The Illusions of the Ego

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> </div> <blockquote class="tr_bq"> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj471GRw9ln71MEUGNpZtcsIBClmrPNl80HtA4n2D27nqpulDe1dq_rJ72ny9__zbHOuck0gnNCDcE7NARYPoXk6JrRpRknNOGcMtsSGJXLg8X2M0-JVmW-yMgTpQ-rGOuZfS1yrYE1Xt8F/s1600/wabi.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj471GRw9ln71MEUGNpZtcsIBClmrPNl80HtA4n2D27nqpulDe1dq_rJ72ny9__zbHOuck0gnNCDcE7NARYPoXk6JrRpRknNOGcMtsSGJXLg8X2M0-JVmW-yMgTpQ-rGOuZfS1yrYE1Xt8F/s1600/wabi.jpeg" /></a></div> <span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Looking back, it becomes clear to me that ego, before and since I gave up the bottle, has been the chief architect of my problems in life. Though I've not often thought of myself as an egotist (what egotist ever really does?), I begin to see the many small but dangerous ways my ego has conspired against me, and does to this day. It has every bit the power to alter my perceptions of reality that alcohol ever did — and ultimately is just as deadly, perhaps more so. </span></span></blockquote> <div class="zemanta-related" style="clear: both; margin-top: 20px; overflow: hidden;"> <h4 class="zemanta-related-title"> Related articles</h4> <ul class="zemanta-article-ul zemanta-article-ul-image" style="margin: 0; overflow: hidden; padding: 0;"> <li class="zemanta-article-ul-li-image zemanta-article-ul-li" style="background: none; display: block; float: left; font-size: 11px; list-style: none; margin: 2px 10px 10px 2px; padding: 0; text-align: left; vertical-align: top; width: 84px;"><a href="http://intuitivevoices.blogspot.com/2015/06/the-key-to-loving-kindness-practice-is.html" style="border-radius: 2px; box-shadow: 0px 0px 4px #999; display: block; padding: 2px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"><img src="//i.zemanta.com/348787251_80_80.jpg" style="border: 0; display: block; margin: 0; max-width: 100%; padding: 0; width: 80px;" /></a><a href="http://intuitivevoices.blogspot.com/2015/06/the-key-to-loving-kindness-practice-is.html" style="background-image: none; display: block; height: 83px; line-height: 12pt; overflow: hidden; padding: 5px 2px 0 2px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">The key to loving kindness practice is realising that all the love you need is already within you.</a></li> </ul> </div>

The Illusions of the Ego

Looking back, it becomes clear to me that ego, before and since I gave up the bottle, has been the chief architect of my problems in li...

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The Illusions of the Ego

<span style="font-size: large;"><br /><br />The Illusions of the Ego<br /><br /><br />Looking back, it becomes clear to me that ego, before and since I gave up the bottle, has been the chief architect of my problems in life. Though I've not often thought of myself as an egotist (what egotist ever really does?), I begin to see the many small but dangerous ways my ego has conspired against me, and does to this day. It has every bit the power to alter my perceptions of reality that alcohol ever did — and ultimately is just as deadly, perhaps more so. <br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />1. When you are truly devoted to extending God’s Love you are motivated because it is natural for you. To live from the Holy Spirit, then, is to be motivated. But it is not natural for you to live from the personal self so this tires you. To live only from the Holy Spirit is to be enlightened.<br /><br />2. In your perception that you are living a life in a world you can live from the Holy Spirit within you or from the personal self. To live from the Holy Spirit is to know that God is. When you live from the personal self you are denying God. The personal self embarks on many useless journeys through the world but the Holy Spirit’s only journey is to God.<br /><br />3. You can choose to put aside the personal self and remember your Oneness with God. Until then your perception of yourself living a life in a world is wasted reenacting the separation from God: loss of power, futile attempts to regain power, then death. This is the story that you will see replayed again and again in the world that you perceive by many seeming “selves” until you voluntarily let go of the world. Do not make your life in a world about suffering but rather about remembering that you are One with God. The Holy Spirit will take you on the journey to remembering God and if you study these lessons carefully they will prepare you for it.<br /><br />1. Right Teaching and Right Learning<br /><br />1. Ideas are clarified and strengthened in you by your extending, or teaching, them. You are both your own teacher and your own pupil. Your mind automatically extends what you believe. The Holy Spirit within you can only teach you that you are the Holy Spirit; the personal mind can only teach you that you are a personal self. To teach from the Holy Spirit you not only have to believe in the Holy Spirit you have to believe that the Holy Spirit is within you.