 for it alone seems real. Yet could God's Son, as he created him, abide in form or in a world of form? Who asks you to define the ego and explain how it arose can be but he who thinks it real and seeks by definition to ensure that its elusive nature is concealed behind the words that seem to make it so? So it's one thing to talk about, to try to come to see what the ego is. The first step, before you say, there is no ego, there is no world, nothing never happened. Before you can come to accept the Atonement, you first have to seem to raise the ego into awareness and see the ego for what it is. All the different forms of the world don't be distracted, don't be fooled by all the different changing forms. You have to just see, raise the ego belief system, raise ego thinking to awareness and just see the ego for what it is. That has to come, that has to precede the awareness that the ego is history. The ego is false, the ego is past, the ego is nothing. You've got a question time, you've got a question linear time, you've got a question cause and effect. You have to look into those things before you can meaningfully and experientially say the ego is nothing. Otherwise it would be like trying to jump the gun or denial. Oh great, nothing happened. How do I feel? It sure feels like something happened, so that's where the questioning comes in. There is no definition for a lie that serves to make it true. Nor can there be a truth that lies conceal effectively. The ego's unreality is not denied by words. Nor is its meaning clear because its nature seems to have a form. So as a key line, the ego's unreality is not denied by words. There is no amount of words that will ever deny the ego. There is an experience. The miracle is a denial of the ego, but the miracle isn't just a bunch of words. It's not like you can just memorize the book and reach a certain point where you say, I've got it, I've generated enough words to dispel the ego because that won't do it. Who can define the undefinable? And yet there is an answer even here. We cannot really make a definition for what the ego is, but we can say what it is not. And this is shown to us with perfect clarity. It is from this that we deduce all that the ego is. Look at its opposite and you can see the only answer that is meaningful. That's why we're not into the purpose of just studying the ego for the sake of studying the ego. The only purpose is to come to the awareness of the miracle, which dispels the ego. A symbol of studying the ego would be traditional psychotherapy, where you have all the defense mechanisms and all the different models of the mind and this and that. Well, where does it get you if it doesn't get you to peace, joy and happiness? What good does it do to know about defense mechanisms? What does it do to study the ego if you're not happy? What's the point in it? What's the point in studying the course if you're not happy? What's the point in reading the words without trying to apply it and really go within your mind and getting a clear sense of discernment if you're not happy and peaceful? Just an ego maneuver, the ego is going to try to use the course to protect itself. Behind large, fancy sounding words concealed behind the words that seem to make it so, as we just read. The ego's opposite in every way in origin, effect and consequence we call a miracle. And here we find all that is not the ego in this world. Here is the ego's opposite and here alone we look on what the ego was. For here we see all that it seemed to do and cause and its effects must still be one. I'm going to read that sentence one more time and just listen to the tense that's used in this sentence. Here is the ego's opposite and here alone we look on what the ego was. For here we see all that it seemed to do and cause and its effects must still be one. Just one paragraph before that, I'll read a sentence and listen to the tense. Okay, listen to the tense. We cannot really make a definition for what the ego is. That's one paragraph before. Now if you listen to that sentence again from paragraph five, he's talking, he's introduced the miracle. And he says here is the ego's opposite and here alone we can look, we look on what the ego was. For here we see all that it seemed to do and cause and its effects must still be one. That's the key. You've got to see that the ego is past, that the ego is not present. There is no ego now. In that, if you can really grasp the clarity of that, but there is no Keith and Tom and David and Rhonda and Beverly now. There is no past, present, future now. There is no, there are no private minds now. There is a singular mind now. See, personhood and everything we talk about was singleness of mind is, that's the key distinction. And here it is. Paragraph six. A whole mind speaking now. This is a whole incomplete mind. Where there was darkness now we see the light. What is the ego? What the darkness was? Where is the ego? Where the darkness was? What is it now and where can it be found? Nothing and nowhere shown away. Now the light has come. Its opposite has gone without a trace. Where evil was, there now is holiness. What is the ego? What the evil was? Where is the ego in an evil dream that but seemed real while you were dreaming it? Where there was crucifixion stands God's Son. What is the ego? Who has need to ask? Where is the ego? Who has need to seek for an illusion now that dreams are gone? So much for the ego. Now paragraph seven on to better things. What is a miracle? A dream as well. At all the aspects of this dream and you will never question anymore. It's kind of like to use our metaphor, you know when I talked about the cosmos and said that if you're viewing the cosmos from a perspective that seems to be within the cosmos, that's distortion or that's wrong-mindedness. The miracle would be seeing the cosmos for what it is. From a perspective is not in the cosmos. Just seeing the false is false. Seeing the past is past. Look at the kindly world you see extend before you as you walk in gentleness. Look at the helpers all along the way you travel. Happy in the certainty of heaven and the surety of peace. And look an instant too on what you left behind at last and finally passed by. This was the ego. There is the tense again. This was the ego. All the cruel hate, the need for vengeance and the cries for pain, the fear of dying and the urge to kill, the brotherless illusion and the self that seemed alone in all the universe. This terrible mistake about yourself, the miracle corrects as gently as a loving mother sings her child to rest. Is not a song like this, what you would hear, would it not answer all you thought to ask and even make the question meaningless? So the metaphor is it's good to question initially because you're open to receiving another answer. You're open to receiving the Holy Spirit but there will come an experience when the questions will cease and the questions will seem meaningless. Already I think you're getting a glimmering of that because a lot of the questions that seem to be asked before or a lot of questions that you hear seeming to be asked around you don't seem as meaningful as they once did. Don't seem as serious. So I guess we can close up here or just end with this beginning part of the next paragraph because it really leaves things in a positive kind of a framework of what is helpful. It says your questions have no answer being made to still God's voice which asks of everyone one question only, are you ready yet to help me save the world? So all the questions that the deceived mind asks are made to still God's voice. The deceived mind is trying to ask all these questions, all those wonder questions that we talk about that are really statements. It's kind of like every time there's a wonder question, I wonder why so and so did that to so and so. I wonder why this happened. Whenever the wonder question is asked, you could just imagine this little sign going up behind you, I am an ego. I wonder why I am an ego. I wonder why I am an ego. And the key though is, well, what do we do now? What is a meaningful question? Am I willing to help the Holy Spirit save the world? That's a different question than should I buy the burrito or the soft chicken taco?