Course Meets World Commentary
On this page, I will post short commentaries relating A Course in Miracles to a topic "in the news." Here's how it works: I will present material drawn from the world's media—a newspaper article, a blog, an Internet discussion, etc. (with a link to the original source). Then, I will discuss the relationship I see between it and A Course in Miracles. For example, I might show how it echoes things said in the Course, or contrast what it says with the Course's view of the same topic. The goal is to bring a Course perspective to topics being discussed in the larger world.
"Course Meets World" Commentary
- Hurts So Good? by Greg Mackie. Recently, I heard a spiritual teacher present what was to me an odd (and definitely non-Course) rationale for forgiveness: We can forgive those who attack us because we secretly agreed to have them attack us in order to teach us a loving spiritual lesson. It's all perfect; everything that happened is part of a loving divine plan that everyone agreed to before we came to this world. Even when people hurt us terribly, deep down they're really doing it for our good. If this is so, what reason do we have to resent them? We can thank them for all the good they've done for us through their attacks, and be at peace.
- To Think or Not to Think? Why Not Do Both? by Greg Mackie. I recently read an article based on the work of Eckhart Tolle called "To Think or Not to Think?" It presents a view that is virtually universal in alternative spiritual circles: a view that greatly minimizes the value of good old-fashioned discursive thinking, seeing it as mainly a barrier to real insight and spiritual growth. This is an unfortunate view in my opinion, for I believe that discursive thinking — thinking characterized by elements such as logic, reasoning, discernment, and analysis — is absolutely vital to the spiritual journey, a tool that we simply cannot do without. It is certainly vital to the path of A Course in Miracles.
- Do We Create God in Our Own (Fearful) Image? by Greg Mackie. My academic advisor in college, a dyed-in-the-wool atheist, used to say (with an impish smile) that "Man created God in his own image." As a student of A Course in Miracles, I certainly don't believe that we made God up out of whole cloth. But a recent study has provided empirical evidence for a phenomenon many of us, believers and nonbelievers alike, have noticed: People have a tendency to project their own beliefs onto God, making their view of God a picture that is indeed an image of themselves. This finding is very much in accord with the Course, which claims that God as traditionally understood is very much a product of our projection — especially the fearful and condemning elements of that traditional God.
- Tiger Woods Is Not an Image (and Neither Are We) by Greg Mackie. Tiger Woods is much in the news today, and not for his golf game. As just about everyone knows by now, on the heels of a strange auto accident outside his home, Woods has been accused of having numerous extramarital affairs with a list of woman that seems to grow by the day. Woods's image as a squeaky clean hero and role model has taken a huge hit. That is the topic of this piece. As I have read the many commentaries on this saga, I've been struck by how all of them focus on his image in one way or another. But what if, as A Course in Miracles claims, Tiger Woods (like the rest of us) is not an image at all?
- If God Is Love, Why Do We Suffer? by Greg Mackie. The problem of reconciling an all-powerful, all-loving God with the immense suffering of this world has perplexed human beings from time immemorial. Biblical scholar Bart Ehrman recounts his struggle with this problem and explores the (for him) inadequate biblical solutions in a fascinating book entitled God's Problem: How the Bible Fails to Answer Our Most Important Question—Why We Suffer. In this article, Greg offers an account of how he thinks the Course would respond to Ehrman's book, and how the Course responds to the question that haunts so many of us: If God is Love, why do we suffer?
- Forgive and Be Forgiven, Part 2: The Would-Be Robber's Gratitude by Greg Mackie. In a recent Course Meets World, I reported the story of Mohammad Sohail, a convenience store owner who offered forgiveness and help to an armed man who tried to rob him. This week, I read a follow-up story reporting the most recent development in this remarkable holy encounter: the would-be robber's expression of gratitude for Sohail's priceless gift of love. I see this whole story as a beautiful real-life parable of the power of forgiveness.
- The Fort Hood Shootings by Greg Mackie. Recently, all of us were shocked by news of the horrendous shooting incident at the Fort Hood military base in Texas. Along with many people around the world, I have prayed for the victims and their families. I have also prayed for the shooter and his family. And I've been thinking all week about how A Course in Miracles would have us respond to this incident, and how following the Course's counsel on how to treat our brothers might help us prevent tragedies like this in the future.
- Near-Death Experiences and A Course in Miracles Revisited by Greg Mackie. In an earlier Course Meets World piece, I discussed the many commonalities between near-death experiences (or "NDEs") and A Course in Miracles. Since writing that piece, I have continued to be fascinated by this phenomenon. Recently, I read an excellent new book on NDE research entitled The Handbook of Near-Death Experiences: Thirty Years of Investigation. This book includes a chapter on the aftereffects of NDEs — the life changes and life lessons these experiences bring to those who have them. These experiences permanently change the experiencers; the effects are so profound that in many cases they essentially become new people. As I was reading this material, I was struck by just how much the new person that the NDE produces has in common with the kind of person the Course aims to produce. That is the focus of this piece.
- Can We Consciously Change the Unconscious? by Greg Mackie. I just read a fascinating article by New York Times columnist David Brooks entitled "The Young and the Neuro." The article is about research findings in the growing field of social cognitive neuroscience, which studies the relationship between biology (especially brain biology) and social behavior. The finding I want to focus on here is one that really made me sit up and take notice when I read it: While many of our reactions stem from our unconscious minds and happen almost instantaneously, we are not therefore slaves of our unconscious programming. On the contrary, by working with our conscious attitudes and decision making, we can actually retrain our unconscious minds. This finding is good news for A Course in Miracles students, for this process of consciously changing the unconscious mind is a major element in the Course's program.
