The Thirteenth Principle of A Course in Miracles

Miracles are both beginnings and endings, and so they alter the temporal order. They are always affirmations of rebirth, which seem to go back but really go forward. They undo the past in the present, and thus undo the future (T-1.I.13:1-3).

The thirteenth principle of miracles in A Course in Miracles is an early introduction to the holy instant, the Course’s life-altering perspective on the nature and purpose of both time and miracles. It makes clear that miracles – which are shifts in perception that create Love where formerly there was only fear – literally alter the temporal order, undoing the effects of our mistaken belief in the past and the future.

But how do they do this? And is this an example of symbolic language or are we meant to take the idea literally? Because if we are to take it literally, then aren’t we essentially granting miracles a supernatural quality we have already expressly denied they have?

We can start answering those questions by recognizing that time is a perception of the body, much like a three-dimensional world, the invisibility of infrared and infraviolet light, and the ability to hear sounds only in a frequency range between approximately 20 Hz to 20 kHz.

Just like a butterfly perceives colors that we do not, and a dog hears sounds that we cannot, it is reasonable to expect that a tick or a sunflower, say, have different experiences of time than we do.

When we realize that time is of the body, then we can ask a new question: what is time at the level of the spirit which, as the twelfth principle makes clear, is the only level of reality?

The suggestion is that the Holy Spirit may or may not be interested in giving an answer to that in terms that make sense to mind that still believes it is yoked to a body. But It will absolutely be interested in making clear that the real question is not whether time is real – to the body it will always be real, to spirit it will never be – but rather are we using time for atonement or for suffering? That is, are we accepting the ego’s use of time or the Holy Spirit’s?

The ego uses time to focus on death and nothingness, always laced with hints of hell. We were bad in the past, which means we are guilty now, which means we will suffer in the future. This is a bleak and merciless perspective and offers no hope or respite, which is the point. We hate it but we feel trapped by it because it seems so real. We fail to see it is merely a construction born of thinking with the ego instead of the Holy Spirit.

When we give attention to the Holy Spirit, It gently insists that the present is all of time there is, and that the past and the future are illusions which cannot cause anything – neither joy nor pain – except in dreams that accept what is unreal as real.

You are confused, says the Holy Spirit. But your confusion can be corrected. The question is, are we ready?

The instant in which magnitude dawns upon you is but as far away as your desire for it. As long as you desire it not and cherish littleness instead, by so much is it far from you. By so much as you want it will you bring it nearer (T-15.IV.2:2-4).

What does this mean in practice?

In application, the thirteenth miracle principle allows us to revisit past experiences and emotions in order to recognize the lessons they hold and to integrate these healing insights of the lessons into our present lives. By acknowledging and processing the past, we create the necessary conditions for healing and growth in the present, effectively releasing the future from the shackles of past limitations and traumas.

This is a temporary process. It occurs in the context of separation in order to undo separation, which is always how the Holy Spirit teaches us.

This is forgiveness as the Holy Spirit understands it, which is simply right-mindedness, or right seeing. It does not deny that we have tied ourselves into metaphysical and psychological knots by accepting the ego’s interpretation of time. Rather, It uses that illusion to undo the suffering that interpretation causes. It is literally the manifestation of the other way for which Bill Thetford cried out, effectively augmenting A Course in Miracles.

Miracles are experiences of release from suffering because they demonstrate that the cause of suffering is an interpretation which can be changed. We are doing this to ourselves and, when we are ready, we can do something different.

Between Easters: the Holy Instant

Presently I am between Easters. We celebrated Easter with the Catholic side of the family last week and we will celebrate Orthodox Easter with the Greek side tomorrow. It is a happy time.

Of course, as a student of A Course in Miracles, and a half-assed Teacher of God, Easter – the resurrection inherent in choosing again for peace and Love, of accepting atonement for oneself, of loving in a loveless place – is an ongoing process, not an event. It’s a practice, not a holiday.

But what does it mean for resurrection to be an ongoing process rather than an event in time?

As I understand and practice A Course in Miracles, it means giving attention to the holy instant, which over the past year has assumed an increasing vitality and helpfulness in my experience, anchoring what it means to be in holy relationship, and to be healed.

I want here to share some recent notes about the holy instant that come from an ongoing dialogue about healing. A sister and I have been working together for a year or so, a shared inquiry and application of spiritual learning that has been deeply liberating.

