Study Guide and Commentary
ACIM Text, Section 1.I,
Second part
I. Principles of Miracles
We are continuing with “Principles of Miracles,” taking the miracle principles in topical groups. Last week we covered five groups; this week we will cover five more.
The Kind of Thoughts That Miracles Correct
Principles 24, 26, 33, 42, 39, 50, 8, 34, and 41
24. 1 Miracles enable you to heal the sick and raise the dead because you made sickness and death yourself, and can therefore abolish both. 2 You are a miracle, capable of creating in the likeness of your Creator. 3 Everything else is your own nightmare, and does not exist. 4 Only the creations of light are real.
26. 1 Miracles represent freedom from fear. 2 "Atoning" means "undoing." 3 The undoing of fear is an essential part of the Atonement value of miracles.
33. 1 Miracles honor you because you are lovable. 2 They dispel illusions about yourself and perceive the light in you. 3 They thus atone for your errors by freeing you from your nightmares. 4 By releasing your mind from the imprisonment of your illusions, they restore your sanity.
42. 1 A major contribution of miracles is their strength in releasing you from your false sense of isolation, deprivation and lack.
39. 1 The miracle dissolves error because the Holy Spirit identifies error as false or unreal. 2 This is the same as saying that by perceiving light, darkness automatically disappears.
50. 1 The miracle compares what you have made with creation, accepting what is in accord with it as true, and rejecting what is out of accord as false.
8. 1 Miracles are healing because they supply a lack; they are performed by those who temporarily have more for those who temporarily have less.
34. 1 Miracles restore the mind to its fullness. 2 By atoning for lack they establish perfect protection. 3 The spirit's strength leaves no room for intrusions.
41. 1 Wholeness is the perceptual content of miracles. 2 They thus correct, or atone for, the faulty perception of lack.
• Study Questions •
1. Read over these principles in the order listed above and try to summarize in a phrase or two what kinds of thoughts miracles correct. If you can, give examples from your own experience; what thoughts in you will miracles correct?
2. Note the word “atone” in Principle #41; this is another important Course term. What meaning does it seem to have in sentence 2?
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If miracles correct our thoughts, what is it about our thoughts that needs correcting? The principles in this group all help answer that question. Miracles correct thoughts: of death; unlike God; of fear; of vulnerability; of illusions; that are nightmares; of isolation, deprivation or lack; that are false or unreal; that are not in accord with God’s creation. Principle #24 tells us that “only the creations of light are real,” and that “everything else”—for instance, sickness and death which we made rather than created—“is your own nightmare, and does not exist.” That should remind you of the Introduction’s words: “Nothing real can be threatened. Nothing unreal exists.”
The idea here, in broad strokes, is that miracles undo (see T-1.I.26:2), or erase, any and all illusions that we have made, leaving only God’s creations. Sickness and death are among those nightmares of our minds, and therefore they, too, can be erased. If you look through these principles you will see a number of other things said to be undone by miracles: fear; dark illusions about ourselves; our errors; our false sense of isolation, deprivation and lack; and—in general—anything that is out of accord with creation.
Miracles do not change anything that is real; they undo what is not real, thus revealing what is real. “Wholeness is the perceptual content of miracles” (T-1.I.41:1).
A miracle can make no change at all. But it can make what always has been true be recognized by those who know it not (T-26.VII.20:4–5).
A miracle is a correction. It does not create, nor really change at all. It merely looks on devastation, and reminds the mind that what it sees is false. It undoes error (W-pII.13.1:1–4).
Thus, the whole concept of a miracle as the Course sees it is based on the idea that the “devastation” we perceive is false. The miracle does not treat our deprivation and lack as real and try to counter it; instead, it releases our mind from its false sense of deprivation and lack. The miracle seems “miraculous” to us because when we are touched by a miracle, we suddenly see “what has always been true,” appearing as if out of nowhere before our eyes.
