Hi EveryOne,
A friend recently asked me to look at A Course in Miracles, Chapter 12, Section III with her. The paragraph-by-paragraph discussion is posted below. This discussion is helpful in releasing the confusion between form and content.
With Love,
Regina
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T-12.III.1. I once asked you to sell all you have and give to the poor and follow me. This is what I meant: If you have no investment in anything in this world, you can teach the poor where their treasure is. The poor are merely those who have invested wrongly, and they are poor indeed! Because they are in need it is given you to help them, since you are among them. Consider how perfectly your lesson would be learned if you were unwilling to share their poverty. For poverty is lack, and there is but one lack since there is but one need.
Poverty is the belief that illusions are real, because the belief that illusions are real is also the belief that we are separate from God, and that belief is poverty. It is not real poverty, since we are not separate from God, but it is an imagined poverty, because we believe it.
Through The Holy Spirit’s Interpretation of the New Testament (NTI), the Holy Spirit teaches us that we are not separate from God because we are “the process of creation that is God.” (Ephesians) This means that what we are, literally, is the process of creation . . . an extension of our Father . . . made in His image and the same as He.
So, all of our thoughts and feelings create. The Course teaches us that the one thing we cannot create is us . . . I am as my Father created me
. That means that we are one and we are creator . . . and that can never
change. So the belief that we are separate and that we are not creator (i.e., the belief that we are victims of the world we see) is illusion. And this belief is poverty. It is poverty, because in holding this belief, we do not understand what we do. We create our experience through our thoughts and feelings, but we do not realize that our thoughts and feelings are creating more of the same types of experiences.
“What you think, you see.
What you see, you experience.
What you experience, you think.
This is why reversal is needed.”
T-12.III.2. Suppose a brother insists on having you do something you think you do not want to do. His very insistence should tell you that he believes salvation lies in it. If you insist on refusing and experience a quick response of opposition, you are believing that your salvation lies in not doing it. You, then, are making the same mistake he is, and are making his error real to both of you. Insistence means investment, and what you invest in is always related to your notion of salvation. The question is always twofold; first, what is to be saved? And second, how can it be saved?
The Holy Spirit teaches us that denial is a process of keeping a belief without being aware of it. If we are to heal the mind, we must become aware of our false beliefs so we can release them. In this paragraph, the Holy Spirit gives us a tip on how we can recognize a denied belief within our mind. If we experience a “quick response of opposition,†we have just stumbled upon the denied belief that I am not as my Father created me. This quick response occurred because I believe:
• My brother is separate from me
• Illusions are real
• What I do or do not do in illusions is important
• My happiness or lack of happiness can be caused by what does or does not happen in illusions
I’m reminded of a comment in the Holy Spirit’s interpretation of Matthew, Chapter 25. He said:
“Jesus celebrated this Passover with his apostles because it was Jewish tradition. Things of the world were not important to Jesus by this time, but the traditions were important to his apostles. So he celebrated with them out of love, and he chose to use the celebration as a teaching opportunity.â€
Of course, the Holy Spirit asks that we use every moment as a teaching opportunity, but I will get back to that.
For now, let me continue with the thought of giving something to my brother when I do not believe in that something myself. What do I do if my family wants me to carry medical insurance? I do not believe that I need medical insurance, because my faith is placed in the Holy Spirit and the awareness of my reality (I am the process of creation that is God.) But my family seems afraid that I am not carrying medical insurance, and they ask me . . . even seem to plead with me . . . to carry medical insurance. What do I do?
