A Course in Miracles Workbook Lesson 284 explains the awakening process and shows why it is generally a long, slow one. Jesus starts off by telling us: “Loss is not loss when properly perceived. Pain is impossible. There is no grief with any cause at all. And suffering of any kind is nothing but a dream.” Most of us would probably have a hard time believing all this because we do perceive loss, e.g. loss of a job, loss of a child who leaves home, loss of money, etc. We do feel pain when we have an accident and hurt the body, and we do feel grief when a loved one dies or goes away, to name just a few examples.

But continuing on from that first paragraph, Jesus tells us: “This is the truth, at first to be but said and then repeated many times; and next to be accepted as but partly true, with many reservations. Then to be considered seriously more and more, and finally accepted as the truth.” W439. And this is what we do. As students of ACIM, we may repeat the lessons every day over and over, and maybe repeat the whole Workbook over and over, but we only accept some of his radical teachings as true; we still have many reservations. For instance, we may tell ourselves that suffering is nothing but a dream, yet we can’t help but suffer when something comes along to destroy our peace of mind or take away someone or something we love. At this point, with a bit of luck we will start to remind ourselves of the truth of the first paragraph, namely that loss, grief and suffering are not possible, despite our experiences to the contrary. We will start to remember the truth of these teachings. But still we probably won’t have peace of mind consistently. How many spiritual seekers, I wonder, find themselves stuck at this stage?

And finally, we are told by those who have managed to accept all the teachings as truth without any reservations, we will experience peace consistently, regardless of what is going on in our daily lives. That has to be our goal, and Jesus gives us his suggestion for achieving it. “I can elect to change all thoughts that hurt.” We somehow have to come to terms with our experiences and choose to see them from a different perspective. We train our minds, with the aid of his daily lessons and his wisdom and also with the help of our inner Guide, so that we are finally able to live our lives with equanimity and peace. We learn to master all our challenges and difficult situations. Maybe then we will become Masters.