Ask: Should I take action?

           In the 1980s, when Liz here was first a student of A Course in Miracles, there was a famine in Africa and a bunch of musical artists got together and gave huge concerts to raise money for food for the people of Africa. At the time, Liz was in a Course study group with mostly much older people (Liz was only 20), many of them a group of friends from a nearby church. One of the women from this group was very involved with famine relief. But one day the leader of our group talked about how for famine to be wiped out, there would have to be a paradigm shift in consciousness away from lack toward abundance. This made the woman feel her involvement with famine relief was pointless, it was indeed only, as the first concert was called, a Band Aid. (For those not in the US, Band-Aid is a common brand of bandaging for everyday cuts.) Why was she bothering if it was only a temporary fix and wasn’t bringing real change? Certainly, there was a very urgent present need, but she must’ve felt she was helping to bring fundamental change, and the study group leader had stripped that away. She went off depressed but came back a week later and said she realized she was doing it for herself. It was her way to give and therefore to receive love.

This is a good example of what has been described in these articles recently. Your person acts because your person is moved to act and there is nothing more to it than that. But ego will have a story for why that will reinforce its story for and identification with the person. That story may be one in which you are willing or one in which you feel compelled or one in which you feel pressured or even forced. And that story can change, depending on what ego wants. Why didn’t the woman in the example above just walk away when her initial motivation for working in famine relief was gone? Because she felt moved to continue doing what she was doing. So, ego had to find a motivation to line up with that feeling. As a student of the Course, she asked for another way to see what she was doing, and she was given one.

Often what I do with clients is help them reframe an uncomfortable situation in their life so they can live with it because they are not feeling moved to leave it. Usually, they feel powerless but still believe in free will, so I help them see how they are at choice, how their reasons for staying may barely outweigh reasons to leave, but those reasons to stay express their values. This gives them at least some relief because they feel empowered. Others are content to accept, if not like, that they are to stay in an uncomfortable situation because it is part of a larger unfolding that they cannot see. They trust that someday they will understand. But sometimes, a client resists every attempt at reframing and can only see themselves as victims of circumstances. So, then I can only suggest that they accept their conflict as well. (Acceptance does not mean you like something.)

Lately, many clients and readers in the US are feeling moved to resist the government’s turn to fascism. This resistance takes many forms. Some protest and if they can, in their jobs for example, directly resist. But many do not feel moved to directly resist or don’t have the means to directly resist. So, they inform or educate or give money, time, and/or energy to material support for those who are moved to directly resist or to help those who are directly affected by the actions of the government. Others are not feeling moved to act and feel guilty for not acting. Students wonder “is a good Course student to act?” The issue isn’t really acting or not acting, because one is going to do what one is moved to do. The issue is their judgment on acting or not acting. So, the real question is, “How do I do what I am moved to do or sit back and watch or turn away to truth without conflict?” They want to resolve the conflict between the movement or lack of movement to act and their spirituality.

Without ego, your person acts or not and there is acceptance that this is your person’s role. You live in the day, as described in last week’s article, moving as moved, without bothering to judge. But while ego dominates your mind, you will have a personal motivation and story for what you do or do not do, and if this does not align with your spirituality, you will feel conflict. So, for you to be at peace with your person’s movement or lack of movement to act, you will need to examine what you think the Course says that causes you to be in conflict.

There is confusion on this issue because the Course describes Bill Thetford’s life and he went on to retire from work, find “mighty companions” in other Course students, and devote his life to radical forgiveness. Clearly, this is not how every person’s life will unfold. So, the Course does not address actions, it addresses minds. It also does not address politics or morality. Its greatest value is that it leads you to your inner teacher of truth because your person’s life is unique, so there is no teaching that fits everyone’s actions. It is a teaching of what is the same in every consciousness (mind), truth.

However your person’s life unfolds, the still quiet of endless peace is always right here. That doesn’t change with action or inaction. That stillness and the actions of the person are separate things, although ego may use that stillness to shape its politics and morality. This is not a wrong thing. It is inevitable while ego is the dominant thought system in your mind. So, rather than resisting the movement to act, ask your inner teacher to come along with you as you do what you are moved to do. Check in with your inner teacher often so you can stay centered in truth and find the flow of what you are to do with less confusion and conflict.

Spirituality is about ego, not truth. Spirituality is the effect the awareness of truth has on ego and that varies from person to person. Spirituality is really all about framing, about how you see a situation and your movement or lack of movement in it in the context of your belief system. Some will feel acting expresses their spirituality. Others will feel not acting and turning inward to truth is how they express their spirituality. Neither is right or wrong because the expression is not important. Truth is here apart from actions, nonactions, motivations, and stories. Understanding that is forgiveness. 

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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.