 We continue on today with Chapter 6, The Lessons of the Holy Spirit. To have, give all to all. When your body and your ego and your dreams are gone, you will know that you will last forever. Perhaps you think this is accomplished through death, but nothing is accomplished through death, because death is nothing. Everything is accomplished through life, and life is of the mind and in the mind. The body neither lives nor dies, because it cannot contain you who are life. If we share the same mind, you can overcome death, because I did. Death is an attempt to resolve conflict by not deciding at all. Like any other impossible solution to ego attempts, it will not work. God did not make the body, because it is destructible, and therefore not of the kingdom. The body is the symbol of what you think you are. It is clearly a separation device, and therefore does not exist. The Holy Spirit, as always, takes what you have made and translates it into a learning device. Again, as always, he reinterprets what the ego uses as an argument for separation into a demonstration against it. If the mind can heal the body, but the body cannot heal the mind, then the mind must be stronger than the body. Every miracle demonstrates this. I have said that the Holy Spirit is the motivation for miracles. He always tells you that only the mind is real, because only the mind can be shared. The body is separate, and therefore cannot be part of you. To be of one mind is meaningful, but to be one body is meaningless. By the laws of mind, then, the body is meaningless. To the Holy Spirit, there is no order of difficulty in miracles. This is familiar enough to you by now, but it has not become believable. Therefore, you do not understand it, and cannot use it. We have too much to accomplish on behalf of the kingdom to let this crucial concept slip away. It is a real foundation stone of the thought system I teach, and I want you to teach. You cannot perform miracles without believing it, because it is a belief in perfect equality. Only one equal gift can be offered to the equal sons of God, and that is full appreciation. Nothing more and nothing less. Without a range, order of difficulty is meaningless, and there must be no range in what you offer to your brother. The Holy Spirit, who leads to God, translates communication into being, just as he ultimately translates perception into knowledge. The ego uses the body for attack, for pleasure, and for pride. The insanity of this perception makes it a fearful one indeed. The Holy Spirit sees the body only as a means of communication, and because communicating is sharing, it becomes communion. Perhaps you think that fear, as well as love, can be communicated, and therefore can be shared. Yet this is not so real as it may appear. Those who communicate fear are promoting attack, and attack always breaks communication, making it impossible. Egos do join together in temporary allegiance, but always for what each one can get separately. The Holy Spirit communicates only what each one can give to all. He never takes anything back, because he wants you to keep it. Therefore, his teaching begins with the lesson. Have, give all to all. This is a very preliminary step, and the only one you must take for yourself. It is not even necessary that you complete the step yourself, but it is necessary that you turn in that direction. Having chosen to go that way, you place yourself in charge of the journey, where you and only you must remain. This step may appear to exacerbate conflict, rather than resolve it, because it is the beginning step in reversing your perception and turning it right side up. This conflicts with the upside down perception you have not yet abandoned, or the change in direction would not have been necessary. Some remain at this step for a long time, experiencing very acute conflict. At this point, they may try to accept the conflict, rather than take the next step towards its resolution. Having taken the first step, however, they will be helped. Once they have chosen what they cannot complete alone, they are no longer alone. And from the workbook, Lesson 42 God is my strength. Vision is his gift. The idea for today combines two very powerful thoughts, both of major importance. It also sets forth a cause and effect relationship that explains why you cannot fail in your efforts to achieve the goal of the course. You will see because it is the will of God. It is his strength, not your own, that gives you power. And it is his gift, rather than your own, that offers vision to you. God is indeed your strength. And what he gives is truly given. This means that you can receive it anytime and anywhere, wherever you are, and in whatever circumstance you find yourself. Your passage through time and space is not at random. You cannot but be in the right place at the right time. Such is the strength of God. Such are his gifts. We will have two three to five minute practice periods today, one as soon as possible after you wake, and another as close as possible to the time you go to sleep. It is better, however, to wait until you can sit quietly by yourself at the time when you feel ready than it is to be concerned with the time as such. Begin these practice periods by repeating the idea for today, slowly, with your eyes open, looking about you, then close your eyes and repeat the idea again, even slower than before. After this, try to think of nothing, except thoughts that occur to you in relation to the idea for the day. You might think, for example, vision must be possible. God gives truly. Or, God's gifts to me must be mine because he gave them to me. Any thoughts that is clearly related to the idea for today is suitable. You may in fact be astonished at the amount of course related understanding some of your thoughts contain. Let them come without censoring unless you find your mind is merely wandering and you have let obviously irrelevant thoughts intrude. You may also reach a point where no thoughts at all seem to come to mind. If such interferences occur, open your eyes and repeat the thought once more while looking slowly about. Close your eyes, repeat the idea once more and then continue to look for related thoughts in your mind. Remember, however, that active searching for relevant thoughts is not appropriate for today's ideas and exercises. Try merely to step back and let the thoughts come. If you find this difficult, it is better to spend the practice period alternating between slow repetitions of the idea with eyes open, then with eyes closed, then it is to strain to find suitable thoughts. There is no limit on the number of short practice periods that would be beneficial today. The idea for the day is a beginning step in bringing thoughts together and teaching you that you are studying a unified thought system in which nothing is lacking that is needed and nothing is included that is contradictory or irrelevant. The more often you repeat the idea during the day, the more often you will be reminding yourself that the goal of the course is important to you and that you have not forgotten it. So this is very, very deep and beautiful. Let's just pause for a minute and remember that beautiful idea that the idea for the day is a beginning step in bringing thoughts together and teaching you that you are studying a unified thought system in which nothing is lacking that is needed and nothing is included that is contradictory or irrelevant. Let us give thanks today for such a thought system. Let us rejoice that God is my strength and vision is his gift out of all the attempts to find meaning out of all the searching, out of all the philosophies, out of all the teachings and the many, many pursuits that we are studying a unified thought system in which nothing is lacking and nothing is extraneous that is irrelevant. We have this sense of inclusiveness and the strength of God, the will of God is that we must succeed in experiencing this unified thought system. We must succeed in extending this unified thought system. We cannot fail. It has given us today to feel this strength at the core of our being, to open our hearts to the vision of Christ, to see in light, to experience the love. Nothing of this world is worthy, more worthy than experiencing this deep love. We rest in the certainty of God's strength. We shall overcome the world of perception. We shall be lifted up into the heavenly realms of eternity, eternal love, eternal peace. Thank you God, thank you God. We practice with full sincerity today. God is my strength, vision is his gift.