Living in the Day

           So, if one’s person’s life is an expression and is not for ego or a “soul” (disembodied ego) to “get somewhere”, as was explained in last week’s article, then how is one to approach their life? You live in the day, moving with however you are moved that day. To do this comfortably, here’s the trick: Without judgment.

Your person’s life is part of a greater whole. It is not unfolding independent of everyone and everything else around it. The greater whole, which is the story unfolding in time, is what most consider “God”. Ego, however, has its own ideas about what “should” happen based on the identity it has devised for your person and the goals it has set for itself through the person. This is the sense of separation it fosters. This is how it makes itself a god unto itself.

The thing is, what’s going to happen is going to happen, without regard to what ego wants. So, ego can go along with what happens and work on how it sees it and therefore experiences it or it can continue to resist and insist on what it feels should happen. What A Course in Miracles means by right-mindedness is accepting the person’s life is part of a greater whole and what it means by wrong-mindedness is continuing to resist this awareness and to pretend one is autonomous. Right-mindedness leads to peace because it recognizes how things are and adjusts to it and wrong-mindedness means continuing conflict with how things are.

Helen Schucman and Bill Thetford worked in a contentious environment. That situation was not going to change; neither were going to be leaving it soon. So, when they asked for another (later changed to “better”) way, they were shown through the Course how to change their minds because their situation was not going to change. And that change of mind meant first looking honestly at the world ego constructs to define and defend itself using the situation at hand and seeing how that made them unhappy. Dropping those constructs was often enough to shift relationships away from conflict because dropping defensiveness can change the dynamic of a relationship by setting the other free to drop their own defenses. But there was more. They were given another construction, one that brought them closer to the truth of the situation. They could choose to see how they were part of a greater whole along with everyone else. There was “oneness” in this, a shared experience. The Course was saying (in the code of heavy Christian symbols), “Look past surface appearances, you and the other (whoever they are) are together at this time for something larger than both of you.”

The Course says, “You want a purpose? I’ll give you one, one that will make you happier.” You don’t have to make a purpose, as ego would have it. You have one naturally as part of the greater whole. So, you can find your purpose through your inner teacher, which is already living as part of the greater whole. As each day unfolds, your person’s purpose is expressed. It cannot help but be expressed, through everything you say and do. To be comfortable with this, it requires regular quieting of the mind so you can discern your inner teacher, putting aside judgment in the recognition that you cannot see the larger picture, and trust that what happens is meant to happen. This, of course, circumvents ego, which is not going to stop pulling in its own direction. But you can come to see the folly of that and “choose once again”.

Living in the day means being with what is occurring and being present to your inner teacher, which is already in the flow of what will unfold. It takes practice, or mind-training, to look past ego. Let it have its say and then move on. “Okay, that’s what ego has to say. Now I’ll quiet my mind and turn to my inner teacher.”

It’s amazing how different each day is when you live in the day. Even if the person has the same routine each day, you find you wake up in a different mood than what you were in the day before, your thoughts have moved on to something else. You discover the person’s thoughts, feelings, and actions just arise as an expression of the greater whole. 

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