Facing the Lightbringers

On becoming welcome in the Kingdom of Heaven

Last week I observed that what is horrible, even evil in our brothers and sisters - as it appears in the world - is in fact our horror, our "even evil." We project it and then deny responsibility for either the projection or its effects.

This is a hard pill to swallow, let alone accept must be swallowed.

And yet.

Here I want to try to make clear why - if we are students of A Course in Miracles - we must face this, and how facing it actually arises as a gift to us from God, which is why it inevitably leads to peace in the end.

It works like this: recognizing our brother or sister as our own self means that we are not denying what is true about God and Creation. It means we are no longer denying the radical equality God extends to all creation.

God gives only equally. If you recognize His gift in anyone, you have acknowledged what He has given you (T-7.XI.5:5-6).

Last week we talked about projecting evil. Turn it around. Recognize God's gift in someone. Who do you admire? Whose selflessness stands clear and true in radiant light? Whose courage and service are so obviously of divine origin that there is little to do in their presence but weep in joyful gratitude?

Mahatma Gandhi? Dorothy Day? Amma?

Stop worshiping them and instead accept that you are projecting yet again. You have taken what is God-lit within you - what is beautiful, just, merciful, creative and loving - and thrown it away. Our awe before, say, Amma, is just another form of denying what is true of all Creation, from which we are not separate.

God cannot be out of accord with Himself, and you cannot be out of accord with Him. You cannot separate your Self from your Creator, Who created you by sharing His Being with you (T-7.V.6:14-15).

You are not just the camp guard at Dachau - you are also the liberator of Dachau. You are the prisoner of Dachau sharing your bread with another prisoner. Terence, a former Roman slave, wrote "homo sum humani nihil a me alienum puto." I am a human being; nothing human is foreign to me.

We are projecting all of it, good and bad.

If you want to “solve” the problem of evil then stop projecting what is broken in you and what is healed in you. Become the fullness of what you are in Creation, which is an extension of Love that does not recognize the problem of evil, because it knows there is only Love.

Here is how Amma puts it.

To a woman in whom the state of true motherhood has awakened, all creatures are her children. This love, this motherhood, is Divine Love - and that is GOD.”

Love holds everything.

My Self is holy beyond all thoughts of holiness of which I now conceive. Its shimmering and perfecte purity is far more brilliant than is any light that I have ever looked upon. Its love is limitless, with an intensity that hold all things within it, in the calm of quiet certainty (W-pII.252.1:1-3).

People like hearing that! Ego especially loves it because it makes us comfortable. When we're comfortable we forget that our projection of radical goodness - onto, say, Amma or Dorothy Day - is the same problem as our projection of radical evil onto Pol Pot or Hitler.

The Love to which we are called requires our active participation - but our participaton is simply our acceptance of Love as our reality, as our identity. Once we have accepted it, then we are no longer worried about what to do with apparent problems in the world. Love is not confused; Love is not passive; Love cannot be contained.

When we are responsible for projection and denial, then we become capable of authentic response to life, in its apparent badness and its apparent goodness. Our response is informed by our trust that the overall plan is in better hands than ours (e.g., T-2.VIII.2:4).

In other words, I don't have to solve the problem of Dachau. Rather I have to be the man for whom Dachau is so far outside the domain of Love that it cannot possibly be brought forth in my presence. And only you can teach me how to be that man, and when you teach me, you teach yourself. We are in this together, literally.

Sometimes people say, “that's fine for Dorothy Day and maybe you've got it all together Sean but it's too much for me. I wouldn't even know where to start with that kind of love.”

To which I say - for both our sakes - God does not create in error and you and I are Creations of God.

When a mind has only light, it knows only light. Its own radiance shines all around it, and extends out into the darkness of other minds, transforming them into majesty. The Majesty of God is there for you to recognize and appreciate and know (T-7.XI.5:1-3).

The "Majesty of God" is there for us to “recognize and appreciate and know” in the form of our brothers and sisters, all our brothers and sisters, because the lack of exceptions to God's Love is what the Kingdom of Heaven is (T-7.XI.4:2). Sunflowers, black bears, earthworms, snowflakes . . .

That is a very sweet program to get with.

I used to feel embarrassed about this. I used to think it was naive. The world can't really become that happy and free. I can't really love the way God loves. I can't really teach you how to love the way God loves.

But that is ego speaking! That is egoic judgment which has but one goal: to paralyze and pacify us so that we will remain in conflict. It doesn't want us to see that we are doing this to ourselves, because then we would do something different. We would bring light instead of darkness.

Here is what the Holy Spirit says when I am scared to be the Love I am in truth: Sean, does your projection of fear make the world a fit home for God and God's creation?

Does it protect his peace and shine love upon him? Does it keep his heart untouched by fear, and allow him to give always, without any sense of loss? Does it teach him that this giving is his joy, and that God Himself thanks him for his giving? That is the only environment in which you can be happy (T-7.XI.3:3-6).

You will say to me, but we can't build that world - we've tried and tried and tried and we've failed. There's too much opposition, too many hurdles, too many blocks.

Okay fine but listen: building that world is not our job; our job is to stop projecting. Our job is to stop obscuring that world with projection and denial. That world - and the happiness that is ours within it - is already created. It's what is when we no longer project and instead accept that the secret to salvation is realizing we are doing this to ourselves and that God and Creation do not "think differently" (T-25.VII.4:2).

Nothing is so easy to recognize as truth. This is the recognition that is immediate, clear and natural. You have trained yourself not to recognize it, and this has been very difficult for you (T-7.IX.5:7-9).

There is another way. Look closely at the world in which you live - not for bad men and the problems they make, that’s easy - but for the solutions. Look for the saints and the problem-solvers. Find the Lightbringers, the life-shaped prisms through which Love flows, beautiful and brilliant. They are you.

Welcome to the Kingdom of God 🙏

Love,
Sean