People ask me all the time, How do I start studying A Course in Miracles? Whether you’re just beginning or you’ve been with ACIM for decades hold the book in your hands and say:
“This book is the Voice of my Teacher who has all the answers.”
When we hold it that way, we stop reading it like homework and start listening to it like guidance. We’re opening to a Teacher, not just studying a book. That’s a critical difference in approach and it’s important and valuable because for many spiritual students we feel separate from God, and from the truth.
Of course, the Teacher isn’t separate from us. We’re One with our Teacher. ACIM is very clear that we are not separate from God.
For anyone starting out, I suggest reading the Clarification of Terms in the Manual for Teachers. I find that’s a simpler way to really get into it and understand it right away.
There’s no hurry. There’s no race.
We don’t have to do a Lesson a day. It’s much more about living the Lesson, really embodying the Lesson, rather than racing through all 365.
The Workbook itself tells us what matters:
“You are asked only to use them. It is their use that will give them meaning to you, and will show you that they are true.”(W-in.8:5-6)
And then this, which is such a relief:
“Remember only this; you need not believe the ideas, you need not accept them, and you need not even welcome them.”(W-in.9:1)
We don’t even have to believe it. Amazing!!
We just keep applying it and doing what it says, demonstrating our willingness, demonstrating our trust. That’s what opens our mind to the healing. So there’s no falling behind. There’s only the next Lesson, lived.
Pick one idea and bring it into the moment that’s challenging you. The worry, the upset, the conversation you’ve been dreading. That’s where the idea comes alive, and that’s where it shows us that the truth is actually true.
The book in our hands isn’t asking us to be impressive students. It’s inviting us to be willing ones. The Voice in it is patient, and it has all the answers we’ll ever need.
If you’d like to experience these ideas in action with others, join us for the FREE Forgiveness Workshop, where we put the teachings to work on what’s really in our hearts.
One Lesson, really lived, is worth more than 365 rushed.
LATEST PODCAST EPISODE: Time Doesn’t Heal – Trust Does. In this episode of A Course in Miracles: Walking the Talk, Living the Love, I explore the ACIM line a friend brings up in every conversation. Have you forgiven and prayed, and still feel the hurt hanging on? After a Labor Day retreat, I turn to Chapter 26, Section VIII and uncover what ACIM calls our one remaining problem. I share the surprising flaw in a comfort most of us lean on, the fear hiding beneath it, and what a dog and a slice of chocolate cake taught me. The answer may surprise you.
