A Course In Miracles, Chapter 12, Section V
ACIM is read one section at a time. It is a guidebook leading us back to our true natures, as we open to the awareness of love's presence. All quoted material is from A Course in Miracles, copyright ©1992, 1999, 2007 by the Foundation for Inner Peace, publisher, and the copyright holder. This material is used with permission. Glossary-Index for a Course In Miracles, 8th edition, Kenneth Wapnick, Ph.D. Music: Bensound
Transcript
Hi,
I�m Teresa Hubbard.
Welcome back to our continued reading of the text to A Course in Miracles.
We continue today in Chapter 12,
The Holy Spirit�s Curriculum.
Section 5,
The Sane Curriculum To summarize my takeaways,
In Section 5 of Chapter 12,
Jesus teaches us that because we attack ourselves and believe the attack is effective,
We behold ourselves as weak.
Not perceiving ourselves and our brothers as equal then,
And regarding ourselves as weaker,
We attempt to equalize the situation we made by using attack to do so.
Believing that attack was successful in weakening ourselves,
We believe it will also weaken our brothers.
This is why the recognition of our own invulnerability is so important to the restoration of our sanity.
For when we recognize our own invulnerability,
We are recognizing that attack has no effect.
We are always the first point of our attack,
And we will never realize the utter uselessness of attack except by recognizing that our self-attack has no effect.
Our hindrance to learning is that we do not know the meaning of love.
The ego teaches us to seek but not find,
And in curricular terms this means try to learn but do not succeed.
The result of this insane curriculum is clear.
Every legitimate teaching aid,
Every real instruction,
And every sensible guide to learning will be misinterpreted.
We must resign now as our own teacher.
God has provided us the teacher that can transcend our limited resources.
Doing so is not defeat.
It is an honest appraisal of what we have taught ourselves and the learning outcomes that have resulted.
With the Holy Spirit as our guide,
We will become excellent learners and excellent teachers.
Our learning potential is limitless because it will lead us back to God.
We must merely offer our undivided attention.
Everything else will be given us.
For when God's Son chooses to learn or write,
Nothing can oppose this decision.
I invite you to keep a few things in mind as you listen to the reading.
The course uses male pronouns,
Yet this is simply a way of pointing to the spiritual being,
Having no gender.
The course is written in first person,
And although not introduced directly to the reader,
It becomes clear that the words are from Jesus,
Often quoting from the Bible.
The course uses traditional Christian terms in a non-traditional manner.
These words are simply pointers to truth,
Nothing more.
A few terms you will hear within this reading.
Ego,
Our belief in the separated or false self that we made as a substitute for the self that God created.
Holy Spirit,
The communication link between God and us,
Bridging the gap between the mind of Christ and our human minds.
The voice for God.
Sonship,
Or Sons of God.
This is all of us,
The creations of God.
And now,
Onto the reading.
A Course in Miracles Chapter 12,
The Holy Spirit's Curriculum.
Section 5,
The Sane Curriculum.
Only love is strong because it is undivided.
The strong do not attack because they see no need to do so.
Before the idea of attack can enter your mind,
You must have perceived yourself as weak.
Because you attacked yourself and believed that the attack was effective,
You behold yourself as weakened.
No longer perceiving yourself and your brothers as equal,
And regarding yourself as weaker,
You attempt to equalize the situation you made.
You use attack to do so because you believe that attack was successful in weakening you.
That is why the recognition of your own invulnerability is so important to the restoration of your sanity.
For if you accept your invulnerability,
You are recognizing that attack has no effect.
Although you have attacked yourself,
You will be demonstrating that nothing really happened.
Therefore,
By attacking,
You have not done anything.
Once you realize this,
You will no longer see any sense in attack,
For it manifestly does not work,
And cannot protect you.
Yet the recognition of your invulnerability has more than negative value.
If your attacks on yourself have failed to weaken you,
You are still strong.
You therefore have no need to equalize the situation to establish your strength.
You will never realize the utter uselessness of attack,
Except by recognizing that your attack on yourself has no effects.
For others do react to attack if they perceive it,
And if you are trying to attack them,
You will be unable to avoid interpreting this as reinforcement.
The only place you can cancel out all reinforcement is in yourself,
For you are always the first point of your attack,
And if this has never been,
It has no consequences.
The Holy Spirit's love is your strength,
For yours is divided,
And therefore not real.
You cannot trust your own love when you attack it.
You cannot learn of perfect love with a split mind,
Because a split mind has made itself a poor learner.
You tried to make the separation eternal,
Because you wanted to retain the characteristics of creation,
But with your own content.
Yet creation is not of you,
And poor learners do need special teaching.
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.
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.
I have said that the ego's rule is,
Seek and do not find.
Translated into curricular terms,
This means,
Try to learn,
But do not succeed.
The result of this curriculum goal is obvious.
Every legitimate teaching aid,
Every real instruction,
And every sensible guide to learning will be misinterpreted,
Since they are all for facilitating the learning this strange curriculum is against.
If you are trying to learn how not to learn,
And the aim of your teaching is to defeat itself,
What can you expect but confusion?
Such a curriculum does not make sense.
This attempt at learning has so weakened your mind that you cannot love,
For the curriculum you have chosen is against love,
And amounts to a course in how to attack yourself.
A supplementary goal in this curriculum is learning how not to overcome the split that makes its primary aim believable.
And you will not overcome the split in this curriculum,
For all your learning will be on its behalf.
Yet your mind speaks against your learning as your learning speaks against your mind,
And so you fight against all learning and succeed,
For that is what you want.
But perhaps you do not realize even yet that there is something you want to learn,
And that you can learn it because it is your choice to do so.
You who have tried to learn what you do not want should take heart,
For although the curriculum you set yourself is depressing indeed,
It is merely ridiculous if you look at it.
Is it possible that the way to achieve a goal is not to attain it?
Resign now as your own teacher.
This resignation will not lead to depression.
It is merely the result of an honest appraisal of what you have taught yourself,
And of the learning outcomes that have resulted.
Under the proper learning conditions,
Which you can neither provide nor understand,
You will become an excellent learner and an excellent teacher.
But it is not so yet,
And will not be so until the whole learning situation as you have set it up is reversed.
Your learning potential,
Properly understood,
Is limitless because it will lead you to God.
You can teach the way to Him and learn it if you will follow the teacher who knows the way to Him and understands His curriculum for learning it.
The curriculum is totally unambiguous because the goal is not divided,
And the means and the end are in complete accord.
You need offer only undivided attention.
Everything else will be given you.
For you really want to learn aright,
And nothing can oppose the decision of God's Son.
His learning is as unlimited as He is.
