Library of Christ Mind Teachings
ACIM Original Edition
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The belief in order of difficulties is the basis for the world’s
perception. It rests on differences; on uneven background and shifting
foreground, on unequal heights and diverse sizes, on varying degrees of
darkness and light, and thousands of contrasts in which each thing seen
competes with every other in order to be recognized. A larger object
overshadows a smaller one. A brighter thing draws the attention from
another with less intensity of appeal. And a more threatening idea or
one conceived of as more desirable by the world’s standards completely
upsets the mental balance. What the body’s eyes behold is only conflict.
Look not to them for peace and understanding.
2 Illusions are always illusions of differences. How could it
be otherwise? By definition, an illusion is an attempt to make something
real that is regarded as of major importance but is recognized as being
untrue. The mind therefore seeks to make it true out of its intensity of
desire to have it for itself. Illusions are travesties of creation,
attempts to bring truth to lies. Finding truth unacceptable, the mind
revolts against truth and gives itself an illusion of victory. Finding
health a burden, it retreats into feverish dreams. And in these dreams,
the mind is separate, different from other minds, with different
interests of its own and able to gratify its needs at the expense of
others.
3 Where do all these differences come from? Certainly they
seem to be in the world outside. Yet it is surely the mind that judges
what the eyes behold. It is the mind that interprets the eyes’ messages
and gives them “meaning.” And this meaning does not exist in the world
outside at all. What is seen as “reality” is simply what the mind
prefers. Its hierarchy of values is projected outward, and it sends the
body’s eyes to find it. The body’s eyes will never see except through
differences. Yet it is not the messages they bring on which perception
rests. Only the mind evaluates their messages, so only the mind is
responsible for seeing. It alone decides whether what is seen is real or
illusory, desirable or undesirable, pleasurable or painful.
4 It is in the sorting out and categorizing activities of the
mind that errors in perception enter. And it is here correction must be
made. The mind classifies what the body’s eyes bring to it according to
its preconceived values, judging where each sense datum fits best. What
basis could be faultier than this? Unrecognized by itself, it has itself
asked to be given what will fit into these categories. And having done
so, it concludes that the categories must be true. On this the judgment
of all differences rests, because it is on this that judgments of the
world depend. Can this confused and senseless “reasoning” be depended on
for anything?
5 There can be no order of difficulty in healing merely
because all sickness is illusion. Is it harder to dispel the belief of
the insane in a larger hallucination as opposed to a smaller one? Will
he agree more quickly to the unreality of a louder voice he hears than
to that of a softer one? Will he dismiss more easily a whispered demand
to kill than a shout? And do the number of pitchforks the devils he sees
carrying affect their credibility in his perception? His Mind has
categorized them as real, and so they are real to him. When he realizes
they are all illusions, they will disappear. And so it is with healing.
The properties of illusions which seem to make them different are really
irrelevant, for their properties are as illusory as they are.
6 The body’s eyes will continue to see differences, but the
mind which has let itself be healed will no longer acknowledge them.
There will be those who seem to be “sicker” than others, and the body’s
eyes will report their changed appearances as before. But the mind will
put them all in one category—they are unreal. This is the gift of its
Teacher—the understanding that only two categories are meaningful in
sorting out the messages the mind receives from what appears to be the
outside world. And of these two, but one is real. Just as reality is
wholly real, apart from size and shape and time and place—for
differences cannot exist within it—so too are illusions without
distinction. The one answer to sickness of any kind is healing. The one
answer to all illusions is truth.