Clear Vision in 2020 | Alan Cohen

Clear Vision in 2020

As we enter the new year, all kinds of strange things seem to be going on around us. Our political system is in severe dysfunction. The environment is threatened. Relationships are shaky. The digital revolution is shaking up all kinds of things that use to seem stable and dependable. How does a conscious person deal with such weird events and changes?

A Course in Miracles tell us, "Trust would settle every problem now." This applies personally and globally. The Course also tells us not to judge by appearances. Behind apparent chaos is a greater plan that includes the presence of higher wisdom. This is the clear vision we are called to use in 2020.

In a brilliant Star Trek television episode, "The City on the Edge of Forever," Captain Kirk and Mr. Spock are tossed into a time warp that lands them in New York in 1930. There Kirk falls in love with an attractive pacifist activist, Edith Keeler. Meanwhile Spock concocts a machine that allows him to look into the future, where he sees a headline that Edith Keeler is killed in a car accident during the following year. He also sees an alternate reality in which Keeler lives and she influences the United States to delay its entry to World War II, which gives Germany the time to conquer the world. Bottom line, Edith Keeler's death cost her life, but essentially saved the world. A crucial moment comes when Kirk can save her life but, knowing the Bigger Picture for the greater good, he chooses not to.

Clear vision is in touch with a broader picture than the small self sees. The ego judges from three-dimensional vision, while the Spirit evaluates from a higher-dimensional vision.

This year we will see things as we choose to see them, not as we have been taught they are. We have been trained to use the fearful mind to gauge what is real. Yet all great spiritual masters have advised that cannot judge. I once asked Ram Dass if it is ever a good idea to pray for a particular event happening. He answered, "If you could see every possible result and ramification of that event, and how it would affect every person involved, you could pray for it. But from the standpoint of the human mind, you cannot possibly know all the factors and results. So you just have to follow your inner guidance and trust God to take care of you and everyone involved. and arrange all the details."

I was standing at the counter of a snack bar at a children’s zoo when a customer became quite nasty with the server. A part of his order had not been delivered correctly, and he made quite a stink. I recoiled, thinking, “What a mean, cruel person!”

Minutes later I was passing the deer enclosure, where I saw a man kneeling to pet a fawn, tenderly feeding the creature. “That man reminds me of St. Francis,” I thought. When the man turned his head, I was astonished to see it was the same fellow who had created the unpleasant scene at the snack bar.

Who was that man really? Was he the angry, abusive one, or the gentle, saintly one? We might say that he was both. He had the propensity for both kindness and mean-spiritedness, each aspect bubbling forth in different situations.

When we see the highest and best in ourselves, others, and situations, that is what we call forth. Dale Carnegie advised, "Give that person a fine reputation to live up to!" The highest in us is the truth about us, and the brightest vision for the world around you is closer to the truth than fear would show us. Yes, continue to work for a better world, meanwhile holding in mind that in a greater mind that world already exists and we are stepping into it by trusting that the greater plan is in progress.