WELCOME 9

P. 44-45  (also attached to this email or at the bottom of this blog are p. 105-108— a continuation of the material on forgiveness. As was mentioned in class, we could work with this now or wait until we get to those pages)

I have probably used this quote before, but it struck me again as I was thinking of vibration and raising vibration for ourselves as well as those around us. 

Yoda speaking of The Force: 

“Life creates it. Makes it grow. Its energy surrounds us, and binds us. Luminous beings are we, not this crude matter. You must feel the Force around you. Everywhere. Here, between you, me, the tree, the rock, everywhere. Yes, even between the land and the ship.”

We could just as easily substitute the concept of love in the quote above and think about the vibrations within and around us. You see, I choose love, I choose to hold my life and the lives of others in Truth, in love, in light. Again, we must realize this is not an emotion or passiveness or victimhood. We do whatever else it is we need to do in love, not anger, fear or retaliation.

It is the power of our intention that changes everything. Remember that wonderful Thomas Merton prayer when he states, “I believe the desired to please you does in fact please you.” Isn't that beautiful. There is no difference between the intention and the reality. So my desire to love you or to act lovingly bypasses my feelings, my desire to be right, and anything else that might get away.

“Now this, as we said, is an encoding of language that carries with it a vibrational power. When you work with this decree, you will feel the frequency of it. It will call you to it. It will call you back into present time, which is the only time you may know anything. When you are frightened of yourself, when you are in a situation you do not know what to do with, you may use these words to anchor yourself back into your vibration as your true self. You will feel the shift in vibration as you come home to your true self.”

We’ve explored that idea, but it always bears repeating, since it is so easy to get lost or trapped in our thinking minds. Sacred scriptures from many religions have been around for thousands of years. What makes them so viable is not the words, but the vibratory energy of the message!

***********

We repeated these words, “I know who you are; what you are; how you serve.” I realize that we all struggle with that one because as soon as we voice that truth, the thinking mind, the limited ego consciousness will begin to object: “How do I know? How do I know that I know? Am I just fooling myself? Am I telling myself a story, trying to convince myself of something that I don't really believe?”

Let us just turn that around for a moment. Suppose you said to yourself, “I don't know who I am; I don't know what I am; I don't know how I serve.”* Notice what happens. Instead of our ego jumping in and objecting, my inner voice, my intuitive self says, “Wait a minute, I do know who I am; I do know what I am; I do know how I serve. None of that might be provable fly external means, through the senses or even through the intellect, and yet the knowing is there.

*(There are times when this idea of “how I serve” hangs us up because we are taking it too literally. To be of service doesn’t necessarily mean being a nurse or an EMT or a teacher or whatever other service role you might think of. Simply put, being of service is dealing with whatever is put before you, and doing it with love. We already know this raises your vibration and that of all around you. In the East this kind of practice is called karma yoga. It is lovingly working with whatever shows up in your life., whether that is a spilt cup of coffee or winning the lottery.

I could even look at a personality self that I might find tremendously challenging and abrasive and say or think, “Beyond this illusion of personality, behind this mask I know lives a child of God. And we do know that.

“When you attend to your brothers in the same way, “I know who you are, what you are, how you serve,” you align their vibration to their own worth and to their own knowing, and you support them in shifting out of a paradigm of lack, of fear, of knowing not what they are but what they have been. Now the joy that you bring to your fellows as you lift them is what is sung by you as your consciousness.”

“Truth lies within ourselves; it takes no rise from outward things, whatever you may believe. There is an inmost center in us all, where truth abides in fullness and to know rather consists in opening out a way whence the imprisoned splendor may escape that in effecting entry for light supposed to be without.” – Robert Browning

I have a confession to make. Usually I can remember most of what transpired during our Sun. Morning classes, but this one just kind of flew right through me. The only conclusion I can draw from that is we experienced much more energy than words. We were all taught and healed with vibration rather than intellectual thought.

We are truly blessed.

