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A Course in Miracles Complete & Annotated Edition (CE) Study Guide

Week 14 CourseCompanions.com

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Chapter 5. The Holy Spirit

Day 92: IX. The Eternal Fixation Day 93: X. The Decision for God Day 94: Review: Chapter 5

Chapter 6. The Lessons of Love

Day 95: I. The Message of the Crucifixion (paragraphs 1-12) Day 96: I. The Message of the Crucifixion (paragraphs 13-25) Day 97: II. Projection and Separation Day 98: III. Everything Meets in God

All commentary in this week’s study guide is from Robert Perry, editor of the Complete & Annotated Edition (CE) of A Course in Miracles

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Day 92: IX. The Eternal Fixation

I can’t tell you how much I love this section, and how glad I am that it’s in this edition of

the Course.

In trying to capture its message, perhaps the best starting point is Freud. Freud peered

deeply into the psyches of his patients and of humanity. But Jesus turns the tables here

and peers deeply into Freud’s psyche, something he says that Freud himself didn’t

really do. He tells us that Freud deep-down knew the real meaning of fixation, but he

was afraid of it, and so he crafted a concept of fixation that both mirrored the real thing

yet also protected against it.

Freud’s concept was that we could get fixated at certain key developmental stages in

infancy and early childhood. If we didn’t complete and release either the oral stage, the

anal stage, or the phallic stage, we would be in essence stuck there, constantly pulled

back there, so that our adult personality would be dominated by that stage. This, of

course, is where we get the idea of being anal-retentive. This is someone who is

permanently fixated at the anal stage.

The beauty of Freud’s concept, according to Jesus, is such that it “has a number of

learning advantages” (5:1). He lists three: that the mind can be fixated at a point in

development that is different than the current point in time, that this point could be more

real to the mind than its current external reality, and that the mind was always being

called back to the place of its fixation.

These three learning advantages, Jesus says, could have been powerful release

mechanisms. They could have been messengers of the real truth of fixation, but instead

Freud used his concept to defend against true fixation, because he was afraid of it.

What, then, is the real concept of fixation? According to Jesus, fixation is not about

being fixated at some point in our infancy in this lifetime. It is about being fixated on our

true infancy, on our beginning in God. “You were eternally fixated on God in your

creation, and the pull of this fixation is so strong that you will never overcome it” (9:2). In

other words, “Fixation is the pull of God” (4:2).

What is this pull? In this world, we carry a chronic, undermining sense of anxiety. We

feel as if we are on our own. We have to keep all the balls in the air. No one will do it for

us. We are like Atlas, having to hold up the heavens on our shoulders. This is such a

debilitating condition that we long for a state in which all the burdens and anxieties are

gone. We long to rest in our Father, like an infant resting in its mother’s arms. We want

to lay our heads in the lap of a Parent Whose only desire is to shower us with care, so

that all of our own cares are blissfully forgotten. All that’s left is to bask in this love.

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Do you feel this pull? Jesus says we will never, ever overcome it. We are eternally

fixated, and this fixation will always be pulling us back. But he also says that we are in

the same position as Freud. We too are afraid of this pull. Why? Because we think it is

trying to reduce us to an infantile state.

I can really identify with this. This morning in my meditation, I kept trying to just rest in

God’s care, and yet my mind was full of its own cares. I have a workshop to give. I have

other events I’m not yet prepared for. I have people to write. I have a book to market. I

have a commentary to write (this one!). As I tried to cast all these cares upon God, fear

kept coming up: But if I don’t hoist all these things onto my own shoulders, how will they

get done? How can I just play the blissful infant, resting my head in my Father’s lap

when there is so much I need to do? I’m an adult; I’m not a kid anymore.

I do feel the pull of this fixation. It is always calling to me, but I also feel the recoil from it.

It seems too good to be true, and so if I just give myself over to it, am I not in danger of

being duped, of turning myself into a happy idiot?

Thankfully, in this meditation, I was able to remind myself that, if there is one thing I

know for a certainty, it is that the care of God is real. So if I know it’s real, I asked

myself, why not take the plunge and just let myself rest in it? Why not trust Him to

shoulder my burdens for me? Why not yield to the pull? It ended up being a great

meditation, long and restful. And afterwards, the commentary I was worried about just

flowed. Hopefully, then, I can keep making the same choice as I go forward today.

