This post was originally published for the Course in Miracles Society in 2011.
I am a big fan of Lady Gaga. I love her for her messages of choosing love, acceptance and non-judgment, over hate, exclusion, and judgment. And I believe she often listens to her Inner Guidance System, which is what “A Course in Miracles” (ACIM) is teaching us to do.
Being that my operating system is A Course in Miracles “one-point-0,” I tend to look at everything through the lens of ACIM. When I first watched Lady Gaga’s video, “Judas,” I didn’t get it. But as I watched it over and over through my ACIM lens, I ended up being moved to tears. If you haven’t seen it check it out on YouTube:
To me, the lyrics of “Judas” speak to the state we find ourselves in this world. The song is about the split we feel in deciding between truth versus illusion, or love versus fear. We know that it is love that is good for us, and yet, we persist in choosing fear. In the song, Jesus represents love, truth, and Oneness. Judas represents the ego, which, according to the Course, is the part of our mind that WANTS to be separate from Oneness. Another way to describe the ego is fear.
“I wanna love you,
but something’s pulling me away from you,
Jesus is my virtue,
but Judas is the demon I cling to” – Lady Gaga’s “Judas”
Our true state is one of Love. We are eternal, and we are One. And yet, according to “A Course in Miracles” we had the “tiny mad idea” that we wanted to experience ourselves as separate from our Source. And so we chose to enter earth school – this state of seeming separation that we believe is really happening.
We chose to listen to the ego rather than to Love. And so the ego coaxes us to follow it, but all it offers us is dissatisfaction, loneliness, and pain. We know that Love is our virtue and will make us happy, and yet we cling to the ego to hide from Love. We really believe the ego has something to offer us.
“I’m just a holy fool, and baby it’s so cruel
but I’m still in love with Judas, baby.” – Lady Gaga’s “Judas”
We are holy fools! The Course constantly likens us to spiritual children. We think we know everything. We think we know what is best for us. We think we know what makes us happy. And we think a love affair with the ego brings joy. Yet, we’re mistaken. Nothing here in this world really satisfies us or lasts forever.
The ego’s motto is, “Seek but do not find” (~ACIM).
How many times have we said, “when I get that better relationship, then I will be happy” or “when I get that new job, or those new clothes, then I will be happy.” When we achieve that which we were after, maybe we’re satisfied for a minute. Then we’re off searching for the next thing.
The only true place to find happiness is within. Nothing outside of us can make us happy. The only thing that will really satisfy us is our connection to Spirit. With that comes a knowing of WHO we really are – that we are love, we are never alone, we are whole, and eternal. Being a channel for Love is what will make us happy.
And then the ego sings:
“I’ll bring him down, bring him down, down.
A king with no crown, king with no crown.” – Lady Gaga’s “Judas”
When I intently watched the video and listened to the lyrics, seeing the forceful swoop of the dancers hands as they motioned bringing Jesus “down” I couldn’t help but feel emotional. In Jesus’ example, his persecutors (those who were identified with their ego) wanted to bring him (Love) down.
Yet, we still do this over and over every day when we choose to listen to our egos and block out the Voice of Love. Judging one another and attacking one another are all various forms of wanting to bring love down. They are not acts of love, they are calls for love.
According to ACIM, the ego is not our friend. The ego actively wants to keep love out. It doesn’t want you looking within, because if we really find what we are, which is love, we would stop believing in the ego. So the ego wants to take down Love. It wants to kill it.
“The ego is therefore capable of suspiciousness at best, and viciousness at worst” (~ACIM).
And yet, the Course also teaches that the ego is really nothing, and it is certainly nothing to be afraid of! It is just a dream with no power to change love at all.
“Where there was darkness now we see the light. What is the ego? What the darkness was. Where is the ego? Where the darkness was. What is it now and where can it be found? Nothing and nowhere. Now the light has come…” – A Course in Miracles
Where love is, the ego is not. And when we choose to identify with Love, the ego has no power over us. This makes me think of this “Judas” lyric:
“Forgive him when his tongue lies through his brain
Even after 3 times, he betrays me” – Lady Gaga’s “Judas”
Jesus forgave everyone. Even his crucifiers. The ego’s actions had no power over him.
I watched a documentary on the Gospel of Judas recently, and was struck to learn that according to that gospel, Jesus instructed Judas on what his part would be. According to this gospel, Jesus actually told Judas that he should turn him in. Judas had a key role to play, so Jesus could demonstrate with an extreme example that love, which is what we are, cannot be destroyed.
In the Course, Jesus states:
“I elected, for your sake and mine, to demonstrate that the most outrageous assault, as judged by the ego, does not matter.”
No matter what awful picture the body seems to go through, Jesus’ resurrection showed us that we cannot kill love nor destroy true Life.
We are not asked to be crucified. We are simply asked, in much less extreme situations, to be willing to see with the vision of Love, rather than with fear. We cannot choose to see with love on our own, we need to call upon our Inner Guide that is within each and every one of us, for help. This Inner Guide knows the way to love. We don’t. Learning to remove the blocks that we’ve put up to love and discover the beauty that is already within each of us what “A Course in Miracles” is all about.
