Defenses - Words used in A Course in Miracles

In A Course in Miracles, defenses are but one part of attack, and a means by which the ego keeps the dream of separation in place.

God's teachers have learned how to be simple. They have no dreams that need defense against the truth. ... defenses are but foolish guardians of mad illusions. The more grotesque the dream, the fiercer and more powerful its defenses seem to be. Yet when the teacher of God finally agrees to look past them, he finds that nothing was there.... It is not danger that comes when defenses are laid down. It is safety. It is peace. It is joy. And it is God.  M-4.VI.1:1,2,6,7,11-15. (Manuel for Teacher's – WHAT ARE THE CHARACTERISTICS OF GOD'S TEACHERS? # VI. is Defenselessness)

Every response to the ego is a call to war, and war does deprive you of peace. Yet in this war there is no opponent. ... Those whom you perceive as opponents are part of your peace, which you are giving up by attacking them.          T-8.I.3:12,4.

Peace is the ego's greatest enemy because, according to its interpretation of reality, war is the guarantee of its survival. The ego becomes strong in strife.                             T-5.III.8:7,8.

The Holy Spirit undoes illusions without attacking them, because He cannot perceive them at all. They therefore do not exist for Him. He resolves the apparent conflict they engender by perceiving conflict as meaningless. ... The Holy Spirit does not want you to understand conflict; He wants you to realize that,because conflict is meaningless, it is not understandable.        T-7.VI.6:1-3,5.

...when you feel the need arise to be defensive about anything, you have identified yourself with an illusion.     T-22.V.6:1.