Day 365 - A Course in Miracles

Day 365 - A Course in Miracles

A COURSE IN MIRACLES

MANUAL FOR TEACHERS

29. As For the Rest

1 This manual is not intended to answer all questions that both teacher and pupil may raise. In fact, it covers only a few of the more obvious ones in terms of a brief summary of some of the major concepts in the text and workbook. It is not a substitute for either, but merely a supplement. While it is called a manual for teachers, it must be remembered that only time divides teacher and pupil, so that the difference is temporary by definition. In some cases, it may be helpful for the pupil to read the manual first. Others might do better to begin with the workbook. Still others may need to start at the more abstract level of the text.

Day 364 - A Course in Miracles

Day 364 - A Course in Miracles

A COURSE IN MIRACLES

MANUAL FOR TEACHERS

28. What Is the Resurrection?

1 Very simply, the resurrection is the overcoming or surmounting of death. It is a reawakening or a rebirth, a change of mind about the meaning of the world. It is the acceptance of the Holy Spirit's interpretation of the world's purpose; the acceptance of the Atonement for oneself. It is the end of dreams of misery and the glad awareness of the Holy Spirit's final dream. It is the recognition of the gifts of God. It is the dream in which the body functions perfectly, having no function except communication. It is the lesson in which learning ends, for it is consummated and surpassed with this. It is the invitation to God to take His final step. It is the relinquishment of all other purposes, all other interests, all other wishes, and all other concerns. It is the single desire of the Son for the Father.

Day 363 - A Course in Miracles

Day 363 - A Course in Miracles

A COURSE IN MIRACLES

MANUAL FOR TEACHERS

27. What Is Death?

1 Death is the central dream from which all illusions stem. Is it not madness to think of life as being born, aging, losing vitality, and dying in the end? We have asked this question before, but now we need to consider it still more carefully. It is the one fixed, unchangeable belief of the world that all things in it are born only to die. This is regarded as "the way of nature," not to be raised to question but to be accepted as the "natural" law of life. The cyclical, the changing and unsure, the undependable and the unsteady, waxing and waning in a certain way upon a certain path—all this is taken as the Will of God. And no one asks if a benign Creator could will this.

Day 362 - A Course in Miracles

Day 362 - A Course in Miracles

A COURSE IN MIRACLES

MANUAL FOR TEACHERS

26. Can God Be Reached Directly?

1 God indeed can be reached directly, for there is no distance between Him and His Son. His awareness is in everyone's memory, and His Word is written on everyone's heart. Yet this awareness and this memory can arise across the threshold of the unconscious only where all barriers to truth have been removed. In how many is this the case? Here then is the role of God's teachers. They too have not attained the necessary understanding as yet, but they have joined with others. This is what sets them apart from the world. And it is this that enables others to leave the world with them. Alone they are nothing. But in their joining is the Power of God.

Day 361 - A Course in Miracles

Day 361 - A Course in Miracles

A COURSE IN MIRACLES

MANUAL FOR TEACHERS

24. Is Reincarnation True?

1 In the ultimate sense, reincarnation is impossible. There is no past nor future, and the idea of birth into a body has no meaning either once or many times. Reincarnation cannot, then, be true in any real sense. Our only question should be, "Is the concept helpful?" And that depends of course on what it is used for. If it is used to strengthen the recognition of the eternal nature of life, it is helpful indeed. Is any other question about it really useful in lighting up the way? Like many other beliefs, it can be bitterly misused. At least, such misuse offers preoccupation and perhaps pride in the past. At worst, it induces inertia in the present. In between many kinds of folly are possible.

Day 360 - A Course in Miracles

Day 360 - A Course in Miracles

A COURSE IN MIRACLES

MANUAL FOR TEACHERS

#23 DOES JESUS HAVE A SPECIAL PLAN IN HEALING? 

