 From Chapter 1 we continue with the suction, the illusion of needs. You who want peace can find it only by complete forgiveness. No learning is acquired by anyone unless he wants to learn it and believes in some way that he needs it. While lack does not exist in the creation of God, it is very apparent in what you have made. It is, in fact, the essential difference between them. Lack implies that you would be better off in a state somehow different from the one you are in. Until the, quote, separation, which is the meaning of the fall, nothing was lacking. There were no needs at all. Needs arise only when you deprive yourself. You act according to the particular order of needs you establish. This, in return, depends on your perception of what you are. A sense of separation from God is the only lack you really need correct. This sense of separation would never have arisen if you had not distorted your perception of truth and had thus perceived yourself as lacking. The idea of order of needs arose because having made this fundamental error, you had already fragmented yourself into levels with different needs. As you integrate, you become one and your needs become one accordingly. Unified needs lead to unified action because this produces a lack of conflict. The idea of orders of need, which follows from the original error that one can be separated from God, requires correction at its own level before the error of perceiving levels at all can be corrected. You cannot behave effectively while you function on different levels. However, while you do, correction must be introduced vertically from the bottom up. This is because you think you live in space where concepts such as up and down are meaningful. Ultimately, space is as meaningless as time. Both are merely beliefs. The real purpose of this world is to use it to correct your unbelief. You can never control the effects of fear yourself because you made fear and you believe in what you made. In attitude then, though not in content, you resemble your creator, who has perfect faith in his creations because he created them. Belief produces the acceptance of existence. That is why you can believe what no one else thinks is true. It is true for you because it was made by you. All aspects of fear are untrue because they do not exist at the creative level and therefore do not exist at all. To whatever extent you are willing to submit your beliefs to this test, to that extent are your perceptions corrected. In sorting out the false from the true, the miracle proceeds along these lines. Perfect love casts out fear. If fear exists, then there is not perfect love. But only perfect love exists. If there is fear, it produces a state that does not exist. Believe this and you will be free. Only God can establish this solution and this faith is His gift. And from the workbook, Lesson 5 I am never upset for the reason I think. This idea, like the preceding one, can be used with any person, situation, or event you think is causing you pain. Apply it specifically to whatever you believe is the cause of your upset. Using the description of the feeling in whatever term seems accurate to you. The upset may seem to be fear, worry, depression, anxiety, anger, hatred, jealousy, or any number of forms, all of which will be perceived as different. This is not true. However, until you learn that form does not matter, each form becomes a proper subject for the exercises for the day. Applying the same idea to each of them separately is the first step in ultimately recognizing they are all the same. When using the idea for today for a specific perceived cause of an upset in any form, use both the name of the form in which you see the upset and the cause which you ascribe to it. For example, I am not angry at blank for the reason I think. I am not afraid of blank for the reason I think. But again, this should not be substituted for practice periods in which you first search your mind for, quote, sources of upset in which you believe and forms of upset which you think result. In these exercises, more than in the preceding ones, you may find it hard to be indiscriminate and to avoid giving greater weight to some subjects than to others. It might help to proceed the exercises with the statement. There are no small upsets. They are all equally disturbing to my peace of mind. Then examine your mind for whatever is distressing you, regardless of how much or how little you think it is doing so. You may also find yourself less willing to apply today's idea to some perceived sources of upset than to others. If this occurs, think first of this. I cannot keep this form of upset and let the others go. For the purposes of these exercises, then, I will regard them all as the same. Then search your mind for no more than a minute or so and try to identify a number of different forms of upset that are disturbing you, regardless of the relative importance that you may give them. Apply the idea for today to each of them using the name of both the source of the upset as you perceive it and of the feeling as you experience it. Further examples are, I am not worried about blank for the reason I think. I am not depressed about blank for the reason I think. Three or four times during the day is enough. So today's idea is the beginning of loosening the fixed belief that the cause of any upset, any emotional upset and any degree of upset being caused by something in the world of time and space, of images, of appearances. This has been the great addiction of the ego, the belief that there is an external world that is causing fear, guilt, pain, shame, hurt. This sleeping mind has been tricked, it's been duped into believing that the world is the cause and the state of mind is the effect. It's an addiction that all human beings have encountered with their time and space experience. You can hear it when little children are arguing. You hurt my feelings, you made me mad, the causation is seen to be in the actions, the behaviors and the upset is not seen to be in the mind emanating from consciousness. So this idea, I am never upset for the reason I think, is absolutely essential as a beginning step of giving up the belief in victimization. It's loosening the grip in the mind on this belief in being a victim, being a victim of the world. And this belief in victim and sacrifice runs very, very deep and it must be dislodged from the mind. This is a lesson that I used for many years, a part of a combination of the lessons that are to follow to turn my mind around from the upside down thinking of the ego to the right-minded thinking of the Holy Spirit, of the living Christ. It is a way of beginning to claim responsibility for the state of mind and not keep pushing off and pawning off and projecting out false causes. And this lesson will transfer and work well with any upset. Today, practice this lesson in very specific forms, as was suggested by Jesus. Be geared up to notice whenever you seem angry, afraid, irritated, annoyed, worried or depressed. To quickly call upon the lesson for the day by saying, I'm not angry at you for the reason I think. I'm not afraid of you for the reason I think. I'm not worried about this for the reason I think. I'm not depressed about this for the reason I think. I'm not irritated at this for the reason I think. I'm not annoyed at this for the reason I think. Practice it with great specificity, with everyone and everything, every situation in which you notice an upset arise today. And again, don't overdo it, as Jesus tells us three or four times during the day is enough, so if you have many upsets arising, just pause and every so often pick one to work with today and give it all of your heart, because this is a time of rejoicing that you are now coming to the end of this seeming upset that was never about anything in form and we have the devotion to be free. So each form that you practice with is a proper subject for using the idea for the day. It's really very profound that there is an escape from all upset and of course this is required to experience lasting, stable, consistent peace of mind. It's absolutely essential. This is the remedy for escaping from the ego and seemingly millennium of darkness and fear. Tell yourself, ah, I will use Lesson 5 today to free my mind and come to know the happiness, the love that I am and have always been because I am a being created by God to be love and extend love but the only way to be aware of my true identity is to face this belief in false causation thinking that there is something in the world that can take away my peace of mind. That is not the truth. I am responsible for my state of mind and so again we practice with today's glorious lesson. I am never upset for the reason I think.