Course XXXII - Teaching 3: First Nine Words Explained

“HE IS NOT.”
As universal foundation, God cannot be defined. To define it would mean to negate him; one would limit it by attributing qualities. If the human spirit could reach Him, this spirit would be unable to describe Him because it would be absorbed into the Eternal One at once.
“HE IS ONE.”
A light –just one light– emerges from the shadows when the unknown vastness quivers. Two lights cannot exist because there is just one Spirit because of its potentially divine nature.
“ALL ARE ONE IN HIM.”
Just veils of illusion individualize a plurality of spirits moving through space, from Divine Consciousness to human will; but, as soon as the cause of an effect fades away, then veils drop, shadows run away, and the many are again the One.
“HE IS BOTH OUR DESTINY AND OUR DESTINATION.”
Even veils of illusion are Him. He is both multiple forms of the whole existence, destinies of men. His Divinity, reflected in human destinations, causes these changing forms to become as Divine as Himself. “HE IS BOTH OUR BEGINNING AND OUR END, FOR HE IS ALL.”
He is both Spirit-Creator and the littlest flower on the valley. The Divinity is present from the first manifestation of life, to the re-integration of the souls to the first state. Spirit and matter is one and the same thing. Soul and body are two different aspects of one and the same essence. Therefore, by being in all, He is the beginning and end.
“HE WAS BEFORE; HE IS NOW; HE IS ALWAYS; AND BEFORE?… Essentially, the Spirit never can vary. Forms, duration or changes do not affect Him. Any radiation created by Him passes by Him and does not affect Him at all. But, Is He different from the Non-Manifested One? Do words make any difference? “And before”, between manifestation and Non-Manifested One? No difference. He IS always. If He Is always, he never ceases to be “He that Is Not”.
“HE WAS IN ABSOLUTE REST.”
When one reflects on the Eternal One that does not admit any cogitation, just one word is relevant: No. No. No.
“WAS HE OMNIPOTENT? WAS HE OMNIPRESENT? WAS HE OMNISCIENT?”
If he possesses all these attributes, as soon a He is ready to recognize Himself as “It”, at once stops possessing them.
“HE IS NOT. HE IS NOT. HE IS NOT.”
Here one negates thrice because neither matter, nor mind, nor spirit is distinguishable in “It”; they just take part in its latent Divinity, with no definition.