1 God's gifts can rarely be received directly. Even the most advanced of God's teachers will give way to temptation in this world. Would it be fair if their pupils were denied healing because of this? The Bible says, "Ask in the name of Jesus Christ." Is this merely an appeal to magic? A name does not heal, nor does an invocation call forth any special power. What does it mean to call on Jesus Christ? What does calling on his name confer? Why is the appeal to him part of healing?

Day 359 - A Course in Miracles

Day 359 - A Course in Miracles

A COURSE IN MIRACLES

MANUAL FOR TEACHERS

22. How Are Healing and Atonement Related?

1 Healing and Atonement are not related; they are identical. There is no order of difficulty in miracles because there are no degrees of Atonement. It is the one complete concept possible in this world because it is the source of a wholly unified perception. Partial Atonement is a meaningless idea, just as special areas of hell in Heaven is inconceivable. Accept Atonement, and you are healed. Atonement is the Word of God. Accept His Word, and what remains to make sickness possible? Accept His Word, and every miracle has been accomplished. To forgive is to heal. The teacher of God has taken accepting the Atonement for himself as his only function. What is there, then, he cannot heal? What miracle can be withheld from him?

Day 358 - A Course in Miracles

Day 358 - A Course in Miracles

A COURSE IN MIRACLES

MANUAL FOR TEACHERS

21. What Is the Role of Words in Healing?

1 Strictly speaking, words play no part at all in healing. The motivating factor is prayer, or asking. What you ask for, you receive. But this refers to the prayer of the heart, not to the words you use in praying. Sometimes the words and the prayer are contradictory; sometimes they agree. It does not matter. God does not understand words, for they were made by separated minds to keep them in the illusion of separation.

Day 357 - A Course in Miracles

Day 357 - A Course in Miracles

A COURSE IN MIRACLES

MANUAL FOR TEACHERS

#20. WHAT IS THE PEACE OF GOD?

1 It has been said that there is a kind of peace that is not of this world. How is it recognized? How is it found? And being found, how can it be retained? Let us consider each of these questions separately, for each reflects a different step along the way.

Day 356 - A Course in Miracles

Day 356 - A Course in Miracles

A COURSE IN MIRACLES

MANUAL FOR TEACHERS

#19. WHAT IS JUSTICE?

1 Justice is the divine correction for injustice. Injustice is the basis for all the judgments of the world. Justice corrects the interpretations to which injustice gives rise and cancels them out. Neither justice nor injustice exists in Heaven, for error is impossible and correction meaningless. In this world, however, forgiveness depends on justice since all attack can only be unjust. Justice is the Holy Spirit's verdict upon the world.

Day 355 - A Course in Miracles

Day 355 - A Course in Miracles

A COURSE IN MIRACLES
MANUAL FOR TEACHERS
#18. HOW IS CORRECTION MADE?

1 Correction of a lasting nature—and only this is true correction—cannot be made until the teacher of God has ceased to confuse interpretation with fact or illusion with truth. If he argues with his pupil about a magic thought, attacks it, tries to establish its error or demonstrate its falsity, he is but witnessing to its reality. Depression is then inevitable, for he has "proved," both to his pupil and himself that it is their task to escape from what is real.

Day 354 - A Course in Miracles

Day 354 - A Course in Miracles

A COURSE IN MIRACLES
MANUAL FOR TEACHERS
#17. HOW DO GOD'S TEACHERS DEAL WITH THEIR PUPILS' THOUGHTS OF MAGIC?

1 This is a crucial question both for teacher and pupil. If this issue is mishandled, the teacher has hurt himself and has also attacked his pupil. This strengthens fear and makes the magic seem quite real to both of them. How to deal with magic thus becomes a major lesson for the teacher of God to master. His first responsibility in this is not to attack it. If a magic thought arouses anger in any form, God's teacher can be sure that he is strengthening his own belief in sin and has condemned himself.

Day 353 - A Course in Miracles

Day 353 - A Course in Miracles

A COURSE IN MIRACLES

MANUAL FOR TEACHERS

#16. HOW SHOULD THE TEACHER OF GOD SPEND HIS DAY?