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Day 93: X. The Decision for God

You could say that the central line in this section is “Physician, heal thyself” (6:1). To

understand this section as a whole, it helps to know that much of it was directed at Bill,

who felt that he clearly knew what Helen should do to heal herself, but when it came to

healing himself just thought, “Gee, that’s really hard.”

When you read the section’s opening remarks about healers who did not heal

themselves, it helps to remember that the previous section was largely about one such

healer in particular: Freud. If you remember, Jesus there said that “Freud lost much of

the potential value of his own thought system because, much like Cayce, he did not

include himself in it” (T-5.IX.3:1).

The reference to Edgar Cayce is significant, because it was about the exact same

issue. As we see in Cameo 15, Cayce poured forth great efforts to heal others, yet

somehow excluded himself from that healing. “He did not fail to recognize the value of

the Atonement for others, but he did fail to accept its corrective merit for himself.”

There’s obviously a pattern here. Indeed, in reference to both Freud and Bill, Jesus

uses the term dissociation. Freud: “This is a dissociated state, because the thinker cuts

himself off from his thoughts” (T-5.IX.3:2). Bill: “Do you not think you might be

dissociating yourself from your own awareness, since you are so clear about the

remedy for others?” (6:4). In both cases, someone knows what is true or best for others,

but then dissociates himself, excludes himself, from that awareness.

Once you are aware of this pattern, you start to see references to it all over the section:

“There have been many healers who did not heal themselves” (1:1). “Excluding yourself

from the Atonement is the ego’s last-ditch defense of its own existence” (3:1). “The one

more thing that you must learn is merely that you are not the one more” (5:3). “The Last

Judgment…is really only the biblical reminder of the inevitability of self-inclusion” (5:5).

Do you see the pattern? We see clearly a truth that applies to others, but somehow we

place ourselves outside of it. We dissociate ourselves from that truth. We decide that it

does not apply to us, even if that means we reject our own healing.

All I can say is that even though this was true of Cayce, Freud, Bill, and the “many

healers” Jesus mentions in paragraph 1, I am very grateful that I am the exception, that

this general truth that I see out there does not apply to me. I’m kidding, of course.

Something in me would love to think that, but it’s obviously what Greg often calls a

“performative contradiction.” I’m engaging in the very kind of thinking (“that general truth

does not apply to me”) that I’m claiming I don’t have! We all, therefore, need to take a

hard look at ourselves here, for surely we are not entirely exempt from the nearly

universal pattern of talking the talk better than we walk the walk.

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So what do we do about it? Of course, the general solution is just to be willing to include

rather than exclude ourselves. This means fully applying to ourselves the truths we

believe in. Another way of saying this is including ourselves in the Atonement and in the

Kingdom. Yet another way of saying this is including our mind in God—returning to Him

the mind He gave us (2:1), commending our spirit to Him just as He commended His to

us (2:5).

If this sounds vague, we can be grateful that the final three paragraphs of the section

are devoted to a very practical application of this. The practice given at the end of the

section is a beloved one among Course students. I heard that Marianne Williamson

used to call it doing a “page 90,” after the page number it was on in the third edition of

the FIP. But that practice needs to be seen in light of the two paragraphs that lead up to

it, and those paragraphs in turn need to be seen in light of the section as a whole.

If we do all that, we get something like this: How do we apply to ourselves the truths that

we see as applying to others, and have possibly been urging others to apply to

themselves? We first look at our own mood. Are we less than wholly joyous? If so, it’s

not because of anything that’s been done to us. The real source of our lack of joy is

something we would probably never guess. We lack joy because we “have reacted with

a lack of love to some brother that God created” (7:1). This lack of love induces guilt

and fear of punishment, and these feelings are what has dragged down our mood. How

often do we see our own lovelessness as the source of our low mood? It helps,

therefore, to scan your mind and see if a face or name sticks up from the landscape as

the one you have reacted to with lack of love.

Once you’ve located the thought, then you do the practice in paragraph 9. This means

that the entire practice is geared toward undoing your loveless reaction to this particular

person. That lack of love is the wrong decision you’ve made (9:2). That’s the decision

you now decline to feel guilty for (9:5). And when you let the Holy Spirit decide for God

for you (9:6), what He’s doing is undoing your loveless perception of this person and

replacing it with love.

