There is One Source. Our one Source is All That Is;

That Source is an Eternal Mind. It is the I AM. It is Love.  Our Source is Love.

Love is without form. Love is a state of being without physical form, gender, age, or other attribute of the world we see.

Love exists as One Mind. To “be” means to exist as part of the Mind of Love.

Words used to represent our Source are symbols for Its Truth as Love. Words such as God, Source, Author, Maker, All That Is, It, Father, Mother, Lord, and Cause are symbols that we use to help us refer to Love, which is the Source they symbolize.

Creation of the Child. Love extended Itself to create another “being” or force like Itself which we call “Love’s Child.” Love’s Child is like Its Source–a mind of pure Love. In ACIM, Love’s Child is known as the Christ. We call it “Truth” because It embodies the ultimate Truth taught by the Course that we are One with each other and One with our Creator. That is what the One Child symbolizes.

The ability to Create and Extend. In creating Its Child, Love also extended to Its Child the ability to create as It does, and filled Its Child with the Will to extend and create. ACIM speaks often of our “creations.” Our creations are the thoughts of love we extend.

Heaven. Love’s Child originally dwelled in a state of formless Union with Love; a mental state of complete lack of need, where nothing comes to interrupt the peace and certainty of being loved and safe; a state without cares, worries or anxieties of any kind. This is Heaven and a sense of Oneness that the Course says is now only remembered as a little wisp of melody from a song whose name is long forgotten. This is what we long to fully remember.

The fall or separation. In Truth there is no division of the One Child, but “a tiny mad idea” of separate autonomy crept into the mind of Love’s Child. To experience this idea required separateness which is impossible in Truth, but possible in a dream or illusion. As a result, part of the mind of the Child fell asleep and is dreaming. The earthly world we now perceive and all of the individual persons in it are part of a dream of separateness. That part of the Child’s Mind that continues to dream a world of separation is asleep to the Truth and is being called to awaken.

The illusion of separation. The separation from Oneness did not occur in Truth and the Child of Love remains One with Its Source even as part of Its Mind makes a dream world that symbolizes separateness in everything, including the illusion of separate bodies. But the seemingly separate Children remain One in Truth.

The ego. The ego is the word used to represent the lost and separated part of the Child’s Mind that has forgotten its connection to Source and is trying to make sense of separateness by giving meaning and purpose to it. The ego is the mind’s belief that it is completely on its own. It thus believes it has autonomy and a separate identity. The ego’s world is characterized by learning about differences, by contrast, and by judgments of right and wrong–all hallmarks of separateness. As a result, it is a world where experiences of conflict, loss and burdens repeat, with only glimpses of joy and happiness that do not last. All of the seemingly separate Children have their own seemingly separate ego that has experiences of conflict, loss and burdens. The Course teaches us how to go beyond this identity to perceive the Truth about ourselves.

Consciousness. It is “consciousness” that makes perception. The making of a separate “consciousness” was the first split introduced into the mind, making the mind a perceiver rather than a creator. Consciousness is the domain of the ego. Knowledge or knowing is the domain of Heaven and Truth.

Love’s Children. Love’s Children are not bodies. They are Love’s Thoughts. They are bodies only in the dream where they represent the tiny mad idea of separateness.

Salvation. Salvation may be thought of as reunion. Because the Thought of the Child was created in Love’s image, the Children remain as innocent as is Love, even while they believe themselves to be separate from their Source. To wake up or be saved from the dream of separation is salvation. Salvation is the undoing of the belief of separation and the reunion with Love. It is found when the children awaken and reunite their will with Love to remember what they are. This is the Will of Love, our Source, and when the Will of the Child and Source align, their perfect accord is the state of mind that is Heaven.

The Spirit of Love. Even while asleep in the illusion of separation, all Children of Love remain connected to Love through the Spirit of Love which is Love’s “Voice” within their minds. This Eternal Voice is called The Holy Spirit in ACIM. It is the part of the mind of Love’s separated Children that continues to be aware of Its connection to Its Source and aware that It is part of the Truth of the One Child and is One with Its Creator. This internal Voice continues to have a direct connection to Love’s One Child (which is Truth) and is a bridge between the unified One Mind of Truth and the parts which now think they are separated. The Spirit of Love is our Inner Guide.

Jesus Guides Us as Our Teacher. Jesus is a symbol for a part of the One Child that was once in form (as we believe we are) but remembered Oneness. That Spirit now guides us back to the memory of Oneness and Love by showing us a new way to see ourselves, each other and the world, and by teaching us how to listen to the Voice for Love, which is the Eternal Voice of Oneness and Truth within us.

