A Course in Miracles

Complete & Annotated (CE) Edition Study Guide

Week Seven

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Reading Schedule

Chapter 2. Right Defense and Release from Fear

Day 43: X. The Real Power of the Mind

Day 44: XI. The Basic Conflict (paragraphs 1-9)
Day 45: XI. The Basic Conflict (paragraphs 10-22)
Day 46: XII. The Mastery of Love
Day 47: XIII. The Real Meaning of the Last Judgment
Day 48: Review: Chapter 2, second half (Sections VIII-XIII)

Chapter 3. Sane Perception

Day 49: I. The Need to Study

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This week we are focusing on:

- Understanding the power of our thoughts.

- Creation and miscreation.

- The mastery of love.

- Developing a regular practice of study.

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Day 43: X. The Real Power of the Mind

Overview:
Our thoughts far from being idle have tremendous power. So much power, in
fact, that we prefer to deny the minds true ability because we are literally afraid
(4:6) of it.

Jesus wants us to harness and use the power of the mind in two key ways. First, he
wants us to guard our thoughts as much of the time as possible, so that we stop our
minds from producing fear. We think fear just happens, but he makes it very clear here
that fear is the result of our unguarded thoughts. Emotion doesnt just happen; its the
result of thought. Hes concerned not with how the mind does or doesnt manifest
things. Hes concerned with how it constantly produces our emotions. He implies that if
we could just watch our thoughts all the time, we would see exactly how they produce
the fear that we live in (T-2.X.1:4). And if we can guard our thoughts all the time, we can
live free of that fear.
- Robert Perry

Reflections: When you think of the real power of the mind do you think of
manifestation and visualizing? This is certainly how weve been trained in self-help and
empowerment circles, but the Course never encourages us to use the power of our
mind to obtain the things you desire in the world. Jesus wants you to guard your
thoughts so you can help him save the world (10:3). In other words, hes not just asking
us to move from dysfunctional to functional thinking. Hes asking us to move from
functional to miraculous. At which end of this scale do see yourself and why?
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Exercise: In paragraph 8 of this section, Jesus notes that he doesnt intervene between
our thoughts and their results (i.e. our emotions) because it would be tampering with
the basic law of cause and effect (8:4). He goes on to say that his goal is not to

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depreciate the power of our thinking, but to remind us to guard our thoughts carefully
(9:1) so we can be miracle workers (10:1) and avoid miscreating (10:4). How carefully
would you say you guard your thoughts? Experiment with watching your mind today and
write what you discover in the space below.
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Key Passages:
The mind is a very powerful agent, and it never loses its creative force. It never sleeps.
Every instant it is making or creating, and always as you will. (2:1)

You who complain about fear still persist in producing it most of the time. (8:1)

Fear cannot assail unless it has been elected. (11:6)

Notes:
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Day 44: XI. The Basic Conflict (paragraphs 1-9)

Overview:
This section states that above the miracle level (which is our root impulse to
express love) there is a whole world of the unconscious or unwatched mind
(1:2) that is the source of fright (1:4).

Reflections: This is one of those sections in the Course that spends a fair amount of
time discussing psychology, which may or may not be of interest to you. Either way, it
seems the overarching theme here is that we leave our minds quite unguarded most of
the time (1:1) and Jesus is asking us to pay attention to our thoughts. While he
recognizes that we cannot engage in constant thought-watching (1:4), the idea is that
we can guard our thinking far better than we do at present. How well would you say you
do this? In other words, how well do you strike a balance between consciously
watching (1:2) your mind and rejecting egoic (i.e. wrong-minded or loveless) thinking?
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Key Passage:

The unwatched mind is responsible for the whole content of the unconscious which lies
above the miracle level. (2:1)

Notes:
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Day 45: XI. The Basic Conflict (paragraphs 10-22)

Overview:
Here we learn that the title of this section, the basic conflict, boils down to the
conflict between creation and miscreation (10:1), which essentially means
between love and fear (10:3). The idea is that these two forcesone
destructive and one miracle-workingare both present in our minds and are
contending against each other, splitting our minds into two opposing camps.
Miscreation is a genuine creative act in terms of the underlying impulse, but not
in terms of the content of what is made (12:2). What this means is that there is
creative power (at least in this-world terms) in our miscreation, but its nature (or
content) doesnt reflect true creativity, which is loving.

Reflections: As you examine your relationships, would you say that they are defined
more by love or fear? (Note that this includes not just your own feelings of fear, but any
actions you take that induce fear in others.) If you find that you are acting lovelessly
towards yourself and / or certain people, what is this costing you in terms of your own
peace and miracle-working ability? What is required to remove this form of conflict in
your life?
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Key Passages:

The only way out is to stop miscreating now, and accept the Atonement for miscreations
of the past. Only this can reestablish true single-mindedness. (16:4)

The instinct for creation is not obliterated in miscreation. (21:4)

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Notes:
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Day 46: XII. The Mastery of Love

Overview:
You cant control your own fear by attempting to master it. What this means is
that, since fear is really nothing and love is really everything (4:2) and since
these concepts cannot coexist (4:1) in your mind, the way to alleviate fear rests
entirely on the mastery of love (2:5).

