A Course In Miracles - Chapter 7, 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. (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 7,

The Gifts of the Kingdom,

Section 5,

Healing and the Changelessness of Mind.

To summarize my takeaways,

In Section 5 of Chapter 7 we are reminded that the Holy Spirit uses the body only for communication and that this decision has such a direct connection with healing that it needs clarification.

We are told that the unhealed healer does not understand his own vocation.

The unhealed healer wants gratitude from his brothers,

But he is not grateful to them.

This is because he thinks he is giving something to them and is not receiving something equally desirable in return.

His teaching is limited because he is learning so little and his healing lesson is thus limited by his own ingratitude,

Which is a lesson in sickness.

Remember only minds communicate,

Yet the body in the service to the ego can hurt other bodies including its own.

But this cannot occur unless the body has been confused with the mind.

Yet this situation can be used either for healing or for magic.

We must remember that healing only strengthens while magic tries to weaken.

Healing perceives nothing in the healer that everyone else does not share with him.

Yet magic sees something special in the healer,

Which he believes he can offer as a gift to someone who does not have it.

He may believe that the gift comes from God to him,

But it is quite evident that he does not understand God if he thinks that he has something that others lack.

We are asked to remember that healing is the one ability every one of us can develop and must develop if we want to be healed.

Healing is the Holy Spirit's form of communication in this world.

We are invited to come back to our minds,

The Holy Spirit in us,

And remember the truth within us.

The mind we share is shared by all our brothers,

And as we see them truly,

They will be healed as are we.

Let our minds shine with God's as we look upon our brothers,

And by our gratitude we are aware of the light.

This light will shine back upon us and onto the whole sonship.

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.

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.

God – the Creator,

The source of all being or life.

God's essence is Spirit,

Which is shared with all creation,

Whose unity is the state of heaven.

Teaching and Learning – what we believe we are is what we will always teach,

And what we teach reinforces our belief.

Our choice of what we teach and learn comes from our identification as Spirit or as Ego.

Whichever we choose,

Spirit or Ego is what we teach and learn.

Spirit – the nature of our true reality,

Which being of God is changeless and eternal,

Contrasted with the body,

Which changes and dies.

Healing – the belief that our true identity is Spirit,

Not a body.

It is the correction of our minds from the belief in sickness and the joining with one another in forgiveness.

Magic – trying to solve a problem in the mind through physical or mindless measures.

And now,

On to the reading.

A Course in Miracles Chapter 7 – The Gifts of the Kingdom Section 5 – Healing and the Changelessness of Mind The body is nothing more than a framework for developing abilities,

Which is quite apart from what they are used for.

That is a decision.

The effects of the ego's decision in this matter are so apparent that they need no elaboration.

But the Holy Spirit's decision to use the body only for communication has such a direct connection with healing that it does need clarification.

The unhealed healer obviously does not understand his own vocation.

Only minds communicate.

Since the ego cannot obliterate the impulse to communicate because it is also the impulse to create,

It can only teach you that the body can both communicate and create,

And therefore does not need the mind.

The ego thus tries to teach you that the body can act like the mind and is therefore self-sufficient.

Yet we have learned that behavior is not the level for either teaching or learning,

Since you can act in accordance with what you do not believe.

To do this,

However,

Will weaken you as a teacher and a learner,

Because as has been repeatedly emphasized,

You teach what you do believe.

An inconsistent lesson will be poorly taught and poorly learned.

If you teach both sickness and healing,

You are both a poor teacher and a poor learner.

Healing is the one ability everyone can develop and must develop if he is to be healed.

Healing is the Holy Spirit's form of communication in this world and the only one he accepts.

He recognizes no other,

Because he does not accept the ego's confusion of body and mind.

Minds can communicate,

But they cannot hurt.

The body,

In the service of the ego,

Can hurt other bodies,

But this cannot occur unless the body has already been confused with the mind.

This situation,

Too,

Can be used either for healing or for magic.

But you must remember that magic always involves the belief that healing is harmful.

This belief is its totally insane premise,

And so it proceeds accordingly.

Healing only strengthens.

Magic always tries to weaken.

Healing perceives nothing in the healer that everyone else does not share with him.

Magic always sees something special in the healer,

Which he believes he can offer as a gift to someone who does not have it.

He may believe that the gift comes from God to him,

But it is quite evident that he does not understand God if he thinks he has something that others lack.

The Holy Spirit does not work by chance,

And healing that is of him always works.

Unless the healer always heals by him,

The results will vary.

Yet healing itself is consistent,

Since only consistency is conflict-free,

And only the conflict-free are whole.

