"In time, with practice, you will never cease to think of Him and hear His loving Voice
guiding your footsteps into quiet ways where you will walk in true defenselessness,
for you will know that Heaven goes with you."
~ ACIM Lesson 153

QUESTION: "Is it possible, in this world, to be defenseless in ALL situations?"

ANSWER: The following article answers this question by focusing on Lesson 170 "There is no cruelty in God and none in me." It is taken from an article appearing in the Course in Miracles Wordpress Blog under the category: From The Desk of Rev Reja Joy published JUNE 2013.

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L e s s o n  170

1 No one attacks without intent to hurt. This can have no exception. When you think that you attack in self-defense, you mean that to be cruel is protection; you are safe because of cruelty. You mean that you believe to hurt another brings you freedom. And you mean that to attack is to exchange the state in which you are for something better, safer, more secure from dangerous invasion and from fear.

 2 How thoroughly insane is the idea that to defend from fear is to attack! ACIM Lesson 170

HE tells us in this lesson that “No one attacks without intent to hurt. This can have no exception.” And yet we make exceptions almost immediately.

One exception might be a situation in which we would attack someone and feel justified.  And what about ‘self defense’?  Wouldn’t we, at the very least, attack in self-defense?  How could we not? Doesn’t the god of fear tell us all that if we do not defend ourselves, we could be hurt?  Doesn’t the god of fear tell us that our only protection and security, from a dangerous invasion and from fear, is to ATTACK in retaliation? And so we defend ourselves  to keep what we have; or we attack another to get what we think we want. How could we possibly think that we could gain at another’s loss?

A VISITOR to our ACIM Study Group recently shared that an incident had occurred in his home ACIM Study Group.  He described the facilitator of his Group as very non-confrontational and accepting. And he described his group demographics as all women, except himself, who were over 60 years old.

A man, an INTRUDER, joined their group and announced that he was going to be taking over. Our VISITOR told us that this man hinted that he had a weapon.

That’s when our VISITOR made the decision, based on the inability of the Facilitator to protect the group and based on the vulnerability of the elderly women in the group, to proceed with a preemptive strike.  He told the man that he was leaving and escorted him out by force. As he did so, someone had already called the police and the police took the INTRUDER away.

Our VISITOR reasoned that he was merely acting out the ‘dream’ of the INTRUDER. The INTRUDER was ‘dreaming’ that it was his job to attack the group and cause a reaction.  And so our VISITOR was just giving him what he wanted. When he mentioned this, our group exploded in laughter! It seemed like a plausible scenario.  The INTRUDER ‘wanted’ to go to jail!

And yet is there another way to see this?

This situation in the ACIM Study Group is a symbol for the many times we ‘see’ attack as real and our defense as justified. We judge what is real for us in any situation and then respond. HE tells us in ACIM Ch 3, VIII:

When we make a judgment from the belief that we can choose what is real in any situation, we are placing our belief in the unreal. “Nothing real can be threatened and nothing unreal exists”, from the ACIM Introduction. We separate ourselves into separate ‘bodies’ and then protect these bodies by mitigating a perceived attack.

In our Lessons we are being taught to ‘see’ holiness in everything. We are taught in Lesson 37: “My holiness blesses the world.” In this lesson HE tells us:

Amazing!!!  No one loses. Nothing is taken from anyone. Blessing everything and everyone with our holiness, with our sight of wholeness and perfection, is our salvation. That is why our brother is our Saviour! When we bless him, no matter what he is choosing to ‘act out’ from his nightmare, we teach the meaning of love.

"Your holiness blesses him by asking nothing of him. Those who see themselves as whole make no demands." ACIM Lesson 37

How could we possibly ‘bless’ this INTRUDER, in this situation? He tells us “Your holiness blesses him by asking nothing of him.” In any attack, there is an opponent which is needed for the attack to have meaning. When there is no opposition, the attack fails. It returns to the nothingness from which it came. Its seeming ‘reality’ comes only from the defense it engenders. Without a ‘defense’ it becomes impotent.

He tells us you teach the world by “your quiet recognition that in your holiness are all things blessed.” ACIM Lesson 37  What could occur that does not warrant our quiet recognition of this holiness in all things?

Yet we may wonder how could we ever see that this seeming attack warrants our quiet recognition of ‘holiness’. If we do that, won’t we open ourselves to pain and suffering? Without our defense, wouldn’t there be chaos? And He tells us without the ego all would be Love.

He also tells us that in our defenselessness our safety lies. Attack and defense are two sides of a dance that has been re-enacted over and over since the beginning of our illusory time.

He also tells us that “If I defend myself I am attacked.” ACIM Lesson 37 The situation becomes an ATTACK only if and when I DEFEND myself.

I shared the following in my article, “Avatar and ACIM”:

In the book, “Creating Miracles” written by Carolyn Miller, PhD, there are many examples of those who were in the face of imminent death and yet in that moment they experienced a clarity and a peace and a sense of unconditional love and wholeness that encompassed everything, including the perpetrator. In that moment they became ONE with the perpetrator. The would-be murderer knew that they had been forgiven and released of their guilt and in that Holy Instant they were transformed.

“The strength of right perception is so great that it brings the mind INTO accord with His because it yields to His pull which is in all of you.” OrEd.Tx.5.36

So, how could this ‘situation’ have been different?

A man comes into the group and announces he is taking over control. The reaction by those who are in the group is one of surprise and then perhaps gaiety! “Welcome dear one!! We’ve been awaiting your arrival.  How blessed we are to have you with us today.” The group knows themselves, and the INTRUDER, as whole and complete and still as God created them and from this knowledge of their wholeness they make no demands.” Out of their Knowledge of Who they are and Who the INTRUDER is, they know they need only extend their love.

The INTRUDER is totally caught off guard and then the sinlessness in him recognizes the love that is being shared with him! He opens to the shared recognition of his wholeness and his light. Isn’t that what we all want as well? Isn’t that what we are all searching for?

"You have no idea of the tremendous release and deep peace that comes from meeting yourselves and your brothers totally without judgment.

When you recognize what you and your brothers are, you will realize that judging them in any way is without meaning.

In fact, their meaning is lost to you precisely because you are judging them.

In the presence of knowledge, all judgment is automatically suspended, and this is the process which enables recognition to replace perception." ACIM CH 3 VIII paragraph 63

And so we lovingly bless this brother by seeing what is REAL in him. We need nothing from him. He need not be different.  From our Wholeness we see him as Whole. We see him with the eyes of Love. And as we see him, we see ourselves. This is why we came here. This is our salvation.

"Your holiness is the salvation of the world. It lets you teach the world that it is one with you, not by preaching to it, not by telling it anything, but merely by your quiet recognition that in your holiness are all things blessed, along with you." ACIM Lesson 37