The learning of the world is built upon a concept of the self adjusted
to the world’s reality. It fits it well. For this an image is that suits
a world of shadows and illusions. Here it walks at home, where what it
sees is one with it. The building of a concept of the self is what the
learning of the world is FOR. This is its purpose; that you come without
a self, and make one as you go along. And by the time you reach
“maturity,” you have perfected it to meet the world on equal terms, at
one with its demands.

A CONCEPT of the self is made by YOU. It bears no likeness to yourself
at all. It is an idol, made to take the place of your reality as Son of
God. The concept of the self the world would teach is not the thing that
it appears to be. For it is made to serve two purposes, but one of which
the mind can recognize. The first presents the face of innocence, the
aspect acted ON. It is this face that smiles and charms and even seems
to love. It searches for companions, and it looks, at times with pity,
on the suffering, and sometimes offers solace. It believes that it is
good, within an evil world.

This aspect can grow angry, for the world is wicked, and unable to
provide the love and shelter innocence deserves. And so this face is
often wet with tears at the injustices the world accords to those who
would be generous and good. This aspect never makes the first attack.
But every day a hundred little things make small assaults upon its
innocence, provoking it to irritation, and at last to open insult and
abuse.

The face of innocence the concept of the self so proudly wears can
tolerate attack in self-defense, for is it not a well-known fact the
world deals harshly with defenseless innocence? No-one who makes a
picture of himself omits this face, for he has need of it. The other
side, he does not WANT to see. Yet it is here the learning of the world
has set its sights, for it is here the world’s “reality” is set, to see
to it the idol lasts.

Beneath the face of innocence there is a lesson that the concept of the
self was made to teach. It is a lesson in a terrible displacement, and a
fear so devastating that the face which smiles above it must forever
look away, lest it perceive the treachery it hides. The lesson teaches
this; “I am the thing you made of me, and as you look on me you stand
condemned, because of what I am.” On this conception of the self the
world smiles with approval, for it guarantees the pathways of the world
are safely kept, and those who walk on them will not escape.

Here is the central lesson that ensures your brother is condemned
eternally. For what you are has now become HIS sin. For this is no
forgiveness possible. No longer does it matter what he does, for your
accusing finger points to him, unwavering and deadly in its aim. It
points to you as well, but this is kept still deeper in the mists below
the face of innocence. And in these shrouded vaults are all his sins and
yours preserved, and kept in darkness, where they cannot be perceived as
errors, which the light would surely show. You can be neither blamed for
what you are, nor can you change the things it makes you do. And you are
each the symbol of your sins to one another, silently, and yet with
ceaseless urgency, condemning still your brother for the hated thing you
are.

Concepts are learned. They are not natural. Apart from learning they do
not exist. They are not given, and they must be made. Not one of them is
true, and many come from feverish imaginations, hot with hatred and
distortions born of fear. What is a concept but a thought to which its
maker gives a meaning of his own? Concepts
maintain the world. But they can not be used to demonstrate the world is
real. For all of them are made within the world, born in its shadow,
growing in its ways, and finally “maturing” in its thought. They are
ideas of idols, painted with the brushes of the world, which cannot make
a single picture representing truth.

A concept of the self is meaningless, for no-one here can see what it is
FOR, and therefore cannot picture what it IS. Yet is all learning which
the world directs begun and ended with the single aim of teaching you
this concept of yourself, that you will choose to follow this world’s
laws, and never seek to go beyond its roads, nor realize the way you see
yourself. Now must the Holy Spirit find a way to help you see this
concept of the self must be undone, if any peace of mind is to be given
you. Nor can it be unlearned except by lessons aimed to teach that you
are something ELSE. For otherwise, you would be asked to make exchange
of what you now believe for total loss of self, and greater terror would
arise in you.

Thus are the Holy Spirit’s lesson plans arranged in easy steps, that
though there be some lack of ease at times and some distress, there is
no shattering of what was learned, but just a re-translation of what
seems to be the evidence on its behalf. Let us consider, then, what
proof there is that you are what your brother made of you. For even
though you do not yet perceive that this is what you think, you surely
learned by now that you BEHAVE as if it were. Does HE react for YOU? And
did he know exactly what would happen? Could he see your future and
ordain, before it came, what you should do in every circumstance? He
must have made the world as well as you, to have such prescience in the
things to come.

