WISDOM 18

P. 149-150

 As we began this morning, I was reminded of another wonderful statement by Ram Dass who said very simply, “The only thing I have to offer you is who I am in this moment.” I would certainly ask you to recognize that is true for me and for all of us. And,if I could enhance that message just a bit, I would say, “All I have to give you is my perceptionof myself in this moment.” You could sit with that one for a while.

“Now, as we work with you, we pave the road.”

There are so many messages that come from this truth.

The simplest of which is you are not alone. If the books have not made it clear by now then we have been missing something. Those whom we call the human race are not the only beings that are continuing to discover and expand on their Divine inheritance. There are many beings with bodies and without, that are moving in a similar direction. An aspect or role of our participation in this continual evolution of love is that we help one another move forward. This is not about being better than or weaker than, it is simply a reminder that as others have “boosted” and energized us, so we boost others to their highest capacity.

“We pave the road.” I was reminded of how John the Baptist defined his role in relationship to opening to the Christ consciousness, personified in Jesus. In quoting Isaiah he repeated “to make the crooked ways straight and the rough ways smooth.”

We spent a good bit of our time exploring those seemingly unexplainable events in our lives that led us from one thing to another to another, all of which seem to culminate in an Awakening or an awareness that was beyond our thinking minds, beyond what we might have or could have planned for ourselves.

Simply put I was calling that “being led by the spirit,” but we need to keep in mind is even though most of us can identify with that language that for some other people or perhaps many others, their expression of that phenomenon would be different. No matter how it is expressed, it is only within awareness and openness that allows our sense of Truth to emerge.

I brought up these seemingly synchronistic or serendipitous chain of events in our lives because when we step back and look at them objectively, we realize that a power greater than ourselves, a power greater than our ego or a personality consciousness, has been helping to lead us in this direction of the evolution of Spirit.

Of course free will exists all through this process. At any time we could have laughed it off or told ourselves we just spaced out for a moment or that it was just a coincidence that had nothing to do with spiritual reality or many other forms of denial and rationalization.

We have all recognized, however, that when we are aware open consciously at a higher vibration that it is almost impossible to deny the power of Spirit working through us and teaching us. Often times, we might not realize this until the process is complete or maybe even years later.

There were any number of life circumstances that I could have talked about this morning. The one that seemed to be “up” for me was this particular chain of events: I moved from Columbus, In. to Louisville again, was hired by Charter Hospital in LaGrange, working in the field of alcohol and drug rehabilitation. During my stay in Columbus, I was just beginning to be open to the ideas and sense of metaphysical truth. Soon after coming to Charter, I was talking to one of my coworkers who mentioned that I might enjoy going to a psychic fair that weekend. I said “Fine” piquing my interest. At one of the booths there a lady who told both of us then we needed to buy a package of Blue Pearl incense and to read the message on the back. Well, interestingly  enough there wasn't any Blue Pearl at the psychic fair but my friend mentioned, “I know, they sell that at the Rainbow Blossom.” So we went to the Rainbow Blossom together each picked up a package of blue pearl incense and read the back. It was all about God being within you and around you and knowing yourself as a divine presence as well. The message was written by this Indian Guru name Muktananda. Now he had made his transition a few years ago but he had put his ministry in the hands of a young lady by the name of Chidvilasananda also known as Gurumai.

Soon after reading the incense package, Carol, my co-worker, said “Oh you know what, one of her monks from the ashram is going to be giving a talk at U of L tonight would you like to go?” Again my interest was piqued and I said “yes.” it was an interesting talk but did not relate to it a whole lot until he showed a video of Gurumai, and I found myself quite touched by her presence. He then mentioned that she would be having a weekend retreat in South Fallsburg New York and gave the dates. It just “so happened” I was going to to be in New York over that time and the dates fit in with the last part of my vacation, so I decided I was going to go. For the most part, over that weekend, I felt like a fish out of water, but at the end of the retreat I had a profound experience of what we might call higher vibration or higher awareness of a Deeper Self beyond what I ever realized before. All of these seemingly non-connected events that I seemed to have no conscious control over, except  accept them, occurred gently and powerfully, one after the other, to lead me to that deeper experience of Self.