1 To the advanced teacher of God, this question is meaningless. There is no program, for the lessons in the curriculum change each day. Yet he is sure of but one thing—they do not change at random. Seeing this and understanding it is true, he rests content. He will be told all that his role should be, this day and every day. And those who share that role with him will find him, so they can learn the lessons for the day together.

Day 352 - A Course in Miracles

Day 352 - A Course in Miracles

A COURSE IN MIRACLES

MANUAL FOR TEACHERS

#15. IS EACH ONE TO BE JUDGED IN THE END?

1 Indeed yes! No one can escape God's Final Judgment. Who could flee forever from the truth? But the Final Judgment will not come until it is no longer associated with fear. One day each one will welcome it, and on that very day it will be given him. He will hear his sinlessness proclaimed around and around the world, setting it free as God's Final Judgment on him is received. This is the judgment in which salvation lies.

Day 351 - A Course in Miracles

Day 351 - A Course in Miracles

Day 351

Forgiveness RECOGNIZED as merited will heal. It gives the miracle its strength to OVERLOOK illusions. This is how you learn that you must be forgiven too. There CAN be no appearance that can NOT be overlooked. For, if there were, it would be necessary FIRST there be some sin which stands BEYOND forgiveness.

Day 350 - A Course in Miracles

Day 350 - A Course in Miracles

Day 350

When brothers join in purpose in the world of fear, they stand ALREADY at the edge of the real world. Perhaps they still look back, and think they see an idol that they want. Yet has their path been surely set AWAY from idols toward reality, for when they joined their hands, it was Christ’s hand they took. And they WILL look on Him Whose hand they hold. The face of Christ is looked upon BEFORE the Father is remembered. For He MUST be unremembered ‘til His Son has reached BEYOND forgiveness to the Love of God.

Day 349 - A Course in Miracles

Day 349 - A Course in Miracles

A COURSE IN MIRACLES

MANUAL FOR TEACHERS

#14. HOW WILL THE WORLD END?

1 Can what has no beginning really end? The world will end in an illusion, as it began. Yet will its ending be an illusion of mercy. The illusion of forgiveness, complete, excluding no one, limitless in gentleness, will cover it, hiding all evil, concealing all sin, and ending guilt forever. So ends the world that guilt had made, for now it has no purpose and is gone. The father of illusions is the belief that they have a purpose; that they serve a need or gratify a want. Perceived as purposeless, they are no longer seen. Their uselessness is recognized, and they are gone. How but in this way are all illusions ended? They have been brought to truth, and truth saw them not. It merely overlooked the meaningless.

Day 348 - A Course in Miracles

Day 348 - A Course in Miracles

A COURSE IN MIRACLES

MANUAL FOR TEACHERS

#13. WHAT IS THE REAL MEANING OF SACRIFICE?

1 Although in truth the term sacrifice is altogether meaningless, it does have meaning in the world. Like all things in the world, its meaning is temporary and will ultimately fade into the nothingness from which it came when there is no more use for it. Now its real meaning is a lesson. Like all lessons, it is an illusion, for in reality there is nothing to learn. Yet this illusion must be replaced by a corrective device, another illusion that replaces the first, so both can finally disappear. The first illusion, which must be displaced before another thought system can take hold, is that it is a sacrifice to give up the things of this world. What could this be but an illusion, since this world itself is nothing more than that?

Day 347 - A Course in Miracles

Day 347 - A Course in Miracles

A COURSE IN MIRACLES

MANUAL FOR TEACHERS

#12. HOW MANY TEACHERS OF GOD ARE NEEDED TO SAVE THE WORLD?

1 The answer to this question is "one." One wholly perfect teacher whose learning is complete suffices. This One, sanctified and redeemed, becomes the Self Who is the Son of God. He who was always wholly spirit now no longer sees Himself as a body or even as in a body. Therefore He is limitless. And being limitless, His thoughts are joined with God's forever and ever. His perception of himself is based upon God's Judgment, not His own. Thus does He share God's Will, and bring His Thoughts to still deluded minds. He is forever One because He is as God created Him. He has accepted Christ, and He is saved.

