Sample Study Guide



Class 5 Meeting Preparation and FormatTo prepare or not prepare?It is widely believed that being spontaneous rather than preparing is the most spiritual way to give a speech or do a class. However, whether it looks spiritual or not is unimportant. The real question is: Does it produce a better learning experience for your students?How to prepareReally engage with the section ahead of timeRead and reread—slowly and thoughtfully(Read the commentary if you’re in Course Companions)Engage with the section intellectuallyEngage with the section personally—see it as applying to you and apply itThe more you’re engaged with the material, the more that will produce a better learning experience for your students.Study the discussion guideGet very familiar with it.Have some ideas of how you will take people through it.Ask for guidanceWhat do You have to tell me about this meeting?What should I emphasize most in the meeting?Set the goalWhat is the main thing you want them to get out of this particular meeting?Get in the right state of mindHave some quiet time beforehand.Get out of image mode: “I put on a great mask to attract the approval of your mask”Get into miracle mode: “I shine the light of truth from my worthy mind into your worthy mind”It’s important to remember that you receive not from your performance, not from your clarity or ability to entertain, but from their learning.Practices to help you get in the right stateRemember the big three for how to see your group members: EqualityHolinessWorthI am here only to be truly helpful.I am here to represent Him Who sent me.I do not have to worry about what to say or what to do, because He Who sent me will direct me.I am content to be wherever He wishes, knowing He goes there with me.I will be healed as I let Him teach me to heal. (T-4.XI.8:2-6)My worth is not established by my teaching. My worth was established by God. (based on T-4.II.14:1)My ego is never at stake because God did not create it. My spirit is never at stake because He did. (based on T-4.II.15:3-4)I recognize the equality of myself and all my students. There is no halfway point in this. Either we are equal or not. (based on P-3.II.9:4-6)I am not an image.Whatever is true of me is wholly benign. (based on T-3.VIII.12:2-3)It is my duty to establish beyond doubt that I am totally unwilling to side with anyone’s misperceptions of me, including my own. (based on T-3.VIII.14:1)I will to be a devoted teacher, rather than an egocentric one. Therefore, I am not afraid. (based on T-4.II.16:1)The format of the meetingCommon formatsReading the Course—everyone takes turns; little discussion Discussing favorite ACIM ideas—not very grounded in the bookProcessing the drama of our lives—which, of course, is endlessBook club for related teachings—the latest popular book out thereSatsang—sitting in the company of an “enlightened” personThe Circle’s study group formatDiscussing and applying teachings from the TextTo make this happen, you need to be the acknowledged leader, not just one of the gang.How a Text section worksAddresses core issuesShows us the folly of our current thought systemOffers a radically different thought system, which is sane and leads to joyWants us to understand the above teachingWants us to internalize the above teachingWants to actually take us from A to BA text section wants to take you on a journey:49523906630New thought system00New thought systemleft72466Old thought system00Old thought system87782418669 Words Understanding Application Transformation 00 Words Understanding Application Transformation You want to reproduce this basic journey in your study group.Sample Study GuideWeek 1Chapter 1Miracle Principles 1-19, Cameos 1-4Miracles as expressions of loveAgain and again in the miracle principles, we see that miracles are something that is given by a giver to a receiver. You can see this in the following principles:3. Miracles occur naturally as expressions of love. 2The real miracle is the love that inspires them. 3In this sense, everything that comes from love is a miracle.7. Miracles are a form of healing. 2They supply a lack, and are performed by those who have more for those who have less.16. Miracles are teaching devices for demonstrating that it is as blessed to give as to receive. 2They simultaneously increase the reserve of strength in the giver and supply the lack of strength in the receiver.It is universally understood in Course in Miracles circles that miracles are defined in the Course as “shifts in perception.” This reflects an overall attitude that the Course is mostly about changing our own minds and has little to do with our behavior or the world. Yet in the miracle principles, it is abundantly clear that miracles are something interpersonal, something given by one person to another. They are explicitly defined as “expressions of love”—one person expressing love to another. Jesus used this exact phrase no less than seven times in describing miracles.Later on, in miracle principle 37, Jesus will offer an additional sense of the word “miracle,” in which a miracle is a catalyst that he introduces into the mind to heal our perception. This is closer to the usual idea of miracles as shifts in perception. But for now, the miracle is an interpersonal act of love. The process of the miracle. In these early