A Course In Miracles

CHAPTER 5: HEALING AND WHOLENESS

Introduction

“To heal is to make happy. I have told you to think how many opportunities you have had to gladden yourself, and how many you have refused. This is the same as telling you that you have refused to heal yourself.” (1:1-3)

“Joy calls forth an integrated willingness to share it, and promotes the mind’s natural impulse to respond as one. Those who attempt to heal without being wholly joyous themselves call forth different kinds of responses at the same time, and thus deprive others of the joy of responding wholeheartedly.” (1:6-7)

“To be wholehearted you must be happy.” (2:1)

“There is no difference between love and joy.” (2:3)

“To heal or to make joyous is therefore the same as to integrate and to make one.” (2:5)

“Only God’s holy children are worthy channels of His beautiful joy, because only they are beautiful enough to hold it by sharing it. It is impossible for a child of God to love his neighbor except as himself. That is why the healer’s prayer is:

Let me know this brother as I know myself.” (3:5-8)

In summary, the “Introduction” is saying:

Healing comes from living in the joy of knowing that only God’s Love is real and all else is a false reality. Anything that is not wholly joyous is not of God. True joy comes from the awareness that God’s Love unites us, as He extends It to all creation through us. Only a mind completely aware of one’s true Source of joy can heal truly. It is an awareness of one’s love for all others; to love them as part of one’s self. It is to love all people regardless of who they are, and what they’ve said or done – it is to love without thinking. The mind has ceased to judge and one’s heart has become whole. That is why the prayer, “Let me know this brother as I know myself,” is the healer’s prayer. It is the prayer of the wholeheartedly loving.

I. The Invitation to the Holy Spirit

“Healing is a thought by which two minds perceive their oneness and become glad. This gladness calls to every part of the Sonship to rejoice with them and lets God go out into them and through them.” (1:1-2)

“Let us start our process of reawakening with just a few simple concepts:

Thoughts increase by being given away.

The more who believe in them the stronger they become.

Everything is an idea.

How then, can giving and losing be associated?” (2:1-5)

“This is the invitation to the Holy Spirit. I have said already that I can reach up and bring the Holy Spirit down to you, but I can bring Him to you only at your own invitation.” (3:1-2)

“Knowledge is always ready to flow everywhere, but it cannot oppose. Therefore you can obstruct it, although you can never lose it.” (4:10)

“The Holy Spirit is the Christ Mind which is aware of the knowledge that lies beyond perception.” (5:1)

“God honored even the miscreations of His children because they had made them. But He also blessed His children with a way of thinking that could raise their perceptions so high they could reach almost back to Him.” (6:1-2)

“The Holy Spirit, the shared Inspiration of all the Sonship, induces a kind of perception in which many elements are like those in the Kingdom itself:

First, its universality is perfectly clear, and no one who attains it could believe for one instant that sharing it involves anything but gain.

Second, it is incapable of attack and is therefore truly open. This means that although it does not engender knowledge, it does not obstruct it in any way.

Finally, it points the way beyond the healing that it brings, and leads the mind beyond its own integration toward the paths of creation. It is at this point that sufficient quantitative change occurs to produce a real qualitative shift.” (7:1-6)

In summary, section 1: “The Invitation to the Holy Spirit” is saying:

God already established our oneness, but in order to perceive it, we must invite Him to reveal it to us. To be healed is to achieve awareness of our oneness, which will also bring us great joy. We invite God to reveal our oneness through our minds. We do this through sharing or giving away our loving thoughts. The more who join us in such thoughts, the stronger they become, which is why giving them away actually increases their strength. Our loving thoughts are those thoughts that remind us of our oneness in God and with each other; our loving thoughts look beyond the bodies our eyes show us; bodies which, along with every physical form outside of us, are referred to as our “miscreations” in “A Course In Miracles.” True knowledge is to truly know and believe that such bodily identities are not the truth of Who We Are. We share or extend this idea every time we remember our true Identity in Spirit. When our thoughts of oneness reach a point where we actually believe them (the quantitative shift) we will move into the experience of our oneness (the qualitative shift).

