A Course in Miracles
Manual for Teachers
Section 2
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 that 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, for 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, in 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 that 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 ancient instant which he now relives. So has the teacher, too,
made an inevitable choice out of an ancient past. God’s Will in everything
but seems to take time in the working-out. What could delay the power of
eternity?
When 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 have
drawn between their roles, their minds, their bodies, their needs, their
interests, and all the differences they thought 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 interests as
his own.
Manual for Teachers
Section 2
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 that 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, for 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, in 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 that 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 ancient instant which he now relives. So has the teacher, too,
made an inevitable choice out of an ancient past. God’s Will in everything
but seems to take time in the working-out. What could delay the power of
eternity?
When 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 have
drawn between their roles, their minds, their bodies, their needs, their
interests, and all the differences they thought 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 interests as
his own.