The Ego is Not the Devil
Scribed by Regina Dawn Akers, February 13, 2005
The ego is not the devil. It isn’t a force outside of you that finds pleasure in deceiving you. It isn’t anything to struggle against or to fear, although it can feel as if it is.
The ego is a mistake that you believe in. The power of belief is undeniable. What you believe is real for you. Since you believe in separateness and attack, the world seems threatening to you. That is what you believe, that is what you experience, and that is what you fear. The experience of a threatening world seems real to you, and I don’t ask you to deny that seeming reality. I don’t ask you to step in front of a moving car and trust that it will not hit you, because it may. It would be dependent on the alertness and reaction of the driver behind the wheel. In this way, the world is real.
What I ask you to understand is that the “reality” comes from the belief. The belief is the cause of all that you experience. You make the world you experience.
Now you may ask, “If I change my belief about the world, will I see no more sickness, no more war and no more threat?” I’ve answered this for you before in many ways, but I will put the answers together for you now so you may see what seem to be pieces as a whole.
You are not an individual. Everyone that you experience in the world is a part of you. You are aspects of one mind. When I say that the world you experience is made by you, I am not referring to you as an individual. That would indicate that separateness is truth. When I say that the world you experience is made by you, I am referring to all aspects of the mind that believe in separateness. As one aspect of the mind lets go of the belief in separateness, more Light is brought into the whole mind. It helps to rouse the Sonship, but as the Sonship continues to sleep, nightmares of separateness continue in the world.
When I indicate that what you will see will change, the word “see” and the word “perceive” are synonymous. As long as you see a world, you perceive. I am not saying that a violent crime could occur around you and that others would see it and you would not. The body’s eyes will continue to show you the seeming actions within the world of illusion. When I say you will see differently, I mean that you will perceive differently, or to be even more clear, that you will feel differently about what you see. Your perspective will be different. Your feelings will be different and therefore, your action will be different. Remember the story of Jesus and the adulteress. Jesus saw the men that were preparing to stone this woman and he saw a woman who had seemingly broken the laws of Moses. His eyes did not show him anything different. But, Jesus did feel differently about what he saw. He saw the woman as innocent and he saw the men as innocent. So, he did not condemn the woman and he did not condemn the men. He acted in a way that was consistent with his perception and caused a change in events.
Peace Pilgrim also has many stories that demonstrate that her eyes showed seemingly dangerous situations, but her perception showed only a call for Love. Because she consistently reacted with Love, it caused a turn of events based on the introduction of Light into the situation.
On what seems to be a micro level, an introduction of Light into a seemingly dark situation can change the events as they were about to occur. This may appear to be a miracle of events, but it is not. It is Light within an aspect of the mind shining away darkness within the same mind, resulting in a change in form. The cause is in the mind. The results seem evidenced in form.
The same miracle can occur on what seems to be a macro level. This may look different in the world of form; it may seem that it takes involvement from more individuals in order to introduce lasting peace into the international situation, but if you remember that there are no individuals, you will see that it is the same cause and effect.
I’ve told you before that your only responsibility is to accept the atonement for yourself. Now, you must see how important it is that you let the Light come into awareness in your mind. You must also see how you do this on behalf of all of your brothers. Light within the mind is Light within the mind, and the entire mind benefits from the shining of that Light. There can be no exceptions.
I see that you are willing to do this for your brothers. I see that you are willing to let your perspective be changed from that of a seeming individual to Oneness, but you are finding it difficult. You are experiencing fear and you do not know what to believe. You aren’t certain what is truth and what is illusion. Even as you sit writing this with me, you wonder if you are making this up or if you are hearing the Voice for God, and you don’t know how to be sure.
I will tell you how to be sure. I’ve told you this before. Pay attention to how you feel. Let the feelings of Light guide you. Do what you are told to do while you feel those feelings. When the feelings of darkness are upon you, take no action. Spend that time giving the feelings over to me. If you act with the Light and refrain from acting with the darkness, you will be acting in accordance with Truth and Light, and you will be moving steadily along the path to enlightenment. Know also that the end of this path is certain and enlightenment is a reasonable goal since it is the only goal that can truly be obtained. However, don’t crave the goal so much that it becomes an individual desire. That will delay the result, since the cause of enlightenment can never be the desire to attain for the individual.
The ego is nothing but a belief in your mind. When the belief is gone, you will see that the ego was nothing.