• Salvation Is For The Mind, And It Is Attained Through Peace

    From Miracles Are Seen In Light@21:1/5 to All on Sat May 29 21:22:51 2021
    XPost: alt.religion.course-miracle

    Salvation Is For The Mind, And It Is Attained Through Peace

    "Salvation is for the mind, and it is attained through peace. This is the only thing that can be saved and the only way to save it. Any response other than love
    arises from a confusion about the "what" and the "how" of salvation, and this is
    the only answer. Never lose sight of this, and never allow yourself to believe,
    even for an instant, that there is another answer. For you will surely place yourself among the poor, who do not understand that they dwell in abundance and that salvation is come.

    To identify with the ego is to attack yourself and make yourself poor. That is why everyone who identifies with the ego feels deprived. What he experiences then
    is depression or anger, because what he did was to exchange self-love for self-hate, making him afraid of himself. He does not realize this. Even if he is
    fully aware of anxiety he does not perceive its source as his own ego identification, and he always tries to handle it by making some sort of insane "arrangement" with the world. He always perceives this world as outside himself,
    for this is crucial to his adjustment. He does not realize that he makes this world, for there is no world outside of him.

    If only the loving thoughts of God's Son are the world's reality, the real world
    must be in his mind. His insane thoughts, too, must be in his mind, but an internal conflict of this magnitude he cannot tolerate. A split mind is endangered, and the recognition that it encompasses completely opposed thoughts within itself is intolerable. Therefore the mind projects the split, not the reality. Everything you perceive as the outside world is merely your attempt to
    maintain your ego identification, for everyone believes that identification is salvation. Yet consider what has happened, for thoughts do have consequences to
    the thinker. You have become at odds with the world as you perceive it, because
    you think it is antagonistic to you. This is a necessary consequence of what you
    have done. You have projected outward what is antagonistic to what is inward, and
    therefore you would have to perceive it this way. That is why you must realize that your hatred is in your mind and not outside it before you can get rid of it;
    and why you must get rid of it before you can perceive the world as it really is.

    I said before that God so loved the world that he gave it to his only begotten Son. God does love the real world, and those who perceive its reality cannot see
    the world of death. For death is not of the real world, in which everything reflects the eternal. God gave you the real world in exchange for the one you made out of your split mind, and which is the symbol of death. For if you could
    really separate yourself from the Mind of God you would die.

    The world you perceive is a world of separation. Perhaps you are willing to accept even death to deny your Father. Yet he would not have it so, and so it is
    not so. You still cannot will against him, and that is why you have no control over the world you made. It is not a world of will because it is governed by the
    desire to be unlike God, and this desire is not will. The world you made is therefore totally chaotic, governed by arbitrary and senseless "laws," and without
    meaning of any kind. For it is made out of what you do not want, projected from
    your mind because you are afraid of it. Yet this world is only in the mind of its
    maker, along with his real salvation. Do not believe it is outside of yourself,
    for only by recognizing where it is will you gain control over it. For you do have control over your mind, since the mind is the mechanism of decision.

    If you will recognize that all the attack you perceive is in your own mind and nowhere else, you will at last have placed its source, and where it begins it must
    end. For in this same place also lies salvation. The altar of God where Christ
    abideth is there. You have defiled the altar, but not the world. Yet Christ has
    placed the Atonement on the altar for you. Bring your perceptions of the world to
    this altar, for it is the altar to truth. There you will see your vision changed,
    and there you will learn to see truly. From this place, where God and his Son dwell in peace and where you are welcome, you will look out in peace and behold the world truly. Yet to find the place, you must relinquish your investment in the world as you project it, allowing the Holy Spirit to extend the real world to
    you from the altar of God."

    - A Course in Miracles, Chapter 12, Section 3
    "The Holy Spirit's Curriculum," "The Investment in Reality"

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)