Copyright © 2001-2012 Pauline Edward. All rights reserved.

Shining the Light on awakening

By Susan Dugan
Author of Extraordinary Ordinary Forgiveness
Visit Susan’s Blog: www.foraysinforgiveness.com

In Leaving the Desert: Embracing the Simplicity of A Course in Miracles, Course in Miracles student and teacher Pauline Edward recounts her earnest personal struggle to understand and integrate the spiritual psychology’s profound principles in her daily life. By deeply delving into the text, workbook, and related materials while immersing herself in the illuminating work of premier Course teacher, scholar, and original editor Kenneth Wapnick, PhD, Edward absorbs and articulates the Course’s unique forgiveness practice that teaches us to heal our minds of the unconscious idea of separation from God that fuels our belief in competing interests and ultimately dooms our relationships.

Pressing through the darkness of her own ego-identification as the Course invites us to do, the author gradually begins to take responsibility for her own peace of mind by cultivating an inner relationship with Jesus, that symbol of the awakened mind the Course uses to lead us home to the one, eternal Love we never truly left. Along the way she confronts her own fear of relinquishing the special identity we all use to push that authentic, all-inclusive and enduring Love away.

Edward does a superb job explaining A Course in Miracle’s underlying thought system as well as its unique, transformative forgiveness practice that involves learning to recognize and choose against the ego’s case for separate interests while embracing the right mind’s vision of unalterable unity. Drawing on both painful and humorous examples from her own experience; she demonstrates the inner work necessary to awaken from the ego’s dream of specialness rather than attempting to create a better dream that can never provide lasting solace. Her journey from mindlessness to mindfulness will inspire and motivate anyone longing for a gentler way of relating in this world.  

Review of Leaving the Desert