Stressing the importance of Ego

[Plenum]

 Cuz beyond a certain surface understanding you have to get into this technical description of, for example, the Holy Spirit, and that only begs the question on all the other aspects of the worldview which that definition relies upon to reinforce and reciprocate it.  By the time you're done you're waist deep in a conceptual stew as thick as Catholic doctrine.

I fully agree Jeremy.  What is one of the remarkable things about ACIM is that it is a self contained philosophical cosmology; in the same way that Ra is.  It invents it's own terms (or to be more exact in ACIM's case - it co-opts existing christian terminology, and then repurposes it for it's own system), which then makes it extremely difficult to copy-and-paste insights, as they are rooted in what is a foreign language by that point, in terms of overlap with the everyday usage of those terms.  So being able to 'make sense' and even 'grok' ACIM is a business of constant internal retranslation.  It ain't easy, and most people just throw their hands up when confronted with the Fortress of judeo-christian language.  Heck, for the first few years, I didn't even get what a 'miracle' was; even though it was defined in 50 points in the first chapter!  The 'miracle' in the Course in Miracles is not even about physical healing for god's sake!  (although it can result in physical changes, if the miracle of mental healing is allowed to occur).

Also, from a Course perspective, how would you describe the utility of the ego, Plenum?

in the context of ACIM, the ego functions as showing you the emptiness and hollowness of uninspired thinking.  That is, thinking that is not infused with the light of spirit/love.

in that sense, it enables one to experience/see what one does NOT want, as it it deeply unsatisfying.  So the ego functions in the same way that a cultivated mind views Survivor or Instant Noodles.  It's fluff and filler.

 Because so much of the Course revolves around the theme of the ego being some sort of error keeping us from unity and peace.

yes, that would be accurate.  But perhaps error might not be the right word.  More that the 'small minded' thinking associated with the ego (which is there to defend the self from harm, damage, ensure continuity) is inappropriate and hijacking when it's allowed to dominate all of consciousness using it's particular values and limited viewpoint.  The ego in the ACIM sense is a defensive mechanism of the mind, which has autonomous status.  It might correspond to the 'reptilian part' of the physical brain; if you believe that particular model of neuroscience.

/ /

That was one thing that really drew me to the Law of One philosophy: a more coherent explanation of the function of the incarnation.  I'm not sure the Course (or for that matter, Bhuddism) has any use for the kind of evolutionary talos implicit in those of Ra's cosmology.

ACIM is limited by it's ostensible author.  I think it's a pinnacle 4d communications - that is, it contains a coherent, fully explicated philosophy of a 4d being.  And that's it.  It's got everything they got, within the boundary conditions of that particular density and seeking.  It's utterly perfect, when seen in that light.  But 5d is more encompassing and explanatory, and 6d is more encompassing again, and even more explanatory.  So Ra gives the broadest container of Creation when it comes to systems and philosophies.  Other models sit within the 'Law of One', and flesh out more particular understandings and approaches.

As for explaining the incarnation, once you have the biggest scope of creation, you can then place the individual within that model.  It's a wonderful map for the 'big journey'