V. Beyond Perception

T-3.V.1. I have said that the abilities you possess are only shadows of your real strength, and that perception, which is inherently judgmental, was introduced only after the separation. ² No one has been sure of anything since. ³ I have also made it clear that the resurrection was the means for the return to knowledge, which was accomplished by the union of my will with the Father's. ⁴ We can now establish a distinction that will clarify some of our subsequent statements.

T-3.V.2. Since the separation, the words "create" and "make" have become confused. ² When you make something, you do so out of a specific sense of lack or need. ³ Anything made for a specific purpose has no true generalizability. ⁴ When you make something to fill a perceived lack, you are tacitly implying that you believe in separation. ⁵ The ego has invented many ingenious thought systems for this purpose. ⁶ None of them is creative. ⁷ Inventiveness is wasted effort even in its most ingenious form. ⁸ The highly specific nature of invention is not worthy of the abstract creativity of God's creations.

T-3.V.3. Knowing, as we have already observed, does not lead to doing. ² The confusion between your real creation and what you have made of yourself is so profound that it has become literally impossible for you to know anything. ³ Knowledge is always stable, and it is quite evident that you are not. ⁴ Nevertheless, you are perfectly stable as God created you. ⁵ In this sense, when your behavior is unstable, you are disagreeing with God's idea of your creation. ⁶ You can do this if you choose, but you would hardly want to do it if you were in your right mind.

T-3.V.4. The fundamental question you continually ask yourself cannot properly be directed to yourself at all. ² You keep asking what it is you are. ³ This implies that the answer is not only one you know, but is also one that is up to you to supply. ⁴ Yet you cannot perceive yourself correctly. ⁵ You have no image to be perceived. ⁶ The word "image" is always perception-related, and not a part of knowledge. ⁷ Images are symbolic and stand for something else. ⁸ The idea of "changing your image" recognizes the power of perception, but also implies that there is nothing stable to know.

T-3.V.5. Knowing is not open to interpretation. ² You may try to "interpret" meaning, but this is always open to error because it refers to the perception of meaning. ³ Such incongruities are the result of attempts to regard yourself as separated and unseparated at the same time. ⁴ It is impossible to make so fundamental a confusion without increasing your overall confusion still further. ⁵ Your mind may have become very ingenious, but as always happens when method and content are separated, it is utilized in a futile attempt to escape from an inescapable impasse. ⁶ Ingenuity is totally divorced from knowledge, because knowledge does not require ingenuity. ⁷ Ingenious thinking is not the truth that shall set you free, but you are free of the need to engage in it when you are willing to let it go.

T-3.V.6. Prayer is a way of asking for something. ² It is the medium of miracles. ³ But the only meaningful prayer is for forgiveness, because those who have been forgiven have everything. ⁴ Once forgiveness has been accepted, prayer in the usual sense becomes utterly meaningless. ⁵ The prayer for forgiveness is nothing more than a request that you may be able to recognize what you already have. ⁶ In electing perception instead of knowledge, you placed yourself in a position where you could resemble your Father only by perceiving miraculously. ⁷ You have lost the knowledge that you yourself are a miracle of God. ⁸ Creation is your Source and your only real function.

T-3.V.7. The statement "God created man in his own image and likeness" needs reinterpretation. ² "Image" can be understood as "thought," and "likeness" as "of a like quality." ³ God did create spirit in His Own Thought and of a quality like to His Own. ⁴ There is nothing else. ⁵ Perception, on the other hand, is impossible without a belief in "more" and "less." ⁶ At every level it involves selectivity. ⁷ Perception is a continual process of accepting and rejecting, organizing and reorganizing, shifting and changing. ⁸ Evaluation is an essential part of perception, because judgments are necessary in order to select.

T-3.V.8. What happens to perceptions if there are no judgments and nothing but perfect equality? ² Perception becomes impossible. ³ Truth can only be known. ⁴ All of it is equally true, and knowing any part of it is to know all of it. ⁵ Only perception involves partial awareness. ⁶ Knowledge transcends the laws governing perception, because partial knowledge is impossible. ⁷ It is all one and has no separate parts. ⁸ You who are really one with it need but know yourself and your knowledge is complete. ⁹ To know God's miracle is to know Him.

T-3.V.9. Forgiveness is the healing of the perception of separation. ² Correct perception of your brother is necessary, because minds have chosen to see themselves as separate. ³ Spirit knows God completely. ⁴ That is its miraculous power. ⁵ The fact that each one has this power completely is a condition entirely alien to the world's thinking. ⁶ The world believes that if anyone has everything, there is nothing left. ⁷ But God's miracles are as total as His Thoughts because they are His Thoughts.

T-3.V.10. As long as perception lasts prayer has a place. ² Since perception rests on lack, those who perceive have not totally accepted the Atonement and given themselves over to truth. ³ Perception is based on a separated state, so that anyone who perceives at all needs healing. ⁴ Communion, not prayer, is the natural state of those who know. ⁵ God and His miracle are inseparable. ⁶ How beautiful indeed are the Thoughts of God who live in His light! ⁷ Your worth is beyond perception because it is beyond doubt. ⁸ Do not perceive yourself in different lights. ⁹ Know yourself in the One Light where the miracle that is you is perfectly clear.