Minds that are joined, AND RECOGNIZE THEY ARE, can feel no guilt. For they can NOT attack, and they REJOICE that this is so, seeing their safety in this happy fact. Their joy is in the INNOCENCE they see. And thus they seek for it, because it is their PURPOSE to behold it and rejoice. Everyone seeks for what will bring him joy as he defines it. It is NOT the aim, as such, that varies
Continue reading →To the extent to which you value guilt, to that extent will you perceive a world in which attack is justified. To the extent to which you recognize that guilt is meaningless, to that extent you will perceive attack cannot BE justified. This is in strict accord with vision’s FUNDAMENTAL law: You see what you believe is there, and you believe it there because you WANT it there. Perception HAS no other law than this.
Continue reading →Is it not evident that what the body’s eyes perceive FILLS YOU WITH FEAR? Perhaps you think you find a hope of satisfaction there. Perhaps you fancy to attain some peace and satisfaction in the world as YOU perceive it. Yet it MUST be evident the outcome DOES NOT CHANGE. Despite your hopes and fancies, ALWAYS does despair result. And there is NO exception, nor will there ever be.
Continue reading →It CANNOT be that it is hard to do the task that Christ appointed you to do, since it is HE that does it. And, in the DOING of it will you learn the body merely SEEMS to be the means to do it. For the Mind is HIS. And so it MUST be yours. HIS holiness directs the body THROUGH the mind at one with Him. And YOU are manifest unto your holy brother, as he to you. Here is the meeting of the
Continue reading →The Christ in you inhabits NOT a body. Yet He IS in you. And thus MUST it be that YOU are not within a body. What is within you CANNOT be outside. And it is certain that YOU cannot be APART from what is at the very CENTER of your life. What gives you life cannot be housed in death. NO MORE CAN YOU. Christ is within a frame of holiness, whose ONLY purpose is that He may
Continue reading →How bitterly does everyone tied to this world defend the specialness he WANTS to be the truth! His wish is law to him, and he obeys. Nothing his specialness demands does he withhold. Nothing it needs does he deny to what he loves. And, while it calls to him, he hears no other Voice. No effort is too great, no cost too much, no price too dear, to save his specialness from the least slight,
Continue reading →Before your brother’s holiness the world is still, and peace descends on it in gentleness and blessing so complete, that not one trace of conflict still remains to haunt you in the darkness of the night. He is your Savior from the dreams of terror. He is the healing of your sense of sacrifice, and fear that what you have will scatter with the wind, and turn to dust. In him is your assurance God is here
Continue reading →The Christ in you is very still. He looks on what He loves, and knows it as Himself. And thus does He rejoice at what He sees, because He knows that it is one with Him, and with His Father. Specialness, too, takes joy in what it sees, although it is not true. Yet what you seek for IS a source of joy, as you conceive it. What you wish, IS true for you. Nor is it possible that you can wish for something,
Continue reading →Specialness is a lack of trust in anyone except yourself. Faith is invested in yourself alone. Everything else becomes your enemy, feared and attacked, deadly and dangerous, hated and worthy only of destruction. Whatever gentleness it offers is but deception, but its hate is real. In danger of destruction, it MUST kill, and YOU are drawn to it, to kill it first. And such is guilt’s attraction.
Continue reading →Forgiveness is the end of specialness. Only illusions can BE forgiven, and then they disappear. Forgiveness is release from ALL illusions, and that is why it is impossible but PARTLY to forgive. No-one who clings to ONE illusion can see himself as sinless, for he holds one error to himself as lovely still. And so he calls it “unforgivable,” and makes it sin. How can he then give HIS forgiveness wholly,
Continue reading →Comparison MUST be an ego device, for love makes none. Specialness ALWAYS makes comparisons. It is ESTABLISHED by a lack seen in another, and maintained by searching for and keeping clear in sight all lacks it can perceive. This does it seek, and this it looks upon. And ALWAYS whom it thus diminishes would be your Savior, had you not chosen to make of him
Continue reading →Love IS extension. To withhold the smallest gift is not to know love’s purpose. Love offers everything forever. Hold back but ONE belief, ONE offering, and love is gone, because you asked a substitute to take its place. And now must war, the SUBSTITUTE for peace, come with the one alternative that you CAN choose for love. Your CHOOSING it has given it ALL the reality it seems to have.
Continue reading →To learn this course requires willingness to question EVERY value that you hold. Not one can be kept hidden and obscure, but it will jeopardize your learning. NO belief is neutral; every one has power to dictate each decision you make. For a decision is a CONCLUSION, based on EVERYTHING that you believe. It is the OUTCOME of belief, and follows it as surely as does suffering follow guilt,
Continue reading →Think you the FORM that murder takes can offer safety? Can guilt be ABSENT from a battlefield? The fear of God is fear of life, and not of death. Yet He remains the only place of safety. In Him is no attack, and no illusion in any form stalks Heaven. Heaven is wholly true. No difference enters. And what is all the same cannot conflict. You are not asked to fight against your wish to murder.
Continue reading →Is it not true you do not recognize some of the forms attack can take? If it is true attack in any form will hurt you, and will do so just as much as in another form which you DO recognize, then it must follow that you do not always recognize the source of pain. Attack in ANY form is equally destructive. Its purpose does not change. Its sole intent is murder, and what form of murder serves to cover
Continue reading →The “laws of chaos” can be brought to light, though never understood. Chaotic laws are hardly meaningful, and therefore out of reason’s sphere. Yet they appear to constitute an obstacle to reason and to truth. Let us, then, look upon them calmly, that we may look beyond them, understanding what they are, not what they would maintain. It is essential it be understood what they are for,
Continue reading →The memory of God comes to the quiet mind. It cannot come where there is conflict, for a mind at war against itself remembers not eternal gentleness. The means of war are not the means of peace. And what the warlike would remember is not love. War is impossible unless belief in victory is cherished. Conflict within you must imply that you believe the ego has the power
Continue reading →Do you not see the opposite of frailty and weakness is sinlessness? Innocence is strength, and nothing else is strong. The sinless cannot fear. And fear of any kind is weakness. The show of strength attack would use to cover frailty, conceals it not. For how can the unreal be hidden? No-one is strong who has an enemy. And no-one can attack, unless he thinks he has.
Continue reading →Do you want freedom of the body, or of the mind? For both you cannot have. Which do you value? Which is your goal? For one you see as means; the other, end. And one must serve the other, and lead to its predominance, increasing its importance by diminishing its own. Means serve the end, and as the end is reached, the value of the means decreases, and is eclipsed entirely
Continue reading →How does one overcome illusions? Surely not by force or anger. Nor by opposing them in any way. Merely by letting reason tell you that they CONTRADICT reality. They go against what must be true. The opposition comes from them, and not reality. Reality opposes nothing. What merely is, needs no defense, and offers none. Only illusions need defense, because of weakness.
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