Law of Division, Law of Unity - Part 1

“God's Son will always be indivisible. As we are held as one in God, so do we learn as one in Him. God's Teacher is as like to His Creator as is His Son, and through His Teacher does God proclaim His Oneness and His Son's. Listen in silence, and do not raise your voice against Him. For He teaches the miracle of oneness, and before His lesson division disappears. Teach like Him here, and you will remember that you have always created like your Father. The miracle of creation has never ceased, having the holy stamp of immortality upon it. This is the Will of God for all creation, and all creation joins in willing this.”

Speaker: I’d like to start this evening’s session with this quote from A Course in Miracles, “The memory of God comes to the quiet mind. It cannot come where there is conflict, for a mind at war against itself remembers not eternal gentleness.” The split mind is identified with conceptual thinking. It is addicted to the law of division, the movement of thought. The egoic movement of thought, the split or gap in mind, is what needs to be seen. This is true learning. We do not know how to look upon the world. We only know how to look through a very narrow view. This view is the ‘persona’, a view so layered in levels and compartments that little or no light can be seen. We attempt to compartmentalize God within the human mind, but the human mind dissolves in God. ‘God is no respecter of persons’.

We do not know how to look upon the world or ourselves. This is what we fear. First and foremost I feel we need to know the ‘dynamics’, the seeming ‘structures’ of the mind before we look at error. But in order to do that we need to admit, “I do not know the thing I am, and therefore do not know what I am doing, where I am, or how to look upon the world or on myself.” In this learning is salvation born.

We seek change “out there” in the world. We attempt to amend the broken pieces of “our lives”. We rally, we vote, we scream, we pray, but little do we know that we are but doing it to ourselves. The war is within, not “out there”. We come to this world to become; to become something we are not. This is the purpose we seek in this world of ideas. We become angry people, and then we become angry spiritual people. What is wrong with this?

Questioner: I am so glad you are talking about this in today’s session. I just came from A Course in Miracles online chat room and the whole time everyone talked about the various interpretations of ACIM. Everyone was arguing their point, “** says this and ** believes that, ** teaches this.” I feel so confused. Who is right?

Speaker: Let’s try not to look at it in terms of who or what is right or wrong. Think about this… Is the truth true or isn’t it? Can there be more than one version of the truth? It’s never about anyone else, nor is it about a book. All we can ever do is be clear for ourselves. Who is “right” is an issue that is irrelevant. One of the problems we need to look at is that of putting one spiritual student/teacher or philosophy against another, this denies the very unity we talk about. The one and only teacher is the Holy Spirit. Following persons or bodies cannot lead you to truth; bodies were made to deny truth. **, **, ** and the Speaker are all illusions; the Christ does not take the form of a body. The man, Jesus, was an illusion. Christ is beyond forms. Forms are symbolic of what is beyond perception. All forms, all of time and space, all bodies… are illusory. Following the flesh is part of the problem. Following any teacher in form is misdirected loyalty. True loyalty lies with Him Who sent us, the Holy Spirit. Jesus always said, ‘It is not I who do these things, it is my Father in Heaven who does these deeds through me ’. Jesus always gave the glory to God. He knew where the loyalty was rightly placed.

Questioner: What about you Speaker? You have many students.

Speaker: It may appear that I have students, but things are not as they appear. We come together in this way to save time, not to make one of us more special and another less. I don’t want you to just sit there and nod your head and agree, nor do I want you to disagree. I want you to take what is being said and go within your mind. It is time to put down the books and the writing pens and stop taking notes about the truth and be the truth. How many more workshops do you need? The world is full of leaders and followers. I am not a leader or follower. I am speaking from I AM. The whole aim of ACIM is a universal experience. If we take sides, we then have to protect our interpretations, our teachers, our paths, and then the truth will be a far off place. How can we have a unified experience of love if we defend? When we defend anything, we defend illusions because only illusions are in need of defense. Defending illusions perpetuates guilt. The Course tells us, “The war against yourself is but the battle of two illusions, struggling to make them different from each other, in the belief the one that conquers will be true. There is no conflict between them and the truth. Nor are they different from each other. Both are not true. And so it matters not what form they take.”

Questioner- So you need two illusions to have a defense?

Speaker: Yes, the ego splits itself off into the “thinker” and the “thought”; so then there is “me” thinking thoughts that I do like, or ones that I do not like. This is why the Course said, “The war against yourself is but the battle of two illusions, struggling to make them different from each other.” The ego wants you to believe that the “observer” and the “observed”, and the “inner” and the “outer” are different from one another. In the Gospel of Thomas, Jesus was quoted as saying, "When you make the two into one, and when you make the inner like the outer and the outer like the inner, and the upper like the lower, and when you make male and female into a single one, so that the male will not be male nor the female be female, when you make eyes in place of an eye, a hand in place of a hand, a foot in place of a foot, an image in place of an image, then you will enter the Father's domain.” The ego wants you to believe that there is something “out there” because if there is something “out there” to change, something “out there” that is a real problem, then the ego’s purpose of obscuring our Father’s domain is fulfilled. The truth is defenseless. In my defenselessness my safety lies. There is no twoness in unity. There must be something beyond this divisionary, self-centered concern of the `me', at whatever level it may be; family, social, economic or religious. The `me' and the `not me', the `we' and `they’, the ‘believer’ and the ‘non-believer’ are all aspects of division. The Course tells us, “Anything that engenders fear is divisive because it obeys the law of division.” The Mind is beyond this condition, the law of division. The truth has no sides or interpretations; it is beyond conditions and beyond laws of this world. The truth is the law of Unity. “I am under no laws but Gods. “

Questioner - How is freedom from this division possible? How can I experience the Law of Unity?

Speaker- If we see something as 'possible' or if we have a deep passion or joy then we have a great deal of energy to mind-watch, to see with the Holy Spirit. Freedom from the ‘law of division’ is seen through mind-watching. What I mean by mind-watching is seeing without any comparisons, seeing without any divisions whatsoever. This is what it means by right-minded seeing or seeing with the Holy Spirit.

Questioner: I seem to loose my faith, it wavers in and out. I guess it doesn’t seem like a realistic possibility for me in this life time.

Speaker: Then the question would be, “What obscures faith”?

Questioner: What obscures my faith?

Speaker- Faith is total, we are either faithful to God or Ego. What obscures faith is the thought that it is not possible, feeling it is in the future. God is now. This is why we drift into tangential issues- as most seekers do – we move from one trap to another. We forget the point of it all. The point is now, not in the future or a future life. We forget to pray and seek inner guidance first. We forget to ask, ”What is it for?” The Course tells us, “The ego's characteristic busyness with nonessentials is for precisely that purpose. Preoccupations with problems set up to be incapable of solution are favorite ego devices for impeding learning progress. In all these diversionary tactics, however, the one question that is never asked by those who pursue them is, "What for?" This is the question that you must learn to ask in connection with everything. What is the purpose?”

Question- I still don’t see how freedom from this division is possible.

Speaker- The key to seeing this clearly is recognizing that in the ‘human condition’ there is a great deal of anger and violence, a great deal of divisionary activity. We need to recognize how we are caught in various beliefs, dogmas and divisionary theories and how we take sides; either noble or ignoble, either positive or negative – and how this relates to violence. We war against one particular system or establishment and then we fall into another divisionary system. We go from one system to another. There is the “counter culture” and the “cultural norm”; nether is true, both are two sides of the same coin. We attempt to leave the world and lead a spiritual life but everything we do is backwards, we always cling to something. We are saying we want God, Truth, Peace, the end to war, but our very actions contradict what we say. The truth is defenseless. Truth Is. We attempt to bring Spirit into the world of form and Truth to illusions but the world and Spirit do not mix as Truth and illusions do not and this is why fear is still evident. In the book of Matthew 6:24 Jesus was quoted as saying, “No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon”.

Questioner: I saw recently on ‘Larry King Live’ that a famous ACIM teacher is seeking a peace department. If I follow this logic – what you just said about trying to bring Spirit into the world - then that means a peace department would be contradictory to the learning of this Course?

