1. An ancient lesson is not overcome by the opposing of the new and old. ²It is not vanquished that the truth be known, nor fought against to lose to truth’s appeal. ³There is no battle that must be prepared; no time to be expended, and no plans that need be laid for bringing in the new. ⁴There is an ancient battle being waged against the truth, but truth does not respond. ⁵Who could be hurt in such a war, unless he hurts himself? ⁶He has no enemy in truth. ⁷And can he be assailed by dreams?

2. Let us review again what seems to stand between you and the truth of what you are. ²For there are steps in its relinquishment. ³The first is a decision that you make. ⁴But afterwards, the truth is given you. ⁵You would establish truth. ⁶And by your wish you set two choices to be made, each time you think you must decide on anything. ⁷Neither is true. ⁸Nor are they different. ⁹Yet must we see them both, before you can look past them to the one alternative that is a different choice. ¹⁰But not in dreams you made, that this might be obscured to you.

3. What you would choose between is not a choice and gives but the illusion it is free, for it will have one outcome either way. ²Thus is it really not a choice at all. ³The leader and the follower emerge as separate roles, each seeming to possess advantages you would not want to lose. ⁴So in their fusion there appears to be the hope of satisfaction and of peace. ⁵You see yourself divided into both these roles, forever split between the two. ⁶And every friend or enemy becomes a means to help you save yourself from this.

4. Perhaps you call it love. ²Perhaps you think that it is murder justified at last. ³You hate the one you gave the leader’s role when you would have it, and you hate as well his not assuming it at times you want to let the follower in you arise, and give away the role of leadership. ⁴And this is what you made your brother for, and learned to think that this his purpose is. ⁵Unless he serves it, he has not fulfilled the function that was given him by you. ⁶And thus he merits death, because he has no purpose and no usefulness to you.

5. And what of him? ²What does he want of you? ³What could he want, but what you want of him? ⁴Herein is life as easily as death, for what you choose you choose as well for him. ⁵Two calls you make to him, as he to you. ⁶Between these two is choice, because from them there is a different outcome. ⁷If he be the leader or the follower to you it matters not, for you have chosen death. ⁸But if he calls for death or calls for life, for hate or for forgiveness and for help, is not the same in outcome. ⁹Hear the one, and you are separate from him and are lost. ¹⁰But hear the other, and you join with him and in your answer is salvation found. ¹¹The voice you hear in him is but your own. ¹²What does he ask you for? ¹³And listen well! ¹⁴For he is asking what will come to you, because you see an image of yourself and hear your voice requesting what you want.

6. Before you answer, pause to think of this:

²The answer that I give my brother is what I am asking for. ³And what I learn of him is what I learn about myself.

⁴Then let us wait an instant and be still, forgetting everything we thought we heard; remembering how much we do not know. ⁵This brother neither leads nor follows us, but walks beside us on the selfsame road. ⁶He is like us, as near or far away from what we want as we will let him be. ⁷We make no gains he does not make with us, and we fall back if he does not advance. ⁸Take not his hand in anger but in love, for in his progress do you count your own. ⁹And we go separately along the way unless you keep him safely by your side.

7. Because he is your equal in God’s Love, you will be saved from all appearances and answer to the Christ Who calls to you. ²Be still and listen. ³Think not ancient thoughts. ⁴Forget the dismal lessons that you learned about this Son of God who calls to you. ⁵Christ calls to all with equal tenderness, seeing no leaders and no followers, and hearing but one answer to them all. ⁶Because He hears one Voice, He cannot hear a different answer from the one He gave when God appointed Him His only Son.

8. Be very still an instant. ²Come without all thought of what you ever learned before, and put aside all images you made. ³The old will fall away before the new without your opposition or intent. ⁴There will be no attack upon the things you thought were precious and in need of care. ⁵There will be no assault upon your wish to hear a call that never has been made. ⁶Nothing will hurt you in this holy place, to which you come to listen silently and learn the truth of what you really want. ⁷No more than this will you be asked to learn. ⁸But as you hear it, you will understand you need but come away without the thoughts you did not want, and that were never true.

9. Forgive your brother all appearances, that are but ancient lessons you have taught yourself about the sinfulness in you. ²Hear but his call for mercy and release from all the fearful images he holds of what he is and of what you must be. ³He is afraid to walk with you, and thinks perhaps a bit behind, a bit ahead would be a safer place for him to be. ⁴Can you make progress if you think the same, advancing only when he would step back, and falling back when he would go ahead? ⁵For so do you forget the journey’s goal, which is but to decide to walk with him, so neither leads nor follows. ⁶Thus it is a way you go together, not alone. ⁷And in this choice is learning’s outcome changed, for Christ has been reborn to both of you.

10. An instant spent without your old ideas of who your great companion is and what he should be asking for, will be enough to let this happen. ²And you will perceive his purpose is the same as yours. ³He asks for what you want, and needs the same as you. ⁴It takes, perhaps, a different form in him, but it is not the form you answer to. ⁵He asks and you receive, for you have come with but one purpose; that you learn you love your brother with a brother’s love. ⁶And as a brother, must his Father be the same as yours, as he is like yourself in truth.

11. Together is your joint inheritance remembered and accepted by you both. ²Alone it is denied to both of you. ³Is it not clear that while you still insist on leading or on following, you think you walk alone, with no one by your side? ⁴This is the road to nowhere, for the light cannot be given while you walk alone, and so you cannot see which way you go. ⁵And thus there is confusion, and a sense of endless doubting as you stagger back and forward in the darkness and alone. ⁶Yet these are but appearances of what the journey is, and how it must be made. ⁷For next to you is One Who holds the light before you, so that every step is made in certainty and sureness of the road. ⁸A blindfold can indeed obscure your sight, but cannot make the way itself grow dark. ⁹And He Who travels with you has the light.