A Course In Miracles: CHAPTER 12: THE HOLY SPIRIT'S CURRICULUM
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A Course In Miracles
CHAPTER 12: THE HOLY SPIRIT’S CURRICULUM
I. The Judgment of the Holy Spirit
“You have been told not to make error real, and the way to do this is very simple.” (1:1)
“If you decide that someone is really trying to attack you or desert you or enslave you, you will respond as if he had actually done so, having made his error real to you. To interpret error is to give it power, and having done this you will overlook truth.” (1:7-8)
“The analysis of ego motivation is very complicated, very obscuring, and never without you own ego involvement.” (2:1)
“There is but one interpretation of motivation that makes any sense.” (3:1)
“Every loving thought is true. Everything else is an appeal for healing and help, regardless of the form it takes.” (3:3-4)
“If you believe that an appeal for help is something else you will react to something else.” (3:9)
“There is nothing to prevent you from recognizing all calls for help as exactly what they are except your own imagined need to attack.” (4:1)
“Only appreciation is an appropriate response to your brother. Gratitude is due him for both his loving thoughts and his appeals for help, for both are capable of bringing love into your awareness if you perceive them truly. All your sense of strain comes from your attempts not to do just this. How simple, then, is God’s plan for salvation.” (6:1-4)
“By applying the Holy Spirit’s interpretation of the reactions of others more and more consistently, you will gain an increasing awareness that His criteria are equally applicable to you.” (8:1)
“If you would look upon love, which is the world’s reality, how could you do better than to recognize, in every defense against it, the underlying appeal for it?” (10:1)
“The Holy Spirit’s interpretation of fear does dispel it, for the awareness of truth cannot be denied. Thus does the Holy Spirit replace fear with love and translate error into truth. And thus will you learn of Him how to replace your dream of separation with the fact of unity.” (10:3-5)
In summary, section 1: “The Judgment of the Holy Spirit” is saying:
The judgment of the Holy Spirit is always in the positive. All things are seen as either love, or a call for love. Therefore, all forms of pain and suffering are merely a call for love. To see the world in any other way is to react to it from the mindset of the ego. And as we interpret the world more and more as the Holy Spirit does, we will learn it is how we must see ourselves as well. This new interpretation of the world will literally dissolve the illusion we see now. This is the exact process through which this world is transformed into God’s Kingdom. Through using the judgment of the Holy Spirit, we replace the separation the ego shows us with the unity of Heaven.
II. The Way to Remember God
“Miracles are merely the translation of denial into truth. If to love oneself is to heal oneself, those who are sick do not love themselves. Therefore, they are asking for the love that would heal them, but which they are denying to themselves.” (1:1-3)
“The task of the miracle worker thus becomes to deny the denial of truth.” (1:5)
“The light in them shines as brightly regardless of the density of the fog that obscures it. If you give no power to the fog to obscure the light, it has none.” (2:1-2)
“You can remember this for all the Sonship.” (2:5)
“This is what you have forgotten. To perceive the healing of your brother as the healing of yourself is thus the way to remember God.” (2:8-9)
“Perceive in sickness but another call for love, and offer your brother what he believes he cannot offer himself. Whatever the sickness, there is but one remedy.” (3:1-2)
“Remember what was said about the frightening perceptions of little children, which terrify them because they do not understand them. If they ask for enlightenment and accept it, their fears vanish.” (4:1-2)
“Let us not save nightmares, for they are not fitting offerings for Christ, and so they are not fit gifts for you. Take off the covers and look at what you are afraid of. Only the anticipation will frighten you, for the reality of nothingness cannot be frightening.” (5:1-3)
“You still want what God wills, and no nightmare can defeat a child of God in his purpose.” (6:1)
“There is no fear in perfect love.” (8:1)
“You who have tried to banish love have not succeeded, but you who choose to banish fear must succeed. The Lord is with you, but you know it not.” (9:1-2)
“When we have overcome fear – not by hiding it, not by minimizing it, and not by denying its full import in any way – this is what you will really see.” (9:5)
“We are therefore embarking on an organized, well-structured and carefully planned program aimed at learning how to offer to the Holy Spirit everything you do not want.” (10:1)
“Surely He will not fail to help you, since help is His only purpose.” (10:6)
In summary, section 2: “The Way to Remember God” is saying:
The way to remember God is simply to see Him exactly where He is: Within yourself and your brothers in Christ. Yet as our eyes are led by the ego, we often only see sickness, separation and suffering instead. We must remember this is just a fog covering the truth of our true Being. Once this is completely understood and accepted as the truth, the fog lifts, just as a nightmare vanishes from a child’s mind upon waking and realizing the truth of their safety. Though the experience of fear in this world is very real indeed, we must learn to overcome it by looking directly at it for what it is – a cover over the truth of our safety in Oneness. Once we see the purpose of fear for what it is, then we will at last remember God.
