christ
Consciousness/the Mercy Consciousness. Let all appearances seem pure to
us that we may pass them by in innocence and walk together to our
Father’sMother’s house as brothers&sisters and the holy
SonsDaughters of God.
Lesson 264
I am surrounded by the Love of God.
1
FatherMother, You stand before me and behind, beside me, in the place I
see myself, and everywhere I go. You are in all the things I look upon,
the sounds I hear, and every hand that reaches for my own. In You time
disappears, and place becomes a meaningless belief. For what surrounds
Your SonDaughter and keeps himher safe is Love Itself. There is no
Source but This, and nothing is that does not share Its holiness, that
stands beyond Your one creation and manifestation or without the Love
Which holds all things within Itself. FatherMother, Your SonDaughter is
like Yourself. We come to You in Your own Name today, to be at peace
within Your everlasting Love.
2
My brothers&sisters, join with me in this today. This is
salvation's prayer. Must we not join in what will save the world along
with us?
Lesson 265
Creation'smanifestation’s gentleness is all I see.
1
I have indeed misunderstood the world because I laid my "sins" on it and
saw them looking back at me. How fierce they seemed! And how deceived
was I to think that what I feared was in the world instead of in my mind
alone. Today I see the world in the celestial gentleness with which
creation and manifestation shines. There is no fear in it. Let no
appearance of my "sins" obscure the light of the God Realm, shining on
the world. What is reflected here is in God's Mind. The images I see
reflect my thoughts. Yet is my mind at one with God's. And so I can
perceive creation'smanifestation’s gentleness.
2
In quiet would I look upon the world, which but reflects Your Thoughts
and mine as well. Let me remember that they are the same, and I will see
creation'smanifestation’s gentleness.
Lesson 266
My holy Self abides in you, God’s SonDaughter.
1
FatherMother, You gave me all Your SonsDaughters to be my
saviors/savioresses and my counselors in sight—the bearers of Your holy
Voice to me. In them are You reflected, and in them does the Christ
Consciousness/the Mercy Consciousness look back upon me from my Self.
Let not Your SonDaughter forget Your holy Name. Let not Your SonDaughter
forget hisher holy Source. Let not Your SonDaughter forget Your Name is
his.
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.
How many saviors/savioresses God has given us! How can we lose the way
to HimHer, when HeShe has filled the world with those who point to
HimHer and given us the sight to look on them?
Lesson 267
My heart is beating in the peace of God.
1
Surrounding me is all the life that God created and manifested in HisHer
Love. It calls to me in every heartbeat and in every breath, in every
action and in every thought. Peace fills my heart and floods my body
with the purpose of forgiveness. Now my mind is healed, and all I need
to save the world is given me. Each heartbeat brings me peace; each
breath infuses me with strength. I am a messenger of God, directed by
HisHer Voice, sustained by HimHer in love, and held forever quiet and at
peace within HisHer loving arms. Each heartbeat calls HisHer Name, and
every one is answered by HisHer Voice, assuring me I am at home in
HimHer.
2
Let me attend Your Answer, not my own. FatherMother, my heart is beating
in the peace the Heart of Love created and manifested. It is there and
only there that I can be at home.
Lesson 268
Let all things be exactly as they are.
1
Let me not be Your critic, LordLady, today, and judge against You. Let
me not attempt to interfere with Your creation and manifestation and
distort it into sickly forms. Let me be willing to withdraw my wishes
from its unity and thus to let it be as You created and manifested it.
For thus will I be able, too, to recognize my Self as You created and
manifested me. In Love was I created and manifested, and in Love will I
remain forever. What can frighten me when I let all things be exactly as
they are?
2
Let not our sight be blasphemous today nor let our ears attend to lying
tongues. Only reality is free of pain. Only reality is free of loss.
Only reality is wholly safe. And it is only this we seek today.
Lesson 269
My sight goes forth to look upon The Christ Consciousness’/the Mercy
Consciousness’ face.
1
I ask Your blessing on my sight today. It is the means which You have
chosen to become the way to show me my mistakes and look beyond them. It
is given me to find a new perception through the Guide You gave to me
and through Her lessons to surpass perception and return to truth. I ask
for the illusion which transcends all those I made. Today I choose to
see a world forgiven in which everyone shows me the face of the Christ
Consciousness/the Mercy Consciousness and teaches me that what I look
upon belongs to me, that nothing is except Your holy SonDaughter.
2
Today our sight is blessed indeed. We share one vision as we look upon
the face of himher whose Self is ours. We are one because of himher who
is the SonDaughter of God, of himher who is our own Identity.
Lesson 270
I will not use the body's eyes today.
1
FatherMother, The Christ Consciousness’/the Mercy Consciousness’ vision
is Your gift to me, and it has power to translate all that the body's
eyes behold into the sight of a forgiven world. How glorious and
gracious is this world! Yet how much more will I perceive in it than
sight can give. The world forgiven signifies Your SonDaughter
acknowledges hisher FatherMother, lets hisher dreams be brought to
truth, and waits expectantly the one remaining instant more of time,
which ends forever as Your memory returns to himher. And now hisher will
is one with Yours. Hisher function now is but Your own, and every
thought except Your own is gone.
2
The quiet of today will bless our hearts, and through them peace will
come to everyone. The Christ Consciousness/the Mercy Consciousness is
our eyes today. And through Her sight, we offer healing to the world
through Her, the holy SonDaughter whom God created and manifested whole,
the holy SonDaughter whom God created and manifested one.
What is the Christ?
1 The Christ Consciousness/the Mercy Consciousness is God’s
Daughter as HeShe created and manifested Her. She is the Self we share,
uniting us with one another and with God as well. She is the Thought Which
still abides within the Mind That is Her Source. She has not left Her holy
home nor lost the innocence in which She was created and manifested. She
abides unchanged forever in the Mind of God.
2 The Christ Consciousness/the Mercy Consciousness is the link
that keeps you one with God and guarantees that separation is no more than
an illusion of despair. For hope forever will abide in Her. Your mind is
part of Hers and Hers of yours. She is the part in which God's Answer
lies, where all decisions are already made and dreams are over. She
remains untouched by anything the body's eyes perceive. For though in Her,
Her FatherMother placed the means for your salvation, yet does She remain
the Self Who, like Her FatherMother, knows no sin.
3 Home of the Holy Spirit and at home in God alone, does the
Christ Consciousness/the Mercy Consciousness remain at peace within the
God Realm of your holy mind. This is the only part of you that has reality
in truth. The rest is dreams. Yet will these dreams be given unto the
Christ Consciousness/the Mercy Consciousness to fade before Her glory and
reveal your holy Self, the Christ Consciousness/the Mercy Consciousness,
to you at last.
4 The Holy Spirit reaches from the Christ Consciousness/the
Mercy Consciousness in you to all your dreams and bids them come to Her to
be translated into truth. She will exchange them for the final dream which
God appointed as the end of dreams. For when forgiveness rests upon the
world and peace has come to every SonDaughter of God, what could remain to
keep things separate, for what remains to see except The Face of Christ
Consciousness/the Mercy Consciousness face?
5 And how long will this holy face be seen, when it is but the
symbol that the time for learning now is over and the goal of the
Atonement has been reached at last? So therefore let us seek to find the
face of the Christ Consciousness/the Mercy Consciousness and look on
nothing else. As we behold Her glory will we know we have no need of
learning or perception or of time, or anything except the holy Self, the
Christ Consciousness/the Mercy Consciousness Whom God created and
manifested as HisHer Daughter.
Lesson 271
The Christ Consciousness/the Mercy Consciousness is the vision I will use
today.
1 Each day, each hour, every instant, I am choosing what I want
to look upon, the sounds I want to hear, the witnesses to what I want to
be the truth for me. Today I choose to look upon what the Christ
Consciousness/the Mercy Consciousness would have me see, to listen to
God's Voice, and seek the witnesses to what is true in God's creation and
manifestation. In the sight of the Christ Consciousness/the Mercy
Consciousness, the world and God's creation and manifestation meet, and as
they come together, all perception disappears. Her kindly sight redeems
the world from death. For nothing that She looks on but must live,
remembering the FatherMother and the SonDaughter; CreatorManifestoress and
creation and manifestation unified.
2 FatherMother, the Christ Consciousness’/the Mercy
Consciousness's vision is the way to You. What She beholds invites Your
memory to be restored to me. And this I choose to be what I would look
upon today.
Lesson 272
How can illusions satisfy God’s SonDaughter?
1
FatherMother, the truth belongs to me. My home is set in the God Realm
by Your Will and mine. Can dreams content me? Can illusions bring me
happiness? What but Your memory can satisfy Your SonDaughter? I will
accept no less than You have given me. I am surrounded by Your Love,
forever still, forever gentle, and forever safe. God’s SonDaughter must
be as You created and manifested himher.
2
Today we pass illusions by. And if we hear temptation call to us to stay
and linger in a dream, we turn aside and ask ourselves if we, the
SonDaughters of God, could be content with dreams when the God Realm can
be chosen just as easily as hell and love will happily replace all fear.
Lesson 273
The stillness of the peace of God is mine.
1
Perhaps we are now ready for a day of undisturbed tranquility. If this
is not yet feasible, we are content and even more than satisfied to
learn how such a day can be achieved. If we give way to a disturbance,
let us learn how to dismiss it and return to peace. We need but tell our
minds with certainty, "The stillness of the peace of God is mine," and
nothing can intrude upon the peace that God HimHerself has given to
HisHer SonDaughter.
2
FatherMother, Your peace is mine. What need have I to fear that anything
can rob me of what You would have me keep? I cannot lose Your gifts to
me. And so the peace You gave Your SonDaughter is with me still, in
quietness and in my own eternal love for You.
Lesson 274
Today belongs to Love. Let me not fear.
1
FatherMother, today I would let all things be as You created and
manifested them and give Your SonDaughter the honor due hisher
sinlessness, the love of brother or sister to his/her brother or sister
and his/her friend. Through this I am redeemed. Through this as well the
truth will enter where illusions were, light will replace all darkness,
and Your SonDaughter will know heshe is as You created and manifested
him.
2
A special blessing comes to us today from HimHer Who is our
FatherMother. Give this day to HimHer and there will be no fear today
because the day is given unto Love.
Lesson 275
God's healing Voice protects all things today.
1
Let us today attend the Voice of God, Which speaks an ancient lesson, no
more true today than any other day. Yet has this day been chosen as the
time when we will seek and hear and learn and understand. Join me in
hearing. For the Voice of God tells us of things we cannot understand
alone, nor learn apart. It is in this that all things are protected. And
in this the healing of the Voice of God is found.
2
Your healing Voice protects all things today, and so I leave all things
to You. I need be anxious over nothing. 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. The safety that I bring
is given me. FatherMother, Your Voice protects all things through me.
Lesson 276
The Word of God is given me to speak.
1
What is the Word of God? "Our SonDaughter is pure and holy as Ourself."
