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.

IDENTIFYING AS WORD 2

p.172-176

You have to say on a certain level that “I will allow myself to begin to experience my experience in a dimensional way that exceeds the limitations that I was told I was allowed to have.” When you say, “Yes,” to this, you actually unlock a door in perception, in the perception of other realms of experience. And they can begin to address you through your consciousness. p. 172

This is a tough one for many of us. We have been taught to live in limitation, and we have also learned to define ourselves within limitation. If we perceive the world and other people as being unsafe, then we learned it is best to keep your head down. If you have a gift, keep it to yourself.

We could go about telling ourselves and everyone else that "the world is perfectly safe because it is an illusion to begin with," and if that works for you—use it.

What is more effective for me is to focus on my awareness of my Higher Self and reinforce the awareness that “nothing of importance can be taken away from me.”

So however you make that commitment, 

“I will allow myself to begin to experience my experience in a dimensional way that exceeds the limitations that I was told I was allowed to have.” say it often, remind yourself of it often and let it work for you.”

My ego became all involved when the book started speaking of clairvoyance, etc. I had the ridiculous image of me wearing a robe and a turban on my head holding crystal ball. And then I began to thank how cool it would be to have those other gifts; then I ought, "Well they haven't manifested yet, maybe I’m doing something wrong." And,of course, I wound up getting myself tied up in knots.

Then I recalled 1 Corinthians 13:1-3
"If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3 If I give away all I have, and if I deliver my body to be burned,[a] but have not love, I gain nothing."

I discovered that one of the things that is going on with me lately is I am more aware and more compassionate. I am allowing myself to be much less judgmental of others and myself. If the thought or the urge to judge comes up (which it often does) there is a little more room inside me to decide to do the loving thing rather than the judging thing. 

 I am learning that I am not consciously in charge about how my growth and awareness shows up. I am here to do the work, and one myself up to the possibilities. 

As I continue to open myself up to Divine Love and Grace, I continually allow myself to go beyond these self-imposed limitations as well as those limitations I might have culturally inherited.

IDENTIFYING AS WORD 1

p. 165-172  

Finishing up the chapter on Boulders and beginning Identifying as Word.

Marvelous mediation and imagery at the end of the Boulder’s chapter, encouraging us to see ourselves in perfection.

Here is another place where willingness and intention are so important. You might not be able to “see” yourself in perfection, but you can be willing to do so, and that is a step. I found it helpful to imagine myself looking in a mirror, and seeing this being of light looking back at me. I did not have to define it or even be too specific about the image. OR you could imagine what it would be like to have LOVE looking back at you, or JOY or HOPE—you pick.

Once you have a feel for this, you can create and recreate this image whenever you want. Just taking a break for a few seconds to recall that sense of love or perfection can be life changing.

Luke 11:24-26The Danger of Emptiness

24 “When an evil spirit comes out of someone, it travels through dry places, looking for a place to rest. But it finds no place to rest. So it says, ‘I will go back to the home I left.’ 25 When it comes back, it finds that home all neat and clean. 26 Then the evil spirit goes out and brings back seven other spirits more evil than itself. They all go and live there, and that person has even more trouble than before.”

The above quote is not about fear, it is much more about the action(s) involved after we release a boulder. “Nature abhors a vacuum” and so does Spirit. 

You could look at this next chapter as “filling up” the space vacated by the boulders we are  letting go of, but it is so much more than that.

There is a huge shift in focus here, and you will be able to sense that because there is a distinct change in language in this chapter. The language and concepts become much more metaphysical, and really begin to push us to a deeper awareness  our perfection and power as creator.

A powerful aspect of this shift is that instead of talking about getting rid of or releasing negative energy patterns of thought and action, the focus now is on the essence of who we are as perfected beings. So we are pushed to focus now on Truth rather than what is getting in the way Truth. This is a huge leap in learning—like going from multiplication tables to calculus. 

I found myself becoming resistant here, like Paul, wanting to figure everything out; wanting all the answers right now, so that I could feel safe.

So now I come face to face with my biggest challenge—to love and accept myself as God does. As I have so often reflected, this is not new or revolutionary. Myrtle Fillmore’s declaration is the foundation of Unity prayer and much of the Unity movement, “I am a Divine child of God I do not inherit illness” or I could say, “I see myself in the  perfection in which I am created.” or in the language the book might use, “Word I am Word as a reflection of my Divine Nature and Divine Truth.”

A word of caution(?). We are encouraged to be aware that we do not know how this perfection will be expressed in the physical world. It might be expressed with a complete healing of our imbalance or illness; or we might hold our infirmity differently, more lovingly-i.e. we might realize our illness or physical imperfection is allowing us to be more compassionate of others or that it is opening our heart and insight in some other way; or we might find that we are healed but not cured—we might still have all the symptoms, but we are joyfully unattached to them.

