Notes on the Text of A Course in - Stephen Wingate

<strong>Notes</strong> on Chapter Twenty-One – Reason and Perception
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The strong are those who are joined in the Holy
Spirit. The Holy Spirit's strength is all powerful and
all inclusive. No one is excluded from the Holy
Spirit's strength; the Holy Spirit is for all, and against
no one. The Holy Spirit's strength is the power of
God's unconditional love.
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The ego cannot survive without an enemy. It is born
in the conflict of separation from God, and it dies
when the conflict is over. The ego needs conflict,
war and hate to maintain its separate existence and to
sustain its face of innocence. When one special love
relationship ends in conflict, fear and animosity, we
immediately seek another to keep the war going.
True love is the death of the ego. True love is the end
of conflict, fear, hate and war. There is no true love
between people. True love and separate people are
mutually exclusive.
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The "special one" in your special relationship, who
you claim to love, is the enemy you need to maintain
your existence as a separate ego. If you are not
willing to face this in yourself, you will remain
asleep in your egoic nightmare trying desperately to
fix your dream rather than to wake up from it. It is
your choice. There is no love in the world of bodies.
Love is in your identity with Love itself, and
nowhere else.
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The only true "positive" in the Course is God, Who
cannot be taught. Forgiveness, healing, salvation,
Atonement and the miracle have positive meaning
only in their denial of their corresponding negative
— sin, sickness, bondage, or separation. The
separation is the denial of God. The Atonement is the
denial of the denial of God. The purpose of the
Course is to help us undo the denial of truth by
undoing all that blocks or interferes with our
realization of our Identity with Christ, the true Son of
God.
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In the dream of the world the mind is all powerful.
Our thoughts of fear, conflict and anger are
somatized and felt in the body and projected onto the
world. The mind is the only power in our dream
world; but has no power in Heaven or Truth.
•
By believing we killed God in the beginning so we
could live, we guarantee our "death" in the end.
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We ask of the one whom we believe has the power to
give us what we want. We ask the ego for our eternal
happiness, or we ask the Holy Spirit; only one can
give it because only one has it to give.
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The answer to the fourth question, “Do I want to see
what I denied because it is the truth?” determines
whether we are ready to go all the way with what this
Course teaches. Most will stop after answering the
first three questions in the affirmative. The questions
are 1. Do I desire a world I rule instead of one that
rules me? 2. Do I desire a world where I am
powerful instead of helpless? 3. Do I desire a world
in which I have no enemies and cannot sin? 4. Do I
want to see what I denied because it is the truth?
Most will try to bring the light of the teaching into
their darkness. Most will try to hold on to their
separate egoic existence and take control of the
world. The fourth question is the complete undoing
of the ego's thought system and the world as we
knew it.
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Our relationships and the world we see are to be used
as a mirror which reflects back to us what we have
projected onto them. When we see sin, guilt and fear
in the world, we know we have sin, guilt and fear in
us. And we are to ask Jesus or the Holy Spirit to help
us go back into our mind and look at the source of
our sin and guilt, and choose forgiveness and the
Atonement instead. When I see everyone in the
world as either expressing love or calling for love,
then I know I have chosen to see with the vision of
the Holy Spirit, and my special, unholy relationships
have become holy.
•
We withdraw our faith in the ego when we realize
what it is doing. The world did not make me
miserable; I made myself miserable by identifying
with the misery of the ego. Now I choose again.
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Forgiveness and Atonement are a process of the
undoing of the ego, and happen over time.
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We do not choose vision, we choose against
judgment. We do not accept the truth, but we choose
against the lie of the ego. We do not choose for
Love, but against hatred. Vision, truth and love are
our natural state as the Son of God when we do not
choose for judgment, ego or hatred.