Miracle Principles 36-41
January 25, 2021
Principle 36: “Miracles are an example of right thinking.”
The conventional definition of perception is to have sight. To perceive a person or situation clearly, is to have insight. The Course’s definition of perception is similarly a combination of thinking and seeing clearly. Thinking-seeing come as a package with perception. When we have “right thinking” (1:1) we “see the truth as God created it” (2:2). This produces “reality contact” (2:1). Reality contact seems to be absent of level confusion within our own psyche and within our boundaries and agreements with others. It sounds like a truly wholesome state in which we operate with internal and interpersonal (with others) harmony. This reality contact is achieved “through miracles” (2:1), and if you ask me sounds like a wonderful achievement to aim toward, a true gift of the spirit.
Principle 37: “A miracle is a correction factor introduced into false thinking…”
This principle is the first reference to an internal miracle, one that occurs in our thinking rather than an expression of love. Here again you can see the relational aspect of thinking and seeing: “false thinking” (1:1) is corrected, and so “perception is healed” (2:1). In footnote 76, Robert Perry points out that “perceptual integration” conventionally refers to the seeing aspect, but Jesus applies the term to our interpretation of sensory stimuli.
In the Workbook section titled, “What is a Miracle?” the idea is restated:
A miracle is a correction. It does not create, nor really change at all. It merely looks on devastation and reminds the mind that what it sees is false. It undoes error, but does not attempt to go beyond perception, nor exceed the function of forgiveness (W-WI.13.1:1-4).
Exercise:
Jesus says here that the miracle is a correction factor introduced into false thinking by him. Let us imagine him doing this. He can “snap” our thinking into place if we turn to him. First, we inwardly request his support.
Consider an area of your life where you need help forgiving or seeing things clearly. Now say in words that are personal to you, something like this to Jesus: “I accept your correction, brother” or “Heal my mind” or “I accept your healing.” After you say these words, empty your mind and just sit for a moment with eyes closed. Do not get bogged down on whether Jesus is there or heard you (or how silly it may feel to make this request). Instead, just focus on the situation you are asking about. Do you see where you misperceived it? Can you view the situation with any new insight? Write down anything that comes to you.
Principle 38: “The spiritual eye is the mechanism of miracles…”
The spiritual eye is a term that will develop into the concept of vision or “Christ’s vision” or true perception. True perception sees holiness not bodies, it sees past physical appearances. However, this does not imply a lack of insight into the material world. “The spiritual eye perceives both the creations of God and the products of human beings. Among the latter [products of humans], it [the spiritual eye] can also separate the true from the false…” (2:1-2).
Consider what this is saying: The “products of human beings” can be defined as our motives, beliefs, our collective will as a society, our institutions and systems of economics, politics, civil discourse. In other words, it is how we all collectively organize our life and society. The spiritual eye provides us insight into all of this. It is the “proper instrument” (2:3) for determining which aspects of that collective human will are true or false.
In other words, it helps us make sense of the news. How sorely needed is such an instrument, especially in 2021. In the past few months, we have witnessed once trusted doctors, teachers and influencers go off the deep end with conspiracy theories about COVID-19 being a “government plan-demic” and other anti-vaccine or anti-mask misinformation campaigns. Some of us may have friends or family that believe the US presidential election was rigged. The spiritual eye provides us the tool to look at our collective pain and human events (our “products”) and find solutions without losing touch with reality. We can “separate the true from the false” (2:2) because we are no longer afraid to perceive the whole situation. Whereas before we selected bits and pieces of information that confirmed our biases, now we are no longer afraid to accept the situation as it is, even if it ugly or uncomfortable to look at.
Principle 39: “The miracle dissolves error because the spiritual eye identifies error as false, or unreal…”
This principle repeats an earlier teaching from Principles 22 and 24 about darkness being dispelled by the light. Darkness is scarcity which is false or unreal. Light is abundance. “Abundance eliminates [false drives]” (2:5-6) like overeating, or the pursuit of money, sex or pride. We no longer become driven at all by false needs.
