1. I have said that the abilities you possess are only shadows of your real strength, and that perception, which is inherently judgmental, was introduced only after the separation. 2No one has been sure of anything since. 3I have also made it clear that the resurrection was the means for the return to knowledge, which was accomplished by the union of my will with the Father’s. 4We can now establish a distinction that will clarify some of our subsequent statements.
2. Since the separation, the words “create” and “make” have become confused. 2When you make something, you do so out of a specific sense of lack or need. 3Anything made for a specific purpose has no true generalizability. 4When you make something to fill a perceived lack, you are tacitly implying that you believe in separation. 5The ego has invented many ingenious thought systems for this purpose. 6None of them is creative. 7Inventiveness is wasted effort even in its most ingenious form. 8The highly specific nature of invention is not worthy of the abstract creativity of God’s creations.
3. Knowing, as we have already observed, does not lead to doing. 2The confusion between your real creation and what you have made of yourself is so profound that it has become literally impossible for you to know anything. 3Knowledge is always stable, and it is quite evident that you are not. 4Nevertheless, you are perfectly stable as God created you. 5In this sense, when your behavior is unstable, you are disagreeing with God’s idea of your creation. 6You can do this if you choose, but you would hardly want to do it if you were in your right mind.
4. The fundamental question you continually ask yourself cannot properly be directed to yourself at all. 2You keep asking what it is you are. 3This implies that the answer is not only one you know, but is also one that is up to you to supply. 4Yet you cannot perceive yourself correctly. 5You have no image to be perceived. 6The word “image” is always perception-related, and not a part of knowledge. 7Images are symbolic and stand for something else. 8The idea of “changing your image” recognizes the power of perception, but also implies that there is nothing stable to know.
5. Knowing is not open to interpretation. 2You may try to “interpret” meaning, but this is always open to error because it refers to the perception of meaning. 3Such incongruities are the result of attempts to regard yourself as separated and unseparated at the same time. 4It is impossible to make so fundamental a confusion without increasing your overall confusion still further. 5Your mind may have become very ingenious, but as always happens when method and content are separated, it is utilized in a futile attempt to escape from an inescapable impasse. 6Ingenuity is totally divorced from knowledge, because knowledge does not require ingenuity. 7Ingenious thinking is not the truth that shall set you free, but you are free of the need to engage in it when you are willing to let it go.
6. Prayer is a way of asking for something. 2It is the medium of miracles. 3But the only meaningful prayer is for forgiveness, because those who have been forgiven have everything. 4Once forgiveness has been accepted, prayer in the usual sense becomes utterly meaningless. 5The prayer for forgiveness is nothing more than a request that you may be able to recognize what you already have. 6In electing perception instead of knowledge, you placed yourself in a position where you could resemble your Father only by perceiving miraculously. 7You have lost the knowledge that you yourself are a miracle of God. 8Creation is your Source and your only real function.
7. The statement “God created man in his own image and likeness” needs reinterpretation. 2“Image” can be understood as “thought,” and “likeness” as “of a like quality.” 3God did create spirit in His Own Thought and of a quality like to His Own. 4There is nothing else. 5Perception, on the other hand, is impossible without a belief in “more” and “less.” 6At every level it involves selectivity. 7Perception is a continual process of accepting and rejecting, organizing and reorganizing, shifting and changing. 8Evaluation is an essential part of perception, because judgments are necessary in order to select.
8. What happens to perceptions if there are no judgments and nothing but perfect equality? 2Perception becomes impossible. 3Truth can only be known. 4All of it is equally true, and knowing any part of it is to know all of it. 5Only perception involves partial awareness. 6Knowledge transcends the laws governing perception, because partial knowledge is impossible. 7It is all one and has no separate parts. 8You who are really one with it need but know yourself and your knowledge is complete. 9To know God’s miracle is to know Him.
9. Forgiveness is the healing of the perception of separation. 2Correct perception of your brother is necessary, because minds have chosen to see themselves as separate. 3Spirit knows God completely. 4That is its miraculous power. 5The fact that each one has this power completely is a condition entirely alien to the world’s thinking. 6The world believes that if anyone has everything, there is nothing left. 7But God’s miracles are as total as His Thoughts because they are His Thoughts.
10. As long as perception lasts prayer has a place. 2Since perception rests on lack, those who perceive have not totally accepted the Atonement and given themselves over to truth. 3Perception is based on a separated state, so that anyone who perceives at all needs healing. 4Communion, not prayer, is the natural state of those who know. 5God and His miracle are inseparable. 6How beautiful indeed are the Thoughts of God who live in His light! 7Your worth is beyond perception because it is beyond doubt. 8Do not perceive yourself in different lights. 9Know yourself in the One Light where the miracle that is you is perfectly clear.