Accept Its Message and the Course Will Be Clear
In my 4/11/06 blog I wrote about the importance of reading the Course in context – meaning, understanding the whole message of the Course to understand each line and paragraph. Though the Course can be read on many levels, there is no part of the Course that isn’t consistent with the whole.
I just read of an example of taking the Course out of context that had me laughing. I went to Amazon.com to send my brother a copy of the Course and they had a little blurb about the books. The writer of the blurb pointed out that some people may find the Course too simplistic, and used the quote “To heal is to make happy” as an example. When I read this I burst out laughing. She must think the Course is saying all you have to do is take someone out for an ice cream (or whatever treat will make them happy) and they will be healed!
Well, of course what the Course is saying is that happiness and healing are the same thing. In fact, if you read the quote (T-5.in.1), you only have to go to the next paragraph to understand its context: To heal or to make joyous is therefore the same as to integrate and to make one. (T-5.in.2)
Those who come to the Course thinking the world has already taught them what they need to know will not be able to grasp the whole Course because it does not teach what the world teaches. Everything about the Course is in opposition to what the world teaches us is our reality – or rather, what we have taught ourselves through the world is our reality.
Despite my experiences of the holy instant and the holy relationship, for many, many years I found the Course dense, convoluted and confusing. Some of it I got, but I could not see the whole picture because I resisted what I had learned through my experiences. When I accepted the experiences, the Course’s central message of God as the only Truth, my Oneness with God and my need to fully remember this as the only way to lasting peace, happiness and fulfillment came through on every page.
Over and over again the Course says the same thing: You are One with God. Everything else is illusion. When you accept this, you will understand the whole context of the Course.
www.acimmentor.com
I just read of an example of taking the Course out of context that had me laughing. I went to Amazon.com to send my brother a copy of the Course and they had a little blurb about the books. The writer of the blurb pointed out that some people may find the Course too simplistic, and used the quote “To heal is to make happy” as an example. When I read this I burst out laughing. She must think the Course is saying all you have to do is take someone out for an ice cream (or whatever treat will make them happy) and they will be healed!
Well, of course what the Course is saying is that happiness and healing are the same thing. In fact, if you read the quote (T-5.in.1), you only have to go to the next paragraph to understand its context: To heal or to make joyous is therefore the same as to integrate and to make one. (T-5.in.2)
Those who come to the Course thinking the world has already taught them what they need to know will not be able to grasp the whole Course because it does not teach what the world teaches. Everything about the Course is in opposition to what the world teaches us is our reality – or rather, what we have taught ourselves through the world is our reality.
Despite my experiences of the holy instant and the holy relationship, for many, many years I found the Course dense, convoluted and confusing. Some of it I got, but I could not see the whole picture because I resisted what I had learned through my experiences. When I accepted the experiences, the Course’s central message of God as the only Truth, my Oneness with God and my need to fully remember this as the only way to lasting peace, happiness and fulfillment came through on every page.
Over and over again the Course says the same thing: You are One with God. Everything else is illusion. When you accept this, you will understand the whole context of the Course.
www.acimmentor.com
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