And thus did God become the FatherMother of the SonDaughter HeShe loves,
for thus was heshe created and manifested. This the Word HisHer
SonDaughter did not create and manifest with HimHer because in this
HisHer SonDaughter was born. Let us accept HisHer FatherhoodMotherhood
and all is given us. Deny we were created and manifested in HisHer Love,
and we deny our Self, to be unsure of who we are, of who our
FatherMother is, and for what purpose we have come. And yet we need but
to acknowledge HimHer Who gave HisHer Word to us in our creation and
manifestation, to remember HimHer and so recall our Self.
2
FatherMother, Your Word is mine. And it is this that I would speak to
all my brothers&sisters , who are given me to cherish as my
own, as I am loved and blessed and saved by You.
Lesson 277
Let me not bind Your SonDaughter with laws I made.
1
Your SonDaughter is free, my FatherMother. Let me not imagine I have
bound him&her with the laws I made to rule the body. he/she is not
subject to any laws I made by which I try to make the body more secure.
he/she is not changed by what is changeable. he/she is not slave to any
laws of time. HeShe is as You created and manifested him&her because
he/she knows no laws except the Law of Love.
2
Let us not worship idols/idolresses, nor believe in any laws idolatry
would make to hide the freedom of the SonDaughter of God. he/she is not
bound except by his/her beliefs. Yet what he/she is is far beyond
his/her faith in slavery or freedom. HeShe is free because he/she is
his/her Father’sMother’s SonDaughter. And he/she can not be bound unless
God's Truth can lie and God can will that he/she deceive
himself/herself.
Lesson 278
If I am bound, my FatherMother is not free.
1
If I accept that I am prisoner within a body in a world in which all
things that seem to live appear to die, then is my FatherMother prisoner
with me. And this do I believe when I maintain the laws the world obeys
must I obey—the frailties and the sins which I perceive are real and
cannot be escaped. If I am bound in any way, I do not know my
FatherMother or my Self. And I am lost to all reality. For truth is
free, and what is bound is not a part of truth.
2
FatherMother, I ask for nothing but the truth. I have had many foolish
thoughts about myself and my creation and manifestation and have brought
a dream of fear into my mind. Today I would not dream. I choose the way
to You instead of madness and instead of fear. For truth is safe and
only love is sure.
Lesson 279
Creation'smanifestation’s freedom promises my own.
1
The end of dreams is promised me because God’s SonDaughter is not
abandoned by hisher Love. Only in dreams is there a time when heshe
appears to be in prison and awaits a future freedom if it be at all. Yet
in reality hisher dreams are gone, with truth established in their
place. And now is freedom hisher already. Should I wait in chains which
have been severed for release, when God is offering me freedom now?
2
I will accept Your promises today and give my faith to them. My
FatherMother loves the SonDaughter Whom HeShe created and manifested as
HisHer own. Would You withhold the gifts You gave to me?
Lesson 280
What limits can I lay upon God’s SonDaughter?
1
Whom God created and manifested limitless is free. I can invent
imprisonment for himher, but only in illusions, not in truth. No Thought
of God has left its Father’sMother’s Mind. No Thought of God is limited
at all. No Thought of God but is forever pure. Can I lay limits on the
SonDaughter of God, whose FatherMother willed that heshe be limitless
and like HimHerself in freedom and in love?
2
Today let me give honor to Your SonDaughter, for thus alone I find the
way to You. FatherMother, I lay no limits on the SonDaughter You love
and You created and manifested limitless. The honor that I give to
himher is Yours, and what is Yours belongs to me as well.
What is the holy spirit?
1The
Holy Spirit mediates between illusions and the truth. As She must bridge
the gap between reality and dreams, perception leads to knowledge
through the grace that God has given Her, to be HisHer gift to everyone
who turns to HimHer for truth. Across the bridge that She provides are
dreams all carried to the truth, to be dispelled before the light of
knowledge. There are sights and sounds forever laid aside. And where
they were perceived before, forgiveness has made possible perception's
tranquil end.
2
The goal the Holy Spirit's teaching sets is just this end of dreams. For
sights and sounds must be translated from the witnesses of fear to those
of love. And when this is entirely accomplished, learning has achieved
the only goal it has in truth. For learning, as the Holy Spirit guides
it to the outcome She perceives for it, becomes the means to go beyond
itself, to be replaced by the Eternal Truth.
3
If you but knew how much your FatherMother yearns to have you recognize
your sinlessness, you would not let HisHer Voice appeal in vain nor turn
away from HisHer replacement for the fearful images and dreams you made.
The Holy Spirit understands the means you made, by which you would
attain what is forever unattainable. And if you offer them to Her, She
will employ the means you made for exile to restore your mind to where
it truly is at home.
4
From knowledge, where She has been placed by God, the Holy Spirit calls
to you to let forgiveness rest upon your dreams and be restored to
sanity and peace of mind. Without forgiveness will your dreams remain to
terrify you. And the memory of all your Father’sMother’s Love will not
return to signify the end of dreams has come.
5
Accept your Father’sMother’s gift. It is a call from Love to Love that
it be but itself. The Holy Spirit is HisHer gift by Which the quietness
of the God Realm is restored to God's beloved SonDaughter. Would you
refuse to take the function of completing God when all HeShe wills is
that you be complete?
Lesson 281
I can be hurt by nothing but my thoughts.
1
FatherMother, Your SonDaughter is perfect. When heshe thinks that heshe
is hurt in any way, it is because heshe has forgotten who heshe is. And
that heshe is as You created and manifested himher. Your Thoughts can
only bring me happiness. If ever I am sad or hurt or ill, I have
forgotten what You think and put my little, meaningless ideas in place
of where Your Thoughts belong and where They are. I can be hurt by
nothing but my thoughts. The Thoughts I think with You can only bless.
The Thoughts I think with You alone are true.
2
I will not hurt myself today. For I am far beyond all pain. My
FatherMother placed me safe in the God Realm, watching over me. And I
would not attack the SonDaughter HeShe loves, for what HeShe loves is
mine to love as well.
Lesson 282
I will not be afraid of love today.
1
If I could realize but this today, salvation would be reached for all
the world. This the decision not to be insane and to accept myself as
God HimHerself, my FatherMother and my Source, created and manifested
me. This the determination not to be asleep in dreams of death while
truth remains forever living in the joy of life. And this the choice to
recognize the Self Whom God created and manifested as the SonDaughter
HeShe loves and Who remains my one Reality.
2
FatherMother, Your Name is Love, and so is mine. Such is the truth. And
can the truth be changed by merely giving it another name? The name of
fear is simply a mistake. Let me not be afraid of truth today.
Lesson 283
My true Identity abides in You.
1
FatherMother, I made an image of myself, and it is this I call the
SonDaughter of God. Yet is creation and manifestation as it always was,
for Your creation and manifestation is unchangeable. Let me not worship
idols/idolresses. I am heshe my FatherMother loves. Hisher holiness
remains the light of the God Realm and the Love of God. Is not what is
beloved of You secure? Is not the light of the God Realm infinite? Is
not Your SonDaughter my true Identity, when You created and manifested
everything that is?
2
Now are we one in shared identity, with God our FatherMother as our only
Source and everything created and manifested part of us. And so we offer
blessing to all things, uniting lovingly with all the world, which our
forgiveness has made one with us.
Lesson 284
I can elect to change all thoughts that hurt.
1
Loss is not loss when properly perceived. Pain is impossible. There is
no grief with any cause at all. And suffering of any kind is nothing but
a dream. Such is the truth—at first to be but said and then repeated
many times and next to be accepted as but partly true with many
reservations. Then to be considered seriously more and more, and finally
accepted as the truth. I can elect to change all thoughts that hurt. And
I would go beyond these words today, go past all reservations, and
arrive at full acceptance of the truth in them.
2
FatherMother, what You have given cannot hurt, and grief and pain must
be impossible. 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
My holiness shines bright and clear today.
1
Today I wake with joy, expecting but the happy things of God to come to
me. I ask but them to come and realize my invitation will be answered by
the thoughts to which it has been sent by me. And I will ask for only
joyous things the instant I accept my holiness. For what would be the
use of pain to me, what purpose would my suffering fulfill, and how
would grief and loss avail me, if insanity departs from me today and I
accept my holiness instead?
2
FatherMother, my holiness is Yours. Let me rejoice in it and through
forgiveness be restored to sanity. Your SonDaughter is still as You
created and manifested him. My holiness is part of me and also part of
You. And what can alter Holiness Itself?
Lesson 286
The hush of the God Realm holds my heart today.
1
FatherMother, how still today! How quietly do all things fall in place!
This is the day that has been chosen as the time in which I come to
understand the lesson that there is no need that I do anything. In You
is every choice already made. In You has every conflict been resolved.
In You is everything I hope to find already given me. Your peace is
mine. My heart is quiet and my mind at rest. Your Love is the God Realm,
and Your Love is mine.
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. Today we will not doubt
the end which God HimHerself has promised us. We trust in HimHer and in
our Self, Who still is one with HimHer.
Lesson 287
You are my goal, my FatherMother. Only You.
1
Where would I go but the God Realm? What could be a substitute for
happiness? What gift could I prefer before the peace of God? What
treasure would I seek and find and keep that can compare with my
identity? And would I rather live with fear than love?
2
You are my goal, my FatherMother. What but You could I desire to have?
What way but that which leads to You could I desire to walk? And what
except the memory of You could signify to me the end of dreams and
futile substitutions for the truth? You are my only goal. Your
SonDaughter would be as You created and manifested him. What way but
this could I expect to recognize my Self and be at one with my Identity?
Lesson 288
Let me forget my brother’s and sister’s past today.
1
This is the thought that leads the way to You and brings me to my goal.
I cannot come to You without my brother or sister. And to know my
Source, I first must recognize what You created and manifested one with
me. My brother’s and sister’s is the hand that leads me on the way to
You. HisHer sins are in the past along with mine. And I am saved because
the past is gone. Let me not cherish it within my heart or I will lose
the way to walk to You. My brother or sister is my savior. Let me not
attack the saviors/savioresses You have given me. But let me
honor him&her who bears Your Name and so remember that It is my own.
2
Forgive me, then, today. And you will know you have forgiven me if you
behold your brother or sister in the light of holiness. he/she cannot be
less holy than can I, and you cannot be holier than he/she.
Lesson 289
The past is over. It can touch me not.
1
Unless the past is over in my mind, the real world must escape my sight.
For I am really looking nowhere, seeing but what is not there. How can I
then perceive the world forgiveness offers? This the past was made to
hide, for this the world that can be looked on only now. It has no past.
For what can be forgiven but the past, and if it is forgiven, it is
gone.
2
FatherMother, let me not look upon a past that is not there. For You
have offered me Your own replacement in a present world the past has
left untouched and free of sin. Here is the end of guilt. And here am I
made ready for Your final step. Shall I demand that You wait longer for
Your SonDaughter to find the loveliness You planned to be the end of all
hisher dreams and all hisher pain?
Lesson 290
My present happiness is all I see.
1
Unless I look upon what is not there, my present happiness is all I see.
Eyes that begin to open see at last. And I would have the Christ
Consciousness’/the Mercy Consciousness’ vision come to me this very day.
