 We continue on this morning with Chapter 4, The Ego and False Autonomy. It is reasonable to ask how the mind could ever have made the ego. In fact, it is the best question you could ask. There is, however, no point in giving an answer in terms of the past, because the past does not matter and history would not exist if the same errors were not being repeated in the present. Abstract thought applies to knowledge because knowledge is completely impersonal and examples are irrelevant to its understanding. Perception, however, is always specific and therefore quite concrete. Everyone makes an ego or a self for himself which is subject to enormous variation because of its instability. He also makes an ego for everyone else he perceives, which is equally variable. Their interaction is a process that alters both because they were not made by or with the unalterable. It is important to realize that this alteration can and does occur as readily when the interaction takes place in the mind as when it involves physical interaction. There could be no better example that the ego is only an idea and not a fact. Your own state of mind is a good example of how the ego was made. When you threw knowledge away, it is as if you never had it. This is so apparent that one need only recognize it to see that it does happen. If this occurs in the present, why is it surprising that it occurred in the past? Surprise is a reasonable response to the unfamiliar, though hardly to something that occurs with such persistence. But do not forget that the mind need not work that way even though it does work that way now. Think of the love of animals for their offspring and the need they feel to protect them. That is because they regard them as part of themselves. No one dismisses something he considers part of himself. You react to your ego much as God does to His creations with love, protection and charity. Your reactions to the self you made are not surprising. In fact, they resemble in many ways how you will one day react to your real creations, which are as timeless as you are. The question is not how you respond to the ego, but what you believe you are. Belief is an ego function and as long as your origin is open to belief, you are regarding it from an ego viewpoint. When teaching is no longer necessary, you will merely know God. Belief that there is another way of perceiving is the loftiest idea of which the ego thinking is capable. That is because it contains a hint of the recognition that the ego is not the capital self. Undermining the ego thought system must be perceived as painful, even though this is anything but true. Babies scream in rage if you take away a knife or scissors, although they may well harm themselves if you do not. In this sense, you are still a baby. You have no sense of real self-preservation and are likely to decide that you need precisely what would hurt you most. Yet whether or not you recognize it now, you have agreed to cooperate in the effort to become both harmless and helpful attributes that go together. Your attitudes even toward this are necessarily conflicted because all attitudes are ego-based. This will not last. Be patient a while and remember that the outcome is as certain as God. Only those who have a real and lasting sense of abundance can be truly charitable. This is obvious when you consider what is involved. To the ego, to give anything implies that you will have to do without it. When you associate with giving, with sacrifice, you give only because you believe that you are somehow getting something better and can therefore do without the thing you give. Quote, giving to get is an escapable law of the ego which always evaluates itself in relation to other egos. It is therefore continually preoccupied with the belief in scarcity that gave rise to it. Its whole perception of other egos as real is only an attempt to convince itself that it is real. Quote, self-esteem is always vulnerable to stress, a term which refers to any perceived threat to the ego's existence. The ego literally lives by comparisons. Equality is beyond its grasp and charity becomes impossible. The ego never gives out of abundance because it was made as a substitute for it. That is why the concept of quote, getting, arose in the ego's thought system. Appetites are quote, getting mechanisms. Representing the ego's need to confirm itself. This is as true of body appetites as it is of the so-called higher ego needs. Body appetites are not physical in origin. The ego regards the body as its home and tries to satisfy itself through the body. But the idea that this is possible is a decision of the mind which has become completely confused about what is really possible. The ego believes it is completely on its own, which is merely another way of describing how it thinks it originated. This is such a fearful state that it can only turn to other egos and try to unite with them in a feeble attempt at identification or attack them in an equally feeble show of strength. It is not free, however, to open the premise to question because the premise is its foundation. The ego is the mind's belief that it is completely on its own. The ego's ceaseless attempts to gain the spirit's acknowledgement and thus establish its own existence are useless. Spirit, in its knowledge, is unaware of the ego. It does not attack it. It merely cannot conceive of it at all. While the ego is equally unaware of spirit, it does perceive itself as being rejected by something greater than itself. This is why self-esteem in ego terms must be delusional. The creations of God do not create myths, although creative effort can be turned to mythology. It can do so, however, only under one condition. What it makes is then no longer creative. Myths are entirely perceptual and so ambiguous in form and characteristically good and evil in nature that the most benevolent of them is not without fearful connotations. Myths and magic are closely associated since myths are usually related to ego origins and magic to the powers the ego ascribes to itself. Mythological systems generally include some account of, quote, the creation and associate this with its particular form of magic. This so-called, quote, battle for survival is only the ego struggle to preserve itself and its interpretation of its own beginning. This beginning is usually associated with physical birth because it is hard to maintain that the ego existed before that point