The title of the lesson is, “I Bless the World Because I Bless Myself,” (W-pI.187)
so this takes us back to things we’ve already been talking about, that the way we bless
the world is to bless ourselves.
This paragraph 6, if it’s taken out of context, sounds absolutely so dreadful that nobody
would want to go anywhere near this course, if it’s taken out of context.
Now hopefully, when we read this now, we have the context of what we’ve been discussing
all day, so it won’t sound quite as horrible as the words may seem to suggest it sounds,
or something like that.
This is the bottom of page 354, paragraph 6:
Never forget you give but to yourself.
And that, of course, is because there’s no world out there.
Now again, this metaphysical underpinning is essential if you’re going to understand
the rest of the paragraph.
“Never forget you give but to yourself,” because again, nothing is out there.
(W-pI.187.6:2) Who understands what giving means must laugh at the idea of sacrifice.
That if I’m to receive love I have to pay for it.
If I’m to be seen as a “good” person, by my family members, by my bosses, by God,
I must sacrifice.
That’s because deep down I believe I’m such a miserable sinner that atonement comes
through sacrifice.
So, “Who understands what giving means,” meaning that the inner and the outer are one,
there’s nothing out there; in fact, there’s nothing inside either (in terms of the ego)
because all that’s made up.
You “must laugh at the idea of sacrifice,” (ibid.).
Nor can he fail to recognize the many forms which sacrifice may take.
Sacrifice is the core ego principle.
It’s core to its thought system of one or the other.
Now this is so central to the ego’s system.
It begins with the idea, “It’s God or me;” either perfect Love and perfect Oneness
is the reality or separation and specialness are the reality.
It’s one or the other because they can’t coexist.
They are mutually exclusive.
When we chose to believe that the tiny, mad idea happened, we chose to believe that one
or the other was resolved in our favor.
We survive now as a separated individual entity and God had to disappear.
When we took the tiny, mad idea seriously, which means we believed it happened; we believed
the tiny, mad idea—the thought of being separate from God—actually happened, and
then we labeled it as “sinful.”
That’s a very serious word.
That’s what Jesus means in a very important section on special relationships, when he says if you knew
your special relationship was “a triumph over God, would you want it?" (T-16.V.10:1).
If you knew your special relationship was a triumph over God, would you want it?
Because, it is!
When we developed a special relationship with our ego, which is the first and the only true
special relationship (everything else follows from that) we believed we triumphed over God.
It was one or the other.
Then as the dream begins to evolve, we believed God will somehow rise from the grave in which
we put Him and will come storming back, following the principle of one or the other, and He
will take the life we stole from Him, leaving us lifeless (i.e. dead), and He now has life;
it’s one or the other.
That’s what’s in back of the terrifying passage in the manual that deals with all
this and it says, “An angry father pursues his guilty son.
Kill or be killed,” (M-17.7:10-11).
That’s the ultimate expression of the principle of one or the other, “kill or be killed,”
and that’s the exact line.
An angry father pursues his guilty son.
God pursues his guilty son and god will win because he’s god; kill or be killed.
That’s the sacrifice, and then what happens, is to stave off the inevitable, which is god’s
destruction of us, we make a bargain with Him.
Remember, this is our dream, so we could dream it any way we want.
This has nothing to do with the true God; absolutely nothing to do with the true God
Who knows nothing about this.
How could the All and the Everything know about nothing?
But in our deluded insanity, our distorted thinking, this now becomes reality, and so
we now make a bargain with god to stop him from destroying us, and we say, “Yes, I
sinned again you. I’m really sorry. I’ll make it up to you. What do you want?”
And then the god we made up tells us what he wants.
He wants our devotion, he wants our love; he wants us to obey all the rituals.
Every religion has a different god with different rituals and different codes, but they’re all about sacrifice.
In order to pay god back for our sin we have to sacrifice.
That’s why the opening chapter—excuse me, opening section in Chapter 3 is called,
“Atonement without Sacrifice” because the ego's version of atonement is atonement-with-sacrifice.
That’s the Judeo-Christian view of salvation.
Whether you’re a Jew or a Christian, god demands that you suffer.
The whole story of Jesus in the gospels is taken from the “suffering servant songs”
in Isaiah; four songs in Isaiah, which are all about god sends his servant, who’s pure
and innocent and sinless to suffer and die so the sins of the children of Israel would
be redeemed.
That’s in Isaiah, written centuries before the gospels were written.
Well, you take the “Jesus myth;” it’s the exact same story,
except now it’s in (quote) “Christian” form.
It’s all about sacrifice.
Someone has to sacrifice so god’s will for vengeance—insatiable will for vengeance
—will be satisfied, and that’s how we live.
“If I’m to enjoy a weekend I have to work for five days.
If I’m to enjoy a vacation I have to work 50 weeks out of the year or 48 weeks out of
the year or whatever.”
We have to sacrifice.
“If I’m to get you to love me, I have to give you something. I have to sacrifice
something of me so you would love me, otherwise you won’t love me.”
It’s all about sacrifice; it’s all about one or the other.
An advanced teacher of God looks at this and smiles sweetly and says, “How silly;”
end of story.
That’s what’s meant by this next incredible sentence, “He laughs as well…”
So the “He” would be the advanced teacher of God who knows now how silly all this is.
It’s not one or the other; it’s together or not at all.
(W-pI.187.6:4) He laughs as well at pain and loss, at sickness and at grief, at poverty,
starvation and at death.
So you could see, somebody wants to make trouble with this course (or for this course) will
take this sentence out of context, and you see where you go with it.
It only makes sense when you realize you’re talking about an advanced teacher who’s
outside of the dream; who looks at the dream and smiles sweetly and says, “This is all silly."
Nothing in this world is given power to take away the love and the peace that’s inside of you; nothing.
He laughs as well at pain and loss, at sickness and at grief, at poverty,
starvation and at death.
These are all very heavy, consequential things in this world.
These are very, very painful effects in the world, but when you bring them back to their
cause, which was taking the tiny, mad idea seriously then they all disappear.
Then you realize, “It is a joke to think that time can come to circumvent eternity,” (T-27.VIII.6:5).
It is not a joke on the battleground, it is not a joke in the world of bodies; it is only
a joke in the world of the mind.
That’s where the advanced teacher of God lives.
That’s what makes him or her “advanced.”
He recognizes sacrifice remains the one idea that stands behind them all,
and in his gentle laughter are they healed.
Here’s that phrase “gentle laughter” again.
“He recognizes,” the advanced teacher “recognizes sacrifice;” one or the other;
someone lives, someone dies.
Someone has to die and suffer to pay god back for the terrible things we did so god will
have mercy on us and not condemn us to hell.
“…sacrifice remains the one idea that stands behind them all [all the forms of suffering],
and in his gentle laughter are they healed,” (ibid.).
It’s not that the effects are healed, but the effects of guilt are healed, the effects
of fear are healed; all the effects of specialness are healed.
Now again, this does not mean that you don’t do things to remedy the ills of the world,
whether on an individual level or a collective level.
It means but you—it means you don’t want to do it coming from your ego because then
you’ll believe in suffering and sacrifice, and you’ll believe suffering in this world
is real; you’ll make the world real and there’s no hope then because you’ve taken
the tiny, mad idea seriously.
The advanced teacher of God does not take it seriously, and from his gentle laughter
he calls to everyone from where he is, calls everyone to participate in that gentle laughter
by joining with him or her on the level of the mind.
That’s the only place you could find peace otherwise there is literally no hope at all.