God is only Love, therefore, that is what I am.

1. W-157 “Into His Presence would I enter now.” ^I

God is only Love, therefore, that is what I am.

2. W-158 “Today I learn to give as I receive.” ^II

God is only Love, therefore, that is what I am.

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^I Father, I want to be with You!

^II My happiness is to give the love I feel and the light that illumines my mind.

This is about vision, not analysis. Jesus is not speaking of a lovely light or a spiritual metaphor. He is speaking of a direct experience that has nothing to do with the eyes of the body. To see the light of God is not an image—it is a certainty. It is not manufactured; it is received. But to receive it, one must stop seeing in the usual way. That is, one must stop interpreting.

For to see as God sees is not to understand things better, nor to be more loving. It is to cease looking from the ego’s thought system—plain and simple. As long as perception is tainted by judgment, you see nothing. You see forms, labels, stories. You see what you yourself are projecting. But light does not enter through that. Light is recognized only when you no longer need to see anything else.

And the same is true of giving. Learning to give as you receive is not about being generous—it is about realizing that you already have everything. Then you do not give to get, nor to ease guilt. You give because you know you lose nothing by giving. For the miracle is not given from lack, but from recognition.

Do you want to see? Then stop interpreting. Because as long as you keep trying to understand everything, you will see nothing.

God is only Love, therefore, that is what I am.

1. W-155 “I will step back and let Him lead the way.” ^I

God is only Love, therefore, that is what I am.

2. W-156 “I walk with God in perfect holiness.” ^II

God is only Love, therefore, that is what I am.

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^I My only responsibility is to listen to my Father’s Will.

“I will step back and let Him lead the way,” and “I walk with God in perfect holiness.” Two ideas that disarm the ego’s arrogance: the task is not to build the path, nor to understand it, nor even to choose it. It is to step aside. The true act of spiritual power is to withdraw.

The ego wants to lead the journey, control the narrative, correct the script. But the path is not invented; it is already laid out in God’s memory, and walking it requires not skill but surrender. That is why Jesus does not say, “Find the way,” but rather, “Let it be shown to you.” The guide has already been appointed, and He is only waiting to be given space.

The second part is even more radical: we not only walk with God, but we do so “in perfect holiness.” That phrase is not an aspiration—it is a description. It does not say we will become holy, but that we already are. Yet as long as one believes that home lies outside—in relationships, achievements, or understanding—one will continue to lose the way.

These ideas do not promise a better future; they reveal a forgotten present. And to remember it, one need only release the role of guide, judge, and protagonist. Home is not built; it is remembered. And that remembrance begins when one is willing to stop searching for it.

^II I am the holy Son of God.

God is only Love, therefore, that is what I am.

1. W-153 “In my defenselessness my safety lies.” ^I

God is only Love, therefore, that is what I am.

2. W-154 “I am among the ministers of God.” ^II

God is only Love, therefore, that is what I am.

---

^I When I do not defend myself, I feel strong and safe.

The idea that “in my defenselessness my safety lies” is not only counterintuitive—it is shocking to the ego’s thought system. Yet it is also the core of the undoing path the Course proposes. To defend oneself is to affirm that there is something external that can cause harm, and therefore that the Son of God is vulnerable, fragile, incomplete. All of that is false, and yet it is fiercely defended.

Defense is a declaration of faith in danger, a private ritual in which fear is confirmed as reality. But what seems like protection is in fact a prison. He who defends himself entrenches himself; and he who entrenches himself becomes isolated. True safety does not come from controlling the environment, but from remembering that there is no environment separate from the mind. Therefore, nothing can attack what has not first attacked itself.

To this is added a second powerful idea: “I give the miracles I have received.” Here the Course introduces a principle of spiritual circulation. The miracle is not retained; it is given. And in the giving, its presence in the giver is strengthened. It is a circuit of grace, not of accumulation. The miracle is not an object nor an achievement; it is a way of seeing that is preserved only to the extent that it is shared.

Taken together, this lesson proposes a radical shift of identity: to cease being the one who protects himself and become the one who trusts. To abandon the fear of loss and embrace the certainty of having already been made whole. The ego calls this madness. Jesus calls it salvation.

^II I am very fortunate. I now know my Father’s Will, I live it within me, and I carry His Word to my brothers through my happiness.

Introduction

1. We now begin a new review.^I

²We are now better prepared to give more effort and more time to what we are undertaking.

³We are aware that we are preparing ourselves for another level of understanding.^II

⁴We want to take this step with determination, so that we may move forward with greater certainty, deeper sincerity, and a firmer faith.

⁵Our steps have been unsteady so far, and doubt has made our journey along the path this Course sets forth slow and uncertain.

⁶But now we will move faster, for we are gaining greater certainty, a more solid purpose, and a clearer vision of our goal.

2. God is only Love, therefore, that is what I am.^III

²This is the thought that must precede the ideas we are about to review.

³Each one clarifies some aspect of this thought, or helps to make it more meaningful, more personal and true, and more descriptive of the holy Self we share and are now preparing to know again.

⁴Only this Self knows Love.

⁵Only this Self is perfectly consistent in Its thoughts, knows Its Creator, understands Itself, possesses perfect Knowledge and Love, and never strays from Its constant state of union with Its Father and with Itself.

3. And This is what awaits us at the end of the journey.

²Each step we take brings us a little closer.

³This review will shorten time immeasurably if we keep in mind that This remains our goal, and that as we practice, it is to This that we draw near.

⁴Let us lift our hearts from the dust to Life, remembering that this is what has been promised us, and that this Course was sent to us to clear the path of light and teach us, step by step, how to return to the Eternal Self we thought we had lost.

4. I walk with you on this journey.

²For a brief while, I share your doubts and your fears, that you might come to Me, Who knows the way beyond all fear and doubt.

³We walk together.

⁴I truly understand your uncertainty and your pain, though I know they are without meaning.

⁵Yet a savior must remain with those he teaches, seeing what they see, while holding in his mind the way that led him to his own release, and that will now bring you to yours, along with him.

⁶The Son of God remains crucified until you walk this path with Me.^IV

5. My resurrection is renewed each time I lead a brother safely to the place where the journey ends and is forgotten.

²I am made new each time a brother learns that there is a way out of suffering and pain.

³And I am reborn each time a brother’s mind turns toward the light within him and seeks Me.

⁴I have forgotten no one.

⁵Help Me now to guide you back to where the journey began, so that you may make another choice with Me.

6. Free Me by once again practicing the thoughts I brought you from the One Who sees your bitter need and knows the Answer God has given Him.

²Together we will review these thoughts.

³Together we will devote our time and effort to them.

⁴And together we will teach them to our brothers.

⁵God would not allow Heaven to be incomplete.

⁶Heaven awaits you, as do I.

⁷Without you I am incomplete.

⁸And in completing Myself through you, we will return together to our ancient home, prepared for us before time was, and kept unchanged, immaculate, and safe, just as it will be when time is over.

7. Let this review, then, be the gift you give to Me.

²For I need only that you hear My words and offer them to the world.

³You are My voice, My eyes, My feet, and My hands.

⁴And through them I can bring salvation to the world.

⁵The Self from which I call to you is but your Own.

⁶To Him we go together.

⁷Take your brother by the hand, for we do not walk this path alone.

⁸In your brother, I walk with you, and you with Me.

⁹Our Father’s Will is that His Son be One with Him.

¹⁰Then how could everything that lives not also be one with you?

8. Let this review become a time in which we share an experience that is new to you, but as ancient as time itself—and even older still.

²Hallowed be your name.^V

³And your glory forever unstained.

⁴Your wholeness is now complete, just as God established it.

⁵You are His Son, and in completing your wholeness you complete His Extension.

⁶We are merely practicing an ancient truth we knew before the illusion seemed to claim the world.

⁷And we remind the world that it is free of every illusion each time we say:

⁸God is only Love, therefore, that is what I am.

9. With this we begin our review each day.

²With this we start and end each practice period.

³And with these words we go to sleep, to awaken once again with them upon our lips and greet the day anew.

⁴We will review the two ideas for the day, always accompanied by this thought, and we will use them to keep it present in our mind and clear in our memory throughout the day.^VI

⁵And so, when we have completed this review, we will understand that these words are true.

10. But the words are only aids, and should be used at the beginning and end of each practice period only to remind the mind of its purpose, if needed.

²For our faith will come from what we experience as we practice, and not from the means we use to reach that experience.

³We await it eagerly, knowing that only through that experience is conviction born.

⁴We use the words while constantly seeking the meaning that lies beyond them and beyond their sound.

⁵As we draw near the Source of all meaning, the sound of words grows faint and disappears.

⁶And there we find our rest.

11. Our Father,

steady our steps,

calm our doubts,

quiet our holy minds,

and speak to us.