This is hard to grasp at first. To aid your understanding, let me mention another key element in the thinking of the Course: The world we perceive is caused by our minds that are perceiving it. The world is shaped by our thoughts. Therefore, if we can change our thoughts, the world will change accordingly.
This isn’t an idea that is easily accepted by our minds. That’s why there is a whole course dedicated to helping us accept it. If you find the idea hard to credit now, that’s fine. Just sit with it. Consider that it might be true, and be open to testing it out and trying it on for size. Over time, with much consideration, you may come to accept it more and more.
Miracles affirm spirit, not body, as our reality
Principles 2, 17, 20, 22, 24, 29, 30, 32 and 44
2. 1 Miracles as such do not matter. 2 The only thing that matters is their Source, Which is far beyond evaluation.
17. 1 Miracles transcend the body. 2 They are sudden shifts into invisibility, away from the bodily level. 3 That is why they heal.
20. 1 Miracles reawaken the awareness that the spirit, not the body, is the altar of truth. 2 This is the recognition that leads to the healing power of the miracle.
22. 1 Miracles are associated with fear only because of the belief that darkness can hide. 2 You believe that what your physical eyes cannot see does not exist. 3 This leads to a denial of spiritual sight.
24. 1 Miracles enable you to heal the sick and raise the dead because you made sickness and death yourself, and can therefore abolish both. 2 You are a miracle, capable of creating in the likeness of your Creator. 3 Everything else is your own nightmare, and does not exist. 4 Only the creations of light are real.
29. 1 Miracles praise God through you. 2 They praise Him by honoring His creations, affirming their perfection. 3 They heal because they deny body-identification and affirm spirit-identification.
30. 1 By recognizing spirit, miracles adjust the levels of perception and show them in proper alignment. 2 This places spirit at the center, where it can communicate directly.
32. 1 I inspire all miracles, which are really intercessions. 2 They intercede for your holiness and make your perceptions holy. 3 By placing you beyond the physical laws they raise you into the sphere of celestial order. 4 In this order you are perfect.
44. 1 The miracle is an expression of an inner awareness of Christ and the acceptance of His Atonement.
• Study Question •
3. Principle #29 talks about praising God. Normally we think of praising God as meaning something like telling God how great He is. According to this principle, how can we praise God?
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We are accustomed to thinking of miracles as things that affect the physical world, especially our bodies. When something very unlikely happens, such as a spontaneous remission of cancer, we call that a miracle. I think that when the Course says, “Miracles as such do not matter,” it is using the word “miracles” with that common meaning in mind. It isn’t the remission of cancer that matters, says the Course; it is the Source of that sort of thing that matters. Since “Source” is capitalized, we can realize that it refers to God. All words that refer directly to the divine are capitalized in the Course.
As we progress through the miracle principles, we see again and again that the Course is trying to shift our attention away from happenings in the physical world and towards “invisibility,” “the spirit,” “the creations of light,” “spirit-identification,” and “an inner awareness of Christ.” Miracles themselves are intended to reawaken our awareness of the invisible spirit. In fact, recognizing the central reality of spirit as opposed to body “is the recognition that leads to the healing power of the miracle.” In other words, it is turning our attention away from the body that allows the body to be healed! This principle is stated again, very clearly, in the Manual for Teachers:
What is the single requisite for this shift in perception? It is simply this; the recognition that sickness is of the mind, and has nothing to do with the bodyÉ.Herein is the release from guilt and sickness both, for they are one. Yet to accept this release, the insignificance of the body must be an acceptable idea (M-5.II.3:1–2,11–12).
Why must we de-emphasize the body in order to heal the body? Because healing happens as a result of affirming the primary reality of spirit. What we are is spirit; our bodies are simply a physical manifestation of our belief about ourselves. If we can bring our belief about ourselves more in line with our spiritual reality, our bodily condition will reflect the wholeness of spirit.
