A
Course in Miracles
Chapter
31 - Simplicity of Salvation
Self
Concept vs Self
The learning of the world is built upon a concept of the self adjusted
to the world’s reality. It fits it well, for
this an image is, that suits a world of shadows and illusions.
Here
it walks at home, where what it sees is one with it.
The
building of a concept of the self is what the learning of the world
is for. This is its purpose;
that
you come without a self, and make one as you go along, and by
the time you reach “maturity,” you have perfected
it to meet the world on equal terms, at one with its demands.
A
concept of the self is made by you. It bears no likeness to yourself
at all. It is an idol, made to take the place of your reality as
Son of God.
The
Concept of the Self Has Two Purposes
The
concept of the self the world would teach is not the thing that
it appears to be, for it is made to serve two purposes,
but one of which the mind can recognize.
(1)
The first presents the face
of innocence, the aspect acted on.
It
is this face that smiles and charms and even seems to love. It
searches for companions, and it looks, at times with pity, on
the suffering, and sometimes offers solace. It believes that it
is good, within an evil world.
This
aspect can grow angry, for the world is wicked, and unable to
provide the love and shelter innocence deserves, and so this face
is often wet with tears at the injustices the world accords to
those who would be generous and good.
This
aspect never makes the first attack, but every day a hundred little
things make small assaults upon its innocence, provoking it to
irritation, and at last to open insult and abuse. The
face of innocence the concept of the self so proudly wears can
tolerate attack in self-defense, for is it not a well-known
fact the world deals harshly with defenseless innocence?
No
one who makes a picture of himself omits this face (of innocence),
for he has need of it. The other side, he does not want to see.
Yet it is here the learning of the world has set its sights, for
it is here the world’s “reality” is set, to see
to it the idol lasts.
(2)
Beneath the
face of innocence there is a lesson that the
concept of the self was made to teach.
It
is a lesson in a terrible displacement, and a fear so devastating
that the face which smiles above it must forever look
away, lest it perceive the treachery it hides.
The
lesson teaches this;
I
am the thing you made of me, and as you look on me you stand condemned,
because of what I am.”
On
this conception of the self the world smiles with approval, for
it guarantees the pathways of the world are safely kept, and those
who walk on them will not escape. Here
is the central lesson that ensures your brother is condemned eternall,
for
what you are has now become his sin (his fault).
For
this is no forgiveness possible. No longer does it matter what
he does, for your accusing finger points to him, unwavering and
deadly in its aim. It points to you as well, but this is kept
still deeper in the mists below the face of innocence. And in
these shrouded vaults are all his sins and yours
preserved, and kept in darkness, where they cannot be perceived
as errors, which the light would surely show.
You
can be neither blamed for what you are, nor can you change
the things it makes you do. And you are each the symbol
of your sins to one another, silently, and yet with ceaseless urgency,
condemning still your brother for the hated thing you are.
You
Are Something Else
Concepts
are learned. They are not natural. Apart from learning they do not
exist. They are not given, and they must be made. Not
one of them is true, and many come from feverish imaginations, hot
with hatred and distortions born of fear.
What
is a concept but a thought to which its maker gives a meaning
of his own?
Concepts
maintain the world. But they can not be used to demonstrate the
world is real. For all of them are made within the world, born in
its shadow, growing in its ways, and finally “maturing”
in its thought. They are ideas of idols, painted with the brushes
of the world, which cannot make a single picture representing truth.
A concept of the self is meaningless, for no one here can see what
it is for, and therefore cannot picture what it is.
Yet is all learning which the world directs begun and ended with
the single aim of teaching you this concept of yourself, that you
will choose to follow this world’s laws, and never seek to
go beyond its roads, nor realize the way you see yourself.
Now
must the Holy Spirit find a way to help you see this concept of
the self must be undone, if any peace of mind is to be
given you.
Nor
can it be unlearned except by lessons aimed to teach that you
are something else, for otherwise, you would be asked to make
exchange of what you now believe for total loss of self, and greater
terror would arise in you. Thus are the Holy Spirit’s lesson
plans arranged in easy steps, that though there be some lack of
ease at times and some distress, there is no shattering of what
was learned, but just a re-translation of what seems to be the evidence
on its behalf.
Are
You What Your Brother Made of You?
Let us consider, then, what proof there is that you are what your
brother made of you. For
even though you do not yet perceive that this is what you think,
you surely learned by now that you behave as if it were.
Does
he react for you? And
did he know exactly what would happen? Could
he see your future and ordain, before it came, what you should
do in every circumstance?
He
must have made the world as well as you, to have such prescience
in the things to come. That you are what your brother made of you
seems most unlikely.
Even
if he did, who gave the face of innocence to you? Is this your
contribution?
Who
is, then, the “you” who made it? And who is deceived
by all your goodness, and attacks it so?
Let us forget the concept’s foolishness, and merely think
of this; there are two parts to what you think yourself to be.
If
one was generated by your brother, who was there to make the other?
And from whom must something be kept hidden?
If
the world be evil, there is still no need to hide what you are made
of. Who is there to see? And what but is attacked could need defense?
Perhaps
the reason why this concept must be kept in darkness is that, in
the light, the one who would not think it true is you. And what
would happen to the world you know, if all its underpinnings were
removed?
Your
concept of the world depends upon this concept of the self, bnd
both would go, if either one were ever raised to doubt.
The
Holy Spirit does not seek to throw you into panic, so He merely
asks if just a little question might be raised. There are alternatives
about the thing that you must be.
Are
You What You Chose Your Brother Be?
You
might, for instance, be the thing you chose to have your brother
be.
This
shifts the concept of the self from what is wholly passive, and
at least makes way for active choice and some acknowledgment that
interaction must have entered in. There is some understanding that
you chose for both of you, and what he represents has meaning that
was given it by you. It
also shows some glimmering of sight into perception’s law
that what you see reflects the state of perceiver's mind.
Yet
who was it that did the choosing first?
If
you are what you chose your brother be, alternatives were there
to choose among, and someone must have first decided
on the one to choose, and let the others go.
Although this step has gains, it does not yet approach a basic question.
Something
must have gone before these concepts of the self, and
something must have done the learning which gave rise to them.
Nor
can this be explained by either view. The main advantage of the
shifting to the second from the first is that you somehow
entered in the choice by your decision. But
this gain is paid in almost equal loss, for now you stand
accused of guilt for what your brother is. And you must share his
guilt, because you chose it for him in the image of your own.
While
only he was treacherous before, now must you be condemned
along with him.
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