A newspaper is better than a magazine. A seashore is a better place than a street. At first, it is better to run than to walk. You may have to try several times. It takes some skill, but it is easy to learn. Even young children can enjoy it. Once successful, complications are minimal. Birds seldom get too close. Rain, however, soaks in very fast. Too many people doing the same thing can also cause problems. One needs lots of room. If there are no complications, it can be very peaceful. A rock will serve as an anchor. If things break loose from it, however, you will not get a second chance.
This makes no sense.
Until it does.
Once I tell you what the paragraph above describes, you will understand it immediately. You will have an aha moment of clarity as your perspective shifts.
Re-read the first paragraph knowing that what it describes is … a kite.
Feel how your sense of confusion and meaninglessness shift to certainty. It now makes perfect sense.
This little thought experiment is from neurologist Robert Burton’s book On Being Certain. In it, Burton explores the nature of belief and how we process uncertainty.
Now consider the world in which we live.
War, famine, and poverty are relatively common. Strife and division reign supreme amongst adherents of political parties. Discrimination and injustice pervade all aspects of society. Loneliness, sadness, anxiety, fear, guilt, and shame are often experienced.
How could God have created a realm in which sorrow abounds with its inhabitants driven by an insatiable, mostly selfish desire to avoid pain and find pleasure?
This makes no sense.
Until it does.
The world was made as a way to ensure the continued existence of the ego. And what is the ego? A belief system of separation, sin, self-hood, and suffering.
And once we subscribe to the ego’s tenets, we experience exactly that.
Of course things here were made to break and eventually die. Of course people will fight against one another - if not physically, then certainly with their thoughts. Of course we will spend most of our days wishing things were better.
Consider this poignant line from A Course in Miracles:
The world [is a place] where starved and thirsty creatures come to die. (W-pII.13.5)
Yet this need not be our experience.
The world is only this way while we choose the ego mind. But we are free to make a different choice - for the mind of spirit instead of the ego - wherein we encounter a completely different world.
Since all our perceptions are based on which thought system we hold dear, a changed mind results in a transformed experience. Where everything makes sense and pain is no more.
Join me in Thursday’s class where we’ll explore the senseless nature of our painful world and how we can practice choosing a different thought system and experience a pervasive sense of peace. I look forward to seeing you then.