The Inner Teacher, the Ego,

and God’s Plan for Salvation

The Role of the Holy Spirit

in A Course in Miracles

by Jon Mundy, Ph.D.

 

All miracles mean life, and God is the Giver of life.

His Voice will direct you very specifically.

You will be told all you need to know.

Principle Number 4 of the Fifty Miracles Principles

of A Course in Miracles T-1.I.4

 

When something really good happens, we say, “Thank you, God!” When something really bad happens, we say, “Oh God, please no!” In such moments are we not at least hopeful that there is a God who hears us? Helen Schucman said that the purpose of the Course was to help us come to an awareness of the presence of the Inner Teacher. Becoming progressively aware of the Inner Teacher enables our finding a way home.

 

There is a Self, a loving, wise, gentle, guide who knows the way Home. This Self knows our deepest heart’s desire and the decision we need to make at each and every instant. Being concerned or obsessed with the world—with our bodies and our relationships, it is easy to “fall” into ego and then get caught in confusion, bewilderment, perplexity, and depression. Inner life can be neglected, repressed, ignored, and sometimes, but not ever entirely, forgotten.

 

There is guidance for each of us,

And by lowly listening we shall hear the right words.

American Poet, Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)

 

Listening to the Holy Spirit instead of the ego is a matter of reawakening to the awareness that there is an Inner Guide. We don’t have to depend upon ourselves alone. There is a line in an old, African American hymn made popular by Harry Belafonte in the 1960s titled, “There is No Hiding Place Down Here.” There is no running away from God. We can try, but repressing awareness of the Holy Spirit means living in an artificial fantasy world and deep inside we know it. We can no more avoid God than He can avoid us. So we might as well say, “Hello God, I’m ready and willing to follow your lead. I will not run. I will not hide. I will not be afraid of your love.”

 

This is a course in how to know yourself.

You have taught what you are,

but have not let what you are teach you.

T-16.III.4:1–2

 

The Holy Spirit is a formless unified thought, an indwelling spirit, a spark, a counselor, a comforter, a healer, and a mediator. That which is eternal has always been available. Things are only “new” when we come upon them for the first time. Socrates, Plato, and the Stoics of Ancient Greece spoke of this Inner Teacher as the “inner genius.” Confucius called it the Superior Man. The Zoroastrians of ancient Persia called it the Spenta Mainu. In Judaism, it’s called the Ruach (Breath) Hakodesh

 

The Inner Teacher, the Ego, and God’s Plan for Salvation (Holy) or Shechina, which embodies the nurturing aspects of God given to us at the moment of separation in order to help us find our way back to Home.

 

St. Paul, in Corinthians, refers to this teacher as indwelling Spirit. In Islam—Angels, extensions of the thoughts of God, are protective figures that “light” our way. It is the same Angel Gabriel who tells Mary of the coming of Jesus who dictates the Qur’an to Mohammed. Throughout the New Testament and the Course, the terms Counselor, Comforter, Healer, Guide, Teacher, and Mediator are used to describe different qualities of One Holy Spirit.

 

As the Father in his simple nature gives his Son birth naturally,

so truly does he give him birth in the most inward part of the Spirit,

and that is the inner world.

German Mystic, Meister Eckhart (1260–1326)

 

Meister Eckhart, spoke of “the little spark” that enlightens our way. On eight different occasions the Course also speaks of this little spark in the mind (T-11.in.3:6). New England transcendentalist Henry David Thoreau (1818–1862,) said that the degree to which we are true to ourselves is the degree to which we pay attention to inner intelligence. Throughout the history of mystical philosophy, this inner guide is referred to as our Self, Higher Self, True Self, Jesus, The Christ, The Holy Spirit, and The Voice for God. There is a spark within our mind, an extension of the light of God.

 

Turn toward the light, for the little spark in you is part of a light

so great that it can sweep you out of all darkness forever.

For your Father is your Creator, and you are like Him.

T-11.III.5:6

 

The Comforter

African American Civil Rights leader, Martin Luther King Jr. (1929–1968), told a story of once being terribly afraid. His life and those of his family had been threatened. One night when he could not sleep, he got up and went and sat in the dark at the kitchen table. He was thinking maybe he should call off a Civil Rights march. There in the middle of the night, in the dark, he began to pray. He asked, “What am I supposed to do?” This is a very good prayer. Like all prayer, it is asking but it also a way of saying, “Holy Spirit, help me. I want to see this the way you do.” King then sat quietly and there in the middle of the night    despite his terror, he said he heard a voice say, “Do not be afraid.” He got up with a renewed sense of peace and went on with the march despite the threats that were converging upon him.

