I
have said that the abilities you possess are only shadows of your real strength, and that
perception, which is inherently judgmental, was introduced only after the separation. No
one has been sure of anything since. I have also made it clear that the resurrection was
the means for the return to knowledge, which was accomplished by the union of my will with
the Father’s. We can now establish a distinction that will clarify some of our
subsequent statements.
Since
the separation, the words “create” and “make” have become confused.
When you make something, you do so out of a specific sense of lack or need. Anything made
for a specific purpose has no true generalizability. When you make something to fill a
perceived lack, you are tacitly implying that you believe in separation. The ego has
invented many ingenious thought systems for this purpose. None of them is creative.
Inventiveness is wasted effort even in its most ingenious form. The highly specific nature
of invention is not worthy of the abstract creativity of God's creations.
Knowing,
as we have already observed, does not lead to doing. The confusion between your real
creation and what you have made of yourself is so profound that it has become literally
impossible for you to know anything. Knowledge is always stable, and it is quite evident
that you are not. Nevertheless, you are perfectly stable as God created you. In this
sense, when your behavior is unstable, you are disagreeing with God’s Idea of your
creation. You can do this if you choose, but you would hardly want to do it if you were in
your right mind.
The
fundamental question you continually ask yourself cannot properly be directed to yourself
at all. You keep asking what it is you are. This implies that the answer is not only one
you know, but is also one that is up to you to supply. Yet you cannot perceive yourself
correctly. You have no image to be perceived. The word “image” is always
perception-related, and not a part of knowledge. Images are symbolic and stand for
something else. The idea of “changing your image” recognizes the power of
perception, but also implies that there is nothing stable to know.
Knowing
is not open to interpretation. You may try to “interpret” meaning, but this is
always open to error because it refers to the perception of
meaning. Such incongruities are the result of attempts to regard yourself as separated and
un-separated at the same time. It is impossible to make so fundamental a confusion without
increasing your overall confusion still further. Your mind may have become very ingenious,
but as always happens when method and content are separated, it is utilized in a futile
attempt to escape from an inescapable impasse. Ingenuity is totally divorced from
knowledge, because knowledge does not require ingenuity. Ingenious thinking is not
the truth that shall set you free, but you are free of the need to engage in it when you
are willing to let it go.
Prayer
is a way of asking for something. It is the medium of miracles. But the only meaningful
prayer is for forgiveness, because those who have been forgiven have everything. Once
forgiveness has been accepted, prayer in the usual sense becomes utterly meaningless. The
prayer for forgiveness is nothing more than a request that you may be able to recognize
what you already have. In electing perception instead of knowledge, you placed yourself in
a position where you could resemble your Father only by perceiving miraculously. You have
lost the knowledge that you yourself are a miracle of God. Creation is your Source and
your only real function.
The
statement “God created man in his own image and likeness” needs
reinterpretation. “Image” can be understood as “thought,” and
“likeness” as “of a like quality.” God did create spirit in His Own
Thought and of a quality like to His Own. There is nothing else.
Perception, on the other hand, is impossible without a belief in “more” and
“less.” At every level it involves selectivity. Perception is a continual
process of accepting and rejecting, organizing and reorganizing, shifting and changing.
Evaluation is an essential part of perception, because judgments are necessary in order to
select.
What
happens to perceptions if there are no judgments and nothing but perfect equality?
Perception becomes impossible. Truth can only be known. All of it is equally true, and
knowing any part of it is to know all of it. Only perception involves partial awareness.
Knowledge transcends the laws governing perception, because partial knowledge is
impossible. It is all one and has no separate parts. You who are really one with it need
but know yourself and your knowledge is complete. To know God’s miracle is to know
Him.
Forgiveness
is the healing of the perception of separation. Correct perception of your brother is
necessary, because minds have chosen to see themselves as separate. Spirit knows God
completely. That is its miraculous power. The fact that each one has this power completely
is a condition entirely alien to the world’s thinking. The world believes that if
anyone has everything, there is nothing left. But God’s miracles are as total as His
Thoughts because they are His Thoughts.
As
long as perception lasts prayer has a place. Since perception rests on lack, those who
perceive have not totally accepted the Atonement and given themselves over to truth.
Perception is based on a separated state, so that anyone who perceives at all needs
healing. Communion, not prayer, is the natural state of those who know. God and His
miracle are inseparable. How beautiful indeed are the Thoughts of God who live in His
Light! Your worth is beyond perception because it is beyond doubt. Do not perceive
yourself in different lights. Know yourself in the One Light where the miracle that is you
is perfectly clear.
A Course in Miracles
Chapter 3 |