All that I give is given to myself.
1. Today’s idea is entirely alien to the ego and to the way the world thinks.
²This idea is key to reversing your thought system, which is precisely what this Course is designed to do.
³If you believed what today’s idea says, you would have no difficulty in forgiving completely, you would have absolute certainty about your goals, and you would clearly understand the direction in which you are going.
⁴You would also understand the means by which salvation comes to you, and you would make use of it without hesitation. I
2. Let us now consider what you believe, instead of what this idea teaches.
²You believe that others are separate from you, and that their behavior and their thoughts have nothing to do with what you think.
³You also believe that what they think does not affect your thoughts nor your behavior.
⁴Therefore, you believe that your attitudes have no effect on them, and that their calls for help have no connection with your own.
⁵You also believe they can sin without affecting your own self-image, and that you can judge their sins and remain without condemnation and at peace.
3. For this reason, when you “forgive” a sin, you believe you are gaining nothing directly.
²In such a case, you are simply being charitable toward someone who, in truth, does not deserve it.
³And so you are confirming that you are better and on a higher level than they are.
⁴They have not earned your merciful tolerance, for you are offering it to someone who clearly does not deserve it, since their sins have placed them far beneath true equality with you.
⁵You believe they have no right to expect your forgiveness.
⁶Your forgiveness is a gift you give them—but it gives nothing to you.
4. From this point of view, forgiveness appears to be a somewhat absurd and unfounded gesture.
²It is a capricious act—perhaps generous, but certainly undeserved.
³It is a gift that is sometimes given and sometimes withheld.
⁴And since it is undeserved, to withhold it seems entirely justified.
⁵Surely it would not be fair for you to suffer if you refuse to give it.
⁶For the sin you forgive is not your own; it was committed by someone completely apart from you.
⁷And while you are being generous in giving them what they do not deserve, the gift they receive is no more connected to you than is their sin.
5. If all this were true, then forgiveness would have no solid, dependable foundation to rest upon.
²It would be nothing more than a whim, a passing indulgence where you sometimes choose to grant an unearned reprieve.
³But you would still be justified in not letting the sinner escape the rightful payment for their guilt.
⁴Would the Lord of Heaven let the world’s salvation depend on this?
⁵Would it not be utterly unloving of Him to base your own salvation on a whim?
6. You do not understand what forgiveness is. II
²As you see it, forgiveness is merely restraint from overt attack—something that requires no true correction in your own mind.
³As you understand it, forgiveness cannot give you peace.
⁴It is not a means of release from what you see in another.
⁵It has no power to help you realize that you are truly joined to them.
⁶But that is not what God intended forgiveness to be for you.
7. When you deny the gift your Father asks of you, you cannot recognize His gifts, and so you believe He has not given them.
²But would He ask you for something unless it were for you?
³Would He be content with empty gestures, and see such meager offerings as worthy of His Son?
⁴Salvation is a far greater gift than that.
⁵True forgiveness—which is the means by which salvation comes—must heal the mind of the one who gives it, for giving is receiving.
⁶What is not received has not been given.
⁷But what is truly given is always received.
8. Today we will try to understand the truth that giver and receiver are the same.
²You cannot grasp this without help, because it is so far removed from your usual way of thinking that you cannot comprehend it.
³But do not be concerned—you have the Help you need.
⁴Place your trust in the Holy Spirit today, and ask Him to help you understand the truth.
⁵And if you catch even the faintest glimpse of the release this idea holds, this will be a day of glory for the world.
9. Give fifteen minutes twice today to trying to understand the idea for today.
²It is the thought that places forgiveness at the center of your priorities.
³It is the thought that will release your mind from every obstacle that blocks your understanding of forgiveness and help you recognize its great worth to you.
10. In mental silence, close your eyes to a world that does not understand forgiveness and retreat into the quiet place where thoughts are transformed and false beliefs are left behind.
²Repeat today’s idea and ask for help in understanding what it truly means.
³Be willing to let Him teach you.
