An observation: A number of years ago someone asked Ram Dass to give her some advice on walking the spiritual path. He said very simply and honestly, “Before you start, I want to warn you that any advice I give you will probably lead you in the direction that my life has taken me because that is all I know.”
One size does not fit all. We are all unique expressions of the Divine, and each one of us will find our own way or ways of expressing that. I feel as if a very powerful part of this work we are doing together honors these differences rather than trying to smooth them out or get rid of them. We honor both our knowing and our not knowing. There are no maps because the particular landscape that each one of us travels has never been traveled before and will never be traveled again. This lifetime and all other lifetimes are a unique contribution to the evolution of Love and Creation.
Spiritual longing is a sort of loneliness for an unknown yet deeply perceived presence. Some call the presence God; some call it peace; some call it consciousness; some call it love. Its source rests in the well of our own hearts. When we slow down, quiet the mind, and allow ourselves to feel hungry for something that we do not understand, we are dipping into the abundant well of spiritual longing. We have grown accustomed to shutting down or blotting out feelings of longing, loneliness, hunger. It’s less challenging to feed the hunger with explanations, concepts, or rules (or drugs, food, or drink) than to rest for a while in the depths of the heart’s longing. But if we want to open the doors to life’s joy and God’s peace, we have to learn how to fearlessly explore the full terrain of our human longing.
Lesser, Elizabeth. The Seeker's Guide . Random House Publishing Group.
P. 143-145 (for the sake of continuity, I am “repeating” some of what we examined last week. We are beginning with the heading Day Eleven).
I was reflecting that the most memorable teachers in my life, the ones I continually feel touched by, even though I might not have seen them for a long time in the material world, are those who gifted me with their presence, their unspoken acknowledgement of my worth; their affirmation, whether expressed out loud or not, of my goodness, my wholeness, my potential.
I wonder if we could begin to perceive the Guides in such a similar manner. That they are not teaching facts or ideas so much as they are teaching Awareness. Even though this first paragraph(from Day Eleven) seems to be rather clinical, I always wanted to keep in mind that the driving force and really perhaps the only force that matters here is the power of Love. And more than anything else, through energy and vibration, we are being “loved into a higher level of consciousness.” Just sit with that one for a moment, we are being loved into a higher level of consciousness. Not pushed, not prodded, not told we have to do this or have to do that, but being loved into a deeper awareness of the truth of Who We Are.
We visited again this metaphor of standing at a certain level and noticing how our perception changes. Let us take a present-day example that most of us are somehow and someway involved in: It does not take long to realize that in our system of politics, political parties, etc., how easy it is to become lost in the illusion of separateness.
Now when I am standing in the midst of who is right and who is wrong, when I am allowing my outrage and fear to be the primary source of my responses to life, then I am living in a perception that continually reinforces that illusion of separateness. And my sense of who I am, and who you are as well, is certainly affected by the stance I am taking or the level I am standing on. In this example we are using, I see you is either a colleague or an enemy.
Now if I were to stand on another level or a higher level of vibration, I might still be affected by my sense of who is right or who is wrong and yet I would also begin to realize that much of my sense of right or wrong has come about from my history, from what I have been taught or what I have learned. We have seen this happen, especially in Eastern European countries who when they had been given their freedom, found themselves entering back into centuries-old disputes that the present generation had nothing to do with, and yet the learning and the prejudice and the fear and the anger of generations ago were still present. Even to the thinking mind those warlike reactions made no sense and yet here they are.
When A Course in Miracles emphasizes that “I could see peace instead of this,” what it is also encouraging us to do is to prayerfully ask the question “How can I see this differently?” And noticed that the question, by its very nature, opens us up to the possibility, even though we might not know what this is opens us up to the possibility that I cansee this differently; that I can stand at a different place; that my perception can change or even can be transformed.
Take our political scene again, for example, we can begin to perceive that the struggle for power or the necessity of being right even through lies and deceptions, are essentially an expression of fear, that something might be taken away from me. You will also notice how quickly someone else's fear can begin to become your own and how this effect of lower vibration is what we are coming in tune with in more awareness.