<br /><br />2. Learning means change. The separation was the first change introduced into your mind and it was painful so you fear change because you are afraid that change will bring you further pain. You think that by guarding the personal mind’s thought system and allowing no change to come into it you will find Peace. But Peace is only possible from the Holy Spirit in your mind. The Holy Spirit and the personal mind are diametrically opposed and cannot join. The Holy Spirit cannot make the personal mind stronger or reduce its conflict. But your mind, which only seems separated from God and believes in the personal self, can learn either that it is a personal self or that it is One with God.<br /><br />3. It is your split mind not the Holy Spirit in your mind that needs to be taught and it is frightened because what it needs to learn is how to relinquish the personal self that it believes it is. It perceives this as destruction but the Holy Spirit does not attack. The Holy Spirit only shows you how your belief in the personal self arose so that you can let go of it. When the Holy Spirit reminds you of your Oneness with God your split mind cannot help but be frightened.<br /><br />4. Teaching that you are the Holy Spirit and therefore learning that you are the Holy Spirit is the only way that you are going to change your mind and undo your perception of separation from God. Merely accepting intellectually that the separation has not occurred is not going to undo it. The separation and the world it gave rise to in your mind are very real to you and you can only undo them by coming from the Holy Spirit in your mind. When you willingly give up the personal mind as guardian of your thought system and open your mind to the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit will gently correct your mind and lead you back to God.<br /><br />5. As God’s Teacher the Holy Spirit’s goal is to no longer be needed by you because you have fully remembered that you are One with God. It is impossible for the personal mind to understand this because in order to continue to exist for you it needs to teach you forever that separation from God is real. It is natural for the personal mind to do this for its own survival but it is not natural for you to learn this from the personal mind. The personal mind cannot choose to undo itself but you can choose to undo it because it is not you.<br /><br />6. The personal self that you think is you will conflict with other personal selves in any situation in the world that you perceive but the Holy Spirit overlooks all personal selves and sees only the Holy Spirit everywhere. In the world that you perceive you teach from the personal self to glorify the personal self so you see the Holy Spirit as a Teacher to be either rejected or exalted. If you think of the Holy Spirit as Something separate and superior you will be afraid of It. The Holy Spirit could not teach you that you are One with God if It were separate from you and you would not be able to teach yourself through the Holy Spirit if It were separate from you.<br /><br />7. You do not have to do anything to establish your Worth. As Part of God you are Inherently Worthy. Only in your delusions does the concept of your unworthiness have meaning. As long as you reject your Oneness with God you will be frightened by the concepts of inferiority and superiority. The Holy Spirit is a patient Teacher Which will remind you of your Worthiness as Part of God over and over until you learn It. God does not threaten the personal self because the personal self isn’t real; God does not threaten the Holy Spirit because the Holy Spirit is Part of God.<br /><br />8. The personal mind that you believe you are exploits every situation to glorify itself because it is insecure. It will exist for you as long as you believe in it and it will always be insecure because it is incomplete and unreal. On some level you know that it is not real and you do not trust it. The only way out of its insecurity for you is for you to let go of it and accept that only God is Real. When you are afraid remember that only God is Real and that you are One with God. The personal mind may dispute this but the personal mind cannot know you as you are in Truth.<br /><br />9. God did not make fear; you did when you chose to be separate from God. You are not at Peace when you are not aware that you are One with God. Your identifying with a personal self is your choice to be afraid instead of at Peace. When you know again that you are One with God you will not be able to understand this choice. You do not have to believe in it now. All of your efforts to make separation real to you only put off your remembering your Oneness with God. God is inevitable for you because you are One with God.<br /><br />10. The personal mind with which you identify is afraid of the Joy that the Holy Spirit inspires in you because when you experience Joy you withdraw from the personal mind and from fear. The personal mind likes you to be fearful because it attests to the reality of your separation from God. Let it go! You do not have to listen to the personal mind or to protect it. You can listen only to God through God’s Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit cannot deceive you because It is you. Let go of the personal self, which is a false picture of you and is unworthy of you. Do not look out at a false and unworthy world and believe it is your reality.