Miracles—and even their result in physical healing—can actually be frightening. Why? Because their occurrence threatens the view of reality to which we are accustomed. It is hard to believe in the fundamental reality of the physical universe when a miracle comes along and changes it without regard to physical laws. To a person firmly attached to a belief “that what your physical eyes cannot see does not exist,” that is terrifying. For miracles to be accepted, we must be willing to let go of our identification with our bodies.
Miracles, then, affirm our identity with the spirit and deny our identity with the body, and that switch in the focus of our identity is what allows miracles to heal us. Spirit is placed back at the center of our being, where it belongs. The perfection of spirit becomes recognized. We become aware of Christ (God’s image) within ourselves and within others, and the perfection of God’s creation in spirit is allowed to find expression in the physical.
I want to point out once again that in the Course’s view of miracles, what is changing, primarily, is our perception of ourselves and of one another. Instead of seeing body, we are seeing spirit. Instead of seeing sickness, we are seeing wholeness. Instead of seeing guilt, we are seeing innocent holiness. The miracle is what brings about that shift in our perception, allowing us to use our spiritual sight and to discount what our physical eyes are telling us.
Miracles are a means and revelation is an end
Principles 28, 31, 46 and 48
28. 1 Miracles are a way of earning release from fear. 2 Revelation induces a state in which fear has already been abolished. 3 Miracles are thus a means and revelation is an end.
31. 1 Miracles should inspire gratitude, not awe. 2 You should thank God for what you really are. 3 The children of God are holy and the miracle honors their holiness, which can be hidden but never lost.
46. 1 The Holy Spirit is the highest communication medium. 2 Miracles do not involve this type of communication, because they are temporary communication devices. 3 When you return to your original form of communication with God by direct revelation, the need for miracles is over.
48. 1 The miracle is the only device at your immediate disposal for controlling time. 2 Only revelation transcends it, having nothing to do with time at all.
With this being A Course in Miracles you might figure that miracles are its goal for us, but they aren’t. Instead, as Principle #28 says very clearly, the goal—the “end”—is revelation. Miracles are the means for reaching that goal or achieving that end.
This is a point we are going to come back to in a big way in the very next section of the Text, which is titled, “Revelation, Time and Miracles.” So we don’t need to go into it in great detail now. The way this principle explains it is this: “Miracles are a way of earning release from fear,” while revelation brings about a state in which fear is wholly absent. Miracles occur within time and save time; revelation is beyond time entirely. Miracles, then, obviously must come first. They are involved in removing fear, and revelation is synonymous with complete absence of fear. (The idea there, I believe, is that our fear of God is completely gone, enabling us to receive communication directly from Him.)
How do miracles release us from fear? Well, we’ve seen in the principles we’ve already examined that miracles involve forgiveness. Miracles honor our holiness, showing us that, although it may have been hidden, our holiness has never been lost. They involve perceiving ourselves and others as innocent instead of guilty. Where there is guilt, there is fear. When guilt is removed, fear soon departs. Miracles remove our guilt, eliminating the reason we fear God, and thus opening the way for direct communication with God, which is revelation.
• Study Question •
4. Our original form of communication with God is “direct revelation,” according to Principle #46. In what ways do miracles differ from this kind of direct revelation?
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Time is for miracles, and miracles shorten time
Principles 13, 15, 19, 25, 47 and 48
13. 1 Miracles are both beginnings and endings, and so they alter the temporal order. 2 They are always affirmations of rebirth, which seem to go back but really go forward. 3 They undo the past in the present, and thus release the future.
15. 1 Each day should be devoted to miracles. 2 The purpose of time is to enable you to learn how to use time constructively. 3 It is thus a teaching device and a means to an end. 4 Time will cease when it is no longer useful in facilitating learning.
19. 1 Miracles make minds one in God. 2 They depend on cooperation because the Sonship is the sum of all that God created. 3 Miracles therefore reflect the laws of eternity, not of time.
