A Course in Miracles

Glossary of Course Terms

By Robert Perry

(Originally published as an Appendix to Path of Light – Stepping into Peace With A Course in Miracles Reprinted by permission of the author)

(Italics added by Ronald Cruickshank OMC)

Attack

• The attempt to harm another for the sake of one’s own gain. Harmful, unloving thoughts (called “attack thoughts”), words, or deeds. The essence of everything the ego does.

Atonement

• The reunification of mind and Spirit. Only the mind needs Atonement. The miracle joins in the Atonement of Christ by placing the mind in the service of the Spirit. This enables proper function of the mind and corrects errors.

Call for help/love

• The real nature of attack. Attack is not a sin to be punished, but a mistake to be corrected, a sickness to be healed. When we are attacked, therefore, the attacker is the one who is truly in need. We give him the help he needs by offering him our love and forgiveness. That is what attack really calls for.

Christ

• The extension of God; God’s one Son and one creation; the single Self that is shared by all minds, all of whom are equal members of the Sonship. Does not refer to Jesus, who is simply one of these members, one who has fully awakened to our shared Identity as Christ.

Christ’s vision

• An inward recognition of the holiness within all things, which overlooks bodies and their attacks. This perception comes not through our eyes but from a spiritual faculty in us called the eyes of Christ. Rather than seeing visual forms or color, it “sees” pure meaning, the meaning of holiness.

Creation

• The act of extending one’s own being to bring into being “new” members of transcendental reality. What is created shares all the attributes of its creator, being an extension of its creator’s being. Extending is how God created us and how we create our creations. Creation occurs in Heaven, not in this world.

Creations, our

• Our own creations in Heaven, which we create in union with God and the entire Sonship. Like everything in Heaven, they are pure spirit, formless, timeless, and perfect. They are not our extension of thoughts of love in this world, through such thoughts are reflections of creation.

Defenselessness

• The attitude and response that stems from realising that Who we really are is invulnerable, and that we therefore need no defense.

Dream

• An imaginary experience the mind has when it loses consciousness of reality and projects its own fantasy world. The Course teaches that our entire experience within time and space is a dream, an imaginary experience that is occurring within minds that have fallen asleep to true reality, or Heaven.

Ego

• The belief in being a separate self (“I am me and you are not”) whose needs are met through attack (“I am end and you are means”). This belief gives rise to our experience of being a separate entity bounded by a body. This experience is an illusion, since our true Identity is one with the All.

Eternity

• A synonym for reality or Heaven that emphasizes its timeless nature. Eternity is not an endless stretch of time; rather, it is completely outside of time. It contains only “always” – the single instant of the timeless present, which never arises or passes away.

Extension

• The natural dynamic of the mind whereby the content within it is expressed outward. In Heaven, our function is to extend our very being in the act of creation. On earth, our function is to extend the love and forgiveness in our mind to other minds. Projection is the distorted use of extension.

Fear

• The feeling that stems from the belief in approaching danger, from the expectation of attack. The Course teaches that we only expect to be attacked because we secretly believe that we are sinful and thus deserving of attack. Fear is the essential mood of the ego.

Forgiveness

1. The relinquishment of our false perception that another sinned against us, and that we are therefore justified in resenting that person. Releasing this perception that resentment is justified automatically releases the resentment. This definition contrasts with the conventional one, which assumes that we can let go of our resentment without letting go of the perception that causes it.

God

• The eternal, unbounded Person Who is the Creator of all that is real, and Who is the goal of all desire. God is pure Mind, pure Spirit, and is only Love; there is no anger or attack in Him. According to the Course, God did not create the physical world. He created only Christ, His Son, to Whom He gave all of His Love and all of Himself.

Guilt

• The painful emotion that stems from believing that you have sinned and have thus corrupted your being, making yourself worthy of punishment and unworthy of love. The Course teaches that this belief is false, for your true nature as God’s holy Son is incorruptible.

Heaven

• The only true reality. The transcendental abode that God created for His Son, beyond time and space; a realm of pure Spirit, perfect Oneness, and absolute changelessness. Heaven is our true home; we are there now, merely dreaming we are in this world. We do not go to Heaven after we die; we awaken to Heaven when we have completely relinquished the ego.

Holiness

• A quality of divine innocence or purity, untainted by the slightest sin or impurity. Holiness is characterized not by separation from the impure (as in some traditional notions), but by the willingness to love and share and unite with all beings. Holiness is the fundamental and changeless nature of all that God creates.

