 Greetings everyone. So grateful to be here with you and share these beautiful, beautiful ideas, letting the truth extend and shine. And today I think I will honor a request. I have had a request for the manual for teachers from A Course in Miracles. Some of you know I went through the text section by section and at the end of each section I recorded a workbook lesson. And some of those earlier workbook lessons I recorded a prayer and some commentary at the end of those audio recordings. So some of you have listened to those audio recordings of the text sections involved by the workbook lesson and some commentary or prayer occasionally. And today I'd like to honor the request for the manual for teachers from A Course in Miracles. So I will go through this and share what comes to me because this is a precious undertaking to open your heart, open your life, your willingness to be used as a teacher of God. Not that that's some kind of title that has any special meaning but basically to teach love, teach only love. For that is what you are and that's what it means to be a teacher of God. So for some of you you've gone through the text and the workbook and perhaps this is something that you have been waiting for. To dive into the manual for teachers and to accept yourself as a teacher of God, opening your heart to the living Christ, following the instructions of the Holy Spirit. As I was growing up we had a saying that we heard at this time coming into springtime in the year since today is March 20th. We had a saying that referred to the month of March and the saying was in like a lion, out like a lamb. And so this month when I was growing up was symbolic where I was growing up in the Midwestern United States of a change of transformation. It was coming out of winter and coming into spring. Coming out of the very harsh conditions of winter and opening into April. We also had a saying for April, April showers bring May flowers. So you're coming out of the lion into the lamb, the soft showers, soft spring rains and that precedes the flowering in May. Right now I'm recording this down here in Mexico at the Lake Chapala area and everything is flowering. The trees are flowering. There's purples and pinks and reds and all kinds of flowers and beautiful green. And we're surrounded by the mountains and looking out right now on a blue lake, the mountain in the distance. So today I will begin the manual for teachers and let's just see how far the Holy Spirit takes us today. I'm going to start here with the introduction to the manual for teachers from A Course in Miracles. Introduction. The role of teaching and learning is actually reversed in the thinking of the world. The reversal is characteristic. It seems as if the teacher and the learner are separated, the teacher giving something to the learner rather than to himself. Further, the act of teaching is regarded as a special activity in which one engages only a relatively small proportion of one's time. The Course, on the other hand, emphasizes that to teach is to learn so that teacher and learner are the same. It also emphasizes that teaching is a constant process. It goes on every moment of the day and continues into sleeping thoughts as well. So right there from the first paragraph, it's like allowing your definitions, all your past experiences of the role of teaching to be lifted up and to come with open-mindedness to be shown what it means, what the role of teaching and learning actually means. And we are being told from that first paragraph here that the teacher and learner really are not separate. It appears as if in this world that the teacher and learner are persons, separate persons, and one is giving something to another rather than to himself. So in this world, when you teach, you're supposed to be teaching somebody. And yet what we're realizing is this teaching goes on all the time. The teacher and learner are the same and it's pointing us to the idea that really you're teaching based on the thoughts that you have in your mind. If you have thoughts of Holy Spirit, you're teaching forgiveness and love. If you have thoughts of the ego, you are teaching attack, grievances, separation. And this teaching is going on at a mind level and yet human beings perceive themselves at the level of form, at the level of personhood, the mass, the persona of ego, the subject-object-split, the perceiver and the perceived. It all seems to be present there and of course this manual has to reach the mind where it believes it is. So if you believe you're a human being, this manual is going to be addressing you as a human being, but with the purpose to lift you higher and higher in awareness to see that actually you're the dreamer of the dream of this world and have never been a body or even in a body, have never been a person, or just convinced through belief that you are a person in time and space. So let's go to the second paragraph. To teach is to demonstrate. There are only two thought systems and you demonstrate that you believe one or the other is true all the time. From your demonstration others learn and so do you. The question is not whether you will teach for in that there is no choice. The purpose of this course might be said to provide you with a means of choosing what you want to teach on the basis of what you want to learn. You cannot give to someone else but only to yourself and this you learn through teaching. Teaching is but a call to witnesses to attest to what you believe. It is a method of conversion. This is not done by words alone. Any situation must be to you a chance to teach others what you