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

p. 105-108

There are no paragraph breaks here

p. 105-108 Now, why is it you are not forgiving? Why does one not forgive? Because one is frightened of what will happen if one forgives. “I will be harmed again.” “I will be slandered.” “I will be judged.” “I will be persecuted.” “I will be used.” You have a long list, as everybody does, of reasons you must not forgive. But the ideal of forgiveness as we have expressed in previous teachings is to release the one that you hold hostage and bind yourself to. As you are willing to forgive, you may indeed be forgiven and the chapter that we would teach, on forgiveness perhaps, would come forward easily. We can only work with you as you allow yourself to be worked through. We cannot control you, nor do we intend to. This book will be completed, we promise you this. But not before you forgive yourself and your fellows for what you believe they have done. Now, when you decide that you cannot be forgiven, that you are not allowed forgiveness, you entrench yourself in a belief system that you are stuck in and cannot be changed. Not to forgive is to keep something static that seeks movement. To release something to its freedom is required. To stay in your power as the one who knows what she needs is a requirement. Now you will ask yourself this: Why do you deny forgiveness? Why is the claim on you and your fellows one to first judge and then decide if it is safe to offer forgiveness to? When you offer yourself in forgiveness, you give others opportunities to forgive you as well. When you judge yourself and give yourself permission to close a door on forgiveness, you decide in advance that there will be no forgiveness and, consequently, no movement. Now, the damage you each do to yourselves through this action or, if you would like to say, inaction, is surmountable and there is an easy way to forgive, if you will allow it, and this is to give peace, to offer peace, to claim peace in the rage, to decide in peace where there has been frustration impressed upon a situation. To deny the self, this entrenches the self. To deny this for your fellows entrenches your fellows in the same response. If you wish to move the response, you may, but you must first attend to the self. “I know who I am, I know what I am, I know how I serve” will align you to peace, if you allow it. And we must underline this, if you allow it. If you bring peace to a situation from deciding that you can allow it, you will claim peace. And as you claim peace, you express peace and you call peace to you, and that is what happens very easily as you decide you can be forgiven for judging yourself so harshly. You may decide this for your fellows as well. /Now of course we are teaching through you, Paul, because we are trying to get you to learn. As you exhibit your frustrations on those you encounter, you damn them in your own way. Do you understand this? When you are frustrated with somebody else for not adhering to what you think they should do, you are condemning them in your own way. And what gives you the right to decide for your fellows how they should be, what they must know, how they must live their lives? Now of course you may act in an awareness of others’ behavior. You may discern what is healthy and what is not for you to be in an encounter with. You may decide for yourself to maintain a friendship or to move on from it. But to condemn another, which is to decide for them and put a lid on the jar that they are in as you express yourself in authority as the one to do so, keeps them in that space in your objectification of them. They may be free as a bird in their own lives, but you hold them in this way, in your own decision about them, and you hold yourself in place as their judge. You all must understand that all that you encounter is, indeed, a reflection of your worth and when you encounter something or someone that does not merit you, that does not give you your own power, you must first ask yourself why you do not allow your own power to be perceived. Where do you have an investment still in hiding your light or seeking to claim your worth through the approval and decisions of others? If anybody can take away your worth from you, it was never yours to begin with. Do you understand this, yes? This is a very important teaching. Nobody can take your worth from you and nobody can grant it to you but you. The games you play with your fellows of who is higher and who is lower, who has this and who has that, are all temporary means of interacting based in a status quo that you have ascribed power to. It has no other power other than what you have ascribed to it. It is an illusion. It is an illusion that one may be better than another or perceived as such. In the final reckoning, you know, not only are you all equal but you are seen in your truth. And your truth, we will say, is naked and unencumbered by the things that you have amassed in this world that you use to give you power or the illusion of it. The weapons that you yield and the shields that you use to protect yourselves from your fellows are all gone and you stand with your arms extended in an awareness of who and what you have been. Now why do you need to forgive yourselves? You must forgive yourself, you know, for not knowing any better than you did at the time that you make something so. If you can do this much, you can release yourself from a magnitude of contention that you have created against the self. If you decide, right now, that every choice that you have ever made was born in awareness that you held at the moment that choice was made, you can be understanding of the way that you operated and when. If you knew now what you knew then, you may well have done differently, but you cannot know, you cannot claim what you do not know. Do you understand this, yes? So you offer yourself forgiveness by allowing for the mind to accept that its own choice was made in an understanding of a possibility that was born at a certain level of consciousness that you have moved beyond now. But to punish the self again and again, for a thing thought, a deed done, an action taken, is to harm the self again and again and the re-enactment enactment of this creates damage not only to you but for those that you encounter. Now when you offer yourself forgiveness, you must appeal to the possibility that everybody else, regardless of what you think of them, was in the same boat, choosing as they knew how based in the information they held born in their history, in the structures that they have attended to. As you respond to your own needs as one who may be forgiven, you also extend this to those around you. You cannot keep one thing hidden. You cannot keep one crime unforgiven. You might as well keep the whole thing. Do you understand this? If you have one dollar in the bank, you still have an account. When you empty the account, you no longer have it, you are free. So why do you invest, still, in those actions that would claim you back, that would call you back to your history again and again and again? There is an aspect of you, Paul, that takes pleasure in suffering. You grew up sad enough to underscore the possibility that you believe that this was who you are. And that attendance has been something that we have worked with you on effortfully for many years, and the lifting that you have done in your own vibration in support of others is a testament to this. But the memory that you hold of having been harmed and the frames that you have created that protect you from future harm are what you are attending to now. You must understand, each of you, that when you keep a frame and you keep it handy, a way of seeing the world will be made to fit the frame. The world that you hold before you is always conforming to the frame that you hold before you. So when you release that frame, you allow the new possibility to come forward. When you revert to your history, in fact what you are doing is re-creating an old frame and aligning your history to your future creations. Of course it must fit the frame. You have created the frame. You are intending that frame to be filled by what you have known. Now, how do you move beyond a lifetime of shame, of fear, of living in ways that were not for your highest good? Can a human being, in fact, be repatterned, be reborn in their own higher knowing to a peaceful way of existing? Is this possible, or is this illusion? We will tell you this: It is not only possible; it is the work we do with you, that we do with each of you as you align to us. The intention that you hold that it may be possible is what allows this to be. But the history that you have known, that you grab and you hold on to for the safety of the known is often more of a comfort than what you cannot fully hold because it has not made itself fully present, is what you are encountering when you wish to say no.

