Keep Your Eyes on the Prize

Talk given by Dr. Kenneth Wapnick of The Foundation for Inner Peace.

“Keep Your Eyes on the Prize” is a folk song that became prominent during the American civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s, though the song was composed as a traditional gospel hymn well before World War I. Its lyrics were adapted by civil rights activist Alice Wine to encourage other activists to continue on, persevering in the face of any and all obstacles. Recorded by many notable singers, including Duke Ellington/Mahalia Jackson, Odetta, Bob Dylan, Pete Seeger, and Bruce Springsteen, the song was the title of the 1987 PBS documentary series about the civil rights movement. The song’s moving refrain, Keep your eyes on the prize, hold on, serves as the theme of this article, for in A Course in Miracles Jesus asks us similarly: “Keep your eyes on the prize (salvation), remember your purpose, and hold on to me as you journey along to reclaim your rightful inheritance as God’s Son and return home.”
Remembering Our Purpose
Our lives have become so much with us that it is often difficult to remember the right-minded purpose for our coming into the world, which is to learn the lessons of forgiveness that would lead to the prize of salvation, the penultimate step before ending the dream of exile and awaking to the God we never left (T-10.I.2:1). We also tend to forget what first attracted us to A Course in Miracles: the “something” (or “someone”) that spoke to us as we opened its pages. In the end, this "something,” regardless of its form, can be nothing less than the attraction of love for love (T-12.VIII). Few would deny the Course’s unmistakable authority, with its voice being gently authoritative but without the harsh authoritarianism of many spiritual texts or teachers. Whether or not one accepts the dictating voice as that of Jesus, no one could doubt that its loving and gently wise nature is consonant with the Presence the sane world has associated with him for over two millennia.
Indeed, the purpose of the workbook’s year-long lessons is to train the mind to keep its eyes on the prize, remembering our daily purpose of healing relationships,
from the moment our eyes open in the morning to the time we go to sleep, and then on through the night until our eyes reopen to greet the new day. As Jesus reminds us:
Forget not that the healing of God’s Son is all the world is for. That is the only purpose the Holy Spirit sees in it, and thus the only one it has. Until you see the
healing of the Son as all you wish to be accomplished by the world, by time and all appearances, you will not know the Father nor yourself (T-24.VI.4:1-3).
We need to recognize that the world is not too much with us, despite Wordsworth’s wonderful poem, and as tempting as it is to identify with his words, or Hamlet’s: “How all occasions do inform against me….” To the contrary, it is the ego that is too much with us and informs against our right-minded intentions, given that power by the mind’s own decision. This is another way of saying that we need to forget the world’s purpose of amassing more and more toys of
specialness, regardless of their cost, and remember our daily purpose of promoting the healing of the mind’s faulty belief system of guilt and judgment. Hour by hour, minute by minute, even second by second, we aim to recognize our true identity in the world of separation as dreaming minds, and not the dream figures of bodies, “the ‘hero’ of the [ego’s] dream” (T-27.VIII). We need to constantly and consistently inform our days with the thought that our ultimate purpose is to awaken from the dream of separation, and our specific purpose is the daily practice of forgiveness, the sine qua non for achieving the prize of
salvation. “How should the teacher of God spend his day?” in the manual for teachers summarizes this daily attitude throughout each twenty-four-hour period of our lives (M-16.4-5). In fact, we should begin each day with the thought that God is our only goal (W-pII.257-60): …let him [God’s teacher] but remember that he
chooses to spend [quiet] time with God as soon as possible, and let him do so…as soon as possible after waking…(M-16.4:3,7).
And then again at night, just before retiring: If possible, however, just before going to sleep is a desirable time to devote to God. It sets your mind into a pattern of rest, and orients you away from fear (M-16.5:6-7).
Jesus urging us in this way is reminiscent of words written over fifteen hundred years ago, when St. Benedict wrote the Rule that has been the foundation of Western monastic life, up to the present one. This holy man wrote that as soon as one awakes, before even “heeding the necessities of nature,” one should remember God, and all through the day as well. He wrote: “In all things God may be "glorified” (in omnibus glorificetur Deus). Indeed, “Let them prefer nothing whatever to Christ” (Christo omnino nihil praeponant). Benedict’s exhortation to his monks—today and those he has grandfathered throughout the centuries—
reflects what A Course in Miracles has taught us to recognize as the shift from body to mind, form to content, the ego to God.

