A COURSE IN MYSTICISM AND MIRACLES. Begin Your Spiritual Adventure. JON MUNDY, PhD. Author of Living a Course in Miracles

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1 A COURSE IN MYSTICISM AND MIRACLES Begin Your Spiritual Adventure JON MUNDY, PhD Author of Living a Course in Miracles

2 This edition first published in 2018 by Weiser Books, an imprint of Red Wheel/Weiser, LLC With offices at: 65 Parker Street, Suite 7 Newburyport, MA Copyright 2018 by Jon Mundy All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from Red Wheel/Weiser, LLC. Reviewers may quote brief passages. ISBN: Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data available upon request. Cover design by Jim Warner Cover photograph Shutterstock Andrey Tiyk Interior by Frame25 Productions Typeset in ITC Stone Serif Printed in Canada MAR

3 Preface Mysticism is the pursuit of a spiritual and intangible quest; the finding of a way out of illusion or a way back to absolute truth. It is an intimate personal adventure. Mysticism is the art of arts. It is the most romantic of adventures. Evelyn Underhill, Mysticism Why pick up this book? Why read any further? Maybe you already know something of the mystical. Maybe mysticism, for you, means remembering something you already know. When you read the teachings of the world s great wisdom literature and know of the wisdom of A Course in Miracles, a conversation naturally emerges regarding the similarities between the teachings of the Course and a host of teachings from different mystics and philosophers across the ages. Spend some time reading the Course and you ll soon say: Who wrote this? It is clear that no body wrote it. It came through the mind and the hands of Helen Schucman, a professor of medical psychology at Columbia University. Having known Helen, however as brilliant as she was these sentences are not her ordinary way of speaking or being. In the 2016 movie Arrival, when aliens land on Earth, the first thing they must do is establish a means of communication. Not only are they confronted with a language barrier as

4 there would be, say, between someone who speaks Chinese and someone who speaks English there is also a tremendous gap between the way the aliens think and the way those they find on Earth think. This boundary must be crossed before real communication can begin. Twentieth-century philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein once pointed out that, although we cannot even begin to imagine how a lioness thinks, if her eyes are fixed on a gazelle, we have some idea of what she has in mind. So it is that mystical thinking also transcends words and our current ways of seeing, understanding, and being. Yet we can still grasp its meaning. About A Course in Miracles A Course in Miracles presents itself as a manual for a special curriculum, intended for teachers of a special form of the universal course. There are many thousands of other forms, all with the same outcome (M 1.4:1 see reference key on page xiv.). The Course is but one of many thousands of spiritual paths indeed, thousands upon thousands. There have always been those, like 13th-century Persian mystic Jalaluddin Rumi, who have brought us different spiritual truths. In fact, many of the ideas contained in the Course are reflected in the teachings of a host of different thinkers and traditions that both pre-date and are contemporaneous with it. This is especially true for those who engage in what is called non-dualistic thinking Gnostics, Neoplatonists, Advaita Vedantists, Zen Buddhists, Sufis, Kabbalists, Transcendentalists, those who expound New Thought philosophies like Christian Science, Unity, and Religious Science, and, more recently, those who favor the work of Mari Perrone in A Course of Love. Interfaith work and/or what is also xii A COURSE IN MYSTICISM AND MIRACLES

5 called Interspirituality is clearly the wave of the future. In the end, no religion wins. God wins, which means everyone wins, as our will must ultimately be the same as that of God. Everything not of God is illusory what the Course calls the dreaming of the world. The Course, like all mystical teachings, calls upon us to awaken from all dreaming. Since its release in 1976, A Course in Miracles has come to be regarded as a great work of art and a 21st-century spiritual classic. More than three million copies now exist in twentyseven different languages. What is unique about the Course is its incredibly high level of psychological sophistication. It is truly a document of the 21st-century one that gives us ever-deeper insight into the working of the mind. This book explains what mysticism is and identifies the basic characteristics of mystical experience the loss of subject/object identity, a sense of timelessness, release of the ego self, and experiences of wonder, awe, reverence, freedom, happiness, and bliss. The Course is a manual for the awakening of mystic vision without dogma, rituals, and the fetters of traditional religion. While there are many dedicated teachers of the Course, there is no hierarchy within its followers no bishops, no central organization, no chain of command. This book contains quotes from and/or stories of more than 200 different individuals and sources. In the back of the book, you ll find an alphabetical listing of the mystics, philosophers, poets, and personalities discussed, along with a sentence or two about their lives and who they are or were. Reference Key Quotations and paraphrasing from A Course in Miracles, unless otherwise designated, come from the third edition, P REFACE xiii