We are both aware in our dialogue that healing – to be healing – must extend beyond the limitations imposed by bodies – it’s not about us because it’s never about us – and so I offer these notes in case others find them helpful, insightful, or whatever.

Or not! That’s okay, too 🙏

*

Just some random thoughts in response to your email yesterday. Thank you for asking about the holy instant; the emphasis on it arose early in our dialogue. It has become a vital part of my ACIM practice.

First, the logic of it, the understanding of it. The logos of it.

Strictly speaking, neither the past nor the future are here now, and so they cannot be causes of what is. The present is not shaped by either the past or the future; it is free of them; it is of another order. It’s not about time, as bodies understand time – a flow that moves in one direction, birth to death, yesterday to tomorrow.

And the easiest way to understand this “other order” is simply to see that the past and the future are not – here and now – capable of causing anything.

Basically, they are illusions.

We can pretend they are causes! But it’s the same pretense as pretending that the moon circles the earth. Looks that way, yes. Doesn’t feel like the earth moves, yes. But truth is true, and only truth is true. The moon does not circle the earth; the past and the future are not causes. We can indulge the fiction – there may even be cogent arguments for why we should indulge the fiction – but it’s still fiction.

ACIM just asks us to be clear about this, to notice it. Logically, the past and the future are not what we assume they are. They can’t cause pain or peace.

Seeing this made me curious: what does cause pain or peace then? And what is the present if not a temporal experience of the past being translated into the future?

The answer is: Mind. Only mind creates effects.

And now a hopefully not irrelevant side note . . .

I am reading – skimming is probably a better word – “Preconquest Consciousness,” an essay by E. Richard Sorenson, and the general thesis is that duality – by which time and space and matter were suddenly elevated to primacy over consciousness/awareness, which elevation was also the birth of ego, a pattern of human thinking that emphasizes the individual over and above the collective, at the expense of the collective – is a fairly recent (past 10,000 years, say) development.

On Sorenson’s view, ego is a cultural artefact and the conditions that brought it forth are the same conditions it zealously and viciously defends and extends by any means possible – separation, perception of differences, judgment, scarcity, competition et cetera. And this is a huge human problem that we are only just now beginning to rethink and correct because, personally, locally and globally, it is very very clear that something is deeply tragically amiss.

Buddha and Jesus are examples of early corrections – and they remain nontrivial. The problem of ego was thouands of years old when they enountered it (and encountered, too, early religious attempts to respond to it, which they radically and helpfully re-interpreted).

Buddha responds (I am generalizing wildly, apologies to our Buddhist brothers and sisters) by teaching us how to meditate in way that untangles thought patterns and mental moves that collectively are ego, and thus remember a state of nondual awareness that naturally extends unto the world.

And Jesus advocates a radical reimagining of the collective, all of us functioning as brothers and sisters, as equal children of a Loving Creator whose only goal is our shared happiness, which happiness is a present condition presently unrecognized.

Both are nonviolent; both are service-oriented; and both point to a transcendent Love that is non-dual in nature.

The Jesus we encounter in A Course in Miracles connects with Buddha by emphasizing the present, the holy instant, and suggesting that one reaches it – remembers it, experiences it – as a practice, as a thing we do in bodies in the world. Just like one can do zazen, one can practice the holy instant.

Logos – which is basically all the preceding paragraphs – brings us to the practice, to the actual Cave of the Heart (I am borrowing Abhishiktananda’s phrasing here). It’s helpful to know the argument, be able to articulate it, know the broad cultural strokes of it. It’s helpful to know the way to the Cave. Maps are not beside the point.

But when one reaches the Cave of the Heart, then one has to let the map go (whether it’s Sorenson, Bourgeault or even A Course in Miracles).

We enter the Cave empty-handed. There is no other way to enter it.

You ask what the holy instant feels like. It is a testament to our relationship that I can at least try to answer that.

The holy instant is clear and quiet. There is only one thought and it cannot be symbolized. There is nothing to possess or own because everything is given, and given equally. It is vivid and electric, but also deeply relaxing. It is a great power creating only peace and love. It cannot be mistaken. Once sampled, it undoes the desire for any substitute or simulacra.

The holy instant is a gift, not an accomplishment. It is a gift that is already given. The work is not to do anything to achieve or merit or gain it but to see that we can not do anything and to accept that. This is easy to say and hard to do, because we are inherently problem-solvers and meaning-makers. That is what ego is.

