LESSON 300.
Only an instant does this world endure.
W-pII.300.1. This is a thought which can be used to say that death and sorrow are the certain lot of all who come here, for their joys are gone before they are possessed, or even grasped. 2 Yet this is also the idea that lets no false perception keep us in its hold, nor represent more than a passing cloud upon a sky eternally serene. 3 And it is this serenity we seek, unclouded, obvious and sure, today.W-pII.300.2. We seek Your holy world today. 2 For we, Your loving Sons, have lost our way a while. 3 But we have listened to Your Voice, and learned exactly what to do to be restored to Heaven and our true Identity. 4 And we give thanks today the world endures but for an instant. 5 We would go beyond that tiny instant to eternity.
9. What Is the Second Coming?
W-pII.9.1. Christ's Second Coming, which is sure as God, is merely the correction of mistakes, and the return of sanity. 2 It is a part of the condition that restores the never lost, and re-establishes what is forever and forever true. 3 It is the invitation to God's Word to take illusion's place; the willingness to let forgiveness rest upon all things without exception and without reserve.LESSON 301.
And God Himself shall wipe away all tears.
W-pII.301.1. Father, unless I judge I cannot weep. 2 Nor can I suffer pain, or feel I am abandoned or unneeded in the world. 3 This is my home because I judge it not, and therefore is it only what You will. 4 Let me today behold it uncondemned, through happy eyes forgiveness has released from all distortion. 5 Let me see Your world instead of mine. 6 And all the tears I shed will be forgotten, for their source is gone. 7 Father, I will not judge Your world today .W-pII.301.2. God's world is happy. 2 Those who look on it can only add their joy to it, and bless it as a cause of further joy in them. 3 We wept because we did not understand. 4 But we have learned the world we saw was false, and we will look upon God's world today.
LESSON 302.
Where darkness was I look upon the light.
W-pII.302.1. Father, our eyes are opening at last. 2 Your holy world awaits us, as our sight is finally restored and we can see. 3 We thought we suffered. 4 But we had forgot the Son whom You created. 5 Now we see that darkness is our own imagining, and light is there for us to look upon. 6 Christ's vision changes darkness into light, for fear must disappear when love has come. 7 Let me forgive Your holy world today, that I may look upon its holiness and understand it but reflects my own.W-pII.302.2. Our Love awaits us as we go to Him, and walks beside us showing us the way. 2 He fails in nothing. 3 He the End we seek, and He the Means by which we go to Him.
LESSON 303.
The holy Christ is born in me today.
W-pII.303.1. Watch with me, angels, watch with me today. 2 Let all God's holy Thoughts surround me, and be still with me while Heaven's Son is born. 3 Let earthly sounds be quiet, and the sights to which I am accustomed disappear. 4 Let Christ be welcomed where He is at home. 5 And let Him hear the sounds He understands, and see but sights that show His Father's Love. 6 Let Him no longer be a stranger here, for He is born again in me today.W-pII.303.2. Your Son is welcome, Father. 2 He has come to save me from the evil self I made. 3 He is the Self that You have given me. 4 He is but what I really am in truth. 5 He is the Son You love above all things. 6 He is my Self as You created me. 7 It is not Christ that can be crucified. 8 Safe in Your Arms let me receive Your Son .
LESSON 304.
Let not my world obscure the sight of Christ.
W-pII.304.1. I can obscure my holy sight, if I intrude my world upon it. 2 Nor can I behold the holy sights Christ looks upon, unless it is His vision that I use. 3 Perception is a mirror, not a fact. 4 And what I look on is my state of mind, reflected outward. 5 I would bless the world by looking on it through the eyes of Christ. 6 And I will look upon the certain signs that all my sins have been forgiven me.W-pII.304.2. You lead me from the darkness to the light; from sin to holiness. 2 Let me forgive, and thus receive salvation for the world. 3 It is Your gift, my Father, given me to offer to Your holy Son, that he may find again the memory of You, and of Your Son as You created him .
LESSON 305.
There is a peace that Christ bestows on us.
W-pII.305.1. Who uses but Christ's vision finds a peace so deep and quiet, undisturbable and wholly changeless, that the world contains no counterpart. 2 Comparisons are still before this peace. 3 And all the world departs in silence as this peace envelops it, and gently carries it to truth, no more to be the home of fear. 4 For love has come, and healed the world by giving it Christ's peace.
W-pII.305.2. Father, the peace of Christ is given us, because it is Your Will that we be saved. 2 Help us today but to accept Your gift, and judge it not. 3 For it has come to us to save us from our judgment on ourselves.
LESSON 306.
The gift of Christ is all I seek today.
W-pII.306.1. What but Christ's vision would I use today, when it can offer me a day in which I see a world so like to Heaven that an ancient memory returns to me? 2 Today I can forget the world I made. 3 Today I can go past all fear, and be restored to love and holiness and peace. 4 Today I am redeemed, and born anew into a world of mercy and of care; of loving kindness and the peace of God.W-pII.306.2. And so, our Father, we return to You, remembering we never went away; remembering Your holy gifts to us. 2 In gratitude and thankfulness we come, with empty hands and open hearts and minds, asking but what You give. 3 We cannot make an offering sufficient for Your Son. 4 But in Your Love the gift of Christ is his .
LESSON 307.
Conflicting wishes cannot be my will.
W-pII.307.1. Father, Your Will is mine, and only that. 2 There is no other will for me to have. 3 Let me not try to make another will, for it is senseless and will cause me pain. 4 Your Will alone can bring me happiness, and only Yours exists. 5 If I would have what only You can give, I must accept Your Will for me, and enter into peace where conflict is impossible, Your Son is one with You in being and in will, and nothing contradicts the holy truth that I remain as You created me.W-pII.307.2. And with this prayer we enter silently into a state where conflict cannot come, because we join our holy will with God's, in recognition that they are the same.
LESSON 308.
This instant is the only time there is.
W-pII.308.1. I have conceived of time in such a way that I defeat my aim. 2 If I elect to reach past time to timelessness, I must change my perception of what time is for. 3 Time's purpose cannot be to keep the past and future one. 4 The only interval in which I can be saved from time is now. 5 For in this instant has forgiveness come to set me free. 6 The birth of Christ is now, without a past or future. 7 He has come to give His present blessing to the world, restoring it to timelessness and love. 8 And love is ever-present, here and now.W-pII.308.2. Thanks for this instant, Father. 2 It is now I am redeemed. 3 This instant is the time You have appointed for Your Son's release, and for salvation of the world in him .