²We say nothing to You,

for we only want to hear Your Word and make it ours.

³Guide our practicing,

as a father guides his little child along a way he does not understand.

⁴Yet the child walks safely because his father shows the way.

⁵Thus we give our practicing to You.

⁶And if we stumble,

You will lift us up.

⁷If we forget the way,

we count on You to call it back to us.

⁸And if we stray,

You will not cease to call us to return again.

⁹Now quicken our steps,

that we may walk more surely and more swiftly unto You.

¹⁰And we accept the Word You offer us to unify our practicing,

as we review the thoughts that You have given us.

¹¹Amen.

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^I This Fifth Review was dictated on May 11, 1970.

^II The new “level of understanding” refers to Part II of theWorkbook. In this review, therefore, we continue the preparation for Part II that began in the Fourth Review.

^III This edition of theCourse, unlike all others—even the Notes and the Urtext—moves this line to the beginning of the paragraph and places at the end of the Section the beautiful Lord’s Prayer that precedes it, in order to achieve greater discursive consistency.

1 John 4:16 “So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.”

^IV It is important to be aware that thisCourse is profoundly symbolic in form. It teaches the Truth, and Truth is ineffable; in the ultimate sense, it cannot be put into words. The personal mind with which you have identified yourself understands only the concrete, for it chose to be concrete and limited. Therefore, that mind understands only words that tell stories you can comprehend.

Be completely assured that, for a time, it will greatly help you to contemplate Jesus as a character like yourself, walking with you on the path to awakening—and, in a certain sense, that is true. The emotional connection you establish with that figure, so familiar and so easy to love, will help you immensely; it will sustain and comfort you. At times you may wonder what supernatural powers Jesus must have to be able to be with you all the time while fulfilling the same function for the rest of your brothers. And then, perhaps, doubts will assail you that such a thing could be possible.

It is essential that you understand that the mind of Jesus, who dictates this Course, is a mind permanently miraculous and real, whereas the mind with which you have identified yourself is not. Yet you exist—you are real—and your true mind is also real. That real mind, or as Jesus calls it in this Course, the real part of your mind, is the same real mind you share with Jesus. How, then, could Jesus not accompany you at all times on this journey of illumination? That real mind to which you are returning is the Self that is within you, within him, and within all your brothers—and that Self is the only Reality.

^V Matthew 6:9 “Therefore, pray like this: ‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.’”

^VI This Fifth Review is very similar to the previous one. The practice consists of spending an extended period with God twice a day—morning and evening. If the evening meditation is difficult for you because you are sleepy, it is better to do it in the afternoon, after finishing your day and before dinner. In any case, do not forget to dedicate your last thoughts to God as you go to bed.

Each of these two meditations begins and ends by repeating the central thought: God is but Love, and therefore so am I. Then you slowly state the two ideas of the day and simply allow them to sink into your mind. You do not have to do anything else. Simply think that these ideas are true, and try to live them throughout the day. Approach every situation you encounter with the spirit they inspire in you, and pay close attention to what happens—you will be surprised.

Without making any effort, let your behavior align itself with these ideas. Live as if they were fully functional and completely operative within you; with time, you will notice that your life ceases to unfold as if and begins instead to move in perfect harmony with them. You will see that you have changed, that your life has changed, and that what seems to happen to you has changed as well.

Throughout this process, make your only effort that of following the instructions as faithfully as possible regarding the practice periods and frequent reminders during the day. But make absolutely no effort to believe the ideas. It is unnecessary and can even be counterproductive. It is enough to trust that you are taking a course in mind training that will prove extraordinarily effective and healing. Always trust, but never strain to believe.

Do not strive either to do anything special during the longer meditations. These are periods in which the mind rests happily and confidently in God. It is a time to enjoy peace and allow your heart to be kindled with love. It is not work at all; rather, it is precisely the opposite. These must become moments that your mind remembers, values, and seeks with great delight. If you do this well, they will become the best moments of your day, and you will wonder how it is that everyone does not do the same.

In time, being with God will become natural to you, and, without realizing it, you will become a Creature of God, walking untroubled through a world of illusions, spreading blessings, and fulfilling the role your Father assigned you: to be happy and to make happy.

Jesus does not ask here for an academic review or mechanical repetition. What he proposes is a training in inner receptivity: to release control, to cease manufacturing meaning, and to allow significance to arise from another place. This Fifth Review is, above all, an invitation to listen.

Each day two key ideas are reviewed, and we are reminded that the goal is not to understand them but to allow them to act. Jesus speaks of offering them “with total confidence,” without effort. And that is the challenge: to let go of the compulsion to understand so that truth may reveal itself. This is a space of silence, not of analysis.

The text insists: there is nothing to prepare. One need only come to the altar with empty hands and a willing mind. That is why this review is not addressed to the intellect but to the part of the mind that is ready to remember. Here, the aim is not information but transformation.

LESSON 171

God is only Love, therefore, that is what I am.

1. W-151 “All things are echoes of the Voice for God.” ^I

God is only Love, therefore, that is what I am.

2. W-152 “I have the power to choose.” ^II

God is only Love, therefore, that is what I am.

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^I You can hear the echo of God’s Voice in everything around you—if that is what you want to hear, for remember the law of perception: you see what you want to see and you hear what you want to hear.

This review joins two powerful ideas: “If I so desire, I can hear the Voice of God in all things,” and “It is I who decide what to hear.” Both point in the same direction: everything that is experienced arises from an inner choice. There is no “objective” perception; everything that is seen and interpreted is the exact reflection of the voice one has chosen to listen to.

The power of decision is not a gentle metaphor; it is a radical declaration: if one is suffering, it is because one has chosen suffering. And if one desires peace, it is available right now—without conditions. But accepting this is dizzying, for it destroys victimhood and leaves the mind without excuses. There are no valid justifications left—only choice. You alone are responsible for your emotional states.

Here defense appears as the ego’s central mechanism. Every time something is defended—an idea, an emotion, an image—it is because one is trying to uphold a false perception. Jesus makes it clear: defense is a form of attack, and every form of attack is an attempt to deny the truth. And what is truly being defended? The separated self—the thought system that justifies fear, guilt, and projection.

This review invites you to completely reverse that dynamic. If everything reflects the Voice that speaks for God, then there is nothing to defend against. On the contrary, every experience, even one that seems painful, can be transformed into a message of love if you choose the right teacher to interpret it.

The way is not to improve the world—the one your ego has interpreted for you—but to change interpreters. And that requires only one thing: to want to hear the Voice of God more than you want to justify pain and anger. From the ego’s standpoint—that is, from your point of view—it is not easy, but it is simple. And it is within reach of anyone who decides to stop defending and take responsibility for what he sees. For peace comes when there is nothing left to defend.

^II For the love of God! How could you not have it? You can decide whatever you wish; in fact, that is what your will is. But choose well.

There is no cruelty in God, and none in me.

1. No one attacks without the intent to hurt.

²There are no exceptions to this.

³When you believe you attack in self-defense, you are affirming that cruelty protects you and keeps you safe.

⁴This means you believe that harming another sets you free.

⁵And that in attacking, your condition improves, and you become more secure and safe from threats and fear.

2. How insane is the idea that attack could shield you from fear!

²For it is attack that breeds fear, and nourishes it with blood to swell and rage and make it grow.

³You do not escape from fear by attack—you guarantee its presence.

⁴Today we learn a lesson that can save you more delay and needless misery than you can possibly imagine.

⁵And it is this:

⁶You make what you defend against.

⁷And by your defense against it, you make it real and inescapable.

⁸Lay down your arms.

⁹Then only will you see it was not real.

3. You believe you attack an enemy outside yourself.

²Yet as you defend yourself, you make an enemy within.

³An alien thought at war with you, dividing your mind into two camps that seem completely irreconcilable.

⁴For Love, your real Self, now has an “enemy,” a supposed opposite.

⁵And fear, the stranger, now requires your defense against the threat that what you really are presents to it.

⁶If you examined the means by which your fancied self-defense proceeds along its imagined path, you would perceive the premises on which the idea that fear protects you rests.^I

4. First, it is obvious ideas must leave their source.

²For you are the one who attacks, and must have first conceived of the attack.

³Yet what you attack is outside you, separated from your mind by space and time.

⁴You then attribute to it the attributes of Love—

⁵for fear becomes your safety, and protector of your peace.

⁶You turn to it for comfort, and for rest, and to relieve your doubt about your strength, and hope that it will give you quiet sleep.

⁷You strip Love of all its attributes and make it fear’s servant, and its slave.

5. Love asks you to lay down all defense, as merely foolish.^II

²And your weapons fall away to dust.

³For that is what they are.

⁴With Love as enemy, must cruelty become a god.

