School for A Course In Miracles
"The universe of learning will open up before you."
(Start at bottom of this post with #1 “The Undoing”… and then move up the ladder to the top at #6 “Achievement”)
6) Period of Achievement: The Real World…we ‘go Holy Instant’, and stay there. This is what the Manual calls “advanced teachers of God”. This is when the nine other characteristics of God’s Teachers automatically become part of us. We then share our awareness of the sameness of God’s Son with all persons and all things in all situations.
5) Period of Unsettling: Dark night of the soul… Ken says it’s when all hell breaks loose. We begin to realize that our own belief in an ‘individual self’ is still holding back our awakening to our true Self . It is similar to lesson 93, when we realize that we still are holding on to a not-self of “evil, darkness and sin.” We are learning to lay all judgements aside…in every circumstance, even about who we think we are (at this stage, a decision maker who could choose the something else of an ego).
4) Period of Settling Down: Time of “reasonable peace”… we have learned that asking Jesus for help not only hasn’t killed us or even taken anything away, but we are actually feeling pretty good and hopeful, being able to ask for his vision whenever things push our buttons again. It’s the calm before the storm, or the eye of the hurricane.
3) Period of Relinquishment: Giving up what doesn’t work… we are starting to see that things that used to seem valuable to us, like getting the stuff we thought we wanted (special love), and blaming and judging others (special hate) and keeping away what we don’t want, may not really be working for us. But we are not quite ready to give some of that up. So there can be a sense of sacrifice during this time. What we really learn to relinquish is not stuff or certain behaviors, but we simply let go of keeping Jesus and his perception of us and the world out of our awareness.
2) Period of Sorting Out: Learning what’s valuable, what isn’t…by asking Jesus to help us see that we are not upset or temporarily happy for the reason we think. We used to think certain things/people caused us pain or pleasure, and then the inevitable pain when the other shoe dropped. Now we are beginning to see that what only brings us true peace is inviting Jesus into our awareness, to help us look at our misplaced investments (distractions).
1) Period of Undoing: Changing teachers… from the ego’s ladder that goes nowhere (“lookin for luv in all the wrong places”), we get on the ladder of the Holy Spirit that takes us back to the right mind. We ask Jesus for help to be our new teacher.
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There is also a small kitchen (for our use, with sink and refrigerator, and coffee & tea machine) available next to Bonzel Room on the ground floor of Marian Hall.
And there is also a large refrigerator available in our Woodmen meeting room. It is recommended that you label any refrigerator items with your name, date and room #.
So Jesus walks us gently but thoroughly through the process of letting go of the pain and blame that supports our belief in a separated identity, separate from him and our Father in Heaven. He helps us let those insistent silly beliefs go.
Jesus respects our fear of him and his message, yet he lays down a spiritual roadmap and offers us a way out, a journey out of our chosen misery and seeming isolation… if and when we are ready to take that gentle journey back with him (see Chapter 8: “The Journey Back”).
Overview of Text Chapters:
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Chapters 1-4: Basically a conversation between Helen and Jesus (with material edited out personal to Helen & Bill):
First major shift in writing with Ch. 5, Sec. V (on guilt), from basically a dialogue with Helen in the first four and a half chapters, to Jesus dictating the rest of Text from this point on:
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Next major shift in writing… with more intense emphasis on process of looking at ego’s made-up insanity:
Ch.12: HS Curriculum… realizing the ego’s central teaching: that love is dangerous
Ch.13: Guiltless World.. full blown exposé on our internal unrecognized guilt (longest chap.)
Ch.14: Teaching for Truth… the proverbial ‘calm before the storm’ chapter, before the following three chapters (15-16-17) on special relationships… Chap. 14 includes sections on two major Course themes: the “What is a Happy Learner” and “Our Call for Help/ Our Call for Love “
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Ch. 15, 16, 17… on Special Relationships
Ch. 18… on Our Dream “Life”
Ch.19… Our Own Four Obstacles to Peace
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Ch.20, 21, 22… Second “calm before the storm” (with three chapters on Vision, Reason, and Salvation in The Holy Relationship)… before The Laws of Chaos & Specialness (starting in Chap. 23):
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Ch.23… (Laws of Chaos) Ken Wapnick calls this the “toughest” chapter in the Text, with very little reprieve in it… how way we methodically deceive ourselves into believing in separation.
Ch. 24… The Goal of Specialness, extended description of the “Substitute for Love” in the fifth Law of Chaos.
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Ch. 25-26… Third and final ‘calm’ (a breather), on equal justice for all of God’s one Son, how to move from injustice to real justice (is life really not fair?)… before the last part of the Text.
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Ch. 27-28… more on Dreams: the dreaming of the world and its underlying horrific “secret dream” of the wrong mind.
Ch. 29-30… In-depth discussion of the ego’s idols… and and the steps or ‘rules’ on how to move past those idols (the seven rules for decision-making in Ch. 30).
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Ch. 31… The capstone of the Text : all the themes of the Course are brought together, coalescing in this last great movement of the Course’s grand symphony.
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