Day 346 - A Course in Miracles

Day 346 - A Course in Miracles

A COURSE IN MIRACLES

MANUAL FOR TEACHERS

#11. HOW IS PEACE POSSIBLE IN THIS WORLD?

1 This is a question everyone must ask. Certainly peace seems to be impossible. Yet the Word of God promises other things that seem impossible, as well as this. His Word has promised peace. It has also promised that there is no death, that resurrection must occur, and that rebirth is man's inheritance. The world you see cannot be the world God loves, and yet His Word assures us that He loves the world. God's Word has promised us that peace is possible here, and what He promises can hardly be impossible. But it is true that the world must be looked at differently if His promises are to be accepted. What the world is, is but a fact. You cannot choose what this should be. But you can choose how you would see it. Indeed, you must choose this.

Day 345 - A Course in Miracles

Day 345 - A Course in Miracles

A COURSE IN MIRACLES

MANUAL FOR TEACHERS

#10. HOW IS JUDGMENT RELINQUISHED?

1 Judgment, like other devices by which the world of illusions is maintained, is totally misunderstood by the world. It is actually confused with wisdom and substitutes for truth. As the world uses the term, an individual is capable of "good" and "bad" judgment, and his education aims at strengthening the former and minimizing the latter.

Day 344 - A Course in Miracles

Day 344 - A Course in Miracles

Day 344

The Forgiving Dream

The slave of idols is a WILLING slave. For willing he MUST be, to let himself bow down in worship to what has no life, and seek for power in the powerless. What happened to the holy Son of God, that this could BE his wish; to let himself fall lower than the stones upon the ground, and look to idols that they raise him up? Hear, then, your story in the dream you made, and ask yourself if it be not the truth that you believe that it is NOT a dream. A dream of judgment came into the mind that God created perfect as Himself. And in that dream was Heaven changed to hell, and God made enemy unto His Son.

Day 343 - A Course in Miracles

Day 343 - A Course in Miracles

Day 343

An idol is a false impression, or a false belief; some form of anti-Christ which constitutes a gap BETWEEN the Christ and what you see. An idol is a wish, made tangible and given form, and thus perceived as real, and seen OUTSIDE the mind. Yet they remain ideas, and CANNOT leave the mind that is their source. Nor is their form apart from the idea it represents. All forms of anti-Christ oppose the Christ. And fall before His Face like a dark veil which SEEMS to shut you off from Him, alone in darkness. Yet the light is there. A cloud does not put out the sun. No more a veil can banish what it seems to separate, nor darken by one whit the Light Itself.

Day 342 - A Course in Miracles

Day 342 - A Course in Miracles

A COURSE IN MIRACLES

MANUAL FOR TEACHERS

#8. HOW CAN THE PERCEPTION OF ORDER OF DIFFICULTIES BE AVOIDED?

1 The belief in order of difficulties is the basis for the world's perception. It rests on differences; on uneven background and shifting foreground, on unequal heights and diverse sizes, on varying degrees of darkness and light, and thousands of contrasts in which each thing seen competes with every other in order to be recognized. A larger object overshadows a smaller one. A brighter thing draws the attention from another with less intensity of appeal. And a more threatening idea or one conceived of as more desirable by the world's standards completely upsets the mental balance. What the body's eyes behold is only conflict. Look not to them for peace and understanding.

Day 341 - A Course in Miracles

Day 341 - A Course in Miracles

A COURSE IN MIRACLES

MANUAL FOR TEACHERS

#6. IS HEALING CERTAIN?

