Let's now turn then to A Bad Idea: The World,
and we'll start with quoting myself.
I think when I die, this is the phrase I want to be most remembered with,
so all of you who survive me remember that.
That's that the "world is a maladaptive solution to a nonexistent problem."
If I say so myself, I think it's a brilliant phrase.
It's not very pretty, but I've always liked that,
because it really summarizes what the issue is.
The world is maladaptive because it doesn't work.
It's a solution to a problem that doesn't exist.
The problem is that we not only don't know the problem is nonexistent,
we don't even know the problem that's nonexistent.
That just shows you how far removed we have come from making
any meaningful progress towards undoing the true problem.
So that before we could realize the problem is nonexistent,
we first have to acknowledge that there's a problem.
Only then can we learn that it's nonexistent.
And as most of you know, the world was literally made,
literally made, to keep the nonexistent problem hidden.
And as long as we think there is a world,
we unconsciously believe there is a problem,
because the world is the solution to the problem.
Without the problem, there'd be no world.
That's why we are so identified with the body,
so identified with the body's home, which is the world,
because we believe that keeps at a distance this terrible, terrible problem.
So what is this terrible, terrible problem?
The terrible, terrible problem is that we believe
we've separated from our Creator and our Source.
That's what the Course refers to as the tiny, mad idea.
That thought is, how wonderful it is to be on my own.
How wonderful it is to be autonomous and free
and liberated from that cruel, imprisoning yoke of that
harsh, harsh tyrant called God, Who does not allow me
to have a thought that's independent of Him.
Now the truth is, we don't have a thought that's independent of God
because Oneness doesn't have separate thoughts.
In fact, Oneness is one Thought -- capital "T."
But the ego's interpretation of that is that we are imprisoned
by this harsh dictator, this autocrat,
who will not allow us to have any freedom, any voice other than His own.
And that thought that I could have something
other than what God gave me, God's love was not enough,
God's Kingdom was not enough.
I want something more, I want my own kingdom,
which ends up becoming a kingdom of specialness.
I want to be specially recognized.
That's the attack on God. It's telling God, get lost.
I could do better than you.
It's like a little kid telling its parents, I don't love you any more, mommy and daddy,
I'm going to find another mommy and daddy.
I'm going to run away from home.
It's the same kind of thing. We do that as little, spoiled brats
because that's what we did when we were the original, ontological spoiled brat.
That's the attack.
And since ideas leave not their source, that's the original attack on God.
The world must also then be an attack on God.
It symbolizes fear because the ego tells us
that because of our attack on God,
which the ego calls by that dirty word sin, we will be punished.
That's why the Adam and Eve myth in Genesis
has had such an incredible effect on people,
in the Western world, certainly,
because that's the ego's myth; that's the ego's story.
We sinned against God and God will punish us.
In fact, God creates death as punishment for our sin in the Bible.
So therefore, we then become afraid of God,
just as Adam and Eve became afraid when they heard God's voice in the garden,
and they sought to hide in the bushes.
We attack God to win our freedom.
And then it becomes even more serious very, very quickly
because now God, Who has taken our sin very seriously, within the ego system,
the real God knows nothing about this, but the ego god certainly does.
That God now takes our sin very seriously,
and He's going to do something serious about it.
He's going to destroy us.
That's very serious news for us.
And the ego's solution, its maladaptive solution,
is to get out of the mind as quickly as possible.
And once that wish was uttered, it happened.
And that's the Course's Big Bang.
Once the wish to escape God's wrath in the mind occurred,
it happened. And we projected out and we made up a world,
we fragmented that ego self into billions and billions of pieces.
Each fragment got housed in what we call a body,
and we'll just limit our discussion to one form of the body
-- of that form, which is Homo sapiens.
Each fragment got housed in a body.
And as soon as the world were made and the body were made,
a veil dropped.
And that veil, then, became the veil of forgetfulness or the veil of amnesia,
which meant we forgot where we came from.
So why does the ego do this?
Why does the ego make up the world, which is clearly a maladaptive solution.
And let me just say one more thing about that.
Another way to understand why it's a maladaptive solution
is the ego's purpose for making up a world
is to escape the wrath of God,
the murderous wrath of God in our minds,
which would certainly mean our demise.
So what does the ego do? It makes up a world and a body
and what do bodies do? They die.
Very maladaptive. But they usually don't die quickly.
They have to live 50, 60, 70, 80 years, usually.
And it's not a very happy life.
Anybody who thinks this is a happy life is not paying attention.
Being at home in God as spirit -- that's a happy life.
In fact, that's the only life.
Everything else is a very, very poor and shabby substitute.
So the ego tells us, this is my solution.
Let's leave the mind, let's make up a world and body.
We'll be safe from God's wrath, but it ends up, it doesn't work.
It's very maladaptive. We end up living a life of pain and suffering,
except it's drawn out, and the end is inevitable.
That somehow God breaks through the veil,
breaks through the disguise, finds us as bodies, and finishes the job.
So why does the ego encourage us to pursue
and identify with this maladaptive solution?
Because it does not want us to see that it's a maladaptive solution
to a nonexistent problem.
If we realize this is a solution to a nonexistent problem,
it means there is no ego.
Because the problem is, what the ego has told us, we have sinned
and God will punish us and destroy us for our sin.
That's the problem we're trying to avoid.
But that's not the problem at all.
The problem was something that came before the ego,
which again is what we call the decision maker, the part of our mind that chooses.
That's what the ego never wants us to see.
Because if we ever get back to that power of our mind to choose,
that decision-making part of ourself, we would recognize our mistake.
And then we would choose again.
That's what the ego is afraid of.
If I choose again, I now choose the Holy Spirit,
what the Course refers to as the Atonement principle.
The separation never happened. If it never happened,
I'm still at home in God. Nothing changed.
I'm still a Oneness joined as One, to use a phrase from the text.
I'm still part of perfect love that has never left its Source.
I'm still at home in God; everything else was just a bad dream.
That's what the ego is so afraid of.
And when we talk about the ego, we're not talking about a thing.
We're not talking about a little kind of ghoulish little thing.
We're not talking about the devil. We're talking about
the part of our mind that likes being apart, separate.
That's the ego. So it's really a part of ourselves
that is split off from ourself, that likes this split-off part,
and recognizes that if I ever get back to what I split off from,
which is the decision maker in my mind,
I will realize the errors of my ways; I will choose again.
I will choose love instead of hate,
I will choose peace instead of conflict,
I will choose God instead of the ego,
at which point everything is gone.
As the Course says, it disappears back into the nothingness from which it came.
That's the ego's fear.
The ego never wants us to understand this is a non-existent problem.
The ego is non-existent. There is no separation.
And if you could always keep that in mind,
it would help you learn not to be angry.
How could you be angry at something that is so blatantly silly?
And what could be sillier than having a solution
that doesn't work for a problem that doesn't exist?