Author: gongarola@gmail.com

Let every voice be still in me but God’s.

1. Father,

today I want to hear only Your Voice.

²In the deepest silence I would come to You,

to hear Your Voice and receive Your Word.

³I have no prayer but this:

“I come to You to ask for Truth.”

⁴And Truth is but Your Will,

which I would share with You today.

2. Today we will not let any thought of the ego direct our words or actions.^I

²When such thoughts arise, we will quietly step back and watch them, and then let them go.

³We do not want what they bring.

⁴And so we choose not to keep them.

⁵Now they are still.

⁶And in that stillness, made holy by His Love, God speaks to us and tells us what our Will is, for we have chosen to remember Him.

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^I The voice of the ego is that incessant dialogue you maintain with yourself. It feels so close and familiar that you believe it to be your own thoughts. Your mind becomes entangled in them—absorbed, self-contained, hearing only itself.

But how can you hear the Voice of God if you listen only to that endless chatter? And more importantly, is that truly your voice? Or is it the voice of the illusory character with whom you have identified in this dream, forgetting that you are the Son of God?

To hear the Voice of God, you must first silence the voice of the ego. Stop telling yourself stories, for they are nothing but lies. And precisely because they are not true, they must be repeated endlessly, for if they stopped, the world they invented would collapse in an instant.

You do not deserve to live in a world sustained by lies.

Quiet your mind, remain at peace, and listen. The Word of God is always available to you, waiting for you to make room for it to be heard.

Father, teach me to discern Your Voice among all the voices of the world, and to quiet my mind so that only It may guide me to the truth of what I am.

My Self governs the universe.

1. It is impossible for anything to happen to me that I have not myself requested.

²Even in this world it is I who rule my destiny.

³Only what I want occurs.^I

⁴And what does not happen is because I do not want it to be.

⁵This is something I must accept.

⁶For in this way I am led beyond this world, to my Creations, the Extensions of my Will in Heaven, where my holy Self abides with them and with Him Who created me.^II

2. You are the Self Who created the Son,

who creates as You do and is One with You.

²My Self, Who governs the universe,

is but Your Will in perfect union with mine,

³which can only offer its joyful blessing to Yours, that thus it may extend unto Itself.

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^I Many spiritual people seek holiness by accepting the “evils of this world” with resignation, as if they were trials sent by God. But Jesus invites us to see something entirely different: what happens in the world is not the Will of God, but your own—the will of the Son of God who has chosen to dream. God the Father does not grant His Son illusions. God simply loves. He knows nothing but His Love. And that is what you are: His Son and His Love.

The world you behold is the result of your decision to grant yourself a personal will, independent of your Father’s. In doing so, you imagined a stage of light and shadow that bears no resemblance to you, for you are only light. Fear, shadow, and conflict are inherent in the illusory idea of being separate from God.

To understand that the figures that seem to threaten you do not come from outside but are the effect of your own independent will is a decisive step toward awakening. For then you look face to face, without fear, at the only enemy that ever seemed to exist: the ego—the false image you made of yourself. Everything you perceive is a reflection of your decision. Your will is always fulfilled, both here and in Heaven, but remember that this “here” is not real.

Do not fear your false creations. The  Text teaches that it is both legitimate and necessary to deny error, and calls this the proper use of denial. Therefore: deny fear and do not be afraid; deny sin and forgive; deny conflict and remain in peace. Do not fear the world, for you have made it. Yet neither condemn yourself for it: forgive yourself. Attack nothing and no one that seems to threaten you, and you will see the phantoms dissolve into the Peace of God, which is also your peace.

Use the little time you still perceive in this world to learn how to be happy. For though here happiness will always be a reflection, this is the only place where you can begin to remember it. And remember: in Heaven you cannot be happy, for in Heaven you are Happiness Itself.

^II God is the primal idea of Being. To be, to exist, to extend, and to create are exactly the same. The Creator and the Creation are inseparable and constitute the only reality.

God is the epitome of simplicity. The idea of God is the simplest possible: the one and only idea that exists, the only thing that is and is real. This Course calls the “Son of God” the Extension of God—which is God Himself—and calls the “Creations of the Son of God” the extensions of the Son. And these extensions are identical to the Son and to the Father, for they share the same Identity and the same Will.

