Tyrannous Control

“Whatever is true is eternal, and cannot change or be changed.  Spirit is therefore unalterable because it is already perfect, but the mind can elect what it chooses to serve.  The only limit put on its choice is that it cannot serve two masters.  If it elects to do so,
the mind can become the medium by which spirit creates along the line of its own creation.  If it does not freely elect to do so, it retains its creative potential but places itself under tyrannous rather than Authoritative control.  As a result it imprisons, because such are the dictates of tyrants.  To change your mind means to place it at the disposal of true Authority.  (T13)”

 

Affirmation:  “Spirit is therefore unalterable”

Reflections:

1 – Why the Ego Is Bad for Us

This passage explains at some length why we experience bad things when we are under the influence of the ego:  We are under “tyrannous” control rather than Authoritative (i.e., the Holy Spirit).  This means that pain can become very great before we change our minds, and open them up to a greater spiritual truth.  But our experience of pain is not without limit, and there must come a time when we know that there is a better way.  This better way is the Holy Spirit and His guidance–Authoritative control.

2 – Following Guidance

When we change our minds and place them under this guidance, we know “true Authority.”   Simultaneously, our pain lessens and we begin to know happy dreams within the world.  This is not a magic trick, but the working out of true reality, the march toward the “real world” (as characterized by A Course in Miracles).

3 – The Holy Spirit

We do not have to feel bereft when we give up judgment to the wiser counsel of the Holy Spirit.  The Manual reminds us that we never could judge accurately, because we don’t see the whole picture–past, present, and future, along with all the myriad of events that impact our little world.  We cannot choose accurately with our own judgment for this reason, as well as the fact that we are making interpretations of facts, and interpretations lead to anger and all manner of negative thinking.  We never, for example, get angry at facts.  We only get angry when we have interpreted these facts in some way that we feel has hurt ourselves.  We are not told, Jon Mundy points out, never to get angry, but we are told to recognize that our thinking has gone awry, awry into interpretations.  Anger is just in ACIM never to be justified.  We are never angry for the reason that we think (from the Workbook).  We have been misperceiving, and our brothers and sisters need our help for any attacks that they have made upon us (and vice-versus).

4 – The Mind, Serving Spirit

The mind in the service of spirit is powerful indeed.  And what this mind will create is good.  The mind under the service of the ego could only “make” things; it could not create at all.  Do turn to the Holy Spirit, and we will see our experience in the world improve immediately.

Prayer:  

Dear Father/Mother,

May we turn to You when we find ourselves under tyrannous control.  May we know that tyrannous control is not Your will for us.

May we realize that when we turn to the Holy Spirit, we are following our will as well as Your own.  This will automatically improve our lives.

May You go with us today as we seek to remember that Your will is always ours.

Amen.