are and what they are to you. No more than that but also nevertheless. So it really simplifies everything if you see that you're always just teaching yourself and you're demonstrating what you teach really by your attitude, by your state of mind and you are demonstrating that you believe one or the other of these two thought systems is true. So really it's a matter of conversion of coming clear and clear on what it is that you want to demonstrate. What it is that you want to teach yourself and others moment by moment. No more than that also nevertheless. The curriculum you set up is therefore determined exclusively by what you think you are and what you believe the relationship of others is to you. In the formal teaching situation these questions may be totally unrelated to what you think you are teaching. Yet it is impossible not to use the content of any situation on behalf of what you really teach and therefore really learn. To this the verbal content of your teaching is quite irrelevant. It may coincide with it or it may not. It is the teaching underlying what you say that teaches you. Teaching but reinforces what you believe about yourself. Its fundamental purpose is to diminish self-doubt. This does not mean that the self you are trying to protect is real, but it does mean that the self you think is real is what you teach. This is inevitable. There is no escape from it. How could it be otherwise? Everyone who follows the world's curriculum and everyone here does follow it until he changes his mind, teaches solely to convince himself that he is what he is not. Herein is the purpose of the world. What else then would its curriculum be? Into this hopeless and closed learning situation which teaches nothing but despair and death God sends his teachers. And as they teach his lessons of joy and hope, their learning finally becomes complete. So you're getting a glimpse of what this is about, of teaching joy and hope, of not necessarily with the words, but the attitude, your outlook, what is in your heart, what is your state of mind. That is what you are teaching and you are bringing lessons of joy and hope. You have come to transcend all sense of hopelessness. You have come to teach that despair and depression and death are not real. And it's your attitude that teaches this. Regardless of the form, regardless of the situation, regardless of the seeming consequences and images, you are here to teach the Holy Spirit's joyous lessons to bring hope. And finally to have your teaching and learning become complete. And now the last paragraph. Except for God's teachers, there would be little hope of salvation, for the world of sin would seem forever real. The self-deceiving must deceive, for they must teach deception. And what else is hell? This is a manual for the teachers of God. They are not perfect, or they would not be here. Yet it is their mission to become perfect here. And so they teach perfection over and over and over in many, many ways until they have learned it. And then they are seen no more, although their thoughts remain a source of strength and truth forever. Who are they? How are they chosen? What do they do? How can they work out their own salvation and the salvation of the world? This manual attempts to answer these questions. So you can feel that this is the lead-in. This is just the introduction to a calling, to your life's calling, to your life's purpose, to the reason you are here. Out of all the seeming things, self-concepts, pursuits, careers, jobs, all of the many, many functions that the ego has made up, as part of its fictitious world, as part of its strange illusory time-space dream, this is what it's all about. This is what it all comes down to. And we're going to go through this because this is a calling, the calling of your heart, and the joy and the happiness and the love come from answering the call. This is an invitation from the Holy Spirit. This is an invitation with open arms from Jesus Christ. And we open to receive the meaning and to clearly comprehend what this calling entails. As it said at the end of the last paragraph, who are they? How are they chosen? What do they do? How can they work out their own salvation and the salvation of the world? Here we go. This manual attempts to answer these questions. Number one, who are God's teachers? A teacher of God is anyone who chooses to be one. His qualifications consist solely in this. Somehow, somewhere, he has made a deliberate choice in which he did not see his interest as a part from someone else's. Once he has done that, his road is established and his direction is sure. A light has entered the darkness. It may be a single light, but that is enough. He has entered an agreement with God even if he does not yet believe in him. He has become a bringer of salvation. He has become a teacher of God. They come from all over the world. They come from all religions and from no religion. They are the ones who have answered. The call is universal. It goes on all the time, everywhere. It calls for teachers to speak for it and redeem the world. Many hear it, but few will answer. Yet, it is all a matter of time. Everyone will answer in the end. But the end can be a long, long way off. It is because of this that the plan of the teachers was established. Their function is to save time. Each one begins as a single light, but with the call at its center, it is a light that cannot be limited. And each one saves a thousand years of time as the world judges it. To the call itself time has no meaning. There is a course for every teacher of God. The form of the course varies greatly. So