Does the sky begin where the Ocean ends?

From a certain perspective it would appear to be true. However, unlike reality, appearances change according to our perspective.  Generally speaking a perspective is formed through a combination of individual experiences, beliefs, values, and social influences.— NOT REALITY!  And so it is with everything we perceive in the physical phenomenal world. To be clear we are not free to change reality, but we are free to deny reality and once this occurs we will perceive a substitute ego illusion. When we made the ego, a god more to our liking, to replace God, we entered the world of perception. We were granted a separate existence where everyone was different, with different thoughts and desires. The world of perception is a dreamlike state, it is a world of time, a process that did not exist until the ego dreamt it up, along with space. Once believed, the ego idea of separation spiraled into chaos and massive dissociation. All hell broke lose.  It turns out that with everyone having their own beliefs and desires what you get is chaos, mistrust, winners and losers, the latter being disproportionately greater, or perhaps 100%. And to make matters even worse, which seemed impossible, the ego convinced us we were no longer a mind. We are a body using artificial intelligence called the brain, programmed by, what else, the ego, aka the wrong mind. As things currently stand we find ourselves at the effect of a space-time dream-world with little control over our “individual” figures.

Now this may not seem like a big deal, but the decision to identify with the ego and deny we are an idea in the mind of God,  a decision we all made as one mind, left us at home in God dreaming of exile. We are a victim of our own dream, which we now believe is our reality. — What’s wrong with that, the ego whispers. — To our ego-alter-self things couldn’t be rosier. It sees itself as the greatest leader ever to exist.— Really???— We went from total knowledge to fragmentation; from vision to perception; from reality to a dream and from a God of Love to a god of fear. —Our dedication and purpose is no longer to extend love, our purpose is survival of the ego thought system we made, which means continued belief in the dream of separation. And should that purpose be best accomplished through experiences of pain, suffering, loss and death— so-be-it!

The ego is no dummy, insane yes, but not stupid. By rendering us mindless, our belief in the ego’s separation story and the whole brain-body-world idea, stands uncorrected. And that, fellow dreamers, is exactly the ego’s plan. Unlike our home in God which is Love, the ego maintains its thought system through the attraction of guilt and fear. Guilt, which arises from the belief in sin, an act so insidious it can never be corrected, validates the world is real. —    Remember when we attacked God and replaced Him with the ego? —No! —  Sorry, denial doesn’t really work. Whenever you deny anything you merely choose to forget. Stay with me here because when you attempt to forget and not correct a fearful thought, the fear remains, you just don’t remember what caused it. And herein lies the ego’s purpose for the world. Projecting the resulting guilt from our mind to the world did prevent us from remembering the true cause of our guilt, but not from feeling its effects. Voila, mission accomplished!——Of all the many causes you perceived as bringing pain and suffering to you, your guilt was not among them. ⁵Nor did you in any way request them for yourself. ⁶This is how all illusions came about. ⁷The one who makes them does not see himself as making them, and their reality does not depend on him. (ACIM, T-27.VII.7:4-7)

Take a close look at the world and you will discover a one to one correspondence between the origin of guilt: the belief we destroyed God, and the form our problems take in the world. From such an egregious belief there would be nothing we would not accuse ourself of. Every perception of the world would symbolize our sin. The specific form our guilt takes varies greatly because individual dissociated aspects of mind differ, but the underlying reason or content for every form of upset is the original guilt over belief in the separation. Some forms our guilt takes in the world are racial, religious, political, sexual, cultural or even our own body in the form of illness. Since the world is simply a reflection of the guilt in our mind, we will perceive everyone and everything as symbolizing evil. Sometimes, we take the role of victim; at other times we are the victimizer. Governments and other authority figures, including our parents, are favorite targets of our condemnation. Seen from this perspective it should be of no surprise that the world is and has always been chaotic.—- ²When you feel that you are tempted to accuse someone of sin in any form, do not allow your mind to dwell on what you think he did, for that is self-deception. ³Ask instead, “Would I accuse myself of doing this?” (ACIM, W-134.9:2-3) —The Course never speaks about behavior, but do look at the meaning you ascribe to the behavior.

