Author: gongarola@gmail.com

I Place the Future in the Hands of God.

1. With today’s idea we take another giant stride toward a swift salvation.

²And it is indeed a giant stride! ^I

³So great is the distance you have covered, you stand almost at Heaven’s gate, with the goal in sight and all obstacles behind you.

⁴You stand now in the quiet meadows that welcome you before the gates of Heaven, in a place of peace where you await God’s final step with certainty.

⁵How far along the road we truly are!

⁶How near the goal!

⁷And how short the journey still to come!

2. Accept today’s idea, and you have passed beyond all anxiety, the deep abyss of hell, the blackest depths of depression, thoughts of sin, and the ravages that guilt brings in its wake.

²Accept today’s idea, and you have set the world free from every prison, by loosening the heavy chains that locked the door to freedom shut.

³You have been saved, and your salvation becomes the gift you give the world, because you have received it.

3. No longer do you feel even a moment’s depression, nor experience any pain, nor perceive any sense of loss.

²You cannot even imagine enthroning suffering or worshiping it with devotion.

³You can no longer die.

⁴And so, you give to God each passing moment, and also the one to come.

⁵This is the time of your release from sadness, pain, and even death itself.

4. God holds your future just as He holds your past and present.

²They are all the same to Him, and so they should be to you.

³Yet in this world, the unfolding of time still seems to be real.

⁴That is why you are not asked to understand that time is not really linear.^II

⁵You are only asked to let go of concern for the future, and place it in God’s Hands.

⁶And in doing so, you will see that you have placed the past and present there as well, because the past will torment you no longer, and fear of the future will be meaningless.^III

5. Release the future.

²For the past is gone, and the present—freed from the burden of grief, sorrow, pain, and loss—becomes the moment in which time escapes from the chains of illusion through which it ran its pitiless, inevitable course.

³Now each moment, once a slave to time, is transformed into a holy instant, blessing the world as light is freed within the Son of God.

⁴Now he is free, and his radiance shines upon a world set free with him, to share his holiness.

6. If you but saw the lesson of today as the release it really offers, you would not hesitate to make the effort to hold it in your mind.

²Let it become the thought that rules your mind, the habit you use to solve all problems, the response you turn to instantly whenever temptation calls.^IV

³And you will extend what you have learned to everything you see, and to the world.

⁴And when you see salvation everywhere, the world will see it too.

7. What worry can remain for one who places his future in the loving Hands of God?

²What can he suffer?

³What can cause him pain or bring him a sense of loss?

⁴What can he fear?

⁵And what can he regard with anything but love?

⁶For he who has escaped all fear of future pain has found his way to present peace, and certainty that he will never again feel threatened by the world.

⁷He is sure now that, though he may still misperceive, he will be corrected.

⁸He is free to choose again whenever he makes a mistake; to change his mind when he has been wrong.

8. Place, then, your future in the Hands of God.

²For in doing so you call upon the memory of your Father to return to you, and take the place of all your thoughts of sin and evil with the truth of Love.

³Do you not think the world would gain thereby, and every living creature respond with a healed perception?

⁴He who entrusts his future to God has also placed the world in the same Hands to which he has turned for comfort and security.

⁵He has laid aside the sick illusions of the world along with his own, and offers peace to the world, as well as to himself.

9. Now are we saved indeed.

²For now we rest in God’s Hands, untroubled, certain that only good can come to us.

³If we forget, we will be gently reminded.

⁴If a thought of condemnation rises in our minds, it will be replaced by the reflection of Love.

⁵And if we are tempted to attack, we will appeal to Him Who watches over our rest, to make the choice for us that leads us away from the temptation.

⁶The world is no longer our enemy, for we have chosen to be its friend.

---

^I This Lesson is the last one identified as a “giant stride” in theWorkbook. Review the note for Lesson 61 to see a complete list of the giant strides.

It is very likely that this Lesson will become one of your favorites, for it is incredibly powerful, and its results are experienced in the very moment you make the declaration.

Place your future in God’s Hands with all your heart. Surrender to your Father all your worries and uncertainties. Be humble, and recognize that if the future overwhelms you, you need help. And to whom better could you turn than to your Father, who created you in love and still loves you with that same Love forever?

In this life you may doubt everything—but never the Love and Help of your Creator. To doubt His Love and Care is hell, for there is no other hell than that; and to trust in His Love and Care is Heaven, for there is no other Heaven than that.

Without God there can only be fantasies, which will inevitably collapse and become nightmares. But in God… there are no words that can express what that means.

It is difficult—indeed, it is very difficult—to describe the peace that comes with trusting in God; in fact, it is impossible. Perhaps it can only be said, in the simplest terms, that to trust in God is instant salvation—and this is literal, not an exaggeration. Moreover, remember that it requires nothing but your willingness.

Your decision to place your future in God’s Hands positions you instantly at the gates of Heaven. It is the easiest and quickest means of leaving behind all anxiety, all fear, all pain. How could you not fall in love with such a formula? How could you not turn to it at every moment?

You need not recall this thought only when you feel burdened, tempted, or threatened; on the contrary, it is wise to grow familiar with it when you feel well, secure, and safe. To place the future in God’s Hands at all times is the way to reclaim the Sonship that is yours and to which you have every right.

Begin now to form a familiar relationship with God, for He is your Father. That relationship will gradually shape and restore your true identity. If, starting right now and with constancy, you entrust all your concerns to God, the time will come when feeling yourself to be the Son of God will be natural to you and will replace the image you now hold of yourself.

Keep in mind that what you believe yourself to be entirely determines your perception, and there is no idea more sublime than to recognize the sublimity of your own existence. In this case, such a belief is not an idle fantasy but a thought perfectly aligned with truth, even if it is held by a fragmented mind that perceives itself as separate from the Christ Mind. It is a profoundly healing belief that dissolves the ego and leads you toward God.

You are spirit—you are eternal, invulnerable, and unlimited. That is a fact. But the separated mind, clinging to a personal identity, does not know it, for it cannot know; it can only believe. Therefore, it is in your best interest to believe in true ideas, which, though not the truth itself, do reflect it. To dwell in the ideas this Course presents is the most effective way to prepare yourself for the final step that God will take for you and with you.

Your personal identity is like a small boat sailing on the river of life, which has its own flow. Do not go against the current. Take your hands off the tiller and look trustingly toward the horizon, enjoying the motion of the waves and the clouds of Heaven. It will not be long before you discover, to your amazement, that the vessel has vanished and that you are the river, the sky, the wind, and the sun.

This Lesson is not merely a beautiful idea—it is a tool. In fact, it is one of the most powerful the Course offers you for dealing with a very specific kind of suffering: anxiety about the future. Jesus is direct—if you truly accept this idea, all uncertainty disappears. All anxiety, all fear of outcome, all fear of failure dissolve. Why? Because you have released control. You have stopped trying to manage the unmanageable. You have recognized that you do not know what is best for you, and you have handed over the agenda.

And this is not a metaphor—it is literal. When you say from the heart, “I place the future in the Hands of God,” you are releasing the very core of all anxiety: the expectation that something could go wrong. If you say it sincerely, it is impossible to feel fear at the same time. They are incompatible states of mind. This is one of those ideas you need not believe to see that it works—you need only practice it.

The key lies in its use. It is not a phrase to repeat halfheartedly, but a tool to apply when fear arises. It works—but only if you use it seriously, as one who learns to handle a precise instrument. It is not enough to say it; you must stop, come into contact with the fear that arises, and consciously choose to release it. Not to evade responsibility—you still have to pack your bag, make decisions, face what comes—but to let go of the weight of the outcome.

Moreover, this Lesson reveals something profound: the fear of death does not come from death itself, but from the idea of death that you carry in your mind. What torments you is not the end, but the anticipation of the end. It is the ego’s projection upon a future that does not exist. And this practice deactivates precisely that—the projection. It brings you back to the present, where you are safe.

If forgiveness is the great tool for healing the past, this Lesson is the supreme resource for freeing the future. The Course gives you both—not as ideas, but as instruments. Use them. Use them with honesty and perseverance. Do not wait to be at peace before surrendering everything; surrender, and you will see peace.

This phrase is not filler—it is your lifeline. Practice it as a professional of the soul. Try it when you do not know what to do, when you must decide, when you cannot sleep. Not as evasion, but as loving surrender.

And remember: the future is not your enemy; it is your classroom. Everything that comes will be, without exception, an opportunity either to love more or to learn more. And if you see it that way, you will truly be in God’s Hands.

^II You are not asked to understand that everything happens simultaneously—or, rather, that in truth nothing has ever happened.

^III The conflicts of the past pursue you into a present you waste by fearing that their consequences will reach you in the future. By placing your future in God’s Hands, you have in fact given Him the entire sequence. For in giving God your future, you also place your past and your present in His Hands, and thus you are completely freed from the bondage of time.

^IV That “repertoire” is the set of statements from thisCourse that you keep ready in your mind because they are especially useful for resolving difficulties. Today’s idea should become a “habit”—a fundamental resource whenever anything troubles you.

All Things Are Lessons God Would Have Me Learn.

1. The idea of learning is foreign to God.

²Yet His Will extends even to what He does not understand, in the sense that He wills the happiness His Son inherited from Him be undisturbed, perpetual, and ever-increasing; forever expanding in the joy of full creation, eternally open and wholly limitless in Him.

³This is His Will.

⁴And thus His Will provides the means to guarantee it is fulfilled.

2. God sees no contradictions.

²But His Son believes he sees them.

³This is why he needs One Who can correct his errant sight, offer him a new vision, and lead him back to where all perception ends.^I

⁴God does not perceive at all.

⁵Yet it is He Who provides the means by which perception becomes true and beautiful enough for Heaven’s light to shine upon it.

⁶He answers what His Son would contradict and keeps His sinlessness forever safe.

3. God offers no forgiveness, for He knows sin is impossible.^II

²Yet He allowed His holy Law of Love to be expressed in a form that could be offered to the world.^III

³And so He created One Who could perceive the form this law should take, so that every mind that had forgotten it might receive it as it is in Heaven and in God.

⁴In this way He embraced even what He could not see nor understand, giving His Love and answering a question His Son asked, though it had no meaning.^IV

4. The One God created to replace the mad idea that entered into His holy Son’s mind with peace and joy now fulfills His function.

²He transforms every lesson you would teach in hate into a lesson of forgiveness.

³And thus, bringing hate to Love, fear disappears.

⁴Now guilt cannot arise, for its source has been removed.

⁵Now the purpose of the lesson has been changed, and it no longer breeds guilt.

⁶Hate has been uprooted by Love.

5. These are the lessons God would have you learn.

²In every one of them His Will is reflected and His loving kindness for the Son He loves.

³Each lesson holds a central thought, the same in all of them.

⁴Only the form is different.

⁵It is this idea that lies beneath all seeming differences of circumstance, events, characters, and themes that change with every lesson you attempt to learn.^V

⁶Yet they are all the same in fundamental content.

⁷And it is this:

⁸Forgive, and you will see this differently.

6. It certainly does not appear that all distress is but a lack of forgiveness.

²Yet that is the content beneath the form in every case.

³This sameness is what makes true learning possible, for the lesson is so simple that it cannot be rejected in the end.

⁴No one can long remain in hiding from a truth so obvious it appears in countless forms, and is easily recognized in all of them if one but wants to see the simple lesson it contains.

7. Forgive, and you will see this differently.

²These are the words the Holy Spirit speaks in all your trials, all your pain, and all suffering, whatever form it takes.

³These are the words with which temptation ends and guilt is laid aside.

⁴These are the words that end the dream of sin and free the mind from fear.

⁵These are the words through which salvation comes to all the world.

8. Do you not think you should learn to say these words when you are tempted to believe that pain is real, and death is your choice instead of life?

²Do you not think you should apply them when you understand their power to release all minds from bondage?

³These are the words that give you power over all events that seem to have power over you.

⁴Keep them in your awareness, and they will see you through all things.

⁵Do not forget these words apply to everything you see, or any brother interprets incorrectly.

9. How can you tell when you are seeing wrong, or someone else is failing to perceive the lesson he should learn?

²Does pain seem real in what you see?

³If so, be sure the lesson is not yet learned, and there remains an unforgiven thought hiding in your mind.

⁴For pain is seen through eyes that your mind sends forth to find it.

10. God would not have you suffer thus.

²He would help you forgive yourself.

³His Son does not remember who he is.

⁴And God would have him not forget His Love, and all the gifts His Love brings with it.

⁵Would you now renounce your own salvation?

⁶Would you refuse to learn the simple lessons Heaven’s Teacher sets before you, so that all pain may disappear and God’s Son remember his Father?

