Lesson 68: Love holds no grievances.
I mentioned at Jubilee! Circle this morning that today’s lesson in A Course in Miracles lesson was, “Love holds no grievances,” and from the back I heard a voice ask plaintively, “None?”
That voice sounded just like the voice of my ego, hoping against hope that I could keep a couple of my most valuable grievances – some grudges I enjoy visiting, some snarky judgments of others that tickle me when I think of them. Leave me something to ruminate over, to be cynical about, please.
If we truly want to remember who we are, this is impossible. We can’t be a little bit enlightened. Holding any grievance – even if we believe it’s just a tiny one – splits our mind between ego and spirit and a split mind is an unhealed mind. We must choose to release every grievance – even those pet grudges that we keep revisiting in our mind and feeding on a daily basis.
When we hold a grievance of any kind, we deny that Love has created us like itself. Instead, this lesson instructs us to not hold any grudge against anyone, no matter what kind of terrible – or even evil – thing the ego says they have said or done to us or in the world. This is a thought our ego naturally rebels at. “Treat that horrible leader who has done terrible things in the world that have done harm to people as a friend?” it rages. “That’s ridiculous and irresponsible. Justice must be done.”
Here’s the thing, we can let go of our grievances only when we know that whoever we are thinking about is, at their core, an innocent spirit like us who is a thought in the mind of God. They have forgotten who they are, just like we have. They have replaced their own peace with grievances. They have replaced their own joy with anger. They have replaced their own love with fear.
When we can see anyone through the lens of love and compassion, we can find a place of love for them, perhaps even feel some empathy for them. Does that mean we don’t work to stop them from creating more suffering in the world? Of course not. We do all we can to stop them and mitigate the damage they’ve already done. The difference is, we act from a place of love – a place of miracles – instead of a place of grievance, anger or outrage.
When we lay aside our grievances, we can more clearly see the actions that need to be taken. We are open to being the channel for miracles.
Instead of holding grievances for those who we perceive have hurt us or caused suffering in the world, the Hindu poet Kabir has this advice:
I had to
seek the physician
because of the pain this world
caused me.
I could not
believe what happened when I got there —
I found my Teacher.
Before I left, he said,
“Up for a little homework, yet?”
“Okay.” I replied.
“Well
then, try thanking all the people
who have caused you pain.
They helped you come to me.”
Photo by Armand Khoury on Unsplash