In past years as St. Valentine's Day has approached we've attempted to inspire our readers to extend love magnificently, to express love to each other as never before, and even to understand how Valentine's Day evolved among ancient Roman Christians teaching the incredibly wonderful feeling which comes with giving.
But recent years have seemingly not presented to our love the same kind of challenge as this year. This year, unless a miracle happens soon, the happy sounds of children and sweethearts sharing St. Valentine's Day love could very well be drowned out within a few days or weeks by news coverage of bomb explosions and battlefield movements. The flow of love interrupted by the glow of war. The give and take of Venus and Mars. The human condition.
Equal numbers of Republican and Democratic leaders justify war by claiming, "As much as we prefer not to, we have no choice but to go after the bad guys because they have broken the law and continue to show no remorse!"
We see the same justification being used within the Course in Miracles movement.
Endeavor Academy has said, "The words of Jesus are meant to be distributed far and wide ... freely as Jesus gives!"
Meanwhile, ACIM copyright holders have always responded seemingly using the same doctrine the Bush administration uses: "Go to war against them! Neutralize them! Teach them they cannot mess with us!"
Surface appearances tempt us to wonder what ever happened to the old idea "love conquers all." But we know not to judge by surface appearances because nothing is ever as it seems.
In the case of terrorists and terror-supporting rogue states, Christians might answer the "love conquers all" question by saying something like: "Maybe we just don't have enough people praying for perceived enemies. Maybe it would have taken 300 million people praying intensely for Saddam Hussein to open his heart, or for Osama bin Laden and his followers to open their hearts ... we just don't have enough prayers."
In the case of the ACIM copyright, who can say what's going on? It would seem that in a true ACIM world Kenneth Wapnick and Endeavor Academy teachers would be sitting in the same hot tub sipping fruit smoothies and enjoying each other's jokes and laughter, wouldn't you think? After all, what does ACIM teach about the first to surrender?
Those of us who have done our best to surrender to A Course in Miracles know that the Holy Spirit either inspires all setups or moves quickly to transform ego-made setups into a holy adventure. Just as almost all students and teachers of ACIM have realized the Holy Spirit is at work mightily in the ACIM court case, we also enjoy the reminder that holy angels have been active in every war that has ever been fought, not only to relieve pain and suffering and bring an end to attack in general, but to eventually lift the entire earth to peace, joy, love, and prosperity.
Hindus believe Lord Krishna (representing the Immortal Christ himself) was a battle charioteer!
In the timeless spiritual teaching device Bhagavad Gita (which some might call an ancient version of ACIM), Krishna is a cousin to both the Kauravas and the Pandavas (who are about to war) and agrees to be Arjuna's charioteer. Since the war is between cousins, there are relatives and friends on both sides fighting each other. As soon as the two sides have faced off on the battlefield Arjuna laments that he just cannot fight his kinsmen over what amounts to earthly pleasures.
Arjuna cries to Krishna: "Seeing these kinsmen, O Krishna, arrayed and desirous to fight, my limbs droop down, and my mouth is dried up. A tremor comes on my body and my hairs stand on end.
"The Gandiva slips from my hand, and my skin is intensely burning. I am also unable to stand and my mind is whirling round, as it were.
"And, O Kesava, I see omens foreboding evil. Nor do I see any good from killing my kinsmen in battle.
"I desire not victory, O Krsna, nor kingdom, nor pleasures. Of what avail is dominion to us, O Govinda? Of what avail are pleasures and even life?
"They for whose sake dominion, enjoyments and pleasures are sought by us are here standing, having staked their life and wealth: teachers, fathers, sons as well as grandfathers; maternal uncles, father-in-law, grandsons, brothers-in-law as also (other) relatives.
"These, O slayer of Madhu, I do not wish to kill, though they kill me, even for the sake of dominion over the three worlds: how much less, for the sake of the earth!"