11. All things are lessons God would have you learn.

²He would not leave one thought of unforgiveness uncorrected, nor one thorn or nail to hurt His holy Son in any way.

³He would ensure his holy rest remain untroubled and serene, without a care in an eternal home which cares for him.

⁴And He would have all tears be wiped away, and not one more be shed.^VI

⁵For God has willed that laughter take the place of every tear, and that His Son be free again.

12. Today we will attempt to rise above a thousand seeming obstacles to peace in just one day.

²Let mercy come to you more quickly.

³Do not delay its coming one more day, one more minute, or even one more instant.

⁴Time was made for this.

⁵Use it today for what it is.

⁶Devote as much time as you can this morning and at night to serve its rightful purpose.

⁷Do not give less than is required to meet your deepest need.

⁸Give all you can, and even more.^VII

⁹For now we would arise in haste and go unto our Father’s house.^VIII

¹⁰We have been gone too long, and we would linger here no more.

13. And as we practice, let us think about all the things we have held apart from healing, and kept for our own judgment.

²Let us give them all to Him Who knows the way to look upon them so that they will disappear.

³Truth is His message.

⁴Truth is His teaching.

⁵His are the lessons God would have us learn.

14. Today, and in the days to come, give a little time each hour to the practice of the lesson of forgiveness in the form given you today.

²Try to apply it to whatever happened during the hour, so that the next one is free of the previous one.^IX

³In this way, the chains of time are easily undone.

⁴Do not let one hour cast its shadow on the next, and when it has passed, let all it held slip away with it.

⁵Thus will you remain unbound and in eternal peace within the world of time.

15. This is the lesson God would have you learn:

²There is a way to look on everything that lets it be to you another step to Him and to salvation of the world.

³And to all things that frighten you, respond with this:

⁴I will forgive, and this will disappear.

⁵Say these words upon beholding fear, anxiety, or suffering of any kind.

⁶And you will hold the key that opens Heaven’s gate and brings the Love of God the Father down to earth at last, to raise it up to Heaven.^X

⁷This final step will God Himself take.

⁸Do not deny the little steps He asks you take to Him.

---

^I This figure that evokes the Will of God within the dream of the world is the Holy Spirit.

^II For some reason, this paragraph and the one that follows do not appear in the Urtext, nor in the FIP version or any derived editions; however, they do appear in Helen’s handwritten notes. This is somewhat surprising, for in them the origin of the Holy Spirit and His function as mediator between the real and the impossible are set forth.

^III The “law of love” is, as stated in Lesson 344: “What I give my brother is my gift to me.” It is the first time in theCourse that the expression “the law of love” is used. Previously, it had been called “the Law of God”: “YOU need the blessing you can offer him. There is no way you can have it except by giving it. This IS the Law of God, and HAS no exceptions.” (T-7.VII.3:3-5). In the preceding passage, the form of giving—and therefore receiving—love in this world is forgiveness.

^IV The question is: What would happen if I were separated from my Father?

^V This beautiful Lesson offers you the perfect attitude with which to interpret every event of your personal life correctly. Everything that happens to you—absolutely everything, down to the smallest detail—comprises the lessons God would have you learn. Everything you experience within the dream of the world is a teaching, because what you call life is, in truth, a school for learning to live for real.

You are not alive now; you are dreaming. Your only Life is in God, and that Life remains unalterable in eternity, exactly as your Father willed it. But the recurring idea of being alone and separate, clinging to a small fragment of your holy mind, has generated in you a strange dream, utterly foreign to your true identity.

This Course is the solution to that illusory situation, and the forgiveness of everything you behold is the remedy. Observe carefully: if that idea became embedded in your mind through your own free choice, what other solution could there be but to stop wanting it? And what is forgiveness if not precisely that?

To forgive is to deny error—to say “no” to something you yourself have summoned. It is to let pass what you perceive and disengage from it. Forgiveness is the rejection of illusions, and therefore it is an essentially negative concept; for that reason, it is unknown in Heaven, since the negative must necessarily be illusory and unreal. Yet here, in the realm of illusions, it is the kindest solution to an impossible situation. Put more simply, it is like telling the waiter—perception—that the dish he brought you—what lies before you—no longer appeals to you. You have begun to remember that the nourishment that truly feeds you will never be found in that restaurant.

This lesson trains you to release resistance—to stop fighting life. It invites you to make a total inner reversal: to move from rejection to acceptance, from judgment to trust, from fear to gratitude. Not because you enjoy suffering, but because you know that even suffering, in God’s hands, can become sacred.

Your life is your curriculum. And it is not poorly designed. You have not chosen the wrong partner, the wrong job, or the wrong illness. You are not where you should not be. You are precisely upon the stage your mind requires to remember love. The question is not “Why is this happening to me?” but “What is this meant to teach me about myself?”

Life unfolds before you in absolute innocence. It is you—the ego—the referential system that evaluates what it perceives and colors it with fear and lack by choosing a distorted perception. Life should never inspire fear in you, for it is a spotless slate upon which you write the story you choose. The fundamental question is: What story do you want to tell yourself?

This perspective transforms the way you walk through the world. You cease being a victim of what happens and become a student of every moment. Resentment gives way to spiritual curiosity. Complaint becomes openness. And gradually, you develop a new kind of trust—the certainty that there is nothing to fear, because everything is part of the plan of return.

Leap for joy when you hear these words in your mind, for they are the key to your liberation. As long as you have eyes to see and a heart to feel, you will continue to find before you wonderful opportunities to forgive and to write in the book of life what you choose to be.

You are completely free to decide, and your will has the power to shape your interpretations. You need only discernment to choose rightly, and that is already guaranteed to you by the guidance of the best of teachers, for Jesus is by your side and the Holy Spirit is at your service. What more could you possibly need?

Never forget: every evil or lack you perceive in the world is something you have placed before yourself. Outside you there is nothing. You, Son of God, rule your own universe. Will you be a king or a beggar? You always assign yourself your own role; now you are offered one that is the Will of God, consisting solely in forgiving and being happy. Would you not like to try it and give it a chance? If that does not persuade you, you can always go on making yourself miserable; you are free, remember—and that option is always available.

Jesus knows there will be times when it will hurt, when you will struggle to see the purpose, when you will want to give up. But He also knows you can choose again—that you can trust even when you do not understand. And if you do, if you keep your heart open, you will discover that all those things that once caused you such pain… turn to light.

Forgive, and you will see the world differently. Does it not fill you with joy to know that the key to happiness lies in your hands? If your heart does not tremble at such joyous news, it is because you have been dead for too long. Would you not wish to rise again?

My God! You are the most holy Son of God! What have you done with your Life?

^VI Revelation 21:4 “And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying, nor pain, for the former things have passed away.” In the preceding passage, tears are wiped away by learning to forgive everything that happens to us.

^VII Be sensitive to the urgency in Jesus’ words. Do not waste time. You have no excuse left for not being happy. You now know exactly what you must do. The world awaits your forgiveness with longing, writhing in its nightmare. Your brothers suffer. Your brothers agonize, huddled in fear, awaiting an imaginary death. You are the savior of the world. Join Jesus and go to their rescue.

^VIII Luke 15:17–20 “But when he came to himself, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger! I will arise and go to my father’s house.’”

^IX Each hour you should make a brief review and apply today’s Lesson to anything from the previous hour that has disturbed you, using the words “Forgive, and you will see this differently,” or “I will forgive, and this will disappear,” perhaps also using the idea for the day.

And you should do the same in the days that follow, using the words of each day’s Lesson. This is a new instruction for your hourly practice—the first since Lesson 153: “And we will sit quietly and wait for Him, and listen to His Voice, and hear what He would have us do in the coming hour, while thanking Him for the gifts He gave us in the one gone by.” (W-153.17:2).

^X Matthew 16:19 “And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”

I Have a Function God Would Have Me Fill.

1. The holy Will of your Father is that you complete Him.

²And that your Self be His holy Son, forever pure as He.

³Created by Love, and preserved in Love.

⁴Extending Love, and creating in His Name.

⁵Forever One with God and with your Self.

2. But what could such a function mean in a world of envy, hatred, and attack?

²This is why you have a function in the world as it understands.^I

³For who could understand a language here that lies beyond its simple grasp?

3. Forgiveness is your function here.

²It is not a creation of God, for it is the means by which what is not true can be undone.

³Who could need forgiveness in Heaven?

⁴Yet on earth, you do need the means to leave illusion behind.^II

⁵Creation merely waits for your return, not to be complete, but to be recognized.

4. Creation is something that cannot even be conceived of in the world.

²Here, it means nothing.^III

³Forgiveness is the closest thing to it the earth can offer.

⁴For having been born in Heaven, it has no form.

⁵Yet God created One with the power to give form to what is formless.

⁶He shapes dreams so close to waking that the light of day already shines within them.

⁷And eyes beginning now to open behold the happy landscapes His gifts contain.

5. Forgiveness gently looks upon all things that are unknown in Heaven.^IV

²It sees them disappear and leaves the world a clean and spotless slate on which the Word of God can now replace the meaningless symbols that once were written there.

³Forgiveness is the means by which the fear of death is overcome, for it no longer has the fierce attraction, and guilt has vanished.

⁴Forgiveness lets the body be perceived as what it is: a simple aid to teaching that is laid aside when learning is complete, but that in no way changes the learner.

6. Without the body, the mind cannot err.

²It cannot think it will die, nor be the prey of merciless attacks.

³Without the body, anger is meaningless.

⁴Then what is there to fear?

⁵What fears could still pursue the one who has let go of the source of all attack, the core of anguish, and the seat of fear?

⁶Only forgiveness can release the mind from thinking that the body is its home.

⁷Only forgiveness can restore the peace God wills for His holy Son.

⁸Only forgiveness can persuade the Son to look once more upon his holiness.

7. When anger is gone, you will truly see that no sacrifice was asked of you to restore the vision of Christ and the gift of sight.

²Only the pain of a tortured and sickened mind was lifted.

³Is that not something to desire?

⁴Must you fear it?

⁵Or is it something you should long for, receive with gratitude, and welcome with joy?

⁶We are one, and thus we give up nothing.

⁷God, in truth, has already given us everything.

8. But we need forgiveness to perceive that this is so.

²Without its kindly light, we stumble in the dark, using reason only to justify our rage and our attacks.

³Our understanding is so limited that what we think we grasp is but confusion born of error. ^V

⁴We are lost in the shadows of shifting dreams and fearful thoughts, with eyes closed to avoid the light and minds prepared to worship what does not exist.

9. Who can be reborn in Christ but he who has forgiven everyone he sees, thinks of, or imagines? ^VI

²Who can be free while he imprisons anyone?

³A jailer is not free, for he is bound to what he keeps in chains.

⁴He must be sure his prisoner does not escape, and so he spends his time in watching him.

⁵The bars that keep his captive locked become the world in which he lives with him.

⁶And the freedom of one is the freedom of the other.

10. Therefore, do not hold anyone in prison.

²Release instead of bind, and so you will be released.^VII

³And the way to do this is very simple.

⁴Each time you feel a stab of anger, realize you hold a sword above your head.^VIII

⁵And it will fall or not, depending on your choice to condemn or to release.

⁶Thus, everyone who seems to rouse your anger is your savior, come to free you from the prison of death.

⁷And for this you owe him thanks instead of pain.

11. Be merciful today.

²The Son of God deserves your mercy.

³It is he who asks you now to take the road to freedom.

⁴Do not deny it to him.

⁵The Love his Father bears for him is yours as well.

⁶Your only function here on earth is to forgive him, that you may accept him back as your true Self.

⁷He is as God created him.

⁸And you are what he is.

⁹Forgive him now his sins, and you will see that you are one with him.

---

^I This lesson reminds you that your function here is not something you decide for yourself—it has been given to you. And that function, which in the world translates as forgiveness, is the means by which you can begin to remember who you are. Forgiveness is the earthly form of mercy—the way your mind, still trapped in time, can glimpse eternity.

But do not forget this: forgiveness is not a theory. It is not a brilliant idea to be taught in talks or workshops, nor an inspiring phrase to post on social media. Forgiveness is a living practice that involves your whole being. And above all, it is relational. It is not about “understanding” that the world is an illusion, but about treating others with respect, kindness, and truth. True forgiveness begins where theory ends—in the gentle gesture, the simple act, the shared meal, or the hand that refrains from judging.

A crucial revelation once shared in a meeting sheds light on this path: though the statement “the world does not exist” is literally true, it can often be pedagogically useless, or even counterproductive. Not because it is false, but because it often separates rather than unites. The purpose of the Course is not to make you feel special or more enlightened than others. Quite the opposite: it is to help you become a normal, loving, useful person. To bring Heaven down to earth without losing sight of it. For your forgiveness will not be believable unless it is kind. And your holiness will not be real unless it takes concrete form in acts of goodness.

