Archive of Articles
—Major Course Concepts
The Circle of Atonement is making these thought-provoking and inspiring articles about A Course in Miracles topics available to you online. Most of these articles have appeared in past issues of our newsletter, A Better Way.
For a selection of Circle of Atonement articles translated into Spanish, go to Artículos del Círculo de Expiación en Español.
For a selection of Circle of Atonement articles translated into Dutch, go to artikelen in het Nederlands.
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- Sacred Tenets Of Egoic Relationship by Robert Perry. A light look at the rules we live by in our relationships.
- Don't Let the Ego Stop You by Allen Watson. How should we react to our own mixed motives when the ego sneaks in to our attempts to act in love?
- "The Ego Does Want to Kill You": An Experience of the Murderer Within by Greg Mackie. Greg shares a harrowing but ultimately rewarding encounter with his ego unmasked. This article describes this experience of the "murderer within" and relates the many positive lessons that came from that experience.
- How Can We Distinguish Between the Ego and the Holy Spirit? by Allen Watson. An in-depth answer, including practical advice for application, to one of the most perplexing questions for Course students.
- What is the Ego? by Allen Watson. Allen's commentary on the Workbook page, What is the Ego?, has been extracted from A Workbook Companion and made available as a separate article.
- Medicine for Those Pangs of Guilt by Robert Perry. This article unpacks a portion of Lesson 133. This lesson teaches that the way to heal our pangs of guilt is not to assert the purity of our motives, but to look on our motives undisguised. How can this wipe away our guilt? The lesson provides a brilliant answer.
- How to Enter Paradise Today T-20.III.9-10: by Allen Watson. Allen examines a passage in the Text that implicitly asks us to place ourselves in the position of the thief on the cross, and to see that person we have been resenting as the Christ, crucified next to us, yet able to take us to Paradise with him.
- Forgiving Bush: Seeing Our Holy Savior in Brother George W. by Greg Mackie. Perhaps no one in our world today inspires such intense reactions as President George W. Bush. Many people hold strong grievances against him, and in our work at the Circle, we’ve seen that many Course students are struggling to forgive him. This article is meant to help alleviate this struggle. It provides practical Course tools, including a visualization exercise, to help those who hold grievances against Bush forgive him and see him as the holy Christ he really is.
- How Do We Forgive? A Composite Forgiveness Exercise by Robert Perry. Robert locates the pattern at the heart of six Workbook lessons aimed at helping us forgive another, and then builds a lengthy forgiveness exercise based on this pattern.
- Let Me Behold My Savior Lesson 78: by Robert Perry. Course students are often confused about how to forgive. Yet the Workbook offers many exercises in which we pick a person and then forgive that person. This article walks us through one of the Course's key forgiveness exercises, which is found in Workbook Lesson 78.
- Common Fallacies About Forgiveness by Robert Perry. Because the Course defines forgiveness differently, students spend ages trying to figure out what it means by forgiveness. Along the way, they often fall into misunderstandings. This article examines seven such misunderstandings about forgiveness.
- "Let Miracles Replace All Grievances": How Can We Let Go of Our Grievances and Find the Happiness Beyond Them? by Greg Mackie. In this article, Greg explores the topic of grievances, drawing from the Course and relating its teaching to his own wrestling with grievances during his move to Arizona. What exactly is a grievance? What are the consequences of holding grievances? Most importantly, how can we let grievances go?
- What is Forgiveness? by Allen Watson. Allen's commentary on the Workbook page, What Forgiveness?, has been extracted from A Workbook Companion and made available as a separate article.
- Misunderstood Passages: Trust Not Your Good Intentions T-18.IV.2: by Allen Watson. Allen discusses the real meaning of the often-misunderstood saying from the Course, “Trust not your good intentions.” He shows that it may mean something nearly opposite to what you might suppose.
- What is a Holy Instant? Part 1 by Allen Watson. The Course uses the phrase "holy instant" 147 times. In an early discussion it identifies the holy instant as "the lesson God gives you" through the Holy Spirit (T-15.II.2:3); it says that the holy instant is sufficient to "re-establish perfect sanity, perfect peace, and perfect love," "exchange hell for Heaven," and "transcend all of the ego's making" (T-15.I.14:2,4,5). What then is this incredibly powerful thing? What is a holy instant? In two extensive articles, Allen Watson summarizes the Course's teaching on this topic.
- What is a Holy Instant? Part 2 by Allen Watson. The conclusion of What is a Holy Instant Part 1.
- The Holy Instant (Part 3) by Allen Watson.
- The Holy Instant (Part 1) by Allen Watson.
- Receiving the Holy Instant by Allen Watson.
