I AM IN MY KNOWING 2

                                     P. 227-232

Just a general reminder: all of the prayers/affirmations in this text, which are usually indented, are statements of truth that is happening NOW. 

Oftentimes we think of affirmations as being a thought, idea, quality or material thing we are desiring to manifest. In this book, all the subjects of affirmation already exist; we are affirming their truth when we say them out loud or to ourselves.

“I am one with my Creator and I am journeying to my place of unification with that consciousness. As I identify with that aspect of the self that is the Creator, I rise in frequency and the journey commences quickly.”

Much of this chapter is about answering the question, “Who are you?” As I’ve mentioned many times before most of us are confronted with a similar question as children, “Who do you think you are?”  Like most of you I was completely befuddled. I felt I was being accused of something, and I was not sure what it was, and I did not have a clue as to how to what kind of response to give. Today it would be wonderful to answer, “I am a holy child of God, unconditionally loved—-and so are you!”

How you express God, love, the Christ through you is not dependent on your job or anything else. It is simply your willingness to express God though your being as a doctor or teacher or window washer. Doesn’t matter.

There is so much happening on all planes of existence, not just this material world, and this is not a passive process. 

Through your willingness and intention you are an active participant in continuing to create this loving universe.

Something else I’ve said before, “The good news is you are not who you think you are.” You are not letting go of yourself so much as you rereleasing those forms, those lables, those old definitions that no longer serve you. And by doing so you can become more deeply aware of the truth of who you truly are.

The practices that are encouraged here are about being in your knowing, and operating from that truth. We’ve looked at a few examples of what that means, but I realize the concept can still be a bit confusing.

Very simply, if you are reading this, you are in your knowing. You “followed” your knowing to get here, you are in your knowing as you read this. 

Of course, then you might ask, “When am I NOT in my knowing?” I guess the answer to that one is "You are always in your knowing, you are just not always aware of it.” 

That is what being Aware and affirming "I am in my knowing" is all about. When I affirm "I am in my knowing" I immediately go to a different place of awareness than my everyday consciousness.

I realize this shift in thinking takes practice. 

“I am Word through my body. Word I am Word. I am Word through my vibration. Word I am Word. I am Word through my knowing of myself as Word.”

Amen!!!!

NAVIGATION 6 and I AM IN MY KNOWING 1

P. 220 226

Letting go of that past involves a number of undertakings: Forgiveness, including self-forgiveness; Awareness and Honesty in discovering those thoughts, ideas, behaviors and defenses that no longer fit—those that no longer serve us; Practice and Willingness to move through those awkward times getting familiar with new ways of approaching life.

The guides also tell us:

“Relinquishing the past involves many, many things, including a lack of response to those things that you believed that you would never have to let go of.”

I am not sure if this will be true for you, but I know for me that attempting to get rid of many of my self-created knee-jerk reactions to life experiences has proved to be extremely difficult.

What works for me the best is being aware when the knee-jerk occurs—this reaction to life from fear, or guilt or some other sort of victimhood, and then consciously decide to do something different. For instance if I see or hear an angry person, my first unconscious response might be to feel my gut clinch and a desire to run. As soon as I become aware that internal reflexive response I can then remind myself this has nothing to do with me, and I can send that person love, light, peace. AND I can also consciously choose to leave that place if I desire to do so.

Scary thought to change everything, but as is pointed out—this is not about externals so much as it is: 

“your consciousness that is transformed, and your consciousness is what is rendered through this work to out-picture itself in form, in physical manifestation.” 

How I perceive aspects lot life; how I hold them is different because my frequency, my vibration has changed, the lenses through which I observe life are different.

         ∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞

          I AM IN MY KNOWING

As an introduction I would like to address two questions that came up Sunday, both of which are extremely important to this chapter. (Please be aware, these answers along with most of what is posted on this blog are a reflection of my own learning and consciousness at this time.)

Question #1 “Is the kind of knowing that is referred to here the same as faith?”

Yes and No. 

Somehow the idea of faith has gotten watered down over time. When we believe something or “take it on faith” we are usually agreeing to an idea that we would like to be true, want to be true, but have no real substantiation for.

I believe faith is another way of knowing, a kind of knowing that goes beyond or deeper than the intellect, the emotions, and the material world. 

Let me give an example. 

Let us suppose you are by yourself and you ask yourself the question, “Do I believe that I am loved?” I could go through whole check list, “Well, I got hug yesterday, he/she smiled at me, they told me that they loved me, etc.” and this all very nice, but it is not here right now.

How do you know you are loved? Most of the time the answer will be, “I just know it!” and you are correct. You know that it is true.  

It is not that you just have faith that it might be true, you know it is.

