Knowledge is not the motivation for learning this course. Peace is. [Peace] is the prerequisite for knowledge only because those who are in conflict are not peaceful, and peace is the condition of knowledge because it is the condition of the Kingdom. Knowledge can be restored only when you meet its conditions.
The distractions of the ego may seem to interfere with your learning, but the ego has no power to distract you unless you give it the power to do so. The ego’s voice is an hallucination. You cannot expect it to say “I am not real.” Yet you are not asked to dispel your hallucinations alone. You are merely asked to evaluate them in terms of their results to you. If you do not want them on the basis of loss of peace, they will be removed from your mind for you.
“Every response to the ego is a call to war [conflict], and war does deprive you of peace. Yet in this war there is no opponent. This is the reinterpretation of reality that you must make to secure peace, and the only one you need ever make. Those whom you perceive as opponents are part of your peace, which you are giving up by attacking them. How can you have what you give up? You share to have, but you do not give it up yourself. …When you give up peace, you are excluding yourself from [peace]. (A Course in Miracles, T.8.I.1:1-4;2;3:1-4,7. See also ACIM Text Made Simple.)
Someone who is hallucinating reacts to it because he believes it is real. If he believes he is being attacked, we will defend against the perceived attack. The hallucination is dispelled by letting go of the belief in its reality, not by trying to change the illusion into another less threatening form.
The ego, the source of the illusion of conflict, cannot help us change our belief that its illusions are real. We must accept the help of our the inner Teacher Who knows what reality is.
Every moment of every day offers an opportunity to learn to recognize illusions and see past them to the reality of Love’s Oneness. A perceived opponent is recognized as part of our peace if we allow the Holy Spirit to show us the eternal Love that is always present beyond the appearance of form. Because only Love is real, the appearance of conflicting forms cannot be real. It is in the recognition of our oneness with all that is that we find peace.
Today we practice asking to receive Holy Spirit’s vision in place of our perceptions in the world.
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