As I headed home last week after our Wednesday morning prayer service, I found myself following a truck flying a brand-new 5-foot wide confederate flag. I could move into a whole discussion of the ugliness which that flag represents, but I won't, because the real issue here is not the hatred symbolized by the flag, but the hatred it evoked in me for the one flying it. The one flying the flag is, I believe, living in fear, based on ignorance which is manifesting as hatred. He "knows not" what he is doing.
When I allow myself to become so triggered by a cheap piece of colored cloth that I move into hatred as well, I cannot claim the same moral loophole. I do know.
This is what the homework assignment I closed my Sunday lesson with a couple of weeks ago looks like in real life. (This was in our 1st Q/A lesson- click here if you'd like to listen) We're cruising along, life is good, and something happens. Suddenly we're yanked down the rabbit-hole of repeating habitual behavior for a while, and then we wake up and recognize what we're doing. I don't think we can really be held responsible for what we don't know, but once we do know, I think we are obliged to adjust our behavior.
At the sight of that flag, I had shifted back into my old, habitual, negative thought. And then I remembered my Truth. Fortunately it only took me the span of a mile or so to recognize what I was doing. But that's not the end; that's when the work really begins, because even though I remembered, I was still very, very wrapped up in my hatred. Yes, I 'knew better', and I was still completely taken over with feelings of anger and hatred. Time to do my own homework:
1. Breathe. Reconnect awareness with Source. I began finding my breath as I drove, breathing in all the way to my belly. Breathe out fully.
2. Release, affirm. "Forgetting the things that are behind, I AM..."
3. Find a point of agreement. Really?! Who am I kidding? That guy is flying a confederate flag, for goodness' sake!
3. Find a point of agreement... nope... not really possible. He probably even mistreats his dog.
3. Find a point of agreement... okay. He is passionate about his beliefs and I am passionate about my beliefs. He is using his car to express his beliefs, and I use my car to do the same thing with my "Respond With Love" and "Kindness is my religion" bumper stickers.
4. Allow this point of agreement to expand and grow until I can remember that Oneness includes him, and those who agree with him. I focus on my belief that hatred is actually a manifestation of fear. He is living in a state of fear, and my declared work is to know the Truth which sets us free from fear.
5. Do that work. Breathe, again. Align my intention, again. I claim - for both of us - the ability to live the awareness that we are not separate, that there is One Power, One Presence, and that we are each expressions of that One. Political beliefs, gender, skin color, economic status, and all other human preferences and differences have nothing to do with Truth.
We are each the temple of the indwelling Christ. When I allow my human fear to manifest as hatred and join his hatred, we all live in deeper darkness. When I release my human need to "fight" his ignorance, I am able to BE the Christ in expression at the point I AM, and radiate the Light which overcomes darkness.
Somehow in Divine Mind, I know that the Light I AM and the Light He Is recognize and greet one another in Love and kindness. I know - I have Faith - that no matter what his human self means by flying that particular flag, I can choose to use it for Good. I know that the chain of fear and hatred on earth is less strong. I know this not because he is doing anything differently, but because I have cleared a few more of the cobwebs in the darkness of my own mind.
Blessings and Namaskar (the Divine within me blesses and honors the Divine within you)