Holy encounter

• An interpersonal encounter in which two people overlook all that divides them and momentarily lose sight of separate interests; an encounter in which salvation is given and received, and a sense of joining occurs. In the Course, these encounters are the primary catalyst of our awakening.

Holy instant

• A moment in which we temporarily set aside the past and enter into the timeless present, in which we momentarily leave behind our habitual, insane mindset and recognise what is real. A holy instant can occur privately – during meditation for instance, – or it can be shared by two people (which would make it a holy encounter). It can vary in strength; it can be anything from a relatively minor experience, to a life-transforming miracle, to a revelation – a direct experience of Heaven. Called an “out-of-pattern time interval” early in the Text.

Holy relationship

• A relationship in which two people have joined in a truly common goal. This allows holiness to enter the relationship at a deep level and gradually shepherd it to the goal of being holy on the surface level, where the relationship is acted out. Holy relationships are not restricted to romantic relationships; they can occur between two colleagues at work, a spiritual teacher and his pupil, or a psychotherapist and her patient (to use the examples in the Course)

Holy Spirit

• The third Person of the Trinity, also called the Voice of God, Who was created by God in response to the separation AS THE REMAINING Communication Link between God and His separated Sons. His function is to guide us into the state of true perception or vision, from which we will awaken to Heaven. He also designs our special function and is available to guide all our decisions.

Illusion

• Something that seems real but is not. A belief about or perception of reality that is false. The Course expands this common definition to include anything outside of Heaven, anything that is separate, imperfect, finite, or painful.

Jesus

• One of God’s Sons, equal to all the rest, who became fully awake to his Identity as Christ. In his crucifixion, he taught that even the most extreme attacks can be met by forgiveness. In his resurrection, he brought us all closer to awakening and made God’s Voice more accessible to everyone.

Knowledge

• The heavenly condition of knowing reality through direct and total union with it, unmediated by physical senses or mental interpretations. Knowledge is categorically different from perception and cannot be learned, only remembered.

Love

• The single emotion of Heaven. In love we view something as so attractive, so compatible with us, that we go out to it, give ourselves to it, and join with it. We can only truly love as God does, Who loves everyone equally and totally. Special love, which is selective and partial, is really hate masquerading as love.

Mind

• The aspect of the self that includes the faculties of awareness, volition, thought, and emotion. Mind is completely non physical; it should not be confused the physical brain. Mind in Heaven is one with spirit. Mind on earth is separated from its true nature and split between the opposing voices of the ego and the Holy Spirit, requiring it to choose between them.

Miracle

• The activity of the Holy Spirit which shifts our perception from the false to true and thereby grants an unconditional, instantaneous, and free deliverance from the imprisoning (yet illusory) problems of this world. We accept miracles into our own minds, extend them to others (which is the primary meaning of the world in the Course), and thereby recognise that we have received them.

Miracle worker

• One whose function is to extend miracles to those in need (called miracle receivers in the Course). The content of these miracles is the miracle worker’s true perception (in his own mind) of the miracle receiver. These miracles aim at healing the receiver’s mind but may also heal his body.

Perception

• The process of trying to know an object while separate from it, by interpreting or judging information received by our physical senses. Perception is generated less by the objects we are trying to know and more by our own mental processes, which means that we end up seeing what we believe and desire, rather than what is real. The goal of the spiritual journey is to move from the false perception to true perception, from which we will awaken to knowledge.

Practice

• Repeated exercise in mind training, aimed at the gradual realisation of true perception. Practice in the Course consists of a disciplined dwelling on meaning, usually in the form of words (repetition of impactful sentences), but occasionally in wordless form.

Prayer

• Asking God for that which brings us closer to Him, for the healing of the mind (our own and that of others) and for the revelation of His Presence. We ask in the confidence that our asking simply opens us up to receive what He has already given. For this reason, the prayers in the Course are generally affirmative statements designed to change our mind, not God’s.

Projection

• The ego’s distorted use of extension, whereby we take something within our mind and project it onto the world outside, making it appear external and unconnected to us, when in fact it is not. We project our guilt outside of us in order to convince ourselves that it is not within us, that we are innocent. We project our beliefs in separation and attack outside of us – thus producing the world we see – in order to provide external justification of our sense of separateness and our attack.

