Before the ego existed, you had a self, created by God. Just as everyone did. In the separation, you denied your self. The denial of self, was an attempt to destroy your self. But you had to have something...
"denial DEPENDS on the real belief in what is denied for its OWN existence."
To deny something, implies that you actually believe it EXISTS, but that you do not WANT to acknowledge its existence. This isn't the same as the thing...
If I find anyone to be "wrong" in ANY WAY, for ANY reason, I am scapegoating.
It doesn't even matter what the reasons are. Even if the reasons are valid.
If someone is making a wrong decision... if I identify they are...
You are never responsible for the freedom of others. If you make yourself responsible, you will believe they are part of your ego. Extending what you are responsible for, is like saying they are inside of the scope of yourself.
And...
The thoughts that arise in your mind, have a cause. They are produced BY the mind as a result of thinking. They do not show up out of nowhere. Nor are they generated without intention, because "there are no neutral...
Our traditional definitions of what the ego IS, may need a rethink, based on what it ACTUALLY says in the course.
Interestingly, the course tells us that we have a SPLIT mind.... and that this division - which IS THE SEPARATION...
When I write or read ACIM stuff, after a while I'll start to feel upset. I may feel overwhelmed, or agitated, even hurt, and might feel like I want to cry. It's almost like someone just said a whole string...
"An unwilling will does not mean anything, because it is a contradiction in terms which actually leaves nothing. You can make yourself powerless only in a way that has NO MEANING AT ALL. When you think you are unwilling to...
You'll often hear talk of how "my ego this" and how "the ego" that. A lot of clout and blame is pinned on "the ego" now. It's used to describe all kinds of stuff in the world and in life.
People...
If I am upset, I must be mistaken, and I must have chosen wrongly.
"I must have made a wrong decision because I'm not at peace."
If I am feeling anything other than love, joy, happiness, peace, then I've made a wrong...
There are various feelings you can seem to experience, but they are not real feelings. When you're in the ego, lost and confused, you'll discover a wide variety of different feelings.
Ego emotions include sadness, grief, loss, frustration, anger, excitement, guilt,...
The only real feelings are those whose nature is in alignment with God's, and which apply to and are shared with everyone equally, openly and freely. These include love, joy, happiness, peace. There are other feelings, which arise in and...
Jesus says: "I am the teacher of the ego."
He also says "The ego is the idea of selfishness."
Now, consider this. Your mind is either in a state of sanity or a state of mental illness. When mentally ill, YOUR MIND...
Ego's world is run by the egoic thought system, based on an EITHER-OR mindset of separation.
God's world is run by God's thought system, based on a BOTH-AND mindset of sharing.
EITHER-OR is based on the idea of separation - there is...
God created you as a holy child of God. He gave you an individual soul with a mind and a free will. God has many creative children, forming the family of God.
"The soul is the idea of self fullness." It's...
For years I thought scapegoating only happens one way. Usually you find a target and you blame everything on them and attack them. Yeah, not pretty. Usually the target is someone who you are are offended by, threatened be, some...
"The ego is the idea of selfishness. The soul is the idea of self-fullness."
Within me there is an ego aspect which is very selfish. This aspect rears its head if I see myself as having to do something I don't...
Everything real is of God, within God. God has no opposite because God is infinite, everywhere, always. It is not possible to leave God. There is nowhere that God is not. Anywhere "else", which must be unreal, does not exist.
"Ego",...
If you look at the various things ACIM says, it becomes clearer and makes more sense when you don't think of "mind" or "one mind" or "christ mind" as being the highest or deepest level of existence. We need to...
"First, the assumption is implicit that what God has Created can be changed by the mind of Man."
So even before having any sense of what you could change God's creation INTO, you started out with the idea that you COULD...