III. The Guide to Salvation, P 5
5 Delay is of the ego, because time is its concept. Both time and delay are meaningless in eternity. I have said before that the Holy Spirit is God’s Answer to the ego. Everything of which the Holy Spirit reminds you is in direct opposition to the ego’s notions, because true and false perceptions are themselves opposed. The Holy Spirit has the task of undoing what the ego has made. He undoes it at the same level on which the ego operates, or the mind would be unable to understand the change.
Journal
The reason it is so important for me to be vigilant for my thoughts is so that I can become fully aware of what it is in my mind that needs to change. I see what it is that is disturbing my peace and I decide for peace. This is the Holy Spirit’s invitation to undo what I have done. Without this process of undoing at the level on which the ego operates, I would not understand the change.
I have had the thought that I want the Holy Spirit to just undo everything. I want it to just be over. And anyway, if the world is an illusion why does it matter if I see my judgmental thoughts? Why does it even matter if I change my mind about them? After all, nothing here is real. Why does it need to be undone? Jesus explains the reason in this paragraph. He says, “The Holy Spirit has the task of undoing what the ego has made. He undoes it at the same level on which the ego operates, or the mind would be unable to understand the change.”
At first I would be aware of a judgmental thought and I simply accepted it as true, and if necessary I would think of ways to defend against the judgment. Then, with mind healing, I would see the judgmental thought and I would believe it but think I shouldn’t believe it. So I would think of justifications for not letting it go. With more mind healing, I would notice the judgmental thought, know it could not be true, and ask for healing.
Eventually, I began to realize that there is never justification for judgment and there is never an instant when it benefits me. I have no use for judgment. The judgmental thoughts I notice pass through my mind without even slowing down. Occasionally one will catch my attention, but I never believe I want to keep it. My life feels very different now. I am much more peaceful and happy and I am aware of the reason for this difference.
This change makes all other changes easier. It is leading me to another way to perceive reality. There is no way the mind could jump from the ego way of thinking to the truth without these intermediate steps. It is like a bridge I can walk across a step at a time. I imagine it like this. Suppose I woke up one morning and I was in another place unlike anything I had ever seen.
The place is beautiful and I am happy, but still even if this sudden change didn’t scare the bejeepers out of me, I still wouldn’t understand how it happened. I wouldn’t know how to get back here again, or what it meant that I was here at all. On the other hand, suppose I was led to this place, making wrong turns and finding my way back to the path, seeing what it took to stay on the path, experiencing the effects of wrong turns and right turns. Then I could decide on my own which place I want to be, then I would understand how I got here and know I want to be here and how to stay here.
It is like this with the healing of the mind. We have to take the steps one at a time, using the symbols we understand to finally realize that they really are only symbols. Understanding this and experiencing the difference we know that there is a real world we want and we understand how we reach that world. We learn to doubt the old guide and to trust the new one. When everything changes now, we understand the change.