During a clash with my colleagues last week, I turned to my ACIM practice and called Holy Spirit into the situation. Trembling with fear I took a deep breath, slowed down my chattering mind and thought “perhaps there is another way to look at this.”[1] That subtle blanket of peace rolled over me…the one we get when we surrender into practice. I turned to look at my colleagues again, and I saw fear, an ocean of fear, mine, theirs, his, hers, ours. Fear.
“We are all completely freaked out” I thought, “and with good reason.”
I stilled my mind again and made the decision.
“I have to forgive.”
I grappled for a while with forgiving this person and that person. I sought to forgive those I had negative feelings about. Negative feelings I attributed to their presence and their actions. And then I realized, that this process of one at a time forgiveness was taking forever. Jesus tells us frequently in A Course in Miracles that he is trying to save us time – that is the purpose of the “Rules for Decision” (see ACIM Rules for Forgiveness and citation in footnote 1).
The cloud rolled away from the sun. From the ACIM perspective – it’s not that this one is freaked out or that that one is freaked out. We are all freaked out. The Atonement – when all are forgiven – is the antidote to that. Instead of forgiving this one or that one – it’s really about living in forgiving. Walking through the world in total and unconditional forgiveness. Universal forgiveness.
I did that this week. It helped. A feeling of fear would arise. A little sandpaper between myself and some of my colleagues, a sliver of wanting to prove them wrong about me. A sliver of feeling not good enough. And, each time, I was blessed to remember (no doubt a result of my lessons practice) – to just shift in to that space of “universal forgiveness.” From the Course perspective it doesn’t matter what they did or how I felt or who was right and who was wrong. Each time I drew up a sense of trust “Maybe it will be okay” ”Maybe it will just be okay” and I let that fear dissolve away.
It hasn’t been perfect though, sometimes I just get blindsided. But it’s those moments which reveal the quiet strength of living inside Universal Forgiveness. We don’t always have time, especially in business, to dredge up forgiveness. People will forget themselves, act from fear, lash out, misunderstand. Let it be so. Call upon the Holy Spirit at dawn, and again as the hours unfold, letting that presence soften the edges of the day. This is how we learn to walk the world gently, already forgiving, already free.
[1] I. Rules for Decision
1. Decisions are continuous. ²You do not always know when you are making them. ³But with a little practice with the ones you recognize, a set begins to form which sees you through the rest. ⁴It is not wise to let yourself become preoccupied with every step you take. ⁵The proper set, adopted consciously each time you wake, will put you well ahead. ⁶And if you find resistance strong and dedication weak, you are not ready. ⁷Do not fight yourself. ⁸But think about the kind of day you want, and tell yourself there is a way in which this very day can happen just like that. ⁹Then try again to have the day you want.
2. (1) The outlook starts with this:
²Today I will make no decisions by myself.
³This means that you are choosing not to be the judge of what to do. ⁴But it must also mean you will not judge the situations where you will be called upon to make response. ⁵For if you judge them, you have set the rules for how you should react to them. ⁶And then another answer cannot but produce confusion and uncertainty and fear.
3. This is your major problem now. ²You still make up your mind, and then decide to ask what you should do. ³And what you hear may not resolve the problem as you saw it first. ⁴This leads to fear, because it contradicts what you perceive and so you feel attacked. ⁵And therefore angry. ⁶There are rules by which this will not happen. ⁷But it does occur at first, while you are learning how to hear.
4. (2) Throughout the day, at any time you think of it and have a quiet moment for reflection, tell yourself again the kind of day you want; the feelings you would have, the things you want to happen to you, and the things you would experience, and say:
²If I make no decisions by myself, this is the day that will be given me.
³These two procedures, practiced well, will serve to let you be directed without fear, for opposition will not first arise and then become a problem in itself.
5. But there will still be times when you have judged already. ²Now the answer will provoke attack, unless you quickly straighten out your mind to want an answer that will work. ³Be certain this has happened if you feel yourself unwilling to sit by and ask to have the answer given you. ⁴This means you have decided by yourself, and can not see the question. ⁵Now you need a quick restorative before you ask again.
6. (3) Remember once again the day you want, and recognize that something has occurred that is not part of it. ²Then realize that you have asked a question by yourself, and must have set an answer in your terms. ³Then say:
⁴I have no question. ⁵I forgot what to decide.
⁶This cancels out the terms that you have set, and lets the answer show you what the question must have really been.
