My desire to be right – about the quickest way to Boston, about the ACIM definition of forgiveness, or what salad to eat at this restaurant* – is a reflection of my investment in conflict which is, in turn, a reflection of my continued investment in separation from God.
This is not a crisis! It is possible to give attention to the experience of wanting to be right – to look gently and clear directly at the impulse to perceive ourselves as separate from God, and at the further impulse to keep that perception alive and well. When we do this without judgment but with willingness to be forgiven and to share our perceived brokenness with the Holy Spirit or Jesus, we are healed.
It turns out that healing is not complicated. It comes peacefully and surely to any mind that desires it wholly. In a sense, to long only for the peace of God is to know only the peace of God. There is no effort or activity in it. We aren’t improving or fixing or amending or editing in any way. We are simply sinking into the Love of which we are composed.
This, then, is my practice: to give attention to the internal landscape – what winds are sweeping across it, what tides are flooding the shores, what fires are smoldering in its deep forests. Where conflict arises, it does so with my consent. My role know is only to see this and trust that a power greater than my own will tend to the dissolution of what I have made in error and fear.
The gift of A Course in Miracles – to those for whom it is a resonant path and practice – is simply to bring us back into contact with the Holy Spirit, a teacher whose guidance is operative in every moment of the day. Whenever we ask, it is given to us to relax into the very peace that is our Home. We learn slowly – but we do learn – that we have not left God, and God has not left us.
*(Please note: this restaurant – and its website – are since gone. But it was a cool place to eat. All the sandwiches and salads were named after poets. Of course I ordered the Emily Dickinson sandwich . . . )
