
A little disturbance began last week when a Gizmodo article accused Facebook editors of suppressing news articles that reflect conservative viewpoints. Facebook denied the charges. Not to allow such a revelation to expire under its own weight, the U.S. Senate is poking into the matter. Now, Mark Zuckerburg has met with Glenn Beck and other conservative thinkers to discuss the issue.
No surprise there. A day can't go by without conflicting beliefs clashing and careening across the news pages. But it's all noise. It's distraction from what's Real. Here's what the Course offers about so many things we project upon others, then perceive, then judge.
You do not know the meaning of anything you perceive. Not one thought you hold is wholly true. The recognition of this is your firm beginning. You are not misguided; you have accepted no guide at all. Instruction in perception is your great need, for you understand nothing. Recognize this but do not accept it, for understanding is your inheritance. Perceptions are learned, and you are not without a Teacher. Yet your willingness to learn of Him depends on your willingness to question everything you have learned of yourself, for you who have learned amiss should not be your own teachers. ACIM OE T.10.VIII.76
Your view of the world is yours. Mine is mine. Our respective beliefs may correlate perfectly, or they may be diametrically opposed. It doesn't matter because beliefs are simply thoughts the ego has claimed as its own that, over time, congeal into one's personal world view.
Our opinions and perspectives on any topic are the result of our childhood upbringing and education. The influences from books we've read, movies we've watched. Ideas and beliefs we picked up from our parents. From our culture and society at large. Our beliefs are the result of the nearly uncountable things we have learned. Nothing more. The Course reminds us of our learning disabilities.
There are areas in your learning skills which are so impaired that you can progress only under constant, clear-cut direction provided by a Teacher Who can transcend your limited resources. He becomes your resource because, of yourself, you cannot learn. The learning situation in which you placed yourself is impossible, and in this situation you clearly require a special Teacher and a special curriculum. Poor learners are not good choices for teachers, either for themselves or for anyone else. You would hardly turn to them to establish the curriculum by which they can escape from their limitations. If they understood what is beyond them, they would not be handicapped. ACIM OE T.11.VI.47
The picture of your brother you see [—based on what you've learned to project upon him--] means nothing. There is nothing to attack or to deny, love, or hate, or to endow with power or to see as weak. The picture has been wholly cancelled out …The picture of your brother that you see is wholly absent and has never been. ACIM OE T.27.IV.31
There can be nothing more joyous than seeing with God's vision as we look upon the world. True vision shows us the beauty and wonder and love rather than the ego's version that shows danger, hate and fear in every moment. Direct experience of God gives us far more than learning ever could.
Facebook? Conservatives? May you be well. May you come to understand that all your controversy is nothing more than what ego demands when it entices you to “Seek but do not find.” The Real answers, the ones that bring peace, joy and love—may you find they don't lie in the world of form. Instead, may you seek and find what's True.
No surprise there. A day can't go by without conflicting beliefs clashing and careening across the news pages. But it's all noise. It's distraction from what's Real. Here's what the Course offers about so many things we project upon others, then perceive, then judge.
You do not know the meaning of anything you perceive. Not one thought you hold is wholly true. The recognition of this is your firm beginning. You are not misguided; you have accepted no guide at all. Instruction in perception is your great need, for you understand nothing. Recognize this but do not accept it, for understanding is your inheritance. Perceptions are learned, and you are not without a Teacher. Yet your willingness to learn of Him depends on your willingness to question everything you have learned of yourself, for you who have learned amiss should not be your own teachers. ACIM OE T.10.VIII.76
Your view of the world is yours. Mine is mine. Our respective beliefs may correlate perfectly, or they may be diametrically opposed. It doesn't matter because beliefs are simply thoughts the ego has claimed as its own that, over time, congeal into one's personal world view.
Our opinions and perspectives on any topic are the result of our childhood upbringing and education. The influences from books we've read, movies we've watched. Ideas and beliefs we picked up from our parents. From our culture and society at large. Our beliefs are the result of the nearly uncountable things we have learned. Nothing more. The Course reminds us of our learning disabilities.
There are areas in your learning skills which are so impaired that you can progress only under constant, clear-cut direction provided by a Teacher Who can transcend your limited resources. He becomes your resource because, of yourself, you cannot learn. The learning situation in which you placed yourself is impossible, and in this situation you clearly require a special Teacher and a special curriculum. Poor learners are not good choices for teachers, either for themselves or for anyone else. You would hardly turn to them to establish the curriculum by which they can escape from their limitations. If they understood what is beyond them, they would not be handicapped. ACIM OE T.11.VI.47
The picture of your brother you see [—based on what you've learned to project upon him--] means nothing. There is nothing to attack or to deny, love, or hate, or to endow with power or to see as weak. The picture has been wholly cancelled out …The picture of your brother that you see is wholly absent and has never been. ACIM OE T.27.IV.31
There can be nothing more joyous than seeing with God's vision as we look upon the world. True vision shows us the beauty and wonder and love rather than the ego's version that shows danger, hate and fear in every moment. Direct experience of God gives us far more than learning ever could.
Facebook? Conservatives? May you be well. May you come to understand that all your controversy is nothing more than what ego demands when it entices you to “Seek but do not find.” The Real answers, the ones that bring peace, joy and love—may you find they don't lie in the world of form. Instead, may you seek and find what's True.