Classes on A Course in Miracles Series Volume I

by Darryl E Berry Jr

<< Preface ( Table of Contents ) Chapter 1 >>

INTRODUCTION

Classes on A Course in Miracles I contains transcripts of twelve (12) of the class/study group sessions I (Darryl E Berry Jr) taught on A Course in Miracles from May of 2014 to May of 2015. The transcripts have been stylistically edited and expanded upon and clarified. A Course in Miracles is a lifelong spiritual path, teaching how to eliminate pain, upset, frustration, and heartache from our being, by achieving a state of inner peace through its unique form of forgiveness.

From a very young age I was curious about spirituality and metaphysical progress. I remember saving up money from the allowances my parents gave me and mail ordering a book on metaphysical development. The many otherworldly experiences I had as a kid, including numerous out-of-body experiences and various interactions with light beings, extraterrestrials, and other-dimensional beings, opened me up to a greater reality. I became vaguely aware of other lifetimes I am living, and I developed the notion of ending the cycle of birth and death.

In 2005 I found A Course in Miracles through a radio interview of Gary Renard, who spoke of “ascended masters” who visited him and taught him true spiritual wisdom. I immediately purchased his book The Disappearance of the Universe, and eventually also read A Course in Miracles several times. I took Gary’s teachers’ advice and sought out Kenneth Wapnick, who is the original teacher of A Course in Miracles, reading several of his books, watching/hearing several of his recorded classes and workshops, and even going out to his Foundation for A Course in Miracles and attending in-person with him several times. I’ve since committed myself to studying and applying the Course – though as mentioned in the Preface I’ve wavered several times. This wavering was discussed in these classes and thus details on this will appear in this text, as they are of instructional value to the student.

I’ve had great transcendent experiences through my practice of A Course in Miracles. Within the first year or two I was visited by Y’shua, commonly called Jesus. I was suddenly in a space or area or realm made of thought or energy, and he was standing before me. I grabbed him in a hug, crying profusely and thanking him for his Course and for helping me, and for visiting me. I’ve also had simple moments of deep, pervading inner peace, a few times a peace so deep that I could just lay there and experience it. I’m reminded of an experience from years before taking up study of the Course, where I experienced my heart chakra taking on a powerful quality where I felt unconditional love and openness, a state that lasted for about three days. This experience of profound inner peace as a result of my forgiveness practices was just as intense, but deeper and freer.

Perhaps the most profound metaphysical experience thus far was experiencing the entire universe disappearing. That’s right. I was applying the Course’s thought system to a cherished idol of mine, and when I really established the unreality of the idol, I must have starkly destabilized an underpinning of my identity. The world disappeared and for a “time” there was only being, and then a discernable “I” re-arose. “I” was able to perceive from afar the individual self that I apparently am now, and I and all the activity around it (the world, the universe) seemed as meaningless activity. And according to the Course the entire universe is an illusion, projected by one universal mind that in the end doesn’t exist either. The stark fear at realizing that this individual self that seems so real and so “me” is in truth ‘meaningless activity’ along with all the world – along with a quiet recognition that the mind perceiving it all is meaningless too – condensed me back into an experience of being an individualized “me,” in a body, within a seemingly boundless external universe.

The most pertinent immediate benefits of studying and applying A Course in Miracles is that any pain and anguish doesn’t have to last as long. Many things that would have previously upset me no longer do. The regrets of the past, the fears of the future, the judgments, and anger, and frustration, and lacks, and so forth, I now have tools to address these things in a way that truly leaves me feeling happier, more peaceful, and better about myself. And even if I let myself get away with judging myself or others, or regretting something in the past, at the least I now know how to look at the situation when I’m ready to come back to a place of inner peace.

Now you can learn about this way of interpreting the world. Whether you’re just curious about spirituality or you’re a multi-decade Course student you’ll find clarification herein to help you along.

Perfect inner peace is the goal the Course is leading us towards. And until you have inner peace there’s no way you can be a force for peace in the world. The world’s way is to war for peace, to lie for truth, to imprison for freedom, and to be corrupt for justice; among other backwards notions such as to disenfranchise for wealth, to murder for life, and to steal for abundance. Unfortunately, this will never work. Universal peace and abundance start within – the outside world is the effect and not the cause. Our thinking whatever it may be determines the world we make. And the “problems” of the world whatever they may be can only be effectively addressed from a place of inner peace. And, from a place of inner peace we learn that the world was never the problem anyway. The only problem is dissociating inner peace, and cessation of that insanity is the whole of the solution.

Here’s to inner peace.