What I perceive without God's own correction for the sight I made is
frightening and painful to behold. Yet I would not allow my mind to be
deceived by the belief the dream I made is real an instant longer. This
the day I seek my present happiness and look on nothing else except the
thing I seek.
2
With this resolve, I come to You and ask Your strength to hold me up
today while I but do Your Will. You cannot fail to hear me,
FatherMother. What I ask have You already given me, and I am sure that I
will see my happiness today.
What is the real world?
1
The real world is a symbol like the rest of what perception offers. Yet
it stands for what is opposite to what you made. Your world is seen
through eyes of fear and brings the witnesses of terror to your mind.
The real world cannot be perceived except through eyes forgiveness
blesses, so they see a world where terror is impossible and witnesses to
fear can not be found.
2
The real world holds a counterpart for each unhappy thought reflected in
your world, a sure correction for the sights of fear and sounds of
battle which your world contains. The real world shows a world seen
differently, through quiet eyes and with a mind at peace. Nothing but
rest is there. There are no cries of pain and sorrow heard, for nothing
here remains outside forgiveness. And the sights are gentle. Only happy
sights and sounds can reach the mind that has forgiven itself.
3
What need has such a mind for thoughts of death, attack, and murder?
What can it perceive surrounding it but safety, love, and joy? What is
there it would choose to be condemned, and what is there that it would
judge against? The world it sees arises from a mind at peace within
itself. No danger lurks in anything it sees, for it is kind and only
kindness does it look upon.
4
The real world is the symbol that the dream of sin and guilt is over and
God’s SonDaughter no longer sleeps. HisHer waking eyes perceive the sure
reflection of hisher Father’sMother’s Love, the certain promise that
heshe is redeemed. The real world signifies the end of time, for its
perception makes time purposeless.
5
The Holy Spirit has no need of time when it has served Her purpose. Now
She waits but that one instant more for God to take HisHer final step,
and time has disappeared, taking perception with it as it goes and
leaving but the Truth to be Itself. That instant is our goal, for it
contains the memory of God. And as we look upon a world forgiven, it is
She Who calls to us and comes to take us home, reminding us of our
Identity which our forgiveness has restored to us.
Lesson 291
This is a day of stillness and of peace.
1
The Christ Consciousness’/the Mercy Consciousness’ vision looks through
me today. Her sight shows me all things forgiven and at peace and offers
this same vision to the world. And I accept this vision in its name,
both for myself and for the world as well. What loveliness we look upon
today! What holiness we see surrounding us! And it is given us to
recognize it is a holiness in which we share; it is the Holiness of God
HimHerself.
2
This day my mind is quiet to receive the Thoughts You offer me. And I
accept what comes from You instead of from myself. I do not know the way
to You. But You are wholly certain. FatherMother, lead Your SonDaughter
along the quiet path that ends in You. Let my forgiveness be complete,
and let the memory of You return to me.
Lesson 292
A happy outcome to all things is sure.
1
God's promises make no exceptions. And HeShe guarantees that only joy
can be the final outcome found for everything. Yet it is up to us when
this is reached—how long we let an alien will appear to be opposing
HisHers. And while we think this will is real, we will not find the end
HeShe has appointed as the outcome of all problems we perceive, all
trials we see, and every situation that we meet. Yet is the ending
certain. For God's Will is done in earth and the God Realm. We will seek
and we will find according to HisHer Will, which guarantees that our
will is done.
2
We thank You, FatherMother, for Your guarantee of only happy outcomes in
the end. 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
All fear is past, and only love is here.
1
All fear is past because its source is gone and all its thoughts gone
with it. Love remains the only present state, whose Source is here
forever and forever. Can the world seem bright and clear and safe and
welcoming with all my past mistakes oppressing it and showing me
distorted forms of pain? Yet in the present, love is obvious and its
effects apparent. All the world shines in reflection of its holy light,
and I perceive a world forgiven at last.
2
FatherMother, let not Your holy world escape my sight today. Nor let my
ears be deaf to all the hymns of gratitude the world is singing
underneath the sounds of fear. There is a real world which the present
holds safe from all past mistakes. And I would see only this world
before my eyes today.
Lesson 294
My body is a wholly neutral thing.
1
I am a SonDaughter of God. And can I be another thing as well? Did God
create and manifest the mortal and corruptible? What use has God's
beloved SonDaughter for what must die? And yet a neutral thing does not
see death, for thoughts of fear are not invested there, nor is a mockery
of love bestowed upon it. Its neutrality protects it while it has a use.
And afterwards, without a purpose, it is laid aside. It is not sick or
old or hurt. It is but functionless, unneeded and cast off. Let me not
see it more than this today—of service for a while and fit to serve, to
keep its usefulness while it can serve, and then to be replaced for
greater good.
2
My body, FatherMother, cannot be Your SonDaughter. And what is not
created and manifested cannot be sinful or sinless, neither good nor
bad. Let me, then, use this dream to help Your plan that we awaken from
all dreams we made.
Lesson 295
The Holy Spirit looks through me today.
1
The Christ Consciousness/the Mercy Consciousness asks that She may use
my eyes today and thus redeem the world. She asks this gift that She may
offer peace of mind to me and take away all terror and all pain. And as
they are removed from me, the dreams that seemed to settle on the world
are gone. Redemption must be one. As I am saved, the world is saved with
me. For all of us must be redeemed together. Fear appears in many
different forms, but love is one.
2
My FatherMother, the Christ Consciousness/the Mercy Consciousness has
asked a gift of me, and one I give that it be given me. Help me to use
the eyes of the Christ Consciousness/the Mercy Consciousness today and
thus allow the Holy Spirit's Love to bless all things that I may look
upon, that Her forgiving Love may rest on me.
Lesson 296
The Holy Spirit speaks through me today.
1
The Holy Spirit needs my voice today, that all the world may listen to
Your Voice and hear Your Word through me. I am resolved to let You speak
through me, for I would use no words but Yours and have no thoughts
which are apart from Yours, for only Yours are true. I would be
saviors/savioresses to the world I made. For having damned it, I
would set it free that I may find escape and hear the Word Your holy
Voice will speak to me today.
2
We teach today what we would learn and that alone. And so our learning
goal becomes an unconflicted one and possible of easy reach and quick
accomplishment. How gladly does the Holy Spirit come to rescue us from
hell when we allow Her 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.
1
Forgiveness is the only gift I give because it is the only gift I want,
and everything I give I give myself. This is salvation's simple formula.
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.
2
FatherMother, how certain are Your ways, how sure their outcome, and how
truly faithful is every step in my salvation set already and
accomplished by Your grace. Thanks be to You for Your eternal gifts, and
thanks to You for my identity.
Lesson 298
I love You, FatherMother, and I love Your SonDaughter.
1
My gratitude permits my love to be accepted without fear. And thus am I
restored to my Reality at last. All that intruded on my holy sight
forgiveness takes away. And I draw near the end of senseless journeys,
mad careers, and artificial values. I accept instead what God
establishes as mine, sure that in that alone I will be saved, sure that
I go through fear to meet my Love.
2
FatherMother, I come to You today, because I would not follow any way
but Yours. You are beside me. Certain is Your way. And I am grateful for
Your holy gifts of certain sanctuary and escape from everything that
would obscure my love for God, my FatherMother, and HisHer holy
SonDaughter.
Lesson 299
Eternal holiness abides in me.
1
My holiness is far beyond my own ability to understand or know. Yet God
my FatherMother, Who created and manifested it, acknowledges my holiness
as HisHers. Our Will together understands it. And our Will together
knows that it is so.
2
FatherMother, my holiness is not of me. It is not mine to be destroyed
by sin. It is not mine to suffer from attack. Illusions can obscure it
but cannot put out its radiance nor dim its light. It stands forever
perfect and untouched. In it are all things healed, for they remain as
You created and manifested them. And I can know my holiness. For
Holiness Itself created and manifested me, and I can know my Source
because it is Your Will that You be known.
Lesson 300
Only an instant does this world endure.
1
This is the thought that 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. 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. And it is this serenity we
seek, unclouded, obvious, and sure today.
2
We seek Your holy world today. For we, Your loving SonDaughters, have
lost our way a while. But we have listened to Your Voice and learned
exactly what to do to be restored to the God Realm and our true
identity. And we give thanks today the world endures but for an instant.
We would go beyond that tiny instant to eternity.
What is the second coming?
1
The Christ Consciousness’/the Mercy Consciousness’ Second Coming, which
is sure as God, is merely the correction of mistakes and the return of
sanity. It is a part of the condition which restores the never lost and
re-establishes what is forever and forever true. It is the invitation to
God's Word to take illusion's place, the willingness to let forgiveness
rest upon all things without exception and without reserve.
2
It is the all-inclusive nature of the Christ Consciousness’/the Mercy
Consciousness’ Second Coming that permits it to embrace the world and
hold you safe within its gentle advent, which encompasses all living
things with you. There is no end to the release the Second Coming
brings, as God's creation and manifestation must be limitless.
Forgiveness lights the Second Coming's way because it shines on everyone
as one.
3
The Second Coming ends the lessons which the Holy Spirit teaches, making
way for the Last Judgment, in which learning ends in one last summary
that will extend beyond itself and reaches up to God. The Second Coming
is the time in which all minds are given to the hands of the Christ
Consciousness/the Mercy Consciousness, to be returned to Spirit in the
name of true creation and manifestation and the Will of God.
4
The Second Coming is the one event in time which time itself cannot
affect. For everyone who ever came to die or yet will come or who is
present now is equally released from what he/she made. In this equality
is the Christ Consciousness/the Mercy Consciousness restored as one
identity, in which all SonDaughters of God acknowledge that they all are
one. And God the FatherMother smiles upon HisHer SonDaughter, HisHer one
creation and manifestation and HisHer only joy.
5
Pray that this Second Coming will be soon, but do not rest with that. It
needs your eyes and ears and hands and feet. It needs your voice. And
most of all it needs your willingness. Let us rejoice that we can do
God's Will and join together in its holy light. Behold, the SonDaughter
of God is one in us, and we can reach our Father’sMother’s Love through
him&her.
Lesson 301
And God HimHerself shall wipe away all tears.
1
FatherMother, unless I judge I cannot weep. Nor can I suffer pain or
feel I am abandoned and unneeded in the world. This is my home because I
judge it not. And therefore is it only what You will. Let me today
behold it uncondemned through happy eyes forgiveness has released from
all distortion. Let me see Your world instead of mine. And all the tears
I shed will be forgotten, for their source is gone. FatherMother, I will
not judge Your world today.
2
God's world is happy. Those who look on it can only add their joy to it
and bless it as a cause of further joy in them. We wept because we did
not understand. But we have learned the world we saw was false, and we
will look upon God's world today.
Lesson 302
Where darkness was, I look upon the light.
1
FatherMother, our eyes are opening at last. Your holy world awaits us,
as our sight is finally restored and we can see. We thought we suffered.
