1. Suffering is an emphasis upon all that the world has done to injure you. ²Here is the world’s demented version of salvation clearly shown. ³Like to a dream of punishment, in which the dreamer is unconscious of what brought on the attack against himself, he sees himself attacked unjustly and by something not himself. ⁴He is the victim of this “something else,” a thing outside himself, for which he has no reason to be held responsible. ⁵He must be innocent because he knows not what he does, but what is done to him. ⁶Yet is his own attack upon himself apparent still, for it is he who bears the suffering. ⁷And he cannot escape because its source is seen outside himself.

2. Now you are being shown you can escape. ²All that is needed is you look upon the problem as it is, and not the way that you have set it up. ³How could there be another way to solve a problem that is very simple, but has been obscured by heavy clouds of complication, which were made to keep the problem unresolved? ⁴Without the clouds the problem will emerge in all its primitive simplicity. ⁵The choice will not be difficult, because the problem is absurd when clearly seen. ⁶No one has difficulty making up his mind to let a simple problem be resolved if it is seen as hurting him, and also very easily removed.

3. The “reasoning” by which the world is made, on which it rests, by which it is maintained, is simply this: “You are the cause of what I do. ²Your presence justifies my wrath, and you exist and think apart from me. ³While you attack I must be innocent. ⁴And what I suffer from is your attack.” ⁵No one who looks upon this “reasoning” exactly as it is could fail to see it does not follow and it makes no sense. ⁶Yet it seems sensible, because it looks as if the world were hurting you. ⁷And so it seems as if there is no need to go beyond the obvious in terms of cause.

4. There is indeed a need. ²The world’s escape from condemnation is a need which those within the world are joined in sharing. ³Yet they do not recognize their common need. ⁴For each one thinks that if he does his part, the condemnation of the world will rest on him. ⁵And it is this that he perceives to be his part in its deliverance. ⁶Vengeance must have a focus. ⁷Otherwise is the avenger’s knife in his own hand, and pointed to himself. ⁸And he must see it in another’s hand, if he would be a victim of attack he did not choose. ⁹And thus he suffers from the wounds a knife he does not hold has made upon himself.

5. This is the purpose of the world he sees. ²And looked at thus, the world provides the means by which this purpose seems to be fulfilled. ³The means attest the purpose, but are not themselves a cause. ⁴Nor will the cause be changed by seeing it apart from its effects. ⁵The cause produces the effects, which then bear witness to the cause, and not themselves. ⁶Look, then, beyond effects. ⁷It is not here the cause of suffering and sin must lie. ⁸And dwell not on the suffering and sin, for they are but reflections of their cause.

6. The part you play in salvaging the world from condemnation is your own escape. ²Forget not that the witness to the world of evil cannot speak except for what has seen a need for evil in the world. ³And this is where your guilt was first beheld. ⁴In separation from your brother was the first attack upon yourself begun. ⁵And it is this the world bears witness to. ⁶Seek not another cause, nor look among the mighty legions of its witnesses for its undoing. ⁷They support its claim on your allegiance. ⁸What conceals the truth is not where you should look to find the truth.

7. The witnesses to sin all stand within one little space. ²And it is here you find the cause of your perspective on the world. ³Once you were unaware of what the cause of everything the world appeared to thrust upon you, uninvited and unasked, must really be. ⁴Of one thing you were sure: Of all the many causes you perceived as bringing pain and suffering to you, your guilt was not among them. ⁵Nor did you in any way request them for yourself. ⁶This is how all illusions came about. ⁷The one who makes them does not see himself as making them, and their reality does not depend on him. ⁸Whatever cause they have is something quite apart from him, and what he sees is separate from his mind. ⁹He cannot doubt his dreams’ reality, because he does not see the part he plays in making them and making them seem real.

8. No one can waken from a dream the world is dreaming for him. ²He becomes a part of someone else’s dream. ³He cannot choose to waken from a dream he did not make. ⁴Helpless he stands, a victim to a dream conceived and cherished by a separate mind. ⁵Careless indeed of him this mind must be, as thoughtless of his peace and happiness as is the weather or the time of day. ⁶It loves him not, but casts him as it will in any role that satisfies its dream. ⁷So little is his worth that he is but a dancing shadow, leaping up and down according to a senseless plot conceived within the idle dreaming of the world.

