The Text represents the first aspect of the Course’s program: study.

Through study of the Text, we first take in the thought system that will ultimately become our thought system, the source of our feelings and behavior.

The Text is like the textbook in an educational course:

• The sections are like lectures

• Each section presents new information

• It builds on what has gone before, relating the new information back to previous ideas.

The Text is an endless feast of wisdom, a bottomless ocean.

Every section presents new wisdom that we have not read before and can find nowhere else. Our minds are simple. We want some simple formula—four agreements, four questions, seven principles, twelve steps. But eventually we get bored with a simple formula and then want the next new thing. What is so wonderful about the Text is that the next new thing is on the next page. The Text’s treasure is so endless that it is inexhaustible. In its variety it can hold us captive forever. And all of the countless strands weave together to support a unified whole—a whole made all the richer for being woven of so many threads of such different colors.

The nature of the Text (from “What Is ACIM?” in the front matter of the CE)

The Text is the first, longest, and most important volume. It provides the “theoretical foundation” of the Course. The Text is a masterpiece of spiritual thought. As it guides us through hundreds of topics, the meanings we have assigned the world begin to fall away, revealing a new meaning in everything. This happens even on the level of language. The Course uses familiar terms, but fills them with new meaning, making each term a microcosm of its thought system. As a result, the Text is not an easy read. To reap its rewards, we have to truly engage with it. The Course asks us to read its words slowly and carefully, thinking about what they mean. It asks us to take them personally and treat them as practical, as more than an intellectual game. If we will do this with the Text, we will experience our old worldview being slowly dismantled and a new worldview arising in its place.

The Text is central

Reading the Text, slowly and thoughtfully, is absolutely crucial for every student of the Course.

It would be very intelligent of you to set yourself the goal of really studying for this course. There can be no doubt of the wisdom of this decision, for any student who wants to pass it. (T-4.VII.10:1-2)

To “pass” it is to reach salvation—what is often called enlightenment.

You can’t skip the Text

It’s not enough to read about Course teachings, discuss those teachings in groups, or just do the Workbook. The Text provides the “necessary” “foundation,” as the opening line of the Workbook states. Can you imagine skipping the textbook in a normal course?

You can’t skim through it

If you read it carelessly, you just aren’t going to get it. The Course repeatedly tells us to “read these teachings carefully” (T-4.I.8:8).

You can’t skip around in the Text

It is constantly building on and openly referencing what went before. You can see it referring to previous teachings in these passages:

We have already said that the basic conflict is one between love and fear.

However, as we have already said, you are not an image.

We have already said that the Holy Spirit is the bridge.

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