Aspect I: Text/Study: Part 3 – How to Study the Text

Beginning reading
When you are first reading the Course, it is probably best not to worry about how to read it. Just read it. It will probably be a struggle. Much of what you read you won’t understand. Whole paragraphs and sections will go by without making much sense to you. Learning the Course may feel like learning a foreign language, and this is a very apt analogy. For we learn the Course’s language (by which I mean both the form of its expression and the content expressed) much as we learned our native tongue—simply by being around it, being immersed in it, hearing it used over and over and over in ever different contexts.

Slowly, just as our native tongue did, the Course’s language will come into view. Scattered pieces will begin to join into coherent wholes. If you persist, you will eventually become quite fluent in this new language. In fact, there may even come a time when you feel so at home in it that you decide that it is the only language that really makes sense; the only one that allows you to really communicate with others. The following paragraph likens learning the Course to the process a baby goes through in learning language:

Of all the messages you have received and failed to understand, this course alone is open to your understanding and can be understood. This is your language. You do not understand it yet only because your whole communication is like a baby’s. The sounds a baby makes and what he hears are highly unreliable, meaning different things to him at different times. Neither the sounds he hears nor sights he sees are stable yet. But what he hears and does not understand will be his native tongue, through which he will communicate with those around him, and they with him. And the strange, shifting ones he sees about him will become to him his comforters, and he will recognize his home and see them there with him. (T-22.I.6)

So at first it is probably best to just read it. Don’t struggle with things you do not yet understand. Don’t get hopelessly shipwrecked on especially puzzling paragraphs. Just keep reading; just keep exposing yourself to this new language. And trust that in time it will get clearer—and already is getting clearer. You can read the entire Text in a fairly short time with this method. Here are some possible reading schedules:

2 pages per day = once through in 335 days

4 pages per day = 168 days

8 pages per day = 84 days

1 section per day = 250 days

1 chapter a day = one month

This practice of reading through briskly without stopping to figure things out has been called inspectional reading. (1)This is a good study practice even when you are not new to the Course.

If, for instance, you want to study a section or chapter, it can be very helpful to do an inspectional reading first, before you study in more depth. Simply do a superficial, fast read-through in which you try to get a quick understanding of everything that is immediately accessible. This will prepare you for a more detailed understanding.

The rest of this article will attempt to provide guidance for those who want to study the Text more deeply.

One section at a time, in order

Since the Text is not written in a linear fashion, students often wonder if there is any real reason to study it in sequence. While one can certainly gain a great deal from skipping around, a real study of the Text should be done in order, beginning with the first page and continuing to the last. As discussed in Part 2 of this “Text/Study” section, part of the author’s style is to make constant reference to previous discussions. If you haven’t read these, much of the current discussion will be rendered unintelligible.

For example, in “The Healed Relationship,” in Chapter 17, the author discusses the joint holy instant that initiates a holy relationship. Over the next six chapters he refers to this instant of joining dozens of times, elaborating again and again on all that really happened in that instant. Yet if you did not read “The Healed Relationship,” and read it carefully, you will not know what these references are about. Consequently, much of the meaning of those discussions will be lost on you.

I also recommend that you study the Text one section at a time. Although the sections breaks and titles were not part of the original dictation (they were added by Helen Schucman, Bill Thetford and Ken Wapnick), each section does have an individual character. Generally, a section is a distinct discussion with a beginning, a middle and a conclusion. (2)

Again, you may want to begin your study of a section with a quick, inspectional reading. However, if you really want to understand and appreciate the section, be prepared to read it a few more times. Most of us strongly resist this kind of repeated reading, yet with the Course it brings immense rewards. Our priority may be covering a maximum amount of pages, but the real priority is experiencing a maximum amount of benefit. And that comes from repeated reading.

Although it is helpful to focus on one section at a time, it is also very helpful to remember that originally the flow of the dictation was unbroken. When you are reading the first lines of a chapter, a section or a paragraph, remember that they immediately followed the last lines of the previous chapter, section or paragraph. Those previous lines will often supply crucial context.

How to study: Read slowly and think about

What is not known to most Course students is that the Course itself contains instructions for study. These are found, oddly enough, in the Workbook; in the first four review sections and in the instructions for Part II. If you look at these five sets of study instructions, you will notice the same basic two-step process in each one. That two-step process is: Read slowly and think about. The most succinct expression of this formula is where we are told that the “What Is?” sections (in Part II) should be “slowly read and thought about a little while.” (W-pII.In.11:4) Let’s take these two steps one at a time.

Read slowly. In an age of information overload, reading slowly can feel like going 10 MPH on the freeway for no reason. Yet there is simply no substitute for slowing down and savoring each word. This is helpful with any reading material; it is absolutely necessary with the Course. Because of the way the Course is written, it is important to observe each word, to dwell on each sentence, to pause frequently and give it time to sink in. Unless you do so, you will quite likely miss the main point of what the Course is saying, as well as perhaps 90% of the content. Here is an instruction from Review IV in the Workbook, in which I have italicized the phrases relating to digesting the words slowly:

…merely read each of the two ideas assigned to you to be reviewed that day. Then close your eyes, and say them slowly to yourself. There is no hurry now, for you are using time for its intended purpose. Let each word shine with the meaning God has given it, as it was given to you through His Voice. Let each idea…give you the gift that He has laid in it for you to have of Him….Then repeat the two ideas you practice for the day unhurriedly, with time enough to see the gifts that they contain for you, and let them be received where they were meant to be. (W-pI.RIV.In.7:1-5,8:2)

Imagine reading the entire Course like this; saying each sentence to yourself slowly; letting each word shine with its intended meaning; giving each idea time enough to give you the gifts it contains for you; and realizing that there is no hurry because this very activity is what time is for.

Think about. The second part of the Course’s study process is simply to think about what you are reading. Reflect on it; ponder it; mull it over. Thinking about Course ideas is actually one of its spiritual practices. Many of the lessons in the Workbook (especially in the 50’s and 60’s) instruct us to say the day’s idea to ourselves and then spend between two and fifteen minutes just thinking about it and letting related thoughts come to mind.

