Hi,
I'm Teresa Hubbard.
Welcome back to our continued reading of the text to A Course in Miracles.
We continue today in Chapter 7,
The Gifts of the Kingdom,
Section 3,
The Reality of the Kingdom.
To summarize my takeaways,
In Section 3 of Chapter 7,
We learn that the Holy Spirit teaches one lesson and applies it to all individuals in all situations.
By teaching the power of the Kingdom of God Himself,
He teaches us that all power is ours.
He also reminds us that He is with us always.
This power was created to be shared and therefore cannot be meaningfully perceived as belonging to anyone at the expense of another.
We are told that to be in the Kingdom is merely to focus our full attention on it.
We do this by recognizing all whom we see as brothers,
Because only equals are at peace.
Because God's equal sons have everything,
They cannot compete.
Yet if we perceive any of our brothers as anything other than our perfect equals,
The idea of competition has entered our minds,
Which is where our idea of conflict arises.
Therefore we must be vigilant against this idea,
Remembering that God has lit our mind Himself with His light,
Because His light is what our mind is.
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.
First Kingdom,
The non-dualistic world of knowledge,
Wherein God and His creations dwell in perfect unity.
Holy Spirit,
The communication link between God and us,
Bridging the gap between the mind of Christ and our human minds.
Ego,
Our belief in the separated or false self that we made as a substitute for the self that God created.
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.
Whatever attitude we choose,
That is our altar.
And now,
On to the reading.
A Course in Miracles Chapter 7,
The Gifts of the Kingdom.
Section 3,
The Reality of the Kingdom.
The Holy Spirit teaches one lesson and applies it to all individuals in all situations.
Being conflict-free,
He maximizes all efforts and all results.
By teaching the power of the Kingdom of God Himself,
He teaches you that all power is yours.
Its application does not matter.
It is always maximal.
Your vigilance does not establish it as yours,
But it does enable you to use it always and in all ways.
When I said,
I am with you always,
I meant it literally.
I am not absent to anyone in any situation.
Because I am always with you,
You are the way,
The truth,
And the life.
You did not make this power any more than I did.
It was created to be shared and therefore cannot be meaningfully perceived as belonging to anyone at the expense of another.
Such a perception makes it meaningless by eliminating or overlooking its real and only meaning.
God's meaning waits in the Kingdom because that is where He placed it.
It does not wait in time.
It merely rests in the Kingdom because it belongs there,
As you do.
How can you who are God's meaning perceive yourself as absent from it?
You can see yourself as separated from your meaning only by experiencing yourself as unreal.
This is why the ego is insane.
It teaches that you are not what you are.
That is so contradictory it is clearly impossible.
It is therefore a lesson you cannot really learn and therefore cannot really teach.
Yet you are always teaching.
You must therefore be teaching something else,
Even though the ego does not know what it is.
The ego then is always being undone and does suspect your motives.
Your mind cannot be unified in allegiance to the ego because the mind does not belong to it.
Yet what is treacherous to the ego is faithful to peace.
The ego's enemy is therefore your friend.
I said before that the ego's friend is not part of you because the ego perceives itself at war and therefore in need of allies.
You who are not at war must look for brothers and recognize all whom you see as brothers because only equals are at peace.
Because God's equal sons have everything,
They cannot compete.
Yet if they perceive any of their brothers as anything other than their perfect equals,
The idea of competition has entered their minds.
Do not underestimate your need to be vigilant against this idea because all your conflicts come from it.
It is the belief that conflicting interests are possible and therefore you have accepted the impossible as true.
Is that different from saying you perceive yourself as unreal?
To be in the kingdom is merely to focus your full attention on it.
As long as you believe you can attend to what is not true,
You are accepting conflict as your choice.
Is it really a choice?
It seems to be,
But seeming and reality are hardly the same.
You who are the kingdom are not concerned with seeming.
Reality is yours because you are reality.
This is how having and being are ultimately reconciled,
Not in the kingdom but in your mind.
The altar there is the only reality.
The altar is perfectly clear in thought because it is a reflection of perfect thought.
Your right mind sees only brothers because it sees only in its own light.
God has lit your mind himself and keeps your mind lit by his light because his light is what your mind is.
This is totally beyond question and when you question it you are answered.
The answer merely undoes the question by establishing the fact that to question reality is to question meaninglessly.
That is why the Holy Spirit never questions.
His sole function is to undo the questionable and thus lead to certainty.
The certain are perfectly calm because they are not in doubt.
They do not raise questions because nothing questionable enters their minds.
This holds them in perfect serenity because this is what they share,
Knowing what they are.
