Chapter 15

The Holy Instant

VII. The Needless Sacrifice

Para 8

Sentences 1-9

Yet they only seem to be together. ²For relationships, to the ego, mean only that bodies are together. ³It is always this that the ego demands, and it does not object where the mind goes or what it thinks, for this seems unimportant. ⁴As long as the body is there to receive its sacrifice, it is content. ⁵To the ego the mind is private, and only the body can be shared. ⁶Ideas are basically of no concern, except as they bring the body of another closer or farther. ⁷And it is in these terms that it evaluates ideas as good or bad. ⁸What makes another guilty and holds him through guilt is “good.” ⁹What releases him from guilt is “bad,” because he would no longer believe that bodies communicate, and so he would be “gone.” (ACIM, T-15.VII.8:1-9)