There are several different ways the Course suggests we think about what we are reading. I just mentioned the practice of letting related thoughts come. Review I tells us to reflect on a certain paragraph, trying “to emphasize the central point, and think about it….” (W-pI.RI.In.3:2) Lesson 66 asks us to think about a logical syllogism for fifteen minutes, even giving us lengthy instructions in how to ponder its two premises. Review III asks us to think about the ideas so as to apply them to the specifics of our lives (we will discuss this toward the end of this article).

“Read slowly and think about” is actually quite similar to the author’s occasional injunction, mentioned in Part 2 of this “Text/Study” section, to pause and reflect on what you are reading.

Both “read slowly and think about” and “pause and reflect” come down to one simple thing: Read attentively. Approach this reading act with your undivided attention. Give it your whole mind. Be fully mentally present. For the reading of the Course, no better advice could be given.

How to Study: Specific Techniques

The following techniques are methods that Allen Watson and I have developed specifically for the study of the Course. They are recommended for those students who really want to get the most out of the Course. They are, of course, optional; they are only there to enhance your reading experience. Though many of them are good to use with any book, they are specially tailored to the Course’s style of writing, its symphonic and holographic style, its desire to transform and not just inform, and its unique practice of filling familiar terms with new meaning.

These techniques will be fitted into an overall three-step process of study which Allen learned in his Bible study days:

I. Observation: What does it say?
II. Interpretation: What does it mean?
III. Application: What does it mean to me?

These three should not be taken as completely separate steps. You should be using all three all the time. But to some degree they will unfold sequentially. Until you have observed you cannot interpret, and until you interpret you cannot apply. How can you apply to your life what you do not at least somewhat understand? However, the steps also work in reverse order. Once you have applied, your interpretation will expand and deepen. And as a result, you will notice things that you had not observed before.

Step I. Observation: What Does It Say?

The first step is reading slowly and observantly. Observe everything on the page. The Course’s author told his scribe, Helen Schucman, “As long as you take accurate notes, every word is meaningful.” (Absence from Felicity) Therefore, act as if every word is meaningful. Don’t brush over anything. By this observation you will be gathering the raw material for the steps that follow: interpretation and application. Here are some of the things to notice:

• Notice the kind of sentence: a statement, question, injunction
• Notice what is not said and questions that arise
• Notice the subject, verb and object of the sentence
• Notice pronouns
• Notice key terms
• Notice repeated words and phrases.
• Notice when imagery and figures of speech are used
• Notice connective words like “and,” “but,” “therefore,” “for,” “thus,” and “because”
• Notice capitalized words, indicating some kind of reference to the divine
• Notice italicized words
• Notice key terms or concepts from recent sentences, paragraphs or sections

While noticing the aspects of the sentence before you, it also helps to notice your own mind. What terms or statements are you unclear about? What statements make you feel uneasy, upset or resistant? What passages are difficult to accept? What paragraphs seem muddled or empty of meaning? By watching the thoughts and feelings that come up for you, you can better meet whatever needs arise in your mind, and can also recognize and appreciate the positive benefits you are experiencing.

Step II. Interpretation: What Does It Mean?

Step II moves beyond simply noticing what sits before us on the page and supplies the meaning of the words, sentences, paragraphs and sections we are reading. Getting this meaning is essential if we are to move onto the third step of applying that meaning to our personal lives.

A. Being context-sensitive

The first and most important rule of Course interpretation, I believe, is this: Be context-sensitive. The reason that context is so essential is because of the Course’s symphonic style, which is discussed in Part 2 of this “Text/Study” section. That article shows how this style makes for a dense web of interconnectedness. This web not only clarifies and enriches any given passage, it also provides a great deal of the Course’s meaning. In other words, much of the meaning is only supplied by context, not directly stated.

Thus, to understand the full and accurate meaning of a word, sentence or paragraph, one must have a sense for how it fits into its surrounding web. By itself its meaning will often be vague or flat. But in the context of the symphonic tapestry woven around it, its meaning becomes rich, subtle, profound and crystal clear. Seeing how it fits into that web, then, is essential to the interpretive act. Thus, the reading habit of constantly trying to see how it fits is one of the primary habits a Course student must develop over time.

In other words, you will need to form a new reading habit. Forming this habit is fully within your power. If ordinary reading material was written like the Course, full of subtle references to preceding material, you would have already formed this reading habit long ago, and reading the Course would be easy. We can see this habit as consisting of two parts.

1.Look for the connections

The first part of this habit is very simple. Just look for how the sentence in front of you connects with what you have recently read. As you read, simply ask yourself, “How does this relate to what I have read recently?” “Does this sound like anything I have just read?” Take the words and ideas your eyes are on now, and cast a mental net behind you at the paragraphs and sections you have just read, and then see what gets caught in the net. Look for the following things:

• A common word or term. Many of the key terms in any given sentence will have been weaving in and out of    the preceding paragraphs. This is the best, easiest and most frequent way to notice connections.
• The same phrase or sentence. The Course will occasionally use a phrase again or will even quote a whole sentence (such as “anger is never justified”) from its previous material.
• An image, such as clouds of guilt, dark doors, little spark, treasure house, golden circle, face of Christ, etc.
• An idea. The author will frequently reference a previous idea without using the same language. This is a bit harder to spot.
• Overtly identified reference. Occasionally, the author comes right out and says, we have said this before, I have discussed this previously, etc.

You may well feel that you will simply be unable to notice all the connections that are there. That is certainly true; they just keep going and going. However, as mentioned in Part 2 of this “Text/Study” section, the point is not to notice all of the connections. The point is simply to enrich your reading experience by noticing more connections than you do now. And everyone can do this.

Once you have uncovered a connection between your passage and another, you might want to ask yourself, “What exactly is the relationship between these two passages?” They might be referring to the exact same idea. Or they might be two variations on a common underlying theme (in which case, try to discover what that theme is). The relationship might be one of contrast; for instance, contrasting the ego’s way with the Holy Spirit’s. Or it might be one of cause and effect; one idea might logically follow from another. The attempt to uncover this relationship leads us into the next step.

