By Gonny 
Long before A Course in Miracles appeared in the world, a young prince walked through the gardens of his protected reality. His name was Siddhartha Gautama. His life seemed like a dream in which everything was present: beauty, wealth, comfort, and pleasure. But what he didn’t know was pain, illness, aging, or death, things we consider “normal” in this world. Until one day, the veil was lifted.
When Siddhartha was first confronted with suffering, something stirred within him. This cannot be the truth, he thought. And in that moment… he began to awaken.
The Course says:
“The world you see is but a judgment on yourself.” (T-21.In.1:5)
Siddhartha, too, began to sense: what I see is not all there is.
He turned away from the palace and the world of form, searching for the truth beyond appearances. Just as we sometimes do when our lives, despite outer abundance, feel empty on the inside.
He tried everything his time had to offer: asceticism, meditation, self-denial. He believed salvation lay in doing things right, in self-improvement, in sacrificing bodily desires. But eventually, he arrived at a deep truth—one that Jesus, through the Course, also offers us:
“Nothing real can be threatened.
Nothing unreal exists.
Herein lies the peace of God.” (T-In.2:2-4)
Siddhartha discovered, just like a student of the Course, that salvation doesn’t come from changing external forms, but from changing your perception.
It’s not the body that needs liberation, but the mind.
It’s not the world that needs fixing, but the dream that must be recognized for what it is.
What the Buddha experienced under the Bodhi tree was precisely this:
Letting go of identification with the body, with thought, with desire, with fear.
He found the emptiness that isn’t empty, but silently full.
The inner peace the Course constantly points to.
The Course calls this Forgiveness.
Not excusing the world, but seeing through its illusory nature.
Not solving problems, but recognizing they hold no real power over you—unless you believe they do.
Buddha and Christ: The Same Invitation
In truth, both Siddhartha (the Buddha) and Jesus (as he speaks through the Course) offer us the same invitation:
Look again. See what you truly are. And remember your Home.
Both paths say: You are not your body.
You are not your thoughts.
You are not a victim of the world you see.
You are awareness.
You are Love.
You are already free, even if you seem trapped in a world of form.
And so the path of awakening becomes no longer a search, but a remembrance.
A return to what has always been within you.
As the Course says:
“You need do nothing to be yourself, for you were created as God created you.” (T-6.II.10:1)
With love and light,
G.