The Course’s version of this thought emphasizes the negation of the ego’s negation of our Source, the decisionmaking mind maintaining vigilance only for God and His Kingdom (T-6.V-C) by foreswearing the trinkets of nothing the world attempts to convince us are worthwhile, if not salvific. This saying “not no” (T-1.VII.12:4), allows the truth of our Self to surface in our minds as we bring the darkness of illusions to the light of truth. Thus we read in the text:
Your task is not to seek for love [or truth], but merely to seek and find all of the barriers within yourself that you have built against it. It is not necessary to seek for what is true, but it is necessary to seek for what is false (T-16.IV.6:1-2).
Inevitably, then, our experiences would be for the glorification of God and His Son, sharing the common purpose of choosing the means (forgiveness) for achieving Jesus’ end (salvation). Here is what our internal teacher asks us to keep in mind, the thought of invulnerability that would undo the ego’s lies and stories:
There is one thought in particular that should be remembered throughout the day. It is a thought of pure joy; a thought of peace, a thought of limitless release.… You think you made a place of safety for yourself.… It is not so.… Your defenses will not work, but you are not in danger.… Recognize this, and they will disappear (M-16.6:1-3,5,11,13).
The key word here is thought, which is the sole province of the mind, not the body’s brain. Just as Benedict was not really speaking of the forms of monastic life but an attitude, neither does Jesus speak of behavior in his course. Indeed, the need for ongoing corrections to the sixth-century saint’s vision of dedication to truth—recall the Course’s words: “Let, then, your dedication be to the eternal…” (T-19.I.16:1)—led to the rise of different forms of Benedictinism and other religious orders, and then the inevitable corrections within these corrections. And on and on, up to and including the present day. These changes can be directly traced to the perennial confusion of form and content, mind and body. [2]
 As Jesus said in a discussion of the special relationship, with a not-so-veiled reference to the Catholic religions and their sacrament of the Eucharist (communion at Mass):
Whenever any form of special relationship tempts you to seek for love in ritual, remember love is content, and not form of any kind. The special relationship is a
ritual of form, aimed at raising the form to take the place of God at the expense of content. There is no meaning in the form, and there will never be. The special
relationship…[is] a senseless ritual in which strength is extracted from the death of God, and invested in His killer as the sign that form has triumphed over content,
and love has lost its meaning (T-16.V.12:1-4).
To attain the prize of salvation, therefore, we need to learn to keep our eye on the content of our minds, the decision to be wrong or right minded: to choose the ego and its thought system of separation, sin, and specialness, or to decide for Jesus and his corrective thoughts of forgiveness, healing, and peace. That is why remembering the aforementioned thought should be our primary focus throughout the days of our lives. What else could be more important than identifying with this idea, which is indeed our protection, salvation, and very life? What indeed in....

The balance of this talk can be read here: (http://www.facim.org/acim/newsletters/20132401.pdf)

How it came....

A Course in Miracles began with the sudden decision of two people to join in a common goal. Their names were Helen Schucman and William Thetford, Professors of Medical Psychology at Columbia University's College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York City. They were anything but spiritual. Their relationship with each other was difficult and often strained, and they were concerned with personal and professional acceptance and status. In general, they had considerable investment in the values of the world. Their lives were hardly in accord with anything that the Course advocates. Helen, the one who received the material, describes herself:

Psychologist, educator, conservative in theory and atheistic in belief, I was working in a prestigious and highly academic setting. And then something happened that triggered a chain of events I could never have predicted. The head of my department unexpectedly announced that he was tired of the angry and aggressive feelings our attitudes reflected, and concluded that, "there must be another way." As if on cue I agreed to help him find it. Apparently this Course is the other way.

