Why We Need to Be Right

"Defenselessness is strength... Defensiveness is weakness." -- A Course in Miracles, Workbook 153, 6:1 and 7:1

"Without illusions, conflict is impossible." -- A Course in Miracles, Workbook 74, 2:4

In this hall of mirrors that we call life, defensiveness is a way of life. Whether we see it on the news, in talk shows, movies, health and fitness, sports, homeland security, or just the kids' elementary school, we all agree that we are the good guys and we have to protect ourselves and those we care about from the bad guys.

In our personal dream, the story is the same. We are the hero of our dream. I find that even as I study ACIM and meditate, even when I know better, I still find myself doing subtle and not-so-subtle things to cast myself in a good light, to be seen as 'right.' I don't think this ever goes away, so long as we think we're in this dream.

How does needing to be right show up in your life? We don't always recognize it immediately, but if you are practicing self-inquiry you will notice sooner or later. That's when we let go of needing to be right and forgive... we let it go. We let our perception be healed by the Light of the Holy Spirit that is always in us, the sane part of us that is our True Self.

Needing to be right spiritually can get even trickier than the everyday stuff. Wanting to be seen as taking the high road, wanting to be seen as knowing and 'getting' it. Wanting to 'be' anything at all. That's the tricky part. Is being blissed out better than being angry? Both are illusions. These are subtle spiritual judgments we make, and that's when we're lost again. As ACIM tells us, "How can you judge? Your judgment rests upon the witness that your senses offer you. Yet witness never falser was than this." Whether we're judging with our physical senses or our emotional ones, they are all made up, all projections of what we want to be true in the moment. This is hard to see on our own, which is why we need to remember to continually give our perceptions to the Truth in us, to be corrected.

One of my teachers told me that any phenomenon that comes and goes is not It. Who We Are, Our True Self does not come and go. Awareness of Self is the very Ground of Being, and is Omnipresent and Ever-Present. Our emotional selves are just as judgmental and just as false as our physical selves. Does this mean we're wrong or bad when we lose it? Nope, it just means we have forgotten Who We Are. And so we suffer.

Anytime anything arouses even the slightest twinge of annoyance, ACIM says it is no different than the deepest rage. It's simply politely masked in socially acceptable and sneaky ways. I don't know about the rest of you, but I get annoyed daily. And I am so glad. Because every time I get to uncover another lie, another way I have invested power and life in what is simply my own projection. I get to come that much closer to healing the separation that I have dreamed exists between me and my True Self, the Beloved that We Are.

So bring it on! Forgiveness is my only function here. There is no right and wrong in Truth. Our egos may need to be right to perpetuate themselves, but our True Self IS ItSelf. And to BE as God created Us is all we ever really need.

"You have often been urged to refrain from judging, not because it is a right to be withheld from you. You cannot judge. You merely can believe the ego's judgments, all of which are false... This thing it speaks of, and would defend, it tells you is yourself. And you believe this is so with stubborn certainty... Hear not its voice." -- A Course in Miracles, Workbook 151, 4:2-4, 5:1-2, and 6:1