Perception
And finding what we really want
Posted by aplecompte on October 20th, 2009
Perception means interpretation or “reading meaning into.” Every time I’m feeling upset in any way – it could be fear, anger, depression, boredom or whatever – I’m making a decision in that moment to feel that emotion based on my interpretation, or perception, of what’s happening. I see each situation from my own personal perspective. “I have given everything I see all the meaning that it has for me.” W-2 Hence, I don’t see anything the way it truly is.
My decision of what I perceive (the meaning I’m reading in) comes from my thoughts. I may see an event and feel upset. However, “I am never upset for the reason I think.” W-5 “I am upset because I see something that is not there.” W-6 “I see only the past W-7,” a hallucination. I am constantly watching the past and getting upset.
Whenever I’m thinking about the past or future my mind is actually blank because it is just projecting out past thoughts. The world is literally the past thoughts in my mind projected onto the world of form. I get upset viewing my past grievances and my angry thoughts taking form on the screen.
Why would I even want to play this perception game? My mind keeps calling on the past and believing in its reality as a way to deal with my entrenched guilt about the past. This guilt comes from my underlying belief that I separated from God.
A Course in Miracles is a course in changing perception, because only getting clear in my perception will make me free of guilt. I need, through consistent mind training, to shift to a different thought system.
There are only two thought systems: the fear-based ego thought system and the Holy Spirit’s thought. The past is the ego’s domain and the present is where the Holy Spirit lives. Changing my perception comes down to learning to tell the difference between the two.
I need to withdraw my investment in ego thought. If I think the ego is offering me something that is good, useful, or helpful, I’m going to want to hold on to ego thought. But is what the ego is offering what I really want? The Course asks me to look more closely at how I am finding value in ego thoughts without even realizing it.
David Hoffmeister gives this example of discerning the ego’s false offers of value.
Before reading the Course, David sought the same values we all want in life. He wanted intimacy: that feeling of being connected together with someone under the same roof, being so close “that it’s like we know each other’s thoughts.” And he also wanted freedom: to be able to go where he wanted to go, do what he wanted to do, and when he wanted to do it. But it wasn’t possible sustain an intimate relationship and still have freedom to go where he wanted when he wanted. One conflicted with the other.
Through ACIM he learned to look more deeply at what he really wanted. “To learn this course requires willingness to question every value that you hold.” T-24.in.2 Freedom and intimacy were indeed what David wanted, but they are not of the body. He had been working from the ego’s body-centered concepts of intimacy and freedom. The body is the ego’s limitation. "Changing concepts is salvation's task." T-31.VII.1
David went on to find that true intimacy and true freedom are of the mind, not the body. He found that intimacy and relationship come from following the Holy Spirit, and that that is also what true freedom is. And both go together easily. Now he travels around the country and feels the sense of true intimacy and connectedness with people that he was always searching for.
Adapted from David Hoffmeister’s “Defining Perception” in Awakening through A Course in Miracles.
My Ego is a Master Ilusionist ACIM on Projection and Perception
Tags: Ego, Relationships
