Four

The Bible says that you should go with a brother twice as far as he asks. It certainly does not suggest that you set him back on his journey. Devotion to a brother cannot set *you* back either. It can lead *only* to mutual progress. The result of genuine devotion is inspiration, a word which properly understood is the opposite of fatigue. To be fatigued is to be *dis*-spirited, but to be inspired is to be in the spirit. To be egocentric *is* to be dispirited, but to be Self-centered in the right sense is to be inspired, or in the Soul. The truly inspired are enlightened and cannot abide in darkness. You can speak from the Soul or from the ego, precisely as you choose. If you speak from the Soul, you have chosen “to be still and know that *I* am God.” These words are inspired because they come from knowledge. If you speak from the ego, you are disclaiming knowledge instead of affirming it and are thus dispiriting yourself. Do not embark on foolish journeys, because they are indeed in vain. The ego may desire them, but the Soul cannot embark on them, because it is forever unwilling to depart from its Foundation. The journey to the cross should be the last foolish journey for every mind. Do not dwell upon it, but dismiss it as accomplished. If you can accept it as your *own* last foolish journey, you are also free to join my resurrection. Human living has indeed been needlessly wasted in a repetition compulsion. It reenacts the separation, the loss of power, the foolish journey of the ego in an attempt at reparation, and finally the crucifixion of the body or death. Repetition compulsions can be endless unless they are given up by an act of will. Do not make the pathetic human error of “clinging to the old rugged cross.” The only message of the crucifixion was that we can *overcome* the cross. Unless you do so, you are free to crucify yourself as often as you choose. But this is not the Gospel I intended to offer you. We have another journey to undertake, and if you will read these lessons carefully, they will help to prepare you to undertake it.

We have spoken of many different human symptoms, and at this level there is almost endless variation. There is, however, only *one* cause of all of them. The authority problem *is* “the root of all evil.” Money is but one of its many reflections and is a reasonably representative example of the kind of thinking which stems from it. The idea of buying and selling implies precisely the kind of exchange that the Soul cannot understand at all because its supply is always abundant and all its demands are fully met. Every symptom which the ego has made involves a contradiction in terms. This is because the mind is split between the ego and the Soul, so that *whatever* the ego makes is incomplete and contradictory. This untenable position is the result of the authority problem which, because it accepts the one inconceivable thought as its premise, can only produce ideas which are inconceivable. The term “profess” is used quite frequently in the Bible. To profess is to identify with an idea and offer the idea to others to be their own. The idea does not lessen; it becomes *stronger*. A good teacher clarifies his own ideas and strengthens them by teaching them. Teacher and pupil are alike in the learning process. They are in the same order of learning, and unless they *share* their lessons, they will lack conviction. A good teacher must believe in the ideas which he professes, but he must meet another condition; he must also believe in the students to whom he offers his ideas. Many stand guard over their ideas because they want to protect their thought systems as they are, and learning means change. Change is always fearful to the separated ones because they cannot conceive of it as a change towards *healing* the separation. They *always* perceive it as a change towards further separation because the separation was their first experience of change. You believe that if you allow no change to enter into your ego, your Soul will find peace. This profound confusion is possible only if one maintains that the same thought system can stand on two foundations. *Nothing* can reach the Soul from the ego, and nothing *from* the Soul can strengthen the ego or reduce the conflict within it. The ego *is* a contradiction. Man's self and God's Self *are* in opposition. They are opposed in creation, in will, and in outcome. They are fundamentally irreconcilable because the Soul cannot perceive and the ego cannot know. They are therefore *not in communication* and can never *be* in communication. Nevertheless, the ego can learn because its maker can be misguided but *cannot* make the totally lifeless out of the life-given. The Soul need not be taught, but the ego *must*. The ultimate reason why learning is perceived as frightening is because learning *does* lead to the relinquishment (*not* destruction) of the ego to the light of the Soul. This is the change the ego *must* fear because it does not share my charity. My lesson was like yours, and because I learned it, I can teach it. I never attack your egos, but I *do* try to teach you how their thought system[s] arose. When I remind you of your *true* creation, your egos cannot *but* respond with fear. Teaching and learning are your greatest strengths now, because you *must* change your mind and help others change theirs. It is pointless to refuse to tolerate change because you believe you can demonstrate that by doing so the separation has not occurred. The dreamer who doubts the reality of his dream while he is still dreaming is not really healing the level-split. You *have* dreamed of a separated ego, and you *have* believed in a world which rests upon it. This is very real to you. You cannot undo this by doing nothing and *not* changing. If you are willing to renounce the role of guardian[s] of your thought system[s] and open [them] to me, I will correct [them] very gently and lead you home. Every good teacher hopes to give his students so much of his own thinking that they will one day no longer need him. This is the one real goal of the parent, teacher, and therapist. This goal will not be achieved by those who believe that they will *lose* their child or pupil or patient if they succeed. It is *impossible* to convince the ego of this because it goes against all of its own laws. But remember that laws are set up to protect the continuity of the system in which the law-maker *believes*. It is natural enough for the ego to try to protect itself once you have made it, but it is *not* natural for *you* to want to obey its laws unless you believe in them. The ego cannot make this choice because of the nature of its origin. *You* can because of the nature of *yours*. Egos can clash in any situation, but Souls cannot clash at all. If you perceive a teacher as merely a “larger ego,” you *will* be afraid because to *enlarge* an ego *is* to increase separation anxiety. I will teach with you and live with you if you will think with me, but my goal will always be to absolve you finally from the *need* for a teacher. This is the *opposite* of the ego-oriented teacher's goal. He is concerned with the effect of *his* ego on *other* egos and therefore interprets their interaction as a means of ego preservation. I would not be able to devote myself to teaching if I believed this, and *you* will not be a devoted teacher as long as *you* maintain it. I am constantly being perceived as a teacher either to be exalted or rejected, but I do not accept either perception for myself. Your worth is *not* established by your teaching *or* your learning. Your worth was established by God. As long as you dispute this, *everything* you do will be fearful, particularly any situation which lends itself to the “superiority-inferiority” fallacy. Teachers must be patient and repeat their lessons until they are learned. I am willing to do this because I have no right to set your learning limits for you. Once again—*nothing* you do or think or wish or make is necessary to establish your worth. This point is not debatable except in delusions. Your ego is *never* at stake because God did *not* create it. Your Soul is never at stake because He *did*. *Any* confusion on this point is a delusion and no form of devotion is possible as long as this delusion lasts. The ego tries to exploit *all* situations into forms of praise for itself in order to overcome its doubts. It will be doubtful forever, or rather as long as you believe in it. You who made it *cannot* trust it because you *know* it is not real. The only *sane* solution is not to try to change reality, which is indeed a fearful attempt, but to see it as it *is*. *You* are part of reality, which stands unchanged beyond the reach of your ego but within easy reach of your Soul. When you are afraid, be still and *know* that God is real and *you* are His beloved Son in whom He is well pleased. Do not let your ego dispute this because the ego cannot know what is as far beyond its reach as you are. God is *not* the author of fear. *You* are. You have chosen, therefore, to create unlike Him, and you have made fear for yourselves. You are not at peace because you are not fulfilling your function. God gave you a very lofty responsibility which you are not meeting. You *know* this, and you are afraid. In fact, your egos have chosen to be afraid *instead* of meeting it. When you awaken you will not be able to understand this because it is literally incredible. *Do not believe the incredible now*. Any attempt to increase its believability is merely to postpone the inevitable. The word “inevitable” is fearful to the ego but joyous to the Soul. God *is* inevitable, and you *cannot* avoid Him any more than He can avoid *you*. The ego is afraid of the Soul's joy because, once you have experienced it, you will withdraw all protection from the ego and become totally without the investment in fear. Your investment is great now because fear is a witness to the separation, and your ego rejoices when you witness to it. Leave it behind! Do not listen to it, and do not preserve it. Listen only to God, Who is as incapable of deception as are the Souls He created. Release yourselves and release others. Do not present a false and unworthy picture of yourself to others, and do not accept such a picture of them yourselves. The ego has built a shabby and unsheltering home for you because it cannot build otherwise. Do not try to make this impoverished house stand. *Its* weakness is *your* strength. Only God could make a home that is worthy of His creations, who have chosen to leave it empty by their own dispossession. Yet His home will stand forever and is ready for you when you choose to enter it. Of this you can be wholly certain. God is as incapable of creating the perishable as the ego is of making the eternal. Of your egos you can do nothing to save yourselves or others, but of your Souls you can do everything for the salvation of both. Humility is a lesson for the ego, *not* for the Soul. The Soul is beyond humility because it recognizes its radiance and gladly sheds its light everywhere. The meek shall inherit the earth because their egos are humble, and this gives them better perception. The Kingdom of Heaven is the *right* of the Soul, whose beauty and dignity are far beyond doubt, beyond perception, and stand forever as the mark of the Love of God for His creations, who are wholly worthy of Him and *only* of Him. Nothing else is sufficiently worthy to be a gift for a creation of God Himself. I will substitute for your ego if you wish but *never* for your Soul. A father can safely leave a child with an elder brother who has shown himself responsible, but this involves no confusion about the child's origin. The brother can protect the child's body and his ego, which are *very* closely related, but he does not confuse *himself* with the father because he does this, although the child may. I can be entrusted with your body and your ego simply because this enables you *not* to be concerned with them and lets *me* teach you their unimportance. I could not understand their importance to *you* if I had not once been tempted to believe in them myself. Let us undertake to learn this lesson together, so we can be free of them together. I need devoted teachers who share my aim of healing the mind. The Soul is far beyond the need of your protection or mine. Remember this: *In this world you **need** not have tribulation **because**I have overcome the world*. *That* is why you should be of good cheer.

You have asked lately how the mind could ever have made the ego. This is a perfectly reasonable question; in fact, the best question you could ask. There is, however, no point in giving an historical answer, because the past does not matter in human terms, and history would not exist if the same errors were not being repeated in the present. Abstract thought applies to knowledge, because knowledge is completely impersonal and examples are irrelevant to its understanding. Perception, however, is always specific and therefore quite concrete. Each man makes one ego for himself, although it is subject to enormous variation because of its instability, and one for everyone he perceives, which is equally variable. Their interaction is a process which literally alters both, because they were not made either *by* or *with* the unalterable. It is particularly important to realize that this alteration can and does occur as readily when the interaction takes place *in the mind* as when it involves physical presence. *Thinking* about another ego is as effective in changing relative perception as is physical interaction. There could be no better example of the fact that the ego is an idea, though not a reality-based thought. Your own present state is a good example of how the mind made the ego. You *do* have knowledge at times, but when you throw it away, it is as if you never had it. This willfulness is so apparent that one need only perceive it to see that it *does* happen. If it can occur that way in the present, why is it surprising that it occurred that way in the past? Psychology rests on the principle of the continuity of behavior. Surprise is a reasonable response to the unfamiliar but hardly to something that has occurred with such persistence. I am using your present state \[as an example\] of how the mind *can* work, provided you fully recognize that it *need* not work that way. Why are you surprised that something happened in the dim past when it is so clearly happening right now? You forget the love that animals have for their own offspring and the need they feel to protect them. This is because they regard them as part of themselves. No one disowns something he regards as a very real part of himself. Man reacts to his ego much as God does to His Souls: with love, protection, and great charity. The reaction of man to the self he made is not at all surprising. In fact it duplicates in many ways how he will one day react to his *real* creations, which are as timeless as he is. The question is not *how* man responds to his ego, but what he believes he *is*. Belief is an ego function, and as long as your origin is open to belief at all, you *are* regarding it from an ego viewpoint. \[That is why the Bible quotes me as saying “Ye believe in God, believe also in me.” Belief *does* apply to me, because I am the teacher of the ego.