Course students can fall into the same ego trap that many Christians do. They go to church and profess all of these spiritual beliefs and show their face of innocence. Then their actions in their outside lives tell you what they really believe. The ego is the great deceiver. Our job is to ferret out our hidden beliefs that war in secret. One way to discover our hidden beliefs is to look at our actions. Our actions belie our beliefs.

The mind which means that all it wants is peace must join with other minds, for that is how peace is obtained. And when the wish for peace is genuine, the means for finding it is given, in a form each mind that seeks for it in honesty can understand. Whatever form the lesson takes is planned for him in such a way that he can not mistake it, if his asking is sincere. But if he asks without sincerity, there is no form in which the lesson will meet with acceptance and be truly learned. (W-185.6:1-4)

How can you tell if someone is sincere? Look at their actions. Jesus says learn to act like me by learning to think like me. Do not shy away from looking at your actions and the underlying beliefs that go along with them. It is not that the actions are good or bad. There are no good or bad actions. But your actions, if you look at them with the Holy Spirit, will tell you which mind you are believing with. It will expose your hidden beliefs.

Let’s take an example. Wearing make-up. What do you have to believe to put on make-up? First you have to choose to believe that you are a body. Second you have to choose to believe that body is not good enough and that it needs improvement. You are actually saying, “I am broken. I need to be fixed.” And that is guilt. Unworthy of love and deserving of punishment equals guilt. Any body adornment says, “I believe I am this body and it needs to be enhanced. It is not good enough.”

If you want to take it further…Who is the you putting on the make-up? The ego personality self we made, as mind, and have come to think we are, is a child. Everything that happens in your “adult life” is just a replay of your childhood. Just like all the stories that have ever been told in the illusion are replays of the original separation myth. That child is putting on make-up because that child believes they are not good enough. That is the who and the why of applying make-up. But the biggest problem is that you think you are the self who is putting on the make-up. That action tells you what you are choosing to believe. That you are not the Son of God but the guilty image you have made.

If you have the courage to look with the Holy Spirit at the actions of the avatar in the game, you will be seriously exposing the ego. You will uncover the hidden beliefs that have you continuing to participate in the cycle of birth and death. You can repeat all the right-minded words you want. The evidence of what you really believe is in your actions. The ego does not want you looking there. The Holy Spirit does.