Jesus never taught that the world did not exist. The saints who walked the earth did not carry that idea as their banner. Why? Because the highest truth is not shouted—it is embodied. The Course teaches you that illusion is undone from within, patiently, without specialness. The enlightened one is not he who repeats grand phrases, but he who comforts, serves, and loves.

To be a good student of the Course is not to speak of non-dualism; it is to never lose your tenderness. It is to smile when you don’t feel like it, to help your neighbor even if she doesn’t understand you, to dance boleros on a Saturday with your brothers and not forget that all of that—though illusory—is precisely the place where your function is fulfilled. For love can only be given where you believe yourself to be. And as long as you see bodies, stories, and streets, that is where forgiveness takes place.

The greatest miracle is that you can learn to love within a dream. And that learning is your only function here.

In the realm of dreams, both liberation and the means to attain it must themselves be dreams. Dreams are your brother’s sins and your own. The idea you hold of yourself is a dream, and the forgiveness that will lead you to awaken from this nightmare is also a dream. Your function must be consistent with the medium in which it appears.

Your function here is to forgive; that is all you have to do. To forgive, to be happy, and to make others happy is your only function here. And there can be no happiness while anything remains outside your forgiveness or excluded from your love.

^II Although you are already quite familiar with the idea of forgiveness as thisCourse presents it, you may still not be fully aware of where to apply it or what it really means to forgive everything. You may think this means forgiving all your “enemies” or the offenses and attacks you sometimes perceive from people or from life itself. Certainly, all that must be forgiven, but the true forgiveness thisCourse teaches goes far beyond that: you must forgive everything. And here, “everything” means everything you perceive, without exception.

In truth, the only thing you must forgive are illusions, and to visualize this better we will divide the object of forgiveness into two broad areas. The first encompasses everything you consider external to yourself and call the world. That world you perceive is an illusion—you already know this—and it presents itself to you as composed of multiple distinct aspects you call “things.” Thus, we may say that for you the world is a collection of illusions. You must forgive them all, for they are unreal: they are not true, they are not like you, and you must be fully aware that this is always so. Forgiveness is precisely that: letting something pass by, knowing it is an illusion, and allowing yourself to see in it only the faint reflection of love it may evoke or contain.

All perceptual experiences you name with particular terms are illusions. Every concrete object, every living body, every physical phenomenon is an illusion. The trees, the wind, the sun, and the stars; the earth beneath your feet and the bodies of your loved ones; the animals, the rivers, the rain—all of it is illusion, and you must learn to see it as such and forgive it.

None of it is true, for none of it is like you. None of it is your Self, though in some way it is contained within It. None of it is relevant or has any importance, for none of it is known in Heaven. It exists only in your private world and must be forgiven. Why? Because now you know that you are dreaming, and everything you encounter in your dream must be unreal and forgiven. If you do not forgive it, the dream will trap you, and you will not awaken.

Perhaps such a radical stance makes you uncomfortable, and if so, it is because you still harbor some hope of finding comfort within your dream. There is none. The true comfort—and the good news—is to know that you are dreaming and that you will awaken, not to try to build a better dream, for that is the oldest illusion of all. All your capacity to forgive, to heal, and to work miracles rests on the firm recognition that the world is an illusion. This Course is built upon that truth. It is the cornerstone of your liberation and your happiness, even within this world.

And if you wish to play your part faithfully—to heal, to heal others, and to be happy—you must never forget this: the world is an illusion. Period. Yet it is also true that illusions deserve your gentle respect. This means you must look upon them with care and consult the One who knows what to do with them. He will show you the optimal way to handle them, to save time and to fulfill your role in the plan of salvation impeccably.

The second area to forgive is your “inner world”: your thoughts. And this refers to everything—absolutely everything—that crosses your mind: your opinions, judgments, interpretations, preferences, desires, fears, guilt, lofty ideas, the image you have of yourself, your past, your present, your future. All of it, without exception, must be forgiven. Let it go. Do not hold onto it, do not value or cherish it. All of it is illusion and untrue. A flower, a dog, the breeze on your face are exactly the same as a political opinion, a toothache, or a holiday memory. They are the same because they are illusions, and as such they must be forgiven so they cannot imprison you and cause you pain.

With this in mind, continue with the Lesson, and perhaps now you will better understand the role of the Holy Spirit and forgiveness in your illusory life: they are essential—they are the key to your happiness and your salvation. You need forgiveness far more than air. Never forget this. Do not turn away from forgiveness for even an instant, for if you do, you will begin to slip into an uncertain world, and fear and anger will arise.

^III It is very important that you become familiar with the idea that thisCourse will speak to you of many things you cannot now understand, for to understand them is salvation itself. Be very careful with all of this and do not assume you are capable of understanding real concepts such as God, the Son of God, Creation, Truth, Love, Eternity, and others.

All the terms in this Course that appear capitalized are, here and now, incomprehensible. The good news is that you are not really “here and now,” and that you understand them perfectly, for they are what you truly are, even though here and now you seem to have forgotten.

Do not worry—you have many resources to function perfectly well here and now and to fulfill your function: you have forgiveness, prayer, trust, and all the other qualities of the teachers; the Holy Spirit is your Guide, and Jesus always walks beside you. So, as said, do not worry—walk forward in full confidence, for even here and now you can and must be happy.

^IV Do not obsess, do not fear; trust. Do what you can, forgive everything—but before all else, forgive yourself. For once you have forgiven yourself, forgiving anything else will not only be easy, it will be inevitable. Forgive yourself for all your lapses, your sins, and your faults; forgive yourself for your forgetfulness, your resentments, your impatience, and your harmful habits. When you notice them, correct them and cleanse them at once from your holy mind.

You have not a single moment to waste in useless guilt. The present awaits you, yearning, every passing second, to give you all the happiness it contains. You are born anew and innocent in it each instant. Do not stain it with senseless guilt over a past long gone or what you have just done. You have no time for such foolishness. You have much to do, and not a second to waste on guilt.

Once you have learned to treat yourself in this way, apply the same rule to everyone else. Give all your brothers the same treatment. When someone offends you, forget the matter at once, bless him, and wait with trust and hope for his blessing, for that person, like you, has been reborn innocent and pure into the eternal present. And if, instead of blessing you, he offends you again, forgive him again and wait once more for his blessing. Do this again and again until your brother blesses you—and, if necessary, for all eternity, or until the Holy Spirit tells you otherwise.

You may think this is an unproductive investment and that your reward takes too long to arrive. Do not be mistaken: your reward is immediate. The blessing you receive each time is instantaneous, for it is your own. Your brother’s behavior is not your concern, for he is free to do as he chooses. You are not seeking anything in him, but in yourself—and you find it when you give it.

Do this well, and you will see two things. On one hand, you will find that very few people can resist your unconditional acceptance and forgiveness—but that does not depend on you, nor is it relevant. What you will find is that your capacity to forgive and your inner strength increase exponentially in that process—and that is what you truly seek.

After all you have read here about forgiveness, realize this: in truth, the only thing you ever forgive are your own thoughts—your interpretations of reality. And you forgive them because “My thoughts do not mean anything.” (W-10)

Forgiveness is the key to happiness. Never forget that.

^V Read this line several times, and then tell yourself that you understand what it says—but that you have not yet internalized it. Give yourself time, but stay very alert. Watch your mind and notice that only a few seconds will pass before a new foolish thought arises that you will believe to be true. Be patient with yourself. That, too, will pass.

^VI John 3:3 “Jesus answered and said to him, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.’”

The expression “to be born again in Christ” is probably a reference to the popular use of the term “born again,” which gained prominence in American culture in the late 1960s (this Lesson was dictated in 1970) through the Jesus People movement—often called “Jesus freaks”—and the Christian counterculture. The term, originating in John 3:3, came to describe a conversion experience in which one accepts Jesus Christ as personal Savior, thus ensuring “salvation” and entry into Heaven rather than hell.

The preceding reference reinterprets the concept of being “born again in Christ.” In this context, one is born again not by accepting Jesus as Savior, but by having “forgiven everyone you see, think of, or imagine.” For a similar reinterpretation, see M-13.1:10: “He has accepted Christ, and he is saved.”

^VII Matthew 16:19 “And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”

^VIII This image seems inspired by the famous story of the Sword of Damocles, in which Damocles, after praising the fortune of his king, is invited to sit upon the throne, only to discover a sword hanging over his head, suspended by a single horsehair. The king had placed it there to illustrate the constant peril faced by those who hold power. In the reinterpretation above, when we feel a “pang of anger,” it is we ourselves who hold a sword over our own heads. If we yield to that anger, we let the sword fall upon us; if instead we forgive, we lay the sword down. In a way, this image also represents the precarious position of those who hold the power… to become angry.

I Am the Holy Son of God Himself.

1. Here is your declaration of freedom from the slavery of the world.

²And with it, the entire world is set free as well.^I

³You are unaware of what you have done by assigning to the world the role of jailer of the Son of God.

⁴What else, then, could it be but a world depraved, vengeful and fierce, fearful and intimidated by shadows, devoid of all reason, blind, insane, and sorrowful?

2. What have you done to make this your world?

²What have you done to make this what you see?

³Deny your true identity, and this is the result.^II

⁴You behold chaos and declare that this is what you are.

⁵Everything you see bears witness to it.

⁶Every sound you hear speaks to you of the frailty within and without.

⁷Every breath you take seems to draw you closer to death.

⁸Every hope you hold ends in tears.

3. Deny your true identity, and you cannot escape the madness that gave rise to this strange, unnatural, ghostlike thought, which mocks Creation and laughs at God.

²Deny your true identity, and you will face the universe alone, without a friend, a tiny speck of dust against vast legions of enemies.

³Deny your true identity, and you will see only evil, sin, and death.

⁴And despair will snatch away all hope, leaving you only with the wish to die.

4. But is this not merely a game in which you believe you can deny your identity?

²You are as God created you.

³To believe anything else is sheer insanity.

⁴In this one thought is everyone set free.

⁵In this one truth all illusions disappear.

⁶In this one fact is sinlessness eternally declared to be the condition of all, the core of their being, and the guarantee of everlasting life.

5. Let today’s idea enter your mind, and you have risen far above the world and all the worldly thoughts that keep it prisoner.

²And from this place of safety and of freedom, you will return to free the world.

³For he who can accept his true identity is truly saved.

⁴And his salvation is the gift he gives to everyone, in gratitude to Him Who showed him the way to happiness that changed his view of the world.

6. One single holy thought like this, and you are free.

²You are the holy Son of God Himself.

³And with this holy thought, you also understand that you have set the world free.

⁴You have no need to use it cruelly, nor to perceive in it the savage need your fears had made.

⁵You release it from your prison.

⁶You will no longer behold the devastating image of yourself wandering in terror through a twisted world, wracked with agony by your own fears.

7. Rejoice today in how easily hell is undone.

²You need only say to yourself:

³I am the holy Son of God Himself.

⁴I cannot suffer.

⁵I cannot be in pain.

⁶I cannot lose anything.

⁷Nor can I fail to do all that salvation asks.

⁸And with that thought, all you see is transformed.

8. A miracle has come to light the dark and ancient caverns where the rites of death had echoed since the beginning of time.

²For time has lost its hold upon the world.

³The Son of God has come in glory to redeem the lost, to save the helpless, and to bring the gift of his forgiveness to the world.^III

⁴Who could see the world as dark and sinful, now that the Son of God has come at last to free it?

9. You, who see yourself as weak and fragile, full of vain hopes and crushed desires, born only to die, to weep, and suffer pain—listen to this:

²All power in Heaven and earth has been given you.^IV

³There is nothing you cannot do.^V

⁴You are playing the game of death,

⁵The game of helplessness, condemned by your own will to waste away in a merciless world.

⁶But when you show it mercy, its mercy will reflect back on you.

10. Let then the Son of God awaken from his sleep, and, opening his holy eyes, return to bless the world he made.

²The world began in error.

³But it will end in the reflection of the holiness of the Son of God.

⁴And we will sleep no more, and dream of death no longer.

11. Join with me today.

²Your glory is the light that saves the world.

³Do not delay salvation any longer.

⁴Look around and see the suffering there.

⁵Is your heart not ready to bring rest to your weary brothers?

12. They must wait until you are free.

²They will remain in chains until you are released.

³They cannot see mercy in the world until you find it within yourself.

⁴They will suffer pain until you deny its power over you.

⁵They will die until you accept your own Eternal Life.

⁶You are the holy Son of God.

⁷Remember this, and the whole world is free.

