Out of the Course Ghetto

There is a temptation among students of A Course In Miracles to seek to congregate with like minded people, and then they naively assume that this means other students of A Course In Miracles. Discovering the fallacy of that notion sometimes leads to quite a bit of consternation. The fundamental conundrum is the same as when Christianity went wrong in proselytizing, and substituting joining with Jesus - in spirit - through following him in his example of living truth, and instead of joining with him, they went about gathering people, and developing the church, which leads to another experience of separation in a different form. The whole thing replays itself when people get hung up about the Course community, as if it actually means something, or worse, they want to select a therapist based on their presumed studies of the Course, at which point I usually turn it into a joke and ask them what they're going to do for a dentist, a plumber, a cobbler, or a car mechanic?

A particularly ugly variant is when in a couple, one of the partners starts working with the Course, and becomes convinced that they should find a partner who is more interested in their spiritual endeavors, and with whom they could do the Course, which is kind of an extreme form of the misunderstanding what the Course is all about, which should really start and end with the idea that it is only about what's going on in my mind, my own spiritual hygiene. It in no way involves doing anything with anybody else on the external level; it is about forgiveness, and the observation of whether someone is doing the Course or not is merely another way of seeing differences, which in turn is just another way of not seeing that the sonship is one, and the ego has us by the short ones all over again. On a practical level, discussing the practice of the Course is usually easier and more productive simply with other fellow travelers on this path or any other path, and not particularly with people we're closely involved with. We will most likely encounter some others along the way, whose experience with the Course may be similar to our own, but since the Course is a lifelong process, and we go through many growth phases with it, the fact that someone else is studying the Course in their own estimation really means nothing. What makes a Course student? Someone who is running around with a certain blue book with gold lettering? Or someone who practices what it says, which you can't tell from the outside?

So the notion of a "Course community" is largely fallacious, because the Course is really a self study program in which the therapist/teacher is Jesus, as a presence within, who is present to all of us whenever we want to. The only real communication lies in the learning from him, by extending forgiveness, and realizing that communication only happens by getting our ego out of the way, and making room for the Holy Spirit. In the Thomas Gospel, Jesus expresses this in Logion 108 as follows: Whoever drinks from my mouth shall become like me. I myself shall become that person, and the hidden things will be revealed to that person. Thus is the only true joining found in entering what the Course calls the Holy Relationship, through which we can experience our oneness with all of the sonship. In Gary Renard's books this is seen as the "J Underground," symbolic of a joining in realizing that there is indeed another way, and that there is a way out of the madness of the world. That inner joining with our brothers through forgiveness is the measure of meaningful progress in the Course, and has nothing to do with anybody studying the Course or not in form. The only meaningful definition, given in the Course, is that anyone who has completed the workbook, is a teacher of God.

Letting go of the superficial notion of a community, as congregating with people, with all its tendencies to ghettoization, and focusing on the inner joining through forgiveness instead, is the first step on this path. On a practical level I've come across this phenomenon in the marketing of my own book--no it's not a Course book, at best it's a book about Jesus, which takes inspiration from A Course In Miracles, from Gary Renard, from the Thomas Gospel, etc. And again I'm encountering the problem in Holland, with the preparations for a new introduction of Gary's books into Dutch, starting with a new translation of The Disappearance of the Universe. No, it's not a Course book; to say so would limit its market. I have met too many people who have found the Course through Gary's work, and between the intriguing title, and the even more intriguing subtitle of "Straight Talk about Illusions, Past Lives, Religion, Sex, Politics, and the Miracles of Forgiveness," this has gotten many people interested in Gary's story. The text on the back also does not mention the Course, except indirectly, although some of the endorsements do. Most importantly the autobiographical dimension is the story of the book, and Gary himself does not know of the Course at the outset of the book, which is the whole point, so by positioning the book as a Course book, one would exclude the larger part of its potential market, as experience has shown. And no, do not read anything into the expression "Straight Talk," Gary voted for Obama.