A Course in Miracles

by Helen Schucman

It is curious that an ability so debilitating would be so deeply cherished.

There is, however, only one cause for all of them: the authority problem.

This is “the root of all evil.”

You have not usurped the power of God, but you have lost it.

The separation is a system of thought real enough in time, though not in eternity.

All beliefs are real to the believer.

You can perceive yourself as self-creating, but you cannot do more than believe it.

You cannot make it true.

As you approach the Beginning, you feel the fear of the destruction of your thought system upon you as if it were the fear of death.

There is no death, but there is a belief in death.

Many stand guard over their ideas because they want to protect their thought systems as they are, and learning means change.

Change is always fearful to the separated, because they cannot conceive of it as a move towards healing the separation.

They always perceive it as a move toward further separation, because the separation was their...

You believe that if you allow no change to enter into your ego ...

spirit cannot perceive and the ego cannot know.

They are therefore not in communication and can never be in communication.

Learning is ultimately perceived as frightening because it leads to the relinquishment, not the destruction, of the ego to the light of spirit.

You dream of a separated ego and believe in a world that rests upon it.

This is very real to you.

If you are willing to renounce the role of guardian of your thought system and open it to me, I will correct it very...

laws are set up to protect the continuity of the system in which the lawmaker believes.

Your worth is established by God.

As long as you dispute this everything you do will be fearful, particularly any situation that lends itself to the belief in superiority and inferiority.

nothing you do or think or wish or make is necessary to establish your worth.

The only sane solution is not to try to change reality, which is indeed a fearful attempt, but to accept it as it is.

When you are afraid, be still and know that God is real, and you are His beloved Son in whom He is well pleased.

fear is a witness to the separation, and your ego rejoices when you witness to it.

The question is not how you respond to the ego, but what you believe you are.

Belief is an ego function, and as long as your origin is open to belief you are regarding it from an ego viewpoint.

Belief that there is another way of perceiving is the loftiest idea ...

is ca...

In this sense you are still a baby. You have no sense of real self-preservation, and are likely to decide that you need precisely what would hurt you most.

“Giving to get” is an inescapable law of the ego, which always evaluates itself in relation to other egos.

It is therefore continually preoccupied with the belief in scarcity that gave rise to it.

Its whole perception of other egos as real is only an attempt to convince ...

The ego literally lives by comparisons.

The ego believes it is completely on its own, which is merely another way of describing how it thinks it originated.

The ego is the mind’s belief that it is completely on its own.

Right-mindedness leads to the next step automatically, because right perception is uniformly without attack, and therefore wrong-mindedness is obliterated.

The ego cannot survive without judgment, and is laid aside accordingly.

You who identify with your ego cannot believe God loves you.

this kind of wanting is wholly without the ego’s “drive to get.”

your belief in darkness and hiding is why the light cannot enter.

Let us ask the Father in my name to keep you mindful of His Love for you and yours for Him.

You retain thousands of little scraps of fear that prevent the Holy One from entering.

Light cannot penetrate through the walls you make to block it, and it is forever unwilling to destroy what you have made.

Watch your mind for the scraps of fear, or you will be unable...

Watch carefully and see what it is you are really asking for.

Be very honest with yourself in this, for we must hide nothing from each other.

In the ego’s language, “to have” and “to be” are different, but they are identical to the Holy Spirit.