Learning In The Time of Christ

"Learning in the Time of Christ” – received in the same manner as the books of A Course of Love – is guidance from Jesus on the taking and learning of this course.

I ask you only to pause, to
give the mind a rest, to enter
a realm foreign to the mind
and yet beloved to the heart.

LEARNING IN THE TIME OF CHRIST

A major difference between A Course in Miracles and A Course of Love has to do with the movement into the Time of Christ, a time of direct learning in union and relationship with God. The word learning is loosely used here for no learning is needed in union and relationship.

Yet, as your work with A Course of Love begins learning and unlearning continue. It continues for the sole purpose for which learning has always existed — that of returning you from self-doubt to self-love. This could also be expressed as returning you from your perceived state of separation to your true state of union. Learning is needed only until perception is cured. The perception of your separated state was the illusion for which a cure was needed…and within A Course in Miracles offered.

Perception is the result of learning. Perception is learning.

Since the mind is the realm of perception we have taken a step away from the realm of perception by appealing to the heart and the heart’s ability to learn in a new way. You are thus instructed not to apply your thought and your effort, your usual means of learning to this Course of Love. This Course is not for the mind but for the heart. It is not a way of thought and effort but a way of feeling, of ease, and of direct relationship. Again I say to you, in the direct relationship achieved in union, no learning is required. Until you have truly recognized unity, which may come before or after completing the Treatise on the Nature of Unity and Its Recognition, you continue to perceive of yourself as a learning being. This is the only reason for this continuation of the course work provided in A Course in Miracles. While you continue to put effort into learning what cannot be learned, as you continue to see yourself as a student seeking to acquire what you do not yet have, you cannot recognize the unity in which you exist and be freed from learning forever.

This is not to say that you will find this Course or the end of learning to be easy. Yet it is your difficulty in giving up your attachment to learning through the application of thought and effort that creates the perception of this Course’s difficulty. Thus it is said to you to take this Course with as little attachment to your old means of learning as is possible for you. If you do not understand, accept that you do not understand and go on. Listen to the words as if they are spoken to you, for such they are. Listen as you would listen to a friend in conversation. Listen simply to hear what is being said. Listen simply to let the words enter you.

This is recommended for your first reading of the Course.

When you succeed at listening without seeking for understanding, without grasping for meaning, without applying the effort you are used to applying to study, you begin the transformation that is the movement from head to heart and from their separation to their union.

In wholeheartedness then you are ready to return to a second reading of the Course. In wholeheartedness you will find difficulty falling away and understanding arising. You are beginning to know yourself in a new way. You are beginning to know yourself without the perceptions and the judgments of the mind. You are beginning to know yourself as you truly are and you will begin to hear the language of the Course as the language of your own heart.

Now you may feel quite compelled to share your experience of the Course with others. What might you expect to find?

Often you will find a desire to read the Course again — to read it aloud — to hear it spoken. This is a natural desire to let the words of the Course enter you in yet another way — the way of voice. Again it is not required nor even recommended that these readings be interrupted by a search for meaning. Listen. Respond. Let meaning be revealed.

What you will find yourself accepting through this method is precisely what cannot be taught. What you are learning through this method is precisely what cannot be sought after and attained through your seeking. What you are finding through this method is receptivity. You are coming home to the way of the heart. What you gain by sharing with others is a situation in which you “learn” in unity through the receptivity of the heart.

Am I telling you not to question? Not to enter discussion? I am only telling you to receive before you seek to perceive. I ask you not to receive as one who does not have what another has, as this is not a passing on of information that you do not possess. I ask you merely to receive in order to learn receptivity, the way of the heart. I ask you only to pause, to give the mind a rest, to enter a realm foreign to the mind and yet beloved to the heart. I ask you but to give yourself a chance to let the relief of not having another task to apply your effort to fill you. I ask you but to give yourself a chance to forget about approaching this as one more self-improvement exercise, or one more objective to accomplish. Only in this way do you come to realize you are already accomplished.

