Sean Reagan

Miracles are thoughts. Thoughts can represent the lower or bodily level of experience, or the higher or spiritual level of experience. One makes the physical, and the other creates the spiritual (T-1.I.12:1-3).

The twelfth miracle principle emphasizes that miracles are not external events that “get” us something, but rather shifts in perception that bring our will into alignment with God’s Will. On this view, miracles are corrections in our thinking that enable us to know our brothers and sisters as God knows them and thus – by extension – to know our own self as God knows us. Miracles induce a way of relating to life that is not predicated on illusions perpetuated by ego.

The ego makes and promotes separation, by teaching us how to judge appearances from the perspective of a vulnerable body. The Holy Spirit gently observes that all is one, and therefore nothing real can be threatened. Bodies do what bodies do and it’s no big deal. The Holy Spirit sees beyond all that.

Ego’s lessons begets sorrow; the Holy Spirit’s, joy and peace, and thus the end of suffering.

The fundamental premise of A Course in Miracles it that when we shift our thoughts from fear to love – through the practice of forgiveness – we create a space in which miracles occur naturally and thus heal the mind in which they appear. This shift in our thoughts is what allows us to perceive the world and ourselves in a new light, and it is this shift that brings about the healing effect of the miracle.

This principle also speaks to the idea that thoughts can represent either the “lower or bodily level of experience or the higher or spiritual level of experience” (T-1.I.12:1:2). The lower level of experience refers to the physical world and the experiences that we have through and as bodies, such as pleasure, pain, and other sensory perceptions.

This “lower” level of experience is the ego’s playground because all our experience of it is rooted in – is contingent upon – interpretation. We do not know what any of it means, and we have to be taught. The Course suggests that the ego is a poor teacher because it emphasizes the fickle nature of perception, effectively arguing that we have to choose – and defend – an interpretation. Conflict becomes the only reliable outcome of our living, and survival the only meaningful goal.

This is not a recipe for happiness.

By way of contrast, the Holy Spirit teaches us that the outside world is the projected picture of an inside condition (T-21.in.1:5), and that this is not a crisis but rather an invitation to recognize both our need for healing, and the specific means by which that healing can be accomplished.

To heal in this way is to partake of the “higher or spiritual level of experience” (T-1.I.12:2), by realizing that it reflects our true identity in ways that bodily experience simply can’t.

This higher or spiritual level of experience cannot be contained by – and does not depend on – the physical realm. At the level of spirit, all experience is rooted in love or the cry for love – both of which elicit the same response – and thus naturally focuses on the interconnectedness of all things, regardless of how they appear. It is at this level that we recognize our oneness with God and with all of Creation.

This oneness can be reflected at the level of the body and it can be intellectually understood there, but the only meaningful experience of it is at the spiritual level.

The twelfth principle also suggests that one level of thought makes the physical world while the other creates the spiritual world. The distinction between “making” and “creating” is important in A Course in Miracles. To “make” is to attempt to do something productive without acknowledging our reliance on God. Anything “made” in this way is shallow and ineffectual because it does not reflect God’s Will.

Another way of saying this is that what we “make” is unreal and thus illusory.

On the other hand, to “create” is to recognize with all our heart and mind our dependence on God and to accept this dependence joyfully. At this level, we are not really involved in what is brought forth, other than in our willingness to allow it to be brought forth in us by God. We become channels, and our willingness is the whole of our contribution as co-creators with God.

On the lower level of experience, our thoughts are largely focused on the physical world and the material things that we desire – often understood as what we need to survive. This can lead to two effects of varying degrees – we might get more of what we are focused on and we might get less. But the value given to the more or less is the problem! It symbolizes our belief that what is external is what is real and that our happiness or lack thereof is contingent on what we get or don’t get.

This is a clear error.

On the higher level of experience, our thoughts are focused on God’s Will and the Teacher who speaks for that Will and thus teaches us that Love holds everything. When we give attention to this Love, this Love is brought forth in our living and extends to all Creation through us. This Love heals us as it heals our brothers and sisters, and it makes us happy in ways that are not conditional or contingent upon what appears to happen or not happen.

By shifting our focus away from the external – without denying or denigrating it – we gently bring our thinking into alignment with the Thoughts of God. This is the peace that surpasses understanding. This is the happiness that does not come and go.

