V. The Ego’s Use of Guilt, P 6
6 The ego cannot oppose the laws of God any more than you can, but it can interpret them according to what it wants, just as you can. That is why the question, “What do you want?” must be answered. You are answering it every minute and every second, and each moment of decision is a judgment that is anything but ineffectual. Its effects will follow automatically until the decision is changed. Remember, though, that the alternatives themselves are unalterable. The Holy Spirit, like the ego, is a decision. Together they constitute all the alternatives the mind can accept and obey. The Holy Spirit and the ego are the only choices open to you. God created one, and so you cannot eradicate it. You made the other, and so you can. Only what God creates is irreversible and unchangeable. What you made can always be changed because, when you do not think like God, you are not really thinking at all. Delusional ideas are not real thoughts, although you can believe in them. But you are wrong. The function of thought comes from God and is in God. As part of His Thought, you cannot think apart from Him.
Journal
Just a moment ago I was reading an article by Paul West. He was reminding us that the ego is not a separate thing and it is not an enemy to be vanquished. Paul says this: The ego then is just a cut off part of our own mind that has forgotten it chose the separation to begin with, which the other part of us now blames as the separated cause.
I thought about what Paul said because in this paragraph, Jesus reminds is that the ego is a choice we make and that is what Paul went on to say in his writing. We decide to use the ego to act our thoughts about separation, or we decide to use the Holy Spirit to awaken from separation. That is all that is going on here. We are constantly choosing one or the other, and our life reflects back to us the effects of our choice.
Jesus also reminds us that those are the only two options. There is not a third option in which we choose something else, or in which choose nothing. We decide in every moment if we are going to believe the thoughts that are in alignment with the thoughts we think with God, or if we are going to believe the thoughts that reinforce and continue to build on the idea of separation.
I am free to believe anything I want, but my beliefs do not affect the truth. They do, however affect my peace of mind. For this reason, I choose to believe only the thoughts I think with God. When I notice that I am believing something else, I change my mind. It is easy to tell when my mind has strayed to ego again. The effects of ego thinking are painful. That’s all I need to know about them. If I am uncertain if I am thinking with God or ego, I just ask myself if I am happy.