Saturday, October 25, 2014

What You Can Learn from A Course in Miracles

A Course in Miracles has profoundly changed my perceptions about myself and the world I live in. I describe the impact that ACIM has had on me in a separate blog post: How A Course in Miracles Changed My Spiritual View of the World.

Let me share with you some of the key teachings contained in the Course...


1.  What is a miracle? A miracle is not defined as walking on water or turning water into wine. These are acts of magic. A miracle actually means a correction of perception. A Course in Miracles seeks to change our perception of everything. When we change our perceptions, the world we see around us and our experiences in it begin to change.

2.  We think this physical world is real, but it is only an illusion. We created this illusion, and we "came into" it for the purpose of spiritual evolution. The challenges we experience in the illusion can accelerate our spiritual growth.

3.  The five physical senses make the physical world seem real. Fear convinces us of it.

4.  In fact, we are still in Heaven, dreaming that we are experiencing a life here in the physical world. The task before us is to awaken from this dream (as in a spiritual awakening).

5.  Just as we never really leave our beds when we are asleep and dreaming at night, so also have we never really left Heaven. At some point, we will awaken and realize we have been dreaming all along, just as we do when we awaken from our nighttime dreams each morning.

6.  We seem to be born into physical bodies in a physical world, but the truth is: we are not even here.

7.  What we think we see around us in the world, and what we experience throughout our lives, is just a projection of our own mind. We can change the world we seem to see around us and our experiences in life by changing our thoughts, beliefs, and expectations.

8.  We think we are physical bodies, and as such, we believe we are separate from each other.

9.  Our physical bodies are an illusion we created to try to separate ourselves from each other. Likewise, we created the physical universe to try to separate ourselves from God.

10.  The belief that we are separate from God and from each other is the cause of all suffering in the world.

11.  Time also is an illusion. Everything that seems to be happening now has, in fact, already occurred, and we are merely observing it, much like watching a movie that was produced months or even years ago. When watching a movie, we become immersed in it, and what happens in it seems “real” to us.

12.  We can choose the ego’s thought system (as we normally have done). Or we can choose the Holy Spirit’s thought system (as A Course in Miracles encourages us to do).

13.  The ego is the "separate me” that I think I am. The ego’s mantra is: “Seek and do not find (the truth).”

14.  The Holy Spirit is the Voice of God/or the teacher that dwells quietly within us. The Holy Spirit can teach us the truth about what we really are — that is, divine, eternal, invulnerable children of God. The Course refers to us collectively as the son of God. Jesus was not God's only son; we are all sons or children of God. God is Love, and so are we.

15.  The Course seeks to help us undo the ego’s stranglehold on us.

16.  Special relationships are totally different from holy (or divine) relationships. Special relationships typically are what we experience here in the physical world. In them, we expect others to satisfy our wants and needs. If they fail to do so, we can withhold our love from them. This is called "conditional love." We think others are responsible for our happiness. We believe we are victims of other people and life's circumstances. In truth, we are creating our own reality at all times.

17.  Forgiveness is a central teaching of the Course. As used in the Course, forgiveness does not mean saying "I sorry." Rather, it means: The things I thought others did to me in the past never really happened. Instead, everything that seems to have happened is just a projection of my own mind. Thus, I have never been the victim of anyone. Forgiveness is a process of undoing judgments we have made about others and the things we thought they did to us in the past. ❖



Questions


1.  Do you think physical reality is real? Or is it just a very convincing illusion?

2.  If, in fact, we are asleep dreaming that we are here in the physical world, why is it so hard for us to awaken from the dream?

3.  What do you think we really are? And why do you think we came into this physical world?


4 comments:

  1. Roy,
    I am new in the Spirit Quest and having difficulty accepting your paragraph no. 17 on forgiveness, " The things I thought others did to me in the past never really happened.". I was not supposed to be in Panama, but the "fact" remains that I am here as the "victim of a conspiracy". However, over the years, I managed to turn a "tragedy" into a "triumph". Probably, the outcome would have been similar no matter where, as I tend to "adjust" to challenging situations.

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    1. Throughout the decade of the 1990s, I believed that I was in Panama because the Army brought me here and I stayed on after retiring because I married a Panamanian. I was very, very unhappy. Then, one day, a wise friend said to me: "Wherever you are, that's exactly where you're supposed to be." Eventually, I began to understand the real reason I am here: there is something I am to learn or do here. I am not here by accident nor misdirection in life. The discovery of my life purpose and real reason for being in Panama has not only allowed me to accept life "as I know it and love it" here; it has also allowed me to begin to enjoy it.

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  2. Using the deep non-dual teachings of A Course in Miracles, this school for Awakening offers a residential program for profound spiritual immersion. “Tabula rasa” means the absence of preconceived ideas or predetermined goals: a clean or blank slate. Inspired by the experience of mystic David Hoffmeister. non dual teachers

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  3. What a thrilling post. It is extremely chock-full of useful information. Thanks for such a great info. a course in miracles

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