A Course in Cause and Not Effect
T-21.VII.7:8
Posted by aplecompte on August 25th, 2009
This is a course in how to know yourself. You have been very careful not to see the real cause and effect relationship that is perfectly apparent. What can it be that has not learned it? It must be this part that is really outside yourself, not by your own projection, but in truth. [Ego] T-16.III.4
The ego has kept you from understanding who you really are and from understanding real cause and effect.
How did this happen?
The separation started with the dream the Father was deprived of His Effects [Sons], and powerless to keep them since He was no longer their Creator. In the dream, the dreamer [your ego mind] made himself [person in a body]. But what he made has turned against him, taking on the role of its creator, as the dreamer had. [Body tells you it is sick.] And as he hated his Creator, so the figures in the dream have hated him. His body is their slave, which they abuse because the motives [to attack] he has given it have they adopted as their own. And hate it for the vengeance it would offer them. It is their vengeance on the body which appears to prove the dreamer could not be the maker of the dream. Effect and cause are first split off, and then reversed, so that effect becomes a cause; the cause, effect. T-28.II.8
How can I understand real cause and effect relationship?
Real Cause and Effect Relationship - Nothing real can be threatened.
1) God is Mind. His Mind is Cause of Ideas. God is the Cause of His Son, an Idea in the Mind of God. The Son is Christ Mind, the Effect of His Father.
2) Cause and effect are simultaneous.
Unreal Cause and Effect Relationship – The Dream of Separation - Nothing unreal exists.
1) In the first part of the dream you a) separated from God, an attack that usurped the power to create, b) plugged in as the ego mind, and c) caused (dreamed up) the world and its script. Ego forgot this. Ego split into lots of people. You identified yourself with body (the attack upon yourself) and decided the others had separate minds. Your ego forgot this.
2) In the second part of the dream you project (cause) your guilt, fear and anger attack thoughts onto others, setting up how they will appear to act (effect). You instantly forget doing this. You perceive them acting it out, and your interpretation is that they are attacking you, are causing you harm (effect).
You have split the simultaneity of cause and effect and reversed them by ignoring the cause in your mind and attributing it to them. This makes the effect appear to be the cause.
When [your innate Christ] vision is denied, confusion of cause and effect becomes inevitable. The purpose now becomes to keep obscure the cause of the effect, and make effect appear to be a cause. This seeming independence of effect enables it to be regarded as standing by itself, and capable of serving as a cause of the events and feelings its maker thinks it causes. Earlier, we spoke of your desire to create your own creator, and be father and not son to him. This is the same desire. The Son is the Effect, whose Cause he would deny. And so [in the dream] he seems to be the cause, producing real effects. Nothing can have effects without a cause, and to confuse the two is merely to fail to understand them both. [The ego is apart from God, it is not a real cause] T-21.II.10
It is as needful that you recognize you made the [unreal] world you see, as that you recognize that you did not create yourself. They are the same mistake. T-21.II.11
You are not the victim of the world you see because you invented it. While you want it you will see it; when you no longer want it, it will not be there for you to see. W-32.1
This world was over long ago. The thoughts that made it are no longer in the mind that thought of them and loved them for a little while. The miracle but shows the past is gone, and what has truly gone has no effects. Remembering a cause can but produce illusions of its presence, not effects. T-28.I.1
When ancient memories of hate appear, remember that their cause is gone. And so you cannot understand what they are for. Let not the cause that you would give them now be what it was that made them what they were [guilt, fear, anger about separating from God], or seemed to be. Be glad that it is gone, for this is what you would be pardoned from. And see, instead, the new effects of cause accepted now, with consequences here. They will surprise you with their loveliness. The ancient new ideas they bring will be the happy consequences of a Cause [God] so ancient that It far exceeds the span of memory which your perception sees. T-28.I.7
The body's serial adventures, from the time of birth to dying are the theme of every dream the world has ever had. This single lesson does it try to teach again, and still again, and yet once more; that it [the dream apparently] is cause and not effect. And you are its effect, and cannot be its cause. T-27.VIII.3
Thus are you not the dreamer, but the dream. And so you wander idly in and out of places and events that it contrives. That this is all the body does is true, for it is but a figure in a dream. But who reacts to figures in a dream unless he sees them as if they were real? The instant that he sees them as they are they have no more effects on him, because he understands he gave them their effects by causing them and making them seem real. T-27.VIII.4
How willing are you to escape effects of all the dreams the world has ever had? Is it your wish to let no dream appear to be the cause of what it is you do? Then let us merely look upon the dream's beginning, for the part you see is but the second part, whose cause lies in the first. No one asleep and dreaming in the world remembers his attack upon himself. No one believes there really was a time when he knew nothing of a body, and could never have conceived this world as real. He would have seen at once that these ideas are one illusion, too ridiculous for anything but to be laughed away. How serious they now appear to be! And no one can remember when they would have met with laughter and with disbelief. We can remember this, if we but look directly at their cause [the ego, mind asleep]. And we will see the grounds for laughter, not a cause for fear. T-27.VIII.5
[First part of dream: idea of separation, ego]
Let us return the dream he gave away unto the dreamer, who perceives the dream as separate from himself and done to him. Into eternity, where all is one, there crept a tiny, mad idea, at which the Son of God remembered not to laugh. In his forgetting did the thought become a serious idea, and possible of both accomplishment and real effects [to mind asleep]. Together, we can laugh them both away, and understand that time cannot intrude upon eternity. It is a joke to think that time can come to circumvent eternity, which means there is no time. T-27.VIII.6
The world you see depicts exactly what you thought you did [attack its maker]. Except that now you think that what you did is being done to you. The guilt for what you thought is being placed outside yourself, and on a guilty world that dreams your dreams and thinks your thoughts instead of you. It [apparently] brings its vengeance, not your own. It keeps you narrowly confined within a body, which it punishes because of all the sinful things the body does within its dream. You [mind asleep] have no power to make the body stop its evil deeds [getting sick, sinning] because you did not make it, and cannot control its actions nor its purpose nor its fate. T-27.VIII.7
[Second part of dream, dreamer gives away causation to the dream through projection.]