25. 1 Miracles are part of an interlocking chain of forgiveness which, when completed, is the Atonement. 2 Atonement works all the time and in all the dimensions of time.
47. 1 The miracle is a learning device that lessens the need for time. 2 It establishes an out-of-pattern time interval not under the usual laws of time. 3 In this sense it is timeless.
48. 1 The miracle is the only device at your immediate disposal for controlling time. 2 Only revelation transcends it, having nothing to do with time at all.
Time is for miracles
Principle #15 contains a simple statement with a very broad scope; it purports to tell us “the purpose of time” (T-1.I.15:2). Think about what a sweeping phrase that is! In four words, it includes not only your entire lifetime but every lifetime ever lived on this planet and on every other planet. If we know the purpose of time, we know the purpose for everything that happens in time.
And what is the purpose of time? “Éto enable you to learn how to use time constructively.” Put that together with the sentence that precedes it, “Each day should be devoted to miracles,” and it is obviously telling us that time exists to provide a context for miracles. Miracles are what time is for, and the giving and receiving of miracles is the only constructive use of time there is.
Did you notice how similar the last part of Principle #15 is to what has been said about miracles themselves? Time is a teaching device, a means to an end, which will cease when learning is over. And as we saw in Principles #28 and #46, miracles also are a means to an end, and will cease when the end has been reached. Miracles and time go together very closely. They are learning tools, nothing more, which will pass away when the learning has been accomplished.
But think, for a moment, what it would be like to devote each day to miracles. Your primary purpose in every moment would be the healing of your mind and the minds of those around you. In every situation, with every person, you would be seeking to allow your own perception to be healed, to relinquish judgment and to perceive the holy Son of God in every person around you, looking past their appearance and behavior to their reality in spirit. As I write this commentary, my purpose would not be to put words on paper (or into electronic form), but to let my mistakes of thought be corrected. I would not be trying to impress you, but to share with you the beauty of your own perfection as God’s children.
Everything you do has purpose when you devote your day to miracles. The most abrasive neighbor or co-worker is just grist for the mill, just another opportunity to transform your mind. Another chance to bring peace and healing into the world. Your reason for doing everything is healing, yours and that of your brother and sister. It isn’t to get the shopping done, to get the meal on the table, to clean the floor, to change the oil in the car, to get from home to work or work to home. Your purpose, at all times, whatever you are doing, is to offer miracles, to allow God to perform miracles in your mind and to extend those miracles through you to the entire world. This is how the Course views us going through our days! This is what time is for.
When you meet anyone, remember it is a holy encounterÉ.Whenever two Sons of God meet, they are given another chance at salvation. Do not leave anyone without giving salvation to him and receiving it yourself. For I am always there with you, in remembrance of <you> (T-8.III.4:1, 6–7).
And if a brother seems to tempt you to deny God's gift to him, see it as but another chance to let yourself receive the gifts of God as yours. Then bless your brother thankfully, and say:
My brother, peace and joy I offer you, That I may have God's peace and joy as mine (W-pI.105.9:4–6).
(Other similar remarks you can look up if you wish: T-25.III.6:5–8; T-31.VIII.4:2; T-31.VIII.4:2; W-pI.158.10:5; and P-2.VI.6:3).
Miracles shorten time
Miracles are connected with time in another way as well, in that miracles actually lessen the need for time! It’s as though the Course is saying, given enough time, we will all eventually learn our lessons; we will all eventually remember what we are and accept our nature as God’s creation. But there is a faster way home than just plodding through time. Miracles are an accelerated learning program; they let you learn more quickly. The Course refers to this same idea in several ways. Saving time, shortening time, and collapsing time are all the same concept: cutting the time it takes us to reach the end of the journey, to complete all of our learning. This concept, like the relationship of miracles and revelation, will also be expanded on in Section II of Chapter 1, as we will see in our next commentary.
