Form and Content and Christmas: A Daily Tension

I received a comment and question from a subscriber arising from a message earlier this month [Msg-1-Dec-2106, The Resonance and Danger of Ultra Right-Wing Political Movements]. It is worth repeating here:

Hello, Don: The thing that puzzles me on the subject of your current essay on right-wing politics is this: The Iranians, for example, are allowed to keep their culture (except for the globalization effect of the Internet, perhaps); the Japanese, everyone agrees, should keep their culture. These are considered 'good ideas' . . . but the British, well, not so much. They should take in as many immigrants as possible, until the British culture has become so watered down it is no longer in existence. Or the Germans. I heard a story of a resort town in Germany, perhaps Bad Godesberg, in which one can no longer find a German restaurant . . . they've all been taken over by Middle Eastern culture. . . . How is that fair or right or just? And when protests are made for lower immigration levels, and to preserve one's own culture (this only happens in the West), people are called 'right-wing extremists' . . . These knee-jerk liberal expressions, including 'globalization is all good', develop a hollow ring after a while. There are parts of East Vancouver, British Columbia, or Richmond, its suburban neighbour, where a Westerner is an anomaly. In Richmond, citizens have to fight to have street and store signs appear in English. . . . How is this 'good'? . . . If you could be so good as to explain this to me.

Thank you for your comments – very astute and very well-expressed.

I am trying not to confuse "Form" with "Content." The spiritual is focused on content. My ego-mind is focused on form. The issue for me about lowering immigration, as the example you mention, is the fear that lies behind it - fear of losing control, fear of losing status/money/position/identity, fear of the "different," etc. Fear, more than anything else, will diminish any spiritual sense of light, love, inclusiveness, or Oneness, which is what I am seeking for me.

The "Form" this fear takes is almost immaterial - to Spirit, a hateful thought, a hateful word and a hateful action are all equivalent. Not so in the world of form. We live in both: spirit/content and ego/form. There is a quote dealing with the constant tension between being IN the world without being OF the world. What you've described is this same tension. Where I draw lines differentiating between Form and Content and you draw them will be different - we just need to respect and honor that between us. This is not a “once and done” kind of thing. It is a daily tension. Where I draw those lines differs some times between today and where I drew them yesterday. When someone expresses a rightness/wrongness about a “Form” issue, I try to focus on the fear in them and, when I do that, I am reminded of my own fear - so I can begin to relate to that person in terms of Content (in this case Fear) - rather than arguing over egoic manifestations of Form.

I hope this helps.

We are beginning Christmas week where we celebrate the “form” of Jesus’s birth. Exactly how we celebrate that form varies greatly among cultures and has morphed greatly over the centuries. The “content” of His coming is to help us remember that we have never separated from God. Our egoic perceptions that would have us believe we are sinful creatures and deserve God’s wrath are just that: perceptions or illusions. Jesus, the man, fully understood that and fully lived by the Spirit.

So can we – and that is the real meaning of the Christmas of Spirit.

The Christ is the single Self that is shared by all the members of the Sonship – all of humanity. Collectively, we are the Son of God. The Christ does not refer specifically to Jesus. Jesus is simply one of these “members of the Sonship,” who has remembered and fully lived our shared identity. [ACIM: T-15.V.10:9-10 – “Those who are joined in Christ are in no way separate. For Christ is the Self the Sonship shares, as God shares His Self with Christ.”]

I want to take this opportunity to wish all readers of this message a Merry Christmas and a wonderfully happy, peaceful holiday season – Kwanzaa, Chanukah, or simply enjoying family and friends. [Muslims have a little difficulty with Christmas because they do not celebrate their prophets’ birthdays. Since they believe Jesus was a prophet, they don't celebrate. In western countries, their children, however, get caught up in Santa Claus, school closings, and other hoopla. It makes it difficult for them.]

Although these messages are mostly for me, thanks for listening to me and getting to know me – warts and all. As always, feel free to forward this message to your friends, family, and those accompanying you on your spiritual journey.

There will be no message next week.

Don

#3 Dec 2016

Copyright 2016

T.R.U.S.T. - Try Really Using Step Three

This past week I travelled to Northern Virginia to attend a Memorial Service for my dearest friend, Amy, who died in her sleep. She was 4 or 5 years older than I and was a big sister to me. I think I was also brother to her. She was always “just there” for me. I’m still processing the fact that she’s gone. I vacillate between being envious of the way she died – quickly and peacefully – and crawling up on my King Baby pity pot because she’s not gong to be there for me anymore. The shock of her death, her absence, my mortality is all frightening.

