Why Should I Care About Anything?

I was very pleased when the South Carolina Legislature voted to remove the Confederate flag from the grounds of their capital and move it to their Museum of Confederate Relics and History. But my “being pleased” raised an issue in my thoughts, which sometimes can be a scary place to go.

If all I “see” or perceive in the world is of my own thinking, then the world I perceive is illusionary. The Course in Miracles (ACIM) makes this very plain. If I’m “seeing” an illusionary world, why should I care about what South Carolina does or doesn’t do?

For that matter, why should I care about anything?

I have spoken here many times about trying to live in this world without being of this world. I think that idea applies here and I want to explain my reasoning.

ACIM tells us that each thought and each action we take is either adding to the Love or adding to the Fear that exists here. It is one or the other. There is no middle ground. I am either contributing to the well of Love or the whirlpool of Fear – both of which coexist on this planet. I contribute, one way or the other, with every thought I take. The Holy Spirit can take thoughts of Love and transform me and others if I’m willing to allow Him.

I do believe these statements. I believe that “my world” is illusionary. I also believe that I contribute to either Love or Fear with every thought I have. How can that be?

While we “live” in this illusionary place, we need to be aware of our thoughts and actions. When I drive in my illusionary world, I drive on my side of the road in the faith that oncoming drivers will also be driving on their side of the road. We will avoid a head-on collision by doing that. I also believe there are rules we all sign-up to follow: red or green lights, stop signs, speed limit restrictions, pulling over for emergency vehicles, etc. These are some of the rules we all adhere to for general safety. As we make these traffic rules, we imbue them with intentions that serve Love – in this case public safety.

We could also make traffic laws without regard for public safety – laws that only respected individual liberty. This would transform our freeways into massive carnival “bumper car” areas and cause general mayhem. Public safety would be relegated to simply having the biggest, baddest car on the road.

I believe it is the same in other areas of life. We can do things (or not) that will help create an environment conducive to either Love or Fear. Granted, we cannot control outcomes, but we can attempt to create a positive or negative environment. A posititve environment – acceptance, care, respect, cooperation, spirit-filled – may help induce spiritual reflection and personal growth. A negative atmosphere – competing for resources, win-loose, success-failure, striving only for wealth – may help keep someone from being more open to another way of looking at the meaning of life.

So, for me, the issue is one of subjugating my self to think and act in ways that are conducive for Love: thinking and acting in terms of respecting people, looking for the Christ in them, providing a welcoming demeanor to strangers, encouraging tolerance for “different” behavior, being open to new ways of viewing issues and situations, etc. It also includes developing my awareness of when I’m contributing to Fear – which usually shows up as anger, guilt, attempts to justify my feelings, being envious, or having resentments, judgments, disappointments, or frustrations. These are the typical reactions of my Fear – of not getting what I want (including an outcome) or fearing something might be taken from me. Once I recognize these feelings I need to give them to the Holy Spirit for Him to handle because I can’t.

But I have to do all this without expectations – without attachments. To expect an outcome is to allow my egoic Felix take control of the situation. This is the issue behind my feeling “pleased” at the actions of South Carolina. I think feeling pleased is okay because I perceive it on the side of an act of Love. But I wonder what I would have felt if the decision had been to keep the flag flying where it was. How understanding or accepting would I have felt then? I don’t really know.

I am a work in progress. I am not perfect nor am I perfectly consistent. So, I freely participate in the public debate over policy. I freely write these messages expressing my progress (or lack of same). I concentrate on making decisions to help create an atmosphere or environment of love, acceptance and respect. I try to recognize, acknowledge, and curb my expressions of fear. I try to do this without expectations and leave the outcome to the Holy Spirit.

I still have a long way to go.

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

#2 Jul 2015

Copyright 2015

More Comments From My Trip To Cuba

I have received more comments from readers concerning my trip to Cuba. From the comments I could pretty much distinguish between those readers who were more politically progressive and those who were more conservative. The more progressive comments expressed a curiosity about specific aspects of the Cuban people – their life, culture, education, health, and arts. The more conservative concentrated their comments on Cuba’s system of government, especially the socialistic economic system, or on a general defense of capitalism to the point of stating that capitalism is biblical (thus Christian?) and socialism wasn’t.

I’ve heard it said there is a Christian basis for capitalism. But one can find biblical verses to support socialism as well. Often, I hear quoted as a biblical reference that supports capitalism, “God helps those who help themselves.” That quote is from Benjamin Franklin’s Poor Richard’s Almanac not from the Bible.

There are really two major economic systems: socialism and capitalism. One of the “Aha” moments I had while in Cuba was recognition of the singular flaw in both of these major economic systems.

