3 questions to save the world

Want to save the world? Go within ... and without

Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash

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I woke up this morning full of grievances. My thoughts swirled about who is to blame for the state of the world and what needs to change to make it better.

"If they hadn't pardoned Nixon back in the day and prosecuted him for his crimes instead, then we wouldn't have a would-be tin-pot dictator in the office right now," I fumed inside. "If that worthless Attorney General had started his prosecution of Trump earlier, he'd be in jail instead of befouling the Oval Office and staging a silent coup on the government."

On and on it went. "If only …" this and "If only …" that.

The truth is, I wake up every morning like that – no matter who is running the government at any given time. If you're a human being, you probably wake up the same way. We humans are grievance-making machines. Grievance, if we're honest, is our fuel most days. It's often the entire reason we get out of bed in the first place. Grievance gives us energy. It's the ego's Red Bull that fills it with the juice it needs to get out there and "change the world."

Here's the thing, though, the world outside isn't the problem. It isn't the one that needs changing. The world outside persists in making us unhappy inside because we have misunderstood this very fundamental idea.

According to Lesson 71 in A Course in Miracles, this misunderstanding persists because we are following the wrong plan for salvation. We are following the ego's plan, which, as A Course says, "centers on grievance."

Our ego tells us, "That if someone else spoke or acted differently, if some external circumstance or event were changed, you would be saved. Thus, the source of salvation is constantly perceived as outside yourself. Each grievance you hold is a declaration and an assertion in which you believe that says, 'If this were different, I would be saved.' The change of mind which is necessary for salvation is thus demanded of everyone and everything except yourself."

This is the crux of it all. We insist on everything in the world changing, except us. Our ego convinces us that changing the world outside of ourselves is easy. It's so easy that it has a million ideas about how to go about doing it. The catch, as A Course tells us, is this: "Any perceived plan of salvation is acceptable (to the ego), provided that it will not work." The ego wants us to keep going round and round – blaming everything and everyone (except ourselves) for how the world is screwed up. The ego convinces us that next time will be different if we manipulate the world around us. Vote for somebody else. Protest the current regime. Work for change. While all of these are good to do, we must remember that the ego's motto is, "Seek but do not find." That means nothing the ego suggests we do or think will ultimately bring us peace or happiness. Finding eternal peace and happiness is always an inside job.

But we resist, with all our might, the call to go within. We think it's some form of resignation or spiritual bypass. The truth of the matter is that we resist going within because we see changing the inner world as terribly difficult. It seems easier to overthrow a despot out here than it is to dethrone the dictatorial ego within. However, that dictator outside is merely a projection of the one you have within. If you lead an insurrection on your inner dictator, the one outside will fall all on his own. This is God's plan for salvation – and it's the only plan that is guaranteed to work.

When we think about doing our inner work, though, we often picture ourselves spending hours in meditation, studying the spiritual masters, chanting, praying or doing a lot of yoga. All of those things are helpful, but A Course tells us that the best spiritual practice to do for your inner healing and growth is to focus on the world outside of yourself – not to manipulate the circumstances to benefit you or make you happier in the short term. That's the ego's plan for salvation. No, this is a call to live into our spiritual function in this world, which, A Course says, is to become wholly helpful.

The truth is, none of us achieves enlightenment or salvation on our own. There is only one of us here, that's true, but until we can recognize ourselves in others and recognize the holiness we all share, we can't achieve our own salvation. We either go together or none of us goes at all. This is why our inner spiritual growth depends on, as Course teacher Sean Reagan says, "giving attention to the other, to recognize them and respond to them as kindly as possible. Doing so makes us happy, and, in our happiness, we realize that we've been wrong about suffering. We thought separation was the way, but it wasn't. Unity is the way; showing up for relationship is the way."

How is this possible? Lesson 71 offers us the tools in the form of three questions that we are instructed to ask the Universe every morning:

"What would you have me do? Where would you have me go? What would you have me say and to whom?"

