The Light You Are

Notes on fixing what's broken

A Course in Miracles suggests that our only problem is that we think we have problems (T-26.II.3:3). On the one hand, this is profoundly liberating. All these problems I'm struggling with are merely illusions? Hallelujah!

But on the other hand, those are just words. Renaming your childhood trauma or a global pandemic an "illusion" doesn't in and of itself undo it. If your lamp is broken, calling it a lantern won't fix it. Nor will moving it to another corner of the room.

You have to actually fix the lamp, right?

This particular approach to problems - that they are illusory - is most helpfully read in light of another core ACIM concept: what we believe is real is, for all intents and purposes, real and pretending otherwise only exacerbates our shared suffering.

The separation is a system of thought real enough in time, though not in eternity. All beliefs are real to the believer (T-3.VII.3:2-3).

This is why I often say, forget about the metaphysics. Don't worry is time real, is the world real, am I a body, et cetera. It's not that those questions don't matter; they do. It's that they too easily become distractions from an actual practice of healing.

Again: if the light's broken, then we fix the lamp. It makes sense, right?

But how exactly?

Really simply, we look at - we give attention to, we notice - our so-called problems. We look at the assumptions and biases they depend on. We look at the way we project and deny. We look at the way we are the ones making the dysfunction go.

What is healing but the removal of all that stands in the way of knowledge? And how else can one dispel illusions except by looking at them directly, without protecting them? (T-11.V.2:1-2)

Critically, to "look" in this way means to be in relationship with our brothers and sisters with whom we share the illusory problem (e.g., M-3.1:2). Looking at what is within and loving what is without are synonymous; the one makes the other possible. Healing is both intensely personal and deeply collaborative.

A hungry child cries to be fed. A spiritually mature person who hears that cry feeds the child. Oppressed people cry out for freedom and justice. We beat our swords into plowshares and spears into pruning-hooks accordingly. Theology is secondary (not unimportant! Just secondary). It arises from salvational activity.

Love is wholly responsive or else it's not love. It's indifference or interference masquerading as analysis. It might call itself love (see the pattern?) but if it's not actually responding to the cry, then it's not love. It's the problem repeating itself in a new set of clothes.

A Course in Miracles suggests that "the Holy Spirit is the Answer to all problems you have made" (M-11.3:1). But note the language! The Holy Spirit is the answer, not the solution.

That is because when we perceive a problem - a crying child, a war-torn people - we are really asking a question. The question is: what am I that such a hell - that such suffering - should exist? And the Holy Spirit answers: you are Love Itself. Hell is an illusion you made, not a reality with which you are in relationship.

You need to hear the truth about yourself as frequently as possible, because your mind is so preoccupied with false self-images . . . love created you like itself. Hear the truth about yourself in this (W-pI.67.5:2-4).

And I am saying that we can only learn that we are love itself when we live - when we relate together - as Love Itself.

Therefore, bring your body and your mind to the work of peace and justice. Bring your body and your mind to the work of making happiness real for all the world. Then - and in that way - you will learn exactly how holy and full of grace you are. And division - including the division of mind and body - will be undone.

Please hear me say that I do not know what form this service - this making love real, making happiness real - will take for you. I am not saying you have to vote for Kamala Harris or volunteer at a food bank or sell your jewelry and distribute the proceeds to the homeless. I really don't know.

What I know is, when you ask the Holy Spirit how to manifest peace and happiness, there will be an answer. The answer will excite you but it will also be a little scary. It will seem impossible maybe, or a little grandiose or naive. It might even seem boring or too ordinary. Ego always has an argument against recognizing our shared holiness.

But we are here together - we walk this path together - because we are no longer willing to be deterred or distracted by ego. We know how to hear the Holy Spirit and we are ready at last to listen and obey. We are ready to save and be saved.

Your special function is the special form in which the fact that God is not insane appears most sensible and meaningful to you . . . The form is suited to your special needs, and to the special time and place in which you think you find yourself (T-25.VII.7:1, 3).

Our brothers and sisters who went to Jerusalem with Jesus and left without him - imagine their grief, the scale of their loss - knew. They didn't put the following words on Jesus' lips because they were confused about what to do with their lives. He had shown them; and what he showed them was bigger than a body. They knew.

You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven (MT 5:14-16).

And then it is clear. You and I don't fix the lamp. We are the lamp.

Thank you, always, for the light you are, and for teaching me how to remember it for myself.

~ Sean