In response to putting out the request
for topics to write on, a friend wrote back: "Seeing God in
Donald Trump (you never wrote that you wanted it to be easy)".
I have to say I appreciate the topic
and also that it appears that for many people it might not be easy.
But that's what I'm looking for in topic suggestions--ones that
challenge us to inquire beyond the box of our comfort zone and set
beliefs.
So here goes.
First of all I live within an idea that
makes life simple and without threat. Often it's difficult to
embrace, but when I do, I always find the peace of mind that allows me
to enjoy life over stressing compulsively in the battle of trying to make it what I want it to be.
The idea is reflected by something
Albert Einstein once said, “The
most important decision we make is whether we believe we live in a
friendly or a hostile universe.”
This
means that the fundamental choice we make as to the nature of the
universe we live in, determines all the subsequent laws,
circumstances and seeming other choices we will make because of it.
Einstein suggests that when we use our minds--our thought expression
power to align ourselves with a friendly, i.e. infinitely cooperative
and order establishing life arena, all, yes, all subsequent
circumstances can be relied upon to reveal previously unseen pathways
and resources consistent with the standard of unconditional
friendliness. This means a friendliness manifesting that we would
otherwise not experience in holding to our expectations of a hostile,
flawed, I'm-responsible-for-correcting, world.
For
those of you who must insist on believing that what you experience
outside yourself has power over you and thus demands your reaction,
just stop reading right here. This isn't for you. There can only be a
ongoing hostile universe when you insist upon that view. As the
Course in Miracles would suggest, you are believing you are under
attack and in this world, like it or not, what you believe becomes
your experience. That's just how it works. It may not be real, but
the experience will tell you that it is and you will subsequently
suffer and battle for your sanity because of it.
So
as to the request of seeing or experiencing God in Donald Trump (as
well as anyone or any situation) one has to begin by accepting that
God, Order, Love or whatever you call the Cosmic Milieu encompasses
all, including Donald Trump and his presidency. Then the issue
becomes one of seeing what you're missing. Rather than using reason
to determine what you think you should or should not find.
Now
before anyone brings up the rebuttal challenging this belief in the
face of such atrocities from Hitler's Germany to child abuse to
natural calamities, I repeat, judging hostile circumstance without a
willingness, and indeed, the expectation to experience an Order or
Beauty that lies beyond one's judgment, will insure that the limit of
one's belief in the atrocity or hostility that they are seeing will
be all that they will be seeing. Heaven may be issuing from the very
embers of hell, but without a commitment towards what must rise from
it, all that can be experienced are the smoking remnants of what was
along with the urgency to somehow replace it. And on and on it goes
within a hostile world, never changing. Until belief does.
I'll
discuss this more in a future blog, but for the purpose of this
question, how to see God in Donald Trump, one's focus has to change
from argument to curiosity.
In
an article on "Genius" some years ago, I.Q. was
determined to be less a qualifying factor for genius than
the manner in which one thinks. Richard Feinman, a theoretical
physicist, who was arguably considered a genius in thinking, put
forth the process of genius thinking in this analogy.
He
shared that if one was given a task to find a needle in a haystack
most would either refuse or abandon the task in frustration, possibly
doubting that the needle even existed. Some, of strong will would
work systematically to prove whether or not the needle was in there
and finding it, move on to other things. But those of genius thinking
would explore the haystack as ripe for possibilities and once finding
a needle would then wonder, "how many more needles or other
items were hidden in the haystack". They would expect more
and subsequently put themselves in position to find more.
So
if you want to see God or Goodness or Order in Donald Trump or
anything, you have to be committed and prepared to find it. So how
big is your sense of God or an Orderly Universe? Big enough to trust
in or too small to release your reasons for reacting?
What
I will suggest now is just one friendly thinking idea beyond the box
of what most see Donald Trump representing. It is still reasoning and
cannot be relied upon or limited unto, however it can help show how
light can emerge from seeming darkness.
Here's
one view of how I see Trump limited to the world stage he presents
himself upon.
His
rhetoric and actions paint a picture of a leader who willingly
exposes, embraces and defends his right to use deceit, condemnation
and attack upon any person, position or circumstance that he is
content in believing serves him. He appears to believe he is special
in a way that allows him to objectify, humiliate, parody, violate and
use others without seeming awareness as to empathy or responsibility
for the consequences that his self-serving vision limits and defines.
He
prefers using one-way communication (e.g. tweets & sound bites)
limiting dialogue around what he says. He adamantly denies any
failure of his beliefs, intentions and actions, proclaiming blanket
success no matter the results. And he makes broad judgmental
statements that suit his beliefs, regardless of any evidence to the
contrary or support for his ideas.
When
it comes to what he wants he acts like an entitled bully.
In
a hostile world he most certainly appears a significant threat.
But
what about within a friendly one? Again, one that transcends what
I've just described seeing.
First
of all, in an unopposed friendly
universe
we ultimately find acceptance of community, realizing intimately that
we are not separate, but one. We share the same heart and inclination
towards surrender to that which frees us from our loneliness, the
sense that we are divided and isolated. Not to experience this is
certainly hostile.
So
Trump is part of our core, just as are sixty-three million voters,
almost half those voting and even more who believe in him but didn't
vote. That means that although his character appears deeply flawed,
half our voting nation deemed that within what they see as an
acceptably hostile
universe,
his behavior is acceptable, if not appropriate.
I
think what frightens us most is this. Donald Trump's candidacy,
election and leadership is showing us, that though we would like to
believe we are a respectful and civil community, there is a within us
a collectively dark and selfish justification for self-service and
manipulation as a valid means of survival and as a basis for
judgment, incivility and exclusion of our neighbor. And this is not
new to us from Trump. These traits have been within humanity from day
one. The only question is how we deal with them. And if you've truly
never judged, denied or even mentally slighted anyone for their
actions, then I may stand in awe of you, but not after some serious
inquiry. Trump told and showed millions he would act on these dark
impulses. He gave these fears voice.
And
he was elected.
A
wise soul once said, "You
shall know the truth and it shall make you free." Often
this is taken to mean that some sort of higher wisdom is the key. But
instead of some seeming unrelated, higher wisdom, the most relevant
truths are those that free us to see beyond what we cloud our minds
with, i.e. the inclinations, limitations and lies we accept as
uncorrupted meaning for what we're experiencing. These limited
beliefs are what keep us imprisoned, unable to see Greater Order
beyond the expectations of our preferences.
Perhaps
now is the time for the awakening of a simple, transforming Idea, a
powerful truth that can allow us to experience the collective freedom
that we have been previously unwilling and even afraid to consider,
less accept. All of us, including Mr. Trump, his team members, those
voting for and against him, indeed, the whole world now find
ourselves in front row seats to clearly witness self-justified,
divisively hostile, reactionary intention projecting upon the global
community.
It's
no accident that Trump, his presidency and those who follow him have
been given the authority to release upon the world this dark,
manipulative intention and by human nature it will meet an equally
opposing force. It's as if our collective ego (for we are one) has
now been given opportunity to voice globally our base fears that
court separation, condemnation, judgment and alienation as justified
response to what we don't agree with. The truth that can free us is
witnessing how this genie of disrespect and division has come out of
the bottle and no matter how nobly or wickedly we wield it's power,
how vulgar and impotent are the results. And from this shared
futility, perhaps we can find the willingness to simply accept that
in order to find the qualities we seek in others, we must and can
commit to finding it in those and their actions that we don't see it
in. The alternative is increasingly visible insanity and my hunch is
that there won't be enough medication--liquid, solid or digital to
numb us into not seeing it.
So
yes, I can very much see God in Donald Trump.
