V. The Lessons of the Holy Spirit
T-6.V.1. Like any good teacher, the Holy Spirit knows more than you do now, but He teaches only to make you equal with Him. 2 You had already taught yourself wrongly, having believed what was not true. 3 You did not believe in your own perfection. 4 Would God teach you that you had made a split mind, when He knows your mind only as whole? 5 What God does know is that His communication channels are not open to Him, so that He cannot impart His joy and know that His children are wholly joyous. 6 Giving His joy is an ongoing process, not in time but in eternity. 7 God's extending outward, though not His completeness, is blocked when the Sonship does not communicate with Him as one. 8 So He thought, "My children sleep and must be awakened."/p>
T-6.V.2. How can you wake children in a more kindly way than by a gentle Voice that will not frighten them, but will merely remind them that the night is over and the light has come? 2 You do not inform them that the nightmares that frightened them so badly are not real, because children believe in magic. 3 You merely reassure them that they are safe now. 4 Then you train them to recognize the difference between sleeping and waking, so they will understand they need not be afraid of dreams. 5 And so when bad dreams come, they will themselves call on the light to dispel them.
T-6.V.3. A wise teacher teaches through approach, not avoidance. 2 He does not emphasize what you must avoid to escape from harm, but what you need to learn to have joy. 3 Consider the fear and confusion a child would experience if he were told, "Do not do this because it will hurt you and make you unsafe; but if you do that instead, you will escape from harm and be safe, and then you will not be afraid." 4 It is surely better to use only three words: "Do only that!" 5 This simple statement is perfectly clear, easily understood and very easily remembered.
T-6.V.4. The Holy Spirit never itemizes errors because He does not frighten children, and those who lack wisdom are children. 2 Yet He always answers their call, and His dependability makes them more certain. 3 Children do confuse fantasy and reality, and they are frightened because they do not recognize the difference. 4 The Holy Spirit makes no distinction among dreams. 5 He merely shines them away. 6 His light is always the Call to awaken, whatever you have been dreaming. 7 Nothing lasting lies in dreams, and the Holy Spirit, shining with the light from God Himself, speaks only for what lasts forever. A. To Have, Give All to All
T-6.V.A.1. When your body and your ego and your dreams are gone, you will know that you will last forever. 2 Perhaps you think this is accomplished through death, but nothing is accomplished through death, because death is nothing. 3 Everything is accomplished through life, and life is of the mind and in the mind. 4 The body neither lives nor dies, because it cannot contain you who are life. 5 If we share the same mind, you can overcome death because I did. 6 Death is an attempt to resolve conflict by not deciding at all. 7 Like any other impossible solution the ego attempts, it will not work ./p>
T-6.V.A.2. God did not make the body, because it is destructible, and therefore not of the Kingdom. 2 The body is the symbol of what you think you are. 3 It is clearly a separation device, and therefore does not exist. 4 The Holy Spirit, as always, takes what you have made and translates it into a learning device. 5 Again as always, He reinterprets what the ego uses as an argument for separation into a demonstration against it. 6 If the mind can heal the body, but the body cannot heal the mind, then the mind must be stronger than the body. 7 Every miracle demonstrates this.
T-6.V.A.3. I have said that the Holy Spirit is the motivation for miracles. 2 He always tells you that only the mind is real, because only the mind can be shared. 3 The body is separate, and therefore cannot be part of you. 4 To be of one mind is meaningful, but to be one body is meaningless. 5 By the laws of mind, then, the body is meaningless.
T-6.V.A.4. To the Holy Spirit, there is no order of difficulty in miracles. 2 This is familiar enough to you by now, but it has not yet become believable. 3 Therefore, you do not understand it and cannot use it. 4 We have too much to accomplish on behalf of the Kingdom to let this crucial concept slip away. 5 It is a real foundation stone of the thought system I teach and want you to teach. 6 You cannot perform miracles without believing it, because it is a belief in perfect equality. 7 Only one equal gift can be offered to the equal Sons of God, and that is full appreciation. 8 Nothing more and nothing less. 9 Without a range, order of difficulty is meaningless, and there must be no range in what you offer to your brother.