⁵And gods demand that those who worship them obey their dictates, and refuse to question them.

⁶Harsh punishment is meted out relentlessly to those who ask if those demands are sensible or even sane.

⁷Their enemies are always those who try to see another point of view, and they are always right, because they are merciful and just.

6. Today we look upon this god of cruelty objectively.

²And we note that, though his lips are stained with blood and fire seems to rage around him, he is but a carved idol, made of stone.

³He has no power.

⁴He does nothing.

⁵We need not challenge him.

⁶For he has no might.

⁷And those who see in him their safety have no guardian, no strength to call upon in danger, and no mighty warrior to fight for them.

7. This moment can be terrible.

²But it can also be your liberation.

³You make a choice, standing before this idol, seeing it exactly as it is.

⁴Will you return to Love what you sought to take from it and give to this cruel image?

⁵Or will you make another idol to replace it?

⁶For the god of cruelty takes many forms.

⁷You can always find another.

8. But do not think that fear is the way to escape from fear.

²Remember what the Course has said in the Text about the obstacles to peace.^III

³The final one, the hardest to believe is nothing—the solid wall, impenetrable, fearful, and beyond surmounting—is the fear of God Himself.^IV

⁴This is the basic premise which makes the idea of fear a god.

⁵For those who worship fear are really in love with cruelty.

⁶And Love now seems to be invested with cruelty.

9. Where does the totally insane belief in gods of vengeance come from?

²Love has not confused its attributes with fear’s.

³But those who worship fear must see their own confusion in “the enemy” of fear—

⁴and its cruelty as now a part of Love.

⁵What, then, could be more fearful than the Heart of Love Itself?

⁶Its holy lips, now stained with blood; its fire a searing flame of hate.

⁷God has become what you would have Him be: the source of fear, the Avenger of your sins.^V

⁸The executioner who slaughters with His wrath the Son whom He created as Himself.

10. You who believe that God is cruel must now decide if you will keep this image that you made.

²One last time you look upon this bit of stone you made and call it god no longer.

³You have reached this place before, but you chose that this cruel god remain with you in another form.

⁴And so the fear of God returned with you.

⁵This time you leave it there.

⁶And you return to a new world, unburdened by its weight.

⁷Behold it now with eyes that see—

⁸and look upon the world with vision that your choice has given back to you.

11. Now your sight belongs to Christ, and He looks through you.

²Now your voice belongs to God and echoes His.

³And now your heart remains at peace forever.

⁴You have chosen God in place of idols, and your attributes, given you by your Creator, are restored to you at last.

⁵You have heard God’s Call, and you have answered.

⁶Now fear has given way to Love, as God Himself replaces cruelty.

12. Father, we are like You.

²In us there is no cruelty,

for there is none in You.

³Your Peace is ours,

and we bless the world with what we have received from You alone.

⁴We choose again, and choose in favor of all our brothers,

knowing they are one with us.

⁵We bring them Your salvation, as we have received it now.

⁶And we give thanks for them who make us whole.

⁷In them we see Your Glory,

and in them we find our peace.

⁸We are holy because Your Holiness has set us free.

⁹And we give thanks to You.

¹⁰Amen.

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^I If fear is justified, love makes no sense. It is impossible to fear and to love; love and hate cannot coexist. Where one is, the other is not.

You may feel fear—and it is understandable that you do not wish for that experience—but you must know that you cannot simply rid yourself of fear by wishing it away. That is impossible. There is no state or condition devoid of both fear and love. None. You cannot replace fear with nothing, for nothing is merely another form of fear.

When we consider fear and love from an ontological point of view, we are looking at what exists and what does not exist, the real and the illusory, the present and the absent. Love is one of the three aspects of Being, and therefore it is what exists—the only thing that exists. Fear is not a fact nor an entity, but a consideration: the consideration of an absence, a whim of a sick mind.

You will say, and rightly, that fear is very real in your life. But perhaps you have not stopped to question whether your life itself is real. Of course, you take that for granted, yet this Course tells you in a thousand different ways that it is not so: your only real life is the one you share with God. Everything else is fantasy—and take no offense at that, for this is precisely the happy news, the gospel of Jesus: “My Kingdom is not of this world.”

The ultimate cause of all your fears is your insistence on being right when you assert that the latest foolish idea to cross your mind is true. It is not. But your stubbornness in believing your own fantasies always ends up trapping you. When you feel fear, realize that the feeling is the logical conclusion of a delusional story you have told yourself. Notice how many things you have had to assume as true in order to reach that dreadful ending. None of them are true, but for you they are—and pity the one who contradicts you, for you will instantly turn him into your enemy, believing he threatens those precious offspring born of a deranged mind.

Fear is certainly justified if the world you see is real and functions as you believe it does. You cannot escape fear without questioning your way of seeing the world. Quite simply, it is impossible.

This Course rests on accepting a very simple idea: there must be another way of seeing all this. Until the mind sincerely opens to that possibility, nothing can be done. But it is equally true that once it does, the way is cleared for a mind willing to learn and to change.

Cruelty is not in the world, but in the perception that projects fear upon it. This Lesson dismantles with precision the false logic of the ego that attacks in order to defend. In reality, every attack reveals a prior choice: the choice to see threat, to believe in separation, to fear Love.

Jesus leaves no ambiguity: defense does not protect you from fear—it perpetuates it. If something seems threatening, it is because it has first been judged so. Therefore, the only sane response is gentleness—not as passivity, but as power that has no need to be right. Gentleness is not weakness; it is spiritual lucidity, the strength that lies in defenselessness, the strength of one who no longer sees any need to judge.

To accept that in God there is no cruelty is to accept that in oneself there is none either. And that disarms any temptation to project guilt, attack, or punishment. Innocence is not built; it is revealed when you stop attending to and subscribing to the ego’s interpretations of reality.

^II You will not eliminate fear from your life unless you replace it with love. In truth, you are not replacing one thing with another, for fear is merely the absence of love. You are simply addressing a lack and placing love where it was indeed missing.

If you want never to feel fear again, love. There is no other way. Nothing else will work. But it is equally true that once you love, it will be impossible ever again to know fear. Understand that when you are asked to love, you are not being asked for anything extraordinary; you are merely being urged to be yourself—to live—for to exist is to live, and life is love, and fear is but the absence of life. If you fear death, for example, do not worry in the least, for that only means you are not truly alive at all. Then why should death concern you? What makes you think you live now? What do you fear losing? Are you afraid of losing the fear you now feel? Do you not see that this is madness?

Remember: if you want to stop being afraid, you must stop believing that what you think is true. Do not feel insulted by this. This Workbook told you so right at the beginning. In Lesson 10 you learned: “My thoughts mean nothing.” Realize that this Course is utterly rational, built on true premises that lead to certain and demonstrable conclusions. The decisive proof is that it can completely transform your life and make you happy. But you must be very honest and consistent with its principles.

When you feel fear, acknowledge it, but do not accept or justify it, for that fear will lead you to anger, cruelty, and attack. None of that is justified, nor can it ever be, because it is based on false premises you have accepted with excessive naïveté. When you feel fear, think that there must be another way of seeing that situation, and ask to be shown what it is. Then quiet your mind completely and listen. The answer is there even before you ask. Perhaps you do not yet have the mastery to hear clearly the Voice of the Holy Spirit—which is your own—but by now you certainly should have enough to begin listening, and the result will not be long in coming.

When that happens, your life will not be perfect, for you will likely discover with surprise that you still choose to go your own way rather than follow the guidance of One who knows what is best for you. But now you will know with certainty that happiness is within reach, and that only fleeting impulses to continue your old habit of wanting to be right stand between you and it.

Today, too, is your lucky day, for today’s Lesson ends with a beautiful prayer—one you have surely earned.

^III “The Obstacles to Peace” is Section IV of Chapter 19.

^IV The fear of God is the fourth and final obstacle to peace, and the hardest to overcome.

^V Deuteronomy 32:19–25 “The Lord saw it and spurned them, because of the provocation of His sons and His daughters. And He said: ‘I will hide My face from them, I will see what their end will be, for they are a perverse generation, children in whom is no faithfulness. They made Me jealous with what is no god; they provoked Me with their idols. So I will make them jealous with those who are no people; I will provoke them with a foolish nation. For a fire is kindled by My anger, and it burns to the depths of Sheol, devours the earth and its increase, and sets on fire the foundations of the mountains. I will heap disasters upon them; I will spend My arrows on them; they shall be wasted with hunger, devoured by plague and poisonous pestilence; I will send the teeth of beasts against them, with the venom of crawling things of the dust. Outside the sword shall bereave, and inside terror; it shall destroy both young man and virgin, the nursing child with the man of gray hairs.’”

