In-Joy-ment or Distraction

"Distraction: 1. The state of being distracted; especially mental confusion. 2. Something that distracts; especially amusement." -- Merriam-Webster Dictionary Online

"You no more recognize what is painful than you know what is joyful, and are in fact very apt to confuse the two. The Holy Spirit's main function is to teach you to tell them apart. What is joyful to you is painful to the ego, and as long as you are in doubt about what you are, you will be confused about joy and pain. This confusion is the cause of the whole idea of sacrifice. Obey the Holy Spirit, and you will be giving up the ego. But you will be sacrificing nothing. On the contrary, you will be gaining everything. If you believed this, there would be no conflict... His Voice will teach you to distinguish between pain and joy, and will lead you out of the confusion you have made. There is no confusion in the mind of a Son of God, whose will must be the Will of the Father, because the Father's Will IS His Son... If you ARE God's Will and do not accept His Will, you are denying Joy. The miracle is therefore a lesson in what Joy is." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 7, Section X, 3:4-11, 7:3-4, 8:3-4

"Question: What is error? Answer: Error is a supposition that pleasure and pain, that intelligence, substance, life, are existent in matter." -- Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy; Page 472, Lines 13-15

I had an interesting conversation with an old friend this morning that brought home to me how very true the above passage from A Course in Miracles is for all of us. We simply don't know the difference between pleasure and pain from our human perspective. What the limited human enjoys are always idols, meant to distract and confuse. As ACIM puts it: "Idols are limits." Idols are false gods that we attempt to give spiritual power and reality by projecting images and stories onto them, and they are all without exception designed to circumscribe our world in limiting and familiar ways. Our idols are people, pets, food, vitamins, medicine, exercise, entertainment, friends, work, hobbies, toys, heroes (including so-called spiritual heroes or heroines), desires, goals, spiritual paths, sex, money, debt, grudges, guilt, and the whole gamut of preoccupying emotions (and their objects) that make up our world. Wherever we ascribe life, truth, power, intelligence, or meaning to form, we can be sure we have created an idol.

We could also say that idols are distractions. From the above definitions of distraction we see that they are synonymous with mental confusion. They are meant to entertain and divert our attention and keep us 'confused' about reality. Hmmm... divert our attention from what? Obviously there is no need to distract ourselves from what is NOT real. So we must actually be hiding from the Truth.

We do not know the difference between joy and pain because we don't want to know. We run and hide from what is True and Real... and endlessly give our minds and hearts and attention to what is completely false. We say we love God, but what we love are our own idols, our own distractions. We think they bring us pleasure, but it's hard to maintain that lie when we're honest about our suffering. What they bring is the continued illusion of separation from Self. And it is this, and only this, that causes pain. The intolerable pain of Self-betrayal.

But Son of God, you have not betrayed yourself except in dreams. The moment you see that no matter how hard you have tried, you could never give away your power to idols... the moment you glimpse this Truth, you are free. You cannot give away the Power of God. It is inherent in Being. What you can and have done is deny it through the false enjoyment of distraction, endless distraction. But never have you lost it.

You say you are confused, that you are guilty, that you are wrong, that you are helpless, that you are penniless, that you are a victim, that you can't help yourself, that they need you, that you need them, that you need to do this, that they need to do that... you say the story of your personal idols in a million different ways. And never will the story change until you return your Holy Mind to what is True. In-Joy-ment or distraction are the only alternatives. Ever.

"Heaven is chosen consciously. The choice cannot be made until alternatives are accurately seen and understood. All that is veiled in shadows must be raised to understanding, to be judged again, this time with Heaven's help. And all mistakes in judgment that the mind had made before are open to correction, as the Truth dismisses them as causeless. Now are they without effects. They cannot be concealed, because their nothingness is recognized. The conscious choice of Heaven is as sure as is the ending of the fear of hell, when it is raised from its protective shield of unawareness, and is brought to Light." -- A Course in Miracles; Workbook 138, 9:1-6, 10:1

"Truth and Love reign in the real man, showing that man in God's image is unfallen and eternal." -- Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy; Page 476, Lines 30-33