Is it a help or a hindrance?
Date: July 4, 2007
A person in our Workbook group recently shared that she had gone to a meditation retreat where she used a form of meditation different from those in the Course, a form from a different spiritual tradition. Now that she had returned, she was finding it difficult to reconnect with her Course practice. She now felt conflicted, because on the one hand she liked this other form of meditation that she learned, but on the other hand she felt that the Course was her path, and her Course practice was now suffering. What should she do? Should she give up this other form of meditation or not?
I don't think there's a simple yes or no answer to this question. Rather, I think the most effective way to resolve the difficult issue of which practices and beliefs to adopt and which to give up is to ask three questions. The first and most important question is this one: Is the Course my path? If no, then of course there's no reason not to do or believe anything you like. But if yes (as it is for our Workbook class participant), the next two questions logically follow.
The second question is this: Does this practice or belief help or hinder my progress on the Course's path? I think this question needs to looked at with careful discernment, with the help of the Holy Spirit. While the Course is clear that all paths lead to God, it is also clear that Course students should walk its path: "You are not making use of the course if you insist on using means which have served others well, neglecting what was made for you" (T-18.VII.6:5). The study and practice of the Course really needs to be your first priority. If a particular practice or belief is causing you to neglect your work with the Course, or is conflicting with the Course, or is making your Course work more difficult (as seems to be the case with our Workbook class participant), then it's time to seriously consider whether this practice or belief is truly helping you make progress on your chosen path.
The third question follows from that consideration: If it hinders progress, should it be given up, or should it be altered in some way? Either option is a real possibility. I find the reincarnation section of the Manual instructive in this regard. The section says that reincarnation is not an inherent part of the Course's path, yet that doesn't mean we are forbidden to believe in it. Rather, "our only question should be, 'Is the concept helpful?' And that depends, of course, on what it is used for" (M-24.1:4-5). It can be used in a way that either helps or hinders our progress on the Course's path. If it hinders our progress, the Holy Spirit might ask us to give it up, but not necessarily. Instead, the section tells us that the teacher of God (to whom the section is addressed) "might be advised that he is misusing the belief in some way that is detrimental to his pupil's advance or his own. Reinterpretation would then be recommended, because it is necessary" (M-24.5:5). With this reinterpretation, the belief can be transformed into a help rather than a hindrance.
Applying this to our Workbook class participant, she might be guided to give up this other form of meditation entirely, but it's possible she might be guided to retain it in some altered form. She might be guided to make sure not to use it as a replacement for her Course practice, to use a Course version of this type of meditation (in this case, there is a Course version), to reinterpret it in a way that resolves her conflicts around it and enables her to reconnect with her Course practice, etc. There are many possibilities with a question like this, and the specific answer will probably vary from person to person.
To sum up, I think the best approach is to submit all of our practices and beliefs to the series of questions I've just outlined, with the Holy Spirit as our Guide to the answers. Doing this will help ensure that we make speedy progress down the road to God that Jesus has laid out for us in A Course in Miracles.
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