1 Healing is always certain. It is impossible to let illusions be brought to truth and keep the illusions. Truth demonstrates illusions have no value. The teacher of God has seen the correction of his errors in the mind of the patient, recognizing it for what it is. Having accepted the Atonement for himself, he has also accepted it for the patient. Yet what if the patient uses sickness as a way of life, believing healing is the way to death? When this is so, a sudden healing might precipitate intense depression, and a sense of loss so deep that the patient might even try to destroy himself. Having nothing to live for, he may ask for death. Healing must wait, for his protection.

Day 340 - A Course in Miracles

Day 340 - A Course in Miracles

A COURSE IN MIRACLES

MANUAL FOR TEACHERS

#5. HOW IS HEALING ACCOMPLISHED?

1 Healing involves an understanding of what the illusion of sickness is for. Healing is impossible without this

The Perceived Purpose of Sickness

2 Healing is accomplished the instant the sufferer no longer sees any value in pain. Who would choose suffering unless he thought it brought him something, and something of value to him? He must think it is a small price to pay for something of greater worth. For sickness is an election, a decision. It is the choice of weakness in the mistaken conviction that it is strength. When this occurs, real strength is seen as threat and health as danger. Sickness is a method, conceived in madness, for placing God's Son on his Father's throne. God is seen as outside, fierce and powerful, eager to keep all power for Himself. Only by His death can He be conquered by His Son.

Day 339 - A Course in Miracles

Day 339 - A Course in Miracles

Day 339

Dream Roles

Do you believe that truth can be but SOME illusions? They are dreams BECAUSE they are not true. Their EQUAL lack of truth becomes the basis for the miracle, which MEANS that you have understood that dreams are dreams, and that escape depends, NOT on the dream, but ONLY on awaking. COULD it be some dreams are KEPT, and others WAKENED FROM? The choice is NOT between which dreams to keep, but ONLY if you want to live in dreams, or to awaken from them. Thus it is the miracle does not select SOME dreams to leave untouched by its beneficence. You cannot dream some dreams and wake from some. For you are either sleeping OR awake. And dreaming goes with only ONE of these.

Day 338 - A Course in Miracles

Day 338 - A Course in Miracles

Day 338

God’s Witnesses

Condemn your Savior not because he thinks he is a body. Far beyond his dreams is his reality. But he must learn he is a Savior first, before he can remember what he is. And he must save who would BE saved. On saving YOU depends his happiness. For who is Savior, but the one who GIVES salvation? Thus he learns it must be his to give. UNLESS he gives, he will not know he HAS, for giving is the proof of having. Only those who think that God is lessened by their strength could fail to understand this must be so. For who COULD give unless he has, and who could lose by giving what must be INCREASED thereby?

Day 337 - A Course in Miracles

Day 337 - A Course in Miracles

Day 337

The Coming of the Guest

Why would you not perceive it as RELEASE from suffering to learn that you are free? Why would you not ACCLAIM the truth, instead of looking on it as an enemy? Why does an EASY path, so clearly marked it is impossible to lose the way seem thorny, rough, and far too difficult for you to follow? Is it not because you see it as the road to hell, instead of looking on it as a simple way, without a sacrifice or ANY loss, to find yourself in Heaven and in God?

Day 336 - A Course in Miracles

Day 336 - A Course in Miracles

Day 336

 THE AWAKENING

There is no time, no place, no state where God is absent. There is NOTHING to be feared. There is no way in which a gap could be conceived of in the Wholeness that is His. The compromise the least and littlest gap would represent in His eternal Love is quite impossible. For it would mean His Love could harbor just a hint of hate; His gentleness turn sometimes to attack; and His eternal patience sometimes fail.

Day 335 - A Course in Miracles

Day 335 - A Course in Miracles

A COURSE IN MIRACLES

MANUAL FOR TEACHERS

#4. WHAT ARE THE CHARACTERISTICS OF GOD'S TEACHERS?

1 The surface traits of God's teachers are not at all alike. They do not look alike to the body's eyes, they come from vastly different backgrounds, their experiences of the world vary greatly, and their superficial "personalities" are quite distinct. Nor at the beginning stages of their functioning as teachers of God have they as yet acquired the deeper characteristics that will establish them as what they are. God gives special gifts to His teachers because they have a special role in His plan for Atonement.