<br /><br />11. The personal mind is not worthy of you and it cannot bring you Peace. Do not support it. Only God is worthy of you even though you have chosen to leave God. But God is Eternal and you are Eternally One with God and you can choose to return to This awareness. Your doing so is the only thing that is certain. What is not Eternal is not part of God and the personal self cannot make anything Eternal or certain.<br /><br />12. You cannot do anything real with a personal self but with the Holy Spirit you can save yourself from your perception of separation from God. You must put aside the personal self and extend God’s Love from the Holy Spirit within you in order to perceive yourself Truly. Only your perception of God’s Love is a worthy Gift to give yourself.<br /><br />13. You can give the personal self and the body to the Holy Spirit so that you can be free of concern for them and the Holy Spirit can teach you of their unreality. The Holy Spirit understands your temptation to believe in them as real and in order to heal your mind It needs you to teach yourself through the Holy Spirit that they are not. Jesus overcame the body and the personal self and you can use Him as an example. When you are tempted to suffer remember Him and be happy instead.<br /><br />2. The Ego and False Autonomy<br /><br />1. How could your mind ever have made the personal self? It seems as though this happened in the past but time isn’t real and it only seems as though it happened in the past because the error is occurring now. [In God there is only God. This cannot be understood by the personal mind, which perceives many separate, specific, concrete forms as real.]<br /><br />2. You make a personal self for yourself that is very changeable because it is not real. You also make a personal self for all of the bodies that you perceive and your perceptions of them can also change. Your interaction with other personal selves can change both you and them in your mind because they are not real. You don’t even have to be physically close to another to change your mind about them. You can change your mind about them just by thinking about them, which proves that personal selves are nothing but thoughts in your mind.<br /><br />3. The personal self with which you identify is made by your denial of God. This is happening now and this is how the personal self has happened all along. But your mind does not have to work this way.<br /><br />4. You love and protect the personal self because you believe it is you. In this your split mind resembles God, Which loves Itself. Your reactions to what you have made are not surprising but as long as your origins are open to belief you are looking at yourself from a split mind. God is beyond belief and can only be known. Teaching and learning are necessary for you until you remember God. The truest belief that you can have is that there is another way to look at yourself because with this belief you acknowledge that the personal self is not you.<br /><br />5. You perceive undoing the personal self’s thought system as painful even though it is not. In your identification with a personal self you do not know what is truly helpful to you and what is truly harmful to you. But though you may not recognize it you have agreed to cooperate with the Holy Spirit to undo the personal self. You may be conflicted about this, which only means that you are still identifying with a personal self. This will not last. Be patient with yourself and remember that it is inevitable that you remember God.<br /><br />6. You can only truly give Love from a place of knowing that you have Love. To the personal mind giving means sacrifice because to it giving means giving away. The personal self only willingly gives when it believes it will get something greater than what it is giving. This is the personal self’s law of “giving to get”, which it does as it evaluates itself in relation to other personal selves. The personal self is obsessed with the idea of lack because it was made by your perceived separation from God, which is lack. It perceives other personal selves as real only to validate its own reality. “Self-esteem” for the personal self means that it temporarily believes enough in its own reality to not need others to validate it. The personal self is always vulnerable to perceiving threats to its existence.<br /><br />7. The personal self is always comparing itself to others and is incapable of perceiving Oneness. It was made from lack and can only give from lack and this is how the idea of “getting” arose in your mind. The personal mind regards the body as its home and all appetites and needs, whether they are physical or emotional, originate in the personal mind and are the means of “getting” something to confirm the personal self’s existence to itself. But it is your mind that decides that this is possible and it is your mind that is confused about what is real.