This is our plea to the Universe to use us, to make us wholly helpful. It's something our ego resists because it knows that if we ask these questions with an open heart, we're going to find ourselves in some challenging situations. We're going to find ourselves talking with people with whom we may already have a grievance. We may find ourselves in uncomfortable conversations where we want to argue and close our hearts to someone else.

The key to being wholly helpful, A Course says, is to realize if we stay open, no matter how difficult the situation, we are invulnerable at this point because we are no longer protecting our egos. Whenever we get upset or close our hearts to someone else, that's when we know we're in our ego, which can be hurt. But, in Reality, nothing can hurt us – nothing can damage that eternal love, peace and joy that we ARE. We cannot be offended, we cannot get angry, we cannot form or hold a grievance when we are determined to be wholly helpful.

This, then, is the key to happiness – to remain open-hearted at all times. How many of us can do that? These questions can help us by being willing to stay open no matter where we go, no matter what we do and no matter what we say and to whom. What we're doing is our actual function in this world. We all have vocations and jobs that we do in the world, but keeping our hearts open is our actual function. It's what we're here to learn.

As A Course says in Chapter 16, "Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it." Grievances, whether they feel small or enormous, are the barriers to love.

When we remove our grievances – when we keep our hearts open, no matter what – we welcome more love into our hearts. Once we have more love in our hearts, all we project out into the world is more love.

This is how the dictators outside of us fall all on their own. The most revolutionary act you can do in a time of fear, loathing, and dictatorship is to remove all of your barriers to love so that you can realize that you already have love within because since you were created by love, you ARE love. The ego is the source of all of our anger, greed, outrage, selfishness and fear. We overthrow its reign of inner terror by remembering who we are – LOVE walking around in a body. We also must remember that if we are LOVE in the flesh, then so is everyone else, maybe especially those we think are responsible for ruining the world.

This is why these three questions send us out into the world as a way to do our inner work. We use our interactions with the world around us to remind ourselves that there is no separation between us – we are all one. We are all LOVE walking around in flesh suits. We've just forgotten who we are and why we're here.

Several lessons after this one, we come upon what I think is the hardest one for us to learn – everyone is our savior, maybe especially the ones you hate and blame the most. Lesson 78 asks us to think about these people and to review our grievances against them. Think about their faults, the difficulties they've caused, the neglect they've expressed and the small and large harm we perceive they have inflicted upon us.

Then, A Course says, ask the Universe to show you the truth about this person – that they too are a child of God – that they, just like us, are LOVE incarnate, even if their unconscious actions are doing great evil or causing harm and suffering. We are specifically asked to see this person as our savior.

And, if you're like me, you rolled your eyes and laughed at that idea. How can that person, who I see as causing great evil and harm in the world, be MY savior? This is why: If you can remain open-hearted even as you think about this person your ego hates with a white-hot passion, then you will know lasting joy, peace, and happiness.

That doesn't mean you don't work to mitigate the suffering caused by their actions. It doesn't mean you turn a blind eye to the damage they do in the world.

It means that you understand they have forgotten who they are, and they are your "savior" by helping you to remember who you are. It means that you give up your grievances against them because you don't want the hatred you see in them to be in your heart toward them. Your hatred for them is the only barrier stopping you from loving them.

A Course says you can have a grievance or you can have a miracle, but you can't have both. If you can stay open-hearted, even to this hated person, you will see a miracle. You will feel love come rushing into your heart for this person. You will experience a sense of joy and a feeling of happiness that never ends.

I know you can't imagine that because the grievance of hatred feels so good. It feels right and righteous. Of course, we're supposed to hate people who bring hatred and fear into the world. But reacting to that person in our own hatred and fear just creates more hatred and fear in the world. If we remove that barrier. If we give up our grievances, we will grow spiritually, which means that we will be putting more love into the world.

