Essay 9 of 12

A Course in Miracles

“You think that you run thought, but thought runs you.”
– David Bohm

A Course in Miracles. Why do we need yet another spiritual book?

Not only that, it can be challenging to read. Talking to other students, and perhaps the Course's greatest teacher, Ken Wapnick, we continually hear stories of those who gave up and put the book back on the shelf – for years.

Then others criticize the Course because it appears to contradict itself in various ways.

It has been translated into 27 languages with over 3 million copies sold. How did this work become so widely respected and practiced? The following Sections may provide insight into answers to these questions (all quotes taken from A Course in Miracles, Foundation for Inner Peace, Combined Volume, Second Edition 1996).

What it says:

The Course contains a way of writing that captures the reader and inexorably forms a profound spiritual bond — a way of writing that is simply not found elsewhere. There are portions which, when read, cannot be dismissed, minimized or forgotten.

One is challenged to ask: Who writes like this?

“In this world, you believe you are sustained by everything but God. Your faith is placed in the most trivial and insane symbols; pills, money, “protective” clothing, influence, prestige, being liked, knowing the “right” people, and an endless list of forms of nothingness that you endow with magical powers. All these things are replacements for the love of God…They are songs of praise to the ego. Do not put your faith in the worthless. It will not sustain you.”

[Workbook, Lesson 50, Paragraphs 1-2]

“You do not ask too much of life, but far too little. When you let your mind be drawn to bodily concerns, to things you buy, to eminence as valued by the world, you ask for sorrow, not for happiness. This course does not attempt to take you from the little that you have. It does not try to substitute utopian ideas for satisfactions which the world contains. There are no satisfactions in the world.”
[Workbook, Lesson 133, Paragraph 2]

“You are the work of God, and His work is wholly lovable and wholly loving. This is how a man must think of himself in his heart, because this is what he is.”
[Text, Chapter 1, Section III, Paragraph 2]

“The world is not left by death but by truth, and truth can be known by all those for whom the Kingdom was created, and for whom it waits.”

[Text, Chapter 3, Section VII, Paragraph 6]

“Your ego is never at stake because God did not create it. Your spirit is never at stake because He did.”

[Text, Chapter 4, Section I, Paragraph 7]

These statements speak for themselves.

The Course, while voluminous and complex in its language, often utilizes very clear messages to describe our path. As such, it has been summarized very simply in this way:

Nothing real can be threatened,

Nothing unreal exists,

Herein lies the peace of God.” [Introduction]

There are only two thought systems, love (the thought system of God, or Holy Spirit) and fear (the ego, including anger, guilt, “sin” etc.). The latter is often referred to as the egoic thought system. We are always choosing one or the other – there is no compromise, no “in-between.” Every choice we make is a choice between love and fear – no overlap exists. Our responsibility is to develop the mental discipline and mind training to consistently induce the choice for love:

There are only two thought systems, love (the thought system of God, or Holy Spirit) and fear (the ego, including anger, guilt, “sin” etc.). The latter is often referred to as the egoic thought system. We are always choosing one or the other – there is no compromise, no “in-between.” Every choice we make is a choice between love and fear – no overlap exists. Our responsibility is to develop the mental discipline and mind training to consistently induce the choice for love:

“There are only two thought systems, and you demonstrate that you believe one or the other all the time.”

[Manual for Teachers, Introduction, Paragraph 2]

We only need to remove the barriers to love. Love cannot be taught, added or endowed -- it simply is:

“Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all of the barriers within yourself that you have built against it. It is not necessary to seek for what is true, but it is necessary to seek for what is false. Every illusion is one of fear, whatever form it takes.”

