"Lifted Out Of Slavery!"

Sometime during the first years of the fifth century, a 16 year old Briton boy named Succat from a rich family was kidnapped by marauders from Ireland and sold to a Druid chieftain in Ireland as a slave. Throughout his six painful years of slavery he dreamed of nothing but escape and freedom. Judging by his later-life autobiography this young man, who soon became known as Patrick, prayed so constantly that he became supremely in-touch not only with the desire for physical freedom but with the deeper desire for the experience of total spiritual freedom ... and the accompanying desire to help lift all around him to freedom.

Patrick eventually escaped back to British lands, continued toward an even greater escape spiritually, and finally returned to Ireland some years later as a miracle-working priest who would bring great and wonderful freedom to the Irish people.

Maybe it's fitting as we commemorate St. Patrick this month to dedicate ourselves to following his slavery-escaping example.

Of course these days if you ask a man who is barely making ends meet, even with very hard work, he will talk about being a slave to his government. Residents of Great Britain last year worked on average over five months before Tax Freedom Day, the day when they finally got to keep something for their own families. In America, the average last year was about four months of slavery in order to pay all federal, state, and local taxes, not to mention days required to fill out forms, have automobiles inspected, etc.

Surely hard working people would volunteer to pay a few dollars for truly legitimate and beneficial government services, but with taxation NOT being voluntary and with governments spending far too much for programs that benefit him nothing (and which he may not even approve of) it's no wonder the man in the street is beginning to see himself as a slave.

Is there any hope for hard working men and women? Well, originally the Republican Party was formed in order to free the slaves in the American South. Maybe some new slave-freeing political party or political movement will come along with a slogan like "neither right nor left, but up and out!" and lead us to abolishing slavery by government. But then such a political movement probably wouldn't gain enough votes until we the people really decide to escape from slavery with the same kind of full endeavor as Patrick decided it.

But then as Patrick found out, getting in touch so deeply with our innate desire for freedom has unintended consequences. Suddenly we begin to crave a fuller experience of an even deeper freedom, our REAL freedom ... call it spiritual freedom.

Any truly advanced spiritual teacher would say the kind of slavery we have allowed governments to impose on us is piddling compared to the bondage in which we hold ourselves with our thoughts. The more we are wrapped in thinking (not to mention warped in thinking) the less we experience the joy, love, peace, abundant exuberance and life that is our true nature. Like turning a blessing against themselves, human beings have come to use their wonderful intellectual faculty to hold themselves in slavery.

We all really appreciate our intellectual faculty, as well we should. But just as Patrick was told by an inner voice when and how to escape slavery, our inner voice tells us how and when to engage and use our intellect so that ultimately everyone experiences fuller and more wonderful life and in essence we have helped lift everyone out of slavery. Our intellect only serves us properly if it is guided by our spirit, or as some say ... by our sense of life.

Usually only accomplished meditators or those who hang out with highly enlightened spiritual teachers are readily able to disengage their intellects altogether in order to experience an enormous expansion into radiant life which could truly be called escape from slavery once and for all.

So what about others? For example, what would you tell a friend or acquaintance who is really tired of pain, fear, and guilt and really craving to rise up and out of slavery?

For those who can handle Christian language ("God," "Jesus," "Holy Spirit") there is nothing that quickens the process of being lifted out of slavery more efficiently than working the lessons of A COURSE IN MIRACLES.

But not everyone can handle Christian language and not everyone is putting out such a completely desperate call for help, wouldn't you say? Maybe you have friends or acquaintances who are asking for help, but clearly are not ready to jump into a full endeavor spiritual opening. Perhaps they think of themselves as atheists, or agnostics, or religiously disinterested, even turned off because of some unpleasant experience with a past church or religion.

In such situations, you might recommend the lessons of COURSE IN MIRACULOUS RELATIONSHIPS since everybody can benefit from improved relationships in all areas of life. This non-religious language course, ostensibly about relationships, comes from the same source as A Course in Miracles and for some people could be a stepping stone to something deeper, such as eventually discovering the value of greater spiritual opening.

Also for those who are interested in creating political freedom and a society which does not stifle man's spirit and enterprise in the name of false definitions of equality and security, the same source has given us COURSE IN POLITICAL MIRACLES, the lessons of which serve to open an individual enough spiritually to really be successful helping to lift an entire society out of slavery.

Of course there is always the chance that your friend or acquaintance who is putting out a call for help is only wanting a quick Band-Aid and has no interest at this time in becoming involved with a series of lessons, even if it's only one lesson a week. Isn't there some exercise you can suggest that can be used occasionally while soaking in a bath tub or sitting at a bus stop?

Well, for fun let's use St. Patrick's example. St. Patrick used a three-leafed shamrock as his teaching device.

Tell your friend or acquaintance that pain, fear, guilt, or any other feeling of self-imposed slavery can be "shamrocked." It's easy ... just visualize a shamrock, then focus on each leaf in turn and what each leaf symbolizes.

The first leaf stands for seeing things differently. Regarding the apparent source of pain ask: "How can I see this situation differently? I really want a whole new way of looking at this, so show me this situation in a whole new light."

The second leaf is a reminder to count the blessings in everything. "If I were to see good in this situation what would it be? I want to enumerate and think about all the good I can see that is resulting because of this."

The third leaf represents paying attention to opportunity. "What can I learn from this situation? What can I gain as a result of this situation? What direction to take does this situation point out for me that promises to be beneficial?"

Working the three leaves like this, called "shamrocking," can quickly turn a negative experience into a positive experience. It's not like becoming totally enlightened on the fast track, but it relieves pain and shows one a glimpse of what is possible. It gives people a kindergarten-level device for freeing themselves from self-imposed slavery.

Whether your friends or acquaintances are taking kindergarten steps, or intermediate steps, or seemingly jumping off a cliff into A Course in Miracles, given enough time everyone will be lifted all the way out of slavery. As the introduction to A Course in Miracles says: "This is a course in miracles. It is a required course. Only the time you take it is voluntary. Free will does not mean that you can establish the curriculum. It means only that you can elect what you want to take at a given time."

But even though the final result is inevitable, each and every step along the way will involve a deeper, and then deeper, and then deeper decision to be lifted up out of slavery, wouldn't you think?

Here is how A Course in Miracles puts it: "...(ultimately) you must choose between total freedom and total bondage, for there are no alternatives but these. You have tried many compromises in the attempt to avoid recognizing the one decision you must make. And yet it is the recognition of the decision, just as it is, that makes the decision so easy."

As moderns who have heard a bit about the workings of subatomic physics, we know that once we've really made the decision the entire universe rearranges itself to lift us out of slavery. But Irish brothers and sisters of another day and age almost surely didn't know anything about subatomic physics, so we can forgive them in the event they listened to St. Patrick's shamrock sermons but then went about their days secretly believing when they were lifted out of slavery they were actually being lifted by a hundred million delightfully magical leprechauns and fairies.

Anyhow, whoever or whatever does the lifting, there actually is joyful delight to be experienced when we repeat as a mantra throughout our day: