1. The opposite of illusions is not disillusionment but truth. 2Only to the ego, to which truth is meaningless, do they appear to be the only alternatives, and different from each other. 3In truth they are the same. 4Both bring the same amount of misery, though each one seems to be the way to lose the misery the other brings. 5Every illusion carries pain and suffering in the dark folds of the heavy garments in which it hides its nothingness. 6Yet by these dark and heavy garments are those who seek illusions covered, and hidden from the joy of truth.
2. Truth is the opposite of illusions because it offers joy. 2What else but joy could be the opposite of misery? 3To leave one kind of misery and seek another is hardly an escape. 4To change illusions is to make no change. 5The search for joy in misery is senseless, for how could joy be found in misery? 6All that is possible in the dark world of misery is to select some aspects out of it, see them as different, and define the difference as joy. 7Yet to perceive a difference where none exists will surely fail to make a difference.
3. Illusions carry only guilt and suffering, sickness and death, to their believers. 2The form in which they are accepted is irrelevant. 3No form of misery in reason’s eyes can be confused with joy. 4Joy is eternal. 5You can be sure indeed that any seeming happiness that does not last is really fear. 6Joy does not turn to sorrow, for the eternal cannot change. 7But sorrow can be turned to joy, for time gives way to the eternal. 8Only the timeless must remain unchanged, but everything in time can change with time. 9Yet if the change be real and not imagined, illusions must give way to truth, and not to other dreams that are but equally unreal. 10This is no difference.
4. Reason will tell you that the only way to escape from misery is to recognize it and go the other way. 2Truth is the same and misery the same, but they are different from each other in every way, in every instance and without exception. 3To believe that one exception can exist is to confuse what is the same with what is different. 4One illusion cherished and defended against the truth makes all truth meaningless, and all illusions real. 5Such is the power of belief. 6It cannot compromise. 7And faith in innocence is faith in sin, if the belief excludes one living thing and holds it out, apart from its forgiveness.
5. Both reason and the ego will tell you this, but what they make of it is not the same. 2The ego will assure you now that it is impossible for you to see no guilt in anyone. 3And if this seeing is the only means by which escape from guilt can be attained, then the belief in sin must be eternal. 4Yet reason looks on this another way, for reason sees the source of an idea as what will make it either true or false. 5This must be so, if the idea is like its source. 6Therefore, says reason, if escape from guilt was given to the Holy Spirit as His purpose, and by One to Whom nothing He wills can be impossible, the means for its attainment are more than possible. 7They must be there, and you must have them.
6. This is a crucial period in this course, for here the separation of you and the ego must be made complete. 2For if you have the means to let the Holy Spirit’s purpose be accomplished, they can be used. 3And through their use will you gain faith in them. 4Yet to the ego this must be impossible, and no one undertakes to do what holds no hope of ever being done. 5You know what your Creator wills is possible, but what you made believes it is not so. 6Now must you choose between yourself and an illusion of yourself. 7Not both, but one. 8There is no point in trying to avoid this one decision. 9It must be made. 10Faith and belief can fall to either side, but reason tells you misery lies only on one side and joy upon the other.
7. Forsake not now your brother. 2For you who are the same will not decide alone nor differently. 3Either you give each other life or death; either you are each other’s savior or his judge, offering him sanctuary or condemnation. 4This course will be believed entirely or not at all. 5For it is wholly true or wholly false, and cannot be but partially believed. 6And you will either escape from misery entirely or not at all. 7Reason will tell you that there is no middle ground where you can pause uncertainly, waiting to choose between the joy of Heaven and the misery of hell. 8Until you choose Heaven, you are in hell and misery.
8. There is no part of Heaven you can take and weave into illusions. 2Nor is there one illusion you can enter Heaven with. 3A savior cannot be a judge, nor mercy condemnation. 4And vision cannot damn, but only bless. 5Whose function is to save, will save. 6How He will do it is beyond your understanding, but when must be your choice. 7For time you made, and time you can command. 8You are no more a slave to time than to the world you made.
9. Let us look closer at the whole illusion that what you made has power to enslave its maker. 2This is the same belief that caused the separation. 3It is the meaningless idea that thoughts can leave the thinker’s mind, be different from it and in opposition to it. 4If this were true, thoughts would not be the mind’s extensions, but its enemies. 5And here we see again another form of the same fundamental illusion we have seen many times before. 6Only if it were possible the Son of God could leave his Father’s Mind, make himself different and oppose His Will, would it be possible that the self he made, and all it made, should be his master.
10. Behold the great projection, but look on it with the decision that it must be healed, and not with fear. 2Nothing you made has any power over you unless you still would be apart from your Creator, and with a will opposed to His. 3For only if you would believe His Son could be His enemy does it seem possible that what you made is yours. 4You would condemn His joy to misery, and make Him different. 5And all the misery you made has been your own. 6Are you not glad to learn it is not true? 7Is it not welcome news to hear not one of the illusions that you made replaced the truth?
11. Only your thoughts have been impossible. 2Salvation cannot be. 3It is impossible to look upon your savior as your enemy and recognize him. 4Yet it is possible to recognize him for what he is, if God would have it so. 5What God has given to your holy relationship is there. 6For what He gave the Holy Spirit to give to you He gave. 7Would you not look upon the savior that has been given you? 8And would you not exchange, in gratitude, the function of an executioner you gave him for the one he has in truth? 9Receive of him what God has given him for you, not what you tried to give yourself.
12. Beyond the body that you interposed between you and your brother, and shining in the golden light that reaches it from the bright, endless circle that extends forever, is your holy relationship, beloved of God Himself. 2How still it rests, in time and yet beyond, immortal yet on earth. 3How great the power that lies in it. 4Time waits upon its will, and earth will be as it would have it be. 5Here is no separate will, nor the desire that anything be separate. 6Its will has no exceptions, and what it wills is true. 7Every illusion brought to its forgiveness is gently overlooked and disappears. 8For at its center Christ has been reborn, to light His home with vision that overlooks the world. 9Would you not have this holy home be yours as well? 10No misery is here, but only joy.
13. All you need do to dwell in quiet here with Christ is share His vision. 2Quickly and gladly is His vision given anyone who is but willing to see his brother sinless. 3And no one can remain beyond this willingness, if you would be released entirely from all effects of sin. 4Would you have partial forgiveness for yourself? 5Can you reach Heaven while a single sin still tempts you to remain in misery? 6Heaven is the home of perfect purity, and God created it for you. 7Look on your holy brother, sinless as yourself, and let him lead you there.