[Text, Chapter 16, Section IV, Paragraph 6]

We are being asked to recognize that we are already Spirit, pure, guiltless, and sinless. We are not “becoming” -- we already are. Other than supporting the awareness of this truth, there is nothing to be added to us that could augment our status, make us closer to God, or improve us in any way;

“I am as God created me. 1. Today we continue with the one idea which brings complete salvation; the one statement which makes all forms of temptation powerless; the one thought which renders the ego silent and entirely undone. 2. You are as God created you. 3. The sounds of this world are still, the sights of this world disappear, and all the thoughts that this world ever held are wiped away forever with this one idea. 4. Here is salvation accomplished. 5. Here is sanity restored.
1. True light is strength, and strength is sinlessness. 2. If you remain as God created you, you must be strong and light must be in you. 3. He Who ensured your sinlessness must be the guarantee of strength and light as well. 4. You are as God created you. 5. Darkness cannot obscure the glory of God’s Son. 6. You stand in light, strong in the sinlessness in which you were created, and in which you will remain throughout eternity.”
[Workbook Lesson 94]

The fact that we are “already there” is reflected in the following excerpts, including a very famous and well-known part of the Course that tells us there is nothing to do (“I need do nothing”):

“When peace comes at last to those who wrestle with temptation and fight against the giving into sin; when the light comes at last into the mind given to contemplation; or when the goal is finally achieved by anyone, it always comes with just one happy realization: ‘I need do nothing’.”

[Text, Chapter 18, Section VII, Paragraph 5]

“You are at home in God, dreaming of exile but perfectly capable of awakening to reality.”

[Text, Chapter 10, Section 1, Paragraph 2]

The problem is what we take ourselves to be. We do not know what we are!

“The goal of the curriculum, regardless of the teacher you choose, is ‘Know Thyself.’ There is nothing else to seek. Everyone is looking for himself and for the power and the glory he thinks he has lost. Whenever you are with anyone, you have another opportunity to find them. Your power and glory are in him because they are yours. The ego tries to find them in yourself alone, because it does not know where to look.”

[Text, Chapter 8, Section III, Paragraph 5]

Our minds are much more powerful than we realize:

“If you hope to spare yourself from fear, there are some things you must realize, and realize fully. The mind is very powerful and never loses its creative force. It never sleeps. Every instant it is creating. It is hard to recognize that thought and belief combine into a power surge that can literally move mountains. It appears at first glance that to believe such power about yourself is arrogant, but that is not the real reason you do not believe it. You prefer to believe that your thoughts cannot exert real influence because you are actually afraid of them.”
[Text, Chapter 2, Section VI, Paragraph 9]

Accordingly, we are reminded that “this is a course in mind training.” [Text, Chapter I, Section VII, Paragraph 4]. A central function of the Course is to cut time – reduce the amount of time necessary for us all to return Home …

“The miracle substitutes for learning that might have taken thousands of years.”

[Text, Chapter 1, Section II, Paragraph 6.]

What is “a miracle”? A miracle is a shift in perception, from fear-based to love-based. As the preceding quote indicates, it is instrumental in carrying out the Course’s main functions -- to cut time in bringing us Home. A definition of the miracle is as follows:

“A miracle is a correction. It does not create, nor really change at all. It merely looks on devastation, and reminds the mind that what it sees is false.”

[Workbook, Section 13, p. 473]

So, if all of this is true, and we are “already there,” then why is there a Workbook with 365 lessons and over 650 pages of text that we are being asked to study? Let’s take a quick look at the beginning of the Workbook:

The Workbook

The Workbook contains 365 lessons that represent just a part of what makes the Course unique. The first several lessons destroy everything we think we know. Thus, we have for example,

Lesson 1: Nothing I see in this room [on this street, in this place] means anything.
Lesson 3: I do not understand anything I see in this room [on this street, from this window, in this place].
Lesson 4: These thoughts do not mean anything. They are like the things I see in this room [on this street, from this window, in this place].
Lesson 5: I am never upset for the reason I think.
Lesson 7: I see only the past.
Lesson 10: My thoughts do not mean anything.
Lesson 25: I do not know what anything is for.

