1. Illusions will not last. ²Their death is sure and this alone is certain in their world. ³It is the ego’s world because of this. ⁴What is the ego? ⁵But a dream of what you really are. ⁶A thought you are apart from your Creator and a wish to be what He created not. ⁷It is a thing of madness, not reality at all. ⁸A name for namelessness is all it is. ⁹A symbol of impossibility; a choice for options that do not exist. ¹⁰We name it but to help us understand that it is nothing but an ancient thought that what is made has immortality. ¹¹But what could come of this except a dream which, like all dreams, can only end in death?
2. What is the ego? ²Nothingness, but in a form that seems like something. ³In a world of form the ego cannot be denied for it alone seems real. ⁴Yet could God’s Son as He created him abide in form or in a world of form? ⁵Who asks you to define the ego and explain how it arose can be but he who thinks it real, and seeks by definition to ensure that its illusive nature is concealed behind the words that seem to make it so.
3. There is no definition for a lie that serves to make it true. ²Nor can there be a truth that lies conceal effectively. ³The ego’s unreality is not denied by words nor is its meaning clear because its nature seems to have a form. ⁴Who can define the undefinable? ⁵And yet there is an answer even here.
4. We cannot really make a definition for what the ego is, but we can say what it is not. ²And this is shown to us with perfect clarity. ³It is from this that we deduce all that the ego is. ⁴Look at its opposite and you can see the only answer that is meaningful.
5. The ego’s opposite in every way,—in origin, effect and consequence—we call a miracle. ²And here we find all that is not the ego in this world. ³Here is the ego’s opposite and here alone we look on what the ego was, for here we see all that it seemed to do, and cause and its effects must still be one.
6. Where there was darkness now we see the light. ²What is the ego? ³What the darkness was. ⁴Where is the ego? ⁵Where the darkness was. ⁶What is it now and where can it be found? ⁷Nothing and nowhere. ⁸Now the light has come: Its opposite has gone without a trace. ⁹Where evil was there now is holiness. ¹⁰What is the ego? ¹¹What the evil was. ¹²Where is the ego? ¹³In an evil dream that but seemed real while you were dreaming it. ¹⁴Where there was crucifixion stands God’s Son. ¹⁵What is the ego? ¹⁶Who has need to ask? ¹⁷Where is the ego? ¹⁸Who has need to seek for an illusion now that dreams are gone?
7. What is a miracle? ²A dream as well. ³But look at all the aspects of this dream and you will never question any more. ⁴Look at the kindly world you see extend before you as you walk in gentleness. ⁵Look at the helpers all along the way you travel, happy in the certainty of Heaven and the surety of peace. ⁶And look an instant, too, on what you left behind at last and finally passed by.
8. This was the ego—all the cruel hate, the need for vengeance and the cries of pain, the fear of dying and the urge to kill, the brotherless illusion and the self that seemed alone in all the universe. ²This terrible mistake about yourself the miracle corrects as gently as a loving mother sings her child to rest. ³Is not a song like this what you would hear? ⁴Would it not answer all you thought to ask, and even make the question meaningless?
9. Your questions have no answer, being made to still God’s Voice, which asks of everyone one question only: “Are you ready yet to help Me save the world?” ²Ask this instead of what the ego is, and you will see a sudden brightness cover up the world the ego made. ³No miracle is now withheld from anyone. ⁴The world is saved from what you thought it was. ⁵And what it is, is wholly uncondemned and wholly pure.
10. The miracle forgives; the ego damns. ²Neither need be defined except by this. ³Yet could a definition be more sure, or more in line with what salvation is? ⁴Problem and answer lie together here, and having met at last the choice is clear. ⁵Who chooses hell when it is recognized? ⁶And who would not go on a little while when it is given him to understand the way is short and Heaven is his goal?
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