I’m choosing to start the week with one of the most beautiful and powerful passages from A Course in Miracles.
It’s the eighth (and final) paragraph in Section IV of Chapter 5 (“Teaching and Healing”) of the Text. I share it with no accompanying commentary or interpretation, just an invitation to whoever’s reading this to take from it anything that “shimmers” with deep truth for you.
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How can you who are so holy suffer? ²All your past except its beauty is gone, and nothing is left but a blessing. ³I have saved all your kindnesses and every loving thought you ever had. ⁴I have purified them of the errors that hid their light, and kept them for you in their own perfect radiance. ⁵They are beyond destruction and beyond guilt. ⁶They came from the Holy Spirit within you, and we know what God creates is eternal. ⁷You can indeed depart in peace because I have loved you as I loved myself. ⁸You go with my blessing and for my blessing. ⁹Hold it and share it, that it may always be ours. ¹⁰I place the peace of God in your heart and in your hands, to hold and share. ¹¹The heart is pure to hold it, and the hands are strong to give it. ¹²We cannot lose. ¹³My judgment is as strong as the wisdom of God, in Whose Heart and Hands we have our being. ¹⁴His quiet children are His blessed Sons. ¹⁵The Thoughts of God are with you.
In this excerpt Cohen discusses the “end of terrorism,” a timely focus given that yesterday was the 25th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks in the U.S.
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Humility is a virtue. Humiliation is not. Humbling yourself means allowing God to bring greater life to the world through you rather than letting yourself be a pawn in the ego’s* quest for blood. God champions your wellness and is doing everything He can to promote it. All else is a tragic misunderstanding of the will of God.
The world has become obessed with terrorism. Governments spend trillions of dollars on wars against terrorists, our beloved sons and daughters come home in caskets, and millions of innocent people are forced to undress in airports in order to ride on an airplane. Has it ever occurred to you that this is not how humanity was intended to live? Yet we can learn from even this most insane of scenarios: “All things are lessons God would have me learn” (Workbook, Lesson 193).
The answer to terrorism, personal and global, is found in the very place it lives: the fearful heart. Terrorism will end when we refuse to be terrified. The most insidious criminal is the inner terrorist, the part of your mind that bullies you or accepts bullying by others. An agitator in your psyche attempts to keep you small by encasing you in a circle of fear. You believe you are a tiny human body, alone, defenseless, and subject to the evil of the world. You believe people can hurt you without your permission, and you are powerless to create the life you yearn for. You believe you must go to a job you hate and tolerate obnoxious bosses, mean-spirited co-workers, and whiny customers. You accept that you must put up with demeaning relationships, struggle to survive, prove yourself to dead relatives, and hack your way through the jungle of life. Such inner terrorism is far more destructive to life on the planet than those who blow up cars and buildings. Psychic self-destruction turns bright, competent children with genius potential into hollow-eyed drones trudging through mind-numbing schools and then life-sucking jobs. The inner terrorist twists humanity into a writhing mass of fear, looking everywhere for love and finding it nowhere. So the world becomes a mockery of the heaven it was intended to be.
To all of this, A Course in Miracles says, “Peace to such foolishness!” (Workbook, Lesson 190:4:1). It assures us that as children of a loving, caring God, we deserve better. It emphatically tells us that crucifixion of self or others is not the will of God. "Perhaps you have misunderstood His plan, for He would never offer pain to you" (Workbook, Lesson 135.18:2). The will of God is entirely, utterly, eternally, only love. A Course in Miracles assures us that this is our will as well, therefore it must be done on Earth as it is in heaven.
* In The Gift of Change, Marianne Williamson writes the following about the ego as understood in A Course in Miracles.
The word ego here means what it meant to the ancient Greeks: a small and separated self. When we identify with the ego it’s like looking at a hangnail and thinking, “That’s who I am.” The ego is an imposter self, masquerading as who we really are yet in reality the embodiment of our self-hatred. It is the power of our own minds turned against us, pretending to be our champion yet in reality undermning all our hopes and dreams. The ego is a delusional splinter that has cut itself off from our larger spiritual reality. It sets up a parallel mental kingdom in which it sees itself as different and special, always justified in keeping the rest of the world at bay. Seeing ourselves as separate, we subconsciously attract and interpret circumstances that seem to bear out that belief. That delusional kingdom is hell on earth.