2.See what light the context sheds on the passage you are reading.

Seeing how a passage connects with its surrounding material tells you exactly what its context is. Once you see this, you simply try to see the passage in light of its context. You ask yourself not just “what does this mean?” but “what does it mean in this context?” The guiding rule is to make sure that your interpretation of the passage harmonizes with its context; that your interpretation honors the web of connections you are seeing.

Example:

In gentle laughter does the Holy Spirit perceive the cause, and looks not to effects.

By itself, this sentence could mean all kinds of things. “The cause” could be just about anything, as could the “effects.” Not knowing what these are, we have no clue why on earth the Holy Spirit is laughing.
Let us, then, look to this sentence’s context. In this section (“The ‘Hero’ of the Dream” in Chapter 27), the “effects” (mentioned already seven times in this section) are the physical world and all the things it does to us, all the ways it seems to attack us. Their “cause” (mentioned 11 times before in this section) is the idea of separation, an idea in the mind. This idea, we are told, is literally a joke (this section, more than any other in the Course, is peppered with words like “laugher,” “joke” and “jest”). If we only could see that our outer events and circumstances are merely pictures (or effects) of an underlying joke, they could have no effect on us.

Yet we do not see the world’s underlying cause. We look at the world as its own cause, as self-existing and therefore independently real. This makes its events seem extremely “serious,” “heavy” and “sad” (“serious” has been mentioned three times in this section). This is where the Holy Spirit comes in. His job is to correct our error of staring in grief upon those “heavy” outer effects. And so, in contrast, He looks only at their trivial cause and gently laughs. Uniting with His perspective will therefore free us of all the heaviness we experience as we contemplate the events of our lives. Seeing with Him, we too can overlook the “serious” effects we see as we laugh with Him at their ridiculous cause.

If you now go back and read the sentence in question, it will probably mean a great deal more to you. In light of its context, it becomes a rather profound sentence, containing a liberating picture of both the Holy Spirit and of our condition in this world.

Being context-sensitive is the way to clear up confusing passages

Confusion is one of the most common experiences in reading A Course in Miracles. Even if you have read the Course for years you will frequently come upon passages that seem unclear. I do all the time. I have come to believe, however, that the exact meaning of almost every sentence in the Course can be uncovered simply by being highly sensitive to context.

What I mean by this, however, is virtually the reverse of how many Course students are sensitive to context. When a student comes across a confusing sentence, perhaps the most common method I see is reading that sentence in the context of one’s overall understanding of the Course. The student, in essence, asks herself, “Given my general understanding of the Course, what must this sentence mean?”

This way of being context-sensitive, I believe, largely results in projecting our own understanding onto any unclear passage. All we obtain from this is a miniature version of what we already thought. What we don’t obtain is a fresh insight into what the author thought. I believe we should go about it in the precise opposite way. We should read the sentence in light of its most immediate context and then gradually go out from there to more distant contexts, and finally to the larger context of the Course in its entirety. I see this in four steps.

1.Look closely at the immediate paragraphs surrounding the passage

Usually, all the clues you need are right around the sentence in question, if you know how to look. The densely interwoven style of the Course may seem confusing, but one of its ultimate effects is incredible clarity. For this style will scatter throughout the surrounding paragraphs dozens of references to the ideas of any given sentence. Through these references, you can view the same ideas from a cluster of slightly different angles. The net effect of this is exceptional clarity.

Therefore, look for these references. Look for recurrences of the terms, phrases, images and ideas in your sentence. Look for anything that relates to any part of your sentence. All of the things you find will be clues to its meaning. If you decipher these clues well, your interpretation will harmonize with all of these places. It will honor the entire web. If you come up with an incorrect interpretation, however, it will clash with most or all of the clues you have found. It will rip the web apart and leave dangling pieces lying all over. In short, your interpretation will be disconfirmed from several angles at once.

This, I believe, is why the author can make the following claim: “I have made every effort to use words that are almost impossible to distort, but it is always possible to twist symbols around if you wish.” (T-3.I.3:11) In light of how confusing the Course can be, this sentence can seem ludicrous. However, my experience is that when you learn how to be context-sensitive, distorting what the author is saying really does become “almost impossible.”

Example: Let’s use a sentence that many Course students have puzzled over. Early in the Text, when the Course’s language has not yet completely straightened out, it says, “the ego can learn.” This is very uncharacteristic language for the Course. In fact, the Course says the opposite later on: “Therefore it [the ego] does not really learn at all. The Holy Spirit teaches you to use what the ego has made, to teach the opposite of what the ego has ‘learned.'” (T-7.IV.3:2-3) However, though its language is unusual, what this phrase actually means is not difficult to ascertain if we look carefully at the clues right around it:

p2. Many stand guard over their ideas because they want to protect their thought systems as they are, and learning means change. 2. Change is always fearful to the separated…because the separation was their first experience of change. 4. You believe that if you allow no change to enter into your ego you will find peace…. 13. Nevertheless, the ego can learn, even though its maker can be misguided. 14. He cannot, however, make the totally lifeless out of the life given.

p3. Spirit need not be taught, but the ego must be. 2. Learning is ultimately perceived as frightening because it leads to the relinquishment, not the destruction, of the ego to the light of spirit. 3. This is the change the ego must fear…

p4. 2. Refusing to change your mind will not prove that the separation has not occurred…. 7. If you are willing to renounce the role of guardian of your thought systemand open it to me, I will correct it very gently and lead you back to God. (T-4.I.2-4)

I have bolded what I see as the relevant words. I bolded the phrase we are examining, along with the words “ego” and “learn,” since they are in that phrase. I bolded “change” because it is linked with learning in the first sentence: “learning means change.” I bolded words relating to “fear” because fear is associated with learning and change. I bolded “your (or their) thought systems” because it is connected with learning, change and fear, and because it functions as a rough synonym for “ego” here (as it does throughout the Text).