But we had forgot the SonDaughter whom You created and manifested. Now
we see that darkness is our own imagining and light is there for us to
look upon. The Christ Consciousness’/the Mercy Consciousness’ vision
changes darkness into light, for fear must disappear when love has come.
Let me forgive Your holy world today that I may look upon its holiness
and understand it but reflects my own.
2
Our Love awaits us as we go to HimHer and walks beside us, showing us
the way. HeShe fails in nothing. HeShe the end we seek, and HeShe the
means by which we come to HimHer.
Lesson 303
The holy the Christ Consciousness/the Mercy Consciousness is born in me
today.
1
Watch with me, angels; watch with me today. Let all God's holy Thoughts
surround me and be still with me while the God Realm's SonDaughter is
born. Let earthly sounds be quiet and the sights to which I am
accustomed disappear. Let the Christ Consciousness/the Mercy
Consciousness be welcomed where She is at home, and let Her hear the
sounds She understands and see but sights which show Her
Father’sMother’s Love. Let Her no longer be a stranger here, for She is
born again in me today.
2
Your SonDaughter is welcome, FatherMother. Heshe has come to save me
from the evil self I made. Heshe is the Self that You have given me.
Heshe is but what I really am in truth. Heshe is the SonDaughter You
love above all things. HeShe is my Self as You created and manifested
me. It is not the Christ Consciousness/the Mercy Consciousness that can
be crucified. Into Your world let me receive Your SonDaughter.
Lesson 304
Let not my world obscure the sight of the Christ Consciousness/the Mercy
Consciousness.
1
I can obscure my holy sight if I intrude my world upon it. Nor can I
behold the holy sights the Christ Consciousness/the Mercy Consciousness
looks upon unless it is Her vision that I use. Perception is a mirror,
not a fact. And what I look on is my state of mind reflected outward. I
would bless the world by looking on it through the eyes of the Christ
Consciousness/the Mercy Consciousness. And I will look upon the certain
signs that all my sins have been forgiven me.
2
You lead me from the darkness to the light, from sin to holiness. Let me
forgive and thus receive salvation for the world. It is Your gift, my
FatherMother, given me to offer to Your holy SonDaughter that heshe may
find again the memory of You and of Your SonDaughter as You created and
manifested him.
Lesson 305
There is a peace that the Christ Consciousness/the Mercy Consciousness
bestows on us.
1
Who uses but the Christ Consciousness’/the Mercy Consciousness’ vision
finds a peace so deep and quiet, undisturbable and wholly changeless
that the world contains no counterpart. Comparisons are still before
this peace. And all the world departs in silence as this peace envelops
it and gently carries it to truth, no more to be the home of fear. For
Love has come and healed the world by giving it the Christ
Consciousness’/the Mercy Consciousness’ peace.
2
FatherMother, the peace of the Christ Consciousness/the Mercy
Consciousness is given us because it is Your Will that we be saved. Help
us today but to accept Your gift and judge it not. For it has come to us
to save us from our judgment on ourselves.
Lesson 306
The gift of the Christ Consciousness/the Mercy Consciousness is all I seek
today.
1
What but the Christ Consciousness’/the Mercy Consciousness’ vision would
I use today when it can offer me a day in which I see a world so like to
the God Realm that an ancient memory returns to me? Today I can forget
the world I made. Today I can go past all fear and be restored to love
and holiness and peace. Today I am redeemed and born anew into a world
of mercy and of care; of loving kindness and the peace of God.
2
And so, our FatherMother, we return to You, remembering we never went
away, remembering Your holy gifts to us. In gratitude and thankfulness,
we come, with empty hands and open hearts and minds, asking but what You
give. We cannot make an offering sufficient for Your SonDaughter. But in
Your Love the gift of the Christ Consciousness/the Mercy Consciousness
is hisher.
Lesson 307
Conflicting wishes cannot be my will.
1
FatherMother, Your Will is mine, and only that. There is no other will
for me to have. Let me not try to make another will, for it is senseless
and will cause me pain. Your Will alone can bring me happiness, and only
Yours exists. If I would have what only You can give, I must accept Your
Will for me and enter into peace, where conflict is impossible. Your
SonDaughter is one with You in being and in will, and nothing
contradicts the holy truth that I remain as You created and manifested
me.
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 but one.
Lesson 308
This instant is the only time there is.
1
I have conceived of time in such a way that I defeat my aim. If I elect
to reach past time to timelessness, I must change my perception of what
time is for. Time's purpose cannot be to keep the past and future one.
The only interval in which I can be saved from time is now. For in this
instant has forgiveness come to set me free. The birth of the Christ
Consciousness/the Mercy Consciousness is now, without a past or future.
She has come to give Her present blessing to the world, restoring it to
timelessness and love. And love is ever-present, here and now.
2
Thanks for this instant, FatherMother. It is now I am redeemed. This
instant is the time You have appointed for Your Son’sDaughter’s release
and for salvation of the world in him.
Lesson 309
I will not fear to look within today.
1
Within me is eternal innocence because it is God's Will that it be there
forever and forever. I, HisHer SonDaughter, whose will is limitless as
is HisHer own, can will no change in this. For to deny my
Father’sMother’s Will is to deny my own. To look within is but to find
my will as God created and manifested it and as it is. I fear to look
within because I think I made another will which is not true and made it
real. Yet it has no effects. Within me is the holiness of God. Within me
is the memory of HimHer.
2
The step I take today, my FatherMother, is my sure release from idle
dreams of sin. Your altar stands serene and undefiled. It is the holy
altar to my Self, and there I find my true identity.
Lesson 310
In fearlessness and love I spend today.
1
This day, my FatherMother, would I spend with You, as You have chosen
all my days should be. And what I will experience is not of time at all.
The joy that comes to me is not of days nor hours, for it comes from the
God Realm to Your SonDaughter. This day will be Your sweet reminder to
remember You, Your gracious calling to Your holy SonDaughter, the sign
Your grace has come to me, and that it is Your Will that I be free
today.
2
We spend this day together, You and I. And all the world joins with us
in our Song of thankfulness and joy to HimHer Who gave salvation to us,
and Who set us free. We are restored to peace and holiness. There is no
room in us for fear today, for we have welcomed love into our hearts.
What is the last judgment?
1
The Christ Consciousness’/the Mercy Consciousness’ Second Coming gives
the SonDaughter of God the gift to hear the Voice for God proclaim that
what is false is false and what is true has never changed. And this the
judgment is in which perception ends. At first you see a world which has
accepted this as true, projected from a now corrected mind. And with
this holy sight, perception gives a silent blessing and then disappears,
its goal accomplished and its mission done.
2
The final judgment on the world contains no condemnation. For it sees
the world as totally forgiven, without sin and wholly purposeless.
Without a cause and now without a function in the Christ
Consciousness’/the Mercy Consciousness’ sight, it merely slips away to
nothingness. There it was born, and there it ends as well. And all the
figures in the dream in which the world began go with it. Bodies now are
useless and will therefore fade away because the SonDaughter of God is
limitless.
3
You who believed that God's Last Judgment would condemn the world to
hell along with you, accept this holy truth: God's Judgment is the gift
of the correction HeShe bestowed on all your errors, freeing you from
them and all effects they ever seemed to have. To fear God's saving
grace is but to fear complete release from suffering, return to peace,
security and happiness, and union with your own Identity.
4
God's Final Judgment is as merciful as every step in HisHer appointed
plan to bless HisHer SonDaughter and call him&her to return to the
eternal peace HeShe shares with him. Be not afraid of love. For it alone
can heal all sorrow, wipe away all tears, and gently waken from hisher
dream of pain the SonDaughter whom God acknowledges as His. Be not
afraid of this. Salvation asks you give it welcome. And the world awaits
your glad acceptance, which will set it free.
5
This is God's Final Judgment: "You are still Our
holy SonDaughter, forever innocent, forever loving and forever loved, as
limitless as your CreatorManifestoress and completely changeless and
forever pure. Therefore awaken and return to Us.
We are
your FatherMother and you are Our
SonDaughter."
Lesson 311
I judge all things as I would have them be.
1
Judgment was made to be a weapon used against the truth. It separates
what it is being used against and sets it off as if it were a thing
apart. And then it makes of it what you would have it be. It judges what
it cannot understand because it cannot see totality and therefore judges
falsely. Let us not use it today but make a gift of it to Her Who has a
different use for it. She will relieve you of the agony of all the
judgments you have made against yourself and re-establish peace of mind
by giving you God's Judgment of HisHer SonDaughter.
2
FatherMother, we wait with open mind today to hear Your Judgment of the
SonDaughter You love. We do not know him, and we cannot judge. And so we
let Your Love decide what heshe whom You created and manifested as Your
SonDaughter must be.
Lesson 312
I see all things as I would have them be.
1
Perception follows judgment. Having judged, you therefore see what you
would look upon. For sight can merely serve to offer you what you would
have. It is impossible to overlook what you would see and fail to see
what you have chosen to behold. How surely, therefore, must the real
world come to greet the holy sight of anyone who takes the Holy Spirit's
purpose as his/her goal for seeing. And he/she cannot fail to look upon
what the Christ Consciousness/the Mercy Consciousness would have
him&her see and share the Christ Consciousness’/the Mercy
Consciousness’ love for what he/she looks upon.
2
I have no purpose for today except to look upon a liberated world, set
free from all the judgments I have made. FatherMother, this is Your Will
for me today, and therefore it must be my goal as well.
Lesson 313
Now let a new perception come to me.
1
FatherMother, there is a vision which beholds all things as sinless, so
that fear has gone and where it was is love invited in. And love will
come wherever it is asked. This vision is Your gift. The eyes of the
Christ Consciousness/the Mercy Consciousness look on a world forgiven.
In Her sight are all its sins forgiven, for She sees no sin in anything
She looks upon. Now let Her true perception come to me that I may waken
from the dream of guilt and look within upon my sinlessness which You
have kept completely undefiled upon the altar to Your holy SonDaughter,
the Self with which I would identify.
2
Let us today behold each other in the sight of the Christ
Consciousness/the Mercy Consciousness. How beautiful we are! How holy
and how loving! brother or sister, come and join with me today. We save
the world when we are joined. For in our vision it becomes as holy as
the light in us.
Lesson 314
I seek a future different from the past.
1
From new perception of the world there comes a future very different
from the past. The future now is recognized as but extension of the
present. Past mistakes can cast no shadows on it, so that fear has lost
its idols/idolresses and its images, and being formless, it has no
effects. Death will not claim the future now, for life is now its goal,
and all the needed means are happily provided. Who can grieve or suffer
when the present has been freed, extending its security and peace into a
quiet future filled with hope?
2
FatherMother, we were mistaken in the past and choose to use the present
to be free. 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
All gifts my brothers&sisters give belong to me.
1
Each day a thousand treasures come to me with every passing moment. I am
blessed with gifts throughout the day, in value far beyond all things of
which I can conceive. A brother or sister smiles upon another, and my
heart is gladdened. Someone speaks a word of gratitude or mercy, and my
mind perceives this gift and takes it as its own. And everyone who finds
the way to God becomes my savior, pointing out the way to me and giving
me his/her certainty that what he/she learned is surely mine as well.
