26.02.06

The "Laws" of Chaos – Part I (Sept 19, 1997)

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Notes from a talk given by Linda and James Hale

Sept 19, 1997

Contents

• Introduction and Context.
• The Laws of Chaos
• The First Law
• The Second Law
• The Third Law
• Conclusion (part 1)

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.

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Introduction and Context.’

The "Laws" of chaos section comes in chapter 23 of the text, entitled "The War Against Yourself," and it is perhaps in examining this context that we can best introduce our discussion of these "laws."

This chapter begins with a question:

"Do you not see the opposite of frailty and weakness is sinlessness?" T-23.in.1:1

A question that begs us to consider that our less than perfect sense of self, in effect, reflects our belief in sin. In other words, our belief that the impossible has happened, our reality has been shattered and more to the point, shattered by us! In believing in our own weakness we have thrown away our awareness of our Father and instead erected a false image of Him that is feared because it seems separate and therefore alien from us. An illusion of the Son is thus pitted in eternal conflict with an illusion of the Father. This is the first split, the beginning of duality.We are unaware that this charade we play is just that, a charade, without real meaning or substance. A charade in which we have not only made our world, but populated it with characters that we must constantly defend against lest they attack and kill us. We are totally ignorant of the fact that these "enemies" are fragmented images of ourselves that simply await our recognition to join with us in perfect unity.

We have indeed made a sorry world filled with despair and danger, of hunger and emptiness, of loneliness and death. Yet are we reminded time and time again that this "need not be!" (See T-4.IV) That all that is here, all that we experience, is here by our election. That we can return to Heaven at any time (for we already have) as it only awaits our decision. Yet this realisation seems forever to elude us, for:

"The memory of God comes to the quiet mind." T-23.I.1:1

We do not allow quietness to enter our mind. For quietness cannot be where conflict is, and all of us here share in the conflict of the war against ourself. We have fallen for a lie, an illusion, a self deception of the self. We, our true self, and the thought of separation, our ego, seem to have met and "united" in an illusion of ourself that we believe is housed in a body.

"Be certain that it is impossible God and the ego, or yourself and it, will ever meet…" T-23.I.3.

An illusion is an illusion is an illusion. It doesn’t matter how much we believe or fight it or study it or "love" it, it remains an illusion. The above quote is from the section "The Irreconcilable Beliefs" which precedes the "Laws of Chaos." At the outset Jesus wants us to know that this war we wage against ourselves is in effect a war of irreconcilable beliefs. A war that cannot be won for it cannot really exist. We are engaged in the examination of the basis of a system that maintains a totally false sense of identity. We are told very early in the Text when discussing perception and the steps in its correction:

"You may ask how this is possible as long as you appear to be living in this world. That is a reasonable question. You must be careful, however, that you really understand it. Who is the "you" who are living in this world?"
T-4.II.11:5-8

Who indeed! For it is the purpose of the world we think we inhabit, not to mention the bodies we call our home, to keep us from asking, and more importantly, answering, this very question.

"The war against yourself was undertaken to teach the Son of God that he is not himself, and not his Father’s Son." T-23.I.5:1

And thus we come to the "Laws" of chaos. Not to understand them, for they are not understandable in and of themselves, but to understand their purpose and thus be able to let them go into the nothingness from which they came. Until we do understand their purpose we will continue chasing our dreams within other dreams, believing we can capture that which has been "lost", without actually remembering what it is.

"Yet far beyond this senseless war it shines, ready to be remembered when you side with peace." T-23.I.12:9

The "it", is the memory of God, our true inheritance. Invariant, unchanging, without the cacophony of chaos, for the memory of God, is the realisation of spirit, of truth.

"Spirit is immortal…" T-4.II.11:9-13

The Laws of Chaos

The First Law

The "Laws" of chaos seek to establish that difference, conflict and war are real and in their reality, have destroyed Truth.

The first ‘law’ of chaos states that the truth is different for everyone. The attempt to establish this can be seen as the first or fundamental motion to make something other than the condition of Reality. This condition is unified and indivisible, wholly given and received by all aspects of creation simultaneously. No thought and no thing can exist outside of it. It is on this basis the Course can be summarised as:

Nothing real can be threatened.
Nothing unreal exists. T-in.2:2-3

The first chaotic law the Son’s dream would seek to establish is that something "other" than the creation of God has been made and indeed exists. Truth has, therefore, been brought to illusions, so that their aspects are magically accorded some reality or validity.

The Son is endeavouring to prove that he has become something other than he really is:

"The war against yourself…" T-23.I.5:1

All errors emerge from this original, faulty misperception. Jesus occasionally reminds us that in the Christ we are exactly like him. The only difference is that we think we are, and have something, more.

"There is nothing about me that you cannot attain…" T-1.II.3:10-13

Awakening in Course terms is, therefore, about undoing and letting go the something which appears to be an obstruction to the awareness of what we truly are.

