In this class I was trying to capture a very large and multifaceted teaching that runs throughout the Course. The Course is fully aware that we see the spiritual journey as just too difficult. In our view, the Course asks too much of us. It doesn’t deliver on its promises. It wants us to give up our normal human pleasures, deny our natural impulses, sacrifice our best interests on behalf of a higher truth, all in order to seek a distant and uncertain reward. Further, the world seems to be giving us constant proof that the ego is the only reality. It seems to show us that only the ego’s reactions are justified. Therefore, we tend to travel very slowly on its path. It’s so much easier to just go with our natural impulses and pursue more attainable worldly goals.
This view seems to be a case of standing outside the process and simply observing what’s what. It seems to be an objective take on the journey. But according to the Course, it is anything but. Rather, it is a view of the journey that is produced by the very sickness we are trying to overcome.
The truth is that the Course is eminently doable. It asks very little of us, especially in comparison to what our ego asks of us. The “natural” impulses it asks us to relinquish are a distortion of our truly natural impulses. Our real will wants only the things the Course is offering; only the things of God. And so all we are sacrificing is that which makes us suffer. And the Course’s promises are borne out in our experience when we do what it says. We just discount those results as not being as worthwhile to pursue as the ego’s gifts. Further, only the Course’s goals are achievable; the ego’s goals can never actually be reached.
Moreover, while the world may seem to offer proof that only the ego’s reactions are justified, the law of perception states that we will see as justified in the world whatever we want to cultivate in ourselves. If we want to love and forgive, we will a world in which only those reactions are justified. The world we see will facilitate whatever goal we truly hold.
In the end, the truth about the journey couldn’t be more opposite to what we tell ourselves. The Course asks little of us. It only asks that we give up what makes us suffer. No sacrifice at all is involved. As soon as we desire its goals, we will see only their justification in the world, and we will find that they are actually more, not less, attainable than our worldly goals.
I am just trying to capture some of the gist of a larger picture that I can’t yet see in its entirety. The basic point is that we’ve been seeing the journey all wrong. We all fight the journey. We all drag our heels. (The sooner we can catch ourselves doing that, the better.) But we make such slow progress because we see the journey from an incorrect perspective. If we saw it for what it really is, we would be channeling all our energies in its direction. All we are waiting for is for ourselves to say yes.
———
If you enjoyed this article, you might like this one!
To learn more about our community of A Course in Miracles students, visit Course Companions.