When we remember who we are, when we stand firm in the light of our own true being as children of God, then the ego begins, however gradually, to recede. Darkness cannot stand when we truly embrace the light [i.e., right/divine understanding] – when we consciously foster it and devote ourselves to it. That is why recognizing who we are – that we are love, that we are as God created us – is the most important thing we can do in any instant. Love is our spiritual reality, untarnished by anything that has happened in the material world. . . . [O]nly when we reject the ego’s account of who we are, can we begin to discover who we really are.
And who we really are, is holy.
Our holiness is both the opposite of and the antidote to the ego. It is a state of being in which we have reconnected with our Source, remembering that in fact we never left. We were created by God in a state of holiness, we were born onto the earth in a state of holiness, and we will return to this state upon our death. All of us, however, in between our infancy and death, fell asleep to our true nature and experience the hell of our self-imposed separation from God. Remembering our connection to our Source awakens us and frees us from the nightmares we create. In any Holy Instant, the ego is made null and void. (Pp. 17-19)
If you want to believe that what your physical eyes can see is all that’s there, then fine, you can. Stay in that small fraction of perceptual reality if you choose. But at some point, even if that point is at the point of death, we all know better. I’ve seen cynics become mystics on their deathbed. We are here as though in a material dream from which the spiritual nature of our larger reality is calling us to awaken.
The magician, the alchemist, the miracle-worker, is simply someone who has woken up to the material delusions of the world and decided to live another way. In the world gone mad, we can choose to be sane. In order to move ourselves, and our civilization, into the next phase of our evolutionary journey, it’s time for all of us to awaken.
I choose to awaken from the delusions of the world.
Since its release in 1976, A Course in Miracles has come to be regarded as a great work of art and a 21st-century spiritual classic. More than three million copies now exist in twenty-seven different languages. What is unique about the Course is its incredibly high level of psychological sophistication. It is truly a document of the 21st-century – one that gives us ever-deeper insight into the working of the mind.
A Course in Miracles presents itself as “a manual for a special curriculum, intended for teachers of a special form of the universal course. There are many thousands of other forms, all with the same outcome.” The Course is but one of many thousands of spiritual paths – indeed, thousands upon thousands. There have always been those, like the 13th-century Persian mystic Jalaluddin Rumi, who have brought us different spiritual truths. In fact, many of the ideas contained in the Course are reflected in the teachings of a host of different thinkers and traditions that both pre-date and are contemporaneous with it. This is especially true for those who engage in what is called non-dualistic thinking – Gnostics, Neoplatonists, Advaita Vedantists, Zen Buddhists, Sufis, Kabbalists, Transcendentalists, and those who expound New Thought philosophies. Interfaith work and/or what is also called Interspirituality is clearly the wave of the future. In the end, no religion wins. God wins, which means everyone wins, as our will must ultimately be the same as that of God. Everything not of God is illusory – what the Course calls “the dreaming of the world.” The Course, like all mystical teachings, calls upon us to awaken from all dreaming.
[. . .] Like all mystical “systems,” the Course is a path, a way, a process, and a passage. It is a story that tells us of the grand destiny and points the way to the path out of hell. Ultimately, the answer to the riddle we call life is simply a matter of a willingness to live in harmony with the Divine. That is the miracle. We are simply called upon to remember – or better, re-cognize – what we already know.
[. . .] Spend time reading the Course and you’ll soon say: “Who wrote this?” It is clear that no “body” wrote it. It came through the mind and the hands of Helen Schucman, a professor of medical psychology at Columbia University. Having known Helen, however – as brilliant as she was – these sentences are not her ordinary way of speaking or being. [. . .] One spring Sunday in 1975, Helen sat me down with Bill Thetford and another of her colleagues, Ken Wapnick, in Ken’s tiny studio apartment in New York. There, she told me how the Course had come to be and how it affected the other people in the room. [. . .] Helen became a kind of informal therapist for me, helping me sort through my feelings and deal with my too-frequent romantic upheavals. A few weeks after our meeting, Helen met Judy Whitson, who later became the President of the Foundation for Inner Peace, which published the first edition of the Course. Judy and I had been friends since the 1960s and were both working with the American Society for Psychical Research. Judy arranged for the xeroxing of 300 copies of the Course – called the Criswell Edition – so a small group of us could start reading it and practicing the Workbook lessons prior to its publication in 1976.
