Interpreting the Course

Some students ask me about different interpretations of the Course. Sometimes what they see as differing interpretations are really differences in emphasis – each teacher, writer, speaker emphasizes what is important to them in the Course. They may focus only on parts of the Course, but they can still be consistent with the Course’s whole message. We all teach what we want to learn.

Being so simple and direct, this course has nothing in it that is not consistent. (T-20.VII.1)

The Course has only one message: Only God is real and you are Part of God. It gives you tools to remember this: The Holy Spirit’s guidance, the holy instant, the holy encounter and the holy relationship (these are all miracles). It teaches you how your mind works so that you can use these tools. That is all there is to it. There are no parables or metaphors or symbols to interpret. The meaning of the Course is in its central message and every part fits consistently into this message. The Course is what it teaches: A whole whose every part contains the whole.

This course is perfectly clear. If you do not see it clearly, it is because you are interpreting against it, and therefore do not believe it. (T-11.VI.3)

Confusion about what the Course says comes from resistance to its message. Most students spend many, many years trying to reconcile their desire for the peace of God with their wish that their egos and the world be true. It is uncomfortable when you are almost wholly identified with the ego to learn it is not your real Identity and that it is in fact the negation of your real Identity. It is frightening to learn that the only way to have the peace of God is to relinquish what you have thought of as your self. It takes time to trust that the Holy Spirit speaks for your True Self and to let go of the ego. This discomfort, fear and time between accepting the Course as one’s path and learning to trust what it says is what makes some give the Course an interpretation that comforts their ego but contradicts the Course’s central message.

When you have accepted what the Course tells you is the Truth, you see how simple and wholly consistent it is.

Now available at www.acimmentor.com: Understanding A Course in Miracles: A Quick Reference for Students

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