In this year’s theme on forgiveness, we will expand on Lesson #78 from A Course in Miracles which says, “Let miracles replace all grievances.”
This lesson invites us to practice forgiveness. We will do so by doing an activity called, “Taking Inventory on Your Grievances,” which will be explained in more depth later in this article.
First, allow me to define grievances. Grievances can be defined as things that we don’t like or resent about someone else. Even something as small as the way someone looks. Essentially it is anything about someone else that causes us grief or pain, whether it’s something they do or fail to do.
A recurring theme in A Course in Miracles is that we are always at cause for our own suffering and pain. Even beyond how we interpret how something happens to us, there is a certain level of the mind that is actually attracting the version of life that we experience. The world that we see is the result of our inner thoughts, they can be loving thoughts or attack thoughts. Every human being is perceiving and experiencing a movie that is of their own manifestation at a metaphysical level.
I hasten to add, that this is not about victim-blaming or suggesting that those who suffer from abuse deserve it, however, you can get free from the entanglements of pain and suffering if you are able to get in touch with the underlying patterns that may be attracting these experiences to you.
This series is about cultivating a miracle mindset, and miracles are defined as solutions to problems that seem impossible to solve. This lesson is about replacing grievances with miracles. If you have massive problems that need to be solved within your life, relationships, businesses, or teams, there may be resentment, anger, and strife in these places, which inevitably affects your mindset and stifles your ability to use your mind toward generating miracles instead to help your relationships or organization prosper. We want to harness the power to make this replacement and switch our all of grievances with miracles.
The lesson starts by saying, “Perhaps it is not yet quite clear to you that each decision that you make is one between a grievance and a miracle.” It starts in this binary way arguing that at all times, your mind is either preoccupied with a grievance or a miracle. A lot of us think that we are in a mutual state of mind most of the time, operating on an auto-pilot mode conducting the mundane tasks throughout the day. However, the course highlights that we are, in fact, on one of the two polar opposite extremes: grievance or miracle. This may mean that during those hours in which we believe we are in a mutual state, we may actually be in a mild state of grievance that we may not be aware of. The course urges us to be more intentional and active about which state we are choosing to dwell within.
The next point is that each grievance that we tolerate or allow to linger in our minds, “stands like a dark shield of hate before the miracle.” You can compare this lesson to having too many tabs open on your computer browser, and one of those tabs in the background is a grievance that can slow down your entire computer. You may have old tabs open from all the way back into your past and childhood that you don’t even remember are there. You have to become aware and close the tabs, and we will do this by doing the “Taking Inventory” activity.
One of the things I love about this lesson is that it is of great practical use to myself and I use this lesson with my clients as well. The exercise outlined in the lesson will help us to let all of our grievances go. It recommends, “We will select one person you have used as a target for your grievances and will lay the grievances aside and look at this person without the grievances after you have looked at them with the grievances.” Then it lists, “Someone perhaps you fear and even hate; someone you think you love who angered you; someone you call a friend but whom you see as difficult at times or hard to please, demanding irritating, or untrue to the ideal that the person should accept as theirs according to the role that you set for them.” The course urges us practice seeing this person in their divine role, without your grievances. But for now, you will consider their faults, the difficulties you have had with this person, the pain or neglect this person has caused you, and all of the little and larger hurts this person gave you. You will regard this person’s body with their flaws and better points as well. You will consider their mistakes and even their sins (mistakes being an isolated error or bad judgement, sins being a so-called unforgivable act of immorality).
Ideally, you will do this process with all of your grievances toward everyone. You can write them down and let it all out, but I advise that you do not address the person directly. This is a personal practice between you and your inner self and more harm than good can come from addressing the person you have grievances with during this process. You can repeat this inventory process from time-to-time to ensure that you are clear of any grievances at all times. You can keep a journal specifically for this exercise as a place where you can go when you feel any grievances emerging.
The second part in this exercise is actually pretty simple. We are to turn to the Divine Source and ask for help to set the grievances aside and see some sort of spiritual light in the person. We covered this process in the previous article in this series when we mentioned, “The Triangle of Light” exercise. In order to do this we need to pause and ask for help from the Divine Source to set these grievances aside, see the light in this person, and then begin to really get immersed in the miracle that is in this situation that would have otherwise been blocked had we remained under the dark blanket of our grievances. We need higher power’s help to accomplish this step and if we ask, then we can channel that power to see beyond our own limited perspective and choose to see the true light that prevails within everyone.
The third and final part of this lesson says, “After you’ve done all of this, God thanks you for these quiets time today, in which you laid your images aside and looked upon the miracle of love the Holy Spirit showed you in their place. The world and heaven join in thanking you, for not one thought of God but must rejoice as you are saved and all the world with you.” What stands out is that God is actually thanking us for doing the work we’ve done here. And additionally, heaven is thanking us, and as an even greater bonus, the world is thanking us! I think to myself, is that really true or is it just some flowery and poetic language? I choose to accept that this claim is true; that this work is so metaphysically powerful that we are actually helping to save the world with these small daily decisions. The course is getting at the fact that the Universe is actually grateful when we reject warfare and instead choose love and light to help each other to thrive, and this creates a chain reaction in the Universe, spreading more love and more light, rather than the alternative of pervading darkness and destruction, one decision at a time.
This method works effectively to support leaders who facilitate and build teams at many different levels and have large influence in the world to apply these concepts and understand this to lead through their example of handling conflict in a healthy and spiritually progressive manner.
On a day-to-day basis, when you get into small conflicts with others, the aggressive driver cutting you off on the highway, you can recite this lesson aloud to yourself as an affirmation, “Let miracles replace all grievances,” and repeat it to yourself if needed. And finally, consider, is holding onto that resentment and grievance worth risking the miracles that are awaiting you on the other side of forgiveness?