Speaker: Many such things are attempted with good intent, but they are ultimately misdirected. There is still a belief that there is “me” who can do something about what is wrong “out there”. It’s still divisionary, you see. It has a “subject” and “object”, but mind is neither “subject” nor “object”, Mind Is. Seeing through a “personal” perspective, it’s inevitable that one will still take a side and when a side is taken, conflict in some form will arise in awareness because the “personal perspective” only sees sides. So even the attempt to have an external corresponding structure to help, such as a peace department, would only be supporting the belief that error is “outside”; that there is a real problem to solve. It must be seen and understood that the very act of correcting “out there” is a violent action. Neither the world nor the spiritual seeker will admit this; the world is made to hide this truth. The little “me” is the conflict, and this is the fact that must be seen. The Holy Spirit sees no error, there is no “out there” nor is there a “within”, Mind Is. Only the belief in separation needs correction and a belief is not a fact. You are the Kingdom. The Course says, “The word "within" is unnecessary. The Kingdom of Heaven is you. What else but you did the Creator create, and what else but you is His Kingdom? This is the whole message of the Atonement; a message which in its totality transcends the sum of its parts.

Questioner- So the Holy Spirit only sees sinlessness, and therefore sees that nothing in the world needs correction?

Speaker- Yes, the “correction” to the separation has already been established, and this is the true meaning of the Atonement. The Atonement is the recognition that the separation has not occurred, so the thought that there is something to correct “out there” only denies the truth of the Holy Spirit’s solution. The Holy Spirit sees all perception, all seeming parts as whole, there is no “good” or “bad” or “right” or “wrong”. You cannot serve two masters. You are either severing the voice of fear – fragmentation - or the voice of wholeness – holiness, all inclusiveness. This is why anyone who takes a side of any kind experiences fear and conflict, which is violence. This is why when you hear ‘spiritual’ people argue you can be certain that they speak from a system of thought that is divisionary. They speak from the realm of belief. They may be quoting scripture, they may be saying they believe in God, they may believe they are supporting something good and worthy that is “out there”, but mere belief is the problem. They maybe saying they want peace, but they are angry, they are fighting or resisting, always pushing against something else. Belief in God, in Truth, is unnecessary, because God <Is> beyond belief. Belief is open to acceptance or rejection, but the truth is true and only the truth is true; it is changeless abstraction. The world you see is an ‘outward’ picture of an ‘inward’ condition. If we take sides in religion, politics, wars or whatever it may be, we will hold to one and hate the other. If we are protecting our religions, our spiritual truths, then we do not know the meaning they are pointing to. We have missed the mark. Like I said, theology and belief is unnecessary to know God. The Course so wonderfully puts it this way, “To be a teacher of God, it is not necessary to be religious or even to believe in God to any recognizable extent. It is necessary, however, to teach forgiveness rather than condemnation….All terms are potentially controversial, and those who seek controversy will find it. Yet those who seek clarification will find it as well. They must, however, be willing to overlook controversy, recognizing that it is a defense against truth in the form of a delaying maneuver. Theological considerations as such are necessarily controversial, since they depend on belief and can therefore be accepted or rejected. A universal theology is impossible, but a universal experience is not only possible but necessary. It is this experience toward which the course is directed. Here alone consistency becomes possible because here alone uncertainty ends.”

(pause)

Lets take a look at this line again, “Theological considerations as such are necessarily controversial, since they depend on belief and can therefore be accepted or rejected.”

(pause)

The word, the description of the described, is not the thing. What I am saying is that we make the error of making the written word sacred and special; we forget what the word is for. We believe the words, but on a superficial level; we project our conclusion upon its content and decide what we want to see. This type of believing is open to acceptance or rejection, but both acceptance and rejection are two sides of the same coin – the same kind of activity. Let’s take a look at the aspect of acceptance within popular religion: Many people believe in Jesus, but how many wars have taken place because of this superficial believing? Jesus wrote the Course so we could have a healed perspective of his message, but we do the very thing that’s always been done; we fragment it through our personal opinions and interpretations. We forget what the word is pointing towards. It’s all so very simple. The truth is true and only the truth is true, nothing real can be threatened, nothing unreal exists. It’s that simple. Truth is changeless and illusions are just illusions, they are not real. A Course in Miracles is 1250 pages, and was designed for a “sophisticated schizophrenic”. The Christ Mind is very simple; Christ abides in the ever present moment. The present moment is very simple, it is given, it is grace, in the very same way that the flow of a river has been given. If you put a leaf in the river, it flows right along with the current. The purpose of the Course is to tell you that you are attempting to fight this current, that you have built a dam and have blocked the flow. The dam is symbolic of the layers of concepts one has accumulated. The purpose of the Atonement is to atone, to undo the layers of the dam so one can allow the river to flow and purge itself of this false construct. The Course’s purpose is not to identify with more concepts; this perpetuates the building of the dam. What happens when we recognize the changeless unconditional truth which is beyond conceptual belief?

Questioner- I guess if there are no concepts and nothing to defend; then we are defenseless.

Speaker- The human condition is an error, an illusion; a movement of thought that obscures the law of Unity. Can you see the human condition now?

Questioner: Yes, I can see it. And… seeing now, the human situation as it is; what are we to do?

Speaker- This, I think, is the question that every truth seeker who has spiritual integrity, one who sees the things that are happening around him or her, must inevitably ask. Mind-watching the egoic division is not for the occasional moments when we experience pain or doubt but something that must be transferred throughout the day and night, throughout the years and until our lives are completely harmonious, without conflict in oneself and with the world. “Love transfers to love without any interference, for the two are one. As you perceive more and more common elements in all situations, the transfer of training under the Holy Spirit's guidance increases and becomes generalized. Gradually you learn to apply it to everyone and everything, for its applicability is universal. When this has been accomplished, perception and knowledge have become so similar that they share the unification of the laws of God.”

Law of Division, Law of Unity - Part 2

Questioner- How do I go beyond this petty, conflicted, little self? (laughing)

Speaker- The “I” that’s asking the question is that self. But, that doesn’t mean stop asking questions, it just means being very clear about these ideas – and directing questions appropriately, as you have been. We need to see the root or ‘cause’ of fear, not the effects. Again, see the cause – not the effects. This is an area of confusion for many spiritual seekers. Conflict arises from separating the “observer” and the “observed”; it comes from self-centered fear, from attempting to serve two masters. Ideas leave not their source; “observer” and “observed” are one. The ego gives a tremendous importance to its appetites. The ego uses the separating of the “observer” and the “observed” (the “thinker and the “thought”) to perpetuate its appetites. “Appetites are ‘getting’ mechanisms, representing the ego's need to confirm itself.” The ego believes the “observer” and “observed” are apart, therefore giving the illusion of ‘this’ and ‘that’. The ego needs two; it needs a split to confirm itself. So the ego uses the body as means to an end, a means to “get” what it thinks it needs from “out there”. The only means necessary for salvation is the Atonement, which is the complete forgiveness of what is unreal - duality.

Questioner- Any “getting mechanism” is of the ego?

Speaker- Yes. The ego is only out to keep the illusion of its concepts alive. It needs to fight for survival; the ego will do anything to confirm its existence. It will either seek negative or positive ways to give itself a sense of aliveness or to show that it ‘exists’ through its doings. We can use your example of forming a peace department. A peace department looks like quite a positive and worthy cause on the surface. But we have to look at the underling premise of a mind that would form one. To do this, there must be a belief that peace is “out there”, that there is real “cause” in this world – or conversely that fear is “out there” and not in my mind. “Dreams are your protest against reality, and your fixed and insane idea that you can change it.” Remember what I said just a moment ago, that this is where most spiritual students get confused and then focus on the effects and not the cause of fear. Jesus asks us, “How willing are you to escape effects of all the dreams the world has ever had? Is it your wish to let no dream appear to be the cause of what it is you do? Then let us merely look upon the dream's beginning, for the part you see is but the second part, whose cause lies in the first. No one asleep and dreaming in the world remembers his attack upon himself. “

When you focus on effects, rather than the cause, it seems that there is a real problem outside ones mind, not within the mind. This is why “attack” would seem real, for you have given away the dreaming of the world (cause) but have kept one part; the ‘face of innocence’, the part that is acted on. The giving away of cause is why no one remembers his “attack upon himself.” If you trace the motive of seeking change within the world back to the mind, it’s based on “subject” and “object” being different. The ego separates the “subject” and the “object”, the “observer” and the “observed” so that it can be cause, the author of the dream. When one seems to experience anything unlike peace, it is because there is the separating of the “observer” and “observed”, the “subject” and “object”, an attempt to order reality according to the ego’s dictates. This activity keeps the mind focused on effects, never realizing the cause. This is an endless loop. Do you follow what I am saying?

