Lesson 107
Truth will correct all errors in my mind.
1. What can correct illusions but the truth? ²And what are errors but illusions that remain unrecognized for what they are? ³Where truth has entered errors disappear. ⁴They merely vanish, leaving not a trace by which to be remembered. ⁵They are gone because, without belief, they have no life. ⁶And so they disappear to nothingness, returning whence they came. ⁷From dust to dust they come and go, for only truth remains.
All thoughts that are not of God are illusions and they exist in our minds because we still want them there. Their effects in the world remain as long as we want them to. When we decide that we do not want them any longer, they disappear. When I realized that this was true, I first had to realize that only truth is real and so anything that is not truth is an illusion and so possible to undo.
Then I had to learn to recognize illusion when I saw it and to realize that it has no value. I had to become vigilant for these thoughts and willing to allow Truth to correct them in my mind. I do this consistently, now. Sometimes I will have a thought I recognize as untrue. I know it is an untrue thought because believing it causes suffering.
Perhaps someone I love becomes sick or a friend dies. Maybe it is just a memory of a thing I did that causes me distress when I think of it. Or perhaps someone promises to do something for me then never shows up. Whatever the upsetting thought, if I keep it, I suffer and I forget who I am. I have learned that being right about any of these thoughts is poor payment for keeping them. I ask the Holy Spirit to heal my mind and help me to see the situation differently. My mind is corrected, sometimes so permanently that I cannot bring to mind the problem.
2. Can you imagine what a state of mind without illusions is? ²How it would feel? ³Try to remember when there was a time,—perhaps a minute, maybe even less—when nothing came to interrupt your peace; when you were certain you were loved and safe. ⁴Then try to picture what it would be like to have that moment be extended to the end of time and to eternity. ⁵Then let the sense of quiet that you felt be multiplied a hundred times, and then be multiplied another hundred more.
When I used to read this paragraph, I had a hard time imagining this kind of peace and no ability to sustain it. Now, I know that I have that state of mind more often and so I can imagine it. I sit here questioning myself. I can have it for a few minutes without any strain or interruption, but then I turn to the ego thought system and hear its objections. It doesn’t feel like I deliberately sought out illusions, it feels like they just showed up against my will, but that is not possible.
I was testing this and I closed my eyes and felt myself fall into silence and stillness and it feels so good. But soon the mind is thinking of something I need to do, or a movie I watched, or the pain in my side. It feels as if the world is intruding on my peace and I have no control but that is a lie. There was a time when I could not sustain that level of peace for a minute. There was a time when I was unaware of that level of peace at all. Knowledge coupled with practice is changing this and bringing me more peace.
3. And now you have a hint, not more than just the faintest intimation of the state your mind will rest in when the truth has come. ²Without illusions there could be no fear, no doubt and no attack. ³When truth has come all pain is over, for there is no room for transitory thoughts and dead ideas to linger in your mind. ⁴Truth occupies your mind completely, liberating you from all beliefs in the ephemeral. ⁵They have no place because the truth has come, and they are nowhere. ⁶They can not be found, for truth is everywhere forever, now.
Everything we experience as this world, which includes these bodies, is an illusion sustained only by our belief in it. The competition, the attacks, the pain and suffering, and inevitably, death, all are illusions and continue to permeate all we know, not because they are real, but because we keep believing in them. Jesus calls these dead ideas because they are not real so they are not life.
We are not under the control of fear and hate and guilt, we made these dead ideas, and every day we try to breathe life into them with our attention. What would life be like if we believed only the truth? This is why we came this time. We have made a decision to free the world of untrue thoughts. This is our purpose and while we can drag our feet, we will ultimately succeed. Perhaps this will be the lifetime when we finally let go of the last vestiges of ego.
4. When truth has come it does not stay a while, to disappear or change to something else. ²It does not shift and alter in its form, nor come and go and go and come again. ³It stays exactly as it always was, to be depended on in every need, and trusted with a perfect trust in all the seeming difficulties and the doubts that the appearances the world presents engender. ⁴They will merely blow away, when truth corrects the errors in your mind.
5. When truth has come it harbors in its wings the gift of perfect constancy, and love which does not falter in the face of pain, but looks beyond it, steadily and sure. ²Here is the gift of healing, for the truth needs no defense, and therefore no attack is possible. ³Illusions can be brought to truth to be corrected. ⁴But the truth stands far beyond illusions, and can not be brought to them to turn them into truth.
