LESSON 23 I can escape from the world I see by giving up attack thoughts.

1. 1The idea for today contains the only way out of fear that will ever succeed. 2Nothing else will work; everything else is mean­ingless. 3But this way cannot fail. 4Every thought you have makes up some segment of the world you see. 5It is with your thoughts, then, that we must work, if your perception of the world is to be changed.

2. 1If the cause of the world you see is attack thoughts, you must learn that it is these thoughts which you do not want. 2There is no point in lamenting the world. 3There is no point in trying to change the world. 4It is incapable of change because it is merely an effect. 5But there is indeed a point in changing your thoughts about the world. 6Here you are changing the cause. 7The effect will change automatically.

3. 1The world you see is a vengeful world, and everything in it is a symbol of vengeance. 2Each of your perceptions of “external reality” is a pictorial representation of your own attack thoughts. 3One can well ask if this can be called seeing. 4Is not fantasy a better word for such a process, and hallucination a more appropriate term for the result?

4. 1You see the world that you have made, but you do not see yourself as the image maker. 2You cannot be saved from the world, but you can escape from its cause. 3This is what salvation means, for where is the world you see when its cause is gone? 4Vision already holds a replacement for everything you think you see now. 5Loveliness can light your images, and so transform them that you will love them, even though they were made of hate. 6For you will not be making them alone.

5. 1The idea for today introduces the thought that you are not trapped in the world you see, because its cause can be changed. 2This change requires, first, that the cause be identified and then let go, so that it can be replaced. 3The first two steps in this process require your cooperation. 4The final one does not. 5Your im­ages have already been replaced. 6By taking the first two steps, you will see that this is so.

6. 1Besides using it throughout the day as the need arises, five practice periods are required in applying today’s idea. 2As you look about you, repeat the idea slowly to yourself first, and then close your eyes and devote about a minute to searching your mind for as many attack thoughts as occur to you. 3As each one crosses your mind say:

4I can escape from the world I see by giving up attack thoughts about _________.

5Hold each attack thought in mind as you say this, and then dismiss that thought and go on to the next.

7. 1In the practice periods, be sure to include both your thoughts of attacking and of being attacked. 2Their effects are exactly the same because they are exactly the same. 3You do not recognize this as yet, and you are asked at this time only to treat them as the same in today’s practice periods. 4We are still at the stage of iden­tifying the cause of the world you see. 5When you finally learn that thoughts of attack and of being attacked are not different, you will be ready to let the cause go.