- The Limits of Meditation by Greg Mackie. The practice of meditation has become immensely popular in recent years. I think that on balance this is a good thing. Meditation offers numerous benefits, and it is one of the many practices given to us in A Course in Miracles. Yet a recent article in the Vancouver (Canada) Sun makes a point I think is worthy of serious reflection: there are limits to the benefits meditation can bring; in fact, an excessive focus on meditation may have detrimental effects on our overall development. The punch line is not that meditation is bad, but that ideally it should be one component of a more comprehensive spiritual program—a stance that I believe is reflected in the program of the Course.
- God Is Only Love by Greg Mackie. I have recently moved to Atlanta, Georgia, and my relocation to the "Bible Belt" has put me in regular contact with conservative Christians for the first time in my life. One thing I've noticed in a number of them is a strange combination of loving generosity toward both friends and strangers, and angry vengeance toward anyone who violates their moral code. Of course, this is actually not so strange at all: All of us display some version of this pattern, myself most certainly included. But as I've observed the conservative Christian version of it, I've realized that it is a kind of imitatio dei ("imitation of God") that reflects the nature of the God they believe in: Be both loving and vengeful because God is both loving and vengeful. As I witness this phenomenon, I find myself feeling very grateful for the radically different imitatio dei offered by both the Jesus of history and the Jesus of A Course in Miracles: Be only loving because God is only Love.
- True Empathy for Mark Sanford (and Everyone Else) by Greg Mackie. A big news story recently has been the saga of Mark Sanford, the South Carolina governor who is the latest in a series of big-name politicians caught having an extramarital affair. Many have reacted, not surprisingly, with outrage: It's bad enough to cheat on your wife, they say, but it's even worse when you have made a career of promoting conservative family values as Sanford has done. I recently read a piece, however, that suggests a different reaction to Sanford: empathy rooted in understanding that all of us are fallible. A Course in Miracles would agree that empathy is a proper response to Sanford or to anyone who makes a mistake or suffers in any way. However, it has a very different kind of empathy in mind.
- Forgive and Be Forgiven — Even When Someone Tries to Rob You by Greg Mackie. These hard economic times are driving many people to do things that they wouldn't ordinarily do. In a story passed on to me by a friend, I read about one man who was so desperate that he tried to rob a convenience store so he could feed his family. But that night, he received something far more valuable than any goods he might have been able to steal. He received the gift of forgiveness from the convenience store owner, and that gift not only transformed him, but returned to bless the owner as well. Here is yet another inspiring story about the miracle of forgiveness that is at the heart of the path of A Course in Miracles.
- One Lily of Forgiveness in Iran by Greg Mackie. A big story in the news recently has been the election in Iran and its aftermath. After current president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was declared the winner, supporters of challenger Mir Hossein Mousavi claimed that the election results were rigged and took to the streets and rooftops in protest. But the details of the election controversy are not what I want to report on here; we have CNN and Reuters for that. Instead, I want to highlight a video of the protests I saw which to me captures perfectly the choice on which the salvation of the world depends: the choice between sacrificing one another at the dark and bloody shrine of the ego, or offering one another the lilies of forgiveness that transform the darkness of our world into radiant light.
- What Goals Really Bring Us Happiness? by Greg Mackie. More and more psychological studies are discovering what many of us are slowly discovering for ourselves and A Course in Miracles is trying to teach us: Happiness comes not from achieving worldly goals, but from becoming better, more loving human beings. A new study, conducted by Edward Deci and colleagues at the University of Rochester, provides further evidence for this conclusion. It suggests that achieving goals like wealth, fame, and physical attractiveness not only doesn't make us happy, but it actually makes us feel worse. True happiness, in Deci's words, comes instead from "growing as an individual, having loving relationships, and contributing to your community."
- Just Say No to Aging — the Course's Way by Greg Mackie. Aging seems to be inexorable, a natural and inevitable process of physical decline that we are powerless to prevent. But is this really so? A recent article by Wray Herbert in Newsweek — entitled "Just Say No to Aging?" — suggests that we aren't as powerless as we think, for our mindset has a significant effect on how we age. This lends support to the all-encompassing theory of A Course in Miracles, which claims that all physical conditions, including the very existence of the body itself, are determined entirely by the mind. In the Course's view, we really could just say no to aging and bodily distress of any kind, if we learn to use the body in a whole new way.
- Is Distant Healing Possible? by Greg Mackie. A number of recent scientific studies have explored the question of whether one person can heal another at a distance. While the results of these studies have varied, I recently read about one such study which offers strong evidence that distant healing is truly possible. This finding dovetails perfectly with A Course in Miracles, which regards distant healing as not only possible but completely natural, given the true nature of reality.
- It Must Be More? by Greg Mackie. Especially in these difficult economic times, all of us hope to acquire enough to make ends meet. Of course, we would love to do better than that; if we had enough money and material things to not just get by but live comfortably, surely we would be happy with what we have, right? According to recent scientific studies, probably not. These studies suggest that there's a darker, greedier motive driving our acquisition of wealth: We don't just want enough to meet our needs; we want more than other people have. This strongly echoes the teachings of A Course in Miracles on our lust for specialness, our ego-driven need to elevate ourselves above others. "Enough" just will not do; in the Course's words, "It must be more" (T-29.VIII.8:7)
- Accepting Our Real Protection by Greg Mackie. The economic crisis has made us all feel vulnerable. In these difficult times, many of us have felt our sense of security pulled out from under us as our jobs, houses, and savings have vanished in the blink of an eye. But according to A Course in Miracles, these things never made us secure in the first place. Our true safety comes from God. Therefore, our economic difficulties don't have to bring us fear and trembling. They can also give us a precious opportunity to let go of our false sense of security and accept our real protection.
