ACIM Chapter 12. I. The Judgment of the Holy Spirit, P 2-4

ACIM Chapter 12. I. The Judgment of the Holy Spirit, P 2-4

I. The Judgment of the Holy Spirit, P 2

2 The analysis of ego motivation is very complicated, very obscuring, and never without your own ego involvement. The whole process represents a clear-cut attempt to demonstrate your own ability to understand what you perceive. This is shown by the fact that you react to your interpretations as if they were correct. You may then control your reactions behaviorally, but not emotionally. This would obviously be a split or an attack on the integrity of your mind, pitting one level within it against another.

I am very aware of this ego process. Here is an example: I have a heated conversation with a family member. I think about what happened and try to figure out why I said what I did and why they responded in the way they did. The ego interprets the conversation from both sides, and I believe what I think about it.

I reason that I now understand the motivations and so I attempt to correct the situation by controlling my reactions. Because there was no healing of the mind, and because I was still using the ego to solve the problem as I saw it, I may be able to control my reactions behaviorally, but not emotionally. 

There are two problems I anticipate.

The first is that the emotions will bubble out at some point. Maybe not right away, but eventually. At least, that has been my experience. Jesus talks about the second, very serious problem: I have split my mind, pitting one level against another. This is an attack on the integrity of my mind. On an unconscious level this must be creating extreme unease. On a conscious level, I am conflicted because I am doing what I don’t really want to do.

My experience has been that, being aware of this mental process, I can stop it by asking for the Holy Spirit’s interpretation instead of the ego’s interpretation. This is very simple and easy to do and can occur in an instant, right in the middle of whatever chaos my unhealed mind has created. I also notice that I am becoming intolerant of a lack of peace, so I really want to know the truth.

My sincere desire for healing can turn the situation around instantly. Or I can forget that I must give up conflict for all time, and I can stubbornly insist that the ego has the answer I want. It is entirely up to me. I am learning that the whole process represents a clear-cut attempt to demonstrate my own ability to understand what I perceive, and this is a lost cause with suffering the inevitable outcome. The more vigilant I become for this kind of self-deception, the easier it is to make the better choice.

I. The Judgment of the Holy Spirit, P 3

3 There is but one interpretation of motivation that makes any sense. And because it is the Holy Spirit’s judgment it requires no effort at all on your part. Every loving thought is true. Everything else is an appeal for healing and help, regardless of the form it takes. Can anyone be justified in responding with anger to a brother’s plea for help? No response can be appropriate except the willingness to give it to him, for this and only this is what he is asking for. Offer him anything else, and you are assuming the right to attack his reality by interpreting it as you see fit. Perhaps the danger of this to your own mind is not yet fully apparent. If you believe that an appeal for help is something else you will react to something else. Your response will therefore be inappropriate to reality as it is, but not to your perception of it.

This is one of my favorite paragraphs in the Text.

I felt the truth in it from my first reading, though I did not understand or accept it to the degree that I do now. “Every loving thought is true. Everything else is an appeal for healing and help, regardless of the form it takes.” These are words to live by, and truly, I do try to live by them. Though I don’t always succeed at first, I always get there eventually.

I want to see my brother as Christ. I want to recognize that his behavior is not a reflection of who he is. It is only a reflection of the confusion in his mind. And I want always to recognize that bad behavior is a call for love. And that is all the meaning I want to give it. Like me, this brother of mine longs for love. But he doesn’t really remember how to get it or even that this is his goal. To the degree I can remember my purpose, I can remember for him. And so I can offer him the miracle of healing.

Jesus tells us this:

“No response can be appropriate except the willingness to give it to him, for this and only this is what he is asking for.” No matter what his seeming offense is, the request is for love, and love is the only appropriate response. It helps to remember that there are only two emotions: love and fear. So, when someone is rude or insulting when they seem to betray or act in hateful ways, they are only expressing the fear they feel, and they feel fear because they don’t know they are loved. Love is what they are asking for, so how could I offer them anything else?

If I react in defense of myself, it is only because I have forgotten that I am loved. When this happens, I feel defensive. This is a call for love. I don’t have to wait for someone to recognize it as such and give me the love I am calling for. I can accept the healing the Holy Spirit holds out to me and know myself as the Love I am. Lesson 367 says, “Behold his sinlessness, and be you healed.” If I react to my brother’s error, I will be as confused as he. But, as I see my brother sinless, I will be healed.

I. The Judgment of the Holy Spirit, P 4

4 There is nothing to prevent you from recognizing all calls for help as exactly what they are except your own imagined need to attack. It is only this that makes you willing to engage in endless “battles” with reality, in which you deny the reality of the need for healing by making it unreal. You would not do this except for your unwillingness to accept reality as it is, and which you therefore withhold from yourself.

When someone thinks they are attacking me, I don’t have to see it that way. When I was still working, I was given many opportunities to practice this. I did this until I finally chose to let the Holy Spirit interpret everything for me. For instance, if I failed to do something at work and my boss reprimanded me for that. At first, I would see it as an attack. I was afraid I had lost value in his view and that maybe I could get fired.

I would imagine my image, who I thought I was, had value, and it was being threatened. And this made me think that I needed to defend it. Eventually, with the Holy Spirit’s guidance, I learned to see it differently. I was learning to question my identity as a body/personality and thus lost interest in defending it. So, I became open to seeing that he might be right.  Sure, I could go to war with him to prove I was right. Or I could ask what I could do to correct the problem.

What determines my response to a perceived attack?

It is never about what actually happened, nor is it about the other person. My response is always a reflection of my view of reality. In reality, I cannot be attacked. I am Love and perfect and part of God. I am invulnerable. When I see myself as attacked and in need of defense, I have questioned reality and decided against it. I have convinced myself I am something I could never be and that imagined thing is vulnerable and weak, and so, in need of constant defense.

When I accept my true reality, I lose my need to defend. I simply hear what is being said as love or a call for love, and whichever it is, I answer with love. If my boss is unhappy with my performance, either he is giving me valuable information I can use to correct the problem, or he is projecting his fear onto me. Either way, I know what to do. Once I had noticed this knee-jerk reaction to any criticism my boss made of me, I asked the Holy Spirit to help me with this. I didn’t need to analyze it; I just turned the situation over and expected correction.

One day, something happened that let me know everything was changing.

 I noticed my boss outside my door watching as I was typing out a letter. Then he said, “After all these years, you would think you could type a little faster.” Immediately, I laughed. I told him that the worst part is that not only do I type slowly, but I also type badly. This was a complete turnaround from the way I used to react to his comments. I didn’t change my behavior, just my mind. I chose to see love, and that is what I saw. Thus, I was teaching myself to recognize reality.

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