These lessons create a clean slate as a basis for a new conception of truth. This new conception is founded, in part, on the following idea:

“There is no world! This is the central thought the Course attempts to teach.”

[Workbook Lesson 132, Paragraph 6]

This is obviously a radical idea that takes quite some time to assimilate, but an explanation is provided in the Course metaphysics, which are discussed in the Sections that follow. The idea can be conceptualized by realizing that, as being One with God, there is nothing “outside” us – we have no boundaries or limits. What we experience as “the world” is a projection, an image that we create.

In addition, we add that Lesson 5 is true because our reason for upset is invariably that we imagine that we are separate from God, but we are not yet aware of this.

We eventually get to Lesson 34 – the turning point:

“I could see peace instead of this.”

[Workbook, Lesson 34]

When we get to this lesson we become responsible. We now know that any upset we experience is what we have chosen, and it is our responsibility to make another choice if we want peace. Thus, the well-known Course phrase, “Choose again.”

We will resume consideration of these points after a brief review of Course background and metaphysics.

Origins and Meaning of the Course

Let’s look for a moment into how the Course came to be, and what it is. [All references cited in this paper will be the 1996 Combined Volume, Second Edition, published by the Foundation for Inner Peace, which is the most commonly used and cited version]. We are headed, in the following Sections, toward an understanding of what is being referred to as “devastation,” “dreaming in exile,” and why a miracle is necessary at all. This entails a rather complex and involved discussion of the etiology of the dream which manifests as the physical world of form as we know it and which explains the need for the “Internal Teacher” referenced below.

It began with two professors at Columbia University in New York, Helen Schucman and Bill Thetford, who had become tired of the friction and pettiness that characterized faculty meetings. Bill suggested, “There must be better way” and Helen quickly agreed. She was very surprised when “The Voice” then instructed her to write, “This is a course in miracles.” What followed was an extensive “download” comprised of the Text (669 pages); the Workbook for Students (488 pages); and the Manual for Teachers (92 pages). Helen would take down what the Voice “said” and she would dictate it to Bill who typed, while Ken Wapnick assisted with editing the final version. The entire process took about seven years and was finished in 1977.

The Workbook has 365 Lessons, one for each day of the year. However, instructions provided in the Course emphasize the necessity of students reading the Text and the Manual for Teachers as well. In the Preface it states, “It is not intended to become the basis for another cult. Its only purpose is to provide a way in which some people will be able to find their own Internal Teacher.” [Preface, page viii; Note that this is the same “Internal Teacher” as is referred to in the Awakening Together chapter as “Holy Spirit,” “divine guidance,” and “spiritual intuition.”]

The Preface continues,

…“a universal theology is impossible, but a universal experience is not only possible but necessary.” [Manual for Teachers, p. 77]. Although Christian in statement, the Course deals with universal spiritual themes. It emphasizes that it is but one version of the universal curriculum. There are many others, this one differing from them only in form. They all lead to God in the end.”
[Preface p. viii-ix]

At the same time, it is believed by many that the Course originated from a Christian perspective because this is the most widespread, and therefore the most powerful, religious viewpoint in the world. Thus, although the Course acknowledges that it is one of many possible paths, these considerations help to explain why this path was chosen.

The Preface continues,

“The Course makes no claim to finality, nor are the Workbook lessons intended to bring the student’s learning to completion. At the end, the reader is left in the hands of his or her own Internal Teacher, Who will direct all subsequent learning as He sees fit.”
[Preface p. ix-x]

There are no direct indicators of the Source of the material dictated to Helen, but there is a common consensus that this Source is Jesus. This consensus is supported in part by the appearance of corrections of misunderstandings in the Bible. As just one example, in Chapter 6, we have