From the Holy Spirit’s interpretation of Matthew, Chapter 17:
“We may not be of this world, but we are Love, and so it is Love that we must give. Love is not fear. I ask you to give to your brothers as they expect you to give so they will not be afraid. Give in the Knowledge of Love. Do not put your faith in what you give so you do not limit yourself or your brother to your gift. Put your faith in Me that I may use your gift to give the Gift of Life.â€
Ah. So I get medical insurance at my family’s request because I understand what matters. I understand that medical insurance is not my salvation . . . my thoughts and feelings create my experience, and so it is my thoughts and feelings I must watch. And I understand that my family is the same as me (the process of creation that is God), but they do not understand that. They do not know to watch their thoughts and feelings, and they do not understand (or believe) that their fear creates fearful experiences. So I assist them in letting go of their fearful thoughts by giving them what they think they need, & I hold in my mind that it is not needed. I do not place my faith in the illusion of the world.
What is to be saved? The one mind
How can it be saved? By letting go of all thoughts, beliefs, and concepts of unreality and accepting only what is true.
T-12.III.3. Whenever you become angry with a brother, for whatever reason, you are believing that the ego is to be saved, and to be saved by attack. If he attacks, you are agreeing with this belief; and if you attack, you are reinforcing it. Remember that those who attack are poor. Their poverty asks for gifts, not for further impoverishment. You who could help them are surely acting destructively if you accept their poverty as yours. If you had not invested as they had, it would never occur to you to overlook their need.
This paragraph says that if my brother attacks, I am agreeing with the belief that the ego is to be saved. Can I be responsible for my brother’s attack? Yes. I am responsible for what I see and how I see it. If I perceive attack, I am responsible for that perception. The Holy Spirit teaches through the interpretation of 1 Peter, Chapter 2:
“That which you see is that which you see,
because it is a reflection
of that which is in your mind.â€
So if I perceive attack, I believe that my brother is separate from me and that I can be victim to the world. If I “attack†back, I am reinforcing this belief within my mind. But if I do not attack back . . . if I choose instead to acknowledge that I am misperceiving, I teach my mind that attack is not real and that I cannot be victim. As I teach the correction of misperception within my mind, I teach it in my brother’s mind also, because we are one.
T-12.III.4. Recognize what does not matter, and if your brothers ask you for something “outrageous”, do it because it does not matter. Refuse, and your opposition establishes that it does matter to you. It is only you, therefore, who have made the request outrageous, and every request of a brother is for you. Why would you insist in denying him? For to do so is to deny yourself and impoverish both. He is asking for salvation, as you are. Poverty is of the ego, and never of God. No “outrageous” requests can be made of one who recognizes what is valuable and wants to accept nothing else.
The Holy Spirit’s interpretation of James, Chapter 3, says:
“Be a conscious-minded teacher of yourself. Be aware of the goal you have chosen, and hold it as a beacon before you in all things. Let all decisions be guided by the Light, and you teach yourself consistently that you are the Light.â€
This is what Jesus chose to do as he celebrated the Passover with his apostles. He gave them what they wanted because he knew it did not matter, and he chose to use the experience to teach himself what does matter.
It is our own thoughts, feelings and beliefs that matter. I can use any circumstance . . . I can use every circumstance that comes to me in the unfolding of my life to teach myself this truth by watching my mind as I experience the circumstance, and by letting go of beliefs, attachments, concepts and thoughts that are false, and by holding in my mind only that which is true.
I did this recently while traveling with my family on a “family vacation.†Our annual family trip to Myrtle Beach is important to my family members. It is a tradition in our family. I was invited several times to go this year. I did not know if I would be able to, because it seemed that I may have a guest here during that time. But the guest did not come, and I was available to go. So I went as my family requested. We did all the usual stuff . . . sunbathing, eating out, amusement park, miniature golf, etc. I did all of it with them. But, I used it all to notice attachments in my mind, to notice beliefs and thoughts that needed to be let go, and to remember that what I was seeing and experiencing is not my happiness, and that my awareness of my Truth is my only true salvation. And I remembered to continually ask that I may know my Self.
In form, I seemed to be doing one thing. But in mind, where it matters, I was doing something else.