WELCOME 8

P. 42-44

There were some interesting leaps in consciousness this morning!

We began the reflection with: “When you deny the Christ in your fellows, you deny the Christ within yourself.” (or as the song states it, “You can’t hold your brother/sister in the dark and expect to see the light.”)

The thinking mind will not or cannot grasp this one because the ego and the intellect always wants to be right. There is no way that the mind can resonate with this truth.

However, the expression of this truth is what we sometimes refer to as “spiritual law.” That does not mean a command or a dictate. What it does mean is this is the way it is; this is how it works and it cannot work any other way. A simple analogy in the physical world would be one of Newton's Law’s of Motion—“For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction,” or really any other “law” of physics. They are ways of describing the way physical objects act and interact in the material world—-they cannot act any differently. 

One of the reasons why it is so easy to fall into judgment is because judgment is a natural protective mechanism of the personality self. In some ways it is a means of control, in other ways it is a reinforcement of separateness and often to it creates a false sense of superiority.

Specifically here, we are talking about judging another human being. The simple realization that we are often unaware of our own motivation, how could we possibly beware of the motivation of another? Please know this has nothing to do with victim consciousness or excusing an inexcusable behavior. There are certainly times when action is called for, and it is a deep learning to be able to act appropriately without judgment. Just saying that out loud makes me aware of how difficult that can be.