With such literature, it is not difficult to understand how the fear of God arose. Do not inherit the ancestral fears of ancient devout peoples who confused their rightful longing with the idea they had of themselves.

By Grace I live. By Grace I am released.

1. Grace is the aspect of God’s Love most like the state prevailing in the Unity of Truth.

²It is the highest aspiration of the world, for it transcends it entirely.

³It is beyond all learning, yet the goal of learning, for Grace cannot come until the mind prepares itself to truly welcome it.

⁴Grace comes inevitably and instantly to those who have made a place for it to rest, a clean and holy altar where it is gently laid and gladly received.

2. Grace is the acceptance of the Love of God within a world of seeming hate and fear.

²It is the means by which hate is finally undone, and fear is overcome.

³It brings a state so different from anything the world contains, that those whose minds are lit by the gift of Grace cannot believe the world of fear is real.

3. Grace is not learned.^I

²The final step must go beyond all learning.

³Grace is not the goal this Course aspires to attain.

⁴Yet we prepare for it, for in an open mind it can be welcomed.

⁵A mind not closed to the Voice for God.

⁶A mind aware that it knows not, and therefore open to a state completely different from experience with which it is familiar.

4. Perhaps we seem to contradict our statement that the revelation that the Father and the Son are One has been already set.^II

²But we have also said the mind determines when that time will be, and has already done so.^III

³Yet we urge you to bear witness to the Word of God, to hasten the experience of truth, and speed its advent into every mind that recognizes its effects through you.^IV

5. Oneness is simply the idea God is.

²And in His Being, He encompasses all things.

³No mind holds anything but Him.

⁴We say “God is,” and then we cease to speak, for in that knowledge words are meaningless.

⁵There are no lips to speak them, and no part of the mind is distinct enough to feel it is aware of something not itself.

⁶It has united with its Source, and like its Source, it simply is.

6. We cannot speak, nor write, nor even think of this at all.

²It comes to every mind when total recognition that its will is God’s has been completely given and received entirely.

³It returns the mind to the eternal present, where the past and future cannot be conceived.

⁴It lies beyond salvation, past all thought of time, forgiveness, and the holy face of Christ.

⁵The Son of God has disappeared into His Father, as His Father has disappeared into Him.

⁶The world has never been at all.

⁷Eternity remains a constant state.

7. This is beyond experience we try to hasten.

²Yet forgiveness, taught and learned, brings with it the experiences that bear witness to the time the mind itself determined to abandon all but this.^V

³You do not hasten it, in that what you will offer was concealed from Him Who teaches what forgiveness means.

8. All learning was already in His Mind, accomplished and complete.

²He recognized all that time holds, and gave it to all minds that each might determine, from a point where time has ended, when it is released to revelation and eternity.

³We have repeated many times that you but undertake a journey that is over.^VI

9. For Oneness must be here and now.

²Whatever time the mind has set for revelation is irrelevant to what must be a constant state, forever as it always was and always will remain.

³We merely take the part assigned long since and fully recognized as perfectly fulfilled by Him Who wrote salvation’s script in His Creator’s Name and in the Name of His Son.

10. There is no need to further clarify what no one in the world can understand.

²When revelation comes, you will know and understand completely.

³But now we have a mission here.

⁴We are to speak the Word of God and heed the words which He Himself has given to explain the truth that what has happened is already done.

⁵But what meaning can the words convey to those who still count hours and rise, and work, and go to sleep by them?

11. It is enough to know you have a function here.

²You will know what it is, and understand it fully, when you no longer have need for learning.

³But for now, it does not matter.

⁴For your part is essential to God’s plan for salvation.

⁵Your acceptance of the role assigned to you brings salvation that much nearer to each heart that still beats in doubt, and does not yet join with God.

⁶Forgiveness is the central theme that runs throughout salvation.

⁷It holds all parts together in the meaning it has given them, and ensures the outcome.

12. And now we ask for Grace, the final gift salvation can bestow.

²Experience that Grace provides is temporary,

³for Grace is but a glimpse of Heaven, given for an instant, and then taken back beyond illusions to the Everlasting Truth.

⁴But this enough.

⁵It is this instant out of time that lifts you out of time for all eternity.

⁶Miracles lie in this interval.

⁷This you can give as you receive it.

⁸You will see the face of Christ in all you look upon once you have experienced the holy instant that Grace brings.

13. What is the face of Christ but he who went a moment into timelessness, and brought a clear reflection of the Unity he felt an instant back to bless the world?

²How 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? ^VII

14. Be grateful, then, and glad to give as you receive.

²It has not gone from you, though you may wander for a while.

³A gift you give returns to you again.

⁴The Grace you give has been accepted once again.

⁵And once you have received it, you will give it.

⁶So the circle closes, and the end of all things temporal is brought nearer to the timeless state.

15. What we ask today is what God has willed to be already ours.

²This is the prayer of the Sons of God:

³By Grace I live.

⁴By Grace I am released.

⁵By Grace I give.

⁶By Grace I will release.

---

^I Today brings another spectacular Lesson. How fortunate you are!

Realize that, as the saying goes, “All good things are free.” What is real cannot be attained through the means of the world, for they belong to entirely different realms: the real is real, and the world is an illusion. That is why Grace, the Voice of the Holy Spirit, the Power of God expressed in miracles, or even Revelation itself—which, ultimately, are but different terms referring to Reality—cannot be obtained through our efforts, for, as has already been said, those efforts are illusory, and so is the character who strives.

That spiritual seeker—whether a Christian ascetic, a Hindu sannyasi, or a student of this Course—is an illusory character in a fictional story. The world is an illusion, along with everything it contains, and all who believe they are in it are equally illusory. The paths of the world lead nowhere, because the world does not exist. Yet it is also true that these illusory travelers cry out desperately for means to escape their illusory afflictions, and thus the illusory comfort of the Atonement is given—the last illusion.

Notice that in this Course, verbs such as give, grant, and bestow are used to describe the interventions of the real into the dream of the world—whether in the form of God’s Gifts, Grace, or healing. This gives the impression of a sort of transfer from reality into illusion to supply some lack and improve it. In truth, that is not so, nor is that its purpose. You do not need to improve the world, but simply to recognize that it is not real, and that recognition is indeed healing and has a positive effect on the illusion. What are miracles, if not that? In any case, the goal is not to create happy characters living in a wonderful world, but to awaken to the realization that you are not a character; you are the Son of God and are not in any world, but in the Heart of your Father. Remember: “My Kingdom is not of this world.”

But that is not what the ego-bound mind desires, for such an awareness would annihilate once and for all the idea of having a personal identity—separate, independent, and autonomous—one that believes it moves according to its own will and makes its own plans. At times those plans appear noble and highly spiritual, and thus the ego embarks on a difficult journey of self-improvement that allows it to distinguish itself from its brothers, who are more “materialistic” than it, and through its own efforts and sacrifices, it imagines it ascends to God.

Such is the pitiful path walked by many sincere seekers of truth—but certainly those are not the plans the Holy Spirit has for you.

Look closely at what this Lesson says, and you will see that the key to liberation and to Grace lies in recognition and acceptance, not in effort. Yet, and here is the paradox, it seems you must strive greatly to learn that all effort is unnecessary. Therefore, strive diligently to fulfill your role impeccably, and be happy as your Father intended. Forgive, embody the living Word within yourself, and carry it to your brothers so that they may live again with you and through you.

Relax and trust. Purify your mind and align your will. But realize that it is impossible for you to obtain the Grace of God to free yourself from anything, for God already created you in Grace and by Grace, and so it has been and always will be. When you become aware of that, you may call it liberation, but it will be nothing other than realizing you have always been free and dwell within His Heart.

Grace is not a favor fallen from heaven upon a few chosen ones—it is the echo of your deepest desire. It is not a gift to be begged for, but a certainty to be accepted. The key lies in radical honesty: do you want it or not? For the only thing you truly have is your will. And if you truly want Grace, you will have to make room for it—you will have to clear your mental table and leave it free of the world’s crumbs.

This is not about “doing” anything, but about wanting something above all else. That will is not effort—it is decision. Grace occurs, Jesus says, in the one who sincerely desires it and prepares the altar for it. The altar is not built with conceptual bricks but with emotional honesty. And if, when you look within, you find that it is not yet your priority, that’s all right—acknowledge it, and then do the only thing you can do: move it higher up your pyramid of priorities.

Grace is not an inaccessible mystery—it is the acceptance of God’s Love. Nothing more. There is no need to beg for it, earn it, or understand it. Only to accept it. If you have not yet done so, it is not for lack of capacity but for lack of priority. And that can be changed. The first step: stop lying to yourself about what you truly want. Grace is not begged for—it is desired.

^II W-158.3:1 “That time is set already.”