“3. The message of the crucifixion is perfectly clear:
Teach only love, for that is what you are.
If you interpret the crucifixion in any other way, you are using it as a weapon for assault rather than as the call for peace for which it was intended.
These are some of the examples of upside-down thinking in the New Testament, although its gospel is really only the message of love. If the Apostles had not felt guilty, they never could have quoted me as saying, ‘I come not to bring peace, but a sword.’ This is clearly the opposite of everything I taught.”
[Text, Chapter 6, Section I, Paragraph 15]

Another key aspect of the Course material is the manner in which it deals with the ego. It is quite clear upon intensive study of the Course, as compared with other spiritual works of the 20th century, that nowhere does the ego receive anywhere near the degree or depth of scrutiny as it does in the Course. The extent of the analysis undertaken in exposing the ego’s means of sabotaging spiritual growth is truly unprecedented here.

Finally, the Course’s reliance on Freudian psychology is especially noteworthy. Many serious students and teachers believe that the ego’s defensive practices of resistance, displacement, and especially projection, would never have been exposed and clarified to the degree they are in the Course without Freud’s contributions. Indeed, it is thought by many that the Course needed Freud to come into being.

It was stated in the Introduction that owing to the vast depth of some of the material to which we will be referring, we can only “point” and summarize rather than provide definitive explanations. The expectation is that the reader will follow up by acquiring the material to review and digest slowly in its complete form. In addition, especially with the Course, the reader may choose to participate in groups or retreats to bring the material to life, so to speak.

Nowhere are these considerations more pertinent than with the Course. The book itself is enormously detailed and extensive; at the same time, however, it “spirals” into Truth, such that, in a sense, it can be repetitive with respect to key content. We will touch on essential teachings in a manner that, it is hoped, captures the most indispensable points of this “spiral into Truth.”

The birth of the ego

The metaphysical account begins with the birth of the ego, wherein the Son of God decided that He wanted something other than Oneness with the Father, thus requiring separation. What He wanted that he could not get in Heaven is often referred to as “specialness.” In perfect Oneness, specialness is impossible.

The Course refers to this wish as a “tiny mad idea” wherein the Son “remembered not [i.e., forgot] to laugh.” [Text, Chapter 27, Section VIII, Paragraph 6]. His mistake was not the idea; the mistake was forgetting to laugh (i.e., taking it seriously).

The Son, in choosing separation, committed the original supreme error upon which all subsequent errors are based. Ultimately, separation from God is the only problem and ending the separation is the only solution. These are the core metaphysics which carry the Course’s essential message and which constitute the heart of all of the teachings in the Course.

Note also, however, that separation from God is literally impossible. Thus, it is impossible, in reality, to actually make the core error central to the Course’s metaphysics. However, choosing and believing in separation do make up the heart of the error. Everything we do that reflects egoic thought, ego-centeredness and so on are manifestations or outgrowths of this core error. This would include all forms of self-centeredness, greed, fear, and guilt.

In order to appreciate the metaphysics of the Course, we consider definitions of central terms:

Atonement – The recognition and acceptance of Truth, i.e., perfect Oneness, the absence of separation.
Knowledge – Truth, unchangeable and eternal under the laws of God. It is beyond learning and has no opposite, beginning or end. It applies to everything that God created, and only what He created is real.
Perception – The world of time, of change, of beginnings and endings. It is unstable, based on interpretations and not facts. It is learned rather than given, selective in its perceptual emphases, unstable in its functioning, and inaccurate in its interpretations.

The two worlds

From knowledge and perception, two distinct thought systems arise which are opposite in every respect. In the realm of knowledge, no thoughts exist apart from God, while the world of perception is made by the belief in opposites and separate wills, in perpetual conflict with each other and with God. What perception sees and hears appears to be real because only what conforms to the wishes of the ego-driven perceiver is allowed into awareness, leading to a world of illusions.

From the realm of knowledge arises the thought system of love, while the world of perception generates the thought system of fear. Again, these are our only two options – there is no “middle ground.” When you are caught in the world of perception you are caught in a dream. You cannot escape without help, because everything your senses show merely witnesses to the reality of the dream.

