Listening to Kids These Days
On service, taking sides, and the call to be holy . . .
A friendly get-together recently split along the following fault line: can you believe those entitled brats on college campuses? And: thank God for those students bravely standing for justice on college campuses.
Everything is a lesson. Everyone is a teacher.
What is happening with the children? The ones who are younger than us by a generation or more? The ones who are setting up encampments and facing down police? Getting mocked, pepper-sprayed and arrested? What are they saying to us about Love? How are they calling us back into the human family, there to remember we are one?
Many years ago, talking to a relatively well-known ACIM teacher, I mentioned that later in the day I was going to protest the death penalty outside a federal courthouse. The teacher said gently, totally sure of their self, “Sean, you have to let go of politics in order to follow A Course in Miracles."
Which was silly, of course. "You have to let go of politics" is itself a political statement! Caring about whether an ACIM student is also an activist reflects the same sense of specialness one thinks they are avoiding by saying, "you can't be an activist."
This is not to say that you have to oppose the death penalty or vote for Marianne Williamson or donate to a food or diaper bank or whatever. You do you. But our collective dream does have a lot of nightmarish qualities that stand in the way of shared happiness. Sooner or later, we have to investigate why we co-create a world in which rape, torture and murder figure so prominently. And when and as we do, we will find ourselves responding to those crises. Ignoring them is not how suffering is undone.
As you share my unwillingness to accept error in yourself and others, you must join the great crusade to correct it; listen to my voice, learn to undo error and act to correct it. The power to work miracles belongs to you (T-1.III.1:6-7).
The teacher with whom I was speaking believed the familiar ACIM trope that the course is unconcerned with our behavior. It’s about changing our mind, not our activity. But in fact the course addresses behavior very early in the text.
The Golden Rule asks you to do unto others as you would have them do unto you . . . The Golden Rule is the rule for appropriate behavior (T-1.III.6:2, 4).
The problem is that we can't do that because we can't perceive ourselves correctly. When we don't know ourselves, we can't know our brothers and sisters either. Given that state of confusion, of course our behavior is out of line with Love. Thus the emphasis on right perception.
You cannot behave appropriately unless you perceive correctly. Since you and your neighbor are equal members of one family, as you perceive both so you will do to both. You should look out from the perception of your own holiness to the holiness of others (T-1.III.6:5-7).
The thing is - and this is what a lot of us deny in our ACIM study and practice - we can only learn to perceive rightly and become accountable to holiness by giving attention to our lives in the world, behavior and all. And, again, critically, in that world a lot of our brothers and sisters are presently suffering grievous harm.
Hence the painful question: if the brother whose holiness you share is hungry tonight, shivering under a bridge, are you truly happy? If the sister whose holiness you share is scared to leave her home and scared to stay in it, are you truly at peace?
More bluntly: when you are hungry and/or scared, do you want to remain in that state or leave it?
I am not telling you - because ACIM is not telling you - how to respond to those crises. I am saying that our hearts have to open wide enough to hold those crises so that our mind can give attention to them. The nature of life means we are implicated in one another's suffering. And yet, our complicity also reveals our "little part in bringing happiness to all the world" (W-pI.95.14:2).
If you are having a bad day, or if you feel lonely or full of despair, I can tell you from experience that giving food to one hungry person or standing with one person society has rejected will help you as much as years of psychotherapy. Minds heal fast when bodies are given to service in the Name of God Who is Love.
You are the Will of God. Do not accept anything else as your will, or you are denying what you are . . . see the Love of God in you, and you will see it everywhere because it is everywhere. See His abundance in everyone, and you will know that you are in Him with them. They are part of you, as you are part of God . . . There is only one way out of the world’s thinking, just as there was only one way into it. Understand totally by understanding totality (T-7.VII.10:1-2, 4-6, 9-10).
You and I cannot in one gorgeous, love-filled swoop fix armed conflicts in the Middle East, famine in Africa and billionaire folly in the United States. Nor are we are called to wallow in guilt and shame because of this. I also appreciate how the "world is not real" can make any response to injustice and inequity feel meaningless and hollow.
