A Course in Miracles

Complete & Annotated (CE) Edition Study Guide

Week Four

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Reading Schedule
Day 22: Cameo 10: Under Instruction
Day 23: T-1.44-45
Day 24: T-1.46
Day 25: Cameo 11: The Notes on Sex
Day 26: T-1.47.1-48.9
Day 27: T-1.48.10-26
Day 28: T-1.49-50
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This week we are focusing on:

- Asking for guidance.

- Viewing the stranger as our brother.

- Holding our minds in a state of impersonal, non-specific love.

- Turning fear impulses into miracle impulses.

- Claiming grace.

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Day 22: Cameo 10: Under Instruction
Overview: In this cameo, we really see Helen making an effort to put the Course into
practice. We see her pausing to ask for guidance and following through in ways that are
reflective of Course teachings.
Have you been doing the same? As a quick pulse check, please put an X in the place
on the line below that best reflects your own practice today.
Yes Im stopping to ask for guidance No I rarely ask for guidance

If you are leaning towards yes, can you describe how you ask and what happens as a
result? If not, can you point to where are you experiencing a block?
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The Big Idea: Your only real danger comes not from being unloved, but from
your own failure to love.
We often define the ego by what it isnt. Perhaps we think of it less as a living thing
but, rather, the absence of a thing (love) and in that absence a vacuum is created
where lovelessness enters the mind.
While this is true, its not as accurate as describing the ego as a belief. The ego is a
belief in separation so powerful that it grips the mind in a predatory way that requires
constant moment-by-moment vigilance to dissolve.
This is why the Course places so much emphasis on practice because, unless we
are proactively keeping our minds in a "miracle-ready" state which means a
relatively ego-free state we will miss our opportunities to express love when called
upon to help our brothers.
Thus, the challenge for us is to realize that the pain and suffering we experience
does not come from other people not loving us, but from our own failure to love.
How has this played out in your life? Please take a moment to write what comes
to you in the space provided below and on the back of this sheet if needed.

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Question to consider: What does the distinction between "I will do it" and "I will
to do it" mean to you? Is performing miracles something you are merely consenting to
do or something you unequivocally will to do?

Try it: Just as Helen did with her husband in this cameo, experiment with praying
directly to the mind of another versus praying to God. This isnt meant to replace your
prayers to God, it is only meant to add another form of prayer to your practice.

Notes and Quotes:

"A miracle may be given to a particular person, but it arises from a state that
holds in mind everyone's equal worthiness."

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Day 23: T-1.44-45

Overview: Miracle-mindedness is the state of grace that leads to miracle-doing

and this is how Love is expressed in the world.

Lets look at the two principles for today individually.

Principle 44: "Miracles arise from a miraculous state of mind." This appears to be a
repeat of the idea that our mind must stay miracle-ready through a purification practice
of prayer, meditation, and forgiveness. This state is meant to be impersonal going out
to anyone versus being limited to only those in our lives.

Principle 45: The result of our miracle-readiness is that "The mind is then in a state of
grace, and naturally becomes gracious, both to the Host within and the stranger without.
By bringing in the stranger, he becomes your brother." (T-1.45.2:1-2)

There is an interesting contrast here between the state and the expression. The state
of love is non-specific; directed everywhere rather than targeted at particular individuals.
The doing, however, is specific. It is targeted. We need to direct the actual doing of
miracles to the people we are meant to give them to, since they are the ones who are
open to them. There is a good deal of discussion in this Chapter 1 material of the need
to not do miracles indiscriminately. It wastes your energy, burns you out, and keeps you
from doing other needed things.

- Robert Perry

Try it: Can you love indiscriminately? Obviously, this doesnt mean that you
neglect those in your life to whom you have inherent responsibility, e.g. your
partner, children, etc. It means only that you feel the same love for everyone,
even if your behavior acknowledges that you carry more commitment toward
certain people.

What is the Atonement? Please visit the Glossary of Terms in the CE Edition of the
Course for the definition of Atonement.

Question to consider: How do you respond to the phrase Christ-controlled?

Based on your reading of this section, what does that phrase mean to you?
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Notes and Quotes:
The miracle of healing is to bring those who are estranged from each other
together, because they are estranged from God. (T-1.45.2:3)

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Day 24: T-1.46
Overview:
Our impulse be a miracle worker (i.e. to love) often becomes distorted into sexual
impulses. This doesnt make sexuality wrong, but it does mean that real pleasure
doesnt come from relating to each other as bodies.
Jesus is defined in the Course as an elder brother (T-1.46.15:1) whose role is
to bridge the distance (T-1.46.17:8) between God and humanity.