T-6.V.A.5. The Holy Spirit, Who leads to God, translates communication into being, just as He ultimately translates perception into knowledge. 2 You do not lose what you communicate. 3 The ego uses the body for attack, for pleasure and for pride. 4 The insanity of this perception makes it a fearful one indeed. 5 The Holy Spirit sees the body only as a means of communication, and because communicating is sharing it becomes communion. 6 Perhaps you think that fear as well as love can be communicated; and therefore can be shared. 7 Yet this is not so real as it may appear. 8 Those who communicate fear are promoting attack, and attack always breaks communication, making it impossible. 9 Egos do join together in temporary allegiance, but always for what each one can get separately. 10 The Holy Spirit communicates only what each one can give to all. 11 He never takes anything back, because He wants you to keep it. 12 Therefore, His teaching begins with the lesson: 13 To have, give all to all.
T-6.V.A.6. This is a very preliminary step, and the only one you must take for yourself. 2 It is not even necessary that you complete the step yourself, but it is necessary that you turn in that direction. 3 Having chosen to go that way, you place yourself in charge of the journey, where you and only you must remain. 4 This step may appear to exacerbate conflict rather than resolve it, because it is the beginning step in reversing your perception and turning it right-side up. 5 This conflicts with the upside-down perception you have not yet abandoned, or the change in direction would not have been necessary. 6 Some remain at this step for a long time, experiencing very acute conflict. 7 At this point they may try to accept the conflict, rather than take the next step towards its resolution. 8 Having taken the first step, however, they will be helped. 9 Once they have chosen what they cannot complete alone, they are no longer alone.
T-6.V. B.1 To Have Peace, Teach Peace to Learn It. All who believe in separation have a basic fear of retaliation and abandonment. 2 They believe in attack and rejection, so that is what they perceive and teach and learn. 3 These insane ideas are clearly the result of dissociation and projection. 4 What you teach you are, but it is quite apparent that you can teach wrongly, and can therefore teach yourself wrong. 5 Many thought I was attacking them, even though it was apparent I was not. 6 An insane learner learns strange lessons. 7 What you must recognize is that when you do not share a thought system, you are weakening it. 8 Those who believe in it therefore perceive this as an attack on them. 9 This is because everyone identifies himself with his thought system, and every thought system centers on what you believe you are. 10 If the center of the thought system is true, only truth extends from it. 11 But if a lie is at its center, only deception proceeds from it.
T-6.V.B.2. All good teachers realize that only fundamental change will last, but they do not begin at that level. 2 Strengthening motivation for change is their first and foremost goal. 3 It is also their last and final one. 4 Increasing motivation for change in the learner is all that a teacher need do to guarantee change. 5 Change in motivation is a change of mind, and this will inevitably produce fundamental change because the mind is fundamental.
T-6.V.B.3. The first step in the reversal or undoing process is the undoing of the getting concept. 2 Accordingly, the Holy Spirit's first lesson was "To have, give all to all." 3 I said that this is apt to increase conflict temporarily, and we can clarify this still further now. 4 At this point, the equality of having and being is not yet perceived. 5 Until it is, having appears to be the opposite of giving. 6 Therefore, the first lesson seems to contain a contradiction, since it is being learned by a conflicted mind. 7 This means conflicting motivation, and so the lesson cannot be learned consistently as yet. 8 Further, the mind of the learner projects its own conflict, and thus does not perceive consistency in the minds of others, making him suspicious of their motivation. 9 This is the real reason why, in many respects, the first lesson is the hardest to learn. 10 Still strongly aware of the ego in yourself, and responding primarily to the ego in others, you are being taught to react to both as if what you do believe is not true.
T-6.V.B.4. Upside down as always, the ego perceives the first lesson as insane. 2 In fact, this is its only alternative since the other possibility, which would be much less acceptable to it, would obviously be that it is insane. 3 The ego's judgment, here as always, is predetermined by what it is. 4 The fundamental change will still occur with the change of mind in the thinker. 5 Meanwhile, the increasing clarity of the Holy Spirit's Voice makes it impossible for the learner not to listen. 6 For a time, then, he is receiving conflicting messages and accepting both.
T-6.V.B.5. The way out of conflict between two opposing thought systems is clearly to choose one and relinquish the other. 2 If you identify with your thought system, and you cannot escape this, and if you accept two thought systems which are in complete disagreement, peace of mind is impossible. 3 If you teach both, which you will surely do as long as you accept both, you are teaching conflict and learning it. 4 Yet you do want peace, or you would not have called upon the Voice for peace to help you. 5 Its lesson is not insane; the conflict is.
