T. 31. V. 5 – 9. Jesus: “Behind the ‘face of innocence’ there is the central lesson that the concept of the self was made to teach. It is a lesson in blame, and a terrible displacement of responsibility, for it is used to conceal a fear so devastating that the face that smiles above it must forever look away, lest its author face the treachery it hides.
Addressed to every brother, the lesson teaches thus: ‘I am the sinful thing you’ve made of me, and as you look on me, you stand condemned because of what I am.’ On this conception of the self the world smiles with approval, for it guarantees the pathways of the world are safely kept, and those who walk on them will not awake!
Here is the central lesson that ensures your brother be condemned eternally! For what you are has now become his fault, and for this ‘sin’ is no forgiveness possible. No longer does it matter what he actually does, for your accusing finger always points to him, unwavering and deadly in its aim.
First, of course, the accusing finger has pointed straight to you, but this a secret is, kept deeper still within the mists below the face of innocence! In these shrouded vaults within your mind are all his sins and yours preserved, kept there in darkness and protected from the light of truth. There they cannot be seen as merely errors which the truth would surely shine away. As long as they stay hidden, you can be neither held responsible for what you think you are, nor can you change the things it makes you do. Your brother, then, is made the symbol of your sins, to you who are but silently. and yet with ceaseless urgency, condemning your brother for making you the ‘hated thing’ you think you are!
Concepts are learned, however. They are neither natural nor real! Apart from learning, they simply do not exist. They are not given you, so must they be made by you. Not one of them is true, and many come from feverish imaginings, hot with hatred and distortions born of fear. What is a concept but a thought to which its maker gives a meaning of his own?
Concepts in the mind maintain the world you see. But they can not be used to demonstrate the world is real! For all of them are made within the context of the world, born in its shadow, growing in its ways and finally ‘maturing’ in its thought. They are but thoughts of idols, painted with the brushes of the world, and cannot make a single picture representing truth!
A concept of the self is meaningless, for no one here can see what it is for, and therefore cannot picture what it is. Yet is all learning that the world directs begun and ended with the single aim of teaching you this concept of yourself, that you will choose to follow this world’s laws, and never seek to go beyond its roads nor realize the way that you have chosen to perceive yourself.
Now must the Holy Spirit find a way, if any peace of mind is to be given you, to help you see this concept of yourself must be undone. Nor can it be unlearned except by lessons aimed to teach that you are something else. For otherwise, you would be asked to make exchange of what you now believe for total loss of self, such that a greater terror would arise in you.
Thus are the Holy Spirit’s lesson plans arranged in easy steps, that though there be some lack of ease at times and some distress, there is no shattering of what was learned, but just a re-translation of what seems to be the evidence on its behalf.”