A Course in Miracles Monk

The ego’s purpose for the world is to shield us from the awareness of ourselves as a decision making mind. Having chosen individuality, the part of us that likes being an individual wants to protect that decision because it represents our existence as we presently know it. Thus, we want to make the world real, and what better way to make the world real than by having Jesus or the Holy Spirit operating in it.

Having Jesus or the Holy Spirit involved in the world is like waving around a personal certificate of personal reality signed by Jesus himself. I exist. See? Right here. Look. Jesus is involved in my world, and its on-goings. I exist.

If what the Course says is true — “There is no world! This is the central lesson this course aims to teach” — Jesus would have to be just as insane as we are to acknowledge it. And what help would he be to us then? How is an insane person going to lead another insane person from the asylum if he’s in there with you and just as insane? Chances are he will ‘guide’ you around in circles, from room to room, floor to floor, but never out the back door.

What we need is help from outside our wrong-minded thought system, and Jesus isn’t outside of our thought system if he operates within it. Ken has often said that Jesus is at the door of the asylum inviting us to come out, while we’re desperately trying to wave him in.

A metaphor I gave in class last week: Imagine you’ve got a leaky roof. There’s a major flood in your living room. You’re on your hands and knees with towels soaking it up, asking Jesus to grab a towel and help you. Meanwhile, he’s on the roof, inviting you to come up and fix the leak. The Jesus that helps you sop up the mess in the world is the ego’s (version of) Jesus. He’ll help and he’ll ‘help’, but nothing will ever change. When we meet him on the roof that’s the miracle — restoring ‘causation to cause’.

Moral of the story: If you’ve got Jesus in your living room helping you sop up the latest mess in your life, better check his drivers license. It’ll probably say, “Pet Cemetery Jesus”. Not quite the ‘Jesus’ you want!