Projection
is an ego device to get rid of (and thereby keep) what it does not like
“inside” ourselves by attempting to disassociate from it
“outside”. The world that we see is the result of this
process.
You
make by projection, but God creates by extension. T-11.in.3:1.
The difference between the ego's projection and the Holy Spirit's extension is very simple. The ego projects to exclude, and therefore to deceive. The Holy Spirit extends by recognizing Himself in every mind, and thus perceives them as one. T-6.II.12:1-3.
What you project you disown, and therefore do not believe is yours. You are excluding yourself by the very judgment that you are different from the one on whom you project. Since you have also judged against what you project, you continue to attack it because you continue to keep it separated. By doing this unconsciously, you try to keep the fact that you attacked yourself out of awareness, and thus imagine that you have made yourself safe. T-6.II.2:1-4.
To
extend is a fundamental aspect of God which He gave to His Son. In
the creation, God extended Himself to His creations and imbued them
with the same loving Will to create. ... No
child of God can lose this ability because it is inherent in what he
is, but he can use it inappropriately by projecting. The
inappropriate use of extension, or projection, occurs when you
believe that some emptiness or lack exists in you, and that you can
fill it with your own ideas instead of truth. T-2.I.1:1,6,7.
In the world, love is reserved for special things as a way of
separating what we like, from what is unwanted.
Within
Reality, Love is the experience of connection, and since everything is connected, everything is Love.
You
cannot enter into real relationships with any of God's Sons unless
you love them all and equally. Love
is not special. If you single out part of the Sonship for your
love, you are imposing guilt on all your relationships and making
them unreal. You can love only as
God loves. Seek not to love unlike Him, for there is no love
apart from His. Until you recognize that this is true, you will have
no idea what love is like. T-13.X.11:1-6.
The
only judgment involved is the Holy Spirit's one division into two
categories; one of love, and the other the call for love. You
cannot safely make this division, for you are much too confused
either to recognize love, or to believe that everything else is
nothing but a call for love. T-14.X.7:1,2.
The
attraction of guilt produces fear of love, for love would never look
on guilt at all. It is the nature
of love to look upon only the truth, for there it sees itself, with
which it would unite in holy union and completion. ... Love is attracted only
to love. T-19.IV.A.10:1-3,5.
A Course in Miracles understands salvation to mean a state of right mindedness, where the state of
dreaming is recognized and the mind chooses to awaken.
Never
forget that the Sonship is your salvation, for the Sonship is your
Self. As God's creation It is yours, and belonging to you It is His.
Your Self does not need salvation,
but your mind needs to learn what salvation is. You are not saved
from
anything, but you are saved for
glory. T-11.IV.1:1-4.
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. T-12.III.5:1-3.
Salvation
is a collaborative venture. It cannot be undertaken successfully by
those who disengage themselves from the Sonship, because they are
disengaging themselves from me. [Jesus] T-4.VI.8:2,3.
You
will learn salvation because you will learn how to save. It will not
be possible to exempt yourself from what the Holy Spirit wants to
teach you. Salvation is as sure as
God. T-13.XI.9:1,2.
Salvation
cannot be withheld from you. It is your purpose. You cannot choose
apart from this. T-19.IV.A.4,7-9.
Miracles
involve a shift from a belief in the rules of illusion to an greater understanding of the laws of Reality.
Reality is changeless. Miracles but show what you have interposed between reality and your awareness is unreal, and does not interfere at all. ... There is no miracle you cannot have when you desire healing. But there is no miracle that can be given you unless you want it. T-30.VIII.4:1,5,6.
Miracles
arise from a mind that is ready for them. By being united this mind
goes out to everyone, even without the awareness of the miracle
worker himself. The impersonal nature of miracles is because the
Atonement itself is one, uniting all creations with their Creator. As
an expression of what you truly are, the miracle places the mind in a
state of grace. T-1.III.7:1-4.
The miracle sets reality
where it belongs. Reality belongs only to spirit, and the miracle
acknowledges only truth. It thus dispels illusions about yourself,
and puts you in communion with yourself and God. The miracle joins in
the Atonement by placing the mind in the service of the Holy Spirit.
This establishes the proper function of the mind and corrects its
errors, which are merely lacks of love. T.1.IV.2:3-7.