Day 334 - A Course in Miracles

Day 334 - A Course in Miracles

A COURSE IN MIRACLES

MANUAL FOR TEACHERS

2. Who Are Their Pupils?

1 Certain pupils have been assigned to each of God's teachers, and they will begin to look for him as soon as he has answered the Call. They were chosen for him because the form of the universal curriculum that he will teach is best for them in view of their level of understanding. His pupils have been waiting for him, for his coming is certain. Again, it is only a matter of time. Once he has chosen to fulfill his role, they are ready to fulfill theirs. Time waits on his choice but not whom he will serve. When he is ready to learn, the opportunities to teach will be provided for him.

Day 333 - A Course in Miracles

Day 333 - A Course in Miracles

A COURSE IN MIRACLES

MANUAL FOR TEACHERS

INTRODUCTION

1 The role of teaching and learning is actually reversed in the thinking of the world. The reversal is characteristic. It seems as if the teacher and the learner are separated, the teacher giving something to the learner rather than to himself. Further, the act of teaching is regarded as a special activity in which one engages only a relatively small proportion of one's time. The course, on the other hand, emphasizes that to teach is to learn, so that teacher and learner are the same. It also emphasizes that teaching is a constant process—it goes on every moment of the day and continues into sleeping thoughts as well.

Day 332 - A Course in Miracles

Day 332 - A Course in Miracles

Chapter Thirty One: The Simplicity of Salvation

VIII. Choose Once Again

83 Temptation has one lesson it would teach in all its forms wherever it occurs. It would persuade the holy Son of God he is a body, born in what must die, unable to escape its frailty and bound by what it orders him to feel. It sets the limits on what he can do; its power is the only strength he has; his grasp cannot exceed its tiny reach. Would you be this if Christ appeared to you in all His glory, asking you but this:

Day 331 - A Course in Miracles

Day 331 - A Course in Miracles

Chapter Thirty One: The Simplicity of Salvation

VII. The Savior's Vision

68 Learning is change. Salvation does not seek to use a means as yet too alien to your thinking to be helpful nor to make the kinds of change you could not recognize. Concepts are needed while perception lasts, and changing concepts is salvation's task. For it must deal in contrasts, not in truth, which has no opposite and cannot change. In this world's concepts are the guilty "bad;" the "good" are innocent. And no one here but holds a concept of himself in which he counts the "good" to pardon him the "bad." Nor does he trust the "good" in anyone, believing that the "bad" must lurk behind. This concept emphasizes treachery, and trust becomes impossible. Nor could it change while you perceive the "bad" in you.

Day 330 - A Course in Miracles

Day 330 - A Course in Miracles

Day 330

The miracle establishes you dream a dream, and that its content is not true. This is a crucial step in dealing with illusions. No-one is AFRAID of them, when he perceives HE MADE THEM UP. The fear was held in place BECAUSE he did not see that he was AUTHOR of the dream, and not a figure IN the dream. He gives HIMSELF the consequences that he dreams he gave his brother. And it is but this the dream has put together and has offered him, to show him that his wishes have been done. 

Day 329 - A Course in Miracles

Day 329 - A Course in Miracles

Day 329

Now is the Son of God at last aware of PRESENT Cause and Its benign effects. Now does he understand what he has made is causeless, making NO effects at all. He HAS done nothing. And, in seeing THIS, he understands he never had a NEED for doing ANYTHING, and never did. His Cause IS Its Effects. There never WAS a cause besides It, that could generate a DIFFERENT past or future. ITS Effects are changelessly eternal, BEYOND fear, and PAST the world of sin entirely. What has been lost to see the causeless NOT? And where is sacrifice, when memory of God has come to TAKE THE PLACE of loss?

