1. The centrality of open-mindedness, perhaps the last of the attributes the teacher of God acquires, is easily understood when its relation to forgiveness is recognized. Open-mindedness comes with lack of judgment. As judgment shuts the mind against God’s Teacher, so open-mindedness invites Him to come in. As condemnation judges the Son of God as evil, so open-mindedness permits him to be judged by the Voice for God on His behalf. As the projection of guilt upon him would send him to hell, so open-mindedness lets Christ image be extended to him. Only the open-minded can be at peace, for they alone see reason for it.
2. How do the open-minded forgive? They have let go all things that would prevent forgiveness. They have in truth abandoned the world, and let it be restored to them in newness and in joy so glorious they could never have conceived of such a change. Nothing is now as it was formerly. Nothing but sparkles now which seemed so dull and lifeless before. And above all are all things welcoming, for threat is gone. No clouds remain to hide the face of Christ. Now is the goal achieved. Forgiveness is the final goal of the curriculum. It paves the way for what goes far beyond all learning. The curriculum makes no effort to exceed its legitimate goal. Forgiveness is its single aim, at which all learning ultimately converges. It is indeed enough.
3. You may have noticed that the list of attributes of God’s teachers does not include things that are the Son of God’s inheritance. Terms like love, sinlessness, perfection, knowledge, and eternal truth do not appear in this context. They would be most inappropriate here. What God has given is so far beyond our curriculum that learning but disappears in its presence. Yet while its presence is obscured, the focus properly belongs on the curriculum. It is the function of God’s teachers to bring true learning to the world. Properly speaking it is unlearning that they bring, for that is “true learning” in the world. It is given to the teachers of God to bring the glad tidings of complete forgiveness to the world. Blessed indeed are they, for they are the bringers of salvation.[1]
An open mind is a mind that learns; a closed mind is a know-it-all mind, it believes in what it wants to believe in, it trusts its own small-minded, low-minded opinions, doctrines, and limited perceptions to judge the world and all that it encounters. An open mind is a characteristic of God’s Teacher because it is the condition of the mind that has learned not to trust in the perceptions of flesh; it has learned that ego perceptions pervert and twist the truth of the matter. An open mind trusts in God’s judgment, it learns without limit, without judgment, without condemnation. If my mind is open to you, it will not matter if I personally find you attractive or not in the flesh; it will not matter to me if you worship like me or think like me; it will not matter to me who you vote for and what your political beliefs are in the world. With an open mind, I refuse to judge you according to all the standards of the world. I will not worry if you “click” with me, because with my open mind I will know that I am not the judge of you – God has created you and has deemed you worthy of Sonship and that is all I need to know!
Having an open mind means that I can live in the world and yet abandon all that is in the world that would obscure the Kingdom of God. While I may have to live with my ego as long as I am in the world, with my open mind I will no longer be ruled by my ego but will be open to the Voice for God within me. While you may be able to hurt my feelings by the things you say and do, my open mind will inform me that what happens in the world is only a learning experience, it is for my perfection and your perfection, the best use of my time then is not to worry about why you want to hurt me, but to go beyond your ego and my ego and be free of all that drama and trauma. When I do not close my mind toward you, my mind is free to choose again and then again to share the forgiveness, mercy, and grace of God’s Kingdom. When I do not put you in a mean little cage in my mind with all the other things that I personally find hard to bear about the world, the cages that I am in open and set me free. With my open mind I am free then – your opinion about me no longer shackles me in shame and in disgrace, for when I open all the cage doors of my own mind and set others free, I am freed as well. I can live out my days in the flesh fully aware that it can never define me, nor hold me captive to its meanness and spite, its decay and death.
This is the best in the hellish realm. To reach for love, sinlessness, perfection, knowledge, and eternal truth is meaningless for this is what we are in Spirit but never in flesh. These characteristics cannot be learned, for this is what we are made of and for and with. In the world of time and space, flesh and blood, separation and attachment to thoughts of sin, sacrifice, and shame, our true Selves and what we truly are, what we truly know, the majesty and the power that are inherent to us as God’s Son is necessarily obscured to our lower minds. We must regain our trust in each other and our trust in God, we must regain our honesty, tolerance, gentleness, joy, and defenselessness. We must learn to accept God’s definition of generosity, practice patience, faithfulness, and finally achieve the open-mindedness that defines the teacher of God to undo the false teaching and learning of the world and bring the glad tidings of complete and utter forgiveness for it all. This is our salvation, and it is for everybody and everything. God’s Kingdom comes and God’s Will is done on earth as it is in Heaven as we reach for, accept, learn, teach, practice, and develop these characteristics.
[1] A Course in Miracles. Manual for Teachers. 4. What are the characteristics of God’s teachers? X Open-mindedness. Foundation for Inner Peace, Second Edition (1992).
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