12.03.06
Specialness - Part II (Aug 22, 1997)
Posted in Transcripts at 6:57 pm by miracles 
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Notes from a talk given by Linda and James Hale
Contents
- Introduction
- Our relationship to specialness
- The Special Function Of The Holy Spirit
- The Change In Purpose
- The Significance Of Our Brother.
- Our Special Function
The quotations from the Course are given in the second edition format. Although we have presented only the first few words of relevant quote we do consider them very important and request that you look them up.
In Part I, we explored the topic of specialness–how it began, what it is, how it expresses itself and its purpose. Specialness is, in essence, the least decision to choose attack instead of love. The original and primary attack was the attempt by the Son of God to substitute his own self-concept in place of his Self as created by God. His true Self can only be known in his relationship to the Father, because that is what he is. In that knowledge the Son is also creator:
“Creation is the sum of all God’s Thoughts…” W-pII.11.1-3
Yet, as is central to the Course myth, the son was not content to have second place to the Creator nor was he content to be equal and one with his brothers. He sought special favour from God and endeavoured to set himself “apart.” He was no longer content with being the effect of God and endeavoured to become his own cause and author. Thus truth seemed to be reversed and a world of upside-down perception was born. This new self that the Son seemed to have made is separate, autonomous and independent from its creator and brothers. Each fragment has a separate purpose, and at best, can only make temporary alliances with others, so that each may get what they seek, separately. A world of limits was made, so each one inhabiting it must fight for the limited resources it seems to offer. In order to alleviate the unfathomable guilt at having destroyed unity, each fragment of the Sonship is compelled to project the guilt “outside” on to another. Thus a world of victims and victimisers is inexorably set in place. And having given up everything, each seeming fragment is haunted by a sense of nothingness and is forever compelled to find something outside itself to fill that void. Thus a world of special relationships is inexorably set in place
At least, that would be the case, if what the Son had made as a substitute for God’s Will, actually existed. The good news, however, as we saw in Part I of this article, is that the Father could not grant the son’s insane wish for specialness and so it does not exist. We are reassured:
“The Father keeps what He created safe…” T-24.VII.5:1-5
These reassurances help us to have the faith to walk past the veils of specialness and embrace the “disillusionment” process referred to in Part I, as an integral part of our re-awakening to Truth. The process of shifting from the place of specialness:
“…the gates of hell you closed upon yourself, to rule in madness and in loneliness your special kingdom, apart from God, away from truth and from salvation.” T-24.II.13.
to the point from where we see illusions as illusions, constitutes the heart of the Course process.
Integral to this transformation is learning how to allow our specialness, in all its guise and forms, to serve our awakening. This is the substance of this article, Part II, of “Specialness”
Our relationship to specialness
The section called “The Meeting Place”, opens with a description of how difficult we find it is to let go of our specialness. It is as if it were something too precious to give up. This “devotion” is likened here, and in other parts of the Course, to that given to a child by its parent.
“How bitterly does everyone…” T-24.VII.1:1-7
The central symbol in the dream of specialness is the body. The body is used by the Son to prove that the laws of Truth have been reversed, and that now the Son is subject to a different law. According to the chaotic “laws” of the ego, perception seems to teach us what we are. Our choices are dictated by what is outside of us and thus potentially we are always the victim of the world we see. The Course describes this as a dream, and its central protagonist is the body:
“Thus is the body made a theory of yourself, …” T-24.VII.10.
Thus the body is seen as specialness made flesh. The Course goes on to describe this as a travesty on God’s creation.
The crucial aspect in our journey of letting go of our specialness is to question the value of the “gifts” it brings, so that we develop the desire to place our “…love and care, the strong protection, the thought by day and night, the deep concern, the powerful conviction…” elsewhere. [T-24.VII.2:7]
The Course contains many pleas for sanity from us, as it asks us to acknowledge that indeed this world has not given us any genuine gifts.
“Is it not strange that you should cherish still …” T-25.II.2.
Once we stop seeking outside ourselves to find the elusive “something” we are looking for, space has been made in which a genuine alternative may emerge. This is a real alternative because it comes to us from outside the dream of specialness. We are no longer deluded by choosing between illusions. Our Teacher, in helping us to learn what the alternative is, is with us always, for He is the Holy Spirit
The Special Function Of The Holy Spirit
The Holy Spirit’s function is to teach the part of the mind which believes it is separate and alone, that it is mistaken, and is actually one with all creation. He acts as a link between the mad desire to be separate, different and special and the Christ in us, which knows Its true Will because It is eternally one with the Father. It is within this context that the exquisite compassion and eminent practicality of the Course shines forth. Yes, Truth is true and there is nothing beside it, but we, as we experience ourselves neither believe, nor remember this. The Holy Spirit comes to us where we think we are, and speaks to us in a language we can understand
“All this takes note of time and place as if they were discrete….” T-25.I.7:1-5
In the Clarification of Terms (Manual for Teachers) His function is described as a special one:
The Holy Spirit is described as the remaining Communication Link between God and His separated Sons…” C-6.3.:1-3
Humanity believes in and is mesmerised by the world. The Holy Spirit is the correction principle, gently awakening us from the dream we have special needs which cannot be fulfilled by the Father.