In the U.S. we do not have a true capitalistic system. We have a government-assisted form of capitalism just like Europe. The only difference is that our government-assisted capitalism is designed to support corporations and their shareholders. In Europe, their government-assisted capitalism is generally designed to protect the “little guy.”

But both socialism and capitalism have this one flaw: These are theoretical systems.  Everybody in the society has to subscribe to the system – and I mean everybody; every single person – for it to work. 

What happens when people don’t? They are beat down to a pulp. In fascist or communist governments with a socialistic form of economy, this “beating down” often takes the form of physical violence. Dissidents are threatened, hurt, imprisoned, and even killed. We in the USA and other major capitalistic countries like Spain and England have also done this when we dealt with colonists, with native Americans, with unions, and others. Governments were called in through their control of the National Guard to support the industrial community.  All you have to do is read about the miner/trucker/longshoremen strikes here or read Oliver Twist or A Christmas Carol to see how society was skewed to support those fully engaged in the practice of their version of capitalism.

I remember a lady from France in Saint Augustine, where she would spend the winter, who could not understand why people would put up with “bad food” in grocery stores. The “good” food, i.e., organic, was very expensive or unavailable. In the course of her comments she made a poignant statement: “Here in the U.S. people seem to be afraid of big business and the government. In Europe big business and the government are afraid of the people.”

But generally, we “beat down” those who don’t participate fully in our economic systems by marginalizing, taxing, and controlling their behavior in inhumane ways to prevent their “drain” on our resources.  When I was a Street Minister in Trenton, NJ in the late 1960s I worked with these marginalized folks. People trying to use their incentive to add to their income, were taxed at a 100% rate! If the social worker found out that they were earning an additional $75 a month from taking in ironing, for example, they would have the family’s benefits cut by $75. Additionally, they would be blamed for “trying to cheat the system.” It was insane. Poor people often hold menial jobs and are dependent on public transportation, while factory jobs are moved to the outskirts of urban areas increasing transportation costs and travel time – both of which can become unbearable to someone earning the minimum wage.

Abortion restrictions apply mainly to those who are dependent on government assistance. Wealthier folks will find a way to take care of their daughters – they’ll send them away for an abortion or send them away to a “private school” to have their baby and give it up for adoption. The poor family simply has to take care of their child (or the teenager and her child) – further impeding the family’s attempt to climb out of their economic hole. But we don’t want to teach sex education or have contraception available. We want them to be forced into having their babies, and it’s the children who will suffer. Poor children will have improper diets and inadequate health care and do poorly in school. After all, it’s difficult for children to concentrate in school when they are hungry or ill. It is almost a self-fulfilling prophecy or a perfect circular argument: We don’t need to spend time and money on the poor because they only end up in menial jobs and are a “drain” on our economy. See! We haven’t spent money on them and, sure enough, they are not amounting to very much. Case proved. Case closed.

I’m reminded of a quote from the Code of Hammurabi. It was the source of the overriding legalistic system in Mesopotamia circa 2,000 BCE. This was the time of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the Old Testament. Many of the practices we read about in Genesis stem from this Code of Law: The legal treatment of Ishmael, Abraham’s son by Hagar who was Sarah’s handmaiden; Abraham’s treatment of Sarah as his sister rather than as his wife; the codes and practices of inheritance.  All these were from the Code of Hammurabi, which had as a major tenet: “The first duty of government is to protect the powerless from the powerful.”

We need to stop believing capitalism, as an economic system, is some form of a gift from God. It is what it is – an economic system. So is socialism. Socialism needs to adapt in order to honor, support and encourage the efforts of the individual. Capitalism needs to always be aware of and tempered by the practice of protecting the powerless from the powerful. When this is not done we end up with a system where 10% of the population owns more capital that the remaining 90%. That becomes a moral issue, and, if not addressed, will become the downfall of our democratic society, as we know it.

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 June 2015

Copyright 2015

Comprehending The Force Of My Ego

From: Dennis Lehane, Shutter Island, Harper Torch / HarperCollins Publishers, 2003, pp. 278-9.

Speaking of a hurricane that had really devastated Shutter Island, the home of an institution for the criminally insane, the warden said to a U.S. Marshal investigating a missing inmate: “Did you enjoy God’s latest gift?” the warden said. Teddy [the Marshal] looked at the man … “I’m sorry?”

“God’s gift,” the warden said and his arm swept the torn grounds. “His violence. When I first came downstairs in my home [on the island] and saw the tree in my living room, it reached toward me like a divine hand. Not literally, of course. But figuratively, it stretched. God loves violence. You understand that, don’t you?”

“No,” Teddy said. “I don’t.”

