Backward Not Forward
A Course in Miracles is not a course in affirming the positive, but rather in denying the negative (to look at the ego’s denial of truth and deny the denial has any power). This is not a course in happiness, but in undoing unhappiness. It is not a course in love, but in undoing that which is not love, which is decidedly different from most other paths. That’s why it’s so easy for course students to sprint off in the wrong direction as far as the practice is concerned. It’s so easy to get it confused with other paths, or previous paths, and end up going in the wrong direction on the path — where one thinks that affirming the truth is the practice. That’s tantamount to feeling a deep sense of unease and then plugging one’s ears, and closing one’s eyes, while reciting all the loving passages in the course, and hoping everything will be alright.
This is not a course in doing, but undoing.
That’s why we must be honest and look at the ego: because the very practice of the Course is designed to undo what never was. If we deny we have an ego, or ego thoughts, we cannot undo them, and thus come to learn that the guilt we think and feel is so real, is not a solid wall of granite but a mere wisp of smoke. A tiny wisp of nothingness.
