A Course In Miracles - Chapter 6, Section I

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. (Foundation for Inner Peace, 448 Ignacio Blvd #306 Novato, CA 94949 USA). Glossary-Index for a Course In Miracles, 8th edition, Kenneth Wapnick, Ph.D. Music by 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 6,

The Lessons of Love,

Section 1,

The Message of the Crucifixion.

To summarize my takeaways,

In Section 1 of Chapter 6 we are asked to reconsider the Crucifixion and to understand that it is nothing more than an extreme example.

Jesus,

Our Brother and Guide,

Reminds us here again that He is like us and we like Him,

But that our fundamental equality can be demonstrated only through joint decision.

We learn that He elected for His second hours to demonstrate that the most outrageous assault,

As judged by the ego,

Does not matter.

He chose to show this was true in an extreme case because it serves as a teaching aid to those whose temptation to give in to anger and assault would not be so extreme.

We are lovingly told that we are equal as learners even though we do not need to have equal experiences.

We are not asked to be crucified.

Rather,

We are asked to teach our own perfect immunity,

Which is the truth in us,

Placed there by God.

We are asked to remember always that what we believe we will teach.

The message of the Crucifixion is to teach only love,

For that is what we are.

Our resurrection,

Then,

Is our reawakening,

Which is merely the dawning on our minds of what is already in it.

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 definitions of terms you will hear within this reading.

Crucifixion – the symbol of the ego's attack on God and therefore on His Son,

Witnessing for us our belief in suffering,

Sacrifice,

Victimization and death.

The true meaning of the Crucifixion is that our true identity of love can never be destroyed because death has no power over life.

Resurrection – the total change in mind that transcends the ego and its perceptions,

Allowing us to identify completely with our true self.

Salvation – forgiveness is salvation.

We are saved from our belief in sin and guilt through the change of mind that forgiveness and the miracle bring about.

Altar – not an external structure but an attitude,

It represents the part of our minds that chooses the world of God,

Truth,

Or chooses instead the earthly world,

Illusion.

Whichever attitude we choose,

That is our altar.

Sacrifice – a central belief in the ego's thought system that someone must lose if another is to gain,

The principle of giving up in order to receive,

Giving to get.

And now,

On to the reading.

A Course in Miracles Chapter 6 – The Lessons of Love Section 1 – The Message of the Crucifixion For learning purposes,

Let us consider the Crucifixion again.

I did not dwell on it before because of the fearful connotations you may associate with it.

The only emphasis laid upon it so far has been that it was not a form of punishment.

Nothing however can be explained in negative terms only.

There is a positive interpretation of the Crucifixion that is wholly devoid of fear and therefore wholly benign in what it teaches if it is properly understood.

The Crucifixion is nothing more than an extreme example.

Its value,

Like the value of any teaching device,

Lies solely in the kind of learning it facilitates.

It can be and has been misunderstood.

This is only because the fearful are apt to perceive fearfully.

I have already told you that you can always call on me to share my decision and thus make it stronger.

I have also told you that the Crucifixion was the last useless journey the Sonship need take and that it represents release from fear to anyone who understands it.

While I emphasized only the Resurrection before,

The purpose of the Crucifixion and how it actually led to the Resurrection was not clarified then.

Nevertheless,

It has a definite contribution to make to your own life and if you will consider it without fear,

It will help you understand your own role as a teacher.

You have probably reacted for years as if you were being crucified.

This is a marked tendency of the separated who always refuse to consider what they have done to themselves.

Projection means anger.

Anger fosters assault and assault promotes fear.

The real meaning of the Crucifixion lies in the apparent intensity of the assault of some of the Sons of God upon another.

This of course is impossible and must be fully understood as impossible.

Otherwise I cannot serve as a model for learning.

Assault can ultimately be made only on the body.

There is little doubt that one body can assault another and can even destroy it.

Yet if Destruction itself is impossible,

Anything that is destructible cannot be real.

Its destruction therefore does not justify anger.

To the extent to which you believe that it does,

You are accepting false premises and teaching them to others.

The message the Crucifixion was intended to teach was that it is not necessary to perceive any form of assault in persecution because you cannot be persecuted.

If you respond with anger,

You must be equating yourself with the destructible.

And are therefore regarding yourself insanely.

I have made it perfectly clear that I am like you and you are like me.

But our fundamental equality can be demonstrated only through joint decision.

You are free to perceive yourself as persecuted if you choose.

When you do choose to react that way however,

You might remember that I was persecuted as the world judges and did not share this evaluation for myself.

And because I did not share it,

I did not strengthen it.

I therefore offered a different interpretation of attack and one which I want to share with you.

If you will believe it,

You will help me teach it.

As I have said before,

As you teach,

So shall you learn.

If you react as if you are persecuted,

You are teaching persecution.

This is not a lesson a son of God should want to teach if he is to realize his own salvation.

Rather teach your own perfect immunity,

Which is the truth in you,

And realize that it cannot be assailed.

Do not try to protect it yourself or you are believing that it is assailable.

You were not asked to be crucified,

Which was part of my own teaching contribution.

You were merely asked to follow my example in the face of much less extreme temptations to misperceive and not to accept them as false justifications for anger.

There can be no justification for the unjustifiable.

