Can We Use Even This? - 9th November 2016

You know, there's a presidential race that is on, so Donald Trump, he won. Yeah, so he won. The results were there today, this morning, by a margin, by a big margin. Yes, it was not even in the end; I don't feel it was so close also. So then, most messages I got were the ones that were upset about this. And I can understand, I can understand given all the statements he's made and all the things he said. I can understand where the feeling of being upset must be coming from. But can we use even this? Even this situation as an opportunity to check? Because this, see, openness—we keep talking about it, but when it comes and these kind of things come, can we really be open? It doesn't mean that we have to like it. It doesn't mean that we have to show our support in some way. But just, are we open to the possibility that anything can happen in this life? Are we open to the possibility that we cannot predict what tomorrow will be?

And this is a very good example because all the polls, all the experts, everyone was saying that it is not going to go this way. So using all the methodologies and everything, we can be wrong. So in A Course in Miracles, it is said that when things happen that we don't like, we must look at them as if they are forgiveness opportunities, you see? But we cannot truly forgive unless first we are open. So can we look at them as openness opportunities? You see, because so much resistance can happen in these strong moments. So many concepts can happen which can tell you that 'I know what is going on, I know what is true, I know what is good, I know what must happen.' But life does not dance to these tunes, you see? And if you have seen that everything is Grace, if you're starting to see that everything is Grace, then Guruji also uses this strong term called 'acid Grace,' you see? Sometimes it can really burn.

See, so there are these moments in life, and this year seems to be these kind of moments, isn't it? With all these political events and all kinds of things happening. And again and again this year, we've been proved as humanity—or most of at least my Facebook friends have been proved over and over—that we don't know anything. It can feel like we can predict, it can feel like we know where something will go, what is good, what is going to happen, but we don't know. So all that we are attached to, you see, is being tested, is being shown to us. Can we be open and see that this is how it is? This is how it is. All our 'should have, could have, would,' you know, like the Americans say, 'should have, could have, would have' doesn't really help, isn't it? The way it is is just the way it is.

And what I'm suggesting is not some sort of passivity. It is a simple allowing even of the reactions to come from this body if they are coming, you see? So that's why I prefer to use the word openness rather than acceptance more, because although it implies similar things, sometimes in acceptance we presume that I'm speaking about some sort of a passive acceptance like sheep or something like that. No. What I'm saying is that that acceptance, that openness which is not resisting what is, is open to what is and open to allowing our actions and responses also to come from this space of non-doership or openness. And over and over, all of us are being made to become open.

Once there was this man and he was walking and he fell off the side of a cliff. As he fell off, he gasped for something and he managed to hold on to a branch of a tree on the side of the cliff. So he's hanging over there and he's shouting, 'Help! Help! Somebody help me! Is there somebody there?' Then he hears this voice, and he hears this voice which goes, 'Let go. Let go.' So he's like, 'Who's there? Who's there? Help me please!' The voice says, 'This is God.' 'God? Oh God, help me!' And the voice says, 'Let go.' He says, 'Let go? I can't let go! What are you saying, God? Please give me some other way. Please tell me something else that I can do.' And the voice says, 'Let go.' Then he keeps begging and praying for God to help and God is only saying, 'Let go.' Then for a while the man becomes quiet and dejected. He's hanging from there, all the fingers start to burn, hands start to burn. Then he makes one last try: 'Help! Is there somebody else up there?' And a voice says, 'Yes, I'm here.' He says, 'Who is this?' The voice says, 'God.' The man says, 'Is there anybody else up there?'