WISDOM 11

“….the goal was a mental flash, achieved somewhere below consciousness. In these ideal instants one did not strain toward an answer as much as relax toward it.” Richard Feynman Nobel Laureate in Physics

P. 143-144   

Perception, perception, perception.  I guess we could say it's all a matter of perspective. Wherever I am standing changes my viewpoint.

Remember the story of the fisherman coming back home after a long unproductive night As he comes closer to shore, the fog moves in. He lights his lamp and is very careful navigating his way to the dock when another boat smacks against him. By this time he is heartily angry, and begins yelling at the idiot in the other boat who not only failed to light his lamp, but also smashed into him as well. When there is no response he rows closer and finds out there's no one in the boat! Who is it that he was angry at?. What happens to us when we realize there's no one in the boat.?

In the back of my mind as I sat with this lesson I imagined the guides singing “I want to take you higher.”(made popular in a very different way by Sly and the Family Stone). I want to take you to a new level of perception, of understanding, and yet in order to be able to do that you must be free of what seems to hold you here. Like a hot air balloon, in order to be able to rise, you must let go of the sandbags. Each moment of this journey I become more and more aware of the sandbags I'm holding onto. Some of them are physical, some are memories, some are pieces of my history that as much as I try to shake them they still remain stuck to my identity. And many of my attachments are not necessarily to negative things either. Some are immaterial or emotional or spiritual. There are many things that bring me joy which sometimes can also be attachments. .

I recall the first time I came in contact with Magnum ice cream bars, especially the ones that were double chocolate. There are three in a package. I remember ecstatically biting into the first one and enjoying it so much I took a second bite. Soon after the second bite I started thinking about how good the second bar was going to taste, and then I thought “I wonder if I can give myself permission to indulge even in a third one.” So here is an interesting thing, I took honest pleasure in those first two bites of the first bar, but after that, or soon after that, I was wrapped up in my own compulsivity. Enjoyment was gone and attachment took its place.

We are probably all aware of how easily we can turn practically anything into a judgment, and this is not what we are attempting to do here. Awareness, and especially now, an awareness of your perception or awareness of how your perception is limiting your reality is a piece of information that you have a choice to do something about. (Judgment comes from the limited personality self--judgment is what it does--it is part of its nature.)

We are opening ourselves to the possibility that when my perception is raised to a higher level I will also be less encumbered by those things or ideas that I think I need to have in order to be happy. Perhaps there will even come a time when my perception is at such a level of high vibration that either I will let go of those things without even thinking or I will let go of them joyfully.

I was reminded again of the channel selector we talked about a while ago and how we could use our Sunday morning gathering as an example of perception on different vibratory levels. On one level we are all separate beings with our own particular agendas, our expectations, our doubts, our fears, our desires. And we bring all of that with our identification with our personality no matter where we are including Sunday morning.

But then an interesting thing happens. Because of our willingness and our intention to perceive differently, even though we do not know what that perception might bring, we literally move ourselves to a higher vibrational level and instead of being just a big conglomeration of personalities, we are all spiritual seekers and even though our methods and meanings might be different we realize as we gather together on Sunday morning that we are all seeking the same thing. 

Then we go beyond the seeker stage. So perhaps deliberately or unconsciously we release the hold then we might have on our personality selves. When we release the hold it might have on us, we begin to become what is sometimes referred to as an “empty shell.” Our agenda does not disappear, but for the time we are together it becomes somewhat irrelevant. When we open ourselves with our willingness and intention we realize that the barriers between us are much more of an illusion than anything else. 

Here is a great example of moving from one vibrational level to the next higher one without a whole lot of effort. Yes, in some ways we are being raised by the words but we are also allowing ourselves to be raised not just by the guides around us, but by the truth of our own spiritual nature. You will notice there are moments out of time when we are held gently and powerfully within the Oneness that we are. And those moments are effortless while also being vast and priceless. 

Here is what the Course would all “the journey without distance.” We have “travelled” from our perception of ourselves  as separate personalities to a sense of Oneness with all Being. That’s quite a trip.

I am beginning to realize I quite often that my perception is either created or influenced by external events along with my identification with my history. 

So the question arises, “How will I see you?” “How will I see myself in this situation?” 

“You each know yourselves through those things around you, through those things that you have discovered, decided upon, accepted as true. You have revealed to yourself your lives thus far and you accept what you have created as what is there. The offering we give you now is to lift you up to a higher vantage point so that your perceptions may change. When you stand on the branch of a tree and you look at the horizon, the vision before you will be what you call to you from that height. When you stand upon a mountain and you call to you the view from that mountaintop, you are in that perspective and in that command of that level of perception.”

The image was shared of exploring the difference between standing on the ground, climbing to a branch halfway up a tree, or standing at the top of a mountain and how each one of those varied viewpoints deeply affects my perception. Nothing else has changed except where I am standing.

And as we continue this work together, we do not deny the paradoxical nature of being in the perception of Truth and perfection, and then on a physical and emotional plane realizing that action might be necessary.

How silly it would be if approached by a homeless person to tell them, “Oh can’t you see that it's all perfect? That this is the path you have chosen. I know you are working out your karma in this lifetime perfectly. Good luck!

Now what you might be called to do could vary from day to day or person to person and this is where it is so necessary to listen, listen, listen to the internal guidance and wisdom that is already present to us all.

“Where we take you next is higher, to a lifting of your own mind to see what is before you from a new vision, a new way of perceiving, so that you may call to you the new knowing that is available from that height. Now height, we speak of as a metaphor for your own vibration, the conscious emanation of your field, the congruence that you hold with truth. And as you lift in this intention:

“On this day I choose to lift my mind, to lift my expression, to lift my availability to a higher level of knowing. I will claim the benefit of this choice. I accept my willingness to accept the teachings that are available to me at this new place, and I align my energy field to all that is required to sustain me at this new level of being. I am Word through this intention. Word I am Word.”

Repeat this prayer, this affirmation, this mantra, as often as you need. As with so much of this work, it is a reminder of the truth of who you are and what already exists for you in the higher planes of perception.

Please do not judge or try to determine with your thinking mind “Where You Are” or “How You Are.” The thinking mind is always seeking definitions, proof of being better or worse than, always stuck on the comparison trip. A much more useful question is “How can I align myself to the divine in this situation I find myself in?”

Or actually a more productive approach would be to declare and to claim, “I am in my Divine wisdom in this situation. I know exactly what to do or to speak that will create the most love, the most compassion and the most truth in this encounter.

PEACE!