<br /><br />8. The personal self believes that it is its own source. This idea is meaningless and frightening and so it tries to unite with other personal selves to validate its own existence or to attack them to appear strong. It cannot, however, question its own origins because the belief that it is independent is its very foundation. The personal self is your split mind’s belief that it is isolated and alone. Your split mind tries to get the Holy Spirit to acknowledge the personal self to make it real but the Holy Spirit is unaware of the personal self because the Holy Spirit is Real and the personal self is not. The personal mind is also unaware of the Holy Spirit but it does perceive that within you it is being rejected by Something greater than itself. Self-esteem for the personal self can only be an illusion because it is never wholly certain of its own existence. As Part of God your illusion of the personal self is a myth and not part of you, though you can use the power of your mind to make myths seem real. But this does not make them real. [Mythical stories in the world that you perceive are not inspired by the Holy Spirit, are ambiguous, and tend to be good-and-evil in nature so that even the most benign myths have fearful connotations.]<br /><br />9. Your split mind comes up with many myths to explain the origin of the personal self just as it uses magical thinking to give power to the physical world that you perceive. Most of these myths are concerned with “the creation” - meaning the physical world - and have an associated form of magical thinking. Evolution is one myth that your split mind has come up with to explain the personal self’s origins. You associate the personal self with physical birth because in your identification with it, it is hard for you to believe that the personal self is an idea that existed before the physical world. Some of the split mind’s more “religious” myths teach that an individual spirit, or “soul”, existed before the world and that it will continue after it temporarily experiences a personal self in the world. Some myths may even teach that the “soul” will be punished for this lapse into a world separate from God. But it is not your Spirit that needs salvation.<br /><br />10. Salvation is really the correction of your perception of separation from God. It is necessary before you can be restored to full awareness of your Oneness with God. Your corrected perception, being in total alignment with God’s Love, undoes your split mind and your perception that the personal self is real and leads to your awareness of your Oneness with God automatically. <br /><br />11. It is important to understand that using the personal self to correct your perception of separation from God is only temporary. Your perceiving the personal self as real is a block to your awareness of your Oneness with God but using the personal self to extend God’s Love restores your Oneness with God to your awareness. Eventually your corrected perception will lead you to the awareness that the personal self is not necessary at all. You might wonder how this is possible while you seem to be living in a world but who is the “you” that seems to be living in a world? As Part of God your Holy Spirit is Immortal and Unchanging. It is not a continuum weaving in and out of mortality, nor does It need to experience a personal self to understand Itself in comparison. God is All and has no opposite to which It can be compared. That is how God is different from everything that your mind has made.<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />3. Love Without Conflict<br /><br />1. The idea that you are One with God is not understandable to the personal mind because it sees God as Something separate from you. That you are One with God is the Whole Lesson of the plan of the Atonement, which, by correcting your perception of separation from God leads you beyond the plan itself to Oneness with God. Just as God extends only God, so do you. This has not stopped because of your split mind’s illusion of the personal self. Your Extension continues as God’s Extension continues because you are One. The personal self and the Holy Spirit will never be One but the Holy Spirit will always be One with God. Be certain that your Oneness with God is unchanged.<br /><br />God is untouched by the personal self and will not be undone by it. Amen.<br /><br />2. This is a prayer that you can use when you are tempted to believe in separation from God. You need guidance because you have denied the Truth in yourself. The Holy Spirit’s role is to make clear to you What is True and what is false so that you can overcome the obstacles to Truth that your split mind made. Unite your mind with the Holy Spirit within you and you can overcome your split mind.