Author:Amy Torres

How to read A Course in Miracles

Underneath the words of A Course in Miracles is a deeper, spiritually comprehensive “language” which I call Light Language.

Ken Wapnick says A Course in Miracles is written like an epic poem and has the musical flow of a symphony.

When first reading the Course, let it flow over you without a need to make sense of it. Many people describe the ACIM text as dense, but it need not be experienced that way. Arthur Fine, a long time Course practitioner, says the language first seemed convoluted and impossible to understand but after a while flowed like syrup.

Come to A Course in Miracles with an open heart and open mind. Be a sponge and soak in the wisdom and beauty that the surface words symbolize. Absorb the mighty Light Language beneath the written symbols.

We experience the wisdom and guidance of ACIM to the degree we can tolerate Truth.

True Empathy

“To empathize does not mean to join in suffering, for that is what you must refuse to understand.” ACIM T-16.I.1:1

How do we show love to those who are suffering without joining in the suffering?

And how do we remain full at heart, not callous, and be with suffering without suffering?

Let us delve into the True Empathy section of A Course in Miracles, found at the beginning of Chapter 16, The Forgiveness of Illusions.

Tomorrow, September 11th, 2024, is the 23rd anniversary of 9/11, a time when the past looms large for some … and is not remembered at all by others (especially those born after 2001). We can use it as an opportunity to experience true empathy, as defined in A Course in Miracles, and the Love and Liberation it offers.

Most people use the word “love” too freely

A Course in Miracles states in the introduction to the text that it aims “at removing the blocks to the awareness of love’s presence, which is your natural inheritance.”

Last class, I invited you to experience love, in your body, and energetically. Most people use the word “love” too freely, not connecting with an actual experience.

As Course students, it is essential to be honest with ourselves and with Spirit. If you have been saying, “I love you” to people without actually connecting with loving feelings and sensations, how are you going to recognize the Love that is within you?

Too often, love is tossed around through obligation and as an intellectual concept. Or pseudo-experienced as sentimentality and/or excessive emotion which is actually a psychological defense against genuine emotion.

Let’s remove the blocks to the awareness of Love’s presence by entering into the forbidden territory of psychological defenses, willing to allow Spirit to shine light into the dark places where we have been hiding.

🙏 🙏 🙏 🙏 🙏

If you missed class last week, or want to review, here’s the recording: Lottery Ticket

God, please let me win the lottery!

An old man goes into a synagogue and prays, “O Lord, you know the mess I’m in, please let me win the lottery.” The next week he comes back and complains, “O Lord, didn’t you hear my prayer last week? I’ll lose everything I hold dear unless I win the lottery.” The third week, desperate, he laments, “O Lord, this is the third time I’ve prayed to You to let me win the lottery! I beg and plead and still you don’t help me!” Suddenly, a booming voice sounds from Heaven, “Old man, at least meet me halfway. Buy a lottery ticket!”*

My point, in sharing this joke with you, is that your participation in the forgiveness practice offered by Jesus in A Course in Miracles is crucial.

You cannot just give your troubles to Jesus/the Holy Spirit and walk away, leaving Them to clean up your mess. You must hang out with Jesus/HS and look at what you’ve given from Their position.

The Introduction to the ACIM Workbook for Students says, “The workbook is divided into two main sections, the first dealing with the undoing of the way you see now, and the second with the acquisition of true perception.”

The only way to undo how we see now is to look at how we see with Jesus/HS. As we look with Them, eyesight gives way to Vision, and true perception is inevitable.

You must make the effort to “buy the lottery ticket” because if you don’t, you’re wishing and hoping, which will never get you out of the ego thought system. The way out is through. The practical application of forgiveness is using the people and situations in your life to recall your projections.

The Holy Spirit uses anything the ego made to show you how to see through what the ego made. When you find yourself rejecting something because it is not what you consider spiritual, drop all judgment and pause … turn to your Inner Teacher and be attentive to Inner Guidance.

People, books, activities, jobs, health information, travel, politics, psychotherapy, dance, military service, law enforcement, nature, animals, children, hobbies, TV shows, songs, license plates, dreams, and so much more are symbols the Holy Spirit can use to help you see differently, to help you connect with inner peace, to help you tune in consistently to genuine Guidance.

