II. SECTION 12. What is the Ego?
Lesson 333 Forgiveness ends the dream of conflict here.
- Conflict must be resolved. It cannot be evaded, set aside, denied, disguised, seen somewhere else, called by another name, or hidden by deceit of any kind, if it would be escaped. It must be seen exactly as it is, where it is thought to be, in the reality which has been given it, and with the purpose that the mind accorded it. For only then are its defenses lifted, and the truth can shine upon it as it disappears.
- Father, forgiveness is the light You chose to shine away all conflict and all doubt and light the way for our return to You. No light but this can end our evil dream. No light but this can save the world. For this alone will never fail in anything, being Your gift to Your beloved Son.[1]
Today’s lesson shows us why we cannot support the ego and call it our friend. The ego is the mad idea of separation. The ego is in conflict with our Father and all of Creation. When we identify with our egos we are removing ourselves from our consciousness of God, of Reality, of Truth. The ego’s desire is not to be one with God, but to take the place of God. The ego’s desire is to make Creation its own. Where God created wholeness, unity, and equality, ego would make division, splinters and specialness. Where God’s power is based upon love and mutuality, ego world thrives upon fear and voraciousness, rank and hierarchies.
This is the conflict that must be resolved in the hearts and minds of the dreaming Sons of God. All other conflicts – in the microcosms of daily lives or in the macrocosms of world affairs – stem from this desire to separate, to divide, to make one bigger at the expense of another becoming small. We cannot be free unless we face this truth about ourselves. We cannot blame it on each other. We cannot blame it on the devil or any source outside of us. We must face our own dark egos – the shadow self which lurks within each of our minds, according ourselves the center of all that is, the master of our own destiny, the guardians of the galaxy, so to speak. We must face the fact that what we made to take the place of Creation’s glory has wreaked virtual havoc upon the face of the earth.
Separated from God, we are tiny, solitary specks trapped by time, caught up in a whirlwind of temporality, bloated with a misdirected sense of importance. We fill our minds with myths and legends of bloodthirsty gods caught up in trite battles over souls which have never and could never belong to anything or anybody but Him Who created them. We lose our minds to ego, practicing empty rituals and sacrificing our lives for meaningless loyalties. We put our faith in our bloodlines, ancestry, religious institutions, education, and political systems instead of God. We die for causes that mean nothing outside the hellish realm we have assumed in place of Creation. Prodigals all, we seem doomed to madness and failure, folly and ruin.
This conflict must be brought to the light of truth. We cannot forgive what we do not understand. We cannot know freedom until we realize we are held prisoner. We will keep repeating the death cycles until we resolve the conflict. We resolve the conflict by facing the conflict. We look at it straight on. We deal with it. We confess it. We do not try to hide it. We call it by name. We do not blame it on anybody else. If we want free of the ego, we must bring it to light. We must talk about it and give it no place to hide. We must call it by its name, speak of its behaviors, tricks, and seductions, refuse to identify with it, feel sorry for it, cater to it, or let it get our goats.
It promised to make us boss of it all. It promised to make of us Gods. It said we could take what did not belong to us and make of it our own. It held out bloodshed and called it justice. It held out violence and called it keeping the peace. It held out sacrifice and said we owed it favors. It pledged to make us special. It would give us power and influence over nature, over mankind, over those who are inferior. It would take our unity and make us separate little pieces vying for survival. It would take our divinity and give us humanity.
Without full disclosure the ego thrives; we continue to dream the dream of destruction, despair, and death. We are trapped in time, in karma, in the world’s upside-down version of Creation.
We resolve this conflict by seeing it for what it is and forgiving it. Our return to God is made clear to us. When we stop identifying with the ego our reality as God’s Son is made apparent to us. We accept our Father’s Love; we take joy in the plan of salvation for the outcome is as certain as God. Creation is and always will be the effect of Love.[2]
[1]A Course in Miracles. Workbook for Students. Lesson 333. Foundation for Inner Peace, Second Edition (1992). p. 469.
[2] Portions of this post were inspired and/or borrowed from Lesson 333, published 11/29/2019. With permission.
Audio credit: the friar patch @ www.eckiefriar.com
the friar patch 