Teach Thyself in Order To Know Thyself
by Tom Baker
Lesson: Chap. 16, III. The Reward of Teaching
Date: January 10, 2010
In the previous section (The Power of Holiness) we are urged to give the Holy Spirit our problems so they may be solved. Not so different from traditional religion telling us to hand over our burdens to God or Jesus. Yet in this section we go far beyond "let go and let God" as we are told that the Holy Spirit is actually our real Self. The Holy Spirit is the part of our minds that has never lost touch with the unity of all that is. But that’s not all. Not only is the Holy Spirit our real Self united with God, but it is teaching others through the illusory self that the ego has tricked us into making up. The pure white light is coming through the twisted rainbow of our ego consciousness.
Although the Holy Spirit has taught through us, we have seldom been aware of it. In this section we are asked to notice when we have taught beyond our little ego made selves by noting that "the results have been to bring peace where there was pain, and suffering has disappeared to be replaced by joy." (Chap. 16, III. The Reward of Teaching, p. 335). I would suggest that this is a rather common experience in that we often will tell someone something that is far beyond what we think we know and also beyond what we actually practice. Years ago, when I was still a priest, I remember telling my friend Steve Boesen in a particularly poignant moment,
"You can’t lose your life and you can’t lose your worth. Your life is eternal and your worth is beyond question." He has told me many times since that these words, this teaching, has brought him peace in times of trouble. When he has asked me where I learned this truth I always say that it came to me, the implication being that something beyond what I know as myself gave me the idea.
Not only have I not been aware of the Holy Spirit teaching through me, I, the teacher, have not availed myself of the teaching that helped my friend. I am something of a hypochondriac, so I am worried about losing my life. I am also a high achieving wonder boy so I am rather constantly proving my worth.
As I was writing this last sentence my wife, who was getting ready to go out, bent over and kissed me. I warned her that I have a cold and that she could get sick from kissing me. The Holy Spirit replied through her, "Kissing you could never make me sick." The Holy Spirit was reminding me of my teaching "you cannot lose your life or your worth." Fascinating!
Later on in this section we are told: "This is a course in how to know yourself. You have taught what you are, but have not let what you are teach you." (p. 335). In other places the Course tells us that we always teach what we most need to learn and that the spirit of how we give grounds or establishes that spirit within ourselves. If I give you a gift with joy, I am deepening joy in myself. But this may not be as automatic as I have thought. In paragraph 7 of this section we are told to make a new year’s resolution in terms of intentionality: "This year you will begin to learn, and make learning commensurate with teaching." (p. 336).
So when I remind people that they are basically innocent, that deep down they are in fact holy, that at this minute they are thinking with God but almost totally unaware of it, and that they are the light of the world and entitled to miracles, that when I teach all of this to others, I promise to accept it for myself. In a spiritual way this is the overcoming of the co-dependent compulsion to give to others while ignoring ourselves.
We will meet three more Sundays (1/17/10; 1/24/10; 1/31/10) and then take 2/7/10 off because of the Super Bowl and 2/14/10 because of Valentines Day. We will start the Course over again on February 21st, 2010 and meet the first time in the large auditorium and the rest of the time in the mini. I will continue to post handouts on my website www.tombakeromega.com. If you want to read ahead we will be working with the material in Chapter 16 entitled The Forgiveness of Illusions for the next month. Next week (1/17/10) we will look at IV. The Illusion and the Reality of Love.
© Copyright Tom Baker 2010