 

I’ve been offering workshops on listening to inner guidance for  several years. At each workshop, I ask folks to tell me about experiences in which they have felt as though they received some form of inner guidance, not intuitively, but things they thought they had actually heard. I wrote down what I was told and after many years, I collected hundreds of things people told me they heard, usually just a sentence or two. Sometimes, it was the same thing heard by someone else in yet another time and place. We tend to remember best those things which happen in dramatic life-changing moments of crash and burn, when we really needed help. We hear when we give up trying to figure life out and in desperation cry out for help. What is heard at this point is something very comforting and reassuring. It is never anything that would upset or disturb. As the angels said to the shepherds on the hillside at the time of the birth of Jesus, “Fear not.” Here are some    examples of what people said they heard: “Haven’t I always taken care of you?” “I’m here to help you.”

 

• “I’ve been waiting for you.”

• “I have always loved you.”

• “You are never alone.”

• “You just need to be.”

• “You need do nothing.”

• “You are on the right track.”

• “You are my beloved daughter in whom I am well-pleased.”

• “You never did anything wrong.”

• “There is another way to look at this.”

• “This need not be.”

• “Trust me!”

• “It takes time to be healed.”

• “There will always be enough.”

• “Everything is going to be okay.”

• “Let me handle this.”

 

A man who was walking out of the front door of an office building where he had just been fired, cried out, “Help!” and He heard, “You just got help.” These are “openings,” “reassurances” which come during dramatic moments when there is need for comfort and support. This is not, however, the usual way in which the Holy Spirit speaks to us. When we really need help, sometimes the comforter comes during our “hour of greatest need.” It is best, however, not to wait for crisis in    order to be in communication. Nor do we hear an actual voice. The “teacher,” “guide,” “healer” comes to us gently during more peaceful moments when studying, meditating, in our dreams, in doing the  Workbook Lessons of the Course, just relaxing, perhaps while going for a walk, or perhaps when we’re lying awake in bed in the morning.

 

God whose love is everywhere

can’t come to visit unless you’re not there.

German Mystic, Angelus Silesius (1624–1677)

 

Blocks to the Awareness of God’s Presence: Idle Wishes,

Dreams, Fantasies, Illusions, and Grievances

We are so there. We are so into our heads. We are so into thinking, worrying, analyzing, interpreting, projecting, and judging that we can’t see anything except our own projections. There is, therefore, no room for God. We would much rather build our own world than discover God’s world. I once went to visit Ken Wapnick for what I think of as a kind of annual spiritual check-up. Ken began our conversation by saying, “How is your Kingdom?” The answer to that question is, “What Kingdom?” If we think we have any Kingdom other than that of God’s, we’re standing outside the Kingdom.

 

Only the Will we share with God has the power of creation within it. Idle wishes cannot be shared. Nothing makes idle wishes except idle wishes. Fantasies twist perception into unreality (T-1.VII.3:2). Dreams, fantasies, idle wishes, and grievances are all delaying maneuvers which facilitate dreaming. They are blocks in the awareness of God’s presence. God can’t come to visit when we are so full of ourselves, so obsessed with thinking that there is no room for God.

 

We might think of ourselves as two-way radios, capable of both sending and receiving. As it is, we have our tuners set on W.E.G.O. and W.E.G.O. is coming in loud and strong and a little statically—very often with not good news. There is another program being played. We might call it W.G.O.D. We block reception of the voice of God when we identify with our own specialness. We are learning to switch our allegiance from listening to W.E.G.O. to W.G.O.D.

 

God calls you and you do not hear, for you are preoccupied

with your own voice. And the vision of Christ is not in your sight,

for you look upon yourself alone.

T-13.V.6:6

 

As I turn down the volume on W.E.G.O., I begin to realize there is another program being played. I could have been listening to the W.G.O.D. all along. This Voice for God is beautiful, harmonic, and soothing. It speaks to everyone, every moment of every day. It’s not that God is not there. I cannot, however, be full of self and fully of God at the same time. Dov Baer (1704–1772), one of the founders of Hasidic Judaism, said, “If you think of yourself as something, God cannot clothe himself in you.” Or, as Menahem Nahum (1730–1797, Ukraine), another of the Jewish mystics, said, “Only one who is nothing can contain the fullness of the Presence.” Mindfulness calls for presence where all things are joyous.

 

You may not realize that the ego has set up a plan for salvation

in opposition to God’s. It is this plan in which you believe.

Since it is the opposite of God’s, you also believe that to

accept God’s plan in place of the ego’s is to be damned.

This sounds preposterous, of course.

Yet after we have considered just

what the ego’s plan is, perhaps you will realize that,

However, preposterous it may be, you do believe in it.

