OrEd-T-17.7-Practical Forgiveness
57. The practical application of the Holy Spirit's purpose is simple, and unequivocal. For the application to be simple, it must be unequivocal, leaving no doubt. The simple is very clear and easily understood. The Holy Spirit's goal is set in a general context. He will work with me now to make it specific, for application is specific. There are very specific guidelines He provides for any situation, but I do not realize yet their universal application. Therefore, it is essential at this point to use them in each situation separately, until I can look beyond each situation, with an understanding far broader than I have now.
58. Very simply, for any situation in which I am uncertain, the first thing to consider is, "What is it for? What outcome do I want?" The clarification of the goal belongs at the beginning, for it is the goal that will determine the outcome. This is reversed in the ego's procedure. The situation becomes the determiner of the outcome, which can be anything. The reason for this disorganized approach is that the ego does not know what outcome it wants. It is aware only of what it does not want, and only that. It has no positive goal at all.
59. With no clear, positive goal at the outset, the situation just seems to happen, and makes no sense until it has already happened. Then, looking back at the situation, I try to piece together what it meant. And I will be wrong. I have no idea what should have happened, as my judgment is of the past. No goal was set that would bring the means into line. And now the only judgment is whether or not the ego likes it. Is it acceptable to the ego, or does it call for vengeance? Without a goal for the outcome set in advance, understanding is doubtful and evaluation is impossible.
60. The value of deciding in advance what I want to happen, is that I will perceive the situation as a means to make it happen. Therefore, I will make every effort to overlook what interferes with the accomplishment of my objective, and concentrate on everything that helps me meet it. It is noticeable that this approach has brought me closer to the Holy Spirit's sorting out of truth and falsity. The true is what can be used to meet the goal, and the false is useless to meet the goal. The situation now has meaning, because the goal has made it meaningful.
61. The goal of truth has further practical advantages. If the situation is used for truth and sanity, its outcome must be peace. And this is quite apart from what the outcome is. If peace is the condition of truth and sanity, and cannot be without them, where peace is they must be. Truth comes of itself. If I experience peace, it is because the truth has come to me, and I will see the outcome truly, for deception cannot prevail against me. And I will recognize the outcome because I am at peace. Here again, I see the opposite of the ego's way of looking, for the ego believes the situation brings the experience. The Holy Spirit knows that the situation is as the goal determines it and is experienced according to the goal.
62. The goal of truth requires faith. Faith is implicit in the acceptance of the Holy Spirit's purpose, and this faith is all inclusive. Where the goal of truth is set, there must be faith. The Holy Spirit sees hesitation as a whole. The goal establishes the fact that everyone involved will play his part in its accomplishment. This is inevitable. No one will fail in anything. This seems to ask for faith beyond me, and beyond what I can give. Yet this is so only from the viewpoint of the ego, for the ego believes in "solving" conflict through fragmentation and does not perceive the situation as a whole. Therefore, it seeks to split off segments of the situation and deal with them separately, for it has faith in separation and not in wholeness.
63. Confronted with any aspect of the situation which seems to be difficult, the ego will attempt to take this aspect elsewhere and resolve it there. And it will seem to be successful, except that this attempt conflicts with unity and must obscure the goal of truth. And peace will not be experienced except in fantasy. Truth has not come, because faith has been denied, being withheld from where it rightfully belonged. Thus do I lose the understanding of the situation the goal of truth would bring. For fantasy solutions bring but the illusion of experience, and the illusion of peace is not the condition in which the truth can enter.
64. The substitutes for aspects of the situation are the witnesses to my lack of faith. They demonstrate that I did not believe that the situation and the problem were in the same place. The problem was the lack of faith, and it is this I demonstrate when I remove it from its source and place it elsewhere. As a result, I do not see the problem. If I had faith the problem could be solved, the problem would be gone. And the situation would have been meaningful to me, because the interference in the way of understanding would have been removed. To remove the problem elsewhere is to keep it. For I remove myself from it and it becomes unsolvable.
