Articles

by Lorri Coburn, MSW

The more I study A Course in Miracles the more it appears completely different from other metaphysical paths. The Course can be understood in many different ways, from simple to complex, practical to esoteric, dualistic to non-dualistic. It cautions us, however, that words are but symbols of symbols, and to not let theology delay us. Therefore, there is no one definition of the Course that is right or better than another.

Many Course students (including myself) have fallen headlong into the ego trap of arguing for the “correct” interpretation of the Course. This is a laughable idea, because the curriculum is highly individualized and the Holy Spirit speaks to us in ways we uniquely understand. Today I feel uncomfortable in Course meetings where The Way of Mastery is studied, because I see it as veering from the non-dualistic message of the Course. But I enjoyed it for years before my understanding shifted.

The words “duality” and “non-duality” do not even appear in the Course. In ACIM, duality would be defined as the ego level of perception or form, where pure non-duality would be heaven, knowledge, or the state of existence beyond the world of separation. A Course in Miracles tells us it is written at the level of perception because if we lived in Truth, we would not need words to explain it. It also says that once we fully understand Truth, we will put the Course itself aside. Similarly, it appears that when students understand a pure non-dualistic interpretation of ACIM they cannot return to reading it from their previous level of perception. Many Course students read ACIM for years in the same way they read teachings about creating their own reality through the law of attraction. Then one day they shift, and never see it the same way again. Regardless, the Course aims at the experience of peace at this level, so whether someone attains peace from a non-dualistic or a dualistic interpretation is not important.

My preferred interpretation of the Course is what Gary Renard calls “pure non-duality.” Yet when I talk to friends about non-duality, most do not have the same interpretation I have. What helps is making the distinction between pure non-duality, qualified non-duality, and duality. The definitions I find most useful are as follows. Pure non-duality is the state where only God/Love exists and nothing else exists or has any meaning/purpose/reality whatsoever. Qualified non-duality is the belief that God is in everything and all is one. Duality is the state of separation and opposites: God/man, right/wrong, heaven/hell, etc. Most of the world operates at the mercy of the split mind, which is the ego thought system of fear, guilt, and separation. Everything “good” is inevitably followed by "bad,” and there is no state of permanent happiness.

The Course addresses pure non-duality this way: “We say ‘God is’ and then we cease to speak, for in that knowledge words are meaningless.” (W-p.I.169.5:4) In pure non-duality there is no perception, no consciousness, nothing but God. Once you have anything else you have two things instead of one, and this is duality.

Qualified non-dualistic interpretations differ primarily from pure non-dualistic ones in their belief that God takes form. They may say form is illusory due to its transient nature, but it’s still God’s will and expression. Qualified non-duality states the cosmos is the result of the Unmanifest, consciously moving into manifestation. God enters form out of the desire to be consciously aware of Itself. The Christ wants to create magical experiences in form and play in the playground of the universe. This is directly contrary to A Course in Miracles, which states succinctly, “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…Here was perception born.” (W-p.II.3.2:1-5)

Many metaphysical paths exalt the role of consciousness or awareness, thinking it is the highest possible state. Yet ACIM contradicts this. “Consciousness, the level of perception, was the first split introduced into the mind after the separation, making the mind a perceiver rather than a creator. Consciousness is correctly identified as the domain of the ego.” (T-3.IV.2:1-2)

Qualified non-duality is the basis of most metaphysical teachings, and is often how Course students interpret Lesson 29, “God is in everything I see.” Course students who believe that God did not create this world still often think God is in, or informs, the “good” things of the world. Yet the qualified interpretation stops at the heading and does not read further into the lesson. “Certainly God is not in a table, for example, as you see it. (italics mine) Yet… what shares the purpose of the universe shares the purpose of its Creator.” W-p.I.29.2:3,5) The Course tells us that we choose the purpose of the ego, which is separation, or the purpose of the Holy Spirit, joining. Separation entails form, other objects, people, specific entities or goals. Once there is form, there is sacrifice, scarcity, and perceived needs. The ego says, “I have a table and you don’t.” The Holy Spirit looks on the world of form as a complete illusion, affording it no purpose except to awaken the sleeping Son of God. The table is like any other form—they are one illusory projection from the wrong mind.