\] When teaching is no longer necessary, you will merely *know* God. Belief that there *is* another way is the loftiest idea of which ego thinking is capable. That is because it contains a hint of recognition that the ego is *not* the self. Undermining the ego's thought system *must* be perceived as painful, even though this is anything but true. Babies scream in rage if you take away a knife or a scissors, even though they may well harm themselves if you do not. The speed-up has placed you in the same position. You are *not* prepared, and in this sense you *are* babies. You have no sense of real self-preservation and are very likely to decide that you need precisely what would hurt you most. Whether you know it now or not, however, you *have* willed to cooperate in a concerted and very commendable effort to become both harm*less* and help*ful*, two attributes which *must* go together. Your attitudes, even toward this, are necessarily conflicted, because *all* attitudes are ego-based. This will not last. Be patient awhile and remember that the outcome is as certain as God. Only those who have a real and lasting sense of abundance *can* be truly charitable. This is quite obvious when you consider the concepts involved. To the ego, to give anything implies that you will do without it. When you associate giving with sacrifice, then, you give only because you believe that you are somehow getting something better so that you can do without the thing you give. “Giving to get” is an inescapable law of the ego, which *always* evaluates itself in relation to other egos and is therefore continually preoccupied with the scarcity principle which gave rise to it. This is the meaning of Freud's “reality principle” since Freud thought of the ego as very weak and deprived, capable of functioning *only* as a thing in need. The “reality principle” of the ego is not real at all. The ego is forced to perceive the “reality” of other egos because it cannot establish the reality of *itself*. In fact, its whole perception of other egos *as* real is only an attempt to convince itself that *it* is real. “Self esteem” in ego terms means nothing more than that the ego has deluded itself into accepting its reality and is therefore temporarily less predatory. This “self esteem” is *always* vulnerable to stress, a term which actually refers to a condition in which the delusion of the ego's reality is threatened. This produces either ego deflation or ego inflation, resulting in either withdrawal or attack. The ego literally lives by comparisons. This means that equality is beyond its grasp and charity becomes impossible. The ego *never* gives out of abundance, because it was made as a *substitute* for it. That is why the concept of “getting” arose in the ego's thought system. All appetites are “getting” mechanisms, representing the ego's need to confirm itself. This is as true of bodily appetites as it is of the so-called “higher” ego needs. Bodily appetites are *not* physical in origin. The ego regards the body as its home and *does* try to satisfy itself through the body, but the *idea* that this is possible is a decision of the ego, which is completely confused about what is *really* possible. This accounts for its erratic nature. The ego believes it is completely on its own, which is merely another way of describing how it originated. This is such a fearful state that it can only turn to other egos and try to unite with them in a feeble attempt at identification or attack them in an equally feeble show of strength. It is *not* free, however, to consider the validity of the premise itself, because this premise is its *foundation*. The ego *is* the belief of the mind that it is completely on its own. Its ceaseless attempts to gain the Soul's acknowledgment and thus to establish its own existence are utterly useless. The Soul in its knowledge is unaware of the ego. It does not attack it; it merely cannot conceive of it at all. While the ego is equally unaware of the Soul, it *does* perceive itself as rejected by “something” which is greater than itself. This is why self-esteem in ego terms *must* be a delusion. The creations of God do not create myths, although the creative efforts of man *can* turn to mythology. It can do so, however, only under one condition; what man then makes is no longer creative. Myths are entirely perceptions and are so ambiguous in form and so characteristically good and evil in nature that the most benevolent of them is not without fearful components, if only by innuendo. Myths and magic are closely associated in that myths are usually related to the ego origins and magic to the powers which the ego ascribes to itself. Every mythological system includes some account of “the creation” and associates this with its particular perception of magic. The “battle for survival” is nothing more than the ego's struggle to preserve itself and its interpretation of its own beginning. This beginning is always associated with physical birth, because no one maintains that the ego existed before that point in time. The religiously ego-oriented believe that the Soul existed before and will continue to exist afterwards, after a temporary lapse in ego life. Some actually believe that the Soul will be punished for this lapse, even though in reality it could not possibly know anything about it. The term “salvation” does *not* apply to the Soul, which is not in danger and does not need to be salvaged. Salvation is nothing more than “right-mindedness,” which is not the One-Mindedness of the Soul, but which must be accomplished before One-Mindedness can be restored. Right-mindedness dictates the next step automatically, because right perception is uniformly without attack, so that wrong-mindedness is obliterated. The ego cannot survive without judgment and is laid aside accordingly. The mind then has only *one* direction in which it can move. The direction which the mind will take is always automatic, because it cannot *but* be dictated by the thought system to which the mind adheres. Every thought system has internal consistency, and this provides the basis for the continuity of behavior. However, this is a matter of reliability and not validity. “Reliable behavior” is a meaningful perception as far as ego thinking goes. However, “valid behavior” is an expression which is inherently contradictory, because validity is an *end* and behavior is a *means*. These cannot be combined logically, because when an end has been attained, the means for its attainment are no longer meaningful. A hypothesis is either false or true, to be accepted or rejected accordingly. If it is shown to be true, it becomes a fact, after which no one attempts to evaluate it unless its status *as* fact is questioned. *Every* idea to which the ego has accorded the status of fact is questionable, because facts are in the realm of knowledge. Confusing realms of discourse is a thinking error which philosophers have recognized for centuries. Psychologists are generally quite deficient in this respect, as are many theologians. Data from one realm of discourse do not mean anything in another, because they can be understood only *within* the thought system of which they are a part. That is why psychologists are concentrating increasingly on the ego in an attempt to unify their clearly unrelated data. It need hardly be said that an attempt to relate the unrelated *cannot* succeed. The more recent ecological emphases are but another ingenious way of trying to impose order on chaos. We have already credited the ego with considerable ingenuity, though not with creativeness. It should, however, be remembered that inventiveness is really wasted effort, even in its most ingenious forms. We do not have to explain *anything*. This is why we need not trouble ourselves with inventiveness. The highly specific nature of invention is not worthy of the abstract creativity of God's creations.

