Chapter 2 section 6 of the CE edition talking about the chalice the alter the temple
The Restoration of the Altar
The Atonement can only be accepted within you. You may perceive the chalice at first as a vessel of some sort whose purpose is uncertain. Even then, however, you can notice that the inside is gold, while the outside, though shiny, is silver. This is a recognition of the fact that the inner part is more precious than the outer side, even though both are resplendent. Fantasies about the body arise from the erroneous belief that the body can be used as a means for obtaining Atonement. Perceiving the body as the temple is only the first step in correcting this kind of distortion. Seeing the body as a temple alters part of the misperception, but not all of it. It does recognize that the concept of Atonement in physical terms is not appropriate. But the next step is to realize that a temple is not a building at all. Its real holiness lies in the inner altar around which the building is built. The inappropriate emphasis which people have put on beautiful church buildings is a sign of their own fear of Atonement, and an unwillingness to reach the altar itself. The real beauty of the temple cannot be seen with the physical eye. The spiritual eye, on the other hand, cannot see the building at all, but it perceives the altar within with perfect clarity. This is because the spiritual eye has perfect vision. For perfect effectiveness, the chalice of the Atonement belongs at the center of the inner altar, where it undoes the separation and restores the wholeness of the mind. Before the separation, the mind was invulnerable to fear, because fear did not exist. Both the separation and the fear were miscreations of the mind, which have to be undone. This is what the Bible means by the restoration of the temple. It does not mean the restoration of the building, but it does mean the opening of the altar to receive the Atonement. This heals the separation, and places within you the one defense against all errors which can make you perfectly invulnerable. The Atonement is the only gift which is worthy of being offered to the altar of God. This is because of the inestimable value of the altar itself. It was created perfect and is entirely worthy of receiving perfection. God is lonely without His Sons, and they are lonely without Him. The world was a way of healing the separation, and the Atonement is the guarantee that the device will ultimately do so.
Commentary
In the Grail romances — from Chrétien de Troyes through Wolfram von Eschenbach to the Queste del Saint Graal — the Grail is never merely a physical object. It is a vessel of divine grace that restores a wounded king and a wasteland kingdom. The Grail is what heals the separation. And it can only be found by the one who asks the right question — which is to say, by the one who has the perception to recognize what is actually being offered. Perceval's failure in the Grail Castle is precisely a failure of spiritual sight: he sees the procession but does not comprehend it. He sees the building but not the altar.
The Course's language here maps onto the Grail mythos with striking precision:
- The Chalice — golden within, silver without — is the Grail itself: a vessel whose inner reality (Spirit, Atonement) is more precious than its outer appearance (form, the body, the visible world). The Grail romances consistently insist that the Grail cannot be won by force or worldly valor, only by purity of intent — just as the Course says the Atonement "can only be accepted within you."
- The Temple is the Grail Castle — the structure that houses the mystery. The Course's insistence that "a temple is not a building at all" mirrors the Grail tradition's teaching that the castle cannot be found by seeking it on a map. It appears only to those whose inner state permits entry. The emphasis people place on "beautiful church buildings" is the same error as the knights who seek the Grail through external questing while neglecting the interior journey.
- The Altar is the place where the Grail rests and where the wounded Fisher King awaits healing. The Course says the altar was "created perfect and is entirely worthy of receiving perfection." In the romances, the Grail table is always already set — the feast is always already prepared. What is missing is not the grace but the witness capable of receiving it.
- The Restoration of the Temple — "the opening of the altar to receive the Atonement" — is the Grail Achievement: the moment when the knight finally asks the question, the king is healed, the wasteland blooms, and the separation is undone.
What the Course adds — and what makes this passage distinctive — is the explicit identification of the chalice with mind. The Grail is not somewhere else. The altar is not in a cathedral or a castle. The temple is not a body or a building. They are descriptions of the mind restored to wholeness. The "one defense against all errors which can make you perfectly invulnerable" is not armor or magic — it is the simple acceptance of what was never actually lost.