LESSON 309.
I will not fear to look within today.
W-pII.309.1. Within me is eternal innocence, because it is God's Will that it be there forever and forever. 2 I, His Son, whose will is limitless as is His Own, can will no change in this. 3 For to deny my Father's Will is to deny my own. 4 To look within is but to find my will as God created it, and as it is. 5 I fear to look within because I think I made another will that is not true, and made it real. 6 Yet it has no effects. 7 Within me is the Holiness of God. 8 Within me is the memory of Him.W-pII.309.2. The step I take today, my Father, is my sure release from idle dreams of sin. 2 Your altar stands serene and undefiled. 3 It is the holy altar to my Self, and there I find my true Identity.
LESSON 310.
In fearlessness and love I spend today.
W-pII.310.1. This day, my Father, would I spend with You, as You have chosen all my days should be. 2 And what I will experience is not of time at all. 3 The joy that comes to me is not of days nor hours, for it comes from Heaven to Your Son. 4 This day will be Your sweet reminder to remember You, Your gracious calling to Your holy Son, the sign Your grace has come to me, and that it is Your Will I be set free today.W-pII.310.2. We spend this day together, you and I. 2 And all the world joins with us in our song of thankfulness and joy to Him Who gave salvation to us, and Who set us free. 3 We are restored to peace and holiness. 4 There is no room in us for fear today, for we have welcomed love into our hearts.
10. What Is the Last Judgment?
W-pII.10.1. Christ's Second Coming gives the Son of God this gift: to hear the Voice for God proclaim that what is false is false, and what is true has never changed. 2 And this the judgment is in which perception ends. 3 At first you see a world that has accepted this as true, projected from a now corrected mind. 4 And with this holy sight, perception gives a silent blessing and then disappears, its goal accomplished and its mission done.
W-pII.10.2. The final judgment on the world contains no condemnation. 2 For it sees the world as totally forgiven, without sin and wholly purposeless. 3 Without a cause, and now without a function in Christ's sight, it merely slips away to nothingness. 4 There it was born, and there it ends as well. 5 And all the figures in the dream in which the world began go with it. 6 Bodies now are useless, and will therefore fade away, because the Son of God is limitless.
W-pII.10.3. You who believed that God's Last Judgment would condemn the world to hell along with you, accept this holy truth: God's Judgment is the gift of the Correction He bestowed on all your errors, freeing you from them, and all effects they ever seemed to have. 2 To fear God's saving grace is but to fear complete release from suffering, return to peace, security and happiness, and union with your own Identity.
W-pII.10.4. God's Final Judgment is as merciful as every step in His appointed plan to bless His Son, and call him to return to the eternal peace He shares with him. 2 Be not afraid of love. 3 For it alone can heal all sorrow, wipe away all tears, and gently waken from his dream of pain the Son whom God acknowledges as His. 4 Be not afraid of this. 5 Salvation asks you give it welcome. 6 And the world awaits your glad acceptance, which will set it free.
W-pII.10.5. This is God's Final Judgment: "You are still My holy Son, forever innocent, forever loving and forever loved, as limitless as your Creator, and completely changeless and forever pure. 2 Therefore awaken and return to Me. 3 I am your Father and you are My Son."
LESSON 311.
I judge all things as I would have them be.
W-pII.311.1. Judgment was made to be a weapon used against the truth. 2 It separates what it is being used against, and sets it off as if it were a thing apart. 3 And then it makes of it what you would have it be. 4 It judges what it cannot understand, because it cannot see totality and therefore judges falsely. 5 Let us not use it today, but make a gift of it to Him Who has a different use for it. 6 He will relieve us of the agony of all the judgments we have made against ourselves, and re-establish peace of mind by giving us God's Judgment of His Son.W-pII.311.2. Father, we wait with open mind today, to hear Your Judgment of the Son You love. 2 We do not know him, and we cannot judge. 3 And so we let Your Love decide what he whom You created as Your Son must be.
LESSON 312.
I see all things as I would have them be.
W-pII.312.1. Perception follows judgment. 2 Having judged, we therefore see what we would look upon. 3 For sight can merely serve to offer us what we would have. 4 It is impossible to overlook what we would see, and fail to see what we have chosen to behold. 5 How surely, therefore, must the real world come to greet the holy sight of anyone who takes the Holy Spirit's purpose as his goal for seeing. 6 And he cannot fail to look upon what Christ would have him see, and share Christ's Love for what he looks upon.W-pII.312.2. I have no purpose for today except to look upon a liberated world, set free from all the judgments I have made. 2 Father, this is Your Will for me today, and therefore it must be my goal as well.
LESSON 313.
Now let a new perception come to me.
W-pII.313.1. Father, there is a vision which beholds all things as sinless, so that fear has gone, and where it was is love invited in. 2 And love will come wherever it is asked. 3 This vision is Your gift. 4 The eyes of Christ look on a world forgiven. 5 In His sight are all its sins forgiven, for He sees no sin in anything He looks upon. 6 Now let His true perception come to me, that I may waken from the dream of sin and look within upon my sinlessness, which You have kept completely undefiled upon the altar to Your holy Son, the Self with which I would identify.W-pII.313.2. Let us today behold each other in the sight of Christ. 2 How beautiful we are! 3 How holy and how loving! 4 Brother, come and join with me today. 5 We save the world when we have joined. 6 For in our vision it becomes as holy as the light in us.
LESSON 314.
I seek a future different from the past.
W-pII.314.1. From new perception of the world there comes a future very different from the past. 2 The future now is recognized as but extension of the present. 3 Past mistakes can cast no shadows on it, so that fear has lost its idols and its images, and being formless, it has no effects. 4 Death will not claim the future now, for life is now its goal, and all the needed means are happily provided. 5 Who can grieve or suffer when the present has been freed, extending its security and peace into a quiet future filled with joy?W-pII.314.2. Father, we were mistaken in the past, and choose to use the present to be free. 2 Now do we leave the future in Your Hands, leaving behind our past mistakes, and sure that You will keep Your present promises, and guide the future in their holy light.
LESSON 315.
All gifts my brothers give belong to me.
