I will be still today and listen to the truth.
1. If you set aside the ego’s voice today, no matter how loudly it may seem to call to you,
²If you do not accept its petty gifts that bring you nothing you really want,
³If you listen with an open mind that does not tell itself what salvation is,
⁴Then you will hear the mighty Voice of truth: quiet in Its power, strong in Its stillness, and absolutely certain in Its messages. I
⁵Listen—and hear your Father speak to you through the Voice He appointed, which silences the meaningless and shows the way to peace to those who cannot see.
2. Be still today and listen to the truth. II
²Do not be fooled by the voices of the dead, who claim to bring you life and offer it to you as if you should believe in them. III
³Pay them no heed.
⁴Listen to the truth.
⁵Be not afraid today to bypass the voices of the world.
⁶Walk lightly past their meaningless persuasion.
⁷Do not listen.
3. Be still today and listen to the truth.
²Go past all things that do not speak of Him Who holds your happiness within His Hand, and offers it to you in love and welcome.
³Listen to Him alone today.
⁴Delay no longer in going to Him.
⁵Listen today to one Voice alone.
4. Today the promise of God’s Word is kept.
²Listen in silence.
³He will speak to you.
⁴He comes with miracles a thousand times more joyful and more wonderful than anything you ever dreamed or wished for in your dreams.
⁵His miracles are true.
⁶They will not fade when dreaming ends.
⁷For they are the ones that end the dream and last forever, sent from God to His beloved Son—whose other name is what you are.
⁸Prepare yourself today for miracles.
⁹Let the ancient promise of your Father be fulfilled today, to you and all your brothers.
5. Hear Him today, and listen to the Word that lifts the veil that covers earth, and wakes all those who sleep and cannot see.
²God calls to them through you.
³He needs your voice to speak to them, for who but your Father could reach His Son except by calling to him through your Self?
6. Hear Him today, and offer Him your voice to speak to all the multitudes who wait to hear the Word He will speak today.
²Be ready for salvation.
³It is here, and it will be given you today.
⁴And you will learn your function from the One Who chose it in God’s Name for you.
7. Listen today, and you will hear a Voice that echoes through the world through you.
²The Bearer of all miracles needs you to first receive them, so you may become the joyous giver of what you received.
³This is how salvation begins, and this is how it ends:
⁴When all is yours, and all is given away,
it remains with you forever.
⁵And thus you learn the lesson. IV
8. Today we practice what it means to give, not in the way you understand it now, but as it truly is.
²Begin each hour’s exercise with this request for enlightenment:
³I will be still today and listen to the truth.
⁴What does it mean to give and to receive?
⁵Ask, and expect an answer.
⁶The answer to your asking has been waiting long to come to you.
⁷With this answer begins the ministry for which you came to this world, and which will set it free from thinking giving is a way to lose.
⁸And thus the world is made ready to understand and to receive.
9. Be still today and listen to the truth.
²For each five minutes that you spend in listening, a thousand minds are opened to the truth, and they will hear the holy Word you hear.
³And when the hour passes, you will once again release a thousand more who pause to ask that truth be given them, as you receive it now. V
10. Today, the holy Word of God is kept, for you receive it to give it, so you may teach the world what giving means—by listening and learning it from Him.
²Do not forget today to reinforce your choice to listen and receive the Word by repeating to yourself as often as you can:
³I will be still today and listen to the truth.
⁴I am God’s messenger today.
⁵My voice is His, to give what I receive.
I Jesus has just made you a very interesting proposal. He tells you that if you turn a deaf ear to the voice of the ego, you will hear the Voice of your Father—the Voice of Truth. Stop for a moment. Let us see what we are talking about.
By now you will have practiced a little of what the Course calls “mental vigilance,” and you will have begun to learn how to identify the voice of your ego. It is that voice which articulates all your desires and all your fears, no matter whether they are great or small, mild or intense; all of that is part of the voice of your ego. And you will also have realized by now that this is your usual mental state, which means that you hear the voice of your ego constantly and probably pay attention to it most of the time.
Let us do the math. If you hear the voice of your ego many times per minute—which is certainly true—it means that you hear it thousands of times a day. Multiply that, and throughout your life you may have heard the ego’s proposals more than a hundred million times. Think about what that represents, and realize that you should not take lightly what the ego is doing with your mind. If you truly want to hear the Word of God, you must understand the kind of opposition the Voice of the Holy Spirit faces within you. Jesus does not offer you much; Jesus offers you everything. But become fully aware of the challenge before you.
This Course speaks constantly of forgiveness. It urges you to forgive your brother, to forgive the world, to forgive yourself—to forgive everything and everyone, all the time. The truth is that it may seem like there are countless different kinds of forgiveness. Do not be mistaken. Simplify: the only thing you have to forgive—to let pass—is the voice of your ego. Do not concern yourself with your brothers, or your problems, or your circumstances; in truth you do not know what they are, because you do not see them as they truly are. What you are dealing with are only your interpretations, and that is precisely the voice of the ego. That is the only thing you have to forgive.
Observe carefully and you will see where the problem truly lies. Certainly it is not in the world you see outside. The problem is always found in your problematic interpretations. The problem is what Jesus calls “the voice of the ego.” That is what you must forgive—but do not be overwhelmed. Now, at least, you have simplified the problem. Now you have only one problem. Celebrate it! For now you need only one solution—and you already know it: you need only stop paying attention to the voice of the ego. Nothing else.
However, telling you not to do something is a negative statement, and like everything negative, it can be discouraging. You may have felt your heart sink a little when you heard that you must not listen to that voice which has spoken to you and will speak to you so many times. Do not be distressed; it need not be so. This is an extraordinarily positive Course. In fact, it is so positive that it tells you that the negative does not truly exist, and therefore you need neither fear it nor attend to it. Remember, “…nothing real can be threatened. Nothing unreal exists. Herein lies the peace of God.”
II Psalm 46:10 “Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.”
III Matthew 8:18–22 “When Jesus saw the great crowds around Him, He gave orders to cross to the other side of the lake. Then a teacher of the law came to Him and said, ‘Teacher, I will follow You wherever You go.’ Jesus replied, ‘Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay His head.’ Another disciple said to Him, ‘Lord, first let me go and bury my father.’ But Jesus told him, ‘Follow Me, and let the dead bury their own dead.’”
IV This is the second part of today’s Lesson: listen to the Truth. This is the positive part—the only part that truly exists. You need only quiet your mind so that the truth may reveal itself. Do not be afraid. You need do nothing—simply listen in the silence of your mind. Quiet your mind and trust. Do nothing more, and wait in happiness.
And this is the truth; this is the holy Lesson that ends the greed of the ego, the mother of all perversions. Giving is the greatest happiness, for giving is loving, and loving is being love—and to Be, to Know, and to Create—and there is nothing greater than that, nothing you long for more, nothing you deserve more. You are love, born of Love. You were created to love… and you had forgotten it… though only to a certain extent, for, without being aware of it, that is exactly what you have always been seeking among illusions.
Do you see that this is the Truth? And do you see that to recognize it is salvation?
V Jesus has told you that your mission is very simple and very easy: you have come into this world to save it, for you are the savior of the world. Do you see now how easy it is? You need only quiet your mind to know the truth! And to know the truth is to save the world.
You need do nothing more. The rest will be done for you, through you, and because of you. Pay no attention to the ego. Quiet your mind, hear the Truth, and save the world.