IDENTIFICATION AS WORD 5

p. 182-189

First thought: Gratitude for Paul’s workshop.

(Anything you want to explore or talk about, please leave comment on this blog site or ask/share in Sunday School).

This next section focuses on guides, spirit guides, or as I like to put it, “We are not alone in the process of growth, healing, and evolution.”

I do not want to minimize the nature or the power of the “invisible” help that is continually available to us, at the same time, I hold the intention to keep this work as understandable as possible. 

There continue to be times when I think of myself doing “baby steps” with this work—taking a few toddling, unsteady steps forward, then falling on my hooppy-doopy and getting back up again. (So any doubt or contradictions you see here are reflections of my own resistance and misunderstandings).

Many of us grew up with the concept of a guardian angel, a spiritual/non-physical being who was assigned to us at  birth to help keep us safe. As a child we might have thought of that protection simply took the form physical safety, and I certainly don’t discount that piece, but I also feel the guidance and protection was far greater than the material. But for many of us as well, our guardian angels went the way of Santa Claus and the easter Bunny.

Well now we are being introduced to this truth again in an adult sort of way. Just to make it a little simpler, I would suggest we all open our minds to recall an event or two when we experienced ourselves as being directed or guided in such a way that we knew the experience was beyond our thinking/rational mind, and perhaps even more than our ordinary intuition might lead us.

I would imagine all of us, since we are working past our doubts., fears, etc., can recall such times and be grateful for them. Well, now we are opening the door to a deeper realization of the loving entities that are part of this whole growing and evolutionary process of becoming the truth of who we are.

I’t’s no secret as we read this first book (and the others) that what we call the guides are revealing truth, guidance and information in a deeper and more profound way than we might have experienced in the past. I presume that we are all feeling and/or resonating to a deeper frequency of truth that we might have before. I think that is why all of us are here. Whether we feel it, know it, want it, or hope that it is here, all of these sensations are manifestations of our participating in a higher level of truth than we have in the past. 

I would encourage us not to get into the comparison trip. There is a big difference between how we want the truth to be revealed to us and how it is actually revealed.

What I want is still somewhat connected to my ego and the drama it craves; what I need and how it comes to me is beyond my human understanding.

We did a meditation which was partly outlined on p. 187—88, and I recalled a saying from ACIM, which I will attempt to quote as closely as I can. (I was not able to find it on the book) “The ego tells us that if we are to real ourselves as we truly are that others would run away in horror, whereas the truth is they would be overcome by the Light.”

Our last piece on Sunday left us with  the conundrum of what the guides refer to as “disguises.” 

*************

I was reminded of Alan Watts beautiful metaphor that I am quoting in full here:

Myth, then, is the form in which I try to answer when children ask me those fundamental metaphysical questions which come so readily to their minds: "Where did the world come from?" "Why did God make the world?" "Where was I before I was born" "Where do people go when they die?" Again and again I have found that they seem to be satisfied with a simple and very ancient story, which goes something like this:

"There was never a time when the world began, because it goes round and round like a circle, and there is no place on a circle where it begins. Look at my watch, which tells the time; it goes round, and so the world repeats itself again and again. But just as the hour-hand of the watch goes up to twelve and down to six, so, too, there is day and night, waking and sleeping, living and dying, summer and winter. You can't have any one of these without the other, because you wouldn't be able know what black is unless you had seen it side-by side with white, or white unless side-by side with black.

"In the same Way, there.are times when the world is, and times when it isn’t, for if the  world went on and on without rest for ever and ever, it would get horribly tired of itself. It comes and it goes. Now you see it; now you don't. So because it doesn't get tired of itself, it always comes back again after it disappears. It's like your breath: it goes in and out, in and out, and if you try to hold it in all the time you feel terrible. It's also like the game of hide-and seek, because it's always fun to find new ways of hiding, and to seek for someone who doesn't always hide in tile same place.

"God also likes to play hide-and-seek, but because there is nothing outside God, he has no one but himself to play with. But he gets over this difficulty by pretending that  he is not himself. This is his way of hiding from himself, He pretends that he is you and I and all the people in the world, all the animals, all the plants, all the rocks, and all the stars. In this way he has strange and wonderful adventures, some of which are terible and frightening. But these are just like bad dreams, for when he wakes up they will disappear.

"Now when God plays hide and pretends that he is you and I, he does it so well that it takes him a long time to remember where and how he hid himself. But that's the whole fun of it—just what he wanted to do. He doesn't want to find himself too quickly, for that would spoil the game. That is why it is so difficult for you and me to find out we are God in disguise, pretending not to be himself. But when the game has gone on long enough, all of us will wake up, stop pretending, and remember that we are all one single Self—the God who is all that there is and who lives for ever and ever.