A Course in Miracles is a Direct Message from Jesus. To give us a blueprint for finding our way back to the memory of Oneness, A Course in Miracles and its Lessons were channeled to remind us that we were created by an Eternal Mind, the “I AM,” as perfect, complete and holy as It Is and that we can remember what we are by listening to the Voice for Love, which remains a part of our own Mind. M-23.7

Responsibility. Mind is very powerful and never loses its creative force. It never sleeps. Every instant it is either making and projecting with the ego or creating and extending with Love and always as we will. There are no “idle” thoughts. All thinking produces form at some level. In this way, in every moment, everyone teaches who and what they think they are. Miracle working thus entails a full realization of the power of thought and the responsible and active avoidance of miscreation.

Attack. While attack is most often thought of as a specific negative thought or act directed toward others or ourselves, in ACIM the word “attack” has a broader meaning. Whenever we think of ourselves or others as a separate body, we are attacking what we really are.

Freedom. Freedom from sickness, lack, and physical limitations is not the real aim of the Course because those all are focused on healing a body. While following its powerful rules of manifesting can lead to those results, they are not the goal. Freedom in the Course means freeing our mind from fear and guilt, and recognizing our freedom of will, freedom to choose between options, and freedom from seeing ourselves and others as separate. Healing will follow.

The Call to Awaken. Into the dream, Truth calls to Love’s Children (us) to awaken, accept responsibility, become free, and wholly return our minds to Source and to Love. The Call is universal. It goes on all the time and everywhere.

The Plan of the Teachers. To answer the Call is but a matter of time. Everyone will answer in the end, but the end can be a long way off. It is because of this that the Plan of the Teachers was established. It calls for Love’s Children to undo thoughts of separation in our own minds and teach that we have accepted Truth and Oneness for ourselves by what we think, say, and act toward each other. The function of teachers is to save time by deliberately choosing as our goal the desire to awaken from the dream. Because all minds are joined, this has the effect of bringing the thought of awakening to others. That is why all those we meet are called our Saviors because our interactions with them teach us (and them) about the decision we have made about what we are and give us another chance to awaken by choosing to think and behave differently. And while delay in awakening does not matter in eternity, it is tragic in time to delay exchanging guilt for peace, viciousness for love, and pain for joy.

All Are Called. All are called to become deliberate teachers of Love’s Truth, but few choose to listen. Many will hear the Call, but few will answer. The “chosen ones” are merely those who choose to answer sooner. Generally speaking, a teacher is anyone who chooses to be one. Their qualifications consist solely in this: somehow, somewhere they made a deliberate choice in which they did not see their interests as apart from someone else’s. With that one decision they have entered into an agreement with Love to become a bringer of salvation. They come from all over the world. They come from all religions and no religion. They may not believe in a god, but they answered the Call to teach forgiveness rather than condemnation.

The Universal Course. For those who choose to answer the Call, the Plan of the Teachers provides a special form of a universal course for them to follow. The content of the universal course never changes. Its central theme is always “You are as Love created you–holy, loved and safe.” The universal course can be taught by actions or thought, in words or soundlessly, in any language or in no language, in any place or time or manner. It does not matter who the teachers were before they heard the Call to teach. By seeing the central theme in themselves and others, they see someone else as themselves. This is how they find their own salvation and the salvation of the world. In their rebirth and acceptance of their role as teachers is the world reborn. They become Saviors by answering. A Course in Miracles is a special form of the universal course.

The Universal Curriculum.The universal course has a universal curriculum which is “the Children of Love are guiltless.” The goal of the universal curriculum is to undo separation, learn true Reality which is Oneness, and “know thyself.” A Course in Miracles teaches this universal curriculum through “the curriculum of the Atonement” which is the means of undoing the separation. The Universal Edition calls this “the curriculum of the Undoing.”

Undoing/Atonement. Atonement in A Course in Miracles means the Undoing of the separation by the remembrance that we are a Creation of Source Itself with all power of Source and nothing to fear. It is also the remembrance that we are not separate from each other in body or mind, but are part of a unified Oneness. By accepting this view of ourselves and others, we lay aside all judgement and guilt. In this way the Undoing is also forgiveness as we forgive our prior view of separateness and guilt. By accepting this Undoing for ourselves, we heal our belief in separation, our feelings of loss of power, and our episodes of fear. We find our way to the Undoing and out of the illusion of separation by asking for and accepting direction from our Inner Guide. This Inner Guide is the Eternal Voice for Love which remains within our minds. The Course is designed to give us increasing experiences of joy and peace as we remember to turn our minds over to guidance from the Spirit of Love and learn how to forgive ourselves and others. The final goal of the curriculum, and its aim, is that we learn to remember what we are.