- Kent Whitaker: Forgiving the Son Who Murdered My Family by Greg Mackie. Since forgiveness is the central teaching of A Course in Miracles, I love true stories of forgiveness in extreme situations. I found another recently in a story featured on Oprah. This is the story of Kent Whitaker, who forgave his son for an act so horrifying it is hard to even imagine: arranging the murder of his own family. Though Kent's forgiveness was from a born-again Christian perspective, I find some striking parallels with the Course.
- Vote for Christ! by Greg Mackie. The big event in the news right now is the upcoming American election. Needless to say, A Course in Miracles doesn't give us any advice about which candidates to choose. However, interestingly enough, the original typescript of the Course has a passage that refers to elections and voting machines. Given that the election is on everyone's mind right now, I thought it would be interesting to look at this passage to see what kind of election it is talking about and which candidate in that election it wants us to vote for.
- How Can the Course Help Us Cope with the Current Financial Crisis? by Greg Mackie. We've all seen the headlines, and everyone's talking about it: America is experiencing a financial crisis that some say is the worst since the Great Depression. Like everyone else, I have been pondering what effect the recent events on Wall Street will have on my own life. What will happen to my income, since I work full time for the Circle and our donations go down when the economy suffers? What will happen to my supplemental income performing weddings, since fewer people come to Sedona to get married when they are watching every penny? Since I am a Course student, one question is the most important of all: How can my path help me cope with this financial crisis and the distressing questions it brings up? I want to share a few Course ideas that have helped me with this. I hope they will be helpful to you too.
- The Unabomber's Brother, My Brother by Greg Mackie. A Course in Miracles is all about forgiveness and joining, so now and then I like to share a story that exemplifies these values. Recently, I came across the remarkable story of Unabomber victim Gary Wright and the Unabomber's brother, David Kaczynski. You would think that Wright would want to keep at arm's length the brother of a man who tried to bomb him to oblivion. Why have anything to do with another member of that crazy family? Yet against all odds, Wright and Kaczynski have forged a friendship so deep that they now regard each other as brothers.
- Why I Watch the Olympics, in Spite of Everything by Greg Mackie. Anyone who's not meditating in a cave somewhere knows that the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, China have just concluded. I have to confess that I enjoy watching the Olympics, which may sound strange coming from a Course teacher. How can a Course teacher enjoy an athletic competition that is for the most part a monument to specialness? On a more mundane level, I'm sure it's simply an artifact of my youth. I watched the Games growing up, I was a competitive distance runner who once dreamed of Olympic glory as a teenager, and old habits die hard. But I think one reason I watch the Games today is because they offer, on a world stage, both extreme examples of egocentricity (which can help us get in touch with our own versions of egocentricity), and occasional glimmers of hope that we may yet transcend our petty egos and join together in peace.
- "Deep Down, We Can't Fool Even Ourselves" by Greg Mackie. Abraham Lincoln famously said that you can fool all of the people some of the time and some of the people all of the time, but you can't fool all of the people all of the time. But a recent New York Times article describing psychological research on moral hypocrisy suggests that there's at least one person we can never really fool: ourselves. While on the surface we live by double standards, telling ourselves that our selfish actions are justified while condemning the same actions in others, deep down we know better. Underneath our rationalizations, we know what we're doing is wrong, and judge ourselves by the same standards we apply to everyone else. I believe this research provides a revealing window into the workings of the ego as depicted in A Course in Miracles.
- Miracles Happen to Everybody by Greg Mackie. Recently I came across the remarkable story of Ingrid Betancourt. She is the former candidate for the presidency of Colombia who was recently rescued (with fourteen others) after six years of being held hostage by the rebel Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). She and her fellow captives endured an incredible ordeal so hellish that it is difficult for me to even imagine. But I find in her response to that ordeal a powerful demonstration of Course in Miracles principles of forgiveness, devotion to the welfare of others, and conviction in the power of God to bring about miracles even in the darkest of times.
- The Gift of Forgiveness by Greg Mackie. I am a hospice volunteer, and to help me in my work I'm reading a wonderful book called The Needs of the Dying by David Kessler, an associate of the late Elisabeth Kübler-Ross. In it there is a beautiful story that illustrates the teaching of A Course in Miracles that every situation, no matter how difficult or painful it may seem, provides us with a precious gift: the opportunity to forgive.
- Jill Bolte Taylor: A Stroke of Insight? by Greg Mackie. Many Course students have sent me a link to a video of a talk by Jill Bolte Taylor, a brain scientist who had a powerful spiritual experience of peace, joy, and oneness during a stroke. The video has become a sensation; more than two million viewers have seen it, and it continues to get twenty thousand hits a day. She has become a bona fide celebrity, writing a bestselling book called My Stroke of Insight, appearing on Oprah, and recently being named one of TIME Magazine's one hundred most influential people. Her message: We can all have a spiritual experience just like hers if we simply get out of our left brains and into our right brains. What would A Course in Miracles have to say about this? In my opinion, while the experience itself was remarkable and looks to me like the kind of experience the Course wants to facilitate, her interpretation of it as a call to move to the right brain is both questionable as science and not truly compatible with the Course.
- Pain Is Deception; Joy Alone Is Truth by Greg Mackie. One of the most radical teachings of A Course in Miracles is that "It is your thoughts alone that cause you pain" (W-pI.190.5:1), and the joy of God is the only thing that's real. This sounds wonderful in theory, since it offers us the possibility of exchanging pain for joy by changing our thoughts. But as we go through life enduring one seemingly intractable pain after another, this idea becomes more and more difficult to believe. When you're in pain, it feels so compellingly real, an inevitable consequence of life on earth. How can it be only a product of your own mind? Yet as difficult as this idea is to believe, we do have evidence that points in its direction. For instance, I read recently about a man who used hypnosis to go through a surgery painlessly, without chemical anesthesia of any kind.
