Perennial philosophy and ACIM



 

Perennial Philosophy and ACIM

Adhering to stages of development, the teachings of perennial philosophy make mapping of those stages practically a necessity. But what good is a map if no one uses it to explore new territories? Developing trust, if not courage, to continue into unexplored areas of the journey appears to be a major impetus in the sharing the stages – both to seasoned travelers as well as those new to the road. Through yogic practices, meditations on sutras and koans and a myriad of bodily disciplines from tai chi to dervish-whirling, the traveler learns to trust. Beyond the world of our five senses are experiences that demand trust. The map may be seen as simply giving reinforcement that this new evidence has been experienced before. The road it follows is tried and true.

 

But the sharing of these valuable teachings has not been available to just anyone expressing a passing interest. A person must not only desire, but practice, self-discipline. One of the latest  contributions to the long lineage of this pragmatic philosophy is A Course In Miracles (ACIM). ACIM is arguably a demanding discipline that has found its way to over 1 million purchasers of the 3-book series, if not 1 million adherents to its radical teachings. ACIM is strongly linked with esoteric Christianity, and in turn, it is sometimes proclaimed the latest descendant in the line of perennial philosophy teachings http://www.fearlessbooks.com/fsSmoley.html .ACIM also puts forth a series of stages as a means to clarify what may happen to those attempting to adopt its often abstruse teachings.

 

In ACIM’s third book, A Manual for Teachers, the ‘special curriculum’ taught, and simultaneously self-learned, focuses on the saving of time in the seeker’s journey. The first 3 sections of this informative book mention ‘time’ quite often as it describes teachers, pupils and levels of teaching. The primary characteristic of a teacher of God – trust- is described in this  book’s fourth section. It divides the process to achievement of full trust into six clearly-defined stages. These stages do nothing in the way of helping cut away at time. But read as a map they do help clarify a traveler’s place on the consciousness journey. And arguably, a more important point, the stages help in noting what pitfalls and detours await the journeyer should they venture forward.   

 
As ACIM Manual states, its special curriculum is only one of thousands of teachings intent on the same goal - ‘saving time’. With the most stringent adherence and loyalty to its teachings, time could very well be rendered powerless. And as the creators of The Wizard of Oz maintain, 'Time has been powerless to put [the Oz story's] kindly philosophy out of fashion’.  Whether using a time-saving map to go behind the stories of our childhood or adopting abstruse and radical teachings like ACIM, it appears more and more avenues are opening to tapping into that innate philosophy. What will come next?

*original posting 6/19/12