do the particular teaching aids involved. But the content of the course never changes. Its central theme is always, God's Son is guiltless and in His innocence is His salvation. It can be taught by actions or thoughts, in words or soundlessly, in any language or in no language, in any place or time or manner. It does not matter who the teacher was before he heard the call. He has become a savior by his answering. He has seen someone else as himself. He has therefore found his own salvation and the salvation of the world. In his rebirth is the world reborn. How beautiful to be free of the past. And most importantly, we just read, it does not matter who the teacher was before he heard the call. Whatever the past has seemed to be, it's all been an opportunity right now for answering the call, for hearing that call and answering, for saying yes, for saying I am committed. I will follow. It's saying yes to the calling of the heart to be a teacher of God, to be a demonstration of God's love and light and happiness. This is a manual for a special curriculum intended for teachers of a special form of the universal course. There are many thousands of other forms all with the same outcome. They merely save time. Yet it is time alone that winds on weirdly and the world is very tired now. It is old and worn and without hope. There was never a question of outcome or what can change the will of God. But time, with its illusions of change and death, wears out the world and all things in it. Yet time has an ending and it is this that the teachers of God are appointed to bring about. For time is in their hands, such was their choice, and it is given them. So having accepted the call, now everything comes to you. Everything that your mind needs to fulfill its purpose, to demonstrate love, to demonstrate truth, to be the light of the world. Everything is given that would help, that would be helpful in serving this function. And we are looking at this in terms of what are the practicalities. So we've just gone through the teachers of God and now we look at their pupils. Who are their pupils? Certain pupils have been assigned to each of God's teachers and they will begin to look for him as soon as he has answered the call. They were chosen for him because the form of the universal curriculum he will teach is best for them in view of their level of understanding. His pupils have been waiting for him, for his coming is certain. Again, it is only a matter of time. Once he has chosen to fulfill his role, they are ready to fulfill theirs. Time waits on his choice, but not on whom he will serve. When he is ready to learn, the opportunities to teach will be provided for him. In order to understand the teaching learning plan of salvation, it is necessary to grasp the concept of time that the Course sets forth. Atonement corrects illusions, not truth. Therefore, it corrects what never was. Further, the plan for this correction was established and completed simultaneously, where the will of God is entirely apart from time. So is all reality being of him. The instant the idea of separation entered the mind of God's Son, and that same instant was God's answer given. In time this happened very long ago. In reality, it never happened at all. The world of time is the world of illusion. What happened long ago seems to be happening now. Choices made long since appear to be open, yet to be made. What has been learned and understood and long ago passed by is looked upon as a new thought, a fresh idea, a different approach. Because your will is free, you can accept what has already happened at any time you choose, and only then will you realize that it was always there. As the Course emphasizes, you are not free to choose the curriculum or even the form in which you will learn it. You are free, however, to decide when you want to learn it. And as you accept it, it is already learned. Time really then goes backward to an instant so ancient that it is beyond all memory and past even the possibility of remembering. Yet because it is an instant that is relived again and again and still again, it seems to be now. And thus it is the pupil and teacher seem to come together in the present, finding each other as if they had not met before. The pupil comes at the right time to the right place. This is inevitable because he made the right choice in that instant that was very ancient in which he now relives. So has the teacher too made an inevitable choice out of an ancient past? God's will in everything seems but to take time in the working out. What could delay the power of eternity? When a pupil and teacher come together, a teaching learning situation begins. For the teacher is not really the one who does the teaching. God's teacher speaks to any two who join together for learning purposes. The relationship is holy because of that purpose. And God has promised to send his spirit into any holy relationship. In the teaching learning situation, each one learns that giving and receiving are the same. The demarcations they had drawn between their roles, their minds, their bodies, their separated needs and interests, and all the differences they sought separated them from one another, fade and grow dim and disappear. Those who would learn the same course share one interest and one goal. And thus he who was the learner becomes a teacher of God himself, for he has made the one decision that gave his teacher to him. He has seen in another person the same interest as his own. So we can see that there are no accidents. There's nothing at random. There's nothing that's fortunate or unfortunate. It's