The Ninth Principle of A Course in Miracles

Miracles are a kind of exchange. Like all expressions of love, which are always miraculous in the true sense, the exchange reverses the physical laws. They bring more love both to the giver and the receiver (T-1.I.9:1-3).

It takes two to make a miracle. Or, to put in another way, it takes two to remember they are one.

You are very new in the ways of salvation, and think have lost your way. Your way is lost, but think not this is loss. In your newness, remember that you and your brother have started again, together. And take his hand, to walk together along a road far more familiar than you now believe (T-17.V.9:1-4).

Miracles occur in relationship. They are natural expressions of love (e.g., T-1.I.3:1, 6:1) which heal the mind that believes it is separate because they are love. Miracles are responses to the universal cry for love, regardless of the intensity or size of the cry (e.g., T-1.I.1:1). They supply love where love has been forgotten, thus meeting and undoing our persistent perception of lack (e.g., T-1.I.8:1).

In other words, without our brothers and sisters, and the world in which we all seem to be living, there would be no need for miracles. Miracles would not even be possible. Miracles unite us in a love that is not of this world, and yet – in the context of that world – allow us to transcend it, not in body but in thought.

What does this mean in practice?

One thing it means is that giving attention to our brothers and sisters is never an error. We don’t want to think of them as illusions – aspects of a dream – but rather as family and friends, fellow travelers in a shared lifeboat while tidal waves of separation rise around us. We are here to be of service to one another, to manifest our function of loving in a loveless place, and thus to remember that we are not separate from our Creator or from creation.

Critically, if we are unable to practice miracle-mindedness in a given moment, then our brother or sister will, on our behalf as well as theirs. The exchange to which this principle refers is a two-way street. Love would not have it any other way, because Love does not exclude. The miracle always gathers us together so that we might enact salvation.

You are your brother’s savior. He is yours . . . This gracious plan was given love by Love (T-21.VI.9:1-2).

Thus, it is not a crisis if we “fail” to love – to show kindness or respect, humor or gentleness. Our so-called failure will be used by the Holy Spirit to bring forth love in ways we might not imagine or even understand. We do the best we can and let the rest go; there are no mistakes in salvation. There is no cause for stress or anxiety anywhere in the system.

We talk a lot about oneness in A Course in Miracles. It is a highly practical Christian variant of non-duality. Yet the Course’s method is not one of intellectual rigor so much as willing communication. It is not about isolation and study so much as community and communion.

The Course invites us to be in relationship with one another as each other’s savior. We must be willing to save, which means that we must also be willing to be saved. Indeed, the two are not separate but are a single flowing movement.

Spend but an instant in the glad acceptance of what is given you to give your brother, and learn with him what has been given both of you. To give is no more blessed than to receive. But neither is it less (T-21.VI.9:7-9).

As Lesson 159 puts it, “You recognized your brother as yourself, and thus do you perceive that you are whole” (W-pI.159.2:3). This is the practice of A Course in Miracles.

The exchange of love that occurs through the miracle does not represent loss of any kind. Giving love away increases the love that we have – giving it away is how we have it. It is how we keep it. In this way, our relationships become sites of healing because they are always sites of exchanging love for love. We are here together to save – and to be saved – together.