The world but demonstrates an ancient truth; you will believe that others do to you exactly what you think you did to them [projection]. But once deluded into blaming them you will not see the cause [your mind] of what they do, because you want the guilt to rest on them. How childish is the petulant device [projection] to keep your innocence by pushing guilt outside yourself, but never letting go! It is not easy to perceive the jest when all around you do your eyes behold its heavy consequences, but without their trifling cause. T-27.VIII.8
In gentle laughter does the Holy Spirit perceive the cause [unreal ego mind], 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. Perhaps you come in tears. But hear Him say, "My brother, holy Son of God, behold your idle dream, in which this could occur." [It did not happen.] And you will leave the holy instant with your laughter and your brother's joined with His. T-27.VIII.9
The secret of salvation is but this: that you are doing this unto yourself. No matter what the form of the attack, this still is true. Whoever takes the role of enemy and of attacker, still is this the truth. Whatever seems to be the cause of any pain and suffering you feel, this is still true. For you would not react at all to figures in a dream you knew that you were dreaming. Let them be as hateful and as vicious as they may, they could have no effect on you unless you failed to recognize it is your dream. T-27.VIII.10
This single lesson learned will set you free from suffering, whatever form it takes. The Holy Spirit will repeat this one inclusive lesson of deliverance until it has been learned, regardless of the form of suffering that brings you pain. Whatever hurt you bring to Him He will make answer with this very simple truth. For this one answer takes away the cause of every form of sorrow and of pain. The form affects His answer not at all, for He would teach you but the single cause of all of them, no matter what their form. And you will understand that miracles reflect the simple statement, "I have done this thing, and it is this I would undo." T-27.VIII.11
Bring, then, all forms of suffering to Him Who knows that every one is like the rest. He sees no differences where none exists, and He will teach you how each one is caused. None has a different cause from all the rest, and all of them are easily undone by but a single lesson truly learned. Salvation is a secret you have kept but from yourself. T-27.VIII.12
How differently will you perceive the world when this is recognized! When you forgive the world your guilt [see that it is false], you will be free of it. Its innocence does not demand your guilt, nor does your guiltlessness rest on its sins. This is the obvious; a secret kept from no one but yourself. And it is this that has maintained you separate from the world, and kept your brother separate from you. Now need you but to learn that both of you are innocent or guilty. The one thing that is impossible is that you be unlike each other; that they both be true. This is the only secret yet to learn. And it will be no secret you are healed. T-27.VIII.13
This world is causeless [ego is false cause], as is every dream that anyone has dreamed within the world. No plans are possible, and no design exists that could be found and understood. What else could be expected from a thing that has no cause? Yet if it has no cause, it has no purpose. You may cause a dream, but never will you give it real effects. For that would change its cause, and it is this you cannot do. The dreamer of a dream is not awake, but does not know he sleeps. He sees illusions of himself as sick or well, depressed or happy, but without a stable cause with guaranteed effects. T-28.II.6
The miracle establishes you dream a dream, and that its content is not true. This is a crucial step in dealing with illusions. No one is afraid of them when he perceives he made them up. The fear was held in place because he did not see that he was author of the dream, and not a figure in the dream. He gives himself the consequences that he dreams he gave his brother. And it is but this the dream has put together and has offered him, to show him that his wishes have been done. Thus does he fear his own attack, but sees it at another's hands. As victim, he is suffering from its effects, but not their cause. He authored not his own attack, and he is innocent of what he caused. The miracle does nothing but to show him that he has done nothing. What he fears is cause without the consequences that would make it cause. And so it never was. T-28.II.7
[I made up everything I think I'm afraid of; it's not real]
Cause and effect are one, not separate. God wills you learn what always has been true: that He created you as part of Him, and this must still be true because ideas leave not their source. Such is creation's law; that each idea the mind conceives but adds to its abundance, never takes away. This is as true of what is idly wished as what is truly willed, because the mind can wish to be deceived, but cannot make it be what it is not. And to believe ideas can leave their source is to invite illusions to be true, without success. For never will success be possible in trying to deceive the Son of God. T-26.VII.13
The miracle teaches you that you have chosen guiltlessness, freedom and joy. It is not a cause, but an effect. It is the natural result of choosing right, attesting to your happiness that comes from choosing to be free of guilt. T-14.III.5