all part of a prearranged plan in which the teacher and pupil come together at the perfectly appointed time. And it's all basically a replay of this ancient instant in which everything was handled. Everything was answered in one instant by the Holy Spirit. So it seems to be a playing out in time, but really we can see that this is not a curriculum that is dependent on time in any way. That the Holy Spirit uses relationships to loosen the mind from its belief in the past, from past present future, from linearity, from duality, and gives it an opportunity to teach and to strengthen for itself and for the whole universe that all that I give is given to myself. Teaching and learning are the same, and teacher and pupil are actually the same. Because we're coming at this from the level of perception, from the level of linear time, then our next section is number three. What are the levels of teaching? The teachers of God have no set teaching level. Each teaching learning situation involves a different relationship at the beginning, although the ultimate goal is always the same. To make of the relationship a holy relationship in which both can look upon the Son of God as sinless. There is no one from whom a teacher of God cannot learn, so there is no one whom he cannot teach. However, from a practical point of view he cannot meet everyone, nor can everyone find him. Therefore the plan includes very specific contexts to be made for each teacher of God. There are no accidents in salvation. Those who are to meet will meet, because together they have the potential for a holy relationship. They are ready for each other. The simplest level of teaching appears to be quite superficial. It consists of what seem to be very casual encounters, a, quote, chance meeting of two apparent strangers in an elevator, a child who is not looking where he is going running into an adult, by chance, in quotes. Two students, quote, happening to walk home together. These are not chance encounters. Each of them has the potential for becoming a teaching learning situation. Perhaps the seeming strangers in the elevator will smile to one another. Perhaps the adult will not scold the child for bumping into him. Perhaps the students will become friends. Even at the level of the most casual encounter, it is possible for two people to lose sight of this separate interest, if only for a moment. That moment will be enough. Salvation has come. It is difficult to understand that the levels of teaching the universal course of concept is meaningless in reality as is time. The illusion of one permits the illusion of the other. In time, the teacher of God seems to begin to change his mind about the world with a single decision and then learns more and more about the new direction as he teaches it. We have covered the illusion of time already, but the illusion of levels of teaching seems to be something different. Perhaps the best way to demonstrate that these levels cannot exist is simply to say that any level of teaching learning situation is part of God's plan for atonement, and his plan can have no levels being a reflection of his will. Salvation is always ready and always there. God's teachers work at different levels, but the result is always the same. Each teaching learning situation is maximal in the sense that each person involved will learn the most that he can from the other person at that time. In this sense, and in this sense only, we can speak of levels of teaching. Using the term in this way, the second level of teaching is a more sustained relationship in which for a time two people enter into a fairly intense teaching learning situation and then appear to separate. As with the first level, these meetings are not accidental, nor is what appears to be the end of the relationship a real end. Again, each has learned the most that he can at the time. Yet all who meet will someday meet again, for it is the destiny of all relationships to become holy. God is not mistaken in his son. The third level of teaching occurs in relationships which once they are formed are lifelong. These are teaching learning situations in which each person is given a chosen learning partner who presents him with unlimited opportunities for learning. These relationships are generally few because their existence implies that those involved have reached a stage simultaneously in which the teaching learning balance is actually perfect. This does not mean that they necessarily recognize this. In fact, they generally do not. This may even be, they may even be quite hostile to each other for some time and perhaps for life. Yet should they decide to learn it, the perfect lesson is before them and can be learned. And if they decide to learn that lesson, they become the saviors of the teachers who falter and may even seem to fail. No teacher of God can fail to find the help he needs. So this is giving us some levels. We read about the casual encounter in which salvation can come in an instant just by love and kindness being shared. We also learned about the second level of teaching which was a much more sustained relationship with two people for a time enter into a fairly intense teaching learning situation and then appear to separate. And then the third level of teaching, those are lifelong teaching learning situations in which each person has given a chosen learning partner who represents and presents him with unlimited opportunities for learning. So at the level of form there seems to be different levels of interaction, frequency of contact. To most people these would be very different relationships, certainly