<br /><br />3. The personal mind regards the Holy Spirit as its enemy because the personal mind arose from the separation and its existence is dependent on the separation continuing. As a reward for believing in it the personal mind offers you a sense of temporary existence that is its own beginning and ending. When you identify with it you believe this existence is your own. In comparison the Holy Spirit offers you Eternal, Unchanging Being. When you experience a direct revelation of God you never wholly believe in the personal self again. How could its temporary, insecure “life” compare to God’s Eternal, Stable Being?<br /><br />4. God’s Love is Oneness. In your split mind you cannot believe that you are One with God and that God Loves you because you are not One with the personal self that you made and that you hate. Because it is the denial of Oneness the personal self has no allegiance to you, its maker, either. You “love” the personal self because you made it but you also hate it because you project your decision to be separate from God onto it. All “love” in the world that you perceive reflects this love/hate that you have for the personal self that you made and that’s why the Oneness of God’s Love cannot be understood by the personal mind. But when you wholly want to experience God’s Love It will immediately enter your mind. The personal mind is not capable of wholly wanting anything because of its perception that lack is real and wholeness is impossible.<br /><br />5. You can have an experience of Wholeness that is very different from what the personal self offers and when you do you will never want to deny It again. The only reason God does not fill your entire mind is because of your belief in the personal mind. You must be open and willing for God to fill your awareness. This condition is set by your inherent Free Will as Part of God.<br /><br />6. No power other than your own True Will is strong and worthy enough to guide you. Your Will is as Free as God’s Will. Through the Holy Spirit within you, you can remember God’s Love for you and your Love for God. This remembering is God’s Will. When you call on the Holy Spirit you will always be answered. You cannot call on any other god because there is no other god.<br /><br />7. You must give up every thought that is an obstacle to God. You hold onto many little scraps of fear that prevent God from filling your mind. The Holy Spirit cannot destroy what you have made but the Holy Spirit can help you undo it. You must look for and find all the obstacles that you have to God so that you can ask the Holy Spirit to help you undo them. The Holy Spirit will respect what you have made but the Holy Spirit will not support it unless it is aligned with Truth. The Holy Spirit is always with you and will wait as long as it takes for you to turn to It. You must eventually turn to the Holy Spirit because the Holy Spirit is you. You need only wholly want the Holy Spirit for the Holy Spirit to respond to your call.<br /><br />8. Look at what you are really asking for and be honest with yourself and with the Holy Spirit. If you do this sincerely the Holy Spirit will prepare your mind for God. Once you have experienced God you will be ready to learn to extend God’s Love without limit. How long do you want to deny to God What is One with God?<br /><br />9. In God you have Everything. In this idea is your Freedom. It frightens the personal mind because it means it does not exist. In God, Where All is One, “to have” and “to be” are the same. In God you have Everything and you are Everything. But in the world that you perceive, which not only is separation but manifests separation, you can “have” things that are separate from what you “are”. In your identification with a personal self you lack so you constantly need to “get” things or people to “be” whole.<br /><br />10. The Calm Being of God, Which extends Forever in your Whole Mind, is banished from the personal mind. The personal mind is desperate because its undoing is inevitable. You exert a lot of effort to protect a personal identity and very little to remain aware of God. It is insane for you to believe what is not true and to protect it at the cost of Truth.<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />4. This Need Not Be<br /><br />1. When you do not hear the Holy Spirit it is because you are not listening to It. That you do listen to the personal mind is demonstrated by your fearful attitudes, feelings, and behavior. But this is what you want and you fight to maintain and what you are desperate to save. In your identification with a personal self you struggle to save its image but you do not seek for Christ - your Oneness with God. In the world of separation that you perceive you see the dark mirror in which your split mind looks to maintain the illusion of the personal self’s reality. But it is up to you where you will look to find yourself.<br /><br />2. Remember it is your mind, not your behavior, that needs to change. Whenever you are not Joyous it is because you have looked at the world, seen separation, and believed it is real. Instead, look past the world and remember God’s Love, then extend It instead. This may seem hard but your mind is One with God’s Mind and it is actually much easier for you to think with God than for you to think against God. Your denying this supports the personal self but splits your mind. <br /><br />3. When you are depressed it is because you feel that you are deprived of something that you want and do not have. Remember that as Part of God you have Everything and if you are not aware of This it is because of your own choice. You can choose again.