And yet.
When I listen to young people today, they call on me to take seriously our shared nightmare. They remind me that caring for each other is the foundation of happiness. Thus, they demand that I be accountable for my understanding and practice of holiness. Most of them have never heard of A Course in Miracles, but they are beautifully clear that we can only claim our right to happiness and peace by realizing that all our brothers sisters have the same right. Anything less is injustice and contrary to the Will of God (T-25.IX.8:1).
We are in this - in a literal way - together.
Your interpretations of your brother’s needs are your interpretation of yours. By giving help you are asking for it, and if you perceive but one need in yourself you will be healed. For you will recognize God’s Answer as you want It to be, and if you want It in truth, It will be truly yours. Every appeal you answer in the Name of Christ brings the remembrance of your Father closer to your awareness. For the sake of your need, then, hear every call for help as what it is, so God can answer you (T-12.I.7:1-5).
Is it clear? The students' perception of crisis is our perception of crisis, and responding to it in the "Name of Christ" is how we resolve the crisis, so that we and the students remember together that we are all the same, all beautiful and equal in our holiness (T-13.VIII.6:1).
What should you do about your brother or sister who suffers today? Whose physical and psychological well-being is under constant attack? For that matter, what should you do about your brother or sister who is doing the attacking? Launching missiles, shooting rubber bullets, smashing glass?
When we are awake - which is to refuse to accept the terms and conditions imposed by the world of separation - then we remember our own holiness and that holiness teaches us what to do in the world. Of course we are going to act in the world - that is what human beings do! Jesus acted, Buddha acted, Ramana acted, Dorothy Day acted, Tara Singh acted . . .
But, because they looked out from the perception of their holiness unto the holiness of others (T-1.III.6:5-7), they were able to act from holiness, from the remembrance of shared innocence. That way, their actions testified unto holiness and reminded others of their holiness, so that they could act that way as well.
What does this look like in practice?
I mean, only you can really answer that question, right? I have a friend who socializes dogs at a local shelter and I have a friend who has been shot at and beaten up for doing journalism. Both are saviors. The truth is, your heart knows who you are called to serve and how to serve them. There are no mysteries, only distractions and delay.
Ego will say that what we do is not enough or that we're naive or selfish or confused about the ACIM metaphysics or whatever. Don't worry about that. Ego always babbles. Give attention instead to the interior decision to listen to ego and take its bad ideas seriously. Why diminish yourself? Who is helped by that? Instead, be friendly with the holy self you are in truth and in that way befriend the world in service of a happier dream that heals all suffering.
I heard one Voice because I understood that I could not atone for myself alone. Listening to one Voice implies the decision to share It in order to hear It yourself. The Mind that was in me is still irresistibly drawn to every mind created by God, because God’s Wholeness is the Wholeness of His Son. You cannot be hurt, and do not want to show your brother anything except your wholeness (T-5.IV.4:1-4).
That is what it means to be a miracle worker. It means we follow Jesus by listening only to the Holy Spirit, whose lesson is always that we are innocent, and equal in our innocence. To realize this is to realize that miracles are not personal which at first seems paradoxical but in fact is profoundly liberating.
The impersonal nature of miracles is because the Atonement itself is one, uniting all creations with their Creator. As an expression of what you truly are, the miracle places the mind in a state of grace. The mind then naturally welcomes the Host within and the stranger without. When you bring in the stranger, he becomes your brother (T-1.III.7:3-6).
Bringing in the stranger takes form in the world. Let it! The form that serving your brothers and sisters takes is the form that saves you as well.
Limit the peace you share, and your Self must be unknown to you . . . Would you cut off a brother from the light that is yours? You would not do so if you realized that you can darken only your own mind. As you bring him back, so will you return. That is the law of God, for the protection of the Wholeness of His Son (T-11.IV.3:2, 4-7).