When I got home I read this: "When you are in fear you should remember to T.R.U.S.T. - Try Really Using Step Three.  [NOTE: Step Three: “Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God, as we understood Him.”]

“When I first heard this quote a great release and calm came over me. It was as if I had let go of all the fear, dread, and self-pity I had been carrying. In an instant I shifted from my will to God's will, and the peace and comfort I felt reminded me, yet again, that it works when I become willing to work it….

“After years of working this step, I have come to trust that God's will for me is always better than anything I can think of for myself. While in the grip of self-centered fear it may be sometimes hard to remember this, my experience is that when I really try working the third step my relief and release always comes.” From Michael Z [http://www.theWisdomoftheRooms.com ]

TRUST – Try Really Using Step Three – What a great acronym!

It forced me to remember wanting to be really sober and live the kind of life that others in AA seemed to be living. Critical to that, according to all the old-timers, was the power of Step Three. I kept asking myself (and anyone else who would listen, including Amy) “How do I know that I have REALLY, REALLY turned my life and will over to the care of God? How do I ensure that I did Step Three entirely, correctly and completely?”

The answer I finally received after badgering folks to death: “Don, you really do Step 3 - turning your life and will over to the care of God – by doing Steps 4-12 for the rest of your life.”

That did – and still does – make perfect sense to me.

I began to develop this image of floating with the current of the river and going where it takes me, rather than fighting to be so damned unique and rowing upstream all the time. I was truly tired of trying to be the exception. Of trying to maintain my sense of terminal uniqueness that believed all normal rules of life applied to everyone else – except me.

For me, to “float with the river” was to let God and the Program control my life. Doing that, I learned that it is very comforting to be simply one of the herd – just a straightforward, typical, run-of-the-mill alcoholic.

As that thought of non-uniqueness started to sink into my everyday consciousness, I began to change. I began understanding that it has taken everything that has happened in my life in the sequence it occurred, including the death of Amy, to get me right where I am today. Yes, I can choose to continue to fight it, doubt it, forget about it, or I can remember and go with the flow of life as God has planned it for me.

A Course in Miracles (ACIM) says the same thing in Lesson 42:2.3-6 – “Your passage through time and space is not at random. You cannot but be in the right place at the right time. Such is the strength of God. Such are His gifts.”

Allen Watson explains it this way: “As the introduction to the Text puts it: ‘[ACIM] is a required course. Only the time you take it is voluntary. Free will does not mean you can establish the curriculum. It means only that you can elect what you want to take at a given time.’ The curriculum is learning who we are, and we don’t have any say in establishing that. The only choice is how long it takes us to accept the fact of what we are, instead of trying to be something we are not…. So, you can’t help being in the right place at the right time; you can just relax in life and enjoy the show, instead of being anxious about it all. Why is this so? Because of the strength of God, and his gifts. Your reaching the goal is His will, and what God wants, God gets. After all, He’s God.” Allen Watson and Robert Perry, A Workbook Companion, Vol. 1, Circle Publishing, 2005, pp 128-9.

TRUST. Go with the flow and let God run your life. How? Work the steps of a 12-Step Program. Work the daily lessons of ACIM. Meditate. Listen for the whisper of the Holy Spirit behind the raucous din of your everyday thoughts. Ask the Holy Spirit for a newer, better, different way of perceiving the person, event or situation that is seemingly disrupting your peace and serenity. Trust. Work. Daily. Hourly.

Rather than focusing on how much I miss Amy, I now focus on how blessed I was to have her as a friend. She was in my life. I was in her life. Life has simply changed. She will still be in my life. I will not be in hers.

Although these messages are mostly for me, thanks for listening. As always – feel free to forward this message to your friends, family, and those accompanying you on your spiritual journey.

Don

#3 February, 2013

Copyright, 2013

My Illusions Are the Way I Look at the World

During my Course in Miracles (ACIM) study group this week, we discussed the difference between being and existence. Both “existence as well as being rest on communication. Existence, however, is specific in how, what and with whom communication is judged to be worth undertaking.” [Txt 4. VII. 4. 1-2] As I thought about it, that comment really damned me because my illusions are the way I look at the world. Generally, when I see people, I see what I’m predisposed to see, not the “real” people themselves.