in time. The more, quote, religiously ego-oriented may believe that the soul existed before and will continue to exist after a temporary lapse into ego life. Some even believe that the soul will be punished for this lapse. However, salvation does not apply to spirit, which is not in danger and does not need to be salvaged. Salvation is nothing more than right-mindedness which is not the one-mindedness of the Holy Spirit but which must be achieved before one-mindedness is restored. Right-mindedness leads to the next step automatically because right perception is uniformly without attack and therefore wrong-mindedness is obliterated. The ego cannot survive without judgment and is laid aside accordingly. The mind then has only one direction in which it can move. Its direction is always automatic because it cannot but be dictated by the thought system to which it adheres. It cannot be emphasized too often that correcting perception is merely a temporary expedient. It is necessary only because misperception is a block to knowledge. While accurate perception is a stepping stone towards it. The whole value of right perception lies in the inevitable realization that all perception is unnecessary. This removes the block entirely. 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, quote, you who are living in this world? Spirit is immortal and immortality is a constant state. It is as true now as it ever was or ever will be because it implies no change at all. It is not a continuum nor is it understood by being compared to an opposite. Knowledge never involves comparisons. That is its main difference from everything else the mind can grasp. And from the workbook, lesson number 24, I do not perceive my own best interests in no situation that arises do you realize the outcome that would make you happy. Therefore you have no guide to appropriate action and no way of judging the result. What you do is determined by your perception of the situation and that perception is wrong. It is inevitable then that you will not serve your own best interests yet they are your only goal in any situation which is correctly perceived. Otherwise you will not recognize what they are. If you realize that you do not perceive your own best interests you could be taught what they are. But in the presence of your conviction that you do know what they are you cannot learn. The idea for today is a step toward opening your mind so that learning can begin. The exercises for today require much more honesty than you are accustomed to using. A few subjects honestly and carefully considered in each of the five practice periods which should be undertaken today will be more helpful than a more cursory examine of a large number. Two minutes are suggested for each of the mind-searching periods which the exercises involve. The practice periods should begin with repeating today's idea followed by searching the mind with closed eyes for unresolved situations about which you are currently concerned. The emphasis should be on uncovering the outcome you want. You will quickly realize that you have a number of goals in mind as part of the desired outcome and also that these goals are on different levels and often conflict. In applying the idea for today name each situation that occurs to you and then enumerate carefully as many goals as possible that you would like to be met in its resolution. The form of each application should be roughly as follows. In the situation involving blank I would like blank to happen and blank to happen and so on. Try to cover as many different kinds of outcomes as may honestly occur to you even if some of them do not appear to be directly related to the situation or even to be inherent in it at all. If these exercises are done properly you will quickly recognize that you are making a large number of demands of the situation which have nothing to do with it. You will also recognize that many of your goals are contradictory that you have no unified outcome in mind and that you must experience disappointment and connection with some of your goals however the situation turns out. After covering the list of as many hope for goals as possible for each unresolved situation that crosses your mind say to yourself I do not perceive my own best interest in this situation and go on to the next one. I do not perceive my own best interest. So today we are reminded from our text reading the purpose of doing these exercises in this course is to ultimately come to the realization that all perception is unnecessary that truth or spirit or knowledge or remembering God is ultimately what this is all about. And so our workbook lessons continue with the mind training with the convincing job of the Holy Spirit letting the Holy Spirit perform the function that was given the Holy Spirit to show the mind the nothingness of perception and open the mind to the everythingness of spirit, of divine love. Now in this world it seems that human beings are goal-oriented. There are goals and ambitions and today's lesson is a step towards understanding that all of these ego goals, all of these goals related to form and appearances all of these goals that are related to outcomes and preferences have nothing to do with reality and cannot stand in the light of forgiveness. The lesson starts out with an amazing statement. Jesus starts his lesson with in no situation that arises do you realize the outcome that would make you happy. Therefore you have no guide to appropriate action and no way of judging the result in no situation and that's because the outcome of happiness is not a specific form outcome. There is never a specific form outcome that would make you happy. Never, not one. In the text in the beyond idol section Jesus says that your will is universal and cannot be content with form of any kind. Happiness is God's will. Happiness is abstract. That's why in no situation that arises do you realize the outcome that would make you happy. Outcome, come out of the mind says the ego. Come out of the mind and into form. Look for forms to be a particular way says the ego. That's what outcomes are. You first have to project an identity out of the mind into personhood or the body situations, events, circumstances, none of them that are real. There is no outcome that would make you happy. It's interesting too that with all this focus on form outcomes and form goals, form attainments that there's a word in this world that