W-pII.315.1. Each day a thousand treasures come to me with every passing moment. 2 I am blessed with gifts throughout the day, in value far beyond all things of which I can conceive. 3 A brother smiles upon another, and my heart is gladdened. 4 Someone speaks a word of gratitude or mercy, and my mind receives this gift and takes it as its own. 5 And everyone who finds the way to God becomes my savior, pointing out the way to me, and giving me his certainty that what he learned is surely mine as well.W-pII.315.2. I thank You, Father, for the many gifts that come to me today and every day from every Son of God. 2 My brothers are unlimited in all their gifts to me. 3 Now may I offer them my thankfulness, that gratitude to them may lead me on to my Creator and His memory.
LESSON 316.
All gifts I give my brothers are my own.
W-pII.316.1. As every gift my brothers give is mine, so every gift I give belongs to me. 2 Each one allows a past mistake to go, and leave no shadow on the holy mind my Father loves. 3 His grace is given me in every gift a brother has received throughout all time, and past all time as well. 4 My treasure house is full, and angels watch its open doors that not one gift is lost, and only more are added. 5 Let me come to where my treasures are, and enter in where I am truly welcome and at home, among the gifts that God has given me.W-pII.316.2. Father, I would accept Your gifts today. 2 I do not recognize them. 3 Yet I trust that You Who gave them will provide the means by which I can behold them, see their worth, and cherish only them as what I want.
LESSON 317.
I follow in the way appointed me.
W-pII.317.1. I have a special place to fill; a role for me alone. 2 Salvation waits until I take this part as what I choose to do. 3 Until I make this choice, I am the slave of time and human destiny. 4 But when I willingly and gladly go the way my Father's plan appointed me to go, then will I recognize salvation is already here, already given all my brothers and already mine as well.W-pII.317.2. Father, Your way is what I choose today. 2 Where it would lead me do I choose to go; what it would have me do I choose to do. 3 Your way is certain, and the end secure. 4 The memory of You awaits me there. 5 And all my sorrows end in Your embrace, which You have promised to Your Son, who thought mistakenly that he had wandered from the sure protection of Your loving Arms .
LESSON 318.
In me salvation's means and end are one.
W-pII.318.1. In me, God's holy Son, are reconciled all parts of Heaven's plan to save the world. 2 What could conflict, when all the parts have but one purpose and one aim? 3 How could there be a single part that stands alone, or one of more or less importance than the rest? 4 I am the means by which God's Son is saved, because salvation's purpose is to find the sinlessness that God has placed in me. 5 I was created as the thing I seek. 6 I am the goal the world is searching for. 7 I am God's Son, His one eternal Love. 8 I am salvation's means and end as well.W-pII.318.2. Let me today, my Father, take the role You offer me in Your request that I accept Atonement for myself. 2 For thus does what is thereby reconciled in me become as surely reconciled to You.
LESSON 319.
I came for the salvation of the world.
W-pII.319.1. Here is a thought from which all arrogance has been removed, and only truth remains. 2 For arrogance opposes truth. 3 But when there is no arrogance the truth will come immediately, and fill up the space the ego left unoccupied by lies. 4 Only the ego can be limited, and therefore it must seek for aims which are curtailed and limiting. 5 The ego thinks that what one gains, totality must lose. 6 And yet it is the Will of God I learn that what one gains is given unto all.W-pII.319.2. Father, Your Will is total. 2 And the goal which stems from it shares its totality. 3 What aim but the salvation of the world could You have given me? 4 And what but this could be the Will my Self has shared with You?
LESSON 320.
My Father gives all power unto me.
W-pII.320.1. The Son of God is limitless. 2 There are no limits on his strength, his peace, his joy, nor any attributes his Father gave in his creation. 3 What he wills with his Creator and Redeemer must be done. 4 His holy will can never be denied, because his Father shines upon his mind, and lays before it all the strength and love in earth and Heaven. 5 I am he to whom all this is given. 6 I am he in whom the power of my Father's Will abides.W-pII.320.2. Your Will can do all things in me, and then extend to all the world as well through me. 2 There is no limit on Your Will. 3 And so all power has been given to Your Son.
11. What Is Creation?
W-pII.11.1. Creation is the sum of all God's Thoughts, in number infinite, and everywhere without all limit. 2 Only love creates, and only like itself. 3 There was no time when all that it created was not there. 4 Nor will there be a time when anything that it created suffers any loss. 5 Forever and forever are God's Thoughts exactly as they were and as they are, unchanged through time and after time is done.
LESSON 321.
Father, my freedom is in You alone.
W-pII.321.1. I did not understand what made me free, nor what my freedom is, nor where to look to find it. 2 Father, I have searched in vain until I heard Your Voice directing me. 3 Now I would guide myself no more. 4 For I have neither made nor understood the way to find my freedom. 5 But I trust in You. 6 You Who endowed me with my freedom as Your holy Son will not be lost to me. 7 Your Voice directs me, and the way to You is opening and clear to me at last. 8 Father, my freedom is in You alone. 9 Father, it is my will that I return .W-pII.321.2. Today we answer for the world, which will be freed along with us. 2 How glad are we to find our freedom through the certain way our Father has established. 3 And how sure is all the world's salvation, when we learn our freedom can be found in God alone.
LESSON 322.
I can give up but what was never real.
W-pII.322.1. I sacrifice illusions; nothing more. 2 And as illusions go I find the gifts illusions tried to hide, awaiting me in shining welcome, and in readiness to give God's ancient messages to me. 3 His memory abides in every gift that I receive of Him. 4 And every dream serves only to conceal the Self which is God's only Son, the likeness of Himself, the Holy One Who still abides in Him forever, as He still abides in me.W-pII.322.2. Father, to You all sacrifice remains forever inconceivable. 2 And so I cannot sacrifice except in dreams. 3 As You created me, I can give up nothing You gave me. 4 What You did not give has no reality. 5 What loss can I anticipate except the loss of fear, and the return of love into my mind?
LESSON 323.
I gladly make the "sacrifice" of fear.
W-pII.323.1. Here is the only "sacrifice" You ask of Your beloved Son; You ask him to give up all suffering, all sense of loss and sadness, all anxiety and doubt, and freely let Your Love come streaming in to his awareness, healing him of pain, and giving him Your Own eternal joy. 2 Such is the "sacrifice" You ask of me, and one I gladly make; the only "cost" of restoration of Your memory to me, for the salvation of the world.W-pII.323.2. And as we pay the debt we owe to truth,--a debt that merely is the letting go of self-deceptions and of images we worshipped falsely--truth returns to us in wholeness and in joy. 2 We are deceived no longer. 3 Love has now returned to our awareness. 4 And we are at peace again, for fear has gone and only love remains.
