Living Together in Peace

. . . Choosing together to remember we are one.

A Course in Miracles suggests that every problem we have - from a flat tire to loneliness to war - is merely a symptom of our underlying belief in separation coupled with our unwillingness to consider a better, more loving way of being.

The body perceives a world "out there" full of people, places and things that are "other." This is a world of scarcity and unreliability. Who knows where the next meal will come from, or the next hug, or the next mechanic.

Perception of lack breeds fear, and the fearful are vicious and cruel.

Isolated in this terror-filled world, we turn to competition and conflict. We turn to attack. We form alliances based on shifting values like tax brackets and political parties. We bless off on murder and chaos as necessary evils. We turn our back on those who call for help, and consent to be abused by those our own calls reach.

In these and other ways, we who are love itself give hatred a home.

All of this silliness runs on judgment. It runs on our mind's ability to divide what is whole, assign value to the parts, and then believe that those evaluations are real and meaningful and better than anybody else's. This is the nightmare of the world in which we are all entangled.

A dream of judgment came into the mind that God created perfect as Himself. And in that dream was Heaven changed to hell, and God made enemy unto His Son. How can God's Son awaken from the dream? It is a dream of judgment. So must he judge not, and he will awaken (T-29.IX.2:1-5).

Easy to say, hard to do. Yet A Course in Miracles assures us that nothing less than total commitment to "judge not" will succeed in restoring peace and happiness to our shared mind (e.g., T-29.IX.2:9).

Critically, there is no possibility of salvation in the dream as we are dreaming it (e.g., T-29.IX.4:1). We need help. Anything we do simply reinforces the underlying error under the guise of good intentions, self-improvement or patronizing condescension.

We have to surrender not just the individual judgments - e.g. Jesus is good, nuclear weapons are bad - but the very inclination to judge at all. We have to give up the ability and its effects.

What happens then?

One thing that happens is that we begin to see how in giving up judgment we give up nothing at all, but actually gain a great deal - namely, remembrance of love in relationship with our brothers and sisters (broadly defined to include whales, sunflowers and grains of sand), which is our inheritance.

God gave you all there is. And to be sure you could not lose it, did He also give the same to every living thing as well. And thus is every living thing a part of you, as of Himself (T-29.VIII.9:7-9).

I find it helpful to frequently ask if there is another way to see things. Not only when I am struggling - with social politics at work, say - but also when things are going well, like yesterday when I sat quietly on the front porch at dusk, listening to birds as the light passed through shades of violet and gold to black.

The truth is, there is always another way to see what is happening. But rather than try to choose the right way or the better way, I instead practice trusting that God did in fact give me everything. I practice not judging.

Before I label the light of dusk “beautiful” and bird song “glorious,” what is the light? What is the music?

Can I give attention to what is before the ego rushes in with its judgment-based labels?

There is a resting place so still no sound except a hymn to Heaven rises up to gladden God the Father and the Son. Where Both abide are They remembered, Both. And where They are is Heaven and is peace (T-29.V.1:3-5).

We do not "find" this resting place. We do not "create" it. Rather, we "remember" it, when together we choose to surrender judgment and allow the Holy Spirit, on behalf of Christ, to do what it wills with our attention. If meaning is to be given, let it be given by Creation Itself. Let us insist on nothing, and give thanks for everything.

Together, let us stop looking for peace, so that peace might gently restore to our awareness the real world, which judgment cannot touch, and in which only peace is real. It waits on nothing but our willingness to join with no other goal in joining but peace.

Thank you, as always, for sharing the way with me.

Love,
Sean