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SearchWhat is illusion? What of the beauty I see in the world?
Question:
I often wonder what is illusion and what is real? Is it illusion to want to be of service to another? Is it illusion to leave “stability” in order to seek other expressions, only to find that I just wander? I go from one job to another and I find no purpose but the interaction between those I touch or touches me....is this illusion?
I work hard, and do a good job, but still I am restless when work and praise are the only results, so I move on to find what other expressions will teach me something. And there is my beloved husband of over 30 years who sort of flows with it all, and a grown daughter who simply loves and watches her mom bounce from here to there...is this an illusion?
I have a voice within that tells to "settle down, be real" - are you real? I am one who walks a fence all too often, hearing many voices and sometimes realizing that it is the voice of God that i can hear...
Answer:
Thanks for writing and pouring out what is crossing your mind. It is our Purpose to see that there is never, at any moment, a need to attempt any compromise or walk any fence of doubt. Clarity of Identity brings an end to doubt forever, and the Voice for God is ever Present within to Answer any mistaken thought of identity with the Experience of Truth. You are the Christ, Beloved of God forever and ever and ever. Nothing can change the Truth of our Oneness in God, for God creates Eternally in Spirit.
Compromise may seem to be a good thing in the world of dualistic perception, but I offer that Salvation is no compromise of any kind. Truth would not be Truth if there were exceptions to Truth, and there is no middle ground among what seems to be different illusions. The question "What is illusion?" is a version of the question: "What is the ego?" Here is what the Christ Mind expresses in "A Course In Miracles" Manual for Teachers on this subject:
"What is the ego? But a dream of what you really are. A thought you are apart from your Creator and a wish to be what He created not. It is a thing of madness, not reality at all. A name for namelessness is all it is. A symbol of impossibility; a choice for options that do not exist. We name it but to help us understand that it is nothing but an ancient thought that what is made has immortality. But what could come of this except a dream which, like all dreams, can only end in death?
What is the ego? Nothingness, but in a form that seems like something. In a world of form the ego cannot be denied for it alone seems real. Yet could God's Son as He created him abide in form or in a world of form? Who asks you to define the ego and explain how it arose can be but he who thinks it real, and seeks by definition to ensure that its illusive nature is concealed behind the words that seem to make it so.
There is no definition for a lie that serves to make it true. Nor can there be a truth that lies conceal effectively. The ego's unreality is not denied by words nor is its meaning clear because its nature seems to have a form. Who can define the undefinable? And yet there is an answer even here.
We cannot make a definition for what the ego is, but we can say what it is not. And this is shown to us with perfect clarity. It is from this that we deduce all that the ego is. Look at its opposite and you can see the only answer that is meaningful.
The ego's opposite in every way, -- in origin, effect and consequence -- we call a miracle. And here we find all that is not the ego in this world.
Here is the ego's opposite and here alone we look on what the ego was, for here we see all that it seemed to do, and cause and its effects must still be one.
Where there was darkness now we see the light. What is the ego? What the darkness was. Where is the ego? Where the darkness was. What is it now and where can it be found? Nothing and nowhere. Now the light has come: its opposite has gone without a trace. Where evil was there now is holiness.
What is the ego? What the evil was. Where is the ego? In an evil dream that but seemed real while you were dreaming it. Where there was crucifixion stands God's Son. What is the ego? Who has need to ask? Where is the ego? Who has the need to seek for an illusion now that dreams are gone?
What is a Miracle? A dream as well. But look at all the aspects of this dream and you will never question any more. Look at the kindly world you see extend before you as you walk in gentleness. Look at the helpers all along the way you travel, happy in the certainty of Heaven and the surety of peace. And look an instant, too, on what you left behind at last and finally passed by.
This was the ego -- all the cruel hate, the need for vengeance and the cries of pain, the fear of dying and the urge to kill, the brother less illusion and the self that seemed alone in all the universe. This terrible mistake about yourself the miracle corrects as gently as a loving mother sings her child to rest. Is not a song like this what you would hear? Would it not answer all you thought to ask, and even make the question meaningless?