Consider this supplication or prayer that comes from a Tibetan school of Buddhism:
Revulsion is the seat of meditation,
as is taught to this meditator,
who is not attached to food and wealth,
Who cuts the ties to this life.
The idea here is that the aspirant does his spiritual practice from a place of revolt. Revolt against attachments like false drives for food and wealth. Jesus doesn’t use that word revolt, but you may recall he said this of Bill’s Freudian slip about the “rivet”:
His slip was an expression of a Soul gaining enough strength to request freedom from prison. It will ultimatelydemand it (p. 1728).
We, too, are in a learning process where we will ultimately demand our freedom from false drives. It will be an entire revolt against darkness by allowing in light. According to Principle 39, we progress by offering miracles. Through offering miracles, we correct our perception and the darkness we once perceived in ourselves in the world is dispelled by light.
Principle 40: “Miracles are a blessing from parents to children…”
This principle is a statement about good parenting. A good parent, like a good miracle worker, recognizes that the child/patient/pupil does not belong to her (2:1). The accomplishments of the child are a result of abilities that are in the child, placed by God, not placed by the parent. The parent is only bringing those abilities to the surface. When a parent fails, however – when the child is deprived of the parents greater abundance – then the child’s perception becomes distorted. This is what we need to forgive. The Course is stating an obvious condition of this world: many of us experienced some deprivation or form of neglect (no matter how subtle or extreme) in our formation. This is why the Sonship is so “impaired in its relationships (2:3).
It is worth reminding here of an earlier statement in Principle 18:
Human birth, maturation, and development is a microcosmic representation of a much larger process of creation and development of abilities. It is subject to error as long as the real purpose of free will is misunderstood and misdirected. The real function of parents is to be wiser than their children in this respect, and to teach them accordingly.
Now consider the effects of good parenting. What happens when a child has wholesome self-esteem, certainty of their identity and the protection that is provided by their parents love and abundance? This produces human beings that can do seemingly anything. They step into the world confident that they can accomplish any task in front of them without pain or lasting struggle. Parenting provides us an incredible opportunity to share our abundance.
The good news for us is that the Course will teach us that God is our parent. Where our parents, step-parents or other formative authority figures had failed, we learn that God has not failed. We accept ourselves as His creation, and accept what comes as part of that package: His love and protection. We then learn to overcome and forgive any deprivations placed by those whose earthly care we were entrusted to. Forgiveness is a way to reinterpret Who our parent is.
In the last sentence, Jesus reinterprets what it means to “honor thy parents” (Exodus 20:12):
The miracle calls him to return, because it blesses and honors him even though he may be absent in spirit (5).
I am certain that the “him” in the above statement is the parent, not the child, because the whole principle is a statement against the parent’s depravity, the one who is “absent in spirit.” To be absent in spirit suggests they are present in the physical. Many of us grew up with parents like that. Physically they were present, but in spirit it was different story, often a sad one. Anyone with empathy knows this is true. Jesus is asking us to bless and honor them anyway, to send them miracles through forgiveness.
Principle 41
This principle teaches us that we are all joined together in the unity of Sonship. “All my brothers are special,” (2:3) Jesus tells us. This principle was directed at Bill who had a fierce inner critic who thought that he was excluded from God’s love and his unity with the Sonship. Bill was urged to address this feeling of unworthiness: “You must work a miracle on behalf of yourself here” (3:2). This appears to suggest Bill ask for and receive an internal miracle, a correction to his false thinking.
Question for Reflection:
Are you like Bill in believing yourself unworthy of inclusion in the Sonship?
If you think yourself unworthy of God’s love, remind yourself of your holiness, which was placed in you in your creation. This is what it means that “God is not mocked” (4:1). God made each of us holy in our creation, a holiness we retain for all time.
Practice Suggestion:
God’s creation is whole. The mark of wholeness is holiness. It the mark of God in me, and in all my brothers.