Looking at all of these clues, it is not terribly hard to interpret the phrase “the ego can learn.” First, the words I have bolded are linked in very clear relationships: You guard your thought system, trying to keep out learning, because learning means change and change is something you fear. Second—and this is the crucial point—the same things that are said or implied about your thought system are also said about your ego. Just as you try to keep change from entering your thought system, so you try to “allow no change to enter into your ego” (2:4). Just as you can allow learning into your thought system (this is clearly implied), so “the ego can learn.” Thus, “the ego can learn” means simply “learning and change can be allowed into your thought system.”

2.Then look at those passages in the surrounding pages that your sentence connects with.

Any unclarity that remains after the first step can often be dispelled by this second step. Search carefully the surrounding pages in the same way you searched the surrounding paragraphs. Look for other passages that use the same words, phrases, images and ideas as the one under examination. Very often this will yield one or a few specific passages that directly clarify the passage that is confusing you.

3.Then look at other discussions in the Course on the same topic.

If you are still unclear, try to find other discussions in the Course on this same topic. The consistency of the Course’s thought on specific topics over hundreds of pages is truly remarkable. If your passage is about death, for instance, try to locate other discussions about death. This will usually be difficult to do without aids, but aids do exist. I would recommend especially the Concordance of A Course in Miracles and, for those with computers, the computer search programs put out for PC’s and Mac’s by CenterLink.

4.Throughout the process, use your overall understanding of the Course, but hold it lightly and loosely, letting it take a back seat to the three above contexts.

You will obviously be referencing your general Course understanding at every step. This is especially important for supplying the meaning of particular Course terms. However, I highly recommend that you let the more immediate contexts I have listed above be your primary guiding lights. They will show you, through dozens of clues, exactly what the author had in mind when he wrote that apparently puzzling passage. Through their guidance you will be able to directly contact his thought.

Using your overall understanding of the Course comes last in priority, I believe, because it leaves the most room for human error. One’s overall understanding of the Course will always be somewhat in error. Further, deciding how to apply this broad understanding to a specific passage leaves room for further error. This approach also blocks you from receiving any new and fresh gifts this passage could give you. The passage itself becomes something of a blur, for you are not so much seeing it as your preconceptions of what it ought to say. You are covering it with your own mental paint, sealing in anything that might leap off the page and shake up your picture of things. The Course thus becomes little more than a projection screen. At that point, why not just buy a blank-paged diary?

B. Plugging in the meaning of terms, phrases and pronouns

This step begins with simply observing the various key words and phrases in a sentence, as well as its pronouns. It concludes with mentally plugging the meaning of those terms and pronouns into the sentence.

Terms

Inserting the correct meaning of terms is crucial when reading the Course. Because of its habit of filling familiar terms with new meaning, unless we take this step consciously, we will often read the wrong meaning into the Course’s terms.

Example:

Knowledge is not the motivation for learning this course. Peace (T-8.I.1:1-2)

What does that mean? Based on the usual meaning of the word “knowledge,” this sentence would mean something like this:

The goal of this course is not to accumulate intellectual concepts and information, but instead to gain inner peace.

However, “knowledge” is a technical term in the Course. It refers to the mystical state of direct knowing in which subject and object are one. In light of that, this sentence means something entirely different:

The goal of this course is not to attain the final state of mystical union beyond the subject/object dichotomy, but to gain inner peace.

In other words, knowledge is not a state which is inferior to peace, but a state which lies beyond peace. As the next sentence goes on to explain (as always, immediate context is crucial), peace “is the prerequisite for knowledge.” (T-8.I.1:3) Knowledge does not stand in the way of peace, as our first interpretation implied. Rather, peace is the gateway to knowledge.

Pronouns

The Course often makes it very difficult to identify the referents of its pronouns. The usual rule, of course, is to look for the noun that most closely precedes the pronoun. However, the Course does not always follow this rule. It will also sometimes carry a pronoun on several sentences after the last mention of the noun it refers to. In short, you may have to do a little hunting to find the meaning of words like “it” and “them.” I once received a letter in which a student spoke of “the hard work of…matching elusive pronouns” in the Course. She was talking, however, about how much benefit she has received from that hard work.

C. Getting the meaning of the sentence

In this next step we simply try to understand the basic gist of what the sentence is attempting to convey. We are not yet concerned with nuances of meaning, nor with making it deeply personal. We just want to know the basic intended meaning of the sentence. This often takes some work simply because many of the Course’s sentences are long and complex. However, if we have carefully observed the sentence and supplied the meaning of the various key terms and pronouns, getting the basic meaning of the sentence will usually be fairly easy.

Just take the sentence and mentally try to reduce it to its essence, its basic message. Strip it of everything except that.

Example:

It [temptation] would persuade the holy Son of God he is a body, born in what must die, unable to escape its [the body’s] frailty, and bound by what it orders him to feel. (T-31.VIII.1:2)

Observing this sentence, we see that it repeats the same basic idea about the body four times. If our observation is especially sharp, we will also notice a contrast, a tension, between the concepts of the holy Son of God and the body—one is a limitless spiritual reality; the other is a tiny physical form.

Now let us look at the four variations on the idea about the body. What do they all have in common? Their common denominator is the idea that the body seems to impose its death, frailty and sensations on us. Notice the tension and irony between being the holy Son of God and being ruled by the body.

Now we can take the basic meaning of the sentence and reword it in our own mind. Of course, when reading the Course, we need not do this with every sentence; just having a feel for the essence of the sentence is often enough. But we can be alert for when it would be helpful to reword a sentence. Here is a possible rewording of the above sentence:

Temptation would persuade me, a boundless, omnipotent spirit, that I am ruled by a tiny body which imposes on me its sensations, frailty and death.

Letting related thoughts come

At this point we may want to go further and play with variations on this thought, to help its main message more fully sink into our minds. This is an important practice from the Workbook (in the 40’s and 60’s), which it calls “letting related thoughts come.” For instance:

“Temptation is not a lure to pleasure but an invitation to pain.”
“I am God’s Son; I do not deserve to be trapped in a body.”
“Temptation tries to persuade me that I am flesh; that I am something I am not.”
“Spirit cannot really be ruled by flesh; that is an illusion.”

