A COURSE IN MIRACLES

T-6.V The Lessons of the Holy Spirit

1. Like any good teacher, the Holy Spirit knows more than you do now, but He teaches only to make you equal with Him. ²You had already taught yourself wrongly, having believed what was not true. ³You did not believe in your own perfection. ⁴Would God teach you that you had made a split mind, when He knows your mind only as whole? ⁵What God does know is that His communication channels are not open to Him, so that He cannot impart His joy and know that His children are wholly joyous. ⁶Giving His joy is an ongoing process, not in time but in eternity. ⁷God’s extending outward, though not His completeness, is blocked when the Sonship does not communicate with Him as one. ⁸So He thought, “My children sleep and must be awakened”.

2. How can you wake children in a more kindly way than by a gentle Voice that will not frighten them, but will merely remind them that the night is over and the light has come? ²You do not inform them that the nightmares that frightened them so badly are not real, because children believe in magic. ³You merely reassure them that they are safe now. ⁴Then you train them to recognize the difference between sleeping and waking, so they will understand they need not be afraid of dreams. ⁵And so when bad dreams come, they will themselves call on the light to dispel them.

3. A wise teacher teaches through approach, not avoidance. ²He does not emphasize what you must avoid to escape from harm, but what you need to learn to have joy. ³Consider the fear and confusion a child would experience if he were told, “Do not do this because it will hurt you and make you unsafe; but if you do that instead, you will escape from harm and be safe, and then you will not be afraid”. ⁴It is surely better to use only three words: “Do only that!”. ⁵This simple statement is perfectly clear, easily understood and very easily remembered.

4. The Holy Spirit never itemises errors because He does not frighten children, and those who lack wisdom are children. ²Yet He always answers their call, and His dependability makes them more certain. ³Children do confuse fantasy and reality, and they are frightened because they do not recognize the difference. ⁴The Holy Spirit makes no distinction among dreams. ⁵He merely shines them away. ⁶His light is always the Call to awaken, whatever you have been dreaming. ⁷Nothing lasting lies in dreams, and the Holy Spirit, shining with the light from God Himself, speaks only for what lasts forever.