T-3.I – The Need to Study
March 9, 2021
We all have strengths and deficits as learners. We all respond differently to key concepts, phrases, ways of organizing ideas. We are each going to find our own way with what works for us, but there are certain basic components we are taught here:
- All learning involves attention and study at some level.
- Good students assign study periods.
The later parts of the Course rely on the earlier parts. A good foundation is necessary.
Jesus likes to place reminders of earlier teachings into the Course. He assumes the good learner will remember or will take the effort to review the earlier content. This is a way to consolidate learning.
We have only completed two chapters thus far, so there is a lot of new content and themes to be added from here going forward. Ken Wapnick, the teacher that helped bring the Course into the world, described the Course as symphonic. Here is what he wrote:
“Unlike most thought systems, A Course in Miracles does not proceed in a truly linear fashion with its theoretical structure built upon increasingly complex ideas. Rather, the Course’s development is more circular with its themes treated symphonically: introduced, set aside, reintroduced, and developed. This results in an interlocking matrix in which every part is integral and essential to the whole, while implicitly containing that whole within itself.
This structure establishes a process of learning instead of merely setting forth a theoretical system. The process resembles the ascent up a spiral staircase. The reader is led in a circular pattern, each revolution leading higher until the top of the spiral is reached, which opens unto God” (Glossary-Index for A Course in Miracles, page 1).
Reading the Course is a spiritual practice. As Wapnick points out, it is a process that “opens unto God.” This is also stated in our current section:
Healing is of God in the end. The means are carefully explained in this course. Revelation may occasionally show you the end, but to reach it the means are needed (7:1-3).
The means are to study and to assign review periods. If you find this idea difficulty or you experience resistance or a lack of connection, you might be heartened to know you are not alone. Bill and Helen were not the best at it either.
Here is an excerpt from the Notes, retaining the original wording toward both Bill and Helen (addressed to Helen):
Bill is better at understanding the need to study the notes than you are, but neither of you realizes that many of the problems you keep being faced with may already have been solved there. You do not think of the notes in this way at all. Bill does from time to time, but he generally says, “it’s probably in the notes,” and doesn’t look it up. He believes that, although he reads them over, they cannot really help him until they are complete.
First of all, he cannot be sure of this unless he tries. Second, they would be completed if both of you so willed. You vaguely know that the course is intended for some sort of preparation. I can only say that you are not prepared. I was amused when you reminded Bill that he, too, was being prepared for something quite unexpected, and he said he was not at all curious about what it was. This disinterest is very characteristic of him when he is afraid. Interest and fear do not go together, as your respective behavior clearly shows.
Personally, I can relate to having a vague notion that the Course may contain the answer to a specific problem in my life, yet I often lack the motivation to pick it up. Can you relate?
Can you relate to the knowing too little about the Course to devote time to focus now? Out of frustration we often just put it back on the shelf. This was what Bill faced. He wanted to know what was around the corner before he cared enough to understand what was being taught in the moment. These are defenses and resistance we need to look at and resolve.
The reason we need to resolve these problems with our study habits is that the Course is preparing us for our spiritual journey. As we move forward, our experiences in the world are going to change. They may be frightening if we do not clearly incorporate the material, because we remain unconsciously fearful of what we are being prepared for. And we know from Chapter 2, that when we are in a state of fear we misuse our defenses. Fear masquerades as disinterest or “pseudo-retardation” (3:2).
The curriculum is highly individualized (M-9.1:5). Our functions are highly individualized. But each of us has an assignment and we have been given the means to accomplish it. It involves study and review so that we are ready for the next stages in learning, which will ultimately involve direct approaches to God (6:5), such as revelation.
This is exactly the conclusion Wapnick came to:
Through careful study of the text, along with the daily practice that the workbook provides, the student is gradually prepared for the deeper experiences of God toward which A Course in Miracles points. Intellectual mastery of its thought system will not suffice to bring about the perceptual and experiential transformation that is the aim of the Course (p. 1).
Suggested Practice
All healing comes from God, and He is giving me the means (this Course) to learn and accept healing.