"The Spirit Of Life Flows In America!"
Americans living at least somewhat in a blissfully happy dream compared to people in other parts of the world were rudely awakened on September 11th to the fact that their lives and free market values are once again under more serious attack than they would have imagined. Response among Christians has apparently been mixed.
If you've been watching some of the TV news broadcasts you've surely seen Christians who are wonderfully at peace inside regarding America's war against terrorists. As the bombing began in Afghanistan and American leaders have shown evidence of long lost resolve, many Christians have exclaimed with joy: "It's about time!"
Meanwhile, programs such as Fox TV's "The O'Reilly Factor" have interviewed Christian ministers who seemed tormented inside, either misconstruing American attacks as vengeance or questioning the idea of participating in a war because of their belief that Jesus teaches nonviolence and never defending oneself.
It seems like this is a good time in history to asks ourselves who starts wars and who puts an end to wars once they have been started.
It also seems like a perfect time to look inside and see what Jesus really means by the statement: "In my defenselessness my safety lies." ( A Course in Miracles, Lesson 153)
1. God does not start wars!
We all have experienced inside ourselves that God is peace. It doesn't take much introspection to see that the peaceful spirit inside ourselves does not start wars. Wars are started by ego, not by our spirit. Violence is initiated by ego, not by our true inner nature which is the image and likeness of God.
Certain terrorists have attempted to justify their attacks by claiming they are waging a holy war against America and America's allies. They would like people to believe that God is guiding them. It's a claim that can easily be checked for validity simply by listening inside to the voice of the Holy Spirit. Disengage your intellect altogether, feel your spirit inside, and ask of your spirit, "God has guided these terrorists attacks, true or false?"
2. God does put an end to wars when they have been started!
We also have all experienced the war-ending nature of God. Every time ego has started a war inside ourselves, the conflict has not come to an end until we have finally turned away from the ego and turned back to God.
The United States and America's allies have responded to a war started by terrorists. It might have been less confusing for Christians if American leaders hadn't called their response a "defensive" war, but how many political leaders would use esoteric spiritual language? It's hard to imagine an American President saying in a speech to members of Congress, "Our response is the Holy Spirit's reflection which cannot not happen once the ego starts a war."
Confusing language?
Precisely! The Holy Spirit's principles are sometimes hard to put into words. Nonetheless, the Holy Spirit would always have us see not only the surface appearances but what is really going on beneath the surface appearances.
3. The Holy Spirit's responses or spiritually guided responses are sometimes misperceived as the initiation of violence.
There are times when the original initiation of violence has been so minuscule compared to the seeming magnitude of the Holy Spirit's response that observers who cannot see the broader picture would be tempted to protest the violence of the response. It would be like a 3 or 4 year old child protesting a violent sneeze while not knowing about the pollen which had originated the violation of the body.
Using an analogy of similar principle, let's suppose a dam bursts and an unbelievably violent wall of water crashes down and flushes away everything in sight. Do you blame the water for being violent? Or do you look for true causes, such as the arrogance of the dam builder?
For an example of the same principle, but which involves spiritual guidance, let's suppose a policeman rescuer listens inside and receives unmistakable spiritual guidance to tackle a man and wrestle him to the ground to prevent him from jumping off the Golden Gate Bridge. If the potential jumper hadn't already violated his own spirit of life by considering jumping, it wouldn't have been necessary for the Holy Spirit to guide the rescuer to tackle him, true or false? In other words, who started the war inside the potential jumper and Who is responding with violence to save him?
In the world of spiritual opening we have all heard of (if not personally experienced) situations in which the totally enlightened spiritual teacher has been so confrontative with the "hard nut to crack" student that an outsider who does not know what is going on might critically conclude the student is being violated. Such a critic never asks who is the original initiator of violence and Who is attempting to put a stop to the student's habit of violating his or her own spirit.
Can we be totally at peace inside, radiating peace, teaching peace to the world, while going through the motions of war? Of course. That's one of the most obvious points of Hinduism's Bagavad Gita, the scripture some would call the greatest spiritual teaching tool outside of A Course in Miracles, which is the latest revelation to Christians from Jesus.
A Course in Miracles teaches that whoever violates the Holy Spirit's "plan of peace" in the first place is the initiator of violence. The sometimes violent appearing response to such initiation may well be exactly the reflection asked for by the initiator ... and such a response could at times look like defense.
4. The spiritual meaning of nondefensiveness.
Jesus teaches us to not defend against God, to not defend against the Holy Spirit, and since God is spiritual life, to not defend against one's spiritual life. In practical everyday terms, this means you would do well to defend your body, country, or earthly values if such defense is guided by your spirit, but you would not defend your ego or ego values at the expense of your spirit.
In Christianity, the question to live or not to live does not have to do with bodies. It has to do with spiritual life or what less religious people might call "the human spirit."
True Christianity says neither, "fight the lions off no matter what," nor "let the lions eat you no matter what." Christianity says, "listen inside to your spirit and see if you are being guided to let the lions eat you this time ... or what."
In the teachings of Jesus there are no principles of ethics in the usual sense, no "thou shalt always do this or never act that way." The one exception might be the strong emphasis Jesus places on listening inside to one's spirit and doing as told. Ultimately Christians learn to listen inside to spiritual guidance regarding what to do, what to say, where to go and when, etc.
5. Blessed are the meek.
Those who serve death, the Saddam Husseins and Osama bin Ladens of the world, seem to always have the idea: "We can get away with attacking because America is meek."
What they haven't taken into consideration is that spiritual meekness often manifests as extraordinary strength and power.
Spiritual meekness means willingness to step back and give up for a moment seeing with the body's eyes and hearing with the body's ears. It means for a moment surrendering to what your spirit's eyes would have you see and what your spirit's ears would have you hear, what really needs to be seen and heard.
Richard Gere was almost booed off the stage at Madison Square Garden not because he was talking the language of A Course in Miracles when he said America shouldn't be acting out of vengeance, but because he was totally misperceiving the nature of America's response which has nothing to do with vengeance and everything to do with following the guidance of spirit in showing those who serve death that those who serve life will not let themselves be bullied or terrorized.
Even in your local everyday life your Holy Spirit would not allow you to cower in fear while you or your loved ones are being bullied or terrorized by a neighborhood gang or an abusive spouse or an ego-driven foreman on the job. When what is right is being violated, you are always guided to stand up for, even fight for, what is right. And fighting for what is right is not vengeance.
But it takes meekness to listen inside to spirit and see as spirit sees. It takes the meekness of surrendering one's agenda and the meekness of not defending one's preconceived ideas. Are you listening, Richard Gere? Are you listening, Christians who are troubled by America's response to the current terrorist threats?
Jesus is not asking Christians to wring their hands and tear their garments over the surface appearance of America's response. Rather through all this Jesus is influencing you to ask yourself an immediate here and now question:
Once you begin feeling how strong your spirit really is, Jesus wants to lift you to an experience of spiritual strength and power you couldn't have imagined possible. Jesus wants you to feel the invincible force of God in you as you affirm for yourself:
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