D. Following the logic

Logic is an activity whereby conclusions are proved because they follow from premises that are assumed or accepted. If the premises are true, and if the conclusions really do follow logically from the premises, then the conclusions simply have to be true.

As we mentioned earlier, the Course is filled with logical argument. This is natural, for the Course’s purpose is to change minds, and logic is an ancient tool of persuasion, one that we use everyday. By being aware of the Course’s logic we can enhance its impact on us; we can help it change our minds.

Some of the Course’s logic is set apart in italicized syllogisms. Most of it, however, is woven into the normal flow of the writing. The first task, then, is simply to notice the logic. Here are a couple of suggestions:

• Look for any passage in which one idea is supported or justified by other ideas.
• Look for the following key words: “for,” “because,” “therefore,” “if,” “then,” “thus.”

Example:

They [the saviors of the world] will redeem the world, for they are joined in all the power of the Will of God. (T-31.VIII.4:5)

First, you notice the word “for,” which signifies that this sentence is using logic. You can then allow this logic to do its work by asking yourself the following questions:

• “What is the premise (or premises)?” Premises are the rationale, support or justification for the conclusion. However, the Course often states them after the conclusion. Words like “for,” “because” or “if” will identify a premise. In our example the premise is that the saviors of the world “are joined in all the power of the Will of God.”
• “What is the conclusion?” The conclusion is the idea the author is trying to prove or support. It is the point, the punch line. Look for words like “therefore,” “then” or “thus.” In our case, the conclusion is that the saviors of the world “will redeem the world.”
• “Does the conclusion follow from the premise(s)?” If the saviors of the world were joined, and were joined in all the power of the Will of God, would they be able to redeem the world? Yes, I think they most certainly would. The logic seems to follow here.
• “Can I accept the premise(s)?”Can I accept that the saviors of the world are joined in all the power of God’s Will? My thought process might go like this: The saviors of the world may not be consciously joined, but they are united in a single cause. So I can accept that, in a sense, they are joined. Do they have access to all of the power of God’s Will? If God wouldn’t lend His power to those who are trying to save the world, then He must not really care about our happiness. Am I willing to accept that God is uncaring? Personally, I am not. Therefore, I can accept this premise.
• “How does it feel when I let the conclusion sink in, when I take it personally?” Since I have accepted the logic and the premise, I must accept the conclusion: The saviors of the world really will redeem the world. Many thoughts may come from really savoring this: All the pain and suffering in the world really will be healed. The ancient quest to heal and enlighten the world is not futile, however it may seem. Those who work for this cause will succeed, because they are joined in all of God’s power. When I seek to be a blessing to others, all of the power of God is behind me. When I work for the world’s salvation, I am joined with all others working for this cause, regardless of our apparent differences.

Having gone through this process of following the logic, we have a new appreciation for our sample sentence. At first it may have sounded somewhat empty, perhaps trite. Yet now we see that it is actually an answer to old and widespread beliefs that saving the world is futile and that we are impotent in the process.

E. Identifying the specific situation, issue or belief being addressed

Very often, the Course is speaking directly to a certain situation, issue or conventional belief. In these places, it will discuss a host of abstract principles and then apply them all to this particular phenomenon in the world (or in the mind). For instance, it may be talking about a situation in which you have forgiven another but do not trust him to forgive you in return, or about how to respond to another’s physical illness, or about the process of selecting desirable partners, or about our belief that things in this world will make us happy, or about how to deal with the issue of physical possessions.

Yet even when the Course is referring to some everyday phenomenon, it usually does not plainly and openly identify it. Hence, it is easy to miss. Yet if you do miss it, you may also miss a great deal of the whole discussion, which, as I said, is often aimed directly at this particular everyday thing. So be alert for when the Course is referring to some specific situation, issue or belief, and look for clues as to what that thing is.

Example:

If you believe you understand something of the “dynamics” of the ego, let me assure you that you understand nothing of it. For of yourself you could not understand it. The study of the ego is not the study of the mind. In fact, the ego enjoys studying itself, and thoroughly approves the undertakings of students who would “analyze” it, thus approving its importance. Yet they but study form with meaningless content. For their teacher is senseless, though careful to conceal this fact behind impressive sounding words, but which lack any consistent sense when they are put together. (T-14.X.8:4-9)

This passage can sound very vague. It can even be (and has been) taken to mean that studying the Course itself and its statements about the ego is fruitless. This points to the importance of correctly identifying the situation being discussed.

First, you must realize that this passage is referring to some specific thing in the world. The clue lies in all the specifics the passage contains. For instance, we have studying, analyzing, teachers, students and impressive words. Also, the fact that the word “analyze” is in quotes suggests that the Course is referring to that word being used in a particular context.

Seeing a number of specifics referred to, ask yourself what situation in the world they all have in common. What seeks to understand the ego’s dynamics, and claims to study the mind, and has students and teachers, and analyzes the ego, and uses impressive sounding words?

The answer, of course, is modern psychology. Now that we see what is being discussed, we can see what the Course is actually saying about it. What, then, is our sample passage saying about modern psychology? Some pretty devastating things:

• It says that modern psychology will never really understand the ego. As subsequent paragraphs imply, a human mind by itself will always judge the ego as real, since the ego is “by-itselfness.” Only minds that join will be able to realize, from their joint vantage point, that the ego is nothing.
• It says that psychology does not study the mind, only the ego. And since the word “psychology” means “the study of the mind,” modern psychology is not really psychology at all.
• It says that the activity of studying the ego or of analyzing it on the couch is an act of approving of its importance. Modern psychology is thus a massive enterprise in feeding the ego.
• It implies that the ego is actually the teacher, the guiding presence behind modern psychology, and that our learned psychologists are the ego’s eager students.
• It says that in studying the ego, psychology is really studying nothing, since the ego is not real. It studies form that has chaotic, senseless, empty content.
• It says that psychological jargon is actually an attempt to hide this underlying emptiness of content. This jargon uses elaborate, fancy form to substitute for and draw attention away from vacuous content. In other words, psychology’s big words are designed to mask the fact that behind those words is nonsense.

