The Coursian Creed
11 Essential Learnings to Awaken the Awareness of Love’s Presence
In my previous post I briefly covered my faith journey from being raised to adopt the rules, roles, and rituals of a mainstream religion to realizing over time that it didn’t adequately fill the deep-seated need I had to fully comprehend the truth of my being, my relation to my creator, or how best to translate my eternal reality to a temporal existence in a human body.
I also mentioned that as part of that process I created my own bespoke religion which includes a creed or statement of core beliefs that underlie this Spirit-powered, mind-centric theology.
The Coursian Creed:
I am a God created being of light, life and love that shapes my reality through the limitless power of thought and mind while dwelling in a boundless realm of pure Oneness and peace that is both changeless and eternal.
Because my home is changeless and eternal, the material universe of space and time must be unreal.
Because the universe is unreal, a world based on dualistic concepts must be an illusion.
Because the world I perceive is an illusion, I must have never truly left my home, and instead have chosen to imagine a world in which I have an individuated form (body), experience pain and sorrow, and believe myself capable of evolving both physically and spiritually in continuous cycles of creation and destruction.
Because I have never truly left reality—but choose to experience an illusion that is perceived as real—I retain a lingering sense of incompleteness that manifests as mental and physical distress, as well as a deep-seated longing for powers that are seemingly lost or unrealized.
Because I experience an underlying sense of incompleteness, I seek wholeness through the worship of idols in both material and conceptual forms.
Because the idols I make are precious to me, I establish boundaries and build walls to protect them and am willing to attack and destroy anything or anyone that I fear could threaten my self-crafted identity.
Because I feel guilty about having chosen to distance myself from God by creating a new identity—and fearing His imagined wrath in reprisal—I project my guilt onto others by believing that they are the cause of all that I lack, thereby justifying my nefarious actions against them.
Because I see others as the enemy, I effectively block my awareness of the only means of escaping the illusion, which is to see others as a bridge to the Oneness we are in truth.
Because I have effectively blocked awareness of the truth of my true being, I require a guide from without the illusion to show me the way home.
Because I require a guide to show me a new way, I must first admit that I am lost and express a willingness to be led to a new vision of myself and the world.
Now let’s break each step down a bit more:
I am a God created being of light, life and love that shapes my reality through the limitless power of thought and mind while dwelling in a boundless realm of pure Oneness and peace that is both changeless and eternal.
The majority of the world’s population, irrespective of their religious affiliation or lack thereof, consistently tell pollsters that they believe in some form of existence beyond the bounds of the physical body. Evidence for that belief can be found in the many thousands of documented near death experiences that describe the presence of brilliant light beings, an absence of time, thoughts as action, and an all-pervading sense of peace, love and unity. And home is the term that experiencers often use when asked to describe their surroundings.
So what if we’ve gotten it wrong all this time? What if we’re not born in a human body, live for a number of years, and then pass into some ethereal realm once the body expires, just to be judged whether worthy or not to stay or go. What if instead we were created as eternal beings of holy and radiant light, have never really left our home, and don’t just experience the sensation of love, but are in fact the very nature of it. You are Love. Pass it on.
“Everything you teach you are learning. Teach only love, and learn that love is yours and you are love.” ACIM T-6.3
Because my home is changeless and eternal, the material universe of space and time must be unreal.
If our home is eternal than a universe based on a belief in space and time must not be real, at least as experienced by an immortal being that is alien to that environment. It may be experienced as real—as occurs in a dream—but like a dream, it is understood to have not really existed once the dreamer is awakened.
The purpose of time is to enable you to learn how to use time constructively. It is thus a teaching device and a means to an end. Time will cease when it is no longer useful in facilitating learning. ACIM T-1.1.15
Because the universe is unreal, a world based on dualistic concepts must be an illusion.
Earth is part of the larger universe and is ruled by the belief in competing opposites, so a being that exists in an eternal state of unity-based wholeness would not be able to effectively operate except at the level of illusion. The form of the illusion is determined by the mind, which itself is non-physical. As expressed by astrophysicist Sir Arthur Eddington, “The universe is of the nature of a thought or sensation in a universal Mind…To put the conclusion crudely - the stuff of the world is mind-stuff.”