⁸Remember this, and Heaven and earth are joined as one.

---

^I This lesson gives you a statement that, if you were to accept it wholeheartedly, would free you from all pain, all guilt, and all fear: I am the holy Son of God Himself. But Jesus is not giving you a magic spell. It is not the sound of the words that performs the miracle, but your will aligned with truth. This works only if you truly want it. And it is not enough to want it consciously; you must want it with your whole being, with your whole unconscious, with your entire mind.

Here the true power of will is revealed—not as an external force, but as an internal act of consent. If you truly desire to be who you are, and if you trust that this is possible, then it will be so. Not because someone grants it to you from outside, but because that is what is already true, and you are finally willing to accept it. The Course is not a technique for changing the world; it is a way for your will to cease opposing reality.

Jesus is clear: if you believe you are something else—a speck of dust, a vulnerable being, a victim of the world—then you will see a world at war with you. And everything you see will speak to you of fragility and threat. But that perception is the result of an active denial of your true identity. You are witnessing the consequences of not wanting to know who you are.

Accepting this lesson not only frees you; it frees the world. For what you see is the reflection of your mind. And if your mind changes, the world you behold is transformed. You are no longer asked to heal the world, but to heal yourself. Not out of selfishness, but because your healing is the beginning of everyone’s redemption. They cannot perceive mercy until you have found it within yourself. They cannot be freed from pain while you still believe in it. Your liberation is their hope.

This lesson is not an emotional stimulus; it is a declaration of power. There is nothing you cannot do. The power of your mind is absolute, and you have used it to play the game of powerlessness. Today you are asked to remember who you are—not as an intellectual exercise, but as an act of total will. And when you do—even for a moment—earth and Heaven will be one.

^II The perception of a world of fear is the direct consequence of denying your true identity. The world you perceive is nothing but the reflection of the idea you hold of yourself. You will see everything you believe is external to you in the same light with which you see yourself. There is nothing magical in this axiom, for in truth, what you behold is nothing but yourself, since nothing lies outside your mind.

Your own existence is the same and only existence of all that is. You exist, and apart from that there is nothing else. Everything that is not you is merely your own beliefs, which, of course, are also yours. Thus, there is no gap between you and your brothers, or between you and God. All that exists is One, and it is written with a capital letter because it is the proper name of all that is.

Without delving into deep ontological discussions that would lead you nowhere, you must understand that God the Father, the Son of God, the Holy Spirit, and the Creations of the Son of God are considerations of the fragmented mind when it contemplates Reality from different perspectives. Reality is One, and the cosmology this Course proposes is very precise; yet, ultimately, it is only one of many ways of describing pure existence.

Here, Atonement is the name given to the process by which the fragmented mind comes to recognize its true identity as pure existence—its true and only condition of being. Everything else is fantasy—illusions that have not the slightest importance, for they are unreal and insubstantial, and their consequences are only apparent, affecting exclusively the mind that entertains them, which is itself unreal in its fragmented condition, for the very idea of separation is likewise an illusion.

It is evident that you attach great importance to this process of atonement, but you can already begin to recognize that salvation occurs only within your dream, and that the very act of dreaming is also an illusion. In truth, you have nothing to be saved from, for the one who seeks salvation does not really exist. The one who seeks salvation, meditates, forgives, and strives is a fictional character in a dream of fear that has never happened. None of this you understand, nor will you ever be able to understand it, for the mind that tries to grasp it is nothing but a mistaken idea you hold of yourself.

You are not who you think you are—not even when you try to conceive your true identity as the Son of God. That fragment of your mind that feels alone and separate from all things is not real; it is merely an erroneous consideration of your identity that appears when you open your eyes in the morning and believe you awaken, and disappears when you close them at night and sink into nothingness. And during what you call day, or waking, you experience yourself as a particular being. You are not—but you certainly believe you are.

You must interpret the content of this Lesson within that framework. Here you are told that the world you behold is but the projection of yourself. You have been promised that you will see a happy, holy, and forgiving world when you yourself feel happy, holy, and forgiving, but understand that what you will see will be nothing but a benevolent illusion you will behold shortly before awakening. The world does not exist! It is a projection of yourself; it is your dream of separation.

The thought of being the holy Son of God frees you from the world of fear and leads you to the real world. Yet that is the most you can achieve from your current position; it does not free you from the perception of the world. How could your fragmented mind free you from what does not exist, when it too is an illusion? This understanding of your present situation should not alarm you; it should lead you to maturity and to an understanding of the meaning and limits of your responsibility within the plan of salvation.

Begin to familiarize yourself with the idea of “maturing,” for it represents the fruit of the mental training you are undertaking. And do not be afraid to know that, deep down, you are living a beautiful fiction. Attach no importance to your errors or sins, for in truth they have none, but also begin to attach less value to your own salvation, for in the end, that too is illusory.

Rejoice that it has all been only a bad dream, and rejoice that you move forward with steady steps toward a happy dream—from which you will also awaken. Abide with God, for with Him you are.

^III Matthew 16:27 “For the Son of Man will come in the glory of His Father with His angels, and then He will reward each according to his works.”

Matthew 18:11 “For the Son of Man has come to save that which was lost.”

Matthew 25:31 “When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, He will sit on the throne of His glory.”

^IV Matthew 28:18 “Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, ‘All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.’”

^V Matthew 17:20 “Jesus said to them, ‘Because of your little faith; for truly I say to you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, “Move from here to there,” and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you.’”

John 14:12 “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in Me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to My Father.”

I Choose the Joy of God Instead of Pain.

1. Pain is a mistaken perspective.

²To experience any of its forms is to be deceiving yourself.

³Pain is not a fact at all.

⁴Every kind of pain disappears when seen correctly.^I

⁵For pain proclaims that God is cruel.

⁶How, then, could it be real in any form?

⁷Pain testifies to the Father’s hatred for His Son, to the sin He sees in him, and to His insane desire for vengeance and for death.

2. Do you believe such projections can be trusted?

²Can they be anything but entirely false?

³Pain is merely the witness to the Son’s mistakes about what he believes himself to be.

⁴It is a dream of fierce reprisal for a crime he could not possibly have committed, for an attack upon what is utterly unassailable.

⁵It is the nightmare of feeling abandoned by Eternal Love, Which could never abandon the Son It created by extending Its Love.

3. Pain is a sign that illusions rule in place of truth.

²It proves that God has been denied, confused with fear, believed to be insane, and thought to have betrayed Himself.

³If God is real, then pain does not exist.

⁴But if pain is real, then God does not exist.

⁵For vengeance is not part of Love.

⁶And fear, denying Love and using pain as proof that God is dead, succeeds in proving that death has triumphed over life.

⁷Then the Son of God must be a body, corruptible in death, and as mortal as the Father he has slain.

4. Let peace put an end to such madness.

²It is time to laugh at such insane ideas.

³There is no need to see them as heinous crimes or secret sins with dire consequences.

⁴Who but a madman would believe they could have consequences?

⁵Their witness—pain—is as insane as they are.

⁶You need not fear it, just as you need not fear the foolish illusions it protects and seeks to make appear as true.

5. Only your thoughts can bring you pain.

²Nothing external to your mind can harm or injure you in any way.

³There is no cause beyond yourself that can reach you and oppress you.

⁴No one but yourself affects you.

⁵There is nothing in the world that has the power to make you ill, to sadden you, or to weaken you.

⁶You hold the power to master all things you see, simply by recognizing what you are.

⁷When you perceive that they are harmless, they will gladly obey your holy will.

⁸And what once seemed fearful becomes a source of innocence and holiness.

6. My holy brother, consider this for a moment:

²The world you see does nothing.

³It has no effect at all.

⁴It merely reflects your thoughts.

⁵And it will change entirely as you change your mind, and choose the Joy of God as what you really want.

⁶Your Self shines in this holy joy, forever unchanged and unchangeable.

⁷Would you deny one little corner of your mind its rightful inheritance? ^II

⁸Will you keep it as a hospital for pain, a sickly place where living things must finally come to die?

7. It may seem the world causes you pain.

²But it has no cause, and so it has no power to cause anything.

³Being an effect, it cannot produce effects.

⁴Being an illusion, it is only what you want it to be.

⁵The pains of the world are the representations of your futile wishes.

⁶Your strange desires give rise to its dreams of evil.

⁷Your thoughts of death enshroud the world in fear.

⁸But your gentle forgiveness brings it life.

8. Pain is the thought of evil made manifest, and it wreaks havoc on your holy mind.

²Pain is the ransom you have gladly paid to not be free.

³In pain, the Son of God is denied by God Himself.

⁴In pain, fear seems to triumph over love, and time replaces eternity and Heaven.

⁵And the world becomes a bitter, cruel domain where sorrow rules, and little joys quickly yield to the assault of pain, which turns all joy to suffering.

9. Lay down your arms and come without defense to the quiet place where Heaven’s peace enfolds all things in stillness.

²Let go of every thought of threat and fear.

³Allow no attack to come with you.

⁴Release the cruel blade of judgment you hold against your throat, and set aside the harsh condemnations with which you would obscure your holiness.^III

10. Thus will you understand that pain is not real.

²Thus will the Joy of God be yours.

³Today you are given the lesson that holds all the power of salvation.

⁴And it is this:

⁵Pain is illusion; joy alone is real.

⁶Pain is but sleep; joy is awakening.

⁷Pain is deception; joy is truth.

11. And so once more we make the only choice that ever can be made: we choose between illusions and the truth, between pain and joy, between hell and Heaven.

²Let gratitude to our Teacher fill our hearts, for we are free to choose the joy instead of pain, holiness instead of sin, the Peace of God instead of conflict, and Heaven’s light in place of the world’s darkness.

---

^I This is one of the most radical and misunderstood lessons in theCourse. It asserts, without hesitation, that pain is not real—that it has no external cause. That it is only possible as the effect of a belief: the belief that we are bodies, vulnerable, and separate from God. At the same time, it warns that accepting this is not easy, for we have identified so deeply with the body that any questioning of its reality seems senseless or even cruel. Yet unless we take this step, we remain trapped in illusion.

Jesus does not deny that you experience pain. What he denies is its ultimate reality. He teaches that all pain is a decision, even if that decision is made within unconscious layers of the mind. Emotional suffering and physical pain, he says, reflect the same cause: a mistaken identity. It is the belief that you are a body that generates the vulnerability you then experience as pain—not the other way around.

The good news is that you can choose differently. You can begin by accepting that suffering is a belief, not a condemnation. That you are not bound to sustain that limited identity. And from there, with humility, you can begin to release, little by little, the ideas that uphold it—not from guilt, but from a commitment to truth. For to blame yourself for feeling pain is only another way of attacking your mind. You are not asked for perfection; you are asked for honesty. You are asked to say, “I want another way,” and to practice that desire with patience, kindness, and perseverance.

Joy does not await you at the end of a painful road. It is here now, available, if you decide to release the conditions you have imposed. If you decide that you no longer wish to pay the price of not being free. For that is what pain is: the toll you pay for continuing to believe you are separate. Today you are offered another option: the joy of God—not as a future promise, but as a present choice.

After reading these lines, you may think you are doing this Course wrong, or that what is stated here is not true. Not so. What you have just read is literally true, and it is not that you are failing in your practice of the Course; it is simply that this is something not yet within your reach. You are walking the Course, but you have not yet completed it. If you had fully assimilated these teachings, you would never experience pain. But there is still learning ahead.

Yet you probably already recognize that you have begun to stop suffering from causes that once deeply disturbed you, and it is also quite possible that, though you still feel physical pain, it no longer brings you suffering.

Your mind places emotional suffering or mental pain in a realm different from physical pain and finds it more manageable—only because you have not yet accepted that both arise from the same cause. When you fully understand that both mental and physical pain occur in the same place and follow the same law, you will understand what pain is and cease to grant it reality, recognizing its irrationality.

This is so because you are beginning to understand the nature of your mind and to identify with it, even if you have not yet fully accepted that the body is merely a mental idea and possesses no “physical” existence. Remember: matter is an illusion—a belief in something separate from mind, concrete, measurable, and changeable. That is precisely what “illusion” means. The reason you still experience physical pain is that you have not yet wholly accepted that the body is not physical, but an idea, and that the pain is also an idea. To feel pain is to think you feel pain.

This Course contains many radical and absolute statements that may be difficult for you to accept in your current state of mind. Today’s Lesson is a clear example, but it is necessary to place you, from the outset, at the end point of learning so that you may know where all this leads.