Your human life/earth world classroom is where you put to work the mind training exercises. You practice choosing again, joining with Spirit, seeing from another perspective, experiencing a shift in perception, with everyone and everything without exception, over and over again.

Earth angels (humans who are exceptionally kind, wise, etc) will come along and introduce you to earthly healing interventions. This may seem counter to ACIM teaching. But it is not if it is used by the Holy Spirit.

“The name of Jesus is the name of one who was a man but saw the face of Christ in all his brothers and remembered God. So he became identified with Christ, a man no longer, but at one with God. The man was an illusion, for he seemed to be a separate being, walking by himself, within a body that appeared to hold his self from Self, as all illusions do. Yet who can save unless he sees illusions and then identifies them as what they are? Jesus remains a Savior because he saw the false without accepting it as true. And Christ needed his form that He might appear to men and save them from their own illusions.” C-5.2:1-6

Let’s talk about how to buy the lottery ticket in your life so you are not just reading A Course in Miracles, but actually using its forgiveness practice to encounter inner peace which releases the fear that holds you captive to the ego.

*There are many versions of this joke. This version is adapted from forum-ship-of-fools.com

The Light of Communication

The metaphor of light is used all throughout A Course in Miracles.

“The Light of Communication” is a section in Chapter 14 that illuminates how we have broken communication with Spirit and how we can reestablish communication.

“You who speak in dark and devious symbols do not understand the language you have made.” T-14.VI.6:1

As Ken Wapnick taught us again and again, we must become aware of the problem in order to address the problem. He also emphasized, “Problems that have no meaning cannot be resolved within the framework they are set.” W-96.3:1

Which brings us to changing our minds. “The power of decision, which you made in place of the power of creation, He [the Holy Spirit] would teach you how to use on your behalf.” T-14.VI.5:6

Let’s read “The Light of Communication” together and luxuriate in absorbing the wisdom shining through the words.

“The quiet light in which the Holy Spirit dwells within you is merely perfect openness, in which nothing is hidden and therefore nothing is fearful.” T-14.VI.2:1

🙏 🙏 🙏 🙏 🙏

If you missed class last week, or want to review, here’s the recording: What is a Miracle?

… this is not done to me, but I am doing this …

Let’s deepen our connection with what a miracle is and how miracle-mindedness moves us closer to Reality.

“This world is full of miracles. They stand in shining silence next to every dream of pain and suffering, of sin and guilt.

“They are the dream’s alternative, the choice to be the dreamer, rather than deny the active role in making up the dream.

“They are the glad effects of taking back the consequence of sickness to its cause. The body is released because the mind acknowledges ‘this is not done to me, but I am doing this.’

“Beginning here, salvation will proceed to change the course of every step in the descent to separation, until all the steps have been retraced, the ladder gone, and all the dreaming of the world undone.”

~T-28.II.12:1-7~

We can free up the mind together and make another choice instead. Our salvation lies in withdrawing all judgment and allowing ourselves to be undone. We can test drive this now and be the way, the truth and the life for each other 🙂

BTW, if you missed last week’s class or would like to review it, here it is: https://youtu.be/38Jnv_epPGk

Forgiveness is the method, miracle a healing, peace a happy outcome, as preparation for …

What is A Course in Miracles about, really? After many years of studying and teaching the Course (teach what you want to learn) I’ve realized ACIM is preparation for spiritual awakening.

Preparation! That’s what Jesus means at the end of the Workbook when he says, “This course is a beginning, not an end.”

Forgiveness is the method Jesus gives us in A Course in Miracles to reduce fear and become aware that we have the power of decision. The forgiveness practice is an unlearning of what the ego has taught us: we are separate from God. Forgiveness restores the Mind to our awareness (the Mind has been buried in our unconsciousness because one of the ego’s most powerful tools is forgetting).

Miracles are the result of practicing forgiveness. Miracles are healings, mind healings. Miracles heal the Son of God’s (our) split mind. Miracles restore our awareness that there is only Mind. Miracles provide perspective that what seems so real in the world of form, planet earth and humanity, is merely the workings of an active imagination.

Peace is the outcome of miracles which heal the mind of fear. The purpose of practicing forgiveness and receiving healing miracles is to reduce fear. Lack of fear is peace 🙂

Awakening arises from the fertile ground of peace. The awakened state, also called Love, Presence, Source, God, and more, is beyond the scope of A Course in Miracles.

