A Course in Miracles is a spiritual thought system that offers an alternative view of reality. It emphasizes forgiveness and teaches a profoundly different way to see conflict, guilt and sin.
It was received as a three-volume book through a process of inner dictation by Columbia University psychologists starting in 1965.
The Text
A Course in Miracles is a profoundly spiritual and transformational thought system, with an equally transformative practical application. Alongside a profound theoretical framework, the course offers 365 daily lessons and powerful exercises in its Workbook.
The course's mystical language, dense and figurative, can be challenging to understand. In the beginning, many students find that it takes years to pierce its difficult obscurity and make a commitment to do the work.
Although the Course uses Christian symbols, it teaches the opposite of Christianity as commonly practiced. It also uses the name Christ but teaches that this is just a symbol and stands for love beyond all names.
Journey Through the Text is designed to guide ACIM students non-linearly through the thirty-one chapters of the Course's Text, as though listening to a symphony. It presents themes in each chapter, using passages to illustrate the theme and highlight its development. The book is a companion to the free Q & A's and Daily Lesson Insights that are available on this site.
The Workbook
The workbook is intended to train your mind in a systematic way to a completely different perception of everyone and everything. Once this is accomplished, it will transfer to every relationship you have and to your view of the world at large.
The course is not about miracles occurring in the outside world; it is about a change of mind and belief from the ego's version of reality to the truth, which is love. This is the state that all major spiritual paths speak of: perfect peace, love, freedom and oneness, without suffering, guilt or fear.
Although the Course uses Christian A course in miracles terms and symbols, it is not a religion; rather it is a universal spiritual teaching. Its goal is the undoing of guilt by learning to forgive others. It also teaches that the practice of forgiveness will heal your own relationships and the world. This is called the path of awakening. It will lead you to a life of joy and peace.
The Manual
The manual is written in question-and-answer form and provides answers to many of the more likely questions a student might ask. It also provides clarification of a number of terms the Course uses, explaining them within the theoretical framework of the Text.
The Course teaches that happiness is the result of undoing guilt through forgiveness of self and others. Forgiveness removes the blocks to love's presence, which is natural inheritance. It is this love that leads to healing and peace, both of the individual and of the world.
The Course was "scribed" by Helen Schucman through a process of inner dictation she identified as coming from Jesus. Although it uses Christian terminology, the Course teaches that it is not a religion and that its teachings apply to all major religious traditions. It is, rather, a restatement of universal spiritual teachings and emphasizes that there are thousands of forms of the universal curriculum of which the Course is but one.
The Teachings
The Course says that it is not about miracles occurring in the outside world, but about a change in perception and belief — from the ego's view of reality to God's. And that this is what makes happiness possible.
But how is this accomplished? The course offers a new way of thinking and a different kind of prayer. It teaches that forgiveness is the key to freedom from guilt and fear.
It also teaches that love is the only power that can heal. The course says that the name of Jesus is merely a symbol and that it is the love of God that heals.
Helen and Bill did not claim to be the authors of the Course, but rather that they were scribes. The author is said to be "the voice" that dictated the Course to Helen. But the Foundation for A Course in Miracles was started after their deaths, and holds the copyright to the work.
0 comments: