Hi,
I'm Teresa Hubbard.
Welcome back to our continued reading of the text to A Course in Miracles.
We continue today in Chapter 9,
The Acceptance of the Atonement,
Section 8,
Grandeur vs.
Grandiosity.
To summarize my takeaways,
In Section 8 of Chapter 9,
We learn that grandeur is of God,
While grandiosity is of the ego.
Self-inflation is the ego's only offering,
Which is a cover for despair,
And an attempt to counteract its belief in our littleness.
The essence of grandiosity is competitiveness.
The ego's profound sense of vulnerability renders it incapable of judgment except in terms of attack.
As we've already learned,
The ego vacillates between suspiciousness and viciousness.
It remains suspicious as long as we despair of ourselves.
But it shifts to viciousness when we decide to no longer tolerate self-abasement and seek relief.
Then it offers us the illusion of attack as its solution.
Yet,
The ego depends solely on our willingness to tolerate it.
Whenever we become aware of the grandeur of God,
However dimly,
We automatically abandon the ego because in the presence of the grandeur of God,
The meaninglessness of the ego becomes apparent.
Our grandeur is not a delusion because we did not make it.
Our grandeur is of God,
Who created it out of His love.
From our grandeur,
We can only bless because our grandeur is our abundance.
We must know that to accept ourselves as God created us is not arrogant.
Rather,
To accept the illusion of littleness is arrogant because it means that we believe our evaluation of our self is truer than God's.
In these moments,
We must remind ourselves that we did not establish our value and it needs no defense.
Nothing can attack it nor prevail over it.
It does not vary.
It merely is.
We must ask the Holy Spirit and He will tell us of our grandeur.
But we must not be afraid of His answer because it comes from God.
I invite you to keep a few things in mind as you listen to the reading.
The Course uses male pronouns,
Yet this is simply a way of pointing to the spiritual being having no gender.
The Course is written in first person and although not introduced directly to the reader,
It becomes clear that the words are from Jesus,
Often quoting from the Bible.
The Course uses traditional Christian terms in a non-traditional manner.
These words are simply pointers to truth,
Nothing more.
A few terms you will hear within this reading.
The Two Teachers,
Ego and Holy Spirit.
Ego is our belief in the separated or false self that we made as a substitute for the self that God created.
Holy Spirit is the communication link between God and us,
Bridging the gap between the mind of Christ and our human minds,
The voice for God.
God the Creator,
The source of all being or life.
God's essence is Spirit,
Which is shared with all creation.
Yet the Word God can be limiting,
Since universal energy and life are infinitely vast and cannot be contained in a word.
And now,
On to the reading.
A Course in Miracles Chapter 9,
The Acceptance of the Atonement.
Question 8,
Grandeur vs.
Grandiosity.
Grandeur is of God and only of Him,
Therefore it is in you.
Whenever you become aware of it,
However dimly,
You abandon the ego automatically,
Because in the presence of the grandeur of God,
The meaningless of the ego becomes perfectly apparent.
When this occurs,
Even though it does not understand it,
The ego believes that its enemy is struck and attempts to offer gifts to induce you to return to its protection.
Self inflation is the only offering it can make.
The grandiosity of the ego is its alternative to the grandeur of God.
Which will you choose?
Grandiosity is always a cover for despair.
It is without hope,
Because it is not real.
It is an attempt to counteract your littleness based on the belief that the littleness is real.
Without this belief,
Grandiosity is meaningless and you could not possibly want it.
The essence of grandiosity is competitiveness,
Because it always involves attack.
It is a delusional attempt to outdo,
But not to undo.
We said before that the ego vacillates between suspiciousness and viciousness.
It remains suspicious as long as you despair of yourself.
It shifts to viciousness when you decide not to tolerate self-abasement and seek relief.
Then it offers you the illusion of attack as a solution.
The ego does not understand the difference between grandeur and grandiosity because it sees no difference between miracle impulses and ego-alien beliefs of its own.
I told you that the ego is aware of threat to its existence,
But makes no distinctions between these two very different kinds of threats.