At any point I could have said no or denied it but I did not.

A much simpler example came about this summer. Margo and I had stayed a week or so at a bed and breakfast on Lake Michigan. It was a really nice relaxed beautiful time. Because I am so directionally challenged my GPS has become a godsend and so as we were leaving the bed and breakfast I set it for home. We began driving down the main drag which was going to lead us to the highway when surprisingly the GPS directed me to turn left and go down this side street. I could have overridden that advice but I figured there must be a reason behind it. So, I'm going down the side street turn right turn right again another block and started traveling back to the main road that we had just gotten off of for no particular reason at all. Exceptthat on the corner of one of those turns when I stopped, there was a young mom walking by with her little son holding his hand and just as he walked past us in the car, he turned around and looked at us with this marvelous smile on his face and waved. I never saw him again, but I knew the reason why we took that detour was to experience the love and the joy of that little being that he wished to pass on. It was that simple and that profound.

We Are Paving the Way for You.

 “As each one of you encounters yourself, accepts yourself, embraces what you have known and releases those things you no longer need to carry with you on your journey, you move into a kind of liberation of the soul. The personality, who has decided for so long what things must look like, how the path should unfold to conform to some ideal that somebody else once said was so, will be moved into proper alignment. And the withstanding of this, we say, in true recognition of the Divine Self as the aspect of you that has been born again, born anew, born through your expression, is what will heal others.”

Although we have explored this area before, it struck me as important to repeat again. One of our jobs is to release or to let go of those patterns of thought and behavior that no longer serve us. Now what I realized was this release or letting go doesn't happen just because I want it to or just because I think some ideas or objects have outgrown their purpose. The release only happens when I am ready to allow it to be released, and most of the time, if not all of the time, what is happens spiritually within me, even beyond the conscious level of awareness, is that  a new pattern of thought and behavior have already entered into my life that make the old pattern irrelevant or absolutely unnecessary.

What was fascinating this morning was that no one(not even me) was dwelling on what they needed to get rid of. The focus, without even thinking about it too much, wais the realization that new patterns of thought and behavior had been created in a way that allowed us to easily to let go and release those old ones that no longer serve us.

It was evident to me and probably most of us but there was a palpable energy of realization and transformation in our room together. There are no words for that.

The spirit knows with the Mind cannot comprehend. When we are awake and aware, not only is anything possible, but we can truly see and find God-- love, peace, compassion, serenity-- in all things all creation.

Thank you thank you thank you 

WISDOM 17

“Religion is the emulation of the adult by the child. Religion is the encystment of past beliefs: mythology, which is guesswork, the hidden assumptions of trust in the universe, those pronouncements which men have made in search of personal power, all of it mingled with shreds of enlightenment. And always the ultimate unspoken commandment is “Thou shalt not question.” But we (do) question; we break that commandment as a matter of course. The work to which we have set ourselves is a liberating of the imagination, the harnessing of the imagination to humankind's deepest sense of creativity.”

From Children of Dune, by Frank Herbert

P. 148-149

We went a little far afield exploring some psychic phenomenon, but if you would like to get a look at how Paul operates and how the Guides operate through him, you might just want to check out Paul Selig on Google or YouTube. You will find plenty of recordings. 

Paul notes that he is perfectly conscious and aware of when the Guides are speaking through him and is very aware of what they are saying, and, at times, as we as we have noticed in the books, the Guides can also pick up Paul's thoughts, especially if something is troubling him.

Along with being a channel for the guides, Paul has also allowed himself to be sort of a measuring stick for each one of us by asking the questions that maybe we are afraid to ask or don't even notice within ourselves, and also to respond to many of those internal challenges that come about when we might have the desire to change but are fearful or reluctant or confused about the mechanism of change or transformation.

