Miracle
Yoga
ACIM Yoga inspired by
“A Course in Miracles”
MIRACLE YOGA IS A WAY OF FOLLOWING CHRIST
Miracle Yoga is a form of Christian yoga since it is a way of practicing yoga as a means of following Christ. Miracle Yoga is also called "ACIM Yoga" because it is based on the spiritual principles of A Course in Miracles. Miracle Yoga encourages you to make progress in learning how to love, serve, meditate, understand, and forgive.
Awakening to the Light
- A PATH OF FORGIVENESS AND AWAKENING
- Yoga literally means "union" and typically is understood as a path toward ultimate awakening to your own true spiritual nature in God. Obviously you cannot "force" yourself to wake up to God, but you can prepare a solid foundation for this ultimate awakening through practicing Miracle Yoga. Yoga, which also can be interpreted as "integration," involves paying careful attention to the body, mind, and spirit as a preparation for uncovering your divine oneness with God. Spiritual awakening includes diving deep within yourself to find the light, as is illustrated in the image above. Nevertheless, you cannot awaken all by yourself. This growth process includes not only awakening to your inner union with God, but also awakening to your union with all your brothers and sisters in Christ. Miracle Yoga teaches that forgiveness and joining with your brothers and sisters is an essential part of your awakening, as is symbolized in the circular Miracle Yoga logo shown at the top of this web page.
Seeing
everything through “forgiving eyes”
WHAT IS
TRUE FORGIVENESS?
The “looking”
part of forgiveness
sees only the divine holiness and true reality of the one who is
forgiven,
realizing he is always worthy of only love. Since he is worthy of love,
you
join with him. The ego is the idea of separation, which says there is a
real
gap of separation between you and your brother. However, when
forgiveness
occurs, you join with your brother, and you realize you are equals
because he
is just as holy as you are. “Forgiveness is the healing of the
perception of
separation.”3 Forgiveness then removes this illusory gap between you
and your
brother and proves to yourself that the ego, the whole idea of
separation, is
an illusion. What is this joining with your brother? Joining is the
earthly
version of love, which reflects the total joining that occurs in
Heaven. You
“can look with love or look with hate, depending only on the simple
choice of
whether you would join with what you see, or keep yourself apart and
separate.”4
Forgiveness represents the choice to join. Thus forgiveness
accomplishes your
true goal of love, which is all that you really want.
According
to the Course, you are
asleep in Heaven right now, and you are dreaming of this world of fear,
sin,
and guilt. While you are dreaming that you are separate from God, His
everlasting Love gently caresses you. Your loving Father has sent the
Holy
Spirit into your dream world to show you how to change your fearful
nightmares
into “happy dreams” and then to show you the way beyond all dreaming.
The Holy
Spirit calls you to awaken from your dreams of separation and
encourages you to
use true forgiveness as your means of awakening. With the guidance of
the Holy
Spirit, you can use “forgiving eyes” to transform your perception of
the world.
Forgiveness allows you to overlook the illusions of fear, sin, and
guilt that
you have projected onto the world. You can learn to see the divine
presence of
holiness that is normally hidden from your vision of the world. The
following
Course quotation affirms that true forgiveness transforms your vision
of the
world of dreams and ultimately leads to final awakening in Heaven,
which is
your true Home:
From
the
forgiven world the Son of God is lifted easily into his home. And there
he
knows that he has always rested there in peace. Even salvation will
become a
dream, and vanish from his mind. For salvation is the end of dreams,
and with the
closing of the dream will have no meaning. Who, awake in Heaven, could
dream
that there could ever be need of salvation?5
2.
T-9.IV.4:4-6, p. 169
3.
T-3.V.9:1, p. 46
4.
T-31.VII.12:6, p. 665
5.
T-17.II.6:1-3, 7:1-5, p. 354
MIRACLE YOGA IS A MARRIAGE OF THE
EAST AND WEST
Traditional Christianity is based on “dualism,”
which is the idea that because of sin, you are currently separate from God and
that hopefully you will join with Him at some future date. In contrast to dualism, "nondualism" maintains
you are joined with God now and always, but you have merely temporarily lost
your awareness of that everlasting union.
The gift of the East is yoga disciplines
directed toward nondualism in which spiritual fulfillment is awakening to your
ever-present oneness with God. The gift of the West is the loving forgiveness
of Christ. Miracle Yoga brings together these two gifts of the East and West. “A
Course in Miracles” is the perfect philosophical foundation for Miracle Yoga
because it is the only Christian philosophy that supports the belief in nondualism.
As a blending of the East and West, Miracle Yoga consists of a healthy balance
of five areas of spiritual development. You can click on the links below to
learn about the five aspects of Miracle Yoga:
Click below for an overall description of Miracle Yoga:
Click below for information about each individual aspect:
Miracle Karma Yoga: Service
Miracle Raja Yoga: Meditation
Miracle Jnana Yoga: Understanding
Miracle Relationship Yoga: Forgiveness
- The five aspects of Miracle Yoga are elaborated upon in the autobiography described below, which also includes instructions in how to practice Christian meditation and simple yoga postures and breathing practices.
Memory Walk in the Light:
My Christian Yoga Life as
"A Course in Miracles"
Many years ago a total stranger walked up to me and invited me to go on what he called a “memory walk” with him. I accepted his invitation, and since then my life has never been the same. Now I am inviting you to take a “memory walk” with me. This autobiography is a journey into the darkness of the past with the goal of arriving at the light of the present moment. My story bears witness to the truth that with the Love of God all things are possible. Quite naturally God’s Love leads to forgiveness, which has shown me that, “The holiest of all the spots on earth is where an ancient hatred has become a present love.”1
1. T-26.IX.6:1, p. 562
Click here to for the full introduction to this book...
Author:
Donald
James
Giacobbe
Donald
James Giacobbe worked for sixteen years as a case manager for the state
of
Arizona serving developmentally disabled clients. The professional
nature of
his human service work placed limitations on his ability to express his
spiritual motivations overtly, so out of necessity he served as an
"undercover agent" for God.
A more direct approach to spirituality
was facilitated by
living with Zen Buddhist seekers and then being part of a yoga
community. Later
he was the director of the Aquarian Age Yoga Center in Virginia Beach,
VA. He
served as an instructor of meditation and yoga, teaching college
courses and
appearing on television. He specialized in providing yoga teacher
training
certification courses and leading meditation workshops and retreats.
In his teaching of meditation, Don
has
attempted to strip away the rituals of
Zen
Buddhism and yoga practices and transpose only the bare essence into a
Christian
context. Techniques of meditation inspired by Eastern sources enhance
the use
of traditional Christian practices, such as the "Jesus Prayer," and
lead to the overshadowing of the Holy Spirit that occurs in Christian
contemplation.
Don encourages the doing of God's Will,
being receptive to
the Holy Spirit, and finding Christ within the temple of one's own
heart. While
respecting all Christian spiritual expressions, he became a monk by
making his
vow directly to God, without the stamp of approval from any religious
organization. For many years Don used the term "Christian yoga" to
describe his spiritual path, which combined following Christ with yoga
disciplines. However, in recent years he has adopted the term "Miracle
Yoga" to describe the specific path of Christian yoga he has chosen.
This
form of spirituality is a synthesis of yoga and the philosophy of "A
Course in Miracles." The seeker is encouraged to see with
"forgiving
eyes" and perceive Christ in everyone. Don's goal is to maintain a
balance
between opening
inwardly
to divine love and allowing that love to be
extended
outwardly to others.
Listen
to a radio interview with the author Donald James Giacobbe