THE LAWS OF MIND
10 To heal, then, is to correct perception in your brother
and yourself by sharing the Holy Spirit with him. This places you both within
the Kingdom and restores its wholeness in your minds. This parallels creation
because it unifies by increasing and integrates by extending. What you project
you believe. This is an immutable law of the mind in this world as well as in
the Kingdom. However, the content is different in this world because the
thoughts it governs are very different from the thoughts in the Kingdom. Laws
must be adapted to circumstances if they are to maintain order.
11 The outstanding characteristic of the laws of mind as
they operate in this world is that by obeying them-and I assure you that you
must obey them-you can arrive at diametrically opposed results. This is because
the laws have adapted to the circumstances of this world, in which
diametrically opposed outcomes are believed in. The laws of mind govern
thoughts, and you do respond to two conflicting voices. You have heard many
arguments on behalf of "the freedoms," which would indeed have been
freedom if man had not chosen to fight for them. That is why they perceive
"the freedoms" as many instead of as one. Yet the argument that underlies
the defense of freedom is perfectly valid. Because it is true, it should not be
fought for, but it should be sided with.
12 Those who are against freedom believe that its outcome
will hurt them, which cannot be true. But those who are for freedom, even if
they are misguided in how to defend it, are siding with the one thing in this
world which is true. Whenever anyone can listen fairly to both sides of any
issue, he will make the right decision. This is because he has the answer.
Conflict can seem to be interpersonal, but it must be intrapersonal first.
13 The term "intrapersonal" is an ego term because
"personal" implies "of one person" and not of others.
"Interpersonal" has similar error in that it refers to something that
exists among different or separate people. When we spoke before of the
extremely personal nature of revelation, we followed this statement immediately
with a description of the inevitable outcomes of the revelation in terms of
sharing. A person conceives of himself as separate largely because he perceives
of himself as bounded by a body. Only if he perceives himself as a mind can
this be overcome. Then he is free to use terms like "intramental" and
"intermental" without seeing them as different or conflicting,
because minds can be in perfect accord.
14 Outside the Kingdom, the law which prevails inside it is
adapted to "what you project you believe." This is its teaching form,
since outside the Kingdom teaching is mandatory because learning is essential.
This form of the law clearly implies that you will learn what you are from what
you have projected onto others and therefore believe they are. In the Kingdom
there is no teaching or learning because there is no belief. There is only
certainty. God and His Sons, in the surety of being, know that what you project
you are. That form of the law is not adapted at all, being the law of creation.
God Himself created the law by creating by it. And His Sons, who create like
Him, follow it gladly, knowing that the increase of the Kingdom depends on it
just as their own creation did.
15 Laws must be communicated if they are to be helpful. In
effect, they must be translated for those who speak a different language.
Nevertheless, a good translator, although he must alter the form of what he
translates, never changes the meaning. In fact, his whole purpose is to change
the form so that the original meaning is retained. The Holy Spirit is the
translator of the Laws of God to those who do not understand them. You could
not do this yourselves because conflicted minds cannot be faithful to one
meaning and will therefore change the meaning to preserve the form.
16 The Holy Spirit's purpose in translating is naturally
exactly the opposite. He translates only to preserve the original meaning in
all respects and in all languages. Therefore, He opposes differences in form as
meaningful, emphasizing always that these differences do not matter. The
meaning of His message is always the same, and only the meaning matters. God's
Law of Creation in perfect form does not involve the use of truth to convince
His Sons of truth. The extension of truth, which is the Law of the Kingdom,
rests only on the knowledge of what truth is. This is your inheritance and
requires no learning at all, but when you disinherited yourselves, you became
learners.
17 No one questions the intimate connection of learning and
memory. Learning is impossible without memory, since it cannot be consistent
unless it is remembered. That is why the Holy Spirit is a lesson in
remembering. We said before that He teaches remembering and forgetting, but the
forgetting aspect is only to make the remembering consistent. You forget in
order to remember better. You will not understand His translations while you
listen to two ways of perceiving them. Therefore, you must forget or relinquish
one to understand the other. This is the only way you can learn consistency so
that you can finally be consistent.
18 What can the perfect consistency of the Kingdom mean to
the confused? It is apparent that confusion interferes with meaning and therefore
prevents the learner from appreciating it. There is no confusion in the Kingdom
because there is only one meaning. This meaning comes from God and is God.
Because it is also you, you share it and extend it as your Creator did. This
needs no translation because it is perfectly understood, but it does need
extension because it means extension. Communication is perfectly direct and
perfectly united. It is totally without strain because nothing discordant ever
enters. That is why it is the Kingdom of God. It belongs to Him and is
therefore like Him. That is its reality, and nothing can assail it.
( A Course In Miracles / Ch.7:III)