One example that I thought of that I believe we all have some awareness of. When I was growing up I often heard “Your a bad boy.” I realized today that was not necessarily the message or the totality of the message my parents were attempting to convey, but like most people of that age they did not have the words. The words or expressions that I use towards my grandchildren might sound something like this, “I do not like what you did or how you did it, but my dislike or disapproval has nothing to do with how much I love you now and will always love you.”

I often wonder what it would have been like if I could have heard and taken in that message where there would be little or no blame shame or guilt, and I would have this space and the opportunity to become aware of the motivation that was behind my action and give myself the opportunity to change it.

The guides seem to change focus here but I believe their direction will lead us exactly where we need to go.

“Now, there is a discipline at hand here and we will have to attend to that. You are not used to this. You are not worthy, in your own minds, of being forgiven, so how can you forgive your fellows? This is what you’ve been brought up with, you know. This is what you have believed, and this is what you create through.”

When I first read that passage, I was taken aback by the mention of worthiness. I did not really comprehend how worthiness fit into the picture and then I began to see.

The antidote to judgment is forgiveness. Of course, there might be a time when forgiveness is no longer needed, for there is no longer any judgments. That is not where most of us are today yet. (A Course in Miracles speaks to this through the concept of Atonement—-there will come a time when there is no need for Atonement, when there is no judgment/no sense of separation.

Why would I not be able to forgive myself?????—the only answer is, I do not experience myself as worthy of (worth) forgiveness.

You see, many of us took on these fundamental messages of “not enoughness” or guilt or shame before we could even walk or talk. They are not just ideas in our heads, they are core beliefs that have become so much a part of our being, we assume they have always been there.

We do not get rid of these just by wanting to, we practice learning to hold this little wounded part of ourselves just as we would hold a hurt or frightened child. Hold them until they heal. AND the old messages might not ever completely disappear, but as we heal, they become less important, they lose their energy to bring s down. 

Of course, I can use my proclivity for judgement as a learning experience as well—you know, the old—“you spot it; you got it.” That puts me face to ace with my shadow and the healing and acceptance it is needing. (You do not have to take the “you got it” thing too literally—for instance, if we see arrogance in another, it might not be that we are arrogant—it might be that we are covering our fear in other ways—-so it is the fear we are being asked to look at.)

I quoted from that wonderful Zen poem, the Hsin hsin Ming, in counterpoint to the words of Jesus from Matthew 7:13-14: 13 “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. 14 But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.

The Zen poem begins: “The Great Way is not difficult, for those who have no preferences.” 

It goes on to suggest, “When love and hate are both absent, everything becomes clear and undisguised. 

Make one distinction however and heaven and earth are set infinitely apart.”

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

When we explore judgment/non-judgement, it is difficult to keep the thinking mind out of the picture. It will be continually asking questions such as, “Why do bad things happen to good people,” or the reverse—“Why do good things happen to bad people?” And, then we are stuck with needing to explain all the other imbalances and uncontrollable happenings in he world.

The simplest “explanation” is that we are not limited to one lifetime here. The idea and exploration of REINCARNATION might be far beyond the scope of our study, but it is something to look at.

I will leave you with this paradox: “Can you recall a time when you were not?”

Peace 

WELCOME 7

In the past few weeks we have done a lot of stretching. We have deliberately and consciously worked on going beyond our current belief systems. These have not been simply intellectual exercises, we have literally changed the vibrational level we are operating on.

Now one of the things that happens here is that we find ourselves in a uncomfortable and perhaps even terrifying space. The solid ground we stood on a short time ago from our old belief systems is no longer there, and like a rock climber, without even knowing it, we are desperately reaching out for the next hand hold.

And so we begin to ask all of these questions: “What about this; what about that; what do we do if this happens; what do we do if that happens; how can you explain this, and on and on. This is my intellect, the attempt of my limited ego consciousness to get back in control. MY personality self does not like me being “in my knowing;” it would much rather have me be in my understanding, to be in control, to have the ability to predict what is coming next.