Day 328 - A Course in Miracles

Day 328 - A Course in Miracles

Chapter Thirty One: The Simplicity of Salvation

VI. Recognizing the Spirit

62 You see the flesh or recognize the Spirit. There is no compromise between the two. If one is real the other must be false, for what is real denies its opposite. There is no choice in vision but this one. What you decide in this determines all you see and think is real and hold as true. On this one choice does all your world depend, for here have you established what you are, as flesh or Spirit in your own belief. If you choose flesh, you never will escape the body as your own reality, for you have chosen that you want it so. But choose the Spirit, and all Heaven bends to touch your eyes and bless your holy sight, that you may see the world of flesh no more except to heal and comfort and to bless.

Day 327 - A Course in Miracles

Day 327 - A Course in Miracles

Chapter Thirty One: The Simplicity of Salvation

V. Self Concept Versus Self

43 The learning of the world is built upon a concept of the self adjusted to the world's reality. It fits it well. For this an image is that suits a world of shadows and illusions. Here it walks at home, where what it sees is one with it. The building of a concept of the self is what the learning of the world is for. This is its purpose—that you come without a self and make one as you go along. And by the time you reach "maturity," you have perfected it to meet the world on equal terms, at one with its demands.

Day 326 - A Course in Miracles

Day 326 - A Course in Miracles

Chapter Thirty One: The Simplicity of Salvation

IV. The Real Alternative

33 There is a tendency to think the world can offer consolation and escape from problems which its purpose is to keep. Why should this be? Because it is a place where choice among illusions seems to be the only choice. And you are in control of outcomes of your choosing. Thus you think within the narrow band from birth to death a little time is given you to use for you alone, a time when everyone conflicts with you, but you can choose which road will lead you out of conflict and away from difficulties which concern you not. Yet they are your concern. How then can you escape from them by leaving them behind? What must go with you, you will take with you whatever road you choose to walk along.

Day 325 - A Course in Miracles

Day 325 - A Course in Miracles

Chapter Thirty One: The Simplicity of Salvation

III. The Self-Accused

26 Only the self-accused condemn. As you prepare to make a choice that will result in different outcomes, there is first one thing that must be overlearned. It must become a habit of response so typical of everything you do that it becomes your first response to all temptation and to every situation that occurs. Learn this and learn it well, for it is here delay of happiness is shortened by a span of time you cannot realize. You never hate your brother for his sins, but only for your own. Whatever form his sins appear to take, it but obscures the fact that you believe them to be yours and therefore meriting a "just" attack.

Day 324 - A Course in Miracles

Day 324 - A Course in Miracles

Chapter Thirty One: The Simplicity of Salvation

II. The Illusion of an Enemy

13 An ancient lesson is not overcome by the opposing of the new and old. It is not vanquished that the truth be known nor fought against to lose to truth's appeal. There is no battle which must be prepared, no time to be expended, and no plans that need be laid for bringing in the new. There is an ancient battle being waged againstthe truth, but truth does not respond. Who could be hurt in such a war unless he hurts himself? He has no enemy in truth. And can he be assailed by dreams?

Day 323 - A Course in Miracles

Day 323 - A Course in Miracles

Day 323

The Purpose of Pain

Pain demonstrates the body must be real. It is a loud, obscuring voice, whose shrieks would silence what the Holy Spirit says, and keep His words from your awareness. Pain compels attention, drawing it away from Him, and focusing upon itself. Its purpose is the same as pleasure, for they both are means TO MAKE THE BODY REAL. What shares a common function IS the same. This is the law of purpose, which unites all those who share in it within itself. Pleasure and pain are EQUALLY unreal, because their purpose CANNOT be achieved. Thus are they means for nothing, for they have a goal without a meaning. And they share the lack of meaning that their PURPOSE has.