We continue with the theme of being aware of our history and changing its influence on us, if we choose to. It is already presumed through study of the brain and behavior that about 80% of our actions are controlled or dictated by the unconscious mind. The conundrum here is that we have free will, but have to be conscious enough to be able to use it.

In some ways we have really been exploring that question “How free are we?” Yes we have free will, but how often during a day am I actually using it?

A gentle reminder for me, and perhaps for you as well: although many of the ideas on a thinking- intellectual level appear to be repetitious, there are at least two important realizations to bring to consciousness. One is that every insight can be examined and applied more deeply. How often have each one of us discovered that we have a deeper awareness of a particular spiritual principle as we continue this work? Again, the mind/ the intellect would like to be able to categorize everything into a nice neat little packages and then put it on the shelf and wait for the next idea to come along and essentially say “Oh that is just like what was on page 56.” 

Just look at how often have we delved more deeply into a poem or song or another form of music or a book or even a conversation with a friend. We do not turn it off or throw it away simply because it seems to be somewhat familiar. Imagine what it would be like to follow through with the thought “Oh, I listened to my wife or my husband or my friend yesterday. I really don't need to listen today. They probably have nothing new to tell me.”

We do not ignore or struggle with the intellectual mind’s need to categorize and control, but we do realize that it is not within the intellect that our understanding and the energy of transformation lies.

The Second quality that calls for our continuing awareness is a fairly new piece of agenda that I need to keep calling my attention back to. I am paraphrasing the Guides here for a moment. What they have suggested is that along with the physical book you hold and the words that are written there and even the ideas that are called forth--all of that is  simply the backdrop for the raising of your vibrational energy. By picking up the book or listening to a class recording or even reading one of these reflections, you are demonstrating your willingness and your intention and by doing so opening yourself up to a higher vibration. A higher vibration energy(of healing, evolution and transformation) is being made available to you through the loving energy of the beings that are guiding this work.

Suppose you are at a museum or an art gallery or a theater or with an orchestra. Simply because your senses are involved or aligned with the art and beauty that is in front of you your vibrations are being raised without any conscious effort on your part.

In the last sharing I used that image of the Olympic sport of Curling, where the sweepers represent the Guides working like crazy to clear the way( so far that is the best image I can come up with.--you can also check it out on youtube). It is important to realize that we are moving ourselves like the stone on the ice, but we are also being helped and guided at the same time. Perhaps just as important is to know the efforts that each one of us makes, seemingly on an individual basis, contributes to the growth in the evolution of the whole.

(This is not quite an image, more of a metaphor--but sometimes I Imagine myself reading from the book and all around me is this gigantic chorus of angelic beings filling my space, singing/chanting a loving mantra. So I am doing my work in reading and study, and at the same time, in the background, my inner and outer vibration is being raised in a way that I could not do all by myself).

Nothing is wasted. All beings are affected by our choice to be in higher or lower vibration. 

 All of this fits in a way to be aware that old, ingrained  patterns of behavior and thought require a certain amount of energy to move through, to move through the natural inertia that comes with an established pattern of thought or behavior. In other words, it is perfectly natural to either go back to or to be influenced by a pattern that has already been well established. Although we are focusing on moving through old patterns of thought and behavior that are directly related to our spiritual growth and evolution, we are also encouraged to realize that so many things that we do and think are also the product of old programming or patterns that exist within us both on an individual basis and also as part of a racial consciousness.

“Now Paul is interrupting. “It is too hard. I can’t get through a day without getting angry or being worried or projecting my fate in some uncomfortable way.” You must understand, each of you, that so much of what you attend to is habit. This is habit, and a habit can be broken if you attend to it. If you have always gone to work left, right, and left, down the same road every day for many years, the impulse is to do the same regardless of the new path that has been laid for you. And the new path, we are telling you, is a much lighter path. It’s a much more wonderful path. But so often, you revert to what the known has been, because you are challenged by the prospect of change, that it may not be what you want, what you seek, what you thought you were going to get when you made the choice to go on the journey.”

