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The Means Serve the End

“This is a course in miracles.” (CE In.1:1)

“This course is a mind-training course.” (CE T-3.I.1:2)

“It [the Course] is concerned only with Atonement, or the correction of perception. The means of the Atonement is forgiveness.” (CE C-In.1:2-3).

Miracles, mind training, forgiveness… These are just three components of the path of A Course in Miracles that enable us to reach its goal. They can also be referred to as “means” that lead to an “end.”

The various offerings of the Center for Miraculous Living are rooted in these and other “means to an end.” And, it is only while we seem to exist as separate selves in separate bodies, bound and limited by time and space, and with minds split between the ego and our true Self — that such means are necessary. As we read:

“Means serve the end, and as the end is reached the value of the means decreases, and is eclipsed entirely when they are recognized as functionless.” [CE T-22.VIII.1:7]

In a moment we will look at a few examples of other means — other components of the Course’s path — that are mentioned in passages found in the three volumes of the Course. Each of them refers to 1) the various “means” we use to achieve a particular state of being, as well as 2) the particular state of being itself.

Basically, those who are following the path of A Course in Miracles are instructed to 1) understand and apply specific means 2) that will result in the achievement of a way of being or state of mind that is the highest we can attain while still in this world. For example, 1) understanding and applying miraculous forgiveness, the central means taught by the Course, 2) leads to a healing of our perception, so that we see and experience (probably in glimpses at first and then eventually in a complete and sustained way) a very different world from the one we knew before. This very different world is referred to in the Course as the “real world” — the world as seen through forgiving eyes.

The real world is the same world of form but seen and experienced through “true perception” or “Christ’s Vision.” It is still the world of perception. It is still an illusion. Yet, it represents the attainment of a way of being or state of mind in which we “have been made ready” — ready for God’s “last step” when He gently and lovingly lifts us out of this world of illusion to the “awareness of perfect oneness” [CE T-18.VI.1:6] that we call heaven.

“The perception of the real world will be so short that you will barely have time to thank God for it. For God will take the last step swiftly when you have reached the real world and have been made ready for Him.” [CE T-17.II.4:4-5]

At this point, I think it is important to emphasize something for a few of you. This “attainment” of the real world will probably not be something any of us achieve all at once and, as previously stated, will more than likely occur in glimpses at first. It is very unlikely any one person will reach the true perception that allows them to experience the real world in a complete and sustained way. It is doubtful you will be participating in a Course study group where, about halfway through the meeting, one of your follow Course students will be lifted from their chair by a giant Godly hand only to disappear forever from the world of form.

As a matter of fact, another core teaching of the Course is that all minds are joined and as long as any one of us is hostage to the ego’s false perception and remains in the separated condition, the Sonship is not whole (“Sonship” is used in the Course as the plural of “Son of God.” You and I and every other living being make up the Sonship. We are individual Sons of God at the same time that we are one with the entire Sonship and with God). Awakening is ultimately a shared experience. Individual students can progress toward attainment of the real world or greatly improve their forgiveness skills. However, true and final awakening is collective—no one of us is fully awake and free of the illusory world of form until all of us are.

As students of the Course we are not “out for ourselves” or on an individual heroic quest to attain enlightenment. If we are, we are not fully understanding the teachings of the Course. Some of the words we could use to describe the central philosophy and methodology of the Course would include: mutual, shared, collective, and together.

I am not aware of any other religious or spiritual path or philosophy that has a system of thought and practice even close to the Course. For the Course, 1) the cause of separation/suffering, 2) the undoing of the cause of separation/suffering, and 3) ultimate awakening to the truth of who we are — at one with God and the entire Sonship in an eternal and infinite state of all-encompassing love, are all mutual or shared experiences. They are 1) a collective (mutual, shared) experience of separation and suffering, 2) a collective (mutual, shared) experience of the undoing of the cause of separation and suffering, and 3) a collective (mutual, shared) experience of awakening.

Finally, here are some of those other means found in the Course — other components of its path that we are instructed to use to achieve a state of mind the Course variously calls “true perception,” “Christ’s Vision,” the “happy dream,” and the “real world” — all referring to a state in which we have been “made ready” for God’s “last step” and our collective awakening to the truth of oneness and all-encompassing love.

• From the Text: “This is a course in miracles.” (CE In.1:1)
• From the Text: “This course is a mind-training course.” (CE T-3.I.1:2)
• From the Text: “If the purpose of this course is to learn what you are, and if you have already decided that what you are is fearful, then it must follow that you will not learn this course. But you might remember that the reason for the course is that you do not know what you are” (CE T-9.I.2:2-3).
• From the Text: “This is not a course in the play of ideas, but in their practical application” (CE T-11.IX.4:3).
• From the Text: “For this is a course on love, because it is about you” (CE T-13.IV.1:2).
• From the Text: “This is a course in how to know yourself. You have taught what you are, but have not let what you are teach you” (CE T-16.III.4:1-2).
• From the Text: “Forget not that the motivation for this course is the attainment and the keeping of the state of peace” (CE T-24.I.1:1).
• From the Workbook for Students: “A theoretical foundation such as the text is necessary as a background to make the exercises in this workbook meaningful. Yet it is the exercises that will make the goal of the course possible. An untrained mind can accomplish nothing. It is the purpose of these exercises to train the mind to think along the lines the course sets forth” (CE W-In.1).
• From the Manual for Teachers: “It cannot be too strongly emphasized that this course aims at a complete reversal of thought” (CE M-24.4:1).
• From the Clarification of Terms: “This is not a course in theoretical philosophy, nor is it concerned with precise terminology. It is concerned only with Atonement, or the correction of perception. The means of the Atonement is forgiveness” (CE C-In.1:1-3).
• From the Clarification of Terms: “Theological concepts as such are necessarily controversial, since they depend on belief and can therefore be accepted or rejected. A universal theology is impossible, but a universal experience is not only possible but necessary. It is this experience toward which the course is aimed. Here alone consistency becomes possible because here alone uncertainty ends” (CE C-In.2:4-7).

In addition to these passages I am sure there are other places in which the means of the Course are clarified. Those familiar with the teachings of the Course will see sameness in this list where others might see differences. We could almost use each word or phrase interchangeably:

“miracles” “mind training” “the practical application of ideas” “reversal of thought” “learning what you are” “knowing yourself” “attaining and keeping the state of peace” “the correction of perception” “love” “a universal experience” “Atonement” “forgiveness”  

In the same way that a facet or side of a diamond is simply a different angle from which to perceive the diamond’s beauty, we can imagine each of the above as a facet, component, factor, ingredient, or aspect of the means leading to the highest state we can attain while still “here” — that state of readiness — from which we experience the ultimate and inevitable end that can only be completed by God — the “last step” in the undoing of what never was and the awareness of what eternally is.

Each means is involved in the other.  Sometimes one might need to come before another.  Sometimes they seem to somehow occur simultaneously. It is faithful and consistent use of these means that guarantee our success.