Premeditated meditation or contemplative prayer – sitting with an expectation, a goal (of awakening, inner peace, lower blood pressure, whatever) however subtle or apparently pure – will not work.

Letting go of our very nature and identity is murderously hard. As you know, the existential crisis it begets is no joke.

We cannot do this work alone, which is why spiritual friendships like ours are so vital, and why clarity about the Holy Spirit – knowing how to recognize Its voice, how to discern it from ego – is so essential.

Experience of the holy instant comes and goes. It is a teaching tool because it both shows us what true peace and happiness are (thus motivating us) and because it teaches us precisely what the Course is saying about being radical in our acceptance of Love (as Jesus and Buddha were).

The holy instant is both profoundly deconstructive (in a Derridean sense) and profoundly creative. It is endlessly a death, and endlessly a birth. In that way, it transcends both.

Nothing outside of it is real; nothing within it can be threatened.

Happy Easter and thanks again for being here with me.

Love,
Sean

Beyond the Specialness of Jesus

We always meet Jesus in a context – one that is shaped by our body and our relationships, i.e., the world. And our context is always alien to the historical Jesus’s context. He was a charismatic peasant Jew living in the chokehold of Roman empire, during a phase of human history that was more brutal and stupid than most of us can imagine.

Another Jesus

Our attraction to Jesus always says more about us – our needs, hopes, dreams, biases, et cetera – than it does about him. He’s gone; what remains is a complex narrative skein that transcends religion and history. Out of it we construct a Jesus – we project a Jesus. We dream a Jesus. How could it be otherwise?

The problem arises when we believe that our projection is the right version of Jesus – that it’s not a projection at all, nor even an opinion, but rather the only possible interpretation of the historical Jesus, the Way the Truth and the Life Jesus. We all do this, we all conveniently forget that we do it, and then (tragically) forget that we forgot we do it.

But why? Why this incredibly effective internal resistance to just accepting the projection and not making a big deal about it?

Because when we can convince ourselves and others that our Jesus is the real Jesus, then we are no longer responsible for our behavior. We’re doing what Jesus would do, what Jesus would condone doing, and we are not doing what Jesus would not do. It’s out of our hands; we’re just channels.

We make Jesus an idol and then hide behind it. It’s easier.

This “hiding” can look like hyper-aggressive evangelizing – e.g., killing people who refuse to convert. It can look selfish – e.g., Jesus is giving me special messages. Or it can be fatally passive, like waiting for on a healer who never arrives. In the latter case – which is where most of us reading and writing this post are – it’s like looking in a mirror and waiting for the image to tell us what to do with our lives.

This passivity breeds a lot of pain and suffering. It is qualitatively different than aggression and self-centeredness but not quantitatively so.

I tend to see Jesus as both a historical and local advocate for an inclusive, nonviolent collectivism, emphasizing what is common rather than different in us, which tends to cash out in ideas like “be responsible for projection,” “be a servant,” “cooperate, don’t compete,” et cetera, which ideas are only doable and sustainable when one enjoys a serenely confident intimacy with Yahweh.

Am I right about that?

I mean, it’s a coherent argument right? It incorporates theology, anthropology, history, psychology and so forth. It privileges shared happiness over individual satisfaction, which raises the peace-and-joy waterline for all of us. Living in that model is difficult but not impossible. And peace is better than war, joy better than suffering.

But it’s not “right” in an absolute sense, like how non-salt water freezes at 32 degrees Farenheit. It’s “right” in the sense that it’s helpful for me, in the context in which I find myself, like how some people benefit from cognitive behavioral therapy but others prefer a twelve-step group. Others might like my Jesus, too, but others won’t, and this is not a flaw in my projection’s design but rather a light making clear that what is true is what is helpful and what is helpful varies from context to context.

Still, when the conversation moves from “is this the real Jesus” to “does this version of Jesus work,” a lot of us bristle. Suddenly the suggestion is that Jesus is just one more healng modality, no different than psychotherapy, entheogens, yoga or whatever. And for us, Jesus has to be a little different, a little more special than all those other things.

We really do want the Jesus, rather than a Jesus.

Which brings us back to the first paragraph. We always encounter Jesus in a particular context, and part of that context is specialness – ours and Jesus’s. I am using “special” here in the ACIM sense of “different, and better because of those differences,” which always produces violence (e.g., T-24.I.3:1-2).