The Big Idea: Jesus wants us to reframe our entire concept of sex as we
know it.
Regardless of your sexual orientation, this is a topic that overflows with
egocentricity. Indeed, what could be more ego-driven than two objects fulfilling
their own pleasure drives? (T-1.48.14:2) In Principle 46 we are asked to view sex
as a learning experience in gaining grace. (T-1.46.4:5) What does that phrase
mean to you? Do you find yourself experiencing doubt or even resistance to
the material in this Principle? Write what comes to you in the space provided
below.

The ego is not just a thought of separation and fear. Its about my benefit at the
expense of yours. The Course sees that mindset expressed in just about all of the ways
we use our body, including sex. Well see this throughout. Its a mistake, I believe, to
think that the sex material is some weird aberration here at the start. The talk in the rest
of the Course about the body, physical pleasure, special relationships, and the joining of
bodies, if you take it seriously, is hard to distinguish from the early sex teachings.
- Robert Perry

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Try it: In the Course, keeping your perception right-side up (T-1.46.11:1) means
holding your mind in a state of impersonal love so that when someone crosses your
path who needs a miracle, you are ready to give it to them. But first, ask if Jesus
wants you to give a miracle to this person and being willing to refrain if he says
no. The prayer Jesus suggests for this in T-1.46.12:6 is the following:

If you tell me what to do,

only that I will to do.

Again, note the language used here i.e. will to do versus simply will do. Experiment
with this prayer and share your experience below.
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Notes and Quotes:

The ultimate purpose of the body is to render itself unnecessary. Learning to do
this is the only real reason for its existence. (T-1.46.8:5-6)
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Principle 46 also sheds light on the relationship between God and Jesus. While Jesus
notes that we should be in awe of God as our Creator, he warns that awe is not an
appropriate expression of love towards one another or even him because of its
implied inequality. (T-1.46.14) To be clear, however, Jesus is not saying that were his
equal on this level. Rather, were his equal on the level of our true Reality. We are
brothers created as equals, the only difference being that one is asleep and one is
awake. Accordingly, rather than meeting us at our level, Jesus is challenging us to meet
him at his.

Question: How would you describe your relationship to Jesus?

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I think its important to come out and say what is implied throughout the Course: God
and you are not equal (T-1.46.20:7). God is the Greater One (T-1.46.13:4), before
Whom we should stand in awe. This emphasis is so important, because in both the
Course scene and the New Age scene, people want to erase the difference between us
and God. Course students often see the Courses talk of God as distinct from His Son
as just metaphor. And New Age students, of course, frequently affirm that I am God. In
the Course, however, God is our Creator. Think about what it means that Someone
Else created you. In the presence of your Creator, you should feel absolutely cherished
and completely safe, but you should also feel the awe that is natural when one of a
lesser order stands before the Greater One (T-1.46.13:4).
- Robert Perry

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Notes and Quotes:

"There is nothing about me that you cannot attain. I have nothing that does not
come from God. The main difference between us as yet is that I have nothing
else." (T-1.46.16:1)

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Day 25: Cameo 11: The Notes on Sex

The commentary for today is from Robert Perry. Being the author of the cameo itself, it
makes sense to use his words here versus mine.

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The basic idea in this cameo is that Jesus wants us to be miracle workers. This means
allowing what he calls the miracle drive to flow up from deep in our unconscious and
become expressed through our actions. To be miracle workers, that miracle drive has to
be what drives us. It has to be our driving influence. But what happens, Jesus says, is
that this drive, as it flows toward consciousness, gets distorted by our identification with
the body. As a result, it becomes twisted, converted into something else entirely. And
that, of course, is the sex drive. So now, what were impulses to give miracles become
sexual impulses. The impulse to join with a minda personhas become the impulse
to join with a bodyan object.
And these are more than isolated impulses. He says that miracles and sex are both
ways of relating. So now our whole way of relating becomes sexually based, or at the
very least strongly sexually influenced, rather than miracle-inspired.
What happens when the miracle drive becomes coopted, converted into something
else? The answer hardly needs to be said. We dont express the miracle drive, but
rather the something else. And if the miracle drive is the source of us functioning as
miracle workers, then we know what has happened to that function. And so Jesus ends
up empty-handed. His potential miracle workers are all off doing something else.
There is another way to look at this issue, based on our recent reading in the Text.
Jesus wants us to cultivate and maintain a state of miracle-mindedness as the basis for
our miracle doing. This state is impersonal. It regards everyone as the same. Everyone
is our brother. Everyone matters. Everyone is deserving. This impersonal state of mind,
because it gives everyone equal weight, can then be channeled in the form of particular
miracles wherever Jesus wants it to be. As I wrote the other day, its only when we love
everyone that we can give miracles to anyone.
But if our way of relating is sexually based, that impersonal state of mind is absent. We
have a very uneven playing field, in which some are greatly favored and others entirely
overlooked, all based on whether their body pleases our body. This extreme mental
favoritism is exactly the opposite of miracle-mindedness. Now, when Jesus says, Give
a miracle to Mary, our mind says, Mary who? Id rather give my attention to the cute
one.
Either way you slice it, you can see how the whole function into which he is trying to
lead us is undone by a sexually oriented way of relating.