[. . .] It is fair to say that many folks today are abandoning traditional religion in favor of a deeper, more contemplative spiritual life. Mysticism is becoming more mainstream, and religious dogma is less likely to be accepted without question. Whatever the spiritual discipline or path – Sufism, A Course in Miracles, Buddhism, Taoism, Gnosticism, yoga, mystical Christianity, the Kabbala, or perhaps your own unique inner path – they all reflect one universal journey that leads to a unitive goal. More and more people are now ready to embark on this journey. They are ready to walk the mystical path.
This can be extremely difficult to do in our often frenetic modern world, however. [. . .] Like Helen Schucman, we must withstand continual tests and trails along the way before we arrive at a place where God is all we know, all we see, and all we love. Acceptance and forgiveness can easily be lost in the tangled web of relationships that hamper our progress on our journey. We may think we are beyond judgment and then, unexpectedly, we make a judgment – perhaps not as quickly as previously, but a judgment nonetheless. We may think we have achieved forgiveness, but the ego often slips in the back door when we aren’t looking and pulls us back into its world of illusion.
Despite these challenges, the mystical path is a gentle path that can lead you out of the ego world and into Oneness. Ultimately, it is an easy journey because it ends where it begins – in Unity. Mysticism is, by its very nature, welcoming and affirming, rewarding and fulfilling. It makes no demands, There are no pledges to sign, no dues to pay. There are no rules or regulations. There are no magical formulas, no mysteries, no secrets, no oaths, no incantations, no rites, no rituals, no dogmas, and no creeds. Relax, take a deep breath. Mysticism is free.
When you walk the mystical path, you need not proselitize. Mysticism is not about converting or being in competion with any thought system. It involves no missionary effort and no saving of lost souls, because no one is lost. There are only those who know, and those who are sleeping and will someday awaken. In some ways, we are all like seeds long dormant; when properly nourished, we spring back to life.
Walking the mystical path is simply a matter of “listening to” and following guidance – of seeing the insanity of the world, and then choosing not to play the world’s game. When revelation replaces the illusion of a separate ego self, you gain everything and lose nothing, making it easy to share – to live for, and with, God and neighbor. Indeed, it is one of your pleasant obligations on the path to help awaken those who sleep – not by shaking them awake, but by giving a gentle nudge in the right direction. When you walk the mystical path, you identity with the whole of humanity, nature, animals, the Earth, music, the mind, the heart. You are not against anything or anyone. You have no agenda, only a sense of purpose. You acknowledge no opposites and no enemies. Since we are all One, there is no need to attack those who see things differently. Mysticism attracts without persuading.
In fact, mystical experience is so simple that it is easily missed, misinterpreted, or misunderstood in today’s hectic world. It lies hidden in most “ordinary” experiences and in every part of the whole. It also lies quietly in the heart and naturally finds creative expression in the most ordinary things – in babies, pets, plants, art, music, work, play – indeed, in all of life. Be spontaneous; be humorous; have fun; laugh frequently. Sing and dance and play your way along your journey. In possession of the moment, know that the moment is everything. Be patient and kind, and value your relationships. But always recognize the value of silence and solitude. Remember, no one can be truly alone when the Spirit is always present.
The mystical path leads you to the realization that all there is, is Life. Life is eternal and you have nothing to fear. At death, only the illusory shell of your body and your ego self is lost, and in that loss, you find freedom. The prison doors are opened and your ego selfs loosens its grasp on Spirit – or Spirit loosens its grip on the ego self. This is the message of resurrection – a joyous affirmation of the instrinsic beauty of life and an unequivocal denial of death. As a dewdrop slips from the leaf into the river and the river slips into the ocean, so mystics slip into the All to become the ocean. [. . .] What an increadible thing – to be a child of God. What an incredible thing it is to be!
As you’ll see and hear, both the reading from A Course in Miracles and the lyrics of Tina’s song share a number of spiritual insights and truths.
I should note that the original Course in Miracles text uses the metaphor of father for the Divine Presence. I prefer and use the metaphor of lover as expressed in the phrase “Beloved One.” As with the previous adaptations I’ve shared (see here, here and here), if this one resonates with you, feel free to make it even more meaningful by using your preferred images and words: “God,” “Allah,” “Lord,” “Jesus,” “Holy One,” “Mother.” . . . I trust that they all serve as different pathways leading up the same holy mountain or, to use another metaphor, different gateways leading inwards to our center, the deepest part of which we all share. For as Henri Nouwen so beautifully reminds us: “In the depths of my being, I meet my fellow humans with whom I share [all things].”