LESSON 324.
I merely follow, for I would not lead.
W-pII.324.1. Father, You are the One Who gave the plan for my salvation to me. 2 You have set the way I am to go, the role to take, and every step in my appointed path. 3 I cannot lose the way. 4 I can but choose to wander off a while, and then return. 5 Your loving Voice will always call me back, and guide my feet aright. 6 My brothers all can follow in the way I lead them. 7 Yet I merely follow in the way to You, as You direct me and would have me go .W-pII.324.2. So let us follow One Who knows the way. 2 We need not tarry, and we cannot stray except an instant from His loving Hand. 3 We walk together, for we follow Him. 4 And it is He Who makes the ending sure, and guarantees a safe returning home.
LESSON 325.
All things I think I see reflect ideas.
W-pII.325.1. This is salvation's keynote: What I see reflects a process in my mind, which starts with my idea of what I want. 2 From there, the mind makes up an image of the thing the mind desires, judges valuable, and therefore seeks to find. 3 These images are then projected outward, looked upon, esteemed as real and guarded as one's own. 4 From insane wishes comes an insane world. 5 From judgment comes a world condemned. 6 And from forgiving thoughts a gentle world comes forth, with mercy for the holy Son of God, to offer him a kindly home where he can rest a while before he journeys on, and help his brothers walk ahead with him, and find the way to Heaven and to God.W-pII.325.2. Our Father, Your ideas reflect the truth, and mine apart from Yours but make up dreams. 2 Let me behold what only Yours reflect, for Yours and Yours alone establish truth.
LESSON 326.
I am forever an Effect of God.
W-pII.326.1. Father, I was created in Your Mind, a holy Thought that never left its home. 2 I am forever Your Effect, and You forever and forever are my Cause. 3 As You created me I have remained. 4 Where You established me I still abide. 5 And all Your attributes abide in me, because it is Your Will to have a Son so like his Cause that Cause and Its Effect are indistinguishable. 6 Let me know that I am an Effect of God, and so I have the power to create like You. 7 And as it is in Heaven, so on earth. 8 Your plan I follow here, and at the end I know that You will gather Your effects into the tranquil Heaven of Your Love, where earth will vanish, and all separate thoughts unite in glory as the Son of God.W-pII.326.2. Let us today behold earth disappear, at first transformed, and then, forgiven, fade entirely into God's holy Will.
LESSON 327.
I need but call and You will answer me.
W-pII.327.1. I am not asked to take salvation on the basis of an unsupported faith. 2 For God has promised He will hear my call, and answer me Himself. 3 Let me but learn from my experience that this is true, and faith in Him must surely come to me. 4 This is the faith that will endure, and take me farther and still farther on the road that leads to Him. 5 For thus I will be sure that He has not abandoned me and loves me still, awaiting but my call to give me all the help I need to come to Him.W-pII.327.2. Father, I thank You that Your promises will never fail in my experience, if I but test them out. 2 Let me attempt therefore to try them, and to judge them not. 3 Your Word is one with You. 4 You give the means whereby conviction comes, and surety of Your abiding Love is gained at last.
LESSON 328.
I choose the second place to gain the first.
W-pII.328.1. What seems to be the second place is first, for all things we perceive are upside down until we listen to the Voice for God. 2 It seems that we will gain autonomy but by our striving to be separate, and that our independence from the rest of God's creation is the way in which salvation is obtained. 3 Yet all we find is sickness, suffering and loss and death. 4 This is not what our Father wills for us, nor is there any second to His Will. 5 To join with His is but to find our own. 6 And since our will is His, it is to Him that we must go to recognize our will.W-pII.328.2. There is no will but Yours. 2 And I am glad that nothing I imagine contradicts what You would have me be. 3 It is Your Will that I be wholly safe, eternally at peace. 4 And happily I share that Will which You, my Father, gave as part of me.
LESSON 329.
I have already chosen what You will.
W-pII.329.1. Father, I thought I wandered from Your Will, defied it, broke its laws, and interposed a second will more powerful than Yours. 2 Yet what I am in truth is but Your Will, extended and extending. 3 This am I, and this will never change. 4 As You are One, so am I one with You. 5 And this I chose in my creation, where my will became forever one with Yours. 6 That choice was made for all eternity. 7 It cannot change, and be in opposition to itself. 8 Father, my will is Yours. 9 And I am safe, untroubled and serene, in endless joy, because it is Your Will that it be so.W-pII.329.2. Today we will accept our union with each other and our Source. 2 We have no will apart from His, and all of us are one because His Will is shared by all of us. 3 Through it we recognize that we are one. 4 Through it we find our way at last to God.
LESSON 330.
I will not hurt myself again today.
W-pII.330.1. Let us this day accept forgiveness as our only function. 2 Why should we attack our minds, and give them images of pain? 3 Why should we teach them they are powerless, when God holds out His power and His Love, and bids them take what is already theirs? 4 The mind that is made willing to accept God's gifts has been restored to spirit, and extends its freedom and its joy, as is the Will of God united with its own. 5 The Self which God created cannot sin, and therefore cannot suffer. 6 Let us choose today that He be our Identity, and thus escape forever from all things the dream of fear appears to offer us.W-pII.330.2. Father, Your Son can not be hurt. 2 And if we think we suffer, we but fail to know our one Identity we share with You. 3 We would return to It today, to be made free forever from all our mistakes, and to be saved from what we thought we were.
12. What Is the Ego?
W-pII.12.1. The ego is idolatry; the sign of limited and separated self, born in a body, doomed to suffer and to end its life in death. 2 It is the "will" that sees the Will of God as enemy, and takes a form in which it is denied. 3 The ego is the "proof" that strength is weak and love is fearful, life is really death, and what opposes God alone is true.W-pII.12.2. The ego is insane. 2 In fear it stands beyond the Everywhere, apart from All, in separation from the Infinite. 3 In its insanity it thinks it has become a victor over God Himself. 4 And in its terrible autonomy it "sees" the Will of God has been destroyed. 5 It dreams of punishment, and trembles at the figures in its dreams; its enemies, who seek to murder it before it can ensure its safety by attacking them.
