1. Never forget the world the sightless “see” must be imagined, for what it really looks like is unknown to them. 2They must infer what could be seen from evidence forever indirect; and reconstruct their inferences as they stumble and fall because of what they did not recognize, or walk unharmed through open doorways that they thought were closed. 3And so it is with you. 4You do not see. 5Your cues for inference are wrong, and so you stumble and fall down upon the stones you did not recognize, but fail to be aware you can go through the doors you thought were closed, but which stand open before unseeing eyes, waiting to welcome you.
2. How foolish is it to attempt to judge what could be seen instead. 2It is not necessary to imagine what the world must look like. 3It must be seen before you recognize it for what it is. 4You can be shown which doors are open, and you can see where safety lies; and which way leads to darkness, which to light. 5Judgment will always give you false directions, but vision shows you where to go. 6Why should you guess?
3. There is no need to learn through pain. 2And gentle lessons are acquired joyously, and are remembered gladly. 3What gives you happiness you want to learn and not forget. 4It is not this you would deny. 5Your question is whether the means by which this course is learned will bring to you the joy it promises. 6If you believed it would, the learning of it would be no problem. 7You are not a happy learner yet because you still remain uncertain that vision gives you more than judgment does, and you have learned that both you cannot have.
4. The blind become accustomed to their world by their adjustments to it. 2They think they know their way about in it. 3They learned it, not through joyous lessons, but through the stern necessity of limits they believed they could not overcome. 4And still believing this, they hold those lessons dear, and cling to them because they cannot see. 5They do not understand the lessons keep them blind. 6This they do not believe. 7And so they keep the world they learned to “see” in their imagination, believing that their choice is that or nothing. 8They hate the world they learned through pain. 9And everything they think is in it serves to remind them that they are incomplete and bitterly deprived.
5. Thus they define their life and where they live, adjusting to it as they think they must, afraid to lose the little that they have. 2And so it is with all who see the body as all they have and all their brothers have. 3They try to reach each other, and they fail, and fail again. 4And they adjust to loneliness, believing that to keep the body is to save the little that they have. 5Listen, and try to think if you remember what we will speak of now.
6. Listen,—perhaps you catch a hint of an ancient state not quite forgotten; dim, perhaps, and yet not altogether unfamiliar, like a song whose name is long forgotten, and the circumstances in which you heard completely unremembered. 2Not the whole song has stayed with you, but just a little wisp of melody, attached not to a person or a place or anything particular. 3But you remember, from just this little part, how lovely was the song, how wonderful the setting where you heard it, and how you loved those who were there and listened with you.
7. The notes are nothing. 2Yet you have kept them with you, not for themselves, but as a soft reminder of what would make you weep if you remembered how dear it was to you. 3You could remember, yet you are afraid, believing you would lose the world you learned since then. 4And yet you know that nothing in the world you learned is half so dear as this. 5Listen, and see if you remember an ancient song you knew so long ago and held more dear than any melody you taught yourself to cherish since.
8. Beyond the body, beyond the sun and stars, past everything you see and yet somehow familiar, is an arc of golden light that stretches as you look into a great and shining circle. 2And all the circle fills with light before your eyes. 3The edges of the circle disappear, and what is in it is no longer contained at all. 4The light expands and covers everything, extending to infinity forever shining and with no break or limit anywhere. 5Within it everything is joined in perfect continuity. 6Nor is it possible to imagine that anything could be outside, for there is nowhere that this light is not.
9. This is the vision of the Son of God, whom you know well. 2Here is the sight of him who knows his Father. 3Here is the memory of what you are; a part of this, with all of it within, and joined to all as surely as all is joined in you. 4Accept the vision that can show you this, and not the body. 5You know the ancient song, and know it well. 6Nothing will ever be as dear to you as is this ancient hymn of love the Son of God sings to his Father still.
10. And now the blind can see, for that same song they sing in honor of their Creator gives praise to them as well. 2The blindness that they made will not withstand the memory of this song. 3And they will look upon the vision of the Son of God, remembering who he is they sing of. 4What is a miracle but this remembering? 5And who is there in whom this memory lies not? 6The light in one awakens it in all. 7And when you see it in your brother, you are remembering for everyone.