So here, at least in part, is our challenge— to go beyond our need to prove or understand and to be in your knowing, beyond feelings, beyond words.

On a very practical level, this means that we focus on ourselves and what we need to do or how we can become more loving, more caring, more compassionate. Prayerfully exploring how we can use the creative energy of the divine that flows through us to be able to transform this world of ours. To be able to go beyond our seemingly normal dualistic and separate mindset to a stance that embraces the truth of Oneness.

When caught up in the mind’s incessant chsatter, story-telling,  and need to control and understand, when you realize you are in that quagmire, stop for a moment; Breathe. Rely on that marvelous prayer from Emilie Cady—“God, I do not know the answer; You do. Show me.” This is not giving our power away, it is an affirmation of our own inner wisdom—that “wee small voice within,” “Be still and know..”

Be aware, life is not asking questions such as “What about this or that,” but directing me to create the space and the strength to do I need to do—“How do I raise my vibration around this; how do I open my heart. Although most of us are not called to be a Gandhi or Mother Theresa, we are, each one of us, called to create from our heart’s love rather than from fear. 

If we feel the need to protest, write letters, carry signs, donate to causes we believe in, by all means do it, but do it with love not hatred, resentment or fear.

Years ago, I became aware that whenever I am angry or outraged, if I look deep enough, I will find that something/someone I care about deeply is being threatened. So I begin to choose to focus on that which I love, and make that my direction and the source of my energy.

It was Gandhi’s love for his people and the ideal of freedom, not hatred of the British, that allowed for this transformation to take place.

Many of us find ourselves in political turmoil that is polarizing this nation even more than it was. We can stay in outrage or self-righteousness and continually experience ourselves as victim or controller, OR we can find ways of being that unique expression of the Divine—for me, at least in part, being part of this class is an aspect of my service.

Acceptance, love, surrender, are not wimpy—they are not expressions of passivity or victimhood. Just ask yourself this question—

“Do you believe in the transformational power of love?” 

One aspect many of us have experienced is the HO’OPONOPONO. If you are not familiar with that you might  want to Google it.

There is an expression I recalled for many years ago, and although the language is dualistic in form (God up there and me down here) I think you can get the message: “We need to pray as if everything depended on God, and work as if everything depended upon us.

It is a paradoxical place. On some level of our being there is nothing that needs to be done. If all is love and there is nothing else what is there to do? Then again, we are also material beings in a wounded world that seems to be intent on destroying itself. 

Because we are uniques expressions of the divine—each of us has a unique way of contributing to the solution.  Part of our spiritual journey is discovering those unique ways that we can serve. 

I know it is hard to believe, but we have actually moved from page 41 to 42.

WELCOME 6

Interesting group Sunday—lots of questions/discussion. 

I think we set a record—we covered ONE paragraph! Good thing we are not on a fixed schedule.

We began by sharing an awareness that the material we are exploring is not new and also shows up in varying different ways. Even looking back, we find that teachings of this sort existed before we even knew it. The example one of our classmates offered was watching [reruns of]the Bill Moyer’s interviews of Joseph Campbell and the discussion around mythology and the energies connected with myth. (A myth is far more than just a story; myth carries with it an energy,  a creative force. A simple example would be your astrological sign. If you are a Leo, for example, as I am, you will notice that there are certain energies, patterns of thought and behavior that help to personify you. 

You will also notice that at certain times a “story” becomes much more than a story. The early Star Wars movies are a good example of that. Harry Potter is another. The story becomes a phenomenon, an energy that many connect and identify with. It goes beyond our intellectual understanding. [Obviously, this is a very brief if and limited description.])

Before we even got into the book we begin to explore various levels of consciousness, each of which carries with it a vibration. We exist and interact on many energetic levels and one of the things we are working on is to become more aware of those energies.

