If there's one thing that I often hear from A Course in Miracles students, it's this: "I've been studying that book for years," people say, "and every time I open it, it's as if the material is brand-new. It's as if I never read it before."
I've noticed the same thing in my life. Reading the ideas in the Course (and other spiritual texts) often feels like building sand-sculptures at the edge of the ocean. The ideas stay in place for a while. However, they gradually fade away. By the time that a day or two has passed, there is little trace of their existence.
I found this troubling when I began working with the Course. Why
weren't these beautiful ideas sticking with me? Was I supposed to re-read the book
every few hours to keep the ideas "fresh"? Was I doing something
wrong — not studying hard enough, for instance?
Now I realize that this dynamic has nothing to do with A Course in Miracles. Instead, any new thought system — especially one that conflicts with the dominant thoughts of the world — tends to be easily washed and blown away.
This happens quite frequently in therapy. If a client comes to therapy and receives an inflow of supportive, loving new thoughts from the therapist, that client might feel temporarily uplifted.
However, if the client then returns to a family or work environment that counters those loving new thoughts, he might fall right back into old patterns. The gains in therapy are often washed away, just as the sand-sculptures are.
In both cases, the new thoughts need to be protected — otherwise, they will likely yield to the winds and waves of the world, and lose their form.
The Little Tree
To illustrate this point, a friend of mine often uses the metaphor of helping a small tree to grow. When you plant a tree, you might need to put a fence around it to protect it. As the years pass and the tree becomes stronger, it no longer needs the fence. However, at the beginning, the fence is necessary.
In our case, the "fence" is simply a commitment to remember, strengthen, and use our new thought system — even as we live within the midst of a counter-thought system. Does this take work? It sure does. But in my experience, the work is necessary.
Spiritual teachings tell us that we are loveable, beautiful, worthy children of God. They tell us that we have limitless amounts of inspiration and wisdom within us, ready to radiate outward to those around us. They encourage us to accept the gift of what we already have and already are.
By contrast, the world's thought system tells us that we are only as worthy as our accomplishments, only beautiful if we're young and sexy, and only loveable if we can find someone to love us. It tells us that we are fundamentally alone in the world, and will be abandoned if we don't focus on ourselves.
To maintain our spiritually-inspired thought system in the midst of the world's fearful thought system is not a trivial task! This is probably why spiritual seekers throughout history have chosen to live in monasteries or other cloistered groups. Those institutions were like the fence surrounding the little tree.
However, most of us these days do not have the luxury of living in a cloistered spiritual community. Therefore, we need to work harder to protect our new thought system.
Practices
So how do we "protect" our new thoughts? I once thought that by avoiding people who didn't share my spiritual beliefs, I'd be able to strengthen my spiritual perspective. However, my avoidance only left me feeling lonely and isolated.
Then I went in the other direction, and jumped into the thinking of the world. I wasn't lonely anymore — there were plenty of people to connect with on this level. However, I gradually lost most traces of my spirituality. Those felt like lost years.
These days, it is an ongoing effort for me to maintain a spiritual perspective within the midst of work, school, and social environments. There are countless invitations to abandon the spiritually-inspiring thoughts that I love, and instead adopt the self-centered thoughts of the world. I quite often fall off the saddle.
However, I do try to get back on. There are many reinforcing, strengthening practices that help — perhaps the greatest of which is connection with other spiritual travelers. The Course frequently talks about the value of "holy encounters" with each other — loving connections that remind us of who we are. The more of these, the better.
Let me share another practice from A Course in Miracles that I have mentioned before. The workbook of the Course offers 365 "lessons" — one for each day of the year. If a person diligently follows the workbook instructions, he or she begins to adopt a habit of taking a few minutes every hour to repeat and reinforce the spiritual thought for the day.
What a discipline! This is the fence that the Course offers to protect the little tree. Once per hour, you stop and (preferably with closed eyes) remind yourself of some helpful spiritual idea. Having been through the workbook of the Course several times, I can attest to how challenging this is. The practice can fall by the wayside quite easily.
However, it's a good one. And you certainly don't need to be a student of A Course in Miracles to use it. You can simply choose an inspiring idea and dwell on it for a minute each hour. (There are hundreds of affirmation books that contain thousands of these ideas.)
As we carve out one minute — or even less — each hour to reinforce our new thought system, we give that new thought system roots. Like the tree, it may take years for those roots to become unshakeable. But every bit of protection we offer them now allows them to grow stronger and deeper. The little investment reaps large rewards.
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The new thoughts need to be protected — otherwise, they will likely yield to the winds and waves of the world, and lose their form.
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