Library of Christ Mind Teachings
A Course Of Love
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7.1 Suffering is seen as a condition of this world because
the world is seen as a world in which who you are can never be
accomplished. You have perceived this inability to be who you are in
terms of not being able to do as you would desire to do, live as you
would desire to live, achieve what you would choose to achieve. The true
way in which to see this prerequisite to the condition of suffering is
as the perceived inability to be who you truly are, a being existing in
union. Take away all, for the moment, that you would strive to be, and
the feeling of not being able to be accomplished or complete will still
be with you. Recall the many times you felt certain that a particular
achievement would complete you and take away your feelings of lack. Even
the most successful among you have found that your worldly success has
been unable to bring you the satisfaction and the peace you desire.
7.2 Even the most spiritual and godly among you accept
suffering. Even those who understand as completely as possible the truth
of who they are accept suffering. My use of the word accept is
important here, as these may not see suffering as pain but only as a
natural part of being human that calls for acceptance. They thus find
peace within suffering rather than abolishing suffering. This acceptance
is due to the belief that spirit has chosen a form, and more accurately
put a “lesser” form in which to exist, and that that choice includes the
choice to suffer. This belief may accept suffering as a learning device
rather than a punishment, but it still, in its acceptance of a false
notion, invites suffering. This belief accepts learning through
contrast, that evil is seen in relation to good, peace in relation to
chaos, love in relation to fear. This belief exists in the in-between,
where on the one hand there is darkness, and on the other hand there is
light. One or the other must exist at a given time, but never both. Thus
the absence of good health is disease; the absence of peace is conflict;
the absence of truth, illusion. This belief does not accept that there
is only one reality and that it must exist where you are.
7.3 We are moving you now away from all such beliefs to a
knowing that precludes the need for belief at all.
7.4 Yes, I have said that contrast is a favored teaching
device of the Holy Spirit. But I have not yet said that the time of the
Holy Spirit is ending even though I have stated that the time of the
second coming of Christ is here. I have said that the time of parables
has ended and asked you not to look to those historical figures that
taught in such a way as your examples any longer. I have said a new way
of learning is needed and is here. To continue to rely on the ways of
old, no matter how effective they were and no matter how much they
spoke the truth will be to not learn the new.
7.5 You have advanced, taken steps, climbed to a new level,
and acquired an ability to perceive differently, in order to make this
new learning possible. If you do not let what you have attained serve
you, you will not realize what this new learning has been for. You may
reach an ideal of human satisfaction and happiness, but you will not go
beyond what is human.
7.6 This is why we must speak now of being human in a new
way. We must reconcile the differences between the human and divine. We
must, in other words, speak of incarnation.