THIS INCARNATION 11A

A few statements ot ponder: 

“Finally I am coming to the conclusion that my highest ambition is to be what I already am. That I will never fulfill my obligation to surpass myself unless I first accept myself, and if I accept myself fully in the right way, I will already have surpassed myself.” Thomas Merton (Here is a marvelous, paradoxical thought combining aspects of the personality and Divine self in a way that only the soul can understand.)

"I am this emptiness, silence, the absolutely real, eternal, omnipresent Being and the only Real Substance of all the universe." 

And a wonderful contribution from one of our classmates from Alan Watts:

“The ‘thinker’ is just another thought!”

P. 103-104

It appears that much of our confusion and sometime difficulties flow from our continuing identification with the personality self. Again we must emphasize that we are not denying this aspect of the self, but we are emphasizing the awareness that this personality/ego self is not who you are. Essentially it is a construct of ideas and beliefs and labels that we have collected over this lifetime and perhaps many others. Some of these labels and beliefs we have adopted from other people or institutions such as family, church, and school. Others we have “invented” ourselves, but they all contribute to this sense of a separate identity, and it is here we have missed the mark. If we were to take a moment to look at the pure intention or purpose of Spirit/our Divine Self/Christ consciousness, it would inform us that the creation of the ego or the personality self was a way of forming a unique vehicle through which the Divine could be expressed. It was never meant to be separate or isolated.

Another aspect of the personality or the ego self is also the intellect and the five senses through which it learns. This is the way the small self or the personality self learns and knows. Just as the personality or ego thinks it is separate, so does the intellect also think that it is the only way of knowing.

Because most of us begin life by being told who we are by people who don't know who they are, we begin by identifying with the ego/personality self and its primary vehicle for knowing which is the intellect, the thinking mind. It is only when we have reached a point of realizing the insufficiency of this created mechanism of personality for satisfying or filling our spiritual needs that we begin to look and seek elsewhere for our nurturing and our sustenance.

Here again most of us miss the mark because as we begin to look elsewhere, we begin to look outside of ourselves thinking that the answer is out there someplace. It is like that old parable of the Gods: 

   

“After the world was fashioned the gods looked upon it and saw that “it was good,” and then sensed there was something more to do. They decided to conceive a creation such as themselves, and they would place some of their divinity inside each new being. So humankind was formed, and divinity placed in each new life. For some time everyone recognized this divine and sacred nature within themselves and one another, but then people started to forget and began treating themselves and others badly. The gods were horrified at this desecration of divinity, and although they could not take this divine gift away from humans, they could hide it, so it would no longer be neglected and mistreated. After a long discussion one of the oldest and wisest of the gods ex- claimed, “They will find this gift practically any place we hide it, so we will conceal this divinity within their hearts, for that is the last place they will look.” 

Our dilemma is that we are continually looking for our Divine self through our intellect and our personality self---and, in case you hadn’t noticed, that does not work.

So you ask, “How do I get in touch with my Divine self? How do I become more aware of who I truly am?” In essence, that is the work we are doing together here. The statements of Truth that we claim quite often, “I know who I am; I know what I am; I know how I serve; I am here; I am here; I am here” are declaration of the truth of Who We Are, beyond thought, beyond feeling, beyond the knowing that is part of the material world. It is an expression of a knowing that is deep within each one of us. Can we prove it? Can we articulate it? probably not, but in many ways it is a knowing that defies contradiction.

(Why else would we be sitting here reading this? It is not just a hope we are holding onto, it is Truth. Do we forget, of course, but notice how powerfully we are being called to remember!)

Now the ego, the personality, the intellect do not give up their hold on your identity without a struggle. Perhaps struggle is not the correct description, as soon as we say struggle we are creating another duality--we’ve got enough of those.

Let us say, for example, that you lived a life in poverty, scarcity, lack. That all you knew or experienced was hunger, emptiness, a sense of incompleteness and unfulfilled dreams. Then someone entered your life and said to you, “My son child, you have been lost to me for these many years, but now I have found you. Come back to your true home where you shall be surrounded by riches, love, acceptance and absolute abundance, and you shall never want for anything again.” 

Probably for many of us we would respond initially with shocked surprised and joy, but then again, would we adapt immediately to our new environment and immediately drop all of our notions a fear or scarcity or lack or want? Or would there be inside of us, this sense of “this is too good to be true;” that it might be taken away at any moment. That I may need to hoard my food or my riches or even that I will not enjoy myself terribly much for fear that the enjoyment will be taken away from me. How often might I find myself dreaming either in sleep or daydreaming that I am still back where I was in fear and poverty and scarcity. How often might I think that this dream is more real than the abundant reality I am living it?.

How long or how much might it take for me to completely surrender to this abundant reality that is the truth of who I am, as opposed to remaining in that sense of limitation that in a  strange way feels safer then my surrender?

That is a brief and simple metaphor for what most of us are experiencing now. No judgement; just awareness.

And let us add one more piece to this part of our learning. We often speak of perception. Perception being the way we are looking at things, especially the way we are looking at ourselves or how we are defining ourselves and the properties/qualitis we are using to form this definition.

Perception is an expression of the personality or the small self and therefore perception by its very nature will always be limited. So who I think I am at this moment or how I perceive myself to be is simply a complex set of information or beliefs or ideas that is coming to my consciousness from my limited self. Again we do not reject this or throw it away we simply realize it is not complete nor even truthful.

The quote from Thomas Merton at the beginning of this section--- another way of holding that is that it is allowing the Self to see through or to see beyond the perception of self.

Let us follow one other thought  from a question that is a good lead in to our next section. This next piece is all about forgiveness. Any thoughts, ideas, beliefs, memories or anything else that affects us by carrying with it any form of negativity, is a call to forgiveness. 

The question was asked, “What part of us forgives or needs forgiveness? Is it the ego or is it the Divine self?  Here again we might find ourselves in a dilemma. The Divine self does not need forgiveness it is already perfectly clear. The ego or the personality self or the intellect cannot forgive, because that is the aspect of us that has created the problem with the negativity in the first place.

The image that came to mind was that of looking at ourselves as being an adult relating to  a child. For whatever reason, the child is hurt and angry and perhaps lost in their own negativity. It is not for me to ignore or to depreciate those feelings, but it is also not my purpose to become too wrapped up in them either. My task as a loving adults is to embrace this being where they are, and lovingly open them to a wider, broader picture of what is going on in their lives so that the hurt or the attachment can be healed and released.

So here is an example of how the Divine self interacts with the personality. It does not judge or condemn but holds and creates a loving space for healing and release to take place.

There is a balancing point here because forgiveness can usually only occur with those who are sensitive enough to realize that they have caused or produced hurt. Once that is realized it is very easy to fall over the edge into self-pity, guilt and shame . That still can be healed by the Divine self, but it might be a more involved process. 

As we practice becoming aware of hurt that I have caused and immediately moving to my Consciousness, my connection, my alignment with the Divine self for correction for healing and for release.

We will explore this in much more detail in the coming weeks.

And here is how we closed on Sunday morning with a beautiful meditation around this deep recognition of Truth 

“If you will allow us now, we will surround you in love and we will open your frequency to a whisper:

You are loved, regardless of what you have been taught, how you have been treated, how you have treated yourself. You are deeply loved as are all men, as are all women, as are all. Simply allow, right now, the self to receive and to be still and know. I know who you are, I know what you are, I know how you serve. And I am one with the power that I am with in frequency, in love, and in my own worth.”

Thank you all...