Questioner: Yes I do, although it’s hard not to want to change things out there. I have to admit that it is very tempting to want to be the one who changes the world for the better. Sometimes I think if we could all just be a little more spiritual then that would make a big impact on the state of the world. This must be where I have to bring it back to my mind then, if I think something is wrong out there it means I still see the effects and not the cause. I see effects, like war and hunger and racism and I want to change all that – to make people see how things could be better or different. But it’s really me that needs to change how I see. That is a very, very different perspective, and if I may say so, a bit radical.

Speaker – Yes, it does seem radical to the mind that is invested in the ways of the world. But I assure you, it is the only way the error will ever be corrected and cause and effect brought together. The most important thing to remember is that God’s Will for you, His Effect, is perfect happiness. If one is not experiencing perfect happiness, it’s a sign that the mind is attempting to order reality. Whenever you attempt to order reality there will be a communication break in the experience of God’s Will because God orders your Reality for you. It is important to see all events and circumstances (either positive or negative – right or wrong – good or bad) as in the wrong-mind and they are all equally illusory. Instead of giving illusions separate meanings and separate purposes the Atonement principle gives equal meaning to all and sees all as past and in purified form.

Anything unlike peace, even a slight irritation, is a sign that the mind is attempting to order reality through fragmentation. The right-mind, the Atonement, is the solution for wrong-mindedness. When one chooses the right-mind, one sees two orders of thought, a call for love and love. Both share the same content; they both extend love. There is no fragmentation in this ordering. It is seen that all events and circumstances work together for good because there is no order of difficulty in miracles. This is the wholeness you are seeking. God’s will is now and it is whole.

You said something a moment ago that is worth discussing, if only briefly, and that is the tendency for us to think that there is a difference between the spiritual life and the non-spiritual life. What does that actually mean and can we trust the ego to tell us what the difference is? The premise that there is a difference is merely another sophisticated attempt by the ego to order reality. One way the ego maintains divisionary activity is through moving from a ‘non spiritual’ life to a ‘spiritual life’. The ego then uses the same system of conceptual thought but now it uses spiritual words or external structures: its uses concepts like soul, spirit, goddess, priest, minister, peace activist, church, temple, social programs and so on. These are pleasant sounding words, pleasant looking structures that the ego uses to obscure the law of division, the inner conflict within. How can what you are, who you are, ever not <be> spiritual?

There is nothing to do, nothing to become, and this very idea is the release of any “outside” responsibility other than one’s state of mind; the release of any sense of karmic debt or role in the dream for which one is responsible. There is nothing to save, fix or maintain. The whole point of life is seeing this very instant, which is the Holy Instant, as whole, seeing it as it is, which is perfect. “The miracle perceives everything as it is. The only sane solution is not to try to change reality, which is indeed a fearful attempt, but to accept it as it is.”

(pause)

Look at it this way; the ego is forever collecting, it likes to possess, to mimic - it’s an actor. But this movement is only maintained through a split of “this’ and ‘that’. “This” being “subject” (body individual dream figure-peace activist), “that” being external corresponding structure (peace department).

If “this” and “that” is seen as one, not apart, then the mind can see wholly; see Unity. But we cannot do this if we seek to change the world because the belief that there is something to change or fix is an error in the mind of the perceiver. This is the war, the violence, which needs to be seen with the Holy Spirit as in the mind and not apart from the mind. This violence is in the mind, not “out there”. The perceiver is whole, it is not a “person” dreaming a dream; you are the dreamer of the entire space-time cosmos. Believing there is a gap, a space, between you and the world is the problem - this is the belief that brings forth violence. There is nothing “outside” of the mind, but the belief that there is, is only a projection, an error the ego has cleverly hidden through the “subject/object” split. Not seeing this is why history seems to repeat itself. Again, this is the importance of seeing the cause, rather than focusing on effects.

“Perhaps it will be helpful to remember that no one can be angry at a fact. It is always an interpretation that gives rise to negative emotions, regardless of their seeming justification by what appears as facts. Regardless, too, of the intensity of the anger that is aroused. It may be merely slight irritation, perhaps too mild to, be even clearly recognized. Or it may also take the form of intense rage, accompanied by thoughts of violence, fantasied or apparently acted out. It does not matter. All of these reactions are the same. They obscure the truth, and this can never be a matter of degree. Either truth is apparent, or it is not. It cannot be partially recognized. Who is unaware of truth must look upon illusions.”

Questioner- Okay, I am finally clear on that point – focusing on cause rather than effect. I see that even what I think of as an “irritation” is violence. Now I think I understand what it means by, “there is no order of difficulty in miracles”. Wow… I’ve been ordering error on a hierarchy and splitting it off and hiding in the world. I used the concepts of being “normal” and a “good person” or a “spiritual person” to hide behind that.

You did say something a moment ago that I haven’t heard you say before – or at least not in this context. You said, “The ego is forever collecting, it likes to possess, to mimic; it’s an actor.” What do you mean by collecting?

Speaker- We can equate the word “collecting” to becoming, achieving, attaining, doing, accumulating, measuring, competing and striving and so on. It’s directly related to the “getting mechanisms” we talked about a few minutes ago. Creation belongs only to Spirit, belongs only to the eternally changeless, not to the ego and its seeming “dynamics”. This egoic collecting is the basis of egoic conceptual thought, and it is made – never Created. The whole point is that we stop collecting, stop becoming and stop believing that we need to “do” something, believing that the “doing” will bring about a real change. We need to empty out whatever we have and mind-watch the “collector”, the “actor”, the “becomer”, the “doer” which are all one. We need to avoid collecting more concepts, to avoid charging up the ego.

This is why we must question the idea of being a ‘spiritual person’ or that you can become ‘more spiritual’ or even that inner peace can be obtained or attained through some sort of activity or external factor. Only the ego would think such a thing. Only the ego would believe you need to do something, or could do something – perform some action, to speed up the awakening. Inner Peace arises in the mind that sees “subject” and “object” as the same. Enlightenment or Salvation is seeing everything right now as it is, seeing perfection this very instant. Reality is now! Reality is already established by God.
(pause)

Questioner- Wow, I didn’t see this error until now. I can see how the whole world is invested in this kind of “collecting” like you said. It’s almost like a machine that envelopes all of humanity, where everyone has an obligation to produce or attain or improve. Knowing how deeply ingrained this kind of mentality is in our modern world, especially the modern western culture, how can anyone put an end to this pattern?

Speaker- Yes. It appears the whole world is doing this, but you are the world, the world is in your mind – the “machine” is in your mind. Unplug from the machine! Remember, you are the dreamer of the dream. Robert, Ken, Marianne, Gary, Speaker, Mrs. Robinson from first grade… all these teachers that seem to be out there are not really “out there”, there is only Mind. The Course so wonderfully puts it this way in the ‘Hero of the Dream’ section, “The body is the central figure in the dreaming of the world. There is no dream without it, nor does it exist without the dream in which it acts as if it were a person to be seen and be believed. It takes the central place in every dream, which tells the story of how it was made by other bodies, born into the world outside the body, lives a little while and dies, to be united in the dust with other bodies dying like itself.”

So to continue with this idea, I am a thought in your mind. I am not apart from mind. Hi Me. You ask, “How can anyone put an end to this pattern?” We have to see this system and its corresponding structures, see the human condition, very closely. Fearing inward change, fearing the end of the “persona”, we turn to “outside systems”- we attempt to change the environment, the social and economic structures, we attempt to organize Spirit through the construction of churches, organizations and temples. We cannot look partially at the problem anymore, there needs to be a passion for true honesty, true integrity. This true honesty looks at the totality of life; it does not see a partial perspective, it is a whole perspective. It does not see from a belief system that limits or thinks itself to be the only right way. To see everything from a whole perspective, this is right-mindedness.

The Course tells us, “You operate from the belief you must protect yourself from what is happening because it must contain what threatens you. A sense of threat is an acknowledgement of an inherent weakness; a belief that there is danger which has power to call on you to make appropriate defense. The world is based on this insane belief. And all its structures, all its thoughts and doubts, its penalties and heavy armaments, its legal definitions and its codes, its ethics and its leaders and its gods, all serve but to preserve its sense of threat. For no one walks the world in armature but must have terror striking at his heart.”