- Can Evolution Be Reconciled with God? by Greg Mackie. The battle between proponents of evolution and "intelligent design" is all the rage these days. Can evolution be reconciled with God? The fundamentalists who are the main advocates of intelligent design say no: Genesis says God created every species in the beginning, they believe it, and that settles it. Scientific atheists like Richard Dawkins also say no, but from the other side: Science says every species evolved over time, God is obviously a primitive delusion, and that settles it. Then there are those like Francisco Ayala, the subject of a recent New York Times article that prompted this piece, who affirm evolution but also insist that yes, it can be reconciled with God. Where does A Course in Miracles stand on this issue? Though it barely mentions evolution, I believe that it does ultimately reconcile evolution with God. However, as is so characteristic of the Course, it does so in a unique and unexpected way.
- Taking Your Mugger Out to Dinner by Greg Mackie. Jesus' teachings on how to respond to attack have always been challenging. In the gospels, he calls us to turn the other cheek, give the coat and the shirt off our back, and go the extra mile. In A Course in Miracles, he calls us to be wholly gentle, respond to all attacks with loving help, and cheerfully comply when someone makes an "outrageous" request of us. Christians and Course students alike, when confronted with these teachings, ask: Does he really mean it? Does he want us to literally do these things? Or is this just hyperbole meant to encourage loving kindness, not a realistic way to live in the world? As challenging as it is, I think he really does mean it quite literally. The transformative power of actually living this teaching was vividly demonstrated recently in the remarkable story of Julio Diaz, a man who took his mugger out to dinner.
- Give 'Til It Feels Good, Part 2 by Greg Mackie. In an earlier Course Meets World Commentary, Give 'Til It Feels Good," I reported on a scientific study which showed that giving money to others increases the happiness of those who give. This week, I read about another study that has reached the same conclusion. This study, conducted by a research team from the University of British Columbia and Harvard Business School, found that spending even a small amount of money on another person can make us significantly happier than if we had spent it on ourselves—even if we had believed the exact opposite prior to the giving. More and more, it seems that science is confirming a basic principle of A Course in Miracles: "To give and to receive are one in truth" (W-pI.108.Heading)
- Easter: The Great Reversal by Greg Mackie. As I'm writing this it is Holy Week, the time when Christians commemorate the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus. The events of Holy Week have been celebrated as "good news" for centuries, and for good reason: They represent a great reversal, the overcoming of evil, sin, and death by goodness, holiness, and eternal life. Yet A Course in Miracles presents a very different version of that reversal than traditional Christianity, and I find myself reflecting on just how different (and more profound, in my view) the Course's version is.
- Is the Pursuit of Happiness Misguided? by Greg Mackie. The past ten years or so have seen a spate of books and self-help gurus promoting the attainment of permanent happiness. But according to a recent article in Newsweek by Sharon Begley entitled "Happiness: Enough Already," there has lately been a backlash against the "happiness movement." New books such as Eric Wilson's Against Happiness: In Praise of Melancholy argue that the quest for constant happiness is fundamentally misguided. It makes normal sadness into a pathology, and by demonizing discontent, it robs us of the motivation to become better people and make the world a better place. As a student of A Course in Miracles, a path which aims to bring us permanent happiness, I've been pondering the question: How would the Course answer the critics of the pursuit of happiness? My short answer is that I think the Course would actually agree that seeking the kind of "happiness" promoted in most self-help books is misguided, since it is really a pseudo-happiness. However, the Course's remedy is not to abandon the pursuit of happiness, but to seek and find true happiness.
- The Uncommon Goodness of Greg Mortenson by Greg Mackie. I just read a remarkable and inspiring book called Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Promote Peace…One School at a Time. This book tells the story of Greg Mortenson, a mountain climber whose failed attempt to climb K2 led to the discovery of his life's mission: building schools, especially for girls, in the impoverished villages in northern Pakistan and Afghanistan that gave rise to the Taliban. To me, Mortenson's story demonstrates the immense power of dedication to the goal of serving others. I believe he is a shining example of the kind of person — a person of uncommon goodness — that A Course in Miracles wants us to become.
- Denial Makes the World Go Round by Greg Mackie. Everyone steeped in the culture of self-help and recovery knows that denial is not "a river in Egypt," but a destructive means of keeping our addictions in place. However, a recent article in the New York Times presents a more benign view: While too much denial can be destructive, some degree of denial is essential to maintaining friendly human relationships. Is denial, then, a good or a bad thing? A Course in Miracles would agree that denial holds together human relationships as we know them, but in its view this is not a good thing, for human relationships as we know them are not as friendly as we think. Their real nature is obscured by layers of denial far more pervasive and destructive than we suspect, layers that keep us in misery. Fortunately, we can peel away these layers of denial, and when we do, we can discover the joy of truly loving relationships.
- Thoughts Can Be Our Best Friends by Greg Mackie. It is common in alternative spiritual circles to glorify the emotions at the expense of the mind. "Get out of your head and into your heart," as the saying goes. In many versions of this view, raw emotion is primary; pure feeling, which exists prior to and independent of discursive thought, is where the action is. Thoughts, on the other hand, are secondary artificial constructs that distance us from that raw emotion. Spiritual growth, then, comes primarily from setting aside the artificiality of thought entirely, so we can get back in touch with our unadulterated feelings. But is this really true? Buddhist monk Matthieu Ricard suggests that from the perspective of both Buddhism and recent brain research, there is no raw emotion independent of thought. Emotions are inseparable from thoughts, and therefore a powerful pathway to spiritual growth is to cultivate the right thoughts. A Course in Miracles would wholeheartedly agree.