Through receptivity, what your mind finds difficult to accept, your heart accepts with ease. Now you are ready to question what you must. Now you are ready to hear the answer that arises in your own heart or from the voice of the man or woman sitting next to you. Now you are ready to hear all the voices around you without judgment, to enter discussion without an agenda to attend to, to not be so anxious to say what you are thinking that you forget to listen. Now you are ready to let understanding come without the aggressiveness of going out to get it.

You are patient, loving, and kind. You have entered the time of tenderness. You begin to hear what your feelings are saying to you without the interferences and cautions of your thinking mind. You begin to trust and as you begin to trust you begin to extend who you are. True giving and receiving as one begins to take place. You have entered Holy Relationship.

The task of facilitators of such meetings of open hearts is to direct the reader away from ego mind and back to wholeheartedness or Christ-mind. How do you feel? is a more appropriate question than What do you think? The sharing of experience is more appropriate than the sharing of interpretation. The sharing of process is more appropriate than the sharing of outcome. Facilitators will keep readers from attempting one correct interpretation as the only correct interpretation is that which comes from each reader’s own internal guidance system. Group attendees will find themselves feeling less competitive or interested in asserting their beliefs as it becomes clear to them that unlike in other learning situations, there is no correct answer or specific set of beliefs to be adopted. The student begins to move beyond the need for shared belief to personal conviction and authority.

Can students be misguided? Is there, in other words, perhaps no “right” answer or correct interpretation, but “wrong” answers and inaccurate interpretations? This is a matter of unity versus separation rather than a matter of right and wrong. In unity and relationship, each is not only capable but will inevitably receive the answer and come to the understanding or interpretation that is “right” for them.

Those who do not enter unity and relationship cannot be helped, fixed, or shown the inaccuracies of their perceptions. Their perceptions will remain true for them because their minds have told them they are true and their belief in the supremacy of the mind has temporarily overridden the openness of their hearts. The need for some to remain within the teaching and learning situation of “right” and “wrong” answers will be strong. Many will not be dissuaded from the logic that tells them they must work hard to attain anything of value.

Let me be clear. The seeming lack of difficulty in this Course is where its difficulty lies. To give up difficulty for ease is more than some egos are willing to accept. To give up effort for receptivity is more than some can accept. Why? Because it is too difficult. It goes against all you have learned and the nature of the reality in which the mind has functioned. In turning to the heart we seek to bypass this difficulty as much as possible, but each will feel it to some degree, the precise degree to which they are capable of giving up reliance on what they but think has worked for them in the past.

The way of the heart is the way of the Time of Christ. The time of the Holy Spirit has passed. The time of the intermediary is over. The greatest intermediary of all has been the mind. It has stood between you and your own inner knowing, caught in a dream of perception.

Collectively and individually, you have come to a level of frustration with what can be taught that has exceeded its limits. Your readiness is felt as impatience. Many can ride the wave of this impatience to a new way. Others need to battle against it a while longer.

For those ready for a new way the time of battles has ended. They care to engage in no more debates, care not to be proven right or proven wrong, care not to hear the evidence for this approach or that. They have grown weary of the ways of the mind. They are ready to come home to the way of the heart.

The way of learning in the Time of Christ brings with it a new kind of evidence, an evidence demonstrated clearly and plainly with every willingness to end reliance on the ego-mind and to leave the hell of the separate self behind. What will be demonstrated and shared is the perfect logic of the heart, and that abandonment of the old way will not bring forth ruin but will bring instead the wisdom that each one knows she or he has always possessed.

Facilitators can rely on this demonstration even when many in a group may remain attached to the ways of the thinking mind. The demonstration will work for those who observe from a place of unity even if it works not at all for the reader who cannot find it within him- or her-self to accept union. There is no cause to delay the movement of the group or to feel anything but gentleness toward those who cannot at this time accept the new way. No harm will come to anyone from the demonstration that will be provided of just how little gain comes to those who cannot receive.

Through receptivity is the wisdom inherent in being who you truly are revealed. Being who you truly are, accepting your true identity is the goal of this Course and of this beginning level of what I only loosely call a curriculum. It is appropriate to remember and to be reminded at this level, that being true to your Self is not about reaching an ideal state or a state of identity exactly the same as another’s. It is also not about being selfless. These ideas too are part of the unlearning of this course and are to be discouraged.