These external attempts to solve the problem perpetuate the belief in separation, prolonging the very thing we seek to find. It makes the journey to God seem to be linear, when God is Now! Like I said, we are looking for God but we look through a very narrow view. “Whom God has joined cannot be separated, and God has joined all His Sons with Himself. Can you be separated from your life and your being? The journey to God is merely the reawakening of the knowledge of where you are always, and what you are forever. It is a journey without distance to a goal that has never changed. Truth can only be experienced. It cannot be described and it cannot be explained. I can make you aware of the conditions of truth, but the experience is of God. Together we can meet its conditions, but truth will dawn upon you of itself.”

Questioner - As you were speaking I was thinking about the divisions within the Course community itself. Recently, two Course teachers, ** and **, wrote a book called, ‘One Course, Two Visions’ and it’s about two conflicting opinions of the theology of A Course in Miracles. Also, I just read a ‘**’ magazine article where ** says, “Life for students of A Course in Miracles used to be simpler than it is today… we had one version of our revered book…” He is referring to the editing and revising of the original document that has been done over the years and is eluding to the possibility that the versions now available are somehow inferior to what was originally scribed or intended. I don’t understand this, but it seems a lot of other people in our Course community believe it also. Although in the context of what we have been talking about, isn’t this also a reflection of a belief that there is something wrong “out there”?

Speaker - Okay. Let’s go into this. You see, this isn’t about making one right or another wrong; it’s just about metaphysical discernment and responsibility for sight, one’s own sight. True simplicity is not found in form, in theologies or “revered” sacred texts. Simplicity is found in the present moment, where theology is no longer necessary – it is now. For that reason, there is no such thing as “used to be simpler”. This is the ego’s subtle attempt, using a spiritual guise, at being a victim. Now, to go back to what you said about this being a reflection of a belief in something wrong ‘out there’… yes, it is projection of error. You just said that you don’t understand this. Well, there is nothing to understand; the law of division and the Law of Unity have no meeting point. There is no ‘course community’ apart from ones mind; that’s yet another concept. Mind is all there is, there is no “out there” “out there”; there is no “Course community” and there is no separate “life for Course students”. Let’s remember the poignant question Jesus asks in the Course, “Who is the ‘you’ that is living in this world?” We can make that even more specific and ask: Who is the ‘you’ that is in a community? Or even: Who is the ‘you’ that is a Course student? Who is the ‘you’ for which life is less simple today?

Spirit is changeless and constant. Let’s remember that the escape from all concepts is salvation; it’s the remembrance of our constant Self which is the goal of the theology, not to collect more concepts to make our ‘little selves’ special. Only concepts need defense, therefore concepts are illusory. When we have no concepts, we have no division, we have nothing to defend, we have only the truth; pure unadulterated truth. The laws of division only seem to exist because of the identification with concepts. The one and only concept that needs healing is the “self-concept”. The self-concept is the entire dream; it’s not just an individual thing - the “persona”. So the key is seeing the dream, the whole dream, as a false identity. Mind or Christ is beyond concepts, beyond time and space, but the ego doesn’t want to reveal this because it would be out of business. This is too simple. This is why you seem to find a split in the “course community”. This is why life for Course students seems simpler in the past, the good old days.

The mind really believes it is a person. The human condition is a twisted illusion of reality. The course puts it this way, “Let us return the dream he gave away unto the dreamer, who perceives the dream as separate from himself and done to him. A timelessness in which is time made real; a part of God that can attack itself; a separate brother as an enemy; a mind within a body all are forms of circularity whose ending starts at its beginning, ending at its cause. The world you see depicts exactly what you thought you did. Except that now you think that what you did is being done to you. The guilt for what you thought is being placed outside yourself, and on a guilty world that dreams your dreams and thinks your thoughts instead of you. It brings its vengeance, not your own. It keeps you narrowly confined within a body, which it punishes because of all the sinful things the body does within its dream. You have no power to make the body stop its evil deeds because you did not make it, and cannot control its actions nor its purpose nor its fate.”

Law of Division, Law of Unity - Part 3

Questioner- That opens up another question for me and in order to get clear on this, at least in the context you are talking about, it seems like you really have to become aware of the ego… of it’s cunning little games and all of the strategies that it uses to prevent us from waking up and remembering who we are so that we can experience love and peace and know everyone as ourselves. See, I have heard it said by more than one person that you do not have to look at the ego… and actually that looking at it only makes it real. What do you say about this?

Speaker- The irony is that this is exactly the kind of cunning game playing or strategizing that the ego uses to preserve itself. Only the ego would say, “Do not look at the ego”. The ego wants you dead. The ego is death. The miracle simply looks and does nothing because it sees that error isn’t real! There is a line in the Course where the answer to this question is summed up very simply. I’ll find it for you… It says, “No one can escape from illusions unless he looks at them, for not looking is the way they are protected. There is no need to shrink from illusions, for they cannot be dangerous. We are ready to look more closely at the ego's thought system because together we have the lamp that will dispel it, and since you realize you do not want it, you must be ready. Let us be very calm in doing this, for we are merely looking honestly for truth. The "dynamics" of the ego will be our lesson for a while, for we must look first at this to see beyond it, since you have made it real. We will undo this error quietly together, and then look beyond it to truth.” So, unless you have any other question about that specifically, I think this really sums it up.

Questioner- Yes, that’s fine. I only asked because I felt some uncertainty about it, but it didn’t seem totally on the mark when I first heard it. Now it’s clear enough. However, I did have something else that has been coming up and which does relate to the Course in terms of it being true or at least accurate and how someone could still be right or wrong in their interpretation of what it says and of my own feeling of an identification with that, with a particular interpretation, is what I mean. So, to be specific, identifying with the Course, making it part of who I am, part of my self concept – or taking sides denies truth – that’s what you say. But let’s say the Course is true, and I believe it is – still, it seems I could side with one person or another or with one interpretation or another. So what’s wrong with that, especially if the interpretation is an accurate one?

Speaker- First of all, the truth student must be clear that the one and only lesson he or she will ever have to learn is that the truth is true and only the truth is true. Truth seekers around the world are identified with interpretations of their sacred text or with their spiritual Masters. But, as was said before, theology can be open to acceptance or rejection. It is not the truth. Interpretations are illusions. There are no personal interpretations of the truth, the truth is. If one does identify or agree with an interpretation, believing that it means something in and of itself, than one will defend that interpretation as if it really means something. But the truth needs no defense.

Let us also be clear that responsibility for discernment is always one’s own. Everything that you hear someone say, every written word, is there to be discerned by the Holy Spirit in your right-mind. There are no persons, separate interpretations or separate purposes in the right-mind. Let’s remember that you are the dreamer of the entire dream, not a dream figure or person within the dream. There is only a unified goal and that goal is the ever-present moment. It may appear that a body is speaking to you, but Mind does not speak. There is no action in Mind. It is all metaphors, all symbols in the mind. Even the Course isn’t the truth; it’s a reflection of truth, but the words hold nothing in and of themselves. They are only there to be used while they are necessary and when their usefulness is done it is because they are superseded by the Truth.

Questions: Sure, I understand what you are saying… that the Course represents something that is beyond symbols or words, but let’s face it, A Course in Miracles is a very important piece of work. Like Robert Perry said when he was talking about the edited versions of the Course, its “our revered book”. Why shouldn’t we revere it? Don’t we have to protect it on some level?

Speaker: It always come back to: “The truth is true and only the truth is true.” The truth needs no defense. The description of the truth is not the truth. The description of God is not God. “Truth can only be experienced. It cannot be described and it cannot be explained. “ Let’s look at it from this perspective… analyzing the Course to compare and contrast which version is better and which is worse, which is edited correctly and which is not is like going back and analyzing the platform of a missile that has already been fired off. A Course in Miracles has already been fired off into consciousness. It has taken off. To doubt the message is to doubt the function of our one and only teacher, the Holy Spirit.

