There Are No Real Choices in the World
Seek not escape from problems here.
The world was made that problems could not be escaped.
ACIM T-31.IV.2:5
The world is so busy. It seems everyone is caught up in the modern-day rat race. Some are striving tirelessly on their goals and life plans, trying to make their mark on the world in the brief time they appear to be here. Others are just trying to keep their head above water, pushing through and struggling to accommodate their basic bodily and psychological needs while navigating the fluctuating tides of everyday life. By far the majority of people are probably doing a bit of both, myself included.
Quite frankly, it’s exhausting. Just when you think you have things figured out, up pops another conflict, another drama, another problem to be solved that sends you off on a frantic search for a solution in the world. You may very well find one, and think the problem is solved. A sense of order and calm is restored to your life, and all is well again. But the peace is temporary. Another problem, another dilemma, another conflict will soon come to take its place, ensuring a never-ending cycle of perpetual discomfort and unrest. Where does it end?
When it comes to solving life’s challenges, both personally and collectively, we look for answers in the world. We think that this is the only option available to us. After all, the problem is in the world, isn’t it? A Course in Miracles teaches that our problems are not in the world at all, and if you look for the answers there you are looking in the wrong place. The solution can only ever be found in the mind, because the world itself is only found in the mind. There is no physical reality outside of you. There is just a story, playing out like images in a dream, and it is all occurring on the mind’s inner screen. It is therefore within the mind, and only within the mind, that the answers will be found.
When we are faced with an issue, it often appears that we are presented with many options on how we can tackle it. We think if we just choose the right one, then our problems will be solved. What isn’t obvious is that although the world’s solutions may appear many and varied, they are actually all the same. Be not deceived by all the different names its roads are given (T-31.IV.2:7). Their end is certain, for there is no choice among them (T-31.IV.2:10). They all end in the continuation of illusions, and while you insist on walking these paths, you will only perpetuate the belief in a world and problems that aren’t really out there at all.
Basically everyone has had this experience. You choose one direction, certain that this is the one that will bring you the peace and happiness you seek. Too often than not it falls short. Or maybe for a little while it even appears to work. But did it last? Did it bring you the contentment and answers you were seeking? Did it solve all the grievances and problems that plague your human existence? The world’s options seem to be many, and it can be irresistibly tempting to continue to try the many paths it dangles in front of us. On some you travel gaily for a while, before the bleakness enters. And on some the thorns are felt at once. The choice is not what the ending will be, but when it comes (T-31.IV.2:12). In the end, where they lead is all the same.
Luckily for us there is another path we can take, another choice we can make. Instead of leading us further into the illusion of the world, it leads us out of it, back to our true reality as Spirit. This is the only real choice we can make, and real choice is no illusion (T-31.IV.2:1). To follow this path is to turn away from the world’s worthless offerings and travel back to the mind, where we realise that what we thought were our problems, were not the problem at all.
It may take a very long time, and plenty of tears and heartache, before you realise all of the world’s roads have nothing to offer you. Perhaps you would prefer to try them all, before you really learn they are but one (T-31.IV.3:2). To get to the point where we are ready to choose against this senseless journeying, many of us find that we first go through a stage of deep inner despair, where we finally come to realise that the world really doesn’t contain anything we truly want. Many times, this uncomfortable and often drawn-out period is needed, because who would be willing to be turned away from all the roadways of the world, unless he understood their real futility? (T-31.IV.5:1).
It is only then, through this unsettling period of learning, that the paths that appeared to offer nothing but hopelessness now become truly valuable to you. Their value lies not in what worldly gains they appeared to hold, but in the lesson that there is another choice apart from what the world offers, and that you have within you the power to choose it. This experience of hopelessness now becomes the springboard that motivates you to do the inner work that the Course is asking of us.
This is not easy. New and more tantalizing paths will frequently pop up in a sneaky attempt to lure you back to one of the world’s many roads that you may not have yet walked. Maybe this one will be different? Maybe it will have the happy ending you seek? It can be hard to avoid falling into this trap when the temptations of the world get up in our face every single day. But do not forget where these roads lead. Think not that happiness is ever found by following a road away from it. This makes no sense and cannot be the way (T-31.IV.7:1). All roads that lead away from what you are will lead you to confusion and despair (T-31.IV.9:5). Their ending is always certain, because what you are can never be found in the world. Only the real alternative, the choice to take the less travelled road that leads out of the world of illusions, will lead you back to your true Self.
The truth is that we have never really gone anywhere anyway. We are just dreaming that we have. We think that we are taking these many journeys, but it is all a fantasy. In reality, a journey from yourself does not exist. How foolish and insane it is to think that there could be a road with such an aim! Where could it go? (T-31.IV.10:5). Remembering the absurdity of it all is all you really need do. Forgiveness of your imaginary travels is the answer to all the problems the world thinks it has.
So, when you find yourself yet again blindly wandering down one of the world’s dead-end highways, remember to forgive yourself your madness, and forget all senseless journeys and all goal-less aims. They have no meaning. You cannot escape from what you are (T-31.IV.11:1). In the end, everyone will remember this, no matter how long and far they may appear to wander.