Once we made the decision for separation from God, it was accompanied by guilt that was so enormous as to result in what the Course calls the “secret dream” or “the dream of sin, guilt and fear.” This guilt was so intolerable that another dream was created, referred to as “the world’s dream,” in which the apparent world of form – the 3D world, perceived through the senses – was created as a means to hide out from what was thought to be a vengeful God. In other words, this world was made so that we could escape God’s retribution by keeping the separate self we believe we stole from Him (the “secret dream”), but attributing the “sin” elsewhere by projecting it outward, resulting in “the world” (the “world’s dream”).

This explains why the world is so full of malicious, sinister conduct, sadness, and disappointment – it is all projected guilt that we carry in our subconscious minds.

One might ask, Why not just drop the guilt and save all the trouble? The answer is that the ego needs the guilt created in the secret dream because guilt solidifies the sense of a separate self: It “proves” that the separation occurred and protects the ego’s autonomy, which is its chief priority. Yet the huge burden created by this guilt, and the resulting fear of retribution by God, requires the ego to find an outlet, a means for relief, which is accomplished through the outward projection of sin, guilt and fear, resulting in the “world’s” dream -- the “apparent world” -- manifesting as the imagined physical world of form, in which the sin, guilt and fear are now seen as being in everyone else but the dreamer (us).

Regarding these projections, the Course says “the world is an outside picture of an inward condition” where “the world you see is the delusional system of those made mad by guilt.” [Text, Ch. 13, in. 2.2] Thus, the Course is telling us that by attempting to become separate from God, we have literally driven ourselves insane – we have been made mad by guilt – and that the resulting “delusional system” of the “world’s dream” drives the projected world we see.

Forgiveness – the core teaching

The only way out of the dream(s) is to choose the Holy Spirit to guide us and awaken us through the process of forgiveness. This process begins with the miracle, reminding us that the “devastation” we see in the world’s dream is not true, and in fact truth is nothing other than Heaven itself, and the love of God.

We introduce presently additional terminology that requires clarification in order to complete the metaphysical explanation of the Course:

Sin: Sin is defined as “lack of love.” Since love is all there is, sin is considered to be a mistake to be corrected, rather than an evil to be punished.
Forgiveness: The awakening process is one of forgiveness. This arguably renders forgiveness as the most important construct within the Course.

Forgiveness is the means by which we awaken from the dream world. It is defined in the Course as follows:

“Forgiveness is still and quietly does nothing…It merely looks, waits, and judges not.”

[Workbook, Part II, Q1, p. 401]

Note that this is the process of looking with nonjudgmental awareness, as discussed in several contexts before (see e.g. the chapter entitled "Cutting Through Egoic Thought Patterns"). Because the ego is always judges – always – the absence of judgment in forgiveness means that one is looking without the ego. Since every choice is accompanied by either the ego or the Holy Spirit, forgiveness therefore entails looking with the Holy Spirit (or any Holy Companion you choose, such as Jesus, Moses, Sri Ramakrishna, Lord Buddha, etc.). This is also called looking from “above the battleground” in the Course [Text, Chapter 23, Section IV] and is the pathway to healing.

Forgiveness, then, is the way out of the dream and may be considered as the process of bringing darkness – a projection of the ego -- into the Light. It is often thought of as encompassing three steps: First, we “reverse the projection,” meaning we bring the perceived negative event back into the mind of the observer; the second is for the observer to look at it with nonjudgmental awareness, meaning with the Holy Spirit/Holy Companion (Jesus, Buddha, etc.); and the third is to release it to the Holy Spirit/Holy Companion.

This process “drains the reservoir” of guilt that we carry in our subconscious minds, ultimately leading to purification (enlightenment). The divesting our minds of guilt is the royal road to awakening, occurring through the forgiveness process (for more detail on this, see Gary Renard’s book, The Disappearance of the Universe, in Suggested Readings).

