1. It is reasonable to ask how the mind could ever have made the ego. 2In fact, it is the best question you could ask. 3There is, however, no point in giving an answer in terms of the past because the past does not matter, and history would not exist if the same errors were not being repeated in the present. 4Abstract thought applies to knowledge because knowledge is completely impersonal, and examples are irrelevant to its understanding. 5Perception, however, is always specific, and therefore quite concrete.
2. Everyone makes an ego or a self for himself, which is subject to enormous variation because of its instability. 2He also makes an ego for everyone else he perceives, which is equally variable. 3Their interaction is a process that alters both, because they were not made by or with the Unalterable. 4It is 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 proximity. 5Thinking about another ego is as effective in changing relative perception as is physical interaction. 6There could be no better example that the ego is only an idea and not a fact.
3. Your own state of mind is a good example of how the ego was made. 2When you threw knowledge away it is as if you never had it. 3This is so apparent that one need only recognize it to see that it does happen. 4If this occurs in the present, why is it surprising that it occurred in the past? 5Surprise is a reasonable response to the unfamiliar, though hardly to something that occurs with such persistence. 6But do not forget that the mind need not work that way, even though it does work that way now.
4. Think of the love of animals for their offspring, and the need they feel to protect them. 2That is because they regard them as part of themselves. 3No one dismisses something he considers part of himself. 4You react to your ego much as God does to His creations,—with love, protection and charity. 5Your reactions to the self you made are not surprising. 6In fact, they resemble in many ways how you will one day react to your real creations, which are as timeless as you are. 7The question is not how you respond to the ego, but what you believe you are. 8Belief is an ego function, and as long as your origin is open to belief you are regarding it from an ego viewpoint. 9When teaching is no longer necessary you will merely know God. 10Belief that there is another way of perceiving is the loftiest idea of which ego thinking is capable. 11That is because it contains a hint of recognition that the ego is not the Self.
5. Undermining the ego’s thought system must be perceived as painful, even though this is anything but true. 2Babies scream in rage if you take away a knife or scissors, although they may well harm themselves if you do not. 3In this sense you are still a baby. 4You have no sense of real self-preservation, and are likely to decide that you need precisely what would hurt you most. 5Yet whether or not you recognize it now, you have agreed to cooperate in the effort to become both harmless and helpful, attributes that must go together. 6Your attitudes even toward this are necessarily conflicted, because all attitudes are ego-based. 7This will not last. 8Be patient a while and remember that the outcome is as certain as God.
6. Only those who have a real and lasting sense of abundance can be truly charitable. 2This is obvious when you consider what is involved. 3To the ego, to give anything implies that you will have to do without it. 4When you associate giving with sacrifice, you give only because you believe that you are somehow getting something better, and can therefore do without the thing you give. 5“Giving to get” is an inescapable law of the ego, which always evaluates itself in relation to other egos. 6It is therefore continually preoccupied with the belief in scarcity that gave rise to it. 7Its whole perception of other egos as real is only an attempt to convince itself that it is real. 8“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. 9This “self-esteem” is always vulnerable to stress, a term which refers to any perceived threat to the ego’s existence.
7. The ego literally lives by comparisons. 2Equality is beyond its grasp, and charity becomes impossible. 3The ego never gives out of abundance, because it was made as a substitute for it. 4That is why the concept of “getting” arose in the ego’s thought system. 5Appetites are “getting” mechanisms, representing the ego’s need to confirm itself. 6This is as true of body appetites as it is of the so-called “higher ego needs.” 7Body appetites are not physical in origin. 8The ego regards the body as its home, and tries to satisfy itself through the body. 9But the idea that this is possible is a decision of the mind, which has become completely confused about what is really possible.
8. The ego believes it is completely on its own, which is merely another way of describing how it thinks it originated. 2This 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. 3It is not free, however, to open the premise to question, because the premise is its foundation. 4The ego is the mind’s belief that it is completely on its own. 5The ego’s ceaseless attempts to gain the spirit’s acknowledgment and thus establish its own existence are useless. 6Spirit in its knowledge is unaware of the ego. 7It does not attack it; it merely cannot conceive of it at all. 8While the ego is equally unaware of spirit, it does perceive itself as being rejected by something greater than itself. 9This is why self-esteem in ego terms must be delusional. 10The creations of God do not create myths, although creative effort can be turned to mythology. 11It can do so, however, only under one condition; what it makes is then no longer creative. 12Myths are entirely perceptual, and so ambiguous in form and characteristically good-and-evil in nature that the most benevolent of them is not without fearful connotations.
9. Myths and magic are closely associated, since myths are usually related to ego origins, and magic to the powers the ego ascribes to itself. 2Mythological systems generally include some account of “the creation,” and associate this with its particular form of magic. 3The so-called “battle for survival” is only the ego’s struggle to preserve itself, and its interpretation of its own beginning. 4This beginning is usually associated with physical birth, because it is hard to maintain that the ego existed before that point in time. 5The more “religiously” ego-oriented may believe that the soul existed before, and will continue to exist after a temporary lapse into ego life. 6Some even believe that the soul will be punished for this lapse. 7However, salvation does not apply to spirit, which is not in danger and does not need to be salvaged.
10. Salvation is nothing more than “right-mindedness,” which is not the One-mindedness of the Holy Spirit, but which must be achieved before One-mindedness is restored. 2Right-mindedness leads to the next step automatically, because right perception is uniformly without attack, and therefore wrong-mindedness is obliterated. 3The ego cannot survive without judgment, and is laid aside accordingly. 4The mind then has only one direction in which it can move. 5Its direction is always automatic, because it cannot but be dictated by the thought system to which it adheres.
11. It cannot be emphasized too often that correcting perception is merely a temporary expedient. 2It is necessary only because misperception is a block to knowledge, while accurate perception is a steppingstone towards it. 3The whole value of right perception lies in the inevitable realization that all perception is unnecessary. 4This removes the block entirely. 5You may ask how this is possible as long as you appear to be living in this world. 6That is a reasonable question. 7You must be careful, however, that you really understand it. 8Who is the “you” who are living in this world? 9Spirit is immortal, and immortality is a constant state. 10It is as true now as it ever was or ever will be, because it implies no change at all. 11It is not a continuum, nor is it understood by being compared to an opposite. 12Knowledge never involves comparisons. 13That is its main difference from everything else the mind can grasp.