“Now this means you can be healed and you can be changed. It does not mean that we can undo things, in some cases, that have been presented to you karmically or through physical changes that cannot be rebirthed in this body. ” p. 167

Although the book and guides work very hard to explain everything, there are time when we are simply thrown back into mystery, that which we cannot fully comprehend with our thinking mind.

We enter into the PROCESS of realization/acceptance of this Divine self that we are. 

And here is decision one:

Am I entitled to be in my perfect self, in a perfect manifestation of myself that translates into physical form? Am I now allowing myself to have permission to believe that this can be so?

I think any of us who have gotten into this book and not thrown it away yet or moved onto a favorite mystery novel can truthfully say “Yes” to those questions. Doubt only arises in the ego, which we all have, but if we allow ourselves to see through the doubt for a moment, and not argue with it or even think about it too much, we will become aware of that deep truth sense that says “Yes.”  and the “Yes” does not have to be overly emphatic—-we are acknowledging the Possibility that this true.

We ended just opening the door to: 

“Decision two is a different kind of decision. It’s a decision about the willingness to acquire the ability to emerge from this process with new abilities that you will hold in consciousness that will then be translated into your experience in the physical realm.”

Here is the challenge, to get out of our heads which thinks, “Oh, that’s a nice idea,” and move into our soul’s awareness that says, “I am willing to allow my spiritual growth to manifest in all ways to me and through me, physically, mentally emotionally and spiritually. 

As the guides would say—“Thank you and Good Night.

Peace,

Gerry

BOULDERS 3

P. 156-164

This class starts with the idea of channeling energy, which we all do, but here with a special emphasis on healing.Those of you who are familiar with Reiki, Healing Touch or other forms of energy healing are well aware that you are not using your own energy for healing another, nor are you dictating or directing what the energy should do. You are opening yourself up as a channel, a conduit, for that healing energy of God/the universe to flow through you. 

I believe we are involved in a similar kind energy exchange when we pray for someone. The most effective prayers are those that originate with love, and where we hold the other person in the highest loving vibration as possible, and do not dictate the outcome (which we are not in control of anyway).

Simply put, identifying with the energy of the Word is not about the ego or control. It is Grace. It is openness to the Divine flow, to you and though you.

And, as was mentioned before anything we put in the context of “I am the Word through…”  with willingness and intention raises the frequency of whatever it is we are holding int that energy.

As the book states simply and powerfully:

“God within you is working on the boulder and the Word is the frequency of God in action.”

Then we move to a “new willingness to change.”

“I am willing now to stand firm in my willingness to see that which I need to clear once and for all to bring me into alignment with my own Christed Self. I am willing to become aware of those behaviors and those patterns, those belief systems, those boulders of pain that stand in the way of my achievement and my design as a Christed Being come into form. I affirm now that I am being supported in this release in perfect ways by the energies, the powers, the guides, and the teachers who are working on this passage into Christed Self awareness and achievement. And I do this now with joy and with willingness. I am Word through this intention. Word I am Word.”

The more aware I become, the more I realize what works and what doesn’t. I also become aware that what is NOT WORKING is painful.(It’s probably always been painful, and either I was totally unaware or worked very hard to cover it up—like being in denial of an addiction for example).

I don’t know about you, but I was relieved when I was told I did not have to know “all my stuff” in order to have it be part of this process of healing and release. I might not know exactly what it is that is causing my pain, but I can be aware I am out of balance, something is not right, or I’m holding onto a pattern of thought or behavior and do not know why. I can still put all of that into the “Word” so it can be healed and released.

Then we come to our old friend Suffering. a favorite catch phrase to many is “Pain is inevitable, suffering is optional.” That always sounded  very wise, but I never really knew what it meant because I certainly continued to have my share of pain and suffering and I could not usually differentiate between the two.

Recently I became aware of my personal dynamics around suffering. I will describe it this way:

“Suffering comes from being angry at what is, and the reason why suffering keeps repeating itself is not only because I am trying to control something I cannot, but because I am also blocking myself from experiencing the feelings which are being generated by this life circumstance. (I think I am avoiding feelings such as grief, loss, etc. but all I am really doing is creating more suffering by NOT allowing myself to experience the feelings.)

And the book goes a step further: 

“Suffering is what occurs when man establishes a pattern of pain and then rotates it, as it were, through his consciousness and it cycles and cycles and cycles. Now sometimes when this happens, a creation is formed. A pain creation. And the pain creation hangs out in the auric field and feeds off the energy of what is being expressed emotionally, and we can call this if you wish, a parasitic energy or a demon, although we dislike the word because it has connotations to it that are inappropriate, misleading, and create fear. This is not a chapter on demons. This is a discussion of boulders.”

First off, I believe this is what Eckhart Tolle referred to as the “pain body” in The Power of Now. (Up until now I only had a vague idea of what he was talking about.)

And also, to get it out of the spooky realm, what is being described above is not an obscure principle. It is even detailed in a form of psychology called Psychosynthesis. 