T-12.III.5. Salvation is for the mind, and it is attained through peace. This is the only thing that can be saved and the only way to save it. Any response other than love arises from a confusion about the “what” and the how” of salvation, and this is the only answer. Never lose sight of this, and never allow yourself to believe, even for an instant, that there is another answer. For you will surely place yourself among the poor, who do not understand that they dwell in abundance and that salvation is come.
Salvation is for the mind, and it is attained through peace. Wow! That is a statement of what we are and how we experience salvation.
In truth, salvation is not needed, because we are as our Father created us. Nothing has ever changed. But we seem to need salvation because we have forgotten this truth, and so we seem impoverished and seem to suffer. As long as we seem to suffer with guilt, the belief in unworthiness, fear, etc . . . because we are as our Father created us . . . we create more experiences like those. So, my mind seems to continue to suffer because I continue to think thoughts of suffering.
Salvation is for the mind, and it is attained through peace. Wow!
If I let go of my thoughts of suffering, and I accept only peace into my mind, I create an experience of peace and I teach myself peace, and my mind no longer perceives itself as needing salvation. And then, I am free to remember my Truth because I no longer seek what I believe I do not have. Wow!
T-12.III.6. To identify with the ego is to attack yourself and make yourself poor. That is why everyone who identifies with the ego feels deprived. What he experiences then is depression or anger, because what he did was to exchange Self-love for self-hate, making him afraid of himself. He does not realize this. Even if he is fully aware of anxiety he does not perceive its source as his own ego identification, and he always tries to handle it by making some sort of insane “arrangement” with the world. He always perceives this world as outside himself, for this is crucial to his adjustment. He does not realize that he makes this world, for there is no world outside of him.
The Holy Spirit’s interpretation of 1 Peter says:
“Everything that you see, and the way in which you see it, is a reflection of your feelings and your beliefs about you.â€
The Course talks about a “crazy-mad idea†that was within the mind of the Son of God. The Holy Spirit teaches about this crazy mad idea in the interpretation of Romans too. He says:
“Imagine yourself with this idea, for this was the idea that you had:
What if nothing was as it is?
What if I could make something completely different,
and make it whatever I want?
What would that be like?
Just a curiosity . . . a daydream of exploration; it is really nothing at all, since the first question asked sets up an impossible hypothesis and one that can never be true.â€
And then, in Chapter 3, the Holy Spirit goes on to say:
“You asked, ‘What if everything was different than it is?’ That was an impossible question . . . pure fantasy. But then you judged the fantasy as if it was real. You decided through judgment that it was. This judgment did not make the unreal real. It only enlivened fantasy within the mind. Then you judged yourself for what you didn’t do, and you began the expression of guilt. Every option and every judgment that came from this was an option or judgment based on fantasy, and so it resulted in additional layers of fantasy.â€
The world is not real. It is the extension of fantasy through thought. Our only salvation is to let go of the thought that made it, and that thought is a judgment that we made against our Self.
As the Holy Spirit says in the interpretation of 2 Thessalonians, Chapter 2:
“You are ready to look directly at your judgment of yourself, because you know it is not true, and because it is an obstacle to all that you do know.
You can smile in confidence at your own invitation, knowing that as you stand firm in the knowledge of who you are, that which you shall see cannot shake you, for it is nothing more than your own judgment of yourself.
Made solely by you, it is a judgment that can be completely taken away through your delight and decision to do so.â€
The world is a fantasy . . . a reflection of my thoughts about my Self. What I see in the world is not to be responded to directly as if it is real. What I see in the world is to be looked at within my mind as a false belief about myself. And then, because it is false and it is only my own judgment, it can be let go. I can let go of my own judgment. Nothing holds on to the judgment but me.
