Finding Refuge in a Time of Turmoil
There is enormous turmoil in the world at the moment. For months, the news focused on the novel coronavirus, on measures to slow the spread of the virus, and on reactions to those measures. Then a video of a black man in hand cuffs killed by a white police officer exploded across social media and the news. In response, the whole world, it seems, reacted. Huge groups of people protested in the United States where the man was killed, as well as in many other countries around the world. The police officer and his colleagues on the scene were arrested, fired from the police force, and are facing the consequences of their actions. There have been calls for police reform across the country, and even more importantly, many efforts to raise awareness about injustice, in this case, experienced by people of color in the United States due to a long history of power being held mostly by white people. In my professional world, for weeks it seemed like every other email in my inbox was on the topic of social justice to root out discrimination and to level disparity.
My own state of mind has been a roller coaster. I cannot help but feel pain over the mistreatment of one person at the hands of another and one group at the hands of another. And yet I also understand that if I am in pain, I am seeing events through the eyes of the ego. The world is premised on the ego thought system of duality, of “you” and “me”, of “them” and “us.” This means that someone has always ‘sinned’ and is therefore to blame. The ‘sinner’ feels guilty or seeks to project their guilt onto a hated other. The wronged party, in turn, is justified in being angry and calling for blame. Sound familiar?
…the ego believes in “solving” conflict through fragmentation, and does not perceive the situation as a whole. Therefore, it seeks to split off segments of the situation and deal with them separately, for it has faith in separation and not in wholeness. (T-17.VI.6)
Because of this, if it’s peace that I’m interested in, I cannot look to the ego thought system for answers. Much as I would love to see peace and harmony in the world, the world is not the source of peace. At the same time, it can be easy to forget that the world is not the source of turmoil either.
Projection makes perception. The world you see is what you gave it, nothing more than that. But though it is no more than that, it is not less. Therefore, to you it is important. It is a witness to your state of mind, the outside picture of an inward condition. (T-21.in.1)
The turmoil I feel because of events that seem outside of myself tells me something really vital. It’s my state of mind that is the problem and not what seems to be happening in the world. The world is an illusion. As Gary Renard often says, “We made it all up.” What I perceive and the pain that it causes me is coming from the guilt in my mind (which is really universal guilt over the belief that we separated from our Source) and not from the world of illusion that is projected out from the mind. The section quoted above goes on to say:
As a man thinketh, so does he perceive. Therefore, seek not to change the world, but choose to change your mind about the world. (T-21.in.1)
Tumultuous events like the ones that have been happening over the last several weeks serve to keep my attention focused on them (that is, the events and the fall-out from the events). This then provides a powerful distraction from the thought of changing my mind about the world. Even when I remember to focus on changing my mind, with something as complex as systemic racism and social injustice, I find it hard to hone in on what I’m changing my mind about.
It turns out that I don’t have to know the way back to peace because the Guide in my mind knows. All it takes is a little willingness to step back from the turmoil and ask for help. Instead of trying to ‘think through’ the issues of the day, I look instead for refuge. The answer to any problem has to have Love at its center, because Love is our Source.
Workbook Lesson 67, part of the year-long, daily mind-training program of A Course in Miracles, says,
Love created me like Itself.
The lesson instructions encourage us to say this idea to ourselves as much as possible throughout the day. They explain,
You need to hear this truth about yourself as frequently as possible, because your mind is so preoccupied with false self-images.
Our self-images are of individuals, of separate people with separate bodies. As separate bodies, we can hurt and even kill others, just as we can be hurt or killed by others. In seeking to help us to set aside these false self-images and teach us the true order of things, the instructions clarify,
If Love created you like Itself, this Self must be in you. And somewhere in your mind It is there for you to find.
This is why it’s important to remember that reality does not lie in the world of fear. Instead, reality is inside each of us, where we find the Oneness that we all are. This Oneness was created by pure Love. Love is eternal and cannot be hurt, threatened, or destroyed. This means that despite what we see happening outside ourselves in the world, we cannot be destroyed. We are eternal, having no beginning and no end.
Meanwhile, the world that we believe that we live in is truly insane. For millennia, one group has sought to dominate another, using any means at its disposal. Righting those wrongs from within the framework of the world is slow and incremental at best. But even in this insane dream of a world, we all share the same mind. We all believe that we have separated from our Source, we all feel lost and alone at least some of the time, and we all, at some level, long for our true Home. Recent events highlight the paramount importance given in the world to differences based on form: this body is different from that body and this body is worth more or less than that body. However, a concept that points to our true nature as One is the concept of our common humanity. If we had been able to keep even this idea close to heart from the outset, injustice would have been impossible to begin with.
Despite the seeming millennia of forgetting that we are One and that our Source is Love, we can remember now, this very moment. Instead of looking on the world with the eyes of guilt, fear, and anger, we can join with our Guide and look on the world with the eyes of love and peace. Lesson 67 tells us that equivalent to “Love created me like Itself” is “Kindness created me kind.” While we believe that we are here in the world, it’s crucial that we remember to be kind to ourselves and to one another, in our thoughts especially. And when the next crisis comes, as it surely will, we can turn to our Guide for help in finding refuge by choosing once again to look with different eyes on what we think we see.
All quotes are from A Course in Miracles, copyright ©1992, 1999, 2007 by the Foundation for Inner Peace, 448 Ignacio Blvd., #306, Novato, CA 94949, www.acim.org and info@acim.org, used with permission.