This morning we are going to talk about emotions and feelings. There is a section in the text
called "The Two Emotions," and it says one you made and one was given you, and obviously
the two emotions are love and fear. Love, of course, is what God gave us when He created
us and fear is what we made as a substitute for that love. And in that section, it is
obvious that Jesus is not talking about emotions as we usually think of them. He's really talking
about two thoughts or two thought systems. The term "emotions" is used there because
this was taken down by Helen in the Sixties when psychologists were talking all about
emotions and a hierarchy of emotions and all different kinds of emotions. And so in that
context, Jesus was saying, yes, but there are only two emotions: love and fear. But again
clearly he is not talking about emotions as we usually think of them and the reason for
that is when we think of emotions and the way that we conceive of emotions, we're talking
about the body. I get angry and I have a visceral reaction and I, as a person, as a body am
angry or I am feeling love for you or I am anxious, I am fearful, I am happy, I am joyful.
And these various kinds of feelings and emotions all have to do with the body. They all have
to do with me as a person. While the two emotions Jesus is talking about in that section are
the two thoughts that are in the mind. So we are really talking about the important
distinction that the Course makes between mind and body, the mind being the cause of
everything that happens in the world, that has ever happened in the world, or will ever
happen, and the body being the effect. And since "ideas leave not their source," the
body has never left the mind. So when we talk about bodily feelings and emotions, whether
we're talking about something that we feel viscerally in terms of our body, pleasure
or pain as an example, or something that we feel psychologically, we are still talking
about the body and we're still talking about ourselves as a person, a figure in a dualistic
dream. And therefore it would be perfectly appropriate to say don't trust your feelings.
Just as Jesus tells us don't trust your perceptions because "Nothing so blinding as perception
of form," because our sensory organs lie. The sensory data that they bring in from the
world to be interpreted by our brain are all part of the illusion. Remember if the world
is a "delusional system of those made mad by guilt," then everything here is part of
that same delusional system that's built on the foundation of guilt that says that the
separation from our Source has actually happened. So we should not trust our perceptions because
they bring us information that says there is a world out here and, of course, as the
ego interprets that it's even more to the point there's a world out there and it is
sinful and it is terrifying. And I am the innocent victim of what others in the world
or the world itself have done to me. Our feelings become part and parcel of that because feelings
say I am affected by what the world has done. So if something, a sharp object hits me, I
feel pain. If I stick my hand on a burning stove, I feel pain. And I say the reason I
feel pain is because this object hit me or the burning stove seared my flesh. Or I am
feeling unhappy because you didn't tell me you loved me today, or you forgot my birthday,
or you were unkind to me, or you didn't give me the promotion I feel I deserve. But what
we call feelings are directly connected with the outer world that impinges on us and, of
course, the outer world that impinges on us also includes our own bodies. So if I eat
something that I say disagrees with me, I say the reason I have a stomach ache is because
of this food that I ate. So I have this unpleasant feeling in my stomach that's attributed to
something I put into my stomach. And while all this may be true on the level of the body
or the world, we are not living in the level of the body or the world. We just think we
are. Remember, "ideas leave not their source" and we still remain in the mind that has conceived
of the impossibility of separation from God ever happening. And so we are building our
whole world on this fundamental unreality, which becomes a defense against our true reality
as Christ, God's true Son. So we should not trust our feelings unless the feeling we have
of peace is so deep within us that it is totally unmoved and unchanged and unaffected by anything
going on around us and that peace that goes hand-in-hand with the love that we would feel
embraces everyone without exception. If that is what we are feeling, that love and that
quiet joy that comes from knowing that we are forgiven, then that's the feeling we should
trust. But the reason we should trust it is because it doesn't exclude anyone. It's all-inclusive
and that's the criterion by which we could evaluate whether a feeling should be trusted
or not, and if it's all-inclusive, embraces all people without exception all the time,
if that quiet joy we feel is present all the time regardless of circumstances going on
around us, then we know that that joy and that quiet feeling and that love and that
peace is coming from the mind which is totally unaffected by what is going on around us.
Those are the feelings we should trust because those are the feelings that will lead us home.