 We continue with Chapter 6, the only answer. Remember that the Holy Spirit is the answer, not the question. The ego always speaks first. It is capricious and does not mean its maker well. It believes, and correctly so, that its maker may withdraw his support from it at any moment. If it meant you well, it would be glad, as the Holy Spirit will be glad when he has brought you home, and you are no longer needing his guidance. The ego does not regard itself as part of you. Herein lies its primary error, the foundation of its whole thought system. When God created you, He made you part of Him. That is why attack within the kingdom is impossible. You made the ego without love, and so it does not love you. You could not remain within the kingdom without love, and since the kingdom is love, you believe that you are without it. This enables the ego to regard itself as separate and outside its maker, thus speaking for the part of your mind that believes you are separate and outside the mind of God. The ego then raised the first question that was ever asked, but one it can never answer. That question, what are you, was the beginning of doubt. The ego has never answered any question since, although it has raised a great many. The most inventive activities of the ego have never done more than obscure the question because you have the answer, and the ego is afraid of you. You cannot understand the conflict until you fully understand the basic fact that the ego cannot know anything. The Holy Spirit does not speak first, but He always answers. Everyone has called upon Him for help at one time or another, and in one way or another, and has been answered. Since the Holy Spirit answers truly, He answers for all time, which means that everyone has the answer now. The ego cannot hear the Holy Spirit, but it does believe that part of the mind that made it is against it. It interprets this as a justification for attacking its maker. It believes that the best defense is attack, and wants you to believe it. Unless you do believe it, you will not side with it, and the ego feels badly in need of allies, though not of brothers. Perceiving something alien to itself in your mind, the ego turns to the body as its ally because the body is not part of you. This makes the body the ego's friend. It is an alliance frankly based on separation. If you side with this alliance, you will be afraid because you are siding with an alliance of fear. The ego uses the body to conspire against your mind, and because the ego realizes that its enemy can end them both, merely by recognizing they are not part of you, they join in the attack together. This is perhaps the strangest perception of all, if you consider what it really involves. The ego, which is not real, attempts to persuade the mind, which is real, that the mind is the ego's learning device, and further that the body is more real than the mind is. No one in his right mind could possibly believe this, and no one in his right mind does believe it. Here, then, the one answer of the Holy Spirit to all the questions the ego raises. You are a child of God, a priceless part of his kingdom, which he created as part of him. Nothing else exists, and only this is real. You have chosen a sleep in which you have had bad dreams, but the sleep is not real, and God calls you to awaken. There will be nothing left of your dream when you hear him, because you will awaken. Your dreams contain many of the ego's symbols, and they have confused you. If that was only because you were asleep and did not know. When you wake, you will see the truth around you, and you will no longer believe in dreams, because they will have no reality for you. Yet the kingdom, and all that you have created there, will have great reality for you, because they are beautiful and true. In the kingdom where you are, and what you are, is perfectly certain. There is no doubt, because the first question was never asked. Having finally been wholly answered, it has never been. Being alone lives in the kingdom, where everything lives in God without question. The time spent on questioning in the dream has given way to creation and to its eternity. You are certain as God, because you are as true as he is. But what was once certain in your mind has become only the ability for certainty. The introduction of abilities into being was the beginning of uncertainty, because abilities are potentials, not accomplishments. Your abilities are useless in the presence of God's accomplishments, and also of yours. Accomplishments are results that have been achieved. When they are perfect, abilities are meaningless. It is curious that the perfect must now be perfected. In fact, it is impossible. Remember, however, that when you put yourself in an impossible situation, you believe that the impossible is possible. Abilities must be developed before you can use them. This is not true of anything that God created, but it is the kindest solution possible for what you made. In an impossible situation, you can develop your abilities to the point where they can get you out of it. You have a guide to how to develop them, but you have no commander except yourself. This leaves you in charge of the kingdom with both a guide to find it and a means to keep it. You have a model to follow who will strengthen your command and never detract from it in any way. You therefore retain the central place in your imagined enslavement, which in itself demonstrates that you are not enslaved. You are in an impossible situation only because you think it is possible to be in one. You would be in an impossible situation if God showed you your perfection and proved to you that you were wrong. This would demonstrate that the perfect are inadequate to bring themselves to the awareness of their perfection, and thus side with the belief that those who have everything need help and are therefore helpless. This is the kind of, quote, reasoning in which the ego engages. God, who knows that his creations are perfect, does not affront them. This would be as impossible as the ego's notion that it has affronted him. That is why the Holy Spirit never commands. To command is to assume inequality, which the Holy Spirit demonstrates does not exist. Fidelity to premises is a law of mind, and everything God created is faithful to his laws. Fidelity to other laws is also possible, however, not because the laws are true, but because you made them. What would be gained if God proved to you that you have thought insanely? Can God lose his own certainty? I have frequently said that what you teach you are. Would you have God teach you that you have sinned? If he confronted the self you made with the truth he created for you, what could you be but afraid? You would doubt your right mind, which is the only place where you can find the sanity he gave you. God does not teach. To teach is to imply lack, which God knows is not there. God is not conflicted. Teaching aims had changed, but God created only the changeless. The separation was not a loss of perfection, but a failure in communication. A harsh and strident form of communication arose as the ego's voice. It could not shatter the peace of God, but it could shatter yours. God did not blot it out, because to eradicate it would be to attack it. Being questioned, he did not question. He merely gave the answer. His answer is your teacher. And from the workbook, lesson 40, I am blessed as a son of God. Today we will begin to assert some of the happy things to which you are entitled, being what you are. No long practice periods are required today, but very frequent short ones are necessary. Once every ten minutes would be highly desirable, and you are urged to attempt this schedule and to adhere to it whenever possible. If you forget, try again. If there are long interruptions, try again. Whenever you remember, try again. You need not close your eyes for the exercise periods, although you will probably find it more helpful if you do. However, you may be in a number of situations during the day when closing your eyes would not be feasible. Do not miss a practice period because of this. You can practice quite well under any circumstances if you really want to. Today's exercises take a little time and no effort. Repeat the idea for today, and then add several of the attributes you associate with being a son of God, applying them to yourself. One practice period might, for example, consist of the following. I am blessed as a son of God. I am happy, peaceful, loving, and contented. Another might take this form. I am blessed as a son of God. I am calm, quiet, assured, and confident. If only a brief period is available, merely telling yourself that you are blessed as a son of God will do. I am blessed as a son of God. So today we sink inward into the blessing, into our sense of holiness, into the answer. The answer to the question that was the ego. The only answer, our true identity, and the correction of error. We must see that we have not known anything in relationship to this world. Today we open to humbleness and true humility. We realize that God created us as love, and in love there is no lack and no attack. Though the ego speaks first, the Holy Spirit always answers. And His answers are for all time, which means that everyone has the answer. Now we return that belief in separation, that part of our mind that believes there is something besides God, besides love. We return that now, give it to the Holy Spirit, sink deep into the blessing, sink deep into our true identity. Today we open to remember our certainty, our certainty that resides in God. We lay aside all abilities and potentialities, yielding our mind and awareness to certainty, to wholeness, resting in God, feeling the blessing as the Holy Son of God. So we practice today as we were instructed in this workbook lesson. We start with the lesson with eyes open or closed. I am blessed as a Son of God. I am whole, complete, loved at peace, in joy and certainty. I am blessed as a Son of God. Truly I am blessed as a Son of God.