26.02.06
0804 – The big questions
Posted in the Branch at 7:43 pm by James 
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from Issue 008 — Sep 2002
Its funny how sometimes the answer to a problem can be right there in front of you but not seen. It was the time to put together this issue of the newsletter and after assembling the articles we had written I was dismayed to see we were a bit short on content. I then remembered a conversation I had had a couple of days previously. It had been a discussion with one of our readers about, of all things, items to include in the newsletter. He suggested a question and answer section and I agreed it would be a good idea, if someone came up with some questions. Not wishing to lose the momentum, he then proceeded to pose some questions that might form the basis of a short article or two. Most of the questions were technical in nature. For example, “What is the difference between the brain and the mind?” One however was what I would call a “big” question. This question was potentially loaded with all kinds of assumptions and other unspoken beliefs. In thinking about this question I realised that there are indeed many times when for one reason or another we want to ask, “What does the Course say about “this” or “that”? Where “this” or “that” is something not specifically mentioned in the Course itself.
“That’s all right,” I thought, I can just write an article about these big questions and how to approach them, according to the Course. Well the best laid plans of mice and men, so the saying goes. Normally the articles I write have a rather long gestation period and I spend three or four months before actually committing words to the page. Here, I was forgetting that and thinking I could just jot something down in one afternoon. Well to be honest, it has taken a bit longer than an afternoon.
I began, with much of what I have already written and then came to an abrupt halt. I realised I sort of had the idea in my mind of what I wanted to say, but that’s all. It was very fuzzy, not at all cogent nor easily expressed. I then started to jot down some ideas. Some questions that I would expand on such
- What is the purpose?
- What statement is the question making?
- Are you angry/anxious/fearful/unsettled by the question?
- Why do you want to know?
- Does the question relate to the reality of the body?
- Is the question an attack on the body?
- Are you asking or is someone else?
Now I was getting somewhere, or so I thought. Alas, there it lay. I stared and stared at the screen. I had reached an impasse and I could see no easy way, that is without being awkward or pompous, of expanding on these threads. As I sat in front of my keyboard and stared at the words on the screen I was also aware of another theme that must not be omitted from anything I write. None of what I will discuss here is to be a substitute for turning to your Teacher and asking of Him.
After a little more staring and pondering I realised I needed to actually do what I had just wrote down. Ask for help of my Teacher. And so I did, and decided to leave this essay for the time being.
After a day or two, more threads started to weave into my consciousness and the solution to my dilemma was becoming clearer. And yes, the solution was indeed right in front of my nose. The Manual for Teachers.
This third part of A Course in Miracles is often overlooked by some students as simply an addendum to the main body of the work, i.e. the Text, and by others as something only for teachers of the Course, not your common everyday student. Indeed, it has been suggested by some that the Manual supports the establishment of the more formal Teacher of the Course, mentoring to other students while they try to find their way. This could not be further from the truth for it is meant to be read and used by every student of the Course as they assume the mantle of “teacher of God.” A title and a mind-set to be adopted by all who call this work their way.
It is sometimes read very early in one’s study of the Course, in part I think, because it is written in a somewhat less literary style (for want of a better phrase) and perhaps this too, contributes to its neglect as a source of answers to the big and small questions that arise regarding the Course.
Do not be fooled, either by the title or by the easier style of the Manual. It contains within its pages the distillation of the fundamental principles upon which the philosophy, psychology and metaphysics of the Course are based, presented in an easily accessible “how to” style.
It begins with a statement regarding who God’s teachers are and who are their students. When read with an understanding of the Course behind you this is understood to mean that you are one of His teachers and you are teaching yourself who you think you are, through everyone you meet. It then moves on to describe the characteristics that you will slowly take on as you develop in your role. Spending quite some time discussing the foundation characteristic of trust and the waxing and waning of your acceptance of it, the Manual goes on to describe these other attributes. Interestingly many students mistake these characteristics for some set of goals they must reach, not realising that they will arise of their own as they apply the Course in their life.
Then come the questions. Big ones, small ones. Not an exhaustive listing, but a selection that effectively covers all the concerns a student, correction, teacher of God, may ask or be asked. In the answers presented to these specific questions lie the seeds to those other specific questions that at first do not seem to be present. Let me assure you they are, for all of these questions are simply a rephrasing of the apparently different fears we all share. And just as each answer helps us to re-phrase perhaps what is really going on in our minds, it also offers a path to its undoing as described throughout the Text and Workbook.
So rather than try to answer any big questions here, or even try to offer advice cobbled together in an effort to put words on paper, and paraphrase what is presented in the Manual, let me invite you to re-visit the littlest part of the Course, The Manual for Teachers.