<br /><br />4. When you are anxious it is because of the personal self’s inherent insecurity. You can put as much effort into extending God’s Love in your awareness as you put into maintaining the personal self.<br /><br />5. When you feel guilty know that you have not violated God’s Laws and exchange the personal mind’s perception of “sins” for the Holy Spirit’s correction of your perception of separation from God. Only the personal mind can experience guilt and when you feel guilty it is because you believe that a personal self is you. You will be released from guilt when you are willing to accept that the world and the personal self are not real and that what you do in the world that you perceive has no effect on God.<br /><br />6. Watch your mind for all the ways that you believe that the personal self is you. The personal self offers you nothing and protecting it tires and depresses you. You must make an effort to detach yourself from your identification with it. When you voluntarily give up the personal self your mind will be healed. <br /><br />7. Staying aware of your Oneness with God and engaging with the Holy Spirit is easy when you think that you are worth the effort. Look to the Holy Spirit for your Real Worth and do not be deceived by the personal mind’s unworthy image of you. The Holy Spirit cannot reach you when you identify with a personal self.<br /><br />8. Every situation is an opportunity for you to be Happy but you have refused This. As Part of God your Power is Limitless but you can limit the expression of your Power. Through the Holy Spirit you can release yourself from the limits of the personal mind and extend God’s Love everywhere and always. Do not settle for less than this as your goal. Watch your mind for any obstacles to God and let them go. You can judge how well you are doing by how you feel. This is the correct use of judgment. The personal mind is lacking and it should be judged and found lacking. It cannot exist without your desire for it and your protection of it. When you judge it truly you will automatically withdraw your power from it.<br /><br />9. God is in your mind. You need only look at the personal mind and say and mean, “I know this is not true” and God will fill your entire mind again. Your identification with a personal self cannot keep God from your mind but it can keep God from extending Itself through your mind and making you aware of It.<br /><br />10. Christ is the part of your mind that is One with God. The “Second Coming of Christ” simply means the end of your perception of separation from God and the healing of your mind. Jesus is just like you and He calls you to join in the Second Coming. You may feel that you are unworthy but that is only the personal mind’s attempt to convince you that it is real and that you are not One with God. Your awareness that you are One with God is Christ and is the healing of your mind.<br /><br />11. Christ is One with the Holy Spirit in your mind. They are your Oneness with God just as the personal mind is your separation from God. They are with you even in your perception that you are separated from God. You will choose to let go of the personal mind and to join your mind with Them in extending God’s Love. This will heal your mind. Jesus raised the dead knowing that only God is Real and Jesus can serve as an inspiration for you because He knew there was nothing that an awareness of God’s Love cannot overcome. Because you are One Christ’s call to you and your answer are the same.<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />5. The Ego-Body Illusion<br /><br />1. Everything in the world that you perceive can be used to help you to remember that you are One with God but the personal mind wants to keep this from your awareness. The personal mind is concerned with control not with wholeness. This makes sense from its perspective since it arose from your denial of Wholeness. You will inevitably recognize with your entire mind that the personal mind is not real but the personal mind must keep this hidden from you in order to preserve itself.<br /><br />2. The personal mind is threatened by both the body, which it sees as unworthy of it, and the Holy Spirit, Which will undo it. It cannot completely obliterate the Holy Spirit from your mind, though, so it distorts the Holy Spirit’s Loving Thoughts into an “unacceptable” physical impulse to “love” another.[1] Seeing physical “love” and the Holy Spirit’s Love as one threat makes it easier for you to repress them both and to preserve the personal mind because the Holy Spirit’s Love will undo the personal mind.<br /><br />3. It is insane for you to confuse God with the body but this confusion is essential to the personal mind, which needs you to repress both. It does make sense that the personal mind is threatened by God because your awareness of God does undo the personal mind. But it does not make sense for the personal mind to fear the body because it identifies with it.