How you treat anyone is how you treat everyone. Perhaps not in action, but certainly in spirit. It's not what we do that matters, but what we are.
Harboring an unkind thought makes us unkind. It's an all or nothing principle. Real love encompasses all, excluding no one and no-thing.
But the path to genuine empathy requires not that we become saintly souls. We already are. We simply need to look at all the barriers we've erected between the name & body entity we present to the world and our true self.
Outer love flows from inner peace. Any untoward thoughts are merely manifestations of a belief in separation. We are separate from one another. We are separate from oneness. And we are separate from source.
But the key word in this limiting doctrine is belief. In truth there is no separation. As we read in A Course in Miracles:
In my own mind, behind all my insane thoughts of separation and attack, is the knowledge that all is one forever. (W-pI.56.5)
Mind is the realm of reality. Specifically the aspect of mind that in each moment is choosing a belief system in which to devote faith. Siding with the wrong-mind of separation is the cause of all suffering. Nothing else.
But making a different choice, for the right-mind of peace, instantly transforms anyone into everyone. A “Oneness joined as One” as the course so lovingly depicts. All pain dissolves into wondrous peace.
Join me in Thursday’s class where we’ll explore practices for returning awareness to the mind so that we can make the only choice that truly matters. I look forward to seeing you then.