22. Ego Trick #1,003,472
Let’s Have Fun
In the Course Jesus counsels, “You are much too tolerant of mind wandering. You must examine your thoughts closely.” Why? Because the ego is a tricky sneaky bastard and most of the time we have no idea if we are thinking with the Holy Spirit or the ego. Given that our job, if we want to get home, is to learn to think with the Holy Spirit then it might behoove us to know when we are thinking with the ego. Take the following statement.
“I am going to have fun in the illusion while I am here.”
I am
Who is the I? Huckle, Muckle, Pruckle or Fuckle? Which child wants to have “fun”?
going to have fun
Fun is transitory, ephemeral, therefore not of God. Having fun implies that sometimes you are having fun and sometimes you are not depending on your circumstances. Your having fun is therefore determined by an external situation. The child says I am lacking. Let’s solve that with “fun”. The child has an internal problem that he is going to solve with an external solution in the illusion. If you look deeper into the child’s desire to have fun, you will find that it is to alleviate some sort of emotional pain. This is the exact same thing we did when we accepted the ego’s solution to the guilt and fear of the separation. We accepted the external solution of making the universe to hide from God instead of dealing with our internal dis-ease. So what have we agreed to think so far? That we are lacking, that we need to find something outside ourselves to fix the lack, that we are not the perfect Son of God and that the illusion is real. When we make the statement, “I am going to have fun in the illusion while I am here”, we agree to all of those beliefs.
in the illusion
The illusion was made as a substitute for truth. There are two choices; God or the denial of God. When you interact with the illusion as if it were real you are denying truth or denying God. The illusion is the dance of death. Belief in it, or belief that you can find something valuable in it, is costing you the sight of the real world and Heaven and ultimately your knowing of your Self and God.
while I am here.
You are not here. You just imagine you are the child that thinks he is here. Ultimately the child, the characters are an ego device to keep you playing the game. As long as you are confused about your identity, the game goes on much to the ego’s delight.
So the most you can do if you insist you are a child wanting to have fun is to pretend to be having fun in hell. Until you get this, or become committed to getting this, you will continue to reincarnate. When you choose sobriety or not valuing the illusion, sooner or later, you can then with the Holy Spirit, use the illusion as an aid to help you get home to God instead of as a way to make the illusion real – drink.
The Christ self is not interested in playing the game of pretending to have “fun” in the illusion. Fun is just the carrot side of an illusory coin. The other side of the coin, the stick, is not having fun. List all your fun things and then all your not fun things. Don’t forget to include sickness and death. All things, fun and unfun, are equally unreal, but remember they are part of the same coin. You can’t just have one side of a coin (remember the pickle jar). It is all or nothing.
Every person’s list of the fun and the unfun differs, but they are all a reflection of childhood funs and unfuns. All have the ultimate purpose of making the illusion real and remaining separate from God. If you want to get home to God the concept of having fun or not having fun is out the window. But take heart– the peace, joy and happiness of God are in. Or how about some bliss? If you were in constant bliss would you need to go looking for “fun”?
The ego temps you with a tiny crumb of an imitation of Heaven, “fun”, when all of Heaven, eternal bliss, is yours. Think about it. We all must be suffering from a severe case of Stockholm syndrome. We have become completely identified with “our kidnapper”, the ego. We have completely adopted it’s mind set. But fortunately for us there was never a kidnapping. We made the story and the ego up and we can stop playing the game at any time. That’s God’s will and ours. So no matter how loud the children scream and how hard they resist, they will eventually leave this “playground” that is being used for the purpose of making the separation seem real. And that my friends is the definition of hell. Participating in something that is killing you and finding it “enjoyable”.
How can you have fun in hell?
The children, the addicts, that you think you are want to keep playing in the illusion as if it were real. But you are not these children, these addicts. You are the supernatural, sinless Son of God in whom He is well pleased. End your suffering. Do your forgiveness and correction work. Come home to God. Remember who you are and who you have always been.
One more thought in closing. Fun is an idol. It is something that the characters, the children think will save them. It is searched for and engaged in with the desperation of an addict. You do not realize this is happening because the ego tells you “fun” is a good thing. That is what the Course means when it says that you think pain is pleasure and pleasure is pain. An addict thinks his heroin high is “good, enjoyable, fun.” That my friend is denial. Together we, with the Holy Spirit’s support, can lift our self-made veil of denial and see what is really happening for ourselves, our brothers and the world. Then we can be the saviors we were born to be and accept the truth and God and be in bliss forever. Now that’s a happy ending. What fun!