Notes on the Text of A Course in - Stephen Wingate

Main Theme: This chapter is a variation on the
theme of the first two Commandments in the Bible.
From Exodus Chapter 20: "I am the Lord thy God
which has brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out
of the house of bondage. First Commandment: Thou
shall have no other God's before me. Second
Commandment: Thou shall not make unto thee any
graven image or any likeness of any thing that is in
Heaven above or that is in the earth beneath, or that
is in the water under the earth. Thou shall not bow
down thyself to them nor serve them. For I, the Lord
thy God, am a jealous God."
Introduction: In the Course, the ego is the false god
we make and worship. We make the ego and identify
with it as if it is our self; we worship it, bow down to
it and build shrines to it. We celebrate our birthday
and memorialize our death because we worship at the
shrine of the false ego-self. In the Course, God is
perfect wholeness and perfect love; God is the only
reality; there is nothing separate from Him. The
Atonement principle in the Course says the
separation from God never happened, therefore there
is no separate self, and the ego is an illusion.
In the Course, the first and original idol is the ego's
self image and its thought system within our mind.
The ego is born with the belief that the separation
from God is real and is a sin that evokes guilt and
fear of God's revenge. To "get rid" of its sense of sin
and guilt in the mind, the ego makes a body and
world onto which it projects its sin and guilt, hoping
to maintain its face of innocence and avoid the wrath
of God. By making the body and world the ego has
its second idol: the body and its special love and hate
partners. The ego uses its idols of special
relationship, both love and hate, as a dumping
ground for its sin and guilt. The making and
worshiping of false idols is called sickness.
•
The ego is the original idol made by the Son of God
by believing he is separate from his Father.
Worshiping the original idol is the Son of God's
original sickness. The second idol made by the Son
of God is the body, onto which the original sickness
of the mind is projected, so that the original sickness
in the Son's mind is reflected in the body and its
CHAPTER TEN
THE IDOLS OF SICKNESS
36
special relationships in the world — both love and
hate.
•
To understand and benefit from this Course it is
crucial that you take the abstract concepts presented
here and apply them to yourself in your daily life in a
very practical way. It is important to be vigilant of
your thoughts, feelings and all activities of your
mind in your daily life, and turn to the Holy Spirit or
Jesus for guidance. "This is not a course in the play
of ideas, but in their practical application."
•
The only true laws are the laws of God which are the
laws of love, oneness and eternal life.
•
The experience of the protection of God is a direct
experience of your Identity with God's love and
oneness, and the complete absence of separation of
yourself and all being. God's protection is the
knowledge and experience that you are one with
God, there is only God, so there is nothing to be
protected from.
•
Blasphemy is a Biblical term and is an expression of
an attack on God; for example, when we take other
gods before Him, when we are not reverent of God
or are disrespectful toward Him. In the Course,
blasphemy is not of God, but is directed at yourself
because you are blaspheming against your true Self
by believing you are the ego and body which is a
parody and travesty of the truth of who you are as
Christ.
•
Sickness and health are of the mind only. The body
is a projection of the mind. Sickness is the belief that
we are separate from God. Health is the realization
that we are one with God. Only the mind has power
to believe in sickness or health. Only the mind has
the power to choose to deny the truth of our Identity
as God's Son, and identify with the ego's son —
which is the body.
•
Now we turn our attention to the power of our mind
to choose. We do not know who we are as Christ, we
do not know ourselves as beings that create as God
does because we have chosen to push away the
memory of our Identity with the magnitude of God,
and identify ourselves with the littleness of the ego.