Course of Love [Hardcover]

Mari Perron (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 6, 2002

Many of us wonder if there is a better way that we should be living our lives. Overwhelmed by the information swirling around us, we have forgotten a simple truth: that we should seek guidance through our hearts, not our minds. A COURSE OF LOVE presents a collection of teachings that will lead us to a completely different experience of life, which springs directly from the heart. The words laid out in this powerful text were given to Mari Perron and aided in their presentation by Dan Odegard so that they may become available to others. These valuable teachings show us how to have lives that are deeply fulfilling, and how we can find love and enjoyment immediately. By listening to the wisdom of our hearts and connecting with each other, we can discover the answers we need and the solutions we want. This major new work guides the way.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Mari Perron is a spiritual teacher and author of THE GRACE TRILOGY: MESSAGES OF LOVE, GRACE AND PEACE. Dan Odegard is a bookseller, publisher, writer and editor. Both lives in St Paul, Minnesota.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Mobius (June 6, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0340823127
• ISBN-13: 978-0340823125
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.4 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,093,348 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

A friend and her eleven-year-old daughter were over the other day. Allie, the daughter, was one of two students from Minnesota who wrote a letter to President Obama (as part of a school project) that was so good it was sent to him and even garnered her a reply. I asked her if she might want to be a writer. She said, "Yes."

Later she asked me what I write about. I'm a new grandmother, so I told her that in my new book I write a fair bit about my grandson Henry, and squirrels, and being who we are. "That's my main topic," I told her, "being who we are." I couldn't tell from her silence, or the look on her face, whether she is still too young to find that an issue or not. Her mom said, "I'm always telling her that. Just be who you are." It's got to be a universal mother message: Be who you are and everything will be fine.

When do those other messages start? Those that tell us we need to be other than who we are? It's hard to say. Whatever those messages are for each of us, getting beyond them, and back to our most natural, or given selves, is part of my passion as a writer and a person, a passion that feels as if it springs from my soul and needs to find expression. It seems as if just about all of us struggle to walk this path back to our most authentic selves. I've appreciated (that word "appreciated" doesn't feel nearly strong enough) so many authors who've helped me see my path more clearly, but the ones I love the most are those who've made me feel as if we're in it together, companions on the way.

It's in that spirit that I introduce myself and invite you to browse my books.

Having served as the writer for the books of A Course of Love, I've been blessed with correspondence from readers all over the world. Many of these readers have become friends. It's one of the graces of the experience: new relationships. There's a lot of talk within the Course of Love books on unity and relationship - that both/and experience of oneness and union "with," but sometimes it feels as if it's more comfortable, and just plain human, to talk of friendship. I'm big on simple humanity, which, of course, isn't so simple.

For those of you unfamiliar with them, you might want to know that A Course of Love came to me by way of an inner voice. I know this makes some people jittery. I get that. Then when I add that the inner voice is the voice of Jesus, I can understand if you might think that's too much and this isn't for you. All I can really say about that is that you might want to browse inside the books. If they speak to you, you'll know it. If they don't, they don't.

I was a Course in Miracles reader long before A Course of Love came to me, and I think ACIM and other heart-opening experiences prepared me to accept it. I forget sometimes that there are those who are as unfamiliar with A Course in Miracles as they are with A Course of Love, so I'll just tell you a little about my experience with it.

I read about ACIM in a newspaper article that did not name it as a book that came in the voice of Jesus. When I started reading it, I still didn't realize that it was, and when I became aware of it I didn't believe it. But by then I wasn't about to put the book down because I felt everything in it was Truth with a capital T. I felt this mainly because I was hearing the truth about "me." It was as if someone was able to look inside my head and see everything that went on in there. After a while I started to figure than maybe it really was Jesus. Who else could do that? Then the same thing happened with A Course of Love -- as if Jesus was peering into -- and describing, the very heart of me.

The way of thinking that was described so well that I could see it as my own is called "insanity" in both courses, and after a while you get to agreeing with that assessment and to letting yourself be led toward sanity.

Some call A Course of Love a sequel to ACIM; some deny it. I don't know that it really matters. All I can tell you on that is that I was asked to receive a new course in miracles that would be for the heart what the original is for the mind.

This is a really different orientation and it has an alarming affect. It really changes people, and you know how hard it is to really change. It's all about letting our hearts guide us back to our own true selves, and being our true selves in the world here and now.