For me, the key principle that tells how miracles affect time is Principle #13. They “alter the temporal order.” The normal temporal order is that when we “sin,” that remains forever in our past. It casts a long shadow of guilt over the present and alters the future in dark ways. Forgiveness, as the Course teaches it, undoes guilt. Forgiveness always works in the present moment and undoes some guilt about something in the past. By releasing myself, or someone else, from guilt about the past, it frees us in the present to have a future that is unlike the past.
The Course teaches that the only true thing we can say about the past is that it is not the present; it is not here now. If something does not exist in the present it cannot have any real effects in the present. The only way the past can seem to have effects in the present is if we bring the past with us in our minds. The Course teaches us to let go of the past and to live in the present without reference to the past, especially without reference to the guilt from the past. If we bring the past with us into the present, we block our awareness of love in the present, and thus guarantee that the future will be just like the past. If we treat each present moment as something new, we open ourselves to change. We open ourselves to the miracle of forgiveness.
We are here simply to remove the blocks to our awareness of love. That is all time is for. Miracles remove those blocks rapidly; they lessen the need for time to remove them. When the miracle removes our guilt it does in an instant what might otherwise take years. It releases the future to love. And that is how the miracle undoes the past in the present, and thus releases the future.
One additional point about miracles and time: The instant of time in which a miracle occurs is called, later in the Text, “the holy instant.” In this section, it is referred to as “an out-of-pattern time interval not under the usual laws of time,” a moment in which the “laws of eternity, not of time” are reflected. Here, in the mundane moments of our daily life, suddenly the reality of our eternal oneness in Christ flashes through, and we recognize that we are one, and always have been.
• Study Question •
5. Close your eyes, and spend a few moments imagining your day from this time forward. Or, if it is evening, imagine tomorrow. Imagine devoting the entire day to miracles. See yourself getting ready to leave the house, aware each moment that your purpose is not whatever thing you are doing, but the experience of miracles. See yourself driving to work, using every circumstance and every moment to receive and to give miracles. See yourself doing whatever you do during the day as a means of giving and receiving miracles. Imagine how it would feel. And tell yourself, “This is as every day should be” (W-pII.232.2:1).
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The Place of the Holy Spirit and Jesus in regard to miracles
Holy Spirit: Principles 4, 38, 39 and 46
4. 1 All miracles mean life, and God is the Giver of life. 2 His Voice will direct you very specifically. 3 You will be told all you need to know.
38. 1 The Holy Spirit is the mechanism of miracles. 2 He recognizes both God's creations and your illusions. 3 He separates the true from the false by His ability to perceive totally rather than selectively.
39. 1 The miracle dissolves error because the Holy Spirit identifies error as false or unreal. 2 This is the same as saying that by perceiving light, darkness automatically disappears.
46. 1 The Holy Spirit is the highest communication medium. 2 Miracles do not involve this type of communication, because they are temporary communication devices. 3 When you return to your original form of communication with God by direct revelation, the need for miracles is over.
Jesus: principles 27, 32 and 37
27. 1 A miracle is a universal blessing from God through me to all my brothers. 2 It is the privilege of the forgiven to forgive.
32. 1 I inspire all miracles, which are really intercessions. 2 They intercede for your holiness and make your perceptions holy. 3 By placing you beyond the physical laws they raise you into the sphere of celestial order. 4 In this order you are perfect.
37. 1 A miracle is a correction introduced into false thinking by me. 2 It acts as a catalyst, breaking up erroneous perception and reorganizing it properly. 3 This places you under the Atonement principle, where perception is healed. 4 Until this has occurred, knowledge of the Divine Order is impossible.
Holy Spirit
The Course borrows many different terms, phrases and symbols from traditional Christianity, as we have already seen—terms such as “miracle,” “atonement” and “revelation.” In this section we also see it using the term “Holy Spirit.” It says, for instance, “The Holy Spirit is the mechanism of miracles” (T-1.I.38:1). It just uses the term, apparently assuming that the reader will have some idea what it means. So it has to be expecting its students to have a basic familiarity with Christian terms.