The egoic mind cannot comprehend the idea of God, because God is too simple, too absolute, too One. The ego, on the other hand, delights in what is complex and divided. It can only conceive of “something” that is not “everything.” But since nothing real exists outside the whole, that “something” is nothing but an illusion: a notion without substance that can be thought, but never exist.

There is no possible conflict between the Will of God the Father, the Will of the Son, and the Will of His Creations. They are one single Will: the pure manifestation of Being. When this Course speaks of holiness, mastery, perfection, or union, it does so from our dualistic perspective, in which we still believe in opposites. But in Heaven, opposites do not exist; the unreal is inconceivable. There is not even the notion of positive attributes there, because what is Real is without contrast, complete in itself.

The image of God, the Son, and the Creations of the Son extending in perfect harmony throughout eternity is a mythical representation—a symbol accessible to our mind—pointing toward the pure idea of Being, the only Reality. The human mind needs guidance and comfort within its illusory existence. That is why this Course uses words, symbols, and images that are not the truth, but that point toward it.

The idea of Being is absolute, abstract, and total. The human mind, however, is capable only of perceiving differences and fragments, and thus perceives distinctions even where none exist—even among what it calls “Celestial Beings.” But the truth is that they are One. On this side of the barrier of illusion, all we can tell are lies—sometimes malevolent, sometimes well-intentioned, but always fantasies.

Father, let me not stop at symbols or at words, but go beyond them to the simple truth of what I am:

Your Son, Your Extension, Your Love.

The Son of God is my Identity.

1. The holiness of my Self transcends all thought of holiness I now can conceive.^I

²Its radiant and flawless purity shines far beyond all light that I have ever seen.

³Its Love is limitless, with an intensity that holds all things within it, in the calm of quiet certainty.

⁴Its strength comes not from burning impulses that move the world, but from the boundless Love of God Himself.

⁵How far beyond this world my Self must be, and yet how near to me, and close to God!

2. Father,

You know my true Identity.

²Reveal it now to me,

Your Son,

that I may awaken to the truth in You

and know that Heaven has been given back to me.

---

^I I am.

I exist.

And if I exist, it is because I have been created.

Though I may not remember it now, it is evident that I must be as That which created me.

If It created me, I may call It Father.

I am as my Father; I am His Son.

And if my Father created me, it was because He willed to create me.

And if He willed it, and I am as He is, then He must love me.

And if He loves me, He must also care for me.

My Father loves me and cares for me.

I am His Son, and God is His Name.

I am the Son of God, and nothing can change this truth. There is no other name that describes me, nor any other identity that belongs to me. Everything I have thought about myself, everything I have invented, all the images I made to replace my Self, fade before this simple certainty: I am the Son of God.

And in that certainty all fear disappears, for I cannot be in danger if God is my Father. I cannot be lost if He is my Source. I cannot lack anything if His Will is that I share with Him the fullness of His Love.

Father, let me not forget today Who I am.

Let me remember that Your Will is also mine, and that my Identity is not found in this world, nor in the body, nor in time, but in You.

I need nothing but the truth.

1. I sought many things and found despair alone.

²Now do I seek but one, for in that one is all I need, and only what I need.

³All that I sought before I needed not, and did not even want.

⁴I did not recognize my only need.

⁵But now I see that I need only truth.^I

⁶In that all needs are satisfied, all cravings end, all hopes are finally fulfilled, and dreams are gone.

⁷Now have I everything that I could need.

⁸Now have I everything that I could want.

⁹And now at last I find myself at peace.

2. And for that peace,

our Father,

we give You thanks.

²What we denied ourselves

You have restored,

and only that is what we really want.

---

^I How could it ever have occurred to me that there is something apart from the truth? What kind of thought could I have lost myself in to believe such a thing?

Truth is what is, what exists eternally. What else could there be outside of it? I can deny it, yes, but I can no longer find any convincing reason to keep doing so.

Truth is splendid: a boundless light that encompasses everything, fills everything, is everywhere. It is the light that illumines my mind and the light that constitutes me, for I myself am the truth. Yet, if I wish, I can close my mind to that light and pretend it is not there. Then I imagine a world of shifting shadows, of contrasts that never stabilize, and I lose myself within it. But is that truly what I desire?

I have denied the light in my mind, and I have also denied that I denied it. That double concealment has led me to believe that I am a victim—alone, separate, lost in a world I myself invented and that now frightens me. And yet, I still find no valid reason to sustain this madness. Perhaps the mere desire to see whether I could separate myself from truth was enough to bring forth such delirium.