You have never understood what “the Kingdom of Heaven is within you” means. The reason you have not understood it is because it is *not* understandable to the ego, which interprets it as if something outside is inside, and this does not mean anything. The word “within” is unnecessary. The Kingdom of Heaven *is* you. What else *but* you did the Creator create, and what else *but* you is His Kingdom? This is the whole message of the Atonement, a message which in its totality transcends the sum of its parts. Christmas is not a time; it is a state of mind. The Christ Mind wills from the Soul, *not* from the ego, and the Christ Mind *is* yours. You too have a kingdom which your Soul created. It has *not* ceased to create because your ego has set you on the road of perception. Your Soul's creations are no more fatherless than *you* are. Your ego and your Soul will never be co-creators, but your Soul and *your* Creator will *always* be. Be confident that your creations are as safe as you are. *The Kingdom is perfectly united and perfectly protected,and the ego will **not** prevail against it. Amen*. That was written in that form because it is a good thing to use as a kind of a prayer in moments of temptation. It is a Declaration of Independence. You will find it very helpful if you understand it fully. In its characteristically upside-down way, the ego has taken the impulses from the superconscious and perceives them as if they arise in the unconscious. The ego judges what is to be accepted, and the impulses from the superconscious are unacceptable to it because they clearly point to the nonexistence of the ego itself. The ego therefore experiences threat and not only censors but also reinterprets the data. However, as Freud correctly pointed out, what you have repressed can retain a very active life *beyond* your awareness. Repression thus operates to conceal not only the baser impulses but also the most lofty ones from awareness because *both* are threatening to the ego and, being concerned primarily with its own preservation in the face of threat, the ego perceives them *as the same*. The threat-value of the lofty is actually much greater to the ego because the pull of God Himself can hardly be equated with the pull of human appetites. By perceiving them *as* the same, the ego attempts to save itself from being swept away, as it would surely *be* in the presence of knowledge. The upper level of the unconscious thus contains the Call of God as well as the call of the body. That is why the basic conflict between love and fear is unconscious; the ego cannot tolerate either and represses both by resorting to inhibition. Society depends on inhibiting the latter, but *salvation* depends on *dis*inhibiting the former. The reason you need *my* help is because you have repressed your own Guide and therefore need guidance. My role is to separate the true from the false in your unconscious so it can break through the barriers the ego has set up and shine into your minds. Against our united strength, the ego *cannot* prevail. It should be apparent to you by now why the ego regards the Soul as its “enemy.” The ego arose from the separation, and its continued existence depends on *your* continuing belief in the separation. Having reduced the Soul impulses to the unconscious, the ego has to offer you some sort of reward for maintaining this belief. All it *can* offer is a sense of temporary existence, which begins with its *own* beginning and ends with its *own* ending. It tells you this life is *your* existence because it *is* its own. Against this sense of temporary existence the Soul offers you the knowledge of permanence and unshakable *being*. No one who has experienced the revelation of *this* can ever fully believe in the ego again. How can its meager offering to you prevail against the glorious gift of God? You who identify *with* your egos cannot believe that God loves you. *You* do not love what you have made, and what you made does not love *you*. Being made out of the denial of the Father, the ego has no allegiance to its own maker. You cannot conceive of the real relationship which exists between God and His Souls because of the hatred you have for the self *you* have made. You project onto your *own* idea of yourself the will to separate, which conflicts with the love you feel for what you made *because* you made it. No human love is without this ambivalence, and since no ego has experienced love *without* ambivalence, the concept is beyond its understanding. Love will enter immediately into *any* mind which truly wants it, but it *must* want it truly. This means that it wants it *without* ambivalence, and this kind of wanting is wholly without the ego's “drive to get.” There is a kind of experience which is so different from anything the ego can offer that you will never recover. The word “recover” is used quite literally here—you will never be able to cover or hide again. It is necessary to repeat here that your belief in darkness and in hiding *is* why the light cannot enter. The Bible gives many references to the immeasurable gifts which are *for* you but for which *you* must ask. This is not a condition as the ego sets conditions. It is the glorious condition of what you *are*. No force except your own will is strong enough or worthy enough to guide you. In this you are as free as God and must remain so forever. You can never be bound except in honor, and that is always voluntary. Let us ask the Father in my name to keep you mindful of His Love for you and yours for Him. He has never failed to answer this request because it asks only for what He has already willed. Those who call truly are *always* answered. Thou shalt have no other gods before Him because there *are* none. It has never really entered your mind to give up every idea you ever had that *opposes* knowledge. You retain thousands of little scraps of meanness which prevent the Holy One from entering. Light cannot penetrate through the walls you make to block it, and it is forever unwilling to destroy what you have made. No one can see *through* a wall, but *I* can step around it. Watch your minds for the scraps of meanness or you will be unable to ask me to do so. I can help you only as our Father created us. I will love you and honor you and maintain complete respect for what you have made, but I will neither honor it nor love it unless it is true. I will never forsake you any more than God will, but I *must* wait as long as you choose to forsake yourself. Because I wait in love and not in impatience, you will surely ask me truly. I will come in response to a single unequivocal call. Watch carefully and see what it is you are really asking for. Be very honest with yourself about this, for we must hide nothing from each other. If you will really try to do this, you have taken the first step toward preparing your mind for the Holy One to enter. We will prepare for this together, for once He has come, you will be ready to help me make other minds ready for Him. How long will you deny Him His Kingdom? In your own unconscious, deeply repressed by the ego, is the declaration of your release. *God has given you everything*. This is the one fact that means the ego does not exist and which therefore makes it profoundly afraid. In the ego's language, remember, “to have” and “to be” are different, but they are identical to the Soul. The Soul knows that you both *have* everything and *are* everything. Any distinction in this respect is meaningful only when the idea of “getting,” which implies a lack, has *already* been accepted. That is why we made no distinction before between *having* the Kingdom of God and *being* the Kingdom of God. The calm being of God's Kingdom, which in your sane mind is perfectly conscious, is ruthlessly banished from the part of the mind which the ego rules. The ego is desperate because it opposes literally invincible odds, whether you are asleep or awake. Consider how much vigilance you have been willing to exert to protect your ego and how little you have been willing to expend to protect your higher mind. Who but the insane would undertake to believe what is not true and then protect this belief at the *cost* of truth?

