Corresponding Text Section

Chapter 28: The Two Dreams

3. Correcting the Split Mind and Identity

It is not your function to carry out Correction, but it is your function to allow It. The Function of carrying out and fulfilling Correction belongs to One Who knows of Fairness, not of guilt. If you assume Correction’s Role, you forget your function of forgiveness. No one can forgive truly until they learn that the only real correction is to truly forgive, and never to accuse. Alone, you cannot see that identity and function are the same, and because of this Correction is not of you. Because identity and function are the same, by your function of forgiveness and its resulting healing and awakening do you come to know yourself again. And thus, if you confuse your function with the Function of Spirit, you must be confused about your function and your Identity.

What is the separation but a wish to take the Divine’s Function from It and deny that this Function is Its? Even if it is believed that the Divine’s Function could be taken from It – the tiny, mad idea that caused the separation – this Function could not be other than the Creator’s, for what is taken away must be lost.

In a split mind, identity must seem to be fragmented because the mind is divided. And no one can perceive a unified function that has conflicting purposes and different ends. To a mind so split, correction must seem to be a way to punish, in someone else, “sins” you think are yours, or to punish you for your sins through deceiving your defenses. And if your defenses succeed in evading the punishment due your sins, does a mere symbol, rather than your brother or sister, become the victim of your punishment, different from you in that this figure must have been more guilty than you, thus in need of the correction due you because you are the one more innocent than they. This splits their function off from yours, and gives you both a different role. And so you cannot be perceived as one, and with a single function that would mean a shared identity with just one goal.

Any correction you would make of yourself must divide and separate, because that is the function given correction by you in your split state. For in this way you secretly hope to evade the total punishment you think you deserve – which you believe would annihilate you – by having your sisters and brothers bear some of this punishment for you. But when you conceive that forgiveness is Correction, then you also know that your mind and the Holy Spirit’s Mind are One. And so your own Identity is found.

Yet must Spirit work with what is given It, and you are allowing It continuous access to only part of your mind—the part you think you control and that you aren’t ashamed of. To fulfill Its Function of Correction, Spirit needs you to willingly give to It the part of your split mind that you are ashamed of, for that is the part that needs healing. Spirit already has access to this part, but without your willingness to share this part It must wait to bring Correction or total forgiveness to you, that is, to the part that needs It, bringing It to your awareness.

While It waits, Spirit represents in your wholeness the part of your mind that is split off, the part that you have pushed away in shame but that is in truth your sisters and brothers. For we are all part of one Mind. And so Spirit seems to have a different purpose from the one you cherish and think is yours—the judging of your sisters and brothers to keep them exiled from your mind. Thus does your function seem divided – to judge and to forgive – with one part in opposition to another. And these two parts appear to represent a split within a self that is perceived as two.

Consider how this self-perception must extend, remembering the fact that every thought extends, because that is its purpose, being what it really is. From an idea of self as two – you and what’s not you – there comes a necessary view of function split between the two. And what you would correct through judgment is only half the error of the split mind, which you think makes up all of it. Your sisters and brothers’ “transgressions” become the central target of your efforts at correction, to avoid perceiving your errors and theirs as one. Your errors are simply mistakes, but theirs are more grave, and not the same as yours. Theirs merit punishment, while yours, in fairness, should be overlooked.

In this interpretation of correction, you will not even perceive your own mistakes – the hidden part of your split mind you are ashamed of that is what needs Correction – because of your focus on the transgressions of your sisters and brothers. The focus of your correction has been placed outside yourself, on one who cannot be a part of your own mind and Identity while this perception lasts. It is believed that what is condemned can never be returned to its accuser, who has judged and rejected it, and rejects it still. These are your sisters and brothers, focus of your judgment, believed unworthy to be part of you, and thus cast outside yourself. This is the actual other part of your whole mind and Identity, the part that has been denied by you. Only what is left without their presence is perceived by your split mind as all of you. To this part of your split mind that believes it is you alone without your sisters and brothers, the Holy Spirit must represent the other part until you recognize that your sisters and brothers are the other part. And this Spirit does by giving both you and your sisters and brothers a function that is one, not different: forgiveness of each other’s mistakes and your own, so that you can cease fearing one another and remember that you are one Mind.

Correction as forgiveness through Spirit is the function given both of you together, but neither one alone. And when this function is shared, it must correct mistakes in both of you, and so be fulfilled. It cannot leave mistakes in one part unhealed in a vain attempt to make the other “free.” That would be divided purpose, which cannot be shared, and so it cannot be the Function that the Holy Spirit sees as Its. And you can rest assured that Spirit will not fulfill a function that It cannot understand and recognize as Its. For only thus can It keep your function preserved intact, despite your separated view of what your function is. If Spirit upheld divided function, you would be lost indeed. Its inability to see Its Goal divided and distinct for each of you preserves your holy Self from being made aware of any function other than Its Own.

And thus is healing given you and your sisters and brothers, that is, to both parts of the mind you share until it is whole again. Correction must be left to One Who knows that forgiveness and Correction are the same. This is not understood when perceived from only part of a mind. Leave, then, Correction to the Mind That is Whole, functioning as One because It conceives a single Function as Its only one, and is therefore not split in purpose. Here is the Function given to Spirit by the Divine known to be Spirit’s Own, and, because It has been shared, the same as the Function of Oneness that Its Giver maintains. In Spirit’s Acceptance of this Function are the Means whereby the parts of your true mind are unified, and your split mind healed. Spirit’s single Purpose unifies the parts of the Divine Family perceived as separate. And each forgives the other, that each may accept the other part as part of itself, and remember its true Identity.