From that denial arose time and space, and the sense of “myself” within them, set against “the other.” And all of that changes endlessly, and I change with it. In denying the light, I also denied knowledge, and thus I no longer know who I am, what I am doing, or where I am. I likewise denied love, and in its place appeared fear.

Father, I begin to realize that this absurd game has gone on long enough.

Father, take me out of here.

Let me not see myself as limited.

1. Let me behold the Son of God today and witness to his glory.^I

²Let me not try to obscure the holy light in him.

³Let me not diminish his strength and turn it into weakness.

⁴And let me not perceive in him the lacks that would attack his dignity.

2. He is Your Son,

my Father.

²And today I would behold his gentleness

instead of my illusions.

³He is what I am,

and as I see him,

so I see myself.

⁴Today I would truly see,

that I may at last recognize him as myself.

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^I What do I want to see?

What do I want to know?

What do I want to be?

What do I want?

What I sincerely desire is, inevitably, what I will see, know, and experience as my identity. Therefore, Father, today I want to see the Truth, and only the Truth, so that this—and nothing else—may be what I behold and recognize as mine.

But to see the Truth, I must first release every definition I have imposed upon myself. Every definition is a limit, and to define is, literally, to put an end—to draw boundaries. “I am like this,” “I am this,” “I am that”… every label with which I identify reduces what I truly am to a narrow and false concept. Even an apparently lofty statement such as “I am the Son of God,” if uttered from the ego—from the personal mind that believes it knows who it is—becomes just another prison, a “holy limit” fabricated by the very mind that deceives me.

The right attitude is not to define myself, but to remain in the cloud of unknowing, without self-imposed limits. For as long as I hold any fixed idea of myself, the ego will use it for its own purposes, appropriating even the purest truths to strengthen its illusory identity. Its power of distortion is so great that it can employ any concept, no matter how sacred it may seem, to keep me trapped in its forms.

That is why, in asking today to see no limitation in myself, I am asking to relinquish all my definitions—even the spiritual ones—so that I may look without filters and behold the Son of God as He truly is: free, unlimited, and real. And as I see Him, so shall I see myself.

Let me not see in myself any limitation.

I behold the glory of Your Son and recognize myself in His light.

Forgiveness ends all suffering and all sense of loss.

1. Forgiveness offers us the vision of a world in which there is no suffering, the idea of loss becomes impossible, and anger is meaningless.

²Attack is gone, and madness has an end.

³What suffering could now be conceived? ^I

⁴What loss could still be felt?

⁵The world becomes a haven of joy, abundance, kindness, and boundless giving.

⁶Now it is so like to Heaven that it quickly is transformed into the Light it merely reflects.

⁷And thus the journey which the Son of God began has ended in the Light from which he came.

2. Father,

we would return our minds to You.

²We have betrayed them, held them in a vise of bitterness, and frightened them with thoughts of death and violence.

³Now we would rest again in You,just as You created us.

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^I It is impossible for something you have completely forgiven to continue causing you suffering. To forgive is to let pass—to release from your mind that which you have given great importance because you believe it diminishes the idea you hold of yourself. And, in a sense, you are not wrong: as you tell it, the self you think you are seems to have been attacked. If you intend to preserve that identity, it is natural that you feel compelled to protect yourself or even to strike back.

But this Course does not ask you to act irrationally or to deny the evidence as you perceive it; rather, it urges you to pause, reflect, and ask yourself whether the ideas that underlie your thinking—and determine your behavior—are true.

You are not exhorted to forgive for some lofty and mysterious goal you must accept blindly. On the contrary, you are invited to recognize that what you now take for certain—and believe without question—is false, and that therefore your thinking is mistaken and your behavior senseless. The proof is clear: you are afraid, you suffer, and you are not happy.

The root of the problem is that the idea you have of yourself, the cornerstone of your entire mental system, is false. That idea may indeed be in danger, but you are not. This is why forgiveness consists not only in letting go of grievances and resentments, but also—and above all—of the idea you hold of yourself. If you release the world but cling to that idea, you will be left with the ego “stripped bare”: an experience of absolute emptiness and terror.

The world, with all its apparent conflict, is in fact a distraction the ego uses to avoid facing itself. If the world were to disappear while your self-image remained intact, you would experience the psychological hell of the isolated ego.