Most people with a Christian background will have some idea of what the Holy Spirit is, although in my experience, even devout Christians are a bit vague about the Holy Spirit. My dictionary just says, “The third Person of the Christian Trinity,” which is not very informative. Another dictionary calls it “the spirit of God,” and refers to “the presence of God as a part of a person’s religious experience.” That’s pretty much how most people would understand the term, and I think that at the beginning of the Course, that’s about how we are meant to think of the Holy Spirit. Somehow the term refers to the interaction of God and man, the power of God at work in our experience. One of the synonyms for the Holy Spirit in the Course is “the Voice for God,” or as Principle #4 refers to it, “His Voice.” So, in the Course’s picture of things, it is the Holy Spirit who speaks to us and communicates with us.
The Course develops that meaning quite a bit; these principles present a basic outline of an idea that is repeated and fleshed out all through the Course, which is this: The Holy Spirit acts as a sort of bridge between God and humankind, and between the reality of God’s creation and the illusions of our making. “He recognizes both God’s creations and your illusions” (T-1.I.38:2). In the Course, God Himself does not know illusions; God only knows reality or truth. We, on the other hand, are almost completely wrapped up in illusions and have forgotten or hidden the truth. There is a huge gap between truth and illusion. The Holy Spirit, for the Course, is the “mechanism” (Principle #38) or the means by which that seeming gap is bridged. Though God cannot deal with illusions, the Holy Spirit is an agent of God who does deal with illusions.
We can note also that the Holy Spirit is referred to here as “He,” a person, rather than as an “It.” I should point out that the Course’s use of masculine pronouns in reference to God and the Holy Spirit does not indicate any gender prejudice. It is traditional in Christianity to refer to God this way, and it was also conventional when the Course was scribed to use the masculine pronouns when gender-neutral usage was desired. Clearly, if the Holy Spirit has no body, He has no gender. What the personal pronoun should tell us is that the Holy Spirit is not an impersonal force, but a sentient being in the same sense that you and I are sentient beings. Ultimately, of course, we are all one in God, and the Holy Spirit is part of that oneness. But in this world, we experience the Holy Spirit as a distinct Being Who speaks for God and acts on behalf of God. At least that is how the Course presents Him.
• Study Questions •
6. For your reflection: How would your life change if you began to take Principle #4 literally: “His Voice will direct you very specifically. You will be told all you need to know”?
7. What seems to be the principle activity of the Holy Spirit that is talked about in Principles #38 and #39?
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Jesus
Jesus is clearly presented as the author of this Course. Obviously, there are times where the author is speaking in the first person, as he does here: “I inspire all miracles,” and, “A miracle is a correction introduced into false thinking by me.” It may not be evident in this first section that the speaker is Jesus, rather than God the Father, but that becomes quite clear as you read on. For instance, in the next section, he says: “ÔNo man cometh unto the Father but by me’ does not mean that I am in any way separate or different from you except in time, and time does not really exist” (T-1.II.4:1). The words, “No man cometh unto the Father but by me” are a quote from a gospel, John 14:6, where they are spoken by Jesus. They clearly distinguish between Jesus and the Father. The author applies these words to himself in the process of reinterpreting them for us and making them non-exclusive. We will discuss them in more detail in next week’s class; my point here is that it does not take a Wall Street lawyer to deduce who the speaker is. It is Jesus.
The Course presents itself as being authored by Jesus. It is not necessary to believe that or accept it as true in order to benefit from the teaching of the Course. It is silly, in my opinion, to pretend that the Course does not say that Jesus is its author. In other words, I have no argument with people who say, “Yes, that is what the Course says; I don’t accept it.” I do have a problem with people who try to argue that the Course does not say that. The same thing is true with many other teachings in the Course. People find they do not like what the Course says, so they try to twist its words and make it say what they want it to say. That, to me, is simply dishonest.
