1. 1To say these words is nothing. 2But to mean these words is everything. 3If you could but mean them for just an instant, there would be no further sorrow possible for you in any form; in any place or time. 4Heaven would be completely given back to full awareness, memory of God entirely restored, the resurrection of all creation fully recognized.

2. 1No one can mean these words and not be healed. 2He cannot play with dreams, nor think he is himself a dream. 3He cannot make a hell and think it real. 4He wants the peace of God, and it is given him. 5For that is all he wants, and that is all he will receive. 6Many have said these words. 7But few indeed have meant them. 8You have but to look upon the world you see around you to be sure how very few they are. 9The world would be completely changed, should any two agree these words express the only thing they want.

3. 1Two minds with one intent become so strong that what they will becomes the Will of God. 2For minds can only join in truth. 3In dreams, no two can share the same intent. 4To each, the hero of the dream is different; the outcome wanted not the same for both. 5Loser and gainer merely shift about in changing patterns, as the ratio of gain to loss and loss to gain takes on a different aspect or another form.

4. 1Yet compromise alone a dream can bring. 2Sometimes it takes the form of union, but only the form. 3The meaning must escape the dream, for compromising is the goal of dreaming. 4Minds cannot unite in dreams. 5They merely bargain. 6And what bargain can give them the peace of God? 7Illusions come to take His place. 8And what He means is lost to sleeping minds intent on compromise, each to his gain and to another’s loss.

5. 1To mean you want the peace of God is to renounce all dreams. 2For no one means these words who wants illusions, and who therefore seeks the means which bring illusions. 3He has looked on them, and found them wanting. 4Now he seeks to go beyond them, recognizing that another dream would offer nothing more than all the others. 5Dreams are one to him. 6And he has learned their only difference is one of form, for one will bring the same despair and misery as do the rest.

6. 1The mind which means that all it wants is peace must join with other minds, for that is how peace is obtained. 2And when the wish for peace is genuine, the means for finding it is given, in a form each mind that seeks for it in honesty can understand. 3Whatever form the lesson takes is planned for him in such a way that he can not mistake it, if his asking is sincere. 4But if he asks without sincerity, there is no form in which the lesson will meet with acceptance and be truly learned.

7. 1Let us today devote our practicing to recognizing that we really mean the words we say. 2We want the peace of God. 3This is no idle wish. 4These words do not request another dream be given us. 5They do not ask for compromise, nor try to make another bargain in the hope that there may yet be one that can succeed where all the rest have failed. 6To mean these words acknowl­edges illusions are in vain, requesting the eternal in the place of shifting dreams which seem to change in what they offer, but are one in nothingness.

8. 1Today devote your practice periods to careful searching of your mind, to find the dreams you cherish still. 2What do you ask for in your heart? 3Forget the words you use in making your requests. 4Consider but what you believe will comfort you, and bring you happiness. 5But be you not dismayed by lingering illu­sions, for their form is not what matters now. 6Let not some dreams be more acceptable, reserving shame and secrecy for oth­ers. 7They are one. 8And being one, one question should be asked of all of them, “Is this what I would have, in place of Heaven and the peace of God?”

9. 1This is the choice you make. 2Be not deceived that it is other­wise. 3No compromise is possible in this. 4You choose God’s peace, or you have asked for dreams. 5And dreams will come as you requested them. 6Yet will God’s peace come just as certainly, and to remain with you forever. 7It will not be gone with every twist and turning of the road, to reappear, unrecognized, in forms which shift and change with every step you take.

10. 1You want the peace of God. 2And so do all who seem to seek for dreams. 3For them as well as for yourself, you ask but this when you make this request with deep sincerity. 4For thus you reach to what they really want, and join your own intent with what they seek above all things, perhaps unknown to them, but sure to you. 5You have been weak at times, uncertain in your purpose, and unsure of what you wanted, where to look for it, and where to turn for help in the attempt. 6Help has been given you. 7And would you not avail yourself of it by sharing it?

11. 1No one who truly seeks the peace of God can fail to find it. 2For he merely asks that he deceive himself no longer by denying to himself what is God’s Will. 3Who can remain unsatisfied who asks for what he has already? 4Who could be unanswered who requests an answer which is his to give? 5The peace of God is yours.

12. 1For you was peace created, given you by its Creator, and established as His Own eternal gift. 2How can you fail, when you but ask for what He wills for you? 3And how could your request be limited to you alone? 4No gift of God can be unshared. 5It is this attribute that sets the gifts of God apart from every dream that ever seemed to take the place of truth.

13. 1No one can lose and everyone must gain whenever any gift of God has been requested and received by anyone. 2God gives but to unite. 3To take away is meaningless to Him. 4And when it is as meaningless to you, you can be sure you share one Will with Him, and He with you. 5And you will also know you share one Will with all your brothers, whose intent is yours.

14. 1It is this one intent we seek today, uniting our desires with the need of every heart, the call of every mind, the hope that lies beyond despair, the love attack would hide, the brotherhood that hate has sought to sever, but which still remains as God created it. 2With Help like this beside us, can we fail today as we request the peace of God be given us?