As the year draws to a close, the Christian world celebrates the season of Advent and then Christmas. In this blog post, I bring in ideas from Buddhist tradition and from A Course in Miracles on cultivating joy.

This post is simply a brief announcement of an interview I did with Valeria Teles, who invited me to speak with her as part of her podcast, “Fit for Joy.” The blog post gives the link to the interview.

The title of this post is drawn from the part of the Catholic Mass in which those in attendance wish one another peace. Since all minds are joined, to give peace is also to receive peace.

This last post of 2021 is a meditation on the light within our minds found in Workbook Lesson 75 of A Course in Miracles. The post has a brief first section introducing the meditation, and then a longer “deeper dive” into the background of the meditation drawn from the Lesson instructions and from other parts of the Course.

This post describes two experiences of grace and gives the perspective of A Course in Miracles in understanding these moments as memories of our true reality.

This post is inspired by one of the last workshops that Dr. Kenneth Wapnick gave on A Course in Miracles in 2013 called, “The Community of Love,” a title drawn from a quote by the great singer of German lieder, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau. One path to achieving the goal of living from the quiet center is to build a community of love (or peace) with everyone we encounter.

Whenever our peace leaves us, we can use a mantra to help us remember our power to choose how we view anything that we experience. Mantras can also remind us of our union with others, part of the path of awakening to ultimate reality. In addition to the teachings of A Course in MIracles, this post references central tenets of Hinduism and Buddhism.

In fairy tales, especially ones in which two people meet and fall in love, the protagonists go on to ‘live happily ever after.’ In this post, I share the shift in mind-set taught in A Course in Miracles that paves the way to peace, love, and joy ‘ever after’ in our relationships.

Ambivalence runs through our days and obscures our natural inheritance, which is Love. From the perspective taught in A Course in Miracles, we experience spiritual ambivalence because we vacillate between listening to one of two “voices” in our minds. This post sketches the Course’s path to resolving this ambivalence through developing a relationship with our Guide.

The one year anniversary of the start of the pandemic earlier this month inspired this post on changelessness, which A Course in Miracles describes as an attribute of Heaven.

Guilt and peace cannot co-exist. This is because guilt is entirely of the ego, a false conception of ourselves as separated beings. God does not see error, only love, and we are all one with God. That means that each and every one of us is completely worthy and completely loved, no matter our actions, or even our thoughts, in this dream of a world. This post is dedicated to leaving guilt behind, day by day, and eventually, completely, by looking at our guilt with the Teacher of Peace in our minds.

Today’s post, inspired by the season of Christmas, has as its theme the limitless light and strength we each have in our minds. It characterizes light and strength as taught in A Course in Miracles and ends with a meditation that anybody can do on the place in our minds where light and strength are one.

The body is an integral part of our conception of ourselves and yet attachment to the body is a source of much suffering. A Course in Miracles teaches that our bodies are not our true reality since they grow old and die, whereas Spirit is eternal. Nonetheless, even as we grow older, we can grow to be more peaceful and less identified with our bodies.

With fires raging along the entire west coast of the United States, the air is literally and figuratively fraught. In this post, I share some reflections on the transient nature of nature itself, as well as a practical exercise for turning to “the stately calm within.”

The miracle is the Course’s means of promoting enduring personal peace. The use of this word in A Course in Miracles is completely different from the usual sense of the word. At the same time, it is miraculous in its own way.

Judgment of others and oneself is so automatic that we might conclude that it is our natural inheritance. On the contrary, judgment is a habit that perpetuates itself, making the experience of peace ever more elusive. In this post, I share some ideas about the transformative practice of non-judgment.

Recent events in American news have highlighted social injustice. This complex problem is difficult to solve from within the framework of the world. In this post, I talk about seeking refuge in our true reality, which is Love. By looking through Love’s eyes, what we see takes on a different meaning, one that allows peace to return.