II. The Voice for God

“Healing is not creating; it is reparation. The Holy Spirit promotes healing by looking beyond it to what the children of God were before healing was needed and will be when they have been healed.” (1:1-2)

“The Holy Spirit is the motivation for miracle-mindedness; the decision to heal the separation by letting it go. Your will is still in you because God placed it in your mind, and although you can keep it asleep you cannot obliterate it.” (1:4-5)

“The Holy Spirit is the spirit of joy.” (2:1)

“The Holy Spirit is God’s Answer to the separation; the means by which the Atonement heals until the whole mind returns to creating.” (2:5)

“When the ego was made, God placed in the mind the Call to joy. This Call is so strong that the ego always dissolves at Its sound. This is why you must choose to hear one of two voices within you. One you made yourself, and that one is not of God. But the other is given you by God, Who asks you only to listen to it.” (3:2-6)

“It is possible even in this world to hear only that Voice and no other. It takes effort and great willingness to learn.” (3:9-10)

“The Voice of the Holy Spirit does not command, because It is incapable of arrogance. It does not demand, because It does not seek control.” (7:1-2)

“It merely reminds.” (7:4)

“It brings to your mind the other way, remaining quiet even in the midst of the turmoil you may make. The Voice for God is always quiet, because It speaks of peace.” (7:6-7)

“The Holy Spirit is the way in which God’s Will is done on earth as it is in Heaven.” (8:4)

“When you are tempted by the wrong voice, call on me to remind you how to heal by sharing my decision and making it stronger. As we share this goal, we increase its power to attract the whole Sonship, and to bring it back into the oneness in which it was created.” (11:1-2)

In summary, section 2: “The Voice for God” is saying:

The Holy Spirit IS the Voice for God. We can choose to hear It, or we can choose to listen to our ego instead, which is the separate will we made in opposition to God’s Voice. We choose to listen to the Holy Spirit every time we choose to love instead of condemn, every time we choose to forgive and let go of all we think we see and understand in this world. It is to allow our minds to rest in peace, knowing the truth of Who We Are. It is God’s Will we remember our unity in Him. The Holy Spirit is the Voice Who will remind us of this when we choose to listen to Him. This may take all of our mental vigilance, because so far our minds have been entirely dedicated to hearing only the ego. Imagine what miracles we could work if we turned as much effort towards hearing only the Voice for God instead?

III. The Guide to Salvation

“The way to recognize your brother is by recognizing the Holy Spirit in him.” (1:1)

“He is part of the Holy Trinity, because His Mind is partly yours and also partly God’s.” (1:4)

“The Holy Spirit is the idea of healing. Being thought, the idea gains as it is shared.” (2:1)

“Since you are part of God it is also the idea of yourself, as well as of all His creations.” (2:4)

“It increases in you as you give it to your brother. Your brother does not have to be aware of the Holy Spirit in himself or in you for this miracle to occur.” (2:7-8)

“There are two diametrically opposed ways of seeing your brother.” (3:1)

“See him through the Holy Spirit in his mind, and you will recognize Him in yours. What you acknowledge in your brother you are acknowledging in yourself, and what you share you strengthen.” (3:4-5)

“The Holy Spirit is the Mediator between the interpretations of the ego and the knowledge of the spirit.” (7:1)

“His ability to look beyond symbols into eternity enables Him to understand the laws of God, for which He speaks. He can therefore perform the function of reinterpreting what the ego makes, not by destruction but by understanding.” (7:3-4)

“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. If you believe there is strife you will react viciously, because the idea of danger has entered your mind.” (8:7-9)

“The ego made the world as it perceives it, but the Holy Spirit, the reinterpreter of what the ego made, sees the world as a teaching device for bringing you home.” (11:1)

“He is in communion with God always, and He is part of you. He is your Guide to salvation, because He holds the remembrance of things past and to come, and brings them to the present.” (11:8-9)

In summary, section 3: “The Guide to Salvation” is saying:

The Voice of God, the Holy Spirit, is literally part of each and every one of us. We have a choice in whether we want to listen to Him or the ego. The way to hear the Holy Spirit is by recognizing Him in your brothers as replacement for the body your ego’s eyes see. The Holy Spirit’s function is to help you do this; He is the Mediator between the seeing of the ego and the seeing of God. His job is to reinterpret what the ego sees, not by denying its sight, but by understanding that what the ego is showing you is false. This reinterpretation will bring our minds peace, which is the exact opposite of what the ego stands for, and exists by. We are here to learn to tell the difference between the peaceful Voice of God and the attacking voice of the ego and to choose only God. The ego will one day leave us whence we leave our bodies, but God is ours for eternity. Yet we need not wait for death of the body, let us choose the Holy Spirit as our only Guide to salvation now.

