T-3.III Perception versus Knowledge
1. We have been emphasising perception, and have said very little about knowledge as yet. ²This is because perception must be straightened out before you can know anything. ³To know is to be certain. ⁴Uncertainty means that you do not know. ⁵Knowledge is power because it is certain, and certainty is strength. ⁶Perception is temporary. ⁷As an attribute of the belief in space and time, it is subject to either fear or love. ⁸Misperceptions produce fear and true perceptions foster love, but neither brings certainty because all perception varies. ⁹That is why it is not knowledge. ¹⁰True perception is the basis for knowledge, but knowing is the affirmation of truth and beyond all perceptions.
2. All your difficulties stem from the fact that you do not recognize yourself, your brother or God. ²To recognize means to “know again”, implying that you knew before. ³You can see in many ways because perception involves interpretation, and this means that it is not whole or consistent. ⁴The miracle, being a way of perceiving, is not knowledge. ⁵It is the right answer to a question, but you do not question when you know. ⁶Questioning illusions is the first step in undoing them. ⁷The miracle, or the right answer, corrects them. ⁸Since perceptions change, their dependence on time is obvious. ⁹How you perceive at any given time determines what you do, and actions must occur in time. ¹⁰Knowledge is timeless, because certainty is not questionable. ¹¹You know when you have ceased to ask questions.
3. The questioning mind perceives itself in time, and therefore looks for future answers. ²The closed mind believes the future and the present will be the same. ³This establishes a seemingly stable state that is usually an attempt to counteract an underlying fear that the future will be worse than the present. ⁴This fear inhibits the tendency to question at all.
4. True vision is the natural perception of spiritual sight, but it is still a correction rather than a fact. ²Spiritual sight is symbolic, and therefore not a device for knowing. ³It is, however, a means of right perception, which brings it into the proper domain of the miracle. ⁴A “vision of God” would be a miracle rather than a revelation. ⁵The fact that perception is involved at all removes the experience from the realm of knowledge. ⁶That is why visions, however holy, do not last.
5. The Bible tells you to know yourself, or to be certain. ²Certainty is always of God. ³When you love someone you have perceived him as he is, and this makes it possible for you to know him. ⁴Until you first perceive him as he is you cannot know him. ⁵While you ask questions about him you are clearly implying that you do not know God. ⁶Certainty does not require action. ⁷When you say you are acting on the basis of knowledge, you are really confusing knowledge with perception. ⁸Knowledge provides the strength for creative thinking, but not for right doing. ⁹Perception, miracles and doing are closely related. ¹⁰Knowledge is the result of revelation and induces only thought. ¹¹Even in its most spiritualised form perception involves the body. ¹²Knowledge comes from the altar within and is timeless because it is certain. ¹³To perceive the truth is not the same as to know it.
6. Right perception is necessary before God can communicate directly to His altars, which He established in His Sons. ²There He can communicate His certainty, and His knowledge will bring peace without question. ³God is not a stranger to His Sons, and His Sons are not strangers to each other. ⁴Knowledge preceded both perception and time, and will ultimately replace them. ⁵That is the real meaning of “Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end”, and “Before Abraham was, I am”. ⁶Perception can and must be stabilised, but knowledge is stable. ⁷“Fear God and keep His commandments” becomes “Know God and accept His certainty”.
7. If you attack error in another, you will hurt yourself. ²You cannot know your brother when you attack him. ³Attack is always made upon a stranger. ⁴You are making him a stranger by misperceiving him, and so you cannot know him. ⁵It is because you have made him a stranger that you are afraid of him. ⁶Perceive him correctly so that you can know him. ⁷There are no strangers in God’s creation. ⁸To create as He created you can create only what you know, and therefore accept as yours. ⁹God knows His children with perfect certainty. ¹⁰He created them by knowing them. ¹¹He recognizes them perfectly. ¹²When they do not recognize each other, they do not recognize Him.