W-pII.12.3. The Son of God is egoless. 2 What can he know of madness and the death of God, when he abides in Him? 3 What can he know of sorrow and of suffering, when he lives in eternal joy? 4 What can he know of fear and punishment, of sin and guilt, of hatred and attack, when all there is surrounding him is everlasting peace, forever conflict-free and undisturbed, in deepest silence and tranquility?
W-pII.12.4. To know reality is not to see the ego and its thoughts, its works, its acts, its laws and its beliefs, its dreams, its hopes, its plans for its salvation, and the cost belief in it entails. 2 In suffering, the price for faith in it is so immense that crucifixion of the Son of God is offered daily at its darkened shrine, and blood must flow before the altar where its sickly followers prepare to die.
W-pII.12.5. Yet will one lily of forgiveness change the darkness into light; the altar to illusions to the shrine of Life Itself. 2 And peace will be restored forever to the holy minds which God created as His Son, His dwelling place, His joy, His love, completely His, completely one with Him.
LESSON 331.
There is no conflict, for my will is Yours.
W-pII.331.1. How foolish, Father, to believe Your Son could cause himself to suffer! 2 Could he make a plan for his damnation, and be left without a certain way to his release? 3 You love me, Father. 4 You could never leave me desolate, to die within a world of pain and cruelty. 5 How could I think that Love has left Itself? 6 There is no will except the Will of Love. 7 Fear is a dream, and has no will that can conflict with Yours. 8 Conflict is sleep, and peace awakening. 9 Death is illusion; life, eternal truth. 10 There is no opposition to Your Will. 11 There is no conflict, for my will is Yours.W-pII.331.2. Forgiveness shows us that God's Will is One, and that we share it. 2 Let us look upon the holy sights forgiveness shows today, that we may find the peace of God. 3 Amen.
LESSON 332.
Fear binds the world. Forgiveness sets it free.
W-pII.332.1. The ego makes illusions. 2 Truth undoes its evil dreams by shining them away. 3 Truth never makes attack. 4 It merely is. 5 And by its presence is the mind recalled from fantasies, awaking to the real. 6 Forgiveness bids this presence enter in, and take its rightful place within the mind. 7 Without forgiveness is the mind in chains, believing in its own futility. 8 Yet with forgiveness does the light shine through the dream of darkness, offering it hope, and giving it the means to realize the freedom that is its inheritance.W-pII.332.2. We would not bind the world again today. 2 Fear holds it prisoner. 3 And yet Your Love has given us the means to set it free. 4 Father, we would release it now. 5 For as we offer freedom, it is given us. 6 And we would not remain as prisoners, while You are holding freedom out to us.
LESSON 333.
Forgiveness ends the dream of conflict here.
W-pII.333.1. Conflict must be resolved. 2 It cannot be evaded, set aside, denied, disguised, seen somewhere else, called by another name, or hidden by deceit of any kind, if it would be escaped. 3 It must be seen exactly as it is, where it is thought to be, in the reality which has been given it, and with the purpose that the mind accorded it. 4 For only then are its defenses lifted, and the truth can shine upon it as it disappears.W-pII.333.2. Father, forgiveness is the light You chose to shine away all conflict and all doubt, and light the way for our return to You. 2 No light but this can end our evil dream. 3 No light but this can save the world. 4 For this alone will never fail in anything, being Your gift to Your beloved Son .
LESSON 334.
Today I claim the gifts forgiveness gives.
W-pII.334.1. I will not wait another day to find the treasures that my Father offers me. 2 Illusions are all vain, and dreams are gone even while they are woven out of thoughts that rest on false perceptions. 3 Let me not accept such meager gifts again today. 4 God's Voice is offering the peace of God to all who hear and choose to follow Him. 5 This is my choice today. 6 And so I go to find the treasures God has given me.W-pII.334.2. I seek but the eternal. 2 For Your Son can be content with nothing less than this. 3 What, then, can be his solace but what You are offering to his bewildered mind and frightened heart, to give him certainty and bring him peace? 4 Today I would behold my brother sinless. 5 This Your Will for me, for so will I behold my sinlessness.
LESSON 335.
I choose to see my brother's sinlessness.
W-pII.335.1. Forgiveness is a choice. 2 I never see my brother as he is, for that is far beyond perception. 3 What I see in him is merely what I wish to see, because it stands for what I want to be the truth. 4 It is to this alone that I respond, however much I seem to be impelled by outside happenings. 5 I choose to see what I would look upon, and this I see, and only this. 6 My brother's sinlessness shows me that I would look upon my own. 7 And I will see it, having chosen to behold my brother in its holy light.W-pII.335.2. What could restore Your memory to me, except to see my brother's sinlessness? 2 His holiness reminds me that he was created one with me, and like myself. 3 In him I find my Self, and in Your Son I find the memory of You as well .
LESSON 336.
Forgiveness lets me know that minds are joined.
W-pII.336.1. Forgiveness is the means appointed for perception's ending. 2 Knowledge is restored after perception first is changed, and then gives way entirely to what remains forever past its highest reach. 3 For sights and sounds, at best, can serve but to recall the memory that lies beyond them all. 4 Forgiveness sweeps away distortions, and opens the hidden altar to the truth. 5 Its lilies shine into the mind, and call it to return and look within, to find what it has vainly sought without. 6 For here, and only here, is peace of mind restored, for this the dwelling place of God Himself.W-pII.336.2. In quiet may forgiveness wipe away my dreams of separation and of sin. 2 Then let me, Father, look within, and find Your promise of my sinlessness is kept; Your Word remains unchanged within my mind, Your Love is still abiding in my heart.
LESSON 337.
My sinlessness protects me from all harm.
W-pII.337.1. My sinlessness ensures me perfect peace, eternal safety, everlasting love, freedom forever from all thought of loss; complete deliverance from suffering. 2 And only happiness can be my state, for only happiness is given me. 3 What must I do to know all this is mine? 4 I must accept Atonement for myself, and nothing more. 5 God has already done all things that need be done. 6 And I must learn I need do nothing of myself, for I need but accept my Self, my sinlessness, created for me, now already mine, to feel God's Love protecting me from harm, to understand my Father loves His Son; to know I am the Son my Father loves.W-pII.337.2. You Who created me in sinlessness are not mistaken about what I am. 2 I was mistaken when I thought I sinned, but I accept Atonement for myself. 3 Father, my dream is ended now. 4 Amen.