If you cannot hear the Voice of God, it is because you do not choose to listen. The fact that you *do* listen to the voice of your ego is demonstrated by your attitudes, your feelings, and your behavior. Your attitudes are obviously conflicted, your feelings have a narrow range on the negative side but are never purely joyous, and your behavior is either strained or unpredictable. Yet this is what you *want*. This is what you are fighting to keep and what you are vigilant to save. Your minds are filled with schemes to save the face of your egos, and you do not seek the Face of God. The glass in which the ego seeks to see its face is dark indeed. How can it maintain the trick of its existence except with mirrors? But where *you* look to find yourself is up to you. We have said that you cannot change your mind by changing your behavior, but we have also said, and many times before, that you *can* change your mind. When your mood tells you that you have chosen wrongly, and this is so whenever you are not joyous, then *know* this need not be. In every case you have thought wrongly about some Soul that God created and are perceiving images your ego makes in a darkened glass. Think honestly what you have thought that God would *not* have thought and what you have *not* thought that God would have you think. Search sincerely for what you have done and left undone accordingly, and then change your minds *to think with God's*. This may seem hard to you, but it is much easier than trying to think *against* it. Your mind *is* one with God's. Denying this and thinking otherwise has held your ego together but has literally split your mind. As a loving brother, I am deeply concerned with your mind and urge you to follow my example as you look at yourselves and at each other and see in both the glorious creations of a glorious Father. When you are sad, *know that this need not be*. Depression *always* arises ultimately from a sense of being deprived of something you want and do not have. *Know* you are deprived of nothing except by your own decisions, and then decide otherwise. When you are anxious, *know* that all anxiety comes from the capriciousness of the ego *and need not be*. You can be as vigilant *against* the ego's dictates as *for* them. When you feel guilty, *know* that the ego has indeed violated the laws of God, but *you* have not. Leave the sins of the ego to me. That is what Atonement is for. But until you change your mind about those your ego has hurt, the Atonement cannot release you. As long as you feel guilty, your ego is in command because only the ego *can* experience guilt. *This need not be*. Watch your mind for the temptations of the ego and do not be deceived by it. *Know* it offers you nothing. When you have given up this voluntary dispiriting, you will see how your mind can focus and rise above fatigue and heal. Yet you are not sufficiently vigilant *against* the demands of the ego to disengage yourself. *This need not be*. The habit of engaging *with* God and His creations is easily made if you actively refuse to let your minds slip away. The problem is *not* one of concentration; it is the belief that no one, including yourself, is *worth* consistent effort. Side with me *consistently* against this deception, and do not permit this shabby belief to pull you back. The disheartened are useless to themselves and to me, but only the ego can *be* disheartened. Have you *really* considered how many opportunities you have to gladden yourselves and how many of them you have refused? There is no limit to the power of a Son of God, but he himself can limit the expression of his power as much as he chooses. Your mind and mine can unite in shining your ego away and releasing the strength of God into everything you think and will and do. Do not settle for anything *less* than this, and refuse to accept anything *but* this as your goal. Watch your minds carefully for *any* beliefs that hinder its accomplishment, and step away from them. Judge how well you have done this by your own feelings, for this is the one *right* use of judgment. Judgment, like any other defense, can be used to attack or protect, to hurt or to heal. The ego *should* be brought to your judgment and found wanting there. Without your own allegiance, protection, and love, it cannot exist. Judge your ego truly, and you *must* withdraw allegiance, protection, and love from it. You are mirrors of truth in which God Himself shines in perfect light. To the ego's dark glass you need but say, “I will not look there because I *know* these images are not true.” Then let the Holy One shine on you in peace, knowing that this and *only* this must be. His Mind shone on you in your creation and brought *your* mind into being. His Mind still shines on you and must shine *through* you. Your ego cannot prevent *Him* from shining on you, but it *can* prevent you from letting Him shine *through* you. The first coming of Christ is just another name for the creation, for Christ is the Son of God. The *second* coming of Christ means nothing more than the end of the ego's rule over part of the minds of men and the healing of the mind. I was created like you in the first, and I have called you to join with me in the second. If you will think over your lives, you will see how carefully the preparations were made. I am in charge of the second coming, and my judgment, which is used only for protection, cannot be wrong because it *never* attacks. *Yours* is so distorted that you believe I was mistaken in choosing you. I assure you this is a mistake of your egos. Do *not* mistake it for humility. Your egos are trying to convince you that *they* are real and *I* am not because, if *I* am real, I am no more real than *you* are. That knowledge, and I assure you that it *is* knowledge, means that Christ must come into your minds and heal them. Although I am *not* attacking your egos, I *am* working with your higher mind whether you are asleep or awake, just as your ego does with your lower mind. I am your vigilance in this, because you are too confused to recognize your own hope. I was *not* mistaken. Your minds *will* elect to join with mine, and together we are invincible. You will yet come together in my name, and your sanity will be restored. I raised the dead by *knowing* that life is an eternal attribute of everything that the living God created. Why do you believe it is harder for me to inspire the dispirited or to stabilize the unstable? *I* do not believe that there is an order of difficulty in miracles; *you* do. I have called, and you will answer. I *know* that miracles are natural because they are expressions of love. My calling you is as natural as your answer and as inevitable.