The very fact that we project a Jesus is proof that we remain invested in his specialness and our own. There is literally no other reason for him to be here.

Again, the projection is not the problem – projecting is just the human brain doing its human thing. If you didn’t project Jesus, you’d project Buddha. Or an angel. Or this or that mode of psychotherapy. And then that would be right; that would be the means by which you double down on specialness and, by extension, on separation.

So a big part of my own Jesus practice is about accepting Jesus not as special but as helpful in the context in which I encounter him. That is my responsibility – to not use Jesus to reinforce my separation from the world and from my brothers and sisters but rather to accept Jesus as a means of remembering that I am not separate from the world and from my brothers and sisters. And then to act accordingly.

This necessarily means shifting the focus from being right to what works, which requires that I be humble, attentive, open-minded, vulnerable, willing et cetera. It means remembering that “what works” has to be inclusive. It has to be a big tent. We go together or we don’t go at all. There is no other way to practice forgiveness and know salvation.

When we want the end of separation more than we want separation (and we should not kid ourselves about how hard it is to reach this juncture, let alone act from it in authentic and sustainable ways), then Jesus becomes the exact helper that we need, helping us to the precise and intimate extent that we need help.

The help is real; the help is not an illusion. Therefore, the one who helps is real, too. He’s just not other than the one who is helped. And as A Course in Miracles says, “herein lies the peace of God” (In.2:4).

A Course in Miracles: What are Miracles?

Miracles are shifts in perception away from fear and towards love. Miracles are specific. They are responsive to our perception of separation, uniting our will to heal (however faint) with God’s Knowledge that there is nothing to heal and never was.

Miracles emphasize the role mind plays in creating reality; when mind updates its false perceptions and beliefs, it produces experiences of love that naturally undo fear. They do this by aligning our thinking and will with universal principles of love and forgiveness which, together, are God’s Will.

Thus, miracles are experiences within the broader experience of separation which reveal the illusion of separation by making obvious our shared interest in Love. By making this shared interest increasingly obvious, miracles unite us with our brothers and sisters, further fostering the conditions by which healing occurs.

This is a step away – maybe a whole journey away – from the traditional Christian understanding of miracle. In traditional expressions of Christianity, miracles are extraordinary events that defy the laws of nature, thereby testifying to the power of God and His willingness to intervene in our lives.

On that view, miracles are often considered signs of God’s power and presence and even His favor. They validate the faith of believers and witness unto the authority of the one who enacts the miracle. The quintessential example is Jesus walking on water, healing lepers and raising Lazarus from the dead.

In A Course in Miracles, miracles heal the mind that believes it is separate from God and Creation. What happens after that in the world of form is beside the point. And miracles are for everybody who wants them – there is nothing special about them at all, beside the joy and peace they naturally bring forth.

A Course in Miracles: What is Salvation?

Salvation is awakening from the dream of separation, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. It is the recognition that we share an interest in peace and happiness with all our brothers and sisters, and that this shared interest reflects the truth that there is only one will in Creation.

Thus, salvation is the process by which our seemingly separate will is brought into alignment with God’s Will. Salvation is natural and easy – there is literally nothing to do.

Salvation, as we understand and practice it as students of A Course in Miracles, does deviate from more traditional Christian theology and application. In ACIM, salvation is the process of undoing our shared belief in separation, and all the attendant guilt and fear which are separation’s effects. This ultimately allows us to remember our inherent Oneness with God and all Creation.

The focus is on our personal responsibility for transformation – this means that we are responsible for not projecting, for practicing forgiveness – which is right-inded seeing, and for listening to the Holy Spirit as we correct our confused and mistaken beliefs about self, other and, especially, God.

Traditional Christianity (broadly defined) emphasizes faith in Jesus Christ as the primary means of attaining salvation and redemption from sin. A Course in Miracles teaches that salvation is not conditional but is accessible and inevitable because of what we are in truth. There is no sin – there is only error, which can always be corrected.

Atonement – which is closely related to salvation – is about correcting errors at the level of mind, not enacting a rigorous penance for sins committed by bodies in the world.

Our resistance and opposition to this understanding and practice of atonement can be intense, and the apparent blocks created by our opposition can seem imposing indeed. Therefore, salvation is learned in time – it is perceived first as an experience of liberation from the body in a world and then as a mind that opens to accept its fullness as an extension of God in Creation.