The ego, being an illusion, must always defend its insane thought system. It demands total obedience, punishing all who would oppose it.—- So much for individual freedom.—- It seeks to control every aspect of our lives to assure we will never question its thought system. —-⁶The ego will attack your motives as soon as they become clearly out of accord with its perception of you. ⁷This is when it will shift abruptly from suspiciousness to viciousness, (ACIM, T-9.VII.4:6-7) ——The Course is leading us to a new experience facilitated by a complete thought reversal.—Be assured the ego will not take this lightly, it is suspicious when we just mention the Course. It moves to viciousness when we actually study the Course.—-  Once while writing these essays my computer started to delete the text and I had to shut the computer down—-(my immediate reaction was not exactly right-minded).

The means for the Course’s shift in perspective is forgiveness. It is through forgiveness that your thoughts about the world will be reversed. That is why forgiveness offers everything you, though not your ego, wants: true justice, peace, love, joy and happiness. Justice within the Course’s framework must be that no one loses; the antithesis of the ego idea of justice where there are winners and losers: a zero-sum-winner-take-all-game. Forgiveness is the trim-tab that miraculously and effortlessly turns the ship of state around. ——The miracle does not awaken you, but merely shows you who the dreamer is. ³It teaches you there is a choice of dreams while you are still asleep, depending on the purpose of your dreaming. (ACIM, T-28.II.4:2-3

The miracle, in A Course in Miracles, is a fundamental shift in perspective. It is as if you were lifted above the battleground and could see the truth behind appearances. The whole is different from and greater than the sum of its parts. The idea of Unity is the elephant in the room the ego never wants you to experience. We are the same, not different! —-Only the different can attack. ²So you conclude because you can attack, you and your brother must be different. ³Yet does the Holy Spirit explain this differently. ⁴Because you and your brother are not different, you cannot attack. ⁵Either position is a logical conclusion. ⁶Either could be maintained, but never both. ⁷The only question to be answered in order to decide which must be true is whether you and your brother are different. ⁸From the position of what you understand you seem to be, and therefore can attack. ⁹Of the alternatives, this seems more natural and more in line with your experience. ¹⁰And therefore it is necessary that you have other experiences, more in line with truth, to teach you what is natural and true.(ACIM, T-22.VI.13:1-10)

To see yourself as cause and not effect is transformative:  a lucid dreamer is aware that what he is experiencing is his own dream. Therefore, any attack would be an attack upon himself. We are not joined together in illusions but in Thought.  We are an idea in the Mind of God. It is very important to realize that any concept we have as to what this means is based on perception, and totality cannot be perceived. Totality is completely beyond the ego’s range for meaning. There is no way that our fragmented mind could know what totality means. Unity and Oneness are not made of separate parts. Any thoughts we have about reality are illusions because that is all the ego can perceive.The ego, being an illusion, is afraid of any thought that contradicts its belief that you are an effect of the world and cannot be its cause. —-Thus are you not the dreamer, but the dream. ²And so you wander idly in and out of places and events that it contrives.³That this is all the body does is true, for it is but a figure in a dream. ⁴But who reacts to figures in a dream unless he sees them as if they were real? ⁵The instant that he sees them as they are they have no more effects on him, because he understands he gave them their effects by causing them and making them seem real. (ACIM, T-27.VIII.4:1-5)

Please consider carefully the following four question!!!

Do I desire a world I rule instead of one that rules me?

Do I desire a world where I am powerful instead of helpless?

Do I desire a world in which I have no enemies and cannot sin?

And do I want to see what I denied because it is the truth? (ACIM, T-21.VII.5:11-14)

The attainment of peace is not a function of time, it is a function of your acceptance. Peace and truth are one idea, one cannot be experienced without the other. The ego god, being illusion, demands blind obedience and rules through fear. God, being Love, awaits but our acceptance of His peace. —-Salvation is rebirth of the idea no one can lose for anyone to gain. ²And everyone must gain, if anyone would be a gainer.³Here is sanity restored. ⁴And on this single rock of truth can faith in God’s eternal saneness rest in perfect confidence and perfect peace. (ACIM, T-25.VII.12:1-4)

In Gratitude and Love, Caryl

As always, please reach out to me directly with any questions or comments related to this essay or any of my essays at: carylbrowne@gmail.com