Day 1
Welcome to Getting to Know A Course in Miracles
On behalf of all of us at the Circle of Atonement, it's my great pleasure to welcome you to Getting to Know A Course in Miracles. Over the next two weeks, Circle founder Robert Perry and I will be introducing you to the history, the path, and the practice of the Course in just one short email per day. At the end of our time together, our hope is that you have a greater understanding of what the Course says, what it doesn't say, and whether you'd like to go deeper through the Complete and Annotated Edition and our Course Companions community of students and teachers from around the world.
To begin, please be sure to watch the brief welcome video as it answers many of the initial questions new students have. If you did not get a chance to watch before you registered, we have included the welcome video and a transcript below.
Also, we encourage you to find a partner to join with you over the next two weeks so you can explore the Course together. This will not only help you stay on track, but learning is far more fun when it's shared. To invite a friend, simply ask them to visit this link where they can register to receive the entire email series.
Thank you for being here. Now let's get started!
With love,
Emily Bennington
Executive Director
Circle of Atonement
(Below please find a transcript of this video for your convenience.)
VIDEO TRANSCRIPT
Hello and welcome to our 14-day journey of Getting to Know A Course in Miracles. I’m Emily Bennington, executive director of the Circle of Atonement, and in this series Circle founder Robert Perry and I will be giving you a brief introduction to the spiritual path of A Course in Miracles.
The way this works is that every morning over the next two weeks you will receive an email that will guide you through the Course’s story, its structure, and its central teachings in material that you can read in less than five minutes per day.
- You will learn about the scribes of the Course and how the book came to be.
- You’ll learn about the thought system of the Course - what it says and what it doesn’t say.
-You’ll learn about the Course’s three volumes and the purpose of each one.
- And you’ll also learn what we do here at the Circle, along with our vision for helping the Course become one of the world’s great spiritual traditions.
To begin, let’s cover the basics.
What is A Course in Miracles?
A Course in Miracles is a spiritual path in which we find our way home to God by learning to distinguish between what is real and what is unreal. What is real is our true nature as complete and holy children of God who are equal to each other without exception. What is ultimately unreal is everything else: these bodies, this world, our egos, and the judgments and grievances we hold.
The Course is leading us to a place where, through the practice of forgiveness, we learn to look beyond the unreality of physical form to the pure and eternal holiness in everyone. If we can do this, meaning if we can train ourselves to see only the true nature of each other, then we will heal those around us, heal our relationships, and heal our world.
Which version of the Course should you use?
When you search for A Course in Miracles, you’ll notice there are many different versions to choose from. We know this can be confusing, but all of the editions contain the same basic teaching. As we often say, the best edition is the one that you really use.
That said, there are some important differences between the editions and a bit of Course history you need to know.
Before the Course was originally published in 1976 by the Foundation for Inner Peace, it went through several drafts. The result is that a significant amount of teaching has been removed.
Because of this, Robert and a team here at the Circle went back into Course scribe Helen Schucman’s original notebooks, transcribed them from start to finish, and created a new version of the Course from scratch. The result is the Complete and Annotated Edition, or what we call “the CE” for short.
There are four features that distinguish the CE:
- We have restored 45,000 words that were previously cut, primarily from the first four chapters of the Text. This is material that covers countless topics and putting it back in the Course gives you a much fuller picture of what is actually being taught and how to apply it.
- As part of restoring material from Helen’s notebooks, we also restored original wording from her notebooks as well. There are many instances where wording was altered in a way that changes what seems to be the intended meaning of a sentence. Accordingly, we have as much as possible kept the original language.
- The Complete and Annotated Edition has footnotes throughout that clarify difficult passages and provide helpful references as you go through the book. Many students find these footnotes invaluable and they’re one of the most popular features of the CE.
- And, finally, in the back of the Complete and Annotated Edition you will find 33 cameo essays that offer truly fascinating examples of how Helen and her co-scribe Bill Thetford were instructed by the author to apply the material to their own lives.
Creating this version of the Course was a 12-year journey and Robert and the team here at the Circle have put a tremendous amount of scholarship and care into it. If you’d like to order a copy and experience the Complete and Annotated Edition for yourself, we invite you to visit circleofa.org/ce where you will also receive a package of bonus gifts that will help you begin your study and practice of the Course.
We hope you’ll be on the lookout for your Getting to Know A Course in Miracles email tomorrow because, in it, Robert will be walking you through the remarkable story of how Course scribes Helen Schucman and Bill Thetford came together, as well as what happened after Helen famously heard a voice that said, “This is A Course in Miracles. Please take notes.” See you then.
Reminder:
This content is for registered participants of Getting to Know A Course in Miracles, a free 14-day guided journey from The Circle of Atonement. You are welcome to invite any friends to register for the series at no charge by sharing the following link: circleofa.org/events.
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