In short, we all have a constellation of sub-personalities that we have created. The “inner child” is a very obvious and publicized one, but all of us have a “rebellious adolescent”; a “rigid parent”, a “self-righteous preacher” and all sorts of other “voices” inside of us. Most of us are aware that these bits and pieces of our psyche can show up without our asking, and that they seem to have a life of their own. These “scraps” of our identity can be triggered by outside circumstances. For example, when I hear people getting angry at one another, I automatically “get little” and start feeling like a scared child. The response is no longer rational, but it “takes me over.” I would encourage all of us to think of some of our own examples here.

We are not intending to give any more power to these energies we have created; we are becoming aware they no longer serve us(they are boulders and we are releasing them). 

“I am Word through my intention to now release myself from any energies that are externalized or have been created by me that operate independently from my own consciousness, that may be impacting me in a negative way. I am now choosing to release any and all parasitic energies that I may be holding in my frequency that are not mine, that are inherited culturally or have been given to me or created by me in any lifetime for any reason. I am now resolved that I am being supported in this release by my guides and teachers, and that I am cleared perfectly of any negativity that has created suffering and the pattern of suffering in my life. I am Word through this intention. Word I am Word.”

We will finish up on Boulders and begin a new chapter: IDENTIFYING AS WORD.

Peace, and gratitude for our shared journey.

BOULDERS 2

p. 151-156

I think we can all be in agreement that “Boulders” are more patterns of thought and behavior than they are physical objects in our living space, and we are all in the process of clearing, cleansing, and dismantling old patterns of thought and behavior that no longer serve us.

When we “Word” something, “Word I am Word” through this pain in my shoulder, or my anger, or my willingness to grow, or whatever it might be, we are literally taking that thing, that pattern or that pain and raising it to a higher frequency so that:

1. it can transform,  
2. be released;
3. or so we  hold it differently, see it, relate to it in a different way.                 

Our statement of “Word” is an affirmation of our willingness and our intention. 

What I was lead to discover in speaking this past week was this progression: 

1)Awareness(of the pattern, problem or pain I wish to release OR what I wish to enhance); 

2)willingness and intention; 

3)affirmation and prayer(taking the “formulas” right from the book.) 

I was also blessed with this funky little image of the guides/angels/Holy Spirit helping us along the way. There is an Olympic sport called “Curling.” It seems like a form a shuffle board, but instead of a puck they use this stone with a handle on top, and instead of a wooden surface it’s on the ice. Well, one of the competitors “bowls” the stone to the target a number of yards away. Here is where it gets interesting. Two or three other team members have these “brooms” and are sweeping like maniacs in front of the stone to make the path smoother, get rid of any debris and also to help guide it (without touching) to its proper place. 

So the work and effort is ours—the throwing and aiming of the stone, but there are guides and angels who are working like crazy to help it get to the right place.

Here’s a little youtube clip if you’ve never seen it before.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-xFxC-JgWtk

I found the book to be a little confusing in speaking on surrender.

At first it says:

“When we speak of surrender, and we speak of surrender as, “God, I can’t handle it, I can’t take it, it is too big for me,” what you are doing is you are releasing a boulder and you are aligning to the great powers that will clear it for you. We are doing the same thing with intention to the extent that you understand “I am Word” is not the ego self, it’s not the personality. It is the Christ within you that achieves the work and deserves the glory. “I am Word through my problem” brings that action to the problem.”

And then:

“Now Paul is wondering, “Can’t we just say, ‘I give up’? Can’t we just be powerless? It’s so much easier than memorizing a meditation or standing on a corner and seeing everybody as perfect.” We can say yes, if you want to surrender, you will be worked with at that level as well. ”

Those two forms of surrender seemed pretty much the same to me, although the guides seemed to suggest that the second one—Paul’s “I give up”—-is quite limited.

The clarifying point comes right after this:
“But if you can understand that one of the things that will happen, indeed, when you create a new pattern is that in likelihood you will be required to confront that thing that you have created and say, “I give up. I give it to the Christ. I am Word through this thing I see before me. Take it, take it, take it,” you are also saying, “I am in the process of reclaiming myself as my Divine Self.”

One of the ways I make this distinction is that there is "helpless" or “victimhood” surrender—the kind that says “I can’t do it; I will let God (as an outside source) do it for me.” and “empowerment” surrender when I realize in my current state of mind and awareness I am not able to change or handle this (I’m doing the same thing expecting different results), but I am willing to be be open to be guided by God and Spirit to hold this thing and work with it differently. In other words I am dropping the ego’s solutions and opening up to my soul’s solution. Surrender in this case is the recognition of a power greater than my ego which is truly in charge, but which also a part of my Self.

The paragraph on p. 155 beginning with “Now to the extent…” is asking us to BE GENTLE with ourselves. PLEASE!!!!!!!!!