III. The Guide to Salvation, P 10
10 The Holy Spirit is the perfect Teacher. He uses only what your mind already understands to teach you that you do not understand it. The Holy Spirit can deal with a reluctant learner without going counter to his mind, because part of it is still for God. Despite the ego’s attempts to conceal this part, it is still much stronger than the ego, although the ego does not recognize it. The Holy Spirit recognizes it perfectly because it is His Own dwelling place; the place in the mind where He is at home. You are at home there, too, because it is a place of peace, and peace is of God. You who are part of God are not at home except in His peace. If peace is eternal, you are at home only in eternity.
Journal
I understand what is being said about the Holy Spirit using only what my mind already understands to teach me that I do not understand it. I do this all the time with my customers. A big part of my job is to provide technical assistance. But if my operator is wrong about what he thinks needs to be done and I tell him that he is wrong, he will probably go into a defensive mode. Then he will not be open to hearing what I have to say.
If instead, I agree with him, if I say, “Yes, I see what you mean,” he is now open and receptive. I can then guide him gently to see another way of doing it. If I do it very well, he will come to the right conclusion on his own. I have to be careful that I don’t make him feel foolish for being wrong, and that I don’t give him the impression he has to see it my way. If he is not willing to change his mind then I leave it alone. If I push too hard he might reject my help altogether and we would not get another chance to look at the issue again.
This is very much the way the Holy Spirit works with me. He doesn’t say that I am foolish or even that I am wrong. He starts where I think I am and very gently guides me to where I am willing to go. If I get balky, he just waits for me to change my mind. His absolute faith in me has taught me to have faith in myself. Just like I do with my mistaken customer, He begins by acknowledging what I believe, then helps me to see for myself that my thinking is not making me happy. Then He offers His correction.
In A Course in Miracles, Jesus tells us often that we are never coerced. Nothing can overcome our will. It would seem then, that we might never get out of this dream. Because we believe in it, it is our will to be here. How does the Holy Spirit get past this without overcoming our will? Here, Jesus tells us that while we have the idea of separation in our mind, that is, ego, we also have the love of God in our mind. This is the part of the mind where the Holy Spirit dwells.
This part of the mind is stronger than the ego. We don’t realize this because we identify with the ego and the ego believes it is stronger. Thinking about this, I realize that while the ego believes in its own strength, there is doubt because it recognizes it is not alone in the mind. It must know on some level that something much greater than itself exists.
This is the source of guilt and fear that is continually being projected as stories in my life. That is why it will do not good to try to fix all the guilt and fear in my life. The solution is to heal the mind of the belief in guilt and fear. Guilt and fear are completely undone as the mind turns from the ego toward God. Without the belief in guilt and fear, the mind will no longer project guilt and fear stories.
This healing is inevitable because the part of my mind that is for God, and is the dwelling place of Spirit, is also where I live. I live in God. I live in peace. I live in eternity. While I dream of separation this does not appear to be so, but nothing can change this. I suffer from a delusion, not from anything real. My mind is slowly being awakened, and as this is done, I find I can more readily believe that I am what I am, even though that is not yet my full experience. I can believe it because I am not being taught so much as I am being reminded.