Practice A Course in Miracles

A Course in Miracles Workbook

A Course in Miracles workbook lessons aim at a definite experience

A Course in Miracles workbook lessons reason, explain, and motivate  

A Course in Miracles workbook lessons remind you of who and what you are

A Course in Miracles workbook lessons tell you how and when to practice

You are responsible for what you think, see, and feel. Nothing happens outside of you or without your consent. Your moment to moment experience results from the thought, image, or emotion you are most dedicated to within yourself. Thus you decide how you relate to each person and each situation.
Sometimes the lesson tells you what attitude to take; to be leisurely and relaxed, or active and attentive; to practice with eyes open or closed. Learn to appreciate how little is asked of you. You may be asked for an honest appraisal or a sincere intention, or an open-mindedness that replaces what you thought you knew with the truth. Willingness to receive instructions and determination to follow through on them brings the experience you have always wanted.

A script introducing the longer practice periods, tells you step by step what to say or do, how, when, where, and for how long. The exercises ask you to repeat the central idea in several related forms. Through this repetition and variation the idea for that day transforms your experience of self, others and the world around.
The form of workbook exercise takes an extensive variety. Sometimes you take an inventory and thus release the grievances, laws, or terrors that you associate with your world and yourself. Other times you visualize your enemy or friend and see him forgiven and transformed before you. Still at other times you associate and add your own variations to the idea practiced for the day.

The time for each exercise period varies “from a minute or so” in lesson 1 to “half an hour” in later lessons. The number of exercise periods varies from one per day, to one every quarter of an hour.

A Course in Miracles workbook lessons each are an integral part of the whole

Although each lesson stands on its own, none of the lessons can be isolated from the sequence of which they are a part. There is a strong connection within each cluster of lessons, and a clear progression from one cluster to the next within the larger structure of the workbook. It is easy to recognize this coherence when you look at the time allotted for each exercise and the times the exercise should be repeated.
The starting paragraph of a lesson often relates the previous lesson to the present one. Relevant themes from earlier lessons and sometimes even from the text are associated for the stage of practice. The workbook lessons display no irrelevant information and thus they keep the mind focused.  They do repeat and vary some principal ideas in several lessons consciously placed over the entire range of workbook lessons.

A Course in Miracles workbook lessons suggest you ask for help

Some workbook lessons suggest that you invite Jesus, God, or the Holy Spirit to bring about the desired experience of practice. For optimal learning and the ultimate experience aimed for in practice you need the willingness to ask for help of a greater power and the readiness to let it in and to let God take the last step.
First do everything in your power to understand the purpose of the lesson, to direct your focus and efforts at following the instructions, and at setting aside the times to practice. You have activated the lesson in your mind and have let it work your day. Now that you have done all you were asked to do, step back and let God enter in the place and moment you have created for Him. Unite your will with the Will of the universe. The purpose of the workbook lessons is to train your mind in a systematic way to a different perception of everyone and everything in the world. And for that you might want to ask for a little help.

A Course in Miracles workbook lessons provide tools to maintain the desired experience

Each longer practice period asks you to practice at predetermined intervals during the day. Next to these longer practice periods the majority of lessons suggest a short form of practice to maintain the desired experience of the lesson. These shorter exercises ask you to use the idea for the day or a variation thereof in the face of daily distractions and temptations. Vigilance and discipline is required to fully use and benefit from the idea.  Learn to think and act differently in situations that bring up grievances, guilt-ridden emotions and a fearful avoidance. The idea of the day will break your reactive behavior and habitual judgments. Instead make uncompromising affirmations about the reality you share with God and all that is part of His creation.

Conclusion

Be amazed at the outcome of honest and sincere practice. Practice the lessons as they are structured and let yourself be led to a new experience, a clear and motivated determination, and a memory of who you are. Discover your wholeness and holiness, learn to ask and receive, and realize the ultimate experience you aimed for.
Embrace the ideas vital for a genuine change of mind and an effective change of the world.

~Bastiaan Berende~