March 2009/ ISSUE 87 CONTENTS “This Course Is a Guide to Behavior” Part I: The Presence and Role of Behavior in A Course in Miracles “This Course Is a Guide to Behavior” by Robert Perry 1 Part I: The Presence and Role of Behavior in A Course in Miracles Circle Mailbox 7 by Robert Perry Circle News 9 I recently picked up the November/December 2008 issue of Miracle Worker, the magazine of the UK Miracle Network. What caught my eye was the editorial written by my friend Ian Patrick. It opened with these lines: One of the most common pitfalls amongst A Course in Miracles students is to think the Course means less than it actually does. The more usual way this manifests is to succumb to the idea that the Course is a guide to behaviour, a kind of moral code for living in the world. The Course is only interested in our thoughts, particularly whether we are coming from the thought of fear or love. It is not interested in our behaviour. I have heard Ian make this point before, which would usually spark a vigorous discussion between us. So it is not news to me that he thinks this, nor is it news to him that I see it differently. However, I have heard this viewpoint in one form or another so many times, from so many people, that seeing it one more time in print prompted me to make a clear and thorough statement about it. The purpose of this two-part article (Part II will be in next month’s A Better Way) is to show that behavior occupies an extremely important place in A Course in Miracles and to explain what that place is. To begin with, I am not sure those who claim behavior doesn’t matter in the Course fully appreciate the ramifications of that position. Behavior, quite simply, is the primary way we affect other people. If the mechanism through which I affect you doesn’t matter, that implies that how I affect you (positively or negatively) also doesn’t matter, which leads to the inescapable conclusion that you don’t matter. Is this really what the Course is saying? This is the stance of a socio- path or a psychopath. Only a truly monstrous spiritual path would adopt such a position. Surely A Course in Miracles is not a “psycho-path.” To be fair, those who claim that behavior doesn’t matter in the Course tend to soften that by saying that what matters is, as Ian says, “whether we are coming from the thought of fear or love.” In other words, although the particular form of the behavior doesn’t matter, the state of mind behind it does matter. Our actions ought to be motivated by love. This stance, however, takes us back to the same place as before, for even if I have love in my heart, different ways of express- ing my love to you will inevitably affect you differently. Love has been expressed through all sorts of behaviors, from a slug in the arm, to a proposal of marriage, to mercy killing. If I don’t take into account how very differently each of these would affect you, then I am obviously not taking you into account. When it’s all about me—whether I am coming from love or fear—then the clear implication is that you don’t matter. And can any state of mind based on that thought actually be called loving? Jesus in the Course is fully aware of this. In an important passage early in the Text, he makes it clear we need to gear the form of our giving to the needs of the other, to what the other person can take in without fear: In fact, if it [the Atonement] is used truly, it will inevitably be expressed in whatever way is most helpful to the receiver. This means that a miracle, to attain its full efficacy, must be expressed in a language that the recipient can understand without fear. 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It is not enough to have love in my heart. I need to express that love in a way that is most helpful to the other, not to me. In Part I of this article, I want to first show that the Course speaks openly and repeatedly of the importance of behav- ior. After that, I will describe the role of behavior in the salvation process. Then in Part II, I will cover what I see as the really interesting topic: the Course’s thought system around behavior, including what has gone wrong with our current behavior and attempts to correct it, and what right-minded behavior really looks and feels like. Quotes about the importance of behavior One thing that is odd about the “behavior doesn’t matter” position is that there is no shortage of quotes in the Course about the importance of behavior. That is what I hope to show through the following series of Course passages. They say in the clearest terms that behavior matters in the Course. They also contain many of the points I will make in Part II about how the Course sees the whole topic of behavior. Please read them carefully. I have put in boldface the words that speak of behavior (behave, action, active, do, expression, etc.). These quotes will answer far better than I can the posi- tion that we must refuse “to succumb to the idea that the Course is a guide to behaviour.” (Please note the first sentence of the first quote.) This course is a guide to behavior. Being a very direct and very simple learning situation, it provides the guide [the Holy Spirit] who tells you what to do.