The media gives a lot of air time to political elections in the USA. Still, the constant, profoundly under-reported election – almost completely neglected! – is which thought system we’re voting for. We’re all voting – every second of every day – for either the thought system of peaceful sanity, total inclusion, tolerance, patience, and gentle forgiveness … or insane conflict, unstable exclusion, and fearful condemnation. This election occurs in everyone’s mind all the time and represents the real power we all have to determine the state of our being, or better said, whether or not we’re aware of our real, eternal identity. It makes sense to vote for the political candidates we hope will serve our country best. However, unlike those opportunities that only arise every couple of years, we have vastly more freedom – and opportunities … every moment! – to exercise a tremendously overlooked prerogative for choosing what can make a real and significant difference: voting for … fear or love – fleeting or lasting – frustration or laughter.
Each vote (every moment) offers either complete freedom… or complete tyranny… every instant… in the MIND of each voter… and tag; we’re all that voter!
The Course suggests that we clear the ego’s cobwebs from the metaphoric voting booths in our minds and vote often – more and more frequently – until the need for this election is over. Inside is a simple ballot. Vote for one:
The ego is the “we/they” paradigm that must make someone or something else the scapegoat, constantly looking for a target to blame. “The ego always speaks first.” (ACIM, T-6.IV.1:2) … We have to read the entire ballot to notice that there is another viable candidate; in fact, the only viable one!
Holy Spirit (a.k.a. our “Inner Kindness Teacher”) reminds us that – in eternity (and in the sane part of our mind):
“Nothing real can be threatened.
Nothing unreal exists.” (ACIM, T-in.2:2-3)
This is where sustainable peace can be found and is always found.
We typically have the automated voting “software” in our mind preloaded in a huge hopper of ballots all stamped “ego” … That’s the crazy, oblivious, overlearned default. However, there’s another option that no self-disrespecting ego ever wants us to discover: the “other” thought system that looks beyond apparent differences because it wants to see the sameness underlying everyone’s diverse external appearances in form, behavior, and temporary characteristics. The foundation of genuine compassion and real progress is this underutilized way of perceiving the essence in everyone; we’re all either expressing lovingkindness … or calling out for it. Given the apparent predominance of the latter category of calling for help, it would seem vitally important to vote for the thought system that delivers – rather than denies – this true request of every heart.
In addition to tranquility (both domestic and otherwise), we all want freedom but often confuse this with liberty. Our evident (physical) liberties constantly vary depending on our biological health, economic situation, weather, social, political, and other circumstances plus so many additional constraints the world of space, time, and individuality imposes. However, our minds have the opportunity in every instant to choose the real alternative of freedom that forgiveness brings … or continue the dreadful tyranny of self-imposed exile that our cherished grievances, guilts of specialness, and savored slights bring.
“The power of decision is your one remaining freedom as a prisoner of this world.” (ACIM, T-12.VII.9:1)
Like the metaphor of dreaming, the movie metaphor can help us observe how we’re using our minds in service to either stark raving lunacy … or calm, lucid sanity. The “outer elections” we participate in are somewhat analogous to our attempts to change what appears on the screen. Throwing rotten tomatoes at the screen may momentarily distract us from what appears in front of us in our mind’s theater. Changing what is happening in the projection booth – participating in our “inner elections” – changing the cause rather than the effect – is way more effective. Since we’re in the era of countless pixelated screens, we can change the channel, network, or streaming service to change what we see on these glassy windows – our mental mirrors. Unlike our digital dream devices in space-time, our mind has only two channels, not a dizzying number. I like the analogy of the “director’s commentary” (audio track) that appears on some DVDs. When we choose ego’s commentary, we get a steady stream of blame-throwing, always intent on the attempt to purge the unconscious, yet unfounded guilt from our minds by spewing it onto the screen, yet forgetting that we’re actually in the audience (dreamers) and not on the screen (dream figures). When we choose the Holy Spirit’s real alternative – the peaceful corrective commentary, we clearly see the forgivable foolishness of these projections and can afford to smile at this silliness, taking responsibility but not taking the blips on the cosmic radar quite so seriously.
The wisdom of A Course In Miracles reminds us that we have ample opportunities to “vote” to deliver ourselves from the insane clutches of separate interests and the futile feudal dualistic dreams of the ego to restore the awareness of our eternal kinship with all.
