1. Only love is strong because it is undivided. 2The strong do not attack because they see no need to do so. 3Before the idea of attack can enter your mind, you must have perceived yourself as weak. 4Because you attacked yourself and believed that the attack was effective, you behold yourself as weakened. 5No longer perceiving yourself and your brothers as equal, and regarding yourself as weaker, you attempt to “equalize” the situation you made. 6You use attack to do so because you believe that attack was successful in weakening you.
2. That is why the recognition of your own invulnerability is so important to the restoration of your sanity. 2For if you accept your invulnerability, you are recognizing that attack has no effect. 3Although you have attacked yourself, you will be demonstrating that nothing really happened. 4Therefore, by attacking you have not done anything. 5Once you realize this you will no longer see any sense in attack, for it manifestly does not work and cannot protect you. 6Yet the recognition of your invulnerability has more than negative value. 7If your attacks on yourself have failed to weaken you, you are still strong. 8You therefore have no need to “equalize” the situation to establish your strength.
3. You will never realize the utter uselessness of attack except by recognizing that your attack on yourself has no effects. 2For others do react to attack if they perceive it, and if you are trying to attack them you will be unable to avoid interpreting this as reinforcement. 3The only place you can cancel out all reinforcement is in yourself. 4For you are always the first point of your attack, and if this has never been, it has no consequences.
4. The Holy Spirit’s Love is your strength, for yours is divided and therefore not real. 2You cannot trust your own love when you attack it. 3You cannot learn of perfect love with a split mind, because a split mind has made itself a poor learner. 4You tried to make the separation eternal, because you wanted to retain the characteristics of creation, but with your own content. 5Yet creation is not of you, and poor learners do need special teaching.
5. You have learning handicaps in a very literal sense. 2There are areas in your learning skills that are so impaired that you can progress only under constant, clear-cut direction, provided by a Teacher Who can transcend your limited resources. 3He becomes your Resource because of yourself you cannot learn. 4The learning situation in which you placed yourself is impossible, and in this situation you clearly require a special Teacher and a special curriculum. 5Poor learners are not good choices as teachers, either for themselves or for anyone else. 6You would hardly turn to them to establish the curriculum by which they can escape from their limitations. 7If they understood what is beyond them, they would not be handicapped.
6. You do not know the meaning of love, and that is your handicap. 2Do not attempt to teach yourself what you do not understand, and do not try to set up curriculum goals where yours have clearly failed. 3Your learning goal has been not to learn, and this cannot lead to successful learning. 4You cannot transfer what you have not learned, and the impairment of the ability to generalize is a crucial learning failure. 5Would you ask those who have failed to learn what learning aids are for? 6They do not know. 7If they could interpret the aids correctly, they would have learned from them.
7. I have said that the ego’s rule is, “Seek and do not find.” 2Translated into curricular terms this means, “Try to learn but do not succeed.” 3The result of this curriculum goal is obvious. 4Every legitimate teaching aid, every real instruction, and every sensible guide to learning will be misinterpreted, since they are all for facilitating the learning this strange curriculum is against. 5If you are trying to learn how not to learn, and the aim of your teaching is to defeat itself, what can you expect but confusion? 6Such a curriculum does not make sense. 7This attempt at “learning” has so weakened your mind that you cannot love, for the curriculum you have chosen is against love, and amounts to a course in how to attack yourself. 8A supplementary goal in this curriculum is learning how not to overcome the split that makes its primary aim believable. 9And you will not overcome the split in this curriculum, for all your learning will be on its behalf. 10Yet your mind speaks against your learning as your learning speaks against your mind, and so you fight against all learning and succeed, for that is what you want. 11But perhaps you do not realize, even yet, that there is something you want to learn, and that you can learn it because it is your choice to do so.
8. You who have tried to learn what you do not want should take heart, for although the curriculum you set yourself is depressing indeed, it is merely ridiculous if you look at it. 2Is it possible that the way to achieve a goal is not to attain it? 3Resign now as your own teacher. 4This resignation will not lead to depression. 5It is merely the result of an honest appraisal of what you have taught yourself, and of the learning outcomes that have resulted. 6Under the proper learning conditions, which you can neither provide nor understand, you will become an excellent learner and an excellent teacher. 7But it is not so yet, and will not be so until the whole learning situation as you have set it up is reversed.
9. Your learning potential, properly understood, is limitless because it will lead you to God. 2You can teach the way to Him and learn it, if you follow the Teacher Who knows the way to Him and understands His curriculum for learning it. 3The curriculum is totally unambiguous, because the goal is not divided and the means and the end are in complete accord. 4You need offer only undivided attention. 5Everything else will be given you. 6For you really want to learn aright, and nothing can oppose the decision of God’s Son. 7His learning is as unlimited as he is.