- What a Difference a Few Words Make by Greg Mackie. The recently discovered Gospel of Judas (a third-century gospel that no one believes was actually authored by him) caused quite a buzz when it was released by the National Geographic Society in 2006. Most of the publicity centered around this gospel's apparent reversal of the traditional view of Judas: He was not a villain but a hero. He did not betray Jesus; rather, he handed Jesus over to the authorities because Jesus asked him to, and this act of obedience was rewarded with entry into the Kingdom of Heaven and a position above all of the other disciples. However, April D. DeConick, a professor of biblical studies at Rice University, claims that this entire picture is due to mistranslation; in fact, she says, this gospel presents Judas not as a hero, but as a demon. I am no scholar of ancient languages, so I have no idea who is right here. But to me, this entire debate underscores just what a profound difference the interpretation of a few words in a scripture can make, be it the Gospel of Judas or A Course in Miracles.
- God Has the Last Word by Greg Mackie. On the excellent PBS television show Bill Moyers Journal, I recently saw a fascinating interview with James Cone, an African American scholar, minister, and theologian who teaches at Union Theological Seminary in New York City. The interview covers a variety of topics, but one thread woven throughout it really struck me. Again and again, Cone comes back to a powerful and liberating idea that he draws from the experience of blacks in America: Because God is Love and He created us as eternal spirits, we have the power to overcome even the worst that life can throw at us. No matter how horrific things look—even when the body is enslaved or destroyed by the powers that seem to have the last word in this world—hope is always justified, because it is God Who really has the last word. While Cone would undoubtedly disagree with A Course in Miracles on a number of points, I see many Course-like elements in his central message.
- The Power of Unconditional Forgiveness by Greg Mackie. I recently saw a great question posed on the religious dialogue website On Faith: "How can we forgive our enemies? Should we, even if they have committed atrocities?" Well-known religious writer John Shelby Spong gives what I think is an amazing answer, especially in a world where forgiveness is usually tied to the requirement of repentance or apology on the part of the wrongdoer: "Desmond Tutu's great insight was that there are no conditions on forgiveness. The 'even if' part of this question means that the questioner is not talking about forgiveness." He goes on to describe how the power of unconditional forgiveness-the kind of forgiveness A Course in Miracles teaches-transformed the entire nation of South Africa in a way that can only be described as miraculous.
- The Curse of Specialness by Greg Mackie. If you follow sports at all, you know that this week, the Boston Red Sox won their second World Series in four years. This is an amazing turnaround for a team that until 2004 had not won a championship in eighty-six years—a streak of futility that fans dubbed "the Curse of the Bambino," since it began after the Sox traded Babe Ruth to the New York Yankees in 1919. Since I've been a Red Sox fan for over thirty years, I've been pleased by this recent run of success. Yet as a student of A Course in Miracles, it has also given me an opportunity to reflect on how sports fandom is a great window into the nature of specialness.
- The Jesus of History: the Source of the Course? by Greg Mackie. A Course in Miracles claims that Jesus is its author, but how can we really know this is so? There's no way it could ever be proven one way or the other, but one way to at least evaluate the plausibility of the Course's claim is to compare the Jesus of the Course to the historical Jesus revealed by modern scholarship. I've been reading a fascinating book by Jesus scholar John Kloppenborg Verbin, entitled Excavating Q: The History and Setting of the Sayings Gospel. In it, Kloppenborg Verbin examines what many scholars believe is the earliest extant layer of the Jesus tradition: a "sayings gospel" embedded within Matthew and Luke which scholars call "Q." And strikingly, the Jesus of the earliest layer of Q as Kloppenborg describes it looks much like the Jesus of the Course.
- Love and Kindness Must Win Over Everything by Greg Mackie. I've followed with great interest reports on what has been called the "Saffron Revolution" in Myanmar (Burma). In a country that has been ruled by repressive military governments since 1962, tens of thousands of Buddhist monks have been peacefully demonstrating against the current regime, standing up for an alternative vision powerfully expressed in a banner some of them carried: "Love and kindness must win over everything." This has led me to reflect anew on something that I've pondered many times over the years: Is sociopolitical activism of this nature in accord with the principles of A Course in Miracles?
- Release Instead of Bind, for Thus Are You Made Free by Greg Mackie. Crime is a hot-button issue in our society. How should we regard people who commit crimes, and how should we deal with them when we apprehend them? A common answer is the get-tough-on-crime, law-and-order approach: "These people are the scum of the earth—lock them up and throw away the key!" That, we are told, is the only thing that will keep us safe from all the monsters out there. However, more and more people are coming to realize that another answer is not only possible but actually far more effective: We can see these people as human beings with inherent worth, and help them discover that worth so they can return to civil society. Our safety lies not in condemnation but rehabilitation. PBS's Religion and Ethics Newsweekly recently profiled Pat Nolan, a man who has taken a transformative journey from the former to the latter view—a view very much in line with A Course in Miracles.
- Who's Minding the Mind? by Greg Mackie. A Course in Miracles claims that underneath our surface beliefs and motivations, we have a deep pit of dark, unconscious beliefs, motivations, and drives that are the real engines running our lives. We believe we murdered the Son of God in ourselves, and that we are so vile we would kill ourselves if our true nature were revealed to us. An underlying motivation in our love relationships is to take vengeance on past partners by extracting "love" from our current ones, who inevitably become targets of vengeance themselves. We have a relentless unconscious drive to accumulate guilt and punish ourselves with pain and death, all to serve the insane goal of keeping God's Love away from us. How can such dark drives be running our lives without our knowing it? It's difficult to imagine. Yet recent scientific studies leave the door open for the Course's account of our lives, for "the new studies reveal a subconscious…that is far more active, purposeful and independent than previously known."