Ask again, “How do you know?” and you might reply, “Well I feel it in my gut, there is a part of me, in the depth of my being that responds with that knowing.”

You can apply this same idea to many other aspects of life and relationships.

Question #2 Many spiritual books refer to the word feeling as being a way of knowing the truth. How does that work?

Again, there is a bit of a language lapse here. There are feelings and then there are feelings. 

Imagine what it would be like to base all of our actions and behaviors on how we feel emotionally. For example, I wake up and I’m angry because the alarm didn’t go off, then I feel happy because I smell coffee being made, then I’m annoyed because there are towels all over the bathroom floor, then I’m delighted because there is some hot water, then I’m annoyed because someone ate the last english muffin—and on and on. I am certainly feeling everything, but letting these feelings run my my life does not guide me very well or contribute to my growth and peace of mind.

Suppose I decided I was not going to work because I didn’t feel like it? (I would not have a job very long)

There are also times when I don’t feel like loving myself or someone else, does that mean I don’t love them or shouldn’t love them or can’t love them? 

Of course not. I can love you even if I don’t feel it.

I think that when spiritual authors use the word feeling they are referring to something much deeper than superficial emotions. Again, we do not have a descriptive language for this, but let’s explore a few examples.

We can feel the Presence of God/of Love, can’t we? Now that is not a feeling in the emotional sense, but it is a knowing. I can have a sense of what is the best thing for me to do right now; I can be drawn to a certain prayer or book. I can know that I am loved even if I do not feel it.

There are many ways to describe these “inner feelings” which are different from our usual ideas about emotions.

So this is what I believe spiritual teachers are speaking of when they talk about feelings, and how they can guide us.

I would like to remind myself and all of us that when we come across a passage in the book in quotation marks (and usually indented towards the middl of that page) that these are affirmations of Truth. They are not simply statements of what we desire or what we would like, they are statements/prayers/affirmations of Reality and Truth—and with these books they manifest an energy and a power as well.

NAVIGATION 5

p. 212-220

Sorry for the delay; I am a little behind with my blogs so I am combining a couple of classes here.

Instead of trying to get rid of the dark, “bring in the light.” (p.213)

How simple and profound and how easily forgotten. So many of my struggles could be eliminated if I would remember that one.  Bringing in the light is  so much more helpful than trying to chase away the dark or endlessly spinning my wheels examining every negative thought that comes along.

Then there is probably one of the most important piece of our journey—self- forgiveness:

“I am Word through my belief that I may now be forgiven for anything real and imagined. And I now allow that aspect of myself that believes that he is outside of the light to be embraced by the light and transformed in the light of the Creator. I am Word through this intention. Word I am Word.”

As the guides continually teach so lovingly—this work is about experience—and here we are being instructed about the experience of forgiveness, beginning with ourselves.

I was reminded of something Marian Williamson teaches as a way of moving past negativity. Ask the question: “What thoughts am I thinking that God is not thinking?” and even more poignant, “What thoughts am I thinking about myself that God is not thinking.” 

As the guides spoke about damnation and it being a false belief, I recall listening to the Catholic priest, Fr. Richard Rohr, who was talking to a pretty literal audience, and he said, “You know as Catholics we are required to believe that there is a hell, but no one ever said we had to believe there is anyone there!” 

I love that!

“The more focused you are in your intention right now to become into alignment with your Christ Self, the more focus you have as a frequency and the higher you rise.”

Again, Awareness, willingness, intention, and PRACTICE!

You are a beam of light—you are not a body, not a mind, not a jumble of feelings—you are so much more than all of that. I’d suggest practicing that one. I am a bean of light at Kroger’s; I am beam of light at work, I am a beam of light listening to music; I am a beam of light cleaning the toilet!

We can continue to create and act out of a lower or a higher frequency, with our thinking our words, our actions. A great example of that is something similar to the the Buddhist recommendation for Right Speech—before saying anything ask yourself, “Is it true? Is it kind? Is it necessary?” What  quiet world it would be.

One of the things I am so attracted to in this work is that it stays away from comparisons , judgment and arguments. So instead of suggesting that there is something wrong with a persona or an ego, or a limited sense of self, it suggests that this thinking and identification can change, be transformed.

Do you know that you are transforming? That the work you are doing, the reading, the Sunday gatherings, are all contributing to your growth, and the transformation of the planet. I really believe that and I am so grateful to all of you for being part of this.

Embrace yourself in newness. The ship has sailed it is reaching the farther shore. Old stuff is left behind. It no longer fits. It is no longer necessary.

In closing I would like to hare that marvelous line from the Crosby, Stills and Nash song Suite Judy Blue Eyes: “Don’t let the past remind us of what we are not now.”