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Soulmate, Myself:
Omega Point

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Elenchus. A long time ago I read Reminiscences, the autobiography of General Douglas MacArthur. I’ve forgotten much of it, but I still recall his comment as an old man. As if to hold up his life for inspection to a judgmental father, he questioned, to the effect, “What do you think, Governor?”

Kairissi. Was he trying to please his father with his life?

E. I think that was in the back of his mind. Let me also say that my reference to MacArthur is not meant to be pejorative in any way. He was one of the great men of the twentieth century, but for whose service the flickering flame of personal freedom would have been snuffed out by Dear Leaders and their totalitarianism.

K. MacArthur is one of those swashbuckling actors on the world stage.

E. And yet even a charismatic figure, one to whom we owe much, might fall prey to trying to please the memory of a childhood authoritarian. One is given the sense that MacArthur had never forgotten a certain harsh evaluation from his father.

K. “You’ll never amount to much,” “Why can’t you be more like your brother?” – that sort of thing.

E. I think he was trying to overcome an element of low expectation from his dad.

K. And if this is the case, if the inner-child feels threatened in this way, then the son’s actions, even as an old man, might constitute a form of self-defense.

E. The Course In Miracles suggests as much. Our discussion at hand is based on the author’s writing in the “small quiet room” book, and our readers are encouraged to review that article before proceeding here.

K. That article featured Lesson #23 in the Course’s “Workbook,” coming with the headline, “I can escape from the world I see by giving up attack thoughts.”

E. Our purpose, in reference to “Omega,” is to talk about aspects of mature love and marriage. But the Course insists that mature action of any kind will not be possible until we give up our attack thoughts; that is, until we stop defending ourselves, even when no one pursues.

K. Like MacArthur defending himself against a father who was long dead.

E. We all do this, in various guises and forms. The Course goes so far as to say that all of our perceptions – until we gain a level of spiritual maturity – all of our thoughts, at core, will represent a form of attack thought, a form of defending ourselves against perceived threats.

K. It sounds like a blanket statement that attempts to cover too much. Is it really true that the unenlightened mind is totally saturated with attack thoughts?

E. We’ll need to investigate, but, if it is true, then it means that John and Mary come together on a basis of satisfying attack thoughts; that, their relationship becomes a form of defending oneself.

K. Well, let’s try to make sense of this. The unenlightened state is managed totally by the ego. And the ego lives by the philosophy “I don’t have enough” because “I am not enough.”

E. It sees scarcity everywhere. The glass is always half empty.

K. If one lives in a perceived world of limited resources and “never enough,” then this systemic sense of poverty will undoubtedly affect the process of John and Mary’s coming together.

E. They’re helpless to avoid the influence. We're all influenced, but John and Mary reveal the fallout in the arena of egoic love and marriage.

K. “The Wedding Song” says a lot about their agenda. They’re looking for someone to “make me happy.”

E. The ego’s world is not happy, it sees only lack and penury, and so John and Mary can’t help themselves but to view each other as potential pleasure sources, an escape from the inner disquietude.

K. Of course, we all want to be happy, and even the enlightened seek for this in love and marriage. But, the difference is, when the ego runs things, everything is colored with a sense of “not enough.”

E. Let’s think about the issue of attack thought and defending oneself. How might this affect John and Mary?

K. Well, one thing, their soliloquies on the morning of their wedding help us to understand. Let’s consider their words in a new light. See what they’re really saying. I think their self-talk can be divided into two main categories: (1) each is trying to live up to the expectations of parents, peer group, and church.

E. They’re defending themselves against assault. Society at large has judged what they should do and be in order to live as a good person, and they’re reacting to this verdict.

K. Another part of their inner dialogue, (2) addresses the ego’s sense of “I don’t have enough” and “I’ll be miserable unless some external other can make me happy.”

E. They think they’re making choices for their lives, independent, objective choices, but they’re not really choosing at all. They’re just being driven by the “html programming” of the ego, prior conditioning, and society's definitions of morality.

K. John and Mary are defending themselves against threats to their own ego-images. And when you feel under attack, one’s course of action narrows and becomes restricted.

E. Kriss, explain to everyone the practical effect for John and Mary concerning all this self-defense and attack thought.

K. The bottom-line quickly devolves to this: A mind perpetually engaged in self-defense and attack-thought has no hope of finding the Sacred Beloved, the Twin Soul. That true one could be around you right now, or could have been near in earlier times, but you would never know it. Eyes are blinded by a spirit of protecting oneself against all manner of threat.

E. The Course In Miracles states “I can escape from the world I see by giving up attack thoughts.” What does this mean for John and Mary?

K. If you enter the marriage-seeking process while in the “defense mode” of “there are threats everywhere to my goal of happiness,” then one's internal guidance system will be well offline. Mary will not perceive that John is “not the one” when he comes along because her judgment has been clouded by attack thoughts and self-defense.

E. Stated another way, if we focus only on one's inner neediness, if we're driven by fears of "I'll never find happiness, so I've got to do this now", then we're going to make mistakes.

K. In that frantic frame of mind, we have no hope of achieving the lofty Omega-Point love and marriage. Our “spiritual radar” must be intact. Until Mary comes into receipt of such, she’ll be much better off living alone – because if she proceeds ill-advisedly, all she’ll accomplish is creating more suffering for her life.

E. Marry in haste, repent at leisure.