^III W-158.2:8–9 “The revelation that the Father and the Son are One will come in time to every mind. But that time is determined by the mind itself, for it is not something that can be taught.”

^IV John 1:7–8 “He came as a witness, to bear witness to the Light, that all might believe through him. He was not that Light, but came to bear witness to that Light.”

^V Matthew 4:17 “From that time Jesus began to preach, saying, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.’”

That is the moment when the mind has decided to abandon all illusion.

^VI T-26.V.3:3–4 “Time lasted but an instant in your mind, and it has not affected eternity at all. So is it with all the time that passed, for it is exactly as it was before the journey to nothingness was undertaken.”

T-26.V.13:4 “There is no obstacle to the Will of God, and no need to repeat a journey that was over long ago.”

T-28.I.1:8 “This world was over long ago.”

W-158.3:6 “We but undertake a journey that is over.”

W-158.4:5 “For we merely review mentally what has gone by, imagining that we make the journey once again, retracing mentally what has already happened.”

^VII That part of you is your brothers who have not yet awakened.

Your Grace is given me. I claim it now.

1. God speaks to us.

²Should we not then speak to Him? ^I

³God is not distant.

⁴He does not hide Himself from us.

⁵It is we who try to hide from Him, and we deceive ourselves.

⁶He is always wholly accessible.

⁷God loves His Son.

⁸In this world, nothing is certain—except this:

⁹God will love His Son forever.

¹⁰When his mind sleeps, He still loves him.

¹¹And when he wakes, He loves him with the same unchanging Love.^II

2. If you only knew the meaning of His Love, both hope and hopelessness would be impossible.

²For your hopes would be forever fulfilled, and any kind of despair would be unthinkable.

³His Grace is His Answer to all despair, for in it lies the memory of His Love.

⁴Why would He not gladly give the means by which His Will is known?

⁵His Grace is yours the moment you acknowledge it.

⁶And the memory of God awakens in the mind that asks for the means He has prepared to bring the dream to an end.

3. Today we ask God for the gift He has most carefully preserved within our hearts, waiting to be acknowledged.

²It is the gift by which God bends to us and lifts us up, giving salvation’s final step Himself.

³All steps but this we learn, instructed by His Voice.

⁴But finally, He comes Himself, and taking us into His arms, He sweeps away the cobwebs of our sleep.

⁵His Gift of Grace is more than just a simple answer.

⁶It restores all memories the sleeping mind forgot, and brings back the certainty of Love’s true meaning.

4. God loves His Son.

²Ask Him now to give you the means by which this world will disappear.

³Vision will come first.

⁴And Knowledge, only a moment later.

⁵For in Grace you see a light that covers all the world in love.

⁶And then you see all fear dissolve from every face, as hearts rise up and recognize the light as theirs.

⁷What now remains that could delay the coming of Heaven even for an instant?

⁸What still must be done, when your forgiveness rests on everything?

5. Today is a new and holy day, for we receive what has been given us.

²Our faith lies in the One Who gives it to us—not in our own acceptance.

³We acknowledge our mistakes, but it is He Who knows no error Who responds to them, giving us the means to leave them all behind, and rise to Him in gratitude and Love.

6. And God comes down to meet us as we come to Him.

²For He gives us what He has prepared for us, and we receive it.

³Such is His Will, because He loves His Son.

⁴To Him we lift our hearts today, returning but the words He gave to us through His Own Voice, His Word, and His Love:

⁵Your Grace is given me.

⁶I claim it now.

⁷Father, I come to You.^III

⁸And You will come to me who ask.

⁹I am the Son You love.

---

^I This Lesson is, in fact, the first of fourteen Lessons whose title is addressed directly to God. Jesus now invites us to enter into direct dialogue with our Father—for what could be more natural than that? After training the mind through many Lessons, we are now ready for it.

The Grace of God lies beyond our efforts, because His Grace is real, and our efforts are imaginary. The Son of God does not have to strive to obtain his Father’s Grace. It was given to him when he was created, and so it will be forever. The efforts made within the dream are part of the dream, and the one who makes them is part of it as well. How could it be otherwise?

Only the mind affected by the ego becomes involved in illusions or strives to awaken. The dream is as false as its maker. You have never been asleep. You cannot be. You are already awake, right now. To think you are asleep is nothing but the voice of the ego whispering that you are immersed in a demanding spiritual path that will lead you to an eventual awakening in some distant future. Pay it no heed. That is not true. Distant futures do not exist—they are inventions of the ego designed to rob you of the present. You are already awake and possess, at this very moment, the full power of your mind. Right now you are free to claim the Grace of God—and that is precisely what Jesus is asking you to do.

Do not wait. Do not delay your decision. Be happy now. This is your moment, and you are its master. Make it yours. Claim the Grace of God by claiming it now.

“…life appeared as a great theatrical play in which only innate ‘knowing’ exists, though that process seems to be concealed behind the fascination produced by the thought of the ‘I’ and all the other thoughts that shape ‘my’ story. As Consciousness, our true nature is awareness and manifestation. The ‘I’ is merely another element of that scenery, and, as with the other images, when it is ‘unmasked’—when it is seen as it truly is—the search naturally comes to an end and the tension disappears.” You are already awake. (Nathan Gill)

^II Jeremiah 31:3 “The Lord appeared to me from of old, saying, ‘Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore I have continued My faithfulness to you.’”

^III This Lesson tells you plainly: the Grace of God has already been granted to you. It is not something you have to earn. It is not a reward for good behavior. It is your natural state. And all you have to do is claim it.

But this is where resistance appears. For though Grace is given, you believe it is not for you. It seems too much. It seems unreachable. You think, “This cannot be for me; I’m not ready.” And with that single thought, you exclude yourself—not because God excludes you, but because you do not allow yourself to be included.

Today’s Lesson seeks to break that cycle. It wants you to understand that Grace is not a privilege—it is your inheritance. It is not an achievement—it is a fact. You have it because God gave it to you. Period. All that remains is to accept it.

To accept Grace is not an emotional experience nor a mystical moment. It is a decision—an inner disposition. A silent “yes.” A firm willingness to set aside your interpretations and let truth be what it is.

Today you are invited to practice from surrender—from humility. For this is not about elevating yourself, but about allowing what is already within you to shine unobstructed. Your holiness does not need to be built; it only needs to be recognized.

Do you want to know whether you are practicing this Lesson well? Notice whether you allow yourself to feel peace. Whether you allow yourself to receive without guilt. Whether you can remain still, needing neither to justify nor to prove anything. That is where Grace begins.

And once you receive it, you can no longer keep it to yourself, for it is given by being shared. The more you give it, the more certain you become that you have it. That is the dynamic of God: what is shared grows. And you are the channel of that growth.

It is not arrogant to claim Grace—it is arrogant to deny it. For in denying it, you are saying you know more than God. So stop arguing with Him. And accept. For when you do, you will know what it means to live in freedom.

Today you can take that step. You need no further preparation. You need no more signs. You need only say: “All right. I accept. It is mine. I will use it.” And then the world changes—because you have changed.

There is one life, and that I share with God.

1. There are no different kinds of life, for life is like the truth.

²Life has no degrees.

³It is the one condition shared by everything God created.

⁴Like all His Thoughts, life has no opposite.

⁵Death does not exist because what God created shares His Life.

⁶Death does not exist because there is nothing that opposes God.

⁷Death does not exist because the Father and the Son are One.^I

2. In this world, there appears to be a state that is the opposite of life.

²You call it death.

³But we have learned that the idea of death takes many forms.^II

⁴It is the underlying thought behind all feelings that are not perfectly joyful.

⁵It is the signal by which you respond in any way that is not complete happiness.

⁶Every sorrow, sense of loss or anxiety, all suffering and pain, even the faintest sigh of weariness, any slight discomfort or the merest frown of discontent bears witness to death.

⁷And thus denies that you live.

3. You think that death has something to do with the body.

²But death is merely an idea, and it has nothing to do with the physical.

³All thoughts reside in the mind.

⁴And so they can be used as the mind determines.

⁵But a thought can be changed only by the mind that thought it.

⁶Ideas do not leave their source.

⁷The emphasis this Course places on this idea is due to its fundamental importance in changing the way you see yourself.

⁸This is the reason you can be healed.

⁹It is the cause of healing.

¹⁰It is the reason you cannot die.

¹¹Its truth is what makes you One with God.

4. Death is the thought that you are separate from your Creator.

²It is the belief that conditions change; that emotions shift because of causes you cannot control, of which you are not the source, and you can never change.

³It is the fixed belief that ideas can leave their source, take on qualities the mind itself does not have, and become different from and apart from their origin—in nature, time, and form.

5. Death cannot come from life.

²Ideas remain united with their source.

³They can extend all that the mind contains.