Its profound sense of vulnerability renders it incapable of judgment except in terms of attack.
When the ego experiences threat,
Its only decision is whether to attack now or to withdraw to attack later.
If you accept its offer of grandiosity,
It will attack immediately.
If you do not,
It will wait.
The ego is immobilized in the presence of God's grandeur,
Because His grandeur establishes your freedom.
Even the faintest hint of your reality literally drives the ego from your mind,
Because you will give up all investment in it.
Grandeur is totally without illusions,
And because it is real,
It is compellingly convincing.
Yet the conviction of reality will not remain with you unless you do not allow the ego to attack it.
The ego will make every effort to recover and mobilize its energies against your release.
It will tell you that you are insane,
And argue that grandeur cannot be a part of you because of the littleness in which it believes.
Yet your grandeur is not delusional because you did not make it.
You made grandiosity and are afraid of it because it is a form of attack,
But your grandeur is of God who created it out of His love.
From your grandeur,
You can only bless because your grandeur is your abundance.
By blessing,
You hold it in your mind,
Protecting it from illusions and keeping yourself in the mind of God.
Remember always that you cannot be anywhere except in the mind of God.
When you forget this,
You will despair and you will attack.
The ego depends solely on your willingness to tolerate it.
If you are willing to look upon your grandeur,
You cannot despair,
And therefore you cannot want the ego.
Your grandeur is God's answer to the ego because it is true.
Littleness and grandeur cannot coexist,
Nor is it possible for them to alternate.
Littleness and grandiosity can and must alternate,
Since both are untrue and are therefore on the same level.
Being the level of shift,
It is experienced as shifting and extremes are its essential characteristic.
Truth and littleness are denials of each other because grandeur is truth.
Truth does not vacillate.
It is always true.
When grandeur slips away from you,
You have replaced it with something you have made.
Perhaps it is the belief in littleness.
Perhaps it is the belief in grandiosity.
Yet it must be insane because it is not true.
Your grandeur will never deceive you,
But your illusions always will.
Illusions are deceptions.
You cannot triumph,
But you are exalted,
And in your exalted state you seek others like you and rejoice with them.
It is easy to distinguish grandeur from grandiosity because love is returned and pride is not.
Pride will not produce miracles and will therefore deprive you of the true witnesses to your reality.
Truth is not obscure nor hidden,
But its obviousness to you lies in the joy you bring to its witnesses who show it to you.
They attest to your grandeur,
But they cannot attest to pride because pride is not shared.
God wants you to behold what He created because it is His joy.
Can your grandeur be arrogant when God Himself witnesses to it?
And what can be real that has no witnesses?
What good can come of it?
And if no good can come of it,
The Holy Spirit cannot use it.
What He cannot transform to the will of God does not exist at all.
Grandiosity is delusional because it is used to replace your grandeur.
Yet what God has created cannot be replaced.
God is incomplete without you because His grandeur is total and you cannot be missing from it.
You are altogether irreplaceable in the mind of God.
No one else can fill your part in it.
And while you leave your part of it empty,
Your eternal place merely waits for your return.
God through His voice reminds you of it,
And God Himself keeps your extensions safe within it.
But you do not know them until you return to them.
You cannot replace the kingdom,
And you cannot replace yourself.
God who knows your value would not have it so,
And so it is not so.
Your value is in God's mind and therefore not in yours alone.
To accept yourself as God created you cannot be arrogance because it is the denial of arrogance.
To accept your littleness is arrogant because it means that you believe your evaluation of yourself is truer than God's.
Yet if truth is indivisible,
Your evaluation of yourself must be God's.
You did not establish your value and it needs no defense.
Nothing can attack it nor prevail over it.
It does not vary.
It merely is.
Ask the Holy Spirit what it is and He will tell you.
But do not be afraid of His answer because it comes from God.
It is an exalted answer because of its source,
But the source is true and so is its answer.
Listen and do not question what you hear,
For God does not deceive.
He would have you replace the ego's belief in littleness with His own exalted answer to what you are so that you can cease to question it and know it for what it is.