I shared a model that I came across a number of years ago. 

If you could imagine that you have a channel selector on the side of your head and you could click your awareness from one channel to another, here's a way that would be like.

Channel 1 is your physical reality, where the primal energies are most in force. Here is where we are taking care of our physical needs. Hunger, food, warmth, shelter, reproduction, are all the focus of this channel.

Channel 2 is what we might call the personality channel, the soap opera channel, the story channel, all the stories we are making up about ourselves and all those around us.  This is an easy one to get lost in or to overly identify with because most of us are naturally taught to think this is who we are. You might also call this the ego channel, and when I am living from my ego people fall into three categories—those I am controlling, those who are trying to control me, and those that are irrelevant. Power, Control, Drama are all part of living in this reality of channel 2.

When I flip into channel 3, I begin to realize that life is bigger than my overly simplistic story. This is what is sometimes termed the mythological realm. It is a bridge to the spiritual, but not quite there yet. We still see ourselves as individuals, but it is more as the hero or a heroine on a quest, a prince or princess seeking a lost love. (In some more “primitive” cultures as you reach a certain angel, you become a crone, a wise woman, or a grandfather, not in the literal sense, but as a keeper of the tribes wisdom and history.)  I find myself living out a role much bigger than my personality self, and if I am willing to, I see you doing that as well. There is quite a bit of creativity and creative energy that flows from this awareness. There is a connectedness with other beings on this channel that has not been previously part of our awareness.

And then we moved to channel4. This is a place where are sense of the spiritual deeply connects. It is from this awareness that we can love, show compassion. We begin to realize that even though we are on unique journeys and that each one of us is a unique expression of the Divine, that we are also linked together with the sense of oneness. That our purpose no matter what personality we might be wearing is the same–to love as deeply as possible and to identify with the divine than we are as the essence of our truth. I believe mother Theresa expressed this beautifully when she described her job, her mission on earth, “to see Christ in all his distressing disguises.”

(I might note here that we occupy all those channels simultaneously, it is our awareness, constricted or expanded that makes the difference.)

Even though this was not a planned part of our book discussion it does fit in, giving us a model for awareness and a way of being able to identify when we are in lower vibration or limited awareness of the truth of who we are. 

I also became aware that another word or term or explanation for what is referred to as “illusion” would also be the concept of limitation. When I am looking at you or me in limitation I am in illusion. In other words, I am not seeing you or myself the way we truly are.

A few weeks ago I came across this idea: “We all know the truth of who we are, but we just don't completely believe it yet.” How do we know that? Simply put, the world would be a very different place if we all believed the truth of who we are.

The thought also occurred to me that the only reason I can think of, at the moment, of why we would not fully believe the truth of who we are, is that somehow or another the thought or the energy of unworthiness still remains. Like a dandelion whose roots go deeply within the earth, we can keep pulling them up but unless we get to the roots it will keep growing back.

Now here is our dilemma, I do not dig up the roots of my unworthiness through my personality self. That is just an impossible task. It's apples and oranges; it doesn't work. The only way I can up root my unworthiness this through my divine self and identifying wiht my Divine Self, which doesn't have any unworthiness about it at all.

The only way I know how to deal with this is through a continuing act of surrender. “See me, feel me, touch me, heal me, guide me, love me.” That is one of my prayers. Another is “Lord that I may see” that I may see myself as You see me. Or in words we are more familiar with—“May I see myself with the eyes of the Christ,” and, of course, when I see myself with the eyes of the Christ, I see all other beings that way as well.

Along similar lines, an interesting question came up about this sense of worthiness. A classmate described  having a good sense of their own worthiness, but having a difficult time seeing some others as worthy as well. Here is another of those “sneaky” pieces of awareness that shows up every once in a while.