III. The Investment in Reality
“I once asked you to sell all you have and give to the poor and follow me. This is what I meant: If you have no investment in anything in this world, you can teach the poor where their treasure is.” (1:1-2)
“For poverty is lack, and there is but one lack since there is but one need.” (1:6)
“Remember that those who attack are poor.” (3:3)
“You who could help them are surely acting destructively if you accept their poverty as yours.” (3:5)
“Recognize what does not matter, and if your brothers ask you for something “outrageous,” do it because it does not matter. Refuse, and your opposition establishes that it does matter to you.”
“He is asking for salvation, as you are.” (4:6)
“Salvation is for the mind, and it is attained through peace.” (5:1)
“Any response other than love arises from a confusion about the “what” and the “how” of salvation, and this is the only answer.” (5:3)
“To identify with the ego is to attack yourself and make yourself poor. That is why everyone who identifies with the ego feels deprived.” (6: 1-2)
“The world you perceive is a world of separation.” (9:1)
“Do not believe it is outside of yourself, for only by recognizing where it is will you gain control over it. For you do have control over your mind, since the mind is the mechanism of decision.” (9:9-10)
“If you will recognize that all the attack you perceive is in your own mind and nowhere else, you will at last have placed its source, and where it begins it must end. For in this same place also lies salvation.” (10:1-2)
“Yet to find the place, you must relinquish your investment in the world as you project it, allowing the Holy Spirit to extend the real world to you from the altar of God.” (10:9)
In summary, section 3: “The Investment in Reality” is saying:
We are deeply invested in this world; the evidence of it lies in how tightly we hold onto it. Our true treasure, God’s Love, lies within us yet we are completely unaware of it. We are throwing away God’s gift to us and don’t even know it. The way to salvage this situation is to remember to react to one another only from a place of love. Make this mental shift in the opposite direction from attack, rejection and lovelessness and the world will shift accordingly, because the world is within our own mind. Let us relinquish investment in what holds no value; that which will one day perish and disappear. Let us instead make a sound investment in only our eternal Reality in God’s Love. Then our minds will perceive our true treasure at last.
IV. Seeking and Finding
“The ego is certain that love is dangerous, and this is always its central teaching. It never puts it this way; on the contrary, everyone who believes that the ego is salvation seems to be intensely engaged in the search for love. Yet the ego, though encouraging the search for love very actively, makes one proviso; do not find it. Its dictates, then, can be summed up simply as: “Seek and do not find.” This is the one promise the ego holds out to you, and the one promise it will keep.” (1:1-5)
“And since it also teaches that it is your identification, its guidance leads you to a journey which must end in perceived self-defeat. For the ego cannot love, and in its frantic search for love it is seeking what it is afraid to find.” (2:2-3)
“Yet it is also your mind that has the power to deny the ego’s existence, and you will surely do so when you realize exactly what the journey is on which the ego set you.” (2:6)
“To seek and not to find is hardly joyous.” (4:2)
“The Holy Spirit offers you another promise, and one that will lead to joy. For His promise is always, “Seek and you will find,” and under His guidance you cannot be defeated.” (4:4-5)
“You will undertake a journey because you are not at home in this world. And you will search for your home whether you realize where it is or not. If you believe it is outside you the search will be futile, for you will be seeking it where it is not.” (5:1-3)
“Behold the Guide your Father gave you, that you might learn you have eternal life. For death is not your Father’s Will nor yours, and whatever is true is the Will of the Father.” (6:1-2)
“The Holy Spirit guides you into life eternal, but you must relinquish your investment in death, or you will not see life though it is all around you.” (7:6)
In summary, section 4: “Seeking and Finding” is saying:
The ego would send us on a wild goose chase, seeking for love outside of us, where we will never find it. Love dwells within us. In order to experience love in the world we see, we must extend the love within us, to it, and we will receive what we have given. This is an immutable universal law of giving and receiving and is always in operation. Therefore, let us cease to listen to the ego, who will only list our wants and needs. Let us instead follow the only True Guide Who knows our one true need: To understand we already have and are a being of eternal Love. We want for nothing and need nothing. Let us seek to understand this truth alone and we will find everything.
