Choosing to Understand

In continuing with the Wild Reed’s series commemorating the 50th anniversary of the publication of A Course in Miracles, I share this evening a quote from Marianne Williamson, one of the most well-known teachers of the Course. Her 1992 book, A Return to Love: Reflections on the Principles of A Course in Miracles, remains one of the most popular and beloved writings on the Course.

Williamson recently shared the following via social media under the title, "Light: What Is It That We Don't Understand?"

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In A Course in Miracles, light is defined as “understanding.” To live in spiritual darkness is literally to “not understand.”

What is it we don’t understand? That what we see with our physical eyes is never the whole picture in a situation. The bodily level of things is rarely the ultimate reflection of what people are actually feeling and thinking. Our love, the essence of who we are, is often covered over by layers of fear, defensiveness, and emotional armor. To “see the light” is to understand that, to extend our perception beyond what the physical eyes can see to what the heart knows to be true.

That’s the real meaning of forgiveness: to recognize the light in someone, to remember who they really are, even when their mortal self is expressing fear. All of us are tempted to forget who we are sometimes, and through forgiveness we are reminded. In a space of misunderstanding, we can choose to understand.

– Marianne Williamson
via social media
October 5, 2026

NOTE: Marianne Williamson will be teaching a new seven-week online seminar devoted to the 50 Principles of Miracles as presented in A Course in Miracles. As she writes online:

If you’re ready to get serious and go deep, this seminar will help you. It begins on October 13 and you can learn more and register here. I hope you’ll join me. Come ready to change.

See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
• A Course in Miracles: A Gift of Peace
• Why A Course in Miracles Is Not “New Age”
• Mysticism and Miracles
• Gifts of Abundance
• I Am One With the Beloved
• Being One With the Beloved, the Source of All Things
• Your Peace Is With Me, Beloved One
• Dwelling in Peace
• The Peace of God
• You Are My Goal, Beloved One
• Be In My Mind, Beloved One
• Stepping Out of Time and Resting Your Mind
• Resting in the Presence of the Beloved
• In the Stillness and Silence of This Present Moment
• The Beauty and Challenge of Being Present in the Moment
• Today I Will Be Still
• I Need Do Nothing . . . I Am Open to the Living Light
• Aligning With the Living Light
• An Expression of Humility
• Choosing to Awaken
• Chadwick Boseman and That “Heavenly Light”
• The Light Within
• Shining On
• Like the Sun

Image 1: Marianne.com.
Image 2: Michael J. Bayly.