39 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 look beyond it since you
have made it real. We will
undo this error quietly together and then look beyond it to truth.
40 What is healing but the removal of all that
stands in the way of knowledge? And how else can one dispel illusions
except by looking at them directly
without protecting them? Be not afraid, therefore, for what you will be looking at
is the source of fear, but you have surely learned by now that
fear is not real. We have accepted the fact already that its
effects can be dispelled merely by denying their reality. The next step is obviously to recognize that what has no effects
does not exist. Laws do not operate in a vacuum, and what leads to nothing
has not happened. If reality is recognized by its
extension, what extends to nothing cannot
be real.
41 Do not be afraid, then, to look upon fear, for it cannot
be seen. Clarity undoes confusion by definition, and to look upon darkness through light
must dispel it. Let us begin this lesson in "ego dynamics" by understanding that the term itself does not mean anything. In fact, it contains exactly the contradiction in terms which
makes it meaningless. "Dynamics" implies the power to do something, and the whole separation
fallacy lies in the belief that the ego has the power to do
anything. The ego is fearful to you
because you believe this. Yet the truth is very simple:
42
All power is of God
. What is
not
of Him has no power to do
anything.
43 When we look at the ego, then, we are not considering dynamics but delusions. We can surely regard a delusional system without fear, for it cannot have any effects if its source is not true. Fear becomes more obviously inappropriate if one recognizes the ego's
goal, which is so clearly senseless that any effort exerted on its behalf is
necessarily expended on nothing. The ego's goal is quite explicitly ego
autonomy. From the beginning, then, its
purpose is to be separate, sufficient unto itself, and independent of any power
except its own. This is
why it is the symbol of separation.
44 Every idea has a purpose, and its purpose is always the natural extension of what it
is. Everything that stems from the ego is the natural outcome of its central belief, and the way to undo its
results is merely to recognize that their
source is not natural, being out of accord with your
true nature. We once said that to will contrary to God is wishful thinking and not real willing. His Will is one because the extension of His Will cannot be unlike itself. The real conflict you experience, then, is between the ego's idle wishes and the Will of God, which you share. Can this
be a real conflict?
45 Yours is the independence of creation,
not of autonomy. Your whole creative function lies in your complete
dependence on God, Whose function He shares with
you. By
His willingness to share it, He became as dependent on you as you are on
Him. Do not ascribe the ego's arrogance to Him, Who wills not to be independent of
you. He has
included you in His Autonomy. Can
you believe that autonomy is meaningful
apart from Him? The belief in
ego autonomy is costing you the knowledge of your dependence on God
in which your freedom lies. The ego sees
all dependency as threatening and has twisted even your longing for God into a means of establishing
itself. But do not be deceived by
its interpretation of your conflict.
46 The ego
always attacks on behalf of separation. Believing it has the power to do this, it does nothing else because its goal of autonomy
is nothing else. The ego is totally confused about reality, but it does
not lose sight of its goal. It is much more vigilant than
you are because it is perfectly certain of its purpose.
You are confused because you do
not know
yours.
47 What you must learn to recognize is that the
last thing the ego wishes you to realize is that
you are afraid of it. For if the ego gives rise to fear, it is
diminishing your independence and
weakening your power. Yet its one claim to your allegiance is that it can
give power to you. Without this belief, you would not listen to it at all. How, then, can its existence continue if you realize that,
by accepting it, you
are belittling yourself and
depriving yourself of power?
48 The ego can and does allow you to regard yourself as supercilious, unbelieving, "light-hearted," distant, emotionally shallow, callous, uninvolved, and even desperate, but
not really afraid. Minimizing fear but
not its undoing is the ego's constant effort and is indeed the skill at which it is very ingenious. How can it preach separation
without upholding it through fear, and would you listen to it if you recognized this
is what it is doing?
49
Your recognition that whatever seems to separate you from God is
only fear, regardless of the form it takes and quite apart from how the
ego wants you to experience it, is therefore the basic ego threat. Its dream of autonomy is shaken to its foundation by this awareness. For though you may countenance a false idea of independence, you will
not accept the cost of fear
if you recognize it. Yet this
is the cost, and the ego
cannot minimize it. For if you overlook love, you are overlooking
yourself, and you
must fear unreality
because you have denied yourself. By believing that you have successfully
attacked truth, you are believing that attack has
power. Very simply, then, you have become afraid of
yourself. And no one wills to learn what he believes would destroy him.