V. The Sane Curriculum
“Only love is strong because it is undivided. The strong do not attack because they see no need to do so.” (1:1-2)
“That is why the recognition of your own invulnerability is so important to the restoration of your sanity. For if you accept your invulnerability, you are recognizing that attack has no effect.” (2:1-2)
“You will never realize the utter uselessness of attack except by recognizing that your attack on yourself has no effects. For others do react to attack if they perceive it, and if you are trying to attack them you will be unable to avoid interpreting this as reinforcement.” (3:1-2)
“The Holy Spirit’s Love is your strength, for yours is divided and therefore not real.” (4:1)
“You have learning handicaps in a very literal sense. There are areas in your learning skills that are so impaired that you can progress only under constant, clear-cut direction, provided by a Teacher Who can transcend your limited resources.” (5:1-2)
“You do not know the meaning of love, and that is your handicap.” (6:1)
“You who have tried to learn what you do not want should take heart, for although the curriculum you set yourself is depressing indeed, it is merely ridiculous if you look at it.” (8:1)
“Resign now as you own teacher. This resignation will not lead to depression.” (8:3-4)
“Your learning potential, properly understood, is limitless because it will lead you to God.” (9:1)
“The curriculum is totally unambiguous, because the goal is not divided and the means and the end are in complete accord. You need offer only your undivided attention. Everything else will be given you. For you really want to learn aright, and nothing can oppose the decision of God’s Son.” (9:3-6)
In summary, section 5: “The Sane Curriculum” is saying:
The only sane curriculum is the one Love teaches. And what does Love teach us, but our Unity? It is undivided in its giving – all of God’s Love is given to all – and if we have learned His Lessons in Love truly, then this is how we will give His Love also. We will have no exceptions, no one left outside our Love. To attack, is to demonstrate we do not know what Love is. Attack is what we have taught ourselves, through seeing through the ego’s eyes and judging what is acted out with our bodily identities. The ego’s teaching is our greatest learning handicap, in that it teaches nothing about Love, the only sane curriculum. Let us resign now, then, from following it, for we truly want to learn the truth! The Holy Spirit teaches only Unity, the truth of Who We Are. In order to learn this single goal of His curriculum, we must become single-minded in our efforts. Let nothing the ego teaches tempt us to replace what the Holy Spirit would have us learn.
VI. The Vision of Christ
“The ego is trying to teach you how to gain the whole world and lose your own soul. The Holy Spirit teaches that you cannot lose your soul and there is no gain in the world, for of itself it profits nothing.” (1:1-2)
“Not only is there no profit in the investment, but the cost to you is enormous.” (1:4)
“You cannot sell your soul, but you can sell your awareness of it.” (1:6)
“You do not want the world. The only thing of value in it is whatever part of it you look upon with love.” (3:1-2)
“To open the eyes of the blind is the Holy Spirit’s mission, for He knows that they have not lost their vision, but merely sleep.” (4:2)
“In His sight the Son of God is perfect, and He longs to share His vision with you.” (4:6)
“The awakening of His Son begins with his investment in the real world, and by this he will learn to re-invest in himself.” (4:9)
“Yet you must learn the cost of sleeping, and refuse to pay it.” (5:2)
“As you perceive more and more common elements in all situations, the transfer of training under the Holy Spirit’s guidance increases and becomes generalized. Gradually you learn to apply it to everyone and everything, for its applicability is universal.” (6:5-6)
“What is one cannot be perceived as separate, and the denial of the separation is the reinstatement of knowledge.” (7:1)
“The world has no purpose as it blends into the purpose of God. For the real world has slipped quietly into Heaven, where everything eternal in it has always been.” (7:4-5)
“Heaven is your home, and being in God it must also be in you.” (7:7)
In summary, section 6: “The Vision of Christ” is saying:
Christ sees us as the perfect Unified beings of Light we were created as. This is His Vision of us. We too, would see one another in this way, but have instead chosen to forsake our True Sight in exchange for the vision of the ego, who can only see a world of separation in the form of physical bodies. In this sense, it could indeed be said we have “sold” the sight of our soul in order to gain the world we see now. This is the “cost” we pay for what we think we want. But as we notice our union more and more over that which seems to make us separate, we are thus denying the separation and welcoming the truth. Watch only for what we have in common; the shared Light of the Holy Spirit – and the Vision of Christ will gently overtake this world with His Love – and we will be home at last.
