Anyone at all can benefit from A Course in Miracles. One doesn't have to be an intellectual to learn from it and put it to use as a spiritual path. Nonetheless, it's written on a top intellectual level with sophisticated metaphysical, theological, and psychological concepts built-into the teaching throughout the three books. A lot of it's written in blank verse.
Thus, a reader/student who's not intellectually inclined and has no background in these areas may have difficulty understanding a lot of the material. This does not mean, though, that this type of person could not be helped by reading through it and doing the exercises in the workbook. If anyone comes away from the Course being kinder, more loving and reassured of God's Love, and less angry, depressed, and fearful, then its purpose has been fulfilled. On the other hand, there has been many highly educated people have been not able to relate genuinely to the Course at all. They'll find another path considerably better to their needs and inclinations.
The Course says of itself that it's only one amongst many thousands of other types of the universal course (M.1.4). It does not have to be for everyone. Some religions have claimed that theirs is the only real true religion, the only path to be reconciled with God. A Course in Miracles isn't among them. Rather, the clear implication through the Course is that all people could eventually locate a path which will lead them to God. It does not have to be this one.
Finally, the structure and flow of the text may be likened more to a symphony with themes introduced, reserve, reintroduced, and developed than to the linear progression of ideas usually within an academic textbook, which systematically increases in complexity. This results in a interlocking matrix by which every part is integral and important to the entire, while implicitly containing that whole within itself.
Thus, exactly the same material consistently recurs, both within the Course as a thought system along with in the educational opportunities within our personal lives. The method of learning, therefore, resembles the ascent up a spiral staircase, with the reader led in a circular pattern, each revolution leading higher until the the surface of the spiral is reached, which opens unto God. The lovely rhythm of blank verse in much of the writing enhances the impact of recurring themes.
The sole specifications for the workbook lessons are made in its Introduction: “Do not undertake to do more than one group of exercises a day” (W.in.2:6). students should read this Introduction before you begin the lessons, and to reread it occasionally thereafter. Another important principle in the Introduction pertains to the student's orientation:
Remember only this; you need not believe the ideas, you'll need not accept them, and you will need not welcome them. Many of them you may actively resist. None of this can matter, or decrease their efficacy. But don't allow yourself to create exceptions in applying the ideas the workbook contains, and whatever your reactions to the ideas might be, use them. Nothing more than that's required” (W.in.9).
Lessons might be repeated if desired. If it is an especially meaningful or difficult lesson, maybe it's a good idea to stay with it for a day or two or so. However, there's a chance in thinking that a lesson must be performed perfectly before shifting to another location one. This would be a trap because it's unlikely that many of us will ever do some of the lessons perfectly. If we could, we'd reach this kind of advanced state of spiritual growth that people wouldn't need the lessons at all.
The middle of Lesson 95 helps know what direction to go if several days or weeks are missed in practising the lessons. Importantly, it's not necessary to start all over again. The instruction in Lesson 95 targets recognizing how the ego creeps into the procedure, and that we ought to answer “our lapses in diligence, and our failures to check out the instructions” (W.pI.95.8:3) with forgiveness. That is the key.
Jesus does not keep track of how punctual we are in following the instructions for your day; his interest is only in aiding us train our minds to consider more and more when it comes to forgiveness, and then eventually to generalize our learning to all facets of our lives and experience. The core idea is that we are sincere inside our attempts to review and practice what the workbook teaches, aware that individuals all have strong resistance, yet are prepared to forgive ourselves for the often inadequate efforts. As long as we continue to examine and apply the lessons as we are instructed, we will make progress.
