A Course in Miracles

by Helen Schucman

Charity is a way of looking at another as if he had already gone far beyond his actual accomplishments in time.

Miracle-minded forgiveness is only correction.

It has no element of judgment at all.

I am here only to be truly helpful. I am here to represent Him Who sent me. I do not have to worry about what to say or what to do, because He Who sent me will direct me. I am content to be wherever He wishes, knowing He goes there with me. I will be healed as I let Him teach me to heal.

The presence of fear shows that you have raised body thoughts to the level of the mind.

You must change your mind, not your behavior, and this is a matter of willingness. You do not need guidance except at the mind level.

The correction of fear is your responsibility.

When you ask for release from fear, you are implying that it is not.

You should ask, instead, for help in the conditions that have bro...

These conditions always entail a willingness ...

You are much too tolerant of mind wandering, and are passively condoning yo...

Before you choose to do anything, ask me if your choice is in accord with mine.

If you are sure that it is, there will be no fear.

Only your mind can produce fear.

Know first that this is fear. Fear arises from lack of love. The only remedy for lack of love is perfect love. Perfect love is the Atonement.

It appears at first glance that to believe such power about yourself is arrogant, but that is not the real reason you do not believe it.

You prefer to believe that your thoughts cannot exert real influence because you are actually afraid of them.

There are no idle thoughts.

All thinking produces form at some level.

In this sense the separation has occurred, and to deny it is merely to use denial inappropriately. However, to concentrate on error is only a further error.

It also follows that whatever you alone make is real in your own sight, though not in the Mind of God.

it. Judgment is not an attribute of God. It was brought into being only after the separation, when it became one of the many learning devices to be built into the overall plan.

Just as the separation occurred over millions of years,

Could this be a reference to evolution? There was no separation between God and Nature. God's voice in nature is instinct. But when reason and self awareness evolved, in other words the knowledge of good and evil, man began to see himself as separate from God and the rest of His Creation.

4. The first step toward freedom involves a sorting out of the false from the true.

good. At this point, the mind can begin to look with love on its own creations because of their worthiness.

At the same

time the mind will inevitably disown its miscreations which, without belief...

You can, however, apply it meaningfully and at any time to everything you have made, and retain in your memory only what is creative and good.

What I have made are my fearful and unloving thoughts.

Because their hearts are pure, the innocent defend true perception instead of defending themselves against it.

The questioning mind perceives itself in time, and therefore looks for future answers.

To perceive the truth is not the same as to know it.

Knowledge preceded both perception and time, and will ultimately replace them.

If you attack error in another, you will hurt yourself.

You cannot know your brother when you attack him.

Perception did not exist until the separation introduced degrees, aspects and intervals.

Spirit has no levels, and all conflict arises from the concept of levels.

Consciousness, the level of perception, was the first split introduced into the mind after the separation, making the mind a perceiver rather than a creator.

Consciousness is correctly identified as the domain of the ego.

You have every reason to feel afraid as you perceive yourself.

This is why you cannot escape from fear until you realize that you did not and could not create yourself.

Even in miscreation the mind is affirming its Source, or it would merely cease to be.

This is impossible, because the mind belongs to spirit which God created and which is therefore eternal.

The ability to perceive made the body possible, because you must perceive something and with something.

The interpretative function of perception, a distorted form of creation, then permits you to interpret the body as yourself in an attempt to escape from the conflict you have induced.

This makes spirit almost inaccessible to the mind and entirely inaccessible to the body.

Thereafter, spirit is perceived as a threat, because light abolishes darkness merely by showing you it is not there.

“All are called but few choose to listen.”

Forgiveness is the healing of the perception of separation.

You have no idea of the tremendous release and deep peace that comes from meeting yourself and your brothers totally without judgment.

The strain of constant judgment is virtually intolerable.