Neutrality

"Standing in the middle of the road is very dangerous; you get knocked down by the traffic from both sides." -- Margaret Thatcher

"If God be for us, who can be against us?" -- The Bible; Romans 8:31

There are many myths about neutrality in this world. We see neutrality on the one hand as a wise perspective, a wait-and-see attitude. On the other hand, we see sitting on the fence as a form of voyeurism, watching other people do stuff while sitting in detached judgment on it all. Of course, neither our myths about neutrality nor the act itself has any meaning. It's all made up.

"I have no neutral thoughts. I see no neutral things." (A Course in Miracles; Workbook 16, 17) We are always generating illusions with our thoughts or inquiring to dissolve them. And what we see in the world around us is simply our own projection, testifying to what we think. The myth of neutrality is simply another form of self-deception. We like to look like we're not judging, to look like we're not really involved or responsible. But no matter how you look at it, inquiry will lead you to the fact that only you are responsible.

The you that is responsible is the made-up you. The false sense of an individual self that imagines it can make separate decisions and be unaffected by the world around it. The false desire that prefers the illusion of autonomy to the dissolving of its flawed little fantasy kingdom. So stop for a moment. A fictional you is responsible. A fictional you wants to be autonomous. A fictional you wants a life of your own. Yet what possible REAL effects can a fiction have?

You will have a very good laugh when you glimpse this Truth. "If God be for us, who can be against us?" Who, indeed? God is One, and All, Omnipresent and Omniscient. What we are fighting with, struggling with, and fearing is only a sense of duality, not really duality, because there is no duality. There is only Oneness in Reality. Just as no part of the One can be in conflict with any other part, no aspect of the One can remain aloof or neutral or unmoved by any other part. Same mistake! What we call neutrality is actually an illusory attempt to separate from the One. Which is impossible.

So we spend all of our time fighting with our own illusions. Even the seeming good times are consumed with the busyness of maintaining our current illusions. Whether that's a house or a pet or a relationship or a body makes little difference. The point is that God is One, and All... and what in the Allness of God could need maintenance or defense?

There is a way of living in the world that is not neutral, but is Peace incarnate. No more war with illusions. No more insistence on this way or that way. Think about it: even our restlessness and vague unease is caused by subterranean belief that we should be maintaining our illusions. There is a way of living that does not have a vested interest in any illusion. A way of being that allows all dreams to be, and yet has no investment in any of them. This is not neutrality, this is Peace. It is not neutral, it is for God, the only Reality.

You may think you find safety in appearing to be neutral... neutral in family feuds, neutral in politics, neutral in discussions with friends. There are no neutral thoughts! All you do is show your judgments loud and clear! I judge you not worthy of talking to or really listening to, I judge your opinions to be worthless, I am superior and so I will look down on all of this without engaging. Of course, when there is conflict between illusions, neither is true. But GOD IS. Right here, in the midst of whatever is occurring, GOD IS. In the friend, in the family member, in the political fray, GOD IS. Either we are remembering God or we are judging illusions and engaging in more misery. There is no neutrality.

"God is the creative principle, the Source, the activity, and the Law of our Being... and our Being is God in expression." -- Practicing the Presence by Joel Goldsmith; Page 57