“Why else would there be so much of it? It comes out of us. It is what we do more naturally than we breathe. We wage war. We burn sacrifices. We pillage and tear at the flesh of our brothers. We fill great fields with our stinking dead. And why? To show Him that we’ve learned from His example….”

Teddy watched the man’s hand stroking the binding of the small book he pressed to his abdomen. [The warden] smiled and his teeth were yellow.

“God gives us earthquakes, hurricanes, tornadoes. He gives us mountains that spew fire onto our heads. Oceans that swallow ships. He gives us nature, and in nature is a smiling killer. He gives us disease so that in our death we believe He gave us orifices only so that we could feel our life bleed out of them. He gave us lust and fury and greed and our filthy hearts. So that we could wage violence in His honor. There is no moral order as pure as this storm we’ve seen. There is no moral order at all. There is only this – can my violence conquer yours?”

“…I’m not violent,” Teddy said.

The warden spit on the ground near their feet. “You’re as violent as they come. I know, because I’m as violent as they come. Don’t embarrass me. If the constraints of society were removed, and I was all that stood between you and a meal, you’d crack my skull with a rock and eat my meaty parts.”

What a grizzly description of life on earth! Yet, that is what I’ve been taught; what you’ve been taught; what the whole human race has been taught; what we’ve all been taught for so many thousands of generations that we believe this to be a terribly awful – but real – description of our “dog-eat-dog” world.

Now, I don’t think many of us would describe this world the way the warden did. It’s truly gruesome.  But the overall “picture” he presents is a portrait of what we’ve been taught – it’s a dangerous world, filled with dangerous people, just waiting to pounce on us for some possession of ours, or to get some advantage over us, or to get theirs before we do, or to satisfy some desire to get even with us, or to remove us as a potential threat to them.

Regardless of how mild or heinous we describe it, that’s the world of our ego: A world of fear, anger, hate, lust, resentment, revenge, envy, and greed.

But it’s all a dream – albeit a very bad dream. Perhaps it’s better described as a nightmare. It is a world each of us create by the way we look at it. It’s simply our perception. Change our perception and the world changes. I’ve experienced this at times, and it’s an amazing miracle. As I’ve learned – and shared in these messages – if we change the way we look at things, the things we look at change. 

But it seems so daunting. The world seems so violent and fearful. That attitude makes me want to quit before I begin. But that’s my perception again – my ego raising its head presenting me with this task to change the world. My “task” is not to fix the world by simply changing the way I look at it. I am simply to be willing to NOT listen to what I think and to be willing to let the Holy Spirit give me another way of looking at things or people. I need to keep the focus only on me and my thoughts. I need to be willing to think differently. I need to be willing to ask for a different way of perceiving. That’s all. He’ll take it from there.

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 April, 2014

Copyright, 2014

How Do I Allow Something To Happen?

Last week I wrote, “Your ‘job’ is not to shine your light, but to allow your light to shine…. Over time I began to understand the significance of making that little shift. How do I do that? How do I make that shift? How do I make myself passive?”

Technically, I don’t. My True Self is an already-loved eternal spirit full of loving light. The ego-thoughts I choose to keep in my focus dims this loving light. All I need to do is be willing, ask the Holy Spirit for a different way of seeing, and still my mind enough to hear the whispers of guidance. That’s it. That’s what ACIM suggests. But that’s really tough for me to do – especially when I’m in the middle of sitting on my pity-pot, enjoying my martyrdom, or relishing my righteous anger.

In response to that post (Allowing Rather Than Doing – Msg-3-Jan-2014) I had several communications asking how I go about “allowing.” We hear of politicians or corporate bigwigs caught in some hurtful scandal and their part was that they “allowed” things to go on too long, or “allowed” things to become too punitive, or “allowed” things to remain mismanaged. That may be what happens to Gov. Chris Christie in New Jersey. Is that the kind of “allowing” we’re talking about – which is basically doing nothing when you could have done something?

The Introduction to A Course in Miracles (ACIM) states: “… The Course does not aim at teaching the meaning of love, for that is beyond what can be taught. It does aim, however, at removing the blocks to the awareness of love’s presence, which is your natural inheritance….” [ACIM, T: Introduction, p.1]

Well, what are the “blocks” I have that prevent me from seeing or living in love’s presence? What do I do or say or think that prevents me from being aware of love’s presence? I believe the answer to these questions is also the answer to the question: How do I “allow?”

Essentially, ACIM is a course in “un-doing” and removing the ego-thought system of duality, fear and guilt. Guilt is especially important because it is the primary expression of fear. These are the “blocks” that keep me from seeing love’s presence. Fear. Guilt. Duality.

