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Study of Manual for Teachers 1/8/12

Day 8

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 on whom he will serve. When he is ready to learn, the opportunities to teach will be provided for him. 

I find it very comforting to know that as a teacher of God, my students are being sent to me. I need do nothing to find them. It’s not up to me to decide if they are ready for what I offer. I don’t have to worry that I won’t have what they need. If they have been sent to me, I can be sure that we are perfectly matched for a learning/teaching situation.

Again, Jesus reminds us that as we teach we learn when he says, “When he is ready to learn, the opportunities to teach will be provided for him.”  My experience has proven this to me. I am very grateful to each and every teaching/learning opportunity that is given me.

Since I was ordained I have had numerous students and opportunities to teach, but Holy Spirit began sending me students before I even knew I had answered a call or even that there was a call to answer. They would come right out of the blue. 

My spiritual life had slowly begun to expand outside the perimeters of traditional religion. Holy Spirit started me off slowly by sending some simple books my way. One of the first I read was a book about Edgar Cayce. That was pretty radical stuff for me back then. It was important because it was a gentle way for me to begin to consider that things are not always what they seem.

Then a book about life after life came my way and I opened to even more to possibilities. I had just finished reading this book when I received my first teaching opportunity, or at least the first one that I was aware of. I was driving a taxicab in Houston, Texas at the time. When my fare got into the cab that morning he was at first quiet, then struck up a conversation, and immediately began telling me about a near death experience he had. It was strange, almost like he was just waiting for the chance to tell me about this.

This man, whose name I never got, had surgery some time back and “died” on the table. They revived him and he had a very vivid memory of his death experience. When he finished telling me about it, he confessed that he had never shared this experience with anyone because he was afraid of being judged. There was only one book out about this kind of thing at that time and it was not as accepted as it is now. He asked me what I thought about what happened to him and what did I think it meant.

I told him about the book I had just finished and suggested he get hold of a copy. I told him I believed him and I don’t know if I said much of anything else, but he left my cab more relieved than when he got in, and he now had a resource that could help him learn more if he wanted to. I was just a bit astounded by the whole thing. Why did he tell me that? How was it that I was one of the few people he would speak to that day that would understand?

At the time this happened, I didn’t know about the Holy Spirit. I didn’t know about being a teacher of God, or that once we put our foot on this path opportunities would unfold before us without our effort. I did feel wonder that it happened and gratitude that somehow I managed to be helpful. I felt a deep satisfaction that only in retrospect did I understand. It seemed a small teaching, but he needed the only thing I could give him, and so it was perfect.

The second teaching opportunity came within a year or so, and I had joined a Unity church by this time and was a tiny bit less clueless than before. I was working in an ad agency and a man came in to look over our stock and started a conversation with me. He quickly began telling me things about his life and I knew he wanted me to help him figure it out.

I didn’t have a clue what to say, but something in me caused me to ask God for words. I think I was very helpful to him. If he was surprised, I was even more surprised. I had never had the experience of teaching myself as I taught someone else. I didn’t know where the words came from, well, from God of course, but I didn’t know, up until that moment, that could happen.

We don’t need to think about how we are going to be used and we don’t need to understand anything that happens. We just need to show up with a willingness to be used by the Holy Spirit.

© 2012, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Study of Manual for Teachers 1/7/12

Day 7

3 There is a course for every teacher of God. The form of the course varies greatly. So do the particular teaching aids involved. But the content of the course never changes. Its central theme is always, “God’s Son is guiltless, and in his innocence is his salvation.” It can be taught by actions or thoughts; in words or soundlessly; in any language or in no language; in any place or time or manner. It does not matter who the teacher was before he heard the Call. He has become a savior by his answering. He has seen someone else as himself. He has therefore found his own salvation and the salvation of the world. In his rebirth is the world reborn. 

4 This is a manual for a special curriculum, intended for teachers of a special form of the universal course. There are many thousands of other forms, all with the same outcome. They merely save time. Yet it is time alone that winds on wearily, and the world is very tired now. It is old and worn and without hope. There was never a question of outcome, for what can change the Will of God? But time, with its illusions of change and death, wears out the world and all things in it. Yet time has an ending, and it is this that the teachers of God are appointed to bring about. For time is in their hands. Such was their choice, and it is given them.