A Course of Love was first published in 2001 (I know, I know...I get it all the time...why is it still such a secret?), and it wasn't until almost 2010 that I came out with another book, this one, The Given Self, written in my own voice. It's not a telling of the story of how ACOL came to me, but there's a bit of that, and a lot about how the experience affected me.

The long and the short of it is that what we're seeking isn't about mind alone or heart alone but joining them so that we're not caught in internal conflict all the time.

A Course in Miracles may prepare some readers for A Course of Love. Or it may be that some people need a course that is for their mind or intellect -- that's the way they learn, and some need a way that is for the heart -- basically an unlearning and a greater reliance on intuition and feelings and receptivity.

Receptivity is what I've decided is the key. It's as if A Course of Love gets into you, opens you up, and makes you more receptive. That receptivity is thoroughly you, unique to you, and what you gain comes from that. You gain insight into who you are and what your gifts are and you start to long to find expression for them.

The yearning for God (by whatever name) and for our own selves has always been pretty much the same thing, and you start to feel that and really follow that yearning, that longing, to know yourself and God.

I know I'm biased, but I feel that this course suits this time, as all prophetic messages do. We need the wisdom of our hearts now, and the world needs us to find expression for that wisdom.

I hope you'll join me on this great journey of discovery back to our true -- our given selves -- and forward to bringing your gifts to a world in need of them. ~ Mari

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Best Kept Secret... (that shouldn't be)!, February 5, 2008

By 

idattu (Florida) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Course of Love (Paperback)

To write a review of this book, of this series of books, is challenging in that it seems impossible to encapsulate a life-changing experience by writing a few words. Seemingly more difficult is it to express in words that which elevates you in spirit to the ultimate mountaintop experience. An experience so profound and exquisitely encompassing that my heart swells and my spirit soars 3 full years after being introduced to this work.

The delay in writing the review stems from the personal struggle of finding the `right' words to share so as to fully and accurately review that which is beyond words. How do I add to that which is already complete? And perhaps more importantly, how do I not detract from it?

But this relentless desire to share my experience with A Course of Love has ultimately won out over my uncertainty of being able to write a review that gives due justice. I am not the author (at least no more than you) and I am not here to `sell' the book. But it would be a great disservice for me to not share. If the person that shared it with me had not, I would have missed the most significant read of my life.

Certainly you would expect a review to include or describe what the book is `about'. And herein lies the difficulty. I find the process of trying to sum up this book completely frustrating. Now the words, or rather, the voice of the book comes through as clear and penetrating as the clarion sound of a well-tuned bell, ringing loud and true into the very heart of the reader. It has been the most effecting book! It can not be described as a `how to' manual but maybe as a `guide'. Not as a guide in the sense of pointing the way, but rather a GUIDE as in one who walks with you (the journey without distance). It is somehow a companion more `real' than a physical personality.

I have read many books that have had a positive effect in my life. Most have given a gentle lift while some were quite memorable. Then there are books like A Course in Miracles where you enter into a relationship with the work and find yourself engaged in something much greater than a `book'. In fact, it was during an intense year-long study group of A Course in Miracles that I was introduced to ACOL. Think of ACOL as being for the HEART what ACIM is for the mind, with the concordant shift in Reality.

If you have been a student of A Course in Miracles, then you must...... I mean, MUST look into A Course of Love. You will find that the same loving `voice' moves from `out there' to in here and then you will see that it was Your voice all along.

The effect of spending time with A Course of Love (series) has been experienced as a complete and total shift in consciousness. Uncertainty has been replaced with certainty and an internal compass of peace and joy guides me quietly through my days.

If I can give you but one gift, this is it! I have received so much from ACOL that I simply can not hold it to myself. Please look beyond the inadequate words of this review and introduce your Self to this work.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Loving a course of Love, October 18, 2010

By 

Hope - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: A Course of Love (Paperback)

This book has been challenging, yet in the most loving way. It's exactly what the world needs more of.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Accolades for A Course of Love, August 27, 2009

By 

Jasper B. Becker "Jasper Becker" (Blowng Rock, NC,) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: A Course of Love (Paperback)

As long term students of A Course In Miracles, my wife and I find A Course of Love very helpful in deepening our understanding of Christ's message,and experiencing the "wholehearted" connection between Heart (Truth) and mind (illusionary thinking). The experience of oneness that accompanies this transformation is most gratifying. Without the mind-training and familiarity with Jeshua's teachings through ACIM, I do not think we would be able to comprehend ACOL.