By accepting exceptions,

And acknowledging that he can sometimes heal and sometimes not,

The healer is obviously accepting inconsistency.

He is therefore in conflict,

And is teaching conflict.

Can anything of God not be for all and for always?

Love is incapable of any exceptions.

Only if there is fear does the idea of exceptions seem to be meaningful.

Exceptions are fearful,

Because they are made by fear.

The fearful healer is a contradiction in terms,

And is therefore a concept that only a conflicted mind could possibly perceive as meaningful.

Fear does not gladden,

Healing does.

Fear always makes exceptions,

Healing never does.

Fear produces dissociation,

Because it induces separation.

Healing always produces harmony,

Because it proceeds from integration.

It is predictable,

Because it can be counted on.

Everything that is of God can be counted on,

Because everything of God is wholly real.

Healing can be counted on because it is inspired by his voice,

And is in accord with his laws.

Yet if healing is consistent,

It cannot be inconsistently understood.

Understanding means consistency,

Because God means consistency.

Since that is his meaning,

It is also yours.

Your meaning cannot be out of accord with his,

Because your whole meaning and your only meaning comes from his,

And is like his.

God cannot be out of accord with himself,

And you cannot be out of accord with him.

You cannot separate yourself from your Creator,

Who created you by sharing his being with you.

The unhealed healer wants gratitude from his brothers,

But he is not grateful to them.

That is because he thinks he is giving something to them,

And is not receiving something equally desirable in return.

His teaching is limited,

Because he is learning so little.

His healing lesson is limited by his own ingratitude,

Which is a lesson in sickness.

True learning is constant,

And so vital in its power for change,

That a Son of God can recognize his power in one instant,

And change the world in the next.

That is because by changing his mind,

He has changed the most powerful device that was ever given him for change.

This in no way contradicts the changelessness of mind as God created it,

But you think that you have changed it,

As long as you learn through the ego.

This places you in a position of needing to learn a lesson that seems contradictory.

You must learn to change your mind about your mind.

Only by this can you learn that it is changeless.

When you heal,

That is exactly what you are learning.

You are recognizing the changeless mind in your brother by realizing that he could not have changed his mind.

That is how you perceive the Holy Spirit in him.

It is only the Holy Spirit in him that never changes his mind.

He himself may think he can,

Or he would not perceive himself as sick.

He therefore does not know what his self is.

If you see only the changeless in him,

You have not really changed him.

By changing your mind about his for him,

You help him undo the change his ego thinks it has made in him.

As you can hear two voices,

So you can see in two ways.

One way shows you an image or an idol that you may worship out of fear but will never love.

The other shows you only truth,

Which you will love because you will understand it.

Understanding is appreciation,

Because what you understand you can identify with,

And by making it part of you,

You have accepted it with love.

That is how God himself created you,

In understanding,

In appreciation,

And in love.

The ego is totally unable to understand this,

Because it does not understand what it makes,

Does not appreciate it,

And does not love it.

It incorporates to take away.

It literally believes that every time it deprives someone of something,

It is increased.

I have spoken often of the increase of the kingdom by your creations,

Which can only be created as you were.

The whole glory and perfect joy that is the kingdom lies in you to give.

Do you not want to give it?

You cannot forget the Father,

Because I am with you,

And I cannot forget him.

To forget me is to forget yourself and him who created you.

Our brothers are forgetful.

That is why they need your remembrance of me and of him who created me.

Through this remembrance,

You can change their minds about themselves,

As I can change yours.

Your mind is so powerful a light that you can look into theirs and enlighten them,

As I can enlighten yours.

I do not want to share my body in communion,

Because this is to share nothing.

Would I try to share an illusion with the most holy children of a most holy Father?

Yet I do want to share my mind with you,

Because we are of one mind,

And that mind is ours.

See only this mind everywhere,

Because only this is everywhere and in everything.

It is everything because it encompasses all things within itself.

Blessed are you who perceive only this,

Because you perceive only what is true.

Come therefore unto me and learn of the truth in you.

The mind we share is shared by all our brothers,

And as we see them truly,

They will be healed.

Let your mind shine with mine upon their minds,

And by our gratitude to them,

Make them aware of the light in them.

This light will shine back upon you and on the whole sonship,

Because this is your proper gift to God.

He will accept it and give it to the sonship,

Because it is acceptable to him and therefore to his sons.

This is true communion with the Holy Spirit,

Who sees the altar of God in everyone,

And by bringing it to your appreciation,

He calls upon you to love God and his creation.

You can appreciate the sonship only as one.

This is part of the law of creation,

And therefore governs all thought.