So what I have learned from this section, Who are God’s Teachers, is that while all are called to be His teachers, not everyone is going to answer right away, but eventually everyone will. The call is answered in the moment we cease to see someone as different and separate and realize we have a shared purpose. I have also learned that there are many ways to walk this path, and A Course in Miracles is one particular form of this calling, but not the only as there are thousands of others.

No matter which form is chosen they all have one thing in common; Its central theme is always, “God’s Son is guiltless, and in his innocence is his salvation.” I have learned that the Teachers of God are time savers, as the world is old and tired and being in time is suffering, so the world needs its time savers.

I talked about some of the tools that have been given me in the form of books, courses, and teachers. I also was given journaling as a very useful tool. I see that the way I learn this particular curriculum is to teach it every chance I get. I first and foremost teach through my life; how I live, what I say, what I do, how I treat others.

I also teach through my writing as I share my process, and through teaching one to one with students and in groups through workshops and on ACIM Gather. This is just one way to be a teacher of God, and it is specific to me. The Holy Spirit will guide each person according to their willingness to the path that is perfect for them and for the Sonship.

I don’t think this is something I would ever decide for myself because I can’t know all the factors and how one teaching will connect to someone else’s teaching. Only the Holy Spirit is aware of the complete plan, and so only the Holy Spirit knows where I will be best used. I used to have a little grievance going against the Holy Spirit because I wanted to be a scribe like Helen and Regina, and others. I thought (using my ego thinking mind) that this should be my job, too.

I have let that kind of thinking go. What difference does it make which part of the Sonship does what? We are awakening as one because we are one. In retrospect, I see that if I had started my teaching in that way, my ego would be insufferable as it took credit for what was done. Grace saved me from that forgiveness lesson.

Now when someone says how helpful I am, I am glad to be helpful. When someone complements my writing, I just smile. If I swell with pride at a complement, I will also deflate at the first criticism. Being a teacher of God is not about accomplishments. It is only about helping the Sonship awaken by following Guidance.

© 2012, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Study of Manual for Teachers 1/6/12

Day 6

2 They come from all over the world. They come from all religions and from no religion. They are the ones who have answered. The Call is universal. It goes on all the time everywhere. It calls for teachers to speak for It and redeem the world. Many hear It, but few will answer. Yet it is all a matter of time. Everyone will answer in the end, but the end can be a long, long way off. It is because of this that the plan of the teachers was established. Their function is to save time. Each one begins as a single light, but with the Call at its center it is a light that cannot be limited. And each one saves a thousand years of time as the world judges it. To the Call Itself time has no meaning.

There is a universal Call for the teachers of God. That means it goes out to all, not just to ACIM students. I have to admit that I have in the past believed that fallacy. I was wrong. Everyone gets this call, but not many choose to answer at this time, though all will eventually answer. In the meantime, time drags on and with it, suffering. So in order to speed things along and avoid some of this pain, we are given a plan for the teachers. Jesus is pretty clear about time saved. He says that each of us will save a thousand years.

I personally am tired of the world. This is obviously true, or I would not have accepted the call. I became tired of conflict, tired of drama, and tired of suffering. I became very tired of the instability we experience in time. There is no permanence, nothing to depend on. No matter how happy I might be in any moment, there is the sure knowledge that soon, I will be unhappy.

So I became willing to give up trying to find in the world what is clearly impossible. I have given up on the world and am walking the path I found through A Course in Miracles. I also receive additional “maps” from time to time as my Guide out of here, the Holy Spirit, sends me little surprises.

I was able to accept a higher vision of myself as I read and practiced from A Way of Mastery. I was able to more completely undo the ego and create an empty shell through the study and practice of The Holy Spirit’s Interpretation of the New Testament. I have found practical help in untangling the ego thought process to get to the belief that needs healing through doing Byron Katie’s, The Work.

I’m learning to step aside from ego thinking altogether through the practices outlined in The Teachings of the Inner Ramana. All of these tools have been given me to shorten time. And through my practice of journaling every day, I am learning to hear the Voice more clearly so that He can lead me completely out of time.

When you consider the trap we have created in the making of the world and time, the closed circle of teaching and learning that we made where we use time to teach ourselves that we are what we are not, and we do this over and over again, it is amazing any of us hold onto even a vestige of sanity. This opportunity to teach, and therefore learn something different is truly a miracle.

© 2012, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Study of Manual for Teachers 1/5/12

Day 5

Chapter 1. WHO ARE GOD’S TEACHERS?