I was reminded of comments by Robert Perry in his book, The Path of Light – Stepping into Peace with A Course in Miracles. He discusses the mechanics of perception in a section of the same name [Circle Publishers, 2004, pp. 97ff.] “The Course says, ‘Perception selects, and makes the world you see.’ [Txt 21. V. 1. 1] If I look for acts of kindness, I’ll live in a different world than the person who focuses on acts of callousness, and each of us will live in a different world than the guy who has a shoe fetish. What we focus on makes our world.” [p. 98] “Seeing with true perception means that we look on the same old people and situations as before, but see a whole new meaning in them. It means seeing a different reality, one that has been right in front of u all along, but which we failed to notice.... For instance, when someone yells at you, the sights and sounds of this event come streaming in through your senses, impressing themselves on your mind. Yet this is not all that seems to come streaming in. The meaning of the situation also appears to come in from the outside. You probably experienced being yelled at as a bad thing, and this ‘badness’ appears to exist in the situation itself. It seems to thrust itself onto your mind, coming in alongside the sights and sounds, and making you feel bad…. The Course makes an obvious point: ‘It is surely the mind that judges what the eyes behold. It is the mind that interprets the eyes’ messages and gives them ‘meaning.’ And this meaning does not exist in the world outside at all. [M.8.4.1]” [p. 97]

How does this happen? How does my mind assign meaning to people, events or situations? “This, as you might guess, is where things go wrong. This is where ‘errors’ in perception enter.” [p. 98]

We have each developed categories into which we dump the people we meet, know, or interact with. Perry refers to these categories we have all developed as file folders. I have a file folder or category labeled Bible Belt Christians, fat people, Asian people, rich people, poor people, old people, arrogant people, illiterate people, and so forth.

You know, too, that you have similar categories as well.

For example, when I see people and, quickly in my observation or in our conversation, peg them as a “Bible Belt Christian, I mentally open up my “Bible Belt” file folder and unceremoniously dump them in. In doing that I am attributing all the characteristics I have placed in that folder to those people, even if I don’t know them.  My file folder, assembled throughout my life, “tells” me: They have all been taught that to be saved is to affirm a simple intellectual assent to the belief that the words of the Bible (usually the King James Bible only) are the words of God. Those words are therefore correct and true for all people all the time.  In fact, when pressed, they would state that their salvation and guarantee for a place in Heaven is their literal belief in the Bible, not their faith in Jesus Christ who has transformed them. By believing in the Bible this way, they can hate with their perfect, self-righteous hatred. They can fear anything – people, places, movies, books, history, science or philosophy– that is construed to be at odds with selected passages of scripture. The fact that hate is not a Jesus value does not bother them. The fact that an obscure, out-of-context quote from Leviticus has been given the same spiritual weight as a parable from Jesus’ mouth does not bother them. If it’s in the Bible, it’s true.

When I see people that are “old,” I dump them into my “old” folder. Old people are totally absorbed with themselves. They have confused steering, braking and accelerating with the act of driving. They are oblivious to things like what’s going on around them: The speed limit, The difference between a Yield sign and a Stop sign, That the left lane is for passing and the right lane is for slower traffic. Old people don’t stop their bad driving on the highway. Just try to negotiate around their grocery carts in a crowded store – seemingly always parked right in the middle of the aisle or right in front of a door as they chat with a familiar face.

These are categories or file folders I have created – partly because of my shared illusions and partly because of my own selective memory of prior experiences. I know that you, too, have your file folders. Regardless, it is my way of maintaining my sense of separateness. I am different/better/poorer/richer/healthier than you. I am me. You are you. Period. It is my ego.

Because I have these folders that are consistent with “my story,” I never truly see these people. I see my perceptions (AKA categories) of them. Pieces of these people that turn out not quite fitting the preconceived ideas in my folders are conveniently forgotten.

In short, I see what I want to see. If I don’t like what I see or if what I see is making me nervous, anxious, depressed, angry, or sad, then all I need to do is change what it is I want to see. Simple, but very difficult.

All perception of mine – all those file folders – are my creations, and they are all wrong and in error. They are not representative of the real world. They only represent my ego’s view of things. Only the Holy Spirit can help me change those perceptions. All I need to do is really ask for help and work like the devil to train my mind to look at life through the eyes of the Holy Spirit (vision) and not through the eyes of my ego (sight).

Although these messages are mostly for me, thanks for listening. As always – feel free to forward this message to your friends, family, and those accompanying you on your spiritual journey.

