A Course in Miracles: Day 1

“Nothing I see in this room means anything.”

-A Course in Miracles

I decided to set out on a year long journey, today.

I’m reading the workbook for A Course in Miracles.

It is a list of exercises/games designed to be practiced over the course of one year… 365 days.

…it is also designed to completely change your life!

Who else wants to play?

Just 3 days into the course, I am both highly impressed and deeply moved… and I felt I had to share this with you!

A Course in Miracles is broken down primarily into three parts:

1. The Text:  This is the original course, written back in the 70′s.  It is almost 700 pages long.  From the introduction “The opposite of love is fear, but what is all-encompassing can have no opposite.  This course can therefore be summed up very simply in this way:  1 Nothing real can be threatened.  2 Nothing unreal exists.  Herein lies the peace of God.”
2. The Workbook:  This is the portion we will be primarily using for this series.  365 progressive games/exercises that gradually change your consciousness.
3. The Manual for Teachers:  Just like you might expect, this portion is to teach teachers.  The very introduction to this section, though, spells out how we are all teachers… and the pupil we are teaching is the perceived self.

A Course in Miracles is spoken of highly by Dr David Hawkins, and I have heard it recommended by other teachers I respect as well.

From the site (ACIM.org), A Course in Miracles is described as

“…a unique, universal, self-study spiritual thought system that teaches that the way to Love and Inner Peace is through Forgiveness.”

I consider the workbook for A Course in Miracles to be a years worth of games of consciousness.  A list of descriptions on how to play with perception in order to transform yourself.

A Course in Miracles:  Day 1

The exercise for Day 1 is the quote at the beginning of this post:

Nothing I see in this room (or from this window, or on this street, or in this area) means anything.

You will want to look around slowly, and apply this concept/affirmation to whatever you see:

• This couch does not mean anything
• These fingers don’t mean anything

Then begin to look farther than the immediate area, and apply the idea to more and more things in a wider area:

• That wall does not mean anything
• That body does not mean anything

The goal is to apply the exercise to anything you see.

My Experience:

Immediately, when I start questioning the arising of (seemingly) external events/phenomenon… I start to question the arising of (seemingly) internal ones as well… “This thought doesn’t mean anything…”, “These sensations arising in the body don’t mean anything…”, etc.

I don’t know if this is covered later in the course or not, but I am sure the games will work fine either way.

The course reminds us not to try to find anything specific to apply the exercises to, and we also don’t want to avoid applying the exercises to anything that comes up.  Ideally, we just apply it to everything we see while practicing the exercise (playing with the game/exercise once or twice a day for a couple of minutes is plenty of time)… Having said this, I do notice in myself the tendency to try to find the most emotionally charged ‘things’ to use the exercise on… I don’t think this will be a problem as long as I do the exercise in the prescribed manner as well… 

When I play with these practices… it is a quick and easy reminder to step back into presence.  The games are interesting… and when practiced with sincerity… you can feel the change taking place as you play them.

To make it a little bit easier…

Many times, when you practice this game properly, you will come across something that does seem to hold strong meaning for you… and when you say it does not mean anything, your internal voice will respond with something along the lines of

• “Oh yes it does!”
• “What are you talking about?” or
• “Bullshit!”

There are 3 ways in which I deal with these thoughts arising.

1. Just apply the same concept/affirmation to the thought (“this thought does not mean anything”)… sometimes this ends it right away… but sometimes it can start a bit of a mental back-and-forth argument… in those cases just
2. Say “thank you!” to the thought, and then continue the game.  In any serious self study, there are parts of yourself that will arise that need to be re-integrated.  The “thank you” allows that part of you to feel accepted… and then it is usually more than happy to lend its energy to the game.
3. Hold or tap an EFT point as you practice the exercise (to see several of my favorite points, check out my post on Covert EFT).  This will bring your body more alignment with the game… but don’t take my word for it… play with it and see what happens!

It is possible to continue with the exercise/game whether these thoughts arise or not… whether you do anything about them or not.  I just offer these tips/techniques as a way to get more out of the games more quickly.

Where can you find it?

If you want your own hard copy of A Course in Miracles, you can find it at Shop.Acim.org

If you want to access the workbook lessons for free online, go to Acim.org/Lessons/ (or just follow this series of posts)

A Course in Miracles is a powerful way to learn real forgiveness… and how to see beyond the world of forms.

My intent is to post on this once per day for the next year… sharing the exercise from the book as well as my experiences with it.

As long as you keep coming back… this course will change you!

I’ll see you here tomorrow…

keep smiling,

Ben

References:

A Course in Miracles (Combined Volume).  Foundation For Inner Peace.  2007.

Note: The date here is for the combined volume.  The original work was done in 1976.

Spread the word to fellow Explorers!

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Tagged as: EFT, forgiveness, Meditation (A Course in Miracles)