VII. The New Interpretation

T-30.VII.1. Would God have left the meaning of the world to your interpretation? ² If He had, it has no meaning. ³ For it cannot be that meaning changes constantly, and yet is true. ⁴ The Holy Spirit looks upon the world as with one purpose, changelessly established. ⁵ And no situation can affect its aim, but must be in accord with it. ⁶ For only if its aim could change with every situation could each one be open to interpretation which is different every time you think of it. ⁷ You add an element into the script you write for every minute in the day, and all that happens now means something else. ⁸ You take away another element, and every meaning shifts accordingly.

T-30.VII.2. What do your scripts reflect except your plans for what the day should be? ² And thus you judge disaster and success, advance, retreat, and gain and loss. ³ These judgments all are made according to the roles the script assigns. ⁴ The fact they have no meaning in themselves is demonstrated by the ease with which these labels change with other judgments, made on different aspects of experience. ⁵ And then, in looking back, you think you see another meaning in what went before. ⁶ What have you really done, except to show there was no meaning there? ⁷ But you assigned a meaning in the light of goals that change, with every meaning shifting as they change.

T-30.VII.3. Only a constant purpose can endow events with stable meaning. ² But it must accord one meaning to them all. ³ If they are given different meanings, it must be that they reflect but different purposes. ⁴ And this is all the meaning that they have. ⁵ Can this be meaning? ⁶ Can confusion be what meaning means? ⁷ Perception cannot be in constant flux, and make allowance for stability of meaning anywhere. ⁸ Fear is a judgment never justified. ⁹ Its presence has no meaning but to show you wrote a fearful script, and are afraid accordingly. ¹⁰ But not because the thing you fear has fearful meaning in itself.

T-30.VII.4. A common purpose is the only means whereby perception can be stabilized, and one interpretation given to the world and all experiences here. ² In this shared purpose is one judgment shared by everyone and everything you see. ³ You do not have to judge, for you have learned one meaning has been given everything, and you are glad to see it everywhere. ⁴ It cannot change because you would perceive it everywhere, unchanged by circumstance. ⁵ And so you offer it to all events, and let them offer you stability.

T-30.VII.5. Escape from judgment simply lies in this; all things have but one purpose, which you share with all the world. ² And nothing in the world can be opposed to it, for it belongs to everything, as it belongs to you. ³ In single purpose is the end of all ideas of sacrifice, which must assume a different purpose for the one who gains and him who loses. ⁴ There could be no thought of sacrifice apart from this idea. ⁵ And it is this idea of different goals that makes perception shift and meaning change. ⁶ In one united goal does this become impossible, for your agreement makes interpretation stabilize and last.

T-30.VII.6. How can communication really be established while the symbols that are used mean different things? ² The Holy Spirit's goal gives one interpretation, meaningful to you and to your brother. ³ Thus can you communicate with him, and he with you. ⁴ In symbols that you both can understand the sacrifice of meaning is undone. ⁵ All sacrifice entails the loss of your ability to see relationships among events. ⁶ And looked at separately they have no meaning. ⁷ For there is no light by which they can be seen and understood. ⁸ They have no purpose. ⁹ And what they are for cannot be seen. ¹⁰ In any thought of loss there is no meaning. ¹¹ No one has agreed with you on what it means. ¹² It is a part of a distorted script, which cannot be interpreted with meaning. ¹³ It must be forever unintelligible. ¹⁴ This is not communication. ¹⁵ Your dark dreams are but the senseless, isolated scripts you write in sleep. ¹⁶ Look not to separate dreams for meaning. ¹⁷ Only dreams of pardon can be shared. ¹⁸ They mean the same to both of you.

T-30.VII.7. Do not interpret out of solitude, for what you see means nothing. ² It will shift in what it stands for, and you will believe the world is an uncertain place, in which you walk in danger and uncertainty. ³ It is but your interpretations which are lacking in stability, for they are not in line with what you really are. ⁴ This is a state so seemingly unsafe that fear must rise. ⁵ Do not continue thus, my brother. ⁶ We have one Interpreter. ⁷ And through His use of symbols are we joined, so that they mean the same to all of us. ⁸ Our common language lets us speak to all our brothers, and to understand with them forgiveness has been given to us all, and thus we can communicate again.