Although their intention was serious, they had great difficulty in starting out on their joint venture. But they had given the Holy Spirit the "little willingness" that, as the Course itself was to emphasize again and again, is sufficient to enable Him to use any situation for His purposes and provide it with His power.

To continue Helen's first-person account:

Three startling months preceded the actual writing, during which time Bill suggested that I write down the highly symbolic dreams and descriptions of the strange images that were coming to me. Although I had grown more accustomed to the unexpected by that time, I was still very surprised when I wrote, "This is a course in miracles." That was my introduction to the Voice. It made no sound, but seemed to be giving me a kind of rapid, inner dictation which I took down in a shorthand notebook. The writing was never automatic. It could be interrupted at any time and later picked up again. It made me very uncomfortable, but it never seriously occurred to me to stop. It seemed to be a special assignment I had somehow, somewhere agreed to complete. It represented a truly collaborative venture between Bill and myself, and much of its significance, I am sure, lies in that. I would take down what the Voice "said" and read it to him the next day, and he typed it from my dictation. I expect he had his special assignment, too. Without his encouragement and support I would never have been able to fulfill mine. The whole process took about seven years. The Text came first, then the Workbook for Students, and finally the Manual for Teachers. Only a few minor changes have been made. Chapter titles and subheadings have been inserted in the Text, and some of the more personal references that occurred at the beginning have been omitted. Otherwise the material is substantially unchanged.

The names of the collaborators in the recording of the Course do not appear on the cover because the Course can and should stand on its own. It is not intended to become the basis for another cult. Its only purpose is to provide a way in which some people will be able to find their own Internal Teacher.

 

What It Is

As its title implies, the Course is arranged throughout as a teaching device. It consists of three books: a 669-page Text, a 488-page Workbook for Students, and an 92-page Manual for Teachers. The order in which students choose to use the books, and the ways in which they study them, depend on their particular needs and preferences.

The curriculum the Course proposes is carefully conceived and is explained, step by step, at both the theoretical and practical levels. It emphasizes application rather than theory, and experience rather than theology. It specifically states that "a universal theology is impossible, but a universal experience is not only possible but necessary." (C-in.2:5) Although Christian in statement, the Course deals with universal spiritual themes. It emphasizes that it is but one version of the universal curriculum. There are many others, this one differing from them only in form. They all lead to God in the end.

The Text is largely theoretical, and sets forth the concepts on which the Course's thought system is based. Its ideas contain the foundation for the Workbook's lessons. Without the practical application the Workbook provides, the Text would remain largely a series of abstractions which would hardly suffice to bring about the thought reversal at which the Course aims.

The Workbook includes 365 lessons, one for each day of the year. It is not necessary, however, to do the lessons at that tempo, and one might want to remain with a particularly appealing lesson for more than one day. The instructions urge only that not more than one lesson a day should be attempted. The practical nature of the Workbook is underscored by the introduction to its lessons, which emphasizes experience through application rather than a prior commitment to a spiritual goal:

Some of the ideas the workbook presents you will find hard to believe, and others may seem to be quite startling. This does not matter. You are merely asked to apply the ideas as you are directed to do. You are not asked to judge them at all. You are asked only to use them. It is their use that will give them meaning to you, and will show you that they are true.

Remember only this; you need not believe the ideas, you need not accept them, and you need not even welcome them. Some of them you may actively resist. None of this will matter, or decrease their efficacy. But do not allow yourself to make exceptions in applying the ideas the workbook contains, and whatever your reactions to the ideas may be, use them. Nothing more than that is required (W-in.9).