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Day 26: T-1.47.1-48.9
Overview:
You have unique and individual talents that are needed to achieve the complete
restoration of the Sonship. (T-48.7:10)

The Big Idea: As you choose a more miracle-minded perspective, you become
a special agent (T-1.48.6:3) in Gods plan to wake up his Sons. For as grand
as this sounds, though, as an agent your only job is to acknowledge the
equality and worth (T-1.47.3:3) of everyone without exception. How funny is it
that we are called to be Gods "special agents" - which feels very important and
powerful - only to realize our singular assignment is to love those around us?
This must be quite a disappointment for the ego - and yet it feels perfectly
aligned with spirit.
What special talents (T-1.48.6:1) do you feel you bring as part of Gods
team of special agents? How can you more fully apply your talents to meet
the great need (T-1.48.6:4) of this time?

Notes and Quotes:

You can wait, delay, paralyze yourself, reduce your creativity to almost nothing,
and even induce a real developmental arrest or regression. But you cannot
abolish your creativity. You can destroy your medium of communication, but not
your potential. (T-1.38.3:3-5)

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Day 27: T-1.48.10-26
Overview:
Inappropriate sexual impulses can be translated to miracle impulses by
turning them over through prayer.
We are often motivated by feelings of lack which could be resolved if we knew
we are created whole. We are created by God, after all.

The Big Idea: This section continues the discussion around

inappropriate sex as a distorted form of miracle impulse.
Again, its important to note here that inappropriate in the Course refers to a
lack of love (T-1.48.11:1) versus a particular form of sexual orientation. What
are your thoughts on the sex material in the Course as a whole? Has it
reframed your thoughts on this topic in any way? Why or why not?

If our culture was saturated with the message that real closeness is of the mind, not the
body, how differently might we experience our impulses?
- Robert Perry

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Try it: Paragraph 13 in Principle 48 offers a three-step practice for translating
inappropriate sexual impulses into miracle impulses - though can be applied to any
situation where fear has arisen in the mind. As such, the next time you find that your
peace has been threatened, turn to this passage and follow the guidance suggested.
1. Know first that this is an expression of fear.
2. Deny the power of the fear and ask to replace it with love.
3. Acknowledge the true creative worth of yourself and the other person.
Robert has turned this process into a prayer which you may also find helpful. In fact, it
would be a valuable exercise to write or print these words on a notecard until you can
recite them by heart.
Jesus, I know this is fear, which stems from my imperfect love.
I deny the power of the fear and turn to you instead.
Help me replace this fear with love.
I acknowledge the true creative worth of both [name] and myself.
I give power to love and only to love.

Principle 48 also features an important section on the concept of lack in

paragraphs 19-26. Here Jesus is stating that behavior results from need and need
implies a belief in lack (T-1.48.19:1). How would you behave differently if you knew that
ultimately you lacked nothing?
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Notes and Quotes:

Every aspect of fear proceeds from upside-down perception. (T-48.26:1)

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Day 28: T-1.49-50
Overview:
Miracles are not bound by the laws they are meant to disrupt.

The Big Idea: This principle asks you to compare your beliefs (i.e. what you
make) to the higher level of creation and reject what is out of accord with perfect
love. As with everything in the Course, it is unconcerned with the form our fear
takes or whether our grievances are big or small the only thing that matters is
that we recognize the power of the miracle (T-1.50.4:4) to correct any errored
perception we hold of ourselves and / or our brothers.
"As long as your identification either vacillates or is weak, the Course says,
you cannot accept the gift that belongs to you." (T-1.50.5:2) In your practice
thus far, do you find yourself vacillating between recognizing the gift and
throwing it away [Helens main error], or regarding yourself as too weak to
accept it [Bills main error]? (T-1.50.5:4) Why or why not?

Try it: Principle 50 challenges you to submit your beliefs to the real test of validity (T-
1.50.2:2) where you simply ask yourself in the moment whether your perception is of
perfect love. Since only perfect love really exists (T-1.50.2:6) this means any fear you
experience has been made by your own egoic thinking and must ultimately not exist.
Hence, by constantly bringing you back to this singular distinction between what is true
and what is false, the Course is giving you an enormously practical tool that you can
use at any time. Please experiment with the validity test and share your insights in the
space provided below.
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Notes and Quotes:

Only perfect love really exists.

Therefore, if there is fear,
It produces a state which does not exist. (T-1.50.2:6-7)
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Congratulations! You made it to the end of Chapter 1. :)

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