RR-ESM. An introduction

1. A Course in Miracles Overview
2. Your Will and God’s Will are the same
3. The difference between Course and Christianity
4. Original Sin, Christianity’s most destructive teaching
5. Why Christ was really crucified
6. My analysis of the ego
7. An overview of the world we live in
8. The American economy
9. About marriage and relationships
10. The pickle jar
11. Drugs and alcohol and why people use them
12. Vegetarianism, the wave of the future
13. David Hawkins. Truth vs. Falsehood
14. Exorcism, a relic from the dark ages
15. Race and racism
16. The culture of death.
    • War
    • Abortion
    • Capital Punishment
17. Life before and after death
18. Our living companions on this planet and the difference between them and us
19. The possibility of life in outer space and what if anything it means to us
20. Three explanations for the way things are
21. The value of the workbook and memorizing text
22. E-mail and FAQs
23. Donations
24. In Conclusion
25. Videos
    
26. Spiritual Revelation
    

RR-ESM

21. The value of the workbook and memorizing text

I’ve spent much time memorizing certain paragraphs in A Course in Miracles. I do it the old fashioned way. I study them awhile, and then write out as much as I can remember of it. I do this until I can write the whole paragraph from memory, down to the correct punctuation and spelling. Once you do this it becomes easier to actually live the Course, instead of not understanding it and wondering what it is all about.

The workbook is valuable because it contains a daily lesson for each day of the year. Reading and studying 365 daily lessons for a year requires a commitment and if you are serious enough to do that you will receive a lot of benefit from the Course.

I have listed the paragraphs below that I have committed to memory and the reason for memorizing each one of them. You can do others as they appeal to you for whatever reason.

These are all from the Foundation for Inner Peace version. The first one is from the workbook, lesson 128 paragraph 1. I memorized it for the purpose of becoming non-attached to the material world.

The world you see holds nothing that you need to offer you; nothing that you can use in any way, nor anything at all that serves to give you joy. Believe this thought, and you are saved from years of misery, from countless disappointments, and from hopes that turn to bitter ashes of despair. No one but must accept this thought as true, if he would leave the world behind and soar beyond its petty scope and little ways.

The next one is also from lesson 128. It’s paragraph 2. It serves the same purpose as paragraph 1.

Each thing you value here is but a chain that binds you to the world, and it will serve no other end but this. For everything must serve the purpose you have given it, until you see a different purpose there. The only purpose worthy of your mind this world contains is that you pass it by, without delaying to perceive some hope where there is none. Be you deceived no more. The world you see holds nothing that you want.

I memorized the next one because it was a source of comfort during a bad time in my life. It’s from the workbook for students, lesson 129, paragraph 2. It was much later that I fully understood the real value of this paragraph. The real value of this paragraph lies in gaining the understanding that we do not see the real world here. The world we see is the one we see through the eyes of perception. The real world is the unseen eternal Spiritual World, the one we are united with God in.

It might be worth a little time to think once more about the value of this world. Perhaps you will concede there is no loss in letting go all thought of value here. The world you see is merciless indeed, unstable, cruel, unconcerned with you, quick to avenge and pitiless with hate. It gives but to rescind, and takes away all things that you have cherished for a while. No lasting love is found, for none is here. This is the world of time, where all things end.

This next one is from the workbook for students, lesson 131, paragraph 1. It may sound like a harsh assessment of the world, but actually there is comfort to be found in the truth. Once you understand this you can find comfort in the things you do have. If we can’t have permanence we can live in the moment. Whatever love we do find here we can enjoy that much more. If we can’t have safety in the midst of danger then we will just do the best we can. The physical body will never have immortality, but our Spiritual Being will live forever with our Creator.

Failure is all about you while you seek for goals that cannot be achieved. You look for permanence in the impermanent, for love where there is none, for safety in the midst of danger; immortality within the darkness of the dream of death. Who could succeed where contradiction is the setting of his searching, and the place to which he comes to find stability?

This next paragraph explains why so many of our relationships bring us so much unhappiness. It explains why we have wars, and why the divorce rate is 50%. This one paragraph does more to explain marriage problems than any four-year college course ever could. It’s from the text, chapter 15, page 319 paragraph 9.

Suffering and sacrifice are the gifts with which the ego would “bless” all unions. And those who are united at its altar accept suffering and sacrifice as the price of union. In their angry alliances, born of the fear of loneliness and yet dedicated to the continuance of loneliness, each seeks relief from guilt by increasing it in the other. For each believes that this decreases guilt in him. The other seems always to be attacking and wounding him, perhaps in little ways, perhaps “unconsciously,” yet never without demand of sacrifice. The fury of those joined at the ego’s altar far exceeds your awareness of it. For what the ego really wants you do not realize.

Memorizing the next one allows you to realize once and for all this is not the real world. The first sentence states, “The world was made as an attack on God.” All I can say is that makes complete sense. That’s why everything is working as it is supposed to. It’s from the workbook, lesson 240, paragraph 2.

The world was made as an attack on God. It symbolizes fear. And what is fear except love’s absence? Thus the world was meant to be a place where God could enter not, and where His Son could be apart from Him. Here was perception born, for knowledge could not cause such insane thoughts. But eyes deceive, and ears hear falsely. Now mistakes become quite possible, for certainty has gone.

This next one is a good one to memorize if you are trying to de-program from a traditional Christian upbringing. In committing it to memory you will come to understand we are here doing God’s Will and our real home is in the eternal world, reunited with our Creator. It’s from the text, chapter 13, page 267 paragraph 5.

You whose mind is darkened by doubt and guilt, remember this: God gave the Holy Spirit to you, and gave Him the mission to remove all doubt and every trace of guilt that His dear Son has laid upon himself. It is impossible that this mission fail. Nothing can prevent what God would have accomplished from accomplishment. Whatever your reactions to the Holy Spirit’s Voice may be, whatever voice you choose to listen to, whatever strange thoughts may occur to you, God’s Will is done. You will find the peace in which He has established you, because He does not change His Mind. He is invariable as the peace in which you dwell, and of which the Holy Spirit reminds you.

I just love this last one, because in three short sentences it sums up everything traditional Christianity is not. It’s from chapter 14 of the text, page 288, paragraph 5, sentences 1,2, and 3.

Light cannot enter darkness when a mind believes in darkness, and will not let it go. Truth does not struggle against ignorance, and love does not attack fear. What needs no protection does not defend itself.

In closing this brief chapter I will say this gives you another way of utilizing A Course in Miracles. As I’ve stated elsewhere, it’s a do it yourself course in self-improvement.

RR-ESM

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