For those who weren’t there, our class yesterday was on self-honesty. The material was pretty gripping and pretty confrontive, and I felt that everyone was very much engaged. As a result, I thought it might be good to continue the conversation here.
The class was basically in three stages. First, I discussed my observations that the contemporary spiritual scene is honesty-challenged, challenged both in terms of putting a value on interpersonal honesty and in terms of practicing self-honesty. My admittedly uncharitable observation is that too often spirituality is seen as a way to learn more creative and metaphysically clever ways to lie to ourselves in order to feel better.
Second, I read and discussed a series of passages about self-honesty from the Course. I’ll paste these in below. But the basic idea, as I saw it, is that we engage in dishonesty with ourselves in order to protect our ego. Real honesty would lead us to give it up, and so dishonesty is needed in order to hang onto it. Two of the chief forms this takes is a lack of honestly evaluating the ego’s results and a lack of honestly questioning its beliefs.
Third, I asked the class to take a couple of minutes and ask within this question: “What is the one thing you need to be more honest with yourself about?”
Here are the quotes I discussed:
What we are really asking for with our thoughts
You retain thousands of little scraps of meanness which prevent the Holy One from entering….Watch carefully, and see what it is you are truly asking for. Be very honest with yourselves about this, for we must hide nothing from each other. If you will really try to do this, you have taken the first step toward preparing your minds for the Holy One to enter. (original version of T-4.III)
How we have been hurtful to others in our thoughts and deeds
When your mood tells you that you have willed wrongly, and this is so whenever you are not joyous, then know this need not be. In every case you have thought wrongly about some soul that God created, and are perceiving images your ego makes in a darkened glass. Think honestly what you have thought that God would not have thought, and what you have not thought that God would have you think. Search sincerely for what you have done and left undone accordingly. And then change your mind to think with God’s. (original version of T‑4.IV.2)
You, Helen, have been more honest than Bill in really trying to see whom your ego has hurt, and also in trying to change your mind about them. I am not unmindful of your efforts, but you still have much too much energy invested in your ego. This need not be. Watch your minds for the temptations of the ego, and do not be deceived by it. Know it offers you nothing. (Dictation originally part of this section)
Looking at what we do honestly
As you look upon yourself and judge what you do honestly, you may be tempted to wonder how you can be guiltless. (T‑13.I.3:1)
Honestly searching out what interferes with truth in us
The search for truth is but the honest searching out of everything that interferes with truth. (T‑14.VII. 2:1)
Judge the ego honestly
Bring this light fearlessly with you, and bravely hold it up to the foundation of the ego’s thought system. Be willing to judge it with perfect honesty. (T‑11.IN.3:7‑8)
Honestly appraise what we have taught ourselves and the resulting learning outcomes
Resign now as your own teacher. This resignation will not lead to depression. It is merely the result of an honest appraisal of what you have taught yourself, and of the learning outcomes that have resulted. (T‑12.V.8:3‑5)
Honestly considering the results of our interpretations
Would you prefer the results of your interpretation, considering honestly what they have been? (T‑16.II.7:6)
Looking back in honesty
Be speeded on your way by honesty, and let not your experiences here deceive in retrospect. They were not free from bitter cost and joyless consequence. Do not look back except in honesty. And when an idol tempts you, think of this: (T‑30.V.9:11‑10:2)
Looking honestly for truth
We are ready to look more closely at the ego’s thought system because together we have the lamp that will dispel it, and since you realize you do not want it, you must be ready. Let us be very calm in doing this, for we are merely looking honestly for truth. (T‑11.V. 1:3‑4)
Admitting we understand, even if we don’t want to
Yet who, in simple honesty, without defensiveness and self‑deception, would deny he understands the words we speak? (W‑pI.182. 2:5)
When we seek for peace honestly, we will find the means
And when the wish for peace is genuine, the means for finding it is given, in a form each mind that seeks for it in honesty can understand. (W‑pI.185. 6:2)
Honest about what is beyond my grasp
I will be honest with myself today. I will not think that I already know what must remain beyond my present grasp. (W‑pII.243.1:1‑2)
Honest that we don’t understand
We come in honesty to God and say we did not understand, and ask Him to help us to learn His lessons, through the Voice of His Own Teacher. (W‑FL.IN.6:1‑2)
We question only selectively
You have been as selective in your questioning as in your perception. An open mind is more honest than this. (T‑13.IV.3:7‑8)
Asking ourselves an honest question about willingness
Ask yourself honestly, “Would I want to have perfect communication, and am I wholly willing to let everything that interferes with it go forever?” (T‑15.IV.8:3)
We ask dishonest questions—statements in question form
Where answers represent the questions, they add nothing new and nothing has been learned. An honest question is a learning tool that asks for something that you do not know. It does not set conditions for response, but merely asks what the response should be. But no one in a conflict state is free to ask this question, for he does not want an honest answer where the conflict ends. (T‑27.IV.5)
Practice: Not always honest about weaseling out of practice
It is emphasized again that while complete inclusion should not be attempted, specific exclusion must be avoided. Be sure you are honest with yourself in making this distinction. You may be tempted to obscure it. (W‑pI.9.5:1‑3)
But learning will be hampered when you skip a practice period because you are unwilling to devote the time to it that you are asked to give. Do not deceive yourself in this. Unwillingness can be most carefully concealed behind a cloak of situations you cannot control. Learn to distinguish situations that are poorly suited to your practicing from those that you establish to uphold a camouflage for your unwillingness. (W-pI.rIII.In)
Practice: Honesty about what we really are desiring
The exercises for today require much more honesty than you are accustomed to using. A few subjects, honestly and carefully considered in each of the five practice periods which should be undertaken today, will be more helpful than a more cursory examination of a large number….
In the situation involving ___, I would like ___ to happen, and ___ to happen, (W‑pI.24.3:1-2, 5:4)
Practice: Honesty in evaluating the outcomes
Think also about the many forms the illusion of your function has taken in your mind, and the many ways in which you tried to find salvation under the ego’s guidance. Did you find it? Were you happy? Did they bring you peace? We need great honesty today. Remember the outcomes fairly, and consider also whether it was ever reasonable to expect happiness from anything the ego ever proposed. (W‑pI.66.9:2‑7)
[Please note: ACIM passages quoted in this article reference the Foundation for Inner Peace (FIP) Edition.]
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