Do you want to know more about A Course in Miracles, but are afraid to ask? Don’t know where to begin? Find it daunting? Think its too New Age? Read on. I dispel some common misconceptions about it and provide a bit of a primer for beginning to do the lessons:
- You have to read that whole big book in order to understand what it’s all about. This is false and you will be delighted to find out that to actually do the Course, you only have to read and practice one lesson per day. This takes about 10 minutes. Remember, your understanding is not necessary. Your willingness is. You need a miracle when you are unhappy.
- You have to be quiet and not react to everyone around you. Well, are you always going to be non-judgmental? It is almost impossible, so don’t try to purify your thoughts, that’s the job of the Holy Spirit. The Course is on the level of the mind. You are responsible for your thoughts and this is what it means when it states that the entire world is going on in your own mind, because you have projected it from an idea of you being separate. In an objective world, where separateness rules, there can be no peace.
- How can I not react in this crazy world? You will not be able to. You don’t have to not react, but if you practice the lessons, you begin to realize that judgment is a toy, and you are playing a game with yourself. You can just as easily decide to see you have a choice to either stay in reaction or use the lessons to help you stop, ask for help and allow a miracle to occur.
- Becoming enlightened is boring because you would be in la-la land unaffected by anything. It is far from boring to be in a state of ecstatic love all the time, and laughing at all the craziness, knowing full well that you are dreaming. You will love everyone a lot more knowing you don’t have to be offended by them. If you are offended, you might want to laugh at yourself a lot more.
- The Course says that you just have to forgive all the time, and not care if people are attacking or not respectful of you. Not true, if you knew you were not separate from anyone or anything, you would do everything in your power to love and extend that love from within you. Love doesn’t get offended, but if you are offended, you have the choice to change your thought about it. A major idea of the Course is that God wills for you perfect happiness. Can you be happy if you are being mistreated? No, a healthy boundary is what love is.
- The Course is new age thinking. Actually the Course is harder than most teachings, because it is about taking full responsibility for your thoughts, releasing resentment and forgiving. Just like the core teachings Jesus taught in the New Testament, his Course is about learning to love God with all your heart, mind and soul and your neighbor as yourself. It is not easy.
- Reading the Course will help me have a more successful life. This is true only if you define success as being in a state of happiness and freedom. Because you learn to forgive, it will enhance your ability to love more and become as a little child and pray without ceasing. You will become happy when you realize happiness is your natural state no matter who you are with, what you are doing and how much worldly success you have.
- I have give up the world if I do the Course. What is the world? The world is your projection and if you do surrender your thoughts about it, you will experience more and more peace. The goal is peace. You can become happy even if you only spend 10 minutes a day reading it. Most people feel it brings them peace, without realizing how that happens and are grateful for the miraculous healing the Course brings about in them.
- A miracle is a physical healing. Not always, it can be a shift in your consciousness that causes you to become happier and less resentful and fearful. This is a miracle of the mind and this shift is a correction of the fear that may result in a physical healing. Everything starts in the mind. The thought of illness comes before the illness. The idea of healing comes before the healing occurs. This is because cause and effect are not apart.
- If I wake up and become enlightened, I won’t be in a body anymore. Not true, you would just be aware that it’s a dream and you are awake within this dream. You will usually feel the need to help others awaken and your life becomes one of service to help humanity in whatever capacity will bring you the most joy.
Maybe you just needed a little encouragement to begin to see yourself and your world differently. For one-on-one help with your process, check out the Healing Sessions page.
Monica