Let me give you an example of my own. A Course in Miracles suggests that every human interaction is either an “act of love or cry for help.” The way I initially interpreted that was that I was in charge of deciding whether this other person was either in an active love or a cry for help. I did not realize it but that was my personality self’s interpretation. If I see you as helpless or hurt or angry or lost or  confused, I am actually seeing you through my own sense of limitation. In other words, I am not seeing you as you truly are. I am the one who is crying for help, because I am seeing with the eyes of limitation.

Another example of that comes from scripture is a brief parable that Jesus spoke called “The Publican and the Pharisee.” Rather than paraphrase, let me quote it here for you:

“He spoke also this parable to certain people who were convinced of their own righteousness, and who despised all others. "Two men went up into the temple to pray; one was a Pharisee, and the other was a tax collector. The Pharisee stood and prayed to himself like this: 'God, I thank you, that I am not like the rest of men, extortioners, unrighteous, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week. I give tithes of all that I get.' But the tax collector, standing far away, wouldn't even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, 'God, be merciful to me, a sinner!' I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but he who humbles himself will be exalted."

— Luke 18:9-14, World English Bible

Now there is a real catch to this story. Everyone wishes to identify with the humility of the publican, which is fine, but what we are saying without realizing that is “Thank God I'm not like that Pharisee over there.” So here we are falling into that same trap of judgment we were wanting to avoid!

The truth we are dealing with here is that either I hold everyone in the light or no one. This is one of those few absolutely clear cut  decisions. As a line from the song goes “You can't hold your brother in the dark and expect to see the light.”

Thank you all for walking each other home.

Interesting group Sunday—lots of questions/discussion. 

I think we set a record—we covered ONE paragraph! Good thing we are not on a fixed schedule.

We began by sharing an awareness that the material we are exploring is not new and also shows up in varying different ways. Even looking back, we find that teachings of this sort existed before we even knew it. The example one of our classmates offered was watching [reruns of]the Bill Moyer’s interviews of Joseph Campbell and the discussion around mythology and the energies connected with myth. (A myth is far more than just a story; myth carries with it an energy,  a creative force. A simple example would be your astrological sign. If you are a Leo, for example, as I am, you will notice that there are certain energies, patterns of thought and behavior that help to personify you. 

You will also notice that at certain times a “story” becomes much more than a story. The early Star Wars movies are a good example of that. Harry Potter is another. The story becomes a phenomenon, an energy that many connect and identify with. It goes beyond our intellectual understanding. [Obviously, this is a very brief if and limited description.])

Before we even got into the book we begin to explore various levels of consciousness, each of which carries with it a vibration. We exist and interact on many energetic levels and one of the things we are working on is to become more aware of those energies.

I shared a model that I came across a number of years ago. 

If you could imagine that you have a channel selector on the side of your head and you could click your awareness from one channel to another, here's a way that would be like.

Channel 1 is your physical reality, where the primal energies are most in force. Here is where we are taking care of our physical needs. Hunger, food, warmth, shelter, reproduction, are all the focus of this channel.

Channel 2 is what we might call the personality channel, the soap opera channel, the story channel, all the stories we are making up about ourselves and all those around us.  This is an easy one to get lost in or to overly identify with because most of us are naturally taught to think this is who we are. You might also call this the ego channel, and when I am living from my ego people fall into three categories—those I am controlling, those who are trying to control me, and those that are irrelevant. Power, Control, Drama are all part of living in this reality of channel 2.

When I flip into channel 3, I begin to realize that life is bigger than my overly simplistic story. This is what is sometimes termed the mythological realm. It is a bridge to the spiritual, but not quite there yet. We still see ourselves as individuals, but it is more as the hero or a heroine on a quest, a prince or princess seeking a lost love. (In some more “primitive” cultures as you reach a certain angel, you become a crone, a wise woman, or a grandfather, not in the literal sense, but as a keeper of the tribes wisdom and history.)  I find myself living out a role much bigger than my personality self, and if I am willing to, I see you doing that as well. There is quite a bit of creativity and creative energy that flows from this awareness. There is a connectedness with other beings on this channel that has not been previously part of our awareness.

