I KNOW WHO I AM 3

P. 23-25

(from p. 22) This paragraph deserves repeating:

“The creations you have known up until today have been made by you to know yourselves, to decide for yourselves that you may be on this journey. So we ask you to thank them all, to thank everything in your life up until now, every piece of heart, every piece of pain, every joy, every love, every thought that has brought you to this moment. Our choice for you is to hear you as you sing, and as you sing you lift, and as you lift you agree to align to your true self: “I know who I am, I know what I am, I know how I serve.”

The following passage from THE BOOK OF LOVE AND CREATION

“We want to give you permission now to design a life that you want. But we want this life to be in construction with the needs of your Divine Self. So much of what you’ve created in your life, thus far, has been created out of patterning that you have designed in response to the cultural mandates and the familial requirements that you were embedded with through your raising. And we will tell you this: The alignment to those doctrines, to those beliefs, to those requirements that you have chosen to create your life through will be coming up for examination as part of this process.

If we were to give you full permission today to say, “I can have this exactly as I want it”—and we are talking right now of a future creation, a future life you would design for yourself, it would be ninety percent born out of those beliefs of what you think you should be, you should have, and you should want. This is a promise to you.

So you are going to be very surprised as you revisit the exercise you did earlier to discover that what you will create in your new identity as your Christed Self, the Divine Self, will be a radical departure from anything you could have imagined. You each wonder why you don’t have the things you say you want. In fact, you have everything you’ve created, and you have designed that thing, that creation, that life, in response to those requirements that you have been given by your parents, by your society, by everything you’ve ever inhabited in consciousness and believed to be true.”

As I am approaching this lesson today, I find myself attempting to separate the human and the Divine in my mind. I realize that is what my mind does when it is trying to figure something out—it attempts to reduce everything to the least common denominator, or to divide things up and explain things piece y piece. BUT what I discover when I am doing this is I am creating another duality, another sense of separateness.

The human aspect of me, which is my vehicle of expression (the expression of the Divine) does not have to be looked upon as being separate from my Divine self. As we have discovered many times, our language is insufficient when attempting to communicate deeper truths. When we use the word “vehicle”, we create an image, but the image is usually one of separateness. I am not my car, for example. Now here is where we run into some snags. I know I am not my body, I am not my personality, but these aspects of self are essential to my expression of the Divine that I truly am. How can I separate my Divine self from the expression of my Divine self????? I can’t.

It becomes even more paradoxical when I begin to realize that when I hold myself in limitation, my expression of the Divine is also held in limitation. That simple and direct formula we have used and spoken of in different ways can be quite helpful here: “Are the thoughts I am thinking/holding onto or the actions I am contemplating, are they an expression of my Divine Nature or something else?”

“Now the new level of response that we would offer you, “I know who I am,” does not preclude laughter or tears.”

I am reminded of the story of the teacher who heard that his master had passed away. He immediately made arrangements to go to the burial service and many of his students volunteered to go with him. When they reached the funeral grounds the teacher went to the grave of his master and sat there and cried.

His students were scandalized. They said, "Is not our teacher a master of detachment and balance, and here he is crying. One of his students was brave enough to confront him and say, “Master why are you crying?” and his answer was simple, “Because I am sad.” (It is neither a denial of his humanity or Divinity, nor is it putting one above the other. 

We do not need to analyze that story. Just sit with it for a moment and let it speak to you.

This is a good lesson for many of these teachings. If puzzled, confused, or doubtful, just simply sit with the sentence or the paragraph and let it speak to you. There will be times when it has nothing to say and so you move on. No judgment, no condemnation of self, simply the reflection in faith that I have what I need from this piece of wisdom even if I am not conscious of it, and more will be revealed to me in my openness and my experience.

“As you align to the Christ as your true self, “I know who I am, I know what I am, I know how I serve,” you decide anew that this is you in manifestation. As we said yesterday, who you are is who you say you are, and your dominion always is claimed by you with this intention. You are in resonance with your claim of truth, and your expression directs it to you as a response to what you have stated.”

We ended our class with that wonderful Sufi expression, “The pickpocket look at the Saint, and all he saw were pockets.” 

(Suggestion: Don’t try to figure it out—sit with it; let it speak to you).

I KNOW WHO I AM 2

P. 20-23

When I state the truth, “I know who I am; I know what I am; I know how I serve,” it is difficult, if not impossible to backtrack, and that is a challenge. I cant; say “I know who I am” at one moment then say “I am my story, or my history,” or any other labels. Once I have known myself in a deep way, beyond words, I cannot take it back. I can pretend; I can make believe, but the truth will always remain beyond my denial. 

I am a unique expression of the Divine Spirit. Now I may become lost in some of my roles or labels, but when I remember again to remind myself of the truth of who I am, I allow that Divine/Christ Consciousness within me to shine forth again.