a casual encounter and a pretty sustained relationship and then a lifelong relationship. All of these seem to be very different. But each one presents an opportunity to teach what you would learn. Each one, each encounter, each relationship is an opportunity to see the sameness, to see that the teacher and learner are the same and that really there's only one mind and that one mind is always teaching based on its thoughts. So the purification of thoughts, the giving up of all ego thoughts, all attacks, all judgments, all grievances, clearing the mind, emptying the mind of all erroneous thoughts we could say, paves the way for an experience of real thoughts, thoughts that you think with God, thoughts that have an eternal nature. They are eternally loving, eternally kind, eternally gentle and that is the point. The point of everything is going through this conversion transfer of training to open up to be a teacher of God, a demonstration of God's love of thinking with God, not trying to think against God. The human condition in its linear form, of course, is a projection of the belief that it's possible to think apart from God and to have a will that's separate from God's will. And this is the ego. So as we allow the ego to come up and to be exposed and to be released, we return to our real thoughts, the thoughts we think with God. Four, what are the characteristics of God's teachers? The surface traits of God's teachers are not at all alike. They do not look alike to the body's eyes. They come from vastly different backgrounds, their experiences of the world vary greatly and their superficial, quote, personalities are quite distinct. Nor at the beginning stages of their functioning as teachers of God have they yet acquired the deeper characteristics that will establish them as what they are. God gives no special gifts in eternity, but God does give special gifts to his teachers because they have a special role in his plan for atonement. Their specialness is, of course, only temporary, set in time as a means of leading out of time. These special gifts born in the holy relationship toward which the teaching learning situation is geared become characteristic of all teachers of God who have advanced in their own learning. In this respect, they are all alike. All differences among the sons of God are temporary. Nevertheless, in time, it can be said that the advanced teachers of God have the following characteristics. Trust. This is the foundation on which their ability to fulfill their function rests. Perception is the result of learning. In fact, perception is learning because cause and effect are never separate. The teachers of God have trust in the world because they have learned it is not governed by the laws the world made up. It is governed by a power that is in them, but not of them. It is this power that keeps all things safe. It is through this power that the teachers of God look on a forgiven world. When this power has once been experienced, it is impossible to trust in one's own petty strength again. Who would attempt to fly with the tiny wings of a sparrow when the mighty power of an eagle has been given him? And who would place his faith in the shabby offerings of the eagle when the gifts of God are laid before him? What is it that induces them to make the shift? The development of trust. First, they must go through what might be called a period of undoing. This need not be painful, but it is usually so experienced. It seems as if things are being taken away and it is rarely understood initially that their lack of value is merely being recognized. How can lack of value be perceived unless the perceiver is in a position where he must see things in a different light? He is not yet at a point in which he can make the shift entirely internally, and so the plan will sometimes call for changes in what seem to be external circumstances. These changes are always helpful. When the teacher of God has learned that much, he goes on to the second stage. Next, the teacher of God must go through a period of sorting out. This is always somewhat difficult because having learned that the changes in his life are always helpful. He must now decide all things on the basis of whether they increase the helpfulness or hamper it. He will find that many, if not most, of the things he valued before will merely hinder his ability to transfer what he has learned to new situations as they arise. Because he has valued what is really valueless, he will not generalize the lesson for fear of loss and sacrifice. It takes great learning to understand that all things, events, encounters, and circumstances are helpful. It is only to the extent to which they are helpful that any degree of reality should be accorded to them in this world of illusion. The word, quote, value can apply to nothing else. The third stage through which the teacher of God must go through can be called a period of relinquishment. If this is interpreted as giving up the desirable, it will engender enormous conflict. Few teachers of God escape this distress entirely. There is, however, no point in sorting out the valuable from the valueless unless the next obvious step is taken. Therefore, the period of overlap is apt to be one in which the teacher of God feels called upon to sacrifice his own best interest on behalf of truth. He has not realized as yet how wholly impossible such a demand would be. He can learn this only as he actually does give up the valueless. Through this, he learns that where he anticipated grief, he finds a happy late-heartedness instead. Where he thought if something was asked