Jon Mundy - Living A Course in Miracles: An Essential Guide to the Classic Text

LIVING
A COURSE
in
MIRACLES

LIVING
A COURSE
in
MIRACLES

An Essential Guide
to the Classic Text

JON MUNDY, PhD

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of Sterling Publishing Co., Inc.

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Published by Sterling Publishing Co., Inc.
387 Park Avenue South, New York, NY 10016
2011 by Jon Mundy
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Sterling ISBN 978-1-4027-7860-5

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The ideas expressed herein are those of the author and
do not reflect the views of the Foundation for Inner Peace,
the publishers of A Course in Miracles.

This course can be summed up very simply in this way:
Nothing real can be threatened.
Nothing unreal exists.
Herein lies the peace of God.

From the Introduction to A Course in Miracles

Table of Contents

PART I
BASIC TERMS AND CONCEPTS

CHAPTER 1 There Must Be Another Way
How It Came to Be

CHAPTER 2 Inward Is Sanity
Selfishness, Aloneness, and Insanity

CHAPTER 3 This Is It!
An Introduction to A Course in Miracles

CHAPTER 4 The Story of Salvation
The Main Characters

CHAPTER 5 From Mindlessness to Mindfulness
How the Mind Works According to
A Course in Miracles

CHAPTER 6 The Dynamics of the Ego
Demythologizing Adam and Eve

CHAPTER 7 The Undoing of Guilt
Our Way Out of Fear

PART II
THE METAPHYSICS OF MIRACLES

CHAPTER 8 The Dreaming of the World
The Metaphysics of Miracles

CHAPTER 9 I Am Not a Body
Death and the Ego Body Identity

CHAPTER 10 Always Must Be Now
The Practice of Patience

PART III
LIVING A COURSE IN MIRACLES
THE PRACTICAL APPLICATION

CHAPTER 11 The Inner Teacher, the Ego,
and Gods Plan for Salvation
The Role of the Holy Spirit in A Course in Miracles

CHAPTER 12 Why Is This Happening to Me?
Trial, Accidents, Coincidence, and Destiny

CHAPTER 13 Self-Observation
Watching, Witnessing, and Willingness

CHAPTER 14 Everyone Has the Answer Now
Remembering What We Already Know

CHAPTER 15 Healing the T(error)ist Within
On Anger and Responsibility

CHAPTER 16 From Selfishness to Self-fullness
Im Nobody. Who Are You?

CHAPTER 17 Above All Else
Strengthening Motivation to Change

CHAPTER 18 A Course in Mind Training
Changing Our MindsChanging Our Lives

CHAPTER 19 Word Fasting: The Spiritual Diet
Observing and Correcting Our Thoughts

CHAPTER 20 There Is Nothing to Forgive
Or, There Is No Future in the Past

CHAPTER 21 The Key Marked Kindness
As We Teach, So Do We Learn

Quotations and paraphrasing from A Course in Miracles are from the third edition published by the Foundation for Inner Peace. The location of the various quotes and paraphrases appear immediately after the reference with a listing of the chapter, section, paragraph and sentence as in (T-4.III.5:7). A centered, italicized quote with no reference is from me.

T: is for Text

W: is for Workbook

M: is for Manual for Teachers

C: is for Clarification of Terms

P: is for Psychology: Purpose, Process and Practice

S: is for The Song of Prayer

In: is for Introduction

R: is for Review

Quotations from the Bible are from the King James Version, the same version referenced within the Course.

A Definition of Terms

When you see a paragraph with the first few words in bold that includes the word is, this is a definition of a term frequently used in the Course.

BASIC TERMS
AND CONCEPTS

There Must Be Another Way
HOW IT CAME TO BE

A good teacher clarifies his own ideas,
and strengthens them by teaching them.

T-4.i.1:1

A Course in Miracles is the wisest, sanest, deepest book I know. It is a unique spiritual document; a self-instructional textbook, eloquent in its loveliness and level of psychological sophistication. It is a modern spiritual classic regarded by many as the most important book since the Bible. It is clearly a document of the twentieth and the twenty-first centuries, simultaneously simple and erudite. It calls for a wholly different way of seeing, completely outside the realm of what we call the ego and physical sight. It is also an immanently practical book, as it is trying to help us to stop the minds insane machinations, heal all distorted frames of reference, and regain control of our right mind. It helps in the development of trust, honesty, tolerance, gentleness, joy, defenselessness, generosity, patience, faithfulness, open-mindedness, and more. Pick up the Course, open it to any page and read. Chances are the word you will appear on that page. The Course was written for you! Reading the Course, you feel as though you have returned home and you are now conversing with a long lost friend, you are being reintroduced to something very familiaryour True Self.

A Radical Philosophy

T he Course is a radical philosophy in that it asks us to engage in a total reversal in thinking. Our perception, it says, is upside down and backwards. We are to stop looking for the inside on the outside. We are to do a complete 180. We are learning to see the world in a wholly new light, no longer from the perspective of the ego. Rather now do we see wholly from the realm of Spirit. Radical means root and the Course is taking us all the way to the core of our most basic problem the minds decision for the ego. At this point and this point only, can we undo mistaken perception choose once again and begin to follow a path that leads us home.

Living the Course means we stop blaming ourselves and thus inevitably we cease blaming others. Living the Course means gaining freedom from judgment, anger, and condemnation. It means freedom from guilt and fear. The goal of the Course is peace and happiness. It aims at taking us all the way to Heaven. Pick up the Course, turn to any page, start reading, and youll soon say, Wow! Who wrote this? What we have is a clear reflection of the truth, beautifully written, and, if we have the ears to hearit is also impeccably clear.