What is real?

The Course is clear that the ego is not real, because the separation never occurred, so in reality there is no “separate self.” It is our belief in the ego that creates its influence, not the ego’s existence per se. Just as crucial is the fact that nothing made by an unreal entity can ever be real. This means that sin, guilt, and fear – all projections of the ego – are also not real, but rather, are illusions.

Therefore we – our true Selves as pure Spirit – are in truth sinless, guiltless and innocent, abiding in non-dual reality where perfect Oneness is truth and God is the only thing that is real. Perfect Oneness is not comprehensible to the brain, but one thing can be known – if there is perfect Oneness, then we and God share the same attributes, and the character shortcomings normally adjudged to belong to anyone are in truth nonexistent.

Another angle on forgiveness is represented by the fact that, when you are looking at the “world” of form, you are looking at the ego’s dream, which is literally nothing. Therefore, there is nothing to worry about because there is nothing here! It is all a projection from a mind that has been driven mad by guilt.

The road to joy

The undoing of sin, guilt and fear through the process of forgiveness is the path to awakening and happiness offered by the Course. Through this process we obtain the Course objective – to know what we are – innocent, sinless, guiltless.

The ego’s motivation is always its own survival. In the 3D world, our bodies were therefore engineered by the ego so that our sensory organs are always directed outward, focusing on the “world” outside. The ego created our physical make-up and temperament so that we would not look inward. The rationale for this is if we do look inward, we will see that there really is no ego or separate self in truth – we will realize that the ego is simply a choice that we can undo. Thus, all of the healing practices we have considered – the various forms of meditation, forgiveness, and so on – all involve looking inward, while the ego struggles through the process of resistance to keep us focused outward.

The ego also created time as part of the world’s dream, since without the past and future, there would be no way to engineer guilt and fear into the system for controlling our minds. Like all creations of the ego, time does not exist. This means that the only things that are real and which hold value are those which are independent of time, i.e., eternal:

“First, if you choose a thing that will not last forever, what you choose is valueless. A temporary value is without all value. Time can never take away a value that is real. What fades and dies was never there, and makes no offering to him who chooses it.”

[Workbook Lesson 133]

The Course tells us that loving thoughts are held for us in eternity. Heaven is thus generated by the accumulation of loving thoughts as we create them.

The foregoing therefore provides us with three separate routes to happiness that reinforce each other: First, that most of what we value in this world which is time-dependent – not connected to love, which is eternal -- is literally not real. Second, that the world that we think is real is actually a dream; and third, that rather than being a victim, we create the trouble ourselves through ego-driven decisions that we make. (Recall that the ego is always projecting negative images and thoughts, regulating how we see the world, as a means to relieve its enormous guilt).

The Course therefore summarizes our paths to happiness as explained below in one of the most well-known paragraphs in the Text:

“The secret of salvation is but this: that you are doing this unto yourself. No matter what form the attack, this is still true…Whatever seems to be the cause of any pain or suffering you feel, this is still true. For you would not react at all to figures in a dream you knew that you were dreaming. Let them be as hateful and as vicious as they may, they could have no effect on you unless you failed to recognize it is your dream.”

[Text, Chapter 27, Section VIII, Paragraph 10]

With regard to that which is eternal, the Course teaches that only God and his creations, including all facets and aspects of love, qualify as real. Thus, our invulnerability is guaranteed by the nature of our true Self, which is Spirit -- perfect, sinless, and guiltless:

“Spirit is in a state of grace forever.
Your only reality is spirit.
Therefore you are in a state of grace forever.”

[Text, Chapter 1, Section III, Paragraph 5]

We can summarize as follows:

Anything that is created by the ego is not real (guilt, fear, sin, and so on);
Anything in the 3D world of form is part of the ego’s dream and is not real;
Anything that is not eternal, i.e., that is time-dependent, is not real.

