ACIM Chapter 6. II.The Alternative to Projection P 12, 13

ACIM II. The Alternative to Projection P 12, 13. The difference between the ego’s projection and the Holy Spirit’s extension is very simple.

II. The Alternative to Projection, P 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 minds, 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 deliberately chosen to look through the ego perception rather than 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 ego lens, we will always see separation, which will show us war. Looking through the single lens of Spirit, we will always see One, which will show us peace.

Here is a simple example from when I was still working.

I got to my favorite hotel to discover they were in the middle of construction and so had limited rooms available. As a result, I was given a room upstairs and on the outside. Whereas I usually stayed downstairs and was always on the inside. As it turns out, my preference for rooms seems 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 ego lens and saw them as separate from me. It became clear that I had an objective: to be in the room I wanted. 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.

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, and I doubt anyone else noticed. I am not so insane that I am permanently attached to my thoughts. Vigilance being my habit, I was very aware of them and chose to change them because I didn’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 the 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 Holy Spirit.

Seeing this so clearly made it easy 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. It is I who put this into play. I used a prayer that I find simple and effective. I surrendered my story and 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. And I laughed as I saw that I had a full refrigerator instead of a little hotel fridge and wondered if I wanted to buy 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, 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 wonderful 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.

II. The Alternative to Projection, P 13

13 The Holy Spirit was given you with perfect impartiality, and only by recognizing Him impartially can you recognize Him at all. The ego is legion, but the Holy Spirit is one. No darkness abides anywhere in the Kingdom, but your part is only to allow no darkness to abide in your own mind. This alignment with light is unlimited, because it is in alignment with the light of the world. Each of us is the light of the world, and by joining our minds in this light we proclaim the Kingdom of God together and as one.

We are being told in this section, over and over in many ways, that in the Kingdom of God, there is only light, and there is only one. As we begin to awaken to the truth, we will find ourselves in this Kingdom, and obviously, we cannot bring our thoughts of separation and darkness with us. This is our job now, the way we awaken. We must let go of those beliefs that keep us in the dark.

Holy Spirit is one.

I cannot recognize Spirit if I want to see It only where I choose. At first, I had wanted to see the hotel personnel outside of Holy Spirit. I wanted them to be guilty and wrong. My thoughts were dark. My job was to recognize the error and to allow my mind to be healed of the belief that they could be anything but holy. Then, I was only grateful for my room and the people who provided it. I did my job when I changed my mind about what I wanted to be true, and the Holy Spirit did His job when He answered my prayer and healed my mind.

Sometimes, I read about some awful crime or see someone who seems very deeply into the ego. I wonder how we are ever going to awaken. I know someone who is very religious and who thinks that the greatest expression of his belief in God is his fear of God. He would be afraid not to be afraid of God.

I am sure I must have felt that way before, and maybe some of that is still left, buried deep in my mind. I don’t know because none of it is conscious. But the degree of his fear and his belief that this is what God wants from him is so intense; I look at it and wonder how we will awaken from this. And I know he is a part of myself, a representative of the mind that we are, and he is just expressing the part of our mind that believes in the fear of God. So, this belief is alive and well in the mind and must be healed before we return our minds to the Kingdom. 

As I wonder how many eons it will take, I become discouraged.

Jesus is telling me not to worry about that. He says that my job is to allow no darkness to abide in my own mind. I’m glad that is my only job because it keeps me plenty busy. I am reminded that I am awake, that this is only a journey of remembering.  

This is also true for my confused friend and those who lash out in their fear and confusion and believe that they must hurt others. The light is in all our minds because it is in the mind. All we are doing is deciding we want to remember that we want to be awake. The plan is in place, and it is perfect. When I question it and doubt it, I am the one confused, and this is a bit of darkness I can give to Spirit in gratitude for my healing.

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