<br /><br />4. The body is the personal mind’s chosen home. It feels safe in this identification because when you identify with the personal mind the body’s vulnerability is “proof” that you cannot be One with God. But the personal mind also hates the body because the body is not good enough for it. This is very confusing to you because the personal mind simultaneously teaches you to look to the body for safety but that the body cannot protect you. So when you ask, “Where can I go to be safe?” the personal mind tells you to look to it for protection. But since the personal mind is identified with the body this answer does not make sense either. Having no real answer for you the personal mind suppresses your question. Though out of your awareness the question of where you can go to be safe does remain in your subconscious and it makes you uneasy. But you will not find an answer if you do not ask the question.<br /><br />5. So you must ask the question, “Where do I go to be safe?” To find the answer you must be consciously aware of the question and not be unconsciously driven by it. You must keep the goal in mind because you learn best when you value what you are seeking. But remember that the personal mind does not value a lasting answer.<br /><br />6. The personal mind cannot give you a lasting answer because the Eternal only comes from God. The personal mind, then, keeps you preoccupied, busy, and seeking for safety and comfort in the world that you perceive without letting rise to your conscious awareness that this is what you are seeking. The personal mind loves to present you with problems that you cannot solve. So in every situation you must learn to ask, “What am I really seeking?” When you clarify that you are seeking for Eternal Safety then the Means to find It will automatically come to you. When you decided that remembering God is your Purpose you set the course for the rest of your life and it will remain in effect unless you change your mind.<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />6. The Rewards of God<br /><br />1. The personal mind cannot understand what threatens it and when you identify with the personal mind you do not understand what threatens you. Only your identification with the personal mind gives it any power over you. It is not a separate power but a belief about yourself. This belief does not affect the Truth in you, Which goes on Unchanged despite your attempts to separate from It.<br /><br />2. In learning to escape from the illusion of separation from God be grateful for the opportunities to extend God’s Love that the world that you perceive offers to you. It is the same gratitude that is appropriate for you to extend to the Holy Spirit because both are in your mind. Whenever you act from the personal mind you perceive that separation from God is real and you miss an opportunity to correct this misperception. You must overlook every perception of separation and extend God’s Love instead and then you will have come as far in your awareness of God as you can in your perception of a world. From there you return to God easily.<br /><br />3. You have little trust in the Holy Spirit but this will change as you turn to the Holy Spirit for guidance more and more. The rewards of Peace and Joy will convince you that the Holy Spirit is the only sensible choice because the personal mind brings chaos and misery. You learn better through rewards than through pain because pain is not real and it only seems to happen in your perception that you are in a world. But God’s Rewards are Eternal and since you recognize Them and the personal mind cannot it is obvious that you are not a personal self. As long as you feel that you must escape from the personal mind you still believe in it. So you cannot escape from it by humbling, controlling, or punishing it.<br /><br />4. The personal mind and the Holy Spirit cannot join in you. Your split mind maintains your perception of separation from God by dissociating your Christ Mind. It denies your natural impulse to extend God’s Love. The personal mind does not do this but your identification with the personal mind is the means that your split mind uses to maintain your belief that the separation is real. It is your decision to identify with the personal mind that allows this belief to continue.<br /><br />5. You threw away your awareness of your Oneness with God because you did not value It. You have taught yourself that the personal mind is joy and that God is misery. The Holy Spirit teaches you the Value of God by leading you to recognize how miserable you are without God through experiences that bring the Joy of God closer to your awareness. You have free will to choose but you will not value the “rewards” of the personal mind in the Presence of the Rewards of God.