Hi,
I'm Teresa Hubbard.
Welcome back to our continued reading of the text to A Course in Miracles.
We continue today in Chapter 8,
The Journey Back,
Section 2,
The Difference Between Imprisonment and Freedom.
To summarize my takeaways,
In Section 2 of Chapter 8,
We are told that we must choose which teacher to learn from and that there is a rationale for choice.
One teacher,
The ego,
Tries to teach us what we are without knowing what we are.
It is totally confused and totally confusing and has never given us a sensible answer for anything.
Simply on these grounds alone,
Shouldn't the ego be disqualified as our future teacher?
Yet,
The ego has done more harm to our learning than this alone.
The ego tries to teach us that we want to oppose God's will.
Yet we must remember that it is never God that coerces us,
Because He shares His will with us.
This is why the ego is the denial of free will.
And any attempt by us to learn the ego's lesson is a violation of our freedom.
Making us afraid of our will because it is free.
Yet the other teacher,
The Holy Spirit,
Teaches that our will and God's cannot be in opposition because they are one.
The Holy Spirit's lesson takes only one direction and has only one goal.
The direction is freedom and the goal is God.
This teacher for truth leads us steadily along the path of freedom,
Teaching us how to disregard or look beyond everything that would hold us back,
Opposing any imprisoning of our will.
The Holy Spirit appeals to us to merely acknowledge God's kingdom.
When we acknowledge the kingdom,
We bring the acknowledgement automatically to everyone,
Because we have acknowledged everyone.
By our recognition,
We awaken it in others,
And through their recognition,
Ours is extended.
This is the natural response of every son of God to the voice for His Creator,
Because it is the voice for His creations and for His own extensions.
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.
Kingdom,
A state of consciousness,
The non-dualistic world of knowledge,
Wherein God and His creations dwell in perfect unity.
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,
God,
The Creator,
The source of all being,
Or life.
God's essence is Spirit,
Which is shared with all creation.
And now,
On to the reading.
A Course in Miracles,
Chapter 8,
The Journey Back,
Section 2,
The Difference Between Imprisonment and Freedom.
There is a rationale for choice.
Only one teacher,
The Holy Spirit,
Knows what your reality is.
If learning to remove the obstacles to that knowledge is the purpose of the curriculum,
You must learn it of Him.
The ego does not know what it is trying to teach.
It is trying to teach you what you are,
Without knowing what you are.
It is expert only in confusion.
It does not understand anything else.
As a teacher,
Then,
The ego is totally confused and totally confusing.
Even if you could disregard the Holy Spirit entirely,
Which is impossible,
You could still learn nothing from the ego,
Because the ego knows nothing.
Is there any possible reason for choosing a teacher such as this?
Does the total disregard of anything it teaches make anything but sense?
Is this the teacher to whom a son of God should turn to find himself?
The ego has never given you a sensible answer to anything.
Simply on the grounds of your own experience with its teaching,
Should not this alone disqualify it as your future teacher?
Yet the ego has done more harm to your learning than this alone.
Learning is joyful if it leads you along your natural path and facilitates the development of what you have.
When you are taught against your nature,
However,
You will lose by your learning,
Because your learning will imprison you.
Your will is in your nature,
And therefore cannot go against it.
The ego cannot teach you anything as long as your will is free,
Because you will not listen to it.
It is not your will to be imprisoned,
Because your will is free.
That is why the ego is the denial of free will.
It is never God who coerces you,
Because He shares His will with you.
His voice teaches only in accordance with His will.
But that is not the Holy Spirit's lesson,
Because that is what you are.
The lesson is that your will and God's cannot be out of accord,
Because they are one.
This is the undoing of everything the ego tries to teach.
It is not,
Then,
Only the direction of the curriculum that must be unconflicted,
But also the content.
The ego tries to teach that you want to oppose God's will.
This unnatural lesson cannot be learned,
And the attempt to learn it is a violation of your own freedom,
Making you afraid of your will,
Because it is free.
The Holy Spirit opposes any imprisoning of the will of the Son of God,
Knowing that the will of the Son is the Father's.
The Holy Spirit leads you steadily along the path of freedom,
Teaching you how to disregard or look beyond everything that would hold you back.
We have said that the Holy Spirit teaches you the difference between pain and joy.
That is the same as saying He teaches you the difference between imprisonment and freedom.
You cannot make this distinction without Him,
Because you have taught yourself that imprisonment is freedom.
Believing them to be the same,
How can you tell them apart?
Can you ask the part of your mind that taught you to believe they are the same to teach you how they are different?
The Holy Spirit's teaching takes only one direction and has only one goal.
His direction is freedom,
And His goal is God.
He cannot conceive of God without you,
Because it is not God's will to be without you.
When you have learned that your will is God's,
You could know more will to be without Him than He could will to be without you.
This is freedom,
And this is joy.
Deny yourself this,
And you are denying God His kingdom,
Because He created you for this.
When I said,
All power and glory are yours because the kingdom is His,
This is what I meant.
The will of God is without limit,
And all power and glory lie within it.
It is boundless in strength and in love and in peace.
It has no boundaries,
Because its extension is unlimited,
And it encompasses all things because it created all things.
By creating all things,
It made them part of itself.
You are the will of God because that is how you were created.
Because your Creator creates only like Himself,
You are like Him.
You are part of Him who is all power and glory and are therefore as unlimited as He is.
To what else except all power and glory can the Holy Spirit appeal to restore God's kingdom?
His appeal then is merely to what the kingdom is and for its own acknowledgment of what it is.
When you acknowledge this,
You bring the acknowledgment automatically to everyone,
Because you have acknowledged everyone.
By your recognition,
You awaken theirs,
And through theirs,
Yours is extended.
Awakening runs easily and gladly through the kingdom in answer to the call for God.
This is the natural response of every son of God to the voice of His Creator,
Because it is the voice for His creations and for His own extension.
