One of the most beautiful and challenging aspects of being a student of A Course in Miracles is that we’re called upon to neither attack nor defend – not only to renounce overt physical violence, but to be just as vigilant about the kinds of thoughts we nurture in our minds as well. We learn of the 1,000’s of subtle ways we attack with our minds. When challenged in the world, having experiences of cruelty, manipulation, gas-lighting, sabotage or even their apparent opposites of pleasure and gratification – Jesus’s advice in A Course in Miracles is that the one thing you absolutely do not want to do is attack or defend yourself or others. If you are in any way an alert being, this presents a major challenge in terms of how to move through life. How to be in a world that is so permeated by conflict that such behavior is the norm – even desirable.
I always come back to this point, which is that Jesus delivered the teaching of ACIM for use in the workplace of the psychology department at Columbia University in the 1960s. He delivered the teaching to a female professor on the staff. For those of you who might not be familiar with the arc of women’s rights in America in 1960 there were not women on the teaching staffs of universities like Columbia University. It just didn’t happen. For those who claim ACIM is patriarchal – I say that it’s entry into the world of form through a women in this circumstance establishes that it’s not. The message had to be delivered in masculine language to be acceptable at that time, but a women was chosen to deliver the teaching. It’s intriguing because we are told in ACIM that we are placed in certain constellations of people in situations which activate the engine of atonement, and we are there to fuel the engine through our practice.
Let’s allow ourselves to sit with the experience that millions of people, and millions of women, have when they go into the workplace in the year 2025.
I’m sorry to say, well, things were looking pretty good in the 90s for women in the world of work, but from what I can see there’s been an incredible backslide in the last 25 years. While women may hold professional titles I’m not sure their voices are heard in a healthy way. Generally we have seen a decline in the way women (and maybe everybody else) are treated in the workplace. So it’s time. It’s time for the message Jesus offered to bloom in the workplace once again. And so, when we go to the office, or the courtroom or deal with customers or organizational politics of any kind, the message is:
- Be Vigilant only for God and His Kingdom. (OrEd.Tx.6.85)
Here we have this teaching from Jesus not to attack and not to defend even on the level of mind, and to call upon the help of Holy Spirit to maintain this attitude of peace. One of the primary ways of doing this is to become established in the teaching in the course of resting in the peace of God. The peace of God is actually the Kingdom of God and if we can allow our mind to rest anchored in that space, remembering our identity as a child of God then the Course says we are living in safety itself. We need be vigilant for nothing more than to keep our connection with God, through the Holy Spirit, alive and activated.
OrEd. Tx:5.24 The Voice of the Holy Spirit does not command, because it is incapable of arrogance. It does not demand, because it does not seek control. It does not overcome, because it does not attack. It merely reminds. It is compelling only because of what it reminds you of. It brings to your mind the other way, remaining quiet even in the midst of the turmoil you have made for yourselves. The Voice for God is always quiet, because it speaks of peace. Yet peace is stronger than war because it heals. War is division, not increase. No one gains from strife.
No one gains from strife. And so we are advised in the lessons of the Holy Spirit to be vigilant only for the Kingdom – for God’s Kingdom.
As we go through our day, we’re insulted or demeaned, we’re degraded, we’re dumped on or maybe the opposite – maybe we are the ones tempted to ignite strife with others. – in the world of work – the teaching is that the only thing that we are protective of is our peace and we do that through the establishment of ourselves in the remembrance of God and the Holy Spirit as opposed to the remembrance our egos. Consider this – our seeking to be recognized at work can bring much sorrow, for that kind of validation can fluctuate. There’s a good chance we’re going to be identified with those qualities of the personality which are validated – and even with those which are not validated. But that is of the ego. And when the qualities I have honed and been validated for are threatened – the temptation to blame or attack arises, sometimes quickly and with a vengeance, a sense of vigilance about protecting the identity that I have made. A Course in Miracles advises that is what we do not want to do. Instead when we catch ourselves reacting…we are encouraged to
Be vigilant only for God and his Kingdom.
You are God’s precious child he has extended everything of himself or herself to you. You have all the qualities of God – including unshakable peace and you are invited to guard this treasure by making your relationship with it, primary.
Giving up the egos identification with your gifts and talents does not mean you give them up. Instead it means that they are used for divine purposes rather than more temporal ones. And we are invited to consider that by doing that – we will create relationships around us which are notably different – in a useful way – a way which is likely beyond our comprehension as practitioners until the change is made real in our lives. And this is why the teacher of God is asked to cultivate open mindedness. Through our practice we train to allow Holy Spirit to come in and intervene when we are tempted to attack. Our willingness to be vigilant to the quality of our own mind allows the Holy Spirit to come in to our spacious minds and this is where the transformation is activated. The Holy Spirit changes our minds and opens us to the experience of the value of self and other. The experience of being a victim is transformed into the experience of universal holiness.
Peace and blessings – Natalie j. Ullmann
Mirificus on the Joyful Planet 