A Course in Miracles, or ACIM, is a well-respected spiritual text that teaches forgiveness as the path to peace. Its universal message of replacing fear with love has captured the hearts and minds of millions.
A Course in Miracles Made Easy takes the big picture ideas of this text and brings them down to earth in a reader-friendly format. It’s the Rosetta stone for interpreting ACIM.
1. You Are Love
A Course in Miracles is a self-study spiritual thought system that teaches forgiveness as the way to inner peace. The book is universal in its appeal and has helped heal the hearts of millions. However, many students struggle with understanding the lessons and experience resistance to the ideas within the Course. Alan Cohen, a long-time ACIM student, has created A Course in Miracles Made Easy to help people navigate the course and find its deeper meaning. This unique, reader-friendly guide takes the Big Picture ideas of the Course and breaks them down into easily digestible parts. The result is a book that will serve both longtime ACIM students and those who are just starting the journey.
The first thing that the Course teaches is that everything is love. It is the only truth and the only real value. When you believe that all is love, your behavior will naturally reflect this belief. You will treat others with kindness and compassion, even those who seem difficult to love. You will also recognize that there is no such thing as a judgmental person because all judgments are simply based on fear.
Another lesson is that the only source of true love is God. When you are centered in God’s love, it is impossible to judge anyone or anything. This is because you realize that all things are equally important to God and that there is no hierarchy in His world. The miracles that you receive are a reflection of the love that you give. Each miracle is a perfect example of the law that says, “Everyone gets what everyone deserves.” a course in miracles
The ego has a very hard time accepting that everything is love because it makes you feel guilty for loving something or someone. The ego would rather you remain in a state of panic than have you remember what is really true. That is why the ego fights so hard to keep you from learning what this course teaches. The ego believes that it is protecting you from God, but in reality, the ego is just keeping you from your own truth.
2. Forgiveness Is The Way
Forgiveness is a powerful and healing act. It is one of the most important principles in the course, as it allows us to heal our hurting emotions and move forward. Forgiveness is also a key step in learning to love yourself. This is because when you forgive someone else, you allow yourself to release the fear of being hurt by others.
The process of forgiveness can take some time and effort, but it is important to remember that you are not forgiving the other person, but yourself. This is why it is helpful to look at the hurtful experience from a different angle. For example, if you are having difficulty forgiving another person, try to see the situation as if it were an accident that occurred in a movie, and the other person was just a character in the film.
In doing this, you will be able to see the other person as just a part of life and not some evil being that has caused you so much pain. You will also be able to realize that you are not being hurt by them, but by your own distorted thinking.
If you are still struggling with forgiving someone, try practicing the REACH method, which is a simple four-step technique that can help you work through the forgiveness process. The steps are Recall, Emphasize, Altruistic Gift, and Commit.
This is a great way to practice forgiveness because it will help you learn that what happens outside of yourself is not the real cause of your problem, but your unconscious belief in separation from all-inclusive Love. It will also help you see that your problems do not need to be solved by outside circumstances, but rather by choosing again for the inner teacher of peace.
The Course teaches that you can only understand this truth when you forgive. It is not enough to simply accept this idea intellectually; you must be willing to forgive yourself and others, and you must be willing to let go of the fear that holds you back from experiencing God's love. Forgiveness is the only way to truly heal your relationship with yourself and others, and it is the first step in recognizing that the world outside of you does not matter at all.
3. There Is No Good or Bad
The sentence, “There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so,” is one of the most famous quotes from William Shakespeare’s play, Hamlet. It is part of a conversation between Hamlet and two of his University acquaintances, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. At the time, Hamlet knows that King Claudius murdered his father and he is imprisoned by this knowledge. He wishes that he could just forget this and live out his life as a nobody in Denmark without this knowledge haunting him.
This quote is a sly reminder that what we call good and bad is simply a matter of perspective. If we are seeing something as a threat, it will be perceived as a bad thing. However, if we are seeing something as an opportunity, it will be perceived as a good thing. This is true whether we are talking about a lion killing an antelope or whether we are discussing a person feeding a hungry child. It is a concept that has been echoed by many of the great Stoic philosophers, such as Seneca, Marcus Aurelius and Epictetus.
A Course in Miracles (ACIM) is a popular spiritual text that was written by Helen Schucman, a Columbia University research psychologist, between 1975 and 1976. The book was dictated to her by a voice that identified itself as Jesus. It is a self-study spiritual thought system that teaches forgiveness as the path to inner peace and the remembrance of our truth. It has become a worldwide phenomenon and is a cornerstone of the New Age movement. Many of today’s well-known spiritual authors have studied or mentioned ACIM in their writings.
Alan Cohen, an ACIM student for 30 years and a teacher of the course, has taken the Big Picture ideas of the Course and broken them down into easy-to-understand lessons and practical applications. A Course in Miracles Made Easy is the Rosetta stone that will render the Course understandable and generate healing results for longtime students of the course, as well as those who are just now getting to know its teachings.
4. You Are Whole
A Course in Miracles is a widely revered spiritual text that has captured the hearts and minds of millions. Its universal message of love and forgiveness has helped to bring peace where fear and pain once reigned. Its enduring teachings have inspired many well-known spiritual authors, from Marianne Williamson to Gabrielle Bernstein. But the Course can seem daunting to those new to its principles.
What is difficult about this course is that it demands you question every value you hold. It is not that the Course is wrong but that it requires you to recognize that what you believe and value is not true. This challenges the ego's control, and that is what makes it difficult for you to learn it.
The Book of A Course in Miracles was written over seven years by Helen Schucman, a Columbia University research psychologist, and dictated to her supervisor Dr William Thetford who typed it. The Course was not meant to be read as a conventional book, but as a way of life. It is a complete system of self-study that includes a 650 page text, a 500 page workbook, and 365 daily lessons. The Course teaches a reversal of ordinary perception in which the world of matter is seen as illusionary and the world of spirit is real. The Course also emphasizes the importance of forgiveness as a means to heal and change the world.