As the guides made reference to “singing your song” and aligning to the vibration of a new creation I was reminded of this song. There are several versions. you might want to Youtube it. I originally heard it years ago as a Quaker Hymn. 

How Can I Keep from Singing

Song by Audrey Assad

Lyrics

My life flows on in endless song;

Above earth's lamentation,

I hear the sweet, though far-off hymn

That hails a new creation.

Through all the tumult and the strife,

I hear that music ringing

It finds an echo in my soul

How can I keep from singing?

What though my joys and comforts die?

I know my Savior liveth

What though the darkness gather round?

Songs in the night he giveth.

No storm can shake my inmost calm

While to that refuge clinging

Since Christ is Lord of heaven and earth

How can I keep from singing?

I lift my eyes, the cloud grows thin

I see the blue above it

And day by day this pathway smooths,

Since first I learned to love it,

The peace of Christ makes fresh my heart

A fountain ever springing

For all things are mine since I am his

How can I keep from singing?

No storm can shake my inmost calm

While to that refuge clinging

Since Christ is Lord of heaven and earth

How can I keep from singing?

We also spent some time exploring this wonderful idea that the written word can also be a vehicle for vibrational energy.

Along with this book, there are many other examples: the compendium of sacred literature continues to inspire after thousands of years—there must be something there beyond words. Children’s literature, especially wha tI call “kid’s books for adults:” such as The Velveteen Rabbit, The Little Prince, Wind in the Willows, etc. have the ability to transcend just the words and open us to a deeper reality/vibration.

Not only literature does this, but also, music, art, and even our awareness of nature itself can raise our vibration in ways that we might not have even thought of.

How about experimenting this week to discover or rediscover what raises your vibration.

After sharing with you all this morning (and I so appreciate you allowing me to do so), I became aware of a lesson that was staring me in the face. DUH!

A major aspect of the reading today emphasized how we can become lost in the rules, regulations, and dictates of the society we live in, and presume we are making free choices when in reality we are simply responding the way we think we “should.”

You might recall I was describing myself as being a real “homebody.” I feel safe and comfortable in my own space and having my “stuff” around me where I can play music, write music, work on Photoshop, do my reading and writing, etc. and all of that is true, BUT what I realized was that I was writing a script of LIMITATION.

Translating that into words, the story I was spinning was, “I can only write my music, prepare my classes, etc. if I am at home in a “safe place.” Do you get what a limited space I created, and how I limited my creativity by doing so? Now I am sure I did not invent that script, but I certainly bought into it. I bought into it so deeply that I believed it is true.

I imagined or thought that somehow my creativity was dependent on my being in a particular place! It would be like thinking since I have a KY. Driver’s License that once I cross over to Indiana that I can’t drive anymore!

I must say, it seems much easier sometimes to live in these self-imposed restrictions than it is to take responsibility for my life. 

“The conditioned responses you have known yourself through, in many ways, give you an appearance of choice, but in fact, they have been chosen for you.”

Peace.

Again, my heartfelt gratitude to you all for your love, care and support.

I KNOW WHO I AM 1

p. 17-20

Just a note, and hopefully a clarification. It came up a number of classes ago: “I don’t know who I am.” And we all agreed that’s OK. It is a way of letting go of the intellect and dropping the attempt to define ourselves with the thinking mind. At the same time, we have repeated the teaching/learning mantra, “I know who I am; I know what I am; I know how I serve. “

There does not have to be a conflict; you can “know” who you are without words and beyond words. When we say, “I know who I am,” we are not speaking of a definition here, it is more of an affirmation of Truth. Can you get the difference?

********************

Are there many Christs or just One?

Each one of us is a unique expression of the Christ. The body, the ego, and the personality self are the vehicle or the lenses through which the Christ light shines. 

It was not the Buddha being Christ, or Gandhi being Christ or even Jesus being Christ; it was Christ expressing itself as Buddha, or Gandhi or Jesus or Peace Pilgrim or Mother Theresa or you and me.

A simple yet profound question we can ask ourselves, “Is this thought or this action an expression of the Christ?

*********

This sentence at the end of the MIDDLE paragraph on p. 18 really moved me.

  “The hunger you hold in your souls to be remembered, to be held again in the body of All is what is being agreed to.”

(I think there needs to be a comma after the word “All”—it just makes the reading of the sentence smoother.)

By this time, I think all of us can recognize the “hunger we hold in our souls.” In the past I have responded to that hunger by eating a pint of ice cream or going shopping or indulging another one of my appetites. 

We are being asked here to be aware of what is it that I am really after, what is the true desire of my heart?

A way to summarize a major theme of this section is to begin to realize we spend much of our life in “robot mode.” We just sort of float along with all these preconceived notions of who we are and what we do with very little, if any, thought. 

