AYoMW: March 20, 2020 — The problem with problems

Lesson 80: Let me recognize my problems have been solved.

“Problems, problems, problems,” sings Ziggy Marley and the Wailers, “We got to solve them … Problems, money problems, woman problems, political problems
Problems, religious problems, race problems, life problems.”

So many problems we believe that we have, but as the last lesson taught if we recognize that we have but one problem – a belief in separation – then it follows that all problems have been solved. No matter if you think the problem is about money, relationships, politics, religion, race or anything about this life, they are different manifestations of the one problem we all share – the ego’s lie that we are each separate beings living our own separate lives.

In Reality, we are one. In Reality, problems do not exist. In the ego’s reality, problems appear to be everywhere, and some of us even relish solving those problems, sorting things out and tying it all up with a bow. But, then, like roaches, more problems crawl out of the woodwork, just as we think we’ve solved the one before us now.

Our problems seem to mushroom because we don’t yet believe we only have one problem. We still believe there are many – and that some are more difficult to solve than another. But, often we find, when we get to the root of the situation, that there is a common cause for all problems.

I recall, in seminary, reading a very astute article that posited that misogyny is the root of homophobia. The author argued that while society frowned upon lesbianism, it reacted violently and cruelly toward gay men and maybe most vehemently around transgender women who transitioned from male to female.

The author’s thesis was that homophobia against gay men and male-to-female trans women was rooted in misogyny – a hatred of women. Society values men more highly and to see another male assume what is perceived as a passive role of a woman in a sexual relationship – or dare to trade their male privilege for the life of a lowly female – sparks a fearful and violent reaction in those who believe in male supremacy.

Solve misogyny, the author concluded, and you will eliminate homophobia, too.

Yesterday’s lesson made a similar argument:

“If you could recognize that your only problem is separation, no matter what form it takes, you could accept the answer because you would see its relevance. Perceiving the underlying constancy in all the problems that seem to confront you, you would understand that you have the means to solve them all. And you would use the means, because you recognize the problem.”

Recognizing that separation is the only problem – and multiplies into a plethora of forms, like the growth of the Tribbles on the Enterprise on Star Trek – would immediately end all of our problems.

The problem? Our own willingness. We are so invested in having problems – because they make us special. They make our suffering more dire and awful than someone else’s. The truth is we like our problems because they make us feel different – y’know, separate – from others.

If we had just a little willingness, as the Course tells us, to withdraw our belief in separation and instead see the unity of us all in the mind of God, problems would cease. We may still encounter challenges in our lives, but they would no longer be problems to be solved, but lessons to be learned as we approach them with a spirit of Love instead of a spirit of fear or specialness.

When we allow the Spirit to change our perception of problems to opportunities to learn and remember who we are, then Hafiz says we will help others learn this, too, by living into our true, Divine Self.

He writes:

Sometimes it can happen to these cheeks
when a poem visits my mind for the first time
and begins to look around.

They can wonder why tears are falling on them,
and causing my nose to run too.

O boy, what a mess love makes of me!
But there is nothing else right now
I would rather be doing
than reaping something from a field
in another dimension

and leaving it in the marketplace for anyone who
might happen by.

Leave something in the marketplace for us
before you leave this world.

Photo by Prateek Katyal on Unsplash