By identifying the specific situation being addressed, then, our passage has gone from a puzzling series of statements with fuzzy and ambiguous meaning to a sweeping (and searing) commentary on modern psychology.

F. Summarizing the message

Though most of our techniques focus on one sentence at a time, it is also extremely valuable to actively seek for the larger picture produced by a series of sentences, paragraphs and sections. As discussed in Part 2 of this “Text/Study” section, the Course wants us to see how large amounts of ideas all come together in a single idea.

I find that the most valuable mental technique for summarizing a paragraph or section is to ask myself two sets of questions frequently while I read:

1. What are the main themes I am reading about and how do they relate to each other? How do they come together into a single picture?
2. What is the problem being described (and the results that it produces) and what is the solution given (and its results)?

One summary technique is to locate a key sentence that best captures a paragraph or perhaps an entire section. You might also want to write your own summaries. I sometimes find it helpful to summarize a paragraph in one sentence, and then write that sentence in the margin of my book. I have also gained a great deal from summarizing an entire section in a short paragraph. Summarizing does require work. It means going over the material you are summarizing again and again, and asking hard questions that would not otherwise occur to you. However, you can be sure that every bit of this effort will pay off in increased understanding.

Step III. Application: What Does It Mean to Me?

By now we have hopefully acquired a pretty good understanding of whatever passage we are reading. We have looked closely at its context, at its terms and pronouns, at the basic gist of its sentences and at its logic. We have identified any physical or mental situations it may be commenting on and have perhaps even summarized it.

Now it is time for the crowning part of the study process, applying the material to our own lives: letting it become for us more real, more vivid, more personal and more specific. This step is so important because it unites our study with the author’s intent to transform and not merely inform.

A. Experiencing and visualizing the passage

The point of this step is to allow the passage to become more real to us, and therefore to let it impact our minds more strongly. I will take the two aspects of experiencing and visualizing one at a time.

Experiencing

What I mean by this is simply to take a passage, feel its meaning, and imagine that it is really true. Soak it in. Take it seriously. Ask yourself: How would I feel if this were actually true?

Many, if not most, of the passages in the Course can at first sound distant and somewhat irrelevant. Yet when you imagine that they really are true, they suddenly take on an unexpected power and relevance—and challenge.

Example:

Within me is Eternal Innocence, because it is God’s Will that It be there forever and forever. (W-pII.309.1:1)

Imagine this passage is literally true, not mere flowery rhetoric nor exaggeration of any kind. Imagine that within you lies not layers of tarnish from decades of selfishness but pure innocence; and not just innocence, eternal innocence: innocence that can never change or alter even slightly; innocence that is part of eternity. And you can be sure this innocence will never go away. Why? Because God Wills that it be there (notice the logic here). God’s Will is not that you obey a set of commandments, nor that you pay for your disobedience (notice that the author is subtly addressing the conventional association of God’s Will with guilt, not innocence). His Will is that timeless innocence abide in you “forever and forever.” And this will be so, because nothing can overpower God’s Will.

Hence, your eyes can brush over this passage as a trail of abstract words, or you can imagine that it really is true and so feel its full impact.

Visualizing

The Course is full of visual images. The author knows that we respond to pictures in a way that we do not to abstract ideas. (M-21.2:1-3) And so he constantly clothes his abstract ideas in concrete pictures. Sometimes he will develop an image and carry it on for an entire section (for some excellent examples of this see “The Two Pictures” in Chapter 17, “The Little Garden” in Chapter 18 and the fourth obstacle of “The Obstacles to Peace” in Chapter 19).

The first step in visualizing is simply observing that the author has painted a visual picture.

Watch for this, looking especially for visual words like “face,” “door,” “thorns,” etc.

The second step is putting together the image. Sometimes the image will be immediately clear.

Yet at other times you will need to read very carefully in order to mentally assemble the image as a whole.

The third step is understanding the meaning of the image. The image will symbolize some idea the Course is teaching in that passage. The whole purpose of the image is to make that idea more vivid, alive and impactful. So it is important to understand what the idea is.

The fourth step is actually visualizing the image while being aware of its meaning. Try to picture it in your mind’s eye while holding in mind what it means.

Example:

And yet, your mind holds only what you think with God. Your self deceptions cannot take the place of truth [what you think with God]. No more than can a child who throws a stick into the ocean change the coming and the going of the tides, the warming of the water by the sun, the silver of the moon on it by night. (W-pI.RIV.In.4:1-3)

This wonderful image is readily identifiable. It requires no detective work. But what does it mean? It symbolizes the idea (which we are being instructed to practice for ten days), “My mind holds only what I think with God.” This means that when God created my mind, He placed in it my real thoughts. These real thoughts are stable, formless and infinite realities that God and I think together in perfect unison. These are all my mind really holds. Yet I think I have replaced these eternal thoughts with my little thoughts about breakfast, the weather and the duties of the day. I think these have actually changed the character of my mind.

Thus, I am the child. As I visualize myself on the beach, throwing a stick into the ocean, I realize this is me throwing a thought into my mind. I believe this thought actually remolds my mind, banishing whatever grand thoughts that God placed there in the beginning. Yet my mind is not some little pool that I established. It is an ocean whose grandeur was established by God. And so I see my stick simply floating on the unchanged ocean. As it floats, I see the water being slowly warmed as the sun’s rays shine upon it. When the sun goes down I see the water calmly reflecting the light of the moon. And while the wheel of the days and nights continues to turn, I see the tides come and go as they always have. I see the ocean’s stately rhythms proceed exactly as they have from time immemorial, unheeding of my little stick. And as I do, I realize my true mind continues in just this same way, unaffected by my little thoughts.

B. Reading it as personally addressing you

The Course is written very personally to the reader. Originally, of course, it was speaking personally to Helen Schucman and Bill Thetford. But it also is meant to personally address each and all of its students. This style flows from its goal of transforming our minds. It addresses us personally because it wants to reach us, and heal us, at a very personal level. The following techniques can be helpful for making the Course a more personal experience.