Do not believe there is and do not teach that there is.

Remember always that what you believe you will teach.

Believe with me and we will become equal as teachers.

Your resurrection is your reawakening.

I am the model for rebirth,

But rebirth itself is merely the dawning on your mind of what is already in it.

God placed it there himself and so it is true forever.

I believed in it and therefore accepted it as true for me.

Help me to teach it to our brothers in the name of the kingdom of God.

But first believe that it is true for you or you will teach a mess.

My brothers slept during the so-called agony in the garden,

But I could not be angry with them because I knew I could not be abandoned.

I am sorry when my brothers do not share my decision to hear only one voice because it weakens them as teachers and as learners.

Yet I know they cannot really betray themselves or me and that it is still on them that I must build my church.

There is no choice in this because only you can be the foundation of God's church.

A church is where an altar is and the presence of the altar is what makes the church holy.

A church that does not inspire love has a hidden altar that is not serving the purpose for which God intended it.

I must found his church on you because those who accept me as a model are literally my disciples.

Disciples are followers and if the model they follow has chosen to save them pain in all respects they are unwise not to follow him.

I elected for your sake and mine to demonstrate that the most outrageous assault as judged by the ego does not matter.

As the world judges these things but not as God knows them I was betrayed,

Abandoned,

Beaten,

Torn and finally killed.

It was clear that this was only because of the projection of others onto me since I had not harmed anyone and had healed many.

We are still equal as learners although we do not need to have equal experiences.

The Holy Spirit is glad when you can learn from mine and be reawakened by them.

That is their only purpose and that is the only way in which I can be perceived as the way,

The truth and the life.

When you hear only one voice you are never called on to sacrifice.

On the contrary by being able to hear the Holy Spirit and others you can learn from their experiences and can gain from them without experiencing them directly yourself.

That is because the Holy Spirit is one and anyone who listens is inevitably led to demonstrate the Holy Spirit's way for all.

You were not persecuted nor was I.

You were not asked to repeat my experiences because the Holy Spirit whom we share makes this unnecessary.

To use my experiences constructively however you must still follow my example and how to perceive them.

My brothers and yours are constantly engaged in justifying the unjustifiable.

My one lesson which I must teach as I learned it is that no perception that is out of accord with the judgment of the Holy Spirit can be justified.

I undertook to show this was true in an extreme case merely because it would serve as a good teaching aid to those whose temptations to give in to anger and assault would not be so extreme.

I will with God that none of his sons should suffer.

The crucifixion cannot be shared because it is the symbol of projection but the resurrection is the symbol of sharing because the reawakening of every son of God is necessary to enable the sonship to know its wholeness.

Only this is knowledge.

The message of the crucifixion is perfectly clear.

Teach only love for that is what you are.

If you interpret the crucifixion in any other way you are using it as a weapon for assault rather than as the call for peace for which it was intended.

The apostles often misunderstood it and for the same reason that anyone misunderstands it.

Their own imperfect love made them vulnerable to projection and out of their own fear they spoke of the wrath of God as his retaliatory weapon.

Nor could they speak of the crucifixion entirely without anger because their sense of guilt had made them angry.

These are some of the examples of upside down thinking in the New Testament although its gospel is really only the message of love.

If the apostles had not felt guilty they could never have quoted me as saying I am not come to bring peace but a sword.

This is clearly the opposite of everything I taught.

Nor could they have described my reactions to Judas as they did if they had really understood me.

I could not have said betrayest thou the son of man with a kiss unless I believed in betrayal.

The whole message of the crucifixion was simply that I did not.

The punishment I was said to have called forth upon Judas was a similar mistake.

Judas was my brother and a son of God as much a part of the sonship as myself.

Was it likely that I would condemn him when I was ready to demonstrate that condemnation is impossible?

As you read the teachings of the apostles remember that I told them myself that there was much they would understand later because they were not wholly ready to follow me at the time.

I do not want you to allow any fear to enter into the thought system toward which I am guiding you.

I do not call for martyrs but for teachers.

No one is punished for sins and the sons of God are not sinners.

Any concept of punishment involves the projection of blame and reinforces the idea that blame is justified.

The result is a lesson in blame for all behavior teaches the belief that motivated it.

The crucifixion was the result of clearly opposed thought systems,

The perfect symbol of the conflict between the ego and the son of God.

This conflict seems just as real now and its lessons must be learned now as well as then.

I do not need gratitude but you need to develop your weakened ability to be grateful or you cannot appreciate God.

He does not need your appreciation but you do.

You cannot love what you do not appreciate for fear makes appreciation impossible.

When you are afraid of what you are you do not appreciate it and will therefore reject it.

As a result you will teach rejection.

The power of the sons of God is present all the time because they were created as creators.

Their influence on each other is without limit and must be used for their joint salvation.

Each one must learn to teach that all forms of rejection are meaningless.

The separation is the notion of rejection.

As long as you teach this you will believe it.

This is not as God thinks and you must think as he thinks if you are to know him again.

Remember that the Holy Spirit is the communication link between God the Father and his separated sons.

If you will listen to his voice you will know that you cannot either hurt or be hurt and that many need your blessing to help them hear this for themselves.

When you perceive only this need in them and do not respond to any other you will have learned of me and will be as eager to share your learning as I am.