ACIM Chapter 12. V. The Sane Curriculum, P 5, 6

ACIM Chapter 12. V. The Sane Curriculum, P 5, 6

V. The Sane Curriculum, P 5

5 You have learning handicaps in a very literal sense. There are areas in your learning skills that are so impaired that you can progress only under constant, clear-cut direction, provided by a Teacher Who can transcend your limited resources. He becomes your Resource because of yourself you cannot learn. The learning situation in which you placed yourself is impossible, and in this situation you clearly require a special Teacher and a special curriculum. Poor learners are not good choices as teachers, either for themselves or for anyone else. You would hardly turn to them to establish the curriculum by which they can escape from their limitations. If they understood what is beyond them, they would not be handicapped.

If you have a problem with math, don’t come to me. I can add and subtract and multiply, but beyond that, I have few skills. I would be a poor teacher of math. If you don’t understand algebra or geometry, you need a special teacher with a specific curriculum. And I assure you, if you are as lost in higher mathematics as I am, without a math teacher and without a curriculum designed for this special thing, you are going to be lost. You would not be able to teach yourself.

I did so badly in algebra when I was in school that one time after I was grown, I decided to try it again. I went to the library and checked out a book written for math simpletons like me. I did better with this special curriculum than I did in school, but without the right teacher, there was only so far that I could go with it.

When it comes to love, I need a special teacher, even more so than I do in math.

I have little understanding of what love really is. (A Course in Miracles has provided me with a special curriculum, and the Holy Spirit is my Teacher. With this help, I am beginning to recognize what is not love, which is the foundation I was missing.

Here are a couple of things that I have learned that help me recognize what love is not. It is not love when I yearn to be with someone because I feel empty. That is using the person, not loving them. It is not love when I think that I am incomplete. That is neediness, and it, too, leads to using. It is not love when I comfort someone who is grieving because that person’s grief makes me uncomfortable.

Here is something I have learned about love through my Teacher. Love isn’t something I find in someone else, and it is not something I can lose. I have learned that Love is what I am, so I don’t need someone else to provide it, nor can I lose it. And something else I learned is that in order to know the love that I am, I must share it. It is not something I get, but it is something I give, and it is something I recognize in the giving.

ACIM is a good curriculum, and the Holy Spirit is a good and faithful Teacher. I understand that I can progress only under constant, clear-cut direction, and I get this direction from Him. I choose to follow His Guidance and not turn to the ego mind that knows nothing. I have learned that much, at least.)

V. The Sane Curriculum, P 6

6 You do not know the meaning of love, and that is your handicap. Do not attempt to teach yourself what you do not understand, and do not try to set up curriculum goals where yours have clearly failed. Your learning goal has been not to learn, and this cannot lead to successful learning. You cannot transfer what you have not learned, and the impairment of the ability to generalize is a crucial learning failure. Would you ask those who have failed to learn what learning aids are for? They do not know. If they could interpret the aids correctly, they would have learned from them.

Jesus continues to impress on us that we cannot teach ourselves. If you have been a good student of the ego and a good student of the world, this can be a hard pill to swallow. I was a good student in most subjects and took pride in that. I avoided what I did not excel in so that I wouldn’t feel bad about myself.

Now, what I have learned is that none of this matters. None of it means anything. It is all just more story, more illusion. I have found it useful to learn to communicate in words and to write. There are other things that have been necessary to learn in order to be in this dream. But what matters, what does have meaning, I can only learn through the Holy Spirit.

This is one lesson I have learned and fully accepted.

I know the difference between having an intellectual understanding of concepts and knowing these things so that they are no longer concepts but reality. And I fully accept that this process requires my cooperation but not my effort. I can read A Course in Miracles all day and listen to it all night, and it will not become real to me for all that work.

What I can do is ask the Holy Spirit to show me what He wants me to know about each situation. I ask Him to heal my mind of my false thoughts, and I do not accept any concept I have learned on my own as true until I have questioned it with the Holy Spirit. I ask Him to teach me what is true and what is false, and then I ask Him to remove what is not true from my mind.

When I notice that I am making plans on my own and making decisions without Him, I change my mind. I know this will only bring me more confusion if I keep doing it. I pay attention to my feelings, and when I am not happy, I know there is a thought that needs to be healed, and I ask the Holy Spirit for that healing.

One day I was listening to a co-worker complain about the company.

I noticed that I agreed with what he was saying, though I could see that he was trying to solve this problem on his own and as a result, he was feeling hopeless. That was the part I did not agree with. I know that with the Holy Spirit nothing is hopeless. Because of the conflict in my own mind, I asked Holy Spirit what to say to this man.

At first, I was doing well, stepping back and waiting for the words to say, but eventually, I started feeling like he was dragging me down to where he was. Later, I took this thought to the Holy Spirit. He told me that no one could drag me down. What happens is that my own beliefs, some of which I am unaware of on a conscious level, get triggered. It was my own buried beliefs and fears that I was reacting to, not my co-workers.

Here is another thing the Holy Spirit showed me.

I thought I was disturbed by the situation, but the situation merely reflected the disturbance in my mind. In other words, fear, doubt, and uncertainty were in my mind. Then, the dissatisfaction and subsequent fear of what was going on in the company unfolded as this story of me and my co-worker having this talk.

The belief in the mind always comes first, then the situation. I was not afraid of what was happening at work. What was happening at work was the inevitable effect of my fear. Thank you, Holy Spirit. This is not something I could have taught myself. Even if I understood the concept, I could not teach myself to know this in my heart. I could not transfer this knowledge so that I know it in every circumstance I am aware of. I gratefully retire as my own teacher and accept You as my teacher.

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