seems to be necessary with the means for these outcomes and that's income. What is your income is a question on many job application forms or forms in applying for credit and things of this world. What is your income? Today's lesson is the beginning of starting to see that all form outcomes and all form incomes are generated in a world of opposites and conflicts that make no sense at all. And what of behavior? What motivates behavior? The actions of the body. Jesus tells us in this lesson, what you do is determined by your perception of the situation and that perception is wrong. So we could say that if you have a wrong-minded perception that always a misguided behavior will follow or flow from a wrong-minded perception because they are the same. Remember, thoughts and images, thought forms and images are all the same. It's all mind. It's all mind. My thoughts are images I have made. There is nothing outside of the mind. So you can't figure it out in terms of actions and behaviors. What you do comes from what you think. What you do is determined by your perception of the situation and Jesus is telling us straight out here in lesson 24 that that perception is wrong. What does he mean by that? He's just saying that fragmented perception of linear time is wrong. He's not pointing a finger at people or different countries or situations. He's not singling out anything. He's saying that the perception is wrong. He's saying that fragmented distorted perception is like his fantasy. It's fiction. It's unreal. It has no spirit because God did not create linear time specific objects. This is not pantheism, the belief that God indwells in objects. This is the beginning of looking at how perception operates and remembering that you have no need of this distorted way of thinking or this distorted way of perceiving. The only goal we really have in any situation correctly perceived is our own best interest, is forgiveness. And then he's asking for humbleness, for humility. He says, if you realize that you do not perceive your own best interest, you could be taught what they are. But in the presence of your conviction that you do know what they are, you cannot learn. This is a step in opening the mind so that learning can begin. This is a step in really seeing that there's a need for another way, a fundamental need, not a need for another action, another form, not a need for the world to change or for things to be better in the world, not a need for better so-called form outcomes, specific outcomes, but actually a need for another way of looking at the world. A right-minded perception inspired by aligned thinking with God, thinking with Spirit. He's calling for sincerity. He's saying the exercises for today require much more honesty than you are accustomed to using, much more honesty. What he's really saying there is just watch your mind, watch these goals come up, these ego goals, these conflicting ego goals for every situation that arises in your mind. Perhaps you're thinking of an ideal place to live in this world or an ideal partner to live with, or perhaps you're thinking of an ideal amount of money that you would be comfortable with in your bank account or an ideal number of investments that you would be satisfied with and content with. These are foolish thoughts because they involve foolish goals, always ego goals about survival, looking for interpersonal love, looking for situations, people, places, events that will answer the question, I'll be happy when the world looks this way, my personal life looks a certain way. All of these goals, he's saying you can generalize this, you can search your mind for unresolved situations that you're fearful or concerned about and you can just notice, just notice about them all, that you have a number of goals in mind as part of the desired outcome. And he's also saying, notice that these goals are on different levels and often conflict. You may have political goals, goals for your country, goals for politicians, goals for the environment, business goals, interpersonal goals, psychic goals. Maybe you have certain psychic abilities you want to develop and certain psychic experiences that you believe you aren't now, that you want in the future, these goals. Just let it generalize. Think about a business opportunity that you've been pondering and just try it out in the lesson in the situation involving this business opportunity. I would like this outcome to happen and that outcome to happen, selling something, making some money. Think about it in terms of relationships, an unresolved relationship that you have in the situation involving, put a person's name in there where it feels like you have an unresolved relationship. And then I would like this to happen and that to happen. Look at those outcomes, look at those goals that you have for these relationships. You think these are realistic goals, but these goals are in the future and they are being generated by the ego. They are self-concept goals. And you know, he's saying, open your mind up here. Try to cover as many different kinds of outcomes as may honestly occur to you, even if some of them do not appear to be directly related to the situation or to be inherent in it at all. You just notice your mind starts to flip. It's got a bunch of goals, many goals for how the world should work out. Many goals for what outcomes in the world will make your life meaningful is if you need the world to work out a certain way to have a meaningful and worthy life. And contrasted by this, Jesus always reminds us that your worth is established by God, nothing that you think or do or say or make can establish your worth. Worth came, worth comes in, creation comes from love, from spirit, not from the world of images. That's backwards. That's upside down to believe that your worth is established by how much you earn, how beautiful the body looks, how thin you are, how beautiful, by your career, by your interpersonal relationships, by your history, how good of a mother or father you were, how good of a son or daughter, how good of a neighbor none of these things determine worth. None of these things determine true meaning. So again, we use the lesson today and we apply it very specifically for all the thoughts and feelings and outcomes and expectations and demands that arise today. Watch these arise and say, I do not perceive my own best interest in this situation. I do not perceive my own best interest.