All [ego] can offer is a sense of temporary existence, which begins with its own beginning and ends with its own ending . . . Against this sense of temporary existence spirit offers you the knowledge of permanence and unshakable being (T-4.III.3:4, 6).

The twelfth miracle principle of A Course in Miracles emphasizes that miracles are not external events or actions, but rather shifts in our thinking that produce meaningful results in our living. We learn that our thoughts can represent either the physical level of experience or the spiritual level, and that peace and happiness are real only at the spiritual level. Anything else is an illusion.

Thus, this principle attests to the power of our thoughts to shape our experience of the world and emphasizes the importance of focusing our thoughts on love and forgiveness in order to create the conditions for miracles to occur. We do this through practicing the daily lesson, praying and communing with the Holy Spirit, and giving attention to our relationships with all our brothers and sisters.

Prayer is the medium of miracles. It is a means of communication of the created with the Creator. Through prayer love is received, and through miracles love is expressed (T-1.I.11:1-3).

A Course in Miracles, located in the Christian tradition, offers students a non-dualistic approach to understanding and living in reality. It emphasizes a practice of forgiveness as the means to remembering that God is Love, and that we are not separate from God. Forgiveness sees past the inherent unreliability of perception and thus remembers only what is real.

Prayer is the means by which ACIM forgiveness – e.g., the simple but radical practice of not seeing sin or error at all because it is not real – becomes not merely theoretical but both possible and practical. The Course, as its scribe observed, is meant to lived, not merely discussed.

On this view of the Course, miracles are not supernatural events that violate the laws of nature – like, say, walking on water or feeding five thousand people with a few loaves of bread – but rather shifts in perception that allow us to see the world differently, and to know reality outside the illusion of duality imposed on us by the body’s senses, the physical world and the ego’s self-centered interpretation of that world.

Miracles shift our focus away from perception – which is fundamentally interpretative, which is why it is cherished by ego – and towards knowledge, which does not need to interpret anything. Knowledge is that which cannot be touched by doubt. You know that your hands are yours, for example. If you need to pick up a cup of coffee, you don’t have to file paperwork with somebody else to have them do it.

Descartes was gesturing at this when he famously observed that the thought of the self was the one thing that could not be denied.

In ACIM, prayer is a crucial component of this shift in perception – this transition from fear to love – because it opens up a channel of communication between ourselves and reality, which we symbolize as God or the Divine.

When A Course in Miracles says that prayer is “the medium of miracles,” it means that prayer is the means by which we gain access to the Divine and partake of the transformative power of Love which is the Divine. We realize the nature of reality and stop resisting it. We become curious and open. In our acceptance, we become co-creators of peace rather than solitary soldiers engaged in an hopeless war, the origins of which we’ve forgotten.

In other words, prayer is not a request for something we want or believe we need – like a cure for cancer, a winning lottery ticket or a new job or partner. Rather, it is an intentional practice of aligning our will with God’s Will. This is easy to talk about and hard – really hard – to actually do. Ego fights back, distorting and confusing us, forever alienating us from remember that God’s Will is Love, that that Love includes everyone and everything, and accepts no conflict whatsoever.

Given to egoic logic, it is easy to convince ourselves that we have accomplished some divine union, and have reached some state of insight or grace that sets us apart from others, especially when prayer makes us happy by producing results we deem positive. But this is not what ACIM is talking about when it talks about prayer.

True prayer in the understanding and practice of A Course in Miracles is a way to let go of ego – its stories, its arguments, its threats, its distractions – in order to discover what we are in truth, which ego can denigrate and deny but can never destroy. Creation lies beyond the reach of ego; that is why our safety rests in defenselessness (e.g., W-pI.153.h). Nothing real can be threatened, and nothing unreal exists (T-in.2:2-3).

Thus, when we pray as students of A Course in Miracles, we are essentially opening our minds to an understanding of Love that is eternally present and accessible but hidden or obscured – often quite effectively – by ego. How do we know when prayer is working then? When it makes us happy regardless of what appears to be happening outside of us in the body in the world.

