Orders of Reality
- Orders of reality are not symbolic.
- An order of reality is a system of thought
- The two basic orders of reality are (1) In time, and (2) In eternity
- Orders of reality intersect where time and eternity meet in the present instant.
- Healing the mind and physical healing are two different orders of reality.
- Thought alone cannot make physical reality, but thought combined with belief can.
- Opposing orders of reality make reality meaningless.
- Different orders of reality is a perspective without understanding.
- Reserving one idea apart from truth is to establish an order of reality which must imprison you.
- There are no orders of reality. There is no order of difficulty of miracles.
- Time awareness is an order of reality.
The Gentle Dissolution of Illusion: Understanding Orders of Reality in A Course in Miracles
Have you ever wondered why spiritual truth sometimes feels so elusive in our daily lives? Why moments of profound peace and understanding seem to slip away when we return to the pressing concerns of work, relationships, and worldly responsibilities? A Course in Miracles offers a fascinating perspective on this universal human experience through its teaching on what it calls "orders of reality."
At first glance, this concept might seem abstract or philosophical, but it actually addresses something deeply practical: how we can navigate the apparent gap between our spiritual aspirations and our lived experience. The Course suggests that much of our spiritual confusion stems from mixing up different levels of reality—trying to force eternal truths into temporal forms, or expecting the world of time and space to deliver what only timeless love can provide.
The Singular Truth Beneath All Appearances
The Course begins with a radical proposition: there is actually only one true reality. In the realm of eternity—where God dwells—there exists only perfect love, complete oneness, and unchanging truth. Everything else we experience, no matter how compelling or urgent it may seem, falls into the category of illusion.
This isn't meant to dismiss or minimize our human experience, but rather to provide a framework for understanding it. When the Course states, "There is no order in reality because everything there is true," it's pointing to something profound: in God's reality, there are no hierarchies, no conflicts, no competing truths. Everything simply is, in perfect harmony.
But here's where it gets interesting—and where the concept of "orders of reality" becomes essential to understand. While there is only one ultimate reality, we don't experience ourselves as living in that reality most of the time. Instead, we find ourselves navigating what appears to be a complex world of multiple levels, competing priorities, and endless distinctions.
The Dreamer's Dilemma
Within our earthly experience, we constantly encounter what seem to be different orders of reality. We distinguish between the physical and the spiritual, between body and mind, between past and present, between our personal concerns and universal love. These distinctions feel absolutely real to us—because, as the Course notes, "All beliefs are real to the believer."
This insight is crucial. The Course isn't suggesting that our experience of separation and conflict is merely imaginary in a dismissive sense. Rather, it's acknowledging that our beliefs have tremendous power to shape our experience. When we believe in separation, we experience separation. When we believe in conflict, we experience conflict. These beliefs create what the Course calls "orders of reality"—systems of thought that seem to organize our experience into meaningful categories.
The separation we experience from God, from others, and even from ourselves isn't just a symbol or metaphor. It's a complete system of thought that we've invested with so much belief that it creates what feels like an entire reality. Yet this system exists only in what the Course calls "the dream"—not in God's eternal truth.
The Confusion of Mixed Levels
One of the most common spiritual mistakes, according to the Course, is trying to merge these different orders of reality. We might attempt to bring spiritual truth into physical form, or expect material circumstances to carry ultimate spiritual meaning. This mixing of levels creates confusion and often leads to disappointment.
Consider the Course's perspective on the statement "The Word was made flesh." Rather than accepting this as literal truth, the Course suggests this represents a confusion of levels: "Thought cannot be made into flesh except by belief." Thought and flesh exist on different orders of reality, and trying to make them the same leads to misunderstanding.
This principle applies to many areas of spiritual life. For instance, when we call a physical healing a "miracle," we might be mixing levels. The healing itself is a result—something that happens in the world of form. The true miracle, according to the Course, is the correction that happens in the mind, the shift from fear to love that the Course calls the Atonement. This inner correction might lead to physical healing, but the healing itself isn't the miracle.