VII. Looking Within
“Miracles demonstrate that learning has occurred under the right guidance, for learning is invisible and what has been learned can be recognized only by its results.” (1:1)
“You will recognize that you have learned there is no order of difficulty in miracles when you apply them to all situations. There is no situation to which miracles do not apply, and by applying them to all situations you will gain the real world. For in this holy perception you will be made whole, and the Atonement will radiate from your acceptance of it for yourself to everyone the Holy Spirit sends you for your blessing.” (1:3-5)
“You cannot see the invisible. Yet if you see its effects you know it must be there.” (2:2-3)
“And by what it does, you learn what it is.” (2:5)
“The Holy Spirit is invisible, but you can see the results of His Presence, and through them you will learn that He is there.” (3:1)
“You see what you expect, and you expect what you invite.” (5:1)
“Whose manifestations would you see?” (5:3)
“I am the manifestation of the Holy Spirit, and when you see me it will be because you have invited Him.” (6:1)
“When you want only love you will see nothing else.” (8:1)
“The power of decision is your one remaining freedom as a prisoner of this world. You can decide to see it right.” (9:1-2)
“When you look within and see me, it will be because you have decided to manifest truth. And as you manifest it you will see it both without and within. You will see it without because you saw it first within.” (12:1-2)
“When you are tempted to yield to the desire for death, remember that I did not die. You will realize that this is true when you look within and see me.” (15:1-2)
In summary, section 7: “Looking Within” is saying:
We cannot “see” the power behind miracles, the Holy Spirit, our own Inner Light or our unity through the Atonement. All of these things belong to a realm beyond the ego’s vision. Yet, we can know these things to be true by their effects. But before we can see such effects, we must first look within our own mind to manifest them. We do this through invitation only; we must invite the right Guide into our mind. This is our power of decision – we can decide how we want to see the world and thus manifest the truth. All we must do is notice when our thoughts are aligned with the ego, and then decide to look within and choose to let such thoughts go. When we want only thoughts of Love, we will see nothing else, within and without.
VIII. The Attraction of Love for Love
“The Father has hidden His Son safely within Himself, and kept him far away from your destructive thoughts, but you know neither the Father nor the Son because of them. You attack the real world every day and every hour and every minute, and yet you are surprised that you cannot see it.” (1:1-3)
“When you made visible what is not true, what is true became invisible to you.” (3:1)
“For what you made invisible is the only truth, and what you have not heard is the only Answer.” (4:4)
“For the memory of God can dawn only in a mind that chooses to remember, and that has relinquished the insane desire to control reality. You who cannot even control yourself should hardly aspire to control the universe.” (5:3-4)
“The real world was given you by God in loving exchange for the world you made and the world you see.” (8:1)
“Its reality will make everything else invisible, for beholding it is total perception. And as you look upon it you will remember that it was always so.” (8:3-4)
“The Atonement is but the way back to what was never lost. Your Father could not cease to love His Son.” (8:8-9)
In summary, section 8: “The Attraction of Love for Love” is saying:
The attraction of Love for Love is the attraction of our True Self for God, and it is this aspect of our Inner Being that seeks to return our minds to a state of Union. We yearn to know our Oneness once again. Even so, we know not that with every breath we take, we are resisting this union through the endless distractions of this world. Everything we see represents separation and is therefore a false reality, and we fall for it every time. This “fall” is literal. Our vibration literally “falls” away from our union in Love every time we accept the separation as true, and this blocks the knowing of our Total Union. It is an attack on our awareness of God’s Reality. We have made our Union invisible to us through our choice to see separation. We must give up the idea we can make a reality for ourselves that is not true. We cannot change or destroy what God has created eternal and whole. The only way back to remembering our eternal Reality, is through learning the Holy Spirit’s curriculum: We are One. This is the message of the Atonement and you have only to follow your own attraction to Love to learn it.
This concludes CHAPTER 12: THE HOLY SPIRIT’S CURRICULUM
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