The guiding principle of these commentaries is always going to be, “What does the Course say?” It will be up to the individual student whether or not to accept what the Course teaches.
In regard to miracles, Jesus tells us that he inspires all miracles. In fact, a miracle is something Jesus does, “a correction introduced into false thinking by me.” He does something that causes an adjustment in our perception, rather like the way an optometrist will slide a new lens into place when you are being tested for glasses, and suddenly the letters on the little screen get much clearer. Jesus introduces something into our minds, and that something, which is the miracle, enables us to see things differently.
The miracle comes from God, through Jesus, to all his brothers. I think that each of us can say these same words: “A miracle is a universal blessing from God through me to all my brothers.” Yet there is a sense in which they apply uniquely to Jesus, because he was the first to open the gate to let the miracle through. He brings the miracle to me; I can, in turn, pass it on to all my brothers.
• Study Question •
8. Study Principle #37 carefully. It comes closer to giving a clear definition of “miracle” than any other passage in the Course. Which of the following definitions most correctly describes a “miracle,” based on this principle?
A. A miracle is a shift in our perception.
B. A miracle is a correction introduced into our thinking by Jesus, which brings about a healing shift in our perception, and thus prepares us to receive true knowledge.
C. A miracle is something that happens that we previously thought was impossible.
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Answer Key for T-1.I (part 2)
1. Miracles correct false, mistaken, illusory or erroneous thoughts that have made up a nightmare in which we experience sickness, death, lack, fear, imprisonment, isolation and deprivation. The miracle shows us that all such things are false. For me, it seems to me that my false thoughts have been largely in the realm of feeling unworthy or “not good enough,” a perception of fundamental lack in myself.
2. “Atone” here is equated to the phrase “corrects for.” To atone in the Course is to correct an error; “atonement” means “correction.” Note that this is in contrast to the typical meaning, which is, “To make amends, as for a sin or fault” (American Heritage Dictionary). That is not the Course meaning!
3. We praise God “by honoring His creations, affirming their perfection.” In other words, when we recognize one another as God’s perfect creations, guiltless and completely worthy of our love, we are thereby honoring God Who created us.
Miracles are “temporary communication devices.” Apparently, then, our original form of communication with God is not temporary, but eternal and lasting.
The picture I get is that a miracle can bring about a temporary connection to God. Something from God is communicated to us in a miracle, but that communication channel does not stay open; it flicks on, the message is sent through in a burst, and then the channel closes again.
4. Another thing that is implied here is that a miracle involves indirect communication. I infer that because revelation is said to be “direct.” To me that implies that miracles differ in being indirect. We have already seen that miracles are primarily between persons, while (according to the next section, T-1.II.1:5–6) revelation is between us and God. My understanding, then, is that in a miracle, God communicates to one person through another person. Obviously, once direct communication is restored, such indirect communication is no longer required.
5. No answer required.
6. No answer required.
7. The Holy Spirit separates between the false and the true, between what is real and what is unreal. That is the same as saying He helps us tell the difference between God’s creations (the truth) and what we have made (our errors).
8. B is the correct answer.
Extra Quotes (for instructor’s notes):
Then will he see each situation that he thought before was means to justify his anger turned to an event which justifies his love. He will hear plainly that the calls to war he heard before are really calls to peace. He will perceive that where he gave attack is but another altar where he can, with equal ease and far more happiness, bestow forgiveness. And he will reinterpret all temptation as just another chance to bring him joy (T-25.III.6:5–8).
Be never fearful of temptation, then, but see it as it is; another chance to choose again, and let Christ's strength prevail in every circumstance and every place you raised an image of yourself before (T-31.VIII.4:2).
Each brother whom you meet today provides another chance to let Christ's vision shine on you, and offer you the peace of God (W-pI.158.10:5).
The therapist sees in the patient all that he has not forgiven in himself, and is thus given another chance to look at it, open it to re-evaluation and forgive it (P-2.VI.6:4).