Right or Happy
Do you prefer that you be right or happy?
Posted by aplecompte on March 9th, 2010
While lack does not exist in the creation of God, it is very apparent in what you have made. It is, in fact, the essential difference between them. Lack implies that you would be better off in a state somehow different from the one you are in. Until the "separation," which is the meaning of the "fall," nothing was lacking. There were no needs at all. Needs arise only when you deprive yourself. You act according to the particular order of needs you establish. This, in turn, depends on your perception of what you are. A sense of separation from God is the only lack you really need correct. T-1.VI
"Self-esteem" in ego terms means nothing more than that the ego has deluded itself into accepting its reality. Appetites are "getting" mechanisms, representing the ego's need to confirm itself. The ego tries to satisfy itself through the body. T-4.II The body seeks in many ways to prove it is autonomous and real. It works to get paper strips, doing senseless things, and tosses them away for senseless things it does not need and does not even want. The "hero" of this dream will never change, nor will its purpose. T-27.VIII Power, fame, money, physical pleasure; who is the "hero" to whom all these things belong? Could they mean anything except to a body? By seeking after such things the mind associates itself with the body, obscuring its Identity and losing sight of what it really is. M-13
When you let your mind be drawn to bodily concerns, to things you buy, to eminence as valued by the world, you ask for sorrow, not for happiness. There is no in between. Each choice you make brings everything to you or nothing. Choose a thing that will last forever. Heaven itself is reached with empty hands and open minds. W-133
You have made of your reality an idol. T-29.VII Idols are but substitutes for your reality. In some way, you believe they will complete your little self. An idol is a false impression, or a false belief; some form of anti-Christ, that constitutes a gap between the Christ and what you see. Its purpose is to separate your brother from yourself. Each worshipper of idols harbors hope his special deities will give him more than other men possess. It must be more. An idol is a means for getting more. And it is this that is against God's Will. Every living thing is a part of you, as of Himself. God has not many Sons, but only One. Who can have more, and who be given less? T-29.VIII The slave of idols is a willing slave. Seek not to retain the toys of children. Put them all away. T-29.IX
Idols are quite specific. Idols are limits. They are the belief that there are forms that will bring happiness, and that, by limiting, is all attained. Decide for idols and you ask for loss. To seek a special person or a thing to add to you to make yourself complete, can only mean that you believe some form is missing. For sin is the idea you are alone and separated off from what is whole. And thus it would be necessary for the search for wholeness to be made beyond the boundaries of limits on yourself. T-30.III
Seek not outside yourself. All your pain comes simply from a futile search for what you want. Do you prefer that you be right or happy? Whenever you attempt to reach a goal in which the body's betterment is cast as major beneficiary, you try to bring about your death. All idols of this world were made to keep the truth within from being known to you, and to maintain allegiance to the dream that you must find what is outside yourself to be complete and happy. To change all this you need but to decide you do not know the purpose of the world. T-29.VII
You will attack what does not satisfy, and thus you will not see you made it up. Attack has power to make illusions real. Idols were made that the truth might be forgotten. Decide one very simple thing; you do not want whatever you believe an idol gives. Seek no longer for the things you do not want. Seek no more to substitute the strength of idle wishes for the Will of God. T-30.IV
The purpose of the world is idolatry. Idols bring only guilt. Guilt is the sole cause of pain in any form. Idols are nothing and nowhere, and are purposeless. Guilt and sin are meaningless. T-30.V
The ego wants to have things for salvation, for possession is its law. Everything the ego tells you that you need will hurt you. For what you think you need will merely serve to tighten up your world against the light. T-13.VII
Asking-out-of-need always involves feelings of weakness and inadequacy, and could never be made by a Son of God who knows Who he is, his Identity. S-1.II The secret of true prayer is to forget the things you think you need. S-1.I.4
The world you see holds nothing that you need to offer you; nothing that you can use in any way, nor anything at all that serves to give you joy. Each thing you value here is but a chain that binds you to the world. The only purpose worthy of your mind this world contains is that you pass it by, without delaying to perceive some hope where there is none. Let nothing that relates to body thoughts delay your progress to salvation. W-128
The different kinds of "laws" we have believed we must obey would include, for example, the "laws" of nutrition, of immunization, of medication, and of the body's protection in innumerable ways. Think further; you believe in the "laws" of friendship, of "good" relationships and reciprocity. There are no laws but God's. Dismiss all foolish magical beliefs today. W-76
You have spent your life in bringing truth to illusion, in complete insanity. T-18.III Bringing illusion to truth, or the ego to God, is the Holy Spirit's only function. T-14.IX.1.4 [forgiveness] Only the Holy Spirit knows what you need. Leave, then, your needs to Him. T-13.VII The Holy Spirit bids you bring each terrible effect to Him that you may look together on its foolish cause and laugh. T-27.VIII
Your mission is very simple. You are asked to live so as to demonstrate that you are not an ego. T-4.VI If you recognize you need do nothing, you have withdrawn the body's value from your mind. T-18.VII
You cannot be faithful to two masters who ask conflicting things of you. T-17.I.2 A mind and body cannot both exist. Make no attempt to reconcile the two, for one denies the other can be real. W-96 You will not make decisions by yourself whatever you decide. For they are made with idols or with God. And you ask help of anti-Christ or Christ, and which you choose will join with you and tell you what to do. T-30.I
Your faith is placed in the most trivial and insane symbols; pills, money, "protective" clothing, influence, prestige, being liked, knowing the "right" people, and an endless list of forms of nothingness that you endow with magical powers. All these things are your replacements for the Love of God. All these things are cherished to ensure a body identification. They are songs of praise to the ego. Do not put your faith in the worthless. It will not sustain you. Only the Love of God will protect you in all circumstances. I am sustained by the Love of God. Here is the answer to every problem that will confront you, today and tomorrow and throughout time. W-50
Tags: Ego, Forgiveness, Guilt, Judgment
