The Fifty Miracle Principles
of A Course in Miracles
by Kenneth Wapnick
Principle 20
Miracles reawaken the awareness that the spirit, not the body, is the altar of truth.
This is the recognition that leads to the healing power of the miracle.
That is, again, the same idea, that truth and holiness are not found in the body; they are found in our minds. When our minds are totally healed we will recall that truth is in our Identity as spirit. Later on, the Course talks about the temple of the Holy Spirit as a relationship (text, p. 407; T-20.VI.5:1). It is not in the body; it is in the relationship. The Holy Spirit cannot be in the body because there is no body. God would not place the Holy Spirit in a place that does not exist and where there is no problem. Bodies do not get sick, nor do they get well. It is only the mind that can be sick, and only the mind that can be healed.
I said earlier that when the separation seemed to occur, God created the Holy Spirit. He placed the Holy Spirit, Who is also defined in the Course as being "God's Answer" and "His Voice," in the place where He is needed (text, pp. 68f; T-6.1.5; T-6.II.2). Where the Holy Spirit is needed is not out here in the world, because the world is not the problem. He is needed in our mind. That is where the altar of truth is. The body is not the temple of the Holy Spirit; it is the use of the body that is, which is always found in terms of a relationship: joining in a common purpose. For the Course, the temple of the Holy Spirit, where He is made manifest and where He is found, is in a relationship. There is a passage where Jesus says that he stands within the holy relationship (text, p. 385; T-19.IV.B.5:3; 8:3). This does not mean that he is not present in an unholy relationship. What it means is that when we are in an unholy relationship, which is what A Course in Miracles calls a "special relationship," a relationship where guilt is the goal and separation is the principle, then the one who manifests forgiveness and joining will become invisible to us. If we are choosing to hear the ego's voice of guilt and separation, we are not going to hear the voice or experience the presence of the one who represents joining, forgiveness, and healing. It is not that Jesus is not present in a special relationship, but his presence is obscured.
When he says he stands within the holy relationship, he means that when we truly forgive and shift the purpose of the relationship from the ego's guilt to his forgiveness, then we will know he is there. The veils of guilt that kept him hidden are removed. He says in the Course at one point, "Teach not that I died in vain. Teach rather that I did not die by demonstrating that I live in you" (text, p. 193; T-II.VI.7:3-4). The way that we demonstrate that Jesus is alive and well, and that he did do what he said he did, is to live according to the same principle that he did: the principle of forgiveness or transcendence of the body; totally shifting from a perception of seeing oneself as a victim to seeing oneself as joined with all people, living that out in the relationships of our personal lives. That is how we demonstrate that he is living in us. In words based on John's gospel: "They will know you are my disciples by your love for one another" (Jn 13:36). The Course's version of that would be: "They will know you are my disciples by your forgiveness of each other."
The whole idea of the miracle, again, is to shift from the body and the focus on the body back to the mind. That is where the altar to truth is; that is where God is found. This is the recognition that leads to the healing power of the miracle. What heals, then, is realizing: 1) where the problem is; that is, it is not in our body but it is in our mind; and 2) realizing Who is the One Who will heal this mind. Thus, we should not be focusing on behavior, what is outside us, for that is not the criterion of good or bad, sickness or health. As Hamlet says: "There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so"
It is our thoughts that are important (the content); not our actions (the form).