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Chapter 4: Discerning the Ego’s Terrain

6. What Need Not Be, and What Must Be

Those who believe that they cannot hear the Voice of the Divine are simply choosing not to listen, because this Voice speaks to each one in every moment they choose to hear It. When anyone listens to the voice of their ego this is demonstrated by their attitudes, feelings and behavior. Their attitudes are obviously conflicted; their feelings have a narrow range tending toward the negative, but are never purely joyous; and their behavior is either strained or unpredictable.

Yet this could not be a person’s experience unless it is what they chose. In fact, if the ego’s is the voice a person listens to, it must mean that this is what they are determined to keep, and what they are vigilant to save. Split minds are filled with schemes to save the face of their egos, and thus they do not seek the Face, or Presence, of Divine Essence.

The glass in which the ego seeks to look upon its face is dark indeed. How can it maintain the trick of its existence except with mirrors? But where you seek to find yourself is up to you. This Course has stated that you cannot change your mind by changing your behavior, but it has also stated, and many times, that you can fundamentally change or transform your mind. When your heart or mood tells you that you have chosen or decided wrongly, and this is so whenever you are not joyous, then know that this need not be your choice. In every such case it means that you have thought wrongly about some brother or sister that the Divine created perfect, and are perceiving images your ego makes in a darkened glass. At such moments reflect honestly on what you have thought that Spirit would not have thought, and therefore would not have you think, and what you have not thought that Spirit thinks and would have you think. Search sincerely for what you have done and left undone accordingly. And then change your mind so that it is thinking with Spirit. This may seem hard to do, but it is much easier than trying to think against Spirit. Your mind, like Spirit’s, is One with the Divine’s. Denying this and thinking otherwise has held your ego together, but has literally split your mind.

As a loving brother I care deeply about the minds of all my sisters and brothers, and urge you to follow my example as you perceive yourself and each other, and see in both the glorious creations of our glorious Creator.

When you feel sad, know that this need not be. Depression always arises ultimately from a sense of being deprived of something you want and do not have. Know that you have Everything, and are deprived of nothing except by your own decisions, and then decide otherwise.

When you are anxious, know that all anxiety comes from the inconstancy of the ego’s perspective, and need not be. You can be as vigilant against the ego’s dictates as for them.

When you feel guilty, know that the ego in the ignorance of its mis-projections has indeed violated the Laws of the Divine, but that you have not. Leave the “sins” of the ego to me. That is what the Atonement is for. But until you change your mind about the people your ego has hurt and whose egos have hurt yours, and forgive yourself and them, the Atonement cannot release you. As long as you feel guilty, your ego is in command, because only the ego can experience guilt. Your experience of guilt need not be.

Some are able, when beginning their journey of awakening, to be more honest than others in really trying to see whom their egos have hurt, and also in trying to change their minds about them. But they may still have much too much energy invested in their egos to let go. This need not be. I am mindful of all efforts, and I help each will in its efforts to reach the Truth. Watch your mind for the temptation of the ego to mis-project and to fantasize taking from others what you want or like, and do not be deceived by it. Know it offers you nothing.

Some do not make consistent efforts to change their mind except through applying old patterns and habits to new ideas. But they may learn that their mind gains control over itself when they direct it genuinely toward perceiving someone else truly.

For some, their lack of vitality is due to their former marked effort at solving their needless depression and anxiety through disinterest. Because their ego was protected by this unfortunate negative attribute, they may be afraid to abandon this habit. In moments when they have let go of this voluntary dis-spiriting, they have already seen how their mind can focus, and rise above fatigue, and heal. But they may not yet have learned to be sufficiently vigilant against their ego’s demands, resulting in their continuing to disengage themselves. This need not be.

The new pattern and habit of engaging with the Divine and Its Creations – Its Children – is easily made if you refuse actively to let your mind slip away. The problem is not one of concentration. It is a belief that no one, including yourself, is worth consistent effort. Side with me consistently against this deception, as we have sided against it briefly already. Do not permit this shabby belief to pull you back. The disheartened are ineffectual to themselves and to me, but only the ego can be disheartened.

Have you really considered how many opportunities you regularly have to find Joy and Gratitude, and through these renewed Strength, and how many of these you regularly pass by or refuse? There is no limit to the Power of a Child of the Divine, but they themself can limit the expression of their Power as much as they choose. Your mind and mine can unite in shining your ego away, and releasing the Strength of the Divine into everything you think and feel and will. Do not settle for anything less than this, and refuse to accept anything but this as your goal. Watch your mind carefully for any beliefs that hinder the accomplishment of this goal, and step away from them. Judge how well you have done this by your own feelings, for this is the one right use of judgment. Judgment, like any other defense other than Atonement, can be used to attack or protect, to hurt or to heal. The ego frame of mind should be brought to your own divinely-guided assessment and found wanting there. Without your own allegiance, protection, and affection it cannot exist.

Assess your ego truly, and you must withdraw allegiance, protection, and affection from it. We are Mirrors of Truth in which the Divine Itself shines in perfect Light. To the ego’s dark glass you need only say, “I will not perceive there because I know these images are not true.” Then let the Holy One shine upon you in Peace, knowing that this and only this must be! Its Mind shone on you in your creation, and brought your mind into being. Its Mind still shines on you, and must shine through you. Your ego cannot prevent It from shining on you, but it can prevent you from letting It shine through you, but only if this is your choice. This need not be.

The First Coming of Divine Essence is just another name for the perfect Creation, for Divine Essence is the perfect Creation of the Divine. The Second Coming of Divine Essence, also known as the Atonement, means nothing more than the healing of the split mind, resulting in the end of the ego’s control over part of the minds of human beings, and through this the end of the separation. I was created like you in the First Coming of Divine Essence, and I am reminding you that I have called you to join with me in the Second.

If with Love you will think over your life, you will see how carefully the preparations were made for us to join together in the Great Awakening. I am in charge of the Process of Atonement, or the Second Coming, as I have already told you, and my assessment, which is used only for Its Protection, cannot be wrong because it never attacks. My assessment about you is therefore true. The assessment ability of many is so distorted that they may believe that I was mistaken in choosing them. I assure you this is a mistake of their own egos, and should not be mistaken for humbleness.

Your ego will try to convince you that it is real and that I am not, because if I am real, then I am no more real than you are. That knowing, and I assure you that it is Knowledge, means that Divine Essence must come into the split part of your mind and heal it. While I will never attack your ego, I am working with your true mind – your spirit – whether you are asleep or awake, just as your ego does with the split part of your mind. I am your vigilance in this because you may be too confused at times to recognize your own Hope.

My assessment is sound. Your spirit will elect to join with mine, and together we will remember our Invulnerability. You will yet come together with your sisters and brothers and me and your Sanity will be restored.

I raised the dead by knowing that Life is an eternal Attribute of Everything that the living Creator created. Why would anyone believe that it is harder for me to inspire the dis-spirited or to stabilize the unstable? I know that miracles transcend every law of time and space and are therefore free of all levels and orders of magnitude of difficulty. You do not yet know this, but you are learning it. I have called, and your engaging this Course means that you have answered. I know that miracles are expressions of Divine Love, reflect Reality, and are therefore completely natural. My calling you is as natural as your answer, and as inevitable.