*All* things work together for good. There are *no* exceptions except in the ego's judgment. Control is a central factor in what the ego permits into consciousness and one to which it devotes its maximum vigilance. This is *not* the way a balanced mind holds together. *Its* control is unconscious. The ego is further off balance by keeping its primary *motivation* unconscious and raising control rather than sensible judgment to predominance. The ego has every reason to do this according to the thought system which gave rise to it and which it serves. Sane judgment would inevitably judge *against* the ego and must be obliterated *by* the ego in the interest of its self-preservation. A major source of the ego's off-balanced state is its lack of discrimination between impulses from God and from the body. Any thought system which makes this confusion *must* be insane. Yet this demented state is *essential* to the ego, which judges only in terms of threat or non-threat *to itself*. In one sense the ego's fear of the idea of God is at least logical, since this idea *does* dispel the ego. Fear of dissolution from the Higher Source, then, makes *some* sense in ego-terms. But fear of the body, with which the ego identifies so closely, is more blatantly senseless. The body is the ego's home by its own election. It is the only identification with which the ego feels safe, because the body's vulnerability is its own best argument that you *cannot* be of God. This is the belief that the ego sponsors eagerly. Yet the ego hates the body because it does not accept the idea that the body is *good* enough to be its home. Here is where the mind becomes actually dazed. Being told by the ego that it is really part of the body and that the body is its protector, the mind is also constantly informed that the body can *not* protect it. This, of course, is not only accurate but perfectly obvious. Therefore the mind asks, “Where can I go for protection?” to which the ego replies, “Turn to me.” The mind, and not without cause, reminds the ego that it has itself insisted that it *is* identified with the body, so there is no point in turning to it for protection. The ego has no real answer to this because there *is* none, but it *does* have a typical solution. It obliterates the *question* from the mind's awareness. Once unconscious, the question can and does produce uneasiness, but it cannot be answered because it cannot be *asked*. This is the question which *must* be asked: “Where am I to go for protection?” Even the insane ask it unconsciously, but it requires real sanity to ask it consciously. When the Bible says, “Seek and ye shall find,” it does not mean that you should seek blindly and desperately for something you would not recognize. Meaningful seeking is consciously undertaken, consciously organized, and consciously directed. The goal must be formulated clearly *and kept in mind*. As a teacher with some experience, let me remind you that learning and *wanting* to learn are inseparable. All learners learn best when they believe that what they are trying to learn is of *value* to them. However, values in this world are hierarchical, and not everything you may want to learn has lasting value. Indeed, many of the things you want to learn are chosen *because* their value will not last. The ego thinks it is an advantage not to commit itself to *anything* that is eternal because the eternal *must* come from God. Eternalness is the one function which the ego has tried to develop but has systematically failed. It may surprise you to learn that had the ego wished to do so it could have made the eternal because, as a product of the mind, it *is* endowed with the power of its own creator. However, the *decision* to do this, rather than the ability to do it, is what the ego cannot tolerate. That is because the decision, from which the ability would naturally develop, would necessarily involve accurate perception, a state of clarity which the ego, fearful of being judged truly, *must* avoid. The results of this dilemma are peculiar, but no more so than the dilemma itself. The ego has reacted characteristically here as elsewhere because mental illness, which is *always* a form of ego involvement, is not a matter of reliability as much as of validity. The ego compromises with the issue of the eternal, just as it does with all issues that touch on the real question in any way. By compromising in connection with all *tangential* questions, it hopes to hide the real question *and keep it out of mind*. The ego's characteristic busyness with non-essentials is for precisely that purpose. Consider the alchemist's age-old attempts to turn base metal into gold. The one question which the alchemist did not permit himself to ask was, “What *for*?” He could not ask this because it would immediately become apparent that there was no sense in his efforts even if he succeeded. If gold became more plentiful, its value would decrease, and his own purpose would be defeated. The ego has countenanced some strange compromises with the idea of the eternal, making many odd attempts to relate the concept to the *un*important in an effort to satisfy the mind without jeopardizing itself. Thus, it has permitted minds to devote themselves to the possibility of perpetual *motion*, but *not* to perpetual thoughts. Ideational preoccupations with problems set up to be incapable of solution are also favorite ego devices for impeding the strong-willed from making real learning progress. The problems of squaring the circle and carrying pi to infinity are good examples. A more recent ego attempt is particularly noteworthy. The idea of preserving the *body* by suspension, thus giving it the kind of limited immortality which the ego can tolerate, is among its more recent appeals to the mind. It is noticeable, however, that in all these diversionary tactics, the one question which is *never* asked by those who pursue them is, “What *for*?” This is the question which *you* must learn to ask in connection with *everything* your mind wishes to undertake. What is the purpose? Whatever it is, you cannot doubt that it will channelize your efforts automatically. When you make a decision of purpose, then, you have made a decision about your future effort, a decision which will remain in effect unless you change the *decision*. Psychologists are in a good position to realize that the ego is capable of making and accepting as real some very distorted associations. The confusion of sex with aggression and the resulting behavior, which is perceived as the same for both, serves as an example. This is “understandable” to the psychologist and does not produce surprise. The lack of surprise, however, is *not* a sign of understanding. It is a symptom of the psychologist's ability to accept as reasonable a compromise which is clearly senseless—to attribute it to the mental illness of the patient rather than his own and to limit his questions about both the patient *and* himself to the trivial. Such relatively minor confusions of the ego are not among its more profound misassociations, although they do reflect them. Your egos have been blocking the more important questions which your minds *should* ask. You do not understand a patient while you yourselves are willing to limit the questions you raise about *his* mind because you are also accepting these limits for *yours*. This makes you unable to heal him *and* yourselves. Be always unwilling to adapt to *any* situation in which miracle-mindedness is unthinkable. That state in itself is enough to demonstrate that the perception is wrong.