⁴In this way, they can go far beyond themselves.

⁵But they cannot give what was never given to them.

⁶As they were created, so will they create.

⁷As they were born, so will they give birth.

⁸And to the place from which they came, there will they return.

6. The mind may think it sleeps, but that is all.

²It cannot change its state of wakefulness.

³It cannot make a body, nor dwell within one.

⁴What is outside the mind does not exist, because it has no source.

⁵For the mind creates all things that are, and cannot give attributes it does not have.

⁶The mind cannot change its own eternal, conscious state.

⁷Nor can it produce the physical.

⁸What seems to die is but the sign that the mind is asleep.

7. The opposite of life can only be another form of life.

²As such, it can be reconciled with what created it, because it is not truly its opposite.

³Its form may change, and it may seem to be what it is not.

⁴Yet the mind remains the mind, whether it is awake or sleeping.

⁵It is not the opposite of anything created.

⁶Nor is it the opposite of what it seems to make when it believes it sleeps.

8. God created only the waking mind.

²He does not sleep, and His Creations cannot have what He did not give, nor make conditions that He does not share.

³The thought of death is not the opposite of the Thoughts of Life.

⁴The Thoughts of God remain forever changeless, without opposition, and extend unchangingly forever, even within Themselves, for They are everywhere.

9. What seems to be the opposite of life is but a dream.

²When the mind chooses to be something it is not, to take on power it does not have, to assume a state it cannot enter, or a condition wholly foreign to its Source, it merely seems to sleep a while.^III

³It dreams of time; an interval where what seems to happen never truly occurred, where changes are without substance, and what seems to be has no location.^IV

⁴When the mind awakens, it is as it always was.

10. Let us today be children of the truth, and not deny our holy heritage.

²Our life is not what we imagined.

³Who can change life by closing his eyes, or become what he is not, because he sleeps and dreams of what opposes him? ^V

⁴Today we will not call on death in any form.

⁵Nor will we allow imagined opposites to life to linger, even for a moment, where God Himself has placed the Thought of Eternal Life.

11. Today we seek to keep His holy home as He created it, and wills it be forever.

²He is the Lord of what we think today.

³And in His Thoughts, which have no opposite, we understand that there is one life, and that we share that Life with Him, with all creation, and with all His Thoughts, which He created in a Unity of Life that death cannot separate, nor time escape.

12. We share one life because we have one Source.

²A Source from which perfection comes to all, remaining always in the holy minds He created perfect.

³Now we are as we were, and always will be.^VI

⁴The sleeping mind must waken as it sees its own perfection reflect the Lord of Life so perfectly that it unites with what it sees reflected.

⁵And now it is no longer just a reflection.

⁶Now it becomes what it reflects, and the Light that makes reflection possible.

⁷No vision now is needed.

⁸For the mind is awake and knows its Source, its Self, and its Holiness.

---

^I This Lesson goes straight to the point: death is an illusion. But not just any illusion—it is the most glorified, the most respected, the most fiercely defended. It is the cornerstone of the ego, its masterpiece. For if death is real, God is not. That simple. That absolute.

Jesus does not want you to soften this statement or take it as a metaphor. He means it literally: there is no death. What you call life—your biological existence, your emotional ups and downs, your dramas, your relationships—all of that is not Life. It is a projection sustained by fear. Life, with a capital L, is eternal, invulnerable, and completely beyond form.

And yet, the mind insists on fearing death as if it were inevitable. Why? Because it serves its purpose. For as long as it fears death, it distracts itself from the only truth that would set it free: that it is already alive, has never ceased to be, and has nothing to fear.

This Lesson wants you to see clearly that you share the only Life that exists—the Life of God. Everything else is scenery, appearance. And until you accept this, you will continue to react as if you were a body. But you can choose again. You can think with God.

You are not asked to renounce your body or your daily life—you are asked not to confuse them with what is real. To put them in their proper place. To use every experience as an opportunity to remember that you are spirit—that you do not die because you were never born, that you do not age because you were not created in time.

This is a Lesson that does not mince words. If it makes you uncomfortable, perfect. If it stirs you, even better. That means it is doing its work. It does not want you to go on justifying your little daily deaths—your discouragements, your defeats, your illnesses. It wants you to look at them and say: This is not real. And in doing so, you stop giving them power.

Today you are told that you need not die to know that you live—that you can recognize, right now, that the Life of God is in you. And the sooner you accept it, the freer you will be. Death is the great falsehood. There is no need to negotiate with it—only to stop believing in it.

Do so, and you will see how the whole world begins to appear less solid, less tragic, less important. Because you will be seeing with the eyes of one who already knows he lives eternally. And that is the beginning of true peace.

Can you imagine what the world would be like if you believed in nothing? What your life would be like if you simply ignored that incessant inner dialogue that violates and usurps mental silence and direct understanding? That is not ceasing to think; it is merely ceasing to believe that what you think is true—nothing more. To stop taking your own opinions seriously is a profoundly healing measure that prepares the mind to receive a higher Guidance, for as long as you keep inviting the ego to make its contributions, you will not be able to hear the Voice of the Holy Spirit.

Realize that your sane mind has no opinions about anything, questions nothing, judges nothing, and harbors no doubts—it simply knows. And that is your natural state: one that knows nothing of death and is always perfectly happy.

^II W-163.1

^III Although theCourse apparently affirms that we have fallen asleep, that what we dream in the dream is only illusion, this Lesson repeatedly clarifies that it merely seems that we have fallen asleep. Since ideas do not leave their source, we cannot alter the state of wakefulness God gave us; therefore, we cannot truly sleep. Thus, not only is the world we dream unreal, but the dream in which we dream it is unreal as well. However paradoxical this may sound, the  Text also states it: “You have decided to dream a dream in which you have had bad dreams, but the dream is not real, and God calls you to awake” (T-6.V.8:4).

^IV “…the changes that occur are insubstantial”: time does not exist. “…what seemingly happened is nowhere”: space does not exist. The dimensions of space and time are illusory—they are only a way for the mind to deceive itself and sustain the idea of a fictitious personal identity.

^V And here it must again be remembered that the mind, in truth, has not fallen asleep—it only seems to have. For that reason, the mind also cannot truly “awaken”; it only seems to awaken. If both the dream and the awakening were real, the mind—or some part of it—would have succeeded in changing the condition God originally established, and that is utterly impossible.

^VI Hebrews 13:8 “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.”

The phrasing of this verse recalls the Gloria Patri, or Lesser Doxology (a praise of God), which is commonly used in Christian liturgy: “Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.” The original Greek text is very ancient, possibly from the first century.

I have been entrusted with the Gifts of God.

1. You have been given everything. ^I

²God’s trust in you is boundless.

³He knows His Son.

⁴God gives without exception, and He holds back nothing that could bring you happiness.

⁵Yet unless your will is one with His, you cannot receive His Gifts.

⁶But what makes you think there is a will apart from His?

2. Here lies the paradox at the root of the making of the world.

²This world is not the Will of God, and so it is not real.

³But those who think it is cannot help but believe there is another will producing effects opposed to His.

⁴This is, of course, impossible. But every mind that sees the world and thinks it real, solid, dependable, and true, believes in two creators—or rather, in one: itself.

⁵But never in a single God.

3. He who holds such strange beliefs cannot accept the Gifts of God.

²He must believe that accepting them—no matter how evident they may become, or how often he is urged to claim them as his own—is somehow a betrayal of himself.

³And so, he must deny their presence, oppose the truth, and suffer, in order to preserve the world he made.

4. That is the only home he thinks he knows.

²There he believes lies the only safety he can find.

³Without that world he made, he sees himself as homeless, cast out, and afraid.

⁴He does not realize it is in that very place where he is truly afraid and without a home.

⁵In his own world, he is indeed a wanderer, a stranger far from home—so far that he has forgotten where he came from, where he goes, and even who he truly is.

5. Yet the Gifts of God go with him on his senseless, lonely journey, though he does not know it.

²He cannot lose them.

³But he does not want to see what has been given him.

⁴He continues to wander, aware of the emptiness of all he sees, watching the little he has diminish further as he goes, heading toward nothing.

⁵He wanders on in sorrow and in misery, alone—though God is with him, and he carries a treasure so vast that all the world holds nothing of value beside it.

6. He appears in a pitiful state, worn and tired, ragged, his feet bleeding from the stony path he walks.

²There is no one who does not identify with him, for all who come here walk the same road and have felt defeat and hopelessness as he does now.

³But is his plight truly tragic, when you see he walks a path he chose himself, and that he needs only recognize Who walks with him and see his treasures to be free?

7. That is what you have chosen to be—the self you made to take the place of reality. ^II

²This is the self you defend with such fierce resistance, against all reason, all evidence, and every witness that tells you clearly you are not this.