IV. Teaching and Healing

“What fear has hidden still is part of you. Joining the Atonement is the way out of fear. The Holy Spirit will help you reinterpret everything that you perceive as fearful, and teach you that only what is loving is true.” (1:1-3)

“Every loving thought held in any part of the Sonship belongs to every part. It is shared because it is loving. Sharing is God’s way of creating, and also yours.” (3:1-3)

“It is impossible to share opposing thoughts. You can share only the thoughts that are of God and that He keeps for you.” (3:7-8)

“Listening to one Voice implies the decision to share It in order to hear It yourself. The Mind that was in me is still irresistibly drawn to every mind created by God, because God’s Wholeness is the Wholeness of His Son. You cannot be hurt, and do not want to show your brother anything except your wholeness. Show him that he cannot hurt you and hold nothing against him, or you hold it against yourself. This is the meaning of “turning the other cheek.” (4:2-6)

“Teaching is done in many ways, above all by example.” (5:1)

“I call upon you to teach what you have learned, because by so doing you can depend on it.” (5:4)

“As you teach so shall you learn.” (6:4)

“I place the peace of God in your heart and in your hands, to hold and share.” (8:10)

“We cannot lose. My judgment is as strong as the wisdom of God, in Whose Heart and Hands we have our being.” (8:12-13)

In summary, section 4: “Teaching and Healing” is saying:

We are always teaching and always learning either from the ego or the Holy Spirit. The ego teaches only how to fear, and the Holy Spirit teaches only how to love. How we interact with our brothers, indicates which teacher we are learning from. Our goal here is to teach and learn only through the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit will help us see only Love through teaching us how to reinterpret everything fearful the ego shows us. We will learn that only loving thoughts are true, and as we learn this, we simultaneously teach it, through responding with only love to the world. Teaching love is done best through being an example of love. And the more we learn to love, the more we teach love, and the more we teach love, the more we learn it. It is an ever increasing and endless circle of giving and receiving the healing power of our loving thoughts.

V. The Ego’s Use of Guilt

“Perhaps some of our concepts will become clearer and more personally meaningful if the ego’s use of guilt is clarified.” (1:1)

“The ego’s purpose is fear, because only the fearful can be egotistic.” (1:3)

“If the ego is the symbol of the separation, it is also the symbol of guilt.” (2:8)

“It is the symbol of attack on God.” (2:10)

“This is the belief from which all guilt really stems.” (2:12)

“The ego is the part of the mind that believes in division.” (3:1)

“The ego is quite literally a fearful thought. However ridiculous the idea of attacking God may be to the sane mind, never forget that the ego is not sane.” (3:7-8)

“The ego does not perceive sin as a lack of love, but as a positive act of assault.” (4:10)

“The ego believes that by punishing itself it will mitigate the punishment of God. Yet even in this it is arrogant.” (5:6-7)

“The continuing decision to remain separated is the only possible reason for continuing guilt feelings. We have said this before, but did not emphasize the destructive results of the decision.” (8:1-2)

“Your mind does make your future, and it will turn it back to full creation at any minute if it accepts the Atonement first.” (8:6)

In summary, section 5: “The Ego’s Use of Guilt” is saying:

All guilt stems from the original error or “sin” in thinking we could create an identity separate from the oneness that God created us as. The ego maintains our separate bodily identity through guilt. Deep down we feel guilty for our decision to be separate, but God knows we have done nothing wrong. To imagine we are something else is no more harmful than a child playing make-believe. God does not see us guilty of any wrongdoing, but since we suffer from our choice, He Wills we let go of all our fearful ego-thoughts and return our mind to Him. To continue to believe our separation is the truth is to continue to choose against what God Wills for us. Therefore, this world is actually an attack on God, but an attack without results, for God cannot suffer from any form of fear or attack. We reverse and thus heal the decision to separate through accepting the Atonement as truth. Once done, this thought creates a new and miraculous future for us, for our mind does make our future.