You understand the main points, don't you? The main content of the message has been successfully conveyed to you. Precise terminology is not the aim of a Course in Miracles. A few words don’t change the content. A Course in Miracles is an expression of the content of the Universal Inspiration which is the Holy Spirit. Inspiration is now and forever available, you aren’t dependent on a gold and blue book to give you the answers. The answer is found in the present moment and that can never be taken away, changed or obscured unless you wish it to be. Resist the temptation to believe that you have been denied the truth. God knows not form. The Course says itself, “This is not a course in philosophical speculation, nor is it concerned with precise terminology. It is concerned only with Atonement, or the correction of perception. The means of the Atonement is forgiveness.”

Questioner- And, what about the word of God?

Speaker - God is not found in the written or spoken word. The word of God is a concept that points to the reality of Who the Christ Is, Who God Is. Metaphorically speaking, the word of God could be stated this way, “I am as God created Me” because this is the word or statement of God/Truth. Simply put, we can say that the content of this statement makes one point; that perfection is untouchable, unalterable and beyond time and space.

Now, lets go back to the word “revere” so we can bring clarity and illuminate the mind from any further misperceptions on this matter.

(pause)

The definition of “revere” according to the dictionary is: to regard with respect tinged with awe; venerate (to adore or idolize).

(pause)

This is how the ego tricks us. The ego loves to make things special, but this is very dangerous and a major delay in the awakening. This is why we must spend our time wisely, looking at the ego and its subtle attempts to act spiritual. The ego believes because it reads a book or a because it appears to be teaching a particular theology that it knows something, but to know intellectually and not to live it fully, not to embody that wisdom, is not to know. To teach is to demonstrate and there is no choice in this matter because we are either teaching fear or love and we cannot listen to two thoughts systems, two voices, simultaneously. “You cannot serve two masters”.

Jesus in the Course tells us that to be in awe of him or anything else in form is an inappropriate response. “Awe should be reserved for revelation, to which it is perfectly and correctly applicable. It is not appropriate for miracles because a state of awe is worshipful, implying that one of a lesser order stands before his Creator. You are a perfect creation, and should experience awe only in the presence of the Creator of perfection. The miracle is therefore a sign of love among equals. Equals should not be in awe of one another because awe implies inequality. It is therefore an inappropriate reaction to me. An elder brother is entitled to respect for his greater experience, and obedience for his greater wisdom. He is also entitled to love because he is a brother, and to devotion if he is devoted. It is only my devotion that entitles me to yours. There is nothing about me that you cannot attain. I have nothing that does not come from God. The difference between us now is that I have nothing else. This leaves me in a state which is only potential in you.”

(pause)

Questioner: A week ago I was at my wife’s church and her priest said, “the church protects its flock.” It’s the priest or the minister who is trusted with the spiritual message and he or she has had the training to be in that position. It’s a kind of a spiritual authority and churches are not the only institutions that use this format for learning, it has been done for thousands of years this way. Even in the context of A Course in Miracles, there are those who do seem to claim a kind of authority over the scripture, or at least a level of mastery in some respects. Given the amount of confusion that can seem to surround the Course ideas and teachings, don’t you think that this kind of authority is useful or helpful to guide people?

Speaker – Religious, spiritual and institutional authorities have said, “Believe, accept, and put yourself in the hands of something ‘outside’ and ‘greater’ than yourself,” for centuries now. “Put your trust in the church, this group, a book, the government, the system, the leaders, this interpretation or opinion or spiritual guru” and so on. These symbols will all be used as long as the mind finds them necessary, but eventually they loose their ‘authority’ because they are not real, but conceptual inventions, corresponding structures, which are based on division and have no power or authority of themselves whatsoever. This is why we have to recognize true authority because true authority is stable and cannot lose its power. Only displaced authority can be diminished or seem to shift because it was built on a foundation of illusions.

Society is a concept based on the subject/object split, and the “outside systems” of society are corresponding structures of the split mind, representations of the fear to commit to the Holy Spirit, the true authority. All they can be are merely symbols, representing something to us that we need or desire or hope for; some fulfillment, something we feel that we lack. Some of these symbols will be steps along the way. But we still have a responsibility to ourselves, and dependency on any external is a denial of that responsibility. All external dependency is misdirected and a reflection of the fear to look within, the fear of commitment to the true authority. The identification with concepts such as nationality; America , Canada , Iraq - that too has brought wars, conflict and confusion. Concepts have no power. They deny what is true because they are the blocks to recognizing Truth, God.

True authority is found through forgiveness, through negating what is false. True authority is given by the Holy Spirit from God and this is Grace; freedom from law, from all external dependencies. Authority cannot be found by collecting and using concepts as a means to an end. It is found in the release of those concepts, in the abstraction and the simplicity of the law of Unity. Unity is Grace. Grace is stable and cannot be shaken; it has no lack as the perfection of Creation. This world is set-up through a backwards system of thought which is the antithesis of Creation. This world denies the abstraction, Creation, by setting up external structures which are based on an inner idea which is divisionary. We must recognize true authority in its rightful place. It is found in the joining and in the sharing of the idea of Christ being one.

(silence)

Questioner- I have lived in a Zen monastery and I have also lived in an ashram, yet I still feel basically the same as I did before any of that. I have learned how to simplify my life a bit, and to meditate, but there is still a sense of missing something essential. My mediations are peaceful but then the ‘outside’ world seems to take that peace away. I can see what you are saying, but what am I to do?

Speaker – The problem is that you are looking for someone to tell you what to do. Can we see this clearly? True authority is within you. Do not fear to look within. Escaping to a monastery, learning Zen meditation, accepting a philosophical theory and committing oneself to that, while it may be somewhat beneficial, does not help us to see the law of division. Meditating as a means of escape or if used for seeking experiences is self-hypnosis. Meditation is not an event found in time, it’s a constant state of watchfulness. True mediation is mind-watching without any movement, without any condemnation. It is not the forms, models or techniques that help us. Forms aren’t ‘causative’; there is no ‘causation’ in this world. Let’s remember what we just talked about. Many people revere the Course; make it special and set up a sense of identity with the form, therefore denying the very thing they look for, denying it’s message. The same can be done with meditation; the ego sets up “subject” (body) and seeks an experience in time and space to heighten a sense of self. This sense of self is faulty because its foundation is built on illusions, built on spurious cause and effect relationships. This gives ‘cause’ to a form and denies the true Cause, which is our eternal Father, Who offers constant Grace.

The closest to ‘cause’ the world offers lies in choice. There are two choices or two interpretations to mind-watch with and only one of them, the Holy Spirit (the reflection of Cause) is the true power you are seeking. But for most, this is too simple. Here we can again reference the Course, “I have already told you that you can be as vigilant against the ego as for it. This lesson teaches not only that you can be, but that you must be. It does not concern itself with order of difficulty, but with clear-cut priority for vigilance. This lesson is unequivocal in that it teaches there must be no exceptions, although it does not deny that the temptation to make exceptions will occur. Here, then, your consistency is called on despite chaos. Yet chaos and consistency cannot coexist for long, since they are mutually exclusive. As long as you must be vigilant against anything, however, you are not recognizing this mutual exclusiveness, and still believe that you can choose either one. By teaching what to choose, the Holy Spirit will ultimately teach you that you need not choose at all. This will finally liberate your mind from choice, and direct it towards creation within the Kingdom.”

Questioner- How much time will this take? How many times do I need to do my lessons to get this?

Speaker- It isn’t about how many times one practices the Lessons over and over. It is about recognizing the falsity without any judgment or fragmentation whatsoever. The lesson will appear until the mind is ready to see its delusions. This question is why we have to see this movement of thought now; we have to see it actually, not verbally or intellectually. We need to seek for what is false, not for the truth; seeking for experiences in meditation, or seeking for spiritual identities has to come to an end. The goal is the present moment, and the means to the goal is the Atonement, the undoing of conceptual thinking. We need to see that all forms lead nowhere. It isn’t about ‘doings’ or practicing rituals or mantras no matter how profound they may be. We have to see the falseness of it all, see the superficiality of all beliefs, noble or ignoble. We can end the need for linear time with the help of the Holy Spirit – this is our purpose. The Holy Spirit will guide us where to live, what to say and what to do. The Spirit is spontaneous, it isn’t dogmatic nor does it abide by rules of thought or a system of rituals. The Spirit is calling you from the world. The Spirit is calling us from the law of division, calling us into the law of Grace, the law of Unity.

Questioner- Practically then, what can be done?

