“My [Jesus’] part in the Atonement is not complete until each of my sisters and brothers join It, and give It away, sharing It to strengthen It.” Through the Resurrection Jesus completed his part as an individual human being in the Atonement, but because he is part of humanity, he and all other human beings, even those who have also now completed their parts in the Atonement, will not be totally complete until all human beings have fulfilled their parts in the Atonement and realized their divine Self, that is, until the dream of the world of illusions has totally ended for everyone.
Because of this dependence on each other, a specific aspect of the Plan of Atonement was introduced into the dream of this world that relies on human beings helping one another to awaken, so that no one can awaken alone. This is called the “Plan of the Teachers,” and is the focus of the Course’s Manual for Teachers. This Plan consists of those who become aware of Truth and Reality teaching these to their sisters and brothers so that they themselves can truly learn Truth and Reality and awaken to Them.
“I [Jesus] always remember my need to teach what I have learned, a need that arose in me because I learned truly. I call upon you to teach what you have learned truly, because by so doing you will know that you can depend on it. Make it dependable in my name, because my name, like yours, is the Name of the Child of the Divine. What I learned I give you freely, and the Mind that was in me rejoices as you will to hear It. The Holy Spirit atones in all of us by undoing what was never real – the effects of error – and thus lifts the burden you have placed in your mind. By following Spirit It leads you to the Divine where you belong. And how can you find this Way except by taking your sisters and brothers with you? . . . As you teach, so shall you learn.”
The Plan of the Teachers is based on the principle that we don’t, and in fact can’t, awaken alone, because our awakening is connected with everyone else’s. So we engage with our sisters and brothers in the accelerated learning, or Atonement lessons, that miracles facilitate. “What madness would conceal, the Holy Spirit still holds out for everyone to behold with gladness: You are your sisters and brothers’ awakener, and they are yours. True reason speaks happily indeed of this. This gracious Plan [of the Teachers] was given Love by Love. And what Love plans is like Itself in this. Being united, Love would have you learn that you must be united. And being One with Love, it must be given you to give what It has given, and gives still. Spend just an Instant in the glad acceptance of what is given you to give your sisters and brothers, and learn with them what has been given both of you. To give is no more blessed than to receive, but neither is it less.”
The “teachers of the Divine” are the students of the universal Truth curriculum who are working out their own awakening through teaching it, that is, by sharing what they are learning of awakening with those they are called to journey with, and thus truly learning these lessons themselves. These teachers “are the ones who have answered the Call to awaken from the world of illusions. The Call to awaken is universal. It goes on all the time everywhere. It calls for teachers to speak for It, to demonstrate and therefore teach it, and thus to awaken themselves and the world. Many hear It but relatively few seem to answer. Yet it is all a matter of time. Everyone will answer in the end, but the end can be a long way off. It is because of this that the Plan of the Teachers was established. The function of this Plan is to save time. Each teacher of the Divine begins as a single light, but with the Call at its center it is a light that cannot be limited. And each one saves a thousand years of time as the world judges it. To the Call Itself time has no meaning.”
The Plan of the Teachers is facilitated through the many versions of the universal Truth curriculum, including the Course, that those ready to awaken can access and learn, and teach and share with others in order to truly learn awakening themselves. The universal Truth curriculum Itself, apart from any particular version, “can be taught by actions or thought, in words or soundlessly, in any language or in no language, in any place or time or manner. It does not matter who the teacher was before they heard the Call [to awaken]. They have become an awakener by their answering. They have seen someone else as themself. They have therefore found their own awakening and the awakening of the world. In their rebirth is the world reborn.”
In order to learn these lessons of awakening most effectively, we trade roles with our sisters and brothers, sometimes taking the role of teacher of Atonement lessons in order to learn them more profoundly, and other times humbly taking the role of student in support of another’s learning. At all times all of us are students of our Teachers: the Holy Spirit, Divine Essence, the Divine Itself, Jesus, and all those who have now also completed their parts in the Plan of Atonement, called the Teachers of teachers in the Manual.
“There are those who have reached the Divine directly, retaining no trace of worldly limits and remembering their own Identity perfectly. These might be called the Teachers of the teachers of the Divine because, although they are no longer visible, their Likeness can yet be called upon. They are One with the Divine’s appointed Teacher [the Holy Spirit], as they are with the Divine.”
The Plan of the Teachers presents us with exciting new collaborative approaches to such things as teaching and learning, therapy and rehabilitation, parenting, and conflict resolution. These new approaches are touched on throughout the Course.