2
I thank You, FatherMother, for the many gifts that come to me today and
every day from every SonDaughter of God. My brothers&sisters
are unlimited in all their gifts to me. Now may I offer them my
thankfulness that gratitude to them may lead me on to my
CreatorManifestoress and HisHer memory.
Lesson 316
All gifts I give my brothers&sisters are my own.
1
As every gift my brothers&sisters give is mine, so every gift
I give belongs to me. Each one allows a past mistake to go and leave no
shadow on the holy mind my FatherMother loves. HisHer grace is given me
in every gift a brother or sister has received throughout all time and
past all time as well. My treasure house is full, and angels watch its
open doors that not one gift is lost and only more are added. 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.
2
FatherMother, I would accept Your gifts today. I do not recognize them.
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
I follow in the way appointed me.
1
I have a special place to fill—a role for me alone. Salvation waits
until I take this part as what I choose to do. Until I make this choice,
I am the slave of time and human destiny. But when I willingly and
gladly go the way my Father’sMother’s plan appointed me to go, then will
I recognize salvation is already here, already given all my
brothers&sisters and already mine as well.
2
FatherMother, Your way is what I choose today. Where it would lead me,
do I choose to go; what it would have me do, I choose to do. Your way is
certain and the end secure. The memory of You awaits me there, and all
my sorrows end in Your embrace, which You have promised to Your
SonDaughter, who thought mistakenly that heshe had wandered from the
sure protection of Your loving arms.
Lesson 318
In me salvation's means and end are one.
1
In me, God's holy SonDaughter, are reconciled all parts of the God
Realm's plan to save the world. What could conflict when all the parts
have but one purpose and one aim? How could there be a single part that
stands aside or one of more or less importance than the rest? I am the
means by which God’s SonDaughter is saved because salvation's purpose is
to find the sinlessness which God has placed in me. I was created and
manifested as the thing I seek. I am the goal the world is searching
for. I am God’s SonDaughter, HisHer one Eternal Love. I am salvation's
means and end as well.
2
Let me today, my FatherMother, take the role You offer me in Your
request that I accept Atonement for myself. For thus does what is
thereby reconciled in me become as surely reconciled to You.
Lesson 319
I came for the salvation of the world.
1
Here is a thought from which all arrogance has been removed, and only
truth is left. For arrogance opposes truth. But where there is no
arrogance, the truth will come immediately and fill up the space the ego
left unoccupied by lies. Only the ego can be limited, and therefore it
must seek for aims which are curtailed and limiting. The ego thinks that
what one gains totality must lose. And yet it is the Will of God I learn
that what one gains is given unto all.
2
FatherMother, Your Will is total. And the goal that stems from it shares
its totality. What aim but the salvation of the world could You have
given me? And what but this could be the Will my Self has shared with
You?
Lesson 320
My FatherMother gives all power unto me.
1
The SonDaughter of God is limitless. There are no limits on hisher
strength, hisher peace, hisher joy, or any attributes hisher
FatherMother gave in hisher creation and manifestation. What heshe wills
with hisher CreatorManifestoress and Redeemer must be done. Hisher holy
will can never be denied because hisher FatherMother shines upon hisher
mind and lays before it all the strength and love in earth and the God
Realm. I am heshe to whom all this is given. I am heshe in whom the
power of my Father’sMother’s Will abides.
2
Your Will can do all things in me and then extend to all the world as
well through me. There is no limit on Your Will. And so all power has
been given to Your SonDaughter.
What is creation and manifestation?
1
creation and manifestation is the sum of all God's Thoughts, in number
infinite and everywhere without all limit. Only Love creates and
manifests and only like Itself. There was no time when all that It
created and manifested was not there. Nor will there be a time when
anything that It created and manifested suffers any change. Forever and
forever are God's Thoughts exactly as they were and as they are,
unchanged through time and after time is done.
2
God's Thoughts are given all the power that Their own
CreatorManifestoress has. For HeShe would add to Love by its extension.
Thus HisHer SonDaughter shares in creation and manifestation, and must
therefore share in power to create and manifest. What God has willed to
be forever one will still be one when time is over and will not be
changed throughout the course of time, remaining as it was before the
thought of time began.
3
creation and manifestation is the opposite of all illusions, for
creation and manifestation is the truth. creation and manifestation is
the holy SonDaughter of God, for in creation and manifestation is HisHer
Will complete in every aspect, making every part container of the whole.
Its oneness is forever guaranteed inviolate, forever held within HisHer
holy Will beyond all possibility of harm, of separation, imperfection,
and of any spot upon its sinlessness.
4
We are creation and manifestation---we the SonsDaughters of God. We seem
to be discrete and unaware of our eternal unity with HimHer. Yet back of
all our doubts, past all our fears, there still is certainty. For Love
remains with all Its Thoughts, Its sureness being theirs. God's memory
is in our holy minds, which know their oneness and their unity with
their CreatorManifestoress. Let our function be only to let this memory
return, only to let God's Will be done on earth, only to be restored to
sanity, and to be but as God created and manifested us.
5
Our FatherMother calls to us. We hear HisHer Voice, and we forgive
creation and manifestation in the name of its CreatorManifestoress,
Holiness Itself, Whose holiness HisHer own creation and manifestation
shares; Whose holiness is still a part of us.
Lesson 321
FatherMother, my freedom is in You alone.
1
I did not understand what made me free nor what my freedom is nor where
to look to find it. FatherMother, I have searched in vain until I heard
Your Voice directing me. Now I would guide myself no more. For I have
neither made nor understood the way to find my freedom. But I trust in
You. You Who endowed me with my freedom as Your holy SonDaughter Who
endowed me with my freedom. Your Voice directs me. And the way to You is
opening and clear to me at last. FatherMother, my freedom is in You
alone. FatherMother, it is my will that I return.
2
Today we answer for the world, which will be freed along with us. How
glad are we to find our freedom through the certain way our FatherMother
has established. And how sure is all the world's salvation when we learn
our freedom can be found in God alone.
EDITED TO HERE
Lesson 322
I can give up but what was never real.
1
I sacrifice illusions, nothing more. And as illusions go, I find the
gifts illusions tried to hide, awaiting me in shining welcome and in
readiness to give God's ancient messages to me. HisHer memory abides in
every gift that I receive of HimHer. And every dream serves only to
conceal the Self which is God's only SonDaughter, the likeness of
HimHerself, the Holy One who still abides in himher forever, as HeShe
still abides in me.
2
FatherMother, to You all sacrifice remains forever inconceivable. And so
I cannot sacrifice except in dreams. As You created and manifested me, I
can give up nothing You gave me. What You did not give has no reality.
What loss can I anticipate except the loss of fear and the return of
Love into my mind?
Lesson 323
I gladly make the "sacrifice" of fear.
1
Here is the only "sacrifice" You ask of Your beloved SonDaughter—You ask
himher to give up all suffering, all sense of loss and sadness, all
anxiety and doubt and freely let Your Love come streaming in to hisher
awareness, healing himher of pain and giving himher Your own eternal
joy. Such is the "sacrifice" You ask of me, and one I gladly make, the
only "cost" of restoration of Your memory to me for the salvation of the
world.
2
And as we pay the debt we owe to truth—a debt which merely is the
letting-go of self-deceptions and of images we worshipped falsely—truth
returns to us in wholeness and in joy. We are deceived no longer. Love
has now returned to our awareness. And we are at peace again, for fear
has gone and only love remains.
Lesson 324
I merely follow, for I would not lead.
1
FatherMother, You are the One Who gave the plan for my salvation to me.
You have set the way I am to go, the role to take, and every step in my
appointed path. I cannot lose the way. I can but choose to wander off a
while and then return. Your loving Voice will always call me back and
guide my feet aright. My brothers&sisters all can follow in
the way I lead them. Yet I merely follow in the way to You as You direct
me and would have me go.
2
So let us follow One Who knows the way. We need not tarry, and we cannot
stray except an instant from Her loving hand. We walk together, for we
follow Her. And it is She Who makes the ending sure and guarantees a
safe returning home.
Lesson 325
All things I think I see reflect ideas.
1
This is salvation's keynote: What I see reflects a process in my mind
which starts with my idea of what I want. From there, the mind makes up
an image of the thing the mind desires, judges valuable, and therefore
seeks to find. These images are then projected outward, looked upon,
esteemed as real, and guarded as one's own. From insane wishes comes an
insane world. From judgment comes a world condemned. And from forgiving
thoughts a gentle world comes forth, with mercy for the holy SonDaughter
of God, to offer him&her a kindly home where he/she can rest a while
before he/she journeys on and help his/her brothers&sisters
walk ahead with him&her and find the way to the God Realm and to
God.
2
Our FatherMother, Your Ideas reflect the truth, and mine apart from
Yours but make up dreams. Let me behold what only Yours reflect, for
Yours and Yours alone establish truth.
Lesson 326
I am forever an effect of God.
1
FatherMother, I was created and manifested in Your Mind, a holy Thought
that never left its home. I am forever Your Effect, and You forever and
forever are my Cause. As You created and manifested me, I have remained.
Where You established me, I still abide, and all Your attributes abide
in me because it is Your Will to have a SonDaughter so like hisher Cause
that Cause and Its Effect are indistinguishable. Let me know that I am
an Effect of God, and so I have the power to create and manifest like
You. And as it is in the God Realm, so on earth. Your plan I follow
here, and at the end I know that You will gather Your Effects into the
tranquil the God Realm of Your Love, where earth will disappear and
separate thoughts unite in glory as the SonDaughter of God.
2
Let us today behold earth disappear, at first transformed, and then,
forgiven, fade entirely into God's holy Will.
Lesson 327
I need but call and You will answer me.
1
I am not asked to take salvation on the basis of an unsupported faith.
For God has promised HeShe will hear my call and answer me HimHerself.
Let me but learn from my experience that this is true, and faith in
HimHer must surely come to me. This is the faith that will endure and
take me farther and still farther on the road that leads to HimHer. For
thus I will be sure that HeShe has not abandoned me and loves me still,
awaiting but my call to give me all the help I need to come to HimHer.
2
FatherMother, I thank You that Your promises will never fail in my
experience if I but test them out. Let me attempt therefore to try them
and to judge them not. Your Word is one with You. You give the means
whereby conviction comes, and surety of Your abiding Love is gained at
last.
Lesson 328
I choose the second place to gain the first.
1
What seems to be the second place is first, for all things we perceive
are upside down until we listen to the Voice of God. It seems that we
will gain autonomy but by our striving to be separate and that our
independence from the rest of God's creation and manifestation is the
way in which salvation is obtained. Yet all we find is sickness,
suffering and loss, and death. This is not what our FatherMother wills
for us, nor is there any second to HisHer Will. To join with HisHer is
but to find our own. And since our will is HisHer, it is to HimHer that
we must go to recognize our will.
2
There is no will but Yours. And I am glad that nothing I imagine
contradicts what You would have me do. It is Your Will that I be wholly
safe, eternally at peace. And happily I share that Will which You, my
FatherMother, gave as part of me.