Speaker- The ‘doing’ is actually not a doing; it’s actually a watching; watching what is arising in awareness and taking responsibility for the acceptance of the solution. The Holy Spirit is the Atonement, the solution. It takes an honest mind, a mind that is capable of looking at things wholly, as they are, without any division, without any interpretation according to one's preferences, to watch this way. True watching looks and simply does nothing, it simply is. The Atonement is the un-doing. “Enlightenment is but a recognition, not a change at all.”

Law of Division, Law of Unity - Part 4

Questioner: When I mind-watch, I see a very rapid movement of thoughts and I am unable to watch one thought to its end. It’s so frustrating.

Speaker: This is why it’s important to be clear on what is meant by “mind-watching” which is true meditation. There is always a chain of events going on in the egoic mind. When you try to watch one thought to its very end, but another arises… this goes on all the time. There is your problem: as you are watching the thoughts, you are watching from the perspective of ‘personhood’, the ‘thinker’ which has thoughts that he likes and those that he does not like; the “thinker” and the “thought” appear to be separate. But in actuality the “thinker” and the “thought” are one.

The collection of thoughts that you are identified with, the “you” the “persona” is not real. What is real is beyond these thoughts; it is the silence that the thoughts obscure. This is why you cannot finish one thought to its end; the “thinker” and the “thought” are one. Who is the “you” living in this world? Spirit is changeless, egoic thoughts are forms, they come and go, they change. “ Spirit is immortal, and immortality is a constant state. It is as true now as it ever was or ever will be, because it implies no change at all. It is not a continuum, nor is it understood by being compared to an opposite. Knowledge never involves comparisons. That is its main difference from everything else the mind can grasp.”

Questioner: So the real Me is changeless silence beyond the changing thoughts, but I am identified with the changing thoughts which have nothing to do with Me. The ego splits the “thinker” and the “thought” apart to give a false sense of self – then there is ‘me’ and ‘you’ and we seem to be different, but it is all just thought, which is essentially nothing! Well, this session has been very helpful in seeing that. I have another question. Why does the mind endlessly chatter?

Speaker- Let me ask this question: What happens if it does not go on? Is the chattering the result of wanting to be busy with something? If you are not busy, what happens? When there is no drama, what happens? Why is the mind demanding this busyness, this chattering? What happens if it does not chatter, if it is not busy? – What is behind it?

Questioner: Whenever I am alone, I feel like nothing, almost completely insignificant… and that is uncomfortable. I guess I have a fear of being nothing, being nobody?

Speaker: Yes, the fear of being “nobody”. The mind is nobody special; it’s perfect whole and complete. This is why the ego divides itself; it needs an opinion, it needs somebody to be special with, something to believe in, and someone to vote for. The ego needs a leader and a follower. There is no-body in Reality, in Truth, in Mind. There is nobody home, no person, there is only Mind. The untrained mind identifies with the thinker of unreal thoughts. It believes it is the collection of thoughts, actions, and behaviors.

The untrained mind cannot see past this superficial understanding of belief. This is why you find most seekers stuck on concepts and metaphors. This is why many teachers of the Course, even popular teachers of the Course – especially the intellectual scholars - protect their opinions. They spend their time gossiping and projecting their opinions on one another. In fact the Course says, “The dispute over authorship has left such uncertainty in your mind that it may even doubt whether you really exist at all.” This is why you find theses seekers, theses students and teachers bantering on about one another, bantering on about who is right and who is wrong, and even publicizing their opinions. The ego needs to confirm itself, so it uses spiritual theologies to prove its existence, because it’s afraid that it doesn’t exist. The ego is rather sophisticated in its denial. If one really knew the truth they would be rejoicing in Christ, in ones eternal connection to God, but they have traded that in for a mere opinion, a mere superficial understanding.

Questioner- So, my fear is the fear of being nobody, or of not being special, of not being who I think of as ‘me’?

Speaker- Yes. Fear of being empty, being lonely; fear of becoming aware of all the turmoil within. The fear that we do not exist is what we hide from. This is why we are occupied; we are busy with our nonessentials. This is why seekers of truth are ‘seekers’, they do not want to be finders. Because of all of this turmoil, the mind becomes occupied with something; the monk, truth seeker or priest is occupied with his savior, his prayers or his special text in the same way that the politician is occupied with his campaign, the same way the peace activist is onto the next worthy cause - the moment he stops he is just like anybody else, there is fear. We want to be occupied, and this implies a fear of finding out what we are. Until we see the ‘cause’ of fear, the mind will chatter.

Questioner: As I watch myself the fear increases. When I think about being away from my wife for long periods, I become fearful. When I stop meditating I become fearful. I go to ACIM groups I feel the love and then I leave the group and, wham! I am fearful again. Can we stop fear from increasing?

Speaker: This is not uncommon for the untrained mind. So, the question is not how to stop the increase of fear, but rather, can fear end?

Questioner- Can fear end?

Speaker- Do you feel fear now?

Questioner- No, I don’t think so.

Speaker- You may not perceive fear as you are sitting here but you can immediately perceive that you depend, can you not? You depend on others for security, on authorities for certainty.

Questioner: Yes, that is obvious. (laughing) I do. As I talk about being away from my wife or being alone, I feel fear arising in the background.

Speaker- So what we can see is that you depend on your wife, on your ACIM group, on your ideas, on your story. Dependency is there constantly in your life. Why do you depend? Is it because it gives you comfort, a sense of security and of well-being or companionship? Or because it makes you “somebody”, makes you a “real person”, makes your existence real somehow.

Questioner- Well, I think that’s because it’s all I know.

Speaker- Yes it’s all you know, but is it real knowing? It’s familiar, but is it the truth? You may become frightened or defensive and this is a sign the mind knows not the truth. We have to admit we do not know in order to be open to true knowing. Let’s take a look at this; when this dependency on externals fails, you become jealous, angry, insecure, hurt and lonely. You feel love in the group, then you leave your group and the ego chatters even more, is this true?

Questioner- (pause) Yes.

Speaker- What does the ego say?

Questioner- Well I feel like running. I want to be independent. I want to get rid of this ache in my heart, to feel secure, to be loved, to be understood, to be free
.
Speaker – You are saying you try to cultivate freedom from dependency, to become independent.

Questioner- (Pause) That’s…. ironic… Yes… it’s a very strange thing when you see it in that light. Suddenly it’s so obvious… the root of all the suffering is that dependency, or should I say ‘displaced dependency’. Why does the mind do all this?

Speaker- The Course so wonderfully puts it this way, “The mind therefore seeks to make it true out of its intensity of desire to have it for itself. Illusions are travesties of creation; attempts to bring truth to lies. Finding truth unacceptable, the mind revolts against truth and gives itself an illusion of victory. Finding health a burden, it retreats into feverish dreams. And in these dreams the mind is separate, different from other minds, with different interests of its own, and able to gratify its needs at the expense of others.” The ego believes that through external dependency there is something more; something more then this empty meaningless existence. But what happens when this form, what ever it is we are dependent on - a church, a group, idea, opinion, mother, teacher, government, idea - falls away?

Questioner- I guess I am afraid to stop. When I look at the way you say it, I can see how I am hiding. But my mind continues to chatter. That’s all its does.

Speaker: The forms shift and change, but the ego does not care about forms, it is addicted to wanting, to needing and to striving and attaining – to collecting. And it’s all thought. The mind chatters because it has to be occupied with something or other; this occupation varies from all kinds of `religious' matters to the seemingly insignificant matters of daily living. This is why we see truth seekers giving their opinions and bantering about their personal interpretations of truth. The mind is obviously occupied because otherwise it might see what it is running from. We believe it cannot be solved.

Questioner: - When the chattering just goes on and on, do you just observe it?

Speaker: The purpose of mind-watching is becoming aware of this chattering - without condemnation. What I mean is, do not try to suppress it, do not say `it is wrong, or right', or `I must get rid of it'. Choose the Holy Spirit to watch, He is the right-mind. You are the dreamer of the total dream, not a person or dream figure in the dream. You are the right-mind, and all the images, all time and space is in the wrong-mind. The right-mind is a present perspective, its now. In this present perspective the past is seen as pure, this is what it means by seeing the past in purified form. The Atonement is a total perspective; it’s whole and all inclusive, not fragmentary. “The Voice of the Holy Spirit does not command, because it is incapable of arrogance. It does not demand, because It does not seek control. It does not overcome, because It does not attack. It merely reminds. It is compelling only because of what it reminds you of. It brings to your mind the other way, remaining quiet even in the midst of the turmoil you may make.” He is the Atonement, the correction to fear, comparison, opinions and fragmentation. He is the one choice that sees wholeness, sees Unity.

