Ask: Everything is gently planned for my good? Really?

          “What could you not accept, if you but knew that everything that happens, all events, past, present and to come, are gently planned by One Whose only purpose is your good?” (W-135.18)

That’s a lovely idea, isn’t it? But some of my clients and readers have a hard time with it. Understandably.

 We all know it was true for Bill Thetford, whose life was described in the Manual for Teachers of A Course in Miracles. He went to live in California with groups of friends, “mighty companions”, made up of some of the first Course students. Even his death is described in the Course: He would see the real world and then “God would take the last step.” He saw the real world (“I’m there.”) and passed away.

You could leave it there and just read the Course as the story of Helen Shucman’s and Bill Thetford’s “holy relationship” in bringing the Course into the world and take some wisdom and a practice here and there for yourself. You wouldn’t be wrong to do that. But maybe there is something more for you in the Course.

The test in this mind for any idea in spirituality was always “can this be applied universally?” and not just to this person, Liz, or similar circumstances. Obviously, in the larger sense of the whole unfolding, the line above from the Course applies universally in the sense that everything that happens is moving toward an inevitable outcome of undoing a false idea, no matter how it looks in the moment. But that does not mean in each individual life that things will feel gentle or look to be for their good. Some people have miserable lives from birth to death. Or, at least, would seem to from the outside. It’s hard to apply “gently planned for your good” to someone living in a war zone who has lost everything they valued and everyone close, but who knows what’s going on in their minds? What about the baby born in pain only to die a few days later? What about that baby’s parents? It was for their baby’s own good to be born only to quickly die? Gently planned for them to watch their baby suffer and die?

 What determines whether everything occurs for one’s own good or not depends on one’s beliefs, outlook, and/or goal. Some cope with the pain of personal experiences in ego consciousness through a deep faith in the idea that a benevolent supreme being means them well, so everything that happens must be for their own good and if they can’t see how just yet, they trust they will someday, even if only after they die. Others believe their ego is a soul that lives through multiple lives, so if this one’s not so good they will take lessons from it into future lives until they get it all right and won’t suffer again.

For this mind, the goal was to remember truth, so what was not loving reminded it to turn to truth. It would turn away from what was appearing and remember that only the truth is true. This was not difficult because this mind always wanted truth because it is the truth, even if it turned out truth was something it did not like. (And ego does not like it.) And it was not spiritual bypassing or dissociating because by the time this idea was used effectively, truth had come to stay in conscious awareness. “Only the truth is true” was a living experience, not just a nice idea. This mind made whatever happened “for its good” by using it for its goal of remembering truth.

I suggest turning to truth as a practice, but not all clients and readers find the goal of “truth because it’s the truth” natural. Most just want to feel better. If you cannot accept “gently planned for your good” perhaps you can accept your person’s life is part of a larger plan. You might find some meaning and acceptance in that. But gently planned? For your good? That might take some doing if it has only been rough for you. In that case, that quote from the Course will be just a nice idea that is not universally applicable.

But ask yourself this: What is rough, the events themselves or the way you look at them? The Enlightened Mind came to this mind’s conscious awareness in 2011. Ego grew increasingly uncomfortable after that. When the heart of ego, denial of truth, fell away in 2018, the ego thought system rose fully to conscious awareness as it began to fall away. It was, for quite a while, horrible in this mind. Everything dark rose fully to conscious awareness with experiences of horror, fear, and ongoing anxiety. A personal apocalypse (unveiling) occurred. That thought system is still here, still rough, still falling away. But it is always clear that what is so awful is ego, not what goes on in Liz’s world and certainly not truth.

Perhaps if you are someone who experienced horrible events you will never accept that gentleness factored in the “planning”. But it is never too late to turn events to your good by learning from the experience or asking for new ways to look at it or using it to remind you to turn to truth.

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If you have a question the answer to which you feel may be helpful to others, send it to Liz@acimmentor.com and indicate that you want it answered in this newsletter/blog.