<br /><br />6. The Holy Spirit’s trust in you is greater than your trust in It but this is what you are learning to correct. Your mission is to learn to identify with the Holy Spirit instead of with the personal mind. The Holy Spirit is God within you and your identification with It is the correction of your perception of separation from God.<br /><br />7. Through the Holy Spirit your perception of separation from God is undone. Be grateful for the many opportunities to overlook a separate world filled with separate selves and to look on God’s Love instead. One experience of real recognition of the Presence of the Holy Spirit returns your mind to Wholeness for a moment. The Holy Spirit leads you back to your Oneness with God because What has been dissociated by your split mind is still in your mind.<br /><br />8. As you extend God’s Love you draw closer to the Holy Spirit; as you act from the personal mind you withdraw from the Holy Spirit. You must join with the Holy Spirit to extend only God’s Love because your mind is One. You will remember that you are One with God only by extending God’s Love. First you must extend God’s Love and then you will be ready for God because God’s Love is God’s Oneness.<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />7. Creation and Communication<br /><br />1. The content of a personal self’s “life” in the world that you perceive does not matter. But correction of your perception of separation from God is only meaningful to you in the context of the individual “life” that you perceive as yours. Though God’s Mind is abstract and therefore everywhere the personal mind with which you identify, being the opposite of God, is very concrete and its illusions are very specific. Your split mind, which believes in a personal self as your reality, believes your existence is defined by separation.<br /><br />2. The personal mind perceives many separate things that are whole in themselves but never in One Being. It will join with other personal selves as long as their joining reinforces its separateness. If it perceives a threat to its separateness it will break off the connection. Its reactions are always to specifics and though it can generalize by noting similarities among others and among situations it is not capable of real abstract thinking, which perceives Oneness. The closest the personal mind comes to abstract thinking is responding to specific persons or situations as though they are other specific persons or situations which they resemble.<br /><br />3. The Holy Spirit, on the other hand, sees only Oneness. It does not try to establish a reality apart from God. It knows it is One with you and with God. God is in your mind and your Oneness with God is Everywhere and Always. It cannot be changed. Your Oneness with God is your only Purpose. You can distort This Purpose and you can choose to be unaware of It but you cannot change It.<br /><br />4. The personal self’s existence is dependent on relationships to define it but it is very specific about how, with what, and with whom it will relate. Your Being, however, is only One. It is Reality extending Everywhere Forever. You limit your own sense of reality when you cut yourself off from your Being. You can only correct this by giving over your entire mind to the Reality of God. Do not shrink from this. Your Whole Mind in God is your Home and your Real Identity.<br /><br />5. Even in your perceived separated state you have not stopped being One with God’s Being in Which you have Everything and in Which you extend God’s Being to increase your Joy. God extends God Everywhere and Always and this is how you are One with God. This is what Creation is. There is no “how” or “with what” or “to whom” in Oneness. Remember, in God there is no difference between having and being. In God you give God always.<br /><br />6. God does not need your worship because God does not have a separate personal self that needs to be uplifted. But when you do not accept your Oneness with God, God’s Oneness is blocked from extending Always and Everywhere. When you are cut off from your Joy God’s Joy is incomplete. If you were truly capable of separating from God, God would not be Whole.<br /><br />7. Your Oneness with God is unchanged by your perception of separation from God but you can only know God with your entire mind. Through revelation you can experience God directly for a moment but you must bring your entire mind to God for all time. Revelation cannot be brought into the world that you perceive but it can change your experience of that world’s reality. Your perception of a world must be replaced by your awareness of your Oneness with God.<br /><br />8. God’s Love is extended whenever you choose to follow the Holy Spirit’s guidance. You are secure when you follow the Holy Spirit because only a personal self is vulnerable. You are One with God and God is extended to you and through you and this is God’s Joy. Changing your mind about yourself is how you share in God’s Joy. By following the Holy Spirit you extend God’s Love in your awareness. The Holy Spirit will guide you until you have returned to full awareness of you Oneness with God.</span>

The Illusions of the Ego

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