That you are what your brother made of you seems most unlikely. Even if
he did, who gave the face of innocence to you? Is this YOUR
contribution? Who is, then, the “you” who made it? And who is deceived
by all your goodness, and attacks it so? Let us forget the concept’s
foolishness, and merely think of this; there are two parts to what you
think yourself to be. If one was generated by your brother, who was
there to make the other? And from whom must something be kept hidden? If
the world be evil, there is still no need to hide what YOU are made
of. Who is there to see? And what but is attacked could NEED defense?

Perhaps the reason why this concept must be kept in darkness is that, in
the light, the one who would not think it true is YOU. And what would
happen to the world you know, if all its underpinnings were removed?
Your concept of the world DEPENDS upon this concept of the self. And
both would go, if either one were ever raised to doubt. The Holy Spirit
does not seek to throw you into panic. So He merely asks if just a
LITTLE question might be raised.

There are alternatives about the thing that you must be. You might, for
instance, be the thing you chose to have your BROTHER be. This shifts the
concept of the self from what is wholly passive, and at least makes way
for active choice, and some acknowledgment that interaction must have
entered in. There is some understanding that you chose for both of you,
and what he represents has meaning that was given it by you. It also
shows some glimmering of sight into perception’s law that what you see
reflects the state of the PERCEIVER’S mind. Yet who was it that did the
choosing first? If you are what you chose your brother be, alternatives
were there to choose among, and someone must have first decided on the
one to choose, and let the others go.

Although this step has gains, it does not yet approach a basic question.
Something must have gone BEFORE these concepts of the self. And
something must have done the learning which gave rise to them. Nor can
this be explained by either view. The main advantage of the shifting to
the second from the first is that YOU somehow entered in the choice by
your decision. But this gain is paid in almost equal loss, for now YOU
stand accused of guilt for what your brother is. And you must share his
guilt, because you chose it for him in the image of your own. While only
he was treacherous before, now must you be condemned along with him.

The concept of the self has always been the great preoccupation of the
world. And everyone believes that he must find the answer to the riddle
of himself. Salvation can be seen as nothing more than the ESCAPE from
concepts. It does not concern itself with content of the mind, but with
the simple statement that it THINKS. And what can think has choice, and
CAN be shown that different thoughts have different consequence. So it
can learn that everything it thinks reflects the deep confusion that it
feels about how it was made, and what it is. And vaguely does the
concept of the self appear to answer what it does not know.

Seek not your Self in symbols. There can BE no concept that can stand for
what you are. What matters it which concept you accept while you
perceive a self which interacts with evil, and reacts to wicked things?
Your concept of yourself will still remain quite meaningless. And you
will not perceive that you can interact but with yourself. To see a
guilty world is but the sign your learning has been guided by the world,
and you behold it as you see yourself. The concept of the self embraces
all you look upon, and nothing is outside of this perception. If you can
be hurt by anything, you see a picture of your secret wishes. Nothing
more than this. And in your suffering of any kind, you see your own
concealed desire to kill.

You will make many concepts of the self as learning goes along. Each one
will show the changes in your own relationships, as your perception of
yourself is changed. There will be some confusion every time there is a
shift, but be you thankful that the learning of the world is loosening
its grasp upon your mind. And be sure and happy in the confidence that
it will go at last, and leave your mind at peace. The role of the
accuser will appear in many places and in many forms. And each will seem
to be accusing YOU. Yet have no fear it will not be undone.

The world can teach no images of you unless you WANT to learn them.
There will come a time when images have all gone by, and you will see
you know not what you are. It is to this unsealed and open mind that
truth returns, unhindered and unbound. Where concepts of the self have
been laid by is truth revealed exactly as it IS. When every concept has
been raised to doubt and question, and been recognized as made on no
assumptions which would stand the light, then is the truth left free to
enter in its sanctuary, clean and free of guilt. There is no statement
that the world is more afraid to hear than this:

“I do not know the thing I am, and therefore do not know what I am
doing, where I am, or how to look upon the world or on myself.”

Yet in this learning is salvation born. And what you are will TELL you
of Itself.