It cannot be emphasized too often that correcting perception is merely a temporary expedient. It is necessary to do so only because misperception is a block to knowledge, while accurate perception is a stepping-stone *towards* it. The whole value of right perception lies in the inevitable judgment which it entails that it *is* unnecessary. This removes the block entirely. You may ask how this is possible as long as you appear to be living in this world, and since this is a sensible question, it has a sensible answer. You must be careful, however, that you really understand the question. What *is* the “you” who are living in this world? Immortality is a constant state. It is as true now as it ever was or ever will be because it implies *no change at all*. It is not a continuum nor is it understood by being compared to an opposite. Knowledge never involves comparisons. That is its essential difference from everything else the mind can grasp. “A little knowledge” is not dangerous except to the ego. Vaguely it senses threat, and being unable to realize that “a little knowledge” is a meaningless phrase since “all” and “a little” in this context are the same, the ego decides that, since “all” is impossible, the fear does not lie there. “A little,” however, is a scarcity concept, and *this* the ego understands well. “A little,” then, is perceived as the real threat. The essential thing to remember is that the ego *does not recognize* the real source of its perceived threat, and if *you* associate yourself with the ego, *you* do not perceive the whole situation as it is. Only your allegiance to it gives the ego *any* power over you. We have spoken of the ego as if it were a separate thing acting on its own. This was necessary to persuade you that you cannot dismiss it lightly and must realize how much of your thinking is ego-directed. We cannot safely let it go at that, however, or you will regard yourselves as necessarily conflicted as long as you are here, or more properly, as long as you *believe* that you are here. The ego is nothing more than a *part* of your belief about yourselves. Your other life has continued without interruption and has been and always will be totally unaffected by your attempts to dissociate. The ratio of repression and dissociation varies with the individual ego-illusion, but dissociation is always involved or you would not believe that you *are* here. In learning to escape from the illusions you have made, your great debt to each other is something you must never forget. It is exactly the same debt that you owe to me. Whenever you react egotistically towards each other, you are throwing away the graciousness of your indebtedness and the holy perception it would produce. The term “holy” can be used here because as you learn how much you *are* indebted to the whole Sonship, which *includes* me, you come as close to knowledge as perception ever can. The gap is then so small that knowledge can easily flow across it and obliterate it forever. You have very little trust in me as yet, but it will increase as you turn more and more often to me *instead* of your egos for guidance. The results will convince you increasingly that your choice in turning to me is the only sane one you can make. No one who has learned from experience that one choice brings peace and joy while another brings chaos and disaster needs much conditioning. The ego cannot withstand the conditioning process because the process itself *demonstrates* that there is another way. Conditioning by rewards has always been more effective than conditioning by pain because pain is an ego-illusion and can never induce more than a temporary effect. The rewards of God, however, are immediately recognized as eternal. Since this recognition is made by you and *not* the ego, the recognition *itself* establishes that you and your ego *cannot* be identical. You may believe that you have already accepted the difference, but you are by no means convinced as yet. The very fact that you are preoccupied with the idea of escaping *from* the ego shows this. You *cannot* escape from the ego by humbling it or controlling it or punishing it. Remember that the ego and the Soul *do not know* each other. The separated mind cannot maintain the separation *except* by dissociating. Having done this, it utilizes repression against all truly natural impulses, not because the *ego* is a separate thing, but because you want to believe that *you* are. The ego is a device for maintaining this belief, but it is still only *your* willingness to use the device that enables it to endure. My trust in you is greater than yours in me at the moment, but it will not always be that way. Your mission is very simple. You have been chosen to live so as to demonstrate that you are *not* an ego. I repeat that I do not choose God's channels wrongly. The Holy One shares my trust and always approves my Atonement decisions because my will is never out of accord with His. I have told you before that I am in charge of the whole Atonement. This is *only* because I completed my part in it as a man and can now complete it through other men. My chosen receiving and sending channels cannot fail because I will lend them *my* strength as long as theirs is wanting. I will go with you to the Holy One, and through *my* perception, *He* can bridge the little gap. Your gratitude to *each other* is the only gift I want. I will bring it to God for you, knowing that to know your brother *is* to know God. A little knowledge is an all-encompassing thing. If you are grateful to each other, you are grateful to God for what He created. Through your gratitude, you can come to know each other, and one moment of real recognition makes all men your brothers because they are all of your Father. Love does not conquer all things, but it *does* set all things right. Because you are all the Kingdom of God, I can lead you back to your own creations, which you do not yet know. What has been dissociated is still there. As you come closer to a brother, you *do* approach me and, as you withdraw from him, *I* become distant to you. Your giant step forward was to insist on a “collaborative venture.” This does not go against the true spirit of meditation; it is inherent in it. Meditation is a collaborative venture with God. It *cannot* be undertaken successfully by those who disengage themselves from the Sonship because they are disengaging themselves from me. God will come to you *only* as you will give Him to your brothers. Learn first of them, and you will be ready to hear God as you hear them. That is because the function of love is one. How can you teach someone the value of something he has deliberately thrown away? He must have thrown it away because he did not value it. You can only show him how miserable he is without it and bring it near very slowly, so he can learn how his misery lessens as he approaches it. This conditions him to associate his misery with its absence and to associate the opposite of misery with its presence. It gradually becomes desirable as he changes his mind about its worth. I am conditioning you to associate misery with the ego and joy with the Soul. You have conditioned yourselves the other way around. A far greater reward, however, will break through any conditioning if it is repeatedly offered whenever the old habit pattern is broken. You are still free to choose, but can you really *want* the rewards of the ego in the presence of the rewards of God?

