A Course in Miracles Made Easy: Mastering the Journey from Fear to Love

by Alan Cohen

Yet behind all of these apparent choices, the only real choice is between fear and love. Fear hurts and love heals. All else is detail.

fearful mind spins a web of complexity that makes the hardships of the world seem inescapable. ACIM tells us that life does not have to be hard and the world that fear has fabricated is entirely escapable. Boil every choice down to what heals versus what hurts, answer fear with love, and you will find the peace you seek.

Psychologists tell us that the subconscious cannot distinguish between reality and imagination. The images we impress upon our mind, especially when accompanied by emotion, yield the same experience whether they are true or fictional.

Saviors sell. The manufacture of religious saviors operates on the same paradigm. “I am lost and in hell or on my way there. You are perfect and you can redeem me. Please save me.” Metaphysically, this paradigm includes a true premise: You acknowledge you are in pain, your ego’s attempts at salvation have failed, and you desire a way out. You need help, and you are willing to ask for it and receive it. That’s smart. How you get out of pain and get saved makes all the difference in whether your method of salvation will free you or bind you.

We have all felt hurt by plenty of people and incidents, and we all feel guilty about hurting others. While all of these sufferings seem very real and justifiable, A Course in Miracles teaches that your true Self, and the true Self of any other person, runs far deeper than the self that experiences pain. “Whatever suffers is not part of me” (W, Lesson 248). No matter what mistakes you have made or others have made against you, your inner being remains perfectly intact, impervious to human error. It was not the act that hurt, but your interpretation of the act.

You have had billions of moments of experiences. The moments you give your attention to are the ones that generate your current experience. When you focus on painful memories, you create a painful past and drag it into the present. When you focus on joyful memories, you create a joyful past and experience peace in the present moment.