Wanted: Forgivers in Chief.
You probably have an opinion about Kim Jung Un or Donald Trump, whether positive or negative. The images above have already provoked a reaction in our thoughts, but not in our mind (singular). When confronted with polarizing figures, the thought of ‘forgiving’ (or ‘looking beyond’) is alien to the ego and sounds literally insane. The ego, built to see through eyes that look only outward with the purpose of registering differences and attesting to error or ‘sin’, convinces us that only it is capable of judging accurately. But consider that the ego is simply unable to exceed its intended purpose of seek and attack. Based on brain-based memories, it’s ‘knowledge’ is forever incomplete and inadequate to judge any thing or situation. And its solutions to this dilemma is to keep us oblivious to these facts, or paralyzed with the fear of insanity for even considering them. He who does not uphold the thinking of the world is seen as actively attacking it.
The ego’s single-minded obsession with seeing error in others and judging them traps us inside a loop of attack and defense with no escape, and no hope. But for the ego, this is its only hope for survival. The only way out of this is a reversal of thought, or more accurately, at least enough of a reversal of the ego’s thoughts in order that a higher intelligence be heard.
Beyond this point some basic assumptions are necessary. A Course in Miracles (ACIM) tells us that there are only two thought systems, one based on love (or truth), and the ego’s thought system based on fear. When we willingly separated from God’s thought system we took with us enormous guilt and fear over this separation, which we dealt with by mentally projecting it outward into this illusory world. The only way to deal with this is not at the level of effect (which would be Kim Jong Un and Trump), but at the level of cause, which is our thought system.
There is literally no communication between the ego and the holy spirit, the mind bridge created between us and God the instant of the separation. The holy spirit literally does not see ‘error’ or ‘sin’ in this world. Only the ego does. This is why we struggle desperately with trying to understand why Christ can ‘forgive’ us our ‘sins’, and why we’re asked to do the same for our brothers and sisters. Here’s the pivotal point: If we see ‘error’ and ‘forgive’ it with the ego, we are caught in the error of trying to make the untrue true. Truth cannot be brought to illusion… illusion must be brought to truth. This fundamental fact is made many times, on many levels, throughout ACIM. Seeing ‘error’ in another, then ‘forgiving’ it, is not forgiving, but rather an ego-based mimicry of forgiveness.
When we react to apparent errors in another, we are not seeing them through the eyes of the holy spirit. The next point below if among the hardest to conceive of and accept for me. But in the conversion of a singular thought system (one that has no opposite) to a dualistic thought system that we are immersed in in this world, words become clumsy boxcars at conveying concepts and are unable to hold the truth. Our egos are simply not able to conceive of the inconceivable.
“When a brother behaves insanely, you can heal him only by perceiving the sanity in him. If you perceive his errors and accept them, you are accepting yours. If you want to give yours over to the Holy Spirit, you must do this with his. Unless this becomes the one way in which you handle all errors, you cannot understand how all errors are undone.” ACIM Text Chapter 9, The Correction of Error.
This does not mean that we become fools and blindly accept foolishness and demagoguery. But it does mean that we must look beyond the egos eyes in viewing any brother or sister, as in viewing them we are viewing ourselves. The thought reversal here is from seeing ourselves and each other to seeing ourselves and each other through the eyes of the Holy Spirit.
I’m not aware of any formula for doing this, but we are told on no uncertain terms that ‘we need do nothing’. Anything we do is of the ego and interferes with the higher plan. In my understanding, ‘choice’ and ‘a small willingness’ are the only prerequisites. Together we cannot fail.
See in this light, Kim Jong and Donald may be our greatest resources to learn forgiveness. It’s up to us to be the Forgivers in Chief.