VI. Time and Eternity

“God in His knowledge is not waiting, but His Kingdom is bereft while you wait. All the Sons of God are waiting for your return, just as you are waiting for theirs. Delay does not matter in eternity, but it is tragic in time.” (1:1-3)

“Guilt feelings are the preservers of time. They induce fears of retaliation or abandonment, and thus ensure that the future will be like the past. This is the ego’s continuity.” (2:1-3)

“Remember the Kingdom always, and remember that you who are part of the Kingdom cannot be lost. The Mind that was in me is in you, for God creates with perfect fairness.” (3:1-2)

“The ego speaks in judgment, and the Holy Spirit reverses its decision, much as a higher court has the power to reverse a lower court’s decisions in this world. The ego’s decisions are always wrong, because they are based on the error they were made to uphold. Nothing the ego perceives is interpreted correctly.” (4:1-3)

“The Bible is a fearful thing in the ego’s judgment. Perceiving it as frightening, it interprets it fearfully. Being afraid, you do not appeal to the Higher Court because you believe its judgment would also be against you.” (4:5-7)

“You need not fear the Higher Court will condemn you. It will merely dismiss the case against you. There can be no case against a child of God, and every witness to guilt in God’s creations is bearing false witness to God Himself.” 10:1-3)

“Your patience with your brother is your patience with yourself. Is not a child of God worth patience? I have shown you infinite patience because my will is that of our Father, from Whom I learned of infinite patience.” (11:4-6)

“Now you must learn that only infinite patience produces immediate effects. This is the way in which time is exchanged for eternity. Infinite patience calls upon infinite love, and by producing results now it renders time unnecessary.” (12:1-3)

In summary, section 6: “Time and Eternity” is saying:

We can spend as much time as we want on the process of our awakening. How long we delay is up to us. We delay each time we choose to see guilt rather than light. Guilt is anything outside of us associated with our separation, which includes the body and all the other separate forms outside of us. The body is what we made to experience this world of separation, and deep inside we feel guilty for having done so. Therefore, guilt in all its forms around us preserves time. It does so by reflecting the effects of time – all things here in this world must end in time. However, nothing the ego perceives is correct. We have an alternate way of seeing; we can choose to see beyond what the body’s eyes show – to see only what is eternal. This is the Vision of the Holy Spirit, Who has infinite patience with our learning. His Vision of the world both corrects and heals it of the ravages of time. The Holy Spirit has the power to override the judgment of the ego, much like a higher court can overrule a lower one. And what is the verdict of the Holy Spirit? Case dismissed. There is no world over which to dispute our guilt or innocence. Our innocence is not up for debate or ransom. It stands before God immutable and absolute, for what God created holy, remains so for all eternity, despite how we see ourselves now in time. The instant we believe this truth about ourselves, time becomes unnecessary.

VII. The Decision for God

“Do you really believe you can make a voice that can drown out God’s?” (1:1)

“Do you really believe you can plan for your safety and joy better than He can? You need be neither careful nor careless; you need merely cast your cares upon Him because He careth for you. You are His care because He loves you.” (1:3-4)

“There have been many healers who did not heal themselves. They have not moved mountains by their faith because their faith was not whole.” (2:1-2)

“Unless the healer heals himself, he cannot believe that there is no order of difficulty in miracles.” (2:4)

“God commended His Spirit to you, and asks that you commend yours to Him.” (3:2)

“I am making His plan perfectly explicit to you, and will also tell you of your part in it, and how urgent it is to fulfill it.” (4:4)

“Whenever you are not wholly joyous, it is because you have reacted with a lack of love to one of God’s creations.” (5:1)

“The decision to react in this way is yours, and can therefore be undone.” (5:3)

“Decision cannot be difficult.” (6:1)

“Be very firm with yourself in this, and keep yourself fully aware that the undoing process, which does not come from you, is nevertheless within you because God placed it there. Your part is merely to return your thinking to the point at which the error was made, and give it over to the Atonement in peace. Say this to yourself as sincerely as you can, remembering that the Holy Spirit will respond fully to your slightest invitation:

I must have decided wrongly, because I am not at peace.

I made the decision myself, but I can also decide otherwise.

I want to decide otherwise, because I want to be at peace.

I do not feel guilty, because the Holy Spirit will undo all the consequences of my wrong decision if I will let Him.

I choose to let Him, by allowing Him to decide for God for me.” (6:4-11)

In summary, section 7: “The Decision for God” is saying:

The decision for God is simply the decision to be at peace. To be at peace, one must let go of the world. To let go of the world, one must recognize its falsity. To recognize its falsity, one must let it rest in peace. To let the world rest in peace, is to forgive it. To forgive the world is to make the decision for God instead of the ego. This is God’s plan for us, plain and simple. This is the plan by which we heal ourselves and remember our wholeness in God.

This concludes CHAPTER 5: HEALING AND WHOLENESS

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A Course In Miracles: CHAPTER 5: HEALING AND WHOLENESS