- Immaculée Ilibagiza: Forgiving the Rwandan Holocaust by Greg Mackie. Since the central teaching of A Course in Miracles is forgiveness, I love hearing about extreme forgiveness stories in which someone forgives the seemingly unforgivable. I've shared a few of those in these "Course Meets World" Commentaries, such as Roy Ratcliff forgiving the serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer and Eva Kor forgiving the Nazi doctor Joseph Mengele. Recently, I came across another remarkable forgiver: a woman named Immaculée Ilibagiza. In her book Left to Tell: Discovering God Amidst the Rwandan Holocaust, she tells the amazing story of how she survived the genocide that took nearly a million lives, including almost her entire immediate family. Above all, it is a story of the transformative power of forgiveness.
- Are We Living in a Virtual Reality? by Greg Mackie. The idea that we are living in some sort of artificial world has long fascinated human beings. This fascination is reflected in the numerous science fiction works on this topic, and in the popularity of movies like the Matrix trilogy and The Truman Show. Most of us, of course, dismiss it as an intriguing fantasy, not to be taken seriously as a real possibility. However, with the advent of more and more powerful computers, some are beginning to wonder if this possibility is more likely than we have suspected. A philosopher at Oxford University named Nick Bostrom presents an argument that suggests there is a good chance—"a 20 percent chance" according to his "gut feeling"—that our world is a computer simulation run by someone in a "posthuman" civilization. Is this true? Who knows? But our continued fascination with possibilities like this makes me wonder if something in us suspects that what A Course in Miracles says is true: Life as we know it is taking place in what could be called a virtual reality.
- The Agony of Mother Teresa by Greg Mackie. This week, the world was shocked by revelations about the inner life of Mother Teresa. Recently published letters to her confessors and superiors reveal that for the last fifty years of her life, while she was selflessly giving the Love of God to the poorest of the poor in Calcutta, inwardly she was not feeling His Love at all. While she was beaming that beatific smile in public, in private she was telling her confidants that the smile was "a mask," "a cloak that covers everything." While her outer life was apparently full of light and love, she described her inner life as "dryness," "darkness," "loneliness," and "torture," so hellish that she even expressed doubts about the existence of God. What are we to make of this? Of course, no one can know exactly what is in another's soul. That being said, I believe A Course in Miracles can shed some helpful light on this.
- Are Little Children Really Egoless? by Greg Mackie. The innocence of children is a truism. We tend to view children, especially very young ones, as pure, guileless little angels. It is even said that children are our teachers, egoless beings of light who remind us of the innocence we lost when we grew up and entered the self-centered, manipulative adult world. Yet recent research reported in the UK Telegraph has demonstrated what many parents have probably suspected all along: Even very young children are not quite as guileless as they seem. Just as with adults, it appears that behind many of a small child's "innocent" actions is a manipulative ego using subterfuge to get its way. This finding lends support to the less sentimental view of children presented in A Course in Miracles.
- Is Hierarchy Really Such a Bad Thing? by Greg Mackie. It is common in our culture, especially in the counterculture, to say that hierarchy is bad, so we should aim to create human communities with no hierarchy at all. Given the unfortunate human propensity for creating "domination systems" in which small groups of elites ruthlessly oppress everyone else, this sentiment is certainly understandable. There are lots of unhealthy hierarchies in the world that need to be reformed. But is all hierarchy inherently bad? And is it even possible to have a community with no hierarchy of any kind? Richard Conniff writes in the New York Times that in his opinion, the answer to both questions is no. Though this may come as a surprise to many students of A Course in Miracles, I believe the Course would agree.
- Mother Antonia: The Prison Angel by Greg Mackie. The goal of A Course in Miracles is to produce miracle workers, people who devote their lives to extending love and forgiveness to others in thought, word, and deed. This extension heals others and thereby makes our own healing complete. What does a life of miracle working look like? One way to answer this question is to look to real life examples of miracle workers in our midst. One amazing example is Mother Antonia, the "Prison Angel of Tijuana," who left a comfortable life in Beverly Hills to spend the last thirty years serving her "beloved hijos" (sons) in a squalid Mexican prison.
- Apocalypse 2012? by Greg Mackie. The idea that the world will end in a cataclysmic apocalypse that ushers in a new age is one of the most enduring human ideas. It is all the rage today. From fundamentalist Christians awaiting a Left Behind-style Rapture and Tribulation, to Shiite Muslims preparing for the arrival of the Twelfth Imam, to New Agers anticipating the extraterrestrials who will make all things new, everyone seems to agree with Bob Dylan that "the times they are a changin'." I recently read a New York Times Magazine article that describes a new version of the apocalyptic scenario: the belief that the world as we know it will end in 2012, the final year of the ancient Mayan calendar. This got me to thinking about what A Course in Miracles tells us about how the world will end.
- Are Psychic Abilities Real? by Greg Mackie. A Course in Miracles claims that the mind has abilities far beyond what our modern worldview deems possible. Stories of things like extrasensory perception (the ability to mentally receive information without the use of conventional channels), precognition (the ability to see the future), and psychokinesis (the ability to move physical things with the mind) have been reported from ancient times. Many people claim to be psychic, we've all heard amazing stories, and most of us have had "woo woo" experiences at one time or another. But given the human propensity for wishful thinking, self-deception, and (sadly) the perpetration of outright fraud, how can we really know for sure whether "psi phenomena" are real?
- Forgiving Doctor Mengele by Greg Mackie. Forgiveness is the central teaching of A Course in Miracles. The Course tells us that "forgiveness is the only sane response" (T-30.VI.2:8) to apparent attack, "the key to happiness" (W-pI.121.Heading), and "the way in which your only hope of freedom lies" (S-2.I.6:1). The Course calls us to forgive everyone and everything without exception, yet this seems to be such a daunting task. Can we really forgive everyone and everything? One way to bolster our conviction that we can is to learn from the example of people who have forgiven the seemingly unforgivable. This week, PBS's Religion and Ethics Newsweekly program profiled one such person: a woman named Eva Kor, a Holocaust survivor who forgave Josef Mengele, the infamous Nazi doctor known as the "angel of death."
