Exploring the Thought System
Robert's Page
A Course in Miracles is an ocean of profound and sophisticated thought. Every idea, every term, even every paragraph, contains a wealth of insight, much of it original, most of it unexplored. I believe that scholars could explore this ocean for centuries to come and continue to find new depths.
The purpose of this page is to provide a home for research pieces on the Course. Each one of these pieces provides some little bit of fresh understanding of the Course, some window onto what the author was really trying to communicate. Looking deeply into the meaning of any term, a term like "heart," for instance, invariably opens up new insights and overturns accepted wisdom. It is an exciting process. This process of diving more deeply into the Course and learning more about its intricacies is something I personally love. If you share this love, I trust that the offerings on this page will deepen your understanding of the Course.
The documents on this page are divided up into three categories:
Each of these pieces explores a particular concept from the Course, usually by collecting together a number of key passages about that concept, commenting on them, and then drawing together patterns from all of them.
Each of these pieces explores a particular Course term, usually by collecting many uses of that term, and then drawing together an overall definition.
These pieces try to draw out the meaning of particularly difficult or interesting passages in the Course.
- Did We Make the World or Just the World as We See It? by Robert Perry. When the Course says "you made the world," what does it mean by "world"?
- Are There Many Sons or Just One Son? by Robert Perry. This question sounds vaguely akin to "How many angels can dance on the head of a pin?" But actually, it has direct and massive ramifications for how we see—and practice—the entire Course.
- Forgiving Yourself Should we focus on forgiving others or forgiving ourselves? How exactly do we forgive ourselves?
- Urtext Passages Suggesting God Created the World In the early portion of the Urtext (the Course's original typescript) there are five passages which state or imply that God created the world. What do we make of these?
- "The End of an Ancient Journey" by Robert Perry. "The End of an Ancient Journey": The Meaning of "Ancient" in A Course in Miracles, In this article, Robert does a study of the word "ancient" in the Course. He finds that Jesus has retooled this word to carry a poignant and profound meaning, one that has the potential to transform our picture of our spiritual journey, as well as to illuminate the Course's use of words in general. The entire piece is quite long, but Robert summarizes his findings in the initial several pages, encapsulating what they mean for our lives.
- Acting out Fantasies Is Just Plain Acting out by Robert Perry. This study explores the Course's use of the term "acting out," which refers primarily to the familiar process of acting out our fantasies, but implies that this highly valued process is a case of just plain "acting out." Could it be that our normal pursuit of our hopes and dreams is just one big tantrum?
- The Course's Language Is Clear, Simple, Direct How should we approach the words of the Course, as largely literal or largely metaphorical? In this study, Robert seeks to answer this question by looking to the Course's own statements about its language.
- Dream Figures This is the Course's term for the bodies we see around us in this world, bodies which seem to act independently yet which are really acting out our secret wishes.
- Miracle Receiver Few of us are aware that this is even a Course term, but it is, and it helps reveal the essential nature of the miracle.
- Speaking in Tongues: What Would Jesus Do? by Robert Perry. Robert explores in-depth a passage in the Urtext in which Jesus addresses the phenomenon of speaking in tongues. In addition to critiquing speaking in tongues, Jesus' remarks also imply a whole picture of what it means to be a channel for the Holy Spirit.
- Come and Let Me Look on You: Commentary on Workbook Lesson 247 by Robert Perry. In having us say to our brothers "Come and let me look on you," Jesus is drawing upon a familiar cultural image, and then taking it in a totally unexpected direction.
- Commentary on "The Little Hindrance" (T-26.V): Explanation of this section's profound discussion on the nature of time; time as repeating pulses of "birth/death," in reflection of the ancient instant when we went from life to death.
- "When I Said...": Jesus Commenting in the Course on His Own Sayings in the Bible In the Course, Jesus sometimes refers to his sayings in the Bible. Do these references support those sayings, or suggest he never said them, or subtly correct the sayings, or all of the above?
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