Now that does not necessarily mean that we have to break all the molds, and not go to work tomorrow, or park our cars in the middle of the street. What it does mean is that we practice awareness, consciousness in what we are doing. When I am conscious I can consecrate and make holy even the most mundane thought or action.

Eg. walking up the stairs— I can be grateful that I can walk up the stairs; I can be grateful that there are stairs.

That wonderful quote from Thich Neymar’s Han—“When you are doing the dishes, imagine that every dish is a little baby Buddha!”

“What we will do with you now is take you outside of your history. Take you outside of the name you were born with and take you to a new place of creation. On the count of three what we are going to do is move the frequency of this text to align you to a new creation. And the creation we align you to is yourself in love, as love, with love and in accordance with all the love that is.”

Although this sounds like “magic” it is not. First, keep in mind the work we do on the inner plane transcends time and space. Just because the guides might have dictated this to Paul a few years ago is irrelevant. The guides, the authors of this text are with each one of us RIGHT NOW. And we are also speaking here of vibration. It is not as if you are a pitcher waiting to be filled up, more like a tuning fork opening up to a higher level of vibration. That higher vibration is already present,  we just have not been open to it yet.

Or look at the teachings of Jesus, Buddha or any other saintly incarnation. You read the words, yes, but their meaning, to your soul, not only transcends time and space, but even goes beyond the words themselves. The vibration of these truths is still here, always here.

Again, I share with you my deep appreciation for this worked we are doing together.

Peace

  

INTRODUCTION 5

P. 10-13

Missed your physical presence on Easter Sunday, and I am also very grateful for your presence in our hearts.

A while ago I expressed how beautiful this last section is. To me it is one of those passages I could sit and meditate with for quite some time. (perhaps a lifetime or two)

There are many ways of expressing the truth, especially the truth who you are, and there are some expressions that will just pop out and capture our attention. I believe this phenomenon happens because of the state of mind or consciousness we happen to be in. 

There are also times when we read a passage for the umpteenth time, but this time, however, it is like a bell goes off and we really get it! That is because we have absorbed or integrated some life experience that allows us to see differently. We might not even be consciously aware of the the experience, but it has somehow changed us and transformed our perception.

“Do you want this?” We are asked. Of course, we answer, “Yes.” But do we really. If we “kinda sorta” want it, then we will kinda sorta get it.

There is a story… A young devotee questioned his guru by asking, “How do I know that my desire for God, for love, is my deepest wish?:

The guru took his disciple to a nearby lake, walked into the water until it was about to chest deep, then grabbed a hold of the student’s head and pushed it down into the water. The teacher held it there as the poor young man thrashed around and then finally released his grip. When the student finally stopped gasping for breath, he angrily turned on his teacher and said, “What are you insane?”

The teacher calmly replied, “When you yearn for God as deeply as you yearned for that next breath then you will know you are on the path.”

I have found that story to be both beautiful and disturbing. Very rarely, in my life, have I desired anything that deeply!

BUT then agin we must remember we are not speaking about human emotions here; we are not speaking of drama; we are not speaking of the impossible.

When we become aware our heart energy, the energy of love, grace, truth within us, we can also begin to listen to its calling. The “wee small voice” as softly as it might whisper can also be very, very clear. When we cut through all the “stuff” we become aware of our heart’s desire—-to be at peace, to be in love, to release all forms of dualism and separation, to be ONE.

Here in our study, our work together, we have a tune, a song that is sung by all sorts of wondrous beings and it is almost as if they are saying—“We will sing your song for you until you are able to sing it yourself. We will hold the truth of who you are until you are able to hold it for yourselves. We will hold your Light until you are able to hold it for yourselves, until you are free from the fear that might tell you act you will be burnt or blinded.

“You cannot think a thing and not align to it. The thought is what aligns you. The broadcast you play as the radio you are is your expression. If you do not like the radio station that you are expressing, it is time to change the channel, and we are giving you the tools to do that.”

You cannot pretend to go outside and not be in the sunshine.

It reminds me too of that simple formula: “Is the thought you are holding onto or the action you are contemplating—does it on you heart or close your heart; is it an expression of love or fear; does it raise your vibration or lower it?”

“You must open to the possibility in order to change what you have known. This is the awakening. We are saying yes to you, to each of you, to each one of you as you say yes to yourselves:

“I know who I am in my worth, I know what I am in my worth, I know how I serve in my worth.”

Even in this most powerful of teachings, we are not judged or commanded to do anything, simply open ourselves to the POSSIBILITY of being able to embrace our Divine Being.

I will leave this last piece to your own musings:

“The song has begun! The orchestra is prepared! The music is open to be read! And the vibration is high! We sing with you now! We welcome you to the new text, to the new adventure in your worth, to all that may be called to you and all that will be left behind! We sing your song with you, and together we join the world in its awakening.

We thank you for your presence. We will speak to you soon. Good night.”

Peace