The whole concept of difference is based on the egoic and hateful principle of exclusion. That is, one aspect of the sonship, on the basis of its own arbitrary, self selected set of needs, seeks to exclude another. This aspect may choose to "join" with others against what is being excluded, but only in so far as each can get something separately. By "sharing" the idea that someone or something is worthy of being excluded, the experience of separation is made more entrenched and deep-rooted.

"Any split in mind must involve a rejection of part of it…" T-6.II.1:1-4

The activity of excluding is directly opposite to the Spirit of Love, which is totally whole and unified. By its very nature it can only include everything within it. It is for this reason that our awakening must express itself in a recognition of our saneness and a complete forgiveness of our apparent differences. The section after the "laws" of chaos is "Salvation Without Compromise." This is what it says of salvation…

"Salvation is no compromise of any kind…" T-23.III.3:1-5

Our own set of thoughts is the thing which set us apart from each other. This is an implicit recognition that everything is thought or an idea. Even in the realm of the illusion we can recognise the centrality of ideas to the very fabric of our existence. Early in the text Jesus says this of the lower mind and ideas:

"If you share an idea, however, you do not lessen it…" T-5.I.1:11-13

The significance of ideas can be seen by how we feel if another does not agree with us, or when we argue. Not supporting my ideas seems to weaken them; attacking them is felt as an attack on myself. When we are upset, we want at least one other to agree with our perception of things. It is for this reason forgiveness presents such a challenge. It requires us to let go of our investment in not only seeing someone or something a certain way, but also in seeing ourself differently. To the ego, this represents a kind of death.

Finally however, for all our attempts to appear rational, it is the significance accorded to our ideas which give them their power, not what they are in themselves. The significance and purpose of all our ideas ultimately comes to one thing only–they maintain our sense of self. Given that this sense of self rests on a lie, our equilibrium is being constantly threatened. Thus our world is necessarily populated by potential or actual enemies and those we must defeat in order to finally establish that we are right. Life as the Son has made it is a battleground.

"For it [conflict] seems real only as long as it is seen as war between conflicting truths…" T-23.I.9:2-3

Within a battleground, the most that can be hoped for is compromise or truce. Conflict is the core experience. Degree of truth or value is established by triumph, and triumph depends on defeating someone perceived as separate and unworthy of love’s gift of equality. Surely we can recognise ourselves in this description.

"But what is different calls for judgment…" T-24.I.4:2-4

Specialness, of course, is synonymous with separation, which is established by making different. The judgement which is based on the perception of difference overlooks one crucial thing: no valid judgement can be made from the perspective of a special one. To experience oneself as special is to have accepted a delusional self concept and anything which emanates from that false assumption must also be delusional. The Course states this starkly in the section "Above the Battleground."

"See no one from the battleground…" T-23.IV.7:1-2

The great unlearning, or the only learning there is in this world, which we all have to undergo, is the recognition:

"I do not know the thing I am, and therefore do not know what I am doing, where I am, or how to look upon the world or on myself." T-31.V.17:7

The miracle acknowledges that illusions must be brought to truth if they are to be dispelled. It is only in this right minded state that each illusion can be seen as just that–another illusion. As the Course states:

"No part of nothing can be more resistant to the truth than can another." T-23.II.3:6

And that is why there is no order of difficulty in miracles. Once this is fully accepted, complete correction becomes inevitable and, at last, the son is ready to remember his true self in the Father. That end, however, is the exact opposite of what the "laws" of chaos would establish. For the chaotic rule of the ego to continue, perception of difference must be maintained and experienced as being beyond correction. Error can be corrected, sin cannot. We are lead directly to the second "law" of chaos.

The Second Law

"The second law of chaos, dear indeed to every worshipper of sin, is that each one must sin, and therefore deserves attack and death." T-23.III.4:1

Once we have accepted that the truth is different for everyone we have accepted that some are right and others are wrong, else the truth would not be different. As for sin, well, we know that sin will be punished and so we want that punishment to fall elsewhere, hence we want to be the one who is not wrong! Remember, sin, according to the Course comes from our belief in our attempting and succeeding in the impossible. The fact that we believe we are "here" in this world is evidence that we believe we are not at home in Heaven. In otherwords it demonstrates to us we are no longer in Unity. Unity, in fact, has been usurped, destroyed, and, more to the point, it is we who have done this. Thus does our belief in sin become a fixed step in our descent into seeming oblivion.

