Day 13

Today's Lesson:

A meaningless world engenders fear.

We're so conditioned to fill in gaps with something - whether that gap is a gap of sound, of time, or of activity. Our first response to hearing silence on the other end of the phone is to fill it with talking. When we find ourselves with a few spare minutes, our tendency is to fill it with tasks. Similarly, if there is a chance that we complete an activity (like painting a picture), many of us will tweak and tweak, striving to make it perfect.

So we shouldn't be surprised that our mind fills in gaps with fearful thoughts. When you were little and were called to the principal's office, the gap is immediately filled with fearful thoughts like "What did I do wrong?" When we're adults and we're called into the boss's office, those same fears fill the gap between the call and the long walk to that office.

Our mind automatically perceives there to be an "enemy" who is "wrong" (whether that's the principal or the boss) because we naturally need something to fight against. Our ego needs to be "right" - and the easiest way to do that is to make someone or something else "wrong."

The reality is that there is no meaning in that gap, except the meaning we put there. There is really no fear in something that is meaningless. Our ego runs our lives and our ego is conditioned to fill those gaps with fearful thoughts, but if we remember that the opposite of fear is love, we really have nothing to fear in the gap.

Miracles I've noticed:

Just writing this blog brings up a lot of miracle-mindedness for me. Each morning as I write the lesson for the day, it reminds me to look for what the lesson is pointing out. In my first year of study, I think I looked more for ways to prove that the lesson was "wrong" so I could be "right," but now in my third year, it seems much more natural to find "proof" that the lesson isn't right or wrong, but that the lesson points out what works in my life.

In working with my client all week, I saw many examples of miracles like today's lesson points out. I was challenged by one person in the class whose ego was really fighting to be right. I told him that I'm a recovering perfectionist, and gave the class examples of times I fought against things and situations to be right. He could really relate to my stories. So he asked me whether there were times I still knew I was right in certain situations. I told him that I didn't believe in "right" and "wrong" anymore, but merely "what works" and "what doesn't work." He said, "so if you and I were in a car and I wanted to turn left and you wanted to turn right, you wouldn't fight me to turn the direction you wanted to? What if you knew that if I turned left, we'd drive off a cliff?" I told him I would jump out of the car before the car went off the cliff before I'd make him do it my way. And he said, "even if it meant I'd drive off the cliff? Wouldn't you be saying 'I told you so' on my way down?" And I said it would simply mean he made a different choice and had a different outcome. He was responsible for his actions.

Of course, this is a hypothetical situation and we were just using it as a dialogue topic, but I'd like to believe that is how I would act in a situation that could turn into an argument. The funny thing is - those situations just don't show up in my life anymore. I very rarely find myself in a discussion anymore because in my mind I can see that we are arguing about "right" and "wrong" and I don't have the need to be right as much. I can see it for what it really is and let it go. It has taken me 3 years of study to get here. But I do think that people can just decide instantly to see the world differently if they want to. I fought my ego for a long time until it just hit me that there must be a better way.

I'm grateful to the people in my class this past week for giving me many opportunities to use what I'm learning here in real-life situations. I'm confident that my acting beyond my ego whenever I could allowed the Spirit of love to take over. It's not as fearful as I once thought because love is the net that catches me.

Nick Smith has posted an amazing essay on Life 2.0 today called "So You Want To Be A Genius, Huh?" which will give readers a chance to think more about the stillness that either is or isn't a part of their lives - a chance to re-examine what fills in the gaps in their lives. Nick starts the post with a quote from Eckhart Tolle:

"To meet everyone and everything through stillness instead of mental noise is the greatest gift you can give to the Universe. I call it stillness, but it is a jewel with many facets: that stillness is also joy, and it is love."

It's a lengthy post, but well worth the time it takes to read and digest it.

Where do you notice the gaps? With what are you filling those gaps (or allowing them to be filled)?