W-71.1:1–4

G.P.S.: God’s Plan for Salvation

The ego’s plan is to keep us safe in a hidden secret room, a place of isolation inside a mind carefully concealed inside a body. The Holy Spirit is the only guidance system which can bring us Home. I can make a conscious choice, accept guidance as a way of life, and make a living connection with God’s Plan for Salvation; or, I can follow the ego’s program, the program of the world, the program of consensus reality, habit, convention, hearsay, and gossip. In this way, I will find only the world, only the external, only that which I project on to the world. If you have a G.P.S. in your car or you have ridden in a car with someone who has a G.P.S., you know how it works. A small black box sits on the dashboard of the car. Into the little black box, we tap in our intended destination. Let’s say we want to go home. Within seconds, this little black box makes contact with three different satellites, hundreds of miles away, each moving at 17,000 miles (26,000 kilometers) per hour. Within seconds, it calculates your exact coordinates and beams back the precise information needed to find your destination. Once one’s intended destination is set, the G.P.S. will take us there by the straight, fastest way possible, telling us very precisely exactly where to turn, within just a few feet of our needing to make that turn.

 

To change your mind

means to place it at the disposal of true Authority.

T-1.V.5:6

 

Recalculating

If we’re going down the road using a G.P.S. and we decide to pull off to get gas, or maybe we want to stop for lunch along the way, the moment we turn off our intended destination, the G.P.S. will begin saying, “recalculating, recalculating.” The Holy Spirit is our G.P.S. Coming into this world, a path is laid out for us—leading us directly Home. As with all children, our basic problem is the authority problem. We say to God—“Thank you very much, God. I would rather do it myself.” And then we go off to construct our own fantasy worlds—our own little kingdoms. Adam hides in the bushes; Moses goes off into the desert; Jonah gets on a ship and heads out to sea; we each find various ways of running away and paying attention, of doing anything other than what God is asking us to do with our lives. We become instead self-absorbed. We get caught up in our stories and lose sight of the bigger plan that God has laid out for us.

 

The issue of authority is really a question of authorship.

When you have an authority problem,

it is always because you believe you are the author of yourself

and project your delusion onto others.

T-3.VI.8:1–2

 

Like a recalcitrant child refusing to follow the guide of a wise parent, we simply do not believe that if we followed the guidance of the Holy Spirit we would get the results that we want. After all, we want what we want; so, how could we get the results we want if we follow a Voice other than that of the ego? Jesus says, “Straight is the way and narrow is the path which leads to life and few there are that go therein. Broad is the way and wide is the path that leads to destruction and many there are that go therein” (Matthew 7:13–14). Though a straight path is set before us, we also have free will and the ego is anxious to be in control, so we’re going along and we think—“He’s cute. I think I’ll chase after him for awhile.” And then we go, “Oh my God, divorce” or “Oh good Lord, bankruptcy!” And, instantaneously, God’s Plan for  Salvation goes, “recalculating, recalculating.” Lesson 49 from the Workbook is, “God’s Voice speaks to me all through the day.” God’s Voice is always there, always providing guidance. The question is, am I willing to listen or shall I wait for some crash and burn experience to wake me up. Or, can I demonstrate a willingness to learn, day-by-day, what is needed in order to bring my mind line with the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

 

The curriculum is highly individualized, and all aspects

are under the Holy Spirit’s particular care and guidance.

M-29.2:6

 

We go through different terrains of biology-time and culture; and yet, there are overlaps and similarities because our psychologies are similar even though the landscape is different. We walk down different paths, over different hills, and find our way through different valleys; and yet, the closer we get to Home, the more we realize there is but one road we walk along.

 

Jesus frequently uses the analogy of gardening in his parables as he does when he says, “The Kingdom of Heaven is like a grain of mustard seed.” Seeds are tiny information packets containing all the information needed to turn an acorn into an oak, or a pine nut into a mighty fir. We can use this tendency toward automatic guidance. Living the Course, we begin to grow naturally toward God (W-71.5:1). God’s Plan for  Salvation works simply because, by following His direction, we seek salvation where it can be found—not in a dream, not in a fantasy, but right here, right now in alignment with Heaven. The question is—do I have my G.P.S. turned on? Am I listening to the programming that comes from W.E.G.O? If I do, then it’s for sure I’m lost.

 

If you listen to the wrong voice you “have” lost sight of your soul.

You cannot lose it, but you can not know it.

It is therefore “lost” to you until you choose right.

T-5.II.7:12

 

Peace and Understanding

Modern brain research suggests that the more we exercise our brains, the longer we are able to put off senility. Listening to the Holy Spirit takes practice but as with any exercise, the more anyone does it, the easier it gets. Listening to Spirit, I more easily notice when temptations to fall into ego arise. I can then more easily also say, “No, thank you,” and make the choice to do the right thing. How do I know if I have the right answer? I know if the answer brings me peace. Peace and understanding go hand-in-hand. They cannot be separate. They are cause and effect to each other.

 

If you cannot hear the Voice for God,

it is because you do not choose to listen.

That you do listen to the voice of your ego is demonstrated by your

attitudes, your feelings and your behavior.

Yet this is what you want. This is what you are fighting to keep,

and what you are vigilant to save.

T-4.IV.1:1–3

 

Everything changes when we change the Inner Teacher.

Dr. Kenneth Wapnick