Lesson 329
I have already chosen what You will.
1
FatherMother, I thought I wandered from Your Will, defied it, broke its
laws, and interposed a second will more powerful than Yours. Yet what I
am in truth is but Your Will, extended and extending. This am I. And
this will never change. As You are One, so am I one with You. And this I
chose in my creation and manifestation, where my will became forever one
with Yours. That choice was made for all eternity. It cannot change and
be in opposition to itself. FatherMother, my will is Yours. And I am
safe, untroubled and serene in endless joy because it is Your Will that
it be so.
2
Today we will accept our union with each other and our Source. We have
no will apart from HisHers, and all of us are one because HisHer Will is
shared by all of us. Through it we recognize that we are one. Through it
we find our way at last to God.
Lesson 330
I will not hurt myself again today.
1
Let us this day accept forgiveness as our only function. Why should we
attack our minds and give them images of pain? Why should we teach them
they are powerless when God holds out HisHer power and HisHer Love and
bids them take what is already theirs? The mind that is made willing to
accept God's gifts has been restored to Spirit and extends its freedom
and its joy, as is the Will of God united with its own. The Self which
God created and manifested cannot sin and therefore cannot suffer. Let
us choose today that heshe be our identity and thus escape forever from
all things the dream of fear appears to offer us.
2
FatherMother, Your SonDaughter cannot be hurt. And if we think we
suffer, we but fail to know our one Identity we share with You. 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.
What is the ego?
1
The ego is idolatry—the sign of limited and separated self, born in a
body, doomed to suffer and to end its life in death. It is the will that
sees the Will of God as enemy and takes a form in which It is denied.
The ego is the "proof" that strength is weak and love is fearful, life
is really death, and what opposes God alone is true.
2
The ego is insane. In fear it stands beyond the Everywhere, apart from
All, in separation from the Infinite. In its insanity it thinks it has
become a victor over God HimHerself, and in its terrible autonomy, it
"sees" the Will of God has been destroyed. It dreams of punishment and
trembles at the figures in its dreams, its enemies who seek to murder it
before it can ensure its safety by attacking them.
3
The SonDaughter of God is egoless. What can heshe know of madness and
the death of God when heshe abides in HimHer? What can heshe know of
sorrow and of suffering when heshe lives in eternal joy? What can heshe
know of fear and punishment, of sin and guilt, of hatred and attack when
all there is surrounding himher is everlasting peace, forever
conflict-free and undisturbed in deepest silence and tranquility?
4
To know Reality is not to see the ego and its thoughts, its works, its
acts, its laws and its beliefs, its dreams, its hopes, its plans for its
salvation, and the cost belief in it entails. In suffering, the price
for faith in it is so immense that crucifixion of the SonDaughter of God
is offered daily at its darkened shrine and blood must flow before the
altar where its sickly followers prepare for death.
5
Yet will one lily of forgiveness change the darkness into light, the
altar to illusions to the shrine of Life Itself. And peace will be
restored forever to the holy minds which God created and manifested as
HisHer SonDaughter, HisHer dwelling-place, HisHer joy, HisHer love,
completely His, completely one with HimHer.
Lesson 331
There is no conflict, for my will is Yours.
1
How foolish, FatherMother, to believe Your SonDaughter could cause
himselfherself to suffer! Could heshe make a plan for hisher damnation
and be left without a certain way to hisher release? You love me,
FatherMother. You could never leave me desolate, to die within a world
of pain and cruelty. How could I think that Love has left Itself? There
is no will except the Will of Love. Fear is a dream and has no will that
can conflict with Yours. Conflict is sleep, and peace awakening. Death
is illusion; life, Eternal Truth. There is no opposition to Your Will.
There is no conflict, for my will is Yours.
2
Forgiveness shows us that God's Will is one and that we share it. Let us
look upon the holy sights forgiveness shows today that we may find the
peace of God. Amen.
Lesson 332
Fear binds the world. Forgiveness sets it free.
1
The ego makes illusions. Truth undoes its evil dreams by shining them
away. Truth never makes attack. It merely is. And by its presence is the
mind recalled from fantasies, awaking to the Real. Forgiveness bids this
presence enter in and take its rightful place within the mind. Without
forgiveness is the mind in chains, believing in its own futility. Yet
with forgiveness does the light shine through the dream of darkness,
offering it hope and giving it the means to realize the freedom that is
its inheritance.
2
We would not bind the world again today. Fear holds it prisoner. And yet
Your Love has given us the means to set it free. FatherMother, we would
release it now. For as we offer freedom, it is given us. And we would
not remain as prisoners while You hold out our freedom unto us.
Lesson 333
Forgiveness ends the dream of conflict here.
1
Conflict must be resolved. It cannot be evaded, set aside, denied,
disguised, seen somewhere else, called by another name, nor hidden by
deceit of any kind if it would be escaped. It must be seen exactly as it
is, where it is thought to be, in the reality which has been given it,
and with the purpose that the mind accorded it. For only then are its
defenses lifted and the truth can shine upon it as it disappears.
2
FatherMother, forgiveness is the light You chose to shine away all
conflict and all doubt and light the way for our return to You. No light
but this can end our evil dreams. No light but this can save the world.
For this alone will never fail in anything, being Your gift to Your
beloved SonDaughter.
Lesson 334
Today I claim the gifts forgiveness gives.
1
I will not wait another day to find the treasures which my FatherMother
offers me. Illusions must be vain and dreams are gone, even while they
are woven out of thoughts that rest on false perception. Let me not
accept such meager gifts again today. God's Voice is offering the peace
of God to all who hear and choose to follow Her. This is my choice
today. And so I go to find the treasures God has given me.
2
I seek but the eternal. For Your SonDaughter can be content with nothing
less than this. What then can be hisher solace but what You are offering
to hisher bewildered mind and frightened heart, to give himher certainty
and bring himher peace? Today I would behold my brother or sister
sinless. This Your Will for me, for thus will I behold my sinlessness.
Lesson 335
I choose to see my brother’s and sister’s sinlessness.
1
Forgiveness is a choice. I never see my brother or sister as he/she is,
for that is far beyond perception. What I see in him&her is merely
what I wish to see because it stands for what I want to be the truth. It
is to this alone that I respond, however much I seem to be impelled by
outside happenings. I choose to see what I would look upon, and this I
see and only this. My brother’s and sister’s sinlessness shows me that I
would look upon my own. And I will see it, having chosen to behold my
brother or sister in its holy light.
2
What could restore Your memory to me except to see my brother’s and
sister’s sinlessness? his/her holiness reminds me that he/she was
created and manifested one with me and like myself. In him&her I
find my Self, and in Your SonDaughter I find the memory of You as well.
Lesson 336
Forgiveness lets me know that minds are joined.
1
Forgiveness is the means appointed for perception's ending. Knowledge is
restored after perception first is changed and then gives way entirely
to what remains forever past its highest reach. For sights and sounds at
best can serve but to recall the memory that lies beyond them all.
Forgiveness sweeps away distortions and opens the hidden altar to the
truth. Its lilies shine into the mind and call it to return and look
within, to find what it has vainly sought without. For here and only
here is peace of mind restored, for this the dwelling-place of God
HimHerself.
2
In quiet may forgiveness wipe away my dreams of separation and of sin.
Then let me, FatherMother, 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.
1
My sinlessness ensures me perfect peace, eternal safety, everlasting
love, freedom forever from all thought of loss, complete deliverance
from suffering. And only happiness can be my state, for only happiness
is given me. What must I do to know all this is mine? I must accept
Atonement for myself and nothing more. God has already done all things
that need be done. And I must learn I need do nothing of myself, for I
need but accept my Self, my sinlessness, created and manifested for me,
now already mine, to feel God's Love protecting me from harm, to
understand my FatherMother loves HisHer SonDaughter, to know I am the
SonDaughter my FatherMother loves.
2
You who created and manifested me in sinlessness are not mistaken about
what I am. I was mistaken when I thought I sinned, but I accept
Atonement for myself. FatherMother, my dream is ended now. Amen.
Lesson 338
I am affected only by my thoughts.
1
It needs but this to let salvation come to all the world. For in this
single thought is everyone released at last from fear. Now heshe has
learned that no one frightens himher and nothing can endanger him. Heshe
has no enemies, and heshe is safe from all external things. Hisher
thoughts can frighten himher, but since these thoughts belong to himher
alone, heshe has the power to change them and exchange each fear thought
for a happy thought of love. Heshe crucified himselfherself. Yet God has
planned that HisHer beloved SonDaughter will be redeemed.
2
Your plan is sure, my FatherMother—only Yours. All other plans will
fail. And I will have thoughts that will frighten me until I learn that
You have given me the only Thought which leads me to salvation. Mine
alone will fail and lead me nowhere. But the Thought You gave me
promises to lead me home, because it holds Your promise to Your
SonDaughter.
Lesson 339
I will receive whatever I request.
1
No one desires pain. But he/she can think that pain is pleasure. No one
would avoid his/her happiness. But he/she can think that joy is painful,
threatening, and dangerous. Everyone will receive what he/she requests.
But he/she can be confused indeed about the things he/she wants, the
state he/she would attain. What can he/she then request that he/she
would want when he/she receives it? he/she has asked for what will
frighten him&her and bring him&her suffering. Let us resolve
today to ask for what we really want, and only this, that we may spend
this day in fearlessness, without confusing pain with joy or fear with
love.
2
FatherMother, this is Your day. It is a day in which I would do nothing
by myself but hear Your Voice in everything I do; requesting only what
You offer me, accepting only thoughts You share with me.
Lesson 340
I can be free of suffering today.
1
FatherMother, I thank You for today and for the freedom I am certain it
will bring. This day is holy, for today Your SonDaughter will be
redeemed. Hisher suffering is done. For heshe will hear Your Voice
directing himher to find the Christ Consciousness’/the Mercy
Consciousness’ vision through forgiveness and be free forever from all
suffering. Thanks for today, my FatherMother. I was born into this world
but to achieve this day and what it holds in joy and freedom for Your
holy SonDaughter and for the world heshe made, which is released along
with himher today.
2
Be glad today! Be glad! There is no room for anything but joy and thanks
today. Our FatherMother has redeemed HisHer SonDaughter this day! Not
one of us but will be saved today. Not one who will remain in fear, and
none the FatherMother will not gather to HimHerself, awake in the God
Realm in the Heart of Love.
What is a miracle?
1
A miracle is a correction. It does not create and manifest nor really
change at all. It merely looks on devastation, and reminds the mind that
what it sees is false. It undoes error, but does not attempt to go
beyond perception nor exceed the function of forgiveness. Thus it stays
within time's limits. Yet it paves the way for the return of
timelessness and love's awakening, for fear must slip away under the
gentle remedy it gives.
2
A miracle contains the gift of grace, for it is given and received as
one. And thus it illustrates the law of truth the world does not obey
because it fails entirely to understand its ways. A miracle inverts
perception which was upside-down before, and thus it ends the strange
distortions that were manifest. Now is perception open to the truth. Now
is forgiveness seen as justified.
