1. The belief in sin is an adjustment. ²And an adjustment is a change; a shift in perception, or a belief that what was so before has been made different. ³Every adjustment is therefore a distortion, and calls upon defenses to uphold it against reality. ⁴Knowledge requires no adjustments and, in fact, is lost if any shift or change is undertaken. ⁵For this reduces it at once to mere perception; a way of looking in which certainty is lost and doubt has entered. ⁶To this impaired condition are adjustments necessary, because it is not true. ⁷Who need adjust to truth, which calls on only what he is, to understand?

2. Adjustments of any kind are of the ego. ²For it is the ego’s fixed belief that all relationships depend upon adjustments, to make of them what it would have them be. ³Direct relationships, in which there are no interferences, are always seen as dangerous. ⁴The ego is the self-appointed mediator of all relationships, making whatever adjustments it deems necessary and interposing them between those who would meet, to keep them separate and prevent their union. ⁵It is this studied interference that makes it difficult for you to recognize your holy relationship for what it is.

3. The holy do not interfere with truth. ²They are not afraid of it, for it is within the truth they recognize their holiness, and rejoice at what they see. ³They look on it directly, without attempting to adjust themselves to it, or it to them. ⁴And so they see that it was in them, not deciding first where they would have it be. ⁵Their looking merely asks a question, and it is what they see that answers them. ⁶You make the world and then adjust to it, and it to you. ⁷Nor is there any difference between yourself and it in your perception, which made them both.

4. A simple question yet remains, and needs an answer. ²Do you like what you have made?—a world of murder and attack, through which you thread your timid way through constant dangers, alone and frightened, hoping at most that death will wait a little longer before it overtakes you and you disappear. ³You made this up. ⁴It is a picture of what you think you are; of how you see yourself. ⁵A murderer is frightened, and those who kill fear death. ⁶All these are but the fearful thoughts of those who would adjust themselves to a world made fearful by their adjustments. ⁷And they look out in sorrow from what is sad within, and see the sadness there.

5. Have you not wondered what the world is really like; how it would look through happy eyes? ²The world you see is but a judgment on yourself. ³It is not there at all. ⁴Yet judgment lays a sentence on it, justifies it and makes it real. ⁵Such is the world you see; a judgment on yourself, and made by you. ⁶This sickly picture of yourself is carefully preserved by the ego, whose image it is and which it loves, and placed outside you in the world. ⁷And to this world must you adjust as long as you believe this picture is outside, and has you at its mercy. ⁸This world is merciless, and were it outside you, you should indeed be fearful. ⁹Yet it was you who made it merciless, and now if mercilessness seems to look back at you, it can be corrected.

6. Who in a holy relationship can long remain unholy? ²The world the holy see is one with them, just as the world the ego looks upon is like itself. ³The world the holy see is beautiful because they see their innocence in it. ⁴They did not tell it what it was; they did not make adjustments to fit their orders. ⁵They gently questioned it and whispered, “What are you?” ⁶And He Who watches over all perception answered. ⁷Take not the judgment of the world as answer to the question, “What am I?” ⁸The world believes in sin, but the belief that made it as you see it is not outside you.

7. Seek not to make the Son of God adjust to his insanity. ²There is a stranger in him, who wandered carelessly into the home of truth and who will wander off. ³He came without a purpose, but he will not remain before the shining light the Holy Spirit offered, and you accepted. ⁴For there the stranger is made homeless and you are welcome. ⁵Ask not this transient stranger, “What am I?” ⁶He is the only thing in all the universe that does not know. ⁷Yet it is he you ask, and it is to his answer that you would adjust. ⁸This one wild thought, fierce in its arrogance, and yet so tiny and so meaningless it slips unnoticed through the universe of truth, becomes your guide. ⁹To it you turn to ask the meaning of the universe. ¹⁰And of the one blind thing in all the seeing universe of truth you ask, “How shall I look upon the Son of God?”

8. Does one ask judgment of what is totally bereft of judgment? ²And if you have, would you believe the answer, and adjust to it as if it were the truth? ³The world you look on is the answer that it gave you, and you have given it power to adjust the world to make its answer true. ⁴You asked this puff of madness for the meaning of your unholy relationship, and adjusted it according to its insane answer. ⁵How happy did it make you? ⁶Did you meet your brother with joy to bless the Son of God, and give him thanks for all the happiness that he held out to you? ⁷Did you recognize your brother as the eternal gift of God to you? ⁸Did you see the holiness that shone in both you and your brother, to bless the other? ⁹That is the purpose of your holy relationship. ¹⁰Ask not the means of its attainment of the one thing that still would have it be unholy. ¹¹Give it no power to adjust the means and end.

9. Prisoners bound with heavy chains for years, starved and emaciated, weak and exhausted, and with eyes so long cast down in darkness they remember not the light, do not leap up in joy the instant they are made free. ²It takes a while for them to understand what freedom is. ³You groped but feebly in the dust and found your brother’s hand, uncertain whether to let it go or to take hold on life so long forgotten. ⁴Strengthen your hold and raise your eyes unto your strong companion, in whom the meaning of your freedom lies. ⁵He seemed to be crucified beside you. ⁶And yet his holiness remained untouched and perfect, and with him beside you, you shall this day enter with him to Paradise, and know the peace of God.

10. Such is my will for you and your brother, and for each of you for one another and for himself. ²Here there is only holiness and joining without limit. ³For what is Heaven but union, direct and perfect, and without the veil of fear upon it? ⁴Here are we one, looking with perfect gentleness upon each other and on ourselves. ⁵Here all thoughts of any separation between us become impossible. ⁶You who were a prisoner in separation are now made free in Paradise. ⁷And here would I unite with you, my friend, my brother and my Self.

11. Your gift unto your brother has given me the certainty our union will be soon. ²Share, then, this faith with me, and know that it is justified. ³There is no fear in perfect love because it knows no sin, and it must look on others as on itself. ⁴Looking with charity within, what can it fear without? ⁵The innocent see safety, and the pure in heart see God within His Son, and look unto the Son to lead them to the Father. ⁶And where else would they go but where they will to be? ⁷You and your brother now will lead the other to the Father as surely as God created His Son holy, and kept him so. ⁸In your brother is the light of God’s eternal promise of your immortality. ⁹See him as sinless, and there can be no fear in you.