This hated person becomes our savior when we look at them and feel nothing but love for them. We may feel sorrow for their behavior, but if we react to them from a place of love, then we will see miracles take place. Whatever we do, whatever we say will be guided by love, and we will be more effective in mitigating the fear caused by their actions.

We don't need any more angry, greedy, outraged, selfish, or fearful people in the world. We need more people who are dedicated to the work of removing those barriers to love that our dictatorial ego says keeps us safe. This dictator isn't keeping us safe. It keeps us imprisoned in our grievances. We must let miracles replace all grievances.

We do that by remaining open and never closing our hearts to anyone. We do that by remembering that we belong to one another. We do that by remembering that we are all in this together, whether we like it or not.

Our function – to remain open no matter what – is what the Buddhists call "bodhicitta." As Buddhist author Pema Chodron writes: "Chitta means 'mind' and also 'heart' or 'attitude.' Bodhi means 'awake,' 'enlightened,' or 'completely open. Sometimes, the completely open heart and mind of bodhicitta is called the soft spot, a place as vulnerable and tender as an open wound. It is equated, in part, with our ability to love. Even the cruelest people have this soft spot. Even the most vicious animals love their offspring. As Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche put it, 'Everybody loves something, even if it’s only tortillas.'"

This is how those we other or hate can become our savior – when we remember they all love something, even if it's tortillas, money, or power. That "soft spot," though, is where we find the opening to let go of our grievances, to remove that barrier to love and awaken or bodhicitta.

Chodron agrees with A Course when she writes: "The openness and warmth of bodhicitta is, in fact, our true nature and condition."

Our true nature has no grievances. Our true nature has no ego ruling over it. Our true nature is Love, peace, joy, compassion and openness. This is an anathema to the ego, which is a grievance factory. The choice is ours, then. Do we want to keep drowning in a world of grievance, or do we want to do the hard work of walking through the world with a heart open to anyone the Universe puts in our path?

The central question Chodron says is "not how we avoid uncertainty and fear, but how we relate to discomfort." So, Chodron adds: "We can ask ourselves this question: 'Do I prefer to grow up and relate to life directly, or do I choose to live and die in fear?'"

I guarantee that if you ask yourself these three questions: "Where would you have me go? What would you have me do? What would you have me say and to whom?" you will experience discomfort that you will have to learn how to relate to as a spiritually mature human being. When that uncomfortable feeling arises, practice staying open. Practice staying curious. Practice seeing the person making you uncomfortable as your savior. They are showing you the parts of yourself that are not at peace. They are showing you the work you need to do to create peace, joy, and love within yourself. They are showing you how to save the world.

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Music for the Journey

“One” - Billy Jonas

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Inspiration for the Journey:

Keep my anger from becoming meanness.
Keep my sorrow from collapsing into self-pity.
Keep my heart soft enough to keep breaking.
Keep my anger turned towards justice, not cruelty.
Remind me that all of this, every bit of it, is for love.
Keep me fiercely kind.

—Laura Jean Truman

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About the Motley Mystic:

The Motley Mystic is an online community for people who have realized that the truth speaks with many voices. No one religion, philosophy, institution, or dogma captures the whole Truth and nothing but the Truth. No one needs to swear allegiance to one line of thought or belief to discern Truth because Love is the only thing that’s real. That’s what we explore at the Motley Mystic - all the tools and strategies we need to remove our barriers to Love and live fully as our true Divine Self.

Candace Chellew is the founder of Motley Mystic as well as Jubilee! Circle, an interfaith spiritual community in Columbia, S.C., which existed from 2010-2024. She is currently the pastor at Clayton Memorial Unitarian Universalist Church in Newberry, S.C. She is also the author of Bulletproof Faith: A Spiritual Survival Guide for Gay and Lesbian Christians, published in 2008 by Jossey-Bass. She is the founder and senior editor emeritus of Whosoever: An Online Magazine for LGBTQ People of Faith. She is also a musician and avid animal lover. She has been a student of “A Course in Miracles” since 201” and today considers herself a recovering Christian.