Readers then naturally may wonder what there is left to strive for and in doing so reach again the very difficult transition away from striving. In unity, perfection is the reality. Your reality is union. Thus no striving for either unity or perfection is necessary. The “answer” for those in need of challenges, is the challenge presented in the call to reside in unity and to express the divinity of their nature through sharing in union and relationship. This call is addressed further in the work of the Treatises.

Readers who have not moved away from their desire to learn something that will feed their minds or egos, will seldom continue to this next level. The next level brings with it the same situation the reader encountered in receiving the Course, but the reader will now encounter these situations in life. The reader is no longer only a reader. Their experience of this course has extended beyond reading and beyond the classroom situation. Now a time may come when studying truly seems to be in order. The guidance provided by their reading may seem to come and go and their desire to rely on what they have “learned” will grow. They may desire to backtrack, review, or begin to highlight passages to return to again and again. New questions may arise and a desire for feedback or discussion grow stronger. This may also be precisely the time when the reader is so caught up in experience and learning “in life” that return to a group or classroom situation feels next to impossible.

Rather than being in a standard learning situation, what the reader who is now experiencing life in a new way is doing is attempting to reinforce what he or she already knows and has already accepted. The “language” is returned to, as a helpful friend would be turned to for judgment-free advice. What those who begin to experience life in a new way begin to discover are the patterns of thoughts and behavior that are most deeply entrenched in them. They feel in need of assistance!

At this point, groups may need to become more flexible, meet less frequently, or even disband in favor of former “classmates” meeting in more casual and spontaneous encounters. It remains important for facilitators and group members to be available to one another if at all possible during this time, for what is being gained through experience is still in need of being shared. This sharing can offer a rich and rewarding opportunity for differences to be revealed and for the welcome realization that differences do not make separate.

The forward motion, regardless of a group’s configuration, is still the same, and it is one away from learning and toward acceptance of what is. While differences may be highlighted in this time, what will be revealed through sharing is that while experiences may differ greatly and seem to be offering diverse “learning” situations, the individuals will actually be coming to many very similar new insights and truths.

The impatience of the earlier level may seem to have increased as the experiences will be moving each individual along at her own pace. Comparisons may arise and some may feel they are not advancing as quickly as others, while those moving quickly may feel in need of time to catch their breath!

Now, despite the rapidity of movement or lack thereof, to read the Treatises together will likely feel as if it is almost a waste of valuable time. Thus, gatherings of those working with the treatises will naturally include more sharing of experiences. The facilitator’s task is now one of placing these experiences in context. After giving the group time to talk, the facilitator might choose a brief passage that will fit within the content of the sharing. Always it is the facilitator’s role to guide the individual group members away from inclinations, which may be strong during this time, to “figure things out.” Problem solving is to be discouraged. Trust is to be encouraged. Often, a discussion can be facilitated greatly by the question, “How might we be able to look at this situation in a new way?” To encourage the gentleness of the Art of Thought over the relentless stridency of the thinking mind is always helpful. Obsessive thinking is always ruthless, judgmental, and wearing on the thinker. He or she needs help in breaking its grip and should never be allowed to suffer.

Assisting individuals with the recognition of patterns is also a highly valuable service that facilitators and other group members can provide. The entrenched patterns of the past are difficult to dislodge even when they have been recognized. Individuals can be encouraged here to “watch the parade go by” as what has gone unhealed is brought forward for acceptance, forgiveness, and letting go. With the letting go of each old pattern or situation that seems fraught with peril, a cloud of despair will lift, a little more of darkness recedes, and a little more light is available to show the way.

Often here the facilitator will meet as well individual assessments and self-doubts. Group members may wonder if they are missing something. They may feel as if they have not experienced unity or as if they are no closer to knowing themselves or God. They may feel as if this course of study that seemed to be working so well for a while now is letting them down. They may wonder where and when the peace, ease, and abundance promised by this course will arrive. These need help in staying grounded in the present and reminders that they are no longer seeking. They need your reassurance that this time of engagement with life is just what is needed to integrate what has been learned. A return to the simple words that begin the Treatise on Unity would be appropriate: “A treasure that you do not as yet recognize is going to be recognized. Once recognized it will begin to be regarded as an ability. And finally, through experience it will become your identity."