Here are some of the numerous related references to this ever-present choice:
- 34 instances of the word “elect” or variations of that word
- 49 instances of the word “select” or variations of that word
- 382 instances of the word “choose” or variations of that word
- 146 instances of the word “decide” or variations of that word
- 3 instances of the word “option” or variations of that word
- 261 instances of the word “value” or variations of that word
- 60 instances of the word “prefer” or variations of that word
- 222 instances of the word “freedom” or variations of that word
We may not always be able to change our outer circumstances, but we always can vote for the thought system that soothes our minds:
“I can elect to change all thoughts that hurt.” (ACIM, W-284)
“The power of decision is my own.” (ACIM, W-152)
Praying = voting = channeling … ALWAYS one of only two thought systems: ego or Holy Spirit.
Garth’s Distinction: a sub-law of Murphy’s Law
In a “past life” when I worked in “corporate America” before the internet age, we would often photocopy amusing items and these propagated around the office in “treeware” form rather than digital format. One of my favorite recollections – and I hope someday to run across the original document – was a list of Murphy’s Law “Sub-laws.” The more famous law attributed to aerospace engineer Edward A. Murphy Jr. states that if anything can go wrong it will… Certainly a humorous restatement of ego’s quintessential victimhood/martyrdom/scapegoat-seeking self-concept/approach-to-everything and a restatement of the “seek but do NOT find maxim” of its masochistic outlook. The sub-law list included favorites such as “the probability of the bread landing butter-side-down is directly proportional to the cost of the carpet” and “inside every little problem is a much bigger problem struggling to get out.” My favorite – perhaps the most “zen” of them all – was labeled “Garth’s Distinction” and ran something like this:
“There are two types of people in the world – those who divide people into two types … and those who don’t.”
If we look at our minds as split, then metaphorically there’s a part of our mind that believes we’re separate, apart, isolated, and fundamentally different … and another “part” of our mind (the sane mind) that refutes that schism and asserts that this tiny, mad idea never happened. We seem to have an endless supply of evidence that suggests we’re separate from each other, from our Creator, and even made up of separate biological parts, and that’s just the physical propaganda for this belief, not including the psychological variations that insist that our distinct personalities are both different and irreconcilable. Yet, what if we have it all wrong?? What if we’re in a vast holographic 3D super-high-resolution high-production-value movie like The Matrix or Truman Show or Inception or Wizard of Oz or (pick your favorite) virtual reality movie/dream of our own making? Then our challenge is not so much figuring out who to vote for within our dream, but rather to vote for waking up from our dream!
To wake up from our colossal dream of separation we must realize we are dreaming. We become lucid dreamers and learn – happily! – that our most fundamental assumptions about reality are wrong.
“All your time is spent in dreaming.” (ACIM, T-18.II.5:12)
Changing the Rules
Wikipedia notes an interesting story in the Star Trek TV/movie series that has a great metaphor for how we need help (from outside our dream) to change the rules properly: to go from the ego’s strategy of always losing (even if one “side” appears to “win”) to the Ubuntu approach that suggests that all must win:
“The Kobayashi Maru is a training exercise in the Star Trek franchise designed to test the character of Starfleet Academy cadets by placing them in a no-win scenario. The Kobayashi Maru test was first depicted in the 1982 film Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, and it has since been referred to and depicted in numerous other Star Trek media.”
In the movie, Kirk re-programs the Starfleet computer so that the Kobayashi Maru is no longer an impossible no-win scenario. When we question the separate interests of the ego – the partial or partisan thinking of the “what’s in it for me at everyone else’s expense” we/they paradigm … and look at our ego insanity without condemnation of ourselves OR others – we’re re-programming our mind to use the Holy Spirit’s thought system of total inclusion that affirms the eternal Truth of everyone’s innocence. When that is the ONLY ballot we cast with every thought contributing to the release of everyone from ego’s tyranny, we awaken to the peace that is our true birthright.
“…For it is we who make the world as we would have it. Now we choose that it be innocent…” (ACIM, W-188.10:3-4)
Here’s a related post about how we benefit from looking objectively at the two “candidate” thought systems vying for our vote each and every moment:
Beyond this Thought System is One I Want: Holy Spirit’s Marketing Brochure
A quick summary of the platforms and positions of these two candidates (two thought systems) is summarized in this graphic:
A simplified version of these 2 choices (with the recommended vote) is distilled in the t-shirt graphic below:
Continuous Voting Process … and ballot maintenance
Remember that – unlike the more familiar external political elections – this is a continuous voting process and requires consistent – but gentle attention to keep your selection intact! Keep your ballot for sanity in place by practicing ongoing forgiveness until it becomes automatic; this may take a long time, so be patient!
If you’re not sure which ballot checkbox is checked (which thought system you are voting for) at any moment, just ask yourself these “reality check” questions at any time:
“How do you feel? Is peace in your awareness? Are you certain which way you go?” (ACIM, T-23.II.22:8-10)