In the Spirit and Context of "A Course In Miracles " -referred to as Wisdom
Dear One,Wisdom assures us that each and everyone is of the Christ. That no one is special in this regard and, in fact, all things, animate or not are included. Wisdom assures us that Love is the only true reality and that everything else is just a lie and deception of fear -the illusion. Well, then, that means everything that hurts is not real. What a relief. But why does it seem easier to fear than to Love, to make the unreal real? How do we get past the hurt of everything to the reality of Love?
We know through the advanced sciences of today, and from Wisdom, that everything has only the meaning we give it. That perceptions start in the mind and are projected onto what seems to be separate from us. So, let's look at how Wisdom has practical value in reminding us of our true identity, as being of the Christ -miraculous. Let me illustrate, with a personal story, how change made in the mind can alter the rules of this world, shifting our experience into something that feels more like it's in the Christ direction. A shift from the usual experience of things.
In being observant with my first child, I noticed during her childhood that whenever any type of mishap would occur -like falling over while learning to walk, etc.- she would literally look toward me and/or her mother before responding to her situation. Well, being loving parents, we were terrified for her safety, and reacted accordingly. In this, I notice that her reactions to the mishaps were in proportion to our level of concern for her at the time. I mean that if it was just a fall on the rug, the fear reaction was only a three on a scale of ten. But when she hit her head on the coffee table, the fear was now a seven or even an eight, and her reactions reflected how I felt. When we were too preoccupied to pay a lot of attention to her, it just went away on its own, and rather quickly too.
Something urged me to examine and understand what was really going on, and so I tried the ideas that came to mind from this internal prompting. At first, I tried to change how I approached her when I came to her rescue, pretending that it didn't really matter so much. Her responses did seem delayed, and her reactions less intense, but I was skeptical, because it was a marginal change at best. Then I realized, from that inner prompting, that I was only changing the way I was acting outwardly toward her at these times, I still felt the same fear shoot through my system. Yuk.
It took me some time to fully realize that when she did have a mishap it was me who was doing the over reacting. Experience was showing me that my degree of empathy was usually greatly exaggerated and unjustified. Going over this realization in my mind, again and again and again, literally changed my perception of her mishaps, and I found several things were noticeably different. One; my feelings or emotions didn't make the usual swing into momentary terror. This now left me open to experience something new -a wonderful feeling of knowing she is safe. Two; my daughter's responses to her mishaps were not at all the same. In fact, the past terrors turned into a kind of C'est la vieattitude, with rarely a tear. And three; when she did actually hurt herself and I still stayed in this new feeling, the results were most amazing -very, very rapid healing.
I tried alternating between my emotional fright and my new insight. The results were tangible. Her reactions were consistent with my emotional reactions. I then clearly realized that I was empowering the situation either way. I discovered that I was creating the moment. And as Wisdom suggests, this is what we're doing with everything we perceive.
Interestingly enough, friends also responded in the same way to this new knowledge I had embraced. You should have seen the look on the girl's face that got the back end of an oar forcefully shoved in her eye by accident. I was the only adult playing with them when it happened. She looked towards me for validation of her accident. I responded to her without fear, and she felt Love's safety. My daughter looked over at me and smiled, for by this time she knew this feeling of safety well. And in a moment we were all back to playing pirates at the beach on the air mattress. The girl's eye was fine when I checked 10 minutes later, not even a bruise for such a blow. What a difference a change in perception can have. It's definitely worth the effort to figure out. And I've found it works miracles with everything. A simple change of reaction does cause a whole new chain reaction.
So, I think all this fear stuff is just a lie. I won't deny that terrible things do seem to happen, but then again, so do miracles. Wisdom says that the world is as we make it, that we are responsible for all that seems to happen. Since we repetitively look at the fear of it all, no wonder we don't see or feel much else. It's just a matter of choosing to see with Wisdom instead. It's easy to accept this new set of rules considering the miraculous results. It just takes getting over your repetitive reactions, and I know that can be done. It's definitely a step in Love's direction. Not to mention all the peace of mind that comes with it.
So, we must be of Christ, for what else has the power to change the rules of this world. With our conscious intent to restructure our perceptions anew with Wisdom's guidance we find out just how safe we really are.
It's an old and true story.
Blessingly, I share it with you.
Start learning to love God by loving those who you cannot love. The more you remember others with kindness and generosity,
the more you forget yourself. And when you
completely forget yourself,
you find God.-Meher Baba
