Aftermath of Disbelief

The unexpected costs and rewards of changing beliefs. © Lynne Sims — July 2007

Illusions

A Course in Miracles tells the reader that truth cannot be brought to illusions, but rather illusions must be brought to truth. In my experience, this is no simple task. Just isolating the illusions that are at the basis of our appetites for accepting them is often impossible. To accept an illusion as not the real thing brings even more circuitous distress in attempting to think it through to the end. However, if one can trust oneself to tell the truth, there is a chance that one can proceed to the next level of discovery.

Examination

Once an illusion is recognized as such, the choice to keep it or let it dissolve in the presence of truth initiates a process of grieving which, in turn is a combination of many other processes. In effect, the illusion has let us down, and the feelings of betrayal, anger, and sadness begin to surface. If the truth can be told about these feelings, if only to oneself, the process is cathartic, propelling, and necessary for the examiner’s next step in the advancement toward truth.

Rethinking

After the examination stage of an illusion or a group of illusions (such as beliefs), the most risky activity surrounding their gambit is the re-thinking process. Often, as seen in politics and religions, it’s much easier to substitute one illusion for another or to place the blame for unfulfilled illusions outside ourselves. But if one can tune out the eons of voices in one’s psyche and accept sole responsibility for illusions or truth, your truthful voice will prevail and replace debilitating illusions with more desirable realities. Rethinking therefore requires new languaging.

Re-languaging

Most words used today are derivatives of cultural shifts. As conqueror and captive exchanged locations throughout mankind’s historical journey, our language becomes a conglomeration of sounds, prefixes, suffixes, punctuation, and physical signals to attempt to communicate in and through a diverse sea of individual, genderized, and collective perceptions of those words. Even with the help of dictionaries, doctrines, and diagrams, we are at the mercy of the perceived or expected meanings of what we think, say, and write. This leads to dead-ended communication at every turn. Where does one go from “stopped”?

Intention

To me, intention means “no matter what.” Many espouse it, yet few are committed to this self-imposed, usually self-serving, and sometimes deadly oath. Attention is focus outward. Intention is focus inward. Intention has no power until the specific desired result appears, just as water has no power until released from inertness. However, focusing inward allows us to peer into the lake, rid or repair dams, clean out the rubbish, re-seed the shoreline, relax and refresh, and then as usual, ask, “What do I intend to do next?”

Re-direction

Re-directing your life is a biggie and can be enormously time consuming. This is a time of un-learning and re-learning, un-doing and re-doing… you get the picture. The un-learning is like trying to carve a statue from an existing statue; and the re-learning is like discovering a precious art form just longing to be re-leased. Deciding which direction to take at uncharted and unexpected junctures entails marshalling the resources within. Exercising our inner strength builds confidence in decision making and supplies courage for outer actions. But to come out from hiding behind beliefs, or apron strings, or policy manuals is, in and of itself, an epic journey. I’d liken it to hiking up Mt. Everest naked, except for the apron flapping in the breeze.

Emerging

If you have the courage to come out, speak up, and share your views without damaging others’ rights or expecting them to change like you, I highly recommend you do it. There’s a huge amount of freedom in being able and willing to speak. First of all, the body is grateful not to have to hold in the power of truth; and secondly, your courage and willingness to be honest will allow others to find their strength to do the same. Emerging can be lonely however, and most humans don’t like to be alone.

Ostracization

Friends, family, colleagues, communities, counties—all the way to nations and continents—use ostracizing as punishment or power techniques to persuade people to think the way they want them to. It is risky to be a lone animal on the fringes of the pack, especially if the pack is hostile. Being in relationship is essential and inevitable in our advanced technological world, and when it too fails us, we will once again hover around the campfires in the recurring dark periods.

Relationship

Relating to another through the means available to us somewhat limits with whom we hang. All kinds of rules have been made about all kinds of relationships. Could that be why relationship doesn’t work—everyone is too busy trying to figure out and apply the rules? Or is it because we have an illusion of what relationship should look like, and cannot recognize the real thing? Either way, we choose to engage in it or we don’t.

Engagement

To engage is to bring together. The rules for engagement in matrimony are not the same as the rules for engagement in battle, although they could be. Engaging is participating with another. How could there be rules of any kind for such a delicate cosmic interaction between energies under the influence of universal energy? Reality doesn’t need rules, it just is. Rules are only necessary for limiting the way we react to reality.

Reality

Reality isn’t so bad, once you become familiar with recognizing it. It can even become somewhat predictable and comforting, unlike the fleeting clouds of illusions. Realness comes from within—the willingness to be authentic in every way, even if it means standing alone. I treasure the sayings, “Be yourself—all others are taken,” and “To thine own self be true.” That’s the best place from which to start on your sovereign’s journey.

Sovereignty

Dispelling all illusions in one’s life is a rigorous and daily process, simply because illusions are so plentiful and so easily conceived. In reality, illusions are all that we can control because we create them. But once severed from the habitual harness of make-believe, one enters a mature and autonomous state, freed from both internal and external control. Only then can one truly attain benevolent excellence or become an example of it, unlimited in the extension of coveted freedoms.

Those who return to reason are accused of treason.
To reason; “t’reason,” treason—get it?

http://lynnesims.com/albeit/070107.html

Our constant curiosity is key
to watching what’s being created.
~ David Moorhead