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Let me remember I am one with God.
Today let us give thanks for our Identity in God, the Beloved One of our Soul. Our home is safe, protection guaranteed in all we do, power and strength available to us in all our undertakings. We can fail in nothing. Everything we touch takes on a shining light that blesses and that heals. At one with the Beloved and with the universe we go our way rejoicing, with the thought that the Beloved goes everywhere with us.
How holy are our minds! And everything we see reflects the holiness within the mind at one with God and with itself. How easily do errors disappear, and death give place to everlasting life. Our shining footprints point the way to truth, for the Beloved One is our Companion as we walk the world a little while. And those who come to follow us will recognize the way because the light we carry stays behind, yet still remains with us as we walk on.
What we receive is our eternal gift to those who follow after, and to those who went before or stayed with us a while. And the Beloved One, Who loves us with the equal love in which we were created, smiles on us and offers us the happiness we gave.
Today we will not doubt His Love for us, nor question His protection and His care. No meaningless anxieties can come between our faith and our awareness of the Beloved’s Presence. We are one with Him today in recognition and rememberance. We feel the Beloved in our hearts. Our minds contain His Thoughts; our eyes behold His loveliness in all we look upon. Today we see only the loving and the lovable.
We see it in appearances of pain, and pain gives way to peace. We see it in the frantic, in the sad and the distressed, the lonely and afraid, who are restored to the tranquility and peace of mind in which they were created. And we see it in the dying and the dead as well, restoring them to life. All this we see because we saw it first within ourselves.
No miracle can ever be denied to those who know that they are one with God. No thought of theirs but has the power to heal all forms of suffering in anyone, in times gone by and times as yet to come, as easily as in the ones who walk beside them now. Their thoughts are timeless, and apart from distance as apart from time.
We join in this awareness as we say that we are one with the Beloved. For in these words we say as well that we are saved and healed; that we can save and heal accordingly. We have accepted, and we now would give. . . . Today we would experience ourselves at one with the Beloved, so that the world may share our recognition of reality. In our experience the world is freed. As we deny our separation from the Beloved One, the world is healed along with us.
Peace be to you today. Secure your peace by practicing awareness you are one with your Creator, as He is with you. Sometime today, whenever it seems best, devote a half-an-hour to the thought that you are one with God. This is our first attempt at an extended period for which we give no rules nor special words to guide your meditation. We will trust God’s Voice to speak as He sees fit today, certain He will not fail. Abide with God this half an hour. God will do the rest.
Your benefit will not be less if you believe that nothing happens. You may not be ready to accept the gain today. Yet sometime, somewhere, it will come to you, nor will you fail to recognize it when it dawns with certainty upon your mind. This half-an-hour will be framed in gold, with every minute like a diamond set around the mirror that this exercise will offer you. And you will see the Beloved’s face upon it, in reflection of your own.
Perhaps today, perhaps tomorrow, you will see your own transfiguration in the glass this holy half-an-hour will hold out to you, to look upon yourself. When you are ready you will find it there, within your mind and waiting to be found. You will remember then the thought to which you gave this half-an-hour, thankfully aware no time was ever better spent.
Perhaps today, perhaps tomorrow, you will look into this glass, and understand the sinless light you see belongs to you; the loveliness you look on is your own. Count this half hour as your gift to God, in certainty that His return will be a sense of love you cannot understand, a joy too deep for you to comprehend, a sight too holy for the body’s eyes to see. And yet you can be sure someday, perhaps today, perhaps tomorrow, you will understand and comprehend and see.
Add further jewels to the golden frame that holds the mirror offered you today, by hourly repeating to yourself:
Let me remember I am one with God,
at one with the world and all within it,
and at one with my Self,
in everlasting holiness and peace.
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Now, it might seem a stretch for some to find similarities between the above text from A Course in Miracles and a song by the Queen of Rock’n’Roll, Tina Turner. But to my ears, mind and heart the similarities are there.
Tina was a practicing Nichiren Buddhist and Buddhism holds that reincarnation is part of the human/spiritual experience. Tina most resolutely explores reincarnation in her 1984 song “I Might Have Been Queen,” but she also does so in her later song “Whatever You Need,” which is about souls coming together in recognition over successive lifetimes.
