The Happy Learner

"The Holy Spirit needs a happy learner, in whom His mission can be happily accomplished. You who are steadfastly devoted to misery must first recognize that you are miserable and not happy. The Holy Spirit cannot teach without this contrast, for you believe that misery is happiness. This has so confused you that you have undertaken to learn to do what you can never do, believing that unless you learn it you will not be happy. You do not realize that the foundation on which this most peculiar learning goal depends means absolutely nothing. Yet it may still make sense to you. Have faith in nothing and you will find the 'treasure' that you seek. Yet you will add another burden to your already burdened mind. You will believe that nothing is of value, and will value it. A little piece of glass, a speck of dust, a body or a war are one to you. For if you value one thing made of nothing, you have believed that nothing can be precious, and that you can learn how to make the untrue true." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 14, Section II, 1:1-11

"It is helpful to keep in mind that if you are serious about learning this course, you must realize that the creation of God is One. Therefore, any thoughts that separate you from anyone else constitute a consciously chosen attempt to deny your Identity. If you think your happiness or pain come from outside, you are denying the principle of the Atonement, which means you do not want to remember it. This is not a sin, but a correctable mistake once you know you have made it. Therefore, you need to become increasingly vigilant for when your special thoughts and actions attack the Oneness of God's Son. The idea is not that you feel guilty over your specialness, but that you become aware of it. Jesus' purpose is to help us do just that, for it is in looking at the ego that we learn to accept the Atonement for ourselves, remembering the glorious thought that throughout the ego's insanity we have remained as God created us." -- Kenneth Wapnick

I laugh really hard when I read the above quote from Ken Wapnick. It is so completely true... and is a great example of how there is always One Who Knows, the Awakened Self, regardless of what the ego says and does. The reason I find it so incredibly funny is that Ken Wapnick has been the object of a whole bunch of lawsuits for being an ACIM Nazi, and for invalid copyright of what many people feel should be public domain, like The Bible. He and Judith Skutch lied under oath and said that Jesus was not the author of ACIM in order to get the copyright, since only literary works by living entities can be copyrighted. Of course, who am I to say what I would do in his shoes? I know Mary Baker Eddy endured lawsuits, too, with people accusing her of plagiarizing, among other things. It's not easy to live in this world yet not be of it.

The point is that the happy learner is one who doesn't take any of it personally. The happy learner accepts that it is all nothing. As ACIM puts it, "A little piece of glass, a speck of dust, a body or a war are one to you. For if you value one thing made of nothing, you have believed that nothing can be precious, and that you can learn how to make the untrue true." It's not personal, and it's not true. Whether we're fighting for or defending a book or a way of life or the desire to be right, we are mistakenly valuing nothing. End of story.

What happens when we value something outside of ourselves? What happens when we would rather be right than happy? What happens when something shiny in the dream catches our eye, and we value it and long for it? What happens when we lose ourselves in our not-so-hidden agendas? Over and over we immerse ourselves in the story of the dream, coming up for air only when our suffering gets too intense. Only when we can't stand it anymore do we think that there might be another way.

The happy learner doesn't have to wait until the lawsuits are flying. The happy learner isn't dependent on the who, what, where, or why of it all. The happy learner is willing to let the Holy Spirit lead the way, and to value only what is Always and Everywhere, for everyone. The happy learner has given up the need to indulge personal comfort and desire... and most of all, the happy learner has given up the compulsive need to be smug and comfortable and right.

"Seek not outside yourself. For all your pain comes simply from the futile search for what you want, insisting where it must be found. What if it is not there? Would you rather be right, or happy? Be you glad that you are told where happiness abides, and seek no longer elsewhere. You will fail. But it is given you to know the Truth, and not to seek for it outside yourself." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 29, Section VII, 1:6-12