Don

#4 January, 2013

Copyright, 2013

Part 1 - A Spiritual Walk-About in My Spiritual Outback

It is critically important to me to understand my body and its needs has no more rights in this universe than a deer, rabbit, or hummingbird. I am not a body nor am I what I think.

I just finished reading the book, Mutant Message Down Under, by Marlo Morgan (aka Traveling Tongue), Harper Collins, 1994. It is a fictional account of the spiritual odyssey of an American woman in Australia. The author unexpectedly goes on a 4-month walk-about in Australia’s outback with a small group of Aborigines (who refer to themselves as The Real People). What happens and what she learns about the tribe and herself truly amazed me.

The first time I read it was about 15 years ago when the book was self-published. Several things kept jumping out at me – over and over – as I read the book this time. One concept that continues to tug at my heart was her numerous descriptions of the tribe’s understanding of the Earth, its resources and their relationship to those bounties.

Typically, we think of our relationship to the Earth’s bounties as the biblical concept of Dominion. There is a lot of misconception about this. The biblical understanding of dominion has been interpreted traditionally as God granting humankind with some status as an Overseer or Manager of the Earth’s resources. That understanding is simply untrue. Dominion, sometimes translated from the Hebrew as Lordship, was indeed shared with first Man/Woman, who were made in God’s image.

Then humankind fell and all bets were off!

Other than the Genesis stories of creation, Dominion/Lordship is ascribed to the Lord Himself, except where political (national) dominion is being discussed.

I have commented in earlier posts on my sense of connection to the environment rather than being a user of the environment. I do not believe the Earth and its bounty is simply a great smorgasbord that we humans get to “pig out” on at will. This bounty is not ours to rape and pillage as we see fit. It’s not ours to use as long as it is perceived as being profitable.

For example, I don’t eat veal anymore. Veal was initially a delicacy of very tender calf meat. The meat came from still-born calves or those born with terminal deformities. The meat was pure, sweet and devoid of fat or gristle. To maximize profits for a growing demand, producers began taking healthy new born calves and boxing them in a tight stall to prevent any movement. It would also allow for force-feeding. I find all that repugnant. This violation of natural law and natural bounty is not the biblical concept of “…having dominion…” over the Earth – doing whatever we want to or with God’s other creatures.

Continued in Part 2

Are Being Right, Being Happy, And Being Involved All In Conflict With Each Other?, Part 2

Continued from Part 1 

What are we to do when it appears that being right, being happy and being involved all seem to be in conflict? Part 2

It seems to me that my issue is about ownership or attachment, as friends at my ACIM meeting continually point out. When my judgment becomes clouded and confused or I find myself angry or frustrated, it’s generally because I am really attached to my perceived rightness or correctness of my personal position – my story; my “superior” experience; my truth; my intellectual beliefs. If I can forgive myself for my attachment to my story or idea, then I can continue to love others even as they seemingly ignore what I’ve shared.

But I do NOT stop sharing myself – honestly and completely!

Jesus ministered to human needs – hunger, sickness, impairment, poverty – because He loved, He cared, and He could. He ministered without judgment or expectations. He shared of Himself and it transformed those whom He touched (figuratively and literally).

Before getting frustrated, angry, or irritated – all signs to me of attachment and ego – I try desperately to stop and:

• ·      Still my mind! (By this I do not try to stop the incessant monkey chatter within the universe that exists between my ears. I simply try to focus elsewhere as the chatter continues).
• ·      Forgive me, my perceptions, and the behaviors or characteristics my perceptions have placed on others.
• ·      Ask the Holy Spirit to provide me another way of looking at the situation – seeing the other as an extension of myself.

So, the line-in-the-sand I draw generally includes teaching. It certainly includes sharing myself. Hence, these messages. It includes accepting responsibility for my self and for those for whom I am responsible – e.g., students, those in a relationship I share, children, good citizenship, reducing my carbon footprint, being part of my environment not simply a user of Mother Gaia.

But my expectations, my own upbringing that laid the foundation of my sense of duty and justice and fairness, and my anticipations can get in my way. I need always to be aware of that. As I concluded last week’s message: “I don’t have to change someone. I don’t have to change things or events. I just have to keep my focus on me and my thoughts. That’s my perceived reality. If I am open, honest and willing, the Holy Spirit will change my perceptions. I can live with that.”

As always, thanks for listening and feel free to share this message with your friends, family, and those with whom you are walking your spiritual path.

Don

#3 June, 2012