- The Holy Instant (Part 2) by Allen Watson.
- What Is a Miracle? by Robert Perry. What student of ACIM hasn't been puzzled about how the Course defines the word "miracle"? In this article from the mid-90's, Robert attempts to clear up the confusion, as well as set straight some misconceptions.
- How Can We Receive Miracles by Allen Watson. Why don't we experience more miracles in our lives? Is it a misunderstanding of what a miracle is, or are we failing to meet the conditions for miracles? Allen addresses both potential causes in this article.
- Are Miracles Only in Our Minds? by Robert Perry. Robert responds to a reader who claims that miracles occur only in our minds and that “any discussion of extending help or healing to people who are suffering "out there" merely perpetuates separation [since] there is no "out there."”
- The Promise of a Miraculous Life by Robert Perry. The Course is not just promising us the occasional miracle. It’s really beckoning us into a life which is itself an ongoing miracle, the life lived by history’s great saints. Are we up for it?
- Miracles as the Power of Reality by Robert Perry. It may seem that seeing a miracle as an amazing happening within the world is incompatible with the Course’s teaching that the world is an illusion. In this piece, Robert defines "miracle" to show that amazing happenings in the world are the natural consequence of the world’s unreality.
- What is a Miracle? by Allen Watson. In this short, moving piece, Allen attempts to encapsulate how the Course would have us see ourselves. He says, "There is nothing wrong with you. There is nothing bad about you, nothing twisted or spoiled. You really are the innocent child of God."
- There Is No Sin by Robert Perry. A Course in Miracles talks a great deal about sin. Yet the Course has transformed this concept, acknowledging its power in this world, while denying that it's actually real. In this article, Robert explores how A Course in Miracles has reframed the traditional notion of sin.
- A New Way of Looking at Yourself by Allen Watson. In this short, moving piece, Allen attempts to encapsulate how the Course would have us see ourselves. He says, "There is nothing wrong with you. There is nothing bad about you, nothing twisted or spoiled. You really are the innocent child of God."
- A Case of Mistaken Identity by Allen Watson. Who are we, really? Not the ego.
- What is the Body? by Allen Watson. Allen' commentary on the Workbook page, What is the Body?, has been extracted from A Workbook Companion and made available as a separate article.
- What Am I? by Allen Watson. Allen' commentary on the Workbook page, What Am I?, has been extracted from A Workbook Companion and made available as a separate article.
- The Ocean of Your Mind Review IV Introduction: by Robert Perry. Shows how the Course depicts our true mind as like an ocean, whose majesty remains unaffected by all that flotsam we throw into it.
- Your Name is Brother by Greg Mackie. Greg shares a stirring example of Course principles from the pages of fiction: the story of Jean Valjean and his encounter with the Bishop of Digne, from Victor Hugo's Les Miserables.
- Fejzić and His Cow by Robert Perry. This is about the true story of a Muslim man in war-torn Bosnia who reaches across the gap between warring ethnic groups to sustain the life of a Serb infant. Robert likens this story to the event that gave birth to the Course: Helen and Bill reaching across the gap of their differences to join in finding a better way.
- "Do You Believe in Miracles?" The Holy Encounter between Ashley Smith and Brian Nichols by Greg Mackie. Greg looks at the celebrated story in which Ashley Smith showed love to the criminal holding her hostage. He demonstrates that this is a classic, real-life example of what the Course calls a holy encounter.
- Seek Not to Change the World? by Greg Mackie. The Course famously says, "Seek not to change the world, but choose to change your mind about the world" (T-21.In.1:7). Course students generally take this to mean that changing things in the external world, including behaviorally extending help to others, is not part of the Course's path. But is that really what this line means?
- How Is Our Brother Our Savior? by Robert Perry. As Course students, we probably all know that our brother is actually our savior. But how is he our savior? Is it by pushing our buttons and flushing out our ego, or does the Course have something else in mind? In this article, Robert says that the Course does indeed have something else in mind: our brother is our savior not because he is a great button pusher, but because he is the Christ, whose holiness sets us free.
- The Importance of Relationships in A Course in Miracles by Robert Perry. Interpersonal relationships in this world are "the means of return" according to the Course, but Course students often have difficulty reconciling this with the Course's metaphysics. If the world is an illusion, why would relationships in this world matter? Robert shows that the Course's emphasis on relationships is actually an expression of its metaphysics: Relationships are part of the very fabric of Heaven, so our earthly relationships are meant to be a reflection of Heaven's perfect relationships.
- Helen and Bill's Joining: A Window onto the Heart of A Course in Miracles by Robert Perry. What is the heart of the Course? What is the point at which it all comes together. This article views Helen and Bill's joining in "a better way" as that point, as the example of what the Course is trying to have happen in the lives of all of its students.