Jesus is assuring us that healing of the belief in the illusions is the way we return Home. It is the way we remember who we are and the way we experience this life in happiness and in peace. Truth is dependable. It doesn’t change. The way we experience healing is to bring the illusion to the truth. Truth will correct the error. We cannot bring the truth to the illusion and expect the illusion to change.
Here is an example. I am very close to someone who is sick. From the perspective of the ego thought system, this is scary and I want her body to be healed. I want to bring the truth into the illusion, to bring the truth into the story of a sick body and the body miraculously heals.
But what actually works, is the desire for my mind to be healed so that I can be helpful to this dear one. I bring the belief in her sickness to the truth and let the truth transform my thinking. I then hold that light in my mind and this will heal her mind. ⁵The power of one mind can shine into another, because all the lamps of God were lit by the same spark.
6. Truth does not come and go nor shift nor change, in this appearance now and then in that, evading capture and escaping grasp. ²It does not hide. ³It stands in open light, in obvious accessibility. ⁴It is impossible that anyone could seek it truly, and would not succeed. ⁵Today belongs to truth. ⁶Give truth its due, and it will give you yours. ⁷You were not meant to suffer and to die. ⁸Your Father wills these dreams be gone. ⁹Let truth correct them all.
We are not meant to suffer and die. The truth is available to us at all times. It is readily and obviously available. It does not hide from us. We need only be willing to ask for truth and to accept it in place of what was believed before. God wants us to be happy and at peace and so it is always possible that this is so.
7. We do not ask for what we do not have. ²We merely ask for what belongs to us, that we may recognize it as our own. ³Today we practice on the happy note of certainty that has been born of truth. ⁴The shaky and unsteady footsteps of illusion are not our approach today. ⁵We are as certain of success as we are sure we live and hope and breathe and think. ⁶We do not doubt we walk with truth today, and count on it to enter into all the exercises that we do this day.
When we ask for truth, we are not asking for something we do not have. We are asking for the awareness of what is already ours. Imagine that a relative left you a million dollars but that the estate didn’t know how to find you to let you know. Even though the money is in the bank available to you at any time, it does you no good because you don’t know it is there. Healing, happiness, peace of mind, eternity is ours but we must make our desire for it known, and then we must accept it. That is our work for the day. ⁵We are as certain of success as we are sure we live and hope and breathe and think.
8. Begin by asking Him Who goes with you upon this undertaking that He be in your awareness as you go with Him. ²You are not made of flesh and blood and bone, but were created by the selfsame Thought which gave the gift of life to Him as well. ³He is your Brother, and so like to you your Father knows that You are both the same. ⁴It is your Self you ask to go with you, and how could He be absent where you are?
Jesus begins this paragraph by reminding us that we are not these bodies. We were created by the same Thought that gave life to Him. He is our Brother and we are all the same, Us, our Brother, and our Father. ⁴It is your Self you ask to go with you, and how could He be absent where you are?
9. Truth will correct all errors in your mind which tell you you could be apart from Him. ²You speak to Him today, and make your pledge to let His function be fulfilled through you. ³To share His function is to share His joy. ⁴His confidence is with you, as you say:
⁵Truth will correct all errors in my mind, and I will rest in Him Who is my Self.
⁶Then let Him lead you gently to the truth, which will envelop you and give you peace so deep and tranquil that you will return to the familiar world reluctantly.
All those thoughts that tell us we have reason to fear, reason to be guilty, that the guilt we project onto others is justified, that the rage and depression and all the other feelings we experience as we accept the ego as real can be easily corrected. We just call on our Self and let His function be fulfilled through us today. The fear I had for my dear one who was sick is something I released to the Holy Spirit and in return, He corrected that error in my mind and led me to the truth. He gave me peace so deep and tranquil that I returned to the familiar world reluctantly.
10. And yet you will be glad to look again upon this world. ²For you will bring with you the promise of the changes which the truth that goes with you will carry to the world. ³They will increase with every gift you give of five small minutes, and the errors that surround the world will be corrected as you let them be corrected in your mind.
11. Do not forget your function for today. ²Each time you tell yourself with confidence, “Truth will correct all errors in my mind,” you speak for all the world and Him Who would release the world, as He would set you free.
Let us today be mindful of our purpose today. When we speak for the truth we do not speak only for ourselves. We speak on behalf of the Sonship and all are blessed as we do so. We are all set free.