Category Archives: A Course in Miracles

It is important to see the simplicity of forgiveness in A Course in Miracles: it is “the healing of the perception of separation (T-3.V.9:1).” It is not an action, not an accumulation of information and rules. It is a right or coherent way of seeing, a healed way of seeing. “Seeing” in this case refersContinue reading “Forgiveness is Healed Perception”

In terms of A Course in Miracles, a special relationship is any relationship (with anything though we tend to think of it as between people) that we use as a substitute for Oneness with God. It might be a special hate relationship, in which we feel justified in projecting hate and anger onto someone, orContinue reading “On Special Relationships in A Course in Miracles”

The problem is never the specific feeling I am having – I am angry, say. Rather, it is the belief system from which the specific feeling reflexively arises. Ultimately, that is where the problem is solved. That is where we will find Saint Paul’s “peace that surpasseth understanding.” In A Course in Miracles, this meansContinue reading “Choosing Between Belief Systems”

The first lesson of A Course in Miracles teaches us that meaning is not inherent: it does not reside “in” the dog, or the table, or the stack of books, or the picture of our children laughing at the beach. Nothing that we see – ever – means anything (W-pI.1). And of course we couldContinue reading “Meaning and Inherency: The First Lesson of A Course in Miracles”

It is a mistake, I think, to approach A Course in Miracles as if it were merely a light-hearted picnic en route to the Gates to Heaven. It is not that an emphasis on inner peace and joy is wrong per se, but that it can distract one from the actual forgiveness inherent in theContinue reading “Following Jesus in A Course in Miracles”

Miracles are everybody’s right, but purification is necessary first (T-1.I.7:1). The seventh principle of A Course in Miracles is both lovely and confounding. It reflects the course’s semantic affinity for Christianity and – I say this carefully and lovingly – the Course’s sometimes maddening habit of being poetic and abstract to the point of convolution.Continue reading “Understanding the Seventh Principle of Miracles”