- Give 'Til It Feels Good by Greg Mackie. We're all familiar with the phrase "Give 'til it hurts." Yet a recent scientific study shows that giving really feels good. The brain registers positive feelings not only when you give to another person, but can even do so when you witness giving from a source other than yourself. This finding dovetails nicely with the fundamental teaching of A Course in Miracles that giving is receiving, and the related teaching that when anyone gives a true gift of love, everyone benefits. In the Course's words: "You are being blessed by every beneficent thought of any of your brothers anywhere" (T-5.In.3:1).
- Freedom Is Free by Greg Mackie. As those of us in the United States celebrate Independence Day on July 4, I've been reflecting on the nature of freedom. What does freedom really mean? Who is free? What is he or she free from? How is freedom acquired, and at what cost? The answers to these questions given by A Course in Miracles are quite different from the answers implied by the story we celebrate with marching bands, patriotic speeches, and fireworks on the Fourth.
- The Atheist and the Martyr by Greg Mackie. An unexpected development in book publishing recently has been the popularity of a group of authors dubbed the "New Atheists," unabashed nonbelievers taking passionate aim at religious faith. Sam Harris got the ball rolling with his bestseller The End of Faith, and since then other bestsellers have followed: Daniel Dennett's Breaking the Spell, Richard Dawkins's The God Delusion, and Christopher Hitchens's recent God Is Not Great, to name a few. These authors' reasons for not believing in God are many and varied, but one reason for their zeal has been the post-9/11 fear of a group who might be called the "New Martyrs": Islamic suicide terrorists. (This is certainly true of Harris, whose book is subtitled "Religion, Terror, and the End of Reason" and includes a withering chapter on Islam.) Indeed, the two groups seem like natural opponents: atheists who reject belief in God, and martyrs who are willing to die (and in this case kill) for God. Yet surprisingly, according to A Course in Miracles, beneath the surface the atheist and the martyr are not really so different.
- All My Relations by Greg Mackie. Human beings and other animals are very good at telling relatives apart from strangers. Now, a recent study has shown for the first time that plants can do this as well. Does this mean, as A Course in Miracles seems to suggest, that plants are sentient beings, beings that in some sense could be called "persons"?
- Forgetting In Order to Remember Better by Greg Mackie. A New York Times article describes a recent study that provides physical evidence for a major theory in cognitive studies: Blocking distracting memories—forgetting them—is a key part of the process of remembering new things that we want to remember. In other words, to quote A Course in Miracles, "You forget in order to remember better" (T-7.II.6:5)
- Global Warming and A Course in Miracles by Greg Mackie. Hardly a day goes by without another ominous report on global warming. Just a couple of days ago, I read an article about a series of authoritative studies that say global warming is accelerating three times more quickly than the worst predictions. The scientific community has reached a massive consensus: Global warming is really happening, and it is mainly caused by human activity. It will have dramatic effects on the earth and human society unless we act quickly to do something about it (and may have dramatic effects even if we do act quickly). Recently, someone asked me what A Course in Miracles would have to say about all this. Does the Course shed any light on this issue?
- Near-Death Experiences and A Course in Miracles by Greg Mackie. Long before I had ever heard of A Course in Miracles, I read Life After Life, Raymond Moody's seminal book on near-death experiences (NDEs). When I later read the Course, I remember noticing things in it that reminded me of things in Moody's book. Now, after reading a recent article summarizing the latest research on near-death experiences, I'm struck once again by just how much in those experiences echoes things said in the Course.
- Is Your Brain Really Necessary? by Greg Mackie. You may dismiss the title question as a real no brainer, but in so doing you may be closer to the truth than you realize. I recently encountered some remarkable research that suggests that at least for some people, the answer may be no. A British neurology professor named Dr. John Lorber (now deceased) collected several hundred case studies of people with "no detectable brain" who nonetheless lived perfectly normal lives and scored up to 120 on IQ tests.
- Hearing the Music by Greg Mackie. The Washington Post magazine recently performed an interesting experiment: They had world-renowned concert violinist Joshua Bell pose as a street musician. He took his 1713 Stradivarius violin to a Washington, D.C. subway station during the morning commute and played six pieces for forty-three minutes. What would happen? Would people notice his virtuosity? Would they stop and listen? How much money would they give him? I found the results of the experiment fascinating, in part because they seem to echo what A Course in Miracles says about the nature of perception.
- The Power of Negative Thinking by Greg Mackie. Positive thinking is all the rage in America these days, especially in alternative spiritual circles. As Atul Gawande states in a recent New York Times article, "the prevailing wisdom is that thinking positive is the key—The Secret, even—to success." Gawande goes on, however, to say that at least at some times and in some areas of life, "Negative thinking may be exactly what we need." I think A Course in Miracles would agree.
- What Can We Do Together? by Greg Mackie. It's a sad fact that when we hear about Muslims in the news these days, it's usually about fundamentalists blowing people up in the name of global jihad. But as I watched public broadcasting's excellent Religion and Ethics Newsweekly program a couple of weeks ago, I was introduced to a Muslim who is the antithesis of that unfortunate stereotype. His name is Eboo Patel, a 31-year-old Indian-American Muslim who is the founder and leader of a movement called the Interfaith Youth Core.
- Does Hell Exist? by Greg Mackie. The idea of hell has a strong hold on the human imagination. Virtually every religious tradition has some version of it. In the West, even people who have never been inside a church are familiar with the traditional image of hell as a fiery, underground abode where horned devils with pitchforks torment the damned for eternity. But does it really exist?
- A Prayer for Virginia Tech by Greg Mackie. We've all heard the news by now: A student at Virginia Tech University killed thirty-two people and then himself, in the deadliest shooting incident in modern U.S. history. All of us at the Circle of Atonement extend our heartfelt condolences and prayers to everyone touched in any way by this tragedy.