⁴Be glad to hear the Voice of truth and healing, for you will understand what It says, and you will recognize that It speaks to you with your own words.
11. Remind yourself as often as you can today that you have a goal, a purpose that makes this day especially valuable to you and to all your brothers.
²Do not let your mind forget this goal for long, and say to yourself:
³All that I give is given to myself.
⁴The Help I need to understand that this is true is with me now.
⁵I will trust in Him completely.
⁶Then take a moment of stillness to open your mind to His correction and His Love.
⁷And you will believe what you hear from Him, for what He gives you will surely be received.
I Giving and receiving are the same, because what you see “out there” is also you. There is nothing outside you; you are everything.
If you could only understand and accept that what you know as your “personal existence” is nothing but a belief you hold in your mind, two things would happen. The first is that your mind would expand and become aware of its true magnitude; the second, that your thoughts concerning your personal life would cease to have any meaning for you. In fact, there would no longer be a “you” to conceive them.
Do you find it hard to understand that you believe you are you? Obviously not. That is evident, even to the personal mind. What you find hard to accept is that you are nothing more than that belief—that you are not a body with an existence independent of what your mind may think or believe.
You have not yet become fully aware of the incredible power of beliefs. And the term “incredible” is fitting here, for beliefs are nothing apart from themselves; they have the “power” to “create” an imaginary world all on their own. That is the “power” of the god of illusion.
It is true that you recognize there are beliefs that are not true, for you have seen that many times in yourself, realizing that countless things you once believed were not true. But it is usually easier for you to see that in others. People believe in so many foolish and absurd things, don’t they?
What you find difficult to accept—not to understand—is that ALL your beliefs are false, and that to believe is simply to deceive yourself for a while. Well, perhaps you are willing to admit that possibility. But what you find totally unacceptable is that the “you” you think you are is also a belief—and nothing but that: a belief.
But do not be disheartened, for that is only part of the story. The truth is that the mind that sustains that belief is real—and that is precisely what you truly are. Understand this, and understand it well: with this recognition you are losing nothing; you are gaining everything.
Although, to be fair, there is something you do lose: you lose the limits that you—the mind—have imposed upon yourself, your self-definitions. Remember that to define, from the Latin definire, means “to set limits.” You are no longer limited. You can now believe something else—or you can cease to believe and simply be all that exists, for those are the only two options there are.
Even if only for an instant, reflect on why you insist so much on being what you believe you are. It is obvious that if you believe it, it is because you want to believe it. Otherwise, why would you believe it? Could it be because you want to be limited, because you want to suffer?
Do you not see that believing has an enormous cost—that you must pay a price for every belief you hold? Do you want to pay it? … Why?
Perhaps what happens is that the belief the mind—you—holds in being that particular person you think you are still does not wish to renounce the limits it has imposed upon itself. Do not worry; there is time for that. In fact, there is all the time you wish to invent.
But perhaps you would like to open yourself to the possibility that, for those still attracted to the stories they tell themselves, there are beliefs more “benign” than the ones they now hold. Today’s idea is such a belief: a statement aligned with the truth:
“All that I give I give to myself.”
Practice that idea in your particular world, and you will see that it works.
By the way, try to give yourself only good things—unless you prefer to go on hurting yourself. Choose well, love, and trust. Your days of fear are numbered. You are moving toward the Heart of God, where His Love abides, which is all that exists and all that you are.
Smile: the sad dream is coming to its end.
Give yourself good things by giving them to others, and enjoy a little more of the dream of your personal life… but do not linger too long. All that you busy yourself with here is not even the shadow of the celebration that awaits you in Heaven—your Home—when you decide to return.
II All this matter of forgiveness, in truth, is nothing but the particular application of today’s idea. You think you see sin outside yourself, but it is in you. You think you forgive it in another, but you are forgiving yourself. You think you are doing a poor sinner a favor—and you are right; you are doing yourself an enormous favor.
Only forgiveness can give you the peace you so deeply long for… and it will do so by your own hand.