These souls recognize that only love is ultimately real, and that the sacred source of all things (called “God” my many) is Love. Their ultimate identity is in this Love, a Love that illuminates the truth that we are all one. Moving through life with this truth and the illuminating vision it provides, ensures that, in the words of A Course in Miracles, “everything we touch takes on a shining light that blesses and heals.”
I don’t know about you, but I feel and see that energy of blessing and healing in the video for Tina’s “Whatever You Need.”
In what other lives have I known your kiss?
And what forgotten moments have I felt like this?
The way you touch me, I come undone
You know me more than anyone
Whatever you want
In what other lives have I touched your face?
And what words did we whisper
in a strange forbidden place?
To be with you, is to find myself
We’re two of a kind, you and I
I couldn’t love anyone else
You are my beginning, my end
You are my lover, my friend
In this life, in this time
Whatever you want, whatever you need
I will be right here waiting
Whatever you want
Whatever you need
I will be right here waiting, yeah, yeah, yeah
In what other lives, did I feel your skin?
And when exactly did I breathe you in?
Feel like I’ve known you for a thousand years
You’re so familiar to me and there is no fear
Watch the sun go down, yeah, yeah
My past and future in you are bound, oh yeah
I watch as time moves on, I’m alive and strong
And when I’m with you, there’s no right, no wrong
I experience in the words of this lesson both a guiding light and a healing balm to all that threatens to obscure the holy peace already (and always) deep within me – deep within all of us. It is the peace of the Beloved One, which is my preferred term for God, the Divine Presence at the heart of all things.
As with the previous adaptations of A Course in Miracles that I’ve shared (see here, here, here and here), if the one below resonates with you, feel free to make it even more meaningful by using your preferred images and words – “God,” “Allah,” “Lord,” “Jesus,” “Holy One,” “Great Spirit,” “Father,” “Mother.” . . . I trust they all serve as different pathways leading up the same holy mountain; or, to use another metaphor, different gateways leading inwards to our center, the deepest part of which we all share. For as Henri Nouwen so beautifully reminds us: “In the depths of my being, I meet my fellow humans with whom I share [all things].”
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The present is the only time there is. And so today, this instant, now, we come to look upon what is forever there – not in our sight, but in the vision of the Beloved One, the Source of all things. . . . The senseless busy world fades easily away before this vision. Its sounds grow dim. A melody from far beyond the world increasingly is more and more distinct – an ancient call to which the Source within and beyond gives an ancient answer. You will recognize them both. For they are but your answer to the Beloved’s call to you.
. . . There is a silence into which the world cannot intrude. There is an ancient peace you carry in your heart and have not lost. There is a sense of holiness in you the thought of sin has never touched. All this today you will remember. . . . This is the day when vain imaginings part like a curtain to reveal what lies beyond them. Now is what is really there made visible, while all the shadows which appeared to hide it sink to obscurity. . . . Now will you see it with the eyes of the Beloved. Now is its transformation clear to you.
This day is sacred to the world. Your vision, given you from far beyond all things within the world, looks back on them in a new light. And what you see becomes the healing and salvation of the world. The valuable and valueless are both perceived and recognized for what they are. And what is worthy of your love receives your love, while nothing to be feared remains.
. . . We bless the world as we behold it in the light in which the Beloved One looks on us and offer it the freedom given us through the Beloved’s forgiving vision, now our own. Open the curtain by merely letting go all things you think you want. Your trifling treasures put away and leave a clean and open space within your mind where the Beloved can come and offer you the treasure of transformation. The Beloved One has need of your most holy mind to transform the world.
Is not this purpose worthy to be yours? Is not the Beloved’s vision worthy to be sought above the world’s unsatisfying goals? Let not today slip by without the gifts it holds for you receiving your consent and your acceptance. We can change the world if you acknowledge them.
Although written in Christian language and style, A Course in Miracles clearly embodies the perennial wisdom found at the core of all the world’s great religions. Because of this universal nature, its significance and appeal transcend traditional boundaries and extend to all who seek answers to the deepest questions of human existence. Some Buddhists have said that the Course echos the words of the Buddha; yogis have remarked that it expresses the wisdom of Vedanta; and psychologists have found that it offers insights comparable to some of the best contemporary thinking about phenomena such as perception, belief, and identity.
