The Big Deal About Premises

Like it or not, our belief system, and the entire experience of life that follows from it, is generated and sustained by logic, because, like it or not, logic is the way the mind works.  And it’s the way the mind will work whether you know anything about logic or not, and whether you pay attention to logic or not.  So if you don’t pay attention to logic, you’ll then be oblivious to the way in which your entire experience of life is generated and sustained.

And that’s why the fashionable notion in spiritual circles today that snubs its nose at logic with a conceit that presumes to transcend it, is the most effective form of stupidity that the ego can dupe us into.   It’s certainly not what the Course teaches, as we’ll soon see.

Logic always works in a very precise way through syllogistic reasoning.  Logic is always either one syllogism, or a chain of syllogisms.  A syllogism consists of a major premise, followed by a minor premise, which always work together is such a way that they irresistibly lead to one and only one conclusion.  If your major premise is “All lawyers are crooks,” and your minor premise is “He is a lawyer,” whether you like it or not and whether you pay attention to it or not, those two premises will irresistibly lead your mind to one and only one conclusion, all the time, without fail, and unavoidably.   If your major premise is “All lawyers are crooks,” and your minor premise is “He is a lawyer,” your conclusion has to be, “therefore he is a crook.”  So the logic functions with absolute power.  But what it’s absolute power is applied to, is irresistibly leading you to the conclusions DETERMINED BY YOUR PREMISES!

And so that is why premises are of such absolute importance.  Your premises determine everything.  The logic empowers your premises, but it is only your premises it can empower —- it’s only a servant to your premises.  Your premises are the absolute master and the logic it’s loyal servant.  So logic is always irresistibly leading you to whatever the conclusions are that must necessarily follow from whatever the premises are that you have accepted.  If your premises are false, your conclusions will necessarily be false as well.  And that’s why it’s very important to be able to know whether or not your premises are true or not, and accept only premises that are true, and discard any and all premises that are false.  The premise “All lawyers are crooks,” although accepted, rather thoughtlessly, as a valid premise by many, is obviously not a premise that one can be absolutely certain is absolutely true.   And you can see then, that premises that are carelessly accepted without making sure they are really true, can, and do, lead to all the problems we encounter in our experience.

Ok, so how can we make sure that the logic our mind uses will always be based on premises we’re certain are absolutely True?

That’s what the Chapter 14 in the Course, Teaching for Truth, is all about.

Chapter 14.

TEACHING FOR TRUTH

Introduction

T-14.in.1 Yes, you are blessed indeed. 2 Yet in this world you do not know it. 3 But you have the means for learning it and seeing it quite clearly. 4 The Holy Spirit uses logic as easily and as well as does the ego, except that His conclusions are not insane. 5 They take a direction exactly opposite, pointing as clearly to Heaven as the ego points to darkness and to death. 6 We have followed much of the ego’s logic, and have seen its logical conclusions. 7 And having seen them, we have realized that they cannot be seen except in illusions, for there alone their seeming clearness seems to be clearly seen. 8 Let us now turn away from them, and follow the simple logic by which the Holy Spirit teaches the simple conclusions that speak for truth, and only truth.

T-14.II.2 The Holy Spirit begins His lesson in simplicity with the fundamental teaching that truth is true.  This is the hardest lesson you will ever learn, and in the end the only one.  Simplicity is very difficult for twisted minds.  Nothing is so alien to you as the simple truth, and nothing are you less inclined to listen to. The contrast between what is true and what is not is perfectly apparent, yet you do not see it.

T-14.II.3 The Holy Spirit says, with steadfast quietness, The truth is true.  Nothing else matters, nothing else is real, and everything beside it is not there. 5 Let Me make the one distinction for you that you cannot make, but need to learn. 6 Your faith in nothing is deceiving you.

W-pI.152.3 Salvation is the recognition that the truth is true, and nothing else is true. This you have heard before, but may not yet accept both parts of it.  Truth cannot have an opposite. This cannot be too often said and thought about.  For if what is not true is true as well as what is true, then part of truth is false.  And truth has lost its meaning.  Nothing but the truth is true, and what is false is false.

T-7.X.2 4 The ability to see a logical outcome depends on the willingness to see it, but its truth has nothing to do with your willingness. 5 Truth is God’s Will.

What God is, and what God wills, are the same thing.

So when you bring yourself into alignment and harmony with what God is, you’re bringing yourself into alignment and harmony with the Will of God.

W-pI.66.10. You will listen to madness or hear the truth. 2 Try to make this choice as you think about the premises on which our conclusion rests.

“Truth is true” and “nothing else is true” are clear and certain major and minor premises of a syllogism that leads with absolute certainty to the most important conclusion there is.  Please take a brief moment to study it until it’s certainty is clear:

Major Premise:  Truth is true,

Minor Premise:  Nothing else is true,

Conclusion:  Therefore, Truth is all there is.

Notice that you can be absolutely certain that Truth is all there is.  Your ability to abolish illusions will be in direct proportion to that certainty.

If the reasoning is now expanded to reveal the attributes of Truth, clarity and certainty can be maintained if the conclusion of each syllogism is used as the major premise of the next syllogism.  In each syllogism, the minor premise expands the meaning of each attribute:

Truth is All,

All is entire,

Therefore Truth is entire

Truth is entire,

Entire is total,

Therefore Truth is total

Truth is total,

Total is complete,

Therefore Truth is complete

Truth is complete,

Complete is whole,

Therefore Truth is whole

Truth is whole,

Whole is one,

Therefore Truth is one

Truth is one,

One is harmonious,

Therefore Truth is harmonious

Truth is harmonious,

Harmonious is perfect,

Therefore Truth is perfect

Truth is perfect,

Perfect is absolute,

Therefore Truth is absolute

Truth is absolute,

Absolute is infinite,

Therefore Truth is infinite

So therefore Truth is all, entire, total, complete, whole, one, harmonious, perfect, absolute and infinite.

And since that’s arrived at in the awareness that is the substance of Mind, then Mind as awareness must exist, and hence must be truth, and hence must be all, entire, total, complete, whole, one, harmonious, perfect, absolute and infinite.

So, now when we “recognize that Truth is true and nothing else is true,” we know what Truth is because we’ve done what Jesus asked us to do, namely, we’ve “followed the simple logic by which the Holy Spirit teaches the simple conclusions that speak for truth, and only truth.”

And those simple conclusions are that Truth is all, entire, total, complete, whole, one, harmonious, perfect, absolute, infinite Mind, which therefore is what God must be, and also what we must be as well.

T-9.VII.8. Whenever you question your value, say: 2 God Himself is incomplete without me. 3 Remember this when the ego speaks, and you will not hear it. 4 The truth about you is so lofty that nothing unworthy of God is worthy of you.

Much Love,

Ben

PS: To enjoy a further exploration of this subject, listen to the “Spiritual Certainty” talk at the following link à http://www.miraclescenter.us/gilberti0.htm