This afternoon we’re going to talk about the second lesson of the Holy Spirit, “To
Have Peace, Teach Peace to Learn It,” (T-6.V.B.h).
This comes at the end of Chapter 6.
As you probably know, there are three lessons of the Holy Spirit, and this is the second
one, and I want to focus on this because it makes the very important point that if we
want to feel peace, if we want to feel love, if, above all, we want to feel forgiven, then
we have to forgive, then we have to love.
If I feel that I’m not getting enough respect (as that famous comedian would always say),
then I have to be respectful of other people.
If I feel I’m not being treated kindly or compassionately or with sensitivity, then
I have to act kindly, and be compassionate, and act towards others with sensitivity.
It’s a “have peace, teach peace to learn it,” and the idea is that peace is something
we have to learn, which really means peace is something we have to unlearn because we
have to unlearn the ego’s decision to be in conflict.
So it’s really not that we “learn” peace; we unlearn our decision to be conflicted,
and “to be conflicted” means that we perceive differences.
I’m in conflict with everyone and everything in my world.
If the world doesn’t act in a certain way and provide for me a certain way I could end
up physically dying and psychologically dying.
So that, again, this is what special relationships are all about, that we’re dependent on the
world; things outside of us to meet our needs.
This automatically puts us in conflict because we want something from somebody else because
secretly we believe that person took it from us, which is why it’s lacking in us.
That’s what the fourth law of chaos is, “you have what you have taken,” (T-23.II.9:2).
If I don’t feel love and I don’t have—feel peace and I think you have that love and I
want it from you, then you have it because you took it from me because I don’t have it.
That’s the ego thought system.
It’s insane but it’s very logical and, unfortunately, it governs—that insanity
governs how we behave with the world, how we interact with other people and, of course,
how we see ourselves.
So to have a special relationship, to live in the world as a body with needs automatically
puts us in conflict because, again, I believe I need something from outside and I don’t
believe it will be forthcoming.
So if I really want to be peaceful, I have to undo conflict because to be in a perpetual
state of conflict is hardly peaceful.
We always have to be on our guard.
We always have to be on the lookout for what will meet our needs or what will interfere
with the meeting of our needs.
So to be truly “at peace” means I have to look at my mind’s decision for conflict
and say, “I don’t want this anymore.”
“To Have Peace, Teach Peace to Learn It,” (T-6.V.B.h).
So I have to—so what does it mean “to teach peace”?
It means the end of conflict.
Well, what does “conflict” mean?
“Conflict” really means that I perceive the Sonship as fragmented.
I believe that the members of the—the split-off fragments of the Sonship (its members) are
different from each other.
And all of this is a fragmentary shadow of the original thought that we all carried within
us, that we are different from God.
That’s the key of the ego thought system: I am different from God.
I’m not perfectly at one with perfect Oneness.
I’m not “a Oneness joined as One,” (T-25.I.7:1b).
I am not this differentiated self.
I’m part of the undifferentiated unity, which is why the Course tells us that there
is really no Trinity.
Jesus says God “is the First in the Holy Trinity,” (T-7I.7:5) but there’s no second
or third.
There’s only One; perfect Oneness.
But when we believed we had separated, we’re now saying there are two in the world of duality.
That’s the world of differences that quickly leads to the world of judgment and attack,
and then we project that out and see everyone as different.
So what it means to teach peace is I must see everyone as the same, which means I no
longer justify the judgments I am making about other people.
This doesn’t mean that we’re not going to have judgments, but it does mean, as that
section, “Practicing the Holy Instant,” says, that we will not have any judgments,
any unholy thoughts that we would keep (T-15.IV.9:1-2).
In other words, that we recognize our judgments when they come.
We don’t seek to justify them or spiritualize them or deny them, but we bring them to the
Holy Spirit or Jesus.
We bring the illusion of our judgments to the truth of our universal sameness, and that’s
what it means to look with Jesus at the ego.
So if I truly am serious that I want peace—as the workbook lesson says, “I want the peace
of God.
To say these words is nothing.
But to mean these words is everything,” (W-pI.185.h.1:1-2), if I really say and mean
that I want the peace of God, I want to have that peace of God, I want to experience that
peace of God, then I must teach it to other people otherwise I won’t learn that peace
is preferable to conflict, that division of the sameness of God’s Son is far preferable
to the ego’s vision or the ego’s way of looking that sees everyone as different and
making judgment real.
The Course says, “Vision or judgment [are] your choice, but [not] both of these,” (T-20.V.4:7).
We can’t have vision or judgment at the same time.
We choose one or the other.
So I have to look at my thought system of judgment and seeing other people as separate
from me, warranting my judgment of them, seeing that I know better than they or what’s best
for them; I look at that and say, “This is keeping me from the kingdom.
This is keeping me from awakening from the dream, and why would I do that?
I no longer choose to be insane.”
So I could now truly say and mean to have peace, I want to teach it so I will learn it.
I’m asking Jesus to help me see everyone, every situation as the same, calling forth
the same love that’s within me.
The same love that I am feeling from him, I now want to let extend through me and embrace
all people without exception.