principles, we can discern an overall process:Purify your mindHave a loving perception of the recipientBehaviorally express this loveThis love carries tremendous powerThe recipient is healedYou are strengthenedQuestions for discussionHow does this view of the miracle as an interpersonal expression of love affect you? What thoughts or feelings does it bring up in you?How does it change your picture of the Course?When miracle principle 3 says that “the real miracle is the love that inspires” miracles and that “everything that comes from love is a miracle,” what does that imply about the place that love should have in your life? What place does it have now? What place do you want it to have?Possible questions from study group membersWhy does he say that “Miracles in themselves do not matter” (miracle principle 2)? What does that mean?A: It seems to mean that the behavioral act that he is calling a miracle is just the outer shell; it’s the inner content of love that matters. The behavior in itself does not matter because it’s just a delivery device for the love that it conveys.Why does he say that “selective miracles are dangerous” (miracle principle 4)? What are “selective miracles” and why are they dangerous?A: Selective miracles are cases where we decide to give miracles to our favorite recipients, rather than letting the love in us involuntarily flow to whoever it wants to. This selectivity goes against the nature of love. That is why it may “destroy the talent”—it may disconnect us from the love that is the power source of miracles.Where did the idea that miracles are “shifts in perception” come from?A: We don’t really know. This idea has been around since the earliest days. It seems to make sense because it’s a course in miracles and it’s about changing perception. And it does reflect a secondary meaning of the word “miracle.” But what’s important here at the beginning is that the Course’s primary emphasis and definition are that miracles are “expressions of love.” An example of a miracle: the Shield report (Cameo 5)There are many events in the lives of Helen and Bill that Jesus says or implies are miracles. The one he most overtly and repeatedly labels a miracle is Helen’s rewriting of the Shield report.Helen apparently had a deep love for the Shield Institute for Retarded Children. At some point, a colleague of hers named Esther wrote a report for the Shield that was intended to secure a grant from the National Institutes of Health. The report, however, was poorly done, and this obviously threatened the grant and thus the Shield’s funding and its ability to serve its children. Helen, therefore, stepped in and rewrote the report in Esther’s name and (Jesus implies) secured the grant. Helen was not exactly in a holy state while rewriting the report:The reason why you found rewriting that so taxing was because you resented Esther’s sin, and thought she put you in a very unfair position. But no one can really do this to anybody. If you had known that you were really performing a miracle for the Shield, for Esther, for yourself, and for Me, you would have done it with real joy.Despite Helen feeling resentful, her act was still an expression of love—the love she had for the Shield—and that was the crucial element. Jesus calls what she did a miracle no less than three times. It was a miracle given to the Shield, because it allowed them to serve their children better; to Esther, because her careless report was nullified before it could do damage; and to Helen herself, because her act of love wiped away past-life mistakes in which she had hurt the children. As a result, Jesus used the Shield report as an illustration of miracle principle 24, in which a single miracle brings about “an interlocking chain of forgiveness.”Questions for discussionWhat most strikes you about this story? What do you find most memorable?How does it affect your view of the miracle to discover that Helen could do a miracle while feeling resentful?Possible questions from study group membersWhy does Jesus call this a miracle?A: Because it was an expression of love—Helen’s love for the Shield and the children it served. And in turn, it helped them by obtaining the grant money and it canceled out Esther’s “sin,” thus relieving her of the burden of being responsible for the Shield being left without the grant money.How could it be a miracle if Helen was in a state of unforgiveness toward Esther?A: Because it was an expression of her love for the Shield. That’s why she was rewriting the report. She wasn’t rewriting it because of her resentment of Esther, but in spite of her resentment of Esther. What she was expressing was not a shift she had just experienced in that moment, but the love she always carried for the Shield.ApplicationIs there someone you know who is showing signs of needing love?What particular expression of love from you would be most helpful for this person? You may want to ask within for guidance.Get in touch with your love for him or her. It may help to affirm something from the Course like “You are God’s beloved Son in whom He is well pleased.” Now picture yourself with this person, performing this expression of love. Do your best to actually follow through on this in the next week. See what happens. ................
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