The Epilogue

This isn’t an end; it is a new beginning. I have stated before that Year 2 will be focused on following the inner teacher. The Epilogue shares this same emphasis. Before we close A Course in Miracles and move on to our next step, let’s contemplate some final ideas from the Epilogue.

Whatever troubles you, be certain that He [the inner teacher] has the answer, and will gladly give it to you, if you simply turn to Him and ask it of Him.

As we move forward with Gentle Healing, let’s embrace the opportunity for purification and clarity. Whenever you are upset, turn to your inner teacher. Ask questions in trust that you will receive answers from within. Even if an answer does not come right away, trust that it will, and wait for it. You might sit and wait, as Adyashanti did when he wrote with inner wisdom, or you might go to other things while leaving the question open in your heart, knowing an answer will come in a form that you will recognize. Do not to try to figure out or think up an answer for yourself. Wait for the gift of an answer, and an answer will come that is beyond the limited mental self, an answer that will take you further into healing and awakening.

You are as certain of arriving home as is the pathway of the sun laid down before it rises, … For it can not be possible to change the course of those whom God has called to Him. Therefore, obey your will, and follow Him Whom you accepted as your voice, to speak of what you really want and really need.

The confusion that we suffer from is confusion regarding what we are. When we listen to our mental self and believe our emotional self, that confusion continues. When we trust our intuitive self and follow it, we walk away from confusion and into clarity.

If we feel that the mind and emotions are “me”, and we fear that following intuition may result in some sacrifice of what “I” want, we are still very confused about what we are. If we believe that idea and listen to our thinking over intuition, we cling to confusion.

Before beginning our second year of Gentle Healing, it is good to contemplate what we want now. Are we ready to lean on intuition instead of our thinking and emotions? Do we want to listen to the Subtle Within and follow it as we let our familiar self squirm, weaken and fade?

Let Him prepare you further.

There is more to come for each of us on this journey of awakening. None of us know what lies ahead, nor do we know the experiences we need to prepare us for the next shift or realization. Therefore, it is helpful to trust everything that comes while leaning on the inner teacher completely.

You will be told exactly what God wills for you each time there is a choice to make.

We do not need to make choices anymore. This is good news! However, if you are anything like me, you will need to learn not to make choices. We were taught how to think and make choices; no one taught us how to not make choices. However, the universe will take care of itself, and our role will be given to us through intuition if we give up making choices and become the observer of everything that unfolds.

… ask His Will in everything we do.

Of course, to move beyond choice completely, this is the habit we need to cultivate. We need to remember to ask, “What am I to do now?” Guidance can become a new habit, but we need to put effort into cultivating that habit first.

As we go forward, we will most likely listen to the mental and emotional, familiar, self-centered self sometimes, and to the mysterious, intuitive self other times. Our goal is to live from the former less and less while learning to depend on the latter more and more. Let’s commit ourselves to this goal today, and let’s work towards it in Year 2 with conscious effort.

Meditation Options

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Final Lessons

The Introduction to our final lesson says, “We come in honesty to God and say we did not understand, and ask Him to help us learn His lessons, through the Voice of His Own Teacher.”

We are here to let go of our self, which means we cannot rely on our self at all. Clear reasoning can see that as long as we rely on our self, we cannot let go of our self. This is the purpose of coming to know the inner teacher. It gives us something to follow other than the self-centered self.

Most people are not overtly familiar with the inner teacher, because there have been many times in our lives when we dismissed it in favor of our own thinking. Each time we chose our thoughts over intuition, intuition was repressed a little more. That means our thinking is very conscious while our spiritual intuition may be deeply buried beneath the ego. However, this process can be reversed.

By wanting to follow intuition more than thinking, by seeking intuition within and by following intuition when we recognize it, we invite intuition back into our conscious awareness.

As we move forward with Gentle Healing, be prepared to put your thinking aside. Be prepared to put your self aside. To quote Nisargadatta Maharaj:

Try to be, only to be. The all-important word is “try”. Allot enough time daily for sitting quietly and trying, just trying, to go beyond the personality with its addictions and obsessions. Don’t ask how, it cannot be explained. You just keep on trying until you succeed. If you persevere, there can be no failure. What matters supremely is sincerity, earnestness; you must really have had surfeit of being the person you are; now see the urgent need of being free of this unnecessary self-identification with a bundle of memories and habits. This steady resistance against the unnecessary is the secret of success.

Intuition is the alternative to “unnecessary self-identification.”

“Steady resistance against the unnecessary” is not thinking, speaking or acting from self-identification; instead, rest until intuition is known, and then follow the guidance that comes from intuition.

Meditation Options

Guided Meditation Audios

YouTube Meditation Playlist

Final Lessons

The Introduction to the final lesson says, “It is our function to remember Him on earth, as it is given us to be His Own completion in reality. … And shall we not forgive our brother, who can offer this to us? He is the way, the truth, and life that shows the way to us. In him resides salvation, offered us through our forgiveness, given unto him.”

As we approach the gate to Heaven, one thing that will show up in our path along the way are challenging personalities, those that we are willing to shut outside of our heart. Or, if we are not willing to go that far, we are at least willing to disregard them as something less than God. For this tendency, we need to be wary.

Love is a matter for the heart, not the mind. The inner teacher knows how to love. The mind and our prior conditioning does not. That means that whenever we face a challenging personality, we must rely heavily on inner intuition and not rely on the mind at all.

Our thinking is the ego. It’s purpose for any challenging personality that we come across is to keep us securely locked within our own false personality. If you look carefully, you can feel your false personality balloon up when you attend to thoughts about a challenging personality. You may be filled with anxiety, fear, guilt, unworthiness, anger, annoyance, control, righteousness or some other feeling, but it definitely fills up.

Know that every challenging personality you meet is a chance to enhance the ego or deflate it, and then turn carefully, quietly and consistently to inner guidance regarding how you are to be with this one.

Meditation Options

Guided Meditation Audios

YouTube Meditation Playlist