"There is no stone in all the ego’s embattled citadel that is more heavily defended than the idea that sin is real; the natural expression of what the Son of God has made himself to be, and what he is." T-19.7:1

To be here, separate and in a body proves that we have sinned, and thus proves that punishment will be demanded. There is no escape from this. If I am here, then I have sinned and I will be punished; I will be destroyed, just as I destroyed the Father. This is a terrible fear, one that would be patently unbearable except for one small fact. We followed the ego’s counsel:

"…Accept your separation, but do not remember how it came about."
M-17.6:7-9

And so we "forget." At least it seems as if we do, for it doesn’t quite work. We continue to feel uneasy, we feel somehow guilty of something; afraid, but of what or who, we don’t seem to know. And so our brother’s role in this epic becomes clear. It must be our brother on whom we project this unfocussed guilt and fear upon. Remember, everyone must sin. In fact it becomes a way of life, the seeking out of evidence that another has sinned, another is wrong, another deserves to be punished, not me. Of course if we saw the madness of this, the impossiblity of our destroying Heaven, the absurdity of the idea of real difference; we would stop this game and remember our true inheritance. We would see the insanity that these "laws" are built upon. But we don’t. We are too caught up in their seeming reality to actually examine them and what they are for. But now we are perhaps beginning to get a flavour as to what these "laws" are really for. They are a framework to hide from us this "original" sin, for in its hiding we do not see its impossibility and how belief in it is simply a mistake that can be corrected. Yet the ego is even slier, for if I have sinned and usurped my Father’s place then I have made myself an enemy to whom I can no longer turn. Now, as I get closer to this hidden memory, my fear of the Father increases. I am lead inexorably to the ego’s third "law" of chaos. For I have decided what I am and thus what my Father is as well. And in that decision is He cast forever as my "enemy", forever unavailable to me to turn to, to seek solace in or salvation from.

The Third Law

Thus the third law of chaos is not simply that God is against me, but because of this my way back to salvation through him is forever barred. As the first and second "laws" established, I am unable to turn to my brothers for help, and now I am unable to turn to my Father. It seems as if all of "creation" is in place only to bring about my destruction, all I can possibly hope for at best is some temporary respite before the inevitable end.

Thus is the ego’s craftily established theatre of the absurd carefully hidden behind our veils of guilt over a crime we could not commit. We have no avenue of salvation among our brothers, no hope of forgiveness from our Father. The only one we can turn to is the ego itself, to continue to be drawn into its web of lies with their forever distant allure of salvation if we obey its bidding. Having already subscribed to its basic tenets as set forth in its first three "laws", it seems only natural that we believe its story and engage in a seemingly endless sequences of attack and alliance in order to reach its promise of "salvation". To paraphrase Shakespeare, "A lie by any other name would smell just as foul."

We justify our attacks and judgements in that name of a righteousness, be it of God or some other more "modern" idea. Yet can we really believe that attack in any form is justified?

"Its [attack] sole intent is murder, and what form of murder serves to cover the massive guilt and frantic fear of punishment the murderer must feel?…" T-23.III.1:5-8

It seems not. No matter what we do, what we attempt, what we tell ourselves, we still, at a fundamental level know that our "honourable intent" is a lie.

"If the intent is death, what matter the form it takes?" T-23.III.1:9

We are told by the ego that we are allowed to compromise our beliefs (unbeknownst to us, our very being) and in fact it is our only chance, now that all other avenues of hope have been barred. In believing in the ego’s "truth" we are led to believe that salvation is piecemeal, for Unity is no more. The best we can hope for is but a piece of Heaven. And to achieve this we must dance the line between love and attack, separation and "joining" as if it would hide the very adherence to its own first dictum:

"It would maintain you can attack …" T-23.III.3:7-8

Perhaps you recognise here the basis for so many of our alliances, our groups and societies, joined in a perfect oneness of purpose, of direction, of action, separate and distinct from everyone else.

In convincing us there is no Father we can turn to, the ego has esured its own position as teacher of the blind and bewildered–the former "sons" of light.

Conclusion (part 1)

We have only just touched the surface in our discussion of the "Laws" of chaos. Yet even in our brief journey so far with the first three you can get an appreciation for not only their insanity but also their all pervasiveness. We often speak of the "creation" myth, as told by Jesus in the Course. How into the quiet of Heaven crept a tiny mad idea. An idea of separation and the belief that it was possible. The truth can be different! The moment the Son thought this He also thought it accomplished. The impossible had happened, Heaven was destroyed and sin was "created." And thus was time born and thus did it also seem that sin was there forever. The guilt and ensuing fear arising from this belief in the unforgivable blinded the Son to the Truth and in a moment of madness He believed His Father was not Love but vengeance, not kindness but wrath. He believed that his Father was against him.

The first three "laws" of chaos are in effect a retelling of the myth, or perhaps more importantly, an enshrining of the myth into the very fabric of our seeming existence here in this world. But then, could you expect anything else, for was not that how the world arose in the first place?

Linda & James Hale

"Portions from A Course in Miracles Copyright © 1975, 1985, 1992 reprinted by permission of the Foundation for Inner Peace, Inc. The ideas represented herein are the personal interpretation of the authors and are not necessarily endorsed by the copyright holder.

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