True Safety

. . . on saying "not again" to crucifixion

True safety resides in empathy and compassion for our brothers and sisters. When we love our enemies, then we no longer have enemies. Love is our protection.

Love is the protection of the other as well. If we refuse to indulge conflict - if we decline both attack and defense - then the conflict no longer exists, and the other is as safe as we are, even if they don't believe it, even if they insist on arguing otherwise.

Defenselessness is strength. It testifies to the recognition of the Christ in you . . . Defenselessness can never be attacked, because it recognizes strength so great attack is folly, or a silly game a tired child might play, when he becomes too sleepy to remember what he wants (W-pI.153.6:1-2, 4).

Given the option of nonviolence, people often ask: "does this mean I should let people walk all over me?"

It's a fair question. But it only makes sense from the vantage point of the body, and the separated self that is supposedly indelibly associated with that body. In other words, it only makes sense if what we are can be walked on. If it can't, then it doesn't matter what happens to the body.

Which - surprise surprise - is exactly the point A Course in Miracles makes in its framing of the crucifixion.

The message the crucifixion was intended to reach was that it is not necessary to perceive any form of assault in persecution, because you cannot be persecuted. If you respond with anger, you must be equating yourself with the destructible, and are therefore regarding yourself insanely (T-6.I.4:6-7).

Turn the other cheek indeed.

I elected, for your sake and mine, to demonstrate that the most outrageous assault, as judged by the ego, does not matter. As the world judges these things, but not as God knows them, I was betrayed, abandoned, beaten, torn and finally killed (T-6.I.9:1-2).

All this is simply an extension of the two sentences that neatly sum up A Course in Miracles:

Nothing real can be threatened.
Nothing unreal exists (T-in.2:2-3).

It is okay - it is more than okay - to be confused by this, or to not be ready for it. Hesitation, baby steps and needing somebody to hold our hand are not crimes against God or nature.

Therefore, please understand: If somebody moves to punch you, walk away. If somebody moves to hurt a child, protect the child. If you need help getting away from violence, ask for help. Ask me. I will help you. Refusing to suffer violence means refusing to let others be a cause of suffering - it is a gift to them, a way of protecting all of us.

A Course in Miracles is a response to an identity crisis. It is a correction to the erroneous perception that we are bodies in a world. The deal is, we work together to minimize shared harm and maximize shared happiness in order to remember what we are in truth.

In my experience of studying and practicing ACIM, nonviolence is the quickest means by which to remember that we are not bodies and there is no world and thus to properly contextualize this fractious dream and no longer be troubled by it.

Nonviolence starts with not hurting others. Yet we have to notice how much of "hurting others" occurs outside our awareness. It's easy to realize that when we shout at somebody or cheat somebody that it's bad.

What is hard is realizing the way in which our deepest thoughts and biases are themselves violent, and - because we refuse to investigate them - they feed the communal nightmare by which school shootings, Jesus grifters, factory farms and conspiracy-thinking and countless other forms of evil gain traction and momentum. Violence is not an accident.

As the course points out, “as long as any mind remains possessed of evil dreams, the thought of hell is real” (M-28.6:2).

I am suggesting there are levels of being where we can realize not only that we are doing this to ourself (e.g. T-27.VIII.10:1) but that we are also doing [insert heinous act here] to others. Violence is not an accident.

We do not want to see this about ourselves - we do not want to wade through a seemingly endless fog of confusion to reach fetid swamps of anger, hatred and fear full of rotting corpses.

And yet.

When we do this - when we reach the juncture where we are utterly repulsed by our own self - then suddenly (as if all along we were attended by a loving friend) we discover that hate is no longer viable. The worst of all of us is inside us: we are what we fear. We are the problem.

Then (as if all along we were attended by one who has already walked this walk), only compassion and empathy for our brothers and sisters remains. What else could there be?

This is Love, and this Love will direct us in very specific ways (e.g., T-1.1:4:2-3). Our living will be steadily transformed into a means by which we remember Christ by extending Christ, and thus remember the promise of God: nothing is broken and we have no enemies.

The thought of murder is replaced with blessing. Judgment is laid by . . . And those we sought before to crucify are resurrected with us, by our side, as we prepare with them to meet our God (M-28.6:4-5, 9).

This is the core principle of our spiritual practice as students of A Course in Miracles: there is only love and the cry for love. And the response to both is the same: love.

I speak here only to my own experience, of course. Hopefully as a friend saying "this works for me," not an expert saying "this is the law and the prophets." Be kind to yourself, for you merit kindness, and don't be afraid to face your ghosts and demons, especially their facsimiles in the world. I promise you: we do not do this work alone. Together we are redeemed.

Love,
Sean

P.S. Our study group meets on Sunday, July 17 at 7 p.m. EST. Thoughts on the group are here, if you’re curious. If you’d like to be on the list for the Zoom link (or removed from the list) you can let me know here or in the comments.