II. SECTION 12. What is the Ego?
Lesson 331 There is no conflict, for my will is Yours.
- How foolish, Father, to believe Your Son could cause himself to suffer! Could he make a plan for his damnation, and be left without a certain way to his release? You love me, Father. You could never leave me desolate, to die within a world of pain and cruelty. How could I think that Love has left Itself? There is no will except the Will of Love. Fear is a dream and has no will that can conflict with Yours. Conflict is sleep, and peace awakening. Death is illusion, life, eternal truth. There is no opposition to Your Will. There is no conflict, for my will is Yours.
- Forgiveness shows us that God’s Will is one, and that we share it. Let us look upon the holy sights forgiveness shows today that we may find the peace of God. Amen.[1]
Today’s prayer calls the sense of anguish and despair that we go through in the world – foolish. God’s Son cannot cause himself to suffer! It must be the rotten part of the ego’s dream –suffering is simply not the reality of God. For God loves Creation. God loves His Son. We were created in Love and by Love and for Love. Love does not leave us desolate; Love does not cause death or create a world of pain and cruelty.
To believe that sorrow, pain, and suffering is of God, is idolatry. It is to believe the lies of the ego. It is to be enchanted by the illusion of separation and to accept ego’s version of creation and not God’s. In today’s prayer, Jesus outlines that conflict is sleep and peace is awakening; death is illusion and life is eternally true. We are reminded that there can be no opposing will to the Father’s Will. Only in dreams would conflict seem to exist, for our will must be His Will – we are as we were created.
As we come to our devotional practice, it is important to remember the lilies of forgiveness. We come in humility. We know from experience in the illusion that we cannot find our own way; that God’s way is our way out of despair, destruction, and death. We accept our need for salvation. We accept that what we made cannot and does not improve upon Creation, which is perfect and above reproach. We come with a sense of devotion, for we are committed to truth, we are committed to our path to God, we were prodigals and now we return as Sons. We put down our self-made identities and take up our Identity as Holy Selves in Christ. We come to our practice on a dedicated, regularly scheduled time and place. In our devotion we clear the altars of our minds of all that would call to us and distract us. We tell the people in our lives, “This is the time I dedicate to seeking God.” We turn off our phones, our televisions, our radios, and computers. We do not seek wisdom from outside of ourselves. We come to Him and ask directly, and He responds. It is in this space in time that we rediscover and begin to experience our sense of innocence. Our innocence assures us of our Identity in Him. In innocence there is no place for sin and shame and suffering. In other words, important in our understanding of this lesson – there is no place for ego. Because it is in our innocence we find Creation’s innocence. We come to understand that innocence was never taken away from us, but rather obscured with the magic of lies and sorcery of hallucination.
When we offer lilies of forgiveness, sorcery has no more hold upon us. No matter what tricks ego has up its sleeve to torment us in the illusion, we know it simply is not true in the eternal sense of word, and therefore has no truth for us as Sons of God. The more we identify with our true Identity in Spirit, the less we will see of the hellish newsreel of a miscreation turned upon itself. We can laugh. We can love our so-called enemies. We can do good to those who are spiteful; all is forgiven, for none of it has any real effect upon us. The ego’s plan, made to keep us in a realm of opposition to all that is holy, turns out to be our means of return to God, to Spirit, to life everlasting.
The peace of God cannot be found in the seductions of the physical world. And yet the world, in all its gory glory gives us ample opportunity to practice the vision of Christ, thus restoring our right minds and true perception. As we offer lilies of forgiveness, freedom is gained not for a select few, but for all. God’s Will brings us happiness, peace, and joy. God’s Will is love for all and all for one. God’s Will and our will are one.
[1]A Course in Miracles. Workbook for Students. Lesson 331. Foundation for Inner Peace, Second Edition (1992). p. 468.
Audio credit: the friar patch @ http://www.eckiefriar.com
