More Course, 3, An Oldie, But a Goodie

From the Course: “Understand that you do not respond to anything directly but to your interpretation of it. Your interpretation thus becomes the justification for the response. That is why analyzing the motives of others is hazardous to you. If you decide that someone is really trying to attack you, you will respond as if he has actually done so,” overlooking the truth; and the truth is that how you see someone else, is how you see yourself. “There is but one interpretation of motivation that makes any sense…. Every loving thought is true. Everything else is an appeal for healing and help, regardless of the form it takes. Can anyone be justified in responding with anger to a brother’s plea for help? No response can be appropriate except the willingness to give it to him, for this and only this is what he is asking for.”

I get this; it resonates, deeply, I aspire to make it live in my life. Then someone cuts me off in traffic, or my wife asks a dumb question, or I hear the news and the Republicans are filibustering, again; or BP, with one of the worst safety records in the industry, is getting away with it again. I think someone’s got to pay, there have got to be consequences, punishment is good, send the Goldman people to solitary; so much for not responding with anger to a brother’s plea for help.

Yet the Course helps me know that when I become aware of how I’m interpreting events, how I’m feeling afraid and like a victim, I have to pause, not continue to justify my anger and ask Spirit’s help to see things differently, not from an angry place, as crimes needing punishment, but from a peaceful place as errors needing correction. It’s not that I let all these things go, it’s that I deal with it from a different place. I take responsibility for my interpretations, recognizing that they’re only interpretations and go from there. The horrible oil spill does need to be dealt with, but it’s best done in a way that is consistent with the Course’s idea, “Can anyone be justified in responding with anger to a brother’s plea for help? No response can be appropriate except the willingness to give it to
him, for this and only this is what he is asking for.”

Doing this is difficult at first, but the more I do it, the easier it becomes. We either make ourselves miserable or we make ourselves strong. The amount of work is the same, Carlos Casteneda said. The great thing is, we don’t have to beg God/Spirit for It’s help, we don’t need to kneel, we don’t need to plead, we simply need to align with the God within and experience our lives transforming, one step at a time. It’s a process, like building muscle - spiritual muscle, it’s cumulative, each time we do it, we do it better.