A Course in Miracles Text Made Simple

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Chapter 31: The Final Vision

Section I. The Simplicity of Salvation

Read A Course in Miracles, Chapter 31, Section I. (pages 645-648)

What does Jesus say about the power of our learning skill?

He tells us, “There is no greater power in the world. The world was made by [the power of your learning skill], and even now depends on nothing else. The lessons you have taught yourself have been so overlearned and fixed they rise like heavy curtains to obscure the simple and the obvious. Say not you cannot learn them. For your power to learn is strong enough to teach you that your will is not your own, your thoughts do not belong to you and even you are someone else. Who could maintain that lessons such as these are easy?” (3:2-5, 4:1)

What was the first accomplishment of learning that made up this world?

Jesus tells us: “The world began with one strange lesson, powerful enough to render God forgotten, and His Son an alien to himself, in exile from the home where God Himself established him. You who have taught yourself the Son of God is guilty, say not that you cannot learn the simple things salvation teaches you! …Learning is an ability you made and gave yourself. It was not made to do the Will of God, but to uphold a wish that [the Will of God] could be opposed, and that a will apart from It was yet more real than [the Will of God]. (4:5-6, 5:1-2 italics added)

What are the lessons the Holy Spirit would have us learn?

The Holy Spirit would have us learn lessons in forgiveness. With His lessons, we learn the Son of God is innocent instead of guilty. He would have us see the face of Christ instead of separate bodies that are vulnerable and alone. The Holy Spirit would have us remember God, our Source, our true Identity. The Holy Spirit would have us return to the truth of our oneness.

What is the outcome of our learning the ego’s lesson that God’s Son is guilty?

Jesus describes what happened when we followed the ego’s lesson: “The certain outcome of the lesson that God’s Son is guilty is the world you see. It is a world of terror and despair. Nor is there hope of happiness in it. There is no plan for safety you can make that ever will succeed. There is no joy that you can seek for here and hope to find.” (7:4-8)

What happens when we learn the lesson that reflects the Love of God?

The lesson the Holy Spirit teaches shows us that God’s Son is innocent and is still united in God’s perfect oneness. We learn that nothing has really happened to change God’s one Son. Jesus describes what we will experience as we learn His lesson:

“The outcome of the lesson that God’s Son is guiltless is a world in which there is no fear, and everything is lit with hope and sparkles with a gentle friendliness. Nothing but calls to you in soft appeal to be your friend, and let it join with you. And never does a call remain unheard, misunderstood, nor left unanswered in the selfsame tongue in which the call was made. And you will understand it was this call [for Love] that everyone and everything within the world has always made, but you had not perceived it as it was. And now you see you were mistaken. You had been deceived by forms the call was hidden in. And so you did not hear [the call for Love] and had lost a friend who always wanted to be part of you. The soft eternal calling of each part of God’s creation to the whole is heard throughout the world this second lesson brings.” (8:1-8)

When we thought God’s Son was guilty, we saw a world of fear and victimhood. As we learn Holy Spirit’s lesson that everyone is really calling for Love, we see them as our friend and brother and only want to offer God’s Love to them. We see that they are calling out for Love as much as we are. Even the apparent terrorist is really only calling for Love. We see that they are simply lost in dreams of being separate and alone and are struggling with what they learned from the ego’s lessons of separation the best they know how.

What comes from the ego’s lesson that God’s Son is guilty?

In paragraph 10 Jesus tells us that when we join with the ego’s lesson of believing in anyone’s guilt, we will fear God and be attracted to build up barriers to defend against God returning to our awareness. This means that when we believe that anyone is guilty, we are running away from God, our true Identity.

Jesus tells us, “The fear of God results as surely from the lesson that His Son is guilty as God’s Love must be remembered when he learns his innocence. For hate must father fear, and look upon its father as itself. How wrong are you who fail to hear the call that echoes past each seeming call to death, that sings behind each murderous attack and pleads that love restore the dying world.” (10:1-3)

How do we free ourselves from the habit of seeing guilt in our brothers?

Jesus explains exactly how to free ourselves of ego thoughts: “Let us be still an instant, and forget all things we ever learned, all thoughts we had, and every preconception that we hold of what things mean and what their purpose is. Let us remember not our own ideas of what the world is for. We do not know. Let every image held of everyone be loosened from our minds and swept away.

“Be innocent of judgment, unaware of any thoughts of evil or of good that ever crossed your mind of anyone. Now do you know him not. But you are free to learn of him, and learn of him anew. Now is he born again to you, and you are born again to him, without the past that sentenced him to die, and you with him. Now is he free to live as you are free, because an ancient learning passed away, and left a place for truth to be reborn.” (12, 13)

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