
As Course In Miracles students we know better than to project
our ego darkness on others… right?
Stubbornness, mulishness; pigheadedness and obstinacy: My thesaurus has numerous adjectives for what holding your knee on someone’s neck for over 9 minutes describes. Police Officer Derek Chauvin was unable to be swayed by onlookers in Minneapolis, because he was certain he was right and no one was going to tell him what to do. He demonstrated what it means to be right rather than happy. He could have chosen differently.
I am sure he is sorry on some level. Maybe at least for being found guilty but we may never know. I’m sorry for what he did and for people and children of the world to witness that horror. Evidentially it was inevitable and time for the world to know the truth. He showed the incorrigible treatment of a black brother and the tremendous fear of authority the police present not only to them but to everyone. He also showed us the stubborn hot anger along with zero ability to step back take a breath and consider what he was doing. I wonder how he would have treated a white brother?
But after reflection and being conscious of my projections, I ask myself if I have I been angered to the point of being stupid? Am I projecting my own unregulated anger and dislike onto him? Have I ever done a stupid thing in the name of thinking I’m right. Like the erratic driver on the Interstate, weaving in and out of traffic, endangering others. Should I chase him and wave my fist in anger? Have I ever driven erratically? Sure but I’m not proud of it.
Have I ever pinned someone down and placed my knee on their neck? That is an extreme question to ask but we need to understand that what others do; we also are capable of, maybe not that extreme, but anger is anger, hate is hate. We see in others, what we believe we are incapable of and it’s called projection. It was a horrid thing but the ego part of our mind can never be trusted. When in anger we will not do the right thing. We need to take our personal temperature. Am I upset? It is up to me to change my mind to calm down and choose peace or at least start to approach the doorway to it. Consciously ask: Do I like how I feel? If Chauvin could have asked that and allowed himself a moment of insight, he could have changed his life and saved the life of George Floyd.
Stubbornness is a wonderful thing to change and stubbornness is always of the ego, the false mind. I know policing must be hard and they are trained to react quickly. Parents are actually in that position from time to time. We have rules in society of right and wrong; ethics; stupidly out of control. A mind can be calmed when reason; love and mercy are considered: Do I like how I feel? He had plenty of time to change his mind, nine minutes of it. When is enough, enough? Chauvin showed us what happens when the ego is in charge of a locked dungeon trapped mind.
As students of the Course we are asked to give up.
When we judge we separate ourselves from others and really, it is like holding a knee on their neck. We trap them with our mind, our thoughts. We limit others by our thoughts when we could offer acceptance instead. We also trap ourselves because what we see, we also have. It is our ego or false self that is “seeing” and not the Holy Mind we share with everyone.
The amazing thing about this “dream” is that the entire world watched and knew what Chauvin did was horribly wrong. The goodness and innate ethics imbedded in our soul (thank God) knew what was right. By looking at his pigheadedness i.e. error, we can see our own and choose another way. I am hopeful because it means the many versions of the Golden Rule are alive and well and working in the world. Yay for Jesus….Yay for God!!!
You are a Holy Son of God; Chauvin is a Holy Son of God; George Floyd is a Holy Son of God, and now in a place where there is no death. We are all innocent in the eyes of God, we are on our way Home, it is guaranteed.
You are there… on this tree! Which blossom are you?
The Truth is: You are as innocent as the lovely blossoms on this tree. You are an “innocent” who has come to learn lessons; now willing to look at the false ego with Jesus; holding his hand; feeling loved and waiting… waiting for the voice of reason and solace and refusing to judge. Judgment would never come from Jesus.
Your chosen home is on the other side, beyond the veil. ²It has been carefully prepared for you, and it is ready to receive you now. ³You will not see it with the body’s eyes. ⁴Yet all you need you have. ⁵Your home has called to you since time began, nor have you ever failed entirely to hear. ⁶You heard, but knew not how to look, nor where. ⁷And now you know. ⁸In you the knowledge lies, ready to be unveiled and freed from all the terror that kept it hidden. ⁹There is no fear in love. (ACIM, T-20.II.8:1-9)