It cannot be emphasized too often that correcting perception is merely a
temporary expedient. It is necessary to do so only because misperception
is a block to knowledge, while accurate perception is a stepping-stone
TOWARDS it. The whole value of right perception lies in the inevitable
judgement which it entails that it IS unnecessary. This removes the block
entirely. You may ask how this is possible as long as you appear to be
living in this world, and since this is a sensible question, it has a
sensible answer. You must be careful, however, that you really
understand the question. What IS the “you” who are living in this world?

Immortality is a constant state. It is as true now as it ever was or
ever will be, because it implies NO CHANGE AT ALL. It is not a
continuum, nor is it understood by being compared to an opposite.
Knowledge never involves comparisons. That is its essential difference
from everything else the mind can grasp. “A little knowledge” is not
dangerous except to the ego. Vaguely it senses threat, and being unable
to realize that “a little knowledge” is a meaningless phrase since “all”
and “a little” in this context are the same, the ego decides that since
“all” is impossible, the fear does not lie there. “A little,” however,
is a scarcity concept, and THIS the ego understands well. “A little,”
then, is perceived as the real threat.

The essential thing to remember is that the ego DOES NOT RECOGNIZE the
real source of its perceived threat, and if YOU associate yourself with
the ego, YOU do not perceive the whole situation as it is. Only your
allegiance to it gives the ego ANY power over you. We have spoken of the
ego as if it were a separate thing acting on its own. This was necessary
to persuade you that you cannot dismiss it lightly, and must realize how
much of your thinking is ego-directed. We cannot safely let it go at
that, however, or you will regard yourselves as necessarily conflicted
as long as you are here, or more properly, as long as you BELIEVE that
you are here.

The ego is nothing more than a PART of your belief about yourselves.
Your other life has continued without interruption, and has been and
always will be totally unaffected by your attempts to disassociate. The
ratio of repression and dissociation varies with the individual
ego-illusion, but dissociation is always involved, or you
would not believe that you ARE here. In learning to escape from the
illusions you have made, your great debt to each other is something you
must never forget. It is exactly the same debt that you owe to me.
Whenever you react egotistically towards each other, you are throwing
away the graciousness of your indebtedness, and the holy perception it
would produce.

The term “holy” can be used here because, as you learn how much you ARE
indebted to the whole Sonship, which INCLUDES me, you come as close to
knowledge as perception ever can. The gap is then so small that
knowledge can easily flow across it, and obliterate it forever. You have
very little trust in me as yet, but it will increase as you turn more
and more often to me INSTEAD of your egos for guidance. The results will
convince you increasingly that your choice in turning to me is the only
sane one you can make. No-one who has learned from experience that one
choice brings peace and joy, while another brings chaos and disaster,
needs much conditioning.

The ego cannot withstand the conditioning process because the process
itself DEMONSTRATES that there is another way. Conditioning by rewards
has always been more effective than conditioning by pain because pain is
an ego-illusion, and can never induce more than a temporary effect. The
rewards of God, however, are immediately recognized as eternal. Since
this recognition is made by you and NOT the ego, the recognition ITSELF
establishes that you and your ego CANNOT be identical. You may believe
that you have already accepted the difference, but you are by no means
convinced as yet. The very fact that you are preoccupied with the idea
of escaping FROM the ego shows this.

You CANNOT escape from the ego by humbling it or controlling it or
punishing it. Remember that the ego and the Soul DO NOT KNOW each other.
The separated mind cannot maintain the separation EXCEPT by
dissociating. Having done this, it utilizes repression against all truly
natural impulses, not because the EGO is a separate thing, but because
you want to believe that YOU are. The ego is a device for maintaining
this belief, but it is still only your willingness to use the device
that enables it to endure.

My trust in you is greater than yours in me at the moment, but it will
not always be that way. Your mission is very simple. You have been
chosen to live so as to demonstrate that you are NOT an ego. I repeat
that I do not choose God’s channels wrongly. The Holy One shares my
trust, and always approves my Atonement decisions because my will is
never out of accord with His. I have told you before that I am in charge
of the whole Atonement. This is ONLY because I completed my part in it
as a man, and can now complete it through other men. My chosen receiving
and sending channels cannot fail because I will lend them MY strength as
long as theirs is wanting.

I will go with you to the Holy One, and through MY perception HE can
bridge the little gap. Your gratitude to EACH OTHER is the only gift I
want. I will bring it to God for you, knowing that to know your brother
IS to know God. A little knowledge is an all-encompassing thing. If you
are grateful to each other, you are grateful to God for what He created.
Through your gratitude you can come to know each other, and one moment
of real recognition makes all men your brothers, because they are all of
your Father. Love does not conquer all things, but it DOES set all
things right. Because you are all the Kingdom of God, I can lead you
back to your own creations, which you do not yet know. What has been
dissociated is still there.

As you come closer to a brother you DO approach me, and as you withdraw
from him, I become distant to you. Your giant step forward was to
insist on a “collaborative venture.” This does not go against the true
spirit of meditation; it is inherent in it. Meditation is a
collaborative venture with God. It CANNOT be undertaken successfully by
those who disengage themselves from the Sonship, because they are
disengaging themselves from me. God will come to you ONLY as you will
give Him to your brothers. Learn first of them, and you will be ready to
hear God as you hear them. That is because the function of love is one.

How can you teach someone the value of something he has deliberately
thrown away? He must have thrown it away because he did not value it. You
can only show him how miserable he is without it, and bring it near very
slowly, so he can learn how his misery lessens as he approaches it. This
conditions him to associate his misery with its absence, and to
associate the opposite of misery with its presence. It gradually becomes
desirable, as he changes his mind about its worth.

I am conditioning you to associate misery with the ego and joy with the
Soul. You have conditioned yourselves the other way around. A far
greater reward, however, will break through any conditioning, if it is
repeatedly offered whenever the old habit pattern is broken. You are
still free to choose, but can you really WANT the rewards of the ego in
the presence of the rewards of God?