The key difference, of course, is that the Great Rays in the Course do not just shine from religious saints or masters; they shine from everyone.
Think what it would do to your view of someone if you saw vast pure white rays shining from that person and reaching all the way "to infinity" and "to God."
This, in fact, is the focus of the Course's discussions of the Great Rays. Those discussions are primarily about how to see our brothers truly.
Out of the nine discussions of the Great Rays in the Course, five are about how to see our brothers. A consistent pattern can be discerned in those five, one that is composed of three stages.
First, we see our brothers primarily as bodies, which also means we see them as sinful, for bodies, as we know, do a lot of misbehaving. Second, we begin to see the "little spark" in them.
This suggests at first seeing just a tiny spark of the divine light in them, just a tiny gleam of holiness. This is how we heal others: "Perceiving the spark will heal" The Course asks you to "put all your faith" in this spark in your brother
The process doesn't end with seeing the little spark, however, for "the little spark…holds the Great Rays within it" and therefore "this spark cannot be limited long to littleness"
As you look on it, it will inevitably grow into the Great Rays. You will begin to see the Rays shining out from it.
Now the light you see in your brother is no longer a tiny spark but rather immense Rays. "If you but see the little spark you will learn of the greater light, for the Rays are there unseen"
You have found your brother, and you will light each other's way. And from this light will the Great Rays extend back into darkness and forward unto God, to shine away the past and so make room for His eternal Presence, in which everything is radiant in the light.
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