P. 157-158
I wonder, “Are we just a bunch of personalities trying to convince ourselves that we are something more?” or “Are we something more convincing ourselves that our personality is not who we are?
Kind of like the Zen story of the Monk who is dreaming he was a butterfly and then woke up and ask himself “Am I a man who dreamed about being a butterfly or am I a butterfly dreaming that I am a man?”
Please know that all of these reflections are coming from my level of awareness at this moment and I do not claim them as being the truth with a capital T. I’m kind of like Paul, I’m a spokesperson for the message, BUT there will be times when my own, sometimes clouded perception will get in the way.
It is important to me that we do not make our ego or our personality or whatever descriptions we are using to describe our limited self--it is important that we do not make this into the enemy. Whenever I make anyone or anything into the enemy I create more fear and separateness. In fact, as the book points out I find myself creating that which I did not want.
That might be a good or powerful expression of identification with the limited self “that we produce or create that which we were attempting to avoid or get away from.” We have a profound example of that in terms of addictions: the very thing we were attempting to avoid or get away from or make disappear becomes even stronger with our compulsive behavior.
We do not wish to demonize the personality. It is an aspect of self, it is an aspect of self that each one of us has diligently worked on and created over these years we have been residents of planet Earth. We could explore detail upon detail about why we created the personality we did, but that is not our subject this morning. Suffice it to say that the personality we created was our effort to protect ourselves from whatever we felt we needed protection from, to try to make ourselves as lovable and accepted possible, and to be as much in control of life or convince ourselves that we are in control of life as much as we can be.
You see, none of these are bad things but you will also see from an extended viewpoint that's called The Observer, standing apart from the personality and looking upon it, you begin to see and realize did everything you created with this personality were goals that were never quite within our reach. For example, if I have created a persona it seeks out the praise of others so that I can feel good about myself, I will soon discover that yesterday's compliments are like smoke or like fog, they are useless, they disappear, and so I will have to work even harder today to earn the praise to feed my need for self-esteem. We could use that description as a metaphor for many of the needs and layers of the personality self.
Now just because we are encouraged to go beyond the personality or to know ourselves beyond the personality doesn't mean that it disappears. It might still be part of, a necessary piece of my ability to communicate with others. It might be a necessary vehicle, just like my body is, to participate in the activities of planet Earth.
The object here is to be in awareness that my personality is not who I am and therefore your personality is not who you are either. So then when I can't stand you, when I would like to punch you in the face, make you disappear or so drastically change you so you fit in my mold if who I think you should be--that is my personality reacting to your personality. And just as we have described in the past, egos by their very nature rub against one another creating heat or friction. The same is true with personalities. In fact, our personality self might be a more specific definition of our ego consciousness.
Simply put, when I become wrapped up in anger, fear, separation or closed heartedness, I am locked into the limited view or perception that I am my personality and you are too.
You might recall the during his ministry, Jesus had difficulties with this elite group of teachers call the Pharisees. I believe an aspect of their theology is that you are what you do. You are your personality. And of course the message of Jesus was that you are much more than that.
The whole aspect of love and self-love which is the essence of the Gospel, the good news, has nothing to do with personality. There is only a tiny piece of scripture that touches upon this directly but the message of Love, true love shines forth all through it.
43 “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor[a] and hate your enemy.’ 44 But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. 46 If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? 47 And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? 48 Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
Matthew 5:43-48
In talking with one of our classmates this morning I recognized something that I had taken for granted but probably need to express more definitely. These books emphasize that what is referred to as the Christ Consciousness, but it has nothing to do with a particular religion or set of religious beliefs. Christ Consciousness refers to that awareness that is a reflection of our experience, our inner knowing, of the truth of Who We Are and the connection with all beings.
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From Divine Love: Understanding the Universal Christ Consciousness How to Move from "Churchianity" and Embrace the Truth Behind All ReligionsBy Bianca Alexander, EMMY Award-Winning TV Journalist + Host, Conscious Living TV
“I choose to resurrect the Universal Christ Consciousness within my own heart. For me, this contact has nothing to do with how I express my religion on the outside – what I wear, whether I go to church or not and the songs I sing are of little importance. Though it may work for others, I don’t need a cross, communion, or special hymn to find God.
This means walking humbly through the world with kindness and compassion; loving others especially when they don’t believe what I do, whether they’re Islamic, Jewish, atheist, white, gay or republican. And perhaps of greatest importance is cultivating a deeper love for the Divine – whether I call it Christ, Krishna, Buddha, Allah, Elohim, Higher Power, Divine Mother, or God.”
I would sum up (and greatly simplify) Selig’s core teaching in I Am the Word like this: People function at different frequencies or energies. Most people operate at a lower energy, guided by their ego or false self, while others are able to tap into a higher frequency or energy. This energy is known as Christ consciousness.