“I know your fear because I have lived there too; I know your fear and I can understand it without judging. And, first of all, I know that I do not have to take it on, but even more than that I can begin to see you, I can begin to see who you are and know who you are without your fear. Now I might not be able to define that, I might not be able to explain that to you but I can still know the truth of it .
Do you see how we are continually working on this one.? How can I see you beyond the limited awareness of my personality self and yours? You will notice that as we explore this, one of the teachings underneath all of this is that you are also raising your perception of yourself to a higher vibration.
“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.”
When we speak of transforming your perception you will immediately notice the mind creates a picture of what it thinks that should look like. And then what the mind does is to create a form that fits that picture. We would suggest however this is not how the process works.
When you are open to transformation truly seeing yourself and the world around you differently, you do not know what is waiting in the wings for you. As uncomfortable as it might be to the thinking mind, you allow yourself to be open to mystery, the Truth that which the Mind cannot define or predict.
That is what Jesus meant when he said, “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor has it entered into the heart of man, what God has prepared for those who love Him.”
When we lovingly realize that we are being gently and powerfully guided on this road, on this path, on this journey to the complete realization of the truth of Who We Are, then all conflict begins to fade away or dissolve.
“what happens when there is a new creation? Something that has not yet been named that would enter into the field? How do you identify it? How do you accept it as true? When you have a new ideal, a new thought, a new possibility that has not yet been claimed or made manifest in form, you idealize the possibility—“There may be great things in the ethers that I do not know yet”—but you do not align to them as a reality because you do not have the tools and the ability to claim them.”
I often make reference to that wonderful scene of Thomas Merton in downtown Louisville when all of these human beings hurrying around on their tasks and their work--and he saw them all as beings of light. Now, it is my fondest desire that I would also like to be able to see other people on that vibrational level, but my understanding is that Merton was readyto see other people like this. Whether conscious or not, he had done his internal work and was in his Knowing, not just a desire to know, not simply open to the possibility of knowing, but in his Knowing.
Notice the difference.
An observation: A number of years ago someone asked Ram Dass to give her some advice on walking the spiritual path. He said very simply and honestly, “Before you start, I want to warn you that any advice I give you will probably lead you in the direction that my life has taken me because that is all I know.”
One size does not fit all. We are all unique expressions of the Divine, and each one of us will find our own way or ways of expressing that. I feel as if a very powerful part of this work we are doing together honors these differences rather than trying to smooth them out or get rid of them. We honor both our knowing and our not knowing. There are no maps because the particular landscape that each one of us travels has never been traveled before and will never be traveled again. This lifetime and all other lifetimes are a unique contribution to the evolution of Love and Creation.
Spiritual longing is a sort of loneliness for an unknown yet deeply perceived presence. Some call the presence God; some call it peace; some call it consciousness; some call it love. Its source rests in the well of our own hearts. When we slow down, quiet the mind, and allow ourselves to feel hungry for something that we do not understand, we are dipping into the abundant well of spiritual longing. We have grown accustomed to shutting down or blotting out feelings of longing, loneliness, hunger. It’s less challenging to feed the hunger with explanations, concepts, or rules (or drugs, food, or drink) than to rest for a while in the depths of the heart’s longing. But if we want to open the doors to life’s joy and God’s peace, we have to learn how to fearlessly explore the full terrain of our human longing.
Lesser, Elizabeth. The Seeker's Guide . Random House Publishing Group.
P. 143-145 (for the sake of continuity, I am “repeating” some of what we examined last week. We are beginning with the heading Day Eleven).
I was reflecting that the most memorable teachers in my life, the ones I continually feel touched by, even though I might not have seen them for a long time in the material world, are those who gifted me with their presence, their unspoken acknowledgement of my worth; their affirmation, whether expressed out loud or not, of my goodness, my wholeness, my potential.