Reality

• What truly and permanently exists independent of deception, illusion. And subjective opinion. The Course claims that the only true reality is the transcendental realm known as Heaven or eternity, a realm of pure, unbounded, changeless spirit.

Real world

• The world we see with vision or true perception. When looking upon the real world, we look past bodies and their attacks, seeing only the loving thoughts in this world and the holiness in all minds.

Response to temptation

• Responding with right-minded thoughts to the temptation to engage in egoic thinking. According to the Course, whenever we notice any kind of upset, we should have a habit of instantly responding with a right-minded thought, especially our Workbook idea for the day.

Salvation

• Liberation from the entire separated condition in which we feel alone, afraid, guilty, and cut off from god. Salvation is of the mind, through the reversal of our thinking. It is not of the body, through purifying the body or forcing it to behave properly; nor is it of the spirit, which was never lost and so need not be saved.

Separation, the

• The event in which we apparently separated from God, which gave birth to the entire phenomenal universe. The separation seemed to be a real event in which we tore ourselves out of God’s Mind and shattered heaven into countless separate bodies and intervals of time. Yet it was merely a psychological event, in which we fell asleep to reality and dreamed of a separated existence in a separated universe.

Sin

• The violation of the laws of God or goodness. An attack that attempts to do harm for the sake of selfish gain and that succeeds, that results in real harm. Sin is an illusion, for no one can truly be harmed, since in truth we are all God’s changeless Son. What appears to be a sin is merely a mistake, which calls for help rather than punishment.
• To sin is to ‘miss the target’ – the target is God, God is Love, therefore to sin is to move away from love. Take aim again and respond truly. Practice some more.

Son of God

• The true Identity of each person and every living thing. The one Son of God is composed of an infinite number of parts or Sons. Each one of these Sons is both part of the whole and all of the whole. It is these Sons who have fallen asleep and are dreaming they are human beings and other living things. This term does not refer exclusively to Jesus, who is merely one of the Sons, one who has awakened.

Special Function

• Our special form of extending forgiveness to others; the special part that we have been assigned to play in the overall plan for salvation. Our special function is tailored to our particular strengths, adapted to our particular culture and time period, and involves certain people whom we are meant to save. Special functions in the Course include teacher, healer, therapist, and theologian.

Specialness

• The idea of being set apart from others and set above others. Having more or being more than others. Specialness is the great payoff promised by the ego and was, in fact, what set the separation in motion. We seek Specialness through many means, but primarily through our special relationships. Because it is a form of attack, Specialness brings not happiness, but guilt and fear.

Special relationship, special love relationship

• A relationship in which we have a special arrangement (an exclusive relationship) with and receive special treatment from a very special person, so that we can feel more special. This passes for love, but is actually an illusion of love; it excludes all but one person and is even a covert attack on that one, for it seeks only to get something from him or her. Once given to the Holy Spirit, our special relationships will be transformed into holy relationships.

Spirit

• The substance of which God created His Son, the substance of our true nature. Spirit is completely non-physical, formless, changeless, holy, and perfect. It possesses only knowledge and is unaware of the ego. It uses the mind to express itself in this world, so that the mind can be restored to awareness of spirit.

Teacher of God

• One whose function is to teach others on behalf of God; a bringer of salvation, a savior, a miracle worker. The teacher goes through a lengthy developmental journey in which he first accepts his function, then joins in holy relationships with his pupils, then becomes an advanced teacher, and finally awakens beyond time and space, at which point he will be a Teacher of teachers.

Time

• The linear progression of separate moments that is the context for change, attack, birth, and death. The Course teaches that time is an illusion, a trick of the mind. In reality, there is no temporal progression; everything is happening all at once.

True perception

• See Vision

Vision

• An inward recognition of the holiness within all things, which overlooks bodies and their attacks. This perception comes not through our eyes but from a spiritual faculty in us called the eyes of Christ. Rather than seeing visual forms or color, it “sees” pure meaning, the meaning of holiness.

World

• The realm of time, space, and form which is the context for separated existence and is the opposite of Heaven. An illusion, which was not created by God but rather is being dreamed by sleeping minds in Heaven as a projection of their psychosis, their break with reality. When those minds awaken, the world will disappear. The term also has a second meaning in the Course: the collection of separated minds in this world. This is the world that God loves and that we are meant to save.