VII. The Consistency of Means and End

T-20.VII.1. We have said much about discrepancies of means and end, and how these must be brought in line before your holy relationship can bring you only joy. ² But we have also said the means to meet the Holy Spirit's goal will come from the same Source as does His purpose. ³ Being so simple and direct, this course has nothing in it that is not consistent. ⁴ The seeming inconsistencies, or parts you find more difficult than others, are merely indications of areas where means and end are still discrepant. ⁵ And this produces great discomfort. ⁶ This need not be. ⁷ This course requires almost nothing of you. ⁸ It is impossible to imagine one that asks so little, or could offer more.

T-20.VII.2. The period of discomfort that follows the sudden change in a relationship from sin to holiness may now be almost over. ² To the extent you still experience it, you are refusing to leave the means to Him Who changed the purpose. ³ You recognize you want the goal. ⁴ Are you not also willing to accept the means? ⁵ If you are not, let us admit that you are inconsistent. ⁶ A purpose is attained by means, and if you want a purpose you must be willing to want the means as well. ⁷ How can one be sincere and say, "I want this above all else, and yet I do not want to learn the means to get it?"

T-20.VII.3. To obtain the goal the Holy Spirit indeed asks little. ² He asks no more to give the means as well. ³ The means are second to the goal. ⁴ And when you hesitate, it is because the purpose frightens you, and not the means. ⁵ Remember this, for otherwise you will make the error of believing the means are difficult. ⁶ Yet how can they be difficult if they are merely given you? ⁷ They guarantee the goal, and they are perfectly in line with it. ⁸ Before we look at them a little closer, remember that if you think they are impossible, your wanting of the purpose has been shaken. ⁹ For if a goal is possible to reach, the means to do so must be possible as well.

T-20.VII.4. It is impossible to see your brother as sinless and yet to look upon him as a body. ² Is this not perfectly consistent with the goal of holiness? ³ For holiness is merely the result of letting the effects of sin be lifted, so what was always true is recognized. ⁴ To see a sinless body is impossible, for holiness is positive and the body is merely neutral. ⁵ It is not sinful, but neither is it sinless. ⁶ As nothing, which it is, the body cannot meaningfully be invested with attributes of Christ or of the ego. ⁷ Either must be an error, for both would place the attributes where they cannot be. ⁸ And both must be undone for purposes of truth.

T-20.VII.5. The body is the means by which the ego tries to make the unholy relationship seem real. ² The unholy instant is the time of bodies. ³ But the purpose here is sin. ⁴ It cannot be attained but in illusion, and so the illusion of a brother as a body is quite in keeping with the purpose of unholiness. ⁵ Because of this consistency, the means remain unquestioned while the end is cherished. ⁶ Seeing adapts to wish, for sight is always secondary to desire. ⁷ And if you see the body, you have chosen judgment and not vision. ⁸ For vision, like relationships, has no order. ⁹ You either see or not.

T-20.VII.6. Who sees a brother's body has laid a judgment on him, and sees him not. ² He does not really see him as sinful; he does not see him at all. ³ In the darkness of sin he is invisible. ⁴ He can but be imagined in the darkness, and it is here that the illusions you hold about him are not held up to his reality. ⁵ Here are illusions and reality kept separated. ⁶ Here are illusions never brought to truth, and always hidden from it. ⁷ And here, in darkness, is your brother's reality imagined as a body, in unholy relationships with other bodies, serving the cause of sin an instant before he dies.

T-20.VII.7. There is indeed a difference between this vain imagining and vision. ² The difference lies not in them, but in their purpose. ³ Both are but means, each one appropriate to the end for which it is employed. ⁴ Neither can serve the purpose of the other, for each one is a choice of purpose, employed on its behalf. ⁵ Either is meaningless without the end for which it was intended, nor is it valued as a separate thing apart from the intention. ⁶ The means seem real because the goal is valued. ⁷ And judgment has no value unless the goal is sin.

T-20.VII.8. The body cannot be looked upon except through judgment. ² To see the body is the sign that you lack vision, and have denied the means the Holy Spirit offers you to serve His purpose. ³ How can a holy relationship achieve its purpose through the means of sin? ⁴ Judgment you taught yourself; vision is learned from Him Who would undo your teaching. ⁵ His vision cannot see the body because it cannot look on sin. ⁶ And thus it leads you to reality. ⁷ Your holy brother, sight of whom is your release, is no illusion. ⁸ Attempt to see him not in darkness, for your imaginings about him will seem real there. ⁹ You closed your eyes to shut him out. ¹⁰ Such was your purpose, and while this purpose seems to have a meaning, the means for its attainment will be evaluated as worth the seeing, and so you will not see.

T-20.VII.9. Your question should not be, "How can I see my brother without the body?" ² Ask only, "Do I really wish to see him sinless?" ³ And as you ask, forget not that his sinlessness is your escape from fear. ⁴ Salvation is the Holy Spirit's goal. ⁵ The means is vision. ⁶ For what the seeing look upon is sinless. ⁷ No one who loves can judge, and what he sees is free of condemnation. ⁸ And what he sees he did not make, for it was given him to see, as was the vision that made his seeing possible.