1 A teacher of God is anyone who chooses to be one. His qualifications consist solely in this; somehow, somewhere he has made a deliberate choice in which he did not see his interests as apart from someone else’s. Once he has done that, his road is established and his direction is sure. A light has entered the darkness. It may be a single light, but that is enough. He has entered an agreement with God even if he does not yet believe in Him. He has become a bringer of salvation. He has become a teacher of God.

A couple of things jump out at me in this paragraph. Anyone can be a teacher of God; all he has to do is to recognize that his interests are not apart from someone else’s. I notice that this does not say that I need special training. The requirement is extraordinarily simple. I just need to realize my interests are not separate from someone else. I don’t have to recognize my interests are not separate from everyone else, just someone else. I don’t even seem to need to hold this recognition forever to call myself a teacher of God. That I did it at all, establishes my direction.

I am reminded, of course, of the circumstances that began the process that would lead to the recording of A Course in Miracles. Helen and Bill had a very contentious relationship. One day Helen, probably in frustration, said, “there must be a better way,” and Bill said that he would help her find it. In that moment they did not see their interests as separate. And look what came from that! They truly became teachers of God.

Everything we read about their lives and their relationship from that point on indicates that you do not have to be a perfect teacher of God. In fact, the introduction of the Manual for Teachers assures us we are not perfect or we wouldn’t be here. I would be willing to bet that Helen and Bill did not, in that one dramatic moment, experience a permanent change in their relationship. That change probably came over a period of time.

Its very likely they didn’t think of those words as dramatic. It was probably only in retrospect that they recognized the significance of them. Do you remember the moment that you made a different decision, one that put you on the path? I don’t. I am very aware of the circumstances that led up to my study of the Course, and I’m aware of the thought that propelled me into the Pathways of Light ministerial courses and so began my more formal teaching path. But those are not the moment when I saw my interests as the same as someone else.  And that is the moment I became a teacher of God.

In fact, Jesus seems to be saying that we can be totally clueless about our agreement, and that doesn’t lessen the impact. I don’t even have to believe in God to be His teacher. Once again I recognize that “Myron” is just my representative of sort, my avatar for the experience in this dream story. She doesn’t have a clue, really. She has these light bulb moments, but really she doesn’t know what anything is for. She didn’t even “get it” when she became a teacher of God. This is a good indication that she should do her best to get out of the way and allow God to live through her, a process she seems to one moment embrace, and another to resist.

© 2012, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Study of Manual for Teachers 1/4/12

Day 4

5 Except for God’s teachers there would be little hope of salvation, for the world of sin would seem forever real. The self-deceiving must deceive, for they must teach deception. And what else is hell? This is a manual for the teachers of God. They are not perfect, or they would not be here. Yet it is their mission to become perfect here, and so they teach perfection over and over, in many, many ways, until they have learned it. And then they are seen no more, although their thoughts remain a source of strength and truth forever. Who are they? How are they chosen? What do they do? How can they work out their own salvation and the salvation of the world? This manual attempts to answer these questions.

They are not perfect, or they would not be here.
For most of the years I studied the Course, I was alone in my studies. I had a bit of help from a few books. First, there were not many books, then when they first started appearing in number, I didn’t know about them. In those early days (for me that was around 1981 or so) I had a group to study with. We were all clueless and were fumbling our way through the book. We had one opportunity to listen to a teacher, actually, two for the price of one, Barbara and Robert Varley. Boy, were we excited!

I moved sometime shortly after that, and didn’t have anyone to study with for a long time. I was slow to discover computers so it wasn’t until around 1998 that I discovered that there were now many resources and many teachers. And they were completely available to me. I was rich! I was so impressed with the idea of teachers of the Course that I tended to put them on a pedestal, and if they showed any sign of being less than perfect, it was a crushing blow to me.

This came to a head with the Gary Renard/Jon Mundy controversy that you may or may not be aware of. Jon, using his widely read magazine, Miracles, refuted Gary Renard and gave this same platform to Robert Perry and Greg Mackie to do the same. I didn’t know what to think. My heroes were acting like regular people. It was so upsetting to me. After a couple of days of distress I took it to Holy Spirit.

Me: First, I hate that the people I have come to think of as leaders in the Course community are taking part in, and seem to be encouraging, controversy. Don’t we have enough of that in the world without bringing it into the Course? 



