In that state of acceptance and inner peace, even though you may not
call it “bad,” can anything still come into your life that would be called
“bad” from a perspective of ordinary consciousness?
Most of the so-called bad things that happen in people’s lives are due
to unconsciousness. They are self-created, or rather ego-created. I
sometimes refer to those things as “drama.” When you are fully
conscious, drama does not come into your life anymore. Let me
remind you briefly how the ego operates and how it creates drama.
Ego is the unobserved mind that runs your life when you are not
present as the witnessing consciousness, the watcher. The ego
perceives itself as a separate fragment in a hostile universe, with no
real inner connection to any other being, surrounded by other egos
which it either sees as a potential threat or which it will attempt to
use for its own ends. The basic ego patterns are designed to combat
its own deep-seated fear and sense of lack. They are resistance,
control, power, greed, defense, attack. Some of the ego’s strategies
are extremely clever, yet they never truly solve any of its problems,
simply because the ego itself is the problem.
When egos come together, whether in personal relationships or in
organizations or institutions, “bad” things happen sooner or later:
drama of one kind or another, in the form of conflict, problems, power
struggles, emotional or physical violence, and so on. This includes
collective evils such as war, genocide, and exploitation — all due to
massed unconsciousness. Furthermore, many types of illness are
caused by the ego’s continuous resistance, which creates restrictions
and blockages in the flow of energy through the body. When you
reconnect with Being and are no longer run by your mind, you cease
to create those things. You do not create or participate in drama
anymore.
Whenever two or more egos come together, drama of one kind or
another ensues. But even if you live totally alone, you still create your
own drama. When you feel sorry for yourself, that’s drama. When you
feel guilty or anxious, that’s drama. When you let the past or future
obscure the present, you are creating time, psychological time — the
stuff out of which drama is made. Whenever you are not honoring the
present moment by allowing it to be, you are creating drama.
Most people are in love with their particular life drama. Their story is
their identity. The ego runs their life. They have their whole sense of
self invested in it. Even their — usually unsuccessful — search for an
answer, a solution, or for healing becomes part of it. What they fear
and resist most is the end of their drama. As long as they are their
mind, what they fear and resist most is their own awakening.
When you live in complete acceptance of what is, that is the end of all
drama in your life. Nobody can even have an argument with you, no
matter how hard he or she tries. You cannot have an argument with a
fully conscious person. An argument implies identification with your
mind and a mental position, as well as resistance and reaction to the
other person’s position. The result is that the polar opposites become
mutually energized. These are the mechanics of unconsciousness. You
can still make your point clearly and firmly, but there will be no
reactive force behind it, no defense or attack. So it won’t turn into
drama. When you are fully conscious, you cease to be in conflict. “No
one who is at one with himself can even conceive of conflict,” states A
Course in Miracles. This refers not only to conflict with other people
but more fundamentally to conflict within you, which ceases when
there is no longer any clash between the demands and expectations
of your mind and what is.