Lesson 161 offers further explanation to Lesson 29’s statement: “God is not in a table as you see it.” It states, “Complete abstraction is the natural condition of the mind (The ego) sees instead but fragments of the whole, for only thus, could it invent the partial world you see. Thus were specifics made…We give them to the Holy Spirit, that He may employ them for a purpose which is different from the one we gave to them. Love needs no symbols, being true. But fear attaches to specifics (form), being false.” (W-p.I.161.2:1,4; 3:1,3; 5:4-5)

Lesson 30 expands the title of Lesson 29 to “God is in everything I see because God is in my Mind.” This lesson emphasizes the difference between seeing and true vision. True vision knows the world is in the mind and whatever we are seeing is a projection. There is nothing out there. Form is not real. It is all in the mind. We perceive that it is outside of the mind, but our perception is false. However, with the Holy Spirit’s true vision we see Love, because we are Love. We see a forgiven world, which is the Holy Spirit’s purpose for the world, in place of a projection of fear, which is the ego’s purpose. In either case, we are never seeing anything that has a separate objective reality. Form, according to ACIM, simply does not exist. The body, the ego’s crowning achievement, is dismissed out of hand with the statement, “At no single instant does the body exist at all.” (T-18.VII.3:1)

Abstract love is terrifying to the ego, which made this world as a place to escape from pure non-duality (God/Love). Even our conceptions of abstract love are not true, because once we start thinking we are in the split mind. There is no thought in God/Love. We can’t define oneness, because once we try, we have automatically made two-ness. One thing describes another. A subject and an object. Form must change, for once it appears to come into existence it has to appear to die. Form is the ego’s attraction to death made manifest. The ego wants specific people, events, and things that it can keep to itself and these become its idols. If the world can look a certain way, populated with just the right people, places and events, then the ego thinks it will be happy. If it can tuck away its individual piece of the pie it will be safe. Never mind that the ego cherishes its single piece of pie in exchange for the unlimited love of God, the whole pie. That’s the insanity of the ego.

The trap of qualified non-duality is as follows: if the ego can convince us that God is in the physical world, then we will never wake up to absolute Truth. We will cherish the world of form as a polished idol, insisting that God created it, or that God informs it. This keeps us trapped in the belief in sacrifice, because the physical world is dual. One day the weather is beautiful and serene, the next there’s a hurricane. One day you’re rich, the next you’re poor. Some paths say both polarities are part of God’s plan and if you don’t resist or judge the opposites you will be at peace. Yes, when you are unconditionally loving, non-judgmental and feel oneness with all things, you will feel peaceful. But this is still different than the peaceful state of being, completely apart from the dream, that the Course is leading us to. The Course tells us there is Truth or illusion and there is no compromise between the two. Some qualified non-dualists claim that dismissing the dream, even though it’s ephemeral, is creating separation, therefore, the Course is dualistic. However, they are making the dream real. There is no dream; therefore, what appears to be separation or dismissal is the denial of nothing. God is, and nothing else exists.

Qualified non-duality often defines God as energy or the quantum field. But that is still form. The quantum field of interconnectedness symbolizes oneness, but it still consists of wave/particle duality. Beautiful form can be deceiving and there are many beautiful things in the universe. We can feel love for the earth and sense truth that lies behind the quantum field of interconnectedness. However, it’s still form, therefore, it still entails separation. ACIM reminds us that there is “nothing so blinding as perception of form. For sight of form means understanding has been obscured.” (T-22.III.6:7-8)

ACIM tells us that idols are things we substitute for God’s love. Forms are idols; therefore, the belief that God infuses the earth is a special relationship. It’s not true. It is too frightening for the ego to look past form to the formless, to the changeless. So it spiritualizes the world and says it’s the manifestation of God.

Chapter 30, Section III, “Beyond All Idols,” moves us past the belief that God is in form, with the plain and clear statement, “God knows not form.”(4:5) It also states, “Wholeness has no form because it is unlimited,”(3:2) and “your will is universal, being limitless. And so it has no form, nor is content for its expression in the terms of form Idols are limits. They are the belief that there are forms that will bring happiness.”(1:2-5) When we are attached to specific forms, we will always experience loss, because forms, by their nature, must change and die. It is not God’s Will that His Son should suffer in any way, nor experience loss. Therefore, form is not part of God’s Will.

In answer to our attachment to form, the Course offers reassurance beyond this world. We are lovingly told, “If there were change in him (God’s Son), if he could be reduced to any form and limited to what is not in him, he would not be as God created him.”(T-30.III.5:5) Another soothing passage is, “Reality is changeless. It must transcend all form to be itself. It cannot change.” (T-30.VIII.1:6;8-9) “The Christ in (your brother) is perfect…let there be no dreams about him that you would prefer to seeing this…for He is the changeless in your brother and in you.” (T-30.VIII.5:5;7;9)

This is the most loving, reassuring message we can hear. We are the Christ, the Holy Son of God. We are whole, we have never been hurt, and we have never done anything wrong. We can never be separated from the love of God, for it is What we are.

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Lorri Coburn, MSW, is the author of Breaking Free: How Forgiveness and A Course in Miracles Can Set You Free. She will be presenting, along with Jon Mundy, at the Cleveland ACIM Conference in June, 2012. Go to her website www.lorricoburn.com, for a link to Youtube videos on A Course in Miracles.