Now will I seek and find the Peace of God.
1. In Peace I was created.
²And in Peace I remain.
³I cannot change my Self.
⁴How merciful is my Father, God, who gave me eternal Peace when He created me!
⁵Now I ask only to be what I am.
⁶How could this be denied me, when it is forever true? I
2. Father,
I seek the Peace You gave me to be mine when You created me.
²What You gave then must be here now,
for my creation took place outside of time,
and remains unchanged.
³The Peace in which Your Son was born in Your Mind is still there, shining undisturbed.
⁴I am as You created me.
⁵I need only call on You to find the Peace You gave.
⁶Your Will bestowed it on Your Son.
I This Course is, in essence, a manual for dealing with illusions, and above all, for transforming the most significant of them all: the idea you hold of yourself. That is its fundamental purpose. Its work is humble, for it operates only within the realm of illusion, and all that it teaches has no necessity whatsoever in reality.
Jesus is the teacher of the ego, and his pupil is nothing but an illusion. Yet you, who identify completely with a false image of yourself—one that makes you suffer, seek comfort, and cling to pleasures—need a guide who can respond to your longings, even though they are, in truth, unfounded and inappropriate.
The Son of God needs nothing; the ego does. As long as your mind is not at rest and you remain afraid, you will continue to pursue a personal salvation that is, ultimately, impossible, because you are not a person. You are the perfect Son of God who forgot to laugh at an absurd idea that crossed his holy mind, and who, by taking it seriously, invented time, space, and material things to give substance to an impossible condition.
You, ego, possess the unlimited power of your beliefs to build a personal, illusory world from which you cannot escape while you refuse to release it. That world does not exist, yet you cherish it deeply because you yourself engendered it, and that bond makes you cling to it tightly.
In the midst of this hopeless situation, Jesus proposes that you adopt new beliefs that will lead you to awaken to your true identity. Understand, however, that everything you believe or do takes place—or rather seems to take place—within the realm of illusion.
To awaken, it is essential that you change the idea you have of yourself and begin to align it with the truth. No belief you can hold—no matter how holy it may seem—will ever be strictly true, because every belief is concrete and your reality is infinite. Nevertheless, choosing beliefs that come closer to the truth is the best you can do within your impossible situation.
The strategy is simple: what makes you feel good is good; what makes you feel bad is bad. Practice what is good and avoid what is bad. Could anything be simpler than that?
In this world you will find many things that reflect the Love of Heaven: celebrate them and give thanks for them. You will also face situations where love seems absent: forgive them and bring to them all the love you can.
Walk your path in peace, with dignity and certainty. Whatever happens and whatever you may believe, you are and will always be the beloved Son of God. The Peace you seek is not something you must conquer, but something to be recognized, for it was given you from the beginning and remains intact within you.
Now I will seek and find the Peace of God.
That Peace has always been within me.
That Peace is what I am.