³But you do not listen.

⁴And so, you walk the path you made, head bowed, lest you catch a glimpse of truth and be set free from your deception.

8. You shrink in fear of feeling Christ’s touch upon your shoulder, and of sensing His loving hand pointing you to your gifts.

²How then could you think yourself a wretched exile?

³He would make you laugh at such a thought of you.

⁴Where would self-pity be then?

⁵And what would become of all the tragedy you planned for one whom God created only for joy?

9. Now your ancient fear has been brought to light, and Justice has at last caught up with you. ^III

²Christ’s hand has touched your shoulder, and you feel now that you are not alone.

³You even think that the miserable self you thought you were may not be your true identity.

⁴Perhaps the Word of God is truer than your own.

⁵Perhaps the Gifts He gave you are real.

⁶Perhaps your plan to keep His Son in deep oblivion and to walk alone the path you chose apart from your Self did not succeed in deceiving God.

10. God’s Will does not confront.

²It merely is.

³It was not God you imprisoned with your plan to lose your Self.

⁴He knows nothing of a plan so alien to His Will.

⁵There was a need He did not understand, and so He gave an Answer.

⁶That is all.

⁷And you, who have that Answer, need nothing else.

11. Now truly we live, for now we cannot die.

²The wish to die has been replaced, and the gaze that once looked upon death now sees with vision that shows you are not what you pretend to be.

³He Who so tenderly attends your fears walks with you now, with this one gentle answer:

⁴That is not true.

⁵Whenever the thought of lack weighs down upon you, He shows you all the gifts you have.

⁶And when you see yourself alone and frightened, He reminds you that He is always with you.

12. And He reminds you of one more thing you had forgotten.

²For His touch has made you like Himself.

³The gifts you have are not for you alone.

⁴Now you must learn to give what He came to offer you.

⁵This is the lesson contained in all He gives, for He has saved you from the loneliness you sought to make your hiding place from God.

⁶He has reminded you of all the Gifts God gave to you.

⁷And He shows you what your will shall be, when you accept them and acknowledge they are yours.

13. The gifts are yours, entrusted to you to give to all who chose the lonely road you escaped.

²They do not understand they are following only their own desire.

³You are the one to teach them now.

⁴For you have learned from Christ there is another way.

⁵You teach it by the happiness you feel, by the joy that fills those who feel Christ’s touch and recognize the Gifts of God.

⁶Do not let the suffering you see around you tempt you to neglect your trust. ^IV

14. Your sighs would silence the hope of those who look to you for their release.

²If you weep, your tears will be their own.

³If you are sick, you block their healing.

⁴If you are afraid, your fear affirms that theirs is justified.

⁵Your hand is now the one that gives the touch of Christ.

⁶Your restored mind bears witness that he who accepts the Gifts of God can never suffer.

⁷You have been entrusted with the world’s release from pain.

15. Do not betray it.

²Be the living proof of what Christ’s touch can offer to the world.

³God has entrusted all His Gifts to you.

⁴Let your happiness be the witness of how a mind is transformed that chooses to accept them, and feel the touch of Christ.

⁵This is your mission now.

⁶For all who receive the Gifts of God are called to share them.

⁷He has shared His Joy with you.

⁸And now, you share it with the world.

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^I This Lesson is not a promise—it is a fact. The gifts of God have been entrusted to you. They will not be offered to you, nor given if you behave well, nor are they on their way. They are already within you. The problem, as always, is that you do not believe it. And so you go through the world like a beggar, asking for recognition, affection, security—as if you had nothing.

But you have everything. Absolutely everything. What part of this are you unwilling to accept? This is the key question. For as long as you continue playing the role of victim, you will not be able to fulfill your function. As long as you beg for love, you will not be able to offer it. And if you do not give it, you do not know it.

The Lesson reminds you that your happiness is not optional. It is your testimony. Your peace, your joy, your presence are the message. You need not say anything. Simply being what you are is enough. But for that, you must accept what you are. You must stop playing the role of the spiritual exile who has not yet been called. You have already been called. You have already been given everything. All that remains is to use it.

Jesus says it plainly: become the living proof of what the touch of Christ can offer the world. Do not hide. Do not say you are not ready. It is not true. The preparation is not yours—it is His. The only thing asked of you is not to deny it. To accept. To say: “Yes, all right. I trust.”

Because if you do not accept it, who will accept it for you? If you do not take the step, no one can take it in your place. But if you do take it, the world changes with you. For you and the world are not two—you are one. And you are its savior. That is your function: to give what has been given to you. And the more you give, the more you know you have.

Do not be afraid to be happy. Do not be afraid to show your light. Do not believe the world is not ready. The world is starving—starving for witnesses who do not preach theories but live in peace. Do it for yourself. Do it for all. Do not offer pity. Offer testimony.

^II You call life the opinion you have about life. All your emotional states revolve around the opinion you hold about yourself, about others, and about what you call “life.” You are not yet fully aware that you relate only to your own opinions—nothing else. In fact, you know nothing else. You have not yet truly accepted the first Lessons of thisCourse, which tell you clearly that all your opinions are false. And remember: that is the only thing you know.

Consider carefully how you construct those opinions that make up your “life.” You take a little piece from here, another from there—a memory from the past, something you have read or been told—and with all those scraps you whimsically assemble a patched-up doll you call reality. Not content with that, you affirm and defend before anyone that this is the truth. This contrivance sometimes makes you happy and sometimes miserable, yet you are never fully aware that your emotions are governed by a Frankenstein of your own making.

It may comfort you to know that what happens to you is not an anomaly within the human collective; that is, in fact, the human condition. If there is anything utterly characteristic of people, it is their incredible tendency to deceive themselves. In this world no one tells himself the truth: everyone tells his own story and then believes it. Every person does this, all the time.

If you want to understand this Course, you must accept that nothing that passes through your mind is true—nothing, absolutely nothing, ever. The personal mind cannot know truth, for its personal nature is precisely the condition of its ignorance, and everything that mind conceives is false. The only thing the mind can do is believe stories, for it neither knows nor can do anything else. To believe is to think that what you imagine is true. You have heard this before, but you still have not fully understood it, and certainly have not accepted its implications.

To imagine is to forge images, and images are symbolic forms of the underlying ideas they express. Images always remain within the mind, for they are born of imagination. It does not matter whether you think they come from an external world perceived through your senses or from the depths of your mind—realize that what differentiates them is only your opinion, nothing more. We admit that what we imagine in our fantasies are whimsical illusions, yet we assert that what we consider external to us is real and, moreover, means exactly what we interpret it to mean. Poor you! It is all the same, and none of it is true. It is nothing but your fantasy—or, as this Course would say, the dream of the world.

Faced with such a scenario, you need guidance—desperately need a guide to help you make decisions and lead you out of this nightmare. But do not worry: you have one. It is within you, and there is no need to attribute to it any esoteric, religious, spiritual, or metaphysical character, for it is so consubstantial with what you are that it is impossible to avoid it.

Consider this: this Course affirms that you were created by God and are the fruit of His Love; you are made of love, and that is your condition. Therefore, even in your dreams, everything that resonates with the love you are will make you feel good, and whatever is discordant will cause you discomfort. It makes perfect sense, doesn’t it? Well then, you need no other guide than this to navigate “life.” When you think something that inspires love, it means you are on the right path; when you do not, correct yourself.

Whatever it is you are thinking, be certain it is not true, for this world is a dream. But if what you think reflects the love you are, then it is a happy dream through which you will move effortlessly. And if what has just crossed your mind does not inspire love, discard it immediately, because not only is it untrue—it does not suit you, and it does you harm.

For a while yet, you will have to coexist with your personal opinions. If at least you are aware that they are capricious and false, you will be able not to give them too much importance. That lack of importance is precisely what will loosen their grip on you; it will leave your mind free to direct your will toward expressing and sharing the Gifts of God that you are able to recognize, and your heart will tell you that now you are on the right path.

Your mind and your will are free and powerful, fully at your disposal for you to do with them what you will. They always have been. Your life, your opinions, and your circumstances are the fruit of your will. Therefore, take responsibility for them—take the reins of your mind and choose well. Never complain or lament, for what you think you are, or what you think happens to you, you have devised yourself. And just as you made it, you can undo it. To believe that your mind governs your life is a belief that—though not strictly true—is aligned with the truth; it is wise to adopt it, for it will set you in the right direction to escape so much fantasy.

^III That ancient fear is the fear of God, the fourth of the Obstacles to Peace discussed in T-19.IV.D.