6 published by the Foundation for Inner Peace. The location of each quote or paraphrase appears immediately after the reference, followed by a listing of the chapter, section, paragraph, and sentence. For instance, in the example T 9.III.4:1, T means Textbook ; 9 is the chapter; III is the section; 4 is the paragraph; and 1 is the sentence. For this purpose, the following key applies: T references the Textbook W references the Workbook M references the Manual for Teachers C references the Clarification of Terms S references The Song of Prayer In references the Introduction A Course in Miracles is referred to throughout this text simply as the Course. In a few instances, I have added bracketed words to clarify vague terms or pronouns cited out of context. Although some parts of the Course are delivered as poetry, here I cite them in prose form for clarity s sake. All Biblical quotations are from the King James version, the one referenced within the Course and one of Helen Schucman s favorite translations. xiv A COURSE IN MYSTICISM AND MIRACLES

7 Introduction: Why Mysticism and Miracles? The part of your mind in which truth abides is in constant communication with God, whether you are aware of it or not. W 49.1:2 Two early 20th-century mystics, G. I. Gurdjieff and Ramana Maharshi, both said that what is important in life is having a clearly defined living question. As A Course in Miracles expresses it: The test of everything on earth is simply this: What is it for? (T 24.VII.6:1). We can think of this question as the how and the why of life. We thirst for the truth because only truth will satisfy the soul s deep longing for God. How did we get into these bodies? In this world? At this time? What are we supposed to do here? Does life extend beyond the limitation of our bodies or do we just have a birth, a dream, and then death? There are people who say they know the answers to these questions. They have experienced insights sometimes a momentary knowing, sometimes longer, deeper, more profound experiences that led to an inner conviction and a living awareness of eternal life. Some have experienced awakenings that have lasted for days and were so profound that they were not able to talk or eat. To go through such an awakening is

8 to be transformed. When thus awakened, they often feel the need to share what they have seen, but find it very hard to put it into words. Likewise, you may experience an insight with such profundity that you stop for a moment and peek into eternity through disciplined study and contemplation; through simply getting quiet; through falling in love; perhaps due to the death of a spouse; perhaps while fishing or driving; or perhaps for no clear reason at all. That is when your mind takes a picture of something you can never forget. A Little Background For over forty years, I simultaneously followed two professions: I was a parish minister and I taught classes in philosophy, religion, and psychology at several colleges. During the summer of 1970, I trained in yoga with Swami Vishnudevananda; in the summer of 1971, I left on a trip through India on which I spent time with Sathya Sai Baba, Muktananda, and Osho. While meditating in an underground man-made cave at Muktananda s ashram in Genishpuri, I was guided to go back to New York and assured that I would find what I was looking for there. The whole experience left me wanting something more. By this time, it was clear to me that God could only be found within, but I still needed to look for deeper clarity and understanding. My first book, Learning to Die, appeared in Helen Schucman, the scribe of A Course in Miracles, and William Thetford, her supervisor at Columbia University School of Physicians and Surgeons, came to a lecture I was giving on mysticism and near-death experiences. At the time, I was one month shy of my thirtieth birthday and knew that my own experiences paled in the face of Helen and Bill s deeper xviii A COURSE IN MYSTICISM AND MIRACLES

9 understanding of the spiritual path. They were, however, quite kind. Helen welcomed my enthusiasm for mysticism and appreciated the fact that I was a theology student. One spring Sunday in 1975, Helen sat me down with Bill Thetford and another of her colleagues, Ken Wapnick, in Ken s tiny studio apartment in New York. There, she told me how the Course had come to be and how it affected the other people in the room. After this initial meeting, Ken and I decided we would continue to get together for further discussions at General Theological Seminary, where I was living, teaching, and doing postgraduate work. From that night on, Ken became my primary teacher and older brother in this earthly journey. When he died, Ken left us a mountain of information in printed books, audio recordings, and video productions. Exploring this treasure is marvelous fun and I still listen to his many CDs as I drive. Ken left us more than words, however; he also left us an example a demonstration of how to live in truth and find our way back Home. For those who knew Ken, one word describes him above all others: kindness. Helen became a kind of informal therapist for me, helping me sort through my feelings and deal with my too-frequent romantic upheavals. A few weeks after our meeting, Helen met Judy Whitson, who later became the President of the Foundation for Inner Peace, which published the first edition of the Course. Judy and I had been friends since the 1960s and were both working with the American Society for Psychical Research. Judy arranged for the xeroxing of 300 copies of the Course called the Criswell Edition so a small group of us could start reading it and practicing the Workbook lessons prior to its publication in INTRODUCTION xix

