Good Reason to Attack?

This will lead you to hatred and attack and loss of peace. ACIM:T:8:VII:4:9

Well isn't there sometimes a good reason to attack?

What if someone was about to bomb my country first?  Wouldn't that be good reason to attack? What if someone was about to steal my life savings, purposefully burn my house down or brutally beat up someone I loved ?  Isn't that good enough reason to attack?

Man!  That would be terrible  and I honestly hope that nothing like that ever  happens to you.  If any of the above  was about to happen to me, right now, I don't know what I would do.  I would probably very much want to attack ( once I got over the daze of fear and victim hood), and to be honest I probably would attack if I could. I would attack because I am not evolved enough yet to do what would truly benefit all concerned. I would attack because I would be so consumed with fear of what would happen if these things happened? What "I" would lose.

And what if my defenses don't work and these things actually go down, what then? Isn't counter attack called for? I would tell myself it was! I would t be  angrily thinking of the injustice perpetuated on me, and ego would be more than roaring that "Someone has to pay!"

A Different Approach

If I were truly evolved, however,  I know somehow that my approach would be different.  I would be able to step back from the situation and look at it more clearly.  I would see it all, not through ego's angry eyes,  but through spirit's.  Things would appear totally different from that perspective. With a certain detachment and a whole lot of clarity and wisdom I would see that "attack" does no one any good. I would see that the part of "me" that is strongly encouraging me to attack, is a part of me I truly don't want running my life. I would also see that what I am defending is something not worth defending.

What?  My country, my livelihood, my house or my loved ones are not worth defending?  How can you say that?

Hmm!  This is a tough one so bear with me. Though it seems that you are defending something valuable in these counter attacks, are you really?  Do you truly understand why you value the things you value and what is truly important?

Is it justified to attack for country?

You value country and find it deserving of defense and attack?

Okay.  Are you  attacking for "country" or for an idea you have of  "country"?  Somewhere in your mind, you see clearly marked border lines around this thing you call your country but if I asked you to show me those clear  lines in the earth all around it, could you? Unless Trump puts his wall up, there are  no real lines separating all the countries in the world  are there?  Borders for the most part are just something created by the mind.  Separate countries, then, are just mental constructs we cling to and defend, aren't they?  You can't point to the actual ending of one country and the beginning of another in anyway other than on a map, can you?

We may put fences up and scattered border crossings to support our mental constructs  but the earth doesn't define itself by separate countries, does it? Why do we?  And why do we put so much  energy,  resources,  time and more lives into defending these borders that really do not exist anywhere but in our minds? Are you truly willing to attack for an idea of something created by the mind?

You are defending this idea of "separation," aren't you?

Just say, we were to realize the truth that there was no such thing as border lines, your country would then be the whole world, wouldn't it? And if "your country"  is the whole world who was bombed in the first attack and who would be bombed in your counter attack? Who is hurting and who is getting hurt?

And are you actually attacking for "country" or for a particular idea  you have of  "your country".  If there actually were natural borders between "us and them", and the  bombed country was some place on the map you never heard of, would you attack for that so called country? Would you even be angry for more than a few minutes upon reading about it in the news?  No...probably not. 

You see, you are justifying attacking for "your country". You, well the ego part of you, has identified itself with the imagined  geographical borders that surround you. You see this piece of earth as yours...you define yourself by it.  "I am an American, a Canadian, an Australian." It is in a sense the "you" you see yourself as.  What you are really defending then is not "country" but a part of you...a part of you filling you with destructive separation ideas.   This idea of "my country" just gives you a sense of identity as a separate being, individually and collectively.  It feeds the ego. You then are defending ego. You are defending and attacking for ego, not "country".

Do you value ego that much that you would attack for it?  Is it truly something that matters enough to fight over?

Is it justified  to attack for your livelihood?

So you worked hard all your life, putting money aside for some rainy day and someone who has no right to it, someone who maybe never worked an "honest day" in their life comes and attempts to snatch it all away. Surely, now you have a reason to attack?

Let's look at this a little closer.  What are you about  to lose here?  Money?   What is money? Money is just a symbol of "stuff" that our society places great value on.  It is also something that terrifies us.  Why?  Money is directly related to ego's constant chirping that "there isn't enough."  Ego thrives on this scarcity principle.  It is how it drives us. How will we ever survive in a "not enough" world if someone or something takes  "the not enough" we have away? Fear is generated and fear leads us to defend or attack.

You also justifying your attack because because the money you earned  was "hard earned".  Anything you worked hard for is valuable to who, to which part of you?   Is it valuable to the spirit that says, "You need nothing; you already are complete; relax;  it is more important to be than do; Life will take care of you" ...or is it valuable to the ego (both yours and the collective ego of society)?

As far as money is concerned in this attack dilemma, remember it is a thing of form.  All things of form come and go.    It is never worthy of attack.

It is only valuable to ego. The ego says:  "In order to get by in this hard cruel world you need to strive and fight and do and push and suffer. There is only so much to go around, so earn what you can by struggling  and working hard.  Then stuff it away somewhere because things are only going to get worse in the future.  You will really need it then."