T-12.III.7. If only the loving thoughts of God’s Son are the world’s reality, the real world must be in his mind. His insane thoughts, too, must be in his mind, but an internal conflict of this magnitude he cannot tolerate. A split mind is endangered, and the recognition that it encompasses completely opposed thoughts within itself is intolerable. Therefore the mind projects the split, not the reality. Everything you perceive as the outside world is merely your attempt to maintain your ego identification, for everyone believes that identification is salvation. Yet consider what has happened, for thoughts do have consequences to the thinker. You have become at odds with the world as you perceive it, because you think it is antagonistic to you. This is a necessary consequence of what you have done. You have projected outward what is antagonistic to what is inward, and therefore you would have to perceive it this way. That is why you must realize that your hatred is in your mind and not outside it before you can get rid of it; and why you must get rid of it before you can perceive the world as it really is.
“Thoughts do have consequences to the thinker,†because I create my experience. If I think antagonistic thoughts, my experience is antagonistic. If I think fearful or worrisome thoughts, my experience is fearful. But if I think thoughts of love and gratitude, my experience is one of love and gratitude. I am the creator of my experience, because I am not a body . . . I am as God created me. Everything I experience is an extension of the thoughts within my mind.
“That is why you must realize that your hatred is in your mind and not outside it before you can get rid of it; and why you must get rid of it before you can perceive the world as it really is.â€
T-12.III.8. I said before that God so loved the world that He gave it to His only begotten Son. God does love the real world, and those who perceive its reality cannot see the world of death. For death is not of the real world, in which everything reflects the eternal. God gave you the real world in exchange for the one you made out of your split mind, and which is the symbol of death. For if you could really separate yourself from the Mind of God you would die.
I am the process of creation that is God, and everything I give, I give to my Self. As the Holy Spirit teaches through the interpretation of 1 Peter, Chapter 2:
“In truth, you can rid yourself of nothing, for there is nothing to be rid of. You are pure and perfect as you exist now. – (I am as my Father created me.)
Nothing has ever failed or gone wrong. – (I am still and always have been the process of creation that is God.)
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It is perfect, as you are. – (I give through thought, and I receive exactly as I have given. And this is how I was created to be.) Buck Privates movie download
If something seems to have gone wrong or seems to be less than perfect, you are seeing through a veil of misperception. It is only this veil that must be lifted for you to see that all is perfect and it always has been.†– (I am as my Father created me.)
T-12.III.9. The world you perceive is a world of separation. Perhaps you are willing to accept even death to deny your Father. Yet He would not have it so, and so it is not so. You still cannot will against Him, and that is why you have no control over the world you made. It is not a world of will because it is governed by the desire to be unlike God, and this desire is not will. The world you made is therefore totally chaotic, governed by arbitrary and senseless “laws”, and without meaning of any kind. For it is made out of what you do not want, projected from your mind because you are afraid of it. Yet this world is only in the mind of its maker, along with his real salvation. Do not believe it is outside of yourself, for only by recognizing where it is will you gain control over it. For you do have control over your mind, since the mind is the mechanism of decision.
“Yet this world is only in the mind of its maker†and acceptance of this fact is my salvation.
From the interpretation of 1 Peter, Chapter 2:
“That which you see is not a fact that cannot be changed or cannot be seen differently. But it is a fact in that it is a fact that it is the reflection of that which is in your mind now.
Accept this fact.
Look at the reflection. See what you did not see before. All that you see is in your mind, and you are the power that can change it.â€
T-12.III.10. If you will recognize that all the attack you perceive is in your own mind and nowhere else, you will at last have placed its source, and where it begins it must end. For in this same place also lies salvation. The altar of God where Christ abideth is there. You have defiled the altar, but not the world. Yet Christ has placed the Atonement on the altar for you. Bring your perceptions of the world to this altar, for it is the altar to truth. There you will see your vision changed, and there you will learn to see truly. From this place, where God and His Son dwell in peace and where you are welcome, you will look out in peace and behold the world truly. Yet to find the place, you must relinquish your investment in the world as you project it, allowing the Holy Spirit to extend the real world to you from the altar of God.
Amen.