Holy Spirit: If anyone is still in the illusion, there are forgiveness lessons to be learned, and those who are in a public position are offering many an opportunity to heal with them. Are you not experiencing this right now? Are you not being given the chance to see past the controversy to the innocence in each one of them? 



Me: Yes, you are so right. I am grateful to all of them for this forgiveness lesson. Something else that is causing discomfort for me is that I don’t know who to believe or what to think. These are people I depended on to help me see more clearly, and now I am so confused. I feel like someone pulled the rug out from under me.



Holy Spirit: Listen closely because this is an important lesson. Were you thinking that God’s Voice speaks only to certain “special” people? This Voice is equally available to all. You may read something that helps you see things a little differently, but if you never read another book it would not matter. God’s Voice would provide all that you need to know Myron, the answer is not out there. When you need clarification, don’t look for it in the world; go within where God placed the answer. You don’t do anyone a favor when you try to make him “special” nor do you do yourself a favor when you see yourself as lacking in any way. The only rug pulled out from under you was the rug of “specialness” and you may be glad to see it go. You now stand on solid ground. 



Me: Thank you, Holy Spirit. I am so grateful for Your Voice. What I can see now that You have helped me remove the blocks to truth, is that I know what is important. I know that my purpose is to join with others in forgiveness. I know that means I will see the innocence in whoever is in front of me, and that I make no exceptions. I know that I will step back and let You lead the way. I know that I will continue to bring the illusion to You and allow You to correct my thinking and heal my mind.

After that I took all my “idols” off their pedestals, and I learned not to confuse the messenger with the message. I was able to take from their teachings what was helpful, without needing them to be perfect, realizing that they were doing exactly what it says in this section. They were teaching perfection to learn perfection.

After I stopped judging these teachers, I could do the same for myself. Now I accept that I teach perfection; then I teach something else entirely. ☺ Then I teach perfection again. I’ll continue this as long as it takes until the gap between perfection and perfection closes up completely.

© 2012, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Study of Manual for Teachers 1/3/12

Day 3

3 The curriculum you set up is therefore determined exclusively by what you think you are, and what you believe the relationship of others is to you. In the formal teaching situation, these questions may be totally unrelated to what you think you are teaching. Yet it is impossible not to use the content of any situation on behalf of what you really teach, and therefore really learn. To this the verbal content of your teaching is quite irrelevant. It may coincide with it, or it may not. It is the teaching underlying what you say that teaches you. Teaching but reinforces what you believe about yourself. Its fundamental purpose is to diminish self-doubt. This does not mean that the self you are trying to protect is real. But it does mean that the self you think is real is what you teach. 


4 This is inevitable. There is no escape from it. How could it be otherwise? Everyone who follows the world’s curriculum, and everyone here does follow it until he changes his mind, teaches solely to convince himself that he is what he is not. Herein is the purpose of the world. What else, then, would its curriculum be? Into this hopeless and closed learning situation, which teaches nothing but despair and death, God sends His teachers. And as they teach His lessons of joy and hope, their learning finally becomes complete. <strong></strong>

It seems I am always teaching what I think I am, what I believe about myself and what I believe about you in relation to me. What I say may not be congruent with what I believe, but that will do nothing to change what I believe. This self I teach and through teaching constantly reinforce is not real, but it is what I teach and so it is real to me.

Here is an example, as I understand this. For a long time I believed that I was a victim of the world I see. Because this was the belief in my mind, this was the interpretation I gave everything that happened to me. For instance, I did not know how to mother my first two children and did not do it well. I felt deeply ashamed and guilty, and I told myself that this was not my fault.

This was the story I told myself. My mother was a poor role model, so I was a victim of my circumstances, and of her failure as a mother. I needed to reinforce this story if I was going to believe it and convince others it was true, so I found a therapist who told me the same story. And I collected friends who were willing to witness to my victimization.

To appear even more innocent (to myself and others) I added martyr to my image as I made excuses for my mom. “She was just doing the best she could” stories. But though my words seemed charitable, they had nothing to do with what I believed, so what I was really teaching was that I was a victim, and she was guilty of victimizing me.

All the time I thought I was protecting (or maybe hiding) this image of myself through projecting blame; I was teaching victimization and learning victimization. And so, many victim stories followed. I was building this image of myself as a helpless victim with layers and layers of stories of being victimized. I often said I did not want to be a victim, and as I learned some psychology I used different words, that sounded good, but those words were hollow because I believed I was a victim and so this is what I taught.

