Why do I study A Course in Miracles? What is it about? A Course in Miracles is a book, a spiritual path, a point of view, a daily decision and a tool manual.
I have not always agreed with everything he proposes, however, over the years, the Course has given me more strength, faith and peace than anything else in this chaotic world.
I want to start this article by saying that I come from a very secular home. My parents were scientifically minded and deeply rational. I had a Catholic upbringing like any other carajillo tico from the 60’s, 70’s, but in my house we never prayed, read the bible, or introduced ideas like sin, devil or hell.
Never having had that information helped me a lot to live without fear a spiritual path that was always there, regardless of whether or not they talked to me about religious ideas. But let’s take it one step at a time:
What do I call a spiritual path?
In principle, a search, a couple of questions to be answered that become a guide, a point of view and an answer in themselves:
- What is God?
- What am I?
They’re both super complicated! Because they can change their response by the minute according to the belief they have. And, they completely, absolutely and fully depend on beliefs. I mean, there are no certainties here. Both questions are brutal precisely because there is no way to answer them seriously.
I have two beliefs regarding both: I exist and there is something in life that I cannot perceive but that is there, uniting everything, in some way that I do not understand, I do not know, and I cannot justify with anything physical, but it is there: ineffable.
Well then! I’ve been out there, for decades, looking for those answers.
Churches, religions and even holy books gave me nothing really coherent. Too many gaps. Too many questions from a minimal answer. Illogical interpretations, stories that once taken down from their pedestals are filled with holes and look as false as they are manipulated.
OK, no. It wasn’t that way. Not my way at least.
I had already read several books proposing that much of what we experience on a daily basis is based on an illusory system of thought. I knew that there were many things that had no logic: If time does not exist (and it does not exist), if colors do not exist (and they do not exist), if matter does not exist, if duality does not exist… ahgh! So much is discarded from those truths as mountains!
From reincarnation to the man in the sky! But the mystery is still there. And I still don’t know what it is, or what I am.
OK, one day over a drink someone said to me “You would like the Course in Miracles”. I had no idea what it was! I asked for directions and arrived at Unity Escazú, which became my spiritual home for many years.
That’s where I first came to a Course study meeting. 1996 says my first book on the back cover.
What is A Course in Miracles?
It is a compendium of books: A textbook, an exercise book, a teacher’s manual and a couple of texts added in the latest edition, one on psychotherapy and others on prayer.
(I transcribe below something I found on the net that describes its origin better than I can).
However, it is seriously that the origin is worth it to me.
Because this book is the most profound, coherent, kind, wise and timely book I have ever known in my life. Unlike other books that are considered sacred, the Course is a manual on how to face life from a different point of view.
A point of view without “maya”. A point of view that is valid for the coldest atheist or for those who seriously want to find answers. It is NOT for everyone. It really isn’t.
We all have different paths and that is why I do not openly recommend him unless he calls you, seeks you out, intrigues you.
It is not a rehash of anything, neither of the bible nor of the vedas nor of anything else. It is not an anthology of stories, nor does it even have a guide other than Spirit, which is also considered as The True Mind (What I Really Am), the real mind, the one that is not sold, the one that is not conditioned by advertisements, pressures, family and society’s beliefs, nor by history, nor by plans, desires or dreams.
Their goal is simple: La Paz.
Not just because what a cool Peace! Nor because it is our natural state (And it is… I mean, when we are at peace we don’t want to change our state…. That has to say something)
It is because in peace, you find all the answers. Peace is the Real state of mind.
And now, going back to the pure Course, Peace is the only place where you find What Is. The I Am. God.
Not the “god”… No. Go deeper into words, ideas and concepts. You won’t find it there. If you think you’ve defined it, you’re already wrong.
It is beyond, therein lies the answer to the Mystery, and what a cake! It is an experience. Whoever has lived that peace (which is described as “beyond all reasoning”) knows what I am talking about. It is an experience that cannot be described in any way.
The Course takes us there, to be in Communication. In pure communication, permanently.
How does one arrive at Peace/Communication? and also… Communication with … What?
Peace is reached by forgiving. Ah! but it is not the forgiveness of “All well and good but woe betide your soul if you do it to me again, motherfucker. No.
