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A COURSE IN MIRACLES

Motivation for Starting, Completing, Living the Lessons


These are some of the things the Course says about Motivation:


The power of our joint motivation is beyond belief, but not beyond accomplishment. What we can accomplish together has no limits, because the Call for God is the Call to the unlimited.

All good teachers realize that only fundamental change will last, but they do not begin at that level. Strengthening motivation for change is their first and foremost goal. It is also their last and final one. Increasing motivation for change in the learner is all that a teacher need do to guarantee change. Change in motivation is a change of mind, and this will inevitably produce fundamental change because the mind is fundamental.

The Holy Spirit never asks for sacrifice, but the ego always does. When you are confused about this distinction in motivation, it can only be due to projection. Projection is a confusion in motivation, and given this confusion, trust becomes impossible.

Knowledge is not the motivation for learning this course. Peace is.

The analysis of ego motivation is very complicated, very obscuring, and never without your own ego involvement. The whole process represents a clear-cut attempt to demonstrate your own ability to understand what you perceive. This is shown by the fact that you react to your interpretations as if they were correct. You may then control your reactions behaviorally, but not emotionally. This would obviously be a split or an attack on the integrity of your mind, pitting one level within it against another.

There is but one interpretation of motivation that makes any sense. And because it is the Holy Spirit's judgment it requires no effort at all on your part. Every loving thought is true. Everything else is an appeal for healing and help, regardless of the form it takes. Can anyone be justified in responding with anger to a brother's plea for help?

The Holy Spirit does not need your help in interpreting motivation, but you do need His.

Those who remember always that they know nothing, and who have become willing to learn everything, will learn it. But whenever they trust themselves, they will not learn. They have destroyed their motivation for learning by thinking they already know. Think not you understand anything until you pass the test of perfect peace, for peace and understanding go together and never can be found alone.

The ego is thrown further off balance because it keeps its primary motivation from your awareness, and raises control rather than sanity to predominance.

Forget not that the motivation for this course is the attainment and the keeping of the state of peace.

It is not will for life but wish for death that is the motivation for this world. Its only purpose is to prove guilt real. No worldly thought or act or feeling has a motivation other than this one.

Perhaps you do not think you can let your grievances go. That, however, is simply a matter of motivation. Today we will try to find out how you would feel without them. If you succeed even by ever so little, there will never be a problem in motivation ever again.

Regularity in terms of time is not the ideal requirement for the most beneficial form of practice in salvation. It is advantageous, however, for those whose motivation is inconsistent, and who remain heavily defended against learning.

But the experience of freedom and of peace that comes as you give up your tight control of what you see speaks for itself. Your motivation will be so intensified that words become of little consequence. You will be sure of what you want, and what is valueless.

The Right Minded Motivation for Starting, Completing, and Living the Lessons?



Total, consistent Peace.

Total and consistent Joy

Total and consistent Love

Too abstract?

Total financial freedom - the correct perception that there is total abundance and it is accessible to each of us. This means... we can create whatever experiences we would like. Want to be debt free? Want a large brokerage account? Want an ocean front home? Whatever it is, the mind, free from the tremendous effort required to uphold judgement and fear and freed to create, can create anything. There is no order of difficulty in miracles.

Total emotional freedom - the correct perception that we are totally lovable, totally loved and totally loving.

Release from stress - the correct perception that All things work together for good.

Add whatever you can imagine that would add to your Peace, Love and Joy. A mind freed to create has no limits.

The Ego's Motivation for Not Starting, Not Completing, Not Living the Lessons



Continued survival. The ego was made with a very strong will to survive. Methods used for survival are very ingenious, including:

Partial, inconsistent, hard won, short lived "Peace"

Partial, inconsistent, hard won, short lived "Joy"

Partial, inconsistent, hard won, short lived, "Love"

The one Choice Remains:



Right Mindedness or Wrong Mindedness

The Holy Spirit or the Ego

Peace or Stess

Love or Fear

Joy or Sorrow

Completing the Lessons or Acedemically Learning the Lessons