Reflections: Do you spend more time trying to master your fear or master love? We are
well-conditioned to focus on the fear e.g. how is this going to affect me, what if I dont
have enough, etc. but this section teaches that fear cannot be forced into submission.
It dissolves only as a byproduct of turning your attention to miracle-mindedness.
Accordingly, what does mastery of love within the context of the Couse look like to
you? Just as a musician must master his scales or a basketball player must master
her drills, how would you apply this concept to your everyday experience?
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Key Passages:

Confidence cannot develop fully until mastery has been accomplished. (9:7)

Mastery of love necessarily involves a much more complete confidence in the ability
than you have as yet attained. Readiness, however, is at least an indication that you
believe this is possible (10:4-5).

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Day 47: XIII. The Real Meaning of the Last Judgment

The commentary for this review is from Robert Perry, editor of the Complete and
Annotated Edition (CE) of A Course in Miracles

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In this section, we see Jesus genius for reinterpreting conventional concepts. Hes right
that The Final Judgment is one of the greatest threat concepts in humanitys
perception (2:1). How could it not be? We all realize that we have thought and done
many selfish and hurtful things, probably many more than we have allowed ourselves to
remember. What, then, could be more terrifying than to think that when its all said and
done we have to stand trembling before God, while He looks with merciless objectivity
on our lives and decides whether He will throw us into the lake of eternal fire? Its like
the prospect of being thrown off the island on a reality TV show taken to a cosmically
horrific extreme.
Jesus takes this concept and provides us with a deeply compassionate reinterpretation.
No, its not that God judges what people have done and chucks the bad souls into hell.
Its that we ourselves evaluate our thoughts and deeds and simply discard our
miscreations, which will then no longer exist (6:5). The result is unbelievably positive.
We will be left with a mind filled only with the pure and loving that we have thought and
done. We will finally understand what is worthy and what is not (5:2). Our imprisoned
will will at last be freed (5:4). We will depart from insanity and finally be restored to our
right mind (4:5). With all our accumulated darkness dispelled, we will be left with a mind
that shines like the sun.
One thing I find very interesting about this reinterpretation is that you see a concrete
reflection of this in near-death experiences (NDEs). There, just at the moment that you
might expect people to go before God and face His judgment on their lives, what
happens instead is the well-known life review. Rather than being judged by God,
NDErs are surprised to find that they judge their own thoughts and deeds, not in a
condemning sense, but in the sense we see hereof understanding what is worthy
and what is not (5:2). They learn that what was valuable was all those times they gave
love, and that when they didnt the only result was pain.
Thus, just when so many expect to experience the terrifying traditional Last Judgment,
they find themselves undergoing a compassionate, educational process very much like
what Jesus describes here. Of course, none of this was known back in the mid-60s
when this was dictated, yet we get the clear impression here that Jesus knew.
This all sounds very reassuring, but I suspect weve forgotten something: Are we willing
to start this process now? Are we willing to sort out the false from the true in our current
thoughts, feelings, perceptions, actions, and behavioral patterns? Are we willing to look

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with dispassionate judgment on our lives as they currently stand and disown our
miscreations? Or would we prefer to hang onto them, and put the sorting out process off
into some distant future? No doubt we do some of this simply by virtue of practicing the
Course, but how far do we go?
Jesus clearly wants us to get going, because he needs individuals who will free
themselves from fear sooner than would ordinarily be the case (3:5), so they can speed
up the process for the entire world. Are we willing to be one of those individuals?

Notes:
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Day 48: Review: Chapter 2, second half (Sections VIII-XIII)

The commentary for this review is from Robert Perry, editor of the Complete and
Annotated Edition (CE) of A Course in Miracles

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VIII. The Sole Responsibility of the Miracle Worker says that in order to give
miracles, the miracle worker must be in his own right mind. Before he can give
Atonement to another, he must accept Atonement himself (T-2.VIII.5:1). Here we see
most clearly the connection that I believe is central to the chapter: guard your own mind
so that you can give miracles.

IX. The Correction of Fear is about how we cant regard fear as an involuntary thing,
something we can only put a lid on or ask Jesus to magically remove. We need to
realize that fear comes from our own loveless thinking. Then we need to accept perfect
love (the Atonement) as the remedy that will undo both the lovelessness and the fear.

X. The Real Power of the Mind says that we assume that our thoughts are
powerless unless they are acted out, but we believe this because we are actually afraid
of their power, afraid of the damage they might do. The answer is to guard our thoughts
carefully throughout the day, so that we choose miracles rather than fear. Only then will
we be available to help Jesus by giving miracles to others.

