The Workbook’s place in the Course and how it relates to the Text and Manual

The opening paragraph of the Workbook’s Introduction gives us our best view of this:

A theoretical foundation such as the text is necessary as a background to make the exercises in this workbook meaningful. Yet it is the exercises that will make the goal of the course possible. An untrained mind can accomplish nothing. It is the purpose of these exercises to train the mind to think along the lines the course sets forth.

According to this paragraph:

The Text provides the “theoretical foundation”—the Text provides the theory that is the “foundation” for everything else. It is the “background” against which the Workbook makes sense. Its theory is “necessary” to make the Workbook exercises meaningful.

The Workbook takes the teachings from the Text and applies them in the form of exercises. These exercises “make the goal of the course possible.” Through them, we train our mind, and an untrained mind cannot accomplish the goal of the Course. Only through the Workbook’s exercises can the mind be trained “to think along the lines the course sets forth”—which is how we reach salvation.

We can illustrate the relationship between the two in this way:

The Manual for Teachers. The Manual is written to one who is ready to devote himself to his function as teacher of God, but “He cannot claim that title until he has gone through the workbook” (M-16.3:7). So the Workbook is the crucial bridge that gets you from the abstract foundation of the Text to being a living demonstration as a teacher of God.

The two parts of the Workbook

The Workbook, as it says, is divided into two parts:

The workbook is divided into two sections, the first dealing with the undoing of the way you see now, and the second with the restoration of sight [i.e., true vision]. (3:2)

Part I on balance has more of an undoing or negating focus, as well as these features:

• Starts out light and builds toward the complete framework of practice

• Beginning with Lesson 124, starts giving more freedom in how practice periods are spent

• Spends its final eighty lessons preparing us for Part II by asking for more time and effort

Part II has an overall more positive focus, as well as these features:

• Practice more under our own steam—don’t get new instructions each day

• It’s meant to be the time in which our practice deepens and becomes more experiential

• It’s not meant to be time to just coast

How many times should you “do” the Workbook?

There are two common approaches to this question:

• Do the Workbook continually, every year

• Do the Workbook only once

Both of these miss the real point of the Workbook, which is to do the practice and become proficient in and established in it.

You see this in the section in the Manual called “How Should the Teacher of God Spend His Day?” (M-16), which deals with the form one’s practice should take after the Workbook. It says:

• “It is well to start the day right” (2:6).

• “As soon as possible after waking, take your quiet time” (4:7), attempting in meditation to “join with Him [God] completely” (4:6).

• “There is one thought in particular that should be remembered throughout the day” (6:1).

• In response to “temptation along the way…he has need of reminding himself throughout the day of his protection” (8:1). “Perhaps he needs to remember ‘God is with me. I cannot be deceived.’” (10:4).

• Spend “quiet time…in the evening” (5:2). “If possible…just before sleeping is a desirable time to devote to God” (5:6).

• “It is to this fact [that there’s no substitute for God’s will] that the teacher of God devotes his day” (10:1).

This is basically the framework of practice the Workbook leads you into:

• You start the day with God.

• You have morning quiet time (meditation).

• You repeat a thought all through the day.

• You respond to temptation (upsets) by repeating a thought.

• You have evening quiet time, thus ending the day with God.

• All of this is the way in which you devote your day to God.

But you do all this under your own steam and with “individual need [as] the chief consideration” (3:8).

Conclusion: If you can do all this on your own, you no longer need the Workbook. You can take off the training wheels. Until then, it’s probably best to keep them on.

It’s all about the practice, about doing the exercises

The Workbook is often treated like a daily dose of inspiration with which to begin the day. But to see what the Workbook is really for, we need look no further than its Introduction.

Homework

Please read the Introduction to the Workbook online (https://acimce.app/book/W-In) and highlight the following words:

• “Exercises” and variations thereof (along with pronouns relating to it)

• “Training” and variations thereof

• “Practice” and variations thereof

• “Apply” and variations thereof

• “Use”

Having highlighted those words, carefully read each sentence in which they occur.

Finally, based on the foregoing, write a paragraph summarizing what the Workbook is about, making sure that all five words are featured in it.

Enjoy the process!

References to using the ideas:

This is the year for the application of the ideas that have been given you, for the ideas are mighty forces, to be used and not held idly by. (T-16.II.10:4)

Whatever your reaction to the ideas may be, use them. Nothing more than this is required. (Concluding lines of the Workbook’s Introduction)

It is essential to use the idea… (W-37.6:3); It is particularly important that you use the idea immediately…. (W-48.2:5); Use the idea as often as you can. (W-Re.6.In.1:2)

There are roughly 40 references to “using” the “idea” in the Workbook, and roughly 80 to “applying” the “idea.”

So, let’s do a new diagram to capture this:

The purpose of the Workbook

Why are we using the ideas, applying the ideas, practicing the ideas? The answer is, again, right there in the Introduction. The purpose of doing the exercises is:

• to “make the goal of the course possible” (1:2)

• to “train the mind to think along the lines the course sets forth” (1:4)

• to “train the mind in a systematic way to a different perception of everything in the world” (3:1)

• “the undoing of the way you see now” (3:2)

• “the restoration of sight” (3:2)

We do the exercises, in other words, so that we train our minds to think according to the Course, to see according to the Course. This is how we accomplish the goal of the Course. This is how we find salvation.

Reflection: How does all this affect your personal orientation toward the Workbook?