Questioner- Okay, then what?

Speaker- Then as you watch the egoic chattering without fragmenting, without resistance, without projecting opinions and divisionary assumptions, you start to discover that the “thinker” and the “thought” (the “observer” and the “observed” ) are one. When we see there is nothing that is not mind, mind is neither subject or object, when we see there is no “out there”, when you see ‘cause’ in your mind and not apart from mind, when you see the power of your mind lies in your interpretation, then and only then can you have the energy, the passion, and the trust to see things differently. “Dreams show you that you have the power to make a world as you would have it be, and that because you want it you see it. And while you see it you do not doubt that it is real. Yet here is a world, clearly within your mind, that seems to be outside. You do not respond to it as though you made it, nor do you realize that the emotions the dream produces must come from you. It is the figures in the dream and what they do that seem to make the dream. You do not realize that you are making them act out for you, for if you did the guilt would not be theirs, and the illusions of satisfaction would be gone. In dreams these features are not obscure… You have been told not to make error real, and the way to do this is very simple. If you want to believe in error, you would have to make it real because it is not true. But truth is real in its own right, and to believe in truth you do not have to do anything. Understand that you do not respond to anything directly, but to your interpretation of it. Your interpretation thus becomes the justification for the response. That is why analyzing the motives of others is hazardous to you. If you decide that someone is really trying to attack you or desert you or enslave you, you will respond as if he had actually done so, having made his error real to you. To interpret error is to give it power, and having done this you will overlook truth. .”

(silence)

When you truly see the ego is but an illusion battling with itself, it is finished, then there is no resistance to chattering. What am I not? I am not the thoughts I seem to think. I am not the feelings I seem to experience. Jesus tells us, “We cannot make a definition for what the ego is, but we can say what it is not. And this is shown to us with perfect clarity. It is from this that we deduce all that the ego is. Look at its opposite and you can see the only answer that is meaningful.” Through negation of what is unreal, of what is false, you have chosen the Holy Spirit. What am I not? I am not a concept of an American, a teacher of God, truth student, member of a community within the world, a democrat, an owner, a meditation practitioner and so on. “As God created you, you must remain unchangeable, with transitory states by definition false. And that includes all shifts in feeling, alterations in conditions of the body and the mind; in all awareness and in all response. This is the all-inclusiveness which sets the truth apart from falsehood, and the false kept separate from the truth, as what it is.”

Questioner- What am I not? I am not the “thinker” or the “thought”. But who am I?

Speaker- Now this is a good place to start. Forgive all the concepts in your mind, negate what is false and remember who you are. Be open to not knowing yourself through concepts and false ideas. Sink into your function, sink into the Atonement principle. See the Son of God as egoless. Christ is not found in a community within time and space. There is no community apart from your mind; ideas leave not there source. Jesus tells us, “What is the ego? Nothingness, but in a form that seems like something. In a world of form the ego cannot be denied for it alone seems real. Yet could God's Son as He created him abide in form or in a world of form?” Use the Atonement as the means to accept your true identity which is abstract. Empty your mind of all concepts that do not stand in the light of truth. Do not use concepts as a means to enhance the ego. Learn to ask “What is it for?” in all situations. Undo the attempt to have two worlds, two thought systems. This is your only purpose. Free your mind from the prison house of concepts. “Everyone defends his treasure, and will do so automatically. The real questions are, what do you treasure, and how much do you treasure it? Once you have learned to consider these questions and to bring them into all your actions, you will have little difficulty in clarifying the means. The means are available whenever you ask. You can, however, save time if you do not protract this step unduly. The correct focus will shorten it immeasurably.”

(pause)

Learn to watch all the arising thoughts without judgment, without comparisons or any fragmentation. Your true Self is abstraction. Learn to watch all thoughts of lust, jealousy, hurt, pain, greed, and so on, as arising thoughts in the wrong-mind. You are the dreamer of the dream; you are the right-mind. You are the Atonement principle. The right-mind watches these thoughts and is aware that not one thought in this world is wholly true. “You do not know the meaning of anything you perceive. Not one thought you hold is wholly true. The recognition of this is your firm beginning. You are not misguided; you have accepted no guide at all. Instruction in perception is your great need, for you understand nothing. Recognize this but do not accept it, for understanding is your inheritance. Perceptions are learned, and you are not without a Teacher. Yet your willingness to learn of Him depends on your willingness to question everything you learned of yourself, for you who learned amiss should not be your own teacher.”

Questioner- Practically, then, how can I discern between these thoughts?

Speaker- A good way to look upon these arising thoughts would be something like this: You notice that jealousy is arising in awareness, and instead of saying “I am jealous,” and associating with that… ask, “Who is the ‘I’ that is jealous?” Christ isn’t jealous. The Son of God feels no pain or hurt. The problem lies in associating yourself with these emotions and your experience when you do so is one of confusion. All guilt comes from this association. It is the confusion with the thinker of the thought, and the separating of the two. Let’s remember, “The war against yourself is but the battle of two illusions, struggling to make them different from each other.” We have to see that all guilt or fear comes from separating the two. We have to be open to allow the Holy Spirit to tell us who we are.

Law of Division, Law of Unity - Part 5

Questioner- “I am not a body I am free. I am as God created me.” I tell myself this over and over every day but I do not feel free from this body. I feel empty and alone most of the time. I feel so frustrated when I look at the Course community, the world and everyone is arguing and fighting, and the war in Iraq is so unnecessary. I mean it’s a waste of our money.

Speaker- Whose money?

Questioner- Our money, our American tax dollars. You have to admit your money is being spent on weapons of mass destruction.

Speaker- And you feel upset about this?

Questioner –You’d better believe it!

Speaker – There is only one way out of this agony! We’ll begin with what you said just now because there are a lot of concepts there to take a look at. It is always to one’s own benefit to question concepts. Let’s remember that the purpose of the Course is to accept the Atonement. The Atonement is the solution to the belief in separation. There is one problem and one solution and defining the problem as “outside” of oneself is not going to solve it. The belief there is a real problem “out there” is just what the ego wants you to think. Like I said, the ego splits itself off into “observer” and “observed”. Truth is changeless, Mind is changeless, but the mind that perceives a world is split between two voices; one is the law of Unity and the other is the identification with concepts, the conceptual mind, the law of division. Our purpose is to escape from all concepts; this is salvation.

Let’s take a look at your statement, “Our money… American tax dollars.” Jesus was quoted as saying, ‘The truth is, I existed before Abraham was even born!’ What he was saying is that “I Am” or “Christ Is” before names, before concepts of nationality, religion, ownership, male, female and so on. Mind is changeless. There is no ‘we’… the word ‘we’ or ‘our’ is a concept to be used for convenience purposes only. What I mean by ‘convenience’ is to use them to teach what is beyond this world, not to use them to reinforce the body, the world, or a self- concept. This is why it’s important to watch your mind for all concepts that obscure the truth. Who is the “you” living in this world? Who is the “you” that can posses or own? Ownership is a divisive concept that divides the mind into parts. The Course tells us, “Ownership is a dangerous concept if it is left to you. The ego wants to have things for salvation, for possession is its law. Possession for its own sake is the ego's fundamental creed, a basic cornerstone in the churches it builds to itself….

To spirit getting is meaningless and giving is all. Having everything, spirit holds everything by giving it, and thus creates as the Father created. While this kind of thinking is totally alien to having things, even to the lower mind it is quite comprehensible in connection with ideas. If you share a physical possession, you do divide its ownership. If you share an idea, however, you do not lessen it. All of it is still yours although all of it has been given away. Further, if the one to whom you give it accepts it as his, he reinforces it in your mind and thus increases it. If you can accept the concept that the world is one of ideas, the whole belief in the false association the ego makes between giving and losing is gone.”

Questioner- If I follow you, by choosing the right-mind or dreamer of the dream perspective, the choice for the Holy Spirit, this will dissolve all attachments? So the government can do what ever they want?