The Course was written down by two psychologists, doctors Helen Schucman and William Thetford, who were both on the faculty of Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons. Beginning in 1965, Helen had a series of symbolic dreams and imagery experiences that culminated in hearing an inner Voice that began dictating the Course. She was both a psychologist and educator, conservative in theory and atheistic in belief, and was surprised and disconcerted by these events. Since she felt she was the scribe, not the author of this material, she therefore chose to remain anonymous. In her own words Helen said:
Three startling months preceeded the actual writing . . . . Although I had grown more accustomed to the unexpected by that time, I was still very surprised when I wrote, “This is A Course in Miracles . . .” That was my introduction to the Voice. It made no sound, but seemed to be giving me a kind of rapid, inner dictation which I took down in a short-hand notebook. The writing was never automatic. It could be interrupted at any time and later picked up again. It made me very uncomfortable, but it never seriously occurred to me to stop. It seemed to be a special assignment I had somehow, somewhere agreed to complete. It represented a truly collaborative venture between my friend [William Thetford] and myself, and much of its significance, I am sure, lies in that. . . . The whole process took about six years.
The Course was first published in 1976 and consists of three volumes. The first is a text that lays out the underlying thought system; the second a workbook with 365 lessons, one for each day of the year; and the third a teacher’s manual desighed to clarify terms and facilitate the teaching-learning process.
The language of the Course is traditional in its use of Christian terminology and masculine pronouns. Some non-Christians have therefore found that it can be more easily understood when terms such as “salvation” and “Son of God” are translated, for example, as “enlightenment” and “Child of God.” . . . The language of the Course is exceptionally poetic and contains a wealth of succinct, powerful, and moving aphorisms that readily stand by themselves as potent capsules of wisdom. [pp. 7-8]
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A Cource in Miracles offers us a path of awakening. Like all such paths, the Course suggests that our usual perception, awareness, and sense of identity are clouded and distorted. It therefore offers us a means of correcting these distortions so that we may see ourselves and the world more clearly. This transformation of perception is what the Course means by a “miracle.” [p. 11]
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The source of all our experience is the mind. The true nature of the mind, says the Course, is limitless transcendent awareness and creative power. However, our mistaken thoughts and beliefs, which direct the mind’s activiy, have distorted and constricted it. Consequently we must change our thoughts and beliefs in order to correct our perception and to restore the mind to its full potential. [p. 21]
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The Course suggests that the world and time are creations of mind and part of our dreams and illusions. When we forget this we lose awareness of our true identity and see ourselves as limited to bodies in the temporal world. Yet we are free to seek beyong the world and time for the eternal and the changeless – already present, as the Course emphasixes, in this and every moment. [p. 37]
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To relinquish identification with the ego and the body is to awaken to our true identity, says the Course. This true identity has remained as it always was – pure spirit – forever changeless, peaceful, and at one with God, awaiting only our recognition. [p. 51]
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If we are to escape “the bondage of illusions” and recognize our true identity, we must overcome the obstacles that keep us from awakening. Anger and attack, defensiveness and guilt, fear and judgment are among these. The Course suggests that we create these obstacles out of false beliefs of unworthiness, inadequacy, and vulnerability. To relinquish them we must be willing to examine both obstacles and beliefs in the light of clear awareness, through which their illusory nature can be recognized. Only then can we experience the joy which is our natural condition. [p. 57]
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Only when the mind is at peace can it be freed of illusions and opened to the liberating influence of love, joy, and the memory of God that lie deep within us. In this experience we regain our sanity, Self, and salvation. [p. 85]
When many people think of “new age” they think of crystals and purple decals and ceremic angels in people’s windows and a kind of fuzzy thinking – which is abhorrent to a serious person. Fuzzy thinking is, after all, just one step above not thinking at all. But to take the ideas of serious transformational thinkers and philosophers and throw the “new age” label at them is also abhorrent. I feel that the term “new age” is used by bascically hostile media to diminish and marginalize a conversation that is very significant.
This month sees the fiftieth anniversary of the publication of A Course in Miracles, a self-study program in spiritual psychotherapy that many people have experienced as deeply meaningful and transformative.
As a student of the Course, I find the words of Alan Braswell to be very informative and insightful, especially as I’m aware that the Course is often maligned and dismissed by some as “new age.”
There is a fairly common misconception floating around that A Course in Miracles is “New Age.” I’ve encountered this misconception countless times over the years, and was recently reminded of this fallacy - which suggested to me that posting [the following] from a letter that Kenneth Wapnick wrote to the Library of Congress on the subject might be helpful.