XI. The Basic Conflict, you could say, is about all the destructive energy stored in
our unconscious, which gives rise to internal conflict. Freud saw this as a given in our
psychic structure, something that we just had to live with. The neo-Freudians tried to
deny the destructive potential of this energy, which Jesus sees as mere wishful thinking.
We need to realize that this unconscious destructive energy is something we put in
place with our own unwatched thoughts. The basis for being released from it is, first,
acknowledging that its there, but then second, denying that it has any ultimate reality.
We need to immediately stop depositing this energy in the unconscious and accept the
Atonement for the undoing of what we deposited in the past.

XII. The Mastery of Love returns again to our belief that the only way to deal with
fear is to control it so that it doesnt control us. Rather than mastering fear, we need to
master lovebecome highly proficient in love. Since love is everything and fear is

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really nothing (T-2.XII.4:3), accepting love into our minds is like lighting a lamp in the
darkness. The darkness will be dispelled; the fear will be banished.

XIII. The Real Meaning of the Last Judgment reinterprets the traditional notion,
saying that the Last Judgment is not a case of God judging souls and throwing the bad
ones in hell, but of us judging our thoughts and deeds and retaining only the good. (This
section, in my view, like The Cause of the Separation, departs from the main theme of
harnessing our thoughts so that we can do miracles.)

Through these sections, we see two entirely different ways of dealing with the error
within us. We can overlook the source of the errorour unwatched thoughtsassuming
those thoughts are powerless (XI), when they are in fact depositing more and more fear
in our unconscious. Then, when the fear rises up to awareness as a seemingly
involuntary force, we can try to master it enough that it doesnt overwhelm our
functioning (IX, XII). All the while we are just ignoring the fact that the altar within is
defiled (XI). Like the neo-Freudians, we are trying to act like the destructive energy that
circulates through our unconscious is not really there (XI). We are denying the error in
us (III), and indeed using are all our psychological defense mechanisms to protect it
(IV).

Thats normal human life, isnt it?

The solution again and again is to recognize the causative nature of the mental level.
We need to face the fact that something has gone wrong, but also that it can be
completely healed. This seems to be on two levels: the conscious (our present thinking)
and the unconscious (in which our past miscreations are stored). In the present, we
simply need to be guarding our thoughts all the time, using defense mechanisms in
service of true thoughts, choosing love instead of fear. In terms of the unconscious, we
need to look within and see the defiled altar, and then accept the Atonement (perfect
love) as the undoing of our past miscreations. This two-level processguarding our
present thoughts and accepting perfect love as what shines away our stored
darknessis the foundation on which we can be miracle workers in the world. We can
only give miracles if we are living in a state of miracle-mindedness.

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Chapter 3

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Day 49: I. The Need to Study

The commentary for this review is from Robert Perry, editor of the Complete and
Annotated Edition (CE) of A Course in Miracles

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This section gives us a kind of checklist we can go through to evaluate our relationship
with study:

Am I devoting attention and study to the Course for the sake of learning it, as a way of
training my mind (1:1-2)? Yes, Id say. So far so good.

Have I assigned study periods for myself (1:3)? Yes.

Do I think of problems that I keep being faced with as perhaps being solved in the
material Im studying (1:5)? Not really. I tend more to think of those problems being
solved in the Courses teaching in general.

Do I then look up the place in the Course where my recurring problem has been solved
(1:7)? I dont really actively go and look up places in the Course that will solve some
recurring problem of mine. I more will study a topic in the Course and then apply it to my
problems, which is different.

Do I assign review periods to myself (4:1)? This year, yes.

Am I approaching study of these early chapters as very careful preparation for what is
coming in the Course (6:6)? Hmmm, thats a good question. I think to some degree I
am. I realize they are a foundation and Im trying to lay a good foundation.

Two additional comments. First, I think the comments on using the pseudo-retardation
syndrome in relation to the Course are priceless. Its a universal assumption (which Ive
bought into as well) that people just arent understanding the Course. As with every
other topic, Jesus sees things differently. He thinks they are understanding it, but then,

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presumably because they find the message uncomfortable, are acting like they dont get
it; like they are too thick to grasp it or Jesus is too incompetent to communicate clearly.
Im so repeatedly struck by how Jesus doesnt sound like what we expect from a
spiritual teacher. We expect an enlightened teacher to some degree to be impenetrable,
making a lot of mysterious statements, speaking in deliberate paradox, and refusing to
be pinned down. In contrast, Jesus in the Course explains himself. Hes deliberately
trying to remove the mystery. I have been careful to clarify my own role in the
Atonement, he says, without either over-or understating it (6:3). I find that so
refreshing. Nicola was saying that he comes off more like a normal teacher than a
spiritual teacher.

Notes:
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