From the text [T-12:VII.5.1-6]: “You see what you expect, and you expect what you invite. Your perception is the result of your invitation, coming to you as you sent for it.... Two ways of looking at the world are in your mind [Ego & Holy Spirit], and your perception will reflect the guidance you have chosen.”

From the text [T-12-VIII.3-6]: “When you made visible what is not true, what is true became invisible to you…. It is invisible to you because you are looking at something else. Yet it is no more up to you to decide what is visible and what is invisible, than it is up to you to decide what reality is.

“Because of your Father's Love you can never forget Him, for no one can forget what God Himself placed in his memory. You can deny it, but you cannot lose it. A Voice will answer every question you ask, and a vision will correct the perception of everything you see....

“You have but to ask for this memory, and you will remember… [The] memory of God can dawn only in a mind that chooses to remember, and that has relinquished the insane desire to control reality. You who cannot even control yourself should hardly aspire to control the universe…. By making nothing real to you, you have seen it. But it is not there. And Christ is invisible to you because of what you have made visible to yourself.”

Although these are tremendous words, let me give you a simple example. We see babies trying to catch floating spots they think they see after looking into the flash of a camera. If the babies could comprehend what you’re saying, what would they think when you told them there were no real floating spots of light? They would think you’re an idiot! “Of course they are there. I see them, can’t you?” Then they would continue to reach for them as if these floating spots were real.

So, what floating spots do I look at and believe are real? What kind do you look at? What floating spots are preventing me from seeing the true world of the spirit Perhaps: Our belief in the reality of money as freedom, power or security? Our belief in the power of force, might, or war based on our concept of being right? Our belief that all poor people are lazy? Our belief that if someone attacks me, it’s okay to attack back? Our belief that the Bible (or the Torah, or the Quran, or ACIM, or…) is the ONLY correct guide to a spiritual life?

Here’s what ACIM describes as a bunch of floating spots we think are real [T-13.Introduction, 1-3]:

“If you did not feel guilty you could not attack, for condemnation is the root of attack. It is the judgment of one mind by another as unworthy of love and deserving of punishment. But herein lies the split. For the mind that judges perceives itself as separate from the mind being judged,… For it is guilt that has obscured the Father to you, and it is guilt that has driven you insane.

 “The acceptance of guilt into the mind of God's Son was the beginning of the separation, as the acceptance of the Atonement [seeing with Holy Spirit’s perception of things] is its end. The world you see is the delusional system of those made mad by guilt. Look carefully at this world, and you will realize that this is so. For this world is the symbol of punishment, and all the laws that seem to govern it are the laws of death. Children are born into it through pain and in pain. Their growth is attended by suffering, and they learn of sorrow and separation and death. Their minds seem to be trapped in their brain, and its powers decline if their bodies are hurt. They seem to love, yet they desert and are deserted. They appear to lose what they love, perhaps the most insane belief of all. And their bodies wither and gasp and are laid in the ground, and are no more. Not one of them but has thought that God is cruel.

“If this were the real world, God would be cruel. For no Father could subject His children to this as the price of salvation and be loving. Love does not kill to save. If it did, attack would be salvation, and this is the ego's interpretation, not God's….”

Sound familiar to you? It sure does to me. So, what do I do?

I cannot ask my ego to stop seeing the world through my eyes of guilt, fear, and duality. That is my ego’s way of existing. I can only ask. Ask what? Ask for a different way of looking at the situation, event or person. This isn’t a “Once and Done” kind of occurrence. This is constant. I cannot stop my mind from having thoughts. However, I can learn to train my mind to understand that no thought is “idle.” I can, at times, control which thoughts I will (or will not) pay attention to.

“Every thought in our mind is producing something all the time, contributing to truth or to illusion. [The Course’s] aim is to make us aware of our thoughts and their effects. It desires us to be intimately involved in the process of choosing the thoughts that occupy our minds and produce their effects in the world around us.” [Allen Watson, A Workbook Companion, Vol. 1, Circle Publishing, 2005, p.47]

The Course gives me instruction as to what I can do. It tells me to realize that it is my thoughts that are truly upsetting me – and my thoughts are not real. It teaches me that all I need to do to change my thoughts is to be willing to see things differently. To do that all I need to do is ask the Holy Spirit for a different way of looking at things. Then I need to stop, still my mind, and listen to the whispers of truth. Even if I don’t hear a whisper, I can stop listening to my thoughts. I can just let them be. I don’t have to give voice to them. I don’t have to act on them. I don’t have to argue with them. I can simply do nothing with them.

However, when I do hear the whisper, I need to act. It does me no good to hear the whisper of the Holy Spirit and then say to myself: “That’s a nice suggestion, but….”

I hope this helps.

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, 2014

Copyright, 2014