of him, he finds a gift bestowed on him. Now comes a period of settling down. This is a quiet time in which the teacher of God rests awhile in reasonable peace. Now he consolidates his learning. Now he begins to see the transfer value of what he has learned. Its potential is literally staggering, and the teacher of God is now at the point in his progress at which he sees in it his whole way out. Give up what you do not want, and keep what you do. How simple is the obvious, and how easy to do. The teacher of God needs this period of respite. He has not come as far as he thinks, yet when he is ready to go on, he goes with mighty companions with him. Now he rests awhile and gathers them before going on. He will not go on from here alone. The next stage is indeed a period of unsettling. Now must the teacher of God understand that he did not really know what was valuable and what was valueless? All that he really learned so far was that he did not want the valueless and that he did want the valuable. Yet his own sorting out was meaningless in teaching him the difference. The idea of sacrifice so central to his own judgment, his own thought system, had made it impossible for him to judge. He thought he learned willingness, but now he sees that he does not know what the willingness is for. And now he must attain a state that may remain impossible to reach for a long, long time. He must learn to lay all judgment aside and ask only what he really wants in every circumstance. Were not each step in this direction so heavily reinforced, it would be hard indeed. And finally there is a period of achievement. It is here that learning is consolidated. Now what was seen as merely shadows before become solid gains to be counted on in all emergencies, as well as tranquil times. Indeed the tranquility is their result. The outcome of honest learning, consistency of thought and full transfer. This is the stage of real peace for here is heaven's state fully reflected. From here the way to heaven is open and easy. In fact it is here. Who would go anywhere if peace of mind is already complete and who would seek to change tranquility for something more desirable? What could be more desirable than this? So what happens when you trust God? What happens when you follow the Holy Spirit? What happens when you relinquish all values of the world? When you desire the peace of God above all else? As an actuality. What happens? What traits spring from this trust? What state of mind follows? What characteristics are characteristics of a true consistent teacher of God? Honesty. All other traits of God's teachers rest on trust. Once that has been achieved the others cannot fail to follow. Only the trusting can afford honesty for only they can see its value. Honesty does not apply only to what you say. The term actually means consistency. There is nothing you say that contradicts what you think or do. No thought opposes any other thought. No act belies your word and no word lacks agreement with another. Such are the truly honest. At no level are they in conflict with themselves. Therefore it is impossible for them to be in conflict with anyone or anything. The peace of mind which the advanced teachers of God experience is largely due to their perfect honesty. It is only the wish to deceive that makes for war. No one at one with himself can even conceive of conflict. Conflict is the inevitable result of self-deception and self-deception is dishonesty. There is no challenge to a teacher of God. Challenge implies doubt and the trust on which God's teachers rest secure makes doubt impossible. Therefore they can only succeed in this as in all things they are honest. They can only succeed because they never do their will alone. They choose for all mankind, for all the world and all things in it for the unchanging and unchangeable beyond appearances and for the Son of God and His Creator. How could they not succeed? They choose in perfect honesty sure of their choice as of themselves. Tolerance. God's teachers do not judge. To judge is to be dishonest for to judge is to assume a position you do not have. Judgment without self-deception is impossible. Judgment implies that you have been deceived in your brothers. How then could you not have been deceived in yourself? Judgment implies a lack of trust and trust remains the bedrock of the teacher of God's whole thought system. Let this be lost and all His learning goes. Without judgment are all things equally acceptable for who could judge otherwise. Without judgment are all men brothers for who is there who stands apart. Judgment destroys honesty and shatters trust. No teacher of God can judge and hope to learn. Gentleness. Harm is impossible for God's teachers. They can neither harm nor be harmed. Harm is the outcome of judgment. It is the dishonest act that follows a dishonest thought. It is a verdict of guilt upon a brother and therefore on oneself. It is the end of peace and the denial of learning. It demonstrates the absence of God's curriculum and its replacement by insanity. No teacher of God but must learn and fairly early in his training that harmfulness completely obliterates his function from his awareness. It will make him confused, fearful, angry, and suspicious. It will make the Holy Spirit's lessons impossible to learn. Nor can God's teacher be hurt at all except by those who realize that harm can actually achieve nothing. No gain can come of it. Therefore, God's teachers are wholly gentle. They need the strength of gentleness for it is in this that the function of salvation becomes easy. To those who would do harm, it is