This shift in perception, also known as a miracle, helps us to see the world and ourselves through the eyes of Love and forgiveness – in other words, we see right-mindedly.

This takes both understanding and application. We learn that we are separate and that there is another way. Then we learn that by serving our brothers and sisters, we bring that way forth for all life. And finally, we rest in the quiet joy and peace of knowing that we need to do nothing other than accept God’s Will, which is our will, and from which we cannot be separate in any way.

Therefore, in A Course in Miracles, salvation is joyful and the path towards it a happy one. It is the recognition of our nature as an extension of God and Love. Salvation is the process by which we awaken to this truth, releasing forever ego-based illusions of separation and fear.

Because salvation is fundamentally relational – we need one another in non-trivial ways – it offers an alternative understanding of Christian practice. The Course, because it emphasizes personal responsibility, radical forgiveness, and willingness to remember our oneness with God, naturally inspires an inclusive and compassionate spiritual practice.

It is a practical alternative to more dogmatic and ritual-based practices of Christianity. No suggestion is made that it is superior! It may simply be more helpful for folks, depending on their perception of their needs. Salvation is, in the end, a deeply personal process.

A Course in Miracles: What are Illusions?

An illusion is an error in perception that we hold both about ourselves and the world. Illusions arise from the ego’s separation-based belief system. When we accept this system as real, and do not seek alternatives, the world resembles and behaves exactly as if separation were real. We act as if we are separate beings in competition and conflict with one another, rather thas as unified thoughts in the mind of God, whose only function is Love. All suffering comes from this.

A basic example of how illusion works is to consider the earth. It’s not actually flat but it does appear that way – or approximately that way – when we walk around on it. The woman in the magic trick is not actually being sawed in half, it just looks that way. That’s why nobody’s rushing the stage to save her.

Illusions can take many forms, including personal beliefs about our own limitations, the perceived limitations of others, and our judgments about the world. We think that anger is inevitable, say, or that some people are lucky in love and others are not. We think the Republican Party is evil or that Democrats are naive. These beliefs cause us (and our brothers and sisters) non-trivial pain. They lead to relationships in which it is possible to remember God and to care for one another is practical and non-dramatic ways.

A Course in Miracles teaches us that illusions are not real and that their appearance of reality can be undone through a process of spiritual awakening and a shift in perception, which together are a practice of forgiveness.

Right-mindedness listens to the Holy Spirit, forgives the world, and through Christ’s vision sees the real world in its place . . . Here time and illusions end together (C-1.3:2, 4).

This is the “One-mindedness of the Christ Mind, Whose Will is one with God’s” (C-1.6:3).

When we understand the underlying circumstances, then the illusion dissolves. The earth appears flat relative to our height. You have to be very high to perceive its curvature, and you have to be in outer space to see the entirety of the globe. Or else you need to do tests – like observing how ships appear to sink the farther away frome shore they get – and study the data. But once you do – once you understand – then the illusion dissolves.

Note that the perception itself may remain consistent. It does look like the woman is being sawed in half. It really does appear that the moon and the sun are circling the flat disc of the earth. To the body, the body and the world will always seem real.

But the psychological aspects of separation do not have to seem real. They can be undone and forgotten. We can live in a world that is predicated on the trust and cooperation that Love instills.

Separation is an illusion that is healed by understanding the way in which we are not – and cannot ever be – separate from either Creation or our Creator.

This understanding is brought forth when we actively choose Love over fear. A Course in Miracles suggests that Love is the only reality and that fear is simply an illusion. When we choose to see the world as the Holy Spirit does – through a lens of Love – we overcome ego-based illusions and experience a greater sense of peace and harmony.

The shift in perception from the ego’s limited perspective to a higher spiritual perspective is what miracles are – and they always create healing in the world. The form the healing takes is not what matters; what matters is the healing itself. Miracles are always guided by the Holy Spirit’s natural capacity to see as God sees and to not see as God does not see. Love holds everything.

A Course in Miracles teaches that only love is real, and that all perceptions to the contrary are illusions that arise from ego’s belief in separation. By letting go of those illusions and opening ourselves up to the experience of Love, our living is transformed and a more peaceful and fulfilling existence becomes possible for all our brothers and sisters.

That state is also an illusion but it is the last illusion – the final moment of our dream in which God takes the last step and restores us to Heaven.