VI. Setting the Goal

T-17.VI.1. The practical application of the Holy Spirit's purpose is extremely simple, but it is unequivocal. ² In fact, in order to be simple it must be unequivocal. ³ The simple is merely what is easily understood, and for this it is apparent that it must be clear. ⁴ The setting of the Holy Spirit's goal is general. ⁵ Now He will work with you to make it specific, for application is specific. ⁶ There are certain very specific guidelines He provides for any situation, but remember that you do not yet realize their universal application. ⁷ Therefore, it is essential at this point to use them in each situation separately, until you can more safely look beyond each situation, in an understanding far broader than you now possess.

T-17.VI.2. In any situation in which you are uncertain, the first thing to consider, very simply, is "What do I want to come of this? ² What is it for?" ³ The clarification of the goal belongs at the beginning, for it is this which will determine the outcome. ⁴ In the ego's procedure this is reversed. ⁵ The situation becomes the determiner of the outcome, which can be anything. ⁶ The reason for this disorganized approach is evident. ⁷ The ego does not know what it wants to come of the situation. ⁸ It is aware of what it does not want, but only that. ⁹ It has no positive goal at all.

T-17.VI.3. Without a clear-cut, positive goal, set at the outset, the situation just seems to happen, and makes no sense until it has already happened. ² Then you look back at it, and try to piece together what it must have meant. ³ And you will be wrong. ⁴ Not only is your judgment in the past, but you have no idea what should happen. ⁵ No goal was set with which to bring the means in line. ⁶ And now the only judgment left to make is whether or not the ego likes it; is it acceptable, or does it call for vengeance? ⁷ The absence of a criterion for outcome, set in advance, makes understanding doubtful and evaluation impossible.

T-17.VI.4. The value of deciding in advance what you want to happen is simply that you will perceive the situation as a means to make it happen. ² You will therefore make every effort to overlook what interferes with the accomplishment of your objective, and concentrate on everything that helps you meet it. ³ It is quite noticeable that this approach has brought you closer to the Holy Spirit's sorting out of truth and falsity. ⁴ The true becomes what can be used to meet the goal. ⁵ The false becomes the useless from this point of view. ⁶ The situation now has meaning, but only because the goal has made it meaningful.

T-17.VI.5. The goal of truth has further practical advantages. ² If the situation is used for truth and sanity, its outcome must be peace. ³ And this is quite apart from what the outcome is. ⁴ If peace is the condition of truth and sanity, and cannot be without them, where peace is they must be. ⁵ Truth comes of itself. ⁶ If you experience peace, it is because the truth has come to you and you will see the outcome truly, for deception cannot prevail against you. ⁷ You will recognize the outcome because you are at peace. ⁸ Here again you see the opposite of the ego's way of looking, for the ego believes the situation brings the experience. ⁹ The Holy Spirit knows that the situation is as the goal determines it, and is experienced according to the goal.

T-17.VI.6. The goal of truth requires faith. ² Faith is implicit in the acceptance of the Holy Spirit's purpose, and this faith is all-inclusive. ³ Where the goal of truth is set, there faith must be. ⁴ The Holy Spirit sees the situation as a whole. ⁵ The goal establishes the fact that everyone involved in it will play his part in its accomplishment. ⁶ This is inevitable. ⁷ No one will fail in anything. ⁸ This seems to ask for faith beyond you, and beyond what you can give. ⁹ Yet this is so only from the viewpoint of the ego, for the ego believes in "solving" conflict through fragmentation, and does not perceive the situation as a whole. ¹⁰ Therefore, it seeks to split off segments of the situation and deal with them separately, for it has faith in separation and not in wholeness.

T-17.VI.7. Confronted with any aspect of the situation that seems to be difficult, the ego will attempt to take this aspect elsewhere, and resolve it there. ² And it will seem to be successful, except that this attempt conflicts with unity, and must obscure the goal of truth. ³ And peace will not be experienced except in fantasy. ⁴ Truth has not come because faith has been denied, being withheld from where it rightfully belonged. ⁵ Thus do you lose the understanding of the situation the goal of truth would bring. ⁶ For fantasy solutions bring but the illusion of experience, and the illusion of peace is not the condition in which truth can enter.