This is a non-dualistic system, that Jesus in the Course uses the language of the world
just as he uses the language of the Christian world to talk about a reality that transcends
any of our words, any of our concepts, all of which are part of a dualistic thought system.
“Duality,” again, means that you have “two,” or at least two, so that when one
considers the Western religions – the biblical religions – we are looking at a dualistic
thought system: there is God and then there is the creations of God that are distinctly
separate from Him.
There’s the world of heaven and there is the physical universe that we’re told
God created.
There’s a great conflict that certainly becomes very prominent in the New Testament
between spirit and the flesh.
Obviously there’s a conflict throughout both books of the Bible – the Old and the
New Testament; a conflict between “good and evil,” and both are seen as beng ontologically
real; that they are part of the reality.
"A Course in Miracles," however, is totally different, which is why we always go to great
lengths to make the point that the Course, the spirituality of the Course, and the spirituality
of the Bible, are not the same at all.
One is a dualistic thought system; the other is a non-dualistic thought system.
In the Course God is the only Reality.
When we begin to talk about the development of the ego thought system, we are really talking
about the world of "as if"; as if the tiny, mad idea of separation occurred; as
if the decision-making mind chose the ego over the Holy Spirit; as if the decision-making
mind identified with the ego, and on and on and on until we end up with a thud at the
bottom of the ego’s ladder in the world as a body.
But all of this is “as if.”
Everything below this black line is “as if.”
It never happened, and so that’s the perspective that one has from the top of the ladder.
When one is in the real world, which is the Course’s term for that state of mind in
which we are outside of the dream, realizing everything here is a dream.
It’s the culmination of the process of forgiveness.
It’s when we recognize everything of the ego’s world, the ego’s world of thought
and the ego’s world in terms of the physical universe; all of that is an illusion and,
at that point, our knowing this is not an intellectual concept.
It has now become a very real experience for us, because we experience our self as being
on the outside, looking, and we know that our identity is outside of the dream, and all
the dream figures that are here in the world, including perhaps a dream figure that has
our name to it.
So, for example, when Jesus appeared 2100 years ago in Palestine, his reality was outside
of the dream.
He was in the real world.
The world related to him as a body, as a person, but he knew that that was not who he was.
So to be in the real world does not necessarily mean that you don’t have a body here with
a name on it that people relate to.
It means that you are aware, even while you appear to others as being in a body, that
your reality is outside of the world and the body, that you are a thought in the mind and
you are just a whisker away, an instant away from remembering your identity as a thought
in the Mind of God.
This is the perspective from the top of the ladder.
The real challenge that a student has of this course (to echo the famous passage from John’s
Gospel; that we’re in the world and not of it) is to realize that we are not of this world.
Indeed, no one is “of” this world because there is no world.
We are thoughts in the mind, and almost all of us identify with the thought in the mind
of the ego.
At the same time that we know we’re not of this world we yet are in this world, and
one way of talking about the ascent up this ladder (that the pamphlet refers to as “The
Ladder of Prayer” (S-1.II.h)), is that we begin to understand more and more even as
we are here that we are not here.
And the gap begins to shrink between our intellectual understanding of the Course’s metaphysics
that says that the world is an illusion and all this is a dream that happened long ago
and, in reality, never happened at all, the intellectual understanding begins to melt
into the experience of knowing what it is not to be in the world.
And again, as we make our way up the ladder this gap begins to shrink, so our intellectual
understanding now becomes infused with an experience.
And what brings about this experience and what deepens it over time, again as we slowly
make our way up the ladder, is recognizing (not at first) that the world is an illusion,
because we still have bodies, but we recognize that the illusion that we can relate to, the
illusion is that the world can have an effect on me, that the world can make me happy; the
world can give me pleasure; the world can make me sad; the world can bring me pain.
That’s the level we could begin to understand and practice even at the lower rungs of the
ladder, and as we begin to deepen that understanding and that experience, which means we do not
give people power, we do not ascribe to people or to the world or circumstances in the world
a causal power that says, “They are the cause of what I feel and I am the effect of
what they feel.”
And we’ll spend a lot of time today talking about that when we talk about the ego’s
thought system.
But it’s extremely important as we make our way up the ladder that we do begin to
understand where it is that Jesus is leading us.
Again, using the image of the ladder to denote the whole scope of the thought system that
we find in the Course, we could say that at different times in the Course Jesus shines
a light on different rungs of the ladder.
Sometimes he talks to us as if we were here: one body forgiving another body; one body
attacking another body; the Holy Spirit, a spiritual Body being there to advise us and
council us and guide us and help us.
There are those passages, especially in the workbook, where God is talked about as if
He were a Person; a Person Who would talk to us, Who would guide us, even though there
are many other passages (especially in the text but also in the workbook) where Jesus
makes it very clear that God doesn’t know that we’re here.
God doesn’t understand words, we’re told in the workbook (W-pI.183.7:3-5; 10.
In the manual he tells us words were made to keep us separate from God (M-21.1:7), and
so at that point Jesus shines the light at the top of the ladder.
But then in those other passages he shines the light – his light – on a lower part
of the ladder because he meets us where we believe we are.
That’s one of the real impressive and inspiring things about this Course, that no matter where
you are on the ladder of prayer, no matter where you are on your spiritual journey, no
matter where you are in terms of your understanding and experience with "A Course in Miracles," there’ll
be things in this Course which will be helpful to you.
And those things which are—which you feel are beyond your ability to understand or experience
will just wait there for you.
And as you read through you will see only those passages which are meaningful and those,
again, which make no sense to you or, again, seem way beyond you, you’ll just overlook.
And it may not be until years later when you come back and re-read passages in the Course
that you’ll suddenly realize, “Oh my god, I didn’t know that was there.”
Well, that’s because you weren’t ready to see it, but there will be things in this
Course which will be helpful, and again, throughout the Course, you could take all three books,
you’ll be able to see, again, how Jesus shines his light on different parts of the
journey.
Again, it makes this a very, very impressive spiritual document.
It goes in line with his whole approach that his love excludes no one; his help excludes
no one no matter where you are, which is why it’s really important as a student of the
Course (and if you consider yourself an advanced student or sophisticated student) that you
not judge other people who may not share your understanding or may get things really upside
down and backwards.
How do you know that what they are getting from the Course is exactly what they need
for where they are?
And if you attack them for it and judge them and prevent them from learning at their own
pace then you are setting yourself up in opposition to their real Teacher, Who’s love meets them
where they are.
He never meets us in judgment.
He only meets us with love, in love and acceptance, and that’s a very, very important thing
to keep in mind, and just the reason I’m making all these comments is that it should
help you as you work with this Course to see exactly how gentle and non-judgmental Jesus
is, even though he is very clear about what he’s teaching.
There’s no question (in his mind) who the authority is, but he’s not authoritarian;
he’s not harsh, he’s not condemnatory; he’s not judgmental.
He’s always kind and loving and accepting and, again, there are passages in this Course
that will meet you where you are and will be helpful.
Yet again, it is important to understand at least what the full expanse of this journey
is, and the full expanse of this thought system.