Guiding Thought

Today, relax with confidence in the activity of your Inner Divine Mind. Allow it to express its true nature of all-sufficiency and all-supply in your life and affairs. Today, your only responsibility is to protect your own Loving Presence from thoughts that block its flow. If you feel uncertain, remember your Source; if you feel weak, remember your Inner Flow; if you feel doubt, assure yourself of your Inner Knowing and be free.

Sharing

One of the main sub-themes of A Course in Miracles is how the ego believes in itself over and above God. The ego sees itself as more powerful than God. The Course calls this a belief in usurpation–the belief that we can usurp the power of God.

This belief is the cause for human fear, projection, and distortion. Understanding this is the solution to overcoming fear, projection, and distortion. The bottom line is that we cannot and will never be able to overpower God. When we let go of the idea that we can (Atonement), forgive ourselves for trying, and submit to (cooperate with), Divine Power, we enter reality and understand that all the ego’s machinations against God are non-existent because in Divine Reality, they could never happen.

 Listening to the ego’s voice means that you believe it is possible to attack God, and that a part of Him has been torn away by you. (A Course in Miracles, Chapter Five – Healing and Wholeness, The Ego’s Use of Guilt)

All fear is ultimately reducible to the basic misperception that you have the ability to usurp the power of God. Of course, you neither can nor have been
able to do this. Here is the real basis for your escape from fear. The escape
is brought about by your acceptance of the Atonement, which enables you
to realize that your errors never really occurred. (A Course in Miracles , Chapter Two – The Separation and the Atonement, The Origins of Separation)

It has taken time for me to develop my listening, so that I can hear when the ego is doing this usurpation thing in my head.

I “heard it” on the very first read of the very first sentence of the Guiding Thought. Today, relax with confidence in the activity of your Inner Divine Mind. The ego’s response was not so much words as it was a feeling of:

My little self did not want to hear anything about having confidence in Inner Divine Mind.

Funny that this is exactly what the Guiding Thought is suggesting to protect against. Today, your only responsibility is to protect your own Loving Presence from thoughts that block its flow.

One of my best friends practices Buddha Dharma and tells me often about the “I see you” game (say that like you are saying “peekaboo”). It’s a way to playfully tell your ego-thoughts that they can’t hide. When a “negative” thought comes up, pretend it’s a child doing something “naughty” and just tell it, “I see you”. This brings awareness without judgment. Seeing it angrily, or guiltily just feeds it with that energy. Noticing it playfully feeds it with transformational awareness and love.

Now aware of it, what do you do? Well, what did I do? I reminded myself of the Truth, which is that the ego cannot usurp the power of God, Divine Mind. When I believe that the ego can do this, I have put my faith in something that does not exist. When I put my faith in something that does not exist, I am inviting fear and distortion.

Then, I reminded myself what I want:

I want the certainty of Source, the strength of Inner Flow, the assurance of my Inner Knowing. I want to be free.

The combination of “I see you” and reminding yourself of the deepest truth of what you want immediately interrupt the ego’s attempts to usurp your Divine Self. Next time it happens you’ll be even more ready to interrupt and diffuse the ego.