The
Holy Spirit is the guide out of what would be the mind's endless loop
of fear that keeps it from awakening. The Holy Spirit has the unique
ability to understand what is created - what is of God, and what is
made - what is part of the dream.
The
Holy Spirit is the Mediator between the interpretations of the ego
and the knowledge of the spirit. His ability to deal with
symbols enables Him to work with the ego's beliefs in its own
language. His ability to look beyond symbols into eternity enables
Him to understand the laws of God, for which He speaks. He can
therefore perform the function of reinterpreting what the ego makes,
not by destruction but by understanding. T-5.III.7,1-4.
The
ego is the symbol of separation, just as the Holy Spirit is the
symbol of peace. What you perceive in others you are strengthening in
yourself. You may let your mind misperceive, but the Holy Spirit lets
your mind reinterpret its own misperceptions.
The
Holy Spirit is the perfect Teacher. He uses only what your mind
already understands to teach you that you do not understand it. The
Holy Spirit can deal with a reluctant learner without going counter
to his mind, because part of it is still for God. T-5.III.9:4-6/10:1-3
The
Voice of the Holy Spirit does not command, because It is incapable of
arrogance. It does not demand, because It does not seek control. It
does not overcome, because It does not attack. It merely reminds. It
is compelling only because of what It reminds you of. It
brings to your mind the other way, remaining quiet even in the midst
of the turmoil you may make. T-5.VII.2:1-6
Your mind is split between a made-up-identity, and your Self, defined by God.
It
is clear that while the content of any particular ego illusion does
not matter, its correction is more helpful in a specific context. Ego
illusions are quite specific, although the
mind is naturally abstract. Part of the mind becomes concrete,
however, when it splits. The concrete part believes in the ego,
because the ego depends on the concrete.
T-4.VII.1:1-4.
Eating
of the fruit of the tree of knowledge is a symbolic expression for
usurping the ability for self-creating. This is the only sense in
which God and His creations are not co-creators. The belief that they
are is implicit in the "self-concept," or the tendency of
the self to make an image of itself. Images are perceived, not known.
Knowledge cannot deceive, but perception can. You
can perceive yourself as self-creating, but you cannot do more than
believe it. You cannot make it true. … You still believe you
are an image of your own making. Your mind is split with the Holy
Spirit on this point, and there is no resolution while you believe
the one thing that is literally inconceivable. T-3.VII.4:1-6,10,11.
There
is another vision and another Voice in which your freedom lies,
awaiting but your choice. And if you place your faith in Them, you
will perceive another self in you. This other self sees miracles as
natural. They are as simple and as natural to it as breathing to the
body. They are the obvious response to calls for help, the only one
it makes. Miracles seem unnatural
to the ego because it does not understand how separate minds can
influence each other. Nor could
they do so. But minds cannot be separate. This other self is
perfectly aware of this. And thus it recognizes that miracles do not
affect another's mind, only its own. They always change your
mind. There is no other. T-21.V.3:1-12.
The mind that dreams that the separation is real, is split from changeless Reality. The
divided mind needs to be healed before awakening can occur.
Your
mind is one with God's. Denying this and thinking otherwise has held
your ego together, but has literally split your mind. T-4.IV.2:7.
The
calm being of God's Kingdom, which in your sane mind is perfectly
conscious, is ruthlessly banished from the part of the mind the ego
rules. T-4.III.10:1.
Any
split in mind must involve a rejection of part of it, and this is
the belief in separation. The Wholeness of God, which is His
peace, cannot be appreciated except by a whole mind that recognizes
the Wholeness of God's creation. T-6.II.1:1,2.
The
mind is therefore confused, because only One-mindedness can be
without confusion. A
separated or divided mind must
be confused. T-3.IV.3:3,4.
Perception
always involves some misuse of mind, because it brings the mind into
areas of uncertainty. The mind is very active. When it chooses to be
separated it chooses to perceive. Until then it wills only to know.
... The
mind chooses to divide itself when it chooses to make its own levels.
But it could not entirely separate itself from spirit, because it is
from spirit that it derives its whole power to make or create. T-3.IV.5:1-4,8,9.
Projection
is an ego device to get rid of (and thereby keep) what it does not like
“inside” ourselves by attempting to disassociate from it
“outside”. The world that we see is the result of this
process.
