Corresponding Manual for Teachers Section

Chapter 6: Course Completion

1. As for the Rest

This Manual is intended to address only a few of the more obvious questions that both Teachers of the Divine and their students studying this version of the universal Curriculum of awakening may have, presented in terms of a brief summary of some of the major concepts in this Course’s 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 student, so that the difference is temporary by definition. In some cases, it may be helpful for students of this Course to read this Manual first. Others might do better to begin with the Workbook. Still others may do well to start at the deeper level of the Text.

Which is the best beginning for whom? Who would profit more from prayers alone? Who needs just a smile, being as yet unready for more? No one should attempt to answer these questions alone. Surely every Teacher of the Divine has come this far through realizing that core Principle. The Curriculum of awakening is highly individualized, and all aspects are under the Holy Spirit’s particular Care and Guidance. Ask and It will answer. The Responsibility is Spirit’s, and It alone is fit to assume It. To do so is Its Function. To refer all questions and decisions to It is yours.

Who would want to be responsible for decisions about which they understand so little? Be glad you have a Teacher Who cannot err. Its Answers are always right. Would you say that of yours?

There is another advantage, and a very important one, in referring all questions and decisions to the Holy Spirit with increasing frequency. Perhaps you have not thought of this aspect, but its centrality is obvious. To follow the Holy Spirit’s Guidance is to let yourself be absolved of guilt. This is the Essence of the Atonement. It is the core of our curriculum. The imagined usurping of functions not your own is the basis of the separation and of fear. The entire world you look upon reflects the illusion that you have done so, making fear inevitable. To return the Function of Guidance to the One to Whom It belongs is thus the release from fear. And it is this that lets the Memory of Love and the Awareness of Its Presence return to you, because you no longer fear or oppose It. Do not, then, believe that following the Holy Spirit’s Guidance is necessary merely because of your own current inability to consistently perceive things clearly. Spirit’s Guidance is the way out of the entire nightmare of separation for you and all your sisters and brothers

Here again is the paradox often referred to in this Course. To say, “Of myself I can do nothing,” is to gain all Power. And yet it is only a seeming paradox. As the Divine created you, you already have all Power. The image you made of yourself – which this Course calls the ego – has none. The Holy Spirit knows the Truth about you. The image you made does not. Yet, despite its obvious and complete ignorance, this image assumes it knows all things because you have given that belief to it. Such is your teaching, and the teaching of the world which was made to uphold it. But the Teacher Who knows the Truth remembers the world’s reality and yours. Spirit’s Decisions bring benefit to all, being wholly devoid of separation, and therefore incapable of mis-projection or of arousing guilt.

They who assume a power they do not possess merely deceive themselves. Yet to accept the Power given them by the Divine is just to acknowledge their Creator and accept Its Gifts. And Its Gifts have no limit. To ask the Holy Spirit to decide for you is simply to accept your true Inheritance.

Does this mean that you cannot say anything without consulting Spirit? No, indeed! That would hardly be practical, and it is the practical, direct experience with which this Course is most concerned. If you have made it a habit to ask for Help when and where you can, you can be confident that Wisdom will be given you when you need It. Prepare for this each morning, remember the Divine when you can throughout the day, ask the Holy Spirit’s Help when it is feasible to do so, and at night thank It for Its Guidance. And your confidence will be well founded indeed.

Always remember that the Holy Spirit does not depend on your words. Spirit understands the requests of your heart and answers them. Does this mean that while fear remains attractive to you in some forms, Spirit will respond to your requests with reprimand or rejection? Hardly! For the Divine has given It the Power to translate your prayers of the heart into Its Language. Spirit understands that fear in any form is a call for Love and for Help. And It responds with Love and Help – with the Divine’s Abundance in the form of miracles – accordingly.

The Divine would not be Itself if It let your misplaced thoughts, feelings, words or deeds displace the Truth. Loving parents don’t let their children harm themselves or choose their own undoing. The child may in its unknowing ask for something hurtful, but its parents will protect it still. And boundlessly does your Creator love Its Children!

Remember that you are the Divine’s Completion and Its Love. Remember that your weakness calls on Its Strength. But do not read this hastily or wrongly. If Its Strength is in you, what you perceive as your weakness is only illusion. And It has given you the Means to prove that this is so. Ask all things of the Divine’s Teacher, and all things are given you. Not in the future, but immediately, now. The Divine does not wait, for waiting implies time, and the Divine and Its Creation are timeless.

Forget your meaningless images, your sense of frailty and your fear of harm, your dreams of danger and the selected “wrongs” you believe have been transgressed against you and that you have transgressed against others. The Divine knows only Its Children, and as they were created so they are and will forever be.

With Confidence trust that the Divine’s Plan of awakening is in Spirit’s Hands.

With Joy know that I am your Companion all the way Home.

With Peace receive Divine Essence’s Vision in your answering of the Call.

With Gratitude we thank our Creator that the End of dreams is near.