3
Forgiveness is the home of miracles. The eyes of the Christ
Consciousness/the Mercy Consciousness deliver them to all they look upon
in mercy and in love. Perception stands corrected in Her sight, and what
was meant to curse has come to bless. Each lily of forgiveness offers
all the world the silent miracle of love. And each is laid before the
Word of God upon the universal altar to CreatorManifestoress and
creation and manifestation, in the light of perfect purity and endless
joy.
4
The miracle is taken first on faith because to ask for it implies the
mind has been made ready to conceive of what it cannot see and does not
understand. Yet faith will bring its witnesses to show that what it
rested on is really there. And thus the miracle will justify your faith
in it and show it rested on a world more real than what you saw before—a
world redeemed from what you thought you saw.
5
Miracles fall like drops of healing rain from the God Realm on a dry and
dusty world, where starved and thirsty creaturesmanifestations came to
die. Now they have water. Now the world is green. And everywhere the
signs of life spring up to show that what is born can never die, for
what has life has immortality.
Lesson 341
I can attack but my own sinlessness,
And it is only that which keeps me safe.
1
FatherMother, Your SonDaughter is holy. I am himher on whom You smile in
love and tenderness so deep and dear and still the universe smiles back
on You and shares Your holiness. How pure, how safe, how sacred then are
we, abiding in Your smile, with all Your Love bestowed upon us, living
one with You in brother or sisterhood and FatherhoodMotherhood complete,
in sinlessness so perfect that the Lord of Sinlessness conceives us as
HisHer SonDaughter, a universe of Thought completing HimHer.
2
Let us not then attack our sinlessness, for it contains the Word of God
to us, and in its kind reflection we are saved.
Lesson 342
I let forgiveness rest upon all things,
For thus forgiveness will be given me.
1
I thank You, FatherMother, for Your plan to save me from the hell I
made. It is not real. And You have given me the means to prove its
unreality to me. The key is in my hand, and I have reached the door
beyond which lies the end of dreams. I stand before the gate of the God
Realm, wondering if I should enter in and be at home. Let me not wait
again today. Let me forgive all things, and let creation and
manifestation be as You would have it be and as it is. Let me remember
that I am Your SonDaughter, and opening the door at last, forget
illusions in the blazing light of truth, as memory of You returns to me.
2
brother or sister, forgive me now. I come to you to take you home with
me. And as we go, the world goes with us on the way to God.
Lesson 343
I am not asked to make a sacrifice
To find the mercy and the peace of God.
1
The end of suffering cannot be loss. The gift of everything can but be
gain. You only give. You never take away. And You created and manifested
me to be like You, so sacrifice becomes impossible for me as well as
You. I too must give, and so all things are given unto me forever and
forever. As I was created and manifested, I remain. Your SonDaughter can
make no sacrifice, for heshe must be complete, having the function of
completing You. I am complete because I am Your SonDaughter. I cannot
lose, for I can only give. And everything is mine eternally.
2
The mercy and the peace of God are free. Salvation has no cost. It is a
gift that must be freely given and received, and it is this that we
would learn today.
Lesson 344
Today I learn the law of love; that what
I give my brother or sister is my gift to me.
1
This is Your law, my FatherMother, not my own. I did not understand what
giving means and thought to save what I desired for myself alone. And as
I looked upon the treasure that I thought I had, I found an empty place
where nothing ever was or is or will be. Who can share a dream? And what
can an illusion offer me? Yet he/she whom I forgive will give me gifts
beyond the worth of anything on earth. Let my forgiven
brothers&sisters fill my store with the God Realm's treasures, which
alone are real. Thus is the law of love fulfilled. And thus Your
SonDaughter arises and returns to You.
2
How near we are to one another, as we go to God. How near is HeShe to
us. How close the ending of the dream of sin and the redemption of the
SonDaughter of God.
Lesson 345
I offer only miracles today,
For I would have them be returned to me.
1
FatherMother, a miracle reflects Your gifts to me, Your SonDaughter. And
every one I give returns to me, reminding me the law of love is
universal. Even here it takes a form which can be recognized and seen to
work. The miracles I give are given back in just the form I need to help
me with the problems I perceive. FatherMother, in the God Realm it is
different, for there, there are no needs. But here on earth, the miracle
is closer to Your gifts than any other gift which I can give. Then let
me give this gift alone today, which, born of true forgiveness, lights
the way that I must travel to remember You.
2
Peace to all seeking hearts today. The light has come to offer miracles
to bless the tired world. 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 HisHer Love.
1
FatherMother, I wake today with miracles correcting my perception of all
things. And so begins the day I share with You as I will share eternity,
for time has stepped aside today. I do not seek the things of time, and
so I will not look upon them. What I seek today transcends all laws of
time and things perceived in time. I would forget all things except Your
Love. I would abide in You and know no laws except Your law of Love. And
I would find the peace which You created and manifested for Your
SonDaughter, forgetting all the foolish toys I made as I behold Your
glory and my own.
2
And when the evening comes today, we will remember nothing but the peace
of God. For we will learn today what peace is ours when we forget all
things except God's Love.
Lesson 347
Anger must come from judgment. Judgment is
The weapon I would use against myself
To keep all miracles away from me.
1
FatherMother, I want what goes against my will and do not want what is
my will to have. Straighten my mind, my FatherMother. It is sick. But
You have offered freedom, and I choose to claim Your gift today. And so
I give all judgment to the One You gave to me to judge for me. She sees
what I behold, and yet She knows the truth. She looks on pain, and yet
She understands it is not real, and in Her understanding it is healed.
She gives the miracles my dreams would hide from my awareness. Let Her
judge today. I do not know my will, but She is sure it is Your own. And
She will speak for me, and call Your miracle to come to me.
2
Listen today. Be very still and hear the gentle Voice for God assuring
you that She has judged you as the SonDaughter She loves.
Lesson 348
I have no cause for anger or for fear,
For You surround me. And in every need
That I perceive, Your grace suffices me.
1
FatherMother, let me remember You are here, and I am not alone.
Surrounding me is everlasting Love. I have no cause for anything except
the perfect peace and joy I share with You. What need have I for anger
or for fear? Surrounding me is perfect safety. Can I be afraid when Your
eternal promise goes with me? Surrounding me is perfect sinlessness.
What can I fear when You created and manifested me in holiness as
perfect as Your own?
2
God's grace suffices us in everything that HeShe would have us do. And
only that we choose to be our will as well as HisHer.
Lesson 349
Today I let the Christ Consciousness’/the Mercy Consciousness’ vision look
upon
All things for me and judge them not, but give
Each one a miracle of love instead.
1
So would I liberate all things I see and give to them the freedom that I
seek. For thus do I obey the law of love and give what I would find and
make my own. It will be given me because I have chosen it as the gift I
want to give. FatherMother, Your gifts are mine. Each one that I accept
gives me a miracle to give. And giving as I would receive, I learn Your
healing miracles belong to me.
2
Our FatherMother knows our needs. HeShe gives us grace to meet them all.
And so we trust in HimHer to send us miracles to bless the world and
heal our minds as we return to HimHer.
Lesson 350
Miracles mirror God's eternal Love.
To offer them is to remember HimHer,
And through HisHer memory to save the world.
1
What we forgive becomes a part of us as we perceive ourselves. The
SonDaughter of God incorporates all things within himselfherself as You
created and manifested himher. Your memory depends on hisher
forgiveness. What heshe is, is unaffected by hisher thoughts. But what
heshe looks upon is their direct result. Therefore, my FatherMother, I
would turn to You. Only Your memory will set me free. And only my
forgiveness teaches me to let Your memory return to me and give it to
the world in thankfulness.
2
And as we gather miracles from HimHer, we will indeed be grateful. For
as we remember HimHer, HisHer SonDaughter will be restored to us in the
Reality of Love.
What am I?
1
I am God’s SonDaughter, complete and healed and whole, shining in the
reflection of HisHer Love. In me is HisHer creation and manifestation
sanctified and guaranteed eternal life. In me is love perfected, fear
impossible, and joy established without opposite. I am the holy home of
God HimHerself. I am the God Realm where HisHer Love resides. I am
HisHer holy sinlessness itself, for in my purity abides HisHer own.
2
Our use for words is almost over now. 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. And thus you joined with me. So what I am are you as well.
The truth of what we are is not for words to speak of nor describe. Yet
we can realize our function here, and words can speak of this and teach
it, too, if we exemplify the words in us.
3
We are the bringers of salvation. We accept our part as
saviors/savioresses of the world, which through our joint forgiveness is
redeemed. And this, our gift, is therefore given us. We look on everyone
as brothers&sisters and perceive all things as kindly and as
good. We do not seek a function that is past the gates of the God Realm.
Knowledge will return when we have done our part. We are concerned only
with giving welcome to the truth.
4
Ours are the eyes through which the Christ Consciousness’/the Mercy
Consciousness’ vision sees a world redeemed from every thought of sin.
Ours are the ears that hear the Voice of God proclaim the world as
sinless. Ours the minds which join together as we bless the world. And
from the oneness that we have attained we call to all our
brothers&sisters, asking them to share our peace and consummate our
joy.
5
We are the holy messengers of God who speak for HimHer, and carrying
HisHer Word to everyone whom HeShe has sent to us, we learn that it is
written on our hearts. And thus our minds are changed about the aim for
which we came and which we seek to serve. We bring glad tidings to the
SonDaughter of God, who thought he/she suffered. Now is he/she redeemed.
And as he/she sees the gate of the God Realm stand open before
him&her, he/she will enter in and disappear into the Heart of God.
Lesson 351
My sinless brother or sister is my guide to peace.
My sinful brother or sister is my guide to pain.
And which I choose to see I will behold.
1
Who is my brother or sister but Your holy SonDaughter? And if I see
him&her sinful, I proclaim myself a sinner, not a SonDaughter of
God, alone and friendless in a fearful world. Yet this perception is a
choice I make and can relinquish. I can also see my brother or sister
sinless as Your holy SonDaughter. And with this choice I see my
sinlessness, my everlasting comforter or comforteress and male or female
Friend beside me, and my way secure and clear. Choose, then, for me, my
FatherMother, through Your Voice. For She alone gives judgment in Your
Name.
Lesson 352
Judgment and love are opposites. From one
Come all the sorrows of the world. But from
The other comes the peace of God HimHerself.
1
Forgiveness looks on sinlessness alone and judges not. Through this I
come to You. Judgment will bind my eyes and make me blind. Yet love,
reflected in forgiveness here, reminds me You have given me a way to
find Your peace again. I am redeemed when I elect to follow in this way.
You have not left me comfortless. I have within me both the memory of
You and One Who leads me to it. FatherMother, I would hear Your Voice
and find Your peace today. For I would love my own Identity and find in
himher the memory of You.
Lesson 353
My eyes, my tongue, my hands, my feet today
Have but one purpose — to be given the Christ Consciousness/the Mercy
Consciousness
To use to bless the world with miracles.