10 Old News What the Course says is not new. It simply provides an expansive view. (Jon) Israeli-American violinist Itzhak Pearlman once said: An amateur practices until they get it right. A professional practices until they can t get it wrong. The more a student practices a musical instrument, the more perfect and beautiful the sound. Likewise, the more the principles of the Course are understood and applied, the deeper we experience a sense of divine order. The Course is sophisticated and erudite, unpretentious and profound. It tells us over and over that the path is incredibly simple. We, however, are not simple. Understanding the Course requires that we purify our thoughts and deliberately remove all blocks to an awareness of love s presence. It requires that we put aside all judgments, attack thoughts, defensiveness, and deceptiveness. Most of all, it requires practice, practice, practice until you simply can t get it wrong. Mysticism and the Ego I once asked Ken why he thought the Course came to us when it did during the last quarter of the 20th century. He said that he did not know for sure, but he was sure that it could not have appeared until after the work of Sigmund Freud, the father of psychoanalysis. Freud understood the ego very well and described in some detail how it works. Before Freud, men like German Idealist philosopher Johann Fichte maintained xx A COURSE IN MYSTICISM AND MIRACLES

11 that a study of the ego was fundamental to philosophy and to the then newly emerging field of psychology, but no one before Freud had spelled out the workings of the ego in such detail and with such amazing clarity. While there are similarities between the use of the word ego in the Course and in Freudian psychology, the usage is not the same. In the Course, the word is used in ways more akin to how it is used in non-dualistic, mystically oriented philosophy, in which the ego is a false self with no lasting reality. By contrast, Freud thought that we were damned to a life with the ego absolutely stuck with it. There was no exit, no door to freedom. In The Future of an Illusion, Freud writes: The idea of God is an illusion based on an infantile emotional need for a powerful supernatural paterfamilias that is, a strong father figure. Freud s atheism kept him from seeing that God was the answer to this dilemma. By contrast, the Course teaches that allegiance to the denial of God is the ego s religion (T 10.V.3:1). If Freud had studied Eastern philosophy or mysticism, as did Jung, he might have seen the way out. The presence of God is an absolute ingredient in awakening. Without God, we re lost. Mystics are lucky. Although perhaps not yet realized, they know that the search for God is the only way to go. And it is in that search that we experience miracles. This is much like the teachings of Meister Eckhart, a 12thcentury Dominican often regarded as the greatest of the medieval Christian mystics. The world, Eckhart tells us, is an emanation from an ultimate, indivisible being with whom the soul is ultimately united. Charged with heresy by the Inquisition, Eckhart spent the last two years of his life defending his mystical teachings and died before he could be executed. INTRODUCTION xxi

12 (He is thus referred to as Meister, not Saint. ) Eckhart epitomizes the teaching of all mystics in this admonition: Become in all things a God seeker and a God finder, at all times and in all places. Albert Einstein, a mystic in his own way, put it more simply: I want to know the Mind of God. Viewed from the perspective of medieval mysticism, the Course is the Philosopher s Stone the Magnum Opus, or the great work that truly answers the riddles of the Universe. It represents a process by which we can learn of the truth of our being, find freedom from our insanity, and be reassured of eternal life. Like all mystical systems, the Course is a path, a way, a process, and a passage. It is a story that tells us of the grand destiny and points the way to the path out of hell. Ultimately, the answer to the riddle we call life is simply a matter of a willingness to live in harmony with the Divine. That is the miracle. We are simply called upon to remember or better, re-cognize what we already know. The True Mystic At the core, everyone is a mystic. Everyone longs for God and our eternal Home. Once, when I was teaching a class on mysticism, I described a thinker as a true mystic. A student asked what I meant, forcing me to contemplate the qualities I ascribed to mystics. I settled on four major characteristics that are common to them all: A true mystic looks for God above and beyond all worldly endeavors. A true mystic is willing to go through a deep inner cleansing of the soul, accept responsibil- xxii A COURSE IN MYSTICISM AND MIRACLES

13 ity for decisions, and begin living in accordance with the Will of God which is our own will. A true mystic dedicates his or her life to spiritual growth and to the process of being free of illusion in favor and recognition of reality. A true mystic is a lover of the Absolute. Evelyn Underhill called true mystics the heroes of our race. INTRODUCTION xxiii