And then we moved to channel4. This is a place where are sense of the spiritual deeply connects. It is from this awareness that we can love, show compassion. We begin to realize that even though we are on unique journeys and that each one of us is a unique expression of the Divine, that we are also linked together with the sense of oneness. That our purpose no matter what personality we might be wearing is the same–to love as deeply as possible and to identify with the divine than we are as the essence of our truth. I believe mother Theresa expressed this beautifully when she described her job, her mission on earth, “to see Christ in all his distressing disguises.”

(I might note here that we occupy all those channels simultaneously, it is our awareness, constricted or expanded that makes the difference.)

Even though this was not a planned part of our book discussion it does fit in, giving us a model for awareness and a way of being able to identify when we are in lower vibration or limited awareness of the truth of who we are. 

I also became aware that another word or term or explanation for what is referred to as “illusion” would also be the concept of limitation. When I am looking at you or me in limitation I am in illusion. In other words, I am not seeing you or myself the way we truly are.

A few weeks ago I came across this idea: “We all know the truth of who we are, but we just don't completely believe it yet.” How do we know that? Simply put, the world would be a very different place if we all believed the truth of who we are.

The thought also occurred to me that the only reason I can think of, at the moment, of why we would not fully believe the truth of who we are, is that somehow or another the thought or the energy of unworthiness still remains. Like a dandelion whose roots go deeply within the earth, we can keep pulling them up but unless we get to the roots it will keep growing back.

Now here is our dilemma, I do not dig up the roots of my unworthiness through my personality self. That is just an impossible task. It's apples and oranges; it doesn't work. The only way I can up root my unworthiness this through my divine self and identifying wiht my Divine Self, which doesn't have any unworthiness about it at all.

The only way I know how to deal with this is through a continuing act of surrender. “See me, feel me, touch me, heal me, guide me, love me.” That is one of my prayers. Another is “Lord that I may see” that I may see myself as You see me. Or in words we are more familiar with—“May I see myself with the eyes of the Christ,” and, of course, when I see myself with the eyes of the Christ, I see all other beings that way as well.

Along similar lines, an interesting question came up about this sense of worthiness. A classmate described  having a good sense of their own worthiness, but having a difficult time seeing some others as worthy as well. Here is another of those “sneaky” pieces of awareness that shows up every once in a while.

Let me give you an example of my own. A Course in Miracles suggests that every human interaction is either an “act of love or cry for help.” The way I initially interpreted that was that I was in charge of deciding whether this other person was either in an active love or a cry for help. I did not realize it but that was my personality self’s interpretation. If I see you as helpless or hurt or angry or lost or  confused, I am actually seeing you through my own sense of limitation. In other words, I am not seeing you as you truly are. I am the one who is crying for help, because I am seeing with the eyes of limitation.

Another example of that comes from scripture is a brief parable that Jesus spoke called “The Publican and the Pharisee.” Rather than paraphrase, let me quote it here for you:

“He spoke also this parable to certain people who were convinced of their own righteousness, and who despised all others. "Two men went up into the temple to pray; one was a Pharisee, and the other was a tax collector. The Pharisee stood and prayed to himself like this: 'God, I thank you, that I am not like the rest of men, extortioners, unrighteous, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week. I give tithes of all that I get.' But the tax collector, standing far away, wouldn't even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, 'God, be merciful to me, a sinner!' I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but he who humbles himself will be exalted."

— Luke 18:9-14, World English Bible

Now there is a real catch to this story. Everyone wishes to identify with the humility of the publican, which is fine, but what we are saying without realizing that is “Thank God I'm not like that Pharisee over there.” So here we are falling into that same trap of judgment we were wanting to avoid!

The truth we are dealing with here is that either I hold everyone in the light or no one. This is one of those few absolutely clear cut  decisions. As a line from the song goes “You can't hold your brother in the dark and expect to see the light.”

Thank you all for walking each other home.