"Of course, you must remember that God isn't shaped like a person. People have skins and there is always something outside our skins. If there weren't, we wouldn't know the difference between what is inside and outside our bodies. But God has no skin and no shape because there isn't any outside to him. The inside and the outside of God are the same. And though I have been talking about God as 'he' and not 'she,' God isn't a man or a woman. I didn't say ‘it’ because we usually say ‘it’ for things that aren't alive.

"God is the Self of the world, but you can't see God for the same reason that, without a mirror, you can't see your own eyes, and you certainly can't bite your own teeth or look inside your head. Your self is that cleverly hidden because it is God hiding.

"You may ask why God sometimes hides in the form of horrible people, or pretends to be people who suffer great disease and pain. Remember, first, that he isn't really doing this to anyone but himself. Remember, too, that in  almost all the stories you enjoy there have to be bad people as well as good people, for the thrill of the tale is to find out how the good people will get the better of the bad. It's the same as when we play cards. At the beginning of the game we shuffle them all into a mess which is like bad things in the

world, but the point of the game is to put the mess into good order, and the one who does it best is the winner. Then we shuffle the cards once more and play again, and so it goes with the world.”    From Alan Watts The Book, The Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are  p.10-14

and I would like to add that wonderful line from T.S. Eliot from The Four Quartets:

“We shall not cease from exploration

And the end of all our exploring

Will be to arrive where we started

And know the place for the first time.” 

IDENTIFICATION AS WORD 4

p. 181-182

well, not many pages today, but a lot of substance.

I emphasized this quote before, and I feel it deserves repeating:

“To see the soul of another man is a huge gift. To look into the eyes of a woman and see the perfection that she truly is is a magnificent moment. To lay the hands on a child in the knowing that child can be healed is a deep privilege in service to your Creator. We do not do this from a place of ego. We do this from a place of liberation of consciousness. And part of the liberation of consciousness is, of course, to realize how completely interconnected you all are as energy frequencies. You are a huge group of energy configurations tied together, bumping into one another in your perfection all the time. The illusion in the separateness of your Creator has manifested finally in the belief that you are separate from one another. And the first step towards realizing your unity with your Creator is to understand that all men are one.”

A continuing reminder here: what this book and this chapter are all about is expanding our awareness beyond limitations. Those limitations could be self-imposed, such as , “Well all these psychic gifts or skills you are talking about are for people who are much more spiritually advanced" or a more subtle one is, “ I don’t really need/want that stuff.” 

We did not invent most of these self-imposed limitations, we usually took them on from other people and other learning that we have done. There are also many limitations that come from our heritage or cultural background,   “The Irish are this" or that "Portuguese are like that” or that “Catholics think this way.” Take your pick. Our minds are full of that kind of useless trash. It’s worse than useless; it's harmful. Those limiting and separating kinds of ideas have put us in a box.

There are two sides to letting go of limitations. One side we have already worked with and examined: “Boulders” working on those things that are dead weight, those thought patterns and behaviors that no longer serve us. Most of us are pretty adept at identifying the boulders, and even working on them, and I do not want to deny that piece.

There is another side, though that deserves at least an equal amount of attention and that is focusing on the gifts that you already have and are consciously putting to use. Gifts like compassion, self love, gratitude—they feed my soul and honor my limitlessness, my infinite connection to the Divine. DO MORE OF THAT!

During our gathering a question came up around the paragraph:

“A practice of meditation will support this greatly and we recommend it highly to the serious student of study of spiritual growth. But at this moment we want to say even the girl who has no time to meditate has the right and the privilege of hearing herself and knowing her own mind.”

There was a lot of energy around this one, and I will attempt to remember as much as I can concerning the flow of our exploration.

I believe what is being taught here is that practices which can open us, calm us, put us in a state of surrender, receptivity, and the present moment can all allow us to raise our level of frequency to “hear” and listen to our Higher Self.

And that listening might be in words* or images or memories, bits of a song or a piece of poetry that sparks something within us.

*We might not “hear” words, but as the book states, the frequency of the thought or idea is imprinted in our energy field and is translated as words.

I think many of us who have sought guidance and direction through prayer have “heard” the answers in that way.

We spoke a bit about some formal methods of meditation, but the gist of what most people shared was much more about informal or non-defined periods and practice of mediation.

For instance:

setting the alarm a few minutes early so you could be awake and aware of you inner world before you start the rat race of the outer world; to have one of those many kinds of mediation books at follow the calendar year—to read the passage of the day, and just sit with it for a moment or two with you coffee or tea; there is a suggestion in 12 step literature that advises us to “pause when agitated” and when we do, we can open ourselves up to guidance and assistance; simply stopping for a moment and taking a few deep breaths. 

