Kenneth Wapnick - The Silence of Salvation Hearing the Melody

8/13/2019 Kenneth Wapnick - The Silence of Salvation Hearing the Melody

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Volume 16 Number 4 December 2005

THE SILENCE OF SALVATION: HEARING THE MELODY

K e n n e t h W a p n i c k , P h .D .

Jesus and the Relinquishment of JudgmentMy article Learning to Listen in the September 2003 Lighthousefocused on

the importance of setting aside our personal (read: special) needs, so that we maytruly be able to hear the calls for help and love from another, and answer them andour own call as well. I had referred there to the metaphor of silence in music, andon being able to hear the silence between the notes, to quote the great violinistIsaac Stern. That article was also somewhat parallel to my 2003 workshopHealing: Hearing the Melody. In this current article, I would like to revisit theidea of listening to another, emphasizing its impossibility as long as we judge.Parallel to this, of course, is the important theme in

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A Course in Miraclesof asking

the Holy Spirit for help, or looking to Jesus as our model for learning.Moreover, the Christmas season is always a good opportunity for reminding

ourselves of the importance of turning to Jesus, specifically to learn to be like him,setting aside our egos judgments, their place taken by his radiant vision offorgiveness and love. In 1975, Jesus gave an important message to Helen, one Ifrequently cite as a caution to students asking Jesus for specific help with specificproblems, even, when as in her case, the sincere desire is there to be of service toanother. Helen had asked Jesus what she should say to someone dealing with a dif-ficult situation. This was his response:

Do not forget if you attempt to solve a problem, you have judged it for yourself and

so you have betrayed your proper role. Remember you need nothing, but you have anendless store of loving gifts to give. But teach this lesson only to yourself. Your brother will

not learn it from your words or from the judgments you have laid on him. You need not even

speak a word to him. You cannot ask, What shall I say to him? and hear Gods answer.

Rather ask instead, Help me to see this brother though the eyes of truth and not of judg-

ment, and the help of God and all His angels will respond (Absence from Felicity,p. 381).

We shall return presently to this important idea that it is not our words thatteach others, but the demonstration of our egofree love, the love that Jesussymbolizes for us. Thus does he want us all to ask his help that we hear as he

hears, and so respond non-judgmentallywith love rather than attack, vision andnot judgment.

The implications here are clear. Since there is no way we can ever know whatanother truly needs, we need only focus on ourselves; specifically, on getting ouregos out of the way. It is but the egos arrogance that would lead us to believe wecould know what is in the best interest of others, and therefore how we shouldrespond verbally or behaviorally. This salient point is underscored in the followingpassage from the manual for teachers:

The aim of our curriculum, unlike the goal of the worlds learning, is the recognition

that judgment in the usual sense is impossible. This is not an opinion but a fact. In order to

judge anything rightly, one would have to be fully aware of an inconceivably wide range ofthings; past, present and to come. One would have to recognize in advance all the effects of

his judgments on everyone and everything involved in them in any way. And one would have

to be certain there is no distortion in his perception, so that his judgment would be wholly


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fair to everyone on whom it rests now and in the future. Who is in a position to do this? Who

except in grandiose fantasies would claim this for himself? ... Wisdom is not judgment; it is

the relinquishment of judgment. Make then but one more judgment. It is this: There is

Someone with you Whose judgment is perfect. He does know all the facts; past, present and

to come. He does know all the effects of His judgment on everyone and everything involved

in any way. And He is wholly fair to everyone, for there is no distortion in His perception (M-

10.3; 4:5-10).What we can know, however, is that the healing of anothers needs is what

weneed: the undoing of the false belief in separation. In other words: To perceivethe healing of your brother as the healing of yourself is... the way to rememberGod (T-12.II.2:9). Relinquishing judgmentthe egos weapon of separation parexcellenceis therefore the means of being healed, for it restores to awareness theshared need and purpose of Gods separated Sons. Indeed, as Jesus tells us, this isthe essence of his course (M-9.2), for true judgment is not possible for a splitmind.

Mute, blind, and dazzled: Healing with Jesus

The great early-twentieth-century poet Rilke frames our discussion in hispoem Gong. It is one of a large number of French poems this Czech poet wrote,though his greatest work was in German. Here is the second stanza:

We must close our eyes, renounce our mouths,

remain mute, blind, and dazzled:

with space utterly shaken, what touches us

wants no more from our being than attention.