1
FatherMother, I give all that is mine today to the Christ
Consciousness/the Mercy Consciousness to use in any way that best will
serve the purpose that I share with Her. Nothing is mine alone, for She
and I have joined in purpose. Thus has learning come almost to its
appointed end. A while I work with Her to serve Her purpose. Then I lose
myself in my identity and recognize that the Christ Consciousness/the
Mercy Consciousness is but my Self.
Lesson 354
We stand together, the Christ Consciousness/the Mercy Consciousness and I,
in peace
And certainty of purpose. And in Her
Is Her CreatorManifestoress, as She is in me.
1
My oneness with the Christ Consciousness/the Mercy Consciousness
establishes me as Your SonDaughter, beyond the reach of time and wholly
free of every law but Yours. I have no self except the Christ
Consciousness/the Mercy Consciousness in me. I have no purpose but Her
own. And She is like Her FatherMother. Thus must I be one with You as
well as Her. For who is the Christ Consciousness/the Mercy Consciousness
except Your SonDaughter as You created and manifested himher? And what
am I except the Christ Consciousness/the Mercy Consciousness in me?
Lesson 355
There is no end to all the peace and joy
And all the miracles that I will give
When I accept God's Word. Why not today?
1
Why should I wait, my FatherMother, for the joy You promised me? For You
will keep Your Word You gave Your SonDaughter in exile. I am sure my
treasure waits for me, and I need but reach out my hand to find it. Even
now my fingers touch it. It is very close. I need not wait an instant
more to be at peace forever. It is You I choose and my identity along
with You. Your SonDaughter would be himselfherself and know You as
hisher FatherMother and CreatorManifestoress and hisher Love.
Lesson 356
Sickness is but another name for sin.
Healing is but another Name for God.
The miracle is thus a call to HimHer.
1
FatherMother, You promised You would never fail to answer any call Your
SonDaughter might make to You. It does not matter where he/she is, what
seems to be his/her problem, nor what he/she believes he/she has become.
HeShe is Your SonDaughter, and You will answer him&her. The miracle
reflects Your Love, and thus it answers him&her. Your Name replaces
every thought of sin, and who is sinless cannot suffer pain. Your Name
gives answer to Your SonDaughter because to call Your Name is but to
call his/her own.
Lesson 357
Truth answers every call we make to God,
Responding first with miracles, and then
Returning unto us to be itself.
1
Forgiveness, truth's reflection, tells me how to offer miracles and thus
escape the prison house in which I think I live. Your holy SonDaughter
is pointed out to me, first in my brother or sister, then in me. Your
Voice instructs me patiently to hear Your Word and give as I receive.
And as I look upon Your SonDaughter today, I hear Your Voice instructing
me to find the way to You as You appointed that the way shall be:
"Behold hisher sinlessness, and be you healed."
Lesson 358
No call to God can be unheard nor left
Unanswered. And of this I can be sure—
HisHer answer is the one I really want.
1
You Who remember what I really am alone remember what I really want. You
speak for God, and so You speak for me. And what You give me comes from
God HimHerself. Your Voice, my FatherMother, then is mine as well, and
all I want is what You offer me, in just the form You chose that it be
mine. Let me remember all I do not know, and let my voice be still,
remembering. But let me not forget Your Love and care, keeping Your
promise to Your SonDaughter in my awareness always. Let me not forget
myself is nothing, but my Self is all.
Lesson 359
God's answer is some form of peace. All pain
Is healed; all misery replaced with joy.
All prison doors are opened. And all sin
Is understood as merely a mistake.
1
FatherMother, today we will forgive Your world and let creation and
manifestation be Your own. We have misunderstood all things. But we have
not made sinners of the holy SonsDaughters of God. What You created and
manifested sinless so abides forever and forever. Such are we. And we
rejoice to learn that we have made mistakes which have no real effects
on us. Sin is impossible, and on this fact forgiveness rests upon a
certain base more solid than the shadow world we see. Help us forgive,
for we would be redeemed. Help us forgive, for we would be at peace.
Lesson 360
Peace be to me, the holy SonDaughter of God.
Peace to my brother or sister, who is one with me.
Let all the world be blessed with peace through us.
1
FatherMother, it is Your peace that I would give, receiving it of You. I
am Your SonDaughter, forever just as You created and manifested me, for
the Great Rays remain forever still and undisturbed within me. I would
reach to them in silence and in certainty, for nowhere else can
certainty be found. Peace be to me and peace to all the world. In
holiness were we created and manifested, and in holiness do we remain.
Your SonDaughter is like to You in perfect sinlessness, and with this
thought we gladly say "Amen."
Our Final Lessons
IF:1Our
final lessons will be left as free of words as possible. We use them but
at the beginning of our practicing and only to remind us that we seek to
go beyond them. Let us turn to Her Who leads the way and makes our
footsteps sure. To Her we leave these lessons, as to Her we give our
lives henceforth. For we would not return again to the belief in sin,
which 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.
2
Her is the only way to find the peace that God has given us. It is Her
way that everyone must travel in the end, because it is this ending God
HimHerself appointed. In the dream of time, it seems to be far off. And
yet in truth, it is already here, already serving us as gracious
guidance in the way to go. Let us together follow in this way that truth
points out to us. And let us be the leaders of our many
brothers&sisters who are seeking for the way but find it not.
3
And to this purpose let us dedicate our minds, directing all our
thoughts to serve the function of salvation. Unto us the aim is given to
forgive the world. It is the goal that God has given us. It is HisHer
ending to the dream we seek, and not our own. For all that we forgive we
will not fail to recognize as part of God HimHerself. And thus HisHer
memory is given back completely and complete.
4
It is our function to remember HimHer on earth, as it is given us to be
HisHer own completion in reality. 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 HimHer and to the God Realm of HisHer peace. And shall
we not forgive our brother or sister who can offer this to us? he/she is
the way, the truth, and life that show the way to us. In him&her
resides salvation, offered us through our forgiveness given unto him.
5
We will not end this year without the gift our FatherMother promised to
HisHer holy SonDaughter. We are forgiven now. And we are saved from all
the wrath we thought belonged to God and found it was a dream. We are
restored to sanity in which we understand that anger is insane, attack
is mad, and vengeance merely foolish fantasy. We have been saved from
wrath because we learned we were mistaken. Nothing more than that. And
is a FatherMother angry at HisHer SonDaughter because heshe failed to
understand the truth?
6
We come in honesty to HimHer and say we did not understand and ask
HimHer to help us to learn HisHer lessons through the Voice of HisHer
own Teacheress. Would HeShe hurt HisHer SonDaughter? Or would HeShe rush
to answer him&her and say, "This is My SonDaughter, and all I have
is hisher"? Be certain HeShe will answer thus, for these are HisHer own
Words to you. 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.
Lesson 361-365
This holy instant would I
give to You.
Be You in charge. For I would follow You,
Certain that Your direction gives me peace.
1
And if I need a word to help me, She will give it to me. If I need a
thought, that will She also give. And if I need but stillness and a
tranquil, open mind, these are the gifts I will receive of Her. She is
in charge by my request. And She will hear and answer me because She
speaks for God, my FatherMother, and HisHer holy SonDaughter.
Lesson 362-365
This holy instant would I
give to You.
Be You in charge. For I would follow You,
Certain that Your direction gives me peace.
1
And if I need a word to help me, She will give it to me. If I need a
thought, that will She also give. And if I need but stillness and a
tranquil, open mind, these are the gifts I will receive of Her. She is
in charge by my request. And She will hear and answer me because She
speaks for God, my FatherMother, and HisHer holy SonDaughter.
Lesson 363-365
This holy instant would I
give to You.
Be You in charge. For I would follow You,
Certain that Your direction gives me peace.
1
And if I need a word to help me, She will give it to me. If I need a
thought, that will She also give. And if I need but stillness and a
tranquil, open mind, these are the gifts I will receive of Her. She is
in charge by my request. And She will hear and answer me because She
speaks for God, my FatherMother, and HisHer holy SonDaughter.
Lesson 364-365
This holy instant would I
give to You.
Be You in charge. For I would follow You,
Certain that Your direction gives me peace.
1
And if I need a word to help me, She will give it to me. If I need a
thought, that will She also give. And if I need but stillness and a
tranquil, open mind, these are the gifts I will receive of Her. She is
in charge by my request. And She will hear and answer me because She
speaks for God, my FatherMother, and HisHer holy SonDaughter.
Lesson 365
This holy instant would I
give to You.
Be You in charge. For I would follow You,
Certain that Your direction gives me peace.
1
And if I need a word to help me, She will give it to me. If I need a
thought, that will She also give. And if I need but stillness and a
tranquil, open mind, these are the gifts I will receive of Her. She is
in charge by my request. And She will hear and answer me because She
speaks for God, my FatherMother, and HisHer holy SonDaughter.
Epilogue
1
This course is a beginning, not an end. Your Lady Friend goes with you.
You are not alone. No one who calls on Her can call in vain. Whatever
troubles you, be certain that She has the answer and will gladly give it
to you if you simply turn to Her and ask it of Her. She will not
withhold all answers that you need for anything that seems to trouble
you. She knows the way to solve all problems and resolve all doubts. Her
certainty is yours. You need but ask it of Her, and it will be given
you.
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. Indeed, your pathway is more certain still, for it cannot be
possible to change the course of those whom God has called to HimHer.
Therefore, obey your will and follow Her Whom you accepted as your
Voice, to speak of what you really want and really need. Hers is the
Voice for God, and also yours. And thus She speaks of freedom and of
truth.
3
No more specific lessons are assigned, for there is no more need of
them. Henceforth, hear but the Voice for God and for your Self when you
retire from the world, to seek Reality instead. She will direct your
efforts, telling you exactly what to do, how to direct your mind, and
when to come to Her in silence, asking for Her sure direction and Her
certain Word. Her is the Word that God has given you. Her is the Word
you chose to be your own.
4
And now I place you in Her hands, to be Her faithful followers, with Her
as Guide through every difficulty and all pain that you may think is
real. Nor will She give you pleasures that will pass away, for She gives
only the eternal and the good. Let Her prepare you further. She has
earned your trust by speaking daily to you of your FatherMother and your
brother or sister and your Self. She will continue; now you walk with
Her as certain as is She of where you go; as sure as She of how you
should proceed, as confident as She is of the goal and of your safe
arrival in the end.
5
The end is certain and the means as well. To this we say "Amen." We will
be told exactly what God wills for us each time there is a choice to
make. And She will speak for God and for your Self, thus making sure
that hell will claim you not and that each choice you make brings the
God Realm nearer to your reach. And so we walk with Her from this time
on and turn to Her for guidance and for peace and right direction. Joy
attends our way. For we go homeward to an open door which God has held
unclosed to welcome us.
6
We trust our ways to Her and say "Amen." In peace we will continue in
Her way and trust all things to Her. In confidence we wait Her answers,
as we ask Her will in everything we do. She loves God’s SonDaughter as
we would love himher, and She teaches us how to behold himher through
Her eyes and love himher as She does. You do not walk alone. God's
angels hover close and all about. Her Love surrounds you, and of this be
sure: that I will never leave you comfortless.
