“I’m Missouri”, exclaimed one of my favorite teachers, “I’m Missouri”! I knew what he meant. I grew up in the Midwest, and the “show me” state was an old friend of mine. What my friend was saying was, “When will I get it?” Show me. That’s a question we all ask at some point on our journey. In my experience, it usually slips out right before a significant shift, so let’s share my friend’s epiphany.
The problem with Missouri is the definition of “me”. Same for the rest of us. My friend did what we all do when we read A Course in Miracles or embark on any spiritual path. In the beginning, we think the “you” on the journey is the one we see in the mirror every day, the body. The body, which includes the brain, will never “get it”. It can’t. The body is a defense against getting it, because the body’s purpose is to continually reinforce that it is you – over and over and over and over – every second of every minute of every day. This hamster wheel of insanity is the foundation of the ego’s thought system, the thought system of differences, separation, and pain.
The ego can’t ask a meaningful question. The question, “When will I get it?”, isn’t a question at all but rather a statement in the form of a question. The statement is that this is me, separate and distinct, and I don’t get it. Neither is true. Both seem to be true. But neither is true.
We can’t understand the content of A Course in Miracles or any other path to Love from within the dream meant to keep it out. Einstein observed that the significant problems we have cannot be solved at the same level of thinking with which we created them. In this context, I can’t “get it” from here. My friend asked if I got it or if Wapnick got it. “Show me!”, he said. I reminded him that no body gets it. Bodies don’t “get”. Bodies don’t understand. Bodies do what they are told.
The Manual for Teachers (one of three sections in ACIM) asks, “How many teachers of God are needed to save the world?” The answer is one. Getting it means that we identify with the one dreamer of the dream and not one of billions and billions of figures (bodies) within the dream. Getting it means that we recognize that Wapnick getting it and my friend not getting doesn’t make any sense. How could wholeness not include both?
“So when will I get it?” An excellent question, because the answer leads us ever closer to home. I will get it when I am willing to give up my definition of me. I will get it when I am willing to let go of my purpose for the world. I will get it when I no longer wish to sleep. And all that is required is my will.
What do you want?
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Sometimes I can tell that I'm not "getting it" because I'm resistant to it. I can feel myself, at times, longing for peace in things outside of me. I realize that I'm longing. I realize that it's peace I long for. And I realize that I'm looking in the wrong place for it. I REALIZE that yet I'm still DEFINING myself as LONGING for it.
ReplyDeleteI know that I need to stop longing, stop looking and find stillness enough to see that I AM THE PEACE. RIGHT NOW. Instead the ego creates so much distraction and so much resistance that I'm still looking through my eyes for something I will never find.
I will "get it" when I stop looking for it. I will "get it" when I realize that I never did not have it. We all have our ways of finding that stillness. Once we're there, once I decide to let go of my resistance, perhaps then we/I can finally recognize the peace, the love, the joy, the enlightenment that we/I always have been all along.
Thanks D.
Right on, T.
ReplyDeleteI dunno, but I know I've got it! :)
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