1. Certain pupils have been assigned to each of God’s teachers, and they will begin to look for him as soon as he has answered the call. They were chosen for him because the form of the universal curriculum that he will teach is best for them in view of their level of understanding. His pupils have been waiting for him, for his coming is certain. Again, it is only a matter of time. Once he has chosen to fulfill his role, they are ready to fulfill theirs. Time waits on his choice, but not on whom he will serve. When he is ready to learn, the opportunities to teach will be provided for him.
2. In order to understand the teaching-learning plan of salvation, it is necessary to grasp the concept of time that the course sets forth. Atonement corrects illusions, not truth. Therefore, it corrects what never was. Further, the plan for this correction was established and completed simultaneously, for the will of God is entirely apart from time. So is all reality, being of Him. The instant the idea of separation entered the mind of God’s Son, in that same instant was God’s answer given. In time this happened very long ago. In reality it never happened at all.
3. The world of time is the world of illusion. What happened long ago seems to be happening now. Choices made long since appear to be open; yet to be made. What has been learned and understood and long ago passed by is looked upon as a new thought, a fresh idea, a different approach. Because your will is free you can accept what has already happened at anytime you choose, and only then will you realize that it was always there. As the course emphasizes, you are not free to choose the curriculum, or even the form in which you will learn it. You are free however, to decide when you want to learn it. And as you accept it, it is already learned.
4. Time really, then, goes backward to an instant so ancient that it is beyond all memory, and past even the possibility of remembering. Yet because it is an instant that is relived again and again and still again, it seems to be now. And thus it is that pupil and teacher seem to come together in the present, finding each other as if they had not met before. The pupil comes at the right time to the right place. This is inevitable, because he made the right choice in that ancient instant which he now relives. So has the teacher, too, made an inevitable choice out of an ancient past. God’s will in everything but seems to take time in the working-out. What could delay the power of eternity?
5. When pupil and teacher come together, a teaching-learning situation begins. For the teacher is not really the one who does the teaching. God’s teacher speaks to any two who joined together for learning purposes. The relationship is fully because of that purpose, and God has promised to send His spirit into any holy relationship. In the teaching-learning situation, each one learns that giving and receiving are the same. The demarcations they have drawn between their roles, their minds, their bodies, their needs, their interests, and all the differences they thought separated them from one another, fade and grow dim and disappear. Those who would learn the same course share one interest and one goal. And thus he who was the learner becomes a teacher of God himself, for he has made the one decision that gave his teacher to him. He has seen in another person the same interests as his own.[1]
In today’s blog post Jesus once again reiterates that pupils and their teachers are the same. Nobody has more to teach than another – and when we dedicate our minds and hearts, our very Being to God we come to one another in a “new” attitude – as equals, as I will teach you what I know and you will teach me what you know and we will return to God together, thus informed!
We see each other and every circumstance in our life with the view of what does this have to teach me? What thing have I learned about my need for return to God? What good can come from this? Has my love and patience for Creation been deepened because of this circumstance? In this way even the worst situations, the embarrassing incidents, the times we lose our tempers and strike out at each other, the times we say insulting things or forget to use our manners – can be changed into an opportunity to deepen our resolve to draw closer to the Christ within rather than shrink back from the Christ within. For we know that there is no shame! There is no reproof! There is no sin and eternal shame and punishment! There is only a call within to accept our place in God’s Kingdom as Christ calls to us to return to Him.
When we come to study any spiritual path, let us be wary of any body or organization that would make themselves big and important in our lives, which would impose and impact us with their personality, which would require from us attention, money, adoration, or any kind of following. We follow the Christ within each other in a spirit of brotherhood and mutuality. We do not try to make money from each other. We do not use other people to gain a sense of belonging or specialness. This is idolatry and not Sonship. You will never teach me more than I teach you; I will never teach you more than you teach me. No matter how long you have been studying or devoting yourself to any spiritual path, including this Course, we meet in that holy instant, as we were created – as one, as equal Sons of God.
Jesus informs us in paragraph two that the plan of salvation was complete from the first thought we had of separation. God devised the plan of return, the plan that would save us from ourselves, that would awaken us from the fiction of isolation and bewilderment to the reality of all that ever was and ever will be.
In your personal devotional habit today, meditate upon the last paragraph of today’s passage. As you go to the holy altar within, allow the demarcations that separate you from others melt away, practice seeing others as you see yourself, commit to seeing others as equal to yourself without any judgment, condemnation, or comparison. This is the practice of salvation for nobody is saved until we are all saved – for we are one.
[1] A Course in Miracles. Manual for Teachers. II. Who are their pupils? Foundation for Inner Peace, Second Edition (1992).
For daily 2021 Workbook lessons visit www.i-choose-love.com courtesy of Linda R.
Audio credit: www.eckiefriar.com
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