The belief in order of difficulties is the basis for the world’s
perception. It rests on differences; on uneven background and shifting
foreground, on unequal heights and diverse sizes, on varying degrees of
darkness and light, and thousands of contrasts in which each thing seen
competes with every other in order to be recognized. A larger object
overshadows a smaller one. A brighter thing draws the attention from
another with less intensity of appeal. And a more threatening idea, or
one conceived of as more desirable by the world’s standards, completely
upsets the mental balance. What the body’s eyes behold is only conflict.
Look not to them for peace and understanding.

Illusions are always illusions of differences. How could it be
otherwise? By definition, an illusion is an attempt to make something
real that is regarded as of major importance, but is recognized as being
untrue. The mind therefore seeks to make it true out of its intensity of
desire to have it for itself. Illusions are travesties of creation;
attempts to bring truth to lies. Finding truth unacceptable, the mind
revolts against truth and gives itself an illusion of victory. Finding
health a burden, it retreats into feverish dreams. And in these dreams
the mind is separate, different from other minds, with different
interests of its own, and able to gratify its needs at the expense of
others.

Where do all these differences come from? Certainly they seem to be in
the world outside. Yet it is surely the mind that judges what the eyes
behold. It is the mind that interprets the eyes’ messages and gives them
“meaning.” And this meaning does not exist in the world outside at all.
What is seen as “reality” is simply what the mind prefers. Its hierarchy
of values is projected outward, and it sends the body’s eyes to find it.
The body’s eyes will never see except through differences. Yet it is not
the messages they bring on which perception rests. Only the mind
evaluates their messages, so only the mind is responsible for seeing. It
alone decides whether what is seen is real or illusory, desirable or
undesirable, pleasurable or painful.

It is in the sorting out and categorizing activities of the mind that
errors in perception enter. And it is here correction must be made. The
mind classifies what the body’s eyes bring to it according to its
preconceived values, judging where each sense datum fits best. What
basis could be faultier than this? Unrecognized by itself, it has itself
asked to be given what will fit into these categories. And having done
so, it concludes that the categories must be true. On this the judgement
of all differences rests, because it is on this that judgements of the
world depend. Can this confused and senseless “reasoning” be depended on
for anything?

There can be no order of difficulty in healing merely because all
sickness is illusion. Is it harder to dispel the belief of the insane in
a larger hallucination as opposed to a smaller one? Will he agree more
quickly to the unreality of a louder voice he hears than to that of a
softer one? Will he dismiss more easily a whispered demand to kill than
a shout? And do the number of pitchforks the devils he sees carrying
affect their credibility in his perception? His mind has categorized
them as real, and so they are real to him. When he realizes they are all
illusions they will disappear. And so it is with healing. The properties
of illusions which seem to make them different are really irrelevant,
for their properties are as illusory as they are.

The body’s eyes will continue to see differences. But the mind which has
let itself be healed will no longer acknowledge them. There will be
those who seem to be “sicker” than others, and the body’s eyes will
report their changed appearances as before. But the mind will put them
all in one category, – they are unreal. This is the gift of its Teacher;
the understanding that only two categories are meaningful in sorting out
the messages the mind receives from what appears to be the outside
world. And of these two but one is real. Just as reality is wholly real,
apart from size and shape and time and place, for differences cannot
exist within it, so too are illusions without distinction. The one
answer to sickness of any kind is healing. The one answer to all
illusions is truth.