I strongly suggest you decide that, while these ideas and this practice are lovely, none

of this actually applies to you. No, what I suggest you do right now is look at your mood,

scan your mind for the person you’ve reacted to with lack of love, and then do the

practice provided. Physician, heal thyself.

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Day 94: Review: Chapter 5

I. Being Wholly Joyous. I heal by knowing my brother as I know myself, causing both

of us to recognize our oneness and become happy. However, I need to be wholly

joyous myself, or my healing will not evoke a wholehearted response in my brother.

“Getting is meaningless and giving is all.” If I give a physical thing, I lose it, but if I give

an idea, it becomes strengthened in me. Everything is an idea, and therefore giving can

only lead to gain.

II. The Spirit of Joy. God created the Holy Spirit at the separation, to bring His

separated Sons back home. The Holy Spirit’s purpose is to give them a way of thinking

that raises their perception so high that it can be transferred to knowledge. With the

Holy Spirit’s help, and only with His help, my perceptions will become so pure, so

universally loving, so free of attack, that I will be just a step away from Heaven.

III. The Voice for God. I am currently in a state of opposition, divided between two

choices, two voices, which means my true power is not free to express. The Holy Spirit

is there to help me make the right decision, and Jesus is my model for decision. When I

make the same decision he did, the Mind in him will change me just as it changed him.

And then I will be the light of the world with him. What we can accomplish together is

beyond belief.

IV. Sharing the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the bridge from perception to knowledge.

By seeing Him in my brother, I strengthen His presence in my brother’s mind,

strengthen His presence in my own mind, and learn to know my brother. The Holy Spirit

is also the bridge between the ego and the spirit. He works with the ego’s symbols but

from the standpoint of spirit. He therefore can reinterpret everything the ego sees,

including myself.

V. The Foundation for Real Sharing. I have carried ideas that are so egocentric that

they can’t be shared. Rather than using “healthy guilt” to stop myself from expressing

these ideas, I need to call on the Atonement to undo these ideas. And then I need to

teach (share) my purified ideas, in order to increase them. I may exempt myself from

the blessing of these ideas, but Jesus has saved all my kindnesses and purified them,

so that their blessing will return to me.

VI. The Ego’s Use of Guilt. In the separation, I tried to tear myself out of God’s Mind.

This attack is the ultimate cause of my guilt. This guilt leads to fear of punishment, and

fear is what the ego wants to instill in me. I affirm that I want guilt whenever I choose to

not think with God. This is unnatural and results in disordered thinking. If I let God order

my thought, which is my natural state, I will be free of guilt, for guilt is ultimately an

unnecessary, invalid emotion.

VII. The Question of Karma. I have believed that moving forward rests on an

understanding of the past. I have believed that I should understand myself based on

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discovering my past lives through psychic readings, or based on exploring my childhood

in therapy. However, when I use the past to explain the present, I become a prisoner of

the past. The fact is that when I move from one instant to the next, the previous one no

longer exists. That is why I am free of the past.

VIII. God’s Higher Court. As I look at my world, my ego quickly jumps in to interpret

everything I see. Its interpretations are, at root, judgments against me. It interprets

everything, including the Bible, as statements of condemnation about me. Yet I can let

the Holy Spirit reinterpret all this for me. I must appeal the ego’s harsh verdict to God’s

Higher Court. God’s Voice will dismiss the case against me, announcing to me that

“thine is the Kingdom.”

IX. The Eternal Fixation. Freud’s concept that we can be permanently fixated at a

developmental stage in infancy has many advantages. It depicts the mind as not a

prisoner of current circumstance, but as fixated on and pulled back to a point in time

different than the current one. The real nature of fixation is that I was fixated on God in

my creation. I fear this will reduce me to an infantile state, but I will never stop being

pulled back to that carefree place.

X. The Decision for God. I often clearly see a truth that can heal others, but then

dissociate myself from that truth. As a healer, I need to heal myself. I need to include

myself in the truth I am seeing, include myself in the Kingdom. Specifically, I need to

see any lack of joy in my mood as resulting from my own choice to look upon a brother

lovelessly, thus inviting guilt into my mind. Then I need to face this wrong decision and

ask the Holy Spirit to undo it for me.