“This course does not aim at teaching the meaning of love, for that is beyond what can be taught.
It does aim, however, at removing the blocks to the awareness of love’s presence, which is your natural inheritance.”
~ACIM Introduction~

When we are ego-identified, believing we are separate from God, we are gripped by terror and in a state of ongoing panic. Most of this terror and panic is unconscious because it’s unbearable to function in this state. A Course in Miracles understands human nature and its psychology because Jesus was a man who awoke from the ego dream of separation and is Here Now to comfort us, straighten out our thinking, and prepare us for Home.

To recap, forgiveness produces miracles which reduce fear and allow us to feel peaceful. The aim of A Course in Miracles is inner peace in order to prepare us for spiritual awakening. Jesus is kindly and gently preparing us to release our terrified clench at false ego safety so we can look around and see we are completely safe.

Awakening is beyond the scope of A Course in Miracles. The Course readies us and ripens us for recognizing what we already are. Our Friend, the Holy Spirit, guides us through fear, out of insanity and beyond A Course in Miracles. The Course delivers us into the Hands of our Inner Teacher, the Holy Spirit within, which is the Knowing that brought us to A Course in Miracles.

We meet each week to absorb the depth and breadth of this mighty practice that we may, each in our own time, release our mind from the constraints of egoic identity and soar, unfolding our wings and knowing ourselves as the Oneness we truly are.

Spiritual bypass, the spiritualized ego, level confusion, and the split mind

Questions have been coming in about spiritual bypass, the spiritualized ego, level confusion, and the split mind.

Spiritual bypass is pretending we are peaceful when we are not, and you can catch yourself red-handed when you think you are justified in any negative feeling, and/or when you judge someone else.

The spiritualized ego is the person thinking they are spiritually elevated, when elevation belongs only to Spirit. All egos contain the same ingredients even if some act out more than others.

Level confusion is trying to apply God Perfection to human imperfection. They just don’t work together. But as humans we try, nevertheless, to improve the story of our life by praying for the outcomes we want rather than surrendering to God’s Plan for Salvation.

And the split mind is a cracked mirror twisting and distorting reality until we feel lost in a maze from which we will never find our way out. The first split is from Oneness to consciousness (awareness of). Simultaneously, ego mind as a separate thought system seemingly emerges and, along with it, the Holy Spirit (the memory of God within us). The next split is into an imagined physical world (which is totally convincing to us). And the splitting continues into countless shapes and forms and creatures.

Where does that leave us? Joining in class tomorrow to connect with the Knowing within and observe that which blocks the awareness of Love’s Presence because when we seek and find all of the barriers within ourselves that we have built against Love, we recognize what we already are 🙂

“Your task is not to seek for love,
but merely to seek and find
all of the barriers within yourself
that you have built against it.”
~T-16.IV.6:1~

Level Confusion part 2

“You cannot behave effectively while you function on different levels.” ~T-1.VI.3:2~

Last class we started a conversation about the way A Course in Miracles uses the word “levels”. To recap, Level 1 is God Mind, Level 2 is ego mind, and there are only two levels.

One way of understanding levels in the Course is that there is Level 1: God Mind aka One Mind, Being, Presence, Awareness, the Absolute, the Kingdom of Heaven, Love, Life, Light, etc. And there is Level 2: ego mind aka wrong-mind, separation, darkness, fear, guilt, sin, hatred, self-hatred, I, me, etc.

Within Level 2, ego mind, God installs the Holy Spirit aka the memory of God, right-mind, the bridge, the comforter, the translator, etc., as a constant light at the end of the ego tunnel.

Ken Wapnick often spoke of level confusion to mitigate the ways in which Course students were misapplying ACIM concepts. For example, if you had a health emergency and went to the hospital, your ACIM friend might visit you and say, “Sickness is only in the mind so stop making yourself sick and let’s get out of here.” The visitor is projecting their fear onto the sick friend and trying to escape sickness themself by blaming the victim.

Note: Jesus tells us in ACIM, “Sickness is insanity because all illness is mental illness, and in it there are no degrees.” P-2.IV. The mental illness Jesus is referring to has nothing to do with human diagnoses. Jesus is talking about the Son of God’s split mind.

