A Course in Miracles Monk

On Christmas Day I had a nice experience (I don’t think it was the tryptophan) which left me with an even stronger conviction to not be satisfied with anything less than the peace of God.

In any spiritual path I think it would be safe to say there are three general phases:

1. Information gathering
2. Application
3. Experience (peace of God)

I spend a lot of time in phase one, and it is an important phase because if we read A Course in Miracles but don’t understand how to properly apply its principles, we could spend years not experiencing the third phase, which is the whole point of the Course.

I also spend a lot of time in phase two, and this is where I had the experience and realization I wanted to relate.

I was feeling some sort of strain or guilt or fear over something ‘minor’, forgave it, and in a few moments my mind felt very light, free, and joyful. In the midst of that experience I had the following thought:

Phase one feels good because reading that God loves me, that I am forever safe and innocent etc., is comforting. But it’s akin to a brief intellectual sugar high. When you stop reading and step back into the world, the comfort of the intellect quickly evaporates, and is soon forgotten. The answer isn’t to try and find the time for endless information gathering and reading. We cannot ‘understand our way to enlightenment’. True understanding is attendant with experience, it doesn’t precede it.

The real power of any authentic spiritual path is found in its application. Its teachings are precisely designed to help you when ‘the rubber meets the road’. When could application be more necessary and pertinent than in the midst of pain, guilt, or fear? These are the very moments such teachings are given to heal.

Without application, ideas are untapped potential… like the knowledge that a good meal is being prepared. You can smell the delicious aroma, but not having eaten yet, the joy is still more ephemeral and anticipatory. As pleasing as it is, you are still hungry.

The true feast occurs when you use the ideas.

Before that, ideas are merely comforting. When applied in a moment of fear, they become transcendental. It is here that their true gift is fully realized: the experience of God.

Only this experience can truly satiate us.