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Chapter 6 Day 95: I. The Message of the Crucifixion (paragraphs 1-12)

This is a section where you see the real mastery of the Course. To appreciate its

genius, we first need to think of how the crucifixion is typically seen and how we see it

or used to see it.

There’s no getting around the fact that the crucifixion seems to be a very frightening

image. It’s a picture of a pure and beautiful person, who has done nothing but good,

being publicly tortured and murdered by the state in the most excruciating way.

The traditional belief, of course, is that there was something redemptive in Jesus

undergoing this brutal death. He was taking onto himself the punishment that all of us

have earned. While this can seem like a great relief—“Thank God that got done to him

instead of me”—there is inevitably an underlying sense of doom: “I deserved that

horrible death.” How can that not instill fear?

Then, of course, there is another image of the crucifixion in which we are supposed to

imitate Jesus. We are supposed to follow him in the way of the cross—to deny

ourselves, take up our cross, and follow him (as we are told to do in Matthew 16:24). In

other words, we too must lead a life of redemptive suffering and sacrifice. Again, how

many of us can hear such a message without fear?

In this section, Jesus offers a radically different interpretation of his death. He affirms

that we should follow the example he set forth in his crucifixion, but the brilliance of the

teaching is that he dramatically reinterprets what that example was.

According to him, it was not about the redemptive value of him undergoing such

extreme suffering. Rather, it was about his ability to see himself as immune to attack

even under the most extreme conditions. The example he set, in other words, was not

in letting himself be tortured and killed. It was not in the events themselves. Rather, it

was in how he saw those events. The biblical record tells us that he met his death with

defenselessness and forgiveness. According to his teaching in this section, that was

because he did not see himself as actually under attack. He did not believe that he

could be attacked. That is the example we need to follow.

The practicality of this example can hardly be overstated. He says, “You have reacted

for years as if you were being crucified” (7:1). We all feel under attack in this world. I’ve

done an exercise in workshops in which people list the things they feel under attack

from in that exact moment. This is defined as any condition that they feel is hurting their

peace. The lists they wrote down can run into the dozens, going all the way from

financial challenges to the temperature in the room.

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What Jesus is saying here is that we are supposed to look at his crucifixion and say to

ourselves, “If he could see himself as immune to attack under those incredibly extreme

conditions, then surely I can see myself as similarly immune in the face of my far milder

conditions. If he could do it then, I can do it now.”

Do you see how this changes the crucifixion entirely? It doesn’t change a single thing

that happened, but it changes its meaning altogether. It turns it from one of history’s

great symbols of fear to one of the most powerful symbols of release from fear. It tells

us that we can greet every single moment free from fear, because of the immortal

example he set.

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Day 96: I. The Message of the Crucifixion (paragraphs 13-25)

I’m kind of glad I am reading this section in two halves, because the second half is in

some ways quite different from the first. The second half focuses a great deal on Jesus’

imperfect disciples.

Crucially, it explains how things went so wrong with Christianity. He has just told us that

the real meaning of the crucifixion is nothing like what Christianity has taught. All he was

doing, he says here, was demonstrating that even while under the most brutal attack he

could remember his own perfect immunity and therefore teach all involved that they

hadn’t hurt him.

This, I believe, is the meaning of that beautiful summary of the message of the

crucifixion: “Teach only love, for that is what you are” (T-6.I.20:2). I think this means that

he recognized that his own identity remained undamaged, and so he could teach his

attackers that, not having hurt him, they were still innocent. And to teach that is love. In

other words, his nature as love remained intact, so all he could do was extend love, no

matter what the circumstances.

But what an almost jarring interpretation of the crucifixion! Imagine taking every

painting, engraving, and stained-glass window ever made that depicts the crucifixion

and giving it this caption: “Teach only love, for that is what you are.” It changes

everything.

How did Christianity get it so wrong? Jesus implies here that it really all started with his

disciples. They, unfortunately, were stuck in the same thought system as those who

crucified him. The ones who crucified Jesus did so because they were projecting the

ego in themselves onto an egoless person, a pure messenger of help and healing

(16:3). Then, when they did that, Jesus’ disciples projected onto them. The disciples’

own lovelessness and guilt caused them to project blame and condemnation onto the

ones who crucified Jesus, and then to call down the wrath of God on them (20:5).

