To say that there are many powerful teachings, principles, and concepts in A Course in Miracles (ACIM) would be a gross understatement. Nonetheless, from my perspective as a long term student and teacher of ACIM, I share with you below a few nuggets that I rely on regularly. I continually refine my understanding of these nuggets and many others, through my own study and meditation, as well as through the ACIM study groups I facilitate. These study groups are referred to individually and collectively as “The Miracle Life.” In order to participate in one of these groups one must be committed to completing A Course in Miracles, and the workbook in particular; one must play nice in a group setting; and one must be eager to apply the miracle principles in ACIM to one’s own personal life, to one’s leadership projects, and to the problems of the world at large. Each group meets by phone (conference call) once a month for 1 hour. If you are interested in participating in one of these study groups please contact me.
1. The Original Separation
This teaching in ACIM helps us to understand that all of our individual and collective problems and nightmares stem from our having separated somehow from our Divine Source. One aspect of the genius of ACIM is that it teaches us that the separation from Divine Source, and all of its negative effects, is fundamentally an illusion, just like any nightmare we dream about when we're asleep. Also, just as we can awaken from the nightmares we have when we sleep, we can awaken from the nightmares we have due to our individual and collective separation from Divine Source. Also, ACIM, teaches consistently, that this separation from the Divine Source, and all the nightmares that we experience as a result, are the doing of the ego. This is a malicious and destructive aspect of every human being's mind, and is not to be equated with either Freud's concept of the ego, or Jung's concept of the ego, although it does have some elements in common with them, such as the defense mechanism of projection, for instance.
2. The Atonement
ACIM teaches that the Atonement is a "device" provided to us by Divine Source for the correction of all of our errors or mistakes. This is somewhat like the delete function on our computers, together with the function for getting the computer back to restore points, or even the function that allows us to do hard resets to get our computers back to their pristine factory settings. By re-connecting intentionally and consistently with Divine Source, we are shown how to apply the Atonement to cleaning our lives of all the mistakes we have ever made since the original separation.
3. Level Confusion
This teaching in a course in miracles shows us that for true and lasting positive change in our lives, we are in need of transformation from the inside out at the level of our minds, and not from the outside in from the level of our bodies and the physical world our bodies perceive. So for instance, when we have a physical ailment, ACIM teaches us that the root cause of this problem is some sort of attack thought in our minds based on our separation from the Divine, and that when we delete the attack thought using Atonement, the physical symptoms will clear up. This same process goes for every other nightmarish ailment and predicament human beings experience individually and collectively.
4. Forgiveness
Forgiveness as ACIM teaches about it, is not so much our saying to someone who has wronged us, "I'll be the bigger person and let you off the hook for this bad thing you've done to me." No, it's about recognizing that the whole situation we're in involving the negative, seemingly unfair, and unwarranted mistreatment, we are experiencing, is the result of the individual and collective nightmare we are dreaming, and our main responsibility is therefore to use the Atonement to correct the separation that led to the nightmare in the first place.
5. Miracle
ACIM gives us super powerful and consistent encouragement and guidance about how to seek and receive solutions to problems that seem impossible to solve in any and all areas of life. I have developed a method (The 3 Keys to Miracle Success), that applies ACIM, among other tools, to help us go from nightmares to miracles, especially in these 4 Doors to a Happy Life: Health, Wealth, Love, and Enlightenment.
If you'd like to explore the course I've created called Nightmares to Miracles that puts all of the above together in a super practical and useful recipe you can use to achieve miraculous results for yourself, click the link to learn more!