9. This is the only picture you can see; the one alternative that you can choose, the other possibility of cause, if you be not the dreamer of your dreams. ²And this is what you choose if you deny the cause of suffering is in your mind. ³Be glad indeed it is, for thus are you the one decider of your destiny in time. ⁴The choice is yours to make between a sleeping death and dreams of evil or a happy wakening and joy of life.

10. What could you choose between but life or death, waking or sleeping, peace or war, your dreams or your reality? ²There is a risk of thinking death is peace, because the world equates the body with the Self which God created. ³Yet a thing can never be its opposite. ⁴And death is opposite to peace, because it is the opposite of life. ⁵And life is peace. ⁶Awaken and forget all thoughts of death, and you will find you have the peace of God. ⁷Yet if the choice is really given you, then you must see the causes of the things you choose between exactly as they are and where they are.

11. What choices can be made between two states, but one of which is clearly recognized? ²Who could be free to choose between effects, when only one is seen as up to him? ³An honest choice could never be perceived as one in which the choice is split between a tiny you and an enormous world, with different dreams about the truth in you. ⁴The gap between reality and dreams lies not between the dreaming of the world and what you dream in secret. ⁵They are one. ⁶The dreaming of the world is but a part of your own dream you gave away, and saw as if it were its start and ending, both. ⁷Yet was it started by your secret dream, which you do not perceive although it caused the part you see and do not doubt is real. ⁸How could you doubt it while you lie asleep, and dream in secret that its cause is real?

12. A brother separated from yourself, an ancient enemy, a murderer who stalks you in the night and plots your death, yet plans that it be lingering and slow; of this you dream. ²Yet underneath this dream is yet another, in which you become the murderer, the secret enemy, the scavenger and the destroyer of your brother and the world alike. ³Here is the cause of suffering, the space between your little dreams and your reality. ⁴The little gap you do not even see, the birthplace of illusions and of fear, the time of terror and of ancient hate, the instant of disaster, all are here. ⁵Here is the cause of unreality. ⁶And it is here that it will be undone.

13. You are the dreamer of the world of dreams. ²No other cause it has, nor ever will. ³Nothing more fearful than an idle dream has terrified God’s Son, and made him think that he has lost his innocence, denied his Father, and made war upon himself. ⁴So fearful is the dream, so seeming real, he could not waken to reality without the sweat of terror and a scream of mortal fear, unless a gentler dream preceded his awaking, and allowed his calmer mind to welcome, not to fear, the Voice that calls with love to waken him; a gentler dream, in which his suffering was healed and where his brother was his friend. ⁵God willed he waken gently and with joy, and gave him means to waken without fear.

14. Accept the dream He gave instead of yours. ²It is not difficult to change a dream when once the dreamer has been recognized. ³Rest in the Holy Spirit, and allow His gentle dreams to take the place of those you dreamed in terror and in fear of death. ⁴He brings forgiving dreams, in which the choice is not who is the murderer and who shall be the victim. ⁵In the dreams He brings there is no murder and there is no death. ⁶The dream of guilt is fading from your sight, although your eyes are closed. ⁷A smile has come to lighten up your sleeping face. ⁸The sleep is peaceful now, for these are happy dreams.

15. Dream softly of your sinless brother, who unites with you in holy innocence. ²And from this dream the Lord of Heaven will Himself awaken His beloved Son. ³Dream of your brother’s kindnesses instead of dwelling in your dreams on his mistakes. ⁴Select his thoughtfulness to dream about instead of counting up the hurts he gave. ⁵Forgive him his illusions, and give thanks to him for all the helpfulness he gave. ⁶And do not brush aside his many gifts because he is not perfect in your dreams. ⁷He represents his Father, Whom you see as offering both life and death to you.

16. Brother, He gives but life. ²Yet what you see as gifts your brother offers represent the gifts you dream your Father gives to you. ³Let all your brother’s gifts be seen in light of charity and kindness offered you. ⁴And let no pain disturb your dream of deep appreciation for his gifts to you.