Last week’s question, “Do I have to give up the ‘me’ that I’ve worked so hard to love?” is another kind of level confusion. It assumes that giving up ‘me’ is a loss because the question is asked from the fearful Level 2 ego position. Technically, it is inevitable that ‘me’ is given up in the vertical sense of rising to Truth. But the process of developing healthy self-esteem and self-love is worthwhile on the human level because it increases our spiritual capacity to lose interest in ‘me’ and look beyond ‘me’ to We, the sameness in everyone.

When you apply the perfection of God Mind to the forgiveness practice, you are experiencing level confusion. If you were capable of living from Level 1 God Mind, you would not be a human in earth world. What you are actually doing is trying to pull God into the ego dream to improve your human story. In earth school that translates to old-fashioned perfectionism. Perfectionism is the ego’s distortion of God’s Perfection.

“The idea of orders of need, which follows from the original error that one can be separated from God, requires correction at its own level before the error of perceiving levels at all can be corrected. You cannot behave effectively while you function on different levels. However, while you do, correction must be introduced vertically from the bottom up. This is because you think you live in space, where concepts such as “up” and “down” are meaningful. Ultimately, space is as meaningless as time. Both are merely beliefs.” ~T-1.VI.3:1-6~

Level confusion is a juicy topic. Bring examples from your own life to ACIM with Amy class this week, and help us look together at how we make this mistake and how the Holy Spirit can correct it.

Level confusion part 1

An earnest ACIM student asked, “Do I have to give up the ‘me’ that I’ve worked so hard to love?”

Last week a beautiful, earnest question was asked in class about unconditionally loving ourselves, including our dark side. And once we accomplish this hard-earned, unconditional love, are we being asked to give up the person we worked so hard to accept and love?

This is a good example of level confusion. Let’s clarify some points.

First, Jesus loves us unconditionally because we are the same as he is–we are Spirit. We are not asked to love our dark side–we are asked to give the darkness to the Light (the Holy Spirit) and then Light shines away darkness. This is on the metaphysical/spiritual level. Ken Wapnick refers to this as Level One. Level Two is ego mind and the manifest world that ego mind dreams up including humanity and the person you are taking yourself to be.

Second, on the level of the person, all you’re asked to give up is your belief in fear. Jesus advised Helen Schucman (the scribe of A Course in Miracles) to ask him to remove the conditions for her fear–not to ask that he remove her fear. The distinction is that if Jesus were to remove fear, he would be agreeing that the ego exists and that there is something to be afraid of. This is what he calls, “making the error real”.

In Chapter 9, Jesus explains, “When a brother behaves insanely, you can heal him only by perceiving the sanity in him. If you perceive his errors and accept them, you are accepting yours.” T-9.III.5:1-2

Jesus further clarifies in Chapter 12, “You have been told not to make error real, and the way to do this is very simple. If you want to believe in error, you would have to make it real because it is not true. But truth is real in its own right, and to believe in truth you do not have to do anything. Understand that you do not respond to anything directly, but to your interpretation of it. Your interpretation thus becomes the justification for the response. That is why analyzing the motives of others is hazardous to you. If you decide that someone is really trying to attack you or desert you or enslave you, you will respond as if he had actually done so, having made his error real to you. To interpret error is to give it power, and having done this you will overlook truth.” T-12.I.1:1-8

If we drag Jesus down into our dream world, this would undermine our power of decision. We would establish that we are powerless and Jesus holds all the power. But the miracle in A Course in Miracles is meant to jog our memory that we are perfectly capable of choice. We have free will and when we connect our perception of a personal will with God’s Will we realize we are “at Home in God, dreaming of exile.” T-10.1.2:1

In other words:

On the level of the person, you practice forgiveness by choosing to give the Holy Spirit your belief in separation–which results in giving up fear, little by little. This is accomplished within your individual curriculum and may include psychotherapy, 12-step groups, yoga, meditation, athletics, art, working with children, animals or humans-in-need, learning self-love, healing codependency or narcissism, studying conflict negotiation, conscious relationships, active listening, among countless other possibilities.

The forgiveness practice offered in A Course in Miracles Workbook for Students helps you recognize yourself as Spirit (through holy instants and miracles) and no longer identify as the person you took yourself to be. This eventually results in a loss of individual identity, which does not register as a loss because Spirit is Whole and the belief in individual identity which seemingly ruptured that Wholeness is no longer believed in.