^IV The teacher of God can never forget that all the pain he beholds in the world has no real cause. If he yields to the temptation to think that his brothers’ suffering is justified, he will be unable to heal anyone and will lose his miracle-mindedness. Then he himself will need a miracle to rescue him from the dream of affliction. This does not mean, in the least, that God’s teachers are indifferent to the sorrows of their brothers—on the contrary, in fact, they devote their lives entirely to bringing the one final remedy for all suffering. They have nothing else in mind. They know perfectly well that they have come to save the world and that their only mission is to find, protect, and increase their own happiness by carrying it to others.

This, of course, requires great mastery, for a suffering world is reluctant to be freed from its painful condition, since it was, precisely, its own will that imposed it. But the good teacher knows that his mastery does not come from himself, and he listens in confidence, certain that he will be told exactly what to do.

Let me not deny the Thought of God.

1. What is it that makes this world appear to be real, if not your own denial of the truth that lies beyond it?

²What casts a shadow over the perfect happiness and Eternal Life your Father wills for you, if not your thoughts of death and suffering?

³And what but illusion could conceal what cannot be hidden?

⁴What could deprive you of what you already have, except your own decision not to see it, by denying that it is there? ^[i]

2. The Thought of God created you.

²And it has not abandoned you, nor have you been apart from it for even an instant.

³It belongs to you.

⁴Through it you live.

⁵It is your Source of life, for it makes you One with Him, and all is one with you because that Thought has never left you.

⁶The Thought of God protects you, cares for you, makes your resting place gentle, smooths your path, and lights your mind with joy and love.

⁷Eternity and Everlasting Life shine in your mind because the Thought of God has never left you.

3. Who would deny his safety and his peace, his joy, his health and clarity of mind, his quiet rest and gentle awakening, if he but recognized where they abide? ^II

²Would he not instantly prepare to go where they are found, abandoning all else as valueless in contrast? ^III

³And once found, would he not be certain to remain with them, and they with him?

4. Do not deny Heaven.

²It is yours today if only you will ask for it.

³You need not perceive how great this gift will be, how deeply it will change your mind, before it comes to you.

⁴Ask for it, and it is given.

⁵The conviction comes with the gift itself.

⁶Until you welcome it as yours, you will remain uncertain.

⁷But God is just.

⁸Nor is complete conviction required to receive what only your acceptance can bestow.

5. Ask earnestly for Heaven.

²It is not necessary that you be sure that what you ask for is the only thing you want.

³But once you have received it, you will be certain that you hold the treasure you have always sought.

⁴For what else could you ever trade it now?

⁵What could induce you to let go of the vision that brings you ecstasy?

⁶For the vision of Heaven proves you have exchanged your blindness for the eyes of Christ.

⁷Your mind at last has ceased to deny the truth and now accepts the Thought of God as its rightful inheritance.

6. Now all your doubts have vanished, the journey is complete, and salvation has been given you.

²Now the power of Christ is in your mind, that you may heal as you were healed.

³For now you are among the saviors of the world.

⁴This is your only destiny.

⁵Would God allow His Son to hunger endlessly because he denied himself the food he needs to live?

⁶Abundance dwells within him, and no lack can keep him from the Love of God, nor from his home.

7. Practice today with hope, for hope is fully justified.

²Your doubts are meaningless, for God is sure.

³And the Thought of God is never absent.

⁴Certainty must dwell in you, who are His host.

8. This Course removes all doubt that you have interposed between God and your certainty of Him.

²We rely on God, and not on ourselves, to give us certainty again.

³And in His Name we practice as His Word directs us to.

⁴His Certainty lies far beyond all our doubts.

⁵His Love remains beyond our every fear.

⁶The Thought of God is still within our minds and beyond all dreams, exactly as He Wills.

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^I A possible definition of “human being” could be: “One who places his will in believing what is not true—in deceiving himself.”

The power of the mind’s will is absolute; it can do all things. The mind can conceive whatever it wishes, with the sole condition that what it conceives does not leave itself. Such is the nature of the mind. The idea of “outside the mind” is a factual impossibility, because the mind is unlimited, has no boundaries, and that is why we say the mind encompasses everything and is everything that exists. The notion that there is something external to the mind is nothing more than an idea conceived by the mind itself, and it remains within it—for by now you understand that ideas do not leave their source, as you have read many times throughout the  Text.

Everything that can be conceived or known can be both affirmed and denied, for the mind is free to do either. What the mind affirms, it possesses; what it denies, it believes it does not possess—yet that does not mean it does not have it. Today’s Lesson revolves around the idea of denying the gifts God bestowed upon us when He created us. The most evident, and one might say the only one—for all the others derive from it—is His Love. God created us by extending His Love, and that is what we are: the Love of God. For that reason, the Love of God is always with us. Now, we may deny it and claim not to know it, but that does not mean it is not there, ever at our disposal.

It does not take much faith to believe this is true, because it is something we can verify at any moment, immediately. We can love whenever we decide to. To love or to be happy is not something that happens—it is a decision. The sleeping mind may believe, if it so chooses, in its own impotence, and may tell itself all manner of lies about its condition, but it will never make any of those absurdities true, for the simple reason that they are not—they are impossible.

Becoming aware of the impossibility of being separate from God is indeed awakening, but it is something the mind seems to find difficult, reluctant to abandon its cherished idea of an independent personal identity. To caress that idea was precisely what plunged it into the nightmare from which it now struggles to escape, unaware that, having entered it by an act of will, it can also leave it the same way—through an act of will. This is a decision that requires absolute honesty; that is why honesty is one of the characteristics of God’s teachers that you would do well to cultivate in yourself with the greatest urgency. If you are deceiving yourself now, understand that to disillusion yourself is simply to be honest.

Not denying the Thought of God is merely to assume that you are that Thought, and to act accordingly. And since the Thought of God is Love, simply love in order to embody it. Only by loving will you know that you are love. There is no other way. To love and to be happy are the same; therefore, if you want to be happy, love. If at first it seems difficult to love your brothers, your family, your work, life itself, simply become aware of how unnatural your present condition is, and set your firm will on leaving it behind. You need do nothing more than truly want it with all your heart. And if you do so, it is inevitable that you will succeed.

Understand that the true forgiveness this Course proposes could be considered, in a sense, an “emergency” measure—something you are constantly urged to practice because your mind is very sick and desperately needs it, lest its dream sink still deeper. But understand that this is a negative resource. The positive side of the Course’s teaching is its call to love. When you truly love, you will no longer need to forgive at all; forgiveness will be an idea that never even crosses your mind—it will no longer be necessary.

Take advantage of every opportunity life places before you to love. Waste none. Well, at first try to waste as few as possible. With time, you will become addicted to love, and your mind will enter an unstoppable rhythm of joy as it gives without limits the Gifts of God that have always been yours.

You need not speculate with theories, concepts, or philosophies; simply love, and you will see.

^II This Lesson does not ask you to create anything—only to stop denying what is already there. It is overwhelmingly humble. It does not seek to convince you, but to remind you. And it reminds you that you have everything, that everything has already been given to you. The only problem is that you do not believe it, because you prefer to believe in your lack, your guilt, your exile.

And that disbelief is not innocent: it rests upon an entire system of thought you yourself have made. You have filled your mind with ideas of your own making—with interpretations, judgments, and fears that have nothing to do with reality. And because you do not see what God has given you, you decide it is not there. But it is not that it is absent—it is that you have buried it beneath a heap of conceptual debris.

The mind that denies the Thought of God does nothing but uphold a fiction: that there is something outside of Him, that there is something outside of you. And in that denial, the entire theater of the world appears. Yet this Lesson asks only one thing of you: that you desire to see. You are not asked for heroism—only for sincerity. A small measure of good will.

For the Thought of God has never abandoned you. It sustains you, surrounds you, guides you. You need do nothing to deserve it; you need only cease to resist it. But beware: this is not about “believing” as one who forces himself to accept something foreign, but about allowing—allowing what already is to find welcome in you.

Jesus looks at you and says: Why do you beg for crumbs when I have given you the Kingdom? Why do you see yourself as small when fullness is within you? Why do you persist in protecting your weakness, in defending your exile, when strength is already with you, when salvation is already yours?

This Lesson, as mentioned in the meeting, is an invitation to stop deceiving yourself—to stop pretending that you do not know, that you cannot, that you are not ready. It is a lie. You are more than ready. All you have to do is stop, look, and recognize—recognize that what you are has never been in question.

And if it feels hard, ask for help—not so that God may come, but so that you may stop. Ask for the experience. Ask for strength. Ask to remember. And it will be given you. For you are not asking for anything new; you are asking for what is already yours.

Have no doubt: if you practice this Lesson with all your heart, it will change your mind. And as your mind changes, it will bless the world—not by what you do, but by what you are. That is the promise. And God does not deceive. He never has. He never will.

^III Matthew 13:45–46 “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking fine pearls, who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had and bought it.”