Reading it as speaking to you directly

This technique is very simple: Just imagine that the Course is speaking to you personally. You can do this when the Course is saying “you,” or you can switch occurrences of “he” and “they” to “you.” As an aid to this technique, feel free to occasionally fill in your name. For instance: “You always choose, [fill in your name], between your weakness and the strength of Christ in you.”

Changing “you” statements into “I” statements

Often, when the Course wants us to really ponder some material and make it our own, it will put that material into first person. This is an important technique in the Workbook, where all the ideas for the day are in “I” form, and also where four of the six reviews (I, II, III, VI) and many of the lessons in Part II are in this form. Feel free, therefore, to turn various statements in the Course into first person statements. This will often give them greater force and meaning.

Asking yourself the questions it asks

The Course asks a great many rhetorical questions—questions designed not to be answered but to have an effect on our minds. To receive the full effect of these questions, we need to ask them of ourselves. Try this sentence, for instance:

“Is it not strange that you should cherish still some hope of satisfaction from the world you see?” (T-25.II.2:1)

Imagining that Jesus is speaking it directly to you

If the Course is speaking to you, there must be a speaker. For many students, the Course takes on extra power when they focus on the idea that Jesus is speaking it to them, and even doing so right now. To help this process, feel free to occasionally fill in “my brother” or “my child”—Jesus’ favorite ways of addressing us in the Course. But you can fill in whatever you want: my friend, my pupil, my disciple, my fellow Son of God, etc. For instance: “You are as God created you, my dear friend, and so is every living thing you look upon….” (A variation on Text, p. 620-621; (T-31.VIII.6:1))

Talking back to him; making it a dialogue

Make the reading of the Course into a dialogue, not just a monologue. Watch your mind for your reactions and speak them back to the author. Then, either listen for a response from within, or look for a response in the material you are reading. Some suggestions for things to mentally speak to the author:

• Your objections, confusions or frustrations about what he is saying.
• Your questions about how to achieve the goals he discusses.
• Your strong desire to reach the states he talks about.
• The things you now believe (as shown by your actions) in place of what he is saying.
• Your assent to and gratitude for what he is saying.

C. Mentally applying the message

Allen and I consider this final step to be the crowning part of the whole process. This final step is what brings concrete effects from the Course into your daily life. This is what turns study into a catalyst for practical transformation. This is where “What does it mean to me?” really gets answered. We will look at three ways to inwardly apply the message we are reading.

Attempting to carry out the instructions

The Course is absolutely filled with injunctive statements. Most sections will begin with teaching and then end by giving us injunctions to apply these teachings. For instance, “Be comforted, and feel the Holy Spirit watching over you in love and perfect confidence in what He sees.” (T-20.V.8:1) In the step of observation you learn to spot these injunctions (simply by noticing that you are being told to do something in your mind). Here, in this step, you attempt to carry these instructions out. It is helpful to ask yourself the following questions:

• What am I being asked to do?
• Can I attempt to do this in this very moment as I read?
• How would I go about carrying out this instruction completely in my everyday life?
• What results would come from carrying this instruction out completely?

Turning the passage you are reading into a prayer

One can turn almost any passage in the Course into a prayer. This brings God directly into our study. It also puts our will, our assent, behind the message we are reading. Turning a passage into a prayer is very easy to do, especially with those that mention God. For example, “The memory of God comes to the quiet mind” (T-23.I.1:1) can become “God, may Your memory come to my quiet mind.”

Relating it to the specifics of your life

Perhaps the technique that can most make the Text come alive is applying what you are reading to some specific thing in your life. In fact, the Course says that unless an abstract word brings to mind some concrete picture, “the word has little or no practical meaning [to our minds], and thus cannot help the healing process.” (M-21.2:3) So as often as possible think of specific examples from your life and apply to them what the Course is saying. This will make seemingly dry and abstract passages take on sudden life.

Example:

However much he overlooks the masterpiece in him and sees only a frame of darkness, it is still your only function to behold in him what he sees not. (T-25.II.8:7)

The masterpiece here is the Son that God created, the true Identity of this person. The frame of darkness is a frame of “flesh and bones” (T-25.II.7:1) —this person’s body, which seems to contain his identity. Now, if you will, apply this sentence to a particular person in your life. Say to yourself, “However much [name] overlooks the masterpiece in him (or her) and sees only a body, a frame of darkness, it is still my only function, the only reason I am here, to behold in him God’s masterpiece.”

Did applying the sentence in this way give it any more impact, meaning or relevance for you? If so, you may want to go on and apply it to several people in your life.

Letting your mind relate it to your needs, problems and concerns

In Review III (Paragraphs 5-7) the Workbook gives a fascinating version of this specific application. What follows is a brief synopsis of this technique as I understand it.

1. “Place the ideas within your mind.” (W-pI.RIII.In.6:1) After you have read a passage and understood the idea expressed, simply place the passage in your mind.
2. “Give direction at the outset.” (6:6) We then direct our minds to relate this idea to our needs, problems and concerns.
3. “Offer [the ideas] to your mind in…trust and confidence and faith.” (7:2) Over and over these instructions say that you can trust your mind. Your mind is the Holy Spirit’s chosen means for your salvation. He trusts your mind and He will inspire it in this process. Therefore, you can trust it to display real and unexpected wisdom in using these ideas.

This, by the way, does not mean that your mind will come up with perfect wisdom. The current wisdom of your mind will be imperfect and will grow and deepen over time. What this does mean is that your mind is far wiser than you think.

4. “Then lean back in quiet faith (6:6) …while letting your mind relate them to your needs, your seeming problems and all your concerns.” (5:3) Rather than forcing your mind, you simply let it go to those needs, problems and concerns in your life that need healing. And then you let your mind wisely apply the idea to these specific things. This will take the form of “related thoughts,” thoughts that are similar to the beginning idea but are specifically tailored to these particular needs, problems or concerns.

