A Course in Miracles: Text, Workbook for Students, Manual For Teachers [Hardcover]

Foundation for Inner Peace (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover: 1312 pages
• Publisher: Viking Penguin; second edition edition (1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0670869759
• ISBN-13: 978-0670869756
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.1 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (311 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #13,216 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1,229 of 1,274 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A way out of the Confusion, July 12, 2000

By 

Donald P Hoover - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Course in Miracles: Text, Workbook for Students, Manual For Teachers (Hardcover)

I am not one of those people who write book reviews just to get my picture on the about me page on amazon. In fact this is the only review that I have ever written. I was prompted to write it because, as I read the some of the more negative reviews of this book, it was quite obvious that most of these people, who wrote these reviews, had not read this book. I don't know why they felt the need to write the derogatory things about this material that were written, but I'm certain that they did not read this book, before writing there review of it. I have read this material; I have studied it for over a year. At first glance the concepts it spoke of seemed at the very least, unlikely. They certainly did not match up with the formula consensus reality had given me to work out the problems that I encountered in my life. That really didn't matter to me by that time because the old formulas had not served me that well anyway. If you are happy with everything about your life this is not a book that you should be reading. If by chance, there are aspects of your life that seem to trouble you, then this is a book that you should be reading. If a year ago you had told me that one simple book held the key to every single problem that I was faced with in my life, I would have laughed in your face, and thought that you must be a fool to say such a thing. Yet after a year of working with the concepts that this book teaches, I feel more strongly about there ability set things right in my life than ever. I came into this encounter with this material a jaded skeptic, who believed in nothing. I had tried, and rejected nearly every path, seeing truth in none of them. Yes, each seemed at first to be truth, but the initial lift that they gave proved not to stand the test of time. This material is different, It seeks to correct the errors in thinking that are currently causing the conflicts, and disappointment in our lives before they can happen. It also shows the folly of approaching the idea of love from the conventionally acceptable way. That is, reserving love only for those we have judged worthy of it. It has taught me that this is not love at all, it is only judgment. This is not a book that you can sit down and read in a night, or even in a week. The concepts that it teaches are so fundamentally different from the ones that are currently causing all the problems in your life, that it will take some time for you to readjust them. Perhaps years, After all how long has it taken you to get to this point where you truly longed to find a better way. Did you really expect it would happen over night? I gave this book 5 stars only because I wasn't given the option of giving it 1,000 stars. If this book can help someone as lost as I was, it can most likely help you too. But only if you actually read it!

406 of 424 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars All my tears and whys..., February 25, 2006

By 

Toom (Brooklyn, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Course in Miracles, Combined Volume: Text, Workbook for Students, Manual for Teachers, 2nd Edition (Paperback)

With all the other well-stated reviews out there, it may not be important for me to add my two cents, but in case there's someone out there who stumbles on this... First of all, I'm not writing this to persuade anyone about the Course. Some people simply won't find this conducive to their beliefs, and that's okay. But for those who are willing to give it a try, let me divulge a little about my experience with it. I'm spiritual but also extremely skeptical, so I'd never been able to stick with any one religion or philosophical doctrine beyond Taoism in its ambiguous glory. The virtue of the Course is that it doesn't matter whether the contents are credible to you enough that you can invest in it your lifelong faith, because when you start reading it seriously and practicing the workbook, you will soon be faced with evidence that this path is real and one worth taking. It calls for your faith, but not because you'll be damned to hell otherwise. Your faith in the Course is required just as therapy would require you to have faith that you can be treated.

Having been schooled in a wretched fundamentalist Christian parochial, I try but fail time and again to fathom a loving God, and I recognize this fact more clearly and painfully now that I've been studying the Course. So I approach the Course from a secular and/ or psychotherapeutic perspective when I can't handle all the spiritual overtones, and it works. Take, for instance, Newton's third law, "for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction." We also know (esp if you're familiar with magick and witchcraft) that by some fuzzy logic "what goes around comes around," but the Course defines this in exact terms; whether it's God or our fellow men, if we put up a defense against Him/ them, we're doing the same to ourselves. By judging others, we judge ourselves, and as a child, by learning to hate myself as a sinful creature, I also learnt to hate God, even though on the surface I thought I was a devout 'God-fearing' Christian. The bottom line is that the Course allows you to bring along your doubts and to let go of them gradually as you become ready to do so.

But most of all, A Course in Miracles is a source of healing for everyone. If you're depressed or otherwise mentally unstable, suffering in some way from your past, or just stuck in some 'unlucky' life predicament, this book is a way out. Like several reviewers mentioned above, I never believed that one book could change my life. But it did. And I want it to do the same for anyone else who still wants to believe that there has to be more to this broken-down world than eating and working and sleeping and breeding and dying and then just maybe a Big Mean Judge waiting at the end. It's not easy, it's not instant gratification, but it's a solution and a permanent one, and it doesn't involve a bullet or fast train.

231 of 239 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Spirituality For the Non-Religious Thinking Person, March 19, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: A Course in Miracles: Text, Workbook for Students, Manual For Teachers (Hardcover)

This book is not for everyone; it is "A" Course, not "The" Course. It seems like a good path for someone who enjoys somewhat obscure abstract ideas and then applying them through a semi-mystical/meditative, yet Christian-framed approach. (If you are somewhat anti-Christian, don't be put off: I was at first but eventually was able to appreciate this book's completely different approach from traditional Christian religions at least as they are practiced in my limited corner of the world. However, a warning: the book uses male terminology exclusively--e.g., we are "the Son" of God rather than even "the Child" of God, but I got past this by recognizing it is a language issue not a spiritual one.) It is both theoretical and practical, a book I mine for insights nearly every day if not as constantly as I would like. When I do apply the ideas consistently I experience joy and well-being and discover new viewpoints about my life issues that help me re-frame things in ways that help me discover my own happiness and inner peace. For example, the Course has taught me to recognize more often when I project my own mistakes (not sins or even flaws) on others and to notice that when other people are behaving obnoxiously they are usually terrified of something which helps me take a more compassionate as opposed to defensive stance. It also reminds me how temporary everything is here so I don't get too caught up in anxieties and materialism.