Specialness must necessarily be our teacher, until we become aware of the treadmill we are on and call for help from something which does not believe in the treadmill we have made. Turning to the Holy Spirit represents a willingness to question and eventually change the purpose of the treadmill we had previously held so dear.
The section “Salvation from Fear” in chapter 24 has this to say of the purpose of the world:
“Forget not that the healing of God’s Son…” T-24.VI.4:1-2
But there is a second one, who would insist upon maintaining its purpose for the world. The world would continue to be used as a means to serve its goal:
“For specialness, it [the world] is the perfect frame to set it off;…” T-25.III.3:3
Error made the world, but as the Course says;
“Corrected error is the error’s end.” T-25.III.4:2
It goes on to say:
“In His perception of the world, … “T-25.III.5:2-3
In dealing with our specialness, it is important not to fight against it, try and improve or purify it. To do so is not only to make the error real but to usurp functions that are not our own. Our specialness sought to substitute the content of relationships with their form; the Holy Spirit teaches us how to use the forms we have made and hold dear, to express the only content possible–that of love’s reflection, joining and true forgiveness. In other words, to seek to change the form is to get stuck on a level where the problem does not exist. It is to once again, miss the mark and to mistake change in form for change in content.
The content of love’s reflection is expressed when we let go of our choice to perceive in ways dictated by our limited self concept and the sort of world which it gives rise to. We are reminded that perception simply suplies the evidence to corroborate a decision we have already made.
“Perception is a choice…” T-25.I.3:1-5
Or to put it more succinctly:
“…You see what you believe is there, and you believe it there because you want it there. ” T-25.III.1:3
If I am choosing to hold on to the concept of being separate, different and special, I will see only that which supports my decision; if I open up to the Holy Spirit’s interpretation, witnesses which support the truth of oneness and equality will “reveal” themselves to me. In the world of form, this is the only real choice available. Sight will either serve the purpose of specialness, or that of the forgiveness of specialness. How I see will determine how I act, therefore my life will be either a means for God or for the idea of a separate will apart from Him. To reiterate the important point–changing purpose has nothing to do with what we do in the world. It has everything to do with the teacher we are choosing and the goal we have set in our mind–holding on to guilt and separation or forgiveness.
This dichotomy of choice is reflected in our confusion of identity. The last paragraph of “The Goals of Specialness” describes this poetically in terms of there being two sons:
“Their difference does not lie in how they look, nor where they go, …” T-24.VII.11:4-13
The Significance Of Our Brother.
The concept of our brother and how we relate to him is pivotal to the whole process of awakening. One beautiful and succinct expression of this can be found in Chapter 24:
“In him [your brother] is your assurance God is here, and with you now…” T-24.VI.1:4-9
Just as in the dream of specialness our brother is used as the symbol to express all our specialness needs and our war with God, in the healing of the mind of God’s Son, our relationship with our brother comes to sybolise our willingness to let go of this need for specialness and to remember who we are, as God created us.
In our detour into fear we made our bodies as places to hide, places to make manifest our separation, our specialness. Every body appears in different forms, different shapes and sizes, colours and complexions. The words they utter come from many different languages “born” from many different cultures that have many different symbols tied to those words. Everything about “us” is special. Everything about “us” demands particular attention and respect.
Remember that it is in our relationship to our brother that we replay over and over again our belief in the original separation. This dynamic is invariably expressed as one of victim/victimiser or leader/follower. Having made bodies to encase our specialness, we make our relationships special as a way of continuing the ego’s reversal of cause and effect and maintaining our distraction “outside” in the activities of these others. These relationships are invariably of hate but also of special love, which is a disguised form of hate.
The topic of special relationships cannot be done justice to in a short presentation like this. Jesus spends over half a dozen chapters of the Text discussing them. They are the prime classroom that we have available to learn our lessons of forgiveness. However one thing which is often forgotten when special relationships are mentioned is their all pervasive nature. We, more often than not, only think of our significant relationships as being worthy of discussion or examination in this light. We tend to forget that we have a relationship to everybody and everything, whether they are physically present or not and that all of these relationships are special. Even our intial relationship to the Course is special. It is no surprise that we would tend to “forget” this. The thought of transforming all these relationships into holy relationships seems overwhelming. Of course we don’t have to try and convert them all. In fact we really only need to get one right. That is also the good news. As we truly begin this process we also realise that it is also quite enough.
What is important in the context of the current topic is that because we are in relationship with everybody and everything, how we experience those relationships, no matter how trivial they seem to be, is a reflection of our current willingness to question our investment in specialness. As we learn to give more and more over to the Holy Spirit we will undoubtably notice various expressions of our resistance, or in a paraphase from the Course, the littleness of our willingness. How we see our brother though, is the very essence of our process.