Finally, the Manual for Teachers, which is written in question and answer form, provides answers to some of the more likely questions a student might ask. It also includes a clarification of a number of the terms the Course uses, explaining them within the theoretical framework of the Text.

The Course makes no claim to finality, nor are the Workbook lessons intended to bring the student's learning to completion. At the end, the reader is left in the hands of his or her own Internal Teacher, Who will direct all subsequent learning as He sees fit. While the Course is comprehensive in scope, truth cannot be limited to any finite form, as is clearly recognized in the statement at the end of the Workbook:

This Course is a beginning, not an end...No more specific lessons are assigned, for there is no more need of them. Henceforth, hear but the Voice for God...He will direct your efforts, telling you exactly what to do, how to direct your mind, and when to come to Him in silence, asking for His sure direction and His certain Word (W-ep.).

What It Says

Nothing real can be threatened.
Nothing unreal exists.
Herein lies the peace of God.

This is how A Course in Miracles begins. It makes a fundamental distinction between the real and the unreal; between knowledge and perception. Knowledge is truth, under one law, the law of love or God. Truth is unalterable, eternal and unambiguous. It can be unrecognized, but it cannot be changed. It applies to everything that God created, and only what He created is real. It is beyond learning because it is beyond time and process. It has no opposite; no beginning and no end. It merely is.

The world of perception, on the other hand, is the world of time, of change, of beginnings and endings. It is based on interpretation, not on facts. It is the world of birth and death, founded on the belief in scarcity, loss, separation and death. It is learned rather than given, selective in its perceptual emphases, unstable in its functioning, and inaccurate in its interpretations.

From knowledge and perception respectively, two distinct thought systems arise which are opposite in every respect. In the realm of knowledge no thoughts exist apart from God, because God and His Creation share one Will. The world of perception, however, is made by the belief in opposites and separate wills, in perpetual conflict with each other and with God. What perception sees and hears appears to be real because it permits into awareness only what conforms to the wishes of the perceiver. This leads to a world of illusions, a world which needs constant defense precisely because it is not real.

When you have been caught in the world of perception you are caught in a dream. You cannot escape without help, because everything your senses show merely witnesses to the reality of the dream. God has provided the Answer, the only Way out, the true Helper. It is the function of His Voice, His Holy Spirit, to mediate between the two worlds. He can do this because, while on the one hand He knows the truth, on the other He also recognizes our illusions, but without believing in them. It is the Holy Spirit's goal to help us escape from the dream world by teaching us how to reverse our thinking and unlearn our mistakes. Forgiveness is the Holy Spirit's great learning aid in bringing this thought reversal about. However, the Course has its own definition of what forgiveness really is just as it defines the world in its own way.

The world we see merely reflects our own internal frame of reference-the dominant ideas, wishes and emotions in our minds. "Projection makes perception" (T-13.V.3:5; T-21.in.1:1). We look inside first, decide the kind of world we want to see and then project that world outside, making it the truth as we see it. We make it true by our interpretations of what it is we are seeing. If we are using perception to justify our own mistakes-our anger, our impulses to attack, our lack of love in whatever form it may take-we will see a world of evil, destruction, malice, envy and despair. All this we must learn to forgive, not because we are being "good" and "charitable," but because what we are seeing is not true. We have distorted the world by our twisted defenses, and are therefore seeing what is not there. As we learn to recognize our perceptual errors, we also learn to look past them or "forgive." At the same time we are forgiving ourselves, looking past our distorted self-concepts to the Self That God created in us and as us.

Sin is defined as "lack of love" (T-1.IV.3:1). Since love is all there is, sin in the sight of the Holy Spirit is a mistake to be corrected, rather than an evil to be punished. Our sense of inadequacy, weakness and incompletion comes from the strong investment in the "scarcity principle" that governs the whole world of illusions. From that point of view, we seek in others what we feel is wanting in ourselves. We "love" another in order to get something ourselves. That, in fact, is what passes for love in the dream world. There can be no greater mistake than that, for love is incapable of asking for anything.