Prayer liberates us from the tyranny of self-imposed judgment. It restores to our mind the knowledge that we cannot be separate from God, which undoes the need for “our” judgment altogether. In turn, this release allows us to be transformed from the inside-out: as we “receive” love, we understand our brothers and sisters, and the world we make together, differently. We are less likely to collect grievances and viciously compete with one another. We are less affected by notions of scarcity and loss. We are here to serve on behalf of God. We don’t want anything else.

Truly, in prayer, we begin to experience the present moment – the holy instant – as sufficient unto itself. Losing our attachment to time and space – by remembering that they are effects, not causes – means that we become present to the Love that is available to us in each moment as each moment. We recognize – we know – that this Love is our true nature.

Therefore, the eleventh miracle principle teaches us that miracles are expressions of this otherwise unspeakable and unknowable – because it cannot be symbolized, cannot be contained – love. Miracles are not something we do – like turning water into wine or finding the perfect partner – but rather what happens internally when we open radically and without condition to the transformative power of God’s Love as it is revealed in and to us via the holy instant.

Thus, miracles do not generally manifest as spectacular events. Having this expectation of them means we are confused (see, e.g., the tenth miracle principle). A miracle is a moment of freedom born of the peace and quiet that are the effects of resting in Creation with our Creator. We laugh at what used to make us sad; we embrace what we used to fight; we accept what we used to resist. It looks like what it looks like; it doesn’t matter what it looks like.

Miracles are not intended to prove anything. They are not weapons to be used to make our lives different or persuade others to adopt our spiritual path and pratice. Rather, they are expressions of unconditional love, gifts that ask for nothing in return. They are indifferent to form; the form will naturally reflect love in the most helpful way possible. That is what form is for.

Through prayer and the expression of miracles, we realize that God’s Will and our will are, in truth and fact, a single will. There is only one love and only one relationship. This realization ends our identification with ego. We no longer find its voice attractive or interesting. Miracles are a natural result of this communication process. We become – like Saint Francis and Thérèse of Lisieux, like Bill Thetford and Helen Schucman – instruments of peace and love, creating as God creates, with and for all our brothers and sisters.

Miracles should inspire gratitude, not awe. You should thank God for what you really are. The children of God are holy and the miracle honors their holiness, which can be hidden but never lost (T-1.I.31:1-2).

Miracles are natural expressions of love; they remind us that we are one with God, and that our brothers and sisters are also one with God. Because of this, conflict is impossible. Peace and happiness no longer come and go but stay with us because they are us. The way that we live in the world changes when we stop resisting what is true.

Gratitude is the natural response to this new way of living. Thankfulness arises without effort because it is merely another word for love.

Love makes no comparisons. And gratitude can only be sincere if it is joined to love. We offer thanks to God our Father that in us all things will find their freedom. It will never be that some are loosed while others still are bound. For who can gain in the name of love? (W-pI.195.4:2-6).

If we feel awe before the miracle then we are confused. Awe implies inequality, and the miracle establishes our total equality. What is one is not comprised of many parts, some greater and some lesser, but only what is the same. Miracles are not supernatural; they are not cosmic transgressions. They are confirmations of our shared underlying goodness, and invitations to remember that this goodness is all there is.

Miracles support us; they do not undermine us. They remind us of what we are, not what we were once upon a time nor what could be in the future. We don’t thank God for what we get; that is not what miracles are about. We don’t thank God for what changes, one way or the other.

We thank God for what we are, because all the miracles does is establish what is true about us. All they do is restore to our awareness what we are in truth. God has only one child and we are it. If God is love then we are love; if God is peace then we are peace; if God is merciful and just then we are merciful and just.

Our gratitude is our connection to God and to our brothers and sisters in God. That is how we remember what we are. We work out salvation in relationship.

All of God’s children are holy because all of Creation is holy. Holiness is not a behavioral attribute that some of us have and others don’t. It is not something we have in degrees. It is that which is innate and unchangeable in each of us, without consideration of our actions or beliefs. It cannot be performed.

Miracles honor that holiness. They recognize holiness at that level and they honor it. They reflect holiness throughout Creation, like a light endlessly extending brilliant rays of love, peace and happiness. Our holiness can be hidden – it can be forgotten – but it cannot be lost. It cannot be injured or impaired in any way.

What is true about us is what saves us because it reestablishes in us the truth of our identity. When we know who we are, then we know who all our brothers and sisters are as well. We know them as our brothers and sisters and, in doing so, come home at last to the One Who created us equal.