Your mind can be possessed by illusions, but spirit is eternally free. If a mind perceives without love, it perceives an empty shell and is unaware of the spirit within. But the Atonement restores spirit to its proper place. The mind that serves spirit is invulnerable. ACIM T-1.4
Because the world I perceive is an illusion, I must have never truly left my home, and instead have chosen to imagine a world in which I have an individuated form (body), experience pain and sorrow, and believe myself capable of evolving both physically and spiritually in continuous cycles of creation and destruction.
A body is key to believing the illusion is real because it serves as proof of a material existence. Consider the time spent attending to the body’s needs: we feed it, work it, exercise it, relieve it, rest it, groom it, decorate it, clothe it, wash it, medicate it, (what did I miss) and then repeat the process, day after day, until it ceases to function as hoped and we’re forced to continue the game in a non-physical reality that is meant to approximate our true home, but really only serves as the staging ground for our next body-based adventure.
And given that conflict-rich drama is the foundation on which all good adventures advance, we find ourselves constantly battling the dual impulses to give or take, help or hurt, judge or forgive, love or hate…you get the idea. It’s convenient to blame God or anyone other than ourselves for the pain, guilt and sorrow we feel, but the truth is that we created this world and are responsible individually and collectively for how we experience it. The body is nothing more than a mind-held device that we use to separate ourselves from others, but it doesn’t have to be like that. Keep reading.
“The world of perception is the world of time, of change, of beginnings and endings. It is based on interpretation, not on facts. It is the world of birth and death, founded on the belief in scarcity, loss, separation and death.” ACIM Preface, What It Says
Because I have never truly left reality—but choose to experience an illusion that is perceived as real—I retain a lingering sense of incompleteness that manifests as mental and physical distress, as well as a deep-seated longing for powers that are seemingly lost or unrealized.
Who can honestly say that they haven’t experienced moments, and for some many moments, of what feels like a missing part of your being…an absence of some essential power that is sensed but not fully recognized? Perhaps that is why we so love superheroes and other characters with fantastical powers that allow them to do things beyond the ability of the average human. What if you subconsciously knew that you really possessed God-like powers, but a part of your mind won’t allow you to remember that about yourself? Would that make you anxious, depressed, or simply angry? Perhaps instead it would make you a seeker of truths beyond the accepted norms that society typically condones. You made a world of choice, so choose wisely.
“Love is your power…it gives you everything.” ACIM T-7.6
Because I experience an underlying sense of incompleteness, I seek wholeness through the worship of idols in both material and conceptual forms.
Idols arise from our fundamental confusion about our identity. Having chosen to forget our true nature as spirit, we seek to establish a separate self–in the form of a body–and then look for external things to complete or protect this false identity. It’s because we think we’re bodies that we believe we need idols to defend against truth, because accepting our true nature would require giving up the separate self we’ve invested so much to make and maintain.
Idols can be anything that we believe gives us what only God can provide: peace, security, love and meaning. They come in myriad forms, including but not limited to work, money, politics, religion, and even our relationships.
Work is necessary to make money to feed, clothe and shelter the body. Politics provides a mechanism to influence social, economic and environmental policies that either harm or benefit our bodies, religions direct the rules, roles and rituals that bodies are required to adopt to ensure a proper and stable life and divine future.
“The body is the ego’s idol; the belief in sin made flesh and then projected outward. This produces what seems to be a wall of flesh around the mind, keeping it prisoner in a tiny spot of space and time, beholden unto death.” ACIM T-20.6.11
Well, this post is getting a bit long and we still have five more to go, so I’ll cover the rest of the Creed in the next post. Please follow if you want to be alerted when the follow up post is ready to read.
Coursianity serves as a medium to compose, contemplate and convey deeply-held beliefs about my own religious and spiritual identity. It’s not something you’ll ever be asked to join, other than electing to follow or share this account if you think it beneficial to your own or another’s search for deeper meaning in the midst of a confusing and chaotic world.
If this post resonates with you..or not, I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments. Your insights help to shape my future writings and aid in creating a community of awakening.
Questions for Reflection
Do you have a list of key beliefs that you hold sacrosanct like a creed?
How do you feel about the idea of your human existence being an illusion versus your core reality as spirit?
Do you have a nagging and unidentified sense of lack in your life?
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The Coursian Creed (Part II)
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