And of course every victim needs a victimizer so I collected those as well, and so I taught, through my relationships with them that they were victimizers. What a sad and self-defeating cycle this is, and yet it is the cycle we all live in one form or another until we choose differently through choosing a different teacher.

What a relief it is to read in paragraph 4 that there is a way to break the cycle of teaching what is the cause of our suffering.

Into this hopeless and closed learning situation, which teaches nothing but despair and death, God sends His teachers.

Helen, through her willingness to do the work given her and thereby bringing A Course in Miracles into the world is an outstanding example of this. As I have studied and practiced the Course I have accepted that my role is one of teacher, and so I am an example of this, though because I have not fully mastered this practice, I am an inconsistent teacher. We all are teachers of God as we allow our mind to be healed, and to the degree to which we allow that healing.

All of us reading this are at least sometimes teaching for God, because our mind is at least partially healed through our practice and our willingness. And as we teach, in whatever way our curriculum leads us, our healing becomes more and more complete.

My assignment

Keep my reminder handy: My every word, thought and deed is teaching me and everyone else. Is this what I want to teach?

I am going to be especially vigilant today to notice what I am actually teaching others and myself. It is not really hard to do this.  Are my words and my thoughts congruent? Am I saying that I am at peace while I try to smother the anxiety I feel as I think time is slipping away from me? (I’m laughing because I couldn’t immediately think of an example or how to say this and so I asked Holy Spirit for something, and I was surprised by that last sentence. Evidently I had been hiding this from myself.) So let me rephrase that. Are my words and thoughts and feelings congruent? My feelings will often help me become aware of the belief that is the source of the thoughts, words and actions.  My words are not always the measure of what I am teaching myself. Holy Spirit, please help me to be aware of the beliefs that are driving my life so that I can ask for healing where needed.

I will remember my gratitude today that as I teach my lessons of joy and hope my learning is becoming complete. Thank you, God.

© 2012, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Study of Manual for Teachers 1/2/12

2 To teach is to demonstrate. There are only two thought systems, and you demonstrate that you believe one or the other is true all the time. From your demonstration others learn, and so do you. The question is not whether you will teach, for in that there is no choice. The purpose of the course might be said to provide you with a means of choosing what you want to teach on the basis of what you want to learn. You cannot give to someone else, but only to yourself, and this you learn through teaching. Teaching is but a call to witnesses to attest to what you believe. It is a method of conversion. This is not done by words alone. Any situation must be to you a chance to teach others what you are, and what they are to you. No more than that, but also never less.


I am teaching all the time. This I have already established in my mind through yesterdays study and practice, but I need constant reminder so I am going to use this idea every day as part of my assignment. When I identify with the ego thought system, I teach separation as I did at Walmart and Books a Million. I put Walmart on one side and me on another. I made myself a victim of circumstance, a victim of Walmart’s decision to not provide enough cashiers, and a victim to my own impatience. Then I invited everyone else to join me in my beliefs, to witness to my beliefs.

My experience has been that I do not decide what thoughts are in the mind. I didn’t begin by thinking, “now I am going to decide to think about Walmart’s long lines.” If I did not have the thought to think this, I did not put the thought in my mind. It simply happened. Where my choice occurs is in whether I want to believe the thoughts in my mind or identify with the thoughts in my mind.

If they are not thoughts I would think with God, then I can recognize this is not a true thought and let it go on to wherever it came from. If I am identifying strongly with the ego thought I can grab hold of it with my mind and engage in it. Then more similar separation thoughts are attracted by my decision.

By the time I got to the cashier at Books a Million I had come to my senses and made the decision to let go of those ego thoughts. I felt to compliment the cashier on how quickly he was moving the line along. I could tell by his expression that he appreciated that I was seeing him in this way. He smiled and said he was trying. I am glad I made the decision before I got to him, so I when it was time to teach him what he was to me, I could teach him his innocence.

My assignment

Keep my reminder handy: My every word, thought and deed is teaching me and everyone else. Is this what I want to teach?

Holy spirit, help me to pause before I speak and consider what I am teaching my brother about himself.

Before I go to bed I am going to ask the Holy Spirit to review with me what I taught this day, ask Him to heal my mind of the errors, and then I am going to let go of the day so I start afresh the next day with a clean slate.

© 2012, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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