T-6.V.B.6. There can be no conflict between sanity and insanity. 2 Only one is true, and therefore only one is real. 3 The ego tries to persuade you that it is up to you to decide which voice is true, but the Holy Spirit teaches you that truth was created by God, and your decision cannot change it. 4 As you begin to realize the quiet power of the Holy Spirit's Voice, and Its perfect consistency, it must dawn on your mind that you are trying to undo a decision that was irrevocably made for you. 5 That is why I suggested before that you remind yourself to allow the Holy Spirit to decide for God for you.
T-6.V.B.7. You are not asked to make insane decisions, although you can think you are. 2 It must, however, be insane to believe that it is up to you to decide what God's creations are. 3 The Holy Spirit perceives the conflict exactly as it is. 4 Therefore, His second lesson is: 5 To have peace, teach peace to learn it.
T-6.V.B.8. This is still a preliminary step, since having and being are still not equated. 2 It is, however, more advanced than the first step, which is really only the beginning of the thought reversal. 3 The second step is a positive affirmation of what you want. 4 This, then, is a step in the direction out of conflict, since it means that alternatives have been considered, and one has been chosen as more desirable. 5 Nevertheless, the term "more desirable" still implies that the desirable has degrees. 6 Therefore, although this step is essential for the ultimate decision, it is clearly not the final one. 7 Lack of order of difficulty in miracles has not yet been accepted, because nothing is difficult that is wholly desired. 8 To desire wholly is to create, and creating cannot be difficult if God Himself created you as a creator.
T-6.V.B.9. The second step, then, is still perceptual, although it is a giant step toward the unified perception that reflects God's knowing. 2 As you take this step and hold this direction, you will be pushing toward the center of your thought system, where the fundamental change will occur. 3 At the second step progress is intermittent, but the second step is easier than the first because it follows. 4 Realizing that it must follow is a demonstration of a growing awareness that the Holy Spirit will lead you on.
C. Be Vigilant Only for God and His Kingdom
T-6.V. C.1 Be Vigilant Only for God and His Kingdom We said before that the Holy Spirit is evaluative, and must be. 2 He sorts out the true from the false in your mind, and teaches you to judge every thought you allow to enter it in the light of what God put there. 3 Whatever is in accord with this light He retains, to strengthen the Kingdom in you. 4 What is partly in accord with it He accepts and purifies. 5 But what is out of accord entirely He rejects by judging against. 6 This is how He keeps the Kingdom perfectly consistent and perfectly unified. 7 Remember, however, that what the Holy Spirit rejects the ego accepts. 8 This is because they are in fundamental disagreement about everything, being in fundamental disagreement about what you are. 9 The ego's beliefs on this crucial issue vary, and that is why it promotes different moods. 10 The Holy Spirit never varies on this point, and so the one mood He engenders is joy. 11 He protects it by rejecting everything that does not foster joy, and so He alone can keep you wholly joyous.
T-6.V.C.2. The Holy Spirit does not teach you to judge others, because He does not want you to teach error and learn it yourself. 2 He would hardly be consistent if He allowed you to strengthen what you must learn to avoid. 3 In the mind of the thinker, then, He is judgmental, but only in order to unify the mind so it can perceive without judgment. 4 This enables the mind to teach without judgment, and therefore to learn to be without judgment. 5 The undoing is necessary only in your mind, so that you will not project, instead of extend. 6 God Himself has established what you can extend with perfect safety. 7 Therefore, the Holy Spirit's third lesson is: 8 Be vigilant only for God and His Kingdom.
T-6.V.C.3. This is a major step toward fundamental change. 2 Yet it still has an aspect of thought reversal, since it implies that there is something you must be vigilant against. 3 It has advanced far from the first lesson, which is merely the beginning of the thought reversal, and also from the second, which is essentially the identification of what is more desirable. 4 This step, which follows from the second as the second follows from the first, emphasizes the dichotomy between the desirable and the undesirable. 5 It therefore makes the ultimate choice inevitable.