It is the forgiveness of you don’t owe me anything, and it is worth it to me if you do it again. Because I will forgive you again.
It’s Sabina’s forgiveness (I say) That “I know he’ll forgive me because he doesn’t care anymore”.
A Course in Miracles is a Manual to learn to see that nothing is important enough to lose peace… What if what I lose is Communication with myself?
And then, yes, the answer: Communication with EVERYTHING. Communication, intuition, instinct. The Real Mind knows what the stick is all about. He knows where he is coming from and where he is going.
Resentment is super loud in the mind, like guilt, fear, hatred and all the cousins of that nefarious family. Super loud, We’ve all lived them… like catchy songs. It’s enough to have an exchange of words to start the hamster in the wheel: “Oh, shit… I would have told him so and so” or “Shit! What can I do? What can I do… I don’t know… and if I talk to…no no… what do I do?”
As one forgives people, circumstances, situations, causes and consequences, the mind enters a silence that is very sabross! That allows you to listen to music without being so distracted, read, watch movies, dance…. In two kicks: Being present in your life and not with your mind on the “Jupiter Crab”!
The Christian in A Course in Miracles
The Course is Christian… I mean, it comes from the same ideas, let’s say that JC invented forgiveness in earnest.
For all of us who are rebellious “because the world has made me that way” it is a shock to have to deal with all the words tambourines, get through them and stop them from scaring us, judging us and condemning us. Reconcile (Forgive) with some concepts and change their meanings sometimes Ugh! If you are a tambourine player, double shock, because they are beloved concepts whose meanings you have to review.
A Course in Miracles is NOT for everyone.
In fact, I do NOT recommend it, just like that.
The Course is not for everyone (or yes, but not “this” course), because you have to hold on from humility, and review each belief and see if I believe in this or not. Because in the end, our beliefs control us like puppets! And often we don’t even know they are there, nesting in the subconscious.
And bueh, starting from the fact that beliefs create perception (EYE; I mean perception!!!) and that changing beliefs changes perception: in my life, there are no words to list the amount of things that have changed in how I see things, freedom and life.
From the discovery of painting to a solid trust in Life, nothing gives me what A Course in Miracles has given me. 🙂
Thanks for reading me if you made it this far. I’ll continue tomorrow or the next day, because I think this is a series.
The origin of the course
A conspicuous case of automatic writing is the so-called Course in Miracles, transcribed in 1965 by psychologist Helen Cohn Schucman, a professional working in the Department of Psychiatry at Columbia University School of Medicine in the United States. One day, Helen remarked to a colleague, “You know that inner voice? It won’t leave me. It’s always telling me, ‘This is a course in miracles. Please: write down what I tell you.”” For several years, Helen wrote down what she heard in her mind, and this generated three books within one: the text itself, the instructions for those who would teach it, and an exercise book for the trainees. Helen confesses that she was afraid she had gone crazy because the voice came from inside her, but also from outside, from another sphere.
Of the three volumes published with a total of 1,200 pages in 1975, millions of copies have been sold by a non-profit organization, which invests the proceeds in new editions of the Course. The Christian-based content does, however, alter some of the substantive precepts of orthodox Christianity, especially those on guilt, punishment, love, forgiveness and fear: “This course does not pretend to teach the meaning of love, for that is beyond what can be taught. It does, however, intend to clear the obstacles that prevent you from experiencing the presence of love, which is your natural inheritance. The opposite of love is fear, but that which is all-encompassing cannot have opposites”.
The permanent miracle would be to access, through infinite love, to the real, leaving behind the illusory, and at this point, the platform is close to Eastern religions, and to the concept of maya (illusion) that refers to everything created by the mind as perception without factual existence. “Miracles enable you to heal the sick and raise the dead, because both sickness and death are your inventions, and therefore you can abolish them. You yourself are a miracle, able to create in the likeness of your creator. All else is but your own nightmare and does not exist.”
“A Course in Miracles: Truth through Infinite Love – Skirmish – Books and Coffee. (2018). Escaramuza.com.uy. https://escaramuza.com.uy/nota/-laquo-un-curso-de-milagros-raquo-la-verdad-a-traves-del-amor-infinito/430#:~:text=Un%20caso%20conspicuo%20de%20escritura,de%20Columbia%20en%20Estados%20Unidos.