Day 109
18. HOW IS CORRECTION MADE?
1 Correction of a lasting nature,-and only this is true correction,-cannot be made until the teacher of God has ceased to confuse interpretation with fact, or illusion with truth. If he argues with his pupil about a magic thought, attacks it, tries to establish its error or demonstrate its falsity, he is but witnessing to its reality. Depression is then inevitable, for he has “proved,” both to his pupil and himself, that it is their task to escape from what is real. And this can only be impossible. Reality is changeless. Magic thoughts are but illusions. Otherwise salvation would be only the same age-old impossible dream in but another form. Yet the dream of salvation has new content. It is not the form alone in which the difference lies.
Lasting correction occurs when I stop confusing interpretation with fact, illusion with truth. When this is true for me I will no longer feel any need to argue with anyone about their beliefs. I don’t want to argue with them, not even in my mind, because this just makes the idea of magic thoughts (ego thoughts, illusions) seem real with real effects, and something from which I must escape. The entire purpose of the Course is to show me a way out of my belief in illusion, and fighting against illusion is encouraging the belief in it. Who would fight something unless he thought it was real?
There are so many ways in which this happens. I read someone’s status update and think that they are wrong about that. I read a posting on one of the boards and feel a desire to answer it with the “right” interpretation. I listen to my brother explain how things in the world work, and want to correct his interpretation. These are the very obvious temptations, and yet who has not done this at times?
Who has not corrected someone for their own good, or covered their tracks with “kind and gentle” words so the attack seems less cruel. And yet, correction is correction no matter what kind of face we put on it, and to believe in the need to correct is to reinforce the belief that this bit of illusion is certainly real enough to warrant our attention. And if we don’t get this right there will be real consequences from which we must escape.
Any time I have ever felt the desire to respond with correction it has been because I believed my interpretation was more than an interpretation. I have also believed that his interpretation threatened my interpretation. And I believe that one interpretation will be left standing and it has to be mine. I seem to have believed that I could elevate interpretation to fact if I could argue it successfully, when all along I have only elevated illusion in my mind and made it seem so real to me that letting it go seemed nearly impossible.
This is insane and when I am in my sane mind I don’t do this. I don’t want to teach illusion is real because I don’t want to learn illusion is real. When I am in my sane mind I respond from sanity, from the Holy Spirit, the Truth that is in my mind. It tends to be in the form of an “I” thought, a story from my experience. It never calls to question the other person’s interpretation. As often as not the answer is silence.
This is an easy and peaceful way to live. Living from the “I don’t know” mind is an honest way to live.
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