Ken [who was a clinical psychologist and one of the foremost teachers of A Course in Miracles] maintained over the years of teaching the Course that it is not a New Age spirituality but rather has its intellectual roots in much earlier intellectual traditions, including the teachings of Plato, Neoplatonism, and the higher teachings of Gnosticism.
The following are excerpts from a letter Kenneth sent to the Library of Congress sometime in the 1990’s, requesting that they no longer classify the Course and Kenneth’s books under the category New Age. Kenneth’s efforts were successful.
Here are excerpts from Ken’s letter:
A Course in Miracles in many crucial ways is in sharp disagreement with New Age thinking, with many principles discussed in the book conflicting with many New Age principles. Five examples of this kind of conflict are as follows:
1) The theory of A Course in Miracles is based on a non-dualistic metaphysics; it teaches that the physical universe (including the body) was not created by God, and in fact, came about as an attack on God. No New Age system would support this; they all teach just the opposite.
2)A Course in Miracles does not support the thinking involved in “prosperity consciousness,” a prominent principle in New Age thought systems.
3) In almost all New Age systems there is an overriding emphasis on people’s positive experiences, with scant lip service paid to the overwhelming unconscious feelings of guilt shared by most people. A Course in Miracles teaches that there is only one problem in the world, and that is guilt. Therefore, it focuses primarily on our feelings of guilt, teaching us how to identify them and undo them.
4) Another theme common to many New Age systems is the belief that we are God. A Course in Miracles is emphatic in teaching that we are not God; it teaches that God is our Source – we have been created by Him.
I established The Wild Reed in 2006 as a sign of solidarity with all who are dedicated to living lives of integrity – though, in particular, with gay people seeking to be true to both the gift of their sexuality and their Catholic faith. The Wild Reed's original by-line read, “Thoughts and reflections from a progressive, gay, Catholic perspective.” As you can see, it reads differently now. This is because my journey has, in many ways, taken me beyond, or perhaps better still, deeper into the realities that the words “progressive,” “gay,” and “Catholic” seek to describe.
Even though reeds can symbolize frailty, they may also represent the strength found in flexibility. Popular wisdom says that the green reed which bends in the wind is stronger than the mighty oak which breaks in a storm. Tall green reeds are associated with water, fertility, abundance, wealth, and rebirth. The sound of a reed pipe is often considered the voice of a soul pining for God or a lost love.
On September 24, 2012,Michael BaylyofCatholics for Marriage Equality MNwas interviewed by Suzanne Linton of Our World Today about same-sex relationships and why Catholics can vote 'no' on the proposed Minnesota anti-marriage equality amendment.
"I believe your blog to be of utmost importance for all people regardless of their orientation. . . . Thank you for your blog and the care and dedication that you give in bringing the TRUTH to everyone."– William
"Michael, if there is ever a moment in your day or in your life when you feel low and despondent and wonder whether what you are doing is anything worthwhile, think of this: thanks to your writing on the internet, a young man miles away is now willing to embrace life completely and use his talents and passions unashamedly to celebrate God and his creation. Any success I face in the future and any lives I touch would have been made possible thanks to you and your honesty and wisdom."– AB
"Since I discovered your blog I have felt so much more encouraged and inspired knowing that I'm not the only gay guy in the Catholic Church trying to balance my Faith and my sexuality. Continue being a beacon of hope and a guide to the future within our Church!"– Phillip
"Your posts about Catholic issues are always informative and well researched, and I especially appreciate your photography and the personal posts about your own experience. I'm very glad I found your blog and that I've had the chance to get to know you."– Crystal
"Thank you for taking the time to create this fantastic blog. It is so inspiring!"– George
"I cannot claim to be an expert on Catholic blogs, but from what I've seen, The Wild Reed ranks among the very best."– Kevin
"Reading your blog leaves me with the consolation of knowing that the words Catholic, gay and progressive are not mutually exclusive.."– Patrick
"I grieve for the Roman institution’s betrayal of God’s invitation to change. I fear that somewhere in the midst of this denial is a great sin that rests on the shoulders of those who lead and those who passively follow. But knowing that there are voices, voices of the prophets out there gives me hope. Please keep up the good work."– Peter
"I ran across your blog the other day looking for something else. I stopped to look at it and then bookmarked it because you have written some excellent articles that I want to read. I find your writing to be insightful and interesting and I'm looking forward to reading more of it. Keep up the good work. We really, really need sane people with a voice these days."– Jane Gael
"Michael, your site is like water in the desert."– Jayden