It's easy to say "we are one," we all do it. But to live in a way that brings forth our oneness is hard. It requires facing inequity and injustice and being willing to undo it. If I live in a way that makes you unhappy or unsafe or unwell then I am called to change. The kids protesting remind us of this. Caring for the happiness of all our brothers and sisters is the only way to be happy.
It's easy to dismiss teachers like this. But I don't want to afraid of the life I am called to live in order to remember that death is not real and suffering an illusion. I want to live so that I see "the glow of Heaven shining on the face of earth, redeemed from sin and in the Love of God" (S-2.II.8:6). But I can only see this way in relationship with you! Truly, "one instant spent together with your brother restores the universe to both of you" (T-18.VII.5:3).
Therefore, lauds and praise unto the young ones who teach me that "we cannot leave a part of us outside our love if we would know our Self" (W-pI.127.12:1). And lauds and praise to you as well for sharing the way with me. Without you, it doesn't mean a thing.
~ Sean
Sean, thank you for this post. It was quite refreshing. It moved me so much that I realized my response here included huge blocks of what you'd written above. I had to take a few deep breaths and edit a bit. 🙃 This past week, I was writing a very similar post, but I received some news last night and felt guided to go in another direction. So, I'm glad, but really not surprised, that you have said what I wanted to (and so much better than I could have).
I recently witnessed yet another discussion on what the Course is "really" saying. It focused on that age-old debate over duality vs. non-duality. In the end, it amounted to what felt like fear-mongering, "Be careful what those other guys are saying...that's not the Course." There's a lot of hot air in these debates...it begins to feel like a desert...and then I remember the Course's advice about deserts.
In a peculiar twist, I ran into some people on the other side of that debate later in the day, and they were all about love and service, completely the opposite of what you might have thought after that first discussion.
This is part of the insanity of this world, I guess. It's not a debate I choose to have. It feels like delay on the path. I look around and I see brothers and sisters struggling to find their next meal, job, apartment, or just in need of a bit of kindness and compassion. They need to be met where they are, and I am the one to meet them there in the specific way I can. The Course, too, meets us where we are and perhaps that's why we think we see certain things in it while other people see something completely different. That’s all good by me, and I see no reason for it to devolve into lovelessness.
I don't know if there will ever be agreement on what the Course says or what we truly are. I'll know when I know. In the meantime, what I get from the Course is that it is not an end in itself. I'm not meant to bury my nose in it and never look up again. There is a practice component to it. And there are tons of passages about the love we extend to others. That's where I choose to focus. The more I extend love, the clearer it gets—in ways that dissecting the same sentences over and over again without actually engaging in the practice just can't do for me.
You said it so well here: "If you are having a bad day, or if you feel lonely or full of despair, I can tell you from experience that giving food to one hungry person or standing with one person society has rejected will help you as much as years of psychotherapy. Minds heal fast when bodies are given to service in the Name of God Who is Love."
Amen, brother. I'm with you.
This part had me swooning:
"When we are awake....then we remember our own holiness and that holiness teaches us what to do in the world. Of course we are going to act in the world - that is what human beings do! Jesus acted..."
As you say, it is the way we act that makes all the difference. Action (including activism intent on bringing about peace) can result in further division or it can provide balm for both superficial wounds and the oldest wound ever known.
When I got to this part, I was cheering out loud:
"What does this look like in practice….I mean, only you can really answer that question, right....The truth is, your heart knows who you are called to serve and how to serve them. There are no mysteries, only distractions and delay."
And then that paragraph about enough, not enough, naivete, selfishness, and confusion over ACIM metaphysics... "Ego always babbles." Indeed! Who is helped by that, you ask? No one.
I'll close by saying that in the moments I witness a debate about Course metaphysics and I feel myself tightening, that's a sure sign the ego still has its talons in me. Time to go out into the world and be a force of love, not judgment, and have that love boomerang back to me, because I need it too. Thank you!
“Ego always babbles.”
What a helpful (and memorable) mantra for checking head talk to make space for Spirit. Thank you, Sean . . .for all of this.
Happy May!