WHAT IS THE GOAL OF STUDYING THE COURSE?
A student might reasonably ask, “What will I get out of this course if I decide to stick with it? It seems like a big commitment.” The Course offers some answers to this question. “Knowledge is not the motivation for learning this course. Peace is.” (Text, Chapter 8, Section I, paragraph 1:1-2) “Forget not that the motivation for this course is the attainment and the keeping of the state of peace.

Given this state the mind is quiet, and the condition in which God is remembered is attained.” (Text, Chapter 24, Introduction, paragraph 1:1-2) So one of the gifts of the Course is a mind that is less prone to fear and increasingly calm and peaceful, no matter what else may be going on in your life. Who would not welcome a mind that is at peace?

Note the last sentence of the above quote: “the mind is quiet, and the condition in which God is remembered is attained.” The primary goal of the Course is to help us remove from our minds all the “blocks to the awareness of love’s presence” (Text, Introduction, paragraph 1:7)— blocks that keep us from knowing our oneness with God, Who is Love. We remain one with God because that’s how we were created, but we have forgotten and lost our way in a world of our own making, where we seem to be separate from each other and apart from God.

We will not find true happiness until we have remembered our shared Home in God. It is in remembering our oneness with God that we reclaim our true Identity. All our searching in this ever-changing world is due to a sense that something is missing and we want desperately to reclaim it. What we seek are not the goals the world sets forth, but our true Self, what the Course calls the Son of God or the Christ. A Course in Miracles is a guidebook for finding our way back to the remembrance of God and our true, eternal Self, which is forever one with God.