At times, you may feel discouraged by how far you seem from the lofty ideals this Course proposes. Do not fall into that trap! Discouragement belongs only to the ego! And you are not your ego, though you still identify with its ideas much of the time, for you still listen to its voice. This Course is a gospel, filled with good news, and its purpose is not to discourage you, but quite the opposite. Yet you must understand that you are at the beginning of a process of mental transformation as long as you allow it to be. That is your only freedom, because the outcome is assured: you will end by learning; your mind will heal and become miraculous. Do not doubt it. Every mind will heal, and this Course accelerates that process in extraordinary ways.

Be neither impatient nor harsh with yourself. The ego despises its own creations, and time is one of them; that is why it detests and resists everything impatiently. The Holy Spirit, on the other hand, lovingly uses the elements of this world for His sacred purpose of salvation. Honor, then, the time you need to learn the truth, for this is a joyful learning.

Have no doubt that the day will come when you will completely transcend the idea of pain, for it is but an idea you are still reluctant to release. Do not doubt it: it will happen. In the meantime, comfort your heart with the small achievements you attain; no more is ever asked of you than what you can give. Each time you face a difficulty, a pain, an illness, or an attack with courage, trust, and determination, Heaven celebrates your progress, and the angels applaud your strength.

Be patient, but also firm and resolute in your purpose. Never yield to weakness or self-pity. Whatever happens, wherever you are, remember that you are the holy Son of God and the Love of your Father. Always honor that dignity, and know with certainty that, whatever happens, you have the right to be happy and to claim your happiness now. Do not postpone it for the future, for the future does not exist.

No difficulty will ever appear before you that you cannot overcome. Everything that happens in your life consists of lessons precisely designed by God for your learning. The life before you is your perfect classroom. Life is perfect and consists of moments to celebrate and moments to learn—but always, everything unfolds exactly for your highest good. When you interpret it thus, you will have completed this Course with honors and be ready to bid the world farewell in overflowing gratitude. You are very fortunate—remember that always.

^II That small corner of your mind represents the world, which is nothing but the idea the mind holds about what it believes to be its home.

^III Isaiah 66:16 “For by fire will the Lord execute judgment, and by His sword, on all flesh; and the slain of the Lord shall be many.”

Deuteronomy 32:41 “If I [God] sharpen My flashing sword, and My hand takes hold on judgment, I will take vengeance on My adversaries and will repay those who hate Me.”

In these biblical verses, the sword of God represents the means by which He executes His judgment. In the preceding passage, then, when we wield “the sword of judgment,” we assume the role of God: we discharge our supposed righteous anger upon those we consider enemies. Yet this anger is neither righteous nor powerful; it is self-destructive. When we try to use the sword of judgment against others, we are in fact pressing it against our own throat. To hold a sword to someone’s throat is to threaten them with death and deprive them entirely of power. That is precisely what our “righteous” judgment inflicts upon us.

I Feel the Love of God Within Me Now.

1. There is a light within you that the world cannot perceive.

²And with its eyes you will not see it, for the world has blinded you.^I

³Yet you have eyes to see it.^II

⁴It is there for you to behold.

⁵It was not placed in you to be kept hidden from your sight.

⁶This light is a reflection of the thought we now practice.

⁷To feel the Love of God within you is to behold a world renewed, radiant in innocence, filled with hope, and blessed with perfect charity and love.^III

2. Who could feel fear in such a world?

²This world welcomes you, rejoices that you have come, sings your praises, and keeps you safe from all danger and pain.

³It offers you a warm and gentle home where you may stay awhile.

⁴It blesses you by day and watches over you at night like a silent guardian of your holy sleep.

⁵This world sees in you its salvation and protects the light within you, in which it sees its own.^IV

⁶It offers you its flowers and its snow in gratitude for your kindness.

3. This is the world the Love of God reveals to you.^V

²It is so unlike the world you see through eyes clouded by malice and fear, that one denies the other.

³Only one of them can truly be perceived.

⁴The other means nothing at all.

⁵To those who see a world of hatred, born of attack, bent on vengeance, murder, and destruction, a world where forgiveness shines on everything and peace gently offers all its light is inconceivable.

4. Yet the world of hatred is just as invisible and inconceivable to those who feel the Love of God within them.

²Their world reflects the stillness and the Peace that shine within them, the tenderness and innocence they see around them, the joy with which they look out from the boundless springs of inner happiness.

³They behold what they have felt within, and see Its unmistakable reflection everywhere.

5. Which world do you want to see?

²You can choose.

³But you must learn the law that governs vision and keep it firmly in your mind:

⁴You will behold what you feel within.

⁵If hatred finds a place within your heart, you will perceive a fearful world, cruelly gripped by death’s bony fingers and razor claws.

⁶But if you feel the Love of God within you, you will behold a world of mercy and of love.

6. Today we will set illusions aside and try to reach the Truth within us, to feel His boundless tenderness that embraces all things; His Love, which knows us as perfectly as He Himself; and His vision, which is the gift His Love bestows.

²Today we will learn the way.

³It is as sure as Love Itself, to which it leads.

⁴For its simplicity avoids the traps that the absurd and complex reasoning of the world would seek to hide.

7. Simply do this:

²Be still and lay aside all thoughts about what you are and what God is.

³Forget all that you have learned about the world, and all the images you hold of yourself.

⁴Empty your mind of everything you think is true or false, good or bad—of every thought you deem worthy, and of all the ideas of which you are ashamed.

⁵Hold on to nothing.

⁶Bring not with you one thought the past has taught, nor one belief you ever learned before about anything.

⁷Forget this world, forget this course, and with empty hands go to your God.^VI

8. Is it not He Who knows the way to you?

²You need not know the way to Him.^VII

³Your part is only to allow the obstacles you have placed between the Son and his Father to be quietly removed forever.

⁴God will do His part in joyful and immediate response.

⁵Ask and receive.^VIII

⁶But do not make demands, nor tell Him how and by what means He should appear to you.

⁷The way to Him is simply to allow Him to be what He is.

⁸For in that same way your reality is also declared.^IX

9. Therefore, today we do not choose the way by which we go to Him.

²But we do choose to let Him come to us.

³And in this choice we rest.

⁴His Love will find its way into our quiet hearts and open minds.

⁵What has not been denied must surely be found, if it is real and can be reached.

⁶God knows His Son and knows how to reach him.

⁷He does not need His Son to show Him how.

⁸Through every open door His Love shines outward from Its home within you, and lights the world in innocence.

10. Father,

we do not know the way to You.

²But we have called,

and You have answered us.

³We will not interfere.

⁴The ways of salvation are not ours,

but Yours.

⁵And it is to You we come to find them.

⁶Our hands are open to receive Your gifts.

⁷We have no thoughts that we do not think with You,

nor do we hold beliefs about what we are or Who created us.

⁸Yours is the way we seek to find and follow.

⁹And we ask only that Your Will,

which is also ours,

be done in us and in the world,

so that the world may become a part of Heaven.^X

¹⁰Amen.

---

^I The eyes of the body: physical vision.

^II The eyes of Christ: spiritual vision.

^III You may wonder what “the Love of God” really means, for it might lead you to think it refers to something very special, perhaps rare or difficult to experience. But it is not so—do not be misled by the words. The Love of God is simply love, for there are not different kinds of love; there is only one, and it is the Love of God. And when you experience love and attribute it to anything else, you are in fact feeling the Love of God reflected in that illusion, for illusions can also inspire love—and indeed they do, constantly. They are called “illusions” because you deceive yourself about what they are, but that does not mean there cannot be something genuine behind them. The love a mother feels for her child is completely genuine and constitutes a beautiful reflection of the Love of God; yet that does not make real the little body she beholds, which remains an illusion.

This Course uses the expression “Love of God” when you are not deceived about the origin of the love you feel—nothing more than that. But rest assured that you experience the Love of God constantly, for otherwise you would not only not be alive, you would not even exist.

You live immersed in the ocean of God’s Love, for that is all that exists; it is just that your mind, fragmented and affected by an egocentric perception of existence, is unaware of it and tends to invent “absences of love” in which it then believes. But when, for whatever reason, your perspective changes and you experience joy in your heart, peace in your mind, and a sense of safety and invulnerability, you are undoubtedly experiencing that “Love of God” of which this Course speaks.

Therefore, do not think it is something unattainable for you. Not only can you experience it, but you must strive to feel it at all times. And this Course offers you a magnificent curriculum to help you achieve it. As you do, you will come to understand that it is not something exclusive that resides only within you; you will see it everywhere—and that will be the renewed world the  Text calls the “real world.”

^IV This lesson is a direct invitation to experience, not to understand. To feel the Love of God within you now is not a devotional statement but a point of contact with what is real. It is not about imagining it or forcing it, but allowing it—to open yourself, even a little, to the remembrance of something that has never left. And when it happens—even if only as a flash—you cannot keep silent. You need to share it. For sharing it is remembering it.

The most powerful aspect of this lesson is the practice itself: recognize the love within you and express it. Not to convince anyone, but to strengthen it in yourself. To the extent that you share it, you affirm it. And in affirming it, you establish it as your new identity. What you give defines you. And what defines you, others learn from you.

That is why it is so important to understand this dynamic: when you express an elevated state of mind, others register it. And when they register it, they begin to expect it. And when they expect it, they reinforce it in you. You are educating the world in who you are. If you give guilt, the world will return guilt to you. If you give love, the world will remind you that you are love—even in the moments when you forget.

This is an extraordinary spiritual investment: you are sowing in others the image of who you truly are, so that they may return it to you when you most need it. You do this without speeches, without strategies—only with presence. For one who has felt the Love of God within cannot conceal it. He does not need to convince—only to radiate. And that radiance transforms your surroundings not through magic, but through resonance. This is how the world changes: when someone decides to remember who they are and is unafraid to show it.

Do you remember how often you have been told that your mission is to save the world, and that your function, assigned by God, is to be happy? The result of fulfilling your role impeccably is precisely the realization of the real world—for you, for your brothers, and for all living creatures. That is the goal of this Course; that is what you are learning here.

^V This is the real world: the dream purified of all thought of fear and evil. It is the world that beholds you as a body that shelters the Son of God.

^VI This beautiful paragraph—one of the most enchanting and luminous in thisCourse—perfectly summarizes its message. But notice that many Lessons devoted to the undoing of old habits and to mental training have had to pass before reaching the moment when it is fitting to urge you to abandon everything, even this veryCourse, and turn toward God without concern. It is the absolute surrender of the ego to the Creator of the universe. It is the way to reach God.

The formula is quite simple:

– Quiet your mind.

– Abandon every idea.

– Empty your mind.

– Cling to nothing.

– Retain nothing of the past.

– Forget everything.

– And go to God.

Or even simpler: forget your mind and follow your heart.

See where the problem lies: you have a mind possessed by an idea completely foreign to your true nature; an idea that has deceived you with a false perception of yourself and of everything. That is why it is essential that you stop believing in the dictates of that mind. You do not need them. To think you do is merely part of the deception. You are the Son of God, and you have nothing to worry about; your only task during this brief instant in which you believe you live in time is not to allow yourself to be deceived by the dictates of the ego. That is all.

But do not underestimate the absolute necessity of remaining alert to the ego. You created the ego; it receives its power and cunning from you, and you continually recreate it, for you must know that time itself is also your invention. As long as you believe you live in time, the ego is fully active. Yet this need not trouble you, for when you acknowledge your responsibility in having created it, you will have taken the reins of your mind and will merely await your Father’s rescue—which will not delay.

Never worry about anything. Worries are always, always of the ego. If at any moment the thought of your salvation troubles you, if you doubt that you are doing this Course correctly, if you fear that you have sinned or not loved enough, you must recognize that this too is of the ego, and withdraw at once from fear, guilt, and restlessness.

Focus only on being happy and on offering your happiness to others, as the Holy Spirit directs you. Everything else is unnecessary. Accept with joy and dignity the responsibilities you have assumed in this world; they are part of your path to God. And if at any time the illusion exceeds your ability to maintain peace, do what you can, forgive, forgive yourself, and move on.

You have already advanced far along your path, and your mental training will continue to provide you with more and more tools for facing difficult situations. The time will also come when you will have completed your learning and be fully prepared to work miracles and heal your brothers. Stop thinking about yourself and think of them, for they truly need you.

Remain in peace and be happy.

^VII John 14:5 “Thomas said to Him, ‘Lord, we do not know where You are going; how can we know the way?’”

^VIII Matthew 7:7 “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.”

^IX Your reality is proclaimed simply by being what you are. You need do nothing else. You must do nothing more. In fact, you must cease doing anything that does not correspond to your nature and your dignity.

^X Matthew 6:10 “Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”

The Peace of God Shines in Me Now.

1. Why wait for Heaven?

²Those who seek the light are merely covering their eyes.

³The light is already in them now.

