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SearchHow should I perceive that "illusion of defense" called "the copyright issue"?
Question:
You used to quote the Course often in your answers, appropriately and with perfect love. I used to read your posts in awe, wondering if I had been mistaken by cowering in fear, when I had closed down my own online study groups and websites in fear of the hammer of the law. Now I don’t see Course quotes from you. Does this have anything to do with the illusion of defense which has been called "the copyright issue"? Any thoughts on that veil of
Answer:
Thanks for writing and openly sharing your questions and ponderings. The Holy Spirit recognizes only two orders of thought with regard to this world: love expressed and a call for love. Fear is always a call for love or a call to join. If any seeming situation is perceived correctly, the experience is always peaceful, loving, and joyful. A call for love is always an opportunity to extend love. And, since one cannot extend love without having it to extend, a call for love is an opportunity to be convinced that one HAS love inside and that one IS love. Misperceptions always spring from fear, yet the miracle offers another way of perceiving—the Holy Spirit's Perspective of wholeness. Therefore, every time you feel afraid, this is yet another chance to teach and learn that you already have, and are, what you believe you are lacking. If you believe that you are something that you are not (namely, separate from God), it takes a miracle to release this illusion. In fact, to mind asleep, it seems to take many miracles to "prepare" the mind to welcome and recognize Love without fear. Revelation is fearful to the ego and joyful to the Spirit.
Now let’s apply this approach to the so-called "copyright issue" you mention. The Holy Spirit sees the body—and also words and the Internet—solely as communication devices. These devices mean nothing in and of themselves. These devices are merely a backdrop for teaching and learning, used for transformation of mind, and they are "props" being used by the Holy Spirit to convince the mind that it HAS love and IS love. If one receives a letter from the publisher of copyrighted material asking one to "cease and desist" from an activity or to modify the use of certain words or symbols, this is simply the backdrop for extending love. This is an example of a call to join with the Holy Spirit's Perspective and see that nothing is separate from mind. Free Will is Perfect Happiness, and forgiveness is the reflection of Free Will with regard to the world. The outcome of forgiveness is peace of mind, and forgiveness lets all things be exactly as they are. In forgiveness there is the beatitude of peace, of extending love, and there is no attempt to fix, or change, or control the script of the world (which is past). What one resists will seem to persist in awareness; peace is the experience of forgiveness, of letting all things be exactly as they are.
What could a copyright issue be but yet another opportunity to heal the authority problem of believing that it is possible to create or "author" oneself? The ego made the world, including the concept of personal authors, and every concept of the ego is based in fear and conflict. In forgiveness the Holy Spirit offers an alternative to the ego's demand for a separate, personal identity located in time-space. When we are aligned with the Holy Spirit, symbols (props and words and devices, etc.) that are helpful in serving the Plan of Awakening are Given us. That Which is Given of the Holy Spirit is truly just a Perspective Which sees that all things work together for good. Yet included in this Perspective are the words which Call the mind beyond the personal perspective to the Perspective of the forgiven world. I write and speak the words that the Holy Spirit Gives to share. Sometimes this may include Course quotations, sometimes not. It was the same with Jesus. Sometimes the words he spoke quoted the old testament, sometimes not. The words I receive are firstly and lastly for my mind, though it appears that they are "sent out" to "others." Oneness is the experience that giving and receiving are the same.
You wrote: "Any thoughts on that veil of fear which has impacted us all and silenced so many?" Yes! Fear is the emotion of the ego. Ideas leave not their source, and fear has not left the mind that believed the ego was real. The ego is not a real cause and the world is not a real effect. The world was the ego's attempt to project fear and guilt onto causes in the world or on the screen, so to speak. But nothing of the world is causative. Fear is an illusory emotion, produced from the sleeping mind's belief that separation from God is possible and has actually happened. This is the belief that cause and effect are apart and reversed. Actually nothing that seems to happen to the body "produces" fear, yet the belief in and identification with the body by the mind seems fearful indeed. Forgiveness turns cause and effect back around into proper perspective and sees that mind is causative and that cause and effect are not apart. How does this translate to the "copyright issue" you mention? Since cause and effect are one there is nothing outside of mind. There is no "issue" because there are no "sides" to conflict. Wholeness is harmonious because the Perspective of one tapestry has no parts to conflict and can see no differences. The veil itself is not fearful. It was the ego's attempt to divide the veil into good and bad, right and wrong, heroes and villans, victims and victimizers that produced the illusion of fear. Look at the world with the Holy Spirit and see only a reflection of God's Love.
When one is Open to the experience of Divine Silence to which the Holy Spirit leads, the perception of being silenced by "fear of the hammer of the law" is laughable indeed. "Cowering in fear" is a mistake in identity, a wrong-minded or ego misperception, which is easily Corrected in the miracle. The miracle sees no sides and therefore no issues in the world. A mind upset is the only issue to be healed and as I said at the beginning of this message, properly perceived this is a call for love. Extend the love that is called for and receive the gift of experiencing that you HAVE love and ARE love. There can be no greater gift than to remove the blocks to the awareness of Love's Presence.
I have had wonderful holy encounters with many brothers and sisters from all around over the years, including the President and the Director of Publications of FACIM. They are not the monsters the ego would make them out to be. I call forth witnesses to the Purpose I share with the Holy Spirit, and those witnesses are sweet and loving and peaceful.
Just remember the responsibility for sight the Holy Spirit offers:
I AM responsible for what I see. I choose the feelings I experience, and I decide upon the goal I would achieve. And everything that seems to happen to me I ask for, and receive as I have asked. (T-21.II.2.3, 2nd Edition)
Love & Blessings Sweet One,
David
Question: Thank you for your response. Your words have provided the opportunity for me to look more deeply into my perception of fear through the tightening of the copyright reins.
Without a doubt there is deep-seated fear within me. Even thinking back on the exchanges of emails and phone calls with various representatives of the foundation so long ago (1999) has brought tears to my eyes once more. The feeling is one of betrayal; I was given a gift (the words of Jesus) and was then told that gift wasn't really mine, because I wasn't allowed to freely share those words with others. This is, of course, a perception. I know that in reality I wasn't given words, but ideas. I know that if I go even deeper with that thought, the ideas were always there and I just remembered them when reading the words of the Course.
I believe that what you are suggesting is that I stop using the words of the Course as a crutch to bolster my own mistaken belief that the words themselves hold the authority rather than God. Instead, I should move forward with the ideas. Further, that Holy Spirit will give me whatever words need to be shared to communicate those ideas.
I know the patterns of words constructed into sentences can lead to further separation when used by the ego to protect specialness (like my perception of copyright). By contrast, the words of authority (the Holy Spirit for God) are truly given - not a false gift, given to be taken away.
Thank you for the gifts you've given me. I remain your devoted brother in Christ.
Answer: You are welcome. Thanks for sharing your insights. How blessed is the mind that is willing to look within, expose the fear, and release the fear forever. Nothing can ever take away or change Eternal Love. God Loves Us soooooooooooo. Thank You God.
I love You forever and ever!
David