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From Realizing the “Christ Consciousness” Within You
DECEMBER 19, 2018 BY TOM RAPSAS
I’ll let Selig’s wise spiritual guide explain the rest; the key points from the book are listed below. Please note that I’ve done some light editing and rearranged the text, it appears in a different order in the book. I’ve also added a few points of my own in italics.
The Keys to Christ Consciousness
Christ is a consciousness, a frequency, an offering to man from the Creator to align to. Christ is, in essence, the vibration of God as realized in man.
The Christ vibration does not belong to Christians. It is a frequency of consciousness that was manifested in form by Jesus and by others in different names over history.
No one is without Christ consciousness, it has not bypassed anyone. Anybody is welcome to this consciousness and frequency. Any man, any woman, can be a conduit with the divine.
Achieving this connection with the higher frequencies, starts by rejecting what might be termed low-frequency thinking. Your pride, your fear, your loathing of the self…these are the low frequencies that must disband, that must release, that must go away for good. If you believe things will always be the way they have been, that is what you will create.
If you are vibrating at a higher frequency, you do not get zapped by the lower because, in fact, you have risen above it.
Man cannot be put outside of God because God is everything. God is the frequency of every cell in your being. You are vibration. You are an aspect of the Creator in form. You are inherently perfect, manifested in perfection, that is your true state of being.
There are many passages in the book where the reader is invited to recite a passage ending with the words, “I am Word.” Selig writes that by setting our intention to operate at a higher frequency, we open this energy to us and realign our conscious minds. Here’s one such intention: “I am now choosing to think only those thoughts which will bring me peace and will align me to a higher consciousness. I am Word through this intention. Word I am Word.”
You all have the ability to be a tuning fork for the higher frequencies.
When you set the intention to vibrate at a higher frequency, your frequency changes and the feeling in your energy field will actually shift. Your vibration will attune to a higher octave.
Each time you progress in the higher frequency, you retain the information and the consciousness that you have come to.
Christ consciousness represents a change in your own consciousness, a change in how you experience yourself on a moment-to-moment basis.
You are changing your path to vibrate at one with your Christed Self. You are calling these energies to yourself. Once this change has been made, your feelings in your body will begin to shift as you begin to exist in a higher frequency.
When your Divine self works at a higher frequency, it doesn’t really get angry about anything. It integrates with the energies of love. True love is a frequency that is emitted and it transforms all it encounters.
You will begin to witness the divine perfection that is in every man and woman you encounter. When you move to this level of identification, you resonate at a higher frequency. You align yourself to the Christ consciousness. You know that God is in everything and everyone and cannot be otherwise.
When you resonate at this frequency, you bring those around you into the same frequency and align with the Christ consciousness. You are a benefit to all those you encounter.
Your choice right now is to embark on this consciousness shift with a decision. These higher frequencies are already working within you. Believe you can lift your frequency and exist at this level and you will.
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We ended on a note that somewhat surprised me. I have rarely spoken about other lifetimes because so often that can simply hook us into some useless drama. To me it is much more important to ask the question “What do I do with this now?” However this morning as I was speaking of the personality self some information came through that was beyond my personal knowing or usual expression. Let me see if I can recap the sharing. I will put it as close to verbatim as I can.
“Of course when we die, when we let go of our bodies, we also let go of our egos and our personality consciousness, but if we have become overly Attached to this personality as being Who We Are then we might very well take it with us even into our next incarnation.
After those words came through, I recognized that there was a certain sense of fear and apprehension, many people saying to themselves “I don't want to do that; I don't want to repeat this trip. It's okay if I have a new one, but I really don't want to do this one again.” The expression of fear or anxiety was clustered around the fear of repeating the same mistakes over and over again.
Let me go back to what was spoken. It is only if you have overly identified with the personality self and in a sense, made it an essential part of Who You Are, that you might “take it with you,” as it were. The wonderful truth is that because you are sitting here on Sunday morning openly expressing, not only your desire to be free, but your willingness and intention to be free and your willingness to do the work to allow that to happen, is a reflection that you are intentionally removing yourself from overly identifying with this personality or ego structure.
Please note, it is a personality and the ego that creates fear. Fear by its very nature creates more attachment. So that if I am fearful of not being able to let go of my personality guess what I create? An even deeper attachment.
Here’s the paragraph that started it all:
“Now, what is not worthy of love? If you ask yourself this, “What is not worthy of love?” you will discover very quickly the things that you put outside of God. And what you put outside of God you give great power to, because those very things you put outside of God keep you outside of God in your experience. Do you understand this? When you decide that someone is not worthy of the kingdom, you have decided that you are with them on the rock you place them on in isolation. You call yourself to that very thing you wish to not be expressed as, through your judgment and your fear.”
Thank you all. Happy New Year
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