Overview

TOC

Table of Contents

Introduction

Part I

• 1. Common Sense Reality
• 2. Reality
• 3. Heaven
• 4. The Criteria for What Is Real
• 5. The Goal of Goals

Part II

• 6. The Separation
• 7. The Dreaming of the World
• 8. Reflections on the Nature of the World
• 9. Nothing Has Happened
• 10. The Central Paradox
• 11. The Message of A Course in Miracles

Introduction

Introduction by Robert Perry

Nothing real can be threatened
Nothing unreal exists.
Herein lies the peace of God.

This is how A Course in Miracles begins. It makes a fundamental distinction between the real and the unreal. (Preface, p. x)

As the above passage indicates (written, incidentally, by the author of the Course), the backbone of the entire Course in Miracles is a razor-sharp distinction between reality and illusion. On the one side is everything positive: life, light, love, oneness, joy, peace, knowledge, God. On the other side is everything negative: death, darkness, fear, separateness, pain, ignorance, ego. And they have nothing in common: "What can be between illusion and the truth? A middle ground...must be a dream and cannot be the truth" (Text, p. 558; T-28.V.3:10-11). One side is everything; the other, pure nothingness.

From what I can see, there are two basic ways of seeking to be totally life-affirming. The first way is where you affirm literally everything: every event, every form, every thought, every feeling. No matter how dark or despicable something may look, you affirm that it must have had a hidden purpose, a camoflouged goodness, a positive reason for being, which in the end makes it worthy of love and acceptance. The Course dabbles in this view to a certain extent, in saying that every trial in this world is a lesson, and that every event, though mainly contrived by the ego, still somehow has the hand of the Holy Spirit in it.

Yet the foundation of the Course is in the second way. This way says that to be totally life-affirming, you must affirm only that which is itself absolutely life-affirming. Anything with the slightest degree of life-negation, you must negate; not by hating it or condemning it, but simply by denying that it really exists.

This second way is quite a bit more challenging. And it can seem far less affirming, for in the end it has to negate everything in this world. Yet, I believe, its affirmation ends up being far more profound. For if you affirm that which limits, fragments, tortures and kills life, then your "accepting," "embracing," "inclusive" view is actually quite life-negating.

The fundamental distinction between reality and illusion is the liberating, life-affirming basis of A Course in Miracles. Every practical method or idea that it provides is simply an application of this basic distinction. The better we can grasp reality and illusion, then, the more effectively we can practice the path of the Course.

This booklet, therefore, is my attempt to communicate my current understanding of this topic. The booklet is not about practical application, but it is about the basis for all practical application. And, unlike the other booklets in this series, it is meant to be understandable to anyone, including those new to the Course. My hope, however, is that it will help clarify things even for long-time students.

Excerpts

Excerpts from An Overview of Course Metaphysics

So far we have seen several ideas that characterize reality in the Course's view: oneness, love, extension; that what is real is created by God and is like God; that what is real is consistent and coherent. As a final reflection on the nature of reality it has occurred to me that all of these ideas have a shared meaning. This shared meaning is surprisingly simple: Everything in reality goes together. It all fits, it is all compatible.

The idea of oneness obviously echoes this, for things that are one are things that go together completely. The same with love: When you love something you are perceiving a fit between you and it that makes you want to be together with it. And so you extend outward to it, to bring the two of you together. "For it is the function of love to unite all things unto itself, and to hold all things together (Text, p. 219; T-12.VIII.7:11).

Even our criteria from the last chapter fit into this model. Our first criterion is that what is real is what proceeds from God and is like God. To restate this: only what fits with God, only what goes together with God, is real. Our second criterion was consistency and coherence. And both of these, as we said, are merely ways in which parts fit, in which they go together.

Oddly enough, then, the mystic's notion of pure oneness, the heart's ideal of pure love, the will's dynamic of extension, the religious criterion of God's absolute power, and the intellect's measure of consistency and coherence, all yield the exact same reality: Reality is a domain in which everything fits together.

Yet this obviously puts it much too weakly. For in reality things do not merely go together; they go together emphatically, ecstatically. Their fit is all-encompassing, seamless, perfect. It is not just co-existence, it is Embrace. It is not just tolerance, it is Love. The fit is so perfect, the embrace so complete, that any trace of difference, of multiplicity, of two-ness fades away as all things blend into the One.

Reviews

Reviewer: Fred Davis

06/10/2009 01:48pm

I am guilty of having read a number of Robert Perry's books on A Course In Miracles and I am further guilty of having both enjoyed and benefited from every single one of them. With that bias out front, let me introduce you to the most remarkable 134 pages you may ever read.

If you are a devoted Course student, then this is Required Material. You just can't do without it.

Or, if you happen to be a curious social scientist who wants to find out what happens when a Large and Refined Brain that is gifted with a shockingly good command of the English language and extraordinary insight is focused on an Incredibly Complicated Puzzle, then this is Required Material for you as well.

I came to this book with a reasonably good background in metaphysics, particularly those with an Eastern bent. I also had a fairly good understanding of the message and metaphysics of ACIM. Or so I thought. Perry blazes trails in places where I didn't even know there were spaces. And he does so with compassionate tolerance and guidance for those of us with Less Large and Less Refined Brains.

I frankly read this book in wonder. Again and again the author would boldly write himself straight toward a trap. I could see The End fast approaching and begin to feel the, "Aha! There, you lost it, you blew it! Right there!" rising up in me. It never happened. Not once.

Time and again Magician Perry saunters right over The Edge of the World and then—BANG!—stands on solid ground where we saw only space. Conversely, he proves himself equally adept at showing us space where we saw solid ground. It's a ride you don't want to miss, a six-out-of-five star book. Go ahead and click on Add to Shopping cart and be done with it.

Peace to you.
—Fred S. Davis
Henry Dickens & Co.
Member, Antiquarian Book Dealers Association of South Carolina

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