Think about that...does that make sense to the part of you that is not crazy?

The Idea of Time?

We are constantly clinging to the past and waiting for a then, aren't we? We tend to see the value of everything in Life  through past and future, don't we?

And what are we really attacking for then?  This idea of time? Are we defending the past?  Are we clinging to all the past hours we put into earning this  so called "life savings" thing, making it  worth nothing if someone takes the "outcome" of those hours of struggle away?   Are we defending and attacking for this idea of the "future"?    What will happen in this future if we don't have any money...how will we survive?

Fear arises and maybe we feel justified to attack because of this fear of not making it? What would we have if we didn't have the future?  What would all that work be worth then? Truth is many of us, in that situation, would be  clinging to a belief that life is somehow in the past or in future and we attack for more than the money.  We also  fear what will happen  if someone tries to take our concept of time away? It is this idea of time we are defending? Who will we be without it? 

 Time is ego's thing, not Spirit's( and by Spirit I mean our formless essence, our true Self, our higher consciousness...whatever you wish to call it.) .  And when we defend and attack for time  we are doing so to protect ego devices that don't serve us.  Spirit knows  the whole time we were working to earn we were just waiting for the next moment to come and the next until we had so much in the bank.  We were not truly living in the only time there is. That time is right now.


Is it justified to attack for a home?

Man, the other night I was about to attack for my home without truly knowing what I was facing or what was truly going on.  I was driven by ego's greatest motivator: fear.  Fear and anger often go hand in hand.  What we tend to fear is losing something we identify with...what ego identifies with.  Our homes are full of our stuff, are they not?  Things we collected over the years  that somehow define us.  Burn that down and you burn down a part of who we are, right?  Who will we be without that?  So we have a right to attack then, don't we?

It is all just stuff !!! It is not us.  We are so much more than walls, and decor.  Much more than the material things we collected. We are so much more than form.  Is it ever okay to attack for stuff? Is it ever okay to attack for such silly things the ego needs to survive?

Is it justified to attack for a loved one?

This is a tricky one too.  Life is sacred and it needs to be preserved. I definitely do not want to see anyone hurt and I can definitely understand the sense of justified grievance that would arise from seeing someone we love hurt by another....Ego would react  like the "Mama Bear" but  I think Spirit would look at this way.

It would ask... : Who is your loved one? Why are you only selecting a few of the 5 billion people who are on this planet as worthy enough to defend and attack over?  Why isn't your loved one also the person in that country over there, or....person who did the attacking? Would you defend or  counter-attack for someone you didn't know if they were getting hurt?  If the person attacking was someone you loved too, how would you feel about attacking them then? Are you any different than the attacker if you attack back in whatever way you attack? Does attack justify attack? How is the attack helping to make the situation better?  Can it undo what was done? Who is really being hurt by attack and counter attack?

I know I know...the biggest trigger I believe for wanting to attack is when the people we love get hurt or to protect them from it.  We feel that intense pain, empathy and anger when the people we have selected as special get hurt by another,  Right? Would you feel the same intensity of justified anger by hearing in the news how someone else you didn't know was assaulted by another? It may catch you a bit but most of us would only be momentarily uncomfortable. We probably wouldn't think of it again. Why then, do we react so strongly when the people we have "special" relationships with get hurt?

Again we see ourselves as separate and they become pieces of our separate world.


Special Relationships

Because somehow these "loved" victims  are a part of us.  Ego selected them because it  needed them in order to feel more whole and complete.  Most special relationships are "ego relationships" based on need and wanting. We strive to fill in our empty spots with others...loving them when we mistakenly believe they "fill us up and make us feel good" , hating them (or at least attacking them) when they fail to do so. We are heavily invested in these relationships...for ego's sake.

If it wasn't for ego we would see no need for "special" relationships and we would be able to see our connection in all beings.  We would be able to see the same light in the attacker as we see in the attacked.  Though we would not condone the behaviour by any means and expect consequences be they karmic or social sanctions, we would forgive.  We  would recognize his/her unconsciousness but still see the beauty  and innocence within. 

If spirit were in charge of our response to these things it would tell us that we will also be hurt by any attack we throw at another.  For the light in the attacked and the attacker is the same light that is in us.  We are all one. Separation by body lines is another thing the mind has made up that we foolishly believe.

Who we really are...we all are.  One!  If I hurt another, I hurt myself. When another hurts me, they hurt themselves.  This truth exists beyond all the unconsciousness we walk around with, beneath all ego's mixed up hold on us. This truth is all that matters!

And the truth also professes that we are cannot be hurt by anything! So though the threat to country, possessions, home or loved one can be felt by the ego...it is not felt by who we really are.  What is valuable is this truth only.


No "outrageous" effect requests can be made of one who recognizes what is valuable and wants to accept nothing else.  ACIM:T:12:lll:4:8

The Only valuable thing worth defending and protecting is who we really are...and that cannot be hurt anyway.

All is well.

ACIM