The only specifications for the workbook lessons are given in its Introduction: “Do not undertake to do more than one set of exercises a day” (W.in.2:6). It is advisable for students to read this Introduction before beginning the lessons, and to reread it occasionally thereafter. Another important principle in the Introduction pertains to the student’s orientation: “Remember only this; you need not believe the ideas, you need not accept them, and you need not even welcome them. Some of them you may actively resist. None of this will matter, or decrease their efficacy. But do not allow yourself to make exceptions in applying the ideas the workbook contains, and whatever your reactions to the ideas may be, use them. Nothing more than that is required” (W.in.9).
Lessons may be repeated if desired. If it is a particularly meaningful or difficult lesson, it could be a good idea to stay with it for a couple of days or so. However, there is a risk in thinking that a lesson needs to be done perfectly before moving on to the next one. This would be a trap, because it is unlikely that many of us will ever do any of the lessons perfectly. If we could, we would have reached such an advanced state of spiritual growth that we would not need the lessons at all.
The middle of Lesson 95 is helpful in knowing what to do if several days or weeks are missed in practicing the lessons. Importantly, it is not necessary to begin all over again. The instruction in Lesson 95 focuses on recognizing the ways in which the ego creeps into the process, and that we ought to respond to “our lapses in diligence, and our failures to follow the instructions” (W.pI.95.8:3) with forgiveness. That is the key. Jesus does not keep track of how punctual we are in following the instructions for the day; his interest is only in helping us train our minds to think more and more in terms of forgiveness, and then eventually to generalize our learning to every aspect of our lives and experience.
The core idea is that we be sincere in our attempts to study and practice what the workbook teaches, aware that we all have strong resistance, yet are willing to forgive ourselves for our often inadequate efforts. As long as we continue to study and apply the lessons as we are instructed, we will make progress. It is important to focus on the content, rather than the form. What matters is making a sincere effort to follow the instructions as carefully as we can, without judging ourselves when we fail. Indeed, we can say that the purpose of doing the lessons is to do them wrong and then forgive our mistakes. This would reflect our ultimate forgiveness of ourselves for the mistake of separating from our Creator-Source.
The manual for teachers, the third book, is the easiest and most approachable of the three. The Course helps us realize that we are all teachers and students of each other, and that there is no line separating teachers and students. As we teach we learn, and as we learn we teach; but this has nothing to do with a formal teaching setting. The meaning is that we teach by demonstration. A Course in Miracles is never concerned with form (body) but only content (mind). The manual comes in question and answer form, with the questions addressing some of the more important themes found in the Course itself. There is an appendix to the manual, which Helen took down a couple years after the Course was completed.
3This is called the clarification of terms, which in a sense is like a glossary of some of the key terms that are used in the Course, the ostensible purpose being to define them for the Course’s students. What one finds, however, is that if you do not already know what the word means, the clarification of terms probably will not be helpful. What it is, however, is a lovely, and many times poetic summary of what these terms mean. It is another way of revisiting what we already have.