It is the silence of our sensesmute, blind, and dazzled that allows us tobe without judgment, and attentive to the plaintive cries of others. It is the silenceof truths oneness that allows us to hear the answer: hearing anothers call for loveas our own echoes the truth beyond all seemingly disparate life. This premise offundamental unity underlies, for example, the core teaching of Buddhism:compassion for all sentient beings. Beyond distinctions made between right andwrong, or good and evil, rests a simple truthin the words of Harry Stack Sullivan,the founder of the school of Interpersonal Psychiatry: We are all more human thanotherwise.This commonality of human existence is the suffering we share, and it isthe pain inherent in life here to which we need pay attention. Unrecognized, the

source of this painguiltremains in the shadows of our mind, there to becontinually projected in disguised forms that prevent its undoing. These forms allcontain judgmentsof others or our- selvesand these unforgiving thoughtsprotect the guilt that has been projected outward (W-pII.1.2:3).

An axiom in psychotherapy states that one cannot understand when onejudges; judgment being the shadowy projection of separation that keeps peopleapart, while understanding reflects the light of true communication that binds ustogether, the etymological meaning, incidentally, of the word religion. Thus,learning to listen means learning to give up judgment. This fundamental principleof salvation enables us to listen to others, in mutedsilence, blindto the egos

judgments, and dazzledby peoples fervent call to be proven wrong about the pre-conceptions of their problems and, indeed, their very selves. In releasing thebarriers of judgment that hinder communication, the belief in separate interests isundone. The forms of the problem are gone beyond, that we may look upon thesingle content of separation. Healing occurs as we mirror to each other the shared


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purpose of salvation: hearing the forgotten melody and remembering the love thatis our true and shared Self.

For this healing to occur, it is necessary that we entirely shift our perspectiveon the world and the nature of its multitudinous problems. Throughout A Course inMiracles,Jesus tells us that there is only one problem: the decision to believe in theegos separation; and one solution: changing our minds to believe in the HolySpirits Atonement.That is all. This is the contentthat underlies allconcerns andremedies the world presents, and to believe in any one particular formof problemor solution is to subscribe to the egos first law of chaos: there is a hierarchy ofillusions(T-23.II.2:1-3). That way madness lies, to quote King Lear, for it leads usstill further into the egos insane thought system of separation, differentiation, andspecialness. Yet, under Jesus firm but gentle guidance, we are led back from thethroes of madness to his sane approach to illness: all symptoms are but calls forhelp and healingthe reminder that no thought of separation, guilt, or attack hasthe power to take Gods Love from us. Thus we can remind our ill brothers andsisters that they have simply chosen falsely, but can just as easily choose againlove instead of fear, peace instead of conflict, life instead of death. As we read in

The Function of the Teacher of God from the manual:

To them [the ill] Gods teachers come, to represent another choice which they had

forgotten. The simple presence of a teacher of God is a reminder. His thoughts ask for the

right to question what the patient has accepted as true. As Gods messengers, His teachers

are the symbols of salvation. They ask the patient for forgiveness for Gods Son in his own

Name. They stand for the Alternative. With Gods Word in their minds they come in

benediction, not to heal the sick but to remind them of the remedy God has already given

them. It is not their hands that heal. It is not their voice that speaks the Word of God. They

merely give what has been given them. Very gently they call to their brothers to turn away

from death: Behold, you Son of God, what life can offer you. Would you choose sickness inplace of this? (M-5.III.2).

If the problem is our having chosen as our teacher the egos raucous shrieksof separationsin, guilt, fear, and deaththen salvations healing is the HolySpirits silent melody of Atonement. This, again, is the contentunderlying all formsthat but seem to be the instruments of healing. It is in the silence beyond thewords that healing actually occurs, as we saw above that the true music is found inthe silence between the notes. Thus does Jesus instruct us about the irrelevancy ofwords:

Strictly speaking, words play no part at all in healing. ... God does not understand

words, for they were made by separated minds to keep them in the illusion of separation.

(M-21.1:1,7).

We are repeatedly instructed inA Course in Miraclesthat salvation(forgiveness, the miracle, Atonement) is undoing, and does not involve anybehavioral intervention, such as words or prayers we may speak to another. Sinceit is only the minds decision for the ego that is the sickness or problem, undoingthis decision by choosing the Holy Spirit as Teacher is the one healing. This is whyJesus asks that we take him as our model for learning (e.g., T-5.II.9-12), and inHelens poem A Jesus Prayer, we pray that we become like him, which living in

the silence of healing brings about:A child, a man and then a spirit. So

I follow in the way You show to me

That I may come at last to be like You.