⁴Illumination is nothing but recognition; it is not a change at all.^I

⁵The light does not belong to this world.

⁶And you, who carry the light within you, are also a stranger here.

⁷The light came with you from your native Home, and it has remained with you because it is yours.

⁸It is the only thing you brought with you from Him Who is your Source.

⁹It shines within you because it lights your home and leads you back to the place from which it came, where you belong.

2. You cannot lose this light.

²Why wait to find it in the future, or believe it has been lost or never was?

³To behold it is so simple that arguments denying its presence are absurd.

⁴Who can deny what he beholds within himself?

⁵It is not difficult to look within, for that is where all vision begins.

⁶What is seen—whether in dreams or from a truer Source—is but a shadow of what is seen through inward vision.

⁷There perception begins, and there it ends.

⁸It has no other source but this.

3. The Peace of God shines in you now, and from your heart extends to all the world.

²It rests upon every living thing and leaves a blessing with it that remains forever.

³What it gives is eternal.

⁴It removes all thoughts of what is fleeting and without worth.

⁵It renews all weary hearts and lights all things it passes by.

⁶All Its Gifts are given to all, and everyone unites in giving thanks to you who have received and who now give.

4. The radiance of your mind reminds the world of what it has forgotten, and the world returns that memory to you.

²Salvation shines from you in countless gifts beyond all measure.

³These are the gifts you give, and they return to you.

⁴To you, the giver of the gift, God Himself gives thanks.

⁵And in His blessing, the light within you grows in brightness, joining the gifts you offer to the world.

5. The Peace of God cannot be contained.

²He who recognizes it within himself must give it.

³The means by which to offer it are within his understanding.

⁴And he forgives, because he has recognized the truth in him.

⁵The Peace of God shines now in you, and in all living things.

⁶That Peace is known universally in stillness; for what your inner vision sees becomes your new vision of the universe.

6. Sit quietly and close your eyes.

²The light within you is enough.

³Only it can grant you the gift of vision.

⁴Exclude the outside world from your mind and let your thoughts drift toward the peace within you.

⁵They know the way.

⁶For honest thoughts, untainted by the dreams of the world, become the holy messengers of God Himself.

⁷These are the thoughts you think with Him.^II

⁸They recognize their home.

⁹And they point with certainty to their Source, where God the Father and His Son are One.

7. The Peace of God shines in them, and they cannot but remain with you, for they were born in your mind just as your mind was born in God’s.

²These thoughts return you to the peace from which they came, to remind you that you must return.

³They heed your Father’s Voice when you refuse to listen.

⁴And they gently urge you to accept His Word about what you are, instead of shadows and illusions.

⁵They remind you that you are the co-creator of all living things.

⁶For as the Peace of God shines in you, it shines in them as well.

8. The purpose of our practice today is to draw nearer to the light within us.

²We bring order to our wandering thoughts, and gently align them with all the thoughts we share with God.

³We will not let them stray.

⁴We will let the light within our minds lead them back to their home.

⁵Once, we betrayed them by ordering them to separate from us.^III

⁶But now we call them back, and we cleanse them of all strange and twisted desires.

⁷And thus we restore to them the holiness that is their inheritance.

9. In this way we restore our minds with them, and we recognize that the Peace of God still shines in us.

²And from us it extends to all living things that share our life.

³We forgive all things, releasing the entire world from what we thought it did to us.

⁴For we have made the world as we would have it be.

⁵Now we choose that it be innocent, free of sin, and open to salvation.

⁶And we lay upon it our saving blessing, saying:

⁷The Peace of God shines in me now.

⁸Let all things shine upon me in that peace,

⁹And let me bless them with the light in me.

---

^I This lesson is a meditation, but not in the way we usually imagine. It is not about becoming still to attain something you do not have, but about being still to recognize what is already there. Jesus says it plainly: “those who seek the light are merely covering their eyes.” You do not have to find the light; you have to stop hiding it. And that requires an attitude that is neither technical nor mystical, but profoundly honest: the willingness to see.

The practice proposed here is simple yet radical: withdraw your attention from the external world and allow your thoughts to return home. Do not struggle against them; do not manipulate them. Simply let them come back and recognize them for what they are: messengers of the remembrance of God. This light is not a sensation; it is a silent certainty. It does not shine on the forehead or produce fireworks—it is experienced as an inner stability, as the quiet awareness that you are home.

You can go for years without seeing the light, and still the light has not gone. You can lose direction, motivation, and meaning, and yet you have not lost what matters most. What saves you is not the constancy of your vision but the permanence of the light. That light does not depend on you—you depend on it. And it remains.

This is not about meditating and becoming enlightened in ten minutes. It is about persisting, trusting, being professional in your spiritual path. About not confusing darkness with failure, or delay with absence. The light has not moved. If you sit with sincere willingness and without magical expectations, you will begin to notice it—not as an event, but as a familiarity. And that familiarity is the beginning of remembrance. Today you are not asked to arrive, only to remember that the path is within.

To be enlightened is to experience remembering Who you are. It is to feel the Love of God within you and to realize that that, and only that, is what you are. How could you wish to be anything else?

To be enlightened is to see the light in yourself and to recognize that your will is God’s Will. Yours is Peace and Joy. The world does not exist!

The dream is already nearing its end, and the world has ceased to be an obstacle for you. You still see it out there, but it serves no other purpose now than to be blessed. You seek nothing in it, for you already have everything. You have regained it by remembering it.

You no longer even long for happy dreams. What for? You are already happy!

Seeing the light in yourself and being enlightened is not difficult; it is inevitable. It is impossible to contain your reality any longer, for time has ended.

You are not aware of the tremendous effort you make to resist this experience. Being human is so unworthy of you, so alien to your nature, that it deeply hurts. That is why being what you are means nothing more than ceasing to be what you are not. But is that even possible? How can you be what you are not, except in dreams?

Stop dreaming. Stop fearing. Stop hating.

You may have noticed that this Course is profoundly negative and, at the same time, absolutely positive. How could it be otherwise, when it is a Course that denies illusion and affirms your identity in God?

This Course exhorts you again and again to listen—to listen to the Holy Spirit, to Jesus, to your Self. All of Them are the same; all of them are you.

To be enlightened you need do nothing more than follow your genuine calling; it is enough to be true to yourself. Listen to your heart and follow its guidance. Do not let the mind interfere with its “reasons”; they are all false. Close your eyes so you may see.

You do not need the world, and you certainly do not need fear. Set aside everything that does not serve you, for what you now think you need is precisely what you must let go of. You do not need the body—neither yours nor your brother’s. Your bodies obstruct vision.

Do not be afraid. Do not allow the familiar to keep you from recognizing your true divine family. You are of God, as are your brothers, but the world and your bodies are not; that is the dream. Breathe calmly and remain in peace. You need do nothing. Trust in God, trust in Jesus, but above all, trust in your true Self.

^II These Thoughts are your own Creations: the Creations of the Son of God. They are your Children, and now they come to your aid.

^III “… we commanded them to depart from us” so that we might behold them in an imagined outer space, clothed in concrete illusions: as bodies, things, and circumstances.

I Bless the World Because I Bless Myself.

1. No one can give unless he has.

²In fact, giving is the proof that you have.

³This is something we have already discussed.^I

⁴But that is not what seems hard to accept.

⁵No one doubts that you must first possess what you wish to give.

⁶It is in the second part that the world differs from true perception.

⁷For the world maintains that in giving, you lose what you possessed.

⁸But the truth declares that giving increases what you have.

2. How is this possible?

²Because it is certainly true that if you give something finite, your body’s eyes will no longer perceive it as yours.

³Yet we have learned that things are nothing but the thoughts that give them shape.^II

⁴And it is clear that when you give away ideas, you strengthen them in your own mind.

⁵The form in which that thought seemed to appear may change as you give it.

⁶But the idea must return to the one who gave it.

⁷And the form it takes when it returns cannot be of lesser value.

⁸It must be even greater.^III

3. Ideas must be yours before you can give them.

²To save the world, you must first accept salvation for yourself.

³But you will not believe this has occurred until you see the miracles it brings to everyone you behold.

⁴This is what clarifies and gives meaning to the idea of giving.

⁵Thus you can perceive that in giving you increase what you have.

4. Protect all that you value by giving it, and thus you will be sure never to lose it.

²This is how you prove that what you thought you did not have is truly yours.

³But place no value on the form it takes.

⁴For its form will change and become unrecognizable with time, no matter how much you try to hold on to it.

⁵No form endures.

⁶It is the thought behind the form of things that is unchanging.

5. Give gladly.

²You can only gain thereby.

³A thought remains and grows stronger as you reinforce it by giving it.

⁴Thoughts expand when shared, for they cannot be lost.

⁵There is no giver and receiver as the world conceives of them.

⁶There is one who gives and who increases what he gives.

⁷And there is another who also gives.

⁸Both gain in this exchange, for each one receives the thought in the form most helpful to him.

⁹What the giver seems to lose is always something he values less than what will surely return to him.

6. Never forget that you only give to yourself.

²One who understands what giving means can only laugh at the idea of sacrifice.

³Nor can he fail to recognize the many forms it takes.

⁴He also laughs at pain, at loss, at sickness, grief, poverty, hunger, and at death.

⁵He sees that sacrifice is the single idea behind all these forms, and with his gentle smile, he heals them.

7. When an illusion is recognized as what it is, it disappears.

²Refuse to suffer, and you will eliminate the very idea of suffering.

³When you choose to see all suffering as the illusion that it is, you bless all those who suffer.

⁴The notion of sacrifice is what gives rise to every form suffering seems to take.

⁵And the idea of sacrifice is so insane that sanity can only reject it instantly.

8. Never believe that you can sacrifice yourself.

²There is no room for sacrifice in anything of value.

³If the idea of sacrifice arises in your mind, it means an error has occurred that must be corrected.

⁴Your blessing will correct it.

⁵That blessing is first for you.

⁶And now it is yours to give to others.

⁷No form of sacrifice or suffering can endure long in the sight of one who forgives and blesses himself.

9. The lilies your brother offers you are laid upon your altar, beside those you offer him.^IV

²Who could be afraid to look upon such beautiful holiness?

³The great illusion—the fear of God—is reduced to nothing before the purity you will behold there.

⁴Do not be afraid to look.

⁵The bliss you will behold will remove all thought of form, and in its place will leave the perfect Gift: forever increasing, forever yours, forever given.

10. Now we are one in thought, for fear has gone.

²And here, before the altar to one God, one Father, one Creator, and one Thought, we rise together as the one Son of God.

³We are no longer separate from the One Who is our Source, nor distant from the brother who is part of our one Self, Whose innocence has joined us all as one; we rise in joy and give just as we have received.

⁴The Name of God is on our lips.

⁵And when we look within, we see the purity of Heaven shining in our reflection of our Father’s Love.

11. Now we are blessed, and now we bless the world.^V

²We long to extend what we have seen, for we desire to behold it everywhere.

³We wish to see it shining with the Grace of God in every one of our brothers.

⁴We do not want to overlook it in anything we see.

⁵And to ensure that this holy vision is ours, we offer it to everything we see.

⁶For wherever we behold it, it will be returned to us in the form of lilies we may place upon our altar, to make it the home of Innocence Itself, Which dwells within us and offers Its Holiness as ours.

---

^I T-29.III.1:8 “If he does not give it, he will not know he has it, for giving is proof of having.”

W-159.I:7-8 “It is in giving that you recognize you have received. It is the proof that what you have is yours.”

This lesson clarifies an essential point that almost no one understands well: you cannot give something you have not first accepted for yourself. The act of giving, far from implying loss, is what confirms that you have. And what you have is not a form, but an awareness. Giving is how your mind takes possession of what is already its own. That is why the Course insists that giving is proof of having: because by giving ideas, you strengthen them in yourself.

The key lies in understanding that everything you give, you are in fact giving to yourself. This is not a beautiful phrase or a spiritual metaphor. It is literal. Every time you bless, you bless yourself. Every time you release someone from judgment, you release yourself. But the opposite is also true: every time you attack, you attack yourself. Every time you believe in sacrifice, you are accepting that loss is real.

Here, the world’s great illusion is dismantled with impeccable logic: that giving means renouncing. That love hurts. That helping another is exhausting. That generosity implies sacrifice. None of this is true. What hurts is not the giving, but the belief in loss. What exhausts is not love, but the judgment that limits it. If you give from love, you expand. If you give from fear, you contract.

The most revealing aspect of this lesson is that it does not try to convince you to give more. It simply shows you that you are already giving all the time—one idea or another—and invites you to become aware of what you choose to share. For giving is inevitable. The only choice you have is whether to give from the abundance of being or from the scarcity of the ego.