This means that forgiveness may also be practiced by realizing that whatever we believe has been done to us did not actually occur. This clears the way for improved relationships through forgiveness with everyone we encounter.

As there is only One Son in reality, the Course emphasizes that we all go Home together, or not at all. An encounter with any of our brothers is a holy encounter, in which giving and receiving are the same thing, since there is only one Self. In perfect Oneness, no one can be “bad” unless everyone is “bad” – we can only have the same attributes as everyone else. Happily, these are the characteristics of Love: Compassion, forgiveness, helpfulness, kindness, and so on. Yes, the world works fine without the ego’s “contributions!”

In this manner, the Course creates profound improvements in all of our relationships as we move toward awakening.

Conclusions

Let’s sit back and review for a moment, and take stock of what we have been told. It is easy to conclude that these conclusions are just too outlandish, too radical to be believable. But are they really? Consider the body. The Course tells us

“At no single instant does the body exist at all.”

[Text, Chapter 18, Section VII, Paragraph 3]

Look at a photograph of yourself at age, say six or seven. Look at another, age eighteen or nineteen. Then another, age thirty to forty. None of the possible pairs of bodies you see share even one living cell. Even at one point in time, the body is shedding cells and creating new ones by the second. What is it then, at the cellular level – the actual composition of the body – that is, itself, the body? Where is it?

Ken Wapnick, the Course’s greatest teacher (lectures available on YouTube and https://facim.org) said once, “We are always wrong.” In our human condition, it is virtually impossible to know anything. Whether or not you accept that, the “I don’t know” mind is the most conducive state to happiness because – besides the fact that the statement is almost always correct -- it makes judgment impossible, and without judgment, the ego cannot function.

The final teaching in Chapter 31 of the text reveals the great importance of the “I don’t know mind.” We have already considered the profound opportunities afforded by “emptiness” in allowing us to obtain direction from divine guidance (see the discussion on “the empty shell” in conjunction with NTI in the Awakening Together chapter). The Course explains this issue as follows:

“The world can teach no images of you unless you want to learn them. There will come a time when images have all gone by, and you will see you know not what you are. It is to this unsealed and open mind that truth returns, unhindered and unbound. Where concepts of the self have been laid by is truth revealed exactly as it is. When every concept has been laid to doubt and question, and been recognized as made on no assumptions that would stand the light, then is the truth left free to enter in its sanctuary, clean and free of guilt.

There is no statement that the world [ego] is more afraid to hear than this:

I do not know the thing I am, and therefore do not know what I am doing, where I am, or how to look upon the world or on myself.

Yet in this learning is salvation born. And What you are will tell you of itself.”

[Text, Chapter 31, Section V, Paragraph 17]

We therefore arrive at the realization of the true Self -- it can only come by way of the “I don’t know” mind, which brings about the dissolution of the ego. It is this state of mind, moreover, which creates the need for the Internal Teacher, i.e., Holy Spirit. After all, if we did not have the “I don’t know” mind, there would be no need for an Internal Teacher. However, in that state, without the Internal Teacher, we would be wrong about everything. It is the ultimate reliance on this Teacher – the Holy Spirit – that brings us Home.

Final thoughts

As we stated at the outset, the Course is an enormously voluminous, and enormously important work. Its depth and beauty make it resistant to summary, yet even limited portions considered in isolation reveal profound, even life-changing realizations.

No summary will ever be sufficient, but the reader can be assured of this:

An authentic dedication to this Course will produce a spiritual awakening. If you do the workbook and read the text you will grow, heal and become enlightened. It is an ever-deepening, ever-healing system of mind transformation.

The Course defines us, our true Selves, as perfect, sinless, and guiltless. The problem has always been what we take ourselves to be – the little “I,” the separated self. The Course awakens us to whom we truly are. We are collectively One, the Self we share with God.

We’ve made mistaken choices on behalf of the ego but these are illusory -- we have never done anything that would take us from the embrace of God.