In the discussion of the last “obstacle” to peace, which is the fear of God, Jesus tells us:
“You are afraid of God because you fear your brother.” T-19.IV.D.11:5
In our making of a world of separation and specialness we have populated it with brothers, clothed in bodies, whose express purpose is to hide from us the truth of who we are. Their sole purpose, according to their maker, is to prove to us we are indeed separate, indeed a victim, indeed justified in our use of attack and defence. Our brother is the symbol of our fear of God and our war against ourself. How we see our brother then, is witness to our continued participation in this war. We are asked to look to our brother with thankfullness for within him we will find the gift of Peace, rather than the gifts of specialness desired by the ego.
“Beside you is one who offers you the chalice of Atonement, for the Holy Spirit is in him.” T-19.IV.D.13:1
And so it is in how we are prepared to see our brother that we at last come to see our investment in holding on to the specialness we “love”. The relationship is stark and perfectly clear when we are prepared to see. The question is not, “What must I do to attain slavation? Rather it is “What am I doing to avoid it?” The answer lies in how we wish to see our brother.
“Earlier I said consider not the means by which salvation is attained, nor how to reach it. …” T-24.IV.4:1-4
All through the Course Jesus hints, implies and sometimes quite plainly says, that we each have a “Special” function here in the world. A function that only we can fulfil. This seems distinct from the more general descriptions of our purpose, or indeed the purpose of the world. Lines such as:
“Everyone has a special part to play in the Atonement,…” T-14.V.2:1-2
“The teacher of God has taken accepting the Atonement for himself as his only function.” M-22.1:10
“The sole responsibility of the miracle worker is to accept the Atonement for himself.” T-2.V.5:1
All these lines and more sprinkled throughout the Course imply there is both something specific and general we must do. Yet it isn’t until the end of the text that Jesus gets down to the specifics of what he means when he tells us we each have a part to play, a part, in fact, that only we can play. In understanding what this “special function” is we are perhaps more able to also understand the meaning of such passages such as:
“All things are lessons God would have me learn.” W-pI.193
“Once you accept His plan…” T-20.IV.8:4-7
And other places where it seems as if the Holy Spirit, and even God Himself have stepped in and intervened in our world to assist us.
So what is our special function? What is this great function that only we can carry out? What is this thing that sets our ego scrambling about wildly, trying to find and exploit for its own purposes of specialness (as we have been discussing.) Indeed what is it that many of us who take on a spiritual path assiduously avoid, seeking instead the spiritual specialness of something more tangible such as saving the world! Quite simply our special function is to re-interpret our life as we are already living it. In other words our special function lies in our allowing the Holy Spirit to re-interpret on our behalf all the specialness we have already made.
“Such is the Holy Spirit’s kind perception of specialness; His use of what you made, to heal instead of harm.” T-25.VI.4:1
Our only function here, in content, is forgiveness. Yet in form we are often confused and befuddled. After all, what is the function of form? Yet it is through all the special forms that we have made that we are to learn the lessons of forgiveness. Let us consider just one paragraph from the section “The Special Function” to illustrate this. We are told:
Here, where the laws of God do not prevail in perfect form, can he yet do one perfect thing and make one perfect choice. T-25.VI.5:1
Here we are being reminded, in a different way, there is but one problem and one solution. And so there is only one thing for us to do. But remember, the Course is about our mind, not our behaviour. There is only one thing to do with our mind.
And by this act of special faithfulness to one perceived as other than himself, he learns the gift was given to himself, and so they must be one.. T-25.VI.5:2
Once again we are told it is through our change in perception of our brother (”one perceived as other than himself”) we come to learn he is not other than our self.
Forgiveness is the only function meaningful in time. It is the means the Holy Spirit uses to translate specialness from sin into salvation. Forgiveness is for all. But when it rests on all it is complete, and every function of this world completed with it. Then is time no more. T-25.VI.5:3-7
Forgiveness is the only function meaningful here, forgiveness is the only purpose meaningful here, it is the mechanism by which sin is no more. We are also reminded that once all has been forgiven, forgiveness no longer has meaning or purpose for time has ended and the awareness of heaven is restored. But what of us who still believe in time?
Yet while in time, there is still much to do. And each must do what is allotted him, for on his part does all the plan depend. He has a special part in time for so he chose, and choosing it, he made it for himself. His wish was not denied but changed in form, to let it serve his brother and himself, and thus become a means to save instead of lose. T-25.VI.5:8-11
Here again we are told we have a specific part to play in this plan. A specific manner in which what we made to separate (our wish to be special) is transformed to become a means to join.
“All that you made can serve salvation easily and well. The Son of God can make no choice the Holy Spirit cannot employ on his behalf, and not against himself.” T-25.VI.7:4-5
And so everything we currently think, feel or do can be used differently. We don’t have to go out and find something different, something else that seems “special” in order to be a teacher of God. We are doing it already! Only we don’t see it.
Now perhaps it is clear what “All things are lessons God would have me learn” really means, for everything around me and about me can be used by the Holy Spirit to show me my Self rather than my self. There is no place or time where I wasn’t meant to be for every place or time can serve just as equally to demonstrate to me my mistaken belief. Now perhaps it can also be seen how every brother you meet is your salvation, if you are willing to see.
“The Holy Spirit needs your special function, that His may be fulfilled. …” T-25.VI.7.