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What but Your likeness would I want to be?

There is a silence where You speak to me

And give me words of love to say for You

To those You send to me. And I am blessed

Because in them I see You shining through.(The Gifts of God, p. 82)

To become like Jesus, therefore, means to be silent to the egomute andblindso we may hear the dazzlingsilence of God. In that silence, words aremeaningless, for love transcends the specific and thus cannot be known by thebody, but only by the mind that has chosen to leave the dreamif only for aninstantand rejoin the oneness that is beyond the egos separation. Thus we readin the workbook another reference to the inadequacy of words to express theineffable nature of salvation:

Oneness is simply the idea God is. And in His Being, He encompasses all things. No

mind holds anything but Him. We say God is, and then we cease to speak, for in that

knowledge words are meaningless. There are no lips to speak them, and no part of mind

sufficiently distinct to feel that it is now aware of something not itself. It has united with its

Source. And like its Source Itself, it merely is.

We cannot speak nor write nor even think of this at all. It comes to every mind when

total recognition that its will is Gods has been completely given and received completely (W-

pI.169.5:1-6:2).

In sum, as long as we are in the world, judgment is inevitable. Our attackingothers is the norm, without which we do not believe we can survive. And so wewalk the earth as separated selves, seeing everyone as separated, too. Theinnocence of Gods Son becomes shrouded in veils of judgment, and Heavenssilent melody of love is drowned out by the strident sounds of the world ofdifferences and attack. Yet, taking Jesus hand, the sharp edges of the egosthought system dissolve, and we are softly still, resting in his presence and sharinghis vision of non-judgment and love. As he tells us in an oft-quoted line aboutforgiveness:

Forgiveness ... is still, and quietly does nothing. ... It merely looks, and waits, and

judges not (W-pII.1.4:1,3).

To Judge One Is to Judge All

Once again, judgment is inevitable and unavoidable to all of us who wanderin the world, uncertain, lonely, and in constant fear (T-31.VIII.7:1), and so whatis the right-minded way to look at judgmentours or anothers? If we see ourattacks as coming from fear of love, these can only be defenses, regardless of theform they take. After all, no one who accepts the love within could ever attackanyone else. It would be impossible. Therefore, we can conclude that a personattacking another does not feel this love inside. Yet if that love is truly there, as itmust be in everyoneWe are all more human than otherwisethen it must be the

fear of this love that drives us to defend against it by attackblatantly or subtlyinthought, word, or deed. Thus do we all suffer from the same fear, defendingagainst love by ensuring that we remain separated, forever protected against itsencroachment.

The following is a helpful rule of thumb to guide us along salvations silent


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path of non-judgment:Any judgment we would make of another that we would notalso make of everyone, comes from the ego.This rule has no exceptions, for theLove of God makes no exceptions. And so, if we are tempted to judge one Son ofGodpublic or personal figures in our individual dreamsas evil and beyondredemption, we need stop and consider whether we would make the samejudgment about Jesus, or any other symbol of an ego-free and all-loving person.Similarly, if we judge Jesus as loving and goodGods innocent

Sonwould we exclude the one we have made our symbol of evil from thatbenevolent judgment? It cannot be that one Son is good and another evil if theoneness of Gods creation is to be recalled in memory. To be sure, within theillusion of time there are differences, but these are inherently transient and thussuperficial. As Jesus says of himself: I am in... [no] way separate or different fromyou except in time, and time does not really exist (T-1.II.4:1). And he adds: Allmy brothers are special (T-1.V.3:6), which clearly means we are all special, alongwith him, thus voiding the common exclusionary usage of the word.

Since love is perfect oneness, our defense against this love is to see onlyseparation and differencesthe hallmark of spe- cialnessyet when the doors ofperception are cleansed, to use William Blakes evocative phrase, it will be this fearof love we can know, in ourselves and in all people. To hear this universal call, weneed only be still and listen to the cry behind the words, to feel the despair ofhopelessness beyond the symptoms. Our differing belief systems are ultimatelyirrelevant to this new vision, for they are but vehicles we use to convey theunderlying response of love. And so, to hear these songs of love or fear, and onlythese, we need to be quiet within, to come without needs unto the figures in ourdream. In that inner silence, we recognize that we all have the same two melodiesrunning through our minds, determining what we think, feel, and do.

The first of these melodies is love and healing, and the second is the fear oflove and healing. The latter is what we typically call resistance, and in the end, it isthis fear for which we listen. Once heard, we simply touch it with gentle hands, andits hardness softens and dissolves in a duet of healing whereby two disparatevoices blend together and sound as one. Resistance never responds to analysis orjudgment, but only to the kind reminder that love is unaffected by fear, and so theneed to resist is futile. Thus we must wait patiently, and true patience is born ofthe certainty of outcome (M-4.VIII). Healing occurs when we are able to remindothers that love waits quietly beyond the clouds of guilt, fear, and attack, and allthey need do is be that presence of quiet patience. They indeed do nothing but bestill.

In that silence, beyond the neediness that distorts perception, we come tounderstand that what appears to be problems or pathology is only a special form offear, the same fear of love that cowers in each of us. To the extent we believe inthis identity, we shall fear the melody of forgiveness that recalls to mindliterallythe song our true Self still sings to all who cross our path, and whom we hadheretofore sought to exclude from love, as we sought to exclude ourselves. Yet inthe presence of the soundless song of love, the discordant noise of separate andselfish identities must fade and disappear. Jesus vision has come to replace theegos judgment, and we include all peoplein holy welcomein our forgivingembrace, emulating the Christ of Helens first poem, The Gift of Christmas:

Christ passes no one by. By this you know

He is Gods Son. You recognize His touch

In universal gentleness. His Love


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Extends to everyone. His eyes behold

The Love of God in everything He sees.

No words but those His Fathers Voice dictates

Can reach His ears. His hands forever hold

His brothers, and His arms remain outstretched

In holy welcome.(The Gifts of God, p. 95)

This, then, is the challenge to all of us as students of A Course in Miracles:not to exclude anyone from our forgiveness. Our willingness to practice this lessonreflects our willingness to silence the egos harsh sounds, and thus awaken fromthe dream and return home. Only through the absence of judgment reflectingHeavens oneness herecan we leave the egos thought system of separation,differentiation, and fragmentation.

Ending the Dream in SilenceOur prayer to ourselves should echo Lorenzos words to Jessica in The

Merchant of Venice, which bespeak what could be the happy fate of all ourrelationships, if we so choose:

Here will we sit, and let the sounds of music

Creep in our ears: soft stillness and the night

Become the touches of sweet harmony. (V,i)

Thus do we see each of our daily encounters as fresh opportunities to sit insilence while the soft sounds of music enter our hearts and minds, sweetly

harmonizing our heretofore special relationships into the beautiful melody thatreflects our love for Jesus, and his for us. This blazing silence that ends the egosdreams of guilt and evil is movingly portrayed in the second stanza of Helens poemConversion:

There is a silence into which Gods Word

Has poured an ancient meaning, and is still.

Nothing remains unsaid nor unreceived.

Strange dreams are washed in golden water from

The blazing silence of the peace of God,

And what was evil suddenly becomes

The gift of Christ to those who call on Him.

His final gift is nothing but a dream,

Yet in that single dream is dreaming done.

(The Gifts of God, p. 61)

The final dream is the complete forgiveness that undoes separation, andtouches allpeoplethe good and bad alike, victims andvictimizersin itshealing embrace. With the sounds of separations battle stilled, the harsh voice ofspecialness silenced, our minds are free to recognize the one Son Whom Godcreated as Himself. Salvations song re-enters our hearts that guilt had turned tostone, and an ancient melody begins to stir once again, heralding our awakeningfrom the egos dream of death. The sounds of earth have vanished, and but for aninstant longer we hear the silent music of forgiveness, until even that is gone,


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leaving only the true silence in which creation is joyfully reborn in the holy Name ofits Creator:

All little things are silent. Little sounds are soundless now. The little things of earth

have disappeared. The universe consists of nothing but the Son of God, who calls upon his

Father. And his Fathers Voice gives answer in his Fathers holy Name. In this eternal, still

relationship, in which communication far transcends all words, and yet exceeds in depth and

height whatever words could possibly convey, is peace eternal. In our Fathers Name, wewould experience this peace today. And in His Name, it shall be given us (W-pI.183.11).

Kenneth Wapnick - The Silence of Salvation Hearing the Melody

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