^II Keep in mind that the thought system thisCourse proposes is of an “idealist” nature, and within this paradigm, only ideas exist. What you call “things” are, in fact, ideas that the mind has about “things”; yet they remain only that: ideas. The mind—the active principle of Spirit, of Being—manages ideas: some are false, for they do not refer to real concepts nor resemble the mind itself; others are true, and they constitute extensions—or creations—of the mind.

True ideas are the only ones, and the only thing, that truly exist, and they are eternal because they emanate from the One Being. False ideas do not exist, although the mind can entertain them. They are built upon the absence of real concepts, and they are imaginary, like the time in which they are conceived, the space where they seem to exist, and the subject who imagines them.

T-5.I.7:6 “If you can accept the concept that the world IS, in fact, a world of ideas, the whole belief in the false association the ego has made between giving and LOSING disappears.”

T-5.I.8:2-5 “Thoughts increase by being given away. The more who believe in them, the stronger they become. Everything is an idea. How, then, is it possible to associate giving with losing in any meaningful way?”

^III Here, the logic is as follows: physical things are symbols that represent ideas. A “thing” is an idea that has taken form because you wanted to see it that way—separate from you, separate from all other things—and to which you have assigned a name, a function, and a purpose. Therefore, when you give that “thing,” you are actually giving the underlying idea that thing represents. And when you give an idea, you already know that you strengthen it in your mind. Thus, when you give a “physical thing”—which in reality is an idea—you reinforce in your mind the idea it embodies.

Since the idea remains in you, because it is yours, because ideas cannot leave their source, and because there is no “place” where they can go—for nothing exists outside your mind—that idea will now take a new form: perhaps it will appear as a new “physical thing” in your life, or a particular event may occur, or someone may come who embodies it. But that idea you have given will certainly return in another form. And this new form will be more suitable for you within the plan of salvation than what you gave, for it represents an idea that has grown in strength and is now more meaningful and functional. And by being stronger, it will take a more useful form and contain a new Lesson.

If you accept that the world does not exist—one of the fundamental principles of this Course—it will not be difficult to understand that in giving you can only gain. Nor are great philosophical constructions needed to embrace this idea. You can verify it in this very world; in fact, if you observe your past life with honesty and impartiality, you will recognize that this is a fully operative law.

Look at your past. You will see that you only grew when you gave the best of yourself and faced with courage the difficulties that life placed before you. Then also remember what happened when everything seemed to be going well and you merely allowed yourself to enjoy it: you gave nothing and became stagnant.

Difficulties—those situations that contradict your expectations—are not strictly necessary for growth and the development of your potential. You can give for the simple joy of giving; indeed, it is in your best interest to do so. This Lesson is about that.

Give, spread blessings, offer love, tenderness, kindness, peace, understanding, acceptance, joy…; give everything you would wish to receive. It is an equation that always holds true and has no end. It is an attitude toward life. It is, simply, the decision to be happy by making your brothers happy, for remember: to love is to give.

But proceed with care. Quiet your mind, listen to your heart, and attend to the Voice that will guide you and tell you what to do, when, and with whom. Remember that this has nothing to do with thinking; it has everything to do with being, and that—so essential and natural in you—is something you have forgotten in a world of fears and complexities. That is why you need a process of purification: an undoing of habits, interpretations, and customs, and much trust and willingness.

Choose well, be ambitious. Decide that you want to be happy from now on. Recognize, in the deepest part of you, that you need not protect yourself from anything. You are perfectly safe; you are holy and blessed of God. Heaven loves you beyond imagination and watches over you. You need only release control of your life and allow yourself to be guided.

Do not worry. There is still room for you to grant yourself a few whims, but without losing sight that they are no more than inconsequential childish fantasies that will gradually fade away. What truly matters is that you keep firmly in mind who you really are, and strive to do nothing unworthy of that truth. And if you do, do not fret or blame yourself; correct it immediately and think no more about it.

Understand that fear is always the limit of your trust. Expand those limits at a pace consistent with your nature, but do not lose sight of your main purpose. Your goal is to be happy, and now you know that this depends solely on you, because all possible happiness lies within you and nowhere else.

You are very fortunate. Set out now.

^IV In thisCourse, “lilies” are the symbolic figure used to refer to the recognition of innocence that leads to forgiveness.

^V This clarifies the meaning of the idea for the day. How do we bless ourselves? We enter into meditation before the sacred altar within us, where the lilies of forgiveness we have offered our brother—and he has offered us—are placed. There we are united with all our brothers and with our Father. There we find within ourselves such purity that we recognize we are truly blessed. This is how we bless ourselves: by approaching the inner altar. And once our blessing is recognized, we extend it to the world.

The Salvation of the World Depends on Me.

1. Here is the statement that one day will erase from every mind all trace of arrogance.

²Here is the thought of true humility, which claims no function other than the one that has been assigned to you.

³This declaration expresses your acceptance of the role that has been given you, without insisting on assuming any other.^I

⁴It does not judge the role that belongs to you.

⁵It merely acknowledges that the Will of God is done both on earth and in Heaven.^II

⁶This thought unites all wills on earth with Heaven’s plan for the salvation of the world, and restores peace to them.

2. Let us not oppose our function.

²We did not establish it.

³It was not our idea.

⁴The means for its perfect fulfillment have been provided for us.

⁵We are merely asked to accept our role with sincere humility, and not to say with dishonest arrogance that we are unworthy of it.

⁶We have the strength to accomplish what has been entrusted to us.

⁷Our minds are perfectly prepared to assume the role assigned by One Who knows us well.

3. Perhaps today’s idea seems somewhat disturbing to you, but only until you understand what it means.

²It merely says that your Father still remembers you, and offers you the perfect trust He has in you, His Son.

³He does not ask you to be in any way different from what you are.

⁴What could humility ask for but this?

⁵And what but this could arrogance deny?

⁶Today we will not evade the task given us under the false pretense that it offends our modesty.

⁷It is pride that refuses to answer the Call of God Himself.

4. Today we set aside all false humility, and listen to the Voice of God revealing what He would have us do.

²We do not doubt our ability to fulfill the function He gives us.

³We will be certain only that He knows our strength, our wisdom, and our holiness.

⁴And if He considers us worthy, then we are.

⁵It is only arrogance that thinks otherwise.

5. There is one way, and only one, to free yourself from the prison where your own plan to prove the false is true has confined you.

²Accept instead a plan that is not your own.

³Do not judge your part in it.

⁴If the Voice of God assures you that salvation needs your role, and that the whole plan depends on you, you can be certain that it is so.

⁵The arrogant cling to words, for they fear to go beyond them to the experience that could call their position into question.

⁶Yet the humble are free to hear the Voice that tells them what they are and what they must do.

6. Arrogance forges an image of yourself that is not real.

²It is this image that cowers and shrinks in fear when the Voice of God assures you that you have the strength, the wisdom, and the holiness to go beyond all images.

³You are not weak, as the image you hold of yourself is.

⁴You are not ignorant nor powerless.

⁵Sin cannot tarnish the truth within you, nor can misery approach the holy home of God.

7. This is what the Voice that speaks for God tells you.

²And when He speaks, that image you have made of yourself trembles, trying to strike back at a threat it cannot recognize, feeling its foundations crumble.

³Abandon that image.

⁴The salvation of the world depends on you, not on that little heap of dust.

⁵What could that possibly say to the holy Son of God?

⁶Why should it be considered at all?

⁷And thus is how we find our peace.

8. We will accept the function God has assigned to us, for every illusion rests upon the strange belief that we can assign another to ourselves.

²The functions we have given ourselves are changeable, shifting from lament to the rapture of love.

³We may laugh or weep, greet the day with happy welcome or with tears.

⁴Our own self seems to change as we experience a thousand shifts of mood, and our emotions may indeed lift us to the heights or plunge us into the blackest despair.

9. Can this be the Son of God?

²Could God have created such instability and called it Son?

³He Who is changeless shares His Attributes with His Creation.

⁴All the images His Son appears to have made have no effect on what he is.

⁵They pass across his mind like leaves swept by the wind, forming a pattern for an instant, parting, regrouping, and again dispersing.

⁶Or like the mirages seen in the desert rising from the dust.

10. When you accept the function given you, all such insubstantial images will disappear, leaving your mind clear and serene.

²The images you conceive only produce purposes that conflict, change, and blur—uncertain and ambiguous.

³Who could persevere in effort, or direct energy and focus toward such goals?

⁴The functions the world esteems are so unstable they may change ten times an hour, at best.

⁵What can you hope to gain from such pursuits?

11. In beautiful contrast, as certain as the sun returning each morning to dispel the night, your true function rises clear and utterly unambiguous.

²There is no doubt of its validity.

³For it comes from One Who knows not error.

⁴And His Voice is certain in Its messages.

⁵His messages do not change nor contradict one another.

⁶And all of them point to one purpose—a goal you can attain.

⁷Your plan may be impossible, but God’s plan can never fail, for He is its Source.

12. Do what the Voice of God directs.

²And if He asks for something that seems impossible, remember Who it is that asks, and who it is that would reject it.

³And now consider this:

⁴Which of the two is more likely to be right?

⁵The Voice that speaks for the Creator of all things, knowing them exactly as they are, or the distorted image you have of yourself—confused, bewildered, inconsistent, and uncertain of everything? ^III

⁶Do not let that voice direct you.

⁷Instead, hear the unmistakable Voice that tells you of the function your Creator has given you, Who remembers you, and urges you now to remember Him.^IV

13. His loving Voice calls from Knowledge to ignorance.

²He desires to comfort you, though He Himself knows not sorrow.

³He would make restitution to you, though He is complete.

⁴He would offer you a gift, though He knows you already have everything.

⁵He has Thoughts that answer every need His Son perceives, though He sees none.

⁶For Love can only give, and what is given in Its Name takes the form most helpful in a world of form.

14. These are the forms that can never deceive, for they come from Formlessness Itself.^V

²Forgiveness is an earthly form of love which, as in Heaven, is formless.

³Yet what is needed here is given here, as it is needed.

⁴Here you can fulfill your function in the form your forgiveness may require, but Love will hold greater meaning for you when you have been restored to your natural formlessness.^VI

⁵The salvation of the world depends upon your ability to forgive.

⁶Therefore, that is your function here.

---

^I This lesson tears down, once and for all, the false humility. That voice that repeats, “I’m not capable,” “I’m not good enough,” “this isn’t for me,” is, in truth, arrogance in disguise. For to deny what God says of you—that you have the strength, wisdom, and holiness necessary to fulfill your function—is not humility; it is distrust. You are arguing with Jesus. You are telling him he is mistaken about you.

Here you are given the key: you are not asked to be different, or to improve, or to become more “spiritual.” You are only asked to accept what you already are. You do not need to become anyone new, nor to purify yourself, nor to understand everything: a function has been assigned to you, and all the means to fulfill it have been given you. Yet you insist on defining yourself in your own way—with your fears, your limits, and your excuses. And as long as you maintain that image of yourself, you will continue to believe you cannot. But it is not that you cannot; it is that you are using your will to deny what you can.

This lesson turns you inside out: it places you before the fact that your “I can’t” is an active decision—an inverted will, a form of resistance. But it also offers you a simple, luminous way out: stop fighting. Accept your role. Not with resignation, but with trust. Not from the character you invented, but from the being God created.

The world does not need your effort or your perfection. It only needs you to say yes—to say it now, in the present. For this path is not walked through prior preparation, but through faith. And that faith begins when you stop pretending you don’t know who you are.

^II Matthew 6:10 “Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven.”

^III This distorted image you hold of yourself is the ego with which you still identify.

^IV Your mind is in constant agitation. You spend the entire day speculating. You are always chattering with yourself, and you call that thinking. Then you listen to yourself, believe all those fleeting notions that cross your holy mind, and finally act upon those foolish stories you have told yourself. For God’s sake, stop doing that! What you call thinking is precisely the voice of your ego. What else could it be?

You may believe that the voice of the ego is some sinister dictate you have occasionally perceived within, urging you to do evil, and that your usual mental activity is merely innocent thought. Perhaps you recognize that, at times, it is superfluous, yet you still regard it as harmless and pay it little attention.

Do not be mistaken. The ego speaks to you all the time. The ego is, in fact, what you call “your thought.” The purpose of that inner dialogue is to explain to you what “reality” is—and since everything you tell yourself is false, you must repeat it constantly to protect it from the truth. The Voice of the Holy Spirit, on the other hand, generates a completely different experience.

You might understand it better this way: the voice of the ego is always purely formal and refers to concrete concepts. It is problematic, conflictual, and disturbs your peace—whether through fear, anger, or desire.

