Course Authority
It is important for us to remember the only ‘authority’ over our mind is us. Just as we have the power to accept God’s love, or to believe we have rejected it (when the truth is nothing happened), so too do we have the power to accept the content of A Course in Miracles, or to reject its message. The power is found in our decision making ability.
Course teachers such as Ken Wapnick, no matter how brilliant or defenseless, are also bound by our decision in regards to the purpose we give them. Given to the Holy Spirit, the teachings of Ken Wapnick can help lead us back to our mind, and the presence of love within. Given to the ego, someone like Ken Wapnick can become a guru, a pope, a crutch, an escape, a symbol of controversy, a figure to blame for our Course confusion and resistance. This would hold true if the figure of Jesus himself appeared as a body and began to teach the Course.
Jesus doesn’t save us, and the ego doesn’t imprison us. It is our decision for Jesus which saves us, and our decision for the ego which imprisons us. As such, neither the ego nor Jesus (nor the Holy Spirit nor God) is our authority. Since it is our mind that chooses one or the other as our teacher, it must be that our mind alone is the authority. We alone have the power to choose.
The highest purpose an external teacher can serve is to lead us back within to our internal authority – our ability to choose.
This is one of the things I respect about Ken. He does not seek followers, nor fame. He doesn’t teach “to get” (specialness). He doesn’t consider himself an authority. He teaches as a natural extension of his inner choice for love, and this choice is what he truly teaches.
Like any good teacher, like A Course in Miracles itself, he returns us unto our own authority.