Lessons of the Curriculum. To save time, everyone who chooses to answer the Call to become a deliberate Teacher of Love is given individual lessons of the universal curriculum to teach. These lessons come in the form of people, places and situations, and change each day, but do not change at random. The form of the lessons varies greatly because it is determined exclusively by what the teachers think they are and what they believe the relationship of others is to them. What they think they are is demonstrated by their thoughts, words and deeds in interactions with themselves and others in every situation they encounter. The particular “teaching aids,” or situations involving people and places, will thus be different and highly individualized, but the content of the course itself is universal.

Relationships. To help us undo the separation, we are taught to practice perceiving the Truth of Oneness with all whom we encounter by always asking for guidance from the Spirit of Love within our minds. Relationships thus become the temple of Love’s Eternal Voice through which It works to restore to us the memory of what we truly are. That is why every encounter is actually a gift because it is another opportunity to practice who and what we think we are.

To teach is to demonstrate. We represent or witness for the authority in which we believe. Our witnessing demonstrates our belief and strengthens it. We demonstrate our beliefs by our attitudes, our feelings, and our behavior. Our mission is simple. We have been chosen to demonstrate that we and others are not an ego and not a body and not separate from each other. We are called to demonstrate that we have changed our minds about ourselves and all others. This is forgiveness. As we move through our individual lessons, by our actions, words, thoughts and feelings we have the opportunity to teach the universal course to ourselves and others.

Role of a Teacher. The role of a teacher is one of leading themselves and others out of confusion and conflict and into joy and peace, or out of the desert away from condemnation and toward awakening.

Teachers and Pupils. While everyone teaches in every moment and is always, and at the same time, both teacher and pupil, certain pupils have been assigned to each of Love’s teachers, and they will begin to look for their teacher as soon as the teacher has answered the Call. There are no accidents in their meeting. Those who are to meet will meet because they are ready for each other. When pupil and teacher come together, a teaching-learning situation begins.

Goal of Teaching. The pupils were chosen for the teacher because the form of the universal curriculum that will be taught is best for each of them at this stage of their learning. The difference between pupil and teacher is not lasting. The aim of teachers is to give pupils more of what is temporarily theirs, while at the same time gaining for themselves. Teacher and pupil do not gain the same things because they do not need the same things. Teachers gain by clarifying their own ideas and strengthen them by teaching.

Teachers of Love. Teachers of the special curriculum found in A Course in Miracles are Teachers of Innocence, Peace, and the Undoing and, if they have completed the Workbook, are called Teachers of God in A Course in Miracles and Teachers of Love in the Universal Edition.

Gifts and Skills. Love’s Children are completely equal. Teachers of Love are only leaders in the sense that they walk slightly ahead of another and help them avoid pitfalls in the road by seeing them first. To do this teachers may rely upon gifts and skills, which are temporary in the illusion, but which help illuminate the path as they, in turn, ask for guidance and follow a path illuminated by the Spirit of Love which dwells within them and remains connected to our Source.

The Second Coming. The Second Coming is the time in which all minds are given to Truth to be returned to Spirit in the name of true Creation and the Will of Our Creator. It means the end of the ego’s rule and the healing of the One Mind. Jesus is in charge of the Second Coming and calls us to join him to restore Oneness as Our One Identity, in which the Children of Love acknowledge that they all are One.

The Great Awakening. We join the Great Awakening when we can no longer tolerate a lack of love in ourselves and everyone else and must join to correct it.

Disciples. While all Teachers of Love are followers of the universal curriculum, all who choose to teach the universal curriculum through demonstration of the special curriculum prepared in A Course in Miracles can be called disciples of Jesus and are part of the Plan of the Teachers.

Ministers of Miracles. All who answer The Call to follow the Plan of Teachers and who demonstrate their acceptance and ability to share the Plan and A Course in Miracles with others by following the process established by The Door To Peace, may become ordained and known as Ministers.

Guardians and Guides. All who choose to become deliberate Teachers of Love and answer the Call to restore Oneness as Our One Identity, and who commit to using their unique gifts and skills to bring awareness of the message of A Course in Miracles to a wider audience through the means established by The Door To Peace, may become Guardians and Guides. Guardians and Guides are powerful in spirit, certain of their identity, and at peace with the world.