T-4.II The Ego and False Autonomy
1. It is reasonable to ask how the mind could ever have made the ego. ²In fact, it is the best question you could ask. ³There is, however, no point in giving an answer in terms of the past because the past does not matter, and history would not exist if the same errors were not being repeated in the present. ⁴Abstract thought applies to knowledge because knowledge is completely impersonal, and examples are irrelevant to its understanding. ⁵Perception, however, is always specific, and therefore quite concrete.
2. Everyone makes an ego or a self for himself, which is subject to enormous variation because of its instability. ²He also makes an ego for everyone else he perceives, which is equally variable. ³Their interaction is a process that alters both, because they were not made by or with the Unalterable. ⁴It is important to realize that this alteration can and does occur as readily when the interaction takes place in the mind as when it involves physical proximity. ⁵Thinking about another ego is as effective in changing relative perception as is physical interaction. ⁶There could be no better example that the ego is only an idea and not a fact.
3. Your own state of mind is a good example of how the ego was made. ²When you threw knowledge away it is as if you never had it. ³This is so apparent that one need only recognize it to see that it does happen. ⁴If this occurs in the present, why is it surprising that it occurred in the past? ⁵Surprise is a reasonable response to the unfamiliar, though hardly to something that occurs with such persistence. ⁶But do not forget that the mind need not work that way, even though it does work that way now.
4. Think of the love of animals for their offspring, and the need they feel to protect them. ²That is because they regard them as part of themselves. ³No one dismisses something he considers part of himself. ⁴You react to your ego much as God does to His creations: with love, protection and charity. ⁵Your reactions to the self you made are not surprising. ⁶In fact, they resemble in many ways how you will one day react to your real creations, which are as timeless as you are. ⁷The question is not how you respond to the ego, but what you believe you are. ⁸Belief is an ego function, and as long as your origin is open to belief you are regarding it from an ego viewpoint. ⁹When teaching is no longer necessary you will merely know God. ¹⁰Belief that there is another way of perceiving is the loftiest idea of which ego thinking is capable. ¹¹That is because it contains a hint of recognition that the ego is not the Self.
5. Undermining the ego’s thought system must be perceived as painful, even though this is anything but true. ²Babies scream in rage if you take away a knife or scissors, although they may well harm themselves if you do not. ³In this sense you are still a baby. ⁴You have no sense of real self-preservation, and are likely to decide that you need precisely what would hurt you most. ⁵Yet whether or not you recognize it now, you have agreed to coöperate in the effort to become both harmless and helpful, attributes that must go together. ⁶Your attitudes even toward this are necessarily conflicted, because all attitudes are ego-based. ⁷This will not last. ⁸Be patient a while and remember that the outcome is as certain as God.
6. Only those who have a real and lasting sense of abundance can be truly charitable. ²This is obvious when you consider what is involved. ³To the ego, to give anything implies that you will have to do without it. ⁴When you associate giving with sacrifice, you give only because you believe that you are somehow getting something better, and can therefore do without the thing you give. ⁵“Giving to get” is an inescapable law of the ego, which always evaluates itself in relation to other egos. ⁶It is therefore continually preöccupied with the belief in scarcity that gave rise to it. ⁷Its whole perception of other egos as real is only an attempt to convince itself that it is real. ⁸“Self-esteem” in ego terms means nothing more than that the ego has deluded itself into accepting its reality, and is therefore temporarily less predatory. ⁹This “self-esteem” is always vulnerable to stress, a term which refers to any perceived threat to the ego’s existence.
7. The ego literally lives by comparisons. ²Equality is beyond its grasp, and charity becomes impossible. ³The ego never gives out of abundance, because it was made as a substitute for it. ⁴That is why the concept of “getting” arose in the ego’s thought system. ⁵Appetites are “getting” mechanisms, representing the ego’s need to confirm itself. ⁶This is as true of body appetites as it is of the so-called “higher ego needs”. ⁷Body appetites are not physical in origin. ⁸The ego regards the body as its home, and tries to satisfy itself through the body. ⁹But the idea that this is possible is a decision of the mind, which has become completely confused about what is really possible.
8. The ego believes it is completely on its own, which is merely another way of describing how it thinks it originated. ²This is such a fearful state that it can only turn to other egos and try to unite with them in a feeble attempt at identification, or attack them in an equally feeble show of strength. ³It is not free, however, to open the premise to question, because the premise is its foundation. ⁴The ego is the mind’s belief that it is completely on its own. ⁵The ego’s ceaseless attempts to gain the spirit’s acknowledgment and thus establish its own existence are useless. ⁶Spirit in its knowledge is unaware of the ego. ⁷It does not attack it; it merely cannot conceive of it at all. ⁸While the ego is equally unaware of spirit, it does perceive itself as being rejected by something greater than itself. ⁹This is why self-esteem in ego terms must be delusional. ¹⁰The creations of God do not create myths, although creative effort can be turned to mythology. ¹¹It can do so, however, only under one condition: what it makes is then no longer creative. ¹²Myths are entirely perceptual, and so ambiguous in form and characteristically good-and-evil in nature that the most benevolent of them is not without fearful connotations.
9. Myths and magic are closely associated, since myths are usually related to ego origins, and magic to the powers the ego ascribes to itself. ²Mythological systems generally include some account of “the creation”, and associate this with its particular form of magic. ³The so-called “battle for survival” is only the ego’s struggle to preserve itself, and its interpretation of its own beginning. ⁴This beginning is usually associated with physical birth, because it is hard to maintain that the ego existed before that point in time. ⁵The more “religiously” ego-oriented may believe that the soul existed before, and will continue to exist after a temporary lapse into ego life. ⁶Some even believe that the soul will be punished for this lapse. ⁷However, salvation does not apply to spirit, which is not in danger and does not need to be salvaged.
10. Salvation is nothing more than “right-mindedness”, which is not the One-mindedness of the Holy Spirit, but which must be achieved before One-mindedness is restored. ²Right-mindedness leads to the next step automatically, because right perception is uniformly without attack, and therefore wrong-mindedness is obliterated. ³The ego cannot survive without judgment, and is laid aside accordingly. ⁴The mind then has only one direction in which it can move. ⁵Its direction is always automatic, because it cannot but be dictated by the thought system to which it adheres.
11. It cannot be emphasized too often that correcting perception is merely a temporary expedient. ²It is necessary only because misperception is a block to knowledge, while accurate perception is a stepping-stone towards it. ³The whole value of right perception lies in the inevitable realisation that all perception is unnecessary. ⁴This removes the block entirely. ⁵You may ask how this is possible as long as you appear to be living in this world. ⁶That is a reasonable question. ⁷You must be careful, however, that you really understand it. ⁸Who is the “you” who are living in this world? ⁹Spirit is immortal, and immortality is a constant state. ¹⁰It is as true now as it ever was or ever will be, because it implies no change at all. ¹¹It is not a continuum, nor is it understood by being compared to an opposite. ¹²Knowledge never involves comparisons. ¹³That is its main difference from everything else the mind can grasp.