Only minds can really join, and whom God has joined no man can put asunder (T-17.III.7:3). It is, however, only at the level of Christ Mind that true union is possible, and has, in fact, never been lost. The "little I" seeks to enhance itself by external approval, external possessions and external "love." The Self That God created needs nothing. It is forever complete, safe, loved and loving. It seeks to share rather than to get; to extend rather than project. It has no needs and wants to join with others out of their mutual awareness of abundance.

The special relationships of the world are destructive, selfish and childishly egocentric. Yet, if given to the Holy Spirit, these relationships can become the holiest things on earth-the miracles that point the way to the return to Heaven. The world uses its special relationships as a final weapon of exclusion and a demonstration of separateness. The Holy Spirit transforms them into perfect lessons in forgiveness and in awakening from the dream. Each one is an opportunity to let perceptions be healed and errors corrected. Each one is another chance to forgive oneself by forgiving the other. And each one becomes still another invitation to the Holy Spirit and to the remembrance of God.

Perception is a function of the body, and therefore represents a limit on awareness. Perception sees through the body's eyes and hears through the body's ears. It evokes the limited responses which the body makes. The body appears to be largely self-motivated and independent, yet it actually responds only to the intentions of the mind. If the mind wants to use it for attack in any form, it becomes prey to sickness, age and decay. If the mind accepts the Holy Spirit's purpose for it instead, it becomes a useful way of communicating with others, invulnerable as long as it is needed, and to be gently laid by when its use is over. Of itself it is neutral, as is everything in the world of perception. Whether it is used for the goals of the ego or the Holy Spirit depends entirely on what the mind wants.

The opposite of seeing through the body's eyes is the vision of Christ, which reflects strength rather than weakness, unity rather than separation, and love rather than fear. The opposite of hearing through the body's ears is communication through the Voice for God, the Holy Spirit, which abides in each of us. His Voice seems distant and difficult to hear because the ego, which speaks for the little, separated self, seems to be much louder. This is actually reversed. The Holy Spirit speaks with unmistakable clarity and overwhelming appeal. No one who does not choose to identify with the body could possibly be deaf to His messages of release and hope, nor could he fail to accept joyously the vision of Christ in glad exchange for his miserable picture of himself.

Christ's vision is the Holy Spirit's gift, God's alternative to the illusion of separation and to the belief in the reality of sin, guilt and death. It is the one correction for all errors of perception; the reconciliation of the seeming opposites on which this world is based. Its kindly light shows all things from another point of view, reflecting the thought system that arises from knowledge and making return to God not only possible but inevitable. What was regarded as injustices done to one by someone else, now becomes a call for help and for union. Sin, sickness and attack are seen as misperceptions calling for remedy through gentleness and love. Defenses are laid down because where there is no attack there is no need for them. Our brothers' needs become our own, because they are taking the journey with us as we go to God. Without us they would lose their way. Without them we could never find our own.

Forgiveness is unknown in Heaven, where the need for it would be inconceivable. However, in this world, forgiveness is a necessary correction for all the mistakes that we have made. To offer forgiveness is the only way for us to have it, for it reflects the law of Heaven that giving and receiving are the same. Heaven is the natural state of all the Sons of God as He created them. Such is their reality forever. It has not changed because it has been forgotten.

Forgiveness is the means by which we will remember. Through forgiveness the thinking of the world is reversed. The forgiven world becomes the gate of Heaven, because by its mercy we can at last forgive ourselves. Holding no one prisoner to guilt, we become free. Acknowledging Christ in all our brothers, we recognize His Presence in ourselves. Forgetting all our misperceptions, and with nothing from the past to hold us back, we can remember God. Beyond this, learning cannot go. When we are ready, God Himself will take the final step in our return to Him.

