Notes on the Text of A Course in - Stephen Wingate

Main Themes: The first theme of this chapter is the
Oneness of Heaven, and the reflection of oneness in
the mind which is forgiveness and healing. The
second theme is the ego's belief in separation in the
mind, and the reflection of separation which is the
body and the world. The ego's strategy includes
sickness and attack. Forgiveness is the correction for
thoughts of attack. Healing is the correction for
thoughts of sickness. The oneness of Heaven is
defended against by the ego's belief in separation.
This chapter provides a detailed exposition of the
ego's strategy to maintain its separate existence.
•
When the ego believed it separated from God it said
God is not the first cause, I am the first cause, and I
am my own creator; meaning we are now selfcreated
rather than God-created. That is the
fundamental error of the ego's thought system. In
Heaven there is no separate God, Christ, Creator and
creation. These are dualistic terms that are symbolic
expressions of our perfect unity in Heaven.
•
God's creation is not of the world of time and space.
In Heaven, God extends Himself as love, and His
extension is called Christ. Christ is part of God and
has the same ability to create, and His extension of
Himself as love is called creation. They are all one.
The words are symbols for the sharing or extension
of love beyond time and space. The perfect oneness
and love of God can be reflected in the world of
space and time as forgiveness and healing. The love
of God is reflected in the mind and world when, with
the Holy Spirit, we choose to forgive.
•
When you identify with God's love, His love is
extended through you. When you identify with the
ego's separation, sin, guilt and fear, they are
projected through you. In Heaven joy is our eternal
state.
•
The use of dualistic terms in the Course is symbolic
only. God, Christ and the Holy Spirit are one and are
absolutely non-dual. Terms that imply time, space,
separation and duality (first, last, Creator, creation,
Father, Son) are symbolic only and are not to be
taken literally. God is one. Reality is one. There is no
duality, separation, time or space in God, reality or
truth.
CHAPTER SEVEN
THE GIFTS OF THE KINGDOM
26
•
The Atonement principle is a major theme through
the whole Course and is reflected again here:
Ignorance of love does not interfere with love's
eternal being.
•
The Holy Spirit is in your mind, not your body. You
must choose to allow the Holy Spirit to bring love
(your creations) into your awareness. The thought of
the Holy Spirit is the memory in our right mind of
who we are as Christ. When we remember our
Identity with God, His love extends or flows through
us, as us.
•
God's Will is that we are one with his love. The ego
does not want to hear that it is insane to believe we
are separate, so its strategy is to deny and bury the
Voice for God.
•
Our function in Heaven is to create which is to
extend the love of God. Our function in the world is
to forgive and accept the Atonement for ourselves.
We can deny the truth of God's Will, but we cannot
make the truth untrue.
•
The separation never happened. Believing in
separation from God cannot make it true. The ego's
fear is that we will realize we made a mistake in
choosing to identify with the ego and the body, and
we will choose the Holy Spirit instead. The ego is
terrified that we will choose for the Holy Spirit
which means the end of the ego.
•
The ego's strategy is to keep us identified with the
body and world, and out of our mind. All of the
apparent problems of the body and world: sickness,
death, famine, conflict, and war are all part of the
ego's strategy to keep us focused outside the mind
where we could make the decision against the ego
and for the Holy Spirit which would mean the end of
the ego.
•
God's “meaning” is love, peace, oneness, and
eternity. We become absent or unaware of God's
meaning by being absent from the mind, focused on
and identified with the body. By seeing problems in
the body and world, and seeking solutions there, we
remain ignorant of the true source of problems and
solutions which is in the mind. This is the ego's