LESSON 338.
I am affected only by my thoughts.
W-pII.338.1. It needs but this to let salvation come to all the world. 2 For in this single thought is everyone released at last from fear. 3 Now has he learned that no one frightens him, and nothing can endanger him. 4 He has no enemies, and he is safe from all external things. 5 His thoughts can frighten him, but since these thoughts belong to him alone, he has the power to change them and exchange each fear thought for a happy thought of love. 6 He crucified himself. 7 Yet God has planned that His beloved Son will be redeemed.W-pII.338.2. Your plan is sure, my Father,--only Yours. 2 All other plans will fail. 3 And I will have thoughts that will frighten me, until I learn that You have given me the only Thought that leads me to salvation. 4 Mine alone will fail, and lead me nowhere. 5 But the Thought You gave me promises to lead me home, because it holds Your promise to Your Son .
LESSON 339.
I will receive whatever I request.
W-pII.339.1. No one desires pain. 2 But he can think that pain is pleasure. 3 No one would avoid his happiness. 4 But he can think that joy is painful, threatening and dangerous. 5 Everyone will receive what he requests. 6 But he can be confused indeed about the things he wants; the state he would attain. 7 What can he then request that he would want when he receives it? 8 He has asked for what will frighten him, and bring him suffering. 9 Let us resolve today to ask for what we really want, and only this, that we may spend this day in fearlessness, without confusing pain with joy, or fear with love.W-pII.339.2. Father, this is Your day. 2 It is a day in which I would do nothing by myself, but hear Your Voice in everything I do; requesting only what You offer me, accepting only Thoughts You share with me.
LESSON 340.
I can be free of suffering today.
W-pII.340.1. Father, I thank You for today, and for the freedom I am certain it will bring. 2 This day is holy, for today Your Son will be redeemed. 3 His suffering is done. 4 For he will hear Your Voice directing him to find Christ's vision through forgiveness, and be free forever from all suffering. 5 Thanks for today, my Father. 6 I was born into this world but to achieve this day, and what it holds in joy and freedom for Your holy Son and for the world he made, which is released along with him today.W-pII.340.2. Be glad today! 2 Be glad! 3 There is no room for anything but joy and thanks today. 4 Our Father has redeemed His Son this day. 5 Not one of us but will be saved today. 6 Not one who will remain in fear, and none the Father will not gather to Himself, awake in Heaven in the Heart of Love.
13. What Is a Miracle?
W-pII.13.1. A miracle is a correction. 2 It does not create, nor really change at all. 3 It merely looks on devastation, and reminds the mind that what it sees is false. 4 It undoes error, but does not attempt to go beyond perception, nor exceed the function of forgiveness. 5 Thus it stays within time's limits. 6 Yet it paves the way for the return of timelessness and love's awakening, for fear must slip away under the gentle remedy it brings.
LESSON 341.
I can attack but my own sinlessness, And it is only that which keeps me safe.
W-pII.341.1. Father, Your Son is holy. 2 I am he on whom You smile in love and tenderness so dear and deep and still the universe smiles back on You, and shares Your Holiness. 3 How pure, how safe, how holy, then, are we, abiding in Your Smile, with all Your Love bestowed upon us, living one with You, in brotherhood and Fatherhood complete; in sinlessness so perfect that the Lord of Sinlessness conceives us as His Son, a universe of Thought completing Him .W-pII.341.2. Let us not, then, attack our sinlessness, for it contains the Word of God to us. 2 And in its kind reflection we are saved.
LESSON 342.
I let forgiveness rest upon all things, For thus forgiveness will be given me.
W-pII.342.1. I thank You, Father, for Your plan to save me from the hell I made. 2 It is not real. 3 And You have given me the means to prove its unreality to me. 4 The key is in my hand, and I have reached the door beyond which lies the end of dreams. 5 I stand before the gate of Heaven, wondering if I should enter in and be at home. 6 Let me not wait again today. 7 Let me forgive all things, and let creation be as You would have it be and as it is. 8 Let me remember that I am Your Son, and opening the door at last, forget illusions in the blazing light of truth, as memory of You returns to me.W-pII.342.2. Brother, forgive me now. 2 I come to you to take you home with me. 3 And as we go, the world goes with us on our way to God.
LESSON 343.
I am not asked to make a sacrifice To find the mercy and the peace of God.
W-pII.343.1. The end of suffering can not be loss. 2 The gift of everything can be but gain. 3 You only give. 4 You never take away. 5 And You created me to be like You, so sacrifice becomes impossible for me as well as You. 6 I, too, must give. 7 And so all things are given unto me forever and forever. 8 As I was created I remain. 9 Your Son can make no sacrifice, for he must be complete, having the function of completing You. 10 I am complete because I am Your Son. 11 I cannot lose, for I can only give, and everything is mine eternally.W-pII.343.2. The mercy and the peace of God are free. 2 Salvation has no cost. 3 It is a gift that must be freely given and received. 4 And it is this that we would learn today.
LESSON 344.
Today I learn the law of love; that what I give my brother is my gift to me.
W-pII.344.1. This is Your law, my Father, not my own. 2 I have not understood what giving means, and thought to save what I desired for myself alone. 3 And as I looked upon the treasure that I thought I had, I found an empty place where nothing ever was or is or will be. 4 Who can share a dream? 5 And what can an illusion offer me? 6 Yet he whom I forgive will give me gifts beyond the worth of anything on earth. 7 Let my forgiven brothers fill my store with Heaven's treasures, which alone are real. 8 Thus is the law of love fulfilled. 9 And thus Your Son arises and returns to You .W-pII.344.2. How near we are to one another, as we go to God. 2 How near is He to us. 3 How close the ending of the dream of sin, and the redemption of the Son of God.
LESSON 345.
I offer only miracles today, For I would have them be returned to me.
W-pII.345.1. Father, a miracle reflects Your gifts to me, Your Son. 2 And every one I give returns to me, reminding me the law of love is universal. 3 Even here, it takes a form which can be recognized and seen to work. 4 The miracles I give are given back in just the form I need to help me with the problems I perceive. 5 Father, in Heaven it is different, for there, there are no needs. 6 But here on earth, the miracle is closer to Your gifts than any other gift that I can give. 7 Then let me give this gift alone today, which, born of true forgiveness, lights the way that I must travel to remember You .W-pII.345.2. Peace to all seeking hearts today. 2 The light has come to offer miracles to bless the tired world. 3 It will find rest today, for we will offer what we have received.
