1. If you cannot hear the Voice for God, it is because you do not choose to listen. 2That you do listen to the voice of your ego is demonstrated by your attitudes, your feelings and your behavior. 3Yet this is what you want. 4This is what you are fighting to keep, and what you are vigilant to save. 5Your mind is filled with schemes to save the face of your ego, and you do not seek the face of Christ. 6The glass in which the ego seeks to see its face is dark indeed. 7How can it maintain the trick of its existence except with mirrors? 8But where you look to find yourself is up to you.
2. I have said that you cannot change your mind by changing your behavior, but I have also said, and many times, that you can change your mind. 2When your mood tells you that you have chosen wrongly, and this is so whenever you are not joyous, then know this need not be. 3In every case you have thought wrongly about some brother God created, and are perceiving images your ego makes in a darkened glass. 4Think honestly what you have thought that God would not have thought, and what you have not thought that God would have you think. 5Search sincerely for what you have done and left undone accordingly, and then change your mind to think with God’s. 6This may seem hard to do, but it is much easier than trying to think against it. 7Your mind is one with God’s. 8Denying this and thinking otherwise has held your ego together, but has literally split your mind. 9As a loving brother I am deeply concerned with your mind, and urge you to follow my example as you look at yourself and at your brother, and see in both the glorious creations of a glorious Father.
3. When you are sad, know this need not be. 2Depression comes from a sense of being deprived of something you want and do not have. 3Remember that you are deprived of nothing except by your own decisions, and then decide otherwise.
4. When you are anxious, realize that anxiety comes from the capriciousness of the ego, and know this need not be. 2You can be as vigilant against the ego’s dictates as for them.
5. When you feel guilty, remember that the ego has indeed violated the laws of God, but you have not. 2Leave the “sins” of the ego to me. 3That is what Atonement is for. 4But until you change your mind about those whom your ego has hurt, the Atonement cannot release you. 5While you feel guilty your ego is in command, because only the ego can experience guilt. 6This need not be.
6. Watch your mind for the temptations of the ego, and do not be deceived by it. 2It offers you nothing. 3When you have given up this voluntary dis-spiriting, you will see how your mind can focus and rise above fatigue and heal. 4Yet you are not sufficiently vigilant against the demands of the ego to disengage yourself. 5This need not be.
7. The habit of engaging with God and His creations is easily made if you actively refuse to let your mind slip away. 2The problem is not one of concentration; it is the belief that no one, including yourself, is worth consistent effort. 3Side with me consistently against this deception, and do not permit this shabby belief to pull you back. 4The disheartened are useless to themselves and to me, but only the ego can be disheartened.
8. Have you really considered how many opportunities you have had to gladden yourself, and how many of them you have refused? 2There is no limit to the power of a Son of God, but he can limit the expression of his power as much as he chooses. 3Your mind and mine can unite in shining your ego away, releasing the strength of God into everything you think and do. 4Do not settle for anything less than this, and refuse to accept anything but this as your goal. 5Watch your mind carefully for any beliefs that hinder its accomplishment, and step away from them. 6Judge how well you have done this by your own feelings, for this is the one right use of judgment. 7Judgment, like any other defense, can be used to attack or protect; to hurt or to heal. 8The ego should be brought to judgment and found wanting there. 9Without your own allegiance, protection and love, the ego cannot exist. 10Let it be judged truly and you must withdraw allegiance, protection and love from it.
9. You are a mirror of truth, in which God Himself shines in perfect light. 2To the ego’s dark glass you need but say, “I will not look there because I know these images are not true.” 3Then let the Holy One shine on you in peace, knowing that this and only this must be. 4His Mind shone on you in your creation and brought your mind into being. 5His Mind still shines on you and must shine through you. 6Your ego cannot prevent Him from shining on you, but it can prevent you from letting Him shine through you.
10. The First Coming of Christ is merely another name for the creation, for Christ is the Son of God. 2The Second Coming of Christ means nothing more than the end of the ego’s rule and the healing of the mind. 3I was created like you in the First, and I have called you to join with me in the Second. 4I am in charge of the Second Coming, and my judgment, which is used only for protection, cannot be wrong because it never attacks. 5Yours may be so distorted that you believe I was mistaken in choosing you. 6I assure you this is a mistake of your ego. 7Do not mistake it for humility. 8Your ego is trying to convince you that it is real and I am not, because if I am real, I am no more real than you are. 9That knowledge, and I assure you that it is knowledge, means that Christ has come into your mind and healed it.
11. I do not attack your ego. 2I do work with your higher mind, the home of the Holy Spirit, whether you are asleep or awake, just as your ego does with your lower mind, which is its home. 3I am your vigilance in this, because you are too confused to recognize your own hope. 4I am not mistaken. 5Your mind will elect to join with mine, and together we are invincible. 6You and your brother will yet come together in my name, and your sanity will be restored. 7I raised the dead by knowing that life is an eternal attribute of everything that the living God created. 8Why do you believe it is harder for me to inspire the dis-spirited or to stabilize the unstable? 9I do not believe that there is an order of difficulty in miracles; you do. 10I have called and you will answer. 11I understand that miracles are natural, because they are expressions of love. 12My calling you is as natural as your answer, and as inevitable.