Your questions have no answer, being made to still God's Voice, Which asks of everyone one question only: "Are you ready yet to help Me save the world?" Ask this instead of what the ego is, and you will see a sudden brightness cover up the world the ego made. No miracle is now withheld from anyone. The world is saved from what you thought it was. And what it is, is wholly uncondemned and wholly pure."
The ego is a question that Christ never asked. The mind that seems to have forgotten its Identity and Source is nowhere and nothing - seemingly asleep and dreaming, believing Eternal Love no longer exists. "What am I?" was the first question of the big bang of a time-space cosmos that in truth never happened. The Holy Spirit is the Answer to the impossible identity question and the Answer is the Experience of "I am as God created Me,” and "I am Spirit."
The perceptual world is learned. The perceptual world is transitory and finite. The perceptual world is limited. It is false belief which is seeming layers and layers of make-believe concepts that God did not create. As the ego belief system is questioned and released, you first seem to become aware that you are not the limited concepts and roles that make up the self-concept. These limited identity concepts and roles are the illusion, for the illusion is one of littleness.
Forgiveness offers an alternative to littleness, the big picture of wholeness, a tapestry undivided. A healed mind perceives a healed world, for such a mind serves one Purpose that has been Given from the Holy Spirit. Without a split purpose, the mind is unable to perceive a conflicted world.
"Is it illusion to want to be of service to another?" As one surrenders into the desire to be truly Helpful and Serve as the Holy Spirit directs, it dawns in awareness that there is no "other" but the Christ. “Love ye one another" dissolves into the recognition of Love Thy Self as God created Thy Self. Thy Christ Self is Love ItSelf. Forgiveness of illusion reveals that there is nothing apart from one mind—that there are no private, separate minds.
"Is it illusion to come from stability, to seek other expressions only to find that I just wander?" Following anything the world (or ego) says or defines IS the feeling of wandering. Peace of mind comes from releasing the ego concepts and goals (bigger, better, faster, more, personhood, time, space, private mind, etc.) and accepting forgiveness as the one goal of all seeming effort. The actual experience of the Perspective of forgiveness is without effort and can be thought of as Divine Ease, because the belief in opposites is undone and there is nothing to put forth effort for or against.
"I work hard, and do a good job but still I am restless when work and praise are the only results, so I move on to find what other expressions will teach me." The Holy Spirit has a function that brings only happiness. This Purpose is increasingly applied to everyone and everything, every seeming separate situation, until the misperception of separate people, places, things, events, situations, and linear time dissolves with a Final Miracle of Atonement. The Atonement is one's only responsibility, for It restores the awareness of the Singularity of Mind. Oneness is real and Eternally changeless, and forgiveness is the gateway to the remembrance of What Is without beginning or end.
"And with all there is my beloved husband of over 30 years who sort of flows with it all and a grown daughter who simply loves and watches her mom bounce from here to there loving the world she sees. Is this an illusion?" Christ teaches this: "Who is my father, mother, sister, brother, husband, wife, daughter, son? -- Whosoever knows the Will of our Heavenly Creator knows All as the Family of God in Spirit. No one is more or less special, no one is more or less kin or relation. No one is closer, no one is distant. No one is different in Christ's Holy Presence, for there is none other than the One. Forms which appear to differ are naught but illusion, for Sameness prevails in the Holy Spirit's Perspective.
"I have a voice within that tells me "Settle down, be real...." Are you real?
This Lovely, Kind, Gentle Voice for God always reminds: "Forgive illusions and Be Real, for You are as God created You." Yes, Spirit is Real. Yes, the I Am Presence is real. Yes, I am real, for I am not "David" and there is but One Self -- the Christ. Thanks be to God for creating All is One!!! All Glory to God!!!
Love,
David