50 If the ego's goal of autonomy could be accomplished, God's purpose could be defeated, and this
is impossible. Only by learning what fear
is, can you finally learn to distinguish the possible from the impossible and the false from the true. According to the ego's teaching,
its goal can be accomplished, and God's purpose can
not. According to the Holy Spirit's teaching,
only God's purpose is accomplishment, and it is
already accomplished.
51 God is as dependent on you as you are on Him because His autonomy
encompasses yours and is therefore incomplete
without it. You can only establish your autonomy by identifying
with Him and fulfilling your function
as it exists in truth. The ego believes that to accomplish
its goal is happiness. But it is given
you to know that God's function
is yours and happiness cannot be found apart from your
joint will. Recognize only that the ego's goal, which you have pursued quite diligently, has only brought you
fear, and it becomes difficult to maintain that fear
is happiness.
52
Upheld by fear, this
is what the ego would have you believe. Yet God's Son is not insane and
cannot believe it. Let him but
recognize it, and he will
not accept it. For only the insane would choose fear
in place of love, and only the insane could believe that love can be gained by attack. But the sane know that only attack could produce
fear, from which the love of God completely protects them.
53 The ego analyzes; the Holy Spirit
accepts. The appreciation of wholeness comes
only through acceptance, for to analyze means to separate out. The attempt to understand totality by breaking it up is clearly the characteristically contradictory approach of the ego to everything. Never forget that the ego believes that power, understanding, and
truth lie in separation, and to
establish this belief it
must attack. Unaware that the belief cannot
be established and obsessed with the conviction that separation
is salvation, the ego attacks everything it perceives by breaking it up into small and disconnected parts without meaningful relationships and thus without meaning. The ego will
always substitute chaos for meaning, for if separation is salvation, harmony is threat.
54 The ego's interpretation of the laws of perception are, and would
have to be, the exact opposite of the Holy Spirit's. The ego focuses on
error and overlooks
truth. It makes real
every mistake it perceives, and with characteristically circular reasoning concludes that,
because of the mistake, consistent truth must be meaningless. The next step, then, is obvious. If consistent truth is meaningless,
inconsistency must be true if truth has meaning. Holding error clearly in mind and protecting what it has made real, the ego proceeds to the next step in its thought system—that error is real, and
truth is error.
55 The ego makes no attempt to understand this, and it is clearly
not understandable, but the ego does make
every attempt to
demonstrate it, and this it does constantly. Analyzing to attack meaning, the ego
does succeed in overlooking it and is left with a series of fragmented perceptions which it unifies on behalf of
itself. This, then, becomes the universe it perceives. And it is this universe which, in turn, becomes its demonstration of its own reality.
56 Do not underestimate the appeal of the ego's demonstrations to those who would listen. Selective perception chooses its witnesses carefully, and its witnesses
are consistent. The case for insanity
is strong to the insane. For reasoning ends at its beginning, and no thought system transcends its source. Yet reasoning without meaning
cannot demonstrate anything, and those who are convinced by it
must be deluded. Can the ego teach truly when it
overlooks truth? Can it perceive what it has
denied? Its witnesses
do attest to its denial but hardly to what it has denied! The ego looks straight at the Father and does not see Him, for it has denied His Son.
57 Would
you remember the Father? Accept His Son, and you
will remember Him. Nothing can demonstrate that His Son is unworthy, for nothing can prove that a lie is true. What you see of His Son through the eyes of the ego is a demonstration that His Son does not exist, yet where the Son is, the Father
must be. Accept what God does
not deny, and
He will demonstrate its truth. The witnesses for God stand in His light and behold what
He created. Their silence is the sign that they have beheld God's Son, and in the Presence of Christ they need demonstrate nothing, for Christ speaks to them of Himself and of His Father. They are silent because Christ speaks to them, and it is His words that
they speak.
58 Every brother you meet becomes a witness for Christ or for the ego, depending on what you perceive in him. Everyone convinces you of what you
want to perceive and of the reality of the kingdom you have chosen for your vigilance. Everything you perceive is a witness to the thought system you
want to be true. Every brother has the power to release you
if you will to be free. You cannot accept false witness of
him unless you have evoked false witnesses
against him. If
he speaks not of Christ to you,
you spoke not of Christ to him. You hear but your
own voice, and if Christ speaks
through you,
you will hear Him.
