“Higher is waiting.”—Tyler Perry
“If the doors of perception were cleansed everything would appear to man as it is: infinite.” -William Blake
I got a comment the other day suggesting that to simply change my thinking is not enough. I must take action.
Since ACIM Lesson 52 is a review, I thought I’d take this opportunity to share my thoughts on taking action.
I agree that taking action is important.
But only when taken from the vantage point of my higher self.
Most action is generated by the part of myself that’s strongly identified with the body, with the viewpoint I see with my human eyes. This limited self still sees bad guys and problems and can’t even begin to believe that death could actually be a more productive state of being.
It’s like standing with my nose against the pointillist painting. It looks like a bunch of dots. But when I step back and look again from a larger vantage point, from the vantage point of my Source, it becomes Georges Seurat’s “Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte.”
As this ACIM review reminds me, reality is NEVER frightening. And the only reason it could ever upset me is because I have replaced first generation reality with my illusions.
Instead of reality, I see life through my filters, through the yellow waxy buildup that stops me from seeing the light within every situation, that prevents me from seeing people as they really are—beautiful souls who want nothing but to love and give of their gifts.
When my dog Izzy was a puppy, she ran full speed ahead to every single canine she saw, wagging her tail, wanting to make a new buddy. There were no exceptions to her joy and exuberance.
This is how we would be, too, (running to every other member of the human race in joyful glee) if we hadn’t erected the filters, the yellow waxy buildup.
Every person has immense light and love inside them (no exceptions) and the only reason we cannot see it is because of the lens we laid over it. We covered it up with our beliefs and expectations, with facts that we just KNOW are true. We made a judgment and assume we know what that Republican is up to or that Democrat wants to do to destroy our freedom.
Nothing is as it appears. All we see with the limited five senses is a hologram of our beliefs and expectations. And it’s flawed and it’s getting us in trouble.
Linda from my possibility posse reminded me of an amazing man named Daryl Davis who I wrote about last year.
He’s a black musician whose early years were spent overseas in diverse classrooms. When his parents moved back to the United States, he, like most of the boys in his sixth grade class, joined Boy Scouts. One day, while marching with his troop, people started throwing rocks and sticks at him.
His first thought was, “They must not like Boy Scouts.”
At that point, his parents sat him down and had the race talk with him.
He was stunned.
“How could they not like me?” he thought. “They don’t even know me.”
Since that time, he has taken on the hobby of getting to know white supremacists and, instead of yelling at them, berating them, he sits down and asks questions. He genuinely wants to know what they think.
As he says about engaging his “enemies,” “When you are actively learning about someone else you are passively teaching them about yourself.”
In other words, he takes action from the higher viewpoint. Some activists claim he’s wasting his time talking to all these “horrible, horrible” people.
But as he likes to say, “I’ve got dozens of retired hoods and robes in my closet. How many do you have?”
So, yes, action is vital, but only when taken from the higher perspective.
Pam Grout is the author of 19 books including E-Squared, E-Cubed, Thank & Grow Rich and her new book, Art & Soul,Reloaded: A Year-Long Apprenticeship to Summon the Muses and Ignite Your Daring, Audacious, Creative Side.