Speaker- Yes to both. Lets look at this: What happens when there is no ‘us’ or ‘them’, ‘subject’ or ‘object’? What happens when there is only abstraction, when nobody owns anything, when there is no one to own anything? What happens when you are the dreamer of the entire dream? You say ‘our’ tax money, but do I have a choice in this “our”. Am I or are you part of the ‘our’ or ‘American’ because you choose it to be. Do I have a choice? Do you have a choice? This is the question. I am the dreamer of the dream; there is one dreamer and one dream, it’s all in my mind. There is nothing apart from mind, ideas leave not their source. The Course so wonderfully puts it this way, “You are the dreamer of the world of dreams. No other cause it has, nor ever will. Nothing more fearful than an idle dream has terrified God's Son, and made him think that he has lost his innocence, denied his Father, and made war upon himself.The body is released because the mind acknowledges "this is not done to me, but I am doing this". And thus the mind is free to make another choice instead. Beginning here, salvation will proceed to change the course of every step in the descent to separation, until all the steps have been retraced, the ladder gone, and all the dreaming of the world undone.”

Questioner: Can you go a little more deeply into the structure of what fear is?

Speaker- All fear is the fear of God. But, practically speaking, we must look at the specifics around which fear seems to arise, because specifics were made to hide the fear of God. Doesn’t fear relate to something I have done in the past, or something that I imagine might happen in the future? The past incident and the future accident; the past illness and the fear of future pain stem from the past experience. Divisionary thought ‘creates’ fear; conceptual thought breeds fear, just as it sustains and nourishes pleasure. Can conceptual thought end? Can it come to an end so that it no longer gives continuity to fear or to pleasure? We never see that the two go together. It is the process of separating the “thinker” and the “thought” that is responsible, that gives the seeming continuity to fear as well as pleasure. Can this conceptual movement of thought stop? Can we see the unreality of fear now, in this very instant?

Questioner- This is the part I am afraid of. I feel that there is nothing to enjoy anymore. If it’s all unreal, all illusory, then one cannot appreciate the radiance of a sunset, a flavorful meal, the delicate smell of a flower, or a child’s laughter. It’s all meaningless.

Speaker- When you see the beauty of a sunset: choose to see it with the Holy Spirit; but do not label and dismiss it as good or bad. Do not say, `I must treasure it in this memory, or have it again'. “If you are fearful, it is certain that you will endow the world with attributes that it does not possess, and crowd it with images that do not exist. “ Just watch the sunset but see its impermanence, see the truth, the light of Spirit behind all images, all events and circumstances. Learn to see the dream as your entire mind, and there is nothing to fear, there is nothing special. But when there is: “good” and “bad”, “right” and “wrong” or “better” or “worse”, then there is fear. The Course tell us, “You look for permanence in the impermanent, for love where there is none, for safety in the midst of danger; immortality within the darkness of the dream of death. Who could succeed where contradiction is the setting of his searching, and the place to which he comes to find stability?”

Questioner- Choose the Holy Spirit. That’s all I have to do?

Speaker- Yes it’s that simple, once you truly understand what it means to do so. The truth is very simple. Let’s take a look at your statement, “If it’s all unreal, all illusory… it’s all meaningless.” Meaninglessness is an empty gesture. You are not meaningless, neither is the dream. The only meaning in this dream is the love that looks upon it. Let’s take a look at lesson 13 in the workbook for students. “ ‘A Meaningless World Engenders Fear’. Actually, a meaningless world is impossible. Nothing without meaning exists. However, it does not follow that you will not think you perceive something that has no meaning. On the contrary, you will be particularly likely to think you do perceive it. Recognition of meaninglessness arouses intense anxiety in all the separated ones. It represents a situation in which God and the ego "challenge" each other as to whose meaning is to be written in the empty space that meaninglessness provides. The ego rushes in frantically to establish its own ideas there, fearful that the void may otherwise be used to demonstrate its own impotence and unreality. And on this alone it is correct. It is essential, therefore, that you learn to recognize the meaningless, and accept it without fear. If you are fearful, it is certain that you will endow the world with attributes that it does not possess, and crowd it with images that do not exist. To the ego illusions are safety devices, as they must also be to you who equate yourself with the ego.”

Questioner - Thank you for this clarification. Now I can see how joining together like this is a time-saver. Labeling the sunset beautiful and the seeking it to make it special divides the dream into parts of good and bad. So you are saying that when we judge it (good or bad –right or wrong), label it and dismiss it, we are challenging God for the meaning we would put upon the world.

Speaker- Yes that is true. Lets look at this part of the quote again, “ It represents a situation in which God and the ego "challenge" each other as to whose meaning is to be written in the empty space that meaninglessness provides. The ego rushes in frantically to establish its own ideas there, fearful that the void may otherwise be used to demonstrate its own impotence and unreality.” The ego seeks for specialness, but if one sees the entire dream as total, as in the mind and not apart from the mind, then one can look upon the entire dream with one purpose, one meaning. We can look with love at the totality of ones mind and see past the veil of duality. We can see innocent perception.

Questioner- We are all doing this, dividing and breaking up the dream into “good” and “bad” parts and fragments. We are seeking for permanence in the impermanent. Can we talk a little more about this?

Speaker- Yes, this is great. Now this is the best use of ones time. Many people think because it’s an illusion, then there’s an assumption it doesn’t mean anything, therefore it’s meaningless. So then they look at the world rather mechanically, like a robot. I’ve heard many truth students say things like, “I can’t enjoy the beauty of nature anymore.” This assumption is egoic in nature. It’s not the form that needs to be corrected; forms or the entire dream is neutral. Only the “doer” or the “becomer” would think such a thing. The doer only thinks in behavioral terms; how I should be if I am spiritual, what is the right or wrong thing to say? This is actually a defense against recognizing one’s feelings and values by dissociating from them. The ‘doer’ abides by the egos law of ‘shoulda, coulda, woulda’. But this type of thinking is backwards and upside down. Behavior is an effect of thought. The mind thinks and all else follows. The Course tells us, “Fear is always a sign of strain, arising whenever what you want conflicts with what you do… Whenever there is fear, it is because you have not made up your mind. Your mind is therefore split, and your behavior inevitably becomes erratic. Correcting at the behavioral level can shift the error from the first to the second type, but will not obliterate the fear.”

Questioner- So the form is neutral. Why then, do some forms seem more addictive?

Speaker- The ego cleverly hides its values in a hierarchy of illusions. Like I just said, it’s the thought. Actually, it’s the ordering of the thought that is the problem. It’s the thought behind the form, behind the image. Some people crave bananas, some people won’t touch them. Is a banana good or bad? See, its open to acceptance or rejection. But if both were seen as illusory – good and bad - and that the problem was in the ordering (judgment), then you would get somewhere. The ego dissolves as we allow the Holy Spirit to order our thoughts. “This is a very simple course. Perhaps you do not feel you need a course which, in the end, teaches that only reality is true. But do you believe it? When you perceive the real world, you will recognize that you did not believe it. Yet the swiftness with which your new and only real perception will be translated into knowledge will leave you but an instant to realize that this alone is true. And then everything you made will be forgotten; the good and the bad, the false and the true. For as Heaven and earth become one, even the real world will vanish from your sight. The end of the world is not its destruction, but its translation into Heaven. The reinterpretation of the world is the transfer of all perception to knowledge.”

I will end this session in form knowing there is no end in Content, in Spirit, with a beautiful section from ‘Self Concept verses Self’, “The world can teach no images of you unless you want to learn them. There will come a time when images have all gone by, and you will see you know not what you are. It is to this unsealed and open mind that truth returns, unhindered and unbound. Where concepts of the self have been laid by is truth revealed exactly as it is. When every concept has been raised to doubt and question, and been recognized as made on no assumptions that would stand the light, then is the truth left free to enter in its sanctuary, clean and free of guilt. “You will make many concepts of the self as learning goes along. Each one will show the changes in your own relationships, as your perception of yourself is changed. There will be some confusion every time there is a shift, but be you thankful that the learning of the world is loosening its grasp upon your mind. And be you sure and happy in the confidence that it will go at last, and leave your mind at peace. The role of the accuser will appear in many places and in many forms. And each will seem to be accusing you. Yet have no fear it will not be undone. “

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