Hi,
I'm Teresa Hubbard.
Welcome back to our continued reading of the text to A Course in Miracles.
We continue today in Chapter 11,
God or the Ego?
Section 7,
The Condition of Reality.
To summarize my takeaways,
In Section 7 of Chapter 11,
We learn that the world as we see it was not created by God,
Because the real world is not as we see it.
What then is the real world that awaits our perception when we choose to see it?
We are told here that every loving thought we ever had is eternal.
Being loving,
These thoughts are like those of our Creator and therefore cannot die.
We have many ideas that we have placed between ourself and our Creator,
And these beliefs are the world as we perceive it.
The truth is not absent here,
But it is obscure.
We must come to know that we can actually perceive the real world.
All that is necessary is a willingness to perceive nothing else.
For when we perceive both truth and illusion,
We cannot tell which is true.
To believe that we can perceive the real world is to believe that we can know ourself.
The real world is all that the Holy Spirit has saved for us out of what we have made.
And to perceive only this is salvation,
For it is the recognition that only reality is true.
I invite you to keep a few things in mind as you listen to the reading.
The Course uses male pronouns,
Yet this is simply a way of pointing to the spiritual being,
Having no gender.
The Course is written in first person,
And although not introduced directly to the reader,
It becomes clear that the words are from Jesus,
Often quoting from the Bible.
The Course uses traditional Christian terms in a non-traditional manner.
These words are simply pointers to truth,
Nothing more.
A few terms you will hear within this reading.
Reality Pure Spirit,
Which is changeless,
Eternal,
Formless,
And boundless.
Reality is also referred to in the Course as Heaven or the Kingdom of God.
Real World Through total forgiveness we are released from our perception of guilt allowing us to see through the vision of Christ,
Which blesses rather than condemns.
Perception What we see inwardly determines what we see outside ourselves.
This then is our perception which we project onto the world around us.
Holy Spirit The communication link between God and us.
Bridging the gap between the mind of Christ and our human minds.
The voice for God.
Salvation We are saved from our belief in sin and guilt through the change of mind that forgiveness and the miracle bring about.
And now,
Onto the reading.
A Course in Miracles Chapter 11 God or the Ego Section 7 The Condition of Reality The world as you perceive it cannot have been created by the Father,
For the world is not as you see it.
God created only the eternal,
And everything you see is perishable.
Therefore there must be another world that you do not see.
The Bible speaks of a new heaven and a new earth,
Yet this cannot be literally true,
For the eternal are not recreated.
To perceive anew is merely to perceive again,
Implying that before or in the interval between you were not perceiving at all.
What then is the world that awaits your perception when you see it?
Every loving thought that the Son of God ever had is eternal.
The loving thoughts His mind perceives in this world are the world's only reality.
They are still perceptions because He still believes that He is separate,
Yet they are eternal because they are loving.
And being loving,
They are like the Father and therefore cannot die.
The real world can actually be perceived.
All that is necessary is a willingness to perceive nothing else.
For if you perceive both good and evil,
You are accepting both the false and the true and making no distinction between them.
The ego may see some good,
But never only good.
That is why its perceptions are so variable.
It does not reject goodness entirely,
For that you could not accept.
But it always adds something that is not real to the real,
Thus confusing illusion and reality.
For perceptions cannot be partly true.
If you believe in truth and illusion,
You cannot tell which is true.
To establish your personal autonomy,
You tried to create unlike your father,
Believing that what you made is capable of being unlike him.
Yet everything true is like him.
Perceiving only the real world will lead you to the real heaven,
Because it will make you capable of understanding it.
The perception of goodness is not knowledge,
But the denial of the opposite of goodness enables you to recognize a condition in which opposites do not exist.
This is the condition of knowledge.
Without this awareness,
You have not met its conditions,
And until you do,
You will not know it is yours already.
You have made many ideas that you have placed between yourself and your Creator,
And these beliefs are the world as you perceive it.
Truth is not absent here,
But it is obscure.
You do not know the difference between what you have made and what God created,
And so you do not know the difference between what you have made and what you have created.
To believe that you can perceive the real world is to believe that you can know yourself.
You can know God because it is his will to be known.
The real world is all that the Holy Spirit has saved for you out of what you have made,
And to perceive only this is salvation,
Because it is the recognition that reality is only what is true.
