A
Course in Miracles
Chapter
12 - Problem With Guilt
The
Two Emotions
We
have said that you have but two emotions, love and fear.
One
is changeless but continually exchanged, being offered
by the eternal to the eternal. In this exchange it is
extended, for it increases as it is given.
The
other has many forms, for the content of individual
illusions differs greatly. Yet they have one thing in
common; they are all insane. They
are made of sights which are not seen and sounds which
are not heard.
They
make up a private world which cannot be shared. For
they are meaningful only to their maker, and so they
have no meaning at all. In this world their maker moves
alone, for only he perceives them.
Each one peoples his world with figures from his individual
past, and it is because of this that private worlds
do differ. Yet the figures that he sees were never real,
for they are made up only of his reactions to his brothers,
and do not include their reactions to him. Therefore
he does not see that he made them, and that they are
not whole. For these figures have no
witnesses, being perceived in one separate mind only.
It is through these strange and shadowy figures that
the insane relate to their insane world. For they see
only those who remind them of these images, and it is
to them that they relate. Thus do they communicate with
those who are not there, and it is they who answer them.
And no one hears their answer save him who called upon
them, and he alone believes they answered him.
Projection
Makes Perception
Projection
makes perception and you cannot see beyond it.
Again
and again have men attacked each other because they
saw in them a shadow figure in their own private world.
And
thus it is that you must attack yourself first, for
what you attack is not in others. Its only reality is
in your own mind, and by attacking others you are literally
attacking what is not there.
The
Delusional
The
delusional can be very destructive, for they do not
recognize that they have condemned themselves.
They
do not wish to die, yet they will not let condemnation
go. And so they separate into their private worlds,
where everything is disordered, and where what is within
appears to be without.
Yet
what is within they do not see, for the reality of their
brothers they cannot see.
You
have but two emotions, yet in your private world you
react to each of them as though it were the other. For
love cannot abide in a world apart, where when it comes
it is not recognized.
If you see your own hatred as your brother, you are
not seeing him.
Everyone
draws nigh unto what he loves, and recoils from what
he fears. And you react with fear to love, and draw
away from it. Yet fear attracts you, and believing it
is love, you call it to yourself.
Your
private world is filled with the figures of fear you
have invited into it, and all the love your brothers
offer you you do not see.
As
you look with open eyes upon your world, it must occur
to you that you have withdrawn into insanity.
-
You see what is not there, and you hear what is soundless.
-
Your
behavioral manifestations of motions are the opposite
of what the emotions are.
-
You
communicate with no one, and you are as isolated from
reality as if you were alone in all the universe.
In your madness you overlook reality completely, and
you see only your own split mind everywhere you look.
God calls you and you do not hear, for you are preoccupied
with your own voice. And the vision of Christ is not
in your sight, for
you look upon yourself alone.
Little
children, would you offer this to your Father?
For
if you offer it to yourself you are offering it to Him.
And He will not return it, for it is unworthy of you
because it is unworthy of Him. Yet
He would release you from it and set you free.
His
sane answer tells you that what you have offered yourself
is not true, but His offering to you has never changed.
You
Can Learn What Insanity Is
You
who know not what you do can learn what insanity is,
and look beyond it.
It
is given you to learn how to deny insanity, and come
forth from your private world in peace.
You will see all that you denied in your brothers because
you denied it in yourself. For you will love them, and
by drawing nigh unto them, you will draw them to yourself,
perceiving them as witnesses to your reality which you
share with God.
I
am with them as I am with you, and we will draw them
from their private worlds, for as we are united so would
we unite with them.
The
Father welcomes all of us in gladness, and gladness
is what we should offer Him. For every Son of God is
given you to whom God gave himself. And it is God Whom
you must offer them, to recognize His gift to you.
Vision depends on light, and you cannot see in darkness.
Yet
in the darkness, in the private world of sleep, you
srr in dreams although your eyes are closed. And it
is here that what you see you made. But let the darkness
go and all you made you will no longer see, for sight
of it depends upon denying vision.
Yet
from denying vision it does not follow that you cannot
see.But
this is what denial does...
for by it you accept insanity, believing you can make
a private world and rule your own perceptions.
Yet
for this light must be excluded.
Dreams
disappear when light has come and you can see.
|
|
Christ's
VIsion
Do
not seek vision through your eyes, for you made your way
of seeing that you might see in darkness, and in this you
are deceived.
Beyond
this darkness, and yet still within you, is the vision of
Christ, Who looks on all in light.
Your
vision
comes from fear, as His from love. And He sees for you as
your witness to the real world.
He
is the Holy Spirit’s manifestation,
looking always on the real world, and calling forth its
witnesses and drawing them unto you.
For
He loves what He sees within you, and He would extend it.
And
He will not return unto the Father until He has extended
your perception even unto Him. And there perception is no
more, for He has returned you to the Father with Him.
You
have but two emotions, and one you made and one was given
you.
Each
is a way of seeing, and different worlds
arise from their different visions.
See
through the vision that is given you, for through Christ’s
vision He beholds Himself. And seeing what He is, He knows
His Father.
Beyond
your darkest dreams He sees God’s guiltless Son within
you, shining in perfect radiance which is undimmed by your
dreams.
And
this you will see as you look with Him, for His vision is
His gift of love to you, given Him of the Father for you.
The
Holy Spirit is the light in which Christ stands revealed.
And
all who would behold Him can see Him, for they have asked
for light.
Nor
will they see Him alone, for He is no more alone than they
are.
Because
they saw the Son they have risen in Him to the Father.
And
all this will they understand because they looked within
and saw beyond the darkness the Christ in them, and recognized
Him.
In the sanity of His vision they looked upon themselves
with love, seeing themselves as the Holy Spirit sees them.
And
with this vision of the truth in them came all the beauty
of the world to shine upon them.
|