The Course in Daily Life
These short articles by Robert Perry are intended for the general reader—everyone from those who are totally unfamiliar with A Course in Miracles to experienced Course students. Each article applies the teachings of the Course to a daily life situation, and offers the reader a Course-based practice to apply to that situation in his or her own life.
Enjoy!
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- Who Was Jesus? The world has always been focused on the question of who Jesus was. But A Course in Miracles believes that the real question is: What did he teach?
- What's In a Name? We try to avoid misleading names, yet what if all names are misleading? If all of us are one, why do we have separate names at all? Behind these separate names, what is our true name?
- Open-Mindedness We all value open-mindedness, yet by that we mean being open-minded about particular facts or situations or issues. Could it be that there is a deeper open-mindedness, in which we are open to a whole different way of seeing reality?
- I Rest in God More important than rest of the body is rest of the mind, and that is what is offered us by this wonderful line, "I rest in God."
- Patience We feel ambivalent about patience because we fear that if we don't raise a stink, we'll have to wait longer. Could it be, however, that real patience has the power to draw to us that which we are waiting for, so that our wait is actually shorter?
- Who Are the Blind We assume that if our physical eyes are in working order, we are among the seeing. Yet all our eyes see is shapes and color. Sight of real meaning eludes us, and yet meaning is the only thing worth seeing. How, then, can we claim to have sight?
- Gentleness is Strength We automatically assume that gentleness is weakness, yet A Course in Miracles challenges this conception. It says the gentleness is far stronger than aggression, and that is why the gentle will inherit the earth.
- Does God Ask Us to Make Sacrifices? Even if we believe in a loving God, we may also believe that He occasionally changes hats, especially when He asks us to do things that look like sacrifices. Yet how logical can it be to believe that God changes hats?
- Tolerance We tend to value high standards, yet the ugly side of our high standards is intolerance. The higher our standards, the narrower the range in which we will feel all right. The key to peace is tolerance, and the key to tolerance is letting go of judgment.
- Honesty We all lie, at least in little ways, usually to save our image. Yet a real feeling of wholeness can only come from a kind of ultra-honesty, an honesty more total than we have conceived. That is what A Course in Miracles is calling us to.
- Responding to Our Little Crucifixions This piece briefly sets forth the Course's teaching on Jesus' crucifixion, that it was not payment for humanity's sins, but rather an example set for the rest of us, to teach us how to deal with our own little crucifixions.
- When Someone is Angry with You Another person's anger seems to have such power to upset our emotional balance. What would it be like to experience that person's anger as having no power over us? How can we do that?
- Seeing No Strangers We see most people as strangers, yet the very notion is based on separateness. Wouldn't it be wonderful to walk out into the world and see no strangers?
- Who is the Son of God? Western culture has traditionally seen Jesus as God's Son. What does it mean to apply that term to us?
- Leaving the Slate Blank In the same way that we rush to fill empty spaces of time, we rush to fill the neutral forms we see with meaning. Yet only by admitting that we don't know what they mean can they give us their gift.
- I See Only the Past We are all familiar with people who live completely in the past, lost in their memories of long ago, but we usually label such people senile or mentally ill. Certainly we are not among them. Or are we?
- The Path to True Self-Esteem Is it not remarkable how our feelings about ourselves can rise and fall with such rapidity?
- God's Verdict We tend to go through life feeling accused from many corners, from bosses, children, former (and current) spouses. Defending ourselves against these accusations can seem like a full-time job. We seem to be always offering our counter-explanation of the same events, in which the blame quite clearly rests on someone else.
- Being Truly Helpful How to be helpful to another is something we all wrestle with. When someone I care about is in need I find myself struggling to locate the right words, and I worry that I will bungle things. In short, I become filled with self-concern. It does not take a genius to see that being caught up in concern about oneself runs directly counter to the goal of helping someone else.
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