Final Lessons

The Introduction to the final lesson says, “Let us together follow in the way that truth points out to us. … And to this purpose let us dedicate our minds, directing all our thoughts to serve the function of salvation. Unto us the aim is given to forgive the world.”

Yesterday I addressed the spiritual persona. Today, I would like to address the political persona. It is a tricky ego persona that gets in the way of “directing all our thoughts to serve the function of salvation” and keeps us from forgiving the world.

Spiritual students sometimes lose all clarity when it comes to politics or pet political issues like the environment, women’s rights, minorities’ rights, etcetera. They may argue that their emotional involvement is coming from compassion, but there is a distinct difference between compassion and the political ego.

Compassion comes from the right-mind. Compassion can move us to become involved in world-issues in some helpful way, but it is humble in feeling and non-judgmental in thought. It accepts the world as it is, does not pick one side over another and acts with right-action too. This is a balance the ego cannot maintain.

In contrast, the political ego is typically aggressive in some way. Its thought system is filled with judgment and attack.

For example, compassion for displaced refugees might give money to the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) or volunteer in refugee camps, but it is able to do these things without attacking the President for his refugee policy.

On the other hand, the political ego is very judgmental. It feels right in its point of view and sees others as wrong. In fact, the tricky political ego often does nothing at all to help; it only attacks. It might attack the President in Facebook for his refugee policy without taking any positive action or giving any money to help people who are currently having the refugee experience. The political ego is not as concerned with helping the world as it pretends. Its primary interest is taking a stand. In its own way, it wages war from its point of view.

To be moved by compassion without taking a stand is an aspect of humility. A stand, regardless of what the stand is, is ego’s way, not salvation’s way.

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Final Lessons

The Introduction to the final lesson says, “His is the only way to find the peace that God has given us. … It is His ending to the dream we seek and not our own.”

As you contemplate the final lesson throughout the day today, it is also helpful to contemplate this excerpt from the Introduction. We seek “His ending” and “not our own.”

Recently I read The Final Understanding by Floyd Henderson. In that book, he wrote:

So many take their favorite teaching method and its teachings as the final step, adopting a religious or spiritual persona and fixating in that role for the remainder of the manifestation…doing spiritual stuff and eating spiritual stuff and wearing spiritual stuff and—in all of their spiritual doingness—living in what they take to be a most non-natural, supernatural, “elevated,” “higher” (and yes, “separate and different”) manner.

In other words, the ego can play the spiritual game. It can believe the teachings and imagine itself living them. The ego gets a sense of satisfaction out of being the spiritual one. However, we aren’t seeking a new game for the ego to play. We do not seek an elevated, spiritual persona or even an elevated, spiritual community. We seek “His ending” and “not our own.”

Let humility be the name of our game. We are students until the very end (even if we happen to be placed in a teaching role).

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Final Lessons

Welcome to the final five lessons of A Course in Miracles Workbook for Students.

As we wind down our first year of Gentle Healing, we prepare for our second year. The final lesson, which will be with you for five days, is the perfect beginning of Year 2. As we go into the second year of Gentle Healing, we go into a year that has three primary focuses:

1. Coming to know and follow your individual inner teacher.
2. Purifying false beliefs and unwholesome conditioning.
3. Becoming increasingly familiar with awareness as your Self.

The final lesson, which is repeated for five days, is a lesson of surrender and trust. Surrender and trust are the very skills needed to accomplish the objectives for Year 2. Therefore, I encourage you to spend the next five days immersing yourself in the final lesson. I recommend taking breaks to read it slowly and contemplatively several times a day. If you feel to, you can also write based on a phrase, sentence or excerpt from the lesson that you feel particularly attracted to. Writing will allow you to go into the heart of the lesson more deeply. If you happen to write on all five days, you may experience a deepening each and every day.

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