Introduction, P 2
2. To teach is to demonstrate. 2There are only two thought systems, and you demonstrate that you believe one or the other is true all the time. 3From your demonstration others learn, and so do you. 4The question is not whether you will teach, for in that there is no choice. 5The purpose of the course might be said to provide you with a means of choosing what you want to teach on the basis of what you want to learn. 6You cannot give to someone else, but only to yourself, and this you learn through teaching. 7Teaching is but a call to witnesses to attest to what you believe. 8It is a method of conversion. 9This is not done by words alone. 10Any situation must be to you a chance to teach others what you are, and what they are to you. 11No more than that, but also never less.
Giving is Receiving
Several important points are found in this one paragraph. Here is what I get from it. I am always teaching what I am, and in the teaching, I am learning what I am. I teach in two ways, one from words and the other from demonstration. Sometimes, my life demonstrates that I am spirit expressing as a body, extending love. Sometimes, my life demonstrates that I believe I am a body, separate and different than other bodies, reinforcing the belief in separation with all its unfortunate effects.
Until my mind is clear, I will go back and forth with this. Sometimes, my words and my demonstration will not be in alignment. In my experience, I can talk the talk but if I don’t believe it, pretty soon what I do believe is expressed through me in some way and that is what I will actually teach.
Teaching from Love
Studying and practicing A Course in Miracles is how I went from teaching from the ego to teaching from Love. And the more I taught love, the less I believed in fear. Isn’t it perfect the way Jesus set this up? The truth is already in me so it is always possible to teach truth, and the more I teach it, the more I learn it. And everyone around me benefits and then they get in touch with their truth and they teach it and thus learn it and everyone around them benefits. Jesus really knows what he is doing.
Always Teaching
One more thing that grabbed my attention. Jesus says that: “Any situation must be to you a chance to teach others what you are, and what they are to you.” So this tells me that everything in my life is used for this purpose. I am reminded of the sentence from the previous paragraph that said teaching is a constant process.
These days I am very aware of this responsibility. Whatever I am doing, whatever seems to be going on in my life, I see it as a teaching/learning opportunity, and I do the best I can with it in that regard. So, I am teaching others what I am through my actions and words. I am also teaching myself what they are to me.
Shared Interests
Are they my dear brothers, part of my own Whole Self, or am I teaching myself they are separate from me, unimportant, my competitors for whatever it is I think I need to be happy? The other day, I heard someone say that they wished the hurricane would go to Florida instead of toward them.
I was shocked that they thought others had nothing to do with them, that what happened to these people had no impact on them. When I used to think this way I was only interested in what happened to those in closest proximity to me. It escaped me that most people still think this way.
Do Unto Others
What I know now is that everything that happens to everybody happens to me. Not necessarily to the character I play, but to me, to us, to our Self. Thus, the hurricane and all its effects is an opportunity for me to teach this. Where I can express my love through my physical effort, or through financial sharing, I do that.
Where I cannot express my love in those ways, I give my prayers and I remember who they are. They may be very distracted with the business of living, and so maybe what I do for them is to remember that this sad story is over long ago and they are right now safe in the arms of their loving Father. It is what I would want someone to do for me.