I wonder if we could begin to perceive the Guides in such a similar manner. That they are not teaching facts or ideas so much as they are teaching Awareness. Even though this first paragraph(from Day Eleven) seems to be rather clinical, I always wanted to keep in mind that the driving force and really perhaps the only force that matters here is the power of Love. And more than anything else, through energy and vibration, we are being “loved into a higher level of consciousness.” Just sit with that one for a moment, we are being loved into a higher level of consciousness. Not pushed, not prodded, not told we have to do this or have to do that, but being loved into a deeper awareness of the truth of Who We Are.
We visited again this metaphor of standing at a certain level and noticing how our perception changes. Let us take a present-day example that most of us are somehow and someway involved in: It does not take long to realize that in our system of politics, political parties, etc., how easy it is to become lost in the illusion of separateness.
Now when I am standing in the midst of who is right and who is wrong, when I am allowing my outrage and fear to be the primary source of my responses to life, then I am living in a perception that continually reinforces that illusion of separateness. And my sense of who I am, and who you are as well, is certainly affected by the stance I am taking or the level I am standing on. In this example we are using, I see you is either a colleague or an enemy.
Now if I were to stand on another level or a higher level of vibration, I might still be affected by my sense of who is right or who is wrong and yet I would also begin to realize that much of my sense of right or wrong has come about from my history, from what I have been taught or what I have learned. We have seen this happen, especially in Eastern European countries who when they had been given their freedom, found themselves entering back into centuries-old disputes that the present generation had nothing to do with, and yet the learning and the prejudice and the fear and the anger of generations ago were still present. Even to the thinking mind those warlike reactions made no sense and yet here they are.
When A Course in Miracles emphasizes that “I could see peace instead of this,” what it is also encouraging us to do is to prayerfully ask the question “How can I see this differently?” And noticed that the question, by its very nature, opens us up to the possibility, even though we might not know what this is opens us up to the possibility that I cansee this differently; that I can stand at a different place; that my perception can change or even can be transformed.
Take our political scene again, for example, we can begin to perceive that the struggle for power or the necessity of being right even through lies and deceptions, are essentially an expression of fear, that something might be taken away from me. You will also notice how quickly someone else's fear can begin to become your own and how this effect of lower vibration is what we are coming in tune with in more awareness.
“I know your fear because I have lived there too; I know your fear and I can understand it without judging. And, first of all, I know that I do not have to take it on, but even more than that I can begin to see you, I can begin to see who you are and know who you are without your fear. Now I might not be able to define that, I might not be able to explain that to you but I can still know the truth of it .
Do you see how we are continually working on this one.? How can I see you beyond the limited awareness of my personality self and yours? You will notice that as we explore this, one of the teachings underneath all of this is that you are also raising your perception of yourself to a higher vibration.
“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.”
When we speak of transforming your perception you will immediately notice the mind creates a picture of what it thinks that should look like. And then what the mind does is to create a form that fits that picture. We would suggest however this is not how the process works.
When you are open to transformation truly seeing yourself and the world around you differently, you do not know what is waiting in the wings for you. As uncomfortable as it might be to the thinking mind, you allow yourself to be open to mystery, the Truth that which the Mind cannot define or predict.
That is what Jesus meant when he said, “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor has it entered into the heart of man, what God has prepared for those who love Him.”
When we lovingly realize that we are being gently and powerfully guided on this road, on this path, on this journey to the complete realization of the truth of Who We Are, then all conflict begins to fade away or dissolve.
“what happens when there is a new creation? Something that has not yet been named that would enter into the field? How do you identify it? How do you accept it as true? When you have a new ideal, a new thought, a new possibility that has not yet been claimed or made manifest in form, you idealize the possibility—“There may be great things in the ethers that I do not know yet”—but you do not align to them as a reality because you do not have the tools and the ability to claim them.”
I often make reference to that wonderful scene of Thomas Merton in downtown Louisville when all of these human beings hurrying around on their tasks and their work--and he saw them all as beings of light. Now, it is my fondest desire that I would also like to be able to see other people on that vibrational level, but my understanding is that Merton was readyto see other people like this. Whether conscious or not, he had done his internal work and was in his Knowing, not just a desire to know, not simply open to the possibility of knowing, but in his Knowing.
Notice the difference.
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