This doesn't diminish the value of physical healing or other positive changes in our lives. Rather, it helps us understand where the real power lies—not in manipulating external circumstances, but in correcting our fundamental way of seeing.
The Trap of Judgment
Our habit of creating distinctions—good versus bad, right versus wrong, mine versus yours—reflects our investment in what the Course calls "false orders of reality." Every judgment we make reinforces the illusion of separation and keeps us trapped in the dream.
"Difference of any kind imposes orders of reality and a need to judge," the Course observes. But if everything in God's creation is fundamentally one and unchanged, then all these differences are ultimately illusory. This doesn't mean we can't make practical distinctions in our daily lives, but it suggests we can hold these distinctions lightly, without investing them with ultimate significance.
The problem with judgment isn't just that it creates conflict—though it certainly does that. The deeper issue is that judgment keeps us locked into the very system of thought that creates our sense of separation from peace, love, and truth.
The Direction of True Healing
This understanding points toward a different approach to spiritual growth. Rather than trying to bring truth into illusion—which often leads to frustration and confusion—we can learn to bring illusions to truth. As the Course puts it: "When you try to bring truth to illusions, you are trying to make illusions real. To give illusions to truth is to enable truth to teach that the illusions are unreal."
This shift in approach can be profoundly liberating. Instead of trying to make our human experience perfectly reflect spiritual truth, we can bring our human experience to spiritual truth and allow that truth to gently dissolve whatever is not real. This doesn't require us to deny our experience or pretend everything is perfect. Instead, it invites us to hold our experience in a larger context of love.
Releasing Hidden Hierarchies
Even our subtlest beliefs about being special, better, or separate from others represent ways of assigning "orders of reality." These hidden hierarchies—the secret thoughts that we're more spiritual, more deserving, or more advanced than others—create barriers to the peace we seek.
"Reserve not one idea aside from truth, or you establish orders of reality which must imprison you," the Course warns. This is perhaps one of the most challenging aspects of its teaching. It's asking us to release not just our obvious judgments and grievances, but also our most cherished beliefs about ourselves and our spiritual journey.
This doesn't mean we become passive or lose our sense of purpose. Rather, it means we begin to find our purpose in something larger than our individual story—in the shared truth that connects us all.
Time and Timelessness
Even our spiritual practices exist within what the Course calls "orders of reality." When we engage in practices that involve remembering, waiting, or measuring progress, we're operating within the realm of time. These practices can be valuable within the dream, but they're not ultimate reality.
"In time we exist for and with each other. In Timelessness we coexist with God," the Course explains. This suggests that our earthly relationships and spiritual practices have their place, but they're stepping stones toward something that transcends all categories and distinctions.
The Gentle Path Home
Understanding orders of reality in A Course in Miracles isn't about creating a new spiritual hierarchy or becoming more sophisticated in our thinking. It's about recognizing the simplicity that lies beneath all complexity. There is only one true reality: God's eternal love. Everything else belongs to the false orders of reality we've constructed in our attempt to understand ourselves as separate from that love.
When we believe in these orders, they seem real and important. But healing comes not from changing the forms of our experience, but from undoing our belief in the illusion itself. We awaken not by perfecting our understanding of different levels, but by bringing everything—our fears, our hopes, our confusion, our clarity—to the truth that gently dissolves whatever is not real.
This is perhaps the most congenial aspect of the Course's teaching on orders of reality. It doesn't ask us to judge our experience or dismiss it as unimportant. Instead, it invites us to hold everything in love, trusting that love itself will sort out what is real from what is not. In this gentle dissolution, we discover that what seemed like multiple realities was always just one truth, temporarily obscured by our beliefs but never actually threatened by them.
The invitation is simple: stop trying to judge or mix levels, and instead bring everything to truth. In that spacious embrace, all false orders of reality dissolve, and we remember the singular, eternal reality we never actually left.
Tom Fox
Somerset, Kentucky
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