Question

How can I remain true to the Course, and still pray with others for help with ego-based problems?


Q: I came to learn about A Course in Miracles through my church. About the same time that I was learning the Course's principles I was also making a commitment to be a Chaplain for my church. In my capacity as a chaplain I am to pray with congregants about issues that they request prayer about. Many of the requests I receive are ego-based problems. Knowing that the ego is an illusion makes it difficult for me to pray with others from an honest place. Is this a typical experience for people that learn ACIM? It is my desire to help others. Through ACIM I know that the only true help that I can lend is to see things rightly. How can I still help, and possibly pray with others, and yet remain true to the Course's principles?


A: If the content in your mind is love, then you will not be in conflict, even though the theologies (the form) of these two systems differ. In other words, if you feel guided to be a Chaplain, and you feel that you can be truly helpful to others and yourself in this role, then you should follow that guidance. It takes a lot of practice to be able to minimize differences in form and concentrate primarily on the content in your mind, but if you can do that, you will realize that the greatest value in praying with others is the joining with them through sharing a common interest. The words do not matter, as the first section of The Song of Prayer pamphlet helps us understand.

The fact that the form of the prayer pertains to ego-based problems would not lead to conflict if you are clear within yourself about the purpose of your praying with your congregants -- that it is a means of expressing the love in your right mind. Early in the text Jesus explains that "the value of the Atonement does not lie in the manner in which it is expressed. In fact, if it is used truly, it will inevitably be expressed in whatever way is most helpful to the receiver. This means that a miracle, to attain its full efficacy, must be expressed in a language that the recipient can understand without fear. This does not necessarily mean that this is the highest level of communication of which he is capable. It does mean, however, that it is the highest level of communication of which he is capable now. The whole aim of the miracle is to raise the level of communication, not to lower it by increasing fear" (T.2.IV.5).

In his discussion of the characteristics of God’s teachers, Jesus defines honesty as "consistency" (M.4.II), another example of the primacy of content over form. Again, if you desire only to be loving, then the forms in which that love is expressed may conflict or be inconsistent with one another. But that would not matter. The ego would have us judge everything by form so that we would constantly reinforce our differences. Jesus is training us to get beyond our perception of form so that we would recognize that we all share the same interests, and ultimately that we are all same: the one Son of God. Thus, the role of Chaplain in your church would be a means of learning this, if you feel guided to take on that role.

What is the Ego?

The ego is idolatry; the sign of limited and separated self, born into a body, doomed to suffer and to end its life in death. It is the ‘will’ that sees the Will of God as enemy, and takes a form in which it is denied. The ego is the ‘proof’ that strength is weak and love is fearful, life is really death, and what opposes God alone is true.

The ego is insane. In fear it stands beyond the Everywhere, apart from All, in separation from the Infinite. In its insanity it thinks it has become a victor over God Himself. And in its terrible autonomy it ‘sees’ the Will of God has been destroyed. It dreams of punishment, and trembles at the figures in its dreams; its enemies, who seek to murder it before it can ensure its safety by attacking them.

The Son of God is egoless. What can he know of madness and the death of God, when he abides in Him? What can he know of sorrow and of suffering, when he lives in eternal joy? What can he know of fear and punishment, of sin and guilt, of hatred and attack, when all there is surrounding him is everlasting peace, forever conflict-free and undisturbed, in deepest silence and tranquility?

To know reality is not to see the ego and its thoughts, it works, its acts, its laws and its beliefs, its dreams, its hopes, its plans for its salvation, and the cost belief in it entails. In suffering, the price for faith in it is so immense that crucifixion of the Son of God is offered daily at its darkened shrine, and blood must flow before the altar where its sickly followers prepare to die.

Yet will one lily of forgiveness change the darkness into light; the alter to illusions to the shrine of Life Itself. And peace will be restored forever to the holy minds which God created as His Son, His dwelling place, His joy, His love, completely His, completely one with Him.

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