New Perspectives on A Course In Miracles

Chapter 1

Our system of identifying specific section of ACIM is as follows:

Chapter called C, Section called S, Principles called P, and L meaning line. Our system uses the Foundation for Inner Peace method for referencing specific sections. C1,S1,P4,L1 means chapter 1, section 1, principle 4, line 1.

Miracle: “Standing beside in love and equality” (first found in principle 1)

The most challenging of all of the word substitutions over the years has been this first one. This substitution came about when I was asking for more help understanding the idea of a miracle. So often in our world a miracle is defined as an unexpected outcome. I was really struggling to apply the Course’s idea that the “miracle is a correction in our perception”. It further states that the true miracle is the love that inspires the correction in our perception. I was asking for help in how to invite this correction in perception. The words that came to me were, “Just imagine standing beside yourself, another person, or any situation in love and equality”. I said, well I understand standing beside in love, but why equality? “When you stand beside in equality you join with what you are standing beside. You are acknowledging that whatever judgements you have about a situation are not helpful, and that if you were in that situation or if you were that person, you might be acting, feeling, or doing the same thing. The word equality is what builds a bridge back to the idea that you are one with and not separate from the person or situation.” “When you can imagine standing beside in love and equality” it means you have set aside the perceptions you initially had and are willing to try on a new set of ideas. That is what allows love to create the correction in perception.” I have found this word substitution to be a bit clumsy but it has actually helped me a great deal to understand what I can do to invite a change in perception, so I offer it to you. The phrase “standing beside in love and equality” is substituted for miracle in most places it is used in the Course.

God: The word God is heavily laden with the image of the Judeo-Christian God of both wrath and love. ACIM makes it clear that it is offering a different image of God who is only loving and wanting peace and connection for and with us. God is the only source of love and light. Our team has chosen a few synonyms like “Loving Source” or “Source”, “Divine” or ”Divine One”, “Creator” with the possibility of a few others, all with the intent of establishing that the one Unifying idea being that our Source is Loving, Unified, and Divine. (first seen in c1,s1,p4.)

Sonship: “Community of beloved ones” (first found in principle 19)

Also sometimes used “beloved community” or something similar for readability. changed to gender neutral terms

Sons of God: “Children of Source” (first seen in chapter 1, section 7, paragraph 5, line 2), changed to gender neutral terms

Son or sons: “Heir or heirs” (first seen in chapter 1, section 2, paragraph 4), changed to gender neutral terms.

Atonement: “The great undoing” or the “Great undoing of separation” (first found in principle 27).

The term atonement was a religion laden word for me that through long education and indoctrination was always associated with sacrificial substitution of Jesus for the “sinners of the world”. My process here was to do a word search in ACIM for the term atonement. The most helpful definition for me at this point in my understanding is “the great undoing”. In one listening session the Holy Spirit offered me the idea of “the great undoing machine”. I saw it as a box, like the amnesty bin at the airport where I was to put all of my guilt, expectations, perceptions, projections and judgements. I was encouraged to just empty out everything I was carrying into the machine. The machine was a bit like a centrifuge, where everything was spun together, and the true was retained and the false was totally dissolved. I was then told, “that by doing this I might establish myself in Source, motionless and tranquil, as though my soul were already in eternity and where nothing would trouble my peace.”

Revelation: “Experiences of unspeakable love” (first found in principle 28)

The term revelation has been a loaded “church” word for me that interfered with my ability to find it useful. It induced fear from too many televangelists’ use of the term as the grand punishment and retribution by God for our sinfulness. Text, chapter 1, section 2, paragraph 1-3 tells us “revelation” reflects the original form of communication between Source and creation, involving an extremely personal sense of creation. Revelation unites us directly with the Divine. Revelation is intensely personal and cannot be meaningfully translated. Revelation induces only experience. Revelation is an experience of unspeakable love.

Christ: “Archetype of the Christ” (first found in principle 44)

It seems many raised in the Christian tradition, think of the word Christ as Jesus’s last name. The meaning most consistent with my understanding of ACIM is: one who knows their full identity in Source, who is beyond all sense of separation. One who lives totally in the vision/dream/kingdom of the Divine One. The Course tells us that we all are destined to become a “Christ”. In ACIM, starting in Chapter 5, Jesus refers to himself as distinct from Christ and yet united with Christ. For example, Miracles are a sign that the mind has chosen to be led by me (Jesus) into Christ’s service. In the Manual for Teachers, under the section Jesus-Christ, it says, “The name of Jesus is the name of one who was a man but saw the face of Christ in all his brothers and remembered Source. So, he became identified with Christ, a man no longer, but at one with Loving Source. The man was an illusion, for he seemed to be a separate being, walking by himself, within a body that appeared to hold his (small) self, from his (true) Self, as all illusions do. Jesus remains savior because he saw the false without accepting it as true and Christ needed his form that He might appear to men and save them from their illusions.” In his complete identification with the Christ, the perfect child of Source, God’s one creation and God’s happiness, forever like Source and one with Source, Jesus became what all of us must be. He led the way for us to follow. He leads us back to the Divine because he saw the road before him and followed it. For me using the words archetype of Christ highlights the stage we are living in, in the dream. Not fully Christ, as Jesus once was, and yet always one with Christ in “Sources” kingdom.

Kingdom of God/Kingdom of Heaven/kingdom: “Source’s” vision (for us) or “Divine nature”. (first used c1, s2, p2)

Some passages refer to the kingdom our ego has made. In this case no substitution is made.

In Aramaic the word for kingdom is malkuta. The word kingdom is used in the four Bible gospels 126 times. This frequency indicates its importance to Jesus or to those who later wrote about his teachings. In Aramaic the word is actually a feminine gendered word, so Queendom would be a more accurate translation.

My difficulty with the word kingdom is that it has been very difficult for me to transcend the idea that this is a place. Malkuta is made up of roots suggesting a combination of both vision and action. Just as we would want a ruler who had both vision (of our potential and future) and the ability to get things done (action). It denotes both Source’s vision for us as Source’s one heir (all united together) and the ability of the Holy Spirit to understand our illusions and help us in the world to heal our perceptions (get things done or healed).

Father: “Creator”, Source, Divine One”: first used c1, s2, p4.

For gender neutrality and in several places in ACIM God is called Creator.

Temptation: “Forgetfulness or delusion”

This word is one of the most often misunderstood words in the teaching of Jesus in the prayer called “The Lord’s Prayer” or “The Our Father”. That prayer has been translated “lead us not into temptation”. As ACIM makes clear, “Source” would never lead us toward anything but the truth. In the rephrasing I have left the term in C1, S3, P4, sentence 7 as it is written in the course, “recognize my errors and choose to abandon them by following the guidance of Jesus”. My study of Aramaic offers the following ideas for Nesyuna, the word translated as temptation.

Nesyuna could be translated as temptation in the Aramaic sense of something that leads to inner vacillation or agitation, diverting us from the purpose of our lives. The word carries the image of a flag waiving in the wind, as in our focus being scattered by the wind. “Flapping in the breeze”. It denotes forgetfulness, losing of oneself in appearances, a failure to look deeper when the situation calls for it, being lost in what is superficial, lost in the business of life, engaged in outer schedules, all the things we have to do that we become forgetful of our relationship to Creator. Forgetfulness brings with it the sense of isolation.

Stated in the positive direction, it could be read “Help me remember my purpose and my oneness with Divine Source”.