T-6.V.C.4. While the first step seems to increase conflict and the second may still entail conflict to some extent, this step calls for consistent vigilance against it. 2 I have already told you that you can be as vigilant against the ego as for it. 3 This lesson teaches not only that you can be, but that you must be. 4 It does not concern itself with order of difficulty, but with clear-cut priority for vigilance. 09 5 This lesson is unequivocal in that it teaches there must be no exceptions, although it does not deny that the temptation to make exceptions will occur. 6 Here, then, your consistency is called on despite chaos. 7 Yet chaos and consistency cannot coexist for long, since they are mutually exclusive. 8 As long as you must be vigilant against anything, however, you are not recognizing this mutual exclusiveness, and still believe that you can choose either one. 9 By teaching what to choose, the Holy Spirit will ultimately teach you that you need not choose at all. 10 This will finally liberate your mind from choice, and direct it towards creation within the Kingdom.
T-6.V.C.5. Choosing through the Holy Spirit will lead you to the Kingdom. 2 You create by your true being, but what you are you must learn to remember. 3 The way to remember it is inherent in the third step, which brings together the lessons implied in the others, and goes beyond them towards real integration. 4 If you allow yourself to have in your mind only what God put there, you are acknowledging your mind as God created it. 5 Therefore, you are accepting it as it is. 6 Since it is whole, you are teaching peace because you believe in it. 7 The final step will still be taken for you by God, but by the third step the Holy Spirit has prepared you for God. 8 He is getting you ready for the translation of having into being by the very nature of the steps you must take with Him.
T-6.V.C.6. You learn first that having rests on giving, and not on getting. 2 Next you learn that you learn what you teach, and that you want to learn peace. 3 This is the condition for identifying with the Kingdom, since it is the condition of the Kingdom. 4 You have believed that you are without the Kingdom, and have therefore excluded yourself from it in your belief. 5 It is therefore essential to teach you that you must be included, and that the belief that you are not is the only thing that you must exclude.
T-6.V.C.7. The third step is thus one of protection for your mind, allowing you to identify only with the center, where God placed the altar to Himself. 2 Altars are beliefs, but God and His creations are beyond belief because they are beyond question. 3 The Voice for God speaks only for belief beyond question, which is the preparation for being without question. 4 As long as belief in God and His Kingdom is assailed by any doubts in your mind, His perfect accomplishment is not apparent to you. 5 This is why you must be vigilant on God's behalf. 10 6 The ego speaks against His creation, and therefore engenders doubt. 7 You cannot go beyond belief until you believe fully.
T-6.V.C.8. To teach the whole Sonship without exception demonstrates that you perceive its wholeness, and have learned that it is one. 2 Now you must be vigilant to hold its oneness in your mind because, if you let doubt enter, you will lose awareness of its wholeness and will be unable to teach it. 3 The wholeness of the Kingdom does not depend on your perception, but your awareness of its wholeness does. 4 It is only your awareness that needs protection, since being cannot be assailed. 5 Yet a real sense of being cannot be yours while you are doubtful of what you are. 6 This is why vigilance is essential. 7 Doubts about being must not enter your mind, or you cannot know what you are with certainty. 8 Certainty is of God for you. 9 Vigilance is not necessary for truth, but it is necessary against illusions.
T-6.V.C.9. Truth is without illusions and therefore within the Kingdom. 2 Everything outside the Kingdom is illusion. 3 When you threw truth away you saw yourself as if you were without it. 4 By making another kingdom that you valued, you did not keep only the Kingdom of God in your mind, and thus placed part of your mind outside it. 5 What you made has imprisoned your will, and given you a sick mind that must be healed. 6 Your vigilance against this sickness is the way to heal it. 7 Once your mind is healed it radiates health, and thereby teaches healing. 8 This establishes you as a teacher who teaches like me. 9 Vigilance was required of me as much as of you, and those who choose to teach the same thing must be in agreement about what they believe.
T-6.V.C.10. The third step, then, is a statement of what you want to believe, and entails a willingness to relinquish everything else. 2 The Holy Spirit will enable you to take this step, if you follow Him. 3 Your vigilance is the sign that you want Him to guide you. 4 Vigilance does require effort, but only until you learn that effort itself is unnecessary. 5 You have exerted great effort to preserve what you made because it was not true. 6 Therefore, you must now turn your effort against it. 7 Only this can cancel out the need for effort, and call upon the being which you both have and are. 8 This recognition is wholly without effort since it is already true and needs no protection. 9 It is in the perfect safety of God. 10 Therefore, inclusion is total and creation is without limit. 11