THE BASICS
WHAT IS A COURSE IN MIRACLES?
 
 
Peter Solon, Ph.D. (FULL BIO)
 
In recent years, “A Course In Miracles” has practically become a household term. But the fact is, few people know what it actually is. What follows is one individual’s modest attempt at a concise overview in ten summary statements.
What It Is: 1. A Course In Miracles defies classification. This is largely because it cuts across highly disparate spiritual, psychological and artistic paradigms simultaneously. 2. At the most basic level, A Course In Miracles is simply a three volume set of books: (1) a theoretical Text, (2) a Workbook For Students and (3) a Manual for Teachers. There are also two supplementary pamphlets. 3. The Course is a self-described “teaching device” or “curriculum” that “…is carefully conceived and is explained, step by step, at both the theoretical and practical levels.” 1 The Workbook For Students contains three hundred sixty-five lessons. Practitioners will often choose to complete one lesson per day, completing the entire “curriculum” over the span of a year. 4. The Course is a powerful spiritual discipline that addresses the love element of practice. The entire Course may be conceptualized as a direct appeal to every human being’s fundamental wish: the wish to love others more fully. 5. At the deepest level, A Course In Miracles (a) teaches practitioners how to develop a relationship with their own Internal Teacher; (b) demonstrates how anyone, in any circumstance, can live a life characterized by a genuine sense of gratitude and authentic joy; (c) offers freedom from suffering of any kind and (d) provides practitioners with a sophisticated set of practices leading to complete spiritual awakening. 6. Forgiveness is the key practice and conceptual lynchpin of A Course In Miracles; however, the Course teaches a unique version of forgiveness––unrelated to either the Christian or dictionary definition. As students of the Course, we don’t forgive people for what they’ve done but rather, we practice forgiveness in order to realize, whatever events we assumed had occurred, never actually transpired. The Course teaches: “Forgiveness recognizes what you thought your brother did to you has not occurred” (W-pII.1.1).” Practitioners start out by forgiving others and end up realizing, in every instance, their grievances never had any basis in reality. Ultimately, the work of forgiveness leads to the experience of the “happy dream”––a life characterized by authentic joy, a sense of peace and feelings of gratitude; that is, a life without anger, despair or anxiety. The happy dream represents an accurate reflection of reality––at least, more so than the nightmare most of us wallow in––and yet, it too is still a dream. Once we’ve entered this particular dream, however, we’ve successfully positioned ourselves such that we can now move on to our final goal—which is to wake up out of the dream (of this world) altogether. 

The practice of forgiveness, as taught by the Course, is sophisticated, practical, powerful and precise and A Course In Miracles itself is a brilliant and meticulous instructional manual filled with hundreds of pages of explicit, step-by-step directions. 7. The Course is a seamless blend of conservative psychoanalytic theory, on the one hand, with a nondual spiritual system, on the other. A partial list of its basic tenets would include: dismantling the non-existent ego––what the Course refers to as “the undoing of what never was;” 2 the mind’s role in physical illness and death; the central role of responsibility and choice; the origin of fear; the illusory nature of anger; the etiology and treatment of depression; the illusion of needs; awakening within the dream; the “special relationship;” the Internal Teacher; the nature of love. 8. The Course is a stunning literary work of art. Hundreds of pages are written in a form of verse known as iambic pentameter also known as Shakespearean blank verse. 9. The Course is a vast, relatively unexplored philosophical treatise addressing such issues as the nature of time; the identicality of sleeping and waking dreams; and the nature of death. Its theoretical tenets are consistent with the teachings of Buddhism generally and the Vajrayana school of Buddhism, specifically. 10. A Course In Miracles represents a modern-day expression of the philosophia perennis3––the universal core wisdom and principles underlying every great spiritual tradition the world has known. 3 Peter Solon, Ph.D. Licensed Psychologist Bellingham, Washington, USA Ganj, Dharamsala, India ~ 1. A Course In Miracles (second edition), Text, Preface, p. viii. 2. A Course In Miracles, Text-18.V.1:1. 3. Aldous Huxley (The Perennial Philosophy, 1945) popularized the term, “perennial philosophy” in his book of the same name. Huxley writes, “Philosophia Perennis – the phrase was coined by Leibniz; but the thing––the metaphysic that recognizes a divine Reality substantial to the world of things and lives and minds; the psychology that finds in the soul something similar to, or even identical with, divine Reality; the ethic that places man’s final end in the knowledge of the immanent and transcendent Ground of all being––the thing is immemorial and universal.” RETURN TO “THE BASICS” HOME PAGE ~
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*   Not affiliated with the Foundation For Inner Peace or Foundation For A Course In Miracles
 
INSTITUTE FOR THE STUDY OF A COURSE IN MIRACLES
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