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SearchDoes the Holy Spirit actually DO things in the world?
Question:
Does the Holy Spirit actually do things in the world?
Answer:
Beloved One, the forgiven world is the Perspective of the Holy Spirit. Look carefully at the phrases "in the world" and "in the dream,” and be open to the realization that there is no world apart from mind. Ideas leave not their source, and the world has not left the mind that made it. What could "in the world" really mean? There is no "objective world" which exists apart from mind. Quantum physics is a witness to the realization that it is impossible to remove the "experiment" from the "mind of the experimenter" just as it is impossible to remove the "observed" from the "mind of the observer." Nothing exists "by itself" in the Perspective of the Holy Spirit. "There is no world apart from your ideas because ideas leave not their source, and you maintain the world within your mind in thought." W-132.10:3
Here is Christ's description in “A Course in Miracles,” of distorted perception or the "darkened glass" spoken of in the Bible. The following perception is NOT the forgiven world Perspective of the Holy Spirit:
You live by symbols. You have made up names for everything you see. Each one becomes a separate entity, identified by its own name. By this you carve it out of unity. By this you designate its special attributes, and set it off from other things by emphasizing space surrounding it. This space you lay between all things to which you give a different name; all happenings in terms of place and time; all bodies which are greeted by a name. This space you see as setting off all things from one another is the means by which the world's perception is achieved. You see something where nothing is, and see as well nothing where there is unity; a space between all things, between all things and you. Thus do you think that you have given life in separation. By this split you think you are established as a unity which functions with an independent will. What are these names by which the world becomes a series of discrete events, of things ununified, of bodies kept apart and holding bits of mind as separate awarenesses? You gave these names to them, establishing perception as you wished to have perception be. W-184.I
The UNDOING of the belief that mind and manifestation of mind are different; that inner and outer are different, is the entire focus of the Workbook of ACIM. Remember, complete forgiveness or Atonement is the only goal there is, and acceptance of this Correction is the ONLY responsibility there is. It is impossible to pull a thread out of the tapestry of the cosmos, give it a name and a meaning, and set it apart as something that has meaning in and of itself. Forgiveness is the realization that mind is singular and has no levels or aspects or hierarchies of illusion. Wholeness has no parts. Divine Mind is One, and the Holy Spirit's Perspective (cosmos as one) reflects the Oneness of Heaven.
Some examples of the Holy Spirit's teaching include:
"Yet what is by itself? And what does 'in itself'mean? You see a lot of separate things about you, which really means you are not seeing at all. You either see or not. When you have seen one thing differently, you will see all things differently." W-28.2:3-7
"If you can accept the concept that the world is one of ideas, the whole belief in the false association the ego makes between giving and losing is gone." T-5.I.1:14
"The idea for today, like the preceding ones, applies to your inner and outer worlds, which are actually the same." W-32.2
"I am alone in nothing. Everything I think or say or do teaches all the universe. A Son of God cannot think or speak or act in vain. He cannot be alone in anything. It is therefore in my power to change every mind along with mine, for mine is the power of God." W-54.4:2-6
A movie projector/theater analogy may be helpful here. In the projector room, inside the projector, is this glowing, brilliant, radiant light. That's a great metaphor for the Holy Spirit. That brilliant light SEEMS to pass through the film, which is filled with a lot of dark images. We'll call those dark images "attack thoughts" or "ego thoughts." As these thoughts are projected, what seems to be produced on the theater screen are shadows. To the sleeping mind watching the movie, these shadows appear to have meaning. However, the only meaning the movie seems to have is given to it by the sleeping mind, which has forgotten that what it sees is just a movie. It has identified with figures on the screen and thought of itself as a person among other persons. The only meaning the dream of the world seems to have is given to it by the ego, which has forgotten Christ and has made up a substitute "reality" and "identity" to take the place of Heaven. It has identified with dream figures in the dream and thought of itself as a person among other persons.
The world perceived through the body's eyes and heard through the body's ears is a screen of images. The world is just the shadowy reflection of the attack thoughts in the deceived mind. If one becomes aware of these attack thoughts and is willing to let them be released, one is willing to clean the film up, so to speak, and let go of the judgments that block the light from awareness. Miracles entail the willingness to let the light shine without obstruction. When this happens, the screen is going to SEEM to light up more and more. The world will reflect the light in one's mind, for there is no world apart from mind.
As the mind lets go of the ego belief system of separation/distorted perception, it opens up to the Holy Spirit's Perspective, Which reflects healed perception. This is a Perspective Which reflects Love and Oneness and offers a whole interpretation of the cosmos. As the mind is now in accord the Holy Spirit's Perspective, the cosmos is a moment of unified witness to Abstract Love. Thus, to experience that there is no world apart from mind is to be open to the remembrance of Abstract, Eternal Oneness, Which has no opposite. Truth simply Is.
A sleeping mind has to be willing to give up judgment, or more accurately, see the impossibility of judgment. The reason a sleeping mind seems to experience hot and cold, pain and pleasure, sickness and health, war and peace, death and life and all the variations, degrees, and extremes of the world, is simply because of judgment. Judgment breaks apart and fragments. Let me use the thought of unity as a contrast. Just think of the word "unity." One. Oneness. Union. An unbroken continuity. The circle is a great symbol of unity; no beginning, no end, no duality, just one. The deceived mind looks about the world, the world perceived through the body's senses, and experiences fragmentation and duality. How does one reconcile duality with unity? They are not reconcilable. The Holy Spirit's function is to replace duality and misperception with healed or true perception, which is the bridge to Unity or Oneness. This function is already accomplished and need only be accepted as complete to be experienced as such.
The Holy Spirit SEEMS to infuse through the ego belief system, so to speak, and reach the sleeping mind in "what" and "where" and "when" it believes it is. Let's say that it SEEMS to be questioning its beliefs about everything. Well, what's on the screen of perception is just a motion picture of those beliefs. It seems like there is still a person who continues to do things in linear time—that is the dream or the story. That's the false interpretation or misperception of One Christ Self as a person in the world. This person may say, ”I seem to be getting more peaceful" or "I seem to be getting more upset." Do you see that that is simply a false interpretation? Who is the "I" that seems to be getting more peaceful? Who is the "I" that seems to be getting more upset? The "I" in these examples is just a false interpretation or misperception. Yet the right mind is the Perspective of the Holy Spirit, the Point of Clarity that experiences all as mind. The "individual" or "personal" misperception has dissolved away entirely in the Light of Love.
Time and process are the same illusion. The Holy Spirit SEEMS to be judgmental in the deceived mind, which SEEMS to undergo the "process" of sorting out the two thought systems: love and fear. Here's an example of how that SEEMS to play out: one tunes in to the Spirit and is quiet. One wants so much to join with the Spirit and has a strong willingness. Thoughts that still involve form come to mind, thoughts to call so and so, to meet with someone, to leave this job, to take that job, etc. Obviously, those thoughts are still form thoughts. But the Holy Spirit understands that the deceived, split mind still BELIEVES it is a person in a world. The false belief system takes the form of projected shadows on the screen of the world, an out-picturing of dark beliefs. The Holy Spirit is working with the mind (for mind is all there is) to let go of the false belief that is SEEMING to project a cosmos of time-space. And so, the mind feels disoriented as it starts to loosen and to question this highly protected and defended false belief (i.e.,”I'm not so sure, anymore, that I am a wife or a mother or a man or a construction worker or an American, etc. I'm not so sure what I am."). Symbolically, things still SEEM to be "happening" on the screen, but these are just the interpretations misperceptions of the deceived mind about itself.
The Holy Spirit isn't working "in the world,” but is working with the mind (for mind is all there is) that "thinks it is in the world" so it can first realize that it made up the world (ie., I have invented the world I see. W-57.2). Once the mind has released the attempt to project the error of separation "outward" (ie., as a cosmos apart from it), it accepts the Atonement and realizes that there is nothing outside of mind. Healed perception and Atonement are identical. Do you see how this is completely different from saying,”Spirit, come into the world and change the circumstances—find me a parking space, help me win the lottery, heal my body, etc.?" In Atonement, illusion has been brought to truth, darkness has been brought to light. It IS error to retain the belief that the Holy Spirit can change an "objective" world that is "outside." When attack thoughts have been released, the awareness of wholeness (the forgiven world as all-inclusive mind) is apparent.
There is no point in lamenting the world. There is no point in trying to change the world. It is incapable of change because it is merely an effect. But there is indeed a point in changing your thoughts about the world. Here you are changing the cause. The effect will change automatically. W-23.2:2-7
In gentle laughter does the Holy Spirit perceive the cause, and looks not to effects. How else could He correct your error, who have overlooked the cause entirely? He bids you bring each terrible effect to Him that you may look together on its foolish cause and laugh with Him a while. YOU judge effects, but HE has judged their cause. And by His judgment are effects removed. T-27.VIII.9:1-5
The world you see is a vengeful world, and everything in it is a symbol of vengeance. Each of your perceptions of "external reality" is a pictorial representation of your own attack thoughts. One can well ask if this can be called seeing. Is not fantasy a better word for such a process, and hallucination a more appropriate term for the result? You see the world that you have made, but you do not see yourself as the image maker. You cannot be saved from the world, but you can escape from its cause. This is what salvation means, for where is the world you see when its cause is gone? Vision already holds a replacement for everything you think you see now. Loveliness can light your images, and so transform them that you will love them, even though they were made of hate. For you will not be making them alone. The idea for today introduces the thought that you are not trapped in the world you see, because its cause can be changed. This change requires, first, that the cause be identified and then let go, so that it can be replaced. The first two steps in this process require your cooperation. The final one does not. Your images have already been replaced. By taking the first two steps, you will see that this is so. W-23.3-5
In summary, with regard to the false belief that the Holy Spirit does things "in the world,” I offer this. The ego is the belief in the concrete and specific and can ONLY misinterpret the dream of the cosmos. Yet the Holy Spirit does not "come into" the world/cosmos. Truth does not come into illusions. The Holy Spirit shines away false belief as it is brought to, or raised to Light. There is actually no "activity" or "doing" in forgiveness. Forgiveness calmly, passively shines, seeing the false as false: "Forgiveness, on the other hand, is still, and quietly does nothing. … It merely looks, and waits, and judges not." W-pII.1.4
A miracle is a correction. It does not create, nor really change at all. It merely looks on devastation, and reminds the mind that what it sees is false. It undoes error, but does not attempt to go beyond perception, nor exceed the function of forgiveness. Thus it stays within time's limits. Yet it paves the way for the return of timelessness and love's awakening, for fear must slip away under the gentle remedy it brings. W-pII.13.1:1-6
The Holy Spirit thus works with the mind to entirely let go of the false belief system of ego. The ego is the interpretation of One Self "as a body in a world external to the body,” and thus it is the ego which attributes situations and events to Spirit, such as,”Spirit found me (body) a parking space." or "Spirit helped me (body) to lose 20 pounds." These interpretations are "personal" interpretations as if the Holy Spirit was actually "working with" separate bodies, objects, events, and situations instead of the sleeping mind, which believes in these specifics. The Holy Spirit (or Spiritual Eye, as in "Let thine eye be single") does not perceive the world the way it is perceived with the body's eyes. The forgiven world Perspective of the Holy Spirit is not "personal" at all, for It is all-inclusive and whole.
Peace & Blessings,
David