Example: What this process might look like is suggested by the previous review (Review II). For each idea to be reviewed it lists three related thoughts our mind might dish up to answer some difficulty. For an example I will use Lesson 89’s review of “I am entitled to miracles” (Lesson 77).

We first place in our mind “I am entitled to miracles.” We then direct our mind to relate this idea to our needs, problems and concerns, trusting our mind’s wisdom in doing so. Perhaps what first occurs to us is that our rent is almost due and we do not have the rent money. We lean back and let our mind come up with a specific application:

Behind this is a miracle to which I am entitled. (W-pI.89.2:2)

Then we allow our mind to go to another problem. Perhaps we have been angry at a co-worker for not doing her job properly and so burdening our work. We then listen for a related thought that speaks to this, and this is what arises:

Let me not hold a grievance against you, [name], but offer you the miracle that belongs to you instead.(2:3)

Perhaps at this point our mind wanders. And so we place the beginning idea in our mind once more—”I am entitled to miracles”—and then resume the process. Our mind then goes to our desire for more romantic fulfillment and our frustration at not having the relationship we want. The wisdom of our mind then brings forth this related thought:

Seen truly, this offers me a miracle. (2:4)

This, of course, could go on and on. I have used a Workbook lesson as an example, but this could be done as easily with a line from the Text. Any idea from the Course could be placed in your mind and then used by your mind to supply answers to your current difficulties. How better could you turn study into a genuine spiritual practice?

Is your mind capable of this kind of study?

Perhaps the primary question in the back of your mind while reading this material has been: Is my mind able to do this kind of study? You may wonder if you have the requisite mental abilities to notice connections, to capture the essence of a sentence or of a paragraph, or to vividly picture an image. I have three responses to these thoughts.

First, trust your mind. It knows what to do. The Course tells us this emphatically, in the instructions for the technique we just examined:

You have been given them [the ideas of the Course] in perfect trust; in perfect confidence that you would use them well; in perfect faith that you would see their messages and use them for yourself. (W-pI.RIII.In.7:1-2, 35. Phillipians 2:5)

This is an amazing passage. It cannot be read too often. If the Holy Spirit trusts that you will see the Course’s messages and use them for yourself, who are you to say that you cannot? More than once the Course points out that believing that we cannot do the Course is arrogance, since God says that we can.

Second, truly effective study of the Course is an acquired skill. It comes with time and effort. You will learn this language, if you want to. Remember the passage we quoted at the beginning of this article? It said that just as a baby learns its native tongue, you will learn the Course, for it is truly your language.

Third, there will always be a place for teachers who, through their writings, tapes or through personal dialogue, can help us to better understand, appreciate and apply the Course. We should not let them do all the work for us, but we should also be grateful for the help they can offer.

How long should we study the Text?

How long should we study the Text? Should we keep studying it over and over? The only clue the Course gives about repeated reading is in Part II of the Workbook. There we are asked to take the same five paragraphs and study them every day for ten days. This means that repeated study is something the Course definitely values.

My opinion about this is that we cannot begin to mine the wisdom of the Text in a single lifetime—no one can. There will always be more there. I spoke to a long-time student and teacher of the Course who claimed that after years of studying, discussing and writing for a good part of each day, he has gotten maybe 5% of what is contained in the Text. Every time we study we will see things we did not see before. This has prompted the common joke among Course students that the author keeps rewriting the book. I have studied certain sections in great detail several times, and each time I will see whole new dimensions I didn’t see before.

Not only do I continue to discover more meaning in passages that I have been over and over, my estimation of how much meaning waits to be discovered in the Course’s passages continues to rise. For me, rather than feeling like I have exhausted the Course, my experience of studying it only grows richer, more transformative and more personally meaningful with time.

If the Text can keep giving us more, keep providing more fuel for our spiritual journey, why not keep studying it?

The rewards of Text study

Studying the Text slowly and thoughtfully does take effort. As any Course student knows, one cannot read the Text in the same breezy way one would read a novel. The Text asks of you everything your mind can give. It asks for a mind that is alert, concentrated, on its toes and willing to challenge its deepest assumptions. Is all this effort really worth it?

My answer to this question is that if the Course is your path, nothing could be more worth the effort. Slow, thoughtful and repeated study of the Text is food for the mind. It will change your mind like little else can. It will appear to rewire your brain; new connections will form and old connections will dissolve. Your thoughts will naturally flow along entirely new lines. You will draw new conclusions from the same sets of information; see new dimensions in the same old people and situations. In essence, your mind will mature—in a different direction than conventional maturity—and take on a wisdom and insight you never thought you possessed.

The reason is simple: The Course’s words and ideas are an intimate reflection of the mind of its author. Encoded in its composition of words and juxtaposition of ideas, in its subtle turns of thought and profound insinuations between the lines, in its stunning challenges and soaring flights of inspiration, is the author’s state of mind. And that state is not of this world. It looks upon our world from somewhere else, from a condition that is more vast, whole, happy and sublime than we can conceive. Yet as we enter into the meaning behind his words, we touch his thought and are pulled toward the distant shore where his mind abides. Our minds are enlarged and expanded, deepened and unified, as we are drawn into the vast spaces of his mind. Thus is fulfilled in us the verse in the Bible which says, “Let the mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus.”

Therefore, my dictum for Course study is this: “If you give it your whole mind, he will give you his.”

 

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(1) Mortimer Adler and Charles Van Doren, How to Read a Book (New York: MJF Books, 1972), pp. 31-44.

(2) Not only do sections come to their own kind of close, they conclude in similar ways. When a section comes near to its end, it will take the ideas it has been discussing and ask the reader to apply them, especially to one’s relationship with others. Very often, too, the section will end with a medley of references to previous sections. Or it may tie the section’s themes into the major themes of the Course—such as forgiveness, the miracle or the holy instant. In all these ways, the end of a section will often place the section’s ideas in their proper context, tying those ideas into the Course’s larger thought system and into its main thrust of application within human relationships.

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[Please note: ACIM passages quoted in this article reference the Foundation for Inner Peace (FIP) Edition.]
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