Then Krishna explains to Arjuna why he should fight, an explanation that not only takes up much of the Bhagavad Gita, but also spells out the conditions of spiritual enlightenment ... including not closing down one's heart and soul just because one is fighting a war. It takes a while for Krishna to get through to Arjuna but eventually Arjuna becomes convinced and he fights the war and wins.
God uses the context of the Bhagavad Gita to talk to human consciousness. If limited human viewpoint is relinquished, allowing all your heart to survive, only love is the way ... even in the middle of battle.
The Bhagavad Gita shows the true meaning of Love, which far transcends earthly perceptions.
The Blessed Lord said: "When a man, satisfied in the Self alone by himself, completely casts off all the desires of the mind, then is he said to be one of steady knowledge.
"He whose heart is not distressed in calamities, from whom all longing for pleasures has departed, who is free from attachment, fear and wrath, he is called a sage, a man of steady knowledge.
"Whoso, without attachment anywhere, on meeting with anything good or bad, not hates, his knowledge becomes steady."
Perhaps this very Valentine's season someone who has recently found A Course in Miracles might ask us if the Course takes a position pro or con regarding war. We can merely ask such a person if he or she would be willing to read the Bhagavad Gita.
Fearing war is not love, for fears are the ego’s weapons of mass destruction in the hopes of destroying love. Resisting war is not love, because resistance is the ego’s fearful attempt to hold onto whatever weapons it can, rather than surrender and disarm. Hating war is not love, because hate is the ego’s screaming panic over the imagined possibility of being rendered impotent.
Love is all too aware that war is the human condition on earth. If one were to look through human eyes, war would be seen constantly everywhere. Our newscaster is fond of saying, "There is war every day out on the Interstate," but that's just the obvious. All disagreements, all judgments, all desires for others to come over to some particular point of view ... all are war. The ego is in a war to the finish with the spirit, or so it thinks.
The Bhagavad Gita teaches that war cannot be avoided in earth because earth is an illusion intended to prove that war is real. The experience of heaven, on the other hand, is the result of surrendering to the nature of earth ... not hating, not fearing, not resisting ... but always choosing peace even if one is called upon to appear to make war.
The old hippie slogan "make love, not war," becomes in the Bhagavad Gita and in A Course in Miracles "stay in love, war is not real."
Inner peace does not require conditions of outer serenity. A monk who finds peace in his Himalayan cave but then goes down into the city only to find no peace at all is not a very advanced Teacher of God. But one whose heart is truly open, who is truly established in love, has no resistance to wars all around and even no problem if called to fight a war.
The truly loving are in love ... no matter what.
So it's not every St. Valentine's Day that gives our love such a great challenge as the test we are being asked to pass this year, whether with respect to the ACIM court case or with respect to battle preparations in and around Iraq.
Deep down inside we want more than anything to stay open, to experience the greatest love there is.
Regarding the ACIM court case, it's pretty easy to say "thy will be done" and choose happiness with results falling as they may.
Regarding Iraq, we keep our hearts open by praying for all potential combatants on both sides and all politicians on both sides and all pundits and all who protest and all who lead cheers. Whoever has to do with war we love as we would love a little child. Whoever so much as dreams of war we love as we know we are loved by God.
This St. Valentine's Day we hold our hearts more open than ever before and expand our love out to have its sometimes seemingly mysterious but always wondrous effects even in war. We see or hear of war preparations and say "Thank you, Holy Spirit! For even in this you are at work!"
We rejoice that we are making the choice to feel bigger explosions of love in our heart than any explosions of bombs in the wars of the world.
A few of our dear brothers might go so far as to find the email addresses of Iraqi citizens and send loving little Valentine Cards. After all, Muslims know as well as Christians when the heart is open. They might even join in a holiday that has always been considered Christian but could easily become universal. Love is universal and universally felt.
This month of St. Valentine's Day, we look around at a world that does not seem as peaceful as we might remember in other years, but we rejoice that nothing in the world is ever as it seems. We give thanks that despite any surface appearances which might tempt us to believe otherwise it is forever true that ...
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