06.02.06
0404 – Amazing Differences
Posted in the Branch at 10:48 pm by Graham Watts 
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from Issue 004 — Nov 2001
It is essential to understand the Course’s metaphysics as the basis for the whole process of coming to know Oneself through forgiveness as the Course defines it.
To quote a saying from the Nag Hammadi (Gnostic) library: “If the flesh came into being because of spirit, it is a wonder. But if spirit came into being because of the body, it is a wonder of wonders. Indeed, I am amazed at how this great wealth has made it’s home in this poverty” (The Gospel of Thomas – Quote 29, spoken in a series of sayings by the one ‘in the flesh’ known as Jesus).
Jesus, as the symbolic manifestation of the Holy Spirit, ‘says’ in the Course, that it is indeed amazing that what could never in reality occur, seemed to happen. Like the instantaneous appearance of a ‘child of a barren woman’ identifying itself in the form of a person/body/self in a world and being unaware of anything else.
The most fundamental questions: “Who am I?” “Where did I come from?” “Where am I going?” seem to remain a mystery for the person/self ‘in the flesh’ who seems to think meaningful questions can be asked. The insanity, and indeed impossibility of this state is never seen, simply because the seer is itself the seen.
The insane need to defend and justify this person/self false identification must result in extreme uncertainty, deep-rooted inner conflict and desperation for every person/self who seems to be walking the face of the earth. The person/body/self is no different from its’ world. It is the world. It is as if it is shading itself from it’s own light to block out it’s own self-chosen concept. This preserves a sense of ‘living’, but in a place where birth and death seemingly play major parts. These are mere expressions of what cannot ever be in actual Fact They are fantasies or expressions of the Course’s ‘tiny mad idea’ of there being something else apart from the All.
It’s not the person/self that is the problem as such. It’s what this person/self is resistant to, but totally dependent on: the inherent but sub-conscious belief that the One it is dependent on has been killed off and then denied. Guilty, fearful, resentful and hateful, frustrated at what it seems to be, and extremely resistant to the Fact of Itself. But the ‘ghost’ seems to en-ragingly arise from time to time to disturb its’ ‘peace’.
But there must be something continuous that registers the person/self mind’s instability. It’s like, how can the sun ever know darkness, or, it’s own light? It never ever can, simply because it already is that, and can never ‘see’ or understand anything else! It is impossible.
Freedom from the person/self can never be by the person/self, but only from the person/self. Its not how can the sun ever know darkness, rather, its how can the sun ever know its own light? Between the One/Self and the split off ego mind in the duality of consciousness there is a seeming gap, which the person/self cannot bridge of itself.
Whilst the One/Self/Mind seems to be beyond the person/self/mind it can only come to know Itself through perceiving it’s own ‘mind-thoughts’ in coming to realize these interferences as not only false, but non-existent. It is necessary to look from a non-ego viewpoint or to ‘see’ in the mind with the Christ Mind of Reality. Staying in this ego-less reflected light or the ‘seeing’ the false as false, is the negation of the non-knowing ego-self.
The seer is the seen, the perceiver is the perceived, the knower is the known, etc. How can the eye see itself but in a mirror? This is merely a reflection of what it thinks it is, but is actually only a perceptual interpretation in the person/self’s mind of what it thinks it ‘sees’. What seems to be seen is just an interpretation made from an endless stream of conditioned desires coming from a deep-rooted sense of lack and inevitably resulting in a fear of loss of the self. This person/self is fundamentally based on an inherent fear of being unveiled at any moment for the false and indeed non-existent thing it seems to have made itself up to be.
Only in the duality of consciousness in the ‘thinking’ ego mind, expressing as a person/self/world can there seem to be innumerable causes and effects. In ignorance these appear as shadows reacting to what the ego/mind has made. Constant thinking fragments and makes the mind fall apart in a state of confusion. Thoughts seem to be meaningful only for the person/self, for itself, in secret, but can only be distractions in a subtle and devious defense against Itself. Like giving away one’s power to avoid ever accepting responsibility for what one has made against one’s own Self in Truth.
“Temptation has but one lesson it would teach, in all its forms, wherever it occurs. It would persuade the holy Son of God he is a body, born in what must die, unable to escape its frailty, and bound by what it orders him to feel”. (T-31.VIII.1: 1-2)
It is necessary to pay close attention, dispassionately, to calming and quieting the person/mind in order to go beyond and see through it, giving due attention to the seeming obstacles made up by the foolish person/self.
“Let us be glad that we can walk the world, and find so many chances to perceive another situation where God’s gift can once again be recognized as ours! And thus will all the vestiges of hell, the secret sins and hidden hates be gone.” (T-31.VIII.9: 1-2) and,
“Trials are but lessons that you failed to learn presented once again, so where you made a faulty choice before you now can make a better one, and thus escape all pain that what you chose before has brought to you.” (T-31.VIII.3:1)
What seems to have made a choice can also reverse it. Choices can only be undone at the level on which they were made. It is necessary to come to realize the fundamental falsity of choice, not by the person/self making another choice as though it is capable of making choices, but simply by means of an inherent and direct knowing of the utter futility and indeed impossibility of any such thing. The apperception of totally impossible ‘self-made’ objectivity.
Don’t imagine God, Jesus or the Holy Spirit is interested in you as a person/self. They don’t know about any person/self because there is no such thing, just a concept in a dream. The task is not to seek for Love, but only to remove the barriers to the awareness of Love’s presence. To ‘wake-up’ to the Self that already is. The Self that calls in the form of the Course makes it clear the only meaningful concern or purpose of ‘being’ here is to ‘see through’ this idea of an ‘I’ person/self in the dualistic mind. The coming to the realization of there being no ‘I’ must automatically remove all forms of special love and hate. To whom did the impossible occur? To what can the impossible react? This must at least permit a vision of impersonal detached awareness to enter, of Itself.
In the process of coming to this Self-Knowing awareness there is a discovery, not of what seems to please or displease or any other expressions of defensive distraction, but only what is True. In this realization one must automatically give Reality or Love as one’s true ‘nature’, instead of as a person/self desperately trying to grasp at what doesn’t actually exist. Rather, it is automatically realized that another person/self appearing in consciousness is no different in Truth from oneself. Why would a sane mind ever contemplate any attack on itself? Realizing this is no less than the salvation of the world.
Jesus also said, according to The Gospel of Thomas – quote 17 “I shall give you what no eye has seen and what no ear has heard and what no hand has touched and what has never occurred to the human mind” and, quote 2 “Let him who seeks continue seeking until he finds. When he finds, he will become troubled. When he becomes troubled, he will be astonished, and he will rule over the all.”
Whoever has ears to hear, let him hear? Truly amazing!
©2001 GW