LESSON 346.
Today the peace of God envelops me, And I forget all things except His Love.
W-pII.346.1. Father, I wake today with miracles correcting my perception of all things. 2 And so begins the day I share with You as I will share eternity, for time has stepped aside today. 3 I do not seek the things of time, and so I will not look upon them. 4 What I seek today transcends all laws of time and things perceived in time. 5 I would forget all things except Your Love. 6 I would abide in You, and know no laws except Your law of love. 7 And I would find the peace which You created for Your Son, forgetting all the foolish toys I made as I behold Your glory and my own.W-pII.346.2. And when the evening comes today, we will remember nothing but the peace of God. 2 For we will learn today what peace is ours, when we forget all things except God's Love.
LESSON 347.
Anger must come from judgment. Judgment is the weapon I would use against myself, to keep the miracle away from me.
W-pII.347.1. Father, I want what goes against my will, and do not want what is my will to have. 2 Straighten my mind, my Father. 3 It is sick. 4 But You have offered freedom, and I choose to claim Your gift today. 5 And so I give all judgment to the One You gave to me to judge for me. 6 He sees what I behold, and yet He knows the truth. 7 He looks on pain, and yet He understands it is not real, and in His understanding it is healed. 8 He gives the miracles my dreams would hide from my awareness. 9 Let Him judge today. 10 I do not know my will, but He is sure it is Your Own. 11 And He will speak for me, and call Your miracles to come to me.W-pII.347.2. Listen today. 2 Be very still, and hear the gentle Voice for God assuring you that He has judged you as the Son He loves.
LESSON 348.
I have no cause for anger or for fear, for You surround me. And in every need that I perceive, Your grace suffices me.
W-pII.348.1. Father, let me remember You are here, and I am not alone. 2 Surrounding me is everlasting Love. 3 I have no cause for anything except the perfect peace and joy I share with You. 4 What need have I for anger or for fear? 5 Surrounding me is perfect safety. 6 Can I be afraid, when Your eternal promise goes with me? 7 Surrounding me is perfect sinlessness. 8 What can I fear, when You created me in holiness as perfect as Your Own?W-pII.348.2. God's grace suffices us in everything that He would have us do. 2 And only that we choose to be our will as well as His.
LESSON 349.
Today I let Christ's vision look upon all things for me and judge them not, but give each one a miracle of love instead.
W-pII.349.1. So would I liberate all things I see, and give to them the freedom that I seek. 2 For thus do I obey the law of love, and give what I would find and make my own. 3 It will be given me, because I have chosen it as the gift I want to give. 4 Father, Your gifts are mine. 5 Each one that I accept gives me a miracle to give. 6 And giving as I would receive, I learn Your healing miracles belong to me .W-pII.349.2. Our Father knows our needs. 2 He gives us grace to meet them all. 3 And so we trust in Him to send us miracles to bless the world, and heal our minds as we return to Him.
LESSON 350.
Miracles mirror God's eternal Love. To offer them is to remember Him, and through His memory to save the world.
W-pII.350.1. What we forgive becomes a part of us, as we perceive ourselves. 2 The Son of God incorporates all things within himself as You created him. 3 Your memory depends on his forgiveness. 4 What he is, is unaffected by his thoughts. 5 But what he looks upon is their direct result. 6 Therefore, my Father, I would turn to You. 7 Only Your memory will set me free. 8 And only my forgiveness teaches me to let Your memory return to me, and give it to the world in thankfulness.W-pII.350.2. And as we gather miracles from Him, we will indeed be grateful. 2 For as we remember Him, His Son will be restored to us in the reality of Love.
14. What Am I?
W-pII.14.1. I am God's Son, complete and healed and whole, shining in the reflection of His Love. 2 In me is His creation sanctified and guaranteed eternal life. 3 In me is love perfected, fear impossible, and joy established without opposite. 4 I am the holy home of God Himself. 5 I am the Heaven where His Love resides. 6 I am His holy Sinlessness Itself, for in my purity abides His Own .W-pII.14.2. Our use for words is almost over now. 2 Yet in the final days of this one year we gave to God together, you and I, we found a single purpose that we shared. 3 And thus you joined with me, so what I am are you as well. 4 The truth of what we are is not for words to speak of nor describe. 5 Yet we can realize our function here, and words can speak of this and teach it, too, if we exemplify the words in us.
W-pII.14.3. We are the bringers of salvation. 2 We accept our part as saviors of the world, which through our joint forgiveness is redeemed. 3 And this, our gift, is therefore given us. 4 We look on everyone as brother, and perceive all things as kindly and as good. 5 We do not seek a function that is past the gate of Heaven. 6 Knowledge will return when we have done our part. 7 We are concerned only with giving welcome to the truth.
W-pII.14.4. Ours are the eyes through which Christ's vision sees a world redeemed from every thought of sin. 2 Ours are the ears that hear the Voice for God proclaim the world as sinless. 3 Ours the minds that join together as we bless the world. 4 And from the oneness that we have attained we call to all our brothers, asking them to share our peace and consummate our joy.
W-pII.14.5. We are the holy messengers of God who speak for Him, and carrying His Word to everyone whom He has sent to us, we learn that it is written on our hearts. 2 And thus our minds are changed about the aim for which we came, and which we seek to serve. 3 We bring glad tidings to the Son of God, who thought he suffered. 4 Now is he redeemed. 5 And as he sees the gate of Heaven stand open before him, he will enter in and disappear into the Heart of God.
LESSON 351.
My sinless brother is my guide to peace. My sinful brother is my guide to pain. And which I choose to see I will behold.
W-pII.351.1. Who is my brother but Your holy Son? 2 And if I see him sinful I proclaim myself a sinner, not a Son of God; alone and friendless in a fearful world. 3 Yet this perception is a choice I make, and can relinquish. 4 I can also see my brother sinless, as Your holy Son. 5 And with this choice I see my sinlessness, my everlasting Comforter and Friend beside me, and my way secure and clear. 6 Choose, then, for me, my Father, through Your Voice. 7 For He alone gives judgment in Your Name.
LESSON 352.
Judgment and love are opposites. From one come all the sorrows of the world. But from the other comes the peace of God Himself.