It should be clear by now that, while the content of any particular ego-illusion does not matter, it is usually more helpful to correct it in a specific context. Ego-illusions are *quite* specific, although they frequently change and although the mind is naturally abstract. The mind nevertheless becomes concrete voluntarily as soon as it splits. However, only *part* of it splits, so only *part* of it is concrete. The concrete part is the same part that believes in the ego because the ego *depends* on the specific. It is the part that believes your existence means you are *separate*. Everything the ego perceives is a separate whole, without the relationships that imply *being*. The ego is thus *against* communication except in so far as it is utilized to *establish* separateness rather than to abolish it. The communication system of the ego is based on its own thought system, as is everything else it dictates. Its communication is controlled by its need to protect itself, and it will disrupt communication when it experiences threat. While this is always so, individual egos perceive different kinds of threat which are quite specific in their own judgment. For example, although all forms of perceived demands may be classified or judged by the ego as coercive communication which must be disrupted, the response of breaking communication will nevertheless be to a *specific* person or persons. The specificity of the ego's thinking, then, results in a spurious kind of generalization which is really not abstract at all. It will respond in certain specific ways to *all* stimuli which it perceives as related. In contrast the Soul reacts in the same way to everything it knows is true and does not respond at all to anything else. Nor does it make any attempt to *establish* what is true. It knows that what is true is everything that God created. It is in complete and direct communication with every aspect of creation because it is in complete and direct communication with its Creator. *This* communication *is* the Will of God. Creation and communication are synonymous. God created every mind by communicating His Mind to it, thus establishing it forever as a channel for the reception of His Mind and Will. Since only beings of a like order can truly communicate, His creations naturally communicate *with* Him and *like* Him. This communication is perfectly abstract in that its quality is universal in application and not subject to *any* judgment, *any* exception, or *any* alteration. God created you *by* this and *for* this. The mind can distort its function, but it cannot endow itself with functions it was not given. That is why the mind cannot totally lose the ability to communicate, even though it may refuse to utilize it on behalf of being. Existence as well as being rests on communication. Existence, however, is *specific* in how, what, and with whom communication is judged to be worth undertaking. Being is completely without these distinctions. It is a state in which the mind *is* in communication with everything that is real, including the Soul. To whatever extent you permit this state to be curtailed, you are limiting your sense of your *own* reality, which becomes total only by your recognizing *all* reality in the glorious context of its *real* relationship to you. This *is* your reality. Do not desecrate it or recoil from it. It is your real home, your real temple, and your real Self. God, Who encompasses *all* being, nevertheless created beings who have everything individually but who want to share it to increase their joy. Nothing that is real can be increased *except* by sharing. That is why God Himself created you. Divine Abstraction takes joy in application, and that is what creation *means*. “How,” “what,” and “to whom” are irrelevant because real creation gives everything, since it can create *only* like itself. Remember that in being there is no difference between “having” and “being” as there is in existence. In the state of being, the mind gives everything always. The Bible repeatedly states that you should praise God. This hardly means that you should tell Him how wonderful He is. He has no ego with which to accept such thanks and no perception with which to judge such offerings. But unless you take your part in the creation, His joy is not complete because *yours* is incomplete. And *this* He does know. He knows it in His own Being and its experience of His Son's experience. The constant *going out* of His Love is blocked when His channels are closed, and He *is* lonely when the minds He created do not communicate fully with Him. God *has* kept your kingdom for you, but He cannot share His joy with you until you know it with your whole mind. Even revelation is not enough because it is communication *from* God. It is not enough until it is *shared*. God does not need revelation returned to Him, which would clearly be impossible, but He *does* want revelation brought to others. This cannot be done with the actual revelation because its content cannot be expressed, and it is intensely personal to the mind which receives it. It can, however, still be returned *by* that mind through its attitudes to *other* minds which the knowledge from the revelation brings. God is praised whenever any mind learns to be wholly helpful. This is impossible without being wholly harmless because the two beliefs coexist. The truly helpful are invulnerable because they are *not* protecting their egos, so that nothing *can* hurt them. Their helpfulness *is* their praise of God, and He will return their praise of Him because they are like Him, and they can rejoice together. God goes out to them and through them, and there is great joy throughout the Kingdom. Every mind that is changed adds to this joy with its own individual willingness to share in it. The truly helpful are God's miracle workers whom I direct until we are all united in the joy of the Kingdom. I will direct you to wherever you can be truly helpful and to whoever can follow my guidance through you.

Every mind which is split needs rehabilitation. The medical orientation to rehabilitation emphasizes the body, while the vocational orientation stresses the ego. The “team” approach generally leads more to confusion than to anything else because it is too often misused as a way of exerting the ego's domination over other egos, rather than as a real experiment in the cooperation of minds. Rehabilitation as a movement is an improvement over the overt neglect of those in need of help, but it is often little more than a painful attempt on the part of the halt to lead the blind. The ego is likely to fear broken bodies because it cannot tolerate them. The ego cannot tolerate ego weakness either without ambivalence because it is afraid of its own weakness as well as the weakness of its chosen home. When it is threatened, the ego blocks your natural impulse to help, placing you under the strain of divided will. You may then be tempted to withdraw to allow your ego to recover and to gain enough strength to be helpful again on a basis limited enough *not* to threaten your ego but too limited to give *you* joy. Those with broken bodies are often looked down on by the ego because of its belief that nothing but a perfect body is worthy as its *own* temple. A mind that recoils from a hurt body is in great need of rehabilitation itself. *All* symptoms of hurt need true helpfulness, and whenever they are met with this, the mind that so meets them heals *itself*. Rehabilitation is an attitude of praising God as He Himself knows praise. He offers praise to you, and you must offer it to others. The chief handicaps of the clinicians lie in their attitudes to those whom their egos perceive as weakened and damaged. *By* these evaluations, they have weakened and damaged their own helpfulness and have thus set their own rehabilitation back. Rehabilitation is *not* concerned either with the ego's fight for control or its need to avoid and withdraw. You can do much on behalf of your own rehabilitation *and* that of others if in a situation calling for healing you think of it this way: *I am here **only** to be truly helpful. I am here to represent Christ, Who sent me. I do **not** have to worry about what to say or what to do because He Who sent me will direct me. I am content to be wherever He wishes, knowing He goes there with me. I will be healed as I let Him teach me to heal*.