A Course In Miracles is, I believe, frequently misinterpreted (the same could be said for many religious and / or spiritual texts). Even when it is properly interpreted, however, it is not necessarily easily accepted. Why not?
To begin, A Course In Miracles is said to be dictated by none other than Jesus, who supposedly dictated it to a woman living in New York — a psychologist — during the 1960’s and 70’s. Is it losing credibility for you yet?
Here’s some more background.
A foundation principle within A Course In Miracles, the foundation principle in my opinion, is that the world is not real and is an illusion, and is actually more like a dream — a bad dream. The bad dream is a dream of separation from God. This is only a dream because, in reality, you are with God in Heaven right now. You are only dreaming otherwise.
If, after this descriptive, you are solidly in alignment with A Course In Miracles you are either already a practitioner of the Course or are extremely open to alternative thought. If, on the the other hand, you consider A Course In Miracles non credible then you are like most everyone else.
There’s nothing wrong with having this pessimism but if you maintain it then you will pass A Course In Miracles by. Is this a good thing? Is it the right thing to do?
It depends on your circumstances. If you’re quite satisfied with your life and / or are satisfied with whatever coping mechanisms you use to deal with life’s inevitable difficulties then you probably don’t have much need for the Course (A Course In Miracles is sometimes referred to as, simply, the Course).
If, on the other hand, you are dissatisfied with life for whatever reason and / or find life to be increasingly difficult and unpleasant then A Course In Miracles is, in my opinion, an exceptional resource for fundamental life change. Embracing A Course In Miracles will require first, obviously, accepting it as something valid instead of an absurdity or a religious abomination (as some people view it).
You must approach it with an open mind.
Departed life teacher Jerry Hicks, of Abraham Hicks notoriety, once said something that I consider quite profound: he said that he judged a tree by the fruit it produced. In other words he focused not on the life help method itself but on the results it delivered. If you will do this with A Course In Miracles, if you will overlook its hard to believe or sensational aspects and actually put it to use, then you will have your fruit.
When it comes to life help methods I believe people respond better to some methods than others, and I’m not convinced that there’s a single method that will help everyone equally. I do believe though that some methods stand out and I consider A Course In Miracles to be a quite effective means for changing life in a positive way. It is, it my opinion, a stand out method and also a profound practice.
Let’s talk for a moment about the actual practice. A Course In Miracles, in itself, is a descriptive. It describes an illusory life experience, a reality of life with God in Heaven, and how to wake up from the dream of separation from God and Heaven. This waking up from the dream is the action part of the method, the actual practice, and it’s how we get from suffering to peace.
The specific Course practice is forgiveness. But this is not the forgiveness most of us are familiar with, where someone commits a wrong act– at least in our opinion — and we forgive them in spite of their wrongdoing. Forgiveness as prescribed by A Course In Miracles is to state that no genuine wrong act ever occurred. How could a genuine wrong act occur within an illusion or a dream?
Forgiveness from the Course then is to forgive what did not actually happen, which is also calling the dream a dream instead of reality. This form of forgiveness is simple enough to do — I forgive you for what you didn’t do — but it is exceptionally difficult to carry out, especially consistently. Why?
To practice this sort of forgiveness consistently, and consistent application is what brings the best — and the fastest — results, requires accepting what you always called the real world as now unreal and accepting everyone as actually innocent. You will not know how challenging it is to hold this perspective until you take it on for yourself. The fact is most of us do not challenge the legitimacy of the world we (believe we) live in, and we also regularly judge and blame other people.
You may not appreciate the extent of this habitual behavior but you will if you begin to apply forgiveness as taught in the Course. The payoff for practicing the Course is general deep peace, peace within otherwise difficult circumstances, and eventually, according to A Course In Miracles, a permanent return to your natural Heaven state.
Is this enough motivation? It’s our decision to make.
(Learn more about A Course In Miracles Here.)