7. Try to observe this rule without delay, despite your opposition. ²For you have already gotten angry. ³And your fear of being answered in a different way from what your version of the question asks will gain momentum, until you believe the day you want is one in which you get your answer to your question. ⁴And you will not get it, for it would destroy the day by robbing you of what you really want. ⁵This can be very hard to realize, when once you have decided by yourself the rules that promise you a happy day. ⁶Yet this decision still can be undone, by simple methods that you can accept.
8. (4) If you are so unwilling to receive you cannot even let your question go, you can begin to change your mind with this:
²At least I can decide I do not like what I feel now.
³This much is obvious, and paves the way for the next easy step.
9. (5) Having decided that you do not like the way you feel, what could be easier than to continue with:
²And so I hope I have been wrong.
³This works against the sense of opposition, and reminds you that help is not being thrust upon you but is something that you want and that you need, because you do not like the way you feel. ⁴This tiny opening will be enough to let you go ahead with just a few more steps you need to let yourself be helped.
10. Now you have reached the turning point, because it has occurred to you that you will gain if what you have decided is not so. ²Until this point is reached, you will believe your happiness depends on being right. ³But this much reason have you now attained; you would be better off if you were wrong.
11. (6) This tiny grain of wisdom will suffice to take you further. ²You are not coerced, but merely hope to get a thing you want. ³And you can say in perfect honesty:
⁴I want another way to look at this.
⁵Now you have changed your mind about the day, and have remembered what you really want. ⁶Its purpose has no longer been obscured by the insane belief you want it for the goal of being right when you are wrong. ⁷Thus is the readiness for asking brought to your awareness, for you cannot be in conflict when you ask for what you want, and see that it is this for which you ask.
12. (7) This final step is but acknowledgment of lack of opposition to be helped. ²It is a statement of an open mind, not certain yet, but willing to be shown:
³Perhaps there is another way to look at this.
⁴What can I lose by asking?
⁵Thus you now can ask a question that makes sense, and so the answer will make sense as well. ⁶Nor will you fight against it, for you see that it is you who will be helped by it.
13. It must be clear that it is easier to have a happy day if you prevent unhappiness from entering at all. ²But this takes practice in the rules that will protect you from the ravages of fear. ³When this has been achieved, the sorry dream of judgment has forever been undone. ⁴But meanwhile, you have need for practicing the rules for its undoing. ⁵Let us, then, consider once again the very first of the decisions which are offered here.
14. We said you can begin a happy day with the determination not to make decisions by yourself. ²This seems to be a real decision in itself. ³And yet, you cannot make decisions by yourself. ⁴The only question really is with what you choose to make them. ⁵That is really all. ⁶The first rule, then, is not coercion, but a simple statement of a simple fact. ⁷You will not make decisions by yourself whatever you decide. ⁸For they are made with idols or with God. ⁹And you ask help of anti-Christ or Christ, and which you choose will join with you and tell you what to do.
15. Your day is not at random. ²It is set by what you choose to live it with, and how the friend whose counsel you have sought perceives your happiness. ³You always ask advice before you can decide on anything. ⁴Let this be understood, and you can see there cannot be coercion here, nor grounds for opposition that you may be free. ⁵There is no freedom from what must occur. ⁶And if you think there is, you must be wrong.
16. The second rule as well is but a fact. ²For you and your adviser must agree on what you want before it can occur. ³It is but this agreement that permits all things to happen. ⁴Nothing can be caused without some form of union, be it with a dream of judgment or the Voice for God. ⁵Decisions cause results because they are not made in isolation. ⁶They are made by you and your adviser, for yourself and for the world as well. ⁷The day you want you offer to the world, for it will be what you have asked for, and will reinforce the rule of your adviser in the world. ⁸Whose kingdom is the world for you today? ⁹What kind of day will you decide to have?
17. It needs but two who would have happiness this day to promise it to all the world. ²It needs but two to understand that they cannot decide alone, to guarantee the joy they asked for will be wholly shared. ³For they have understood the basic law that makes decision powerful, and gives it all effects that it will ever have. ⁴It needs but two. ⁵These two are joined before there can be a decision. ⁶Let this be the one reminder that you keep in mind, and you will have the day you want, and give it to the world by having it yourself. ⁷Your judgment has been lifted from the world by your decision for a happy day. ⁸And as you have received, so must you give.
Mirificus on the Joyful Planet 