The first thing to understand about needs is the picture the Course paints about our reality in Heaven. The Course describes Heaven not as a place but as a state of mind in which there is a complete absence of needs. We find this idea, for example, in Chapter 13:
Your Father knoweth that you have need of nothing. In Heaven this is so, for what could you need in eternity? (CE T-13.VIII.1:1-2)
This means that, in Heaven, we had no need for anything. However, upon coming to this world, we placed ourselves in a situation where needs became possible:
In your world you do need things, because it is a world of scarcity, in which you find yourself because you are lacking. (CE T-13.VIII.1:3)
How did we become needy? Every need involves, by definition, a lack. Lack can be understood as a void of something. That void must be filled with that which is missing. So, needing “something” is the same as wanting to fill the void of that very thing.
By separating from God and coming to this world, we discovered what it meant to be without God. The separation led us to imagine a lack—the lack of God Himself. Every need is simply a motivation. In other words, a need represents the motivation to fulfill a specific lack. The void of God at the core of our being gave rise to needs, or our motivation for change.
Having needs involves recognizing that you could be in a better state than you are now. Jesus, in the original dictation of the Course, says that needs are what motivate our behavior:
After the separation, needs became the most powerful source of motivation for human action. All behavior is essentially motivated by needs, but behavior itself is not a divine attribute. (CE T-1.48.20-21)
In Heaven, where there is no lack, behavior is unnecessary because there is no motivation for change. In this world, however, any behavior we exhibit or see in others is motivated by certain specific needs. The fact that behavior is not a divine attribute does not mean that behavior is something bad. On the contrary, behavior is the mechanism we have at our disposal to act on our desire to be better:
The body is the mechanism for behavior. Nobody would bother even to get up and go from one place to another if he did not think he would somehow be better off. Believing that you could be “better off” is the reason why you have the mechanism for behavior at your disposal. That is why the Bible says, “By their deeds ye shall know them.” (CE T-1.48.21:3-6)
All behavior must be expressed through the body. Jesus tells us that the body is the mechanism of behavior and therefore for satisfying needs. Depending on the needs someone wants to fulfill, their behavior will follow. This is why “By their deeds ye shall know them..”
However, the body originally arose as a product of the desire to separate from God. This desire required a symbol to keep us separate from our true Creator. Therefore, the symbol of the separation from God is the body. The body is like a protective barrier that keeps us separated from the rest of the world. This protective barrier is what proves to us every day that “I am me” and that I cannot be anything else.
Like any symbol, the body can change its purpose and be used for something positive. When the body is used to separate, it seems that the body has its own needs. When we use the body to keep ourselves separated from God, we become slaves to those needs and will spend our lives satisfying them. On the other had, if we made God our only need, then our behavior, expressed through the body, would reflect that motivation. Believing that we can be better off is, therefore, a good thing. It is what ultimately motivates us to satisfy the need for God, our only real need.
Since the vast majority of us use the body to keep ourselves separated, it seems like there are hundreds of different needs to satisfy before we have time to seek God.
Maslow’s famous hierarchy of needs is a great example of this idea. In the chart above, we can see that it is necessary to first satisfy our physiological and safety needs before the need for relationships and spiritual fulfillment. However, Jesus tells us that this pyramid is completely wrong:
You act according to the particular hierarchy of needs you establish for yourself. Your hierarchy, in turn, depends on your perception of what you are; that is, what you lack. This establishes your own rules for what you need to know. Separation from God is the only lack you really need to correct. But your separation would never have occurred if you had not distorted your perception of truth, and thus perceived yourself as lacking. The concept of any sort of need hierarchy arose because, having made this fundamental error, you had already fragmented yourself into levels with different needs. (CE T-1.48.22:1-6)
In other words, every need is a distortion of our only true lack: God. As a result of the separation, we internally disintegrated as if we repeated the process of separating from God over and over within our own being. That is why it seems we have internal voices asking for contradictory things.
To satisfy the needs that our internal voices demand, we had to prioritize some and set others aside. One voice says it wants to eat right now, but another says you want to keep looking at your phone while lying on the couch. Another voice tells you that you would like to go out to eat, but there is also a part of you that reminds you not to waste money and that it is better to stay home.
The idea of a hierarchy of needs seems like the most sensible thing in the world. Without this hierarchy, we would go crazy trying to satisfy all the internal voices asking for contradictory things. However, Jesus questions this concept and reminds us that our only need is God.
He tells us that we have simply distorted our perception of truth when we saw ourselves as lacking God. It is impossible to lack something that is everywhere and is everything. Each of us is part of that everything. The belief that it is possible to create a barrier to keep God away led us to the logical conclusion that everyone has different needs and that certain needs are more important than others.
As we will see in the next sections, money is simply a specific case of the misguided idea that we have a hierarchy of needs.
Practice
If we want to gain a new vision of money and needs, we must abandon the old way of seeing. This begins with recognizing that our current perspective is learned, not a natural way of viewing things.
Today, we will use the technique of responding to temptation. It has two parts:
- Throughout the day, observe your mind and identify thoughts of need.
For each thought of lack or need, respond slowly but without delay with the following phrase:
“Right now, I believe I need ———-, but my Self is truly asking for God.”
For example, if you feel hunger, boredom, a need for a hug, or tiredness, respond immediately with:
“Right now, I believe I need – to eat, to watch TV, a hug, to sleep –, but my Self is truly asking for God.”
Do this with your eyes closed and spend at least half a minute slowly repeating the phrase. Connect with the meaning of the phrase and how it makes you feel. Continue repeating it, slowly and mindfully, until you sense an internal shift, no matter how small. If you feel strong resistance, that is the moment to stop.
This practice does not mean you should refrain from doing anything. For instance, it does not expect you to ignore hunger and not eat. The purpose is to train your mind to recognize that it is not the body that asks for things, but a deeper desire to return to your natural state.
- Throughout the day, observe your mind and identify thoughts of need.
Use your phone’s timer to set an alarm every 20 minutes. Each time the alarm goes off, remind yourself of this truth:
“God created me perfect and without lack. Let my mind be one again so I can return home.”
Write this phrase somewhere visible so you do not forget. If repeating it every 20 minutes is too challenging, set the alarm for every 30 minutes or 1 hour. Do not decide in advance if it is too frequent—just try it. It is okay if you occasionally forget to repeat the phrase.
As mentioned in the previous step, it is important that you repeat the phrase with awareness of its meaning. Do it slowly, allowing the meaning to enter your mind. The goal is not to turn this into a mantra; we are aiming to keep the idea’s content in your mind throughout the day, not just the words themselves.
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