II. The Alternative to Projection

T-6.II.1. Any split in mind must involve a rejection of part of it, and this is the belief in separation. ² The Wholeness of God, which is His peace, cannot be appreciated except by a whole mind that recognizes the Wholeness of God's creation. ³ By this recognition it knows its Creator. ⁴ Exclusion and separation are synonymous, as are separation and dissociation. ⁵ We have said before that the separation was and is dissociation, and that once it occurs projection becomes its main defense, or the device that keeps it going. ⁶ The reason, however, may not be so obvious as you think.

T-6.II.2. What you project you disown, and therefore do not believe is yours. ² You are excluding yourself by the very judgment that you are different from the one on whom you project. ³ Since you have also judged against what you project, you continue to attack it because you continue to keep it separated. ⁴ By doing this unconsciously, you try to keep the fact that you attacked yourself out of awareness, and thus imagine that you have made yourself safe.

T-6.II.3. Yet projection will always hurt you. ² It reinforces your belief in your own split mind, and its only purpose is to keep the separation going. ³ It is solely a device of the ego to make you feel different from your brothers and separated from them. ⁴ The ego justifies this on the grounds that it makes you seem "better" than they are, thus obscuring your equality with them still further. ⁵ Projection and attack are inevitably related, because projection is always a means of justifying attack. ⁶ Anger without projection is impossible. ⁷ The ego uses projection only to destroy your perception of both yourself and your brothers. ⁸ The process begins by excluding something that exists in you but which you do not want, and leads directly to excluding you from your brothers.

T-6.II.4. We have learned, however, that there is an alternative to projection. ² Every ability of the ego has a better use, because its abilities are directed by the mind, which has a better Voice. ³ The Holy Spirit extends and the ego projects. ⁴ As their goals are opposed, so is the result.

T-6.II.5. The Holy Spirit begins by perceiving you as perfect. ² Knowing this perfection is shared He recognizes it in others, thus strengthening it in both. ³ Instead of anger this arouses love for both, because it establishes inclusion. ⁴ Perceiving equality, the Holy Spirit perceives equal needs. ⁵ This invites Atonement automatically, because Atonement is the one need in this world that is universal. ⁶ To perceive yourself this way is the only way in which you can find happiness in the world. ⁷ That is because it is the acknowledgment that you are not in this world, for the world is unhappy.

T-6.II.6. How else can you find joy in a joyless place except by realizing that you are not there? ² You cannot be anywhere God did not put you, and God created you as part of Him. ³ That is both where you are and what you are. ⁴ It is completely unalterable. ⁵ It is total inclusion. ⁶ You cannot change it now or ever. ⁷ It is forever true. ⁸ It is not a belief, but a Fact. ⁹ Anything that God created is as true as He is. ¹⁰ Its truth lies only in its perfect inclusion in Him Who alone is perfect. ¹¹ To deny this is to deny yourself and Him, since it is impossible to accept one without the other.

T-6.II.7. The perfect equality of the Holy Spirit's perception is the reflection of the perfect equality of God's knowing. ² The ego's perception has no counterpart in God, but the Holy Spirit remains the Bridge between perception and knowledge. ³ By enabling you to use perception in a way that reflects knowledge, you will ultimately remember it. ⁴ The ego would prefer to believe that this memory is impossible, yet it is your perception the Holy Spirit guides. ⁵ Your perception will end where it began. ⁶ Everything meets in God, because everything was created by Him and in Him.

T-6.II.8. God created His Sons by extending His Thought, and retaining the extensions of His Thought in His Mind. ² All His Thoughts are thus perfectly united within themselves and with each other. ³ The Holy Spirit enables you to perceive this wholeness now. ⁴ God created you to create. ⁵ You cannot extend His Kingdom until you know of its wholeness.

T-6.II.9. Thoughts begin in the mind of the thinker, from which they reach outward. ² This is as true of God's Thinking as it is of yours. ³ Because your mind is split, you can perceive as well as think. ⁴ Yet perception cannot escape the basic laws of mind. ⁵ You perceive from your mind and project your perceptions outward. ⁶ Although perception of any kind is unreal, you made it and the Holy Spirit can therefore use it well. ⁷ He can inspire perception and lead it toward God. ⁸ This convergence seems to be far in the future only because your mind is not in perfect alignment with the idea, and therefore does not want it now.

T-6.II.10. The Holy Spirit uses time, but does not believe in it. ² Coming from God He uses everything for good, but He does not believe in what is not true. ³ Since the Holy Spirit is in your mind, your mind can also believe only what is true. ⁴ The Holy Spirit can speak only for this, because He speaks for God. ⁵ He tells you to return your whole mind to God, because it has never left Him. ⁶ If it has never left Him, you need only perceive it as it is to be returned. ⁷ The full awareness of the Atonement, then, is the recognition that the separation never occurred. ⁸ The ego cannot prevail against this because it is an explicit statement that the ego never occurred.

T-6.II.11. The ego can accept the idea that return is necessary because it can so easily make the idea seem difficult. ² Yet the Holy Spirit tells you that even return is unnecessary, because what never happened cannot be difficult. ³ However, you can make the idea of return both necessary and difficult. ⁴ Yet it is surely clear that the perfect need nothing, and you cannot experience perfection as a difficult accomplishment, because that is what you are. ⁵ This is the way in which you must perceive God's creations, bringing all of your perceptions into the one line the Holy Spirit sees. ⁶ This line is the direct line of communication with God, and lets your mind converge with His. ⁷ There is no conflict anywhere in this perception, because it means that all perception is guided by the Holy Spirit, Whose Mind is fixed on God. ⁸ Only the Holy Spirit can resolve conflict, because only the Holy Spirit is conflict-free. ⁹ He perceives only what is true in your mind, and extends outward only to what is true in other minds.

T-6.II.12. The difference between the ego's projection and the Holy Spirit's extension is very simple. ² The ego projects to exclude, and therefore to deceive. ³ The Holy Spirit extends by recognizing Himself in every mind, and thus perceives them as one. ⁴ Nothing conflicts in this perception, because what the Holy Spirit perceives is all the same. ⁵ Wherever He looks He sees Himself, and because He is united He offers the whole Kingdom always. ⁶ This is the one message God gave to Him and for which He must speak, because that is what He is. ⁷ The peace of God lies in that message, and so the peace of God lies in you. ⁸ The great peace of the Kingdom shines in your mind forever, but it must shine outward to make you aware of it.

T-6.II.13. The Holy Spirit was given you with perfect impartiality, and only by recognizing Him impartially can you recognize Him at all. ² The ego is legion, but the Holy Spirit is One. ³ No darkness abides anywhere in the Kingdom, but your part is only to allow no darkness to abide in your own mind. ⁴ This alignment with light is unlimited, because it is in alignment with the light of the world. ⁵ Each of us is the light of the world, and by joining our minds in this light we proclaim the Kingdom of God together and as one.