06.02.06
0402 – Frequently Asked Questions About The Course
Posted in the Branch at 10:27 pm by Linda 
Print This Post
from Issue 004 — Nov 2001
Over the years, in our study groups, lectures and over the Internet, James and I have been asked many questions about the Course. Very broadly they tend to relate either to Course theory or implications of theory for practice. Every now and then we will summarise the basic content of a question and what our answer was. In an effort to retain the “spirit” or the “feeling” of our response we will not unduly edit them.
Recently I (Linda) was asked a question about how we as Course students should view the possibility of ourselves performing miracles in the more traditional sense of the word (e.g. of the nature of Jesus walking on water). The concept of mind over matter came up, as well as reference to a teacher in an Eastern context who consumed poison without any ill effect and so on. Below is a slightly modified summary of my reply.
I have for many years (before the Course as well) had a strong attraction to Eastern teachings, the Hindu tradition in particular. The questions you raised are very much like ones I have also asked. My feeling is that the Course is taking us to a place in which what now seems very solid and real will be directly known and intuited to be utterly transparent. What is utterly transparent can be manipulated and re-arranged in ways that seem to defy our present commonsensical notions of what is real and not real, what is possible and not possible.
Even though I feel that this is the case, I have reached a point in which I can say- so what? Special abilities and powers might or might not emerge, but in every instance, in every case, they are never in themselves the issue. The only issue is Spirit and Love and seeing through the lie of separation. Forgiveness is the means the Course has provided to reawaken us to Spirit and Love.
My belief is that a truly realized being wouldn’t give two hoots about a special ability in and of itself, accept insofar as it might serve a teaching function (the main lesson being we are not a body) or to facilitate healing (the only healing really being the re-cognition of the power of the mind). In other words special abilities are fine, but only when they are understood to be a by-product of what really counts: utter and complete surrender to the Divine. Absolutely any attempt to acquire powers in and of themselves lands us right back in the realm of specialness. And truly is there any difference between seeking to have a million dollars and seeking a special ability? Given the a-hierarchical nature of our path the answer is an unequivocal no!
So what does all that mean for us? Let us get on with the business of doing the little bit the Course asks of us. Whenever and however the ego speaks first in any given moment, let us turn to the light and ask for help. In that way we cultivate the only thing which matters- our relationship to God. Follow the example the Course sets in the way it presents its teaching. It does not dwell needlessly and at great length upon what cannot be understood from our present frame of reference. It is futile to get unduly concerned about what finally cannot be thought of or spoken of. If we sincerely and honestly get on with the business of doing what the Course says, then all that we need to know will be revealed to us. In this way we give ourselves the experience of the Course and finally it is only experience which will answer questions which seem obscure to us now. Less thinking and talking! More doing please!
No matter where we find ourselves, no matter how advanced or unadvanced we seem to be the answer is always the same. I am always and completely dependent on God. God is the only Life. God is the only Power. Whatever power I have is Gods anyway! If I truly have accepted that God and my relationship to Him and in Him is the only significant thing, then what difference is there between doing the dishes and raising the dead? My feeling is that the answer to that question represents freedom of a nature that not even the greatest power could substitute for.
The interested reader is referred to Chapter 25 of the Manual For Teachers entitled “ARE ‘PSYCHIC’ POWERS DESIRABLE?” This whole chapter provides a very powerful reminder of the importance of keeping “special” abilities in perspective by asking us to be ever vigilant about what our true purpose is as Course students.
There is another extremely important passage in Chapter 28 of the text in which Jesus cautions us against placing an undue emphasis upon healing of the physical body:
“Thus is the body healed by miracles because they show the mind made sickness, and employed the body to be victim, or effect, of what it made. Yet half the lesson will not teach the whole. The miracle is useless if you learn but that the body can be healed, for this is not the lesson it was sent to teach. The lesson is the mind was sick that thought the body could be sick; projecting out its guilt caused nothing, and had no effects.” (T-28.II.11: 4-7)
Finally I would like to close with words from Corinthians 13, which emphasises the central importance of charity and love:
1 Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal.
2 And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing.
©2001 LH