W-pII.352.1. Forgiveness looks on sinlessness alone, and judges not. 2 Through this I come to You. 3 Judgment will bind my eyes and make me blind. 4 Yet love, reflected in forgiveness here, reminds me You have given me a way to find Your peace again. 5 I am redeemed when I elect to follow in this way. 6 You have not left me comfortless. 7 I have within me both the memory of You, and One Who leads me to it. 8 Father, I would hear Your Voice and find Your peace today. 9 For I would love my own Identity, and find in It the memory of You.
LESSON 353.
My eyes, my tongue, my hands, my feet today have but one purpose; to be given Christ to use to bless the world with miracles.
W-pII.353.1. Father, I give all that is mine today to Christ, to use in any way that best will serve the purpose that I share with Him. 2 Nothing is mine alone, for He and I have joined in purpose. 3 Thus has learning come almost to its appointed end. 4 A while I work with Him to serve His purpose. 5 Then I lose myself in my Identity, and recognize that Christ is but my Self.
LESSON 354.
We stand together, Christ and I, in peace and certainty of purpose. And in Him is His Creator, as He is in me.
W-pII.354.1. My oneness with the Christ establishes me as Your Son, beyond the reach of time, and wholly free of every law but Yours. 2 I have no self except the Christ in me. 3 I have no purpose but His Own. 4 And He is like His Father. 5 Thus must I be one with You as well as Him. 6 For who is Christ except Your Son as You created Him? 7 And what am I except the Christ in me?
LESSON 355.
There is no end to all the peace and joy, and all the miracles that I will give, when I accept God's Word. Why not today?
W-pII.355.1. Why should I wait, my Father, for the joy You promised me? 2 For You will keep Your Word You gave Your Son in exile. 3 I am sure my treasure waits for me, and I need but reach out my hand to find it. 4 Even now my fingers touch it. 5 It is very close. 6 I need not wait an instant more to be at peace forever. 7 It is You I choose, and my Identity along with You. 8 Your Son would be Himself, and know You as his Father and Creator, and his Love.
LESSON 356.
Sickness is but another name for sin. Healing is but another name for God. The miracle is thus a call to Him.
W-pII.356.1. Father, You promised You would never fail to answer any call Your Son might make to You. 2 It does not matter where he is, what seems to be his problem, nor what he believes he has become. 3 He is Your Son, and You will answer him. 4 The miracle reflects Your Love, and thus it answers him. 5 Your Name replaces every thought of sin, and who is sinless cannot suffer pain. 6 Your Name gives answer to Your Son, because to call Your Name is but to call his own.
LESSON 357.
Truth answers every call we make to God, responding first with miracles, and then returning unto us to be itself.
W-pII.357.1. Forgiveness, truth's reflection, tells me how to offer miracles, and thus escape the prison house in which I think I live. 2 Your holy Son is pointed out to me, first in my brother; then in me. 3 Your Voice instructs me patiently to hear Your Word, and give as I receive. 4 And as I look upon Your Son today, I hear Your Voice instructing me to find the way to You, as You appointed that the way shall be:
5 "Behold his sinlessness, and be you healed."
LESSON 358.
No call to God can be unheard nor left unanswered. And of this I can be sure; His answer is the one I really want.
W-pII.358.1. You Who remember what I really am alone remember what I really want. 2 You speak for God, and so You speak for me. 3 And what You give me comes from God Himself. 4 Your Voice, my Father, then is mine as well, and all I want is what You offer me, in just the form You choose that it be mine. 5 Let me remember all I do not know, and let my voice be still, remembering. 6 But let me not forget Your Love and care, keeping Your promise to Your Son in my awareness always. 7 Let me not forget myself is nothing, but my Self is all .
LESSON 359.
God's answer is some form of peace. All pain is healed; all misery replaced with joy. All prison doors are opened. And all sin is understood as merely a mistake.
W-pII.359.1. Father, today we will forgive Your world, and let creation be Your Own. 2 We have misunderstood all things. 3 But we have not made sinners of the holy Sons of God. 4 What You created sinless so abides forever and forever. 5 Such are we. 6 And we rejoice to learn that we have made mistakes which have no real effects on us. 7 Sin is impossible, and on this fact forgiveness rests upon a certain base more solid than the shadow world we see. 8 Help us forgive, for we would be redeemed. 9 Help us forgive, for we would be at peace.
LESSON 360.
Peace be to me, the holy Son of God. Peace to my brother, who is one with me. Let all the world be blessed with peace through us.
W-pII.360.1. Father, it is Your peace that I would give, receiving it of You. 2 I am Your Son, forever just as You created me, for the Great Rays remain forever still and undisturbed within me. 3 I would reach to them in silence and in certainty, for nowhere else can certainty be found. 4 Peace be to me, and peace to all the world. 5 In holiness were we created, and in holiness do we remain. 6 Your Son is like to You in perfect sinlessness. 7 And with this thought we gladly say "Amen."
FINAL LESSONS.
Introduction
W.fl.in.1. Our final lessons will be left as free of words as possible. 2 We use them but at the beginning of our practicing, and only to remind us that we seek to go beyond them. 3 Let us turn to Him Who leads the way and makes our footsteps sure. 4 To Him we leave these lessons, as to Him we give our lives henceforth. 5 For we would not return again to the belief in sin that made the world seem ugly and unsafe, attacking and destroying, dangerous in all its ways, and treacherous beyond the hope of trust and the escape from pain.LESSONS 361 to 365.
This holy instant would I give to You. Be You in charge. For I would follow You,certain that Your direction gives me peace.
W-pII.361-5.1. And if I need a word to help me, He will give it to me. 2 If I need a thought, that will He also give. 3 And if I need but stillness and a tranquil, open mind, these are the gifts I will receive of Him. 4 He is in charge by my request. 5 And He will hear and answer me, because He speaks for God my Father and His holy Son.
EPILOGUE
W.ep.1. This course is a beginning, not an end. 2 Your Friend goes with you. 3 You are not alone. 4 No one who calls on Him can call in vain. 5 Whatever troubles you, be certain that He has the answer, and will gladly give it to you, if you simply turn to Him and ask it of Him. 6 He will not withhold all answers that you need for anything that seems to trouble you. 7 He knows the way to solve all problems, and resolve all doubts. 8 His certainty is yours. 9 You need but ask it of Him, and it will be given you.