Ask: Does the universe of form we perceive exist only in the ego's mind?

In the lesson 'What is Creation?' the following passage answers the question:

"Creation is the sum of all God's Thoughts, in number infinite and everywhere without limit. Only Love creates and only like Itself."

I suddenly found today that I could not see how this fitted with the idea that all form (creation) is the sum of God's thoughts, if it is also illusory. Does the Universe we perceive exist only in the ego's mind - or is it the result of God's Thought? – MD-T 

            A Course in Miracles redefines the word “Creation” to refer to the Extension of God’s formless Being rather than to the universe of form, as the word is commonly used. When it speaks of “you” being God’s “Creation” it is referring to your True Being in God, not to the forms (body/personality) with which you mistakenly identify. You experience God’s boundless Creation – your True Being – not in form but within your mind.

You “create” like God when God’s Being extends through your True Mind. This “creation” or extension is eternally ongoing and automatic whether or not you are aware of it. This re-definition undoes the usual concept of a “Creator” bringing into being a separate entity. So in the Course “Creation” is another way to say “Oneness”. In God there is only God extending infinitely. God is One (the same throughout).

The universe of form does not exist at all. Being All, God’s Mind must contain the thought of God’s opposite. But being All God cannot have an actual opposite. The thought-of-the-opposite-of-God is only ever an impossible thought. It has no purpose or intention. It occurs because everything must occur to God’s Mind. So while it is a thought that must be in God’s Mind it is not “Creation” or Extension of God’s Mind because it is unlike God. It has no reality.

A meaningless thought is dismissed as meaningless. That is God’s point of view. But within the thought-of-the-opposite-of-God there is an emptiness which is filled by a universe of form, or the opposite-of-God made manifest. The part of God’s mind where this thought seems to occur the Course calls the “son of God” (lower case “s” on “son”). It cannot leave God so it is split between God and not-God. This split mind projects billions of versions of itself into the universe of form (individual minds in bodies). For the seemingly-individual split mind the Course refers to the projection of not-God as “ego” and to the awareness of God as “Christ” (or “Son of God”; upper-case “s” on “son”).

The universe of form is a meaningless projection. All the meaning that a seemingly-individual mind sees in it, it projects from its own personal (ego) story. These projections of meaning are what make the universe of form seem to really exist. Withdraw your projections of meaning and you find that form is empty, not in a way that depresses you, but in a way that liberates you.

You will never intellectually understand that the universe of form does not exist. You cannot understand that something does not exist when your mind seems to be in the midst of it. To learn this you must grow your awareness of the Truth (God) within you. As the Truth becomes true for you, you will find that you are able to let go of the personal story that you have for yourself. Then you will be able to withdraw the projections of meaning onto a meaningless universe of form that makes it seem real to you.

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