The Voice of the Holy Spirit, by contrast, is pure content. It does not express itself through words, though you can translate it into words. And what you hear always, always bears the fragrance of a solution to a problem you perceive. His Voice always, always resolves that dilemma and leaves you with a brief feeling of peace that you can extend in time as long as you wish, though its communication is momentary, because it comes from beyond time. Your heart recognizes it immediately and responds with a small leap of joy.

Distinguishing between these two voices is exceedingly simple. If you are in doubt, it is because you are listening to the ego’s voice—of that you can be certain. The Voice of the Holy Spirit always awakens an inexplicable certainty. Remember that all explanations are formal, articulated, and concrete. Explanations are always of the ego. The Holy Spirit does not explain. Does love explain? His Voice is always a solution—just as love is.

Do not be distressed if you discover that, in fact, you are listening to the ego’s voice all the time; that is the “normal” condition of this world. Realize that what matters is not where you are, but where you are headed. Rejoice. More than that, grant your heart the joyful recognition that you are undertaking a Course perfectly designed to lead you toward salvation—and remember, you are doing it well, because you are doing the best you can.

If at any moment you think you are doing it badly and that thought depresses you or makes you feel guilty, recognize that this is the ego’s voice. Do not be mistaken. Simply observe how you feel when you think that way, and you will have no doubt about who is speaking and whom you are listening to. Pay it no heed. Let nothing and no one rob you of the happiness to which you have every right, for that—precisely that—is your Father’s Will.

Be aware that whenever you feel bad, it is because you are listening to the ego. And it is essential that you understand that this is always the only cause of your distress. That voice is insidious and utterly hypocritical, for it will always, always make you believe that something outside itself is responsible for your unhappiness.

There is no such thing—never! Your ego is your only enemy, but your ego does not exist. Your ego is you thinking in that way. There is no one else but you. To think otherwise is precisely the ego’s attempt to prevent you from recognizing that you are responsible for absolutely everything that seems to occur in your life. Remember: you relate only to your own interpretations. Your ego is merely a distorted way of using your holy mind; it is the result of your holy will.

At bottom, it is all quite simple: all that is asked of you is that you take responsibility for your life. That is all.

And if you wish to simplify it even more: all that is asked of you is that you take responsibility for your mind. You need nothing else.

And if even that seems too much, you can reduce it further still: all that is asked of you is that you take responsibility for your will—to take responsibility for what you choose to want.

If you accept this, it will be hard for you ever again to believe that happiness is difficult.

^V Amorphy is the perfectly abstract condition of formlessness. It is the state of God in relation to form: God possesses no form whatsoever; He is pure content—the only content that truly exists.

^VI Forgiveness, though formless because it is an attitude, will be expressed in this world through forms and specific situations.

I want the Peace of God.

1. To say these words is nothing.

²But to say them with your whole heart is everything.^I

³If you could truly say them, even for just an instant, it would be impossible for you to feel any sorrow again.

⁴You would regain full awareness of Heaven, remember God completely, and know with perfect certainty the resurrection of all Creation.

2. No one can say these words with all their heart and not be healed.

²He can no longer entertain himself with dreams, nor believe that he himself is a dream.

³He cannot make a hell and believe it real.

⁴He wants the Peace of God, and it is given him.

⁵For that is all he wants, and that is all he will receive.

⁶Many have said these words.

⁷But truly, very few have said them with full sincerity.

⁸You need only look around at the world you see to be convinced how few have done so.

⁹The world would be completely transformed if even two agreed that these words express all they truly want.^II

3. Two minds with one intent become so strong that what they will becomes the Will of God.

²For minds can only join in truth.^III

³In dreams, two minds cannot share the same intent.

⁴Each sees the hero of the dream as different, and the outcome each desires is not the same.

⁵The loser and the winner merely shift roles, following changing patterns, as the balance of gain and loss takes on different forms and meanings.

4. Yet only compromise is possible in dreams.^IV

²At times such compromise may appear to take the form of union, but it is only form.

³Meaning is lost, for the dream’s goal is compromise.

⁴Minds cannot truly join in dreams.

⁵They merely bargain.

⁶But what bargain could ever offer the Peace of God?

⁷Illusions come to take Its place.

⁸And so, to sleeping minds absorbed in negotiation, the meaning of God is lost.

⁹For each seeks to benefit at the cost of someone else.

5. To say you want the Peace of God with all your heart is to renounce all dreams.

²For no one who says these words sincerely wants illusions or seeks to gain from them.

³He has seen them for what they are, and knows they are not worth the cost.

⁴He would go beyond them now, aware that every new illusion will bring him nothing but the same as all the rest.

⁵To him, all dreams are one.

⁶He has learned that they but differ in form, and not in substance—for each will bring despair and misery alike.

6. The mind that truly wants only peace must join with other minds, for that is how peace is found.

²And when the desire for peace is genuine, the means for finding it are given in a form each mind that seeks it honestly can understand.

³Whatever the form the lesson takes, it is planned for him in such a way that he can grasp it, if his request is sincere.

⁴But if he does not truly want peace, he cannot accept the lesson nor learn it truly.

7. Let us devote today’s practice to affirming that we say these words with all our hearts:

²We want the Peace of God.

³This is no idle wish.

⁴These words do not ask for another dream.

⁵They do not seek to make another bargain, hoping there is still one dream that can succeed where others have failed.

⁶To say these words with full sincerity is to acknowledge the futility of illusions and to ask instead for what is eternal, in place of shifting dreams that seem to offer different things but are all the same, and equally unreal.

8. Spend today’s practice periods searching carefully within your mind to uncover the dreams you still desire.

²What does your heart truly want?

³Forget the words you use to make your requests.

⁴Consider only what you believe will bring you comfort and happiness.

⁵But do not be disheartened to discover illusions still persist, for now their form does not matter.^V

⁶Do not let some dreams seem more acceptable, while you hide others in shame.^VI

⁷They are all the same dream.

⁸And since they are the same, you must ask this question of each one:

⁹Is this what I would choose in place of Heaven and the Peace of God?

9. This is the choice you make.

²Do not deceive yourself into thinking otherwise.

³There is no compromise in this.

⁴You choose the Peace of God, or you ask for dreams.

⁵And dreams will come, just as you requested them.

⁶But the Peace of God will also come, with equal certainty, and stay with you forever.

⁷It does not vanish behind each bend of the road to reappear in forms that shift and change with every step you take.

10. You long for the Peace of God.

²And so does everyone who seems to seek it in dreams.

³When you ask for it with deep sincerity, you are asking only for this, both for yourself and for them.

⁴For in this way you gain what they truly seek, and you join your intent with theirs—what they want more than anything.

⁵They may not recognize this yet, but you do.

⁶At times you have been weak, unsure of your purpose, and confused about what you wanted, where to find it, and what to ask to help you reach it.

⁷But help has been given you.

⁸Will you not use it now, by sharing it?

11. No one who truly seeks the Peace of God can fail to find it.^VII

²For he is asking only that he no longer deceive himself by denying God’s Will for him.

³Who could be left unsatisfied when he asks for what is already his?

⁴How can you say you have not been answered when it is you who must give the answer?

12. The Peace of God is yours.

²It was created for you.

³It was given you by your Creator.

⁴And He made it His eternal Gift.

⁵How can you fail when you but ask for what He wills for you?

⁶And how could what you ask be only for yourself?

⁷Every Gift of God must be shared.

⁸That is what sets God’s Gifts apart from every dream that seems to take the place of truth.

13. When anyone asks for and receives any Gift of God, no one loses and everyone gains.

²God gives only to unite.

³To take away has no meaning to Him.

⁴And when that has no meaning to you as well, you will know with certainty that you share One Will with Him, and He with you.

⁵And you will also know you share One Will with all your brothers, for they desire the same as you.

14. Today we seek that shared desire, uniting our intent with the need of every heart, the call of every mind, the hope that lies beyond despair, the Love behind attack, the Brotherhood that hate has sought to sever but which remains as God created it.

²With such a Helper by our side, how can we fail today as we ask to be given the Peace of God?

---

^I This lesson does not mince words: to say “I want the peace of God” means nothing unless you say it with your heart. Yet if you were ever to say it truly—even for an instant—everything would change. You would awaken from the dream, recognize your true identity, and no external circumstance would ever again have power over you. Why does it not happen, then? Because we still want other things first: to be understood, to be acknowledged, to have things turn out as we planned. And as long as those priorities dominate, peace is set aside.

The mind always chooses between two paths: to seek peace directly or to try to obtain it by imposing conditions. “I want to be at peace if they give me what is fair,” “if they apologize,” “if the doctor gives me good news.” This is the long, tortuous, and always frustrating path. The lesson reminds you that there is another way, simpler: to stop negotiating. To ask for peace as one who knows it is his right, not his reward.

Nothing needs to change for you to have peace. Not politics, not your family, not your bank balance. The only thing required of you is honesty: to recognize what you are truly seeking. Do you really want peace above all else? Or are you still waiting for certain pieces to fall into place before you let go of control?

The Course states it plainly: peace has only one condition—that you truly want it above all else. There are no shortcuts that include it without first desiring it. Everything else—solutions, projects, reforms, and plans—are your attempts to avoid that simple decision and to reach peace on your own terms. This lesson is not a comfort; it is a declaration of power. Peace is not achieved—it is accepted.

^II Matthew 18:19 “Again I tell you, if two of you agree on earth about anything you ask, my Father in Heaven will grant it to you.”

^III This is something worth understanding well. Truth is the only thing that can be shared; illusions cannot. It may seem that two people join in the pursuit of something illusory, but that union is not real—it can only appear to occur, for what does not exist cannot be shared.

To join in truth—that is, in what is real—is to join in the Will of God, for that is the only reality that exists. That union is authentic, and it has healing power. The willingness to share that union does not necessarily require perfect symmetry; that is, it is not indispensable that both have the same capacity to see the truth or the same readiness to bring it to awareness. There is always one who “has more” and offers it to the one who “has less,” as stated in the  Text, in The Principles of Miracles, for joining minds to fulfill the Will of God is, in essence, performing miracles within illusion.

Yet it is also true that both minds must be, to some degree, aligned with truth for healing to occur.

“They are used truly by believers and for believers.” (T-1.P11.1:3)

^IV You are profoundly utilitarian and always seek your own “good” in everything you do, using every person, circumstance, or condition for that purpose. And that is how you always function. Do not judge it negatively, for that is simply your condition—both on earth and in Heaven; it is your nature. The problem is that, in your present state of mental fragmentation, you perceive yourself as an individual being with particular interests. That is precisely the condition that the Atonement comes to heal in you.

Thus, because you think only in terms of your own interests and believe yourself to be weak and limited, you bargain and negotiate with your brothers, and even with life itself, trying to reach compromises that will allow you to go on. You invest a little, hoping to get more in return, because your mind recognizes only concrete, measurable, and comparable realities.

Reality does not work that way. God knows no limits. He gives without measure—He gives everything—and so does your Self, for it was created by Him and like Him. Remember that every “dynamic” of the world arises from having conceived—and valued—the idea of separation; that is why, here, compromise is as inevitable as it is inconceivable in Heaven.

And for that very reason, minds in this world can only seem to unite or to share dreams. But how could you share what does not exist?

^V 1 Chronicles 28:20 “Do not be afraid or discouraged, for the Lord God, my God, is with you. He will not fail you or forsake you.”

^VI Do not be disheartened by those events or circumstances in life that torment you, nor elated by those moments when life seems to favor you; they are all the same dream. At times the illusion of the world crucifies you, and at others you enjoy it—but realize that every shifting mood is merely an oscillation of the ego, according to whether its expectations are fulfilled or frustrated.

You cry out to Heaven for comfort and for miracles to ease your sorrow, and you forget God when things seem to go well—for your ego. Awake! Salvation is not in the world! That is the happy news—that is the gospel of Jesus—that is what you are learning through this Course. If you insist on having happy dreams, you will never awaken, simply because you will not want to awaken. You devised the dream for that very purpose: to seek happiness within the dream. But in dreams you will find only dreams, and all dreams are dreams of fear. Until you fully realize this, you will continue to deceive yourself, blaming life or your brothers for your suffering, or wandering anxiously through the world in pursuit of some fleeting pleasure. How much longer?

On this path you have undertaken, you will indeed encounter happy dreams, but remember: that is not the goal. Do not seek a better life—learn to live. Happiness could be yours and accompany you always if you would simply stop deceiving yourself. That alone is enough. The rest follows naturally. And the simplest way to achieve it, as you already know, is to offer others the peace and joy you have experienced—even for an instant. Only thus will you strengthen and preserve them; otherwise, they will soon slip away.

^VII Matthew 7:7 “Ask, and it will be given you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.”