Here is a unique, loving perspective on defensiveness:
We worked with a lesson today that actually talks about defensiveness, and that each time we defend ourselves against something, we’re actually declaring an inherent weakness about ourselves that needs defended. And we’re defending something that is not true; because we are whole, we are covered, we are intact, we are love itself and that this love that is within us, the truth of who we are from which we have come, actually, we didn’t say that today but this is true about us – that it cannot be changed, cannot be broken, cannot be taken, it cannot be diminished.
And it does take the practice of coming inward and actually gracing the experience of this wholeness to be able to gain the trust and the confidence in it that it’s there. Intellectually, it might be easy to say, yeah, that sounds true, but if we knew this through experience enough, we are able to then go out into the world and act from the experience of this truth as well.
And it even says that as we begin to experience, know it and trust it, that we can have faith in it as well. And that as our mind can retreat to our inherent wholeness and truth, that we begin to actually operate with this sense of trust and that we need not defending.
And so there is one paragraph from the lesson that we worked with today in the course and it was lesson 135: “If I defend myself, I am attacked.” It says, “a healed mind does not plan. It carries out the plans that it receives through listening to wisdom that is not its own. It waits until it has been taught what should be done and then proceeds to do it. It does not depend upon itself for anything except its adequacy to fulfill the plans assigned to it. It is secure in certainty that obstacles cannot impede its progress to accomplishment of any goal that serves the greater plan established for the good of everyone.”
This work does not say oh, just sit around everything’s well, you won’t need to do anything. It is saying that when we are able to be still and listen to the wisdom that is within spoken to us from the love that we’re talking about right now, we will be told what to do and it will serve in such a greater way than what our little minds can think of on our own.
And so we acknowledge at the front of each time that we join that we are talking lofty principles sometimes. But the invitation for today and maybe even the week ahead is to consider each time you defend yourself, what are you actually defending? When we choose defensiveness, are we choosing our wholeness? And is it necessary or can we retreat back to the love and the wisdom that is within?
And then if there is something to be said or something to be done, then we can actually cut through the chaos and the junk that might be within that and name from a loving place and in a loving way, what is important to be said. Keeping our eye on the ball, so to speak. Focused on the love within us and between those with whom we join. And as we do that, the loving experience available within that situation can unfold.
I hope this principle is somewhat supportive. And so it doesn’t mean sacrifice your values or sacrifice your morals and just ignore. It means we have our footing in something deeper than the chaos of the world and we are able to then come forward and act from the strength of this love.
And so inviting you to consider this principle throughout the day or maybe even the week, that truth will correct all errors in our minds when we are willing to do that work of heart.
Thank you so much for your time to consider these principles and I hope your practice continues to support you. Keep taking good care.
Our Sunday Service offerings work with a body of principles based on Love, and an undoing of a thought system based on fear. If you are interested, check out our donation based Sunday Service offerings here.