- Healing the Slaughterhouse by Greg Mackie. Many people point to the beauty and order of nature as evidence for God. Just today, in fact, I was reading a Time Magazine article about Albert Einstein's spirituality—his belief in a "God who reveals himself in the harmony of all that exists." What better evidence could there be of the Love and plenitude of God (or the Goddess) than the glorious circle of life?
- The Perfect Lesson by Greg Mackie. This week is Holy Week, the week Christians commemorate the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus. This week is central to the Christian faith, for according to the tenets of that faith, the events Holy Week celebrates are those which brought about the Atonement, humankind's reconciliation with God.
- God Still Speaks by Greg Mackie. A Course in Miracles tells us that "God's Voice speaks to me all through the day" (W-pI.49.Heading). An essential teaching of the Course is that we should listen to that Voice and let it guide all of our decisions. This guidance needn't take the form of an audible voice: it can come through a thought, an image, a feeling, or myriad other ways. Whatever form it takes, discerning God's Voice clearly on a consistent basis is a skill that won't be learned overnight. Yet the Course promises that, with time and practice, we can hear God's Voice, and that Voice will lead us home.
- Unmasking the "Vain Brain" by Greg Mackie. I recently read a review of what looks like a fascinating book: A Mind of Its Own: How Your Brain Distorts and Deceives, by Cordelia Fine, a psychologist at the Australian National University. (The review is by Richard Lipkin, and appears in the August/September 2006 issue of Scientific American Mind.) The main theme of this book is how the human mind distorts perceptions to make itself look good: a phenomenon Fine calls the "vain brain."
- Welcome to the Family of God by Greg Mackie. This week, I read an inspiring New York Times story about a man named Roy Ratcliff, minister of the Mandrake Road Church of Christ in Madison, Wisconsin. He was living an ordinary life as a nondescript minister of a small church, when one day something happened that changed his life forever. In April 1994, he was called to the Columbia Correctional Institution in Portage, Wisconsin, because an inmate wanted to be baptized. In and of itself, a minister baptizing a prisoner is nothing unusual. This, however, was no run-of-the-mill prisoner. It was Jeffrey Dahmer, the notorious serial killer.
- The Lost Tomb of Jesus? by Greg Mackie. I just watched The Lost Tomb of Jesus, a film produced by James Cameron (of Titanic fame) which has caused quite a stir among those interested in the historical Jesus. It claims that a tomb discovered in Jerusalem in 1980 is highly likely to be the family tomb of Jesus of Nazareth. Based on a number of factors, especially the inscriptions on some of the ossuaries found there (ossuaries are limestone boxes that contain the bones of the deceased), the film claims that Jesus, his mother Mary, several other relatives, and Mary Magdalene were entombed there. It speculates that Jesus and Mary Magdalene were married and had a son together. (A "Judah, Son of Jesus" was also buried in the tomb.) Needless to say, if all this is true, it has huge ramifications for how we view Jesus.
- Giving Our Sleep to the Holy Spirit by Greg Mackie. When we face a difficult problem in our lives, we are often advised to "sleep on it." A recent article in the Daily Mail (UK) describes scientific research that supports this advice. A number of studies have shown that sleep does a lot more than simply provide rest and recuperation. A great deal of mental processing happens during sleep. In the words of the article, "Sleep strengthens the memory and helps the brain extract themes and rules from the masses of information we soak up during the day." In short, sleep is a time of learning.
- The Holiest Spot on Earth by Greg Mackie. An article in the most recent issue of Time Magazine describes the newest front in the seemingly never-ending abortion war in the United States: "crisis pregnancy centers," clinics run by pro-life groups that aim to dissuade women from getting abortions. Pro-choice advocates argue that these clinics subtly pressure women to forego abortions, and that they don't give women the accurate information they need to make an informed choice. Pro-life advocates counter that it's groups like Planned Parenthood and abortion clinics that don't give accurate information, because they have a vested interest in performing abortions. And so the controversy rages on.
- The Meaning of Repentance by Greg Mackie. Renowned Jesus scholar Marcus Borg has recently written a book entitled Jesus: Uncovering the Life, Teachings, and Relevance of a Religious Revolutionary. In this fascinating book, Borg presents a comprehensive portrait of the Jesus of history, based on a lifetime of research. Among the many new insights I've gotten from this book is a fresh view of what Jesus meant by "repentance."
- Jesus Loves Osama by Greg Mackie. The Central Baptist Church in Sydney, Australia has erected a sign saying, "Jesus Loves Osama" —referring, of course, to the infamous leader of the Al-Qaeda terrorist network, Osama bin Laden. At the bottom of the sign, in smaller letters, is the gospel quotation from Jesus on which the sign is based: "Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you" (Matt. 5:44).
- The Resurrection of Sigmund Freud by Greg Mackie. The author of A Course in Miracles had a high regard for Sigmund Freud. He discussed Freud at length with the Course's scribes (both of whom were Freudian psychologists) in material that didn't make it into the published Course. The Course itself shares Freud's psychodynamic approach to the mind: an approach that sees the human psyche as a turbulent arena of conflicting drives, most of which are buried in the unconscious through various defense mechanisms. The Course's thought system is starkly different from Freud's in many respects—for instance, unlike Freud, the Course claims that the conflicts of the mind can be escaped through awakening to God—yet the similarities with Freud's basic approach are apparent.
- Happiness Through Mind Training by Greg Mackie. A recent article by Anthony Barnes in the Independent (UK) describes Matthieu Ricard—a Buddhist monk who is the French interpreter for the Dalai Lama—as "the world's happiest man." The good news for all of us is that, in Ricard's view, happiness is not simply the result of good fortune or good genes. Rather, it is a "skill" all of us can learn, if we will just put time and effort into training our minds.
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