How do you see God in relationship to the creator of the ego? The ego is a belief that
there is no God. Or the ego is a belief that love is impossible. When there is an eclipse,
the moon disappears. The brightness of the moon is behind a planet. There is an eclipse that
occurs where the light is blocked out. The ego is a blinder to the light that is already there. The
ego doesn’t have a real existence. It doesn’t have a source. It doesn’t have a creator. Therefore,
it never was created. Jesus says in the Course, You made the ego by believing in it and you can
dispel it by withdrawing your belief from it. It’s a blind spot. It’s a figment of
imagination. It is literally behind the Big Bang (this comic explosion that seems to be
time and space). The ego is the Big Bang. There is a light behind this veil of separation that
we could call God. In order to experience that, we have to let go of our investment in our mind
energy being given over to the ego belief. In the back of the Course, in the clarification of terms:
Jesus says the ego will ask many questions that this Course has no answer for. How
did the impossible happen? To whom did the impossible happen? And many other forms. There
is no answer. There is no theological answer or conceptual answer. An experience will come
to end your doubting. And to really seek for that experience. When you are working with the Course,
it is so important to keep in mind that you are going for an experience. You are not going
for another theological system or another set of concepts. You are actually are going to be carried
beyond the theology of the Course; beyond the concepts into an actual living experience. That
is one of those trick questions that is supposed to say I will step back on that one for a while
and just ask to be shown. The ego itself says it must be all unintended consequences. We are all
suffering from depression, sickness. He or she didn’t mean us to do it. We have done this to
ourselves. That sends you around in all kinds of circles. There is a line in the Course that says I
have done this thing and it is this I will undo. Just like in 12 Step Programs, the admission of
the problem is essential. If an alcoholic stays in denial then there is no healing. I have said
many times. In A Course in Miracles Groups, you can go around. Instead of saying “Hi, my name
is so and so and I am an alcoholic” You could say “Hi, my name is so and so and I have a perceptual
problem.” You have to have an admission that you have a perceptual problem before the Course
can work for you. As long as you remain riveted and you think “I have relationship problems and
financial problems and health problems and sexual problems”, the problems have been defined inside
of the dream world. The dreaming is completely forgotten. There are all of these separate
problems. There are many problems. There is no solution at that level. When you go deeper and
get in touch with that belief in separation (which is the error) then you can have it solved. That is
why people pray. That is why they meditate. That is why all of spiritual traditions talk about
going inside. The Kingdom of Heaven is within. They all send us in. It is not in our bodies. We
have to even learn what that in means. It is quite covered over. A couple of people were expressing
that “Everything in my life seems okay except this one person and this one situation and that
brings up so much in terms of anger. The trigger. It seems frustrating when you can seem to have
so many aspects of your life flowing along and there is this trigger that stands out even more.
The trigger is saying you haven’t gone back inside your mind far enough or deep enough. The
triggers will keep reoccurring in form as long as we haven’t gone inside. We haven’t gone beneath or
underneath the ego. When we talk about unplugging from the ego, we talk about completely unplugging.
That is another thing. My life is too busy. I can’t completely unplug. I will give you 10
minutes a day or 45 minutes a day. I can squeeze you in there into my calendar. God is like that
approach is not going to work. We have to be ready for (Some of you may have seen Tom Cruise’s movie:
“Vanilla Sky”) a revolution of the mind. You have to ready for a total revolution. If everything
has been upside down, then everything has to be turned right side up. We just have to have the
willingness to allow that process. I am going to feel however I feel. It is going to look however
it is going to look. I have a desire for healing and I don’t care what it seems to cost. I don’t
care what it takes. I am going to go for the healing. That is going to stir things up in a
major way. We were talking yesterday. Maybe, a year ago or a year and a half ago. Suzanne was
saying “I could die”. You have to have that in the context of healing. I want healing no matter what.
I could die. I could die to my old perception of myself. That is part of the St. Francis prayer.
To die to be born again. In reality, it is a retranslation. It is a reorientation of your mind
toward God and toward your true identity. Nothing is really dying. Nothing is ever really lost.
There is a reinterpretation that has to occur and the ego is dead set against that reinterpretation.
If you allow your mind a reinterpretation, you will accept the Holy Spirit and the ego is no
more. There is no ego that continues on after that reinterpretation. There is a part in the Course
that says you will believe this Course entirely or not at all. Anyone who gets into authentic
spirituality needs to be aware of how important that line is. It’s not like I will go and I
will make it 80 percent or 90 percent. There is really a sense of finality. There is a sense of it
being completely non-compromising. In a glorious way: in order of have total joy, peace, freedom,
love, you cannot be willing to compromise with the ego. How do I defeat the ego? The ego loves
it when the mind puts it into a contest or a war. People say I am going to kill the ego. It is going
to pay for what it has put me through. The ego is sitting there saying “Good”. There is nothing more
wonderful than a fight. Because, the ego is the belief in competition. It is the belief in war.
With all of the wars we have had throughout human history, it is interesting that Jesus says “The
war against yourself is almost over now.” We are able to come here in this center in Crow’s
Nest and talk about exposing the ego and royally exposing it. That is a wonderful acknowledgement
to our mind that the war against ourselves is almost over now. Some of you might remember John
Lennon and Yoko Ono back in the day. They spent tens of thousands of dollars to rent billboards
all over the place. A lot of them were in New York City, but all over. In giant bold black letters,
“War is over” and then in small letters “if you want it.” That was the Course in
Miracles. They are spending tens of thousands of dollars to publish A Course in Miracles teachings
on these billboards. War is over. If you want it. If you want it. No coercion. Nothing is forcing
us to end the war. It is just that our desire for peace is growing strong. We are outgrowing the
religions now. We are outgrowing the theologies, even the techniques, the formulas. In the end,
it is our desire for peace that will bring it back into awareness. It is not going
to be any formula or theology. Even the theology of A Course in Miracles has to
be outgrown and transcended. It is speaking as if there is linear time. It is speaking
as if we are dealing with bodies and private minds and private thoughts. Most of the Course
is written right at that level. And yet, it is a beginning and not an end. The Workbook
says this is a beginning and not an end. If you get through the Workbook lessons, that is what’s
going to be waiting for you. Henceforth, listen to the Voice for God within your mind. It will
direct all subsequent lessons. We can actually reach a point where we have to practice it and
really fully apply it without exception. The words and the lessons and everything, they are like the
trampoline to get you springing and bouncing a little bit. You are not meant to forever bounce
on the trampoline. You are meant to spring and really take the leap and go for it. And that’s
what makes all of the difference in the end. We are here to encourage each other with those leaps.