The Forty-First Principle of A Course in Miracles

Wholeness is the perceptual content of miracles. They thus correct, or atone for, the faulty perception of lack (T-1.I.41:1-2).

One of the hallmarks of separation is a sense of lack, and a corresponding sense of scarcity. There always seems to be something missing – some person or thing, some feeling or idea – that would complete us. And when we try to get that something, we can’t find it, or we find it but somebody else has it. Or there’s not enough of it to go around. We are seekers who do not realize that what we seek is already given and present and totally sufficient.

. . . God created you as part of Him. That is both where you are and what you are. It is completely unalterable. It is total inclusion. You cannot change it now or ever. It is forever true. It is not a belief, but a Fact (T-6.II.6:2-8).

When we experience lack and run headlong into the seeming crisis of scarcity, we enter into competition with our brothers and sisters. We have to defeat them in order to survive – to get what we want. They become threats to our safety and well-being. We forget all about God, or try to enlist him on our side against our brothers and sisters.

This is an obvious error crying out for correction.

The miracle demonstrates wholeness, which is the end of lack and the undoing of scarcity. What is whole is not missing anything, and what is not missing anything cannot be concerned about ideas like scarcity or abundance. God provides, and provides perfectly. We are complete. We have no problems (W-pI.79.1:4).

But our completion must include a remembrance – and a deep abiding and respectful acceptance – of the wholeness and perfection of the other as well. God does not create unequally. If we perceive a reality in which inequality seems justified or logical, even a little, then we are perceiving from a state of confusion. Fear-based thinking can only beget separation and the harmful feelings that attend it.

Love is the other way and, for some of us, A Course in Miracles is the path on which we remember this fact and bring it into application.

Miracles remind us of wholeness which is another name for love. This reminder might be a glimpse of that unity, it might be a coherent idea about unity, or it might be a dialogue in which we are restored to unity. Either way, a shift in perception occurs – our old thinking is updated and healed, and our will is brought gently into alignment with Creation, in which nothing is missing, and so nothing need be sought or hoarded or hidden away. The other is not an enemy but a friend. We are called not to compete but to collaborate and cooperate. Communion, not chaos, is the law.

When we perceive ourselves as lacking, we can remember that thinking this way is an error. Errors can be corrected! We can ask the Holy Spirit to restore to our awareness that incompletion and fragmentation are ego-driven illusions that serve the cause of conflict rather than peace. We can be open to changing our mind. We can let our living reflect the new belief system which the Holy Spirit teaches us, which is premised on our inherent wholeness which is our relationship with all of existence.

It’s helpful to note the way that miracles “correct” or “atone” for faulty perception. We are not punished for wrong thinking; there is reprimand for having made an error. It is a simple question of adjusting our thinking so that it naturally accords with reality as God created it. It’s more like polishing our glasses so that we can see better than anything else. We are participating in a gentle correction, not a stern upbraiding or punishment.

Miracles are simple and clear, but their effects have long range and impact. Our shared willingness to see ourselves and others as God knows us allows us to to experience our inherent wholeness, itself a mark of the kinship of all beings. What else would we want when everything is given?