The achievements of the past, achievements that awarded credentials, certificates, and degrees, admiration, respect, and status, are now a thing of the past. What individuals may well be looking for is their reward for the investment they have made in this coursework. While they are looking for it to show up in an old way they will miss the new ways that are being revealed to them. Remind them gently that the achievements of the past were not lasting and that they are not what they would truly want now. Remind them that the goal is reached in being who they are at last. It is present — not in the future. It is with them — not beyond them. The treasure is them."

Beyond the coursework of the treatises lies direct relationship...direct relationship with me. Entering the dialogue is the way this is expressed; yet this is not merely about entering spoken dialogue. As was said in A Treatise on the Art of Thought, “Creation is but a dialogue to which you have not responded.

Creation is a dialogue.

Creation is an unending act of giving and receiving as one. So too is dialogue.

"Listen and you will hear.” But to what are you listening? Entering the dialogue is akin to residing in the present moment and to hearing all that is being spoken in all the ways it is being spoken. Now is the time to truly begin to hear my voice in every aspect of creation and to respond with your own voice in all of your own acts of creation. It is time to realize that you are a creator.

This is a time of great intimacy. This is a time that is between you and I more so than has been the coursework up to this point. It is a time of realizing that “I” am speaking to “you” directly in every moment of every day, in all that you encounter, in all that you feel. It is a time of true revelation in which you are revealed to your Self.

This is what dialogue, particularly the dialogue that is an exchange between “two or more gathered together” reveals. It reveals Who You Are.

This relationship between Self and Other, Self and Life, Self and God, Humanity and Divinity, is the dialogue of which we speak. It may seem to suggest duality but it suggests relationship. The idea of unity and relationship must fully enter you now.

This Course … is new life
come to extend the way of
creation, the way of love, the
way of living, the new way.

You are not a “student” of The Dialogues but a full participant in The Dialogues. You have entered the final stages of revelation of Who You Are. When Who You Are is fully revealed you will realize that it is time to leave the classroom and live as Who You Are in the world. You will realize that your participation in the world as Who You Are is part of an on-going dialogue, and that it is an on-going aspect of creation by which the new will be created.

What now will be your relationship to this work that has returned you to Who You Are? Your relationship to this work continues as you live and express Who You Are being in the world. For some of you this may mean continued involvement with this coursework and a direct sharing of it with others. For many more of you it will not.

For each, being Who You Are will be an expression of unity and oneness that only you are able to express. As each expresses who they are being in unity and relationship, creation of the new will proceed and wholeness and healing renew the world in which you live.

This Course becomes a beloved alma mater, honored and returned to as a giver of new life. It offers no walls to confine you. It becomes not dogma to restrict you. It is new life come to extend the way of creation, the way of love, the way of living, the new way. It will be with you in every dialogue and will not leave you comfortless. It has no end point in its benefits and associations.

What continues of this Course is its dialogue. It is on going.

Gather still with those with whom you learned and grew and became new, but gather in ever-wider configurations. This dialogue is going on all around you. I am with you and will never leave you comfortless. Call on me, for I am here. Talk to me, and I will hear you. Listen, and I will respond. I am in each voice that responds to you and your voice is mine as you respond to others.

Go forth not as completed works of art but as permeable energy, ever changing, ever creating, ever new. Go forth with openness for revelation to happen through you and through all you encounter. Go forth joyously on this adventure of discovery. Be ever new, ever one, ever the beloved.

Bring your voice to this continuing dialogue. This is all that is asked of you. This is the gift you have been given and the gift you bring the world: your own voice, the voice of Who You Are. This is not a voice of separation or of the separated self but a voice of union and of the One Self. It is how union is expressed and made recognizable in form. It is what will usher in the new and change the world. It cannot be accomplished without you – without your ability to stand in unity and relationship as The Accomplished.

Beloved brothers and sisters, You are The Accomplished.

A network of individuals and groups interested in joining together to share this course and who they are is being developed. To provide your contact information, write to mari@thedialogues.com