impossible. To those whom harm has no meaning, it is merely natural. What choice but this has meaning to the same? Who chooses hell when he perceives a way to heaven and who would choose the weakness that must come from harm in place of the unfailing, all-encompassing and limitless strength of gentleness? The might of God's teachers lies in their gentleness for they have understood their evil thoughts came neither from God's Son nor his Creator. Thus did they join their thoughts with him who is their source, and so their will, which always was his own, is free to be himself. Joy. Joy is the inevitable result of gentleness. Gentleness means that fear is now impossible and what could come to interfere with joy? The open hands of gentleness are always filled. The gentle have no pain. They cannot suffer. Why would they not be joyous? They are sure they are beloved and must be safe. Joy goes with gentleness as surely as grief attends attack. God's teachers trust in him and they are sure his teacher goes before them, making sure no harm can come to them. They hold his gifts and follow in his way because God's voice directs them in all things. Joy is their song of thanks and Christ looks down on them in thanks as well. His need of them is just as great as theirs of him. How joyous it is to share the purpose of salvation. Defenselessness. God's teachers have learned how to be simple. They have no dreams that need defense against the truth. They do not try to make themselves. Their joy comes from understanding who created them and what God created need defense. No one can become an advanced teacher of God until he fully understands that defenses are but foolish guardians of mad illusions. The more grotesque the dream, the fiercer and more powerful its defenses seem to be. Yet when the teacher of God finally agrees to look past them, he finds that nothing was there. Slowly at first he lets himself be undeceived, but he learns faster as his trust increases. It is not danger that comes when defenses are laid down. It is safety. It is peace. It is joy. And it is God. Generosity. The term generosity has special meaning to the teacher of God. It is not the usual meaning of the word. In fact, it is a meaning that must be learned and learned very carefully. Like all the other attributes of God's teachers, this one rests ultimately on trust, for without trust no one can be generous in the true sense. To the world generosity means giving away in the sense of giving up. To the teachers of God it means giving away in order to keep. This has been emphasized throughout the text and the workbook, but it is perhaps more alien to the thinking of the world than many the other ideas in our curriculum. Its greater strangeness lies merely in the obviousness of its reversal of the world's thinking. In the clearest way possible and at the simplest of levels, the word means the exact opposite to the teachers of God and to the world. The teacher of God is generous out of capital self-interest. This does not refer however to the small self of which the world speaks. The teacher of God does not want anything he cannot give away, because he realizes it would be valueless to him by definition. What would he want it for? He could only lose because of it. He could not gain. Therefore he does not seek what only he could keep because that is a guarantee of loss. He does not want to suffer. Why should he ensure himself pain? But he does want to keep for himself all things that are of God and therefore for his son. These are the things that belong to him. These he can give away in true generosity protecting them forever for himself. Patience. Those who are certain of the outcome can afford to wait and wait without anxiety. Patience is natural to the teacher of God. All he sees is certain outcome at a time perhaps unknown to him as yet, but not in doubt. The time will be as right as is the answer. And this is true for everything that happens now or in the future. The past as well held no mistakes. Nothing that did not serve to benefit the world as well as him to whom it seemed to happen. Perhaps it was not understood at the time. Even so, the teacher of God is willing to reconsider all his past decisions if they are causing pain to anyone. Patience is natural to those who trust. Sure of the ultimate interpretation of all things in time, no outcome already seen or yet to come can cause them fear. Faithfulness. The extent of the teacher of God's faithfulness is the measure of his advancement in the curriculum. Does he still select some aspect of his life to bring to his learning while keeping others apart? If so, his advancement is limited and his trust not yet firmly established. Faithfulness is the teacher of God's trust in the Word of God to set all things right. Not some, but all. Generally, his faithfulness begins by resting on just some problems remaining carefully limited for a time. To give up all problems to one answer is to reverse the thinking of the world entirely. And that alone is faithfulness. Nothing but that really deserves the name. Yet each degree, however small, is worth achieving. Readiness, as the text notes, is not mastery. True faithfulness, however, does not deviate. Being consistent, it is wholly honest. Being unswerving, it is full of trust. Being based on fearlessness, it is gentle. Being certain, it is joyous. And being confident, it is tolerant. Faithfulness then combines in itself the other attributes of God's teachers. It implies acceptance of the Word of God and His definition of His Son. It is to them that faithfulness in the true sense is always directed. Toward