What Spiritual Sight Sees
Sometimes I am asked, “What do you see with spiritual Sight?” In A Course in Miracles, spiritual Sight is called right or true perception, the perception of the Holy Spirit, or the real world.
Some seem to expect to see a
different material world or to only see loving actions between bodies in the
material world. But spiritual Sight does not involve the body’s eyes or the
material world. It is a perception (consciousness) of the mind. Spirit sees
Spirit, which can also be called Its Self, Love, or Unity (Oneness).
The reason this is hard to
understand until you have the experience is because ego obscures the perception
of the mind by projecting its perceptions onto material forms seen by the body’s
eyes. Spirit extends Spirit. And ego also extends itself but denies it
is seeing itself. (Projection = extension + denial)
Another way to put this is
Spirit’s Seeing is only content—the content of the mind, which in Spirit’s
case is only Spirit. Ego’s seeing is also its content, but it projects this
onto material forms to obscure the awareness that what you see is a perception in
your own mind.
Spirit says, “I am at peace
because I am peace.” Ego says, “I am upset because…” Fill in the blank—you saw something
you didn’t like, someone said or did something you didn’t like, something’s not
going your way, etc. But, in fact, you are upset because you are in ego-consciousness.
Upset is the content of ego-consciousness but it projects this away, so it
seems a world outside of you has caused your upset.
In fact, it is not until you
experience spiritual Sight that you can understand how ego works, because
Spirit does not hide how the mind works and ego does. So, once you see with
Spirit, you understand how ego works, too. The covers are off. Ego cannot
escape the Law of Mind (God) that Mind only knows Its Self (in God there is
only God). So, it must deny it.
A follow-up question is often,
“How can you be in the world with spiritual Sight?” Spirit registers appearances
in the world, it simply is not focused on content that gives it meaning, makes
it real, as ego is. This is why we say Spirit sees beyond appearances or
overlooks appearances. Material forms are not relevant to spiritual
Sight, whereas for ego, they are crucial to disguise that its content is coming
from your mind.
In fact, your mind is quite
often on something that does not involve what the body’s eyes see:
You are doing the dishes, but
your mind is chewing on a problem at work. You are hardly aware that you are
doing the dishes and are surprised when you see you are done.
You drive to your local
supermarket while your mind furiously replays an argument you just had with
your teenager. You are half-way through the store when you have to stop and
tune in to remember what you came to pick up. You hardly remember driving to
the store.
You are pulling weeds while
your mind is processing an interesting documentary you just watched, so you don’t
find it a chore.
A friend is telling you, for the
one millionth time, what is wrong with her husband. You “tune out” as you mull
over options for dinner.
There is a difference, though,
between these experiences and spiritual Sight. In these experiences, your mind
is not present to what is appearing, and its thoughts are “somewhere else.”
Spirit’s Seeing is present to Its Self, which is closer than the material
world, which Spirit experiences as merely appearing before It. For Spirit, Its
Content is all and appearances just happen to be there.
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