II. The Alternative to Projection, Paragraph 12
12 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. Nothing conflicts in this perception, because what the Holy Spirit perceives is all the same. Wherever He looks He sees Himself, and because He is united He offers the whole Kingdom always. This is the one message God gave to Him and for which He must speak, because that is what He is. The peace of God lies in that message, and so the peace of God lies in you. The great peace of the Kingdom shines in your mind forever, but it must shine outward to make you aware of it.
Here is what I understand from reading this paragraph. The Holy Spirit extends through recognizing Himself in everyone He sees, thus offering us a vision of wholeness, and so the peace of God. Through looking with the Holy Spirit we see that we are one because we see what He sees. This is the Holy Spirit’s purpose, what He was created for and therefore what He is.
Because He is in our mind, the peace of God is always available to us. If we are not in God’s peace it is not because His peace is not available to us. It is because we have made a deliberate choice to look through the ego perception rather than through the Holy Spirit’s Vision. Understanding that this is the problem, the reason we are not at peace, we can choose again. Looking through the shattered lens of ego we will always see separation and this will show us war. Looking through the single lens of Spirit we will always see One and this will show us peace.
Here is a simple example that happened to me yesterday. I got to my favorite hotel to discover they are in the middle of construction and so had limited in rooms available. I was given a room upstairs and on the outside. I usually stay downstairs and always on the inside. As it turns out, it seems my preference about rooms is very important to me. I was immediately upset.
Since I was out of peace I watched my thoughts to see what happened. I saw that I resented being in a place I didn’t like and that I blamed the hotel staff for my unhappiness. I looked at these people through the shattered lens of ego and saw them as separate from me. I saw that I had an objective and that was to be in the room I wanted, and they had a different objective and that was to put me in the room they had available. This put us at war and one of us was going to win and it wasn’t going to be me.
I allowed the ego mind to run with this and I saw that it took me from mild disappointment to rage at not getting my way. All kinds of vengeful thoughts came up as I continued to project blame for my upset on them. My behavior changed to reflect the feelings I was choosing to have and I didn’t smile and joke with the employees. Most of this was in my mind only, and I doubt anyone but me noticed. I am not so insane that I believe my thoughts, but I was very aware of them and chose to change them because I don’t want to lose my peace.
It took some effort on my part. This is where my work comes in. I set my intention to return my mind to God. I asked Holy Spirit to show me how He sees this. He gently showed me the belief in my mind that this situation was the fault of the hotel, and then asked me how this could possibly have anything to do with them. I write my own story and the script is drawn from the beliefs I hold to and defend. If I seem to be a victim in this story of the hotel it can only be because I still treasure my victim story and through projecting blame I continue to defend it from the healing power of the Christ Mind.
Seeing this so clearly, it was easy enough for me to change my mind. It still took a little effort as the ego continued to try to interest me in finding someone else to blame. But who could I blame? The hotel is not the author of my story. I am the one who put this into play. I used a prayer that I find simple and effective. I surrendered my story and my beliefs to Spirit and accepted His healing grace. He showed me that even after the fact I still was not without choices. I could allow a new vision of the written story. As soon as I made that choice the way I felt about the room changed.
I realized that the stairs were a rare opportunity for exercise. I saw that the outside rooms are under an awning and so protected from weather which we are supposed to have tomorrow. I laughed as I saw that I had a full refrigerator instead of a little hotel fridge and wondered if I wanted to go by some groceries. Well, maybe not, but I do have to take samples that need to be kept cold and this refrigerator would provide plenty of room for that.
More important than my ease with the room, my vision cleared and I saw my own Divine Mind at work within the story and so I saw everyone else in the same way. Christ sees only Christ. Oneness restores peace. Even if the room were a mess I would still have seen the perfection within the mess, because a healed mind sees only perfection and only the movement of Spirit in everything. It is a wonderful thing to be aware of the Christ within, but the only way to do that is to allow it to shine outward and show me the Christ in everyone else.
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