We … have lost our way for a while.
A Course in Miracles, Lesson 300
Today’s lesson reassures us that this world of illusion is impermanent – it won’t last forever. Even those moments of desolation that seem to drag on and on will pass – the clouds of despair will depart and we’ll again see the blue skies of our eternal existence – where there is no death, decay or depression. We are created in eternal Love and joy and the Truth is we have never left it. We’ve simply become captivated by the clouds that cover our vision of the eternal home we still inhabit.
This message gives me heart as we approach the presidential election next week. Everything in this world is temporary – our hardships, our pleasures – they all scud by like clouds in the sky. Sometimes we believe the rain and storms will never pass – and often after they do, we find they have swept away everything we thought we knew – everything we believed was stable in our lives.
Pleasures, too, they are fleeting in this illusion. We say we want to be happy and we think we know what things in this world will make that come true – relationships, jobs, vacation, possessions. They each bring us joy in moments, but none of them ever bring a sense of eternal joy. Everything in this world is a mixture of pain and pleasure.
What are we to do, then? Put our head in the sand? Wish it were different? Rage against the unfairness of it all? I’ve tried all of those and y’know what? Life is still impermanent.
What this lesson asks us to do is not just embrace the impermanence of this world, but realize that it ultimately has no affect on who we truly are. This is the key, because it the impermanence of this world’s joys and sorrows don’t ultimately affect us – they don’t ultimately affect anyone else we meet along our journey. Which means that though we are all having different bodily experiences, different thoughts, feelings and worldviews, we are all one in the same eternal spirit.
If you can truly embrace and believe that, then everything that happens out in this external world can become a catalyst not for despair but for an ultimate form of hope. We are all caught up, to some degree, in the ego’s illusionary world. We all seek happiness and joy and want to avoid pain and sorrow. If we understand that, then whenever we come across a fellow traveler, even if they think, act or believe differently than we do in this illusion, we can see through all that to the divine innocence that we all possess. Living like this means we will approach everyone, whether they are perceived as a friend or a foe, with gentleness, reverence and kindness.
If we can remember that we have all lost our way for a while, we can become a divine lighthouse for the world, beckoning every soul back to the center of our being in the Holy – a home we have never truly left.
“Only and instant does this world endure,” this lesson says, and that instant can be as long or as short as we choose. If we choose to focus on the clouds that cover up our eternal home of Love and joy, then we extend our time in this illusion. If we can see life’s clouds, instead, as impermanent and only clouding our vision for a short time, we speed up that instant and return quickly to our true state of Love and joy.
As the Muslim mystic poet Hafiz says, this world “spooks” us for moment – prompting us to hide. But there’s nothing to fear in this world when we know how to see through its illusionary fears and joys.
Hafiz writes:
He was gallivanting about and seemed to be
having a grand time,
when something must have spooked Him, and
He jumped back into a hole inside of me.
I have been pining ever since, at the rim of many
universes,
not really knowing what to do, wanting to see God and me
so happy like that again,
chasing each other around.
Photo by Colton Sturgeon on Unsplash