Day 322 - A Course in Miracles

Day 322 - A Course in Miracles

Day 322

The holy instant is the miracle’s abiding-place. From there, each one is born into this world, as witness to a state of mind which has TRANSCENDED conflict, and has reached to peace. It carries comfort from the place of peace into the battleground, and DEMONSTRATES that war has no effects. For all the hurt that war has sought to bring; the broken bodies and the shattered limbs, the screaming dying and the silent dead, are gently lifted up and comforted. There IS no sadness, where a miracle has come to heal. And nothing more than just ONE instant of your love WITHOUT attack is necessary, that all this occur.

Day 321 - A Course in Miracles

Day 321 - A Course in Miracles

Chapter Thirty One: The Simplicity of Salvation

I. Introduction

1 How simple is salvation! All it says is what was never true is not true now and never will be. The impossible has not occurred and can have no effects. And that is all. Can this be hard to learn by anyone who wants it to be true? Only unwillingness to learn it could make such an easy lesson difficult. How hard is it to see that what is false cannot be true, and what is true cannot be false? You can no longer say that you perceive no differences in false and true. You have been told exactly how to tell one from the other and just what to do if you become confused. Why then do you persist in learning not such simple things?

Day 320 - A Course in Miracles

Day 320 - A Course in Miracles

Chapter Thirty: The New Beginning

IX. Changeless Reality

89 Appearances deceive but can be changed. Reality is changeless. It does not deceive at all, and if you fail to see beyond appearances, you are deceived. For everything you see will change, and yet you thought it real before, and now you think it real again. Reality is thus reduced to form and capable of change. Reality is changeless. It is this that makes it real and keeps it separate from all appearances. It must transcend all form to be itself. It cannot change.

Day 319 - A Course in Miracles

Day 319 - A Course in Miracles

Chapter Thirty: The New Beginning

VIII. The New Interpretation

82 Would God have left the meaning of the world to your interpretation? If He had, it has no meaning. For it cannot be that meaning changes constantly and yet is true. The Holy Spirit looks upon the world as with one purpose, changelessly established. And no situation can affect its aim but must be in accord with it. For only if its aim could change with every situation could each one be open to interpretation which is different every time you think of it. You add an element into the script you write for every minute in the day, and all that happens now means something else. You take away another element, and every meaning shifts accordingly.

Day 318 - A Course in Miracles

Day 318 - A Course in Miracles

Chapter Thirty: The New Beginning

VII. The Justification For Forgiveness

70 Anger is never justified. Attack has no foundation. It is here escape from fear begins and will be made complete. Here is the real world given in exchange for dreams of terror. For it is on this forgiveness rests and is but natural. You are not asked to offer pardon where attack is due and would be justified. For this would mean that you forgive a sin by overlooking what is really there. This is not pardon. For it would assume that, by responding in a way which is not justified, your pardon will become the answer to attack that has been made. And thus is pardon inappropriate, by being granted where it is not due.

Day 317 - A Course in Miracles

Day 317 - A Course in Miracles

Chapter Thirty: The New Beginning

VI. The Only Purpose

57 The real world is the state of mind in which the only purpose of the world is seen to be forgiveness. Fear is not its goal, and the escape from guilt becomes its aim. The value of forgiveness is perceived and takes the place of idols which are sought no longer, for their "gifts" are not held dear. No rules are idly set, and no demands are made of anyone or anything to twist and fit into the dream of fear. Instead, there is a wish to understand all things created as they really are. And it is recognized that all things must be first forgiven, and then understood.

Day 316 - A Course in Miracles

Day 316 - A Course in Miracles

Day 316

You think your brother is unfair to you BECAUSE you think that one must be unfair to MAKE the other innocent. And in this game do you perceive one PURPOSE of your whole relationship. And this you seek to ADD unto the purpose GIVEN it. The Holy Spirit’s purpose is to let the Presence of your holy Guests be known to you. And TO this purpose nothing CAN be added, for the world is purposeless except for this. To add or take away from this ONE goal is but to take away ALL purpose from the world, and from yourself. And each unfairness that the world appears to lay upon you, you have laid on it, by rendering it purposeless, without the function that the Holy Spirit sees. And simple justice has been thus denied to every living thing upon the earth.