This same reason is why the disciples portrayed Jesus as speaking words of judgment

and condemnation in the gospels (see the various examples in paragraphs 21 and 22).

They depicted him as a spokesman for their own projection. And unfortunately, the only

record we have of Jesus comes ultimately from them. They didn’t write the gospels, but

the ones who did write the gospels were relying on oral tradition that ultimately traced

back to the disciples. So our entire record of him is filtered through the eyes of those

who carried the thought system that his teaching was aimed at undoing. The results

were predictable.

It’s crucial, then, that we make a clear distinction between Jesus and his disciples. The

gospels are clear that they didn’t understand him while he was alive, but the assumption

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is that after the resurrection and after Pentecost, they finally got it. What if they never

really did?

His response is a beautifully forgiving one: “I am sorry when my brothers do not share

my decision to hear (and be) only one Voice, because it weakens them as teachers and

learners. Yet I know that they cannot really betray themselves or me, and that it is still

on them that I must build my church” (14:4-5). He never abandons his principles. When

those who hated him crucified him, his only response was love. When those who loved

him defiled his legacy, his only response was love.

In guidance to Helen about the resurrection (see Cameo 33), he said this about his

disciples: “They did not understand. But now I talk to you and give you the same

message.” You see that throughout this section. He is calling us to be his new disciples.

He wants to build his church on us. He knows how imperfect we are. He knows we will

often not understand him. But he urges us to grasp what his original disciples did not.

He urges us to be his teachers, not his martyrs, and to teach love, not blame.

In doing this, we can be sure that, just as with his original disciples, he will be grateful

for our teaching and our devotion to him (23:1). And when we don’t get it right, we can

be sure that his only response will be love.

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Day 97: II. Projection and Separation

This brief section is an important statement about a topic that has been with us since

Chapter 1: projection. And actually, it helps to remember what was said when projection

was first introduced in that chapter: “Projection still has this ‘hurling’ connotation,

because it involves hurling something you do not want, and regard as dangerous and

frightening, to someone else” (T-1.35.3:1). The idea here is that we regard the “Lucifer”

in us as dangerous and frightening, and so try to hurl it outside of us, seeing it now as

residing in others, not ourselves. Of course, there isn’t an actual devil inside of us, so

what we are hurling onto others, you could say, is our ego’s murderous will.

The focus in this section is on how projection relates to separation. My understanding of

the process goes like this: We initially separate from God. We reject God and see

ourselves as dissociated from Him.

This means that our will is now split between our holy will to be with God and our unholy

will of separation and attack. That unholy will, of course, is the murderous will I just

referred to. It is incredibly uncomfortable to believe something like that is inside us.

Think of how we respond when faced with the fact that we have attacked someone.

Don’t we instantly have a list of the best excuses, the most persuasive reasons why our

attack was provoked by the other person? The idea that our attack was provoked from

the outside is really a way of saying that its actual cause was in someone else, not in

us. So the attacking will that caused this whole thing is labeled as conveniently outside

of us, in another person.

That desire to not acknowledge an attacking will in us, a desire we all feel, is the root of

projection. What we do with that will, of course, is to project it onto someone else. Once

we have, we now appear to be clean and innocent, free of the “Lucifer” within, while the

other person now appears to be possessed by evil. That attacking will seems now just

as obviously present in them as it is obviously absent in us. And isn’t this our basic

perception of the world?

Now that we ourselves appear to be pure and innocent, while the other person seems

driven by an evil will, it’s clear that that person is different from us, lower than us, and

finally separate from us. What can we do but reject this person? All of this comes from

the simple fact that he or she is possessed by an evil will and we are not.

So projection leads directly to rejection, and rejection is separation. It’s ironic when you

think about it. Our original separation left us with this sizzling hot potato inside of us—

the murderous will—so the solution obviously seemed to be to hurl this hot potato onto

our brother. But this led directly to separating from him. So the solution to separation

is…more separation. Projection, then, is obviously not a solution to the separation, but

rather “the device which keeps it going” (3:4).