- The Importance of Relationships by Allen Watson. This article examines the importance of relationships in the Course's scheme of things. Why does it make them so important? It looks first at the importance of relationships overall, and then at what makes a holy relationship such a powerful tool of transformation.
- The Ark of Peace Is Entered Two by Two by Robert Perry. Many Course students don't believe that a holy relationship takes two. Robert explains how a relationship in which two people are truly joined in a common goal is a powerful way of learning that oneness is not a theory, but a fact.
- The Depth and Intricacy of a Single Paragraph T-20.III.2: by Robert Perry. This article is an in-depth explication of a particular paragraph in the Course, one that speaks of the ego as "the self-appointed mediator" of all relationships--the thing we look to to help us iron out our differences. How good of a job does it do?
- The Course's Nondualism: Love Is a Law Without an Opposite by Greg Mackie. A Course in Miracles is often described as "nondualistic." But is it saying the exact same thing as other nondualistic philosophies like Advaita Vedanta, or does it present us with a different kind of nondualism? In this article, Greg presents his view that the Course's version of nondualism is indeed different than the conventional understanding, and explores the benefits of this view—the primary one being that it gives us a totally loving God.
- What Does It Mean to Be in the Present? by Greg Mackie. The idea of being in the present is extremely popular in spiritual circles. When people speak of being in the present, they often mean that we must get in touch with the immediate experience of our physical world, to "lose your mind and come to your senses." But is this what the Course means when it speaks of being in the present? Or is it pointing to something else entirely?
- What Does the Course Mean by "Heart"? by Robert Perry. Does the Course use the word "heart" in the familiar way we hear the word used in spiritual circles, as that unreservedly positive place in us that we need to reconnect with, that place that is contrasted with the mind, the seat of the ego? Robert goes through the many references to "heart" in the Course and provides an answer.
- Confused about Level Confusion? by Robert Perry. Level confusion has been a source of confusion among students since the Course first came out. Robert examines the key passages about it and provides a simple explanation of what it is and what it isn't.
- From Monkey Mind to the Mind of God. Our Real Thoughts and How We Can Find Them by Greg Mackie. The Course criticizes our current thoughts but then rather than disparaging thought altogether, urges us to find our real thoughts. What are these real thoughts? How exactly can we make contact with them?
- Accept No Compromise in Which Death Plays a Part M-27, What Is Death?: by Greg Mackie. Because death is pure illusion and totally incompatible with a loving God, the Course instructs teachers of God to totally deny the reality of death. Yet because death seems so real to us, most of us make various compromises with it, in an attempt to reconcile the apparent reality of death with a God of Love. This article examines the Course's view of death as presented in Section 27 of the Manual for Teachers ("What is Death"), describes some of the compromises we make with death, and offers suggestions for how we can let those compromises go.
- Handling Our Fears by Allen Watson. The tough truth the Course sets forth is that we are responsible for our fear. It tells us that fear is not involuntary.
- How Holy Is the Smallest Grain of Sand! T-28.IV.9: by Robert Perry. There is a passage in the Course that talks about the holiness of a grain of sand. Yet the Course also teaches that all form is illusion. Deciphering this puzzling passage reveals a view in which life or mind is present within all natural forms.
- How Long Until I Am Out of Here? by Robert Perry. This article deals with a question that is a source of anxiety and confusion for many students of the Course: How long will it take us to fully awaken from the dream? How long will it take us to leave illusions behind for good and return to our Heavenly home? In this article, Robert offers his own views on this question, based on his reading of the Course. The answer in a nutshell: We could awaken at any moment, but it will likely be a very long time before we choose to do so.
- Are We Responsible? by Robert Perry. How can it be that we are responsible for everything that happens to us, on the inside and the outside, including our physical illnessess, yet are never to blame?
- The Course's Definition of "Idols" by Robert Perry. In common parlance we speak of idols as false gods that we look to for salvation. The Course takes this same usage and expands and deepens it, providing remarkable insight on the things we look to for salvation and why those things will not save us.
- Laughing the World Away: Laughter in A Course in Miracles by Robert Perry. Laughter heals and A Course in Miracles is about healing. It makes sense, then, that we would find in the Course a philosophy of laughter, which ultimately grants laughter the power to laugh away not only our personal troubles, but the entire troubled world.
- The Purpose of Time by Allen Watson. The importance of time's purpose cannot be overemphasized. Our concept of what time is for, what our lives are for, and what our very being is for, needs radical realignment. If this does not change--if we continue to be guided by the ego's dark belief in our guilt, in which this world functions as a place of punishment--we will never find God, and we will never find our Self.
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