Authentic forgiveness, therefore, is not selective. It means letting go of everything you think is important—good or bad—and also of every notion of who you believe yourself to be. When you do so, you do not plunge into emptiness; you encounter what is Real—that which you cannot define or lose, for it is what you are. Then you understand that the only thing that can be hurt or lost is your self-image. You never can be.

Ask yourself: have you ever ceased to be you? If you look at it honestly, you will see that the only things that have changed are the stories you tell yourself. To forgive is to let those stories pass until none remain. In that moment, the mind rests in God as it was created, and suffering and loss become impossible.

Forgiveness ends all suffering and all loss.

I rest in You, Father, and let Your Light restore peace to my mind.

What suffers is not part of me.

1. I have denied the truth.

²Now I would be as faithful in denying falsehood.

³What suffers is not part of me.

⁴What grieves is not myself.

⁵What feels pain is but illusion in my mind.

⁶What dies has never lived, and only mocked the truth of what I am.

⁷Now I disown these self-deceptions and these lies about the holy Son of God.^I

⁸Now I am ready to accept myself again as God created me, and as I am.

2. Father, my ancient Love for You has come again,

and lets me love Your Son as well.

²Father, I am as You created me.

³Now do I remember Your Love,

and mine as well.

⁴Now I understand that they are one.

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^I At first, you may think this Lesson refers only to obvious suffering—sadness, pain, or grief. Yet Jesus extends its reach much further, pointing out that every human emotion—including joy—belongs to the same illusory realm: that of the character with whom you have identified yourself. The one who suffers and the one who rejoices over external causes are, in truth, the same projection: an idea you hold of yourself, the ego as effect.

As long as you remain identified with that character, you will live in bipolarity—ups and downs, enthusiasms and disappointments, euphoria when expectations are met and dejection when they are not. Even that which you consider “good” or “important” to you—people, projects, beliefs, even this Course—will make you suffer, for everything you deem important is subject to change, loss, or threat.

Here is where the Course breaks radically with the world’s dualistic paradigm, which separates the subject from “the other” and assumes the existence of external realities capable of affecting you. Non-dualistic teaching affirms that there is nothing outside your mind, that everything you experience arises from your own interpretations, and that there is no external justification for them. From this perspective, suffering, affliction, pain, and death are ideas you yourself have conceived and sustained.

The root of suffering lies not in things themselves, but in your sense of personal importance. As long as you—the idea you have of yourself—remain important to you, you will inevitably project that value onto something else and be at its mercy. The only path to true peace is to release that sense of importance, to forgive everything you think matters, and to cease generating new attachments. When you cease to be important to yourself, nothing else can be—and in that state, suffering is impossible.

This reveals something deeper: love is not an emotion. Emotions are always effects, generated when two concepts you consider important collide or interact within your mind. Love, on the other hand, is causal—it is an aspect of your very Being, inseparable from your existence. For this reason, it cannot be defined or expressed in words, just as you cannot confine within a concept what God, will, or knowledge are. All you can do is discover what love is not and make room for its true meaning to arise within you in time.

To accept that “what suffers is not part of me” goes beyond relinquishing sadness or pain; it also means disidentifying from every notion of yourself as a character who experiences emotional ups and downs. In that total detachment, a joy arises that depends on nothing—a constant jubilation that is not human, for it is not born of fulfilled expectations or possession. It is the natural condition of the right-minded mind, in which no character remains to dream.

What suffers is not part of me.

I am as God created me—whole, beloved, and eternal.

If I do not forgive, I will still be blind.

1. Sin is the symbol of attack.

²Wherever I see it, it will cause me pain.

³As forgiveness is the only means by which the vision of Christ can come to me.^I

⁴When I accept what His vision shows me as the simple truth, I am completely healed.

⁵Come, my brother, and let me look on you.

⁶Your loveliness reflects my own.

⁷Your sinlessness is mine.

⁸You are forgiven, and I with you.

2. This is how I would look on everyone today.

²My brothers are Your Sons.

³Your Fatherhood created them,

and gave them all to me as part of You,

and of my own Self.

⁴Today I honor You through them,

and thus I hope this day to recognize my Self.

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^I To forgive is simply to stop telling myself stories about my brother and about myself. Those stories—whether pleasant or unpleasant—are always colored by the past and by the emotions they awaken in me: satisfaction, fear, or anger. They attract me because I find them exciting, and that excitement makes me feel “alive” in a world I believe to be real. Yet that voice which narrates and embellishes the story is none other than my own, and while I listen to it, I cannot hear the Voice of the Holy Spirit or see with the vision of Christ.