Paul was objecting here about how difficult, how hard all of this seems. It seems so difficult to stay awake all the time; so difficult to transform all of these patterns of thought and behavior that seemed to keep us stuck.

And yes we recognize the difficulty here, but much of the problem is the result of you holding onto this work as a struggle. It is only a struggle when you make it such. If you realize that the transforming old patterns of thought and behavior requires work to move through the inertia, then the work you are doing is simply part of the process. In other words, I am not struggling with the old or trying to pound it into submission, I simply realize, ”Oh in order to be able to move from point A to point B, I need to do this or I need to do that.” 

It is interesting that we apply this principle quite often in our lives without even thinking about it.

If I want to grow potatoes, I realize I have to till the soil, plant the “eyes” and dig up the taters in the fall. I’m not struggling with anything, I’m just doing the necessary work required.

Let's suppose we took another simple example--you want to get your body get in better shape. Well we realize there is work involved. I might need to set some time aside to exercise; remind myself to drink more water. I might have to change my diet; there are some foods I might need to drop and other foods I might need to make more use of. Now we realize that there is a sense of work here that must be done. There is also can be a sense of awkwardness as we are moving from one space to another. When I can realize that these responses are perfectly natural, I do not have to make what I am doing into a struggle, I simply accept the reality of things. In moving from where I am now to the place I want to go to is requiring me to do some things differently. Again we are not denying the work that is involved, but there is a huge difference if we make it into a struggle compared to just simply realizing it is part of the process.

We take a few moments to examine the thinking mind again, and realize that part of its nature is to have a preconceived notion of what the results of a particular action or movement will look like. Again that is a natural response of the mind. However I am reminded of that marvelous quote from Chogyam Trumpa, “Enlightenment is the ego's greatest disappointment.”

You see the ego or the personality has an idea of what enlightenment is going to be what it's going to be like.

“Now, when we tell you that the path before you may not be what you expect, we are simply telling you that it may not adhere to the promises you have made to yourself about what a life should look like. “Because I am now spiritual, my needs will all be met effortlessly, I will love my neighbor, I will see the beauty in everyone, and I will have to attend only to my own thoughts.” Well, that is all well and good. But you do not arrive to a place of enlightenment without encountering those parts of you that would keep you in abeyance, that would keep you in the darkness. And we promise you this: There is no one who goes on this road who does not encounter herself, in all her fear, all her creations, and must come to the understanding that she is still loved. The aspect of you—and there are several aspects of you that would deny the darkness—will call you forward, and the aspects of you that would fear the light will keep you, as they can, in shadow.

Now, as we work with you, we pave the road. We pave “those parts of you that would keep you in abeyance, that would keep you in the darkness. And we promise you this: There is no one who goes on this road who does not encounter herself, in all her fear, all her creations, and must come to the understanding that she is still loved. The aspect of you—and there are several aspects of you that would deny the darkness—will call you forward, and the aspects of you that would fear the light will keep you, as they can, in shadow.”

That second Last sentence deeply moved me 

“And we promise you this: There is no one who goes on this road who does not encounter herself, in all her fear, all her creations, and must come to the understanding that she is still loved.”

I was still thinking about that Enlightenment quote and was pleasantly surprised when Love showed up again. I was reminded of the Apostle Paul's reflection that “nothing absolutely nothing can separate you from the love of God.”

Now those attributes might or might not be so but notice what we are doing here we are using the small self to Define what is occurring was in higher consciousness. Do you get the impossibility of that.

Again we are not denying the need or the ability of the thinking mind to do whatever it is it needs to do. We simply realize it is creating an illusion or an image that sort of serves as a pacifier for a moment, but that the real work is being done on a higher level of consciousness, in a realm of Mystery it goes beyond the grasp of the thinking mind.

 As quoted before, the saying of Jesus “Eye has not seen nor ear heard nor has it entered into the heart of man…” A simple yet direct way to let you know that we are not talking about earthly material or intellectual understanding, we speaking of opening to a Truth beyond those limited levels of awareness. 

Thanks to John Russell for this marvelous piece of wisdom!