ACIM IV. This Need Not Be, P 8, 9. You are a mirror of truth, in which God Himself shines in perfect light.
ACIM Chapter 4, IV. This Need Not Be, 8, 9
IV. This Need Not Be, P 8
8 Have you really considered how many opportunities you have had to gladden yourself, and how many of them you have refused? There is no limit to the power of a Son of God, but he can limit the expression of his power as much as he chooses. Your mind and mine can unite in shining your ego away, releasing the strength of God into everything you think and do. Do not settle for anything less than this, and refuse to accept anything but this as your goal. Watch your mind carefully for any beliefs that hinder its accomplishment, and step away from them. Judge how well you have done this by your own feelings, for this is the one right use of judgment. Judgment, like any other defense, can be used to attack or protect; to hurt or to heal. The ego should be brought to judgment and found wanting there. Without your own allegiance, protection and love, the ego cannot exist. Let it be judged truly and you must withdraw allegiance, protection and love from it.
The Right Use of Judgment
“Your mind and mine can unite in shining your ego away, releasing the strength of God into everything you think and do.” This is my job, my purpose, my goal. This is what I do all day, every day. I am alert for the ego thinking and am willing to step away from it when I notice it. Often it is my emotions that let me know I am thinking with the ego mind rather than with God. Jesus says that judging the ego as not something I want is the right use of judgment.
The following is from an older journal. It happened several years ago. This issue has been completely healed but it is a good example and so I am using it.
The Problem
Last night I had an opportunity to do this. I was part of a group text with my girls and one of them said something that triggered a reaction in me. It seemed to me she was being critical and unkind, and her comment felt like a knife piercing my heart. I felt angry and hurt. At the same time I felt these emotions, an “ego alert” went through my mind and so as I was experiencing these feelings, I also watched my thoughts.
I questioned my reaction. My daughter seemed to be deliberately rude and unkind. Is that true? I don’t know but it seems unlikely since normally she seems to love me. Maybe she was simply expressing herself in the same way she does to other people. Maybe sarcasm and sharply pointed words are just her way of making a point. Actually, I think these things are true about her, and I think maybe I had touched on something that triggers fear in her and she doesn’t like it so she tries to shut it down quickly and completely. It is not about me, but about her.
The Cause
So why is it that I reacted so strongly to her comments? I didn’t know and had to ask the Holy Spirit what He wanted me to see. Suddenly I remembered that I used to do this to my mom. Also, I remembered how I thought I knew so much more than her when I was younger and I often spoke to her disrespectfully and unkindly. Two things were being triggered by my daughter’s comments to me.
One was the guilt I obviously still carried concerning my mother. I let that guilt come up and had a good cry. Such strong emotion! I could have sworn I had forgiven all that, but there it was, undeniable in its strength of emotion. I asked the Holy Spirit to heal my mind of the belief in guilt. This is how we shine the ego away.
The second thing that was triggered was a result of the guilt I felt about my behavior to my mom. I was always afraid that my kids felt the same contempt for me that I had sometimes felt for my mom. This was why I had such a visceral reaction to my daughter’s comments. I was afraid I was guilty and deserving of punishment, and my daughter’s words seemed to prove I was right. This fear is very strong in me. When my kids treat me with the love and respect that I don’t believe I deserve I am at the least surprised, and sometimes even suspicious.
Receiving Help
Once the Holy Spirit helped me to look honestly at my feelings and my thoughts I asked Him to help me see differently. I had wanted to change the way my daughter speaks to me but now with the Holy Spirit joining with me, I felt the strength of that joining and right-minded thoughts came to me. The solution to my problem was not going to be in blaming my daughter or changing her mind. The solution was to forgive myself and to accept the truth that I am that I am, and that does not change according to someone else’s judgment of me, or even my own judgment.
I can choose to feel bad about myself, but I remain forever innocent.
After giving myself time to accept God’s judgment of me, I was able to see my daughter differently. I was able to see her need for me to be different with compassionate understanding. Didn’t I just go through the same thing with her? I had wanted to make her see me differently, or at least to talk about me behind my back where I wouldn’t have to look at my own fears and guilt. It always amazes me that simply forgiving something takes all the sting out of it. Suddenly hurtful words are just words.
Last night I withdrew my allegiance and my protection from the ego. I accomplished my one goal. I did this because I have learned to be vigilant for the ego, and I have carefully nurtured my willingness to be healed. Joining with the Holy Spirit for this purpose, together our strength overcame the part of me that was still attached to the story and the ego thinking in this situation. I am grateful.
IV. This Need Not Be, P 9
9 You are a mirror of truth, in which God Himself shines in perfect light. To the ego’s dark glass you need but say, “I will not look there because I know these images are not true.” Then let the Holy One shine on you in peace, knowing that this and only this must be. His Mind shone on you in your creation and brought your mind into being. His Mind still shines on you and must shine through you. Your ego cannot prevent Him from shining on you, but it can prevent you from letting Him shine through you.
I am so grateful to know that I am a mirror of God’s perfect light. I have been aware for awhile that everyone and everything my eyes show me is a reflection of what I believe about myself. But it is not the truth of what I am, only the ego’s dark dream of itself. If I am actually a mirrored image of God, what I see can only be an illusion born of idle wishes to experience something else. I am not that.
What does the ego’s dark glass show me? I see my brother or sister as guilty. How could this be? God created them innocent and what He creates is certain and never changing. When I see guilt in my brother or my sister I know this could not be true. Then I sit in peace and allow the Holy Spirit to shine on me and the darkness is gone. I see my brother and sister as they truly are.
The Ego’s Dark Glass
When I seem to be in pain, or someone else I know seems to be in pain, I am looking at the ego’s dark glass and I can change my mind knowing that this could not be true. Pain is not part of God and so it cannot be. Let me sit in peace and allow the Light to shine away this dark vision. I feel rejected and abandoned. I know this cannot be a true reflection so I ask that the Light of God shine away the darkness. Rejection and abandonment are reflections from a sick mind, and I gladly accept healing from the Holy Spirit.
God’s Mind shone on me in my creation and brought my mind into being. If God’s Mind shone on mine then it must still shine on my mind because God does not take back His gifts. Everything in our world is unreliable, unpredictable, and unstable and so we have trouble envisioning something that does not vary. We have nothing with which to relate it. What in this world can we depend on? Even the earth itself is heading toward its own annihilation. But God is and that will never change. What God creates remains as it was created.
Free to Change My Mind
Because God created us like Himself, we are free and so while we cannot undo creation, and so we cannot prevent God from shining on us, we are free to deny it. When we deny the light we are unaware of what it would show us. This is the reason I can pretend to feel something God did not create and then convince myself that it is really happening.
My denial blocks the light that reveals the truth, and heals the mind that has blinded itself. But since I am the one who chose to be unaware of the perfect light that never ceases to shine on me, I am also free to change my mind. I do this by looking away from the dark reflection, refusing to believe it in spite of appearances. I look away from what I have done, and toward what God has done.
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