them, it looks, seeking until it finds. Defenselessness attends it naturally and joy is its condition. And having found, it rests in quiet certainty on that alone to which all faithfulness is due. Open-mindedness. The centrality of open-mindedness, or perhaps the last of the attributes the teacher of God acquires, is easily understood when its relation to forgiveness is recognized. Open-mindedness comes with lack of judgment. As judgment shuts the mind against God's teacher, so open-mindedness invites him to come in. As condemnation judges the Son of God as evil, so open-mindedness permits him to be judged by the voice for God on his behalf. As the projection of guilt upon him would send him to hell, so open-mindedness lets Christ's image be extended to him. Only the open-minded can be at peace. For they alone see reason for it. How did the open-minded forgive? They have let go all things that would prevent forgiveness. They have in truth abandoned the world and let it be restored to them in newness and in joy so glorious they could never have conceived of such a change. Nothing is now as it was formerly. Nothing but sparkles now which seems so dull and lifeless before. And above all are all things welcoming for threat is gone. No clouds remain to hide the face of Christ. Now is the goal achieved. Forgiveness is the final goal of the curriculum. It paves the way for what goes far beyond all learning. The curriculum makes no effort to exceed its legitimate goal. Forgiveness is its single aim at which all learning ultimately converges. It is indeed enough. You may have noticed that the list of attributes of God's teachers does not include things that are the son of God's inheritance. Terms like love, sinlessness, perfection, knowledge and eternal truth do not belong and appear at this context. They would be most inappropriate here. What God has given is so far beyond our curriculum that learning but disappears in its presence. Yet while its presence is obscured the focus properly belongs on the curriculum. It is the function of God's teachers to bring true learning to the world. Properly speaking it is unlearning that they bring for that is true learning in the world. It is given to the teachers of God to bring the glad tidings of complete forgiveness to the world. Blessed indeed are they for they are the bringers of salvation. So in this manual for teachers in this development of trust we see that the characteristics of God's teachers must surely follow. Based on a very sincere and deep trust in the Holy Spirit these characteristics are but effects state of mind that reflects forgiveness that reflects release of the ego and focus on faith in God and God's teachers. The Holy Spirit leads the way. What we've just heard is an invitation from the Holy Spirit an invitation from Jesus to come into function that the world has been waiting for that everyone has been waiting for that opens the gateway to the kingdom of heaven within that leads the mind back into true creation Spirit, eternal, divine and it is noteworthy that it does not matter the past the past roads that you seem to take it does not matter what you think you've done wrong your failures in the past do not matter just an openness, sincere openness to follow, to be shown the world anew to perceive the world differently to be willing to admit I have been mistaken in the past in the way that I've seen my brothers and sisters the way that I perceive the world in time and space all of this was part of a mistaken perception but now I choose to learn anew now I would teach what I would learn I would demonstrate the consistency of the miracle I would be consistently miracle minded seeing the false is false seeing that no images can tell me who I am the world cannot tell me who I am the world is the past but inside me is the great comforter the instructor the voice for God that will lead me higher and higher in states of awareness opening and opening to remember the love of God and everything that I seem to need as I take this journey to be a teacher of God everything I seem to need will be provided the means are given the means are included in the end so welcome to this manual for teachers this segment has been a lead off for an amazing journey a little mini journey here at the end of the course of miracles that we will take together that we will go into very deeply together what we have is a great lead off and now we open ourselves to some amazing topics to come for example what follows next in our next episode is how is healing accomplished the perceived purpose of sickness the shift in perception the function of the teacher of God is healing certain should healing be repeated how can perception of order of difficulties be avoided and then basic questions like are changes required in the life situation of God's teachers how is judgment relinquished how is peace possible in this world how many teachers of God are needed to save the world what is the real meaning of sacrifice how will the world end is each one to be judged in the end how should the teacher of God spend his day we've seen this one before how do God's teachers deal with magic thoughts how is correction made what is justice what is the peace of God what is the role of words in healing how are healing and atonement related does Jesus have a special place in healing is reincarnation so are psychic powers desirable can God be reached directly what is death what is the resurrection and more and then finally we will close this segment of teachings with the clarification of terms so stay tuned I love you all many many blessings Amen