Recently, Scott Britton and I talked about A Course in Miracles. You can read his post and listen to our conversation on Itunes, Spotify, or Youtube.

Talking to Scott reminded me that no matter how much theorizing we do about the Course – and spirituality generally – we still need praxis. We still need to bring it into application.

A Course in Miracles has to be practiced, right? You don’t read about aspirin and expect the headache to go away. You don’t study the underlying chemistry. You take your medicine.

People say, fine. But how do I practice it?

I think the Course is very clear about this! We read the Text, do the Workbook lessons, and study the Manual for Teachers. Collectively they teach us to discern between the Holy Spirit and ego, and to learn from – and teach on behalf of – the Holy Spirit.

The rest is in the Holy Spirit’s hands because the Holy Spirit – who is not separate from us, by the way – knows that everying is actually in God’s Hands. Love holds everything.

I practice A Course in Miracles by giving attention to relationship, and asking the Holy Spirit to interpret each one – really, each moment in each one – in whatever way undoes fear and thus reveals Love for everyone involved.

The Holy Spirit teaches me how to rest and get out of the way by reminding me always that Love holds everying. There is nothing I need to do.

Take grievances. A sense I was wronged yesterday, am being wronged today, and will be wronged again tomorrow. We all collect grievances; they seem to be inherent. Ego loves them.

Upon what does the experience of grievance depend? How is it brought forth?

I don’t analyze the grievance – whether it is justified or not, how to respond to it, who to tell about it. How to get rid of it. How not to.

Instead, I ask: what must I believe for this grievance to matter? What must be true? What, if anything, could not be otherwise? Am I participating in the bringing forth? Could I not? Could it be otherwise?

Really go into this! Not for an afternoon or even a month. Rather, go into it until you have answered it for yourself, once and for all.

We have many diverse grievances but the means by which they occur and appear never changes. Heal that and grievances are gone forever.

These inquiries move us away from the ego’s victim narrative – the precious self under attack from its brothers and sisters, from God Himself, and thus at war with Creation, ever justified in self-defense up to and including murder – and into the problem of perception, which is the confusion of mind and body, idea and matter, cause and effect – which A Course in Miracles is given to correct.

Peace, not conflict, is our reality. Healing, not suffering, is our function.

Yes, it is hard to sustain these inquiries. It requires discipline. It requires stepping outside – way outside eventually – our intellectual and psychological comfort zones. We have to consider some truly frightening stuff. We have to face bravely the dark and what lives there.

Of course the temptation is to not do this but instead to come back to the grievance, which is always personal, always special. The grievance wants to be looked at; it’s happy to be looked at. There’s always a victim, always a victimizer. We say we don’t like that binary but we sure do bring it forth a lot.

It’s almost like we secretly appreciate – find value in – suffering.

So long as we are giving attention to the grievance then we are not giving attention to that which would heal all grievances by healing the mind that thinks it is separate from God and Creation.

That is the only level at which healing is possible. And so that is the level the ego wants us to never ever look at. It works viciously – single-mindedly, tirelessly – to keep us from seeing that we are doing this to ourselves.

That is the “how” the ego will not let you see. That is the “how” we project, in one form or another. And that is what the Holy Spirit heals in us.

In gentle laughter does the Holy Spirit perceive the cause, and look not to effects . . . He bids you bring each terrible effect to Him that you may look together on its foolish cause and laugh with Him a while. You judge its effects, but He has judged their cause. And by His judgment are effects removed (T-27.VIII.9:1, 3-5).

So that is the work then – to see through the projection, to see that we are doing this to ourselves, and to reverse our understanding of cause and effect. This learning naturally occurs when we give attention only to the Holy Spirit, and not at all to ego.

Therefore, this is not a practice we do for an hour in the morning or once a week on Sunday or only at the solstice or whatever. Mind is always creating (T-2.VI.9:7). Vigilance, discipline and willingness are never out of place.

To practice A Course in Miracles is to give attention to it in order to understand the practice and then – over and over – to practice it by giving attention to the Holy Spirit instead of ego. In this way, we remember how to “love in a loveless place” (T-14.IV.4:10) and reclaim our identity as Love (T-14.IV.5:6).