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The Holy Spirit has an alternative to this whole process. The basic dynamic involved in

projection is inherent in the mind, so we can’t stop doing it in some form. The Holy Spirit

simply has a whole different way of utilizing this dynamic, which the Course calls

extension. In His process, we begin by seeing ourselves as perfect, not as defiled by a

murderous will. We then realize that this perfection is shared, so we extend the

perception of it to our brother, seeing him as perfect too. This strengthens the

awareness of perfection in both of us. Now we love each other. Rather than pushing our

brother away because he is different and lower than us, we draw near to him, because

we are one.

This may sound simple, but it’s clearly a whole different foundation for relating to others.

Right now, we relate to people from the basis of a global perception in which we are

pure and innocent and others are possessed of an attacking will. Imagine relating to

them from the basis of extension, where we look within and see perfection and look on

them and see this same perfection. Rather than separating from others, we include

them in ourselves. Rather than seeing them as lower (because of that destructive will in

them), we see them as our equals. Rather than rejecting them, we love them.

Ultimately, this way of seeing others implies that we are not actually in this world. To

see myself as pure and holy implies I am still part of God. To see you as pure and holy

implies that you are still part of God. And to be part of God necessarily means to be in

God. In other words, it defines not only what I am but where I am. By setting side

projection, then, I no longer feel apart from God. I overcome my original sense of

separation.

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Day 98: III. Everything Meets in God

I read this section last night after a long day and it looked like a series of totally separate

sentences strung together as if they were an actual paragraph. With each new sentence

I said to myself “That’s a whole new topic.” Then this morning, I read the section again

with a fresh mind and the sentences all flowed together perfectly. What was happening

is that I was seeing more deeply into each sentence, which meant I could see the

meaning in it that connected with the sentence(s) before it. So if the sentences in the

Course don’t seem to go together, realize that you are not seeing deeply enough into

each one.

I really like the central image in this section of two parallel lines, one of them being the

Holy Spirit’s perception and the other being God’s knowledge. The two lines are parallel

because the Holy Spirit’s perception “parallels knowledge” (1:3). We are meant to align

our perception with the first line, the Holy Spirit’s perception, and when we do, the two

lines will ultimately meet—we will be transferred to knowledge. We are taught in school,

of course, that parallel lines never meet, but here we are told that they actually do, just

as they look as if they meet in the distance, and just as they do meet at infinity,

according to non-Euclidean geometry.

Imagine, then, that this is what you are doing as you practice the Course. You are

aligning your perception with the line of the Holy Spirit’s perception so that your mind

can then transfer to the line of God’s knowledge.

The big question is: What does it mean to align our perception with the Holy Spirit’s?

This is where I find the section the most fascinating. There are statements scattered

throughout it that paint an intriguing picture of the Holy Spirit’s perception. Seeing the

way that He does means:

· Seeing everyone as perfectly equal (1:1)

· Seeing everyone as perfectly united in themselves and with each other (2:6)

· Seeing everyone as not just a part, but as simultaneously the whole (2:6)

· Seeing everyone as perfect and therefore as needing nothing (6:5)

· Seeing everyone as having no difficulty achieving perfection, because that is

what they are (6:5)

· Seeing the Holy Spirit in your mind and in every mind, so that you see sameness

everywhere (8:3-4)

· Seeing the Holy Spirit with complete impartiality (9:3)

Do you see how all these points come together? Everywhere you look you see equality

and sameness and oneness. You see totally impartially. Each mind you look on is so

identical to the other ones that it actually is the other ones. Each mind is all minds. Each

part is the whole. The key quality that you see, then, is wholeness—the parts united in

the whole and the whole present in every part.

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Can you imagine seeing like this? If you are in a place where you can see other people,

try seeing them like this. Take a moment and go down the list and see if you can

incorporate all of them.

This may seem hard. How can we raise our perceptions to the point where they

perfectly align with the Holy Spirit’s? Isn’t that impossible? But that, of course, is the

voice of our ego. “The ego can accept the idea that return is necessary, because it can

so easily make the idea seem so difficult” (6:1). Instead we should think this way: “Only I

have made return seem difficult. Strictly speaking, ‘even return is unnecessary’ (6:2). If I

can just see my mind as it is, I will realize it is still in God, because it never left. I never

actually separated in the first place. I cannot experience perfection as a difficult

accomplishment, because that is what I am.”

I think we need to balance both of these pieces: striving to align our perceptions with the

Holy Spirit’s and realizing that, in the process, all we are doing is uncovering the

perfection that we already, effortlessly are.