These are just a few, and all of us are doing little practices like these all the time. 

Once we have been introduced to a greater awareness, we will always be aware of when we get back into that contracted or limited state. We might not realize it right way, but we will.

Another reminder here: many times NTI (The Holy Spirit’s Interpretation of the New Testament) will tell us not to be angry or annoyed at yourself for falling asleep, but to be grateful for waking up.

(NTI) HEBREWS 5 (v 11 – 14)1Rest assured that sleep does not harm you. 2Forgive yourself when you notice you have fallen back into sleep. 3But realize this also:

4If you are noticing that you fell back into slumber for a time, then you are not within slumber now. 5For you do not notice slumber when you

are deep within it. 6If you are noticing now, now must be a state of

awakening. 7Rejoice, and use now to practice awakening. 8Through its

practice, the state of awakening shall increase.”

I would encourage us all to become more aware of our own little practices of awareness, making room for listening to the Spirit, and be aware that even if you do not have a specific form for entering into the quiet,  your willingness and intention pave the way for your ability to listen and hear.

So at this moment in time we say to you:

“I am now choosing to hear myself, to know myself, to communicate with myself in the higher frequencies. I know what I know and the fear-based voice is being replaced once and for all by the Higher Self, the Christed Self that knows who he is. I am Word through this intention. Word I am Word.”

Now you have set this intention. You will set it again when you forget it again. “I am hearing my Higher Self. Word I am Word through this intention. Word I am Word.” This will support you.”

Thank you

Peace!

IDENTIFYING AS WORD 3

p. 176-181

As my ego struggled with becoming enlightened and having all these seemingly exotic spiritual gifts, I came to this paragraph which seems to be the perfect description of clairvoyance, clairaudience, and clairsentience (without all the hype):

“To see the soul of another man is a huge gift. To look into the eyes of a woman and see the perfection that she truly is is a magnificent moment. To lay the hands on a child in the knowing that child can be healed is a deep privilege in service to your Creator.”

Such a beautiful passage, and one that lets us know we have already used these skills, perhaps quite often, without thinking about it. 

As the book states this is not a book on psychism, it is a book abut claiming our inheritance and using all of the creative God-given skills we have for the betterment of ourselves and the world.

“The illusion in the separateness of your Creator has manifested finally in the belief that you are separate from one another.”

We might usually look at this the other way around, and I guess it really doesn’t matter what we think comes first, just so we realize separateness is not the truth.

There were Christian saints who would go into an ecstatic trance in saying the words “Our Father” and that is as far as they would get in saying the Lord’s Prayer. I’m not quite there yet!

I’m at the stage where I am intellectually aware of my Oneness with God, and that all of us are One also, but I am not living out of it yet. My bouts with judgment, self-centeredness, anger, fear are continuing reminders of where I need to go. So instead of dwelling on the negative, here is where the adage, “Work with what’s already working” comes in. 

Decide for yourself what are those times, those circumstances, those activities that allow you to experience Oneness and DO IT MORE!

QUICK REVIEW

“Going back for a moment to the treatise on perfection that we began with: If you are perfect in a higher frequency and you can begin to accept this and make the decision, “Yes, I can accept this,” and then the second decision, “Yes, I am willing to believe that I can incorporate and inhabit the gifts of the spirit through my consciousness to develop the abilities of responding, and seeing and feeling frequency at a higher level,” then you will say, “I am ready for this.”

We are not making you supermen. We do not ascribe to that belief. We are saying you are already, you just forgot it. You forgot it. You forgot it. Period.”

And the next step is “for you as a culture is to begin to respond to yourselves as Divine Beings.”

This is where we are headed. As each one of us becomes willing our whole energy changes and we change or raise the energy/vibrational level of all beings.

And anther key phrase here: “You can support the transformation of your fellow through your own perfection.” How about meditating on that one?

All of these skills and their practice are bringing us to a deeper awareness Oneness. 

A few thoughts on the exercise we did at the closing of class.

It might have seemed a little bit freaky stepping into someone else’s skin and even being that person for a moment, but really we have done this one already as well.

I was reminded of that overly used question a few years ago, “What would Jesus do?" and you could put any in there, Buddha, Mother Theresa, or your Saintly aunt Jane.

Notice what you are doing here. You are not just thinking “What would….do?” You are literally stepping into their being and feeling or seeing as that other person would. You did that without thought, without effort, and you also probably received the information you required as well.

One of the things we are simply doing here is bypassing the intellect and opening to  deeper knowing and awareness.

Next section will explore “hearing” and listening to your inner voice.

I would suggest you explore the question, “How can I tell the difference between my True Inner Voice instead of that of my ego.