You may have noticed that the list of attributes of God’s teachers does not include things that are the Son of God’s inheritance. Terms like love, sinlessness, perfection, knowledge and eternal truth do not appear in this context. They would be most inappropriate here. What God has given is so far beyond our curriculum that learning but disappears in its presence.

Yet while its presence is obscured, the focus properly belongs on the curriculum. It is the function of God’s teachers to bring true learning to the world. Properly speaking, it is unlearning that they bring for that is “true learning” in the world. It is given to the teacher of God to bring the glad tidings of complete forgiveness to the world. Blessed indeed are they, for they are the bringers of salvation.

Notes:

The portrayal of the advanced teacher of God that Jesus shows us is qualitatively different from the ego’s idea of who we are. The advanced teacher of God has opted out of the game that the world is so busy playing: the game of managing the world for the sake of the ego, or the separate self. The world pushes and pulls, includes and excludes, defends and attacks, taps a foot when forced to wait, shouts to move things along, and lies as the situation warrants – all to insure that the illusory self is surrounded with the conditions that suit it. As the Course points out, many lives are spent on the battleground.

In contrast, what is seen in the advanced teacher of God is a relaxed refusal to engineer his own security. He simply declines to manage his world for the sake of the separate self. He blithely opts out of the universal game. He turns and walks off the battleground, for he does not need its rewards. His happiness is not dependent on the things of this world. He has found his reality, one on which he rests as trustingly as a boat rests on calm waters. And while others rush around trying to push and pull the illusion into the proper shape, he simply basks in his reality – happy, at peace, and without a care in the world. And of such people, the Course says: “They want for nothing. Sorrow of any kind is inconceivable. Only the light they love is in awareness, and only love shines upon them forever.” (T-23.IV.8:2-4)

Resigning from the battle allows the teacher of God to be amazingly kind. What would it be like to be around such a person – one who trusts you, who always tells you the truth, for he has no image to protect? He is supremely tolerant of you; no matter how you behave; he considers you his dear friend. He is always gentle; never harsh. He simply does not get defensive, regardless of what you say. He is uncommonly generous; he notices your needs and gives freely from his abundant resources to meet them. Even when you are impatient with yourself, his patience with you knows no bounds. And whatever mistakes you make, he forgives you, for he realized that any perception of his that you are not perfectly holy must be his own mistake, which he gladly gives to the Holy Spirit for correction.

Do you want to be around such a person? Do you want to BE such a person? Will you give anything to have this sense of joy, this freedom from care, this trust in your Father and in your brother? Who among us does not secretly, or even openly, yearn to have the feeling of wholeness that comes from knowing that we are truly God’s Son?

The Course assures us that all these attributes are ours. It is simply a matter of transferring our investment from the battleground to “the quiet sphere above the battleground.” (T-23.IV.9:5) As the Course points out, when we look honestly at the alternatives, the choice between them is no choice at all:

Perhaps you think the battleground can offer something you can win.

Can it be anything that offers you a perfect calmness,

and a sense of love so deep and quiet that no touch of doubt can ever mar your certainty?

And that will last forever?

(T-23.IV.8:7-9)

It may be a long road from where we are now to the “perfect calmness” of the advanced teacher of God. Yet we will get there, if we can just keep from losing our way in the darkness of the ego’s demands. What we must choose now is “an easy path, so clearly marked it is impossible to lose the way.” (T-29.II.1:3) What we must choose is a path of light and love. If we will just place ourselves on this path and keep putting one foot in front of the other, choosing the Holy Spirit with every step, we will find our way to perfect happiness. This is the promise of God and of A Course in Miracles.

GOD IS