Guilt acts as a filter that distorts what I see. If I define someone by a past mistake, I cease to see them as they are now. To maintain that definition is to live frozen in the past and to block myself from perceiving the truth of the present. This not only separates me from my brother, but also keeps me blind to reality.

To forgive is to release those definitions and judgments so I may look again—without the weight of the past—granting my brother the opportunity to show what he truly is. This act, though it may seem small, opens my vision and restores my ability to perceive our shared innocence.

If I do not forgive, I will remain blind.

When I look through the eyes of Christ, I see my brothers as innocent.

To love my Father is to love His Son.

1. Let me not think I can find the way to God if there is hatred in my heart.^I

²Let me not think I can know my Father or my Self if I would harm His Son.^II

³Let me not think I can be aware of my Father, or of all the Love He holds for me and I for Him, if I fail to recognize my Self.

2. I will accept the way You chose for me to come to You,

my Father.

²For in that way I will succeed,

because it is Your Will.

³And I will recognize that what You will is also what I will,

and only that.

⁴And so,

I choose to love Your Son.

⁵Amen.

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^I 1 John 2:9 “Whoever says he is in the light and hates his brother is still in darkness.”

1 John 4:20 “If anyone says, ‘I love God,’ and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen?”

^II To be is to love. Not to love is to dream. And only one of these two options is real. Today I choose the truth.

To love my Father is to love His Son. Yet this love is not always felt immediately, nor can it be forced. To try to love “out of obligation” often produces inner resistance, for the mind reacts poorly when it is pressured. That is why the path can begin with something much simpler: granting your brother the opportunity to be seen without prior judgments, without dragging along the image you hold of his past, your prejudices, or your expectations.

This willingness to “give him the opportunity” is already a great step. It means allowing him to be born anew in your mind and expecting the best of him or her. Even if you do not yet experience perfect love, this gesture opens the door for love to arise naturally.

The goal is not to force yourself to feel something, but to orient your heart in the direction of love, using whatever resources you have now. If you give the best you can in each moment, however small, you are already walking the path that leads you to God—for that is the path He has laid out for you.

To love my Father is to love His Son.

I choose the path of Love, where I recognize myself in all.

Your Peace is with me, Father. I am safe.

1. Your Peace surrounds me,

Father.

²Wherever I go,

Your Peace goes with me,

and sheds its light on everyone I meet.^I

³I bring Your Peace to those who are forlorn,

to those who feel alone and afraid.

⁴I give Your Peace to those who suffer pain,

to those who grieve a loss,

or feel despair and hopelessness.

⁵Send them to me,

my Father.

⁶I would be the bearer of Your Peace.

⁷For I would save Your Son,

because it is Your Will

that I acknowledge my Self.

2. And so we walk in peace, bringing the message we have received to all the world.

²And thus we come to hear the Voice of God, Who speaks to us as we deliver His Word.

³For we recognize His Love by sharing the Word He gave to us.

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^I I dream, but mine is a lucid dream that remembers the truth. Though it seems I live in this world, I know my only Life is in my Father. I do not fully remember who I am, but I choose to believe that I am the Son of God. At times I feel fear, even knowing that my Father’s Love enfolds me and that my Being is, and always will be, only Love.

My faith sustains me, for it is my will to maintain it. I bring into the dream of the world the attributes of my heavenly reality: peace, joy, and love. Today I choose peace, and in choosing it, I give it, for I can offer only what I have accepted for myself. Thus, even here, the Peace of God is mine.

This lesson reminds us that peace is not “preached” with words, but embodied and shared by living from it. To bring peace to others is not to speak of peace, but to radiate it, so that others may feel it as something real. The Course does not ask you to try to convince anyone or to tell them how they should live or think; it invites you to be a living witness of the change that truth has worked in you.

The world listens to the language of deeds more than to that of words. If you embody the peace, joy, and coherence of this learning, others will want to know what lies behind your way of living. And thus, without imposing anything, you will be carrying the Peace of God wherever you are.

The Peace of God is the only thing that exists, and when I accept it for myself, I discover that it is in everything: I see it in me, and I see it in all that I behold.

Your peace is with me, Father.

I am safe.

I bring Your Peace to every encounter, and in it I hear Your Voice.