The Metaphysics of Separation and Forgiveness

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Summary: A radical perspective on forgiveness
Review: THE METAPHYSICS OF SEPARATION AND FORGIVENESS is an audio cassette recording of a workshop led by Kenneth Wapnick, PhD., on February 22, 1992. The workshop, which includes several question and answer dialogues between the attendees and instructor, was held at the Foundation for A Course In Miracles, which was then located in Roscoe, New York. The foundation has since moved to Temecula, CA., and is now more focused on electronic outreach: http://www.facimoutreach.org/

A COURSE IN MIRACLES is a self-study three-volume set of books about spiritual psychotherapy. The Course was first published in 1975, and has now sold over one million copies, with no signs of slowing down. In THE METAPHYSICS OF SEPARATION AND FORGIVENESS Wapnick reminds that the Course teaches that God is a loving, gentle father; Jesus' life and death and resurrection were expressions of love rather than judgment and sacrifice; forgiveness should be the central focus of all of our lives. Wapnick points out that while the Course shares its non-dualistic framework with many other paths, what makes the Course unique is the way in which it integrates non-dualistic metaphysics with practical and sophisticated psychology. In other words, A COURSE IN MIRACLES, like branches of Hinduism, Buddhism, Christian Science, etc., teaches that the world is ultimately an illusion. What makes the Course different from these other paths is the way it uses insights from modern psychology to help the student live in the world all the while remembering that the world is ultimately an illusion not made by God, but made by the ego as an attack on God. We remember our true identity as God's children, we remember that this world is not real, by practicing forgiveness in this world. Forgiveness, of course, as defined by A COURSE IN MIRACLES, holds that you forgive the other for what he has not done.

Yes, these are difficult concepts. I have been a student of the Course for six years now, and the above paragraph still leaves me a little confused - and I'm the one who just wrote the above paragraph! This is because the ego's fragmented way of thinking is the complete opposite to the unified thoughts of heaven. Therefore, I think that THE METAPHYSICS OF SEPARATION AND FORGIVENESS is best suited for students who have been working with A COURSE IN MIRACLES for at least two or three years. If you are new to the Course, you may want to start with Wapnick's book A TALK GIVEN ON A COURSE IN MIRACLES: AN INTRODUCTION.

Andrew Parodi